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7U 


I 


SUPPLEMENTARY 


ENGLISH   GLOSSABY. 


BY 


IT  LEWIS    O^AVIES,  M.A., 

VICAR  OF  S.  MABT  EXTHA,  SOUTHAMPTON; 
AUTHOR  OF  "BJBLB  ENGLISH." 


LONDON : 
GEORGE  BELL  AND  SONS,  YORK  STREET, 

COVENT  GARDEN. 
1881. 

[All  Rights  reserved.] 


CLAT  AMU  TAYLOH,   PRINTERS. 


PEEFACE. 


I  have  been  for  some  time  in  the  habit  of  marking  in  an  inter- 
leaved copy  of  Halliwell's  Dictionary  references  to  any  of  the  words 
noted  therein  that  I  may  have  come  across  in  my  reading.  I  found, 
however,  that  even  a  Dictionary  so  copious  as  that  had  left  many 
terms  unrecorded,  and  about  four  years  ago  the  idea  occurred  to 
me  of  compiling  a  Supplementary  Glossary. 

I  determined  then  not  to  confine  myself  to  archaic  and  provincial 
words,  which  were  what  Mr.  Halliwell  undertook  to  register,  but  to 
insert  any  expressions,  whether  old  or  modern,  which  were  not  in 
the  best  existing  Dictionaries.  I  chose  four  as  those  which  I  would 
desire  to  supplement ;  that  is  to  say,  I  decided  to  exclude  from  my 
book  (subject  to  certain  exceptions  which  I  shall  name  immediately) 
words  that  were  in  Richardson's,  or  HalliwelFs,  or  Latham's  Dic- 
tionaries, or  in  Nares's  Glossary  as  edited  by  Halliwell  and  Wright. 
I  further  resolved  not  to  go  back  earlier  than  the  16th  century  for 
my  materials. 

The  exceptional  circumstances  under  which  I  have  thought  it 
expedient  to  insert  words  that  were  already  in  one  or  more  of  the 
four  works  that  I  have  mentioned  are  principally  these : — 

1.  When  the  word  is  given,  but  with  no  example. 

2.  When  I  could  adduce  a  much  earlier  or  later  illustration  than 
any  supplied  in  those  other  Dictionaries.  See,  e.  g.9  cut  =  to  '  run/ 
'  crope/  '  fisc/  '  lope/  c  officious/  '  partlet/  '  scry/  '  volve/  c  weeds/ 
&c,  &c. 

3.  When  I  have  been  able  to  furnish  an  extract,  unnoticed  by 
previous  lexicographers,  which  bears  on  the  history  of  a  word,  show- 
ing at  about  what  time  or  under  what  circumstances  it  found  its 
way  into  the  language.  Thus  Latham  has  the  verb  to  '  storm '  (a 
town)  with  quotations  from  Dryden  and  Pope ;  Richardson  only 
cites  the  latter;  it  seemed  therefore  well  worth  while  to  adduce  a 


iv  PREFACE. 

passage  from  Howell  in  which  he  says  that  this  expression,  together 
with  '  plunder '  and  the  familiar  use  of  "  that  once  abominable  word, 
excise,"  came  in  at  the  time  of  the  Great  Rebellion.  Similar  in- 
stances will  be  found  under  '  geography/  €  granadier/  €  huzza,' 
'  loyalty/  '  ministry/  '  prudery/  '  yacht/  &c. 

4.  When  I  met  with  a  quotation  which  marked  some  sense  of  a 
word,  differing  from  that  now  current,  or  from  the  meaning  given  in 
the  Dictionaries.  Thus  'pelf  is  explained  by  both  Richardson  and 
Latham  as  "  money,  riches/'  and  the  former  adds,  "  perhaps  applied 
originally  to  wealth  or  riches  acquired  by  'pilfering,  by  petty  scrap- 
ings, or  hoardings."  But  Puttenham  {Arte  of  Eng.  Poesie,  1589) 
tells  us  the  particular  kind  of  scraps  that  the  word  in  the  first  place 
meant :  "  Pelfe  is  properly  the  scrappes  or  shreds  of  taylors  and 
skinners."  We  may  observe  a  similar  connection  between  tailors' 
odds  and  ends  and  pilfering  in  the  word  '  cabbage/ 

Again,  '  Bmart/  as  applied  to  dress,  is,  among  educated  people  at 
all  events,  a  modern  usage.  Richardson  has  no  example  of  it,  and 
the  earliest  in  Latham  is  from  Dickens.  But  this  would  be  only 
negative  evidence;  it  is  confirmed,  however,  by  the  following  direct 
testimony  from  The  Gentleman  Instructed,  which  was  published  very 
early  in  the  18th  century  : 

" '  Sirrah  ! '  says  the  youngster,  €  make  me  a  smart  wig,  a  smart 
one,  ye  dog/  The  fellow  blest  himself;  he  had  heard  of  a  smart 
nag,  a  smart  man,  &c,  but  a  smart  wig  was  Chinese  to  the  trades- 
man. However,  nothing  would  please  his  worship  but  smart  shoes, 
smart  hats,  and  smart  cravats  :  within  two  days  he  had  a  smart  wig 
with  a  smart  price  in  the  box.  The  truth  is,  he  had  been  bred 
up  with  the  groom,  and  transplanted  the  stable-dialect  into  the 
dressing-room." 

I  have,  of  course,  been  glad  also  to  put  down  anything  that 
threw  light,  however  little,  on  any  passage  in  our  best  authors. 
Thus  under  the  words  '  capon-justice/  '  crants/  and  '  equipage '  may 
be  found  something  bearing  on  certain  expressions  in  Shakespeare. 
I  may  take  this  opportunity  of  adding  another  illustration  of  the  last 
of  these  terms,  which  I  met  with  after  that  sheet  had  been  printed 
off:  "  Master  Watson  .  .  .  whose  Amintas  and  translated  Antigone 
may  march  in  equipage  of  honour  with  any  of  our  ancient  Poets." 
(Nashe,  Introduction  to  Greene's  Menaplion,  p.  14). 

I  have  not  meddled  with  etymology  on  my  own  account.     My 


PREFACE.  v 

Glossary  does  not  pretend  to  be  more  than  a  bare  catalogue  of  words 
with  their  meanings  (where  I  knew  or  could  ascertain  them)  and  with 
illustrative  examples.  I  desire  to  lay  stress  on  this,  because  while  I 
shall  try  to  receive  with  proper' equanimity  strictures  on  the  way  in 
which  I  have  performed  even  the  modest  task  that  I  have  under- 
taken, I  do  not  wish  to  be  blamed  for  not  having  accomplished 
objects  which  it  was  never  in  my  mind  to  attempt. 

But  while,  in  the  matter  of  etymology,  I  have  refrained  from  any 
original  effort,  I  have  always  been  forward  to  cite  extracts  which 
treat  of  or  refer  to  the  derivation  of  the  word  for  which  the  passage 
is  quoted.  In  several  cases  the  etymology  may  be  wrong,  or  even 
ridiculous ;  as  when  Ascham  tells  us  that  "  there  is  nothing  worse 
[waur  ?]  than  war,  whereof  it  taketh  his  name,"  or  when  S.  Richard- 
son, in  the  person  of  Lovelace,  says  that  familiar  letter- writing  is 
"  writing  from  the  heart  (without  the  fetters  prescribed  by  method 
or  study)  as  the  very  word  cor-respondence  implied."  These  ety- 
mologies, if  not  useful,  are  at  least  entertaining  and  noteworthy; 
and  indeed  in  a  few  instances  (e.  g.  Job,  Redshanks,  Salic)  I  have 
cited  derivations  that  were  intended  to  be  jocular. 

As  regards  the  quotations  generally,  I  have  endeavoured  to  make 
the  references  as  exact  as  possible.  In  some  cases  I  was  only  able 
to  give  the  volume  and  page  of  the  edition  used,  but  I  hope  that  the 
plan  which  I  have  adopted  in  the  appended  List  of  Authorities  will 
render  the  verification  of  the  extract  possible,  while  the  year  of  birth 
and  death  which  I  have  added  to  the  name  of  each  author  will 
give  to  the  general  reader  information  as  to  (about)  the  date  of  the 
quotation. 

When  I  first  contemplated  this  Glossary,  I  did  not  know  that 
there  was  any  immediate  prospect  of  the  Dictionary  of  the  Philo- 
logical Society  being  issued.  Happily,  since  then,  that  scheme  has 
started  into  new  life,  and  we  are  led  to  expect  its  completion  in 
about  eight  or  ten  years  time.  If  there  is  anything  in  my  book  that 
may  be  found  useful  to  that  important  undertaking,  I  willingly  offer 
it ;  while  there  will  still  remain  a  large  number  of  words  and  phrases 
which,  suitable  enough  in  a  miscellaneous  Glossary  like  this,  would 
find  no  place  in  a  regular  Dictionary. 

I  am  fully  conscious  that  what  I  now  present  to  the  Public  is  as 
a  drop  in  the  ocean,  but  I  am  not  afraid  of  criticism  on  the  score  of 
my  omissions,  because  all  must  know  that  any  one  man's  contri- 


vi  PREFACE. 

bution  towards  a  catalogue  of  English  words  must  be  very  imper- 
fect. I  am,  however,  more  apprehensive  of  adverse  remark  on  some 
of  the  terms  that  I  have  admitted.  No  one  would  accuse  a  man  of 
moroseness  or  exclusiveness  because  a  very  large  number  of  respect- 
able persons  might  be  pointed  out  of  whom  he  had  never  taken  any 
notice.  It  would  be  well  understood  that  he  could  not  be  expected 
to  know  everybody,  and  that  probably  he  would  have  been  well 
pleased  if  circumstances  had  allowed  him  to  make  Buch  valuable 
additions  to  his  acquaintance.  If,  however,  he  admitted  to  his 
intimacy  people  of  bad  or  doubtful  character,  he  would  justly  incur 
blame.     Opinions  may  differ  as  to  whether  I  am  in  this  last  position. 

Several  slang  expressions  will  be  found  in  my  Glossary.  I  have 
not  gone  out  of  my  way  to  seek  these,  but  I  have  not  rejected  them 
when  they  have  presented  themselves  in  the  pages  of  books  that  have 
an  assured  place  in  English  literature,  as,  for  example,  the  novels  of 
Fielding,  Dickens,  or  Thackeray.  A  great  deal  of  slang  is  ephemeral, 
neither  preserved  nor  worth  preserving,  but  when  an  eminent  writer 
employs  it,  he  bestows  on  it  a  species  of  immortality :  indeed  it  often 
happens  that  a  slang  word  in  course  of  years  loses  its  slanginess 
and  becomes  a  recognised  part  of  the  language.  It  is  not  the  aim 
of  a  work  like  this  to  form  a  collection  of  pure  and  standard  English, 
but  to  register  and  explain  any  words  good  or  bad,  legitimate  or 
illegitimate,  which  are  used  in  our  literature.  The  compiler  is  like 
a  census  enumerator ;  his  business  is  to  note  the  names  of  every  one 
in  his  district,  and  to  state  certain  particulars  in  each  case,  and  this 
he  is  bound  to  do  quite  irrespective  of  his  private  opinion  as  to  the 
personal  qualities  of  the  various  individuals  with  whom  he  is  in  this 
way  concerned.  The  above  remarks  will  also  apply,  in  great  mea- 
sure, to  a  more  respectable  class  than  the  preceding — the  provincial- 
isms, as  to  which  my  practice  has  been  the  same. 

Several  foreign  words  will  be  found  in  the  following  pages,  and 
exception  may  be  taken  to  their  presence  in  an  English  Glossary. 
My  rule  has  been  to  include  these  when  they  appear  to  have  become 
naturalised  or  semi-naturalised,  e.  g.  '  chiffoniere/  '  esclandre/  '  non- 
chalance/ 'penchant';  or  when  the  writer  has  seemed  to  m6  to  use 
the  term  with  a  wish  to  naturalise  it,  though  his  introduction  may 
not  have  availed  to  give  the  stranger  any  permanent  footing  among 
us;  e.g.  '  calino'  (Nashe;  Dekker) ;  'inti-ado*  (Fuller;  Heylin) ; 
'  orage '  (B.  North),  &c,  &c. 


PREFACE.  vii 

Another  class  of  words  I  may  notice ; — those  which  have  appar- 
ently been  coined  for  the  occasion.  I  have  not  excluded  such 
expressions ;  they  are  often  amusing  or  interesting,  and  it  would  be 
rash  in  any  one  case  to  say  that  the  word  is  peculiar  to  the  author  in 
whom  we  first  find  it.  '  Betweenity/  for  instance,  might  be  taken 
for  one  of  Southey's  numerous  inventions,  but  Walpole,  another 
great  manufacturer  of  verbal  eccentricities,  had  used  it  before  him. 
Even  when  a  writer  expressly  announces  a  word  as  coined  by  him- 
self, we  cannot  be  certain  of  more  than  that  he  was  unaware  of  its 
having  been  in  circulation.  (See  c  agreeability/  '  naturalness/  '  regi- 
mented,' €  triftlity,'  &c.)  Thus  then,  though  many  of  these  issues  of 
the  word-mint  may  be  ugly,  debased,  or  intrinsically  worthless,  they 
ought  yet,  I  think,  to  have  a  place  as  objects  of  curiosity  in  the 
cabinet  of  the  collector. 

I  have  also  had  to  consider  what  should  be  done  with  words 
which  in  their  simple  form  are  in  the  Dictionaries,  but  which  I  have 
found  compounded  with  some  prefix  as  be-,  fore-,  un-,  or  some  suffix 
as  -able,  -less,  -ship.  I  could  not  discover  that  the  works  which  I 
propose  to  supplement  went  on  any  fixed  principle  in  this  matter ; 
some  of  these  compounds  were  inserted;  others,  equally  common, 
were  left  out.     My  general  rule  has  been  to  admit  them. 

In  addition  to  isolated  words  I  have,  following  the  example  of 
Nares,  Halliwell,  and  Latham,  taken  cognizance  also  of  phrases,  and 
even,  in  some  instances,  of  proverbial  sentences.  It  ib  of  course 
difficult  to  draw  the  line  as  to  what  should  be  included  under  this 
head ;  each  case  has  had  to  be  decided  on  its  own  merits  and  to  the 
best  of  my  judgment. 

It  only  remains  to  express  my  cordial  thanks  to  those  who  have 
assisted  me  in  my  task.  My  acknowledgments  are  especially  due 
to  Edward  Peacock,  Esq.,  author  of  the  Manley  and  Corringham 
Glossary,  &c.,  for  large  contributions  of  words ;  to  the  Rev.  W.  C. 
Flenderleath,  Sector  of  Cherhill,  Wilts,  who  carefully  read  and 
marked  for  me  three  somewhat  voluminous  works;  to  Edgar 
MacCulloch,  Esq.,  of  Guernsey,  who  has  often  taken  much  trouble  in 
clearing  up  points  on  which  I  needed  information ;  to  the  Hon.  J. 
Leicester  Warren,  who  sent  me  several  words,  principally  from 
books  that  are  rather  out  of  the  ordinary  course  of  reading ;  and  to 
F.  Francois  De  Chaumont,  Esq.,  M.D.,  F.R.S.,  Professor  of  Hygiene 
at  Netley  Hospital,  who  added  to  the  kindnesses  shown  me  during  a 


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Cox,  Sir  G.,  Mythology  of  the  Aryan  Nations,  1870. 

Crabbe,  George  (1754-1832),  Poems. 

Cranmer,  Abp.  (1489-1556),  Works  [Parker  Soc,  1844-6]. 


LIST  OF  AUTHORS  QUOTED,  xi 

Daniel,  Samuel  (1562-1619),  Hist,  of  England,  1618. 

D'Arblay,  Frances  (1752-1840),  Cecilia,  1782;  Camilla,  1796;  Diary  [ed.  1842]. 

Davies,  John,  of  Hereford  (1560  ?-1618),  Works  [ed.  Grosart,  Chertsey  Worthies 

Lib.,  1876]. 
Defoe,  Daniel  (1663  ?-1731),  Tour  thro'  G.  Britain  [4th  ed.,  1748] ;  Select  Works 

[ed.  Keltie,  1871]. 
Dekker,  Thomas  (1641  ?),  Satiromastix,   1602 ;   Seven  Deadly  Sins,  1606  [ed. 

Arber,  1879]. 
Denham,  Sir  John  (1615-68),  Poems. 
Dennys,  John  (d.  before  1613),  Secrets  of  Angling,  1613. 
De  Quincey,  Thomas  (1785-1859),  Selections  Grave  and  Gay,  1853-61 ;  Conf.  of 

an  Opium-eater  [new  ed.,  1853]. 

Dickens,  Charles  (1812-70),  Works,  Pickwick,  1836;  Chuzzlewit,  1843;  Bleak 
House,  1852 ;  Great  Expectations,  1858. 

Digby,  George,  Earl  of  Bristol  (1612-76),  Elvira,  a  Comedy. 

Disraeli,  Benjamin,  Earl  of  Beaconsfield  (1804-81),  Loth  air,  1871. 

Dodsley,  Robert  (1703-64),  Collection  of  Old  Plays  [ed.  1744]. 

D'Oyly,  George  (d.  1846),  Life  of  Abp.  Sancroft  [2nd  ed.  1840]. 

Drayton,  Michael  (1563-1631),  Poems. 

Dryden,  John  (1631-1701),  Works. 

D'Urfry,  Tom  (d.  1723),  Collin's  Walk  through  London,  1690 ;  New  Operas,  &c, 
1721. 

Dyaloge  betwene  a  Gentillman  and  a  husbandman,  1530?  [ed.  Arber,  1871]. 

Earle,  Bp.  (1601-65),  Microcosmographie,  1628  [ed.  Arber,  1868]. 

Edgeworth,  Maria  (1767-1849),  Castle  Rackrent,  1800;  Helen. 

Edward  II.,  Hist  of,  by  E.  F.,  written  1627,  published  1680. 

Edwards,  Richard  (b.  1523),  Damon  and  Pitheas,  published  1582. 

Eliot,  George  (Mrs.  Cross),  (1820-80). 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  English  Traits,  1856. 

English  Dialect  Society,  Publications  of,  1873-81. 

English  Garner,  ed.  by  Arber,  1877-80. 

Evelyn,  John  (1620-1706),  Diary,  ed.  Bray,  1818  [Chandos  Lib.,  n.  d.J 

Falconer,  William  (1730  ?-69),  The  Shipwreck,  1762. 

Farquhar,  George  (1678-1707),  Dramatic  Works. 

Ferrier,  Susan  (1782-1854),  Marriage,  1818  ;  Inheritance,  1824;  Destiny,  1831. 

Fielding,  Henry   (1707-54),  J.   Andrews,  1742;    Jonathan  Wild,   1743;   Tom 
Jones,  1749;  Amelia,  1751. 

Fish,  Simon  (d.  1530),  Supplication  for  the  Beggars,  1529  [ed.  Arber,  1878], 
Fisher,  Bp.  (1459-1535),  Works  [ed.  Mayor,  Early  Eng.  Text  Soc,  1876], 
Foote,  Samuel  (1720?- 77),  Dramatic  Works. 
Foxe,  John  (1517-87),  Acts  and  Monuments,  1562. 

Fuller,  Thomas  (1608-61),  David's  Sin,  &c,  1631 ;  Holy  War,  1639 :  Holy  State, 
1642;  Pisgah  Sight,  1650;  Ch.  Hist.,  1655;  Worthies,  1662  [ed.  Nichols,  1811]. 
Galt,  John  (1779-1839),  Annals  of  the  Parish,  1821. 
Gammer  Gurton's  Needle,  by  Mr.  S.,  M.A.  (Bp.  Still,  1543-1608). 
Garrick,  David  (1716-79),  Dramatic  Works. 

Gascoigne,  George  (1536-77),  The  Supposes,  1566;  Steele  Glas,  &c,  1577  [ed. 
Arber,  1858]. 

Gaskell,  Elizabeth  (1811-65),  Ruth,  1853;  North  and  South,  1854. 

Gauden,  Bp.  (1605-62),  Tears  of  the  Church,  1659. 


xii  LIST  OF  A  UTHORS  Q  VOTED. 

Gay,  John  (1688-1732),  Poems. 

Gentleman  Instructed;  the  author  is  more  probably  Father  Darrell,  S.  J.  Tlio 
earliest  edition  in  the  Bodleian  is  the  2nd,  1704 ;  it  was  afterwards  enlarged 
[10th  ed.,  1732]. 

Godwin,  William  (1756-1836),  Mandeville,  1817. 

Googe,  Barnaby  (d.  1594),  Eglogs,  &c,  1563  [ed.  Arber,  1871]. 

Gosson,  Stephen  (1555-1624),  Schoole  of  Abuse,  1579  [ed.  Arber,  1868]. 

Graves,  Richard  (1715-1804),  Spiritual  Quixote,  1773  [new  ed.,  1808]. 

Gray,  Thomas  (1716-71),  Poems. 

Greene,  Robert  (1550  ?-92),  Dramatical  and  Poetical  Works,  ed.  Dyce  [Rout- 
ledge's  Old  Dramatists,  1874]  ;  Menaphon,  1589  [ed.  Arber,  1880]. 
Grim,  the  Collier  of  Croydon,  printed  as  an  old  piece  in  1662. 
Grindal,  Abp.  (1519-83),  Remains  [Parker  Society,  1843], 

Grose,  Francis  (1731-91),  Classical  Diet,  of  the  Vulgar  Tongue,  1785  [3rd  ed.> 
1796]. 

Hall,  Bp.  (1574-1656),  Satires,  1597  [Works,  new  ed.,  1637-39]. 

Hall,  Fitzedward,  Exemplifications  of  False  Philology,  1872 ;  Modern  English, 
1873. 

Halliwell,  James  O.,  Diet,  of  Archaic  and  Provincial  Words  [7th  ed.,  1872]. 

Harleian  Miscellany,  with  notes  by  Park,  1808-12. 

Hawkins,  Thomas  (1728-72),  English  Drama,  1773. 

Heath  (By  an  error  this  name  is  given  as  that  of  the  author  of  the  translation  of 

Horace :  it  should  be  Sir  Thomas  Hawkins).     Translation  of  Odes  of  Horace, 

1625  [4th  ed.,  1638]. 

Herbert,  George  (1593-1633),  Poems. 

Herrick,  Robert  (1591-1674),  Poems,  ed.  Hazlitt  [Smith's  Lib.  of  Old  Authors, 
1869]. 

Heylin,  Peter  (1600-62),  Hist,  of  Presbyterians,  1670;  Life  of  Laud,  1671 ;  Hist- 
of  Reformation,  1674  [Ecc.  Hist.  Soc,  1849]. 

Heywood,  John  (d.  1565  ?),  Dramatic  Works. 

Holland,  Philemon  (1551-1636),  Livy,  1600  [ed.  1659] :  Pliny,  1601  [ed.,  1634] ; 
Camden,  1610  [revised  and  enlarged  by  Author,  1637]. 

Hood,  Thomas  (1798-1845),  Poems. 

Hook,  Theodore  (1788-1841),  Sayings  and  Doings,  1824-5. 

Hooper,  Bp.  (1495-1555),  Works  [Parker  Soc,  1843-52]. 

Howard,  Sir  Robert  (1626-98),  The  Committee  ;  a  Comedy. 

Howell,  James  (1596-1666),  Forraine  Travell,  1642  [ed.  Arber,  1869] ;  Dodona's 
Grove,  1645;  Letters,  1644-55  [9th  ed.,  1726] ;  Parly  of  Beasts,  1660. 

Hubert,  Sir  Francis  (d.  1629),  Life  and  Death  of  Edward  IT.,  1629. 

Hudson,  Thomas  (temp.  Eliz.),  Hist,  of  Judith,  translated  from  Du  Bartas  [od. 

1613].     Hudson  was  a  Scotchman,  and  dedicates  his  work  to  James  VI.  of 

Scotland  ;  it  must  have  appeared  therefore  before  1603. 

Hughes,  Thomas,  Tom  Brown's  Schooldays,  1856 ;  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  1861. 

Hunt,  Leigh  (1784-1859),  Poems. 

Hutchinson,  Roger  (d.  1555),  Works  [Parker  Soc,  1842]. 

Imperial  Dictionary,  with  Supplement,  ed.  J.  Ogilvie,  1850-55. 

Ingoldsby  Legends.     See  Barham. 

Irving,  Washington  (1783-1859),  Salmagundi,  1807;  Sketch  Book,  1819. 

Jarvis,  Charles  (d.  1743),  Translation  of  Don  Quixote,  1742. 

Jewel,  Bp.  (1522-71),  Works  [Parker  Soc,  1845-50]. 

Johnston,  Charles  (d.  1800  ?),  Chrysal,  1760  [Cooke's  ed.,  n.  d.]. 


-a? — ■■:  — •  iLjktr 


LIST  OF  A  UTHORS  QUOTED.  xiii 

Jonson,  Ben  (1574-1637),  Works. 

Keats,  John  (1796-1821),  Endymion,  1818;  Lamia,  1820. 

Ken,  Bp.  (1637-1711),  Life  of,  by  a  Layman,  1851  [2nd  ed.,  1854]. 

Kennet,  Bp.  (1660-1728),  Parochial  Antiquities,  1695;  Translation  of  Erasmus's 

Praise  of  Folly  [8th  ed.,  n.  d.]. 
Killigrew,  Thomas  (1611-82),  The  Parson's  Wedding;  a  Comedy. 

Kingsley,  Charles  (1819-75),  Saint's  Tragedy,  1848 ;  Alton  Locke,  1850 ;  West- 
ward Ho !  1855 ;  Two  Years  Ago,  1857.  Letters,  &c,  edited  by  his  wife  [3rd 
abridged  ed.,  1879]. 

Kingsley,  Henry  (1830-76),  Geoff ry  Hamlyn,  1859;  Ravenshoe,  1861. 

Kirby,  William  (1759-1850),  and  Spence,  William  (1780-1860),  Entomology, 
1815-26  [ed.  1826]. 

Lackington,  James  (1746-1816),  Memoirs,  1791  [new  ed.,  1803]. 

Lamb,  Charles  (1775-1834),  Works,  with  Life  by  Talfourd  [new  ed.,  1852]. 

Latham,  Robert  G.,  Diet,  of  the  Eng.  Language,  founded  on  Todd's  Johnson, 
1876. 

Latimer,  Bp.  (1472-1555),  Sermons  and  Remains  [Parker  Soc,  1844-5]. 

Lawes,  Henry  (1600-62),  Ayres  and  Dialogues,  1653. 

Lennox,  Charlotte  (1720-1804),  Female  Quixote,  1752  [Cook's  ed.,  n.  d.]  ;  Hen- 
rietta [Ibid.]. 

L'Estrange,  Roger  (1616-1704),  Trans,  of  Seneca's  Morals  [11th  ed.,  1710]. 

Lewis,  Sir  George  C.  (1806-63),  Letters,  1870. 

Lytton,  Lord  (1806-73),  Pelhara,  1827 ;  Caxtons,  1849 ;  My  Novel,  1853 ;  What 
will  he  do  with  it  ?  1858. 

Macaulay,  Lord  (1800-59),  Hist  of  Eng.,  1849-61. 

Machin,  Lewis  (temp.  Charles  I.),  The  Dumb  Knight,  a  Comedy,  1633. 

Maine,  Jasper  (1604-72),  The  City  Match,  a  Comedy. 

Maitland,  Samuel  (1795-1866),  Essays  on  the  Reformation,  1849. 

Markham,  Gervase  (1566  ?-1655  ?),  Tragedie  of  Sir  Richard  Grinuile,  1595  [ed. 
Arber,  1871]. 

Marlowe,  Christopher  (1564-93),  Dramatic  Works. 

Marmion,  Shakerley  (1602-39),  The  Antiquary. 

Marryat,  Frederick  (1792-1848),  Frank  Mildmay,  1829 ;  Peter  Simple,  1834. 

Marston,  John  (1575,  d.  after  1633),  The  Malcontent,  a  Comedy,  1604. 

Massinger,  Philip  (1584-1640),  Dramatic  Works. 

May,  Thomas  (1594  ?-1650),  The  Heir  ;  The  Old  Couple— Comedies. 

Merry  Drolleries,  1661-70-91 ;  ed.  Ebsworth,  1875. 

Middleton,  Thomas  (1570-1627),  Comedies. 

Milton,  John  (1608-74),  Paradise  Lost,  1667 ;  Paradise  Regained,  1671 ;  Prose 
Works  [Bonn's  Standard  Lib.,  1872-75]. 

Misson,  Francois  (d.  1722),  Travels  in  Eng.,  1698,  translated  by  J.  Ozell  (d.  1743), 
1719. 

Montagu,  Lady  Mary  Wortley  (1689-1762),  Letters,  written  1716-18  [ed.  J.  St. 
John,  1838]. 

More,  Henry  (1614-87),  Works  [ed.  Grosart,  Chertsey  Worthies'  Lib.,  1876-8]. 

Nares,  Edward  (1762-1841),  Thinks-I-to-Myself,  1811  [9th  ed.,  1816]. 

Nares,  Robert  (1753-1829),  Glossary,  1822  [new  ed.  with  additions  by  J.  Halli- 

well  and  T.  Wright,  1876]. 

Nashe,  Thomas  (L567-1600),  Lenten  Stuffe,  1599. 

Nomenclator  of  Junius,  translated  by  J.  Higins,  1585. 


xiv  LIST  OF  A  UTHORS  QUOTED. 

North,  Roger  (1650-1734),  Examen,  1740;   Life  of  Lord  Guilford  [2nd  ed., 

1608]. 
Notes  and  Queries,  Five  Series,  1849-79. 
Oliphant,  Margaret,  Salem  Chapel,  1863. 
Parish,  W.  D.,  Dictionary  of  the  Sussex  Dialect,  1875. 
Parker  Society,  Publications  of,  1841-53. 

Peacock,  Edward,  Manley  and  Corringham  Glossary  (E.  D.  S.),  1877. 
Peele,  George  (1553  ?-97?),  Works,  ed.  Dyce  [Routledge's  Old  Dramatists,  1874]- 
Pepys,  Samuel  (1632-1703),  Diary,  ed.  Lord  Braybrooke  [Bonn's  Hist.  Lib.,  1858> 
Phillips,  Samuel  (1815-54),  Essays  from  the  Times,  1854. 
Philpot,  John  (1511-55),  Examinations  and  Writings  [Parker  Soc,  1842]. 
Pilkington,  Bp.  (1520-75),  Works  [Parker  Soc.,  1842]. 
Poe,  Edgar  Allen  (1811-49),  Works  [ed.  1853]. 
Pope,  Alexander  (1688-1744),  Poems. 
Preston,  Thomas  (1537-98),  King  Cambises,  a  Tragedy. 
Prior,  Matthew  (1664-1721),  Poems. 

Puttenham,  George  (b.  1532  ?),  Arte  of  English  Poesie,  1589  [ed.  Arber,  1869]. 
Quarles,  Francis  (1592-1644),  Emblems,  1635. 
Randolph,  Thomas  (1605-34),  Muses*  Looking  Glass,  a  Comedy. 
Reade,  Charles,  Never  too  late  to  Mend,  1857 ;  Cloister  and  Hearth,  1861. 
Richardson,  Charles  (1775-1865),  English  Dictionary,  with  Supplement,  1836-7]. 

Richardson,  Samuel  (1689-1761),  Pamela,  1741  [ed.  Mangin,  1811] ;  CI.  Hariowe, 
1748  [lb.] ;  Grandison,  1754  [ed.  1812]. 

Robberd8,  W.     See  Taylor. 

Rogers,  Thomas  (b.  1550),  Exposition  of  Thirty-nine  Articles,  1586  [Parker  Soc, 

1854]. 
Rowlet,  William  (temp.  James  and  Charles  I.),  Match  at  Midnight,  a  Comedy. 
Roxburgh  Ballads,  ed.  Hindley,  1873. 
Roy,  William,  and  Barlow,  Jerome,  Rede  me  and  be  nott  wroth,  1528  [ed. 

Arber,  1871]. 
Sackville,  Thomas,  Lord  Buckhurst  (1536-1608),  Works  [ed.  Sackville-WeRt], 

[Smith's  Lib.  of  Old  Authors,  1859]. 

Sanderson,  Bp.  (1587-1663),  Works  [ed.  Jacobson,  1854]. 

Sandys,  Abp.  (1519-88),  Sermons  [Parker  Soc,  1841]. 

Savage,  M.  W.,  Reuben  Medlicott,  1852  [ed.  1864]. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter  (1771-1832),  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,  1805  ;  Waverley  Novels, 

1814-31  [48  vols.  1829-33]. 
Selden,  John  (1584-1654),  Table  Talk,  published   1699  [Smith's  Lib.  of  Old 

Authors,  I860]. 
Shakespeare,  William : (1564-1 616),  Works. 
Shenstone,  William  (1714-63),  Poems. 
Sheridan,  Richard  Brinsley  (1751-1816),  Dramatic  Works. 
Shirley,  James  (1594-1666),  The  Bird  in  a  Cage,  1633  ;  The  Gamester,  1637. 
Sibbes,  Richard  (1577-1635),  Works  [Nicholas  Puritan  Divines,  1862-4]. 
Sidney,  Sir  Philip  (1554-86),  Arcadia,  published  1590;   Astrophel  and  Stella, 

1591 ;  Wanstead  Play.     [All  these  works  quoted  from  13th  ed.,  1674]. 
Skelton,  John  (1460?-1529),  Elynour  Rummin,  the  famous  Ale-wife  of  England. 
Smith,  Henry  (1550-91),  Works  [Nicholas  Puritan  Divines,  1866-7]. 
Smith,  James  (1775-1839),  and  Horace  (1779-1849),  Rejected  Addresses,  1812 

[new  ed.,  1869]. 


LIST  OF  A  UTHORS  Q  UOTED.  xv 

Smith,  Sidnet  (1771-1845),  Works  [2nd  ed.,  1840] ;  Letters,  with  Memoir  by  Lady 
Holland,  1855  [new  ed.,  1869]. 

Smollett,  Tobias  (1721-71),  Roderick  Random,  1748 ;  Peregrine  Pickle,  1751 ; 
Sir  L.  Greaves,  1762  ;  Humphrey  Clinker,  1771. 

South,  Robebt  (1633-1716),  Sermons,  1697  [ed.  1737]. 

Southet,  Robebt  (1774-1843),  Joan  of  Arc,  1796 ;   Thalaba,  1801 ;   Eehama, 

1810;  The  Doctor,  1834-47;  Letters,  ed.  Waiter,  1856. 

Speed,  John  (1552-1629),  Hist,  of  Great  Britain,  1611  [2nd  ed.,  1623]. 

Spenser,  Edmund  (1552-99),  Shepherd's  Calendar,  1579 ;  Faerie  Queene,  1590-96  ; 
Colin  Clout,  1595. 

Stanyhubst,  Richard  (1548-1618),  Translation  of  JEneid  I. -IV.,  1582 ;  Conceites, 

&c.  [ed.  Arber,  1880]. 
Staptlton,  Sib  Robert  (d.  1669),  Translation  of  Juvenal,  1647. 
Steele,  Sib  Richard  (1671-1729),  Conscious  Lovers,  1722. 

Stebnb,  Laubence  (1713-68),  Tristram  Shandy,  1758-67  [8th  ed.,  1770],  Sentimental 
Journey,  1768. 

Strangford,  Lord  (1825-69),  Life  and  Letters. 

Stbype,  John  (1643-1737),  Memorials  of  Cranmer,  1694  [Ecc.  Hist.  Soc.,  1848-54]. 

Swift,  Jonathan  (1667-1745),  Tale  of  a  Tub,  1704 ;  Gulliver,  1726  ;  Polite  Con- 
versation, written  about  1706,  published  long  after. 

Sylvesteb,  Joshua  (1563-1618),  Works  [ed.  Grosart,  Chertsey  Worthies'  Lib., 
1877-80]. 

Taylob,  Sib  Henbt,  1843 ;  Comnenus,  1827 ;  Ph.  van  Artevelde,  1834 ;  Edwin 
1842;  St  Clement's  Eve,  1862  [Works,  new  ed.,  1877-8]. 

Taylob,  William  (1765-1836),  Survey  of  German  Poetry,  1828-30 ;  Letters,  with 
Memoirs  by  W.  Robberds,  1843. 

