The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Glossary of Stuart and Tudor Words

A GLOSSARY

TUDOR AND STUART WORDS

ESPECIALLY FROM THE DRAMATISTS

COLLECTED BY

WALTER W. SKEAT

Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon in

the University of Cambridge, 1878-1912

EDITED WITH ADDITIONS BY

A. L. MAYHEW

M.A., Wadham College, Oxford

OXFORD

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

1914

In the summer of 1910 I was staying at Llandrindod, and had the pleasure of meeting there my old friend Professor Skeat. Of course we had many a long talk about our favourite studies, and about his literary plans. He was always planning some literary task, for before he had finished one work, he had either begun another, or had another in prospect. I said to him one day, ‘You’re always working, do you ever find time for recreation?’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘when I want to amuse myself, I take up some old play.’ This story explains the genesis of this book.

Like John Gilpin’s wife, it seems that though on pleasure he was bent, he had a frugal mind. He did not forget business. When reading Ben Jonson or Beaumont and Fletcher he had pencil in hand, and whenever he came to a word that might prove a stumbling-block to the general reader, he noted that word, and eventually wrote it on a separate slip (note-paper size) with exact reference and explanation. In July, 1911, in Oxford, when we were together for the last time, the professor told me about the book he was preparing—mainly consisting of the words he had collected in reading the Tudor and Stuart dramatists. He did not intend it to be a big book. When I asked whether it would contain quotations like Nares’ Glossary, he said it would contain only a few quotations, and those short ones, and would consist mostly of explanations and references, with brief etymologies. I heard no more of the book during his lifetime. But frequent letters passed between us on the etymologies of English words, many of which he was meeting with in the material he was collecting. On October 6, 1912, that eager, enthusiastic spirit passed away, to the regret of all who work in the field of English philology, of all who love the English tongue, wherever on this habitable globe they may chance to live. Not long after, in November, I heard from Mrs. Skeat that her husband had left material for a Glossary of Rare Words, in slips amounting to nearly 7,000, arranged in alphabetical order, and that Professor Skeat’s executors would be very glad if I would be able to edit and prepare the work for publication. I agreed to do this, on condition that the executors should ask the advice of a pupil of Dr. Skeat, an eminent English scholar, and also, of course, that the Delegates of the Clarendon Press would consent to the arrangement. On December 4 I received a letter from the Clarendon Press, informing me that the Delegates accepted my offer. A day or two after the box containing the MS. arrived, and on December 9 I addressed myself to the task. With the exception of a short intermission in July, the work has had my continuous and undivided attention for one year.

On examination of the MS. it appeared that, although Professor Skeat had arranged the material in the form of a Glossary, he had not put the finishing touches to the book (many slips were practically duplicates or triplicates), and had not even finally limited the scope: the title of the book was not settled.

And now it will be proper to state as clearly as possible what the Editor thought it his duty to do in preparing his friend’s work for publication. In the first place he did not think that it fell within his province to make any considerable addition to the Word-list. The Vocabulary remains much as Professor Skeat left it. But it was found necessary, in going over the work, to make additions in many articles, in order to explain the history of the word, or to illustrate its meaning; connecting links had to be supplied, where the meanings of a word apparently had no connexion with one another. In this part of the work the Editor found great help in the New English Dictionary; and it will be seen that there is hardly a page of this book on which there does not occur the significant abbreviation (NED.). With the same help the definitions have been revised, and in many cases made more definite and explicit in order to explain the passage referred to. Professor Skeat’s plan was to give, as a rule, only references; it has been thought advisable to add many quotations, especially in cases where a quotation appeared necessary to illustrate a rare meaning of a word. In order to secure uniformity in arrangement many of the articles had to be re-written. For the illustrative matter, outside the literary English of the Tudor and Stuart period; the comparison of Tudor and Stuart words with provincial words found in the English Dialect Dictionary (EDD.); the exact references to earlier English—Middle English (ME.) and Old English (OE.); as well as the citation of cognate foreign forms, the Editor is responsible. In giving this additional matter he believes that he would have had the cordial approval of Professor Skeat, and hopes that he has added to the usefulness of the book.

If I may be allowed I would end on a personal note. I have thought it a great privilege to have been invited to complete the work of one held in such honour and esteem as Professor Skeat. And it has been a great pleasure to do something which might show, however inadequately, my gratitude for a friendship of nearly forty years. I wish the work that has been done on his book had been better done; I wish that it could have been undertaken by some one better equipped for the task, by one who had a more intimate acquaintance with the literature of the period dealt with. I hope that the imperfections of the book as it leaves my hands will be treated leniently. No one can be more conscious of them than he who is now bidding farewell to the task.

I have been fortunate in obtaining the help of two scholars who are masters of their subjects. My friend of many years, Dr. Henry Bradley, one of the Editors of The New English Dictionary, has taken an interest in the work from the first, which has been most encouraging. His views of what had to be done with the material I found, after I had made some progress in my task, coincided with those I had independently formed. He has most kindly read the proof-sheets throughout, and has made many valuable suggestions which I have gladly adopted. Mr. Percy Simpson, who has made a special study of the dramatists of the period treated, and particularly of Ben Jonson, has also kindly read the proof-sheets, and from his familiarity with the textual criticism of these authors has been able to correct some errors in the texts cited. I cannot conclude without expressing my thanks to the ‘reader’ for the accuracy with which the proof-sheets represented the MS., as well as for his judicious and conscientious use of the blue pencil.

Alphita, a Medico-Botanical Glossary, ed. J. L. G. Mowat (Anecdota Oxoniensia, 1887).

Anglo-Saxon Gospels, ed. W. W. Skeat. The Gospels in West-Saxon, Northumbrian and Mercian Versions, 1871-87.

Awdeley, John; Fraternitye of Vacabondes, 1565, ed. E. Viles and F. J. Furnivall (EETS., extra series, 1869).

Aydelotte, F.; Elizabethan Rogues and Vagabonds (Oxford Historical and Literary Studies, vol. 1, 1913).

Bacon, Francis; Essays, 1597, ed. W. Aldis Wright, 1871. Life of Henry VII, 1621, ed. J. R. Lumby, 1876.

Baldwyne, William; chief editor of the Mirrour for Magistrates, first issued in 1559.

Ballads. English and Scottish Popular Ballads, ed. from the Collection of F. J. Child by H. C. Sargent and G. L. Kittredge, 1904.

Barclay, Alexander; Ship of Fools, 1508, a translation of Sebastian Brandt’s Narrenschiff, c. 1494 (Navis Stultifera, 1488); ed. Jamieson, 1874.

Barnfield, Richard; The Affectionate Shepherd, 1594; ed. J. O. Halliwell (Percy Soc., 1845).

Bartsch, K., et A. Horning; La Langue et la Littérature françaises depuis le ix^e siècle jusqu’au xiv^e siècle. Textes et Glossaire, 1887.

Beaumont and Fletcher; Works, ed. G. Darley, 1859; also, ed. W. Gifford with a Biographical Memoir (reprint, Routledge, 1860). [Francis Beaumont born 1586, died 1615.]

Berners, Lord (John Bourchier); tr. of the Chronicles of Froissart (Pynson, 1523). [Born 1467, died 1533.]

Bibbesworth, Walter de; The Treatise, c. ann. 1325; printed in Wright’s Vocabularies (ed. 2, 1882). This is probably the correct spelling, not ‘Biblesworth’. See Wright, Thomas.

Bible, English. Authorised Version, 1611 (exact reprint. Clarendon Press, 1911).

Boke of St. Albans, printed in 1486; facsimile reprint, 1881. Contains a Book on Hawking, a Book on Hunting (by Dame Juliana Barnes), and a Book on Coat-Armour.

Bosworth and Toller (B. T.). An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary begun by J. Bosworth, and completed by T. N. Toller, 1882-98.

Boyle, Roger (Earl of Orrery); Parthenissa, 1676; Guzman, c. 1679; Mr. Anthony, 1689.

Bozon, Nicole; Les Contes Moralisés, c. 1350; ed. L. Toulmin Smith and Paul Moyer, 1889.

Brand, John; Observations on Popular Antiquities, 1813; Arranged and revised by H. Ellis; reprint, 1887 (Chatto and Windus).

Brathwaite (or Braithwait), Richard; Barnabae Itinerarium (Drunken Barnaby’s Four Journeys), Latin and English, ed. 1, 1648; reprint, 1822.

Brewer, Antony; Dramatist, fl. 1655. [To him was formerly ascribed ‘Lingua, or the Combat of the Five Senses for Superiority, 1607’; see DNB.]

Brome, Alexander; Poet, Satirist, and Dramatist; Wks. ed. 1873. [Born 1620, died 1666.]

—— Religio Medici and Christian Morals, ed. by W. A. Greenhill; 1881. [Born 1640, died 1680.]

Browne, William; Britannia Pastorals, see English Poets. [Born 1590, died c. 1645.]

Brunne, Robert of; Handlyng Synne, c. 1303; ed. F. J. Furnivall (Roxburghe Club, 1862).

Butler, Samuel; Poems, ed. R. Bell, 1855; Hudibras, ed. H. G. Bohn, 1871. [Born 1612, died 1680.]

Calisch, J. M.; Nederlandsch-Engelsch en Engelsch-Nederlandsch Woordenboek, 1875.

Caxton, William; The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, c. 1474; reprint by H. O. Sommer, 1894.

—— Game of the Chesse, printed in 1474; facsimile of the 2nd ed., V. Figgins, 1860.

Chapman, George; Dramatic Works, ed. 1873. The Iliad of Homer, 1611; Odyssey, 1614; Chapman’s Homer, ed. R. Hooper, 1857; R. H. Shepherd, 1875.

Chaucer, Geoffrey; Complete Works; ed. W. W. Skeat, 1894. [Born 1328, died 1400.]

Cocke Lorell’s Bote, a humorous and sarcastic poem, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, c. 1515; ed. 1843.

Cotgrave, Randle; A French and English Dictionary. First edition 1611. The edition of 1673 is the one usually cited.

Court of Love, a late poem first printed with Chaucer’s Works, 1561; reprinted in Chaucerian and Other Poems, ed. by W. W. Skeat, 1897.

Cowell, John; The Interpreter of Words and Terms, 1607; ed. 1637; also ed. augmented and improved, 1701.

Davenant, Sir William; Dramatist and Poet-Laureate, see English Poets. [Born 1605, died 1668.]

Dekker, Thomas; Dramatic Works; ed. by E. Rhys, 1873. [Born c. 1570, died c. 1637.]

Destruction of Troy, c. 1390; ed. G. A. Panton and D. Donaldson (EETS. 1869 and 1874).

Dict.: Etymological Dictionary of the English Language by W. W. Skeat, ed. 4, 1910.

Dict. M. & S.: A Concise Dictionary of Middle English, by A. L. Mayhew and W. W. Skeat, 1888.

Didot: Glossaire Français de Ducange, dans l’édition du Glossarium publiée par M. Ambroise Firmin Didot, 1887.

Dodsley, Robert; A Select Collection of Old English Plays, originally published 1780; ed. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1876.

Dozy, R.; Glossaire des Mots espagnols et portugais dérivés de l’Arabe; ed. W. H. Engelmann, Leyde, 1869.

Ducange: Glossarium Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis, conditum a Carolo du Fresne, Domino Du Cange; ed. Henschel, 1883-7.

Dunbar, W.; Poems, ed. Small and Gregor (Scottish Text Soc., 1883-93). [floruit 1500.]

Earle, John; A Hand-book to the Land-Charters and other Saxonic Documents, 1888.

EDD.: English Dialect Dictionary, with English Dialect Grammar, edited by Dr. Joseph Wright, 1905.

Elyot, Sir Thomas; The Boke named The Governour, 1531; ed. H. H. S. Croft, 1883.

Fabyan, Robert; Chronicles of England and France; ed. Henry Ellis, 1811. [Died 1512.]

Fairfax, Edward; Godfrey of Bulloigno or the Recoverie of Hierusalem, 1600, a translation of Tasso’s poem.

Fitzhorbert, John F.; Book of Husbandry, 1534; ed. W. W. Skeat (Eng. Dialect Soc., 1882).

—— Italian and English Dictionary, and English and Italian Dictionary, by G. Torriano, ed. 1688. This is the edition usually cited.

Gascoigne, George; Poet and Dramatist. Works, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, 1869. [Born c. 1536, died 1577.]

Godefroy, F.; Dictionnaire de l’Ancienne Langue Française et de tous ses Dialectes du ix^e au xv^e siècle, 1881-1902.

Godwin, Francis, Bishop of Hereford; Man in the Moone, ed. 1638. [Born 1561, died 1633.]

Googe, Barnaby; The Zodiac of Life, 1560-5; The Popish Kingdome, 1570; Four Bokes of Husbandrie, tr. from Heresbach.

Gorbodue, The Tragedy of, by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton, produced 1561, printed 1565; authorized ed. 1571, under the name of Ferrex and Porrex.

Greene, Robert; The Dramatic and Poetical Works of Rob. Greene and Geo. Peele; ed. A. Dyce, 1883. [Born 1560, died 1592.]

Grimald, Nicholas; Poet; translator of ‘Tully’s Offices’. [Born c. 1519, died 1562.]

Grose, Francis; A Provincial Glossary with a Collection of Local Proverbs and Popular Superstitions, ed. 2, 1790.

Halliwell, J. O.; A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words; Fifth edition, 1865.

Hampole, Richard Rolle of; The Psalms of David, c. 1330; ed. H. R. Bramley, 1884.

Harington, Sir John; Orlando Furioso in English Heroical Verse, 1591; in English Poets.

Harman, Thomas; A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursetors, vulgarly called Vagabones, 1566, ed. E. Viles and F. J. Furnivall (EETS., extra series, 1869).

Harrison, William; A Description of England, edited from the first two editions of Holinshed’s Chronicle, 1577, 1587, by F. J. Furnivall (New Shakspere Society, 1878).

Hatzfeld: Dictionnaire de la Langue Française, par MM. A. Hatzfeld, A. Darmesteter, et A. Thomas, 1890-6.

Hawes, Stephen; Passetyme of Pleasure, c. 1506; reprinted for the Percy Soc., 1846.

Hearne, Thomas; Reliquiae Hearnianae (ed. P. Bliss, 1857). [Born 1678, died 1735.]

Hero and Leander, a paraphrase of the poem ascribed to Musaeus by Marlowe, completed by Chapman, 1598; see NED. (s.v. Imperance).

Herrick, Robert; Poetical Works; ed. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1869. [Born 1591, died 1674.]

Hoccleve (or Occleve), Thomas; De Regimine Principum, 14th cent.; ed. by T. Wright (Roxburghe Club, 1860).

—— Instructions for Foreign Travel, 1642 (ed. Arber, 1868). [Born c. 1594, died 1666.]

Koolman, J.; Wörterbuch der Ostfriesischen Sprache, 1884. [The dialect is not E. Frisian; it is a variety of Low German.]

La Curne de Sainte-Palaye; Dictionnaire historique de l’ancien langage françois, 10 vols., 1882.

Latimer, Hugh; Seven Sermons before Edward VI, 1549; ed. Arber, 1869. [Died Oct. 16, 1555.]

—— Temple of Glas; ed. Dr. J. Schick (EETS., extra series, 1891). [Born c. 1370, died c. 1460.]

Machin, Lewis; Play-writer. The Dumbe Knight, 1608 (in collaboration with Gervase Markham); see NED. (s.v. Mountcent).

Malory, Sir Thomas; Le Morte Arthur, 1485; printed by Caxton; exact reprint, ed. H. O. Sommer, 1889-91.

Manchester, Earl of (Sir Henry Montagu); Manchester Al Mondo, 1633; reprinted from the fourth impression (1638-9), Frowde, 1902.

Marlowe, Christopher; Works, ed. F. Cunningham, 1870; ed. C. F. Tucker Brooke, 1910. [Born 1564, died 1593.]

Marston, John; Works; ed. J. O. Halliwell, 1856. His first work, Scourge of Villanie, printed in 1598.

Mayne, Jasper (Archdeacon); Play-writer, The City Match, printed 1639, and The Amorous War, printed 1648.

Merlin, a Prose Romance, c. 1440; ed. H. B. Wheatley (EETS., 1869); Pt. iv, ed. W. E. Mead (EETS., 1899).

Milton, John; Paradise Lost, 1665; Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes, 1671. [Born 1608, died 1674.]

Mirrour for Magistrates, a collection of poems to which T. Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, contributed ‘The Induction’, and ‘The Complaint’, 1559-63; ed. Jos. Hazlewood, 1815. See Baldwyne; Sackville.

Munday, Anthony; Play-writer, ballad-writer, and pamphleteer; The Mirror of Mutabilitie, or Principal Part of the Mirrour of Magistrates: Selected out of the Sacred Scriptures.

Nares, Robert; A Glossary to the Works of English Authors, particularly Shakespeare and his contemporaries, 1822; a new ed. by J. O. Halliwell and Thomas Wright, 1859, reprinted 1876. [Born 1753, died 1829.]

NED.; The New English Dictionary. Editors, Sir James Murray, Dr. Henry Bradley, and Dr. William Craigie. The Clarendon Press, Oxford.

—— Shakespeare’s Plutarch, being a Selection from North’s Plutarch, by W. W. Skeat, 1875.

Norton, Thomas; Collaborator with Thomas Sackville in writing the first English tragedy of Gorboduc, 1561; and of Sternhold and Hopkins, in a version of the Psalms, 1562. Translator of Calvin’s Institutes, 1561.

Oxford Records: Selections from the Records of the City of Oxford, 1509-83; ed. W. H. Turner, 1880.

Palsgrave, Jehan; Lesclaircissement de la Langue Françoyse, 1530; reprint, Paris, 1852.

Phaer, Thomas; The Nyne First Books of the Æneid of Virgil, 1562; the translation was finished by Twyne. [Born c. 1510, died 1560.]

Phillips, Edward; The New World of Words, or Universal English Dictionary, 1706.

Plowman’s Tale, The, c. 1400; printed in The Works of Jeffrey Chaucer, ed. Th. Speght, 1687; reprinted in Political Poems and Songs; see below.

Prompt.: Promptorium Parvulorun, c. 1440; ed. A. Way (Camden Soc., 1843-65); also, A. L. Mayhew (EETS., extra series, CII, 1908).

Proverbs. A Handbook of Proverbs, collected by H. G. Bohn, containing Ray’s Collection, with Large Additions, 1870.

Proverbs of Hendyng, 1272-1307; printed in Reliquiae Antiquae (ed. Wright and Halliwell), and in J. M. Kemble’s Appendix to ‘The Dialogues of Salomon and Saturn’ (Ælfric Society, 1848).

Psalter (Anglo-Norman), 12th cent.; ed. by F. Michel from a Bodleian MS., Oxford, 1850.

—— A Collection of English Words, 2nd ed. 1691; rearranged and edited by W. W. Skeat (EDS., 1874).

Return from Parnassus, The; Pt. i acted in Cambridge, 1601; ed. W. D. Macray, 1886; Pt. ii, acted 1602. The whole edited by Arber, 1870.

Reynard the Fox, translated and printed by William Caxton, 1481; ed. Arber, 1878.

Richard the Redeles, printed with the C text of Piers the Plowman; ed. W. W. Skeat, 1886.

Robert of Gloucester’s Chronicle, c. 1298; ed. T. Hearne, 1724; reprinted, 1810; ed. W. Aldis Wright (Rolls Series, 1887).

Robynson, Raphe; tr. of More’s Utopia, 2nd ed. 1556; ed. J. R. Lumby, 1879; ed. Arber. See More, Sir T.

Romaunt of the Rose. A translation of the French Roman de la Rose; Part A by Chaucer; Part B in Northern (Lincoln) dialect; Part C of unknown origin; ed. Skeat (Student’s Chaucer).

Rough List: of English Words found in Anglo-French, in Skeat’s Notes on English Etymology, 1901.

Rowley, William; Comedian and Playwright. A Search for Money; or the Lamentable Complaint for the Losse of the Wandering Knight, Monsieur l’Argent, 1609.

Sackville, Thomas, Lord Buckhurst [born 1536, died 1608]; see Gorboduc, Mirrour for Magistrates. Works ed. by R. W. Sackville-West, 1859.

Sewel, W.; Dictionary, English and Dutch, Dutch and English, 1727; ed. 5, 1754; augmented and improved by Egbert Buys, 1766.

Shakespeare. The Globe Edition; ed. by W. G. Clark and W. Aldis Wright, 1864. References generally as in Schmidt’s Lexicon. His Dramas and Poems are referred to by the name of the Play or Poem alone.

Sherwood, Robert (‘Londoner’); A Dictionary. English and French, 1672 (serves as an English index to Cotgrave, ed. 1673).

Sidney, Sir Philip; Arcadia, 1581, published 1590; Apology for Poetrie, 1595; ed. Arber, 1868.

Sin. Barth.: Sinonyma Bartholomei, ed. J. L. G. Mowat (Anecdota Oxoniensia, 1887).

Spenser: The Complete Works of Edmund Spenser. The Globe edition, ed. by R. Morris. Shepherds’ Calendar [Shep. Kal.], 1579; Faery Queen [F. Q.], 1590-6.

Stanford: The Stanford Dictionary of Anglicised Words and Phrases; ed. C. A. M. Fennell, 1892.

Strutt, Joseph; The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England, 1801; ed. W. Horne, 1834.

Stubbes, Philip; Anatomy of the Abuses in England, 1583; ed. F. J. Furnivall, 1877-9.

Student’s Pastime, A; Selections of Articles reprinted from ‘Notes and Queries’, by W. W. Skeat, 1896.

Tarlton, Richard; Satirist; Tarlton’s Newes out of Purgatorie, publ. 1590. [Died 1588.]

Thersites, An Interlude, first performed in August, 1537; 1st ed. c. 1560; reprinted 1820, included in Hazlitt’s ed. of Dodsley’s Old English Plays; extracts printed in English Miracle Plays, ed. A. W. Pollard, 1890.

Tottel, Richard; Printer of Tottel’s Miscellany, a collection of verses, known in society, but never before published, by the Earl of Surrey, Sir Thomas Wyatt, and others, 1557; ed. Arber, 1870.

Tourneur, Cyril; Plays and Poems; ed. J. Churton Collins, 1878. [Born c. 1575, died 1626.]

Towneley Mysteries, c. 1450; printed for Surtees Soc., 1836; also ed. G. England and A. W. Pollard (EETS., extra series, 1897).

Trench, Richard C. (Archbishop); Select Glossary, ed. 7, 1890 (revised by A. L. Mayhew).

Trevisa, John of; Translation of Higden’s Polychronicon, 1387; ed. J. R. Lumby (Rolls Series, 1865-6).

Tuke, Sir Samuel; Dramatist. Adventures of Five Hours, 1663; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley.

Tusser, Thomas; Five hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie; first ed. 1573; ed. Payne and Herrtage (EDS., 1878).

Tyndale, William; The Whole Workes of W. Tyndale, John Frith, and Doctor Barnes, printed by John Daye, 1572. Tyndale’s Translation of the New Testament into English was first printed in 1525.

Udall, Nicholas; Roister Doister, c. 1553; ed. Arber, 1869. Translation of the Apophthegmes of Erasmus, 1532.

Vespasian Psalter, the OE. (Mercian) interlinear version, printed in ‘Oldest English Texts’ (q.v.).

Voc.: Wright’s Old English Vocabularies; ed. Wülcker, 1884; see also Wright, Thomas.

Wilkins, George; Miseries of Inforst Marriage, 1607; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ix. 533.

Wycherley, William; Dramatic Works; ed. 1840, with those of Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar. [Born c. 1640, died 1715.]

Wynkyn de Worde (Jan van Wynkyn), native of Worth in Alsace. Printer. Came to England with Caxton from Bruges 1476, died c. 1534.

Probably the correct reading would be ‘a bevie of faire Rooes’ (i.e. a number of fair roe-deer). But see NED. (s.v. Berry, sb.³), where the word is used as the special name for a company of rabbits.

bulk, the trunk, body of a person; cp. Richard III, i. 4. 40, ‘The envious flood Stopt in my soul . . . smother’d it within my panting bulk.’

Burgullian. Perhaps a contemptuous form of Burgundian (or Burgonian), a native of Burgundy, with reference to John Larrosse, ‘a Burgonian by nation and a fencer by profession’, who challenged all comers in 1598.

Napier’s bones, invented by John Napier, eighth laird of Merchiston [not Lord Napier].

skibbered. The reading of the Bodleian MS. skybredd shows that the meaning of the word is sky-bred.

spargirica. B. Jonson’s spelling spagyrica may be defended from French usage; cp. Dict. de l’Acad., 1672: ‘Spagyrique ou Spagirique. Il se dit de la Chimie qui s’occupe de l’analyse des métaux, et de la recherche de la pierre philosophale. C’est la même chose que la Chimie métallurgique ou la Métallurgie’. The word spagyrique in the phrase ‘un philosophe spagyrique’ occurs frequently in Anatole France’s ‘La Rôtisserie de la Reine Pédauque’.

strummel. Strummel-patch’d (so Gifford). The 1616 Folio reads ‘whoreson strummel, patch’t, goggle-ey’d Grumbledories’.

trash. For Othello, ii. 1. 132, read ii. 1. 312; and see Schmidt’s note on the word.

aband, to abandon. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 65; Mirror for Magistrates, Albanact, st. 20.

abatures, the traces left by a stag in the underwood through which he has passed. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 26, p. 68. F. abatture, a throwing down. See NED.

abeare, reflex., to demean oneself. Only in Spenser in this sense, F. Q. v. 12. 19; vi. 9. 45.

abiliments, ‘abiliments of war’, warlike accoutrements, things which made ‘able’ for war. More, Richard III (ed. 1641, 414). OF. (h)abillement, ‘tout ce qui est propre à quelque chose, machines de guerre’ (Didot).

able, to warrant, vouch for. Middleton, The Changeling, i. 2 (Lollio); King Lear, iv. 6. 173.

abode, to forebode, Hen. VIII, i. 1. 93. An announcement, Chapman, Iliad, xiii. 146, 226. Cp. OE. ābēodan, to announce (pp. āboden).

abord, used by Spenser for abroad, adrift. Ruins of Rome, xiv; Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 324.

aborde, to approach. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 99, back, l. 8; lf. 103. 6; ‘I aborde, as one shyppe dothe an-other’, Palsgrave. F. aborder, to come to the side of; from à, to, bord, side.

abraid, abray, in Spenser, to start out of sleep, a swoon, to awake; ‘I did out of sleepe abray’, F. Q. iv. 6. 36; ‘Sir Satyrane abraid Out of the swowne’, F. Q. iv. 4. 22; to arouse, startle, ‘For feare lest her unwares she should abrayd’, F. Q. iii. 1. 61; ‘The brave maid would not for courtesie, Out of his quiet slumber him abrade’, F. Q. iii. 11. 8. ME. abreyde, to start up, start from sleep, awake (Chaucer); OE. ābregdan.

abraid, to upbraid. Greene, Alphonsus, ii (Belinus), ed. Dyce, 231; ‘I abrayde one, I caste one in the tethe’, Palsgrave. A n. Yorks. form (EDD.).

Abram-colour’d, auburn. Said of a beard. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, ii. 2 (Curvetto); Coriolanus, ii. 3. 21. See Nares.

Abram-man, Abraham-man, a sham patriarch, a begging vagabond. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1. 5; Massinger, New Way, ii. 1 (Marrall); ‘An Abraham-man is he that walketh bare-armed, and bare-legged, and fayneth hymselfe mad, . . . and nameth himselfe poor Tom’, Awdeley, Fraternity of Vagabonds, p. 3.

abron, auburn. ‘Curled head With abron locks was fairly furnished’, Hall, Satires, v. 8. A Shropsh. pronunciation (EDD.). OF. auborne, Med. L. alburnus, ‘subalbus’ (Ducange).

abrupt, separated, parted asunder. Middleton, Family of Love, iii. 2 (Maria); as subst., an abrupt place, a precipice over an abyss, Milton, P. L. ii. 409.

aby, to pay the penalty for. Mids. Night’s D. iii. 2. 175; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 33. ME. abye, to pay for (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4393); OE. ābycgan.

acates, provisions that are purchased. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (P. sen.); Sad Shepherd, i. 3. 19. Norm. F. acat, purchase (Moisy).

accent, misused with the sense of ‘scent’. ‘The vines with blossoms do abound, which yield a sweet accént’, Drayton, Harmonie of the Church; Sol. Song, ch. ii. l. 28.

access, an attack of illness. Also spelt axes, Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 315; accesses, pl., Butler, Hudibras, iii. 2. 822. Access is used in Kent and Sussex for an ague-fit (EDD.). F. accès, cp. ‘un accès de fièvre’.

accite, to summon. 2 Hen. IV, v. 2. 141; Titus Andron. i. 1. 27; Chapman, tr. Iliad, ii. 376, has ‘summon’ (his first version had accite); pt. t. accited, id. xi. 595; accite, imp., Heywood, Dialogue iv; vol. vi. p. 163. L. accitare, to summon.

accite, to excite. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 67; B. Jonson, Underwoods (ed. 1692, p. 563).

accloye, to stop up, choke (with weeds). Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 15; ‘accloyed, as a Horse, Accloy’d or Cloyed, i.e. nail’d or prickt in the shooing’, Phillips, Dict. 1706. F. encloyer, ‘to cloy, choak, or stop up’ (Cotgr.). Med. L. inclavare, to lame a horse with a nail while shoeing (Ducange); L. clavus, a nail.

accoy, to daunt, tame, soothe. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 48; F. Q. iv. 8. 59. OF. acoier, to quiet; deriv. of coi, quiet; cp. Med. L. acquietare (adquietare), ‘quietum reddere’ (Ducange).

accoyl, to assemble, gather together. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 30. OF. acoillir, to assemble; Med. L. accolligere (Ducange).

accumber, acomber, to encumber, oppress. ‘That my sowle be not acombred’, Reynard the Fox (ed. Arber, p. 34). Anglo-F. encumbrer, ‘accabler’ (Ch. Rol. 15).

achates, provisions, purchased as required. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 31. See acates.

acknown, pp. acknowledged. Kyd, Cornelia, ii. 229; to be acknown on, to confess knowledge of, Othello, iii. 3. 320; to be acknowen of, to acknowledge, Puttenham, English Poesie, iii. 22 (p. 260). OE. oncnāwen, pp. of oncnāwan, to acknowledge.

a-cop, on high; sticking up. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Drugger). OE. copp, top, summit.

acopus, a restorative plant, mentioned by Pliny. Middleton, The Witch, v. 2 (Hecate). L. acopus, Gk. ἄκοπος; ἀ, not + κόπος, weariness.

acquest, an acquisition, gain. Bacon, Hist. Hen. VII (ed. Lumby, pp. 90, 172). OF. aquest, Med. L. acquistum (Ducange), L. acquisitum, a thing acquired.

acroche, to grasp, try to acquire. ‘I acroche, as a man dothe that wynneth goodes or landes off another by sleyght, Iaccroche’, Palsgrave.

actuate, to act. Massinger, Roman Actor, iv. 2 (Paris). Med. L. actuare, ‘perficere’ (Ducange).

aculeate, pointed. Bacon, Essay 57, § 5. L. aculeus, a sting, sharp point. L. acus, a needle.

adamant, a load-stone, magnet. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 195; Marlowe, Edw. II, ii. 5 (Arundel). ME. adamaunt, the loadstone or magnet (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 1182).

Adamite, a member of a sect that dispensed with clothes at their meetings. Shirley, Hyde Park, ii. 4 (Mis. Car.). Cp. The Guardian, no. 134 (Aug. 14, 1713), § last.

adaunt, to quell, subdue. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 8. 11; leaf 79, back, l. 5. OF. adonter, donter, L. domitare, to tame (Virgil).

adauntreley, error for ad[u]aunt-relay, lit. a relay in front; a laying on of fresh hounds to take up a chase. Return from Parnassus, ii. 5 (Amoretto). From aduaunt (avaunt) and relay; see Avant-lay in NED.

adaw, to daunt, suppress, confound. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 7. 13; iv. 6. 26; v. 9. 35; Shep. Kal., Feb., 141. A word due to the ME. adv. adawe, in phr. do adawe, to put out of life (lit. day), to quell. The ME. adawe = OE. of dagum, out of days.

adelantado, a Spanish grandee, a lord-lieutenant. Spelt adalantado; B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 4 (Puntarvolo); Alchemist, iii. 2 (Face); Fletcher, Love’s Cure, ii. 1 (Lazarillo). Span. adelantado, promoted, advanced, pp. of adelantar, to advance. See lantedo.

adjouste, to add, give; lit. to adjust. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 43. 2; lf. 141, back, 24.

adminiculation, aid, help, support. Sir T. Elyot, The Governour, bk. i, c. 3, § last; c. 8, § 6; c. 13, § 4. Med. L. adminiculatio, ‘auxilium’, adminiculus, ‘minister’ (Ducange).

adowbe, to adub, to equip, array. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 32. 28; lf. 222. 15. Also adubbe, to dub a knight, id. 312. 31. Anglo-F. aduber, ‘armer’ (Ch. Rol.), also adubber.

adrad, pp. dreaded. Greene, A Maiden’s Dream, st. 4; frightened; Spenser, Virgil’s Gnat, 304. ME. adrad, afraid (Chaucer, C. T. A. 605); OE. ofdrǣd, frightened.

adrop (ádrop), a term in alchemy; either the lead out of which the mercury was to be extracted to make ‘the philosopher’s stone’, or the stone itself. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Surface).

adust, parched, burnt up. Bacon, Essay 36; Milton, P. L. xii. 635. Also adusted, P. L. vi. 514. L. adustus, burnt up, pp. of adurere.

advaile, ‘avail’, advantage, profit. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 9, § 6.

advant-garde, vanguard. Morte Arthur, leaf 28, back, 35; bk. i, c. 15. F. avant-garde (Cotgr.) See Dict. (s.v. Van).

advaunt, reflex., to boast, brag, ‘vaunt’. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 4 (end); bk. i, c. 15, § 3.

advision, vision. Morte Arthur, leaf 14. 15; Table of Contents, xiv. 7. ME. avisioun (Chaucer, Hous Fame, 7).

advoutresse, an adulteress. Roister Doister, v. 3. 9. Bacon, Essay 19, § 6. ME. avoutresse (Wyclif, Rom. vii. 3); OF. avoutresse.

adyt, addit, a recess or sanctuary of a temple. Greene, A Looking-glass, iv. 3 (1543); p. 137, col. 1. L. adytum, Gk. ἄδυτον, not to be entered, sacred; from ἀ, not, δύειν, to enter.

aerie (in Shakespeare), the brood of a bird of prey, and particularly of hawks, King John, v. 2. 149; Rich. III, i. 3. 264; ‘aerie of children’ (with reference to the young choristers of the Chapel Royal and St. Paul’s, who took part in plays), Hamlet ii. 2. 354. The word represents an OF. airiée, pp. of aairier, adairier, Romanic type adareare, der. of Med. L. area, ‘accipitrum nidus’ (Ducange).

aeromancy, divination by the air. Greene, Bacon and Friar Bungay, i. 2 (188); scene 2. 17 (W.); p. 155, col. 1 (D.).

aesture, surge, raging of the sea. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xii. 111. Deriv. of L. aestus, the heaving motion of the sea.

afeard, afraid. Merry Wives, iii. 4. 28; affered, Dryden, Cock and Fox, 136. In gen. prov. use throughout Scotland, Ireland, and England (EDD.). ME. afered (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 482, OE. āfǣred, frightened, pp. of āfǣran.

affamed of, famished by, starved by. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 248, back, 2. F. affamé, famished, starved (Cotgr.).

affect, to love, be fond of. Two Gent. iii. 1. 82; Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 4. 2. L. affectare, to strive after a thing passionately.

affect, affection, passion. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 1. 45; vi. 5. 24; Hymn in Honour of Love, 180. L. affectus, passion, desire.

affectionate, to feel affection for. Greene, Bacon and Friar Bungay, iii. 3; scene 10. 78 (W.); p. 171, col. 1 (D.).

affrap, to strike sharply. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 26; iii. 2. 6. Ital. affrappare, to beat (Florio).

affret, onset, fierce encounter. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 16; iv. 3. 16. Cp. Ital. affrettare, to hasten, make speed (Florio).

affront, to meet face to face, to encounter. Hamlet, iii. 1. 31; Ford, Perkin Warbeck, v. 1 (Dalyell). Affront, an accost, meeting. Greene, Tu Quoque, or The City Gallant; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xi. 265. F. affronter, ‘to come before, or face to face’ (Cotgr.).

affy, to betroth, 2 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 80; to affy in, to trust in, Titus Andron. i. 1. 47. Anglo-F. afier, ‘affirmer, assurer; mettre sa confiance en, se fier à’ (Moisy). Med. L. affidare, ‘fidem dare’ (Ducange).

afterclap, an unexpected consequence, generally unpleasant. Latimer, Serm. I, 27; after-claps, pl., Butler, Hudibras, i. 3. 4; Tusser, Husbandry, § 49; Taylor, Life of Old Parr (EDD.). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

agate, on the way. ‘Let him agate’; Brewer, Lingua, iii. 6 (Phantastes); ‘Let us be agate, let us start’; Interlude of Youth, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 25. In prov. use in the north country, and in various other parts of England (EDD.).

agazed, astounded, amazed. Surrey, Description of Restless State, 44 in Tottel’s Misc. (ed. Arber, 4); agaz’d on, 1 Hen. VI, i. 1. 126. Prob. a variant of ME. agast (Wyclif), E. aghast.

agerdows, compounded of sour and sweet. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 1250. F. aigre-doux, sour-sweet. L. acer and dulcis.

aggrace, to shew grace and favour. Pt. t. agraste; Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 18. Hence aggrace, sb. favour; id. ii. 8. 56. Ital. aggraziare, to confer a favour; agratiare, to favour (Florio). Med. L. aggratiare (Ducange).

aggrate, to please, delight, charm. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 6. 50; v. 11. 19; vi. 10. 33. Ital. aggratare, ‘to sute’ (Florio).

aglet, the metal end or tag of a lace. ‘He made hys pen of the aglet of a poynte that he plucked from hys hose’, Latimer, Serm. (ed. 1869, p. 117); a metallic stud or spangle. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 2. 5; ‘Tremolante, aglets or spangles’ (Florio). In Cumberland the metal end of a bootlace is called an aglet (EDD.). ME. aglet, to lace wyth alle (Prompt. Harl. MS.). F. aiguillette, a point (Cotgr.).

agloute, to feed to satisfaction, to glut. Caxton, Hist. of Troye, leaf 187, back, 14; lf. 41, back, 5. ME. aglotye (P. Plowman, C. x. 76). See NED. (s.v. Aglut).

agnize, to recognize, acknowledge. Othello, i. 3. 232; agnise, Udall, Erasmus Apophth. (ed. 1877, 271). Formed on the analogy of recognize, cp. L. agnoscere, to acknowledge.

a-good, in good earnest, heartily. Two Gent. of Verona, iv. 3; Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 4 (near the end); Marlowe, Jew of Malta, ii. 2 (Ithamar). See Nares.

agreve, to aggravate, make more grievous. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i. c. 6 (end); Sir T. More, Rich. III (ed. Lumby, p. 68, l. 13). ME. agrevyn, ‘aggravare’ (Prompt. EETS. 200). Anglo-F. agrever (Moisy).

agrim, agrum, a common 16th-cent. form of ‘algorism’, a name for the Arabic or decimal system of numeration, hence arithmetic; ‘I reken, I counte by cyfers of agrym’, Palsgrave; ‘As a Cypher in Agrime’, Foxe, A. & M. iii. 265 (NED.); ‘A poor cypher in agrum’, Peele, Edw. I (ed. Dyce, p. 379, col. 1). ME. awgrym: ‘As siphre . . . in awgrym that noteth a place and no thing availith’ (Richard Redeles. iv. 53); algorisme (Gower, C. A. vii. 155). OF. augorisme, Med. L. algorismus, ‘numerandi ars’ (Ducange), cp. Span. alguarismo (guarismo), arithmetic (Stevens), from al-Khowârezmi, the surname of a famous Arab mathematician who lived in the 9th cent. See Dozy, Glossaire, 131.

agrise, agryse, to terrify, horrify. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 46; iii. 2. 24; agrysed, afraid, W. Browne, Shepherd’s Pipe, i. 501. OE. agrīsan, to shudder.

aguise, aguize, to dress, array, deck. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 21. 31; ii. 6. 7. Cp. guize, fashion, appearance, ii. 2. 14; ii. 6. 25; ii. 12. 21.

aim, in phr. to cry aim, to encourage an archer by crying out aim! King John, ii. 1. 196; to give aim, to direct; see Webster, Vittoria (ed. Dyce, p. 20). The giver of aim stood near the butts, and reported the success of the shot. Hence aim-giving, Ascham, Toxophilus, 160.

A-la-mi-re, a name given to the octave of A-re; the latter being the second lowest note in the scale, which was denoted by the letter A, and sung to the syllable re. Middleton, More Dissemblers, v. 1 (Crotchet); Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 107. N.B. Wrongly defined in the NED.; but the right definition, with a full explanation, is given in NED. under the heading A-re. The octave of A was, in fact, sung to the syllable la when occurring in the second hexachord, which began with C; to mi, in the third hexachord, which began with F; and to re, in the fourth, which began with the octave of G.

alate, of late, lately. King Lear, i. 4. 208; Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 1. 3. Still in use in Yorks. and Lancashire (EDD.). ME. a-late (Dest. Troy, 4176).

albricias, a reward for good news. Tuke, Adventures of Five Hours, v. 1 (Pedro); Digby, Elvira, ii. 1. 1. Span. albricias, reward for newes (Minsheu). Arab. al bishâra, joyful tidings, cp. Port. alviçaras. See Dozy, Glossaire, 74.

alcatote, a simpleton, a foolish fellow. Ford, Fancies Chaste, iv. 1 (Spadone). Cp. the Devon word alkitotle (EDD.).

alcatras, a name given by English voyagers to the Frigate Bird, Tachypetes aquilus, Drayton, The Owl, 549. Port. alcatráz, ‘mauve, goéland: oiseau de mer; pélican du Chili, cormoran, calao des Moluques; alcatráz les Antilhas, onocrotale, grand gosier, oiseau de marais’ (Roquette).

alchemy, a metallic composition imitating gold; spelt alcumy, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Alvarez); applied to a trumpet of such metal or of brass, ‘Put to their mouths the sounding alchymie’, Milton, P. L. ii. 517.

Alchoroden, or Alchochoden, the planet which rules in the principal parts of an astrological figure, at the nativity of any one, and which regulates the number of years he has to live. Beaumont and Fl., Bloody Brother, iv. 1 (Norbret). So explained in a note. Spelt alchochoden, B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (P. Canter). From Pers. Kat-khudā, lord of the ascendant (Richardson). See almuten.

alcumise, alchemize, to change by help of alchemy, to transmute metals. Heywood, Love’s Mistress, i. 1 (Midas).

alcumyn, a kind of brass. Skelton, Why Come ye Nat to Courte, 904. For alchem-ine; see alchemy.

alder, of all; your alder speed, the help of you all; Everyman, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 135. ME. alder (Chaucer). OE. ealra, gen. pl. of eall, all.

ale, an ale-house. Two Gent. ii. 5. 61; at the ale, Greene, A Looking-glass, iv. 4 (1616); p. 138, col. 1. Cp. ME. atten ale, at the ale-house (P. Plowman, B. vi. 117).

alecie, drunkenness; a humorous formation from ale, with -cie added, as in luna-cie (lunacy). ‘Lunasie or alecie’, Lyly, Mother Bombie, iv. 2 (Riscio).

Ale-conner, an officer appointed to look to the assize and goodness of bread and ale. Middleton, Mayor of Queenb., iii. 3 (Oliver). A Lincolnshire word, see EDD. (s.v. Ale, 3).

alegge, to allay. Spenser, Shep. Kal., March, 5. ME. alleggyn or softyn peyn, ‘allevio, mitigo’ (Prompt. EETS. 21).

alembic, an alchemist’s still; sometimes, the head of the still. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Mammon); spelt lembic, iii. 2. 4.

ale-stake, a stake or pole projecting from an ale-house, to bear a bush, garland, or other sign. Hickscorner, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 191.

alferez, an ensign, standard-bearer. Fletcher, Rule a Wife, i. 1. 12; alfarez, B. Jonson, New Inn, iii. 1 (Tipto). Span. alférez. Arab. al-fâris, a horseman, from faras, a horse.

alfridaria, used of the power which a planet has (each for seven years) over a man’s life. Tomkis, Albumazar, ii. 5. 5. From Arab. root faraḍa, to define, decree, appoint a time for a thing; with suffix -aria.

algate(s, always, continually. Stanyhurst, Aeneid, 1 (ed. 1880, 20); altogether, ‘Una now he algates must forgoe’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 2; nevertheless, notwithstanding, Shep. Kal., Nov., 21. Algates is a north country word, meaning ‘in every way, by all means’ (EDD.). ME. algates, notwithstanding (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2222); allegate, in every way (Ancren Riwle). See NED.

alguazier, algazier, an ‘alguazil’, warrant-officer, serjeant. Fletcher, Span. Curate, v. 2 (heading); Love’s Cure, ii. 1. Span. alguazir (alguazil); Port. al-vasil, al-vazir; Arab. al-wazîr, ‘the minister’, officer, ‘vizier’, from root wazara, to carry.

alicant, alligant, wine from Alicante in Spain. Fletcher, The Chances, i. 8. 10; Fair Maid of the Inn, iv. 2 (Clown); aligant, A Match at Midnight, v. 1 (Sim.).

a’ life, as my life, extremely. Middleton, A Trick to Catch, iv. 3 (1 Creditor); The Widow, i. 1 (Martino); iv. 1 (2 Suitor).

alkedavy, the palace of a cadi or alcalde. Heywood, The Fair Maid, iv. 3 (Mullisheg); v. 1 (Mullisheg). From Arab. alqâḍawî, the (palace) of the cadi.

allay, alloy. Bacon, Essay 1, § 2; Dryden, Hind and Panther, i. 320. ME. alay, inferior metal combined with one of greater value (P. Plowman, B. xv. 342). Norm. F. aley, alay, from aleier, to combine. L. alligare.

allect, to allure, entice. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 14, § 13; Sir T. More, Works (1557), p. 275, col. 1. Med. L. allectare (Ducange).

alleggeaunce, alleviation. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 42. OF. alegeance, deriv. of alegier, to alleviate. L. alleviare, to lighten.

all-hid, the game of hide and seek. Love’s Lab. L., iv. 3. 78; cf. Hamlet, iv. 2. 32; Two Angry Women, iv. 1. 27; Tourneur, Rev. Trag., iii. 5. 82.

alligarta, alligator. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Overdo); aligarta, Romeo and J., v. 1. 43 (1st Q.). Span. el lagarto, the lizard.

alloune, aloune, let us go. Anglicized form of F. allons. Marston, What You Will, ii. 1 (Laverdure).

all-to-bepowdered, powdered all over. Vanbrugh, The Confederacy, v. 2 (Mrs. Amlet).

all-to ruffled, ruffled extremely. Milton, Comus, 380. The incorrect compound all-to came into use about 1500, in place of the older idiom which would have given the form all to-ruffled, with the to- linked to the verb. Here all, adv., meant ‘extremely’, and merely emphasized the prefix to-. Spelt all to ruffl’d (1645).

almacanter, almucantury, a small circle of the sphere parallel to the horizon, representing a parallel of altitude. Beaumont and Fl., Bloody Brother, iv. 2 (la Fiske). Cp. Chaucer, Astrolabe, pt. ii, § 5. Spelt almacantara, B. Jonson, Staple of News. ii. 1 (P. senior). Arab. al-muqanṭarât, pl., bridges, arcs, almucanters. See Dozy, 164.

Almain, a German. Othello, ii. 3. 87; a kind of dance, Peele, Arraign. of Paris, ii. 2, 28; hence Almain-leap, B. Jonson, Devil is an Ass, i. 1 (Satan); the Almond leape, Cotgrave (s.v. Saut). OF. aleman, German (mod. allemand).

almery, an aumbry, a cupboard. Morte Arthur, leaf 362, back, 24; bk. xvii. c. 23; ambry, Stanyhurst’s Aeneid, bk. ii (ed. Arber. p. 44. 2). For various prov. forms of this word see EDD. (s.v. Ambry). ME. almery, of mete kepyng, ‘cibutum’ (Prompt. EETS. 10). Norm. F. almarie (Moisy), Med. L. armarium (Prompt. 395), deriv. of L. arma, gear, tools.

almuten, the prevailing or ruling planet in a nativity. ‘Almuten lord of the geniture,’ Fletcher, Bloody Brother, iv. 2 (Norbret and Rusee); ‘And Mars Almuthen, or lord of the horoscope’, Massinger, City Madam, ii. 2 (Stargaze); ‘Almuten Alchochoden’, Tomkis, Albumazar ii. 5 (end). Error for almutaz (NED.); from Arab. al, the, and muʿtaz, prevailing, from ʿazz, to be powerful.

alonely, solely. Kyd, Cornelia, iv. 3. 160; all alonely, Barnes, Works, p. 226, col. 2; alonely, id. p. 227, col. 2. From all and only.

alow, below, low down. Dryden, Cymon, 370. ‘Ship, by bearing sayl alowe, withstandeth stormes’, Tusser, Husbandry, § 2. In use in Scotland (EDD.). ME. alowe: ‘Why somme (briddes) be alowe and somme alofte’ (P. Plowman, B. xii. 222).

aloyse! interj., look! see! see now! ‘Aloyse! aloyse, how pretie it is, is not here a good face?’ Damon and Pithias; in Hazlitt, iv. 79; Anc. Brit. Drama, i. 91.

alphin, alphyn, a bishop, in the game of chess. Caxton, Game of the Chesse, bk. ii. ch. 3. § 1. OF. alfin, Span. al-fil; from Arab. al-fîl, ‘the elephant’. Pers. pîl, elephant; see Dozy, Glossaire, 113, 114.

als, also. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 18; ii. 1. 7. 40; iv. 7. 35. As als, as also; id. iv. 4. 2. Als is short for also, and as is short for als; hence as als = also also.

alther, of all. Alther fyrste, first of all; Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 303. 2. See alder.

altitonant, thundering from on high. Middleton, World Tost at Tennis (Pallas). L. altitonans, with reference to Jupiter.

altitudes, in the altitudes, in a lofty mood, full of airs. Beaumont and Fl., Laws of Candy, ii. 1 (Gonzalo); in his altitudes, Vanbrugh, The Confederacy, v. 2 (Brass).

alture, altitude; said of the sun. Surrey, tr. of Psalm lv., l. 29. Ital. altura, height; alto, high. L. altus, high.

aludel, an alchemist’s pot, used for sublimation. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Subtle). F. aludel, OF. alutel. Arab. al-uthāl, the utensil. See NED.

alvarado, the rousing of soldiers at dawn of day by the beating of the drum or the firing of a gun; ‘so that the very alverado given sounds the least hope of conquest’, Dekker, Wh. of Babylon (Works, iii. 255); O. Fortunatus, ii. 1 (Soldan). Port. alvorada, ‘aube, la pointe du jour; (Mil.). Diane, battement de tambour, coup de canon à la pointe du jour pour éveiller les soldats’; alvór, ‘la première pointe du jour’ (Roquette).

amate, to dismay, daunt, confound. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 45; ii. 1. 6 and 2. 5; Greene, Orl. Fur. ii. 1 (488); ‘Matter, to quell, mate, amate’, Cotgrave. Norm. F. amatir, ‘soumettre par la frayeur, terrifier’ (Moisy). See Nares.

amazza, (perhaps) slaughter. Pl. amazza’s; Nabbes, Microcosmus, ii. 1 (Choler). From Ital. ammazzare, to slay (Florio).

amber, to perfume with ambergris. Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, iii. 2 (Zabulon). The sb. is spelt ambre in B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Perfumer).

ambidexter, one who acts with either party, a double-dealer. Middleton, Family of Love, v. 3 (Dryfat); Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 503. Med. L. ambidexter, ‘judex qui ab utraque parte dona accipit’ (Ducange).

Ambree, Mary, an English heroine, who fought at the siege of Ghent in 1584. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 4 (Lady); B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 2 (Turfe).

amell, to enamel. Pp. amell’d; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 123. ‘I ammell as a goldesmyth dothe his worke, Jesmaille’, Palsgrave. ME. amelen, to enamel (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 1080). Anglo-F. aymeler (Rough List). See aumayld.

amenage, to domesticate, make quite tame. Only in Spenser, F. Q. ii, 4. 11. OF. amenagier, amesnagier, to receive into a house. Deriv. of mesnage, a household, whence E. menagerie.

amenaunce, conduct, behaviour, mien. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 17; Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 781. Deriv. of F. amener, to lead, conduct.

ames-ace, double aces, the lowest throw with dice. All’s Well, ii. 3. 85; used as a term of contempt, ambs-ace, Beaumont and Fl., Queen of Corinth, iv. 1 (Page). ME. ambes as (Chaucer, C. T. B. 124). Norm. F. ambes as, ‘deux as, mauvaise chance’ (Moisy). See aums-ace.

amiss, a fault, misdeed, misfortune. Hamlet, iv. 5. 18; Sonnet xxxv. 7; cli. 3; Heywood, Pt. 2, King Edward IV (Works, i. 119).

amite, aunt. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 88, back, 13. L. amita, father’s sister.

amomus, amomum, an odoriferous plant. Nabbes, Microcosmus, iii. 13 (from end). L. amomum; Gk. ἄμωμον. See NED.

amoneste, to admonish. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 216. 1; lf. 327. 17. Anglo-F. amonester (Rough List).

amoret, a love-glance, a loving look. Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 2 (1264); scene 9. 177 (W.); p. 168, col. 2; also iv. 2 (1668); scene 12. 8 (W.); p. 173, col. 2. F. amourette, a love-trick (Cotgr.).

amort, in phr. all amort, spiritless, dejected. Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 1; Taming Shrew, iv. 3. 36; 1 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 124. The phr. is due to F. à la mort, to the death. See NED.

amortise, to alienate in mortmain, to convey (property) to a corporation. Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 71. Anglo-F. amortir (see Rough List). Med. L. admortire, ‘concedere in manum mortuam’ (Ducange).

amphiboly, an ambiguity, a sentence that can be construed in two different senses. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, ii. 1 (Compass). L. amphibolia; Gk. ἀμφιβολία, ambiguity.

amphisbæna, a serpent fabled to have a head at each end, and hence capable of advancing in either direction. Milton, P. L. x. 524. Gk. ἀμφίσβαινα, a kind of serpent that can go either forwards or backwards (Aeschylus).

amuse, to distract, bewilder, puzzle. B. Jonson, Sejanus, v. 6 (Macro); ‘I am amused, I am in a quandary, gentlemen.’ Chapman, Mons. D’Olive, ii. (D’Olive). See Dict.

an, if (freq. in Shaks.); in old edds. mostly written and. Of very freq. occurrence in the phrase an it please you, 2 Hen. VI, i. 3. 18; an if, if, Othello, iii. 4. 83. See and if.

anadem, a wreath, chaplet. B. Jonson, Masque of the Barriers (Truth); Drayton, The Owl, 1168. Gk. ἀνάδημα, a headband; from ἀναδέειν, to bind up.

analects, pl. scraps, gleanings. ‘No gleanings, James? No trencher-analects?’ (lit. gleanings from trenchers), Cartwright, The Ordinary, iii. 5 (Rhymewell). Gk. ἀνάλεκτα, things gathered up; from ἀναλέγειν, to pick up.

anatomy, a skeleton. King John, iii. 4. 25; Com. Errors, v. 1. 238; Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 1. 121. Cf. atomy.

anchor, an anchorite, hermit. Hamlet, iii. 2. 229. ME. ancre, a hermit (P. Plowman, C. i. 30; ix. 146). OE. ancra (Ælfric), shortened from Eccles. L. anachoreta (Ducange); Gk. ἀναχορητής, one who withdraws, retires (from the world).

ancient, an ‘ensign’, standard, or flag. Hence, ancient-bearer, a standard-bearer, an ‘ensign’; ‘alférez, an ancient-bearer, signifer’, Percivall, Span. Dict.; ‘office or charge, as captaine . . . sergeant, ancient-bearer’, Act 3, Jas. I (NED.); Dekker, Old Fortunatus, i. 2 (Shadow); also ancient (alone), ‘Welcome, Ancient Pistol!’ 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 120; Othello, i. 1. 33. A corrupt form of ensign. Anglo-F. enseigne, a standard (Rough List).

ancome, a boil, a foul swelling. Eastward Ho! iii. 2 (Mrs. T.). ‘Vijt, an ancombe, or a sore upon one’s finger’, Hexham. Ancome is a north-country word (EDD.). ME. oncome; used of the plagues of Egypt (Cursor M., 5927). Cp. Icel. ákoma, arrival, visitation; eruption on the skin.

and if (a redundant expression, both particles having the same meaning). ‘But and yf that evyll servaunt shall saye in his herte,’ Tyndal, Matt. xxiv. 48 (cp. A. V.); Two Gent. iii. 1. 257; All’s Well, ii. 1. 74. See an.

andveld, an anvil. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 216, back, 16. ME. anefeld (Wyclif, Job xli. 15), OE. anfilte (Sweet).

anele, to anoint with holy oil. ‘I aneele a sicke man, I anoynte hym with holy oyle’; and ‘I aneele a sicke man . . . j’enhuylle’, Palsgrave. Hence unaneled, q.v. ME. anelen (R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 11269). Deriv. of OE. ele, oil, L. oleum.

an-end, on end. Hamlet, i. 5. 19; still an-end, continually, Two Gent. iv. 4. 68. An-end in the sense of ‘without stop or intermission’ is in prov. use in various parts of England from Durham to Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. On-end, 3).

anenst, side by side with, beside, opposite, in view of; ‘And right anenst him’, B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Subtle). See EDD. (s.v. Anent). ME. anentis, with, in view of; ‘Anentis men this thing is impossible, but anentis God alle thingis ben possible’ (Wyclif, Matt. xix. 26); anent ‘juxta’ (Barbour’s Bruce, viii. 124). OE. on efen, on even (ground) with.

angel, applied to a bird. ‘An angel of the air’, Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 1. 16; ‘Roman angel’, the eagle, Massinger, ii. 2 (Harpax).

angel, a gold coin worth 10s. Merch. Ven. ii. 7. 56. Very common, and often used in quibbles.

angelot, a small rich cheese, made in Normandy. Davenant, The Wits, iv. 1 (Y. Pallantine). Said to be so called from being stamped with the coin called an angelot, a piece struck by Louis XI (so Littré). F. angelot, the cheese called an angelot (Cotgr.).

angler, a term used of a thief who fished for plunder, through an open window, with a rod, line, and hook. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll).

another-gates, of a different kind. Butler, Hudibras, pt. i. c. 3. 428; Lyly, Mother Bombie, A. i (Nares). From gate, a way; lit. ‘of another way’. In prov. use in Lancashire (EDD.).

another-guess, of a different kind. ‘This is another-guess sort’, Foote, The Orators, A. iii (O’Drogheda). Howell has the intermediate form another-gets in his Famil. Letters, vol. i. sect. 4. letter 9 (Feb. 5, 1635). Corruption of the form above. In prov. use in Gloucestershire (EDD.).

anslaight, an onslaught. Fletcher, M. Thomas, ii. 2 or ii. 3 (Sebastian). Some read onslaught; see NED.

anthropophagi, pl. man-eaters, cannibals. Othello, i. 3. 144; Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 111 (Orlando, p. 90, col. 2). L. pl. of anthropophagus, Gk. ἀνθρωποφάγος, man-eating; from ἄνθρωπος, a man, φαγεῖν, to eat.

antick, a grotesque pageant or theatrical representation. Ford, Love’s Sacrifice, iii. 2 (Fernando); Love’s Lab. L., v. 1. 119.

antick, a burlesque performer, buffoon, merry-andrew. Richard II, iii. 2. 162; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 11. 51. Ital. antico, grotesque. L. antiquus, antique. For the development of the meaning of the Ital. antico from ‘antique’ to ‘grotesque’, see the full account in NED.

antimasque, a burlesque interlude between the acts of a masque. The prefix is uncertain; perhaps for L. ante, before (NED.). But B. Jonson has the form antick-masque, Masque of Augurs (Noteh). Bacon has anti-masque, Essay 37; cf. Shirley, The Traitor, iii. 2 (Lorenzo).

antiperistasis, a contrast of circumstances; opposition. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 3 (2 Masque: Mercury). Gk. ἀντιπερίστασις, reciprocal replacement of two substances.

antlier, an antler, tine of a stag’s horn. ‘The first antlier, which Phoebus calleth and termeth antoiller’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 21, p. 53. The lowest tine was the burre, growing out of the pearles; the second tine, the antlier; the third, the surantlier; the next, royal and surroyal; and those at the top, croches (more correctly spelt troches at p. 137); see Turbervile (as above), p. 54. ‘The thing that beareth the antliers, royals, and tops [or troches] ought to be called the beame, and the little clyffes or streakes therein are called gutters’; id. p. 53. OF. antoillier (F. andouiller).

aourne, to adorn. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 223, back, 17; lf. 253, back, 15. Anglo-F. aourner (adourner), to adorn (Gower).

apaid, appaid, satisfied. Peele, Edw. I, ed. Dyce, p. 381 (Guenthian); Chapman, Iliad, v. 143; Milton, P. L. xii. 401; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 28; v. 11. 64; Shep. Kal., Aug., 6. ME. apayed, satisfied (Wyclif, Luke iii. 14); pp. of apayen. Norm. F. apaier (Moisy); deriv. of paier, L. pacare, to pacify.

apayre, to impair, injure. Morte Arthur, leaf 51, back, 12; bk. iii. c. 3. ME. apeyryn, to make worse (Prompt. EETS. 21). OF. empeirer, deriv. of L. peiorare, from peior, worse. See appair.

apeche, appeche, to ‘impeach’, charge with a crime. Morte Arthur, leaf 212, back, 23; bk. x. c. 7; ‘I apeche, I accuse’, Palsgrave. ME. apechyn, ‘appellare’ (Prompt. EETS. 13). Anglo-F. empescher (Rough List). Late L. impedicare, to hinder, catch by a fetter (Ducange). See appeach.

A-per-se, A by itself; a type of excellence, because A begins the alphabet. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, iii. 3 (Lazarillo); Mirror for Mag., Warwicke, st. 1.

apostata, apostate. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, iv. 3 (Theoph.); v. 2 (Artemia). The usual old form.

apostle spoons, silver spoons, the handle of each terminating in the figure of an apostle; usually given by sponsors at christenings. B. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, Act i (Quarlous); Fletcher, Noble Gentlemen, v. 2 (Longueville).

appair, apaire, to impair, damage. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 7, § last; Skelton, Against Garnesche, i. 19. Also intrans.; ‘I appayre or waxe worse’, Palsgrave. See apayre.

appeach, to ‘impeach’, accuse, censure. Richard II, v. 2. 79; Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 47. See apeche.

apperil, peril, risk. Timon, i. 2. 32; B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, v. 3 (Sledge); Magnetic Lady, v. 6 (Ironside).

appertise, dexterity, a feat of dexterity. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 122, back, 4; lf. 303, back, 29. OF. appertise, ‘industrie, dextérité, tour d’adresse’; Histoire de Charles VII: ‘Fist de belles vaillances et appertises d’armes contre les Anglois’, see Didot, Glossaire; appert, ‘adroit industrieux, habile en sa profession’ (id.). Cp. O. Prov. espert, ‘adroit, habile’ (Levy). L. expertus.

apple-John, or John-apple, an apple said to keep for two years, and in perfection when shrivelled. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 5; Dekker, Old Fortunatus, iv. 2 (Shadow). Ripe about St. John’s day (June 24). Purposely confused with apple-squire, a pander, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Quarlous).

apple-squire, a pander. B. Jonson, Every Man, iv. 8 (Kiteley); Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, Meg’s Song.

apposal, a posing question. Skelton has apposelle, Garl. of Laurell, 141. From appose, v.

appose, to ‘pose’, to ask a difficult question. Udall, Roister Doister, i. 1. 14; Short Catechism, Edw. VI, 495 (NED.). ME. appose, apose (P. Plowman, C. ii. 45). Cp. to question (Chaucer, C. T. G. 363), Prompt. 13: ‘Aposen or oposyn, opponere’. F. aposer (for opposer), to make a trial of a person’s learning; see Palsgrave (s.v. Oppose).

approve, to prove, demonstrate to be true; to corroborate, confirm. Merch. Ven. iii. 2. 79; All’s Well, iii. 7. 13; to put to the proof, test, as in approved, tested, tried, 1 Hen. IV, i. 1. 54.

apricock, an apricot. Richard II, iii. 4. 29; Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 1. 291. ‘Abricot, the abricot or apricock plumb’, Cotgrave. Apricock is in common prov. use in various parts of England from the north country to Somerset; abricock is the usual form in West Somerset (EDD.). Port. albricoque.

arace, arasche, to tear, tear away. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 256, back, 14; lf. 319. 1. ‘I arace, I pull a thyng by violence from one’, Palsgrave. ME. arace, to uproot (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 954). OF. esrachier; L. exradicare, to tear up by the roots.

arber, erber, the whole ‘pluck’ of a slain animal. To make the erbere, to take out the ‘pluck’, the first stage in disembowelling, Boke of St. Albans, fol. iij.; Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 2 (Hubert); spelt arbor, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Marian). F. herbier, ‘le premier ventricule du bœuf et des autres animaux qui ruminent’, Dict. de l’Acad. (1762).

arblast, a cross-bow used for the discharge of arrows, bolts, stones, &c., Caxton, Chron. Eng. xxviii. 23 (NED.). ME. arblaste (Rob. Glouc., ed. 1810, 377). Anglo-F. arbeleste, Late L. arcubalista, a bow for throwing missiles.

arblaster, a cross-bowman, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 144, back, 20; lf. 284, back, 30. ME. arblaster (K. Alisaunder, ed. Weber, 2613). Anglo-F. arblaster, Med. L. arcubalistarius (Ducange).

arcted, pp. closely allied. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aen. i. 336. L. arctare, to draw close; from arctus, confined. See art (to constrain).

arecte, to assign, attribute, impute. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 95. The form used by Lydgate for arette. Med. L. arrectare, to accuse (Ducange), due to association with rectum. See arette.

areed, to counsel, advise. Milton, P. L. iv. 962; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, viii. 85; to explain, recount, Drayton, vi. 87. ME. arede, to explain, counsel (Chaucer). OE. ārǣdan, to explain.

areed, advice. Downfall of E. of Huntingdon, i. 3 (Little John); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 116.

arette, to count, reckon. Morte Arthur, Caxton’s Pref., leaf. 1, back. (Aret, arret, misused in Spenser in the sense of ‘to entrust, allot’; F. Q. ii. 8. 8; iii. 8. 7.) ME. aretten, to count, reckon (Wyclif, Luke xxii. 37). Anglo-F. aretter, to lay to one’s charge (Rough List); cp. Span. retar, to accuse. O. Prov. reptar, ‘blâmer, accuser’ (Levy). L. reputare, to count, reckon.

arew, in a row. Spenser, F. Q. v. 12. 29. Chapman, tr. Iliad, vi. 259; Odyssey, viii. 679. Rew is a prov. form of the word ‘row’ (EDD.). ME. a-rew, ‘seriatim’ (Prompt. EETS. 15); a-rewe, in succession (Chaucer, C. T. D. 1254). OE. rǣw, a row. See rew.

argaile, argol; i.e. tartar deposited from wine and adhering to the side of a cask. B. Jonson, Alchemist, i. 1 (Subtle). ME. argoile, crude tartar (Chaucer, C. T. G. 813). Anglo-F. argoil (Rough List).

argal, therefore. Hamlet, v. 1. 21. A clown’s substitution for L. ergo, therefore.

argent, silver; hence, money. Udall, Roister Doister, i. 4 (Roister). F. argent. L. argentum, silver.

argent vive, quicksilver. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Mammon). Cp. F. vif-argent, quick-silver (Cotgr.).

Argier, Argièr, Algier, Algiers. Argier, Temp. i. 2. 261; Argiers, Massinger, Unnat. Combat, i. 1 (Beauf. sen.).

argin, an embankment in front of a fort, glacis. Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, iii. 2. 85; 3. 23. Ital. argine, ‘a banke’ (Florio). See Ducange (s.v. Arger (‘agger’) and Arginerius).

argolet, a light-armed horse-soldier. Peele, Battle of Alcazar, i. 2. 2; iv. 1 (Abdelmelec). F. argolet (Cotgr.); argoulet, Essais de Montaigne I. xxv (ed. 1870, p. 68): ‘Les argoulets étaient des arquebuisiers à cheval; et comme ils n’étaient pas considérables en comparaison des autres cavaliers on a dit un argoulet pour un homme de néant’ (Ménage).

argolettier, a light-armed horse-soldier. Florio, tr. Montaigne, bk. i. ch. 25: ‘Guidone, a banner or cornet for horsemen that be shot, or Argolettiers’, Florio, Ital. Dict. See NED.

argosy, a merchant-vessel. Twice used as if it were plural; Marlowe, Jew of Malta, i. 1. The original sense was ‘a ship of Ragusa’, the name of a port in Dalmatia, on the Adriatic. Ragusa appears in 16th-cent. English as Aragouse, Arragosa (NED.).

argument, subject, topic, theme. Much Ado, i. 1. 266; 1 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 104; ii. 4. 314. So L. argumentum (Quintilian).

arietation, an attack with a battering-ram. Bacon, Essay 58, § 8. L. ariēs, a ram.

armado, an army. Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, st. 14. Span. armada. Med. L. armata, army (Ducange); cp. F. armée.

armiger, an esquire. Purposely altered to armigero in Merry Wives, i. 1. 10. L. armiger, one who bears arms, in Med. L. an esquire.

armine, a beggar, a poor wretch. London Prodigal, v. 1. 174. Coined from Du. arm, poor; and put into the mouth of a supposed Dutchwoman.

armipotent, powerful in arms. Dryden, Palamon, ii. 545; iii. 293. L. armipotens, powerful in arms.

arms: phr. to give arms, to have the right to bear arms, in the heraldic sense. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 4 (Capt. Albo).

aroint thee!, begone!, out of the way!, make room!, ‘aroint thee, witch!’ King Lear, iii. 4. 127; Macbeth, i. 3. 6. ‘A lady well acquainted with the dialect of Cheshire informed me that the word is still in use there. For example, if the cow presses too close to the maid who is milking her, she will give the animal a push, saying at the same time, ’Roynt thee! by which she means, stand off’ (Nares). Roint is used in this sense in the north country: Yorks., Lancs., and Cheshire (EDD.). OE. rȳm ðū, gerȳm ðū, make thou room, cp. rȳm þysum men setl, give this man place (Luke xiv. 9); rȳman, to make room, deriv. of rūm, wide, roomy. See Dict.

arpine, arpent, a French acre. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iii. 1 (near the end). F. arpent.

arraign, to arrange, place. Webster, Sir T. Wyatt (Suffolk), ed. Dyce, p. 187: ‘See them arraign’d, I will set forward straight’, Webster (Wks. ii. 261). See Halliwell.

arras-powder, orris-powder. Webster, White Devil (Brachiano), ed. Dyce, p. 41. So also arras, orris; Duchess of Malfi, iii. 2 (Duchess). See Halliwell (s.v. Arras (2)).

arraught, pt. t., seized forcibly, with violence. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 34. ME. arahte, pt. t. of arachen, to obtain, attain (Gower, C. A. i. 3207). OE. ārǣcan, to attain.

arre, to snarl as a dog. ‘They arre and bark’, Nash, Summer’s Last Will (Autumn), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 44; ‘a dog snarling er’, B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1. 691 (Subtle).

arrearages, arrears. Massinger, Picture, ii. 2 (Honoria); Cymb. ii. 4. 13. OF. arerage; from arere, behind.

arrect, to direct upwards, to raise. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 55; to set upright, ‘I arecte . . . or set up a thyng; Je metz sus . . . je metz debout’, Palsgrave. From L. arrect-, pp. stem of arrigere, to raise up.

arride, to please, gratify. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of his Humour, ii. 1 (Fastidious); Marmion, The Antiquary, ii. 1 (Mocinigo). L. arridere, to smile upon.

arrouse, to bedew, moisten. Spelt arowze, Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 4. 103; arrowsid, pp., Caxton, Hist. of Troye, leaf 249, back, l. 24. Norm. F. ar(r)ouser, ‘arroser’ (Moisy). O. Prov. arozar (Levy). Romanic type *arrosare, L. ad + rorare, fr. ros, dew.

arsedine, a gold-coloured alloy of copper and zinc, rolled into thin leaf, and used to ornament toys. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Trash). Of unknown origin.

arsee-versee, adv., backside foremost, contrary-wise, conversely. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 13; Diogenes, § 45; ‘fighting arsie-versie’, Butler, Hudibras, i. 3. 827; ‘Cul sur pointe, topsie-turvy, arsie-varsie’, Cotgrave. In common prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Arsy-versy).

arsmetrike, arithmetic. Fabyan, vii. 604 (NED.). ME. arsmetrike (Chaucer, C. T. D. 2222); arsmetique (Gower, C. A. vii. 149). OF. arismetique, Med. L. arismetica for L. arithmetica, Gk. ἡ ἀριθμητική (τέχνη). The form arsmetrike is due to popular etymology, which associated the word with L. ars metrica, ‘the art of measure’. See NED. (s.v. Arithmetic).

arsmetry, a corruption of arsmetrick, by form-association with geometry. Greene, A Looking-glass, iii. 2 (1161); p. 132, col. 1.

arson, saddle-bow. ‘The arson of his sadel’, Morte Arthur, leaf 339, back, 22; bk. xvi. c. 10. F. arçon.

art, to constrain. Court of Love, l. 46. ‘I arte, I constrayne’, Palsgrave. L. artare, to confine. See arcted.

artier, an artery. Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, v. 3 (Physician). F. artere, ‘an artery’ (Cotgr.). L. arteria, Gk. ἀρτηρία.

artillery, missile weapons. ‘Artillarie now a dayes is taken for ii. thinges, Gunnes and Bowes’, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 65; Bacon, Essay 29, § 3; Fairfax, Tasso xvii. 49; Bible, 1 Sam. xx. 40 (AV.). Norm. F. artillerie, ‘armes de jet et de trait, non à feu; comme arbalètes, flèches, lances, etc.’ (Moisy).

askaunces, as if, as much as to say. Gascoigne, Dan Bartholomew; ed. Hazlitt, i. 113, l. 4; i. 136, l. 16. So in Chaucer, C. T. G. 838. Cp. OF. quanses, as if (Godefroy). See Romania, xviii. 152; Cliges (ed. Förster, l. 4553, note). The M. Dutch quansijs (as if saying, as much as to say) in Reinaert, 2569 (ed. Martin, p. 78) is probably the same word as the OF. quanses. The Chaucerian use of ascaunces in Tr. and Cr. i. 205, 292 is precisely the same as that of als quansijs in Reinaert.

aspect, (aspéct), the peculiar position and influence of a planet. King Lear, ii. 2. 112. Common. ME. aspect, the angular distance between two planets (Chaucer).

asper, a Turkish coin worth about two farthings or less. Fletcher, Span. Curate, iii. 3 (Jamie). F. aspre. Byzantine Gk. ἄσπρον, white money, from ἄσπρος, white.

asprely, fiercely. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i. c. 17. § 8. OF. aspre; L. asper, fierce.

assassinate, an assassin, murderer. Dryden, Span. Friar, iv. 1 (Dominic); Don Sebastian, v. 1 (Almeyda).

assay, proof, trial; attempt; attack. Hamlet, ii. 1. 65; ii. 2. 71; iii. 3. 69. At all assays, in every trial or juncture, in any case, on every occasion, always, Drayton, Harmony of the Church, Ecclus. xxxvi. st. 6; ‘At all assayes, en tous poynts’, Palsgrave. ME. assay, trial (Chaucer, C. T. D. 290). Anglo-F. assai (Gower).

assinego, a donkey, a dolt. Also asinego, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 4 (Welford); asinigo, Marmion, Antiquary, v. 1 (Ant.). Spelt asinico in ed. 1606; Tr. and Cr. ii. 1. 49; Span. asnico, ‘a little asse’ (Minsheu), deriv. of asno, an ass, L. asinus, ass.

assistant, used by Fletcher for Span. asistente, the chief officer of justice at Seville. Span. Curate, iii. 1. 15.

assoil, to set free, to dispel. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 58; iv. 5. 30. A peculiar use of assoil, to absolve. ME. assoilen, to absolve, pardon, discharge (Chaucer). Anglo-F. assoiler, to pardon (Rough List); -soiler is formed from the present stem soille of the verb soldre, Romanic type sol’re, L. solvere, to loosen.

assoil, used for soil, to sully, taint. Fletcher, Queen of Corinth, iii. 1 (Euphanes). [NED. quotes a modern instance, from D’Israeli.]

assot, to befool, make a fool of. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 8; iii. 8. 22; assot, pp. infatuated, Shep. Kal., March, 25. Anglo-F. assoter, to make a fool of, deriv. of sot, a fool (Gower). Med. L. sottus, ‘stolidus, bardus, simplex’ . . . ‘hinc Carolus Sottus, qui vulgo “Simplex” ’ (Ducange).

assurd, to burst forth. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 302. OF. assordre, essordre, L. exsurgere.

astarte, to escape. Turbervile, Hunting, 138. ME. asterte, to escape (Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 1802).

astert, to come suddenly upon, happen suddenly to. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 187. ME. asterte, to happen, befall (Gower, C. A. i. 722; v. 707).

astone, to astound, confound. Peele, Sir Clyomon; ed. Dyce, p. 526. ME. aston-en (Chaucer); OF. estoner; Pop. Lat. extonare, for L. attonare, to stun, stupefy as by thunder, tonare, to thunder.

astonied, astonished, astounded. Bible, AV.: Job xvii. 8; Jer. xiv. 9; North’s Plutarch, M. Antonius (ed. Skeat, p. 204); stunned, Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 227; spelt astoynde, astounded, Sackville Mirrour, Induct. 29. ME. astonie, to amaze (Chaucer, H. Fame, iii. 1174). See stoin.

astracism, an astracism, or collection of stars. ‘The threefold astracism’, Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, iv. 4. Possibly a deriv. of Med. L. astracum ‘pavimentum domus’ (Ducange); cp. Ital. astracco, a fretted ceiling (Florio).

at-after, after. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 22; Richard III, iv. 3. 31. In prov. use in various parts of England from the north to Shropshire (EDD.). ME. at after (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1445).

at all! a gamester’s exclamation, when he challenges all present. ‘Cry at all!’, Massinger, City Madam, iv. 2. 4; ‘have at all!’, Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 391.

atchievement, ‘achievement’, an ensign memorial granted in memory of some achievement or distinguished feat. Milton, Tetrachordon (Trench, Sel. Gl.); Dryden, Palamon, iii. 344, 932.

athanor, an alchemist’s furnace. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Subtle). Arab. attannūr; al, the, tannūr, furnace.

atomy, an emaciated person, a walking skeleton. 2 Hen. IV, v. 4. 33 (Qu. 1597). For anatomy (a skeleton), the an- being taken for the indef. article.

atone, to set two persons ‘at one’. ‘Since we cannot atone you’, Richard III, i. 1. 202; to agree, Coriolanus, iv. 6. 72.

atonement, reconciliation. Richard III, i. 3. 36; Beaumont and Fl., Bloody Brother, i. 1 (Rolls).

attaint, to hit, strike, wound. ‘His attainted thigh’, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 572; attaint, pp. stricken, Sackville, Induction, st. 15. ‘I atteynt, I hyt or touche a thyng, Iattayngs’, Palsgrave.

attame, to commence. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 19, 12; lf. 71, back, 28. OF. atamer; L. attaminare, to lay hands on. Cp. O. Prov. entamenar. ‘entamer’ (Levy). See Hatzfeld (s.v. Entamer).

atte, for at the; atte last, at the last; atte castel, at the castle; Morte Arthur (see Glossary); atten ale (at nale), at the ale-house; Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 387. ME. atte, at the (Chaucer); atte nale, at the ale-house (P. Plowman, c. viii. 19).

attent, attentive, attentively. Milton, P. R. i. 385; Dryden, Wife of Bath, 310.

attentate, a criminal attempt or assault. Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 86. F. attentat, ‘tentative criminelle’ (Hatzfeld).

atteynt, an ‘attaint’, a wound on a horse’s foot due to a blow or injury; either from overstepping, or from being trodden on by another horse. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 113; Topsell, Four-footed Beasts, 313 (NED.).

attract, an attractive quality, charm. ‘The Soule . . . glides after these attracts’, Manchester Al Mondo (ed. 1639, p. 117). Late L. attractus, attraction.

attrapt, ‘trapped’, furnished with ‘trappings’; said of a horse. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 4. 39.

atwite, to reproach, upbraid, twit. Calisto and Melibaea, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 85; spelt attwite, Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poetry, iii. 25. OE. æt, prep., and wītan, to blame. The mod. E. twit is a shortened form of atwite.

auberge, a lodging, a term technically applied to a reception-house provided by the Knights Hospitallers, hence, to their fraternity. Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, i. 3 (Mountferrat). F. auberge, O. Prov. alberga. Cp. Med. L. albergia, ‘apud Milites Hospital. S. Joan. Hieros. vocantur domus, in quibus Fratres Ordinis per nationes una comedunt et congregantur. Statuta ejusd. Ordin. tit. 19 § 3’ (Ducange).

aubifane, the corn blue-bottle, Centaurea cyanus. Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, c. 14, p. 158. F. aubifoin, the weed Blew-bottle (Cotgr.).

auke, backward, contrary to the usual way, from left to right. ‘With an auke stroke’, Morte Arthur, leaf 156, back; bk. viii. c. 25 (end); ‘Ringing as awk as the bells, to give notice of the conflagration’, Lestrange, Fables (NED.). In E. Anglia bells are said to be ‘rung awk’ when they are rung backward or contrary to the usual way, to give alarm of fire (EDD.). The word is found in many German dialects: Kurhessen, afk perverse (Vilmar). See awk.

aukly, inauspiciously; said of the flight of birds. Golding, Metam. v. 147; fol. 57, back.

aumayld, enamelled. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 57. Deriv. of OF. amail, for esmail, enamel. See amell.

aums-ace, double aces; given as the name of a card-game. Interlude of Youth, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 35. See ames-ace.

aunt, a cant term for a bawd or procuress. Middleton, A Trick to Catch, ii. 1 (first speech); Michaelmas Term, ii. 3 (Thomasine).

aunters: in phr. in aunters, in case, in case that, if. ‘In aunters the Englishmen shoulde sturre’, Robinson, tr. of More’s Utopia, p. 57. Aunters (without in) was used in the same sense, and represented an adverbial form founded on aunter, a contraction of aventure (Mod. E. adventure); see Aunters in NED. Cp. the Yorkshire word anters: ‘We must have it ready, anters they come’ (i.e. in case they come); see EDD. (s.v. Aunters, 2).

autem mort, a married woman (Cant). ‘Autem-mortes be maried wemen’, Harman, Caveat, p. 67. He adds ‘for Autem in their [slang] language is a Churche; so she is a wyfe maried at the Church’. Spelt autumn mort, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Randal).

avale, avail, to sink, descend, droop; also, to lower, let down. To sink, Spenser. F. Q. i. 1. 21; iii. 2. 29; to descend, ii. 9. 10; iv. 3. 46; to droop, Shep. Kal., Feb., 8; to lower, let down, F. Q. iv. 10. 19; Shep. Kal., Jan., 73. Anglo-F. avaler, to lower, bring down, swallow, deriv. of aval, down, lit. to the valley (Gower), L. ad vallem.

avaunce, to advance, promote, Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. iii. 71. ME. avaunce, to promote (Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 2022). Anglo-F. avancer (Gower).

avaunt, to ‘vaunt’, boast. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 6. ME. avaunten (Chaucer). Anglo-F. s’avanter, to boast; avantance, avanterie, boasting (Gower).

Ave-Mary bell, a bell rung daily (once or twice) to direct the recital of an Ave-Maria, or prayer to the Virgin. Sir T. Browne, Rel. Medici, pt. 1. § 3.

avenant, suitable; after the avenant, in proportion, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 149. 30; at avenant, in proportion, id. lf. 225. 4. ‘Fayre and avenant’, fair and graceful, id. lf. 256. 4. ME. avenaunt, graceful, comely (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 1263). Anglo-F. avenant, suitable, agreeable (Gower), pres. pt. of avenir, to be suitable (id.).

avente him, to refresh himself with air. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 298. 2. ME. aventen, to open the helmet to admit the cool air, to refresh with cool air (Merlin, xx. 335). Anglo-F. aventer; cp. OF. esventer (mod. éventer), Med. L. eventare (Ducange), L. ex + ventus, wind.

†aventre (?). ‘[She] aventred her spear’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 28; ‘[He] aventred his spear’, iv. 3. 9; ‘aventring his lance’, iv. 6. 11. The phrase ‘they aventred their speres’ occurs in King Arthur (ed. Copland); see NED. Can this word be an error for aveutre? Aveutre = afeutre = OF. afeutrer, to lay a spear in rest in the feutre, the felt-lined socket for a lance or spear attached to the saddle of a knight. Spenser has the verb fewter equivalent in meaning to afeutrer in F. Q. iv. 6. 10: ‘He his threatfull speare Gan fewter’. See NED. (s.v. Fewter).

aventure, in phr. at aventure, at adventure, at hazard, at random. Bible, 1 Kings xxii. 34 (improperly printed at a venture); ‘Certayn . . . rode forthe at adventure’, Berners, Froissart, I. cxcii. ME. aventure, chance, peril (Gower). Anglo-F. aventure, chance, danger, uncertainty: par aventure (Gower, Mirour, 1239).

averruncate, to avert, ward off. Butler, Hudibras, pt. i, c. 1. 758. L. auerruncare, to avert. Often explained in the 17th cent. by ‘to weed out’, or ‘to root up’, but Butler uses the word correctly. See NED.

avile, to hold cheap, think little of. B. Jonson, Prince Henry’s Barriers (Lady). Anglo-F. aviler, to debase (Gower).

avise, to see, observe; to think; refl. to bethink. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 31; iv. 2. 22; iii. 12. 10; refl. ii. 6. 46; iii. 3. 6. To be avised of, to be well informed about, Merry Wives, i. 4. 106; Meas. ii. 2. 132. ME. avise, refl. to consider (Chaucer, C. T. B. 664). Anglo-F. s’aviser, to take thought (Gower).

avision, a dream, vision. Douglas, Aeneid, iii. 1. 69. ME. avisioun (Lydgate, Temple of Glas, 1374). Anglo-F. avisioun (Gower).

aviso, advice, intelligence, piece of information. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Sir Moth); Habington, Castara, ed. Arber, p. 102. Span. aviso, information.

avouch, to maintain, make good. Mids. Night’s D., i. 1. 106; Tusser, Husbandry, § 10. 12. Hence avouch, assurance, Hamlet, i. 1. 37.

avoure, acknowledgement, avowal. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 3. 48. OF. avouer, an avowal, prop. infin., to avow.

avoutry, adultery. Paston, Letters, no. 883; vol. iii, p. 317; Hickscorner, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 175. ME. avouterye (Chaucer). Anglo-F. avoulterie (Gower).

avowre, to vow, devote. Only in Phaer, Aeneid, viii. 85, Latin text (M iiij, l. 6). See NED.

awaite: in await (awate), in ambush. Fairfax, tr. Tasso, v. 18. Anglo-F. en await (agwait, agueit, agait), in ambush, lying in wait (Rough List, s.v. Await).

awaite: in phr. to have good awaite, to take good care. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, ch. 5, § 10.

a-wallop, in a boiling state, boiling quickly. Golding, Metam. vii. 263; fol. 82 (1603). Cp. the prov. word wallop, ‘to boil violently with a bubbling sound’, in common use in Scotland and in various parts of England. See EDD. (s.v. Wallop, vb.²).

awbe, a bull-finch. Gascoigne, Philomene, l. 35. ME. alpe, ‘ficedula’ (Prompt.). See nope.

awhape, to amaze, confound. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 7. 5; v. 11. 32. ME. awhapen (Chaucer).

awk, reversed; the awk end, the wrong end, the other end. Golding, Metam. xiv. 300 (L. ‘conversae verbere virgae’); fol. 170, back (1603). See auke.

awkward, untoward, unfavourable, adverse. 2 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 83; Marlowe, Edw. II, iv. 6. 34.

axtree, axle-tree. Drayton, Pol. i. 498. Still in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Ax, sb.¹ 3). OE. œx-trēo.

aygulets, an aglet, metal tag. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 25. A doublet of aglet. Spenser seems to speak here of the bright metal tops or tags of lace, which he likens to stars; as in Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 4. 2. F. aiguillette, a point (Cotgr.), dimin. of aiguille, a needle.

ayle, a grandfather. ‘Ayle, Pere, and Fitz, grandfather, father, and son’, Wycherley, Plain Dealer, i (Jerry). ME. ayel, grandfather (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2477). Norm. F. aiel (Moisy).

azoch, ‘azoth’, the alchemist’s name for quicksilver. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Surly). Also spelt assogue. F. assogue; Span. azogue, quicksilver; Arab. az-zāūq; zāūq is adapted from Pers. zhīwah (jīvah), quicksilver. See NED., Ducange, and Dozy, Glossaire (s.v. Azogue).

babion, baboon. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, i. 1 (Amorphus); Drayton, Man in the Moon, 331; spelt babyone Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 124, l. 163. F. ‘babion, a babion or baboone’ (Cotgr.).

bable, a ‘bauble’, a toy, trick, fancy. ‘Has fill’d my head So full of bables’ (some edd. baubles), Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, v. 4. 7; ‘That bable called love’, Lyly, Endimion, iii. 3 (Epi.). OF. babel, baubel, a child’s plaything (Godefroy); beau + bel, cp. F. bonbon.

bacharach, backrack, the name of a wine. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 2 (Vandunke); Bacrack, Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 300. From Bacharach, on the Rhine. See backrag.

back, a bat. Backes or reermice; Golding, Metam., iv. 415; fol. 49 (1603). The pl. backes is the form used by Wyclif, Coverdale and the Geneva Bible, in Isaiah ii. 20, where AV. has battes, see NED. (s.v. Bat). In Scotland the usual word for the bat is Backie (or Backie-bird), see EDD. (s.v. Backie, sb.¹ 1 and 2).

backare!, go back, keep back. ‘Backare! quod Mortimer to his sow; i.e. keep back, said Mortimer’; an old proverb, often quoted against such as are too forward, Udall, Roister Doister, i. 2 (Roister); Tam. Shrew, ii. 1. 72. See EDD. (s.v. Baccare).

backcheat, stolen apparel, lit. things from the back. (Thieves’ cant.) ‘Back or belly-cheats’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen). See cheat.

backrag, the name of a wine. Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, v. 1 (Bornwell); Mayne, City Match, i. 3 (near the end). See bacharach.

backside, a yard behind a farmhouse. Witch of Edmonton, iv. 1 (Old Banks). Very common in prov. usage, see EDD. (s.v. Backside, 2).

badger-nab, a strong little badger. ‘Meg [a witch] What Beast was by thee hither rid? Mawd [second witch] A Badger-nab’, Heywood, Witches of Lancs., iv. 1, vol. iv. p. 220. Cp. knab, a strong boy, a thickset, strong little animal (EDD.).

baffle, to treat with ignominy and contempt. It was originally a punishment inflicted on recreant knights, one part of it being that the victim was hung up by the heels and beaten. See Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 27; Beaumont and Fl., A King and no King, iii. 2 (Bessus); 1 Hen. IV, i. 2. 113; Richard II, i. 1. 170. See Trench, Select Glossary, and NED.

bagage, refuse, worthless stuff; ‘When brewers put no bagage in their beere’, Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1082; Tusser, Husbandry, st. 21. An Essex word in this sense, see EDD. (s.v. Baggage, sb.¹). Cp. Port. bagaço, ‘marc; ce qui reste de plus grossier de quelque fruit, qu’on a pressé pour en retirer le suc’ (Roquette).

bagatine, a small Italian coin, worth about the third part of a farthing. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 2 (Vol.). Ital. bagatino, bagattino, ‘a little coyne vsed in Italie’ (Florio).

bagle, a staff, or crosier such as a bishop carries. Bagle-rod, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, vii. 188 (see the side-note). Icel. bagall, a crosier, L. baculum, a rod, staff.

bague, baghe, a ring, brooch. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 54, back, 8; lf. 98. 11. F. bague.

baies, scoldings (?). ‘Ill servant . . . deserveth hir fee to be paid hir with baies’, Tusser, Husbandry, § 81. 2.

bain, a bath. Chapman, tr. Odyssey, x. 567; to bathe, Greene, The Palmer’s Verses, l. 88 (Capricornus); bayne, Surrey, Desc. of restless state of a Lover, 13. F. bain.

bain, supple, lithe. Golding, Metam. iv. 354 (fol. 48); xv. 202; fol. 182 (1603). In common prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Bain, sb. 1). ME. beyn, ‘flexibilis’ (Prompt.). Icel. beinn, straight; also, ready to serve.

bait, to stop at an inn to feed the horses, also to stop for refreshment; used fig. ‘Evil news rides post, while good news baits’, Milton, Samson, 1538. In prov. use in the sense of stopping to feed. See EDD. (s.v. Bait, vb.¹ 2).

bald, marked with white upon the head. Hence ‘bald coot’, a coot (Fulica atra); Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, i. 1 (Zanthia). In prov. use (EDD.).

bale, a set of dice; usually three. B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1 (Host); Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, i. 1 (Young Chartley); A Woman never vexed, ii. 1 (Stephen). See NED. (s.v. Bale, sb.³ 4).

ball, a white streak on a horse’s face. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 73. Hence ball, as a horse’s name; orig. one marked with a white streak; Tusser, Husbandry, § 95, st. 2. Prob. of Celtic origin; cp. Gael. ball, spot, mark, Breton bal, a white mark on an animal’s face.

balloon, a game in which a large ball (like a football) was struck by the arm, which was protected by a stout guard. Eastward Ho, i. 1 (Sir Petronel); Chapman, Byron’s Conspiracy, iv. 1 (1st Lady). Balloo, in the phr. at the Balloo (B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1: Volpone), must be an error for at the Balloon, i.e. when playing at the game. Also balloon-ball, Middleton, Game at Chess, ii. 1 (B. Knight).

ballow, smooth. ‘Ballowe wood’, i.e. smooth wood without bark, see Nottingham Corporation Records, ed. Stevenson, vol. iv, Glossary (date of entry 1504); ‘The ballow nag’, Drayton, Pol. iii. 24. ME. balhow, smooth, plain (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 136).

ban, to curse, imprecate damnation on. 2 Hen. VI, ii. 4. 25; a curse, Hamlet, iii. 2. 269. Icel. banna, to prohibit, curse.

band, a collar, lying flat upon the dress, worn round the neck by man or woman. Also called falling-bands, Middleton, Roaring Girl, i. 1 (Mary). The falling band succeeded the cumbersome ruff.

band, to bandy about, like a tennis-ball. Look about You, sc. 32, l. 5; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 490.

banding-ball, a ball to be driven about at tennis or in the game of bandy. Wounds of Civil War; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 116.

bando, a proclamation. Shirley, Sisters, v. 2 (Longino). Ital. bando, a public proclamation (Dante).

bandoleer, bandalier, a broad belt, worn over the shoulder and across the breast. Peele, Polyhymnia, The Third Couple (l. 10). Hence, a wearer of a bandoleer was himself called by the same name. Thus Gascoigne has: ‘Their peeces then are called Petronels, And they themselves by sundrie names are called, As Bandolliers . . . Or . . . Petronelliers’, Works, i. 408. See Dict.

bandora, a kind of guitar; now called banjo. Middleton, Your Five Gallants, v. 2 (hymn); also pandore, Drayton, Pol. iv. 361. Ital. pandora, a bandora (Florio).

bandrol, a long narrow flag, with a cleft end; a streamer from a lance. Drayton, Pol. xxii. 211. Spelt bannerall, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 26. F. banderole, a little flag or streamer, a penon (Cotgr.).

banes, ‘banns’ of marriage (the usual spelling to 1661); Tam. Shrew, ii, 1. 181; spelt bains, Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 36. ME. bane of a play (or mariage, Pynson), ‘banna’ (Prompt.).

bangling, frivolous contention, squabbling. Englishmen for my Money, iv. 1 (Heigham); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 528.

banquerout, bankrout, a bankrupt. Webster, Appius, v. 2 (Virginius); Com. Errors, iv. 2. See Dict. (s.v. Bankrupt).

banquet, a slight refection, a dessert after dinner. Tam. Shrew, v. 2. 9; Timon, i. 2. 160; ‘The Banquet is brought in’, Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, ii. 1 (stage direction).

barate, treason. Caxton, Hist. Troye, 327, back, 10; 335. 29. OF. barat, deceit. See NED. (s.v. Barrat).

barathrum, abyss, a bottomless pit. ‘To the lowest barathrum’, Heywood, Silver Age (Pluto), vol. iii. p. 159; used fig. ‘You barathrum of the shambles!’ Massinger, New Way, iii. 2 (Greedy); (cp. barathrumque macelli, Horace, Epist. i. 15. 31). L. barathrum, the underworld; Gk. βάραθρον, the yawning cleft near the Acropolis at Athens, down which criminals were thrown.

baratour, a quarrelsome person, a brawler, a rowdy, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii. c. 12. § 8. ME. baratowre, ‘pugnax, rixosus, jurgosus’ (Prompt.). Norm. F. barateur ‘provocateur, querelleur’ (Moisy), deriv. of barat, ‘lutte, dispute’ (id.).

†baratto, barrato, a small boat; explained as ‘an Indian boat’. Fletcher, Island Princess, i. 1. 19; ii. 6 (end).

barb, to shave. Turbervile, Trag. T. 53 (NED.); to mow, Marston, Malcontent, iii. 1 (Malevole); to clip money, B. Jonson, Alchemist, i. 1 (Face). F. barber, to shave, to cut the beard (Cotgr.).

barbed, wearing a barb. From barb, lit. a beard (F. barbe); hence, a piece of white plaited linen, passed over or under the chin, and reaching midway to the waist; chiefly worn by nuns. ‘Barbyd lyke a nonne’, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1000.

bard cater-tray, for barred cater-tray, a kind of false dice in which the throws cater (four) and tray (three) were barred, or prevented from being likely to appear. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 1 (Matheo). NED. quotes from Diceplay (1532), ed. 1850, p. 24:—‘a well-favoured die that seemeth good and square, yet is the forehead longer on the cater and tray than any other, way . . . Such be also called bard cater-tres, because, commonly, the longer end will, of his own sway, draw downwards, and turn up to the eye sice, sinke, deuis or ace; i.e. 6, 5, 2, or 1, but not 4 or 3’.

baretour, a fighting man, a brawler. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aen. i. 472; id. i. 142. Anglo-F. barettour (Rough List). See baratour.

bargenette, bargynet, the name of a rustic dance, accompanied with a song. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i. c. 20. § 12; Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 430. Variant of bargaret or bargeret; F. bergerette, ‘chant que les bergers chantaient le jour de Pâques’ (Hatzfeld). See NED. (s.v. Bargeret).

barley-break, an old country-game; usually one couple, left in a middle den termed ‘hell’, had to catch the other two couples (who were allowed to separate and ‘break’ when hard pressed, and thus to change partners); when caught, they had to take their turn as catchers. Two Noble Kinsmen, iv. 3. 34; ‘A course at barley-break’, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, A. i (Clarion). The last couple left were said to be in hell: ‘Barly-break: or Last in Hel’, a poem by Herrick. See EDD.

barley-hood, a fit of ill-temper, brought on by drunkenness. So called because caused by barley, i.e. malt liquor. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 372. See EDD.

barn, a ‘bairn’, a child. Much Ado, iii. 4. 48. ME. barne, ‘infans’ (Cath. Angl.). OE. bearn (Anglian barn).

barnacles, barnacle-geese. Drayton, Pol. xxvii. 305 (where the fable is given). See EDD. (s.v. Barnacle, sb.¹).

barratry, vexatious persistence in litigation. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 695. See baratour.

barrèd, misused for barded, i.e. caparisoned. Drayton, Pol. xii. 481. Shortened to bard; Dekker, O. Fortunatus, iii. 1 (Cornwall).

barred gown, a gown marked with stripes or bars of gold lace, like that of a judge or law-officer. Shirley, Bird in a Cage, i. 1 (Rolliardo).

barrendry, a barony, a title of a baron. Chapman, Humorous Day’s Mirth, p. 31. Anglo-F. baronnerie, a baronry, the domain of a baron, the rank or dignity of baron. See NED. (s.v. Baronry).

barriers, lists, as for a tournament. To fight at barriers, to fight within lists. ‘Jeu de Barres, a martial sport of men armed and fighting together with short swords within certain Barres or lists, whereby they are separated from the spectators’, Cowel’s Interpreter (ed. 1701). Webster, White Devil; ed. Dyce, p. 40; at p. 6, the ‘great barriers’ are said ‘to moult feathers’; alluding to the plumes cut from the helmets of the combatants.

barth, a warm place or pasture for calves or lambs. Tusser, Husbandry, § 33. 26; Coles, Dict., 1677. An E. Anglian word (EDD.). Prob. a derivative of OE. beorgan, to shelter, protect.

basciomani, kissings of the hand. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 56. Ital. basciamano, a kissing of the hand (Florio).

base, or prison-bars, the name of a boys’ game. To bid base, to challenge to pursuit, as in the game, Venus and Adonis, 303; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 11. 5; at bace, id. v. 8. 5. ‘Barres, play at bace, or prison Bars’, Cotgrave. ME. bace, play, ‘barri’ (Prompt. EETS. 24, see note no. 100). ‘Barri sunt ludi, anglicè bace’ (Wright, Vocab. 176; foot-note).

bases, pl. (used like skirts), applied to a plaited skirt of cloth, velvet, or rich brocade, appended to the doublet, and reaching from the waist to the knee, common in the Tudor period. Massinger, Picture, ii. 1 (Sophia); Chapman, Mask of the Inner Temple, § 2. Called ‘a pair of bases’, Pericles, ii. 1. 167.

bash, to be abashed, Greene, Looking Glasse, i. 1. 3; Peele, Arraignment of Paris, iv. 1 (Venus); to make abashed, Greene, Looking Glasse, i. 1. 75 (Rasni). In prov. use in both senses, see EDD. (s.v. vb.³).

basilisk, a species of ordnance. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 3. 56; Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iv. 1. 2; Harrison, Desc. England, bk. ii, ch. 16 (ed. Furnivall, 281).

basket, the, one in which the broken meat and bread from the sheriffs’ table was carried to the counters, for poor prisoners. Middleton, Inner-Temple Masque (Dr. Almanac). Hence, go to the basket, i.e. to prison, Massinger, Fatal Dowry, v. 1 (Pontalier). Cp. Shirley, Bird in a Cage, iii. 4 (Rolliardo). There were three grades of prisoners in each of the counters; they occupied, respectively, the Master’s side, the Twopenny Ward, and the Hole. Those in the Hole paid nothing for their provisions, but depended upon the basket.

baslard, a kind of hanger, or small sword. Mirror for Mag., Glocester, st. 18. Anglo-F. baselard. For the other French forms, bazelaire, badelaire, beaudelaire, see Ducange (s.vv. Basalardus, Basalaria, Bazalardus, Badelare).

basque, a short skirt. Etheredge, Man of Mode, iv. 1 (Sir Fopling). F. basque, a short skirt (Cotgr.); from Basque, name of the ancient race inhabiting both slopes of the western Pyrenees.

bass, to kiss. ‘Bas me’, Skelton, Speke Parrot, 106; ‘I basse or kysse a person, Ie baise’, Palsgrave. F. baiser; L. basiare.

bassa, an earlier form of the Turkish military title ‘Bashaw’. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 306; spelt basso, Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 1. 1. Turkish bāshā, prob. fr. bāsh, a head. See NED. (s.v. Pasha).

basta, enough. Tam. Shrew, i. 1. 203. Ital. (and Span.) basta, it is enough (Florio); Ital. bastare, and Span. bastar, to suffice.

bastard, a sweet Spanish wine resembling muscatel. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 30; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 1. 12.

bastardeigne, for bastard eigné, firstborn bastard. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, iv (Widow). Eigné is a late spelling of ayné, ainé; from F. aîné, OF. ainsné; ains, before, + né, born (Hatzfeld).

bastone, a ‘baton’, cudgel. Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Tamb.). ME. baston, a cudgel (Cursor M. 15827). OF. baston (F. bâton). See batoon.

batable, debatable. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 4, § 2. ‘Batable ground seemeth to be the ground in question heretofore whether it belonged to England or Scotland, 23 Hen. VIII, c. 16, as if we should say debatable ground,’ Cowell, Interp. (ed. 1637).

bate (short for abate), to reduce, diminish, decrease, deduct. Merch. Ven. iii. 3. 32; iv. 1. 72; 1 Hen. IV, iii. 3. 2; Hamlet, v. 2. 23; to blunt, Love’s L. L. i. 1. 6. Phr. to bate an Ace, to abate a tittle, to make the slightest abatement, Heywood, Witches of Lancashire iv (Robin); vol. iv, p. 223, l. 2; Bate me an ace, quod Bolton, an expression of incredulity, R. Edwards, Damon and P. in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 77 (NED. s.v. Bate, vb.² 6 d).

bate, to beat the wings impatiently and flutter away from the fist or perch. Tam. Shrew, iv. 1. 199; 1 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 99 (old edd. bayted). F. se battre.

bate, bit, a northern form of the pret. of bite. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 7. See EDD. (s.v. Bate vb.⁴).

batful, fattening, full of sustenance. Drayton, Pol. iii. 349; vii. 93; &c. See batten.

batoon, battoon, a stick, cudgel. Shirley, The Traitor, iii. 1 (Rogers); battoon, Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, v. 1 (Egremont). See bastone.

battaile, a body of troops in battle array. Bacon, Essay 58, § 9; battayle, Psalm lxxvi. 3 (Bible 1539); the main battle, main body of an armed force, Richard III, v. 3. 301. Prov. batalha ‘troupe rangée’ (Levy).

batten, to feed gluttonously, Hamlet, iii. 4. 67; to fatten, ‘Battening our flocks’, Milton, Lycidas, 29; to grow fat, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Moon-calf). See Dict.

battle, (at Oxford) to have a kitchen and buttery account, to obtain provisions in college. ‘I eat my commons with a good stomach and battled with discretion’, Puritan Widow, i. 2. 42; ‘To battle, as scholars do in Oxford, Estre debteur au College pour ses vivres’, Sherwood, Dict. 1672.

battle, battill, to grow fat. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 38; battling, fattening, nourishing to cattle, Greene, Friar Bacon, scene 9. 4; nutritious to man, Golding, tr. of Ovid Met. xv. 359. See batten.

battled, ‘embattled’, furnished with battlements. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iii. 2 (Maria).

battree, a battle, encounter. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Julius, 16; Pompey, 1. Variant of battery.

baudkin, a rich embroidered stuff, a rich brocade. Holland, Camden’s Brit. i. 174; Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 777. Hence, cloth of bodkin, Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, iii. 2 (Frederick); B. Jonson, Discoveries, lxviii; Massinger, City Madam, ii. 1. OF. baudequin, med. L. baldakinus (Ducange), cp. Ital. baldacchino, lit. belonging to Baldacco, the Italian name for Bagdad.

baudricke, ‘a baldric’, belt, girdle. Spenser calls the zodiac the baudricke (or bauldricke) of the heavens, F. Q. v. 1. 11; Prothalamion, 174. ME. bawdryk (Prompt.), MHG. balderich, a girdle (Schade). See Dict. (s.v. Baldric).

†bause (?). Only in this passage: ‘My spaniel slept, whilst I baus’d leaves’, Marston, What you Will, ii. 2 (Lam.).

bauson, bawson, a badger. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 71; bauzon’s skin; Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. iv; Ballad of Dowsabel, st. 10. Bauson is a common north-country word for a badger, see EDD. Cp. OF. bausen, bauzan, black and white spotted, Ital. balzano, a horse with white feet (Florio). See NED. The French word for a badger is blaireau.

baux (a plural form), the name of a breed of swift hounds used in the chase; ‘Those dogges called Baux of Barbarie, of the whiche Phoebus doeth speake’, Turbervile, Hunting, ch. i. p. 3; ‘White dogges called Baux, and surnamed Greffiers’, id. ch. ii, p. 4; ‘Greffiers, a kind of white hounds, the same as Bauds’, Cotgrave; ‘Souillard, the name of a dog, between which and a bitch called Baude, the race of the Bauds (white and excellent hounds) was begun’ (id.). Comb. Baux-hound, Holme’s Academy of Armory, p. 184. F. baud, ‘chien courant, originaire de Barbarie’ (Hatzfeld). Probably of Germanic origin, cp. OHG. bald, bold (Schade).

bavian, a baboon, an occasional character in the old Morris dance. He appears in Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 5. See Nares. Du. baviaan.

bawcock, a fine fellow, Hen. V, iii. 2. 27; Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 125. A Lincolnshire word for a foolish person (EDD.). Hence probably the surname ‘Bawcock’, see Bardsley, 475. F. beau coq, a fine cock.

bawn, a fortified enclosure, outwork of a castle. Spenser, View of Ireland, Globe ed. p. 642, col. 2. Irish baḋḃḋún, an enclosure (Dinneen).

bayard, the name of the horse given to Renaud, one of the Four Sons of Aymon (name of a romance), hence, a common name for a horse; ‘Bolde bayarde, ye are to blynde’, Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 123, l. 101; a Bayard’s bun, horse bread, id. i. 15, l. 8. Bayard, lit. of a bay colour, O. Prov. baiart, ‘bai; cheval bai’ (Levy).

bayes, ‘baize’. Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. v, p. 31. A plural form of bay, bay coloured, reddish-brown. See Dict. (s.v. Baize).

beace, beasts; pl. of beast. Golding, Metam. xv. 13. This is the usual pron. of beast (and beasts) in the north of England. For various spellings—beas, beece, beess, &c., see EDD. (s.v. Beast).

beached, apparently for beeked, i.e. seasoned (as wood) by exposure to heat. ‘A coodgell [cudgel] beached or pilled [peeled] lawfully’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 39; p. 106. Cp. ME. beke: ‘to beke wandes’ (Cath. Angl.), see NED. (s.v. Beek vb.¹ 1 b). See beak.

bead, a prayer, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 30; Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 872. This is the orig. sense of mod. E. bead; a perforated ball was so called because it was used for counting prayers. ME. bede ‘oracio’ (Prompt.). OE. (ge)bed prayer.

bead-hook, a kind of boat-hook. Chapman, tr. of Homer, Iliad xv. 356, 624; Caesar and Pompey, v. 1 (Septimius). Spelt beede-hook, Raleigh, Hist. World (NED.).

beak, beyk, to expose to the warmth of the fire; to season by heat. ‘Beak ourselves’, Grimald, Metrodorus, 3; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 109. Beyked, seasoned, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 24. 3. See EDD. (s.v. Beek vb. 1 and 2). See beached.

beam, the main trunk of a stag’s horn which bears the antlers, Turbervile, Hunting, 53.

beamy, beam-like, massive. Dryden, Palamon, iii. 480; tr. of Aeneid, xii. 641. Cp. 1 Sam. xvii. 7 (massive as a weaver’s beam—the spear of Goliath).

bear (the animal). Are you there with your bears? are you at it again? ‘Explained by Joe Miller as the exclamation of a man who, not liking a sermon he had heard on Elisha and the bears, went next Sunday to another church, only to find the same preacher and the same discourse’ (NED.). Some think it refers to the bears in a bear-garden; but they do not say why, nor how. Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 3 (Silena); Howell, Foreign Travell, p. 20.

bear a brain, to use one’s brains, to be cautious; also, to remember. Romeo, i. 3. 29; Grim the Collier, v. 1. 1; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 457. Cp. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1422.

bear in hand, to lead one to believe, to keep in expectation, to amuse with false pretences, Meas. for M., i. 4. 51. Hamlet, ii. 2. 67; B. Jonson, Volpone i. 1; ‘I beare in hande, I threp upon a man that he hath done a dede, or make hym byleve so’, Palsgrave. See EDD. (s.v. Barenhond). ME. ‘I bar him on honde he hadde enchanted me’ (Chaucer, C. T. D. 575).

bearing. ‘A standing [upright] bearyng bowe,’ Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 79. A bearing arrow seems to have meant an arrow true in its flight (Nares), though it merely meant stout, or strong; probably a bearing bow was a strong and trusty one, one to be relied upon to shoot straight and well. So also bearing dishes, i.e. solid, substantial dishes or viands; Massinger, New Way to pay, v. 1 (Greedy).

bearing-cloth, the cloth in which a child was carried to the font. Winter’s Tale, iii. 3. 119; Beaumont and Fl., Chances, iii. 3 (Landlady).

beast, an obsolete game at cards, resembling the modern ‘Nap’. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 1. 1007. See NED. (s.v. Beast, 8).

beaten, orig. hammered; hence, overlaid or inlaid; embroidered. ‘Beaten damask’, Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, iii. 1 (Firk).

beath, to dry green wood by placing it near the fire, to season wood by heat. Tusser, Husbandry, § 23. 9; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 7. 7. An E. Anglian word (EDD.). ME. bethen (Treatyse of Fysshynge). OE. beðian, to foment, to warm.

beauperes, fair companions. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 35. OF. beau + per. F. pair, an equal, a peer.

becco, a cuckold. Marston, Malcontent, i. 1 (Malevole); Massinger, Bondman, ii. 3 (Gracculo). Ital. becco, a he-goat, a cuckold (Florio).

beck and bay, at, at some one’s command. Peele, Edw. I, ed. Dyce, 381. The meaning of the word bay in this phrase is uncertain; it is prob. connected with ME. beien, to bend; OE. (Anglian), bēgan; cp. the phr. buken and beien, Juliana, 27. See EDD. (s.v. Bay, vb.³), and NED. (s.v. Bow, vb.¹ 6, quot. A.D. 1240).

become; ‘I know not where my sonne is become’, i.e. what has become of him, Gascoigne, Supposes, v. 5 (Philogano); ed. Hazlitt, i. 251. Once very common.

bed, to command, to bid; ‘Until his Captaine bed’, until his captain may command, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 41. 3 pr. sing. subj. of ME. beden; OE. bēodan, to command.

bedare, to dare, defy. Peele, David (Salomon); ed. Dyce, p. 484. From dare; see NED. (s.v. Be-, prefix, p. 720).

bed-fere, bed-fellow. Chapman, tr. Odyssey, iii. 542: spelt bedphere, B. Jonson, Silent Woman, ii. 5.

bedlam, a lunatic; one who had been in Bethlehem hospital; the half-cured patients were licensed to beg for alms for their support. Barnes, Works (1572) p. 294, col. 2; Gammer Gurton’s Needle has, for one of its characters, Diccon the Bedlam; Bunyan, Pilgr. i. 123 (NED.); ‘A bedlam, maniacus, insanus, furiosus’, Coles, Lat. Dict. See EDD. (sb.¹ 4).

bedrench, to soak, swamp. Richard II, iii. 3. 46; bedrent, pt. s. Sackville, Induction, st. 21.

bed-staff, ‘a staff or stick used in some way about a bed’ (NED.). The precise sense is uncertain. Often used as a weapon; B. Jonson, Every Man, i. 4 (Bobadil). ‘With throwing bed-staves at her’, Staple of News, v. 1 (Lickfinger).

bee, an armlet, ring. ‘A riche bee of gold’, Morte Arthur, leaf 135 (end); bk. vii, c. 35. The word is still in use in Ireland for a ferule (EDD.). ME. bee, an armlet (Paston Letters, iii. 464). OE. bēah.

beeld, to ‘build’. Mirror for Magistrates, Emp. Severus, st. 21. Beeld is the pron. of build in many parts of England and Scotland, see EDD., The Grammar; Index (s.v. Build).

beer, a pillow. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aen. iv. 414. See NED. (s.v. Bear, sb.⁴). See pillowbeer.

before me, a form of asseveration. Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 194; Oth. iv. 1. 149. Cp. before heaven, Meas. ii. 1. 69; before God, Much Ado, ii. 3. 192.

beg for a fool, to ask for the guardianship of an idiot. The custody of an idiot or witless person could be granted by the king to a subject who had sufficient interest to obtain it. If the ‘fool’ was wealthy, it was a profitable business. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Sancho); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, i. 2 (Fustigo).

begin, s., a beginning. ‘Of fowr begynns’ (i.e. the four elements), Grimald, Death of Zoroas, 38; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 121. ‘The hard beginne’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 21.

beglerbeg, the governor of an Ottoman province. Massinger, Renegado, iii. 4 (Carazie). Turk. begler-beg, bey of beys.

beglarde, for beglaired, smoothed over, as with a cosmetic. Mirror for Magistrates; Guidericus, st. 43. From glair, q.v.

behave, to manage, govern, control. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 40; Timon, iii. 5. 22. OE. behabban, to restrain.

behight (in Spenser). Forms: behight, pres., pt. t., and pp.; behot (behote) pp. Meanings: (1) to promise, Pt. t.: F. Q. iv. 11. 6; Pp.: F. Q. ii. 3. 1; F. Q. i. 11. 38 (behot); (2) to name, call, pronounce, F. Q. i. 10. 64; Pp.: Shep. Kal., April, 120; (3) to order, command, F. Q. vi. 2. 30; Pt. t.: F. Q. ii. 11. 17; (4) to entrust, commit, Pt. t.: F. Q. v. 9. 3; Pp.: F. Q. i. 10. 50; (5) to account, consider, Pp.: F. Q. iv. 1. 44; (6) to adjudge, Pp.: F. Q. iv. 5. 7. The normal ME. forms are: Behote (infin.), behight (pt. t.), behote(n (pp.).

beholding, indebted, under obligation. Merry Wives, i. 1. 283; Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, iii. 1 (Pinac). In common prov. use in many parts of England (Midlands, E. Anglia, Somerset). See EDD.

beholdingness, obligation, indebtedness. Marston, Malcontent, iv. 1 (last speech).

bel-accoyle, fair welcome. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 25. OF. bel acoil, fair welcome. See accoyl.

belamy, fair friend. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 52. ME. bel amy (Chaucer, C. T. C. 318). OF. bel ami.

belay, to beset, encompass. Spenser, Sonnet, 14; belayd, pp. set about with ornament; F. Q. vi. 2. 5.

belee, to place on the lee, in a position in which the wind has little influence; ‘Beleed and calmed’, Othello, i. 1. 30.

beleek, belike, probably. Peele, Arr. of Paris, iii. 1 (Mercury); id. Tale of Troy; ed. Dyce, p. 555. See belike.

belgards, amorous glances. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 25; iii. 10. 52. Ital. bel guardo, fair or kindly look.

belike, perhaps, no doubt (used ironically). Milton, P. L. ii. 156; Two Gent. ii. 1. 85. In common prov. use (EDD.).

belive, quickly. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 227; B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 1. Still in use in Scotland and the north of England (EDD.). ME. bi life, lit. with life or liveliness. See bilive.

bell, to bear the, to take the first place, be the first, be pre-eminent. ‘Win the spurres, and beare the bell’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Aristippus, § 1. From the precedence of the bell-wether; see NED.

bellibone, a fair lass. ‘Such a bellibone’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 92. From F. belle et bonne, fair and good girl. See bonnibell.

bells, pl.: in phr. to take one’s bells, used fig., to be ready to fly away. Ford, Sun’s Darling, iii. 1 (Humour). A hawk had light bells fastened to her legs before she flew off, that her flight might be traced.

belly-cheat, an apron. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen); ‘A belly-chete, an apern’, Harman, Caveat, p. 83. See backcheat.

belly-cheer, feasting, gluttony. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. ix. 114; also, meat, viands; ‘Carrelure de ventre, meat, belly-timber, belly-cheere’, Cotgrave.

belsire, grandfather. Drayton, Pol. viii. 73; beel sire, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 321. 6; bele-fader, id. lf. 344, back, 27; ‘Belsyre, grant pere’, Palsgrave. ME. belsyr, or belfadyr, ‘Avus’ (Prompt.).

beme, a trumpet. Beames (spelt beaumous) pl., Morte Arthur, leaf 423, back, 1; bk. xxi. ch. 4. ME. beme (Chaucer, Hous Fame, 1240). OE. (Mercian) bēme.

bemoiled, covered with dirt. Tam. Shrew, iv. 1. 77. In prov. use in the Midlands (EDD.).

bemol, B flat, in the musical scale. In the old sets of hexachords, which began with C, G, or F; it was found necessary, in the hexachord beginning with F, to flatten the note B. The new note, thus introduced into the old scale, was called B-mol or Be-mol, i.e. B soft; from OF. mol, soft; L. mollis. Its symbol was b, later ♭, which afterwards became a general symbol for a flattened note. ‘La, sol, re, Softly bemole’, Skelton, Phyllyp Sparowe, 533. Also, a half-note; ‘Two beemolls, or halfe-notes’, Bacon, Sylva, § 104.

ben, a cant term for good; ben cove, a good fellow. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Tearcat).

ben bouse, a slang term for good drink. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor).

bend (in heraldry), an oblique stripe on a shield. Morte Arthur, leaf 216. 27; bk. x. c. 12; ‘Our bright silver bend’, Drayton, Heroical Epistles, Surrey to Lady Geraldine, 95. The bend is usually the bend dexter, from the dexter chief to the sinister base; the bend sinister slopes the other way.

bend, a band or company. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 32. F. bende (Cotgr.). See NED.

bend, a piece of very thick leather, a piece of sole-leather. ‘A bend of leather’, Heywood, First Part of K. Edw. IV (Hobs); vol. i. p. 40. Also, bend-leather (NED.). The words bend, bend-leather, bend of leather, leather bend are in use in Scotland and the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Bend sb.¹).

bend, to cock a musket, pistol, or other fire-arms. A transferred use, from bending a bow. ‘Like an engyn bent’, Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 3. 53 [‘With hackbut bent’, Scott, Cadyow Castle, 137]; to direct any weapon (spear, dart, &c.), ‘to bend that mortal dart’, Milton, P. L. ii. 729; ‘so bent his spear’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 3. 34; (figuratively), King Lear, ii. 1. 48.

bene-bouse, benbouse, good drink. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman).

bene whids, good words; to cut bene whids, to speak good words. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen).

benedicite: phr. under ‘benedicite’ I speak it, Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 186). The expression is used by Stubbes, when making a serious charge against the magistrates, as an invocation for deliverance from evil. L. benedicite, bless ye.

benempt, pp. named. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 214. OE. benemned, pp. of benemnan, to name (Matt. ix. 9, Lind.).

benjamin, corruption of benjoin, earlier form of benzoin. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Perfumer); Herrick, Hesp. (ed. 1869, p. 139).

benome, benoom, to deprive. Spelt benome, Mirror for Mag., Somerset, st. 9; benoom, id. Buckingham, st. 15. Benome due to pret. forms of OE. beniman (nōm, sing.; nōmon, pl.).

bent, a grassy slope. Dryden, Palamon, ii. 544 (from Chaucer, C. T. A. 1981); Fairfax, tr. of Tasso, XX. 9. Still in use in this sense in Scotland and north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Bent, II. 3).

benting times, scarce times, times when pigeons have no food but bent-grass. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 1283.

beray, to defile, befoul; ‘Berayde with blots’, Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 241 (p. 56); Middleton, The Witch, i. 2 (Firestone); ‘It’s an ill bird that berays its own nest’, Ray’s Proverbs (A.D. 1678); Palsgrave; Sherwood.

berew, in a row; ‘Mock them all berew’, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 246. See rewe.

bergomask, a rustic dance. Mids. Night’s D. v. 360. Ital. bergamasca, ‘sorta di ballo composto tutto di salti e capriole’ (Fanfani); Bergamasco, belonging to Bergamo, a province in the state of Venice. The inhabitants were ridiculed as being clownish in manners.

berlina, a pillory. B. Jonson, Volpone, v. 8 (1 Avoc.). Ital. berlina, ‘a pillorie’ (Florio). Med. Lat. berlina (Ducange).

berne, a herb; ‘The iuyce of Berne or wylde Cresseys’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 8; p. 21. F. berle, Med. L. berula, the water-pimpernel, see Gerarde, p. 621. See Prompt. EETS. (s.v. Bellerne, note no. 176).

†berry, an error for bevy, i.e. a number; ‘A berry of fair roses’, Two Angry Women, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 322. Cp. ‘A Beuy of Roos’, Book of St. Albans, fol. f 6.

beryels, a tomb. Morte Arthur, leaf 141, back, 7; bk. viii. c. 6 (end); spelt buryels, id. leaf 233, back, 23; bk. x. c. 32. OE. byrgels. See Dict. (s.v. Burial).

besant, besaunte, a gold coin of Byzantium. Morte Arthur, leaf 78. 15; bk. iv. c. 26. It varied in value from half a sovereign to a sovereign. See Dict.

bescumber, to befoul. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. ix. 34; B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1. (Tibullus); Staple of News, v. 2; Comical History of Francion (Nares); spelt bescummer, Beaumont and Fl., Fair Maid of the Inn, iv. The word bescummer, to besmear with dirt, fig. to abuse, calumniate, is in obsolescent use in Somerset and Devon (EDD.). See scumber.

beseen: in phr. well beseen; spelt well bisene, Morte Arthur, leaf 22, back, 32; bk. i. c. 8; well beseene, well furnished, Spenser, Tears of the Muses, 180; ‘I am besene, I am well or yvell apareyled’, Palsgrave.

besides himself, all by himself, alone. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, i. 1 (Violetta).

besit, to suit, befit. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 10; besitting, befitting, id. iv. 2. 19; ‘It well besits’, Holland, Plutarch’s Morals, 227. Cp. use of F. seoir, to sit, also, to fit, suit, sit properly on (Hatzfeld).

beslurry, to sully all over; ‘All beslurried’, Drayton, Nymphidia, st. 32. Prov. E. slurry, to soil, bedaub (EDD).

beso las manos, a kissing of hands; lit. ‘I kiss your hands’, a common Spanish salutation to a lady. Massinger, Duke of Florence, iii. 1 (Calandrino).

besogno, a needy fellow (a term of contempt). B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iv. 2 (Asotus). See bisogno.

bespawl, to bespatter with saliva. B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1 (Tucca); ‘Foam bespawled beard’, Drayton, Pol. ii. 440. OE. spāld (spādl, spāðl, spātl), saliva.

besprint, besprinkled. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 111. Also besprent, bespreint. OE. besprenged, pp. of besprengan, to sprinkle.

bestead, pp. ill bestedded, ill helped, in a bad plight. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 1. 3; ill bestad, id. ii. 1. 52; strangely bestad, strangely beset or placed, id. iii. 10. 54; bestad, treated, id. vi. 6. 18; circumstanced, Tusser, Husbandry, § 113. 23. See Dict.

bestraught, distracted. Tam. Shrew, Induction, ii. 26. L. distractus gave distract and distraught on the analogy of ME. straught, pp. of strecchen, to stretch (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 599); hence the forms bestraught, astraught. See NED. (s.v. Bestraught).

betake, to commit, consign, deliver, hand over. Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 25; vi. 11. 51; pt. t. betook, id. iii. 6. 28; pp. betake, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, i. 62; fol. B ij. ME. bitaken; ‘Ich bitake min soule God’ = I commit my soul to God (Rob. Glouc. 475).

be-tall, to pay; ‘What is to be-tall, what there is to pay; the amount of the reckoning’, Heywood, Fair Maid of the West, ii. 1 (Clem); with a quibble on to be tall. Du. betalen, to pay (Hexham).

beteem, to grant, bestow, concede, indulge with. Mids. Night’s D. i. 1. 131; Hamlet, i. 2. 141; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 19. A Gloucestershire word (EDD.). Cp. ME. temen, to offer or dedicate (to God), Cursor M. 6170; see NED. (s.v. Teem, vb.¹ 7).

betso, a small Venetian coin; worth about a farthing. Marmion, The Antiquary, iii. 1 (Bravo). Ital. bezzo, a small brass coin in Venice (Florio).

beurn, for berne, a warrior. Grimald, Death of Zoroas, 54; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 121. ME. burne, a man (P. Plowman, C. xvi. 163). OE. beorn, a brave man.

bever, the lower part of the moveable front of a helmet. Bacon, Essay 35, § 1; Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 31; beaver, 2 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 120; Hen. V. iv. 2. 44. F. ‘Bavière d’un armet, the beaver of a helmet’ (Cotgr.).

bever, a short intermediate repast. A supper, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xvii, l. 10 from end. Bever is in prov. use in many parts of England in the sense of a slight refreshment taken between meals, either at 11 a.m. or 4 p.m. (EDD.). Norm. F. bever, ‘boire’ (Moisy); cp. Mod. Prov. grand-béure, ‘petit repas que les moissonneurs font vers 10 heures du matin’ (Glossaire, Mirèio).

bever, to tremble. Morte Arthur, leaf 28, back, 4; bk. i, c. 15. Bever (biver), to tremble, is in common prov. use in England and Scotland (EDD.).

bewaile, to lament over; ‘An hidden rock . . . That lay in waite her wrack for to bewaile’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 31. The meaning seems to be: the rock lay in wait so that she would have to bewail her wreck.

beware, to spend, bestow money. Wel bywaryd, well bestowed. Morte Arthur, leaf 123, back, 18; bk. vii, c. 21. Cp. prov. word ware, to spend, to lay out money (EDD.). ME. waryn, ‘mercor’ (Prompt.).

bewet, buet, a ring or slip of leather for attaching a bell to a hawk’s leg. ‘The letheris that be putt in his bellis, to be fastyned a-boute his leggys, ye shall calle Bewettis’, Boke of St. Albans, fol. B 6; ‘That, hauing hood, lines, buets, bels of mee,’ Turbervile, To a fickle Dame, 2. Dimin. of OF. buie, bue, boie, a bond, chain, fetter. L. boia, sing. of boiae, a collar.

bezoar’s stone, for bezoar-stone, a supposed antidote to poison. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 4 (Carlo). See Dict.

bezonian, needy beggar, rascal. 2 Hen. IV, v. 3. 115; 2 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 134; spelt bisognion, Massinger, Maid of Honour, iv. 1. 13; see Dict. See bisogno.

bezzle, to besot, stupefy, to drink immoderately. Marston, Malcontent, ii. 2 (Malevole). ‘To bezzle, pergraecor’, Coles, Dict. Hence, bezeling, tippling, Marston, Scourge, ii. 7. In prov. use in the sense of drinking immoderately, in various parts of England; see EDD. (s.v. Bezzle, vb.¹ 2). Norm. F. ‘besiller, s’user, s’épuiser, se perdre, dépérir’ (Moisy). See Ducange (s.v. Besilium).

bias, from the, out of the way, off the track. Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, iii. 1 (Hodge). Prov. biais, ‘manière, façon’; de biais, ‘obliquement’ (Levy).

bibble, bible, to drink frequently. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aen. i. 478; Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 550. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

bidene, in one body or company, together, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 268 (NED.); straightway, at once, forthwith, Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 956; Douglas, Aeneid, I. ii. 33 (NED.). Often used in Scottish poetry as a rime word, or to fill up the line, or as a mere expletive, see EDD. (s.v. Bedene). Cp. ME. phrase all(e bidene, continuously, one after another (Cursor M. 1457); in one body, all together (Ormulum, 4793).

bid-stand, a highwayman. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iv. 4 (Sogliardo). Because he bids men stand and deliver.

bienvenu, benvenu, a welcome. A Woman never vext, v. 1 (King); Massinger, The Picture, ii. 2. 4. F. bienvenuë, a welcome (Cotgr.).

big, a pap or teat. Tusser, Husbandry, 74; Shadwell Witches (EDD.), Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xviii. ch. 7; ‘Bigge, a country word for a pap or teat’, Phillips, Dict., 1706. See EDD.

big, a boil, small tumour. Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xxxii. ch. 9; Gaule Cases Consc. 6 (NED.).

biggin, a child’s cap. B. Jonson, Volpone, v. 5 (Mosca); Proverb, ‘From the biggen to the nightcap’ (i.e. from infancy to old age), B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iii. 2 (Haughty); the saying is still in use in Cornwall (EDD.). F. ‘beguin, a biggin for a child’ (Cotgr.).

bilander, a coasting vessel, a by-lander. Dryden, Hind and Panther, i. 128. Du. bijlander.

bilbo, a sword of excellent quality. Merry Wives, iii. 5. 112. Hence, one who wears a bilbo, id. i. 1. 165. From Bilbao (E. Bilboa) in Spain.

bilboes, pl., an iron bar, with sliding shackles, for securing prisoners. Hamlet, v. 2. 6; Beaumont and Fl., Double Marriage, ii. 2 (near the end). Perhaps from Bilbao; see above.

bilk, a statement having nothing in it. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 1 (Tub); a cheat, a fraud, Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 376.

bill, an advertisement. Much Ado, i. 1. 39; B. Jonson. Ev. Man out of Humour, iii. 1. 1; a doctor’s prescription, Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 603.

billed, pp. enrolled. North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antony, § 3 (Shak. Plut. p. 157, note 3).

billiments, pl., habiliments, apparel. Udall, Roister Doister, ii. 3 (Tibet); billements, Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, iii. 4 (Song). Short for habiliments.

bill-men, watchmen, armed with a pike or halbert. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, i. 2 (Blurt).

bind with, to grapple with, seize; said of a hawk. Massinger, Guardian, i. 1 (Durazzo).

bing, to go. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. I (Song); bynge a waste, go you hence, Harman, Caveat, p. 84; bing awast, go away, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Patrico).

bird-bolt, a short blunt arrow, usually shot from a cross-bow at birds. Much Ado, i. 1. 42; L. L. L. iv. 3. 25.

birle, to pour out liquor. Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 269; Levins Manip. A north-country word (EDD.). ME. byrle (Cath. Angl.); OE. byrlian, to give to drink; byrel, a cup-bearer.

bisa, bise, a north wind. Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 1 (1339); p. 134, col. 2. F. bise, a north wind (Cotgr.). O. Prov. biza, ‘bise, nord’ (Levy).

bisogno, bisognio, a needy fellow, a term of contempt. Fletcher, Love’s Cure, ii. 1 (Alguazier); Chapman, Widow’s Tears, i. (Lysander). Ital. bisogni, pl. new-levied soldiers, needy men; bisogno, need, want. Cp. bezonian.

bitched, a term of opprobrium; ‘Bitched brothel’, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 254.

bitter, bittour, a bittern. Bitter, Middleton, Triumph of Love, ed. Dyce, v. 289; bittour, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, v. 89; Dryden, Wife of Bath’s Tale, 194; Coles, Dict. (1679). ME. bitore (Chaucer, C. T. D. 972); OF. butor, a bittern (Hatzfeld).

bizzle, to become drunk, to drink to excess. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 1 (Matheo). See bezzle.

black: phr. black is your eye. To say ‘black is your eye’, to find fault with one, to lay something to his charge. ‘I can say, black’s your eye, though it be grey’, Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, iii. 1 (Alguazier); ‘black’s mine eye’, Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, i. 2 (Blurt).

black guard, orig. a jocular name given to the lower menials of a noble house, esp. those who had charge of kitchen utensils, and carried them about when required; ‘A lousy slave, that within this twenty years rode with the black guard in the duke’s carriage [i.e. among his baggage], ’mongst spits and dripping-pans’, Webster, White Devil, ed. Dyce, p. 8; Fletcher, Woman-hater, i. 3 (Lazarillo).

black jack, a leathern jug for beer, tarred outside. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 2 (Savil); Middleton, The Witch, i. 1 (Gasparo).

black-mack, a blackbird; ‘A leane birde of the kind of blacke-mackes’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Augustus, § 34; ‘Merula, a birde called a black-mack, an owzell, a mearle, or black-bird’, Florio.

black ox; ‘The Black Ox has trod on his foot, he has fallen on misfortune or sorrow’, Lyly, Sapho and Phao, iv. 1; Heywood, Eng. Prov. (ed. Farmer, 112). See Nares, and EDD. (s.v. Black, 5 (11)).

black-pot, a beer-mug; hence, a toper. Greene, Friar Bacon, ii. 2 (scene 5, W.), at the end; p. 160, col. 2 (D.).

blacks, mourning clothes. Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iii. 1 (Francisco); Maid in a Mill, iv. 2 (Bustopha); Bacon, Essay 2; Massinger, Fatal Dowry, ii. 1 (Charalois); Herrick, Hesperides, 379. In prov. use; see EDD. (s.v. Black, sb.¹ 4).

blanch, to give a fair appearance to by artifice or suppression of the truth. Bacon, Essays 20 and 26; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xii. 222; Od. xi. 492; Latimer, Serm., Ploughers (Arber, 37).

blanch (a hunting term), to ‘head back’ the deer in his flight. Lyly, Gallathea, ii. 1. 231. Hence blancher, a person or thing placed to turn the deer from a particular direction; Sydney, Arcadia, 64; fig. a hinderer, Latimer, Serm., Ploughers (Arber, 33 and 36). Blanch still used by huntsmen in Somerset and Devon in this sense (EDD.). See blencher.

blank, the white spot in the centre of a target; now, bull’s eye. Hamlet, iv. 1. 42; at twelve-score blank, at a range of twelve score yards, Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 3 (Sophocles).

blank, a blank bond, to be filled up at pleasure. Beaumont and Fl., i. 1 (Arbaces). Also, a small French coin, orig. of silver, but afterwards of copper, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Alvarez).

blank, to render pale, to blanch. Hamlet, iii. 2. 232; to dismay, Milton, Samson Ag. 471; blanck, disappointed, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 17.

blatant, blattant, bellowing. Spenser, F. Q. v. xii. 37, 41; Dryden, Hind and Panther, ii. 230. ‘Blate’, to bellow, is in prov. use (EDD.).

blaze, a white mark on an animal’s forehead; (on a black bull), Fuller, Pisgah, iv. 7. Still in prov. use, esp. Yorksh. and Lincolnsh., see EDD. (s.v. Blaze, sb.² 1).

blazing star, a comet. All’s Well, i. 3. 91; Middleton, Roaring Girl, i. 1 (Sir Alex.).

bleaking-house, bleaching-house. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, iv. 2 (Savourwit). ME. blekyn, blechen clothe (Prompt.).

blear: phr. to blear the eyes, to deceive, throw dust in the eyes. Tam. Shrew, v. 1. 120; ‘He is nat in Englande that can bleare his eye better than I can’, Palsgrave.

bleat (meaning obscure); ‘How the judges have bleated him!’, Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iv. 2 (Julia).

blee, colour, complexion, hue. Morte Arthur, leaf 88, back, 32; bk. v. c. 10; Tottel’s Misc. (ed. Arber, 100). Occurs in ballad poetry in the north (EDD.). ME. blee (York Plays, xxviii. 259), OE. blēo.

blemish, ‘When they [the huntsmen] find where a deare hath passed and breake or plashe any boughe downewardes for a marke, then we say, they blemish or make blemishes’, Turbervile, Hunting, 244.

blemishes, ‘The markes which are left to knowe where a deare hath gone in or out’, Turbervile, Hunting, 114.

blench, a side glance, glimpse; ‘These blenches gave my heart another youth’, Sh. Sonn. cx. A Warwickshire word (EDD.).

blench, to start aside, to flinch, shrink. Fletcher, False One, iv. 4. ME. blenchen (Anc. Riwle, 242).

blencher, a person stationed to ‘head hack’ the deer, to prevent him from going in a particular direction. Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, ii. 1 (Sanchio); spelt bleinchers, pl., scarecrows, things put up to frighten animals away, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 70, 192; ‘which some call shailes, some blenchars, . . to feare away birdes’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 23, § 2. See blanch.

blend, to blind, to dazzle. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 35; blent, pp., F. Q. ii. 4. 7; rendered obscure, Greene, Looking Glasse, ii. 1. 521; yblent, F. Q. ii. 7. 1.

blend, to mix, confuse, render turbid, disturb, pollute. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 10; blent, pp. defiled, F. Q. ii. 12. 7.

blenge, to blend, mix. Tusser, Husbandry, § 100. 3. A ‘portmanteau’ word; combination of blend and menge, to mingle.

blenkard, one who blinks, or has imperfect sight or intelligence. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 610. A north-country pronunc. of blinkard (EDD.).

bless, to wound, hurt; ‘When he did levell to shoote, he blessed himselfe with his peece’, Hellowes, Guevara’s Fam. Ep. 237. F. blesser, to wound (Cotgr.), Anglo-F. blecer (Ch. Rol.).

bless, to brandish (a sword), to wave about. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 6; i. 8. 22; vi. 8. 13; to brandish round an object with a weapon, ‘His armed head with his sharpe blade he blest’, Fairfax, Tasso, ix. 67.

blewe point, a blue point, or blue-tagged lace; ‘Not worth a blewe point’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 9. See point.

blin, blinn, to cease, leave off. Turbervile, Poems, in Chalmers’s Eng. Poets, II, 589; to cause to cease, to put a stop to, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 22. Very common in northern ballad poetry (EDD.). ME. blinnen, to cease (Chaucer, C. T. G. 1171); to cause to cease, Towneley Myst. 133. OE. blinnan, to cease. See lin.

blince, (perhaps) to flinch, give way, to ‘blench’; ‘The which will not blince’ riming with prince, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 148.

blindfeld, blindfolded. Spelt blyndefeld, Morte Arthur, leaf 69, back; bk. iv. c. 15; blyndfielde, R. Eden, First Three Books on America, ed. Arber, p. 347, l. 7 from bottom. ‘I blyndefelde one’, Palsgrave. See Dict. (s.v. Blindfold).

blinkard, ‘He that hath such eies that the liddes cover a great parte of the apple’, Baret (1580); ‘a blinkard, caeculus, paetus, strabus’, Coles (1679). Still in use in Northumberland and Lancashire (EDD.).

blive, quickly, soon, immediately. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 18; Surrey, tr. of Aeneid ii. l. 294. See belive.

blo, bloo, livid, esp. used of the colour caused by a bruise. Bloo and wan, Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 141, l. 5; id. Magnyfycence, 2080. A Yorkshire word (EDD.). ME. blo(o, ‘lividus’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 195). Icel. blā, livid.

bloat, blote, to smoke-dry (herrings); ‘Fumer, to bloat, besmoake, hang or drie in the smoake’, Cotgrave; Fletcher, Island Princess, ii. 5 (1 Citizen). Hence, bloat-herring, a smoked herring, B. Jonson, Masque of Augurs (Groom); Pepys, Diary (Oct. 5, 1661). A Suffolk word (EDD.).

block, a mould for a hat; a fashion of hat. Beaumont and Fl., Wit at Several Weapons, iv. 1 (Cunningham); Much Ado, i. 1. 77.

blonk, fair, blond; said of hair. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 270. 13. See NED. (s.v. Blank).

blore, a blast of wind. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, ii. 122; ix. 5; xiv. 330. ME. blore (York Plays, xxvi. 188).

blot in the tables, an exposed piece or ‘man’ in the game of backgammon, liable to be taken; hence, a weak point. Middleton, Family of Love, v. 3 (Gerardine); Porter, Two Angry Women, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 276. See Dict. (s.v. Blot (2)).

blother, to gabble nonsense; to babble. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1049; Colyn Cloute, 779. A west Yorks. word, see EDD. (s.v. Blather, vb.¹). Icel. blaðra, to talk indistinctly, to talk nonsense.

blow-boll, one who ‘blows in a bowl’, an habitual tippler. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 23; l. 25.

blowen, a wench, a trull. (Cant.) Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Shamwell). [Cp. blowing, in Byron’s Don Juan, xi. 19.]

blow-point, a game ‘played by blowing an arrow through a trunk at certain numbers by way of lottery’, Strutt (quoted in NED.). Sidney, Arcadia, ii. 224; Brewer, Lingua, iii. 2 (Anamnestes); Marmion, The Antiquary, i. 1 (Leonardo). See Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 531.

blue, the usual colour of the dress of servants, or of beadles. Blue-coat, Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iv. 2 (Launcelot). The blue order, i.e. of servants, B. Jonson, Case is Altered, i. 2 (Onion). Women condemned to Bridewell wore blue gowns, Massinger, City Madam, iv. 2 (Luke); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II. v. 1 (Lodovico).

blue-bottle rogue, a term applied to a beadle, with reference to his blue uniform. 2 Hen. IV, v. 4. 22.

blunket, blonket, grey, greyish blue. ‘Bloncket liveries’, glossed by ‘gray coats’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 5.

blurt, an exclamation of contempt, pish!, pooh!; ‘Blurt, Master Constable’, the title of a play by Middleton, Dekker, Honest Wh., i. 5 (Fluello); to treat contemptuously, Fletcher, Wild-goose Chase, ii. 2 (last speech).

blushet (only used by B. Jonson), a little blusher, a modest girl, Staple of News, ii. 1 (Pennyboy senior); The Penates (Pan).

board, bord, to accost, address. Hamlet, ii. 2. 171; Merry Wives, ii. 1. 92; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 5; boorded, addressed, id. ii. 4. 24. F. aborder, to approach, accost (Cotgr.) A metaph. expression from boarding a ship; see Nares.

board, bord, a shilling. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll); a bord, a shylling; Harman, Caveat, p. 83.

bob, a blow that does not break the skin, a rap; ‘Pinches, nippes and bobbes’, Ascham, Scholemaster (ed. Arber, 47); a taunt, a bitter jibe, As You Like It, ii. 7. 55; Wycherley, Dancing-master, i. 2 (Monsieur); ‘Ruade seiche, a drie bob, jeast or nip’, Cotgrave. ‘Bob’, in the sense of a slight blow, is in prov. use in the Midlands and in E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Bob, sb.² 1).

bob, to fish (for eels) with a bob, or grub for bait. Fletcher, Rule a Wife, ii. 4. 9. In use in the Norfolk Broads, see NED. (s.v. Bob, vb.⁴), and EDD. (s.v. Bob, vb.⁶ 1).

bob, to deceive, cheat. Tr. and Cr. iii. 1. 75; ‘Avoir le moine, to be gleekt, bobbed’, Cotgrave; Fletcher, Span. Curate, v. 2 (Bartolus); Little French Lawyer, ii. 1. 24. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Bob, vb.⁵). OF. bober.

bobance, bobaunce, arrogance, vanity. Morte Arthur, leaf 262. 12; bk. x, c. 63; id. lf. 376. 25; bk. xviii, c. 15. F. bobance, ‘excessive spending; insolency, surquedrie, proud or presumptuous boasting’ (Cotgr.). O. Prov. bobansa, ‘faste, ostentation’ (Levy).

bob-fool: in phr. to play bob-fool, to flout, make sport. Greene, Alphonsus, iv (Amurack).

Bocardo, the name of the prison above the old North Gate of the city of Oxford, where Cranmer was confined, Strype, Archbp. Cranmer, iii. 11. 341; Oxford Records, 414; a prison, Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 126); Middleton, Family of Love, i. 3 (Club). ‘Bocardo’ is a mnemonic word used in Logic.

bodge, an odd measure of corn. B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1 (Host). In Kent the word bodge means an odd measure of corn, left over after the bulk has been measured into quarters and sacks; bodge also means in Kent a flat oblong basket used for carrying produce of garden or field, see EDD. (s.v. Bodge, sb.¹ 1 and 2).

bodkin, a dagger. Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, ii. 3 (Duarte); Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, ii. 2 (Aphobus); cp. Hamlet, iii. 1. 76.

bodrag, a hostile incursion, a raid. ‘Nightly bodrags’, Spenser, Colin Clout, 315. Hence bodraging, misspelt bordraging, the same; F. Q. ii. 10. 63. Irish buaidhreadh, molestation, disturbance; buaidhr-im, I vex, bother, trouble (Dinneen).

bog, proud, saucy, bold. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. vii, ch. 37. st. 109; Rogers, Naaman, 18. Cp. ME. boggisshe, ‘tumidus’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 161).

boistous, busteous, bousteous, rough, rustic, coarse, violent, vigorous. Bousteous tree, vigorous tree; Turbervile, Time Conquereth all Things, st. 7. Boystous, rude, coarse, A. Borde, Introd. of Knowledge, bk. i, c. 14; p. 160. ME. boystows, ‘rudis’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 166). See Dict. (s.v. Boisterous).

boll, a rounded seed-vessel or pod, as that of flax or cotton. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 146. 50. Hence bolled, having ‘bolls’, pods; Bible, Ex. ix. 31 (AV.). ‘Boll’, in the sense of the seed-vessel of flax, is in prov. use in Scotland and Ireland, also in Lincolnshire, see EDD. (s.v. Boll, sb.²).

boll, to quaff the bowl, to booze; ‘They might syt bebbinge and bollynge’, Coverdale, Micah, ii. 11. Hence boller, one who lingers at the bowl, a drunkard, Udall, tr. Apoph., Socrates, § 81.

bollen, swollen. Lucrece, 1417 (in old edd. boln); bolne, Hawes, Past Pleas., p. 135; Surrey, tr. Aeneid ii, 616; bowlne, id. ii. 348. Cp. the E. Anglian bown, swollen (EDD.). ME. bollen, swollen (Cursor M. 12685). Icel. bólgna; Dan. bolne, to swell. See NED. (s.v. Bell, vb.¹).

bolt, an arrow for a cross-bow, with a blunt or square head, also gen. an arrow; ‘The bolt of Cupid’, Mids. Night’s D., ii. 1. 165; ‘A fool’s bolt is soon shot’, Hen. V, iii. 7. 132; Heywood, Eng. Prov. (ed. Farmer, 145); ‘I’ll make a shaft or a bolt on’t’, Merry Wives, iii. 4. 24 (i.e. I’ll take the risk, whatever may come of it).

boltered, clotted, coagulated. ‘Blood-boltered’, having the hair clotted with blood, Macbeth, iv. 1. 123. A Warwickshire word (EDD.).

bolting-hutch, a trough into which meal is sifted. Middleton, Mayor of Queenborough, v. 1 (Simon). A Lincolnshire word, see EDD. (s.v. Bolting, 2 (3)).

bombard, ‘a great gun or piece of ordnance’ (Bullokar). Caxton, Reynard (ed. Arber, 58). F. bombarde, a bumbard, or murthering-piece (Cotgr.).

bombard, a large leathern vessel to carry liquors. Tempest, ii. 2. 21; Hen. VIII, v. 4. 85. Hence bombard-man, one who provides liquor. B. Jonson, Masque of Love Restored (Robin).

bombast, cotton wadding. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 359; Beaumont and Fl., Little French Lawyer, ii. 2. 8. OF. bombace, cotton (Godefroy). See Dict.

bonair(e, gentle, courteous. Holland, Livy, iv. 2. 446; bonerly, in debonnaire fashion, World and Child, l. 2, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 243. F. bonnaire and bonnairement (Cotgr.).

bona roba, a handsome wench, a wanton. 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 26. Ital. buonaroba, ‘as we say, good stuffe, a good wholesome plum-cheeked wench’ (Florio).

bone; ‘Look not upon me as I am a woman, But as a bone, thy wife, thy friend’, Otway, Venice Preserved, ii. 2 (Belvidera). Meaning doubtful.

bones: in phr. to make bones, to make scruples about, find difficulty in; ‘Who make no bones of the Lord’s promises, but devoure them all’, Rogers, Naaman, 579; ‘He made no manier bones . . . but went in hande to offer up his only son Isaac’, Udall, Erasm. Par., Luke i. 28. Formerly also, to find bones in (Paston Letters, 331), referring to the occurrence of bones in soup, &c., as an obstacle to its being easily swallowed, see NED. (s.v. Bone, 8).

bonfacion, of good fashion, fashionable. Three Ladies of London; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 251, 311.

bongrace, a shade worn on the front of a woman’s bonnet as a protection from the sun. Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, iii. 4 (Song). F. ‘bonnegrace, the uppermost flap of the downhanging taile of a French hood; whence belike our Boongrace’ (Cotgr.).

bonnibell, a fair lass. Spenser, Shep. Kal., August, 62; B. Jonson, The Satyr, l. 21. From F. bonne et belle, good and fair girl. See bellibone.

bonny-clabber, sour buttermilk. B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1 (Host); Ford, Perkin Warbeck, iii. 2. 8. ‘Bonny-clabber’ in Ireland means thick milk. Irish bainne [pronounc. bonny], milk, and clabair, anything thick or half-liquid. In use in the United States wherever Irishmen forgather. See Joyce, English in Ireland, 219.

books: phr. to be in a person’s books; ‘I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books’, Much Ado, i. 1. 179 (the probable meaning is, he is not in favour, not in the lady’s ‘book of memory’, 1 Hen. VI, ii. 4. 101).

boon, good; esp. in French phrases. ‘On a boon voyage’, Conflict of Conscience; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 63. ‘Nature boon’, Milton, P. L. iv. 242; cp. ix. 793.

boot-carouse, a carousing out of a bombard or black-jack, which was likened to a boot. Marston, Sat., ii. 154.

boot-hale, to carry off booty. Heywood, Sallust, 33. Hence, boot-haler, a freebooter, highwayman, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (J. Dapper); Holland, Livy, xxii. 41. 458; boot-haling, the carrying away of booty, Florio, Montaigne, ii. 31; Fletcher, The Chances, i. 4 (Frederic); Maid in the Mill, ii. 2 (Antonio).

booty: in phr. to play booty, to play so as to lose, in order to draw the opponent on, and get some ‘booty’ in the end’, Dryden, Pref. to Don Sebastian, § 7; Heywood, A Woman Killed, iii. 2 (Frankford). Also, to bowl booty, to play at bowls so as to lose at first, Webster, White Devil (Camillo), ed. Dyce, p. 7. See Nares.

borachio, a large leather bottle or bag used in Spain (borracha). B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, ii. 1 (Meer); Greene, Looking Glasse (Works, ed. 1861, 133); fig. a drunkard, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, i. 1. 7. Span. borracho, a drunkard.

bord, rim, circumference. ‘He plants a brazen piece of mighty bord’, Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iii. 2 (Host). The reference is to a barber’s basin. F. bord, edge, border.

bordello, a brothel. B. Jonson, Every Man, i. 1 (Knowell). Ital. ‘bordello, a bawdy-house’ (Florio).

bordon, a staff. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 132, back, 24. ME. bordun, a pilgrim’s staff (P. Plowman, A. vi. 8). F. bourdon (Cotgr.). O. Prov. bordon, bâton de pèlerin.

bore, to trick, cheat, overreach. Hen. VIII, i. 1. 128; Life T. Cromwell, ii. 2. 103 (NED.).

boree, bouree, a rustic dance, orig. of Auvergne. Etheridge, Man of Mode, iv. 1 (Sir Fopling); Steele, Tender Husband, i. 2 (Tipkin). F. bourrée (Hatzfeld).

borrel, unlearned, rude, rough, rustic. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 95; Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 28. ME. borel, in Chaucer: coarse woollen clothes, C. T. D. 356; borel men, laymen, C. T. B. 3145.

borrow, borow, a pledge, surety. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 131, 150; ‘Dear Pan bought with dear borrow’, id. Sept., 96. ME. borwe, a surety (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2998). OE. borh (borge) a pledge, surety.

borrow, to give security for, to assure, warrant. Greene, Isabel’s Ode, 33; ed. Dyce, p. 296.

bosky, full of thickets. Peele, Chron. Edw. I (ed. 1874, p. 407); Tempest, iv. 1. 81; Milton, Comus, 312. A Cheshire and Yorkshire word, from bosk, an underwood thicket (EDD.). ME. boske, a bush.

boss, a fat woman, Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Zenocrate); ‘A fat boss, femme bien grasse et grosse, une Coche’, Sherwood. A Lancashire word for a fat lazy woman, see EDD. (s.v. Boss, sb.¹ 6).

bosse, supposed to mean a water-conduit; esp. used of the Bosse of Billingsgate, W. de Worde, Treatyse of a Galaunt (see Title of the Play); B. Jonson, Time Vindicated (Eyes); ‘Bosse Alley, so called of a Bosse of Spring-water continually running, which standeth by Billingsgate against this alley’, Stow, Survey (ed. 1842, p. 79). See NED. (s.v. Boss, sb.²).

botcher, a mender of old clothes; or (disrespectfully) a tailor. All’s Well, iv. 3. 211; Cor. ii. 1. 93; Dekker, Old Fortunatus, i. 1 (Fortune).

bottom of packthread, a ball of string. B. Jonson, Every Man, iv, 4 (Brainworm); Tam. Shrew, iv. 3. 138. Properly the clew or nucleus on which the ball was wound. [‘I wish I could wind up my bottom handsomely’, Sir W. Scott, Diary, March 17, 1826.] See EDD. (s.v. Bottom, 8). ME. botme of threde (Prompt.).

bouche: in phr. bouche in court, an allowance of victual granted by a king or noble to his household; ‘A good allowance of dyet, a bouche in court, as we use to call it’, Puttenham, English Poesie, bk. i, c. 27 (ed. Arber, 70). F. avoir bouche à Court, ‘to eat and drinke scotfree, to have budge-a-Court, to be in ordinarie at Court’ (Cotgr.). See bouge.

bouffage, a satisfying meal. ‘No bouffage, but a light bit’, Sir T. Browne, Letter to a Friend, § 9. F. bouffage, ‘any meat that (eaten greedily) fills the mouth and makes the cheeks to swell; cheek-puffing meat’ (Cotgr.). F. bouffer, to swell.

bouge, to flinch. Julius Caesar, iv. 3. 44; boudge, Beaumont and Fl., Humorous Lieutenant, ii. 4 (Leontius). See Dict. (s.v. Budge (1)).

bouge, to ‘bilge’, to stave in a ship’s side; intr., to suffer fracture, as a ship. ‘My barke was boug’d’, Mirror for Mag., Carassus, st. 44. ‘Least thereupon Our shippe should bowge’, Gascoigne, Voyage into Holland, ed. Hazlitt, i. 390. See NED. See Dict. (s.v. Bilge).

bouge, provisions; ‘A bombard man, that brought bouge for a country lady’, B. Jonson, Love Restored (Robin).

bouget, a budget, wallet. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 29; a water-vessel of skin, Damon and Pithias, in Hazlitt, iv. 72. F. bougette (Cotgr.); dimin. of OF. bouge, a water-skin; cp. ME. bowge, ‘I am maad as a bowge in frost’ (Wyclif, Ps. cxix. 83). See Dict. (s.v. Budget).

bough-pot, a flower-pot, a vase for boughs or cut flowers. Chapman, Mons. d’Olive, iv. (Rhoderique). A Lincolnsh. and Northamptonsh. word (EDD.).

bought, a twist, a knot. Middleton, The Witch, ii. 2. 13; used of the coil of a serpent, Spenser, Virgil’s Gnat, 255. ‘Bought’ is in prov. use in the north country for a curve or bend; the curve of the elbow or knee. See EDD. (s.v. Bought, sb.¹ 1).

bounty, goodness in general, worth, virtue; ‘He is only the true and essential Bounty’, Drummond of Hawthornden, Cypress Grove (Wks. ed. 1711, p. 127); bountie, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 4; ‘A lovely lasse, Whose beauty doth her bounty far surpasse’, F. Q. iii. 9. 4; ‘Large was his bounty and his soul sincere’, Gray, Elegy, 121 (The Epitaph). ME. bountee, goodness (Chaucer. An A.B.C., 9). F. bonté ‘goodness, honesty, sincerity, vertue, uprightness’ (Cotgr.); L. bonitas, goodness (Vulgate).

bourd, bord, a jest. Drayton, Eclogue, vii. 208; bord, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 19; iv. 4. 13. F. bourde, ‘a jeast, fib, tale of a tub’ (Cotgr.).

bout, bowt, a coil; a circuit, orbit. Sir T. Wyatt, Song of Iopas, 45; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 94. See bought.

boute-feu, a fire-brand, incendiary. Bacon, Hen. VII, ed. Lumby, p. 66, l. 13; Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 786. F. boute-feu, ‘a boute-feu, a wilful or voluntary firer of houses; also, a fire-brand of sedition, a kindler of strife and contention’ (Cotgr.).

bout-hammer, a heavy two-handed hammer. Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, v. 4 (Pergamus). For about-hammer, the largest hammer employed by blacksmiths; it is slung round (or about) near the extremity of the handle. An East Anglian word (EDD.).

bouzing-ken, drinking-house, ale-house. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen); Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor). See Harman, Caveat, p. 83.

bovoli, snails, cockles; considered as delicacies. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Mercury). Ital. bovolo (pl. bovoli), ‘a snayle, a cockle, periwinkle’ (Florio).

bowd, a weevil, malt-worm. Tusser, Husbandry, § 19. 39; ‘A boude, vermis frumentarius’, Coles, Dict. (1679). ME. bowde, malte-worme (Prompt.). An East Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Boud).

bow-dye, a scarlet dye; name from Bow, near Stratford, Essex, where the dyers mostly lived, in the 17th cent. Hence, as attrib., ‘My bowdy stockings’, Wycherley, Gent. Dancing-master, iv. 1 (Prue).

bowerly, comely, portly, ‘burly’. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Alexander, § 8. In common use in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall (EDD.). See Notes on Eng. Etym. (s.v. Burly).

bow-hand, the hand that holds the bow, the left hand. In phr. wide o’ th’ bow-hand, wide of the mark (towards the left); L. L. L. iv. 1. 135; much o’ th’ bow-hand, Fletcher, Noble Gentleman, iv. 2 (end); Coxcomb, i. 3. 2.

bowne, a bound, limit. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. v. ch. 23. st. 45. In the same, st. 1 ‘the former bowne’ seems to mean ‘the preceding chapter’. Norm. Fr. bowne (bodne), ‘limite’ (Moisy). Cp. Med. Lat. bonna, bodina (Ducange).

bowne, a boon, a favour in answer to a request. Mirror for Mag., Cobham, st. 45; Adam Bel, 509, in Hazlitt’s Pop. Poetry, ii. 160. Icel. bōn, a prayer.

bowrs, bowers, muscles that bend the joints, strong muscles. Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 12. Lit. bow-er, i.e. that which bows or bends; see NED.

box-keeper, the keeper of the dice and box at a gaming-table; ‘Gettall, a box-keeper’, Massinger, City Madam (Dramatis Personae).

boyn, to swell. ‘Her heeles behind boynd out’, Golding, Metam. viii. 808; fol. 105 (1603). Cp. boine, bunny, Essex words for a swelling caused by a blow (EDD.). OF. buyne (now bigne); see Hatzfeld.

brabble, to wrangle, quarrel, Coles, Dict. (1679); brabble, a quarrel, brawl, Twelfth Nt. v. 1. 69; Titus And. ii. 1. 62; hence, brabbler, a quarreller, King John, v. 2. 162; brabbling, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, i. 1 (Colonel); ‘Noe more brabbling with him’ (your old Glasier), Dorothy Wadham, Letter (1614), in T. G. Jackson’s Wadham College (1893, p. 161). Du. ‘brabbelen, to brawle or to brabble’ (Hexham).

brace, to gird, encompass. ‘Bigge Bulles of Basan brace hem about’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 124. OF. bracier, to embrace, deriv. of brace, the two arms (Ch. Rol., 1343).

bracer, braser, a protection for the arm in archery. Ascham, Toxophilus, pp. 108, 109.

brach, a bitch-hound. Properly a kind of hunting-dog; but it came to be used with reference to a bitch in general. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 48; Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iv. 2 (Belgarde); King Lear, i. 4. 125. OF. brac, hunting-dog (Didot). OHG. bracco (Schade).

brachet, a small hunting-dog. Morte Arthur, leaf 52, back, 22; bk. iii, c. 5. F. ‘brachet, a kind of little hound’ (Cotgr.).

brachygraphy, shorthand, stenography. B. Jonson, Paris Anniversary (Fencer); Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iv. 2 (Sanitonella). Gk. βραχυγραφία.

brack, salt water. Only in Drayton, Pol. xxv. 50; Agincourt, 185 (NED.). Du. brak, briny, brackish.

brack, a breach, fracture, Oxford City Records, 387; ‘Breche, a brack or breach in a wall’, Cotgrave; a flaw, fault, ‘A brack, vitium’, Coles, Dict. (1679); Digby, On the Soul, Dedic. (Johnson); a flaw in cloth, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 33); Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xvii. 249; a rupture, a quarrel, Chapman, Byron’s Conspiracy, v. 1 (Byron).

brag, brisk, lively. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 2. 11; ‘the bragge lambs’, G. Fletcher, Christ’s Victory, i (NED.).

braid, a sudden or brisk movement. Ferrex and Porrex, iv. 2 (Marcella). ME. brayd: ‘She (Dido) walketh, walweth, maketh many a brayd’ (Chaucer, Leg. G. W., 1166); OE. bregdan, to move suddenly to and fro.

braid, a sudden outburst of passion, anger. Warner, Alb. England, bk. vii, ch. 37, st. 105; a sudden assault, Golding, Metam., xiii. 240; an adroit turn, trick, deception, Greene, Radagon in Dianam, 62 (ed. Dyce, 302); (?) deceitful, All’s Well, iv. 2. 73.

braided; braided ware, goods that have changed colour, tarnished, faded. Marston, Scourge Villainie, Sat. v. 73 (cp. Bailey’s Dict., 1721; see NED.).

brail, in hawking, to confine a hawk’s wings by means of a brail, or soft leather girdle; ‘They brail and hud us’ [confine and hood us], Tomkis, Albumazar, ii. 9 (Flavia). OF. brail, braiel, a girdle. Med. L. bracale, deriv. of bracae, breeches (Ducange).

brake, to set one’s face in a brake, to assume an immovable expression of countenance. Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, i. 1 (Bussy).

brame, longing, desire. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 52. Ital. brama, earnest desire; from bramare, to desire. Cp. O. Prov. ‘bramar, braire, désirer ardemment’ (Levy), F. bramer (Hatzfeld).

branched, adorned with a figured pattern in embroidery, &c.; ‘Branched velvet’, Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 54; Ford, Witch of Edmonton, iii. 2 (Frank).

branded, brindled; of mixed colour, streaked. Chapman, tr. of Homer, Iliad, xii. 217. A common prov. word (EDD.).

brandenburg, a morning gown, with long sleeves. Etheredge, Man of Mode, iv. 1 (Sir Fopling); Wycherley, Plain Dealer, ii. 1 (Olivia). From Brandenburg, in Germany, where there were woollen manufactories.

brandle, to shake, endanger, cause to waver. Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 155. F. branler. See brangle.

brandlet, a bird; prob. the brand-tail or redstart. Gascoigne, Prol. to Philomene, 31. See EDD. (s.v. Brand-tail).

brand-wine, brandy. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 1 (Clause). Du. brande-wijn, brandy, lit. burnt (i.e. distilled) wine.

brangle, to shake, cause to waver; hence, to render uncertain, to confuse. Merry Devil, ii. 2. 6. F. branler. Cp. brandle.

brank, buck-wheat; ‘Brank, Buck, or French-wheat, a summer grain delighting in warm land’, Worlidge; Tusser, Husbandry, § 19. 20. An E. Anglian word (EDD.).

bransle, a kind of dance. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 8. F. ‘bransle, a brawl or dance wherein many (men and women) holding by the hands, sometimes in a ring, and other-whiles at length, move all together’ (Cotgr.). Cp. brawl.

brant, steep. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 58; ‘Even brant agenst Flodon hil’, (perhaps) even on the steep side of Flodden hill; id. p. 88. In common prov. use in the north country (EDD.). OE. (Anglian) brant.

brast, to burst. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, ch. 2, § 2; Douglas, Eneados, iv. 81; pt. t., Sir T. More, Richard III (ed. Lumby, p. 74); Bunyan, Pilg. Pr. (ed. 1678, p. 73). In common prov. use in the north (EDD.). ME. breste(n (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 1008). OE. berstan.

brave, finely arrayed; showy, splendid; fine, excellent. Tam. Shrew, Ind., i. 40; Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Sancho); ‘Brave, splendidus’, Levins, Manip.; As You Like It, iii. 4. 43. In gen. prov. use (EDD.).

brawl, a French dance. L. L. L. iii. 9; the figure is fully described in Marston, Malcontent, iii. 1 (Guerrino). See bransle.

brawn-fall’n, having arms from which the muscle has fallen away. Kyd, Cornelia, iii. 1. 77; Lyly, Euphues, ed. Arber, p. 127.

braye, a brae, a steep bank; ‘Agaynste a rocke or an hye braye’, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 159. ‘Bray’ is still in use in Yorksh. and Lincolnsh., see EDD. (s.v. Brae). Icel. brā, eyebrow, see NED.

braye, a military outwork, a mound or bank defended by palisades and watch-towers. Act 4 Hen. VIII. 1. § 1 (NED.). False braye, an advanced parapet surrounding the main rampart, Urquhart, Rabelais, iii. Prol. F. faulses brayes, ‘issues qui doivent être bouchées, dans une place forte, quand l’ennemi approche’, Jannet, Glossaire, Rabelais, iii. Prol. Norm. F. faulses brayes, ‘espèce de muraille, établie en dehors d’une forteresse et servant de retranchement’ (Moisy). Med. L. braca, ‘moles, agger’ (Ducange).

brazil, brasell, a hard wood which yields a red dye. Davenant, The Wits, i. 1. 9; Ascham, Toxophilus (Arber, 133). In popular use in the Yorksh. phrase, ‘As hard as brazzil’, see EDD. (s.v. Brazil, sb.¹). Port. and Span. brasil. The country in S. America is named from this wood (NED.).

break: phr. to break one’s day, to fail to make a payment on the day appointed. Heywood, Eng. Traveller, iii. 1 (Prud.).

break up, to break open; to open a letter. 1 Hen. VI, i. 3. 13; Merch. Ven. ii. 4. 10. Also, to carve, L. L. L. iv. 1. 56.

breast, the source of the voice, the voice in singing. Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 20; Fletcher, Pilgrim, iii. 6 (Fool); G. Herbert, The Temper, p. 47.

breathe: phr. to breathe a vein, to open a vein by lancing it. Dryden, Oliver Cromwell, st. 12; Georgics, iii. 700; Palamon, iii. 755.

breathely, worthless. Tusser, Husbandry, § 33. 36. Cp. ME. brethel(l, a worthless fellow (York Plays, xxvi. 179). See NED.

breck, a breach, gap. Tusser, Husbandry, § 16. 16 (p. 40). A north-country word (EDD.). ME. brekke (Chaucer, Bk. Duch., 940).

breme, fierce, stormy; ‘Breme winter’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 42; ‘Froid, cold, breame, chill’, Cotgrave; Drayton, Heroic. Epist., xvi. 8. ME. breme (Lydgate, Chron. Troy, ii. 16). Still in use in the north country (EDD.). Cp. OE. brēman, to rage: broeman ‘fervere’, in Preface Lind. Matthew (ed. Skeat, p. 5, l. 5).

breme. Of reports, loudly prevalent; ‘In their talke most breeme Was then Achilles victorie’, Golding, Met. xii. 280. OE. brēme, famous, celebrated.

brenne, to burn. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 45; pt. t. brent, id. i. 9. 10; pp. brent, id. ii. 6. 49. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. brennen (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2331). Icel. brenna.

brere, a briar. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec, 2; Sackville, Induction, st. 39. A very common prov. pronunc. (EDD.). OE. (Mercian) brēr, WS. brǣr.

bret, the name of a fish like the turbot; ‘The bret, of all [fishes] the slowest’, Lyly, Alexander, ii. 2 (Hephestion). Also called a birt or burt. See EDD.

bretch, a breach; ‘With careless bretch’, Phaer. and Twyne, tr. of Aeneid, x. 467. F. brèche.

brevit, to hunt about, search, pry, beat about, forage; ‘Breviting by night’, Drayton, The Owl, 179. Prob. from brevet, in the sense of taking by ‘brevet’ or written warrant (NED.). In gen. use in the midland counties (EDD.).

briars: phr. in the briars, in troubles, among thorns; ‘I ought not so to leave Eccho in the bryers’, Gascoigne, Glasse of Governement, v. 1.

bribe, a thing stolen, Barclay, Shyp of Folys, ii. 85. OF. bribe, a piece of bread, F. ‘bribe, a peece of bread given unto a beggar’ (Cotgr.).

bribe, to take dishonestly, to purloin, to steal or rob; ‘They do deceive the needy, bribe and pill from them’, Cranmer, Instr. of Prayer; ‘I bribe, I pyll’, Palsgrave. ME. brybyn (briben) ‘latrocinor’ (Prompt.).

bribour, a thief or robber, Berners, tr. of Froissart, ii. 10. 21. ME. brybowre (Prompt.).

brickle, fragile, easily broken; ‘Brickle vessels’, Bible (AV.), Wisdom, xv. 13; ‘brickle, fragilis’, Levins, Manip.; Spenser, Ruins of Time, 499; Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 100. 8. OE. brycel, see NED. (s.vv. Britchel, Brickle). See brokle, bruckle.

bride-house, the house where a wedding is held. ‘A public hall for celebrating marriages’, Nares. Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 1. 22.

bride-lace, a piece of gold, silk, or other lace, used to bind up the sprigs of rosemary formerly used at weddings. Shirley, Gamester, iii. 3 (Hazard).

bridling-cast, a glass taken when the horse is bridled; a stirrup-glass, stirrup-cup. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 2 (Yo. Loveless).

brigand-harness, a brigandine, a piece of armour worn by a ‘brigand’ or foot-soldier. World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 251. See brigandine.

brigandine, a small vessel equipped both for sailing and rowing. Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Tamb.); also brigantine, Baret, Alvearie. F. brigandin (brigantin).

briggen-yrons, brigand-irons, armour for the arms. Thersites, ed. Pollard, l. 169. See brigand-harness.

brim, fierce, esp. an epithet of the boar; ‘Never bore so brymme’, Udall, Roister Doister, iv. 6. 5; ME. brym (brim) fierce (Prompt.). See breme (1).

brim, (of reports, rumours) loudly current, much spoken of. Throgmorton (NED., s.v. Breme 4); brimme, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. iv. ch. 20, st. 35. See breme (2).

brimse, a gadfly. Gosson, School of Abuse (Arber, 64); brimsees, pl., Topsell, Serpents, 769. A Kentish word, ‘You have a brims in your tail’, see EDD. (s.v. Brims). G. bremse; Icel. brims (Fritzner). Norw. dialect brims (Aasen); Swed. brems.

brinch, to pledge in drinking. Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 1 (Halfpenie); also written brince, to offer drink: ‘Luther first brinced to Germany the poisoned cup’, Harding, in Jewel’s Works, IV, 335 (NED.). Cp. the German expression, Ich bring’s (euch), i.e. I drink to you, lit. I bring it (to you). Cp. Ital. brindisi (Florio).

brinded, brindled, streaked; ‘The brinded cat’, Macbeth, iv. 1. 1. In prov. use (EDD.).

bring: phr. to be with one to bring: a phrase of various application, but usually implying getting the upper hand in some way. Tr. and Cr. i. 2. 304; Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 4 (Lady and Welford); Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, 503); Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, i. 2 (Y. Chartley); Kyd, Spanish Tragedy, iii. 12. 22.

brist: phr. full brist, full burst, with sudden violence. Golding, Metam. xi. 510; fol. 138 (1603). A northern form of OE. berstan, to burst (EDD.).

brize, a breeze, a gadfly. Spenser, Visions of the World’s Vanity, ii. 10; spelt bryze, F. Q. vi. 1. 24. The gadfly is called briz in Cheshire, Shropsh., and Gloucestersh., see EDD. (s.v. Breeze, sb.¹). OE. briosa (breosa).

brocage, procuracy in immorality. Spenser, Introd. to Shep. Kal. (beginning); Mother Hubbard’s Tale, 851. Also, bribery, mean practice, Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 7. ME. brocage (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3375). Anglo-F. brocage, the action of an intermediary.

broche, the ‘first head’ of a hart. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 21; p. 52. OF. broche. Med. L. broca, ‘cornu’ (Ducange).

broche, broach, a spit. Morte Arthur, leaf 84. 34; bk. v, c. 5; ‘hazel broach’, spit made of hazel-wood, Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Georg. ii. 545; to pierce with a spit, to pierce, Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid i. 92. F. broche, a spit; brocher, to broach, to spit (Cotgr.).

brock, a badger. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Tuck); ‘Brocke or badger’, Huloet; applied as a term of contempt to a dirty stinking fellow, Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 114. ME. broke, ‘taxus’ (Prompt.). OE. broc, cp. O. Irish brocc. In prov. use in various parts of England and Scotland for the animal, and in Scotland in its transferred sense (EDD.).

broken beer, remnants or leavings of beer in pots and glasses. Founded on the phrases broken meat, bread, or victuals, meaning fragments of meat, &c. Cartwright, The Ordinary, i. 4 (Slicer). So also broken bread, The London Chanticleers, sc. 1 (Heath).

broken music, concerted music, music arranged for parts. As You Like It, i. 2. 150; Hen. V, v. 2. 263; Tr. and Cr. iii. 1. 52.

bronstrops, a prostitute. ‘A bronstrops is in English a hippocrene’, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 1 (Col.’s Friend); id. iv. 4 (Chough); Webster, Cure for Cuckold, iv. 1.

brothel, an abandoned wretch; ‘Go hence, thou brothel’, Calisto and Melibaea, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 82; ‘bitched brothel’, World and Child, in the same, i. 254. ME. brothell, a worthless fellow (Gower, C. A. vii. 2595).

brouse, brouze, young shoots of trees, eaten by cattle. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 132. 3; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 45.

brown bill, a weapon, a kind of halbert. 2 Hen. VI, iv. 10. 13; King Lear, iv. 6. 92.

bruckel’d, begrimed, dirty. Herrick, The Temple, 58. In use in the north country and in East Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Bruckle, vb.²).

bruckle, brittle, fragile. Puttenham, E. Poesie, p. 219. In prov. use in various parts of England, and in Scotland and Ireland (EDD.). OE. brucol. See brokle, brickle.

bruit, a rumour, report. 3 Hen. VI, iv. 7. 64; Timon, v. 1. 198; to noise abroad, 2 Hen. IV, i. 1. 114; 1 Hen. VI, iii. 3. 68. F. bruit, noise, rumour.