Tennyson,  Alfbed,  Poems,  1832;  Princess,  1847-50;  Maud,  1855;  Idylls,  1859-72- 

Queen  Mary,  1875 ;  Harold,  1877 ;  Ballads,  &c,  1880.  ' 

Thackebay,  William  M.  (1811-63),  Paris  Sketch  Book,  1840 ;  Vanity  Pair,  1847 ; 

Esmond,  1852 ;  Newcomes,  1855 ;  Virginians,  1857 ;  Miscellanies  [ed.  1855-57]. 

Touchstone  of  Complexions,  1575. 

Trollops,  Anthony,  Barchester  Towers,  1857 ;  Orley  Farm,  1862. 
Tbollope,  Fbances  (1779-1863),  Michael  Armstrong,  1839. 

Tdsseb,  Thomas  (1525  ?-80),  Husbandry,  1573  [ed.  Payne  and  Herrtage,  E.  D.  S., 
1878]. 

Two  Noble  Kinsmen,  first  printed  1634 ;  ascribed  to  Fletcher  and  Shakespeare. 

Tyndale,  William  (1477-1536),  Works  [Parker  Soc,  1848-50]. 

Udal,  Nicholas  (1504-56),  Roister  Doister  [ed.  Arber,   1869] ;   Translation  of 
Erasmus's  Apophthegmes,  1542  [Reprint,  1877  of  ed.  of  1562]. 

Ubquhabt,  Sib  Thomas  (d.  1642),  Translation  of  Rabelais  [Bonn's  extra  vols., 

1848]. 
Vanbbugh,  Sib  John  (1666?-1726),  Dramatic  Works. 

Walpole,  Hobace,  Eabl  of  Obfobd  (1717-97);  Private  Correspondence  [4  vols., 
1820],  Letters  to  Mann,  ed.  Lord  Dover  [2nd  ed.,  1833]. 

Wabd,  Samuel  (1577-1639),  Sermons  [Nichol's  Puritan  Divines,  1862]. 

Wabd,  Thomas  (1652-1708),  England's   Reformation,  a  Poem,  published  1710 
[ed.  1716]. 

Wabton,  Thomas  (1728-90),  Poems. 

Webbe,  William  (d..  after  1591),  Discourse  of  English  Poetrie,  1586  [ed.  Arber, 

1870]. 
Whitqift,  Abp.  (1530-1604),  Works  [Parker  Soc.,  1851-3). 


x vi  LIST  OF  A  UTHORS  Q  UO  TED, 

Wily  Beguiled,  a  Comedy,  temp.  James  I. 

Wolcot,  John  (1738-1819),  Peter  Pindar  [ed.  1830]. 

Wood,  Anthony  (1632-95),  Life  of,  by  himself  [Ecc.  Hist.  Soc,  1848]. 

Wordsworth,  William  (1770-1850),  Poems. 

Wycherley,  William  (1640-1715),  Dramatic  Works. 


ABBREVIATIONS  USED  IN  THIS  GLOSSARY. 

El  D.  8.,  English  Dialect  Society.  N.,  Nares's  Glossary,  ed.  by  Halliwcll 

H.,  Hall i well's  Dictionary.  and  Wright. 

L.,  Latham's  Dictionary.  N.  &  Q.,  Notes  and  Queries. 

R.,  Richardson's  Dictionary. 

When  a  word  is  said  not  to  be  in  the  Dictionaries,  the  statement  only  refers  to 
the  four  which  this  book  proposes  to  supplement. 


SUPPLEMENTARY  ENGLISH  GLOSSARY. 


A  1,  the  best ;  in  the  first  rank.  In 
Lloyds1  Register  there  are  five  classes 
of  ships:  A,  A  in  red,  M,  E,  and  I. 
The  first  A  is  the  highest.  See  N.  and 
Q.,  III.  iii.  431,  478. 

I  want  to  be  A  1  at  cricket,  and  football, 
and  all  the  other  games.  —  Hughes,  Tom 
Brown's  Schooldays,  Pt.  II.  ch.  vi. 

44  I  never  heard  such  a  word  before  from 
the  lips  of  a  young  lady."  "  Not  as  A  1  ?  I 
thought  it  simply  meant  very  good.  .  .  .  A  1 
is  a  ship— a  ship  that  is  very  good." — Trollope, 
Phineas  Finn,  ch.  xlii. 

A B anne,  to  curse. 

How  durst  the  Bishops  in  this  present 
council  of  Trident  so  solemnly  to  abanne  and 
accurse  all  them  that  dare  to  find  fault  with 
the  same  ? — Jewel,  ii. 


Abbatt,  abbacy. 

Dunstan  .  .  .  was  the  first'  Abbot  of  Eng- 
land, not  in  time,  but  in  honour,  Glassenbury 
being  the  Froto- A  bbaty,  then  and  many  years 
after. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Somerset,  ii.  260. 

Abbreviatly,  shortly. 

The  sweete  smaoke  that  Yarmouth  findes 
in  it . . .  abbreviatly  axA  meetely  according  to 
my  old  Sarum  plainesong  I  have  harpt  upon. 
—Noshe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  162). 

Abcedaries,  rudiments.  R.  has  it 
=  teacher  of  rudiments. 


It  was  lawful  to  begin  of  such  rudiments 
or  abcedaries,  but  so  that  it  behooved  the 
learned,  grave,  and  godly  ministers  of  Christ 
to  enterprise  further.  —  Fuller,  Ch.  Hist., 
Vni.  iii.  2. 

Abecedarian,  rudimentary.  The 
Dicta,  have  it  as  a  subst.  =  teacher 
of  rudiments. 

There  is  an  Abecedarian  ignorance  that 
precedes  knowledge,  and  a  Doctoral  ignor- 
ance that  comes  after  it. — Cotton's  Montaigne, 
ch.  xli. 


Abear,  to  bear  or  comport  oneself, 
The  Faerie  Queene  is  the  latest  author- 
ity for  this  word  given  in  the  Diets., 
but  it  was  used  by  Bp.  Lloyd  a  century 
later.  It  occurs  bIbo  in  Hist,  of  Edward 
77. ,  p.  67,  and  in  Hacked  Life  of  Abp. 
WUliamSi  ii.  65.  In  the  sense  of  "to 
tolerate,"  as  in  the  second  quotation,  it 
is  a  vulgarism  still  in  use. 

The  giving  of  a  recognisance  for  the  good 
abearing  or  quiett  peaceable  liveing,  is  a  point 
that  deserves  to  be  well  weighed. — Lloyd  to 
Sancroft,  1689  (Life  of  Ken,  p.  554). 

She  couldn't  abear  the  men,  they  were 
such  deceivers. — Sketches  by  Boz  (Mr.  John 
Bounce). 

Abele,  a  white  poplar.  The  first 
extract  is  from  Britten  and  Holland'* 
Eng.  Plant  Names  (E.  D.  S.). 

It  is  called  ...  in  low  Dutch  abeel,  of  his 
horie  or  aged  colour,  and  also  abeelboome  ; 
.  .  .  in  French,  aubel,  obel,  or  aubeau;  in 
English,  abeell,  after  the  Dutch  name. — Ge- 
rard, Herball  (1597). 

Six  abeles  i'  the  churchyard  grow  on  the 
north  side  in  a  row. — Mrs.  browning  (Duchess 
Mary). 

Abigail,  a  waiting  -  woman.  L. 
says,  "  The  direct  etymology  of  this 
word  is  uncertain:  it  goes  back  to 
Abigail  of  Carmel  (1  Sam.  xxv.) ;  but 
it  is  probable  that  its  present  use  is 
referable  to  Abigail  Hill,  the  famous 
Mrs.  Masham."  Mrs.  Masham's  position 
towards  Q.  Anne  may  have  made  the 
expression  more  common,  but  the  sub- 
joined extract  was  written  four  years 
before  Mrs.  Masham  entered  her  Majes- 
ty's service,  and  several  years  before 
she  could  have  become  of  sufficient  im- 
portance to  give  rise  to  the  name.     I 

B 


ABJECTION 


(     2     ) 


ACADEMICALS 


think  it  may  be  questioned  whether 
there  is  any  reference  to  the  wife  of 
Nabal ;  she  was  not  a  servant,  but  the 
wife  of  a  wealthy  man.  She  calls  her- 
self, with  Oriental  humility,  a  hand- 
maid, but  so  do  Ruth  and  others.  It 
has  been  pointed  out  that  in  Beaumont 
and  Fletcher's  Scornful  Lady  the  wait- 
ing-woman is  called  Abigail ;  and  this 
play  was  long  popular.  Pepys  records 
seven  occasions  on  which  he  went  to 
see  it,  and  on  one  of  these  he  says, 
"  Doll  Common  [i.  e.  Mrs.  Corey],  doing 
Abigail  most  excellently."  Perhaps 
this  was  the  real  origin  of  the  term, 
just  as  we  call  an  inn-keeper  Boniface 
from  Farquhar's  Beaux  Stratagem. 

Whereas  they  [the  chaplains]  petition  to 
be  freed  from  any  obligation  to  marry  the 
chamber-maid,  we  can  by  no  means  assent 
to  it ;  the  Abigail,  by  immemorial  custom, 
being  a  deodand,  and  belonging  to  holy 
Church.  —  Reply  to  Ladies  and  Bachelors 
Petition,  1604  (Karl.  Misc.,  iv.  440). 

Abjection,  casting  away. 

Calvin  understands  by  Christ's  descending 
into  hell,  that  he  suffered  in  his  soul  ...  all 
the  torments  of  hell,  even  to  abjection  from 
God' 8  presence. — Heylin,  Hist,  of  the  Pres- 
byterians, p.  350. 

Able  most,  most  efficient. 

For,  quick  despatching  (hourely)  Post  on 

Post 
To  all  the  Coverts  of  the  Able-most 
For  Pate,  Pro  wesse^Purse;  commands,  prayes, 

presses  them 
To  come  with  speed  unto  Jerusalem. 

Sylvester,  Bethulia's  Rescue,  i.  108. 

Ablesse,  power,  ablenesse,  which 
is  the  reading  in  the  second  folio  ed.  of 
Chapman. 

This  did  with  anger  sting 
The  blood  of  Diomed,  to  see  his  friend  that 

chid  the  king 
Before  the  fight,  and   then  preferred  his 

ablesse  and  his  mind 
To  all  his  ancestors  in  fight,  now  come  so 

far  behind. — Chapman,  Iliad,  v.  248. 

Abortive,  to  perish,  or  cause  to 
perish  untimely. 

Thus  one  of  your  bold  thunders  may  abortive. 
And  cause  that  birth  miscarry  that  might 

have  provM 
An  instrument  of  wonders  greater  and  rarer 
Than  Apollonius  the  magician  wrought. 

Alhumazar,  i.  3. 

He  wrought  to  abortive  the  bill  before  it 
came  to  the  birth. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams, 
i.  37. 

When  peace  came  so  near  to  the  birth, 


how  it  abortived,  and  by  whose  fault,  comes 
now  to  be  remembred. — Ibid.  ii.  147. 

Abound,  to  expatiate.  To  abound 
in  or  with  one's  own  sense  =  to  be  free 
to  express  or  keep  one's  own  opinion. 
Adams  (ii.  300)  says,  "I  will  not 
abound  in  this  discovery,"  t.  e.  I  will 
not  enlarge  upon  it. 

Some  of  them  [opinions]  are  such  as  are 
fit  only  for  schools,  and  to  be  left  at  more 
liberty  for  learned  men  to  abound  in  their  own 
sense,  so  they  keep  themselves  peaceable,  and 
distract  not  the  Church. — Letter  from  Laud, 
1625  (Heylin's  Life  of  Laud,  p.  137). 

Every  one  is  said  to  afjound  with  his  owns 
sense,  and  that,  among  the  race  of  mankind, 
opinions  and  fancies  are  found  to  be  as  various 
as  the  severall  faces  and  voyces. — Howell, 
Forreine  Travell,  sect.  1. 

I  meddle  not  with  Mr.  Boss,  but  leave  him 
to  abound  in  his  own  sense.  —  Bran^hall,  ii. 
632. 

Abbaid,  to  upbraid.  The  word  is 
still  in  use  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Whitby  (see  Robinson's  Glossary).  In 
Willaris  West  Riding  Yorkshire  Glos- 
sary (a.d.  1811)  it  is  given  as  meaning, 
to  rise  on  the  stomach  with  some  degree 
of  nausea,  a  sense  in  which  "  upbraid  " 
and  '*  reprove "  are  still  sometimes 
used. 

How  now,  base  brat!   what,  are  thy  wits 

thine  own, 
That  thou  dar'st  thus  abraid  me  in  my  land  ? 
Greene,  Alphonsus,  Act  II. 

Abramide,  descendant  of  Abraham  ; 
a  Jew:  also  called  Abramite. 

Alas  how  many  a  guiltlesse  Abramide 
Dyes  in  three  daies,  through  the  too-curious 

Pride. — Sylvester,  Trophtes,  1244. 
O  Jacob's  Lanthorn,  Load-star  pure  which 

lights 
On  these  rough  Seas  the  rest  of  Abramites. 

Ibid.  The  Captaines,  601. 

Abscession,  departure. 

Neither  justly  excommunicated  out  of  that 
particular  Church  to  which  he  was  orderly 
joyned,  nor  excommunicating  himself  by 
voluntary  Schisme,  declared  abscession,  separ- 
ation, or  apostasie. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  37. 

Absolution,  a  sweeping  away. 

But  grant  it  true  [that  the  Liturgy  ordered 
too  many  ceremonies],  not  a  total  absolution, 
but  a  reformation  tnereof  may  hence  be 
inferred. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI.  x.  8. 

Academicals,  cap  and  gown. 

At  first  he  caught  up  his  cap  and  gown,  as 
though  he  were  going  out.  .  .  On  second 
thoughts,  however,  he  threw  his  academicals 


ACCESSIVE 


(     3     ) 


ACORN-BALL 


back  on  to  the  sof a.— Hughes,  Tom  Brawn  at 
Oxford,  ch.  xix. 

Accessive,  contributory.     . 

God  "  opened  the  eyes  of  one  that  was 
born  blind,"  and  had  increased  this  csecity  by 
his  own  accessive  and  excessive  wickedness. — 
Adams,  ii.  379. 

Accipitbal,  pertaining  to  a  hawk  or 
falcon. 

My  learned  friends !  most  swift,  sharp  are 
you;  of  temper  most  aecipitral,  hawkish, 
aquiline,  not  to  say  vulturish.— Carlyle,  Misc., 

Aoclamator,  shouter ;  cheerer. 

He  went  almost  the  whole  wav  with  his 
hat  in  his  hand,  saluting  the  fadys  and 
accfamators  who  had  filled  the  windows  with 
their  beauty,  and  the  aire  with  Vive  le  Boy.— 
Evelyn,  Diary,  Sept.  7, 1651. 

Accleabment,  vindication. 

The  acclearment  is  fair,  and  the  proof 
nothing.— Racket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  148. 

Accompanyist,  one  who  plays  the 
musical  accompaniment  to  a  song. 

A  young  lady  proceeded  to  entertain  the 
company  with  a  ballad  in  four  verses,  be- 
tween each  of  which  the  accompanyist  played 
the  melody  all  through,  as  loud  as  he  could. 
—Dickens,  Oliver  Twist,  ch.  xxvi. 

Aocompass,  to  bring  about;  to  ac- 
quire. 

The  remotion  of  two  such  impediments  is 
not  commonly  accompass7d  by  one  head- 
piece.— Racket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  42. 

[He]  had  accompassed  such  knowledge  in  a 
quarter  of  a  year  that  he  gave  satisfaction. — 
Ibid.  ii.  42. 

Accomplish,  to  render  accomplished. 

His  lady  is  open,  chatty,  fond  of  her  chil- 
dren, and  anxious  to  accomplish  them. — Mad. 
DArblay,  Diary,  vi.  202. 

Accost,  sb.  address. 

By  his  aid 
(Not  gifted  with  that  affable  accost, 
And  personal  grace  which  bids  my  cousin 

trust 
In  his  own  prowess — conquering  and  to  con- 
quer) 
I  hoped  to  triumph  in  affairs  of  love. 

Taylor,  St.  Clement's  Eve,  i.  3. 

Acctjrtation,  shortening. 

Albert  E  bee  thee  last  letter,  that  must 
not  salve  M.  from  accurtation. — Stany hurst, 
Virgil  (To  the  Header). 

ACCUSE,  to  indicate;  show  signs  of 
(cf.  Karriyoptiv,  accuser). 

The  princes,  who  were  to  part  from  the 
greatest  fortunes,  did  in  their  countenances 
(weuse  no  point  of  fear,  but .  .  .  taught  them 


at  one  instant  to  promise  themselves  the 
best,  and  yet  to  despise  the  worst. — Sidney, 
Arcadia,  p.  124. 

Amphialus  answered  in  honourable  sort, 
but  with  such  excusing  himself,  that  more 
and  more  accused  his  love  to  Fhiloclea. — 
Ibid.  p.  144. 

Accustomed,  frequented. 

A  weU-accustom'd  house,  a  handsome  bar- 
keeper, with  clean,  obliging  drawers,  soon  get 
the  master  an>state. — Centli vre,  Bold  Stroke 
for  a  Wife,  I.  i. 

WUdgoose,  seeing  a  number  of  people 
drinking  under  a  tree  at  the  door,  observed  to 
my  landlord  that  his  seemed  to  be  a  well- 
accustomed  house. — Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote, 
Bk.  IX.  ch.  vi. 

Accustomedly,  usually. 

For  certain  hours  it  accustomedly  for- 
beareth  to  flame. — Sandys,  Travels,  p.  248. 

Acedy  (d  Ktjdoc),  carelessness. 

Though  the  mind  be  sufficiently  convinced 
of  the  necessity  or  profit  of  a  good  act,  yet 
for  the  tediousnes8  annexed  to  it,  in  a  dan- 
gerous spiritual  acedy,  it  slips  away  from  it. — 
Dp.  Hall,  Works,  v.  140. 

Acerb,  bitter. 

The  dark,  acerb,  and  caustic  little  professor. 
— Charlotte  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xix. 

Acheloian  horn.  Hercules  in  a 
contest  with  Achelous,  who  had  changed 
himself  into  an  ox,  broke  one  of  his 
adversary's  horns. 

Repair  the  Acheloian  horn  of  your  dilemma 
how  you  can  against  the  next  push. — Milton, 
Animadv.  on  Remonst.  Defence,  sect.  ii. 

Acholithite,  acolyte. 

To  see  a  lazy,  dumb  Acholithite 
Armed  against  a  devout  fly's  despight. 
Hall,  Satires,  IV.  vii.  53. 

Acidify,  to  sour. 

Such  are  the  plaints  of  Louvet;  his  thin 
existence  all  acidified  with  rage,  and  preter- 
natural insight  of  suspicion. — Carlyle,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  III.  ch.  iii. 

Acorn.  A  horse  foaled  of  an  acorn  = 
an  oak :  so  applied  to  the  gallows. 

I  believe  as  how  'tis  no  horse,  but  a  devil 
incarnate ;  and  yet  I've  been  worse  mounted, 
that  I  have—  I'a  like  to  have  rid  a  horse  that 
was  foaled  of  an  acorn  fi.  e.  he  had  nearly 
met  with  the  fate  of  Absalom]. — Smollett, 
Sir  L.  Greaves,  ch.  viii. 

Acorn-ball,  the  acorn. 

And  when  my  marriage  morn  may  fall 

She,  Dryad-like,  shall  wear 
Alternate  leaf  and  acorn-ball, 
In  wreath  about  her  hair. 

Tennyson,  Talking  Oak. 
B2 


AC0UST1C0N 


(     4     ) 


ADAM'S  ALE 


Aoousticon,  belonging  to  hearing. 

Ther's  no  creture  hears  more  perfectly 
then  a  goat,  for  lie  hath  not  onely  ears,  but 
an  acousticon  organ  also  in  the  throat. — 
Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  123. 

Acquaint,  to  become  acquainted,  or 

to  seek  acquaintance. 

Though  the  Choiseuls  will  not  acquaint 
with  you,  I  hope  their  abbe  Barthelemi  is 
not  put  under  the  same  quarantine. —  Wal- 
pole,  Letters,  iii.  604  (1774). 

Acquiescate  to,  to  acquiesce  in. 

Do  you  but  acquiescate  to  my  exhortation, 
and    you    shall    extinguish    him.  —  Sidney, 
Wanstead  Play,  p.  623. 

Acquiesce,  to  rest  (of  things). 

Which  atoms  are  still  hovering  up  and 
down,  and  never  rest  till  they  meet  with 
some  pores  proportionable  and  cognate  to 
their  figures,  where  they  acquiesce.— Howell, 
Letters,  iv.  50. 

Acquiesce  to,  for  the  more  usual 
construction,  "  acquiesce  in." 

Neander  sent  his  man  with  a  letter  to 
Theomachus,  who  acquiesced  to  the  proposal. 
— Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  123. 

A  man  that  will  acquiesce  to  nothing  but 
strict  demonstrations  would  do  well  to  dis- 
band from  society. — Ibid.  p.  354. 

Presqming  on  the  unshaken  submission  of 
Hippolita,  he  flattered  himself  that  she  would 
.  .  .  acquiesce  with  patience  to  a  divorce. — 
Walpofe,  Castle  of  Otranto,  ch.  i. 

Acquiesce  with,  acquiesce  in. 

Wisdom  does  ever  acquiesce  with  the 
present,  and  is  never  dissatisfied  with  its 
immediate  condition. —  Cotton's  Montaigne, 
ch.  iii. 

I,  as  well  as  my  nephew,  must  acquiesce 
•with  your  pleasure. — Richardson,  Grandison, 
i.  134. 

The  two  ladies  .  .  .  acquiesced  with  all  he 
proposed. — Ibid.  ii.  222. 

Acre-staff,  plough-staff. 

Where  the  Husbandman's  Acre-staff  and 
the  Shepheard's-hook  are,  as  in  this  County, 
in  State,  there  they  engross  all  to  them- 
selves.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Leicester  (i.  561). 

Actable,  practically  possible. 

E  Is   naked  truth    actable  in  true  life? — 
Tennyson,  Harold,  iii.  1. 

Action,  to  bring  an  action  against. 

If  you  please  to  action  me,  take  your 
course. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  525. 

Activeable,  capable  of  activity. 

do  many  activeable  wits 
That  might  contend  with  proudest  birds  of 

Po, 
Sits  now  immur'd  within  their  private  cells. 
Return  from  Parnassus,  iv.  3  (1606). 


Adamical,  after  the  manner  of  Adam, 
and  so  in  a  nude  stute.  C£.  Adamitical. 
In  the  first  extract  it  =  carnal,  un- 
regenerate. 

Though  the  divel  trapan 
The  Adamical  man 
The  saint  stands  uninfected. 

Merry  Drollerie,  p.  59. 

Halbert  standing  on  the  plunging-stage 
Adamically,  without  a  rag  upon  him. — H. 
Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  xlvi. 

Adamites,  a  sect  in  the  early  Church 
who  professed  to  endeavour  after  the 
innocence  of  Paradise,  and  went  naked 
like  Adam.  There  was  a  sect  of  Adam- 
ites in  Germany  in  the  early  part  of  the 
fifteenth  century. 

If  all  men  had  their  own,  and  every  bird 
her  feather,  some  of  them  would  be  as  bare 
as  those  that  profess  themselves  to  be  of  the 
sect  of  the  Adamites. —  Wolsey  and  Laud, 
1641  (Harl.  Misc.,  iv.  510). 

The  sun  plays  so  warmly  upon  us,  that 
some  people,  who  were  of  no  religion  before, 
talk  of  t'irning  Adamites  in  their  own  de- 
fence.— T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  172. 

Adamitical,  pertaining  to  or  resem- 
bling Adam  ;  hence,  as  applied  to  cloth- 
ing, scanty.    Cf.  Adamical. 

Your  behaviour  del  Cabo  will  not  relish  in 
Europe,  nor  your  Adamitical  garments  fence 
virtue  in  London. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p. 
169. 

Adam's  ale,  water.  Prof.  De  Mor- 
gan, writing  to  M.  Biot,  mentioned  thiR 
common  phrase  as  illustrating  China 
ale  or  beer  as  applied  to  tea.  The  ex- 
pression was  quite  new  to  M.  Biot  and 
other  Frenchmen.  He  wrote  back, 
"  L1  Adams  ale  qui  clutrme  tons  ceux 
de  nos  philoloaues  a  qui  je  la  raconte  " 
(N.  and  Q.,  3rd  S.,  vi.  46).  Tom 
Brown  uses  Adam  by  itself  in  the  same 
sense.  Peter  Pindar  (p.  3)  speaks  of 
"  old  Adam's  beverage  ; "  and  Adam's 
wine  is  in  Jtimieson's  Diet.,  with  quota- 
tion from  Gait. 

A  Rechabite  poor  Will  must  live, 
And  drink  of  Adam's  ale. 

Prior,  Wandering  Pilgrim. 

Your  claret's  too  hot.     Sirrah,  drawer,  go 

bring 
A  cup  of  cold  Adam  from  the  next  purling 

6prmg. 

T.  Brown,  Works,  iv.  11. 

Even  at  the  door  of  death  he  could  not 
drink  what  Adam  drank,  by  whom  cam.* 
death  into  the  world,  so  I  gave  him  a  little 
more  eau-de-vie. — Blackmore,  Lorna  Doom, 
ch.  lxv. 


ADAPT 


(     5     ) 


ADONIS 


Adapt,  fitted. 

[Providence]  gave  him  able  arms  and  back 
To  wield  a  flail  and  carry  sack, 
And  in  all  stations  active  be, 
Adapt  to  prudent  husbandry. 

IfUrfey,  Collin's  Walk,  cant.  1. 

If  we  take  this  definition  of  happiness,  and 
examine  it  with  reference  to  the  senses,  it 
will  be  acknowledged  wonderfully  adapt. — 
Swift,  Tale  of  Tub,  sect.  9. 

Adaptments,  a  word  coined  by  Wal- 
pole  as  more  expressive  than  "con- 
veniences "  of  what  he  wished  to  con- 
vey. 

All  the  conveniences,  or  rather  (if  there 
was  such  a  word),  all  the  adaptments,  are 
assembled  here  that  melancholy,  meditation, 
selfish  devotion,  and  despair  would  require. 
—  Walpole,  Letters,  i.  23  (1739). 

Addict  from,  to  estrange  from  ;  dis- 
incline to. 

Fear  of  punishment  will  not  reform  such 
persons  as  by  affection  conceived  hath  been 
addicted  from  the  expense  of  fish  and  the 
observation  of  fish-days. — Privy  Council  on 
Fish-days,  1594  (Eng.  Garner,  i.  302). 

Addition.    See  quotation. 

Milltner.  Be  pleased  to  put  on  the  addi- 
tion, madam. 

Mrs.  Dowdy.  What  does  she  mean  now  ? 
to  pull  my  skm  off,  mehap,  next.  Ha,  Peeper, 
are  these  your  London  vashions  ? 

Peeper.  No,  no,  addition  is  only  paint, 
madam. 

Centlivre,  Platonick  Lady,  III.  i. 

Addle,  to  earn  —  a  north-country 
word.  See  Peacock's  Glossary,  &c, 
and  an  old  example  of  its  use  in  Halli- 
teell,  s.  v. 

Parson's  lass  'ant  nowt,an'  she  weant  'anowt 

when  Vs  dead ; 
Mun  be  a  guvness,  lad,  or  summut,  and  addle 

her  bread. 

Tennyson,  Northern  Farmer,  new  style. 

Adeep,  deeply. 

And  we  shout   so  adeep   down   creation's 
profound, 
We  are  deaf  to  God's  voice. 

Mrs.  Browning,  Rhapsody  of  Life's 
Progress. 

Adempt,  taken  away. 

Receive  thankfully,  gentle  reader,  these 
sermons  faithfully  collected  without  any 
sinister  suspicion  of  anything  in  the  same 
being  added  or  adempt. — Preface  to  some  of 
Latimer's  Sermons,  1549  (i.  111). 

Adit,  approach:  usually  employed 
as  a  term  in  mining  for  an  underground 


passage,  especially  one  by  which  water 
is  conveyed. 

Yourself  and  yours  shall  have 
Free  adit. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  vi. 

Adjoint,  a  helper ;  joined  on  to 
another.  Nares  has  a  single  quotation 
from  Daniel  to  which  Halliwell  refers. 

You  are,  madam,  I  perceive,  said  he;  a 
public  minister,  and  this  lady  is  your  adjoint. 
— Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  108. 

Adminicle,  a  help.   It  is  also  a  Scotch 

legal    term  =  collateral    proof.      See 

Jamieson. 

The  author  would  have  the  sacraments  of 
Baptism,  and  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ, 
to  be  adminicles  as  it  were. — Cran}ner,  i.  37. 

Admin  iculation,  prop  or  support. 

Some  plant  8  grow  straight,  some  are  help't 
by  admmiculation  to  be  straight. — Hacket, 
Life  of  Williams,  ii.  217. 

Admirables,  wonders.  For  similar 
instances  see  Observables. 

Sure  in  the  legend  of  absurdest  fables 
I  should  enrouJe  most  of  these  admirables. 
Sylvester,  third  day,  first  week,  279. 

Admiral.    See  extract. 

Admirall  is  but  a  depravation  of  Amirall 
in  vulgar  mouths.  However,  it  will  never 
be  beaten  out  of  the  heads  of  common  sort 
that,  seeing  the  sea  is  scene  of  wonders, 
something  of  wonderment  hath  incorporated 
itself  in  this  word,  and  that  it  hath  a  glimpse, 
cast,  or  eye  of  admiration  therein. — Fuller, 
Worthies,  ch.  vi. 

Admissible,  to  be  admitted ;  allow- 
able. The  extract  is  noteworthy,  as 
showing  that  this  word,  so  common  now, 
was  not  familiar  in  Richardson's  time. 
R.  and  L.  illustrate  it  with  one  and  the 
same  quotation  from  Sir  M.  Hale.  Sir 
T.  Browne  has  admittable. 

He  used  to  pay  his  duty  to  me,  and  ask 
blessing  the  moment  he  came  in,  if  admis- 
sible. (Is  that  a  word,  Harriet  ?) — Richardson, 
Grandison,  v.  64. 

Admonitorial,  admonishing. 

Miss  Tox .  .  in  her  instruction  of  the  Toodle 
family,  has  acquired  an  admonitorial  tone,  and 
a  habit  of  improving  passing  occasions. — 
Dickens,  Dombey  and  Son,  ch.  Ii. 

Adonis,  a  species  of  wig. 

He  [Duke  of  Cumberland]  had  a  dark 
brown  adonis,  and  a  cloak  of  black  cloth, 
with  a  train  of  five  yards. —  Walpole,  Letttrs, 
ii.  206  (1760). 

He  puts  on  a  fine  flowing  adonis  or  white 
periwig. — Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  III. 
ch.  six. 


ADONISE 


(    6    ) 


AD  V1SIVE 


Adonise,  to  dress,  or  make  beautiful, 
like  Adonis.     Fr.  JadonUer. 

"I  must  go  and  adonise  a  little  myself.0 
The  company  then  separated  to  perform  the 
important  offices  of  the  toilette. — Miss  Fer- 
rier,  Marriage,  ch.  ix. 

Adoptability,  that  which  can  be 
made  use  of  or  adopted.  See  extract, 
s.  v.  Adoptable. 

Adopt  able,  capable  of  being  adopted. 

The  Liturgy,  or  adoptable  and  generally 
adopted  set  of  prayers  and  prayer-method, 
was  what  we  can  call  the  Select  Adoptabili- 
ties, Select  Beauties  well  edited  (by  (Ecu- 
menic Councils  and  other  Useful-Knowledge 
Societies)  from  that  wide  waste  imbroglio 
of  prayers  already  extant  and  accumulated, 
good  and  bad.— Carlyle,  Past  and  Present, 
Bk.  II.  ch.  xvit. 

Adorate,  to  adore. 
A  king  this  moment,  that  kings  adorate, 
The  next,  a  corse,  slaves  loath  to  look  vpon. 
Davies,  Wittes  Pilgrimage,  p.  27. 

Adoratory,  place  of  worship. 

He  found  in  what  appears  to  have  been  the 
same  adoratory  a  decayed  shin-bone  sus- 
pended from  the  roof .— Southey,  The  Doctor, 
ch.  cxliv. 

Adore,  to  invoke. 

What  greater  wall  and  barre  than  the 
ocean  ?  Wherewith  the  Britans  being  fensed 
and  inclosed,  doe  yet  adore  the  Romans 
forces. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  46. 

Adsolve,  to  resolve. 

Durst  my  sonne 

Adsolve  to  runne  beyond  sea  to  the  warres? 

Chapman,  All  Fooles,  ii.  1. 

Adulator,  flatterer. 

An  adulator  pleases  and  prepossesses  them 
with  his  dawbing.— T.  Brown,  Works,  iv.  305. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Exhibition  the 
public  papers  swarmed  with  these  Be\f~adu>- 
fators.—  Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  131,  note. 

Your  field  of  preferment  was  the  Versailles 
(Eil  de  Bceuf,  and  a  Grand  Monarque  walk- 
ing encircled  with  scarlet  women  and  adu- 
lators there. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  75. 

Adulatress,  female  flatterer. 

Indiana,  when  the  first  novelty  of  tite-a- 
tHes  was  over,  wished  again  for  the  constant 
adulatress  of  her  charms  and  endowments. — 
Mad.  D9Arblay,  Camilla,  Bk.  X.  ch.  xiv. 

Adultage,  maturity;  or  have  two 
words  been  run  by  the  printer  into  one  ? 

Was  not  this  suit  come  to  adultage  for 
tryal  after  seventeen  years  vexation  in  it 
first  and  last  ? — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams, 
i.  75. 


Adulterise,  to  commit  adultery. 

Where  did  God  ever  will  thee  to  lie,  to 
swear,  to  oppress,  to  adulterise? — Adams, 
ii.  365. 

Adumber,  to  shadow  or  cloud. 

Serene  thy  woe-adumbr&d  front,  sweet  Saint, 

Davies,  Holy  Rood,  p.  26. 

Adumbrative,  shadowing  forth. 

We  claim  to  stand  there  as  mute  monu- 
ments, pathetically  adumbrative  of  much. — 
Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  I.  ch.  x. 

Advantage,  the  thirteenth  in  the 
baker's  dozen.  The  parenthesis  in  the 
quotation  from  Hacket  is  rather  ob- 
scure, but  I  suppose  it  to  mean  that  the 
accusations,  though  so  many,  were 
short  measure,  on  account  of  their 
frivolous  character. 

If  the  Scripture  be  for  reformation,  and 
Antiquity  to  boot,  it  is  but  an  advantage  to 
the  dozen,  it  is  no  winning  cast. — Milton,  Of 
Reformation  in  England,  bk.  i. 

These  preferM  articles  to  his  Majesty,  and 
the  Lords  of  the  Council,  against  their  Dean 
for  misgovernment,  three  dozen  of  articles 
(yet  none  to  the  vantage),  that  their  num- 
ber might  supply  the  nothingness  of  their 
weight.— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  91. 

When  his  Holinesse  created  twelve  Car- 
dinals at  the  request  of  the  King  of  France, 
he  denied  to  maxe  one  at  the  desire  of  this 
King  of  England.  Surely  it  was  not  [but  ?] 
reasonable  in  proportion  that  his  Holinesse 
giving  the  whole  dozen  to  the  King  of  France 
might  allow  the  advantage  to  the  King  of 
England.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  III.  ix.  27. 

Advantage  self,  to  take  advantage. 

It  is  observed  of  wolves,  that  when  they 
go  to  the  fold  for  prey,  they  will  be  sure  to 
advantage  themselves  of  the  wind. — Adams, 
H.  121. 

Adventurement,  hazard. 

Wiser  Baymundus,  in  his  closet  pent, 
Laughs  at  such  danger  and  adventurement. 
Hall,  Satires,  IV.  iii.  34. 

Ad  view,  to  see ;  observe. 

All  which  when  Artegall,  who  all  this  while 
Stood  in  the  preasse  close   covered,  well 

advfwed, 
And  saw  that  boaster's  pride  and  graceless 

guile, 
He  could  no  longer  beare,  but  forth  issewed. 

Spenser,  F.  Queen,  V.  iii.  20. 

Advisive,  monitory.  The  title  of 
one  of  Herrick's  poems  in  his  Hes- 
perides  (p.  249)  is  "  A  p araeneticall  or 
advisive  Verse  to  his  friend,  Mr.  John 
Wicks.' ' 


ADVOCATE 


(     7     ) 


AFFECTUAL 


Advocate,  to  invoke. 

("The  mercy  of  God]  is  not  to  be  advocated 
upon  every  vain  trifle. — Andrewes,  Sermons, 
▼.534. 

Advocation,  an  advowson. 

Our  .  .  .  Counties,  Honours,  Castles, 
Manours,  Fees  or  Inheritances,  Advocations, 
Possessions,  Annuities,  and  Seignories  what- 
soever, descended  unto  us  .  .  . — Parliament 
Boll,  I.  Ben.  4  (Holland's  Camden,  p.  757). 

We  see  some  parents,  that  have  the  dona- 
tions or  advocations  of  Church  livings  in  their 
hands,  must  needs  have  some  of  their  chil- 
dren . . .  thrust  into  the  ministry. — Sander- 
son, iii.  125. 

Advoke,  to  summon. 

By  this  time  Queen  Katharine  had  pri- 
vately prevailed  with  the  Pope  to  advoke  the 
cause  to  Rome.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  V.  i.  48. 

Advouzance,  advowson.     In  iii.  17 

of  the  same  work  Fuller  spells  it  ad- 

wwsance. 

He  obtained  licence  from  the  King  that 
the  University  might  purchase  Advouzances 
of  spiritual  livings. — Fuller,  Hist,  of  Camb., 
ii.  38. 

Advowson,  to  obtain  or  present  to  a 
benefice. 

There  moughtest  thou,  for  but  a  slender 

price, 
Advowson  thee  with  some  fat  benefice. 

Hall,  Satires,  II.  v.  10. 

iEGROTAT,  a  Cambridge  phrase  (see 
quotation)  ;  an  ceger  is  the  correspond- 
ing Oxford  term. 

I  sent  my  servant  to  the  apothecary  for  a 
thing  called  an  agrotat,  which  I  understood 
.  .  .  meant  a  certificate  that  I  was  indis- 
posed.— Babbage,  Passages  from  the  Life  of  a 
Philosopher,  37  (1864). 

Aereou8,  airy ;  unsubstantial ;  frivo- 
lous. 

In  cases  doubtful!  it  is  dangerous 
Tadmitte  light  Councells ;  for  for  want  of 

weight 
Twil  make  the  case  to  be  more  ponderous 
The  whilst  such  Councells  prove  Aereous. 
Davits,  Microcosmos,  p.  50. 

Aeriality,  airiness;  unsubstantiality. 

The  very  excess  of  the  extravagance,  in 
fact,  by  suggesting  to  the  reader  continually 
the  mere  aeriality  of  the  entire  speculation, 
furnishes  the  surest  means  of  disenchanting 
him  from  the  horror  which  might  else  gather 
upon  his  feelings. — De  Quincey,  Murder  as 
one  of  the  Fine  Arts,  Postscript. 

Afpatuated,  infatuated. 

They  who  from  the  first  beginning,  or  but 
now  of  late,  by  what  unhappiness  I  know 
not,  are  so  much  affatuated,  not  with  his 


person  only,  but  with  his  palpable  faults,  and 
dote  upon  his  deformities,  may  have  none  to 
blame  but  their  own  folly,  if  they  live  and 
die  in  such  a  stricken  blindness,  as  next  to 
that  of  Sodom  bath  not  happened  to  any 
sort  of  men  more  gross  or  more  misleading. 
— Milton,  Eikonoklastes,  Preface. 

You'll  see  a  hundred  thousand  spell-bound 

hearts 
By  art  of  witchcraft  so  affatuate, 
That  for  his  love  they'd  dress  themselves  in 

dowlas 
And  fight  with  men  of  steel. 

Taylor,  Ph.  van.  AH,  Pt.  II.  v.  2. 

Affectatob,  affecter.  In  the  original 
the  word  is  qfectatores,  which,  of  course, 
suggested  this  form.  N.  has  the  parti- 
ciple affectate. 

Those  affectators  of  variety  seem  equally 
ridiculous  who,  when  they  have  spoken 
barbarously  once,  repeat  the  same  thing 
much  more  barbarously. — Bailey's  Erasm. 
Colloq.,  p.  79. 

Affection,  motion  or  utterance. 

The  Apostles  indeed  spake  from  the  Spirit, 
and  every  affection  of  theirs  was  an  oracle ; 
but  that,  I  take  it,  was  their  peculiar  privi- 
lege.— Andrewes,  Sermons,  v.  57. 

Affection,  to  feel  affection  for. 
This  verb  is  not  quite  peculiar  to  the 
Welsh-English  of  the  Rev.  Hugh  Evans 
(Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  L  i.).  The 
participle  affectioned  (Rom.  xh.  10)  is 
not  very  uncommon. 

However  we  may  affection  our  own,  we 
have  showed  no  regard  for  their  liberty. — 
Walpole  to  Mann,  i.  141  (1742). 

Affectionate,  angry;  impetuous:  in 
the  extract  from  Brooks  it  means 
affected. 

He  doth  in  that  place  affectionately  and 
unjustly  reprove  both  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
and  Alexandria. —  Whitaift,  ii.  185. 

What  bitterness  and  cursing  was  there 
betwixt  Epiphanius  and  Chrysostom!  what 
affectionate  dealing  of  Theophilus  against 
the  same  Chrysostom  !  what  jarring  betwixt 
Hierome  and  Augustine ! — Ibid.  ii.  436. 

In  every  action  resolve  to  be  discreet  and 
wise,  rather  than  affectionate  and  singular. — 
Brooks,  i.  226. 

Affectionless,  impassive ;  unswayed 
by  passion. 

Vpon  the  Law  thy  judgements al waves  ground 
And  not  on  Man  ;  for  that's  affection-les  ; 
But  man  in  passions  strangely  doth  abound. 
Sylvester,  Quadrains  of  Pibrac,  st.  85. 

Affectual,  belonging  to  desire,  as 

distinguished  from  act. 

Lust  not  only  affectual,  but  actual  is  dis- 
pensed with. — Adams,  i.  205. 


AFFIDAT10N 


(    8    )      AFTERNOON  MEN 


Affidation,  assurance ;  affidavit 

The  Empresse  swore  and  made  affidation  to 
the  Legat.  .  .  The  same  oath  and  affiliation 
tooke  likewise  her  brother  Robert  Earl  of 
Glooester. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  02. 

Afflict,  conflict. 

The  life  of  man  upon  earth  is  nothing  else 
than  a  warfare  and  continual  affiiet  with  his 
ghostly  enemies. — Becon,  ii.  542. 

Affrighten,  to  terrify. 

Fit  tales 
For  garrulous  beldames  to  affrighten  babes. 
Southey,  Botany  Bay  Eclogues,  iv. 

Africanisms.  African  provincial- 
isms, such  as  mark  the  Latinity  of  some 
of  the  Fathers. 

He  that  cannot  understand  the  sober, 
plain,  and  unaffected  style  of  the  Scriptures, 
will  be  ten  times  more  puzzled  with  the 
knotty  Africanisms*  the  pampered  meta- 
phors, the  intricate  and  involved  sentences 
of  the  fathers,  besides  the  fantastic  and  de- 
clamatory flashes,  the  cross-jingling  periods 
which  cannot  but  disturb  and  come  athwart 
a  settled  devotion,  worse  than  the  din  of 
bells  and  rattles. — Milton,  Of  Reformation  in 
England,  bk.  i. 

After-bale,  subsequent  sorrow. 

Let  not  women  trust  to  men ; 
They  can  flatter  now  and  then, 
And  tell  them  many  wanton  tales, 
Which  do  breed  their  after-bales, 

Greene,  Philomela. 

After- birth,  used  metaphorically. 

He  finds  a  new  charge,  or  rather  no  new 
one,  but  the  after-birth  of  the  second  cause, 
heard  and  censur'd  before  about  tampering. 
Backet,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  133. 

After-day,  a  future  day  (the  plural 
is  in  L.  and  N.,  but  in  a  somewhat 
different  sense). 

But  something  whispers  in  my  dying  ear, 
There  is  an  after-day  ;  which  day  I  fear. 

Quarles,  Emblems,  ii.  13. 

After-dinner  is  used  adjectivally, 
but  less  frequently  as  a  substantive,  as 
in  the  second  extract. 

In  after-dinner  talk 
Across  the  walnuts  and  the  wine. 

Tennyson,  Miller's  Daughter. 
The  barons  swore  with  many  words 
Twas  but  an  after-dinner's  nap. 

Ibid.  The  Day-dream. 

After-friends,  future  friends. 

Or  rather  giue  me  (if  thy  grace  so  please) 
The  Ciuik  Garland  of  green  oaken  boughes, 
Thrice -three    times    wreathed    about    my 
glorious  browes, 


To  euer-witnes  to  our  after-friends, 
How  I  haue  rescew'd  my  con-citizens. 

Sylvester,  The  Trophies,  44. 

After- hands,  future  labourers. 

Tho'  she  perhaps  might  reap  the  applause  of 
great, 

Who  learns  the  one  Pou  Sto  whence  after- 
hands 

May  move  the  world. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  iii. 

Afterhood,  in  subjection  (?). 

Remember  that  love  is  a  passion,  and  that 
a  worthy  man's  reason  must  ever  have  them 
afterhood. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  66. 

Afterings,  the  last  milk  of  a  cow. 
See  quotation,  s.  v.  strip,  and  Jamieson, 
8.  v.  Bp.  Hall,  quoted  by  L.,  speaks  of 
the  afterings  of  our  Lord's  sufferings. 

It  were  only  yesterday  as  she  aimed  her 
leg  right  at  t'  pail  wi'  t'  afterings  in ;  she 
knowed  it  were  afterings  as  well  as  any 
Christian.  —  Mrs.  Gaskeil,  Sylvia's  Lovers, 
ch.  zv. 

After- meal,  a  late  meal  (aft-meal  is 
inN). 

Why  should  not  thy  soul  have  her  due 
drinks,  breakfasts,  meals,  under-meals,  bevers, 
and  after-tneals  as  well  as  thy  body  ? —  Ward, 
Sermons,  p.  28. 

Aftermen.     See  quotation. 

If  thou  comest  hither  ....  yoked  with  a 
crafty  or  a  wilful  foreman  that  is  made  be- 
forehand, and  a  mess  of  tame  aftermen 
withal,  that  dare  not  think  of  being  wiser 
than  their  leader,  or  unwilling  to  stickle 
against  a  major  part,  whether  they  go  right 
or  wrong,  or  resolved  already  upon  the  ver- 
dict, no  matter  what  the  evidence  be,  consider 
what  is  the  weight  and  religion  of  an  oath. — 
Sanderson,  ii.  268. 

After-morn,  the  morrow. 

On  that  last  night  before  we  went 
From  out  the  doors  where  I  was  bred, 
I  dream'd  a  vision  of  the  dead, 

Which  left  my  after-morn  content. 

Tennyson,  In  Memoriam,  cii. 

Afternoon  men,  men  who  prolonged 
their  dinner  and  drinking  far  into  the 
afternoon.  In  the  second  extract  Bp. 
Earle  seems  to  imply  that  theatres 
formed  the  sole  afternoon  business  of 
law-students. 

Beroaldus  will  have  drunkards,  afternoone 
men,  and  such  as  more  then  ordinarily  de- 
light in  drink,  to  be  mad. — Burton,  Democ.  to 
Reader,  p.  44  (see  also  p.  74). 

Your  Innes  of  Court  men  were  vndone 
but  for  him,  hee  is  their  chiefe  guest  and 
imployment,  and  the  sole  businesse  that 
makes  them  afternoones  men. — Earle,  Micro- 
cosmograi)hie  (A  Player). 


AFTER-SPRING 


(     9     ) 


AGRONOMIAL 


After-spring,  fresh 'strength.  The 
word  is  in  L.  in  a  different  sense. 

To  recreate  him,  and  to  put  an  after-spring 
into  his  decaying  spirits,  ....  the  Lord 
Chancellor  was  created  Viscount  Brackley. — 
Hacked  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  30. 

Agathokakological,  with  a  mingling 

of  good  and  evil. 

Upon  the  agathokakological  globe  there 
are  opposite  qualities  always  to  be  found  in 
parallel  degree3.Southeyy  The  Doctor ,  ch.  liii. 

Agemate,  one  of  the  same  age;  a 
contemporary. 

My  father  Anchises  heere  with  do  I  cal  to 

remembraunce, 
Whilst  I  beheld  Priamus  thus  gasping,  my 

sire  his  agemate. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  ii.  584. 

Aoenid,  adopted  "from  A.S.  agen, 
own,  proper ;  aqnian  for  agenian,  to 
own,  to  appropriate  "  (^.  and  Q.,  5th 
S.,  x.  409).  The  meaning  is  that 
the  Duke  of  Buckingham  (to  whom 
the  passage  refers)  was,  as  it  were, 
adopted  by  James  I. 

The  royall  Majesty,  which  first  took  bim 
into  favour,  agenid  and  trained  up  for  his 
own  turn  by  certain  degrees  in  the  most 
pertinent  affairs  and  mysteries  of  state. — 
Howell^  Dodona's  Grove,  p.  122. 

Agentess,  female  agent. 

I  shall  to-morrow  deliver  to  your  agentess, 
Mrs.  Moreland,  something  to  send  you. — 
Walpole,  Letters,  ii.  31  (1757). 

Aggest,  to  heap  together. 

I  have  ever  dissented  from  their  opinion 
who  maintain  that  the  world  was  created  a 
levell  champian,  mountains  being  only  the 
product  of  Noah's  flood,  where  the  violence 
of  the  waters  aggested  the  earth,  goared  out 
of  the  hollow  valleys.—- Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  bk. 
ix.,  Dedic. 

Aggravative,  aggravation. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  as  we  rose  up  to 
Oates's  plot  by  a  climax  of  aggravatives,  so 
we  must  descend  to  the  Bye-House  by  a 
scale  of  lenitives  and  emollients.— North, 
Examen,  p.  319. 

Aghasted,  struck  with  terror. 

My  limbs  do  quake,  my  thought  aghasted 
UL—Sackvillc,  Duke  of  Buckingham,  st.  65. 

Agitant,  agent ;  one  who  makes  him- 
self busy  about  a  matter. 

The  chief  agitant  saw  that  this  tryal  upon 
so  firm  a  courage  was  uneffectual  and  ridicu- 
lous.— Hacket,  JJfe  of  Williams,  ii.  90  (see 
also  p.  208). 

Now  am  I  ready  for  any  plot ;  I'll  go  find 
some  of  these  agitants.  —  The  Committee, 
Hi.  1. 


Agket,  an  innocent  person ;  a  di- 
minutive formed  from  Lat.  agnus  = 
lambkin.  Cf.  eaglet^  lancet,  &c.  So 
Agneta  is  a  Christian  name  ;  in  Italian 
Agnete. 

Sad  melancholly  will  bring  us  to  folly, 

And  this  is  death's  principall  magnet ; 
But  this  course  I  will  take — it  never  shall 
make 
Me  look  otherwise  than  an  agnet. 

Roxburgh  Ballads,  ii.  71. 

Agonyclitee.  The  AgonyclytaB  were 
a  sect  in  the  seventh  century  who  always 
prayed  standing,  as  thinking  it  un- 
lawful to  bow  the  knee  (a  y6w  kXivuv). 

To  Qod  he  will  not  bow  his  knee, 
Like  an  old  Agonyclitee. 

Ward,  England's  Reformation, 
p.  361. 

AgbAff,  clasp  (Fr.  agrafe). 

A  gorgeou*  hall 
Lighted  up  for  festival ; 
Braided  tresses,  and  cheeks  of  bloom, 
Diamond  agraff,  and  foam-white  plume. 
L.  E.  London,  Poems,  i.  2. 

Agreeability,  agreeableness.  L. 
and  R.  have  one  and  the  same  example 
from  Chaucer,  where  it  signifies  easi- 
ness of  disposition.  L.  marks  it  as 
rare.  Mad.  D'Arblay  thought  she  had 
invented  the  word,  which  she  uses 
several  times  in  her  diary ;  she  also  has 
diaagreeabUity,  q.  v. 

She  was  all  good  humour,  spirits,  sense, 
and  agreeability.  Surely  I  may  make  words 
when  at  a  loss,  if  Dr.  Johnson  does. — Mad. 
D*Jrblay,  Diary,  i.  42. 

Every  winter  there  is  a  gay  and  pleasant 
English  colony  in  that  capital,  of  course  more 
or  less  remarkable  for  rank,  fashion,  and 
agreeafnlity  with  every  varying  year. — 
Thackeray,  The  Neiecomes,  ch.  xxxb. 

Agreements  (a  Gallicism)  =*  Fr. 
agreements. 

This  figure,  says  he,  wants  a  certain  gay 
air ;  it  has  none  of  those  charms  and  agree- 
ments.— T.  Brown,  Works,  iii.  52. 

Agrin,  on  the  grin. 

That  large-moulded  man, 
His  visage  all  agrin  as  at  a  wake, 
Made  at  me  thro'  the  press. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  v. 

Agronomial,  belonging  to  the  man- 
agement of  farms.  L.  has  agrono- 
mical. 

Rapid  as  was  Leonard's  survey,  his  rural 
eye  detected  the  signs  of  a  master  in  the  art 
agronomial. — Lytton,  My  Novel,  Bk.  V.  ch.  ii. 


AID-SOU  LDIER 


(     io     ) 


ALCOHOL 


Aid-souldier,  an  auxiliary  soldier. 

Paullinus  .  . .  commanded  the  most  choke 
of  the  aid-souldier*. — Holland's  Camden,  p. 
54. 

Aigret,  an  ornament  for  the  head. 

Oh  many  an  aigrette  and  solitaire  have  I 
sold  to  discharge  a  lady's  play-debt. — Foote, 
The  Minor,  Act  II. 

Stomachers  and  Paris  nets, 
Ear-rings,  necklaces,  aiqrets. 

Anstey,  New  Bath  Guide,  letter  3. 

When  at  court  or  some  dowager's  rout, 
Her  diamond  aiarette  meets  our  view, 

She  looks  like  a  glow-worm  dressed  out, 
Or  tulips  bespangled  with  dew. 
H.  $  J.  Smith,  Rejected  Addresses, -p.  104. 

Aimworthiness,  good  aim. 

These  worthy  fellows  waited  not  to  take 
good  aim  with  their  cannon,  seeing  the 
others  about  to  shoot,  but  fettled  it  anyhow 
on  the  slope,  pointing  it  in  a  general  direc- 
tion, and,  trusting  in  God  for  aimworthiness, 
laid  the  rope  to  the  breech  and  fired. — 
Blackmore,  Lorna  Doone,  ch.  liv. 

Air,  to  set  to  music. 

For  not  a  drop  that  flows  from  Helicon 
But  ayred  by  thee  grows  streight  into  a  song. 
J.  Cobb,  Commendatory  verses  prefixed  to 
Ayres  and  Dialogues  by  H.  Lawes  (1653). 

Air,  to  take  an  airing. 

A  message  from  Mrs.  Schwellenberg  this 
morning,  to  ask  me  to  air  with  her,  re- 
ceived my  most  reluctant  acquiescence. — 
Mad.  D'ArMay,  Diary,  v.  4. 

Airqonation,  aerostation.  Walpole, 
writing  in  1784,  coins  this  word,  and 
airgonaut  for  aeronaut,  those  more 
usual  terms  perhaps  not  being  then 
formed,  though  in  1786  Peter  Pindar 
uses  aeronaut  (p.  151,  note).  L.  gives 
Burke  as  an  authority  for  aeronaut,  but 
as  there  is  no  reference,  this  does  not 
fix  the  date.  See  quotation,  s.  v.  Air- 
gonaut. 

Airgonaut,  aeronaut.  See  Airqon- 
ation. 

You  know  how  little  I  have  attended  to 
those  airgonauts;  only  t'other  night  I  diverted 
myself  with  a  sort  of  meditation  on  future 
airgonation. —  Walpole,  Letters,  iv.  375  (1784). 

Airwards,  up  in  the  air. 

Eagles  such  as  Braudon  do  not  sail  down 
from  the  clouds  in  order  to  pounce  upon 
small  flies,  and  soar  airtcards  again,  con- 
tented with  such  ignoble  booty. — Thackeray, 
Shabby  Genteel  Story,  ch.  iv. 

Aislet,  little  ait  or  island. 

He  enjoyed  a  party  of  pleasure  in  a  pood 
boat  on  the  water  to  one  of  the  aits  or  atslets 


in  the  Thames. — Miss  Edgevorth,  Patronage, 
ch. 


Alabastrine,  of  alabaster. 

Another-while  vnder  the  Crystal!  brinks, 
Her  alabastrine  well-shap't  limbs  she  shrinks, 
Like  to  a  Lilly  sunk  into  a  glasse. 

Sylvester,  The  Trophies,  1081. 

Alamodalitt,  f  ashionableness. 

Doubtless  it  hath  been  selected  for  me 
because  of  its  alamodality — a  good  and  preg- 
nant word,  on  the  fitness  of  which  some  Ger- 
man, whose  name  appears  to  be  erroneously 
as  well  as  uncouthly  written  Qeamoenus,  is 
said  to  have  composed  a  dissertation.    Be 

frieased,  Mr.  Todd,  to  insert  it  in  the  inter- 
eaved  copy  of  your  Dictionary.  —  Southey, 
The  Doctor,  Interchapter 


Alarum,  a  clock  which  will  make  a 
considerable  noise  to  awake  people  at 
any  hour  at  which  it  may  have  been 
set.  The  word  is  frequent  in  Shake- 
speare and  other  dramatists  to  signify 
a  flourish  or  alarm  of  trumpets. 

She  had  an  alarum  to  call  her  up  early. — 
C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  ori. 

Albacorb,  dolphin  (Portuguese). 

In  the  sea  the  fish  which  is  called  the 
Albacore,  as  big  as  a  salmon,  folio  we  th  them 
[flying  fish]  with  great  swiftness  to  take 
them.  —  T.  Stevens,  1579  (Eng.  Garner,  i. 
134). 

The  albacore  that  followeth  night  and  day 
The  flying  fish,  and  takes  them  for  his  prey. 
Dennys,  Secrets  of  Angling  (Ibid.  i.  166). 

Albbrge,  house  or  lodging.  Ital. 
albergo,  Fr.  auberge,  Sp.  alhergue^  Eng. 
harbour. 

We  omit  to  speake  of  the  great  mens 
Serraglios  . . .  the  Alberges  of  Janizaries,  the 
several  Seminaries  of  Spachies.  —  Sandys, 
Travels,  p.  33. 

They  [the  Hospitallers]  were  conveyed  to 
their  severall  Alberges  in  Europe. — Fuller, 
Holy  War,  Bk.  V.  ch.  v. 

At  this  day  the  knights  of  Malta,  who 
have  but  foure  Alberqies  or  Seminaries  in  all 
Christendome,  have  three  of  them  in  France. 
— Ibid.,  Bk.  V.  ch. 


Alchymk,  to  pour  over,  or  fuse. 

True  gold  is  alehymed  over  with  a  false 
sophistication. — Adams,  ii.  63. 

Alcohol.  See  extract.  The  word  is 
Arabic,  and  is  applied  to  the  black 
sulphid  of  antimony,  which  is  used  as 
a  collyrium.  Cf.  Ezekiel  xxiii.  40  in 
Heb.  and  LXX.  The  idea  of  fineness 
and  tenuity  probably  caused  the  word 
to  be  applied  also  to  the  rectified 
spirit. 


ALDERMAN 


( 


II 


) 


ALL  FOURS 


They  pat  betweene  the  eye-lids  and  the 
eye  ft  certaine  blacke  powder  with  a  flue 
long  penril,  made  of  a  minerall  brought  from 
the  kingdome  of  Fes,  and  called  Alcohols. — 
Sandys,  Travels,  p.  67. 

Alderman,  a  Presbyterian  elder. 
Jamieson  says  that  the  word  was 
formerly  used  to  denote  a  mayor  in 
Scotch  boroughs. 

A  kinp  ia  not  obnoxious  to  be  interdicted 
or  deprived  of  the  Sacraments  by  their 
aldermen,  who  can  show  no  more  for  the 
proof  of  such  officers,  with  whom  they 
organize  a  Church,  than  the  Pope  can  for 
his  unlimited  jurisdiction. — Hacket,  Life  of 
Williams,  i.  32. 

Alb-haunter,  a  frequenter  of  ale- 
feasts  or  ale-houses. 

Nor  do  they  speak  any  better  of  the 
Inf  eriour  Clergy ...  of  whom  they  tell  us  . . . 
That  they  are  Popish  Priests,  or  Monks,  or 
Friars,  or  Ale-haunters. — Hey  tin's  Hist,  of  the 
Presbyterians,  p.  281. 

Ale-keeper,  keeper  of  an  ale-house. 

One  William  Quick,  an  ale-keeper  within 
the  county  of  Devon,  was  suppressed  by  the 
Justices  of  Assize. — House  of  Lords,  MSS. 
temp.  James  I.  (Arch.,xti.  233). 

Alembic,  to  extract  or  distil. 

I  have  occasioned  great  speculation,  and 
diverted  myself  with  the  important  mysteries 
that  have  been  alembicked  out  of  a  trifle. — 
Walpole,  Letters,  i.  208  (1749). 

Aliment,  to  nourish. 

Whilst  they  give  the  common  people  to 
understand  that  they  are  busied  about  no- 
thing but  contemplation  and  devotion  in  fast- 
ings, and  maceration  of  their  sensuality — and 
that  only  to  sustain  and  aliment  the  small 
frailty  of  their  humanity — it  is  so  far  other- 
wise that,  on  the  contrary,  God  knows  what 
cheer  they  make. — Vrquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk. 
IL  ch.  rxari. 

Alimentiveness,  feeling  which  in- 
clines to  taking  nourishment. 

We  then  assigned  to  man  an  organ  of 
alimentiveness,  and  this  organ  is  the  scourge 
with  which  the  Deity  compels  man,  will-I 
nill-I,  into  eating. — E.  A.  Poe,  Imp  of  the 
Perverse. 

All- alive,  very  sharp  or  wakeful. 

Never  was  there  in  woman  such  a  sagacious, 
such  an  all-alive  apprehension  as  in  this. — 
Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  iii.  133. 

All  along,  fallen  at  full  length. 

He  that  foots  it  best  may  be  sometimes 
found  all  along. — Brooks,  vi.  441. 

I  found  a  woman  of  a  matchless  form 
Stretch'd  all  along  upon  the  marble  floor. 
Tuke,  Adventures  of  Five  Hours,  Act  II. 


Feigning  to  slip,  she  fell  all  along,  crying 
out,  as  in  the  utmost  agony,  that  she  had 
wrenched  her  ancle. — Johnston,  Chrysal,  ch. 
zxv. 

All  and  all,  on  the  whole :  usually 

written  "  all  in  all,"  and  is  so  written  in 

ch.  xli.  of  the  book  quoted. 

Take  it  all  and  all,  I  never  spent  so  happy 
a  summer.  —  Miss  Austen,  Mansfield  Park, 
ch.  zxii. 

All  Ball,  the  universe. 

They'll  tell  thee  how,  when  first  the  Lord 

had  spred 
Men  on  the  earth,  and  justly  levelled 
His  strait    long  measure  th'  All  -  Ball  to 

divide, 
He  did  for  thee  a  plentious  land  provide. 

Sylvester,  The  Lane,  1382. 

All-fired,  excessively  ;  out  and  out. 

"  I  knows  I  be  so  all-fired  jealous  I  can't 
abear  to  hear  o'  her  talkin',  let  alone  writin', 
to—"  "  Out  with  it.  To  me,  you  were  going 
to  say." — Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford, 
ch.  xl. 

Allforches.  The  Span,  al/orja  =  a 
wallet ;  hence  applied  in  extract  to  the 
stomach. 

They  humbly  came  their  Majesties  to  greet, 
Begging  their  Majesties  to  come  and  treat 
On  every  sort  of  fruit  their  grand  all- 
forches ; 
The    couple  smiled  assent,  and  asked  no 

3uestions, 
ved  to  gratifytheir  great  digestions. 
Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  97. 

All  fours.  A  perfectly  fitting  com- 
parison is  said  to  go  or  run  on  all  fours. 
All  four  as  in  ono  or  two  of  the  sub- 
joined extracts  is  less  common.  That 
from  Adams  gives  the  saying  in  a 
slightly  different  form.  Ld.  Coke  (Lit- 
tleton, I.  i.  1)  refers  to  the  ancient  say- 
ing, "  Nullum  simile  quatuor  pedibus 
earrit." 

All  similitudes  run  not,  like  coaches,  on 
four  wheels. — Adams,  i.  498. 

You'll  hardly  find 
Woman  or  beast  that  trots  sound  of  all  four  ; 
There  will  be  some  defect. 

Manmion,  Antiquary,  Act.  I. 
I  do  not  say  this  comparison  runs  on  all 
four;  there  may  be  some  disparity. — Gentle- 
man Instructed,  p.  387. 

No  prophecy  can  be  expected  to  go  upon 
all  fours. — Sou  they,  The  Doctor,  ch.  xciv. 

All- fours,  a  game  at  cards,  popular 
among  the  vulgar.  See  extract  from 
T.  Brown,  s.  v.  insensible.  Hence  in 
The  Rovers  (Act  II.)  Canning,  design- 
ing to  ridicule  a  scene  in  a  German 


ALL-HOLLANTIDE      (     12     ) 


ALMER 


play  in  which  the  characters  were  dis- 
covered playing  chess,  introduces  his 
an  playing  all-fours.  See  the  passage 
quoted,  s.  v.  noddy,  where  some  other 
terms  connected  with  the  game  will  be 
found. 

Sq.  Richard.  She  and  I,  mayhap,  will  have 
a  bawt  at  all-fours  without  you. 

Sir  Fr.  Noa,  noa,  Dick,  that  won't  do 
neither;  you  mun  learn  to  make  one  at 
ombre  here,  child. — Cibber,  Prov.  Husband, 
Act  II. 

The  doctor's  friend  was  in  the  positive 
degree  of  hoarseness,  puffiness,  red-facedness, 
all-fours,  tobacco,  dirt,  and  brandy ;  the  doc- 
tor in  the  comparative,  hoarser,  puffier,  more 
red-faced,  more  all-foureu,  tobaccoer,  dirtier, 
and  brandier. — Dickens,  Little  Dorrit,  ch.  vi. 

All-hollantide,  All  Hallows-tide,  or 
All  Saints-tide.     See  H. 

He'll  give  her  a  black  eye  within  these  three 

days, 
Beat  half  her  teeth  out  by  All-hallontide, 
And  break  the  little  household  stuff  they 
have. 

Jonson,  Fletcher,  and  Middleton, 
Tlie  Widow,  Act  V. 

Lincoln  is  kept  in  close  imprisonment  from 
All-hollantide  till  the  end  of  Christmas. — 
Hack*,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  131. 

Allieman,  relation  by  marriage. 

There  was  not  a  gentleman  in  the  two 
counties  of  Carnarvon  and  Anglesey,  of  three 
hundred  pounds  a  yeer,  but  was  his  kinsman 
or  allieman  in  the  fourth  degree. — Fuller, 
Ch.  Hi*.,  XI.  iv.  9. 

Alliohten,  to  lighten. 

Another  died,  whereby  their  boat  was 
somewhat  allightned. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Dor- 
setshire, i.  314. 

Allmight,  almightiness. 

Our  Christ  the  sonne  of  God,  chief  authour  of 

all  good, 
Was  He  by  His  allmight  that  first  created 

man. 
Puttenham,  ArtofEng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xix. 

Allooiambnt,  lodging  ;  quarters  :  an 
Italian  word  Anglicized. 

The  allogiaments  of  the  garrison  are  uni- 
forme. — Evelyn,  Diary,  March  23, 1644. 

Allowance,  to  put  on  an  allowance. 

You  have  had  as  much  as  you  can  eat, 
you're  asked  if  you  want  any  more,  and  you 
answer  "  no."  Then  don't  you  ever  go  and 
say  you  were  al/oioanced,  mind  that. — Dick- 
ens, Old  Curiosity  Shop,  ch.  xxxvi. 

All  -  scient,  all-knowing :  a  hybrid 

substitute  for  omniscient. 

If  there  be  God  immortall,  All-scient, 
AU-urighty,  just,  benign,  benevolent ; 


Where  were  his  wisdom,  goodnesse,  justice, 

power, 
If  Vice  Hee  damne  not,  nor  give  Vertue 

dower. — Sylvester \  Little  Bartas,  751. 

All  to  one,  altogether. 

It  will  be  all  to  one  a  better  match  for 
your  sister:  two  thousand  a  year  without 
debt  or  drawback,  except  the  little  love-child 
indeed. — Miss  Austen,  Sense  and  Sensibility, 
ch. 


Allude,  to  compare  mystically;  to 
refer. 

Some  have  alluded  these  three,  gold,  myrrh, 
and  frankincense,  to  the  three  theological 
virtues,  faith,  hope,  and  charity. — Adams,  ii. 
10. 

Here  will  arise  a  quarrel  for  the  Papists, 
who,  when  they  hear  of  this  mount,  they 
presently  allude  it  to  their  Church. — Sibbes, 
ii.  444. 

Our  Bishop  was  wont  to  say  that  Queen 
Elizabeth's  Parliaments  were  most  tractable 
which  sate  but  a  short  time,  ended  before 
they  were  acquainted  with  one  another's  in- 
terests, and  had  not  learned  to  combine, 
which  makes  me  allude  it  to  Theophrastus' 
date  tree. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  84. 

All  up,  total  failure  or  destruction. 

"All  is  up  and  undone ! "  cries  Murphy. — 
Fielding,  Amelia,  Bk.  XII.  ch.  vi. 

A-double  1,  all,  everything;  a  cobbler's 
weapon ;  u-p,  up,  adjective,  not  down ; 
S-q-u-double  e-r-s,  Saueers,  noun  substantive, 
a  educator  of  youth.  Total,  all  up  with 
Squeers. — Dickens,  Nicholas  Nickleby,  ch.  Ix. 

Almain  comb.  See  quotation.  The 
translator's  note  says  that  no  reflection 
on  German  cleanliness  is  intended  ;  but 
they  wore  their  own  hair,  which  they 
would  sweep  out  of  their  eyes  with 
their  hand  ;  while  the  French,  wearing 
periwigs,  were  "  seldom  seen  without  a 
comb  in  their  hand."  Grose  gives 
Welch  combt  with  the  same  meaning. 

Afterwards  he  combed  his  hair  with  an 
Alman  comb,  which  is  the  four  fingers  and 
the  thumb. — UrqidiarVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch. 
xxi. 

Almanog raphes,  an  almanac-maker. 

We  acknowledge  the  delicacy  of  the 
almanog  rap  her,  but  at  the  same  time  it  must 
be  plain  to  everybody  that  this  means,  Mer- 
cury in  infernal  combination  with  the  sun. — 
E.  Roe,  Land  of  the  North  Wind,  p.  87  (1875). 

Almkr,  an  almsgiver. 

The  churle  thatneuerchaunc't  vpon  a  thought 
Of  charitie,  nor  what  belonges  thereto, 
If  Qod  His  grace  haue  once  his  spirit  brought 
To  f eele  what  goode  the  faithf nil  aimers  doe, 
The  loue  of  Christ  will  so  his  spirit  wooe, 


ALMIGHTY-MOST      (     13     ) 


ALTERNACY 


That  he  will  leaue  barnes,  corne,  and  bagges 

of  coine, 
And  land  and  life,  with  Jesus'  love  to  joine. 

Breton,  Longing  of  a  Blessed  Hearty  p.  10. 

Almighty-most,  the  most  all-power- 
ful :  a  redundant  expression,  as  almighty 
does  not  admit  of  degrees. 

Therefore,  O  People,  let  as  Praise  and  Pray, 
TV  Almighty-most  (whose  mercy  lasts  for 
Ky).— Sylvester,  The  Captaines,  1287. 

Almightyship,  omnipotence.  It  is 
curious  that  in  each  of  the  two  extracts 
in  which  I  have  found  the  word  the 
reference  should  be  to  Jove  and  Danae. 

She  taught  the  amorous  Jove 
A  magical  receipt  in  love, 
Which  arm'd  him  stronger,  and  which  help'd 

him  more 
Than  all  his  thunder  did,  and  his  almighty- 
ship  before. — Cowley,  Essays  {Avarice). 

Not  Jove  himself  such  transports  knew, 
When  Danae's  charms  the  captive  god 
did  hold, 
Tho'  he  the  pleasure  to  pursue 
Mortgag'd  his  poor  almightyship  to  gold. 
T.  Brown,  Works,  iv.  83. 

Almondinb,  a  mineral  of  a  red  colour ; 

precious  garnet. 