†brusle (meaning doubtful), to crack (?). Fletcher, A Wife for a Month ii. 6 (Camillo). Perhaps the same word as brustle.

brustle, to parch, scorch, to crackle in cooking or burning, as in Gower, C. A. iv. 2732. ‘He . . . brustleth as a monkes froise (pancake)’. Hence, to make a noise like the waves of the sea, spelt brussel, Fletcher, Span. Curate, iv. 7 (Lopez). In prov. use in the north, also in Kent and Sussex, in the sense of scorching, crackling; see EDD. (s.v. Brustle, vb.²).

brustle, brusle, to raise the feathers, like a bird. Herrick, Hesp. (ed. 1859, p. 122).

brutel, brittle. Spelt brutyll, Morte Arthur, leaf 65, end; bk. iv, c. 8 (end). ME. brutel, brotel (Chaucer).

bubble, to delude with bubbles, or unsubstantial schemes; to cheat. Etheredge, Love in a Tub, ii. 3 (Wheedle).

bubble, one who can be easily ‘bubbled’; a dupe. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, iv. 1 (Belfond Senior).

buck, to steep or boil (clothes) in lye; ‘Bucke these shyrtes’, Palsgrave; Puritan Widow, i. 1. 150; the quantity of clothes washed at once, 2 Hen. VI, iv. 2. 52; buck-basket, basket for dirty linen, Merry Wives, iii. 3. 2. Phr. to beat a buck, to beat clothes when being washed, Massinger, Virgin Martyr, iv. 2 (Spungius); to drive a buck, to wash clothes, B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii (end). See EDD. (s.v. Buck, sb.²). ME. bouken, to steep in lye (P. Plowman). OE. type *būcian, cp. G. bäuchen, to steep in lye; also Ital. bucata, F. buée, lye, a wash of clothes.

buckall, the point of a horn; ‘You all know the device of the horn, where the young fellow slips in at the butt-end, and comes squeezed out at the buckall’, Eastward Ho, i. 1 (Touchstone). Here buckall = buckle, meaning the twisted or curled end of the horn, i.e. the smaller end. Cp. prov. E. buckle-horn, a crooked or bent horn; buckle-mouthed, having a twisted mouth (EDD.).

bucke, the body of a chariot; ‘The axletree was massie gold, the bucke was massie golde’, Golding, Metam., ii. 107; fol. 16 (1603). In E. Anglia ‘buck’ is still in use for the body of a cart or wagon; esp. the front part, see EDD. (s.v. Buck, sb.⁶ 3); also pronounced bouk (Bouk, sb.¹ 5). See NED. (s.v. Bulk, sb.¹ 3. c).

buckle, to prepare oneself, esp. by buckling on armour; ‘To teach dangers to come on by over-early buckling towards them’, Bacon, Essay 21. Buckle with, to cope with, join in close fight with, 1 Hen. VI, i. 2. 95; Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iv. 3. 19. Also buckle, to bow, give way, 2 Hen. IV, i. 1. 141; buckled, doubled up, Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1. 4.

bud, said of children; or used as a term of endearment. King John, iii. 4. 82; ‘O my dear, dear bud’, Wycherley, Country Wife, ii. 1 (Mrs. Pinchwife). A transferred sense of bud (of a flower).

†bud; ‘ ’Tis strange these varlets . . . should thus boldly Bud in your sight, unto your son’, Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas, iv. 2 (Thomas). Meaning unknown.

budge, lamb’s fur. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. vii. 65. Budge-bachelor, a bachelor or younger member of a company, who wore a gown trimmed with budge on Lord Mayor’s day (NED.). Hence, budge doctor, a consequential person, Milton, Comus, 707.

buff ne baff, never a word; ‘Saied to hym . . . neither buff ne baff’ Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 25. Caxton, Reynard (Arber, 106). Buff nor baff is a phr. in use in Leicestersh., see EDD. (s.v. Buff, sb.⁵ 6).

buffe, to bark gently; ‘Buffe and barke’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 140. A Yorksh. word, see EDD. (s.v. Buff, vb.³ 1).

buffin, a coarse cloth in use for gowns of the middle classes. Massinger, City Madam, iv. 4 (Milliscent); Eastward Ho, i. 1 (Gertrude). See NED.

bufo, a term in alchemy. B. Jonson, Alchem., ii. 1 (Subtle). ‘The black tincture of the alchemists’ (Gifford). Only occurs in this passage. L. bufo, lit. a toad.

bug, an object of terror, bogey, hobgoblin. Tam. Shrew, i. 2. 214; Hamlet, v. 2. 22; Peele, Battle of Alcazar, i. 2 (Moor); ‘Thou shalt not nede to be afrayed for eny bugges by night’, Coverdale, Ps. xc (xci), 5. ME. bugge, ‘ducius’ (Prompt.).

bug words, pompous, conceited words, Massinger, New Way to Pay, iii. 2 (Marrall); Ford, Perkin Warbeck, iii. 2 (Huntley). See EDD. (s.v. Bug, adj. 1).

bulch, to stave in the bottom of a ship. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid i. 132. Cp. bulge, the ‘bilge’, bottom of a ship’s hull (NED. s.v. Bulge, sb. 4).

bulch, a bull-calf; used as a term of endearment by a witch. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, v. 1 (Sawyer). Still in prov. use in Scotland: ‘Sic a bonnie bulch o’ a bairn’, a Banffshire expression (EDD.).

bulchin, a bull-calf. Tusser, Husbandry, 33; Drayton, Pol. xxi. 65; used as a term of endearment, Shirley, Gamester, iv. 1 (Young B.); a term of contempt, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 4 (Capt. Albo). A Shropsh. word for a calf; fig. a stout child (EDD.). See bulkin.

bulcking, a term of endearment. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, i. 671. See NED. (s.v. Bulkin).

bulk, the belly, Lucrece, 467; the trunk, the body; spelt boulke. Elyot, Castle Health (NED.); Richard III, i. 4. 40.

bulk, a framework projecting from the front of a shop. Coriolanus, ii. 1. 226; Othello, v. 1. 1.

bulker, a petty thief; also, a street-walker, prostitute. (Cant.) Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, i. 1 (2 Bully). One who sleeps on a ‘bulk’, one who steals from a ‘bulk’; see bulk (above).

bulkin, a bull-calf; ‘A young white bulkin’, Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xxviii, c. 12. An E. Anglian word (EDD.). See bulchin.

bull, a jest; ‘To print his jests. Hazard. His bulls, you mean’, Shirley, Gamester, iii. 3.

bull-beggar, an object of terror, a hobgoblin. Middleton, A Trick to Catch, i. 4 (near the end); A Woman never vext, ii. 1 (Host); Bull-begger, ‘larva, Terriculamentum,’ Skinner (1671). Perhaps a corruption of bull-boggart. See NED.

bulled, swollen. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (George). Still in use in Northamptonsh. and Shropsh. (EDD.). ME. bolled, swollen (NED.).

bullions. The full form is bullion-hose (NED.), a term applied to trunk-hose, puffed out at the upper part, in several folds. ‘His bastard bullions’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iv. 4 (Higgen) [bastard is the name of a kind of cloth]; a pair of bullions, The Chances, v. 2 (John); in the bullion, i.e. wearing bullions, Massinger, Fatal Dowry, ii. 2 (Pontalier).

bully-rook, a familiar term of endearment, fine fellow. Merry Wives, i. 3. 2; ii. 1. 200; Shirley, Gent. of Venice, iii. 1 (Thomazo). See EDD. (s.v. Bully, sb.¹).

bum, to strike, beat, thump. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, iv. 2 (Spungius); Greene, James IV, iii. 2 (Andrew). See EDD. (s.v. Bum, vb.³ 1).

bum out, to project; ‘What have you bumming out there?’ Rowley, A Match at Midnight, i. 1 (Tim).

bum vay, a familiar contraction of by my fay, by my faith. Contention between Liberality and Prodigality, iv. 3, near the end; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 364; by my vay, Wily Beguiled, Hazlitt, ix. 328. See EDD. (s.v. Fay, sb.¹ 1). ME. by my fey (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1126).

bumb-blade. (Cant.) Given in NED. as bum-blade, a large sword, Massinger, City Madam, i. 2 (Page).

bump, to make a noise like a bittern, to boom. Dryden, Wife of Bath, 194. Bumping, the boom of the bittern, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. iii. c. 27 (4). See EDD. (s.v. Bump, vb.²).

bunch, a company of teal; a technical word in falconry. Drayton, xxv. 63. In E. Anglia they speak of a ‘bunch’ of wild-fowl, see EDD. (s.v. Bunch, sb.¹ ii. 2).

bung, a purse. (Cant.) Dekker, Roaring Girl (Wks., ed. 1873, iii. 217); a pick-pocket, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 138.

bunting, fat, plump. In Peele, Arraignment of Paris, i. 1. 10. NED. explains it as ‘plump’; but suggests that it may perhaps mean ‘butting’, from the verb bunt, to butt. I was at first inclined to take the same view; but the context decides altogether in favour of the adjective. In l. 7, Faunus brings with him ‘The fattest, fairest fawn in all the chace: I wonder how the knave could skip so fast.’; i.e. because he was so fat. And Pan replies that he has brought with him an equally fat lamb, viz. ‘A bunting lamb; nay, pray you, feel no bones [i.e. you can’t feel his bones]. Believe me now, my cunning much I miss If ever Pan felt fatter lamb than this’. See EDD. (s.v. Bunting, adj.¹).

burble, to bubble. Spelt burbyl, Morte Arthur, leaf 382, back, 8; bk. xviii. c. 21; pres. pt. burbelynge, id. lf. 208. 17; bk. x. c. 2; ‘I boyle up or burbyll up as a water dothe in a spring’, Je bouillonne, Palsgrave. See EDD.

burbolt, a bird-bolt, a kind of blunt-headed arrow used for shooting birds. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 2 (Custance); Marston, What you Will, Induction (Philomuse).

burdseat, a board-seat, i.e. a stool. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid, iii. 408.

burle, to pick out from cloth knots, loose threads, &c.; ‘Desquamare vestes, to burle clothe’, Cooper, Dict. (1565). Hence Burling-iron, a pair of tweezers used in ‘burling’, Herrick, To the Painter, 10. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Burl, vb. 1). ME. burle clothe, ‘extuberare’ (Cath. Angl.).

Burmoothes, the Bermudas. Beaumont and Fl., Women Pleased, i. 2 (end). See Bermoothes.

burnish, to grow stout or plump, to fill out; said of the human frame. Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xi, ch. 37; vol. i, p. 345 b (1634); Congreve, Way of the World, iii. 3 (Mrs. Marwood); ‘Femme qui encharge, that grows big on’t, who burnishes, or whose belly increases’, Cotgrave; Dryden, Hind and Panther, i. 390. In prov. use, see EDD.

burnt, branded as a criminal. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II. v. 2 (Cat. Bountinall).

burnt sack, a particular kind of wine heated at the fire, Merry Wives, ii. 1. 222; burnt wine, Heywood, Eng. Traveller, i. 2 (Scapha); burnt claret, The Tatler, no. 36, § 5 (1709).

burre, the lowest of the tines on a stag’s horn. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 21, p. 53. Still in use in Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Burr, sb.¹ 7), where the word is defined, ‘the ball or knob of a stag’s horn at its juncture with the skull’. See antlier.

burre, an iron ring on a tilting spear, just behind the place for the hand. ‘Burre or yron of a launce, &c.’, Florio, tr. of Montaigne, ii. 37; in form burgh, Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1 (Moll). ME. burwhe, sercle, ‘orbiculus’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 268). See EDD. (s.v. Burr, sb.⁶), and NED. (s.v. Burr, sb.¹).

burrough, borrow, a pledge, a surety. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii. 1 (Pan); v. 2 (Turfe). ME. borwe, a pledge (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1622). OE. borh (dat. borge).

Burse, an Exchange; esp. the Royal Exchange built by Sir Thomas Gresham in 1566; it contained shops. Massinger, City Madam, iii. 1. 13; Middleton, The Roaring Girl, iv. 1 (Moll’s Song). F. bourse.

bursmen, (perhaps) shopmen; ‘Welcome, still my merchants of bona speranza [i.e. gamblers]; . . what ware deal you in? . . Say, my brave bursmen’, A Woman never vext, ii. 1 (beginning). I think the reference is to keepers of shops in the Burse; see above.

bursten, ruptured. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 3 (Savil). In common prov. use (with various pronunciations), see EDD. (s.v. Burst, vb. 2).

bushment, an ambush. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 70. ME. buschment (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 269).

busine, a trumpet. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 199. 20; busyne, id., lf. 187, back, 26. Anglo-F. buisine (Ch. Rol., 3523), L. buccina.

buske, a bush. Ralph, Roister Doister, i. 4 (M. Merygreek). ME. buske, or busshe, ‘rubus’ (Prompt.).

buskets, a spray, as of hawthorn. May buskets, sprays of ‘May’ or hawthorn, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 10. See Dict. (s.v. Bouquet).

buskined, wearing the buskins of tragedy; hence tragic, dignified. ‘The buskin’d scene’, Massinger, Roman Actor, i. 1. 6; ‘buskin’d strain’, Drayton, Pol. ii. 333.

busking, an attiring; esp. the dressing of the head. Ascham, Scholemaster, bk. i. (ed. Arber, p. 54). ME. busken, to get oneself ready (Cursor M., 11585). See Dict.

buskle, to prepare oneself; hence, to set out, start on a journey, set to work, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid iii. 359 (ed. Arber, 81); to hurry about, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. i, c. 6, st. 51. Freq. of busk, vb.; see above.

busk-point, the lace, with its tag (or point), which secured the end of the ‘busk’, or strip of wood in the front of the stays. Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, v. 2 (Hodge); Marston, Malcontent, iv. 1 (Maquerelle); How a Man may Choose, i. 3 (Fuller).

bustain, (prob.) clothed in bustian or busteyn, a cotton fabric of foreign manufacture; used as a term of derision; ‘Penthesilea with her bustain troopes’ (i.e. her Amazons). Heywood, Iron Age, pt. ii; vol. iii, p. 368. OF. bustanne, ‘sorte d’étoffe fabriquée à Valenciennes’ (Godefrey).

but, except, 2 Hen. VI, ii. 2. 82; Massinger, Renegado, i. 2; unless, Bible, Amos iii. 17; but if, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 16; iv. 8. 33. In prov. use in Cheshire (EDD.). ME. Wyclif, John xii. 24: ‘But a corn of whete falle in to the erthe, and be deed, it dwellith alone.’

but-bolt, butt-bolt, an unbarbed arrow used in shooting at the butts. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1 (Cuddy). See butt-shaft.

butter-box, a contemptuous term for a (fat) Dutchman. Massinger, Renegado, ii. 5. 8; Ford, Lady’s Trial, iv. 2 (Fulgoso).

butter-print, a humorous expression for a child, as bearing the stamp of the parents’ likeness. Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, v. 4. 10; The Chances, i. 5 (Don John); Span. Curate, ii. 1 (Diego).

buttery-bar, the horizontal ledge on the top of the buttery-hatch, or half-door, to rest tankards on, Twelfth Nt., i. 3. 75. Buttery-hatch, Heywood, Eng. Traveller, i. 2 (Robin). A ‘buttery-hatch’ is still to be seen opposite the entrance to the dining-hall in every college in Oxford. See NED.

button, a bud. Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 1. 6. ME. botoun (Rom. Rose, 1721). OF. bouton, a bud (Rom. Rose); see Bartsch, 412.

buttons, to make, to be in great fear. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iv. 3 (Sancho). See EDD. (s.v. Button, sb.¹ 8 and 12).

butt-shaft, an arrow (without a barb), for shooting at the butts. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 3 (2 Masque: Cupid); L. L. L. i. 2. 181.

buxom, yielding, obedient; blithe, lively. Spenser, Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 626; Henry V, iii. 6. 28; Milton, L’Allegro, 24. See Dict.

buzzes, for burrs-es, double pl. of burr; burrs; used of the rough seed-vessels of some plants. Field, Woman a Weathercock, ii. 1 (Scudmore).

by and by, immediately. Bible, Matt. xiii. 21; Luke xxi. 9; Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 2. See Wright’s Bible Word-Book.

by-blow, a bastard. Ussher, Annals, 499 (NED.); Cox, Registers, Lambeth, A.D. 1688, p. 75. In common prov. use in the north of England and the Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. By(e, 8 (4)).

bye, a secondary object; bye and main, a term orig. used in dicing, expressing different ways of winning. To bar bye and main, to prevent entirely, stop altogether, Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, iii. 1 (Rosalura).

bye, to pay the penalty for, atone for. Ferrex and Porrex, iv. 1. 30. Cp. ME. abyen, to buy off (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4393). See aby.

bynempt, declared solemnly, promised with an oath. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 60; Shep. Kal., July, 214. See benempt.

by’r lakin, by our Lady-kin or little Lady (with reference to the Virgin Mary). Temp. iii. 3. 1; Mids. Night’s D. iii. 1. 14. So also Byrlady, Middleton, A Trick to Catch, iv. 2 (1 Gent.). In prov. use from Yorksh. to Derbysh., see EDD. (s.v. Byrlakins).

byse, greyish; light blue, or azure. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 1158. See Dict. (s.v. Bice).

bysse, fine linen; also, a vague name for any fine or costly material. Middleton, Father Hubberd’s Tales, ed. Dyce, v. 558; Peele, Honour of the Garter, l. 88. OF. bysse, L. byssus, Gk. βύσσos, ‘fine linen’ (Luke xvi. 19); Heb. būts, applied to the finest and most precious stuffs as worn by persons of high rank or honour (1 Chron. iv. 21).

cabage, to cut off the head of a deer close behind his horns. Turbervile, Hunting, xliii. 134; ‘I wyll cabage my dere, je cabacheray ma beste’, Palsgrave. ME. caboche (Book on Hunting; NED.). F. (Picard) caboche, the head, see H. Estienne, Précellence, 175. 397.

cabbish, a cabbage. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 3 (Sir O. Twi.). A Yorksh. pronunc. (EDD.).

cabinet, a cabin, hut, lodging. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 83; ‘(the lark’s) moist cabinet’, Venus and Adonis, 854.

cacafugo, a spitfire, a braggart, blustering fellow. Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, iii. 1. 8. Span. cacafuego.

cacokenny, a purposely perverted form of cacochymy, an unhealthy state of the humours or fluids of the body. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, iii. 2 (Sweetball). Gk. κακοχυμία.

caddess, the jackdaw. Chapman, tr. Iliad, xvi. 541; ‘A cadesse or a dawe, Monedula’, Baret, Alvearie. An old Yorksh. word (EDD.).

caddow, the jackdaw. Huloet, Dict. (1552); spelt cadowe, Golding, Metam., vii. 468; Tusser, Husbandry, § 46. 28. ME. cadow(e, ‘monedula’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 313).

cade, a young animal brought up by hand; usually, a pet-lamb; rarely, a foal. ‘The Cade which cheweth the Cudde’ (here, apparently, a calf), Gascoigne, Glasse of Governement, iii. 4 (Ambidexter). In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Cade, sb.³ 1). ME. a cade, ‘ovis domestica’ (Cath. Angl.).

cade, oil of, oil from the prickly cedar. Oyle of Cade, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 66; p. 187. F. cade, the prickly cedar (Cotgr).

caitif, a captive. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 794; caitifes, unhappy men, Surrey, tr. of Aeneid ii. 253. Also, mean, niggardly, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Medici, pt. 2, § 3. Norm. F. ‘caitif, malheureux, misérable, captif’ (Moisy); cp. Prov. caitiu, ‘captif, chétif, misérable, mauvais, méchant’ (Levy). Celto-L. type *cactivum, L. captivum.

calambac, an Eastern name of aloes-wood or eagle-wood. A Knack to know a Knave, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 571. Malay kalambak. See NED.

caldesed, chaldesed, cheated. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 1010; Elephant in the Moon, 494. Coined from Chaldees, pl. of Chaldee, a Chaldean, an astrologer.

Calipolis, the wife of the Moor in Peele’s play, Battle of Alcazar, ii. 3: ‘Feed, then, and faint not, fair Calipolis.’ Hence Pistol has: ‘Feed, and be fat, my fair Calipolis’, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 193; and Heywood has: ‘To feed, and be fat, my fine Cullapolis’, Royal King (Captain), vol. vi, p. 30. Those who consult Peele’s play will find the quotation to be extremely humorous. Pistol’s words occur again in Marston, What you Will, v. 1. 1.

calke, to calculate. Mirror for Mag., Cobham, st. 15; kalked, pp.; id. Clarence, st. 26. Short for calcule, F. calculer, L. calculare.

calker, calcar, a calculator, an astrologer; ‘Calkers of mens byrthes’, Coverdale, Isaiah ii. 6; calcars, Sir T. Wyatt, Song of Jopas, 60; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 95.

calkins, the turned-up ends of the horse-shoe which raise the heels from the ground. Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 4. 68; ‘Rampone, a calkin in a horses shoon to keepe him from sliding’, Florio. This word, with various pronunciations, is in prov. use in many parts of England from Lancash. to Shropsh. and Lincolnsh., see EDD. (s.v. Calkin). OF. calcain, heel (Godefrey). L. calcaneum, heel (Vulg., John xiii. 18).

callet, a lewd woman, a tramp’s concubine. Othello, iv. 2. 122. B. Jonson, Volpono, iv. 1 (Lady P.); ‘Paillarde, a strumpet, callet’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in Scotland, Yorksh., and Lancash., see EDD. (s.v. Callet, sb.¹ 1). A Gipsy word, see Englische Studien, XXII (ann. 1895).

callot, calotte, a coif worn on the wig of a serjeant-at-law, a skull-cap. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Bias); Etheredge, She Would if she Could, iii. 3 (Sir Joslin). F. calotte, dimin. of cale, a caul.

†callymoocher, a term of abuse. Only occurs in Middleton, Mayor of Queenborough, iii. 3 (Oliver).

calophantic, making a show of excellence; hypocritical. ‘Calophantic Puritaines’, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ix, ch. 53, st. 21. Gk. καλό-ς, fair + -φαντης, one who shows, from φαίνειν, to show.

calvered salmon, fresh salmon prepared in a particular way; sometimes, apparently, pickled salmon. Massinger, Maid of Honour, iii. 1 (Gasparo). ME. calvar, ‘as samone or oder fysch’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 320).

cambrel, a crooked stick with notches on it, on which butchers hang their meat. Also cambren, see Phillips (1706). Wel. cambren; cam crooked, and pren wood, stick. In prov. use in Scotland, and in England, from the Border as far south as Warwick, see EDD. (s.v. Cambrel, sb.¹). See gambrel.

cambrel, the hock of an animal; spelt camborell. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 107. 3; ‘His crooked cambrils’, Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal, x. 20; ‘Chapelet du jarret, the cambrel hogh of a horse’, Cotgrave. See EDD.

camisado, a night attack by soldiers; orig. one in which the attacking soldiers wore shirts over their armour, that they might recognize one another. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 2. 297; Gascoigne, Jocasta, Act ii, sc. 2, l. 56. Span. camiçada, ‘a camisado, assault’ (Minsheu). Camiça, camisa, ‘a shirt’, id. Late L. camisia, a shirt (Jerome). See NED. (s.v. Chemise).

cammock, camocke, a crooked tree; esp. one that is artificially bent. Lyly, Euphues, pp. 46, 408; Peele, Works, ed. Dyce, p. 579, col. 2. ME. cambok, ‘pedum’ (Voc. 666. 27); Med. L. cambuca, ‘baculus incurvatus’ (Ducange).

camois(e. Of the nose: low and concave; ‘a Camoise nose, crooked upwarde as the Morians’, Baret, Alvearie; ‘Camously croked’, Skelton, El. Rummyng, 28; camused, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 1 (Lorel). F. camus, having a short and flat nose (Cotgr.).

camomile; said to grow the more, when the more trodden upon. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 441; Shirley, Hyde Park, iii. 2 (Mis. Carol).

camouccio, a term of reproach. B. Jonson. Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 3 (Sogliardo); spelt camooch, Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable (Lazarillo). Perhaps Ital. camoscio, the chamois.

can, a wooden measure for liquor. Phr. burning of cans, branding measures, to show that they were of legal capacity; B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, i. 1 (Amorphus).

Can, a lord, prince; ‘A great Emperor in Tartary whom they call Can’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. ii, c. 11; p. 106. See Dict. (s.v. Khan).

can, pres. indic., know; ‘Unlearned men that can no letters’, Foxe, Martyrs (ed. 1684, ii. 325); ‘Can you a remedy for the tysyke?’ Skelton, Magnyf. 561; B. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, i. 1 (Compass). ME. ‘I can a noble tale’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3126). See NED. (s.v. Can, vb.¹ 1).

can, used as an auxiliary of the past tense; ‘Tho can she weepe’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 50; ‘He can her fairely greet’, id. i. 4. 46. ME. very common in Cursor M.; e.g. ‘Moses fourti dais can (v.r. gan) þer-on duell’, 6462. See NED. (s.v. Can, vb.² 2).

canaglia, canaille, rabble. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1 (Vol.). Ital. canaglia, ‘base and rascally-people, only fit for dogs company’ (Florio).

canary, a quick and lively dance. All’s Well, ii. 1. 77; pl. canaries, Middleton, Women beware, iii. 2 (Ward); to dance, L. L. L. iii. 12.

canceleer, cancelier, a hawking term. A hawk canceleers when, in stooping, she turns two or three times upon the wing, to recover herself before she seizes the prey. Massinger, Guardian, i. 1 (Durazzo); a turn or two in the air, Drayton, Pol. xx. 229. OF. (Picard) canceler (F. chanceler), to swerve, waver.

candle: phr. to hold a candle to the devil, to assist an evil person, to persevere in evil courses. Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 316 (Orgalio, p. 93, col. 1). Cp. the Gloucestersh. saying, ‘To offer a candle to the devil’, see EDD. (s.v. Candle, 2 (5)).

candles’ ends, bits of lighted candle swallowed as flapdragons; see flapdragon. Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, ii. 2. 24; 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 267.

candle-waster, one who sits up late, and so wastes candles; a student, or a rake. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iii. 2 (Hedon); Much Ado, v. 1. A Somerset expression, see EDD. (s.v. Candle, 1 (22)).

cane, a ‘khan’, an Eastern inn. G. Sandys, Trav. p. 57. See Stanford (s.v. Khan). Arab, khān, a building (unfurnished) for the accommodation of travellers (Dozy, Glossaire, 83). See hane.

canicular, due to the dog-star. Canicular aspect, influence of the dog-star, excessive heat, Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 3 (2083); p. 144, col. 1. ‘Of the canicular or dog-days’, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors; bk. iv, ch. 13. L. canicula, dog-star (Horace).

canion, an ornamental roll laid in a set like sausages round the ends of the legs of breeches; ‘French hose . . . with Canions annexed reaching down beneath their knees’, Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses (see Furnivall, 56). ‘Chausses à queue de merlus, round breeches with strait cannions’, Cotgrave. Span. cañon, a tube, pipe, gun-barrel.

canker, a caterpillar, a canker-worm. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 2. 3; Milton, Lycidas, 45. An E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Canker, sb.² 6). ME. cankyr, ‘teredo’ (Prompt.).

canker, the dog-rose. 1 Hen. IV, i. 3. 176. Cp. the prov. words canker-ball, the mossy excrescence on a wild rose-bush, canker-bell, the bud of a wild rose, canker-berry, the ‘hip’ of a wild rose, canker-rose, ‘Rosa canina’, the wild rose (EDD).).

cankered, ill-tempered. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 3; King John, ii. 1. 194. In prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England (EDD.).

cannel: Cannel bone; ‘The neck-bone or windpipe’, Phillips, Dict.; Golding, tr. Metam. 284; the collar-bone, Holland, Plutarch’s Mor. 409; spelt canell: canell of the necke (?), the nape of the neck, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 348. 10. Cp. cannell-bone (Lancash.), and channel-bone (Somerset) in prov. use for the collar-bone (EDD.). OF. (Picard) canel, a channel; F. canneau du col, ‘the nape of the neck’ (Cotgr.).

canon-bitt, a smooth round bit for horses. Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 37; ‘Canon, a canon-bitt for a horse’, Cotgrave. O. Prov. canon, a tube (Levy).

cant, a corner, a niche; ‘Irene or Peace, she was placed aloft in a cant’, B. Jonson, James I’s Entertainment (1603); Warner, Monuments of Honour (ed. Dyce, 369) See EDD. (s.v. Cant, sb.³ 1). Norm. F. cant, ‘angle’ (Moisy).

cant, a piece, portion. Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. iii. 45. A Kentish term, see EDD. (s.v. Cant, sb⁴ 2). Cp. M. Du. kant (Verdam).

canted, tilted up, thrown up. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid, iii. 211. See EDD. (s.v. Cant, vb.³ 9 (1)). E. Fris. kanten, ‘etwas auf die Seite legen’ (Koolman).

cantharides, a kind of flies; Spanish flies; sometimes Aphides. Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymph, viii. 54. Used as a stimulant, Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, iv. 1 (Cleremont). L. cantharides, pl. of cantharis; Gk. κανθαρίς, blister-fly.

canting out, singing out, in a beggar’s whine; ‘ ’Tis easier canting out, “A piece of broken bread for a poor man”, than singing “Brooms, maids, brooms: come, buy my brooms”,’ The London Chanticleers, scene 1 (Heath).

cantle, a part, portion; ‘Liron de pain, a cantle of bread’, Cotgrave; ‘A cantel pars, portio’, Levins. Manipulus. ME. cantel, ‘minutal’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 324). OF. (Picard) cantel = F. chanteau, ‘a corner-piece or piece broken off from the corner, hence, a cantel of bread’ (Cotgr.).

cantle, to portion out, Dekker, Whore of Babylon, i. 1. 9; Dryden, Juvenal’s Satire, vii.

cantore, counting-house, office; ‘A Dutchman’s money i’ th’ Cantore’, Butler, Abuse of human learning (Remains i. 211). Du. kantoor, F. comptoir, a counter.

cantred, a hundred; a district containing 100 townships. Spenser, View of Ireland, Globe ed., p. 676, col. 1. Peele, Edw. I, ed. Dyce, 398. Wel. cantref, a cantred; cant, a hundred + tref, a town. See Ducange (s.v. Cantredus).

canvas: phr. to receive the canvas, to get the sack; i.e. to be dismissed. Shirley, The Brothers, ii. 1 (Luys); give the canvas, to dismiss, Hyde Park, i. 1 (end).

canvasado, a night attack by soldiers. Merry Devil, i. 1. 44. App. a perverted form of camisado, q.v.; due to confusion with canvass, vb., to knock about, to assault (NED.).

cap, to arrest. Beaumont and Fl., Knight of the B. Pestle, iii. 2 (Host). From. L. capias, the name of a writ; writ of capias, a writ of arrest.

cap a-huff, to set, to cock one’s cap or hat, to put on a swaggering appearance. Greene, James IV, iv. 4. 13. See huff-cap.

cap of maintenance, a kind of hat or cap worn as a symbol of official dignity, or carried before a sovereign or a high dignitary in processions. In the 17th cent. and later it is mentioned chiefly as borne, together with the sword, before the Lord Mayor, and before the Sovereign at his coronation. Massinger, City Madam, iv. 1; A Woman never vext, i. 1 (Stephen). See NED. (s.v. Maintenance).

capadochio, a prison. Puritan Widow, i. 3. 56; ‘in Caperdochy, i’ tha gaol’, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 72; spelt Capperdochy, id. p. 86. App. for Cappadocia (a bit of university slang).

cap-case, a bandbox, cover, basket. Middleton, The Changeling, iii. 4 (De F.); a small travelling-bag, Gascoigne, Supposes, iv. 3 (Philogano).

caper, a privateer, cruiser. Otway, Cheats of Scapin, ii. 1 (Scapin). Du. kaper, a privateer (Sewel, ed. 1766).

capilotade, a kind of hash, or mixed dish; hence, a hash, a made-up story. ‘What a capilotade of a story’s here!’ Vanbrugh, The Confederacy, iii. 2 (Flippanta). F. capilotade, ‘a capilotadoe, or stued meat’, &c. (Cotgr.).

capnomanster, one who divines from the way in which smoke rises from an altar. For capnomancer, Birth of Merlin, iv. 1. 62. From capnomancy, divination by smoke. Gk. καπνομαντεία.

capocchia, a simpleton. In Tr. and Cr. iv. 2. 33. Fem. of Ital. capocchio, ‘a doult, a noddie’ (Florio).

capot, in the game of piquet, the winning of all the tricks by one player, which scores 40. Farquhar, Sir Harry Wildair, ii. 2 (Wildair); to win all the tricks at the game of piquet against another; ‘I have capotted her’, id. i. 1 (Fireball). F. faire capot (Dict. de l’Acad., ed. 1762).

cappadocian. In Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, v. 1, Eyre, who had come to be Lord Mayor of London, says that he had promised ‘the mad Cappadocians’, who had been his fellow-apprentices, that he would feast them if he ever attained to that dignity. I think it is evidently a jocose expression for mad-caps, with a punning reference to the cap, i.e. the flat-cap, which was the special headgear of the London apprentice, and to which frequent references are made. Just below he varies it to ‘my fine dapper Assyrian lads’.

caprich, a freak, a whim, fancy, sudden giddy thought. Butler, Hadibras, ii. 1. 18; printed capruch, Shirley, Example, ii. 1 (Vainman). Ital. capriccio, ‘a sudden fear apprehended, making one’s hair to stand on end’ (Florio); lit. the bristling of the head (capo + riccio); see note on ‘Caprice’, by A. L. Mayhew, in Mod. Lang. Rev., July, 1912.

capricious, witty. As You Like It, iii. 3. 8; Heywood, The Fair Maid, iii. 2 (Roughman).

capte, capacity. Only in Udall: tr. of Apoph., Preface, p. vi (1877); fol. 23, back (1542); id. Cicero, § 45.

carabin(e, carbine, a mounted musketeer. Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, v. 1 (Merchant). F. carabin, ‘cavalier qui porte une carabine’ (Dict. de l’Acad.).

caract, worth, value. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., iii. 3. 23 (Kitely); Volpone, i. 1 (Corvino); Magnetic Lady, i. 1 (Compass).

caract, carect, a mark, sign, character. Meas. for M. v. 1. 56; holy Carects, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Golding, De Mornay, iii. 37. ME. carect (Wyclif, Apoc. xx. 4). Prov. caracta, ‘marque, caractère’ (Levy). Norm. F. caractes, pl. caractères magiques (Moisy). L. caracter (Vulg., Apoc. xx. 4), Gk. χαρακτήρ.

caravan (Cant), an object inviting plunder; hence, a dupe, one easily cheated. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1; iv. 1 (Belfond Senior).

caravel, carvel, a kind of light ship. Eden, Three Books on America (ed. Arber, p. 45). Spelt carvel, Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, i. 2. 15. F. caravelle, Ital. caravella, Port. caravéla.

carbonado, a piece of flesh scored across and grilled upon coals. Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iv. 4. 47; Coriolanus, iv. 5. 199; Lyly, Sapho, ii. 3. 175; to make a ‘carbonado’ of, King Lear, ii. 2. 42. Span. carbonada, ‘a carbonado on the coles’ (Minsheu).

carcanet, a collar or necklace of jewels. Com. Errors, iii. 1. 4; ‘Captain jewels in the carcanet’, Sonnet 52. 8. Cp. F. carcan, ‘une espèce de chaîne ou de collier de pierreries’ (Dict. de l’Acad., 1762).

card, a chart; esp. the circular card on which the points of the compass were marked. Macbeth, i. 3. 17; Fletcher, Loyal Subject, iii. 2 (Archas). To speak by the card, i.e. with the precision shown by such a card, Hamlet, v. 1. 149. ‘Climes that took up the greatest part o’ th’ card’, i.e. of the map, Heywood, If you know not me (Medina), vol. i. p. 334.

card, to play at cards. Latimer, Sermon on the Ploughers, ed. Arber, p. 25. To card a rest, to set up a rest, at the game of primero (see rest), Heywood, The Royal King, vol. vi, p. 32.

cardecu, an old silver coin, a quarter of a crown. All’s Well, iv. 3. 314; v. 2. 35. F. quart d’écu.

carduus benedictus, the Blessed Thistle, noted for its medicinal properties. Much Ado, iii. 4. 72; Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, ii. 2 (Galatea). See Sin. Barth. 14.

care: phr. to take care for, to give attention to. Bible, 2 Kings xxii, and Esther vi (contents).

carect, carrect, a carrack, a ship of burden. ‘Carects or hulks’, North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antonius, § 36 (in Shak. Plut., p. 213, n. 3); carrects, pl., Com. Errors, iii. 2. 140. Med. L. carraca, see Ducange, and Dozy, Glossaire (s.v. Caraca).

careful, anxious, solicitous. Titus And. iv. 4. 84; Milton, P. L. iv. 983; Bible, Dan. iii. 16. ME. careful, full of care, sorrowful (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1565).

carfe, an incision, cut. Golding, Metam. viii. 762; fol. 104, bk. (1603) ‘Carf’ is in prov. use for the incision or notch made by a saw or axe in felling timber (EDD.).

cargazon, a cargo; ‘A cargazon of complements’, Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. xv, p. 67. Also, a list of goods shipped; Hakluyt, vol. ii, pt. 1, p. 217. Span. cargazon, cargo.

cargo, used as an exclamation. Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage, iv (Butler); Tomkis, Epil. to Albumazar. In both cases the context refers to great riches.

cark(e, anxiety, grief. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 44; Massinger, Roman Actor, ii. 1 (Paris); ‘Esmoy, cark, care, thought, sorrow, heaviness’, Cotgrave; Levins, Manipulus. In prov. use in the north country; gen. in phr. cark and care (EDD.). ME. cark(e, anxiety (Gamelyn, 760). Anglo-F. cark (kark), charge, load (Rough List). The Norman and Picard form of Central F. charge. See Dict. Cark(e, to be anxious; ‘I carke, I care, I take thought’, Palsgrave; Tusser, Husbandry, § 113. 15; Robinson, tr. More’s Utopia, 107.

carl, a countryman, a churl. Cymb. v. 2. 4; Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 54. Icel. karl, a man, also, one of the common folk; opposed to jarl, as OE. ceorl to eorl.

carl, to act as a carl or churl, to snarl. Return from Parnassus, last scene (Furor). The verb is given as a north Yorksh. word in EDD. (s.v. Carl, sb.¹ 3).

carnadine, a carnation-coloured stuff. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, ii. 2. 4. Ital. carnadino, a flesh-colour (Florio); carne, flesh.

carnifex, a hangman; hence, a scoundrel. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 4 (Capt. Albo). L. carnifex, an executioner.

caroche, a luxurious kind of carriage. Webster, White Devil (ed. Dyce, p. 6); Duchess of Malfi, iv. 2; Devil’s Law-case, i. 2 (Leonora). F. carroche (Cotgr.). Ital. carroccio, a carriage, a ‘caroche’.

carosse, a carriage. Chapman, Byron’s Tragedy, v. i (D’Escures). F. carosse (Cotgr.); Med. F. carrosse.

carpet, a table-cloth, a table-cover. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iv. 2 (Truewit); Staple of News, i. 2. 2; ‘a carpet to cover the table’, Heywood, A Woman killed, iii. 2 (Jenkin); ‘carpets for their tables’, Heylin, Hist. of the Reformation, To the Reader. It was in this sense that a matter was said to be ‘on the carpet’ (i.e. of the council-table). See Trench, Select Glossary.

carpet-knight, a contemptuous term for a knight whose achievements belong rather to the carpet (the lady’s boudoir) than to the field of battle; ‘Mignon de couchette, a Carpet-knight, one that ever loves to be in women’s chambers’, Cotgrave; Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, i. 1 (Alberto). There was once an order of Knights of the Carpet, so called to distinguish them from knights that are dubbed for service in the field. See NED.

carriage, that which is carried, baggage. Bible, 1 Sam. xvii. 22; Acts xxi. 15; ‘Carriages of an army are termed impedimenta’, Fuller, Worthies of England, Norfolk; manner of carrying one’s body, bodily deportment, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 472; demeanour, behaviour, Com. Errors, iii. 2. 14; moral conduct, Timon, iii. 2. 89; Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, i. 1 (Sanchio); Island Princess, ii. 6. 12.

carricado, a movement in fencing. Nabbes, Microcosmus, ii. 1 (Choler); Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. xi. 57. See NED. (s.v. Caricado).

carwitchet, carwhitchet, a pun, quibble, conundrum. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, v. 1 (Leath.); Shirley, Bird in a Cage, ii. 1 (Morello). See NED. (s.v. Carriwitchet), and Nares (s.v. Carwhichet).

case, a pair; ‘This case of rapiers’, Marlowe, Dr. Faustus, ii. 2 (description of Wrath); ‘A case (pair) of matrons’, B. Jonson, Case is altered, ii. 3. 1; ‘a case of pistols’, Shirley, The Traitor, iii. 1 (Rogers); ‘two case of jewels’, Webster, White Devil (ed. Dyce, p. 46).

case, to skin. All’s Well, iii. 6. 111; ‘A cased rabbit’, Dryden, Span. Friar, v. 2 (Gomez); Vanbrugh, Provok’d Wife, iv. 1 (Taylor). Still in use in the north and the W. Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. Case, sb.¹ 6).

casible, a chasuble. Middleton, A Game at Chess, i. 1 (Blk. Knt.’s Pawn). Med. Lat. casibula (Ducange, s.v. Casula).

caskanet, a word common in the 17th cent., used sometimes in the sense of a necklace set with jewels (or carcanet), sometimes in the sense of a casket. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, i. 2 (Jolenta); Lingua, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ix. 426. See NED.

cass, to cashier, dismiss; ‘Malandrin, a cassed soldier’, Cotgrave. The pp. was confused with cast, and so spelt. ‘Pontius, you are cast’, Beaumont and Fl., Valentinian, ii. 3 (Aëcius). F. casser, ‘to break, to casse, casseere, discharge, turn out of service’ (Cotgr.). Prov. casar, ‘casser, briser’ (Levy).

cassan, casson, cheese. (Cant.) Harman, Caveat, p. 83. Casson, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Song). Cp. Du. kaas, a cheese.

cassock, a soldier’s cloak or long coat. All’s Well, iv. 3. 191; B. Jonson, Every Man, ii (near the end). The military use is the original; so F. casaque, Span. and Port. casaca, and Ital. casacca. Cp. MHG. casagân, a horseman’s coat (Schade). Probably of Persian origin (through the Arabic), see NED.

caster, one who casts dice, in gaming. The setter is one who sets, or proposes, the amount of the stake against him. If the setter wants to propose a very high stake, he says—ware the caster! i.e. let him beware. The caster usually says at all! i.e. I cast against all setters; but he may limit the amount of the stake. Massinger, City Madam, iv. 2 (Tradewell).

caster, a cant term for a cloak. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); Harman, Caveat, p. 82.

casting, anything given to a hawk to cleanse and purge her gorge. Massinger, Picture, iv. 1 (Ubaldo).

casting-bottle, a bottle for sprinkling perfumes. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, i. 1 (Cupid); Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, v. 1 (Livia). So also casting-glass, B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iv. 4 (Macilente).

castrel, a kestrel, a base kind of hawk. Fletcher, The Pilgrim, i. 1 (Alphonso); Ford, Lady’s Trial, iv. 2 (Futelli). F. cercerelle, a kestrel (Cotgr.).

cat, in military phrase; a lofty work used in fortifications and sieges. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (P. Canter); Shirley, Honoria, i. 2. This military work was also called a cavalier, q.v. See NED. (s.v. Cat, sb.¹ 6 b).

Cataian, a Cathaian, an inhabitant of Cathay; hence a thief, a scoundrel; because the Chinese were thought to be clever thieves, Merry Wives, ii. 1. 148; Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 1 (Matheo). See Nares.

cataphract, a horse-soldier, protected (as well as his horse) with a coat-of-mail. Milton, Samson, 1619. Gk. κατάφρακτος, one completely protected.

catasta, a jocose term for the stocks. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 1. 259. L. catasta, a stage on which slaves were exposed for sale; Med. L. catasta, an engine of torture (Ducange).

catastrophe, conclusion; (humorously) the posteriors. L. L. L. iv. 1. 77; (2) 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 66; Merry Devil, ii. 1. 10.

†Catazaner, only in Shirley, Ball, v. 1 (Freshwater). Perhaps a misprint for Catayaner = Cataian, q.v.

cater, a caterer, purveyor, buyer of provisions. Massinger, City Madam, ii. 1 (Luke); Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. i. 26. ME. catour (Gamelyn, 321), for Anglo-F. acatour, a buyer. See Dict.

cater-tray, lit. ‘four-three’; alluding to the four and three on opposite faces of a die. Hence stop-cater-tray, the name of a false or loaded die. Chapman, Mons. d’Olive, iv. 1 (Dique). See quatre.

Catherine pear, a small and early variety of pear. Suckling, Ballad on Wedding. Catherine-pear-coloured, of a light red colour, used of a lady’s complexion, Westward Ho, ii. 3 (Birdlime). [Cp. Crabbe, Tales of the Hall, ‘ ’Twas not the lighter red, that partly streaks The Catherine pear that brighten’d o’er her cheeks’ (x. 599).]

catso, a rogue, a scamp. B. Jonson, Every Man out of Humour, ii. 1 (Carlo); also as interj., ‘Cat-so! let us drink’, Motteux, Rabelais, v. 8 (NED.). Ital. cazzo, an interjection of admiration, as some women cry suddenly (Florio); cazzo, ‘membrum virile’.

catstick, a stick or bat used in playing tip-cat or trap-ball. Massinger, Maid of Honour, ii. 2 (Page); Middleton, Women beware Women, i. 2 (Ward).

cauled, having or adorned with a caul or close-fitting cap; ‘My cauled countenance’, Three Ladies of London, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 327. ME., P. Plowman, C. xvii. 351.

cautel(e, wariness, caution. Elyot, Governour, i. 4; a crafty device, trickery, Hamlet, i. 3. 15. OF. cautele, L. cautela (in Roman Law) precaution. Anglo-F. cautele, deceit (Rough List).

cautelous, cautious, wary. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 3 (Wit.); Spenser, View of Ireland (Globe ed. 619); crafty, wily, Coriolanus, iv. 1. 33.

cavalier(o. Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, ii. 4. 83; iii. 2. 81. Span. cavalléro, ‘in Fortification, a Cavalier, or Mount, which is an Elevation of Earth with a platform for Canon on it, to overlook other Works’ (Stevens, 1706); cp. Ital. cavagliére a cavállo (Florio). F. cavalier, ‘se dit d’une pièce de fortification de terre fort élevée, & où l’on met du canon’ (Dict. de l’Acad., ed. 1762).

cavallerie, an order of chivalry; ‘The knighthood and cavallerie of Rome’, Holland, Pliny, ii. 460; the collective name for horse-soldiers, Bacon, Hen. VII, 74; Massinger, Maid of Honour, ii. 3 (Gonzaga). F. cavallerie, ‘horsemanship; horsemen’ (Cotgr.).

cavell, a mean fellow. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2217; Lyndesay, Satyre, 2863. See Jamieson.

caveson, a strong nose-piece for a horse, a kind of curb; ‘The Lithuanians, sir, . . . must Be rid with cavesons’, Sir J. Suckling, Brennoralt, iii. 1; ed. Hazlitt, vol. ii, p. 104. F. caveçon, ‘a cavechine or cavasson for a horse’s nose’ (Cotgr.). Ital. cavezzone, augmentative of cavezza a halter; Med. L. capitia, capitium, a head-covering (Ducange). See NED. (s.v. cavesson).

cazimi, cazini: in phr. in cazimi, ‘a Planet is in the heart of the Sunne, or in Cazimi, when he is not removed from him 17 minutes’, Lilly, Astrology, xix. 113; ‘In cazini of the sun’, Massinger, City Madam, ii. 2 (Stargaze); Tomkis, Albumazar, ii. 5. 6; Selden’s notes to Drayton, Pol. xiv (near the end).

cecchin, a sequin, gold coin. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iv. 2. Ital. zecchino, ‘a coin of gold current in Venice’ (Florio). See chequin.

cedule, a slip or scroll of parchment or paper containing writing. Caxton, Golden Legend, 114; spelt cedle, Morte Arthur, leaf 421, back, 5, bk. xxi, ch. 2; spelt sedyl (same page). OF. cedule; Med. Lat. cedula, scedula (Ducange), dimin. of sceda, scheda. See NED. (s.v. Schedule).

cee, a small portion of beer; marked in the buttery-book of a college with the letter c, which denoted one-sixteenth of a penny, or half a cue, as being its price. ‘Eate cues, drunk cees’, 1 Part of Jeronimo, ii. 3. 9; see Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 367. ‘Cues and cees’, Earle, Microcosmographie, § 16, ed. Arber, p. 38. See cue.

cellar, a case or stand for holding bottles. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, iii. 1 (last line).

cemitare, a ‘scimitar’. Spenser, F. Q. v. 5. 3. F. cimeterre (Cotgr.), Span. cimitarra.

censure, judgement, opinion, Richard III, ii. 2. 144; to form or give an opinion, to estimate, ‘How you are censured here in the city’, Coriolanus, ii. 1. 25.

cent, a game at cards; also spelt saint, sant; it seems to have resembled piquet. Beaumont and Fl., Four Plays in One; Triumph of Death, sc. 5 (Gentille); Shirley, Example, iii. 1 (Confident). So called, because 100 was ‘game’. See Nares.

centener, a centurion. North, tr. of Plutarch, Octavius, § 4 (Shak. Plut., p. 237, n. 2); centiner, id. § 3 (p. 235, n. 2). F. centenier (Cotgr.), L. centenarius, consisting of a hundred; = centurio (Vegetius, fl. A.D. 385).

cento, a patched garment; ‘His apparel is a cento’, Shirley, Willy Fair, ii. 2; used fig., ‘There is under these centoes and miserable outsides . . . a soule of the same alloy with our owne’, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Medici, pt. 2, § 13. L. cento, a garment of patchwork.

centre, the centre of the earth, which was supposed to be also the fixed centre of the universe; ‘The firm centre’, Webster, Appius, i. 3 (Mar. Claudius).

centrinel, centronel, a sentinel. Young, Diana, 120 (NED.); Marlowe, Dido, ii. 1. 323 (Venus).

ceration, a reducing to the consistency of wax. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Face). L. cera, wax.

cere, to cover with wax, to shroud in a cere-cloth; ‘Then was the bodye . . . embawmed and cered’, Hall, Hen. VIII, ann. 5. L. cerare, to wax; cera, wax.

cere-cloth, the linen cloth dipped in melted wax to be used as a shroud. Merch. Ven. ii. 7. 51; cp. cerements, Hamlet, i. 4. 48. See sear-cloth.

certes, certainly. Temp. iii. 3. 30; Com. Errors, iv. 4. 77. F. certes, truly (Cotgr.), O. Prov. certas (Levy).

ch, a form of ich, utch, southern form of the first personal pronoun I. Cha, I have, More, Heresyes, iv (Works, 278); chad, I had, Udall, Roister Doister, i. 3; cham, I am, Peele, Sir Clyom., Works, iii. 85; B. Jonson, Tale of Tub, i. 1; chave, I have, Peele, Arr. Paris, i. 1 (Pan); chee (for ich), I, London Prodigal, ii. 168; I chid, I should, ii. 1. 20; chill, I will, King Lear, iv. 6. 239; chud, I would, ib. See NED. and EDD.

chacon, a slow Spanish dance, or its tune; ‘Chacon: Two Nymphs and Triton sing’, Dryden, Albion, Act ii (end). F. chaconne (Hatzfeld); Span. chacona (Neuman and B.).

†chaflet, (?) a small platform or stage; ‘He satte vpon a chaflet in a chayer’ [chair], Morte Arthur, leaf 422, back, 2, bk. xxi, c. 3. Only in this passage. Probably the same as OF. chafault, a temporary platform. See NED. (s.v. Catafalque), and Dict. (s.v. Scaffold).

chaldrons, entrails of a calf, &c. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I. iii. 1 (Fustigo). Spelt chawdron, Macbeth, iv. 1. 33. Cp. dialect forms, chauldron, Hertford, chaudron, Gloucester, chawdon, Leicester, see EDD. (s.v. Chawdon). OF. chaudun, tripes (Roquefort); cp. G. kaldaunen.

challes, jaws. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 75; chall-bones, jaw-bones; id. § 86. In common prov. use in England as far south as Bedford, see EDD. (s.v. Chawl). ME. chaul (Wyclif, 1 Kings xvii. 35); OE. ceafl.

cham, khan. The Great Cham, the Great Khan; commonly applied to the ruler of the Mongols and Tartars, and to the Emperor of China. Much Ado, ii. 1. 277; Fletcher, The Chances, v. 3 (Don John). Turki khān, lord, prince. See NED. (s.v. Cham, Khan).

chamber, a small cannon used to fire salutes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 57; Massinger, Renegado, v. 8. See NED. (s.v. Chamber. 10 b).

chambering, wanton behaviour in private places. Bible, Romans xiii. 13; Beaumont and Fl., Woman’s Prize, ii. 4 (Citizen). Cp. chamberer, one of wanton habits, Othello, iii. 3. 265.

chamelot, a name originally applied to some beautiful and costly eastern fabric, camlet. Water Chamelot, camlet with a wavy or watered surface. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 11. 45; Holland, Pliny, i. 228; Bacon, New Atlantis (ed. 1650, p. 3). OF. chamelot (Littré).

chamfered, furrowed, wrinkled. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 23. OF. chanfraindre, to chamfer, to furrow, also, to bevel an edge. Possibly for chant-fraindre, which may = Med. L. cantum frangere, to break the edge or side.

champian, champion, the champaign, level open country, Bible, Deut. xi. 30; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xii. 29; Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 173; Gosson, School of Abuse, 29.

chandry, chandrie, short for chandlery, the place where candles were kept in a household; ‘Six torches from the chandry’, B. Jonson, Masque of Augurs (Notch). OF. chandel(l)erie.

changeling, a half-witted person. In Middleton’s play ‘The Changeling’, the reference is to Antonio, who enters ‘disguised as an idiot’, A. i, sc. 2. To play the changeling, to play the fool, Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, ii. 1 (Mis. Knavesby). See EDD. (s.v. Change. 8).

chank, to champ, to eat noisily. Golding, Metam. viii. 292 (fol. 97), viii. 825 (fol. 105, back).

channel-bone, the collar-bone, clavicle. Chapman, Iliad, xvii. 266; Holinshed, Chron. iii. 805; Kyd, Soliman, i. 4. 55. See cannel.

chapine, a high-heeled shoe. Massinger, Renegado, i. 2 (Donusa); Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, iii. 5 (last Song). See Stanford (s.v. Chopine). Span. chapin, a woman’s high cork shoes (Minsheu). See choppine.

char, chare, car, chariot. Surrey, A Complaint by Night, 4; Sackville, Induction, st. 7. F. char, a chariot (Cotgr.).

character, handwriting. Rowley, All’s Lost, ii. 6. 6; Meas. for M. iv. 2. 208. F. caractere, a form of writing (Cotgr.).

chare, chary, careful. Golding, tr. Ovid, Met. xiv. 336 (ed. 1593); dear, Golding, Calvin on Deut. xxiii. 134.

chare, charre, a turn of work, an odd job or business. Ant. and Cl. iv. 15. 75; Chare, to do a turn of work, esp. in phr. (This) char(re is char’d, this bit of business is done, Sir Thos. More, iii. 1. 118; Marriage of Wit and Science, in Hazlitt’s Old Plays, ii. 375; Peele, Edward I (ed. Dyce 392); ‘Here’s two chewres chewred’, Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, iii. 2 (Bobadilla). See EDD. (s.v. Chare, sb.¹). OE. cerr, a turn, ‘temporis spatium’ (B. T.).

charet(t, a car, chariot. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 32; Bible, Exod. xiv. 6; 2 Kings ix. 16; charettes, carts, Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 1 (Erostrato). F. charette, a chariot (Cotgr.).

charm, the blended sound of harmonious notes, as of music, children’s voices or song-birds. Milton, P. L. iv. 642; Peele, Arr. of Paris, i. 1 (Pomona); Bunyan, The Holy War (Temple ed., 293); Udall, Erasmus (ed. 1548, Luke ii, fol. xxxii a); charme, to make a melodious sound, Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 13. ‘Charm’ is in gen. prov. use in the midland and southern counties in the sense of a confused murmuring sound of many voices, of birds, bees, &c.; see EDD. (s.v. Charm, sb.¹). See chirm.

charm, to control, to silence, as if by a strong charm. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, v. 1 (Russell). Also, to induce to speak, as by a charm, Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, ii. 1 (Rhetias).

charneco, charnico, a species of sweet wine. From a village so called near Lisbon (Steevens). 2 Hen. VI, ii. 3. 63; Charnico, Puritan Widow, iv. 3. 89; Heywood, Maid of West, iii (Wks. ed. 1874, ii. 301). See Stanford.

chartel, a ‘cartel’, a written challenge. B. Jonson, i. 5 (or 4): Bobadil. Span. cartel, Ital. cartello, dimin. of carta, paper, letter.

chase, a hunting-ground. Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 1. 137; Titus, ii. 3. 255; ‘The chase alwaie open and nothing at all inclosed’, Harrison, Desc. England, ii. 19 (ed. Furnivall, 310). Anglo-F. chace, a hunting-ground, a chase (Rough List).

chatillionte, delightful, amusing. Farquhar, Sir H. Wildair, iv. 2 (Lurewell). F. chatouillant, pr. pt. of chatouiller, to tickle, to provoke with delight (Cotgr.).

chauf, to chafe, heat, vex. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 18, § 2; chauffed, Spenser, F. Q. i. 3. 33. OF. chaufer (F. chauffer), to warm.

chawne, a gap, fissure. Holland, Pliny, i. 37; to gape open, id. i. 435; to cause to gape open, to rive asunder, Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, iii. 1 (Andrugio); ‘Crevasser, to chop, chawn . . . rive’, Cotgrave. ‘Chawn’ is in prov. use in the Midlands for a crack in the ground caused by dry weather, see EDD. (s.v. Chaum). See choane.

cheasell, gravel. Turbervile, Epitaph II. on Master Win, st. 5. Cp. the Chesil Bank (Portland), Chiselhurst, Kent. ME. chisel or gravel, ‘arena, sabulum’ (Prompt. EETS. 82), OE. ceosel, cysel, gravel.

cheat, wheaten bread of the second quality. Chapman, Batrachom., 3; Drayton, Polyolb. xvi, p. 959; cheat bread, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 1 (Chough); Eastward Hoe, v. 1 (Mrs. T.); cheat loaf, B. Jonson, Masque of Augurs, vol. vi, p. 123; Corbet, Poetica Stromata (Nares). Bread of the first quality was called manchet. See NED. (s.v. Cheat, sb.²).

cheat (Thieves’ Cant), used in general sense ‘thing’, gen. preceded by some descriptive word. The Cheate (= treyning cheate), the gallows, Winter’s Tale, iv. 3. 28; cackling-cheate, the domestic fowl, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 1 (Prigg); grunting cheate, a pig (id.); belly-cheat, an apron, id. ii. 1 (Higgen). See NED. (s.v. Cheat, sb.¹ 3). See backcheat.

cheator, a cheat. Esp. used of one who lived by cheating at dice; Marston, What you Will, v. 1 (Quadratus).

check (in Hawking), a false stoop, when a hawk forsakes her proper game, and pursues rooks, doves, &c. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 2 (Maria); to fly at check, Dryden, Ann. Mirab. st. 86; check, base game, rooks, &c, Drayton, Pol. xx. 217; Turbervile, Falconrie, 110.

checked, chequered, variegated. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 18; Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 1. 83; spelt chequed, ‘The chequed, and purple-ringed daffodillies’, B. Jonson, Pan’s Anniversary (Shepherd).

checker-approved, approved by one who checks, a controller. Ford, Fancies Chaste, i. 2 (Spadone). See NED. (s.v. Checker, sb.¹ 1).

checklaton, a cloth of rich material; ‘A Jacket, quilted richly rare Upon checklaton’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 43. OF. chiclaton, also ciclaton (Godefroy). The ME. form was ciclatun (syklatoun); see Juliana, 8, and Chaucer, C. T. B. 1924. See NED. (s.v. Ciclatoun).

chedreux, a kind of perruque. Etheredge, Man of Mode, iii. 2 (Sir Fopling); Oldham, tr. of Juvenal, Sat. iii. 191. From the maker’s name. Also Shaddrew (NED.).

chequin, an Italian gold coin, a ‘sequin’. Pericles, iv. 2. 28 (chickeens in ed. 1608); B. Jonson, Volpone, i (last speech but 8 of Volpone). See Dict. (s.v. Sequin), and Stanford. See cecchin.

cherry, to cherish, cheer, delight. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 10. 22. F. chérir, to hold dear.

cherry-pit, a children’s game, in which cherry-stones were thrown into a pit or small hole. Twelfth Nt. iii. 4. 129; Witch of Edmonton, iii. 1 (Cuddy).

cheve, to bring to an end, to finish; ‘I cheve, I bring to an ende, Je aschieve’, Palsgrave. OF. chever, to finish (NED.).

cheve, chive, to befall, happen to. Phr. foul cheeve him, ill befall him, Sir A. Cockain, Obstinate Lady, iii. 2; foul chive him, Beaumont and Fl., Knight of the Burning Pestle, i. 3 (Mrs. Merry Thought).

cheveril, kid-leather; used allusively as a type of pliability. Twelfth Nt. iii. i. 13; B. Jonson, Poetaster, i. 1 (Tucca). ME. cheverel, ‘ledyr’ (Prompt.), Anglo-F. cheveril (Rough List), deriv. of OF. chevre, a goat.

chevin, cheven, the chub. Book of St. Albans, fol. F 7, back; Drayton, Pol. xxvi. 244; ‘Chevesne, a chevin’, Cotgrave. ‘Cheven’ is a Yorks. word for the chub (EDD.). OF. chevesne; see Hatzfeld (s.v. Chevanne).

chevisaunce, merchandise, gain (in a bad sense). Coverdale, Deut. xxi. 14. ME. chevisaunce (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1519). OF. chevissance, ‘pactum, transactio, conventio’. Med. L. chevisantia (Ducange).

chevisaunce (as used by Spenser and his imitators), enterprise, achievement, expedition on horseback, chivalry, F. Q. ii. 9. 8.

che vor: in phr. che vor ye. The meaning seems to be ‘I warrant you’, King Lear, iv. 6. 246, but the relationship or etymology of the word vor has not yet been discovered; nothing like it is known to exist in prov. use. Che vore ’un, (?) I warrant him, B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (Hilts). Cha vore thee is found in The Contention between Liberality and Prodigality, ii. 3 (Tenacity), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 345, ‘What will you give me? Cha vore thee, son . . . Chill give thee a vair piece of three half-pence’. (Here, cha vore thee may be West dialect for ‘I have for thee.’)

chewet, chewit, a chough, fig. a chatterer. 1 Hen. IV, v. 1. 29. F. chouette, a chough, jackdaw (Cotgr.).

chewet, a dish of meat or fish, chopped fine and mixed with spices and fruits. Middleton, The Witch, ii. 1 (Francisca).

chiarlatan, a mountebank or Cheap Jack who descants volubly to a crowd. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 2. 971; ciarlitani, pl., B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1 (Volpone, Speech, 3). Ital. ciarlatano, a babbler, mountebank, fr. ciarlare, to babble; whence F. charlatan, ‘a pratling quack-salver’ (Cotgr.).

chiaus(e, a Turkish messenger, sergeant, or lictor. Massinger, Renegado, iii. 4; B. Jonson, Alchemist, i. 2. 25. Turkish chāush.

chiause, chouse, one easily cheated, a dupe, gull. Newcastle, The Variety, in Dramatis Personae (‘A country Chiause’). [Cp. Johnson’s Dict., A chouse, a man fit to be cheated.]

chiause, chowse, v., to chouse, to cheat. ‘Chiaus’d by a scholar!’, Shirley, Honoria, ii. 3 (Conquest); ‘And sows of sucking-pigs are chowsed’, Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 114, also l. 1010.

chibbal, a young onion with the green stalk attached, Fletcher, Bonduca, i. 2 (Petillius); chibal, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (2 Gipsy). ‘Chibbal’ (‘chibble’) is in gen. prov. use in the Midlands and south-west country, see EDD. (s.v. Chibbole). ME. chibolle (P. Plowman, B. vi. 296). OF. (Picard) chibole (F. ciboule); L. cepulla, dimin. of cepa, onion.

chibrit, sulphur. B. Jonson, Alchem., ii. 1 (Surly). Also spelt kibrit (NED.). Arab. kibrīt, sulphur; cp. Heb. gophrīth, Aramaic, kubrīth.

chiches, chick-peas. B. Jonson, tr. of Horace, Art of Poetry (L. ciceris, l. 249); spelt chittes, Sir T. Elyot, Castel of Helthe, iv. 10; Udall, Apoph., Diogenes, 47. F. chiches, ‘sheeps-cich-peason, chiches’ (Cotgr.); OF. chiche (Roman. Rose, 6911).

chiefrie, the payment of rent or dues to an Irish chief. Spenser, View of Ireland (Globe ed., p. 663).

chievance, raising of money. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 64). F. ‘chevance, wealth, substance, riches’ (Cotgr.).

child: phr. to be with child, used fig., to be full of expectation. Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 3 (King); also, to long after, desire vehemently, id., Honest Wh., Pt. I, iii. 1 (Viola).

Child Rowland, a young knight; with reference to a scrap of an old ballad. King Lear, iii. 4. 187; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 1. 16.

chilis, a large vein. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 2. 4 (where it is equated to vena cava). Dyce’s note says—‘Out of the gibbosyte . . . of the liuer there issueth a veyne called concava or chilis’, Traheron, Vigo’s Workes of Chirurgerie, 1571, fol. ix. Gk. φλὲψ κοίλη, vena cava.

chill; as in I chill, for Ich ’ill, I will. ‘Tell you I chyll’, Skelton, El. Rummyng, 1. See ch.

chinchard, a niggard, miser. Spelt chyncherde, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2517. ME. chinche, a niggard (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2793); Norm. F. chinche, ‘mesquin avare’ (Moisy).

chinclout, a muffler covering the lower part of the face. Middleton, A Mad World, iii. 3 (Follywit). Cp. muffler in Merry Wives, iv. 2. 73.

chine, to divide or break the back of. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 13. Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, iii. 3. 6; ‘Eschiner (échiner), to chine, to break the back of’, Cotgrave. In everyday use in Suffolk (EDD.).

chink, a bed-bug. Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, i. 1 (Hostess). Also spelt chinch. Span. chinche, a bug; L. cimex.

chire, a slender blade of grass, a sprout. Spelt chyer, Drayton, Harmony, Song Solomon, ch. ii, l. 3. ME. chire, ‘genimen’ (Cath. Angl.).

chirm, a confused noise, the mingled din or noise of many birds or voices. Spelt chyrme, Mirror for Mag., Glocester, st. 5; churm, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 170). See charm.

chirr, to chirp like a grasshopper; ‘The chirring grasshopper’, Herrick, Oberon’s Feast, 16.

chitterling, a frill, ruff; esp. the frill down the breast of a shirt. Like Will to Like, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 310; Gascoigne, Delic Diet Droonkardes (NED.). For examples of prov. use see EDD. (s.v. 4).

chitterlings, the smaller intestines of the pig, &c., esp. when fried or boiled. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, iii. 1 (Fustigo); Butler, Hudibras, i. 2. 120. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

chitty-face, one who has a thin pinched face; used as a term of contempt; ‘You half-fac’d groat, you thin-cheek’d chitty-face’, Munday, Downfall of E. of Huntingdon, v. 1 (Jailer), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 188; Massinger, Virgin Martyr, i. 2 (Spungius); ‘Chittiface, puellulus, improbulus’, Coles, Dict. (1679); ‘A chittiface, proprie est facies parva et exigua’, Minsheu, Ductor (1617). OF. chiche-face (chiche-fache), lean face (Godefroy). The word occurs in Rabelais, i. 183 (ed. Jaunet). From this word comes the perverted form chichevache (Chaucer, C. T. E. 1188), the name of a fabulous monster said to feed on patient wives.

chival, a horse; ‘Upon the captive chivals’ (in captivis equis), Turbervile, Ovid’s Ep., 148 b; Mucedorus, Induction, 29, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 204; but here chival may be for ’chieval, achieval, achievement.

chive, cive, a small kind of onion or garlic; ‘Escurs, the little sallad herb called Cives or Chives’, Cotgrave. F. cive (North F. chive), onion; L. cepa, onion.

choane, a cleft, rift, fissure; ‘Fendasse, a cleft, choane’, Cotgrave. See chawne.

choke-pear, a rough, harsh pear; also, something impossible to swallow or get over. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 321); Mydas, iv. 3 (end).

choplogic, a contentious, sophistical arguer. Awdelay, Fratern. of Vacabondes, p. 15. Shortened to choploge; ‘Choploges or greate pratlers’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Antigonus, § 27; Roister Doister, iii. 2 (Merygreek).

choppine, a kind of shoe raised above the ground by means of a cork sole or the like. Hamlet, ii. 2. 445; ‘Pianelloni, great pattins or choppins’, Florio; ‘Corke shooes, chopines’, Marston, Dutch Courtezan, iii. 1 (Tissefew). See Stanford (s.v. Chopine). See chapine.

chreokopia, a cancelling of debts, or of a part of a debt. Massinger, Old Law, i. 1 (2 Lawyer). Gk. χρεωκοπία, a cutting off of debt.

Christ-cross, Chriss-cross, Crisscross, a cross (✠) placed at the beginning of the alphabet in a horn-book. Hence, Christcross-row, the alphabet, Two Angry Women, v. 1 (Mall); shortened to cross-row, Richard III, i. 1. 55. A similar cross was sometimes used (instead of XII) to mark noon on a clock or dial; hence ‘the Chrisse-crosse of Noone’, Puritan Widow, iv. 2. 85; see Nares.

Christ-tide, Christmas. A term for Christmas, used by Puritans, to avoid the use of the word mass. B. Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2 (Ananias) See NED.

chrysopoeia, the making of gold. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle). Gk. χρυσοποιία.

chrysosperm, seed of gold. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly). Gk. χρυσός, gold + σπέρμα, seed.

chuck, darling; a term of endearment. Hen. V, iii. 2. 20; Macbeth, iii. 2. 45; ‘His chuck, that is, his wife’, Earle, Microcosmographie, § 68 (ed. Arber, p. 94). See EDD. (s.v. Chuck, sb.¹ 4).

chuff, a rustic, a clown. Generally applied opprobriously to any person disliked, esp. a rude coarse fellow. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 93; a churlish miser, Nashe, P. Pennilesse (NED.); Massinger, Duke of Milan, iii. 1 (Medina). In prov. use in the sense of surly, ill-tempered, see EDD. (s.v. Chuff, adj.¹ 1). ME. choffe or chuffe, ‘rusticus’ (Prompt.).

church-book, (1) the Bible; (2) the parish register. Both senses are quibbled upon; Massinger, Old Law, i. 1 (1 Lawyer).

cibation, a process in alchemy; lit. ‘a feeding’. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Dol). From L. cibus, food.

cinque-pace, a kind of lively dance. Much Ado, ii. 1. 77. F. cinq pas, lit. five paces; Littré gives cinq pas et trois visages (five paces, three faces) as the name of an old French dance.

cioppino, a ‘chopine’. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Hedon). See choppine.

circling: phr. a circling boy, i.e. a kind of roarer, one who circumvented and cheated his dupes. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iv. 2 (Edgworth). See Nares.

circular, going round-about, indirect. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, ii. 2 (Physician).

circumstance, detailed and circuitous narration; details, particulars; ‘Without circumstance’, i.e. without further details, Romeo, v. 3. 181; ceremony, formality, ‘Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war’, Othello, iii. 3. 355.

citronise, to bring to the colour of citron; a process in alchemy. B. Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2 (Subtle).

cittern-headed, ugly; because the head of the cittern (a kind of guitar) was often grotesquely carved to resemble a human head. Ford, Fancies Chaste, i. 2 (Spadone). The citterns were mostly found in barbers’ shops.

†city-wires (?); ‘His cates . . . Be fit for ladies: some for lords, knights, ’squires; Some for your waiting-wench, and city-wires’, B. Jonson, Epicoene (Prologue).

civil, sober, grave, not gay; said of colour. Romeo, iii. 2. 10; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iii. 2 (Maria); ‘civil-suited Morn’, Milton, Il Pens., 122.

clack-dish, a wooden dish with a lid, carried and clacked by beggars as an appeal for contributions. Middleton, Family of Love, iv. 2 (Gerardine). See clapdish.

cladder, a man of loose and vicious manners. (Cant.) ‘Cladders? Yes, catholic lovers’, Mayne, City Match, ii. 3 (Bright and Aurelia).

clair-voyant, clear-sighted, having good insight. Clara voyant, Buckingham, The Rehearsal, iii. 1 (end).

clamper up, to gather up together hastily. Ascham, Toxophilus, (ed. Arber, 83). [Sir W. Scott uses the expression ‘to clamper up a story’, in a letter to Joanna Baillie (Feb. 10, 1822).]

clap, a sudden stroke of misfortune; a touch of disrepute. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 4. 3; to catch a clap, to meet with a mischance, Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, iii. 1 (Wise Woman).

clapdish, a wooden dish for alms with a cover that shut with a clapping noise, used by lepers and other mendicants. Massinger, Parl. of Love, ii. 2 (Leonora); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 1 (Matheo). See clack-dish.

clapper, a rabbit-burrow. Tusser, Husbandry, § 36. 25; ‘As a cony . . . in his claper’, Fabyan, Chron. pt. vii, an. 1294-5 (p. 395). ‘Clapier, a clapper of conies’, Cotgrave. A Dorset word for a rabbit-hole (EDD.). O. Prov. clapier, ‘garenne privée’ (Levy).

clapperclaw, to beat, to maul. Merry Wives, ii. 3. 67; Tr. and Cr. v. 4. 1. In prov. use in various parts of England, and in Scotland (EDD.).

clapperdudgeon, a cant name for a beggar; a term of reproach. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (P. sen.); Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. i. 4; Greene, George-a-Greene (l. 909), ed. Dyce, p. 265, col. 1; Harman, Caveat, p. 44. Cp. clapper, the lid of a beggar’s clap-dish; dudgeon was the name of a kind of wood for making handles of knives, &c.

clarissimo, a grandee. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, i. 2. 6. A Span. word, lit. most illustrious.

clary, clare, a pot-herb, the Salvia Sclarea, supposed to be good for the eyes, and so by pop. etym. often spelt Cleare-eie, Clear-eye; ‘Spirits of clare to bathe our temples in’, Davenant, The Wits, v (Thwack); spelt clary, ‘Clary quasi Clear Eye’, W. Coles, Adam in Eden, xxiii. 47. See NED. (s.v. Clary, sb.²).

clary, a sweet liquor made of wine, clarified honey, and spices. Congreve, Way of World, iv. 5 (Mirabell); Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, iii. 1 (Lord Rake). ME. clarree (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1471). OF. claré, that which is cleared or clarified, see NED. (s.v. Clary, sb.¹).

claw, to stroke; hence, to flatter. Drayton, Pol. xiii. 186; Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, i. 1 (Piero); Much Ado, i. 3. 18. Phr. claw me, I’ll claw thee, ‘We saye, clawe me, clawe thee’, Tyndal, Expos. John (ed. 1537, 72), see NED.; to claw the back, to flatter, Hall, Sat. i. prol. 11. ‘Claw’ means to flatter in Leic. and Warw., see EDD. (s.v. Claw, vb. 7).

clawback, one who strokes the back; a flatterer; ‘These flattering clawbackes’, Latimer, 2 Sermon bef. King, p. 64; Mirror for Mag., Iago, st. 6; ‘Blandisseur, a flattering sycophant or clawback’, Cotgrave. So in north Yorks. and Leic., see EDD. (s.v. Claw, vb. 10 (b)).

clee, a claw; ‘Pied d’un cancre, the clee or claw of a crab’, Cotgrave; ‘The clee of a bittor’, Turbervile, Falconrie, 349; cleaze pl., Phaer, tr. Aeneid, viii. 209; Studley, Seneca’s Hercules, 206 b (NED.). See EDD. (s.v. Clee). ME. cle, ‘ungula’ (Cath. Angl.). OE. clēa. Cp. cleye.

cleeves, cliffs; ‘Dover’s neighbouring cleeves’, Drayton, Pol. xviii; Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 1. 62. ME. clefe of an hyll, ‘declivum’ (Prompt.). Due to OE. cleofu, the plural form, or to cleofe, the dat. of clif. ‘Cleeve’ is very common in place-names in the west of England: Cleeve (Clyffe Pypard) in Wilts.; Church Cleves in Dorset; Old Cleeve, Huish Cleeve, Bitter Cleeve in Somerset.

clem, to starve for want of food. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iii. 1 (Shift); Poetaster, i. 1 (Tucca). To ‘clem’ (or to ‘clam’) is the ordinary word for starving in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Clam, vb.² 1). The lit. meaning of clam (clem) is ‘to pinch’, still used in this sense in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Clam, vb.¹ 1. Cp. Dan. klemme, Sw. klämma, to pinch.

clench, clinch, a pun. Dryden, Mac Flecknoe, 83; Prologue to Tr. and Cr. (1679), 27.

clenchpoop, a lout, a clown; a term of contempt. Warner, Albion’s England; bk. vi, ch. xxxi, st. 22; clinchpoop, or clenchpoop, Three Ladies of London, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 256.

clepe, to call. L. L. L. v. 1. 24; Hamlet, i. 4. 19. The pp. is spelt cleeped in Chapman, Gent. Usher, ii. 1 (Pogio); the usual form is the archaic y-clept, spelt y-clep’d in Milton, L’Allegro, 12. OE. clipian, cleopian, to call; pp. ge-cleopod.

clergion, a young songster, fig. of birds. Surrey, Description Restless State, 22; Poems, 72; in Tottel’s Misc. 231. ME. clergeon, a chorister (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1693). F. clergeon.

clergy, clerkly skill, learning. Proverb, ‘An Ounce of Mother-Wit is worth a Pound of Clergy (or Book-learning)’, see NED.; Middleton, Family of Love, iii. 3 (Purge). The privilege of exemption from sentence which might be pleaded by every one who could read; ‘Stand to your clergy, uncle, save your life’, Munday, Death Huntington, i. 3, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 244. Clergy of belly, respite claimed by a pregnant woman. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 1. 884. ME. clergy: ‘Lewdnesse of clergy, illiteratura’ (Prompt. EETS., 261).

cleye, a claw. Marlowe, tr. Lucan, bk. i, l. 36 from end; B. Jonson, Underwoods, Eupheme, ix. 18; ‘The cleyes of a lobster’, Skinner (1671). ‘Cley’ is an E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Clee). ME. cley of a beast, ‘ungula’ (Prompt. EETS., 85, see note, no. 383). Cp. clee.

clicket, to be maris appetens, to copulate. Massinger, Picture, iii. 4 (Eubulus); Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieutenant, ii. 4 (Leontius); Tusser, Husbandry, § 77. 9. As a hunting term, it had reference to the fox and the wolf; see Turbervile, Hunting, c. 66, p. 186; c. 75, p. 205.

cliffe, a clef, key, in music. Tr. and Cr. v. 2. 11; Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1. 159. F. clef.

clift, a cliff. Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 79; p. 90, col. 1; clifte, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 23. The E. Anglian form (EDD.).

Clim of the Clough, a proverbially famous archer. Clement of the Glen, in the ballad of Adam Bell. Gascoigne, Flowers, ed. Hazlitt, i. 72; B. Jonson, Alchemist, i (Face). Clem a Clough, Drayton, Pastorals, vi. 36.

cling, to cause to shrink, shrivel; ‘Till famine cling thee’, Macbeth, v. 5. 40. Cp. prov. use in Ireland and in the north of England, where the word means to wither, contract, also, of cattle, to become thin from want of proper food, see EDD. (s.v. Cling, vb.¹ 4). ME. clyngyn, to shrink, to shrivel (Prompt.). OE. clingan, ‘marcere’ (Ælfric).

clip, to embrace. Wint. Tale, v. 2. 59; Coriolanus, i. 6. 29; iv. 5. 115. Still in use in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. clippen (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. lii. 1344). OE. clyppan.

clip, to go fast, to run swiftly. Dryden, Annus Mirab. 86. A Suffolk use; see EDD. (s.v. Clip, vb.² 11).

clipped, uttered aloud; ‘Thy clipped name’, Middleton, The Witch, ii. 2 (near the end). See clepe.

clips, clyps, ‘eclipse’. Berners, tr. of Froissart, ch. 130. Common in the north (EDD.). ME. Clypps of þe son or þe mone, ‘eclipsis’ (Prompt.).

clitch, to bend, clench (the fist). Hellowes, Guevara’s Fam. Ep. 145 (NED.); clighte, pp., Bossewell, Armorie, ii. 119^b. Cp. the west country clitch, to grasp tightly (EDD.). OE. clycchan, pp. geclyht.

clogdogdo, a term of contempt. B. Jonson, Silent Woman, iv. 1 (Otter). A nonce-word.

close fight, a sea term; a kind of screen used in a naval engagement. Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, i. 1 (Antonio). See fights.

closh, clash, the name of an old game, played with a ball or bowl. Spelt claisshe, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 27, § 8. See Cowell’s Interpreter and Strutt’s Sports. Closh was orig. the name of the bowl. Du. klos, a wooden Boule (Hexham).

closure, bound, limit, circuit. Richard III, iii. 3. 11; an entrenchment, fortress, Greene, Looking Glasse (ed. 1861, p. 123); Surrey, tr. Aeneid, ii. 296. OF. closure, confine, limits (Dialoge Greg., 74); Late L. clausura, a castle, fort (Justinian).

clote, the yellow water-lily; Nuphar lutea. Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, ii. 2. 12. Still in use in the south-west of England, see EDD. (s.v. Clote, (1)). OE. clāte, which was the name of various plants resembling the burdock, see NED.

clottered, clotted. Mirror for Mag., Buckingham, st. 14; ‘Congrée, congealed, clottered’, Cotgrave. Du. kloteren, or klonteren, ‘to curdle or growe thick as milke doth’ (Hexham). See cluttered.

clout, a piece of cloth or linen, a rag. Hamlet, ii. 2. 537; Richard III, i. 3. 177; hence, clouted, patched, Bible, Joshua ix. 5. In prov. use, esp. in the north, see EDD. (s.v. Clout, sb.¹ 3).

clout, a square piece of canvas, which formed the mark to be aimed at, at the archery butts, L. L. L. iv. 1. 138; 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 52.

clout, to cuff heavily, Bible, 2 Sam. xxii. 39; clouted, pp. hit, Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieutenant, iii. 7. 1. In gen. vulgar use, see EDD. (s.v. Clout, vb.² 1).

clouted; of cream: clotted, by scalding milk. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 99; Borde, Dyetarie, 267. A Devon word (EDD.).

clowre, grassy surface, turf. In pl. clowres; Golding, Metam. iv. 301. (L. cespite); viii. 756 (L. terram). ME. clowre, grassy ground (Lydgate).

cloy, to prick a horse with a nail in shoeing; ‘I cloye a horse, I drive a nayle in to the quycke of his foote, jencloue’, Palsgrave; to pierce as with a nail, to gore, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 6. 48; to spike a gun, Beaumont and Fl., The False One, v. 4 (Photinus). OF. cloyer (F. clouer), to nail, deriv. of OF. clo (F. clou), a nail.

cloyer, a pick-pocket’s accomplice. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll). See Nares.

cloyne, a clown, rustic. Mirror for Mag., Rivers, st. 44. The word clown (cloyne) was a late introduction from some Low German source, originally meaning ‘clod, lump’, see NED.

cloyne, cloine, to act deceitfully or fraudulently. Bale, Sel. Wks. (ed. 1849, p. 170 (NED.)); to take furtively, to steal away, Phaer, tr. Aeneid, vi. 524; vii. 364. Probably the same word as OF. cluigner, clugner, cluyner (F. cligner), to wink, often as the expression of secret understanding, cunning, or hypocrisy. See NED.

club, a country fellow; ‘Homely and playn clubbes of the countrey’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 14; ‘Hertfordshire clubs and clouted shoon’, Ray, Eng. Proverbs, 310. Cp. ME. clubbyd, ‘rudis’ (Prompt.).

clubs! A popular cry to call out the London apprentices, who had clubs for their weapons; also, a cry to call out citizens; as in Romeo, i. 1. 80. There are frequent allusions to this cry; ‘Cry clubs for prentices’, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 2 (All).

clunch, a clodhopper; ‘Casois, a countrey clown, boore, clunch, hinde’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in Cumberland, Lancashire, and E. Yorks. (EDD.). See NED.

clunch, to clench; ‘His fist is clunched’, Earle, Microcosmographie, § 20; ed. Arber, p. 41.

clunged, drawn together by the action of cold; ‘By the Northern winds . . . clunged and congealed withall’, Holland, Pliny, i. 513; ‘The Earth made clunged with the cold of winter’, B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (NED.).

cluttered, clotted. Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, i. 2 (Alberto); ‘Engrommelé, clotted, cluttered, curded thick’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in Cheshire and Shropshire (EDD.). See clottered.

cly (thieves’ cant), to seize, take; to steal (NED.). Phr. to cly the Jerk, to be whipped, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman); Harman, Caveat, p. 84. In Lower Rhenish dialect klauen (kläuen, kleuen) is used in the sense of ‘steal’. See NED.

coals: phr. to carry coals, to be very servile, to submit to insults. Romeo, i. 1. 2. See colcarrier.

coal-sleck, coal-dust. Drayton, Pol. iii. 280. Cp. prov. E. sleck, slack, small coal.

coart, to confine, restrain; ‘Streatly coarted’, Skelton, Why come ye not, 438; Sir T. Elyot, Governour, i. 138. L. co-arctare, to compress, from arctus, close.

coast, cost(e, the side. Spenser, M. Hubberd, 294; the border, frontier of a country, Bible, Mark vii. 31; Judges i. 18; phr. on even coast, on even terms, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 17. OF. coste (F. côte).

coast, to keep by the side of a person moving. Fletcher and Rowley, Maid Mill, i. 1; to march on the flank of, Berners, Froissart, i. 40. 55; to move in a roundabout course, fig. Hen. VIII, iii. 2. 38; to skirt, Milton, P. L. iv. 782; spelt cost, to approach, Spenser, Daphnaida, st. 6; Venus and Adonis, 870.

coat-card, a playing card bearing a ‘coated’ figure (king, queen, or knave). In regular use till the Revolution, 1688; afterwards perverted into Court-card. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (Madrigal). Also, coat, Massinger, Old Law, iii. 1 (Cook); B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1.

coath, to faint, to swoon away. Skinner, 1671 (a Lincoln word); ‘To coath (swoon away), Animo linqui, deficere’, Coles, 1679. ‘Coath’ is still used in this sense in E. Anglia (EDD.). ME. cothe, or swownyng, ‘sincopa’ (Prompt.). OE. coðu, disease; cp. coe, a word for a disease of sheep, cattle in W. Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Coe, sb.¹ 1). See quoth.

cob, the head of a red herring. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II. (Wks., 1873, ii. 147); ‘A herring cob, la teste d’un harang sor’, Sherwood.

cob, cobbe, a wealthy man; a miser; ‘Ryche cobbes’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 149; Stubbes, Anat. Abuses, ii. 27 (NED.).

cobbe, a male swan; ‘The hee swanne is called the cobbe, and the she-swanne the penne’, Best, Farm. Bks. (ed. 1856, p. 122). Hence cob-swan, B. Jonson, Catiline, ii. 1 (Fulvia). ‘Cob’ is still in use in Norfolk (EDD.).

cockal(l, a knucklebone of a sheep, with which boys played ‘knucklebones’. Herrick, The Temple, 59; the game played, Cotgrave (s.v. Tales). See Nares.

cockall, a paragon, a pattern, of supreme excellence; ‘He was the very cockall of a husband’, Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, iii. 2. 6.

cockatrice, a name for the basilisk, a serpent supposed to kill by its mere glance, and to be hatched from a cock’s egg. Bible, Isaiah lix. 5; Romeo, iii. 2. 47; applied to a woman of loose life, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev. iv. 1; Killigrew’s Pandora (Nares). Orig. a name for the crocodile. OF. caucatris (cocatris), crocodile; Med. L. caucatrices, ‘crocodili’ (Ducange); cp. O. Prov. calcatris, crocodile (Levy). See NED.

cock-a-two, cock of two, a cock that has conquered two, a conqueror of two. Little French Lawyer, ii. 3 (La Writ). See Nares.

cockers, leggings, gaiters. Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. iv; Ballad of Dowsabel, l. 59. In prov. use from the north country to the W. Midlands and E. Anglia (EDD.). ME. cokeres (P. Plowman, C. Text, ix. 59). Probably the same word as OE. cocor, a quiver.

cocket, a ship’s certificate that goods for export had paid duty. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, ll. 258, 1058. Anglo-F. cokette, app. the seal with which the certificate was assured (Rough List).

cocket, pert, saucy, stuck up. Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, ii. 5 (song); Coles Dict. 1677. In prov. use from north country to the W. Midlands, meaning ‘pert, saucy’, also, ‘brisk, merry, lively’ (EDD.).

cockledemois, pl. (perhaps) a natural product of some kind representing money. Chapman, Mask of the Middle Temple, § 2. (Not found elsewhere, except as Cockledemoy, the name of a knave in Marston’s Dutch Courtezan). Dr. H. Bradley suggests that this word may represent Port. coquílho de moeda; coquílho, fruit of an Indian palm; moeda, money.

cockloche, a term of reproach or contempt, a mean fellow, a silly coxcomb. Shirley, Witty Fair One, ii. 2 (Clare); spelt cocoloch, Beaumont and Fl., Four Plays in One, Triumph of Honour, sc. 1 (Nicodemus). F. coqueluche, a hood, also a person who is all the vogue. See Dict. de l’Acad. (1762).

Cock Lorel, the name of the owner and captain of the boat containing jovial reprobates of all trades in a sarcastic poem, Cocke Lorelles Bote, printed c. 1515; used also allusively with the sense of ‘rogue’; ‘Here is fyrst, Cocke Lorell the Knyght’ (ed. 1843, p. 4); ‘Cock-Lorrell would needs have the Devill his guest’, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metam. (Song). See Lorel.

cockney, (1) a cockered child, a child tenderly brought up, hence (2) a squeamish, foppish, effeminate fellow. (1) Tusser, Husbandry, 183; Baret, Alvearie, C. 729; (2) Twelfth Nt. iv. 1. 15; a squeamish woman, King Lear, ii. 4. 123. ME. cokenay, an effeminate person (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4208); coknay, ‘delicius’ (Prompt.).

cockshut time, twilight. Richard III, v. 3. 70. The twilight, or dim light in which woodcocks could most easily be caught in cockshuts. A cockshut, or cockshoot, was a broadway or glade in a wood, through which woodcocks might dart or shoot, and in which they might be caught with nets; see EDD. ‘A fine cock-shoot evening’, Middleton, The Widow, iii. 1. 6; cp. Arden of Feversham, iii. 2. 47.

cocksure, absolutely secure. Skelton, Why Come ye nat to Court, 279; Conflict of Conscience, iii. 3. 1 (in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 67); with absolute security, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 94.

cocted, boiled. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 15. L. coctus, pp. of coquere, to cook.

cod, a bag, Lyly, Mydas, iv. 2 (Corin); a civet-bag, musk-bag, B. Jonson, Epigrams, xix; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 2 (Livia). OE. codd, a bag.

coddle, to parboil, to stew; ‘To codle, coctillo’, Coles, Dict. 1679; ‘I’ll have you coddled’ (alluding to ‘Prince Pippin’), Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4. 31. See Dict. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Coddle, vb.³ 1).

codes!, coads-nigs!, cuds me!, ejaculations of surprise, no doubt orig. profane. Codes! Codes!, Beaumont and Fl., Maid’s Tragedy, i. 2 (Diagoras). Coads-nigs!, Middleton, Trick to Catch, ii. 1 (Freedom); Cuds me, ib. (Lucre).

cod’s-head, a stupid fellow, a blockhead. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, v. 2 (Cat. Bountinall). In prov. use in Derbysh. (EDD.).

coffin, pie-crust, raised crust of a pie. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (Pennyboy sen.); Titus And. v. 2. 189. So in prov. use in Lincolnsh. and Hertfordsh., see EDD. (s.v. Coffin, 5).

coft(e, pp. bought. Mirror for Magistrates, Clarence, st. 49; Dalrymple, Leslie’s Hist. Scotland (NED.). M. Dutch coft(e, pret., and gecoft (mod. gecocht), pp. of copen, to buy (Verdam); cp. G. kaufen.

cog, to cheat, deceive, Much Ado, v. 1. 95; to employ feigned flattery, to fawn. Merry Wives, iii. 3. 76; Richard III, i. 3. 48. Still in use in Sussex, see EDD. (s.v. Cog, vb.⁴ 2).

cogge, a kind of ship; chiefly, a ship for transport. Morte Arthur, leaf 82, back, 30; bk. v, c. 3; cogg, a cock-boat, Fairfax, tr. of Tasso, xiv. 58. OF. cogue (Godefroy).

coggle, to coggle in, to flatter continually. Jacob and Esau, ii. 3 (Mido). See cog.

cohobation, a process in alchemy; a repeated distillation. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Face). See NED.

coil, coyle, to beat, thrash; ‘I shall coil them’, Jacob and Esau, v. 4 (near the end); Roister Doister, iii. 3, l. 7 from end; ‘I coyle ones kote, I beate hym, je bastonne,’ Palsgrave. Hence coiling, a beating, Udall, tr. Apoph., Socrates, § 15. ‘Coil’ has still this meaning in Northumberland, see EDD. (s.v. Coil, vb.³).

Cointree, Coventry. Cointree blue, Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. 4; Ballad of Dowsabel, l. 63.

†coistered; ‘There were those at that time who, to try the strength of a man’s back and his arm, would be coister’d’, Marston, Malcontent, v. 1. 10. Meaning unknown.

coistril, used as a term of contempt, a low varlet; spelt coystrill Twelfth Nt. i. 3. 43; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 2. 137 (Downright). Cp. coistrel, in use in the north country in the sense of a raw, inexperienced lad (EDD.); ‘A coistrel, adolescentulus’, Coles Dict. 1679.

cokes, a simpleton, dupe. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Quarlous); Devil an Ass, ii. 1 (Pug); spelt cox, Beaumont and Fl., Wit at sev. Weapons, iii. 1 (Oldcraft).

colberteen, a kind of open lace, like network. Congreve, Way of the World, v. 1 (Lady Wishfort); Swift, Cadenus and Vanessa, 418. Named from ‘Colbert, Superintendent of the French King’s Manufactures’ (Fop’s Dict. 1690). See NED.

colcarrier, colecarier, a coal-carrier, a low dependant, cringing sycophant; lit. one who will carry coals for another. Golding, tr. of Ovid, The Epistle, p. 2, l. 86. See coals.

Cold-harbour, Cole-arbour, an old building in Dowgate Ward. Westward Ho, iv. 2 (Justinians); B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, ii. 3 (Morose); Middleton, A Trick to Catch, ii. 1 (Lucre). For an account of the great house called Cold Harbrough, see Stow’s Survey, Dowgate Ward (ed. Thoms, 88. 89).

cole, coal, money. (Cant.) Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Shamwell). To post the cole, to pay the money. See NED. (s.v. Cole, sb.³).

coleharth, a coal-hearth, or place where a fire has been made; ‘An Harte passeth by some coleharthes . . . the hote sent of the fire smoothreth the houndes’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 40; pp. 114-15.

coles: in phr. precious coles, a kind of minced oath. Gascoigne, Steel Glas (ed. Arber, 80); Return from Parnassus (ed. Arber, 50). See NED. (s.v. Precious).

colice, a strong broth, a ‘cullis’. Lyly, Campaspe, iii. 5 (Apelles). F. ‘coulis, a cullis or broth of boyled meat strained’ (Cotgr.).

coll, to embrace. Middleton, The Witch, i. 2 (Hecate); Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 34; an embrace, Middleton, The Witch, i. 2. Still in use in Dorset and Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Coll, vb.¹). OF. coler (La Curne), deriv. of col (F. cou), neck.

colle-pixie, a goblin, mischievous sprite. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 99. For colt-pixy, a sprite in the form of a colt, which neighs and misleads horses in bogs, a word known in Hants. and Dorset, the Dorset form is cole-pexy, see EDD. (s.v. Colt-pixy).

collet, the part of a ring in which the stone is set. C. Tourneur, Revengers’ Tragedy, i. 1 (Duchess); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 18. Cp. F. collet, a collar (Cotgr.).

collocavit, used grotesquely to denote some kitchen utensil. Udall, Roister Doister, iv. 7 (Merygreek). There seems to be an allusion to collock, q.v.

collock, a large pail; ‘Collock, an old word for a Pail’, Phillips, Coles, 1677. A north-country word (EDD.). ME. colok, ‘canterus’ (Voc. 771. 30).

collogue, to deal flatteringly with any one; ‘Trainer sa parole, to collogue, to flatter, fawn on’, Cotgrave; to feign agreement, Marston and Webster, Malcontent, v. 2; to have a private understanding with, ‘They collogued together’, Wood, Life (ed. 1772, p. 172). In prov. use in many parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland in three senses: (1) to talk confidentially, (2) to flatter, to wheedle, (3) to plot together for mischief (EDD.). Cp. L. colloq- in colloquium, with change to collogue under the influence of dialogue, duologue, &c.

collow, to make black or dirty with coal-dust or soot; Middleton, Family of Love, iii. 3. 2; ‘Poisler, to collow, smut, begryme’, Cotgrave; ‘I colowe, I make blake with a cole’, Palsgrave. A Cheshire word, see EDD. (s.v. Colley, vb. 6). ME. colwen, cp. colwyd, ‘carbonatus’ (Prompt. EETS. 91). Cp. colly.

colly, to blacken. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 3; Mids. Night’s D. i. 1. 145; ‘to colly, denigro’, Coles, Dict. 1679. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Colley, vb. 6). See collow.

colon, the largest human intestine. To satisfy colon, to satisfy one’s hunger, Massinger, Unnat. Combat, i. 1 (Belgarde); to pacify colon, id., Picture, ii. 1 (Hilario).

colour, a pretence, appearance of right. Two Gent. iv. 2. 3; Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 566; colours, ensigns, standards, 1 Hen. VI, iii. 3. 31; to fear no colours, to fear no flags, no enemy, Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 6.

colour de roy, bright tawny. Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, i. 2 (Balurdo). F. ‘couleur de roy, was in old time, Purple; but now is the bright Tawny, which we also tearm Colour de Roy’ (Cotgr.).

colpheg, to buffet or cuff, Edwards, Damon and Pithias, Anc. Eng. Drama, i. 85, col. 1; in Dodsley (ed. 1780, i. 209). See NED. (s.v. Colaphize).

colprophet, a sorcerer, fortune-teller. Mirror for Magistrates, Glendour, st. 31 and st. 34; spelt coleprophet, J. Heywood, Prov. and Epigr. (ed. 1867, p. 17).

colt, to befool, to ‘take in’, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 39; Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iii. 2. From colt (a young horse), used humorously for a young or inexperienced person, one easily taken in. Cp. the prov. use of ‘to colt’, meaning to make a newcomer pay his footing, see EDD. (s.v. Colt, vb.¹ 12).

come off, to pay money, pay a debt. Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iv. 2 (1 Court.); B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 1 (end); Merry Wives, iv. 3. 12.

com’esta, how is it? how goes it with you? Massinger, Virgin Martyr, ii. 3 (Spungius). Span. cómo está?, how is it?

commandador, a lieutenant; compared to a common sergeant. B. Jonson, Volpone, iv. 1 (Sir Pol.). Span. comendador, ‘a commander, lieutenant’ (Minsheu). The Span. vb. comendar orig. meant ‘to commend’.

commandments, ten, ten fingers, or two fists; jocularly. 2 Hen. VI, i. 3. 145; Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 63. [‘Be busy with the ten commandments’, Longfellow, Span. Student, iii. 2 (Cruzado).] Cp. Span. los diez mandamiéntos, the ten commandments; ironically, the ten fingers (Stevens).

commence, to take the full degree of Master or Doctor in any faculty at a University; to commence doctor, to take a doctor’s degree, Massinger, Emp. of the East, ii. 1 (Chrysapius); Duke of Milan, iv. 1 (Graccho).

commencement, the great public ceremony, esp. at Cambridge, when degrees are conferred at the end of the academical year. Brewer, Lingua, iv. 2 (Common Sense); ‘In Oxford this solemnitie is called an Act, but in Cambridge they use the French word Commensement’, Harrison, Descr. England, bk. ii, ch. 3 (ed. Furnivall, 75).

commodity, wares, merchandise; esp. a parcel of goods sold on credit by a usurer to a needy person, who immediately raised some cash by reselling them at a lower price, often to the usurer himself; ‘He’s in for a commodity of brown paper and old ginger’, Measure for M. iv. 3. 5; advantage, profit, ‘I will turn diseases to commodity’, 2 Hen. IV, i. 2 (end); Bacon, Essay 41, § 1.

communicate, to share in, partake of; ‘Thousands that communicate our loss’, B. Jonson, Sejanus, iii. 1 (Tib.).

communication, conversation, talk. Bible, Luke xxiv. 17; Eph. iv. 29; this rendering of the Gk. λόγος is due to Tyndal, ‘communicacion’; ‘(Cardinal Morton), gentill in communication’, More, Utopia (ed. Arber, 36).

companiable, sociable, companionable. Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 217. ME. companyable, ‘socialis’ (Prompt.). A deriv. of OF. compain, orig. nom. of compagnon; Anglo-F. cumpainz (Ch. Rol. 285).

companion, used as term of contempt, a fellow. Com. of Errors, iv. 4. 64; 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 102. Cp. the use of kumpân (OF. compain) in the MLG. poem Reinke de Vos, 1984 (ed. Bartsch, p. 293).

compass, to obtain, win (an object). Two Gent. ii. 4. 214; Pericles, i. 2. 24; Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 28.

compass, range, arc described by an arrow. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, ii. 2 (Somerton); Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 145).

complement, that which goes to ‘complete’ the character of a gentleman in regard to external appearance or demeanour. Hen. V, ii. 2. 134; B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, i. 1 (Carlo).

complimentary, a master of defence, who published works upon the compliments and ceremonies of duelling. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Crites).

compromit, to submit, esp. to submit to a compromise. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 4, § 2. F. compromettre, to put unto compromise (Cotgr.).

compter, a ‘counter’, for children to play with. Conflict of Conscience, iv. 5 (Conscience); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 108.

comptible, liable to give an ‘account’ of, sensitive to. Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 186.

comrogue, a fellow-rogue. Massinger, City Madam, iv. 1. 10; B. Jonson, Masque of Augurs (Groom). A jocular word; for comrade. Also comrague, Webster, Appius, iv. 2 (1 Soldier); Heywood and Brome, Lancashire Witches, 1634 (sig. K., Dyce).

con: phr. to con thanks, to acknowledge thanks, to be grateful. All’s Well, iv. 3. 174; Timon, iv. 3. 428. See NED. (s.v. Con, vb.¹ 4).

con., short for contra, against; ‘Now for the con’, Beaumont and Fl., Nice Valour, iii. 2 (Lapet). Cp. the phrase pro and con.

concavite, concave or hollow sphere of the sky; ‘Where is become that azure concavite?’ (riming with infinite), Mirror for Mag., Robert of Normandy, st. 113.

conceit, what is conceived in the mind, conception, idea. Othello, iii. 3. 115; Merch. Venice, iii. 4. 2; faculty of conceiving, mental capacity, As You Like It, v. 2. 60; imagination, fancy, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 263; used of articles of fanciful design, Mids. Night’s D. i. 1. 33.

conceited, full of imagination or fancy; ‘The conceited painter’, Lucrece, 1371; disposed to playful fancy, Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 3 (Ariosto); B. Jonson, Every Man in Humour, iii. 2. 29; curiously designed, Chapman, Homer, Iliad ix, 85; conceitedly, ingeniously, Middleton, Mayor of Queenboro’, iii. 3 (Vortigern).

conceive, to understand, to take the meaning of (a person); ‘Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet Coz’, Merry Wives, i. 1. 250; Spenser, State Ireland (Works, Globe ed. 666).

concent, harmony, concord. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 5; (consent), Hen. V, i. 2. 181. L. concentus, a singing together.

concinnitie, harmony, congruity, propriety. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 20, § last but one. L. concinnitas.

conclusions, to try, to try experiments, or an experiment. Hamlet, iii. 4. 195; Massinger, Duke of Milan, iv. 1 (near end).

concrew, to grow together. Only in Spenser, F. Q. iv. 7. 40. Cp. F. concrû, pp. of concroítre.

condiscend, for condescent, acquiescence, agreement, consent; lit. condescension. Kyd, Span. Tragedy, iii. 14. 17.

condition, provision, stipulation; = on condition that, Tr. and Cr. i. 2. 78; Massinger, Old Law, ii. 1 (Simonides); Shirley, Young Admiral, iii. 2 (Fabio); mental disposition, temper, character, Merch. Ven. i. 2. 143; Hen. V, v. 1. 83.

condog, to concur, ‘Concurre? condogge?’, Lyly, Gallathea, i. 1 (Raffe); ‘To agree, concurre, cohere, condog’; Cockeram’s Dict. (1642), second part. A whimsical alteration of concur, made by substituting dog for cur. The usual tale about this word is wholly without foundation; see NED.

conduction, guidance, leadership. North, tr. of Plutarch, Coriolanus, § 21 (in Shak. Plut., p. 40, n. 7); Robinson, tr. of Utopia, bk. ii; ed. Arber, p. 138. L. conductio; from conducere, to conduct.

coney, a rabbit. In compounds: Cony-burrow, a rabbit-warren, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 1 (Orlando), spelt coney borough, B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii. 1 (Medlay); coney-catch, to cheat, dupe, Merry Wives, i. 1. 128; Humour out of Breath, iv. 3 (Hortensio); conie-catcher, a cheat, Sir Thos. More, i. 4. 205; coney-garth, a rabbit-warren, Palsgrave; spelt cony gat, Peele, Works (ed. Dyce, p. 579); conyger, Horman, Vulgaria (NED.); conygree, Turbervile, Venerie, 184. For etymology of these ‘coney’ words see NED.

confine, to send beyond the confines, to banish. Webster, Appius, v. 3 (Virginius). Dyce gives five more examples, all from Heywood. And see Dyce’s Webster, p. 375.

confins, inhabitants of adjacent regions. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 20, § 12. L. confines, pl., neighbours.

confluent, affluent, abounding in. Chapman, tr. of Homer, Iliad ix, 157. In this sense found only here.

congee, a bow; orig. at taking one’s leave. Dryden, Prol. to The Loyal Brother, 25; Marlowe, Edward II, v. 4; to take ceremonious leave, ‘I have congied with the Duke’, All’s Well, iv. 3. 103. OF. congie, leave of absence, dismission. See Dict.

conglobate, gathered as into a globe, compressed. Dryden, Death of Lord Hastings, 35.

congrue, fitting, suitable; ‘Congrue Latine’, Latin that can be parsed, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 15, § 1. F. congru (Littré); L. congruus, agreeing, suitable.

congrue, to agree, accord. Hen. V, i. 2. 182 (Qu.); Hamlet, iv. 3. 66 (Qq.). L. congruere.

conjure, to call upon solemnly, to adjure. Two Gent. ii. 7. 2; Hamlet, iv. 3. 67; to influence by incantation, or the adjuring of spirits, Timon, i. 1. 7; to swear together, to conspire, Milton, P. L. ii. 693; Spenser, F. Q. v. 10. 26.

consilliadory, pl. councillors. City Nightcap, i. 1 (Abstemia); iii. 1 (Lorenzo). Ital. consigliatori, pl.; from consiglio, council.

consort, a ‘concert’ of musical instruments. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, 1. 23 from the end; Northward Ho, ii. 1; Beaumont and Fl., King and No King, v. 2 (Lygones).

consumedly, excessively; ‘I believe they talked of me; for they laughed consumedly’, Farquhar, Beaux Stratagem, iii. 1 (Scrub); consumedly in love’, id., iii. 2 (Scrub).

conteck, strife, discord. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 64; Shep. Kal., May, 163; Sept., 86. ME. contek, strife (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2003, B. 4122). Anglo-F. contec, ‘débat, querelle’ (Moisy); contention (Gower, Mirour, 4647). See Dict. M. and S.

continent, one of the concentric ‘spheres’ in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy; each hollow crystal sphere carried with it one of the seven planets that revolved round the earth, each planet being attached to the concave surface of its own sphere. ‘As true . . . as doth that orbed continent [that spherical solar shell retain] the fire That severs day from night’ [i.e. the sun], Twelfth Nt. v. 1. 278; ‘Nor doth the moon no nourishment exhale From her moist continent to higher orbs’ (i.e. from her own sphere to the spheres beyond), Milton, P. L. v. 422; ‘All subject under Luna’s continent’, Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 2 (1148); scene 9. 62 (W.); p. 167, col. 2 (D); ‘Luna, . . . trembling upon her concave continent’, iv. 1 (1543); scene 11. 15 (W.); p. 172, col. 1 (D.). Cp. ‘Judging the concave circle of the sun To hold the rest in his circumference’, Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 3 (1122); scene 9. 36 (W.); p. 167, col. 1 (D.).

contrive, to wear out, to spend; ‘Three ages, such as mortall men contrive’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 48; Tam. Shrew, i. 2. L. contrivi, pt. t. of conterere, to wear away; cp. ‘totum hunc contrivi diem’, Terence, Hec. 5. 3. 17. Not the same word as mod. E. contrive. See Nares.

convent, to convene, summon together, summon. Coriolanus, ii. 2. 59; Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 17.

convert, to cause to return, to bring back; ‘Or if I stray he doth convert, And bring my minde in frame’, Herbert, Temple, Ps. xxiii; to turn aside from (intrans.), ‘When thou from youth convertest’, Sh. Sonn. xi.

convertite, a professed convert to a religious faith, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, i. 2 (Barabas); a person converted to a better course of action, King John, v. 1. 19.

convey, a cant term for to steal. Merry Wives, i. 3. 52; Richard II, v. 317. Hence conveyance, trickery, artifice, 3 Hen. VI, iii. 3. 160.

convince, to overcome, overpower; ‘I will with wine and wassal so convince’, Macbeth, i. 7. 64; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 21; to prove a person to be guilty, ‘Which of you convinceth mee of sinne?’ Bible, John viii. 46; Tr. and Cr. ii. 2. 129; Webster, Appius and Virg. v. 3; Mirror for Mag., Glocester. st. 43; to refute in argument, ‘It sufficeth to convince atheism, but not to inform religion’, Bacon, Adv. Learning, ii. 681.

convive, one who feasts with others, a table-companion. Beaumont, Psyche, x. 211; to feast together, Tr. and Cr. iv. 5. 272. F. convive, a guest; L. conviva, one who lives or feasts with others.

cooling card, a winning card in a card-game, that dashes the hopes of the adversary. 1 Hen. VI, v. 3. 84; Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, ii. 2 (Flavia).

copartiment, a compartment, panel. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, i. 2 (last line). Ital. compartimento, a partition.

copatain hat, a high-crowned hat (?). Tam. Shrew, v. 1. 69; ‘A copetain hatte made on a Flemmishe blocke’, Gascoigne, Works, i. 375. Prob. the same as copintank, copentank, a high-crowned hat in the form of a sugar-loaf; ‘A high cop-tank hat,’ North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antonius, § 30. See NED. (s.v. Copintank).

cope, a purchase, bargain. Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 3 (351); scene 3. 5 (W.); p. 157, col. 1 (D.). Cp. ‘cope’, a prov. word meaning to exchange, barter, heard in the north country and E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Cope, vb.² 1). Dutch koop, a sale, a buying. See Dict. (s.v. Cope, 3).

copel, a small pot made of bone-ash, used for melting gold or silver. Sir T. Browne, Urn-burial, ch. iii, § 18. Spelt coppell, Bacon, Sylva, § 799. F. coupelle, ‘a Coppell, the little Ashen pot or vessel wherein Goldsmiths melt or fine their Metals’ (Cotgr.); see Estienne, Précellence, 142 (Lexique-Index, 400). Coupelle is a deriv. of coupe, a cup. Med. L. cuppa (Ducange). See NED. (s.v. Cupel).

copemate, copesmate, a person with whom one ‘copes’ or contends, an adversary. Golding, Metam. xii (ed. 1593, 279); Chapman, All Fools, ii (Valerio); a companion, comrade, Greene, Upstart Courtier (ed. 1871, 4), used fig. Lucrece, 925; female copesmate, mistress, paramour, B. Jonson, Every Man, iv. 10 (Knowell).

coppe, the top, summit. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 202. 18; lf. 232, back, 26. Hence copped, peaked, Pericles, i. 1. 101; ‘High-copt hats’, Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1163. ME. cop: ‘the cop of the hill’ (Wyclif, Luke iv. 29). OE copp.

copy, abundance, copiousness. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, ii. 1 Carlo); Magn. Lady, ii. 1 (Placentia). L. copia.

copy, copyhold, tenure of land ‘by copy’, i.e. according to the ‘copy’ of the manorial court-roll, used fig. Macbeth, iii. 2. 38.

coracine, a kind of fish like a perch, found in the Nile. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 10. L. coracinus, Gk. κορακῖνος, from κόραξ, a raven, from its black colour.

coranto, a quick dance. Hen. V, iii. 5. 33; Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, iii. 2 (Kickshaw). Ital. coranto, ‘a kinde of French dance’ (Florio); cp. F. courante, ‘a curranto’ (Cotgr.). See courant.

corasive, a sharp remedy, severe reproach. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 154). See corsive.

corbe, courbe, bent, crooked. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 56. ME. courbe (Gower, C. A. i. 1687). F. courbe, L. curvus.

corbed up, (prob.) controlled, as by a curb, curbed. Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, ii. 1 (Pandulfo).

cordwain, Spanish leather, orig. made at Cordova. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 2. 6; Drayton, Eclogues, iv. 177. Spelt cordevan, Fletcher, Faith. Shepherdess, i. 1. 21. Span. cordován, Spanish leather (Stevens).

coresie, vexation, a corroding, gnawing annoyance. Tusser, Husbandry, § 19. 24. In prov. use in Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. Corrosy). F. corrosif (Cotgr.); for the change of suffix, cp. hasty, the E. representative of F. hastif. See corsive.

corned, horned, peaked, pointed; said of shoes. Skelton, Maner of the World, 26; Greene, Description of Chaucer, 13; ed. Dyce, p. 320. Cp. F. corné, horned (Cotgr.).

cornel, a little grain, granule; ‘Bread is of many cornels compounded’, Conflict of Conscience, iv. 1 (Philologus); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 83.

cornel, a javelin made of cornel-wood. Used to translate L. cornus, Dryden, tr. Aeneid, xii. 406.

cornes, pl. kinds of corn; corn. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 8, back, 4; lf. 88. 14.

cornet, a troop of horse; so called from its standard, which was a long horn-shapen pennon. 1 Hen. VI, iv. 3. 25; Kyd, Span. Tragedy, i. 2. 41. F. cornette, ‘a Cornet of Horse; the Ensign of a horse-company’ (Cotgr.).

cornet, a head-dress formerly worn by ladies; ‘Her cornet blacke’, Surrey, Complaint that his Ladie kept her face hidden, 2; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 12. F. cornette, a horned head-dress; dim. of corne, a horn.

cornet, some kind of ornament (?); ‘With cornets at their footmen’s breeches’, Butler, Hudibras, iii. 2. 872.

cornuto, a cuckold. Merry Wives, iii. 5. 71. Ital. cornuto, a cuckold; lit. ‘furnished with horns’ (Florio).

coronal, a wreath of flowers, a garland. Fletcher, Faith. Shepherdess, i. 1. 11; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 53.

coronel, a ‘colonel’. Spenser, View of Ireland, Globe ed., p. 656, l. 9; lieutenant-coronel, B. Jonson, Every Man, iii. 5 (Knowell). Span. coronel, Ital. colonello, ‘a Colonel of a Regiment’ (Florio); a deriv. of colonna, cp. F. colonne de troupes, a column, a formation of troops narrow laterally and deep from front to rear; see Hatzfeld.

correption, reproof, rebuke. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 30: Augustus, § 12. L. correptio; deriv. of corripere, to reprove.

corrigidor, corregidor, a Spanish magistrate. Machin, Dumb Knight, v. 1 (Cyprus); Kyd, Span. Tragedy, iii. 13. 58. See Stanford.

corrol, to crimson, to make like ‘coral’; ‘The . . . sunne corrols his cheeke’, Herrick, A Nuptial Verse to Mistress E. Lee, 4.

corser, a dealer, esp. a horse-dealer. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 119. 15; spelt courser, Beaumont and Fl., The Captain, v. 1 (Father). ME. corser, Wyclif, Works (ed. 1880, p. 172); corsowre of horse, ‘mange’ (Prompt. 94), Anglo-F. cossour, A.D. 1310, see Riley’s Memorials of London, Pref., p. xxii, Med. L. cociatorem, a broker, factor, dealer, cp. cocio (Ducange). The Ital. cozzone, a horse-courser (Florio), is from coctionem, a later form of cocionem, see Diez, 112.

corsive, for corrosive; anything that corrodes, grief, distress. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, i. 1. 7; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 9. 14; Drayton, Barons’ Wars, iv. 14. See coresie.

cortine, a curtain (military term); a plain wall in a fortification; the wall between two bastions, &c. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (P. Can.). F. courtine (cortine), a curtain; and (in fortification) the plainness of the wall between bulwark and bulwark (Cotgr.); in the same sense Ital. cortina (Florio).

coscinomancy, divination by means of a sieve. From Gk. κόσκινον, a sieve; and suffix -mancy, as in necro-mancy, &c. Hence the compound necro-puro-geo-hydro-cheiro-coscino-mancy. Tomkis, Albumazar, ii. 3 (Alb.), where puro- should be pyro-. Sometimes the sieve was suspended by a thread; otherwise, it was used in conjunction with a pair of shears, as described in Brand, Popular Antiq. iii. 351; cp. Butler, Hudibras, ii, 3. 569.

coshering, the right claimed by Irish chiefs of quartering themselves upon their dependants. Davies, Why Ireland (ed. 1747, 169); feasting, Shirley, St. Patrick, v. 1 (2 Soldier); also, coshery, feasting, Stanyhurst tr. Virgil, Aeneid i, 707. Spenser in his State of Ireland mentions cosshirh as one of the customary services claimed by the Irish Lord (ed. Morris. 623). Ir. cóisir, feasting, entertainment (Dinneen). ‘In modern times coshering means simply a friendly visit to a neighbour’s house to have a quiet talk’, Joyce, English as we speak it in Ireland, 240.

cosset, a pet lamb. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 42; also fig. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Mrs. Litt.). In prov. use in Glouc., E. Anglia, and Kent, meaning a lamb or colt brought up by hand, also, an indulged child, a pet animal (EDD.).

cost, the rib of a ship. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iii. 1 (Cymbal). L. costa (navium) (Pliny).

costard, the head. Applied jocularly to the head, as being like a very large apple. ME. costard, an apple; lit. a ‘ribbed’ apple; from OF. coste, L. costa, a rib. Hence costard-monger or coster-monger, orig. a seller of apples. See EDD.

coste, to move beside; to keep up with a hunted animal. Morte Arthur, leaf 382, back, 19; bk. xviii, c. 19. See coast.

cot, cott, a little boat. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 9. Many places in Ireland derive their names from this ‘cot’; see Joyce. Irish Names of Places, i. 226. Still in use in the north of Ireland, see EDD. (s.v. Cot, sb.⁴). Irish coit, coite, a small boat, a skiff (Dinneen), Gael. coit, a kind of canoe used on rivers (Macleod).

cote, coat (in coursing), of one of two dogs running together: to pass by its fellow so as to give the hare a turn (NED.); fig. to pass by, to outstrip. Hamlet, ii. 2. 330; L. L. L. iv. 3. 87; Chapman, Iliad, xxiii. 324; coat, the action of coting, Drayton, Pol. xxiii (ed. 1748, p. 356).

cote, to quote. Udall, Paraph. N.T., Pref. (NED.); Middleton, A Mad World, i.2 (Cour.).

cothurnal, tragic; ‘Cothurnal buskins’, B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1 (Tucca). L. cothurnus; Gk. κόθορνος, a high boot. The cothurnus was worn by actors of tragedy.

cot-quean, the housewife of a labourer’s hut. Nashe, Almond for Parrat, 5; a coarse, vulgar, scolding woman, B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 3 (Jupiter addressing Juno); used contemptuously of a man who acts the housewife, and busies himself unduly in household matters, Romeo, iv. 4. 9; Addison, Spect. (1712) No. 482; spelt quot-quean, Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, ii. 2. 6; to play the cotqueane, Heywood, Gunaik. iv. 180 (NED.). Cp. use of cot and molly-cot in Cheshire and Yorkshire, see EDD. (s.v. Cot, sb.¹ 1).

Cotswold, pronounced Cotsal in Shaks., Fol. 1, Merry Wives, i. 1. 93; a Cotsal man, an athletic man, such as lived in the Cotswold Hills, a district famous for athletic sports, 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 23; a Cotsold lion, a humorous expression for a sheep of that country, Udall, Roister Doister (ed. Arber, 70), iv. 6 (Merygreek). ‘As fierce as a lion of Cotswold, i.e. a sheep’, Fuller’s Worthies (Bohn’s Proverbs, 204).

cotton: in phr. this geer (or gear) will cotton, this stuff will come to a good nap, this thing will succeed. Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iv. 8 (Thomas); Middleton, Inner Temple Masque (Second Antimasque).

couch, to place, arrange, order. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 7, § 6; to cause to cower, Lucrece, 507; to place a lance in rest, 1 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 134.

couch: in phr. to couch a hogshead, to lie down and sleep. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); Harman, Caveat, p. 84.

couchee, an evening court-reception. Dryden, Hind and Panther, i. 516; ‘The King’s Couchée’, Etherege, Man of Mode, iv. 1; the equivalent of Le Coucher du Roi, or simply Le Coucher, the reception which preceded the king’s going to bed. Cp. Dict. Acad. Fr. 1786 (s.v. Coucher, s.m.), ‘Il se trouve au lever et au coucher du Roi.’ For the E. form of the word compare our levee for F. lever, ‘réception dans la chambre d’un roi au moment où il se lève’ (Hatzfeld).

couch-quail, to play. The same as to couch as a quail; to cower, crouch down; see Thersytes, 20; Skelton, Speke Parrot, 420. Cp. Chaucer’s ‘Thou shalt make him couche as dooth a quaille’ (C. T. E. 1206).

coul, to trim the feather of an arrow along the top. Ascham, Toxophilus, pp. 128, 129, 131, 133. Cp. cowl, to gather, collect, scrape together, a north-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Cowl, vb.² 1).

could, coud, couth, pt. t., knew, knew how to. Spenser, F. Q. v. 7. 5; Shep. Kal., Jan., 10. (Common). See can.

couleuvre, a snake. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 92. 21; spelt couleure, id., lf. 91, back, 19. F. couleuvre.

countant, accountant; liable to be called upon to give account. Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, i. 1 (Tarquin).

countenance, bearing, demeanour, behaviour; authority, favour, credit; show of politeness. As You Like It, i. 1. 19; Tam. Shrew, i. 1. 234; 1 Hen. IV, i. 2. 33; Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3 (end). The senses are variable and elusive.

counter, a counter-tenor voice. Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1 (3 Clown). See the context.

counter, compter, a prison, chiefly for debtors, attached to a city court; ‘One o’ your city pounds, the counters’, B. Jonson, Every Man, ii. 1 (Downright). The sheriffs of London had each his compter; one was in the Poultry, the other in Wood Street, Cheapside. There were three degrees of rooms for the prisoners: those on the Master’s side (the best), the Twopenny Ward, and the Hole (for the poorest), Middleton, Roaring Girl, iii. 3 (Sir Alexander). Those in the Hole were fed from ‘the basket’; see basket. Note that, according to Gascoigne, there were three Counters, the third being in Bread Street. ‘In Woodstreat, Bredstreat, and in Pultery’, Steel Glas, 791. In Stow’s Survey of London ‘the Compter in the Poultrie’ is mentioned (ed. Thoms, p. 99), and ‘the Compter in Bread Street’ (ib., p. 131).

counterfeit, a likeness, portrait, Merch. Ven. iii. 2. 115; Timon, v. 1. 83. Phr. a pair of counterfeits, used in the sense of vamps, or fore-parts of the upper leather of a shoe, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, iv. 2 (Firk).

counterfesaunce, counterfeiting, dissimulation. Spencer, F. Q. i. 8. 49; iv. 4. 27. OF. contrefaisance, counterfeiting (Godefroy).

countermure, to wall round, to fence in. Kyd, Span. Tragedy, iii. 7. 16. F. contremurer, Ital. ‘contramurare, to countermure’ (Florio).

counterpoint, a counterpane for a bed. Tam. Shrew, ii. 1. 353. F. ‘contrepoinct, a quilt, counterpoint’ (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.v. Counterpane).

counterscarf, a ‘counterscarp’, or outer wall or slope of the ditch, which supports the covered way of a fort. Heywood, Four Prentises (Godfrey); vol. ii, p. 242; id. London’s Mirror, fourth Show. F. contrescarpe (Rabelais), Ital. contrascarpa; see Estienne, Préc. 351; scarpa, slope of a wall.

county, a count, as a title, Romeo, i. 3. 105; Merch. Venice, i. 2. 48. (Frequent.)

couped, cut, cut clean off, with a smooth edge (in heraldry). Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 214. F. couper, to cut.

coupee, a dance step; the dancer rests on one foot, and passes the other forward or backward, with a sort of salutation. Wycherley, Gent. Dancing-master, iii. 1; Steele, Tender Husband, iii. 1 (Mrs. Clerimont). F. coupé, ‘mouvement par lequel on coupe un espace; (Danse) Pas composé d’un plié avec changement de pied suivi d’un glissé’ (Hatzfeld).

courant, a dance with a running or gliding step; a coranto. Etherege, Man of Mode, iv. 1 (Sir Fopling); Steele, Tender Husband, i. 2 (Tipkin). See coranto.

courant, corant, an express message; a newspaper. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Sir Moth); Underwoods, lxi. 81. F. courant, running, a runner; from courir, to run.

coursing, succession in due ‘course’. Only in the following passage: ‘My Ladye Mary and my Ladye Elizabeth . . . by succession and course are inheritours to the crowne. Who yf they shulde mary with straungers, what should ensue God knoweth. But God graunt they never come vnto coursyng nor succedynge.’ Latimer, 1 Sermon bef. King (ed. Arber, p. 30).

court holy-water, a proverbial phrase for flattery, and fine words without deeds; ‘Court holy-water in a dry house is better than this rainwater out o’ door’, King Lear, iii. 2. 10; ‘Her unperformed promise was the first court holy-water which she sprinkled amongst the people’, Fuller, Ch. Hist. viii. 1. 6; ‘Court-holy-water, Promissa rei expertia, fumus aulicus’, Coles, 1699; ‘Eau beniste de cour, court holy-water, fair words, flattering speeches’, Cotgrave. See Nares.

courtnoll, courtnold, a contemptuous term for a courtier. Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 516; Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 51 From court, and noll, the head, hence, a person (nowl in Shakespeare).

court-passage, a game at dice. Middleton, Women beware, ii. 2 (Guardiano). See passage.

coustreling, a lad, knave, groom. Only in Udall, Roister Doister, i. 4 (Merygreek). See coistril.

covenable, fit, suitable, becoming, of becoming appearance; ‘A sonne called Philip, a right covenable and gracious man’, Berners, Froissart, ccclxxix. 635; Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, ch. 11, § 6. OF. and Prov. convenable (cov-). ME. covenable, fit, proper, suitable, agreeable (Chaucer).

covent, a ‘convent’. Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 849; Meas. for M. iv. 3. 133. ME. covent (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1827). The old form remains in ‘Covent Garden’. Anglo-F. cuvent (Rough List).

cover: phr. be covered, put on your hat. As You Like It, v. 1. 18; Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 3 (Sir O. Twi.). (There are endless compliments about wearing a hat in old plays.)

covert: phr. under covert-baron, in the condition of a woman who is protected by her husband. Middleton, Your Five Gallants, v. 2 (Miss N.); under covert-barn, under protection, Phoenix, iii. 1 (Falso). Anglo-F. feme couverte baroun, for couverte de baroun, a woman protected by her husband (Rough List). See Cowell, Interp. (s.v. Coverture).

covetise, covetousness. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle); Kyd, Cornelia, i. l. 26. ME. covetyse, ‘avaricia’ (Prompt.), Anglo-F. coveitise, cp. Ital. cupidigia (Dante).

cowardry, cowardice. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 511; cowardree, Spenser, Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 986.

cowith, the commonest form of Welsh bardic verse, Drayton, Pol. iv. 183 (notes 59 and 67). Wel. cywydd.

cowl-staff, coul-staff, cole-staff, a stout pole orig. used for carrying a ‘cowl’ or tub, esp. a water-tub; ‘Cudgels, colestaves’, Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 1 (Tranio); Merry Wives, iii. 3. 156; Select Records Oxford, 92. Cowl, for a large tub or barrel, is in prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Cowl, sb.² 1 and 2). ME. cowle (Prompt., in Harl. MS.).

cowshard, a piece of cowdung. Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 19; ‘Bouse de vache, the dung of a cow, a cow-shard’, Cotgrave. In use in Yorks., Lanc., Derby., and Wilts. (EDD.).

coxcomb, a fool’s cap; lit. cock’s comb. King Lear, i. 4. 105; also jocularly, the head, ib. ii. 4. 125.

coy, to render quiet, appease. Palsgrave; to stroke soothingly, to caress, Mids. Night’s D. iv. 1. 2; to coy it, to behave coyly, to affect shyness, Massinger, New Way, iii. 2. OF. coi, still, quiet, O. Prov. quet, ‘coi, tranquille’ (Levy), Romanic type quetu-, L. quiētum. See quoying.

coystrel. In Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 1119, a corrupt form of ‘kestrel’ (a base kind of hawk).

cozier, cosier, a cobbler. Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 97; ‘A cosier or cobler, remendón’, Minsheu, Span. Dict. 1599. OF. cousere, a seamster, one who sews (Godefroy), couseör, acc., O. Prov. cozedor, ‘couturier’ (Levy); deriv. from cosere, to sew, Romanic type representing L. consuere, to sew together; see Hatzfeld.

craboun, corrupt form of ‘carbine’. ‘Discharge thy craboun’, Return from Parnassus, iv. 2 (Ingenioso).

craccus, a kind of tobacco. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 1 (Trimtram); Beaumont and Fl., Woman’s Prize, i. 2 (Livia); where ed. 1625 has cracus (mod. ed. crocus). NED. suggests that the word means tobacco of Caraccas, in Venezuela.

crack, a pert, forward boy. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, Induct. (3 Child); Massinger, Unnat. Combat, i. 1 (Usher). Hence your crackship, address to a page, Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, ii. 1 (Hippolito). Crack-halter, playfully ‘a rogue’, Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 30; Lyly, Mother Bombie, iii. 4 (Song). Also crack-hempe, Tam. Shrew, v. 1. 46; and crack-rope, ‘Baboin, a crack-rope, wag-halter, unhappie rogue, retchlesse villaine’, Cotgrave; Edwards, Damon and Pithias, in Anc. Eng. Drama, i. 88 (Hazlitt, iv. 68).

crack, to talk big, boast, brag. L. L. L. iv. 3. 268; spelt crake, Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 50; Sir Thos. More, i. 2. 29. Hence cracker, boaster, King John, ii. 1. 147. The vb. crack in this sense is in prov. use in Scotland and in England in the north country, Midlands, and E. Anglia. ME. crakyn, to boast; ‘crakere, bost-maker’ (Prompt. EETS. 393).

crack, to damage, impair. Phr. cracked within the ring, said of a coin cracked at the rim; but constantly used with reference to impaired virginity. Hamlet, ii. 2. 448; Beaumont and Fl., Captain, ii. 1 (Jacomo). The ring was the inmost circle around the inscription; a piece cracked within that ring could be legally refused, and was no longer current.

crackmans, a hedge. (Cant.) ‘At the crackmans’, beside the hedge, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman). See NED.

crag, the neck. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 82, Sept., 45. A north-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Crag, sb.³).

craggue, a lean, scraggy person. Only in Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 150.

crambe, cabbage, in literary use only fig., and gen. in reference to the L. phrase crambe repetita, cabbage served up again, applied by Juvenal (Sat. vii. 154) to any tedious repetition. ‘Our Prayers . . . the same Crambe of words’, Milton, Animadv. ii.; Sir T. Browne, Rel. Medici, last §. Gk. κράμβη, a kind of cabbage.

crambe, crambo, a game in which one player gives a word or a line of a poem to which each of the others has to find a rime; if any one repeated a previous suggestion he had to pay a forfeit; ‘Crambe, another of the Divells games’, B. Jonson, Devill an Ass, v. 5; ‘Playing at Crambo in the waggon’, Pepys, Diary (May 20, 1660).

†cramocke, a crooked stick. Mirror for Mag., Madan, st. 6. Corrupt form of cammock.

cramp-ring, a ring supposed to be a remedy against cramp, falling sickness, and the like; esp. one of those which the Kings of England used to hallow on Good Friday for this purpose. Boorde, Introd. (ed. Furnivall, p. 121); Berners, Letter in Brand Pop. Antiq. (ed. 1813, l. 129); Middleton, Roaring Girl, iv. 2 (Mis. O.); Cartwright, The Ordinary, iii. 1 (Moth).

cranewes, pl., embrasures between battlements; crannies, apertures. ‘Cranewes of the walls of the city’; North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Brutus, § 23 (in Shak. Plut., p. 131); id., M. Antonius, § 42 (in Shak. Plut., p. 222). OF. creneaux, pl. of crenel, a battlement, an embrasure, see Estienne, Préc. 358.

Cranion, a proper name given to a fly, the charioteer of Queen Mab; ‘Fly Cranion, her charioteer, Upon her coach-box getting’, Drayton, Nymphidia, st. 17. Sir Cranion-legs, thin legs, like a fly or spider; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Quarlous).

crank, lively, brisk, merry; also as adv.; ‘Joyeux, as crank as a cock-sparrow’, Cotgrave; Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 46; Middleton, Trick to Catch the Old One, i. 3 (end); Beaumont and Fl., Wit at several Weapons, iii. 1 (Gregory); Sea-Voyage, iv. 3. 2. Crank is used in this sense in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Crank, adj.²). Crankly, briskly, Peele, Tale of Troy (ed. Dyce, p. 552).

crank, a beggar who shams illness. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1. 4. See Harman, Caveat, p. 51. Du. krank, ill, sick.

crank, to run in a winding course, to twist and turn about. Venus and Ad. 682; 1 Hen. IV, iii. 1. 98; a winding path, Coriolanus, i. 1. 143; cranks, pl. bends, turnings, Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 2. 28; Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 52.

crankle, to twist and turn about. Drayton, Pol. vii. 198; xii. 572; ‘Serpenter, to wriggle, wagle, crankle’, Cotgrave. A Leicestersh. word, see EDD. (s.v. Crankling).

†crapish (meaning unknown); ‘Scandalous and crapish’, Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, i. 1 (3 W.). Only in this place.

crash, a merry bout, a revel. Heywood, A Woman killed, i. 2. 5. See EDD. (s.v. Crash, sb.¹ 4).

cratch, a crib, manger; ‘The Coffin of our Christmas Pies in shape long is in imitation of the Cratch’, Selden, Table-talk (ed. Arber, 33); ‘Cratche for hors or oxen, creche’, Palsgrave; ‘Presepio, a cratch, a rack, a manger, a crib or a critch’, Florio. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Cratch sb.¹ 1 and 2). ME. cracche (cratche), so Wyclif, Is. i. 3, and Luke ii. 7. OF. creche, O. Prov. crepia, crepcha (Levy).

cratch, to scratch; ‘I cratche with my nayles’, Palsgrave. ME. cracche, to scratch (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2834.).

craze, to break, crack, burst. Richard III, iv. 4. 17; ‘Craze bars’, Heywood, The Fair Maid, iii. 4 (Bess); ‘God will craze their chariot wheels’, Milton, P. L. xii. 210. Still in use in the west country in the sense of to ‘crack’, said of glass, china, or church bells (EDD.).

creancer, creauncer, one to whom is entrusted the charge of another; a guardian; a tutor. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 129, l. 102; id. Garl. of Laurell, 1226. Deriv. of OF. creance, belief, trust, Med. L. credentia, ‘fides data’ (Ducange).

creeple, a cripple. Bible, Acts xiv. 8 (1611). ME. crepel, crepul (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. 1458). OE. crēopel, a cripple (B. T., Suppl. s.v. crypel).

creme, chrism, the sacred oil used for anointing kings at coronation; ‘A kynge enoynted with creme’, Morte Arthur, leaf 202. 36; bk. ix, c. 39. ME. creme, chrism, OF. creme, cresme (mod. chrême). L. chrisma, Gk. χρῖσμα, anointing oil.

cres’, a crest. Three Ladies of London, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 351. A peculiar form, to rime with grease. See Dict. (s.v. Crease).

crevis, a crayfish. Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 118. ‘Crevisse’ is a north-country word (EDD.). OF. crevice, crevisse, see Hatzfeld (s.v. Écrevisse).

crib (Cant); ‘To fill up the crib and to comfort the quarron’, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Song). Meaning doubtful. Perhaps the same word as crib, a manger; used fig. for the stomach as a place for provender.

cringle-crangle, adj., winding, curled; ‘Cringle-crangle horns’ (i.e. bugles), Chapman, Gent. Usher, i. 1 (Vincentio).

crippin, part of a hood for ladies. Spelt crepine, crespine. Lyly, Mydas, i. 2 (Licio). F. crespine, ‘the Crepine of a French hood’ (Cotgr.).

crisled, crizzled, roughened, shrivelled with cold. Ford, Sun’s Darling, v. 1 (Winter). In Northampton, water that is slightly frozen is ‘just crizzled over’, see EDD. (s.v. Crizzle).

croach, to grasp, seek after; ‘My life and th’ empire he did croach and crasse’, Mirror for Mag., Geta, st. 10. Hence, croacher, a seeker after. In compound crowne-croachers, Mirror for Mag., Rudacke, Lennoy, st. 2. OF. crocher, to catch with a hook.

croches, the ‘buds’ or knobs at the top of a stag’s horn; ‘These little buddes or broches which are about the toppe are called Croches’, Turbervile, Hunting, 54; Stanyhurst, Aeneid i, 194.

crocheteur, a porter. Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, iii. 2 (Longueville). F. crocheteur, ‘a porter or common burthen-bearer’; crochet, ‘a hook; le crochet d’un crocheteur, the forke or crooked staffe, used by a porter’ (Cotgr.).

crockling, a croaking noise; used of the noise made by cranes. Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, x. 265.

crofte, a crypt; ‘A crofte under the mynster’, Morte Arthur, leaf 258*, back, 18; bk. xvii, c. 18. Du. krocht, krochte. Med. L. crupta (Ducange), L. crypta; Gk. κρυπτή, a crypt, a place of hiding.

croisado, a crusade; ‘Your great croisado general’ (i.e. the general of your great crusade), Butler, Hudibras, iii. 2. 1200.

crome, a long stick with a hook at the end of it; ‘Long cromes’, Paston Letters, no. 77; vol. i, p. 106 (1872); Tusser, Husbandry, § 17. 19. In prov. use in E. Anglia (EDD.). Cp. Du. kramme, ‘a hooke, or a grapple’ (Hexham).

crone, an old ewe. Tusser, Husbandry, § 12, st. 4; Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 63. An E. Anglian and Essex word, see EDD. (s.v. Crone, sb.¹ 1).

cronet, a coronet. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ix, ch. 48, l. 51. Also, a part of the armour of a horse; Shirley, Triumph of Peace (Works, ed. Dyce, vi. 261).

croshabell, a courtesan. Peele, Works, ed. Dyce, p. 616, last line; and in a title, p. 615, col. 1. A Kentish word (EDD.).

croslet, crosslet, a crucible. Lyly, Gallathea, ii. 3; B. Jonson, Alchem., i. 1 (Face). ME. croslet (Chaucer, C. T. G. 1147). Dimin. of OF. crosel, O. Prov. cruzol, crucible (Levy).

cross, a piece of money; many coins had a cross on one side. As You Like It, ii. 4. 12; 2 Hen. IV, i. 2. 257.

cross and pile, the obverse and reverse side of a coin, head and (or) tail; hence, sometimes, a coin, money; ‘He had neither cross nor pile’, Sidney, Disc. Govt. (ed. 1704, p. 362); head or tail, i.e. ‘tossing up’, to decide anything doubtful; Wycherley, Love in a Wood, iii. 2 (Ranger); Return from Parnassus, ii. 1. 768; A Cure for a Cuckold, iv. 8 (Clare). Anglo-F. ‘jewer (jouer) a cros a Pil,’ A.D. 1327, see NED. ‘Les pièces de monnaie portaient une croix sur leur face, d’où l’expression: n’avoir ni croix ni pile’ (to have neither cross nor pile), see Jannet, Glossaire, Rabelais (s.v. Croix).

cross-bite, to bite in return, to cheat. Marston, What you Will, iii. 2. 279; iii. 3. 129. Hence, cross-biter, a swindler, Middleton, Your Five Gallants, ii. 3 (Goldstone).

cross-point, a particular step in dancing. Marston, Insatiate Countess, i. 1 (Rogers); Greene, King James IV, iv. 3 (Slipper, l. 1638).

cross-row, the alphabet; ‘And from the Crosse-row pluckes the letter G’, Richard III, i. 1. 55. Short for Christ-cross-row, so called from the figure of the cross (✠) formerly prefixed to it. Still in use in Essex, acc. to EDD. (s.v. Cross, II. (45)). See Christ-cross.

cross-tree, the gallows; ‘A cross-tree that never grows’ [because made of dead wood], Ford, Fancies Chaste, i. 2 (Spadone); the cross, Herrick, Noble Numbers, His Anthem to Christ, l. 14.

crotch, the fork of the human body, where the legs join the trunk. Greene, Verses against the Gentlewomen of Sicilia, l. 12; ed. Dyce, p. 316. An E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Crotch, sb.¹). OF. (Picard) croche, ‘entaillure’ (La Curne).

croteys, the dung of hares and rabbits; ‘Of Hares and Coneys, they are called Croteys’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 37, p. 97. F. crottes, ‘the dung, excrements or ordure of Sheep, Conies, Hares, etc.’ (Cotgr.).

crouse, crowse, brisk, lively, merry, Drayton, Eclogue vii, 73; Brome, Jovial Crew, i. 1 (1 Beggar). In common prov. use in Scotland and in the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Crouse, adj.¹ 4).

crow, the well-known bird. In alchemy, at a certain stage of the work, there would sometimes be an appearance like a crow; it was considered a very favourable sign; see B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle).

crowchmas, the day of the Invention of the Holy Cross, May 3. Tusser, § 50. 36; Crowchemesse Day; Paston Letters, no. 472, end (ii. 132, 1872). ‘At Crowchmesse, a la saincte Croyx’, Palsgrave. ME. cruche, the cross of Christ; ‘Crepe to cruche on lange fridai’, Trin. Coll. Hem. 95 (NED.); ‘And meny crouche on hus cloke’, P. Plowman, C. viii. 167; cruche, id., B. v. 529; cros, id., A. vi. 13. We may perhaps compare OF. croche, the Picard form of OF. croce, a crosier; Ch. Rol. 1670; Med. L. crocia, crochia, ‘baculus pastoralis’ (Ducange).

crown of the sun, a French gold coin. Massinger, Unnat. Combat, i. 1 (Mont.); ‘Escu sol, a crown of the sun; the best kind of crown that is now made’, Cotgrave.

crow-trodden, abused, humiliated. Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, iv. 4 (Rutilio). See NED. (s.v. Crow-tread).

cruddes, curds; ‘A messe of cruddes’, Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 18; ‘Cruddes, coagulum’, Levins, Manip.; Baret, Alvearie. In prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Crud). Crud is related to crowd, to press close, see EDD. (s.v. Crowd, vb.¹ 3).

cruddle, crudle, to curdle; ‘Cruddled me like cheese’, Bible, Job x. 10 (1611); Beaumont and Fl., The False One, iii. 2. 2; King and No King, i. 1; Marston, Antonia, Pt. I, i. 1 (Antonio). In prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and in various parts of England (EDD.).

crumenall; ‘The fat oxe that wont ligge in the stall, Is now fast stalled in her (=their) crumenall’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 119. Apparently in sense ‘purse’ or ‘pouch’ (NED.).

crusoile, a crucible. Marston, Insatiate Countess, i. 1 (Rogers). OF. croisuel. See Hatzfeld (s.v. Creuset).

cruzado, crusado, the name of a Portuguese gold coin, of variable value. Othello, iii. 4. 26; White Devil (Vittoria), ed. Dyce, p. 23. So called from the cross on one side of it.

cry: phr. a cry of hounds, a pack of hounds. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1 (Sanitonella). Hence cry, a pack (of hounds), Mids. Night’s D. iv. 1. 128; cry of curs, pack of curs, Cor. iii. 3. 120. Without all cry, beyond all description, Chapman, Blind Beggar, p. 4.

cry creak, to confess oneself beaten or in error; to give up the contest, to give in. Thersites, 100 (ed. Pollard, Misc. Plays); Tusser, Husbandry, § 47. 2; T. Watson, Centuries of Love, i (ed. Arber, 37); Damon and Pithias, Anc. Eng. Drama, i. 88; ‘Palinodiam canere, to turne taile, to cry creake’, Withal, Dict. (ed. 1634).

cucking-stool, an engine for the punishment of scolds, by ducking them in the water. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Quarlous); Butler, Hudibras, ii. 2. 740. See Cowell, Interpreter, 1637; Brand, Pop. Antiq. (ed. 1877, p. 641).

cuckquean, a female cuckold. Golding, tr. of Ovid, Met. vi. 606 (Latin text); ed. 1603. Spelt cockqueene; Warner, Albion’s England, bk. i, ch. 4, st. 1.

cuck-stool, an old punishment for scolds; the offender was fastened in a kind of chair, and exposed to be jeered at, or was ducked in water. Also called a cucking-stool, q.v. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 1 (Petronius), Middleton, Fam. of Love, v. 1 (Glister).

cucurbite, a kind of retort used in alchemy. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Face). Shaped like a gourd, L. cucurbita.

cudden, a born fool, dolt. Dryden, Cymon, 179; Sir Martin Mar-all, v. 3. Wycherley, Gentl. Dancing-master, iv. 1.

cue, a small portion. ‘A cue of bread and a cue of beer’, Middleton, The Black Book (near the end). ‘Cue, halfe a farthing, so called because they set down in the Battling or Butterie Books the letter q for half a farthing,’ Minsheu; ‘Not worthe a cue’, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 36; ‘Worth ii. kues,’ id., Why Come ye Nat to Courte, 232. Q. for L. quadrans, the smallest coin. See cee.

cuerpo, in, in hose and doublet, without a cloak; stripped of the upper garment so as to display the body. Ben Jonson, New Inn, ii. 2 (Tipto); Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, i. 1. 26. Span. en cuerpo, having nothing on but the shirt; cuerpo, body. See Stanford.

cullisen, cullison, ignorant pronunciations of cognisance. B. Jonson. Ev. Man out of Humour, i. 1 (Sogliardo); a badge, id., Case is altered, iv. 4 (Onion). See NED. (s.v. Cullisance).

cully, a dupe, a simpleton. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 2. 781; Otway, Cheats of Scapin, i. 1 (Scapin). [To make a fool of, to take in, Pope, Wife of Bath, 161.]

culm, summit; ‘On giddy top and culm’, Misfortunes of Arthur, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 313. G. kulm, a mountain-top; L. culmen.

culme, soot, smut. Golding, Metam. ii. 232; fol. 18, bk. (1603); as adj. sooty, black, id. vii. 529; fol. 86, bk. The same word as coom, coal-dust, soot, dirt,’ in prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Coom, sb.¹ 1). ME. culme (colme), ‘fuligo’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 477).

culver-down, dove’s down. Machin, Dumb Knight, iii. 1 (Epire). OE. culfre, a dove.

curats, a piece of armour for the body, a cuirass; ‘He casts away his curats and his shield’, Harington, Orl. Fur.; spelt curets, Chapman, Iliad iii, 343. Treated as pl., with a sing. curat, Spenser, F. Q. v. 8. 34. Cp. Ital. corazza, a cuirass (Florio). See Dict.

curber, a thief who hooks things through a window; an angler. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll). From curb, a cant word for a hook, see NED.

curiosity, nicety, fastidiousness, excessive, scrupulousness. Massinger, City Madam, i. 1 (Tradewell); ‘Concerning the enterring of her . . . I pray you let the same be performed without all curiositie and superstition’, Holland’s Plutarch, Morals, 533 (Bible Word-Book).

curiousness, punctilious scrupulousness. Massinger, Parl. of Love, i. 4 (Chamont); Unnat. Combat, iii. 4 (Beauf. Junior).

curry, a ‘quarry’, i.e. slaughtered game. Chapman, tr. Iliad, xvi. 145, 693. OF. cuiree, intestines of a slain animal; the part given to the hounds, so called because wrapped in the skin (cuir); O. Prov. corada, ‘entrailles’ (Levy). See NED. (s.v. Quarry, sb.¹).

curry-favell, one who solicits favour by flattery. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, iii. 24 (ed. Arber, 299); ‘Curryfavell, a flatterer, estrille faveau’, Palsgrave; altered to curry-favour, ‘A number of prodigal currie favours’, Holinshed, Chron. ii. 144 (NED.); Curriedow, a curry-favour or flatterer, Phillips. In earlier English ‘Favel’ occurs as the proper name of a fallow-coloured horse. The fallow horse was proverbial as the type of hypocrisy and duplicity, with reference to the ‘equus pallidus’ of Apoc. vi. 8, which was explained as representing the hypocrites who gain a reputation for sanctity by the ascetic pallor of their faces (see Rom. Rose, 7391-8). With the phrase ‘to curry favel’ cp. OF. estriller, torcher Fauvel, adopted in German: den fahlen Hengst streichen. See NED. (s.v. Favel) for origin, and see Favell.

cursen, Christian; ‘As I am a cursen man’, Marlowe, Dr. Faustus, iv. 6 (Carter); ‘By my Cursen soule’, Brome, Sparagus Gard. iii. 7; ‘We be Cursenfolke’, id. iv. 5; cursen name, Christian name, Mrs. Behn, Feign’d Curtizan, i. 2; to christen, baptize; cursen’d, pp. christened, Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, iv. 3 (Nan). For the pronunciation, see EDD. (s.v. Christen).

curst, cross, ill-tempered. Tam. Shrew, i. 1. 185; Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, ii. 3 (Arethusa). In prov. use in the north and in the W. Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. Curst, 2).

curtal, having a docked tail; ‘Curtal dog’, Merry Wives, ii. 1. 114; said of a horse, All’s Well, ii. 3. 65. ‘Docke your horse tayle, and make hym a courtault’, Palsgrave; in form courteau, a horse with a docked tail, used as a term of derision, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Anaides). OF. courtaut, ‘écourté’ (Hatzfeld); courtault, ‘cheval ou chien de courte taille. On appelait aussi courtault le chien ou le cheval qui avait la queue coupée’ (Jannet, Glossaire, Rabelais).

curtana, the sword of mercy, a pointless sword, carried before our kings at a coronation. Dryden, Hind and Panther, ii. 419. See Ducange, s.v. The name of the legendary sword of ‘Ogier le Danois’ was Courtain.

cushes, ‘cuisses’, pieces, of armour protecting the thighs. 1 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 105 (1596); Heywood, Iron Age, Part II, v. 1. 15.

cushion: phr. to miss the cushion, to make a mistake. Lit. to sit down amiss. ‘Whan he weneth to syt, Yet may he mysse the quysshon’, Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 998; Udall, tr. of Apoph., Cicero, § 24.

cushion-cloth, a cushion-case or cover. Middleton, Women beware Women, iii. 1 (Bianca); cusshencloth, Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 475.

custard-politic, a large custard prepared for the Lord Mayor’s feast. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (Lick.).

customer, a custom-house officer, ‘publicanus’. Udall, Erasmus’s Paraph. on Mark, ii. 22; Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 1 (Erostrato). In use in this sense in Scotland (EDD.).

cut, a lot; he who drew the shortest (or rarely, the longest) of some pieces of stick or paper drew the lot. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, Induction (2 Child, and 3 Child). ME. cut, lot (Chaucer, C. T. A. 845). Probably unconnected with the vb. ‘to cut’, see NED.

cut, a dog or horse with a cut or docked tail; hence, a term of abuse applied to a man. ‘Call me cut’, Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 203 (cp. ‘call me horse’, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 215); London Prodigal, ii. 4. 41. Cut, a common horse, Merry Devil, i. 3. 141; Dauncaster cuttys, Doncaster nags, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 296. See cut and longtail.

cut: phr. to keep cut, to be coy, to be on one’s best behaviour; ‘Phyllyp, kepe youre cut’, Skelton, P. Sparowe, 119; ‘To keep cut with his mother’, i.e. to be coy like her, to follow her example, Middleton, More Dissemblers, i. 4 (Dondolo). See NED. (s.v. Cut, sb.² 34).

cut and longtail, dogs or horses (or men) of every kind; i.e. those that are docked and those whose tails are allowed to grow. Merry Wives, iii. 4. 44; Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 2. 68.

cut bene whids, to speak good words, speak fair. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen). See Harman, Caveat, p. 84.

cut over, to pass straight across; ‘Caligula lying in Fraunce . . . intended to cutte over, and invade Englande’, Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 16.

cutchy, a ‘coach-y’; a driver of a coach; ‘Make thee [a] poor Cutchy’ (cp. coach in the preceding line), Return from Parnassus, iii. 4 (Furor).

cute, a cur; ‘Some yelping Cute’, Drayton, Pol. xxiii. 340; explained by ‘a cur’ in the margin. It is probably merely a variant of cut, a short-tailed dog; see cut and longtail.

cutted, abrupt, snappish, sharp in reply. Middleton, Women beware, iii. 1. 4. Used in this sense in Devon and Cornwall (EDD.).

cutter, a cut-throat, bully, bravo. Beaumont and Fl., Wit at Several Weapons, iii. 1 (Gregory). Hence, title of the play by Cowley, The Cutter of Coleman Street. With a quibble upon cutting, Middleton, Mayor of Queenborough, ii. 3 (Simon).

cutting, swaggering. Greene, Friar Bacon, ii. 2 (516); scene 5. 19 (W.); p. 159, col. 1 (D.).

cutwork, open work in linen, cut out by hand. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 777 (ed. Arber, p. 71); Fletcher, Span. Curate, iii. 2 (Lopez).

cymar, a loose light garment for women. Dryden, Virgil, Aeneid iv, 196; Cymon, 100. See symarr.

cynarctomachy, a word invented by Butler (Hudibras, i. 1. 752) to signify a battle between a bear and dogs. Gk. κύων, a dog, ἄρκτος, a bear, μάχη, a fight.

cypers grass, the sweet cyperus or galingale. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey iv. 802. GK. κύπειρον, a sweet-smelling marsh-plant (Od. iv. 603).

cypress, a textile fabric, esp. a light transparent material resembling cobweb lawn or crape; when black much used for mourning. Twelfth Nt. iii. 1. 131; cypress lawn, Milton, Penseroso, 35. Probably fr. OF. Cipre, the island of Cyprus.

dabbing down, hanging down like wet clothes, in a dabbled state. Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, vi. 359.

dade, to walk with tottering steps, to toddle, like an infant learning to walk. Drayton, Pol. i. 295; xiv. 289. Still in use in Leicestersh. and Warwicksh. (EDD.).

dædale, ingenious, skilful. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 2; also, variously adorned (cp. daedala tellus, Lucret. i. 7), id., iv. 10. 45. L. daedalus, Gk. δαίδαλος, skilful.

daff, to put off, put aside. A variant of doff, to do off, put off. 1 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 96; and elsewhere in Shakespeare.

daff, a simpleton; a coward; ‘(The Bishop of Llandaff) answers, The daffe is here, but the land is gone’, Harrison, Descr. England, bk. ii, ch. ii (ed. Furnivall, 58). In prov. use in both senses in Yorks. (EDD.). ME. daf: ‘I sal been halde a daf, a cokenay’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4208).

daffysh, foolish. Morte Arthur, leaf 205. 10; bk. ix, c. 13. In prov. use in Derbysh., Warwicksh., and W. Midlands in the sense of sheepish (EDD.).

dag, a small pistol; ‘This gun? a dag?’, Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, ii. 2 (Lucio); Arden of Fev. iii. 6. 9; ‘Pistolet, a pistolet, a dag, or little pistol’, Cotgrave.

Dagonet, a foolish young knight. Davenant, The Wits, ii. 1 (Ginet). Sir Dagonet was a foolish knight in the court of Arthur; see 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 300: ‘Sir Dagonet in Arthur’s show’.

dagswain, daggeswane, a rough coverlet. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2195. ME. daggeswayn, ‘lodex’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 528).

dain, disdain; hence, ignominy; ‘A deepe daine’, Lyly, Sappho, v. 1; ‘dennes of daine’, Mirror for Mag., Cordila, st. 31. Cp. F. dain, dainty, fine, curious (Cotgr.). (The word in England seems to have developed a subst. meaning of ‘squeamishness’, ‘stand-offishness’.)

dalliance, hesitation, delay. 1 Hen. VI, v. 2. 5; Virgin-Martyr, iv. 1 (Sapritius). See Dict. (s.v. Dally).

damassin, damson. Bacon, Essay 46. F. damaisine, ‘a Damascene, or damson plumb’ (Cotgr.).

damnify, to injure. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 52; ii. 6. 3. Common in this sense in East Anglia and America (EDD.).

dandiprat, a small coin worth 3 halfpence, first coined by Henry VII (of unknown origin). Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, ii. 1 (Hippolito). Also, a dwarf, page; applied to Cupid (!) in Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. p. 41 (ed. Arber); as also in Shirley, Arcadia, i. 3 (Dametas).

danger: phr. to be in (or within) one’s danger, to be in one’s debt, or under an obligation, or in one’s power, Massinger, Fatal Dowry, i. 2 (Charalois); cp. Merch. Venice, iv. 1. 180; King John, iv. 8. 84. In ME. in daunger, within a person’s jurisdiction, under his control, at his disposal (Chaucer). OF. dangier, the absolute authority of a feudal lord (Godefroy), Romanic type domniarium, deriv. of L. dominus (Hatzfeld). See Trench, Select Glossary.

Dansk, Danish. Webster, White Devil (Giovanni), ed. Dyce, p. 13. Also used to mean Denmark, Drayton, Polyolb. bk. xi. Dan. Dansk, Danish.

dant, a worthless, talkative woman. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 515. Du. dante, or dantelorie, ‘a base babling woman’; danten, ‘to bable’ (Hexham).

dappard, dapper. Triumphs of Love and Fortune, iv. 1 (Lentulo); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 198.

daps, pl. habits, ways, peculiarities. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 447. See EDD. (s.v. Dap, sb. 11).

darby, money. (Cant.) ‘The ready, the darby’, Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Shamwell). Prob. with reference to Darby, a money-lender; see below.

Darby’s bands, supposed to have orig. meant a very strict bond exacted by some usurer of that name; see NED. (Later it meant fetters.) ‘If all be too little, both goods and lands, I know not what will please you, except Darby’s bands’, Marriage of Wit and Science (licensed in 1569-70), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 362; Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 787 (ed. 1576).

dare, to terrify, paralyse with fear. Beaumont and Fl., Maid’s Tragedy, iv. 1 (Evadne); to dare larks, to daze them in order to catch them, Hen. VIII, iii. 2. 282; ‘Never hobby so dared a lark’, Burton, Anat. Mel. (ed. 1896, iii. 390). In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Dare, vb.² 3).

dare, to injure, hurt. Chapman, tr. Iliad, xi. 406; Tusser, Husbandry, 8. In prov. use in the north of England and E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Dare, vb.³). OE. derian, to hurt, deriv. of daru, hurt.

darkmans, a cant term for night. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor); Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Patrico).

darnex carpet, a Dornick carpet. Fletcher, Noble Gentleman, v. 1 (Jaques). ‘Dornick’ is the Flemish name of Tournay.

darraigne battle, to set the battle in array. Heywood, Sallust’s Jugurtha, 20; Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 40; 3 Hen. VI, ii. 2. 72; ‘To darraine a triple warre’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 26. ME. darreyne the bataille, to fight out the battle, to bring it to a decisive issue (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1631). ‘Darraigne’ is really a law-term, Anglo-F. darreiner, dereiner, to answer an accusation, to exculpate oneself (Rough List); Med. L. disrationare (Ducange).

darreine, brazen; ‘The Darreine Tower’, Heywood, Golden Age, A. iv (Neptune); vol. iii, p. 55; (4 Beldam), p. 61; also called ‘the tower of Darreine’ (4 lines higher). The reference is to the brazen tower in which Danae was enclosed. F. d’arain, of brass (Cotgr.). (‘Darrain’ occurs nine times in Caxton, Hist. of Troye, with reference to the same story; the phrase tour of darrain is on leaf 62.)

dart, Irish, a dart frequently carried by an Irish running footman. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 4 (Chough).

daunt, to bring into subjection, subdue, tame; ‘It daunts whole kingdoms and cities’, Burton, Anat. Mel. i. 2 (NED.); to daze, stupefy, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 18. In prov. use in the sense of ‘to tame’, also, in E. Anglia, ‘to stun, knock down’ (EDD.). ME. daunten, to tame (P. Plowman, B. xv. 393. Anglo-F. daunter (Bozon). See Dict.

daunted down, beaten down, subdued. Gascoigne, Grief of Joy, Third Song, st. 18.

daw, a (supposed) foolish bird; fig. a foolish person. 1 Hen. VI, ii. 4. 18; Coriolanus, iv. 5. 48. So used in Lincoln, see EDD. (s.v. Daw, sb.¹ 2).

daw, to arouse, awaken. Drayton, Pol. vi. 112. So used in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Daw, vb. 2); a trans. use of ME. dawen, dawyn, ‘auroro’ (Prompt.), OE. dagian, to become day.

day-bed, a couch, sofa. Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 54; Fletcher, Rule a Wife, i. 6 (Estifania); iii. 1 (Margarita).

dayesman, daysman, a judge, an umpire. Bible, Job ix. 33; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 28; ‘Daysman, arbitre’, Palsgrave; New Custom, i. 2, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 14.

dead pay, pay continued to a dead soldier, taken by dishonest officers for themselves. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, ii. 1 (Knavesby).

deane, ‘din’, noise. Golding, Metam. xii. 316 (L. fremitu); fol. 147 (1603). ‘Dean’ is an E. Anglian word (EDD.). ME. dene, noise (P. Plowman), a dialect form of dyne (ib.), OE. dyne.

deane, a strong, offensive smell; ‘The breath of Lions hath a very strong deane and stinking smell’, Holland, Pliny, bk. xi, ch. 53. In prov. use in Wilts., see EDD. (s.v. Dain). OE. *déan, corresponding to Icel. daunn, a smell, esp. a bad smell.

debate, to combat, fight. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 6; Lucrece, 1421. F. debatre, ‘to debate, contend’, (Cotgr.).

debel, to conquer in war, defeat. Milton, P. R. iv. 605; Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ii, ch. 8, st. 53. L. delellare (Virgil).

debenter, a voucher given in the Exchequer certifying to the recipient the sum due to him, a ‘debenture’. Edwards, Damon and Pithias, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 77. See Dict.

deboshed, debased, corrupted, ‘debauched’. Temp. iii. 2. 29; King Lear, i. 4. 263; vilified, All’s Well, v. 3. 208; deboshtly, licentiously, Heywood, Dialogue 4 (Works, vi. 173); ‘Desbaucher, to debosh’, Cotgrave. In use in Scotland (EDD.).

decard, to ‘discard’, throw away a card, in a card-game; ‘Can you decard?’, Machin, Dumb Knight, iv (Phylocles).

decimo sexto, a term applied to a small book, in which each leaf is one-sixteenth of the whole sheet of paper; hence, fig., a diminutive person or thing; ‘My dancing braggart in decimo sexto’, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, i. 1. (Mercury); ‘One bound up in decimo sexto’, Massinger, Maid of Honour, ii. 2 (Sylli). See Stanford.

deck, a pack of cards. 3 Hen. VI, v. i. 44; Peele, Edw. I (ed. Dyce, p. 339); ‘Pride deales the Deck, whilst Chance doth choose the Card’, Barnfield, Sheph. Content, viii (NED.). See Nares. In prov. use in various parts of England, also in Ireland and America (EDD.).

decline, to turn aside, to swerve. Bible, Ps. cxix. 157; to turn a person aside from, to divert, Beaumont and Fl., Valentinian, iii. 1; Massinger, Maid of Honour, i. 1 (Roberto); to undervalue, disparage, depreciate, Shirley, Cardinal, ii. 1 (Alphonso); id., Brothers, i. 1; to subdue, ‘How to decline their wives and curb their manners’, Beaumont and Fl., Rule a Wife, ii. 4 (Estifania).

decrew, to decrease. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 18. OF. decreu, F. décrû, pp. of decrestre (décroître), to decrease.

decus, a crown-piece. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, ii. 1 (Belfond Senior). A slang term; from the L. words decus et tutamen, engraved upon the rim.

deduce, to deduct. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, ii. 1 (Sir Moth). L. deducere, to lead away, withdraw.

deduction, a leading forth of a colony. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, vi. 455; used as a synonym for ‘dismission’ (i.e. dismissal), id., xix. 423, 427. L. deductio, a leading forth of a colony, deriv. of deducere, to lead forth, conduct a colony to a place.

deduit, diversion, enjoyment, pleasure. Deduytes, pleasures, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 27. 18. ME. deduit, pleasure (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2177), OF. deduit (Bartsch), deduyt (Rabelais), Med. L. deductus, ‘animi oblectatio’ (Ducange).

defail, to defeat, cause to fail. Machin, Dumb Knight, i (Epire); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 128. Only found here in this sense.

defalcate, curtailed. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 10, § 1. Med. L. defalcare, ‘deducere, subtrahere’ (Ducange).

defalk, to cut off, deduct; ‘I defalke, I demynysshe, I cutte awaye’, Palsgrave. See above.

defame, dishonour. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 316); Fletcher, Prophetess, i. 1 (Aurelia).

defeature, defeat, ruin. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 17; disfigurement, Com. Errors, ii. 1. 98; ii. 5. 299.

defend, to forbid. Much Ado, ii. 1. 98; Marl., Massacre at Paris ii. 5 (Navarre); Milton, P. L. xi. 86; Spenser, F. Q. v. 8. 19. F. défendre, to forbid.

defoul, defoil, to dishonour. Morte Arthur, leaf 39. 1; bk. ii, c. 1; lf. 71. 28; bk. iv, c. 18. F. defouler, to tread or trample on (Cotgr.); associated in meaning with the E. adj. foul.

defy, to reject, disdain, despise. Merch. Ven. iii. 5. 75; Hamlet, v. 2. 230. OF. desfier, O. Prov. desfiar, desfizar ‘désavouer, répudier’ (Levy). Med. L. diffidare (Ducange). See NED. (s.v. Defy, vb.¹ 5).

de gambo, a ‘viol-de-gambo’. Beaumont and Fl., The Chances, iv. 2 (Antonio). See viol-de-gamboys.

degree, a step, stair; round of a ladder. Jul. Caesar, ii. 1. 26; Massinger, Roman Actor, iii. 2. 21. F. degré, ‘a stair, step, greese’ (Cotgr.).

dehort, to dissuade. Lyly, Euphues, ed. Arber, p. 106; Davenant, The Wits, iv. 1 (Thwack). L. dehortari.

delate, to accuse. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 3 (Mosca). Delated, fully or expressly stated (or conveyed), Hamlet, i. 2. 38. Med. L. delatare, to indict, accuse (Ducange).

delay, to temper, assuage, quench. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 30; iii. 12. 42; Prothalamion, 3; to dilute, ‘She can drink a cup of wine not delayed with water’, Davenport, City Nightcap, 1 (Dorothea); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xiii. 114. OF. (Norm.) desleier, to unbind, soften by steeping, Romanic type disligare, to unbend; see NED.

delewine, deal-wine, an unidentified wine; supposed to have been a Rhenish wine. B. Jonson, Mercury Vindicated (Mercury’s second speech); Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, v. 1; where Sir T. Bornwell says—‘Where deal and backrag [Bacharach] and what strange wine else’, &c.

delibate, to taste, to taste a little of. Marmion, The Antiquary, iii. 1 (Duke). L. delibare, to taste slightly.

delice, delight, pleasure. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 28; iv. 10. 6. F. délices, pl, L. deliciae, delights.

delirement, a crazy fancy, delusion. Heywood, Silver Age, A. ii (Amphitrio); vol. iii, p. 107; id., Dialogue 4; vol. vi, p. 179. F. délirement; L. deliramentum, madness.

deliver, active, nimble, agile. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 12, § last; ‘Delyver of ones Gunnes as they that prove mastryes, souple. Delyver redy quicke to do anythyng, agile, delivré’, Palsgrave. ME. deliver, quick, active (Chaucer, C. T. A. 84). OF. delivre, deslivre, prompt, alert, O. Prov. deliure, ‘libre, délivré; alerte; non chargé; en parlant d’une bête’; see Levy. Med. L. deliberare, ‘liberare, redimere’ (Ducange).

dell, a virgin, a wench. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Prigg). See Harman, Caveat, p. 75.

deluvye, the deluge. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 273, back, 30. L. diluvium, the deluge (Vulgate).

demain, demesne, domain. Dryden, On Mrs. A. Killigrew, 103; demeanes, pl., Romeo, iii. 5. 182 (1592). ME. demayn, a possession (Trevisa), see NED. (s.v. Demesne, 3); OF. demeine, Med. L. ‘dominicum quod ad dominum spectat’ (Ducange). See payne mayne.

demean(e, behaviour, demeanour; ‘Another Damsell . . . modest of demayne’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 40; treatment (of others), id. vi. 6. 18. See Dict. (s.v. Demean (1)).

demerit, merit; in a good sense. Coriolanus, i. 1. 276; Othello, i. 2. 2; Shirley, Humorous Courtier, ii. 2 (Duchess).

demi-culverin, a kind of cannon, with a bore of about 4 inches. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum., iii. 1 (Bobadil).

demi-footcloth, a demi-housing, or short housing; see footcloth. Webster, White Devil (Brachiano), ed. Dyce, p. 22.

democcuana, not explained; perhaps, a kind of mixed drink; see stiponie. Etherege, Love in a Tub, v. 4 (Sir Frederick).

Demogorgon, the name of one of the Spirits of the Abyss. Milton, P. L. ii. 965; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 47; co-ruler with Beelzebub, in Marlowe Faustus, iii. 18; the patron of alchemists, Howell, Instructions for Forraine Travell (Arber’s ed., p. 81). Demogorgon is an important character in Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound. Late L. Demogorgon, (1) the name of a terrible deity invoked in magic rites, (2) the primordial God of ancient mythology. Probably a corruption of Gk. δημιουργός, the Maker of the World, the Fabricator, in the Neo-Platonic philosophy opp. to κτίστης, the Creator. By popular etymology this δημιουργός was associated with the Greek words δαίμων, a demon, and Γοργώ, the Gorgon, i.e. the Grim One (γοργός). See Stanford, and NED.

dempt, pt. t. ‘deemed’, adjudged. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 55; Shep. Kal., Aug., 137.

demulce, to mollify. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 20, § 1. L. demulcere, to stroke down.

denay, to deny. Greene, Alphonsus, iii (Medea); ed. Dyce, 237; denial, Twelfth Nt. ii. 4. 127. Norm. F. deneier, ‘refuser, rejeter’ (Moisy), L. denegare.

denier, a French coin, the twelfth of a sou. 1 Hen. IV, iii. 3. 91; Richard III, i. 2. 252. OF. denier, L. denarius. The denarius was a Roman silver coin of the value of ten ‘asses’ (about eightpence of modern English money). When our accounts were kept in Latin, the term denarius was used for our ‘penny’, and abbreviated d.; hence the d in our £. s. d.

depaint, to depict. Sackville, Induction, st. 58; B. Googe, Popish Kingdom, bk. i, fol. 10, l. 5. ME. depeynten (NED.).

depart, to separate; formerly in the Marriage Service, but altered at the Savoy Conference into ‘till death us do part’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 14. ME. departe, to separate (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1134).

depart, departure. Two Gent. v. 4. 96; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 7. 20. F. départ, departure.

dependence, a quarrel or affair of honour ‘depending’, or awaiting settlement, according to the laws of the duello. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, iv. 1 (Fitz.); Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, v. 5 (Sanchio). Masters of Dependencies, needy bravoes, who undertook to regulate duels between the inexperienced, Massinger, Maid of Honour, i. 1 (Bertoldo); Fletcher, Elder Brother, v. 1.

deprave, erroneously used for deprive. Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, pp. 499, 511; Burton, Anat. Mel. i. 2. See NED.

deprehend, to detect, perceive. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 10, § last but 4; Bacon, Sylva, § 98. L. deprehendere, to seize.

dere, to harm. Barclay, Mirror Good Manners (NED.); Palsgrave; spelt deare, Phaer, tr. Aeneid, iii. 139; to annoy, trouble, grieve. Caxton, Reynard (ed. Arber, 106); harm, hurt, Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 48. ME. deren, to harm, injure (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 651); to grieve (Cursor M. 7377); OE. derian, to injure, annoy (Sweet). See dare.

dern, dark, solitary, wild. Pericles, iii, Prol. 15; King Lear, iii. 7. 63; dark, dire; ‘Queene Elizabeth died, a dearne day to England’, Leigh, Drumme Devot. 35 (NED.); ‘Dearne, dirus’, Levins, Manipulus. In prov. use in the north country in the sense of dark, obscure, secret; also, dreary, solitary, see EDD. (s.v. Dern, adj.¹ 1 and 2). OE. (Anglian) derne, (WS.) dyrne, dierne, secret, dark (BT. Suppl. s.v. Dirne).

derrick, a hangman; hanging; the gallows; ‘Derrick must be his host’, Puritan Widow, iv. 1. 11; ‘Deric . . . is with us abusively used for a Hangman because one of that name was not long since a famed executioner at Tiburn’, Blount, Glossogr.; ‘I would there were a Derick to hang up him’, Dekker, Seven Deadly Sins (ed. Arber, 17). Du. Dierryk, Diederik, Theoderic.

derring do, daring action or feats, desperate courage; ‘A derring doe’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Oct., 65, and Dec, 43; F. Q. ii. 4. 42. [In imitation of Spenser, Sir. W. Scott has the phrase ‘a deed of derring-do’ (Ivanhoe, ch. 29).] Hence, derring-doer, F. Q. iv. 2. 38. Spenser’s ‘derring doe’ is due to a misunderstanding of a construction in Chaucer’s Tr. and Cr. v. 837, where ‘in dorryng don’ means ‘in daring to do’ (what belongeth to a Knight). See NED.

descovenable, unbefitting. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 15, back, 12. Spelt discouenable, Game of the Chesse, bk. ii, c. 5 (p. 70 of Axon’s reprint). OF. descovenable.

descrive, to describe. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 25; vi. 12. 21. OF. descrivre. L. describere.

dese, a ‘dais’, a raised table in a hall at which distinguished persons sat at feasts; ‘The hye dese’, Skelton, El. Rummyng, 175. ME. dese (Will. Palerne, 4564), dees (Chaucer, Hous Fame, 1360, 1658). Norm. F. deis (Moisy), Med. L. discus, a table (cp. G. Tisch).

despoiled, partially stripped; as in playing at the palm-play. Surrey, Prisoned in Windsor, 13; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 13.

desroy, to ‘disarray’, disorder. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 33. 26; desray, id., lf. 188. 15.

detort, to twist aside, to wrest. Dryden, Pref. to Religio Laici, § 4. L. detort-us, pp. of de-torquere, to twist aside.

detract, to draw apart, pull asunder. Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 515; to hold back, keep oneself in the background, Greene, James IV, i. 1 (Ateukin).