They  would  pelt  me  with  starry  spangles 

and  shells, 
Laughing  and  clapping  their  hands  between, 

All  night,  merrily,  merrily ; 
But  I  would  throw  to  them  back  in  mine 
Turkis  and  agate  and  almondine. 

Tennyson,  The  Merman. 

Alms-penny,  small  charitable  dona- 
tion. 

Father,  here  is  an  alms-penny  for  me ;  and 
if  I  speed  in  that  I  go  for,  I  will  give  thee 
as  good  a  gown  of  grey  as  ever  thou  did'st 
wear.— Petit,  Old  Wives  Tale. 

It's  probable  He  gave  them  an  alms-penny, 
for  which  reason  Judas  carried  the  bag,  that 
had  a  common  stock  in  it  for  the  poor. — 
Barnard,  Life  of  Heylin,  sect.  104. 

Alnascharism,  day-dreaming :  the 
reference  of  course  is  to  the  well-known 
story  of  The  Barber's  Fifth  Brother,  in 
the  Arabian  Nights. 

Already  with  maternal  alnascharism  she 
had,  in  her  reveries,  thrown  back  her  head 
with  disdain,  as  she  repulsed  the  family 
advances  of  some  wealthy  but  low-born 
heiress. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Vivian,  ch.  i. 

Aloft  is  used  more  than  once  in 
Cecilia  for  aloof.  I  did  not  mark  the 
first  instance,  supposing  it  to  be  a  mis- 
print. 

Delville  stood  aloft  for  some  minutes, 
expecting  Sir  Robert  Floyer  would  station 


himself   behind    Cecilia.  —  Mad.  WArblay, 
Cecilia,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  ii. 

Already,  present :  used  adjectivally. 

Lord  Hobart  and  Lord    Fitzwilliam  are 
both  to  be  earls  to-morrow ;  the  former  of 
Buckingham,  the  latter  by  his  already  title. — 
Walpole,  Letters,  i.  160  (1746). 

Alsatian,  a  rogue,  or  debauchee, 
such  as  haunted  Alsatia  or  Whitefriars. 
Alsatians  are  graphically  described  in 
Scott' 8  Nigel. 

He  spurr'd  to  London,  and  left  a  thousand 
curses  behind  him.  Here  he  struck  up  with 
sharpers,  scourers,  and  Alsatians. — Gentleman 
Instructed,  p.  491. 

Alsatia  phrase,  slang  or  cant  term, 
such  as  was  used  by  the  ruffians  of 
Whitefriars. 

The  second  instance  to  shew  the  author's 
wit  is  not  his  own,  is  Peter's  banter  (as  he 
calls  it  in  his  Alsatia  phrase)  upon  transub- 
stantiation. — Swift,  Tale  of  Tub.  Apology  for 
Author. 

Alt.  To  be  in  alt,  a  musical  term 
applied  to  being  in  the  clouds,  or  in  a 
passion,  or  in  an  exalted  frame  of  mind. 

The  fair  fugitive  was  all  in  alt. — Richard' 
son,  CI.  Harlowe,  v.  145. 

Sophy.  Moderato,  moderato,  madam !  your 
ladyship's  absolutely  in  alt. 

Lady  S.  In  alt,  madam  ? 

Sophy.  Tes,  in  alt.  Give  me  leave  to  tell 
your  ladyship  that  you  have  raised  your 
voice  a  third  octave  higher  since  you  came 
into  the  room.  —  Colman,  Musical  Lady, 
Act  I. 

"  Gome,  prithee  be  a  little  less  in  alt,"  cried 
Lionel,  "  and  answer  a  man  when  he  speaks 
to  you."— Mad.  UArblay,  Camilla,  Bk.  H. 
ch.  v. 

Altarage.    See  second  extract. 

In  the  time  of  King  Henry  the  Eighth 
there  came  a  great  and  mighty  wiud,  that 
rent  down  churches,  overthrew  altarages. — 
Adams,  i.  07. 

All  the  altaragia,  the  dues  that  belong  to 
them  that  serve  at  God's  altar,  and  which 
the  laws  of  God  and  man  bound  to  the  altar, 
they  have  loosened. — Ibid.  i.  128. 

Altel,  altar. 

If  ...  he  come  to  church,  take  holy 
water,  hear  mass  devoutly,  and  take  altel 
holy  bread,  he  is  sure  enough,  say  the 
Papists. — Bradford,  ii.  314. 

Alternaoy,  alternation. 

Lorenzo's  [sonnets]  are  frequently  more 
clear,  less  alemlnques,  and  not  inharmonious, 
as  Petrarch's  often  are,  from  being  too  crowd- 
ed with  words,  for  which  room  is  made  by 
numerous  elisions,  which  prevent  the  soften- 


ALTERNIZE 


(     14     ) 


AMBITION/ST 


ing  alternacy  of  vowels  and  consonants. — 
Walpole,  Letters,  iv.  549  (1705). 

Alternize,  to  alternate. 

I  only  saw  him  once,  but  that  was  in  a 
tete-a-tete,  altemized  with  a  trio  by  my 
son  that  lasted  a  whole  afternoon. — Mad. 
UArUay,  Diary,  vii.  355. 

Alteza,  height.  See  quotation,  s.  v. 
Excelsitude.  Nashe  seems  to  use  the 
word  as  though  it  were  naturalized. 

Althoff,  although.  Fielding  re- 
peatedly makes  his  uneducated  charac- 
ters use  thqf  or  althof. 

He  affected  somewhat  of  the  rustic  phrase 
of  his  own  country,  which  was  Gloucester- 
shire; as,  to  instance  in  a  word,  althoff 
instead  of  although,  as  we  pronounce. — 
North  Examen,  p.  510. 

Altify,  to  heighten.  Fuller  in  his 
Worthies  (i.  234),  remarking  on  the 
Cumberland  proverb — 

M  Skiddaw,  Lanvellin,  and  Casticand 
Are  the  highest  hills  in  all  England," 

says  "  every  county  is  given  to  magnify 
(not  to  say  altify)  their  own  things 
therein." 

Altitudes,  passion ;  excitement. 

Clar.  Who  makes  thee  cry  out  thus,  poor 

Brass? 
Brass.  Why,  your  husband,  Madam ;  he's 

in  his  altitudes  here. 

Vanbrugh,  Confederacy,  Act  V. 

If  we  would  see  him  in  his  altitudes,  we 
must  go  back  to  the  House  of  Commons 
.  .  .  there  he  cuts  and  slashes  at  another 
rate. — North,  Examen,  p.  258. 

"The  girl  is  got  into  her  altitudes,  Aunt 
Hervey,"  said  my  sister.  "  You  see,  Madam, 
she  spares  nobody." — Richardson,  CI,  Har~ 
lowe,  l.  350. 

Sophia.  Sir,  I  have  tried  while  I  could  to 
treat  you  with  some  degree  of  respect ;  you 
put  it  out  of  my  power;  resentment  and 
contempt  are  the  only 

Contrast.  Clarissa  Harlow  in  her  altitudes/ 
What  circulating  library  has  supplied  you 
with  language  and  action  upon  this  occasion  ? 
— Burgoyne,  Lord  of  the  Manor,  Act  II.  sc.  i. 

Alveary,  a  hive.  L.  has  the  word, 
but  no  illustration  of  the  literal  sense. 

Ther's  not  the  least  foulnes  seen  in  our 
alvearies  or  hives,  for  we  abhor  all  immun- 
dicities  and  sordidnes.  —  Howell,  Parly  of 
Beasts,  p.  137. 

Aly,    having    to   do  with   ale :    as 

applied  to  a  nose — red. 

Acoystrell 
Whose  crusty  chaps,  whose  aly  nose, 
Whose  lothsom  stinking  breath 


Whose    toothles    gumma,    whote    bristled 
beard, 
Whose  visage  all  like  death, 
Would  kill  an  honest  wench  to  view. 

Breton,  Toyes  of  an  Idle  Head,  p.  55. 

Amafrose,  amaurosis,  a  weakness  in 
the  optic  nerve  causing  loss  or  dimness 
of  sight. 

She  is  back't 
By  th'  Amafrose  and  cloudy  Cataract, 
That  (gathering  up  gross  humors  inwardly 
In  th'  optique  smew)  quiteputs  out  the  eye. 
Sylvester,  The  Furies,  377. 

Amateurish,  unprofessional ;  in  the 
style  of  an  amateur.  See  extract,  s.  v. 
Dilettantish. 

I  found   him    standing  in  a  stable  . 
superintending    the    somewhat    amateurish 
operations  of  the  man  who  had  undertaken 
to  supply  the  ostler's  place. — Black,  Adven- 
tures of  a  Phaeton,  ch.  v. 

Amaze,  to  be  amazed. 

Amaze  not,  man  of  God,  if  in  the  spirit 
Thou'rt  brought  from  Jewry  unto  Nineveh. 
Greene,  Looking  Gla&sfor  England,  p.  119. 

Madam,  amaze  not :  see  his  majesty 
Return'd  with  glory  from  the  Holy  Land. 

Peele,  Edw.  I.,  i.  1. 

Amazeful,  astonished. 

The    Queen,  nigh    sunk   in   an   amazefull 

swoun, 
Bespake  him  thus. 

Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  1398. 

Amazon ical,  belonging  to  the  Ama- 
zons. 

Tbeare  wear  Amazonical  woommen  with 
targat. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.  475. 

Ambassadorial,  pertaining  to  an 
ambassador. 

I  had  no  occasion  to  be  in  such  a  hurry  to 
prepare  your  ambassadorial  countenance. — 
Walpole  to  Mann,  iii.  341  (1759) 

Ambidexterity,  versatility. 

My  father's  disappointment  was  in  finding 
nothing  more  from  so  able  a  pen  but  the 
bare  fact  itself,  without  any  of  that  specu- 
lative subtllity  or  ambidexterity  of  argument- 
ation upon  it,  which  heaven  had  bestow'd 
upon  man  on  purpose  to  investigate  truth, 
and  fight  for  her  on  all  sides.— -Sterne,  Tr. 
Shandy,  iii.  23. 

Am  bit  ion  ate,  to  aim  at  ambition. 

These  may  be  glad  if  they  can  preserve 
the  petty  Provinces  of  their  Parochial  and 
Independent  Episcopacies  which  they  so 
infinitely  ambitionated. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  252. 

Ambitionist,  ambitious  man. 

[Napoleon]  lost  head,  as  they  say,  and  be- 
came a  selfish  ambitionist  and  quack. — 
Carlyle,  3Iisc.,  iv.  146. 


'AMBLTGON 


(     *5     ) 


A  MO  UND 


Ambligon,  having  obtuse  angles. 

The  Buildings  Ambligon, 
May  more  receive  than  Mansions  Oxygon, 
(Because  th'  acute  and  the  rect- Angles  too 
Stride  not  so  wide  as  obtuse  Angles  doe). 

Sylvester,  The  Columnea,  198. 

Ambbosiatb,  ambrosial. 

Ev*n  thus  the  Mercury  of  heaven 
Ushers  th'  ambrosiate  banquet  of  the  gods. 
Decker,  Satiromastix  {Hawkins,  Eng.  D., 
iii.  181). 

Ambulate,  to  walk,  or  wander. 

Now  Morpheus  .  .  . 

Amused  with  dreams  man's  ambulating  soul. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  43. 

Ambulino  Communions.  1  hod  thought 
that  the  remark  of  Lord  Cecil  at  the 
Hampton  Court  Conference  referred  to 
the  custom  of  the  clergy  walking  about 
the  church,  and  giving  the  elements  to 
the  people ;  but  Heylin  (Survey  of  the 
Estate  of  Guemzey  and  Jursey  (1656), 
Bk.  VI.  ch.  v.  p.  371),  commenting  on 
the  order  that  had  been  made  in  those 
islands  to  receive  the  Holy  Communion 
either  sitting  or  standing,  observes, 
"Our  Synodists  more  moderate  than 
those  of  the  Netherlands,  who  have 
licenced  it  to  be  administered  unto  men 
even  when  they  are  walking." 

Ld.  Cecil.  The  indecencie  of  ambuling  com' 
munions  is  very  offensive,  and  hath  driven 
many  from  the  Church. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist., 
X.  i.  20. 

Amen,  to  end.  as  amen  does  a  prayer ; 
also  to  say  amen  to. 

Yea  verily,  this  very  evening  have  I  amenyd 
the  volume.— Southey,  Letters,  1812,  ii.  281. 

Who  has  not  heard  the  ancient  words? 
and  how  many  of  us  have  uttered  them 
knowing  them  to  be  untrue?  and  is  there 
a  bishop  on  the  bench  that  has  not  amen'd 
the  humbug  in  his  lawn  sleeves,  and  called 
a  blessing  over  the  kneeling  pair  of  per- 
jurers ? — Thackeray,  Nevocouies,  en.  Ivii. 

Americanism,  a  word  or  phrase  pe- 
culiar to  the  United  States,  or  originat- 
ing there.  Many  so-called  American- 
isms are  good  old  English.  There  is  an 
article  on  Americanisms  in  the  Fenny 
Cyclopaedia. 

You  know  very  well  that  quoting  a  foreign 
language  is  quite  different  from  using  those 
stupid  Americanisms  which  are  only  fit  for 
negro-concerts. — Black,  Adventures  of  a  Phae- 
ton, ch.  vii. 

Amissness,  error. 

God  forgive  us  our  amissnesses  I — British 
Bellman,  1648  (Hurl.  Misc.,  vii.  626). 


Ammunition-bread,  bread  belonging 
to  soldiers*  rations. 

That  great  Achilles  might  employ 
The  strength  designed  to  ruin  Troy, 
He  dined  on  lion's  marrow,  spread 
On  toasts  of  ammunition-bread. 

Prior,  Alma,  iii.  215. 
The    king  .  .  allows  them  soldier's  pay, 
that  is,  five  sols  or  twopence  halfpenny  a 
day ;  or  rather,  three  sols  and  ammunition 
bread. — Smollett,  Travels,  Letter  v. 

Amnestia.  R.  says,  "It  is  used  in 
the  Latin  form  by  Howell  to  denote 
f orgetf ulness ;  "  and  he  cites  from  the 
Letters,  iii.  6.  The  extract  shows 
that  the  term  was  also  used  by  him  to 
signify  amnesty.  Sanderson  has  the 
Eng.  form. 

He  required  that  every  one  should  return 
to  his  former  obedience,  offring  an  amnestia 
for  what  had  pass'd.  —  Hotoell,  Parly  of 
Beasts,  p.  127. 

Amorette.  This  word  is  variously 
employed.  In  Chaucer's  Romaunt  of 
the  Rose,  892,  it  seems  to  mean  a  love- 
knot  (so  Jamieson  and  L.);  in  Ibid. 
4765  Tyrwhitt  and  L.  explain  it,  "an 
amorous  woman."  H.  thinks  that  in 
both  passages  it  =  a  love  affair,  a  little 
amour,  a  sense  which  it  certainly  bears 
in  Walsh's  Letters,  as  quoted  by  Latham. 
N.  cites  a  passage  from  Hey  wood! s 
Love's  Mistress  where  it  signifies  "a 
love  sonnet/'  In  Puttenham's  Arte  of 
Poeste}  Bk.  II.  ch.  xii.,  it  appears  to 
denote  "  an  amorous  woman. '  In  the 
subjoined  it  =  amorous  looks. 

How  martial  is  the  figure  of  his  face, 
Tet  lovely,  and  beset  with  amorets. 

Greene,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  168. 

Should  Paris  enter  in  the  courts  of  Greece, 
And  not  lie  fettered  in  fair  Helen's  looks  ? 
Or  Phoebus  scape  those  piercing  amorets, 
That  Daphne  glanced  at  his  deity. 

Ibid.  p.  173. 

Amoring,  love-making. 

Whilst  he,  not  dreaming  of  thy  folly, 
Lies  gaping  like  a  great  Lob-lolly, 
On  Canan  Latmus  loudly  snoaring, 
Insensible  of  thy  amoring. 

Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  213. 

Amound,  to  amount  (?). 

The   countrey  where   they  live  Psychania 

hight, 
Great  Psychany,  that  hath  so  mighty  bounds, 
If  bounds  it  have  at  all.    So  infinite 
It  is  of  bignesse,  that  it  me  confounds 
To  think  to  what  a  vastnesse  it  amounds. 
H.  More,  Life  of  the  Soul,  ii.  24. 


AMOVEMENT 


(     16     ) 


ANCHOkfTTSH 


Ahovemext,  removal. 

In  like  sort  his  brother  Geffrey,  a  Knight 
Templar,  is  put  out  of  the  Oouncell,  both  of 
them  much  maligned  by  the  Nobilitie,  who 
had  often  before  laboured  their  amouemeat. 
— Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  134. 

Amphibion,  an  amphibious  animal. 
L.  has  it  as  an  adj. 

Edward,  the  third  of  that  name,  ended  his 
life,  having  reigned  a  jubilee  full  fifty  years. 
A  Prince  no  less  successful  than  valiant ;  like 
an  Amphibion,  he  was  equally  active  on  water 
and  laud.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  IV.  L  12. 

Man  may  be  call'd  the  great  Amphybium 
of  nature. — Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  189. 

Amphitheatral,  amphitheatrical. 

Then  furious  windes  to  skies  huge  stones 

eject; 
Which,  like  a  co   passe  turnd  about,  erect 
A  Bound  amphitheatral. 

Sandys,  Travels,  p.  278. 

Amuletto,  a  charm,  as  against  the 

plague  ;   or  perhaps  in  the  extract  it 

means  a  disinfectant.     The  word  had 

assumed  its  English  dress  before  this. 

Amulet    occurs   in    Browne's    Vulgar 

Errors. 

Would  you  thrust  a  child  into  a  pest-house 
without  necessity,  and  without  an  amuletto  ? 
— Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  166. 

Amusable,  capable  of  being  amused. 

She  had  experienced  somewhat  of  Madame 
de  Main  tenon '8  difficulty  (and  with  fewer 
resources  to  meet  it),  of  trying  to  amuse  a 
man  who  was  not  amusable. — Mrs.  Gaskdl, 
Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  v. 

Amuse,  amaze. 

To  sit  o'erwhelm'd  with  thought,  with  dark 

amuse, 
And  the  sad  sullenness  of  griev'd  dislike. 
Machin,  Dumb  Knight,  IV.  i. 

Amuser,  a  deceiver;  especially  by 
procrastination,  or  raising  side  issues. 
The  verb  is  still  so  used. 

The  French  are  the  greatest  amusers  in  the 
world.  If  propositions  are  made  which  they 
resolve  not  to  accept,  they  will  not  directly 
say  so,  but  suspend  and  go  upon  other  matter 
which  they  intend  shall  have  advantage  by 
the  hopes  of  the  former. — North,  Examen, 
p.  137. 

Amuzatoby,  a  diversion  or  dis- 
traction. 

But  now  (as  an  amuzatorv  to  make  the  ill 
governed  people  thinke  they  are  not  for- 
gotten) the  new  chiefe  Justiciar .  .  .  procures 
that  4  knights  in  every  shire  should  inquire 
of  the  oppressions  of  the  poore. — Daniel, 
Hist,  of  England,  p.  149. 


Amygdaloid,  toad-stone. 

Chattering  stony  names 
Of  shale  and  hornblende,  ray,  and  trap,  and 

tuff, 
Amygdaloid  and  trachyte. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  iii. 

Anaglyph,  a  symbolic  writing  known 
only  to  the  Egyptian  priests :  the  hiero- 
glyphs were  understood  by  well-edu- 
cated laymen. 

The  language  of  the  world  ...  is  an 
anaglyph — a  spoken  anaglyph,  my  dear.  If 
all  the  hieroglyphs  of  the  Egyptians  had 
been  A  B  0  to  you,  still,  if  you  did  not  know 
the  anaglyph,  you  would  know  nothing  of  the 
true  mysteries  of  the  priests. — Lytton,  Cox- 
tons,  Bk.  VII.  ch.  vii. 

Anagnost  (Gr. ),  reader. 

King  Francis  .  .  .  caused  my  books  (mine, 
I  say,  because  several  false  and  infamous 
have  been  wickedly  laid  to  me)  to  be  care- 
fully and  distinctly  read  to  him  by  the  most 
faithful  and  learned  anagnost  in  this  king- 
dom.— Urquhart's  Rabelais,  bk.  iv.,  Bp.  Ded. 

Analogue,  something  analogous  or 
answering  to  another  thing. 

The  Basques  speak  a  lingo  utterly  different 
from  all  European  languages,  which  has  no 
analogue,  and  must  have  come  from  a  dif- 
ferent stock  from  our  ancestors. — C.  Kingsley, 
1864  (Life,  ii.  168). 

Analyse,  analysis. 

He  published  a  little  tractate  called  the 
Holy  Table,  under  the  name  of  a  Lincolnshire 
minister.  The  analyse  of  it  may  be  spared, 
since  it  is  in  many  hands. — Hacket,  Life  of 
Williams,  ii.  104. 

It  is  also  used  by  Henry  More,  Mys- 
tery of  Iniquity y  p.  276  (HalVs  Modern 
English,  p.  175). 

Anathemate,  to  curse;  anathematize. 

A  countrey  it  seemeth  anathemated  for  the 
death  of  Christ. — Sandys,  Travels,  p.  145. 

AnautjESTHESIe.  More,  in  The  Inter- 
pretation  Generall  affixed  to  his  writings, 
defines  this,  "  without  self-sensedness 
or  relishing  one's  self." 

Strong  sympathy 
Of  the  divided  natures  magiok  band 
Was  burnt  to  dust  in  anautasthesie. 
H.  More,  Life  of  the  Soul,  iii.  68. 

Anaut^jsthet.      More  defines  this, 

"  One  that  feels  not  himself,  or  at  least 

relisheth  not  himself." 

Here  Simon  just  became  spotlesse  anau- 
t&sthet. — H.  More,  Life  of  the  Soul,  iii.  67. 

Anchoritish,  hermit-like. 

Him  and  his  noiseless  parsonage,  the  pen- 
sive abode  for  sixty  years  of  religious  reverie 


ANCHORLESS 


(     *7     ) 


ANIMA  TE 


and  anchoritish  self-denial,  I  have  described 
further  on.  —  De  Quincey,  Autob.  Sketches, 
i.  134. 

Anchorless,  without  an  anchor. 

My  homeless,  anchorless,  unsupported  mind 
had  again  leisure  for  a  brief  repose. — Miss 
Bronte,  Vtllette,  ch.  vi. 

Ancorist,  anchoress. 

He  gave  a  visit  to  a  womau  lately  turn'd 
an  ancorist,  and  renowned  for  her  holiness. — 
Filler,  Worthies,  Yorkshire  (ii.  498). 

Andabates,  fencers  who  fought  on 

horseback,  hoodwinked.     L.  has  anda- 

batism  =  ambiguity. 

With  what  eyes  do  these  owls  and  blind 
andabates  look  upon  the  Holy  Scriptures. — 
Becon,  i.  331. 

Andirons.  Pothooks  and  hangers  is 
an  expression  applied  to  written  charac- 
ters, but  in  the  quotation  the  less  appro- 
priate andirons  is  employed. 

San.  He  has  sent  his  duty  before  him  in 

this  letter,  sir. 
Ant.  What  have  we  here,  pot-hooks  and 

andirons  ? 
San.  Pot-hooks !  Oh  dear,  sir !  I  beg  your 

pardon ;  no,  sir,  this  is  Arabick. 

Vibber,  Love  Makes  a  Man,  I.  i. 

Anecdotarian,  a  retailer  of  anec- 
dotes. 

Oar  ordinary  anecdotarians  make  use  of 
libels,  but  do  not  declaredly  transcribe  and 
ingraft  them  into  their  text. — North,  Exa- 
*en„p.  644. 

Anecdotic,  given  to  anecdote. 

He  silenced  him  without  mercy  when  he 
attempted  to  be  anecdotic. — Savage,  R.  Med- 
Hcott,  Bk.  III.  ch.  vi. 

Angelhood,  angelic  nature  or  charac- 
ter. 

Angli,  Angeli !  (resumed 

From  the  mediaeval  story) 
Sach  rose  angelhoods,  emplumed, 

In  such  ringlets  of  pure  glory. 
Mrs.  Browning,  Song  for  Ragged  Schools. 

Angerful,  angry. 

Ever  when 
Twould  make  God's  Name  redoubted  among 
men, 

(In  humane  phraze)  it  calls  Him  pitiful!; 
Repentant,  jealous,  fierce,  and  angerfull. 
Sylvester,  The  Arke,  205. 

Angerless,  free  from  anger. 
And  shall  a  Judge  seH-anyerUss  prefer 
To  shamefull  death  the  strange  adulterer? 

Sylvester,  Tfie  Arke,  222. 

Angled,  applied  by  Sylvester  to  a 
badger  driven  into  an  angle  of  his  hole. 


The  word  usually  means  having  angles. 

Cf.  the  modern  slang  "  cornered." 

The  angry  beast  to  his  best  chamber  flies. 
And  (angled  there)  Bits  grimly  inter-gerning. 

Sylvester,  The  Decay,  536. 

Anolized.  Anglicized  is  the  more 
usual  form.     Cf .  Komized,  Scotized. 

These  Norman  lords  in  the  next  genera- 
tion by  breathing  in  English  ayre,  and  wed- 
ding with  English  wives,  became  so  perfectly 
Anglized  and  lovers  of  liberty,  that  they 
would  stand  on  their  guard  against  the  king 
on  any  petty  discontentment. — Fuller,  Ch. 
Hist.,  III.  ii.  56. 

This  Doctour  was  a  Dutchman  very  much 
Anglized  in  language  and  behaviour.— Ibid., 
Hist,  of  Cambridge  Univ.,  viii.  16. 

Angor,  pain.     See  Latham. 

For  man  is  loaden  with  ten  thousand  lan- 
guors: 
All  other  creatures  onely  f eele  the  angors 
Of  few  diseases. 

Sylvester,  The  Furies,  607. 

Anguishes,  griefs  (uncommon  in  the 
plural). 

Ye  miserable  people,  you  must  go  to  God 
in  anguishes,  and  make  your  prayer  to  Him. — 
LatimeTi  i.  144. 

This  same  outward  man  is  further  to  be 
regarded  by  us,  forasmuch  as  his  infirmities, 
frailties,  distemperatures,  aches,  and  an- 
guishes are  so  intimately  felt  by  his  divine 
inmate.— if.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  ii.  32. 

Anheale,  to  pant.  The  extract  is 
from  a  translation  of  a  Latin  sermon 
preached  by  Latimer  before  the  Con- 
vocation, 1536. 

All  men  know  that  we  be  here  gathered, 
and  with  most  fervent  desire  they  anheale, 
breathe,  and  gape  for  the  fruit  of  our  con- 
vocation.— Latimer,  i.  51. 

An  high-lone,  quite  alone.    See  H., 

s.  v.  a- high- lone. 

But  e'er  tliis  colt,  we  so  did  toil  on, 
Was  foal'd,  and  first  fgan  stand  an  high-lone  ; 
Bless  us !  we  had  such  thund'ring  weather, 
As  heav'n  and  earth  would  come  together. 

Cotton,  Scarronides,  p.  16. 

A  KIM  advertise,  to   inform    or  call 

attention  to. 

Whole  tribes  of  males  and  females  trotted, 
bargd  it  thither  to  build  and  enhabite, 
which  the  saide  kioges,  whiles  they  weilded 
their  swords  temporall,  animadvertised  of, 
assigned  a  ruler  or  governour  over  them  that 
was  called  the  king's  provost. — JYashe,  Len- 
ten Strife  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi,  151). 

Animate,  to  become  lively;  to  re- 
vive ;  usually,  to  make  lively.  Cf.  the 
same  writer's  use  of  reanimate,  q.  v. 

c 


ANKLE-BELL 


(     18     ) 


ANTENATED 


Mr.  Arnott,  animating  at  this  speech, 
glided  behind  her  chair. — Mad.  D'Arblay, 
Cecilia,  Bk.  I.  ch.  vi. 

Ankle-bell,  a  bell  attached  to  the 
ankle. 

The  brutes  of  mountain  back 
That  carry  kings   in    castles,  bow'd  black 

knees 
.  Of  homage,  ringing  with  their  serpent  hands, 
To  make  her  smile,  her  golden  ankle-Mis. 

Tennyson,  Merlin  and  Vivien. 

Ankle-deep,  up  to  the  ankles. 

And  brushing  ankle-deep  in  flowers, 
We  heard  behind  the  woodbine  veil 
The  milk  that  bubbled  in  the  pail, 

And  buzzings  of  the  honied  hours. 

Tennyson,  In  Memoriam,  lxxxviii. 

Anklet,  ornament  for  the  ankle. 

They  strip  her  ornaments  away, 
Bracelet  and  anklet,  ring,  and  chain,  and  zone. 

Southey,  Kehama,  I.  ii. 

I  would  like  to  go  into  an  Indian  Brahmin's 
house  and  see  .  . .  slim  waists  cased  in  Cash- 
mir  shawls,  Kincob  scarfs,  curly  slippers, 
gilt  trousers,  precious  anklets  and  bangles. — 
Thackeray,  The  Newcomes,  ch.  xxviii. 

Ankle-wing.  Mercury  was  repre- 
sented with  wings  at  his  ankles  (ta- 
laria). 

Such  a  precipitate  heel, 
Fledged  as  it  were  with  Mercury's  ankle- 

wing, 
"Whirls  her  to  me. — Tennyson,  Lucretius. 

Annal-book,  history. 

Bleys 
Laid  magic  by,  and  sat  him  down,  and  wrote 
All  things  and  whatsoever  Merlin  did 
In  one  great  annal-book. 

Tennyson,  Coming  of  Arthur. 

Annihilate,  to  wear  out. 

Such  as  are  not  annihilated  with  labour 
have  no  title  to  be  recreated  with  liberty.— 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI.  ii.  33. 

Annominate,  to  name. 

How  then  shall  these  chapters  be  annomi- 
nated?Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  viii. 

Annular.  The  Dicta,  give  this  word 
=  like  a  ring ;  but  annular-finger 
means  the  ring-finger. 

Then  calling  for  a  Bason  and  a  Pin 

He  pricks  his  annular  finger,  and  lets  fall 

Three  drops  of  blood. 

Beaumont,  Psyche,  v.  50. 

A  noil,  to  anoint,  as  in  extreme  unc- 
tion. 

Pope  Innocentius  I.,  in  his  Epistle  i.  chap. 
8,  saith  that  not  only  priests,  but  laymen  in 
cases  of  their  own  and  others'  necessities, 
may  anoile.—Bp.  Hall,  Works,  ix.  89. 


Suppose  then  one  that  is  sick  should  have 
this  Pica,  and  long  to  be  annoiled;  why 
might  not  a  lay-friend  annoil  as  well  as  bap- 
tize ?—Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  218. 

Anonymal,  anonymous. 

Take  the  original  thereof  out  of  an  anony- 
mal croniclering  manuscript. — Fuller,  Wor- 
thies, Lincoln  (ii.  9). 

Anorexie,  want  of  appetite. 

One  while  the  Bonlime,  then  the  Anorexie, 
Then  the  Dog-hunger  or  the  Bradypepsie. 

Sylvester,  The  Furies,  450. 

Another.  The  vulgar  tu  quoque, 
you're  another,  which  is  part  of  the 
slang  of  the  streets,  is,  as  might  be 
expected,  not  modern. 

Roister.  If  it  were  an  other  but  thou,  it  were 

a  knaue. 
M.  Mery.  Ye  are  an  other  your  selfe,  sir,  the 

lordd  us  both  saue. 

Udal,  Roister  Doister,  iii.  5. 

"  Tou  mistake  me,  friend,"  cries  Partridge  : 
"  I  did  not  mean  to  abuse  the  cloth  ;  I  only 
said  your  conclusion  was  a  non  sequitur." 
M  You  are  another,"  cries  the  sergeant,  "  an' 
you  come  to  that ;  no  more  a  sequitur  than 
yourself." — Fielding,  Tom  Jones,  Book  IX. 
ch.  vi. 

Anserine,  pertaining  to  a  goose. 
When  the  flesh  gives  a  shiver  or  creeps, 
it  is  called  goose  skin ;  according  to 
some  a  goose  is  then  walking  over 
one's  grave. 

Nor  the  snake  that  hiss'd,  nor  the  toad  that 

spat, 
Nor  glimmering  candles  of  dead  men's  fat, 
Nor  even  the  flap  of  the  Vampire  Bat, 
No  anserine  skin  would  rise  thereat, 
It's  the  cold  that  makes  him  shiver. 

Hood ,  The  Forge. 

From  the  class  of  modern  authors  who 
use  really  nothing  to  write  with  but  steel 
and  gold,  some  no  doubt  will  let  their  pens 
descend  to  posterity  under  the  designation, 
of  "anserine" — of  course  intending  always 
a  mere  figure  of  speech. — E.  A.  Foe,  Margi- 
nalia, xi. 

Answerless.  An  answerless  answer 
is  one  which  offers  no  substantial  reply, 
while  professing  to  do  so.  L.  has  an- 
swerlet&lUy  with  quotation  from  Bp. 
Hall. 

Here  is  an  answerless  answer,  without  con- 
fessing or  denying  either  proposition. — 
Bramhall,  ii.  627. 

Antenated,  born  before  the  time. 

Somewhat  of  the  evangelical  relish  was  in 
them  [the  Sybilline  prophecies]  antenated,  and 
in  being  before  the  Gospels  were  written. — 
Racket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  48. 


ANTHONYS  PIGS        (     19    )  ANTI-EPIGRAMMATIST 


Anthony's  (St.)  Pigs.  See  extract 
and  H.,s.v.  Fuller  tells  us  also  that 
this  name  was  given  to  the  scholars  of 
the  City  of  London  School.  See  ex- 
tract, $.v.  Paul's  pigeons. 

He  will  follow  him  like  a  St.  Anthony's  Pig. 
St.  Anthonie  is  notoriously  known  for  the 
Patron  of  hogs,  having  a  Pig  for  his  Page  in 
all  pictures.  .  .  .  There  was  a  fair  Hospital 
built  to  the  honour  of  St.  Anthony  in  Ben- 
net's  Fink  in  the  City;  the  Protectors  and 
Proctors  whereof  claimed  a  priviledge  to 
themselves  to  garble  the  live  Pigs  in  the 
Markets  of  the  City ;  and  such  as  they  found 
starved,  or  otherwise  unwholesome  for  man's 
sustenance,  they  would  slit  in  the  ear,  tie  a 
bell  about  their  necks,  and  let  them  loose 
about  the  City.  None  durst  hurt  or  take 
them  up  (having  this  Livery  of  St.  Anthony 
upon  them) ;  but  many  would  give  them 
bread,  and  feed  them  in  their  passage,  whom 
they  used  to  follow,  whining  after  them. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  London  (ii.  56). 

Anthropomorphose,  to  change  from 
the  form  of  a  man :  at  least  this  is  the 
sense  in  the  extract,  the  only  place  in 
which  I  have  met  with  this  verb ;  but 
anthropomorpkites  were  those  who  at- 
tributed a  human  form  to  one  who  had 
it  not,  i.  t.  the  Deity. 

I  humbly  desire  to  see  some  of  those  human 
cretures  that  you  have  anthropomorphosyd, 
and  transform'd  to  brute  animals. — Howell, 
Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  3. 

Anthroposophist,  one  who  has 
studied  man ;  but  in  the  extract  it  seems 
to  be  used  in  contradistinction  to  theo- 
logian, arid  to  imply  one  who  does  not 
know  much  about  God. 

If  folks  would  but  believe  that  the  Apos- 
tles talked  not  such  very  bad  Greek,  and  had 
tome  slight  notion  of  the  received  meaning 
of  the  words  they  used,  and  of  the  absurdity 
of  using  the  same  term  to  express  nineteen 
afferent  things,  the  New  Testament  would 
be  found  to  be  a  much  simpler  and  more 
Krerely  philosophic  book  than 4<  Theologians  " 
('Anthroposophists"  I  call  them)  fancy.— C. 
Kmg$Uyt  Yeast,  ch.  xv. 

Anthroposopht,  knowledge  of  men. 

The  veriest  novice  could  not  have  made 
his  advances  upon  such  an  occasion  more 
awkwardly  than  our  boasted  professor  of 
a*throposophy.  —  Th.  Hook,  Man  of  Many 
friends. 

Antianarchic,  opposed  to  anarchy. 

This  then  is  the  fruit  your  antianarchic 
Girondins  have  got  from  that  levying  of 
J*  in  Calvados—  Carlyle,  Fr.  Set.,  Pt.  III. 
Bk  IV.ch.ii. 