Deu guin!, a Welsh exclamation; app. for Duw gwyn!, lit. ‘Blessed God’. See Du cat-a whee. Beaumont and Fl., Mons. Thomas, iv. 2 (Launcelot).

deuse a vyle, the country. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); ‘dewse a vyle, the countrey’, Harman, Caveat, p. 84. See Rom-vile.

devant, front of the dress; ‘Perfume my devant’, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Mercury). F. devant, before.

dever, to ‘endeavour’; ‘I dever, I applye my mynde to do a thing’, Palsgrave.

deviceful, full of devices, ingenious, curious. Spenser, F. Q. v. 3. 3; Teares of the Muses, 385.

devoir, duty. Spelt devoyre; Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 227; deuoyr, endeavour; Greene, Alphonsus, Prol. (near the end); dever, Sternhold and Hopkins, Ps. xxii. 26. F. devoir.

devolve, to overturn, overthrow. Webster, Appius, i. 3 (Virginius); Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, v. 4.

devotion, an offering made as an act of worship; a gift given in charity, alms; ‘Then shal the Churche wardens . . . gather the devocion of the people’, Bk. Com. Pr., Communion, 1552 (‘the alms for the poor, and other devotions of the people’, 1662); Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, ii. 2 (L. Twilight); devotions, objects of religious worship; ‘I beheld your devotions’, Bible, Acts xvii. 23 (‘the objects of your worship’, R. V.); ‘Dametas . . . swearing by no meane devotions’, Sidney, Arcadia (ed. 1598, p. 282). See Wright’s Bible Word-Book.

devow, to devote. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Practice); Holland’s Ammianus Marcellinus (Nares). F. dévouer, to devote.

dewtry, ‘datura’; hence, a drug made from the datura or thornapple, a powerful narcotic. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 1. 321; spelt deutroa, Sir T. Herbert, Travels (ed. 1677, p. 337). Marathi, dhutrā; Skt. dhattūra. See Stanford (s.v. Datura).

diacodion, an opiate syrup prepared from poppy-heads. Bulleyn, Dial. against Pestilence (EETS.), p. 51, l. 20; Congreve, Love for Love, iii. 4 (Scandal.). L. diacodion (Pliny). Dia is a prefix set before medicinal confections that were devised by the Greeks. Gk. διὰ κωδειῶν (a preparation) made from poppy-heads.

diapasm, a scented powder for sprinkling over the person. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Perfumer). Gk. διάπασμα, from διαπάσσειν, to sprinkle.

diapred, adorned with a ‘diaper’ pattern; ‘And diapred lyke the discolored mead’, Spenser, Epithalamion, 51.

dicacity, raillery, sarcasm. Heywood, Dialogue 4, vol. vi, p. 185. Deriv. of L. dicax, sarcastic.

dich: in phr. ‘Much good dich thy good heart’, Timon, i. 2. 73; ‘Much good do’t thy good heart’, Dekker, Satiro-mastix (Works, i. 204); ‘Much good do’t yee’ (riming with ‘sit yee’), ib., i. 214; ‘Much good do it you’ (vulgarly pronounced and phonetically spelt mychgoditio (Salesbury in 1550), quoted by Ellis in his Early English Pronunciation, p. 744, note 2. So it is clear that dich you stands for d’it you = do it you. See further in Notes on Eng. Etym., pp. 67-9. Cp. phrase in use in Cheshire and Lancashire, ‘Much good deet you’, see EDD. (s.v. Do, subj. mood, § 3).

dicion, a dominion, kingdom. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Alexander, § 40; Augustus, § 6. L. dicio, dominion, sovereignty.

dickens, the, (in exclamations) the deuce! the devil! Merry Wives, iii. 2. 20; Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs); vol. 1, p. 40.

dicker, half a score; esp. of hides or skins; ‘A dicker of cow-hides’, Heywood; First Part of King Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 39; The Marriage Night, ii. 1 (Latchet); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xv. 131. ME. diker (NED.), L. decuria, a set of ten; from decem, ten. This Latin word was adopted by the German tribes from ancient times. They had to pay tribute to the Romans partly in skins, reckoned in decuriae (NED.). See Schade (s.v. Decher).

didapper, a diving bird; humorously, a mistress. Shirley, Gent. of Venice, iii 4. 8. See divedopper.

Diego, a common name for a Spaniard. B. Jonson, Alchemist, iv. 3 (Face); iv. 4 (Subtle). Allusions are often made to a Spaniard so named who committed an indecency in St. Paul’s Cathedral, as in Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, iv. 3 (Blurt). Span. Diégo, the proper name James, gradually corrupted from Jacobus, whence Yágo, then Diágo, and at last Diégo (Stevens). James was the patron saint of Spain. See Dondego.

diery, harmful; ‘With dreadful diery dent Of wrathful warre’, Mirror for Mag., Guidericus, st. 12; Carassus, st. 26. See dere.

difficile, difficult. Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 53; spelt dyfficyle, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 311, back, 14. F. difficile.

diffide in, distrust. Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid, xi. 636; Congreve, Old Bachelor, v. 1 (Bellmour). L. diffidere.

diffused, dispersed, scattered. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 4; v. 11. 47; confused, disordered, distracted, Merry Wives, iv. 4. 54; Hen. V, v. 2. 61.

diggon, enough. Shirley, Love Tricks, ii. 2 (Jenkin); iii. 5 (Jenkin). In both places the word is used by a Welshman; and in Shirley’s Wedding, iii. 2, Lodam gives, as a specimen of Welsh—diggon a camrag (for digon o Cymraig), i.e. ‘enough of Welsh.’ Welsh digon, enough.

dight, to prepare. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 24; as pp., arrayed, decked, Shep. Kal., April, 29; prepared, Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, p. 522); framed, Sackville, Induction, st. 55. ‘To dight’ is in prov. use in Scotland and the north of England in the sense of ‘to prepare’, also, ‘to adorn, deck oneself’ (EDD.). ME. dihten, to prepare, array, equip (Chaucer), OE. dihtan, to appoint, order.

digladiation, a fencing contest, hand-to-hand fight; fig. disputation, wrangling. Pattenham, E. Poesie, bk. i, c. 17 (ed. Arber, p. 52). B. Jonson, Discoveries, cxl. Deriv. of L. digladiari, to fight for life and death (Cicero).

dildo, ‘a word of obscure origin, occurring in the refrains of ballads,’ NED. In Winter’s Tale, iv. 4. 195.

dill, a sweetheart; a cant term; the same as dell. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iv. 1 (Sancho).

dilling, a darling, a well-beloved; ‘Vespasian the dilling of his time’, Burton, Anat. Mel. (ed. 1896) iii. 27; the youngest, and therefore the best-beloved child, Drayton, Pol. ii. 115. The word is in common prov. use for the youngest child, also, the least and weakest of a brood or litter (EDD.).

dimble, a dingle, a deep dell. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 2 (Alken); Drayton, Pol. ii. 190. Allied to dimple, dingle. Still in use in the Midlands, see EDD.

dipsas, a snake whose bite was said to produce extreme thirst. Milton, P. L. x. 526; Marston, Malcontent, ii. 2. 1. Gk. δίψας, causing thirst; from δίφα, thirst.

dirige, a ‘dirge’. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 5). ME. dirige (dyryge) ‘offyce for dedeman’ (Prompt.). L. dirige: this word begins the antiphon, ‘Dirige, Dominus meus, in conspectu tuo vitam meam’, used in the first nocturn at mattins in the Office for the Dead; see Way’s note in Prompt., and Notes to Piers Plowman, C. iv. 467.

dirk, to darken, to obscure; ‘Thy wast bignes . . . dirks the beauty of my blossomes rownd’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 134. See EDD. (s.v. Dark, 8). ME. derhyn, or make derk, ‘obscuro, obtenebro’ (Prompt. EETS., 137).

disable, to disparage. As You Like It, iv. 1. 34; Heywood, Eng. Traveller, iv. 1 (Reignald); Fletcher, Island Princess, iv. 3 (Armusia); spelt dishable, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 21.

disadventure, misfortune. Dissaventures, pl. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 45. ME. disaventure (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 415).

disceptation, a discussion, debate. Spelt desceptations, pl.; Heywood, Dialogue 18; vol. vi. p. 248. L. disceptatio (Cicero).

discide, to cut or cleave in twain. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 1. 27. L. discidere, to cut in twain.

disclose, to hatch. Hamlet, v. 1. 310; Massinger, Maid of Honour, i. 2 (Camiòla); the act of disclosing, the incubation, Hamlet, iii. 1. 175.

discoloured, of various colours, variegated. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Crites); v. 3 (Cupid); Beaumont, Masque of the Inner Temple, l. 10; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 160. L. discolor, of different colours.

discourse, faculty of reasoning, logical power; ‘discourse and reason’ (i.e. logic and reason), Massinger, Unnat. Combat, ii. 1 (Malef. jun.); ‘Discourse of reason’, reasoning faculty, Hamlet, i. 2. 150.

discourse, course of combat, mode of fighting. Beaumont and Fl., King and No King, ii. 1 (Gob.); Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 14. L. discursus, a running to and fro.

discretion, disjunction, separation of parts, dissolution. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 1. 204. L. discretio (Vulgate, Heb. v. 14 = διάκρισις).

discure, to discover. Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 18. ME. discure, to discover (Chaucer, Bk. Duch. 549).

discuss, to shake off. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 48; to disperse, scatter; Lyly, Woman in the Moon, ii. 1. 21. ME. discusse, to drive away (Chaucer, Boethius); see NED. L. discutere (pp. discussus), to drive away.

disease, discomfort, inconvenience. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 19; v. 7. 26. ME. disese, inconvenience, distress (Chaucer); ‘A greet diseese’ (Wyclif, Luke xxi. 23). Anglo-F. desaise, trouble (Gower).

disease, to trouble, inconvenience; ‘Why diseasest thou the master’, Tyndal, Mark v. 35; Spenser, F. Q. vi. 3. 32; Middleton, The Witch, iv. 2 (Isabella); to disturb, Chapman tr. Iliad, x. 45. See Trench, Sel. Gl.

disembogue, trans., to empty out. Dryden, Hind and Panther, ii. 562; to drive out, eject; Massinger, Maid of Honour, ii. 2 (Page). Also in form disimboque, Hakluyt, Voyages, i. 104. Span. desembocar, to come out of the mouth of a river.

disentrail, to draw forth from the entrails or inward parts. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 28; iv. 6. 18.

disgest, to digest. Coriolanus, i. 1. 154; Ant. and Cl. ii. 2. 179 (in old edd.). In general prov. use in the British Isles (EDD.).

dislike (only in the 3rd pers.), to displease, annoy; ‘Ile do’t, but it dislikes me’, Othello, ii. 3. 49; Middleton, Women beware, iii. 1 (Leantio).

disloignd, distant, remote. Spencer, F. Q. iv. 10. 24. OF. desloignier, to remove to a distance. O. Prov. deslonhar, ‘éloigner, écarter’ (Levy).

dismay, to terrify; ‘I dismaye, I put a person in fere or drede, je desmaye and je esmaye’, Palsgrave; Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 4; to defeat by a sudden onslaught, id. v. 2. 8; vi. 10. 13. See Dict.

disme, a dime, a tithe, tenth. Tr. and Cr. ii. 2. 19. OF. disme, a tenth; see Ducange (s.v. Decimae). L. decima, a tenth part.

dispace, to range, to move or walk about. Spenser, Virgil’s Gnat, 295; Muiopotmos, 250. Cp. Ital. spaziare, to walk about (Fanfani).

disparage, inequality of rank in marriage; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 50. ME. disparage (Chaucer, C. T. E. 908). Norm. F. desparager, mésallier; desparagement, mésalliance, union inégale (Moisy).

disparent, unequal, odd; with reference to the number five. ‘A disparent pentacle’, i.e. a pentacle with an odd number of angles, Hero and Leander, iii. 123; ‘The odd disparent number’, i.e. the odd number of five, id. v. 323.

disparkle, to scatter abroad, disperse (trans. and intr.); ‘Esparpiller, to scatter, disperse, disparkle’, Cotgrave; ‘It disparcleth the mist’, Holland, Pliny, ii. 45; ‘Not suffering his radiations to disparcle abrode’ Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 78); see Nares. An altered form of the earlier disparple, see NED. See sparkle.

disparple, disperple, to scatter abroad, disperse. Chapman, tr. Odyssey, x. 473; dispurple, Heywood, Silver Age, iii (Wks. iii. 144). ME. disparple (Wyclif, Mark xiv. 27); see Dict. M. and S. OF. desparpelier; for etym. from *parpalio, a Romanic form of L. papilio, a butterfly (as in Ital. parpaglione, O. Prov. parpalho); see NED.

dispergement, ‘disparagement’, indignity. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 12, § 6.

display, to discover, get sight of, descry. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 76; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 74; xvii. 90; xxii. 280. See NED. (s.v. Display, vb. 9).

disple, to subject to the ‘discipline’ of the scourge, to scourge; ‘Bitter Penance with an yron whip Was wont him once to disple every day’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 27. In monastic Latin disciplina = (1) a penitential whipping, (2) the instrument of punishment itself; see Ducange (s.v.).

dispose, disposal; disposition. Two Gent. ii. 7. 86; Tr. and Cr. ii. 3. 174; Othello, i. 3. 403.

disposed, inclined to merriment; in a merry mood. L. L. L. ii. 1. 250; Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, v. 4 (Lady H.); Custom of the Country, i. 1. 9.

dispunct, impolite, discourteous, the reverse of punctilious; ‘Let’s be retrograde. Amorphus. Stay. That were dispunct to the ladies’, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2.

disqueat, to disquiet, trouble. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. i, c. 5, st. 39. See queat.

disseise, to dispossess. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 20; vii. 7. 48. Anglo-F. disseisir (Rough List). A compound of OF. seisir (saisir), to put into possession, Frankish L. sacire; of Germanic origin—satjan (OHG. sazjan), to set, place; see NED. (s.v. Seize). Cp. Ital. sagire, to put in full and quiet possession, namely of lands (Florio).

dissident, differing, different. Robinson, tr. of More’s Utopia, pp. 66, 130. L. dissidens, differing, disagreeing.

dissite, situated apart, remote. Chapman, tr. Odyssey, vii. 270. L. dissitus, situated part.

dissolve, to solve; ‘Dissolve this doubtful riddle’, Massinger, Duke of Milan, iv. 3 (Sforza); Bible, Daniel v. 16. [‘Thou hadst not between death and birth Dissolved the riddle of the earth’, Tennyson, Two Voices, 170.]

distance, disagreement, estrangement. Macbeth, iii. 1. 115; ‘Distances between his lady and him’, Pepys, Diary, Sept. 11, 1666. ME. destance, difference (Gower, C. A. iii. 611). Anglo-F. destance, dispute, disagreement (Gower, Mirour, 4957). See staunce.

distaste, to have no taste for, to dislike, King Lear, i. 3. 14; to offend the taste, Othello, iii. 3. 327.

distempered, not temperate. Drayton, Pol. i. 4; disturbed in temper, humour, King John, iv. 3. 21; disordered physically, Sonnet, 153; mentally disordered, Milton, P. L. iv. 807; Massinger, Duke of Milan, i. 1. 18.

distract, torn or drawn asunder; torn to pieces. Sh., Lover’s Complaint, 231; perplexed by having the thoughts drawn in different directions, Milton, Samson Ag. 1556; deranged in mind, Julius C., iv. 3. 155; Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 212. L. distractus, drawn asunder, distracted.

distreyn, to vex, distress. Sackville, Induction, st. 14; Surrey, The Lover comforteth himself, 2; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 14. F. destreindre, ‘to straine, presse, vexe extremely’ (Cotgr.); L. distringere, to draw asunder.

disyellow, to free from jaundice. Warner, Albion’s England; bk. ii, ch. 10, st. 13.

dite, to winnow corn. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, v. 498. Hence diter, one who ‘dites’, id., v. 499. In common use in this sense in Scotland and the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Dight, 6).

diurnal, a journal, newspaper. Butler, Hudibras, i. 2. 268; Tatler, no. 204, § 4. L. diurnalis, daily; from dies, day.

divedopper, a small diving water-fowl. Drayton, Man in the Moon, 188. See didapper.

diverse, to turn aside; ‘The Redcrosse Knight diverst’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 62. Only found here in this sense.

diversivolent, of variable will, changeable. Webster, White Devil (Lawyer), ed. Dyce, p. 20; (Flamineo), p. 25. A word coined by Webster.

diversory, a place to which one turns in by the way. Chapman, tr. Odyssey, xiv. 538. L. diversorium, an inn, freq. in Vulgate, cp. Luke ii. 7; xxii. 11.

divine, to render divine, to canonize. Spenser, Daphn., 214; Ruins of Time, 611; Drayton, Pol. xxiv. 191.

divulst, torn apart. Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, i. 1. 4. L. diuulsus, pp. of diuellere, to pluck asunder.

dizen, to put flax on a distaff; ‘I dysyn a dystaffe, I put the flaxe upon it to spynne’, Palsgrave; to dress, attire, ‘bedizen’; ‘Come, Doll, Doll, dizen me’, Beaumont and Fl., M. Thomas, iv. 6. 3. In common use in the north country in the sense of ‘to dress showily’ (EDD.). See Dict. (s.v. Distaff).

dizling, (perhaps) making dizzy, confusing; ‘His torch with dizling smoke Was dim’, Golding, Metam. x. 6 (L. ‘Fax . . . lacrymoso stridula fumo’).

dizzard, dizard, a blockhead, foolish fellow. Brewer, Lingua, iii. 1 (end). A Yorkshire word; cp. ‘dizzy’, used in the north country in the sense of ‘foolish, stupid, half-witted’; OE. dysig (Matt. vi. 26, ‘stultus’).

do, to cause; ‘The villany . . . Which some hath put to shame, and many done be dead’, Spenser, F. Q. v. 4. 29; phr. I cannot do withal, I cannot help it, Middleton, A Chaste Maid, ii. 1 (Sir Oliver); ‘I could not do withal’ Merch. Ven. iii. 4. 72. ME. doon, do, to cause (Chaucer, freq.).

dob-chick, a dab-chick, a small diving bird, Podiceps minor. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 80; spelt dop-chick, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xv. 686. ‘Dob-chick’ is in common prov. use in many parts of England (EDD.).

docket, the fleshy part of an animal’s tail. Greene, James IV, i. 2 (Slip). Dimin. of dock, in the same sense. See NED. (s.v. Dock, sb.² 1).

doctor, a false die; loaded so as to fall only in two or three ways. A slang term; a ‘doctored die’, Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Hackum); Cibber, Woman’s Wit, i (NED.).

dodder, to tremble or shake from frailty; ‘Dodder grasses . . . so called because with the least puff or blast of wind it doth as it were dodder and tremble’, Minsheu, Ductor.

doddered: phr. doddered oak, decayed with age; ‘Dodder’d oak’, Dryden, tr. Persius, Sat. v. 80; Virgil, Past. ix. 9; ‘Doddered oaks’, Palamon and Arc., iii. 905; Pope, Odyssey, xx. 200. ‘Doddered’ is in prov. use in the north country in the sense of old, decayed, trembling: ‘A doddered old man’, see EDD. s.v. Dother, vb.¹ 1 (1)).

dodkin, a little doit; a coin of very small value. Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 2 (end). Du. duytken, dimin. of duyt, a doit (Hexham). See NED.

doff, a repulse, a ‘put off’. Wily Beguiled, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ix. 276.

dog, to follow after; ‘To dog the fashion’, B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iv. 6 (Macilente).

dogbolt, a contemptible fellow, mean wretch. Fletcher, Span. Curate, ii. 2 (Lopez); Wit without Money, iii. 1. 32. As adj., worthless, base, Butler, Hud. ii. 1. 40. The orig. sense was (probably) a crossbow-bolt, only fit for shooting at a dog; see NED.

dog-leach, a dog-doctor; a term of reproach. Fletcher, Mad Lover, iii. 2 (Memnon).

doily, the name of a cheap stuff. Dryden, Kind Keeper, iv. 1; ‘doily stuff’, Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, iv. 4 (Lady Fanciful). See Dict.

dole, portion in life; ‘Happy man be his dole’ (i.e. may happiness be his portion), Merry Wives, iii. 4. 68; Butler, Hud., pt. i, c. 3. 638.

dole, dool, grief, mourning, lamentation. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 155; F. Q. iv. 8. 3. Spelt dewle, Sackville, Induction, st. 14. In prov. use in Scotland and the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Dole, sb.²). OF. dol, deul, sorrow; see Bartsch (s.v. Duel). See duill.

dolent, a sorrowing one, a sufferer. Calisto and Melibaea, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 82. L. dolens, grieving.

doly, doleful, sad; ‘In doly season’, Wounds of Civil War, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 170; ‘This dolye chaunce’, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, bk. ii (ed. Arber, p. 57). See dole (grief).

domineer, to revel, feast; to live like a lord. Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 226; B. Jonson, Every Man, ii. 1. 76 (Downright).

dommerar, dummerer, a begging vagabond who feigns to be dumb. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1. 9. See Harman, Caveat, p. 57; ‘Dummerers, Abraham men’, Burton, Anat. Mel. (ed. 1896), i. 409.

Dondego, a Spaniard; short for ‘Don Diego’. Webster, Sir T. Wyatt (Brett), ed. Dyce, p. 198. See Diego.

done, donne, to do. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 28; vi. 10. 32. ME. doon, don, to do; done, doon, ger. (Chaucer). OE. dōn, to do.

donny, somewhat ‘dun’, or brownish. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 400. See NED. (s.v. Dunny, adj.¹).

donzel, donsel, a squire, a page, youth. B. Jonson, Alchemist, iv. 4. 20; Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4 (Captain). Ital. donzello, ‘a damosell, page, squire, serving-man’ (Florio). Med. L. domicellus, domnicellus (Ducange); dimin. of L. dominus, lord. See Dict. (s.v. Damsel).

dool, dole, dowle, a boundary-mark; ‘With dowles and ditches’, Golding, Metam. i. 136; fol. 3 (1603); ‘They pullid uppe the doolis’, Paston Letters, i. 58. Low G. dōle, dōl, a boundary-mark (Koolman). ‘Dool’ is in common prov. use in this sense in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Dool, sb.² 1).

door: phr. to keep the door, to be a pandar. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 4 (Trimtram). Door-keeper, a bawd; id., The Black Book, ed. Dyce, vol. iv, p. 525.

dop, a dip, duck, low bow. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Crites); to dip, duck, dive, bob; Dryden, Epilogue to the Unhappy Favourite, 2.

dop, to baptize. God’s Promises, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 318. Du. doopen, to dip, baptize (Sewel).

dopper, doper, a (Dutch) Anabaptist; ‘This is a dopper (old ed. doper), a she Anabaptist’, B. Jonson, Staple of News, iii. 1 (Register); News from the New World (Factor). Du. dooper, a dipper, baptizer (Sewel).

dor, scoff, mockery. Phr. to give the dor, to make game of, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2; to receive the dor, to be marked, Beaumont and Fl., Lover’s Progress, i. 1. 29. Icel. dār, scoff.

dor, to make game of, Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, iv. 1. 15. Icel. dāra to mock, make sport of.

dorado, name of a species of fish; ‘The Dorado, which the English confound with the Dolphin, is much like a Salmon’, J. Davies, tr. Mandelslo (ed. 1669, iii. 196); a wealthy person, ‘A troop of these ignorant Doradoes’, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med., pt. ii, § 1. Span. dorado, ‘a fish called a Dory, or Gilt head, an enemy to the Flying Fish’ (Stevens); dorar, to gild; L. deaurare. See Stanford.

dorp, a village. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 238, 298; Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 6. 11. Du. dorp, a village. See Dict. (s.v. Thorp).

dorre, applied to species of bees or flies; a bumble-bee; a drone-bee; fig. a drone, a lazy idler; ‘Gentlemen which cannot be content to live idle themselfes, lyke dorres’, Robynson, More’s Utopia (ed. Arber, 38). OE. dora, ‘atticus’ (Epinal Gl., 119); cp. ‘Adticus, feld beo, dora’ in Cleopatra Glosses (Voc. 351. 22). See NED. (s.v. Dor, sb.¹).

dortour, a sleeping room, bedchamber. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 24. ME. dortour (Chaucer, C. T. D. 1855). Norm. F. dortur (Moisy), OF. dortoir, Monastic L. dormitorium (Ducange).

dosser, a basket, pannier. Merry Devil, i. 3. 142; Jonson, Staple of News, ii. [4.] (Almanac); spelt dorser, Beaumont and Fl., Night-Walker, i. 1 (Lurcher). An E. Anglian word for a pannier slung over a horse’s back (EDD). ME. dosser, a basket to carry on the back (Chaucer, Hous F. 1940). F. dossier, ‘partie d’une hotte qui s’appuie sur le dos de celui qui la porte’ (Hatzfeld).

dotes, endowments, good qualities. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, ii. 2 (Cler.); Underwoods, c. 25. L. dotes, pl. of dos, an endowment.

dottrel, dotterel, a pollarded tree; also used attrib.; ‘Old dotterel trees’, Ascham, Scholemaster, bk. ii (ed. Arber, p. 137); ‘A long-set dottrel’, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 465. ‘Dotterel’ is used in this sense near Oxford, and in the south Midlands (EDD).

double reader, a lawyer who is going through a second course of reading; ‘I am a bencher, and now double reader’, B. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, iv. 1 (Practice); ‘Men came to be single readers at 15 or 16 years standing in the House [Inn of Court] and read double about 7 years afterwards’, Sir W. Dugdale, Orig. Jur., 209 (Glossary to Jonson).

doubt, i.e. ’doubt, a shortened form of redoubt, a fortification. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xii. 286.

doucepere, an illustrious knight or paladin. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 31; orig. only used in the pl.: ME. dozepers (douzepers), the twelve peers or paladins of Charlemagne. Anglo-F. li duze per (Ch. Rol. 3187). See NED. (s.v. Douzepers).

douse, to strike violently; ‘To death with daggers doust’ (also wrongly, dounst, in ed. 1587), Mirror for Magistrates, Henry VI, st. 4. In prov. use in the north country (EDD.).

douse, a sweetheart. Tusser, Husbandry, § 10. 7. F. douce, fem. of doux, sweet; L. dulcis.

dow, to thrive; ‘He’ll never dow’ (i.e. he’ll never do well), Ray, North C. Words, 13; spelt dough, to be in health, Heywood, The Fair Maid, ii. 1 (Clem). ‘Dow’ is in prov. use in the north, meaning to thrive, prosper, also, to recover from sickness (EDD.). ME. dowe, pr. s. 1 p., am able to do (Wars Alex. 4058). OE. dugan, to be able, to be vigorous (see Wright, OE. Gram. § 541).

dowcets, the testicles of a deer. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, iv. 2 (1 Woodman); B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., i. 6. In old cookery books dowset was the name of a sweet dish. F. doucet, dimin. of doux, sweet. See NED. (s.v. Doucet), and cp. dulcet.

dowe, ‘dough’. Lyly, Endimion, i. 2 (Tellus); ‘A lytell leven doth leven the whole lompe of dowe’, Tyndale, Gal. v. 9.

dowl(e, soft fine feathers. Tempest, iii. 3. 65 (see W. A. Wright’s note). In prov. use in the S. Midlands for down or fluff (EDD.). ME. doule, a down-feather (Plowman’s Tale, st. 14). See Notes on Eng. Etym.

dowsabell, a sweetheart. A name, used as a term for a sweetheart. Com. of Errors, iv. 1. 110; London Prodigal, iv. 2. 73. F. douce-belle, L. dulcibella, sweet and fair.

doxy, a vagabond’s mistress. (Cant.) Winter’s Tale, iv. 2. 2; Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Prigg). See Harman, Caveat, p. 73; where the sing. form is doxe.

drabler, drabbler, an additional piece of canvas, laced to the bottom of a bonnet of a sail. Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 1 (1328); p. 134, col. 2; Heywood, Fortune by Land and Sea, iv. 1 (Y. Forrest); vol. vi, p. 416. From drabble, to wet; from its position. Cp. E. Fris. drabbeln, to stamp about in the water (Koolman). See EDD. (s.v. Drabble).

dragon, the name of a stage in the fermentation for producing the elixir. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly).

drake, a dragon. Peele, An Eclogue Gratulatory, ed. Dyce, p. 563. ‘Drake, dragon’, Levins, Manipulus. OE. draca, L. draco, Gk. δράκων.

drane, a drone. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 2, § 3; Skelton, Against the Scottes, 172. ME. drane, ‘fucus’ (Prompt.). The pronunc. of drone in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall (EDD.). OE. drān (drǣn).

drapet, a cloth, a covering. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 27. Cp. Ital. drappetto, dimin. of drappe, cloth.

drasty, worthless, rubbishy; ‘Drasty sluttish geere’, Hall, Sat. v. 2. 49; ‘Drasty ballats’, Return from Parnassus, i. 2 (Judicioso). In several places the s has been misprinted as f; the error originated with Thynne, who, in 1532, twice substituted drafty for drasty in the Prologue to Melibeus: ‘Thy drasty spectre’ (C. T. B. 2113); ‘Thy drasty ryming’ (id. 2120); see NED. OE. dræstig, ‘feculentus’ (Voc. 238. 20).

draw-cut, done by drawing cuts or lots. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid i, 515. See cut (1).

drawer, a waiter at a tavern. Merry Wives, ii. 2. 165; Romeo, iii. 1. 9. One who draws liquor for guests.

drawlatch, lit. one who lifts a latch; a sneaking thief. Jacob and Esau, ii. 3 (Esau).

dray, a squirrel’s nest. Drayton, Quest of Cynthia, st. 51; [The squirrel] ‘Gets to the wood, and hides him in his dray’, W. Browne, Brit. Pastorals, bk. i, song 5. A prov. word in general use (EDD.).

drazel, a slattern, slut. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 987. The word is in use in the south of England, in Sussex and Hampshire, see EDD. (s.v. Drazil).

dread, an object of reverence or awe. Milton, Samson, 1473; ‘Una, his deare dreed’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 2.

drent, drowned. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 49; v. 7. 39. ME. dreint (dreynt), pp. of drenchen, to drown (Chaucer, Bk. Duchess, 148).

drere, grief, sorrow, gloom. Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 40; ii. 12. 36. Hence, drerihed, sadness, id., Muiopotmos, 347; dreriment, Shep. Kal., Nov., 36.

dresser. The signal for the servants to take in the dinner was the cook’s knocking on the dresser, thence called the cook’s drum (Nares); ‘When the dresser, the cook’s drum, thunders’, Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iii. 1 (Steward); ‘The dresser calls in (Knock within, as at dresser)’, Heywood, Witches of Lancs., iii. 1 (Seely); vol. iv, p. 206; ‘Hark! they knock to the dresser’, Brome, Jovial Crew, iv. 1 (end).

dretched, pp., vexed or disturbed by dreams. Morte Arthur, leaf 402. 31; bk. xx, c. 5. OE. dreccan, to vex.

drib, to let fall in drops or driblets, to dribble out. Dryden, Prologue to The Loyal Brother, 22. Cp. prov. ‘drib’, a drop, a small quantity of liquid (EDD.).

dricksie, decayed; as timber; ‘A drie and dricksie oak’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. iii, c. 19; p. 252. See Droxy in EDD.; and Drix in NED.

drink, to smoke tobacco. Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1 (Laxton). A common expression. See Nares.

drivel, a drudge, a servant doing menial work; ‘A Drudge, or driuell’, Baret (1580); Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2, 3; ‘A dyshwasher, a dryvyll’, Skelton, Against Garnesche, 26. Spelt drevil, Tusser, Husbandry, § 113. 12. ME. drivil, a drudge, a menial (see Prompt. EETS., note no. 588); cp. Du. drevel, ‘a scullion, or a turnspit’ (Hexham). See NED.

droil, a drudge, a menial. Beaumont and Fl., Wit at Several Weapons, ii. 1. 19; Brome, New Acad. ii, p. 40 (Nares). See Prompt. EETS. (note no. 588).

droil, to drudge. Spelt droyle, Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 157. Hence droil, drudgery, Shirley, Gentlemen of Venice, i. 2.

drollery, a puppet-show; a puppet; a caricature. Tempest, iii. 3. 21; Fletcher, Valentinian, ii. 2 (Claudia); Wildgoose Chase, i. 2. 21; 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 156. F. drôlerie, ‘waggery; a merry prank’; dróle, ‘a good fellow, boon companion, merry grig, pleasant wag; one that cares not which end goes forward or how the world goes’ (Cotgr.).

dromound, a large ship, propelled by many oars. Morte Arthur, leaf 82, back, 30; bk. v, c. 3 (end). Anglo-F. dromund (Rough List), OF. dromon, Med. L. dromō (Ducange), Byzant. Gk. δρόμων, a large ship; cogn. with Gk. δρόμος, a racing, a course.

drone, to smoke (a pipe); ‘Droning a tobacco-pipe’, B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iv. 1; Ev. Man out of Humour, iv. 3.

dronel, dronet, a drone; ‘That dronel’, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 151; ‘Like vnto dronets’, Stubbes, Anat. Abuses, To Reader (ed. Furnivall, p. xi).

dropshot: phr. at dropshot; ‘I’ll do no more at dropshot’ (i.e. I’ll do no more in the character of an eaves-dropper, or where one can be shot with drops), Beaumont and Fl., Mad Lover, iii. 6 (end).

drossel, a slattern, a slut. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ix, ch. 47, st. 12. A north Yorkshire word (EDD.). See drazel.

drouson; ‘Boiling oatemeale . . . with barme or the dregges and hinder ends of your beere barrels makes an excellent pottage . . . of great vse in all the parts of the West Countrie . . . called by the name of drouson potage’, Markham, Farewell, 133 (EDD.); ‘Drowsen broath’, London Prodigal, ii. 1. 42. OE. drōsna, lees, dregs.

droye, a servant, a drudge. Spelt droie; Tusser, Husbandry, § 81. 3; Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 78).

druggerman, a ‘dragoman’, interpreter. Dryden, Don Sebastian, ii. 1 (Emperor); [Pope, Donne’s Sat. iv. 83]. See Dict. (s.v. Dragoman); also Stanford.

drum: phr. Jack Drum’s entertainment, ill-treatment, esp. by turning a man out of doors, Heywood, ii. 2 (Sencer). To sell by the drum, to sell by auction; in North’s Plutarch, Octavius, § 11 (in Shak. Plut., p. 255, n. 3); hence, by the dromme (by the drum), in public, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ix, c. 53, st. 31.

drumble, to be sluggish, Merry Wives, iii. 3. 156; a sluggish, stupid person, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 118. A dull, inactive person is called a ‘drummil’ in Warwickshire. A person moving lazily about is said to ‘drumble’ in Cornwall (EDD.). Norw. drumla, to be drowsy; Swed. drummel, a blockhead.

drumslade, dromslade, a drum; ‘Dromslade, suche as Almayns use in warre, bedon’, Palsgrave. Also spelt drumslet; Golding, Metam. xii. 481; fol. 149, bk. (1603). Du. trommelslag (G. trommelschlag), the beat of a drum.

drumsler, a drummer. Kyd, Soliman, ii. 1. 224, 241. A form corrupted from drumslager, once in use to mean ‘drummer’. Du. trommelslager, a drummer (Sewel). See above.

dry-fat, a cask, case, or box for holding dry things, not liquids; ‘A dry-fat of new books’, Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, i. 2 (Brisae); dry-vat, Dekker, Shoemakers’ H., v. 2 (Firk). See Dict. (s.v. Vat).

dry-foot: phr. to draw or hunt dry-foot, to track game by the mere scent of the foot. Com. Errors, iv. 2. 39; B. Jonson, Every Man, ii. 2 (Brainworm).

Du cat-a whee, God preserve you! Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, i. 2 (Rutilio); Monsieur Thomas, i. 2. 8; Dugat a whee, Middleton, A Chaste Maid, i. 1 (Welshwoman). Welsh Duw cadw chwi, God preserve you!

dub, a stroke, blow; Lydian dubs, soft taps, like soft Lydian music; Phrygian dubs, hard blows, like loud Phrygian music. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 1. 850.

ducdame, a word in the burden of a song. In As You Like It, ii. 5. 56. Doubtless a coined word, and admirably defined by Shakespeare as ‘a Greek invocation to call fools into a circle’; which I accept as it stands.

duce. Used in interjectional and imprecatory phrases; ‘I wonder where a duce the third is fled’, Roger Boyle, Guzman, i; ‘Who a duce are those two fellows?’ id., ii; ‘Who a duce is here by our door?’ (Socia), Echard, Plautus (ed. 1694, 13); Centlivre, Busie Body (ed. 1732, 41).

dudder, to tremble, quake, shake. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1 (Cuddy). ‘Dudder’ is a prov. word in various parts of Scotland and England, see EDD. (s.v. Duther). See dodder.

dudgeon, the hilt of a dagger made of a kind of wood called dudgin (dudgeon). Macbeth, ii. 1. 46. ME. dojoun, or masere (Prompt., ed. Way, 436).

dudgeon, the same word as the one above, used attrib. in the sense of plain, homely; since a dudgeon was regarded as a common sort of haft; ‘I am plain and dudgeon’, Fletcher, Captain, ii. 1 (Jacomo); ‘I use old dudgeon’, phrase, id., Queen of Corinth, ii. 4 (Conon).

dudgeon-dagger, a dagger with a hilt made of ‘dudgeon’. Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, v. 1 (Curio); dudgin dagger, Kyd, Soliman, i. 3. 160. Shortened to dudgeon, Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 379.

duill, to grieve, sadden, make sorrowful; ‘It duills me’, B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maudlin). Cp. F. deuil, grief. See dole.

duke, a name for the castle or rook, at chess; ‘Dukes? They’re called Rooks by some’, Middleton, A Game at Chess, Induct. 54; Women beware, ii. 2 (Livia).

Duke Humphrey, to dine with, to go without dinner; ‘He may chaunce dine with duke Homphrye tomorrow’, Sir Thos. More, iv. 2. 361. One who had no prospect of a dinner would walk in St. Paul’s, under the pretence of going to see Duke Humphrey’s monument there; on the chance that he might meet there some acquaintance who would invite him. But Duke Humphrey was actually buried at St. Albans (see Stowe’s Survey, ed. Thoms, 125). Cp. Mayne, City Match, iii. 3 (Plotwell and Timothy). See Nares.

dulcet, the dowcet of a stag. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 219. A latinized form; see dowcets.

dumbfounding, a stupefying; said to mean a rough amusement in which one person struck another hard and stealthily upon the back; ‘That witty recreation, called dumbfounding’, Dryden, Prologue to the Prophetess, 47. See EDD. (s.v. Dumbfounder).

dump, a fit of abstraction or musing; ‘I dumpe, I fall in a dumpe or musyng upon thynges’, Palsgrave; ‘Lethargic dump’, Butler, Hudibras, i. 2. 973; a fit of melancholy, ‘In doleful dump’, id., ii. 1. 85; a plaintive melody or song, Two Gent. iii. 2. 85; used of a kind of dance, ‘The devil’s dump had been danced then’, Fletcher, Pilgrim, v. 4 (Roderigo).

dunny, somewhat ‘dun’, or dusky brown. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 400. A north-country word (EDD.). See donny.

Dun’s in the mire (the horse is stuck in the mire), the name of a rustic game in which the players had to extricate a wooden ‘dun’ (a horse) from an imaginary slough. ‘Dun is in the mire’ became a proverbial phrase, so in Chaucer, Manciple’s Prologue, 5. ‘Dun’s i’ th’ mire’, Fletcher, “Woman-hater, iv. 2 (Pandar). The game is alluded to in Romeo, i. 4. 41. ‘If thou art Dun we’ll draw thee from the mire’, and in Hudibras, iii. 3. 110, ‘Your trusty squire, Who has dragg’d your dunship out o’ th’ mire’. See Brand’s Pop. Antiq. (under ‘Games’), and Gifford’s Ben Jonson, vii. 283 (Nares).

dun’s the mouse, the mouse is brown. A jocose phrase of small meaning; sometimes used after another has used the word done; Romeo, i. 4. 40; London Prodigal, iv. 1. 16.

Dunstable, plain (a proverbial phrase), plain speaking. Witch of Edmonton, i. 2 (Old Carter). Cp. the proverb, ‘As plain as Dunstable highway’, Heywood’s Eng. Proverbs, 69, 136; ‘As plain as Dunstable road’, Fuller, Worthies, i. 114 (NED.). See Nares.

durance, confinement. L. L. L. iii. 1. 135; 2 Hen. IV, v. 5. 37; durableness, 1 Hen. IV, i. 2. 49. Cp. ‘As the tailor, that out of seven yards stole one and a half of durance’, i.e. durable cloth, Three Ladies of London, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 344.

Durandell, a trusty sword. Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 123. OF. Durendal, the name of the sword of Roland (Ch. Rol. 926). See Durindana.

duret, some kind of dance; ‘Galliards, durets, corantoes’, Beaumont, Masque at Gray’s Inn, stage direction (near the end).

duretta, a coarse stuff of a durable quality. Mayne, City Match, i. 5 (Timothy). Also duretto (NED.). Ital. duretto, ‘somewhat hard’ (Florio).

Durindana, the name of Orlando’s sword. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum. iii. 1 (Bobadil); Beaumont and Fl., Lover’s Progress, iii. 3 (Malfort); Durindan, Faithful Friends, ii. 3 (Calveskin). Ital. Durindana (Ariosto); see Fanfani. The Italian name for Durendal, by which the famous sword of Roland is known in the old French Chansons de Geste. See Gautier’s note on ‘Durendal’ in his ‘Chanson de Roland’, l. 926, p. 90.

dust, to hurl, fling, cast with force. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 544; xxi. 377. See EDD.

dust-point, a boys’ game in which ‘points’ were laid in a heap of dust, and thrown at with a stone; ‘Our boyes, laying their points in a heape of dust, and throwing at them with a stone, call that play of theirs Dust-point’, Cotgrave (s.v. Darde). Fletcher, Captain, iii. 3 (Clora); Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymph, vi. (Melanthus).

Dutch widow, a cant term for a prostitute. Middleton, A Trick to Catch, iii. 3 (Drawer).

dutt, to dote; ‘Dutting Duttrell’ (i.e. doting dotterel), Edwards, Damon and Pithias; altered to doating dottrel in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 68; but see Anc. Eng. Drama, i. 88, l. 1.

dwine, to pine away; ‘He . . . dwyned awaye’, Morte Arthur, leaf 429*, back, 8; bk. xxi, c. 12; dwynd, withered, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 567 (ed. Arber, p. 61). In common prov. use in Scotland and the north of England (EDD.). ME. dwynyn awey, ‘evanesco’ (Prompt.). OE. dwīnan.

dybell, (probably) trouble, difficulty; ‘My son’s in Dybell here, in Caperdochy, i’ tha gaol’, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 72. Perhaps the same word as ‘dibles’ (or daibles), an E. Anglian word for difficulties, embarrassments (EDD.).

e-, prefix, for the more usual y- (AS. ge-), prefixed to past participles. Exx. emixt, mixed, Mirror for Mag., Bladud, st. 9; etride, tried, id., Sabrine, st. 26.

eagre, a ‘bore’ in a river; an incoming tidal wave of unusual height. Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis, 132; spelt agar, Lyly, Galathea, i. 1 (Tyterus). In prov. use in many forms: aiger, ager, eager, eygre, hygre, &c., in Yorks., Nottingham, Lincoln, and E. Anglia (EDD.). See higre.

ean. Of ewes: to lamb, bring forth young, to ‘yean’, 3 Hen. VI, ii. 5. 36. Hence, Eaning-time, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Robin). ‘To ean’ is in prov. use in various spellings in many parts of England from the north country to Devon (EDD.). ME. enyn, ‘feto’ (Prompt. EETS. 150); OE. ēanian, to yean. See Brugmann, § 671.

ear, to plough. Bible, Deut. xxi. 4; 1 Sam. viii. 12; Is. xxx. 24. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. ere (Chaucer, C. T. A. 886), OE. erian. See Wright’s Bible Word-Book.

earn, erne, to grieve, to be afflicted with poignant sorrow and compassion. Hen. V, ii. 3. 3 (mod. edd. yearn); Julius C., ii. 2. 129; it earns me, Hen. V, iv. 3. 26; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iv. 6 (Overdo); earne, to yearn, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 3; i. 6. 25; i. 9. 18; erne, ii. 3. 46. ME. ȝernen, to yearn (P. Plowman), OE. geornan; see Dict. M. and S., p. 267.

earth, a ploughing. Tusser, Husbandry, § 35. 50. In prov. use in Suffolk, Hants., Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Earth, sb.²). OE. erð for WS. ierđ, a ploughing (Sweet), deriv. of erian, to plough, ‘to ear’; not the same word as OE. eorðe, earth.

easing, the eaves of the thatch of a house; ‘Under the easing of the house’, North, tr. of Plutarch, J. Caesar, § 16 (end); ‘Severonde, the eave, eaving or easing of a house’, Cotgrave. In gen. prov. use in various spellings, in Scotland and Ireland, and in England, in the north and Midlands to Shropsh. (EDD.). ME. esynge, ‘tectum’ (Cath. Angl.). See evesing.

eath, easy. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 40; Shep. Kal., Sept., 17; spelt ethe, id., July, 90. A north-country word, once much used in poetry (EDD.). ME. ethe, easy (Cursor M. 597), OE. ēaðe, easy, ēað (common in compounds).

eathly, easily. Peele, Order of the Garter, ed. Dyce, p. 587. Common in Scottish poetry (EDD.).

eccentric, not concentric with; hence, disagreeing with. Bacon, Essay 23; an orbit not having the earth precisely in the centre (a contrivance in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, for explaining the phenomena), id. 17.

eche, to ‘eke’, to make up a deficiency; ‘To eche it and to draw it out in length’, Merch. Ven. iii. 2. 23 (Qq 3, 4, eech). Cp. Northampton dialect, ‘My gown’s too short, I must eche it a bit’, see EDD. (s.v. Eke, vb. 3). ME. echen, to increase (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 887), OE. (Mercian) ēcan, WS. īecan, to increase.

edder, an adder. Morte Arthur, leaf 290. 11; bk. xi, c. 5; Skelton, Philip Sparowe, 78. ME. eddyr, an adder (Prompt. EETS. 142).

edder, fence-wood, osiers or rods of hazel, used for interlacing the stakes of a hedge at the top; ‘Edder and stake’, Tusser, Husbandry, § 33. 13; eddered, bound with edders, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 126. 7; edderynge, id. In gen. prov. use in Scotland and England; for various spellings see EDD.

eddish, edish, the aftermath or second crop of grass, clover, &c.; ‘Eddish, eadish, etch, ersh, the latter pasture or grass that comes after mowing or reaping’, Worlidge, Dict. Rust. (A.D. 1681); Tusser, Husbandry, § 18. 4; stubble, ‘Eddish . . . more properly the stubble or gratten in cornfields’, Bp. Kennett (NED.). In gen. prov. use in England (EDD.). OE. edisc, ‘pascua’ (Ps. xcix. 3).

edge, to urge, encourage, stimulate. Bacon, Essay 41, § 5. The pronunc. of egg (to incite) in use in various parts of England from Lancash. to Cornwall (EDD.). ME. eggen, to incite (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 182), Icel. eggja.

edify, to build; ‘There was an holy chappell edifyde’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 34; Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 660. F. edifier, to edifie, build (Cotgr.), L. aedificare.

effaut, for F fa ut, the full name of the musical note F, which was sung to fa or to ut according as it occurred in one or other of the hexachords (imperfect scales) to which it belonged (NED.). Buckingham, The Rehearsal, ii. 5 (Bayes). The first hexachord contained G (the lowest note), A, B, C, D, E (but not F); the second contained C, D, E, F, G, A, sung to ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, F being sung to fa; the third began with F, sung to ut; so that F was sung to fa or ut, and was called F fa ut.

efficace, effectiveness, efficacy. Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 602. F. efficace, efficacy (Cotgr.), L. efficacia (Pliny).

efficient, creative or productive cause. Sir T. Browne, Rel. Medici, pt. 1, § 14; id., Vulgar Errors, bk. vii, c. 4, § 2.

egal, equal. Merch. Ven. iii. 4. 13 (F.); egally, equally, Richard III, iii. 7. 213; egalness, equality, Ferrex and Porrex, i. 2 (Philander). F. égal.

eggs: phr. to have eggs on the spit, to be busy; with reference to the old mode of roasting eggs; ‘I have eggs on the spit’, B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum. iii. 6. 47; see Wheatley’s note.

eggs: phr. to take eggs for money, to accept an offer which one would rather refuse. Winter’s Tale, i. 2. 161. (Fully explained by me in Phil. Soc. Trans., 1903, p. 146). Farmers’ daughters would go to market, taking with them a basket of eggs. If one bought something worth (suppose) 3s. 4d., she would pay the 3s. and say—‘will you take eggs for money?’ If the shopman weakly consented, he received the value of the 4d. in eggs; usually (16th cent.) at the rate of 4 or 5 a penny. But the strong-minded shopman would refuse. Eggs were even used to pay interest for money. Thus Rowley has: ‘By Easter next you should have the principal, and eggs for the use [interest], indeed, sir. Bloodhound. Oh rogue, rogue, I shall have eggs for my money! I must hang myself’, A Match at Midnight, v. 1. See Nares (s.v. Eggs for Money).

eisel, vinegar; ‘I will drink potions of eisel’, Sh. Sonnets, cxi; spelt eysel. Skelton, Now Synge We, 40. ME. esyle, ‘acetum’ (Prompt. EETS. 147, see note no. 661); aysel (Hampole, Ps. lxviii. 26). OF. aisil, vinegar (Oxford Ps. lxviii. 26).

E-la, the highest note in the old musical scale, sung to the syllable la in the old gamut; which began with G (ut) on the lowest line of the base clef, and ended with E in the highest space of the treble clef. Whoever sang a higher note than this was said to sing ‘above E-la’. Hence anything extreme was said ‘to be above E-la’. ‘Why, this is above E-la!’ Beaumont and Fl., Humorous Lieutenant, iv. 4 (Leontius; near the end). N.B. The old gamut was really founded on hexachords or major sixths; each hexachord contained six notes and comprised four full tones and a semitone, the semitone being in the middle, between the third and fourth note. The hexachords began (in ascending succession) upon the lower G, C, F, G (above F), C (still higher), F (above the last C), and G (above the last F). There were twenty notes in all; viz. G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E; and each of the hexachords was sung to the same syllables, ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la. The highest hexachord contained the G A B C D E at the top of the scale; and as E was thus sung to la, it was called E-la. It had no other name, because it only occurred in the highest hexachord. In hexachords beginning with F the B was flat.

eld, to ail; ‘What thing eldeth thee?’ Thersites, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 414. Cp. aild, prov. pronunc. of ail (vb.): ‘He’s allus aildin’ (Worcestersh.); aildy, ailing, poorly, ‘I be very aildy to-day’ (Northampton); so in Beds., teste J. W. Burgon, see EDD. (s.v. Ail and Aildy). In Shropsh. they say elded for ailed.

elder, an elder-tree. It was an old belief that Judas Iscariot hung himself upon an elder. See L. L. L. v. 2. 610; B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iv. 4 (Carlo). See P. Plowman, C. ii. 64 (Notes, p. 31).

element, the sky. Julius Caes. i. 3. 128; Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 116; Milton, Comus, 299. In common prov. use in the west country. A Somerset man describing a thunderstorm would say, ‘Th’ element was all to a flicker’ (EDD.).

elenche, elench, a logical refutation, a syllogism in refutation of an argument. Massinger, Emperor of the East, ii. 1 (Theodosius). Also, a sophistical argument, a fallacy; Bacon, Adv. of Learning, bk. ii, § xiv. 5. L. elenchus, Gk. ἔλεγχος, cross-examination.

elk, the wild swan, or hooper. ‘The Elk’, in the margin of Golding’s tr. of Ovid, Metam. xiv. 509; ‘In hard winters elks, a kind of wild swan, are seen’, Sir T. Browne (Wks. ed. 1893, iii. 313); ‘Swanne, some take thys to be the elke or wild swanne’, Huloet. See ilke.

ellops, a kind of serpent. Milton, P. L. x. 525. Gk. ἔλλοψ, ἔλοψ, lit. ‘mute’, an epithet of fish (so Prellwitz); name for a certain sea-fish, probably the sword-fish or sturgeon, later, a serpent.

embassade, a mission as ambassador. 3 Hen. VI, iv. 3. 32; also, quasi-adv., on an embassy, Spenser, Hymn in Honour of Beauty, 251. F. embassade, an embassage; also an embassador accompanied with his ordinary train (Cotgr.).

embay, to bathe, drench, wet, steep. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 27; ii. 12. 60. Metaph., to bathe (oneself in sunshine); Muiopotmos, 200; to pervade, suffuse, F. Q. i. 9. 13.

embayed, imbayed, enclosed as in a bay; enveloped, engirt. Spelt imbayed, enclosed; Capt. Smith, Works, ed. Arber, p. 333, l. 3; embayed, engirt, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 230.

embezzle, to waste, squander; ‘His bills embezzled’, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, i. 1 (Lincoln); Sir T. Browne, Hydriotaphia, c. iii, § 7. See NED.

emboss, to ornament with bosses or studs, to decorate. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 4. 15; Shep. Kal., Feb., 67.

embost (of a hunted animal). A stag was said to be embossed (embost) when blown and fatigued with being chased—foaming, panting, unable to hold out any longer; ‘The boar of Thessaly Was never so emboss’d’, Ant. and Cl. iv. 11. 3; ‘The salvage beast embost in wearie chace’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 22. Metaph., ‘Our feeble harts Embost with bale’, i. 9. 29; Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, ii. 4. 7. ME. embose, to plunge deeply into a wood or thicket (Chaucer, Dethe Blaunche, 353). OF. bos (bois), a wood. See imbost.

embost, encased, enclosed (as in armour); ‘A knight . . . in mighty armes embost’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 3. 24.

embraid, to upbraid, taunt, mock. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 7, § 2; Tusser, Husbandry, § 112, st. 7. Cp. ME. breydyn or upbraydyn, ‘Impropereo’ (Prompt. EETS. 64). OE. bregdan, to bring a charge (B. T. Suppl.), Icel. bregða, to upbraid, blame.

embrew, to ‘imbrue’, cover with blood; ‘With wyde wounds embrewed’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 6. 17; Hymn of Love, 13.

embrocata, a thrust in fencing. Marston, Scourge of Villany, Sat. xi. 57. See imbroccato.

eme, uncle. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 47; spelt eame, Drayton, Pol. xxii. 427. 848. A north-country word (EDD.). ME. eme, fadiris brodyr, ‘patruus’ (Prompt.), OE. ēam.

emeril, emery. Drayton, Pol. i. 53. F. emeril, emery (Cotgr.); OF. esmeril; Ital. smeriglio, deriv. of Gk. σμύρις, emery-powder.

empair, to harm, injure. Spenser, F. Q. v. 11. 48; to become less, to be diminished, id., v. 4. 8. See Dict. (s.v. Impair).

emparlance, parley, talk. Spenser, F. Q. v. 4. 50. Cp. Norm. F. emparler, ‘parler, entretenir’, also ‘entretien’ (Moisy), O. Prov. emparlat, ‘éloquent’ (Levy).

empeach, to hinder. Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 34; ii. 7. 15; ‘I empesshe, or let one of his purpose’, Palsgrave. F. empescher, ‘to hinder’ (Cotgr.); O. Prov. empedegar, ‘empêcher’ (Levy), Med. L. impedicare, ‘implicare’ (Ducange). See impeach.

empery, dominion, rank of an emperor. Titus And. i. 1. 201; Hen. V, i. 2. 226. Norm. F. emperie (Moisy), L. imperium, empire.

emprese, ‘emprise’, enterprise, undertaking. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 257. See NED. (s.v. Emprise).

emprise, an undertaking, an enterprise. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 83; chivalric enterprise, martial prowess, Milton, P. L. xi. 642; ‘In brave poursuit of chevalrous emprize’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 1. Norm. F. emprise, ‘entreprise’ (Moisy).

enaunter, lest by chance. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 200; May, 78; Sept., 161. ‘Anaunters’ is a north-country word, in the sense of ‘lest, in case that’ (EDD.). ME. enantyr; an aunter, in case that (P. Plowman, C. iv. 437); also, an aventure (id., B. iii. 279), see Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Aventure); Anglo-F. en + aventure, chance (Gower).

enbassement, dread, terror, ‘abashment’. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 159. 25; enbaysshement, lf. 91. 31. Cp. ME. enbasshinge, bewilderment (Chaucer, Boethius 4, p. 1. 43).

enbolned, swollen, puffed up. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 207, l. 7 from bottom. Cp. ME. bolnyd, swollen (Wyclif, 1 Cor. v. 2).

enchase, to set (a jewel) in gold or other setting; used fig. Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 23; to engrave figures on a surface, Shep. Kal., August, 27; to shut in, enclose, M. Hubberd’s Tale, 626; Chapman, tr. Iliad, xii. 56; xix. 346.

encheason, occasion, reason. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 147. ME. encheson, ‘occasio’ (Prompt. EETS. 312), Anglo-F. enchesoun, occasion (Gower), Norm. F. acheisun, ‘raison, cause, motif’ (Moisy); L. occasio.

endlong, from end to end of, through the length of; ‘Endlong many yeeres and ages’, Holland, Livy, 921; right along, straight on, Dryden, Palamon, iii. 691. In prov. use in the north country (EDD.). ME. endelong, through the length of (Chaucer, C. T. F. 992).

endosse, to inscribe. Spenser, F. Q. v. 11. 53; Colin Clout, 634; Palsgrave. Anglo-F. endosser, to endorse (Rough List); to write on the back of a document, deriv. of F. dos, L. dorsum, back.

endue, to endow; ‘God hath endued me with a good dowry’ (Vulg. Dotavit me Deus dote bona), Bible, Gen. xxx. 20; spelt endew, Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 51; ‘The King hath . . . endewed (the house) with parkes orchardes’, Act 31 Hen. VIII, c. 5. See indue.

endurance, also written indurance, patience; ‘Past the endurance of a block’, Much Ado, ii. 1. 248; imprisonment, durance, ‘I should have tane some paines to have heard you Without endurance further’, Hen. VIII, v. 1. 122 (the phrase is taken from Foxe’s account of Cranmer’s trial); ‘The indurance of their Generall’, Knolles, Hist. Turks, 1256 (NED.).

endure, to indurate, harden. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 27. Norm. F. s’endurer, to harden oneself (Moisy).

eneled, anointed, as one who has received extreme unction. Morte Arthur, leaf 429*, back, 25; bk. xxi, c. 12; Caxton, Golden Legend, 337, see NED. (s.v. Anele).

enew (t. t. in hawking), to drive a fowl into the water; ‘Let her enew the fowl so long till she bring it to the plunge’, Markham, Countr. Content. (ed. 1668, i. 5. 32); ‘Follies doth enew (misprinted emmew, Ff.) As Falcon doth the Fowle’, Meas. for M. iii. 1. 91. Spelt ineawe, to plunge into the water, Drayton, Pol. xx. 284. Anglo-F. eneauer, to wet (Gower), Norm. F. ewe (F. eau), water. See inmew.

enfouldred, hurled out like thunder and lightning. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 40. OF. fouldre (F. foudre), Romanic type folgere, L. fulgur, a thunderbolt.

enfounder, to drive in, to batter in. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 216, back, 30; lf. 295, back, 25; to stumble, as a horse, to ‘founder’; ‘His horse enfoundred under hym’, Berners, Arth., 87 (NED.). F. enfondrer (un harnois), to make a great dint in an armour; also, to plunge into the bottom of a puddle or mire (Cotgr.).

enginous, ingenious. Hero and Leander, iii. 312; Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, i. 452. Cp. Scot, engine (ingine), intellect, mental capacity (EDD.). F. engin, understanding reach of wit (Cotgr.). L. ingenium, natural capacity. See ingine.

englin, the name of a Welsh metre. Drayton, Pol. iv. 181. W. englyn. The Note has: Englyns are couplets interchanged of sixteen and fourteen feet.

engraile, to give a serrated appearance to; ‘I (the river Wear) indent the earth, and then I it engraile With many a turn’, Drayton, Pol. xxix. 380; engrail’d, variegated, ‘A caldron new engrail’d with twenty hues’, Chapman, tr. Iliad, xxiii. 761.

engrain, to dye ‘in grain’, or of a fast colour. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 131. See Dict. (s.v. Grain).

ennewe, to tint, shade; ‘With rose-colour ennewed’, Calisto and Meliba, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 62; ‘The one shylde was enewed with whyte’, Morte Arthur, leaf 55. back, 24; bk. iii, ch. 9 (end). Perhaps fr. F. nuer, to shade, tint (Godefroy), see NED.

enow, pl. form of ‘enough’; ‘Foes enow’, Milton, P. L. ii. 504; ‘Christians enow’, Merch. Ven. iii. 5. 24; ‘French quarrels enow’, Hen. V, iv. 1. 222. ME. ynowe: ‘Wommen y-nowe’ (Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 233), OE. genōge, pl. of genōg, enough.

enrace, to introduce into a race of living beings. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 52; vi. 10. 25; Hymn of Beauty, 114.

ens, being, entity. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, Induct. (Asper). Med. L. (in philosophy) ens, entity, a neuter pres. pt. formed fr. L. esse, to be.

enseam, to cleanse (a hawk) of superfluous fat; ‘Ensemer, to inseam, unfatten’, Cotgrave; ‘Clene ensaymed’, Skelton, Ware the Hauke, 79. OF. esseimer, ‘retirer le saim (la graisse)’, see Moisy (s.v. Ensaimer), deriv. of saim fat, Med. L. sagīmen, ‘adeps’ (Ducange).

enseam, to contain together, include. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 11. 35; to introduce to company, Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, i. 1 (Monsieur). See NED. (s.v. Enseam, vb.⁴).

enseamed, marked with grease; ‘In the ranke sweat of an enseamed bed’, Hamlet, iii. 4. 92. F. enseimer (now ensimer), to grease (Hatzfeld). [Schmidt connects this word with ‘enseam’, to cleanse a hawk; see above.]

enseignement, teaching, showing. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 2, § last. F. enseignement (Cotgr.).

ensnarl, to entangle. Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 9. A north Yorks. word (EDD.). ME. snarlyn, ‘illaqueo’ (Prompt. EETS. 460).

entail, entayl, to carve, cut into. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 27; ii. 6. 29; entayle, ornamental work cut on gold, id., ii. 7. 4.

entermete, to concern oneself, occupy oneself, meddle with. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 154, back, 13. ME. entremeten, refl. to meddle with (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 1026). Anglo-F. s’entremettre, to occupy oneself (Gower).

enterprize, to receive, entertain as a host. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 14; In this sense peculiar to Spenser.

entertain, to take into one’s service; Gent. Ver. ii. 4. 105; Richard III, i. 2. 258; to keep in one’s service, Fuller, Pisgah, iii. 2; to give reception to, Com. Errors, iii. 1. 120; the reception of a guest, Spenser, Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 1085; F. Q. v. 9. 37; Pericles, i. 1. 119.

entire. Used of friends wholly devoted to one another; ‘My most sincere and entire friend’, Coryat, Crudities, Ep. Ded.; ‘Your entire loving brother’, Bacon, Essays, Ep. Ded. [cp. F. ami entier]. From the notion of intimacy was developed the sense: inward, internal, ‘Their hearts and parts entire’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 23 and 48; iii. 1. 47; iii. 7. 16.

entradas, receipts, revenues. Massinger, Guardian, v. 4 (Severino). Span. entrada, revenue.

entraile, to twist, entwine, interlace. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 27; iii. 6. 44; Shep. Kal., Aug. 30; Prothalamion, 25; a coil, F. Q. i. 1. 16. Cp. F. traille (treille), lattice-work (Cotgr.).

entreat, to treat, use. Richard II, iii. 1. 37; Fletcher, Rule a Wife, iii. 4 (Perez); Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 7; ‘He entreated Abram well’, Bible, Gen. xii. 16; ‘Despytfully entreated’, Tyndale, Luke xviii. 32. OF. entraiter, to treat, use (Godefroy).

entries, places through which deer have recently passed. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (John).

entwite, to rebuke, reproach, reprove, to ‘twit’. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Augustus, § 1; Roister Doister, ii. 3 (song); p. 36. Altered form of ME. atwiten, to reproach, twit, OE. æt-witan.

enure, to put into operation, to ‘inure’, carry out, practise. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 29; v. 9. 39.

envy, to feel a grudge against; to begrudge; to treat grudgingly; to have grudging feelings. Milton, P. L. iv. 317; King John, iii. 4. 73; Peele, Tale of Troy, ed. Dyce, p. 551. The stress is often on the latter syllable.

envy, to injure, disgrace, calumniate. Fletcher, Pilgrim, ii. 1 (Juletta); Shirley, Traitor, iii. 3 (Duke).

envỳ, to emulate, ‘vie’ with. Spenser, F. Q. i. 2. 17; iii. 1. 13. F. envier (au jeu), to vie (Cotgr.), L. invitare, to invite, challenge.

ephemerides, properly, tables showing the positions of the heavenly bodies (or some of them) for every day of a period, esp. at noon. But used vaguely for an almanac or calendar that noted some of these things. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 4 (Surly); Bp. Hall, Sat. ii. 7. 6; Bacon, Adv. of Learning, i. 1, § 3. Gk. ἐφημερίς, a diary.

Ephesian, a boon companion. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 164. A cant term; used like ‘Corinthian’ in 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 13.

epiky, reasonableness, equity; ‘Such an epiky and moderacion’, Latimer, 5 Sermon bef. King (ed. Arber, p. 143). Gk. ἐπιείκεια, reasonableness; from ἐπιείκής, fitting, equitable.

epiphoneme, an exclamatory sentence, used to sum up a discourse. Puttenham, Art of Eng. Poesie, bk. ii, c. 12 (ed. Arber, p. 125); Heywood, Dialogue 2 (Mary), vol. vi, p. 123. Gk. ἐπιφώνημα.

epitasis, the part of a play wherein the plot thickens. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iii. 2 (end). Gk. ἐπίτασις.

epitrite, in prosody, a foot consisting of three long syllables and a short one. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (P. Can.). Gk. ἐπίτριτος.

equal(l, fair, equitable, just, impartial. Bible, 1539, Psalm xvii. 2; Fletcher, Span. Curate, iii. 3 (Bartolus); iv. 4. 15; equally, justly, id., iv. 5 (Diego).

equipage, equipment; retinue. Sh., Sonnet 32; Spenser, Shep. Kal., Oct., 114. F. equipage, ‘equipage, good armour; store of necessaries; Equipage d’un navire, her Marriners and Souldiers’ (Cotgr.). See NED. (s.v. Equip). See esquip.

erased, in heraldry; said of an animal’s head, with a jagged edge below, as if torn violently from the body. Also used humorously of an ear, Butler, Hud. iii. 3. 214.

eremite, one dwelling in the desert; ‘This glorious eremite’, Milton, P. R. i. 8 (used with allusion to the original meaning of the Greek word). Eccles. Gk. ἐρημίτης, one who has retired into the desert from religious motives, a hermit, deriv. of ἔρημος, wilderness (Matt. iii. 1).

erie, ery, every. Tusser, Husbandry, § 18. 17; § 57. 11. Also several times in Turbervile’s Poems. A contracted form, like e’er for ever.

eringo, eryngo, the candied root of the sea-holly, used as a sweetmeat, and regarded as an aphrodisiac. Merry Wives, v. 5. 23. Ital. eringio, sea-holly (Florio), L. eryngion, Gk. ἠρύγγιον, dimin. of ἤρυγγος, sea-holly.

erne, an eagle. Golding, Metam. vi. 517; fol. 74 (1603). A Scottish literary word (EDD.). OE. earn (Matt. xxiv. 28).

errant: phr. an errant knight, a knight-errant. Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 38; i. 10. 10. Anglo-F. errer, to travel, to march (Ch. Rol. 3340), O. Prov. edrar (errar), Med. L. iterare, ‘iter facere’ (Ducange).

errant, ‘arrant’. Chapman, Byron’s Tragedy, v. 1 (Byron); ‘Sir Kenelm Digby was an errant mountebank’, Evelyn, Diary (Nov. 7, 1651). See NED. (s.v. Errant, 7).

erst, once upon a time, formerly. Hen. V, v. ii. 48; Ferrex and Porrex, i. 2. 5; previously, Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 18. ME. erst (Chaucer, C. T. A. 776), OE. ǣrest, superl. of ǣr, soon.

esbatement, amusement. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 160. 15; Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 3, § 10. Anglo-F. esbatement, diversion (Gower). F. esbatement, ‘divertissement’ (Rabelais), OF. esbatre, ‘se divertir’ (Bartsch).

escape, a wilful error; a great fault. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 150); Othello, i. 3. 197.

escot, to pay a reckoning for, to maintain; ‘How are they escoted’, Hamlet, ii. 2. 362. OF. escoter, ‘payer l’écot’ (Didot), Anglo-F. escot, payment, reckoning at a tavern (Gower); escot (payment) occurs in the Statutes of the Realm, i. 221 (13th cent.), see Rough List. See Ducange (s.v. Scot, Scottum). Escot (payment) is the same word as ‘scot’ or ‘shot’, in prov. use for payment of a tavern reckoning (EDD.).

escuage, lit. shield-service; personal service in the field for 40 days in the year; later, a money payment in lieu of it, also called ‘scutage’. Bacon, Hen. VII, ed. Lumby, p. 148. Anglo-F. escuage, Med. L. scutagium, deriv. of L. scutum, a shield (Ducange).

escudero, a squire. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, iv. 1 (Wit.). Span. escudéro, an esquire, a servant that waits on a lady (Stevens), deriv. of escúdo, a shield, L. scutum.

esguard, a tribunal existing among the Knights of St. John, to settle differences between members of the order. Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, v. 2 (Valetta). OF. esgard, ‘tribunal des chevaliers de Malte’. Med. L. esgardium: ‘De vassallo delinquente in Dominum, Dominus potest de ce quod tenet ab ipso, ipsum per Exguardium dissaisire (Id est, judicio parium suerum interveniente)’, quotation from Statutes (Ducange). O. Prov. esgart, ‘regard, décision, jugement; condamnation pécuniaire; égard, considération’; esgardar, ‘regarder, considérer; décider, juger’ (Levy).

esloin, esloyne, to remove to a distance. Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 20. F. esloigner (Cotgr.).

esmayed, dismayed. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 308. 6; 329, back, 9. Anglo-F. s’esmaier, to be dismayed (Gower).

esmayle, enamel. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. iii, c. 19; p. 242. F. esmail ‘enammel’ (Cotgr.).

espial, the action of espying or spying. Bp. Hall, Contempl. O. T. xix. 9 (NED.); a company of spies, Elyot, Governour, iii. 6. 236; espials, spies, Bacon, Essay, 48; 1 Hen. VI, iv. 3. 6; Hamlet, iii. 1. 32. See NED.

esquip, to equip. Esquippe, Baret, Alvearie; esquipping, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 577. F. esquiper (equiper), to equip, arm, store with necessary furniture (Cotgr.). See equipage.

essoyne, excuse, Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 20. ME. essoyne, excuse for non-appearance in a law-court (Chaucer, C. T. I. 164). Anglo-F. essoigne (essoyne), excuse, a legal term (Rough List), see Ducange (s.v. Sunnis). Med. L. essoniare, ‘excusationem proponere’ (Ducange), of Teutonic origin, cp. Goth. sunjôn, ‘excusare’ (2 Cor. xii. 19).

estate, rank, dignity; ‘He poisons him in the garden for his estate’, Hamlet, iii. 2. 273; Macbeth, i. 4. 37; estates, men of rank, nobles, Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, i. 1 (Tarquin). F. estat, office, dignity, rank, degree which a man hath (Cotgr.). See Bible Word-Book.

estivation: phr. place of estivation, a summer-house. Bacon, Essay 45, § 5. Deriv. of L. aestivus, pertaining to summer.

estres, apartments, dwellings, quarters; the inner rooms in a house, divisions in a garden, &c.; spelt estures [printed by Caxton eftures]. Morte Arthur, leaf 392, back, 3; bk. xix, ch. 8. ME. estres (Chaucer), Anglo-F. estre, habitation, dwelling (Gower); estres, inward parts of a house (Rough List); OF. estre, ‘domuncula, aedificium’, see Ducange (s.v. Estra).

estridge, an ostrich, 1 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 98; Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 197; spelt estrich, Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, ii. 2 (Incubo); Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 124). ME. estrich (Voc. 585, 22). O. Prov. estrutz, ‘autruche’ (Levy).

eten, ettin, a giant; ‘Giants and ettins’, Beaumont and Fl., Knight of the B. Pestle, i. 2 (or 3) (Wife). ME. ȝeten (Gen. and Ex. 545), OE. eoten, a giant, cp. Icel. jötunn.

Etesian, (properly) the epithet of certain winds, blowing from the NE. for about forty days annually in summer; ‘Etesian winds’, Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xvi, c. 25 (end); ‘Etesian gales’, Dryden, Albion, Act i (Iris). L. etesius; Gk. ἐτήσιος, annual, from ἔτος, year.

eugh, yew; ‘The Eugh, obedient to the bender’s will’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 9; Bacon, Essay 46. ME. ew (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2923), OE. īw.

eure, destiny, fate, luck. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 235, back, 8; spelt ure, Skelton, Colin Clout, 1003; to be ured, to be invested with, as by the decree of fate, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 6; ewre, to render happy, Palsgrave. Hence eurous, ewrous, lucky, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 227. 30; lf. 228. 19. ME. ure, fate, good luck (Barbour’s Bruce). OF. eür, ‘sort, bonheur’ (Bartsch), O. Prov. aür, agur, destiny, Romanic type agurium, L. augurium, augury, omen. See ure, male-uryd, misured.

evelong, oblong. Golding, Metam. viii. 551, fol. 101 (1603). ME. evelong, ‘oblongus’ (Trevisa, tr. Higden, i. 405). Cp. Icel. aflangr, oblong, Dan. aflang; L. oblongus.

event, to cool, by exposing to the air; ‘To event the heat’, Mirror for Mag., Clyfford, st. 8; to find vent, ‘Whence that scalding sigh evented’, B. Jonson, Case is Altered, v. 3 (Angelo). F. esventer, to fan or winnow; s’esventer, to take vent or wind (Cotgr.).

evertuate, reflex., to endeavour. Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. xvi, p. 72; ‘I have evirtuated myself’, Howell, Famil. Letters, vol. ii, let. 61 (end). Anglo-F. s’esvertuer, to exert oneself, endeavour (Gower).

evesing, the eaves of the thatch of a house; ‘A dropping evesing’, Schole-house of Women, 912; in Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poetry, iv. 140. ME. evesynge (P. Plowman, C. xx. 193), deriv. of evese, the edge of the roof of a building, the ‘eaves’, OE. efes (Ps. ci. 8). See easing.

evet, an eft, a newt. Lyly, Euphues, p. 315. See EDD. for prov. forms. OE. efeta. See ewftes.

evicke, a wild goat. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iv. 122 (rendering of αἲξ ἄγριος). See NED. (s.v. Eveck).

Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Feast observed on Sept. 14. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 37. 16.

exampless, for example-less, without an example, unparalleled. B. Jonson, Sejanus, ii. 4 (Silius).

Excalibur, the name of King Arthur’s sword. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum. iii. 1 (Bobadil); ‘The try’d Excalibour’, Drayton, Pol. iv (Nares).

excheat, ‘escheat’, profit, lit. that which is fallen to one. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 25; iii. 8. 16. Anglo-F. eschete, eschaëte (Rough List), Med. L. escaeta, deriv. from Romanic type escadére (F. echoir), Med. L. excadere, ‘jure haereditario obvenire; in aliquem cadere, ei obvenire’ (Ducange).

exercise, an act of preaching, discourse; a discussion of a passage of Scripture. Richard III, iii. 2. 112; iii. 7. 64; Middleton, Mayor of Queenborough, v. 1 (Oliver).

exhale, to hale forth, drag out. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iii. 1 (Crispinus); cp. Hen. V, ii. 1. 66.

exhibition, allowance, fixed payment. King Lear, i. 2. 25; Othello, i. 3. 238; London Prodigal, i. 1. 10. Med. L. exhibitio, ‘praebitio’; exhibere, ‘praebere alimenta et ad vitam necessaria’ (Ducange). See Prompt. EETS. 161, and Rönsch, Vulgata, 312. Hence the term ‘exhibition’ in the University of Oxford for annual payments made by a College to deserving students.

exigent, state of pressing need, emergency, decisive moment. Julius Caesar, v. 1. 19; Ant. and Cl. iv. 12. 63; extremity, end, 1 Hen. VI, ii. 5. 9; phr. to take an exigent, to come to an end, A Merry Knack to know a Knave, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 546; exigents, straits, Marlowe, Edw. II, ii. 5 (Warwick).

exigent, an urgent command; a writ of exigent was one commanding the sheriff to summon the defendant to appear, and to deliver himself up on pain of outlawry. Butler, Hud. i. 1. 370; iii. 1. 1036. Anglo-F. exigende, L. exigenda, from exigere, to exact. See Cowell, Interpreter (s.v.).

exoster, a hanging-bridge, used by men besieging a city; ‘Exosters, Sambukes, Catapults’, Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, c. 9. L. exostra, Gk. ἐξώστρα, a bridge thrust out from the besiegers’ tower against the walls of the besieged place; deriv. of ὠθέειν, to thrust.

expend, to weigh, examine, consider. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 9, § 1; c. 29, § 3. L. expendere, to weigh out.

expire, to breathe out. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 45; iv. 1. 54; to fulfil a term, i. 7. 9; to fly forth from a cannon, Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, st. 188.

expiscate, to ‘fish out’, i.e. to find out by inquiry. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, x. 181. L. expiscari, to fish out; deriv. of piscis, a fish.

explete, to complete, to satisfy; ‘To explete the act’, Speed, Hist. ix. 21, § 71; ‘Nothing under an Infinite can expleat the immortall minde of man’, Fuller, Pisgah, iv. 7. 123. L. explere, to fill out.

exploit, success; ‘His ambassadours hadde made no better exployte’, Berners, tr. Froissart, ii. 91. 272. ME. espleit, success (Gower, C. A. V. 3924), Anglo-F. exploit, espleit, esplait, speed, success (Rough List).

exploit, to accomplish, achieve; ‘I exployt, I applye or avaunce myself to forther a busynesse’, Palsgrave; ‘They departed without exploytinge their message’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, ch. 26, § 8; ‘To exploit some warlike service’, Holland, tr. Ammianus (Nares).

expulse, to expel. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 5, § 5; Bacon, Adv. of Learning, bk. ii, c. 17, § 9. L. expulsare, freq. of expellere, to expel.

extend (a legal t. t.), to seize upon lands, in execution of a writ. Massinger, New Way to Pay, v. 1 (Overreach); to seize upon land, Ant. and Cl. i. 2. 105. See Cowell, Interpreter (s.v.).

extent (a legal t. t.); ‘A writ or commission to the Sheriff for the valuing of lands or tenements; also, the Act of the Sheriff or other Commissioner upon this writ’, Cowell, Interpreter; Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 1035; Massinger, City Madam, v. 2 (Luke); As You Like It, iii. 1. 17.

extinct, to extinguish. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 2 (end); hence extincted, pp., Othello, ii. 1. 81.

extirp, to extirpate. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 25. L. extirpare, exstirpare, deriv. of stirps, the stem of a tree.

extraught, extracted. 3 Hen. VI, ii. 2. 142. Cp. distraught for distract, distracted.

extreate, extraction, origin. Spenser, F. Q. v. 10. 1. ME. estrete, extraction, origin (Gower, C. A. i. 1344), OF. estraite, birth, origin (Assizes de Jer., ch. 134); see Bartsch (Glossary).

extree, axle-tree. Golding, Metam. ii. 297; fol. 19, back (1603). In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Ax, sb.¹), ME. ex-tre (Prompt. EETS. 145).

eyas, a young hawk taken from the nest for the purpose of training; eyas hauke, a young untrained hawk, Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 34; eyas-musket (used jocularly of a sprightly child), Merry Wives, iii. 3. 22; ‘An aerie of children little eyases’, Hamlet, ii. 2. 355. F. niais (Fauconnerie), ‘qui n’a pas encore quitté le nid’ (Hatzfeld), L. nidacem, deriv. of nidus, a nest, cp. Ital. nidiace, ‘taken out of the nest, a simpleton’ (Florio). See niaise.

eye, a brood; esp. of pheasants; ‘An Eye of Pheasaunts’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 118 (E. K. Gloss.); ‘An Eye of tame pheasants Or partridges’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Prigg); Worlidge, Dict. Rust. 252; Coles, Lat. Dict. (1677). In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Eye, sb.²); also in the form nye (nie, ni), see EDD. OF. ni, ‘nid’ (La Curne).

eyre, to ‘ear’, to plough. Drayton, Robert Duke of Normandy, st. 5. See earth.

faces about, the same as ‘right-about face’, i.e. turn round the other way. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum. iii. 1. 14; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, v. 2 (Ralph); Scornful Lady, v. 2 (Y. Loveless).

fackins. The forms here given are distortions of fay (faith), frequent in trivial quasi-oaths. By my fackins, B. Jonson, Every Man, i. 3; By my feckins, Heywood, 1 Edw. I, iii. 1; By my facks, Middleton, Quiet Life, ii. 2; By my feck, Webster, Cure for Cuckold, iv. 3. Cp. I’ faikins, in truth, verily, used in Scotland, Lakeland, and Lancashire (EDD.). See fay (1).

fact, evil deed, crime. Meas. for M. iv. 2. 141; v. 439; Wint. Tale, iii. 2. 86; Macb. iii. 6. 10; in the fact, in the act, 2 Hen. VI, ii. 1. 173.

fadge, to fit, suit, agree; ‘Let men avoid what fadgeth not with their stomachs’, Robertson, Phras. 708; ‘How ill his shape with inward forme doth fadge’, Marston, Scourge of Villanie, i. 1. 172; to succeed, to turn out well, ‘How will this fadge?’, Twelfth Nt. ii. 2. 34; to get on well, to thrive, ‘Let him that cannot fadge in one course fall to another’, Cotgrave (s.v. Mouldre). In prov. use in various parts of England, meaning to fit, suit; to make things fit; to succeed, thrive, see EDD. (s.v. Fadge, vb.³).

fading, the name of a dance; ‘Fading is a fine jig’, Beaumont and Fl., Knight B. Pestle, iv. 5 (end). ‘With a fading’ was the refrain of a popular song of an indecent character, Winter’s Tale, iv. 4. 195.

fagary, a vagary, freak. Middleton, Roaring Girl, iv. 2 (Goshawk); Lady Alimony, ii. 1 (1 Boy). See fegary.

fagioli, French beans. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Mercury). Ital. fagioli, ‘french peason, kidney beanes’ (Florio), Late L. phaseolus (Pliny), earlier L. phaselus (Virgil), Gk. φάσηλος, a kidney-bean.

fail, fayl, to deceive. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 11; iii. 11. 46. F. faillir, to deceive (Cotgr.).

fain, to rejoice. Spenser, F. Q. v. 12. 36. Hence fayning, gladsome, wistful, Hymn of Love, 216. OE. fægnian, to rejoice.

fair, fairness, beauty. Greene, Looking Glasse, i. 1. 81 (Rasni); Death of E. of Huntingdon, ii. 1 (Salisbury); iii. 4 (Leicester); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 255, 282.

fairy money, money given by fairies, which turned to dry leaves if talked about; ‘Such borrowed wealth, like Fairy-money . . . will be but Leaves and Dust when it comes to use’, Locke, Human Und. I, iv. (NED.); Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, v. 1 (Montague). See Davies.

faitour, an impostor, cheat, a lying vagabond. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 39; faytor, F. Q. i. 12. 35; 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 173. See Notes to Piers Plowman, p. 166. The word means a sham, a maker-up of a character. OF. faitour, faiteör, Romanic type factitorem.

fa la, a snatch of song; ‘The fiddle, and the fa las’, Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iv. 2 (Launcelot). From the notes in the upper part of the gamut—fa-sol-la-si. Hence, fa la la, as a refrain of a song.

fall, the blast blown on a horn at the death of the deer. Gascoigne, Art of Venerie, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 315. See mort.

fall, a collar falling flat round the neck. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly); falls, pl., Middleton, Your Five Gallants, i. 1 (2 Fellow).

fall, autumn; ‘The hole yere is deuided into iiii. partes, spring-time, somer, faule of the leafe, and winter’, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 48; Dryden, tr. Juvenal, Sat. x. In prov. use in various parts of England, very common in America (EDD.).

fall, to let fall, Temp. ii. 1. 296; Richard III, v. 3. 135; to happen, Mids. Night’s D. v. 1. 188.

false: phr. to false a blow, to make a feint, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 46; ii. 5. 9. Cp. Cymbeline, ii. 3. 74.

falx, a term in wrestling; a grip round the small of the back. Drayton, Pol. i. 244; Carew, Cornwall, 76. F. faux du corps (Sherwood, s.v. Wast). See NED. (s.v. Faulx).

famble, hand. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen); Harman, Caveat, p. 87. Icel. fálma, the hand; cp. Swed. famle, to grope; cognate with OE. folm, a hand.

famble, a ring. (Cant.) Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, ii. 1 (Belfond Senior). So called because worn on the hand. See above.

famelic, exciting hunger, appetizing. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iii. 1 (Busy). L. famelicus, hungry; from fames, hunger.

Familist, one of the sect called the Family of Love. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, ii. 1 (Knavesby). See Dyce’s introduction to the Family of Love, by the same dramatist.

fang, to take, seize, seize upon. Timon, iv. 3. 23; spelt vang (Southern), London Prodigal, iii. 3. 5; fanged, pp., Northward Ho, i. 2. 6. OE. fōn, to take; pp. gefangen.

fanterie, infantry; ‘Cavallery [cavalry] and Fanterie’, Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. vi, c. 20; vol. i, p. 128 g; Fanteries, foot-soldiers, Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 152. OF. fanterie (Roquefort); Ital. ‘fantería, infantry; fante, a boy, a foot soldier’ (Florio); short for infante, an infant. Cp. ME. faunt, child (P. Plowman, B. xvi. 101), whence surname ‘Fauntleroy’.

farandine, a kind of cloth, made partly of silk and partly of wool. Spelt farrendon, Wycherley, Love in a Wood, iii. 1 (Lucy); ferrandine, a gown of this material, id. v. 2 (Mrs. Joyner). Said to be from F. Ferrand, the name of the inventor (c. 1630). See NED.

farce, to stuff, fill out; ‘Farce thy lean ribs’, B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 4 (Carlo); ‘The farced title’ (i.e. stuffed, tumid), Hen. V, iv. 1. 280; ‘Wit larded with malice, and malice farced with wit’, Tr. and Cr. v. 1. 64. See Dict. (s.v. Farce).

farcion, farcyon, the farcy, a disease in horses, akin to glanders. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 93. F. farcin; see Hatzfeld. See fashions.

fardle, to furl a sail. Golding, Metam. xi. 483; fol. 138 (1603). F. fardeler, to truss or pack up (Cotgr.). See NED. (s.v. Fardel).

fare, course; track of a hare. Spenser, F. Q. v. 10. 16; Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, iv. 2. 18. OE. fær, course; from faran, to go.

far-fet, fetched from afar. Milton, P. R. ii. 401. Things ‘far-fet’ were proverbially said to be good (or fit) for ladies; ‘Farre fet and deere bought is good for Ladyes’, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 93). See The Malcontent, v. 2 (Mendoza); B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, 1 Prologue; Cynthia’s Revels, iv. 1 (Argurion).

farlies, strange things, wonders. Drayton, Pol. x. 170. ‘Ferlies’ (or ‘fairlies’) is in common use in Scotland for ‘sights, show things to be seen, lions’, see EDD. (sv. Ferly, 4). ME. ferly, strange, wonderful; also, a wonder (Barbour’s Bruce), OE. fǣrlic, sudden, unexpected.

fashions, or fashion, the ‘farcy’, a disease of the skin in horses, Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 53; Dekker, O. Fortunatus, ii. 2 (Andelocia). See farcion.

fast and loose, a cheating game with a leather strap, which is made up in intricate folds and laid edgewise on a table; the novice thrusts a skewer into it, thinking to hold it fast thereby, but the trickster takes hold of both ends and draws it away. Fletcher, Loyal Subject, ii. 1 (Theodore); City Nightcap, iv. 1 (Dorothea).

faste, faced, having faces; ‘Some faste Like loathly toades’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 11. 12.

fastidious, distasteful, displeasing. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 9, § 1; disdainful, B. Jonson, New Inn, Ode (at the end), l. 7.

fatch, a ‘vetch’; ‘A fatch for Love!’, Turbervile, The Penitent Lover, last stanza; Udall, tr. of Apoph., Cicero, § 1 (note on the word Cicero). See EDD. (s.v. Fatch).

fault, a misfortune. Pericles, iv. 2. 79; Massinger, Bondman, v. 1 (Leosthenes).

faun, for fawn, an act of fawning upon; a cringing. Phineas Fletcher, An Apology for the Premises, st. 4; B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 4 (Tucca).

fausen, a kind of eel (?). Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xxi. 190. In Kent fazen-eel is in use for a large brown eel; see EDD. (s.v. Fazen).

fautie, ‘faulty’. Tusser, Husbandry, § 99. 2. The ordinary pronunciation in Scotland, and many parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Faulty). F. fautif.

fautor, an adherent, partisan; spelt faultor, Mirror for Mag., Worcester, xx; a protector, patron, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, i. 441; xi. 325. F. fauteur, ‘a fauter, favourer, protector’ (Cotgr.); L. fautor, a favourer, patron.

Favell, a personification of flattery; ‘The fyrste was Favell, full of flatery, Wyth fables false that well coude fayne a tale’, Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 134; ‘Favell hath a goodly grace In eloquence’, Wyatt, The Courtier’s Life (ed. Bell, 216). ME. Fauel: ‘Bothe Fals and Fauel and fykeltonge Lyere’ (P. Plowman, C. iii. 6); see Notes, pp. 42, 43. Hoccleve, in his De Regimine Principum (ed. Wright, pp. 106, 111), fully describes favelle or flattery, and says, ‘In wrong praising is all his craft and arte’. See curry-favell.

fay, faith. Spenser, F. Q. v. S. 19; phr. by my fay, by my faith, Romeo, i. 5. 128. ME. fey, faith (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1126); Anglo-F. fei (F. foi). See fackins.

fay, to clear away filth, to clean out a ditch or pond. Burton, Anat. Mel. i. 2. 4: Holland, tr. Livy, xxi. 37 (ed. 1609, 414); spelt fie, Tusser, Husbandry, § 20. 21. In common prov. use in the north country and in E. Anglia: in the former ‘fey’ is the usual form, in the latter ‘fie’, see EDD. (s.v. Fay, vb.¹). Icel. fǣgja, to cleanse, polish.

fayles, a variety of backgammon, played with three dice. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 8. 104. Described in Gifford’s note; so called because a particular throw caused the adversary to fail. See NED. (where there is cited from Ludus Anglicorum (c. A.D. 1330) ‘Est et alius ludus qui vocatur Faylys’). See Nares.

feague, to settle one’s business, to take one in hand, to dispose of. Etherege, She Would if she Could, iii. 3 (Sir Oliver); also (Sir Joslin’s Song); iv. 2 (Sir Oliver). Spelt fegue, Wycherley, Love in a Wood, i. 1 (end). Cp. G. fegen, to sweep, to clean, to furbish; also, to chastise, rebuke; Du. vegen. See NED.

feague, to whip. Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, v. 5 (Beaugard). Probably the same word as above. See EDD. (s.v. Feag).

fear, an object of terror. Hamlet, iii. 3. 25; Milton, P. L. ix. 285; to terrify, Tam. Shrew, i. 2. 221; 1 Hen. VI, v. 2. 2. ‘To fear’ is used in this sense in Scotland and in various parts of England (EDD.).

feat, made, fashioned. Shirley, Witty Fair One, iii. 2 (Sir N. Treadle); clever, dexterous, Cymb. v. 5. 88; graceful, ‘She speaks feat English’, Fletcher, Night-walker, iii. 6; neat, becoming, Temp. ii. 1. 273; to make a person elegant, Cymb. i. 1. 49. ‘Feat’ is in gen. prov. use in the sense of suitable, also, dexterous, adroit, smart (EDD.). F. fait, made; fait pour, made for, suitable for.

featuously, elegantly, Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. iv, Ballad of Dowsabel, 24; feateously, dexterously, nimbly, Spenser, Prothal. 27. ME. fetysly, exquisitely; fetys, well-made, handsome, graceful (Chaucer). OF. fetis, feitis; L. facticius.

feature, fashion, make, form. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 44; ‘The grim Feature’ (used of Satan), Milton, P. L. x. 279.

feeze. The threat ‘I’ll feeze you’ seems to have given rise to the sense. To ‘do for’, ‘settle the business of’, also, to beat, flog. Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, i. 6 (Ricardo); veeze, Massinger, Emperor East, iv. 2 (Countryman); pheese, Tam. Shrew, Induct, i. 1. ‘To fease’ is in prov. use in Scotland and in various parts of England—Midlands, E. Anglia, and South Coast, in the sense of to drive away, to put to flight (EDD.). OE. fēsan, to drive away; cp. Norw. dialect föysa (Aasen).

fegary, figary, ‘vagary’, freak, whimsical trick. Spelt figuary, Beaumont and Fl., Fair Maid of the Inn, ii. 2 (Clown); fegary, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, i. 5 (Diego). See fagary.

felfare, a field-fare. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, i. 1 (L. Beaufort). So in Nottingham and Warwick (EDD.).

fell’ff, the ‘felloe’ of a wheel, part of the wheel-rim. Chapman, tr. Iliad, iv. 525. A Yorks. pron. of ‘felloe’ (EDD.). OE. felg.

fellowly, companionable, sympathetic. Temp. v. 1. 64; fellowlie, Tusser, Husbandry, § 10. 55.

feltred, with wool matted close together; ‘Feltred ram’, Chapman, tr. Iliad, iii. 219; ‘His felter’d locks’, Fairfax, Tasso, iv. 7. See EDD. (s.v. Felter).

feme, feeme, a woman; ‘Take time therefore, thou foolish Feeme’, Turbervile, On the divers Passions of his Love, st. 3 from end. OF. feme (F. femme).

fennel, supposed to be an emblem of flattery; ‘How this smells of fennel’, B. Jonson, Case is Altered, i. 2 (Count F.). See Nares.

fenny, spoiled with damp, mouldy. Tusser, Husbandry, § 35. 44; ‘Fenny, mouldy as fenny cheese’, Worlidge, Ray’s English Words, 1691. In prov. use (EDD.). OE. fynig. See finewed.

fensive, ‘defensive’, capable of defence. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 301; Warner, Albion’s England, bk. i, c. 4 (st. 4 from end).

fere, feere, a companion, mate, spouse. Titus Andron. iv. 1. 89. Often spelt pheer, pheere, as in Spenser, Muse of Thestylis, 100. ME. fere (Chaucer). OE. ge-fēra, a companion.

ferle, a ‘ferule’; a rod, sceptre; ‘The one of knight-hoode bare the ferle’, Mirror for Mag., Mortimer, st. 9.

ferme, a lodging; ‘His sinfull sowle with desperate disdaine Out of her fleshly ferme fled to the place of paine’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 23.

ferse, the piece now known as the ‘queen’ in chess. Surrey, To the Lady that scorned, 12, in Tottel’s Misc., p. 21; ‘Fers, The Queen at Chess-play’, Bullokar. ME. fers (Chaucer, Book Duch., 654). OF. fierce, also, fierge (Roman Rose), Med. L. fercia (Ducange). Of Persian origin, ferzên, prop. ‘wise man’, ‘counsellor’, cp. Arab, firzân, queen in chess.

ferula, a flat wooden bat, used by schoolmasters for inflicting pats on the palm of a boy’s hand. North, tr. of Plutarch, J. Caesar, § 41 (in Shak. Plut., p. 96, n. 1); Englished as ferule, Hall, Satires, iv. 1. 169. L. ferula.

fescue, a little stick or pin, for pointing out the letters to children learning to read. Hall, Satires, iv. 2. 100; Dryden, Prologue to Cleomenes, 38. Hence, the gnomon of a dial; Puritan Widow, iv. 2. 84. OF. festu (F. fétu), a straw, O. Prov. festuc, for L. festūca, a straw (cp. O. Prov. festuga).

fet, pt. t. and pp. fetched; ‘David sent, and fet her to his house’, Bible, 2 Sam. xi. 27, Acts xxviii. 13 (ed. 1611); ‘This conclusion is far fet’, Jewel (Wks., ed. Parker Soc. i. 146); ‘Deep-fet groans’, 2 Hen. VI, ii. 4. 33; B. Jonson, Silent Woman, Prol. ‘To fet’ is in gen. prov. use for ‘fetch’ in Lancashire and Midland counties (EDD.) ME. fette, pt. s. of fecchen, and fet pp. (Chaucer). OE. fette, pt. s., and fetod, pp. of fetian, to fetch (B. T.).

fetch, a trick, stratagem. Tusser, Husbandry, § 64. 2; Hamlet, ii. 1. 38; King Lear, ii. 4. 90. In gen. prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Fetch, sb.² 14).

fetch in, to seize upon, apprehend. Ant. and Cl. iv. 1. 14, Massinger, Roman Actor, iv. 1 (Parthenius).

fetuous, well-formed, well-made. Herrick, The Temple, 68; featous (NED.). See featuously.

feutred, featured, fashioned. J. Heywood, The Four Plays, Anc. Brit. Drama, i. 19, col. 1; Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 376. The strange spelling feautered also occurs (NED.).

†fewmand. Only in B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Earnie): ‘They [a young badger and a ferret] fewmand all the claithes’. ‘Fewmand’ belongs to the imaginary dialect of the piece; it apparently means ‘to foul’, ‘to soil’.

fewmets, the excrement of a deer. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., i. 2 (John); Gascoigne, Art of Venerie, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 306; ‘Fumées, the dung or excrements of Deer, called by woodmen, fewmets, or fewmishing’, Cotgrave. Cp. F. fumier, dung, manure, cogn. w. L. fimus, dung, excrement. See NED. (s.v. Fumet).

fewterer, a term of the chase, one who looks after the dogs in the kennel, and lets them loose at the proper time. Beaumont and Fl., Tamer Tamed, ii. 2; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 2. See yeoman-fewterer. ME. vewter, a keeper of greyhounds (Bk. Curtasye 631, in Babee’s Bk., ed. 1868, p. 320). Anglo-F. veutrier, Med. L. veltrarius (Ducange), deriv. of Romanic type veltrus, a greyhound. Cp. O. Prov. veltre, It. veltro, for older L. vertragus, a greyhound, a Gaulish word.

feyster, to fester, as a wound. Morte Arthur, leaf 394, back, 31; bk. xix, c. 10.

fiant, fiaunt, a warrant. Spenser, Mother Hub. 1144. L. fiant, in phr. fiant literae patentes, let letters patent be made out; used of a warrant addressed to the Irish Chancery for a grant under the Great Seal (NED.).

fiants, the excrements of certain animals, esp. of the fox or badger, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 76, p. 216; fyaunts, id., c. 66, p. 184. F. fiente, the excrement of certain animals (Cotgr.).

fico, a fig. Gascoigne, Herbes (Wks., ed. 1587, 153); as a type of anything valueless or contemptible, ‘A fico for the phrase’, Merry Wives, i. 3. 33. Ital. fico. See Stanford.

fidge, to keep in continual movement. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Cokes); Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 4 (Hodge); ‘Remuer, to move, stir, fidge’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in Scotland and in various parts of England (EDD.).

fig of Spain, a contemptuous gesture, consisting in thrusting the thumb between two of the closed fingers. Hen. V, iii. 6. 62; phr. to give the fig, to insult thus, 2 Hen. IV, v. 3. 123. See Nares.

figent, fidgeting restless. Beaumont and Fl., Little French Lawyer, iii. 2 (Vertaigne); Coxcomb, iv. 3 (Nan); Chapman and others, Eastward Ho, iii. 2 (Quicksilver). Deriv. of fidge. See Nares.

fig-frail, a basket for holding figs. Middleton, Your Five Gallants, iv. 5 (Bungler). See frail.

figging-law, the art of cutting purses and picking pockets. Dekker, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll). See NED.

figgum, (perhaps) a juggler’s trick. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, v. 5 (Sir P. E.).

fights, screens of cloth used during a naval engagement, to conceal and protect a crew. Merry Wives, ii. 2. 142; ‘Bear my fights out bravely’, Fletcher, Valentinian, ii. 2 (Claudia); Dryden, Amboyne, iii. 3 (Song); Heywood, Fair Maid of West, iv (Wks., ed. 1874, ii. 316); Phillips, Dict. 1706.

filch, a hooked staff, used by thieves. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen); also called a filchman, Awdeley, Vagabonds, p. 4.

file, the thread, course, or tenor of a story or argument. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 6. 37. F. fil, a thread, L. filum.

file, to render foul, filthy, or dirty; ‘To file my hands in villain’s blood’, Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage, iii (Scarborow); Macbeth, iii. 1. 65. In prov. use in Scotland and the north of England (EDD.). OE. fȳlan (in compounds), deriv. of fūl, foul.

filed, polished with the ‘file’; neatly sculptured; also fig. of literary work. Tale of Pygmalion, 4; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 131; ‘True-filed lines’, B. Jonson, Pref. Verses to Shakespeare (1623), 68.

fill; fills, pl., the ‘thills’ or shafts of a cart. Tr. and Cr. iii. 2. 48; hence fill-horse, a shaft-horse, Herrick, The Hock-cart, 21; spelt phil-horse, Merch. Ven. ii. 2. 100. ‘Fill’ and ‘fill-horse’ are both in prov. use (EDD.). See thiller.

filograin, ‘filigree’. Butler, On P. Nye’s Thanksgiving Beard, l. 13 from end. Ital. filigrana (Fanfani). See Dict. (s.v. Filigree).

fincture, a feint, in fencing. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. xi. 54. Ital. finctura, fintura (NED.); deriv. of L. fingere, to feign.

fineness, ingenuity. Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 209; Massinger, Renegado, iv. 1 (Master).

finewed, musty, mouldy. Mirr. for Mag., Lord Hastings, st. 28; spelt fenowed, ‘The Scripture . . . is a Panary of holesome foode against fenowed traditions’, Bible, 1611, The Translators to the Reader; vinewed, Baret, Alvearie (s.vv. Mouldie and Hoarie); Tr. and Cr. ii. 1. 15 (in the Folios whinid). ‘Vinnewed’ (or ‘Vinnied’), mouldy, is in common prov. use in the south-west of England, see EDD. (s.v. Vinny). See fenny.

fire-drake, a fiery dragon; hence, a meteor. Hen. VIII, v. 4. 45; Beaumont and Fl., Knight of the B. Pestle, ii. 2 (or 5), near the end. OE. fȳr-draca; fȳr, fire, and draca, L. draco, Gk. δράκων, a dragon; cp. E. dragon.

fireship, a prostitute. (Cant.) Wycherley, Love in a Wood, ii. 1 (Sir Simon). [Smollett, Roderick Random, 1. xxiii.]

firk, to cheat, rob. Dekker, Honest Wh. (NED.); spelt ferk, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 1. See NED. (s.v. Firk, 2, c).

firk, to move about briskly, to frisk, gallop. Shirley, Hyde Park, iv. 3 (Song). See NED. (s.v. Firk, 3 b).

fisgig, a light, worthless female, fond of gadding about. Tusser, Husbandry, § 77. 8; ‘Trotiere, a fisgig, fisking huswife, gadding flirt’, Cotgrave. See NED. (s.v. Fizgig).

fisk, to scamper about, frisk, move briskly; ‘Then he fyskes abrode’, Latimer, Fourth Sermon (ed. Arber, p. 104); ‘Tome Tannkard’s Cow . . . fysking with her taile’, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 2; fysking, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 45. 2; ‘Fisking about the house’, Otway, Venice Preserved, ii. 1 (Pierre). A Shropshire word (EDD.).

fist, a contemptuous expression; ‘Fist o’ your kindness!’, Eastward Ho, iv. 1 [or 2] (Gertrude). Also spelt fiste, fyste, foist; the orig. sense is a breaking wind, a disagreeable smell. See NED. (s.v. Fist, sb.²).

fisting-hound, a spaniel; a contemptuous term. Fleming, tr. of Caius’ Dogs; in Arber, Eng. Garner, iii. 287. See above.

fitches, ‘vetches’. Bible, Isaiah xxviii. 25; fytches, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 20. 40, § 70. 8. ‘Vesce, . . . fitch or vitch’, Cotgrave. ‘Fitches’ in gen. prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and England (EDD.).

fitchock, fichok, a polecat. Fletcher, Bonduca, i. 2 (Petillius); Scornful Lady, v. 1 (end). ‘Fitch’ is a common prov. word for the polecat; see EDD. (s.v. Fitch, also, Fitchock).

fitten, fitton, an untruth, an invention. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, i. 1 (Amorphus); Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 54. ‘Fitten’ is in prov. use for ‘an idle fancy’, ‘a pretence’, in Hants., Wilts., and Somerset (EDD.). ME. fyton or lesynge, ‘mendacium’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 729).

fitters, fragments, rags, pieces. Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, iii. 3. 4; Pilgrim, i. 1. 22. In prov. use in the north (EDD.).

five-and-fifty, the highest number to stand on, at the game of primero. But it could be beaten by a flush, i.e. when the cards were all of one colour. ‘As big as five-and-fifty and flush’; as confident as one who held five-and-fifty in number, and also held a flush; so that he could not be beaten; B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Face).

five eggs: in phr. to come in with one’s five eggs, to break in or interrupt fussily with an idle story; ‘Persones coming in with their five egges, how that Sylla had geuen ouer his office’, Udall, tr. of Erasmus’s Apoph., p. 272; ‘Another commeth in with his fiue egges’, Robinson, tr. More’s Utopia (ed. Arber, p. 56). The orig. phrase had reference to the offering of five eggs for a penny, which was a trivial offer, and not very advantageous to the purchaser in the sixteenth century; See eggs (2).

fiveleaf, cinquefoil, Potentilla reptans. Drayton, Pol. xiii. 229; ‘Of Cinquefoyle, or Five-finger grasse’, Lyte, tr. of Dodoens, bk. i, c. 56.

fives, a disease of horses. Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 54; ‘Vyves, a disease that an horse hath, avives’, Palsgrave; so Cotgrave; ‘Adivas, the disease in Horses and other Beasts call’d the Vives’, Stevens, Span. Dict., 1706. Of Arabic origin, ad-dhîba, ‘morbi species qua affici solet guttur jumenti’ (Freytag); see Dozy, Glossaire, p. 45.

fixation, in alchemy; the process that rendered the elixir fixed. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle).

flacket, a flask, bottle, or vessel; ‘A flacket of wyne’, Great Bible (1539), 1 Sam. xvi. 20; ‘A flacket, Uter formam habens doliarem’, Coles, Dict., 1679. In prov. use in Yorkshire for a small cask-shaped vessel for holding beer (EDD.). ME. flaket, ‘obba, uter’ (Cath. Angl.); flakette, ‘flasca’ (Prompt.). Anglo-F. flaket (Gower).

flag, used as a sign or signal; ‘A flag and sign of love’, Othello, i. 1. 157; ‘His flag hangs out’ (i.e. as an advertisement), Middleton, The Widow, iv. 1 (Valeria); ‘ ’Tis Lent, the flag’s down’ (i.e. there is no flag flying above the theatre, because it is Lent, and the performances are suspended), Middleton, A Mad World, i. 1 (Follywit).

flaighted, fleighted, terrified. Golding, Metam. iv. 597; fol. 52 (1603); id., xi. 677. See NED. (s.v. Flaite, also, Flight). ‘To flight’ means properly ‘to put to flight’, hence, ‘to frighten’, ‘to scare’. Cp. EDD. (s.v. Flaite).

flanker, a fortification protecting men against a ‘flank’ or side attack; ‘Flankers . . . cannon-proof’, Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, i. 1 (Rossaline).

flapdragon, a combustible put in liquor, to be swallowed flaming; e.g. a raisin set on fire. L. L. L. v. 1. 45; Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iv. 1 (Clause). Hence, as vb., to swallow quickly, Winter’s Tale, iii. 3. 100.

flapjack, a pancake; also, an apple turnover. Pericles, ii. 1. 87; Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Vincent); see Nares. In prov. use in E. Anglia, Sussex, and Somerset (EDD.).

flappet, a little flap; ‘A flappet of wood’, Beaumont and Fl., Knight of the B. Pestle, i. 2 (or 3), Ralph. The sense of flap is here uncertain; perhaps a fly-flapper, to keep off flies.

flash, a pool, a marshy place. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 60; Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 70. In common prov. use in the north country, also in Lincoln and Shropshire; occurring frequently in place-names, see EDD. (s.v. Flash, sb.¹ 1). ME. flasch, ‘lacuna’ (Prompt.), OF. flache, ‘locus aquis stagnantibus oppletus’ (Didot), Med. L. flachia (Ducange).

flask, to flap; also, to cause to flutter; ‘To flask his wings’, Golding, Metam. vi. 703 (fol. 77); ‘The weather flaskt . . . her garments’, id., ii. last line.

flasky, (perhaps) belonging to a ‘flask’ or ‘flash’, a muddy pool; ‘The flasky fiends of Limbo lake’, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 149. See NED.

flat-cap, a London citizen; esp. a London apprentice; ‘Flat-caps thou call’st us. We scorne not the name’, Heywood, 1 Edw. IV, sc. 1 (NED.); Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, iii. 1 (Song, st. 4). See Nares.

flatchet, a sword. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 92; flachet, iii. 241. 529. Cp. MHG. flatsche, flasche, a sword with a broad blade (Weigand).

flatted, laid flat, levelled, made smooth. Dryden, Ceyx and Alcyone, 131; tr. of Virgil, Aeneid x, 158. See EDD. (s.v. Flat, v. 21).

flaw, a gust of wind. Arden of Fev. iv. 4. 44; 2 Hen. VI, iii. 1. 354; Hamlet, v. 1. 239. Metaphorically, a quarrel; Webster, White Devil (Camillo), ed. Dyce, p. 7. In prov. use in Scotland, also, in Devon and Cornwall (EDD.). Norw. dial, flaga, a gust of wind (Aasen).

flaw, to ‘flay’. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 1 (Subtle). In prov. use in Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, see EDD. (s.v. Flaw, vb. 7).

fleck, to spot, stain; hence fleckt, spotted in the cheek, flushed with wine; ‘And drinke, till they be fleckt’, Mirror for Mag., Norfolk, st. 25. In prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Fleck, vb.¹ 5). Cp. Norw. dial. flekk, a spot (Aasen).

fledge, fully fledged, ready to fly. Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal ii. 147; ‘Fledge souls’, Herbert, Temple, Death. OE. flycge, fledged; cp. G. flügge. See Dict. (s.v. Fledge). See flidge.

fleet, to be afloat. Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 171; to be overflowed, to be covered with water; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 9. 33; to pass or while away (time), As You Like It, i. 1. 124. OE. flēotan, to float.

fleet, to skim cream off milk; ‘I shall fleet their cream-bowls’, Grim the Collier, iv. 1 (Robin), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 443; Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 336). In prov. use in the north country, E. Anglia, and Kent and Sussex, see EDD. (s.v. Fleet, vb.²). OE. flēt, cream. Cp. Bremen dial. flöten, ‘die Sahne von der Milch abnehmen’ (Wtb.).

fleet, a creek, inlet, run of water. Drayton, Pol. xxiii. 191; xxv. 51. 129. In prov. use in various parts of England; esp. in E. Anglia and Kent; hence the name of Northfleet, see EDD. (s.v. Fleet, sb.¹ 9). OE. flēot, estuary.

fleme, to put to flight. Morte Arthur, leaf 318. 8; bk. xiii, c. 16; lf. 414, back, 16; bk. xx, c. 17. OE. flēman (Anglian), to put to flight; deriv. of flēam, flight.

flesh, to feed with flesh, to satiate, All’s Well, iv. 3. 19; 2 Hen. IV, iv. 5. 133; to feed the sword with flesh for the first time, 1 Hen. IV, v. 4. 133; to make fierce and eager for combat, King John, v. 1. 71. Hence fleshed, eager for battle, inured to bloodshed, Richard III, iv. 3. 6; ‘A flesh’d ruffian’, Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, iv. 2 (Zabulon).

fletcher, a maker or seller of arrows. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 110; ‘Jack Fletcher and his bolt’, Damon and Pithias (Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 19). Anglo-F. fleccher, arrow-maker (Rough List); F. flèche, arrow.

flete, to float. Surrey, Description of Spring, 8; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 4. Fletyng, floating, swimming, Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 259. See fleet.

flew, the large chaps of a deep-mouthed hound; as of a bloodhound. Hence flews, with the sense of flaps, or flapping skirts, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 4 (Eyre). Hence also flew’d, having flews (of a particular quality), Mids. Night’s D. iv. 1. 125.

flibote, fly-boat, a fast-sailing vessel. Heywood, King Edw. IV (Spicing), vol. i, p. 38; If you know not me (Medina), vol. i, p. 336. Dutch Vlie-boot, boat on the river Vlie, the channel leading out of the Zuyder Zee. See NED. (s.v. Fly-boat).

flicker, to flutter. Fletcher, Pilgrim, i. 1 (Alphonso); Dryden, Palamon, 1399. Metaph. to make fond movements, as with wings: Palsgrave has, ‘I flycker, I kysse together.’

flicker-mouse, a bat, a ‘flittermouse’. B. Jonson, New Inn, iii. 1; ‘Ratepenade, a bat, rearmouse or flickermouse’, Cotgrave. A Sussex word (EDD.).

flidge, fledged, furnished with feathers. Warner, Albion’s England. bk. ii, ch. 10, st. 48; Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, c. 4, p. 33; flig, Peele, Edw. I (ed. Dyce, p. 408). OE. flyege, fledged. See fledge.

flight, an arrow for long distances, light and well-feathered. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 3 (2 Masque: Cupid); flight-shot, the distance to which a flight-arrow is shot, about 600 yards; ‘A flite shot over, as much as the Tamise is above the Bridge’, Leland, Itin. (ed. 1744, iv. 41); ‘It being from the park about two flight-shots in length’, Desc. of Royal Entertainment, 1613 (Works of T. Campion, ed. Bullen, p. 179); ‘Two flight-shot off’, Heywood, A Woman Killed, iv. 5. 2.

flip-flap, a fly-flapper, for driving away flies. Dekker, O. Fortunatus, i. 2 (Andelocia); flyp-flap, a lap of a garment, Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 508.

flirt, flert, to throw with a jerk, to jerk, fillip. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii (ed. Arber, 84); Drayton, Pol. vi. 50; to move with a jerk, to dart, to take short quick flights, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, i (ed. Arber, 31).

flirt-gill, flurt-gill, flurt-gillian, a woman of light behaviour, a flirt. Romeo, ii. 4. 162; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iv. 1 (Wife); flurt-Gillian, The Chances, iii. 1 (Landlady). ‘Gill’ and ‘Gillian’ are forms of the Christian-name ‘Juliana’.

flitter-mouse, a bat. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 2 (Alken); Alchemist, v. 2 (Subtle). In common prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

flix, fur of the hare. Dryden, Annus Mirab. 132. Also applied to other animals; ‘the flix of goat’, Dyer, The Fleece, bk. iv, l. 104. In prov. use for the fur of a hare, rabbit, or cat, see EDD. (s.v. Flick, sb.³).

float, flow, flood of the tide. Ford, Love’s Sacr. ii. 3; in float, at high water, ‘Hee being now in Float for Treasure’, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, 128); Middleton, Span. Gipsy, i. 5 (Rod). See flote (wave).

Florentine, a kind of pie; meat baked in a dish, with a cover of paste. Beaumont and Fl., Woman-hater, v. 1 (Lazarillo); ‘I went to Florence, from whence we have the art of making custards, which are therefore called Florentines’, Wit’s Interpreter (Nares).

flote, a fleet. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 142, back, 31; 216, back, 1; Hakluyt, Voy. i. 296, l. 2; spelt floate, Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 135. OE. flota, a ship, fleet (BT.).

flote, a wave, billow; also, the sea; ‘The Mediterranean Flote’, Tempest, i. 2. 234; ‘The flotes of the see’, Caxton, Jason, 114 (NED.). OF. flot, a wave (Hatzfeld); cp. OE. flot, the sea (Sweet).

flote, to skim milk, to take off the cream. Tusser, Husbandry, § 49. 1. See EDD. (s.v. Float, vb. 16).

flower-de-luce, the ‘fleur-de-lis’, a plant of the genus Iris. Tusser, Husbandry, § 43. 11; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 16; Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 127; also, the heraldic lily, the armorial emblem of France, 1 Hen. VI, i. 1. 80.

flown: ‘The Sons of Belial, flown with insolence and wine’, Milton, P. L. i. 502; ‘Flowen with wine’, Ussher, Ann, vi. 250 (NED.). ‘Flown’ was orig. used of a stream in full flow, ‘in flood’; ‘Cedron . . . in wynter . . . is mervaylously flowen with rage of water’, Guilford’s Pilgrimage (ed. Camden Soc. 31). See NED. (s.v. Flow, vb. 11 b).

†fluce, to flounce, plunge; ‘They [cattle] backward fluce and fling’, Drayton, The Moon-calf, 1352. Not found elsewhere.

flue, flew, an air-passage, a tube or pipe. In NED. (s.v. Flue, sb.³) is this note:—‘The following passage is usually quoted as the earliest example of the word, which is supposed to mean here the spiral cavity of a shell. But flue is probably a misprint for flute. [The quotation follows]: 1562, Phaer, Aeneid x [l. 209 of Lat. text] With whelkid shell Whoes wrinckly wreathed flue, did fearful shril in seas outyell.’ But this suggestion cannot be right; for the word occurs again in a parallel passage, where the spelling is flew, occurring at the end of a line, and riming with blew; viz. ‘Dolphins blew, And Tritons blowe their Trumpes, y^t sounds in seas w^t dropping flew,’ Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, v. 824.

fluence, a flowing stream. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 224; also, fluency, Heywood, Fair Maid of the Exchange (Works, vol. ii, p. 86).

flundering, ‘floundering’, plunging and tossing; ‘Th’ unruly flundring steeds’, H. More, Song of Soul, i. 1. 17; Chapman, Gent. Usher, i. 1 (Vincentio); the word makes no sense here, for the passage is intentional nonsense. But it’s a loud-sounding and impressive word.

†flundge, fly out, are flung out. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 59. An onomatopoeic word, not found elsewhere.

flurt at, to sneer at, to scoff at. Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 2. 19; Beaumont and Fl., Rule a Wife, iii. 2; id., Pilgrim, i. 1; iii. 1; Wild Goose Chase, ii. 1. See NED. (s.v. Flirt, vb. 4 a).

flush, a term at primero; when a player held four cards of the same colour. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Face). See five-and-fifty.

fluxure, fluidity; also, moisture; ‘Moisture and fluxure’, B. Jonson, Induct. to Ev. Man out of Humour (Asper); Mirror for Mag., Cromwell (by Drayton), st. 117. Late L. fluxura (Tertullian).

fly, a domestic parasite, a familiar. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, ii. 2 (Theoph.). Also, a familiar spirit; ‘I have my flies abroad’, B. Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2 (Face). See NED. (s.v. Fly, sb.¹ 5, a, b.).

fobus, a cheat; for fob-us, i.e. cheat us; from fob, to cheat. ‘You old fobus’, Wycherley, Plain Dealer, ii (Jerry).

fode, a creature, person, man. Squire of Low Degree, l. 364; in Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poetry, ii. 37; The World and the Child, l. 4; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 243. Also, a companion, id. 247. ME. fode, a person, creature (Prov. Hendyng, 63); see Dict. M. and S.

fode, foad, to beguile with show of kindness or fair words, to soothe in fancied security. Golding translates ‘Favet huic Aurora timori’, in Ovid, Met. vii. 721, by ‘The morning foading this my feare’, ed. 1587, 99^b. Skelton has fode, Magnyfycence, 1719. ME. foden, to beguile (Will. Palerne, 1646).

fog, rank, coarse grass. Drayton, Pol. xiii. 399; ‘Fogg in some places signifies long grass remaining in pasture till winter’, Worlidge, Dict. Rust.; ‘Fogge, postfaenium’, Levins, Manipulus. Hence foggy, abounding in coarse grass, Drayton, Pol. xxiii. 115; moist, Golding, Metam. xv. 203. ‘Fog’ is in prov. use in various parts of England for the aftermath; the long grass left standing in the fields during winter (EDD.). ME. fogge (Cleanness, 1683, in Allit. Poems, 85). Norm. dial. fogge, long grass (Ross).

fog, to traffic in a servile way, hunt after, cheat. Fogging rascal, Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iv. 2 (Ariosto). A back-formation from fogger; cp. ‘pettyfogger’; see Dict. (s.v. Petty).

foggy, flabby, puffy, corpulent; ‘Fat and foggy’, Contention betw. Liberality and Prodigality, v. 4 (Lib.); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 377; ‘Un enbonpoint de nourrice, a plump, fat, or foggy constitution of body’, Cotgrave; ‘Foggy, to [too] ful of waste flesshe’, Palsgrave. Also fog, bloated, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 672. ‘Foggy’ is in prov. use in the north country for fat, corpulent.

fogue, fury. Dryden, Astraea Redux, 203. Ital. foga, fury, violent force (Florio).

foil, foyle, to tread under foot, trample down; ‘That Idoll . . . he did foyle In filthy durt’, Spenser. F. Q. v. 11. 33; the tread or track of a hunted animal, ‘What? hunt a wife on the dull foil!’, Otway, Venice Preserved, iii. 2 (Pierre); foyling, ‘Foulée, the slot of a stag, the fuse of a buck (the view or footing of either) upon hard ground, grass, leaves, or dust; we call it (most properly) his foyling’, Cotgrave. See NED. (s.v. Foil, vb.¹ 2).

foil, foyle, repulse, defeat, disgrace. Mirror for Mag., Cordila, st. 18; 1 Hen. VI, v. 3. 23. See above.

foin, a thrust, in fencing. King Lear, iv. 6. 251; ‘Keep at the foin’ (i.e. do not close in fight), Marriage of Wit and Science, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 389.

foist, a light galley; ‘The Lord Mayor’s foist,’ B. Jonson, Epig. cxxxiii; Voyage, 100; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 6. 17. F. fuste, ‘a foist, a light galley’ (Cotgr.). Ital. fusta, ‘a foist, a fly-boat, a light galley’ (Florio); O. Prov. fusta, ‘poutre, bois, vaisseau, navire’ (Levy); Med. L. fusta, a galley, orig. a piece of timber (Ducange). See galley-foist.

foist (a term in dice-play), to ‘palm’ or conceal in the fist, to manage the dice so as to fall as required, Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 54); to cheat, play tricks, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Alvarez); a cheat, a pickpocket, B. Jonson, Every Man, iv. 4 (Cob); Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1; a trick, B. Jonson, Volpone, iii. 6 (Vol.); foister, a cheat, a sharper, Mirror for Mag., Burdet, st. 32. Du. vuisten, to keep in the fist; vuist, the fist. See NED.

folk-mote, an assembly of the people. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 4. 6. OE. folc-mōt; folc, folk, people, and mōt, a moot or meeting.

folt, a foolish person. Disobedient Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 304; foult, Drant, tr. of Horace, Sat. i. 1. ME. folett, ‘stolidus’ (Prompt.). OF. folet, ‘a pretty fool, a little fop, a young coxe, none of the wisest’ (Cotgr.).

folter. Of the limbs: to give way; ‘His [the horse’s] legges hath foltred’, Sir T. Elyot, The Governour, bk. 1, ch. 17; of one’s speech: to stumble, to stammer, Golding, Metam. iii. 277. See NED. (s.v. Falter, vb.¹).

fon, a fool. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 59. ME. fon (Wars Alex. 2944); fonne (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4089).

fond, to play the fool, become foolish; to dote; ‘I fonde, or dote upon’, Palsgrave. Hence fonded, befooled, full of folly, Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, iv, l. 489 (L. demens, l. 374); ‘A fonded louer’ (an infatuated lover), Turbervile, The Lover, seing himselfe abusde, renounceth love, l. 11.

†fond, to found. Misspelt, for the sake of a quibble upon fond, foolish; Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, iii. 3 (Hammon).

fone, foes. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 10; Visions of Bellay, v. 10. OE. ge-fān, foes; pl. of ge-fā, a foe.

foody, abounding in food, supplying food. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 104; ‘Their foody fall,’ their settlement in a food-supplying place, id., xv. 638. ‘Foody’ is in prov. use in the north of England for rich, fertile, full of grass (EDD.).

footcloth, a large richly-ornamented cloth laid over the back of a horse and hanging down to the ground on each side; considered as a mark of dignity and state (NED.). 2 Hen. VI, iv. 7. 51; Fletcher, Noble Gentleman, ii. 1 (Marine); Beaumont and Fl., Thierry, v. 2 (Thierry); ‘My foot-cloth horse’, Richard III, iii. 4. 80; hence foot-cloth, a horse provided with this adornment, Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, v. 1. 10.

foot-pace, a raised platform for supporting a chair of state. Bacon, Essay 56, § 4; Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, x. 466. F. pas, a step.

†foot-saunt, a game at cards; also called cent-foot, and apparently the same as cent. Only in Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 35. See cent.

fopdoodle, a simpleton. Massinger, Gt. Duke of Florence, ii. 1 (Calaminta); Butler, Hud. ii. 3. 998.

for-, intensive prefix, as distinct from fore-, beforehand. OE. for-. Examples are given below: as for-do, -hale, -slack, -slow, -speak, -spent, -swatt, -swonck, -weary, -wounded.

for, against, in order to prevent; chiefly with a sb. of verbal origin. Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, iv. 2; Two Gent. of Verona, i. 2. 136; for going, i.e. to prevent going, to save from going, Pericles, i. 1. 40. (Common; and, if the meaning be not caught, the sense of the sentence is altered.)

forby, foreby, hard by, near. Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 39; v. 2. 54; by, id., v. 11. 17. ME. forby (Barbour’s Bruce, x. 345).

force. Of force, of necessity, Bacon, Adv. Learning, ii. 5. 2; on force, Heywood and Rowley, Fortune by Land, &c., ii. 1 (John); Works, vi. 381; force perforce, by violent constraint, King John, iii. 1. 142; 2 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 116; to hunt at force, to run the game down with dogs instead of slaying with weapons, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Robin).

force. It is force, it is of consequence or importance; usually negative, it is no force, it does not matter, no force, no matter, what force? what matter?; ‘No force for that, for it is ordered so’, Wyatt, The Courtier’s Life (Works, ed. Bell, 217). ME. no force, no fors, no matter, no consequence; what fors, what matter (Chaucer). Cp. Anglo-F. force ne fet, it makes no force, it matters not (Bozon).

force, to trouble oneself, care; ‘I force it not’, I reck not of it, I care not for it, Mucedorus, Induction, 68; it forceth not, it matters not, it is not material, Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 52). See NED. (s.v. Force, vb.¹ 14 b).

fore-, prefix; often miswritten for the prefix for-, as in forespent for forspent. See under for-.

forehand: in phr. forehand (shaft), an arrow used for shooting straight before one. Ascham, Toxoph. p. 126; 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 52; former, previous, Much Ado, iv. 1. 51; foremost, leading, Butler, Hud. ii. 2. 618; in the front, the mainstay, Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 143.

forelay, to lie in wait for. Dryden, Palamon, i. 493; also, to hinder, Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid xi, 781.

forepoynted, appointed beforehand. Gascoigne, Hermit’s Tale, § 2; ed. Hazlitt, ii. 141.

fore-right, right on, straight ahead. Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of Malta, ii. 3. 8; said of a favourable wind, Massinger, Renegado, v. 8 (Aga). In prov. use in Devon and Cornwall in the sense of straight forward (EDD.).

foreset. Of foreset, of set purpose, purposely. Ferrex and Porrex, ii. 2, chorus, 13. See NED.

forespeak, to predict; especially, to foretell evil about one. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 792; xvii. 32; Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1 (Mother Sawyer).

forfaint, very faint, extremely languid. Sackville, Induction, § 15; Mirror for Mag., Buckingham, st. 73.

forfare, to perish, decay; ‘Thonge Castell . . . is now forfaryn’, Fabyan, Chron., Pt. V, c. 83 (side-note); ed. Ellis, 61. ME. forfaren (Gen. and Ex. 3018).

forgetive, inventive. 2 Hen. IV, iv. 3. 107. A word of uncertain formation, commonly taken to be a deriv. of the vb. ‘to forge’.

forgrown, grown out of use. Gascoigne, Prol., to Hermit’s Tale, ed. Hazlitt, i. 139.

forhaile, to distract. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 243. See NED. (s.v. For-, prefix¹ 5 b).

for-hent, seized beforehand. Better fore-hent, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 4. 49. From fore, before, and hent, caught, from OE. hentan, to seize.

forjust, to tire out in ‘justing’, beat in a tilting-match. Morte Arthur, leaf 162. 35; bk. viii, c. 33.

forkhead, the head of an arrow, with two barbs pointing forward, instead of backward, as in the swallow-tail. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 135.

forks, a forked stake used as a (Roman) whipping-post. Fletcher, Bonduca, i. 2 (Petillius); ii. 4 (Decius). L. furcae, pl., forks; hence, a yoke under which defeated enemies passed; also, a whipping-post.

forlore, utterly wasted. Sackville, Induction, st. 48; forlorne, made bare, id. st. 8. OE. forloren, pp. of forlēosan, to lose, also, to destroy.

formerly, first of all, beforehand. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 1. 38; vi. 3. 38. Also, just now, even now; id., ii. 12. 67; Merch. Venice, iv. 1. 362.

forpine, to waste away. Gascoigne, Complaint of Philomene, 15; forpined, wasted, Hall, Sat. v. 2. 91.

forsane, pp. ‘forsaken’, avoided, Twyne, tr. Aeneid, x. 720; xi. 412. I can find no third example of the form forsaken being thus contracted. (Not in NED.).

forslack, foreslack, to delay, to spoil by delay. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 12; vii. 7. 45.

forslow, to delay. Marlowe, Edw. II, ii 4. 39. Ill spelt foreslow, 3 Hen. VI, ii. 3. 56; B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 5 (Macilense).

forspeak, to bewitch. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iii. 1 (Asotus); Middleton, Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1. 12; ‘They [the witches] saie they have . . . forespoken hir neighbour’, R. Scot, Discov. Witchcraft, iii. 2. 45 (NED.); ‘Fasciner, to charm, bewitch, forspeak; fasciné, forspoken’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in Scotland for ‘to bewitch’, ‘to cause ill-luck by immoderate praise’ (EDD.). ME. forspekyn, or charmyn, ‘fascino’ (Prompt.).

forspent, exhausted. 2 Hen. IV, i. 1. 37; misspelt forespent, Sackville, Induction, st. 12.

forth dayes, late in the day. Morte Arthur, leaf 402, back, 19; bk. xx, c. 5. ME. ‘Whanne it was forth daies hise disciplis camen’, Wyclif, Mark vi. 35.

forthink, to regret, to be sorry for. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 4. 32; ‘I forthynke, I repent me, Je me repens’, Palsgrave. A north-country word (EDD.), ME. forthynke, ‘penitere’ (Cath. Angl.); OE. for forþencan, to despise.

forthright, straight forward. Dryden, tr. Aeneid, xii. 1076; id., Palamon, ii. 237; used as sb., a straight course, Tr. and Cr. iii. 3. 158. In use in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Forth). ME. forth right (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 295).

forthy, therefore, on that account. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 14; Shep. Kal., March, 37. ME. for-thy, therefore (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1841); OE. for-ðȳ.

forwaste, wasted utterly. Sackville, Induction, st. 11. (Better forwast, where wast is contracted from wasted.) Forwasted, laid waste, Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 1.

forwearied, extremely wearied. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 13; Davies, Orchestra, 58 (Arber’s Garland, v. 37).

forwhy, because. Peele, Edw. I, ed. Dyce, p. 412, col. 1; Richard II, v. 1. 46. ME. for-why (Chaucer, Bk. Duch. 461); see Dict. M. and S., and Wright’s Bible Word-Book.

foster, a ‘forester’. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 17; iii. 4. 50. Hence the surname ‘Foster’.

fougade, a small powder-mine; applied to the gunpowder plot of Guy Fawkes; ‘The fougade or powder plot’, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Medici, pt. i, § 17. F. fougade, a mine (Cotgr.).

foulder, a thunder-bolt. Mirror for Mag., Clarence, st. 47; hence as vb., to drive out, as with a thunder-bolt, id., Mortimer, st. 4. Anglo-F. fouldre (Gower).

foumerd, a ‘foumart’, polecat. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 52. For numerous forms of this very general prov. name for the polecat see EDD. (s.v. Foumart). See fulmart.

fourraye, to fall upon, attack, raid; lit. to foray, plunder, act as forayers. Caxton, Hist. of Troye, leaf 203. 8; foureyed and threstid, charged and thrust, id., leaf 299. 29. See NED. (s.v. Foray).

foutra, footra, an expression of contempt; a foutra for, a fig for. 2 Hen. IV, v. 3. 103; Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iv. 2 (Launcelot). For the origin, see NED.

fowe, fow, to clean out, cleanse; ‘I fowe a gonge’, Palsgrave. In prov. use in some parts of England for the more usual ‘fey’ or ‘fie’, see EDD. (s.v. Fay, vb.²). ME. fowyn, or make clean, ‘mundo, emundo’ (Prompt. EETS. 184, see note no. 833); Icel. fāga, to clean.

fox, a kind of sword. Hen. V, iv. 4. 9; ‘A right [genuine] fox’, Two Angry Women, ii. 4 (Coomes). The wolf on some makes of sword-blade is supposed to have been mistaken for a fox.

foxed, drunk. (Cant.) Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, ii. 3 (Clown); fox, to make drunk, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iii. 1 (near the end); Pepys, Diary, Oct. 26, 1660.

fox-in-the-hole, a game in which boys hopped on one leg, and beat each other with pieces of leather (Boas). Kyd, Soliman and Persida, i. 3 (end); Herrick, The Country Life, 57.

fraight, pp. fraught, loaded. Peele, Poems, ed. Dyce, p. 601, col. 1; Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 35.

frail, a basket made of rushes. B. Jonson, Volpone, v. 2 (Peregrine); ‘A frail of figges’, Lyly, Mother Bombie, iv. 2 (Silena); ‘Cabas, a frail for raisins or figs’, Cotgrave; so Palsgrave. In common prov. use in various parts of England—the Midlands, E. Anglia, and south-west counties—for a soft flexible basket used by workmen and tradesmen (EDD.). ME. ffrayl of ffrute, ‘carica’ (Prompt.), fraiel (Wyclif, Jer. xxiv. 2); OF. frayel, ‘cabas à figues’ (La Curne). See Thomas, Phil. Fr. 366.

fraischeur, freshness, coolness. Dryden, Poem on the Coronation, 102. F. fraischeur (mod. fraîcheur), coolness (Cotgr.).

franion, an idle, loose, licentious person. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 37; v. 3. 22; Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs); Works, i. 44. See Nares.

frank, a sty, a place to feed pigs in. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 160; ‘Franc, a franke, or stie, to feed or fatten hogs in’, Cotgrave; as vb., to fatten, confine in a sty, Richard III, i. 3. 314; Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 14. ME. frank, a place for fattening animals, ‘saginarium’ (Prompt.), see Way’s note; OF. franc (Didot), see Ducange (s.v. Francum).

frapler, a blusterer, quarrelsome person. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iv. 1 (Amorphus); see NED. (s.v. Fraple). Cp. frap, to quarrel, frappish, quarrelsome, in EDD.

frappet, an endearing term addressed to a girl; ‘My little frappet’, Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage, v. 1 (Ilford).

fraught, freight, cargo. Edw. III, v. 1. 79; Tempest, v. 1. 61; fig. of news brought by a new-comer. Milton, Samson, 1075; as vb., to lade, load, form a cargo, Tempest, 1. 2. 13. See Dict.

fraunch, to devour; ‘Fraunching the fysh . . . with teath of brasse’, Mirror for Mag., Rivers, st. 69; fraunshe, Turbervile, Hunting (ed. 1575, 358); see NED.

fraunchise, freedom. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 15, § last; Fabyan, Chron. an. 1247-8, ed. Ellis, p. 336. ME. franchyse, privilege (Chaucer), fraunchyse, ‘libertas’ (Prompt.); Anglo-F. fraunchise, freedom, privileged liberty (Gower).

fraying, the coating rubbed off the horns of a deer, when she rubs it against a tree. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (John).

fraying-stock, a tree-stem against which a hart frays (or rubs) his horns. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 27, p. 69.

freat, a weak place or blemish in a bow. Ascham, Toxophilus, pp. 114, 120; as vb., to injure, damage, Surrey, Praise of Mean Estate, 4; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 27. A Yorkshire word (EDD.). OF. frete (fraite), a breach, injury, see La Curne (s.v. Fraicte), and Didot (s.v. Fraite).

freke, a warrior, fighting-man. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 68; Grimald, Epitaph on Sir J. Wilford, 13; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 112. ME. freke, a warrior, a man (Dict. M. and S.), OE. freca (Beowulf).

fremman, a stranger. Jacob and Esau, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 210. For fremd man; ‘Fremd’ is in common prov. use for strange, foreign, in Scotland and the north of England down to Northampton (EDD.). ME. fremede, foreign (Chaucer). OE. fremede.

frenne, a stranger, Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 28. ‘Fren’ is given as a Caithness word in EDD. ME. frend, foreign (Plowman’s Tale, 626). See above.

frequent, crowded, well-attended. B. Jonson, Sejanus, v. 3. 1; Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 25; f. to, addicted to, Wint. Tale, iv. 2. 36; frequent with, familiar with, Shak. Sonnet 117. L. frequens, crowded (Cicero).

freshet, a stream or brook of fresh water. Hakluyt, Voy. i. 113, l. 4 from bottom; Milton, P. R. ii. 345.

fret, to wear away; to chafe, rub; ‘Frets like a gummed velvet’, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 2. (Velvet, when stiffened with gum, quickly rubbed and fretted itself out.)

friar’s lantern, Ignis fatuus, will-of-the-wisp. Milton, L’Allegro, 104. [Scott in Marmion, iv. i, following Milton, has taken the ‘friar’ to be Friar Rush, who had nothing to do with the Ignis fatuus, but was the hero of a popular story—a demon disguised as a friar.]

frim, vigorous; ‘My frim and lusty flank’, Drayton, Pol. xiii. 397; abundant in sap, juicy, id., Owle, 5; Worlidge, Syst. Agric, 224. In gen. prov. use in England in the sense of vigorous, healthy, thriving, in good condition, luxuriant in growth; also, juicy, succulent (EDD.). OE. *frym, cogn. w. freme, good, strenuous (BT.).

frisle, to ‘frizzle’, to curl the hair in small crisp curls. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1145; Twyne, tr. Aeneid, xii. 100. See EDD. (s.v. Frizzle, vb.²).

frith, wooded country, wood; often used vaguely; ‘In fryth or fell’, Gascoigne, Art of Venerie (ed. Hazlitt, ii. 306); Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, ix. 85 (L. silva). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. frith, ‘frith and fell’ (Cursor M. 7697). OE. fyrhð, a wood (Earle, Charters, 158).

fro, to go frowardly or amiss, to be unsuccessful. Mirror for Mag., Yorke, st. 23.

frolic, s., (prob.) a set of humorous verses sent round at a feast. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, ii. 3 (Meer.).

froligozene, interj., rejoice!, be happy! Two Angry Women, ii. 2 (end); Heywood, Witches of Lancs., i. 1 (Whetstone); vol. iv, p. 173. Du. vrolijk zijn, to be cheerful.

frontless, shameless. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, i. 159; Odyssey, i. 425; Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 1040. 1187.

frore, intensely cold, frosty; ‘The parching Air Burns frore’, Milton, P. L. ii. 595. Now only in poetical diction after Milton’s use. OE. froren pp. of frēosan, to freeze. ‘Frore’ is still in prov. use in various parts of England for ‘frozen’, see EDD. (s.v. Freeze, 3 (11)).

frosling, a ‘frostling’, a gosling nipped or injured by frost. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 460. ‘Froslin(g’ is a Suffolk word for anything—plant or animal—injured by the frost (EDD.).

frote, froat, to rub, chafe; to rub a garment with perfumes. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Perfumer); Middleton, A Trick to Catch, iv. 3 (1 Creditor). In prov. use in the north country and Shropshire (EDD.). ME. frote, to rub (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 1115, OF. froter (F. frotter).

frounce, to frizz or curl the hair; ‘An ouerstaring frounced hed’, Ascham, Scholemaster, bk. i (ed. Arber, p. 54); Milton, Il Penseroso, 123. F. froncer, to wrinkle the brow, to frown. See Dict. (s.v. Flounce, 2).

frow, frowe, fro, a Dutchwoman; a woman. London Prodigall, v. 1. 164; Bacchus’ froes, Beaumont and Fl., Wit at Several Weapons, v. 1 (Wittypate). Du. vrouw; cp. G. Frau. See Stanford.

frowy, musty, sour, stale; ‘They like not of the frowie fede’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 111. In use in E. Anglia and America, see EDD. (s.v. Frowy), and NED. (s.v. Froughy). Probably a deriv. of OE. þrōh, rancid (Napier’s OE. Glosses, vii. 193 and 210).

froy, brave, handsome, gallant; ‘And then my froy Hans Buz, A Dutchman’, B. Jonson, Staple of News, i. 1 (Thomas). Du. fraai, ‘brave, handsome, gallant, neat’ (Sewel). Cp. F. frais, ‘fresh, young, lusty’ (Cotgr.).

frubber, a furbisher, burnisher, or polisher. Said to a maid-servant, Chapman, Widow’s Tears, v. 3 (Tharsalio).

frubbish, to polish by rubbing; ‘To frubbish, fricando polire’, Levins, Manip.; hence, frubisher, a polisher, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1076. F. fourbir, ‘to furbish, polish’ (Cotgr.).

frump, to mock or snub. Fletcher, Maid in a Mill, iii. 2 (Franio); ‘Sorner, to jest, boord, frump, gull’, Cotgrave; ‘Hee frumpeth those his mistresse frownes on’, Man in the Moone (Nares); a scoffer, Gascoigne (ed. Hazlitt, i. 24); a taunt, a biting sarcasm, Harington, Epigrams (Nares); Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 3. ‘To frump’ is in prov. use in many parts of England, meaning to flout, jeer; to scold, speak sharply or rudely to, see EDD. (s.v. Frump, vb.²).

frush, to bruise, batter. Tr. and Cr. v. 6. 29; frusshid, dashed in pieces, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 78. 28. OF. fruissier, froissier, to break to pieces.

frush, fragments, remnants. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 39. A Scottish word, see EDD. (s.v. Frush, sb.¹ 4).

fub (gen. with off), to put off deceitfully. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 37; to fob off, Coriolanus, i. 1. 97. Cp. Low G. foppen, ‘Einen zum Narren haben’ (Berghaus). See EDD. (s.v. Fob, vb.⁴).

fucate, artificially painted over, disguised. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 4, § last but one. L. fucatus, pp. of fucare, to paint the face; from fucus; see below.

fucus, paint for the complexion, a cosmetic. B. Jonson, Sejanus, ii. 1 (Eudemus); Beaumont and Fl., Laws of Candy, ii. 1 (Gonzalo). L. fucus, red dye. Gk. φῦκος, rouge, prepared from seaweed so called.

fuge, to flee, flee away; ‘I to fuge and away’, Gascoigne, Works, i. 231. (The construction seems to be—I (gan) to fuge.) L. fugere.

†fulker, a pawn-broker. Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 4 (Dulipo). Cp. Du. focker, ‘an engrosser of wares’ (Hexham). See Fog (to traffic).

fullam, a loaded dice. Merry Wives, i. 3. 94. Spelt fulham. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 1. 642.

fulmart, a ‘foumart’, pole-cat. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 4 (Lady Tub); also fullymart, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 146. 31. ME. fulmard, fulmerde, a polecat, OE. fūl, foul, and mearð, marten, see Dict. M. and S. See foumerd.

fum, to play or thrum (on a guitar) with the fingers. Westward Ho, v. 2; Dryden, Assignation, ii. 3.

fumado, fumatho, a smoked pilchard; ‘Cornish pilchards, otherwise called Fumados’, Nash, Lenten Stuff (1871), p. 61 (NED.); fumatho, Marston, The Fawn, iv. 1 (Page); ‘Their pilchards . . . by the name of Fumadoes, with oyle and a lemon, are meat for the mightiest Don in Spain’, Fuller, Worthies, Cornwall, 1. 194. Span. fumado, pp. of fumar, to smoke; L. fumus, smoke. See EDD. (s.v. Fair-maid).

fumbling, rambling in speech, hesitating. North, tr. of Plutarch, J. Caesar, § 43 (in Shak. Plut., p. 98, n. 2); ‘Thy fumbling throat’, Marston, Antonio’s Revenge, i. 1 (Piero).

fumish, angry, fractious. See EDD. and Nares. Fumishly, with indignation, ‘Toke highly or fumishly’; Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 14.

fumishing, variant of fewmishing, the dung of a hart or deer. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 23; p. 65. See fewmets.

funambulous, narrow, as if one were walking on a tight-rope; ‘This funambulous path’, Sir T. Browne, Letter to a Friend, § 31.

furacane, furicane, a hurricane; ‘These tempestes of the ayer . . . they caule Furacanes’, R. Eden, First three E. Books on America (ed. Arber, p. 81). Furicanes, Heywood, Iron Age, Part II, vol. iii, p. 405. O. Span. furacan (Sp. huracan), Pg. furacão, from the Carib word given by Peter Martyr as furacan. See NED. (s.v. Hurricane).

furbery, a trick, imposture. Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. viii, p. 43. F. fourberie, a trick.

fur-fare, to cause to perish, destroy. Morte Arthur, leaf 95, back, 30; bk. vi, c. 6. See forfare.

furniment, furniture, array. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 38. F. fourniment, provision, furniture; fournir, to furnish (Cotgr.).

furniture, equipment. Tam. Shrew, iv. 3. 182; trappings, All’s Well, ii. 3. 65.

†furny; ‘I have a furny card in a place’, Lusty Juventus, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 78. Meaning doubtful; perhaps = F. fourni, provided.

fustick, the name of a kind of wood. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 123; Dyer, The Fleece, bk. iii. 189. The name was given to two kinds of wood: (a) that of the Venetian sumach (Rhus Cotinus); (b) of the Cladrastis tinctoria of the W. Indies. F. and Span. fustoc, Arab. fustuq; from Gk. πιστάκη, pistachio.

futile, unable to hold one’s tongue, loquacious. Bacon, Essay 20, § 4. L. futilis, that easily pours out, ‘leaky’.

gabel, tribute, tax. Massinger, Emp. of the East, i. 2 (Pulcheria). OF. gabelle, Late L. gabella; cp. Med. L. gabulum, tribute (Ducange). A word of Arabic origin, see Dozy, Glossaire, pp. 74, 75, and Modern Language Review, July, 1912 (note by A. L. Mayhew on ‘Gavelkind’).

gable, a ‘cable’, rope. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, v. 333; ix. 211; x. 165; xii. 47, 577. See NED.

gaffle, a steel lever for bonding the cross-bow. Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal vi, 67; Complete Gunner, iii. 15. 12 (NED.). Du. gaffel, a fork.

gage, a quart-pot. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); ‘A gage of bowse, whiche is a quart-pot of drinke’, Harman, Caveat, p. 34. For gauge, i.e. a measure.

gag-tooth, a projecting or prominent tooth. Return from Parnassus, l. 2 (Ingenieso); hence, gag-toothed, Chapman, Gent. Usher, i. 1 (Vincentio); gagge-toothed, Lyly, Euphues, p. 116.

gain, near, straight, direct; said of a way; ‘They told me it was a gayner way, and a fayrer way’, Latimer, 3 Sermon before King, ed. Arber, p. 101 (top). In gen. prov. use in Scotland, and in England in the north country, Midlands, and E. Anglia, EDD. (s.v. Gain, adj. 1). ME. geyn, ryȝht forth, ‘directus’ (Prompt.); Icel. gegn.

gaingiving, a misgiving. Hamlet, v. 2. 226. The prefix gain- has the sense of opposition. OE. gegn, see NED.

†gain-legged (?); ‘I’ll short that gain-legg’d Longshank by the top’, Peele, Edward I (ed. Dyce, i. 103). Possibly, nimble, active-legged. Cp. EDD. (sv. Gain, adj. 5).

galage, a wooden shoe, or shoe with a wooden sole; ‘A Galage, a shoe: solea, sandalium’, Levins, Manip.; ‘Galage, a startuppe or clownish shoe’, Glosse to Spenser’s Shep. Kal., Feb., 244; ‘Shoe called a gallage or patten whyche hath nothynge but lachettes’, Hulcet. ME. galegge or galoch, ‘crepita’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 837); Anglo-F. galoche. See Dict. (s.v. Galoche).

gald, to gall; pt. t. galded, Gascoigne, Works, i. 422; pp. galded, Eden, First three Books on America, p. 386. A false form; from the pp.

galley-foist, a state barge, esp. of the Lord Mayor of London. Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, v. 2 (end); B. Jonson, Silent Woman, iv. 2. See foist.

galliard, lively, brisk, gay. Shadwell, Humorist, ii (Works, ed. 1720, i. 172); galyarde, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, ch. 3, § 1. ME. gaillard (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4367); F. gaillard, gay.

galliardise, gaiety. Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med., Pt. II, § 11. F. gaillardise (Cotgr.).

gallimaufry, a medley. Winter’s Tale, iv. 4. 335; used as a term of contempt, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, ii. 3 (Eyre); spelt gallymalfreye, Robinson, tr. of More’s Utopia, p. 64. F. galimafrée, a dish made by hashing up remnants of food; a hodge-podge; OF. calimafree (Hatzfeld).

gamashes, leggings or gaiters to protect from mud and wet. Middleton, Father Hubberd’s Tales (Dedication); Marston, What you will, ii. 1 (Laverdure). In common prov. use in the north country (EDD.). Norm. F. gamaches, ‘grandes guêtres en toile, montant jusqu’au dessus du genou’ (Moisy); Prov. garramacho (garamacho), ‘houseau’ (Mistral); Languedoc dial. garamachos, galamachos, gamachos, ‘guêtres de pêcheurs’ (Boucoiran).

gambawd, a gambol, a frisk. Skelton, Ware the Hauke, 65. To fett gambaudes, to fetch gambols, to gambol, frisk about, Udall, tr. of Apophthegmes, Aristippus, § 45. F. ‘gambade, a gambol, tumbling trick’ (Cotgr.).

gambone, a gammon of bacon; ‘a gambone of bakon’, Skelton, El. Rummyng, 327. ME. gambon, a ham (Boke St. Albans, fol. f2, back); OF. (Picard) gambon (F. jambon), leg; for related words see Moisy (s.v. Gambe).

gambrel, a stick placed by butchers between the shoulders of a newly killed sheep, to keep the carcass open. Chapman. Mons. d’Olive, iii (near the end). In gen. prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Gambrel, sb.¹ 1).

gambrill, the hock of an animal. Holland, Pliny, i. 225. Cp. gammerel, ‘a hock’, a Devon and Somerset word, see EDD. (s.v. Gambrel, sb.¹ 2).

gamning, gaming. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 51. So also gamnes, games, id., p. 52. From OE. gamen, a game.

gan, the mouth. (Cant.) Harman, Caveat, p. 82; Brome, Jovial Crew, ii (Mort’s song).

ganch, gaunch, to let one fall on sharp stakes (orig. on a sharp hook), there to remain till death. Dryden, Don Sebastian, iii. 2 (Mufti). Hence gaunshing, this kind of punishment; Howell, Foreign Travell, Appendix, p. 85. F. gancher: ‘Ganché, (a person) let fall (as in a strappado) on sharp stakes pointed with iron, and thereon languishing until he die’ (Cotgr.); Ital. ‘ganciare, to sharpen at the point’ (Florio).

gandermooner, one who practised gallantry during the gander-moon, or month when his wife was lying in. Middleton, Fair Quarrel, iv. 4 (Meg’s song). ‘Gander-moon’ is still used in Cheshire, meaning the month of the wife’s confinement, see EDD. (s.v. Gander, (6)).

ganza, a goose. In The Man in the Moon, by Bp. Godwin, a man is said to have been drawn to the moon by Ganza’s. The name was borrowed from Holland’s Pliny, bk. x, c. 22 (vol. i. 281a), where Holland has: ‘The Geese there . . . be called Ganzæ.’ But the L. text has Gantæ. Hence the pl. ganzas, Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 782.

gar, to cause, to make; ‘I’ll gar take’, I will make you take, B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maud.); ‘Ays gar’ (for I’s’gar), I shall make, Greene, James IV, Induction (Bohan). In gen. prov. use in Scotland and the north of England (EDD.). ME. gar (Cursor M. 4870); Icel. ger(v)a.

garb, a wheat-sheaf. Drayton, Pol. xiii. 370. Norm. F. garbe (F. gerbe), see Moisy, p. 533.

garboil, a tumult, disturbance, brawl. Ant. and Cl. i. 3. 61; ii. 2. 67; Shirley, Young Admiral, iii. 2. 1. F. garbouil, ‘a garboil, hurliburly’ (Cotgr.). Ital. garbuglio, a garboile; garbugliare, to garboile, to turmoile (Florio).

gardage, guardage, keeping, guardianship. Othello, i. 2. 70; Fletcher, Thierry, v. 1 (Vitry).

garded, guarded, trimmed, provided with an ornamental border or trimming. Merch. of Venice, ii. 2. 164; Hen. VIII, Prol. 16.

garden-bull, a bull baited at Paris Garden, on the Bankside, London. Middleton, The Changeling, ii. 1 (De F.).

gardes, the dew-claws of a deer or boar; ‘Gardes [of a boar], which are his hinder clawes or dewclawes’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 52; p. 154; gards [of a deer], id., c. 37; p. 100. F. gardes: ‘les gardes d’un sanglier, the deaw-claws, or hinder claws of a wild Boar’ (Cotgr.).

gardeviance, orig. a safe or cupboard for viands, usually, a travelling trunk or wallet; ‘Bagge or gardeviaunce to put meat in, reticulum’, Huloet; ‘a gardeviance of usquebagh’, Sir B. Boyle, Diary (NED.); a little casket, Udall, tr. Apoph., Alexander, § 52. F. garde-r, to keep, + viande(s, viands.

garet, a watch-tower. Morte Arthur, leaf 100, back, 6; bk. vi, c. 11. ME. garyt, ‘specula’ (Prompt. EETS. 187). OF. garite (F. guérite); see Cotgrave on both forms, and Estienne, Précellence, 358. See Dict. (s.v. Garret).

gargarism, a gargle; humorously, a physician. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 16. Gk. γαργαρίζειν, to gargle.

gargell-face, a face like a ‘gargoyle’, or grotesquely carved spout; ‘Before that entry grim, with gargell-face’, Phaer, Aeneid vi, 556 (without any Latin equivalent). See Dict. (s.v. Gargoyle).

garing, staring, horrid; ‘With fifty garing heads’, Phaer, tr. of Virgil, bk. vi, l. 576 (Latin text). See gaure.

garnysshe, to supply (a castle) with defensive force and provisions. Morte Arthur, leaf 18. 32, bk. i, c. 1; lf. 26. 8, bk. i, c. 11. F. ‘garnir, to garnish, provide, supply’ (Cotgr.).

garran, garron, a small Irish or Scotch horse. Spenser, View of Ireland, Globe ed., p. 619, col. 2. Irish gearran, a horse, a gelding (Dinneen).

gaskins, a kind of hose or breeches. Dekker, Gentle Craft (Wks., ed. 1873, i. 18); Beaumont and Fl., Knt. Burning Pestle, ii. 2 (Wife); ‘Gascoigne breeches, or Venetian hosen, greguéscos’, Minsheu, Span. Dict.; ‘Gascoyne bride, one who wears breeches’, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 2 (Sir Guy). ‘Gaskins’ is a Lincolnsh. word for gaiters (EDD.).

gast, to frighten. King Lear, ii. 2. 57; ‘I gasted hym, Je lui baillay belle paour’, Palsgrave. ME. gasten: ‘To gaste crowen from his corn’ (P. Plowman, A. vii. 129).

gaster, to frighten, Giffard, Dial. Witches (Nares); Beaumont and Fl., Wit at Several Weapons, ii. 4 (near end). A north-country and Essex word (EDD.).

gate, a way, path, road. Gascoigne, Voyage to Holland (ed. Hazlitt), i. 385; Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 13. In common use in the north country down to Lincolnsh., see EDD. (s.v. Gate, sb.² 1); cp. ‘Irongate’, the name of the busiest thoroughfare in Derby. ME. gate, or way, ‘via’ (Prompt. EETS. 188). Icel. gata.

gate, to walk; ‘Three stages . . . Neere the seacost gating’, Stanyhurst, Aeneid i, 191. Cp. Worcestersh. phr. to go gaiting, to go about for pleasure, see EDD. (s.v. Gate, vb.² 21).

gate-vein, the principal vein; applied metaphorically to the chief course of trade. Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 146; Bacon, Essay 19. See vena porta.

gather-bag; ‘Gather-bag, the bag or skinne, inclosing a young red Deere in the Hyndes belly’, Bullokar (1616); ‘The Gather-bagge or mugwet of a yong Harte when it is in the Hyndes bellie’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 15; p. 39.

gaunt, a gannet; ‘The gaglynge gaunte’, Skelton, Phyllyp Sparowe, 447. ‘Gaunt’ is the Lincolnsh. word for the great crested grebe (EDD.). ME. gante (Prompt. EETS.); OE. ganot.

gaunt, thin, slender; ‘She was gaunte agayne’ [after childbirth], Latimer, 5 Sermon before King (ed. Arber, p. 154); ‘They who . . . desire to be gant and slender . . . ought to forbear drinking at meales’, Holland, tr. Pliny, ii. 152. ‘Gant’ is in prov. use for slim, slender; in Suffolk they speak of horses looking ‘gant’; so in Kent, of a greyhound that is thin in the flanks (EDD.). ME. gawnt, or lene (Prompt.).

gaure, to stare, gaze. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2275. ME. gauren (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 1108 (1157).

gavel, a quantity of corn, cut and ready to be made into a sheaf. Gavel-heap, said of wheat that is reaped but not bound, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xxi. 328. An E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Gavel, sb.²). Norm. F. gavelle, ‘javelle’ (Moisy), Med. L. gavella (Ducange).

gawring-stock, a gazing-stock, a spectacle. Mirror for Mag., Yorke, st. 21. See gaure.

gazet, gazette, a Venetian coin of small value. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 2 (Peregrine); Massinger, Maid of Honour iii. 1 (Jacomo). Ital. ‘gazzetta, a kind of small coyn in Venice, not worth a farthing of ours’ (Florio). See Dict.

†geances. Only in B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 4 (Hilts). A rustic pronunciation of chances? Nares supposes that geances = jaunces. See jaunce.

gear, geer, gere, dress, apparel. L. L. L. v. 2. 304. (ME. gere, equipment, Chaucer, C. T. A. 4016). Also, wealth, property, B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1; talk, in depreciatory sense, ‘stuff’, Selden, Table Talk (ed. Arber, 20); an affair, business, Tr. and Cr. i. 1. 6; Romeo, ii. 4. 107; Middleton, A Chaste Maid, i. 1 (Yellow). ‘Gear’ is very common in prov. use in various senses; see EDD. (s.v.): 1, apparel; 9 and 10, goods, property; 15, trash, rubbish; 16, affair, business. See Dict.

geason, scantily produced; rare, scarce, uncommon; ‘Ixine is a rare herb and geason to be seen’, Holland, Pliny, ii. 98; Spenser, F. Q. vi. 4. 37. ME. gesen (P. Plowman, B. xiii. 271). OE. gǣsne, barren, unproductive. An Essex word (EDD.).

geats; ‘The female, which are called Geats, and the buckes Goates’, Turbervile, Hunting, ch. 47; p. 146. ME. geet, pl. she-goats (Trevisa’s Higden, i. 311). OE. gǣt, nom. pl. of gāt, a she-goat.

gee and ree; ‘He expostulates with his Oxen very understandingly, and speaks Gee and Ree better than English’, Earle, Microcosm, (ed. Arber, 49). Cp. EDD. (s.v. Gee, int.): ‘Some or other of the crook horses invariably crossed him on the road . . . owing to two words of the driver, namely “gee” and “ree”,’ Bray’s Desc., Tamar and Tavy. Two words of command to an animal driven; Gee, directs it to go forward, to move faster, Ree, to turn to the right.

gelt, a lunatic; ‘Like a ghastly Gelt whose wits are reaved’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 7. 21. Irish gealt (geilt), a madman (Dinneen).

gemonies, steps on the Aventine Hill (Rome) whence the bodies of state criminals were flung down, and afterwards dragged into the Tiber (scalae Gemoniae). Massinger, Roman Actor, i. 1 (Lamia); B. Jonson, Sejanus, iv. 5 (Lepidus).

genethliac, relating to nativities; hence, one who calculates nativities, an astrologer. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 689. Gk. γενεθλιακός, belonging to birth; from γενέθλη, birth.

Geneva print. In the Merry Devil, ii. 1. 64, the Host says to the half-drunken smith, ‘I see by thy eyes thou hast been reading little Geneva print’, i.e. literally, type such as is in the Geneva Bible; but, allusively, it means, ‘you have been drinking geneva’, i.e. gin.

geniture, horoscope, the plan of a nativity, Burton, Anat. Mel. i. 1; that which is generated, offspring, Holland, Plutarch’s Morals, 1345. L. genitura, a begetting; seed of generation (Pliny); that which is generated (Tertullian).

gennet-moyl, a kind of apple that ripens early; ‘Trees grafted on a gennet-moyl or cider-stock’, Worlidge, Dict. Rust., 1681. p. 121; genet-moyle, Butler, Elephant in the Moon, 116. See EDD. (s.v. jennet).

gent, noble, high-born; valiant and courteous. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 11. 17; (of women) graceful, elegant, F. Q. i. 9. 27; (of the body) shapely, slender, Greene, Desc. of the Shepherd, 62 (ed. Dyce, p. 305). OF. gent, well-born.

gentry-cove, a nobleman or gentleman. (Cant.) B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Patrico); ‘A gentry cofes ken, a gentleman’s house’, Harman, Caveat, p. 83.

George, a half-crown, bearing the image of St. George. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, ii. 1 (Belfond Senior).

gere, gear, geer, a sudden fit of passion, transient fancy. North, Plutarch (ed. 1676, p. 140); Holland, Am. Marcell. xxxi. 12. 421. ME. gere (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1531).

german, a brother. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 13; ii. 8. 46; cp. Othello, i. 1. 114. L. germanus, having the same father and mother.

gern, a snarl, a ‘grin’. Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, iii. 2 (Balurdo); gerne, to grin, id., The Fawn, iv. 1 (Zuccone); Spenser, F. Q. v. 12. 15. ‘Girn’ is in gen. prov. use in Scotland and in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. gyrn, to grin (Barbour’s Bruce, iv. 322; xiii. 157).

gesse, pl. guests. Lyly, Euphues, 305; spelt guesse, Gage, West Indies, xiv. 90; guess, Middleton, Phoenix, i. 4. 6. See NED. (s.v. Guest).

gesseron, a ‘jazerant’, a light coat of armour. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, ch. 17, § 7. OF. jazeran (jesseran), a light coat of armour, see Didot (s.v. Jaseran); orig. an adj., as in osberc jazerenc (Ch. Rol. 1604), O. Prov. jazeren, ‘de mailles’ (Levy). Dozy (s.v. Jacerina) says that the supposition that the word means ‘Algerian’ is unfounded.

gest, pl. gests, the various stages of a journey, esp. of a royal progress; ‘In Jacob’s gests Succoth succeeds . . . to Peniel’, Fuller, Pisgah, v. 3. 147; ‘The King’s gests’, L’Estrange, Charles I, 126. Gest, the time allotted for a halt, Winter’s Tale, i. 2. 41. A later form of gist, q.v.

gest(e, story, narrative. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 15; exploit, Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 978. ME. geste, romance, tale; pl. histories, occurrences (Chaucer). Anglo-F. geste, L. (res) gesta, a thing performed.

gets, pl. the jesses of a hawk; ‘Her gets, her jesses and her bells’, Heywood, A Woman killed, i. 3 (Sir Charles). Both gets and jess are plural forms of OF. and Prov. get (F. jet), ‘a cast, a throw’, cp. F. jeter, to throw. The form jesses is a double plural.

giambeux, armour for the legs. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 29. ME. jambeux (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2065). Deriv. of F. jambe, the leg (Cotgr.).

gib, a familiar name for a cat. Hamlet, iii. 4. 190. Also, Gib-cat, ‘I am as melancholy as a gib-cat’, 1 Hen. IV, i. 2. 83. Hence, Your Gibship, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 1. ‘Gib’ and ‘Gib-cat’ are in prov. use in the north, and down to Hereford, in the sense of a male cat, gen. one that has been castrated (EDD.).

gibbed cat, gen. taken to mean a castrated cat. Rowley, A Match at Midnight, ii. 1 (Jarvis).

gibbridge, unintelligible talk, idle talk. Drayton, Pol. xii. 227; ‘Bagois, gibridge, strange talk, idle tattle’, Cotgrave. A Yorksh. pronunciation of gibberish (EDD.).

gig (with hard g), to produce another like itself, but smaller. Only used metaphorically, and derived from ME. gigge, a whipping-top. See NED., which has: ‘The verb seems to denote the action of some kind of gig, or whipping-top of peculiar construction, having inside it a smaller gig of the same shape, which was thrown out by the effect of rapid rotation.’ Hence, ‘The first [lampoon] produces, still, a second jig [i.e. lampoon]; You whip them out, like schoolboys [i.e. as schoolboys do], till they gig’; Dryden, Prologue to Amphitryon, 20, 21.

giggots, slices, small pieces. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, i. 452; ii. 372; spelt giggets, Fletcher, Double Marriage, iii. 2 (Boatswain). F. gigot, a leg of mutton. See NED.

giglet, giglot, a wanton. Meas. for M. v. 352; B. Jonson, Sejanus, v. 4 (Sej.), where it is applied to Fortune; Middleton, Family of Love, i. 2 (Gudgeon). In prov. use in various parts of England and Scotland (EDD.). ME. gygelot, ‘agagula’ (Prompt. EETS. 191). Cp. F. gigolette, ‘grisette, faubourienne courant les bals publics’ (Delesalle).

gilder, a ‘guilder’, an old Dutch coin. Comedy of Errors, i. 1. 8. Du. gulden, ‘a guilder’ (Sewel); with n not pronounced, it sounds like gilder to an English ear. See Dict. (s.v. Guilder).

gill, a wench, servant-maid. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 2. 709; ‘A gill or gill-flirt, gaultiere, ricalde’, Sherwood. A pet name for Gillian or Juliana.

gilt, a jocose term for money. Middleton, A Mad World, ii. 2 (Follywit); Family of Love, v. 3 (Dryfat).

gilt-head, a name given to various fishes. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, i. 1 (Romelio); Hakluyt, Voy. iii. 520, l. 7. Applied to fishes marked on the head with golden spots or lines; such as the bonito, the dorado or dolphin, and the golden wrasse.

gim, smart, spruce. Vanbrugh, The Confederacy, i. 3 (Mrs. Amlet). In prov. use in Lancashire and E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Jim, adj.).

gimcrack, an affected or worthless person, a fop. Fletcher, Loyal Subject, iv. 2 (Theodore). Also, a fanciful notion, Massinger, Duke of Milan, iv. 3 (Graccho).

gimmal, in pl. gimmals, gimols, joints, links, connecting parts of machinery, Gosson, Trump. War, F 5 (NED.). Hence gimmaled, made with gimmals or joints, ‘The jymold (gimmaled) bitt’, Hen. V, iv. 2. 49; spelt gymould, made with links (applied to mailed armour), K. Edw. III, i. 2. 29. ME. gymew, gymowe, ‘gemella’ (Prompt. EETS. 191, see note no. 877). OF. gemel (F. gemeau), L. gemellus, twin. See jimmal-ring.

gimmors, links in machinery, esp. for transmitting motion as in clockwork. 1 Hen. VI, i. 2. 41. ‘Gimmer’ (‘jimmer’) is a name for a hinge in the north country and in E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Jimmer, sb.¹).

gin, to begin. Macbeth, i. 2. 25; Peele, Tale of Troy (ed. Dyce, p. 556); gan sort to this, began to grow to this, grew to this; Peele (as above).

gin, a contrivance, ‘engine’. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid ii, 1. 298. See Dict. (s.v. Gin, 2).

ging, a company of people. Merry Wives, iv. 2. 3; B. Jonson, Alchemist, v. 1 (Lovewit); New Inn, i. 1 (Lovel). In prov. use, cp. the Leicester saying, ‘The wull ging on ’em’ (i.e. the whole lot of them), see EDD. (s.v. Gang, 12). ME. ging(e, a company, a following, retinue (Wars Alex., freq., see Glossarial Index); OE. genge, a following (Chron. A.D. 1070).

ginglymus, a joint. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 2 (Surgeon). L. ginglymus; Gk. γίγγλυμος, a joint (as of the elbow).