Anti-Beckktist,  opposer  of  Becket. 
Cf.  Becketize. 

John  of  Oxford  was  . .  a  great  Anti-Becket- 
tst.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Oxford  (ii.  229). 

Anti-camera,  antechamber,  or,  if  the 
spelling  is  to  be  followed,  the  chamber 
opposite  the  principal  one. 

The  Great  Seal  and  the  keeper  of  it  waited 
two  hours  in  the  Anti-camera,  and  was  sent 
home  without  the  civility  of  admission.— 
Racket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  205. 

Anticeremonial,  opposed  to  cere- 
monies. 

It  doth  no  where  appear  that  our  blessed 
God  is  so  Anti-ceremoniall  a  God  as  some 
men  have  vehemently  fancied.  —  Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  97. 

Antichthones  (arri  x9uv),  people  on 
the  other  side  of  the  earth ;  at  the 
Antipodes. 

(  Those  Antichthones  which  are  on  the  other 
side  of  the  globe  of  the  earth,  are  now  [in 
darkness]  while  it  is  day  with  us.— Bp.  Hall. 
Works,  v.  478. 

Anticlinal,  inclining  in  opposite 
directions:  applied  to  a  ridge  from 
which  strata  dip  on  either  side. 

I  climbed  a  vast  anticlinal  ridge.— C.  Kings' 
ley,  1849  (Life,  i,  174). 

Anticronism,  confusion  in  dates. 

This  confounding  so  many  Bacons  in  one 
bath  caused  anticronismes.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist, 
III.  vii.  18. 

Some  justly  qnarrell  at  VirgilPs  fiction, 
making  Dido  fall  in  love  with  Eneas,  who 
indeed  was  dead  many  years  before  her  cradle 
was  made;  others  have  sought  ingeniously 
to  solve  the  anticronisme  in  history  by  the 
plea  that  she  fell  in  love  with  his  picture. — 
Ibid.,  Worthies,  Cheshire. 

Antideity,  an  opposer  or  rival  of 
the  Deity. 

Know,  Diulls  incarnate,  Antideities, 
To   make    and   marre  are  two  repugnant 
things. — Davies,  Mirum  in  Modum,  p.  28. 

Antidominicarian,  one  who  would 
abolish  the  Sunday. 

The  Sadducees  might  deny  and  overthrow 
the  resurrection, ...  or  the  Antidominicarians 
the  Lord's  Day.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church. 
p.  283. 

Anti-epigrammatist,  one  who  writes 
epigrams  against  or  in  answer  to 
another. 

He  was  as  good  a  Poet  as  any  in  that 
age,  and  delighted  to  be  an  Anti-epigram* 
matist  to  John  White,  Bishop  of  Winchester. 
^Fulhr,  Worthies,  Surrey  (ii.  389). 

C  2 


ANTJEPISCOPALIST    (     20    )  ANTIPATHISE 


Antiepi800PALI8T,  one  opposed  to 
episcopacy.  The  running  heading  of 
p.  603  of  Gauden' s  Tears  of  the  Church 
is  "Of  Episcopacy  and  Anti-episcopa- 
litts  in  Q.  Eliz.  dayes." 

Antievanoelical,  opposed  to  the 
gospel. 

Those  penurious  practises  and  sacrilegious 
principles  which  some  men  follow  are  as 
much  antievangelicall  as  they  are  anti- 
eptscopall. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p. 
577. 

Antifame,  contrary  report. 

It  is  not  worth  the  making  a  schism  be- 
twixt newsmongers  to  set  up  an  antifame 
against  [a  ridiculous  report]. — Fuller,  Holy 
State,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xxiii. 

Anti-friarist,  one  opposed  to  friars. 

He  wrote  also  a  smart  Book  on  this  Sub- 
ject. .  .  Whether  Friars  in  Health,  and 
Begging,  be  in  the  state  of  perfection  ?  The 
Antt-Friarists  maintaining  that  such  were 
Rogues  by  the  Laws  of  God  and  Man. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Wilts  (ii.  450;. 

Antifriction,  antidote  to  friction; 
smoother. 

Oil  of  flattery,  the  best  patent  antifriction 
known,  subdues  all  irregularities  whatsoever. 
-^Carlyle,  Diamond  Necklace,  ch.  viii. 

Antifuliginous,  hostile  to  smoke. 

And  thou,  O  Michael,  ever  to  be  praised, 
Angelic  among  Taylors,  for  thy  laws 
Antifuliginous;  extend  those  laws 
Till  every  chimney  its  own  smoke  consume. 
Southey,  To  A.  Cunningham. 

Antioallican,  opposed  to  the  French. 

There  was  an  Antigallican  Society  (see 

extracts,  v.  Gregorian)  established  in 

1745,  to  oppose  French  designs.     See 

JS.  and  Q.,  IV.  iii.  482. 

Since  it  is  so  much  the  humour  of  the 
English  at  present  to  run  abroad,  I  wish 
they  had  antigallican  spirit  enough  to  pro- 
duce themselves  in  their  own  genuine  Eng- 
lish dress. — Smollett,  France  and  Italy,  Letter 
vi. 

Antioropelo8,  something  to  protect 
the  legs  against  moist  mud  (dvri  vyp6c 
*n\6c). 

The  edge  of  a  great  fox-cover  .  .  .  some 
forty  red  coats  and  some  four  black  .  .  .  the 
surgeon  of  the  Union  in  mackintosh  and 
antif/ropelos. — C.  Kinysley,  Yeast,  ch.  i. 

Her  brother  had  on  his  antigropelos,  the 
utmost  approach  he  possessed  to  a  hunting 
equipment.— O.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch. 
▼ii. 

Anti-infant al,  hostile  to  infants. 
Gauden  (Tear*  of  the  Church,  p.  279) 


speaks  of  "that  Anti-infarUall  Christ 
which  they  [Anabaptists]  say  is  so  pre- 
dominant in  them. 

Anti-Ejssar,  an  opponent  of  mo- 
narchy. 

These  waspish  over-weening  idle  drones 
Are  mortal  plagues  to  ev'ry  Publike-weall ; 
Bight  anti-Ktsars  vndermyning  thrones. 
Davies,  Jaicrocosmos,  p.  72. 

Antiliturgicall,  opposed  to  liturgy. 

The  graver  sort  even  of  Antiliturgicall 
Preachers  and  people  too  .  . .  confine  them- 
selves to  a  more  constant  method  and  form 
of  prayer. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p. 
00. 

Antiliturgist,  one  opposed  to  the 
liturgy. 

Our  late  Anti-liturgists  thought  set  forms 
of  prayer  might  do  well  at  sea,  though  not 
at  land. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  91. 

Antilogy,  contradiction. 

Alas!  how  miserably  is  truth  torn  by 
antilogies  and  little  better  than  scolding. — 
Tears  of  the  Press,  1681  (Harl.  Misc.,  iv. 
449). 

Antimagistratical,  opposed  to  ma- 
gistrates. 

All  spirits  which  are  autiepiscopall  are  in 
some  respects  antimagistraticall,  and  most- 
what  antimonarchicall.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  550. 

Antimatrimonialist,  one  opposed  to 
marriage. 

If  she  make  a  private  purse,  which,  we  are 
told  by  anti~matrimoniali$t$,  all  wives  love  to 
do,  it  goes  all  into  the  same  family  at  the 
long  run. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  iv.  144. 

Antimilitant,  peaceful  or  peace- 
loving. 

"What  remaiued  for  an  active  militant 
parson  to  do  was  to  hold  his  own  against  all 
comers.  Her  father,  it  is  true,  was  an  excep- 
tion to  this  ;  but  then  he  was  so  essentially 
antimilitant  in  all  things,  that  she  classed 
him  in  her  own  mind  apart  from  all  others. 
— Trollope,  Barchester  Towers,  ch.  zxi. 

Antinational,  unpatriotic. 

The  great  power  and  compass  of  the 
German  language,  which  the  vilest  of  anti- 
national  servilities  obscured  to  the  eyes  of 
those  that  occupied  thrones,  had  gradually 
revealed  themselves  to  the  popular  mind  of 
Germany. — De  Quincey,  Last  Days  of  Kant. 

Antipathic,  causing  antipathy. 

Every  one  seems  to  have  his  antipathic 
animal.— C.  Kingsley  (Life,  ii.  41). 

Antipathisk,  to  be  contrary  or 
opposed. 


ANTIPERISTEZE        (     21     ) 


ANYTHING 


Thai  which  antipathises  against  one  thing 
sympathiseth  with  another. — Adams,  Works, 
m.  157. 

Antiperisteze.  Cowley  (quoted  in 
H.) defines  antiperistasis,  "the  oppo- 
sition of  a  contrary  quality  by  which 
the  quality  it  opposes  becomes  height- 
ened or  intended."  One  would  have 
expected  the  verb  to  be  atUiperistasize. 
Davies,  it  will  be  seen,  spells  it  ante. 

Bat  if  the  Sonle  through  the  Almighties 
poWr, 
(Anteperisteting  hir  pow'rs  with  grace) 
Breaks  through  those  muddy  walla  which 
hir  immure, 
And  would  compel  hir   fowle  affects  t' 
embrace; 
Shee  then  (sans  pride)  might  looke  God  in 
the  face. 

Davies,  Mirurn  in  Modum,  p.  15. 

Axtiphonetic,  returning  the  sound  ; 

rhyming. 

Moore  and  Tom  Campbell  themselves  admit 

41  ffpinach  " 
U  perfectly  antiphonetic  to  "  Greenwich." 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (Cynotaph). 

Aktipractise,  to  oppose. 

Men  that  are  sound  in  their  morals,  and 
a  minutes  imperfect  in  their  intellectuals, 
are  best  reclaimed  when  they  are  mignarized 
sad  strok'd  gently.  Seldom  anything  but 
severity  will  make  them  antirpractise,  for 
then  they  grow  desperate. — Hacket,  Life  of 
Williams,  i.  95. 

Antiquitarian,  a  contemptuous  term 

for  one  who  would   now  be  called  a 

medievalist. 

I  shall  distinguish  such  as  I  esteem  to  be 
thehinderers  of  reformation  into  three  sorts: 
(1)  Antiquitarians  (for  so  I  had  rather  call 
them  than  antiquaries,  whose  labours  are 
useful  and  laudable),  (2)  libertines,  (3) 
Politicians. — Milton,  Of  Reformation  in  Eng- 
land, bk.  i. 

Axtiruhoub,  to  raise  a  counter  re- 
port 

The  Queen's  party  gave  out  that  the  King 
of  France  had  sent  over  a  vast  army  for  her 
assistance,  and  the  King's  side  antirumoured 
(who  could  raise  reports  easier  than  armies) 
that  the  Pope  bad  excommunicated  all  such 
*ho  rides  against  him. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  III. 
▼iii.  14. 

Axti-slavite,  one  opposed  to  slavery. 

The  whole  controversy  between  slave- 
holders and  anti-slavites  hinges  on  the  proofs 
from  God's  book.— Dean,  Life  of  Theodore 
*w**r,  p.  181  (1877). 

Antithet,  opposite  statement  or 
position. 


It  is  sometimes  true,  the  popular  sayiug, 
that  sunshine  comes  after  storm.  Some- 
times true,  or  who  could  live?  hut  not 
always;  not  even  often.  Eoually  true  is 
the  popular  antithet  that  misfortunes  never 
come  single. — C.  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago, 
ch.  xxvi. 

Antitypal,  of  the  nature  of  an  anti- 
type. The  Diets,  have  antitypical, 
antitypous. 

How  am  I  to  extricate  my  antitypal  charac- 
ters, when  their  living  types  have  not  yet 
extricated  themselves  ? — C.  Kingsley,  Yeast 
(Epilogue). 

Antivitruvian,  contrary  to  Vitru- 
vius,  the  well-known  Roman  architect ; 
used  as  an  epithet  for  those  who  undid 
or  destroyed  architectural  monuments. 

Some  of  our  late  Architects  or  Antivitru- 
vian Builders  have  endeavoured  with  their 
axes  and  hammers  to  break  down  more  good 
Church-work  in  twice  seven  years  than  the 
best  master-builders  can  hope  to  repair  in 
seventy-seven. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church, 
p.  21  (Preface). 

Anti-Wicliffjst,  opposer  of  Wick- 
liffe. 

John  of  Milverton  ....  was  a  great  Anti- 
Wiccliffi»t.—  Fuller,  Worthies,  Bristol  (ii. 
297). 

Antling,  a  young  ant. 

Within  the  formicaries  antlings  were  found, 
too  callow  to  push  out-doors,  but  not  far 
removed  from  their  maturity,  who  were  of  a 
pale  yellow  colour. — McCook,  The  Agricul- 
tural Ant  of  Texas,  p.  20  (1879). 

Ants  pathes,  to  seek,  apparently  a 
proverbial  expression  for  very  careful 
seeking.  There  is  no  corresponding 
expression  in  the  original. 

[After  discussing  the  origin  of  the  name  of 
the  village  of  Over-Burrow.]  But  if  it  re- 
cover the  ancient  name,  it  may  thanke  others 
and  not  mee,  although  I  have  sought  as 
narrowly  and  diligently  for  it  as  for  ants 
pathes. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  753. 

Anything.  The  comparison  in  the 
subjoined  quotation  is  often  made  still 
by  those  who  are  at  a  loss  for  some- 
thing more  definite. 

The  same  maiden,  where  the  lokers  on 
quaked  and  trembled  for  feare,  daunced 
without  any  feare  at  all  emong  sweardefl  and 
kniues,  beyng  as  sharpe  as  any  thyng. — UdaVs 
Erasmus,  Apophth.,  p.  32. 

O  my  dear  father  and  mother,  I  fear  your 
girl  will  grow  as  proud  as  anything. — Rich- 
ardson, Pamela,  ii.  57. 


ANYTHINGARIAN     (     22     ) 


APOSTUMED 


The  tear-drop  in  his  little  eye  again  began 

to  spring, 
His  bosom  throbb'd  with  agony,  he  cried  like 

anything. 

Ingoldsby  Leg.  (Misadv.  at  Margate). 

Anythingarian,  a  man  indifferent 
to  all  creeds.    See  also  extract,  s.  v* 

BIFARIOUS. 

Lady  Sm.  What  religion  is  he  of  ? 

Li.  Sp.  Why,  he  is  an  anythingarian. 

Lady  Ans.  I  believe  he  has  his  religion  to 
chose,  my  lord. 

Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  i.). 

They  made  puir  Bobbie  Burns  an  any- 
thingarian with  their  blethers. — C.  Kingsley, 
Alton  Locke,  ch.  xzii. 

Anythingarunism,  an  indefinite  state 
of  opinion. 

Schiller's  *  Gods  of  Greece '  expresses,  I 
think,  a  tone  of  feeling  very  common,  and 
which  finds  its  vent  in  modern  Neo-Platon- 
ism — Anythingarianism. — C.  Kingsley.  1851 
{Life,  i.  215). 

Apart,  to  stop. 

But  when  I  saw  no  end  that  could  apart 
The  deadly  dewle  which  she  so  sore  did  make, 
With  doleful  voice  then  thus  to  her  I  spake. 
SackvilU,  The  Induction,  st.  14. 

Apause,  to  bring  to  a  stand-still. 

With  this  saying  he  was  apaused.— Phil- 
pot,  p.  86. 

Apeak.  The  anchor  is  said  to  be 
apeak  when  the  cable  is  drawn  so  as  to 
bring  the  ship  directly  over  it. 

The  anchor  was  soon  apeak,  the  sails  filled, 
and  we  were  underway. —  Wolcot,  P.  Pindar, 
p.  162. 

Apedom,  state  of  apishness. 

The  Gombroonians  had  not  yet  emerged 
from  this  early  condition  of  apedom.  They, 
it  seems,  were  still  homines  caudati.  —  De 
Quincey,  Autob.  Sketches,  i.  87. 

Aperitive,  an  aperient  medicine.  The 
Diets,  have  it  as  an  adj. 

A  physician  was  yesterday  consulted,  who 
advised  some  gentle  aperitives,  as  his  strength 
will  bear  it. — Richardson,  Grandison,  iv.  311. 

Aphrodisian,  pertaining  to  Aphrodite 
or  Venus :  Aphrodisian  dames  =  cour- 
tesans. 

They  showed  me  the  state  nursery  for  the 
children  of  those  aphrodisian  dames,  their 
favourites. —  Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch. 
lvi. 

Apiarian,  pertaining  to  bees. 

When  we  are  told  to  go  to  the  ant  and  the 
bee,  and  consider  their  ways,  it  is  not  that 
we  should  borrow  from  them  formic  laws  or 


apiarian  pohcy.—Southey,  I%e  Doctor,  ch. 
xcvi. 

Apocha,  a  receipt. 

The  debt  was  not  cancell'd  to  that  rigid 
and  hard  servant,  for  if  he  had  his  apocha  or 
quietance,  to  speak  after  the  manner  of  men, 
he  were  free  from  all  insequent  demands.— 
Racket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  25. 

Apochryphy,  to  make  apocryphal  or 
of  doubtful  truth. 

Others  dare  venter  a  diuiner  straine, 
And  rime  the  Bible,  whose  f oule  feet  profane 
That  holy  ground,  that  wise  men  may  decide 
The  Bible  ne'er  was  more  Apochryphide 
Than  by  their  bold  excursions. 

Davies,  Paper  Persecutors,  p.  80. 

Apologetic,  an  apology.  See  quota- 
tion, s.  v.  deprecatory. 

It  looks  as  if  he  wrote  on  apologetic  to  the 
mob  on  behalf  of  the  prisoner. — North,  Ex- 
amen,  p.  305. 

Apological,  parabolical ;  of  the  nature 
of  an  apologue. 

To  this  silent  objection  Christ  makes  an 
apological  answer. — Adams,  ii.  166. 

Apoplectics,  one  seized  with  apo- 
plexy. 

So  often  we  see  there  is  life  in  an  apoplco 
tick,  though  he  seem  to  be  dead. — Racket, 
Life  of  Williams,  ii.  134. 

APosiopestic,  belonging  to  an  aposi- 
opesis,  or  a  sentence  left  unconcluded. 

He  leapt  incontinently  up,  uttering,  as  he 
rose,  that  interjection  of  surprise  so  much 
descanted  upon,  with  the  aposiopestic  break 
after  it,  marked  thus,  Z  — -ds. — Sterne,  Tr. 
Shandy,  iii.  211. 

Apostemate,  iinposthume ;  abscess. 

Have  you  no  convulsions,  pricking  aches, 
sir,  ruptures  or  apostemates? — Jonson,  Fletcher, 
and  Middleton,  The  Widow,  IV.  ii. 

Apostemkd,  corrupted.      See  Apos- 

TUMED. 

Now  you  see  the  heart  has  carried  on  the 
contrivance,  and  from  this  ajpostem'd  member 
flows  the  corruption  of  atheism. — Gentleman 
Instructed,  p.  252. 

Apostoliqueship,  holiness    (applied 

to  the  Pope). 

Some  evill  spirit  of  an  heritique  it  is  which 
thus  molesteth  his  apostolioiteship. — Nashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  173). 

Apostumed,    corrupted.     See  Apos- 

TEMED. 

There  is  in  both  of  you,  if  it  were  well 
taken  to  heart,  enough  to  prick  the  swelling, 
and  let  out  the  apostumed  matter  of  pride 
from  a  many  of  us. — Andrewes,  i.  161. 


APOSTYLE 


(     *3     ) 


APPROACH 


Apostyle,  to  note  in  margin  (the 
noun  is  in  Halliwell). 

He  apostylea  that  article  with  his  own 
hand,  to  be  shown  to  this  day  in  the  MS. 
extant  in  the  Vatican  Library. — Racket,  life 
of  Williams,  ii.  156. 

Apothbosise,  to  deify. 

0  exalted  among  birds,  apotheosised  goose ! 
did  not  thy  heart  exult,  even  when  thy  liver 
parched  and  swelled  within  thee? — Lytton, 
Pelham,  ch.  xxii. 

Appal,  terror. 

Nor  think  I  but  great  Hector's  spirits  will 
suffer  some  appall.  —  Chapman,  Iliad,  xiv. 
314. 

Appassionate,  to  influence  with  pas- 
sion. R.  gives  appassionated  as  used 
by  Sidney  (Arcadia,  bk.  ii.  p.  210), 
and  seems  to  think  the  word  peculiar 
to  him,  but  this  is  not  so. 

By  your  hyperbole  and  many  other  waies 
seeking  to  inveigle  and  appassionate  the 
mind. — Puttenham,  Arte  of  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk. 
III.  ch.  vii. 

Appealingness,  beseechingness. 

It  was  ready  sympathy  that  had  made  him 
alive  to  a  certain  appealingness  in  her  be- 
haviour towards  him. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel  De- 
rondo,  ch.  xxxv. 

Appellate,  to  call. 

One  of  these  old  soldiers  was  what  the 
Spaniards,  with  the  gravity  peculiar  to  their 
language,  call  a  Caballo  Padre;  or  what 
some  of  our  own  writers,  with  a  decorum 
not  less  becoming,  appellate  an  entire  horse. 
— Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cxxxvi. 

Applaud,  to  congratulate. 

1  Hue  againe,  and  applaud  myselfe  in  this 
happinesse,  and  wish  it  might  ever  continue. 
— Hall,  Epistles,  Dec.  II.  Ep.  i. 

Neither  speak  I  of  gross  sinners,  not 
grafted  into  Christ ;  but  even  to  those  that 
applaud  themselves  in  their  holy  portion, 
and  look  to  be  saved.  —  Adams,  Works,  iii. 
89. 

The  covetous,  when  he  hath  gotten  goods, 
as  if  he  had  gotten  the  true  good,  applauds 
his  soul,  as  if  it  were  the  soul  of  some  swine. 
—  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  17. 

Can  I  do  him  all  the  mischief  imaginable, 
and  that  easily,  safely,  and  successfully,  and 
so  applaud  myself  in  my  power,  my  wit,  and 
my  subtle  contrivances  ? — South,  Sermons,  iii. 
113. 

Appladsion,  congratulation. 

The  same  Musicians  came  againe  with  this 
last  part,  and  greeted  them  both  with  a 
Psalme  of  new  applausions.  —  Puttenham, 
Arte  of  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxvi. 


Apple-arbiter,  Paris. 

Whom  her  beardless  apple-arbiter 
Decided  fairest. 

Tennyson,  Lucretius. 

Apple-drane,  a  wasp.  H.  gives  it 
as  a  west  country  word  (and  the  ex- 
tract is  in  the  Devonshire  dialect),  but 
he  spells  it  apple-drone. 

Leek  bullocks  8 tinged  by  apple-dranes, 
Currantin'  it  about  the  lanes, 
Yokes  theese  way  dreaved  and  that. 
Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  156. 

Apple-pie  order,  exact  order ;  per- 
haps a  corruption  of  cap-h-pied. 

I  am  just  in  the  order  which  some  folks — 

though  why 
I  am  sure  I  can't  tell  you — would  call  apple- 
.  pit. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (Old  Woman  in  Grey). 

Apple-wife,  apple  woman.  The  ex- 
tract will  be  found  more  at  length ;  s.  v. 
Bread  and  crow. 

Pomona,  the  first  apple  -  wife.  —  Nashe 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  108). 

Appliant,  obedient. 

Pharao  giving  no  credit  unto  Moses,  the 
prophet  of  God,  but  appliant  unto  the  lusts 
of  his  own  heart,  what  time  he  heard  of  the 
passage  of  God's  people,  having  no  fear  or 
remembrance  of  God's  work,  he  with  his 
army  did  prosecute  after,  intending  to  de- 
stroy them. — Latimer,  i.  86. 

Applicator,  applier. 

'Tis  ridiculous  ...  to  content  themselves 
either  with  no  idoneous  physitians  and  fit 
medicines,  or  with  such  quacking  applica- 
tions and  applicators  as  are  no  way  apt  for 
the  work. —  Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church, 
p.  494. 

Apportionate,  to  apportion. 

Those  Opurrnpia,  fostering  allowances, 
were  due  to  parents  because  they  were 
parents,  yet  by  free  apportionating  them 
according  to  the  duty  and  wisdom  of  the 
children,  as  they  might  provide  for  their  own 
posterity.— Racket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  75. 

Apprend,  apprehend. 

Wherefore  the  soul  so  full 
Of   life,   when   it   raies  out,  with   presse 

presence 
Oretakes  each  outgone  beam ;  apprends  it  by 
advertence. 

R.  More,  Sleep  of  the  Soul,  ii.  28. 

Approach,  a  path  or  drive  leading 
to  a  house.  Miss  Edg^worth  always 
italicizes  this  word,  as  if  it  were  scarcely 
a  recognized  one  in  this  sense. 

Till  the  travellers  arrived  at  Vivian  Hall, 
their  conversation  turned  upon  trees,  and 


APRONEER 


(     «4     ) 


ARC  HI  VOLT 


avenues,  and  serpentine  approach**. — Miss 
Edgeworth,  Vivian,  ch.  i. 

Aproneer,  a  tradesman  or  shopman. 
It  seems  to  have  been  used  contemptu- 
ously by  Cavaliers  for  the  partisans  or 
officials  of  the  Parliament  party,  many 
of  whom  were  of  humble  origin.  Shake- 
speare has  "apron-men11  (Coriolamu, 
IV.  vi.) ;  so  has  Tom  Brown  (  Works, 
iii.  292) ;  and  Gauden,  p.  244  of  the 
work  cited,  speaks  of  "the  apron 
antipathy  of  a  rustick,  mechanick, 
and  illiterate  breeding "  to  Church 
ministers. 

He  is  scared  with  the  menaces  of  some 
prating  Sequestrator  or  some  surly  Aproneer. 
—Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  238. 

Every  sturdy  aproneer 
Arm'd  with  battoon  did  straight  appear. 
D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  cant.  3. 

Apron-string.  We  still  speak  of  a 
timid  or  effeminate  person  as  tied  to 
liis  mother's  apron-string,  and  this  per- 
haps is  the  meaning  of  the  proverb 
given  by  Udal ;  one  who  has  no  wisdom 
of  her  own,  but  is  entirely  dependent 
on  her  mother's  bidding.  The  speaker 
in  the  second  extract  is  a  hen-pecked 
husband. 

Ve  say  in  English,  As  wise  as  a  gooce,  or 
an  wise  as  her  mother's  aperen  string. — UdaVs 
Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  118. 

He  cursed  the  apron-string  tenure,  by 
which  he  said  he  held  his  peace. — Richardson, 
Grandison,  iv.  23. 

A  homebred  lordling,'  who,  from  the  mo- 
ment he  slipped  his  mother's  apron-strings, 
had  fallen  into  f  oily.— Miss  Edgeworth,  Helen, 
ch.  viii. 

Aqua  vita  man,  usually  meant  a 
seller  of  drams.  N.  has  it  in  this  sense 
with  references  to  Jonsonand  Beaumont 
and  Fletcher ;  a  more  modern  instance 
is  subjoined.  In  the  first  quotation  it 
means  a  quack  who  pretended  to  sell 
the  elixir  of  life. 

I  met  with  a  story  of  an  ancient  Hebrew, 
a  reverend  rabbi,  who,  that  he  might  the 
more  lively  convince  the  people  in  his  time 
of  their  neglect  of  practice  in  this  excellent 
grace,  put  himself  into  the  habit  of  a 
mountebank  or  travelling  aqua  vita  man,  and 
made  proclamation  of  a  sovereign  cordial 
water  of  life  he  had  to  sell. —  Ward,  Sermons, 
p.  21. 

We  journeyed  over  Alpine  mountains, 
drenched  in  clouds,  and  thought  of  harlequin 
again,  when  he  was  driving  the  chariot  of  the 
sun  through  the  morning  clouds,  and  so  was 
glad  to  hear  the  aqua  vita  man  crying  a  dram. 
—  WalpoU,  Letters,  i.  216  (1749). 


Araphorostic,  not  stitched  (Gr.  «,    i 
Aa^i),  without  a  seam). 

Do  you  think,  because  you  are  as  impervi-    | 
ous  as  an  araphorostic  shoe,  that  I.  John. 
Busselton,   am    equally    impenetrable  ?  —    ' 
Lytton,  Pelham,  ch.  xxxiii. 

i 

Arbalestrier,  a  crossbow-man. 

The  arbalestrier' >s  face,  notwithstanding  a     i 
formidable  head,  was  .  .  .  gay  and  quiet. — 
Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  cb.  xxiv. 

Arbitratrix,  arbi tress. 

She  is  the  greatest  one  knot  of  strength 
in  the  Western  world,  and  for  the  situation 
fittest  to  disjoyn  or  unite  her  neighbour 
forces,  and  consequently  to  be  arhitratrix 
and  compoundresse  of  any  quarrel  that  may 
intervene. — Howell,  Dodona's  Grove,  p.  4. 

No !  this  is  her  prerogative  alone 
Who  Arbitratrix  sit'  of  Heav'n  and  Hell. 
Beaumont,  Psyche,  xix.  168. 

Arbolist,  a  cultivator  of  trees ;  an 
arborist,  for  which  word  it  may  be  a 
misprint  (L.  gives  the  subjoined  ex- 
tract ;  8.  v.  arborist),  only  in  that  case  it 
is  misprinted  again  at  p.  131. 

They  .  .  .  are  rather  of  the  nature  of  the 
mulberry,  which  the  arbolists  observe  to  be 
long  in  begetting  and  keeping  bis  buds,  but 
the  cold  seasons beingpass'd, he  shoots  them 
all  out  in  a  night. — Howell,  Dodonofs  Grove, 
p.  11. 

Arboreal,  pertaining  to  trees. 

He  inferred  that  the  soul  of  Xerxes  must 
once  have  animated  a  plane  tree,  aud  re- 
tained a  vi.vid  feeling  connected  with  his 
arboreal  existence. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch. 
ccxv. 

Archbishopess,  wife  of  an  arch- 
bishop. 

Were  he  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and 
actual ly  at  my  feet,  I  would  not  become 
archbishopess.  —  Mad.  PArblay,  Diary,  iv. 
245. 

Archiepiscopality,  the  status  of  an 

archbishopric. 

Offa  being  dead,  down  fell  the  best  pillar 
of  Lichfield  Church  to  suport  the  archiepis- 
copality thereof. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  II.  iii.  39. 

Architecture,  to  build. 

This  was  architecture  thus 
By  the  great  Oceanus. 

Keats,  FingaVs  Cave. 

Archivolt,  ornamental  band  of  mould- 
ings on  the  face  of  an  arch. 

The  piers  are  enriched  with  groupes  of 
small  columns  supporting  arches  ornamented 
with  archivolts  of  mouldings  enriched  with 
billeting.— .rfn-Atfo/.,  iii.  164  (1796). 


ARCHOLOGY 


(    «5     ) 


ARMURE 


Archoloot.    See  quotation. 

That  which  Mr.  Blakealee,  with  a  some- 
what clumsy  pedantry,  calls  archology,  mean- 
ing the  science  of  government.  —  Saturday 
Beview,  27th  October,  1877,  p.  530. 

Arch  up,  to  support  or  exalt. 

Thus  mutually  arching  up  one  another, 
they    [the   Jesuits]   filled  the  ears  of  all' 
Papists  with  load  relations  of  the  transcend- 
ent industry,  piety,  learning,  of  the  men  of 
their  society. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  IX.  viii.  19. 

Arctbd,  joined. 

Thart  no  doubt  a  Goddess©,  too  Phoebus 

sister,  or  arcted 
Too  Nymphs  in  kynred. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.  315. 

Argufy,  to  argue.  H.  says  that  he 
believes  he  has  heard  it  in  the  sense  of 
"  signify."  It  clearly  has  this  meaning 
in  the  two  first  extracts,  the  second  of 
which  is  from  a  letter  from  Dr.  Bur- 
ney. 

I've  done,  (she  mntter'd)  I  was  saying 

It  did  not  argufy  my  playing ; 

Some  folks  will  win,  they  can  not  choose, 

JJut,  think  or  not  think,  some  must  lose. 

Shenstone,  To  a  Friend. 

But  what  argufies  all  this  festivity  ?  'tis 
all  vanity  and  exhalation  of  spirit. — Mad. 
D'Arblay,  Diary,  vi.  41. 

I  have  no  learning,  no,  not  I, 
Nor  do  pretend  to  argufy. 
Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  c.  v. 

Argumental,  argumentative.  Pope 
is  the  earliest  authority  for  this  word 
in  the  Diets. 

Thus  they  dispute,  guilding  their  tongues 

report 
"With  instances  and  argumentall  sawes. 

G.  Markham,  Tragedie  of  Sir  R, 
Grinuile,  p.  49. 

Argument  ate,  to  argue :  the  word  is 
put  into  the  mouth  of  a  pedantic  school- 
master. 

Nunc  are  you  to  araumentate  of  the  quali- 
fying of  their  estate  first. — Sidney,  Wanstead 
Play,  p.  62?. 

Arianistical,  Arian. 

The  eldest  had  just  been  baptised,  and 
introduced  as  a  member  of  the  arianistical 
dipping  community,  where  my  master  and 
his  family  attended. —Life  of  J.  Lackington, 
Letter  xxix. 

A-ring,  in  circumference. 

It  grew  in  two  orchards  of  the  king's, 
whereof  the  greater  was  twenty  days  a-ring. 
—Adams,  i.  369. 

Arithmocract,  the  rule  of  numbers, 
of  a  majority. 


A  democracy  of  mere  numbers  is  no  de- 
mocracy, but  a  mere  brute  arithmocracy, 
which  is  certain  to  degenerate  into  an  och- 
locracy, or  government  by  the  mob,  in  which 
the  numbers  have  no  real  share. — C.  Kingsley, 
Alton  Locke,  Preface  (1854). 

Arithmocratic,  belonging  to  an  arith- 
mocracy, q.v. 

American  democracy,  being  merely  arith- 
necrotic,  provides  no  representation  whatso- 
ever for  the  more  educated  and  more  experi- 
enced minority,  and  leaves  the  conduct  of 
affairs  to  the  uneducated  and  inexperienced 
many,  with  such  results  as  we  see.  —  C. 
Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  Preface  (1862). 

Armigerous,  bearing  arms  (heraldic- 
ally). 

They  belonged  to  the  armigerous  part  of 
the  population,  and  were  entitled  to  write 
themselves  Esquire  in  any  bill,  quittance,  &c. 
whatsoever. — De  Quincey,  Essays  (Bentley). 

Arm  in  arm.  Persons  are  said  to  walk 
arm  in  arm  when  the  arm  of  the  ono 
is  linked  in  or  supported  by  the  arm  of 
the  other. 

To  see  then  this  pair  [God  and  Caasar]  thus 
near,  thus  coupled,  thus,  as  it  were,  arm  in 
arm  together,  is  a  blessed  sight. — Andrewes, 
v.  130. 

Arm-in- armly,  in  a  friendly  manner. 

A  clerk  who  had  observed  them  go  out 
together  so  arm-in-armly  could  not  believe 
it  amicable,  but  followed  them,  and  came  up 
just  time  enough  to  beat  down  their  swords. 
—  Walpole  to  Mann,  i.  258  (1743). 

Arming-iron,  fish-hook. 

He  allowed  that  even  Izaak  Walton  of 
blessed  memory  could  not  have  shown  cause 
for  mitigation  of  the  sentence,  if  Bhad&man- 
thus  and  his  colleagues  in  the  court  below 
had  .  .  .  sewed  him,  metempsychosized  into 
a  frog,  to  the  arming-iron  with  a  fine  needle 
and  *\\k.—Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  ccxii. 

Arm-strong,  powerful  in  the  arms.. 

Alcides  (the  arme-strong  darling  of  the 
doubled  night)  by  wrastling  with  snakes  in 
his  swadling  cloutes  should  prophecie  to  the 
world  the  approaching  wonders  of  his  prow- 
esse. — Greene,  Menaphon,  p.  56. 

Armure.  H.  gives  this  word,  with 
references,  as  meaning  armour,  but  in 
the  extract  it  signifies  rather  armed 
force. 

A  certain  oountrie  to  the  ende  that  it 
might  have  quiet  and  rest,  no  more  to  bee 
vexed  with  toe  armure  and  ordinaunce  of 
Alexander,  offred  vnto  the  same  a  good  por- 
oion  of  their  possessions. — UdaVs  Erasmus's 
Apophtk.,?.  223. 


ARRACHEMENT       (     26    )     ASBESTON  STONE 


Arrachement,  excerpt. 

These  precious  souls  of  ours,  the  very  ex- 
nalations  and  arrachements,if  I  may  so  speak, 
of  the  breath  of  God. — Sanderson,  i.  184. 