†ginimony. Only in following passage, ‘Here is ginimony likewise burned and pulverised, to be mingled with the juice of lemons, &c.’, Westward Ho, i. 1 (Birdlime). Something used as a cosmetic.

ginniting, a ‘jenneting’, an early apple. Bacon, Essay 46, § 1. See Dict. (s.v. Jenneting).

gird, to strike, smite, pierce; ‘When some sodain stitch girds me in the side’, Bp. Hall, Medit. i, § 92; Palsgrave; girt, pp. smitten, ‘Through girt’, Kyd, Span. Tragedy, iv. 4. 112; to gird forward, to rush forward, Gosson, School of Abuse (ed. Arber, 58). ME. gird, to strike, pierce (Wars Alex. 1219); to rush (id. 1243); see Glossarial Index. See NED. (s.v. Gird, vb.²).

girdle; ‘Would my girdle may break if I do’, Match at Midnight, i. 1 (Tim); ‘I pray God my girdle break’, 1 Hen. IV, iii. 3. 171. The girdle was used to keep up the breeches; see breechgirdle in NED. It also usually had the wearer’s purse hung at it, which would be lost if the girdle broke.

girdle-stead, place for the girdle, i.e. the waist. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, v. 538; Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, iii. 2 (Flavia).

girl, a roebuck in its second year. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 45; p. 143. ME. gerle, Book of St. Albans, fol. E 4, back.

girn, a ‘grin’, a grim smile. Davenant, The Wits, iv (near the end). See gern.

girt, to gird, surround with a girdle. 1 Hen. VI, iii. 1. 171; 2 Hen. VI, i. 1. 65.

gist, pl. gists, the stopping-places or stages in a monarch’s progress; ‘Gists or Gests of the Queen’s Progress, i.e. a Bill or Writing that contains the Names of the Towns or Houses where she intends to lie upon the Way’, Phillips, Dict. (ed. 1706). OF. giste (F. gîte), resting- or stopping-place. See gest.

gite, used by Peele for splendour, magnificence, Tale of Troy (ed. Dyce, p. 558, col. 1); David and Bathsheba (p. 473, col. 2). Fairfax uses the word gite for some kind of apparel, ‘Phœbus . . . dond a gite in deepest purple dide’, tr. of Tasso, xiii. 54. 245. ME. gyte, a shirt or mantle (?) (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3954); OF. guite (Godefroy).

give on, to advance; ‘And eager flames give on’, Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, st. 280; ‘The enemy gives on, by fury led’, Dryden, Indian Emperor, ii. 3; ‘Where he gives on’, Waller, Instructions to a Painter, 213.

given, pp. with an adverb, affected, disposed, inclined; ‘cardinally given’, Meas. for M. ii. 1. 81; ‘lewdly given’, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 469; virtuously given’, id., iii. 3. 16; ‘well given’, 3 Hen. VI, iii. 1. 72; ‘cannibally given’, Coriolanus, iv. 5. 200.

glade: phr. to go to glade, to set; said of the sun. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. ii, c. 11, p. 116; ‘The sunne was gone to glade’, Udall, tr. of Erasmus, Paraphr. on Matt. viii. 18. The phrase is cited as in use in Ireland; see EDD. (s.v. Glade). ME. ‘þe sonne ȝede to glade’ (Trevisa, tr. Higden, v. 189). Cp. Norw. dial. glada, to go down, to set (of the sun); see Aasen.

glaire, glayre, the white of an egg; any viscid or slimy substance. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 25. Hence glaired, smeared, Marston, Sat. iii. 32. ME. gleyre, ‘glarea’ (Prompt. EETS. 193); OF. glaire, the white of an egg (Hatzfeld). See glere.

glaster, to bawl. Douglas, Aeneis, viii, Prol. 47. ‘To glaister’ occurs in Scottish poetry, meaning to bawl or bark, also, to babble, to talk indistinctly (EDD.).

glastynge, barking like a dog, howling. Morte Arthur, leaf 251. 24; bk. x, c. 53. For glatising, cp. OF. glatisant, pres. pt. of glatir, to cry aloud, howl (Ch. Rol. 3527).

glaver, to flatter, wheedle. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iii. 1 (Tucca); Drayton, Pol. xxviii. 198. ‘To glaver’ is in prov. use in the north country down to Shropsh. and Bedfordsh., meaning ‘to flatter, wheedle, talk endearingly to’, see EDD. (s.v. Glaver, vb.¹ 2). ME. glavir, chattering (Wars Alex. 5504).

glaymy, sticky, slimy. Skelton, Ag. Garnesche, iii. 168. ME. gleymy (Trevisa), see NED. (s.v. Gleimy); gleyme, ‘gluten’, gleymows, ‘limosus’ (Prompt. 192, 193).

glaze, to make to shine like glass. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iii. 2. Hence, Glaze-worm, a glow-worm, Lyly, Euphues, 91. An E. Anglian word (EDD.). ME. glasyn, ‘vitrio’ (Prompt. EETS).

glaze, to stare, gaze intently. Jul. Caes. i. 3. 21. Still in use in Devon and Cornwall (EDD.). Cp. G. dial. (Alsace) gläse, ‘stieren, scharf u. feurig sehen, sauer sehen’ (Martin-Lienhart).

glaziers, eyes; a cant term. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor), Harman, Caveat, p. 82; ‘Toure out [look out] with your glaziers’, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Patrico).

glee: in phr. gold and glee; ‘Not for gold nor glee will I abyde By you’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 32. Perhaps glee in this phr. refers to the bright colour of gold; see NED.

gleeke, a game at cards, played by three persons. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, v. 2; a set of three court cards of the same rank in one hand (NED.); hence, a set of three, B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (Mirth). OF. glic (ghelicque). Probably adopted fr. Du. gelyk, ‘like’ (Sewel); cp. G. gleich.

gleering, casting sly, cunning glances; ‘That glering Foxe’, Tyndale, on Matt. vi. 19 (Works, ed. 1572, p. 231); ‘Such a gleering eye’, Return from Parnassus, iv. 2 (Furor).

glere, the white of an egg; a similar slimy substance; ‘This slimy glere’, Mirror for Mag., Morindus, st. 1 and st. 15. See glaire.

glib, to geld. Winter’s Tale, ii. 1. 149; Shirley, St. Patrick, v. 1 (2 Soldier). See lib.

glibbery, slippery, smooth, soft. B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1 (Crispinus); Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, ii. 4 (Aneleutherus). A Suffolk word, see EDD. (s.v. Glib, adj. 1 (4)), Du. glibberig, slippery (Sewel).

glidder, to cover with a smooth glaze. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, iv. 1 (Wit). In use in Devon and Cornwall (EDD.).

glimpse, glimse, to shine faintly, to glimmer. Surrey, The Forsaken Lover, 5, in Tottel’s Misc., p. 23; to appear faintly, Drayton, Barons’ Wars, bk. v, st. 45; to dawn; P. Fletcher, Purple Island, bk. xii, st. 46. Cp. the Devon expression for twilight, ‘The dimmet or glimpse of the evening’ (EDD.).

glint, slippery; ‘The stones be full glint’, Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 572. Cp. Swed. dial. glinta, to slip on ice (Rietz).

gloat, glote, to look askance, to look furtively. Gascoigne, Complaint of Philomene (ed. Arber, p. 96); Beaumont and Fl., Mad Lover, ii. 2 (Chilax); Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xii. 150. See NED.

glode, pt. t., glided. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 4. 23. ME. glood, glided, went quickly (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2094); OE. glād, pt. t. of glīdan.

glomming, ‘glumming’, sullenness. Udall, Roister Doister, i. 1 (end); ‘I glome, I loke under the browes or make a louryng countenance’, Palsgrave.

glore, to glow, to shine; ‘The gloring light’, Return from Parnassus, i. 1 (p. 8). Norw. dial. glora, to shine, to sparkle (Aasen); also Swed. dial. (Rietz).

glorious, vainglorious, boastful. Bacon, Essay 34 (near end); Beaumont and Fl., Thierry, ii. 1 (Thierry). L. gloriosus, vainglorious.

glory, to glorify, to honour, to adorn, Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 16; ‘The troop that gloried Venus at her wedding-day’, Greene and Lodge, Looking Glasse, i. 1. 108.

gnarl, to snarl. 2 Hen. VI, iii. 1. 192; to grumble, complain, ‘Gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite’, Richard II, i. 3. 292. Cp. north Lincoln dialect, ‘She’s alust a gnarlin’ at me aboot sumthing’ (EDD.).

gnarre, to snarl, growl. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 34. In prov. use (EDD.). Gnarren is found in many Low German dialects, see Dähnert and the Bremen Wtb. (EDD.).

gnast, to gnash the teeth. Morte Arthur, leaf 103, back, 16; bk. vi, c. 15; ‘I gnaste with the tethe’, Palsgrave. ME. gnastyn, ‘fremo, strideo’ (Prompt. EETS. 207, see note, no. 946).

gnathonical, resembling Gnatho, a parasite or sycophant in Terence. Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 317 (Orgalio, p. 93, col. 1).

gnoff, gnuff, a churl, boor, lout; ‘The chubbyshe gnof’, Drant, tr. of Horace, Sat. i. 1; gnuffe, Turbervile, A Mirror of the Fall of Pride, st. 5. ME. gnof, a churl (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3188). Cp. Low G. gnuffig, knuffig, rough, coarse, unmannerly (Koolman). So NED.

goawle, gullet; ‘Their throtes haue puffed goawles’ (riming with joawles, jowls); Golding, Metam. vi. 377 (L. inflataque colla tumescunt). Norm. F. goule (F. gueule), L. gula, the gullet.

gob, a gobbet, piece, morsel. Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 79, l. 1. In prov. use (EDD.).

go bet, go quickly, hurry up. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 332. Go bet, lit. go better, i.e. go quicker; hence, used like the modern ‘look sharp’ or ‘hurry up’. Prob. orig. a hunting cry, as in Chaucer, Leg. Good Women, Dido, 288. Once common. ME. bet, better (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 714), OE. bet.

go by, Jeronimo, or go by, i.e. pass on, wait a little. A very common quotation, used in ridicule, from Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy, iii. 12. 31. In the original used by Hieronimo, or Jeronimo, to himself. Finding his application to the king improper at the moment, he says: ‘Hieronimo, beware! go by, go by.’ See Tam. Shrew, Induction, i. 9.

go less, to stake less, in a card game. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 6; iv. 4; ‘We’ll have no going less’, Little French Lawyer, iii. 2 (La Writ).

God before, God going before, with God’s assistance. Hen. V, i. 2. 370. See God to fore.

god den, good evening; God you god den, God (give) you good e’en, Puritan Widow, iii. 4. 163; God dig-you-den, L. L. L. iv. 1. 42; God gi’ god-den, Romeo, i. 2. 58; god den, Yorksh. Tragedy, ii. 120. Still in use in Scotland and in many parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Good-den).

God to fore, God going before, with God’s assistance. Kyd, Cornelia, iii. 2. 69. ME. God to-forn (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 1049). See God before.

god-phere, a godfather. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iv. 2 (Clench). Cp. the Devon ‘godfer’ (= godfather), see EDD. (s.v. Gatfer).

gofe, the quantity of corn or hay laid up in one bay or division of a barn; a ‘goaf’, Tusser, Husbandry, § 56. 20; ‘Goulfe of corne, so moche as may lye bytwene two postes, otherwyse a baye’, Palsgrave. In E. Anglia goaf (gofe, goff) is used for the bay of a barn, and for the corn or hay laid up in the bay, see EDD. (s.v. Goaf, sb.¹ 1 and 4). ME. golf of corne, ‘archonium’ (Prompt. EETS. 195, see note, no. 893); Icel. gōlf, a floor, apartment, cp. Dan. gulv, a bay of a barn. See gove, gulfe.

goggle, gogle, to roll one’s eyes; ‘He gogled his eyesight’, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 459; to stare, Butler, Hud. ii. 1. 120.

gold, marigold; corn marigold; golds, pl., corn marigold, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 20. 25; gouldes, id. § 20. 25; gooldes, Spenser, Colin Clout, 341. ME. golde, marigold (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1929; goolde, ‘solsequium, elitropium’ (Prompt. EETS. see note, no. 892); golde, the sunflower (Gower, C. A. v. 6780). See Napier’s Old English Glosses, 26. 36 (note). OE. golde, ‘solsequia’ (Voc. 301. 6).

gold-end man, a man who buys odds and ends of gold and silver. B. Jonson, ii. 1 (Dol); Eastward Ho, v. 1 (Gertrude).

goldfinch, a piece of gold, piece of money. (Cant.) Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, iv. 1. 9. [Ainsworth, Rookwood, II, ii (EDD.).]

gold-finder, a jocular term for a cleanser of cesspools. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Soto). Cp. gold-digger, a ‘jakesman’, and gold-dust, ordure, Warwickshire words, see EDD. (s.v. Gold, 1 (1 and 2)).

gold-weights, small weights, for weighing small portions of gold. Hence, to the gold-weights (weighed even down to grains, even in small particulars), B. Jonson, New Inn, ii. 2 (Tipto). See caract.

golilla, a kind of starched collar. Wycherley, Gent. Dancing-master, iv. 1 (Monsieur); see Stanford. Span. golilla, ‘a little Band worn in Spain, starch’d stiff, and sticking out under the Chin like a Ruff’ (Stevens); gola, the gullet, L. gula.

golls, hands. (Cant.) Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, i. 6 (Uberto); Woman-hater, v. 5 (2nd Lady); Tourneur, Revengers’ Tragedy, v. 1 (Vindici). Still in use in Essex (EDD.).

golpol, prob. for gold-poll (cp. goldilocks); a term of endearment for a child. Jacob and Esau, v. 10 (Esau).

gomme, a god-mother; ‘Commere . . . a gomme’, Cotgrave; ‘A scornful Gom’, Middleton, The Widow, i. 2 (Ricardo). ME. gome, ‘a godmoder’ (Cath. Angl. 161).

gong, ‘latrina’. Gascoigne, Grief of Joy, 2nd Song, st. 7; ‘Gonge, a draught, ortrait’, Palsgrave; ‘Gonge, forica’, Levins, Manipulus. ME. gonge (Chaucer, C. T. I. 885); OE. gong (gang), ‘secessus’ (Ælfric Gl.).

good cheap, cheap. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), (ed. Dyce, p. 42); Ascham, Scholemaster, p. 125. ME. good chep(e (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 641). Cp. F. à bon marché. See Dict. (s.v. Cheap).

good fellow, a thief. (Cant.) Massinger, Guardian, v. 4 (2 Bandit); Middleton, A Trick to catch, ii. 1 (Lucre, Host).

good year(s, used as a meaningless expletive in the exclamation, ‘What the good-yere’ (good-year). Merry Wives, i. 4. 129; Much Ado, i. 3. 1; 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 64 and 191. Cp. the Northampton expression, ‘What the goodgers be that?’, and the Devon sentence, ‘Our vokes wonder what the goodgers a come o’ me’, see EDD. Low G. (Pomeranian dialect) ‘Wat to ’m goden Jaar?, sagt man, wenn man sich über schlechte Handlungen wundert’ (Dähnert).

goom, a man. Grimald, Prayse of measurekepyng, 17, in Tottel’s Misc., p. 109. ME. gome, a man (Wars Alex., see Glossarial Index); OE. guma.

gorebelly, a fat paunch; a man having a fat paunch. North, tr. of Plutarch, Coriolanus, § 7 (in Shak. Plut., p. 11, n. 4); hence gorbellied, fat, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 93.

gorreau, the yoke of draught animals. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 246. 1. OF. goherel, gorel, gorreau, a yoke (Godefroy); gorriau, ‘collier de cheval’ (Didot); see Ducange (s.v. Gorgia, 2).

Gospel-tree. ‘The boundaries of the township of Wolverhampton are in many points marked out by what are called Gospel-trees, from the custom of having the Gospel read under or near them by the clergyman attending the parochial perambulations’, Shaw, Staffordsh., II, i. 165; ‘Dearest bury me Under that Holy oke or Gospel-tree’, Herrick, Hesperides, To Anthea. See Brand’s Pop. Antiq. (ed. 1877, p. 109).

gossampine, a cotton-like substance, made from the Bombax pentandrum. Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 1 (1377); p. 135, col. 1; Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xii, ch. 11. L. gossympinus, a cotton-tree (Pliny).

gossander, the ‘goosander’, Mergus merganser. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 65. With the suffix -ander cp. bergander, an old name for the sheldrake, and the ON. önd, pl. ander, a duck (NED.).

gossip, a godparent. Two Gent. iii. 1. 269; Wint. Tale, ii. 3. 41. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). See Dict.

gouland, gowland, a yellow flower; a name given to various kinds of Ranunculus, Caltha, and Trollius. B. Jonson, Pan’s Anniversary (Shepherd, 1. 6). ‘As yalla as a gollan’ is a common Northumberland expression; see EDD. (s.v. Gowlan(d ).

gourdes, false dice, for gaming; ‘What false dise vse they? as dise . . . of a vauntage, flattes, gourdes to chop and change whan they lyste’, Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 54); spelt gords, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, iv. 1 (E. Loveless). OF. gourd, ‘fourberie’ (Godefroy).

gove, to ‘goave’; to lay up corn in a ‘goaf’. Tusser, Husbandry, § 57. 10, 23. An E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Goave). ME. golvyn, ‘arconiso’ (Prompt. EETS. 207). Cp. Dan. gulve, to stack in the bay of a barn. See gofe.

gow, for go we, let us go; ‘Gow, wife, gow’, Three Lords and Three Ladies, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 440; gaw, let’s be gone, Triumphs of Love and Fortune, in the same, vi. 183. ‘Gow’ (‘let us go’) is still common in the Lakeland, and in E. Anglia as an invitation to accompany the speaker, see EDD. (s.v. Go, 2 (b)). ME. gowe (P. Plowman, B, Prol. 226).

gowked, stupefied. B. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, iii. 4 (Keep). Cp. ‘gowk’, the north-country word for the cuckoo; applied fig. to a fool, simpleton, a clumsy, awkward fellow (EDD.). ME. goke, ‘cuculus’ (Cath. Angl.), Icel. gaukr, cp. G. gauch.

gowles, ‘gules’, red. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 286. 17. OF. goules (F. gueules). See Dict. (s.v. Gules).

gowndy, (of the eyes) full of sore matter. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 34; gunny, Meriton, Praise Ale, 263; Skinner, Etym. ME. gownde off þe eye, ‘albugo’ (Prompt. EETS. 197, see note, no. 905). OE. gund, matter of a sore.

gownest, for gownist, one who is entitled to wear a gown, a lawyer. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. v, ch. 27, st. 53.

grabble, to grope after, to grapple with, to handle roughly. Dryden, Prol. to Disappointment, 60; ‘He . . . keeps a-grabling and a-fumbling’ (i.e. feeling with his hands), Selden, Table-talk (ed. Arber, 99). In prov. use in many parts of England (EDD.). Du. grabbelen, to scramble, or to catch that catch may (Hexham).

Gracious Street, Gracechurch Street. Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, iii. 4 (Hodge); Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, i. 1 (Y. Chartley); Fair Maid of the Exchange, i. 1 (Shaks. Soc. 29). Originally Grass Church, ‘Higher in Grasse Street is the Parish Church of St. Bennet, called Grasse Church, of the herb market there kept’, Stow’s Survey (ed. Thoms, 80).

grail, grayle, the ‘gradual’, an antiphon sung between the Epistle and Gospel; when the deacon was ascending the step of the ambo or reading-desk; ‘He shall syng the grayle’, Skelton, Phyllyp Sparowe, 441. ME. grayle, ‘gradale’ (Prompt.). OF. graël, Eccles. L. gradale, graduale. See Dict. Christ. Antiq. (s.v. Gradual).

grain, the dye made from the Scarlet Grain (Kermes); ‘The Scarlet grain which commeth of the Ilex’, Holland, Pliny, i. 461; to dye in grain, to dye in scarlet grain, also, in any fast or permanent colour, hence, in grain, in permanent colour, Com. Errors, iii. 2. 108; Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 255; grain, permanent colour, ‘All in a robe of darkest grain’, Milton, Il Pens. 33. F. graine, ‘grain wherewith cloth is died in grain’ (Cotgr.). Med. L. grana, ‘bacca cujusdam arboris’ (Ducange).

grain, a bough or branch. Bp. Hall, Sat. Defiance to Envie, 5; grains, the prongs of a forked stick, fork, or fish-spear, ‘With three graines like an ele speare’, Holland, Suetonius, 147; the lower limbs, Drayton, Pol. i. 495. ‘Grain’ is in gen. prov. use in various parts of England and Scotland in many senses, esp. a branch or bough of a tree, and the prong or tine of a fork, see EDD. (s.v. Grain, sb.¹ 1 and 5). Icel. grein, a branch of a tree, an arm of the sea.

graithe, to prepare, array. Morte Arthur, leaf 86. 34; bk. v, c. 7. In common prov. use in Scotland and in the north of England (EDD.). ME. graythe, to prepare, get ready (Wars Alex., see Gloss. Index). Icel. greiða.

grammates, rudiments, first principles. Ford, Broken Heart, i. 3 (Orgilus). Gk. γράμματα, the letters of the alphabet.

grandguard, a piece of plate armour, covering the breast and left shoulder, affixed to the breastplate by screws, and hooked on to the helmet. Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 6. 72.

grange, a country-house; a lonely dwelling. Meas. iii. 1. 279; Heywood, Eng. Traveller, iii. 1 (Delavil). In various parts of England the term ‘grange’ is used for a small mansion or farm-house, esp. one standing by itself remote from other dwellings (EDD.). See Dict.

†gratuling, congratulating; ‘His gratuling speech’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Prigg). Only in this passage. OF. gratuler, L. gratulari, to congratulate.

Grave, a Count; a title. Used of Prince Maurice of Nassau; Fletcher, Love’s Cure, i. 2 (Bobadilla); Ford, Lady’s Trial, iv. 2. Du. Grave, an Earle or a Count (Hexham); cp. G. Graf.

†graved. ‘O, that these gravèd hairs of mine were covered in the clay!’, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 143. Perhaps a misprint for grayed, become grey; see graye.

gravelled, stranded; hence, brought to a stand, perplexed. As You Like It, iv. 1. 74; North, tr. of Plutarch, Antonius, § 14 (in Shak. Plut., p. 177, n. 1).

gray, a badger; grice of a gray, lit. pig of a badger, cub of a badger. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 1 (Lorel). Formerly in prov. use in the north country, and in Wilts., Devon, and Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. Grey, sb.¹ 6). ME. grey, ‘taxus’ (Prompt. 209, see Way’s note).

graye, to become grey; ‘In learning Socrates lives, grayes and dyes’ (Sylvester); see NED. (s.v. Grey, vb.).

greave, a thicket. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 42; vi. 2. 43; Drayton, Pol. xiii. 116; ‘Greave or busshe, boscaige’, Palsgrave. ‘Greave’ occurs in local names near Sheffield, and appears as a Lancashire word in EDD. ME. greve (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1507), OE. grǣfa, a bush (Chron. 852).

grece, a flight of stairs or steps; ‘The greece of the quire’, Bacon, Hen. VII (ed. Lumby, 162); greese, a single step or stair in a flight, Latimer, 2nd Serm. bef. Edw. VI (ed. Arber, 67); greise, Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 1. 34; greese (grice), Twelfth Nt. iii. 1. 138; Timon, iv. 3. 16; Othello, i. 3. 200; ‘Eschelette, a small step or greece’, Cotgrave. See EDD. (s.v. Grees). ME. grees, steps, stairs (Wyclif, Acts xxi. 35). OF. grés, pl. of gré, ‘marche d’un escalier’ (La Curne), L. gradus, a step. See gressinges.

gree, a step or degree in honour or rank. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 215; Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 175 (Orlando). To win the gree, to win the highest degree, superiority, mastery, victory, Morte Arthur, bk. x, ch. 21. See EDD. (s.v. Gree, sb.¹). ME. gree (Rom. Rose, 2116), OF. gré, ‘degré, rang’ (La Curne).

gree, favour, goodwill. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 5; in gree, with goodwill or favour, kindly, in good part: to take in gree, F. Q. v. 6. 21; to receive in gree, Gascoigne, Jocasta, iii. 1 (Manto). Cp. F. en gré, in good part (Cotgr., s.v. Gré), L. gratum, a pleasant thing.

gree, short for agree. Greene, Friar Bungay, ii. 3 (744), scene 6. 130 (W.); p. 162, col. 1 (D.); Daniel, Philotas, p. 195 (Nares); Sh. Sonn. cxiv.

greece, herte of, a hart of grease, a good fat hart, in prime condition. Morte Arthur, leaf 283, back, 22; bk. x, c. 86. See hart of grease.

green, youthful, of tender age; ‘Green virginity’, Timon, iv. 1. 7; raw, inexperienced, simple, ‘A green girl’, Hamlet, i. 3. 101; ‘green minds’, Othello, ii. 1. 250; silly, ‘green songs’, Two Noble Kinsmen, iv. 3. 61.

green gown; to give a lass a green gown, to throw her down upon the grass, so that the gown was stained. Greene, George-a-Greene, ii. 3 (Jenkin); Middleton, Fair Quarrel, ii. 2 (Chough).

green lion, a stage in the process of transmutation of metals. B. Jonson, ii. 1 (Face).

Greensleeves, Lady Greensleeves, the names of a once well-known ballad and tune. Merry Wives, ii. 1. 64; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iii. 4 (Petruchio). See Roxburgh Ballads, vi. 398.

greete, to weep, cry, lament, grieve, Spenser, Sheph. Kal., April, 1; weeping and complaint, ib., August. In common prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and north of England including Derbyshire, see EDD. (s.v. Greet, vb.¹). ME. greten, to weep (Wars Alex. 4370). OE. grǣtan (Anglian, grētan), to weep.

gresco, an old game at cards. Eastward Ho, iv. 1 [or 2] (Touchstone); see Nares; ‘Hazard or Gresco’ (Florio, s.v. Massáre).

gresle, slender. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 270, back, 27. OF. gresle (F. grêle); L. gracilis, slender.

gressinges, steps, stairs; ‘There is another way to go doune, by gressinges’, Latimer, 6 Sermon before King (ed. Arber, p. 170). Cp. EDD. (s.v. Grissens). See grece.

grewnde, a greyhound. Golding, Metam. i. 533; fol. 9, back (1603); Harington, Ariosto, xxiv. 52; grewhound, Bellenden, Boece, I. xxxi (NED.). ME. gre-hownde (Prompt. Harl. MS.). Icel. greyhundr, also, grey, a greyhound. See NED. (s.v. Greund).

grice, a pig, esp. a young pig; ‘Marcassin, a young wild boar . . . or grice’, Cotgrave; ‘Bring the Head of the Sow to the Tail of the Grice’ (i.e. balance your Loss with your Gain), Kelly, Scot. Prov. 62. Also, the young of a badger, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 1 (Lorel) (see gray). Still in use in Scotland and the north of England (EDD.). ME. gryse, pygge, ‘porcellus’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 916). Icel. grīss, a young pig; so Norw. dial. gris (Aasen).

gridelin, of a pale purple or violet colour; Dryden seems to say it was a colour between white and green. Dryden, Flower and Leaf, 343. Spelt gredaline, The Parson’s Wedding, ii. 3 (Wanton). F. gridelin, for gris de lin (i.e. of the grey colour of flax), see Hatzfeld.

grill, gryll, fierce. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 6. ME. gril, fierce (Cursor M. 719); Low G. grel(l, angry (Koolman).

†grindle-tail, a kind of dog. Only in Fletcher, Island Princess, v. 3 (2 Townsman). Perhaps a misprint for trindle-tail (trundle-tail). See NED.

gripe, a griffin; ‘Grypes make their nests of gold’, Lyly, Galathea, ii. 3; a vulture, Lucrece, 543. OF. grip, griffin. See gryphon.

gripe’s egg, a large egg supposed to be that of a ‘gripe’, hence, an oval-shaped cup. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Subtle). Cp. ME. gripes ey (Gower, C. A. i. 2545).

gripple, greedy, grasping. Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 31; vi. 4. 6; Drayton, Pol. i. 106; xiii. 22. A Yorkshire word (EDD.). OE. gripel.

gris-amber, ambergris or grey amber. Milton, P. R. ii. 344. See Dict. (s.v. Amber).

grisping, twilight; either morning or evening. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 233). Cp. the phr. in the gropsing of the evening, in the dusk, Records Quarter Sessions (ann. 1606); see EDD.

grissel, gristle, a tender or delicate person; ‘She is but a gristle’, Udall, Roister Doister, i 4. 24; ‘I love no grissels’, Lyly, Endimion, v. 2 (Sir Tophas). See NED. (s.v. Gristle, 3).

groin, the snout; hence, a contemptuous term for the face. Golding, Metam. xiv. 292 (fol. 170); Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, x. 34. ME. groyn, a pig’s snout (Chaucer, C. T. I. 158). O. Prov. gronh, ‘groin, museau’ (Levy). See Groyne.

groin, to growl; ‘Beares that groynd’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 27; groyning, murmuring, Turnbull, Expos. James, 202 (NED). ME. groynen, to murmur (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2460). OF. grogner, to grunt, L. grunnire.

groom-porter, an officer of the royal household (till the time of George III); he was privileged to provide gaming-tables, cards, and dice. B. Jonson, Alchemist, iii. 2 (Face); Dryden, Prol. to Don Sebastian, l. 24.

ground, the plain-song or melody on which a descant is raised; also, the ground-bass. Richard III, iii. 7. 49; Edw. III, ii. 1. 122; ‘The tenor-part, the treble, and the ground’, B. Jonson, Love’s Welcome at Welbeck, 2 Chorus.

grout, coarse porridge, made with whole meal. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. iv, ch. 20, st. 28. Icel. grautr, porridge.

grout-head, growthead, a blockhead, thickhead. Tusser, Husbandry (ed. 1878, 115); ‘Those Turbanto grout-heads’, Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, 39; ‘Il a une grosse teste, he is a verie blockhead, grouthead, joulthead’, Cotgrave; Urquhart’s Rabelais, I, xxv (Davies). ‘Grout-headed’ (thick-headed) is known in Sussex (EDD.).

groutnoll, a blockhead, thickhead, Beaumont and Fl., Knt. Burning Pestle, ii. 3 (Wife).

growt, great. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iv. 1 (Sancho’s song). Du. groot, great.

groyle, to move, move forward; ‘He groyleth’ (L. graditur), Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 678. Hence, groyl, one who is ever on the move, id., iv 179. F. grouiller, ‘to move, stir’ (Cotgr.).

Groyne, the, name given by sailors to Corunna, the sea-port in Spain. De Foe, Rob. Crusoe, I. xix. The name appears in the 14th cent., ‘Vocatur Le Groyne; est in mare ut rostrum porci’, Pol. Poems (Rolls Ser. i. 112). See groin.

grubble, to grope, feel; ‘Now, let me roll and grubble thee’ (spoken of a lot which he has taken in his hand, before drawing it out), Dryden, Don Sebastian, i. 1 (Antonio).

grudgins, coarse meal; ‘Annone, meslin or grudgins, the corne whereof browne bread is made for the meynie’, Cotgrave; Fletcher and Rowley, Maid of Mill, iii. 3. 17. Formerly in prov. use in the Midlands (EDD.). Cp. F. grugeons, lumps of crystalline sugar in brown sugar; in Cotgrave ‘the smallest fruit on a tree’. See gurgeons.

grum, surly, cross, ‘glum’. Etherege, Man of Mode, ii. 1 (Old Bellair); Wycherley, Plain Dealer, iii. 1 (Novel). In prov. use in many parts of England, also in America (Franklin’s Autobiography, 51), see Century Dict. and EDD. Norw. dial. grum, proud, haughty (Aasen), Dan. grum, fierce, angry.

grunter, a pig. Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Song). In common prov. use in the north country (EDD.).

grunting-cheat, a pig; lit. ‘a thing that grunts’; from cheat, a cant word used in the general sense of ‘thing’. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 1 (Ferret); Harman, Caveat, p. 83; also gruntling-cheat, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor). See cheat.

grutch, to ‘grudge’, repine, murmur. Udall, Paraph. Erasmus, fo. cccxlv; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 34; ‘I grutche, I repyne agaynst a thyng, Je grommelle’, Palsgrave. A Lancashire and E. Anglian word (EDD.). ME. grucche (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3863). OF. (Picard) groucher (OF. grocer), ‘murmurer’ (La Curne). See Moisy (s.v. Groucher).

gryphon, a fabulous monster, a kind of lion with an eagle’s head; a griffin. Milton, P. L. ii. 943; spelt gryfon, Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 8. F. ‘griffon, a gripe or griffon’ (Cotgr.).

G-sol-re-ut, in old music, the octave of the lower G or lowest note in the old scale. It was denoted by the letter G, and sung to the syllable sol when it occurred in the second hexachord, which began with C; to the syllable re in the third hexachord, which began with F; and to the syllable ut when it began the fourth hexachord. Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, c. 11, p. 104.

guard, an ornamental border or trimming on a garment. Much Ado, i. 1. 289. ‘The orig. meaning may have been that of a binding to keep the edge of the cloth from fraying’, NED.

guarish, to cure, heal. Spenser. F. Q. iii. 5. 41; iv. 3. 29. OF. guarir, garir (Gower, Mirour, 2278). O. Prov. garir, ‘guérir, préserver, sauver’ (Levy).

gubbe, a lump, quantity; ‘Some good gubbe of money’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 31; gubs, pl., ‘gubs of blood’, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 632 (Lat. saniem).

gudgeon, a small fish, often used as bait for a larger one; phr. to swallow a gudgeon, to be caught, to be befooled, alluded to in Chapman, Mons. d’Olive, iv (Mugeron). See EDD.

gue, a rogue; also, a term of endearment. Given by Nares and NED. as used by Richard Brathwaite in his Honest Ghost, in two passages, first, of a sharper who had taken a purse, secondly, as a term of familiar endearment, ‘I was her ingle, gue, her sparrow bill’, p. 139. The word occurs in some copies of Webster, White Devil: ‘Pretious gue’, iii. 3. 99 (Lodovico); ed. Dyce, p. 26. Nares supposes it to be the same word as F. gueux, a beggar, a rogue, which conjecture NED. accepts.

guerie, guierie, sudden passion; ‘Euery sodain guerie or pangue’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Cicero, § 6; ‘This pangue or guierie of loue’, id., Diogenes, § 112. Only occurs in Udall. See gere (2) and gery.

guerison, cure, healing. Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 453, l. 13; i. 466. F. guérison; OF. guarison, garison (Bartsch), Anglo-F. gariscun (Gower, Mirour, 420). See guarish.

guidon, a flag or pennant, broad near the staff and forked or pointed at the other end. Drayton, Pol. xviii. 251; Barons’ Wars, bk. ii, st. 24. F. guidon, ‘a standard, ensign, or banner under which a troop of men at arms do serve; also he that bears it’ (Cotgr.); guydon (Rabelais). O. Prov. guidon, guizon, étendard (Levy); Ital. ‘guidóne, a guidon, a banner or cornet’ (Florio).

guie, guy, to guide, lead; also gye, Palsgrave; ‘He guies’, Fairfax, tr. of Tasso, i. 49; guide (for guyed), pt. t., id., i. 63. ME. gye, to guide (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1950); Anglo-F. guïer (Ch. Rol.).

guisarme, a kind of battle-axe or halberd. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 202, back, 23, 29. Norm. F. guisarme, ‘sorte d’arme, hache ou demi-pique’ (Didot). See NED. (s.v. Gisarme).

guitonen, a lazy beggar. Middleton, Game at Chess, i. 1 (B. Knight). Span. guiton, ‘a lazy Beggar, that goes about in the Habit of a Pilgrim, only to live idle’ (Stevens).

guives, fetters, ‘gyves’. Lord Cromwell, ii. 2. 3. Anglo-F. guives, gyves (French Chron., London, ed. Camden, 89).

gulch, to swallow or devour greedily; ‘Ingorgare, to engurgle, . . . to gulch’ (Florio); gulch, a glutton or drunkard, B. Jonson, Poetaster, iii. 4; Brewer, Lingua, v. 16; ‘Engorgeur, a glutton, gulch’, Cotgrave. The verb ‘to gulch’ is in prov. use in various parts of England from Yorkshire to Cornwall (EDD.). ME. gulchen (Ancren Riwle, 240).

gule, to redden, to dye red. Heywood, Iron Age, Pt. II, vol. iii, p. 357. See Dict. (s.v. Gules).

gulfe, a ‘goaf’, a quantity of hay or corn laid up in a barn. Golding, Metam. vi. 456 (ed. 1603, fol. 73); ‘Goulfe of corne, so moche as may lye bytwene two postes, otherwise a baye’, Palsgrave. See gofe.

gull, to swallow, guzzle; ‘I gulle in drinke, as great drinkers do, je engoule’, Palsgrave; Middleton, Game at Chess, iv. 2. 19; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xxi. 132. Du. gullen, ‘to swallow or devoure’ (Hexham).

gull, a breach made by the force of a torrent, a fissure, chasm. Golding, Metam. ix. 106; to sweep away by force of running water, ‘And hilles by force of gulling oft have into sea been worne’, id., xv. 267. An E. Anglian word (EDD.).

gundolet, for gondolet, a small gondola. Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, iii. 2 (Piero). It occurs twice in this scene.

gun-hole groat, some kind of groat or coin, that seems to have been prized. The meaning of the epithet is unknown. ‘For gunne-hole grotes the countrie clowne doth care’, Mirror for Mag., Carassus, st. 27; Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 66.

gunstone, a stone used for the shot of a cannon or gun. Tusser, Husbandry, § 10. 19; Hen. V, i. 2. 282; B. Jonson, Volpone, v. 5. 2.

gup, guep, an exclamation of impatience; get along!; ‘Gup! morell, gup!’, Skelton (ed. Dyce, i. 24). See marry gip.

gurgeons, coarse refuse from flour; ‘The bran usuallie called gurgeons or pollard’, Harrison, Descr. England, ii. 6 (ed. Furnivall, 154); ‘Gurgions of meal, cibarium secundarium’, Coles, Dict., 1679. In prov. use in the S. Midlands and south-west counties (EDD.). See grudgins.

Guttide, Shrovetide, also, Shrove Tuesday. Middleton, Family of Love, iv. 1 (Mis. P.). ‘Guttit’ is in common prov. use in Cheshire for Shrovetide; goodit in Staffordshire. Orig. good tide, see EDD. (s.v. Gooddit).

guzzle, a gutter, drain; ‘a narow ditch’, Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. vii. 39; ‘A filthy stinking guzzle or ditch’, Whately, Bride Bush, 114 (Cent. Dict.). In prov. use in the Midlands, also in Sussex and Wilts., see EDD. (s.v. Guzzle, sb.¹ 1).

gymnosophist, one of a sect of Hindu philosophers of ascetic habits. B. Jonson, Fortunate Isles (Merefool); Massinger, A Very Woman, iii. 5 (Borachia); Butler, Hud. ii. 3. 196. Gk. Γυμνοσοφισταί, the naked philosophers of India (Aristotle).

ha and ree, words of command to a horse to direct it. Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs) (vol. i. 44); hey and ree, Micro-Cynicon, Halliwell (s.v. Ree). In prov. use, ree is an exclamation made by the carter to bid the leading horse of a team to turn or bear to the right, see EDD. (s.v. Rec, int., also, Hay-ree). In the north country the carters use the phrase neither heck nor ree, neither left nor right: ‘He’ll neither heck nor ree’, i.e. he’ll not obey the word of command, he’s quite unmanageable, see EDD. (s.v. Heck, int.). See hay-ree and hayte and ree, also gee and ree.

hab, to have; nab, not to have; hence, phr. by habs and by nabs, at random; Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iii. 2 (Soto). In Somerset and Devon hab or nab, by hook or by crook: ‘I’ll ab’m—hab or nab’, I’ll have them anyhow (EDD.). See hab-nab.

haberdash, small wares. Spelt haburdashe, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1295. ‘Ther haberdashe, Ther pylde pedlarye’, Papist. Exhort. (Nares). Still in use in Aberdeen (EDD.). Anglo-F. hapertas, the name of a fabric (Rough List). See Dict. (s.v. Haberdasher).

habiliment, outfit, accoutrement, attire. Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 30; Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, iii. 1 (Rosalura). See abiliments.

habilitate, legally qualified. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 15). Med. Lat. habilitare, ‘idoneum, habilem reddere; informare, instituere’ (Ducange).

habilitation, endowment with ability or fitness; qualification, training. Bacon, Essay 29, § 8.

hab-nab, have or not have, hit or miss; a phrase signifying the taking one’s chance; ‘Hab-nab’s good’, I take my chance, Ford, Lady’s Trial, ii. 1 (Fulgoso); at random, Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 990. See EDD. (s.v. Hab, adv., 1). See hab.

hache, axe, hatchet. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 18, § 2. F. hache, an axe, O. Prov. apcha (Levy); of Germ. origin, cp. OHG. heppa (for *happi̯a), a sickle; see Schade (s.v. Happâ).

hackle, to hack about, to mangle. Hackled, pp.; North, tr. of Plutarch, J. Caesar, § 44 (in Shak. Plut., p. 101, n. 1).

hackster, haxter, a hacker, one who hacks; hence, a cut-throat, bravo, bully. Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, iii (Monsieur); Hall, Satires, iv. 4. 60; haxter, Lady Alimony, i. 2 (Messenger).

had I wist, if I had but known. A common exclamation of one who repents too late. Spenser, Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 893; London Prodigal, iii. 1. 49; Two Angry Women, iv. 3 (Nicholas). ME. hadde I wist: ‘Upon his fortune and his grace Comth “Hadde I wist” ful ofte a place’, Gower (C. A. i. 1888).

hade, a strip of land left unploughed as a boundary line and means of access between two ploughed portions of a field. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 6; Drayton, Pol. xiii. 222 and 400. In Corpus Coll., Oxford, there is a Map (date 1615) in which there is a description of certain arable lands having ‘hades’ of meadow and grass ground lying in the south field of Eynsham. See EDD. (s.v. Hade, sb.¹).

hæmeræ, for hemeræ, pl., ephemera, ephemeral flies, day-flies. Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 3 (1482); scene 10. 124 (W.); p. 171, col. 2 (D.). For ephemera, Med. L. ephemera, Gk. ἐφήμερα, neut. pl. of ἐφήμερος, lasting or living but a day.

hæmony. Name given by Milton to an imaginary plant having supernatural virtues. Milton, Comus, 638. Gk. αἱμώνιος, blood-red (probably with a theological allusion).

haft, to use shifts, haggle. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1698; to cheat, id., Bowge of Courte, 521; hence hafter, a cheat, thief; id., Bowge of Courte, 138. Cp. Yorkshire word ‘heft’ in the sense of deceit, dissimulation, see EDD. (s.v. Heft, sb.³).

hafter, a wrangler; ‘Vitilitigator, an hafter, a wrangler, a quarreller’, Gouldman, Dict., 1678; so Baret, 1580.

hag, to trouble as the nightmare. Drayton, Heroic Ep. (Wks. ed. 1748, p. 108); spelt haggue, to vex, worry. Udall, tr. Apoph., Diogenes, § 95.

haggard, a wild female hawk, caught when in her adult plumage. Much Ado, iii. 1. 36; wild, intractable, inexperienced, B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, iii. 3 (Compass); Othello, iii. 3. 260; ‘I teach my haggard and unreclaimed Reason to stoop unto the lure of Faith’, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med. (ed. Greenhill, 19). F. hagard, ‘hagard, wild, unsociable’ (Cotgr.).

hailse, to salute, greet; ‘I haylse or greete’, Palsgrave; ‘Wee hadde haylsed eche other’, Robinson, tr. of Utopia (ed. Arber, p. 30). Icel. heilsa, to salute.

haine, hayne, a miser, a penurious person, a mean wretch. Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 327; Udall, tr. Apoph., Aristippus, § 22, Diogenes, § 106; Levins, Manipulus, 200; hence, haynyarde, a mean wretch, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1748. ME. heyne, a wretch (Chaucer, C. T. G. 1319).

hair: in phr. against the hair, against the grain, contrary to nature. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 1 (end); Mayor of Queenborough, iii. 2 (1 Lady); Merry Wives, ii. 3. 42.

hale, hall, a place roofed over, a pavilion, tent, booth; ‘Hall, a long tent in a felde, tente’, Palsgrave; ‘He would set up his hals and tentes’, North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antonius, § 5 (in Shak. Plut., p. 161, n. 8). ME. hale, ‘papilio’ (Prompt. EETS. 211, see note, no. 961). OF. hale (F. halle), a covered market-place.

hale and ho, pull and cry ho!, a cry of sailors at work. Morte Arthur, leaf 118, back, 13; bk. vii, c. 15. ME. halyn or drawyn, ‘traho’ (Prompt. EETS. 230).

half-acre, a small piece of ground, without reference to the exact size of the field; ‘Tom Tankard’s cow . . . flinging about his halfe-aker’, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 2 (see note on P. Plowman, C. ix. 2, p. 156). At Yarnton, near Oxford, a ‘half-acre’, pronounced habaker, is a term employed for half a lot of an allotment, see EDD. (s.v. Half, 6 (1)).

halfendeale, half, half-part. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 53. A Somerset word (EDD.). ME. halvendel, the half part of a thing (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 335). OE. healfan dǣl, the half ‘deal’ or part.

halidom: orig. the holy relics upon which oaths were sworn; the ancient formula being ‘as helpe me God and halidome’; altered later to ‘by my halidome’, which was subsequently used by itself as a weak asseveration. Taming Shrew, v. 2. 100; Hen. VIII, v. 1. 117. In old edds. of Shaks. we find holydam(e due to association with dame, the phrase being popularly taken as equivalent to ‘By our Lady’; see NED. OE. hāligdōm, holiness, a holy place, a holy relic.

Hallowmas, the feast of All Hallows, or All Saints, Nov. 1. Spelt Hallomas, Tusser, Husbandry, § 23. 1 (Hallontide, id., § 21. 1); Meas. for Meas. ii. 1. 128; Richard II, v. 1. 80. In prov. use in Scotland; also in Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Hallow (7)).

halpace, a high step or raised floor. Hall, Chron. (ed. 1809, p. 606); ‘On the altar an halpas . . . and on the halpas stood twelve images’, Holinshed, Chron. iii. 857; also, through popular etymology half-pace, the uppermost step before the choir of a church, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, 98). F. (16th cent.) hault pas (haut pas), high step.

halse, haulse, to embrace. Pt. t. haulst, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 49; ‘I halse one, I take hym aboute the necke, je accolle’, Palsgrave. See EDD. (s.v. Halse, vb. 9). ME. halsyn, ‘amplector’ (Prompt.), deriv. of hals, the neck, OE. heals (hals). See hause.

haltersack, a gallows-bird, rascal. Beaumont and Fl., King and No King, ii. 2 (1 Cit. Wife); Knt. of B. Pestle, i. 3 (Citizen). Gascoigne, Supposes, iii. 1 (Dalio). See Nares.

hame, a haulm, stalk; straw. Golding, Metam. i. 492; fol. 9 (1603); also hawme, Tusser, Husbandry, § 57. 15. In gen. prov. use in numerous forms, see EDD. (s.v. Haulm). ME. halme, or stobyl, ‘stipula’ (Prompt. EETS. 212). OE. healm (Anglian halm).

hamper up, to fasten up, make fast. Greene, Friar Bacon, ii. 3 (750); scene 6. 136 (W.); p. 162, col. 2 (D.).

han, pres. pl. have. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 168. This plural form is still in prov. use from Yorkshire to Shropshire, see EDD. (s.v. Have). ME. han: ‘Thei han Moyses and the prophetis’ (Wyclif, Luke xvi. 29); hafen (Lamb. Hom. 59). OE. habben (hæbben), pres. pl. subj. (Wright, OE. Gram., § 538).

hand: phr. to hand with, to go hand in hand with, to concur; ‘Let but my power and means hand with my will’, Massinger, Renegado, iv. 1 (Grimaldi).

hand over head, inconsiderately, recklessly, hastily, indiscriminately; ‘They ran in amongst them hand over head’, North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Brutus, § 28 (in Shak. Plut., p. 141, n. 3); cp. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ix, ch. 51, st. 22. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Hand, 2 (8)).

hands: phr. to shake hands with, to bid farewell to, to say good-bye to; ‘I have shaken hands with delight’, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med. (ed. Greenhill, 66); ‘To shake hands with labour for ever’, Harrison in Holinshed (ed. 1807, i. 314). [Cp. Charles Lamb in Elia, Early Rising, ‘He has shaken hands with the world’s business, has done with it.’]

handsel, hansel, a gift or present, as an omen of good luck or an expression of good wishes. Dunbar, New Year’s Gift, iii. As vb., to use for the first time, ‘My lady . . . is so ravished with desire to hansel her new coach’, Eastward Ho, ii. 1 (Touchstone). The verb ‘to hansel’, meaning ‘to use a thing for the first time’ is very common in prov. use in Scotland, and in various parts of England fr. Northumberland to Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. Handsel, vb. 12).

handwolf, a tame wolf, wolf brought up by hand. Beaumont and Fl., Maid’s Tragedy, iv. 1 (Amintor).

handydandy, a children’s game, in which one child conceals something between the hands, and the other guesses in which hand it is. ‘Handy dandy, prickly prandy, which hand will you have?’ Chapman, Blind Beggar, p. 6. See EDD. (s.v. Handy).

hane, a ‘khan’, an Eastern inn (unfurnished); a caravanserai; ‘Hanes to entertain travellers’; Howell, Foreign Travell, Appendix, p. 84; ‘Hanes for the relief of Travellers’, Sandys, Travels, p. 57 (Nares). See cane.

hang-by, a hanger-on, a dependant. Gosson, School of Abuse, ed. Arber, p. 40; Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, iv. 2 (Orleans). In prov. use in W. Yorks.; see EDD. (s.v. Hang, vb. 1 (5)).

hanger, a loop or strap or a sword-belt from which the sword was hung. Hamlet, i. 2. 157; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. i. 5 (Matthew).

hank, a hold, a power of check or restraint; ‘I have a hank upon you’, Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, v. 5 (Beaugard). In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Hank, sb.¹ 7).

Hans-in-kelder, a familiar term for an unborn infant. Dryden, Wild Gallant, v. 2; Wycherley, Love in a Wood, v. 6 (Sir Simon); Marvell, The Character of Holland, 66. See Stanford. Dutch Hans in Kelder, lit. ‘Jack in Cellar’, an unborn child; cp. the Swabian toast Hänschen im Keller soll leben, ‘dies sagt man bei dem Gesundheit-trinken auf eine schwangere Frau’ (Birlinger); Bremen dial. Hänsken im Keller (Wtb.).

happily, perhaps, possibly. Titus Andron. iv. 3. 8; Hamlet, i. 1. 134; ii. 2. 402.

haqueton, hacqueton, a stuffed jacket worn under armour. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 38. ME. aketoun (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2050); OF. auqueton, alquetun, O. Prov. alcoton, ‘hoqueton, casaque rembourrée, originairement en coton’ (Levy); Span. algodon, Port. algodão, cotton, Arab, al-qotun, see Dozy, Glossaire, 127.

haras, harres, a stud of horses; troop, collection. Skelton, Against Garnesche, ed. Dyce, i. 128; l. 77. OF. haras, a stud of horses (Hatzfeld); Med. L. haracium, ‘armentum equorum et jumentorum’ (Ducange). Arab. faras, horse; cp. O. Span. alfaras, ‘cavallo generoso’; see Dozy, 108.

harborough, ‘harbour’, shelter. Spenser, Shep. Kal., June, 19; Tanered and Gismunda, v. 2 (Gismunda); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 85. See herberow.

harborowe, to lodge; to track a stag to his harbour or covert. A hunting term. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 18, § 6; harbord, pp. lodged, Gascoigne, Art of Venerie, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 311, l. 6. See Dict. (s.v. Harbour).

hardel, a hurdle; ‘Hardels made of stickes’, Golding, Metam. i. 122; fol. 2, bk. (1603); a kind of frame or sledge on which traitors used to be drawn through the streets to execution, ‘Upon an hardle or sled’, Harrison, Desc. England, ii. 11 (ed. Furnivall, 222).

hardocks, some kind of wild flowers. In King Lear, iv. 4. 4 (ed. 1623), Lear is ‘Crown’d . . . with Hardokes, Hemlocke, Nettles, Cuckoo flowres, Darnell, and all the idle weedes that grow In our sustaining Corne.’ As Hardokes are not known, I suggest that the right word is Hawdods; indeed, the quartos have hordocks. The hawdod (described by Fitzherbert, Husbandry, 1534) is the beautiful blue cornflower, the most showy and attractive of all the flowers that grow in the corn; see EDD. The prefix haw means ‘blue’, see NED.; from OE. hǣwe, blue.

hare: phr. there goeth the hare, ‘That’s the direction in which the hare goes, that is the way to follow up’, New Custom, ii. 3 (Perverse Doctrine); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 39; ‘Hic labor, hoc opus est, there goeth the hare away’, Stubbes, School of Abuse (ed. Arber, p. 70).

hare, to frighten, scare. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (Dame Turfe). In prov. use in Oxfordshire and the south country, see EDD. (s.v. Hare, vb.).

†harlock, an unknown flower; perhaps for hawdod, the blue cornflower. Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. iv; Ballad of Dowsabel, l. 34. Harlocks is a conjectural emendation for hardokes in King Lear, iv. 4. 4. See hardocks.

harlot, a vagabond, rascal. Tusser, Husbandry, § 74. 4; Coriol. iii. 2. 112. ME. harlot, a person of low birth, a ribald, rogue, rascal (Chaucer), see Dict. M. and S.; OF. herlot, arlot, ribaud (Godefroy); O. Prov. arlot, ‘gueux, ribaud’ (Levy). See Dict.

harman-beck, a constable. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); Harman, Caveat, p. 84. See hartmans.

harness, the defensive or body armour of a man-at-arms; the defensive equipment of a horseman. Macbeth, v. 5. 52; Bible, 1 Kings xx. 11; xxii. 34; ‘I can remember that I buckled his [the King’s] harness when he went into Blackheath field’, Latimer, Sermon, p. 101; see Bible Word-Book. ME. harneys, armour (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1006). See Dict.

harpè, a falchion, scimitar. Heywood, Silver Age, A. i (Perseus); vol. iii, p. 92. From Ovid, Met. v. 69, 176. L. harpē; Gk. ἅρπη, a sickle, a scimitar.

harper, harp-shilling, a coin having on the reverse an Irish harp, and worth only 9d. in English money; ‘Your shilling proved but a harper’, Heywood, Fair Maid of the Exchange (Cripple), vol. i, p. 26; ‘A plain harp-shilling’, Greene, King James IV, iii. 2 (Andrew). And see Webster, Sir T. Wyatt, ed. Dyce, p. 197, col. 1 (bottom).

harre, a hinge, of a door or gate; ‘Chardonnerau, a harre of a doore’, Cotgrave; out of harre, off its hinge, out of joint, Skelton. Magnyfycence, 921. In prov. use in Scotland and Ireland, see EDD. (s.v. Harr, 3). ME. Harre of a dore, ‘carde’ (Cath. Angl.); OE. heorr.

Harrington, a farthing; as coined by Harrington (1613); ‘I will not bate a Harrington of the sum’, B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, ii. 1 (Meer). See Nares.

harriot, a heriot; a payment to the lord of a manor, due on the death of a tenant. Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, iv. 3 (Nimis); ‘A heriot or homage’, Howell, Famil. Letters, vol. i, letter 38, § 2 (1621). OE. heregeatwe, lit. military equipments. See Dict. (s.v. Heriot).

†harrolize, to ‘heraldise’, act as a herald, emblazon arms; ‘He harrolized well’, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. vii, ch. 35, st. 4.

harrot, a ‘herald’. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iii. 1 (Sogliardo); Case is altered, iv. 4 (near the end). OF. heraut, herault. See NED.

harrow, interj., a cry of distress. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 43. ME. ‘I wol crye out harrow and alas’, Chaucer (C. T. A. 3286); Norm. F. harou, ‘Le cri ou la clameur de haro ou de harou était un appel public à la justice et à la protection’ (Moisy); see Didot.

harrow, to subdue, despoil. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 40. Used with reference to Christ’s ‘Harrowing of Hell’, or despoiling it by the rescue thence of the patriarchs, &c., as described in the pseudo-gospel of Nicodemus. See the passage from Legenda Aurea, cap. liv, quoted in Notes to P. Plowman, C. xxi. 261 (pp. 410, 411).

Harry-groat, a groat of Henry VIII. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, i. 2 (Young Loveless); Woman’s Prize, iii. 2 (Jaques); Mayne, City Match, ii. 3 (Aurelia).

hart of grece, a fat hart; ‘Eche of them slewe a harte of grece’, Adam Bell, 105 (Child’s Ballads, p. 251); Ballad of Robin Hood and the Curtal Fryar (Child’s Ballads, p. 299). See Nares (s.v. Greece).

hart-of-ten, a hart having as many as ten points on each horn, and therefore full-grown; ‘The total number of points, counting all the tines, is ten’, Cent. Dict. (s.v. Antler); ‘Whan an hart hath fourched, and then auntlere ryall and surryall, and forched on the one syde, and troched on that other syde, than is he an hert of .X. and the more’, Venery de Twety, in Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 151; ‘An Hart of tenne’, Gascoigne, Art of Venerie, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 311.

hartmans, harmans, the stocks. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); ‘The harmans, the stockes’, Harman, Caveat, p. 84. See harman-beck.

haskard, a base, vulgar fellow. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 606; id., Dethe of Erle of Northumberland, 24. See NED.

haske, a rush or wicker basket. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 16 (explained as ‘a wicker ped, wherein they use to carrie fish’); ‘Cavagna, a fishers basket, or haske’, Florio. See NED. (s.v. Hask).

hatch, a half-door, wicket with an open space above; ‘Ore [o’er] the hatch’, King John, i. 1. 171; ‘Take the hatch’ (jump over it), King Lear, iii. 6. 76; ‘As hound at hatch’ (i.e. like a dog set to watch the door’), Turbervile, The Lover to Cupid, st. 12 from end.

hatched, inlaid, or ornamented on the surface with gold or silver work; ‘My sword well hatch’d’, Fletcher, Bonduca, ii. 2 (Junius); iii. 5; ‘hatched hilts’, Valentinian, ii. 2. 7; deeply marked, Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieutenant, i. 1 (Antigonus); Custom of the Country, v. 5 (Guiomar); marked with lines like a thing engraved, marked with lines of white hair, Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 65; ‘hatched in silver’, Shirley, Love in a Maze, ii. 2 (Simple).

hatchel, to comb flax or hemp with a ‘hatchel’. Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, ii. 3 (Song); ‘Serancer, to hatchel flax, &c., to comb, or dress it on an iron comb’, Cotgrave. A Cheshire word (EDD.).

hate, for ha’ it, have it. Puritan Widow, iii. 3. 141. Spelt ha ’t, riming with gate; Parliament of Bees, character 3.

hatter, to bruise, batter; hatter out, to wear out, exhaust with fatigue. Dryden, Hind and Panther, i. 371. In prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England (EDD.).

haught, lofty, haughty. Richard III, ii. 3. 28; Marlowe, Edw. II, iii. 2 (Baldock); haulte, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, ch. 2, § 1; ch. 5, § 2; haut, high-sounding, ‘The haut Castilian tongue’, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Pedro). OF. haut, halt, high.

haunt, to practise habitually. Tusser, Husbandry, § 67 (ed. 1878, p. 155). In ME. ‘to haunt’, reflex., was used in the sense of ‘to accustom’ or ‘exercise oneself’, ‘Haunte thi silf to pitee’ (Wyclif, 1 Tim. iv. 7). Norm. F. hanter, ‘aller habituellement en un lieu’ (Moisy). Icel. heimta, to bring home the sheep in autumn from the summer pastures; see Icel. Dict. (s.v. ii. 3). Cp. the use of the verb ‘to haunt’ in the New Forest, to accustom cattle to repair to a certain spot, see EDD. (s.v. Haunt, 4).

hause, to embrace; ‘I will say nothing of hausing and kissing’, Bernard, tr. of Terence, Heauton, v. 1 (NED.). A north-country pronunciation; see EDD. (s.v. Halse, 9). See halse.

†hauster, gullet (?); ‘Crack in thy throat and hauster too’, Grim the Collier, iv. 1 (Grim).

hauzen, to embrace. Peele, Hon. Order of the Garter, l. 5, ed. Dyce, p. 585. See hause.

havell, a low fellow; a term of reproach. Skelton, Why Come ye nat to Courte, 94, 604. Also spelt hawvel (NED.). Origin of the word unknown.

having, possession, property. Merry Wives, iii. 2. 73; Twelfth Nt. iii. 4. 379. Havings, pl. wealth; Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, ii. 4 (Asotus). ‘Havings’, possessions, still in use in Yorks. (EDD.).

haviour, possession, wealth; havoir, Holland, Livy, xxiii. 41; havour, Warner, Albion’s England, xvi. 164; ‘Havoire, possession.’ ME. havure, or havynge of catel or oþer goodys, ‘averium’ (Prompt.). Anglo-F. aveir, property (Moisy); avoir, property, goods (Gower).

haviour, ‘behaviour’; ‘Her heavenly haveour’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 66; Merry Wives, i. 3. 86; Twelfth Nt. iii. 4. 226. See Dict. (s.v. Behaviour).

havok: phr. to cry havok, to give the signal for the pillage of a captured town; ‘They . . . did do crye hauok upon all the tresours of Troyes’, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 175. 7; Jul. Caesar, iii. 1. 273. Anglo-F. crier havok (A.D. 1385), OF. crier havo (A.D. 1150), see NED. (s.v. Havoc).

hawdod, the corn bluebottle, Centaurea cyanus. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 20. 28; haudoddes, pl., id., § 20. 4. Cp. OE. hǣwe, blue (in Erfurt Gl. hāwi), see Oldest Eng. Texts, 596. See hardocks.

hay: phr. to carry hay on one’s horn, to be mad or dangerous; from an ox apt to gore whose horns were bound about with hay; cp. Horace, Sat. i. 4. Herrick, Hesper. Oberon’s Pal., 176.

hay, hey, a hedge. Thersites, ed. Pollard, 1. 155; ‘A hay (implieth) a dead fence that may be made one yeere and pulled downe another’, Norden, Survey in Harrison’s England (NED.). In E. Anglia a ‘hey’ is the term used for a clipped quickset hedge. ME. hay, a hedge (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 54). OE. hege, ‘sepes’ (Ælfric); cp. OF. haie, hedge (Rom. Rose, 50).

hay, hey, a country-dance, of the nature of a reel; ‘The antic hay’, Marlowe, Edw. II, i. 1 (Gaveston); Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, i (Henry); ‘Rounds and winding Heyes’, Davies, Orchestra, lxiv (Arber, Garner, v. 39).

hay, interj., a term in fencing. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 7 (Bobadil); a home-thrust, Romeo, ii. 4. 27. Ital. hai, thou hast (Florio); cp. L. habet; exclaimed when a gladiator was wounded.

hay-de-guy (-guise), a kind of ‘hay’ or dance. Heydeguyes, pl., Spenser, Shep. Kal., June, 27; ‘We nightly dance our hey-day-guise’, Robin Goodfellow, 102, in Percy’s Reliques (ed. 1887, iii. 204). In Somerset and Dorset the word is used for merriment, high spirits, rough play, see EDD. (s.v. Haydigees).

haye, a net for catching rabbits. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Surly); Two Angry Women, iv. 1. 14. Hay-net is still in use in Kent and E. Anglia (EDD.). ME. hay, nete to take conyys, ‘cassis’ (Prompt. EETS. 211).

hay-ree, a carter’s cry in urging on his horses. Nash, Summer’s Last Will (Harvest), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 52. In prov. use in Derbyshire (EDD.). See ha and ree.

hayte and ree, words used by a carter in urging on or directing his horses. Heywood, Fortune by Land and Sea, ii. 1 (Clown) (vol. ii, 384). In Yorkshire the carters say ‘hite’ and ‘ree’, as calls to the horse to turn to left or right, see EDD. (s.v. Hait). ‘Hait’ is in gen. prov. use in Scotland and England, as a call to urge horses or other animals to go on (id.). ME. hayt: ‘Hayt, Brok!, hayt, Scot!’ (Chaucer, C. T. D. 1543). Cp. Swed. dial. häjt, a cry to the ox or horse to turn to the left. Rietz (s.v. Hit).

haytye, defiance. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 301, 17 (rendering of ahatine in the F. text). F. aatie, ahatie, ‘haine, querelle, provocation, engagement, lutte’ (Partonop. de Blois, 9585), also aatine, ahatine, from ahatir (aatir), ‘se hâter, s’engager à un combat, accepter une provocation’ (Chron. des ducs de Normandie); see Ducange. Cp. s’ahastir, ‘se hâter’ (Moisy).

haze, for ha ’s = have us. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 4. 7; iv. 3 (Roister).

hazelwood. ‘Yea, hazelwood!’ (meaning, ‘why, of course!’), Gascoigne, in Hazlitt’s ed., ii. 23, 285. The exclamation implies that the information given is of a very simple description, and that the hearer knows a great deal more of the matter than the informant. In Chaucer’s Tr. and Cr. iii. 890, there occurs the fuller form, ‘Ye, haselwodes shaken’, i.e. Yea, hazelwoods shake (when the wind blows); in the same poem, v. 505, ‘Ye, haselwode!’.

head, intellect, person, a favourite word with Sir T. Browne, ‘Every Age has its Lucian, whereof common Heads must not hear’, Rel. Med. (ed. Greenhill, 36).

headless hood. In Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 96, we find: ‘So vainely t’aduance thy headless hood.’ Here hood, i.e. state, condition, is the usual suffix -hood, used as if it could be detached. ‘Explained in the Globe ed., followed by recent Dicts., as = heedlesshood’, but Spenser elsewhere always distinguishes between headless and heedless, NED.

heal, to cover; ‘Heal, to cover, to heal a house’, ‘to heal the fire’, ‘to heal a person in bed’, Ray, S. and E. Country Words (1674). See EDD. (s.v. Heal, vb.²). ME. helen, to hide, conceal (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2279). OE. helian, to hide. See unhele.

heale, health. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3 (ed. Arber, 46); well-being, prosperity, Skelton, Why Come ye nat to Courte, 768. In prov. use in Scotland and Ireland, see EDD. (s.v. Heal, sb.¹). ME. hele, health, recovery, safety (Wars Alex., see Gloss. Index). OE. hǣlo.

hear ill, to be ill spoken of. B. Jonson, Catiline, iv. 6 (end); Dedication of Volpone. A Greek idiom, cp. κακῶς ἀκούειν, to be ill spoken of.

heardgroom, herdgroom, a shepherd-lad. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 35. Copied from Chaucer, Hous of Fame, 1225 (‘Thise litel herdegromes’).

hearse, a structure of wood used in noble funerals, decorated with banners, heraldic devices, and lighted candles, on which it was customary for friends to pin short poems or epitaphs; ‘Underneath this sable hearse’, B. Jonson, Epit. on the Countess of Pembroke; Middleton, Women beware, iii. 2 (Livia); a coffin on a bier, Richard III, i. 2. 2. See Dict.

heart at grass: phr. to take heart at grasse; ‘Rise, therefore, Euphues, and take heart at grasse, younger thou shalt never bee, plucke up thy stomacke’, Lyly, Euphues (Nares); Tarlton’s Newes out of Purgatorie, 24. See Nares (s.v. Heart of grace).

heart of grace: phr. to take heart of grace; ‘His absence gave him so much heart of grace’, Harington, Ariosto, xxii. 37; ‘Take heart of grace, man’, Ordinary (Nares). See Nares (s.v. Grace, 3).

heart-breaker, a lovelock, a curl; jocosely. Butler, Hudibras, pt. i, c. 1, 253.

heautarit, quicksilver. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly). Arab. ʿuṭârid, the planet Mercury; also, quicksilver (Steingass).

heave a bough, rob a booth or shop. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor); ‘To heve a bough, to robbe or rifle a boeweth [booth]’, Harman, Caveat, p. 84.

heave and ho, a cry of sailors in heaving the anchor, &c.; hence, with might and main; ‘With heaue and hoaw on Bacchus name they shout’, Phaer, Aeneid vii, 389; ‘Heue and how’, Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 252.

heben, ebony; ‘Hebene, Heben or Ebony, the black and hard wood of a certain tree growing in Aethiopia and the East Indies’, Cotgrave; heben wood, Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 37. L. hebenus, Gk. ἔβενος, the ebony tree; cp. Heb. hobnîm, billets of ebony (Ezek. xxvii. 15).

hebenon, name given to some substance having a poisonous juice, Hamlet, i. 5. 62; hebon, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iii. 4 (Barabas). Cp. Gower, C. A. iv. 3017, ‘Bordes Of hebenus that slepi Tree’, borrowed from Ovid, Metam. xi. 610 ff., ‘Torus est ebeno sublimis . . . Quo cubat ipse deus membris languore solutis.’

hecco, the woodpecker; ‘The laughing hecco’, Drayton, Pol. xiii. 80; ‘The sharp-neb’d hecco’, The Owl, 206. Cp. Glouc. heckwall, see EDD. (s.v. Hickwall).

heckfer, a heifer. Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, xi. 811; ‘Heckfare, bucula’, Levins, Manip. ME. hekfere, ‘juvenca’ (Prompt.); ‘buccula, juvenca’ (Voc. 758. 3). Formerly in prov. use in the north country and in E. Anglia, but now obsolete, see EDD. (s.v. Heifer).

heedling, headlong. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 58; ‘To tumble a man heedlinge down the hyll’, Cranmer, Pref. to Bible; precipitately, ‘His armie flying headling back againe’, Knolles, Hist. Turks (ed. 1621, 170).

heft, weight. Mirror for Mag., Salisbury, st. 15. Hence, stress, need, emergency; ‘Forsooke each other at the greatest heft’, Ferrex, st. 5. In common prov. use in the midland and southern counties: it means weight, esp. the weight of a thing as ascertained by lifting it in the hand, see EDD. (s.v. Heft, sb.¹ 1).

heggue, a hag, malicious female sprite; ‘Heggues that are seen in the feldes by night like Fierbrandes’, Arber, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 23; ‘The ayery heggs’, Mirror for Mag., Cobham, st. 31.

heir, to be heir to, to inherit. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 714; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, v. 161.

hell, the ‘den’ for prisoners in the games of Barley-break and Prison-bars; ‘Here’s the last couple in hell’, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 4 (Elder Loveless). See barley-break.

hell-waine, a phantom wagon, seen in the sky at night. Middleton, The Witch, i. 2 (Hecate); R. Scott, Disc. Witchcraft, vii. 15 (ed. 1886, 122). In the Netherlands the Great Bear is called Hellewagen, see Grimm, Teut. Myth. 802.

helmster, the tiller of a helm. A Knack to know a Knave, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 571.

helo(e, healo, bashful; ‘Il est né tout coiffé, hee is verie maidenlie, shamfaced, heloe’, Cotgrave (ed. 1611); ‘Honteux, shamefast, bashful, helo, modest’, id.; ‘Heloe or helaw, bashful, a word of common use’, Ray, North Country Words, 25; hala, Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, iii. 1 (Lolpool). In common prov. use in the north country as far south as Cheshire and Derbysh. (EDD.).

helops, a savoury sea-fish. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 13. L. helops, ellops; Gk. ἔλλοψ. See ellops.

hempstring, a worthless fellow; a term of reproach, with reference to a halter. Gascoigne, Supposes, iv. 2 (Psiteria); ‘A perfect young hemp-string’, Chapman, Mons. D’Olive, v. 1 (Vaumont). In Scotland (Forfarsh.) a hangman’s halter is called a hempstring (EDD.).

†hemule, hemuse, a roebuck in its third year. Hemule, Book of St. Albans, fol. E4, back; hemuse, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 45, p. 143. See NED.

hench-boy, a page. Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1 (Mis. T.); Randolph, Muses’ Looking Glass, i. 4 (Mrs. Flowerdew); hinch-boy, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Song). Cp. henchman, a page, Mids. Nt. D. ii. 1. 121; ‘A henchman or henchboy, page d’honneur, qui marche devant quelque Seigneur de grand authorité (Sherwood).’ See Prompt. EETS. (note, no. 999).

hend, to hold, grasp. Spenser, F. Q. v. 11. 27; to cast, hurl, Mirror for Mag., Brennus, st. 83. OE. ge-hendan, to hold in the hand.

hent, to seize, lay hold of. Winter’s Tale, iv. 2. 133; pt. t. hent, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 1; pp. hent, occupied, Meas. for Measure, iv. 6. 14; caught, taken, Peele, Tale of Troy, ed. Dyce, p. 553. ME. hente, to seize (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3347); OE. hentan.

her, their. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 160; Sept., 39. ME. here (her) of them, their (Chaucer); OE. hira; see Dict. M. and S.

herber, a green plot, flower-garden. Lusty Juventus, Song after Prologue, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 46. ME. herber, a garden (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 1705); an arbour (Leg. G. W. 203). See Dict. (s.v. Arbour).

herberow, a lodging, shelter. Morte Arthur, leaf 77. 11; bk. iv, c. 25; herborowe, v., to lodge, provide shelter for, id., lf. 90, back, 19; bk. v, c. 11. ME. herberwe, a lodging, shelter; an inn; a harbour (Chaucer). Icel. herbergi, lit. army-shelter. See harborough.

herden, made of hards or fibres of flax. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 118. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Harden, sb.).

herneshaw, a young heron. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 9; ‘Heronceau, an hernshawe’, Palsgrave; hernesewe, Golding, Metam. xiv. 580; heronsew, Disobedient Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 282. For numerous prov. pronunciations of the word, which is in common use from the north country to Kent, see EDD. (s.v. Heronsew). ME. heronsewe (Chaucer, C. T. F. 68); Anglo-F. herouncel (Rough List).

herring-bones, stitches arranged in a zigzag pattern. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. vii. 20.

herse, a harrow triangular in form; ‘The archers ther (at the battle of Creçy) stode in maner of a herse’ (i.e. drawn up in a triangular formation), Berners, tr. of Froissart, c. cxxx. F. herce, a harrow (Cotgr.); Ital. erpice; L. hirpex (irpex). See Dict. (s.v. Hearse).

hery, herry, to praise, honour. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 13; Shep. Kal., Feb., 62; Nov., 10; herried, pret., Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 347. ME. herie, to praise (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 1672); OE. herian.

Hesperides, the garden of the Hesperides; ‘Trees in the Hesperides’, L. L. L. iv. 3. 341; ‘the plot Hesperides’, Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 56; p. 90, col. 1; ‘The garden called Hesperides’, Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 2 (1168); scene 9. 82 (W.); p. 167, col. 2 (D.).

hewte, a copse. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 29, p. 75; ‘Small groues or hewts’, id., c. 31; p. 81; Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, ii. 731. OE. hiewet, a hewing (Gregory’s Past, xxxvi); cp. copse, from OF. coper, to cut.

heyward, an officer of a township who had charge of hedges and enclosures. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. i, c. 11, p. 41. In prov. use in many parts of England (EDD.). ME. heyward, ‘agellarius’ (Prompt.). See hay (hedge).

hiccius doctius, a similar word to ‘hocus-pocus’, used in imitation of Latin by conjurers who performed tricks; hence, a conjurer’s trick, a cheat. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 580.

hidder and shidder, male and female animals. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 211. Hidder = he-der, he ‘deer’, i.e. male animal; shidder = she-der, she ‘deer’, i.e. female animal. In Yorks. and Lincoln the sheep-farmers speak of a flock of ‘he-ders’ and ‘she-ders’, see EDD. (s.v. He, 10 (6)).

high-lone, entirely alone; said of a child learning to walk. Romeo, i. 3. 36 (1 quarto); Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, iv. 2. 9. [‘The Mares . . . were scarce able to go high-lone’, G. Washington, Diary, March 13, 1760 (NED.).]

highmen, loaded dice that produced high throws. Middleton, Your Five Gallants, v. 1 (Fitsgrave); ‘Two bayle of false dyce, videlicet, high men and loe men’, London Prodigal, i. 1. 218.

hight, to promise; ‘And vowes men shal him hight’, Phaer, Aeneid, i. 290. In Chaucer we find highte, pt. t. of hote, to promise (Tr. and Cr. v. 1636; C. T. E. 496); OE. hēht (hēt), pt. t. of hātan to promise, to bid, command. See hot (hote).

hight, pr. and pt. t., is or was called; ‘I hight’, I am named, Peele, Araynement of Paris, i. 1 (Venus); was called, was named, ‘She Queene of Faeries hight’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 14; ‘The citie of the great king hight it well.’ This is a Chaucerian spelling and usage, the form being due to ME. hight (promised, commanded), see above. In Chaucer we find hight, ‘is called’, and ‘was called’ (Leg. G. W. 417, and 725). But we also find the regular form hatte for both pres. and pt. t. (Tr. and Cr. iii. 797; H. Fame, 1303). OE. hātte, is or was called, pr. and pt. t. of hātan. This is the only trace of the old passive voice preserved in English, cp. Goth. haitada, I am called.

higre, the ‘bore’ in a river. Drayton, Pol. vii. 10; xxviii. 482. Med. L. Higra in William of Malmesbury, De Pontific.: ‘Anglis dictus quidam quotidianus aquarum Sabrinae fluvii furor quem vel voraginem vel vertiginem undarum dicam nescio’ (Ducange). See EDD. (s.v. Eagre).

hild, to heel over, to lean over; ‘I hylde, I leane on the one syde, as a bote or shyp’, Palsgrave. An E. Anglian form, see EDD. (s.v. Heald, vb.¹ 1). ME. hilde, to incline; heldyn, ‘inclino’ (Prompt.). OE. hieldan (late WS. hyldan, Kentish heldan), to incline. See NED. (s.v. Hield).

hilding, a good-for-nothing person of either sex. Applied to a man, All’s Well, iii. 6. 4; applied to a woman; a jade, a baggage, Romeo, iii. 5. 169; Dryden, Spanish Fryar, ii. 3; a worthless horse, Holland’s Livy, xxi. 40, p. 415. See Nares.

hill, to cover; to cover from sight, to hide. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. iv, ch. 21, st. 27; hild, pp. Phaer, tr. Aeneid, ii. 472. In prov. use in various parts of England from the north to Wilts., see EDD. (s.v. Hill, vb.²). ME. hyllyn, ‘operio’ (Prompt.); hile (Wyclif, Mark 14. 65). Icel. hylja, to cover.

himp, to hobble, to limp; ‘Lame of one leg, and himping’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 35; ‘Hymping on the one legge’, id., Alexander, § 57. An E. Anglian word (EDD.). Cp. Du. dial. himp-, in himphamp, ‘een hinkend persoon’ (Boekenoogen).

hine, a farm-labourer, a ‘hind’. Phaer, tr. Aeneid, vii. 504; Waller, Suckling’s Verses, 33. This form is in prov. use in Lakeland, Yorks. and in Devon and Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. Hind, sb.¹). ME. hyne (Wyclif, John x. 12). OE. hī(w)na man, a man of the household, of the servants; hī(w)na, gen. pl. of hīwan, domestics.

hing, to hang. Machin, The Dumb Knight, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 128. In prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and in England in the north and midland counties as far as Warwick. ME. hinge, to hang, to be hung (Wars Alex. 4565). Icel. hengja (causal vb.).

hinny, to neigh as a horse; ‘I hynnye as a horse’, Palsgrave; ‘He neigheth and hinnieth, all is hinnying sophistry’, B. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, v. 3 (Busy).

hippocras, a cordial drink made of wine flavoured with spices. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, i. 1 (Lady); Hypocrace, ‘vinum myrrhatum’, Levins, Manipulus; ipocras, Heywood, 1 Pt. Edw. IV. (Wks. ed. 1874, i. 10). ME. ipocras (Chaucer, C. T. E. 1807); see note in Wks., v. 361. OF. ipocras, ypocras, forms of the Greek proper name Hippocrates, a famous physician, died B.C. 357. The cordial was so called because it was run through a strainer or ‘Ipocras’ bag, see NED. (s.v. Hippocras bag). See Stanford.

hippodame, a name given by Spenser to a fabulous sea-monster, F. Q. ii. 9. 50; iii. 11. 40. The allusion is probably to the ‘hippocamp’, or sea-horse, a monster with a horse’s body and a fish’s tail, used by the sea-gods, cp. W. Browne, Brit. Past. ii. 1: ‘Fair silver-footed Thetis . . . Guiding from rockes her chariot’s hyppocamps.’ In the form hippodame, Spenser was probably thinking of hippotame, ME. ypotame, hippopotamus (K. Alis. 5184); see NED. (s.v. Hippopotamus).

hippogrif, a fabulous creature like a griffin, but with the body and hindquarters of a horse, Milton, P. L. iv. 542. Ital. ippogrifo (Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, iv. 4 and follg.), rendered ‘griffin-horse’ in Hoole’s Ariosto, iv. 125.

Hiren, a seductive female; ‘Haue wee not Hiren here?’, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 173 (1597). An allusion to a female character in Peele’s play of ‘The Turkish Mahamet and Hyrin the fair Greek’ (ab. 1594); see NED. The initial H is superfluous, as the allusion is to the name Irene (F. Irène), Gk. εἰρήνη, peace. See Greene and Peele’s Works, ed. Dyce, p. 341. This play by Peele is lost.

his, after a sb., used instead of the genitive inflexion, chiefly with proper names; ‘For Jesus Christ his sake’, Book Com. Prayer; ‘Secretaries to the kyng his moste excellente majestie’, Robinson, tr. More’s Utopia, Ep. (ed. Lumby, 2); ‘Edward the Second of England, his Queen’, Bacon, Essay 19. See NED. (s.v. His, 4), and Notes to P. Plowman, C. xix. 236, p. 381. See Nares.

histriomastix, a severe critic of playwrights. Lady Alimony, i. 2 (Trills), where the epithet of ‘crop-eared’ is prefixed. The allusion is to the book entitled ‘Histriomastix, The Players’ Scourge’, by W. Prynne, published in 1633; for which he lost both ears, and was pilloried. L. histrio, an actor + Gk. μάστιξ, a scourge.

hizz, to hiss. King Lear, iii. 6. 17; Earle, Microcosmographie, § 25 (ed. Arber, p. 46).

ho, a cry calling on one to stop; cessation, intermission, limit. Phr. out of all ho, out of all limit, beyond all moderate bounds, Greene, Friar Bacon, iv. 2 (1733); scene 11. 73 (W.); p. 174, col. 2 (D.). In Yorkshire they say, ‘There is no ho with him’, i.e. there is no moderation, he is not to be restrained. ‘Out of all ho’ in the sense of ‘immoderately’ is a common phrase in the west Midlands. See EDD. (s.v. Ho, sb.¹ 5). ME. ho, cessation, in phr. withouten ho (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 1083). See Nares.

hob, a sprite, hobgoblin. Mirror for Mag., Glendour, st. 8; ‘From elves, hobs, and fairies . . . From fire-drakes and fiends . . . Defend us, good heaven!’, Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iv. 6. For the folk-lore connected with the sprite called Hob, see EDD. Hob is a familiar or rustic abbreviation of the name Robert or Robin, cp. Coriolanus, ii. 3. 123, ‘To beg of Hob and Dick’. See Nares.

hoball, a term of abuse. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3 (Merygreek); ‘An hobbel, cobbel, dullard, haebes, barbus’, Levins, Manipulus. In prov. use in the north, meaning a fool, a dull, stupid person, a blockhead, see EDD. (s.v. Hobbil, sb.¹).

hobby, a small kind of hawk; ‘Hobreau, the hawke tearmed a hobby’, Cotgrave; Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, st. 195; hobies, pl., Sir T. Elyot, Governour, cap. xviii. ME. hoby, ‘alaudarius’ (Cath. Angl.); OF. hobe, see Hatzfeld (s.v. Hobereau).

hobby, a small or middle-sized horse; ‘Hobin, a hobbie, a little ambling horse’, Cotgrave; hobby-headed, shaggy-headed like a hobby or small pony, Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, ii. 3 (Maria). ‘Hobby’ is in prov. use in many parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Hobby, sb.¹ 1), also in Ireland, see Joyce, English as we speak it in Ireland, 274.

hobby-horse. In the morris-dance and on the stage, a figure of a horse, made of light material, and fastened about the waist of the performer, who imitated the antics of a skittish horse; also, the performer. L. L. L. iii. 1. 30; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iv. 5 (Ralph).

hobler, for hobbler, a child’s top that wobbles, or spins unsteadily. Hence, a useless toy, Lyly, Mother Bombie, v. 3 (Bedunenus).

hob-man-blind, a name for the game of blind-man’s-buff. Two Angry Women, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 364; Heywood, Wise Wom. Hogsdon, iii. (Works, v. 310). ‘Hobman’ in Yorkshire is a name for a sprite, hobgoblin, see EDD. (s.v. Hob, sb.¹ 4 (2)).

hock-cart, the last cart at harvest-home. Herrick has a short poem, entitled ‘The Hock-Cart, or Harvest Home’, where he says, ‘The harvest swains and wenches bound For joy, to see the Hock-Cart crown’d’ (Nares); see Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 301. Cp. the Hertfordsh. term ‘the Hockey Cart’, the cart that brings in the last corn of the harvest, see EDD. (s.v. Hockey, sb.¹ 2 (2)). Prob. conn. with Low G. hokk (pl. hokken), a heap of sheaves (Berghaus). See hooky.

Hock-day, the second Tuesday after Easter Sunday (NED.). Hock Monday, the Monday in ‘Hock-tide’; ‘Rec^d of the women upon Hoc Monday 5s. 2d.’, Churchwardens’ Accounts, Kingston-upon-Thames, ann. 1578, see Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 104; spelt Hough-munday, Arden of Feversham, iv. 3. 43. See NED. (s.v. Hock-day) and EDD. (s.v. Hock, sb.² 1 (2)).

hoddydoddy, a short and dumpy person; a simpleton, dupe. Udall, Roister Doister, i. 1. 25; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 10. 65. See EDD. (s.v. Hoddydoddy, 3).

hoddypeke, a simpleton. Gammer Gurton’s Needle, iii. 3 (Chat); Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1176; huddypeke, The Four Elements, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 42; Skelton, Why Come ye Nat to Courte, 326.

hodermoder, in, in secret, secretly. Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 69; in huddermother, Ascham, Toxophilus, ed. Arber, p. 36; spelt huddermudder, Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 74; hudther-mudther, Golding, Metam. xiii. 15.

hodmandod, a shell-snail. Webster, Appius, iii. 4 (Corbulo); Bacon, Sylva, § 732. An E. Anglian word (Ray, 1691); also in prov. use in various parts of England, meaning (1) a snail, (2) a clumsy ill-shaped person, (3) a simpleton, (4) a mean stingy person, (5) a scarecrow (EDD.).

hogrel, hoggerel, a young sheep of the second year; ‘Hoggerell, a yong shepe’, Palsgrave; Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, iv, l. 72. ‘Hoggrel’ is in common prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England for a young sheep, before it has been shorn (EDD.).

hoiden, a rude, ignorant, ill-bred man. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (Hilts); ‘Shall I argue of conversation with this hoyden?’, Milton, Colasterion (Works, ed. 1851, p. 364); ‘Badault, a fool, dolt, sot, fop, ass, coxcomb, gaping hoydon’, Cotgrave. Du. heyden, ‘homo agrestis et incultus’ (Kilian).

hoigh, on the, in a state of excitement, riotously disposed, jolly. Middleton, Family of Love, iii. 2 (NED.); Heywood, A Woman Killed, i. 1 (Sir Francis). Hoigh = hoy, an interjectional cry denoting excitement.

hoit, to be noisy; to indulge in noisy mirth. Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of Burning Pestle, i. 3 (Mrs. M.); Etherege, Man of Mode, v. 2 (Dorimant); Fuller, Pisgah, ii. 4. 6. ‘To hoit’, to play the fool; ‘hoyting’, riotous and noisy mirth, are in prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Hoit, vb.¹ 4).

hokos pokos, a juggler. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (Mirth). Cp. G. hokuspokus, jugglery; see Weigand and H. Paul.

Hole, the; See counter (3). In Cook’s play of Green’s Tu Quoque (printed in Ancient E. Drama, ii. 563) Spendall is represented as in prison ‘on the Master’s side’, or the best part of the prison. But he runs through his money, and is advised to remove ‘into some cheaper ward’. He asks ‘What ward should I remove in?’ Holdfast replies, ‘Why, to the Twopenny Ward; . . . or, if you will, you may go into the Hole, and there you may feed for nothing.’ See basket.

Hollantide, the season of All Saints, the first week in November, All Hallows’-tide. Middleton, Family of Love, iv. 1 (Mis. P.); All-holland-tide, Your Five Gallants, iv. 2 (Servant). See EDD. (s.v. Hallantide). OE. Hālgena tīd, the Saints’ Season.

holt, a small wood or grove. Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, ii. 3 (Sul. Shepherd). ME. holt, a plantation (Chaucer, C. T. A. 6). OE. holt, a wood (Beowulf).

Holyrood, Holyrode-day, the Festival of the Invention of the Holy Cross, May 3; ‘Any time between Martilmas and holy-rode day’, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 134. 21; the Festival of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Holy Cross Day, September 14, 1 Hen. IV, i. 1. 52.

honest, chaste. Merry Wives, ii. 1. 247; iii. 3. 236; iv. 2. 107; ‘Like as an whore envyeth an honest woman’, Coverdale, 2 Esdras xvi. 49.

honniken, a term of contempt; a despised fellow. Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, iv. 5 (Lord Mayor); here honniken is equated to needy knave. Evidently connected with MHG. hone, a despised person, one who lives in shame and contempt; cp. G. hohn, scorn, derision.

honorificabilitudinitatibus. Given as a specimen of a long word, L. L. L. v. 1. 41; Fletcher, Mad Lover, i. 1 (Fool).

hooch, a ‘hutch’, a chest. Gascoigne, Flowers (ed. Hazlitt, i. 67). ‘Hutch’ is in common prov. use in Suffolk for one of those oaken chests still to be seen in cottages (EDD.). ME. huche, ‘cista, archa’ (Prompt.); see note, no. 1031 (EETS., p. 622). See hutch.

hoodman-blind, the game now called blind-man’s-buff. Hamlet, iii. 4. 77; hudman-blind, Merry Devil, i. 3. 52. From the hood used to blind the man. Cp. hoodman, blinded man, All’s Well, iv. 3. 136. [This old word ‘hoodman-blind’ appears in Tennyson’s In Memoriam, lxxviii.]

hooky, hooky, a cry at harvest-home. Nash, Summer’s Last Will (Harvest), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 54. See EDD. (s.v. Hockey, sb.¹). See hock-cart.

hoop, to shout with wonder. Hen. V, ii. 2. 108; to shout at with insult, Cor. iv. 5. 84. (Usually altered to whoop.) Hence, Hooping, a cry of surprise, exclamation of wonder, As You Like It, iii. 2. 203. ME. howpe, to utter a hoop (Chaucer, C.T. B. 4590), OF. huper (later houper).

hope, expectation unaccompanied by desire. 1 Hen. IV, i. 2. 235; Othello, i. 3. 203; to expect, Ford, Love’s Sacrifice, ii. 4 (Fernando); iv. 2 (Roseilli); Antony and Cl. ii. 1. 38.

hopper, the hopper of a mill; hopper-hipped, shaped about the hips like a ‘hopper’. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, ii. 1 (Sir Simon); hopper-rumped, Middleton, Women beware Women, ii. 2 (Sordido).

hopper-crow, a crow that follows a seed-hopper during sowing. Greene, James IV, v. 2. 10. See NED. ‘Hopper’, a seed-basket used in sowing corn by hand, is in prov. use from the north of England to Shropshire (EDD.).

hopshakles, ‘hap-shackles’, bands for confining a horse or cow at pasture. Ascham, Scholemaster, p. 128. ‘Hapshackle’ still in use in Scotland (NED.).

horion, a severe blow. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 177. 19. F. horion, ‘a dust, cuff, rap, knock, thump’ (Cotgr.).

horn, a horn-thimble; ‘A horn on your thumb’, Cambyses, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 235. See horn-thumb.

hornbook, a paper containing the alphabet, &c., protected by a transparent plate of horn, and mounted on a wooden tablet with a handle. Used for teaching the very young. L. L. L. v. 1. 49; Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 3. 46.

horn-keck, the gar-fish. Used fig., ‘Suche an horne-keke’ (as a term of abuse), Skelton, ed. Dyce, ii. 77; l. 304.

horn-thumb, a thimble of horn worn on the thumb by cut-purses, for resisting the edge of the knife in cutting; ‘I mean a child of the horn-thumb, a babe of booty, a cut-purse’, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Overdo). Cp. Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 5 (1661); p. 138, col. 2.

horse, pl. horses. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iii. 280 (and very often). OE. hors, horses, pl. of hors.

horsecorser, a dealer in horses. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, l. 1084. ‘A Horse Courser, or Horse scourser, mango equorum’, Minsheu (1627); horse-courser, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, Induction; Marlowe, Faustus, iv. 6. See corser.

hose, clothing for the legs and loins, breeches. As You Like It, ii. 7. 160; 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 185, 239. ‘Doublet and hose’, the typical male attire (i.e. without a cloak), Much Ado, i. 203; Merry Wives, iii. 1. 47.

hospitage, hospitality. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 6. Med. L. hospitagium (Ducange).

hospitale, a place of rest, a building for receiving guests, a ‘hostel’. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 10. Med. L. hospitale (Ducange).

host, a victim to be sacrificed. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid ii, l. 196. L. hostia, an animal sacrificed, victim.

host, to receive as a guest, to entertain. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 27; hosted with, lodged with, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 12, § 2.

hostry, a hostelry, an inn, lodging; ‘There was no roume for them in the hostrey’, Tyndale, Luke ii. 7; Spenser, F. Q. v. 10. 23; Marlowe, Faustus, iv. 6 (near the end). OF. hosterie, hostrie, an inn. Cp. Ital. osteria.

hot, pt. t. of hit. Porter, Two Angry Women, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 276; Beard, Theatre, God’s Judgem. i. 21 (ed. 1631, 122); pp., R. Scott, Discov. Witcher. xii. 15 (ed. 1886, 206). In prov. use in Warwicksh., Bedfordsh., and Suffolk, see EDD. (s.v. Hit, 2 and 3).

hot, hote, was named, was called; ‘It rightly hot The well of life’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 29; ‘Another Knight that hote Sir Brianor’, ib., iv. 4. 40. OE. hātte (Matt. xiii. 55), pres. and pt. t. of hātan, to be called. See hight.

hote, pt. t., named; ‘A shepheard trewe yet not so true As he that earst I hote’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 164. A mistaken form, from confusion with the above. The usual late ME. form is hight (hiȝt), hehte (in Layamon); OE. hēht (hēt), pt. t. of hātan, to call, name.

hot-house, a bagnio, house for hot baths; a house of ill-fame. Measure for M. ii. 1. 66; Westward Ho (near the beginning).

hounces, housings, trappings of a horse; ‘Gemmes That stood upon the Collars, Trace, and Hounces in their Hemmes’, Golding, Metam. ii. 109 (not in Latin text). The explanation in NED., ‘an ornament on the collar of a horse’, applies only to other passages; in this case, the gems ornamented the collars, traces, and housings. ‘Hounce’ is an E. Anglian word for the red and yellow worsted ornament spread over the collar of a cart-horse (EDD.). It is a nasalized form of F. housse, a foot-cloth for a horse (Cotgr.).

housel (fig. used), to give repentance to; ‘May zealous smiths so housel all our hacknies, that they may feel compunction in their feet’, Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iii. 1, (Shorthose). See below.

housling; ‘The housling fire’, i.e. the sacramental fire, Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 37. The Roman marriage was solemnized sacramento ignis et aquae. ME. houselen, to administer the Eucharist (P. Plowman, B. xix. 3); housele, the Eucharist (ib., C. xxii. 394). OE. hūsel. See Dict. (s.v. Housel).

hout, a ‘hoot’, an outcry, clamour. Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, iv. 1 (Andrugio). See Dict. (s.v. Hoot).

hove, to tarry, stay, dwell. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 20; Colin Clout, 666; ‘(At Bosworth) some stode hovynge a-ferre of’, Fabyan (cited by Way). A north-country word, now obsolete (EDD.). ME. hovyn, as hors, and abydyn, ‘sirocino’, Prompt. EETS. 236. See Dict. M. and S., and Way’s note in Prompt., p. 252.

howres, hours, i.e. the prayers said at the canonical hours or stated times for prayer; ‘The Hermite . . . Was wont his howres and holy things to bed’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 5. 35. See Dict. Christ. Antiq. (s.v. Hours of Prayer).

hoyle, a mark made use of by archers when shooting at rovers (NED.). Drayton, Pol. xxvi. 334. See rove.

hoyn, to grumble, grunt. Skelton, Against Ven. Tongues, 4. A Lincoln word, see EDD. (s.v. Hone, vb.² 1). Norm. F. hoigner, ‘hogner, geindre, pleurnicher, se lamenter’ (Moisy).

hoyst, brock!, a cry of encouragement to a horse. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ii, ch. 10.

huck-bone, the hip-bone. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 57. 4. ‘Huck’ is a Lincoln word, see EDD. (s.v. Hock, sb.¹ 1), so, in Tennyson’s Northern Cobbler, ‘I slither’d an’ hurted my huck.’ See NED.

hucke, to higgle, chaffer, bargain. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. v, ch. 26, st. 45; ‘I love not to sell my ware to you, you hucke so sore’, Palsgrave. A west-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Huck, vb.²). ME. hukke, ‘auccionor’ (Voc. 566. 36). Cp. MHG. hucke, ‘Kleinhändler’ (Lexer).

huckle, the hip, haunch. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 45; Butler, Hud. i. 2. 925. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

huckle-bone, the hip-bone, Hobbes, Iliad, 67 (NED.); the astragalus, ‘ Ἀστράγαλος is in Latin talus and it is the little square hucclebone in the ancle place of the hinder legge in all beastes saving man’, Udall, Apoph., 185; ‘Bibelots, hucklebones or the play at hucklebones’, Cotgrave. This name for the game is in prov. use in the north, in Lincoln, Surrey, and Sussex (EDD.).

huckson, lit. the hough-sinew; also, the hough or hock; corresponding to the heel in man. Herrick, The Beggar to Mab, 11. A Devon word, see EDD. (s.v. Hock, sb.¹). OE. hōhsinu. See NED. (s.v. Hockshin, also, Huxen).

huddle, to hurry; ‘The huddling brook’, Milton, Comus, 495; ‘Country vicars when the sermon’s done, Run huddling to the benediction’, Dryden, Epil. to Sir Martin Mar-all, 2; to hurry over in a slovenly way, Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Georgics, i. 353.

huddle, old, a term of contempt for a decrepit old man. Lyly, Euphues, p. 133; Webster, Malcontent, i. 1 (Malevole).

huff, to brag, talk big, bluster; freq. to huff it. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. i. 2. 35 (Knowell); Peele, Battle of Alcazar, ii. 2 (end); huff, a specimen of brag, Butler, Hudibras, ii. 2. 391; hence huff-cap, a swaggerer, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 3 (King); attrib. blustering, swaggering, ‘Half-cap terms’, Bp. Hall, Sat. i. 3. 17.

huffecap, a heady ale; ‘Such headie ale and beere as for the mightinesse thereof . . . is commonlie called huffecap’, Harrison, Desc. England, bk. ii, ch. 18; ‘This Huf-cap (as they call it) and nectar of lyfe’, Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses (Church-ales); Greene, Looking Glasse, ii. 3.

hugger-mugger, secretly. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 392; in hugger-mugger, Hamlet, iv. 5. 84; Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 123; Spenser, Mother Hub. 139. Etymology unknown. It has been suggested that hugger-mugger may be connected with the Anglo-Irish cugger-mugger, which means whispering, gossiping in a low voice, see Joyce, English as we speak it in Ireland, p. 243, and Modern Language Review, July, 1912 (On some Etymologies).

hugy, huge, vast. Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 503; Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid v, 113.

huisher, an ‘usher’, door-keeper of a court, servant of an official, B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, ii. 3. 11; ‘His sergeants or huishers (lictores)’, Holland, Livy, xxiv. 44; husher, Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 13; hushier, Beaumont and Fl., Four Plays in One, Induction. F. huissier, deriv. of (h)uis, door. See Dict. (s.v. Usher).

huke, a cape or cloak, with a hood. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 56; Bacon, New Atlantis, 1639, p. 24. OF. huque. Med. L. huca, ‘ricinium quo scilicet mulieres olim caput operiebant et velabant’ (Ducange).

hulched up, cramped up; ‘I hate to be hulched up in a coach’, Etherege, Man of Mode, iii. 3 (Belinda).

hulder, the name of a kind of wood for arrows; ‘Hulder, black thorne . . . make holow, starting, studding, gaddynge shaftes’, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 124. The MHG. holder (G. holunder) means ‘elder’; it is objected that Ascham mentions ‘elder’ in the same sentence, and this suggests some difference. The difference may be only in name, according as the wood is foreign or native. Some say hulver (= holly) is meant; but I think holly would be praised.

hulk, to disembowel; ‘Hulke hir (which is to open hir and take out hyr garbage)’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 62; p. 175; Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4. 36. In prov. use in E. Anglia for taking out the entrails of a rabbit, see EDD. (s.v. Hulk, vb.³ 1).

hull, to float, to drift, or move on the sea as a ship with the sails furled, by the action of winds and waves upon the hull. Richard III, iv. 4. 488; Twelfth Night, i. 5. 217; Milton, P. L. xi. 840; Sir T. Browne, Christian Morals, i. 1 (ed. Greenhill, 161).

hum, a kind of liquor; strong or double ale. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 1 (Satan); Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, ii. 3 (Belleur). Hence, Hum-glass, a glass for ‘hum’. Shirley, The Wedding, ii. 3 (Lodam). See Nares.

humblesse, humility. Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 26; i. 12. 8. Anglo-F. humblesse (Gower).

humbling, rumbling (of wind blasts); Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid (ed. Arber, 19); buzzing as a bee (ed. Arber, 31).

humdrum, a commonplace fellow; ‘Stand still humdrum’, Butler, Hudibras, i. 3. 112; ‘A consort for every humdrum’, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. i. 1 (Stephen).

humect, to moisten. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 11 (end). L. humectare, humectus, wet; humere, umere, to be wet.

humorous, moist, humid, damp; ‘Every lofty top, which late the humorous night Bespangled had with pearle’, Drayton, Pol. xiii. 214; ‘The humorous night’, Romeo, ii. 1. 31; with play on sense of fanciful, whimsical, humoursome, L. L. L. iii. 1. 177; moody, ill-humoured, As You Like It, i. 2. 278.

humour; in ancient and mediaeval physiology, one of the four chief fluids (blood, phlegm, choler, melancholy) by the relative proportions of which a man’s physical and mental qualities were supposed to be determined; hence, mental disposition, temperament, mood. L. L. L. v. 1. 10; Merry Wives, ii. 3. 80. See Schmidt’s Shakespeare-Lexicon (s.v.); also, B. Jonson’s Every Man in Humour (H. B. Wheatley’s account of the word in Introduction, pp. xxx-xxxiv).

hunte, hunt, a hunter, huntsman. Golding, Metam. viii. 359; Gascoigne, Art of Venerie, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 313; Drant, tr. of Horace, Sat. i. 1 (NED.). OE. hunta, a huntsman (Chron., ann. 1127); hence Hunt as a proper name.

hunt’s-up, the hunt is up; a tune played to awaken huntsmen. Romeo, iii. 5. 34; the hunt is up, Titus Andron. ii. 2. 1; Fletcher, Bonduca, ii. 4 (near the end).

hurle, strife, commotion. Mirror for Mag., Glocester, st. 27. ME. hurl, or debate, ‘sedicio’ (Prompt.). See below.

hurlwind, a tempestuous wind. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 8. Cp. the Cumberland word ‘hurl’ for a tempest, see EDD. (s.v. Hurl, sb.³ 11). ME. hurle, rush, noise (of the sea); hurling, roaring (Wars Alex.).

hurricano, a hurricane. Massinger, Unnat. Combat, v. 2 (Malefort); a water-spout, ‘The dreadful spout which shipmen do the hurricano call’, Tr. and Cr. v. 2. 172. See Dict. (s.v. Hurricane), and Stanford.

hurry-durry, boisterous, as rough weather; hence, impatient, irritable; ‘ ’Tis a hurry-durry blade’, Wycherley, Plain Dealer, i. 1 (2 Sailor).

huswife, housewife, a hussy, a pert girl. North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antonius, § 3 (in Shak. Plut., p. 161); ‘Impudent housewife!’ Vanbrugh, The Confederacy, v. 2 (Gripe).

hyaline; ‘The clear Hyaline, the glassy sea’, Milton, P. L. vii. 619. Cp. Apoc. iv. 6: θάλασσα ὑαλίνη, ‘a sea of glass like unto crystal.’

hyce, hyse, to ‘hoist’ up; ‘I hyce up an ancre; I hyse up the sayle’, Palsgrave. Dutch hyssen, ‘to hoise’ (Sewel). See Dict. (s.v. Hoist).

hydegy, a rustic dance. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 264; hydagy, id., xxvi. 206. See hay-de-guy.

hydromancy, divination by water. Greene, Friar Bacon, scene 2. 16 (W.); p. 155, col. 1 (D). Gk. ὑδρομαντεία.

hydroptic, dropsical; ‘His hydroptic thoughts’, Lady Alimony, i. 3 (Timon). [‘Soul-hydroptic with a sacred thirst’, Browning, Grammarian’s Funeral, 95.] Deriv. of Gk. ὕδρωψ, the dropsy.

hydrus, a water-snake. Milton, P. L. x. 525. L. hydrus; Gk. ὕδρος, a water-snake. Cp. hydra.

hyke, a cry to hounds, to encourage them to the chase; ‘Hyke a Talbot, Hyke a Bewmont, Hyke, Hyke, to him, to him’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 40; p. 112; ‘Hike, hallow, hike’, id., c. 62, p. 175. [Cp. Scott, Quentin Durward, c. 33.]

hyleg or hylech; ‘A Term apply’d by Astrologers to a Planet, or part of Heaven which in a Man’s Nativity becomes the Moderator and Significator of his Life’, Phillips, Dict. (1706); Fletcher, Bloody Brother, iv. 2 (Norbret); Tomkis, Albumazar, ii. 3, 7; B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (P. Canter). Pers. (and Turkish) hailāj, a calculation of astrologers, a ‘nativity’. See NED.

hypodidascal, an usher. Shirley, Love Tricks, iii. 5 (Gorgon). Gk. ὑποδιδάσκαλος, under-master or subordinate teacher.

hypostasis, a sediment, esp. of urine. Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, v. 3 (Physician); Nabbes, Microcosmus, iv (Phlegm). Gk. ὑπόστασις, lit. that which stands under; hence, sediment.

iambographer, a writer of iambic verses. Shirley, Maid’s Revenge, i. 2 (Montenegro). Gk. ἰαμβογράφος.

idlesse, ydlesse, idleness. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 2. 31; Greene, Alphonsus, Prol. 11.

idol, a phantom. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xxiii. 94; Od. iv. 1074; an image, Bussy D’Ambois, iv. 1 (Bussy); idole, image, reflection, likeness, Spenser. F. Q. ii. 2. 41. Gk. εἴδωλον, an image, a phantom (Homer).

ilke, an ‘elk’, a wild swan. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 86, where it is remarked that it is ‘of Hollanders so term’d’. See elk.

illecebrous, enticing. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 7, § 2; W. Webbe. Eng. Poetry (ed. Arber, p. 45). From L. illecebra, enticement; illicere, to entice.

illect, to entice, allure. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 7, § 4. From the pp. stem of illicere, to allure.

ill-mewed, kept in confinement without proper attention. Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, iii. 3 (Jaques). See mew (2).

ill-part, playing an evil part; ‘King John, that ill part personage’, Death of E. of Huntington, i. 3 (Friar); see NED. (s.v. Ill, iv. 8. B).

illustrate, to render illustrious; ‘Matter to me of glory, whom their hate Illustrates’, Milton, P. L. v. 739; ‘Good men are the stars, the planets of the ages wherein they live, and illustrate the times’, B. Jonson, Discoveries, lxxxvi (p. 751). L. illustrare, to make famous.

imbibition, treatment with a liquid, which was absorbed. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle).

imbost, driven to an extremity, like a hunted animal. Beaumont and Fl., Mons. Thomas, iv. 2 (Launcelot); exhausted, Drayton, Pol. xiii. 135. See embost.

imbosture, embossed ornament, raised work; ‘There nor wants Imbosture nor embroidery’, Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, iv. 3 (Rufinus). See emboss.

imbrangle, to confuse, mix up, entangle. Butler, Hud. ii. 3. 19. A Cheshire word: ‘An imbrangled affair’ (EDD.); cp. ‘brangled’, in prov. use: ‘His accounts are so brangled I could make nothing of ’em’ (Northampton); see EDD. (s.v. Brangle, vb. 2). OF. branler, to shake, brandish (a lance) (Ch. Rol. 3327).

imbrayde, to upbraid. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 12, § 3. See embraid.

imbroccato, a pass or thrust in fencing. B. Jonson, Every Man, iv. 7 (or 4) (Bobadil); imbrocatas, pl., Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Amorphus). Ital. imbroccata, ‘a thrust at fence, or a venie giuen ouer the dagger’ (Florio); imbroccare, to thrust. See embrocata.

immane, huge, great in size. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xxi. 296; Odyssey, ix. 268. L. immanis.

imp, offspring, child. 2 Hen. IV, v. 5. 47; Hen. V, iv. 1. 45; ‘Thou most dreaded impe of highest Jove’, Spenser, F. Q., Introd. 3; i. 9. 6; i. 10. 60; i. 11. 5; ‘The King preferred eighty noble imps to the order of knighthood’, Stow Annals, 1592 (Trench, Sel. Gl.). The orig. mg. of imp was a graft, scion, or young shoot. ME. impe: ‘of feble trees ther comen wrecched impes’ (Chaucer, C. T. B. 3146); OE. impe, a shoot, graft; impian, to graft. Med. L. impotus, a graft (Lex Salica); Gk. ἔμφυτος, engrafted (N.T. James i. 21).

imp, to engraft new feathers on to a hawk’s wing; to supply it with new feathers. Richard II, ii. 1. 292; Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, v. 5 (Guiomar); Rule a Wife, ii. 1. 6.

impacable, unappeasable. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 9. 22; Ruines of Time, 395. L. pacare, to appease.

impale, to encircle, as with a pale, to surround. 3 Hen. VI, iii. 3; Rowley, All’s Lost, ii. 2. 7; Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, v. 308.

impassible, incapable of suffering. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 24, § 2; Dryden, Hind and Panther, i. 95. Patristic L. impassibilis (Tertullian).

impeach, to hinder. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 28; Spenser, Virgil’s Gnat, 576. See empeach.

impechement, hindrance. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 15 (end). See empesshement.

imperance, commanding quality, command. Hero and Leander, iii. 392. L. imperare, to command.

impeticos, to pocket. Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 27; a burlesque word coined by the fool; it seems to suggest petticoat.

imply, to enfold. Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 31; i. 6. 6; to involve as a necessary consequence, Pericles, iv. 1. 82.

importable, not to be borne, unendurable. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 35; Chaucer, C. T. B. 3792. L. importabilis, unbearable.

importance, import, meaning. Winter’s Tale, v. 2. 20; a matter that concerns, Cymb. i. 4. 45; urgent request, ‘At our importance hither is he come’, King John, ii. 7; Twelfth Nt. v. 371. F. importance, ‘importance, moment, value’ (Cotgr.).

important, urgent. Much Ado, ii. 1. 74; Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, iv. 1 (Veramour).

importune, grievous, severe. Spenser, F. Q, i. 12. 16; ii. 6. 29; importunate, Bacon, Essay 9. L. importunus, troublesome.

imposterous, impostorous, deceitful, like an impostor. Beaumont and Fl., Woman-hater, iii. 2 (Duke); Middleton, Mayor of Queenborough, ii. 3 (Horsus).

impotence, want of self-restraint, ungovernable passion. Massinger, A Very Woman, ii. 1 (Antonio).

impotent, unable to restrain oneself, unrestrained. Spenser, F. Q. v. 12. 1; Massinger, Unnatural Combat, iii. 2. 37. L. impotens, powerless. See Trench, Select Glossary (s.v.).

imprest, advance-pay of soldiers or sailors. Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, i. 1 (L. Mayor); imprest money, money advanced, a loan, B. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, iv. 1 (Compass). Ital. impresto, a loan; imprestare, to lend (Florio).

improperation, a reproach, a taunt. Sir T. Browne, Rel. Medici, pt. i, § 3. Deriv. of Late L. improperare, to reproach (Vulgate, Rom. xv. 3).

in; in-and-in, a gambling game for three persons, with four dice; in-and-in was when there were two doublets, or all four dice alike, which swept all the stakes. B. Jonson, New Inn, Bat Burst, an in-and-in man, i.e. a professed gambler. See Halliwell. In by the week, (?) prepared to go on for a week, Udall, Roister Doister, i. 2. 4. In dock, out nettle, a popular charm, said when rubbing a dock-leaf on the skin, to remove the effects of a sting by a nettle. Hence applied to a change from pain to joy, or to any exhibition of inconstancy or unsteadiness (Nares). Udall, Roister Doister, ii. 3. 8; Heywood, English Proverbs, 54, 133. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Nettle). ME. Netle in, dokke out (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iv. 461). See Skeat, Early English Proverbs, § 187.

incarnadine, to dye red. Macbeth, ii. 2. 62. Incarnadine = F. incarnadin; Ital. incarnadino, carnation colour (Florio); lit. flesh-colour, deriv. of carne, flesh.

†incartata, an (assumed) term in fencing. Pl. incartata’s, Nabbes, Microcosmus, ii. 1 (Choler). Nabbes explains it as being one of the ‘terms in our dialect to puzzle desperate ignorance’.

incend, to heat; to inflame, incite. Incended, heated, Sir T. Elyot, Castel of Helth, bk. iii, c. 3; Governour, bk. i, c. 23, § last but one. L. incendere, to set on fire.

incense, to ‘insense’, to make to understand. Hen. VIII, v. 1. 43. ‘To insense’ (also written ‘incense’) is in gen. prov. use in the sense of ‘to cause to understand, to explain’ in Scotland and Ireland, also in England, from the north to Somerset and Cornwall; see EDD. Anglo-F. ensenser, to inspire, persuade (Gower).

incentive, enkindling; ‘Incentive reed . . . pernicious with one touch to fire’ (i.e. the gunner’s match), Milton, P. L. vi. 519.

inceration, a bringing to the consistency of wax. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Face). Deriv. of L. cera, wax. Cp. ceration.

inchoation, beginning. Bacon, Hen. VII (ed. Lumby, pp. 62, 92). L. inchoatio, beginning (Vulgate, Heb. vi. 1); deriv. of inchoare, to begin.

inchpin, a name among huntsmen for the sweetbread of a deer; by some explained as ‘the lower gut’, so Cotgrave (s.v. Boyau); Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 219; ‘The sweete gut which some call the Inchpinne’, Turbervile, Hunting, 134; B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. i. 2 (Robin).

incision, blood-letting. To make incision, to let blood, in order to cure, As You Like It, iii. 2. 75; gallants were in the habit of stabbing their arms, to prove their love for a mistress, Merchant of Venice, ii. 1. 6.

incomber, an ‘encumber’, an encumbrance on an estate, a mortgage; ‘Raves hee for bonds and incombers’, Dekker, If this be not a good Play (Lurchall’s last speech), Works, iii. 358.

income, an entrance-fee. Latimer, Seven Sermons before Edw. VI (ed. Arber, p. 50); Chapman, Mons. d’Olive, iii. 1 (Mugeron); a coming in, arrival, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvii. 482.

incompared, incomparable, matchless. Spenser, Verses to Sir F. Walsingham, l. 1.

incontinent, immediately. Richard II, v. 6. 48; Othello, iv. 3. 12. F. incontinent, ‘incontinently, immediately’ (Cotgr.). Late L. in continenti (tempore), in continuous time, without interval (Tertullian); see Rönsch.

incony, fine, delicate, pretty; ‘My sweet ounce of man’s flesh, my in-conie Jew’, L. L. L. iii. 1. 136; iv. 1. 144; ‘Thy incony lap’, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 5 (or 6). A cant word, prevalent about 1600, of doubtful meaning and of unascertained origin.

increable, incredible. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 140. 9; lf. 150, back, 6. OF. increable (F. incroyable), incredible.

indagation, investigation. B. Jonson, Discoveries, lxxiv. L. indagatio (Cicero).

indeniz’d into, made to dwell in another body, metamorphosed into; ‘The perverse and peevish Are next indeniz’d into wrinkled apes’, Fisher, True Trojans, ii. 3. 23; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xii. 172. Short for endenizen’d.

indent, to bargain. 1 Hen. IV, i. 3. 87. Lit. to make an indenture or covenant; an indenture being so called because duplicate deeds were cut with notched edges to fit one another. Med. L. indentare, ‘dente infringere, occare’ (Ducange); Law L. indentare, to indent.

indignify, to treat with indignity, to scorn. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 1. 30; Colin Clout, 583.

induction, a bringing in; ‘The solemne induction of the Arke into the oracle’, Bible, 2 Chron. v (contents); initial step in an undertaking, 1 Hen. IV, iii. 1. 2. L. inductio, an introduction, leading into (Cicero).

indue, to clothe, used fig.: ‘Untill ye be indued with power from on high’ (quoadusque induamini virtutem ex alto), Bible, Luke xxiv. 49. L. induo, to put on an article of dress.

indue, to endow. Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 105; Two Gent. v. 4. 153; indued unto, endowed with qualities suited to, Hamlet, iv. 7. 180; indues to, brings to, Othello, iii. 4. 146. See endue.

infame, to accuse as being infamous. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 7, § 10. Infamed, branded with infamy, Bacon, Essay 19, § 6. Med. L. infamare, ‘accusare, criminari’ (Ducange).

infamous, ill-spoken of, of ill report. Milton, Comus, 424; deserving of infamy, Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 27.

infant, a youth of noble or gentle birth. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 11. 25 (used of ‘a young knight’ of Prince Arthur); vi. 8. 25 (used of Prince Arthur). OF. enfant, a young aspirant to knightly honours (Ch. Rol. 3196). Cp. the use of ‘Childe’ for a youth trained to arms, in Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 7 (see Glossary, ed. C. P.).

infarce, to stuff, cram full. Sir T. Elyot, Castle of Helth, bk. iii, c. 1; id., Governour, bk. i, c. 3 (end). L. infarcire, to stuff.

infausting, a bringing of ill-luck. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 179). From L. infaustus, unlucky.

infer, to bring upon, inflict. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 31; to bring about, Richard III, iv. 4. 343. L. inferre, to bring upon.

infude, to infuse. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 23, § 2; see Croft’s note, ii. 351.

ingate, entrance, ingress. Spenser, View of Ireland, Globe ed., p. 650, l. 22; Ruines of Time, 47. In prov. use in the north country (EDD.). See gate.

ingenerate, begotten; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, bk. xviii. 323; implanted, Sir T. Elyet, Governour, bk. i, ch. 20, § 1. L. ingeneratus, inborn, implanted.

ingenious, ingenuous. Webster, Duch. of Malfi, i. 1 (Duchess). Conversely, ingenuously = ingeniously, id., Devil’s Law-case, i. 1 (Contarino).

ingine, ingene, ingenuity, quickness of intellect. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, v. 2 (Tub); Every Man, v. 3 (or 1) (Clement). ‘Ingine’ is the usual Scottish form (EDD.). See enginous.

ingle, a favourite boy, an intimate associate, darling. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, i. 1 (Truewit); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, i. 2 (Viola). A Gloucestershire word, see EDD. (s.v. Ingle, sb.² 1).

ingram, ignorant. Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, v. 1 (Shorthose); Three Lords and Three Ladies of London, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 397; Bullein’s Dialogue, 5 (Halliwell); ‘An ingrame, ignarus’, Levins, Manipulus. A Northumberland word (EDD.).

ingurgitation, a gluttonous swallowing. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 11, § last; id., bk. iii, c. 22, § 2. Late L. ingurgitatio, immoderate eating and drinking; L. gurges, an abyss, used fig. of an insatiable craving (Cicero).

inhabitable, uninhabitable. Richard II, i. 1. 65; Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. iii, c. 22; p. 266. F. inhabitable, ‘unhabitable’ (Cotgr.). L. inhabitabilis, not habitable (Cicero).

inhabited, not dwelt in, uninhabited. Beaumont and Fl., Thierry, iii. 1 (Thierry). F. inhabité, uninhabited (Cotgr.).

injury, to injure. Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, i. 1 (near the end); Middleton, Your Five Gallants, iii. 2 (Tailby); to abuse with words, ‘We freely give our souldiers libertie to . . . injurie him with all manner of reproaches’, Florio, Montaigne, I. xlvii. F. injurier (Montaigne).

inkle, a kind of tape. Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 208; also incle, Shirley, Gamester, iv. 1 (Page). In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Inkle, sb.¹) .

inlawed, brought under the protection of the law. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 16).

inleck, a leak in a ship, letting water in. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 560. OE. hlec, leaky. Not found elsewhere.

inly, inward. Two Gent. ii. 7. 18; inly, inwardly, Temp. v. 200; intimately, deeply. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 38.

inmew; in Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, ii. 2 (Miranda): ‘As if a Falcon . . . at his pitch inmew the Town below him.’ Probably a misprint for innew, a spelling of enew, q.v.

inn, a dwelling-place, abode, lodging. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 33; iii. 3 30; vi. iii. 29. ME. in, dwelling (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3622). OE. inn, ‘domus’ (Matt. xiii. 36).

innocent, a fool, idiot. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 98); Fletcher, Rule a Wife, iii. 1. 14. In prov. use in the north country (EDD.).

inquisition, inquiry, search. Temp. i. 2. 35; ‘Inquisycion for bloode’, Great Bible, 1539, Ps. ix. 12. L. inquisitio, a judicial inquiry (Vulgate, Acts xii. 19).

in-same, together, in company, in late use, a mere expletive; ‘Lo! my top I drive in-same’, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 245; ‘I am seemly-shapen in-same’; id. 247. ME. samen, together (Ormulum, 377); in same, together (used as an expletive), see Wars Alex. 2646.

insecution, close pursuit. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 524; xxiii. 448. Late L. insecutio, ‘persecutio’ (Ducange).

insignement, teaching, showing. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 12, § 5. See enseignement.

insolence, originality of genius (of a poet); ‘Being filled with furious insolence’, Spenser, Colin Clout, 619. See Trench, Sel. Gl. 150.

insolent, unusual, original; ‘Most loftie, insolent, and passionate’, Puttenham. Eng. Poesie, bk. i, c. 31; p. 77. L. insolens, unusual.

instance, urgency; ‘With all instance and supplicacion’ (= Vulgate, in omni instantia et obsecratione), Tyndale, Eph. vi. 18). F. instance, urgency (Cotgr.).

instance, something which urges or impels, a motive, cause. Richard III, iii. 2. 25; All’s Well, iv. 1. 44. Late L. instantia, urgency.

instant, urgent, persevering. Bible, Rom. xii. 12 (AV.); instantly, urgently, earnestly, Luke vii. 4 (Tyndale and AV.). L. instans, persevering (Vulgate, Acts vi. 4).

instate, to endow. Measure for M. v. 1. 429; instate to, make over to, Dekker and Middleton, Witch of Edmonton, i. 2 (O. Thorney).

instaure, to renew, repair. Marston, What you Will, i. 1 (Jacomo). L. instaurare, to renew (Vulgate, Eph. i. 10).

instinction, instigation, inspiration. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, ch. 13, § 4; natural impulse, instinct, id., bk. iii, ch. 3, § 5. Deriv. of L. instinctus, instigated, pp. of instinguere.

instop, to stop up or fill up the seams of a ship. Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, st. 147. Du. instoppen, to cram in (Sewel).

intend, to stretch or shoot out (of a dragon’s sting). Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 38. L. intendere.

intend, to attend to; ‘(When Augustus was at the games) he did nothing else but intend the same’, Holland, tr. Suetonius. 60 (Trench, Sel. Gl. 151); ‘Every man profiteth in that he most intendeth’, Bacon, Essay 29; Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, i. 2 (Luce); Massinger, Emperor of the East, i. 2 (Pulcheria).

intendiment, understanding. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 32; Teares of the Muses, 144. Med. L. intendimentum, ‘mens, intelligentia’, intendere, ‘intelligere’ (Ducange).

interesse, the being concerned or having part in the possession of anything; ‘interest’, title, or claim; ‘The right title and interesse that they have’, Act 7 Hen. VII, c. 2, § 5; Spenser, F. Q. vii. 6. 33; interest on money, Hen. VIII, Instruct. Orator (NED.). Anglo-F. interesse, A.D. 1388 (NED.); Med. L. interesse, ‘usura, foenus, quod ultra sortem solvitur, vel quod quanti alicujus interest’ (Ducange); subst. use of L. interesse, to be between, to be of importance.

interessed, pp., interested; ‘(They) were commonly interessed therein themselves for their own ends’, Bacon, Essay 3 (end); ‘The heathens . . . were nothing interessed in that dispute’, Dryden, Pref. Religio Laici (ed. Christie, Clar. Press, p. 123); Massinger, Duke of Milan, i. 1; spelt interest, invested with a right or share, King Lear, i. 1. 87.

interest, to invest a person with a share in, or title to something; ‘Aurora ravish’d him . . . And interested him amongst the Gods’, Chapman, tr. Odyssey, xv. 326.

interlunar, between two moons; with reference to the period between the waning of the old and the waxing of the new moon; ‘Silent as the moon . . . Hid in her vacant interlunar cave’, Milton, Samson, 89. L. lunaris, relating to the moon.

intrince, intricate, entangled. King Lear, ii. 2. 81; short for intrinsicate, Ant. and Cl. v. 2. 307. Deriv. of L. intrinsecus, inwardly.

intuse, a bruise. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 33. L. intusus, pp. of intundere, to bruise.

inundant, inundating, overflowing. Heywood, Witches of Lancs. v (Generous), vol. iv, p. 252, l. 4. L. inundare, to inundate.

invect, to inveigh. Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, iii. 3 (M. Tullius). Cp. L. invectio, an attacking with words, deriv. of invehere, to inveigh against.

invest, to enwrap, to enfold; ‘While night Invests the sea’, Milton, P. L. i. 208; iii. 10; vii. 372; to put on, to don, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 5. 18. L investire, to clothe.

invinced, unconquered; never before conquered. Heywood, Silver Age, A iii (Hercules), vol. iii, p. 131. L. vincere, to conquer. Only found in Heywood’s writings.

invious, pathless, trackless. Butler, Hud. i. 3. 386. Cp. L. invius; from via, a way.

inward, intimate, confidential; ‘Inward Counsellours’, Bacon, Essays, 20, § 4; Marston, Malcontent, iv. 1 (Mendoza); an intimate acquaintance, ‘I was an inward of his’, Measure for M. iii. 2. 138.

†iper, a kind of fish, of small value; ‘Amongst fishes, a poor iper’, Webster, Appius, iii. 4 (Corbulo). Only in this passage.

Irish, an old game resembling backgammon. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 4 (Lady); the Irish game, Shirley, St. Patrick (Epilogue). See Cotton’s Compleat Gamester, 1680, p. 109.

irous, wrathful. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 9, § 1. Anglo-F. irous (Gower); from L. ira, anger.

†irpes (?). ‘From Spanish shrugs, French faces, smirks, irpes, and all affected humours, Good Mercury defend us’, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 3 (Palinode).

Isgrim, the name of the wolf in the story of Reynard the Fox. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Hubert). Isegrim in Caxton’s version; Isengrijn in Willem’s Low German poem; Ysegrim in Leeu’s Low German prose version; see Caxton’s Reynard (ed. Arber, p. ix).

island, a shock-dog, rough dog; lit. ‘Iceland dog’, Shirley, Hyde Park, i. 2 (Mis. Car.); ‘Her Iceland cur’, Massinger, The Picture, v. 1 (Ubaldo).

†iulan, of the first growth of the beard; ‘Iulan down’, Middleton, The Changeling, i. 1 (Vermandero). Gk. ἴουλος, the first growth of the beard. Not found elsewhere.

ivybush, the bush of ivy hung out as a vintner’s sign. Earle, Microcosmographie, § 12; ed. Arber, p. 33. The same as bush in As You Like It (Epilogue).

iwis, ywis, (often written I wis), certainly, assuredly. Tam. Shrew, i. 1. 62; Richard III, i. 3. 102; ywis, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 19; i-wusse, B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1 (Tucca); wusse, id., Devil an Ass, i. 3 (Fitz). ME. iwis, certainly, truly (Chaucer, Compleint, 48); OE. gewiss, certain.

Jack, a lad, fellow, chap, a young knave. Taming Shrew, ii. 1. 290; Middleton, Women beware, i. 2 (Ward); Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, v. 1 (Sir Harry); a Knave in Cards, Cotton, Complete Gamester, ix; figure of a man striking the bell on the outside of a clock, Richard III, iv. 2. 117; also, Jack o’ the clock, Richard II, v. 5. 60; Jack i’ the clock-house, Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, i. 5. 3; jack, the piece of wood with a quill for plucking the strings of the ‘virginal’, Shaks., Sonnet 128; Jack o’ Bethleem, see bedlam; Jack in box, one who deceived tradesmen by substituting empty boxes for boxes full of money, Middleton, Spanish Gipsy, iv. 1 (Sancho’s song), see Dyce, iv. 164; Jack-a-Lent, a small stuffed puppet thrown at during Lent; a butt, Merry Wives, iii. 3. 27; v. 5. 134; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iv. 4 (Rowland).

jack, a coat of quilted or plated leather, a coat of defence. Drayton, Pol. xxii. 166; ‘His golden-plated Iacke’, Twyne, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid x, 314.

jack, a drinking-measure, pot; said to contain half a pint. Taming Shrew, iv. 1. 51; Tusser, Husbandry, § 85. 10.

jack merlin, a male merlin or hawk. Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, v. 1. 13.

Jacob’s staff; ‘A pilgrim’s staff, so called from those who go on pilgrimage to the city of St. Iago, or St. James Compostella in Spain’, Blount, Glossographia; with reference to Gen. xxxii. 10, Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 35; a cross-staff, an instrument for measuring heights and distances, Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Techelles); Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, ii. 1 (Brisac); Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 786; used by astrologers and astronomers, Marmyon’s Fine Companion (Nares).

jade, to over-drive, to pursue to weariness; ‘It is a dull thing to tire, and, as we say, to Iade anything too farre’, Bacon, Essay 32; ‘The ne’er-yet beaten horse of Parthia We have jaded out o’ th’ field’, Ant. and Cl. iii. 1. 34. From ‘jade’, a contemptuous term for a horse; Scot. jaud; Norm. F. *jaude, Icel. jalda, a mare; cp. Scot. yaud, an old worn-out horse, see EDD. (s.v. Jade).

jambeux, leggings, armour for the legs. Dryden, Palamon and Arc., iii. 35; spelt giambeux, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 29. ME. jambeux (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2065). See Dict. (s.v. Jamb).

Jane, a small silver coin of Genoa, introduced into England in Chaucer’s time. Phr. many a Jane (i.e. much money), Spenser, F. Q. iii. 7. 58 (borrowed from Chaucer, C. T. B. 1925). OF. Janne(s, Genoa.

jane, a twilled cotton cloth, a kind of fustian, ‘jean’; ‘Jane judgments’, coarse, common judgments, Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 5. 8. Named from Genoa.

jant, to over-tire a horse. Tusser, Husbandry, § 87. 3; jaunt, Cotgrave (s.v. Jancer). See jaunce.

jant, smart, showy; ‘To Smeton . . . Where were dainty ducks, and jant ones’, Brathwaite, Drunken Barnaby, 119.

janty, jaunty, genteel, elegant, stylish; janty, Parson’s Wedding, i. 3 (Sad); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xiv. 401 (but spelt ganty in ed. 1663); jantee, Shadwell, Timon (epilogue). Anglicized phonetic representation of F. gentil, see NED. (s.v. Jaunty).

jape, to jest, joke. Berners, Froissart, I, ccxxxiii. 324; ‘I dyd but jape with hym’, Palsgrave; a merry tale, a jest, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, ch. 29, § 2; Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. i. 31. ME. jape, vb. (Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 1699; sb. C. T. A. 4201). Cp. O. Prov. gap, ‘plaisanterie, raillerie’ (Levy).

jar, to grate; hence, to quarrel, dispute; ‘We will not jar’, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, ii. 2 (Barabas); jarre, Gascoigne, Works, i. 105; l. 16.

jar, a grating noise; the tick of a clock; also, a quarrel, dispute; ‘A jar of the clock’, Wint. Tale, i. 2. 43; ‘fallen at jars’, 2 Hen. VI, i. 1. 253.

jarkman, an educated beggar. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1.4; ‘A Ia[r]ckeman is he that can write and reade, and somtime speake latin; he vseth to make counterfaite licences which they call Gybes, and sets to Seales, in their language called Iarkes’, Awdeley, Vagabonds, p. 5. Spelt Jackman, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (first stage direction).

jasp, a jasper. Spenser, Visions of Bellay, ii. 11. ME. jasp (Wyclif, Isaiah liv. 12), OF. jaspe. L. iaspis. Gk. ἴασπις.

jaum, to ‘jam’, press, squeeze; to be hard upon, to jeer at. Heywood, Witches of Lancs., A. i (near the end); vol. iv, p. 186. In prov. use in Yorks. and Lincoln, meaning ‘to squeeze’; see EDD. (s.v. Jam).

jaunce, to stir a horse, to make him prance, used fig. Richard II, v. 5. 94; a weary journey, Rom. and Jul. ii. 5. 53; geances, troublesome journeys, B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (Hilts). ‘Jaunce’ is in use in Sussex for a weary or tiring journey, see EDD. (s.v. Jance). F. jancer un cheval, ‘to stirre a horse in the stable till he sweat with-all, or as our jaunt’ (Cotgr.). See NED.

jaunts (?); ‘You lead me fair jaunts, sir’, Middleton, Mich. Term, iii. 5 (Shortyard). Perhaps the same word as jaunce, taken as a plural; from jaunts thus evolved would come our jaunt. If this explanation be correct, Middleton’s word would mean ‘troublesome journeys’.

javel, a low fellow; ‘He called the fellow ribbalde, villaine, javel’, Robynson, tr. More’s Utopia, 46; Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 309; Appius and Virginia, Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 150; javill, Roper’s Life of Sir Thos. More (in Robynson’s Utopia, p. lv). ME. javel, ‘joppus, joppa’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 1097).

jawme, a ‘jamb’, side post of a door-way. Spelt jame, Golding, Metam. xii. 281; fol. 146, bk. (1603); jawme, id. (1593). ‘Jawm’ (‘Jaum’) is still the prov. form in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Jamb). F. jambe, ‘the leg, the jaumbe or side-post of a door’ (Cotgr.).

jawn, a chine, fissure, chasm. Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, ii. 1 (Pandulfo). See chawne.

jerk, to scourge, whip, lash; ‘Fouetter, to scourge, yerke, or jerke’, Cotgrave; a sharp stroke with a whip, Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, i. 4 (Satire). Hence jerker, one who lashes severely; Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iv. 3. 3. See yerk.

jernie, to utter a profane oath; ‘Although he jernie and blaspheme’, Butler, On our Imitation of the French (near the end); Remains (ed. 1759, i. 84); see NED. F. jerni (jarni), for jarnidieu, i.e. je renie Dieu, I renounce God. See Cotgrave (s.v. Jarnigoy).

jert, to use a whip. Nash, Summer’s Last Will (Harvest), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 52. See EDD.

jest, a deed, action; ‘A worthy jest’, Wounds of Civil War, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 186; ‘in this jest’, in this action, Downfall of E. of Huntingdon, i. 3 (Robin); in Hazlitt, viii. 114. See gest(e.

jet, to fling about the body, to strut about, Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 36; ‘I jette, Je me jamboye’, Palsgrave. ‘Jet’ in this sense is a Warwicksh. word, see EDD. (s.v. Jet, 4). F. jetter (jecter), to throw (Cotgr.).

Jew’s ear, an edible cup-shaped fungus, growing on roots and trunks of trees, Hirneola or Exidia Auricula-Judæ. Heywood, Witches of Lancs, iii (Joan), in Wks. iv. 207; ‘Jew’s eares . . . an excrescence about the roots of Elder, and concerneth not the Nation of the Jews, but Judas Iscariot, upon a conceit, he hanged on this tree’, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, ii. 7. 8 (Pseud. Ep. ii. 6. 101, NED.). See Nares.

jiggumbob, a trifle, toy, knick-knack, thing of slight value. Jiggembobs, Middleton, Women beware Women, ii. 2 (Fabricio); jigambob, Fletcher, Pilgrim, iii. 1. 14; jiggumbobs, Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 108.

jigmaker, a ballad-writer. Hamlet, iii. 2. 131. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, i. 1 (end).

jimmal-ring, a double ring (sometimes a treble ring), the rings being linked by a hinge. The jimmall-ring, or True-love-knot, Herrick. See gimmal.

job, to stab slightly, to peck. Tusser, Husbandry, § 37. 12. In prov. use in the British Isles (EDD.). ME. jobbyn: ‘byllen or iobbyn as bryddys, iobbyn with the byl’ (Prompt.).

jobbernowl, a jocular term for the head, usually connoting stupidity. Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 815; Marston, Scourge of Villanie, ii. 6. 200; a stupid person, a blockhead, ‘Teste de bœuf, a joult-head, jobbernoll, cod’s-head, logger-head, one whose wit is as little as his head is great’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in both senses in the north country and E. Anglia (EDD.).

job-nut, the name of a childish game, in which hazel-nuts are perforated and strung through, in order to be knocked against each other. Lady Alimony, ii. 5 (Fricase). See NED. (s.v. Job, sb. (3)).

John Dory. The name of a popular song, ab. 1609; ‘I’ll have John Dorrie! For to that warlike tune I will be open’d’, Fletcher, The Chances, iii. 2 (Antonio). The legend is, that he was a commander of a French privateer, who undertook to take English prisoners to Paris, but was himself captured in the attempt; ‘Would I had gone to Paris with John Dory’ (ironical), Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, ii. 2 (Humphrey). See Nares.

jointer, joint-possessor. Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 3 (1366); scene 10. 8 (W.); p. 170, col. 1.

jouissance, pleasure, merriment, mirth. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 25; Nov., 2. F. jouissance, an enjoying (Cotgr.).

journall, daily. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 31; Cymb. iv. 2. 10. F. journal, ‘journal, daily’ (Cotgr.). L. diurnalis (Ducange).

jovy, ‘jovial’, merry. Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, iii 1 (Mirabel); B. Jonson, Alchem. v. 3 (Kastril).

jowl, joll, to strike, knock, esp. the head. As You Like It, i. 3. 59; Hamlet, v. 1. 84; ‘I jolle one aboute the eares’, Palsgrave. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 1. In prov. use in many parts of England from Lakeland to E. Anglia (EDD.). Deriv. of ME. ‘jolle or heed, caput’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 1112).

judge, the name of the rook or castle in the game of chess. Only in Fitzherbert, Husbandry, Prol. 20. Fitzherbert’s rendering of justitiarius, the name applied to the rook in a Latin treatise on chess (c. 1400 A.D.). See NED.

judgement, a competent critic, a judge. Tr. and Cr. i. 2. 208; Dryden, Prol. to Secret Love, 45; Epil. to Evening Love, 3.

Jug, a familiar substitution for the female name of Joan; ‘Clown [to Joan], Bring him away, Jug! Enter Joan, with a fish’, Rowley, A Woman never vext, i. 1; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xii. 115. In Espinasse’s Lancashire Worthies Joan, the daughter of the celebrated Dr. Byrom, is familiarly called ‘Jugg’. See Bardsley’s English Surnames, p. 49 (note). This familiar name was applied to a homely woman, a maid-servant, the sweetheart of a peasant, King Lear, i. 4. 247; ‘A soldier and his jug’, A Knack to know a Knave (Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 511); Preston, K. Cambises (Davies, Gl.).

jugal, conjugal, matrimonial; ‘The jugal knot’, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, ii. 2 (Jane). Cp. L. vinclum jugale (Virgil).

julio, an Italian coin worth about sixpence. Webster, White Devil (Monticelso), ed. Dyce, p. 23; Shirley, Sisters, iii. 1 (Frapolo). Ital. giulio, named after Pope Julius II (1503-13); a coin by Julius the Pope worth sixpence sterling (Florio).

jument, a beast; properly a beast of burden. Cartwright, The Ordinary, ii. 1 (Slicer). OF. jument, a beast of burden; a mare (Cotgr.). L. jumentum, a yoke-beast.

jump, a kind of short coat for men; ‘Your velvet jumps’, Wycherley, Gent. Dancing-master, Epilogue, 33. In prov. use in various parts of England meaning a loose jacket, a child’s frock, also, a kind of stays, open in front (EDD.).

jump, to hazard, risk, Macbeth, i. 7. 7; Cymbeline, v. 4. 187; hence jump, hazard, venture, Ant. and Cl. iii. 8. 6.

jump with, to agree, tally, coincide with, Merch. Ven. ii. 9. 32; Taming Shrew, i. 1. 194; 1 Hen. IV, i. 2. 78; hence, jump, exactly, precisely, Hamlet, i. 1. 65; Othello, ii. 3. 392. In prov. use both as vb. and adv. (EDD.).

juppon, a close-fitting doublet worn under a hauberk. Dryden, Palamon, iii. 28. F. jupon, a short cassock (Cotgr.).

jut, jutt, to jolt, bump, knock, push. Earle, Microcosmographie, no. 39, Plausible Man; jutte, a bump, push, Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 8. In use in Yorks, Notts, and Linc. (EDD.).

jutty, to project beyond, to overhang. Hen. V, iii. 1. 13; ‘Let their eie-browes juttie over’, Kyd, Spanish Tragedy, iii. 12 a (Appendix, D. 138); ed. Schick, p. 121; the projecting part of a wall or building, Macbeth, i. 6. 6. Compare the Glouc. word ‘jetty’, to protrude (EDD.).

ka, for quo’ (quoth, quotha); ‘Enamoured ka? mary sir say that againe’, Udall, Roister Doister, i. 2 (Merygreek); Peele, Old Wives Tale (ed. Dyce, 455); Penry, Mar-Prelate’s Epitome, 21 (EDD.). In prov. use in Durham, Cumberland, Suffolk (EDD.). Also, ko, ‘I feare him not, Ko she’, Roister Doister, iii. 3.

kaa me, kaa thee, i.e. do me a good turn, and I will do thee the same. Eastward Ho, ii. 1 (or 3) (Quicksilver); Massinger, City Madam, ii. 1 (Goldwire). So in Scotland they say ‘Kae me and I’ll kae thee’, in Northumberland ‘Kaa me, kaa thee’, or, ‘Kaa mee an aa’ll kaa thee’; ‘Ka me and I’ll ka thee, Serva me, servabo te’, Coles, Dict. (1679). See Nares. Cp. the phr. ‘Claw me, claw thee’ used in the same sense.

kails, keils, nine-pins; ‘A game called nine-pins, or keils’, B. Jonson, Chloridia (Antimasque). Du. kegel, a pin, kail.

kam, crooked, awry. Coriolanus, iii. 1. 304. Welsh cam, crooked; Irish cam (Dinneen). See kim-kam.

karl hemp, the male hemp. Tusser, Husbandry, § 15. 24; also called churl hemp, Fitzherbert, Husb., § 146. 28. See carl.

karne, a ‘kern’, a foot-soldier. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid ii, 8. Irish ceatharnach, a foot-soldier, deriv. of ceatharn, a band of fighting men (Dinneen). See keteryng.

katexoken, for kat’exochēn, super-eminently. Massinger, Guardian, iii. 1. 7. Gk. κατ’ ἐξοχήν, by way of eminence.

keak, keke, to cackle as a goose; ‘The silver Gander keaking cried’, Phaer, Aeneid viii, 655; ‘Theves . . . had stolne Jupiter, had a gouse not a kekede’, Ascham, Toxoph. (ed. Arber, 130). Cp. Kek, kek!, the cry of the goose and duck, in Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 499.

kecksies, hemlocks, ‘kexes’. Hen. V, v. 2. 52 (printed kecksyes). See Dict. (s.v. Kex).

keech, a lump of congealed fat. Hen. VIII, i. 1. 55. In fig. use, ‘I wonder that such a Keech can . . . Take up the Rayes o’ th’ beneficiall Sun’, Hen. VIII, i. 1. 55; ‘Did not goodwife Keech the Butcher’s wife come in?’, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 101. ‘Keech’ for a lump of chandler’s fat is in common prov. use in Warwickshire, the west Midlands, and Somerset (EDD.).

keel, to cool, to cool by skimming or otherwise. L. L. L. v. 2. 930; spelt kele, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 246, back; keele, Palsgrave. In prov. use in Scotland and in the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Keel, vb.³ 1). ME. kelyn, to make cold, to wax cold (Prompt. EETS. 252, see note, no. 1184); OE. cēlan, deriv. of cōl, cool.

keep, heed, care. Phr. take thou no keep, Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. iv; Ballad of Dowsabel, l. 85; Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 40. ME. tak keep, take heed (Chaucer, C. T. D. 431).

keiser, emperor. Fletcher, Mad Lover, ii. 1 (Memnon); kesar, Spenser, Tears of the Muses, 570; keysar, Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 498. Du. keyser (Hexham); cp. G. Kaiser; L. Caesar.

kell, the fatty membrane investing the intestines, the caul. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4. 35; a cocoon, an enveloping web, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 2 (Alken); Drayton, Pol. iii. 120; the film formed by gossamer-threads on the grass, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 54; Turbervile Hunting, 76. Cp. ‘kell’ in prov. use, meaning the caul, a cap of network, a film on the eye, &c. (EDD.). ME. kelle, ‘reticulum’ (Prompt. EETS. 246, see note, no. 1149).

kell, a kiln. Tusser, Husbandry, § 57. 51. A Suffolk form, see EDD. (s.v. Kiln, sb.¹). Cp. kill.

kemb, to comb. B. Jonson, Catiline, Act i, chorus, 31; Marlowe, tr. of Ovid’s Elegies, i. 7 (last line). In prov. use in Scotland, and in Yorks. and Lanc. (EDD.). ME. kembe, to comb (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2142); OE. cemban; camb, a comb.

kemlin, a large tub used in bread-making, salting meat, &c. Coles, Dict. (s.v. Kimnel); kemelin, Levins, Manip. A north-country word (EDD.). ME. kymlyn, ‘or kelare’ (Prompt. EETS.), also, kemelyn (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3548). See kimnel.

kempe, kemp, a warrior, champion. Morte Arthur, leaf 112. 31; bk. vii, c. 8. OE. cempa; Med. L. campio (Ducange), from campus, field of battle; ME. kemp(e, a warrior, soldier (Wars Alex. 2216, 5499); OE. cempa, ‘miles’ (Matt. viii. 9, Rushworth MS.). See Schade (s.v. Camphjo).

ken, a house (Cant); ‘A boor’s ken’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 1 (Ferret). Hence also libkin or lib ken, stalling ken. See bouzing-ken.

ken(n, to discern. Milton, P. L. i. 59; v. 265; xi. 396; 2 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 101; range of vision, P. L. xi. 379; power or exercise of vision, Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, st. 111; hence, kenning, range of sight, the distance visible at sea, Chapman, Caesar and Pompey, v. 1 (Septimius); Kyd, Soliman, v. 2. 69.

kennet, a small dog for hunting. Pl. kenettys, Boke of St. Albans, fol. F iv, back; kennets, Return from Parnassus, ii. 5 (Amoretts; the whole passage is copied from the former). Anglo-F. kenette (Bozon), dimin. of kien (= F. chien).

Kent: phr. Kent or Christendom. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (Turfe); ‘Sith the Saxon King, Never was Woolfe seene, many nor some, Nor in all Kent, nor in Christendome’ (i.e. nowhere), Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 153; the Glosse has: ‘It was wont to be an olde proverbe and common phrase. The original whereof was, for that most part of England in the reigne of King Ethelbert was christened, Kent onely except, which remayned long after in mysbeliefe and unchristened: so that Kent was counted no part of Christendome.’ Ray in his English Proverbs accepts this explanation (ed. Bohn, p. 206). According to Fuller’s opinion, ‘Neither in Kent nor Christendom’ meant, neither in Kent, which was first converted to Christendom, nor in any other part of our English Christendom (i.e. nowhere in England). Also, in Kent and Christendom (i.e. everywhere); ‘I am here in Kent and Christendom, Among the Muses, where I read and rhyme’, Wyatt, The Courtier’s Life (ed. Bell, 218).

Kentish long-tails, a nickname applied to the natives of Kent. Ray’s English Proverbs (ed. Bohn, p. 207). The story of the origin of the nickname is told by Fuller in his Worthies, Kent, under Kentish Long-tailes. See NED. (s.v. Long-tail, 2). Not only Kentish men but Englishmen in general were called ‘caudati per contumeliam’ by their French neighbours, see Ducange (s.v. Caudatus); cp. ‘ces Engloys couez’ (Chans. Norm.) in Moisy (s.v. Cue, p. 250).

kerve, to carve as a sculptor; ‘Enstructed in painting or kervinge’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 8, § 1. ME. kerve (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 325). OE. ceorfan.

kest, pt. t. cast. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 15; Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, i. 45; plotted, considered, id. i. 30. In gen. prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Cast, 2 (7)).

keteryng, a ‘cateran’, a Highland or Irish marauder; ‘A Scottishe keteryng’, Skelton, ed. Dyce, ii. 75; l. 218; ‘Irish keterynges’, ib., Against the Scottes, 83. See NED. (s.v. Cateran). See karne.

ketler, an inexperienced gamester, a novice at gambling; Bunglers and ketlers’ [at gambling], Middleton, Black Book (ed. Dyce, v. 543).

ketling, inexperienced; ‘Like an old cunning bowler to fetch in a young ketling gamester’, Middleton, Father Hubberd’s Tales (ed. Dyce, v. 589). See NED. (s.v. Kitling, B).

kibbo, a cudgel. Otway, Cheats of Scapin, iii. 1 (Scapin, in a Lancs. dialect). In Ray (ed. 1691. MS. Add.) ‘kibbo’ is given as a Cheshire word (EDD.).

kid, a faggot, small bundle of sticks; ‘Kydde, a fagotte’, Palsgrave; Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 5. 29. In prov. use in various parts of England from the north country to Essex, see EDD. (s.v. Kid, sb.² 1). ME. kydd, ‘fascis’ (Prompt. EETS. 247).

kid, a roebuck in its first year. Spelt kyde, Book of St. Albans, fol. E 4; Turbervile, Hunting, c. 45; p. 143.

kid, notorious; ‘The colonel was a cuckold, or a kid pirate’, Farquhar, Sir Harry Wildair, i. 1 (Fireball). ME. kid, renowned, famous, illustrious (Wars Alex., see Gl. Index); kyd, known (Chaucer, C. T. E. 1943), pp. of kythe, to make known (C. T. F. 748). OE. cȳðan.

kie, kye, cows. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Lorel). In gen. prov. use in the north for the plural of ‘cow’ (EDD.). OE. cȳ, pl. of cū, cow.

kiff, for kith, relationship, standing in relationship, Middleton, A Chaste Maid, iv. 1 (Tim); Tusser, Husbandry, § 10. 30.

kill, a kiln. Bible, Jer. xliii. 9; Nahum, iii. 14 (ed. 1611). A common prov. form in many parts of England—the north country, Essex, and Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Kiln, sb.¹). Hence kill-hole, Merry Wives, iv. 2. 59 (ed. 1623). Cp. kell (2).

kill-cow, a murderous fellow, butcher; a great fighter. Fletcher, Lover’s Progress, iii. 3 (Malfort); perhaps with reference to the story of Guy of Warwick. See Nares.

kimbo, resembling arms set a-kimbo, Dryden, tr. of Virgil; Pastorals, iii. 67; on kimbow, Wycherley, Plain Dealer, ii (Novel).

kim-kam, crooked, perverse. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid ii, 44. Cp. the Shropshire saying, ‘Let’s a none o’ your kim-kam ways’ (EDD.). See kam.

kimnel, a tub used for brewing, kneading, or salting meat. Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, iv. 7 (Alexander); ‘A kimnel, cadus salsamentarius’, Coles, Dict., 1679; ‘kymnell, quevette’, Palsgrave. ME. kymnelle, ‘amula’ (Cath. Angl.).

kinchin mort, a very young female child (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor). Kinchin is perhaps a corrupt form of G. kindchen, little child. See mort (2).

kinderkind, kilderkin, small barrel. Peele, Edw. I (ed. Dyce, p. 383). Du. kindekin, ‘the eighth part of a vat’ (Kilian). See NED. (s.v. Kilderkin), and Dict.

kindle, to give birth to young, bring forth. As You Like It, iii. 2. 358; ‘I kyndyll, as a she-hare or cony dothe’, Palsgrave. Very common in prov. use (EDD.). ME. hyndlyn, or brynge forthe yonge kyndelyngys, ‘feto’ (Prompt.).

Kirsome, Christian; ‘As I’m true Kirsome woman’, Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, iv. 7. 5. See cursen.

kite, a term of detestation. Fletcher, Wit without Money, i. 1. 16; iii. 4. 16; Hen. V, ii. 1. 80; King Lear, i. 4. 284; Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 89; Udall, Roister Doister (ed. Arber, 83).

kiss the post, to be shut out of a house in consequence of arriving too late (there being nothing else to kiss but the doorpost); ‘Make haste, thou art best, for fear thou kiss the post’, Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 47.

kix, a ‘kex’, dried-up stalk; a term of abuse. Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, i. 2 (Mercury).

knacker, a harness-maker. Tusser, Husbandry, § 58. 5. In Lancashire knacker is a term for a tanner (EDD.).

knap, a knave, a rogue. Spelt knappe, Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 1 (Dulipo); Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 80. ‘A regular knap’, ‘a deead knap’ are Yorkshire expressions for a cunning knave, see EDD. (s.v. Knap, sb.² 1).

knap, a small hill, a mound, knoll. Bacon, Essay 45; a hill-top, Golding, Metam. xi. 339 (L. ‘vertice’). In prov. use in Scotland, and in various parts of England (EDD.). OE. cnæpp, top, hill-top (Luke iv. 29).

knap, to knock, rap, strike smartly; to sound or toll a bell. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 80; also, to knock together, Bacon, Sylva, § 133.

knare, knar, a knot or protuberance on a tree; ‘Woods with knots and knares deformed’, Dryden, Palamon, iii. 536; spelt gnarre, Cockeram’s Dict. (1623). See EDD. (s.v. Gnarr, sb.¹ 1). Cp. ME. knarry, gnarled (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1977). Low G. knarre; Du. knar; see NED.

kned, pp. kneaded. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 1 (Savourwit). In prov. use in the north, and in E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Knead, 3).

knight of the post, a notorious perjurer; one who gets his living by giving false evidence. Brome, Joviall Crew (Works, 1873, iii. 366); Marlowe, tr. of Ovid’s Elegies, i. 10. 37; Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, i. 1 (Courtine). [Cp. Pope, Prologue to the Satires of Horace, 365, ‘Knight of the post corrupt, or of the Shire.’] See Nares.

Knight’s Ward, one of the four prison-divisions or ‘sides’. There were usually but three such divisions, the Master’s side, the Twopenny Ward, and the Hole; See counter (3). When there were four, the Knight’s Ward came second. In Eastward Ho, v. 1 (or 2), Wolf says ‘the knight will i’ the Knight’s Ward’, meaning that he was too humble to go into the Master’s side. Also Knight-side, ‘Neither lie on the Knight-side, nor in the Twopenny Ward’, Webster, Appius, iii. 4 (Corbulo). And see Westward Ho, iii. 2 (Monopoly).

knill, knyll, to sound as a bell, ring. Morte Arthur, leaf 428*, back, 6; bk. xxi, c. 10; OE. cnyllan, to strike, ring a bell (B. T. Suppl.).

knitting-cup, a cup of wine drunk by the company immediately after a wedding. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, iv. 1 (Compass).

knokylbonyarde, a contemptible fellow. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 485. Dyce’s note gives two other examples. Deriv. of knucklebone.

knot, a flower-bed. Lyly, Euphues, p. 37; Campaspe, iii. 4 (Apelles); Tusser. Husb. § 22. 22. In prov. use in Somerset, Dorset, and Devon, also in the west Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. Knot, sb.¹ 13).

knot, the red-breasted sandpiper; ‘The knot that called was Canutus’ bird of old’, Drayton, Pol. xxv. 341; ‘Knotts, i, Canuti aves, ut opinor’, Camden, Brit. (ed. 1607, 408). Dan. knot, sandpiper (Larsen). In the north of Ireland the name for the ringed plover, see EDD. (s.v. Knot, sb.²).

knot-grass, a plant with small pale-pink flowers, Polygonum aviculare. An infusion of it was supposed to stunt one’s growth. Mids. Night’s D. iii. 2. 329; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, ii. 2 (Wife).

knowledge, to acknowledge; ‘I knowlege my folly’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 12, § 3; ‘My flight from prison I knowledge’, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 150.

knub, a small bump. Golding, Metam. viii. 808; fol. 105 (1603); ‘knubbe, callum’, Levins, Manip. Low G. knubbe, a knob, lump; see NED.

knurre, a round knotty projection on a tree; ‘A knurre, bruscum, gibbus’, Levins, Manip.; hence, knurred (knurd), knotted, rugged, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 302. ‘Knurr’ is in common prov. use in the north country (EDD.).

korke, to adorn, render illustrious; ‘Duke Lionell, that all this lyne [family of the White Rose] doth korke’, Mirror for Mag., Clarence, st. 6. From corke, the name of a purple dye, mentioned in Statutes of the Realm, Act 1 Richard III. c. 8, § 3, as a dye-stuff; see NED. (s.v. Cork, sb.²).

kreking, early dawn; ‘In the first krekyng of the day’ (F. au point du jour), Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 18. 1. Du. ‘het kriecken ofte aenbreken van den dagh, the creeke or the breaking of the day’ (Hexham). Cp. the Scottish phrase ‘creek of day’, day-break (EDD.). Norm. F. crique du jour (Moisy).

kursin, to christen. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 2. 2. ‘Kursin’,’Kirsen’ are common forms of ‘christen’ in the north, see EDD. (s.v. Christen).

kydst, in Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec, 92, written incorrectly in the sense of ‘knewest’. ME. kithen (pt. s. kidde), means ‘to make known’. See kid (notorious).

kyrie, short for ‘kyrie eleison’ (κύριε ἐλέησον), Lord, have mercy upon us; the earliest and simplest form of Litany. Used humorously for a scolding, causing an outcry; ‘But he should have such a kyrie ere he went to bed’, Jack Juggler, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 138; ‘This kyrie sad solfing’ (translating Talia iactanti, Aeneid i, 102), Stanyhurst (ed. Arber, p. 21); kyry, Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 755.

laced mutton, a strumpet. Two Gent. i. 1. 102; B. Jonson, Neptune’s Triumph (Boy). See NED. See mutton.

lachesse, negligence. Caxton, Hist. of Troye, leaf 74, back, 18. ME. lachesse (Chaucer, C. T. I. 720), OF. lachesse, laschesse, deriv. of lasche, slack. L. laxus, lax.

lack, to want. What do y’ lack? what will you buy; the constant cry of the shopkeepers. B. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, Induction, l. 1; Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Leatherhead).

lackey, to accompany, like a lackey or foot-boy. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, i. 1 (Harpax). Used fig. ‘A thousand liveried angels lackey her’, Milton, Comus, 455. See Dict.

lad, led; pt. t. of lead. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 4; iv. 8. 2. A Lanc. form, see EDD. (s.v. Lead, 1 (1)).

ladron, a thief, robber. Shirley, The Brothers, v. 3 (Pedro). Span. ladron, a thief; L. latro, a robber.

lady, the calcareous substance in the stomach of a lobster, serving for the trituration of its food; fancifully supposed to resemble the outline of a seated female figure; ‘What lady? the lady in the lobster?’ Shirley, Witty Fair One, iii. 4 (Aimwell).

Lady of the Lake, a personage in Arthurian romance; hence, a fairy, nymph; ‘This bevie of Ladies bright . . . all Ladyes of the lake behight’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 120. Humorously, a woman of light behaviour. Massinger, New Way to Pay, ii. 1 (Marrall).

lag, slow, tardy, habitually late. Richard III, ii. 1. 91; a laggard, Dryden, To Mr. Lee, 43; lag-end, latter part, fag-end, 1 Hen. IV, v. 1. 24. See EDD. (s.v. Lag, adj., 1).

lag: in phr. lag of duds, ‘buck’ or ‘wash’ of clothes, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 1 (Higgen).

lam, to beat soundly, to thrash, flog. Lamming, a thrashing, Beaumont and Fl., King and no King, v. 3 (Bacurius); Honest Man’s Fortune, v. 2 (Laverdine); ‘Gaulée, a cudgelling, basting, lamming’, Cotgrave; lambed, pp. beaten, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 2 (Firk). In gen. prov. and colloq. use (EDD.). Cp. Icel. lemja (pret. lamði), lit. to lame.

lamback, to beat severely. Rare Triumphs of Love, iv. 1 (Lentulo), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 204; Munday, Death E. Huntington, v. 1 (Brand), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 305.

Lamia, a fabulous monster supposed to have the body of a woman, and to suck the blood of children. Burton, Anat. Mel. iii. 2; a witch, sorceress, ‘Where’s the lamia That tears my entrails?’, Massinger, Virgin Martyr, iv. 1. L. lamia, a witch supposed to suck children’s blood. In the Vulgate, Isaiah xxxiv. 14, the Heb. Lîlîth, ‘the night-hag’, is rendered lamia. Gk. Λάμια, a fabulous monster.

lampas, a disease incident to horses, consisting in a swelling of the fleshy lining of the roof of the mouth behind the front teeth. Described in Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 81; Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 52. F. lampas (Cotgr.).

lamping, shining brightly. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 1. Cp. Ital. lampante, bright, shining (Florio).

lance-knight, a mercenary foot-soldier, esp. one armed with a lance or pike. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum., ii. 4 (Brainworm). Palsgrave has: ‘Lansknyght, lancequenet.’ G. lanz-knecht, lance-knight, a perverted form of lands-knecht = land’s knight (see Weigand, s.v. Land). See Dict. (s.v. Lansquenet).

lancepesade, a non-commissioned officer of the lowest grade, a lance-corporal. Massinger, Maid of Honour, iii. 1; lance-presade, Cleaveland, Poems (Nares); lanceprisado, Fletcher, Thierry, ii. 2 (Martell). The term was orig. applied to a trooper who having broken his lance (lancia spezzata) on the enemy was entertained as a volunteer assistant to a captain of foot, receiving his pay as a trooper until he could remount himself (Grose). See Estienne, Précellence (ed. 1896, p. 353) for account of Lance-spessade. See Stanford, and Nares.

lanch, launch, to cut, lance, pierce. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 37; Heywood, Eng. Traveller, ii. 1 (Clown). OF. (Picard) lancher (F. lancier). In W. Somerset they will ask for ‘a lanch to lanch the cow’, see EDD. (s.v. Lance, sb.¹ 1). See Dict. (s.v. Launch).

†land-damn, to rate severely (?). Winter’s Tale, ii. 1. 143. The word in Shakespeare is of doubtful authenticity. The alleged survival of the word in dialects, with the sense ‘to abuse with rancour’, appears to be imperfectly authenticated. For ingenious conjectures see Nares.

landlouper, a runner about the land, a vagabond. Bacon, Henry VII, p. 105; spelt land-loper; Howell, Forraine Travell, p. 67 (Arber). Du. landt-looper, ‘a vagabond, or a rogue that runnes up and downe the countrie’ (Hexham).

langdebiefe, wild bugloss. Tusser, Husbandry, § 39. 16; langdebeef, Lyte, tr. of Dodoens, bk. v, c. 15. OF. lange de beof, ‘ox tunge’, ‘lingua bovis’, ‘buglossa’ (Alphita, 24).

langer, to loiter about; ‘Wandryng and langerynge’, Morte Arthur, leaf 185. 20; bk. ix, c. 20. See Dict. (s.v. Linger).

langued, lit. tongued; in heraldry, represented with a tongue of a specified tincture or colour. Butler, Hud. i. 2. 259. Cp. F. langué, ‘langued, a term of Blazon’ (Cotgr.).

lannard, a ‘lanner’, a species of falcon. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iv. 3 (Fernando); ‘Lanarde, a hauke, lanier’, Palsgrave. In prov. use in Cornwall for the peregrine falcon (EDD.). See Dict. (s.v. Lanner).

†lansket, a shutter, a panel of a door, or a lattice; ‘I peep’d in At a loose lansket’, Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 6 (Jaques). Only found here (NED.).

lantedo, lanteero; ‘Your lantedoes nor your lanteeroes’, Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, iv. 3 (Blurt). See adelantado.

lanterloo, the old name of the card game now called loo. Etherege, She Would if She Could, v. 1 (Sentry). Spelt Lanterlu, and used as a name, Wycherley, Country Wife, v. 3 (near the end). See Stanford.

lap, a cant term for non-intoxicating drink. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); ‘lap, butter-milke or whey’, Harman, Caveat, p. 83.

lapise, lappise, to yelp. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 29, p. 76; id., c. 33, p. 86; ‘lappyse or whymper’, id., c. 39, p. 108. F. glappir, glappissement, (Cotgr.).

lapwing, said to cry out at a distance from her nest, in order to draw the searchers away from it. B. Jonson, Sejanus, v. 10 (Arruntius); and see Massinger, Old Law, iv. 2 (Simonides); Lyly, Alexander, ii. 2 (Alexander). Very common.

lare, a pasture. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 29. A pseudo-archaic use of lair, the place where cattle lie, see EDD. (s.v. Lair, sb.¹ 2, § 3).

lare, to fatten. So explained by Dyce, Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, iii. 1 (Rosalura).

Lares, the household gods in Roman religion. Lars, Milton, Christ’s Nativity, Hymn, st. 21; B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 2 (Lupus).

lash: phr. in the lash, in the lurch; ‘To run in the lash’, Tusser, Husbandry, § 10. 15; ‘Leave in the lash’, id., § 63. 20; ‘lie in the lash’, Three Ladies of London, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 254; ‘Gave age the whippe, and left me in the lash’, Mirror for Mag., Shore’s Wife, s. 14; Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 446. See NED. (s.v. Lash, sb.¹ 4).

lash, to move violently; ‘Lashing up his heels’ [of a horse], Dryden, tr. of Ovid, Met. xii. 472; ‘ ’Gainst a rock was lashed in pieces’, Congreve, Mourning Bride, i. 1 (Almeria).

lash out, to squander, waste. Tusser, Husbandry, § 23. 18; More, Richard III (ed. Lumby, p. 67).

latch, to catch. Spenser, Shep. Kal., March, 93; Macbeth, iv. 3. 195; Mids. Night’s D. iii. 2. 36. An E. Anglian word (EDD.). ME. lacchen (P. Plowman). OE. læccan, to seize, catch.

lato, a mixed metal; ‘latten’. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly); laton, Morte Arthur, leaf 44, back, 25; bk. ii, c. 11. ME. latoun (Chaucer, C. T. A. 699). Norm. F. laton, ‘laiton, alliage de cuivre et de zinc’ (Moisy), Med. L. lato (Ducange). See Dict. (s.v. Latten).

laund, a ‘lawn’, a glade. 3 Hen. VI, iii. i. 2; Drayton, Pol. xxvi. 69. ME. launde, a grassy clearing, a glade surrounded by trees (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1691). Anglo-F. launde, OF. lande; probably of Celtic origin, see W. Stokes, Celtic Dict., p. 239.

launder, one who washes linen. Tusser, Husbandry, § 83. 2. Hence laundered (landered), thoroughly washed, Butler, Hud. ii. 1. 171. ME. lawndere (Prompt. EETS. 257). See Dict. (s.v. Laundress).

laundring, washing gold in aqua regia to extract metal from it. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Face).

lautitious, sumptuous, excellent. Herrick, The Invitation, 3. L. lautitia, magnificence.

lave, used of ears: drooping, hanging down; ‘His lave eares’, Wily Beguiled, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ix. 304; lave-eared, having long drooping ears, Hall, Satires, ii. 29 (Nares); ‘Lave eared, plaudus’, Levins, Manip. Still in use in the north country (EDD.). ME. lave eres (Wars Alex. 4748).

lave, to droop, said of ears, ‘His ears hang laving’, Hall, Sat. iv. 1. 72. Icel. lafa, to droop.

lavender: phr. to lay in lavender, to pawn; Coles, Dict., 1699; ‘Rather than thou shouldst pawn a rag more, I’ll lay my ladyship in lavender, if I knew where’, Eastward Ho, iv. 279 (Nares); to lie in lavender, to be in pawn, ‘a black suit . . . now lies in lavender’, B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of his Humour, iii. 3. In R. Brathwaite’s Strappado for the Devil is an epigram, ‘Upon a Poet’s Palfrey lying in Lavender for the discharge of his Provender’, p. 154 (Nares). Lavendered, pp. ‘Your lavendered robes’, Massinger, New Way to Pay, v. 1 (Overreach).

laver, drooping, hanging down; ‘this laver lip’, Marston, Sat. v. 97. See lave.

lavolta, the name of a lively dance, orig. for two people. Hen. V, iii. 3. 33. Ital. la volta, the turn, ‘a French dance so called’ (Florio).

†lavoltetere, one who dances (and teaches) the lavolta. Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, iii. 1 (Host).

law, to give, to allow so much start, about twelve-score yards, to a hunted animal. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 2 (near the end); Drayton, Pol. xxiii. 337; ‘She shall have law’, Heywood, Witches of Lancs. ii (Shakstone); vol. iv, p. 199.

lay, law. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 42; esp. religious law, hence, a religion, creed, a faith; ‘ ’Tis Churchmans laie and veritie To live in love and charitie’, Peele, Chron. Edw. I, B 3 (NED.). ME. lay, religion, faith (Chaucer, C. T. B. 376). Anglo-F. lei, ‘loi, loi religieuse, religion’ (Chans. Rol. 85).

lay, a ‘lea’, meadow. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 8. 15; adj. fallow, unploughed, ‘Let . . . land lie lay till I return’, Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, iii. 3 (Sanchio). ME. lay, ‘lond not tyllyd’ (Prompt. EETS.); laie, fallow (Gamelyn, 161). See NED. (s.v. Lea, adj.).

lay, a wager. 2 Hen. VI, v. 2. 27; Othello, ii. 3. 330; Cymb. i. 4. 159. In prov. use in Yorks., Midlands, and E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Lay, sb.¹ 20).

lay, to beset with traps; ‘All the country is laid for me’, 2 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 4; Middleton, A Chaste Maid, iv. 1 (near end); iv. 2 (Tim); A Trick to Catch, i. 2. 3.

lay: phr. to lay in (or a) water, to make nugatory, to bring to a standstill, Lyly, Euphues, p. 34; Mydas, iv. 4 (Martius); Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 21. See NED. (s.v. Lay, vb.¹ 25).

lay, to lie; ‘Nature will lay buried a great Time, and yet revive’, Bacon, Essay 38. For exx. of this intrans. use see NED. (s.v. Lie, vb.¹ 43), and EDD. (s.v. Lie, 16).

layne, to conceal. Morte Arthur, leaf 399, back, 13; bk. xx, c. 1. In prov. use in Scotland and the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Lane). ME. laynen, to conceal (P. Plowman, C. iii. 18). Icel. leyna, cognate with G. leugnen, to deny. See NED. (s.v. Lain).

laystall, a place where refuse is thrown aside. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 53; leystall, Drayton, Moses, bk. i. 115. See Nares. A Kentish word, see EDD. (s.v. Lay, vb. 2 (9a)).

laystow, a ‘laystall’. Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, iii. 628; ‘In comparison of this present, the ancient gardens were but dunghils and laistowes’, Harrison, Desc. Engl., bk. ii, ch. 20 (ed. Furnivall, 325); ‘Smythfeelde was . . . a layestowe of all order of fylth’, Fabyan Chron. vii. 226 (NED.). A north-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Lay, 2 (12)).

layte, lightning. Morte Arthur, leaf 353, back, 30; bk. xvii, c. 11. ME. leit, ‘fulgor’ (Wyclif, Matt. xxiv. 27). OE. lēget, also līgyt (Matt. xxiv. 27).

laze, to be lazy, to be listless. Greene, Alphonsus, i. Prol. (Melpomene); Never too Late (ed. Dyce, 301). In prov. use (EDD.).

leach, a dish consisting of sliced meat, eggs, fruit, and spices in jelly; ‘Leche made of flesshe, gelee’, Palsgrave; ‘Caudels, Iellies, leach’, Dekker, If this be not a good Play (Shackle-soul), Works, iii. 285. F. lèche, ‘tranche très mince’ (Hatzfeld). See NED.

lead: phr. to lead apes in hell, the fancied consequence of dying an old maid, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 87); Taming Shrew, ii. 1. 34; Much Ado, ii. 1. 42; ‘Mammola, an old wench . . . one that will lead apes in Hell’, Florio.

lead, a pot, cauldron, kettle. Tusser, Husbandry, § 56. 14; ‘Brewyng ledys’, pl., Bury Wills (ed. Camden Soc., p. 101). See EDD. (s.v. Lead, sb.¹ 6 and 7). In Lanc. ‘lead’ is used for a dyeing-vat; in the north country furnace-vessels, of whatever metal made, are so called, from having been usually made of that metal.

leaden dart. Cupid’s leaden dart caused dislike; his golden one incited to love, Massinger, Virgin-Martyr, i. 1 (Antoninus); Roman Actor, iii. 2 (Iphis). From Ovid, Met. i. 470.

leading-staff, a staff or truncheon borne by a commanding officer. Farquhar, Constant Couple, i. 1 (Smuggler); i. 2 (Parly).

leak, leaky. Spelt leke, Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 35; leake, id., vi. 8. 24. OE. hlece.

leally, truly, verily. Spelt lelely, Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, v. 1 (Sylvia); loyally, ‘He sall leallie and trewlie use and exerce his office’, Skene, Difficil Words (1681). Anglo-F. leal, loyal (Rough List), O. Prov. leal (Levy).

leare, a cheek; learys, cheeks, Morte Arthur, leaf 186. 4; bk. ix, ch. 21; spelt lyers, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, i. 471. OE. hlēor, cheek, face. See leer.

lease, a pasture. Tusser, Husbandry, § 33. 49; lees, Fitzherbert, Husb., § 148. 18; ‘In pastures and leases’, Lyte, tr. of Dodoens, bk. i, ch. 63 (The Place).

lease; Lease-parol, a lease by word of mouth, instead of in writing. Greene, Looking Glasse, iii. 3 (1298); p. 134, col. 1.

lease, lese, to lie, tell lies. A Knack to know a Knave (Honesty), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 511. ME. lesen, OE. lēasian, to tell lies; lēas, false.

leasing, lying, falsehood, a lie. Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 105; Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 48; Bible, Ps. iv. 2; v. 6; lesynge, Coverdale, 2 Esdras xiv. 18. ME. leesyng (Wyclif, Ps. v. 7). OE. lēasung.

leathe-weake, having the joints flexible, hence, pliant, soft. Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 129). A north-country word, written leathwake, lithwake, leathweak (EDD.). ME. lithwayke, ‘flexibilis’ (Cath. Angl.). OE. leoðuwāc, liðewāc (BT.).

leatica, a red muscatel wine made in Tuscany. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 3 (1 Vintner). Ital. liatico (Florio); aleatico, an exquisite grape, a wine made therefrom (Fanfani). See NED. (s.v. Liatico).

leave, to levy, raise an army. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 31. F. lever, ‘to raise, to levy’ (Cotgr.).

leavy, leafy, full of foliage. Much Ado, ii. 3. 75; Dryden, Flower and Leaf, 316, 512.

leden, ledden, language. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 11. 19; Colin Clout, 744; Drayton, Pol. xii. 303. ME. leden (Chaucer, C. T. F. 435); OE. leden (lyden), language, prop. the Latin language, L. Latinus; cp. O. Prov. latin, ‘langage’ (Levy), OF. latin, language, also, the warbling of birds (Bartsch, 581. 34); Ital. latino, language (Dante).

ledger, resident; esp. in capacity of ambassador; ‘His Ambassadour that was ledger at Rome’, Daus, tr. Sleidane, 113 (NED.); lieger, Webster, White Devil (Francisco), ed. Dyce, 18; legier, resting in a place, Fairfax, Tasso, i. 70. 15; leiger, Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, iv. 2 (Littleworth). See lieger.

Lee. ‘His corps was carried downe along the Lee’, Spenser, F. Q. v. 2. 19; ‘I looked . . . adowne the Lee’, Ruines of Time (Globe ed. 496). Probably the reference is to the name of a river.

leefky, for leefkyn, a bodice. Leefekyes, pl., Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 116). Du. lijfken: ‘een vrouwen Lijfken, A womans Bodies [bodice]’ (Hexham); dimin. of lijf, a body.

leefsom, pleasant. Surrey, Complaint of absence, 23, in Tottel’s Misc., p. 19. Cp. Scottish leesome, pleasant, loveable (EDD.). OE. lēofsum (Juliana, 17).

leer, complexion. As You Like It, iv. 1. 67; Titus, iv. 2. 119; spelt laire, Drayton, Harmony Church, Song Sol., ch. i, l. 12; lere, Skelton, Phyllyp Sparowe, 1034; El. Rummyng, 12; leyre, Magnyfycence, 1573. For the sense, see EDD. (s.v. Leer, sb.³ 3, and Lire, sb.³). OE. hlēor, face, countenance. See leare.

leer, tape. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 79). In Kentish glossaries, see EDD. (s.v. Leer, sb.²). See NED. (s.v. Lear, sb.²).

leer, empty. A leer horse, a horse without a rider (see Nares); a leer drunkard, a drunkard void of self-control, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, Induction; New Inn, iv. 3 (Lovel). ME. lere, empty (Rob. Glouc., p. 81); see Stratmann (s.v. lǣre). OE. lǣre; cp. G. leer. Very common in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Lear, adj.¹).

leer; Leer side, in B. Jonson, Tale of Tub, i. 2 (Turfe), and ii. 2, ‘Hat turn’d up o’ the leer side.’ Supposed by Nares to be used for the left side. Probably due to the form leereboard (for lar-board), see Hakluyt’s Voyages, i. 4.

leese, to lose. Bible, 1 Kings xviii. 5 (ed. 1611); Shak., Sonnet 5; Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, iv. 1. 4. ME. lesen (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1290); OE. lēosan.

lefull, permissible. Tyndale, Matt. xii. 12; Ascham, Toxophilus, 45. ME. leveful (Chaucer, C. T. D. 37); leve, permission (id., C. T. B. 1637). See NED. (s.v. Leeful).

leg: in phr. to make a leg, to make an obeisance by drawing one leg backward. Tempest, ii. 2. 62; Merry Wives, v. 5. 58; ‘Give him a plum, he makes his leg’, Selden, Table Talk (Thanksgiving). See Nares.

legacy, an embassy, message delivered by a legate. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, vii. 349; ix. 220.