Arrear,  to  raise. 

K.  James.  I  wish  that  the  doctrine  of  pre- 
destination may  be  tenderly  handled,  lest  on 
the  one  side  God's  Omnipotency  be  ques- 
tioned by  impeaching  the  doctrine  of  His 
eternal  predestination,  or  on  the  other  side  a 
desperate  presumption  arreared  by  inferring 
the  necessary  certainty  of  persisting  in  grace. 
—Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  X.  i.  20. 

Arrear,  the  rear. 

Finally  the  arrear,  consisting  of  between 
three  and  four  thousand  foot,  one  hundred 
men  at  arms,  and  six  hundred  light  horse, 
was  led  by  the  lord  Dacres.—  Heylin,  Reform- 
ation, i.  92. 

The  27th  day  brings  in  Sir  Roger  Chomley, 
Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench,  and  Sir 
Edward  Mountague,  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Common  Pleas ;  the  Duke  of  Suffolk,  and 
Sir  John  Cheek  on  the  morrow  after,  shut- 
ting up  the  arrear. — ibid.  ii.  83. 

Abrose,  to  bedew. 

Tour  day  is  lengthen 'd,  and 
The  blissful  dew  of  heaven  does  arrose  you. 

Tico  Noble  Kinsmen,  V.  iv. 

Arround,  to  surround. 

Or    than    Tiburnus  woods  and   orchard- 
grounds, 

Moystned  with  gliding   brooke  which  it 
arrounds. 
Heath's  Odes  of  Horace,  Bk.  I.  Ode  vii. 

Arrow,  vulgarism  for  e'er  a. 

I  don't  believe  there  is  arrow  a  servant  in 
the  house  ever  saw  the  colour  of  his  money. 
— Fielding,  Tom  Jones,  Bk.  V.  ch.  viii. 

I  now  carries  my  head  higher  than  arrow 
private  gentlewoman  of  Vales.  —  Smollett, 
Humphrey  Clinker,  i.  126. 

Arrowlet,  a  small  arrow. 

As  if  the  flower, 
That  blows  a  globe  of  after  arrowlets. 
Ten  thousandfold   had  grown,  flash 'd  the 

fierce  shield 
All  sun. — Tennyson,  Gareth  and  Lynette. 

Art  and  part,  a  Scotch  legal  phrase 
to  express  complicity,  but  common  now 
in  England. 

These  [dreams]  came  from  the  old  man 
which  is  corrupt  (Eph.  iv.  22),  who  had  art 
and  part,  as  the  Scottish  indictment  runs,  in 
all  our  Bishop's  persecutions. — Hacket,  Life 
of  Williams,  ii.  86. 

He  arose  at  his  leisure,  and  strolled  about 
the  room  with  as  unconcerned  an  aspect  as  if 
nothing  had  happened  amiss,  and  as  though 
he  had  neither  art  nor  part  in  this  frightful 


discomfiture. — H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality, 
i.6. 

My  Lord  Chancellor, 
You  have  an  old  trick  of  offending  us ; 
And  but  that  you  are  art  and  part  with  us 
In  purging  heresy,  well  we  might,  for  this 
Your  violence  and  much  roughness  to  the 

Legate, 
Have  shut  you  from  our  counsels. 

Tennyson,  Queen  Mary,  iii.  4. 

Artificious,  artificial. 

Salt  of  a  palish  or  greene  colour;  the 
which  by  a  certaine  artijicwus  devise,  they 
boyle  untill  it  bee  exceeding  white. — Hol- 
land's Camden,  p.  268. 

Artly,  artiflcially. 

A  crabstock,  if  it  have  a  cyen  of  some 
delicate  apple  artly  grafted  in  it,  look  what 
branches  are  suffered  to  grow  out  of  the 
stock  itself,  they  will  all  follow  the  nature  of 
the  stock. — Sanderson,  i.  431. 

ART8HIP,  artistic  skill. 

TV  Art  ship  rare 
Which  gilds  the  Seeling  or  this  Globe  so  fair. 
Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  118. 

Arts-man,  an  artisan  or  artificer; 
usually  the  word  means  an  artist  or  an 
expert.  N.  observes  that  the  term  is 
used  for  artificer  in  Chapman's  Homer, 
but  gives  no  reference. 

Like  an  oak,  a  poplar,  or  a  pine, 
New    fell'd  by  arts-man  on  the   hills,  he 

stretch 'd  his  form  divine 
Before  his  horse  and  chariot. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xvi.  448. 

As,  than. 

How  may  the  herte  be  more  contryte  and 
meke  as  whan  of  very  contrvcon  .  .  we  aske 
mercy  and  f orgyuenesse  of  almyghty  god  ? — 
Bp.  Fisher,  i.  210. 

I  stayed  full  four  months,  and  never  made 
better  cheer  in  my  life  as  then. — Urquhart's 
Rabelais,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xzxii. 

Darkness  itself  is  no  more  opposite  to 
light  as  their  actions  were  diametricall  to 
their  words. — Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  48. 

I  rather  like  him  as  otherwise. — Scott,  St. 
Ronan's  Well,  ii.  121. 

Asbest,  Anglicized  form  of  asbestos. 
See  next  entry. 

Th'  Arcadian  Asbest  being  once  enflam'd 
Will  ne'er  be  quencht. 

Dames,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  52. 

Asbeston  stone,  a  mineral  substance 
which  is  incombustible.  The  follow- 
ing quotation  points  to  another  quality 
which  explains  its  derivation. 

My  mind  is  like  to  the  asbeston  stone, 
Which,  if  it  once  be  heat  in  flames  of  fire, 
Denieth  to  becomen  cold  again. 

Greene,  Alphonsus,  Act  II. 


ASCEASE 


(     *7     ) 


ASSEMBLE 


ASCEASE,  tO  a886SS. 

Iidford,  now  a  small  village,  bat  in  ancient 
time  a  famous  towne,  which  ...  .  (as  it  is 
written  in  that  booke  whereby  William  the 
First  tooke  the  survey  and  value  of  England) 
was  not  wont  to  be  rated  and  asceased  at  any 
other  time,  nor  otherwise  than  London  was. 
— Holland's  Camden,  p.  199. 

Aseity,  independent  existence,  t.  e. 

a  se. 

Tell  me  then,  by  what  mysterious  light 
have  you  discovered  that  aseity  is  entail'd  on 
matter  ? — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  425. 

Aside,  distant. 

Whose  worke  this  was  the  tiles  there  did 
declare,  being  imprinted  with  these  words, 
Legio  XX.,  that  is  the  twentieth  legion, 
which,  as  I  have  shewed  already  before,  abode 
at  Cheater,  scarce  size  miles  aside  from  hence. 
—Holland's  Camden,  p.  681. 

Asked.  Persons  whose  banns  are  put 
up  are  said  to  be  asked,  or  asked  in 
Church :  on  the  third  publication  they 
are  said  to  be  asked  out    See  Outasked. 

He  is  commonly  called  King  Edward  the 
Fifth,  though  his  head  was  asfod,  but  never 
married  to  the  English  Grown;  and  there- 
fore in  all  the  Pictures  made  of  him,  a  dis- 
tance interposed  forbiddetb  the  banes  be- 
twixt them. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Westminster 
(ii.  105). 

Askeb,  a  species  of  newt. 

Tho*  the  anguish  had  the  sensation  of 
glowing  heat,  it  might,  notwithstanding  that, 
be  a  bite  as  well  as  a  burn ;  and  if  so,  possibly 
a  newt,  or  asker,  or  some  such  detested  rep- 
tile had  crept  up,  and  was  fastening  his 
teeth.— Sterne,  Tr.  Shandy,  iii.  210. 

Askingly,  with  an  entreating  manner. 

How  askingly  its  footsteps  hither  bend ! 
It  seems  to  say,  "And  have  I  then  one 
friend?  n — Coleridge,  To  a  Young  Ass. 

Asleep,  numbed:  in  the  second 
quotation  it  =  stunned. 

His  legge,  flagging  down  by  the  horse's 
syde,  by  title  and  litle  was  all  aslepe,  and 
in  maner  sterke  stife.  —  UdaVs  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  235. 

So  saying,  she  ups  with  her  brawny  arm, 
and  gave  Susy  such  a  douse  on  the  side  of 
the  head  as  left  her  fast  asleep  for  an  hour 
and  upward. — H.  Brooke,  Foot  of  Quality, 
i.  82. 

Aslopen,  asleep. 

The  Major  first  began  to  open, 
And  rouse  up  Collin  half  aslopen. 

D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  cant.  1. 

Asmeab,  smeared  over. 

So  I  came  into  Smithfield,  and  the  shame- 
ful place,  being  all  asmear  with  filth,  and  fat, 


and  blood,  and  foam,  seemed  to  stick  to  me. 
—Dickens,  Great  Expectations,  ch.  xx. 

Aspector,  beholder. 
Huge  Lyons,  Dragons,  Panthers,  and  the 

That  in  th'  aspectors  harts  doe  terror  strike. 

Davits,  An  Extasie. 

Asper,  a  Turkish  coin  of  small  value : 
its  equivalent  in  English  money  is  some- 
what variously  estimated  in  the  follow- 
ing extracts. 

Every  five  men  had  allowance  of  but  five 
aspers  of  bread  in  a  day,  which  are  but  two- 
pence English.— Sanders,  Voyage  to  Tripoli, 
1584  (Arber,  English  Garner,  ii.  20). 

Aspers ,  whereof  twentie  are  neare  vpon  a 
shilling.— Sandys,  Travels,  p.  27. 

The  foolish  paltry  fellow 
Shew'd  me  some  trifles,  and  demanded  of  me, 
For  what  I  valued  at  so  many  aspers, 
A  thousand  ducats. 

Massing ery  Renegado,  i.  3. 

Asquat,  in  a  cowering  or  huddled  up 
manner.  In  the  extract  the  word  seems 
to  be  used  rather  in  invidiam  than 
with  any  very  definite  meaning. 

There  was  the  odious  Solmes  sitting  asquat 
between  my  mother  and  sister. — Richardson, 
CI.  Harlowe,  i.  101. 

Assassini.  The  earliest  instance  of 
assassin  in  the  Diets,  is  from  Bacon, 
and  somewhat  later  than  the  subjoined, 
where  the  word  still  has  a  foreign 
dress ;  and  is  moreover  used  of  those 
Saracen  fanatics  from  whom  the  more 
general  application  of  the  term  has 
been  derived. 

Conrade  . . .  was  murthered  by  two  assas- 
sini.— Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  100. 

Asseize,  to  seize. 

Then  laid  they  violent  hands  upon  him; 

next 
Himself  imprisoned,  and  his  goods  asseized. 

Marlowe,  Edw.  II.,  i.  2. 

Assemblation,  gathering. 

The  time  and  place  of  the  asseniblation  was 
generally  notified,  as  also  what  learned 
divine  was  to  preach  the  funeral  sermon. — 
North,  Examen,  p.  204. 

Assemble,  to  compare  or  liken. 

Bribes  may  be  assembled  to  pitch. — Lati- 
mer, i.  188. 

Consider  how  those  preachers  throughout 
all  this  book  are  compared  unto  stars  and 
angels.  .  .  .  The  other  be  assembled  unto 
most  filthy  locusts. — Bale,  Select  Works,  p. 
379. 


A SSE VERA  TORY       (     28    ) 


ASTUCIOUS 


AS6BVEBAT0RY,  positively  affirming. 

After  divers  warm  and  asseveratory  answers 
made  by  Mr.  Atkins,  the  captain  stopped 
short  in  his  walk. — North,  Examen,  p.  247. 

A ssi eg er,  besieger:  the  verb  is  in 
the  Diets. 

Yet  ( trading  time)  he  thought  he  would 

prouide 
No  lesse  to  keep,  then  coole  th'  assiegers 

pride. — Hudson,  Judith,  iii.  254. 

Assisor,  one  who  fixes  the  rate  at 
which  things  are  to  be  sold.  Daniel 
(Hist,  qf  J5ng.,p.  169)  mentions  "false 
assisors  "  among  those  against  whom 
the  writ  of  Trailbaston  was  issued. 
See  extract,  s.  v.  trailbaston. 

Associate  to,  associate  with. 

They  associate  the  ideas  of  pain  to  those 
lessous  and  virtues  which  the  pleasure  of 
encouragement  ought  alone  to  inculcate. — 
H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  110. 

Assoil,  solution. 

We  dissemble  againe  vnder  couert  and 
darke  speaches,  when  we  npeake  by  way  of 
riddle  (enigma),  of  which  the  sence  can 
hardly  be  picked  out,  but  by  the  parties  owne 
assoile. — Puttenham,  Arte  of  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk. 
III.  ch.  xviii. 

Assubtile,  to  refine. 

They  came  by  instinct  diuine,  and  by 
deepe  meditation,  and  much  abstinence  (the 
same  assubtiling  and  refining  their  spirits)  to 
be  made  apt  to  receaue  visions,  both  wak- 
ing aud  sleeping,  which  made  them  vtter 
Srophesies,  and  fortell  things  to  come. — 
*uttenham,  Arte  of  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  I.  ch.  iii. 

Asterial,  having  to  do  with  the 
stars. 

If  the  deep  learn'd  asterial  quaclp 
Paint  Time  to  life  In  almanacks, 
He  has  on  brow  a  lock  of  hair, 
But  all  his  head  beside  is  bare. 

Ward,  England's  Reformation,  p.  298. 

Asterisk,  a  star  or  shape  of  a  star : 
usually  confined  to  that  mark  in  print- 
ing or  writing. 

The  lanthorn  is  in  the  centre  of  an  asterisk 
of  glades,  cut  through  the  wood  of  all  the 
country  round,  four  or  five  in  a  quarter. — 
North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  258. 

Asterisk,  "to  mark  with  an  asterisk. 

I  need  not  asterisk  the  quaint  words  and 
expressions :  they  stand  forth  and  shew  them- 
selves.— North,  Examen,  p.  279. 

Astoroy,  want  of  natural  affection. 
See  Rom.  i.  31 ;  2  Tim.  iii.  3,  in  the 
Greek.  Astorgy  in  the  extract  is  per- 
sonified. 


Upon  an  Ostrich,  more  unnatural 
Than  barbarous  She,  rode  meagre  Astorgy, 
Vowing  aloud  to  tear  in  sunder  all 
Those  cords  with  which  true  Love  delights 
to  tie  ' 

The  Souls  of  Parents  and  of  Children,  and 
Shatter  the  links  of  every  Nuptial  Band. 
Beaumont,  Psyche,  xxii.  107. 

Astoundment,  astonishment.  Lamb 
uses  the  word  again  in  the  essay  on 
"  Mnckery  End." 

What  a  collegiate  aspect  has  that  fine 
Elizabethan  hall  where  the  fountain  plays, 
which  I  have  made  to  rise  and  fall,  how 
many  times !  to  the  astoundment  of  the 
young  urchins,  my  contemporaries. — Elia, 
Old  Benchers  of  Inner  Temple. 

Astracism,  starriness. 

If  Jove,  esteeming  me  too  good  for  earth, 
Baise  me  to  match  the  fair  Aldeboran, 
Above  the  threefold  astracism  of  heaven. 

Marlowe,  2  Tamb.,  iv.  4. 

Astray,  to  stray  away. 

As  oft  as  they  astraid 
From  God  their  guide,  He  on  their  shoulders 

laid 
The  barbare  rock  of  Moab. 

Hudson's  Judith,  ii.  852. 

Astroite.     See  extract. 

At  Laffington  near  Gloucester  are  found 
certain  stones  about  the  breadth  of  a  silver 
peny  and  thickness  of  an  half-crown,  called 
astroites,  or  star-stones,  being  fine  pointed 
like  a  star  and  flat.  They  are  of  a  greyish 
colour,  and  the  fiat  sides  are  naturally  finely 
engraven,  as  it  were.  —  Defoe,  Tour  thro* 
Great  Britain,  ii.  326. 

Astrolatry,  star-worship. 

To  this  succeeded  astrolatry  in  the  East, 
and  geolatry  in  the  West. — Cox,  Mythol.  of 
Aryan  Nations,  i.  95. 

Astrologise,  to  consider  the  various 
motions  and  conjunctions,  &c,  as  an 
astrologer  does  with  the  stare. 

I  have  elsewhere  astrologised  this  case  of 
the  faction  prevailing  at  Oxford. — Northt 
Examen,  p.  801. 

Astrologue,  astrologer.  Cf.  phi- 
lologue,  thcologue,  &c,  which  are  in  the 
Diets. 

For  I  am  a  Physician  too, 
Chymistry  know  profoundly  well, 
An  Astrologue  infallible. 

nUrfey,  Plague  of  Impertinence. 

Astucious,  astute  ;  subtle.  Fr.  as- 
tucieux.  Is  the  word,  as  an  English 
one,  peculiar  to  Scott  ? 

Louis, .  .  like  all  astucious  persons,  was  as 
desirous  of  looking  into  the  hearts  of  others. 


ASTUCITY 


(     29    )        ATTENTATION. 


i» 


as  of  concealing  his  own. — Scott,   Quentin 
Burward,  i.  170. 

It  was  indeed  natural  that  one  who  seldom 
saw  things  according  to  their  real  forms  and 
outlines  should  view  them  according  to  the 
light  in  which  they  were  presented  to  him 
by  a  bold  and  astucious  man,  possessing  the 
claim  of  such  near  relationship. — Ibid.,  Fair 
Maid  of  Perth,  h.  69. 

Astucity,  astuteness. 

Consider  Maximilien  Robespierre  . . .  with- 
out head,  without  heart,  or  any  grace,  gift, 
or  even  vice  beyond  common,  if  it  were  not 
vanity,  astucity,  diseased  rigour  (which  some 
count  strength)  as  of  a  cramp.  —  Carlyle, 
Misc.,  iv.  05. 

Polymetis  at  any  rate  folds  his  map  togc 
ther,  and  flings  himself  on  bed,  resolved  to 
try  on  the  morrow  morning;  with  astucity, 
with  swiftness,  with  audacity.  —  Ibid.,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  I.  ch.  iii.     , 

Asylum,  a  place  for  the  reception  of 
lunatics.  This  sense  is  not  in  the 
Diets.  S.  Pegge  in  1785  (ArchasoL,  viii. 
44)  says,  "  The  name  asylum  has  been 
of  late  revived/1  and  applied  in  this 
way. 

Ataballes,  kettle-drums. 

From  the  Moors'  camp  the  noise  grows 

louder  still, 
Battling  of  armour,  trumpets,  drums,  and 

ataballes, — Dry  den,  Spanish  Fryar,  I.  i. 

Ataghan,  a  scimitar.  More  often 
written  yataghan. 

The  other  seeks  his  ataghan, 
And  clasps  its  je weird  hilt. 

Oh !  much  of  gore  in  days  of  yore 
That  crooked  blade  has  spilt. 

Hood,  The  Key. 

Atheist.  The  earliest  authority  for 
atheist  or  atheism  given  in  the  Diets, 
is  Bacon's  Essays;  the  extract  seems 
to  imply  that  in  Ascham's  time  the 
word  still  wore  its  Greek  dress,  though 
it  was  in  not  uncommon  use. 

They  plainly  declare  of  whose  schole,  of 
what  religion  they  be :  that  is,  Epicures  in 
living  and  'AOtot  in  doctrine.  This  last 
word  is  no  more  unknown  now  to  plain 
Englishmen  than  the  person  was  unkuown 
some  time  in  England,  until  some  English- 
man took  pains  to  fetch  that  devilish  opinion 
out  of  lt&\j.—Ascham,  Schoolmaster,  p.  90. 

Athit.  The  reading  in  the  edition 
of  1577  is  at  hyt.  Muvor  explains  it 
"  ill-breeder8.',  Wright,  Prov.  Diet., 
"ill-conditioned." 

No  storing  of  pasture  with  baggedglie  tit, 
With  ragged,  with  aged,  and  euil  athit. 

Tusscr,  Hvsbandrie,  p.  85. 


Atlantic,  strong  as  Atlas.     Milton 

has  Atlantean. 

Bearing  an  ensign  in  a  mimick  fight  upon 
your  atlantick  shoulders.— T.  Brown,  Works, 
ii.  180. 

Atomistic al,  relating  to  atoms.  The 
atomistical  hypothesis  is  that  which 
refers  the  origin  of  matter  to  a  fortui- 
tous concurrence  of  atoms. 

The  atomistical  hypothesis  does  not  weaken 
the  force  of  my  reason ;  notwithstanding  I 
must  tell  you  a  wise  man  will  not  easily 
believe  that  dull  and  dead  atoms  are  able  to 
frame  a  living  creature. — Gentleman  Instruct* 
ed,  p.  427. 

Atony,  want  of  tone. 

The  cause  of  Kant's  death  was  . .  the  aton 
of  the  digestive  organs. — Be  Quincey,  Last 
Bays  of  Kant. 

Atrip.  Sails  are  said  to  be  atrip  when 
hoisted  to  the  top  of  the  mast,  as  high 
as  possible. 

A  sail !  a  sail !  I  plainly  spy, 
Betwixt  the  ocean  and  the  sky ; 
An  argosy,  a  tall  built  ship, 
With  all  her  pregnant  sails  atrip. 
Cotton,  Winter,  1689  {Eng.  Garner,  1.  216) 

Atroce,  atrocious. 

The  prodigious  vanity  and  nonsense  as 
well  as  atroce  wickedness  of  these  doings  are 
not  describable  but  by  the  very  remains 
which  the  authors  themselves  have  left  of 
them. — North,  Examen,  p.  258. 

Let  me  take  a  turn  or  two  of  reflection 
upon  this  most  atroce  machine. — Ibid.  p.  392. 

Attemptless,  without  trying. 

Why  then,  Casane,  shall  we  wish  for  aught 
The  world  affords  in  greatest  novelty, 
And  rest  attemntless,  faint,  and  destitute  ? 
Marlowe,  1  Tamburlaine,  ii.  5. 

Attend,  attendance. 

Boast,  petty  kings,  and  glory  in  your  fates, 
That  stars  have  made  your  fortunes  climb  so 

high, 
To  give  attend  on  Rasni's  excellence. 

Greene,  Looking  Glass  for  England,  I.  i. 

Attendress,  female  attendant.  Ful- 
ler is  somewhat  t autologous  in  speak- 
ing of  " a  female  attendress" 

A  female  Attendress  at  the  Table,  neglect- 
ing other  Qentlemeu  which  sat  higher,  and 
were  of  greater  Estates,  applyed  herself 
wholly  to  him. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Somerset 
(ii.  287). 

Attentation,  temptation. 

What  can  be  so  quicksighted  as  the  Devil, 
that  spies  the  first  spark  of  attentation,  and 
blows  it  into  a  fame?—Hacket,  Life  of  WiU 
liams,  i.  99. 


ATTRIST 


(     30    ) 


A  UTHOR 


Attrist,  to  sadden. 

I  am  full  of  all  these  reflections,  but  shall 
not  attrist  you  with  them. —  Walpole,  Letters, 
iii.  382  (1771). 

How  then  could  I  write  when  it  was  im- 
possible but  to  attrist  you!  when  I  could 
speak  of  nothing  but  unparalleled  horrors. — 
Ibid.  iv.  525  (1793). 

At  twice,  after  two  trials. 

Please  but  your  worship  now 
To  take  three  drops  of  the  rich  water  with 

you, 
I'll  undertake  your  man  shall  cure  you,  sir, 
At  twice  i'  your  own  chamber. 

Jonson,  Fletcher,  and  Middleton, 
The  Widow,  iv.  2. 

Audition.  Walpole  says  of  the 
Cock  Lane  Ghost,  which  did  not  mani- 
fest itself  except  by  knockings. 

I  went  to  hear  it,  for  it  is  not  an  appari- 
tion, but  an  audition.— Letters,  ii.  333  (1762). 

Auditive,  hearing. 

It  sometimes  falleth  out  that  a  man  hears 
not  a  great  sound  or  noise,  though  it  be  nigh 
him.  The  reason  is,  his  heart  is  fixed,  and 
busily  taken  up  in  some  object,  .  .  .  and  the 
ears,  like  faithful  servants,  attending  their 
master,  the  heart,  lose  the  act  of  that  audit- 
ive organ  by  some  suspension,  till  the  heart 
hath  done  with  them  and  given  them  leave. 
— Adams,  i.  265. 

Augusteity,  augustness ;  majesty. 

Too  little  it  was  belike  to  be  styled  by 
ordinary  parasites  the  shepherd  of  shepherds, 
spouse  and  head  of  the  Church,  oecumenical 
bishop,  prince  of  priests,  unless  he  might  be 
advanced  above  all  Augusteity  and  Deity  in 
this  most  hyperbolical  manner. —  Ward,  Ser- 
mons, p.  5. 

Augustious,  august. 

He  knew  these  augustiovs  preparations 
would  be  ridiculously  disappointed. — Racket, 
Life  of  Williams,  i.  169. 

Aural,  pertaining  to  the  ear. 

That  aural  acquaintance  with  Latin  phrases 
which  the  unlearned  might  pick  up  from 
pulpit  quotations  constantly  interpreted  by 
the  preacher,  could  help  them  little  when 
they  saw  written  Latin. — G.  Eliot,  Bomola, 
ch.  lxiii. 

Aurific,  gold-making. 

This  opinion,  however,  was  in  part  changed, 
in  consequence  of  some  experiments  made 
with  an  aurific  powder  given  him  by  a 
stranger. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  clxxxvi. 

Aurigation,  chariot-driving.    (Lat.) 

If  a  man  indulges  in  the  vicious  habit  of 
sleeping,  all  the  skill  in  aurigation  of  Apollo 
himself,  with  the  horses  of  Aurora  to  execute 


his  notions,  avail  him  nothing. — De  Quincey* 
Eng.  Mail-coach. 

Auroral,  pertaining  to  the  morning ; 

bright. 

What  a  scene  and  new  kingdom  for  him, 
all  bathed  in  auroral  radiance  of  hope.  .  .  . 
They  are  all  a  delusion  and  piece  of  demonic 
necromancy,  these  same  auroral  splendours. 
—Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  115  (1837). 

Autarchy,  self-sufficiency.  See  L., 
who  gives  an  instance  from  Valentine'* 
Sermons,  1635,  but  doubts  whether  it 
means  self-sufficiency  or  self-govern- 
ment; on  the  whole  he  decides  in  fa- 
vour of  the  former,  despite  the  spelling. 
The  following  examples  from  contempo- 
rary authors  show  that  he  is  right 

You  that  so  composed  your  lives  by  jejune 
and  empty  contemplations  of  an  autarchy  in 
virtue  by  the  rules  of  nature,  what  stately 
lives  would  you  have  led  and  lived,  if  the 
grace  and  hopes  of  the  gospel  had  appeared 
to  you  by  the  rules  of  faith. —  Ward,  Ser- 
mons, p.  28. 

[Conscience  is]  in  man  the  principal  part 
of  God's  image,  and  that  by  which  man  re- 
sembleth  most  the  autarchy  and  self-suffici- 
ency of  God. — Ibid.  p.  98. 

Some  averre  that  as  the  Germans  (affect- 
ing an  autarchy  or  sole-sufficiency  amongst 
themselves,)  disdained  commerce  in  customes 
or  civile  government  with  the  Romans,  so 
they  communicated  not  with  them  in  their 
religion.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  II.  i.  6. 

Authentic,  the  original. 

Which  letter  in  the  copy  his  Lordship  read 
over,  and  carried  the  authentic  with  him. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  24. 

Had  he  put  them  out  to  the  Bank  by  pro- 
curing several  copies  to  be  transcribed,  learn- 
ing thereby  had  been  a  gainer  and  a  saver, 
had  he  onely  secured  the  originals ;  whereas 
now  her  losse  is  irrecoverable :  principall  and 
interest,  authenticks  and  transcripts,  are  all 
imbezzled. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  I.  vi.  9. 

Authentic,  forming  a  precedent 

A  signal  professor  can  not  perish  without 
a  train,  and  in  his  very  destruction  his  ex- 
ample is  authentick. — South,  Sermons,  iii.  100. 

A  spreading  atheism  and  domineering, 
reigning  sensuality,  sins  now  made  national 
and  authentick. — Ibid.  iii.  351. 

Author.  N.  says  that  Chapman  fre- 
quently uses  this  verb  ;  L.  gives  quota- 
tion from  Beaumont  and  Fletcher ;  and 
R.  mentions  that  Chapman  and  Beaumont 
and  Fletcher  employ  it,  as  though  such 
use  were  confined  to  them.  In  all  the 
passages  cited  in  the  Diets,  it  means  to 
cause  or  originate,  and  this  is  its  mean- 
ing in  the  first  of  the  subjoined  ex- 


A  UTHORISM 


<     3i     ) 


AVOUCHABLE 


tracts;    but  in  the  second  it  signifies 

"  to  vouch  f or,"  "  to  be  authority  for ;  " 

and  in  the  third  authoring  =»  literary 

authorship. 

The  consonancie  of  the  names  [Liscare]  or 
trechery  of  the  people  hath  authored  the  re- 
port that  Iscariot  was  here  borne. — Sandys, 
Travels*  p.  250. 

Some  tricks  and  crotchets  he  has  in  his  head, 
As  all  musicians  have,  and  more  of  him 
I  dare  not  author. 

Massinger,  Fatal  Dowry,  iv.  2. 

There  are,  besides  these  more  obvious 
benefits,  several  others  which  our  readers 
enjoy  from  this  art  of  dividing ;  though  per- 
haps most  of  them  too  mysterious  to  be 
presently  understood  by  any  who  are  not 
initiated  into  the  science  of  authoring. — 
Fielding,  Jos.  Andrews,  Bk.  II.  ch.  i. 

AUTH0RI8M,  sense  of  being  an  author. 

He  [Burke]  is  a  sensible  man,  but  has  not 
worn  off  his  authorism  yet,  and  thinks  there 
is  nothing  so  charming  as  writers,  and  to  be 
one.—  fFalpole,  Letters,  ii.  269  (1761). 

Authobshipness,  condition  of  being 
an  author. 

Of  this  I  have  been  sensible  from  the  mo- 
ment my  authorshipness  was  discovered.— 
Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  i.  240. 

Autokinetical,  self-moving. 

Self-moving  substance,  that  be  th'  definition 
Of  souls,  that  'longs  to  them  in  generall. 

Therefore  the  soul's  autokineticall 
Alone. 

H.  More,  Immortality  of  the  Soul. 
I.  ii.  25,26. 

Automatised,  made  into  an  automa- 
ton. 

A  god-created  man,  all  but  abnegating  the 
character  of  man;  forced  to  exist,  automa* 
tised,  mummy  wise  (scarcely  in  rare  moments 
audible  or  visible  from  amid  his  wrappers 
and  cerements)  as  Gentleman  or  Qigman. — 
CarlyU,  Diamond  Necklace,  ch.  i. 

Automatory.     See  quotation. 

They  made  the  water  go  from  one  glass 
to  another,  and  contrived  a  thousand  little 
automatory  engines,  that  is  to  say,  moving 
of  themselves.  —  Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  I. 
ch.  xxiv. 

Autopathy  "denotates  (says  More) 
the  being  self-strucken ;  to  be  sensible 
of  what  harms  us,  rather  than  what  is 
absolutely  evill." 

Base  fear  proceeds  from  weak  autopathy. 
—H.  More,  life  of  th*  Soul,  iii.  06. 

Autobial,  pertaining  to  an  author. 

How  delicate  and  graceful  are  the  transi- 
tions from  subject  to  subject ! — a  point  se- 


verely testing  the  autorial  power. — E.  A 
Foe,  Marginalia,  cvi. 

Autotheist,  one  who  is  his  own  god. 

He  begins  to  mistake  more  and  more  the 
voice  of  that  very  flesh  of  his,  which  he  fan- 
cies he  has  conquered,  for  the  voice  of  God, 
and  to  become,  without  knowing  it,  an  auto* 
theist.—C.  Kingsley,  Letter,  Dec.  26, 1855. 

Autumn ian,  autumnal. 

The  boughes  .  .  withered,  and,  like  autum- 
nian  leaves,  dropt  to  the  ground. — Decker, 
Seven  Deadly  Sins,  p.  11. 

Auxiliab,  an  auxiliary :  usually  an 
adj. 

I  hail  you  my  auxiliars  and  allies. — Taylor, 
Ph.  van  Artevelde,  Pt.  II.  v.  i. 

Avalanche.  The  earliest  example 
in  L.  of  this  now  well-known  word 
is    from    Byron.      Smollett    spells    it 

VALANCHE,  q.  V. 

Avarous,  avaricious.  Richardson  and 
Latham  give  this  word,  but  no  example 
more  recent  than  Gower ;  it  was,  how- 
ever, frequently  used  by  Adams  more 
than  200  years  later. 

A  whole  country  will  not  content  one 
avarous  caterpillar. — Adams,  i.  79. 
.  The  very  fool  of  all  is  the  avarous,  for  he 
will  lose  his  friends,  starve  his  body,  damn 
his  soul,  and  have  no  pleasure  for  it. — Ibid. 
i.  249. 

Avocation,  that  which  calls  us  away 
from  something  else.  The  word  is  so 
often  misused  as  synonymous  with 
vocation  (see  Hall's  Modern  English, 
p.  214),  that  it  seems  worth  while  to 
give  the  two  quotations  following. 

Heaven  is  his  vocation,  and  therefore  he 
counts  earthly  employments  avocations. — 
Fuller,  Holy  State,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  ix. 

Though  she  could  neither  sleep  nor  rest  in 
her  bed,  yet,  having  no  avocation  from  it,  she 
was  found  there  by  her  father  at  his  return. 
— Fielding,  Tom  Jones,  Bk.  VI.  ch.  xiii. 

Avoset,  a  bird  with  a  long  beak 
curiously  curved  back  at  the  end,  and 
with  pied  plumage.:  it  has  become  rare 
in  England. 

Gone  are  ruffs  and  reeves,  spoonbills,  bit- 
terns, avosets ;  the  very  snipe,  one  hears, 
disdains  to  breed.— C.  Kingsley,  1830  {Life, 
i.  8). 

Avouchable,  incontrovertible. 

The  darkness  of  her  face  here  is  as  avouch' 
able  as  the  brightness  of  her  clothes  else- 
where.— Fuller,  Pisaah  Sight,  IV.  v.  25. 

The  most  avouchable  evidence  of  Chris- 
tianity flourishing  in  this  island  in  this  age 
is  produced  from  the  Bishops  representing 


AVOWANCE 


(    32     )        BABIL0N1CALLY 


Britain  in  the  Councills  of  Aries  .  .  .  Nice 
.  .  .  Sardis  .  .  .  Ariminum.  —  Ibid.,  Ch. 
Hist.,  I.  iv.  20. 

Avowance,  avowal ;  evidence. 

In  avowance  of  [its  having  civil  privileges] 
it  showeth  more  Burrow-townes  then  any 
Shire  (though  thrice  as  big)  lying  in  the 
kingdome  of  Mercia.  —  Fuller,  Worthies, 
Bucks  (i.  151). 

Avuncular,  pertaining  to  an  uncle. 

Clive,  in  the  avuncular  gig,  is  driven  over 
the  downs  to  Brighton,  to  his  maternal  aunt 
there.— Thackeray,  Xtwcomes,  ch.  v. 

Clive  had  passed  the  avuncular  banking- 
house  in  the  city,  without  caring  to  face  his 
relations  there.— Ibid.  ch.  xl. 

Avunculizk,  to  follow  or  imitate  an 
uncle. 

Seeing  he  was  sister's  son  to  blackmouth'd 
Sanders,  it  is  much  that  he  doth  not  more 
avunculize  in  his  bitterness  against  Protest- 
ants.—fatter,  Worthies,  Hants  (i.  414). 

Award,  to  avert,  ward  off.   See  H. 

In  his  Raign  a  supplication  was  preferred 
that  the  Temporal  Lands  given  to  pious  uses, 
but  abusively  spent,  might  have  been  seized 
to  the  King.  This  was  wisely  awarded  by 
Chichley,  Arch-bishop  of  Canterbury,  by 
putting  the  King  on  the  design  of  recover- 
ing France.  —  Fuller,  Worthies,  Radnor  (ii. 
008). 

Awaredom,  caution. 

I  am  glad  you  are  aware  of  Mrs.  Pitt ; 
pray  continue  your  awaredom.  —  Walpolt  to 
Mann,  iii.  64  (1764). 

Awbe,  a  bullfinch ;  called  also  an  alp 
or  alph  (?). 

Canara  byrds  come  in  to  beare  the  bell, 
And  goldfinches  do  hope  to  get  the  gole ; 


The  tatting  Awbe  doth  please  some  fancie 

wel, 
And  some  like  best  the  byrde  as  black  as 

cole. — Gascoigne,  Philomene,  35. 

Awed,  dreaded. 

Could  Sampson  have  been  firmly  bound 
hand  and  foot  by  the  Philistine  cords,  so  as 
he  could  not  have  stirred  those  mighty  limbs 
of  his,  what  boy  or  girl  of  Gath  or  Ascalon 
would  have  feared  to  draw  near,  and  spurn 
that  awed  champion  ? — Hall,  Invisible  World, 
Bk.  III.  sect.  in. 

Axier,  axis. 

Thy  hands  the  axier  to  maintain  my  world. 
Greene,  looking  Glass  for  London,  p.  136. 

Axinomancy.     See  extract 

[Jet]  was  moreover  employed  in  the  form 
of  divination  called  axinomancy.  Laid  on  a 
hatchet  made  hot,  it  was  stated  not  to  con- 
sume if  the  desires  of  the  consulting  party 
were  destined  to  be  fulfilled.—  Arch.,  xliii. 
617  (1870). 

Axless,  without  an  axle.  The  word 
should  be  axleless,  but  this  would  not 
suit  the  metre. 

'Tis  a  wondrous  thing  to  see  that  mighty 

mound 
Hingeless  and  axless  turn  so  swiftly  round. 
Sylvester,  Little  Bartas,  264. 

Ayles,  the  beards  of  corn.  H.  gives 
it  as  an  Essex  word. 

These  twice-six  colts  had  pace  so  swift,  they 

ran 
Upon  the  top-ay/sj  of  corn-ears,  nor  bent 

them  any  whit. — Chapman,  Iliad,  xx.  211. 

Azure,  to  make  blue.  The  Dicta, 
only  give  the  past  participle. 

Who  azvr'd  the  firmament  ?  Who  enamel'd 
the  meadows  with  a  thousand  different 
flowers  ?— Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  894. 


B 


Baalist,  a  worshipper  of  Baal: 
applied  in  the  first  extract  to  Papists, 
in  the  second  to  Anglicans. 

And  lastly,  too,  Tobacco's  smoakie-mists, 
Which  f  camming  from  Iberian  Baalists) 
No  small  addition  of  Adustion  fit 
Bring  to  the  nmoak  of  the  Unbottom'd  Pit. 
Sylvester,  Tobacco  Battered,  190. 

We  went  to  the  Minster,  when  the  pipes 
played,  and  the  puppets  sange  so  sweetely, 
that  some  of  our  soildiers  could  not  forbeare 
dauucing  in  the  holie  quire,  whereat  the 
Baallists  were  sore  displeased.— Lttter  from 
Neh.  Warton,  1642  (Arch.,  xxxv.  332). 


"  if  too  busie  after  they  have  found  a 
good  scent,"  Gent.  Bee.,  p.  78.    See  H. 

Oft  when  I  rise  at  early  morn, 
And  hear  the  cheerful  echoing  horn, 
I'm  forc'd  from  the  inspiring  noise 
To  hunt  a  pack  of  idle  boys ; 
And  when  they  babble  in  their  din, 
I  am  a  special  whipper-in. 

'  Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  o.  xxi. 

Babeship,  infancy. 

He  had  not  euen  from  his  tendre  babeship 
been  nousled  in  the  preceptes  of  philosophic. 
—  UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apopkih.,  p.  194. 

Babble.    Hounds  are  said  to  babble         Babilonicallt,  sumptuously,  refer- 


BABOONERY        (    33     )      BACK-SCRATCHER 


ring  to  the  splendour  of  Babylon.    Cf. 
Cleopatrical. 

O !  he  is  attended  upon  most  Babiloniccdly ; 
and  Xerxes  so  overcloyd  not  the  Hellespont 
with  his  foystes,  gallies,  and  brigandines,  as 
he  mantleth  the  narrow  seas  with  his  retinue. 
— Nashe,  Lenten  Stujfe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  162). 

Baboonery,  assemblage  of  baboons. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  Bocke  ffrewe  a 
Groue,  in  whose  vtmost  part  appear 'd  a  vast, 
withered  and  hollow  tree,  being  the  bare  re- 
ceptacle of  the  Baboonerie. — Chapman,  Masque 
of  Mid.  Temple. 

Baboon  is  h,  like  a  baboon. 

He  had  a  dingy  bronze  complexion,  tawny 
eyes,  tolerable  teeth,  and  a  long,  wrinkled, 
smirking,  baboonish  physiognomy.  —  Miss 
Ferrier,  Inheritance,  Vol.  I.  ch.  ii. 

Baby.  To  smell  of  the  baby  =  to  be 
childish. 

There  are  some  that  in  their  childhood  are 
so  long  in  their  home  booke  that,  doe  what 
they  can,  they  will  smell  of  the  Baby  till  they 
can  not  see  to  read.— Breton,  Courtier  and 
Countryman,  p.  9. 

Bachelorhood,  bachelorship. 

I  can  fancy  nothing  more  cruel  after  a 
long  easy  life  of  bachelorhood  than  to  have  to 
sit  day  after  day  with  a  dull  handsome 
woman  opposite.— Thackeray,  The  ATevxomes, 
ch.  xl. 

Sir  Hugo  in  his  bachelorhood  had  been  be- 
guiled into  regarding  children  chiefly  as  a 
product  intended  to  make  life  more  agreeable 
to  the  full  grown.— G.Eliot, Daniel  Deronda, 
ch.  lix. 

Bachelorize,  to  be  or  act  as  a 
bachelor.  Jam's  says  in  a  note,  "A 
word  made  on  purpose,  answerable  to 
the  original  bachillear." 

I  am  a  Salamanca  bachelor  of  arts,  and 
there  is  no  bachelorizing  beyond  that. — 
Jarwfs  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  I.  ch.  vii. 

Bachelor's  fare.    See  quotation. 

Lady  Ans.  Colonel,  some  ladies  of  your 
acquaintance  have  promised  to  breakfast 
with  you,  and  I  am  to  wait  on  them ;  what 
will  you  give  us  ? 

Col.  Why,  faith,  Madam,  bachelor's  fare, 
bread  and  cheese  and  kisses.— thrift,  Polite 
Conversation,  Conv.  i. 

Bachelry.  Bachelry  intention  = 
intention  of  remaining  a  bachelor. 

He  holding  place  and  estimation  as  heir  of 
Arcadia,  obtained  me  of  my  father,  the  King 
of  Argos,  his  brother  helping  to  the  conclu- 
sion with  protesting  his  batchelry  intention. 
— Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  237. 

Back.     Give  the  back  =  to  leave. 
Had  even  Obstinate  himself  but  felt  what 


I  have  felt  of  the  powers  and  terrors  of  what 
is  yet  unseen,  he  would  not  thus  lightly  have 
given  us  the  back.—Bunyan,  Pilgrim's  Pro- 
gress, Pt.  I.  p.  10. 

Back-broken,  with  a  broken  back ; 
over-heavily  weighted.  H.  refers  to 
Florio  for  back-break.  Cf.  Break- 
back. 

How  best  the  Sonne  should  bear  an  empire's 
lode 
(Which  weaknesse  oft  back-broken  vnder- 
goes). — Davies,  Microcosmos,  p.  16. 

Backermo8T,  furthest  back.  Cf. 
Higiiermost.  The  extract  is  from  the 
Church  wardens'  Accounts  at  Minching- 
hampton,  1669. 

Two  seat  roomes  in  the  gallery  at  Hampton 
in  the  backermost  seat. — Arch.,  xxxv.  449. 

Back-hand,  a  term  at  tennis. 

Lady  Betty.  Nay,  my  lord,  there's  no 
standing  against  two  of  you. 

L.  Fop.  No,  faith,  that  s  odds  at  tennis,  my 
lord ;  not  but  if  your  ladyship  pleases,  I'll 
endeavour  to  keep  your  back-hand  a  little, 
tho'  upon  my  soul  you  may  safely  set  me 
up  at  the  line.  —  Ctbber,  Careless  Husband, 
AotlV. 

What !  are  you  there  to  keep  up  her  back- 
hand, Mr.  Freeport  ? — Colman,  Eng.  Merchant, 
Act  IV. 

Back-handed,  remiss. 

Modesty  ...  is  often  the  most  beggarly 
and  back-handed  friend  that  merit  can  have 
in  its  pay. — Godwin,  Mandeville,  ii.  180. 

Back-head,  false  hair  at  the  back  of 
the  head. 

I  thought  of  poor  Mrs.  Penelope  Arby — you 
all  know  her.  I  saw  her  in  imagination  sur- 
rounded with  parrots  and  lapdogs !  So  spring- 
like at  past  fifty,  with  her  pale  pink  lustring 
and  back"head.  —  Richardson,  Grandison,  vii. 
223. 

Backload,  a  good  load  ;  as  much  as 
can  be  carried  on  the  back. 

It  came  into  my  mind,  that  to  arrive  at 
universal  holiness  all  at  once,  I  would  take  a 
journey  into  the  Holy  Land,  and  so  would 
return  home  with  a  backload  of  sanctimony. 
— Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  182. 

Backscraper,  back-scratcher,  q.  v. 

Chopsticks  and  backscrapert  are  curious 
things.—  JFolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  238. 

Back-scratcher,  an  instrument  for 
scratching  parts  of  the  back  that  might 
be  otherwise  inaccessible :  the  end  of 
it  was  in  the  shape  of  a  hand.  An 
article  on  these  instruments,  with  illus- 
trations, will  be  found  in  Chambers's 
Book  of  Day 8,  ii.  238. 

D 


BACKSTONE 


(     34    ) 


BAG 


There  was  also  a  head  of  Indian  corn  there, 
and  a  backscratcher,  of  which  the  hand  was 
ivory,  and  the  handle  black. — Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  iv. 

Backstone,  a  stone  to  bake  oat-cakes 
on.  See  H.,  a.  v.  "  As  nimble  as  a  cat 
on  a  hot  bakslon"  is  a  north-country 
proverb. 

The  oats,  oh  the  oats,  and  the  silver,  silver 
oats! 
Here's  to  the  oats  With  the  backstone  on 
the  board! 
Well  go  among  them  when  the  barley  has 
been  laid  in  rotes : 
"When  all  is  home  to  mow-yard,  we'll  kneel 
and  thank  the  Lord. 
Exmoor  Harvest  Song  (Lorna  Doone,  ch.  xxiz.) 

Backstring,  a  leading  string  behind, 
by  which  the  nurse  or  mother  guided 
the  child. 

Even  misses,  at  whose  age  their  mothers  wore 
The  hackstring  and  the  bib,  assume  the  dress 
Of  womanhood. 

Cowper,  Winter  Evening,  227. 

Back-timber,  clothes. 

Was  there  ever  more  riot  and  excess  in 
diet  and  clothes,  in  belly-cheer  and  back' 
timber,  than  we  see  at  this  day  ?—  Bp.  Hall, 
Works,  v.  543. 

Back  winter,  frost  after  the  regular 
winter  has  passed. 

This  and  every  towne  hath  its  hack  winters 
or  frostes  that  nippe  it  in  the  blade  (as  not 
the  clearest  sunneshine  but  hath  his  shade, 
and  there  is  a  time  of  6icknes  as  well  as  of 
health) :  the  back&irinter,  the  froste  biting, 
the  eclipse  of  shade  and  sicknesse  of  Yar- 
mouth was  a  great  sicknesse  or  plague  in  it 
1348.—  Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Hari.  Misc.,  vi. 
152). 

Bacon-hog,  a  specially  fat  hog  fit 
for  bacon.  In  the  original,  Erasmus 
speaks  of  Acarnanian  pigs,  which  were 
the  sleekest  kind. 

My  followers  are  smooth,  plump,  and 
buxom,  and  altogether  as  lusty  as  so  many 
bacon-hogs  or  sucking  calves. — Kennet,  Eras- 
mus's Praise  of  Folly,  p.  17. 

Bacon ize,  to  turn  into  bacon. 

He  hath  not  learnt 
That  pigs  were  made  for  man,  born  to  be 

brawn'd 
And  baconized. — Southey,  Nondescripts,  iv. 

Bacon-slicer,  a  clown,  though  the 
note  say 8  it  is  strictly  a  braggadocio  or 
vapourer. 

If  he  have  not  abetter  judgement,  a  better 
discourse,  and  that  expressed  in  better  terms 
than  your  son,  with  a  completer  carriage  and 
civility  to  all  manner  of  persons,  account  me 


for  ever  hereafter  a  very  elounch  and  1>acnn- 
slicer  of  Brene. — Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  I. 
ch.  xv. 

Badge.  Mr.  Grosart  suggests  that 
the  word  in  the  extract  may  mean 
"  procuring  forfeited  estates  by  beg- 
ging." Badger,  q.  v.,  is  a  retailer  of 
corn.  Such  had  not  always  a  very 
good  reputation  for  honesty.  Perhap3 
Davies  means,  "  some  follow  her  [For- 
tune] by  forestalling  or  regrating  the 
produce  of  the  land."  His  marginal 
note  is  "  Land  badgers." 

Some  others  followed  her  by  bodging  land. 
—  Davies,  Humour's  Heaven  on  Earth,  p.  37. 

Badger,  a  huckster;  retailer.  See 
Bajulate. 

The  wealth  of  this  town  consisteth  much 
in  buying  of  come,  and  selling  it  againe  to 
the  mountaines;  for  all  the  inhabitants  be 
as  it  were  a  kinde  of  hucksters  or  badgers. — 
Holland's  Camden,  p.  555. 

Badger.  To  overdraw  ones  badger 
is,  according  to  Hood,  slang  for  over- 
drawing one's  banking  account. 

His  checks  no  longer  drew  the  cash, 
Because,  as  his  comrades  explained  in  flash, 
He  had  overdrawn  his  badger. 

Hood,  Mtss  Kihnansegg. 

Badgerly,  aged  (?).  We  say,  gray 
as  a  badger. 

I  always  think  when  I  see  those  badgerly 
virgins  fond  of  a  parrot,  a  squirrel,  a  monkey, 
or  a  lapdog,  that  their  imagination  makes 
out  husDand  and  children  in  the  animals. — 
Richardson,  Grandison,  v.  300. 

Badminton,  a  species  of  compounded 
drink,  so  named  from  the  Duke  of 
Beaufort's  place,  where  it  had  its 
origin. 

Here  .  .  .  the  cares  or  enterprises  of  life 
are  soothed  or  stimulated  by  fragrant 
cheroots  or  beakers  of  Badminton. — Disraeli, 
Lothair,  ch.  xxx. 

Baffle,  to  trifle ;  to  make  much  ado 
about  nothing. 

The  vexatious  side  baffled  before  the  master, 
as  long  as  he  could,  upon  trifles,  keeping 
back  the  true  points. — North,  Life  of  Lord 
Guilford,  ii.  78. 

Bag,  applied  apparently  to  a  quantity 

of  water  which  had  been  confined  as  in 

a  bag.  _ 

A  servant  brought  him  a  letter  wherein 
was  an  account  of  a  bag  of  water,  which  was 
broke  in  his  greatest  colliery. — North,  Life  of 
Lord  Guilford,  i.  268. 


BAG 


(     35     ) 


BALANCE 


Bag,  to  put  in  a  bag.     See  extract. 

They  [the  Welsh]  had  a  kind  of  play 
wherein  the  stronger  who  prevailed  put  the 
weaker  into  a  sack ;  and  hence  we  have  bor- 
rowed our  English  by-word  to  express  such 
betwixt  whom  there  is  apparent  odds  of 
strength,  "  He  is  able  to  put  him  up  in  a 
Bagge."— Fuller,  Worthies,  Cardigan  (ii.  579). 

Baoatello,  a  trifle. 

It  doth  not  become  the  children  of  God  .  . 
so  to  please  themselves  with  toyes  and  baga- 
tellots  as  to  neglect  their  meat. — Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  102. 

Bag- fox,  a  fox  turned  out  of  a  bag 
to  be  hunted. 

Thus  the  bag-fox,  (how  cruelly,  alack !) 
Turned  out  with  turpentine  upon  his  back, 
Amidst  the  war  of  hounds  and  hunters  flies ; 
Shows  sport ;  but,  luckless,  by  his  fragrance 
dies.—  Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  187. 

To  have  a  sort  of  hag-fox  to  turn  out, 
when  fresh  game  cannot  be  had,  is  an  enjoy- 
ment which  most  of  my  readers  have  doubt- 
less experiened.— Miss  Ferrier,  Inheritance, 
Vol.  I.  ch.  x. 

Baggage,  stuff;  rubbish.  We  still 
speak  of  bad  liquor  as  "loaded."  Gas- 
coigne  reckons  it  as  among  the  signB 
of  an  impossible  golden  age 

When  brewers  put  no  baoage  in  their  beere. 

the  Steele  Glas,  p.  79. 
For  throu^he  cruditye  and  lacke  of  perfect 
concoction  in  the  stomacke  is  engendred 
great  abundance  of  naughty  baggage  and 
hurtfull  phlegme. — Touchstone  of  Complex- 
ions, p.  118. 

Baggage,  worthless.  The  substan- 
tive, applied  contemptuously  to  a 
woman,  is  common.  In  the  second 
quotation  there  is  a  comma  at  baggage  ; 
I  think  by  a  mistake ;  if  not,  baggage 
is  a  substantive,  and  means  rubbish. 

Booth  himself  coufest,  in  the  hearing  of 
those  witnesses,  that  Pregion  had  nothing  to 
do  with  that  baggage  woman. — Racket,  Life 
of  Williams,  n.  123? 

For  four  cellars  of  wine,  syder,  ale,  beer, 
with  wood,  hay,  corn,  and  the  like,  stored  up 
for  a  year  or  two,  he  gave  not  account  of  six- 
pence, but  spent  it  upon  baggage,  and  loose 
franions. — Ibid.  ii.  128. 

Bagonet,  to  bayonet ;  or  as  a  sub- 
stantive. In  the  first  quotation  it  is  not 
meant  as  a  vulgarism ;  in  the  second, 
where  the  word  is  a  substantive,  Mr. 
Sam  Weller  is  the  speaker. 

I  came  not  into  the  world  to  be  cannon- 
aded or  bagonetted  out  of  it.— Gentleman  In- 
structed, p.  535. 

Now,  genTmen,  fall  on,  as  the  English 


said  to  the  French  when  they  fixed  baggi- 
nets. — Pickwick  Papers,  ch.  xix. 

Bags,  breasts. 

But  cursed  cruell  be  those  wicked  Hags 
Whom  poysonous  spight,  envy,  and    hate 

have  won 
T'abhorred  sorcery,  whose  writhled  bags 
Fould  fiends  oft  suck,  and  nestle  in  their 

loathsome  rags. 
H.  More,  Pre-existence  of  the  Soul,  st.  47. 

Bails,  hoops  to  bear  up  the  tilt  of  a 
boat. 

An  act  of  Parliament  passed  in  1736-7  .  .  . 
prohibits  close  Decks  and  Bails  nailed  down 
in  the  Wherries.— Defoe,  Tour  thro1  G.  Bri- 
tain, i.  143. 

Bajulate,  to  carry.  Lat.  bajulare. 
Fuller  puts  in  margin,  "  Hence  bagers,' 
i.  e.  Badgers,  q.  v. 

The  gentry  of  this  county  well  content 
themselves  in  the  very  badness  of  passage 
therein,  as  which  secureth  their  provisions 
at  reasonable  prices ;  which,  if  mended,  Hig- 
glers would  mount,  as  bajulating  them  to 
London.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Sussex  (ii.  381). 

Baker-kneed.     Grose    says,    "one 
whose  knees  knock  together  in  walk- 
ing, as  if  kneading  dough." 
His  voice  had  broken  to  a  gruffish  squeak, 
He  had  grown  blear-eyed,  baker-kneed,  and 
gummy. — Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  13. 

Baker-legged,  same  as  Baker- 
kneed,  q.  v. 

iEsop  .  .  was  .  .  flat-nos'd,  hunch-back'd, 
blabber-lipp'd ;  a  long  misshapen  head ;  his 
body  crooked  all  over,  big-belly'd,  baker- 
leggyd,  and  his  complexion  so  swarthy  that 
he  took  his  very  name  from  *t ;  for  JSsop  is 
the  same  with  JSthiop.— L' Estrange,  Life  of 
JEsop. 

Balaam-basket,  or  box,  an  editor's 
receptacle  for  articles  unfit  for  insertion. 
The  term  (the  allusion  is  obvious) 
seems  to  have  originated  with  Black- 
wood's Magazine. 

An  Essay  for  the  Edinburgh  Review,  in 
"the  old  unpolluted  English  language," 
would  have  been  consigned  by  the  editor  to 
his  balaam-basket. — Hall,  Modern  English,  p. 
17. 

Balance,  balances ;  scales. 

We  are  not  angry  with  the  clarke  of  the 
market  if  he  come  to  our  stall,  and  reprooue 
our  ballance  when  they  are  faultie. — Gosson, 
Schoole  of  Abuse,  p.  54. 

Are  there  balance  here  to  weigh 
The  flesh? 

Shakespeare,  Mer.  of  Venice,  IV.  i. 
Ermensewl,  that  is,  the  pillar  or  stay  of 
the  poor,  pictured  with  a  banner  in  one  hand 

D  2 


BALANITE 


(     36    )    BANBURY  GLOSSES 


with  a  red  rose,  in  the  other  a  pair  of  bal- 
lame. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  II.  i.  6. 

Balanite,  a  species  of  gem:  per- 
haps the  carbuncle  or  the  Balaia  ruby. 
Ducange  quotes  from  Rymer,  v.  80: 
"  Unum  scrinium  auri  .  .  .  gamitum 
de  saphiris  .  .  Balanitibus  et  a  His 
petrarus." 

A  garland  braided  with  the  flowry  folds 
Of  yellow  citrons,  turn-sols,  mary-golds, 
Beset  with  balanites,  rubies,  chrysolites, 
The  royall  Bride-groom's  radiant  brows  be- 

dighto. — Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  1016. 

Balbutient,  stammering ;  lisping. 

I  have  with  tongue  balbutient 
Prattled  to  th'  weaker  ear. 

H.  More,  Sleep  of  the  Soul,  iii.  24. 

Baldabb  (?).     The    extract  is  the 
translation  of  "  ea  cura  quietos  solli- 
citat." 
Theire  brayns  vnquieted  with  this  baldare  be 

buzing. — Stanyhurst,  jEn.,  iv.  400. 

Baldicoot,  bald  coot.  The  name  of 
this  bird  is  applied  to  the  monks  on 
account  of  their  shaven  crowns.- 

This  comes  of  your  princesses,  that  turn 
the  world  upside  down,  and  demean  them- 
selves to  hob  and  nob  with  these  black  baldi* 
coots. — Kingsley,  Saint's  Tragedy,  iii.  4. 

Baldrib.  H.  (who  gives  no  exam- 
ple) says,  "  Not  the  same  as  the  spare- 
rib,  as  generally  stated,  which  has  fat 
and  lean,  and  is  cut  off  the  neck.  The 
baldrib  is  cut  lower  down,  and  is  de- 
void of  fat ;  hence  the  name,  according 
to  Minsheu."  In  the  first  extract  it  is 
applied  to  a  thin  and  lanky  Puritan. 

Faith,  thou  art  such  a  spring  baldrib,  all 
the  mistresses  in  the  town  will  never  get 
thee  up. — Middleton,  Mayor  of  Quinboroitgh. 
Act  III. 

Who  in  all  forms 
Of  pork,  baked,  roasted,  toasted,  boil'd,  or 

broil'd ; 

Leg,  bladebone,  baldrib,  griskin,  chine,  or 

chop, 
Profess  myself  a  genuine  Philopig. 

Southey,  To  A.  Cunningham. 

Balk,  a  beam  or  rafter.  See  the 
Diets. ;  but  they  have  no  instance  later 
than  Fairfax. 

See!  round  the  room  on  every  beam  and 

balk 
Are  mingled  scrolls  of  hieroglyphic  chalk. 
Crablte,  Borough,  Letter  xi. 

The  stiffest  balk  bends  more  or  less ;  all 
joists  creak. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  I. 
ch.  xii. 


Ball,  a  stout  fellow.  The  word  in 
the  orig.  is  ribault,  which  in  the  Glos- 
sary appended  to  the  edition  of  Rubo- 
lais  by  L.  Barr6  is  explained,  "  En 
general,  homme  robuste  ;  par  extension, 
bandit,  libertin ;  du  teuton,  'bald? 
hardi" 

He  was  a  strong-built  ball,  and  an  old  dog 
at  fisticuffs.— UrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  IV. 
ch.  xii. 

Ballace,  to  ballast;  also  as  a  sub- 
stantive.    See  extract,  s.  v.  Calvar. 

Therewith  they  are  accustomed  to  ballace 
their  ships. — Sandys,  Travels,  p.  204. 

And  all  of  them,  unburtheued  of  their  load, 
Are  ballassed  with  billows  watery  weight. 

Marlowe,  Dido,  I.  i. 

For  ballace,  empty  Dido's  treasury. 

Ibid.  iii.  1. 

Ball  aster,  one  who  has  to  attend  to 
providing  ships  with  ballast. 

The  office  of  Ballaster,  and  of  Lading,  Last- 
age,  and  Ballasting  of  Ships  and  Vessels  on 
the  River  Thames. — Commons  Journals,  vii. 
740  (1669). 

Balloon,  to  convey  as  in  a  balloon. 

The  extract  is  addressed  to  Time. 

Thy  pinions -next — which,  while  they  wave, 
Fan  all  our  Birth-Days  to  the  grave, — 

I  think  ere  it  was  prudent, 
Balloon' d  me  from  the  Schools  to  Town, 
Where  I  was  parachuted  down, 

A  dapper  Temple  student. 

Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  19. 

Balneo,  bath.  Bagnio  is  the  com- 
mon form. 

Then  began  Christian  Churches  .  .  to  out- 
shine .  .  the  Balneos  and  Theatres  of  free 
Cities.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  351. 

Bamboche,  a  doll  or  puppet. 

These  figures  were  brought  by  the  mob  in 
grand  procession  .  .  .  and  then  after  numer- 
ous platoons  and  volleys  of  squibs  discharged, 
these  Intmboches  were  with  redoubled  noise 
committed  to  the  flames. — North,  Examen, 
p.  574. 

Banbury  glosses.  Is  Latimer  al- 
luding to  some  well-known  story  in 
connection  with  Banbury,  referred  to 
also  in  the  mock  speech  attributed  to 
Corbet  ? 

Id  this  your  realm  they  have  sore  blinded 
your  liege  people  and  subjects  with  their 
laws,  customs,  ceremonies,  and  Banlmiy 
glosses,  and  punished  them  with  cursings. — - 
Latimtr,  ii.  299. 

The  malignants  do  compare  this  common- 
wealth to  an  old  kettle  with  here  and  there 
a  fault  or  hole,  a  crack  or  flaw  in  it;  and 
that  we  (in  imitation  of  our  worthy  brethren 


BANDEA  U 


(     37     ) 


BANKER 


of  Banbury)  were  intrusted  to  mend  the 
said  kettle  ;  but,  like  deceitful  and  cheating 
knaves,  we  have,  instead  of  stopping  one 
hole,  made  three  or  four  score. — Speech  of 
Mile*  Corbet,  1647  (Harl.  Misc.,  i.  274). 

Bandeau,  band. 

Well,  sir,  that  bandeau  you  quarrelled  with 
was  worn  by  every  woman  at  court  the  last 
birthday.— Mad.  ITArblay,  Diary,  i.  93. 

Bound  the  edge  of  this  cap' was  a  stiff 
bandeau  of  leather. — Scott,  Ivanhoe,  i.  11. 

Bandore.  Kennet,  s.  v.  abunda, 
gives  "Bandore,  a  widow's  veil  to 
bind  over  or  cover  her  head  and  face." 

I  hoped  to  fix  my  future  rest, 
And  took  a  widow  to  my  nest. 


Jove  in  Pandora's  box  confined 
A  hundred  ills,  to  vex  mankind ; 
To  vex  one  bird,  in  her  bandore 
He  had  at  least  a  hundred  more. 
And  soon  as  time  that  veil  withdrew, 
The  plagues  o'er  all  the  parish  flew. 

Prior,  Turtle  and  Sparrow,  p.  398. 

Banerer,  banner-bearer. 

The  lorde  Haward,  the'king's banerer, rode 
next. — Account  of  Burial  of  Edward  IV. 
{Arch.,  I  351). 

Bangle,  a  frequentative  form  of 
bang,  to  beat.  In  the  eastern  counties 
corn  is  said  to  be  bangled  when  beaten 
about  by  the  wind.  The  Imp.  Diet. 
defines  bangle,  "  to  waste  by  little  and 
little ;  to  squander  carelessly."  A 
bangling  hawk  is  one  that  beats  about 
in  the  air,  instead  of  rising  steadily, 
and  then  swooping  down  on  the  quarry. 
See  JV.  and  Q.,  V.  x.  409. 

No  bangling  hawk,  but  with  a  high  flier 
will  mend  her  pitch.—  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  83. 

Bangles.  See  extracts;  also  *.  v. 
Kikcob. 

The  ankles  and  wrists  ornamented  with 
large  rings  or  bangles. — Archaol.,  viii.  266 
(1787). 

Her  bracelets  (she  used  to  say,  I  am  given 
to  understand  tney  are  called  bangles,  my 
dear,  by  the  natives)  decorated  the  sleeves 
round  her  lean  old  hands. — Thackeray,  New- 
comes,  ch.  xv. 

Bangster,  the  victor ;  one  who  bangs 
or  beats  his  adversary. 

If  you  are  so  certain  of  being  the  bangster, 
to  very  certain  I  meau  of  sweeping  stakes, 
what  harm  will  Miss  Clara  come  to  by  your 
having  the  use  of  her  siller  ? — Scott,  St.  Bo- 
Kan's  Well,  i.  183. 

Bang-tailed,  short-tailed  (slang). 

w  These  bang-tailed  little  sinners  any 
good  ?  "  said  Drysdale,  throwing  some  cock- 


a-bondies  across  the  table.  "Yes,  I  never 
like  to  be  without  them  and  a  governor  or 
two." — Hughes,  Tom  Broicn  at  Oxford,  ch.  vi. 

Bang-up,  fine ;  first-rate.  Cf.  Slap- 
up.  Bang-up  also  =  to  make  smart 
(slang).  The  second  quotation  is  from 
an  article  by  Archbishop  Whately  on 
Miss  Austen's  novels. 

Dance  a  bana-up  theatrical  cotillion. — 
H.$  J.  Smith,  Rejected  Addresses,  p.  188. 

We  could  not  resist  giving  a  specimen  of 
John  Thorpe  .  .  .  altogether  the  best  por- 
trait of  a  species  which,  though  almost  ex- 
tinct, cannot  yet  be  quite  classed  among  the 
PalsBotheria,  the  Bang-up  Oxonian. — Quar- 
terly Review,  xxiv.  308. 

Pat  to  his  neckcloth  gave  an  air 

In  style,  and  a  la  militaire  ; 

His  pocket  too  a  kerchief  bore 

With  scented  water  sprinkled  o'er ; 

Thus  banged-up,  sweeten 'd,  and  clean  shav'd 

The  sage  the  dinner-table  braved. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  c.  v. 

Banister.     See  quotation. 

He  was  bound  apprentice  to  a  banister- 
maker,  which  was  a  large  sort  of  hamper 
then  in  use  for  the  carrying  of  charcoal  to 
the  furnaces  on  horseback,  one  on  each  side 
a  horse. — Yorkshire  Diaries  (Surtees  Soc.),  p. 
311  (1732). 

Banjore.  See  extract.  In  the  form 
banjo  the  word  has  become  familiar  to 
us. 

"  What  is  this,  mamma  ?  it  is  not  a  guitar, 
is  it  ?  "  **  No,  my  dear,  it  is  called  a  banjore  ; 
it  is  an  African  instrument,  of  which  the 
negroes  are  particularly  fond." — Miss  Edge- 
worth,  Belinda,  ch.  xviii. 

Bank.  To  bank  a  fire  is  to  load  it 
with  coal  so  pressed  down  that,  while 
the  fire  will  last  a  long  time,  it  burns 
very  slowly. 

The  ship  was  lying  at  anchor  with  fires 
banked,  and  it  was  understood  that  they  were 
waiting  for  a  Queen's  messenger. — H.  Kings- 
ley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  11. 

Banker,  one  who  makes  banks.  See 
Peacock's  Manley  and  Corringham 
Glossary,  s.  v. 

He  told  me  that  cranberries  had  not  been 
discovered  at  that  place  [DersinghamJ  till 
within  his  memory,  and  that  the  discovery 
was  made  by  some  bankers  (men  who  work 
in  the  fens)  from  Lincolnshire.  —  Freeman, 
Life  of  W.  Kirby,  p.  156  (1862). 

Banker,  to  banquet. 

Foillanus  and  his  three  brethren,  going 
homeward  in  the  night,  after  they  had  well 
hankered  with  St.  Gertrude  and  her  nuns, 
were  killed  in  a  wood. — Bale,  Select  Works, 
p.  192. 


BANKERESS 


(    38    ) 


BARBARE 


Bankeress,  banker's  wife. 

Some  of  those  bankers  are  as  high  and 
mighty  as  the  oldest  families.  They  marry 
noblemen's  daughters,  by  Jove,  and  think 
nothing  is  too  good  for  'em.  But  I  should 
go,  if  I  were  you,  Arthur.  I  dined  there  a 
couple  of  months  ago,  and  the  bankeress  said 
something  about  you. — Thackeray,  Newcomes, 
ch.  xxiv. 

Bankless,  shoreless ;  unbounded. 

For  thou  of  beauty  art  the  bancklesse  Sea. 
Davies,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  15. 

Bankruptism,  bankruptcy.  "  Pol- 
tick  Bankruptisme  "  is  the  title  of  the 
first  of  Decker's  Seven  Deadly  Sinnes. 

Banneret,  to  make  a  knight -ban- 
neret 

Nor  doth  it  sound  a  little  to  the  honour  of 
Herefordshire,  that  amongst  the  thirteen 
then  banneretted  in  the  King's  Army,  three 
fell  out  to  be  her  Natives. — Fuller,  Worthies, 
Hereford  (i.  464). 

Bannier.  The  old  Fr.  banniere  =  a 
district  or  manor.  lt  Banneria,  dis- 
trictus,  jurisdiction  officium  bannerii  " 
(Ducange).  At  the  same  time  the  Ital. 
bagnio,  Span,  banc,  and  Fr.  bagne  all  = 
a  place  where  slaves  are  kept,  as  well 
as  a  bath. 

He  encouraged  the  inhabitants  . .  that  they 
should  be  of  good  cheer,  for  before  night 
there  should  be  Elaianians  in  Galeri  market 
as  cheap  as  birds.  .  .  .  And  it  fell  true  that 
[the  EmperourV]  souldiers  were  sold  by  mul- 
titudes in  Galen's  bannier  towards  the  even- 
ing.— Howell,  Dodo/no's  Grove,  p.  83. 

Upon  the  Castle  Hill  [in  Chios]  there  is  a 
JBannia  . . .  containing  seuerall  roomes,  one 
hoter  than  another  with  conduits  of  hot 
water,  and  naturall  fountaines.  —  Sandys, 
Travels,  p.  12. 

Banterer.     See  quotation  (see  also 

citation  from  Swift  in  R.). 

Occasions  given  to  all  men  to  talk  what 
they  please,  especially  the  banterers  of  Oxford 
(a  set  of  scholars  so  called,  some  M-A.),  who 
make  it  their  employment  to  talk  at  a  ven- 
ture, lye,  and  prate  what  nonsense  they 
please ;  if  they  see  a  man  talk  seriously  they 
talk  floridly  nonsense,  and  care  not  what  he 
Bays.— A.  Wood,  Life,  Sept.  6, 1678. 

Banyan,  a  loose  gown,  like  that  worn 
by  the  Banyans.     See  next  entry. 

I  have  lost  nothing  by  it  but  a  banyan, 
shirt,  a  corner  of  my  quilt,  and  my  bible 
singed. — Sufferings  of  a  Dutch  Sailor,  1725 
(Harl.  Misc.,  viii.  297). 

Proceed  we  next 
Unto  the  old  Incumbent  at  his  gate, 
With  silken  skull-cap  tied  beneath  his  chin, 


His  banyan  with  silver  clasp  wrapt  round 
His  shrinking  paunch. 

Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  XI.  ch.  iv. 

Banyan  day.    See  quotation. 