Lege de moy, supposed to be the name of a dance; ‘Parys of Troy Daunced a Lege de moy’, Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 953; El. Rummyng, 587.

legem pone, a cant term for ready money; ‘There are so manie Danaes now a dayes . . . If legem pone comes he is receav’d, When Vix haud habeo is of hope bereav’d’, The Affectionate Shepheard (Halliwell); ‘They were all at our service for the legem pone’, Ozell’s Rabelais, iv. 12; ‘Use legem pone to pay at thy day, But use not Oremus for often delay’, Tusser, Husbandry, 29. The origin of the use of this Latin phrase for money is doubtless this: The first great pay-day of the year was March 25, on which day of the month the Legem pone is the first portion of the 119th Psalm read at Mattins, so that these words were easily associated with the idea of payment and ready money. See Nares.

leger, light; ‘A hundred leger wafers’, The London Chanticleers, scene 5 (Welcome). F. léger.

legiaunce, faithful service. Bacon, Henry VII, p. 142. OF. ligeance, legiance, deriv. of lige, liege, entitled to feudal service, also, bound to render feudal service, see Didot (s.v. Lige, Ligence). Cp. O. Prov. litge, ‘liege’; of Germanic origin, OHG. ledig, free; legiaunce was the feudal service of a free man. See NED.

legier-booke, a ‘ledger-book’, i.e. a book containing records, a cartulary, register. Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, c. 6, p. 51. See Dict. (s.v. Ledger).

legierte, lightness, agility. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 230. 20; thoughtlessness, id., lf. 311, back, 23. F. légèreté, lightness.

lelacke, lilac. Bacon, Essay 46. Cp. the Lincoln pronunciation lealock, see EDD. (s.v. Laylock).

lembic, an ‘alembic’, B. Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2 (Subtle); limbeck, Macbeth, i. 7. 67.

leme, a flame, light, ray, beam. Sir T. Elyot, The Governour, bk. i, c. 1, § 2; Calisto and Melibæa, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 64; leames, lights, Sackville, Induction to Mirror, st. 9. A north-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Leam, sb.¹ 1). ME. leme (Chaucer, C. T. B. 4120). OE. lēoma, light.

Lemures, in early Roman religion, the spirits of the departed. Milton, Christ’s Nativity, Hymn, st. 21.

l’envoy, the sending forth a poem, hence, the conclusion of a poetical or prose composition; the author’s parting words; fig. a conclusion, catastrophe, ‘Long since I look’d for this l’envoy’, Massinger, Bashful Lover, iv. 1 (Martino); v. 1 (Alonzo). OF. envoye (F. envoi), a sending.

lere, lore, teaching. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 261; Drayton, Pol. xxiv. 803; leare, Spenser, F. Q. iii, 11. 16; iv. 3. 40; leares, lessons, F. Q. iii. 7. 21; leere, Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 5 (Sperantus). Also, the meaning, sense (as of a Latin phrase), Heywood, Witches of Lancs. iv (Lawrence). In prov. use in Scotland and north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Lear, sb.¹ 5). ME. lere (Sir Gowther, 231); fr. leren, to teach (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iv. 441). See leyre.

lerrie, something said by rote, a set speech, ‘patter’; ‘Man can teach us our lerrie’, Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, iii. 3 (Third Lady). In Kent ‘lerry’ is the part which has to be learnt by a mummer (EDD.). See NED. (s.v. Lurry).

lesses, the dung of a ‘ravenous’ animal. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 37; p. 97; Maister of Game, c. 25. F. laisses, ‘the lesses (or dung) of a wild Boar, Wolf, or Bear’ (Cotgr.).

Lethe, a river in Hades, the water of which produced forgetfulness of the past; ‘Lethe the River of Oblivion’, Milton, P. L. ii. 583; ‘Lethe Wharfe’, Hamlet, i. 5. 33. Hence Lethean, ‘They ferry over this Lethean Sound’, Milton, P. L. ii. 604 (cp. the ‘Lethaeus amnis’ of Virgil, Aeneid vi. 705). Gk. λήθη, forgetfulness, oblivion; personified in Hesiod; no river is called Λήθη by the ancient Greeks.

Lethe, Death, Jul. Caesar, iii. 1. 206. Hence Lethean, deadly, mortal. Blount, Glossogr., 1670. F. Lethe, ‘masc. Death; Lethean, deadly, mortal, death-inflicting’ (Cotgr.). L. letum (on acc. of association with Gk. λήθη, Lethe, sometimes printed lethum, an orthography which is not supported by MSS. or Inscriptions), Death.

lettice, a kind of whitish grey fur; ‘A robe of Scarlet . . . bordered with Lettice’, Hall, Chron., 25 Hen. VIII (ed. 1809, 803); a lettice cap, ‘Bring in the Lettice cap . . . And then how suddenly we’ll make you sleep’, Fletcher, M. Thomas, iii. 1. 9; id., Thierry and Theod. v. 2. 8. F. letice, ‘a beast of a whitish gray colour’ (Cotgr.). OF. letice, lettice, lettiche, ‘fourrure ou pelisse grise’ (Didot), see Ducange (s.v. Lactenus). OHG. illitiso, the polecat (12th cent.), MHG. iltis, iltisse, see Weigand and Kluge (s.v. Iltis). See Nares.

lettuce, in proverbial sayings: Like lips, like lettuce, i.e. things happen to a man according to his deserts, Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 318 (Orgalio, p. 93, col. 1); Like lettuce, like lips, New Custom, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 23; Such lips, such lettuce, Heywood’s Proverbs, 80. Cp. the Latin Proverb, ‘Similes habent labra lactucas’, see Ray’s English Proverbs (ed. Bohn, 111). See NED.

level-coil, a rough game, in which each player is in turn driven from his seat and supplanted by another, hence, riotous sport. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii. 2 (Dame Turfe); ‘Jouër à cul-leve, to play at level-coyl’, (Cotgrave). Also used as adv. for turn and turn about, alternately, ‘The mother’s smile Brought forth the daughter’s blush, and levell coyle, They smil’d and blusht’, Quarles, Argalus (ed. 1629, 18). F. lève-cul, see Littré (s.v. Lever). See Halliwell.

lever, rather, more gladly. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 32; me lever were, it would be more agreeable to me, id., iii. 2. 6. In gen. prov. use in the British Isles. ME. ‘me were lever’ (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 1034). OE. lēofre, comp. of lēof, dear, ‘lief’.

leveret, a mistress, a courtesan. Shirley, Gent. of Venice, i. 1 (Malipiero); Gamester, i. 1; Honoria. i. 1 (Alamode). F. levrette, ‘A Greyhound bitch, also, a most lascivious and incontinent wench’ (Cotgr.).

levet, a trumpet-call, to awaken soldiers, &c., in a morning; ‘Trumpets sound a levet’ (stage-direction), Fletcher, Double Marriage, ii. 1; Butler, Hud. ii. 2. 611. Ital. levata, a march upon a drum and trumpet (Florio); orig. pp. fem. of levare, to raise.

levigate, lightened, made easier. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 3, § 1. Late L. levigare, to lighten; levigatio, a lightening (Rönsch, 81).

liam, lyam, a leash for hounds. Spelt liom, Sir Thos. More, i. 4. 143; Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, ch. 13, § 5; Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal 6, 65. O. Prov. liam (Levy), Béarnais Dial., liam (Lespy), Norm.-F. lian, ‘lien’ (Moisy), L. ligamen, a band, anything to tie with, fr. ligare, to tie. See NED. (s.v. Lyam), and EDD. (s.v. Leam, sb.²). See lym.

lib, to sleep. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song). Hence, libkin, a house to sleep in, a lodging, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman); lib ken, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Tearcat); ‘A lypken, a house to lye in’, Harman, Caveat, 83.

libbard, leopard. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 29; Milton, P. L. vii. 467. [The form ‘libbard’ occurs in modern poets: ‘The lion, and the libbard, and the bear’, Cowper, Task, vi. 773; ‘On libbard’s paws’, Keats, Lamia, ii. 185.] ME. libarde (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 894). OF. lebard (Godefroy); see NED.

libbat, a short thick stick, chiefly for throwing at cocks, &c.; a billet of wood. Warner, Alb. England, bk. iv, st. 21, st. 12; id., prose add. to bk. ii, § 22. In prov. use in Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Dorset, see EDD. (s.v. Libbet, sb.¹).

libecchio, a south-west wind. Milton, P. L. x. 706. An erroneous form for Ital. libeccio (Florio), deriv. of L. Libs, S.W. wind; Gk. Λίψ.

libel, libell, a little book, a short treatise. Gascoigne, Works, i. 42; a written statement. North’s Plutarch, Life of Octavius, § 25 (in Shaks. Plut., p. 277, note 1).

liberal, licentious, gross. Much Ado, iv. 1. 93; Merch. Ven. ii. 2. 194; Othello, ii. 1. 165. Liberally, licentiously; City Gallant, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xi. 194.

libration, oscillation, swaying to and fro; ‘The bounds of thy libration’, Dryden, Conq. of Granada, ii. 3. 1 (Almanzor). L. librare, to balance.

licket. Meaning doubtful; perhaps a flap of some kind; ‘Wear your coif with a London licket’, Eastward Ho, i. 1 (Gertrude). In the west country ‘licket’ is in use for ‘a shred, rag’ (EDD.).

lidderon, a rascal. Skelton, Against Ven. Tongues, 29; Garl. of Laurell, 188. A Sc. prov. word, see Jamieson, Suppl. ME. lyderon or lydron, ‘lydorus’ (Prompt. EETS. 262), (lydorus = Gk. λοίδορος).

lieger, an ordinary or resident Ambassador; ‘A Lieger (differed) from an extraordinary Ambassador’, Fuller, Ch. Hist. iii. 5. 22; Fletcher, Love’s Cure, ii. 2 (Alvarez); a commissioner, an agent, spelt leiger, Meas. for M. iii. 1. 59; Butler, Hud. ii. 3. 140. See ledger.

lie-pot, a vessel to hold ‘lye’ for use as a hair-wash. Middleton, Five Gallants, i. 1. 12 (or 14).

lifter, a thief, cheat. Tr. and Cr. i. 2. 129; Greene, James IV, iii. 1 (near the end).

lig, ligge, to lie, lie down. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 4. 40; Shep. Kal., May, 217; Oct., 12. In common prov. use in the north country and E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Lie, vb.² 1 (4)). OE. licgean (liggan).

lightly, usually, commonly. Richard III, iii. 1. 91; Massinger, Bondman, iii. 3 (Gracculo); ‘There’s lightning lightly before thunder’, Ray’s English Proverbs (ed. Bohn, 110); given as a Kentish saying (EDD.).

lightmans, a cant term for day. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); Harman, Caveat, p. 84. See darkmans.

like, to please; ‘The music likes you not’, Two Gent. iv. 2. 56; esp. in the phrase of courtesy, an’t like your Grace, if it please your Grace, Hen. VIII, i. 1. 100 (for exx. see Schmidt). ME. lyke, to please; it lyketh yow, it pleases you (Chaucer); OE. līcian, to please.

†lilburne, heavy stupid fellow; a term of abuse. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3 (Merygreek).

lill, to let the tongue loll out, to thrust forth the tongue. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 34; ‘I lylle out the tonge’, Palsgrave. In prov. use in Berks. and Wilts., see EDD. (s.v. Lill, vb.²).

limiter, a friar licensed to beg within certain limits. Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 85. ME. limitour (Chaucer, C. T. A. 209). See Nares.

limmer, a ‘limber’; the shaft of a cart or carriage. North, tr. of Plutarch, Coriolanus, § 14 (in Shak. Plut., p. 26); ‘Timone, the limmer or beam or pole of a wagon’, Torriano, Ital. Dict. (1688). ‘Limmer’ is in prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Limber).

limmer, a scoundrel, rascal, rogue. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Earine); Dalrymple, tr. Leslie’s Hist. Scot. ix. 219; lymmer, Holinshed Hist. Irel. (Nares). In common prov. use in the north country (EDD.).

lin, a pool. Drayton, Pol. v. 118; vi. 22. In Scotland and the Border country linn is used for the pool at the base of a waterfall, see EDD. (s.v. Linn, sb.¹ 2). Gael linne; Irish linn; Welsh llyn, a pool.

lin, to cease. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 35; Puritan Widow, iii. 5. 110; B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (Tat.); Mirror for Mag. 77 (Nares). In prov. use in the north country (EDD.). ME. linne (King Horn, 1004); OE. linnan.

line, the lime or linden. Holland, Pliny, i. 541; line-grove, grove of lime-trees, Tempest, v. 1. 10. OE. lind and linde. See NED. (s.v. Lind).

lingel, a shoemaker’s waxed thread. Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, v.3 (Ralph); Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 142; ‘Lyngell that souters sowe with, chefgros’, Palsgrave. ‘Lingel’ (or ‘lingle’) is the ordinary word for shoemaker’s thread in Scotland (EDD.). F. ligneul (Cotgr.).

linsel, lynsel, a sheet, a winding-sheet. Kyd, Cornelia, iii. 1. 83. F. linceul, a sheet; L. linteolum, dimin. of linteum, a linen cloth.

lint, flax, flaxen cloth; ‘Robes that brooke no lint’, admit of no flax; being of costly material, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ii, ch. 9, st. 68. In prov. use in Scotland and north of Ireland (EDD.).

lint-staff, a lint-stock or linstock, a staff with a forked head to hold a lighted match. Heywood, Challenge for Beauty, iii. 1 (Valladaura); vol. v, p. 35. See Dict. (s.v. Linstock).

lion-drunk, drunk as a lion. Massinger, Bondman, iii. 3 (Gracculo). The four degrees of drunkenness were to be drunk as a sheep (good-humoured); as a lion (noisy); as an ape (foolish); and as a swine (bestial). See note to Chaucer (C. T. H. 44), in Complete Works.

liquor, to lubricate; to anoint with grease. Bacon, Nat. History, § 117; Butler, Hud. i. 3. 106.

liripoop, chiefly in phrases to know or have (one’s) liripoop, to teach (a person) his liripoop. It means something to be learned and acted or spoken; lyrypoope, Newton, Lemnie’s Complex. vii. 58 (NED.); ‘I will teach thee thy lyrripups’, Stanyhurst, Desc. Irel. in Holinshed, ii. 35; lerripoope, Lyly, Mother Bombie, i. 3 (Prisius); leerypoope, Sapho, i. 3 (Cryticus). Used in the sense of a trick, lerrepoop, Beaumont and Fl., Wit at Several Weapons, i. 1 (Sir Gregory); London Prodigal, iv. 1. 2. Cp. ‘lerry’, Linc. word for a trick (EDD.). See lerry.

lirrypoope, a silly person, Fletcher, Pilgrim, ii. 1. See Nares (s.v. Liripoop). A Devon word, see EDD. (s.v. Lirripoop).

list, a stripe of colour. Butler, Hud. ii. 3. 306; Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. vi, c. 11. Hence listed, striped, Milton, P. L. xi. 866. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. List, sb.¹ 3). F. liste, a list or selvedge (Cotgr.).

listeth, list, impers. it is pleasing to; ‘Ys yt not lawfull for me to do as me listeth with myne awne’, Tyndale, Matt. xx. 15; ‘Me list . . . This idle task to undertake’, Peele, Arraignm. Paris, i. 2; ‘When me lest’, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 247.

litch-owl, the ‘lich-owl’, screech-owl, whose cry portended death; ‘The shrieking Litch-owl that doth never cry But boding death’, Drayton, The Owl, 302; like-owle, Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. x, c. 23 (i. 283c). See EDD. (s.v. Lich). ME. liche, a body, a dead body (Chaucer). OE. līc.

lithe, lythe, a joint; out of lythe, out of joint, Morte Arthur, leaf 58, back, 10; bk. iii, c. 13. ME. lyth, a limb (Prompt.). OE. lið.

lither, pliant, supple, yielding; ‘The lither skie’, 1 Hen. VI, iv. 7. 21; see NED. ‘Lither’ is used in this sense in Kent and Sussex, see EDD. (s.v. Lither, adj.²). Probably the same word as ‘lither’, lazy, sluggish. OE. lȳðre, bad (morally and physically).

little-ease, pillory, stocks; a very small compartment in a prison. Middleton, Family of Love, iii. 1. 9. Also called small-ease. See Nares.

little-son, a grandson. North, tr. of Plutarch, Octavius, § 22 (in Shak. Plut., p. 271).

liver. Supposed to be the seat of love; to which idea allusions are common. Temp. iv. 56; Merry Wives, ii. 1. 121. Also, the seat of courage; Twelfth Nt. iii. 2. 22. To be lily-livered, or milk-livered, or pigeon-livered, or white-livered, is to lack courage, to be cowardly.

livery, a suit of clothes bestowed on retainers or servants, 2 Hen. IV, v. 5. 11; instance of livery, badge of service; Ford, Broken Heart, iv. 1 (Nearchus). Hence liveried, ‘A thousand liveried angels lackey her’, Milton, Comus, 455. F. livrée, ‘a delivery of a thing that’s given, the thing so given, hence, a livery; ones cloth, colours, or device worn by servants or others’ (Cotgr.); Med. L. liberata (Ducange). See Dict.

lob, a lubber, a clown. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 10; Westward Ho, ii. 3 (Birdlime). Cp. Du. lobben, ‘a lubbard, a clowne’ (Hexham). A Lancashire word, see EDD. (s.v. Lob, sb.²).

lobcock, a lubber; a term of abuse. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3 (Merygreek); Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 3 (end). In prov. use in the north country and in E. Anglia (EDD.).

Lob’s pound, prison; also fig. a state of great difficulty or entanglement; a fix. Massinger, Duke of Milan, iii. 2 (Officer); Digby, Elvira, ii. 1 (Chichon); Butler, Hud. i. 3. 910. Also Hob’s pound. See Nares.

lodam, the name of a game of cards; ‘Carica l’asino, the play at cards that we call, Load him’ (Florio); in one form, called losing loadum, the loser won the game, ‘Coquimbert qui gaigne pert, a game at cards, like our losing Lodam’, Cotgrave; Shirley, The Wedding, ii. 3 (Lodam).

lodesman, a pilot, guide; ‘Lodesman of a shippe, Pilotte’, Palsgrave; ‘A lodes-man’, Song in Tottel’s Misc., p. 184. ME. lodesman, pilot (Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 1488). OE. lādmann.

lodesmate, (?) a travelling companion. Only in Gascoigne, Glasse Govt. v. 3 (Phylocalus), in Poems (ed. 1870, ii. 77).

loffe, to laugh. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 55. In EDD. loff (lough) is given as the infin. of ‘laugh’ in many parts of England (western from Lanc. to Cornwall). In Lanc. they say ‘he lough’ for ‘he laughed’. ME. lough, pret. of laughe (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 248); OE. hlōh, laughed.

loft, uplifted, elated; ‘In neyther fortune loft, nor yet represt’, Surrey, Of the death of Sir T. W., ii. 27, in Tottel’s Misc., p. 29; and see the same Misc., p. 235, l. 11.

loggats, a game in which thick sticks are thrown to lie as near as possible to a stake fixed in the ground or a block of wood on a floor. Hamlet, v. 1. 99. See EDD.

lol, that which lolls; the tongue. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 442. See EDD. (s.v. Loll, vb.²: Loller, ‘the tongue’).

lollard, lazy, idle, sluggish; ‘The lolearde Asse’, Turbervile, That all things have release, st. 3. The word ‘lollard’ for a lazy person is used in Cumberland (EDD.).

Lombard, a native of Lombardy; ‘A Lumbarde, longobardus’, Levins, Manip. 30; a Lombard engaged as a money-changer or pawnbroker, Greene, Mourn. Garm. 44 (NED.); also, a money-lender’s office, a pawnshop, Northward Ho, v. 1 (Kate). Norm. F. lombard, lumbart, ‘usurier, prêteur sur gages’ (Moisy). See lumber.

lome, a bucket. Mirror for Mag., Godwin, st. 55. ‘Loom’ is in use in many parts of Scotland for a vessel of any kind, see EDD. (s.v. 4).

long, to belong. World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 254. ME. longen, to belong (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2278); OE. langian.

longee, a ‘lunge’, a complimental bow to a lady. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 159. See Dict. (s.v. Lunge).

loos, praise, fame. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 12. ME. los, praise (Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 1514); OF. los, loos; O. Prov. laus, praise; L. laudes, pl. of laus, praise.

loose, the act of discharging an arrow. Middleton, Family of Love, iii. 2. 5; Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 146).

lope, to run. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iv. 1 (Sancho’s Song); Greene, James IV, Induction (Bohan); Gascoigne, Fruites Warre, lii (NED.). They say in Essex, ‘He went lopin’ along’, see EDD. (s.v. Loup, vb.¹ 8). Du. loopen, ‘to runne or to trot’ (Hexham).

lorel, a worthless person, rogue, blackguard; ‘I am laureate, I am no lorelle’, Skelton, Against Garnesche. See NED. ME. lorel, ‘Lewede lorel!’ (P. Plowman, A. viii. 123). See Cock Lorel.

lote, in Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, iv. 802, represents Gk. λωτός, some kind of clover or trefoil, see NED. (s.v. Lote, sb.¹ 2).

lought, loath. Heywood, Fortune by Land and Sea, i. 1 (Old Forrest); vol. vi, p. 364. ‘Loft’ is in prov. use in Oxfordsh. and Kent as a pronunc. of ‘loath’ (EDD.).

loup-garou, a werwolf, a man changed into the form of a wolf. North, tr. of Plutarch, Alcibiades (Story of Timon). F. loup-garou; F. loup, wolf + garou, a werwolf, cp. MHG. werwolf, man-wolf; OE. werewulf, so that in loup-garou there is a tautological repetition of two words for ‘wolf’—one of Latin and the other of Teutonic origin. See Hatzfeld.

lour, lowre, money (Cant); ‘Lour to bouze with’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Prigg); Harman, Caveat, p. 85.

lourdain, a general term of opprobrium, a sluggard, vagabond. Puttenham, English Poesie, bk. i, ch. 13; Drayton, Sheph. Garl. (ed. 1593, K 2), see Nares; ‘Let alone makes mony lurdon’, Ray’s English Proverbs (ed. 1678, p. 383). See EDD. (s.v. Lurdane). ME. lordayne (lurdayn), ‘lurco’ (Prompt. EETS. 269 and 272); OF. lourdein, ‘sot, stupide’ (Roquefort), deriv. of lourd, heavy, dull.

loute, to bend, bow, make obeisance. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 30; v. 8. 50. In prov. use in Scotland and in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Lout, vb.² 1). ME. loute (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 683); OE. lūtan, to stoop.

louver, an aperture with a shutter or flap; ‘He put abrode the louvres of the tente’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Antigonus, § 10; spelt lover, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 10. 42. A north-country word still in use (EDD.). ME. lovere, ‘lodium’ (Prompt. EETS. 271, see note, no. 1294); OF. lover, lovier (Godefroy).

love, to praise, to appraise; ‘I love, as a chapman loveth his ware that he wyll sell’, Palsgrave. ME. loven: ‘lovon and bedyn as chapmen’ (Prompt. EETS. 277); OE. lofian, to praise, to value; cp. G. loben.

loves. The phrases for all loves, of all loves (or love), upon all love, for love’s sake, are all phrases indicating strong entreaty, like our for my sake, for his sake. ‘Speake of all loves’, Mids. Night’s D. ii. 2. 153. ‘Of all loves’ is a Derb. form of entreaty, see EDD. (s.v. Love, sb.¹ 3).

low-bell, a hand-bell used in fowling, to make the birds lie close; ‘Take a low-bell which must have a deep and hollow sound’, Gentleman’s Recreation, Fowling, 39 (Nares); ‘As timorous larks amazed are With light and with a low-bell’, St. George for England, st. 5 (written in 1688), in Percy’s Reliques (ed. Bohn, ii. 329). It is probably this kind of bell which Petruchio means when he says to Maria: ‘Peace, gentle low-bell!’, Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 3.

lubric, lubrick, incontinent, wanton. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, iii. 2 (Win.); Dryden, Ode to Mrs. Killigrew, 63; B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1 (Crispinus). Med. L. lubricus, ‘impudicus, salax’ (Ducange).

lubrican, the ‘leprechaun’; in Irish folk-lore, a pigmy sprite who always carries a purse containing a shilling (NED.); ‘Your Irish lubrican’, Dekker, Honest Wh., 2nd Pt. iii. 1 (Hippolito); Drayton, Agincourt. For full particulars of this tricky little sprite, see Joyce, English as we speak it in Ireland, 284. Irish lupracán (also, lughracán, lugharcán) a ‘leprechaun’ (Dinneen, p. 450). See EDD. (s.v. Leprechaun).

lucern, a lynx. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Hubert); lucerns (= θῶες), Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 417; id., Bussy D’Ambois, iii (Bussy); luzern, Peele, Device of a Pageant. Cp. early mod. G. lüchsern, pertaining to the lynx, deriv. of luchs, a lynx (NED.).

lug, the ear. B. Jonson, Staple of News, v. 1 (P. Canter); Return from Parnassus (last scene); hence, lugg’d, furnished with ‘lugs’ or flaps, Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. xi. 174. ‘Lug’ is very common in the north country and E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Lug, sb.² 1).

lug, a measure of land. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 11. In prov. use in the Midlands and south-west counties from Warwicksh. to Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Lug, sb.³ 5).

lug, to pull, drag about. Hamlet, iii. 4. 212; 1 Hen. IV, i. 2. 83; ‘Head-lugged bear’, King Lear, iv. 2. 42. In common colloq. use (EDD.).

lugge, a stiff bow. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 28; ‘Vastus arcus, a lugge or mighty bigge bowe’, Cooper.

lull, pleasant soothing drink; ‘A Cup of blessed lull’, The London Chanticleers, scene 9 (Heath). Not found elsewhere.

lumber, a pawnbroking establishment; ‘Mónte de piedád, a lumber or bancke to lend money for a yeare, for those that need, without interest’, Minsheu, Span. Dict. Phr. to put to lumber, to put in pawn, ‘To put one’s Clothes to Lumbar, pignori dare’, Skinner. See Lombard.

Luna, an alchemist’s name for silver. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle). ME. ‘Sol gold is, and Luna silver we threpe’ (Chaucer, C. T. G. 826).

lunary, moonwort, the fern called Botrychium Lunaria. Drayton, Nymphidia, st. 50; Lyly, Endimion, ii. 3 (End.); iv. 3 (Gyptes); Sapho, iii. 3 (Ismena); B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly). ME. lunarie (Chaucer).

lune, a ‘loyn’ or thong for a hawk. Morte Arthur, leaf 104, back, 12; bk. vi, c. 16. ME. loigne (Rom. Rose, 3882). OF. loigne, a cord. Med. L. longia, ‘lorum’ (Ducange). See NED. (s.v. Loyn).

lunes, fits of frenzy, mad freaks. Winter’s Tale, ii. 2. 30. F. lune, humour, whim; ‘Il y a de la lune, he is a foolish, humorous, hare-brain’d, giddy-headed fellow’ (Cotgr.); cp. G. laune, whim, humour; fr. L. luna, the moon.

lungis, a long, slim fellow; one who is long in doing anything. Beaumont and Fl., Knight B. Pestle, ii. 3. 4; ‘Longis or a long slymme, lungurio’, Huloet; ‘Lungis, a slim slow-back, a drowsy or dreaming Fellow’, Phillips (ed. 1706). F. ‘Longis, nom propre d’un personnage légendaire, qui aurait percé de sa lance le flanc de Jésus Christ; le sens est dû à l’influence de long: Celui qui est long à faire qqch.’ (Hatzfeld). Longinus was said to have been the soldier who pierced the Lord’s side with his lance (λόγχη); his martyrdom at Caesarea in Cappadocia was commemorated March 15; see Dict. Christ Antiq. (s.v.).

lupus est in fabula, there is a wolf coming to interrupt our talk. A proverb used on the occasion of a sudden silence; from the idea that a man becomes dumb if a wolf happens to see him before the man sees the wolf. Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 322 (p. 93, col. 1); see Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. iii, ch. 8. The superstition is referred to by Virgil, Ecl. ix. 54. The proverb occurs in Terence, Adelphi, iv. 1. 21. See Büchmann, Geflügelte Worte (ed. 1905, p. 441).

lurch, to remain in or about a place secretly, esp. with an evil design. Merry Wives, ii. 2. 26; to be beforehand in getting something, to get hold of by stealth, Middleton, Chaste Maid, iii. 2; to deprive, rob, Coriolanus, ii. 2. 106. A north-country word (EDD.).

lush, luxuriant, succulent. Temp. ii. 1. 52. In prov. use in Lakeland and Glouc., see EDD. (s.v. Lush, adj.¹). ME. lusch or slak, ‘laxus’ (Prompt.).

lusk, to lie idle, to indulge in laziness. Warner, Alb. England, bk. vi, ch. 30, st. 15. Cp. ‘lusk’, a Linc. word for an idle worthless fellow (EDD.). Hence luskye, lazy; ‘Thy luskye nest’, Drayton, The Owl, 111; luskishness, sluggishness, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 1. 35.

lustick, lustique, merry, jolly. All’s Well, ii. 3. 47; ‘Rusticke and lusticke’, Dekker, Sir T. Wyatt (Clown), ed. Dyce, p. 193. Du. lustigh, pleasant (Hexham); deriv. of lust, pleasure. See NED.

lustless, listless, feeble. Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 20; Gascoigne, Jocasta, iii. 4. 2. ME. lustles (Gower, C. A. ii. 2024; iv. 3455).

luxury, lasciviousness. Middleton, A Game at Chess, ii; A Mad World, iii. 2 (Mis. H.); Hamlet, i. 5. 83. ME. luxurie (Chaucer, C. T. B. 925). Late L. luxuria (in Vulgate = ἀσωτία, Eph. v. 18).

lycanthropi, persons suffering from lycanthropia, or wolf-madness. Middleton, The Changeling, iii. 3 (Franciscus); Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, iii. 3 (Corax). Gk. λυκάνθρωπος, a wer-wolf, a man who thought he was changed into a wolf, or who was thought by others to be so changed.

lylse-wulse, linsey-woolsey. Skelton, Why Come ye nat to Courte, 128. Lylsey is an older form of Linsey (Suffolk), where cloth was once made. Wulse furnishes a pun on the name of Wolsey.

lym, a lyam-hound, or one held by a leash. King Lear, iii. 6. 72. Short for lyam-hound. See liam.

M, abbreviation for Master as a conventional title. Phr. to have (or carry) an M under one’s girdle, to use a respectful prefix (Mr. or Mrs.) when addressing or mentioning a person; ‘You might carry an M under your girdle to Mr. Deputy’s worship’, B. Jonson, &c., Eastward Ho, iv. 1 (Constable); ‘Have you nere an M under your girdle’, Great Britons Honycombe (Nares); ‘You might have an M under your Girdle, Miss’, Swift, Polite Conversation; Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 133. [‘Ye might hae had an M under your belt for Mistress Wilson of Milnwood’, Scott, Old Mortality, xxix.]

mace-proof, proof against fear of bailiffs or mace-carrying serjeants. Shirley, Bird in a Cage, ii. 1 (Bonamico); Gamester, iii. 1 (Lord F.).

mackrel gale, a fresh gale, when mackerel are more easily caught. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 456.

maculate, to stain, defile. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 26, § 8; maculated, spotted, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. v, c. 29, § 9. L. maculare, to spot; from macula, a spot.

mad(de, a maggot or grub, esp. the larva which causes a disease in sheep. Tusser, Husbandry, § 50; Best, Farming Books (Surtees Soc., 6); Worlidge, Syst. Agric. 273; an earthworm, ‘Mooles take mads’, Warner, Alb. England, ii. 9, st. 52; Holland, Pliny, ii. 361. See mathe.

maddle-coddle, foolish. Three Lords and Three Ladies, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 391. See EDD. (s.v. Maddle).

Madrill, Madrid. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, i. 1 (Pedro); ii. 1 (Alvarez); Marvell, Appleton House. Cp. Span. Madrileño, a native or inhabitant of Madrid.

mage, a magician. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 14. L. magus, pl. magi, ‘the Wise Men’ (Vulgate, Matt. ii. 1).

maggot-pate, a light-headed whimsical person. Beaumont and Fl., Span. Curate, iv. 5 (Milanes).

maggot-pye, a magpie. Macbeth, iii. 4. 125; ‘Gazzotto, a maggot-a-pie’, Florio. ‘Magot’ was a pet name for Margaret, see Bardsley, English Surnames, 76. F. Margot, ‘diminutif très familier de Marguerite, nom vulgaire de la pie’ (Littré). ‘Maggotty-pie’ is in prov. use in Wilts., Somerset, and Cornwall for the magpie, see EDD. (s.v. Maggot, sb.²).

magisterium, lit. mastery; a name for the ‘philosopher’s stone’. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle). See Ducange.

magnificate, to magnify; ‘A church reformed state, The which the female tongues magnificate’, Marston, Sat. ii. 42; ridiculed by Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1 (Tucca); p. 130.

magnificence, liberality of expenditure combined with good taste. Massinger, Renegado, ii. 4 (Vitelli); Duke of Milan, iii. 1 (Charles). Cp. Chaucer, C. T. I. 736.

magnificent, munificent, liberal. Massinger, Emp. of the East, ii. 1 (Theodosius); Parl. of Love, iv. 1 (Dinant).

maid, a name given to the thornback and skate, when young. A Woman never vexed, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xii. 112; Drayton, Pol. xxv. 104; Gay, Trivia, ii. 292. In prov. use in Ireland and various parts of England, see EDD.

mail, in hawking, to tie or wrap up a hawk with a girdle or kerchief, to secure her. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4 (Captain); Fletcher and Rowley, Maid in the Mill, iii. 3 (Gerasto). See NED. (s.v. Mail, vb.³ 2).

main, in the game of hazard, a number (from five to nine inclusive) called by the caster before the dice are thrown; 1 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 47; mains, throws at dice; Marston, What you Will, iv. 1 (Quadratus). See NED. (s.v. Main, sb.³ 1).

mainprize, suretyship, acceptance of suretyship. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 60; Heywood, Eng. Traveller, iv. 1 (Reignald); ‘Mainprise, the receiving a man into friendly custody, that otherwise is or might be committed to prison, upon security given for his forthcoming at a day assigned’, Cowell, Interpreter (ed. 1637). Anglo-F. maynprys (Rough List).

maiordomo, ‘major-domo’, the chief officer or servant of a princely or wealthy household. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. iii, c. 4 (ed. Arber, 158). Span. mayordomo, a steward (Stevens).

maistry, a competitive feat of strength or skill. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 17, § 4; masteries, Bacon, Essay 19, § 3.

make, a companion, husband, wife. Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 7; iii. 11. 2. Hence makeless, widowed, Shak., Sonnet 9. ME. make, a mate, equal, match; a wedded companion, husband or wife (Chaucer). Still in use in these senses in Scotland, also in England in many parts from the north to Glouc. OE. gemaca.

make-bate, a mischief-maker, promoter of quarrels. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 573 (ed. Arber, 62); Bible, 2 Tim. iii. 3 (margin); Titus ii. 3 (margin); ‘Satan the author and sower of discord stirred up his instruments, certain Frenchmen, tittivillers and makebaits about the King’, Foxe, Bk. Martyrs (ed. Cattley, ii. 648); Heywood, A Woman Killed, iii. 2 (Nicholas). In prov. use in Devon, see EDD. (s.v. Make, vb.¹ 3).

making, a match-making, matching. Middleton, A Trick to catch, iii. 3 (Witgood).

malakatoon, a quince, a peach grafted on a quince. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, i. 2 (Romelio); malicatoon, Rowley, All’s Lost, i. 3. 15. See melocotone.

malander, mallander, a dry scabby eruption behind the knee in horses. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 94; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Knockem). F. malandre; Late L. malandria, pl. pustules on the neck, esp. in horses (Vegetius).

male, a bag, wallet, pack. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 142. 2; ‘Male or wallet, to putte geare in’, Palsgrave; Tusser, Husbandry, § 102. 4. ME. male (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3115). See Dict. (s.v. Mail, 2).

male-ease, indisposition, illness. Morte Arthur, leaf 169, back, 2; bk. viii, c. 41. F. malaise.

malefice, an evil deed. Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 1154. L. maleficium, evil deed.

malengin, malengine, evil contrivance, ill intent, deceit. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 53; v. 9. 5. ME. malengin: ‘The florin Was moder ferst of malengin’ (Gower, C. A. v. 345). Anglo-F. malengin, evil device (Gower, Mirour, 6544); cp. engin, device, trickery, id., 2102.

maleur, misfortune. Spelt maleheure, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 169. 1; maleure, id., lf. 244, back, 22. OF. maleur; L. malum augurium, evil destiny.

maleurous, unlucky. Spelt malewreus, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 82. 26. OF. maleuros (F. malheureux).

maleurtee, misfortune. Spelt maleheurte, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 338. 15. See NED.

male-uryd, ill-omened, unlucky. Skelton, Against the Scottes, 111. See ure (destiny).

malgrado, ‘maugre’, in despite of, to the loss of; ‘Malgrado of his honour’, Greene, Orl. Fur. v. 2 (Orlando); Marlowe, Edw. II, ii. 5. 5. Ital. malgrado, ‘in despight of’ (Florio). Cp. maugre.

malice, to regard with malice, seek to injure. Surrey. Complaint of a Lover that defied Love, 34 (in Tottell’s Misc., p. 8); North, tr. of Plutarch, Coriolanus, § 13 (in Shak. Plut., p. 23). See Nares.

malkin, an untidy female servant, a slut, slattern. Coriolanus, ii. 1. 227; Pericles, iv. 3. 34; used as a term of abuse, a lewd woman, spelt maukin, Beaumont and Fl., The Chances, iii. 1 (Landlady); Death of E. Huntington, ii. 1 (Hubert), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 258. ‘Malkin’ (‘Mawkin’) is in gen. prov. use in England and Scotland for a slattern, and as a term of abuse, see EDD. (s.v. Mawkin, 2). It is prop. a dimin. of the Christian name Maud (ME. Malde), a F. equivalent of Matilda.

mall, a club. Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 51; an iron club, id., iv. 5. 42. As vb., to beat down, id., v. 11. 8.

malleation, the test of hammering. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Face). From L. malleus, a hammer.

maltalent, ill-will. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 4. 61. ME. maltalent, ill-will, ill-humour (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 273 and 330); Anglo-F. maltalant, ill-humour (Ch. Rol. 271).

mammer, to waver, to be undecided. Othello, iii. 3. 70; Drant, tr. Horace, 2 Sat. 3. A north-country word (EDD.). ME. mamere, ‘mutulare’ (Voc. 668. 26). See Nares.

mammet, a puppet, an odd figure, freq. used as a term of abuse. Romeo, iii. 5. 186; 1 Hen. IV, ii. 3. 95; spelt maumet, Machin, The Dumb Knight, iii. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Mommet). ME. maumet, an idol, a false god (Chaucer, C. T. I. 860); OF. mahumet, an idol, orig. Mahomet, who was supposed to be one of the false gods of the Saracens (Ch. Rol. 2590).

mammock, a scrap, shred. Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 654; to tear into shreds, Coriolanus, i. 3. 71. ‘Mammock’, a broken piece, scrap, slice of food; to cut into pieces—in prov. use (EDD.).

mammothrept, a spoiled child, weakling. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iv. 1 (Amorphus). Gk. μαμμόθρεπτος, brought up by one’s grandmother.

man, to ‘squire’, or accompany a lady, to escort. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 291); Fletcher, Span. Curate, iv. 7 (Amaranta).

manable, used of a girl of marriageable age. Middleton, Family of Love, iv. 4 (Gudgeon); ‘She’s manable’, Fletcher, Maid in the Mill, ii. 1 (Otrante).

manchet, a small loaf of white bread. Drayton, Pol., Song, xvi. 229; Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, ii. 1 (Roger). In prov. use in Yorks., Lanc., and in the west country (EDD.). Norm. F. manchette, ‘pain à croûte dure, inégale, fait en forme de couronne’ (Moisy). Prob. the same word as F. manchette, a cuff (Hatzfeld).

mandilion, a soldier’s cloak. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, x. 120; Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, iv. 3 (Lazarillo). See Nares. Ital. mandiglione, a jacket (Florio), deriv. of Med. L. mantile, cp. Span. mantilla. See Dozy, Glossaire, 299.

mandragora, mandrake. Othello, iii. 3. 330; Ant. and Cl. i. 5. 4. Gk. μανδραγόρας.

mandrake, the plant Atropa mandragora; of a strong narcotic quality. Its root was thought to resemble the human figure, and to cause madness by its shriek or groan when torn from the ground. 2 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 310; Romeo, iv. 3. 47; a term of abuse, 2 Hen. IV, i. 2. 16; iii. 2. 342.

mandritta, mandrita, in fencing, a cut from right to left. Nabbes, Microcosmos, i. 2 (Choler); Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. xi. 56. Ital. mandritto, manritto, ‘a right handed blow’ (Florio).

maner, manner: in phr. to be taken with the maner, to be taken in the act. Bible, Num. v. 13 (ed. 1611); also, in the Geneva Bible (1562); 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 350; Winter’s Tale, iv. 3 (or 4), 755. ‘If the Defendant were taken with the mainour (or manour)’, Cowell, Interpreter (s.v. Mainour); ‘He is taken with the maynure’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii. c. 7, § 6. Compare the Anglo-F. legal phrase pris ov mainoure, and the L. cum manuopere captus, i.e. taken with the thing stolen in one’s possession (Ducange, s.v. Manopera); mainoure, lit. hand-work, acquired the legal sense of ‘thing stolen’. Later, to be taken in the (i’th) manner, Fletcher, Rule a Wife, v. 4. 8. See Dict. (s.v. Mainour).

mangonize, to sell men or boys for slaves. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iii. 1 (Tucca). L. mangonizare, to trim up an article for sale (Pliny); mango, a dealer in slaves and wares.

manicon, the name of a narcotic, obtained from a kind of night-shade, so called from its supposed power of causing madness; ‘(Who) Bewitch hermetic men to run Stark staring mad with manicon’, Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 324. See Alphita, 176 (under Strignus manicon, and Solatrum mortale). Cp. Gk. στρύχνος μανικός (Dioscorides).

maniple, a handful, bundle. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Sir Dia.); a band of men, Milton, Areopagitica (ed. Hales, 48). See Dict.

manred, the men whom the lord could call upon in time of war; hence, a supply of fighting men; ‘Manred and retinew’, Holland, Camden’s Brit., Scot. ii. 17 (NED.); Phaer, Aeneid vii, 644 and 710 (L. orig. ‘cohors’). OE. mannrǣden, homage, service due from tenants.

manticore, a fabulous animal, compounded of a lion, porcupine, and scorpion, with a human head. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 118 and 124; ‘Mantichoras, monstrous beasts’, Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage, v (Butler). Gk. μαντιχώρας, a corrupt reading for μαρτιχόρας in Aristotle; from a Persian word meaning ‘man-eater’. See NED.

mantoon, a mantle. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, i. 2 (Romelio). Ital. mantone, manto, a cloak (Florio).

map, a mop. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Soto); ‘Map’ is a Yorks. pronunc. of ‘mop’ (EDD.).

maquerelle, a bawd, a procuress. Westward Ho, v. 3; Shirley, Triumph of Peace (Second Antimasque). F. maquerelle, ‘a (woman) bawd, the solicitrix of Lechery’ (Cotgr.).

marablane, an Oriental aromatic. Ford, Sun’s Darling, ii. 1 (Spaniard). See myrobalane.

marasmus, a wasting away of the body. Milton, P. L. xi. 487. Gk. μαρασμός.

marchesite; ‘marcasite’; a kind of iron pyrites. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly). Ital. marchesita, marcasita, ‘a marquesit, or fire-stone, good to make mill-stones’ (Florio).

marcussotte, to cut the beard in a particular way; ‘And with a sythe doth marcussotte his bristled berd’, Golding, Metam. xiii. 766; fol. 163 (1603). F. Barbe faicte à la marquisotte, ‘Cut after the Turkish fashion; all being shaven away but the mustachoes’ (Cotgr.).

mare, the nightmare. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 83. ME. mare or nyȝhte mare, ‘epialtes’ (Prompt.). OE. mare, Icel. mara.

mare: in phr. to ride the wild mare, to play at see-saw. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 268; the two-legged mare, the gallows, Like Will to Like, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 335, 345.

mare; ‘the blues’, melancholy; ‘Away the mare’, Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 110; ‘Let pass away the mare’, Calisto and Melibæa, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 57.

mare, a term in wrestling; a particular kind of grip. Drayton, Pol. i. 244. Also called the flying mare; see NED.

mareyse, a marsh. Morte Arthur, leaf 113. 5; bk. vi, c. 14; lf. 217. 17; bk. x, c. 1. OF. mareis; Med. L. mariscus (Ducange).

margaret, margarite, a pearl. Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 76; p. 90, col. 1; A Looking-Glasse, i. 1. 100 (Rasni). F. Marguerite, ‘Margaret (a woman’s name); also a (Margarite) pearl’ (Cotgr.). L margarita, Gk. μαργαρίτης, a pearl.

marge, margin, brink, border. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 6. Drayton, Pol. ii. 25. F. marge.

margery-prater, a hen (Cant). Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 1 (Higgen); Harman, Caveat, p. 83. Prater = cackler.

marginal finger, an index-hand in the margin of a book (☞); used to direct attention to a striking passage. Massinger, Fatal Dowry (Romont; towards the end).

mark, a coin worth 13s. 4d., or 2/3 of the £ sterling. Measure for M. iv. 3. 7; King John, ii. 530.

mark-white, white mark, centre. Phr. at the marke white, at the white mark in the centre of a target, Spenser, F. Q. v. 5. 35; cp. the white, Tam. Shrew, v. 2. 186. And see rove.

marle, to marvel, wonder. Eastward Ho, iii. 2 (Gertrude); B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, Induct. (Carlo); a marvel, B. Jonson, Silent Woman, iii. 1 (Mrs. Otter). A Devon and Somerset pronunc., see EDD. (s.v. Marl, vb.³).

marlian, a merlin, small hawk. Song in Tottel’s Misc., p. 132, l. 1. A Cornish pronunc., see EDD. (s.v. Marlin).

marling, a ‘marline’, a small tarred cord used for binding ropes. Dryden, Annus Mirab. 148. See Dict. (s.v. Marline).

marmaritin, a plant. Middleton, The Witch, iii. 3 (Hecate). L. marmaritis; Gk. μαρμαρῖτις, a plant that grows in marble quarries (Pliny).

marmoll, an enflamed sore, esp. on the leg. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1932. See mortmal.

marrow, a companion, partner, mate. Tusser, Husbandry, § 57, st. 40; Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal ii, 195. In common prov. use in the north to Cheshire and Derbyshire, see EDD. (s.v. Marrow, sb.² 1). ME. marwe, ‘socius, sodalis, compar’ (Prompt.).

marry gip (an exclamation); ‘Marry gip, thought I, with a wanion!’, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, ii; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Waspe); cp. the oath, By Mary Gipcy (i.e. by S. Mary of Egypt), Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 1455.

marry gup (an exclamation); marie gup!, Lyly, Midas, v. 2 (Licio) See NED. (s.v. Marry, int., c).

marry muff, some kind of cheap textile fabric; ‘A sute of Marrymuffe’, Meeting of Gallants (NED.). Used as a derisive exclamation, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, ii. 1 (Bellafront).

mart: phr. letters of mart, letters of marque, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, i. 3 (Goswin); Wife for a Month, ii. 1 (Tony). See Dict. (s.v. Marque).

martagan, martagon, Turk’s-cap lily; Lilium martagon. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 2 (Aiken). F. ‘martagon de Constantinople, the Byzantine Lilly’ (Cotgr.); Ital. martagone; Turk. martagān, a kind of turban, a martagon-lily.

martel, to hammer. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 7. 42. OF. marteler, deriv. of OF. martel, a hammer.

martern, the ‘marten’, an animal of the weasel kind. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Hubert); Harrison, Descript. England, ii. 19 (ed. Furnivall, 310). See Dict. (s.v. Marten).

Martlemas, Martinmas. St. Martin’s day, Nov. 11. Meat was often killed at this time to be salted for use at Christmas, Greene, George-a-Greene (ll. 439, 1001), ed. Dyce, p. 260, col. 1; p. 266, col. 1; Martilmas, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 134. 21; Tusser, § 12. 3. An E. Anglian form of Martinmas (EDD.).

mary, maree, marrow. Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 66; maree, Golding, tr. of Met. ix. 172. ME. mary (Chaucer, C. T. C. 542); mary-bones, marrow-bones (id., C. T. A. 380).

maryhinchco, maryhinchcho, a disease to which horses are subject; ‘She has had a string-halt, the maryhinchco’, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iii. 1 (Knockem). Markham explains it thus: ‘The string-halt, of some called the mary-hinchcho, is a sodaine twitching up of the horses hinder legges’ (NED.).

mash, to become enmeshed or entangled. Warner, Albion’s England, vi. 29, st. 27. See NED. (s.v. Mesh, vb.).

maship, a shorter form of mastership, as a term of respect. Udall, Roister Doister, i. 2 (Merygreek).

mask, the ‘mesh’ of a net. Brewer, Lingua, ii. 6 (Mendacio). A Cheshire pronunc., see EDD. (s.v. Maske). ME. maske, ‘macula’ (Prompt.); OE. max, cp. Dan. maske. See NED. (s.v. Mask, sb.¹).

masticot, masticote, ‘massicot’, yellow protoxide of lead, used as a pigment. Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, c. 13; pp. 130, 132. F. massicot, ‘oaker [ochre] made of Ceruse, or white lead’ (Cotgr.).

mastlin, mixed corn, esp. a mixture of wheat and rye. Tusser, Husbandry, § 63. 23; ‘Metail, Messling or Masslin, Wheat and Rie mingled, sowed and used together’, Cotgrave. ME. mestlyon or mongorne, ‘mixtilio’ (Prompt. EETS. 286). ‘Meslin’ is in gen. prov. use in England and Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Maslin, sb.¹).

mastlin, maslin, a kind of brass. Brewer, Lingua, iv. 1 (Heuresis). In prov. use as an attrib.: maslin kettles, pans, pots, spoons, see EDD. (s.v. Maslin, sb.²). ME. maslin, also, mestling (NED.); OE. mæs(t)ling (B. T.).

masty, a mastiff. Middleton, A Trick to catch, i. 4 (Witgood); used fig. of a cannon (from its noise). Shirley, Maid’s Revenge, iv. 1 (near the end). In prov. use in the north (EDD.). F. mastin, a mastive (Cotgr.); with change of suffix, cp. haughty (F. hautain).

matachin, a kind of sword-dancer in a fantastic costume; ‘They looked upon one another as if they had been Matachines’, Luna’s Pursuit (NED.); see Douce, Illustrations of Shakespeare, ii. 435, quotation in Nares. Also, the dance performed by ‘matachins’, Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 48; Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, v. 1 (Miramont); spelt mattacina, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 38). Span. matachin, ‘a sword-dancer; as dança de matachines, a dance with swords, in which they fence and strike at one another, as if they were in earnest; receiving the blows on their bucklers, and keeping time’ (Stevens). Of Arab. origin, see Dozy, 309.

matador, the slayer of the bull in a Spanish bull-fight. Dryden, Span. Friar, i. 2 (Elvira). Also, in the card-games of ombre and quadrille, a ‘killing’ or principal card, Pope, Rape of the Lock, 321, 335; Etherege, Man of Mode, ii. 1 (Medley). Span. matador, a killer; ‘At the game of Hombre on the cards, there are four Matadores; that is, four murdering cards; so called because they win all others’ (Stevens).

matchecold, machicolated; i.e. furnished with machicolations, which are openings between the corbels that support a projecting parapet of a tower; Morte Arthur, leaf 113, back; bk. vii, c. 10 (beginning). F. maschecoulis, ‘the stones over a gate resembling a grate through which offensive things are thrown upon Pioneers and other assailants’ (Cotgr.).

mathe, a maggot. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 18. 8, § 45; Caxton, Reynard, xxviii (ed. Arber, 69). OE. maða (Voc. 205. 8). See mad(de.

matted, dulled, deprived of lustre or gloss; ‘Oile colours matted’, Kyd, Span. Tragedy, iii. 12a (Appendix D. 116). See NED. (s.v. Mat, vb. 2).

maugre, to act in spite of, to defy. Webster, Appius, ii. 3 (App. Claudius). F. maugréer, ‘to curse, ban, blaspheme, revile extreamly’ (Cotgr.). See malgrado.

maund, to beg (Cant). ‘One that maunds Upon the pad’ [highway], B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (Pennyboy Canter); ‘Maunde, aske . . . hygh pad, hygh waye’, Harman, Caveat, p. 86; ‘Maund on your own pads’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen). Hence, maunder, a beggar, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen). See EDD. (s.v. Maund, vb.). OF. mandier (F. mendier), to beg (Bartsch), L. mendicare.

maunder, to beg. Beaumont and Fl., Thierry, v. 1 (De Vitry); hence maunderer: ‘a maunderer upon the pad’, a beggar on the road, Dekker and Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Teareat).

maunder, to grumble, Fletcher, Rule a Wife, iii. 1 (Margarite). In gen. prov. use in England and Scotland (EDD.).

maundie, a maundy-dole; hence, almsgiving. Herrick, Noble Numbers (The Widow’s Teares), st. 3. ME. maundee, ‘maundy’, the washing of the disciples’ feet (P. Plowman, B. xvi. 140, see note, p. 239); OF. mandé,’ lavement des pieds’ (Didot); Eccles. L. mandatum, commandment (Vulgate, John xiii. 34); ‘ablutio pedum’ (Ducange).

mauther, a young girl. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 4 (Kastril). Spelt moether, Tusser, Husbandry, § 17, st. 13. An E. Anglian word (EDD.).

maw, a game at cards. Rowley, All’s Lost, ii. 1. 16; Chapman, Mayday, Act v (Lodovico). See Nares.

may, a maiden. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 39; Greene, Description of the Shepherd, l. 57; ed. Dyce, p. 305. Of frequent occurrence in Scottish Ballads, see EDD. (s.v. May, sb.²). ME. mai (Cursor M. 3238); OE. mǣg, a kinswoman, a maiden.

May-game, a mirthful spectacle (metaphorically). Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, i. 2. 10. ‘May games’ were the dancings and merry-makings round the May-pole, after the gathering of the May. See Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses (ed. Furnivall, pp. 149, 305); Herrick’s Hesperides (Corinna’s going a-Maying), &c.

May-lord, a young man chosen to preside over May-day festivities. Beaumont and Fl., Women Pleased, iv. 1 (Soto); Knight of the B. Pestle, iv. 5.

mazard, mazzard, the head. Hamlet, v. 1. 97; Othello, ii. 3. 155. Spelt mazer, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, iv. 2 (Fustigo). A fig. use of mazer, a bowl. See Dict., and Notes on Eng. Etym., p. 183.

meacock, an effeminate person, a coward; ‘A meacock wretch’, Tam. Shrew, ii. 1. 315; spelt mecocke, ‘As stout as a stockefish, as meeke as a mecocke’, Appius and Virginia (NED.).

mean, in music, the tenor or middle part, Two Gent. i. 2. 95. In use in Warwicksh. as late as 1850, see EDD. (s.v. Mean, sb.¹ 1). Cp. It. mezzano, ‘a mean or countertenor in musick’, Florio. ME. mene, of songe, ‘Introcentus’ (Prompt. EETS.), also, ‘A Meyne, intercentus’ (Cath. Angl.).

mean, to lament, ‘moan’. Mids. Night’s D. v. 1. 331. A north-country word for uttering a moaning sound, see EDD. (s.v. Mean, vb.² 1). ME. mene, to bemoan (Cursor M. 18255). OE. mǣnan, to lament.

meane, mien, look. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 9. 11. Probably an aphetic form of demean, see NED. (s.v. Mien).

mease, a mess, portion of food. Greene, Looking Glasse, ii. 2 (570); p. 124, col. 2; a group of four, ‘A mease of men, quatuor’, Levins, Manip. Mease is a Yorks. form of mess, see EDD. (s.v. Mess, sb.¹). ME. mese, ‘ferculum’ (Cath. Angl.); mees of mete, ‘ferculum’ (Prompt. EETS. 286). F. més, ‘a messe or service of meat’ (Cotgr.). See mess.

meath, ‘mead’; a sweet drink made with honey. Drayton, Pol. iv. 112; B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 1 (Sat.); Milton, P. L. v. 345. ‘Meath’, a drink made with honey, is in prov. use in Cheshire, Pembroke, Somerset, and Devon, see EDD. (s.v. Mead, sb.²).

meaze, the ‘form’ of a hare. Return from Parnassus, ii. 5 (Amoretto). See muse.

mechal, adulterous. Only in Heywood, Eng. Traveller, iii. 1 (O. Ger.); Rape of Lucrece, iv. 3 (Sextus). Gk. μοιχός, an adulterer.

meddle, medle, to mingle, mix. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 61; Shep. Kal., April, 68. OF. medler, mesler (F. mêler), to mix.

†meered; ‘He being the meered question’, Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 10. Formation and sense doubtful; Schmidt explains: he being the only cause and subject of the war.

meet, to be even with; ‘I have heard of your tricks . . . I may live To meet thee’, Fletcher, Hon. Man’s Fortune, iii. 3 (Montague); id., Rule a Wife, v. 3 (Leon). Also, to meet with; ‘I’ll meet with you anon for interrupting me so’, Marlowe, Faust, x; ‘I shall find time to meet with them’, Englishmen for any Money, iii. 2 (Pisaro), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 513. See Nares.

meint, meynt, mingled. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 81; ment, F. Q. v. 5. 12; vi. 6. 25. ‘Ment’ is obsolescent in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Ment, pp.). ME. meynt, pp. of mengen (Lydgate, Storie of Thebes, 1260). OE. mengan, to mix. See Dict. M. and S.

meiny, meinie, a body of retainers. King Lear, ii. 4. 35; the common herd, Coriolanus, iii. 1. 65. Of freq. occurrence in north-country ballad literature for a company of followers, also, a crowd, throng, multitude, see EDD. (s.v. Menyie). ME. meynè, a household, family (Wyclif, Acts iii. 25). OF. maisnée, ‘famille’ (La Curne), see Ducange (s.v. Maisnada). A deriv. of L. mansio (an abode). See menial.

mell, to meddle, to have to do with. All’s Well, iv. 3. 257; Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 1; v. 12. 35. In common prov. use in Scotland, also in Yorks. and Lanc., see EDD. (s.v. Mell, vb.² 1. to mingle, 2. to meddle). ME. melle, to mix (Hampole, Ps. ix. 9). OF. meller, mesler (F. mêler).

mell, honey. Gascoigne, Works, i. 102; Herrick, Hesperides, Pray and Prosper, 4. L. mel.

melocotone, a peach grafted on a quince. Bacon, Essay 46; melicotton, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Winwife). Span. melocoton, Med. L. melum cotoneum, Gk. μῆλον Κυδώνιον, ‘Cydonian apple’ (NED.). See malakatoon.

melotte, a garment of skins, worn by monks. Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 866. L. melota (Vulgate); Gk. μηλωτή, a sheepskin; also, a skin of any animal (Heb. xi. 37). See Prompt. EETS. 191 (and Latin Glossary, p. 819).

menial, a servant of the household; ‘The great Housekeeper of the World . . . will never leave any of his menials without the bread of sufficiency’, Bp. Hall, Balm Gilead, xii. § 4; mayneal, Morte Arthur, leaf 215, back, 35; bk. x, c. 11. See meiny.

merce, to ‘amerce’, to fine. Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage, i (Sir Wil. Scarborow; l. 12 from end).

merchant, a fellow, a chap. 1 Hen. VI, ii. 3. 57; Romeo, ii. 4. 153; Latimer, Serm., 115 (Nares). Phr. to play the merchant with, to get the better of, to cheat, Rowley, Woman never Vext, iv. 1. 51.

mercurial finger, the little finger. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle). In chiromancy the little finger was assigned to Mercury.

mere, mear, a boundary, limit; spelt meare. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 46; Drayton, Pol. xix. 405. Hence, meer-stone, Bacon, Essay 56, § 1. In gen. prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Mear). ME. mere (Prompt, EETS. 286). OE. ge)mǣre, boundary.

mere, mear, to mark out by means of ‘meres’; ‘The Latine name Which mear’d her rule with Africa’, Spenser, Ruines Rome, xxii; to mear on, to abut upon, border upon, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, iii. 520.

mere, absolute, complete, unqualified, Merry Wives, iv. 5. 64; wholly, completely, All’s Well, iii. 5. 58; Fletcher, Mad Lover, iii. 4. 9; merely, absolutely, entirely, Temp. i. 1. 21; Hamlet, i. 2. 137.

meridian, a period of repose at noon; ‘Ye, a meridian to lul him by daylight’, Mirror for Mag., Cobham, st. 30. Monastic L. meridiana, ‘somnus meridianus’ (Ducange). Cp. Ital. meriggiána, ‘midday; a pleasant shady place to feed, to rest, or sleep, and recreate in at noon, or in the heat of the day’ (Florio).

merrygall, merrygald, a gall or sore produced by chafing; ‘Heales a merrygald’, Turbervile, Hunting, p. 139; ‘Merry-gals and raw places’, Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xxi, c. 18; vol. ii. 101.

mesel, a foul person; used as a term of abuse; spelt messel, London Prodigal, ii. 4. 74; iv. 1. 78. In Devon and Somerset, meazle is used as a term of abuse, meaning a filthy creature. ME. mesel, a leper (Wyclif, Matt. x. 8). OF. mesel ‘lépreux’ (Didot); O. Prov. mezel, ‘lépreux’, mezelia, ‘lèpre’ (Levy).

mesprise, contempt, scorn. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 39. F. mespris, ‘contempt, neglect’ (Cotgr.), deriv. of mespriser, to fail to appreciate. F. mépris.

mesprize, mistake. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 19. Anglo-F. mesprise, error, offence (Gower, Mirour, 1548). F. méprise, cp. mesprendre, to mistake (Cotgr.).

mess, a group of four persons or things; ‘Where are your mess of sons to back you now?’, 3 Hen. VI, i. 4. 73; L. L. L. iv. 3. 207; ‘There lacks a fourth thing to make up the mess’, Latimer, Serm. v; ‘A mess of most eminent men, Nicolaus Lyra . . . Hieronymus de Sanctâ Fide . . . Ludovicus Carettus . . . Emmanuel Tremellius’, Fuller, A Pisgah Sight, Pt. ii, bk. 5; Peele, Edw. I (ed. Dyce, 393); Heywood, Witches of Lanc. i. 1 (Shakstone), in Wks. iv. 173. A ‘mess’ at the Inns of Court still consists of four. See Trench, Select Glossary. See EDD. (s.v. Mess, sb.¹ 4). F. més, ‘a messe or service of meat’ (Cotgr ). Med. L. missus (Ducange). See mease.

messe: phr. by the messe, by the mass, used in oaths and asseverations. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2201; ‘By the Mes’, Hen. V, iii. 2. 122; also, mess by itself, ‘Mess! I’d rather kiss these Gentlewomen’, Congreve, Love for Love, iii. 3 (Ben). This asseveration is still in prov. use in various forms in the north country: By th’ mass (Lanc.); By th’ mess (Westm.); Amess, Mess (Cumb.), see EDD. (s.v. Mass, sb.¹ 3). F. messe, the mass, the Eucharist.

met, measure. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 333. A north-country word for a measure, gen. a bushel, see EDD. (s.v. Mete). ME. mette, ‘mensura’ (Cath. Angl.). OE. ge)met, ‘mensura, modius, satum’ (B. T.).

mete, to measure; met, pt. t., Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iii. 327; mete, pp. Tourneur, Revenger’s Tragedy, ii. 1. ME. meten (Wyclif, Matt. vii. 2). OE. metan.

metely, moderately; ‘Metely good’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 16. OE. ge)met ice.

metereza, mistress. Middleton, More Dissemblers, v. 1 (Sinquapace); metreza, Marston, Malcontent, i. 1 (Malevole). Neither French nor Italian, but a mixture of the two (Nares). An alteration of F. maîtresse, with an Italian termination.

metoposcopy, divination by observing the forehead. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle). Gk. μέτωπο-ν, forehead; σκοπεῖν, to observe.

meve, to move; ‘I meve or styrre from a place, je meuve’, Palsgrave; Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 2, § 7; meeve, Damon and Pithias (Nares); mieve, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 12. 26. ‘Meve’ is an E. Anglian form (EDD.). ME. mevyn, ‘amoveo’ (Prompt.). OF. moev- (meuv-), stressed stem of movoir, to move.

mew, to moult. Beaumont and Fl., Thierry, ii. 2 (Martell); Wildgoose Chase, i. 1 (La Castre). F. muer; L. mutare, to change.

mew, a coop for hawks; ‘Mewe for haukes, meue’, Palsgrave; a place of confinement, Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 20; ii. 5. 27 and 7. 19. F. mue, a hawk’s mue or coop; mue, a change, the mewing of a hawk (Cotgr.), fr. muer, ‘to change, to mew’ (ib.); L. mutare. Our word ‘mews’, for a range of stabling, is derived from the Mews by Charing Cross, the name of the place for the King’s horses, orig. the place for the king’s falcons and the royal falconer. See Stow’s Survey of London (ed. Thoms, 167).

mew: in phr. knights of the mew, knights of the cat-call; the least select among an audience at a theatre. Marston, What you Will, Induction (Doricus).

mich, to skulk, to lurk stealthily. Heywood, A Woman Killed (ed. 1874, ii. 113), spelt meach, Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, v. 2. 11; hence micher, a truant, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 450; a skulker, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 2 (Yo. Loveless); spelt meecher, Bonduca, i. 2 (Petillius). ‘Mitch’ and ‘meech’ are in common prov. use (EDD.). ME. mychyn, or stelyn prively smale thyngys, ‘surripio, furtulo’ (Prompt. EETS. 301). Of Ger. origin, see Schade, Altdeutsches Wörterbuch (s.v. mûhhan). See NED. (s.v. Miche).

†miching malicho (meaning quite uncertain), Hamlet, iii. 2. 148. Textual variants are: myching Mallico, munching Mallico, miching mallecho.

migniard, tender, delicate. B. Jonson. Devil an Ass, i. 2 (Fitz.). F. mignard, ‘migniard, pretty, quaint; dainty, delicate’ (Cotgr.).

migniardise, delicate attention. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iii. 1 (Picklock). F. mignardise, ‘quaintnesse . . . smooth or fair speech, kind usage’ (Cotgr.).

mill, to steal or rob (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); see Harman, Caveat, p. 67.

mime, a mimic, jester, pantomimist. B. Jonson, Epigrams, bk. i, cxxix; Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, i. 4 (Satire). Gk. μῖμος.

mince, to walk affectedly or primly. Merry Wives, v. 1. 9; mincing, Bible, Isa. iii. 16; minsen, pres. pl., Drayton, Pastorals, vii. 14. Also, to perform mincingly, to parade, King Lear, iv. 6. 122. F. mincer, to mince, to cut into small pieces (Cotgr.).

minchen, a nun. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 18, § 3. ‘Mincheon lane, so called of . . . the Minchuns, or nuns of St. Helen’s’, Stow, Survey of London (ed. Thoms, p. 50). OE. mynecenu, f. of munuc, a monk.

mind, to mean, intend. Mids. Night’s D. v. 113; 3 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 8, 64, 106, 140; Evelyn, Diary (May 21, 1645). In common prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Mind, vb. 7).

ming, to mingle, mix. Surrey, Description of Spring, 11; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 4. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Ming, vb.²). ME. mynge, to mix (Wyclif, Rev. xviii. 6); OE. mengan.

minge, to mention. Hall. Satires, IV. ii. 80 (Davies). In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Ming, vb.¹). ME. mynge (Pearl, 855); OE. myn(e)gian.

minikin, a playful or endearing term for a female. Glapthorne, Hollander, ii (NED.). A Shropshire word for a delicate affected girl, see EDD. (sv. Minikin, 3). Du. minneken (Hexham).

minikin, small, delicate; ‘One blast of thy minikin mouth’, King Lear, iii. 6. 45. Cp. the Somerset phr. ‘Her was a poor little minnikin thing’ (EDD.).

minikin string, the thin string of gut used for the treble of the lute or viol, Ascham, Tox. 28. Hence, phr. to tickle the minikin, to play on the treble string, Middleton, Family of Love, i. 3 (Gerardine); a minikin-tickler, a fiddler, Marston, What you Will, v. 1 (Albano).

minion, a darling, a favourite, esp. in a contemptuous sense, a mistress, a paramour. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 37; ‘A minion wyfe’, a neat, pretty wife, Roister Doister (ed. Arber, 86); the name of a small kind of ordnance, Whitelocke, Memorials (ed. 1853, i. 273); Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, iii. 3. 6. F. mignon, ‘a minion, favourite, wanton, darling; also, minion, dainty, neat’ (Cotgr.).

minth, the plant called mint. Peele, Arr. of Paris, i. 1 (Flora). Gk. μίνθα.

minx, a pert girl, hussy. Congreve, Love for L., ii. 1; a wanton woman, Dryden, Limberham, i. 1; ‘Magalda, a trull or minxe’, Florio; Mistress Minx, Marlowe, Dr. Faustus, ii. 2 (Faustus).

mirador, gallery to gaze from, balcony. Dryden, Conquest of Granada, I. i. 1 (Abdelmelech). Span. mirador, a balcony (Stevens). See Stanford.

miscreaunce, misbelief, false belief. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 51; Shep. Kal., May, 91. F. mescreance (Cotgr.).

misdeem, to judge amiss of, to think evil of. Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 49; iii. 10. 29; Milton, P. R. i. 424; to judge amiss, id., P. L. ix. 301.

misken, a ‘mixen’, a manure-heap. Fletcher, Nightwalker, iii. 1 (Toby). A west-midland pronunc. of mixen (EDD.).

miskin, a little bagpipe. Drayton, Pastorals, ii. 5. A dimin. (through Dutch?) of OF. muse, a bagpipe, cp. F. musette, a little bagpipe (Cotgr.).

misprise, to mistake; ‘Misprise me not’, B. Jonson, Case is Altered, iii. 3 (Maximilian). See mesprize.

mister: in phr. what mister wight, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 23; iii. 7. 14, i.e. a man of what ‘mister’ (occupation), or, a man of what class, what kind of a man. The idiom occurs as an archaism in Spenser, borrowed from Chaucer, ‘But telleth me what mister men ye been’ (C. T. A. 1710). So we find, what mister thing, what kind of thing, Beaumont and Fl., Little French Lawyer, ii. 3. 19; such myster saying, such a kind of saying, Shep. Kal., Sept., 103. Mister (or mester) is very common in ME. in the sense of office, employment, business. OF. mestier (F. métier); Med. L. misterium, for ministerium (Ducange).

mister, to be necessary or needful; ‘As for my name, it mistreth not to tell’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 7. 51. From mister, need, necessity, want; cp. Scottish proverb, ‘Mister maks man o’ craft’, Ray’s Proverbs (ed. Bohn, 250); Ferguson, Proverbs (ed. 1641, p. 24). See EDD. (s.v. Mister, vb. 1 and 3). ME. mistere, need (Cursor M. 3247); OF. (Norman) mestier, ‘besoin, nécessité’ (Moisy). The same word as mister, above.

mistery, occupation, profession. Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 221. ME. misterye (Chaucer, C. T. I. 890); Med. L. misterium, ‘officium’ (Ducange). See mister.

mistress, the small bowl, or jack, in the game of bowls. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, ii. 3 (Mis. Low.); cp. ‘His bias was towards my mistress’, Shirley, Witty Fair One, ii. 2 (Brains); cp. A Woman never vext, iv. 1 (Lambskin).

misured, ill-omened, fatal; ‘O foule mysuryd ground, Whereon he gat his finall dedely wounde’, Skelton, Dethe of Erle of Northumberland, 118. Cp. OF. meseur, ‘malheur’ (Godefroy); meseurus, ‘malheureux’ (Chron. des ducs de Normandie, in Didot). See eure.

mite, a small coin of very small value; used in negative phrases for a thing of little worth; ‘The price falleth not one mite’, More’s Utopia (ed. Arber, 42). Hence miting: ‘Nat worthe a mytyng’, not worth a mite, Skelton, Poems against Garnesche, iii. 115. ME. myte: ‘Noght worth a myte’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1558). See Dict.

mithridate, a compound regarded as an antidote against all poisons. Fletcher, Valentinian, v. 2 (Val.); Massinger, Maid of Honour, iv. 4 (Adorni). Named from Mithridates, king of Pontus, who was said to have been proof against poison owing to his constant use of antidotes. See Stanford.

miting, a diminutive creature; freq. used as a term of endearment or contempt, Skelton, El. Rummyng, 224. ME. mytyng (Towneley Myst. xii. 477).

mixt, to mix; ‘I myxte, or myngell’, Palsgrave; pres. pt., mixting, Elyot, Governour, bk. i, ch. 13, § 4. Hence mixt, a mixture; ‘A mixt of both’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. ii, ch. 9 (ed. Arber, 97). From the L. pp. mixtus.

mo, moe, orig. used as adv.; ‘Gent’lest fair, mourne, mourne no moe’ (mourn no more), Fletcher, Q. Corinth, iii. 2 (Song); the moe, the majority, the greater part, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, i. 15 (ed. Arber, 48); mo, more in number, ‘mo tymes’, Caxton, Reynard (ed. Arber, 7); ‘Infinite moe . . . He there beheld’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 63. ME. mo, adj., more in number, adv., any longer (Chaucer); OE. mā; Goth. mais, more (adv.). See Wright’s OE. Gram. § 252.

mobble, moble, to muffle up one’s head or face; also, with up; ‘Mobled queen’, Hamlet, ii. 2. 524; mobble up, Shirley, Gent. of Venice, v. 3 (Florelli). A Warw. and Shropsh. word, see EDD. (s.v. Moble).

mobile, mob; ‘The mobile’, Dryden, Pref. to Don Sebastian, § 2; id., i. 1 (near the end); iv. 2 (end). Common from ab. 1676 to 1700; shortened to mobb, c. 1688. It represents the L. mobile vulgus, the inconstant crowd. See Dict. (s.v. Mob), and Stanford.

mockado, a kind of cloth much used for clothing; ‘Who would not thinke it a ridiculous thing to see a Lady in her milke-house with a velvet gowne, and at a bridall in her cassock of mockado’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (ed. Arber, 290); Ford, Lady’s Trial, ii. 1 (Guzman); Lodge, Wit’s Miserie, 14. A quasi-Spanish form from F. moucade, ‘the stuffe moccadoe’ (Cotgr.). Of Arab. origin, see NED. (s.v. Mohair), and Thomas, Essais (s.v. Camoiard).

moder, modere, to moderate, restrain. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 6, back, 18; Sir T. More, Works, p. 882, col. 2. OF. moderer.

modern, ordinary, commonplace, common; in a depreciatory sense. As You Like It, ii. 7. 156; Macbeth, iv. 3. 170. The only Shakespearian sense; peculiarly Elizabethan.

moil, moyle, a ‘mule’. Ford, Fancies, ii. 2; More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 51); Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 1 (Welford). Common in Devon and Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. Moyle).

moil, moyle, a kind of slipper or shoe; ‘Moyles of velvet to save thy shooes of lether’, J. Heywood, Prov. and Epigr. (ed. 1867, 214); ‘Moiles, a kind of high-soled shoes, worn in ancient times by Kings and great Persons’, Phillips; spelt mule, ‘He had ane pair of mules on his feit’, Spalding, Troubles of Charles I (NED.). F. mules, ‘moyles, pantofles, high slippers’ (Cotgr.). Cp. Du. muylen, pantoffles (Hexham). Med. L. mula, ‘crepida’ (Ducange).

moil, moyle, to wet; to soil, make dirty. Turbervile, Hunting, 33; to defile, Spenser, Hymn Heavenly Love, 220; to toil, work hard, drudge, Bacon, Essay, Plantations; to weary, fatigue, harass, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, i (ed. Arber, 27). In common prov. use in many senses, to plaster with mud, to soil, defile, to work hard, to worry, see EDD. (s.v. Moil, vb.). F. mouiller (Cotgr.).

mome, a blockhead. Com. Errors, iii. 1. 32; Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 49; Levins, Manipulus; Drayton, Skeltoniad, p. 1373; Mirror for Mag. 466; Dekker, Gull’s Horne-bk. 5; Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, i. 2. 5. Dialect of Geneva mome, ‘sot, nigaud’; cp. F. (argot) mome, ‘garçon’ (Sainéan, p. 206).

†Momtanish (?); ‘And this your momtanish inhumanytye’, Sir T. More, ii. 4. 162. Dr. H. Bradley conjectures Moritanish (i.e. Moorish).

moniment, memorial, anything by which a thing may be remembered. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 38; ii. 10. 56; used of dints on a shield, F. Q. ii. 12. 80; of an inscription stamped on coin, F. Q. ii. 7. 5. L. monimentum, deriv. of monere, to remind.

Monmouth cap, a flat round cap formerly worn by soldiers and sailors, Hen. V, iv. 7. 104; Eastward Ho, iv. 1 (or 2) (Touchstone). Also, monmouth, Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, iii. 5 (last Song).

monomachy, single combat. Heywood, Golden Age, A. iii (Enceladus); vol. iii, p. 50. Gk. μονομαχία; deriv. of μονομάχος, fighting alone.

monster, a prodigy, wonder, divine omen. Phaer, Aeneid ii, 680 (L. mirabile monstrum); id., iii. 26.

montant (a fencing term), an upright blow or thrust. Merry Wives, ii. 3. 27; montanto, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 7 (Bobadil). F. montant (Cotgr.).

month: phr. to have a month’s mind, to have an inclination, a fancy, a liking. Lyly, Euphues (Arber, 464); ‘Tu es bien engrand de trotter, Thou hast a moneths mind to be gone’, Cotgrave; Pepys, Diary, May 20, 1660. In prov. use in many parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Month, sb.¹ 3 (b)).

monthly, madly; after the manner of a lunatic. Only in Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 2 (Moll).

moodeles, modeless, unmeasured, vast, huge; Mirror for Mag., Morindus, st. 17. Frequent in Greene (NED.). From mode, measure, size, manner, &c.

moon, a fit of frenzy; ‘I know ’twas but some peevish Moone in him’, C. Tourneur, Revenger’s Tragedy, ii (Duke).

mooncalf, a false conception, imperfect foetus; hence, monstrosity. Tempest, ii. 2. 111; Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, iv. 1 (Bussy); Drayton, The Mooncalf. Cp. G. mondkalb, ‘ungestalte Missgeburt’ (Weigand).

mooting-night, a night at the Inns of Court, when imaginary cases at law are discussed by the students. Cartwright, The Ordinary, iii. 5 (Song, verse 2). See Dict. (s.v. Moot).

mooting-time, the moulting season. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 120. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Mout). ME. mowtyn, as fowlys, ‘deplumeo’ (Prompt.); cp. Du. muyten, ‘to mue as hawkes doe’ (Hexham); Low G. muten (G. mausen), to moult (Berghaus); L. mutare.

mop, a grimace, Temp. iv. 1. 47; to make grimaces, King Lear, iv. 1. 64; ‘To moppe, maw, movere labia’, Levins, Manip.

moppe (see quot.); ‘I called her (the young lady) Moppe . . . Understanding by this word, a litle prety Lady, or tender young thing. For so we call litle fishes that be not come to full growth, as whiting moppes, gurnard moppes’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (ed. Arber, 229). Cp. ME. moppe, ‘pupa’ (Prompt. EETS. 292).

moppet, a term of endearment applied to a child or a young girl, Massinger, Guardian, iv. 2 (end); The Spectator, no. 277. See above.

more, the root of a tree or plant; a plant. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 10. A west-country word from Worc. to Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. More). ME. more, root (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 25). OE. more, moru, an edible root, a carrot, parsnip (B. T.), cp. G. möhre, a carrot.

morelle, a dark-coloured horse. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 15, l. 11; i. 24, l. 17. ME. morel, hors (Prompt. EETS. 293). Norm. F. morel, cheval morel, ‘cheval noir’ (Moisy). F. morel, moreau, cheval moreau, a black horse (Cotgr.).

morfound, a disease in horses, sheep, &c., due to taking a chill. Spelt morfounde, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 100. Palsgrave has: ‘I morfonde, as a horse dothe that waxeth styffe by taking of a sodayne colde.’ F. se morfondre, to take cold (Cotgr.).

Morglay, the name of the sword belonging to Sir Bevis, Drayton, Polyolbion, ii. 332; used allusively for a sword, Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, i. 1 (Longueville); Stanyhurst, Aeneid, ii (Arber, 60); Cleaveland’s Poems (Nares). We may perhaps compare claymore (glaymore), see NED.

Morian, of the Moorish race, pertaining to the Moors; a Moor; the Moryans land, Great Bible, 1539, Ps. lxviii. 31 (rendering of ‘Aethiopia’ in Vulgate); the Morians londe, Coverdale (1535), ib.; cp. Luther’s rendering, Mohrenland, land of the Moors. See Bible Word-Book. OF. Morien (NED.). See Murrian.

morigeration, deference, obsequiousness. Bacon, Adv. of Learning, i. 3. 10; Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. V, p. 29. L. morigeratio, compliance.

morisco, a morris-dance. Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, v. 2. 7. Also, a morris-dancer, 2 Hen. VI, iii. 1. 365. Properly, a Moorish dance; see Stanford. Span. morisco, a man descended from Moors or converted from them (Stevens). See morris-pike.

mornifle; ‘Mornyfle, a maner of play, mornifle’, Palsgrave. F. mornifle, a trick at cards (Cotgr.); ‘réunion de quatre cartes semblables’ (Hatzfeld). Mornifle also meant a cuff, a blow: ‘donner mornifle, c’est-à-dire un soufflet’ (Oudin, 1640); see Sainéan, L’Argot ancien, p. 206. See mournival.

morphew, a disease of the skin; ‘Morféa, the morphew in some womens faces’, Florio; ‘Morfewe, a sickenesse’, Palsgrave. Hence, morphewed, afflicted with the disease, Webster, Duchess of Malfi, ii. 1 (Bosola). ME. morfu, ‘morphea’ (Prompt.). Med. L. morfea, ‘cutis foedacio maculosa’ (Sin. Bart.).

morpion, a kind of louse. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 437. F. morpion, a crab-louse (Cotgr.); cp. Rabelais, II. xxvii; deriv. of mordre + pion, ‘ce pou ayant infesté surtout les anciens corps d’infanterie’ (Hatzfeld).

morris-pike, a form of pike supposed to be of Moorish origin, Com. Errors, iv. 3. 28; morispike, Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 67). See morisco.

mort (a hunting term). The note sounded on a horn at the death of the deer, Winter’s Tale, i. 2. 118; ‘He that bloweth the Mort before the fall of the Buck’, Greene, Card of Fancie (Nares).

mort (Cant), a girl or woman. B. Jonson, Gypsies Met. 65; a female vagabond, harlot, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen). Later, written mott (mot), London slang for a woman of the town, see NED.

mortar: in phr. to fly to Rome with a mortar on one’s head, app. a legendary achievement of some wizard; Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Soto); Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, v. 2 (Clown); Kemp, Nine Daies Wonder, Ep. Ded. (NED.). F. mortier, ‘a morter to bray things in’ (Cotgr.).

mortmal, mormal, an inflamed sore, esp. on the leg; ‘The old mortmal on his shin’, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 2 (Maudlin); ‘Mormall, a sore, loup’, Palsgrave. ME. mormale, ‘malum mortuum’ (Prompt.). OF. mortmal; cp. Med. L. malum mortuum, ‘morbi genus pedum et tibiarum’ (Ducange). See marmoll.

mort-pays, the taking of the King’s pay by a captain in service for men who were dead or discharged; ‘The severe punishing of mort-pays’, Bacon, Hist. Henry VII (ed. Lumby, 93). See dead pay.

most an end, generally, usually; continually. Massinger, A Very Woman, iii. 1 (Merchant). Honest (addressing Greatheart): ‘Knew him! I was a great companion of his; I was with him most an end’; Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, Pt. II. In common prov. use from Yorks. to E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Most, 7, 2a).

mot, motte, a word, saying, motto, proverb. Rape of Lucrece, 830; ‘To gull him with a motte’, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 2 (E. Knowell). F. mot, a word.

mote, a note of a horn or bugle. Morte Arthur, leaf 112. 20 (bk. vii, ch. 8); ‘Mote, blaste of a horne’, Palsgrave; mot, Chevy Chace, 16; mott, Turbervile, Hunting, 86. ME. moote of an horne, blowyng (Prompt. EETS. 294, see note, no. 1431). F. mot, ‘the note winded by an huntsman on his horn’ (Cotgr.).

mote, a pleading in a law-court. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 14, § 7. OE. mōtian, to address a meeting, to discuss, ‘moot a question’ (B. T.). See Dict. (s.v. Moot).

mote, may, must; ‘I mote dye’, Morte Arthur, leaf 34. 9; bk. i, c. 20; ‘Now mote ye understand’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 46. ME. mot, moot, pres. (I or he) may, must; moten, mote, pl.; moste, pt. t. OE. mōt, (I, he) may; mōst, 2 sing.; mōton, pl.; mōste, pt. t.

mother, the, hysteria. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, ii. 1 (Bellafront); King Lear, ii. 4. 56.

mothering, the custom of visiting one’s mother, and giving and receiving of presents of food, &c., on Mid-Lent Sunday; ‘Thou go’st a-mothering’, Herrick, To Dianeme, A Ceremonie in Gloucester. See EDD. (s.v. Mothering) for accounts of the customs connected with ‘Mothering Sunday’ (Mid-Lent Sunday) in various parts of England from Yorks. to Devon.

moting, mooting; i.e. discussion, debate. Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 1075. ME. motyng, or pletynge, ‘placitatio’ (Prompt. EETS. 294). See mote (a pleading).

motion, a puppet-show. Winter’s Tale, iv. 3. 103; a puppet, Two Gent. ii. 1. 100; B. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, v. 3. 3.

mott, measured; pt. t. of mete (q.v.). Spenser, Colin Clout, 365. See NED. (s.v. Mete, vb.¹).

mouch, to act by stealth; to idle and loaf about, Webster, Sir T. Wyatt (Clown), ed. Dyce, p. 193. See Mooch in NED. and EDD. The word is in gen. prov. use in the British Isles and in Australia.

mought, a moth; ‘Mought that eates clothes, ver de drap’, Palsgrave. Hence moughte-eaten, ‘Olde and moughte-eaten lawes’, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 53). ME. mouȝte (Wyclif, Matt. vi. 19); moghte, ‘tinea’ (Cath. Angl.); OE. mohða.

mought, pt. t. might. Bacon, Essays (very common, see Abbott’s ed., Index); Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 42. ME. maht, 2 pr. s.; mahte, pt. t. of mæi, (I, he) may; OE. meaht, 2 pr. s.; meahte, pt. t. of mæg, (I, he) may, can.

mould, a ‘mole’, a spot on the skin, birthmark. Gascoigne, Supposes, v. 5 (Cleander); mold, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 7. See Dict. (s.v. Mould, 3).

mouldwarp, the mole, ‘talpa’; moldwarp, 1 Hen. IV, iii. 1. 148; Spenser, Colin Clout, 763. In gen. prov. use in the north country, Midlands, and Suffolk, see EDD. (s.v. Mouldywarp). ME. moldewarpe, ‘talpa’ (Cath. Angl.); cp. Dan. muldvarp, Norw. dial. moldvarp (Aasen), G. maulwurf.

mount cent, mount saint, a game at cards resembling piquet; probably the same as cent (q.v.), Machin, Dumb Knight, iv (Queen). Prob. from mount, i.e. amount, and cent, one hundred. See NED.

mountenance, amount of space, distance. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 8. 18; iii. 11. 20; v. 6. 36. ME. mowntenawnce (Prompt.); montenance, amount (Cursor M. 29166).

mournival, a set of four aces, kings, queens, or knaves in one hand. Cotton Gamester, 68; hence, a set of four (things or persons), B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (Mirth); murnival, Greene’s Tu Quoque, in Ancient Eng. Drama, ii. 551. See mornifle.

mouse, a term of endearment. Hamlet, iii. 4. 183; Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1 (Openwork).

mouse-hunt, a woman hunter. Romeo iv. 4. 11. This is prob. a fig. use of mouse-hunt, a weasel, ‘The Ferrets and Moushunts of an Index’, Milton (Wks., ed. 1851, iii. 81); spelt musehont, Caxton, Reynard (ed. Arber, 79). ‘Mouse-hunt’ (‘Mouse-hound’) is in prov. use in E. Anglia for the smallest animal of the weasel tribe. See EDD. (s.v. Mouse, 1, (7) and (8)). M. Du. muyshont, or muushont, a weasel, lit. ‘a mouse-hound’.

mowe, to be able; ‘They shalle not mowe helpe, they shall not be able to help’, Morte Arthur, leaf 61, back, 26; bk. iv, c. 3. ME. mow(e)n, ‘posse’ (Prompt. EETS. 302); see Chaucer (Tr. and Cr. ii. 1594). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Mæi).

mowe, to make grimaces; ‘I mow with the mouth, I mock one, Je fays la moue’, Palsgrave; ‘Apes that moe and chatter’, Tempest, ii. 2. 9; mowing, making grimaces, Ascham, Scholemaster (ed. Arber, 54).

mowes, grimaces, ‘Making mowes at me’, Bible (1539), Ps. xxxv. 15; Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 49; Cymbeline, i. 6. 41. ME. mow, or scorne, ‘valgia’ (Prompt. EETS. 294). F. moue, a moe, ‘an ill-favoured extension or thrusting out of the lips’ (Cotgr.).

mowles, broken chilblains in the heels. Dunbar, Poems (ed. Small, ii. 128). See EDD. (s.v. Mool), and Jamieson (s.v. Mules). ME. mowle, ‘pernio’ (Cath. Angl.); mowle, sore, ‘pustula, pernio’ (Prompt. EETS. 295, see note, no. 1439). F. mule, ‘a kibe; aller sur mule: Il va sur mule aussi bien que le Pape (an equivocation, applicable to one that hath kibed heels)’; see Cotgrave. Cp. Du. muyle, a kibe (Hexham).

moy, an imaginary name of coin, evolved by Pistol out of his prisoner’s speech; ‘Ayez pitié de moi! Moy shall not serve; I will have forty moys’, &c., Hen. V, iv. 4. 14.

moyle, a variety of apple; ‘Of Moyle, or Mum, or Treacle’s viscous juice’, J. Philips, Cider, bk. i. (Perhaps the word means a hybrid; cp. moyle, a mule.) See genet-moyl.

muccinigo, a small coin formerly current in Venice, worth about 9d. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1; iv. 1; Shirley, Gent. Venice, i. 1 (Cornari). Ital. ‘mocenigo, a coyn in Venice; also the name of a considerable family there’ (Florio). The coin was named from Tommaso Mocenigo, doge of Venice, 1413-23. See NED. (s.v. Moccenigo).

much!, a contemptuous exclamation of denial. Much = much of that!, ironically; i.e. far from it, by no means. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 143; Marston, Malcontent, ii. 2 (Celso), Much wench! i.e. no wench at all, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum., iv. 6 (Brain-worm).

muck; in Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 1188. To run amuck, to run about in a frenzy, is a phrase due to the Malay āmuq, ‘rushing in a state of frenzy to the commission of indiscriminate murder’ (Marsden). Dryden took the a in amuck to be the E. indef. article; and reproduced the phrase in the curious form—runs an Indian muck. See Stanford (s.v. Amuck).

muckinder, a handkerchief. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii. 1 (Turfe); Fletcher, Captain, iii. 5 (Fabricio); ‘Mockendar for chyldre, mouchouer’, Palsgrave. In prov. use in many parts of England from the north country to Kent and Dorset in various forms; muckinder, muckender, muckinger, muckenger (EDD.). ME. mokedore, ‘sudarium’ (Voc. 614. 25), O. Prov. mocadour (mod. moucadour), a handkerchief, Span. mocador, F. mouchoir; deriv. of moucher, ‘débarrasser des mucosités que sécrète la muqueuse nasale’ (Hatzfeld).

muffler, (1) a wrapper worn by women and covering the face; (2) a cloth for blindfolding a person. Merry Wives, iv. 2. 73; Fletcher, Night-walker, ii. 2 (near the end); 2 Hen. V, iii. 6. 32.

mugwet, the intestines of an animal; ‘The gatherbagge or Mugwet of a yong harte’, Turbervile, Hunting, 39. ‘Mugget’ is in prov. use in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall for sheep or calf’s intestines; see EDD. See NED. (s.v. Mugget).

mule: phr. to ride upon a mule, to be a great lawyer. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, ii. 1 (Carlo); to shoe one’s mule, to help oneself out of the funds trusted to one’s management, History of Francion (Nares).

mullar, a ‘muller’, a stone with a flat base, held in the hand and used, in conjunction with a grinding-stone or slab, in grinding painters’ colours. Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, p. 136. F. moulleur, a grinder (Cotgr.); deriv. of OF. moldre, L. molere, to grind.

mullet, the rowel of a spur; a mullet, in heraldry. Shirley, Love in a Maze, i. 1 (Simple). F. molette d’esperon, the rowel of a spur (Cotgr.).

mullets, pincers or tweezers. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Amorphus). F. mollette, ‘a mullet, a nipper, a pincer’ (Cotgr.).

mullipuff, mollipuff, the puff-ball, or fuzz-ball. Shirley, St. Patrick, v. 1 (2 Soldier). See NED. (s.v. Mullipuff), and EDD. (s.v. Mully-puff). ‘Mully’ in Norfolk is used for mouldy, powdery, see EDD. (s.v. Mull, sb.¹ 1). Norw. dial. moll, mould (Aasen), Swed. mull (Widegren).

mumbudget, a word used to insist upon silence; ‘I cry . . . mum; she cries budget’, Merry Wives, v. 2. 6; ‘Quoth she, Mum budget’, Butler, Hud. i. 3. 208; ‘Mumbudget, not a word!’, Look about You, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 420.

mumchance, the name of a game, both at dice and at cards. Westward Ho, ii. 2 (with allusion to bones, i.e. dice); B. Jonson, Alchemist, v. 2 (Subtle); Barth. Fair, iv. 1 (Cokes). Played in silence; whence the name.

mumchance, one who has nothing to say, a ‘dummy’. Plautus made English (Nares). In prov. use in many parts of England, esp. in the west country, for a stupid, silent, stolid person.

mummia, mummy, a preparation used in medicine, chiefly from the substance with which Egyptian mummies were preserved. Webster, White Devil (beginning, Gasparo), ed. Dyce, p. 5; id. (Isabella), p. 15; Beaumont and Fl., iii. 1 (Galoshio). See Dict. (s.v. Mummy), and Stanford (s.v. Mummia).

mump, to overreach, to cheat; ‘Mump your proud players’, Buckingham, The Rehearsal, ii. 2 (Bayes); ‘Mump’d of his snip’ (i.e. cheated of his portion), Wycherley, Love in a Wood, i. 2 (Ranger); Gent. Dancing-master, iv. 1 (Mrs. Caution). In prov. use in the west country, see EDD. (s.v. Mump, vb.¹ 10). Du. mompen, ‘to mump, cheat’ (Sewel).

mump, to make grimaces, to screw up the mouth. Otway, Venice Preserved, ii. 1 (Pierre); D’Urfey, Pills, vi. 198; a grimace, ‘Monnoye de singe, moes, mumps’, Cotgrave. ‘To mump’ is used in Northamptonsh. in the sense of drawing in the lips, screwing up the mouth with a smile: ‘She mumps up her mouth, she knows something’, see EDD. (s.v. Mump, vb.¹ 4).

mumpsimus. [In allusion to the story of an illiterate English priest, who when corrected for reading ‘quod in ore mumpsimus’ in the Mass, replied ‘I will not change my old mumpsimus for your new sumpsimus’ (NED.).] One who obstinately adheres to old ways in spite of the clearest evidence that they are wrong, an old fogey, Underhill in Narr. Reform. (Camden Soc., 141); Gascoigne, Supposes, i. 3 (Dulipo). See Nares.

mundungo, bad-smelling tobacco; ‘A mundungo monopolist’, Lady Alimony, ii. 2 (1 Boy); snuff-mundungus, Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 1006. A jocular use of Span. mondongo, ‘hogs puddings’ (Stevens).

munify, to fortify. Drayton, Barons’ Wars, ii. 34; hence, munificence, defence, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 15 (ed. 1596).

munite, to fortify. Florio, tr. Montaigne, bk. i, c. 47; Bacon, Essay 3 (ed. Abbott, p. 10).

munpins, mouth-pegs, the teeth; a ludicrous form. Munpynnys, Skelton, The Douty Duke of Albany, 292. ‘Mun’ for mouth is in prov. use in the north, and in slang use generally, see EDD. (s.v. Mun, sb.¹ 1). Norw. dial. munn, the mouth (Aasen).

muraill, a wall; walls of a city. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 201, back, 14. F. muraille.

murderer, murdering-piece, a cannon or mortar, discharging stones or grape-shot. Hamlet, iv. 5. 95; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 3 (Jaques); Double Marriage, iv. 2. 6.

mure, a wall. 2 Hen. IV, iv. 4. 119; Heywood, If you know not Me (Queen), vol. i, p. 338; to shut up, 2 Hen. IV, iv. 4. 119; mured up, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 34. L. murus, a wall.

murleon, a merlin, a small hawk; ‘A cast [couple] of murleons’, Damon and Pithias, Ancient Brit. Drama, i. 88, col. 2. ME. merlioun, Chaucer (Parl. Foules, 339). F. esmerillon (Cotgr.).

murr, a violent catarrh, a severe cold in the head. Chapman, Mons. d’Olive, ii. 1 (Philip); murres, pl., Sir T. Elyot, Castel of Helthe, fol. 3, back; ‘Murre, gravedo’, Levins, Manipulus. See Nares.

murrion, a ‘morion’, a steel cap. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4 (Captain). Also jocularly, a nightcap; spelt murrain, id., Scornful Lady, iv. 1 (Abigail). Span. morrion (Stevens). See Stanford (s.v. Morrion), and Dict. (s.v. Morion).

muscadine, a kind of wine with a musk-like perfume. Massinger, City Madam, ii. 1. 12. See Dict. (s.v. Muscadel).

Muscovy glass, a kind of talc. B. Jonson, Prol. to Devil is an Ass, 17; Marston (Malcontent), i. 3 (Passarello).

muse, to wonder, marvel. Coriolanus, iii. 2. 7; Macbeth, iii. 4. 85; hence, muses, musings, thoughts, cogitations, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 94); Englishman for my Money, iii. 2 (Harvey); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 509. OF. muser, ‘regarder comme un sot’ (Bartsch), cp. Ital. musare, ‘to muse, to gape, to hould ones muzle or snout in the aire’ (Florio); Prov. muzar, ‘regarder bouche béante’; mus, ‘figure, visage’ (Levy).

muse, a gap in a thicket or fence through which a hare or other beast of sport is wont to pass; ‘Take a hare without a muse, and a knave without an excuse’, Howell, Eng. Prov. 12; ‘The wild muse of a bore’ (boar), Chapman, tr. Iliad, xi. 368; Heywood, Witches of Lancs. i. 1 (Bantam). The word is in prov. use in many parts of England from the north country to Sussex, written muse, meuse, moose, muce, see EDD. (s.v. Meuse). F. dial. (Bas-Maine) mus, ‘muce, passage étroit à travers des broussailles pour les lièvres, les lapins, &c.’ (Dottin); see Littré (s.v. Musse). See meaze.

muske-million, the musk-melon. Drayton, Pol. xx. 54; Tusser, Husbandry, § 40. 8.

musquet, a hawk of a very small size. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 119; ‘Musket, a lytell hauke, mouchet’, Palsgrave. Ital. mosquetto, ‘a musket-hawke’ (Florio).

muss, a scramble among boys, for trivial objects. Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 91; B. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, iv. 1 (Cokes). ‘Muss’ means a confusion, scramble, in Warwickshire, see EDD. (s.v. Muss, sb.¹ 1 and 2).

mutchado, a moustache; ‘On his upper lippe A mutchado’, Arden of Fev. ii. 1. 56; mutchato, Higgins, Induction to Mirror for Mag. (Nares); muschatoes, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 4 (Ithamore). For numerous spellings of the word ‘moustache’ see NED. See mouchatoes.

mutton, a strumpet. Middleton, Roaring Girl, iii. 2 (Mis. O.); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 8 (Bots). See laced mutton.

myrobalane, a kind of dried Indian plum. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 1 (Subtle). F. myrobalan, L. myrobalanum, Gk. μυροβάλανος, probably the ben-nut; μύpov, unguent, and βάλανος, acorn.

nab, the head. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); Harman, Caveat, p. 82; Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); nabb, a hat, Shadwell, Squire Alsatia, ii. 1. Swed. dial, nabb, the head (Rietz).

nab-cheat, a hat or cap. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1; Harman, Caveat, p. 82. See cheat (Thieves’ Cant).

nache, the rump; ‘The nache by the tayle’, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 57. 3. A west Yorks. word, see EDD. (s.v. Aitch-bone). OF. nache, a buttock (Godefroy); Ital. natica. See Dict. (s.v. Aitch-bone).

næve, a spot, blemish; ‘Spots, like næves’, Dryden, Death of Lord Hastings, 55. L. naevus, a mole, or mark on the body.

nake, to bare, unsheathe a sword; ‘Nake your swords’, Tourneur, Revenger’s Tragedy, v. 1 (Lussurioso). ME. naken, to make naked (Chaucer, Boethius, bk. iv, met. 7).

naked, unarmed. Othello, v. 2. 258. Phr. naked bed, in reference to the once common custom of sleeping undressed, no night-linen being worn; ‘In her naked bed’, Venus and Ad. 397. See Nares; and EDD. (s.v. Naked, 1 (1)).

nale, at, for atten ale, at the ale-house. Hickscorner, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 166. Cp. Glouc. phrase, ‘He’s gone to nale’ (EDD.). ME. atte nale, at the ale-house (P. Plowman, C. viii. 19).

nall, an ‘awl’. Tusser, Husbandry, § 17. 4; ‘A naule, idem quod aule’, Levins, Manip.; ‘Nall for a souter, alesne’, Palsgrave. ‘Nawl’ is in common prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

namecouth, known by name, famous. Spelt naamkouth, Grimalde, Concerning Virgil, 14; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 102.

nape, to strike upon the nape or back of the head just above the neck. ‘Naped in the head’, Latimer, 3 Sermon (ed. Arber, 76); ‘I nawpe one in the necke’, Palsgrave.

Napier’s bones, ivory rods marked with numbers, for facilitating calculation; invented by Lord Napier of Merchiston (d. 1617). Butler, Hud. ii. 3. 1095; iii. 2. 409.

nappy, having a head, foaming; heady, strong. Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. iii. 16; Gay, Shepherd’s Week, ii. 56. In common prov. use (EDD.).

nares, nostrils. Butler, Hud. i. 1. 742; ‘Nares (of a hawk)’, Book of St. Albans, fol. a 5; L. nares, pl. nostrils.

narre, nearer. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 97; Ruines of Rome, xvi. 3. Icel. nærre, nearer (adj.); nærr (adv.).

nase, nose. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., ii. 1 (Lorel). ME. nase, nose (Wars Alex. 4519).

natch, a ‘notch’; ‘Cut all the natches of his tales’ (i.e. cut, in order to destroy, all the notches off his accounts or tallies), Arden of Fev. v. 1. 24; ‘A natche, incisura; to natch, incidere’, Levins, Manip. In prov. use in various parts of the British Isles (EDD.).

nathe, ‘nave’ of a wheel. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 5. 9. In common prov. use in the north and the Midlands (EDD.).

nathemore, never the more. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 25; iv. 8. 14. For the earlier nathemo. See NED.

native, in astrology; the subject of a horoscope, the person whose nativity is being cast. Massinger, City Madam, ii. 2 (Stargaze); Butler, Hud. i. 1. 608.

nay: phr. say nay, and take it, refuse, but accept; a proverbial expression as to a maid’s part. Richard III, iii. 7. 50; Peele, Sir Clyomon, p. 494, col. 1.

ne, nor. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 25; All’s Well, ii. 1. 176. ME. ne, nor (Chaucer, C. T. A. 179). OE. ne.

neafe, a clenched hand, a fist. Mids. Night’s D. iv. 1. 15; neuf, B. Jonson, Poetaster, iii. 1 (Tucca); Ford, Witch of Edmonton, iii. 1 (Cuddy). In common prov. use in various parts of the British Isles, see EDD. (s.v. Neive). ME. neefe, a fist (Barbour’s Bruce, xvi. 129); also in forms nave, new, in pl. nevis, newys, newffys (id., see Glossary). Icel. hnefi.

neat-house. The Neat House (lit. house for cattle) was a celebrated market-garden, near Chelsea Bridge (Gifford); Massinger, City Madam, iii. 1. 14.

neck, in chess; a move to cover check. Surrey, To the Lady that scorned her Lover, 3, in Tottel’s Misc. (ed. Arber, 21). See NED.

neck-verse, the Latin verse read by a malefactor, to entitle him to benefit of clergy, so as to save his neck; usually Psalm li. 1, Miserere mei, &c. Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 4 (Pilia); Fletcher, Mad Lover, v. 3 (Chilax).

needle, to penetrate like a needle; to make their way into; ‘Mice made holes to needle in their buttocks’ (of fat hogs), Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3 (B. Knight).

needly, of necessity, necessarily. Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 517, col. 2; id., Tale of Troy, p. 552. A Yorks. word (EDD.).

neeld, a ‘needle’. Fairfax, tr. of Tasso, xx. 95; Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 715; Mids. Night’s D. iii. 2. 204. A common prov. form, see EDD. (s.v. Needle).

neele, a ‘needle’. Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 3 (Tyb). The word spelt without the d is common in prov. E. in many spellings, as neele, neel, neal, nill, nail (EDD.).

neesing, a sneezing, a sneeze. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xvii. 732; Bible, Job xli. 18. ‘Neese’ is in prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Neeze). ME. nesen (Prompt.). Du. niesen, to sneeze (Hexham). See Dict. (s.v. Neese).

neif, one born on a feudal manor in a state of serfdom; ‘It signifieth in our common law a bondwoman, the reason is, because women become bound rather nativitate than by any other means’, Cowell. Spelt nyefe, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 342. Anglo-F. neif, ‘serf de naissance ou d’origine’ (Didot); Med. L. nativus (Ducange).

neis, to scent, smell; ‘The hart . . . nere fra’ hence sall neis her i’ the wind’, B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maud.). See NED. (s.v. Nese).

nephew, a grandson. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 22; ii. 10. 45; ‘Grandsires and nephews’, B. Jonson, Catiline, iii. 3 (Curius); spelt nevew; Phaer, Aeneid ii, 702 (= L. nepotem). See Trench, Select Glossary. ME. nevewe, a grandson (Chaucer, Hous Fame, ii. 109). OF. neveu. O. Prov. nep, nebot. L. nepotem, nephew, grandson.

nere, nearer; ‘The nere to the churche, the ferther from God’, Heywood, Prov. (ed. 1867, 17). ME. ‘þe nere þe cherche, þe fyrþer fro God’, R. Brunne, Handlyng Synne. OE. nēar, compar. of nēah, nigh.

nesh, soft, tender, delicate; ‘Like a nesh nag’, Beaumont and Fl., Bonduca, iv. 1 (Petillius); ‘Tendre, tender, nice, nesh, delicate’, Cotgrave. In gen. prov. use in Scotland and England (EDD.). ME. nesche, ‘mollis’ (Cath. Angl.). OE. hnesce, soft (B. T.).

nest of goblets, a set of them, of different sizes, fitting one inside another. Northward Ho, iii. 2 (Bellamont); neast of goblets, Marston, Dutch Courtezan, i. 1. 7. So also a nest of boxes; Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 12.

net, nett, clear, clean, bare. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 20; vi. 8. 45. F. net, neat, clean, clear; bare, empty.

neuft, a newt, evet, or eft. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 1 (Tucca); cp. newt in Bartholomew Fair, Act ii, where Knockem says, ‘What! thou’lt poison me with a newt’, &c.; where ed. 1614 has neuft (NED.).

Never a barrel the better herring, proverbial saying, meaning never one better than another, nothing to choose between them, referring to the notion that you will not find a better herring by searching in a new barrel. Gascoigne, Supposes, iv. 6 (Litio); Martiniere’s Voyage, 127 (NED. (s.v. Herring)); [Fielding, T. Jones, x. v.]. Also, In neither barrel better herring, Heywood’s Proverbs (ed. Farmer, p. 102); Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 11; ‘The Devil a barrel the better herring’, Bailey’s Colleq., Erasmus, 373; cp. Gosson, School of Abuse, 32: ‘Of both barrelles [i.e. as containing poets on the one side and cooks and painters on the other] I judge Cookes and Painters the better herring.’ See Davies (s.v. Herring).

new-eared, newly ploughed. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xviii. 492. See ear (to plough).

newel, a novelty, rarity. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 276. Explained as ‘a newe thing’. Formed from new, with the suffix of novel.

new-fangle, fond of new things; ‘The peple were soo newfangle’, Morte Arthur, leaf 421; bk. xxi, c. 1 (end). See Dict. (s.v. Newfangled).

new-year’s-gift, a present to a great man on new-year’s day, usually given in hope of a reward or by way of bribe. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1 (Julio); Ascham, Scholemaster, p. 21.

niaise, a young hawk taken out of the nest, applied allusively to a simple, witless person. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 3 (Fitz.); ‘Niard, a nias faulcon’, Cotgrave. ‘Nias’ is a north Yorks. word for a young hawk (EDD.). OF. niais, ‘qui n’est pas encore sorti du nid, qu’on a pris au nid’ (La Curne). See eyas.

nice; in various senses. It means fine, elegant, Much Ado, v. 1. 75; tender, delicate, Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 180; precise, Macbeth, iv. 3. 174; scrupulous, Merch. Ven. ii. 1. 14; subtle, L. L. L. v. 2. 232; coy, prudish, L. L. L. iii. 1. 24; squeamish, Tam. Shrew, iii. 1. 80; trifling, Romeo, iii. 1. 159. To make it nice, to seem reluctant, North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antonius, § 14 (in Shak. Plut., p. 177).

niceness, coyness, scrupulousness. Cymb. iii. 4. 158; Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, i. 1 (Colonel).

nick, to cut in nicks or notches, Com. of Errors, v. 175; to clip, curtail, Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 8. In the nick, at the right moment, Othello, v. 2. 317; out of all nick, beyond all reckoning, excessively, Two Gent. iv. 2. 76. See EDD. (s.v. Nick, sb.⁴ 1). Hence, nick, to hit off, to find out with precision; ‘You’ve nicked the channel’ (i.e. the right course), Congreve, Love for Love, iii. 4 (Ben); nicked, luckily saved, Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 1304. See EDD. (s.v. Nick, vb.² 2).

nidget, nideot, an ‘idiot’, simpleton. Spelt nigget, Middleton, The Changeling, iii. 3 (Lollio). In prov. use (EDD.).

niece, a grand-daughter, Richard III, iv. 1. 1; a relative, cousin (vaguely used). Greene, Alphonsus, ii, prol. 12; id., iii (Fausta, l. 939). Down to the beginning of the 17th cent. the sense of grand-daughter appears to have been common; see Trench, Select Glossary.

nifles, trifles, things of little or no value; trifling tales; ‘The fables and the nyfyls’, Heywood, A Mery Play, 434 (NED). ME. nyfles: ‘He served hem with nyfles and with fablis’ (Chaucer, C. T. D. 1760). OF. nifles (Godefroy). See EDD. (s.v. Nifle).

niggers, niggers-noggers, meaningless forms, used as minced oaths. Rowley, A Match at Midnight, i. 1 (Tim.); also sniggers, id.

niggish, niggardly, miserly; ‘Niggish slovenrie’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 11; ‘Nigeshe penny fathers’, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 102). See Nares.

niggle, to do anything in a trifling, fiddling, ineffective way; ‘Take heed, daughter, you niggle not with your conscience’, Massinger, Emperor of the East, v. 3 (Theodosius). In prov. use with numerous variations of sense, see EDD. Norw. dial. nigla (Aasen).

night-cap, a nocturnal bully, a notorious roisterer. Webster, Duch. of Malfi, ii. 1; Devil’s Law-case, ii, 1. See Roaring Boys.

night-rail, a night-dress. Middleton, Mayor of Queenboro’, iii. 2 (1 Lady); Massinger, City Madam, iii. 2 (end); iv. 4 (Luke). In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Night, 1 (29)). OE. hrægl, dress. See Nares (s.v. Night-rail), and Dict. (s.v. Rail, 4).

nil(l, to be unwilling, often denoting simple futurity; ‘I nill live in sorrowe’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 151; ‘I nill relate’, Pericles, iii, prel. 55; will he nill he, Hamlet, v. 1. 18; to will and nill, B. Jonson, Epigrams, xlii. 16; nild, pt. t. would not, ‘Unto the founts Diana nild repair’, Greene, Radagon’s Sonnet, 17 (ed. Dyce, p. 301). ‘Nill ye, will ye’, whether you wish or not, is in use in Scotland; ‘Nildy wildy’, whether one would or not, is heard is E. Anglia (EDD.). ME. nil, pr. s.; nolde, pt. t. (Chaucer).

nim, to steal. Puritan Widow, i. 4. 167; Butler, Hud. i. 1. 598; hence, nimmer, a thief, id., ii. 3. 1094; Tomkis, Albumazar, iii. 7 (end); nimming, stealing, Massinger, Guardian, v. 2 (Durazzo). ‘Nim’ and ‘Nimmer’ are in prov. use (EDD.). ME. nimen, to take, to seize (P. Plowman), see Dict. M. and S.; OE. niman, to take; cp. G. nehmen.

nine-holes, a game in which the players endeavoured to roll small balls into nine holes in the ground, all separately numbered. Drayton, Pol. xiv. 22; Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal vi (Melanthus). See EDD. (s.v. Nine, 1 (9)), and NED. (s.v. Nine-holes).

nine men’s morris, a rural game, called also Merrils, described in Brand’s Pop. Antiq. (ed. 1877, p. 542), Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 98. Called ‘Morris’ by popular etymology, as if with reference to the movement (or dance) of the men (or pieces). But the right name was ‘Merelles’ (i.e. counters or pieces used in the game). Cp. Cotgrave: ‘Merelles, Le jeu des merelles, The boyish game called Merils or five-penny Morris, played here most commonly with stones, but in France with pawns or men made of purpose, and termed Merelles.’ See Ducange (s.v. Merallus), EDD. (s.v. Nine, 1 (12)), and Nares (s.v.).

ningle, ‘ingle’; mine ingle became my ningle, my favourite. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iv. 3 (Roderigo); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, iii. 1 (Fustigo). See ingle.

nip, a taunt, sarcasm, reproof. Puttenham, E. Poesie, bk. i, c. 27 (ed. Arber, p. 68). ‘Nip’ in prov. use means a pinch or squeeze; a bite or sting, see EDD. (s.v. Nip, sb.¹ 15, 16).

nip a bung, to steal a purse (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor); ‘A pickpocket, as good as ever nipped the judge’s bung while he was condemning him’, The London Chanticleers, scene 1 (Heath); Cleveland (Nares); nip, a cutpurse, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll). Hence nipper, ‘A nypper is termed a pickpurse or a cutpurse’, Fletewood (in Aydelotte, p. 95).

nip a jan, to steal a purse (Cant). B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman). See Jan in NED.

nipitato, strong liquor; ‘A drink In England found, and Nipitato call’d, Which driveth all the sorrow from your hearts’, Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iv. 2 (Pompiona). Hence, nippitate, strong (said of wine), Chapman, Alphonsus, iii. 1 (Collen). See Nares.

nis, is not. Spenser, Shep. Kal., June, 19. ME. nis (Chaucer). OE. nis, for ne is, is not.

niste, nist, knew not. Spelt nyst, Morte Arthur, leaf 339. 4; bk. xvi, c. 9. ME. niste (Chaucer, C. T. F. 502). OE. nyste, for ne wyste; wiste, pt. t. of witan, to know.

nithing, a vile coward; a term of severe reproach. Nithing, Blount’s Gloss.; spelt niding, Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. xviii (end); p. 79. Icel. nīðingr, legally the strongest term of abuse for a traitor, coward, or the like (Vigfusson).

no, used ironically; ‘No rich idolatry’ (i.e. great idolatry), Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, iv. 3 (Learchus); ‘No villainy’ (i.e. great villainy), Mad Lover, iii. 6 (Chilax).

noblesse, noble birth or condition. Kyd, Cornelia, ii. 297; the nobility, persons of noble rank, ‘There is in every state . . . two portions of subjects; the Noblesse and the Commonaltie’, Bacon, Essay 15, § 13; Richard II, iv. 1. 119 (1st quarto only). ME. noblesse, nobleness, noble rank (Chaucer). F. noblesse, ‘nobility, gentry; gentlemanliness’ (Cotgr.).

nobley, great display, splendour. Morte Arthur, leaf 158, back, 8; bk. viii, c. 29; lf. 211, back, 32; bk. 10, c. 6. ME. nobley, nobility, dignity, splendour, noble rank; assembly of nobles (Chaucer). OF. noblei(e, nobility of rank or estate; Anglo-F. noblei, nobleness (Rough List).

nocent, harmful. Milton, P. L. ix. 186; guilty, Greene, James IV, v. 6 (Sir Cuthbert). L. nocens, hurtful, culpable.

nock, a notch at the end of a bow, or in the head of an arrow; ‘The nocke of the shafte’, Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 127). Also, the cleft of the buttocks, Butler, Hud. i. 1. 285. Du. nock, ‘a notch in the head of an arrowe’ (Hexham). See Nares.

nock, (perhaps) a notch. The phr. much in my nock seems to mean ‘much in my line’, ‘very suitable for me’, Triumphs of Love and Fortune (last speech but one of Lentulo), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 242. So also beyond the nock, above or beyond measure, ‘He commendeth hym by yonde the nocke, Il le prise oultre bort, or oultre mesure’, Palsgrave.

noddy, a card-game. Heywood, Woman killed with Kindness (Wendell); B. Jonson, Love Restored (Plutus); Westward Ho, iv. 1 (Birdlime); Northward Ho, ii. 1 (Liverpool). See Nares.

nog, a kind of strong beer, brewed in East Anglia, esp. in Norfolk; ‘Walpole laid a quart of nog on’t’, Swift, Upon the Horrid Plot, &c., 31; ‘Here’s a Norfolk nog’, Vanbrugh, A Journey to London, i. 1 (John Moody). See EDD. (s.v. Nog(g)).

noise, a company of musicians, a band. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 13; Beaumont and Fl., Wit at several Weapons, iii. 1. 4. Common. The phrase Sneak’s noise (2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 13) is copied by Heywood, Iron Age (Thersites), vol. iii, p. 312.

nones: phr. for the nones = for then ones, for the once, for the occasion. Peele, Arr. of Paris, i. 1. 9; B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. i (Nano). See Dict. (s.v. Nonce).

nook-shotten, provided with capes and necks of land; ‘That nook-shotten isle of Albion’, Hen. V, iii. 5. 14. See the quotations in NED.

noonstead, the sun’s place at noon; the meridian. Spelt noonestede, Sackville, Induction, st. 7; ‘Now it nigh’d the noonstead of the day’, Drayton, Mooncalf (Nares). ‘Noonstead’ for the point of noon is known in north Yorks. (EDD).

nope, a bull-finch. Drayton, Pol. xiii. 74; ‘A Nope (bird), rubicilla’, Coles, 1679; ‘Chochepierre, a kind of nowpe or bullfinch that feeds on the kernels of cherri-stones’, Cotgrave. In prov. use. in various parts of England (EDD.). See awbe.

noppe, nap of cloth. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 453. Du. noppe, nap (Hexham). See Dict. (s.v. Nap.²).

noppy, ‘nappy’ (as ale), having a head, strong. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 102. ‘Nappy’ is in gen. prov. use in England and Scotland (EDD.). See above.

nose-thrilles, nostrils. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 75. 3; § 84. 2. OE. nosþyrel, nostril.

n’ot, know not. I not, I know not, Gascoigne, Complaint of Philomene, 114. ME. noot (not), 1 and 3 pr. s., I know not, he knows not (Chaucer); OE. nāt (for ne wāt).

notted, without horns; ‘A lamb . . . it is notted’ (footnote, without horns), Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal ii, 87. In prov. use we find ‘notted’ (‘knotted’, ‘natted’) meaning hornless, gen. of sheep; also ‘not’, hornless, of sheep or cattle, see EDD. (s.v. Not, adj.).

nott-headed, having head with hair cropped short. Chapman, Widow’s Tears, i (Tharsalio); B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 3 (Preamble). ME. not-heed, a head with hair cropped short (Chaucer, C. T. A. 109); see Skeat’s Notes in Complete Edition. OE. hnot, bald-headed, close-cut (Sweet).

noulde, would not. Spenser, Shep. Kal., February, 192. ME. nolde (Chaucer); OE. nolde (for ne wolde).

nourry, a foster-child. Sir E. Wingfield, Letter to Wolsey (NED.); nourie, Turbervile, The Lover wisheth, &c., st. 4; noorie, id., Epit., &c., 60; id., Ovid’s Epistle, x (NED.) F. nourri, nourished, nurtured.

novel, news; ‘The novell’, Heywood, Golden Age, A. iv (Jupiter); vol. iii, p. 55; Iron Age, Part II, A. ii (Soldier); p. 373. See Nares.

novum, an old game at dice, played by five or six persons, the principal throws being nine and five. L. L. L. v. 2. 547; ‘Change your game for dice; We are full number for Novum’, Cook, Greene’s Tu Quoque; in Ancient E. Drama, ii. 551, col. 1; spelt novem, A Woman never vexed, ii. 1. 5. The ‘full number’ in this company was six; the two principal throws were nine and five. The game was properly called novem quinque (Douce); see Nares.

nowl, the crown of the head; the head. Mids. Night’s D. iii. 2. 17; noule, Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 39. In prov. use (EDD.). OE. hnoll, the top, summit, crown of the head. See Dict. (s.v. Noule).

nown, own. Mine own became my nown; hence his nowne = his own; Udall, Roister Doister, i. 1. 49. See Nares.

noy, annoyance, vexation. Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, pp. 522, 532); noy, to annoy, Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 45; noyance, annoyance, id., i. 1. 23; noyous, troublesome (NED.). See Nares.

nuddock, the nape of the neck. Phaer, Aeneid vii, 742. ‘Nuddick’ is the Cornish word for the back of the neck, see EDD. (s.v. Niddick).

nullifidian, a man of no faith, a sceptic in matters of religion. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Perfumer).

numbles, certain inward parts of a deer; part of the back and loins of a hart; ‘Noumbles of a dere or beest, entrailles’, Palsgrave; Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 7; nomblis, Boke of St. Albans, fol. e 7 b. F. nombles d’un cerf, ‘the numbles of a stag’ (Cotgr.); OF. nomble (Godefroy). See Dict. And see umbles.

numerical, particular, individual; ‘Not only of the specifical, but numerical forms’, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med., pt. i, § 33. Also (with same or very) identical, ‘That very numerical lady’, Dryden, Marriage à la Mode, ii. 1 (Palamede); also in form numerick, ‘The same numerick crew’, Butler, Hud. i. 3. 461.

nupson, a simpleton. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum., iv. 6 (Brainworm); id., Devil an Ass, ii. 1 (Pug).

nursle, to nurse; ‘To have a Bastard . . . nursled i’ th’ Countrey’, Brome; Eng. Moor, iii. 3 (NED.); noursle up, to train up, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 4. 35. See nuzzle.

nurt, nort, to push with the horns. Tusser, Husbandry, § 20. 28; nort, to push toward, Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. viii, ch. 21. Nurt, possibly related to OF. hurter (F. heurter), to push.

nuzzle, to poke or push with the nose; ‘I nosyll as a swyne dothe, je fouille du museau’, Palsgrave spelt nousle, Venus and Ad. 1115; to nestle close to a person, Heywood, Pleas. Dial. (Wks., ed. 1874, vi. 201); Marston, What you will, iii. 2 (Albano). Cp. Du. neuselen, to poke with the nose (Kilian).

nuzzle, to train, educate, nurture (freq. with up). Marston, Antonio’s Revenge, Prol. 16; Drayton, Pol. xi. 180; nosel, Nice Wanton, Prol. 9, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 163; nousle up, Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 23; noursle up, F. Q. vi. 4. 35; nuzled in, pp. trained in, Holinshed, Chron. iii. 1225 (NED.); nusled in, New Customs, iii. 1; Light of Gospel (in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 44). See NED. See nursle.

nycibecetour, a dainty dame, a fashionable girl; ‘Nycibecetours, or denty dames’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 120; nicibecetur, Roister Doister, i. 4. 12.

nye, to draw nigh, approach. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 316; ‘We shall nyghe the towne’, Palsgrave, 644.

O, a round spot; a circle; ‘This wooden O’ (i.e. circular space), Hen. V, Prol. 13; Ant. and Cl. v. 2. 81. See oes.

oatmeals, a set of riotous and profligate young men (Cant); ‘Roaring boys and oatmeals’, Ford, Sun’s Darling, i. 1 (Folly’s song).

Ob and Soller, a dabbler in scholastic logic; one who deals with obs (objections) and sols (solutions) in disputations; ‘To pass for deep and learned Scholars, although but paltry Ob and Sollers’, Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 1242.

obarni, in full Mead obarni, i.e. ‘scalded mead’, a drink used in Russia; ‘Hum, Meath and Obarni’, B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 1 (Sat.). Russ. obvarnyi, scalded.

oblatrant, railing, reviling. One of the words ridiculed by B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1 (Crispinus). L. oblatrare, to bark at.

obley, a little cake of bread, prepared for consecration in the celebration of the Eucharist, the sacramental wafer; ‘The kyng shall offre an obbley of brede . . . with the whiche obleye after consecrate the king shall be howseld’, Devyse, Coron. Hen. VIII (NED.); spelt ubblye, Morte Arthur, leaf 360. 6; bk. xvii, ch. 20. ME. obly or ubly. ‘nebula’ (Prompt. EETS. 312, see note, no. 1528); obeley ‘oblata’ (Voc. 598. 24). OF. oublee, ‘hostie’ (Didot), Med. L. oblata, ‘panis ad sacrificium oblatus, hostia nondum consecrata’ (Ducange).

obnoxious, exposed to; ‘The having them obnoxious to ruin’, Bacon, Essay 36, § 3; submissive, ‘In consort, men are more obnoxious to others’ humours’, id., Essay 20, § 6; ‘They that are envious towards all are obnoxious and officious towards one’, id., Essay 44, § last; Dryden, ii. 1 (Emperor). L. obnoxius, lit. exposed to harm, also, exposed to the power of another, hence, submissive.

obsequies, funeral rites, a funeral. 3 Hen. VI, i. 4. 147. Anglo-F. obsequies (Rough List), Med. L. obsequiae, ‘exequiae funebres’ (Ducange).

obsequious, dutiful in performing funeral obsequies, or in manifesting regard for the dead; ‘To shed obsequious teares upon this Trunke’, Titus And. v. 3. 152; ‘To do obsequious Sorrow’, Hamlet, i. 2. 92; obsequiously, in the manner of a mourner, ‘I obsequiously lament’, Richard III, i. 2. 3.

occupy, to make use of; ‘Sondrie wares, . . . that men did commonly occupy’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 67; to trade, Luke xix. 13; ‘They dyd dwell amonges them . . . occupying with them verye familiarly’, More’s Utopia (ed. Arber, 31). See Bible Word-Book. But often used in an indecent sense, till the word became odious, as Shak. notes, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 161.

occurrent, occurrence, event. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, 68 and 181); Bible, 1 Kings v. 4.

odible, hateful. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 12, § last; Fabyan, Chron., bk. i, c. 8. L. odibilis.

œillade, an amorous glance. Merry Wives, i. 3. 68. F. œillade (Cotgr.), deriv. of œil, an eye.

oes, bright round spots. Bacon, Essay 36; stars, Mids. Night’s D. iii. 2. 188; O’s, small metallic spangles, as in ‘embroidered with O’s’, B. Jonson, Masque of Hymen, prose description at the end, § 3.

oil: oil of angels, oil of gold coins (i.e. coin employed in bribes). Massinger, Duke of Milan, iii. 2 (Officer). Oil of ben (or been), oil from the ben-nut, or winged seed of the horse-radish tree (Moringa pterygosperma). Middleton, The Widow, ii. 1 (Ricardo). Arab, bân, the horseradish tree, or ben-nut. See Stanford (s.v. Ben). Oil of devil, a ‘momentous preparation’ of unknown ingredients. Beaumont and Fl., Humorous Lieutenant, iii. 3 (Leontius). Oil of height, the red elixir, a red oil, fabled to transmute other metals into gold. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly). Oil of luna, the white elixir, for transmuting other metals into silver. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle). Oil of mace, oil from the spice called mace; but with a punning reference to the mace borne by a serjeant who arrested a prisoner. Middleton, A Mad World, iii. 2 (Sir B.). Oil of talc, a cosmetic, said to have been obtained from talc. B. Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2 (Subtle); Massinger, City Madam, iv. 2 (Shave ’em).

old, great, plentiful, abundant; ‘Old utis’, high merriment, 2 Hen. IV, iv. 2. 22; ‘Ould filching’, abundant stealing, Arden of Fev. ii. 2. 53. ‘Old’ is used as an intensitive in many parts of England and Scotland, e.g. in Cheshire ‘old doings’ signify great sport, great merriment, an uncommon display of hospitality, see EDD. (s.v. Old, 11). ME. ‘gode olde fyghtyng’, Bone Florence, 681 (NED.).

old, a country pronunc. of ‘wold’, plain open country. King Lear, iii. 4. 125; also ould, Drayton, Pol. xxvi. 38.

oilet-hole, an ‘eyelet-hole’, a small round hole worked in cloth. Shirley, Opportunity, ii. 1 (Pimponio); Gent. of Venice, iii. 1. 7. F. œillet, a little eye, an eilet-hole (Cotgr.). From F. œil, an eye. See NED. (s.v. Oillet).

olfact, to smell; a pedantic form. Butler, Hud. i. 1. 742. L. olfactus, pp. of olfacere, to smell.

oliphant, elephant. Heywood, Brazen Age (Meleager), vol. iii, p. 187. ME. oliphant (Kingis Quair, 156); Anglo-F. olifant (Ch. Rol. 3119), oliphant (Bozon, 19).

olla podrida, a medley. Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, i. 4 (Roscius solus). Span. olla podrida (lit. rotten pot), a dish composed of many kinds of meats and vegetables stewed or boiled together; for detailed account of ingredients, see Stevens.

on cai me on; ‘Bid on cai me on, farewell’, Marlowe, Faustus, 40 (ed. Tucker Brooke). Gk. ὂν καὶ μὴ ὄν, existence and non-existence (Aristotle). The meaning is, Bid farewell to Aristotle and philosophy.

on-end: phr. still on-end, continually. Mirror for Mag., Northumberland, st. 17. See an-end.

on gog, ‘a-gog’, in eagerness, full of eagerness. Gascoigne, Grief of Joy, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 288; to set on gog, to excite, make eager, Twyne, tr. of Aeneid, x (NED.).

on hight, aloud, in a high voice. Spenser, F. Q. v. 4. 45. ME. on highte: ‘And spak thise same wordes al on highte’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1784).

one, alone, solus; ‘I one of all other’, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 170); his one, his own, ‘Then was she judged Triamond his one’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 5. 21.

†oneyers; ‘Burgomasters and great oneyers’, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 84. Meaning doubtful; perhaps persons who converse with great ones (Schmidt).

only, alone; ‘Th’ only breath him daunts’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 13; especial, ‘Mine onely foe, mine onely deadly dread’, id., i. 7. 50; ‘His onely hart-sore and his onely foe’, id., ii. 1. 2.

onsay, a saying of ‘On!’, the word to advance, the signal to start. New Custom, ii. 2, l. 10 from end; see NED.

operant, operative, active. Hamlet, iii. 2. 184; Webster, Appius, v. 3 (Virginius); Heywood, The Royal King, i. 1 (King); vol. vi, p. 6.

†ophic, (?) relating to serpents; ‘Resolve To ophic powder’, Lady Alimony, ii. 3 (Morisco). The sense is doubtful.

oppignorate, to pawn, to pledge. Bacon, Hen. VII (ed. Lumby, 91). L. oppignerare, to pledge; from pignus, a pledge.

optic, a magnifying glass, lens. Beaumont and Fl., Thierry, i. 1 (Theodoret); optic glass, a telescope, Milton, P. L. i. 288.

optimate, a noble or aristocrat. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, i. 381; xi. 706. L. optimates, prop. members of the ‘Nobilitas’ in Rome, fr. optimus, best.

opunctly, according to appointment; at the time appointed. In Cook, Green’s Tu Quoque; Ancient E. Drama, ii. 565, col. 2. For appunctly. Cp. Med. L. appunct(u)are, ‘pacisci, convenire’ (Ducange).

orangeado-pie, a pie with candied orange-peel. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, iv. 2 (Crambo). See oringado.

orbity, bereavement, childlessness. Heywood, Dialogue 2 (Pamphilus); vol. vi, p. 127. L. orbitas, orphanage, childlessness.

ordinary, a public dinner, where each one pays his share. ‘Crown ordinary’, a five-shilling dinner, Beaumont and Fl., Bloody Brother, iv. 2 (Norbret); ‘He kept a daily Ordinary (thanks being the only shot his guests were to pay)’, Fuller, Pisgah, iii. 6. 328. F. ordinaire, ‘ce qu’on a accoutumé de servir pour le repas. Il tient un bon ordinaire’ (Dict. Acad. 1762).

ordinately, regularly, in an orderly way, righteously; ‘To walke ordinatly, and in a plain way’, Latimer, 1 Sermon bef. King (ed. Arber, 27). Cp. L. ordinate, in an orderly manner (Vulgate, 1 Mac. vi. 40).

ore, the name of a fine kind of wool, esp. from Leominster; ‘To whom did never sound the name of Lemster ore?’, Drayton, Polyolbion, song vii, 1. 152; xiv. 237; ‘But then the ore of Lempster’, B. Jonson, The Honour of Wales, 2 Song; ‘The finest Lemster ore’, Herrick, Oberon’s Palace; Fuller, Worthies, 33. See EDD., NED., and Notes and Queries, 6th S. i. 260.

ore, seaweed. Drayton, Pol. iv. 74. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.vv. Ore and Ware). OE. wār, ‘alga’ (Napier, OE. Glosses, 23. 2).

orgule, pride. State Papers, Hen. VIII, i. 88 (NED.). OF. orguel (F. orgueil), pride.

oricalche, a very precious metal. Spenser, Muiopotmos, 78. L. orichalcum, yellow copper ore, brass, highly prized by the ancients; Gk. ὀρείχαλκος, mountain-copper (hence F. archal, in fil d’archal, brass-wire).

orient, applied to pearls and precious stones of superior quality and brilliancy, as coming from the East. B. Jonson, Volpone, i. 1 (Mosca). Hence lustrous, brilliant, bright; ‘Now Morn . . . sowed the earth with orient pearl’, Milton, P. L. v. 2; ‘Ten thousand banners rise into the air with orient colours waving’, id., i. 516. Cp. F. perles d’Orient (Dict. Acad. 1762).

oringado, candied orange-peel. Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, i. 1 (Steward). Cp. Span. naranjada, ‘a conserve made with oranges’; naranja, orange (Stevens). See orangeado-pie.

orkyn, a small coin, a quarter of a stiver; ‘Bye an yearthen potte . . . for an orkyn’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 28. Du. oortken, ‘an orkey, or the fourth part of a stiver, or two doits’ (Hexham); dimin. of oort, a small coin; see Franck.

orped, stout, active, bold. Spelt orpid, Golding, Metam. vii. 440; fol. 85 (1603); (of a boar) fierce, furious, id., viii. 395; fol. 99. ME. orped, stout, brave (Gower, C. A. i. 2590); see Dict. M. and S. OE. orped, gloss of adultus, syn. snell (Napier, OE. Glosses, 3361).

orpharion, a large kind of lute with from six to nine pairs of strings, played with a plectrum; ‘The orpharion to the lute’, Drayton, Pastorals, iii. 111. Composed of the names of Orpheus and Arion, mythical musicians of Greek poetry.

orphelin, an orphan. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 171. 11. Anglo-F. orphelin, destitute, orphanin, an orphan (Gower); Late L. type *orphaninus, deriv. of orphanus, Gk. ὀρφανός, bereft of parents or children.

orpin, orpiment, yellow arsenic. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 713. F. orpin, ‘orpine, orpiment or arsenick’ (Cotgr.).

ortyard, orchard. Golding, Metam. xiv. 624; fol. 175, back (1603). OE. ortgeard. The first element ort = L. hortus (in Med. L. ortus), a garden; cp. Norm. F. ort, ‘jardin, verger’ (Moisy 558), Anglo-F. ort (Gower, Mirour, 12868).

ospringer, an osprey. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xviii. 557; ‘Ospringe, a byrde’, Palsgrave.

ossifrage, the Lammergeyer or Geir Eagle, identified with the ‘ossifraga’ of Pliny; ‘Ossifrage, a kind of Eagle, having so strong a Beak that therewith she breaks bones and is therefore called a bone-breaker’, Blount; in Bible, Lev. xi. 13, ossifrage (RV. gier eagle). Identified with the ‘osprey’ or fish-hawk. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, iii. 505.

ostend, to show. Webster, Sir T. Wyatt (Q. Mary), ed. Dyce, p. 194; Heywood, Silver Age (Jupiter), vol. iii, p. 163. L. ostendere.

ostent, a prodigy, manifestation. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, v. 748; show, Hen. V, v, chorus, 21; ostentation, Heywood, Iron Age, Part I (Ulysses); vol. iii, p. 329. Also, to display, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 14, § 6. L. ostentum, a prodigy (Vulg., Exod. vii. 3); ostentare, to display (Vulg., Heb. vi. 11).

osteria, a hostelry, inn. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 3 (Mosca); Beaumont and Fl., Fair Maid of the Inn, ii. 2. 1. Ital. osteria (Florio), Med. L. hostellaria, ‘diversorium’ (Ducange).

ostry, a hostelry. Marlowe, Faustus, ii. 3 (Robin). Hence ostry-faggot, a faggot in a hostelry, Greene, Looking Glasse, iii. 3 (1242); p. 133, col. 1. See hostry.

otacousticon, an ear-trumpet, an instrument used to assist hearing. Tomkis, Albumazar, i. 3 (Ronca). Gk. ὠτ- (ὠτός, gen. of οὖς an ear) + ἀκουστικός, acoustic.

other, left; other leg, left leg, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 11. 23; other eye, left eye, id., iii. 9. 5; other hand, left hand, id., v. 12. 36.

other-gates, of another kind. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, ii. 1 (Truepenny); ‘Works . . . requiring other-gates workmen’, Gauden, Tears of the Church, Pref. (Davies); in another way, Twelfth Nt. v. 1. 199. Still survives in the north country and in Warwicksh. (EDD.).

ouch, the socket of a precious stone, an ornament, jewel. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iv. 1 (Moroso); ‘Thou shalt make them (the stones) to be set in ouches of gold’, Bible, Exod. xxviii. 11; 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 52. ME. nowch, ‘monile, scutuler’ (Prompt. EETS. 309). Anglo-F. nouche, a brooch (Gower, Balades, xxxiii. 2); nusche (Rough List). See owch.

ought, pt. t. owned, possessed. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iii. 1 (Leonora). Also, owed; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 608; Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 39; ii. 8. 40. ME. oght (Dest. Troy, 12404), ouhte, owned, possessed (P. Plowman, C. iv. 72). OE. āhte, pt. t. of āgan, to possess, own. See owe.

oultrage, ‘outrage’, violence. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 182, back, 31. Anglo-F. oultrage, oltrage, outrage, extravagant conduct (Gower). Med. L. ultragium, ‘immoderatio’, ‘injuria’ (Ducange), deriv. of L. ultra, beyond.

oultrance: phr. put to oultrance, put to the extremity, put to death; Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 67, back, 10. Anglo-F. oultrance: ‘la guerre jusques al oultrance’ (Gower, Mirour, 8040); see NED. (s.v. Outrance). See utterance.

ouphe, a fairy, an ‘elf’, ‘oaf’, goblin, Merry Wives, iv. 4. 49. Icel. ālfr, an elf. See aulf.

out, proverbial saying, out of God’s blessing into the warm sun, from better to worse, Heywood’s Proverbs, bk. ii, ch. 5 (ed. Farmer, pp. 67 and 148); Harrison, Desc. Britain, in Holinshed (ed. 1577, i. fol. 11a). Cp. Lyly’s Euphues (ed. Arber, 320), ‘Thou forsakest God’s blessing to sit in a warme Sunne’; and, ‘If thou wilt follow my advice . . . thou shalt come out of a warme Sunne into God’s blessing’ (id. 196), where the proverb is reversed; ‘Thou must approve the common saw, Thou out of heaven’s benediction comest To the warm sun!’ King Lear, ii. 2. 157, 158 (see W. A. Wright’s note in C. P. Series). The original meaning of this proverbial expression is not clear.

out, to put out, extinguish, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 735; ‘Witness that Taper whose prophetick snuff Was outed and revived with one puff’, Quarles, Argalus and Parthenia (ed. 1678, 77).

outbrast, pt. t. burst out. Sackville, Induction, st. 11. Pt. t. of ME. outbresten; ‘The blode outbrast’ (Dest. Troy, 8045); see NED. (s.v. Outburst).

out-brayed, pt. t. brayed out, uttered aloud. Sackville, Induction, st. 18. Doubtless confused with abraid.

out-cry, an auction; because such a sale was proclaimed by the common crier. B. Jonson, Catiline, ii. 1 (Fulvia); New Inn, i. 1 (Host); Fletcher, Maid in the Mill, v. 1 (Bellides). See Nares.

outrecuidance, arrogance. Chapman, Mons. d’Olive, iv. (Dique); Eastward Ho, iv. 1 (or 2) (Golding). F. oultrecuidance, an overweening presumption, pride, arrogancy (Cotgr.); F. outrecuidance; O. Prov. oltracuidar, oltra, L. ultra, beyond + cuidar, to think, L. cogitare.

outsquat, to throw out (as from a sling), to scatter; ‘The greatest sort with slings their plummet-lompes of lead outsquats’, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, vii. 687.

overcraw, to triumph over, lit. to crow over. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 50. See Nares.

overdight, pp. covered over. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 53; iv. 8. 34. Dight, pp., appears in later poetic language to be often taken as an archaic form of decked, see NED. (s.v. Dight, vb. 10).

overflown, flushed with wine. Middleton, Phœnix, iv. 2 (Ph.). Cp. Milton, P. L., i. 502, ‘Then wander forth the sons of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.’

overlashing, extravagant. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 105); extravagance, Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 39.

overlook, to look down upon, despise. Hen. V, iii. 5. 9; B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 1 (Subtle).

overlop, the planking of a deck; the ‘orlop’; ‘His bed was not laid upon the overlop’, North, tr. of Plutarch, Alcibiades (Shak. Plutarch, p. 295, § 3). Du. overloop, ‘the covert or deck of anything; the hatches of a ship’ (Hexham).

overseen, betrayed into error, deluded. Chapman, Argument 2 to Iliad, bk. xiv; intoxicated, Earle, Microcosmographie, § 16; ed. Arber, p. 37. ‘Overseen’ is still in prov. use in both senses: (1) cheated, deluded; (2) overcome with drink, intoxicated; see EDD. (s.v. Overseen, 3 and 4).

over-shot, i.e. an over-shot mill, a mill worked by water pouring over the top of the wheel. Fletcher, Mad Lover, iv. 2 (Chilax).

overthwart, across, transversely. Morte Arthur, leaf 262, back, 15; bk. x, c. 64; cross, malicious, id., lf. 180. 25; bk. ix, c. 15; an adverse circumstance, Surrey, Praise of Mean Estate, 12; in Tottel’s Misc. p. 27. ‘Overthwart’ (meaning across) is in prov. use in many parts of England (EDD.). ME. overthwarte: ‘ovyr wharte, transversus’ (Prompt. EETS. 321).

overture, an open space. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 28. The gloss has: ‘Overture, an open place; the word is borrowed of the French, and used in good writers.’ Anglo-F. overture, an opening (Gower).

overture, used to mean overthrow. Middleton, Family of Love, i. 1 (Glister). See NED. for other examples.

overwent, oppressed, subdued. Spenser, Shep. Kal., March, 2. The gloss has: ‘overwent, overgone.’

owch, a clasp, esp. a jewelled clasp, jewel. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 31. See ouch.

owe, to possess. Tempest, i. 2. 407; Meas. for M. i. 4. 83; ii. 4. 123. ME. owen, to possess (Chaucer, C. T. C. 361); OE. āgan. See ought.

ower, a form of oar; ‘And there row’d off with owers of my hands’, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xii. 628; cp. ‘my hands for oars’, id., x. 482.

Owlglass, a jester, buffoon. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iii. 1 (Tucca to Histrio). The word is an English equivalent of German Eulenspiegel; see below. ‘A merye jeste of a Man that was called Howleglas’, Title of an old German jest-book translated into English in 1560.

owl-spiegle, an English part-rendering of German Eulenspiegel (Eule, owl + spiegel, glass mirror), the name of a German jester of mediaeval times, the hero of a jest-book. Used as a term of abuse: ‘Out, thou houlet! . . . owl-spiegle!’, B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maud.); ‘Ulen Spiegel!’, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Subtle). Hence F. espiègle (Hatzfeld). See above.

ox: Proverbial saying—The black ox has trod on his foot, i.e. he has fallen into decay or adversity; it often implies old age: ‘She was a pretty wench . . now . . the black oxe hath trod on her foote’, Lyly, Sapho and Phao, iv. 2 (Venus); ‘When . . the blacke Oxe (shall) treade on their foote—who wil like of them in their age who loved none in their youth’, id., Euphues (ed. Arber, 55); ‘The black ox had not trod on his nor her foot’, Heywood’s Proverbs (ed. Farmer, p. 17); ‘The black ox never trod on his foot, i.e. he never knew what sorrow or adversity meant’, Ray, Prov. Phrases (ed. Bohn, 173). Cp. Gascoigne, Glasse of Governement, v. 6 (Gnomaticus). The saying is still in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Black, 5 (11)).

paciens, ‘patience’, a name given in the north and north-west of England to the bistort; ‘The herbe [Tobacco] is . . . garnished with great long leaves like the paciens’, Harrison, Descr. of England, Chronology, 1573 (ed. Furnivall, p. lv). See NED. (s.v. Passions).

pack, to practise deceitful collusion, to plot. Titus And. iv. 2. 155; packed, confederate, Com. Errors, v. 1. 219; contrived, Fletcher, Span. Curate, iv. 5 (Bartolus).

packing, confederacy, conspiracy, collusion. Tam. Shrew, v. 1. 121; Massinger, Gt. Duke of Florence, iii. 1 (Giovanni).

pad, a toad, proverbial saying, a pad in the straw, a lurking danger; ‘In straw thear lurcketh soom pad’, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 656; Gosson, School of Abuse, 63; Gammer Gurton’s Needle, v. 2 (Chat). In Yorks. ‘pad’ is used for a frog (EDD.); Icel. padda, a toad; Flem. padde, ‘crapauld’ (Plantin).

pad, a path, track. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (P. Can.); horse pad, a horse-path, Bunyan, Grace Abounding (NED.); high pad, the highway, Harman, Caveat, 84; also, a highwayman, ‘The High-Pad or Knight of the Road’, R. Head, Canting Acad. 88. Pad, a road-horse, a pad-nag, Shirley, Witty Fair One, i. 1. 5. Hence padder, a foot-pad, Massinger, New Way to pay, &c., ii. 1 (Marrall); padding, robbing on the highway, ‘Ride out a-padding’, Dryden, Princess of Cleves, Prol. 29. ‘Pad’ is in gen. prov. use for a path in various parts of the British Isles (EDD.). Low G. pad, path; padden, to go on foot (Koolman).

pad, a wicker pannier; ‘A haske is a wicker pad’, Glosse by E. K. to Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 16. In prov. use in the eastern counties, see EDD. (s.v. Pad, sb.⁵), and NED. (Pad, sb.⁴).

pagador, pay-master. Spenser, State of Ireland (Wks., Globe ed., 657). Span. pagador, a paymaster (Stevens).

pagan, a cant term of reproach. A paramour, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 168; a bastard, Fletcher, Captain, iv. 2 (Host).

paggle, to hang loosely down, like a bag. Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 3 (1421); scene 10. 63 (W.); p. 171, l. 1 (D.).

paigle, a cowslip. B. Jonson, Pan’s Anniversary (Shepherd, l. 7); spelt paggles, pl., Tusser, Husbandry, § 43. 25. In gen. prov. use (EDD.).

painful, painstaking, laborious. L. L. L. ii. 23; Tam. Shrew, v. 2. 147; ‘Such servants are oftenest painfull and good’, Tusser, Husbandry, 170. Still in use in the north country (EDD.).

painted, adorned with bright colouring; ‘A peinted sheathe’, a handsome exterior, Udall, tr. of Apoth., Diogenes, § 190; pride, vainglory, id., Socrates, § 56; ‘Peinted termes’, grandiloquence, id., Antigonus, § 14.

painted cloth, cloth or canvas painted in oils and used for hangings in rooms. L. L. L. v. 2. 579; As You Like It, iii. 2. 290; 1 Hen. IV, iv. 2. 28. It often showed moral pictures. See NED.

pair of cards, a pack of cards; ‘A payre of cardes’, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 49; Fletcher, Sea-voyage, i. 1 (Tibalt). See Nares.

pair of organs, an organ. Middleton, A Mad World, ii. 1 (Sir B.); ‘Unes orgues, a payre of organs, an instrument of musyke’, Palsgrave, 183. See NED. (s.v. Organ, 2 c).

pair-royal, in cribbage and other card games, three cards of the same denomination; a throw of three dice all turning up the same number of points, as three twos, &c. Hence, a set of three persons or things, Ford, Broken Heart, v. 3; ‘That great pair-royal of adamantine sisters’, Quarles, Emblems, v; Howell, Lex. Tetraglotton, Dedication; Butler, Ballad upon the Parliament (last line; pair-royal, riming with trial); ‘That paroyall of armies’, Fuller, Pisgah, iv. 2. 22. See Nares and NED. ‘Prial’ is in prov. use in various parts of England in the sense of (1) a ‘pair-royal’ in cards, (2) three of a sort, (3) a gathering of persons of a similar disposition (EDD.). See parreal.

pall, to become faint, to fail in strength. Hamlet, v. 2. 9; Phaer, Aeneid ix (NED.); to enfeeble, weaken; to daunt, appal, King James I, Kingis Quair, st. 18; Fletcher, Bloody Brother, ii. 1 (Latorch); Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, 532).

palliard, a lewd person, a thorough rascal. Dryden, Hind and Panther, ii. 563; Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song). Palliards, one of the twenty-four orders of Vagabonds; beggars who excited compassion by means of artificial sores, made by binding some corrosive to the flesh; see Harman, Caveat, p. 44, and Aydelotte, p. 27. F. paillard, ‘a knave, rascall’, &c. (Cotgr.); lit. one who lies on straw; F. paille, L. palea, straw.

palm, the flat expanded part of a deer’s horn, whence the points project. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iv. 124.

palmplay, a game resembling tennis, but played with the hand instead of a bat. Surrey, Prisoned in Windsor, 13; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 13. Cp. F. jeu de paume (Dict. de l’Acad., s.v. Paume).

palped, that can be felt, palpable. Webster, Appius, iii. 1 (Icilius); Heywood, Brazen Age (Hercules), vol. iii, p. 206. L. palpare, to feel.

palt, to trudge; ‘Palting to school’, Nice Wanton, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 165.

palter, to shift, shuffle, equivocate. Macbeth, v. 8. 20; Ant. and Cl. iii. 11. 63.

paltock, a short coat, sleeved doublet. Morte Arthur, leaf 89, 27; bk. v, c. 10; OF. paletocque; ‘Paltocke, a garment, halcret’ (Palsgrave). ME. paltok (P. Plowman, B. xviii. 25); paltoke (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 1569). F. palletoc, ‘a long and thick pelt or cassock, a garment like a short cloak with sleeves’ (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.v. Paletot).

Paltock’s inn, a mean or inhospitable place; Paltock is probably here a proper name, but the allusion is unknown. Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 52; Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii, l. 65 (a rendering of the Lat. ‘pollutum hospitium’, l. 61).

pampestry, a corrupt form of palmistry. Mirror for Mag., Bladud, st. 25. ME. pawmestry (Lydgate, Assembly of Gods, 870).

pamphysic, concerning all nature. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle). Gk. παμ- + φυσικός.

panada, panado, bread boiled to a pulp, and flavoured with currants, sugar, &c. Panada, Massinger, A New Way, i. 2 (Furnace); panado, Middleton, The Witch, ii. 1 (Gasparo). In Eastward Ho, ii (Quicksilver), the word is spelt poynado. Span. panada. See Stanford (s.v. Panade).

panarchic, all-ruling. A nonce-word. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle). Gk. πάναρχος, all-ruling + -ic.

panax, all-heal; a healing plant, whence opopanax is made. Middleton, The Witch, iii. 3 (Firestone). L. panax; Gk. πάναξ, πανακής, all-healing.

pandora, a ‘bandore’, a musical instrument, a kind of lute. Rowley, All’s Lost, ii. 1. 4; pandore, Drayton, Pol. iv. 63. Gk. πανδοῦρα. See Stanford.

paned hose, breeches made of strips of different coloured cloth joined together; or of cloth cut into strips, between which ribs or stripes of another material or colour were inserted or drawn through. Beaumont and Fl., Woman-hater, i. 2 (Lazarillo); Wit at several Weapons, iv. 1 (Cunningham). From pane, a patch of cloth. OF. pan, L. pannus.

pannam, bread (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); Harman, Caveat, p. 83.

pannel, a panel; a piece of cloth placed under the saddle to protect the horse’s back; also, a rough saddle. Butler, Hud. i. 1. 447; ‘A straw-stufft pannel’, Hall, Sat. iv. 2. 26; panel, Tusser, Husbandry, § 17. 5. OF. panel, a piece of cloth for a saddle, F. ‘paneau (panneau), a pannel of a saddle’ (Cotgr.).

pannikell, the brain-pan, skull. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 23. L. panniculus, the membranous structure of the brain, see NED. (s.v. Pannicle).

pantler, the officer of a household in charge of the pantry. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 258; Brome, Jovial Crew, i. 1 (Springlove); ‘A pantler, panis custos, promus’, Gouldman. ME. pantelere, ‘panitarius’ (Prompt. EETS. 326, see note, no. 1571).

pantofle, a slipper, Massinger, Bashful Lover, v. 1; Unnat. Combat, iii. 2 (Page); Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, ii. 2 (Servant); Spanish Curate, iv. 1 (Ascanio); ‘Baseæ . . . a kynde of slippers or pantofles’, Cooper, Thesaurus. F. pantoufle (1489 in Hatzfeld). The usual English stress on the first syllable facilitated the corruptions: pantapple (Baret), pantable (Sydney, Arcadia), pantocle (Ascham, Scholemaster, ed. Arber, 84), assimilated to words in -ple, -ble, -cle. See NED.

pap: phr. pap with a hatchet, infant’s food administered with a hatchet instead of a spoon; an ironical phrase for a form of reproof or chastisement; ‘They give us pap with a spoon before we can speak; and when wee speake for that wee love [like], pap with a hatchet’, Lyly, Mother Bombie, i. 3 (Livia); the name of a controversial tract attributed to Lyly.

parage, lineage; esp. noble lineage, high birth. Morte Arthur, leaf 110, back, 5; bk. vii, c.5; ‘Of high and noble parages’, Udall, Roister Doister, Act i, sc. 2; ed. Arber, p. 17. OF. parage, ‘parente, affinité; noblesse, naissance illustre’ (Didot); see Moisy. O. Prov. paratge, ‘naissance noble, noblesse’ (Levy); Med. L. paraticum, see Ducange (s.v. Paragium).

paramento, an article of apparel. Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, i. 1 (Incubo). Span. paramento, ornament; Med. L. paramentum, ornament; parare, ‘ornare’ (Ducange). See pare.

paranymph, friend of the bridegroom. Milton, Samson, 1020. F. paranymphe, ‘. . . an assistant in the . . . ordering of bridall businesses’ (Cotgr.). Gk. παράνυμφος, friend of the bridegroom (John iii. 29); Gk. παρά, beside; νύμφη, bride.

paravaunt, beforehand, first of all. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 16; vi. 10. 15. F. par avant.

parboil, to boil thoroughly. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 1 (Downright). See Dict.

parbreak, parbrake, to vomit. Skelton, Duke of Albany, 322; Hall, Satires, i. 5. 9; Palsgrave. 478; Horman, Vulg. 39 (NED.); also, as sb., vomit, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 20. ME. parbrakynge, ‘vomitus’ (Prompt.); the usual form in Prompt. is brakyn, ‘vomo’ (see ed. EETS., Index, p. 749).

parcel, a portion, part, share; ‘A parcel of ground’, Bible, John iv. 5; Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 68. 63; Merry Wives, i. 1. 237; item, particular, All’s Well, iv. 3. 104; small party, L. L. L. v. 2. 160.

parcel, partly; parcel-gilt, partly gilded, esp. of silver ware. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 94. Parcel, used for parcel-gilt, Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, iv. 3 (Mother). So also parcel-bawd; Meas. for M. ii. 1. 63; Fletcher, Captain, i. 1 (Lodovico). Parcel-popish, Fuller, Worthies, Somerset. See NED. (s.v. Parcel, B. 1).

parclose, perclose, close, conclusion, esp. of literary matter. Warner, Alb. Eng. Epit. (ed. 1612, 377); Quarles, Sol. Recant. vii. 97. Norm. F. parclose, conclusion (Moisy); see also Didot.

parcloos, parclose, an enclosed space in a building, small chamber. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 9, back, 25. Anglo-F. parclose, an enclosure (Gower); OF. parclouse, ‘clos, lieu cultivé et fermé de murs ou de haies’ (Didot).

pardalis, a panther. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 667; pardale, Spenser, F. Q. i. 626. Gk. πάρδαλις, fem., a panther.

pare, to adorn. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 245, back, 26; Knight of la Tour (EETS.), p. 67, l. 2. Hence parement, an ornament, id., leaf 236. 27. See paramento.

paregal, fully equal. Skelton, Dethe of E. of Northumberland, 134; peregall, id., Speke Parrot, 430. Norm. F. paregal, ‘parfaitement égal’; see Moisy (s.v. Parigal). See peregall.

parel, ‘apparel’, clothing, attire; ‘A shining parel . . . of Tirian purple’, Surrey, Aeneid iv, 337. Hence, parrelments, clothes, Heywood, Witches of Lancs., i (near end), Wks. iv. 186. ME. paraille, clothing (P. Plowman, B. xi. 228). Norm. F. apareiller, ‘parer, orner’ (Moisy).

parerga, unimportant matters, secondary business. B. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, i. 1 (Compass). Gk. πάρεργα, pl. of πάρεργον, by-work.

parget, ornamental work in plaster. Spenser, Visions of Bellay, ii. 9. Anglo-F. pargeter, projeter, jeter et répandre en avant (Ch. Rol. 2634); see Moisy (s.v. Parjeter). See Dict., and see pergit.

parish-top, a large top kept for public exercise in a parish. Twelfth Nt. i. 3. 44. See town-top.

paritor, parator, ‘apparitor’, a summoning officer of an ecclesiastical court. Fletcher, Span. Curato, v. 2 (Bartolus); parator, Heywood, 2 Edw. IV (1 Apparitor), vol. i, p. 161. L. apparitor, a public servant, such as a lictor (Cicero).

parlance, speaking, speech; parleying. Speed, Hist. Gt. Britain, ix. 12. 575 (NED.). Norm. F. parlance, ‘entretien’ (Moisy).

parlant, one who parleys, or takes part in a conference. Warner, Alb. England, bk. iii, ch. 19, st. 32.

parle, a parley, conference. Tam. Shrew i. 1. 117; Hamlet, i. 1. 62; to parley. L. L. L. v. 2. 122.

parlous, alarming, mischievous, ‘perilous’, shrewd. Mids. Night’s D. iii. 1. 14; Richard III, ii. 4. 35.

parmesant, cheese made in the duchy of Parma. Middleton, The Changeling, i. 2 (3 Madman); parmesent, Ford, ’Tis pity, i. 4 (Poggio). F. parmesan, Ital. parmegiano, belonging to Parma. See Stanford (s.v. Parmesan).

parnel, a wanton young woman. Phillips, Dict., 1678; Becon, Popish Mass (Works, iii. 41), see NED. ME. pernelle (P. Plowman, B. iv. 116); F. peronnelle, ‘une femme de peu’ (Dict. Acad., ed. 1762). ‘Parnel’ orig. a feminine Christian name, ME. Peronelle (Gower, C. A. i. 3396); OF. Peronelle, a Christian name from St. Petronilla. Hence the surname Parnell (Bardsley, 582).

paroli, at faro or basset, the leaving of the money staked and the money won as a new stake; a doubling of the stakes. Farquhar, Sir Harry Wildair, ii. 1 (Banter); id., ii. 2 (Wildair). Ital. paroli, ‘a grand part, set, or cast at dice’; parolare, ‘to play at a grand part at dice’ (Florio). See Stanford.

paronomasia, a pun, play upon words; ‘The jingle of a more poor paranomasia’, Dryden, Account of Annus Mirabilis. Gk. παρονομσία. See Stanford.

parreal, ‘pair-royal’; meaning three of a sort. ‘The we’s, which is a distinct parreal of wit bound by itself’, &c., Parson’s Wedding, ii. 3 (Wanton). The allusion is probably to the public-house sign, ‘We Three Loggerheads be’, a jocular painting of two silly-looking faces, the unsuspecting spectator being of course the third. See History of Signboards (1866), p. 458. See pair-royal.

parsee, the trail of blood left by a wounded animal; ‘A . . . dogge that hunts my heart By parsee each-wheare found’ (i.e. found everywhere by means of the blood-trail), Warner, Albion’s England, bk. vii, ch. 36, st. 90; ‘Ascanius and his company, drawing by parsie [by the trail] after the stagge’, id., prose addition to bk. ii, § 22. F. percé, lit. pierced; hence, a wounded animal. Finally, confused with pursue. See persue.

parson, a prov. pronunciation of ‘person’. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, iii. 1 (Sir G. Lamb.); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, iv. 1 (Servant).

part, a party, a body of adherents or partisans; ‘The part of Chalengers’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 4. 25.

partage, a share. Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, iii. 2 (Mariana). Anglo-F. partage, sharing (Gower, Mirour, 1654).

parted, gifted with good parts. Tr. and Cr. iii. 3. 96; Massinger, Gt. Duke of Florence, iv. 2 (Sanazzaro).

Partlet, a word used as the proper name of any hen; also applied to a woman. Winter’s Tale, ii. 3. 75; 1 Hen. IV, iii. 3. 60. ME. Pertelote, the name of the hen in Chaucer’s Nun’s Priest’s Tale (C. T. B. 4075, 4295, 4552).

partlette, a neckerchief or handkerchief. Tyndale, Acts xix. 12, partlettes = ‘semicinctia’ (Vulgate), σιμικίνθια, aprons; partelettes, Cranmer’s Bible, 1539; ‘Un collet ou gorgias de quoi les femmes couvrent leurs poictrines, a partlet’, Hollyband, 1580 (NED.).

pash, the head; usually in a depreciatory sense. Wint. Tale, i. 2. 128. In prov. use in Scotland (EDD.).

pash, to dash into pieces. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, ii. 2 (Harpax); Tr. and Cr. ii. 3. 213; v. 2. 10; to hurl, Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 2 (414) (Orlando). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

pashe: in phr. for the pashe of God, Roister Doister, iv. 3; for the pashe of our sweete Lord Jesus Christ, id., v. 5; for the passion of God, id., iv. 3.

pass, to go beyond, exceed, surpass. Merry Wives, i. 1. 310. Hence passing, surpassing; ‘Passing the love of women’, Bible, 2 Sam. i. 26; Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 24; extremely, Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. See EDD. (s.v. Pass, vb. 8).

pass, to care, reck; ‘I do not pass a pin’, Greene (Alphonsus), i. 1; to pass of, to care for, regard, ‘I pass not of his frivolous speeches’, id., Friar Bacon, i. 2. 271; to pass for, to care for, Marlowe, Edw. II, i. 4 (Edward).

passado, a motion forwards and thrust in fencing. L. L. L. i. 2. 184; Romeo, ii. 4. 26; iii. 1. 88. Cp. F. passade, Sp. pasada, It. passata.

passage, a game at dice; ‘Passage is a game at dice to be played at but by two, and it is performed with 3 dice. The caster throws continually till he hath thrown dubblets under ten, and then he is out or loseth, or dubblets above ten, and then he passeth, and wins’, Compleat Gamester, 1680, p. 119 (Nares); ‘Passe-dix, such a game as our Passage’, Cotgrave; ‘Learn to play at primero and passage’, B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum. i. 1 (Carlo); Rowley, A Woman never vexed, ii. 1. 3. See court-passage.

passant (in heraldry), walking and looking toward the dexter side, with three paws down, and the dexter forepaw raised; said of an animal. Merry Wives, i. 1. 20. F. passant, passing.

passe-measure, passameasure (Florio, 1598, s.v. Passamezzo), a slow dance of Italian origin, a variety of the ‘pavan’; a passy measures Pavyn, Twelfth Nt. v. 1. 205; passa-measures galliard, Middleton, More Dissemblers, v. 1 (Page). Ital. passamezzo, for passo e mezzo, i.e. a step and a half; see NED.

passement, gold or silver lace, braid of silk or other material. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, iii. 1 (Arber, 150). F. passement; Span. passamano, ‘lace of gold, silver or silk for cloaths’ (Stevens).

passion, sorrow, grief. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 3 (Dutch Merchant); iii. 1 (Weatherwise); a pathetic speech, Massinger, The Old Law, i. 1 (Simonides).

passionate, sorrowful; compassionate, loving, pitiful. King John, ii. 1. 554; Richard III, i. 4. 121; Shirley, Changes, i. 2; Spenser, Colin Clout, 427.

pastance, pastime; ‘For my pastance, hunt, syng, and daunce’, Song by Henry VIII; The Four Elements, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 23 (l. 5). F. passe-temps; see Montaigne, Essais, III. xiii (ed. 1870, p. 584), on ‘cette phrase ordinaire de “Passe-temps” ’.

pastillo, a small roll of aromatic paste prepared to be burnt as a perfume. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, iv. 1 (Wit.). L. pastillus, an aromatic lozenge (Horace).

pastler, a maker of pastry, confectioner. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Alexander, § 9; ‘Cooks or Pastelars’, Stow, Survey of London (ed. Thoms, 115). ME. pastelere, ‘pastillarius’ (Prompt. EETS. 329, see note, no. 1582). OF. pastellier (Godefroy).

patache, a tender, a vessel attending a squadron of ships; ‘Ships, pynaces, pataches’, Dekker, Wh. of Babylon; Works, ii. 256. Span. patache (Stevens). Probably a Dalmatian word, cp. Med. L. bastasia, ‘naviculae apud Dalmatas species’ (Ducange). See Stanford.

patch, a clown, a paltry fellow. Macbeth, v. 3. 15; Massinger, Virgin Martyr, ii. 1 (Hireius).

†pathaires, explosive outbursts (?). Arden of Fev. iii. 5. 51. Not found elsewhere.

patish, to agree upon, bargain for; ‘The money, which the pirates patished for his raunsome’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Julius, § 1; ‘To pattish, patise, covenant, pacisci’, Levins, Manip. ‘Pattish’ is given as an obsolete Yorks. word in the sense of ‘to plot or contrive together’ (EDD.). Cp. OF. patis, ‘pacte, traité’ (Didot); patiser, to agree upon; deriv. of L. pactum, an agreement.

patoun, the meaning is uncertain. In B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum. iv. 4, ‘the making of the patoun’ may refer to the moulding of the tobacco into some shape for the pipe; cp. F. pâton, lump or pellet of paste (Dict. de l’Acad., 1762).

patrico, a hedge-priest among the gipsies, who performed marriages. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1. 4; B. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, ii (Waspe), near the end. See Aydelotte, p. 19.

patrone, a ‘pattern’, copy, sampler, exemplar; ‘Make all thynges accordynge to the patrone’ (κατὰ τὸν τύπον), Tyndale, Heb. viii. 5. The Gk. τύπος is so rendered in Cranmer’s Bible (1539), and in the Geneva Bible (1557); Coverdale, 2 Kings xvi. 10. F. patron, ‘modèle, exemple’ (Gloss. to Rabelais). O. Prov. patron, ‘modèle’ (Levy).

patten, a form of pattern. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 5 (or 2) (E. Knowell); ‘A Patten, prototypon’, Levins, Manip.

paunce, pawnce, the ‘pansy’, or heart’s-ease. Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 142; Warner, Alb. England, bk. v, c. 28, st. 43; panse, Holland, Pliny, xxi. 10. 92. OF. panse, pense, thought, O. Prov. pensa, ‘pensée’ (Levy).

pauncie, the pansy. Tusser, Husbandry, § 43. 24; F. pensée, ‘a thought, also the flower Paunsie’ (Cotgr.).

pautener, pawtener, a wallet, scrip. Skelton, Ware the Hauke, 44; ‘Pautner, malette’, Palsgrave. ME. pawtenere, pawytnere, ‘cassidile’ (Prompt. EETS. 330, see note, no. 1592). F. pautonniere, ‘a shepherd’s scrip’ (Cotgr.).

pavan, a stately dance in which the dancers were elaborately dressed. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, i. 23 (Arber, 61); pavin, Twelfth N. v. 1. 207; paven, Fletcher, Mad Lover, ii. 2 (near end); pavion, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, i. 19. 12. F. pavane, Ital. pavana, Span. pavana (pabana). See Stanford.

pavis, a convex shield large enough to cover the whole body, used esp. in sieges; ‘The shotte . . . they defended with Pavishes’, Hall, Chron. Hen. VIII, 42; ‘A pavis coveris thair left sydis’, Douglas, Aeneid vii, 13. 67; as used on board a ship, ranged along the sides as a defence against archery, Lydgate, Siege Harfleur (Arber’s Garner, viii. 16). Span. paves (Stevens); Ital. pavese, palvese (Florio); Med. L. pavenses, pl. (Ducange); perhaps from Pavia, see Hatzfeld (s.v. Pavois).

paw, improper, nasty, obscene; ‘Paw words’, Wycherley, Country Wife, v. 2 (Horner); ‘Marrying is a paw thing’, Congreve, Love for Love, v. 2 (Tattle). From paw, or pah! interj., expressive of disgust.

Pawn, ‘the Pawn’; a corridor, which formed a kind of bazaar, in Gresham’s Royal Exchange. Westward Ho, ii. 1 (Justiniano); ‘Little lawn then served the Pawn’, T. Campion (ed. Bullen, 114). See Nares. F. pan (de muraille), used in the Low Countries in the sense of ‘une gallerie ou cloistre, lieu ou on vend quelque marchandise, ou où on se pourmeine, ambulacrum’ (Kilian, 1599, s.v. Pandt). Cp. Du. pandt, ‘a Covert-walking place, or a gallerie where things are sould’ (Hexham).

pax, a tablet bearing a representation of a sacred object, kissed by the celebrating priest at mass, and passed round to be kissed by others. Hen. V, iii. 6. 42. Eccles. L. pax, ‘instrumentum quod inter Missarum solemnia populo osculandum praebetur’ (Ducange); also called osculatorium, see Dict. Ch. Antiq. (s.v. Kiss, 903).

payne mayne, white bread of the finest quality; ‘Payne mayne, payn de bouche’, Palsgrave. ME. payndemayn (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1915); payman, ‘placencia’ (Voc. 788. 32). Anglo-F. pain demeine, Med. L. panis dominicus, lord’s bread, bread eaten by the master of the house; cp. L. vinum dominicum, Petronius, Sat. § 30. See demain.

payre, to impair, make worse, spoil. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 4. 26; § 97. 3. See appair.

paytrelle, ‘poitrel’, breastplate for a horse. Morte Arthur, leaf 119, back, 2; bk. vii, c. 17. Anglo-F. peitral (Moisy). See Dict. (s.v. Poitrel).

peace, to keep silence; ‘Peace, foolish woman. Duchess. I will not peace’, Richard II, v. 2. 80; ‘He peaste and couched while that we passed by’, Sackville, Mirror Mag., Induction, lxxii.

peak, to make a mean figure, to play a contemptible part. Hamlet, ii. 2. 594; peaking, sneaking, mean-spirited, Merry Wives, iii. 5. 71.

peak, to droop, to be sickly, Macbeth, i. 3. 23; Tusser, Husbandry, § 67. 27. The word ‘peaking’ is used in the sense of sickly, wasted away, in many parts of England and Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Peak, vb.² 1 (2)). See pick.

peak-goose, a dolt, a simpleton. Ascham, Scholemaster (ed. Arber, 54); Prophetess, iv. 3 (1 Guard); spelt pea-goose, Beaumont and Fl., Little French Lawyer, ii. 3 (Dinant); Cotgrave (s.v. Benet); Chapman, Mons. d’Olive, iii. 1 (Rhoderique).

peakish, remote, solitary; ‘Did house him in a peakish grange Within a forest great’, Warner, Alb. England, bk. viii, ch. 42, st. 2; ‘Snow on Peakish Hull’ (hill), Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. 4 (Ballad of Dowsabel, st. 5); ‘A pelting grange that peakishly did stand’, Golding, tr. of Ovid, Met. vi. 521 (L. obscura). See NED., where ‘Peakish’ is shown to refer (probably) to the ‘Peak’ in Derbyshire.

pearl, a disease of the eye. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Costanza). In Scottish use (EDD.). ME. perle of þe eye, ‘glaucoma’ (Prompt.).

pease, pese, a pea. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Oct., 69; ‘A pese above a perle’, Surrey, The Lover excuseth himself, in Tottel’s Misc., p. 25; ‘Not worth two peason’, Surrey, Frailty of Beauty, id., p. 10; Peason, peas, Tusser, Husbandry, § 53, st. 9. ME. pese, ‘pisa’ (Prompt.); OE. pisa, piosa, a pea (Sweet).

pease, peaze, to pacify, satisfy, ‘appease’. Ferrex and Porrex, iii. 1 (Gorboduc); iv. 1 (Videna); Surrey, tr. of Aeneid ii, l. 147. ME. pese, to appease (Chaucer, C. T. H. 98; so Lansdowne MS.; Ellesmere, apese). OF. apaisier (Didot).

peat, used as a term of endearment to a girl, with various shades of meaning; ‘A pretty peat’, Tam. Shrew, i. 1. 78; ‘Lettice and Parnell prety lovely peates’, Drayton, Man in Moon, ix; used as a term of obloquy, ‘Proud peat’, Fletcher, Wife for Month, i. 1 (Sorano); Massinger, Maid of Honour, ii. 2. See Nares. In prov. use in Scotland for a girl, gen. as a term of obloquy, ‘a proud peat’, see EDD. (s.v. Peat, sb.²).

peccadillo, a collar. Wooden peccadillo, wooden collar (i.e. the pillory); Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 1454. See pickadil.

peck, meat (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); ‘Bene pecke, good meate’, Harman, Caveat, p. 86; ‘Let’s cly off our peck’, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Song).

peculiar, private, belonging to one person only; ‘The single and peculiar life’, Hamlet, iii. 3. 11.

ped, a wicker pannier; ‘Dorsers are Peds or Panniers’, Fuller, Worthies, Dorset, 1; Tusser, Husbandry, § 17. 5. In common prov. use in E. Anglia and E. Midlands, also in Somerset and Devon (EDD.). ME. pedde, ‘idem quod paner’ (Prompt.). See pad (3).

pedescript, that which is written by the foot (not the hand); said humorously by one who had been kicked; with pede- substituted for manu-. Shirley, Honoria, iv. 1 (Dash).

pedlar’s French, unintelligible jargon. Middleton, Family of Love, v. 3 (Club).

pee, a coat of coarse cloth; also, of velvet; ‘A velvet pee’, Fletcher, Love’s Cure, ii. 1 (Lazarillo). Du. pije, ‘a pie-gowne, or a rough-gowne, as souldiers and sea-men weare’ (Hexham); whence pea-jacket.

peeble, pebble; ‘The chaste stream, that ’mong loose peebles fell’, Cowley, Davideis, i. 677 (NED.); peeble-stone, Golding, Metam. i. 575. The usual Scottish pronunc. (EDD.).

peedee, a foot-boy, serving-lad, drudge. Lady Alimony, ii. 1 (1 Boy); pedee, J. Jones, tr. of Ovid’s Ibis, 160, note (NED.); Phillips, Dict., 1706.

peek, peke, to peep. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 667; ‘I peke or prie’, Palsgrave. In common prov. use (EDD.).

peep, an eye or spot on a die. Middleton, Father Hubberd’s Tales, ed. Dyce, v. 581. Also, a pip on a card; Herrick, Oberon’s Palace, l. 49; ‘Pinta, among Gamesters a peep in a card’ (Stevens). ‘Peep’ is the usual word for ‘pip’ of a card, die, or domino in NE. Derbyshire and S. Yorkshire (H. Bradley). Cp. ‘peep’ in prov. use in the sense of a single blossom of flowers growing in a cluster, see EDD. (s.v. Pip, sb.² 1). See pip.

peevish, self-willed, obstinate. Two Gent. iii. 1. 68; Merry Wives, i. 4. 14; Massinger, Virgin Martyr, iii. 3 (Harpax); ‘Pertinax hominum genus, a peevish generation of men’, Burton, Anat. Mel., Pt. iii, § 4. Hence peevishness, obstinacy, ‘An inbred peevishness and engraffed pertinacity’, Holland, Livy, 1152. See Trench, Select Glossary; also Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament, Pref. to 8th ed., p. xxi.

pegma, pegme, a kind of framework or stage used in theatrical displays or pageants, sometimes bearing an inscription; also, the inscription itself; ‘In the centre . . . of the pegme there was an aback or square, wherein this eulogy was written’, B. Jonson, Jas. I’s Coronation Entertainment (Wks., Routledge, p. 529, after inscription ‘His Vincas’; ‘We shall heare . . . who penned the Pegmas’, Chapman, Widow’s Tears, ii. 3 (Ianthe). L. pegma, Gk. πῆγμα, framework fixed together.

peise, paise, weight, heaviness; ‘A stone of such a paise’, Chapman, tr. Iliad, xii. 167; peaze, a heavy blow, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 20; to weigh, ‘To weigh and peise the mountains’, Holland, Amm. Marcell. 28 (NED.); to estimate the weight of a thing, Dekker, Old Fortunatus, ii. 1 (Soldan); to poise, ‘The workeman . . . Did peise his bodie on his wings’, Golding, tr. Metam. viii. 188; ‘Ne was it (the island) paysd Amid the ocean waves’, Spenser, F. Q., ii. 10. 5; to weigh down, Richard III, v. 3. 100; Middleton, Family of Love, ii. 4 (Maria); to put a weight upon, so as to retard, ‘ ’Tis to peize the time’, Merch. Ven. iii. 2. 22. ME. peisen, to weigh: ‘I wolde that my synnes . . . weren peisid, in a balaunce’ (Wyclif, Job vi. 2); Anglo-F. peise, pres. s. of peser; to weigh, to ponder, think (Ch. Rol. 1279); L. pensare, to weigh, ponder.

pelamis, a young tunny-fish. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 11. L. pelamys; Gk. πηλαμύς.

peld, ‘peeled’, stripped; ‘Of all thing bare and peld’, Phaer, Aeneid i, 599 (L. egenos). See peeled.

pelican, a retort with a fine end, like a bird’s beak. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Face); iii. 2 (Subtle); iv. 3 (Face).

pelowre, a plunderer, Morte Arthur, leaf 245, back, 31; bk. x, c. 48. ME. pelowre, thiefe, ‘appellator’ (Prompt. EETS. 331).

pelt, a light shield. Fisher, True Trojans, ii. 5 (Belinus). L. pelta, Gk. πέλτη, a leathern shield.

pelt, to strike a bargain; ‘I found the people nothing prest [not at all ready] to pelt’, Mirror for Mag., Severus, st. 16. Perhaps the same word as pelt, to strike. See NED.

pelting, petty, trashy, contemptible. Richard III, ii. 1. 60; Meas. for M. ii. 2. 112; Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 2. 328.

peltish, irritable, ill-tempered; ‘Peltish wasps’, Herrick, Oberon’s Palace, 17. Cp. ‘pelt’, in prov. use for a fit of ill-temper, see EDD. (s.v. Pelt, sb.⁵ 8).

penner, a pen-case, case for holding pens. Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 5. 139. A Scottish word for a tin cylinder used for holding pens, pencils, &c. (EDD.). ME. pennere, ‘calamarium’ (Prompt.).

penny-father, a miser, skinflint. Two Angry Women, ii. 1 (Philip); ‘Nigeshe penny fathers’, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 102). Hence the surname Pennyfather; see Bardsley’s English Surnames, 482.

pensel, a pennon, little banner. Morte Arthur, leaf 244, back, 12; bk. x, c. 43; ‘Pensell, a lytell baner, banerolle’, Palsgrave. Anglo-F. pencel (Didot); OF. penoncel (La Curne). Med. L. penuncellus (Ducange).

pentagoron, a pentagram, a mysterious cabalistic figure supposed to have great magical power. Rowley, Birth of Merlin, v. 1. 49; pentageron, Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 2. 222. Properly pentagonon. Gk. πεντάγωνος, pentagonal, having five angles.

pepper: phr. to take pepper in the nose, to take offence, to be vexed. Middleton and Rowley, Spanish Gipsy, iv. 3. 10; Lyly, Euphues, pp. 118, 375. See Nares.

†peppernel, a bump or swelling. Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, ii. 2 (Wife). Not found elsewhere.

perceiverance, mental perception. Middleton, The Widow, iii. 2 (Violetta). See Nares.

perche, to pierce. Ascham, Toxophilus, 137, 138. In prov. use in the north, esp. in Yorks., also in Lincoln, see EDD. (s.v. Pearch). ME. perchyn, ‘perforare’ (Prompt. EETS. 44, see note, no. 208); perche, ‘to Thirle’ (Cath. Angl.). Norm. F. percher, ‘percer’ (Moisy).

perdie, a form of oath = By God!; used often merely as an asseveration. Hen. V, ii. 1. 52; Hamlet, iii. 2. 305; King Lear, ii. 4. 86; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 22. ME. pardee (Chaucer, C. T. A. 563, 3084). OF. pardee (F. par Dieu) Norm. F. Dé = Dieu (Moisy).

perditly, desperately. Heywood, Dialogue 3 (Mary); vol. vi, p. 118. Cp. L. perdite amare, to love desperately.

perdu, perdue, a soldier sent on a forlorn hope; one who is in a perilous position or in desperate case. King Lear, iv. 7. 35; Beaumont and Fl., Mad Lover, i. 1 (Cleanthe); Little French Lawyer, ii. 3. 3; Chapman, Widow’s Tears, ii. 1 (Lysander). F. perdu, lost.

peregall, fully equal. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Aug., 8; Skelton, Speke Parrot, 430; no peregal, without an equal; Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, iii. 2 (Catzo). See paregal.

perge, go on, proceed. Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage, ii (Ilford); L. L. L. iv. 2. 54. L. perge, imper.

pergit, a pargetting; ‘Painting’s pergit’, the plastering (of a woman’s face) with paint, Drayton, Pastorals, iv. 78. See parget.

periapt, an amulet. 1 Hen. VI, v. 3. 2. F. ‘periapte, a medicine hanged about any part of the body’ (Cotgr.). Gk. περίαπτον, a thing fastened round one, an amulet (Plato).

periment, a ‘pediment’ (NED.). A workman’s term. L. operimentum, a covering (Vulgate, Ezek. xxviii. 13). See Dict. (s.v. Pediment).

perish, to destroy. 2 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 100; Bacon, Essay 27, § 5. Cp. the Yorks. use: ‘If thou goes out to-night it will perish thee’ (EDD.), and the Irish, ‘Ah, shut that door; there’s a breeze in throught it that would perish the Danes’, Joyce, 168.

perk, saucy, pert, brisk, smart. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 8. In gen. prov. use in the North and in the Midlands (EDD.). As vb., to perk it, to thrust oneself forward, to behave presumptuously; ‘Miriam began to perk it before Moses’, Bunyan, Case Consc. Resolved (ed. 1861, ii. 673); to be perked up, to be made smart, Hen. VIII, ii. 3. 21; to perk up, to stick up, ‘(Hattes) pearking up’, Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 50).

perpetuana, a very durable woollen stuff, sometimes called everlasting. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iii. 2 (Hedon); Marston, What you Will, ii. 1. 8. From L, perpetuus, perpetual.

perron, peron, a large block of stone, used as a platform, or a funeral monument, or other purpose. Morte Arthur, leaf 207, back, 28; bk. x, c. 2. F. ‘Perron, an open lodge, passage, or walk of stone raised; some quantity of staires, directly before the foredoore of a great house; also, a square base of stone or metal, some five or six foot high, whereon in old time Knights errant placed some discourse, challenge, or proofe of an adventure,’ Cotgrave. Anglo-F. perrun, a block of stone (Ch. Rol. 12).

persant, piercing. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 20. F. perçant, pres. pt. of percer, to pierce.

perspective, an optical instrument for looking through or viewing objects with; a telescope; ‘The heavens . . . whereof perspectives begin to tell tales’, Sir T. Browne, Hydriotaphia; ‘Whose eyes shall easily . . . behold without a perspective the extreamest distances’, id., Rel. Med., Pt. 1, § 49; Webster, Duchess Malfi, iv. 2 (1 Madman); id. (Bosola), near end; a microscope, ‘A tiny mite which we can scarcely see Without a perspective’, Oldham, 8th Sat. of Boileau, 7 (ed. Bell, p. 203); a picture contrived to produce a fantastic effect; e.g. appearing confused or distorted except from one particular point of view, or presenting different aspects from different points. Rich. II, ii. 2. 18.

perspicil, a telescope, optic glass. B. Jonson, Staple of News, i. 1 (P. jun.); New Inn, ii. 2 (Frank); Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, v. 2. 2. See Nares. L. (16th cent.) perspicilia, spectacles (Ducange).

perstand, to understand. Gascoigne, Works, i. 78; Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 492, col. 1, p. 499. A blend of two words—perceive and understand.

perstringe, to censure. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, end of ii. 1 (Damplay). L. perstringere.

persue, the trail of blood left by a wounded animal, the ‘parsee’. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 28. Cp. ‘Now he has drawn pursuit [old ed. pursue, i.e. the trail] on me, He hunts me like the devil’; Fletcher, Bonduca, v. 2 (Petillius). See parsee.

†persway, to assuage, alleviate. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Overdo). Not found elsewhere.

pert, lively, brisk, sprightly; in good spirits; ‘Trip the pert Fairies’, Milton, Comus, 118; Mids. Night’s D. i. 1. 13. In gen. prov. use in England, see EDD. (s.v. Pert, also Peart).

pert, open, easily perceived. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 162. Short for apert, open. F. apert; L. apertus.

peruse, to inspect, examine. Com. Errors, i. 2. 15; Hen. VIII, ii. 3. 75; peruse over, to read over, King John, v. 2. 5.

pester’d, pestred, crowded together; ‘Pestred in gallies’, Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 32 (end); ‘Confin’d and pester’d in this pinfold here’, Milton, Comus, 7; North’s Plutarch (in Shak. Plutarch, ed. Skeat, 175). For impestered; ‘Empestré, impestered, intricated, intangled, incumbered’, Cotgrave. See Dict. (s.v. Pester).

pestle, the leg and leg-bone of an animal, most freq. a pig in the phr. a pestle of pork; ‘Pestelles of porke’, Boke of Kervynge (Furnivall, 164). In prov. use in many parts of England (EDD.). The pestle of a lark, used fig. for a trifle, something very small, Hall, Satires, iv. 4. 29; ‘Rutlandshire is but the Pestel of a Lark’, Fuller, Worthies, Rutland, ii. 346. A pestle of a portigue, used jocosely in speaking of a gold coin (a portigue), as eatable meat, to starving sailors, Fletcher, Sea Voyage, i. 3 (Tibalt).

petar, a petard, bomb, a case filled with explosive materials. Hamlet, iii. 4. 207; Beaumont and Fl., Double Marriage, iii. 2 (Gunner); petarre, Shirley, Gamester, iv. 1 (Young B.).

peterman, a fisherman. Eastward Ho, ii. 1 (or 3) (Quicksilver). In reference to St. Peter.

Peter-see-me, a kind of Spanish wine. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iii. 1 (near end); Brathwait, Law of Drinking, 80; Philecothonista (1635), 48 (Nares). Sometimes only Peeter, Beaumont and Fl., Chances, v. 3 (Song). Pedro Ximenes was the name of a celebrated Spanish grape, so called after its introducer, see NED. Cp. the spelling Peter-sameene in Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 3 (1st Vintner).

petternel, a ‘petronel’, horse-pistol. Return from Parnassus, i. 2 (Judicio). Hence, petronellier, a soldier armed with a petrenel; Gascoigne, Weeds, ed. Hazlitt, i. 408. See Dict. (s.v. Petronel).

petun, tobacco. Taylor’s Works, 1630 (Nares). F. petun, a native South American name of tobacco (a Guarani word); see NED.; ‘Petum femelle, English Tobacco; Petum masle, French Tobacco’ (Cotgr.). See Stanford.

pewl, to cry as a babe; ‘Here pewled the babes’, Sackville, Induction, st. 74. See Dict. (s.v. Pule).

pheare, a common spelling of fere, q.v. Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 2. 122; pheer, Marmion, The Antiquary, i. 1 (Gasparo).

phenicopter, a flamingo. Nabbes, Microcosmus, iii. 1 (Sensuality). Gk. φοινικ- (from φοῖνιξ), crimson, and πτερόν, feather. Spelt phœnicopterus, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. iii, c. 12 (near the end).

philander, a lover, one given to making love to a lady, a male flirt. Congreve, Way of the World, v. 1 (Lady Wishfort); Tatler, no. 13, § 1. This word for a lover became fashionable through the popularity of a Ballad of 1682 about ‘the Fair Phillis’ and her ‘Philander’; see NED. The Greek word ‘Philander’ was misunderstood as meaning a loving man, but φίλανδρος was used originally of a woman, one loving her husband.

Philip, a familiar name for a sparrow. King John, i. 231; Middleton, The Widow, iii. 2 (Violetta). See Nares. Still in use in Cheshire and Northants (EDD.). See Phip.

Philip and Cheiny, an expression for two or more men of the common people taken at random; Udall, Erasmus, Apoph., Pompey, 1. Also, Philip, Hob and Cheanie, Tusser, Husbandry, 8. Also, name for a kind of worsted or woollen stuff of common quality; ‘Thirteene pound . . . T’will put a Lady scarce in Philip and Cheyney’, Fletcher, Wit at several Weapons, ii. 1 (Lady Ruinous). See NED. (s.v. Philip, 4) and Davies, Eng. Glossary.

philomath, a lover of learning, esp. a mathematician. Congreve, Love for Love, ii. 1 (Sir Sampson). Gk. φιλομαθής.

Phip, a familiar name for a sparrow, a contraction for Philip, q.v.; Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophel, Sonnet 83; Lyly, Mother Bombie, iii. 4 (Song).

Phitonesse, the witch of Endor; ‘Heavenly breath, of Phitonessa’s power, That raised the dead corpse of her friend to life’, Middleton, Family of Love, iii. 7. 5; ‘I call In the name of Kyng Saul . . . He bad the Phitonesse To wytchcraft her to dresse’, Skelton, Phylyp Sparowe, 1359. ME. Phitonesse, the witch of Endor (Gower, C. A. iv. 1937); Phitones, Barbour’s Bruce, iv. 753 (see Notes, p. 563); phitonesses, witches (Chaucer, Hous F. iii. 1261). Med. L. phitonissa for pythonissa, a woman inspired by Python (Ducange). Cp. Vulgate, in the story of the witch of Endor, 1 Sam. xxviii. 7 (‘mulierem habentem pythonem’). Gk. πνεῦμα πύθωνα, a spirit of Python, Acts xvi. 16. See note, no. 729 in Prompt. EETS., p. 600, and fitten.

phonascus, a singing-master; ‘Why have you not, like Nero, a phonascus?’, Lee, Theodosius, iv. 2 (Marcian). Misprinted phenascus in The Modern British Drama, i. 329. L. phonascus (Suetonius); Gk. φωνασκός, one who exercises the voice; from φωνή, voice.

phrenitis, a kind of frenzy or madness. Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, iii. 3 (Corax). Gk. φρενῖτις, delirium.

phrontisterion, a place for thinking or studying, an academy or college. Tomkis, Albumazar, i. 3. 10; phrontisterium; Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, iii. 1 (Banausus). Gk. φροντιστήριον, a place for meditation, a thinking-shop (Aristophanes).

physnomy, fisnomy, face, ‘physiognomy’. Shirley, Gamester, iii. 3 (Hazard); fisnomy, All’s Well, iv. 5. 42.

picaro, a rogue, knave. Shirley, The Brothers, v. 3 (Pedro); Pickaro, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Alvarez). Span. picaro, ‘a rogue, a scoundrel, a base fellow’ (Stevens).

picaroon, pickaroon, a rogue. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, ii (Manly); ‘Are you there indeed, my little Picaroon?’, Otway, Atheist, ii. 1; a pirate, ‘A French Piccaroune’, Capt. Smith, Virginia, v. 184 (NED.); a small pirate ship, Farquhar, Recruiting Officer, v. 5 (Brazen).

pick, to waste away, to droop. Middleton, Chaste Maid, i. 1. In prov. use in Lincoln, S. Midlands, and south-west counties, see EDD. (s.v. Peak, vb.²). See peak (2).

pick, to throw, Coriolanus, i. 1. 204; ‘I pycke with an arrow, Je darde’, Palsgrave.

pick: in phr. to pick mood, to pick a quarrel; ‘Whoso therat pyketh mood’, Skelton, Against the Scottes, Epilogue, 21.

pick: picked, refined, exquisite, fastidious, King John, i. 1. 193; picking, dainty, fastidious, 2 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 198.

pick, the spike in the middle of a buckler, Porter, Two Angry Women, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 318. Also, a toothpick, Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, i. 2 (Sebastian).

pickadil, pickadel, the expansive collar fashionable in the early part of the 17th cent. Blount, Glossogr., 1656; Beaumont and Fl., Pilgrim, ii. 2 (1 Outlaw). Spelt picardill, B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, ii. 1 (Pug); Underwood (NED.). See peccadillo.

picke-devant, pickadevant, a short beard trimmed to a point. Heywood, The Royal King, vol. vi, p. 70. Also, a man with a picke-devant, Heywood, Challenge, v. 1; vol. v, p. 68. F. pique-devant, an expression only found in English. See Nares (s.v. Pike-devant).

pickeer, to pillage, plunder; to practise piracy, Fuller, Worthies, Hants (1662, ii. 10); to skirmish, reconnoitre, spelt pickear, Lovelace, Lucasta (Poems, 1864, ii. 203); to wrangle, spelt pickere, Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 448. See NED.

pickle, to deal with in a minute way, lit. to pick in a small way. Ascham, Scholemaster (Arber, 158). Hence pickling, trifling, paltry, Gascoigne, Supposes, i. 2 (Pasiphilo). [R. L. Stevenson uses the word ‘to pickle’ in the sense of ‘to trifle’; see Letters (Sept. 6, 1888).]

pick-packe, pick-a-back; ‘He gets him up on pick-packe’, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 6 (Stage-direction); Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 2 (260); scene 2. 89 (W.); p. 156, col. 1 (D.). ‘Pick-pack’ (or ‘a pick-pack’) is still in use in Yorks., see EDD. (s.v. Pick-a-back). The German word for ‘pick-pack’ is Huckepack. For numerous forms of this word see NED.

pickthank, a flatterer, a mischief-maker. 1 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 25; Beaumont and Fl., Maid’s Tragedy, iii. 1 (Evadne); pickthank tales, tales told to curry favour, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, i. 1 (Lacy). In prov. use in the British Isles (EDD.).

pick-tooth, a toothpick. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iv. 1 (Fallace). In use in Glouc. (EDD.).

piddle, to work or act in a trifling, paltry way. Ascham, Toxoph. (ed. Arber, 117); Fletcher, Wit without M. i. 2; to trifle or toy with one’s food, J. Dyke, Sel. Serm. (1640, p. 292); Pope, Horace’s Satires, ii. 2. 137. In common use in this sense in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Piddle, vb.¹ 1).

piece, a piece of money of the value of 22 shillings. Pepys, Diary, March 14, 1660 (N. S.). A piece of eight, the Spanish dollar of the value of 8 reals, or about 4s. 6d., B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. ii. 1. 6 (see Wheatley’s note); Alchemist, ii. 3 (Face).

piece, a painting, a picture, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, 4); Pepys, Diary, Feb. 27, 1663 (N. S.).

pied, variegated, parti-coloured. Spelt pyed, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. i. 5 (Matthew); spelt pide, Milton, L’Allegro, 75 (ed. 1632).

pieton, a foot-soldier; hence, a pawn at chess; ‘Pietons, or fotemen’, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 87, back, 6; ‘They [the pawns] be all named pietons’, id., Game of Chesse, bk. iii, c. 1 (beginning). F. ‘pieton, a footman, also, a Pawn at Chess’ (Cotgr.).

pig, sixpence (Cant); ‘Fill till’t be sixpence, And there’s my pig’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 1 (1 Boor).

pigeaneau, a dupe, a gull. Farquhar, Sir Harry Wildair, iv. 1 (Marquis). F. pigeonneau, a young pigeon, a dupe; dimin. of pigeon.

pigeon-holes, the name of a game; the same as troll-my-dames, q. v.; ‘Dice, cards, pigeon-holes’, Rowley, A Woman never vext, i. 1 (Old Foster); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xii. 101; ii. 1. 3; in Hazlitt, xii. 120.

pigeon-livered, applied to one incapable of anger; ‘I am pigeon-livered and lack gall’, Hamlet, ii. 2. 605. A pigeon was supposed to have no gall, and so to lack capacity for anger or resentment. ‘Sure he’s a pigeon, for he has no gall’, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, i. 5 (Castruchio).

pight, pt. t. pitched; ‘Under Pomfret his proud Tents he pight’, Drayton, Agincourt, 97; ypight, pp., ‘Underneath a craggy cliff ypight’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 33; pight, Tr. and Cr. v. 10. 24. ME. pighte, pt. t. of picchen; y)pight, pp., see Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Picchen).

pigsnye, a darling, a pet, commonly used as an endearing form of address to a girl. Dryden, Tempest, iv. 3; Farquhar, Love and Bottle, i. 1. Spelt pigges-nye, Lyly, Euphues, 114. In Butler, Hud. (ii. 1. 560), Pigsneye occurs in the sense of a ‘dear little eye’.

pike: in phr. sold at a pike, Kyd, Cornelia, v. 444 (not far from end). Here Kyd translates from F. vendre sous une pique, which refers to the L. phrase venalis sub hasta, ‘that can be sold by auction’. It looks as if Kyd did not understand the allusion.

pike: in phr. on the pike, ‘a-peak’; used of an anchor, when the cable has been hove in so as to bring the ship just over it. Greene, Looking Glasse, iii. 1. F. à pic, ‘perpendiculairement’ (Dict. de l’Acad., 1762).

pilch, to pilfer, to filch. Tusser, Husbandry, § 15. 39; ‘Pilche, miche, suffurari’, Levins, Manip. In prov. use in Worc. and Glouc. (EDD.).

pilcher, a term of abuse, prob. meaning one who ‘pilches’; it is sometimes punningly connected with the word pilchard (see below). B. Jonson, Poetaster, iii. 4; Fletcher, Wit without Money, iii. 4.

pilcher, a pilchard. Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iii. 4. 1; Beggar’s Bush, iv. 1 (Clause).

pilcrow, a name for the paragraph-mark, printed as ¶. Tusser, Husbandry, p. 2; spelt peel-crow, Beaumont and Fl., Nice Valour, v. 1 (Lapet); ‘Pilcrow, paragraphus’, Coles, Lat. Dict.; ‘Paragraphe, Pillcrow’, Cotgrave. Cp. ME. pylcraft in a boke, ‘Asteriscus, Paragraphus’ (Prompt.); pargrafte, paragraphus (Ortus Voc.). See Notes on Eng. Etym., s.v.

pile, the metal head of an arrow. Drayton, Pol. xxvii. 337; head of a dart, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iv. 139; a Roman javelin, Dryden, Hind and Panther, bk. ii, 161. L. pilum, the heavy javelin of the Roman foot-soldier.

pile, a small castle; ‘A little pretie pile or castle’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Antigonus, § 27; ‘Certayne pylys and other strengthis’, Fabyan, Chron., Pt. VII, fol. cxxxvii; repr. (1811), p. 512, l. 16. ME. pile, a stronghold (P. Plowman, C. xxii. 366). See NED. (s.v. Pile, sb.²).

pill, to plunder, spoil, to commit depredation. Richard II, ii. 1. 246; Richard III, i. 3. 159; to pill and poll, Mirror for Mag. 467 (Nares).

pill, to strip. Merch. Ven. i. 3. 85; Lucrece, 1167. In common prov. use in the sense of peeling, stripping off the outer skin, the rind or bark, see EDD. (s.v. Pill, vb.¹ 1).

pillowbeer, a pillow-case. Locrine, iv. 4. 6; Middleton, Women beware Women, iv. 2 (Sordido). ME. pilwe-beer (Chaucer, C. T. A. 694); bere, a pillow-case (Boke Duchesse, 254).

pimp-whiskin, a pimp. Ford, Fancies Chaste and Noble, i. 2 (Spadone). See whiskin.

pin, a peg fixed in the very centre of a target. Hence, to cleave the pin, to hit and split this peg, to make the best possible hit. L. L. L. iv. 1. 138; Romeo, ii. 4. 15.

pinax, a tablet, picture. Sir T. Browne, Letter to a Friend, § 32. Gk. πίναξ, board.

pin-bouk, some kind of bucket for liquids. Drayton, Moses, bk. iii, 165. OE. būc, pail. See Dict. (s.v. Bucket).

pindy-pandy, a formula used as equivalent to handy-dandy, in the game of choosing which hand a thing is hidden in. Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, iv. 5 (Firk).

piner, pyner, a pioneer; ‘My piners eke were prest with showle and spade’, Mirror for Mag., Aurel. Anton. Caracalla, st. 40; ‘He pyners set to trenche’, id., Burdet, st. 70. See Dict. (s.v. Pioneer). See pion.

ping, to urge, push. Mirror for Mag., Fulgentius, st. 9. Still in use in the west country, see EDD. (s.v. Ping, vb.² 1). OE. pyngan, to prick, L. pungere.

pingle, to work in an ineffectual way, to trifle, to ‘piddle’. Women’s Rights, 152 (NED). Hence, pingler, a trifler, Two Angry Women, ii. 2 (Coomes); Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 109). ‘Pingle’ is in prov. use in this sense in Scotland and the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Pingle, vb.¹ 2). Cp. Swed. dial. pyngla, to be busy about small matters (Rietz).

pinion, the name of an obsolete game at cards. Interlude of Youth, (ed. 1849, p. 38). See NED.

pink, to stab with any pointed weapon. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 2; a stab with a rapier or dagger, Ford, Lady’s Trial, iii. 1 (Fulgoso). Low G. pinken, to strike (Schambach).

pink, a sailing vessel. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 6. 17. See Nares and NED. Du. pinck, ‘a pinke or a fishers boate; a sounding barke’ (Hexham).

pink, to contract, make small (the eyes). Heywood, Spider and Fly (Nares); contracted small (said of the eyes), ‘Plumpie Bacchus with pinke eyne’, Ant. and Cl. ii. 7. 121. Du. pincken, to shut the eyes (Hexham).

pinnace, a go-between, in love affairs. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Overdo). A fig. sense of ‘pinnace’, a small attendant vessel.

pinner, a ‘pinder’, one who impounds stray cattle. Greene, George-a-Greene, i (Bettris, 1. 236); ed. Dyce, p. 256, col. 1. ‘Pinder’ (or ‘pinner’) is in prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Pind, vb. 1 (1)). ME. pyndare of beestys, ‘inclusor’ (Prompt. EETS. 336, see note, no. 1638). See Dict. (s.v. Pinder).

pinson, a thin-soled shoe of some kind, Withal (ed. 1608, p. 211); ‘Pynson, sho, caffignon’, Palsgrave. ME. pynson, sok (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 1642).

pintas, las, the Spanish name for the card-game called basset; ‘A las Pintas, (playing) at basset’, Adventures of Five Hours, iv. 1 (Diego); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xv. 265. Span. pintas, basset; pl. of pinta, ‘among Gamesters a peep in a card’ (Stevens).

pion, to dig, trench, excavate. Hence pyonings, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 63. Pioned, trenched, Tempest, iv. 1. 64. OF. pioner, to dig (Godefroy). See piner.

pip, a spot on a card; hence, a unit; ‘Thirty-two years old, which is a pip out’, Massinger, Fatal Dowry, ii. 2 (Bellapert). The allusion is to a game called One-and-thirty, which differs from 32 by 1. So also in Shirley, Love’s Cruelty, i. 2 (Hippolito). See peep.

pipple, to blow with a gentle sound (of the wind). Skelton, A Replycacion, ed. Dyce, i. 207; id., Garl. of Laurell, 676. Hence ‘pippler’, a name for the aspen in Devon, see EDD. (s.v. Pipple).

pique, a depraved or diseased appetite. Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 809. L. pica, a depraved appetite; a F. form (not found).

pirrie, pirry, a blast of wind, a squall. Elyot, Governour, i. 17, § 5; spelt perry, Look about You, sc. 29 (Richard), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 482. ME. pyry, a storm of wind (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 1643).

pishery-pashery, trifling talk. Dekker, Shoem. Holiday, iii. 5 (Eyre); finery, fallals, id., v. 4 (Eyre).

pist!, hist!, an interjection, to draw attention. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 3 (Sir O. Twi.).

pistolet, a name given to certain foreign gold coins, ranging in value from 5s. 10d. to 6s. 8d. Proclamation, May 4, 1553 (NED.); in later times = pistole, worth about 16s. 6d. ‘Each Pistolet exchang’d at sixteen shillings six pence’, Heylin, Examen Hist. i. 268 (NED.); B. Jonson, Alchemist, iii. 2 (Face); also called a double pistolet, Fletcher, Span. Curate, i. 1 (Jamie).

pitch, a vertex, head; also, a projecting part of the body, the shoulder, the hip; ‘His manly pitch’ (used for both shoulders, collectively), Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, ii. 1. 11.

pitch and pay, to pay down money at once, pay ready money. Hen. V, ii. 3. 51; Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable; i. 2 (Blurt); Mirror for Mag., Warwicke, st. 14; Tusser, Husbandry, § 113. 24.

plaça, a square, parade, public walk. Shirley, The Brothers, i. 1 (Carlos). Span. plaça (plaza).

plackerd, the forepart of a woman’s petticoat; ‘For fear of the cut-purse, on a sudden she’ll swap thee into her plackerd’, Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 3. See NED. (s.v. Placard).

placket, an apron or petticoat: hence transf. the wearer of a petticoat, a woman, Tr. and Cr. ii. 3. 22; the opening or slit at the top of a skirt or petticoat, King Lear, iii. 4. 100; a pocket in a woman’s skirt, ‘Which instrument . . . was found in my Lady Lambert’s placket’, Hist. Cromwell (NED.).

plage, a region, country. Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iv. 4 (Tamb.); 2 Tamb. i. 1 (Orcanes). F. plage, region (Cotgr.). L. plaga, a region.

plaice-mouth, a mouth drawn on one side. Spelt plaise-mouth, B. Jonson, Silent Woman, iii. 2 (Epicene).

plain, to plane. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, v. 322. Hence, Plainer, a carpenter’s plane, id., v. 314.

plain-song, a simple melody. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 41; hence, ‘the plain-song cuckoo’, Mids. Night’s D. iii. 1.

planch, to board. Planched, covered with boards, Meas. for M. iv. 1. 30; to plaunche on, to clap on (something broad and flat), Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 2. 12. F. planche, a plank.

plancher, a wooden floor, a flooring of planks; used in pl. Arden of Fev. i. 1. 42; also boards (of a ship); Drayton, Pol. iii. 272. F. plancher, ‘a boorded floor’ (Cotgr.).

plange, to lament, grieve. Warner, Alb. England, bk. v, p. 25, st. 31. L. plangere.

planipedes, pantomimes or entertainments with dancing; ‘The common players of interludes called Planipedes, played barefoote vpon the floore’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. i, c. 15; p. 49. L. planipedes (Juvenal).

plant, the sole of the foot; ‘Knotty legs, and plants of clay’, B. Jonson, Masque of Oberon, song 5. F. plante, the sole. L. planta.

plasma, a form, mould, shape; ‘There is a Plasma, or deepe pit’, Heywood, Iron Age, Part II (Orestes, in a mad speech); vol. iii, p. 424. Gk. πλάσμα, anything formed or moulded.

platic, an astrological term used of an ‘aspect’ of a planet (NED.). B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (P. Can.). Spelt platique, Fletcher, Bloody Brother, iv. 2. Med. L. platicus, late Gk. πλατυκός, -ικός, broad, diffuse.

plaudite, plaudity, shout of applause, approval; ‘Cristall plaudities’, Tourneur, Revenger’s Tragedy, ii. 1. L. plaudite, applaud ye.

pleasant, to render pleasant; ‘Some pleasant their lives’, Manchester Al Mondo (ed. 1639, p. 51); ‘This tedious mortality, pleasant it how man can’, id., p. 62.

plight, to fold, pleat, to intertwine into one combined texture. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 7; plighted, folded, Milton, Comus, 301; pleated, King Lear, i. 1. 283 (Quarto edd.); Greene, Description of the Shepherd, 21 (Dyce, 304). ME. plyte, to fold (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 1204). Anglo-F. plit (Gower) = Norm. F. pleit (Burguy), whence E. plait. See Dict. (s.v. Plait).

plompe, a cluster, clump, mass; ‘A plompe of wood’, Morte Arthur, leaf 30, back, 19; bk. i, c. 16 (end); plompes, troops, bands; Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 129. See plump.

plotform, a scheme, design, plan, contrivance. Grim the Collier, ii. 1 (Clinton); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 423; a level place constructed for mounting guns, Gascoigne, Art of Venerie, Works (ed. 1870, ii. 304). See Dict. (s.v. Plot), and Notes on Eng. Etym., p. 219.

plough. The parts of a plough are enumerated in Gervase Markham’s Complete Husbandman (1614), quoted in Notes to Fitzherbert’s Husbandry, p. 128, where they are fully explained. I merely enumerate them here. (1) Plough-beam, a large and long piece of timber, forming an arch for the other parts; (2) The skeath (sheath), a piece of wood 2½ feet long, mortised into the beam; (3) Principal hale, the left-handle; also called plough-tail or plough-start; (4) Plough-head or share-beam, about 3 feet in length; (5) Plough-spindles or rough-staves, two round pieces of wood that joined the handles together; (6) Righthand-hale, or plough-stilt, smaller and weaker than the other; (7) Plough-rest, a small piece of wood, fixed to the plough-head and righthand-hale; (8) Shelboard, i.e. shield-board, a strong board on the right side of the plough; (9) Coulter, a long piece of iron in the front, to cut the soil; (10) Share; (11) Plough-foot, or plough-shoe, before the coulter, to regulate the depth of the furrow. The ploughman also had with him a plough-mall or small mallet; and, originally, a plough-staff or aker-staff, for clearing the mould-board when required.

plough-staff, an instrument like a paddle for cleaning a plough, or clearing it of weeds. Tusser, Husbandry, § 17. 21. In use in Scotland and the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Plough, II (49)).

Plowden. Proverb: The case is altered, quoth Plowden. For various explanations see Grose, Local Proverbs (ed. 1790), Shropshire, and Ray, Proverbial Phrases (under A), ed. Bohn, 147.

ployden; ‘A stub-bearded John-a-Stile with a ployden’s face’, Marston, Dutch Courtezan, iii. 1 (Crispinella). Not explained.

pluck: in phr. to pluck down a side, in card-playing, to cause the loss or hazard of the side or party with which a person plays. Beaumont and Fl., Maid’s Tragedy, ii. 1 (Dula). See Nares.

plumb, perpendicularly; ‘Plumb down he drops’, Milton, P. L. ii. 933. In prov. use in various parts of England, also in U.S.A., see EDD. (s.v. Plum, adj.¹). F. ‘à-plomb, perpendicularly, downright’ (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.v. Plump).

plume, said of a hawk, to pluck feathers from a bird; also, to pluck, despoil. Davenant, The Wits, ii. 1 (Ample); Dryden, Absalom, 920.

plummet, a leaden bullet, hurled from a sling. North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antonius, § 23 (in Shak. Plut., p. 190); a sounding-lead, used fig. a criterion of truth, ‘Lay all to the Line and Plummet of the written word’, Gilpin, Demonology, iii. 17. 140 (NED.).

plump, a troop, flock; ‘A whole plump of rogues’, Beaumont and Fl., Double Marriage, iii. 2 (Guard); ‘A plump of fowl’, Dryden, tr. of Aeneid, xii. 374; Theodore and Honoria, 316. See Nares. See plompe.

plunge, to overwhelm (with trouble or difficulty); ‘(He) was so plunged and gravelled with three lines of Seneca’, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med. i. 21.

plunge, a critical situation, crisis, a dilemma. Greene, Looking Glasse, iii. 2. Phr.: to put to a plunge, Middleton, Roaring Girl, iv. 1 (Sir Alexander). ‘Il est au bout de son breviaire, he is at a plunge or nonplus’, Cotgrave (s.v. Breviaire). Cp. the Northants phrase, ‘I was put to a plunge’, see EDD. (s.v. Plunge, sb.¹).

Plymouth cloak, a cudgel or staff, carried by one who walked in cuerpo, and thus facetiously assumed to take the place of a cloak; ‘Shall I walke in a Plimouth Cloake (that’s to say) like a rogue, in my hose and doublet, and a crabtree cudgell in my hand?’, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 2 (Matheo); ‘A Plymouth cloak, that is, a cane or staff’, Ray’s Proverbs out of Fuller’s Worthies (ed. Bohn, 201); Grose, Local Proverbs in Glossary, 1790. See Nares.

pocas palabras, the Spanish for ‘few words’. Wonderfull Yeare 1603 (ed. 1732, p. 46); paucas pallabris, Tam. Shrew, Induct. i. 5. Span. palabra, Med. L. parabola, ‘verbum, sermo’ (Ducange); a parable, similitude (Vulgate, in N. T.) See Stanford.

poinado, a poniard. Heywood, The Royal King, vol. vi, p. 70; Return from Parnassus, i. 2 (Judicio); ‘Poinard, or Poinado’, Phillips, 1658.

poinet, poynet, an ornament for the wrist, a wristlet or bracelet. J. Heywood, The Four P’s, in Anc. Brit. Drama, i. 10, col. 2; Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 351 (altered to poignet). F. poignet, wrist; poing, the fist. See NED.

point, a tagged lace for attaching hose to the doublet, and for fastening various parts where buttons are now used. Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 49. Very common, and the perpetual subject of jokes and quibbles; 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 238; Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 25.

point: in phr. point of war, a short strain sounded as a signal by a trumpeter. 2 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 52; Greene, Orl. Fur., ed. Dyce, p. 94; Peele, Edw. I, i (Longshanks); ed. Dyce, p. 378. See NED. (s.v. Point, sb.¹ 9).

point: in phr. to point [F. à point], to the smallest detail, completely; ‘Armed to point’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 16; Tempest, i. 2. 194; ‘Are ye all fit?’ 1 Gent. ‘To point, sir’, Fletcher, Chances, i. 4. 2.

point-device (-devyse), completely, perfectly, in every point. Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 176; extremely precise, scrupulous to the point of perfection, As You Like It, iii. 2. 401. ME. poynt devys: ‘Her nose was wrought at poynt devys’ (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 1215); Anglo F. à point devis, or devis à point, arranged to a proper point or degree. See NED.

poise, a weight (for exercise), a dumb-bell; ‘Poyses made of leadde’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 16, § 1; poyse, heavy fall; Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 54. See peise.

poisure, poise, balance, effect. Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, i. 1 (Valentine).

poking-stick, poker, a stick or iron for setting the plaits of ruffs. Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 228; Beaumont and Fl., Mons. Thomas, iii. 2. 2. Poker, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, ii. 1 (Bellafront).

poldavy, polldavy, a sort of coarse canvas; ‘Poldavy, or buckram’, Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, c. 6, p. 54; Howell, Letters, vol. i, sect. 2, let. 10 (1621). See Nares, and NED. Named from Poldavide, dep. Finisterre, France; near Daoulas, whence E. dowlas (Phil. Soc. Trans., May, 1904). The name is Breton, meaning ‘David’s pool’.

polehead, a ‘poll-head’, a tadpole. Marston, What you Will, ii. 1 (Quadratus); ‘Cavesot, a polehead, black vermine wherof frogs do come’, Cotgrave. Still in common use in the North; in Banffsh. the form is powet (or powit); see EDD. (s.v. Powhead). ME. polhevede (Gen. and Ex., 2977).

polepennery, extortion of pence; ‘To scrape for more rent is polepennery’, Wily Beguiled, sc. ii (1st quarto, 1606).

politien, a politician. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. iii, c. 4, pp. 158, 159; politians, pl., Lyly, Sappho, i. 3. OF. policien, a citizen, a politician (Godefroy).

poll, to cut off the head of an animal, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 112; to cut short the hair, Greene, Upst. Courtier, D. iij. b. (NED.); to plunder by excessive rent-raising, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 29); to poll and pill, Bacon, Hen. VII (ed. Lumby, 148); Spenser, F. Q. v. 2. 6.

pollard, an animal without horns, either one that has lost its horns, or one of a hornless variety, used jocosely of a man who is not a cuckold. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4 (Captain). See Nares.

pollax, pole-ax, a battle-axe; ‘At hande strokes they use not swordes but pollaxes’, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 141); a halbert carried by the body-guard of a king or great personage, ‘Bec de faulcon, a fashion of Pollax borne by the Peeres of France, and by the French King’s Pensioners’, Cotgrave; ‘Mazzière, a halberdier or poleaxe man, such as the Queene of England’s gentlemen pencioners are’, Florio.

poll-hatchet, a poll-axe; hence, one who wields a poll-hatchet; a term of abuse or contempt. Spelt powle-hatchett, Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 613; and see Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 23, l. 29.

polony, a sausage made at Bologna, Italy. In Lord Cromwell, iii. 2. 131, Hodge, writing from Bologna, says that he is ‘among the Polonyan Sasiges’. See Dict.

pomeroy, a variety of apple. Spelt pom-roy, Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, c. 1, § 2. See NED.

pomewater, a large juicy kind of apple. L. L. L. iv. 2. 4; Dekker, Old Fortunatus, iv. 2 (Shadow); ‘When a pome-water, bestucke with a few rotten cloves shall be more worth than the honesty of a hypocrite’, Vox Græculi (in Brand’s Pop. Antiq., ed. 1848, i. 17). A Hampshire word (EDD.).

pommado, an exercise of vaulting on a horse with one hand on the pommel of the saddle. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Mercury), where we find ‘the whole, or half the pommado’. Marston has pommado reverso, said to mean the vaulting off the horse again. If so, ‘the whole pommado’ may refer to both actions, and ‘the half pommado’ to one of them. F. pommade, ‘the pommada, a trick in vaulting’ (Cotgr.).

pompillion, an ointment made of the buds of the black poplar; ‘Populeon, Popilion or Pompillion’, Cotgrave. OF. populeon (Godefroy, Compl.). See NED.

pompillion, a term applied in contempt to a man. Fletcher, Women Pleased, iii. 4 (Bartello). Not found elsewhere. See below.

pompion, a pumpkin. Tusser, Husbandry, § 41; B. Jonson, Time Vindicated (Fame); ‘Pompon, a pumpion or melon’, Cotgrave. A Lanc. word for a pumpkin, see EDD. (s.v. Pumpion). Du. pompoen, ‘a pompion, pumpkin’ (Sewel).

pon, a pan, hollow, basin. Drayton, Pol. xxviii. 169. The pronunc. of ‘pan’ in the north-west of England (EDD.).

ponder, weight. Heywood, Silver Age, A. ii (Alcmena); vol. iii, p. 102; a heavy blow, id. (Hercules), p. 142.

pontifical, bridge-making. Milton, P. L. x. 313. L. pons (bridge) + facere (to make). It may be noted that L. pontifex (a pontiff) has probably nothing to do with bridge-making. See NED.

poop-noddie, pup-noddie, cony-catching, the art of befooling the simpleton; ‘I saw them close together at Poop-noddie, in her closet’, Wily Beguiled, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ix. 242; see NED.

poor-john, a coarse fish (usually hake), salted and dried. Temp. ii. 2. 28; Beaumont and Fl., Lover’s Progress, i. 1. 15. See EDD. (s.v. Poor).

pooter, the same as poting-stick, q.v. Warner, Alb. England, bk. ix, ch. 47, st. 8.

pope-holy, sanctimonious, hypocritical. Foxe, Martyrs (ed. 2, 205 b, 2); pop-holy, Skelton, Replycacion, 247; Garland of Laurell, 612. ME. pope-holy (P. Plowman, B. xiii. 284). In Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 415, Pope-Holy is used in the sense of ‘Hypocrisy’, being the translation of the papelardie of the French original.

popering, a kind of pear, brought from Poperinghe in W. Flanders. Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, iii. 2 (Y. Chartley); a poprin pear, Romeo, ii. 1. 38.

popler, porridge (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); Poppelars, porrage, Harman, Caveat, p. 83; popplar of yarum, mylke porrage, id., p. 86; poplars of yarrum, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Song).

popping, chattering; said of one whose talk is mere popping sound; foolish; ‘A poppynge fole’, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 234; ‘Pratynge poppynge dawes’, id., Replycacion, 39.

popular, populous; ‘How doth the popular City sit solitary!’, Jackson, True Evang., T. iii. 184; ‘The most popular part of Scotland’, Kirkton, Church History, 215 (EDD.). See NED., and Davies, Suppl. Gl.

porcpisce, a ‘porpoise’. Dryden, All for Love, iv. 1 (Ventidius); porpice, Drayton, Polyolb. v. 235. See Dict.

porpentine, a porcupine. Hamlet, i. 5. 20; 2 Hen. VI, iii. 1. 363; used by Shaks. seven times, in four of these as the sign of an inn; Ascham, Toxophilus (Arber, 31). See NED.

porret, poret, a young leek or onion. Tusser, Husbandry, § 39. 31; ‘Porret, yong lekes’, Palsgrave. F. porrette, ‘maiden leek, bladed leek, unset leek’ (Cotgr.). Norm. F. poret, see Moisy (s.v. Porrette).

port, to carry. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Compass); ‘Ported spears’, Milton, P. L. iv. 980.

port, deferential attendance. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, i. 517; state, splendid manner of living, Merch. of Ven. i. 1. 124.

port, the gate of a city. Coriolanus, i. 7. 1; v. 6. 6; Great Bible of 1539, Ps. ix. 14 (Prayer-book); Beaumont and Fl., Maid in the Mill, i. 1. 2; Massinger, Virgin Martyr, i. 1 (Sapritius). F. porte, a gate.

portague, a Portuguese gold coin, worth varying according to time between £3 5s. and £4 10s. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 3. Spelt portigue, Fletcher, Rule a Wife, v. 5. 5; portegue, Phillips, Dict., 1658; pl. portagues, Strype, Eccl. Mem. (ed. 1721, i. 18. 138); also, porteguez, Davenant, News fr. Plymouth (NED.). The s (z) of Span. Portugues, Pg. Portuguez, ‘Portuguese’, was taken as a plural, hence the English forms portegue, &c.

portance, carriage, bearing, deportment. Coriolanus, ii. 3. 232; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 5; ii. 3. 21.

portcannons, ornamental rolls or ‘canions’ round the legs of breeches; see canion. Butler, Hud. i. 3. 926.

portcullis, an Elizabethan coin, stamped with a portcullis. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iii. 1 (Shift).

porter’s lodge, the place where great men used to exercise summary punishment upon their servants; ‘To the porter’s lodge with him!’, Fletcher, Maid in the Mill, v. 2 (Don Philippo); Massinger, Duke of Milan, iii. 2 (Graccho).

portesse, a portable breviary which can be taken out of doors. Bible, Translators’ Preface, 9; Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. 1882, 77). ME. portos (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1321); portos, ‘portiforium’ (Prompt. EETS. 342, see note, no. 1662). OF. portehors (Godefroy), Church L. portiforium (Ducange). See Dict.

port-sale, public sale to the highest bidder; ‘The soldiers making portsale of their service to him that would give most’, North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Brutus, § 18 (in Shaks. Plut., p. 124); ‘Persons were sold out-right in port-sale under the guirland’ (sub corona veniere), Holland, Livy, xli. 1103; see NED. (s.v. Port, sb.²).

possess, to put one in possession of a fact. Meas. for M. iv. 1. 44; Merch. of Ven. i. 3. 65; King John, iv. 2. 41.

post, as set up before the door of a sheriff or magistrate. Posts were used to fix proclamations on; and were sometimes painted anew when a new magistrate came into office; ‘A sheriff’s post’, Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 157; ‘Worship, . . . for so much the posts at his door should signifie’, Puritan Widow, iii. 4. 12.

post, a messenger, Merch. Ven. ii. 9. 100; v. 1. 46. Also, a post-horse, 2 Hen. IV, iv. 3. 40. Hence, to post, to go with speed, hasten, Richard II, i. 1. 56; iii. 4. 90; v. 5. 59; ‘Thousands . . . post o’er land and ocean without rest’, Milton, Sonnet xix; post over, to hurry over, treat with negligence, 2 Hen. VI, iii. 1. 255.

post and pair, a card-game, played with three cards each, wherein much depended on vying, or betting on the goodness of the cards in your own hand. The best hand was three aces; then three kings, queens, &c. If there were no threes, the highest pairs won; or the highest game in the three cards. B. Jonson, Love Restored (Plutus); ‘The thrifty and right worshipful game of Post and Pair’, id., Masque of Christmas (Offering). See Nares.

postil, an explanatory note or comment on a word or passage in the Bible. Earle, Microcosmographie, § 2 (ed. Arber, 23); postill, to annotate, Bacon, Henry VIII (ed. Lumby, 193). ME. postille (Wyclif, Prol. 1 Cor.); see NED. Mod. L. postilla, a gloss on the Bible (Ducange).

post-knight, a knight of the post, a notorious perjurer. A Knack to know a Knave, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 538. See knight of the post.

posy, a short motto, orig. a line or verse of ‘poesy’, inscribed within a ring, on a knife, &c. Hamlet, iii. 2. 162; Middleton, Widow, i. 1 (Francisco); a bunch of flowers, Marlowe, Passionate Sheph. iii. See Dict.

pot. In the expressions to the pot, or to go to pot, or to go to the pot, the reference is to the cooking-pot; ‘Your poor sparrows . . . go to the pot for’t’, Webster, White Devil (ed. Dyce, p. 37); to the pot, to destruction, Coriolanus, i. 4. 47; Peele, Edw. I (ed. Dyce, p. 389).

potargo, ‘botargo’, cake made of the roe of the sea-mullet. Fletcher, Sea-Voyage, iv. 3 (Master). Prov. poutargo, ‘caviar’ (Mistral, Calendal). See Dict. (s.v. Botargo); also Stanford.

potch, to thrust. Coriolanus, i. 10. 15. Still in use in Warw. in this sense. See EDD. (s.v. Poach.)

potestate, chief magistrate. Morte Arthur, bk. v, c. 8; p. 174, l. 30; pl., Gascoigne, Supposes, iii. 3 (Damon).

pot-gun, used contemptuously for a small fire-arm; ‘How! fright me with your pot-gun?’, Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, iv. 4 (Norandine).

poting-stick, a piece of wood, bone, or iron, for adjusting the pleats of a ruff. Marston, Malcontent, v. 3 (Maquerelle); Yorkshire Tragedy, i. 74. OE. potian, to push, thrust.

potshare, a potsherd. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 1. 37. In use in Lonsdale, Lancashire, see EDD. (s.v. Pot, 17 (65)).

pottle, half a gallon, or two quarts. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, ii. 1 (Roger); a pottell oyle (i.e. of oil); Naval Accounts of Henry VII, p. 16. ‘Pottle’ (a measure of two quarts) is still in use in Cheshire (EDD.).

pouke, pooke, a ‘puck’, demon, goblin; ‘Chymæra, that same pooke’, Golding, Metam. vi. 646; ‘Nor let the Pouke nor other evill sprights . . . Fray us’, Spenser, Epithalamion, 341. ‘Pouk’ (‘pook’), a mischievous fiend, still in use in Sussex and Shropshire, see EDD. (s.v. Puck, sb.¹). ME. pouke: ‘I wene that knyght was a pouke’ (Coer de Leon, 566); OE. pūca (Napier’s OE. Glosses, 23. 2).

pouke-bug, for puck-bug, a malicious spectre. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 594. See bug.

pouldre, to beat into powder or dust. Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 12; to spot, id., iii. 2. 25. OF. pouldre (F. poudre).

pouldron, poldron, a shoulder-plate; a piece of armour covering the shoulder. Warner, Alb. England, bk. xii, c. 70, st. 13; Drayton, David and Goliath. OF. espauleron, a shoulder-plate; espaule (F. épaule), shoulder. See NED.

poulter, a dealer in poultry. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 19; 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. From poult, a chicken.

poulter’s measure, poulterer’s measure; a fanciful name for a metre consisting of lines of 12 and 14 syllables alternately, common in Surrey and Gascoigne. See Gascoigne’s Steel Glas (ed. Arber, 39).

poult-foot, powlt-foot, a club-foot, Lyly, Euphues (Arber, 97); B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 7. See NED. (s.v. Polt-foot).

Poultry, the Counter prison in the Poultry, London. Middleton, Phœnix, iv. 3 (1 Officer); ‘Some four houses west from this parish church of St. Mildred is a prison-house pertaining to one of the sheriffs of London, and is called the Compter in the Poultrie’, Stow’s Survey (ed. Thoms, p. 99).

pounce, to ornament (cloth, &c.) by punching small holes or figures; also, to cut the edges into points and scallops, to jag. ‘A . . . cote, garded and pounced’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 3, § 1; Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 508. Cognate with Norm. F. ponçon, ‘poinçon, instrument de fer ou d’acier servant à percer’ (Moisy).

pouncet-box, 1 Hen. IV, i. 3. 38; a Shaks. term for a small box for perfumes, with a perforated lid. It may be for pounced box, from pounce, to perforate. See above.

pouncing, the action of powdering the face with a cosmetic, ‘Pouncings and paintings’, Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iii. 1 (Valentine); Knight of Malta, ii. 1 (Norandine). See NED. (s.v. Pounce, vb.³ 3).

pouned, impounded, shut up (as horses) in a pound; ‘Married once, a man is . . . poun’d’, Massinger, Fatal Dowry, iv. 1 (Novall jun.). Cp. pounded; ‘fairly pounded’ (i.e. married), Colman, Jealous Wife, ii. 1 (Sir H. Beagle).

powder, to sprinkle with salt, to salt. 1 Hen. IV, v. 4. 112. Hence Powder-beef, salted beef, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, ii. 3. 4. Also, to sweat in a hot tub, to cure disease; Meas. for M. iii. 2. 62; powdering-tub, Hen. V, ii. 1. 79.

practice, scheming or planning, treachery. King Lear, ii. 4. 116; B. Jonson, Catiline, iii. 5 (Catulus). See Nares.

practive, practical, active, expert; ‘Most hardy practive knights’, Phaer, Aeneid viii, 518. See NED.

†prage, a spear or similar weapon; ‘Their blades they brandisht, and keene prages goared in entrayls Of stags’, &c., Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 197. Is prage a misreading of prāge = prange = prong (see NED.)?

praise, to appraise, value. Puritan Widow, ii. 2. 14. In prov. use in Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Prize, v.² 1).

prancome, a prank, trick. Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 2 (Hodge). Not found elsewhere.

prank, showily dressed; ‘Pretie pranck parnel’, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 120. See Dict. (s.v. Prank, 1).

prankie-cote, pranky coat; a jocose term for a fellow full of pranks. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 117. Not found elsewhere.

prats, buttocks (Cant); ‘Prat, a buttocke’, Harman, Caveat, p. 82; ‘Set me down here on both my prats’, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Mort).

prease, to press. Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 19; to throng, F. Q. ii. 7. 44; a press, crowd, throng, F. Q. ii. 10. 25; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, i. 226. Gk. ὄχλος in Luke viii. 19 is rendered by prease in Tyndale and in Cranmer’s Bible, also in the Geneva and AV. versions. See Nares. This is still the pronunc. of ‘press’ in Lanc. (EDD.).

precisian, one who is very punctilious, Merry Wives, ii. 1. 5; synonymous with ‘Puritan’, ‘He’s no precisian, that I’m certain of, Nor rigid Roman Catholic’, 13. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 3. 102; Massinger, New Way to Pay, i. 1. 6. See Nares.

pree, short for pree thee, prithee, i.e. I pray thee. Marston, What you Will, iii. 2 (Holofernes).

pregnant, pressing, compelling, cogent, convincing; hence, clear, obvious. Meas. for M. ii. 1. 23; Othello, ii. 1. 241. OF. preignant, pressing, pp. of preindre, L. premere, to press; cp. preignantes raisons (Godefroy, Compl.).

pregnant, receptive, fertile, imaginative. Twelfth Nt. iii. 1. 101; ready, ‘The pregnant Hinges of the knee’, Hamlet, iii. 2. 66; phr. a pregnant wit, Heywood, Maidenhead Lost, i. F. prégnant (Rabelais), L. praegnans.

prepense, to consider beforehand, to premeditate. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 25, § 2; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 11. 14. See purpense.

presence: phr. in presence, present; often, in reference to ceremonial attendance upon a person of superior, esp. royal, rank, Barclay, Cyt. and Uplondyshman (Percy Soc. 13); Richard II, iv. 1. 62; a place prepared for ceremonial presence or attendance, a presence-chamber, ‘The two great Cardinals Wait in the presence’, Hen. VIII, iii. 1. 17; chamber of presence, Bacon, Essay 45. Evelyn, Diary, Dec. 5, 1643.

presently, immediately. Temp. iv. 42; v. 101; Two Gent. ii. 1. 30; ii. 4. 86; Bible, 1 Sam. ii. 16; Matt. xxvi. 53. See Bible Word-Book. Cp. F. ‘presentement, presently, quickly, anon, at an instant, speedily, suddenly’ (Cotgr.).

president, a precedent. Bacon, Essay, Of Great Place; Of Innovations; Of Judicature.

press, press-money, i.e. prest-money, as paid to an impressed soldier. Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, i. 2 (Marcellius).

prest, ready. Merch. Ven. i. 1. 160; Marl., 2 Tamburlaine, i. 1 (Orcanes); Dido, iii. 2. 22. An E. Anglian word (EDD.). ME. prest (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 917). F. ‘prest, prest, ready, full-dight; prompt; quick’ (Cotgr.); now written prêt.

Prester John, the name given in the Middle Ages to an alleged Christian priest and king originally supposed to reign in the extreme East, beyond Persia and Armenia; but from the 15th cent. generally identified with the King of Ethiopia or Abyssinia (NED.). ‘I will fetch you a tooth-picker now from the farthest inch of Asia; bring you the length of Prester John’s foot’, Much Ado, ii. 1. 276; Dekker, Old Fortunatus, ii. 1 (near end); ‘The great Christian of Æthiopia, vulgarly called Prester, Precious or Priest-John’, Sir T. Herbert, Travels, 130. For the history of the subject see Col. Yule’s article in Encycl. Brit. xix. 715. See Stanford.

prestigiatory, relating to ‘prestigiation’, juggling, deceptive, delusive; ‘The art prestigiatory’, Tomkis, Albumazar, i. 7; ii. 3.

prestigious, practising juggling or legerdemain, deceptive, illusory; ‘That inchantresse . . . by prestigious trickes in sorcerie’, Dekker, Whore of Babylon (Wks. 173, ii. 195); ‘Prestigious guiles’, Heywood, Dial. 18 (Minerva), vi. 250. Late L. praestigiosus, full of deceitful tricks; praestigium, an illusion, praestigiae, juggler’s tricks; cp. F. prestiges, ‘deceits, impostures, juggling tricks’ (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.v. Prestige).

pretence, pretense, an assertion of a right; a claim; ‘Spirits that in our just pretenses arm’d Fell with us’, Milton, P. L. ii. 825; an expressed aim, intention, purpose or design, Two Gent. iii. 1. 47; Winter’s Tale, iii. 2. 18.

pretenced, pretensed, intended, purposed, designed. More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 8). Late L. praetensus, for praetentus, pp. of praetendere.

pretend, to stretch something over a person for defence; ‘Who . . . his target alwayes over her pretended’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 11. 19; to put forward, set forth, ‘To that wench I pretend honest love’, Middleton, Changeling, iv. 2. 91. L. praetendere, to stretch forth.

pretor, one holding high civil office, a name for the Lord Mayor of London. Westward Ho, i. 1 (Justiniano); Webster, Monuments of Honour, § 1. Med. L. praetor, ‘urbis praefectus’ (Ducange); ‘Meyr, maior, pretor’ (Prompt. EETS. 284); cp. Cath. Angl. 225.

prevent, to anticipate. Merch. Ven. i. 1. 61; Twelfth Nt. iii. 1. 94; Bible, Ps. xviii. 5; cxix. 148; 1 Thess. iv. 15, &c. See Bible Word-Book.

prick, to spur; hence, to ride. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 1; prickant, riding along, Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, ii. 2 (Ralph).

prick, the pin, or peg originally fixed in the very centre of the white, or circular mark upon the butt shot at by archers. Also called the pin, or clout. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 99; at the prickes, beside the butts, id., p. 98.

prick, the highest point, apex, acme; ‘To pricke of highest praise’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 1; ‘The hygh prycke of vertue’, Udall, Erasmus, Paraph. Matt. iii. 30; phr. prick and praise, very high praise, Middleton, Family of Love, ii. 4 (Mrs. G.); ‘She had the prick and praise for a prettie wench’, London Prodigal, iv. 1. 15.

prick-eared, having sharply pointed, erect ears; prycke-eared, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 77; Hen. V, ii. 1. 44.

pricket, a buck in his second year, having straight unbranched horns. L. L. L. iv. 2. 12; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iv. 5 (Ralph). ME. pryket, ‘capriolus’ (Prompt. EETS. 316; see notes, no. 1681).

prickle, a wicker basket, for fruit or flowers. B. Jonson, Pan’s Anniversary (Shepherd, l. 3). In Kent used for a basket of a certain measure (EDD.). See NED.

prick-me-dainty, finical in language and behaviour. Udall, Roister Doister, ii. 3 (Trupeny). Still in use in Scotland (EDD.).

prick-song, music written down or sung from notes. Romeo, ii. 4. 21; Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 41. ‘The nightingale’s song, being more regularly musical than any other, was called pricksong’ (Nares). ‘Prick-song’ used to mean counterpoint as distinguished from ‘plain-song’, mere melody.

priefe, preife, proof, trial. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 48; Mother Hubberd, 408. Priefe = F. preuve, as people (pron. peeple) = F. peuple.

prieve, to prove. Spenser, F. Q. v. 4. 33; vi. 12. 18. Prieve = OF. prueve (preuve); L. próbat, with the stress on the stem-syllable, whereas prove = F. prouver (OF. prover) = L. probáre.

prig a prancer, to steal a horse (Cant). Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 2 (Higgen); Audeley, Vagabonds, p. 4; Harman, Caveat, pp. 42, 43, 84. See Dict. (s.v. Prig, 1).

prima-vista, an old game at cards, resembling primero, and sometimes identified with it. Primviste, Earle, Microcosmographie, § 13 (ed. Arber, p. 33); ‘Prima . . . a game at cardes, called Prime, Primero, or Primavista’ (Florio). Ital. prima vista, ‘first seen, because he that can first show such an order of cards wins the game’ (Minsheu).

primum mobile, the ‘First Movement’, in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the outer sphere (of a system of spheres), which turns round from east to west once in 24 hours, carrying all the inner spheres with it. Bacon, Essay 15, § 4; Essay 51 (end). In Dante the Primum Mobile is called the Crystalline Heaven (‘Cielo Cristallino’), see Paget Toynbee’s Dante Dictionary.

princox, a pert saucy boy or youth, a conceited young fellow, Romeo, i. 588. A north-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Princock).

prink, to set off, show off, trim; ‘To prink and prank, exorno’, Coles, 1699. Prinke it, to show off, Gascoigne, Complaint of Philomene, st. 21, p. 93.

print: phr. in print, to the letter, exactly. L. L. L. iii. 173; ‘Gallant in print’ (i.e. a complete gallant), B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, ii. 2 (Fallace). In prov. use in E. Anglia, Oxf., Sussex, see EDD. (s.v. Print, 3).

prise, pryse, the note blown at the death of a hunted beast; ‘Thenne kynge Arthur blewe the pryse’, Morte Arthur, leaf 63. 25; bk. iv, c. 6. F. ‘prise, the death or fall of a hunted beast’ (Cotgr.).

privado, a favourite, intimate friend. Bacon, Essay 27, § 3. Span. privado, a favourite (Stevens); Port. privado, ‘favori, homme en faveur auprès d’un prince’ (Roquette). Med. L. privatus, ‘familiaris, amicus’ (Ducange).

prize, a contest, a match, a public athletic contest. Merch. Ven. iii. 2. 142; a fencing contest, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, ii. 2 (Prentices); a turn in a match, ib., v. 2 (Infelice); phr. to play a prize, to engage in a public contest, to play one’s part, Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieutenant, v. 2 (Lieutenant); Massinger, New Way to Pay, iv. 2 (end); Titus Andron. i. 1. 399; B. Jonson, Volpone, v. 1. Hence Prizer, one who fights in a ‘prize’ or match, As You Like It, ii. 3. 8. F. ‘prise, a hold in wrestling; estre aux prises, to wrestle or strive with one another’ (Cotgr.).

prize, to offer as the price; to risk, stake venture. Greene, Friar Bacon, iv. 3 (1784); scene 13. 41 (W.); p. 175, col. 1 (D.); to pay a price for, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 11. 5.

proake, to ask. Mirror for Mag., Claudius T. Nero, st. 4; ‘To proke, procare’, Levins, Manip.

proceed, to advance, in one’s University course, from graduation as B.A. to some higher degree; ‘He proceaded Bachelour of Divinitye in the sayde Universitye of Cambridge’, Foxe, Bk. of Martyrs, 1297; Middleton, A Chaste Maid, iv. 1 (Tim).

prochinge, approaching. Sackville, Induction, line 1. Cp. Sc. prochy-madame (Prush-madam!), a call to cows, Ramsey, Remin. = F. approchez, Madame!, see EDD. (s.v. Proochy).

procinct, readiness, preparation; ‘Procinct of war’, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xii. 89. L. procintus, readiness for action.

prodigious, portentous, horrible. Mids. Night’s D. v. 419; King John, iii. 1. 46.

proface, much good may it do you. 2 Hen. IV, v. 3. 30; Chapman, Widow’s Tears, iv. 2 (Lysander). OF. prouface, ‘souhait qui veut dire, bien vous fasse’ (Roquefort); prou, advantage + fasse (L. faciat), may it do. See Nares.

profligate, routed. Butler, Hud. i. 3. 728. L. profligare, to strike down, overthrow.

profound, to fathom, to get to the bottom of. Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med., pt. 1, § 13.

prog, to search about, esp. for food; ‘Man digs . . . He never rests . . . He mines and progs, though in the fangs of death’, Quarles, Job xiv. 60; ‘Each in his way doth incessantly prog for joy’, Barrow, Sermon, Rejoice evermore; ‘We need not cark or prog’, id. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Prog, vb. 2).

progress, the travel of the sovereign and court to visit different parts of his dominions. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 9; Massinger, Guardian, i. 1 (Durazzo). Progress-block, a block for a new fashion of hats, to be used on a progress, Beaumont and Fl., Wit at several Weapons, iv. 1.

proin, proyne (of a bird), to preen, prune, to trim or dress the feathers with the beak. B. Jonson, Underwood, Celebr. Charis, v; Gascoigne, Complaint of Philomene, st. 59, p. 98. Spelt prune, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 36; Cymb. v. 4. 118; 1 Hen. IV, i. 1. 98. ME. proynen (Chaucer, C. T. E. 2011). OF. poroign-, pres. pt. stem of poroindre, to trim feathers (Godefroy), L. pro + ungere, to anoint.

proine, proyne, to prune trees. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, l. 458; Bacon, Essay 50; Drayton, Pol. iii. 358; Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 6. 292; Homilies 1, Falling fr. God (NED.); Machin, Dumb Knight, iii. 1. Norm. F. progner (Moisy), OF. proignier, to prune (Godefroy), Romanic type, protundiare, deriv. of L. rotundus, round. Cp. F. rogner des branches, des racines, ‘couper tout autour’ (Hatzfeld). See royne.

project, to set forth, exhibit. Ant. and Cl. v. 2. 121; to presage, ‘When the south projects a stormy day’, Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Georg. i. 622.

projection, the application of ‘the elixir’ to the metal which is to be transmuted into gold. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Mammon).

promont, a headland. Middleton, The Changeling, i. 1 (Vermandero); Drayton, Pol. iv. 7. 1.

promoter, a professional accuser, a common informer; ‘Enter two promoters’, Middleton, A Chaste Girl, ii. 2; Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, v. 2 (1 Madman); Tusser, Husbandry, § 64. 11. See Cowell’s Interpreter.

prone, a sermon delivered in commemoration of a founder or benefactor; ‘The founder . . . used to be commemorated in some Prone’, T. Hearne, Remains (ed. Bliss, 655); ‘All founders and benefactors were duly and constantly commemorated in their Prones’, id., 754. F. ‘prone, notice given by a Priest unto his Parishioners . . . of the holy days, of Banes of Matrimony, of such as desire to be relieved or prayed for, &c.’ (Cotgr.).

proof, proof-armour, strong defensive armour. Beaumont and Fl., Chances, i. 10 (Fred.). Proof-arm, to put on armour of proof, Hum. Lieutenant, ii. 3 (Leucippe).

proper, handsome, fine. Tam. Shrew, i. 2. 144; Much Ado, i. 3. 54; 1 Hen. VI, v. 3. 37; ‘He was a proper childe’, Bible, Heb. xi. 23 (= ‘elegantem infantem’, Vulgate). Very common in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Proper, 5).

proper, belonging exclusively to one, peculiar to one, Meas. for M. i. 1. 30; v. 1. 111; Shirley, Arcadia, iii. 1 (3 Rebel).

properties, rude paintings for scenery, or stage appliances. Shirley, Bird in a Cage, iii. 2 (Carlo); dresses for the actors, id., iv. 2 (Donella).

property, an implement, tool for a purpose. Merry Wives, iii. 4. 10; Jul. Caesar, iv. 1. 40; to use as a tool, King John, v. 2. 72.

propice, propitious, favourable. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Augustus, § 31; propise, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 4. F. propice; L. propitius.

propriety, peculiarity, special nature. Bacon, Essay 3, § 2; property, Dryden, Marriage a la Mode, v. 1 (Rhodophil). F. ‘proprieté, a property speciality in; the nature, quality, inclination of’ (Cotgr.).

prospective, a magic glass or crystal in which it was supposed that distant or future events could be seen, Bacon, Essay 26; glasse prospective, Greene, Friar Bacon, v. 110. The word also means a telescope, J. Taylor (Water Poet), Fennor’s Defence (NED.). Also, a scene, a view, Porter, Angry Women, i. 1. 12. F. prospective, ‘the prospective or optick art; also, a bounded prospect, a limited view’ (Cotgr.).

prostrate, one who is prostrate as a suppliant or a vanquished foe, Otway, Don Carlos, i. 1.

protense, extension, a story long drawn out. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 4. L. protensus, drawn out; pp. of protendere, to draw forth.

provand, food, provisions. Coriolanus, ii. 1. 267; Caxton, Reynard (Arber, p. 60). Flemish, provande, Fr. provende, Romanic type provenda for eccles. L. praebenda, a daily allowance (Dict. Christ. Antiq.).

provant, provender, food. Fletcher, Love’s Cure, ii. 1. Also, one who deals in provisions, a sutler. Beaumont and Fl., Four Plays in One, i. 1 (Nicodemus). Hence, Provant, of or belonging to the ‘provant’ or soldier’s allowance, and therefore, of common or inferior quality, Webster, Appius and Virg. i. 4; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 1 (Bobadil).

provecte, advanced; ‘Provecte in yeres’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 4, § 3. L. provectus, pp.

providence, foresight, timely care. Massinger, New Way to Pay, iii. 2 (Overreach); Shirley, Hyde Park, iii. 1. 5.

provincial garland, a garland given to one who had added a province to the Roman Empire. Ford, Broken Heart, i. 2 (Calanthia).

prowest, most valiant. Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 41; ii. 8. 18. OF. prou, valiant (Bartsch). See Dict. (s.v. Prowess).

prune, the fruit. Stewed prunes, often referred to as being a favourite dish in brothels. Meas. for M. ii. 1. 93; 1 Hen. IV, iii. 3. 128; cp. Fletcher, Mad Lover, iv. 5 (Eumenes). Spelt proin, in proin-stone, Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, p. 500).

pry, prie, a local name of the small-leaved lime (Tilia parvifolia). Tusser, Husbandry, § 35. 15. An Essex word, see EDD. (sv. Pry, sb.¹ 4).

ptrow, interj., tut! an exclamation of contempt. Heywood, Jupiter and Io, vol. vi, p. 267, l. 3.

Pucelle. Joan la Pucelle, Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, 1 Hen. VI, i. 4. 101; i. 6. 3. F. pucelle, a maid, virgin.

puckfist, puckfoist, the fungus usually called a puff-ball. Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, i. 2 (Rutilio); B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 5 (Tucca). Named after ‘Puck’. See pouke. A common prov. word (EDD.). The ‘puff-ball’ was also called Bull-fist, Puff-fist, and Wolf’s-fist, see Cotgrave (s.v. Vesse de loup); see NED. (s.v. Fist).

puckle, a kind of bugbear or goblin. Middleton, The Witch, i. 2 (Hecate). OE. pūcel, a goblin (NED.), dimin. of pūca; see pouke.

puckling, little goblin; used as a term of endearment by a witch. Heywood, Witches of Lancs. ii. 1 (Mawd.); vol. iv, p. 187. See above.

pudder, pother, confusion, turmoil. King Lear, iii. 2. 50 (1623); Ford, Fancies Chaste, iii. 3 (Romanello). A common prov. word (EDD.).

pudding-time, in, in good time, lit. in time for dinner, as dinner often began with pudding. Like will to Like, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 219; Butler, Hud. i. 2. 865. Still in use; see EDD.

pudding tobacco, tobacco compressed into sausage-like rolls. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Mercury); Middleton, Roaring Girl, iii. 2 (Laxton).

pug, to pull, to tug; ‘What pugging by the ear!’, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 120. In prov. use from Warw. to Dorset, see EDD. (s.v. Pug, vb.²).

pug, a bargeman; ‘In a Westerne barge, when with a good winde and lustie pugges one may go ten miles in two daies’, Lyly, Endymion, iv. 2; Westerne pugs, men who navigated barges down the Thames to London; ‘The Westerne pugs receiving money there [in plague time] have tyed it in a bag at the end of their barge, and trailed it through the Thames’, Dekker, Wonderfull Yeare (NED.).

pugging tooth, Winter’s Tale, iv. 3. 7. Meaning uncertain. Usually taken as = thieving, cp. puggard. In Devon ‘pug-tooth’ means eye-tooth (EDD.). Possibly there may be a play of words here: Autolycus’s hungry eye-tooth (pug-tooth) set on edge tempts him to thieve (pug) ‘the white sheet bleaching on the hedge’.

puke, a superior kind of woollen cloth, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 78. M. Du. puuc, puyck, name of the best sort of woollen cloth (A.D. 1420). Du. puyck, woollen cloth (Hexham); puik, choice, excellent (Sewel).

puke, the name of the colour formerly used for the cloth named ‘puke’. ‘Pauonaccio cupo, a deep darke purple or puke colour’ (Florio, ed. 1598); ‘Pewke, a colour, pers’, Palsgrave. See NED.

pull: in phr. to pull down a side, ‘to cause the loss or hazard of the side or party with which a person plays’ (Nares); ‘If I hold your card, I shall pull down the side’, Massinger, Duke of Florence, iv. 2 (Cozimo); id., Unnatural Combat, ii. 1 (Belgarde).

pullen, poultry, chickens. Tusser, Husbandry, 87. 5; Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 2 (Elder Loveless); poleyn, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, 146. 21. In common prov. use in the north country and in E. Anglia (EDD.). OF. poulain, young of any animal (Hatzfeld). Med. L. pullanus, see Ducange (s.v. Pullani).

pulpamenta, delicacies. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 7 (Macilente). A word used by Plautus for tit-bits, delicacies.

pulpatoon, a dish made of rabbits, fowls, &c., in a crust of forced meat. Nabbes, Microcosmus, iii. 1 (Tasting). Span. pulpelón, a large slice of stuffed meat.

pulvilio, fine scented powder, cosmetic powder. Etherege, Man of Mode, iii. 3 (Sir Fopling); Pulvilio-box, a scent-box, Wycherley, Plain Dealer, ii (Manly). Hence pulvil, to perfume with scented powder, Congreve, Way of the World, iv. 1 (beginning). Ital. polviglio, fine powder. See Stanford.

pumey, ‘pumice’. Peele, Anglorum Feriae, 26 (ed. Dyce, p. 595); pumie-stone, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 39; Shep. Kal., March, 89.

pun, to pound, to beat, pummel. Tr. and Cr. ii. 1. 42; pund, pt. t., Heywood, King Edw. IV, First Part (Spicing); vol. i, p. 19. In common prov. use from the north country down to Glouc., see EDD. (s.v. Pound, vb.³). OE. punian, to pound, beat, bray in mortar.

puncheon, a kind of dagger. Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, vii. 664 (L. dolones). O. Prov. ponchon, ‘poinçon’ (Levy).

punctual, no bigger than a point, very small; ‘This opacous Earth, this punctual spot’, Milton, P. L. viii. 23.

†pung, a ‘punk’, courtesan. Middleton, Mich. Term, iii. 1 (Lethe). Not found elsewhere.

punkateero, a purveyor of punks, a pander. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, iv. 1 (Curvetto). A jocose formation from punk, a strumpet, in imitation of Span. mulatero, muleteer, from mulo, mule. Not found elsewhere.

punto, a small point; in a punto, in a moment, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 7 (Bobadil); a nice point of behaviour, a ‘punctilio’, ‘Puntos and Complementes’, Bacon. Adv. L., bk. ii, c. 23, § 3; a stroke or thrust with the point of the sword or foil, Merry Wives, ii. 3. 26; punto riverso, a back-handed thrust, Romeo, ii. 4. 27; punto beard, a pointed beard, Shirley, Honoria, i. 2 (Alamode). Ital. and Span. punto, L. punctum, a point.

purchase, to acquire, obtain, gain. Tempest, iv. 1. 14; Richard II, i. 3. 282. Hence, purchase, acquired property, wealth, Webster, Duch. Malfi, iii. 1 (Antonio); spoil, booty, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 101; Hen. V, iii. 2. 45; Spenser, F. Q. i. 3. 16; Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, ii. 5 (Theridamas). See Dict.

purfle, to embroider along an edge, to border, to ornament. Spenser, F. Q. i. 2. 13; ii. 3. 26; Milton, Comus, 995; ‘Pourfiler, to purfle, tinsell or overcast with gold thread’, Cotgrave.

purfle, the contour or outline of anything, the profile. Chapman, Byron’s Conspiracy, iii. 1 (Breton).

puritan, used ironically for a courtesan (Cant). Marston, What you Will, iii. 3 (Slip).

purlieu, ground near a forest, which having been made forest, was by perambulation (OF. puralee) separated from the same, see Manwood, Forest Laws, cap. 20; ‘In the purlieus of this forest’, As You Like It, iv. 3. 77. The form purlieu (for an older purley) is probably due to popular etymology, i.e. to association with F. pur lieu, L. purus locus, a free open space; purley, Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, iv. 3 (Nimis); purley-man, one who has lands within the ‘purlieu’ (NED.); Pourlie man, Cowell’s Interpreter (s.v. Purlue). Anglo-F. puralé (-lée), a going though, ‘perambulatio’ (Rough List, s.v. Purlieu). See NED.

purpense, to determine beforehand; ‘James Grame . . . wilfully assented and purpensed the murdre, &c.’, Act 12 Hen. VII, c. 7; ‘A purpensed malice’, Udall, Erasmus’s Paraph. Mark iii. 30. Anglo-F. purpenser: agwait purpensé, ‘insidiis praecogitatis’ (Laws of William I, § 1, 2); see Moisy. See prepense.

purpose, conversation, discourse. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 45; ii. 6. 6; ii. 8. 56; Much Ado, iii. 1. 12; to converse, discourse, F. Q. ii. 12. 16. OF. pourpos (purpos), a purpose (Godefroy), cp. F. propos, a purpose, design, also, speech, discourse (Cotgr.).

purprise, an enclosure, enclosed area. Bacon, Essay 56 (Judicature). Norm. F. purprise, pourprise, ‘pourpris, enceinte, enelos, demeure’ (Moisy); porprise (Didot); porprendre, ‘investir, entourer’ (Didot). Med. L. porprisa, porprisum, ‘possessio vel locus sepibus, muris, ant vallis conclusus’; see Ducange (s.v. Porprendere).

purse-net, a net, the mouth of which could be drawn together by a string. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iv. 2 (Ariosto); Appius, iv. 1 (Advocate).

purveyance, providence. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, iv, l. 58; provision, equipment, Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 13. ME. purveyaunce, providence, also, provision (Chaucer). See Dict. (s.v. Purvey).

push, a pustule, pimple; ‘Black poushes or boyles’, Sir T. Elyot, Castel of Helthe, bk. iii, c. 7; ‘Pimples or pushes’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 6. Still in use in many parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Push, sb.³).

push, interj., pish! Massinger, The Old Law, ii. 1 (Simonides); Middleton, Mich. Term, ii. 3 (Shortyard). Very common in Middleton.

push-pin, a childish game noticed by Strutt, Sports, v. 4. 14. In L. L. L. iv. 3. 169; Herrick, Hesper., Love’s Play at Push-pin. Also called put-pin.

pussle, a maid, girl, drab. Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 78); ‘A puzell verie beautifull’, Holinshed (ed. 1587, iii. 545); Laneham’s Letter (ed. Furnivall, 23); ‘The Fayre Pusell’, W. de Worde, Treatyse of a Galaunt (see title of the play). F. pucelle, a maid.

put, a silly fellow, a ‘duffer’ (Cant). Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Shamwell). See Slang Dict., 1874.

put forth, to lend out (money). B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour ii. 1 (Puntarvolo). Cp. Temp. iii. 3. 48; Sonnet cxxxiv. 10.

put on, to put on a hat. This was the occasion of much empty compliment. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1 (Ariosto). Putting off his hat, taking it off, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 7.

put up, to sheathe a sword, to replace it in the scabbard. Temp. i. 2. 469; Twelfth Nt. iii. 4. 343; put up (without a following sb.), Middleton, The Widow, i. 2 (Martino).

puther, pother, trouble, disturbance. Buckingham, The Rehearsal, ii. 4 (Bayes); pudder, K. Lear, iii. 2. 50 (1623); poother, Coriolanus, ii. 1. 234.

put-pin, ‘Playing at put-pin’, Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. viii. 205. See push-pin.

puttock, a bird of prey of the kite kind. 2 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 191; Cymb. i. 1. 140; Puritan Widow, iii. 3. 110; ‘Puttocke, escoufle’, Palsgrave. In common prov. use for a kite or buzzard, see EDD. (s.v. Puttock, sb.¹ 1 and 2). ME. puttocke, ‘milvus’ (Prompt. EETS. 339, see note, no. 1647). Puttock is a not uncommon surname, see Bardsley, 493. An older form for this surname was Putthawke, see Chronicles of Theberton (Suffolk), by H. M. Doughty, 1910, p. 177, ‘That year [1748] John Puttock or Putthawke was churchwarden.’ Can puttock, the name of the bird, stand for pout-hawk, from the pouts, i.e. small birds, on which it feeds? [For pout, see NED. (s.v. Poult).]

pylery hole, the hole through which the head of the offender was thrust in the pillory. Skelton, Magnyf. 361. OF. pillorie (Ducange, s.v. Pilorium), O. Prov. espilori, espitlori (Levy); Med. L. *spect’lorium < *spectaculorium, a place for a ‘spectacle’ (L. spectaculum).

pyromancy, divination by fire. Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 2 (186); scene 2. 15 (W.); p. 155, col. 1 (D.). Gk. πυρομαντεία, divination by fire.

Pythonissa, the witch of Endor; ‘Saith the Pythonissa to Saul’, Bacon, Essay 35. L. pythonissa, applied to the witch of Endor (1 Sam. xxviii), see Vulgate, Lib. 1 Regum xxviii, Argument (‘Saul pythonissam consulit’); properly, a woman possessed with Python, the spirit of divination, cp. Vulgate, Lib. 1 Regum xxviii. 7 (‘Mulier pythonem habens in Endor’). See Phitonessa.

Q, a cue, as the signal for an actor to begin his part; ‘And took I not my Q?’ Barry, Ram-Alley, ii. 1 (W. Smallshanks); ‘And old men know their Q’s, id., iii. 1 (O. Small.). Some say it stood for L. quando, when; i.e. the time when.

quab, a crude or shapeless thing. Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, iii. 3. 5. Low G. quabbe, a piece of fat flesh, quabbeln, to be flabby, quiver like a piece of fat or soft flesh; Du. quabbe, ‘the dewlap of a Rudder-beast hanging down under his necke’ (Hexham).

quacking cheat, a cant term for a duck. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor). See cheat (2).

quadlin, a kind of apple, a ‘codling’, mentioned among the July fruits in Bacon’s Essay 46, Of Gardens; quodling, B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Dol Common). Perhaps a corruption of ME. querdlyng, appul, ‘duracenum’ (Prompt.).

quadrate, a troop in a square formation; ‘The Powers Militant . . . in mighty Quadrate joyn’d’, Milton, P. L. vi. 62. L. quadratus, squared; quadratum, a square.

quail, the name of the bird, applied to a courtesan. Tr. and Cr. v. 1. 57; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iv. 3 (Ursula). See Nares. Cp. F. cailte coiffée, ‘une femme galante’ (Moisy, s.v. Quaille); cailles coyphées, women (Rabelais, iv. 23); caille coiffée, ‘a woman’ (Cotgr.).

quail, to curdle, coagulate; ‘I quayle as mylke dothe, je quaillebotte’, Palsgrave; ‘This mylke is quayled’, id.; Phillips, Dict., 1706. In prov. use in E. Anglia and adjacent counties, see EDD. (s.v. Quail, vb.²). ME. quaylyn as mylk or odyrlyk lykowre, ‘coagulo’ (Prompt. EETS. 363). F. cailler, to curdle, to coagulate (Cotgr.), OF. coailler (Oxf. Ps. cxviii. 70); L. coagulare; cp. Ital. quagliare (coagulare, to curd or curdle (Torriano)). See quarle.

quail, to lose courage; ‘My heart drops blood, and my false spirits Quaile’, Cymbeline, v. 5. 149; ‘Their hearts began to quaile’, Holland, Livy, xxxvi. 9. 924. A fig. sense of quail (to curdle), see above. Cp. Ital. quagliare (cagliare), ‘aggrumare’; per met. ‘mancar d’animo, venir meno’ (Fanfani, s.v. Cagliare).

quail (a trans. use of above), to cause to quail, to depress the heart with fear or dejection; ‘He meant to quail and shake the orb’, Ant. and Cl. v. 2. 85; Mids. Night’s D. v. 292 (Pyramus); Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 49; Beaumont and Fl., Laws of Candy, i. 2 (Cassilane); Kyd, Cornelia, iv. 1. 243.

quail-pipe boot, a boot having a wrinkled appearance. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, ii. 1 (Truepenny); with reference to the E. version of the Romaunt of the Rose, 7261: ‘Highe shoes . . . That frouncen [are wrinkled] lyke a quaile-pipe.’

quaint, skilled, clever; ‘The quaint Musician’, Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 149; skilfully designed, ‘A quaint salad’, Shirley, Traitor, iv. 2; beautiful, elegant, Milton, Samson Ag. 1303; Much Ado, iii. 4. 22; dainty, fastidious, prim, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 7. 10. OF. cointe, ‘instruit’ (Bartsch), Med. L. cognitus, ‘sciens’ (Ducange). Cp. O. Prov. coinde, cointe, ‘joli, gracieux, aimable’ (Levy).

quality, profession, occupation. Merry Wives, v. 5. 44; Hamlet, ii. 2. 363; Fletcher, Love’s Cure, ii. 1 (Metaldi).

quar, a ‘quarry’, a heap of dead men. Phaer, Aeneid ix, 526. See Dict. (s.v. Quarry, 2).

quarelet, a small square; ‘The quarelets of pearl’ (referring to a girl’s teeth), Herrick, The Rock of Rubies, and the Quarrie of Pearls, 32. See quarrel.

quarle, a ‘quarrel’, cross-bow bolt. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 11. 33. See Dict. (s.v. Quarrel, 2).

quar(r, a stone-quarry. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Sir Moth); Drayton, Pol. i. 119. In prov. use (EDD.). See Dict. (s.v. Quarry, 1).

quar(r, to coagulate; ‘It keepeth the mylke from quarring and crudding in the brest’, Lyte, Dodoens, ii. 74. 246 (NED.). In prov. use in Worc., Hants., Somerset, Devon (EDD.). See quarle.

quarrel, a square, or diamond-shaped piece of glass, in a window; ‘A quarrell of glasse’, Puttenham, Arte of Poesie, bk. ii, ch. 11, ed. Arber, p. 106; Beaumont and Fl., Nice Valour, iii. 1 (Galoshio). ‘Quarrel’ is in prov. use in various parts of England for a pane of glass, esp. a diamond-shaped pane, see EDD. (s.v. Quarrel, sb.¹), and NED. (s.v. Quarrel, sb.¹ 3).

quarron, the body; the belly (Cant); ‘To comfort the quarron’, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Song); Quaromes, a body, Harman, Caveat, p. 82. The same word as carrion, a carcass; ‘Old feeble carrions’, Jul. Caesar, ii. 1. 130. See NED.

quartile, a quartile aspect, a quadrature, denoting the position of two planets which are 90 degrees apart. Hawes, Pastime of Pleasure, chap. xxxvi, st. 12; Dryden, Palamon, i. 500.

quass, to drink copiously. Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 87. Low G. quasen, quassen, to devour, swallow (Lübben).

quat, a pimple; fig. applied contemptuously to a young person. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1 (Ariosto); Othello, v. 1. 11. ‘Quat’, meaning a pimple, is in prov. use in the Midlands, also in Hants. (EDD.).

quat, to oppress. Lyly, Euphues, p. 44. In prov. use in Wilts. and Somerset, meaning to squeeze, crush, see EDD. (s.v. Quat, vb. 3).

quat, the act or state of squatting. A hunted leveret is ‘put to the dead quat’, Webster, White Devil (ed. Dyce, p. 31).

quaternion, a set of four. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 3 (Cupid); Milton, P. L. v. 181; Bible, Acts xii. 4. L. quaternio (Vulgate).

quayd, quieted, appeased; ‘Therewith his sturdie courage soone was quayd’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 14. See accoy.

queach, a dense growth of bushes, a thicket. Golding, Ovid’s Metam. i. 4; Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xix. 610; id., Hymn to Pan; Coote’s English Schoolemaster; Howell, Londinop. 382; queachie, bushy, Golding, Metam., To Reader. See Nares. An E. Anglian word for a small plantation of trees or bushes, a ‘spinney’ (EDD.). ME. queche, a dense growth of bushes (Merlin, ed. Wheatley, iii. 540).

queachy, swampy, boggy; ‘Queachy fens’, Drayton, Pol. ii. 396; iv. 65; xvii. 384; quechy, Heywood, Brazen Age, ii. 2 (Wks. iii. 190). ‘Queechy’ is in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Queachy, adj.¹ 1).

queat, ‘quiet’; ‘Be queat’, Warner, Alb. England, bk. i, c. 6, st. 73; bk. iii, ch. 14, st. last but one. Not uncommon. See unqueat.

queave, to palpitate; ‘I left him queaving and quick’ (i.e. palpitating and alive), Puttenham, Arte of E. Poesie, bk. iii, c. 19 (ed. Arber, p. 223); ‘Quycke and queaving’, life and palpitation, Gascoigne, Grief of Joy (ed. Hazlitt, ii. 289). See NED. (s.v. Quave).

queazy, squeamish, fastidious, nice. Dryden, Epil. to Don Sebastian, 16; spelt quaisie, Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, p. 40); queasie, unsettling the stomach, causing nausea, Lyly, Euphues (Arber, 44); ‘Quaisy as meate or drinke is, dangereux’, Palsgrave.

†quebas, the name of an obsolete card-game. Etherege, She Would if she Could, iii. 3 (Lady Cockwood). Not found elsewhere.

†quecke, a knock, a whack; ‘If I fall, I catch a quecke, I may fortune to break my neck’, Interlude of Youth, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 8. Not found elsewhere.

queint, pp. quenched. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 11; ‘The coals . . . that be quent’, Sir T. Wyatt (Wks., ed. Bell, p. 200). ME. queynt (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2321), pp. of quenche, to quench (id., Tr. and Cr. iii. 846). See Dict.

quellio, a Spanish collar or neck-band. Ford, Lady’s Trial, ii. 1 (Guzman); quellio ruff, a Spanish ruff, Massinger, City Madam, iv. 4 (Luke). Span. cuello, neck, collar, ruff (Stevens); L. collum, neck.

quelquechose, a delicacy; the same word as kickshaws. Marston, Malcontent, i. 1. 161 (Malevole); ‘Fricandeaux, short, skinless, and dainty puddings, or Quelkchoses, made of good flesh and herbs chopped together, then rolled up into the form of Liverings, &c., and so boiled’, Cotgrave. F. quelque chose, something. See Dict. (s.v. Kickshaws).

queme, to please. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 15; queam, pleasure, Warner, Alb. England, bk. xii, ch. 60, st. 32. ME. queme, to please (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 695); queme, pleasure, satisfaction (Cursor M. 1064); see Dict. M. and S. OE. cwēman, gecwēman, to please.

quere, the ‘choir’ of a church. Morte Arthur, leaf 430*, back, 22; bk. xxi, c. 12; Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 396. ‘Queer’ is in prov. use for choir in the north country (EDD.). ME. quere, queer (Wyclif, Ps. lii. 1; cl. 4). Norm. F. quers, nom.; cuer, acc., ‘chœur’ (Moisy). See Dict. (s.v. Choir).

†querke: phr. to have the querke of the sea (?), Harrison, Desc. of England, bk. ii, ch. 19 (ed. Furnivall, p. 310).

querpo: phr. in querpo, in a close-fitting dress or doublet, without a cloak; ‘To walk the streets in querpo’, Fletcher, Love’s Cure, ii. 1. 2; cp. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 201. Span. en cuerpo, lit. ‘in the body’; hence, half dressed. See Stanford (s.v. Cuerpo). See cuerpo.

querre, at the, (probably) on the cross, at a cross-stroke; ‘Sir Francis. My hawk killed too. Sir Charles. Ay, but ’twas at the querre, Not at the mount, like mine’, Heywood, A Woman killed, i. 3. Cp. Low G. vor queer, across. See Dict. (s.v. Queer).

querry, an ‘equerry’. Beaumont and Fl., Noble Gentleman, v. 1 (Marine); ‘Querries, Persons that are conversant in the Queen’s Stables; and have charge of her Horses’, Phillips, Dict., 1706. See Dict. (s.v. Equerry).

quest, to seek after, search about, like a dog after game. Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, iv. 3. 2. Also, to give tongue, like a hound at the sight of game, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Townshead). ‘To quest’ is in prov. use in various parts of England, of dogs in the sense of seeking for game, and of breaking out into a bark at the sight of the quarry; see EDD. F. quester, ‘to quest, hunt; to open, as a dog that seeth, or findeth of his game’ (Cotgr.).

quest, an inquiry; a body of men summoned to hold an inquiry. Gascoigne, Works, i. 37; ‘Crowner’s quest law’, Hamlet, v. 1. 24. See Dict. (s.v. Inquest).

quest-house, the house at which the inquests in a ward or parish were commonly held, the chief watch-house in a parish. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, i. 1 (W. Camlet).

questmongers, men who made a business of conducting inquiries, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 192). ME. questmongeres (P. Plowman, B. xix. 367).

questuary, profitable, money-making. Middleton, Family of Love, v. 1 (Glister); Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. iii, c. 13, § 4. L. quaestuarius, relating to gain; quaestus, gain.

quetch, quitch, to move, stir, wince; ‘He dare nat quytche’, Palsgrave; ‘The Lads of Sparta of Ancient Time were wont to be Scourged upon the Altar of Diana, without so much as Queching’, Bacon, Essay 39; ‘He could not move, nor quich at all’, Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 38; ‘They dare not queatche’, Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 35. ME. quytchyn, ‘moveo’ (Prompt.); OE. cweccan, ‘movere’ (Matt. xxvii. 39).

quibible, (perhaps) a pipe or whistle; ‘Time . . . to pype in a quibyble’, Skelton, The Douty Duke of Albany, 389.

quiblin, a trick. Eastward Ho, iii. (1 or 2) (Security); B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iv. 1 (end); ‘A quirk or a quiblin’, id., Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Littlewit); id., Alchemist, iv. 4. 728 (Face). See Dict. (s.v. Quibble).

quiddit, a subtle shift, law-trick. Hamlet, v. 1. 107 (fol.); Heywood, The Fair Maid, v. 2. 3.

quiddle, to trifle, to discourse in a trifling way; ‘Set out your bussing base, and we will quiddle upon it’, Damon and Pithias; in Hazlitt, iv. 81. In common prov. use from Worc. to Cornwall in the sense of acting in a fussy manner about trifles; see EDD. (s.v. Quiddle, vb.¹).

quillet, a sly trick, cavil. L. L. L. iv. 3. 288; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iv. 1. 16.

quillity, a quibble, cavil. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 75. Cp. Ital. quilità, quillità, ‘a quillity’ (Florio).

quinch, to stir, to wince, flinch, start. Spenser, View of the State of Ireland, p. 670, col. 1 (Globe edition). Not a quinch, not a start, not a jot, ‘I care not a quinche’, Damon and Pithias, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 28.

quintell; ‘A Quintaine or Quintell, a game in request at marriages, when Jac and Tom, Dic, Hob and Will, strive for the gay garland’, Minsheu, Ductor; Herrick, A Pastorall Sung to the King, 4; quintil, Quarles, Sheph. Orac. vi (NED.).

quip, to taunt. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 44; to assail with sarcasm, Greene, Verses from Cicero, 5, ed. Dyce, p. 311; to be sarcastic, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 206).

†quirily, quiveringly (?). Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 220. Not found elsewhere.

quit, to requite. Webster, White Devil (ed. Dyce, p. 5); Beaumont and Fl., v. 1 (Antinous). See quite.

quite, quight, to free, release. Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 10; to repay, requite, id., i. 10. 67; quite, id., i. 1. 30; i. 8. 26, 27; i. 10. 15, 37. ME. quyte, to requite, repay (Chaucer); see Dict. M. and S. Med. L. quietare, quitare, ‘pacificare, dimittere’; quietus, quitus, ‘absolutus, liber’ (Ducange).

quittance, to requite, repay. 1 Hen. VI, ii. 1. 14; Greene, Orl. Fur. ii. 1 (499); Sacripant (p. 95, col. 2).

quitter-bone, an ulcer on the coronet of a horse’s foot. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Knockem); ‘Sete, the quitter-bone; a round and hard swelling upon the cornet (between the heel and quarter) of a horse’s foot’, (Cotgrave).

quitture, a purulent discharge from a wound or sore. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xiv. 7; xxiv. 374. ME. quytere (Wyclif, Job ii. 8); whytowre (Prompt.). Anglo-F. quyture (Bozon), OF. cuiture, smarting, matter from a boil; cuire, to smart, lit. to cook, roast, &c.; L. coquere.

quiver, active, quick, rapid. 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 301; Turbervile, The Lover to Cupid, st. 18; quiverly, actively, Gillespie, Eng. Pop. Cerem. (NED.). OE. cwiferlīce, actively.

quoil(e, a noisy disturbance, a ‘coil’. R. Harvey, Pl. Perc. (ed. 1860, p. 30); Culpepper, Eng. Physic, 255; quile, Lord Cromwell, i. 1. 7. See NED. (s.v. Coil, sb.²).

quondam, once upon a time; hence, one who has formerly held an office, one who has ceased to perform duties; ‘He wyll haue euerye man a quondam as he is; as for my quondamshyp’, &c, Latimer, 4 Sermon bef. King, ed. Arber, p. 108. L. quondam, formerly.

quook, quaked; pt. t. of quake. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 6. 30. ME. quok, quaked (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1576); but the regular pt. t. is quaked(e (P. Plowman, B. xviii. 246); OE. cwacode, pt. t. of cwacian.

quote, to note, set down in writing. L. L. L. ii. 246; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iv. 1 (Petronius).

quoth, quoathe, to faint; ‘He, quothing as he stood’, Golding, Metam. v. 71; fol. 56 (1603); vii. 859; fol. 92. See coath.

quoying, ‘coying’, blandishing; ‘Were they living to heare our newe quoyings . . . they would tearme it (the old wooing) foolish’ (Lyly, Euphues, ed. Arber, 277). See coy.

rabate, rabbate, to rebate, remit, take away; ‘I rabate a porcyon’, Palsgrave, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. iii, ch. 25 (ed. Arber, p. 310); rabbate, diminution, Puttenham, iii. ch. 11; p. 173. F. ‘rabatre, to abate, remit, give back’ (Cotgr.). See rebate (2).

rabbit-sucker, a very young rabbit; one that still sucks. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 480; Lyly, Endimion, v. 2 (Sir Tophas).

rabbling, disorderly; ‘Rabbling wretch!’, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 143. See NED.

race, to rase, scrape. Ascham, Toxophilus, pp. 108, 118; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iv. 158; to tear, to tear away, Morte Arthur, leaf 36, back, 1; bk. i, c. 23; to slash, tear violently, id., leaf 119, back, 22; bk. vii, c. 17; to erase, to alter a writing by erasure, ‘This indenture is raced’, Palsgrave. See NED. (s.v. Race, vb.³).

rack, a neck of mutton. B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1 (Host); Lyly, Mother Bombie, iii. 4 (Dromio); How a Man may choose, iii. 3 (Aminadab). In prov. use in various parts of the British Isles (EDD.).

rack, a mass of driving clouds. Hamlet, ii. 3. 506. Also, as vb., to drift, to move as a driving cloud; 3 Hen. VI, ii. 1. 27; Edw. III, ii. 1. 4; Dryden, Three Political Prologues, ii. 33.

rack, to move quickly; said of deer and horses; ‘His rain-deer, racking with proud and stately pace’, Peele, An Eclogue Gratulatory (ed. Dyce, p. 562). Cp. Swed. dial. rakka, to go quickly, to run hither and thither (Rietz).

rack and manger, at, with plenty of food, in the midst of abundance, in luxury; ‘Kept at rack and manger’, Warner, Alb. England, bk. viii, ch. 41, st. 46. The phrase, ‘To live at rack and manger’ (i.e. to live with heedless extravagance), is in common prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Rack, sb.⁵ 16 (2)).

rad, agreed upon after consultation; ‘Which judgement strayt was rad’, Mirror for Mag., Northfolke, st. 21. Pp. of rede, to take counsel together. See NED. (s.v. Rede, vb.¹ 5). See rede.

raft, reft, bereft. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Aug., 14. See NED. (s.v. Reave, vb.¹).

ragman-roll, a list, catalogue; ‘I did what I cowde Apollo to rase out of her ragman rollis’, Skelton, Garl. Laurell, 1490. ME. rolle of ragman, a catalogue, Towneley Myst. xxx. 224; rageman, the name of a game of chance played with a written roll having strings attached to the various items contained in it, one of which the player selected or ‘drew’ at random; see Gower, C. A. viii. 2379, and the interesting note by G. C. Macaulay; rageman, the name given to a statute (4 Edward I), appointing justices to hear and determine complaints of injuries done within 25 years previous; see NED. (s.v. Ragman, 2).

ragmans rew, a rhapsody, rigmarole; ‘A ragmans rewe . . . So do we call a long jeste that railleth on any persone by name’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., 245; a list, ‘Ragmanrew, series’, Levins, Manip.

raile, rayle, to roll, flow, trickle. Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 43; ii. 8. 37; Visions of Bellay, 155; Fairfax, tr. of Tasso, iv. 74.

railed, fastened in a row; ‘Railed in ropes, like a team of horses in a cart’, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 130); Ford, Perkin Warbeck, iii. 1 (Oxford). OF. reiller; L. regulare, to put in order.

rain, rean, a furrow between the ridges in a field. Spelt raine, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 13. 7; rayne, id., 7. 20; reane, id., 21. 15. In general prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Rean). Icel. rein, a narrow strip of land, esp. one left unploughed between fields.

raine, rayne, realm, dominion; also region. Spenser, F. Q. v. 5. 28; id., iii. 4. 49; vi. 2. 9. See Dict. (s.v. Reign).

rakehell, a thorough scoundrel; a debauchee or rake; ‘The King of rake-hells’, Bacon, Hen. VII (ed. Lumby, p. 165); ‘Vaultneant, pendart, pendereau, a rakehel, a rascal that wil be hangd’, Nomenclator, 1585 (Nares); ‘Pendard, a rake-hell, crack-rope, gallow-clapper’, Cotgrave.

rakel, impetuous, headstrong; ‘Rakyl, insolens’, Levins, Manip.; ‘Rackle’ (or ‘Rakel’) is in common prov. use in the north country in the sense of rash, violent, headstrong (EDD.). ME. rakel, rash, hasty (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 1067; iii. 1437).

ramage, said of hawks: having left the nest and begun to fly from branch to branch; hence, wild, untamed, shy; said also of animals and persons; ‘Take a sperhauke ramage’, Caxton, G. de la Tour, A viii (NED.); Turbervile, The Lover to a Gentlewoman, st. 10. Norm. F. ramage, ‘sauvage, farouche’ (Moisy); Rom. type, ramaticum, deriv. of L. ramus, a branch.

ramp, a bold vulgar girl. Middleton and Dekker, Roaring Girl, iii. 3 (Trapdoor); Cymbeline, i. 6. 134; Lyly, Sapho, iii. 2 (Song).

ramp, to creep or crawl on the ground; see NED. ME. rampe: ‘A litel Serpent . . . Which rampeth’ (Gower, C. A. vi. 2230). F. ramper, ‘to creep, crawl’ (Cotgr.).

ramp, to raise the forepaws in the air (usually said of lions); ‘A rampynge and roarynge lyon’, Great Bible, 1539, Ps. xxii. 13 (so in Prayer Book); ‘The ramping lion’, 3 Hen. VI, v. 2. 13. ME. rampe; ‘He goth rampende as a leoun’ (Gower, C. A. vii. 2573). Anglo-F. ramper; ‘lioun rampant’ (Gower, Mirour, 2267). See raump.

rampallian, a ruffian, scoundrel; a term of abuse. Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, ii. 2 (Orleans); City Gallant, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xi. 197; applied to a woman, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 65; S. Rowlands, Greenes Ghost (NED.).

rampier, a ‘rampart’, protecting bank of earth. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 165). Hence, rampired, fortified, Timon, v. 4. 47. See Dict.

rampion, a species of bell-flower, Campanula Rapunculus. Tusser, Husbandry, § 40. 12; Drayton, Pol. xx. 60. F. raiponce, ‘rampions’ (Cotgr.). The s of rampions has been taken for the plural s, and accordingly dropped.

ranch, to tear, to cut. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, v. 856; Drayton, tr. of Aeneid, xi. 1184. ‘Ranch’ in E. Anglia means to scratch deeply and severely (EDD.).

rand, a strip or slice of meat; ‘Rands and sirloins’, Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, v. 2 (Belleur); ‘Giste de bœuf, a rand of beef, a longe and fleeshy peece, cut out from between the flanke and buttock’ (Cotgrave). Still in use in E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Rand, sb.¹ 6).

randon: in phr. at randon, with rushing force. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 4. 7; Shep. Kal., May, 46. OF. randon, force, impetuosity, the swiftness of a violent stream; hence F. aller à grand randon, ‘to go very fast’ (Cotgr.). See raundon.

randon, to go about at will. Ferrex and Porrex, i. 2 (Arostus); ii. chorus, 2. F. ‘randonner, to run swiftly, violently’ (Cotgr.); see H. Estienne, Précellence, 187.

rangle, to rove, to wander. Mirror for Mag., Burdet, st. 36; Turbervile, The Lover to a Gentlewoman, st. 2. Cp. the Somerset phrase ‘a rangle common’, see EDD. (s.v. Rangle, vb.² 2).

rank, strongly, furiously. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 6; iv. 5. 33. In Cheshire a wasp’s nest is said to be ‘rank’, where the wasps are numerous and angry (EDD.). ME. rank, froward (Havelok, 2561). OE. ranc, renders the Vulgate ‘protervum’ (Ælfric, Deut. xxi. 18).

ranpick, partially decayed, bare of leaves. Drayton, Pol. ii. 205; Barnfield, Affect. Sheph. 27 (NED.). In Cheshire ‘rampick’ (in Warw. ‘ranpike’) means a tree beginning to decay at the top; a young tree stripped of boughs and bark (EDD.).

rap, to affect with rapture, to transport, ravish with joy. Cymbeline, i. 6. 51; B. Jonson, Every Man out of Humour, i. 1. A back-formation from rapt (1).

rap and rend, to snatch up and seize, to take by force, acquire. Dryden, Prol. to Disappointment, 54; Butler, Hud. ii. 2. 789; rappe and rende, Roy, Rede Me (ed. Arber, 74). ME. rape and renne (Chaucer, C. T. G. 1422). See EDD. (s.v. Rap, vb.³ (1) and (5)), and Dict. (s.v. Rap, 2).

rapt, caught up (like Elijah). Milton, P. L. iii. 522; vii. 23; affected with ecstasy, Macbeth, i. 3. 57 (and 142); Spenser, F. Q. iv. 9. 6. L. raptus, seized, snatched.

rapt, to carry away, to transport, enrapture. Daniel, Civil War, vii. 96; Drayton, Pol. xiii. 411; Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xii. 84; Sylvester, Du Bartas, ii. 4. 1. The verb is formed from the pp., see above.

rapture, the act of carrying off as prey or plunder; ‘Spite of all the rapture of the sea’, Pericles, ii. 1. 161; the condition of being carried onward, ‘Our Ship . . . ’gainst a Rocke . . . her keele did dash With headlong rapture’, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xiv. 428; the act of carrying off a woman, Dekker, Fortunatus (Wks., ed. 1873, i. 151).

rare, early. ‘Rare and late’, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, vi. 422. Still in prov. use in the south and south-west counties, see EDD. adj.². See rear.

rascal, a lean deer not fit to hunt. As You like It, iii. 3. 58; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iv. 5 (Ralph); Turbervile, Hunting, c. 28; p. 73. See Nares.

rash, to strike like a boar, with a glancing stroke, to tear with violence. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iv. 4 (Fastidious Brisk); Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 17. See NED. (s.v. Rash, vb.² 1).

rash, to tear, pull, drag. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, iv, l. 826; Dryden, tr. of Aeneid, ix. 1094. See NED. (s.v. Rash, vb.³).

ratch, a dog that hunts by scent. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 592. Still in use in the north country, see EDD. sb.⁴. ME. ratche, hownde, odorinsecus’ (Prompt.). OE. ræce (B. T.); related to Icel. rakki, a dog.

ratches, a mass of scudding clouds; ‘From all the heauen the ratches flies’, Phaer, Aeneid v, 821 (L. nimbi).

rathe, early; ‘The rathe morning’, Drayton, Robert, Duke of Normandy, 8; Milton, Lycidas, 142; ‘The rather lambs’ (i.e. the lambs born in the earlier part of the year), Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 83; rathe, soon, id., Dec, 98; ‘All to rathe’ (all too soon). Sir T. Wyatt, The Lover waileth (Wks., ed. Bell, 98). Still in use in various parts of the British Isles (EDD.). ME. rathe, early, soon; rather, sooner, more willingly (Chaucer). OE. hræð, quick, hraðe, quickly.

raught, reached; pt. t. and pp. of to reach. L. L. L. iv. 2. 41; Hen. V, iv. 6. 21; 2 Hen. VI, ii. 3. 43. Still in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Reach, vb.¹ 3).

raump, to ramp, rear up; said of a lion. Morte Arthur, leaf 170. 30; bk. ix, c. 1. See ramp (3).

raundon, force, violence, impetuosity, great haste. Morte Arthur, leaf 55. 37; bk. iii, c. 9; id., leaf 338. 15; bk. xvi, c. 8. See randon.

raven: in phr. raven’s bone, the gristle on the ‘spoon’ of the brisket of a deer; given to the crows. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Robin). Also called raven’s morsel, Turbervile, Hunting, 42. 129.

ravin, to snatch with violence, to devour greedily; Meas. for M. i. 2. 133; Cymbeline, i. 6. 49; Bible, Gen. xlix. 27; Ps. xvii. 12, margin; ‘Rapinare, to ravin, to rob, to snatch’ (Florio); raven, to have a ravenous appetite for, Dryden, Hind and P., iii. 964; id., Wild Gallant, iv. 2; ravine, prey, booty, ‘The Lion . . . filled his holes with pray, and his dens with ravine’, Nahum ii. 12 (Vulgate, rapina); ravenous, ‘I met the ravin lion’, All’s Well, iii. 2. 120. See Dict. (s.v. Raven, 2).

ray, ‘array’, due order. Spenser, F. Q. v. 2. 50; v. 11, 34; an array, line, rank, ‘Thirteen rayes of horsemen’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Alexander, § 5. See Dict. (s.v. Array).

ray, to defile. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 40; vi. 4. 23; Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 54. For araye; ‘I araye or fyle with myer, j’emboue’, Palsgrave. ‘Ray’ is still in use in Lanc. and Yorks. in this sense, cp. the proverb, ‘It’s an ill bird that rays its own nest.’

ray, cloth of, a kind of striped cloth. Peele, Edw. I. (ed. Dyce, p. 390, col. 2). Cp. F. raie, a streak, stripe; O. Prov. rega, ‘sillon’ (Levy); Med. L. riga, a stripe, rigatus, striped (Ducange). See rockray.

rayon, a ray, beam. Spenser, Visions of Bellay, Pt. II, st. 2, 1. 7. F. rayon, a ray.

ready: in phr. to make ready, to dress oneself; ‘You made yourself half ready in a dream’, Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1 (Sanitonella); ‘She must do nothing of herself, not eat . . . make her ready, unready, Unless he bid her’, Beaumont and Fl., Woman’s Prize, i. 1 (Tranio). See unready.

reaks, reeks, pranks, riotous practices. Gascoigne, Looks of a Lover forsaken, 13 (Works, i. 49); Heywood, Eng. Traveller, ii. 1 (Clown); Urquhart’s Rabelais, iii. 2; ‘Faire le Diable de Vauvert, to play monstrous reaks’, Cotgrave (s.v. Diable); ‘The heart of man in prayer is most bent to play reakes in wandering from God’, Boyd, Last Battel, 731 (Jamieson). ‘Reak’ (or ‘reik’) is an old Scottish word for a trick or prank. See rex.

realm, region; pron. like ream (of paper), and quibbled upon. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. v (Clement); Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 4 (Ithamore).

reame, a kingdom, realm. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 53; iv. 8. 45; Daniel, Civil Wars, i. 82; reme, Skelton, Against the Scottes, 156. ME. reame (P. Plowman, A. v. 146); reme (Chaucer), Anglo-F. realme (Rough List); see Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Rewme).

reaming, stretching out in threads; ‘Reaming wooll’, Herrick, Widdowes Teares, st. 5. Cp. ‘reamy’, stringy, used of bread, in the west country, see EDD. (s.v. Ream, vb.² 6 (2)).

rear, early. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Lolpoop). A Kentish pronunciation of rare. See EDD. (s.v. Rare, adj. 2). See rare.

rear, insufficiently cooked. Middleton, Game at Chess, iv. 2. 21. In gen. prov. use in England and America (EDD.). OE. hrēr, half-cooked, underdone (Sweet).

reare, to lift; hence, to carry off, take away. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 6. Also, to direct upwards, Milton, P. R. ii. 285.

reasty, rancid, esp. used of bacon which has become yellow and strong-tasting through bad curing. Reastie, Tusser, Husbandry, § 20. 2. OF. resté, that which is left over, hence, stale, cp. Bibbesworth, in T. Wright’s Vocab., 155: chars restez = E. resty flees (i.e. reasty flesh). Reasty is still in general prov. use in England (EDD.).

rebate, to beat back. Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 87; iii. 2 (884); p. 90, col. 2; p. 101, col. 1. F. rabatre (Cotgr.).

rebate, to blunt. Meas. for M. i. 4. 60; Otway, Don Carlos, iii. 1 (King); Chapman, tr. Iliad, xxiv. 585; Dryden, Pal. and Arc. iii. 502. See rabate.

rebato, rabato, a collar-band, or ruff, which turned back upon the shoulders. Much Ado, iii. 4. 6; Dekker, Satiromastix (Works, 1873, i. 186); B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iv. 1 (Phantaste); ‘Porte-fraise, a Rebato or supporter for a Ruffe’, Cotgrave (ed. 1611). Rebato-wire, a wire for stiffening a ‘rebato’, Yorkshire Tragedy, i. 32; Heywood, A Woman killed, v. 2. 8. F. rabat, ‘a Rabatoe for a woman’s ruff, also, a falling band’ (Cotgr.).

rebeck, an early form of the fiddle. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 20, § 11; Milton, L’Allegro, 94. O. Prov. rebec, also rebeb (Levy). See Dict.

rebeck, to beckon back, recall, reclaim; said of a hawk. Heywood, A Woman killed, i. 3 (Sir Charles).

rebelling, a ‘ravelin’ (in a quibble). Heywood, Eng. Traveller, ii. 1 (Clown). Span. rebellin, a ‘ravelin’ in fortification (Stevens). See Dict.

reboil, to bubble up again. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 7, § 10; reboyled, made to boil again; Skelton (ed. Dyce, vol. i, p. 209). F. ‘rebouiller, to boil once more; rebouillonner, to bubble’ (Cotgr.). Cp. Med. L. rebullire, ‘recandescere’ (Ducange).

receit, a place of refuge, alcove. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, iv. 413; recess, haven, id., x. 122; a recess, place of ambush; Bacon, Hen. VII (ed. Lumby, p. 154). Anglo-F. recet, place of resort (Rough List); O. Prov. recet, ‘lieu où l’on se retire, retraite’ (Levy); Med. L. receptum (Ducange). See recheat.

rechate, the calling together of the hounds in hunting. Malory, Arthur, x. 52. As vb., to blow a ‘rechate’, to call together the hounds. Drayton, Pol. xiii. 122; Turbervile, Hunting, xl. 114 (NED.). OF. rachater (racheter); L. re + Med. L. accaptare (Ducange); see NED. (s.v. Achate, vb.).

recheat, the series of notes sounded on the horn for calling the hounds together, Much Ado, i. 1. 251; Davenant, Gondibert, ii. 37. Anglo-F. and OF. (Picard), rechet, a retreat, hence, a note of retreat; O. Prov. recet, ‘retraite’ (Levy). See receit.

recheles, reckless, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, 7. 8. OE. reccelēas. See retchless.

rechlessness, carelessness, recklessness, B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, iv. 1; Article of Religion, 17 (in modern Prayer Books misspelt wretchlessness). ME. recchelesnesse (Chaucer, C. T. I. 611).

reclaim, to call back; reclayme, Spenser, F. Q. v. 12. 9; a term in falconry, ‘I reclayme a hauke of her wyldnesse’, Palsgrave; to tame, Romeo, iv. 2. 47. Cp. F. ‘reclame, a Sohoe or Heylaw; a loud calling, whooting or whooping, to make a Hawk stoop unto the Lure’ (Cotgr.).

record, to sing, to warble; applied esp. to the singing of birds. Two Gent. v. 4. 6; Pericles, iv, Gower; Beaumont and Fl., Valentinian, ii. 1; Browne, Brit. Past. ii. 4. As sb. = recorder (see below), Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (ed. Arber, p. 79); Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 1. 142.

recorder, a kind of flageolet or small flute, so named because birds were taught to ‘record’ by it. Hamlet, iii. 2. 303. See Nares.

recoure, to regain, win again. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 9. 25; ‘I recure, I get agayne’, Palsgrave.

recrayed, recreant; ‘He was a recrayd knyght’, Skelton, Against the Scottes, Epilogue, 26; A Replicacion, 45. Norm. F. recreire, ‘se dédire’ (Moisy); O. Prov. se recreire, ‘s’avouer vaincu’ (Levy); Med. L. recredere, to surrender oneself, as being defeated (Ducange).

recreance, Letters of Recreance, Letter from the Earl of Sunderland to Robert Harley, Dec. 31, 1705, see N. and Q. 11 S. vii. 505. F. ‘Lettres de récréance, qui se dit, soit des lettres qu’un Prince envoie à son Ambassadeur, pour les présenter au Prince d’auprès duquel il le rappelle; soit des lettres que ce Prince donne à un Ambassadeur, afin qu’il les rende à son retour au Prince qui le rappelle’, Dict. de l’Acad., 1762; ‘Recreance, a restoral, restitution; also, a delivery of possession’ (Cotgr.). Cp. O. Prov. recrezensa, ‘désistement’ (Levy).

recule, to retire, go back. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 68; ‘I recule, I go back, je recule’, Palsgrave; Spenser, F. Q. v. 11. 47; Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 108; recoyle, to retreat. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 17; recuile, id., vi. 1. 20. See Dict. (s.v. Recoil).

†recullisance, a corrupt form of recognisance. Middleton, Mich. Term, iii. 4 (Shortyard). See cullisen.

recure, to restore to health and vigour. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 44; 9. 2; 10. 24; as sb., recovery, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, i. 436; xviii. 60; Sackville, Induction, st. 49. Hence, recureless, without recovery, not to be recovered from, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 446; irrecoverable; Greene, James IV, ii. 2 (987; Nano).

recuyell, a collection; ‘The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye’ (the title of Caxton’s book); spelt recule, Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 1187. Also, a reception, welcome, ‘The grete recuel that I have doon’, Caxton, Eneydos, xviii. 66. F. ‘recueil, a collection, also, a reception, welcome’ (Cotgr.); ‘recueil, accueil’ (Estienne).

red. Red lattice, a lattice-window painted red, to distinguish an ale-house. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 86; cp. Merry Wives, ii. 2. 28.

rede, read, to advise. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 17; id., Mother Hub. 114; to discern, estimate, to take for something, Spenser, Ruins of Time, 633; id., F. Q. ii. 12. 70; vi. 2. 30. As sb. rede, counsel, advice. Hamlet, i. 3. 51. ME. rede, to advise; reed, rede, advice (Chaucer); OE. rǣdan; rǣd (Sweet). See rad.

redintegrate, restored to a perfect state. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 42). L. redintegratus.

Red-shanks, a name applied to the Gaelic inhabitants of the Scottish Highlands and of Ireland, in allusion to the colour of the bare legs reddened by exposure; ‘Scottes and Reddshankes’, Spenser, State Ireland (Globe ed., 658, col. 2). [‘The red-shanks of Ireland’, Smollett, Humph. Clinker (Davies).]

redub, redoub, to repair, amend, requite. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 7, § 2; ‘O gods, redub them vengeaunce just’, Phaer, tr. of Virgil, bk. vi; Udall, tr. of Apoph., p. xvi, line 27; Socrates, § 47. Anglo-F. redubber, F. ‘radouber, to peece, mend’ (Cotgr.).

reduce, to bring back, recover. Shirley, Hyde Park, v. 1 (Mis. Carol); Court Secret, i. 1 (Manuel); Sackville, Induction, st. 9; Hen. V, v. 2. 63; Rich. III, v. 3. 36. L. reducere.

reek, a rick, stack. Middleton, The Witch, i. 2 (Hecate); Dryden, Meleager (from Ovid), l. 35. ‘Reek’ is the prov. pronunc. of rick in many parts of England, as well as in Ireland (EDD.). OE. hrēac, a hayrick.

reeke, seaweed. Golding, Metam. xiv. 38 (L. algae). ME. wreke, of the sea, ‘alga’ (Prompt.). Icel. reki (vreki), seaweed drifted ashore.

reere, a loud noise, a shout. Golding, Metam. xiii. 876; fol. 165, l. 1 (1603); ‘Such a reare of thunder fell’, Hudson, Du Bartas, Judith, ii (NED. s.v. Rear). ME. rere, noise (R. Brunne, Chron. Wace, 10207). See NED. (s.v. Reere).

reez’d, rancid, as bacon. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. iii. 112. ME. reest, as flesche, ‘rancidus’ (Prompt.). See NED. (s.v. Reesed).

refel, refell, to refute. Meas. for M. v. 1. 94; Lyly, Alexander, ii. 2 (Alex.). L. refellere.

refocillation, a restorative. Middleton, A Mad World, iii. 2 (Pen. B.). L. refocillare, to warm into life again; often used in the Vulgate for the reviving of the spirit: ‘Reversus est spiritus ejus, et refocillatus est’, 1 Reg. xxx. 12 (1 Sam. xxx. 12).

reformado, a disbanded soldier; an officer left without a command (owing to the ‘reforming’ or disbanding of his company), but retaining his rank and receiving full or half pay; ‘A reformado saint’, Butler, Hud. ii. 2. 116; ‘The reformado soldier’, id., ii. 2. 648; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 5. Span. reformado, an officer on half-pay; from reformar, to reduce in number; hence of troops, to discharge, disband (cp. Calderon, El Alcalde de Zalamea, ii. 33). See Stanford.

refuse me, may God reject me; once a very fashionable oath; ‘These wicked elder brothers, that swear refuse them’, Rowley, a Match at Midnight, i. 1 (Tim); ‘God refuse me’, Webster, White Devil, ed. Dyce, p. 7, col. 2 (Flamineo).

regals, pl., a small portable organ with one or two sets of reed-pipes played with one hand, while the other worked a small bellows. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (ed. Arber, p. 79); Bacon, Sylva, § 172. Norm. F. regales, ‘espèce de petit orgue portatif’ (Moisy).

regalo, a dainty, a choice bit; ‘Servants laden with regalos and delicate choice Dainties’, Mabbe, tr. Life of Guzman, i. 1. 2; ‘Their markets are well furnish’d with all Provisions; witness their Salsicce only, which are a Regalo for a Prince’, R. Lassels, Voy. Italy (ed. 1698, p. 101); spelt (wrongly) regalio, Dryden, Wild Gallant, Epil., 12. Span. ‘regálo, a dainty; also, loving and kind entertainment; regalar, to make much of, to treat daintily’ (Stevens). See Stanford.

regiment, rule, sway, dominion. Ant. and Cl. iii. 6. 95; Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, ii. 7. 19. ME. regiment (Gower, C. A. vii. 915, 1245, 1702). Anglo-F. regiment (Gower, Mirour, 2615).

regrater, regrator, a retailer, retail dealer. Regrators, pl., North, tr. of Plutarch, Octavius, § 15 (in Shak. Plut., p. 261); regrators of bread-corn, Tatler, no. 118, § 10 (1709-10). ME. regratere (P. Plowman, C. iv. 82; see Notes, p. 61); Anglo-F. regratier and regratour (Rough List). Med. L. regratarius and regratator (Ducange).

reguerdon, requital, reward. 1 Hen. VI, iii. 1. 170; to reward, 1 Hen. VI, iii. 4. 23. ME. reguerdoun (Gower, C. A. v. 2368, as vb., iii. 2716). Anglo-F. reguerdon, reward, reguerdoner, to reward (Gower, Balades, xii. 2; xxiii. 3).

relent, to slacken; ‘He would relent his pace’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 11. 27; iii. 4. 49; iii. 7. 2; slackening, v. 7. 24; vi. 5. 20. F. ‘ralentir, to slacken’ (Cotgr.).

relent, to melt, to dissolve into water; ‘Se howe this snowe begynneth to relent agaynst the sonne’, Palsgrave; to become soft, Tusser, Husbandry, 63; to cause to melt, ‘Phebus dothe the snowe relente’, Hawes, Conv. Swearers, xl; hence, relentment, dissolution, Sir T. Browne, Urn Burial, i. § 7. Anglo-F. se relenter, to dissolve, melt (Gower, Mirour, 6603).

relief, releef, a term in hunting, when the dogs follow a new and unknown prey; ‘You must sound the releefe . . . your reliefe is your sweetest note . . . when your hounds hunt after a game unknowne’, Return from Parnassus, ii. 5 (Amoretto). See Nares, and NED. (s.v. Relief, sb.² 7c).

reliv’d, recalled to life, reanimated. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 52; iii. 8. 3; relyv’d, id., iii. 4. 35.

reluce, reluse, to shine brightly. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 185. 12; reluysing, brightness, id., leaf 225, back, 9. F. ‘reluire, to shine . . . reluisant, shining, radiant’ (Cotgr.).

rely, to assemble, gather (soldiers) together, to rally; ‘He gathered his troopes, . . . he relieth the rankes’, Heywood, tr. Sal. Jug. War, 50 (NED.); ‘He caused them to stay and relie themselves’, Holinshed, Scot. Chron. (NED.); to join oneself, ‘And Blandamour to Claribell relide’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 9. 26. ME. rely, to assemble, rally soldiers (Barbour, Bruce, iii. 34). F. relier, to bind; L. religare.

reme, to tear open; ‘Which seeme (as women use) to reme my hart, Before I come to open all my smart’, Mirror for Mag., Irenglas, st. 25. ‘Ream’ is in prov. use in the west country; EDD. (s.v. Ream, vb.² 2), cites from Exmoor Scolding, 1746, ‘Chell ream my Heart to tha’ (i.e. I’ll open my heart to thee). ME. ryme, to stretch (Wars Alex. 4931); OE. rȳman, to make clear space, enlarge; rūm, space.

remember, to remind. Temp. i. 2. 243; Richard II, i. 3. 269; reflex., to remember, ‘Now I remember me’, Twelfth Nt. v. 1. 286; Great Bible, 1539, Ps. xxii. 27.

remembrance, memento, love-token; ‘This was her first remembrance from the Moor’, Othello, iii. 3. 291; iii. 4. 186; to put in remembrance, to remind, Bible, Isaiah xliii. 26; 2 Peter i. 12.

remerce, to ransom by paying the fine; ‘From Owen’s jayle our cosin we remerst’, Mirror for Mag., Northumberland, st. 11. Cp. amerce, to fine.

remonstrance, a representation, resemblance; ‘A remonstrance of this battle, Where flowers shall seem to fight’, Shirley, Imposture, i. 2 (Flaviano). F. ‘remonstrer, to shew unto, or set before the eyes’, (Cotgr.); O. Prov. remostrar, ‘montrer, démontrer’ (Levy).

remora, the sucking-fish, Echeneis remora. Spenser, Vis. of World’s Vanity, ix. 10; B. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, ii. 1 (Polish). L. remora, delay; the ancients believed that this fish could stay a ship’s course by cleaving to it.

remord, to bite in return, to feel remorse; ‘His conscience remording agayne the destruction of so noble a prince’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 5, § 11; to blame, rebuke, Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 983. ME. remorde, to afflict with remorse (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iv. 1491). Anglo-F. remordre, to bite, devour, move to repentance (Gower, Mirour, 386, 6679, 10397).

remorse, sorrow, pity, compassion. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 4. 6; Merch. Ven. iv. 1. 20; Middleton, Mayor of Queenboro’, i. 1 (Constantius); Milton, P. L. v. 566; regretful or remorseful remembrance of a thing, Skelton, Knowledge, 29; without remorse, without intermission, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 131; ‘Without any mitigation or remorse of voice’, Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 98.

rendy, a ‘rendezvous’; a place of meeting; ‘Th’ appointed rendy’, Drayton, Pierce Gaveston. For F. rendez-vous, a subst. use of rendez-vous, the 2nd pers. plur. imperative of se rendre, to present oneself (at a certain place).

reneague, to deny, renounce. Udall, Paraph. Luke, Pref. 12; to make denial, King Lear, ii. 2. 84; to refuse, decline, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 650. In common prov. use in Ireland and in England in the west country (EDD.).

renforst, pt. t. reinforced himself, gathered his strength together. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 4. 14. As pp., forced again; id., ii. 10. 48.

renge, a rank. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 177. 13; lf. 230, back, 29; ‘Renge, ranc’, Palsgrave.

renge, to range, arrange. Caxton, Hist. Troye, fol. 98. 26; ‘I renge, or set in array, je arrengie’, Palsgrave.

renowme, ‘renown’. Bible, Gen. vi. 4, ed. 1611; ‘A man of great renowme, Illustris vir’, Baret, Alvearie; Chapman, Iliad xxii, 186; renowmed, ‘renowned’, Bible, Isaiah, xiv. 20; Ezek. xxiii. 23; Richard III, i. 4. 49 (Qq.); ‘Renommé, renowmed, famous, of much note’, Cotgrave.

rense, to ‘rinse’. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 224. This is the pronunc. of ‘rinse’ in many parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Rench). See Dict.

rent, to rend, tear. Mids. Night’s D. iii. 2. 215; Macb. iv. 3. 168; ‘I rent, I teare a thyng asonder’, Palsgrave.

renverst, turned upside down. Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 41; v. 3. 37. F. renverser, to reverse.

reny, to deny, refuse. Renide (for renied), Mirror for Mag., Guidericus, st. 22. See NED. (s.v. Renay, vb. 3). F. renier, to deny.

repeat, to seek again. Dryden, Annus Mirab., st. 257; Tyrannic Love, iii (Berenice); Waller, Summer Islands, iii. 64. L. repetere, to seek again.

repent, penance. Greene, Friar Bacon, v. 1 (1867); scene 14. 15 (W.); p. 176, col. 1 (D.). Also, repentance, Greene, The Palmer’s Ode, 34 (ed. Dyce, p. 295).

reprie, reprive, to send back to prison, to remand; ‘They repryede me to prison’, Heywood, Spider and Fly, lxxviii. 158; to reprieve, to respite or rescue a person from impending punishment; esp. to delay the execution of a condemned person, ‘I humbly crave your Majestie to . . . my sonne reprive’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 12. 31. First used in pp., repryed, cp. Anglo-F. repris, pp. of reprendre, to take back.

repriefe, reproof. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 29; iii. 8. 1. ME. repreve, reproof (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2413). See priefe.

reprieve, to blame, find fault with. Spenser, F. Q. v. 6. 21; ‘I repreve one, je reprouve’, Palsgrave. ME. repreve (Chaucer, C. T. H. 70); reprevyn, ‘reprehendo’ (Prompt.).

reprise, reprize, reprisal, the act of taking something by way of retaliation, Dryden, Hind and P. iii. 862. As vb., to take again, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 11. 44. F. reprise, a getting something back again.

require, to seek after. Dryden, Annus Mirab., st. 236; to ask, to ask as a favour, Ant. and Cl. iii. 12. 12; Watson, Poems (ed. Arber, 159); The Great Bible, 1539, Ps. xxxviii. 16; Bible, 2 Sam. xii. 20. L. requirere. See Bible Word-Book.

rescous, rescue, assistance, aid. Hall, Chron. Hen. IV, 23 (NED.); Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 78. 31; Spelt rescousse, Caxton, Jason, 39 b (NED.). ME. rescous, rescue, help (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2643); OF. rescousse, ‘l’action de délivrer un prisonnier que l’ennemi emmène’) (Didot). See Dict. M. and S.

resent, to give off a scent, exhale an odour. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 221. See NED. (s.v. Resent, vb. 10).

resiance, a residence. Bacon, Hen. VII (ed. Lumby, pp. 119, 188); Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 455, l. 7. See below.

resiant; ‘resident’, lodged, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 11. 28; ‘Here resiant in Rome’, B. Jonson, Catiline, iv. 3 (Lentulus); resyants, pl., Oxford Records, Dec., 1534 (ed. Turner, 123). Norm. F. reseant, ‘habitant’ (Moisy), L. residentem, pres. pt. of residere, to sit down, to reside.

residence, that which settles as a deposit, a residuum. B. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, iii. 4 (Rut).

resipiscency, a return to a better mind, repentance. Sir T. Browne, Letter to a Friend, § 41. L. resipiscentia.

resolute, decided, positive, final; ‘I expect now your resolute answer’, Massinger, Picture, iv. 1.

resolution, certainty, positive knowledge. King Lear, i. 2. 108; a fixed determination, Ford, Broken Heart, i. 1.

resolve, to dissolve, melt; ‘O! that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew’, Hamlet, i. 2. 130; to free from uncertainty, Meas. for M. iii. 1. 193; iv. 2. 226; to satisfy, Beaumont and Fl., Laws of Candy, iv. 1 (Antinous).

respasses, raspberries. Herrick, To the most fair Mistris A. Soame, 20. For resp-es-es, rasp-es-es, a double plural. ‘Rasp’ is in prov. use in various parts of the British Isles (EDD.). See Nares.

respective, careful; ‘You should have been respective’, Merch. Ven. v. 1. 156; worthy of respect, Two Gent. iv. 4. 200; respectively, respectfully, with due respect, Timon, iii. 1. 8; Middleton, Five Gallants, ii. 1.

resplendish, to shine. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 2, § 3. OF. resplendir. See Croft’s note.

rest, a musket-rest; ‘His rest? why, has he a forked head?’, B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iv. 4 (Puntarvolo); because the musket-rest was semicircular; ‘Like a musket on a rest’, Middleton, Roaring Girl, iv. 2 (Mis. O.).

rest, ‘in primero, the stakes kept in reserve, which were agreed upon at the beginning of the game, and upon the loss of which the game terminated; the venture of such stakes’ (NED.); ‘The money he had duly won upon a rest’, Cotton, Espernon, i. 4. 156; fig., ‘When I cannot live any longer, I will do as I may: That is my rest’, Hen. V, ii. 1. 17 (Corporal Nym means, this is what I stand to win or lose). Phr. to set up one’s rest, ‘to venture one’s final stake or reserve’ (NED.); hence, fig., to take a decisive resolution, to be determined, ‘I have set up my rest to run away’, Merch. Ven. ii. 2. 110; ‘He that sets up his rest to do more exploits’, Com. Errors, iv. 3. 27; Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iv. 3 (Alvarez); to place one’s fixed aim in something, ‘He seems to set up his rest in this plenty, and the neatness of his house’, Pepys, Diary, Jan. 19, 1663. See Nares.

rest, to ‘arrest’. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 11. 4 (Brainworm); ‘I reste as a sergente dothe a prisoner or his goodes, je arreste’, Palsgrave. In common Scottish use, see EDD. (s.v. Rest, vb.² 3).

rest, a ‘wrest’, a pin for winding up the strings of a harp, &c. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 137; wrest, to wind up, id., Colyn Cloute, 492.

rest-balk, a ridge of land left unploughed between two furrows. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 4. 4.

resty, inert, loath to move, sluggish, Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 263; Cymbeline, iii. 6. 34; resty stiff, Edward III, iii. 3. 161. The same word as ‘restive’ (‘restiff’). Anglo-F. restif (Ch. Rol., 1256). See Trench, Select Glossary; and Dict. (s.v. Restive).

retchless, reckless, careless. Drayton, Pol. vi. 270; Sackville, Induction, st. 46. See recheles.

retire, a retreat in war. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 3. 54; Tr. and Cr. v. 4. 21; withdrawal from the world, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 9. 27.

retrait, retrate, picture, portrait; look, expression. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 4; ii. 3. 25. Cp. Span. and Port. retrato, a portrait, Ital. ritratto.

retray, reflex, to draw back; ‘He retrayed him’, Morte Arthur, leaf 115, back, 29; bk. vii, c. 12. F. retraire, ‘to withdraw, draw back’ (Cotgr.); L. retrahere.

retrieve: phr. to bring to the retrieve, to make the hawk return to the lure. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iii. 1 (Picklock).

reverb, to resound, re-echo. King Lear, i. 1. 156. Cp. L. reverberare, to reverberate.

reverberate, to burn in a furnace in which the heat was continually driven back upon the substance operated upon. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle).

reverence: in phr. save reverence, used apologetically in introducing some remark that might offend the hearer. Romeo, i. 4. 42; ‘Be it spoken with save the reverence of all women’, Harington, Metam. Ajax (NED.). Also, saving reverence, ‘Who, saving your reverence, is the divell himselfe’, Merch. Ven. ii. 2. 27. See Nares (s.v. Save-reverence).

revolt, to turn back. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 11. 25; spelt revault, to withdraw (words), Heywood, Fortune by Land and Sea, iii. 4 (Philip); revolt, pp. withdrawn, Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 1; as sb. a rebel, deserter, King John, v. 2. 151. See NED.

rew, a row. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 6. 17, 35; Fairfax, Tasso, xvii. 75. The pronunc. of ‘row’ in the south and south-west of England (EDD.). ME. rewe (Chaucer), OE. rǣw (Sweet).

rex: phr. to play rex, to play pranks; understood in the sense of, to play the lord, to domineer (as if from L. rex, king; due to a popular etymology); ‘To play such Rex’, (i.e. such pranks); Spenser, State of Ireland (Globe ed., p. 659, col. 2); ‘With those did Hercules play rex’ (i.e. played the master), Warner, Alb. England, bk. i, ch. 6, st. 47. See reaks.

rheumatic, suffering from catarrh or rheum, characterized by rheum. Venus and Adonis, 135; Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 105; also, Fletcher, Nice Valour, ii. 1 (Lady).

rhinocerical, resembling a rhinoceros; huge, large; as a slang term, of large means, wealthy, rich, Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Shamwell). See NED.

riband. A riband was sometimes worn in the ear, as a favour; ‘He that bought the halfpenny riband, wearing it in his ear, swearing it was the Duchess of Milan’s favour’, Marston, What you Will, iv. 1 (Meletza). Ribanded ears, id., Scourge of Villainy, 167.

ribaudrie, ribaldry. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Oct., 76; hence, ribaudred, profligate, Ant. and Cl. iii. 10. 10. ME. ribaudrie (P. Plowman, C. i. 45). Anglo-F. ribaudrie (Rough List).

ribibe, an opprobrious term for an old woman, ‘vetula’, prop. a kind of fiddle, ‘vitula’. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 1 (Pug); rybybe, Skelton, El. Rummyng, 492. It is probable that both Skelton and Jonson took this use of the word from Chaucer (C. T. D. 1377).

ribskin, a leathern apron worn during the process of ribbing or scraping flax. Spelt rybskyn, Skelton, El. Rummyng, 299.

rid, to remove with violence, ‘I shall sone ryd his soule out of his body’, Ld. Berners, Huen, xlix. 165; to destroy, Tempest, i. 2. 365; to clear off work, dispatch, ‘Slaves did rid those Manufactures’, Bacon, Essay 29 (ed. Arber, 483); to rid way, to get over the ground, move ahead, ‘Willingness rids way’, 3 Hen. VI, v. 3. 21. ‘Rid’ is in prov. use in various parts of England for clearing land, grubbing up underwood, &c., see EDD. (s.v. Rid, vb.² 1). Of Scand. origin, cp. Icel. ryðja, to clear land, Dan. rydde. See Dict. (s.v. Rid, 2).

rid, to set free, deliver, save. Bible, Gen. xxxvii. 22; Ex. vi. 6; Ps. lxxi (Pr. Bk.); 2 Hen. VI, iii. 1. 234; to acquit, ‘A judge riddeth a persone’, Udall, Apoph., 236. OE. hreddan, to deliver, cp. Dan. redde, G. retten. See Dict. (s.v. Rid, 1).

rid, to advise; ‘I rid thee, away’ (i.e. I advise thee to depart), Greene, James IV, Induction (Bohan). A Scottish form, see NED. (s.v. Rede, vb.¹). See rede.

ridduck, a gold coin; ‘Run for a ridduck’ (i.e. to gain a reward), Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 134. See ruddock (2).

ride, to be drawn through the streets in a cart, subject to popular derision; a form of punishment. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Dol).

rider, a gold coin, orig. Dutch, having a horseman on the obverse, worth about 27s. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 2 (Livia). Du. een goude ryder, ‘a golden coin having on one side the stamp of a man on horseback’ (Sewel).

ridgel, a half-castrated animal, a male animal with imperfectly developed organs. In common prov. use. Only found as a literary word in Fletcher, Women Pleased, ii. 6 (Penurio), where it appears as a term of abuse, ‘Yonder old Rigell, the Captaine’.

ridstall-man, a man whose business is to clear out or clean cattle-stalls. Greene, James IV, first stage-direction.

rifely, abundantly. Hall, Sat. iv. 3. 74; frequently, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 101. ‘Rife’ in the sense of ‘abundant’, also of ‘frequent’ is still in use in Scotland, and in many parts of England. Cp. Du. ‘rijf, rife, or abundant; rijfelick, rifely, or abundantly’ (Hexham).

rifle, to play at dice, to gamble or raffle for a stake. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1; Dryden, Amboyna, v. 1. Hence rifling, Northward Ho, v. 1 (Bellamont); Minsheu. Still in use in west Yorkshire (Dr. Joseph Wright). Du. ‘rijffelen, to riffle, or who shall cast most upon the Dice’ (Hexham).

rig, to search into, ransack; ‘And in the bowels of the earth unsaciably to rig’, Golding, Metam. i. 138; ‘To . . . rig every corner’, Gosson, Schoole of Abuse (ed. Arber, p. 54).

rin, to run. Ascham, Scholemaster, bk. i (ed. Arber, p. 54); ‘They ryde and rinne’, Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 196. A north-country form (EDD.). ME. ryn, to run (Wars Alex. 1352); rynnand, running (Barbour’s Bruce, iii. 684).

rine, ‘rind’, the outside peel or bark; ‘Bark and rine’, Middleton, Family of Love, iii. 3. 11; Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 111. So in Dorset (Barnes’ Poems), see EDD.

ring. Running at the ring, a sport in which a tilter, riding at full speed, endeavoured to thrust the point of his lance through, and to bear away, a suspended ring. Webster, Duch. of Malfi, i. 1 (Ferdinand). Also riding at the ring, Marston, Malcontent, i. 1 (Malevole).

ringman, the ring finger, fourth finger. Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, p. 109). Still in use in Cumberland, see EDD. ME. ryngeman fyngur, ‘anularis’ (Cath. Angl.). In B. Jonson’s Alchemist, i. 1 (p. 243), Subtle says, ‘In chiromancy we give the fore-finger to Jove. The ring (i.e. the ring-finger) to Sol.’ See Halliwell (s.v. Ring-finger).

ringo-root, an eater of eringo-root; a term of contempt. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. vii. 112.

ringtail, the female of the hen-harrier. Used fig. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4 (Captain). See NED.

rippier, ripper, an itinerant seller of fish; ‘Like a rippier’s legs rolled up In boots of hay-ropes’, Chapman, Bussy d’Ambois, iii (Bussy); Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 1 (Higgen). Still in use in E. Anglia, Kent, and Sussex, see EDD. (s.v. Ripp). See NED.

rish, a rush. Spelt rishe, Ascham, Scholemaster, pt. i (ed. Arber, p. 54); pl. rishes, Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xix, c. 2; vol. ii, p. 7A. ‘Rish’ is in common use in Ireland and in many parts of England—in Yorks., Cheshire, also in Kent and the south-west, see EDD. (s.v. Rush, sb.¹ (10)). OE. risc (see Oldest English Texts, p. 503).

risp, a twig; esp. a limed twig for catching birds. Golding, Metam. xv. 473; fol. 185, bk. (1603); ‘Boschetto, a grove . . . a rispe, a lushe or lime-twigge to catch birds’, Florio (1598). See NED. and EDD.

risse, pt. t. and pp. of the vb. to rise. As pt. t. pl. (OE. rison), B. Jonson, Catiline, iv. 2 (Cicero). As pp. (OE. risen), id., iii. 2 (Cicero). The use of risse for the pt. s. occurs in Shirley, Duke’s Mistress, v. 4 (Horatio), and occasionally elsewhere. ‘Riss’ (‘ris’) is found as a prov. form for the pt. t. and pp. of ‘rise’ in Yorks., Linc., and Northants, see EDD.

ritter, a horse-soldier. Chapman, Byron’s Conspiracy, ii. 1 (Savoy). G. Ritter, a knight, lit. a ‘rider’.

rittlerattle, a child’s rattle. Golding, Metam. ix. 692; fol. 118 (1603); Latin text, Sistraque. See NED.

rive, to fire a cannon, so as almost to burst it. 1 Hen. IV, iv. 2. 29; to be split, Tr. and Cr. i. 1. 35. See Dict.

rive [riv], for riven, pp. of rive, to tear. Spenser, F. Q. v. 11. 5 (riming with ‘give’). ‘Riv’, pp., is in prov. use in Linc. and E. Anglia (EDD.).

rivelled, wrinkled; spelt ryvilde, More, Chron. Richard III (ed. 1883, 54), ‘Rivelled fruits’, Dryden, All for Love, Prol. 40; pleated, gathered in small folds, ‘Capes pleated and ryveled’, Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 74); twisted, Marlowe and Nashe, Dido, iii. 1 (Dido). In prov. use in Shropshire, Heref., and Dorset (EDD.). ME. riveled, wrinkled (Gower, C. A. viii. 2829). OE. rifelede, ‘rugosus’ (Napier’s Glosses, 187. 78).

rivo!, an exclamation used at drinking-bouts. ‘Rivo, sayes the drunkard’, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 124; Massinger. Renegado, ii. 6 (Gazet). In Portuguese ships they use the cry Arriba! Arriba!, ‘Up! Up!’, for summoning sailors to their work. See Stanford.

road, a ‘raid’, inroad, incursion. Hen. V, i. 2. 138; Beaumont and Fl., Humorous Lieutenant, i. 1 (1 Ambassador).

roarer; the same as roaring boy, q. v. Massinger, Renegado, i. 3 (Gazet); A Woman never vext, i. 1 (Brewen); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xii. 102.

roaring, the language of ‘roarers’, or bullies. Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, iii. 1 (Cuculus); their behaviour, Heywood, The Fair Maid, i. 3 (Spencer).

roaring boys, a cant term for the insolent bloods and vapourers whose delight was to annoy well-behaved citizens. Webster, Duch. of Malfi, ii. 1 (Castruccio). There was but one roaring girl, viz. Mary Frith, or Moll Cutpurse, the heroine of Middleton’s play entitled The Roaring Girl.

Roaring-Meg. ‘In this (Edinburgh) Castle is one of the largest Canons in Great Britain, called Roaring-Megg’, Brome, Trav. (ed. 1707, p. 195); Churchyard, Siege of Ed. Castle (NED.). Hence, a huge cannon, Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable.

rochet, a fish; the red gurnard. B. Jonson, Volpone, iii. 6 (Corvino); Drayton, Pol. xxv. 104.

rochet, the blunt iron head of a tilting weapon. Caxton, Hist. Troye, lf. 124, back, 17. F. ‘rochet, the blunt iron head of a tilting-staff’ (Cotgr.). OF. rochet, ‘fer de la lance’ (Didot).

rock, a distaff. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 1 (l. 5 from end); Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, vi. 77. Still in use in the north country, Midlands, and E. Anglia (EDD.). Icel. rokkr.

rocket, a ‘rochet’, an outer garment, a kind of cloak or mantle. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 54; a vestment of linen, usually worn by bishops and abbots, chiefly Scottish (NED). [‘With mitre sheen and rocquet white’, Sir W. Scott, Marmion, vi. 11.] O. Prov. roquet, ‘rochet, surplis’ (Levy); Norm. F. roquet, manteau court (Moisy).

rocket, a blunt-headed lance. Ld. Berners, Froissart, II. clxii. See rochet (2).

rockray, a line or reef of rocks. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii, l. 20 from end. Ray = F. raie, Med. L. riga (Ducange).

Roger, a goose (Cant). Harman, Caveat, p. 83; Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 1 (Higgen). In both passages, Tib of the buttery is given as another cant name for the goose. See Halliwell.

roile, royle, an inferior or spiritless horse. Skelton, ed. Dyce, ii. 76; ‘That horse which tyreth like a roile’, Gascoigne, Complaint of Philomene (ed. Arber, 117); ‘A timorouse royle’, Sir T. Elyot, bk. i, ch. 17 (ed. Croft, i. 178); a draught-horse of Flemish breed, ‘The Flemish roile’, Harrison, Desc. England, iii. 1 (NED.).

roile, to wander, to roam about. Udall, Roister Doister, ii. 3 (Tibet); Golding, tr. Metam. iii. 55; ‘To royle abroad, divagari’, Levins, Manip.; Turbervile, Hunting (ed. 1575, p. 141). ME. roile, to roam about (Chaucer, C.T. D. 653, Lansd. MS.); roylyn or gone ydyl abowte, ‘vagor, discurro’ (Prompt. 436). See Notes to Piers Plowman, B. x. 297, p. 94.

roister, royster, a bully, a noisy reveller; ‘Dissolute swordmen and suburb roysters’, Milton, Eikonoklastes, iv; ‘Rustre, a royster, swaggerer’, Cotgrave. Still in use in Scotland and Yorks. (EDD.). See Dict. (s.v. Roistering).

roisting, the conduct of roisterers, blustering. Disobedient Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 300; boisterous, uproarious, Tr. and Cr. ii. 2. 208.

roke, to search, rummage; ‘Roking in the ashes’, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 4 (Gammer). See EDD. (s.v. Rauk, 3).

rom, good, phr. rom bouse, good wine (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song). See Rom-vile.

romage, bustle, commotion. Hamlet, i. 1. 107. Still in use in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Rummage, 6).

rombelow(e, a cry used by sailors when rowing; ‘Heve and how rombelow, row the bote, Norman, rowe!’, Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 252; ‘Some songe heve and howe rombelowe’, Cocke Lorell’s Bote. ME. rumbeloo (Coer de Lion, 2522). See NED. (s.v. Rumbelow).

romekin, some kind of drinking-vessel; ‘Large Saxon Romekins’, Davenant, The Wits, iv. 1 (Thwack). Cp. Du. roemer, a wine-glass (Sewel). See NED. (s.v. Rumkin¹).

Rom-vile, a cant term for London. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song). Rom, i.e. good, refers to Rommany, gipsy; vile = F. ville, town. See rom.

rondure, roundure, a circle, circular or rounded form. Dekker, O. Fortunatus, i. 1 (Fortune); King John, ii. 259; Shak. Sonnets, xxi. 8. F. rondeur, roundness (Cotgr.).

ront, a runt, an ox or cow of a small size. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 5. Du. rund, ‘a runt, a bullock or an oxe’ (Hexham).

roodes. In Mirror for Mag., Harold, st. 23, apparently used in the sense of ‘crosses’, vexations.

rook, reflex, to crouch, squat; ‘The raven rook’d her on the chimney’s top’, 3 Hen. VI, v. 6. 47. Still in use in various parts of England; see EDD. (s.v. Rook, vb.³). ME. rouken (Chaucer). See rucke.

room, widely. Roomer, more widely, farther away, Sir J. Harington on Bishops (Nares). OE. rūme, widely. See NED. (s.v. Room, adv.).

roome mort, rome mort, a great lady, lady of high rank (Cant). B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Patrico); ‘Rome mort, the quene’, Harman, Caveat, p. 84. Rome, excellent (in Rommany); See mort (2).

rope: in phr. to run upon the ropes, to act the part of a rope-dancer, Puritan Widow, iv. 3. 41.

roperipe, ripe for the rope, fit for being hanged. Tusser, Husbandry, § 92. 3; Chapman, May Day, iii; Wilson, Arte of Rhetorique; Minsheu; see Nares.

ropery, knavery. Romeo, ii. 4. 154; Fletcher, The Chances, iii. 1 (Landlady); cp. roper, ‘one who deserves the rope’ (NED.); rope-tricks, knave’s tricks, Taming Shrew, i. 2. 112.

rosa solis, i.e. ‘Rose of the Sun’, an alcoholic cordial variously flavoured with spices; ‘Run for some Rosa-solis’, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, iv. 1 (Martha); T. Cogan, Haven of Health, 226; Middleton, Blurt, iii. 3; name of a herb, ‘The herb called Rosa-Solis, whereof they make Strong Waters’, Bacon, Nat. Hist., Cent. v, § 495. See Stanford.

rosaker, alteration of rosalger, realgar, disulphide of arsenic; ‘A tabacco-pipe . . . little better than ratsbane or rosaker’, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 5 (Cob). Port. rosalgár, ‘réalgar, sulfure d’arsenic’ (Roquette); Span. rejalgar; ‘le terme signifie propremont poudre de caverne, et je suppose qu’on a donné ce nom à l’arsenic, parce qu’on le tirait des mines d’argent’, Dozy, Glossaire des Mots dérivés de l’Arabe, p. 332.

rose. The three-farthing pieces of Queen Elizabeth were very thin, and had the profile of the sovereign with a rose at the back of the head; see King John, i. 143. ‘Yes, ’tis three-pence, I smell the rose’, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, Pt. I, iii. 4 (Firk).

rose, a rosette; a knot of ribands, worn on the front of a shoe. Webster, White Devil (Brachiano), ed. Dyce, p. 41; Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1 (Ariosto); B. Jonson, Devil is an Ass, i. 2 (Pug).

rose-noble, a variety of the noble, stamped with a rose, of varying value; sometimes worth 16s. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4 (Captain).

roset, roseate, rosy. Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, i. 591 (L. purpureum); vii. 26 (L. roseis).

rosiall, rosy. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 12, § 2 (first ed. 1531). [I suggest that the name ‘Rosiall’, occurring thrice in the poem called the Courte of Love, was suggested by this passage; and that the Courte of Love was later than 1581, and later than Thynne’s Chaucer, ed. 1532.]

rosiere, a rose-bush. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 19. F. rosier (Cotgr.); L. rosarium; from rosa, a rose.

ros-marine, rosemary; ‘Wholesome dew, called ros-marine’, B. Jonson, Masque of Blackness (Æthiopia). L. rosmarinum, rosemary, lit. marine dew (Pliny). F. rosmarin, rosemarie (Cotgr.). See Alphita, p. 155 (s.v. Ros marinus).

rost: in phr. to rule the rost, to be absolute in authority, to domineer. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 813; Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 429. See rule the roast.

rote, a musical instrument, a lyre. Spenser, ii. 10. 3; iv. 9. 6. ME. rote, a kind of fiddle (Chaucer), OF. rote (Didot), O. Prov. rota, ‘rote, instrument à cordes’ (Levy), also OHG. rota (Schade); probably of Celtic origin, cp. O. Irish crot, a harp, lyre; Mod. Irish cruit (Dinneen), whence ME. croude (Wyclif, Luke xv. 25). See Dict.

rote, roat, to repeat, as an echo does; to repeat a tune or song. Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymph, vi (Melanthus, 8); ‘The echoes . . . each to other diligently rotes’, id., David and Goliath.

rother, a ‘rudder’; hence, controlling power. Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, vi. 859; Mirror for Mag., Clarence, st. 12. ME. rother (Gower, C. A. ii. 2494); OE. rōðer, a steering-paddle.

rouke, to squat, crouch, used fig.; ‘Bookes that happlye rouke in studentes mewes’, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, Ded. (ed. Arber, 7). See rucke.

rouncival, rownseval, huge, gigantic, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 690 (with reference to the Cyclopean monsters); spelt rounceval, a woman of large build and boisterous manners, Heywood, Golden Age, A. ii (Jupiter); Nashe, Saffron Walden (Grosart, iii. 52). See runcival pease.

round, to whisper. King John, ii. 1. 566. In prov. use in England and Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Roun). ME. rownen (Chaucer, C. T. D. 241); OE. rūnian.

round, a dance in which the performers move in a ring; a song by two or more persons in turn. Macbeth, iv. 1. 130; Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, i. 2 (Thenot).

round: phr. gentlemen of the round, soldiers whose business it was to go round and inspect the sentinels and watches. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 5 (E. Knowell); ‘The round? an excellent way to train up soldiers’, Middleton, The Witch, i. 1 (near the end).

round, plain-spoken, direct. Middleton, A Mad World, i. 2 (Harebrain); Twelfth Night, ii. 3. 104; Hamlet, iii. 1. 192.

roundly, readily, without hesitation or preface. Taming Shrew, iii. 2. 216; iv. 4. 108; v. 2. 21; Richard II, ii. 1. 122; ‘Will come off roundly’ (i.e. will pay handsomely), Middleton, The Widow, iv. 2 (Latrocinio); in a plain outspoken manner, Bacon, Hen. VII (ed. Lumby, 59). Still in prov. use (EDD.).

rous, with a bounce, bang! Buckingham, The Rehearsal, iii. 2 (Bayes). ‘Rouse’ (pronounced with voiceless s), meaning ‘noisily’, ‘with a crash’, is in prov. use in Devon and Somerset (EDD.).

rouse, a bumper, a full draught of liquor; ‘I have took a rouse or two too much’, Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, iii. 4. 10; a drinking bout, Hamlet, i. 2. 126; Marlowe, Faustus, iii. 4. 20. Norw. dial. ruus, a headache from drinking (Aasen); Dan. rus, intoxication: sove rusen ud, to sleep out one’s drunken fit; see Larsen; cp. Du. roes: ‘eenen roes drinken, to drink till one is fuddled; hy heeft eenen roes weg, he is fuddled’ (Sewel).

rout, a number of animals going together; ‘Of fallow beasts the company is called an heard, and of blacke beasts it is called a rout, or a sounder’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 37; p. 100. Norm. F. route, ‘troupe’ (Moisy). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Route).

rout, to assemble together. Roister Doister, iv. 7. 2; Bacon, Life of Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 66). See Dict. M. and S.

rove, to shoot with arrows at a mark selected at pleasure or at random, and not of any fixed distance. Drayton, Pol. xxvi. 122; Warner, Albion’s England, ii. 9. 39; Spenser, F. Q. v. 5. 35; ‘She rovde at me with glauncing eye’, Shep. Kal., Aug., 79; to shoot an arrow without fixed aim, ‘Manie bowlts were roved after him’, Harington in Nugae Ant. (NED.); a rovynge marke, a mark placed at an uncertain distance, Ascham, Toxophilus, 145; rovers, arrows used for this kind of shooting, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, Masque 2 (Cupid); to shoot at rovers, to shoot at random, ‘Love’s arrows are but shot at rovers’, Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 941; ‘Cato talked at rovers’ (i.e. at random), Udall, tr. Apoph., Pompey, § 14.

rowel, to insert a circular piece of leather, with a hole in the centre, into a wound, to cause a discharge of humours; to insert a kind of seton; ‘He has been ten times rowelled’, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, iii. 2 (Young Loveless).

rowen, the second growth of grass in a season, the aftermath, eddish; the second crop of hay. Tusser, Husbandry, § 57. 25; Worlidge, Syst. Agric.; Blount, Glossogr. (s.v. Edish); rowen grass, Holland, Pliny, xviii. 28; rowen hay, id., rowen partridge, a partridge frequenting a field of ‘rowen’, id., Plutarch’s Morals, 570 (NED.); also rowen, ‘As for the partridges . . . the old rowens full subtilly seeme to wait’, id., 219. The word ‘rowen’ in various forms is in prov. use from Linc. and Worc. to Kent and Hants. (EDD.). ME. raweyne hey, ‘fenum serotinum’ (Prompt.); rewayn (in Bp. Hatfield’s Survey, ann. 1382, Surtees, 170). Norm.F. *rewain (mod. Picard rouain) = F. regain; gaïn = Romanic type guadīmen, wadīmen, of Germ. origin, cp. OHG. weida, pasture (Schade). See Thomas, Essais Phil. Fr. (s.v. Regain), p. 371.

royal, a gold coin of the value of ten shillings, in Shaks., not expressly mentioned, but alluded to by way of punning, Richard II, v. 5. 67; 1 Hen. IV, i. 2. 157; 2 Hen. IV, i. 2. 28.

royne, to grumble, to murmur discontentedly; ‘Yet did he murmure with rebellious sound and softly royne’, Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 33. A north-country word (EDD.). See NED.

royne, to pare away, curtail, alter. Phaer, Aeneid x, 35 (L. Flectere iussa). OF. roignier, to cut so as to round off. See proine (to prune).

roynish, scurvy, poor. As You Like It, ii. 2. 8; rough, coarse, Tusser, Husbandry, § 102. Cp. F. ‘rongneux, scurvie, mangy’; ‘rongne, the mange’ (Cotgr.); mod. F. rogne, rogneux.

rub, in a card-game, to take all the cards in a suit. Heywood, A Woman killed, iii. 2 (Wendoll); with a quibbling reference to rob; ‘Piller, to rub, or rob, at cards’, Cotgrave.

ruck, a huge fabulous bird, supposed to be bred in Madagascar. Drayton, Noah’s Flood (footnote—the mighty Indian bird); Burton, Anat. Mel. ii. 2. 2; Herrick, Misc. Poems, 7 (NED.). Arab. rukhkh. See Stanford (s.v. Roc).

ruck, to belch forth, utter. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 488. L. ructare. See NED.

rucke, to couch, squat; ‘On the house did rucke A cursed owle’, Golding, Metam. xv. 400; Warner, Albion’s England, vii. 37. 121. Still in use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Ruck, vb.⁵). ME. rukkyn (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 1851). See rook, rouke.

ruddock, the redbreast or robin. Spenser, Epithal. 82; Cymbeline, iv. 2. 224. In common prov. use in Scotland, and in many parts of England (EDD.). ME. ruddok (Prompt), OE. rudduc.

ruddock, a gold coin. Sir John Oldcastle, i. 2. 158; London Prodigal, ii. 1. 36; Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1. See Nares.

rudesby, an unmannerly or boorish person. Golding, Metam. v. 583; fol. 64, back (1603).

ruelle, the space in a bedroom between the bed and the wall. Etherege, Man of Mode, iv. 2 (Sir Fopling); Farquhar, Constant Couple, i. 1 (Wildair). ME. ruel (P. Plowman, C. x. 79); F. ‘ruelle: la ruelle du lict, the space between the bed and the wall’ (Cotgr.).

ruffe, ‘the Card-game called Ruffe or Trump’, so Cotgrave (s.v. Triomphe); Peele, Old Wives’ Tale (Clunch); the trump card, ‘the Ruff at Cards, Charta dominatrix’, Coles, Eng.-Lat. Dict., 1699. Ital. ronfa, a card-game (Florio), perhaps a popular corruption of trionfo; F. ‘triomphe, a Trump at cards’ (Cotgr.).

ruffe, the highest pitch of some exalted or excited condition; ‘Wher is all the ruffe of thy gloriousnes become?’, Latimer, 2nd Serm. bef. Edw. VI (ed. Arber, 49); excitement, passion, fury, Golding, Metam. xiii. 296 (NED.); Gascoigne (ed. Arber, ii. 94).

ruffin, the name of a fiend, Chester Plays, v. 166; the Devil, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); ‘I sweare by the Ruffin’, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii (Wks., ed. 1873, iii. 389).

ruffin, a ruffian, a man of brutal character, Plot, Staffordshire. 291; as adj., appropriate to a ruffian, ‘His ruffin raiment’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 34.

ruffler, one of a class of vagabonds prevalent in the 16th century. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll). See Nares.

ruffmans, a cant term for a hedge. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor). See darkmans.

ruffpeck, bacon (Cant). ‘Ruff peck, bacon’, Harman, Caveat, p. 83; ‘Here’s ruffpeck and casson’ (i.e. bacon and cheese), Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Song).

rug-gown, a gown made of rug or coarse frieze; worn by watchmen; hence, allusively, a watchman; ‘There a whole stand of rug-gowns routed manly’, Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iv. 2 (Launcelot); also, worn by astrologers, ‘You sky-staring coxcombs . . . you are good for nothing but to . . . make rug-gowns dear’, B. Jonson, Every Man out of Hum. iii. 2 (Sordido); Marston, What you Will, iv. 1 (Lampatho).

rule, course of proceeding, line of conduct. Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 132. ME. rule, conduct (York Myst. xxvi. 34).

rule, disorder, stir, riot; ‘What a rule is there! Quid turbae est!’, W. Walker, Idiomat. Anglo-Lat. 381; ‘Such rule and ruffle make the rowte that cum to see our geare’, Drant, Horace, Ep. ii. 1; ‘What a reul’s here. You make a nice reul’, Thorseby, Letter to Ray (EDD.). ‘Reul’ (or ‘Rule’) appears in EDD. as a north-country word, meaning to behave in a rude, disorderly manner. It is identical with the prov. word ‘roil’, to be noisy, boisterous, turbulent, see EDD. (s.v. Roil, vb.² 1).

rule the roast, to be absolute master; ‘I am my lady’s cook, and king of the kitchen; where I rule the roast, command imperiously, and am a very tyrant in my office’, Nabbes, Microcosmus, iii. 1 (Tasting). The origin of the phrase is obscure; but it may easily have arisen, as here suggested, from the sway exercised by a master-cook; the same phrase is used of a cook by Earle, Microcosmographie, § 25 (ed. Arber, p. 46).

ruly, orderly, law-abiding, amenable to law. Warner, Alb. England, bk. ix, ch. 40, st. 20.

rumbelo, rumbling, resounding; ‘Great bouncing rumbelo thund’ring Ratleth’, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 101. See rombelow(e.

†rumming (?); ‘Much like a rumming streame’, Twyne, Aeneid x, 603 (L. torrentis aquae).

runcival pease, runcival peas, peas of a large size, Tusser, Husbandry, § 41. 9. See rouncival.

rundle, applied to the spherical surface of the earth. Lyly, Woman in the Moon, i. 1. 11. Hence rundled, circular, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, vii. 239.

runnion (ronyon), an abusive term applied to a woman. Macbeth, i. 3. 6; Merry Wives, iv. 2. 195.

rush-buckler, a swash-buckler, noisy ruffian; ‘Stoute bragging russhe-bucklers’, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 82).

rushes, with which floors were strewed, before the introduction of carpets. 2 Hen. IV, v. 5. 1.

russeting, a kind of ruddy apple. Chapman, The Ball, ii. 1 (Barker). See Dict. (s.v. Russet).

russet-pated; ‘Russet-pated choughs’, with heads of a reddish-brown colour, Mids. Night’s D. iii. 2. 21.

rutter, a cavalry soldier, esp. a German one; ‘You are a Rutter, borne in Germanie’, Kyd, Sol. and Pers. i. 3; ‘Almain rutters’, Marlowe, Faustus, i. 1 (Valdes); ‘Regiment of rutters’, Beaumont and Fl., Woman’s Prize, i. 4 (Sophocles). Du. ruiter, a trooper, horseman (Sewel); cp. O. Prov. rotier, a trooper, half soldier, half robber; rota, a band of men, a troop (Appel); Med. L. rupta ‘cohors’ (Ducange, s.v. Rumpere, p. 237, col. 3).

ruttock, a staff, stick. Only in Udall, tr. of Apoph., Antigonus, § 10; rottocke, id., Diogenes, § 116.

rye-strew, a straw of rye; applied derisively to a heavy weapon. Heywood. Four Prentises (Eustace), vol. ii, p. 203.

sack, a loose kind of gown worn by ladies. Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, p. 516).

sackage, saccage, the act of sacking (a city, &c.); ‘The saccage of Carthage’, Holland, tr. Pliny, I. xv. 18. 443; to saccage, to sack or plunder, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, i. 24, p. 63. Fr. saccager, to sack, ransack, pillage (Cotgr.).

sackful, given to plundering; ‘Sackful troops’, Mirror for Mag., Robert, D. of Normandy, st. 40; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, ii. 601.

sackless, guiltless, innocent, Greene, Isabel’s Sonnet, l. 9 (ed. Dyce, p. 299); sakeles, Gascoigne, Works, i. 379. In common prov. use in the north country (EDD.). ME. sakless, innocent (Barbour’s Bruce, xx. 175). OE. saclēas, free from charge, guiltless (Matt. xxviii. 14, Lind.).

sacrament, an oath. B. Jonson, Catiline, i. 1 (Cat.). L. sacramentum, the military oath of allegiance; also, an oath, a solemn engagement.

sacring-bell, the small bell rung at the elevation of the host. Hen. VIII, iii. 2. 295. Deriv. of the vb. sacre, to consecrate the elements in the Eucharist, ‘I sacre, I halowe, Je sacre’, Palsgrave. ME. sacryn or halwyn, ‘consecro’ (Prompt.).

sad, settled, steadfast, constant. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 11. 45; ‘Settled in his face I see Sad resolution and secure’, Milton, P. L. vi. 541; grave, serious, Bacon, Adv. Learning, ii. 23. 5; grave, sober (of attire), F. Q. i. 10. 7. ME. sad or sobyr, ‘maturatus, agelastes’ (Prompt.).

sadness, seriousness, gravity. 3 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 77. ME. sadnesse in poorte and chere, ‘soliditas, maturitas’ (Prompt.).

safe, to make safe, to secure. Ant. and Cl. i. 3. 55; saft, pt. t., Chapman, tr. of Iliad, viii. 291; pp., id., 444.

safeguard, an outer skirt worn by women to protect their dress when riding; ‘Enter Moll, in a frieze jerkin and a black safeguard’, Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1; Fletcher, Noble Gentleman, ii. 1 (Marine). Formerly in prov. use in the west country in Devon, pronounced ‘seggard’; see (EDD.) (s.v. Safeguard). See Nares.

saffo, a serjeant, catchpole. B. Jonson, Volpone, iii. 5 (Vol.); v. 8 (1 Avoc). Ital. ‘zaffo (saffo), a common serjeant or base catch-pole, specially in Venice’ (Florio).

sag(g, to sink or subside gradually; ‘The Elme and the Ash are tough, howbeit they will soone settle downward and sag, being charged with any weight’, Holland, Pliny, i. 492; fig. (of the mind), ‘The minde I sway by . . . shall never sagge with doubt’, Macbeth, v. 3. 10; sagge, hanging or sagging down, Herrick, Oberon’s Feast, 27. In gen. prov. use in England and Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Sag, vb.²). ME. saggyn (Prompt.).

sagg, to drag oneself along wearily or feebly. Drayton, Pol. xvi. 219; Twyne, tr. Aeneid, x. 283. Norw. dial. sagga, to walk heavily and slowly from weariness (Ross).

saine, pr. pl., they say. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 55. ME. seien, pr. pl. P. Plowman).

Saint Nicholas’ clerk, a highwayman. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 67; Rowley, A Match at Midnight, i. 1 (Randall). See Nares (s.v. Nicholas).

Saint Thomas à Waterings, a place anciently used for executions for the county of Surrey, as Tyburn for Middlesex. It was situated at the second milestone on the Kent road, near a brook, a place for watering horses, whence its name; dedicated to St. Thomas Beket, being the first place of any note on the road to Canterbury: ‘And forth we riden . . . Unto the watering of seint Thomas, And there our host bigin his hors areste’, Chaucer, C. T. A. 826. The allusions to this spot as a place of execution are numerous; ‘He may perhaps take a degree at Tyburn . . . come to read a lecture Upon Aquinas, at St. Thomas à Watering’s, And so go forth a laureat in hemp circle’, B. Jonson, New Inn, i (Host). See Nares (s.v. Waterings).

saker, a kind of falcon. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xv. 696; Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Alvarez); also, a kind of ordnance or cannon, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 3 (Bots); Butler, Hud. i. 2. 355. This word for a falcon is common to all the Latin nations; of Arabic origin, see Dozy, Glossaire, 338.

sale, a willow; used by Spenser to signify a wicker basket made of willow-twigs for catching fish. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec., 81. See EDD. (s.v. Seal, sb.³). OE. sealh, a willow.

sale, a hall, large chamber. Morte Arthur, bk. xvii, ch. 16 (p. 713); The World and the Child, l. 12, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 243. F. salle (sale), a hall (Cotgr.).

saliant, sportive, lively. Fletcher, The Chances, iv. 3 (Petruccio). From the heraldic use, as ‘lion saliant’. Anglo-F. saillant, pres. pt. of sailler, to leap (Ch. Rol. 2469).

saliaunce, assault, onslaught, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 29. Anglo-F. assaillir, to attack (Ch. Rol. 2564); saillir (Wace, Rom. de Rou, 2595).

sallet, a light head-piece. 2 Hen. VI, iv. 10. 13; Thersites, 55 (ed. Pollard). Often used with a quibble referring to sallet, a form of salad; as in Tusser, Husbandry, § 40. 1. O. Prov. salada, sorte de casque (Levy), F. salade, ‘a salade, helmet, head-piece’ (Cotgr.), Ital. celata, ‘a morion, a casket, an helmet’ (Florio). See Nares.

Salmon, Salomon, the sacrament or oath of the beggars; ‘Salomon, a alter or masse’, Harman, Caveat, 83; ‘A part too of our salmon’, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metam. (2 Gipsy); ‘By the Salomon’, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor); ‘By Salmon’, Brome, Jovial Crew (NED.).

salpa, a kind of stock-fish. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 11. L. salpa (Pliny).

salt. A salt-cellar was usually placed near the middle of a long table, to divide the company according to their social rank; those of inferior distinction being placed below the salt. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Mercury). Above the salt, Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iii. 1 (Steward).

salt, a leap, esp. one made by a horse. Webster, White Devil (Lodovico), ed. Dyce, p. 34; B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, ii. 2 (Wittipol). L. saltus, a leap.

saltimbanco, a mountebank, a quack. Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. i, c. 3, § 11; saltinbancho, Butler, Hud. ii. 3. 1007. Ital. saltimbanco, a mountebank; from saltare in banco, to mount upon a bench; ‘Salta in banco, as Monta in banco; montáre in bánco, to play the mountebank’ (Florio). Span. ‘Sálta en banco, a mountebank’ (Stevens). See Stanford.

salue, to salute. Holland, Pliny II, 297; Udall, Apoph. 122; salew, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 25. ME. salue, salewe (Chaucer); F. saluer; L. salutare.

saluë, salvee, some kind of boat; ‘Twentie Caruiles, and Saluees ten’, Dekker, Wh. of Babylon, Works, ii. 257. NED. (s.v. Salve, 3) gives a quotation of a passage which Dekker evidently copied, ‘There are 20 Carauels for the service of the above named Armie [the Armada], and likewise 10 Saluës with sixe Oares a-peece’, Archdeacon, tr. True Disc. Army, K. Spain, 38 (1588).

salvage, savage. Fletcher, Love’s Cure, iii. 2 (Picrato). Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 39; ii. 8. 42. O. Prov. salvatge, ‘qui vit dans les bois, sauvage, farouche’ (Levy); Med. L. salvaticus (Ducange); cp. Ital. salvático; L. silvaticus (Pliny).

salvatory, a box for holding ointments. Webster, Duch. of Malfi, iv. 2 (Bosola); ‘The Surgeon’s Salvator or Salvatory or his Box of Unguents’, Holme, Armoury, iii. 438; ‘Salvatory, a Surgeon’s Box, to hold Salves, Ointments, and Balsams’, Phillips, Dict., 1706. In Med. L. salvalorium is given in Ducange only with the meanings (1) vivarium piscium, (2) monasterium, ‘ubi quis a mundi periculis tutus salvatur seu servatur’.

sam, together. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 168. ME. sum, together (Cursor M. 9750); see NED. (s.v. Samen, adv.), and Dict. M. and S.

sambuke, a triangular stringed-instrument of a very sharp shrill tone. Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 39). ME. sambuke (Wyclif, Dan. iii. 5), L. sambuca (Vulgate), Gk. σαμβύκη (LXX).

sambuke, a military engine for storming walls. Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, ix. 73. L. sambuca (Vegetius).

samite, a rich silk stuff. Morte Arthur, leaf 344. 30; bk. xvi, c. 17; leaf 380, back, 30; bk. xviii, c. 19 [Tennyson, Morte d’Arthur, 31 and 144]. O. Prov. samit, ‘étoffe de soie’ (Levy); Med. L. examitum; Byz. Gk. ἑξάμιτον, lit. woven with six different kinds of thread; see Ducange (s.v. Exametum); cp. Span. xaméte (Stevens).

sampire, ‘samphire’. Drayton, Pol. xviii. 763; King Lear, iv. 6. 15; sampier, Baret, Alvearie. F. ‘herbe de S. Pierre, sampire’ (Cotgr.).

sampsuchine, oil of marjoram. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Amorphus). Gk. σαμψύχινον, of marjoram; σάμψυχον, marjoram.

sanbenito. Under the Spanish Inquisition a penitential garment of yellow cloth, ornamented with a red St. Andrew’s cross before and behind, worn by a confessed and penitent heretic; ‘The Inquisitors . . . bringing with them certaine fooles coats . . . called . . . S. Benitos’, M. Phillips in Hakluyt’s Voyages, iii. 480; a garment of a black colour ornamented with flames, devils, and other devices worn by an impenitent heretic at an auto-da-fé, ‘Sambenitas, painted with all the flames and devils in hell’, Marvell, Reh. Transp. i. 276. In Butler’s Hud. iii. 2. 1574, ‘Sambenites’ are referred to vaguely. The garment was so called from San Benito, St. Benedict, from its resemblance to the scapular introduced by St. Benedict. See NED. and Stanford.

sance-bell, saunce-bell, corruptly saint’s-bell, the Sanctus-bell, the bell orig. rung at the Sanctus at Mass. The Sanctus or Ter-sanctus refers to the word sanctus (thrice repeated) in the conclusion to the Eucharistic preface; in the English Liturgy ‘Holy, holy, holy’. Sance-bells, pl., Fletcher, Mad Lover, i. 1 (Fool). Spelt saint’s bell, Hall, Satires, bk. v, Sat. 1, l. 119; saunce-bell, Fletcher, Nightwalker, iii. 3 (Toby). See NED. (s.v. Sanctus Bell).

sanctus: phr. a black sanctus, a burlesque hymn, accompanied by discordant noises; a great discord. Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, iv. 3 (Mirabel); Mad Lover, iv. 1 (Fool); black Saunce, Lyly, Endimion, iv. 2. 33. See Nares (s.v. Sanctus), and tintamar.

sanglier, a full-grown wild boar. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 37; p. 100; Manwood, Lawes Forest, iv, § 5 (ed. 1615, 43). F. sanglier, Med. L. singularis (Vulg., Ps. lxxix. 14) = the μονιός of the LXX, meaning a boar separated from the herd. See singler.

sanjak. In the Turkish Empire one of the administrative districts of a ‘vilayet’; sangiacque, Dacres, tr. Machiavelli’s Prince, 25 (NED.); sanzacke, a governor of a sanjak, Massinger, Renegado, iii. 4 (Carazie); sanziack, Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 1677, 277); sandiack, Shirley, Imposture, v. 1 (Volterino). Ital. sangiacco (Florio), Turk. sanjāq, lit. a banner (NED.); sanjac, a province, T. Herbert, Gram. Turk. Lang., 1709, p. 90. See Stanford.

sanna, a gesture of scorn. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Amorphus). L. sanna, a grimace made in mockery (Juvenal). Gk. σάννας, a buffoon; one who makes grimaces. See stork’s bill.

sapa, new wine boiled thick. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 15. L. sapa (Pliny).

sapor. Sapor Pontic, Sapor Styptic: particular ‘Sapors’, savours frequently mentioned by the alchemists as indicative of the nature or condition of substances under examination. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Subtle). L. sapor, taste.

sarcocolla, an Eastern gum-resin. Altered to sacrocolla, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 2 (Surgeon). Gk. σαρκοκόλλα; the name derived from its power of healing or agglutinating wounds.

sarell, a seraglio. Marlowe, Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Bajazet). F. sérail, a seraglio; Pers. serāi, a palace (Hatzfeld). See Stanford (s.v. Seraglio).

sasarara, a corruption of certiorari, the name of a certain writ at law. Revenger’s Tragedy, iv. 2 (Vindici); sesarara, Puritan Widow, iii. 2. 81. See EDD. (s.v. Siserary), where the word is said to be in prov. use in the sense of a violent scolding; in Devon the phr. with a siserary means ‘with a vengeance’ [‘I fell in love all at once with a sisserara’, Sterne, T. Shandy, vi. 47 (Davies).]

sattle, to quiet, reduce to order. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xviii. 345; to become calm, ‘I sattyl or sober or appayse my-selfe’, Palsgrave. Cp. ‘sattle’, the north-country word, meaning to put an end to a quarrel, see EDD. (s.v. Sattle, vb.¹). ME. sahtlen, to bring to a peaceful agreement, to reconcile (sahhtlenn in Ormulum, 351); see Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Sahtlien). OE. sahtlian (Chron. ann. 1066). Etym. doubtful; see NED.

sattle, to sink down gradually. Ascham, Toxophilus, 131. In prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Sattle, vb.² 3). ME. sattle (York Plays, 328); satlynge, a sagging, ‘bassacio’ (Prompt.). See NED. (s.v. Settle, vb., 13).

saturity, repletion. Herrick, Noble Numbers; Lasciviousness, 2; saturitie, Udall, tr. Erasmus, on Matt. v. 6; Warner, Alb. England, bk. v, ch. 24, st. 48. L. saturitas (Pliny).

satyrion, the orchis. Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, v. 5 (Sir Jolly). Gk. σατύριον (Dioscorides). See Alphita, p. 158.

saugh, a ‘sough’, a channel, a trench. Drayton, Pol. iv. 168. ‘Sough’ in various forms is in common prov. use in England from the north country to Bedfordshire, see EDD. (s.v. Sough, sb.²).

saulf, ‘safe’. Sir T. Elyot, Governour (ed. Croft, see Glossary). F. saulf, safe (Rabelais). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Sauf).

sawtry, a ‘psaltery’, a kind of harp. Dryden, Flower and Leaf, 358. ME. sautrye (Chaucer, C. T. A. 296).

say, to ‘assay’, to test the fitness of, to try on (clothes); ‘He sayes his sute’, B. Jonson, Staple of News, i. 1 (Fashioner); to set oneself to do something, Peele, Order of the Garter (ed. Dyce, 588); ‘Who sayd to wound faire Venus in the hand’, Heywood, 2nd Pt., Iron Age (NED.). See Dict.

say, ‘assay’, temper of metal, proof; ‘A sword of better say’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 11. 47; a subject for testing, proving, ‘Still living to be wretched To be a say to Fortune in her changes’, Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iv. 4. 11. ‘To say’ for to assay, to test, prove, is in prov. use in Scotland and many parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Say, vb.² 1).

say: phr. to take the say, to draw the knife along the belly of a slain deer, to find how fat he is. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, iv. 2. 10. For assay, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Marian). See Nares (s.v. Say).

scalado, an escalade, attempt to scale a wall. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 165). Span. escalada, ‘an escalade or taking a place with scaling Ladders’ (Stevens). L. scala, a ladder.

scale, to attack with scaling ladders; ‘The citty had bene scaled and sacked’, Greene, Euphues (Wks., ed. Grosart, vi. 220); ‘The hugy heaps of cares . . . are scalèd from their nestling-place’, Peele, Sir Clyomon (Wks., ed. Dyce, iii. 78). Ital. ‘scalare, to ascend by ladder’ (Florio); Span. escalar (Stevens).

scaledrake, ‘a sheldrake’. Lady Alimony, ii. 2 (2 Boy). In prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and the north of England (EDD.).

scall, a scab, blister, an eruption of skin on the head. Bible, Lev. xiii. 30 (printed skall, ed. 1611); ‘Scurfe and dandruffe, running ulcers and scals’, Holland, Pliny, xxiii. 1. In prov. use in Scotland and north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Scall, sb.¹). ME. scalle (Chaucer, Minor Poems, viii. 7).

scamble, to scramble, to struggle. Much Ado, v. 1. 94; Tusser, Husbandry, § 51. 7. Hence, scambling, shambling, shuffling, Ford, Love’s Sacrifice, v. 1 (Bianca); filching, id., Fancies Chaste, i. 3 (Livio). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

scand, pp., ascended, climbed up to. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 6. 8. L. scandere, to climb.

scantle, to scant, to limit; ‘Her scantled banks’, Drayton, Pol. xxiv. 12; The Owl, 1294; to shorten sail, Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 1 (1327); p. 134, col. 1.

scantling, limited measure. Bacon, Essay 55; a pattern, sample, Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 341; ‘How Ovid’s scantlings with the whole true patterne doo agree’, Golding, Ovid’s Metam., Epist. 379. ‘Eschantillon, a scantling, sample, pattern, proof of any sort of Merchandise’, Cotgrave. Anglo-F. escauntiloun (Rough List).

scar, a steep bare bank, a cliff. Drayton, Pol. xxvii. 326. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Scar, sb.¹). Icel. sker, an isolated rock in the sea.

scarab, a beetle, dung-beetle; a term of reproach. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1. 59 (Subtle); Beaumont and Fl., Mad Lover, ii. 2 (Chilax). Gk. σκάραβος, a beetle.

Scarborough warning, very short notice, or no notice at all; a surprise. Heywood, Proverbs (ed. Farmer, 43); Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 345. See Nares, EDD. and NED.

scarlet, a scarlet gown, worn as a mark of dignity; He will be . . . next spring call’d to the scarlet, B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle).

scarmoge, an irregular fight, a ‘skirmish’. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 34. ME. scarmuch (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 934), F. escarmouche, a skirmish (Cotgr.); Ital. scaramuccia (Florio).

scartoccio, a roll of paper. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1 (Vol.). Ital. scartoccio, ‘a coffin of paper for spice, as apothecaries use’ (Florio). Cp. cartoccio, a piece of waste paper to put anything in. F. cartouche, E. cartridge.

scath, harm, hurt, damage. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 18; iii. 4. 24. ME. scathe, harm (Chaucer, C. T. A. 446); Icel. skaði.

scatterling, one of a wandering band of outlaws or robbers. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 63.

schellum, a rogue, scoundrel; ‘Where’s the Dutch schellum?’, Dekker, If this be not a good Play (Pluto), Works, iii. 352; skellum, id., Shoemakers’ Holiday, iii. 1 (Firk). ‘Skellum’ is a north-country word (EDD.). Du. schelm, a rogue (Hexham).

sciatherical, concerned with the recording of shadows, esp. on a sundial. Scioferical, Tomkis, Albumazar, i. 7 (Alb.); scioterical, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. v, c. 18, § 3. From Gk. σκιαθηρικός, from σκαθήρας, a shadow-catcher, sun-dial; from σκιά, shadow, θηρᾶν, to catch.

scole, a scale or dish of a balance. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 606; xxii. 180. Icel. skāl, a bowl, the scale of a balance; Dan. skaal, a bowl.

scolopendra, a milliped; one of the numerous nicknames for a courtesan. Shirley, Gamester, ii. 2 (Hazard). L. scolopendra; Gk. σκολόπενδρα, a milliped.

scombre, to void excrements. Maister of Game, c. 13; skommer, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 12; p. 27. See scumber.

scope, a mark to aim at. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 155. Gk. σκοπός, a mark.

scorse, scourse, to exchange, barter. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 16; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iii. 1 (Waspe); Drayton, Pol. (ed. 1613. p. 196); ‘Barater, to scourse, barter’, Cotgrave; hence skoser, a horse-corser, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 10 (ed. Croft, i. 63). ‘Scorse’ is in prov. use along the south coast (EDD.). See Notes on Eng. Etym., p. 136.

scot and lot, a tax levied by a municipal corporation in proportionate shares for the defraying of municipal expenses; phr. to pay scot and lot, to pay out thoroughly; ‘Twas time to counterfet, or that hotte Termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot’, 1 Hen. IV, v. 4. 115; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 7 (Cob). The word scot = Anglo-F. escot, a payment (Rough List). See shot.

scot-free, free from payment of one’s tavern score. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 7 (Cob).

scotomy, dimness of sight, caused by dizziness. B. Jonson, Volpone, i. 1 (Mosca); Massinger, Old Law, iii. 2 (Simonides). Gk. σκότωμα, dimness; from σκοτοῦν, to make dim. Gk. σκότος, darkness.

scour, to be purged, to have diarrhoea; ‘He continually scowred’, Repentance of Robert Greene (NED.); ‘Poor young man, how he was bound to scaure for it’, Vanbrugh, The Relapse, v. 3 (Nurse). ‘Scour’ (or ‘Scaur’ in Norfolk) is in prov. use for being afflicted with diarrhoea, see EDD. (s.v. Scour, vb.¹ 4).

scour the queer cramp-ring, to wear the prison fetters (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); ‘skower the cramp-rings, weare fetters’, Harman, Caveat, p. 84; ‘quyerkyn (= queer ken), a pryson-house’, ib.

’scourse, for discourse; with a quibbling reference to scourse or scorse, to barter. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 2 (Pan).

scout, a slang term for a watch, or pocket time-piece; because a scout is a watchman. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, ii. 1 (Belfond senior).

scrat, to scratch. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, st. 115; ‘I scratte as a beest dothe that hath sharp nayles, Je gratigne’, Palsgrave. In gen. prov. use in the British Isles (EDD.). ME. scrattyn, or scracchyn (Prompt.); to scratte, ‘scalpere’ (Cath. Angl.).

scratches, the, a disease of horses, in which the pasterns appear as if scratched. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Knockem); ‘Arestin, the scratches in a horses pasterne’, Minsheu, Span. Dict. (1623).

scrawl, scraul, to ‘crawl’. Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune, i. 1. 15; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 146; scraul, Tusser, Husbandry, § 49. 9. See Nares (s.v. Scrall). In gen. prov. use in England (EDD.).

screwed gun, a gun furnished with a screwed barrel, i.e. having a helically grooved bore. Dryden, Marriage a la Mode, v. 1 (Rhodophil). First known in 1646.

scrike, to ‘shriek’. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 4. 18. Swed. skrika, to shriek. In prov. use in various parts of England. See EDD. (s.v. Skrike).

scrimer, a fencer. Hamlet, iv. 7. 101. Cp. ‘scrim’ in prov. use for striking vigorously, ‘scrimmish,’ a skirmish (EDD.). F. escrimeur, ‘a fencer’; escrimer, ‘to fence, or play at fence, also, to lay hard about him’ (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.v. Skirmish).

scroyle, a scoundrel; a term of contempt. King John, ii. 1. 373; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. i. 1 (Stephen). Of obscure origin (NED.). See Notes on Eng. Etym., 263.

scruze, to press out. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 56. A Glouc. word, see EDD. (s.v. Scruse).

scry, to descry, perceive. Spenser, F. Q. v. 12. 38; Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 190. In prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Scry, vb.² 2). Norm. F. escrier, ‘explorer, chercher à découvrir’ (Moisy).

scryne, chest, ark. Spenser, Introd. to F. Q., st. 2. L. scrinium, a box for keeping books, letters, &c.

scull, skull, a ‘school’ of fish, a ‘shoal’. Mirror for Mag., Shore’s Wife, st. 29; Tr. and Cr. v. 5. 22 (ed. 1623); Milton, P. L. vii. 402; a covey of pheasants, Lyly, Mydas, iv. 3 (Petulus); a troop, company, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. i, ch. 6, st. 57. ‘Scull’ is in prov. use in Hants. for a great number of people, see EDD. (s.v. School, sb.² 2).

scum, skumme, to scour, with respect to land or sea; ‘There were sent forth rydars to skumme the country’, Morte Arthur, leaf 26, back, 30; bk. i, c. 13. F. ‘escumer; escumer la mer, to scowr, as a fleet, the sea’ (Cotgr.); escumeur, ‘corsaire qui fait des courses sur mer, pirate’ (Didot).

scumber, to void excrement, as a dog or fox. ‘Fienter, to dung, scumber’, Cotgrave; ‘When they (hounds) are led out of their kennels to scumber’, Massinger, Picture, v. 1 (Ricardo). Used in Cornwall of a bird (EDD.). OF. escombrer, to clean out (Godefroy). See bescumber, scombre.

scurer, a scout, one sent forward to reconnoitre. Mirror for Mag., Guidericus, st. 36; ‘Out was our scurer sent agayn . . . to shew wher aboute the place was’, More, Comfort ag. Tribulation (Wks., p. 1181). OF. descouvreur, ‘espion, qui va à la découverte’ (Didot); Med. L. disco-operator (Ducange).

scurrile, scurrilous, vulgarly witty. Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 148; Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 1. 153. L. scurrilis, buffoon-like; from scurra, a buffoon.

scute, a coin of small value. Chapman, All Fools, v. 1 (Valerio). In prov. use from Dorset to Cornwall for a sum of money, see EDD. (s.v. Scute, sb.¹). Properly an E. name for the French coin called ėcu, OF. escut, L. scutum, a shield.

sea-card, the card on which the points of the compass were marked. Fletcher, The Chances, i. 10 (near the end). See card.

seam, fat, grease. Tr. and Cr. ii. 3. 195; Dryden, tr. Aeneid, vii. 867. In gen. prov. use in the British Isles, see EDD. (s.v. Saim). ME. seim, grease (Ancr. R. 412). Anglo-F. saim, ‘adeps’ (Ps. lxii. 6), cp. Ital. saime, O. Prov. sagin (saīn), ‘graisse’ (Levy), Med. L. sagimen, ‘adeps, sagina’ (Ducange).

searce, searse, to sift through a sieve. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1 (Ariosto). ‘Searce’ was formerly a widely spread prov. word for a fine sieve; as a vb. ‘to sift’ it still appears in Northumbrian and Kentish Glosses (EDD.). ME. sarce, a sieve (Prompt.); sarcyn, to sift (id., EETS. 450; see notes, no. 1875 and no. 2204). OF. saas (F. sas), a sieve. Span. cedazo, Med. L. setatium (Ducange), der. of L. seta, saeta, a bristle.

sear-cloth, to cover with ‘cere-cloth’ or waxed cloth. Dryden, Annus Mirab. 148. See cere-cloth.

season upon (or on), to seize upon. Mirror for Mag., Northumberland, st. 15; ‘I season upon a thynge as a hauke doth, je assaysonne. She saysouned upon the fesante at the first flyght’, Palsgrave; ‘It is mete for any lyon . . . to season his pawes upon his pray’, Acolastus, ii. 3. See NED. (s.v. Season, vb. 5).

sect, a class or kind of persons, used with reference to sex, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 41; Fletcher, Valentinian, i. 1 (Chilax); Middleton, Mad World, ii. 6. In prov. use in various parts of England; also in illiterate use in London; see EDD. and NED. Cp. Chaucer, ‘(The wife of Bath) and al hire secte’ (C. T. E. 1171). L. secta, a following, a school or sect of philosophy.

sectary, one who belongs to a sect, a dissenter. Hen. VIII, v. 3. 70; Puritan Widow, i. 2. 5. F. sectaire, ‘a sectary, follower of a sect’ (Cotgr.).

sectour, executor. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 62; ‘Sectour, executeur’, Palsgrave. ME. sectour, ‘exequitour’ (Cath. Angl.); seketowre, ‘executor’ (Prompt., Harl. MS.).

Sedgeley curse, an imprecation recorded by Ray among the proverbs of Staffordshire. It is given by Beaumont and Fl. in this form: ‘A Sedgly curse light on him, which is, Pedro, The fiend ride through him booted and spurred, With a scythe at his back!’, Tamer Tamed, v. 2; Massinger, City Madam, ii. 2 (Plenty). See Nares.

see, a seat of dignity or authority, a throne; ‘Jove laught on Venus from his soveraigne see’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 6. 2; the dwelling-place of a monarch, F. Q. iv. 10. 30.

see, pret. s. (I) saw, (he) saw, Greene, Sonnet, l. 4 (ed. Dyce, 292). Still in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. See, 1 (6)). OE. seah, pt. t. of sēon, to see.

seek: phr. to blow a seek, to sound notes on a horn, summoning hounds to the chase of a deer. Gascoigne, Art of Venerie (ed. Hazlitt, i. 314).

seek: phr. to seek, at a loss, badly off; ‘The Merchant will be to seeke for Money’, Bacon, Essay 41, § 4; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 2. Cp. Porson’s famous epigram in Museum Criticum, i. 332, ‘The Germans in Greek, Are sadly to seek’, &c. See NED. (s.v. Seek, vb. 20 b).

seel, to close up a bird’s eyelids, by means of a thread passed through them. A seeled dove, ‘She brought them to a seeled dove, who the blinder she was, the higher she strave’, Sidney, Arcadia (ed. Sommer, 65); Bacon, Essay 36. It was believed that a seeled dove would mount always higher aloft, till it sank from exhaustion; see Ford, Broken Heart, ii. 2. 3. Palsgrave has: ‘I cele a hauke, Ie cile.’ F. ciller, ‘to seele, or sow up the eyelids’ (Cotgr.); cil, an eyelash, L. cilium, an eyelid, eyelash.

seeling, a wainscot, wainscoting. Bacon, Essay 54; ceiling, North, tr. of Plutarch, Octavius, § 4 (in Shak. Plut. p. 238).

seen, equipped, furnished; versed, practised; ‘Seen in many things’, Heywood, A Woman killed, ii. 1 (Frankford); well seen, Tam. Shrew, i. 2. 136; Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. i, c. 8 (p. 37). In prov. use (EDD.).

sege, a seat. Morte Arthur, leaf 220. 7; bk. x, c. 16. ME. sege: ‘He schal sitte on the sege of his maieste’ (Wyclif, Matt. xxv. 31). Anglo-F. sege, seat (Ps. lxxxviii. 14), O. Prov. setge, ‘siège, banc, séance, siège d’une ville’ (Levy). See siege.

Seisactheia, an ordinance of Solon by which all debts were lowered. Massinger, Old Law, i. 1 (2 Lawyer). Gk. σεισάχθεια, a shaking off of burdens.

selago, a plant. Middleton, The Witch, iii. 3 (Hecate). L. selago, a plant resembling the savin-tree.

selar, a canopy of a bed; ‘The selar of the bedde’, Morte Arthur, leaf 349, back, 24; bk. xvii, c. 6. ‘Cellar for a bed, ciel de lit’, Palsgrave. See NED. (s.v. Celure).

selcouth, strange, uncommon. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 14. A Scottish poetical word (EDD.). ME. selcouth, strange, wonderful (P. Plowman, C. i. 5); OE. seldcūð, strange, lit. seldom known.

seld, seldom. Tr. and Cr. iv. 5. 150; hence seld-shown, seldom shown, Coriolanus, ii. 1. 229; seld-seen, Humour out of Breath, i. 1 (Octavio); as adj. rare, scarce, Tourneur, Revenger’s Tragedy, iv. 4. ME. seld (selde), seldom (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2343). See seeld.

sellary, a male prostitute. B. Jonson, Sejanus, iv. 5 (Arruntius). L. sellarius (Tacitus).

sely, harmless; ‘A selye innocente hare murdered of a dogge’, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, p. 111). Also, poor, helpless, Tusser, Husbandry, § 51. 18. ME. sely, simple, innocent, also, poor, pitiable (Chaucer); but Chaucer uses the word also in other senses: good, holy, happy. See Trench, Select Glossary (s.v. Silly). See silly.

semblably, similarly. 1 Hen. IV, v. 3. 21. F. semblable, like. F. sembler, to seem, resemble.

semblant, demeanour. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 10. 31; Morte Arthur, bk. ii, c. 17; to make semblant (= F. faire semblant), to make a show, appearance, or pretence (of doing something), id., bk. vii, c. 8.

seminary, an Englishman educated as a Popish priest in a foreign seminary. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Overdo).

semitary, a form of scimetar. B. Jonson, Case is altered, v. 2 (Juniper); semitarie, Peele, Battle of Alcazar, i. 2 (Moor). See cemitare.

sempster, a sempstress; also a spinster, as applied to the three Fates, Dekker, O. Fortunatus, ii. 2 (Shadow). In prov. use in Yorks. and Derbyshire, see EDD. (s.v. Seamster). ME. semster (Dest. Troy, 1585), OE. sēamestre, a sempstress (B. T.).

sennet, a signal-call played on a trumpet, the signal for entrance or exit. Common in the stage-directions in the Tudor drama. It occurs in various forms, such as synnet, sinet, cynet, signate. Hen. VIII, ii. 4; J. Caesar, i. 2; Ant. and Cl. ii. 7; Coriol. ii. 1; 2 Hen. VI, iii. 1. O. Prov. senhet (signet), ‘signe’ (Levy), OF. sinet (Littré). See Notes on Eng. Etym., p. 264.

sensing, ‘incensing’, use of incense. Latimer, Sermon on the Ploughers (ed. Arber, p. 30). ME. censynge, ‘turificacio’ (Prompt.).

sent, perception. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 43. The old spelling of scent; so in Cotgrave, ‘Odeur, sent, smell’.

sere, separate, distinct, each in particular. Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 107). ME. ser, distinct, each in particular (Ormin, 18653). Icel. sér, orig. dat. of refl. pron. ‘for oneself’, hence as adv. separately.

sere, the claw or talon of a bird or beast of prey. Usually in the pl. seres; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, viii. 212; xii. 213; Odyssey, ii. 238; Revenge of Bussy, iii. 1 (Clermont); Byron’s Tragedy, iii. 1. 16. F. serre, a hawk’s talon (Cotgr.).

sere, the catch in a gun-lock which is released by the trigger. Hamlet, ii. 2. 337 (see note by W. Aldis Wright). It was like a claw. See above.

serene, a chill evening air; ‘Some serene blast me’, B. Jonson, Volpone, iii. 5 (Celia); Epigrams, xxxii (last line). F. serein, ‘the mildew, or harmful dew of some summer evenings’ (Cotgr.). Ital. ‘sereno, the night calm; serenata, music played in a clear evening’ (Florio).

sericon, the name of some chemical substance. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle). See NED.

serpentin, a kind of cannon. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 124; l. 159; ‘Serpentine, the artillery called a Serpentine or Basiliskoe’, Cotgrave.

serpigo, a general term for creeping or spreading skin diseases, esp. ringworm, Meas. for M. iii. 1. 31 (variously spelt in the edd.). Medical L. serpigo, ‘teter’ (Alphita, 167), deriv. of serpere, to creep.

servant, a professed lover, one who is devoted to the service of a lady. Two Gent. of Verona, ii. 1. 106, 114, 140. Very common. Cp. Ital. cavaliere servente; see Fanfani.

servulate, to serve obsequiously. Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, i. 2 (Egremont). From L. servulus, dimin. of servus, a slave.

sesama, oil from the seeds of a plant, sesame, one of the ingredients of a perfume. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Perfumer). Gk. σησάμη.

sess, seiss, to assess. Pt. t. sessyd, Fabyan, Chron., p. vii, ann. 1257-8 (ed. Ellis, p. 344); pp. seissed, North, tr. of Plutarch, Antonius, § 33 (in Shak. Plut., p. 204). In prov. use (EDD.).

set out the throat, to set up a noise, cry out. B. Jonson, Alchem. v. 2 (Face); Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, ii. 1 (Hippolito).

setter, a confederate of sharpers or swindlers, employed as a decoy (Cant). Nashe, Strange Newes, 1592; see Aydelotte, p. 86; Butler, Hud., Lady’s Answer, 153. One who marks down travellers to be robbed by thieves, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 53.

settle, a long bench, with a very high back. Albumazar, i. 1 (Ronca). In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Settle, sb.²).

setwall, the East Indian plant zedoary, Palsgrave; the plant valerian, ‘Drink-quickning Setwale’, Spenser, Muiopotmos, 196; spelt cetywall, Drayton, Ballad of Dowsabell, 33 (in later editions setywall). ME. setwale or sedwale, ‘zedoarium’ (Prompt.); cetewale (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3207). O. Span. cetoal, sitoval, cedoaria; of Arabic origin, see Dozy, Glossaire, 251.

sew, to follow; ‘Seven kings sewen me’, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 248; to sue, to plead, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 12. 29; to woo, id., iii. 5. 47. See Dict. (s.v. Sue).

sew, to drain dry; ‘To drain and sew’, North, tr. of Plutarch, Jul. Caesar, § 39 (in Shak. Plut., p. 93); Tusser, Husbandry, 32. In prov. use in E. Anglia, Kent, Sussex, and Dorset, see EDD. (s.v. Sew, vb.²). OF. esuer (Burguy); F. essuier, to dry up (Cotgr.); essuier, ‘évier, conduit par lequel s’écoulent les eaux sales d’une cuisine’ (Didot). See Hatzfeld (s.v. Essuyer).

sewer, an attendant at a meal who superintended the seating of the guests, and the tasting and serving of the dishes. Macbeth, i. 7, Stage Direction. ME. sewer at the mete, ‘depositor, discoforus’ (Cath. Angl.); seware at mete, ‘dapifer’ (Prompt.). OF. asseour, ‘en parlant du service de la table, qui fait asseoir’ (Godefroy), Pop. L. assedatorem (acc.), one who sets, places, deriv. of assedare, to set, place, cp. Norm. F. aseer, to place; see Moisy.

sextile, denoting the aspect or relative position of two planets, when distant from each other by sixty degrees; a sextile aspect. Fletcher, Bloody Brother, iv. 2 (Norbret); Randolph, Jealous Lovers, v. 2; Milton, P. L. x. 659.

sforzato, a galley-slave. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1 (Vol.). Ital. ‘sforzati, galley-slaves, as forced to do anything’ (Florio), cp. F. ‘forçat, galley-slave’ (Cotgr.).

shack, the shaken grain which remains on the fields after harvesting; hence shack-time, the time during which this grain remains on the ground, Tusser, Husbandry, § 16. 30; to shack, to turn pigs or poultry into the stubble fields. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Shake, 9, 20, 21).

†shackatory, apparently, a huntsman’s underling. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 1 (Orlando). See NED.

shadow, a reflection in water; ‘Aesop had a foolish dog that let go the flesh to catch the shadow’, Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 37; a disguise, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Hempskirke); a friend of an invited guest (L. umbra), Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iii. 1. 11.

shaft, a May-pole, esp. the May-pole in Aldgate ward, London, which ‘shaft’, when it was set on end and fixed to the ground, was higher than the steeple of the church, which was hence called St. Andrew Undershaft. This ‘shaft’ was not raised after May-day, 1517, on account of a disturbance of the apprentices. Thirty-two years after it was sawn in pieces and burned as an idol. Stow, Survey (ed. Thoms, 54); Pennant’s London, 587. See Nares (s.v. Shaft), and Chambers, Book of Days, p. 574.

shaftman, a measure of about six inches, being the length from the top of the extended thumb to the wrist-side of the palm. Harington, tr. Ariosto, xxxvi. 56; shaftmon, Morte Arthur, leaf 124, back, 8; bk. vii, c. 22; shaftmont, ‘His leg was scarce a shaftmont lang’, Child’s Pop. Ballads, ii. 330; shaftement, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 112. ‘Shaftment’ is in prov. use in the north country (EDD.). ME. schaftmonde (Death of Arthur, 2546, 3843, 4232); OE. sceaftmund, a palm’s length (B. T.). See NED. (s.v. Shaftment).

shag-rag, ragged, vagabond-like; ‘A shag-rag knave’, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 5 (Barabas). The word ‘shag-rag’ is in prov. use in the north country to denote an idle, ragged vagabond, see EDD. (s.v. Shag, vb.³ 2 (2)). See shake-rag.

†shailes, scarecrows. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 23, § 2; see Croft’s note. Perhaps cognate with ME. schey, shy, timid (Prompt.). See shewelle.

shake-rag, a ragged disreputable person, Brome, Jovial Crew, iii. (NED.). [‘He was a shake-rag like fellow’, Scott, Guy Man., xxvi.] Also shake, Middleton, The Widow, ii. 1 (1 Suitor).

shake the elbow, to throw dice, to gamble. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1 (Ariosto).

shaking of the sheets, the name of an old dance, usually mentioned with an indecent suggestion. Westward Ho, v. 3.

shale, a shell, husk. Hen. V, iv. 2. 18; Parliament of Bees, character 5 (end). ME. shale (Chaucer), OE. scealu, a husk.

shale, to shell, take of the husk; ‘I shale peasen’, Palsgrave; ‘A little lad set on a bancke to shale the ripen’d nuts’, W. Browne, Brit. Pastorals, bk. ii, song 4. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Shale, vb.¹ 14). ME. shale, notys or odyr frute, ‘enucleo’ (Prompt. EETS. 451). Cp. F. eschaller: ‘eschalleur de noys, qui écale des noix’ (Glossaire, Rabelais, ii. 160).

shale, to shamble with the feet; ‘Esgrailler, to shale or straddle with the legs’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Shale, vb.²). See shayle.

shalla, for shall he; ‘Shalla go In deede? and shalla flowte me thus?,’ Phaer, Aeneid iv, 590, 591. A for he is common in prov. use when unemphatic, see EDD. (s.v. He, 1 (1)).

sham, to take in, to hoax; ‘You shammed me all night long . . . Freeman. Shamming is telling you an insipid, dull lye, with a dull face, which the sly wag the author only laughs at himself; and, making himself believe ’tis a good jest, puts the sham only upon himself, Wycherley, Plain Dealer, iii. Cp. Sc. sham, to cheat, trick, deceive, see EDD. (s.v. Sham, vb.¹ 1).

shamois, shoes made of the wild goat’s skin. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 19.

shape, the costume suited to a particular part in a play. Massinger, Bondman, v. 3 (Pisander).

shard, a fragment, a piece of broken pottery, a potsherd; ‘Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her’, Hamlet, v. 1. 254. In prov. use in the sense of a broken piece in Scotland and in the various parts of England (EDD.). ME. scherde, ‘testula’ (Prompt. EETS.), OE. sceard, ‘testa’ (B. T.).

shard, a patch of cow-dung; ‘They are his shards, and he their beetle’, Ant. and Cl. iii. 2. 19; ‘Such souls as shards produce, such beetle things As only buz to heaven with ev’ning wings’, Dryden, Hind and P. i. 321; ‘The shard-borne beetle’ (the beetle born in dung), Macbeth, iii. 2. 42. ‘Shard,’ meaning a patch of cow-dung, is in prov. use in Yorks. and Wilts. (EDD.). Probably related to ‘sharn’ in prov. use for dung of cattle; OE. scearn (Leechdoms); see EDD.

shard. In Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 38, ‘When late he far’d In Phaedrias flitt barke over that perlous shard.’ Spenser appears to use ‘shard’ here in the sense of ‘a channel’. It is probably the same word as ‘shard’ in prov. use for an incision, a gap, a narrow passage, see EDD. (s.v. Shard, sb.² 1, 2, 3). OE. sceard, a gap, notch; the word is used for bays and creeks in Boethius, 18. 1.

shark, to prowl about to pick up a living. Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, iii. 3 (Mallicorn); Earle, Micro-Cosmographie, no. 77 (ed. Arber, 35); shark on, to prey upon, Sir Thos. More, ii. 4. 106; shark up, to pick up by prowling about, Hamlet, i. 1. 98. Hence shark-gull, a cheat who preys upon simpletons, Middleton, The Black Book (ed. Dyce, v. 524).

sharp. To fight at sharp, to fight with sharp weapons, not with foils, Beaumont and Fl., Nice Valour, v. 3 (Galoshio).

shayle, to shamble, to walk crookedly or awkwardly. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 20, l. 19; p. 214, l. 172. Palsgrave has: ‘I shayle, as a man or horse dothe that gothe croked with his legges, Ie vas eschays.’ ME. schaylyn, ‘disgredior’ (Prompt. EETS. 451). See shale and shoyle.

sheal, to take off the outer covering of peas, King Lear, i. 4. 219. In prov. use in Scotland and in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Sheal, vb.² 1).

sheene, fair, beautiful to behold. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 10; ii. 2. 40; ii. 10. 8; ‘Haill May, haill Flora, haill Aurora schene!’, Dunbar, Thrissill, 9; as sb., fairness, splendour, Hamlet, iii. 2. 167. ME. shene, fair, beautiful (Chaucer, C. T. A. 972). OE. scēne, scȳne, scīene, fair, identical with G. schön, beautiful, Goth. skauns.

sheerly, entirely. Fletcher, Mad Lover, v. 4 (Memnon). A Scotch word, used by Burns, Ep. to Major Logan (EDD.).

sheeve, a slice; ‘A sheeve of bread’, Warner, Alb. England, bk. iv, ch. 20, st. 29. In prov. use in Scotland and Lanc., see EDD. (s.v. Sheave). See shive.

shelf, a sandbank. B. Jonson, The Forest, iii (l. 12 from end); shelves, pl., 3 Hen. VI, v. 4. 23; ‘On the tawny sands and shelves Trip the pert faeries’, Milton, Comus, 117. For Scotch exx. see EDD. (s.v. Shelf, sb.²).

shell, a cockle-shell worn in the hat by pilgrims to Compostella. Heywood, Four Prentises (Godfrey), vol. ii, p. 213.

shells, a cant term for money. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (2 Cutpurse); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 2 (Matheo).

shend, to put to shame, blame, reproach. Spenser, Prothalamion, 121; shent, pp., F. Q. ii. 5. 5; vi. 6. 18. In prov. use in Scotland and in Kent (EDD.). ME. shende, to render contemptible (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 893); schende, to blame, reproach (Wyclif, Ps. cxviii. 31). OE. scendan.

sherif, a title of the descendants of Mohammed, a title of the chief magistrate of Mecca, and of Morocco; ‘The Sheriffe of Mecca’, Purchas, Pilgrims, iii. 257. Arab. sharîf, noble, of noble lineage, particularly, descending from Mohammed (Steingass). See xeriff.

sherris, ‘sherry’, a Spanish wine, so called from the town Xeres. 2 Hen. IV, iv. 3. 111, 114, 122, 131. The Arabic form of the place-name Xeres was Sherêysh (Dozy, Glossaire, p. 18). The Roman name was Caesaris Asidona. By the loss of the first syllable, Caesaris became on the lips of the Moors sherêysh. For a similar decapitation of the word Caesar, compare the name of the Spanish city Zaragoça, the Caesaraugusta of the Romans.

shewelle, sewell; ‘A sewell, a thing to keep out the deer’, Howell, Lexicon Tetraglotton; ‘Anything that is hung up is called a Sewel; and those are used most commonly to amaze a Deare, and to make him refuse to passe wher they are hanged up’, Turbervile, Hunting (ed. 1575, p. 98); used fig., ‘Bugbeares of opinions brought, to serve as shewelles to keep them from those faults’, Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia (ed. 1605, p. 267); ‘Shewell’ in the sense of a scarecrow is still in use in Oxfordsh. and Berks. (EDD.). Cp. ME. scheawle, a scarecrow (Owl and N. 1648); a-schewelen, to scare away (Stratmann, pp. 32, 528); deriv. of OE. scēoh, timid, shy.

shift herself, change her dress. Beaumont and Fl., Nice Valour, iii. 1. 8. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Shift, 2).

shine, bright. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 3; ‘Girt my shine browe with sea-banke Myrtle sprays’, Marlowe, tr. of Ovid’s Elegies, bk. i, 1. 34 (Wks., ed. Tucker Brooke, 560). See sheene.

shittle, unstable, inconstant; ‘Their shittle hate’, Mirror for Mag., Collingbourne, st. 3; ‘Shyttell, nat constant, variable’, Palsgrave. ME. schytyl, ‘preceps’ (Prompt. EETS. 398), cogn. w. OE. scēotan, to run hastily (Acts vii. 57); see Cook, Biblical Quotations, p. 234.

shittle-cock, a shuttlecock. Middleton, A Chaste Maid, iii. 2 (Allwit). ‘Shyttel cocke, volant’, Palsgrave. ME. schytyl, a shuttle (in a child’s game), see Prompt. EETS. 398.

shive, a slice, Titus Andron. ii. 1. 87. In gen. prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, England, and America, see EDD. (s.v. Shive, sb.¹ 1). ME. schyve of bred or oþer lyke, ‘lesca, scinda’ (Prompt. EETS. 399). Cp. Icel. skifa, a slice, and G. scheibe.

shock-dog, a rough-coated dog; a poodle. Wycherley, Gent. Dancing-master, ii. 2 (Hippolyta); Tatler, no. 245.

shoe-the-mare, a Christmas sport. Middleton, Inner-Temple Masque (Plumporridge). ‘Shoe the old mare’ is the name of a kind of sport in Galloway, see EDD. (s.v. Shoe, vb. 10).

shog, to move off, go away. Henry V, ii. 1. 47, ii. 3. 47; shog on, Massinger, Parl. of Love, iv. 5 (near the end); shogd, shook, pushed; Phaer, Aeneid ii, 465; shog, a jog, a shake. Dryden, Epil. to The Man of Mode, 28. In gen. prov. use (EDD.). ME. schoggen, to shake (Wars Alex. 5018).

shold, a shoal, sandbank. Phaer, Aeneid i, 112; Hakluyt, Voyages, iii. 547. ‘Shald’ in various spellings is in prov. use in the north country, meaning (1) shallow, (2) a shoal (EDD.). ME. ‘schold or schalowe, noȝte depe’ (Prompt.). OE. sceald, shallow (found in place-names); see Dict. (s.v. Shallow).

shoot-anker, sheet-anchor; hence, a means of security. Udall, Roister Doister, i. 1. 28; ‘This saying they make their shoot-anker’, Cranmer (cited in Dict., s.v. Sheet).

shope, shaped, framed; pt. t. of shape. Spenser, F. Q. v. 5. 39. ME. shoop, planned, devised (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 207), pt. s. of shapen; OE. scōp, pt. s. of sceppan.

shoppini, high-heeled shoes; ‘Those high corked shoes, which now they call in Spaine and Italy Shoppini’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. i, c. 15; p. 49. See cioppino and choppine. See Stanford (s.v. Chopine).

shore, a sewer. Shirley, Love Tricks, i. 1; ‘The common shore’, A Woman never vext (Mrs. Foster), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xii. 104; ‘Our sailing ships like common shores we use’, Dryden, Hind and Panther, ii. 558. ‘Shore’, once a common word for a sewer, is still preserved in Shoreditch in London; also named Sewers Ditch; see Stow’s Survey, p. 158. It is in gen. prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and England, see EDD. (s.v. Shore, sb.³ 1).

shoringness, inclination to tilt to one side; ‘A table, of the which the thirde foot was A little shorter then the rest. A tyle-sherd made it even And tooke away the shoringness,’ Golding, Metam. viii. 662; fol. 103 (1603). ‘Shoring’ is in prov. use in E. Anglia, in the sense of slanting, sloping, awry, see EDD. (s.v. Shore, vb.² 4).

shot, a payment, reckoning; esp. a contribution to the payment of a tavern score; ‘Escotter, every one to pay his shot or to contribute somewhat towards it’, Cotgrave; Two Gent. ii. 5. 9; shot-free, without having to pay, 1 Hen. IV, v. 3. 30. In gen. prov. and colloquial use in Scotland, England, and America, see EDD. (s.v. Shot, sb.¹ 1). ME. schot, a payment (Stratmann). OE. scot, a contribution (in compounds), see B. T. The Anglo-F. form is escot (mod. écot), whence E. scot, in scot-free, and scot and lot. See escot, scot and lot.

shotten, lean. Fletcher, Women Pleased, ii. 4. 9. From the phr. shotten herring, a herring that has spent the roe, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 143. ‘As lean as a shot-herring’ is given in EDD. as a Derbyshire saying. ‘Shotten’ is used in Kent of the herring that has spent its roe, see EDD. (s.v. Shot, pp. 5).

shotterell, shotrell, a pike in his first year; ‘An harlotrie [i.e. worthless] shotterell’, Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 4 (Carion); ‘The Shotrell, 1 year, Pickerel, 2 year, Pike, 3 year, Luce, 4 year, are one’, W. Lauson, Comments on the Secrets of Angling; in Arber’s Eng. Garner, i. 197.

shough, a rough dog with shaggy hair. Macbeth, iii. 1. 94; Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, iii. 3 (Grilla). Also in forms shog and shock, ‘Nor mungrell nor shog’, Taylor’s Works, 1630 (Nares); ‘Their little shocks or Bononia dogs’, Erminia, 1661 (Nares).

shough, shoo, interj., away! used to scare away fowls. Fletcher, Maid in the Mill, v. 1 (end).

shoule, a ‘shovel’. Heywood, Fortune by Land and Sea, iv. 1 (Jack); vol. vi, p. 424. For various forms of ‘shool’, a word which is in gen. prov. use in the British Isles and America, see EDD.

shouler, a bird; the ‘shoveller’ or spoonbill. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 353. Skelton has shouelar (= shovelar), Phylyp Sparowe, 408.

shovelboard, the name of a game. The game was to shuffle or drive by a blow of the hand a counter or coin along a smooth board, so as to pass beyond a line drawn across the board near the far end, but so as not to fall off the board; ‘Plaieing at slide-groat or shoofleboard’, Stanyhurst, Desc. of Ireland, ann. 1528; Edward shovel-board, a shilling coined in the reign of Edward VI commonly used in the game of shovel-board, Merry Wives, i. 1. 159. A similar game was called shove-groat, hence shove-groat shilling, the coin used at the game, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 206; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 5. 17 (see Wheatley’s note). See Nares.

shoyle, to lean outwards on the foot in walking. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 55 (p. 155), says that wild swine never ‘shoyle or leane outwards’, as tame hogs do. See shayle.

shraming, making a great noise, screaming; ‘Shraming shalms’, Golding, Metam. iv. 392; fol. 48, back (1603); ‘She shraming cryed’, id., viii. 108; fol. 94.

shrewd, malicious, mischievous, ill-natured, All’s Well, iii. 5. 68; Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 33; bad, nasty, grievous, Merch. Ven. iii. 2. 244; Ant. and Cl. iv. 9. 5. The word is used in Shropshire in the sense of ‘vicious’ (EDD.). ME. schrewyd, ‘pravus, pravatus, depravatus’ (Prompt. EETS. 401).

shrich, to ‘shriek’. Gascoigne, Philomene, ll. 22, 52. ME. schrichen, variants schriken, skriken (Chaucer, C. T. B. 4590).

shrieve, a ‘sheriff’. All’s Well, iv. 3. 213; 2 Hen. IV, iv. 4. 99. ME. shirreve (Chaucer, C. T. A. 359). OE. scīr-gerēfa. See Dict.

shright, pt. t. shrieked; ‘Out! alas! she shryght’, Sackville, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 18; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 8. 32. ME. shrighte (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2817), pt. t. of schrychen (schriken) to shriek. See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Schrychen).

shrill, thin, poor; ‘Age . . . all balde or ouer-cast With shril, thin haire as white as snow’, Golding, Metam. xv. 213. ‘Shrill’ (also ‘shill’) is in prov. use in Bedf. and Northants for thin, poor; also clear, transparent, applied to book-muslin (EDD.).

Shrove-Tuesday bird, a cock tied down, at which cudgels were thrown, on a Shrove Tuesday. Beaumont and Fl., Nice Valour, iii. 3 (Lapet; near the end). See Brand’s Pop. Ant. (ed. 1877, p. 37).

shroving, joining in the ceremonies and sports of Shrove Tuesday. Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 5 (Eyre); Fletcher, Noble Gent. iii. 2 (Lady). See EDD. (s.v. Shrove, vb.), where it is said that the custom of ‘shroving’, i.e. going round singing for money, &c., on Shrove Tuesday, is known from Oxf. to Dorset.

shrow, a ‘shrew’, a vixen, a scold. A frequent spelling of shrew in old editions of Shakespeare; and always pronounced so, cp. the rimes in Tam. Shrew, iv. 1. 213; v. 2. 28; v. 2. 188; shroe, Peele, Arraignment of Paris, iv. 1 (Bacchus).

shug, to slip, to wriggle. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, v. 1 (Dog). See EDD. (s.v. Shuck, vb.¹ 2).

shuter, a suitor. A common pronunciation of suitor; puns on shooter and suitor occur often. London Prodigal, i. 2. 42; cp. L. L. L. iv. 1. 110; Puritan Widow, il. 1. 97.

shuttle-brained, thoughtless, flighty. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Cicero, § 6. From the movements of the shuttle.

sidanen, a fine woman; an epithet. Northward Ho, ii. 1 (Capt. Jenkin). Welsh sidanen, silken, made of silk; also, an epithet for a fine woman (Owen). Applied sometimes to Queen Elizabeth; so Nares.

siddon, soft, tender, mellow. Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, iv. 1 (Piero). Current in west midland counties, chiefly of peas or other vegetables which become soft in boiling, see EDD. (s.v. Sidder). Cp. OE. syde, a decoction, the water in which anything has been seethed or boiled (B. T.). Cognate with seethe, pp. sodden; see Dict. (s.v. Seethe).

side, long, hanging down a long way; ‘Side sleeves’, Much Ado, iii. 4. 21; Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 440; B. Jonson, New Inn, v. 1 (Fly). In prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England (EDD.). ME. syde, as a gowne, ‘defluxus, talaris’ (Cath. Angl.); ‘syde sleeves’ (Hoccleve, Reg. P. 535). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Syde). OE. sīd, ample, wide, large, extensive.

side, to set up a, to be partners in a game. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iii. 2 (Cent.).

sie, sye, to strain milk. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 146. 10. ‘I sye mylke, or clense’, Palsgrave. In prov. use in Scotland, England down to Glouc. (EDD.). OE. sēon (sīan), to strain; cp. asiende, ‘excolantes’ (Matt. xxiii. 24, Mercian Gloss); see B. T. (s.v. āsēon).

siege, a seat, esp. one used by a person of rank or distinction, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 39; hence, rank, Othello, i. 2. 22; the station of a heron on the watch for prey, Massinger, Guardian, i. 1 (Durazzo); a privy, Phaer, Pestilence (NED.); evacuation, B. Jonson, Sejanus, i. 2; excrement, Tempest, ii. 2. 110. ME. sege, ‘sedes, secessus’ (Prompt. EETS. 404, see notes). See sege.

sieve and shears, a mode of divination; used for the recovery of things lost. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Face); Butler, Hud. i. 2. 848. See EDD. (s.v. Riddle, sb.¹ 1 (1)).

sifflement, a whistling, chirping. Brewer, Lingua, i. 1 (Auditus). F. siffler, to whistle, L. sifilare, a dialect form of sibilare.

sight, pt. t. sighed. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 20; vi. 10. 40. ME. sighte (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1035), pt. s. of syke, to sigh.

signatures, marks. The medicinal virtues of some plants were supposed to be indicated by their forms or by marks upon them. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 329.

sikerly, certainly, surely. Gammer Gurton’s Needle, last scene (Gammer). Still in prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Sickerly). ME. sikerly (Chaucer); sikerliche (P. Plowman). OE. sicor, sure, safe; certain (B. T.).

silder, less frequently. Tancred and Gismunda, ii. 3 (Lucrece); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 46. See seld.

silly, simple, rustic; innocent. Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 35; iii. 8. 27; poor, wretched, weak, Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, pp. 491, 533. See sely.

silverling, a piece of silver; ‘Fifty thousande silverlynges’, Tyndale, Acts xix. 9; so the Cranmer version, 1539, and the Geneva, 1557; Bible, Isaiah vii. 23; here Luther has Silberlinge. In Marlowe, Jew of Malta, i. 1. 6, silverling = the Jewish coin, the shekel.

simper, to twinkle, glimmer. Beaumont and Fl., Lover’s Progress, iii. 1. 8; ‘I mark how starres above Simper and shine’, G. Herbert, The Church, The Search, l. 14.

simper, to simmer; ‘I symper, as lycour dothe on the fyre before it begynneth to boyle’, Palsgrave. In prov. use in north Ireland, west Yorks., and east Anglia (EDD.).

simper-the-cocket, an affected coquettish air; a woman so characterised, a flirt. B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Patrico); Skelton, El. Rummyng, 55; simper de cocket, ‘Coquine, a beggar-woman; also a simper de cockit, nice thing’, Cotgrave; Heywood’s Proverbs, Pt. ii, ch. 1 (ed. Farmer, 52). See Nares.

simple, a simple remedy, as a plant used medicinally without admixture; ‘Where a sycknesse may be cured with symples’, Sir T. Elyot, Castel of Helthe, bk. ii, c. 28; to gather simples or medicinal herbs, Butler, Hud. ii. 3. 823.

simulty, a grudge. B. Jonson, Discoveries, cxxii, § 2. F. simulté, a grudge (Cotgr.). L. simultas, a hostile encounter, animosity.

sin, since. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 11. 44. In gen. prov. use (EDD.). ME. sithen, since (Wars Alex.); see Dict. M. and S. OE. sīððan.

single: single money, small change; ‘The ale-wives’ single money’, B. Jonson, Alchem. v. 2 (Subtle); Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iv. 5 (Pedro).

single, in hunting, the tail of a deer; ‘The tayle of Harte, Bucke, Rowe or any other Deare is to be called the Syngle’, Turbervile, Hunting, 243 (NED.); Howell, Parley of Beasts, 63; used of Pan’s tail, ‘That single wagging at thy butt’, Cotton, Burlesque, 277 (Davies). Hence, ‘a boy leasht on the single’, is explained by ‘beaten on the taile’, Lyly, Midas, iv. 3 (Pet.). Still in prov. use in Northants. and west Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Single, sb.¹ 9).

singles, the claws of a hawk. The middle claws were called the long singles, and the outer the petty singles. Heywood, A Woman killed, i. 3 (Sir Francis). The single was orig. the middle or outer claw on the foot of the hawk (NED.).

†singles, the entrails; ‘The singles (Lat. prosecta) also of a wolfe’, Golding, Metam. vii. 271; fol. 82 (1603). Not found elsewhere.

sink and sise, five and six; at dice; ‘All at sink and sise’, i.e. I have lost all my effects at dice-playing, Like will to Like, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 346.

sinkanter, a term of contempt; ‘One Volanerius, an old sinkanter or gamester and scurrilous companion by profession’, Jackson, Creed, x. 19; ‘Rocard, an overworn sincaunter, one that can neither whinny nor wag the tail’, Cotgrave.

si quis, an advertisement; also called a bill. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, ii. 2 (end). From L. si quis, lit. if any one; from the first two words; the advertisement begins: ‘If there be any lady or gentlewoman’, id., iii. 1 (Puntarvolo). Cp. Hall, Sat. ii. 5. 1.

Sir John, a familiar appellation for a priest, because John was a common name, and it was usual to prefix sir to a priest’s name. Richard III, iii. 2. 111; Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, i. 2 (Luce). Cp. Chaucer (C. T. B. 4000), ‘Com neer thou preest, com hider thou sir John.’ See NED. (s.v. Sir, 4).

sirts of sand, quicksands. Mirror for Mag., Madan, st. 7. For syrtes, pl. of L. Syrtis, Gk. Σύρτις, the name of two large sandbanks (Major and Minor) on the coast of Libya. Cp. ‘A boggy Syrtis’, Milton, P. L. ii. 939.

sit, to be fitting, to befit, suit; ‘It sits not’ (i.e. it is unbecoming), Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 30; ‘With them it sits’, Shep. Kal., May, 77; id., Nov., 26. In the north country ‘It sits him weel indeed’ is often said ironically of a person who arrogates to himself more than is thought proper, see EDD. (s.v. Sit, 16). Sitting, suitable, fit, becoming; ‘To the [thee] it is sittynge’, Fabyan, Chron., Part vii, c. 232; ed. Ellis, p. 265; Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 149.

sith, time; also pl. times. Spenser has ‘a thousand sith’, a thousand times, F. Q. iii. 10. 33; also, ‘a thousand sithes’, Shep. Kal., Jan., 49. OE. sīð, a journey, time.

sithence, since. Coriolanus, iii. 1. 47. ME. sithenes, since (P. Plowman, B. x. 257; xix. 15).

six, small beer; sold at 6s. a barrel; ‘A cup of six’, Rowley, A Match at Midnight, i. 1 (Tim).

six and seven, to set all on, ‘to risk all one’s property on the hazard of the dice; Omnem iacere aleam, to cast all dice, . . . to set al on sixe and seuen, and at al auentures to ieoperd’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Julius, § 7; ‘Or wager laid at six and seven’, Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 588.

skails, a game like ninepins; the same as ‘kails’. ‘Aliossi, a play called Nine pins or keeles, or skailes’, Florio (1598); North, tr. of Plutarch, Alcibiades, § 1. See NED. (s.v. Skayles).

†skainsmate. Only occurs as spoken by the Nurse in Romeo, ii. 4. 163, ‘Scurvy Knave! I am none of his flirt-gills; I am none of his skainsmates’. The nurse was no very correct speaker, and in the heat of her anger she has in this case become wholly unintelligible. The guesses of the commentators and glossarists are devoid of probability.

skeen, a knife. Merry Devil, ii. 2. 54; skeane, Spenser, State of Ireland (Globe ed., p. 631); skene, Brewer, Lingua, i. 1 (first stage-direction). Also skaine, Drayton, Pol. iv. 384. In prov. use in Scotland and Ireland, see EDD. (s.v. Skean). Sc. and Ir. Gaelic, sgian, a knife.

skelder, to beg impudently by false representations, to swindle (Cant). B. Jonson, Poetaster, i. 1 (Luscus); ib. (Tucca); iii. 1 (Tucca); Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll).

skellet, a ‘skillet’, a small pot or pan; a small kettle. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 250; skillet, Othello, i. 3. 273. ‘Skellet’ (also ‘skillet’), a small metal pan or saucepan, is in gen. prov. use in the British Isles and America, see EDD. (s.v. Skillet).

skelp, to strike with the hand, to smack; ‘I shall skelp thee on the skalpe’, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2207. In gen. prov. use in the British Isles; in England in the north and Midland counties, see EDD. (s.v. Skelp, vb.¹). ME. skelpe, to smite with a scourge (Wars Alex. 1924).

skew at, to look askance at, to slight. Beaumont and Fl., Loyal Subject, ii. 1 (Putskie); ‘To skewe, limis oculis spectare’, Levins, Manip. ‘To skew’ is in prov. use in the north of England in the sense of to look askance at any one, see EDD. (s.v. Skew, vb.¹ 18).

skew rom-bouse, to quaff good drink (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); a skew, a cuppe; Harman, Caveat, p. 83.

The Halliwell-Phillipps MS. of the play reads skybredd (communicated by Mr. Percy Simpson). Dr. H. Bradley suggests skyward.

skice, skise, to frisk about, move nimbly, make off quickly; ‘Skise out this way, and skise out that way’, Brome, Jovial Crew, iv. 1 (Randal). In prov. use—Sussex, Hampshire, &c. (EDD.).

skill, to make a difference; ‘It skills not much’, it makes little difference, Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 134; ‘It skills not’, it makes no difference, Nero, v. 2; ‘It skilleth not’, Lyly, Euphues (ed Arber, 245). Extremely common from 1550 to 1650, see NED.

skimmington, a ceremony practised on unpopular persons in various parts of England; fully described in EDD. See Heywood, Witches of Lancs. iv. 230; Oldham, Satires upon the Jesuits, iv (ed. R. Bell, p. 125). See Brand’s Pop. Antiq., Cornutes (ed. 1877, p. 414), for an account of ‘Riding Skimmington’, where it is described as a ludicrous cavalcade intended to ridicule a man beaten by his wife.

skink, to draw or pour out liquor. B. Jonson, New Inn, i (Lovel); Phaer, Aeneid vii, 133. Hence, Under-skinker, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 26. ME. skinke, to pour out (Chaucer, C. T. E. 1722). For full account of this verb see Dict. (s.v. Nunchion).

skipjack, a pert fellow, a whipper-snapper. Greene, Alphonsus, i. 1 (Alph.); also, a horse-dealer’s boy, Dekker, Lanthorne, x; see Nares. ‘Skipjack’ is in prov. use in north of England in sense of a pert, conceited fellow, see EDD. (s.v. Skip, vb.¹ 1 (2 a)).

skipper, a barn (Cant). ‘A skypper, a barne’, Harman, Caveat, p. 83; B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman). Possibly Cornish sciber, Welsh ysgubor, a barn (NED.), Med. L. scopar, ‘scuria, stabulum’ (Ducange).

skirr, to pass rapidly over a stretch of land; ‘Skirre the country round’, Macbeth, v. 3. 35. Of doubtful origin (NED.). In prov. use in the sense of to scurry, rush, fly quickly (EDD.).

skit, skittish, restive. Spelt skyt, Skelton, Against the Scottes, 101. See EDD. (s.v. Skit, vb.² 1).

skoase, to chaffer, barter, exchange. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. vi, ch. 31, st. 64. See scorse.

skope, skoope, pt. t. of scape, scaped, escaped, got away. Phaer, Aeneid ii, 458 (L. evado); skoope = escaped to, id., vi. 425; skoope, escaped, id., ix. 545 (L. elapsi).

skyrgaliard, a wild or dissipated fellow, Skelton, Against the Scottes, 101; id., Speke, Parrot, 427. See galliard.

slab up, to sup up greedily and dirtily; ‘Ye never saw hungry dog so slab (printed stab) potage up’, Jacob and Esau, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 215. See NED. (s.v. Slab, vb.²).

slake, a shallow dell, a glade, a pass between hills. Morte Arthur, leaf 95. 6; bk. vi, c. 5. In prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and in various parts of England, in the north down to Lincoln, see EDD. (s.v. Slack, sb.³ 1). Icel. slakki, a small shallow dell.

slam, an ungainly person; ‘He is but a slam’, Vanbrugh, The Relapse, v. 5 (Nurse); ‘A slam or slim Fellow is a skragged, tall, rawboned Fellow’, Ray, N. C. Words (ed. 1691, 137), see NED. (s.v. Slam, adj.).

slampant: in phr. to give one the (or a) slampant, to play a trick on; ‘Polyperchon . . . meaning to give Cassander a slampant . . . sent letters Pattents’, North, Plutarch (ed. 1595, 805); ‘Trousse, a cousening tricke, blurt, slampant’, Cotgrave; also in form slampaine, ‘The townesmen being pinched at the heart that one rascal . . . should give them the slampaine’, Stanyhurst, Desc. of Ireland (ed. 1808, vi. 30); also spelt slampam, ‘Shal a stranger geve me the slampam?’, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 633.

slat, to dash, strike violently. Marston, Malcontent, iv. 1 (Malevole). In prov. use in various parts of England, meaning to throw violently, to dash down water or other liquid, also, to strike, beat, see EDD. (s.v. Slat, vb.³ 1).

slate, a cant term for a sheet. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor); Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); Harman, Caveat, p. 61.

slaty, muddy, rainy. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 258. ‘Slatty’ is a Warw. word for muddy, see EDD. (s.v. Slat, sb.⁴ 1).

sled, a sledge or sleigh used as a vehicle in travelling or for recreation; ‘With milke-white Hartes upon an Ivorie sled Thou shalt be drawen’, Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, i. 2. In common prov. use for a low cart without wheels, see EDD. (s.v. Sled, sb.¹ 1). ME. slede, a dray without wheels, a harrow, ‘traha’ (Prompt. EETS. 415).

sledded, (perhaps) riding in ‘sleds’ or sledges; ‘He smote the sledded Pollax on the ice’, Hamlet, i. 1. 63 (a Polack is a Pole, an inhabitant of Poland). So NED.

sledge, a sledge-hammer; ‘To throw the sledge’, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 2 (Elder Loveless). A Devon word, see EDD. (s.v. Sledge, sb.²).

sleek, plausible, specious. Hen. VIII, iii. 2. 241; Chapman, Eastward Ho, ii. 2. Later variant form of ME. slĭke; see slick.

sleided silk, sleaved silk, silk ravelled out, divided into filaments. Pericles, iv, Prol. 21.

sleight, a cunning trick, an artifice. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 81; Massinger, New Way to pay, v. 1; 3 Hen. VI, iv. 2. 20; spelt slight, Middleton, More Dissemblers, iv. 1; Butler, Hud. i. 2. 747. See Dict.

slent, to slip or glide obliquely; ‘The stroke slented doune to the erthe’, Morte Arthur, leaf 345. 24; bk. xvii, c. 1; to make sly hits or gibes, ‘One Proteas, a pleasaunt conceited man, and that could slent finely’, North, Plutarch (NED.); hence, slent, a sly hit or sarcasm, ‘Cleopatra found Antonius jeasts and slents to be but grosse’, ib., M. Antonius, § 13 (in Shaks. Plut., p. 175). See EDD. (s.v. Slent, vb.¹).

slibber-sauce, a nauseous concoction, used esp. for medicinal purposes, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 116); slibber sawces, buttery, oily, made-up sauces, Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 105).

slick, smooth, plausible. Rawlins, Rebellion, iv. 1. 4. Cp. prov. slick-tongued, smooth-tongued, plausible in speech, see EDD. (s.v. Slick, adj.¹ 6 (2)). ME. slyke, or smothe, ‘lenis’ (Prompt.). See sleek.

slick, to make smooth. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, l. 1144; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xxiii. 249. In prov. use in England and America (EDD.). ME. slyken, to make smooth (P. Plowman, B. ii. 98).

slidder, slippery. The Pardoner and the Frere, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 213; ‘My tongue is grown sae slip and slidder’, Stuart, Joco-serious Discourse (ed. 1686, 20); see EDD. ME. slydyr, ‘lubricus’ (Prompt. EETS. 416); ‘A slidir mouth worchith fallyngis’, Wyclif, Prov. xxvi. 28. OE. slidor.

slidder, to slip, to slide. Dryden, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 749. In prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England (EDD.). OE. slid(e)rian, to slip.

slifter, a cleft or crack; ‘Fente, a cleft, rift, slifter, chinke’, Cotgrave. A north-country word (EDD.). Hence sliftered, cleft, rifted, Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, i. 1 (Antonio). Cp. G. (dial.) Schlifter, gully, watercourse.

slip, a counterfeit coin. Often quibbled upon; as in Romeo, ii. 4. 51; Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, iii. 1 (Pickadill). See NED. (s.v. Slip, sb.⁴).

slipper, slippery. Othello, ii. 1. 246. A west-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Slipper, adj. 1). OE. slipor.

slipstring, a knave; one who has eluded the halter. Gascoigne, Supposes, iii. 1 (Dalio); ‘Goinfre, a wag, slipstring, knavish lad’, Cotgrave. In prov. use the word means an idle, worthless, slovenly person, so in Northants and Warw., see EDD. (s.v. Slip, 3, (22)).

slive, to slice, cleave; to strip off (a bough) by tearing it downward; ‘I slyue a floure from his braunche’, Palsgrave; ‘The boughes whereof . . . he cutting and sliving downe’, Warner, Alb. England, prose addition on Aeneid ii, § 1. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Slive, vb.¹ 1). ME. slyvyn, a-sundyr, ‘findo’ (Prompt. EETS. 459). OE. (to)-slīfan, to split.

sliver, a small branch split off from the tree. Hamlet, iv. 7. 174. In gen. prov. use for a slice, a splinter of wood (EDD.). ME. slivere, a piece cut or split off (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 1013).

sliver, to slice off. Macbeth, iv. 1. 28. In prov. use: ‘If you sliver away at the meat like that there’ll be none left for to-morrow’ (Cambridge); see EDD.

sloape, deceitful; ‘For hope is sloape’, Mirror for Mag., Ferrex, st. 18. ‘Slope’ (or ‘sloap’) is in prov. use in Yorks., meaning to trick, cheat (EDD.).

slot, the track of a stag or deer upon the ground. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (John); to follow a track, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, i. 191. OF. esclot, hoof-print of a horse, &c. (Godefroy), probably of Scand. origin, cp. Icel. slōð, a track; so NED.

†sloy, a term of abuse for a woman. Warner, Alb. England, bk. xi, ch. 58, st. 26. Not found elsewhere.

slubber, to sully, Othello, i. 3. 227; to obscure, 1 Part of Jeronimo, ii. 4. 67; see Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 374. In prov. use for obscuring with dirt (EDD.).

slubberdegullion, a slubbering rascal (Burlesque). Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, i. 2. 18; Butler, Hud. i. 3. 886.

sludge, to turn into a soft mass, ‘The flame had sludgd the pitche, the waxe and wood And other things that nourish fire’, Golding, Metam. xiv. 532.

slug, to be lazy, inactive. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 23; slogge, Palsgrave; ‘Another sleeps and slugs both night and day’, Quarles, Emblems (bk. i. 8, Luke vi. 25). ME. sluggyn, ‘desidio’ (Prompt.).

slug, a slow, inactive person; ‘Fie, what a slug is Hastings, that he comes not’, Richard III, iii. 1. 22; slugge, a hindrance, ‘Money would be stirring, if it were not for this slugge’, Bacon, Essay 41, § 2. ‘Slug’ is in prov. use in the north country for a slow inactive person or animal; in Somerset, esp. of a slow-going horse; ‘to slug’ in Yorks. means to hinder, to retard progress (EDD.). ME. slugge, ‘deses, segnis’ (Prompt.).

slur, a method of cheating at dice; ‘Without some fingering trick or slur’, Butler, Misc. Thoughts (ed. Bell, iii. 176). Also, a term in card-playing, ‘ ’Gainst high and low, and slur, and knap’, Butler, Upon Gaming. See NED. (s.v. Slur, sb.² 2).

slurg, to lie in a sleepy state, to lie sluggishly. Phaer, Aeneid vi, 424; id., ix. 190. G. (Swabian dial.) schlurgen, to go about in a slovenly manner (J. C. Schmid).

smack, to savour of, to taste of; ‘This veneson smacketh to moche of the pepper’, Palsgrave; fig., ‘All sects, all ages smack of this vice’, Meas. for M. ii. 2. 5. ME. smakkyn, ‘odoro’ (Prompt.). See smatch.

smalach, ‘smallage’, wild celery or water parsley, Tusser, Husbandry, § 45. 20. ME. smale ache, ‘apium’ (Sin. Barth. 11), E. small + F. ache, wild celery, O. Prov. ache, api, Pop. L. *apia, L. apium.

smatch, a ‘smack’, taste, flavour. Jul. Caesar, v. 4. 46; Middleton, The Widow, i. 1 (Martino). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. smach, taste, flavour (NED.). OE. smæc(c. See smack.

smeath, a small diving-bird; the ‘smee’ or ‘smew’, Mergellus albellus. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 67.

Smeck, short for Smectymnuus, a fictitious name compounded of the initials of the five men who wrote under that name, viz. Stephen Marshall, Edward Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew Newcomen, and William Spurstow. They are said to have worn particular cravats, which Butler calls cravat of Smeck, Hud. i. 3. 1166.

smelt, a name applied to various small fishes, used (like gudgeon) with the sense of simpleton. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Mercury); Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, v. 2 (end).

smicker, elegant, handsome; ‘A smicker Swaine’, Lodge, Euphues (NED.); smirking, gay, Peele, Eclogue Gratulatory, 4 (ed. Dyce, 561). Cp. the obsolete Scotch smicker, to smile affectedly, to smirk (EDD.). OE. smicer, elegant.

smickly, fine, elegant, smart; or it may be used adverbially. Ford, Sun’s Darling, ii. 1 (Raybright). Cp. Dan. smykke, to adorn, G. schmücken.

smock: He was wrapt up in the tail of his mother’s smock; said of any one remarkable for his success with the ladies (Grose). See Marston, What you Will, v. 1 (Bidet). ‘Il est né tout coiffé, Born rich, honourable, fortunate; born with his mother’s kercher about his head; wrapt in his mother’s smock, say we; also, he is very maidenly, shame-faced, heloe’, Cotgrave.

smoke, to get an inkling of, to smell or suspect (a plot), to detect. Middleton, Roaring Girl (2 Cutpurse); ‘Sir John, I fear, smokes your design’, Dryden, Sir M. Mar-all, 1; see NED. (s.v. 8).

smoky, quick to suspect, suspicious, Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, iv. 1 (Belfond senior).

smolder, smoky vapour, a suffocating smoke the result of slow combustion; ‘The smolder of smoke’, Bp. Andrewes, Serm. (ed. 1661, 472); to be smoldered, to be suffocated, Caxton, Reynard (ed. Arber, 98). ME. smolder, smoky vapour (P. Plowman, B. xvii. 321).

smoor, to smother. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 44; ‘She smoored him in the slepe’, Coverdale, 1 Kings iii. 19. In prov. use in the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Smoor, vb.¹).

smouch, to kiss. Heywood, 1 King Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 40; Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses (ed. Furnivall, p. 155). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). Cp. G. (Swabian dial.) schmutz, ‘derber Kuss’ (Schmid).

smug, to smarten up, to make trim or gay; freq. with up, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, x. 568; Drayton, Pol. x. 69; xxi. 73; Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, iii. 3 (Firk). ‘Smug’ is in prov. use in various parts of England for smart, tidily dressed: also, as vb., to dress up neatly (EDD.).

smuggle, to hug violently, to smother with caresses, Otway, Ven. Preserved, last scene; line 13 from end. In prov. use in Somerset and Devon, see EDD. (s.v. Smuggle, vb.²).

’snails, a profane oath, for ‘God’s nails’, i.e. ‘Christ’s nails’ on the Cross. Beaumont and Fl., Wit at several Weapons, v. 1 (Pompey); London Prodigal, v. 1. 222. Cp. Chaucer, ‘By goddes precious herte, and by his nayles’ (C. T. C. 651).

snakes: To eat snakes was a recipe for enabling one to grow younger. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, i. 2 (Orlando); Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, iv. 4 (Andrew).

snaphance, a flint-lock used in muskets and pistols, Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 1 (Dromio); a musket or gun fitted with a flint-lock, Capt. Smith, Virginia, iii. 12. 93 (NED.). Du. snaphaan, ‘a firelock, fusee, snaphaunce’ (Sewel).

snaphance, an armed robber, a highwayman. Holinshed, Chron. ii. 684. Du. ‘snaphaan, a Fuselier carrying a snaphaan’ (Sewel), also a mounted highwayman. Cp. G. schnapphahn in 1494, schnapphan, a highwayman (Brant, Narrenschiff); schnapphahn in prov. Germ. has also the meaning of constable, thief-catcher. See Weigand and H. Paul (s.v.). Cp. F. chenapan, ‘mot tiré de l’Allemand, où il désigne un brigand des Montagnes noires; en François, il signifie un vaurien, un bandit’, Dict. de l’Acad., 1762.

snapper, to trip, to stumble. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 15, l. 4; id., Ware the Hauke, 142; ‘I snapper as a horse dothe that tryppeth, Je trippette’, Palsgrave. A north-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Snapper, vb.¹ 1). ME. snapere, to stumble: ‘Thi foot schal not snapere’ (Wyclif, Prov. iii. 23); snapir (Wars Alex. 847).

snar, to snarl; ‘Tygres that did seeme to gren And snar at all’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 27. Cp. Du. snarren, to snarl (Hexham).

snarl, to ensnare, entangle. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 17; J. Beaumont, Psyche, ix. 275; Palsgrave. A north-country word for snaring hares or rabbits, see EDD. (s.v. Snarl, vb.² 2). ME. snarlyn, ‘illaqueo’ (Prompt.).

snatch, a trap, snare, entanglement; ‘The Chevalier . . . being taken in a Gin like unto a Snatch’, Shelton, Quixote, iii. 1; spelt snache, ‘A new-founde snache which did my feet ensnare’. Mirror for Mag., Carassus, st. 43. ME. snacche, a trap, snare (K. Alis. 6559).

sneaker, a sneaking fellow; ‘Clarke is a pitifull proud sneaker’, Reliq. Hearnianae (ed. Bliss, 483); ‘Origlione, an eavesdropper, a listener, . . . a sneaker, a lurking knave’ (Florio).

sneap, to nip or pinch with cold; ‘An envious sneaping Frost’ L. L. L. i. 1. 100; ‘The sneaped birds’, Lucrece, 333. In prov. use in the north of England: ‘They’n do well if they dunna get sneaped wi’ the frost’ (Cheshire), see EDD. (s.v. Snape, vb. 2). Also, to check, repress, reprove, chide, snub, Brome, Antipodes, iv. 9 (NED.); ‘A man quickly sneapt’, Maiden’s Tragedy, iii. 1 (Servant), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 428. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. snaip, to rebuke sharply (Cursor M. 13027), Icel. sneypa, to chide (NED. s.v. Snape, vb.¹).

sneb, to reprimand sharply, Sidney, Arcadia, xxxiii. 22; snebbe, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 126. In prov. use in Lancashire (EDD.). In Chaucer, C. T. A. 525, some MSS. have snebbe. Swed. dial. snebba (Rietz). See snib.

snetched, slaughtered; ‘A snetched Oxe’, Golding, Metam. v. 122 (Lat. mactati iuuenci). Not found elsewhere.

snib, to reprimand, rebuke sharply; ‘Christian snibbeth his fellow for unadvised speaking’, Bunyan, Pilgr. Pr. i. 169; Middleton, Five Gallants, ii. 3 (Tailor); Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 372; to snip off, as with snuffers, Marston, Malcontent, iii. 1 (Malevole). In prov. use, in the sense of rebuking sharply, in Scotland and north of England down to Bedford (EDD.). ME. snibben, to rebuke (Chaucer, C. T. A. 523). Dan. snibbe. See sneb.

snick: snick up (used imperatively), be hanged! London Prodigal, v. 1; Middleton, Blurt, Master Constable, iv. 1; Snecke up!, Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 101; also used with go, ‘Let him go snick up’, Beaumont and Fl., Knt. Burning Pestle, ii. 2 (Mrs. Merrythought); Davenant, Play-House (Works, ed. 1673, 116). ‘Snick up!’, in the sense of ‘Begone, go and be hanged’, is said to be in use in west Yorks., see EDD. (s.v. Snickup, int. 4).

†snickfail; ‘Whereas the snickfail grows, and hyacinth’, Webster, The Thracian Wonder, i. 2. A misprint for sinckfoil = cinquefoil; cp. Greene, Menaphon (ed. Arber, 36); see NED. (s.v. Cinquefoil). Communicated by Mr. Percy Simpson.

snickle, a running noose. Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 5 (Ithamar). In prov. use in the north and east, esp. in Yorks. and Linc. (EDD.). Here, for ‘snicle hand too fast’ we should probably read ‘two hands snickle-fast’, see various conjectures in Tucker Brooke’s ed. of Marlowe.

snig, a young eel. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 96. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. snygge, an eel (Cath. Angl.).

sniggle, to fish for eels by means of a baited hook or needle thrust into their holes or haunts. I. Walton, Angler, ch. x. [In the passage cited by Todd and later Dicts. from Fletcher’s Thierry, ii. 2, ‘I have snigled him’, the correct reading is doubtless ‘singled’, so NED.]

snob, to sob. Puritan Widow, i. 1. 90; Middleton, Mad World, iii. 2. In prov. use in Worc. and Glouc. (EDD.). ME. snobbe, to sob; ‘My sobbyng (v.r. snobbyng) and cries’ (Wyclif, Lam. iii. 56).

snudge, a miser, a mean person; ‘A covetous snudge’, Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, p. 28); Dekker, O. Fortunatus, i. 2 (Shadow); ‘Snudge, parcus’, Levins, Manipulus. See EDD.

snudge, to remain snug and quiet; ‘Now he will . . . eat his bread in peace, And snudge in quiet’, G. Herbert, Temple, Giddinesse, 11. In prov. use in the north country and in E. Anglia (EDD.).

snuff: in phr. to take (a thing) in snuff, to take (a matter) amiss, to take offence at; ‘Mr. Mills . . . should take it in snuffe that my wife did not come to his child’s christening’, Pepys, Diary, 1661, Oct. 6; ‘Who therewith angry . . . Took it in snuff’, 1 Hen. IV, i. 3. 41; to take snuff at, to take offence at a thing, Fuller, Joseph’s Coat (ed. 1867, 51). ‘Snuff’ in these phrases refers probably to the act of ‘snuffing’ as an expression of contempt or disdain, see NED. (s.v. sb.² 1), and EDD. (s.v. sb.¹ 1).

soader, to ‘solder’, cement together. Rowley, All’s Lost, iii. 1. 34; sodder, Chapman, Byron’s Tragedy, iii. 1 (Janir).

soar-falcon, a falcon or hawk of the first year that has not moulted and still has its red plumage; ‘Of the soare faulcon so I learne to fly’, Spenser, Hymn Heav. Beauty, 26; Latham, Falconry, 37; see Nares (s.v. Sore-Hawk). F. Faulcon sor, a soar Hawk; Harenc sor, a red Herring (Cotgr., s.v. Sor). Anglo-F. sor, reddish brown (Rough List). O. Prov. sor, saur, Ital. sauro. See sore (a buck).

sod, boiled; pret. of ‘seethe’; ‘Sod Euphrates . . . sod Orontes’, Golding, Metam. ii. 248. The reference is to the boiling of rivers during the mad career of Phaethon; Ovid has ‘Arsit et Euphrates’, &c.

soggy, soaked with moisture, soppy; hence, heavy (like damp and green hay). B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iii. 2 (Mitis). In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Sog, sb.² 3).

soil, a miry or muddy place used by a wild boar for wallowing in; ‘Sueil, the soyle of a wild Bore, the mire wherein hee commonly walloweth; se souiller (of a swine), to take soyle, or wallow in the mire’, Cotgrave. The phr. ‘to take soil’ corresponds to F. prendre souille. Souille is a deriv. from souiller, to soil with mud, Romanic type *soc’lare, deriv. of L. sŭcula, a little sow.

soil, a pool or stretch of water, used as a refuge by a hunted deer or other animal, Turbervile, Hunting, 241; to take soil, to take to the water, as a hunted deer, id., 148; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Quarl); Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, ii. 4. 6. See above.

soil, to expound, explain, to resolve a doubt; ‘I have not learned to soyle no riedles’, Udall, tr. Apoph. 309 (NED.); ‘Souldre, to cleere or soile a doubt’, Cotgrave. Anglo-F. soiler, OF. soldre, L. solvere, to loosen, to explain.

soil, to absolve from sin, ‘I soyle from synne, je assouls’, Palsgrave. For assoil, Anglo-F. assoiler, to absolve, pardon (Rough List); OF. assoldre, L. absolvere; see Moisy.

sokingly, slowly, gently, gradually; ‘Sokingly, one pece after an other’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Julius, § 32. ME. sokingly, ‘sensim, paulatim’ (Prompt. EETS. 147); ‘By good leyser sokingly, and nat over hastily’ (Chaucer. C. T. B. 2767).

Sol, the sun. Peele, Poems (ed. Routledge, p. 601); an alchemist’s term for gold. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Dol).

sol, a small coin, B. Jonson, Volpone, iv. 2 (Bonario); Marmion, The Antiquary, iii. 1 (Ant.). OF. sol; L. solidus (sc. nummus), a gold coin (in the time of the emperors).

solayne, sullen, melancholy. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 16, 1. 51; soleyne, id., Bowge of Courte, 187; solein, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 213. ME. soleyn, of maners or he þat lovyth no company, ‘solitarius, Acheronicus’. (Prompt. EETS. 421); ‘The soleyn fenix of Arabye’ (Chaucer, Boke Duch. 982).

sold, pay, remuneration, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 6. Med. L. soldum, pay, related to L. solidus, a piece of money; see sol.

soldado, a soldier. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 2 (or 1) (Downright). Span. soldado, one who is paid; a soldier; deriv. of Med. L. soldum, pay. See above. See Stanford.

soldan, the supreme ruler of a Mohammedan country, Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 2. 31; Milton, P. L. i. 764. ME. soldan (Gower, C. A. i. 245); Ital. soldano; Arab, sulṭân.

solf, to sing the notes of the sol-fa, or gamut; to sing. Calisto and Melibaea, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 71; solfe, Skelton, Phyllyp Sparowe, 415. ME. solfe (P. Plowman, B. v. 423).

sollar, an upper room. Udall, tr. Erasmus, Acts xx. 8 (= ὑπερῷον, cenaculum); a loft, ‘Sollars full of wheat’, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 1 (Barabas). The word is still in prov. use in various parts of England with many meanings: esp. an upper room, a first-floor apartment; loft or garret (EDD.). The Gk. word ὑπερῷον (Vulg. cenaculumm) in Acts xx. 8 is rendered by soler in Wyclif’s tr. (Luther has söller). In the Heliand and in Tatian soleri = ‘cenaculum’. ME. solere or lofte, ‘solarium’ (Prompt.); ‘Soler-halle at Cantebregge’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3990, see Notes); OE. solor (soler-); L. solarium, a part of the house exposed to the sun, esp. a flat house-top (Vulgate, 2 Sam. xi. 2).

somedele, somewhat, in some measure, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec, 40. In prov. use in Scotland, Yorks., Northants, see EDD. (s.v. Some, 1 (3)). ME. somdel, in some measure (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3911).

somer, a ‘summer’, a supporting beam, a support. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 5. 22. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Summer, sb.²). F. sommier, ‘the piece of timber called a Summer’ (Cotgr.); OF. somier, a pack-horse (Burguy); Med. L. saumarius, sagmarius, ‘equus clitellarius’ (Ducange); deriv. of sagma, a pack, burden; Gk. σάγμα. See Dict. (s.v. Sumpter). For the development of meaning from ‘a kind of horse’ to a ‘timber-beam’, cp. F. poutre, (1) a filly, (2) a supporting beam.

somner, an official summoner. Middleton, A Trick to catch, ii. 1 (Lucre). ME. somner (P. Plowman, C. iii. 59); somnour, summoner, apparitor, an officer who summoned delinquents before the ecclesiastical courts (Chaucer, C. T. A. 543).

sonde, a sending, a messenger. Morte Arthur, leaf 420, back, 13; bk. xxi, c. 1. OE. sand (sond), a sending, message.

sonties: in phr. by God’s sonties, an oath used by old Gobbo in Merch. Ven. ii. 1. 17. The same as God’s santy, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, v. 2 (Bellafront). Adapted from OF. saintée, sancteit, sanctity, holiness (Godefroy).

soop, to sweep; ‘A sooping traine’, Return from Parnassus, i. 2 (Judicio); sooping it, sweeping alone; id., v. 1 (Studioso). Icel. sōpa, to sweep.

sooreyn, jaded feeling, exhaustion; ‘Abundance breedes the sooreyn of excesse’, Gascoigne, Grief of Joy, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 286. A back-formation from the verb to surrein, to overtire. See surreined.

soote, sweetly, Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 111; also sweet, Surrey, Description of Spring, 1. ME. sote, sweetly (Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 2612), OE. swōte, sweetly. Chaucer has also sote as adj. sweet (C. T. A. 1), but the OE. adj. is swēte.

sooterkin, an imaginary kind of afterbirth formerly attributed to Dutch women; ‘There goes a report of the Holland Women that together with their children they are delivered of a Sooterkin, not unlike a Rat, which some imagine to be the Offspring of the Stoves’, Cleveland (NED.); Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 146. [Swift to Delany (Works, ed. 1755, III. ii. 232); Pope, Dunciad, i. 126; ‘Sooterkin, maankalf’, Calisch.] See mooncalf.

sooth, to declare a statement to be true, to corroborate it. Udall, Roister Doister, i. 1. 47; to support a person in a statement, ‘Sooth me in all I say’, Massinger, Duke Milan, v. 2; to sooth up, ‘Sooth me in all I say’, Kyd, Span. Tragedy, iii. 10. 19. The same word as soothe, OE. sōðian, to show to be true. The pronunciation of the verb is due to the sb. sooth, OE. sōð.

sophie, wisdom; ‘The seuenfold sophie of Minerue’, Grimald, Death of Zoroas, 67; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 121. Gk. σοφία.

sops-in-wine, a name given to some kind of gilliflower or pink. Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 138; B. Jonson, Pan’s Anniversary (Shepherd, l. 6). See Nares.

sord, ‘sward’, turf. Milton, P. L. xi. 433; greene-sord, green sward, Winter’s Tale, iv. 3. 157 (so Fol. 1).

sore, a buck of the fourth year. Phaer, Aeneid x. 725 (L. cervum). ‘The bucke . . . the iij. yere a sowrell, A sowre at the iiij. yere’, Book of St. Albans, fol. e, iiij.

sore. Of the hare: to traverse open ground, ‘I might see [the hare] sore and resore’, i.e. dart off, first in one direction and then in another, Return from Parnassus, ii. 5 (end). ‘When he gooth the howndys before, He sorth and resorth’, Boke of St. Albans, fol. e 8, back.

sort, a company, assemblage of people: Mids. Night’s D. iii. 2. 13; Richard II, iv. 1. 246; Spenser, F. Q. vi. 9. 5; Ps. lxii. 3 (Great Bible, 1539); rank, degree, ‘A gentleman of great sort’, Hen. V, iv. 7. 143; of sorts, of various kinds, ‘They have a king and officers of sorts’ (id., i. 2. 190). Anglo-F. sort, company, assemblage (Gower, Mirour, 16800).

sortilege, a drawing of lots. Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med., pt. 1, § 18. F. sortilège, L. sortilegium.

soss, to make oneself wet and dirty, to dabble; ‘Sossing and possing, dabbling in mire’, Gammer Gurton’s Needle; i. 4 (Hodge); sost, pp. made wet and dirty, Tusser, Husbandry, § 48. 20. In prov. use in various parts of the British Isles, see EDD. (s.v. Soss, vb.² and vb.³).

†sothbind. ‘But late medcynes can help no sothbynde sore’, Mirror for Mag., Richard, st. 10 (ed. 1578 has: ‘no festered sore’). Not found elsewhere. See Nares.

†sothery. The devils are described as having—‘Theyr taylles wel kempt, and, as I wene, With sothery butter theyr bodyes anoynted’, Heywood, The Four Plays, v. 87, Anc. Brit. Drama, i. 18, col. 2; Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 376. Does it mean ‘Surrey butter’? Surrey is spelt Sothery in Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 269; and Sothray in Skelton, El. Rummyng, 96.

soud, to consolidate, make whole. Pp. souded, Morte Arthur, leaf 359. 20; bk. xvii, c. 19. F. souder, to consolidate; L. solidare.

souder, to be soldered together, to become whole; ‘The pecys . . . soudered as fayr as euer they were to-fore’, Morte Arthur, leaf 348. 12; bk. xvii, c. 4.

soul, a part of the viscera of a cooked fowl. Heywood, Eng. Traveller, ii. 1 (Clown). See EDD. (s.v. Soul, sb.¹ 8). ‘Âme, the soule of a capon or gose’, Palsgrave; ‘Mazzacáre, the tender part of any bird or fowl, in a Goose it is called the Soul’ (Florio). See EDD. (s.v. Soul, sb.¹ 8) and Notes and Queries (8th S. ii. 169).

souling, relishing, affording a relish; souling well, affording a good relish, Warner, Alb. England, bk. iv, ch. 20, st. 32. Cp. the north country prov. word sowl(e, a relish, dainty, anything eaten with bread (EDD.). OE. sufl.

sound, to swoon, Two Angry Women, iii. 2 (Francis); Heywood, Four Prentises (Guy), vol. ii, p. 181; a swoon, ‘a deadly sound’, id., Fair Maid of the Exchange (Anthony), vol. ii, p. 15; Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 94; ‘She fell into a traunce or sownde’, Stubbes, A Christall Glasse (ed. Furnivall, 202). In common prov. use in Scotland, also in England in various parts, esp. in Yorks., see EDD. (s.v. Sound, vb.²). See sowne (2).

sounder, a herd of wild swine. Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, iv. 163; Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Hubert); ‘That men calleth a trip of a tame swyn is called of wylde swyn a soundre, that is to say ȝif ther be passyd v or vi togedres’ (Halliwell). OE. sunor: ‘sunor bergana’ (Luke viii. 32, Lind.) = ‘grex porcorum’ (Vulg.).

sourd, to arise. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 2, § 7; Fabyan’s Chron., ed. 1811, p. 436; p. 499, l. 23. ME. sourde, to arise (Chaucer, C. T. I. 475); F. sourdre; L. surgere.

sous, souse, a ‘sou’, a small coin. Farquhar, The Inconstant, i. 2 (Old Mirabel); Prior, Down Hall, st. 33. [‘Those most heav’nly pictures . . . For which the nation paid down every souse’, Peter Pindar, Works (ed. 1816, p. 397).] An obsolete Scotch word (EDD.).

souse, to swoop down like a hawk. Heywood, Dialogue, 181 (Mercury), vol. vi, p. 247; to deal a heavy downward blow, Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. i. 6; Heywood, Brazen Age (Hercules); the downward swoop of a bird of prey, the sudden blow given by a ‘sousing’ hawk, Drayton, Pol. xx. 241; Heywood, A Woman Killed, i. 3. 2; Ford, Lady’s Trial, iv. 2 (Futelli). The word as applied in falconry meant originally the upward spring or swoop of a bird of prey; an older form was sours; OF. sorse (mod. source), lit. the ‘rise’ of the hawk; cp. Chaucer, C. T. D. 1938, and Hous Fame, ii. 36. See Dict. (s.v. Souse), and Notes on Eng. Etym. 275.

souse, brine for pickle. Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of Malta, ii. 1 (Normandine); ears and feet of a pig in pickle, Tusser, Husbandry, § 12; Butler, Hud. i. 2. 120; hence souse-wife (sowce-wife), a woman who sold ‘souse’, Greene, George-a-Greene (ed. Dyce. 257); Dekker, Shoemakers’ Hol. ii. 3 (Firk). ME. sowce, ‘succidium’ (Prompt. EETS. 424, see note, no. 2063); OF. sous (souz), see Godefroy (s.v. Soult, 2); cp. OHG. sulza (Schade), O. Prov. soltz, ‘viande à la vinaigrette’ (Levy); Ital. solcio, a seasoning of meat (Florio). Cp. also OF. solcier, ‘confire de la viande dans du vinaigre et des épices’ (Raschi). See note on ‘Solz’, in Romania, 1910, p. 176.

sovenance, remembrance. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 8; Shep. Kal., May, 82, Nov., 5. Anglo-F. sovenance (Gower, Mirour, 8244); F. souvenance, ‘memorie, remembrance’ (Cotgr.).

sovereign, a gold coin, a ten-shilling piece. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 7 (Fallace).

sow, a large lump of metal; ‘Sowes of gold’, Mirror for Mag., King Chirinnus, Lenvoy, st. 1; ‘Pano di metallo, a mass, a sow or ingot of metal’ (Florio).

sow-gard, a protecting shield or shelter (= L. testudo). Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 451. A sow was a military engine consisting of a movable roof arranged to protect men handling a battering-ram or advancing to scale walls.

sowl, to pull by the ears. Coriolanus, iv. 5. 213 (old edd. sole); spelt sole, Heywood, Love’s Mistress, iv. 1 (Vulcan); vol. v, p. 137. ‘Sowl’ is in prov. use in many spellings (soul, sool, sole, soal, saul), meaning to pull by the ears, also to hit on the head, see EDD. (s.v. Sowl, vb.¹).

sowne, soune, a sound, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 2, § 2; c. 13, § 4; to sound, ‘Sowning through the sky’, Tottel’s Misc., p. 202. ME. sowne (soune), to sound (Chaucer). F. son, sound; sonner, to sound.

sowne, to swoon, Butler, Hud. ii. 1. 483; a swoon, Puritan Widow, i. 3. 42. In prov. use for swoon, see EDD. (s.v. Sound, vb.² 1). ME. sownyn, ‘sincopo’ (Prompt. EETS. 324). See sound.

sowter, souter, a cobbler. Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, iv. 3 (Rosalura); Women Pleased, iv. 1 (Soto); Mad Lover, ii. 1. 22. In prov. use in the north country (EDD.). ME. souter (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3904); OE. sūtere; L. sutor.

soyle, the watery place in which a hunted animal takes refuge. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 40; p. 115. Used to signify the hunted animal; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 16. See soil (pool).

space, to walk or roam about. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 44. Cp. Ital. spaziare, to walk about (spatiare in Florio). L. spatiari, whence also O. Prov. espasiar, reflex, ‘se promener’ (Levy), and G. spazieren. Cp. Med. L. ‘Spatiamentum, ambulatio, deambulatio, animi relaxatio’ (Ducange).

spade, to make a female animal barren, to ‘spay’. Chapman. Widow’s Tears, v (Governor). Med. L. spadare, ‘spadonem facere’ (Ducange), deriv. of L. spado, Gk. σπάδων, one who has no generative power, eunuch. See spay.

spade-bone, blade-bone, shoulder-bone. Drayton, Pol. v. 266; Skinner (ann. 1671). In prov. use (EDD.). Spade = Norm. F. espalde, ‘épaule’ (Moisy). For the phonology cp. jade = Icel. jalda, a mare, through OF. *jaude, *jalde. See below.

spalle, a shoulder. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 29. ‘Spawl’ (‘spaul’) is in prov. use in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Spaul). OF. espalle, espalde (F. épaule), Med. L. spatula, a shoulder-blade, L. spatula, a broad-bladed knife. See spade-bone.

span-counter, a boys’ game. One boy throws down a counter, which another wins, if he can throw another so as to hit it or lie within a span of it. 2 Hen. VI, iv. 3; Northward Ho, i. 2 (Philip). See Nares.

spang, a spangle. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1162; Bacon, Essay 37. Hence spang’d, spangled, Three Lords and Three Ladies (Shealty), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 467.

Spanish needle, a needle of the best quality. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, ii. 1. 6.

spare, spaire, spayre, an opening or slit in a gown or petticoat. Spayre, Skelton, Phyllyp Sparowe, 345; ‘Sparre of a gowne, fente de la robe’, Palsgrave; Skene, Difficill Scottish Words (ann. 1681). ME. speyre of garment, ‘cluniculum’ (Prompt. EETS. 427, see note, no. 2083); spayre, ‘manubium, cluniculum’ (Cath. Angl.).

Spargirica, a name for Alchemy; ‘Ars Spagyrica’ (misspelt), B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 5 (ed. 1616). Ital. Spargirica, a name given to Alchemy from its separating and analysing chemical substances (Fanfani). Cotgrave has ‘Spargirie, Alchymie’, and ‘Spargirique, an Alchemist’. Florio has ‘Spargirio, Alchymy or the Extraction of Quintessences’.

sparkle, to scatter, disperse. Beaumont and Fl., Loyal Subject, i. 5. 4; Humorous Lieutenant, i. 1 (Demetrius); sparkling, scattering, Bonduca, iii. 2 (near the end). See Nares, and Trench’s Select Glossary (ed. 1890). In prov. use in Yorks. (EDD.). See disparkle.

sparse, to scatter. Fairfax, Tasso, xii. 46; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 268. L. spars-us, pp. of spargere, to scatter. See sperse.

spaw, a spa, place with mineral waters; ‘Your Tunbridge, or the Spaw itself’, B. Jonson, News from the New World (1 Herald); The Spawe, Gascoigne, Works, i. 376 (1572). So named from Spa, in Belgium.

spay, to render female animals barren; ‘Geld your loose wits, and let your Muse be spay’d’, Cleveland (Johnson’s Dict.). Anglo-F. *espayer (OF. espeër) < Med. L. spadare, to deprive of generative power (Ducange). See spade.

speed, to dispatch, destroy, kill; ‘With a speeding thrust his heart he found’, Dryden (Johnson); sped, pp. done for, Romeo, iii. 1. 94; Merch. Ven. ii. 9. 72; speeding-place, the place where a wound is fatal, and the man is sped. Marston, What you Will, i. 1 (Quadratus); Chapman, Widow’s Tears, i (Tharsalio).

spence, expense; ‘Spence, cost, despence’, Palsgrave; Ascham, Toxophilus, 122. ME. spense, spendynge, ‘dispensa’, Voc. 578. 45; spence, or expence (Prompt. EETS. 427).

spence, a buttery, a larder; ‘Spens, a buttrye, despencier’, Palgrave; spence, The Four Elements, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 35 (Taverner). In prov. use in Scotland and the north country, meaning a larder, pantry, store-cupboard, see EDD. (s.v. Spense). ME. spence, botery, ‘promptuarium’ (Prompt. EETS. 427).

sperage, ‘the herb asparagus; it is so called by Gerard, and all the old botanists, as its English name’ (Nares). North, tr. Plutarch, Jul. Caesar, § 16 (in Shaks. Plut., p. 58); Sylv. Du Bartas, Furies (Nares); Haven of Health, c. xxiii, p. 45 (id.). A Glouc. form (EDD.). ME. sperage, asparagus (Palladius, Husbandry, 112).

spere, used in the sense of a youth, a stripling; ‘A lusty spere’, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 947; Poems ag. Garnesche, iii. 41. Prob. a fig. use of ‘spere’, a young shoot or sprout, still in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Spear, sb.¹ 7).

spere, speer, to shoot, sprout, a term in malting, Tusser, Husbandry, § 84. 5. See spire.

sperhauk, sparrowhawk. Morte Arthur, leaf 301. 34; bk. xii, c. 7. Cp. OE. spearhafoc (Voc. 132. 26); spearwa, sparrow + hafoc, hawk.

sperre, to shut, fasten, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 224; Tr. and Cr., Prol. 19 (Theobald’s emendation); ‘I sperre, Je ferme. This verbe is of the northyrne langaige and nat commynly in use’, Palsgrave. Spear, ‘to bar or fasten a door’, is a Northumbrian word, see EDD. (s.v. Speer, vb. 6. 2); ‘To sper, to shut, to fasten a door with a bar of wood’ (Jamieson). ME. sperre, ‘claudere’ (Cath. Angl.); sperred, barred (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 521). Cp. G. sperren, to shut (in or out).

spertle, to sprinkle with fluid, Drayton, Pol. ii. 283. In prov. use in the Midland counties, see EDD. (s.v. Spirtle).

spheres. Peacham, Compl. Gentleman, c. 7, gives the old eleven spheres: ‘The eleventh heaven is the habitation of God and his angels. The tenth, the first moover [primum mobile]. The ninth, the Christalline heaven. The eighth, the starry firmament. Then the seven planets in their order’ [viz. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon]. In the Ptolemaic astronomy, the sun went round the earth, which was the immovable centre of the universe.

spial, a spy. Bacon, Essay 44. In some edd. for espial in 1 Hen. VI, i. 4. 8; spials, spies, Marl. 1 Tamburlaine, ii. 2. 35. See espial.

spice, a species, kind, sort. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 1, §§ 1, 3; ‘Spyce, a kynde, espece’, Palsgrave. ME. spice, species, kind: ‘Absteyne you fro yvel spice’ (Wyclif, 1 Thess. v. 22); ‘The spices (v.r. speces) of envye ben these’ (Chaucer, C. T. I. 490). OF. espice, a species, L. species, a kind, sort (Vulgate, 1 Thess. v. 22).

spiced, scrupulous, over-nice, too particular; ‘Out of a scruple he took . . . in spiced conscience’, B. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, i. 1 (Quarlous); Sejanus, v. 4 (Sej.); Fletcher, Mad Lover, iii. 1 (Cleanthe). See note on Chaucer, C. T. A. 526. See spice.

spick, lard. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 335. In Scotland the fat of animals, the blubber of whales (EDD.). ME. spyke or fette flesch, ‘popa’ (Prompt. EETS. 428). Icel. spik, the fat of seals or whales, cp. OE. spic, fat bacon; G. speck, bacon, lard.

spilt, (perhaps) inlaid with thin slips. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 10. 5. See EDD. (s.v. Spill, sb.² 1).

spilth, a spilling, pouring out. Used of wine, Timon, ii. 2. 169. A Scottish word; also in use in Suffolk (EDD.).

spinet, a spinny, a copse, thicket. B. Jonson, The Satyr, first stage-direction. L. spinetum, a thicket of thorns; from spina, thorn.

spinner, a spider. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Quarlous); Mids. Night’s D. ii. 2. 21; Romeo, i. 4. 59; ‘Spynner or spyder, herigne’, Palsgrave; ‘Araigne, a spider or spinner’, Cotgrave. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. spynner, ‘arania’ (Prompt.).

spiny, slender. Middleton, A Chaste Maid, iii. 2 (1 Puritan); A Mad World, iii. 2. 7. Cp. prov. words spindly, spindling, spindle, meaning slender, see EDD. (s.v. Spindle).

spire, to sprout, shoot forth. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 52. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Spire, vb.¹ 8). ME. spyryn, as corn or odyre lyk, ‘spico’; spyre of corne (Prompt. EETS. 429 and 463). OE. spīr (Leechdoms), cp. Dan. spire, a germ, sprout. See spere.

spirget, a wooden peg on which to hang things; ‘There hung a Bowle of Beech upon a spirget by a ring’, Golding, Metam. viii. 653. ‘Spurget’ is in prov. use in the north country, E. Anglia, and Sussex for an iron hook, see EDD. (s.v. Sperket).

spirt, to shoot up (as a plant), to sprout. Hen. V, iii. 5. 8; Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 558. In prov. use in the Midlands and Dorset (EDD.). OE. sprytian, to sprout, germinate.

spital, spittle, a hospital. Formerly hospital; whence ’spital. Hen. V, ii. 1. 78; v. 1. 86; Puritan Widow, i. 1. 151; spittle, Sir Thos. More, i. 3. 81; ‘Ladrerie, a Spittle for lepers’, Cotgrave. Hence, spital-house, Timon, iv. 3. 39. ME. spytyl hows, ‘leprosorium’ (Prompt. EETS. 429).

spitchcock’d. A spitchcock’d eel, a broiled eel spread on a skewer, ‘Spitchcock’d like a salted eel’, Cotton, Burlesque (Poems, p. 222); Cartwright, The Ordinary, ii. 1, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xii. 239. Hence spitchcock, a spitchcocked eel, Northward Ho, i. 1 (Chamberlain). See Dict. (s.v. Spitch-cock).

spitter, ‘Among Hunters, a red Male Deer near two Years old, whose Horns begin to grow up sharp, and spit-wise; it is also call’d a Brocket or Pricket’, Phillips, Dict., ed. 1706; ‘Subulo, an hart havyng hornes without tynes, called (as I suppose) a spittare’, Elyot, 1559. Applied to a full-grown stag by Golding, Metam. x. 117; fol. 121 (1603). Cp. G. spiesser, a brocket, a buck of the second year (Grieb-Schröer).

splay, to display, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 93. 13; ‘Hys banners splaide’, and ‘Our ensignes splayde’, Gascoigne (Nares). Cp. E. splay-foot, see Dict. (s.v. Splay).

splay, to castrate, Meas. for M. ii. 1. 249 (mod. edd. spay). In Shropshire heifers are splayed to make them barren (EDD.).

spleen. The organ of the body viewed as the seat of emotions and passions; impetuosity, eagerness, ‘The spleen of fiery dragons’, Richard III, v. 3. 350; malice, hatred, ‘I have no spleen against you’, Hen. VIII, ii. 4. 89; a fit of passion,’ A hair-brained Hotspur, governed by a spleen’, 1 Hen. IV, v. 2. 19; any sudden impulse or fit beyond the control of reason, esp. a fit of laughter, ‘Thy silly thought enforces my spleen’, L. L. L. iii. 77; a caprice, ‘A thousand spleens bear her a thousand ways’, Ven. and Ad. 907. See Schmidt.

splent, a lath, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 122. 10; ‘Splent for an house, laite’, Palsgrave. An E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Splint, sb.¹ 2). ME. splente (Prompt. EETS. 429).

splent, ‘a kind of hard swelling, without Pain, that grows on the Bone of a Horse’s Leg’, Phillips, Dict., 1706; Greene, Looking Glasse, i (p. 120).

sploach, a ‘splotch’, a blot. Wycherley, Gent. Dancing-master, v. 1 (Don Diego). ‘Splotch’ is in common prov. use (EDD.).

spondil, one of the vertebrae of the spine; ‘The spondils of his back’, B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 2 (Tuck). Gk. (Ionic) σπόνδυλος, (Attic) σφόνδυλος, a vertebra.

spooks-make, interpreter; ‘Of Gods the spooks-make’ (= L. interpres Divum), Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 373. Spooks-make = spokes-make. ‘Spoke’ is in prov. use for talk, conversation (EDD.); ‘make’ is still in prov. use, meaning a companion. See make.

spoom, to sail before the wind. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 96; Beaumont and Fl., Double Marriage, ii. 1 (Master).

spoorn, some kind of hobgoblin. Middleton, The Witch, i. 2 (Hecate); Denham Tracts (ed. 1895, ii. 77); the spoorne, Scot, Disc. Witches, 153.

spousayles, a marriage, wedding. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 12, § 2 (ed. Croft, ii. 142); spousals, Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 407. OF. espousailles; L. sponsalia, pl.

sprag, quick, alert. Merry Wives, iv. 1. 84. In prov. use in the north country, Worc. and the west (EDD.). ‘Sprag’ is a later form of ‘sprack’, in common prov. use in various parts of England. Cp. Norw. dial. spræk, fresh, lively (Aasen).

spraints, the dung of the otter, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 73, p. 201; sprayntes, id., c. 37, p. 98; Maister of Game, c. 11; Howell, Parl. of Beasts, 8 (Davies, 162). In prov. use in the north country (EDD.). [C. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, xviii.] F. ‘esprainctes, espreinctes, dung of the otter’ (Cotgr.); épreintes de la loutre (Hatzfeld). OF. espreindre, to press out, L. exprimere.

sprent, pp. sprinkled. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 45. In prov. use in Scotland and the north country (EDD.). ME. spreynd, also spreynt, sprinkled (Wyclif, Heb. ix. 13; Rev. xix. 13), pp. of sprengen, to sprinkle, OE. sprengan.

spring. A spring garden, a garden in which a concealed spring was made to spout jets of water over a visitor, when he trod upon a particular spot. Beaumont and Fl., Four Plays in One, Pt. I, sc. 1 (Sophocles).

spring, a dance-tune. Fletcher, Prophetess, v. 3 (3 Shepherd). In prov. use in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Spring, 9). ME. spring, a merry dance (Chaucer, Hous Fame, 1235).

spring: a spring of pork, the lower part of the fore-quarter, divided from the neck. Fletcher, The Prophetess, i. 3. 7. In prov. use in Northants (EDD.). See Nares.

spring, the young growth in a wood, a copse, a grove; ‘The nightingale among the thick-leav’d spring’, Fletcher, Faithful Sheph. v. 1; Fairfax, Tasso, xiii. 35; ‘In yonder spring of roses’, Milton, P. L. ix. 218; a young shoot of a tree, Lucrece, 950; fig. a youth, lad, ‘Being yong and yet a very spring’, Mirrour for Mag., Northumberland, st. 4; Spenser, Muiopotmos, 292. ‘Spring’ is in prov. use for young growth, the undergrowth of wood; a copse, a grove (EDD.).

springal, a youth. Spenser, F. Q. v. 10. 6; Beaumont and Fl., Laws of Candy, iii. 2 (Cassilane); springald, id., Knt. of B. Pestle, ii. 2; ‘Springald, adolescens’, Levins, Manip. See EDD. (s.v. Springald).

spruntly, smartly, sprucely. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, iv. 1 (Lady T.). The adj. is in prov. use (EDD.).

spurblind, ‘purblind’, nearly blind. Lyly, Sapho, ii. 2 (Phao). Halliwell says that the word was used by Latimer.

spurling, a smelt. Tusser, Husbandry, § 12, st. 5; Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 4 (Carion). ME. sperlynge, ‘sperlingus’ (Cath. Angl.); F. esperlan, a smelt (Cotgr.).

spur-ryal, spur-royal, a gold coin, worth about fifteen shillings; also called a royal or ryal. It had a star on the reverse resembling a rowel of a spur (Nares). Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, i. 1 (Young Loveless); Mayne, City Match, ii. 3 (Aurelia).

spyon, spion, a scout, in an army; ‘Captain of the Spyons’, Heywood, Four Prentises (Guy), vol. ii, p. 242. F. ‘espion, a spy, scout; espier, to spy’ (Cotgr.).

spyrre, to ask, inquire. Morte Arthur, leaf 416, back, 36; bk. xxi, c. 8. Cp. ‘spur’ in use in the north country for publishing or asking the banns of matrimony in church, see EDD. (s.v. Spur, vb.²). ME. speren, to ask (Barbour’s Bruce, see Gloss.). OE. spyrian, to inquire into.

squall, a term of endearment; ‘The rich gull gallant calls her deare and love, Ducke, lambe, squall, sweet-heart, cony, and his dove’, Taylor, 1630 (Nares); Middleton, Mich. Term, iii. 1 (Hellgill); Five Gallants, iv. 2. 3; used as a term of reproach, ‘Obereau, a young minx or little proud squal’, Cotgrave; also, applied to a man as a term of contempt, Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune (in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 199). See Halliwell.

squander, to scatter, disperse, Merch. Ven. i. 3. 32; Dryden, Annus Mirab., st. 67. In prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England (EDD.).

square, rule, exact conduct; ‘I have not kept my square’, Ant. and Cl. ii. 3. 6; ‘Never breaks square’ (i.e. never gives offence), Middleton, The Widow, ii (end).

square, to quarrel. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 30; Titus And. ii. 1. 100; Ant. and Cl. ii. 1. 45; Harington, Ariosto, xiv. 72; id., Ep. i. 37; a quarrel, Promos and Cass. ii. 4 (Nares). Hence squarer, a quarreller, Much Ado, i. 1. 82. Also, a squadron, ‘Our squares of battle’, Hen. V, iv. 2. 28; ‘Squares of war’, Ant. and Cl. iii. 11. 40. Cp. O. Prov. esqueira, ‘corps de bataille’ (Levy). Med. L. squadra, ‘caterva, turba, cohors; acies, copiae militares’ (Ducange); cp. Ital. squadra, ‘a squadron or troop of men’ (Florio); F. escadre (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.vv. Square, Squadron).

squares. How go the squares? how goes the game? The reference is to the chessboard; Middleton, Family of Love, i. 3 (Purge); May, The Old Couple, iv. 1 (Sir Argent).

squash, the shell or pod of peas or beans; an unripe pea-pod. Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 166; Wint. Tale, i. 2. 161. An E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Squash, vb.¹ 3).

squat, to squeeze, crush, bruise. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 3 (Savourwit). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). OF. esquatir, ‘aplatir, briser’ (Didot). See Dict.

squelch, to crush, bruise, strike with a heavy blow. Fletcher, Nice Valour, v. 1 (Galoshio); a heavy blow, Butler, Hud. i. 2. 836, 933. In prov. use (EDD.).

squelter, to ‘welter’, wallow, roll about; ‘The slaughter’d Trojans squeltring in their blood’, Locrine, ii. 6. 4.

squib, a paltry fellow. Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 371. In prov. use in west Yorks. in the sense of a small dwarfish person, see EDD. (s.v. Squib, sb.²).

squib, used fig. for a flashy, futile project or design, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, 195).

squich, to move quickly. Marriage of Wit and Science, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley. ii. 387; to wince, to flinch, Soliman and Perseda, iv. (Basilisco), id., v. 343. Probably identical with prov. E. switch, to move quickly, see EDD. (s.v. Switch, vb.¹ 9).

squince, the quinsy. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 22, § 3; ‘Squinantia, the Squince or Squinancie’, Florio; also squincy, ‘Esquinance, the Squincy’, Cotgrave; ‘Shall we not be suspected for the murder, And choke with a hempen squincy’, Randolph, The Jealous Lovers (ed. 1634, p. 54). ME. squynesy, ‘squinancia’ (Prompt. EETS. 431). Sec Dict. (s.v. Quinsy).

squinny, squiny, to look asquint. King Lear, iv. 6. 140; ‘How scornfully she squinnies’, Shirley, Sisters, ii. 2 (Antonio). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

squire, squier, a ‘square’, a rule for measuring, Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 348; by the squire, by exact rule, B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iv. 2 (Pan). ME. squire, a carpenter’s instrument (Chaucer, C. T. D. 2090). F. ‘esquierre, a rule or square’ (Cotgr.).

staddle, a prop, support. Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 14; a young growing tree left standing in a wood after the underwood has been cut away, Bacon, Essay 29, § 5; id., Henry VII (ed. Lumby, 72). See EDD. OE. staþol, a foundation, firm support.

staffe, a stave, a stanza; ‘Staffe . . . The Italian called it Stanza’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. ii, c. 2 (Of proportion in Staffe).

staffier, a lacquey, a footman. Butler, Hud. ii. 2. 651. F. ‘estaffier, a lackey or footboy, that runs by the stirrup; a servingman that waits afoot, while his master rides; estaphe, a stirrup’ (Cotgr.); Ital. staffiere, ‘a lacquey, that runs by a man’s stirrup’; staffa, ‘a kind of stirrup for a saddle’ (Florio). Of Germ. origin, cp. G. stapfe, a foot-step.

staggers, a sudden fit of giddiness, vertigo. Beaumont and Fl., Mad Lover, i. 1 (Calis); Cymbeline, v. 5. 234; All’s Well, ii. 3. 170; a disease in horses indicated by staggering and falling down, Taming Shrew, iii. 2. 55.

stakker, to stagger. Morte Arthur, leaf 232, back, 6; bk. x, c. 30; and in Palsgrave. ME. stakeren, to stagger (Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 2687). Norw. dial. stakra, to stagger (Aasen).

stale, a station where one lies in wait for birds; ‘Stale for foules takynge’, Palsgrave; to lie in stale, to lie in wait or ambush, ‘As I lay in stale To fight with the duke Richard’s eldest son, I was destroy’d’, Mirror for Mag., 366 (Nares); Stanyhurst, Desc. Ireland (Halliwell). ME. staal, of fowlynge or of byrdys takynge ‘stacionaria’ (Prompt. EETS. 432). OF. estal, place, séjour, arrêt; prendre son estal, prendre position (Didot), Anglo-F. estal (Ch. Rol. 1108, 2319).

stale, a decoy; a bird or something in the form of a bird set up to allure a bird of prey; ‘The fowler’s stale the appearance of which brings but others to the net’, Cap of Gray Hairs (ed. 1688, p. 96); see Halliwell; Mirrour for Mag. (Nares); Sidney, Arcadia, ii, p. 169 (Nares); an object of allurement, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 10. 3; Tempest, iv. 1. 187; a device, trick, F. Q. ii. 1. 4; a laughing-stock, Titus And. i. 2. 241. In prov. use in Lincolnsh., see EDD. (s.v. Stale, sb.¹). Anglo-F. estale, ‘appeau, oiseau qui sert à attirer les autres’ (Vocab. to Bozon).

stale, the shaft of an arrow, Chapman, tr. Iliad, iv. 173; the shaft of a javelin, Nomenclator (Nares). In prov. use in the sense of a shaft, a long slender handle, see EDD. (s.v. Stale, sb.² 1). See stele.

stale, the urine of horses and cattle, Ant. and Cl. i. 4. 62 to urinate, Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 152; ‘Escloy, urine, stale’, Cotgrave. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Stale, vb.³). OF. estaler, to stale (of horses), see Godefroy. Of Germ, origin, cp. Dan. stalle, Swed. stalla, to urinate; cp. G. stallen (used of horses); stall, urine.

stale, stalemate, at chess; ‘Like a stale at chess, where it is no mate, but yet the game cannot stir’, Bacon, Essay 12.

stale, to render stale, to make common and worthless. Coriol. i. 1. 95; Ant. and Cl. ii. 2. 240; Jul. Caesar, i. 2. 73; a stale, a prostitute, harlot, Much Ado, ii. 2. 26; iv. 1. 66.

stall, to forestall. B. Jonson, Sejanus, iii. 1 (Tiberius); Massinger, Bashful Lover, iv. 3.

stall, to install set in authority, Richard III, i. 3. 206; ‘And stawled gods doe condiscend’, Turbervile, The Lover excuseth himself. Stalled to the rogue (Cant Phrase), admitted as a recognized thief, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll); Harman, Caveat, p. 34. The master-thief admitted a rogue with the ceremony of pouring a quart of beer over his head, and using a formula of words.

stall, to stick fast; ‘When his cart was stalled (he) lay flat on his back and cried aloud, Help, Hercules!’, Burton, Anat. Mel., p. 222 (Nares). In prov. use in the north country and Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. Stall, vb. 20).

stalled, pp.; ‘Dole perpetuall, From whence he never should be quit, nor stal’d’ (rimes with cal’d), Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 1245. Meaning doubtful.

stalling ken, a house for receiving stolen goods (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Tearcat); stauling ken, Harman, Caveat, p. 83; B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman).

stammel, stamel, a kind of woollen cloth, of a red colour. Beaumont and Fl., Little French Lawyer, i. 1 (Cleremont); Chapman, Mons. D’Olive, ii. 1 (D’Ol.). See Nares and Halliwell.

stand. It stands me upon, it is incumbent on me, it is important to me, I ought. It standeth thee upon, Lyly, Euphues, p. 271.

stander-grass, standard-grass, stander-wort, standle-wort, Orchis mascula, and other allied plants. Standelwort, or Standergrass, Lyte’s Dodoens, bk. ii, ch. 56; Royal Standergrass, or Palma Christi, id., ch. 59; ‘Foul standergrass’, Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, ii. 2 (Clorin).

staniel, a kind of hawk, considered as of inferior value, Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 124; hence, a coward, Lady Alimony, i. 3 (Haxter); hence stanielry, cowardice, id., v. 2. 17. In prov. use in the north country for the kestrel or windhover, see EDD. (s.v. Stannel). OE. stangella, used to translate L. pellicanus in Ps. ci. 7 (Vesp. Psalter). See notes on Eng. Etym.

stare, a starling. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 541; Middleton, Game at Chess, iv. 2 (B. Knight). In prov. use in Ireland and in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. stare, a starling (Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 348); OE. stær: ‘tuoege staras’ (Lind. Gosp., Matt. x. 29, rendering of Vulgate duo passeres).

stare, to bristle up; said of hair. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 56. 11; § 98. 4; Jul. Caesar, iv. 3. 280. In prov. use: they say in Herts, ‘It will make her (a cow’s) hair to stare’, see EDD. (s.v. Stare, vb. 4). Cp. G. starren, to bristle.

stark, stout, sturdy. Sir T. Wyatt (Nares); stiff (used in speaking of a dead body), 1 Hen. IV, v. 3. 42; Romeo, iv. 1. 103; Cymbeline, iv. 2. 209; starkly, stiffly (as in a dead body), Meas. for M. iv. 2. 70. In common prov. use in the north country in the two meanings (1) stout, sturdy, and (2) stiff, esp. through rheumatism (EDD.). OE. stearc, stiff, rigid; rough, strong (B. T.); Icel. sterkr, strong. See storken.

startups, rustic shoes with high tops, or half-gaiters; ‘Guestres [gaiters], startups, high shooes, or gamashes for countrey folks’, Cotgrave; Hall, Satires, book vi; Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, ii. 4 (Cloe). See Nares. In prov. use in the Midlands (EDD.).

state, high rank, dignity. 3 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 93; chair of state, a canopied chair, dais, or throne for a king, 3 Hen. VI, i. 1. 51; Hen. VIII, iv. 1. 67; state = chair of state, Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 51; Coriol. v. 24; Macbeth, iii. 4. 5; states, persons of high rank, Cymb. iii. 4. 39; state, an estate, Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, i. 1. 7; Rule a Wife, iii. 5 (Leon).

statist, a statesman, politician. Hamlet, v. 2. 33; Beaumont and Fl., Laws of Candy, ii. 1 (Gonzalo); Webster, Appius, i. 3 (Virginius). Ital. statista (Florio).

statua, a statue. Jul. Caesar, iii. 2. Bacon, Essay 27, § 6, and 45, § 3; a picture, Massinger, City Madam, v. 3 (Sir John, 15th speech). L. statua, an image, statue (commonly made of metal).

statuminate, to prop up. B. Jonson, New Inn, ii. 2 (Tipto). L. statumino (Pliny).

statute-caps, woollen caps, which, by a statute of 1571, citizens were enjoined to wear on holydays. L. L. L. v. 2. 281. Also, the wearers of such caps, citizens, Middleton, Family of Love, v. 3 (Dryfat). See Nares.

statute-lace, lace made according to a law that regulated its width and material. Massinger, Parl. of Love, iv. 5 (Perigot).

statute-merchant, or statute-staple, a bond acknowledged before one of the clerks of the statute-merchant, and mayor of the staple, or chief warden of the City of London, or other sufficient men; see quotation from Blount, in Nares. ‘His lands be engaged in twenty statutes staple’, Middleton, Family of Love, i. 3 (Glister); cp. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. iii. 110.

stead, to stand in good stead; ‘Necessaries which since have steaded much’, Temp. i. 2. 165; to be of use to, benefit, help, Gent. Ver. ii. 1. 124; Othello, i. 3. 344; stead up, to take a person’s place (in an arrangement), Meas. for M. iii. 1. 261.

stedy, an anvil. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 149, back, 30. This form for ‘stithy’ is in prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Stiddy). Icel. steði. See stithy.

steenkirk, a loose cravat of fine lace. Vanbrugh, The Relapse, i. 3 (Sempstress); Congreve, Love for Love, i. 2 (Scandal). Named with reference to the battle of Steenkerke (1692). See Stanford.

stele, the shaft of an arrow, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 123; the handle of a rake, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 24. 19; ‘Steale or handell of a staffe, manche’, Palsgrave. This word in many spellings is in common prov. use in Scotland and England for a shaft or handle, esp. a long straight handle, see EDD. (s.v. Steal, sb.²). ME. stele, or sterte of a vessel, ‘ansa’ (Prompt. EETS. 434). OE. stela, a stalk. See stale (3).

stelled, fixed; ‘A face where all distress is stell’d’, Lucrece, 1444; stelled fires, fixed stars, King Lear, iii. 7. 61. ‘To stell’ is in prov. use in Scotland in the sense of to place, set, fix, see EDD. (s.v. Stell, vb. 7). OE. stellan, to place.

stellionate, fraudulent dealing. Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 62. L. stellionatus, trickery; from stellio, a knave.

stem, to keep in, enclose. Spelt stemme, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 10. 12. Icel. stemma, to stop, dam up.

steming, shining, bright; ‘Two stemyng eyes’, Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. i. 53; ‘With skouling steaming eyes’, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, vi. 300 (L. stant lumina flamma). ME. steeme, or lowe of fyre, ‘flamma’ (Prompt. EETS. 434); stem: ‘A stem Als it were a sunnebem’ (Havelok, 591).

stench, ‘staunch’, firm; hence, continent. Lady Alimony, iii. 3 (Sea-song, st. 5). See EDD. (s.v. Staunch, adj. 10 and 11).

stene, steane, a stone jar or pitcher. Spelt stene, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Aristippus, § 17; steane, Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 42. ‘Stean’ is in prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. 3). ME. steene, a pitcher, earthenware vessel, Trevisa, tr. Higden, bk. i, c. 41; OE. stǣna, an earthenware jug (Sweet).

stent, to leave off, to cause to cease. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 4. 12; to cease, pt. t., Sackville, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 32. In common prov. use in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Stent, vb.¹ 2). ME. stenten, to cease, to cause to cease (Chaucer). See stint.

stept in age, advanced in years. Ascham, Scholemaster, p. 152. OE. stæppan, steppan, to proceed, advance (B. T.).

stern, the hinder part of an object; used of the tail of a dragon. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 18; i. 11. 28. The same word as stern, the hinder part of a ship. Hence sternage, steerage, Hen. V, iii, Prol. 18. Icel. stjōrn, a steering, hence, the steering-place.

sterve, to die. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 34; Fairfax, Tasso, ii. 17. ME. sterve, to die, esp. to die of famine (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1249; C. T. C. 451). OE. steorfan, to die; cp. G. sterben.

steven, voice, outcry. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 224; steuyn, Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 130, l. 144. In common prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Steven, sb.¹ 1 and 2). ME. stevene, voice (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2562). OE. stefn.

stick-free, sword-proof, invulnerable to a sword-thrust. Burton, Anat. Mel., Of Witches and Magicians (ed. Shilleto, 1. 233); Shirley, Young Admiral, iv. 1 (ed. 1637). See Mod. Lang. Notes, June, 1912. G. stichfrei, sword-proof.

stickle, to interpose between combatants, and separate them when they had sufficiently satisfied the laws of honour, to act as umpire between combatants; ‘I styckyll betwene wrastellers . . . to se that none do other wronge, or I parte folkes that be redy to fyght’, Palsgrave; ‘(The angel) stickles betwixt the remainders of God’s hosts and the race of fiends’, Dryden, Ded. Trans. Juvenal; to be stickled, to be settled by a ‘stickler’, Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymph. 6. Hence stickler, Tr. and Cr. v. 8. 18; Florio, Montaigne, ii. 27; Dryden, Oliver Cromwell, 41. ME. stihtlen, to order, arrange, as a steward or a master of the ceremonies (P. Plowman, C. xvi. 40). See Nares, Trench, Select Glossary (ed. 1890), and Dict.

sticklebag, a ‘stickleback’, a small fish. Beaumont and Fl., Wit at several Weapons, v. 1 (Pompey).

stigmatic, one branded with infamy, Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 26; one branded by nature with deformity, 2 Hen. VI, v. 1. 215; 3 Hen. VI, ii. 2. 136; also, stigmatical, Com. Errors, iv. 2. 22. Gk. στιγματικός, branded with a mark (στίγμα).

stike, a ‘stich’, a verse. Sackville, Induction, st. 21. Gk. στίχος, a row, a line.

stillatory, a still-room, for keeping distilled waters. Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, iv. 3 (near end). Late L. stillatorium, from stillare, to fall in drops.

Stilliard, the Steelyard; the place of business used by the German merchants in London. Westward Ho, ii. 1 (Justiniano); Stilyard merchants, merchants of the Steelyard, Stow’s Survey (ed. Thoms, p. 88). See Notes and Queries, 10 S. vi. 413, and Dict. (s.v. Steelyard, 1).

stint, to cause to cease. Timon, v. 4. 83; to cease, Pericles, iv. 4. 42; Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 29; Mother Hubberd, 1092. ME. stinte, to cease, to cause to cease (Chaucer). See M. and S. (s.v. Stynten). OE. styntan, to make dull, ‘hebetare’ (B. T.). See stent.

stint, some kind of bird. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 339. In prov. use for various kinds of birds, the dunlin, the sandpiper, and the linnet (EDD.).

stiponie. ‘Stipone, a kind of sweet compound liquor drunk in some ill places in London in the summer-time’, Blount, Glossographia, p. 612. ‘Do you not understand the mystery of stiponie, Jenny? Maid. I know how to make democuana, sir’, Etherege, Love in a Tub, v. 4 (Sir Frederick); also spelt stepony, see Dict. Rusticum, Urbanicum et Botanicum, ed. 3, 1726, where the receipt for brewing this sweet liquor is given; see Notes and Queries, 6 S. iv. 155.

stire, styre, to guide, direct. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 7; ii. 5. 2. OE. stȳran, to direct, steer. See Dict. (s.v. Steer).

stitch, a space between two double furrows in ploughed land; a ridge. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xviii. 495; Odyssey, viii. 171. In the latter passage, a stitch’s length may mean a furrow’s length or furlong. This word is in prov. use in various parts of England for a narrow ridge of land, as much land as lies between two furrows; a balk or portion of grass-land in an arable field; see EDD. (s.v. Stitch, sb.¹ 8 and 9).

stitch, a sudden cramp; hence, a contortion, a grimace. Beaumont and Fl., Captain, ii. 2 (Frederick).

stitchel, a troublesome fellow; a term of reproach. Lady Alimony, v. 3. 13 (Wife). A Linc. word for a troublesome child, see EDD. (s.v. Stetchel).

stithy, an anvil, Hamlet, iii. 2. 80 (some edd. have stith); to forge, ‘The forge that stithied Mars his helm’, Tr. and Cr. iv. 5. 255. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. stith, an anvil (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2026). Icel. steði. See stedy.

stoccata, a thrust, in fencing. Romeo, iii. i. 77; stoccado, Merry Wives, ii. 1. 234; stockado, Marston, Sat. i. 132. Ital. stoccata, a thrust, a stoccado given with a stócco (a tuck or short-arming sword); see Florio; Span. estocáda, a thrust with a weapon, a stab (Stevens).

stock, to hit with the point of a sword; ‘A chevalier would stock a needle’s point Three times together’, Fletcher, Love’s Cure, iii. 4 (Alvarez); a thrust in fencing, Marston, Malcontent, ii. 2 (Malevole); Antonio, Pt. II, i. 2 (Matzagente). F. estoc, ‘a rapier or tuck, also, a thrust; coup d’estoc, a thrust, stockado, stab’ (Cotgr.). See stuck.

stock, nether-stock or stocking. Greene, Description of Chaucer, 3 (ed. Dyce, p. 320). In prov. use in Yorks. and Norfolk (see EDD., s.v. Stock, 18).

stock-fish, dried haddock or cod; ‘Haddockes or hakes indurate and dryed with coulde, and beaten with clubbes or stockes, by reason whereof the Germayns caule them stockefyshe’, R. Eden, Works (ed. Arber, p. 303); Temp. iii. 2. 79; Meas. iii. 2. 116. The reason for the name is uncertain; Koolman gives the Low G. form as stok-fisk, and thinks they were so called because dried upon stocks or poles in the sun.

stoin, to be astonished or astounded; ‘I stoinid’, Phaer, Aeneid ii, 774; iii. 48 (L. obstupui). See astonied.

stomach, courage, Udall, Roister Doister, iv. 7. 8, 15; 2 Hen. IV, i. 1. 129; Hamlet, i. 1. 100; proud or arrogant spirit, Hen. VIII, iv. 2. 34; resentment, angry temper, King Lear, v. 3. 75; to resent, to be angry, Ant. and Cl. iii. 4. 12; Marlowe, Edw. II, i. 2. 26. In prov. use for courage, pride, anger, bad temper (EDD.). Cp. Span. and Port. estomago, courage, valour, resolution; L. stomachus, displeasure, irritation, stomachari, to be irritated, out of humour.

stond, a stop, impediment, hindrance. Bacon, Essays 40 and 50. ‘To stand’, to bring to a stop, in prov. use in Surrey and Sussex: ‘I’ve seen a wagon stood in the snow’; see EDD. (s.v. Stand, 7).

stone-bow, a cross-bow from which stones could be shot. Twelfth Night, ii. 5. 51; Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, iv. 2. 9.

stool-ball, a game formerly popular among young women. Middleton, Women beware, iii. 3 (Isabella); Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 2. 101; Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, vi. 139. The idea of the game was much like that of cricket. A stool was the wicket; the hand was used as a bat, to defend it from the ball. See Strutt’s Sports. The game is still played in many parts of England, and in almost every village in Sussex (EDD.).

stoop, a post, pillar. Tancred and Gismunda, iv. 2 (Tancred), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 66; ‘You glorious martyrs, you illustrious stoops’, Quarles, Emblems, v. 10; ‘Stoulpe before a doore, souche’, Palsgrave; stulpe, Stow, Survey, Bridge Ward Within (ed. Thoms, 79). The word is in gen. prov. use in Scotland and England in various forms: stoup, stowp, stolpe, stulp(e, see EDD. (s.v. Stoop, sb.¹). ME. stulp, or stake, ‘paxillus’ (Prompt. EETS. 444, see note, no. 2171). Icel. stōlpi, a post, pillar, cp. Stōlpa-sund, the Pillar Sound, the Sound of the Pillars of Hercules, the Straits of Gibraltar.

stoop, to swoop downwards as a bird of prey on its quarry; ‘The bird of Jove, stooped from his aery tour, Two birds . . . before him drove’, Milton, P. L. xi. 185; used fig., B. Jonson, Alchemist, v. 3 (Lovewit); used trans., to pounce upon, seize, ‘The hawk that stooped my pheasant’, Webster, Northward Ho, v. 1 (Mayberry); ‘Teach it (my spirit) to stoop whole kingdoms’, Fletcher, Hum. Lieutenant, i. 1 (Demetrius).

stoor, strong, robust, sturdy, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 129. In prov. use in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Stour). ME. stoore, or herd, or boystows, ‘austerus, rigidus’ (Prompt. EETS. 439). Icel. stōrr, rough, great. See stowre.

stooved, kept in a warm chamber; ‘Myrtles, if they be stooved’, Bacon, Essay 46. From stoove = stove.

storken, to stiffen, to congeal, coagulate; ‘Storken, congelari’, Levins, Manip. In common use in the north country (EDD.). Icel. storkna, to coagulate. See stark.

stork’s bill, a gesture of scorn; ‘This sanna, or stork’s bill’, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Amorphus). Cp. L. ciconia, (1) a stork; (2) a derisory bending of the fingers in form of a stork’s bill (Persius).

stound, stownd, time, occasion, moment. Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 38; Shep. Kal., Oct., 49. The ‘Glosse’ to Shep. Kal., May, 257, has ‘stounds, fittes’, i.e. attacks of illness. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. stounde, hour, time (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1212), OE. stund. See stowne.

stoup, a stoop, a low bow, a condescending movement. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 2 (Face); ‘Now observe the stoops, The bendings, and the falls’, id., Sejanus, i. 1 (Silius).

stour, stowre, a conflict, battle, contest; trouble, confusion, disturbance; danger, peril. The word is used in all these meanings by Spenser: F. Q. i. 2. 7; i. 3. 30; i. 4. 46; iii. 1. 34; iii. 2. 6; iii. 3. 50; Shep. Kal., Jan., 27. ME. stour, battle, contest (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 1270). Anglo-F. estour, combat, battle (Gower, Mirour, 1927), O. Prov. estor, estorn, ‘combat, mêlée’; estornir, estormir, ‘assaillir, attaquer’ (Levy); Ital. stormo, a conflict, combat (Fanfani); of Germ. origin, MHG. sturm, disturbance, combat (Schade).

stover, provisions, fodder for cattle; ‘Our low medowes . . . not so profitable for stover and forrage as the higher meads be’, Harrison, Desc. Brit. 110 (Halliwell); Tusser, Husbandry, November; Tempest, iv. 1. 63; Drayton, Pol. xxv, p. 1158 (Nares). In prov. use in many parts of England for winter fodder or litter for cattle, hence stubble (EDD.). Anglo-F. estover, maintenance, necessary sustenance; allowances of wood to be taken out of another man’s woods (Cowell’s Interpreter); OF. estovoir, to be necessary. Romanic type stopere, a verb formed from L. est opus, it is necessary, so W. Forster, see Gautier’s Ch. Roland, Glossary (s.v. Estoet). See Ducange (s.v. Estoverium).

stover up, to bristle up. Ford, Love’s Sacrifice, ii. 1. 2. ‘To stover’ is entered in EDD. as an obsolete west-country word for ‘to bristle up’, probably from ‘stover’, meaning stubble. See above.

stownd, to amaze, ‘astound’, to beat down, Heywood, Golden Age, A. iii (Enceladus), vol. iii, p. 48; to strike senseless, id., Iron Age, A. v (Ajax); p. 343; stound, pp., Spenser, F. Q. v. 11. 19.

stowne, an hour, a short time; ‘Whoso love Endureth but a stowne’, Turbervile, The Lover finding his Love flitted, st. 16. See stound.

stowre, strong, hardy; ‘Constancie knits the bones and makes us stowre’, G. Herbert, Temple, Church-porch, st. 20; ‘Stowre of conversacyon, estourdy’, Palsgrave; Skelton, Against the Scottes, 12; stower, hard, strong, ‘The stower nayles’, Latimer, 7 Sermon bef. King (ed. Arber, 185). In prov. use in E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Stour). See stoor.

strage, slaughter, heap of slain men. Heywood, Dialogue 2, l. 16; Dial. 3 (Hellen); vol. vi, pp. 111, 143; Webster, Appius, v. 3 (Appius). L. strages, slaughter.

strain, race, descent, breed; ‘The noblest of thy strain’, Jul. Caes. v. 1. 59; Hen. V, ii. 4. 51. A dialect form of strene, q.v.

strain: phr. to strain courtesy, to stand upon ceremony, to refuse to go first, Venus and Ad. 888.

strain, to distrain, Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1104. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Strain, vb.³).

strain, to restrain, repress; ‘These stormy windes to straine, or make to blow’, Phaer, Aeneid i, 80.

strake, a particular note blown by a hunter; apparently after the game is killed; ‘To the flyghte, to the dethe, and to strake, and many other blastes and termes’, Morte Arthur, leaf 250, back, 11; bk. x, c. 52; ‘Then [after the death of the game] should the most master blow a mote and stroke’, The Master of Game, ch. 35. Cp. ME. strake, to sound a note, to sound a blast on a trumpet (Wars Alex. 1386).

strake, the hoop of a cart-wheel or chariot-wheel. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xx. 247; Bible, Ezek. i. 18 (margin). In prov. use for a section or strip of the iron tire or rim of a cart-wheel, see EDD. (s.v. Strake, sb.¹ 2).

stramazoun, a downright blow. B. Jonson, Every Man out of Humour, iv. 4 (Fast. Brisk); stramison, Nabbes, Microcosmus, ii. 1 (Choler). Ital. stramazzone, ‘a downright blow’; deriv. of stramazzare, ‘to kill throughly’ (Florio); cp. F. estramaçon, a stroke given with the edge of the sword (Hatzfeld).

strange, belonging to another country, foreign; ‘Joseph . . . made himselfe strange unto them’, Bible, Gen. xlii. 7 (i.e. acted as a stranger towards them); ‘Strange children’, foreigners, Psalm xviii. 45, 46 (P.B.V.); ‘A strange tongue’, Cymbeline, i. 6. 54; to make it strange, to seem to be surprised or shocked, Two Gent. i. 2. 102; Titus And. ii. 1. 81; B. Jonson, Alchemist, i. 1 (Subtle). OF. estrange, foreign; L. extraneus.

strangeness, shyness, like that of a stranger. Middleton, The Witch, iii. 2 (Isabella).

strappado, a kind of torture. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 262. The torture consisted in drawing a person up by his arms (fastened together behind his back), and then letting him drop suddenly with a jerk, which inflicted severe pain. The word has been turned into a Spanish-looking form, but it appears to be rather of Italian origin. Ital. strappata, a pulling-up (Florio). Cp. F. strapade (16th cent., Godefroy); estrapade (Dict. de l’Acad., 1762). See Stanford.

strapple, to fasten, bind, Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, iii (Bussy); to impede; id., tr. of Iliad xvi, 438. In W. Yorks. ‘to strapple’ means to bind, make fast with a cord, &c. (EDD.). Cp. ME. strapeles, fastenings of breeches; strapils, Cath. Angl.; see Dict. M. and S.

streak, to stretch. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. viii. 36, 57. In prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Streak, vb.¹ 1). ME. streken (Hampole, Ps. lxxix. 12); strekis, stretches (Wars Alex. 1953).

strene, generation, breed, race, lineage; ‘Dame Nature’s strene’, The Four Elements, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 55; Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 32; vi. 6. 9. ME. streen, race, progeny (Chaucer, C. T. E. 157); OE. (Anglian) strēnan (WS. strīenan), to beget, generate. See strain (race).

strength, a fortress, a strong defence, Massinger, Renegado, iv. 2 (Donusa); v. 6. (end); ‘Sin (or Pelusium) the strength of Egypt’, Bible, Ezek. xxx. 15.

streperous, noisy. Heywood, Dialogue I, The Shipwrack (Adolphus); vol. vi, p. 101; Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, ii. 6. 6. Cp. L. obstreperus, noisy, clamorous (Apuleius, Florida, 126); deriv. of strepere, to make a noise.

strike: phr. strike me luck, used in striking a bargain, and giving earnest upon it; said by the recipient of the money. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 3 (Young Loveless); Butler, Hud. ii. 1. 540.

strike, to steal (Cant). Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); to pick a purse, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (1 Cutpurse). See Halliwell.

striker, a libertine (Cant). Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iv. 2 (1 Court.); Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iv. 1 (end).

stringer, a wencher (Cant). Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, i. 1 (Wife).

strip, to outstrip. Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 1. 4; to go very rapidly, ‘The swiftest hound, when he is hallowed, strippes forth’, Gosson, School of Abuse (Halliwell).

†strives (?). ‘They [ants] startle forth in troupes of striues’, Twyne, tr. of Aeneid, bk. xiii. [1583]; fol. U 5, back.

stroke, to flatter, soothe, B. Jonson, Masque of the Barriers (Opinion); stroker, a flatterer, id., Magnetic Lady, iv. 1 (Keep). OE. strācian, to stroke, caress, cp. OHG. streichōn, ‘demulcere’.

strong, pp. strung, furnished with strings; ‘Playing on yvorie harp with silver strong’, Spenser, Virgil’s Gnat, 16.

stroot, strout, to swell out, Drayton, Pol. xiii. 402; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, i. 464; to be filled full, id., xxi, line 4 from end. ME. strowtyn, ‘turgeo’ (Prompt. EETS. 468). Cp. G. strotzen, to swell. See strut.

strossers, tight drawers. Hen. V, iii. 7. 57; ‘The Italian close strosser’, Dekker, Gul’s Hornbook (Nares). See Dyce’s Glossary to Shaks. See Dict. (s.v. Trousers).

stroy, to destroy. Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. i. 15. ME. stroyen, to destroy (P. Plowman, B. xv. 387).

strummel, straw (Cant); ‘The doxy’s in the strummel’, Broome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Randal); strommel, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor). Hence strummel-patched, ‘Strummel-patch’d, goggle-eyed grumbledories’, B. Jonson, Every Man out of Humour, v. 4 (Carlo). Perhaps the same word as strummel, E. Anglian for an untidy rough head of hair (EDD.).

stuck, in Hamlet, iv. 7. 161, ‘Your venom’d stuck’, usually explained as = stoccado, a thrust with a rapier, but it may mean the rapier itself. Cp. Cotgrave: ‘Estoc, a rapier or tuck, also a thrust.’ See stock.

studde, stock or stem of a tree. Spenser, Shep. Kal., March, 13. ‘Stud’ is in prov. use for an upright post, an upright piece of wood to which laths are nailed, hence ‘stud and mud’ buildings (Nottingham), the same as ‘wattle and dab’. ME. stode, or stake, ‘palus’ (Voc. 600. 4), OE. studu, a post (Ælfred, Beda, iii. 10); cp. Icel. stoð, a post. See Dict. (s.v. Stud).

stum, unfermented wine, must. B. Jonson, Leges Conviviales, st. 5; Butler, Hud. ii. 1. 569; Dryden, The Medal, 270. Hence stummed wine, wine made from unfermented or partly fermented grape-juice, new strong wine, Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, v. 3 (L. Dunce); Prior, Scaligeriana, 2. Stum, to make lively as with new wine, Etherege, Man of Mode, iii. 2 (Dorimant). Du. stom, stum, ‘the flower of fermenting wine’; gestomde wyn, ‘stummed, sophisticated wine’ (Sewel).

stupe, a piece of tow or flannel dipped in warm liquor, and applied to a wound. Beaumont and Fl., Lover’s Progress, i. 2 (Dorilaus). L. stuppa, tow.

stutte, to stutter. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 3 (Tibullus); ‘I stutte, Je besgue’, Palsgrave. A north-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Stutt). ME. stotyn, ‘balbucio’ (Prompt. EETS. 468); stutte, ‘balbutire’ (Cath. Angl.).

sty, stie, to ascend, mount up, rise. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 25; ii. 7. 46; iv. 9. 33; Muiopotmos, 42. ME. stien, to ascend (Wyclif, John xx. 17). OE. stīgan.

styfemoder, stepmother. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 41. 21. Du. stiefmoeder (Hexham).

subact, to subdue. Mirror for Mag., Claudius T. Nero, st. 8. L. subactus, pp. of subigere, to subdue, reduce.

subeth. ‘You are subject to subeth, unkindly sleeps’, Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, ii. 4 (Sweetball). F. subet, ‘a lethargy’ (Cotgr.). Med. L. subitus = L. sopitus, deriv. of sopire, to deprive of consciousness, to lull to sleep; see Ducange.

sublime, to cause to pass off in a state of vapour. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Mammon).

submit, to let down, lower, allow to subside. Dryden, To Lord Chancellor Clarendon, 139; submitted, lowered, Astrae Redux, 249.

success, issue, result (good or bad); ‘What is the success?’, Ant. and Cl. iii. 5. 6; ‘Such vile success’, Othello, iii. 3. 222; descent from parents, succession, ‘Our parents’ noble names, In whose success we are gentle’, Winter’s Tale, i. 2. 394.

succussation, trotting. Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. iv, c. 6, § 1; Butler, Hud. i. 2. 48. L. succussare, to jolt.

sucket, a dried sweetmeat, sugar-plum. Beaumont and Fl., Sea Voyage, v. 2. 31; Tourneur, Atheist’s Tragedy, ii. 5 (Levidulcia); Levins, Manipulus. In prov. use in Leic., Shropsh., and Devon (EDD.). OF. succade, also sucrade, ‘chose sucrée, dragée, sucrerie’ (Godefroy); O. Prov. sucrada, ‘sucrée’.

sufferance, pain; Meas. for M. ii. 4. 167; loss, Othello, ii. 1. 23. F. souffrance, ‘sufferance, forbearance, also, need, poverty, penury’ (Cotgr.).

suffragate, to support by a vote, to be subsidiary to, to aid. Dryden, Prol. to the Univ. of Oxford, 31. L. suffragare, to vote for.

sugerchest, the name of a kind of wood; ‘To flesh and blood this Tree but wormewood seemes, How ere the name may be of Sugerchest’, Davies, Holy Roode, Dedication (Davies, Suppl. Eng. Gloss.); Ascham, Toxophilus, pp. 123, 125.

suggill, to beat black and blue; to cudgel. Butler, Hud. i. 3. 1039. L. sugillare.

suitor, pronounced so as to resemble shooter; ‘A Lady . . . hadde three sutors, and yet never a good archer’, Lyly, Euphues, p. 293.

sulk, to furrow, plough, cleave. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 118; ii. 218. L. sulcus, a furrow.

sultanin, an Arabic coin; ‘A thousand golden sultanins’, Dryden, Don Sebastian, i. 1 (Mustapha). Arab, sulṭânîy, belonging to a sovereign; a sultanine (a gold coin about nine shillings), Richardson. Arab, sulṭân, a sultan.

summed, a term in falconry, having all the feathers complete; ‘The muse from Cambria comes with pinions summ’d and sound’, Drayton, Pol. xi, p. 859 (Nares); ‘My prompted song . . . with prosperous wing full summ’d’, Milton, P. R. i. 14; ‘(The birds) feathered soon and fledge . . . summed their pens’, id., P. L. vii. 421; used fig. of clothes, ‘Till you be summ’d again—velvets and scarlets’, Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iii. 4 (Lance).

sumpter, a driver of a pack-horse, King Lear, ii. 4. 219; Sir Thos. More, iii. 2. 43. ME. sumpter (King Alisaunder, 6023), OF. sommetier, a pack-horse driver (Roquefort), O. Prov. saumatier, ‘conducteur de bêtes de somme’ (Levy), Med. L. saumaterius (Ducange, s.v. Sagma), deriv. of saumarius, sagmarius, a pack-horse. See somer.

supply, to supplicate, beseech. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 49. F. supplier, L. supplicare.

suppose, a supposition, conjecture. Tam. Shrew, v. 1. 120; Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 11.

surbate, to tire out the feet with walking. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 4. 34; Turbervile, Hunting, c. 6 (end), p. 15; A Cure for a Cuckold, ii. 4 (Woodroff); surbet, pp., ‘A traveiler with feet surbet’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 22. Hence surbater, one who wearies another out, B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iv. 3 (Metaphor). Cp. Cotgrave, ‘Surbature, a surbating’; also, ‘Soubatture, a surbating, or surbate’.

surcease, prop. a law-term, a delay allowed or ordered by authority; arrest, stop, cessation. Macbeth, i. 7. 8; to delay, to desist, Prayer Book, Ordin. Deacons; Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 13; Coriolanus, iii. 2. 121; Lucrece, 1766; Chapman, tr. Iliad, vii. 45. OF. sursis, delay, stop (Littré), Anglo-F. sursise (Laws of William); sursis, pp. of Norm. F. surseër (F. surseoir), to pause, intermit (Moisy), Mod. L. supersedere, to delay (Ducange). In Law L. a writ of supersedeas is issued to stay proceedings, L. supersedere, to desist from. Surcease owes its form to association with cease (F. cesser). Tho original pronunciation of the i in sursis is preserved as in caprice, police, machine, marine.

surcingle, a girth, a girdle. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4 (Captain). OF. sourcengle (Godefroy). L. super, above; cingulum, a belt, girdle, from cingere, to gird.

sure, indissolubly joined, firmly united. Merry Wives, v. 5. 249; L. L. L. v. 2. 286; affianced, betrothed, ‘A woman he was sure unto’, Records of Oxford, A.D. 1530, p. 75.

surfle, surfell, surphle, to wash with sulphur-water or other cosmetic. Marston, Malcontent, ii. 3 (Maquerelle); Ford, Love’s Sacrifice, ii. 1 (Mauruccio). OF. soufrer, to impregnate with sulphur or with sulphur-vapour (Godefroy, Supp.).

surquedry, presumption, pride, arrogance. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 31; Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, iii. 1 (Rosalaura); Drayton, Owl, p. 1301 (Nares); surcuidrie, Chapman, tr. Iliad, xvii. 20. ME. surquidrie, presumption (Chaucer, C. T. I. 403), arrogance (id., Tr. and Cr. i. 213). Anglo-F. surquiderie (Gower, Mirour, 1443), OF. surcuiderie, arrogance; cp. cuider, quider (Ch. Rol.), L. cogitare, to think.

surreined, overridden, that has felt the ‘rein’ too much. Hen. V, iii. 5. 19. See sooreyn.

surround, to overflow; ‘Surround, or overflow, oultre couler’, Sherwood, so also Cotgrave; ‘By thencrease of waters dyvers londes . . . ben surrounded and destroyed’, Statutes, 4 Hen. VII, c. 7 (A.D. 1489). OF. soronder, to overflow, see Burguy and Roquefort, Norm. F. surunder, soronder (Moisy); Med. L. superundare ‘abonder’ (Ducange). See Notes on Eng. Etym.

sursurrara, a writ of certiorari. Middleton, Phoenix, i. 4 (Tangle). See Stanford (s.v. Certiorari), Nares (s.v. Sasarara), and EDD. (s.v. Siserary).

suscitate, to stir up, Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 26, § 4; suscitability, aptness to move, B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Face). L. suscitare, to arouse.

suspect, suspicion. Comedy of Errors, iii. 1. 87; Rich. III, i. 3. 89; B. Jonson, Case is Altered, i. 4. Very common in authors of this period. Med. L. suspectus, ‘suspicio’ (Ducange); cp. O. Prov. sospet, ‘soupçon’ (Levy).

suspire, to draw a breath; used of a new-born child, King John, iii. 4. 80; used of a dying man, 2 Hen. IV, iv. 5. 32; a deep breath, a sigh, Massinger, Old Law, v. 1 (Cleanthes); Heywood, Brazen Age (Hercules), in Wks., iii. 249. L. suspirare, to draw a deep breath.

swad, a clown, a rustic. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (Hilts); Lyly, Midas, iv. 3 (Petulus). A north-country word for a stupid fellow, see EDD. (s.v. Swad, sb.³). Prob. identical with swad, a sod, a clod, see EDD. (s.v. Sward, sb.² 1).

swaddle, to beat, cudgel. Fletcher, Captain, ii. 2 (Frederick); Butler, Hud. i. 1. 24; Cotgrave (s.v. Chaperon); ‘To swaddle or cudgel, bastonner’, Sherwood. To swaddle a person’s sides, ‘to beat him soundly’, is a Kentish phrase, Kennett, Par. Antiq. (ann. 1695). See EDD. (s.v. Swaddle, vb.¹ 2). See Halliwell, and Nares.

swag, to sway aside; ‘To swag on one side, pencher tout d’un costé’, Sherwood; Middleton, A Mad World, iii. 1 (Harebrain). See EDD.

swage, to ‘assuage’. Milton, Samson, 184; P. L. i. 556; Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 120. In common prov. use in this sense (EDD.). ME. swagyn, ‘mitigo’ (Prompt.).

swale, a cool shade; ‘Trees which gave a pleasant swale’, Golding, Metam. v. 336 (L. umbra); fol. 60, back (1603). An E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Swale, sb.¹). ME. swale, ‘umbra, umbraculum’ (Prompt. EETS. 444). Icel. sval, a cool breeze; Norw. dial. svala (Aasen).

sward, the hard outer rind of bacon; ‘(He) liveth harde with baken swarde’, Kendall, Flowers of Epigrammes (Nares); ‘The sward of bacon, la peau de lard ou d’un jambon,’ Sherwood. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. sward of flesh, ‘coriana’ (Prompt. EETS. 445). OE. sweard, rind of bacon, cp. G. schwarte, skin, rind.

swarth, a track, pathway; ‘There is a hardway, and at Binsey the said way is called in one or two places the king’s swarth . . . the king’s way’, Hearne, Reliquiae, Feb. 10 and 11, 1728; ‘The king’s swarth (formerly called also Port street), beyond New Parks by Oxford, went over by a bridge the river Charwell’, id., April 23, 1720. OE. swaðu, a track. See swath.

swarth, in Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 162, ‘By great swarths’, apparently ‘in great quantities’. In Cheshire they speak of a heavy hay-crop being ‘a good swarth’, see EDD. (s.v. Swarth, sb.¹). Probably the same word as swath, q.v.

swarth, black, dark, swarthy. Titus And. ii. 3. 72; Two Noble Kinsmen, iv. 2. 27; Chapman, tr. Odyssey, xix. 343. A Kentish form (EDD.).

swarty, dark, ‘swarthy’. Fletcher, Bonduca, iii. 1 (Caratach); Titus And. ii. 3. 72 (in the quarto editions). See Dict. (s.v. Swart).

swash, to strike violently. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 53, 125. In prov. use (EDD.).

swash, a swaggering bully. Three Ladies of London (Fraud), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 254; Britannia Triumphans, 1637 (Nares). Also swasher, Hen. V, iii. 2. 30; swashing, blustering, As You Like It, i. 3. 122; tremendous, crushing, Romeo, i. 1. 70. In prov. use ‘to swash’ means to swagger, to walk with a boastful air; ‘a swasher’ is a swaggerer, see EDD. (s.v. Swash, 5).

swash-buckler, one who ‘swashes’ or beats his buckler, Beaumont and Fl., Bloody Brother, v. 2 (Latorch); Faithful Friends, i. 2. 7; ‘Mangia-ferro, Mangia-cadenacci, a devourer of iron-bolts, a swash-buckler, a bragging toss-blade, a swaggerer’, Florio; ‘Bravache, swaggerer, swash-buckler’, Cotgrave. See Halliwell.

swash-ruter, a swaggaring soldier, a swaggerer. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 544. See rutter.

swath, a row of grass mown; ‘The Greeks fall down before him like the mower’s swath’, Tr. and Cr. v. 5. 25; ‘Grass lately in swaths is meat for an ox’, Tusser, Husbandry. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. swath of mowing, ‘falcidium’ (Prompt. EETS. 445); swathe, ‘orbita falcatoris’ (Cath. Angl.). OE. swæð, a track, the track of a plough, ‘somita’ (B. T.). See swarth (a track).

swathling-clothes, swaddling-clothes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 112 (Q. edd.). ME. swathlen, to swaddle; swaþeling-bonde, a swaddling-band (Cursor Mundi, 1343). See Dict. (s.v. Swaddle).

†swatley. ‘Ay mun cut off the lugs and naes [ears and nose] on ’em [of him]; he’ll be a pretty swatley fellow, bawt [without] lugs and naes’, Otway, Cheats of Scapin, iii (Scapin, in a Lancs. dialect). Meaning unexplained.

sweam, faintness, attack of dizziness; ‘The slothfull sweames of sluggardye’, Mirror for Mag., Iago, Lenvoy, st. 1; ‘Sweam or swaim, subita aegrotatio’, Gouldman. ‘Sweem’ is a Somerset word for a state of giddiness or faintness, see EDD. (s.v. Swim, sb.²). Cognate with OE. swīma, dizziness, giddiness (B. T.). See sweme.

sweet-breasted, sweet-voiced, having a sweet voice. Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, iii. 1 (Alguazier).

swelt, to faint, swoon; ‘In weary woes to swelt’, Gascoigne (Nares); swelt, pt. t., Spenser, F. Q. iv. 7. 9; vi. 12. 21. Still in use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Swelt, vb.¹ 2). ME. swelten, to faint, languish (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1356); to die (id., Tr. and Cr. iii. 347). OE. sweltan, to die.

swelter, to exude; ‘Toad . . . that has . . . swelter’d venom’, Macbeth, iv. 1. 8. In prov. use in the sense of a profuse perspiration, see EDD. (s.v. Swelter, 7).

swelth, a whirlpool; ‘A deadly gulfe . . . With foule black swelth’, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 31; ‘Rude Acheron . . . with swelth as black as hell’, id., 69, see Nares. ME. swelth of a water, ‘vorago’ (Prompt. EETS. 445, see note, no. 2179).

sweme, grief; ‘His hert began to melt For veray sweme of this swemeful tale’, Lydgate (Halliwell). ME. sweem, grief (Prompt., Harl. MS.); swem (Gen. and Ex. 1961). Cp. OE. ā-swǣman, to be grieved, ‘tabescere’ (Ps. cxviii. 158 (Lambeth)). See sweam.

sweven, a dream. Morte Arthur, leaf 27. 1; bk. i, c. 13; Ordinary, Old Play, x. 236 (Nares). ME. sweven (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 28). OE. swefn.

swill-bowl, a heavy drinker; spelt swiel bolle. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Cicero, § 65.

swinge, to beat, thrash, lash, Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iv. 5 (Valentine); Two Gent. ii. 1. 91; King John, ii. 1. 288; 2 Hen. IV, v. 4. 21; to lash, as with a long tail, Milton, Nativ. 172; sway, tyranny, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 26. In prov. use in Scotland and England in the sense of to beat, thrash (EDD.). ME. swyngyn, also, swengyn, to shake (Prompt.). OE. swengan.

swinge, to singe. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 26. In common prov. use in Ireland, and in various parts of England (EDD.).

swink, to toil, labour. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 8, 36, 58 swinkt, pp., wearied with toil, ‘The swinkt hedger’, Milton, Comus, 293; labour, toil, ‘How great sport they gaynen with little swincke’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 36; Sidney, Arcadia, p. 398 (Nares). ‘To swink’, to toil, work hard, is in use in Galloway, ‘Lord, but he swankit it that day!’ (EDD.). ME. swinken, to toil, swink, toil (Chaucer). OE. swincan.

swithe, quickly. Gammer Gurton’s Needle, ii. 47 (Nares); swithe and tite, quickly and at once, id., i. 4. 13. In common use in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Swith). ME. swythe, quickly, immediately (Chaucer, C. T. C. 796, and B. 637). OE. swīðe, strongly. See tit.

Switzer, one of a Swiss mercenary guard. Webster, White Devil (Brachiano), ed. Dyce, p. 12; Hamlet, iv. 5. 97; Switzers, inhabitants of Switzerland, Bacon, Essay 14.

swoop, a sweeping movement, rush. Macbeth, iv. 3. 219; Webster, White Devil (beginning); ed. Dyce, p. 5. Swoopstake (old edd. soopstake), drawing the whole stake at once, indiscriminately, Hamlet, iv. 5. 141.

swough, a heavy murmuring sound. Morte Arthur, leaf 83. 20; bk. v, c. 4. Cp. the prov. words, ‘swow’ and ‘sough’ in EDD. ME. swowyn, to make a murmuring sound (Prompt.). OE. swōgan, to make a noise like the wind.

swound, to ‘swoon’. Fletcher, Night-Walker, i. 4. 8; Middleton, Mayor of Queenb. v. 1 (Oliver); a swoon, Dryden, Palamon, i. 537; iii. 982. In gen. prov. use in England and Scotland (EDD.). See sowne (2).

syke, such. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maud.). A north-country form, see EDD. (s.v. Such). ME. sike (Wars Alex. 126) OE. swilc (swylc). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Swyche).

synteresis, a word said to have been invented by John Damascene, and used by Aquinas and the schoolmen in the sense of ‘observation’ of the laws of right and wrong as exercised by the conscience, self-reproach. Nabbes, Microcosmus, v (Conscience); Manchester Al Mondo (ed. 1902, 39). Gk. συντήρησις, observation, fr. συντηρέω, to observe strictly (a N. T. word, cp. Mark vi. 20). See C. Bigg’s Introd. to Imitatio Christi, p. 2 on the L. sinderesis, iv. 11 (Magd. MS.). The word sindérèse is used by French theological writers, Bossuet for example.

sypers, a thin textile material, J. Heywood, The Four P’s (Anc. Brit. Drama, p. 10). See cypress.

syse, an allowance or settled ration; to keepe the syse, to exercise moderation, Mirror for Mag., Tresilian, st. 10. See Dict. (s.v. Size, 1).

T for to, freq. profixed to verbs; as in tabandon, to abandon, tescape, to escape; so in Chaucer, tabyde, tacoye, tamende, &c.

tabid, liable to waste away. Sir T. Browne, Letter to a Friend, § 19; tabidly inclined, id., § 4. L. tabidus, wasting away.

tabine, ‘tabby’, a stuff orig. striped, later waved or watered. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, ii. 2. 6. Ital. tabino, ‘tabine’ (Florio). See NED. (s.v. Tabby).

table, the tablet or panel on which a picture is painted; ‘I beheld myself drawn in the flattering table of her eye’, King John, ii. 504; ‘To sit and draw his arched brows . . . in our heart’s table’, All’s Well, i. 1. 106; a picture, ‘The figure of a hangman In a table of the Passion’, Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, iv. 2. 5; Sir T. Elyot, Governour (ed. Croft, ii. 422). L. tabula, a painted tablet or panel of a picture.

table, a writing-tablet. Bible, Hab. ii. 2; Luke i. 63; 2 Cor. iii. 3; tables, a set of tablets, a note-book, Hamlet, i. 5. 107; also, table-book, id., ii. 2. 136; hence, tabled, noted, set down, Cymbeline, i. 4. 6. ME. table: ‘a peyre of tables all of yvory’ (Chaucer, C. T. D. 1741). L. tabula, a writing-tablet.

tables, the ordinary name for backgammon, L. L. L. v. 2. 326. See Nares. ME. tables (Chaucer, C. T. F. 900), Anglo-F. juer as tables (Ch. Rol. l. 111).

tabourine, a small drum. Tr. and Cr. iv. 5. 275. F. tabourin (Dict. de l’Acad., 1694), see Hatzfeld (s.v. Tambourin).

tabride, a ‘tabard’; a surcoat worn over armour and emblazoned with armorial bearings. Warner, Alb. England, bk. v, ch. 27. See Dict.

tache, a fault or vice. Warner, Alb. England, xiii. 77. 318 (NED.); to find fault with, id., bk. x, ch. 58. ME. tache (tacche), a stain, blemish, fault (P. Plowman, B. ix. 146). Anglo-F. tache, a stain, blemish (Gower, Mirour, 1231).

tack, that which fastens. Phr. to hold tack with, to hold one’s ground with; to be even with; ‘A thousande pounde with Lyberte may holde no tacke’, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2084; to be a match for, to hold at bay, Drayton, Pol. xi. 48; to hold tack, to hold out, to endure, Butler, Hud. i. 3. 277.

tack, a smack, taste or flavour which lasts, holds out. Drayton, Pol. xix. 130; ‘Le poisson pique, begins to have a tacke or ill taste’, Cotgrave. The same word as above.

tackle, a mistress, a trull (Cant). Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, iv. 1 (Belfond Senior).

tag, a rabble, mob. Coriolanus, iii. 1. 248; tag-rag people, the mob, Julius C. i. 2. 260; ‘Tagge and ragge, cutte and longe tayle’ (i.e. a mixed mob), Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 45.

taillee, to ‘tally’, to keep account, at the game of basset. Farquhar, Sir H. Wildair, i. 1 (Parly); ‘You used to taillee with success’, id., ii. 2 (Lurewell).

taint, a successful hit. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iii. 374; vii. 222. ME. taynte, a ‘hit’ in tilting (NED., s.v. Taint, sb. 1). Short for attaint, F. ‘attainte, a reach, hit, home touch’ (Cotgr.), OF. atainte (ateinte), deriv. of ataindre, to attain unto, to touch.

taint, to ‘hit’ in tilting. B. Jonson, Every Man out of Hum. ii. 1 (Carlo); Massinger, Parl. of Love, iv. 3 (near end); Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, i. 3; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, viii. 259.

tainture, an imputation of dishonour. Fletcher, Thierry, i. 1. 1; Sandys, tr. of Ovid’s Metam. i. 20. See NED. (s.v. Attainture).

take me with you, let me understand you clearly, i.e. do not go faster than I can follow you; be explicit; 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 506. Take us with you, understand us clearly, A Cure for a Cuckold (near the end).

take order, to take measures, to make arrangements. North, tr. of Plutarch, Julius Caes., § 9 (in Shak. Plut., p. 52); Octavius, § 8 (p. 246); Bacon, Essay 36; Bible, 2 Macc. iv. 27.

take up, to check oneself, stop short. Pepys, Diary, Nov. 13, 1661; Massinger, Picture, v. 3 (Mathias); to settle, arrange amicably a quarrel, As You Like It, v. 4. 104; to take up one’s quarters, B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 2; Pepys, Diary, Oct. 14, 1662.

taking, a disturbed state of mind, state of agitation. Merry Wives, iii. 3. 191; also, malignant influence, King Lear, iii. 4. 61. Very common in prov. use in the sense of a state of agitation. See EDD. (s.v. Taking, 2).

taking, infectious. King Lear, ii. 4. 166; Fletcher, The False One, iv. 3 (Septimius). Still in use in Cumberland in this sense, ‘It’s a varra takkan disease’, see EDD. (s.v. Taking, 1 (2)).

tale, a specified number, that which is counted. Bible, Exod. v. 8. 18; 1 Sam. xviii. 27; 1 Chron. ix. 28; ‘Every shepherd tells his tale’ (i.e. counts his sheep), Milton, L’Allegro, 67 (but meaning in this passage disputed).

talent, the talon of a bird of prey. For talon. L. L. L. iv. 2. 65; Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 1. 44; ‘Talant of an hauk’, Levins, Manip. Hence talenter, a bird of prey with talons, as a hawk, Middleton and Rowley, World Tost at Tennis (Denmark House).

tall, valiant, brave. Ant. and Cl. ii. 6. 7; often used ironically, as in Merry Wives, ii. 2. 11; &c.

tallage, a tax, impost, levy, rate, toll; ‘Tallages and taxations’, North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antonius, § 12 (in Shak. Plut., p. 171). Anglo-F. tallage, ‘taille, taxe’ (Moisy). See Dict. (s.v. Tally).

†tallow-catch, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 256 (so Quartos and Folios). The form and meaning doubtful. Supposed by some to = tallow-ketch, i.e. a tub filled with tallow; by others = tallow keech, a round lump of fat. See keech.

talwood, wood cut into billets for burning; firewood. Skelton, Why Come ye nat to Courte, 79; Tasser, Husbandry, § 53. 12. A Sussex word (EDD.). A rendering of OF. bois de tail, ‘bois en coupe’ (Godefroy).

tamin, a kind of thin woollen stuff; ‘In an old tamin gown’, Massinger, New Way to Pay, iii. 2 (Overreach). F. étamine, stamin; ‘estamine, the stuff Tamine’ (Cotgr.).

tancrete, transcribed, copied. Skelton, Why Come ye nat to Courte, 417. OF. tanscrit, for transcrit, transcribed (Godefroy, s.v. transcrit), L. transcriptum.

tannikin, tannakin, tanakin, a dimin. pet-form of the name Anna, used especially for a German or Dutch girl. Marston, Dutch Courtezan, i. 1 (Freevil); Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, iii. 1 (Eyre).

tanti, so much for (you); an exclamation of depreciation and contempt. Marlowe, Edw. II, i. 1. 22; Fuimus Troes, iii. 7 (Eulinus). L. tanti, of so much value.

Tantony, for St. Anthony; often with reference to the attributes with which the saint was accompanied; as a crutch, a pouch, or a pig; ‘His tantonie pouch’, Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 1 (Riscio); ‘Like a tantony pig’, Bickerstaff, Love in a Village, i. 5. 3. See EDD. (s.v. Saint Anthony).

tapet, a cloth on which tapestry is worked. Spenser, Muiopotmos, 276; tapets, pl. tapestries; met. foliage of trees, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 1. OE. tæppet, Late L. tapetum.

tappish, to lurk, lie, hid. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xxii. 158; tappis, Lady Alimony, ii. 6 (Tillyvally); tappes’d, hidden, Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, v. 1 (Cheatly). F. tapir, to hide; se tapir, to crouch, lie close, lurk (Cotgr.); pres. part, tapissant. See untappice.

taratantara, the blast of a trumpet; ‘Christ . . . in the clowdes of heaven with his Taratantara sounding’, Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 24); ‘The noise of tarantara’s clang’, Grimald, Death of Zoroas, 2. Onomatopoetic, cp. L. taratantara (Ennius).

targe, shield. Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 57; Milton, P. L. ix. 1111. Anglo-F. targe, a buckler (Ch. Rol. 3569).

target, a light round buckler. Hall, Chron. Henry VIII, 2; North, tr. of Plutarch, Julius Caesar, § 11 (in Shak. Plut., 54). See Dict.

tarmagon, a termagant, a virago, vixen. Lady Alimony, i. 4. 1. See Dict. (s.v. Termagant).

tarpawlin, a sailor, jack-tar. Otway, Cheats of Scapin, ii. 1 (Scapin). The same as tarpaulin, a tarred canvas covering. See Trench, Select Glossary.

tarras, tarrass, a terrace. Bacon, Essay 45, § 5; Chapman, May-day, Act v (Lodovico). Hence, tarrest, terraced, provided with terraces; Heywood, London’s Jus Honorarium; Works, iv. 276.

tarre on, to set on a dog, to incite him to bite, King John, iv. 1. 117; Hamlet, ii. 2. 370; ‘To tarr on’, meaning to excite to anger, is in common use in Cheshire (EDD.). ME. terre, to provoke: ‘Nyle ye terre youre sones to wraththe’ (Wyclif, Eph. vi. 4). OE. tergan, to vex, see B. T. (s.v. Tirgan).

Tartarian, a Tartar; a cant word for a thief. Merry Devil, i. 1. 13; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, ii. 5 (end).

task, to tax. 1 Hen. IV, iv. 3. 92. Norm. F. tasque, taxe, règlement imposé par l’autorité pour le prix de certaines marchandises (Moisy), Med. L. tasca (Ducange), L. taxare, to rate, estimate the value of a thing.

†tassaker, a cup or goblet; ‘This Dutch tassaker’, Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, iii. 3 (Valerius). Not found elsewhere.

tassel, the male of any kind of hawk; ‘Tiercelet, the Tassel, so termed because he is commonly a third part less than the female’, Cotgrave; tassel-gentle, the male of the falcon, Romeo, ii. 2. 160; tassel gent, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 4. 49; tiercel gentle, Massinger, Guardian, i. 1 (Durazzo). See tercel.

taste, to put to the proof, try, prove to be, Twelfth Nt. iii. 4. 267; to try the use of, to use (in affected speech), Twelfth Nt. iii. 1. 87; to experience, to feel, Tempest, v. 1. 123.

tat, tatt, a false die; tatts, pl. false dice (Cant). Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Hackum). Tatmonger, a sharper who uses false dice (in the same scene).

tatler, for tattler, a slang term for a repeater, or a striking watch; because it tattles or utters sounds. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, ii. 1 (Belfond Senior).

tatterdemallion, tatterdimallian, a man in tattered clothing; a ragged fellow. Middleton, Mayor of Queenborough, v. 1 (Simon); Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. vi, p. 37. See NED.

taumpin, a ‘tampion’, a plug. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 642; ‘Tampyon for a gon, tampon’, Palsgrave. See Dict. (s.v. Tampion).

taunt pour taunte, tit for tat. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 68. F. tant pour tant, one for another (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.v. Taunt).

Taurus: ‘Taurus? that’s sides and heart. No, sir, it is legs and thighs’, Twelfth Nt. i. 3. 147. In astrology, the signs of the zodiac were severally supposed to govern various parts of the body; and Taurus governed the neck and throat; hence, Sir Andrew and Sir Toby were both wrong (intentionally so); see Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, ii. 1.

tavell, the bobbin on which silk is wound for use in the shuttle. Skelton, Garland of Laurell, 791; Against Comely Coystrowne, 34. Cp. mod. F. tavelle, the bobbin on which the silk is wound off the cocoons; see NED.

taw, to beat, thrash, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iv. 3 (Ursula); tawed, treated like hides in making them into leather, ‘Greedy care . . . With tawed handes, and hard ytanned skyn’, Sackville, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 39. See Nares and Dict.

taw, to draw along. Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal ii, l. 14 from end. See Nares (s.v. Tawe).

tawdry, pl. tawdries, defined as ‘a kind of necklace worn by country wenches’; Drayton, Pol. ii. 46; iv. 50. Tawdry-lace, St. Awdry’s lace, i.e. lace bought at St. Awdry’s fair at Ely, Fletcher, Faith. Shepherdess, iv. 1 (Amarillis). See Dict.

tax, to take to task, criticize, censure, reprove. Rowley, All’s Lost, v. 5. 74; Hamlet, i. 4. 18; also, to task, Much Ado, ii. 3. 46. See task.

teade, a torch. Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 37; id., Muiopotmos, 293; Heywood, Iron Age, Part II (Orestes); vol. iii, p. 424. L. taeda, a torch.

teemed, arranged in a ‘team’; said of horses. Spenser, Virgil’s Gnat, 314.

teen, harm, injury, hurt, Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 18; vexation, annoyance, id., ii. 1. 15; grief, id., ii. 1. 21; ii. 1. 58. In prov. use in the north country in the sense of anger, vexation, in Scotland also in the sense of sorrow, grief. ME. tene, vexation, grief (Chaucer). See Dict. M. and S. OE. tēona, damage, harm, insult, calumny.

†teen, keen; ‘The teenest Rasor’, Lyly, Euphues, pp. 34, 249. Not found elsewhere.

teend, to kindle a fire. Herrick, Hesp., Candlemas Day, id., Ceremonies for Christmas, st. 2. A Lancashire pronunciation, see EDD. (s.v. Tend, vb.²). ME. teend (Wyclif, Isaiah l. 11); OE. tendan, in compounds, as ontendan (Exod. xxii. 6). See tind.

tegge, a female deer in the second year; ‘Tegge, or pricket, saillant’, Palsgrave; Jacob and Esau, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 193. Skelton has tegges, women (used in contempt), Elynour Rummyng, l. 131. ‘Teg’ is in gen. prov. use in the midland and southern counties in the sense of a yearling sheep before it is shorn (EDD.).

teil-tree, a lime-tree or linden. Bible, Isaiah vi. 13; teyle, Golding, Metam. viii. 620; fol. 102, back (1603). OF. teil; L. tilia.

teint, tint, colour. Dryden, To Sir G. Kneller, 178. F. teint, colour, complexion.

teld, pt. t., told. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 1. 44. In common use in Yorkshire, see EDD. (s.v. Tell, 2). ME. telde, told; ‘And thei . . . telden alle these thingis’ (Wyclif, Luke xxiv. 9). OE. tealde, also telede (Leechdoms); see B. T. (s.v. Tellan).

temper, to govern, rule, control. Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 1294. L. temperare, to regulate, control. In prov. use in Scotland (EDD.).

tempt, to try, essay. Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 496; Milton, P. L. ii. 404. In prov. use (EDD.). L. temptare (gen. written tentare), to attempt, essay.

ten bones, the ten fingers. 2 Hen. VI, i. 3. 193; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 3 (Petruchio); ‘I swear by these ten’ (i.e. ten bones), B. Jonson, Masque of M. Gipsies (3 Gipsy).

tender, to treat with kindness, to take care of. Two Gent. iv. 4. 145; Taming Shrew, Induction, i. 16; Hamlet, i. 3. 107; regard, care, King Lear, i. 4. 230. See Schmidt.

tenent, a tenet, an opinion; ‘There are other assertions and common Tenents drawn from Scripture’, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med. i. 22; Earle, Microcosm., § 11 (ed. Arber, 34). See NED.

teniente, a lieutenant. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Alvarez). Span. teniente de una compañia, lieutenant of a company (Neuman); lugarteniente, lieutenant (Stevens).

tent, to apply a ‘tent’, or plug of linen, to a wound. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo); Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, iv. 3 (Colax). ME. tent of a wound (Prompt. EETS. 476). F. tente (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.v. Tent, 2).

tercel, the male of any kind of hawk. Bk. St. Albans (NED.); tiercel, Phillips, Dict., 1706. ME. tercel (Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 405 (v.rr. tersel, tarsell); tarcel, ‘tardarius’ (Voc. 615. 24). OF. tercel (Godefroy), O. Prov. tersol (Levy), Span. terzuelo, Ital. terzuolo, Med. L. tertiolus (Ducange), F. tiercelet (dimin.), ‘a tassel’ (Cotgr.). See tassel.

terlerie-whiskie, a twirling about; a phrase of little meaning, in the refrain of a song. Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, v. iii (Merrythought). See NED. (s.v. Terlerie).

termer (applied to both sexes), one who resorts to London in term-time only, for the sake of gain or for intrigue; a frequenter of the law-courts. Middleton, Roaring Girl (Preface); id., The Witch, i. 1 (Gasparo); Beaumont and Fl., Wit at several Weapons, i. 1 (Oldcraft).

termless, unlimited, infinite, Spenser, Hymn of Heavenly Love, 75; incapable of being expressed by terms, inexpressible, indescribable, Lover’s Complaint, 94.

terre, to throw upon the ground; ‘He terr’d his glove’, Warner, Alb. England, bk. iii, ch. 16, st. 44. A nonce-word.

†terrial. ‘The terrials of her legs were stained with blood’ (said of a hawk), Heywood, A Woman killed, i. 3 (Sir Francis). Perhaps an error for terret, one of the two rings by which the leash is attached to the jesses of a hawk (NED.).

tertia, a regiment of infantry. B. Jonson, New Inn, iii. 1. 6; Dryden, Conq. of Granada, II. i. 1 (K. Ferdinand). Span. tercio, a regiment, a third part (Stevens).

testate, a witness. Heywood, Witches of Lancs., v (Generous); vol. iv, p. 251; Iron Age, Part II (Orestes); vol. iii, p. 422.

testy, witness; ‘Gives testies of their Maisters amorous hart’, Faire Em, ii. 1. 100. Cp. L. teste, the word which began the last clause of a writ, and signifying ‘witness’; being the abl. of L. testis, a witness. See NED. (s.v. Teste, sb.² 2 c).

tetchy, teachy, quick to take offence, short-tempered, testy. Spelt teachy, Earle, Microcosm., § 34 (ed. Arber, 56); teachie, Romeo, i. 3. 32 (1592). See NED.

tetragrammaton, the Greek name of the Hebrew ‘four-lettered’ word, written YHWH, vocalized YaHWeH by modern scholars; in the Bible written Jehovah (Exod. vi. 3), but gen. rendered by ‘the Lord’; ‘Our English tongue as well as the Hebrew hath a Tetragrammaton, whereby God may be named; to wit, Good’, Wither, Lord’s Prayer, 17 (NED.); Greene, Friar Bacon, iv. 3. Gk. τετραγράμματον (Philo, 2. 152).

tettish, teatish, peevish, fretful. Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, v. 2 (Valentine); Woman’s Prize, v. 1 (Bianca).

tew, a set of fishing-nets, nets. Warner, Alb. England, bk. vi, ch. 29, st. 27; spelt tewgh, Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, i. 3 (NED.). ME. tewe, fishing tackle (Prompt. EETS. 477), OE. (ge)tǣwe, getāwe, tackle, equipment.

tew, to convert hide into leather; ‘I tewe leather, je souple’, Palsgrave; to prepare for some purpose, ‘The toiling fisher here is tewing of his net’, Drayton, Pol. xxv. 139; to beat, thrash, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 2 (Clause); to tew hemp, Ray’s Country Words, A.D. 1691. In prov. use for dressing leather and beating hemp, see EDD. (s.v. Tew, vb.¹ 1 and 2). ME. tewyn lethyr, ‘frunio, corrodio’ (Prompt.).

tewly, scarlet. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 798. Silk of this colour is often referred to by earlier writers, as in Richard Coer de Lion, 67, 1516, Syr Gawayne, Beves of Hamtoun (Halliwell, s.v. Tuly); tuly, colowre, ‘puniceus’ (Prompt. EETS. 494). OF. tieulé, of the colour of a tile, i.e. red (Godefroy), deriv. of tieule (F. tuile), a tile, L. tegula.

teyned. ‘In shape of teyned gold’, Golding, Metam. v. 11. ME. teyne, a slender rod of metal (Chaucer, C. T. G. 1225, 1229, 1240). Icel. teinn, rod, gull-teinn, a rod of gold.

thatch’d head, a term of abuse for an Irishman; one with thick matted hair. Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, ii. 3 (Maria).

thee, to thrive, prosper. Tusser, Husbandry, § 10. 8; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 33; ii. 11. 17. ME. thee (Chaucer), OE. þēon. See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Theen).

thembatel, for the embatel, the battlement; ‘Griped for hold thembatel of the wall’, Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 581. Not found elsewhere.

therm, tharm, an intestine. Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 100). Still in use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Tharm). OE. (Anglian) þarm, a bowel.

thewes, good qualities or habits. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 3; i. 10. 4; ii. 1. 33; ii. 10. 59; Heywood, Britain’s Troy, i. 61 (Nares). Hence thewed, having qualities of a certain kind, F. Q. ii. 6. 26. OE. þēaw, usage, custom, habit.

thewes, the bodily powers of a man, in Shaks. the bodily proportions as indicating physical strength, 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 276; Jul. Caes. i. 3. 81; Hamlet, i. 3. 12.

thick, a thicket. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 39; ii. 3. 21; Shep. Kal., March, 73; Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, v. 5 (Cloe; near the end). In Suffolk groves and woods with close underwood are called ‘thicks’, see EDD. (s.v. Thick, 14).

thiller, the shaft-horse in a team. Tusser, Husbandry, § 17. 4. In gen. prov. use in the Midlands and south of England, see EDD. Deriv. of ME. thylle of a cart, ‘temo’ (Prompt.).

thill-horse, the shaft-horse; ‘The Thill-horse in Charles’s Wain’, Derham (NED.). In common use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Thill, sb.¹ 2 4). See fill.

thirdborough, the petty constable of a township or manor. L. L. L. i. 1. 185; cp. Taming Shrew, Induct, i. 12; B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 1 (Hugh). Probably a corruption of an earlier frithborh; OE. friðborh, peace-surety, frankpledge. See NED.

thirdendale: phr. thirdendale gallant, the third part of a gallant, Dekker, If this be not a good Play (Scumbroath); Works, iii. 329. See halfendeale.

tho, then. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 18; ii. 8. 47. ME. tho, then (Chaucer). see M. and S.; OE. þā.

thole, the dome of a temple, within which votive offerings were suspended; ‘Let Altars smoake and Tholes expect our spoiles’, Fisher, True Trojans, iii. 2 (Nennius). Gk. θόλος, a round building with a cupola; at Athens, the Rotunda in which the Prytanes, the committee of 50, dined at the public cost.

thorow-lights, lights or windows on both sides of a room. Bacon, Essay 45, § 3. From thorow = through.

threap, to rebuke; to maintain obstinately. Greene, James IV, Induction (Bohan); threpped, pp., Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 354. In gen. prov. use in both senses in Scotland, Ireland, and in England, north country and Midlands. See EDD. (s.v. Threap, 5); ME. threpe, to assert to be (Chaucer). OE. þrēapian, to rebuke, argue.

threave, a large number, a multitude, a swarm of insects; ‘Threaves of busy flies’, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, ii. 401 (in later ed. ‘swarms of flies’); a bundle or handful tied up like a small sheaf, Chapman, Gent. Usher, ii. 1 (Bassiolo). The word is used in many parts of Scotland and England in the sense of a considerable number or quantity, see EDD. (s.v. Thrave, sb. 3). Icel. þrefi, a number of sheaves.

three-farthings. King John, i. 143. Alluding to the very thin three-farthing (silver) pieces of Qu. Elizabeth, which bore her profile, with a rose at the back of her head.

three-pile, three-piled velvet. The richest kind of velvet was called three-pile or three-piled velvet, presumably because it had a triple (or a very close) pile or nap; Wint. Tale, iv. 3. 14. Three-piled piece, referring to velvet, i. 2. 33. Metaphorically, three-piled = exaggerated, L. L. L. v. 2. 407; cp. C. Tourneur, Revenger’s Tragedy, i. 1. From three and pile (4).

threne, a lament. Phoenix and Turtle, 49. Hence, threning (spelt threnning); ‘What needs these threnning words and wasted wind?’, Sir T. Wyatt, To his Love (Wks., ed. Bell, 198). Gk. θρῆνος, a funeral lament.

thrill, to pierce. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 32. Hence, thrillant, piercing. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 4. 46. ME. thirte, to pierce (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2709). OE. þyrlian. See thrull.

thrill, to hurl a weapon. Webster, Appius, iv. 2 (Virginius); Heywood, Iron Age, Part I, 1632, sig. F (Dyce); Quarles, Sion’s Elegies, ii. 4.

thring, to press forward. Mirror for Mag., Caracalla, st. 1. Still in use in the north country (EDD.). ME. thringe, to press, to force one’s way (Chaucer). OE. þringan, to press.

thrist, thirst. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 17. Thristy, thirsty, id., i. 5. 15. In prov. use in the north country, also in Heref. and Shropshire (EDD.). ME. thrist, thirst; thriste, to thirst (Wars Alex. 4683, 3848).

throat-brisk, (?) part of the brisket near the throat; spelt throte-briske, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, iii. 620. Cp. throat-sweetbread (also neck-sweetbread), butcher’s name for the thymus gland, see NED. (s.v. Throat, 8 d).

throng, pressed closely together; ‘Hidden in straw throng’ (i.e. in straw pressed closely together), B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, v. 5 (The fourth Motion). OE. þrungen, pp. of þringan, to press. See thring.

throw, a short space, a little while. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 53. ME. throw, a little while (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 2336). OE. þrāge, ‘for a time’, þrāh, a space of time, a course, running. See M. and S. (s.v. Throwe).

throwster, a twister of silk thread for a weaver. Middleton, World Tost at Tennis (Scholar). In the north country ‘to throw’ is in common use in the sense of to twist, see EDD. (s.v. Throw, 16). OE. þrāwan, to twist.

thrum, a weaving term: the waste end of a warp; thrumm’d, furnished with tufts, Drayton, Pol. xxiii. 319; untidily thatched, Middleton, Mich. Term, i. 2. 6; thrum-chinned, with rough untidy chin, id., A Trick to Catch, iv. 3. 7; ‘(A) plaine livery-three-pound-thrum’, B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1. 16 (applied jocularly to a person). ME. thrumm of a clothe, ‘filamen’ (Prompt.). Cp. Norw. dial. trumm, edge, brim (Aasen); Du. ‘drom, a thrum’ (Sewel); G. trumm.

thrum, to beat, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, iii. 1 (George). An old Suffolk word (EDD.).

thrust, thirst; to thirst. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 29; iii. 7. 50. OE. þurst, thirst. See thrist.

tial, a bond, tie, obligation; ‘Nor to contract with such (a woman) can be a Tial’, Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, ii. 1 (Mirabel). A Scotch word (EDD.). See tyall.

Tib-of-the-buttery, a goose (Cant). Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 1 (Higgen). ‘Tib’ is a pet form of the Christian name Isabel; Tibbie was once a favourite name with the peasants of the Lowlands. See NED.

ticket, on the, on tick, like one who incurs an acknowledged debt. Shirley, Bird in a Cage, ii. 1. 17.

tickle, not to be depended upon; uncertain, unreliable, changeable. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 3. 5; vii. 8. 1; in unstable equilibrium, easily upset, easily set in motion; in phr. tickle of the sear (sere), easily made to go off (the ‘sear’ being a portion of a gun-lock), used fig. in Hamlet for yielding easily to any impulse (ii. 2. 327). ME. tikel, unstable, uncertain (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3428).

tickle-footed, uncertain, inconstant, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 4 (Elder Loveless).

tick-tack, a complicated kind of backgammon, played both with men and pegs; for rules, see the Compleat Gamester. Meas. for M. i. 2. 196; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 3 (Kiteley). Du. tiktak. tick-tack; ‘tiktakbörd, tick-tack-tables, backgammon tables’ (Sewel); cp. G. tricktrack, backgammon.

tiddle, to pet, to spoil; said of parents and children; ‘My parents did tiddle me’, Nice Wanton, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 173. Hence tidlings, pets, spoilt children, id., 164. In prov. use in Berks., meaning to tend carefully; to bring up a young animal by hand (EDD.).

tie-dog, a bandog; a fierce dog who has to be tied up. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 140. See Nares.

tiego, a dizziness in the head. Massinger, A Very Woman, iv. 3 (Borachia). The expression is put into the mouth of an ignorant woman; it seems to represent ’tigo, short for Lat. vertigo.

tiffany, a kind of thin transparent silk; also a gauze muslin. Fletcher, Noble Gentleman, i. 1 (Marine); Shirley, Witty Fair One, ii. 1 (Treedle). Apparently the same word as Tiffany, a name for the festival of the Epiphany. OF. Tiphanie (Godefroy), Eccles. L. Theophania, Eccles. Gk. Θεοφάνεια, the Manifestation of God. See Ducange (s.v. Theophania).

tight, tite. Of a ship: water-tight; ‘Twelve tite Gallies’, Tam. Shrew, ii. 1. 381; competent, capable; vigorous, stout, Ant. and Cl. iv. 4. 16; neat, trim, carefully dressed, ‘But you look so bright, And are dress’d so tight’, Farquhar, Beaux Strat. i. 1. In prov. use in various senses in all parts of the English-speaking world: e.g. in good health, sound, vigorous (E. Anglia); neat, trim (Scotland); see EDD. See tith.

tiller, in archery, the wooden beam which is grooved for reception of the arrow, or drilled for the bolt; ‘The beanie or tiller (of a balista)’, Holland, Amm. Marcell. 221 (NED.); ‘Arbrier, the tillar of a crosse-bow’, Cotgrave; a stock or shaft fixed to a long-bow to admit of its being used as a cross-bow, for greater precision of aim, Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, ii. 2 (Galatea); a bow fitted with a tiller, id., Scornful Lady, v. 1 (Elder Loveless); tiller-bow, a cross-bow, see Roberts, English Bowman (ed. 1801, p. 261), quoted by Croft (Sir T. Elyot, Governour, i. 297); tillering, the putting of a bow upon a tiller, Ascham, Toxophilus, 114. OF. telier (tellier), the wooden beam of a cross-bow, orig. a weaver’s beam (Godefroy), Mod. L. telarium (Ducange), L. tela, a web.

tilly-vally, an exclamation of contempt at what has been said, like our ‘nonsense!’ Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 83; Tilly-fally, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 90. Tille valle, Tille vallee!, an exclamation used by Mrs. Alice More, not liking her husband’s question, ‘Is not this house (in the Tower) as nighe heaven as myne owne (at Chelsea)?’, see Life of Sir T. More, by W. Roper (More’s Utopia, ed. Lumby, p. xlv).

timonist, misanthrope. Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, v. 2 (Astorius). Alluding to Timon of Athens.

tinct, to tinge, colour. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Subtle); tinct, pp. dyed, tinged, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 107. L. tinctus, dyed.

tincture, a colouring matter, Dryden, Juvenal, Ded. 36; hue, colour, ‘The tincture of a skin’, Addison, Cato, i. 4; a spiritual principle or immaterial substance whose character or quality may be infused into material things, which are then said to be tinctured, ‘Nothing can be so mean, Which with his tincture (“for thy sake”) will not grow bright and clean’, Herbert, The Elixir.

tind, to kindle; ‘As one candle tindeth a thousand’, Sanderson-Serm. (ed. 1689, p. 56) (NED.); tind, pt. t. ‘Stryful Atin in their stub, borne mind Coles of contention and whot vengeance tind’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 11. In Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, viii. 410, we find tinne (to kindle). ‘Tind’ is in gen. prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). Wyclif has tend: ‘No man tendeth a lanterne’ (Luke xi. 33). See NED. for an account of the earlier form-history of the word. See teend.

tine, to kindle, inflame; ‘As late the clouds . . . Tine the slant lightning’, Milton, P. L. x. 1075; ‘The priest . . . was seen to tine The cloven wood’, Dryden, Iliad, i. 635. A form of tind (to kindle), in prov. use in various parts of England. See EDD. (s.v. Tind).

tine, to perish, to be lost. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 11. 36. In prov. use in Scotland in this sense, and also, meaning ‘to lose’; see EDD. (s.v. Tine, vb.¹). The original sense of the word was ‘to lose’. ME. tine, to lose (Hampole, Psalter, lxi. 10); Icel. tȳna, to lose, to destroy, put to death.

tine, affliction, sorrow. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 15; Tears of the Muses, 3; Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, i. 3 (Cloe); to feel pain, F. Q. ii. 11. 21. OE. tȳnan, to give pain, to vex. See teen.

tintamar, tintimar, a confused noise, hubbub. Spelt tintamar, Howell, Famil. Letters, vol. i, sect. i. 19, § 2; tintimar, Vanbrugh, The Confederacy, v. 2 (Mrs. Amlet). F. tintamarre, ‘A clashing or crashing, a rustling or gingling noise made in the fall of wooden stuff, or vessels of metal; also a black Santus’ (Cotgr.). See sanctus.

tinternall, the name of an old tune or burden for a song. Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 430. Cp. F. tinton, the burden of a song; from tinter, to ring.

tip for tap, tit for tat; one hit in requital for another. Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 463. See NED. (s.v. Tip, sb.²).

tipe over, to tilt over, overthrow; ‘I type over, I overthrow, je renverse’, Palsgrave; ‘She tiped the table over and over’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 83. In prov. use in north of England, Shropshire, and E. Anglia (EDD.). ME. type, to tilt over, knock down, see NED. (s.v. Tip, vb.²).

tiphon, a ‘typhoon’, whirlwind; ‘A mental tiphon’, Shirley, Example, ii. 1 (Vainman). Gk. τυφῶν = τυφώς, a furious whirlwind (Sophocles).

tippet: in phr. to turn one’s tippet, to change one’s course or behaviour completely; to act the turncoat. B. Jonson, Case is Altered, iii. 3 (Aurelia); also, to change one’s tippet, Merry Devil of Edmonton, iii. 2. 139; ‘He changed his typpette, and played the Apostata’, Foxe, Book of Martyrs, 1049. 2 (NED.).

tipstaff, a staff with a tip or cap of metal, carried as a badge by certain officials. Mercury’s caduceus is called a ‘snaky tipstaff’, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, i. 1 (Cupid); an official carrying a tipped staff, a sheriff’s officer, an officer appointed to wait upon a court in session; ‘Then their Lordships . . . commissioned Atterbury the Tipstaff to fetch a smith to force them open’, Magd. Coll. and Jas. II. p. 148 (Oxf. Hist. Soc).

tire, a ‘tier’, row, rank. Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 35; Milton, P. L. vi. 605; Fletcher, Span. Curate, iv. 7 (near the end); Dryden, Hind. and P. iii. 317. OF. tire, row, rank (Godefroy); ‘tire à tire, l’un après l’autre’ (Didot); O. Prov. tiera, teira, ‘suite, série’ (Levy).

tire, to ‘attire’, L. L. L. iv. 2. 131. Hence tire-men, dressers belonging to the theatre, Middleton, Your Five Gallants, ii. 1 (Fitsgrave). Tire, a head-dress, Two Gent. iv. 4. 190; spelt tier, London Prodigal, iv. 3. 32; tire-valiant, a fanciful head-dress, Merry Wives, iii. 3. 60.

tire, to prey or feed ravenously upon. 3 Hen. VI, i. 1. 269; Venus and Ad. 56; Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, ii. 7; Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, iii. 2 (Leocadia). ‘Tiring (in Falconry) is a giving the Hawk a Leg or Pinion of a Pullet or Pigeon to pluck at’, Phillips, Dict. 1706. ME. tyren, to tear, rend (Chaucer, Boethius, iii. 12. 49). F. tirer, to draw, pull, tug; see NED. (s.v. Tire, vb.² 2).

tirik, a mechanical device explaining astronomical phenomena, a ‘theorick’; ‘He turnyd his tirikkis, his volvell ran fast’, Skelton, Speke Parrot, 139; Garl. of Laurell, 1518. See NED. (s.v. Theoric, sb. 3).

tit, a small creature, young thing; a tit of tenpence, a girl worth tenpence; a depreciatory epithet. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iv. 2 (Petruchio).

tite: phr. swithe and tite, quickly and at once, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 4. 13. Very common in the phr. as tite, as soon, as lief, in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Tite, adv.²). ME. tite, quickly; as tyte as, as soon as (Wars Alex. 219, 693). Icel. tītt, at once with all speed; see Icel. Dict. (s.v. Tīðr).

tith, a variant of tight (q.v.). Of a ship: water-tight, Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iii. 5; sound in body, ‘A good stanch wench, that’s tith’, id., Mons. Thomas, ii. 3 (Thomas). The compar. tither occurs in The Mad Lover, iii. 3 (Chilax) in a nautical allusion. Tithly, vigorously, Island Princess, i. 1. 20; closely, Women Pleased, iv. 3 (Penurio).

titillation, a means of titillating, producing a pleasant sensation, used of a perfume. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 2 (Face).

titivil (tytyvyllus), a term of reprobation, a knave, villain, and esp. a mischievous tale-bearer, Hall, Henry VI (ed. 1542, f. 43); Skelton, Garl. Laurell, 642; Colyn Cloute, 418; ‘Coquette, a pratling or proud gossip . . . a titifill, a flebergebit’, Cotgrave; titifil, Heywood’s Proverbs (ed. Farmer, 24). Originally, the name of a devil said to collect fragments of words dropped, skipped, or mumbled in the recitation of the daily offices, and to carry them to hell to be registered against the offender; the name occurs in the mystery plays. Myrrour of our Ladye, i. 20. 54. See note to P. Plowman, C. xiv. 123. See NED. for a full and interesting account of this curious creation of monastic wit.

titivilitium, an exclamation of contempt. B. Jonson, Silent Woman, iv. 1 (Otter). L. titivillitium, a small trifle (used once by Plautus).

to-, prefix, in twain, asunder, in pieces. The following examples occur in Caxton’s Hist. of Troye: to-breke (pt. t. to-brake), to break in pieces; to-breste, to burst asunder; to-bruse, to bruise in pieces; to-drawe, to draw asunder; to-frusshe, to break in pieces; to-hewe, to hew in pieces; to-rente, to rend in pieces. Malory’s Morte Arthur has to-cratche, to tear to pieces; to-ryue, to rive asunder; to-sheuer, to reduce to shivers. See NED. (s.v. To-, pref.²).

toadstone, a stone fabled to be found in a toad’s head, which could cure pain instantly. See As You Like It, ii. 1. 13; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, v. 1 (Livia); Mons. Thomas, iii. 1 (Thomas).

toase, to pluck, to pull, draw. Winter’s Tale, iv. 4. 760; ‘It is a great craft to tose wolle wel’, Palsgrave. ME. tosyn or tose wul or odyre lyk, ‘carpo’ (Prompt. EETS. 501). See tooze.

to-boil, to boil thoroughly, boil down. Webster, Duch. of Malfi, ii. 5 (Ferdinand).

to-break, to break in pieces; ‘So inward force my heart doth all to-break’, Sir T. Wyatt, The Lover compareth (ed. Bell, p. 200); to-brake, pt. t., ‘And all to brake his scull’, Bible, Judges ix. 53. See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Tobreken). OE. tobrecan, pt. t. tobræc.

tod, a fox. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Tuck); Pan’s Anniversary, Hymn iv, l. 12. A north-country word; Jamieson says, ‘the fox is vulgarly known by no other name throughout Scotland’, see EDD. (s.v. Tod, sb.²).

tod, a bushy mass (esp. of ivy). Spenser, Sheph. Kal., March, 67; Beaumont and Fl., Bonduca, i. 1 (Caratach); id., Rule a Wife, iv. 3 (Juan). In E. Anglia the word is in use for the head of a pollard tree, see EDD. (s.v. Tod, sb.⁵ 1).

todder, slime; the spawn of frogs or toads; ‘Where in their todder loathly paddocks breed’, Drayton, Moses, bk. ii, 116. In prov. use in Leic. for the spawn of frogs or toads, see EDD. (s.v. Tother, sb. 3).

†tods; ‘I wear out my naked legs and my foots and my teds’, Dekker, O. Fortunatus. iv. 2 (Andelocia). A misreading for ‘toes’.

tofore, formerly. Titus And. iii. 1; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 4. 7. ME. toforn, beforehand (Chaucer); tofore, prep. before (P. Plowman, B. v. 457).

to-frusshed, pp. broken to pieces, crushed, battered. ‘All to-frusshed’, Warner, Alb. England, bk. ii, ch. 12, st. 33. See frush.

toft, taut, tightly drawn, Peele, Tale of Troy, ed. Dyce, p. 554. See NED. (s.v. Taut, adj. 2). See EDD. (s.v. Taut). ME. toght, tightly drawn (Chaucer, C. T. D. 2267).

token, a small coin, struck by private individuals to pass for a farthing. Tavern-token, Westward Ho, ii. 3 (Birdlime); ‘Not worth a tavern-token’, Massinger, New Way to Pay, i. 1 (Tapwell).

tole, to entice, draw on. Beaumont and Fl., Wit at sev. Weapons, iv. 2 (near the end); tole on, Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, i. 1 (Clorin). In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Toll, vb.² 1). ME. tollen, to attract, entice (Chaucer, Boethius, ii. 7. 15).

toledo, a Toledo sword. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo); near the end; Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, iii. 4 (Bobadilla).

ton, a tunny-fish. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3 (B. Knight). F. thon, a tunny-fish (Cotgr.); L. thunnus; Gk. θύννος.

tone: the tone, for thet one, i.e. that one, the one. Golding, tr. of Ovid, Preface, 96; cp. the tother, for thet other, that other, the other (in the same line). Just below, l. 105, we find tone part, for the tone part, i.e. the one part. See Nares.

tony, a simpleton. In Middleton, The Changeling, i. 2 (Lollio), we find Tony used as an abbreviation of Antony, and at the same time signifying a simpleton; ‘Be pointed at for a tony’, Wycherley, Plain Dealer, iii (Freeman); tonies, pl. Dryden, All for Love, Prol., 15.

too-too, extremely, very. Hamlet, i. 2. 129; Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 4. 15 (Common); toto muche, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 42.

tooze, to tease wool; ‘Toozing wooll’, Golding, Metam. xiv. 265; fol. 170 (1603); ‘I toose wolle or cotton or suche lyke, Je force de la laine, and je charpis de la laine’, Palsgrave. See toase.

top-ayle, highest spike or beard of an ear of corn. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xx. 211. ‘Ails’ (‘iles’) is in prov. use in the south of England for the beards or awns of barley or any other bearded grain, see EDD. (s.v. Ail, sb.²). OE. egl, ‘festuca’ (Luke vi. 41).

tope, I pledge you; lit. touch (or strike) my glass with yours. Shirley, Honoria, v. 1 (2 Soldier). See Dict. (s.v. Toper).

topsiturne, to upset, turn upside down; ‘This object . . . Which topsiturnes my braine’, Heywood, Iron Age (Ajax), vol. iii, p. 341; ‘All things are topside-turn’d’, id., Dialogue 9, in vol. vi, p. 214.

tormentour, a torturer, one deputed to torture and punish offenders, an executioner. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 49; Bible, Matt. xviii. 34. ME. tormentour, executioner (Chaucer, C. T. G. 527).

torved, stern. Webster, Appius and Virginia, v. 3 (Virginius). For torvid, Med. L. torvidus (Ducange).

tote, to look, gaze; ‘How often dyd I tote Upon her prety fote’, Skelton, Phyllyp Sparowe, 1146; spelt toote, Speke Parrot, 12; toot, Peele, Arraignment of Paris, i. 2 (Oenone). In prov. use in north of England down to Warw. in the sense of to peep and pry about, see EDD. (s.v. Toot, vb.²). ME. toten (P. Plowman, B. xv. 22), OE. tōtian, to look, gaze.

tote, to project, stick out; ‘Your tail toteth out behind’, The Four Elements, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 42; ‘A toting huge swelling ruff’, Howell’s Letters, bk. i, sect. 3, let. 31, § 7. In prov. use in the north country, also in Warw., see EDD. (s.v. Toot, vb.² 3).

toter, a player upon the horn. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii. 3 (Pan); toater, Fletcher, Maid in a Mill, iii. 1 (end). See EDD. (s.v. Toot, vb.¹).

totters, tatters, rags. Ford, Sun’s Darling, i. 1 (Folly’s song); tottered, tattered, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 5. 6; Edward II, ii. 3. 21; Richard II, iii. 3. 52. Norw. dial. totra, a rag, totror, pl. rags, also taltra(r) (Aasen).

totty, unsteady, confused in thought. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 39; Sheph. Kal., Feb., 55. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. toty: ‘Myn heed is toty of my swink to-night’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4253).

touch, a trait or feature; ‘One touch of nature makes the whole world kin’, Tr. and Cr. iii. 3. 175; ‘Evill touches’, Ascham, Scholemaster, 48. Touch = Touchstone, Richard III, iv. 2. 8; used also fig. with reference to the trial of gold, 1 Hen. IV, iv. 4. 10.

touch, often used for any costly marble; properly the basanites of the Greeks, a very hard black granite. It obtained the name touch from being used as a test for gold. It was often written tutch or tuch; ‘He built this house of tutch and alabaster’, Harington, tr. Ariosto, xliii. 14; ‘With alabaster, tuch and porphyry adorned’, Drayton, Pol. xvi. 45; ‘Thou art not, Penshurst, built to envious show of touch or marble’, B. Jonson, Forest, B. ii. 2. See Nares. F. pierre de touche, ‘sorte de pierre, ainsi appelée, parce qu’on s’en sert pour éprouver l’or et l’argent en les y frottant’ (Dict. de l’Acad., 1762).

touch-box, a box containing powder for priming a fire-arm; ‘Fire the touch-box’, Return from Parnassus, iv. 2. 8. See twitch-box.

tour, a lady’s head-dress or wig. Etherege, Man of Mode, ii. 1 (Medley). F. ‘Un tour de tête, un tour, sorte de petite perruque de femme’ (Hatzfeld).

toure, towre, to see, to look (Cant). To towre, to see, Harman, Caveat, p. 84; toure out, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Patrico).

toward, in preparation, near at hand. Mids. Night’s D. iii. 1. 81; Tam. Shrew, i. 1. 68; towards, Romeo, i. 5. 124; towardness, docility, Bacon, Essay 19.

towker, a ‘tucker’, a fuller of cloth. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 14, § 4. ME. towkere, ‘fullo’ (Voc. 629. 2), towker, P. Plowman, A. Prol. 100. See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Tokker).

to-wry, to hide, conceal; ‘Your sighs you fetch from far, And all to-wry your woe’, Sir T. Wyatt, The Lover’s Case cannot be hidden, 26 (ed. Bell, p. 95). ME. wrye, to cover (Chaucer, C. T. E. 887), OE. wrēon, to cover; wrigen, pp.

toy, a trifle, a trifling ornament. Twelfth Nt. iii. 3. 44; ‘Any toys for your head’, Winter’s Tale, iv. 4. 326; Bacon, Essay 19; a trifling matter, something of no value, Othello, i. 3. 270; an idle fancy, whim, King John, i. 1. 232; Richard III, i. 1. 60; Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 4. 79; Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, i (Beaupré).

to-year, this year. Webster, Duch. of Malfi, ii. 1 (Duchess); to-yere, id., Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 118. In gen. prov. use in England and Ireland (EDD.). ME. to-yere, this year (Chaucer, C. T. D. 168).

trace, the straps by which a vehicle is drawn, traces. Golding, Metam. ii. 109; fol. 16, back (1603); ‘Trace, horse harnesse, trays’, Palsgrave. ME. trayce, horsys harneys, ‘trahale’ (Prompt.). F. traits, pl. of trait, ‘the cord or chain that runs between the horses’ (Cotgr.). Traces is therefore a double plural. See Dict.

trace, to follow up a track; to traverse, to move forward. Sackville, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 27; Morte Arthur, leaf 232. 18, bk. x, ch. 30; Milton, Comus, 427; trast, pt. t., Spenser, F. Q. v. 8. 37. In use in Ireland in the sense of tracking an animal, see EDD. (s.v. Trace, vb.¹ 1).

tract, to track, follow up, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 3, 17; Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 101.

tract: phr. tracte of tyme, duration of time, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 22, § 3; to tract the time, to prolong the time, Mirror for Mag., Gloucester, st. 25. Hence tracting, protraction, prolongation, ‘In the tractynge of tyme’, Latimer, Serm. (ed. Arber, 53). F. ‘par traict de temps, in tract of time’ (Cotgr.).

trade, track of footsteps, trodden path. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 39; ‘A common trade to passe through Priam’s house’, Surrey, tr. Aeneid, ii. 593. In north Yorks. the word is in prov. use, meaning a constant passage backwards and forwards, used of men and animals: ‘A lot of rabbits here, by the trade they make’, see EDD. (s.v. Trade, 1).

traduction, transmission. Dryden, On Mrs. A. Killigrew, 23. Verbal traduction, verbal translation, Cowley, Pref. to Pindaric Odes (beginning). F. traduction, a translation, L. traductio, a transferring, transmission.

traicte, to treat. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 15, § 1. F. traicter, to treat (Cotgr.).

train, to draw on, allure, entice. Com. Errors, iii. 2. 45; train on, 1 Hen. IV, v. 2. 21. Norm. F. trainer, ‘attirer, entrainer, séduire’ (Moisy).

trains, artifices, stratagems. Macbeth, iv. 3. 118; Spenser, F. Q. i. 3. 24; Milton, P. L. xi. 624; Sams. Ag. 533, 932; Comus, 151. ME. trayne, or disseyte, ‘fraus’ (Prompt. EETS. 488). OF. traine, ‘trahison’ (Godefroy); cp. F. ‘traine, a plot, practice, device’ (Cotgr.).

tralineate, to deviate, degenerate. Dryden, Wife of Bath, 396. Suggested by Ital. tralignare, to degenerate (Dante).

tralucent, transparent, allowing light to shine through. B. Jonson, Masque of Hymen, prose description at the end, § 6. The same as translucent, Milton, Comus, 861. L. tralucere, translucere, to shine through.

tramels, nets for confining the hair, net-work. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 15; Greene, Looking Glasse, ii. 1. 426 (Remilia); p. 122, col. 2. F. tramail, a net (Cotgr.); Ital. tramaglio, a drag-net (Fanfani), Med. L. tremaculum, tremaclum (Ducange).

trangame, a thing of no value (Cant); ‘But go, thou trangame, and carry back those trangames which thou hast stolen’, Wycherley, Plain Dealer, iii (Widow).

translate, to transform. Mids. Night’s D. iii. 1. 122; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. ii. 4 (Brain-worm).

translater, a jocose or slang term for a cobbler who made worn boots wearable by judicious patching, and mending; ‘Jeffrey the translater’, A Knack to know a Knave (Cobbler), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 566. For many examples of the use of this word for a ‘cobbler’, see EDD. (s.v. Translate, 1).

transmew, to transmute, change. Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 35; ii. 3. 37. ME. transmuwen (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iv. 467). F. transmuër, to change (Cotgr.). L. transmutare. See EDD.

transmogrify, to transform. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, iii. 1 (Belfond Senior). A playful variant of transmodify, by association with the termination -(mo)graphy. In gen. prov. and colloquial use in all English-speaking countries (EDD.).

transversaries, the cross-pieces of a cross-staff, which was an old instrument for taking altitudes and measuring angles. Dekker, Wh. of Babylon (1 King); Works, ii. 233.

trash, (hunting term), to check (a dog) that is too fast by attaching a weight to its neck; ‘This poor trash of Venice, whom I trash For his quick hunting’, Othello, ii. 1. 132; ‘Who t’advance, and who To trash for over-topping’, Tempest, i. 2. 81; Fletcher, Bonduca, i. 1 Caratach). See Nares. In Cumberland the word trash means a cord used in checking dogs, see EDD. (s.v. Trash, sb.³ 1).

trash, to tramp after, to pace along. Puritan Widow, iv. 1. 37. In prov. use in Lakeland, see EDD. (s.v. Trash, vb.¹ 1).

trattle, to prattle, tattle. Bale, Kynge Johan (Camd. Soc.), p. 73; Skelton, Against the Scottes, 2. Hence, trattler, a prattler, ‘A tratler is worse than a thief’, Ray, Proverbs (ed. 1678, 357). A Scotch word, see EDD. (s.v. Trattle, vb.).

travant, a halberdier in attendance on the Emperor in Germany. Chapman, Alphonsus, iii (Alph.). G. Trabant, a satellite, halberdier: cp. Norw. drabant, one of the body-guard of Solomon (1 Kings ix. 22), Magyar darabant. See Kluge’s Etym. Germ. Dict., and NED. (s.v. Drabant).

travers(e, a movable screen, a sliding door. Marston’s Masque at Ashby Castle, MS. (Nares); Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 45; spelt traves, Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 58. ME. travers: ‘We will that our said son be in his chamber . . . the travers drawn anon upon eight of the clock’ (Letters and Ordinances, 1473, in Nares); so in Chaucer: ‘Men drinken and the travers drawe anon’ (C. T. E. 1817); also travas, ‘transversum’ (Prompt. EETS. 489, see note, no. 2387). The word exists in prov. use in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Traverse, 2).

tray-trace, trey-trace, perhaps (like tray-trip) the name of a game at dice. Trey-trip and trey-trace, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 118.

tray-trip, an old game at dice, in which tray (three) was a successful throw. Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 207; B. Jonson, Alchem. v. 2 (Subtle); spelt tra-trip, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 1 (Roger); tre-trip, Mayne, City Match, ii. 4 (Aurelia); ‘Lett’s goe to dice a while, To passage, trei-trippe, hazard, or mum-chance’, Machivell’s Dogge, 1617, 4to, sign. B; see Nares. See trey.

treachetour, a traitor, deceiver. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 7. A contaminated form; due to ME. trechour (a traitor) and ME. tregetour (a juggler). The latter word is found in Chaucer, Hous of Fame, 1277, and C. T. F. 1143, see also tregetowre, ‘mimus, pantomimus, prestigiator, joculator’ (Prompt. EETS. 489). Anglo-F. tregettour, juggler (Bozon), deriv. of OF. tresgeter, Med. L. transjectare, to throw across, to juggle.

treachour, a traitor, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 32; ii. 1. 12; ii. 4. 27; treacher, King Lear, i. 2. 133; Beaumont and Fl., Bloody Brother, iii. 1 (Otto); Chapman, Byron’s Tragedy, v. 1 (Byron). ME. trechour (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 197). OF. trecheör (Bartsch), Romanic type trecatórem, cp. Med. L. tricator, ‘deceptor’ (Ducange).

treague, a truce. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 33. Ital. and Span. tregua, Mod. L. tregua, see Ducange (s.v. Treva); of Germ. origin, cp. OHG. triuwa, truth, a solemn promise (Schade).

treason, a surrender. North, tr. Plutarch, Coriolanus, § 17 (in Shaks. Plut. p. 31). OF. traïson, Med. L. traditio, ‘cessio, concessio’ (Ducange).

treen, pl. of tree. Sackville, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 1. ME. treon, trees (Laȝamon, 1835, 25978).

treen, wooden, made of wood. Spenser, F. Q. i. 2. 39; i. 7. 26; Chapman, Byron’s Conspiracy, ii (near end); ‘Treene dishes be homely’, Tusser, Husbandry, 175. In prov. use: treen-plates, wooden trenchers, in E. Anglia (EDD.). ME. treen, wooden (Prompt. EETS. 495).

trench, to cut. Two Gent. iii. 2. 7; Macb. iii. 4. 27. F. ‘trencher, to cut, carve, slice, hew’ (Cotgr.).

trenchand, cutting, sharp. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 17. For trenchant; from F. trencher, to cut.

trenchmore, a lively and boisterous country-dance. Beaumont and Fl., Pilgrim, iv. 3 (Master); Island Princess, v. 3 (2 Townsman); London Prodigal, i. 2. 38; Selden’s Table Talk (s.v. King of England). See Nares.

trendle, a wheel, a hoop. Udall, tr. Apoph., Socrates, § 72; ‘A cracknel or cake made like a Trendell’, Nomenclator (Nares). In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Trindle, 1, 2). ME. trendyl, ‘troclea’ (Prompt. 490). OE. trendel, a wheel (Sweet), see trindill.

trendle, to roll; ‘Like a trendlyng ball’, Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 44 (Works, i. 158). In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Trindle, 8). See trindill.

trepidation, a swaying motion: the libration of the earth. Milton, P. L. iii. 483.

tretably, properly, correctly. Marston, What you Will, iii. 2 (Pedant). OF. traitable, tractable.

trey, tray, three; at cards or dice. L. L. L. v. 2. 232. Anglo-F. treis, L. tres, three.

treygobet, the name of a game at dice. Lit. ‘three (and) go better’. The Interlude of Youth, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 34.

trick(e, neat, tidy, elegant. Tusser, Husbandry, § 15. 35; Ascham, Toxophilus, 6 (Nares); Udall, tr. Apoph., Socrates, § 73; neatly, skilfully, Peele, Arr. of Paris, i. 1 (Faunus).

tricker, a trigger. Butler, Hud. i. 3. 528; Farquhar, Recruiting Officer, i. 1. Du. trekker, a trigger, a puller; trekken, to draw, pull. See Dict.

trickment, heraldic emblazonry; ‘Here’s a new tomb, new trickments too’, Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of Malta, iv. 2 (Norandine); ‘No tomb shall hold thee But these two arms, no trickments but my tears’, Mad Lover, v. 4 (Calis).

tricotee, a kind of dance; ‘A monkey dancing his tricotee’, Lady Alimony, i. 2 (Trillo). OF. tricotee, an involuntary dance by one compelled by blows (Godefroy); cp. tricote, a cudgel; Tricot, ‘bâton gros et court. Il n’est d’usage que dans le discours familier: Il lui donna du tricot’ (Dict. de l’Acad., 1762). Of Germ. origin, see Schado (s.v. Stric). See Nares.

trigon. The zodiacal signs were combined in triplicities, or four sets of three; each of these formed a trigon. There are four such: (1) the fiery trigon, Aries, Leo, Sagittarius; (2) the earthy trigon, Taurus, Virgo, Capricornus; (3) the airy trigon, Gemini, Libra, Aquarius; (4) the watery trigon, Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces, according to the four elements, fire, earth, air, water. ‘The fiery trigon’, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 288; ‘His musics, his trigon’, B. Jonson, Volpone, i. 1 (Nano); Butler, Hud. ii. 3. 905. Gk. τρίγωνον, a triangle.

trill, to roll as a ball. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 27, § 7; to trickle as a tear, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 78; Sir T. Wyatt, Comparison of Love to a Stream, 2; to twirl, ‘I tryll a whirlygig rounde aboute, Je pirouette’, Palsgrave. In prov. use in sense of to trundle a hoop, also, to twirl (EDD.). ME. tryllyn, ‘volvo’ (Prompt. EETS. 502).

trillibub, a trifle, an expression for something trifling. Massinger, Old Law, iii. 2 (Simonides); Shirley, Hyde Park, iii. 2 (Fairfield); a cheap food, like tripe, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Quarlous). See Nares. Cp. the prov. words for entrails, tripe, trollibobs, trullibubs, trollibags, gen. used in phr. tripe and trollibobs (EDD., s.v. Trollibobs). See trullibub.

trim, neat, elegant, nice, fine; mostly used with irony; ‘The flowers are sweet, their colours fresh and trim’, Venus and Ad. 1079; ‘Trim gallants’, L. L. L. v. 2. 363; ‘These trim vanities’, Hen. VIII, i. 3. 37; ornamental dress, Ant. and Cl. iv. 4. 22; ‘Proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim’, Sonnet 98; phr. in her trim, in speaking of ships, the state of being fully prepared for sailing, ‘Where we in all her trim freshly beheld our royal ship’, Tempest, v. 236; Com. Errors, iv. 1. 90.

trim-tram, a trifle, a worthless speech or thing. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 114. [‘They thought you as great a nincompoop as your squire—trim-tram, like master, like man’, Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, xiii.] A reduplicative term used in Scotland, expressive of ridicule or contempt (EDDA.).

trindill; ‘That they take away and destroy all shrines, tables, candlesticks, trindills, or rolls of wax’, King’s Injunctions, ann. 1547, in Fuller’s Church History.

trindle-tail. Fletcher speaks of a cur with ‘a trindle tail’, i.e. a tail curled round, Love’s Cure, iii. 3. 17; Honest Man’s Fortune, v. 3. 18; spelt trundle-tail, a dog with a curled tail, King Lear, iii. 6. 73; trendle-tail, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Ursula). See trendle.

trine, a combination of three things (viz. youth, wit, and courage), Mirror for Mag., Cromwell, st. 26.

trine, an aspect in which one planet was at an angle of 120 degrees from another. Dryden, Annus Mirab. 292; ‘A trine aspect’, Beaumont and Fl., Bloody Brother, iv. 2 (Norbret). Hence, as vb., to conjoin in a trine, Dryden, Palamon, iii. 389. See triplicity.

trine, to be hanged (Cant). Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); Harman, Caveat, p. 31; trine me, hang me, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor).

trinket (trinquet), the highest sail of a ship. Hakluyt, Voyages, iii. 411; ‘Trinquet is properly the top or top-gallant on any mast, the highest sail of a ship’, Blount, Gloss. (ed. 1674). F. trinquet (Cotgr.), Span. and Port. trinquete, deriv. of trinca, a rope for lashing fast; of Germ. origin, cp. G. strick; see Reinhardstöttner, Portuguese Gram. (1878), § 31, and Schade (s.v. Strickan).

trinket, a porringer; esp. one made with a handle, like a teacup, as it is to be hung upon a pin. Tusser, Husbandry, § 17. 3.

trinket (trenket), a shoemaker’s knife; ‘Trenket, an instrument for a cordwayner, batton a torner (soulies)’, Palsgrave [also spelt trynket]. ME. trenket (Voc. 562. 3); trenkett, ‘ansorium’ (Cath. Angl.); trenkette (Prompt. 490, see note, no. 2395). Cp. F. tranchet: ‘A shoomakers round cutting knife: tranchet de cordouanier’ (Sherwood).

triplicity, a combination of three zodiacal signs in the form of an equilateral triangle; ‘And how the signs in their triplicities, By sympathizing in their trine consents’, &c., Drayton, Man in the Moon, 458. See trigon.

trist, trest, the station where a hunter was placed to watch the game. At the trest, Morte Arthur, leaf 382, back, 14; bk. xviii, c. 21; at the tryst, Master of Game, ch. 16 (end). ME. triste, an appointed station in hunting (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 1534), tryster (Gawain), tristre (Anc. R.). OF. triste, tristre (Godefroy). See Dict. (s.v. Tryst).

trisulke, three-forked, triple. Heywood, Golden Age, A. iii (Saturn); vol. iii, p. 43; Brazen Age (Hercules), p. 250; a trident, three-forked spear, Heywood, Dialogue 4 (Timon); vol. vi, p. 160. L. trisulcus, three-forked (Virgil).

troad, trode, track of footsteps, beaten path. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 10. 5; Shep. Kal., July, 14; Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 325. ‘Trod’, meaning a beaten track, a foot-path, is a north-country word down to Lincoln (EDD.).

troll, troul, trowl, to roll; ‘To troll the tongue’, Milton, P. L. xi. 620; to circulate or pass round, as a vessel of liquor at a carouse, ‘Troul the bowl’, Beaumont and Fl., Knight of the B. Pestle, ii. 5 (Merrythought); Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 4 (Song); to sing a tune in succession, ‘Troll the catch’, Tempest, iii. 2. 126; Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 3 (Dion). In prov. use in various parts of England in the sense of to roll, to circulate, see EDD. (s.v. Troll, vb.¹). ME. trollyn, ‘volvo’ (Prompt.).

troll-my-dames, the name of a game; ‘A fellow, sir, that I have known to go about with troll-my-dames’, Wint. Tale, iv. 3. 92 (Autolycus). Also called pigeon-holes; also nine-holes (described by Strutt). The game was played with a board, at one end of which were a number of arches, like pigeon-holes, into which small balls were to be bowled; see Nares. The word troll-my-dames is a corruption of the French name for the game Trou-Madame; see Cotgrave.

tromp, to deceive. B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1 (Host). F. tromper. Cp. EDD. (s.v. Trump, vb.³).

trossers, tight drawers. Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, ii. 3 (Maria); Hen. V, iii. 7. 57 (so most modern edds.). See strossers.

trot, an old woman. Tam. Shrew, i. 2. 80; used of a man, Meas. for M. iii. 2. 54; Gammer Gurton, ii. 8; Warner, Albion, ii. p. 47 (Nares). In prov. use (EDD.). Anglo-F. trote: ‘la viele trote’ (Gower, Mirour, 17900).

trow, to think, believe, suppose; ‘I trow not’, Bible, Luke xvii. 9; 2 Hen. VI, ii. 4. 38; v. 1. 85. I trow, added to questions expressive of contemptuous or indignant surprise; ‘Who’s there, I trow?’, Merry Wives, i. 4. 140; ii. 1. 64; also trow alone; ‘What is the matter, trow?’, Cymbeline, i. 6. 47. In prov. use in the north country (EDD.). ME. trowen (Chaucer, C. T. A. 691), OE. trūwian, to believe confidently, to trust in a person or thing (Sweet).

trowses, close-fitting drawers; ‘Four wild Irish in trowses’, Ford, Perkin Warbeck, iii. 1 (Stage-direction); B. Jonson, Staple of News, i. 1 (Pennyboy Junior); hence, trowzed, clad in ‘trowses’, ‘Poor trowz’d Irish’, Drayton, Pol. xxii. 1577. F. trousses, the breeches of a page (Littré); cp. O. Irish truibhas, close-fitting breeches and stockings (O’Curry, Introd., p. 384); Irish triubhas (Dinneen). See Dict. (s.v. Trousers).

Troy-novant, or New Troy, London. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 46; Peele, Descensus Astraeae, l. 18 from end; id., A Farewell, &c., l. 4; ‘Geoffrey of Monmouth . . . reporteth that Brute lineally descended from the demi-god Aeneas . . . about the year of the world 2855, and 1108 before the nativity of Christ, built this city (London) near unto the river now called Thames, and named it Troynovant or Trenovant’, Stow’s Survey (ed. Thoms, 1). London was the capital of the British tribe, the Trinobantes, one of its ancient names being Augusta Trinobantum, whence the Anglo-F. Troynovant; but by popular etymology Troynovant was connected with the Troia nova (new Troy) of Geoffrey of Monmouth and Nennius.

truage, tribute. Morte Arthur, leaf 35, back, 4; bk. i, c. 23. ME. truage (Rob. Glouc.). OF. truage, treuaige, treutage, ‘vectigal, tributum’, deriv. of true, treü, trehu, ‘tributum’, see Ducange (s.v. Truagium). OF. treü is the same word as L. tributum; cp. O. Prov. traüt, trabut, ‘tribut’ (Levy). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Trewage).

truchman, an interpreter. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Crites); tr. of Horace, Art of Poetry, III (= L. interpete); Holland. Pliny, Nat. Hist., bk. vii, ch. 24; Hakluyt, Voyages, ii. 152; Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid (ed. Arber, 82); trucheman, Puttenham, Eng. Poes. (ed. Arber, 278); trouchman, Three Lords and Three Ladies; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 463. See Nares. F. trucheman (Cotgr.), O. Prov. trocheman, Span. trujaman (Stevens), Arab. tarjumân (Dozy, 351). See Stanford (s.v. Dragoman).

truckle-bed, a bed which could be wheeled under a larger one, Hall, Satires, ii, sat. 6; ‘troccle-bed’, Statutes Trinity Coll., Oxford (ann. 1556). An Oxford University word. L. trochlea, wheel of a pulley. Gk. τροχιλία, a pulley. See Dict.

true, honest. Bible, Gen. xlii. 11; Much Ado, iii. 3. 54; L. L. L. iv. 3. 187; ‘The thieves have bound the true men’, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 98; ‘Rich preys make true men thieves’, Venus and Ad. 724. See Wright’s Bible Word-Book.

true-penny, honest fellow; used familiarly. Hamlet, i. 5. 150; Fletcher, Loyal Subject, i. 3 (Putskie).

trug, a trull, concubine. Arden of Fev. i. 500; Middleton, Your Five Gallants, i. 1 (Primero). See Nares.

trump, a game at cards, similar to our whist. Fletcher, Lover’s Progress, iii. 2 (Lancelot); Peele, Old Wives’ Tale (Clunch).

truncheon, the lower part of the shaft of a broken lance. Dryden, Palamon, iii. 612; ‘Truncheons of shivered lances’, id., tr. of Aeneid, xi. 16. ME. tronchoun, broken shaft of a spear (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2615); Anglo-F. trunçun: ‘Sa hanste est fraite, n’en ad que un trunçun’ (Ch. Rol. 1352).

trundle-bed, a low bed for a servant that ran on castors, drawn out at night from beneath a higher bed; a synonym of truckle-bed. Shirley, Witty Fair One, iii. 1 (Brains). In prov. use (EDD.).

trundling-cheat, in cant language, a cart. B. Jonson, New Inn, iii. 1 (Pierce). See cheat (2).

trunk, a tube; a speaking-tube, B. Jonson, Silent Woman, i. 1 (Cler.); a telescope, News from the New World (Printer); a pea-shooter, ‘Wooden pellets out of earthen trunks’, Middleton, Fam. of Love, iii. 3 (Purge); Eastward Ho, ii (Quicksilver); ‘A trunk to shoot in, syringa, tubulus flatu jaculatorius’, Coles, Lat. Dict.; Brome, New Acad. iv. 1. See Dict. (s.v. Trunk, 2).

trunks, trunk-hose, loose hose, often stuffed with hair. B. Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2 (Face); Shirley, Sisters, iii. 1 (Strozzo).

truss, to pack close; to fasten up. 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 350; ‘Help to truss me’ (i.e. to tie up the points (strings) of my hose), B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. i. 3 (Stephen). See Dict.

trusses, a pair of, close-fitting leggings; ‘A pair of trusses’ [for an Irishman], Shirley, Love Tricks, i. 1 (near the end). See trowses.

†trutch sword (?); ‘For a trutch sword, my naked knife stuck up’, Beaumont and Fl., Woman-hater, i. 3 (Lazarillo). See Nares.

trye, select, refined; ‘Of silver trye’, Spenser, F. Q. v. 2. 26. F. trié, pp. of trier, to try, to refine.

tucket, a particular set of notes on the trumpet used as a signal for a march (Nares). Also, tucket-sonance, Hen. V, iv. 2. 85. Ital. ‘toccata d’un musico, a præludium that cunning musicians use to play, as it were voluntarily before any set lesson’ (Florio).

tuff-taffeta, a kind of silk. Eastward Ho, i. 1 (Gertrude); B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iv. 1 (Hedon).

tumbler, a kind of greyhound used for coursing rabbits; ‘A nimble tumbler on a burrowed green’, W. Browne, Brit. Pastorals, ii. 4; B. Jonson, Poetaster, i. 1 (Tucca). A Linc. word, see EDD. (s.v. Tumbler, 3).

tumbrel, a farm-cart used for manure. Marston, Epil. to Pygmalion, 26; Satire iv. 13. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Tumbril, 1). ME. tomerel, a dung-cart (Prompt. EETS. 485, tumerel, 494); F. ‘tombereau, a tumbrel or dung-cart’ (Cotgr.).

tumbrel, a sort of bumboat, unfit for sailing. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iii. 2 (Jaques); iii. 4 (Petruchio).

tundish, a funnel; ‘Filling a bottle with a tundish’, Meas. for M. iii. 2. 182. A ‘tun-bowl’ or a ‘tun-dish’ was a kind of wooden funnel, like a small bucket, with hoops round it, and a tube at the bottom, used for pouring liquids into a cask, in use in Northants, see EDD. (s.v. Tun, sb.¹ 3 (2)).

tunnel, the shaft of a fire-place, chimney. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1 (Crispiano), where chimney means fire-place; tonnell, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 29; ‘Tonnell of a chymney, tuyau’, Palsgrave; see Dict. (s.v. Tunnel); tonnels used fig. for nostrils, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. i. 3 (Cob).

tup, to cover as a ram. Othello, i. 1. 89; iii. 3. 396. Tup with, to cohabit with, Warner, Alb. England, bk. iv, ch. 20, st. 33. ‘Tup’ is in gen. prov. use for a ram in England and Scotland (EDD.).

turf. ‘Turfe of a cap, rebras’, Palsgrave (rebras means a turning up, a tucking upwards or inwards); as vb., to make a turned-up edging for a hat, ‘The steward would have had the velvet-head (of the stag) . . . to turf his hat withal’, Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, iv. 2 (1 Woodman). ME. tyrfe, the rolling back of a sleeve, ‘revolucio’ (Prompt. EETS. 483, see note, no. 2350); tirven, to roll back (Havelok, 603).

turgion, the name of a dance. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 20, § 12. F. ‘tourdion, a turning, or winding about; also, the dance tearmed a round’ (Cotgr.); O. Prov. tordion, ‘sorte de danse’ (Levy). From OF. tordre, to twist. See Croft’s note on the word in the Glossary.

Turk. ‘A valiant Turk, though not worth tenpence’, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iii. 1 (1 Friend); a Turk of tenpence (a term of abuse), Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 4 (Ithamore).

turken, to wrest, distort; ‘It turkeneth all things at pleasure’, Gascoigne. Steel Glass (ed. Arber, 37); turquened, pp., id., Pref. to Poesies; ed. Hazlitt, i. 5.

turment, a warlike engine; ‘Turmentes of warre’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 8, § 3. OF. torment, tourment (Godefroy). Med. L. tormentum, a machine for hurling missiles (Ducange).

turnbroch, a turnspit. Turnebroche, Tusser, Husbandry, § 80. 2. F. tourne-broche, a turn-spit, a dog used for turning a spit.

Turnbull Street, a street in Clerkenwell noted for thieves and bad characters. Middleton, A Chaste Maid, ii. 2 (2 Promoter). See Nares.

turnpike, a turnstile that revolved on the top of a post, and was furnished with pikes. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iii. 1 (Picklock). Also, a revolving frame of pikes, set in a narrow passage to obstruct an enemy, Shirley, Honoria, i. 2 (Alamode).

turquois, a quiver; ‘A turquoys that was full of arowes’, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 299, back, 3. OF. turquois, turquais, Med. L. turcasia, ‘pharetra’ (Ducange); also Norm. F. tarchais (Wace), F. tarquais (15th cent.). Med. Gk. ταρκάσιον, a quiver; Arab, tarkâsh, of Persian origin, see Dozy, Glossaire, 250. The mod. F. form is carquois.

tusk, to thrust into or beat bushes, to drive out game; ‘Make them tuske these woodes’, Lyly, Gallathea, iv. 1 (Telusa).

tutsan, tutsain, all-heal; a species of St. John’s wort; Hypericum Androsaemum; ‘The healing tutsan’, Drayton, Pol. xiii. 204; ‘Of tutsan or parke-leaues’, Lyte, tr. of Dodoens, bk. i, c. 45. It was considered a panacea for wounds. F. tutsan, ‘tutsan, Park-leaves’ (Cotgr.); Toute-saine, ‘Arbrisseau ainsi nommé, parce que ses feuilles, ses racines, sa semence sont fort utiles en Médecine’ (Dict. de l’Acad., 1786).

tutt, a mark; ‘I toucht no tutt’, Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 94. ‘Tut(t’ is in prov. use in Yorks. for a mark, bound, a stopping place in the game of rounders, see EDD. (s.v. Tut, sb.⁷ 2).

tutty, a nosegay. T. Campion, Bk. of Airs, i. 20 (Wks., ed. Bullen, p. 62); ‘Tutty or Tuzzimuzzy, an old word for a nosegay’, Phillips, 1706. In common use in the south-west: Hants., Wilts., Dorset, Somerset and Devon (EDD.). See Prompt. EETS., note, no. 2353 on the word ‘Tytetuste’.

twagger, a fat lamb. Peele, Arr. of Paris, i. 1. 9. A Sussex word for a lamb (EDD.).

twankle, to twangle, to play upon a harp; ‘And twancling makes them tune’, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, vi. 646. Cp. twangling, Tam. Shrew, ii. 159. ‘Twankle’ is a Warw. word (EDD.).

tweche: phr. to keep tweche, to keep touch, perform a promise. Wever, Lusty Juventus, 1. 7; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 47. See EDD. (s.v. Twitch, vb.³).

twelve: phr. upon twelve, near twelve o’clock; near the dinner-hour; ‘My stomacke is now much upon twelve’, Heywood, Witches of Lancs., i. 1 (Whetstone); vol. iv, p. 175.

twelvepenny-stool gentlemen, gentlemen who were allowed to sit upon a stool upon the stage itself on payment of 12d. Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1 (Mis. T.).

twibill, a double-bladed battle-axe. Spelt twibbil; Stanyhurst. tr. of Aeneid, ii. 490 (L. bipenni, ii. 479). Still in prov. use for a double-headed axe. see EDD. (s.v. Twybill). OE. twibill, a two-edged axe (Sweet). See twybill.

twig, to do anything strenuously, to press (forward); ‘And twigging forth apace . . . the Egle flue’, Twyne, tr. of Aeneid, xii. 247. A Yorks. expression, see EDD. (s.v. Twig, vb.¹ 6).

twiggen, made of osiers; cased with osiers or wicker-work; ‘A large basket or twiggen panier’, Holland, tr. of Pliny, b. xvii, c. 10, 5 § 1; Othello, ii. 3. 152. A Warw. word (EDD.).

twight, to ‘twit’, upbraid. Spenser, F. Q. v. 6. 12. ME. atwite, to reproach (Laȝamon). OE. ætwītan.

twight, to twitch, to pull suddenly; ‘No bit nor rein his tender jawes may twight’, Mirror for Mag. (Nares); used as pt. t. of twitch, touched, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 259 (L. tetigit). ME. twykkyn, ‘tractulo’ (Prompt.). OE. twiccian, to pluck, catch hold of.

twin, to separate one from the other. The World and the Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 244. So in Scotch use: ‘We should never twin again, except heaven twin’d and sundered us’, Rutherford’s Life (ed. 1761), 234, see EDD. (s.v. Twin, vb.² 2).

twin, to be twinned, to be closely united like twins; ‘True liberty . . . which always with right reason dwells twinned’, Milton, P. L. xii. 85; B. Jonson, Hue and Cry after Cupid (Vulcan).

twink, a twinkling. Tam. Shrew, ii. 1. 312; phr. with a twink, in a moment, Ferrex and Porrex, iv. 2 (Marcella). ‘In a twink’ is in use in various parts of England and Scotland, meaning in the shortest possible space of time (EDD.). ME. twynkyn wyth the eye, ‘nicto’ (Prompt.).

twire, to peep, to peep at intervals, to take a stolen glance at a thing; ‘When sparkling stars twire not’, Sonnet xxviii; ‘To see the common parent of us all, Which maids will twire at ’tween their fingers’, B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maud); Drayton, Pol. xiii. 169; spelt tweer, ‘The tweering constable’, Middleton, Father Hubberd’s Tales (ed. Dyce, v. 594). A Wilts. and Berks. word, ‘How he did twire and twire at she!’ (EDD.). Cp. Germ. dial. (Bavarian) zwi(e)ren, to take a stolen glance at a thing (Schmeller).

twire pipe, a term of abuse; ‘An ass, a twire pipe, a Jeffery John Bo-peep’, Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iii. 1 (Thomas). For twire, see above; pipe may be identified with the Yorks. word pipe, to glance at stealthily, see EDD. (s.v. Pipe, vb.²) = F. piper, ‘to peke or prie’ (Palsgrave). See Dict. (s.v. Peep, 2). So that twire pipe is a reduplicated word meaning a sly peeper.

twissell, the part of a tree where the branches divide from the stock; ‘As from a tree we sundrie times espie A twissell grow by Nature’s subtile might’, Turbervile, The Lover wisheth to be conjoined, st. 6. See EDD. (s.v. Twizzle, 8). OE. twislian, to fork, branch (Hom. ii. 117); ‘twisil tunge’ (double tongue, Ecclus. v. 14).

twitch-box, said to be the same as touch-box, a box containing powder for priming; to prime was to put a little gunpowder into the pan of an old-fashioned fire-arm. ‘Thy flask [powder-flask] and twitch-box’, Damon and Pithias, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 67. See touch-box.

twitter-light, twilight. Middleton, Your Five Gallants, v. 1 (2 Court.); Mere Dissemblers, iii. 1 (Dondolo). Cp. the Yorks. expression, ‘He came about the twitter of day’, see EDD. (s.v. Twitter, sb.⁴ 10).

twone, twined; pp. of twine. Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, ii. 1. 7; twon, id., Sophonisba, iii. 1 (first stage-direction).

tyall, a bell-pull, string, cord; ‘The greate belles clapper was fallen doune, the tyal was broken’, Latimer, Sermons (ed. Arber, p. 172). See tial.

tydie, some small bird, a titmouse (?), Drayton, Pol. xiii. 79. ME tidif (tydif), a small bird, perhaps the titmouse (Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 154).

tyran, tyranne, a tyrant. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Oct., 98. Hence, tyranning, acting the part of a tyrant, F. Q. iv. 7. 1. F. tyran, L. tyrannus, Gk. τύραννος.

tysant, barley-water. Turbervile, Of the divers and contrarie Passions of his Love, st. 2. ME. tysane, ‘ptisana’ (Prompt.). F. ‘tisanne, barly water’ (Cotgr.), L. ptisana, pearl-barley, barley-water (Pliny), Gk. πτισάνη, peeled barley, barley-water (Hippocrates).

uberous, fertile. Middleton, Mayor of Queenb. ii. 3 (Hengist). L. ūber, fertile.

ugsome, frightful, horrible. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, ii, l. 1007. Hence ugsomnes, terror, ‘The horrour and ugsomenes of death’, Latimer, Sermons (ed. Arber, p. 185). These words are still in common prov. use with these meanings in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Ug). ME. ugsom, frightful (Dest. Troy, 877).

umbecast, to consider, ponder. Morte Arthur, leaf 382, back, 25; bk. xviii, c. 21. ME. umbecast; ‘In his hert can umbecast’ (Barbour’s Bruce, v. 552). The prefix is umbe, OE. ymbe, around (see Wars Alex., Glossary).

umbles, the ‘numbles’, the entrails of a deer; ‘The umblis of venyson’, Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 1240; Holinshed, i. 204 (Nares); fig. used for a man’s bodily parts, ‘Faith, a good well-set fellow, if his spirit Be answerable to his umbles’, Middleton, Roaring Girl, iii. 1 (Trapdoor). See numbles.

umbrana, a delicate fish. Beaumont and Fl., Woman-hater, i. 1 (Duke). Nares says: ‘The name of a fish, called also umbra; in English, umber or grayling; the Salmo thymullus of Linnaeus.’ Ital. ombrina, ‘an ombre or grailing’ (Baretti), cp. F. ‘umbre, an ombre, or grayling’ (Cotgr.). Mod. L. umbrae, ‘tymalli, pisces Hibernis familiares’ (Ducange). Cp. σκίαινα, the name of a sea-fish (Aristotle).

umbratical, secluded; applied to teachers who wrote in their own studies; ‘The umbratical doctors’, B. Jonson, Discoveries, lvii. L. umbraticus doctor, a private tutor (Petronius).

umbratil, belonging to the shade; private, secluded. B. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, iii. 3 (Compass). L. umbratilis vita, a retired, contemplative life (Cicero).

umbriere, the movable visor of a helmet. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 42; iv. 4. 44; spelt umberere, Morte Arthur, leaf 169, back, 7; bk. viii, ch. 41 (end). O. Prov. ombriera, that which gives shade, a tree giving shade (Levy), deriv. of ombra, shade, L. umbra.

un-, negative prefix. Often used where mod. E. has in-; as in un-constant, un-firm, un-ordinate; all in Shakespeare. So also North has un-honest for dis-honest, un-possible, un-satiable.

unbolted, unsifted, coarse. King Lear, ii. 2. 71. Cp. bolt, ‘to sift flour through a sieve or fine cloth’, in prov. use in the north down to Derbyshire. OF. buleter, to sift (Hatzfeld, s.v. Bluter).

uncandied, dissolved out of a candied or solid condition, Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 1. 115. Cp. discandy, Ant. and Cl. iv. 12. 22.

uncape; ‘I warrant we’ll unkennel the fox. Let me stop this way first—so now uncape,’ Merry Wives, iii. 3. 176. Meaning doubtful. Here are three conjectures: (1) to uncouple (hounds) so Schmidt; (2) to dig out the fox when earthed (Warburton); (3) to turn the fox out of the bag (Steevens).

uncharge, to acquit from a charge. Hamlet, iv. 7. 68. Uncharged, pp., unassailed, Timon, v. 4. 55.

uncoined, not minted; hence, not used as common coin, unconventional, simple. Hen. V, v. 2. 161.

uncouth, unknown, unusual, strange, Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 20; iii. 4. 51; Shep. Kal., Sept., 60. Still in prov. use in this sense in the north country (EDD.). ME. uncouth, strange, uncommon (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2497). OE. uncūð, unknown, strange (John x. 5).

underfong, to undertake a work, labour, task; ‘And looser songs of love to underfong’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 22; id., June, 103; to receive, to take surreptitiously, F. Q. v. 2. 7; underfang, Mirror for Mag., Morindus, st. 6. ME. underfongyn, ‘suscipio’ (Prompt.). OE. underfōn, to receive, to undertake a task (B. T.); pp. underfangen. See Dict. M. and S. (s.vv. Underfon and Underfangen).

undergo, to experience; to endure with firmness, Cymbeline, iii. 2. 7; to suffer, put up with, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 133; to partake of, to enjoy, Meas. for M. i. 1. 24; to take upon oneself, to undertake, Two Gent. v. 4. 42; to be subject to, ‘Claudio undergoes my challenge’, Much Ado, v. 2. 57.

undermeal, a slight afternoon meal. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iv. 1 (Cokes). See EDD. (s.v. Undern). ME. undermele, ‘post meridies’ (Prompt. EETS. 508); undermele tyde (Trevisa, tr. Higden, v. 373); undermeles, afternoons (Chaucer, C. T. D. 875); undern + mele; undern, the time between noon and sunset. OE. undern. See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Undern).

underset, to support, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 146). ME. undersettyn or underschoryn, ‘fulcio, suffulcio’ (Prompt. EETS.).

undertaker, a contractor; ‘Let not the government of the plantation depend upon too many . . . undertakers in the country that planteth’, Bacon, Essay 33; one who takes upon himself a task or business, Twelfth Nt. iii. 4. 349; Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 1. 78. Cp. Othello, iv. 1. 224.

undertime, afternoon, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 7. 13. For undern-time. See undermeal.

underwork, to work secretly against any one; underwrought, pp., undermined. King John, ii. 1. 96.

uneath, unneath, scarcely, hardly, with difficulty. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 38; i. 10. 31; i. 11. 4; 2 Hen. VI, ii. 4. 8; unnethes, Shep. Kal., Jan., 6. ME. uneth (unneth) scarcely (Wars Alex. 2060, 4801), also unethes (unnethes), id., 4078, 4437; also in Chaucer, see Glossary. OE. unēaðe (Gen. xxvii. 30). See Dict. M. and S. (s v. Uneaðe).

unequal, unjust. B. Jonson, Volpone, iii. 1 (Mosca); Massinger, Emp. of the East, v. 2 (Theodosius); Ant. and Cl. ii. 5. 101; 2 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 102; Bible, Ezek. xviii. 25 (unequal = Vulg. pravus). See Trench, Sel. Gl. See equal.

unexpressive, inexpressible. As You Like it, iii. 2. 10; Milton, Christ’s Nativity, 116; Lycidas, 176.

unfolding; ‘The unfolding star calls up the shepherd’, Meas. for M. iv. 2. 218. The star that by its rising tells the shepherd that it is time to release the sheep from the fold. [So Collins in his Ode to Evening, 72, refers to the evening-star as the folding-star, the star rising at folding time: ‘When thy folding-star arising shows His paly circlet’; cp. Shelley in Hellas, 221, ‘The powers of earth and air Fled from the folding star of Bethlehem’.]

unhappily, unfortunately, with regret be it said. Meas. for M. i. 2. 160; mischievously, with evil result, Lucrece, 8; evilly, King Lear, i. 2. 157; Sonnet 66.

unhappy, mischievous, evil, trickish, All’s Well, iv. 5. 66; ill-omened, Cymb. v. 5. 153; wicked, Peele, Battle of Alcazar, Prologue; waggish, Fletcher, Loyal Subject, ii. 2 (Olympia); unfortunate, Spenser, F. Q. i. 2. 22.

unhatched, unhacked, not blunted by blows. Twelfth Nt. iii. 4. 257; unhatcht, unmarked, Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, ii. 5 (Oriana). See hatched.

unhatched, not hatched, not yet brought to light. Hamlet, i. 3. 65; Othello, iii. 4. 141.

unhele, unheale, to uncover. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 64; iv. 5. 10; Marston, Malcontent, ii. 2 (near end). See heal (to cover).

unherse, to take down (arms) from the ‘hearse’, or temporary stand on which they were placed; part of the ceremony of baffling. Spenser, F. Q. v. 3. 37. See hearse.

unhouseled, without having received the last sacrament. Hamlet, i. 5. 77. Deriv. of ME. housel (P. Plowman, B. xix. 390); OE. hūsl (hūsel), the consecrated bread in the Eucharist (Ælfric), Goth. hunsl, ‘sacrificium’ (Matt. ix. 13). See Dict. (s.v. Housel).

unicorn’s horn, a supposed antidote to poison. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 4 (Carlo). ‘This beast in countenance is cruell and wilde, and yet notwithstanding mixed with a certaine sweetnes or amiablenes. His horne is of a merveilous greate force and vertue against Venome and poyson,’ Blundevile, Exercises; see Bible Word-Book (s.v. Unicorn).

union, a fine pearl. Hamlet, v. 2. 283; Kyd, Soliman, ii. 1. 231. Anglo-F. union (Bestiary, 1482); see Rough List; L. unio, a single pearl of a large size.

unmanned, unaccustomed to man, untamed, as a hawk. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, iii. 2 (Karol); Romeo, iii. 2. 14.

unmorris’d, not dressed like a morris-dancer. Fletcher, Women Pleased, iv. 1 (Soto).

un-napt, not provided with nap, as cloth; hence, unfurnished, unprovided. Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of Malta, i. 1. 17.

unpregnant, unapt for business. Meas. for M. iv. 4. 23; unpregnant of, having no intelligent sense of, Hamlet, ii. 2. 595. See pregnant (2).

unqueat, unquiet, disquieted. Warner, Alb. England, bk. iii, ch. 16, st. 65. See queat.

unquestionable, averse from conversation, uncommunicative. As You Like It, iii. 2. 393.

unquod, unusual, strange; ‘Vnquod manor of crueltee’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Augustus, § 59. A contaminated form, see EDD. (s.vv. Uncouth and Unkid). In unkid the -kid = OE. (ge)cȳdd, contraction of cȳðed, pp. of cȳðan, to make known. See uncouth.

unready, not fully dressed. 1 Hen. VI, ii. 1. 39; to make unready, to undress, Fletcher, Island Princess, iii. 8. 13. See Nares.

unrespective, devoid of consideration, unthinking. Richard III, iv. 2. 29; used at random, without consideration, Tr. and Cr. ii. 2. 71.

unrude, rough, violent. B. Jonson, Every Man out of Hum., iv. 1. Cp. the obs. Scottish unrude (hideous, horrible, vile), given in Jamieson (EDD.). ME. unrüde (Stratmann); unride (unrode), cruel, rough, wanton (Wars Alex.). OE. ungerȳde, rough, violent, cp. ungerȳdu, ‘aspera’ (Luke iii. 5).

unseeled, not fastened up, opened; applied to the eyes. B. Jonson, Catiline, i. 1 (Cethegus). See seel.

unshed, not carefully parted; said of hair. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 7. 40. ‘To shed’ is in prov. use in the north country for making a parting in the hair of the head (EDD.). ME. scheden, to separate, to part the hair; schede, the parting of a man’s hair (Cath. Angl.); OE. scēada, the top of the head, parting of the hair, scēadan, to part, to make a line of separation between (B. T.). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Scheden).

untappice, to come out of hiding; ‘Now I’ll untappice’, Massinger, A Very Woman, iii. 5 (Antonio). See tappish.

untempering, not having a modifying or softening influence. Hen. V, v. 2. 241; temper, to fashion, mould, Richard III, i. 1. 65; Titus, iv. 4. 109. L. temperare, to temper, moderate, qualify.

untented, not to be probed by a ‘tent’; hence, incurable. King Lear, i. 4. 322. See Dict. (s.v. Tent, 2).

untewed, not dressed like hemp; hence, not combed out, said of a sheep’s fleece. Lyly, Endimion, ii. 2 (Sir Tophas). See tew (2).

unthrift, prodigal, wasteful. Timon, iv. 3. 311; a prodigal, good-for-nothing person, Richard II, ii. 3. 122. Cp. the Yorks. expression, ‘He’s a desperate unthrift’, for a thriftless squanderer, a good-for-nothing person (EDD.).

untrussed, partially undressed, with the laces of his hose untied. Middleton, The Witch, v. 1. 2.

untwight, untouched. Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, i. 345; spelt ontwight (L. incolumis), id., ii. 88. See twight (2).

unvalued, inestimable, invaluable. Richard III, i. 4. 27; Fletcher, Valentinian, i. 2. 19.

unwappered, not jaded, not worn out. Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 4. 10. ‘Wappered’ is a Glouc. word, ‘Thy horse is wappered out’, i.e. tired out, quite jaded (EDD.).

unwares, unawares, unexpectedly. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 18; undesignedly, 3 Hen. VI, ii. 5. 62; at unwares, unexpectedly, Gascoigne (ed. Hazlitt, i. 434).

unwary, unexpected. Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 25. The usual ME. form was unwar; as in Chaucer, used as an adj. unexpected, and as an adv. unexpectedly.

unwist, unknown, unsuspected. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 26. ME. unwist, unknown (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 1294).

unwreaken, unavenged. Tancred and Gismunda, v. 2 (Gismunda); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 86. ME. wreken, pp. avenged; wreke, to avenge (Chaucer), OE. wrecan, pp. ge)wrecen.

upbraid, a reproach; ‘He . . . with his mind had known Much better the upbraids of men’, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, vi. 389. ME. upbreyd, a reproach (Handlyng Synne, 5843). See Dict.

upbray, to ‘upbraid’, reproach. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 4. 45. In prov. use in north Yorks. (EDD.).

uppen, to ‘open’, reveal, relate. Golding, Metam. xii. 162; fol. 145, l. 5 (1603). Cp. the E. Anglian expressions, ‘You didn’t uppen it, did ye? Be sewer don’t uppen it ta nobody’, where ‘uppen’ means to disclose, reveal (EDD.).

upright men, ‘vagabonds who were strong enough to be chiefs or magistrates among their fellows; one of the twenty-four orders of beggars’ (Aydelotte, p. 27). Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1. 2; Harman, Caveat (New Shaks. Soc, p. 34).

upsey, in the following combinations: Upsey-Dutch, in the Dutch fashion, B. Jonson, Alchemist, iv. 4 (Subtle), whence the phr. to drink upsey Dutch, to drink to excess, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii 1. 3; Upsey-Freeze, in the Frisian fashion, The Shrift (Nares); Dekker, Belman; id., Seven Deadly Sins (Nares); Upsey-English, in the English way, Beaumont and Fl., Beggar’s Bush, iv. 4 (Higgen). [Cp. ‘Drink upsees out’, in the Soldier’s Song in Scott’s Lady of the Lake, vi. 5.] Du. op zyn: op zyn Engelsch, after the English fashion (Sewel, s.v. Op). Du. zyn (now spelt zin) = G. sinn, sense, meaning.

upsitting, a festival when a woman sits up after her confinement. Westward Ho, v. 1 (Mist. Tenterhook); Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Oldrents); Beaumont and Fl., Woman-hater, ii. 1 (Valere); ‘Relevailles d’une femme, the upsitting’, Cotgrave.

upspring, the name of a dance. Hamlet, i. 4. 9; ‘An Almain and an upspring’, Chapman, Alphonsus, iii. 1 (Bohemia).

ure, operation, action. Esp. in phr. to put in ure, Ferrex and Porrex, iv. 2 (Porrex); Greene. Alphonsus, Prol. (Venus). OF. ure, eure, L. opera, work, action. See Dict.

ure, destiny; ‘Wherefore he hathe good ure, That can hymselfe assure Howe fortune wyll endure,’ Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 1003. Hence, as vb. to be ured, to be invested with as by a decree of fate, ‘Men nowe a dayes so unhappely be uryd’, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 6. See eure.

usance, interest paid for money, Merch. Ven. i. 3. 46. A rare meaning of the word; it gen. means the same as ‘usage’. ME. usaunce, custom (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 683). Norm. F. usance, ‘usage, mise en pratique, exercice d’un pouvoir’ (Moisy).

uses, practical applications of doctrines; a term affected by the Puritans, and ridiculed by the dramatists. B. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, iii. 1 (Needle); Massinger, Emp. of the East, iii. 2 (Flaccilla).

utas, the period of eight days beginning with a festival; hence, merriment, festivity; ‘Utas of a feest, octaves’, Palsgrave; ‘Old utis’ (i.e. high merriment), 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 22. ‘Utis’ still survives in prov. use in Worc. in the sense of noise, din: ‘The hounds kicked up a deuce of a utis’ (EDD.). Anglo-F. utaves (Rough List); L. octava (dies), eighth day; for ecclesiastical use see Dict. Christ. Antiq. (s.v. Octave). See Dict. (s.v. Utas).

utter, to put forth, put in circulation, offer for sale, put on the market. L. L. L. ii. 1. 16; Romeo, v. 1. 67; Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 330; Fletcher, Captain, ii. 1 (Jacomo); Sir T. Elyot, Governour, iii. 30, § 2; Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, i. 448. Hence utterance, sale, ‘There is no such speedie utterance of rabbets’, Harrison, Descr. of England, bk. ii, ch. 19 (ed. Furnivall, p. 304).

utterance: in phr. to the utterance, to the last extremity, Macbeth, iii. 1. 72. F. à outrance; combat à outrance, a fight to the death; deriv. of outre, L. ultra, beyond.

vacabonde, a wandering beggar, a ‘vagabond’; ‘Fraternitye of Vacabondes’, Awdeley (title of book, 1565). Norm. F. vacabond, ‘vagabond’ (Moisy); F. ‘vacabonds, vagabonds, rogues’ (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.vv. Vagabond and Vagrant).

vacate, to annul, to make void, to make of no authority; ‘That after-act vacating the authority of the precedent’, King Charles (Johnson); to render vain, to frustrate, Dryden, Don Sebastian, ii. 1 (Dorax). Med. L. vac(u)are, ‘inane, irritum et vacuum efficere’ (Ducange), see Rönsch, Vulgata, 171.

vade, to vanish, pass away; ‘Their vapour vaded’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 20; ‘How ever gay their blossome or their blade Doe flourish now, they into dust shall vade’, id., v. 2. 40; Ruines of Rome, xx; Shaks. Sonnets, liv. 14; to fade, ‘Upon her head a chaplet stood of never vading greene’, Niccols, Induction, Mirror for Mag. 559 (Nares); Richard II, i. 2. 20.

vah, an interjection; ‘No, vah! Fie, I scorn it’, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 1 (Eyre).

vail, to lower, to let fall; ‘She vailed her eyelids’, Venus and Ad. 956; Hamlet, i. 2. 70; to bow, to stoop, to do homage, Pericles, iv, Prol. 29. ME. avale, to lower (Gower, C. A. viii. 1619). Anglo-F. avaler, to lower (Gower, Mirour, 10306).

vails, pl., profits or perquisites that arise to servants besides their salary or wages. Pericles, ii. 1. 163; Dryden, Juvenal, Sat. iii. 311. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Vail, 2). Vail is a shortened form for avail. ME. avayle, ‘profectus, proventus, emolumentum’ (Prompt. EETS. 17).

valance, a fringe of drapery; ‘Rich cloth of tissue and vallance of black silk’, Strype, Eccles. Mem., Funeral Solemnities of Henry VIII; a part of bed-hangings, ‘Valenzana del letto, the valances of a bed’, Florio (ed. 1598). Hence valanced, fringed, used fig. of a beard, Hamlet, ii. 2. 442. See Dict.

valew, valour. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 29; Harington, tr. Ariosto, xiii. 39. F. ‘valuë, worth, goodness’ (Cotgr.).

valiant, worth, amounting to in value; ‘Four hundred a year valiant, worth £400 a year’, Middleton, A Trick to catch, i. 1 (Witgood). F. vaillant, ‘a mans whole estate or worth, all his substance, means, fortunes’ (Cotgr.). Cp. Med. L. valens, ‘valor, pretium’ (Ducange).

vallies, ‘valise’. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (near the end). See Dict.

valure, value, worth. Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, p. 506); Pembroke, Arcadia (Nares); Mirror for Mag. 280; hence, valurous, valuable, Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, i. 2 (Tamb.). See Dict. (s.v. Valour).

vannes, pl. wings, Milton, P. L. ii. 927. Cp. Ital. vanni, ‘the whole wings of any bird’ (Florio).

vantbrace, the ‘vambrace’, armour for the fore-arm, Milton, Samson, 1121; Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 297. F. avant-bras, ‘the part of the arm which extends from the elbow to the wrist; also, a vambrace armour for an arm’ (Cotgr.).

vantguard, the ‘vanguard’, front rank. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iv. 266. ME. vaunt-gard (Holinshed, Chron. Edw. III, ann. 1346; F. avant-garde, ‘the vanguard of an army’ (Cotgr.).

vapour, fume, steam; used, like humour, to denote a man’s characteristic quality, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii (passim). See full account of this use of the word in Nares (s.v.). Cp. the use of the F. word vapeurs. ‘On appelle Vapeurs dans le corps humain, Les affections hypocondriaques & hystériques, parce qu’on les croyoit causées par des fumées élevées de l’estemac ou du bas ventre vers le cerveau’, Dict. de l’Acad. (ed. 1762).

vardingale, a ‘farthingale’. Three Lords and Three Ladies, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 434. This is the form in Cotgrave (s.vv. Vertugalle and Vertugadin). F. verdugale (Rabelais); ‘sorte de cerceau, panier ou jupon bouffant pour seutenir les jupes’ (Jannet’s Gloss.). Span. verdugado, ‘a Petticoat . . . set out below with a small Hoop, below with one wider and so wider and wider down to the Feet, so that it looks exactly like a Funnel’ (Stevens). See verdugal.

vaunt, the beginning; ‘Our play leaps o’er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils’, Tr. and Cr., Prel. 27. Vaunt-courier, a forerunner, King Lear, iii. 2. 25; cp. F. avant-coureur, ‘a fore-runner, avant-curror’ (Cotgr.); see voward. F. avant, before, used of place and time.

vaut, to ‘vault’, to leap. Ascham, Scholemaster, 64; Drayton, Pol. vi. 51; B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maud.); hence vawter, a ‘vaulter’, tumbler, dancer; used of a wanton woman, Gosson, School of Abuse, 36.

vease, a rush, impetus, great effort, force; ‘Forth his vease he set withall’, Twyne, tr. of Aeneid, xii. 962. See EDD. (s.v. Fease, sb. 6). ME. vese: ‘Ther-out cam a rage and such a vese that it made al the gates for to rese’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1985); see NED. (s.v. Feeze). See feeze.

vecture, carrying, conveying, carriage of goods. Bacon, Essay 15, § 11. L. vectura, a carrying, conveying, transportation by carriage or ship (Cicero).

veget, lively, bright; ‘A veget spark’, Cartwright, The Ordinary, iv. 3 (Shape). L. vegetus, lively.

vegetive, a vegetable. Pericles, iii. 2. 36; Massinger, Old Law, i (Nares); as adj. ‘The tree still panted in th’ unfinish’d part, Not wholly vegetive, and heav’d her heart’, Dryden, Ovid, Metam. bk. i (Daphne).

velure, velvet. Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 62; vellure, Beaumont and Fl., Noble Gent. v. 1 (Nares). F. velours, velvet; cp. O. Prov. velos (Levy), L. villosus, shaggy (Virgil); see Hatzfeld.

velvet-tip, the down or velvet upon the first sprouting horns of a young deer. Ford, Fancies Chaste, iii. 3 (Spadone).

vena porta, or gate-vaine (gate-vein), a vein conveying chyle from the stomach to the liver. Bacon, Essay 19, § 11; 41, § 2. L. vena, vein; porta, gate. See gate-vein.

venditation, ostentatious display. B. Jonson, Discoveries, lxxii, Not. 8 (p. 747). L. venditatio, an offering for sale, display; venditare, to offer again and again for sale.

venerie, hunting. Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 22. ME. venerye (Chaucer, C. T. A. 166). Anglo-F. venerie (Gower, Mirour, 20314).

Venetians, Venetian or Venice hose. Three Ladies of London, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 344; Venetian-hosen (described), Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses (ed. Furnivall, p. 56).

vengeable, revengeful, cruel, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 6, § 3; Spenser, ii. 4. 30, 46; terrible, ‘Magdeburg be vengeable fellows’, Ascham, Letter to Raven, 381 (Nares); excessively great, ‘Paulus . . . was a vengible fellow in linking matters together’, Holland’s Camden, p. 78 (Davies); excessively, ‘The drink is vengeable bitter’, Gascoigne, Glasse Gov. v. 1 (ed. 1870). See EDD.

vent, a small inn. Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, i. 1 (Hostess); Shelton, tr. Don Quixote, Pt. I. ii. Span. venta, an inn (Stevens). Med. L. venta, ‘locus ubi merees venum exponuntur’ (Ducange); vendita, see Ducange (s.v. Venda, 1); deriv. of L. vendere, to sell.

vent, to vend, sell. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iii. 1. 8; a sale, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 146); Tusser, Husbandry, § 19. 27. F. vente, sale. See above.

vent, to snuff up or take in the air; to perceive by scent. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maud.); Drayton, Pol. xiii. 118; Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 75.

vent, to let out, emit, Coriolanus, i. 1. 229; to utter, Ant. and Cl. iii. 4. 8 (common in Shaks.); to give birth to, Chapman, tr. Iliad, xix. 97.

ventages, small holes for the passage of air in a flute or flageolet, to be stopped with a finger. Hamlet, iii. 2. 372.

ventanna, a window. Dryden, Conq. of Granada, I. i. 1 (Boabdelin). Span. ventana.

ventilate, pp. discussed. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 25, § 3. L. ventilatus, pp. of ventilare, to winnow grain, to toss grain into the air in order to cleanse it from chaff (Pliny).

ventoy, a fan. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, ii. 2. 4. F. ‘ventau, a fan’ (Cotgr.).

ver, spring. Surrey, Complaint of a Lover, 19 (Tottel’s Misc. 8 and 11); spelt vere, ‘The rotys take theyr sap in tyme of vere’, Skelton, On Tyme, 24. O. Prov. ver, ‘printemps’ (Levy), L. ver.

verdea wine, a wine made of a green grape; and sold at Florence. Beaumont and Fl., ii. 1 (Miramont). Ital. verdéa, ‘a kind of white pleasant dainty Ladies wine in Tuscany’ (Florio).

verdugal, a ‘farthingale’; ‘Stiffe bombasted verdugals’, Florio’s Montaigne (ed. Morley, 1886, p. 273). See vardingale.

verdugo, a Spanish word for an executioner, a hangman (Stevens); hence, his Verdugo-ship, a contemptuous expression for a Spaniard, B. Jonson, Alchemist, iii. 2 (Face).

vespillo, among the Romans, one who carried out the poor for burial; a corpse-bearer. Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med., Pt. I, § 38. L. vespillo (Suetonius).

vex, to be grieved about anything. Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, iii. 1. 7. In prov. use from Worc. to the Isle of Wight, ‘ ’Er little girl died, and ’er vex’d and vex’d so’ (EDD.).

via!, away!, move on! Merch. Ven. ii. 2. 11; Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, ii. 3 (Launcelot). Ital. via, ‘an adverbe of encouraging, much used by riders to their horses, and by commanders; go on, away, go to, on, forward, quickly’, Florio. See Nares.

Vice or Iniquity, names for the established buffoon in the old Moralities; ‘How like you the Vice in the Play?’, B. Jonson, Staple of News (ed. 1860, p. 388); ‘Thus like the formal Vice, Iniquity, I moralize’, Richard III, iii. 1. 82. See Schmidt, and Nares (svv. Iniquity and Vice).

vice, an iron press with a screw for holding things fast, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 24; to hold one fast as in a ‘vice’, Wint. Tale, i. 2. 416. See Dict.

vide-ruff, an old card-game; obsolete. Heywood, A Woman killed, iii. 2 (Cranwell). Prob. vide = vied, pp. of vie, a term in card-playing; see vie.

vie, to hazard or put down a certain sum upon a hand at cards; to revie, to cover that stake with a larger sum; after which, the first challenger could revie again; and so on. ‘Here’s a trick vied and revied!’, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 1 (Well-bred); Vie and revie, Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal ii, § last; see Gifford’s note. See below.

vie with, to show in comparison or competition with; ‘So with the dove of Paphos might the crow vie feathers white’, Pericles, iv, Prol. 33. ME. envỳe, to show in competition (Chaucer, Death of Blanche, 173, MS. Fairfax). F. envier (au jeu), ‘to vie’ (Cotgr.); Ital. invitare (al giuoco), to vie at any game (Florio); cp. Span. envidar, to invite or open the game by staking a certain sum (Neuman). See Dict.

vild, vile. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 46; v. 11. 18. A very common form in Tudor English.

viliaco, a scoundrel. B. Jonson, Every Man out of Hum. v. 3 (Sogliardo). Ital. vigliacco, ‘a rascal, a scurvy scoundrel’ (Florio).

vilify, to hold cheap. Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, v. 3 (Forobosco). Late L. vilificare (Tertullian).

villatic, belonging to a farm; hence, domestic; ‘Tame villatic fowl’, Milton, Samson, 1695. L. villaticus, belonging to a farm. L. villa, a country-house, farm.

vine-dee, a kind of wine. Mayne, City Match, iii. 4 (Quartfield). Supposed to represent F. vin de Dieu, or lacrima-Christi.

viol-de-gamboys, a bass-viol, Twelfth Nt. i. 3. 27. Ital. viola di gamba, ‘a violl de gamba’ (Florio). So called because placed beside the leg instead of (like the violin) on the arm. Ital. gamba, the leg. See de gambo.

virelay, a lay or song with a ‘veering’ arrangement of the rimes. Dryden, Flower and Leaf, 365. See Nares. F. virelay, ‘a virelay, round, freemans song’; virer, ‘to veer, turn round’ (Cotgr.).

virge, verge, a wand. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, v. 3 (Seriben). F. verge, a rod, wand (Cotgr.).

virginals, an instrument of the spinnet kind, but made rectangular, like a small pianoforte. Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieutenant, i. 1 (2 Citizen); Fair Maid of the Inn, iv. 2 (Clown). Also called a pair of virginals, Dekker, Gul’s Hornbook, ch. iii. Their name was probably derived from their being used by young girls. Hence, virginalling, lit. playing on the virginals, ‘Still virginalling upon his palm!’, Winter’s Tale, i. 2. 125 (a word coined in jealous indignation). See Nares.

visage, to look in the face, gaze on. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, book ii, c. 2, § 3. ‘I vysage, I make contenaunce to one, Ie visaige’, Palsgrave.

voider, a basket or tray for carrying out the relics of a dinner or other meal. Beaumont and Fl., Woman-hater, i. 3 (Lazarillo); ‘Mésciróbba, any great dish, platter, charger, voider, tray or pan’, Florio; ‘Enter . . . serving-men, one with a voider and a wooden knife’, T. Heywood, Woman Killed with Kindness (The wooden knife emptied the remnants of the food into the ‘voider’); ‘Piers Ploughman laid the cloth and Simplicity brought in the voider’, Dekker, Gul’s Hornbook, i; ‘Voyder, lanx’, Levins, Manip. In prov. use for a butler’s tray, or a large open basket; in west Yorks. it is the usual word for a clothes-basket (EDD.).

volary, a great cage for birds; ‘(she sits) Like the forsaken turtle, in the volary Of the Light Heart, the cage’, B. Jonson, New Inn, v. 1 (Prudence). Ital. voleria, ‘a volery or great cage for birds’ (Florio).

voley: phr. on the voley, o’ the volèe, inconsiderately. Massinger, Picture, iii. 6. 1; B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1 (Prudence). F. à la volée, ‘rashly, inconsiderately, at random, at rovers’; volée, flight, voler, to fly (Cotgr.). See Nares (s.v. Volée).

voluptie, sensual pleasure. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 11, § 16; bk. iii, c. 20, § 1. F. volupté.

volvell, an instrument consisting of graduated and figured circles drawn on the leaf of a book, to the centre of which is attached one movable circle or more; ‘He turnyd his tirikkis, his volvell ran fast’, Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 1517. Fully described by Dyce, ii. 336. Med. L. volvella, volvellum; from L. volvere, to revolve.

vorloffe, ‘furlough’. B. Jonson, Staple of News, v. 1 (Picklock). Du. ‘verlof, leave, consent or permission’ (Hexham); Dan. forlov, leave, furlough, cp. G. verlaub, leave, permission.

votaress, a woman that is under a vow. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 123, 163; votress, Dryden, Palamon, iii. 225.

vote, an ardent wish, a prayer. Beaumont and Fl., Lover’s Progress, iv. 2 (Alcidon); Massinger, Guardian, v. 1 (Severino). L. votum, a desire, an ardent longing (Horace).

voward, for vaward, vanward, vanguard, North’s Plutarch, M. Brutus, § 29 (in Shak. Plut., p. 142); id., § 31, p. 147. F. avant-garde, vanguard. See vaunt.

vowess, a widow who made a vow to observe chastity in honour of her deceased husband; ‘In that church (Oseneie) lieth this ladie (Editha, wife of Robert d’Oyly) buried with hir image . . . in the habit of a vowesse’, Harrison, Desc. England, bk. ii, ch. 3 (ed. Furnivall, p. 74); Leland’s Itinerary (ed. Toulmin Smith, Pt. I, 83, 112, 124). In the church of Shalstone in Bucks. there is a monumental brass to the memory of Susan Kingstone, step-sister of Sir T. Elyot, on which she is described as a ‘vowess’; she died in the year 1540. For the widow’s vow of chastity, see Stow’s Survey (ed. Thoms, 70, footnote); Fosbrooke, British Monachism, 510.

wafer-woman, a seller of wafer-cakes, freq. mentioned in the dramatists as employed in amorous embassies; ‘Am I not able . . . to deliver a letter handsomely? . . . Why every wafer-woman will undertake it’, Fletcher, Maid in the Mill, i. 3. 12; Beaumont and Fl., Woman-hater, ii. 1 (Valerio); Webster, Devil’s Law-case, i. 2 (Romelio). Cp. what Chaucer says of wafereres (C. T. C. 479).

waff, to wave, waft; ‘He waffes [wafts] an armie out of France’, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. iii, ch. 18; waft, waved, beckoned; Merch. Ven. v. 1. 11. Still in prov. use in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Waff, vb.¹ 1), and in the north Midlands (Dr. Henry Bradley). See waft (2).

waft, a passing smell or taste, a ‘twang’. A Mad World, iv. 3 (near end); spelt weft, ‘Ill malting is theft, Wood-dride hath a weft’ (i.e. malt wood-dried has a tang), Tusser, Husbandry, § 84. See EDD. (s.v. Waft, sb.¹ 3).

waft, to wave; ‘Wafts her hand’, Heywood, Love’s Mistress, i. 1 (Admetus); vol. v, p. 100; to convey by water, King John, ii. 1. 73; 2 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 116; to invite by a motion of the hand, ‘Whom Fortune with her ivory hand wafts to her’, Timon, i. 1. 70; Hamlet, i. 4. 78; to turn quickly, ‘Wafting his eyes to the contrary’, Wint. Tale, i. 2. 372; to float, ‘Satan . . . now with ease wafts on the calmer wave’, Milton, P. L. ii. 1042.

wafture, the act of waving; ‘With an angry wafture of your hand’, Jul. Caes. ii. 1. 246. See waft (2).

wage, to stake as a wager; ‘The King hath waged with him six Barbary horses’, Hamlet, v. 2. 154; King Lear, i. 1. 158; to reward with wages, Coriolanus, v. 6. 40; to barter, exchange, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 18; to be opposed in combat, to contend, to strive, ‘To wage against the enmity o’ the air’, King Lear, ii. 4. 212; Webster, Appius, iii. 1 (Valerius); iii. 2 (Mar. Claudius).

wag-halter. Once a common term for a rogue or gallows-bird, one who is likely to make a halter wag or shake; ‘A wag-halter page’, Ford, The Fancies, i. 2; ‘Baboin, a trifling, busie or crafty knave; a crack rope, wag-halter, unhappy rogue, wretchless villain’, Cotgrave.

wagmoire, a quagmire. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 130. ‘Wagmire’ was once in prov. use in Glouc. and Devon (EDD.). From wag, to shake, see EDD. (s.v. Wag, 2).

wagpastie, a term of contempt; a rogue; ‘A little wagpastie, A deceiver of folkes’, Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 2.

wagtail, a contemptuous term for a profligate woman. Middleton, A Trick to catch, ii. 1 (Lucre); Shirley, Traitor, ii. 1 (Sciarrha).

waift, weft, a ‘waif’, a thing cast adrift; used by Spenser of a person, ‘She was flying like a weary weft’, F. Q. v. 3. 27; vi. 1. 18, wefte, iii. 10. 36; waift, iv. 12. 31.

waistcoat, a body-dress for a woman, like a man’s waistcoat; sometimes very costly. When worn without an upper dress, it was considered the mark of a profligate woman. Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieut. ii. 3 (Leucippe); Woman’s Prize, i. 4 (Livia); Loyal Subject, ii. 4 (Young Archas). Hence waistcoateer, a strumpet, Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieut. i. 1 (2 Usher); Wit without Money, iv. 4 (Luce).

wake, the feast of the dedication of a church, originally the vigil before the festival; the merry-making in connexion therewith; ‘He haunts wakes, fairs’, Winter’s Tale, iv. 3. 109; ‘At wakes and wassails’, L. L. L. v. 2. 318; wake-day, Tusser, Husbandry, § 90. 5. ‘Wake’ is in prov. use in various parts of England for an annual festival and holiday, often connected with the dedication of the parish church; the fair held at such times was also so called, see EDD. (s.v. Wake, sb.¹ 8). OE. wacu, a watch, a vigil; cp. wacana (‘vigilias’) in Luke ii. 8 (Lind.).

waker, wakeful. Sir T. Wyatt, The Lover confesseth him (ed. Bell, p. 66); Golding, Metam. xi. 599; fol. 139, bk. (1603). OE. wacor, wakeful, vigilant.

wale: the wale of cloth, the ridge or rib in cloth denoting its quality; ‘Thou’rt rougher far, and of a coarser wale’, Beaumont and Fl., Four Plays in One: Triumph of Honour, sc. i (Sophocles); Middleton, Mich. Term, ii. 3 (Easy). ME. wale, a stripe (Prompt.). OE. walu, a weal, mark of a blow (Napier, Glosses).

wales, pl. springs of water; ‘To cloudes alofte the wales and waters rise’, Mirror for Mag., Domitius Nero, st. 11; Golding, Metam. ii. 11. Probably the same word as wall, in prov. use for a spring of water in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Wall, sb.² 1).

walk the round, to be one of the watchmen. Massinger, Guardian, iii. 5 (Severino); to act as a watchman, go the round; B. Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2 (Face).

walking mort, a grown-up unmarried whore; often a pretended widow (Cant). Described in Harman’s Caveat, p. 67 (Aydelotte, p. 27); cp. Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Patrico).

wallope, to gallop. Morte Arthur, leaf 90. 33; bk. v, c. 11. In prov. use in the north country and E. Anglia (EDD.). ME. walloppyn, as an hors (Prompt. EETS. 538), Anglo-F. waloper, to gallop (see Bartsch, 544. 26); galoper (Rough List).

walm, a surge, bubbling up of water. Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, viii. 87. A north-country word for ‘a bubbling’ (EDD.). OE. wælm, surging water (Beowulf).

walter, to ‘welter’, roll. Peele, Sir Clyomon, l. 1. Hence waltering, a lolling (as snakes’ tongues), Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, ii, l. 267 (211 of Latin text); rolling, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 498 (Latin text). In prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and the north of England and E. Anglia. ME. walteryn (Prompt. EETS. 514).

†waltsome, disgusting, heinous; ‘O waltsome murder’, Mirror for Mag., Hastings, st. 30. Probably an intended improvement of ME. wlatsom, in an imitation of Chaucer: ‘Mordre is so wlatsom and abhominable’ (C. T. B. 4243). OE. wlætta, disgust, nausea (Sweet).

wamble, to rumble, to roll, to stir uneasily; used of food in the stomach. Fletcher, Mad Lover, i. 1 (Fool); Lyly, Endimion, iv. 2; ‘Allecter, to wamble as a queasie stomach doth’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in Scotland and in various parts of England north and south, see EDD. (s.v. 1). ME. wamelyn in the stomak, ‘nausio’ (Prompt. EETS. 538). Cp. Dan. vamle, to become squeamish, vammel, nauseous (Larsen).

wan, a winnowing-fan. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xi. 163, 164; explained as ‘a corn-cleanse fan’, id., xxiii. 416. L. vannus, a winnowing-fan. See Dict. (s.v. Fan).

wanhope, loss of hope, dejection, despair; ‘Wanhope, poor soule on broken anchor sits Wringing his armes, as robbed of his wits’, Glaucus (Nares). Still heard in Lancashire (EDD.). ME. wanhope, despair (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1249). Cp. Du. ‘wanhope, dispaire’ (Hexham).

waniand: phr. in the waniand, in the waning (moon), i.e. at an unlucky time; ‘He would . . . make them wed in the waniand’, Sir T. More, Wks., p. 306 h. ME. in the waniand (Minot, ed. T. Wright, i. 87); ‘In woo to wonne in the wanyand’ (York Plays, p. 124). OE. on wanigendum mōnan (Leechdoms, i. 320); wanian, to lessen, to wane. See Dict.

wanion: phr. with a wanion, with a vengeance, with ill-luck. Pericles, ii. 1. 17; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of B. Pestle, ii. 2 (Wife); B. Jonson, Staple of News, iii. 5; Eastward Ho (Nares). In prov. use in Scotland and Ireland. See above.

want, to be without, to lack. King John, iv. 1. 99; Coriolanus, i. 3. 90. Very common in Scotland, Ireland, and the north of England; ‘We wanted the plague in Scotland, when they had it in England’ (Scoticisms, 105), see EDD. (s.v. Want, vb. 8).

want, absence of a person; ‘His present want’ (= the present want of him, i.e. his being absent at present), 1 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 44; Shirley, Witty Fair One, i. 1. 17.

wanty, a horse’s belly-band; a girth used for securing a load on a pack-horse. Tusser, Husbandry, § 17. 5. Still in prov. use in various parts of England from Yorks. to the Isle of Wight (EDD.). OE. wamb belly + tīge, a band.

wanze away, to wane, vanish, disappear; ‘And all the things that liked him did wanze away’, Golding, Metam. iii. 501; fol. 38, back (1603); ‘Which wanz’d away againe’ (L. evanuit), id., vi. 47. ‘Wanze’ is an E. Anglian word used in the sense of wasting away. ME. wanson, ‘or wanyn as the mone, decresco’ (Prompt.); OE. wansian, to lessen.

wappe, to lap, used of the sound of water against the rocks, Morte Arthur, leaf 425. 5; bk. xxi, c. 5.

†wappened, over-worn (so Schmidt). Timon, iv. 3. 38. Probably a misprint for wappered. ‘Wappered’ is a Glouc. word for tired, fatigued (EDD.). See unwappered.

wapper-eyed, having quick restless eyes, sore-eyed, blear-eyed. Middleton, The Black Book, ed. Dyce, v. 528. Still in use in Devon and Somerset (EDD.).

ward, a ‘side’, or compartment of the Counter, or prison. There were two Counters, one in the Poultry, the other in Wood Street. The Counter had three ‘wards’ or ‘sides’, the Master’s side, the Two-penny Ward, and the Hole; and it was not uncommon for the debtors, as their means decreased, to descend gradually from the first to the last. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 4 (Carlo); v. 7 (Macilente).

ward, garrison, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 11. 15; the guard at the gate of a castle, id., iii. 11. 21; custody, prison, ‘To commit one to ward or prison, In custodiam tradere’, Baret, Alvearie; Bible, Gen. xl. 3; 2 Hen. VI, v. 1. 112; the guard in a prison, Acts xii. 10 (AV. and Wyclif).

ward, a guard made in fencing, a posture of defence. Temp. i. 2. 471; 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 215.

warden, a large coarse pear used for baking, Bacon, Essay 46; Wint. Tale, iv. 3. 48; by pop. etym. a keeping pear; ‘Poire de garde, a warden or winter-pear, a pair which may be kept very long’, Cotgrave; Beaumont and Fl., Cupid’s Revenge, ii. 3 (Dorialus); spelt wardon, Palsgrave. ME. wardon(e (Prompt. and Cath. Angl.). So named from Wardon (now Warden) in Beds. The arms of Wardon Abbey were argent, three warden-pears, or. See Dict. (s.v. Wardon).

warder, a staff or truncheon carried by one who presided at a tournament or combat. Richard II, i. 3. 118 (when the ‘warder’ was thrown down, the fight was stopped). ‘They fight; Robert and the Palatine cast their warders between them and part them’, Heywood, Four Prentises (stage-direction); vol. ii, p. 204.

ware, to spend money. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 122; Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 43. Very common in the north country; in Yorks. (N. Riding) they say, ‘He wares nowt, for he addles nowt’, see EDD. (sv. Ware, vb.¹ 9). ME. waryn in chaffare ‘mercor’, (Prompt. EETS. 539, see note, no. 2636). Icel. verja, to clothe, to invest money, to spend.

ware, to bid any one beware; ‘I’ll ware them to mel’ (i.e. I’ll teach them to beware of meddling), Heywood, Witches of Lancs. iv (Parnell); vol. iv, p. 234.

warison, gift, recompense. Morte Arthur, leaf 186, back, 35; bk. ix, ch. 22. ME. warisoun, requital (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 1537); warysone (Prompt. EETS. 516). Norm. F. guarison (garison), ‘vivres, moyens de subsistance’ (Moisy, 500).

warke, work. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 145; F. Q. ii. 1. 32. A north-country pronunc., see EDD. (s.v. Work).

†warling (?), in the proverb, ‘Better be an old man’s darling, than a young man’s warling’, Barry, Ram. Alley, ii (Adriana); Heywood’s Proverbs (ed. Farmer, pp. 80, 130). [In Ray’s Proverbs (ed. Bohn, p. 45), ‘snarling’ is the word used instead of ‘warling’.]

warp. ‘A pitchy cloud Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind’ (i.e. working themselves forward—the metaphor is of a ship), Milton, P. L. i. 341. In Scotland used of the flight of a swarm of bees, see EDD. (s.v. Warp, vb.¹ 9).

warray, to harass with war, Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 48; Fairfax, Tasso, i. 6. ME. warray, to make war (Barbour’s Bruce, see Glossary); werray (Wars Alex. 2495); werreyen (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1544). Anglo-F. werreier, to make war (F. guerroyer). See Dict. (s.v. War).

warre: in phr. warre old; ‘But when the world woxe old, it woxe warre old (whereof it hight)’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 31. The meaning is that when the world grew old, it grew worse, and that from warre old or war-old, the word ‘world’ is derived; cp. Shep. Kal., Sept., 108, ‘They sayne the world is much war then it wont’. The word ‘warre’ (or ‘war’) is in prov. use in the north country and in Ireland, see EDD. (s.v. War, adj.¹). ME. werre, worse (Ormulum, 4898). Icel. verr, adv., verri, adj., worse.

warrie, gnarled, knotted. Golding, Metam. viii. 743 (fol. 104; 1603); also warryed, id., xiii. 799. OE. wearrig, having callosities, deriv. of wearr, a callosity (Sweet).

wary, to curse. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2266. See EDD. (s.v. Wary, vb.²). ME. warien, to curse (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 1619), OE. wergian.

washical, ‘what shall I call’; a name for a thing that one does not take the trouble to mention. Gammer Gurton’s Needle, v. 2 (Hodge).

wasp, used metaph. for a petulant or spiteful person. Tam. Shrew, ii. 1. 210; Beaumont and Fl., King and no King, iv. 3 (1 Swordsman). So used in Scotland (EDD.).

wassail, a drinking-bout, a carouse; ‘At wakes and wassails’, L. L. L. v. 2. 318; Macbeth, i. 7. 64; Hamlet, i. 4. 9; ‘A wassail candle’, 2 Hen. IV, i. 2. 179 (a large candle lighted up at a feast). The word ‘wassail’, well known in Yorks. in connexion with old Christmas ceremonies and festivities; for ample details, see EDD. It was originally a phrase used at a banquet. In Laȝamon, Rowena presents a cup to Vortigern with the words wæs hail (wassail), a salutation, meaning ‘be hale, be in good health’. O. Sax. wes hēl, be hale: so in the salutation of the Virgin, hēl wis thu = Ave! (Vulgate, Luke i. 28); so also in Anglo-Saxon Gospels, hāl wes ðu! See Dict.

waster, a cudgel; ‘The youthes of this citie have used on holy dayes . . . to exercise their wasters and bucklers’, Stow’s Survey (ed. Thoms, p. 36); Mad Men of Gotham, 19 (Nares); to play at wasters, Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, iv. 3 (Countryman); Burton, Anat. Mel. (Naros); to win at wasters, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, ii. 3 (Candido); ‘Bastone, any kind of cudgel, waster, or club’, Florio.

Wat, a name for a hare. Venus and Ad. 697; Drayton, Pol. xxiii. 331; Levins, Manipulus. In prov. use (EDD.). Properly a pet-name for Walter (Water).

watch, a time-piece, clock. Richard II, v. 5. 52. Probably, a candle marked out into sections, each of which was a certain portion of time in burning, Richard III, v. 3. 63.

watchet, pale blue. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 4. 40; Marston, Malcontent, iii. 1 (Bilioso); Drayton, Pol. v. 13. ME. wachet, light blue colour (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3321). See Dict.

Water, a pronunciation of the Christian name Walter, see 2 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 35. ME. Wateere or Water, ‘propyr name of a man, Walterus’ (Prompt. EETS. 517, see note, no. 2530). Anglo-F. Gualtier (Ch. Rol. 2039), Norm. F. Waltier. Of Teutonic origin, cp. OE. Wealdhere (power + army), see Oldest Eng. Texts, 537.

water-gall, a second rainbow seen above the first; a fragment of a rainbow appearing on the horizon; Lucrece, 1588. A Hampshire word, see EDD. (s.v. Water, 1 (50)).

water-work, painting executed in water-colour; ‘The German hunting in water-work’, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 158.

wawes, waves. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 4. ME. wawe, a wave (Chaucer, C. T. B. 508); ‘a wawe of the see’ (Wyclif, James i. 6). Icel. vāgr, a wave.

wax: phr. a man of wax, Romeo, i. 3. 76 (as pretty as if he had been modelled in wax); so, a prince of wax, Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, i. 1 (Megra). Cp. ‘a lad of wax’, ‘a man of wax’, in prov. use in Durham and west Yorks., see EDD. (s.v. Wax, sb.² 4), where the expressions are associated with the vb. wax (to grow).

waxen, pr. pl., they increase. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 56. The ME. pres. pl. in the Midland dialect. For the geographical area of the pres. pl. in n, sn, see Wright’s English Dialect Grammar, § 435.

way, to go on one’s way, to journey; ‘As they together wayd’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 12.

way, to ‘weigh’. Spenser, F. Q. v. 2. 46; ‘Full many things so doubtfull to be wayd’, id., iv. 1. 7; to esteem, ‘All that she so deare did way’, id., vii. 6. 55.

wayment, to lament. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 16. ME. waymenten (Chaucer, C. T. I. 230). Norm. F. guaimenter, waimenter: ‘Les virgines d’els ne guaimenterent’ (Ps. lxxvii. 69, ed. Michel, 111); see Moisy.

wealth, welfare, prosperity. Merch. Ven. v. 1. 249; Hamlet, iv. 4. 27; ‘The thinges that shuld have bene for their welth’ (AV. welfare), Ps. lxix. 23 (A.D. 1539); ‘wealth, peace and godliness’, Prayer Book (Collect for King). ME. welthe, prosperity, well-being (Gower, C. A. ii. 1207).

wear, the fashion, that which is worn; ‘It is not the wear’, Meas. for M. iii. 2. 78.

weather: phr. To make fair weather, to conciliate another with fair words, Much Ado, i. 3. 25; 2 Hen. VI, v. 1. 30. Cp. the proverb, ‘Two women placed together make foul weather’, Hen. VIII, i. 4. 22.

weave, to float backwards and forwards; ‘Amidst the billowes beating of her, Twixt life and death long to and fro she weaved’, Spenser, F. Q. v. 4. 10. See EDD.

weaver, a fish, having sharp spines; the Trachinus draco, or T. vipera. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 167. Cp. ME. wivere, a serpent (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 1010); Anglo-F. wivre, a serpent, viper; esp. in blazon; L. vipera, a viper; see Dict. (s.v. Wyvern).

web and pin, a disorder of the eyesight. King Lear, iii. 4. 122; pin and web, i. 2. 291. From web, a film; and pin, a small spot. In E. Anglia ‘web’ is used for a film over the eye, see EDD. (s.v. Web, 4).

weel, a wicker trap or basket used for catching eels, &c. Heywood, Anna and Phillis, vol. vi, p. 309; Tusser, Husbandry, § 36, st. 31. In gen. prov. use in the Midlands (EDD.).

weeld, the ‘weald’ of Kent; ‘I was born and lerned myn englissh in Kente in the weeld’, Caxton, Historyes of Troye, preface. See Dict. (s.v. Weald).

ween, to suppose, think; wend, pt. t., Spenser, F. Q. vii. 6. 11. ME. wenen (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1655); OE. wēnan.

Weeping Cross. Nares notes that there were at least three crosses so named, near Oxford, Stafford, and Shrewsbury respectively. To come home (or return) by Weeping Cross, to repent of an undertaking, Lyly, Euphues, p. 243.

weesel, weasand, windpipe. Peele, David, ed. Dyce. p. 465, col. 2. Spelt wizzel, Mayne, City Match, iii. 4 (Quartfield). Cp. Bavarian dial. waisel, the gullet of animals that chew the cud (Schmeller).

wee’st heart, woe is the heart (of me)! Congreve, Love for Love, ii. 1 (Nurse). ‘Wae’s t’ heart,’ ‘Wae’s heart of me,’ are Yorks. exclamations; ‘Wae’s my heart’ is of frequent occurrence in Scottish poetry, see EDD. (s.v. Woe, 2).

weet, wet; ‘Till all the world is weet’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 9. 33. This is a common pronunc. of ‘wet’ in the north country and E. Anglia (EDD.). ME. weet, wet (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4107). OE. wǣt.

weet, to know, Spenser, F. Q. i. 3. 6. Fairfax, Tasso, v. 86. This is a northern pronunc. of ‘wit’ (to know), see EDD. (s.v. Wit, vb.). ME. wetyn, to know (Prompt. EETS. 545).

weird: in phr. the weird sisters, used of the three witches, as foretelling destiny, Macbeth, iv. 1. 136. The expression is taken from Holinshed’s Chronicle of Scotland; it was used by Gawin Douglas (Virgil, 80, 48) for the Parcae or Fates; ‘Cloto, una de tribus parcis quae finguntur regere vitam hominis, anglice, one of the thre Weyrde systers’, Pynson’s Ortus Vocabulorum (ed. 1509). See Grimm, Teut. Myth. 407. See werd.

weld, to wield, govern. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 32; vi. 8. 11; Shep. Kal., Oct., 40; to wield, to carry, Kyd, Span. Tragedy, i. 4. 35; to weld oneself, to erect oneself, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 699 (L. se tollit). ME. welden, to wield, to control (Chaucer, C. T. D. 271), to move with ease (C. T. D. 1947).

welk, to fade, to grow dim (of the sun in the west). Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 23; to cause to grow dim, ‘But nowe sadde Winter welked hath the day’, Shep. Kal., Nov., 13. Cp. prov. use of ‘welk’ in the sense of to fade, to wither (used of plants, see EDD., s.v. Welk, vb¹). ME. welke, to wither (Chaucer, C. T. D. 277). Cp. G. welken, to wither.

welked, withered, faded; ‘Her wealked face with woful teares besprent’, Sackville, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 12. ME. welked, withered (Chaucer, C. T. D. 277).

welked, curved, twisted, applied to horns; ‘Welked horns’, Golding’s Ovid, occurring three times, pp. 60, 107, and 122 (ed. 1603); ‘Hornes welkt and waved like the enraged Sea’, King Lear, iv. 6. 71; ‘And setting fire upon the welked shrouds’ (i.e. the curved clouds), Drayton, Barons’ Wars, vi. 39 (Nares).

welkin, the sky; ‘Look on me with your welkin eye’ (i.e. heavenly or sky-blue eye), Winter’s Tale, i. 2. 136. ME. welken, the sky (Chaucer, Hous F. iii. 1601). OE. wolcen, a cloud, also wolcnan, clouds. Cp. G. wolke, a cloud.

Pericles, iii, Prol. 51; Look about You, sc. 2, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 397. An obsolete north-country exclamation—written well-aneer and well-an-ere (EDD.).

well-liking, in good condition, plump, L. L. L. v. 2. 268; ‘They . . . shalbe fatt and well lykenge’, Ps. xcii. 13 (Great Bible, 1539).

well said!, really meaning ‘well done!’, Westward Ho, ii. 2 (Birdlime). Common.

Welshman’s hose. Nares takes this to mean ‘no hose at all’, as denoting something non-existent or wholly indefinite; but perhaps the Welshman of the phrase was accused of wearing his ‘hose’ hind part before; ‘The lawes wee did interprete and statutes of the land, Not truely by the texte, but newly by a glose: And wordes that were most playne, when they by us were skand, Wee tourned by construction to a Welshman’s hose’, Mirror for Mag., Tresilian, st. 15.

wennel, a weaned animal. Tusser, Husbandry, § 20, 28; ‘A lamb or a kid or a weanell wast’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 198 (weanell wast prob. means ‘a stray weanling’). ‘Wennel’ is an E. Anglian word for a weaned calf (EDD.).

went, a path, a way; ‘Tract of living went’ (i.e. trace of living way, of any way which living men use), Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 47; v. 4. 46; v. 6. 3. ‘Went’ in many applications is in prov. use in many parts of Great Britain; see EDD. ME. wente, a way, passage (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 787).

werd, fate, destiny; ‘The wofull werd’, Sackville, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 63. In prov. use in this sense in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Weird, 1). ME. werd, fate, destiny (Wars Alex. 3247); werdis, destinies (Barbour’s Bruce, ii. 329). OE. wyrd, fate, destiny; Wyrde, the Fates. Parcae, The Weird Sisters (B. T.). Icel. Urðr (in poetry), one of the Norns, see Grimm, Teut. Myth, 405. See weird.

werish, tasteless, insipid; ‘Dawcockes, lowtes, cockescombes and blockhedded fooles were . . . said betizare to be as werishe and as unsavery as beetes’, Udall, tr. Apoph., Diogenes, § 85; ‘Werysshe as meate is that is nat well tastye, mal savouré’, Palsgrave; wearish, weak, delicate, puny, sickly-looking, ‘A wretched wearish elfe’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 5. 34; weerish, Drayton, Pol. xxix. 62; waryish, Golding, Metam. ii. 776. See Nares (s.v. Wearish). In prov. use, in many forms, in various parts of Great Britain, see EDD. (s.v. Wairsh).

werwolf, a man changed into a wolf by enchantment; ‘She made hym seuen yere a werwolf’, Morte Arthur, leaf 397, 17; bk. xix, c. 11; warwolf, Drayton, Man in the Moon, 13. ME. werwolf (Will. of Palerne, 80), MHG. werwolf, a man-wolf; cp. Med. L. gerulphus (Ducange), OF. garou, cp. F. loup-garou (Hatzfeld). See Dict.

wetewold, a ‘wittol’, a contented cuckold. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 187; Assembly of Gods, 710 (see Notes by Dyce, on Skelton, ii. 305). See wittol.

wet finger: phr. with a wet finger, easily, readily. Beaumont and Fl., Cupid’s Revenge, iv. 3 (Citizen); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, i. 2. 5; id., Gul’s Hornbook; Heywood’s Proverbs (ed. Farmer, p. 95; see Word-List). It prob. means as easy as turning over the leaf of a book, or rubbing out writing on a slate with a wet finger, or tracing a lady’s name on the table with spilt wine (Farmer).

wethering, weathering, seasoning due to exposure to weather. Latimer, Sermon on the Ploughers (ed. Arber, p. 24). In prov. use in Norfolk, see EDD. (s.v. Weather, vb. 8).

wexing, waxing (as the moon). Dryden, Annus Mirab., st. 4. ME. wexe, to grow (Wyclif, Matt. xiii. 30).

wharrow, a little instrument fixed on a spindle for the string of the ‘turn’ to run in; a small pulley on a spindle. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 298. See passage from Guillim’s Display of Heraldry (ed. 1724, p. 300), quoted in EDD. (s.v.). Cognate with OE. hweorfa, the ‘whorl’ which helps to turn the spindle (B. T.).

what, whatsoever thing; ‘Such homely what as serves the simple clowne’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 9. 7; ‘Come downe and learne the little what that Thomalin can sayne’, Shep. Kal., July, 31.

whelk, a pimple, blotch. Hen. V, iii. 6. 108. A Derbyshire word, see EDD. (s.v. Whelk, sb.²). ME. whelke (Chaucer, C. T. A. 632).

when, (?) an exclamation of impatience. Short for ‘when will you do what is bidden you?’, Webster, Duch. of Malfi, ii. 1 (Duchess); iv. 2 (Bosola). Common.

where, whereas; wherever; whence. L. L. L. ii. 1. 103; Mids. Night’s D. v. 1. 93; Hen. V, iii. 5. 15.

whereas, where that, where. 2 Hen. VI, i. 2. 58; Pericles, i. 4. 70. Not uncommon.

where-some-ere, wheresoever. Greene, Alphonsus, i. 2. G. Wheresomever is heard in Lanc. (EDD.).

wherrit, whirrit, a blow, a thump, a smart box on the ear. Fletcher, Nice Valour, iii. 2 (Lapet); ‘A whirret on the eare’, Kendall, Flowers of Epigrammes’ (Nares). Still in prov. use in the north (EDD.).

whether, which of the two. Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 6. 352, ‘Whether of them twayne’, Tyndale, Matt. xxi. 31.

whew, to whirl, to hurry; ‘I whew it away’, Buckingham, The Rehearsal, ii. 4. 7. So in the Lake country, ‘He whew’d his clog throo t’window’, see EDD. (s.v. Whew, vb.² 2).

whiblin, a trick, device. Marston, Insatiate Countess, ii. 2 (Rogero). Cp. quiblin. Cp. the obsolete Dorset word ‘whibble’, to lie (EDD.).

whiblin, an impotent creature; a term of contempt. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, i. 2 (Fustigo). See whimling.

whids, words; to cut bene whids, to speak good words (Cant). Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen). [A rousing whid, a great lie, Burns, Death and Dr. Hornbook, st. 1.] The Slang Dict. (1874) says that whid for a ‘word’ or a ‘falsehood’ is modern slang from the ancient cant.

whiff, a special way of taking tobacco; ‘Capers, healths, and whiffs’, Marston, What You Will, ii. 1 (Laverdure); taking the whiff, B. Jonson, Every Man out of Humour, Character of Shift (prefixed to the play).

whiffler, an officer who clears the way for a procession. Henry V, v, chorus, 12; Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 523. ‘Whifflers’ (fifers) usually went first in a procession; the term was then applied to those who went forward (without any musical instrument) to clear the way for the procession of a sovereign or of a city corporation. See Nares; and EDD. (s.v. Whiffle, vb.¹ 1 (2)).

whig, whey, sour milk, buttermilk. Greene, Description of the Shepherd, l. 29; ed. Dyce, p. 304. Cp. the Linc. expression, ‘As sour as whig’ (EDD.).

whigh-hie, wi-hee, a sound imitative of the neighing of a horse. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, ii. 1 (Sogliardo); Fletcher, Women Pleased, iv. 1 (Bomby). Hence, wyhee, v., to neigh; Marston, The Fawn, iv. 1 (Dondolo).

while, until. Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iv. 4 (Tamb.). Macbeth, iii. 1. 44; Richard II, i. 3. 122; see Schmidt. Very common in the north, also in E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. While, 6).

whiles, until; ‘Whyles tomorowe’, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 83; Twelfth Nt. iv. 3. 29. See EDD. (s.v. Whiles, 4).

whimling (a term of contempt), a poor creature. Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, iv. 7 (Mother). Probably the same word as ‘wimbling’, also written ‘whimbling’, used in the Midlands of plants that are long, thin, and of feeble growth, see EDD. See whiblin (2).

whimp, to whimper; ‘Wil whympe and whine’, Latimer, Sermons (ed. Arber, p. 77). Cp. the prov. words ‘wimp’ and ‘whimper’ in EDD.

whip, to move quickly. Sackville, Induction, st. 5; Much Ado, i. 3. 63; to whip out, to draw out quickly, ‘He whips his rapier out’, Hamlet, iv. 1. 10. See EDD.

whip-cat, drunken; ‘Whip-cat bowling’, drunken emptying of bowls, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 367. See Halliwell. In Worc. a ‘whip-cat’ means a farmer’s feast after bean-setting, see EDD. (s.v. Whip, 1 (4)); ‘To whip the cat’, to get tipsy (Halliwell).

whip-her-ginney, the name of a game of cards. Mentioned in Taylor’s Works (Nares). Spelt whip-her-jenny, ‘a game at cards, borrowed from the Welsh’, Halliwell.

whip-jack, a sham sailor who begs. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll); used as a term of reproach generally, ‘One Boner, a bare whippe Jacke for lucre of money toke upon him to be thy father’, Bp. Ponet in Maitland on Reformation, p. 74. [‘Sir Charles Grandison is none of your gew-gaw whip-jacks that you know not where to have’, Richardson, Grandison, vi. 156.] See Davies.

whipstock, the handle of a whip. Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 28; Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 2. 95. Also, a carter; as a term of abuse, Tomkis, Albumazar, iv. 4 (end). The equivalent term whipstalk occurs in the Spanish Tragedy (Nares).

whirlbat, a ‘cestus’, or weighty boxing-glove. Dryden, Pref. to Fables, § 3 from end. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, viii. 285; written whoorlbat, id., Iliad xxiii, 538. See Davies (s.v. Whirly-bat).

whirlpit, a whirlpool. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xxi. 223; Sandys, Paraph. Exod. xv; Marmyon’s Fine Companion; Holland, tr. Ammianus (Nares).

whirlpool, a sea-monster of the whale kind; perhaps the cachalot or sperm-whale, which is distinguished from other whales by its peculiar manner of blowing; ‘A whale or a whirlepoole’, Bible, Job xli. 1 (marginal rendering of Leviathan); Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 23; ‘Tinet, the Whall tearmed a Horlepoole or Whirlepoole’, Cotgrave; Holland’s Pliny, bk. ix, ch. 3; spelt wherlpoole, Drayton, Pol. xx. 100; wherpoole, id., xxv. 174. See Wright, Bible Word-Book.

whirry, to whirl along, to whirl away, to hurry off, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, iii. 611; wherry, Dekker, O. Fortunatus, iv. 2 (Agripyne); whurry, Taylor’s Works (Nares); whorry, Herrick, To Bacchus, a Canticle. See EDD. (s.v. Whirry, vb. 3).

whiskin, a wanton person, Ford, Fancies Chaste, iv. 1 (Secco); a pandaress, Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, iv. 2 (Steward). See pimp-whiskin.

whist, to keep silence; ‘They whisted all’, Surrey, tr. Aeneid, ii. 1; ‘They whusted all’, Phaer, tr. Aeneid, ii. 1; put to silence, ‘So was the Titanesse put downe and whist’, Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 59; as adj., still, silent, ‘Where all is whist and still’, Marlowe, Hero and L. (Nares); ‘All the companie must be whist’, Holinshed, Desc. of Ireland (ed. 1808, p. 67); ‘The winds with wonder whist’, Milton, Hymn Nat. 64; whistly, silently, Arden of Feversham, iii. 3. 9. ME. whist! (Wyclif, Judges xviii. 19). See whust.

whister, a blow; Whisterpoop, a smart blow or smack on the ear or ‘chops’, London Prodigal, ii. 1. 68 [A Linc., Somerset, and Devon word (EDD.)]; Whistersnefet, Udall, tr. Apoph., Diogenes, § 72 [Cp. whistersniff, a Hampshire word (EDD.)]. See Davies.

white, the central circle on an archery butt. Tam. Shrew, v. 2. 186; ‘Blanc, the white or mark of a pair of butts; Toucher au blanc, to strike the white, to hit the nail on the head’, Cotgrave.

white, used in expressions of endearment: white boy; ‘Such a brave sparke as you, that is your mother’s white boy’, Two Lancashire Lovers (Nares); Knight of the Burning Pestle, ii. 2 (Mrs. Merrythought); Ford, ’Tis Pity, i. 3; Yorkshire Tragedy, iv. 120; Two Angry Women, iii. 2 (Mall); ‘I shall be his little rogue and his white villain’, Return from Parnassus, ii. 6 (end).

whitemeat, food made of milk, eggs, bread, and the like. Northward Ho, i. 2 (Philip); B. Jonson, Every Man out of Humour, iv. 1 (Fallace); used attrib. and metaph., ‘Your whitemeat spirit’, Beaumont and Fl., Four Plays in One, Pt. II, sc. 2. 13.

white money, silver coin. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, ii. 2 (Galatea). In use in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. White, 1. 160).

white-pot, a dish made of milk, eggs, and sugar, &c., boiled in a pot. Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 4 (Eyre); Butler, Hud. i. 1. 299; Spectator, No. 109, § 4. ‘Whitpot’ is the name of a favourite dish in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. White, 1 (64)). See Nares.

white powder, a white kind of gunpowder. It does not appear to have existed; but there was a theory that a white gunpowder would explode without noise. Discussed by Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. ii, ch. 5, sect. 5. Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, ii. 2 (Laverdine). See Nares.

whiting-mop, a young whiting. Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, ii. 2; metaph. a fair lass, Massinger, Guardian, iv. 2. So whiting, Skelton, El. Rummyng, 223.

whitleather, white leather, leather dressed with alum, and very tough. Tusser, Husbandry, § 17. 4; ‘In thy whitleather hide’, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 1 (Elder Loveless).

whitster, a bleacher of linen. Merry Wives, iii. 3. 15; Pepys, Diary, Aug. 12, 1667; whitstarre. Palsgrave. ‘Whitster’s Arms’ is still a common alehouse sign in Lanc. (EDD.). ME. whytestare, ‘candidarius’ (Prompt. EETS. 526, see note, no. 2565). See Bardsley’s Surnames, 328, 329.

whittle, a small clasp-knife. Timon, v. 1. 183; Middleton, The Widow, iii. 2 (Francisco). In gen. prov. use in this sense, see EDD. (s.v. Whittle, sb.¹ 1). ME. thwitel, a knife (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3933), deriv. of thwiten, to pare or cut little pieces from a thing; OE. þwītan, to cut out, cognate with Icel. þveit, a piece of land, common in place-names in the north of England, e.g. Seathwaite, Langthwaite, Postlethwaite.

whittled, drunk, intoxicated. Lyly, Mother Bombie, iii. 2 (Lucio); whitled, Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 498, l. 4. See Nares. Given as an obsolete prov. word in use in the north of England (EDD.). Cp. the slang term ‘cut’ for tipsy, somewhat drunk, see EDD. (s.v. Cut, ppl. adj.).

whome, home; ‘He wil paye whome’, Latimer, pref. to 2 Sermon bef. King (ed. Arber, p. 48). So pronounced in Wilts. and Shropshire; in north Devon ‘whum’, see EDD. (s.v. Home).

whoobub, hubbub. Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 629; Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 5. (or 6) 35; whobub, Beaumont and Fl., iv. 1 (Soto).

whoop!, an exclamation. King Lear, i. 4. 245; Hence, to whoop, ‘The shepheard whoop’d for joy’, Drayton, Shepherd’s Garland; ‘We are whoop’d’ (i.e. cried ‘whoop’ upon), Fletcher, Maid in a Mill, iii. 2 (Franio).

who-some-ere, whosoever. Greene, Alphonsus, i. 1. 15. So also where-some-ere, wheresoever, id., i. 2. 6. A parallel formation to whosoever, with the Icel. conj. sem (Norw. dial., Danish and Swedish som), as, that, sec EDD. (s.v. Howsomever).

whule, to cry plaintively, to whine, howl. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xii. 135; Palsgrave, p. 785. A Suffolk word, see EDD. (s.v. Whewl).

whust, to keep silence; ‘They whusted all’, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 1; to leave anything unsaid, ‘The libertie of an hystorie requireth that all shoulde bee related and nothing whusted’, Holinshed’s Chronicles (Nares); Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 357. See whist.

wicker, pliant; ‘Bird! how she flutters with her wicker wings!’, B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. i. 2 (Æglamour).

wigher, to neigh as a horse. Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, iii. 2 (Dindimus). Cp. G. wiehern, to neigh.

wight, wyght, active. Morte Arthur, leaf 172, back, 30; bk. ix, c. 4; ‘Wyght or stronge, fort’, Palsgrave; Spenser, Shep. Kal., March, 91. In prov. use in the north of England (EDD.). ME. wight, active (Chaucer, C. T. B. 3457). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Wight).

Wild: the Wild of Kent, the Weald of Kent, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 60; ‘I was borne in the wylde of Kent’, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 268). In EDD. we find that the Weald of Sussex is always spoken of as The Wild by the people who live in the Downs, and the inhabitants of the Downs call the dwellers of ‘The Wild’ the wild people. ‘The Wild of Surrey’ is described in Marshall’s Review (1817, v. 355). The same word as the adj. ‘wild’, see Dict. (s.v. Weald).

wildered, bewildered. Dryden, Hind and Panther, ii. 682. In prov. use in Scotland (EDD.).

wilding, a crab-apple. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 2 (Maudlin); Warner, Albion’s England, iv. 20. Still in prov. use in the Midlands and in the west country (EDD.).

will, to desire, signify one’s will to. Webster, Sir T. Wyatt (Arundel), ed. Dyce, p. 188; Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, ii, l. 50.

willow, worn as an emblem of unhappy love. Much Ado, ii. 1. 194, 225; ‘Wear the willow garland’, 3 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 100; ‘A green willow must be my garland’, Othello, iv. 3. 50.

wilsome, wylsome, wandering, devious; ‘Wylsome wayes’, Morte Arthur, leaf 124. 11; bk. vii, c. 22. In Scotland ‘wilsome’ is used in the sense of bewildered, lonely, dreary, desolate; see EDD. (s.v. Will, adj. 1 (3)). ME. wylsum: ‘Mony wylsum way he rode’ (Gawayne, 689); wilsom (Wars Alex. 4076, 5565). Icel. villr, bewildered, erring, astray.

wimble, quick, lively, active. Spenser, Shep. Kal., March, 91; Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, iii. 2 (Feliche). In prov. use in the north of England and the Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. Wimble, adj.).

winbrow, an eyebrow. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 270, back, 12. Low G. winbrāwe, an eyebrow (Lübben); cp. OHG. wintbrāwa, wintbrā, winbrā, an eyebrow (Schade).

windlace, a winding or circuitous way; ‘By slie driftes and windlaces aloofe’, Mirror for Mag., Glocester, st. 46; ‘Fetching a windlesse’, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 270); windlasses, pl., Hamlet, ii. 1. 65; spelt winlas, Golding, Metam. vii. 784 (= L. gyrum).

windore, a window. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 59; Diogenes, § 120; Butler, Hud. ii. 2. 369. Still heard in Glouc. (EDD.).

window-bars, lattice-work, cross-work of narrow bands across a woman’s bosom. Timon, iv. 3. 116.

wind-sucker, a kestrel; used fig. for a covetous person. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, i (end). In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Wind, sb.¹ 1 (40)). See Nares.

winter-ground, to cover up in the ground so as to protect plants from the winter; ‘Furr’d moss . . . To winter-ground thy corse’, Cymbeline, iv. 2. 229.

wirt, a smart box on the ear. North, Plutarch, M. Brutus, § 6 (in Shaks. Plut., p. 112). See wherrit.

wish, to commend one to another. Tam. Shrew, i. 1. 113; Match at Midnight, iv. 1 (Sim).

wishly, with eager desire; ‘To putte on his spectacles and pore better and more wishely with his olde eyen on Saynt Johns ghospell’, Sir T. More, Works, p. 1134 (Richardson); Palsgrave, p. 613.

wisket, a small basket; ‘Wysket, sportula’, Levins, Manipulus. In prov. use in various parts of England; see EDD.

wistly, attentively, observingly; ‘She . . . wistly on him gazed’, Lucrece, 1355; Venus and Ad. 343; Passionate Pilgrim, 82; Richard II, v. 4. 7. Perhaps the same word as whistly, silently, and so, with mute attention. See whist.

wit: The five wits, the five faculties of the mind, common sense, imagination, fancy, estimation, memory, Much Ado, i. 1. 67; Sonnet cxli, 9. See Nares.

wit, to know. Greene, James IV, iv. 2. 3; Pericles, iv. 4. 31; 1 Hen. VI, ii. 5. 16. ME. witen (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 1324). OE. witan. See wist, wot.

wite, to blame. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 16; Shep. Kal., Aug., 136; wite, blame, F. Q. vi. 3. 16. In prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and in the north of England (EDD.). ME. witen (wyten), to blame, reproach (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 825), OE. wītan.

with, wyth, a twisted band of willow; ‘A wyth take him!’ (i.e. hang him—said of an Irishman), Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, iii. 2 (1 Servant); ‘An Irish Rebell condemned, put up a Petition to the Deputie, that he might be hanged in a With, and not in an Halter, because it had beene so used with former Rebels’, Bacon, Essay 39. In prov. use; see EDD. (s.v. With, sb.¹). See Dict. (s.v. Withy).

withal = with, as placed at the end of the sentence. As You Like It, iii. 2. 328; used in the sense of likewise, besides, at the same time, Bible, 1 Kings xix. 1; Ps. cxli. 10; Acts xxv. 27; ‘Though he be merry, yet withal he’s honest’, Taming Shrew, iii. 2. 25; Bacon, Essay 58; phr. to do withal, ‘They fell sick and died: I could not do withal’ (i.e. I could not help it), Merch. Ven. iii. 4. 72; Northward Ho, iv (Doll); Cure for a Cuckold, iv. 2 (Urse). See Wright’s Bible Word-Book.

withdrawing-chamber, (the modern) drawing-room. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 24).

witness, a sponsor in Baptism, a godfather or godmother. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Littlewit); Magn. Lady, iv. 3. 16. So in Devon (EDD.).

wittol, a tame cuckold knowing himself to be so. Merry Wives, ii. 1. 3; B. Jonson, The Fox, v. 1 (Mosca); Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, iii. 2 (Gomere); ‘Jannin, a wittall, one that knows and bears with or winks at his wife’s dishonesty’, Cotgrave. Bp. Hall uses the form witwal, which may be the older form, ‘Fond wit-wal, that wouldst load thy witless head With timely horns before thy bridal bed’ (Sat. i. 7. 17). The word orig. was a name for the green woodpecker, ‘Godáno, a witwall, a woodwall’, Florio. The ‘witwall’, like the cuckoo, was the subject of ribald jests. In Cheshire and Glouc. ‘witwall’ is a name for the woodpecker; in Suffolk a contented cuckold is called a ‘wittol’; see EDD. See wetewold.

woe, sad, sorrowful. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 53; Temp. v. 1. 139; 2 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 73. In the north country very common in prov. use, pronounced wae: ‘I would be wae for the wife’s sake’, see EDD. (s.v. Woe, 3).

woman-tired, henpecked; ‘Thou art woman-tired, unroosted by thy dame Partlet here’, Wint. Tale, ii. 3. 74.

wondered, gifted with power to perform miracles; ‘So rare a wonder’d father’, Temp. iv. 1. 123.

wone, won, spellings of one; ‘Let no suche a wone prepare unto himself manye horsses’; Latimer, Sermons (ed. Arber, p. 32); ‘Att won houre’, Tyndale, Rev. xviii. 10 (1526). So also wons, once; Qu. Elizabeth, tr. of Boethius, bk. i, met. 3. See Index to Wright’s English Dialect Grammar (s.v. One).

wonne, to dwell. Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 39; iii. 1. 2; wonned, pt. t. Shep. Kal., Sept., 181; woon, pr. t. subj. dwell, may dwell; Virgil’s Gnat, 18. ME. wone, to dwell (Chaucer, C. T. D. 1573), OE. wunian, to dwell.

wonne, dwelling, habitation. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 20 ME. wone, a dwelling (P. Plowman, C. iv. 141).

wood, mad, furious with rage or temper. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 192; 1 Hen. VI, iv. 7. 35. In prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and the north of England down to Linc. (EDD.). ME. wood, mad (Chaucer, C. T. A. 184). OE. wōd.

wood-bind, woodbine. Shirley, Love Tricks, ii. 2 (Cornelio); wood-bind tree, id., iv. 2 (Felice); Drayton, Pol. xv. 152. ME. wodebynde (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1508). OE. wudebinde (Voc. 137. 5).

woodcock, a simpleton. Much Ado, v. 1. 158. Because a woodcock was easily caught in nets set for it at twilight in glades; cp. cockshut. ‘Go, like a woodcock, And thrust your neck i’ the noose’, Beaumont and Fl., Loyal Subject, iv. 4 (Theodore).

wooden dagger. Such a dagger was worn not only by the ‘Vice’, or buffoon in old plays, but also sometimes by the domestic fool; Fletcher, Noble Gentleman, v. 1 (Longueville). For ‘dagger of lath’, see Twelfth Night, iv. 2. 136. A wooden dagger could also be used as a crumb-scoop, to clear the table of fragments after a meal; see Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, ii. 1 (Mercer).

woodquist, a wood-pigeon, ring-dove; ‘A Stock-dove or woodquist’, Lyly, Sapho, iv. 3. 3. Also quist (queest); ‘Phavier, a Ringdove, Queest, Coushot, Woodculver’, Cotgrave. [With phavier, cp. O. Prov. colom favar, ‘pigeon ramier’ (Levy)]. ‘Quist’ (‘queest’), a wood-pigeon, is in prov. use in various parts of the British Isles (EDD.). See NED. (s.v. Queest).

woodsere, the time of year when there is little sap in a tree. Tusser, Husbandry, § 53. 15, § 51. 6. (The time meant has been said to be between Midsummer and Michaelmas; it was thought that wood cut at that season would not grow again.) In E. Anglia the word ‘wood-sere’ is used for the month or season for felling wood, see EDD. (s.v. Wood, sb. 1 (34 b)).

woodspeck, a woodpecker. Golding, Metam. xiv. 314 (L. picum); fol. 171 (1603); Specke is a Norfolk word for the woodpecker (EDD.). Cp. Du. specht, a woodpecker (Hexham). G. specht.

Wood Street, the Compter prison in Wood Street, London. Middleton, Phœnix, iv. 3 (1 Officer). See Stow’s Survey (ed. Thoms, p. 111).

woolfist, a puff-ball. Wily Beguiled, Prologue. For wolf-fist; Gk. L. lycoperdon, which has the same sense; see Weigand, Germ. Dict. (s.v. Bofist).

woolward: in phr. to go woolward, i.e. in wool only, without linen, often enjoined as a penance by the Church of Rome; ‘I have no shirt, I go woolward for penance’, L. L. L. v. 2. 717; ‘He went woolward and barefooted to many churches’, Stow’s Annals, H. 7 (Nares); ‘Wolworde, without any lynnen nexte ones body, sans chemyse’, Palsgrave. ME. wolleward (wolward), see Pricke of Conscience, 3514; P. Plowman’s Crede, 788; P. Plowman, B. xviii. 1 (see note, p. 395). [It is probable that the ME. form wolleward is due to popular etymology, and that the word properly represents an OE. *wullwered, clothed in wool, cp. swegelwered, clothed with heavenly brightness. The corruption would be natural, when the sense of wered was lost, as -ward was a common suffix. The phr. ‘to go woolward’ cannot be genuine: it could only mean ‘to go towards wool’, which is not the sense (Dr. Henry Bradley). See note on the word ‘woolward’ in Mayor and Lumby’s edition of Beda’s Eccles. Hist., p. 347.]

woose, ‘ooze’, soft mud, Phaer, Aeneid iii, 606; wose, id., ii. 135. Hence woosy, full of soft mud, Drayton, Pol. xxv. 205. ME. wose, mud (Wars Alex. 413). OE. wōs; see Napier’s Glosses, 1818.

word, a motto; ‘And round about the wreath this word was writ, Burnt I doe burne’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 4. 38; ‘His word which on his ragged shield was writ, Salvagesse sans finesse’, id., iv. 4. 39.

world; ‘It is a world’, i.e. it’s wonderful (to see), Much Ado, iii. 5. 38; Tam. Shrew, ii. 1. 313. To go to the world, to get married, Much Ado, ii. 1. 331; a woman of the world, a married woman, As You Like It, v. 3. 5.

worm, to remove what was called the worm from under a dog’s tongue; a supposed preventive of his going mad; ‘I should have wormed you, sir, for [to prevent your] running mad’, Ford, ’Tis pity, i. 2 (Vasque).

wot, in use as the present tense of the vb. wit, to know; ‘I wot not what rule ye keep’, Latimer, Serm. (ed. Arber, 255); ‘I wote not’, Bible, Gen. xxi. 26 (in RV. ‘I know not’); ‘God wot’, Richard III, iii. 2. 89. ME. preterite-present I wot, thou wost, he wot, pl. witen (Chaucer); OE. ic wāt, þū wāst, he wāt, pl. witon. Tudor and later English have much false grammar with respect to this verb: Shaks. has wotting (for witting}, wots (for wot), wot’st (for wost); and wotteth (for wot) is found in the Bible, Gen. xxxix. 8 (in RV. ‘knoweth’).

wrabbed, perverse, hard to manage; ‘So crabbed, so wrabbed, so stiff, so untoward’, Jacob and Esau, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 211. See Nares.

wrack, destruction, loss; ‘The wrack of maidenhood’, All’s Well, iii. 5. 24; ‘The commonwealth hath daily run to wrack’, 2 Hen. VI, i. 3. 127; destruction by sea, shipwreck, Venus and Ad. 454; to ruin, destroy, Hamlet, ii. 1. 113; wracked (wrackt), shipwrecked, Meas. for M. iii. 1. 225. See Dict. (s.v. Wreck).

wrall, to quarrel, to grumble. Tusser, Husbandry, § 101. 4; ‘This my tongue-wralling’, Webster, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 120.

wrawl, to make an inarticulate noise, to caterwaul; ‘Cats that wrawling still did cry’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 27. Cp. ME. wrawhre, ‘traulus’ (Prompt. EETS. 40, see note, no. 181). See NED. (s.v. Caterwaul).

wray, to disclose. Gascoigne, Works, i. 41. ME. wreye, to bewray. reveal (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3503); also, bewreye, ‘The conseil is bewreid’ (Gower, C. A. v. 6785). OE. wrēgan, to denounce, accuse. See Dict. (s.v. Bewray).

wread, to wreathe, to twist, twine, curl; ‘The snake about him wrigling winding wreades’, Twyne, tr. of Aeneid, xi. 753. See EDD. (s.v. Wreath, sb.¹ 7).

wreak, vengeance. Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, ii. 3 (M. Tullius); Knight of Malta, iv. 1 (Zanthia); ‘wrathful wreakes’, angry acts of vengeance, Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 43; 12. 16; to avenge, punish, F. Q. ii. 3. 13. Hence wreakful, full of vengeance, Titus And. v. 2. 32. ME. wreke, ‘vindicta, ulcio’ (Prompt.); wreken, to avenge (Chaucer, C. T. C. 857). OE. wrecan, to punish.

wreak, to ‘reck’, to care. As You Like It, ii. 4. 81 (ed. 1623); Marlowe, tr. Ovid’s Elegies, ii. 11. 22; wreaked, recked, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec., 29. Hence wreakless, reckless, careless, 3 Hen. VI, v. 6. 7. Cp. EDD. (s.v. Wreak, vb.). OE. rēcan (pret. rōhte), to rack, care for (Sweet); see Wright, OE. Gram., § 534.

wretchock, the smallest pig of a litter; smallest chicken in a hatch; a diminutive creature. B. Jonson, Gipsies’ Metam. (Jackman); Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 465. A Worc. word for the smallest pig of a litter (EDD.).

wrig, to turn aside. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 573 (L. contorsit). In prov. use in the Midlands, meaning to writhe (EDD.).

writhled, wrinkled, shrivelled, 1 Hen. VI, ii. 3. 23; Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 42; l. 9.

wroken, pp., revenged. Spenser, Shep. Kal., March, 108; Muiopotmos, 99; wroke, Ferrex and Porrex, iv. 1. ME. wroken, revenged (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 88); wroke (P. Plowman, B. ii. 194); but Chaucer and P. Plowman have also the regular wreken, pp. of wreke, to avenge; OE. wrecen, pp. of wrecan. See Wright, OE. Grammar, § 505.

wrote, to grub up, as a hog; ‘His earth-wroting snout’, Return from Parnassus, iii. 4 (Furor). ME. wrotyn, as swyne ‘verro’ (Prompt. EETS. 547), OE. wrōtan.

wroth, sorrow, vexation; ‘I’ll keep my oath, patiently to bear my wroth’, Merch. Ven. ii. 9. 78.

wry, to turn aside, go aside. Cymbeline, v. 1. 5; ‘Wries, and wriggles’, Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iii. 1 (Rowland). ME. wrien, to turn aside (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 906), OE. wrigian.

wun, dwelling, abode. Sackville, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 23. See wonne (2).

xeriff, a ‘Sherif’, a title of the descendants of Mohammed. Dryden, Don Sebastian, i. 1 (Muley-Moluch); id., Conquest of Granada, i. 1. Xarife, the Spanish way of writing sherif (q.v.), Port. xarife, ‘chérif’ (Roquette).

xeriff, a Portuguese coin worth about 300 reis (Portuguese). Dryden, Don Sebastian, i. 1 (Mustapha), Port. xarafím, Arab, sharîfî or ashrafî, a gold coin often mentioned in the Arabian Nights, see Dozy, Glossaire, 353; cp. Med. L. seraphus, in Baumgarten, Peregrinatio, 23; see Dozy, Glossaire, p. 534. See Stanford (s.v. Xerafin).

yarage (applied to ships), the capability of being managed at sea; ‘Light of yarage’, North, Plutarch, M. Antonius, § 35 (in Shaks. Plut., p. 208); ‘heavy of yarage’, id., § 35 (p. 211).

yare, quick, ready. A word freq. used by Shaks., often given to sailors. Temp. v. 1. 224; Meas. for M. v. 2. 61; ‘The lesser ship . . . is yare, whereas the greater is slow’, Ralegh (Nares); yarely, readily, Temp. i. 1. 4. Yare is in prov. use in the north (EDD.). ME. yare, ready: ‘Terens let make his shippes yare’ (Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 2270;. OE. gearu, ready, equipped.

yark, to jerk. Drayton, Pol. vi. 51; to pull forcibly as shoemakers do in securing the stitches of their work; ‘Yark and seam, yark and seam’ (Eyre); ‘For yarking and seaming let me alone’ (Firk), Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, iii. 1. See the story of Watt Tinlinn in note to Scott’s Lay of the Last Minstrel, iv. 4. In reply to the Englishman’s taunt, ‘Sutor Watt, ye cannot sew your boots’, Watt retorted, discharging a shaft which nailed the captain’s thigh to his saddle, ‘If I cannot sew, I can yerk’. As sb. a jerk; ‘Tire, a kick, yark, jerk’, Cotgrave. See yerk.

yate, gate. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 224. In prov. use in the north and in the north Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. Gate, sb.¹ 1 (9)). ME. ȝate, a gate (Wyclif, Ps. cxvii. 20). OE. geat.

yaw (of a ship), to move unsteadily; used fig. Hamlet, v. 2. 120; a devious course, Massinger, A Very Woman, iii. 5 (Antonio). Icel. jaga, to move to and fro (as a door on its hinges).

yaw, to cut down; yawde, for yawed, pp., Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 1206. (In the next line we have sawde for sawn, pp.) In Hants. and Devon ‘yaw’ is the prov. pronunc. of ‘hew’, and is used in the sense of mowing or cutting wheat with one hand and with a reaping-hook, see EDD. (s.v. Hew, vb.¹ 4).

yawd, a nag, a ‘jade’. Brome, Jovial Crew, iv. 1 (Randal). In prov. use in the north, see EDD, (s.v. Yad). The same word as ‘jade’. Yawd is derived directly from Icel. jalda, a mare, whereas jade comes to us through northern French: jalda < *jaude < jade.

yawfrow, a young lady, a mistress. Davenant, The Wits, ii. 1. Du. joffrouw, a gentlewoman, mistress, miss; jonkvrouw, a young lady; Jonkvrouw A., Miss A. (Sewel).

yawl, to howl, bawl; to scream like an infant; spelt yall, Death of E. of Huntington, i. 3 (Doncaster), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 242; Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 22; yawling, a bawling, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, ii. 3 (Margery). In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Yawl, vb.¹ 1).

yblent, obscured; ‘The faithfull light of that faire lampe yblent’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 1; blinded, ‘With love yblent’, id., Shep. Kal., April, 155. See blend.

ybowne, ready to depart. Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 140. ME. boun, ready to go (Chaucer, C. T. F. 1503). See Dict. (s.v. Bound, 3).

y-clept, y-clep’d, called, named. Milton, L’Allegro, 12. Spelt y-clipped; Ram-Alley, iii. 1 (Puff). See clepe.

y-cond, taught. Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. 4; Ballad of Dowsabel, l. 11. (Misused; to con is to learn.) See cond.

yearn, to vex, grieve; ‘It would yearn your heart’, Merry Wives, iii. 5. 45; ‘It yearn’d my heart’, Richard II, v. 5. 76 (in quartos ernd); ‘It yearns me not’, Hen. V, iv. 3. 26. Hence yearnful (yernful), mournful, Greene, A Maiden’s Dream, st. 7. See earn (to grieve).

yearne, to give tongue as hounds do, to bay, Turbervile, Hunting (ed. 1575, pp. 181, 186, 240); see yorning.

yearne, to earn. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 1. 40; vi. 7. 15. OE. ge-earnian, earnian, to earn.

yede, yeed, improperly used as an infin., to go. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 5; ii. 4. 2 yeade, pr. pl. (improp. used), Shep. Kal., July, 109; yode, pt. s. went, id., May, 22, 233; yod, Golding, Metam. vi. 330. ME. yede, went (Chaucer, C. T. G. 1141); ȝede, ȝeode (P. Plowman), OE. ge-ēode (and ēode), went. See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Eode).

yelden, submissive; ‘The fierce lion will hurt no yelden thinges’ (i.e. creatures that have submitted), Sir T. Wyatt, To his ladie cruel over her Yelden Lover, 4; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 62. See yold.

yellow. Bands dyed with yellow starch, much used by Mrs. Turner, became unfashionable when that infamous woman was hung (Nov. 15, 1615) for being concerned in the murder of Sir Thos. Overbury; but not very long after they were again in use. ‘Hateful As yellow bands’, The Widow, v. 1 (Martia); ‘Disliked your yellow starch’, Beaumont and Fl., Queen of Corinth, iv. 1 (Tutor).

yellow breeches, to wear, to be jealous. Massinger, Duke of Milan, iv. 2 (Stephano). Yellow, as the hue of jealousy, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, ii. 2. 14.

yellow-hammer, (jocosely) a gold coin. Shirley, Bird in a Cage, ii. 1 (2 Guard).

yellows, jaundice in cattle. Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 54. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Yellow, 4).

yelt, a young sow; ‘A youngling yelt of brestled sow’, Twyne, tr. of Aeneid, xii. 170. In prov. use in the north and in E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Gilt, sb.¹).

yeoman-fewterer, the man who, under the huntsman, took care of the dogs, and let them slip at the right moment. Massinger, Picture, v. 1 (Ricardo); Maid of Honour, ii. 2 (Page); B. Jonson, Every Man out of Humour, ii. 3. See Nares (s.v.), and fewterer.

yerde, a rod, a staff. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 20, § 6. ME. yerde (Chaucer). OE. gierd, a rod.

yerk, yirk, to lash with a whip. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 44; Marston, Sat. i. 3, p. 184 (Nares); yarke, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 489. Hence, yerking preferment, a promotion to punishment with a whip, Shirley, Opportunity, ii. 1 (Pimponio); to kick out strongly, Hen. V, iv. 7. 84; Tusser, Husbandry, § 64; to thrust smartly, Othello, i. 2. 5. This word is in prov. use in various parts of England and Scotland, pronounced in many ways, with the meanings (among others), to jerk, to pull forcibly; to lash with a switch or whip, to kick as a horse does, see EDD. (s.v. Yark, vb.¹ 1, 5, 7). See yark.

yert: in comb. yert-point, lit. ‘jerk-point’; the name of a childish game; perhaps similar to blow-point. Lady Alimony, ii. 5 (Fricase). It may have been a name for spelicans. ‘Yert’ belongs to the group of words: jerk, yerk, jert, see Cotgrave (s.v. Tire).

yfere, together. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 1; vi. 6. 31; Shep. Kal., April, 68; Sackville, Induction, st. 74. ME. yfere, together (Chaucer, C. T. B. 394), also in-fere (C. T. B. 328, D. 924); orig. in fere, in company. OE. on heora gefére, in their company (Luke ii. 44).

yield, to reward; ‘The gods yield you for’t’, Ant. and Cl. iv. 2. 23; spelt ’ild, ‘How do you pretty lady?—Well, God ’ild you!’, Hamlet, iv. 5. 41; Macbeth, i. 6. 13. ‘God yield you’ is still in prov. use in Cheshire (EDD.). ME. God yelde yow, God requite you (Chaucer, C. T. D. 1772).

ying, young; ‘The lilly . . rysing fresche and ying’, Dunbar, The Thistle and the Rose, 22. ME. ȝing, young (Barbour’s Bruce, xx. 41).

ylike, alike, all the same; ‘Ylike to me was libertee and lyfe’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec., 36; F. Q. i. 4. 27. ME. yliche (ylike), like, similar; also as adv., alike, in like manner (P. Plowman). OE. gelīc, similar, equal; gelīce, equally, in the same way, in a similar way.

ynde, indigo, dark blue. Morte Arthur, leaf 114, back. 27; bk. vii, c. 11. OF. inde, ‘de couleur d’azur’ (Didot); Med. L. indium, ‘genus coloris caerulei’ (Ducange), for L. indicum, indigo, orig. of India, Indian.

yold, pt. t. yielded. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 11. 25. As pp., id., vii. 7. 30. ME. ȝolden, pt. pl. and pp. of ȝelden, to yield (Wars Alex. 2326, 2378). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. ȝelden).

yomenne, ‘yeomen’; the pawns in the game of chess. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, Prol. 20.

yond. This word occurs in the following passages: ‘Then like a lyon . . . wexeth wood and yond’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 40; ‘As Florimel fled from that monster yond’, id., iii. 7. 26; ‘Those three brethren, Lombards fierce and yond’, Fairfax, tr. Tasso, i. 55. It seems to be a synonym of ‘fierce’.

yond, yonder, thither. Tempest, i. 2. 409; Richard II, iii. 3. 91. In prov. use in various parts of England and Scotland (EDD.). ME. yond, yonder (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1099). OE. geond, ‘illuc’ (Matt. xxvi. 86, Rushworth).

yorning, giving tongue as hounds do. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 18, § 5; see Croft’s Glossary. See yearne (1).

yote, to water, soak; ‘Yoted wheat’, Chapman, tr. Odyssey, xix. 760. A west-country word, ‘The brewer’s grains must be well yoted for the pigs’, Grose (1790), see EDD. See below.

yoten, pp. melted. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 8, § 5. ME. ȝotun, molten (Wyclif, Job xli. 6, Ps. cv. 19), pp. of yeten, to pour (Chaucer), OE. gēotan.

youl, to howl, to squall like an infant. All Mistaken, i. 1 (near end); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xv. 337. Hence youling, ib., i. 1 (Philidor); in the same, xv. 332. In gen. prov. use in all English-speaking countries; see EDD. (s.v. Yowl). ME. youling, loud lamentation (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1278).

youngth, yongth, youth. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 20; Muiopotmos, 34. ME. ȝongthe (Wyclif, Luke xviii. 21).

ysam, together. Spelt ysame (riming with ram and swam). Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 32. See sam. ME. ysamme, together (P. Plowman, A. x. 193), OE. samen, together (Sweet).

ywus, ‘ywis’, certainly. Golding, Metam. i. 754 (riming with thus), fol. 13, back (1603). See iwis.

zabra, a small sailing vessel, in use in the Bay of Biscay; zabraes, pl.; Dekker, Wh. of Babylon, Works, ii. 256. Span. azábra, ‘a small sort of Bark us’d in some parts of Spain’; Zábra, ‘a sort of Vessel once us’d in Biscay from 100 to 200 Tun Burden, and serv’d for Fishing or Privateering, now laid aside’ (Stevens). Port, zabra (Roquette). See Stanford (s.v. Azabra).

zambra, a Moorish festival, with music and dancing; a festive dance. Dryden, Conquest of Granada, I, i. 1 (l. 11 from end). Span. zambra, ‘a Moorish dance’ (Stevens). ‘A la rigueur zambra signifie musique d’instruments à vent; on l’a appliqué à la danse parce que l’on danse au son des larigots et des flûtes’ (Cobarruvias). Zambra is from the Arabic root zamara, to play on a wind instrument, Dozy, Glossaire, 364.

zany, a subordinate buffoon, who mimicked the clown. Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 96; cp. L. L. L. v. 2. 463. Ital. ‘záne, the name of John in some parts of Lombardy, but commonly used for a silly John, a simple gull, or foolish Clown in a Play or Comedy, as a Jack pudding at the dancing of the ropes’ (Florio). See Stanford.

zany, to imitate apishly, to mimic. Fletcher, Queen of Corinth, i. 2 (Crates); Lover’s Progress, i. 1 (Clarinda).

zecchine, a gold coin, a ‘sequin’. Shirley, Gent. of Venice, i. 1 (Cornari); Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 79. Ital. zecchino, a Venetian coin, deriv. of zecca, ‘a mint or place of coyning’ (Florio), Arab. sikka, coin; dâr as-sikka-t, a mint (Steingass).

zelatour, a zealot, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, ch. 27. Med. L. zelator, ‘aemulator, inimicus’ (Ducange).

zernick, orpiment. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly). Arab. zernîkh, arsenic (Steingass), Pers. zernīχ, orpiment, yellow arsenic; from zar, gold. A word of Indo-European origin. See Academy (May 11, 1895, p. 427), and Horn’s Grundriss der neupersischen Etymologie (1893, § 691).

The book cover image was made by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

The original spelling has not been modified, with the exception that the capitalisation of Midlands has been made consistent.

Punctuation is largely reproduced as in the original. End-of-line hyphens have been removed to rejoin words as appropriate, but other hyphenation is as in the original. Punctuation has been added silently is a small number of places where it is obviously missing as a result of a typesetting or printing error.

While it is not stated in this book, it is inferred that it follows the practice of the Oxford English Dictionary in which:

Hyperlinks have been added to cross-references, except in the few cases where the word could not be found.

[End of A Glossary of Stuart and Tudor Words, by Walter William Skeat, edited by Anthony Lawson Mayhew]

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of A glossary of Tudor and Stuart words, especially from the dramatists

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