They  told  us  that  on  Mondays,  Wednes- 
days, and  Fridays  the  ship's  company  had 
no  allowance  of  meat,  and  that  these  meagre 
days  were  called  banyan  days,  the  reason  of 
which  they  did  not  know ;  but  I  have  since 
learned  they  take  their  denomination  from  a 
sect  of  devotees  in  some  parts  of  the  East 
Indies  who  never  taste  flesh. — Smollett,  Bod. 
Random,  ch.  xxv. 

Baptime,  baptism. 

Were  I  to  give  thee  baptime  I  would  choose 
To  christen  thee  the  bride,  the  bashf  ull  muse. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  26. 

Fall  on  me  like  a  silent  dew, 
Or  like  those  maiden  showers 

Which  by  the  peepe  of  day  do  strew 
A  baptime  o'er  tne  flowers. — Ibid.  p.  100. 

Baptizable,  fit  for  or  capable  of  bap- 
tism. 

As  for  the  condition  limiting  persons  bap- 
tizable, which  is  actual  believing,  this  also 
the  Church  of  Christ  understood  in  a  limited 
and  temporary  sense. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  284. 

Bar.  Many  bars  =  many  degrees : 
the  metaphor  may  be  taken  from  music, 
or  perhaps  from  the  game  of  throwing 
the  bar. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  these  kind  of 
objections  are  commonly  wheedles;  and  if 
governours  hearken  to  them,  they  are  pro- 
bably lost ;  and  those  who  are  the  objectors 
laugh  in  their  sleeves,  and  in  their  turn  out- 
do, many  bars,  all  that  themselves  found 
fault  with. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford \ 

a.  122.  J  ' 

The  immodest  ones  outdo  the  worst  of  us 
by  a  bar's  length,  both  in  thinking  and  acting. 
— Richardson,  Cl.  Harlmce,  iii.  118. 

I  outdo  Rousseau  a  bar  length.  —  Sterne, 
Tr.  Shandy,  vi.  145. 

Baratress,    a  female  quarreller  or 

fighter. 

A  baratresse,  daring  with  men,  though  a 
mayd,  to  be  buckling.— Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.479. 

Barbal,  belonging  to  a  beard.  D'Ur- 

fey  tells  a  story  of  a  man  who  pawned 

his  beard  for  £100,000. 

And  what  could  greater  token  be 
Than  that  of  barbal  dignity  ? 

Collin's  Walk,  cant.  4. 

Barbare,  barbarous. 

As  oft  as  they  astraid 
From  Ood  their  guide,  He  on  their  shoulders 

laid 
The  barbare  yock  of  Moab. 

Hudson's  Judith,  ii.  854. 


1 


BARBAR Y 


(    39    )      BARNABY-BRIGHT 


Barbary,  barbarity. 

Nothing  but  cruel  barbary  and  lion-like 
fierceness  beareth  rule.— Becon,  iii.  42. 

Barbkcu.  See  quotation.  Tlie  word 
is  used  also  as  a  verb  in  the  West 
Indies,  and  applied  to  dressing  a  hog 
by  splitting  it  to  the  backbone  and 
broiling  it  on  a  gridiron. 

Look  at  the  negroes  on  the  barbecu  /  It 
was  indeed  time  to  stop,  for  on  the  barbecu, 
or  terrace  of  white  plaster,  which  ran  all 
round  the  front,  lay  sleeping  full  twenty 
black  figures. — C.  Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch. 
xix. 

Barbers'  music,  rough  music.  A 
guitar  or  some  such  instrument  was 
formerly  kept  in  a  barber's  shop  for 
the  amusement  of  customers  while 
waiting  their  turn.  The  instrument, 
being  thus  thrummed  on  by  all  comers, 
was  not  usually  of  much  excellence. 

My  lord  called  for  the  lieutenant's  cittern, 
and  with  two  candlesticks  with  money  in 
them  for  symbols  [cymbals]  we  made  bar- 
bers'  music. — Pepys,  June  5, 1600. 

Barbiton,  a  lyre.  A  Latin  word 
treated  as  English  by  Ascham. 

Lutes,  harpes,  all  maner  of  pypes,  barbi- 
tons,  sambukes,  with  other  instruments  .  . 
be  condemned  of  Aristotle. — Ascham,  Toxo- 
pkilus,  p.  39. 

Bab-boy,  a  boy  who  serves  at  the 

bar  of  a  public-house.  Barman  is  more 

usual. 

His  nods  and  scrapes  are  only  the  effects 
of  a  habit  that  he  [acquired  when  he  was  a 
bar-boy. — T.  Brown,  H'orks,  iii.  97. 

Bare  board,  without  putting  down 

stakes. 

She  was  not  onely  able  to  lay  down  her 
stake,  but  also  to  vve  ready  silver  with  the 
King  of  Spaine,  when  he,  notwithstanding 
both  his  Indies,  was  fain  to  go  on  bare  board. 
—Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  VI.  vii.  3. 

Barge,  to  go  in  a  barge. 

Whole  tribes  of  males  and  females  trotted, 
farad  it  thither  to  build  and  inhabite,  which 
the  saide  kinges,  whiles  they  weilded  their 
swords  temporall,  animadvertised  of,  assigned 
a  ruler  or  governour  over  them,  that  was 
called  the  king's  provost.  —  Nashe,  Lenten 
Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc^  vi.  151). 

Bargee,  a  man  who  goes  in  a  barge. 

The  Diets,  give  bargeman  and  barger. 

I  am  sorry  to  have  wasted  a  day  in  the 
company  of  a  man  who  sets  up  for  a  country 
gentleman  with  the  tongue  of  a  Thames 
barge*  and  the  heart  of  a  Jew  pawnbroker. 
—Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xxxiii. 


The  bargees  nicknamed  Lord  Welter  "  the 
sweep,"  and  6aid  he  was  a  good  fellow,  but  a 
terrible  blackguard. — H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe, 
ch.  xlii. 

Bar-geese.  Barnacles  were  said  to 
grow  on  trees  in  Scotland,  whence  they 
dropped  into  the  sea  and  became  solan 
geese  (see  N.,  s.  v.  barnacle),  Cf. 
Claik-geese. 

The  (Trees-brood)  Bar-geese  mid  th*  Hebri- 

dian  wave, 
Vnto  his  tune  their  far-flow'n  wings  doo 

wave. — Sylvester,  The  Trophies,  1048. 

Barguest,  a  goblin  in  the  form  of  a 
beast;  also  called  a  boh-ghost  It  is  a 
north-country  word.  H.  has  an  ex- 
planation of  it,  but  no  example.  See 
Willaris  Glossary,  West  Riding  ;  Ro- 
binson's Whitby  Glossary,  E.  D.  S. 

He  understood  Greek,  Latin,  and  Hebrew, 
and  therefore,  according  to  the  apprehension, 
and  in  the  phrase  of  his  brother  Wilfrid, 
needed  not  to  care  "  for  ghaist  or  barghaist, 
devil  or  dobbie."— Scott,  Rob  Roy,  i.  223. 

He  had  read  of  such  apparitions,  and  been 
sufficiently  afraid  of  meeting  a  barguest  in  his 
boyish  days ;  but  in  no  instance  had  he  ever 
heard  of  the  ghost  of  an  animal. — Southey, 
The  Doctor,  ch.  ccxiv. 

Baring.    See  extract. 

The  process  of  baring  or  removing  the 
superficial  soil  preparatory  to  digging  the 
ironstone.  The  baring,  as  it  is  called  by  the 
quarrymen,  consists  not  only  of  the  natural 
surface  soil,  but  also  of  the  upper  soft  bed  of 
the  ferruginous  rock. — S.  Sharp,  1871  (Arch., 
xliii.  120). 

Barken,  crust  over,  as  a  tree  with 
bark  (V). 

The  best  way's  to  let  the  blood  barken 
upon  the  cut — that  saves  plasters. — Scott, 
GuyMannering,  i.  239. 

With  the  night  came  a  shrewd  frost  that 
barkened  the  blood  on  my  wounds. — Reade, 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  xxiv. 

Barkers,  pistols.    Cf.  Bull-dog. 

u  Barkers  for  me,  Barney,"  said  Toby 
Orankit.  M  Here  they  are,"  replied  Barney, 
producing  a  pair  of  pistols. — Dickens,  Oliver 
Twist,  ch.  zrii. 

I'll  give  you  five  for  those  pistols 

being  rather  a  knowing  one  about  the  pretty 
little  barkers. — C.  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago, 
ch.  xxiv. 

Barnaby-Bright,  St.  Barnabas'  Day, 
June  11,  under  the  old  style  was  re- 
garded as  the  longest  day  in  the  year, 
though  June  10  would  answer  to  June 
21  (new  style).  See  N.  and  Q.t  6th 
Sen,  Vol.  II. 


BARNACLES 


(    40    )        BARTON  HOUSE 


Barnaby-Bright,  Barnaby-Bright, 
The  longest  day,  and  the  shortest  night. 

Old  Rhyme. 

The  steward,  after  having  perused  their 
several  pleas,  adjourned  the  court  to  Barnaby- 
bright,  that  they  might  have  day  enough 
before  them. — Spectator,  No.  6*23. 

Barnacles,  spectacles,  as  being  bi- 
nocular. See  quotation,  0.  v.  Un- 
illusory. 

Jack.  Your  eyes  dasell  after  your  washing ; 
these  spectacles  put  on  ; 
Now  view  this  ray  sour;  tell  mee,  is  it  not  a 
good  one? 
Grim.  They  bee  gay  bamikles,  yet  I  see 
never  the  better. 

Edwards,  Damon  and  Pitheas 
(Dodsley,  O.  P/.,  i.  279). 

Barn  akin,  the  outer  wall  of  a  castle, 
within  which  the  barns,  stables,  &c. 
were  placed.    See  H.,  8.  v.  barnekin. 

The  barnakin  or  outer  ballium  was  also 
added,  which  was  surrounded  by  a  strong 
rampart  and  wet  ditch.— Arch.,  x.  102  (1792). 

Barn-gun,  an  eruption  in  the  skin. 

Same  as  Red-gum,  q.  v. 

"  Thou  art  not  come  to  me,"  she  said, 
looking  through  my  simple  face  as  if  it  were 
but  glass,  u  to  be  struck  for  bone-shave,  nor 
to  be  blessed  for  ham-gun. — Blackmore,  Lorna 
Doone,  ch.  xviii. 

Barometry,  barometrical  science, 
which  has  for  its  object  the  measur- 
ing the  weight  of  the  atmosphere  for 
meteorological  purposes. 

A  scrap  of  parchment  hung  by  geometry 
(A  great  refinement  in  barometry) 
Can,  like  the  stars,  foretell  the  weather. 
Strift,  Elegy  on  Partrige. 

Baronet,  sirloin,  q.  v. 

The  sight  of  the  roast  beef  struck  him 
dumb,  permitting  him  only  to  say  grace,  and 
to  declare  he  must  pay  his  respects  to  the 
baronet,  for  so  he  called  the  sirloin. — Fielding, 
Tom  Jones,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  x. 

Baronette,  wife  of  a  baronet 

She  had  a  leash  of  baronets  with  their 
baronettes. — Trollope,  Barchester  Towers,  ch. 

XXXV. 

Baronetted,  created  a  baronet. 

He  thinks  he  has  nicked  a  scandal  tellin 
how  Sir  Francis  Withins  was  knighted  for 
bringing  the  first  Abhorrence.  In  truth  he 
deserved  to  have  been  baronetted  if  he  had 
stood  to  it. — North,  Examen,  p.  500. 

Baronry,  barony. 

They  haue  gotten  vnto  their  kingdomes 
Many  noble  baronries  and  erldomes, 
With  esquyres  landes  and  kni^htes  fees. 
Dyaloqe  betwene  a  Genttllman  and 
Husbandman,  p.  186. 


Barrel.  The  expression  in  the  text 
may  perhaps  illustrate  the  common  but 
rather  obscure  saying,  "Never  a  barrel 
the  better  herring,"  noticed  «.  v.  Her- 
ring. 

They  disdain  to  pay  any  more  civility  or 
outward  respect  to  their  minister  than  they 
challenge  to  themselves,  or  than  they  give  to 
their  meanest  comrades,  which  are  of  the 
same  bran  and  barrtll  with  themselves. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  245. 

Barren,  to  make  barren. 

That   time    of   yeare   when  the  inamored 

Sunne, 
Clad  in  the  richest  roabes  of  lining  fiers, 
Courted   ye   Virgin   aigne,   great   Natur's 

Nunne, 
Which   barrains   earth   of  al   what   earth 
desires. 

G»  Jfarkham,  Tragedie  of  <&>  R. 
Grinuile,  p.  44. 

Barren,  barren  land. 

My  last  dream  is,  to  have  the  sewage  con- 
veyed along  the  line  of  rails  by  pipes,  giving 
the  railway  companies  an  interest  therein, 
and  so  to  fertilize  especially  the  barrens  of 
Surrey  and  Berkshire. — C.  Kingsley,  1859 
{Life,  ii.  100). 

Barring  -  out  takes  place  when 
schoolboys  shut  the  master  out  of  the 
school,  and  refuse  to  let  him  in  except 
on  certain  conditions.    See  EL,  s.  v. 

Not  schoolboys  at  a  barring-out 
Rais'd  ever  such  incessant  rout. 
Sunft,  Journal  of  a  Modern  Lady. 

Revolts,  republics,  revolutions,  most 
No  graver  than  a  schoolboys'  barring-out. 
Tennyson,  Princess,  Conclusion. 

Barrow-bunter,  barrow-woman ;  fe- 
male costermonger. 

I  saw  a  dirty  barrotobunter  in  the  street 
cleaning  her  dusty  fruit  with  her  own  spittle. 
— Smollett,  Humphrey  Clinker,  i.  140. 

Bars,  a  gambler's  term.  See  quota- 
tion. H.  says,  "To  bar  a  die  was  a 
phrase  used  among-  gamblers  :  see  Mr. 
Collier's  notes  to  the  Ghost  of  Richard 
III.,  p.  75." 

They  haue  certayne  termes,  as  a  man 
would  saye,  appropriate  to  theyr  playing; 
whereby  they  wyl  drawe  a  mannes  money, 
but  paye  none,  whiche  they  cal  barres,  that 
surely  he  that  knoweth  them  not  maye  soone 
be  debarred  of  all  that  ever  he  hath  afore  he 
learne  them. — Ascham,  Toxophilus,  p.  55. 

Barton  house,  manor-house.     See 

H.,  s.  v. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  lane  was  Giffard's 
house  (the  Barton  liouse)  and  a  square  high 


BASCA  UDAL 


(     4i     ) 


BASKET-HARE 


garden  wall. — Relation  of  the  Action  before 
Cyrencester  (1642),  p.  5* 

Bascaudal. 

In  a  cup  from  Stanton  Moor,  Derbyshire, 
deeper  than  usual,  the  bascaudal  character 
was  confined  to  the  upper  part. — Arch.,  xliii. 
367  (1870). 

Base.  H.  gives  this  as  a  Cumber- 
land word  for  the  perch. 

The  boisterous  base,  the  hoggish  tunny 
fat. — Dennys,  Secrets  of  Angling  (Eng.  Garner, 
i.  166). 

Bashaw,  a  Pasha,  and  so  a  great  or 
an  imperious  man. 

In  every  society  of  men  there  will  be  some 
Baskawes,  who  presume  that  there  are  many 
rules  of  law  from  which  they  should  be  ex- 
empted.— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  82. 

He  desired  my  company  to  a  minister  of 
state  upon  business,  but  the  Bashaw  was  in- 
disposed, t .  e.  not  to  be  accoate&.^-Gentleman 
Instructed,  p.  203. 

The  fair  Mrs.  Pitt  has  been  mobbed  in  the 
park,  and  with  difficulty  rescued  by  some 
gentlemen,  only  because  this  bashaw  (Duke 
of  Cumberland)  is  in  love  with  her. —  Walpole, 
Letters,  i.  213  (1749). 

B ashless,  bold  ;  unabashed.  In  the 
first  extract  it  meass  "  bashful,"  but 
this  is  probably  meant  for  a  blunder  on 
the  part  of  the  rustic  speaker. 

Com  on,  com  on,  master  school-master,  bee 
not  so  bashless. — Sidney,  Wanstead  Play,  p. 
619. 
Blush  now,  you  bashles  dames,  that  vaunt  of 

beautie  rare, 
For  let  me  see  who  dares  come  in,  and  with 

my  deare  compare. 
Breton,  Arbor  of  Amorous  Devises,  p.  4. 

Bashhent,  shame.  "Inter  quo* 
minor  est  displicisisse  pudor  "  is  trans- 
lated— 

Where  to  controll  lesse  feare  it  were,  lesse 
bashment  to  displease.  —  Holland's  Camden, 
p.  86. 

Bash- rao,  a  term  of  reproach. 

Wilt  loose  thy  roiall  sole  prerogatiue, 
To  make  vngratef  ul  base  Bash-rags  to  thriue  ? 

Davies,  An  Extasie,  p.  95. 

Basilean,  royalist. 

Now  touching  that  which  is  spoken  of  the 
oak  in  the  last  walk,  if  any  intemperate 
Basilean  take  exceptions  thereat,  let  him 
know  that,  as  'twas  said  before,  most  of  them 
are  but  traducements  and  pretensions;  yet 
it  is  a  human  principle  (and  will  ever  be  so 
to  the  world's  end)  that  there  never  was  yet 
any  Prince  (except  one),  nor  will  there  ever 
be  any  hereafter,  but  had  his  frailties. — 
Howell,  Letters,  iv.  23. 

Basilisco,  a  piece  of  ordnance.  Ba- 
silisk is  the  more  common  form. 


Give  but  fire 
To  this  petard,  it  shall  blow  open,  madain, 
The  iron  doors  of  a  judge,  and  make  you 

entrance, 
When  they  (let  them  do  what  they  can) 

with  all 
Their  mines,  their  culverins,  and  basiliscos, 
Shall  cool  their  feet  without. 

Massinger,  Unnatural  Combat,  i.  1. 

I  had  rather  stand  in  the  shock  of  a  to* 
silisco  than  in  the  fury  of  a  merciless  pen.— 
Browne,  Religio  Medici,  Pt.  II.  sect.  iii. 

Basket.  To  bring  to  the  basket  — 
to  reduce  to  poverty  ;  to  go  to  the  basket 
=  to  go  to  prison,  where  the  inmates 
ate  of  the  broken  meats  brought  in  a 
basket  from  the  sheriff's  table:  see 
N.,  s.  v.  To  leave  in  the  basket  =  to 
leave  in  the  lurch;  perhaps  refers  to 
articles  which  do  not  sell  readily. 

Arrested !  this  is  one  of  those  whose  base 
And  abject  flattery  help'd  to  dig  his  grave  ; 
He  is  not  worth  your  pity,  nor  my  anger ; 
Go  to  the  basket,  aud  repent. 

Massinger,  Fatal  Dowry,  v.  1. 

God  be  praised!  I  am  not  brought  to  the 
basket,  though  I  had  rather  live  on  charity 

than  rapine. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  6. 
Whatever  he  wants,  he  has  only  to  ask  it, 
And  all  other  suitors  are  "  left  in  the  basket*1 
Ingoldsby  Legends  (House-warming). 

Basket-beagles,  beagles  used  in 
hunting  a  hare  that  was  turned  out  of 
a  basket  to  be  coursed.  Cf.  Basket- 
hare. 

Such  were  the  members  of  the  Killnakelty 
hunt,  once  famous  on  the  turf  and  in  the 
field,  but  now  a  set  of  venerable  grey-headed 
sportsmen,  who  had  sunk  from  fox-hounds 
to  basket-beagles  aud  coursing.  —  Scott,  St. 
Bonan's  Welt,  i.  19. 

Basket  -  buttons,  buttons  with  a 
device  upon  them  like  basket-work, 
instead  of  a  crest  or  monogram. 

The  concert  began :  song,  sentimental,  by 
a  light-haired  young  gentleman  in  a  blue 
coat  and  bright  basket-buttons. — Sketches  by 
Boz  (Mistaken  Milliner). 

Basket-clerks.  See  quotation  ;  also 
citation  from  Spelman  in  R,  s.  v. 
Basket. 

The  clergy  lived  at  first  upon  the  mere 
benevolence  of  their  hearers,  who  gave  what 
they  gave,  not  to  the  clergy,  but  to  the 
Church ;  out  of  which  the  clergy  had  their 
portions  given  them  in  baskets,  and  were 
thence  called  sportularii,  basket-clerks. — Mil- 
ton, Means  to  drive  Hirelings  out  of  the 
Church. 

Basket-hare,  a  hare  carried  in  a 
basket,  and  then  turned  out  to  be 
c ou reed.    Cf.  Basket-beagle. 


BASSEMAINS 


(    4*     ) 


BATTERFANG 


Gome,  open  this  portable  tomb ;  'slife  here's 
nothing  in  it ;  ferret  him,  or  he'll  never  bolt. 
It  looks  an  if  we  had  brought  a  basket-hare 
to  be  set  down  and  hunted. — The  Committee, 
Act  IV. 

Bassemains,  compliments  :  the  word 
of  course  is  really  French.  According 
to  H.  and  N.  it  is  in  Spenser,  but  they 
give  no  reference. 

Do  my  bassemains  to  the  gentleman,  and 
tell  him  I  will  do  myself  the  honour  to  wait 
on  him  immediately.  —  Farquhar,  Beaux 
Stratagem,  iii.  2. 

Mr.  Ranter,  pray  do  the  doctor's  baise- 
mains  to  the  lady,  and  (squire  her  hither. — 
Smollett,  Roderick  Random,  ch.  xlvi. 

t    Basset,  to  play  at  basset 

He  had  bassetted  away  his  money  and  his 
good  humour. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  492. 

Bastard.  Fuller's  etymologies  seem 
worth  preserving  as  curious,  if  not 
correct.  He  gives  in  the  margin  Cttja- 
cius  as  the  authority  for  the  first  deriv- 
ation, and  Kilianus  for  the  second. 

Henry  Fitz-roy,  naturall  son  to  King 
Henry  the  Eighth,  .  .  .  confuted  their  ety- 
mology who  deduced  bastard  from  the  Dutch 
words  boes  and  art,  that  is,  an  abject  nature  ; 
aud  verifyed  their  deduction,  deriving  it  from 
btsteaerd,  that  is,  the  best  disposition  ;  such 
was  his  forwardness  in  all  martiall  activities, 
with  his  knowledge  in  all  arts  and  sciences. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Essex  (i.  341). 

Bastard,  a  mongrel,  I  suppose,  though 

it  seems  distinguished  from  this  in  the 

extract. 

He  hath  your  greyhound,  your  mungrelb 
your  mastife,  your  terrier,  your  spaniel  .  .  • 
small  ladies'  puppies,  caches  and  bastards. — 
Return  from  Parnassus,  ii.  5. 

Bastinade,  bastinado.  The  more 
English  form  of  the  word  is  unusual. 

They  would  upon  second  thoughts  submit 
to  a  bastinade  rather  than  occasion  bloodshed. 
— Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  351. 

Presents !  present  the  rogues  the  bastinade, 
—  Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  91 . 

Bat-blind,  blind  as  a  bat. 

O  Bat-blind  Fooles,  doe  ye  infatuate 
That  Wisdome  that  makes  Wisdome  gouerne 
Fate  ? — Davits,  Holy  Rood,  p.  13. 

Bath.  Bath  was  proverbial  for  the 
number  of  its  beggars:  see  Fullers 
Worthies  (Somersetshire)  ;  hence  Go  to 
Bath  =  be  a  beggar. 

"  Go  to  Bath  !  "  said  the  Baron.  A  defiance 
so  contemptuous  roused  the  ire  of  the  adverse 
commanders. — Ingoldsby  Legends  (Grey  Dol- 
phin). 

Bath-coatino,  a  sort  of  stuff  or  cloth. 


My  landlord  shewed  me  one  (great-coat) 
made  of  Bath-coating. — Life  of  J.  Laclrinyton, 
Letter  zix. 

Bathetic,  pertaining  to  bathos. 

A  fatal  insensibility  to  the  ludicrous  and 
the  bathetic. — Academy,  July  3, 1875,  p.  5. 

Bath  rings.  Bath  has  given  its 
name  to  many  things  for  which  this 
watering-place  was  supposed  to  be 
famous.  Bath  buns,  Bath  tricks  (which, 
however,  are  made  at  Bridgewater),  Bath 
pipe,  Bath  coating,  Bath  fagots,  Bath 
chaps,  Bath  chairs,  Bath  Olivers,  Bath 
post.  Hair-rings  also  seem  to  have 
been  one  of  its  specialties. 

A  lock  of  hair  which  was  so  perfectly 
strong  that  I  had  it  woven  into  Bath  rings. — 
Archaol.,  vii.  104^(1785). 

Battaglio,  the  body  of  an  army. 
Battalia  is  used  in  this  sense  (Richard 
III.,  V.  iii.). 

I  look  upon  the  Defamers,  Dividers,  and 
Destroyers  of  the  Church  of  England  (what- 
ever they  are  or  seem)  to  be  no  other  than 
the  perdues  or  forelorn  hope  of  Popery, 
which  by  lighter  skirmishes  open  advantages 
to  the  Pope's  main  Battaglio. — Gauden,  Tears 
of  the  Church,  p.  366.  , 

Batter.    See  extract. 

The  angular  columns  ...  all  stand,  as  the 
workmen  term  it,  battering,  or  sloping  in- 
wards.— Archaol.,  x.  185  (1792). 

Baiter,  to  plaster  or  paste.  A  few 
lines  lower  down  he  says  it  is  enough 
to  make  any  man  turn  satirist  "  to  see 
such  batter  euerie  weeke  besmeare  Each 
publike  post  and  Church  dore." 

To  behold  the  wals 
Battered  with  weekely  newes  composM  in 

Pauls. 
A.  Holland  (Davies,  Scourge  of  Folly,  p.  81). 

Batterdasher,  a  weapon ;  perhaps  a 

mace. 

The  halls  of  justices  of  the  peace  were 
dreadful  to  behold,  the  skreens  were  gar- 
nished with  corslets  and  helmets,  gaping 
with  open  mouth,  with  coats  of  mail,  lances, 
pikes,  halberts,  brown  bills,  batterdashcrs, 
bucklers,  and  the  modern  coli vers  and  petro- 
nils  (in  King  Charles  I.'s  time)  turned  into 
muskets  and  pistols. — Aubrey,  Miscellanies, 
p.  215. 

Batterfang,  to  belabour,  or  beclaw : 

still  in  use  as  a  provincialism.     See 

Robinson's  Whitby  Glossary  (E.  D.  S.). 

The  Pastor  lays  on  lusty  bangs, 
Whitehead  the  Pastor  batterfangs. 

Ward,  England's  Reformation,  p.  124. 


BATTLE 


(    43    )  BA  YARD  OF  TEN  TOES 


Battle.  The  battle  was  kept,  i.  o. 
was  fought. 

The  battaiU  was  kepte  in  Cherronea. — 
UdaTs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  373. 

Battle-bolt,  a  cannon-ball. 

The  rushing  battle-bolt  sang  from  the  three- 
decker  out  of  the  foam. 

Tennyson,  Maud,  I.  i.  13. 

Battled,  embattled  ;  built  with  bat- 
tlements. There  is  a  quotation  from 
Turberville  in  R.,  and  a  reference  in  H. 

The  valleys  of  grape-loaded  Tines  that  glow 
Beneath  the  battled  tower. 
Tennyson,  Dream  of  Fair  Women,  at.  55. 

Battledore  seems  to  be  used  in  the 
extract  for  a  sort  of  rolling-pin. 

Bowl  them  [the  gumbalsl  with  battledores 
into  long  pieces,  and  tie  them  up  in  knots, 
and  so  dry  them. — Queen's  Closet  Opened,  p. 
222  (1655). 

Battle-flags,  colours  carried  in 
battle. 

It  hangs  there  we  may  say  between  the 
privileged  Orders  and  the  unprivileged,  as  a 
ready-made  battle  prize,  ana  necessity  of 
war  from  the  very  first :  which  battle-prize 
whoever  seizes  it  may  thenceforth  bear  as 
battle-flag  with  the  best  omens. — Carlyle,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  i. 

Till  the  war-drum  throbbed  no  longer,  and 

the  battle-Jlags  were  furled, 
In  the  Parliament  of  man,  the  Federation  of 

the  world. — Tennyson,  Locksley  Hall. 

Battle-royal,  a  fight  between  seve- 
ral cocks,  the  one  that  holds  out  the 
longest  being  of  course  the  victor ;  and 
so  any  vehement  quarrel. 

1st  Nurse.  Tour  husband  is  the  noted'st 

cuckold  in  all  our  street. 
2nd  burse.  You  lie,  you  jade ;  yours  is  a 

greater. 
Phil.  Hist — now  for  a  battle-royal. 

Howard,  All  Mistaken,  Act  I. 

What  aggravates  the  reproach  and  the 
disgrace  upon  us  Englishmen  is  those  species 
of  fighting  which  are  called  Battle-royal,  and 
the  Welsh  T&am.—Archaol.,  iii.  148  (1775). 

A  bottle-royal  speedily  took  place  between 
the  two  worthy  mothers-in-law. — Thackeray, 
Shabby  Genteel  Story,  ch.  vi. 

Bauble.  N.  quotes  a  passage,  *.  v., 
in  which  he  says  bauble  is  used  "  appar- 
ently as  an  adjective/'  I  have  cited 
another,  s.  v.  Curtsey. 

Baudery.  Applied  in  the  subjoined 
passage  to  physical,  not  moral,  dirt — 
the  smoke  from  a  candle. 

And  have  our  roofe, 
Although  not  archt,  yet  weather  proofe, 


And  seeling  free 
From  that  cheape  candle  baudery. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  141. 

Bawdy  basket,  a  prostitute. 
Many  a  faire  lasse  in  London  towne, 
Many  a  bawdie  basket  borne  vp  and  downe : 
Many  a  broker  in  a  thridbare  gowne, 
Many  a  bankrowte  scarce  worth  a  crowne, 

In  London. 
Futtenham,  ArtofEng.  Poesie, 
Bk.  III.  ch.  xiz. 

Baw  vaw,  trifling.  The  word  seems 
to  be  two  contemptuous  interjections 
joined  together,  and  used  adjectivally. 
See  R.,  8.  v.  baw. 

I  stay  not  thye  body,  ne  on  baw  vaw  trom- 
perye  descant.— Stanyhurst,  Mn.,  iv.  401. 

"  Bawwaw,"  quoth  Bagshaw,  seems 
to  be  a  proverbial  saying  implying  a 
denial  of  that  to  which  it  refers.  Baw- 
waw =  beware  (?),  cf.  extract  s.  v.  Ko ; 
but  see  preceding  entry. 

All  this  may  passe  in  the  queene's  peace, 
and  no  man  say  bo  to  it ;  but  •'  Bamcaw," 
quoth  Bagshaw  to  that  which  drawlacheth 
behmde,  of  the  first  taking  of  herrings  there. 
—Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  174). 

Bay,  bidding:  perhaps  an  abbre- 
viation of  "  to  obey." 

Friar,  I  am  at  beck  and  bay, 

And  at  thy  commandment  to  sing  and  say, 

And  other  sports  among. 

Peele,  Edward  I.,  p.  381. 

Bay,  to  defy,  as  one  who  stands  at 
bay,  but  see  next  entry. 

Great  king,  no  more  bay  with  thy  wilf idlings 
His  wrath's  dread  torrent. 

Sylvester,  Ihe  Lawe,  610. 

Bay,  to  confine  as  in  a  bay.  Pos- 
sibly in  the  second  extract  bay'd=z 
cowed.     See  previous  entry. 

Hee  whose  powerfull  hand 
Bayed-vp  the  Red  Sea  with  a  double  wall. 
Sylvester,  second  day,  first  weeke,  1169. 

Then  (zealous)  calling  on  th'  immortall  God, 
He  smot  the  sea  with  his  dead-liuing  rod : 
The  sea  obeyed,  as  bayfd;  the  waues  con- 

troul'd, 
Each  upon  other  vp  to  Heaven  do  folde. 

Ibid.,  The  Lawe,  694. 

Even  so  God's  finger,  which  these  waters 

bay*d, 
Beeing  with-drawen  the  ocean  swell'd  and 

sway'd. — Ibid.  720. 

Bay,  baize.    Fr.  bate. 

The  Flemish  bay  and  say  makers  petitioned 
to  have  free  trade. — Markham,  life  of  Lord 
Fairfax,  p.  320. 

Bayard  of  ten  toes,  Shanks's  mare, 


BAYOU 


(     44    ) 


BEARDY 


q.  v.    Breton  says  of  the  "  honest  poore 
man  " — 

His  trauell  is  the  walke  of  the  woful,  and 
his  horse  Bayard  often  toes. — Good  and  Badde, 
p.  14. 

At  last  he  [Coryat]  undertook  to  travail 
into  the  East  Indies  by  land,  mounted  on  an 
hone  with  ten  toes.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Somer- 
set (ii.  291). 

Bayou,  a  channel  for  water. 

Penetrated  in  all  directions  either  by 
bayous  formed  by  nature,  or  canals  which 
cost  little  more  trouble  in  making  than 
ditches. — T.  Flint,  Recoil,  of  Valley  of  Missis- 
sippi, p.  301  (1826). 

A  great  bayou  which  runs  down  into  an 
arm  of  the  Mississippi. —  W.  H.  Russell, 
Diary,  North  and  South,  i.  41 1  (1863). 

Beacon.    See  extract. 

A  Beacon  (we  know)  is  so  called  from 
beckoning,  that  is,  making  signs,  or  giving 
notice  to  the  next  Beacon. — Fuller,  Worthies, 
Somerset  (ii.  282). 

BEAD-nooK. 

The  Greeks  with  bead-hooks  fought, 
Kept  still  aboard  for  naval  fights,  their  heads 

with  iron  wrought 
In  hooks  and  pikes. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xv.  356. 

Beak,  to  attack  with  the  beak. 

Like  cocks  for  ever  at  each  other  beaking. — 
Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  140. 

Beak,  thieves'  cant  for  magistrate. 

"  I  suppose  you  don't  know  what  a  beak  is, 
my  flash  com-pan-i-on  ?  "  Oliver  mildly  re- 
plied that  he  had  always  heard  a  bird's  mouth 
described  by  the  term  in  question.  "My 
eyes,  how  green!"  exclaimed  the  young 
gentleman.  "  Why  a  beak's  a  madg'strate ; 
and  when  you  walk  by  a  beak's  order,  it's  not 
straight  forerd,  but  always  a  going  up  and 
niver  a  coming  down  agin." — Dickens,  Oliver 
Ttcist,  ch.  viii. 

The  pies  and  jays  that  utter  words, 
And  other  Dicky  gossips  of  birds, 
That  talk  with  as  much  good  sense  and  de- 
corum 
As  many  Beaks  who  belong  to  the  quorum. 

Hood,  Tale  of  a  Trumpet. 

Bkakless,  without  a  beak.  The  beak- 
less  bird  =  the  bat. 

Hence  beak-le js-Bird ;  hence  winged-Beast, 

they  cride, 
Hence  plume-less  wings!    (thus  scorn  her 

either  side). — Sylvester,  The  Decay,  276. 

Beam-ends.     A  person  entirely  at  a 

loss   is  said    to    be  thrown  upon   his 

beam-ends:  a  nautical  metaphor. 

He  laughed  the  idea  down  completely; 
and  Tom,  abandoning  it,  was  thrown  upon  his 


beam-ends  again  for  some  other  solution. — 
Dickens,  M.  Chuzzlewit,  ch.  xl. 

Beamily,  radiantly. 

Thou  thy  griefs  dost  dress 
With  a  bright  halo,  shining  beamily. 

Keats,  To  Byron, 

Beamling,  a  little  beam. 

Rightly  to  speake,  what  Man  we  call  and 

count, 
It  is  a  beamling  of  Diuinity, 
It  is  a  dropling  of  th'  Eternall  Fount, 
It  is  a  moatling  hatcht  of  th'  Vnity. 

Sylvester,  Quadrains  of  Pibrac,  st.  13. 

Bean.  The  black  of  a  bean  =  some- 
thing very  minute. 

Neither  will  this  uncharitable  censure,  if 
it  were  true,  advantage  his  cause  the  black  of 
a  bean. — Bramhall,  ii.  91. 

Beany,  in  good  spirits,  like  a  horse 
after  a  feed  of  beans. 

So  goes  one's  day;  all  manner  of  incon- 
gruous things  to  do,  and  the  very  incongruity 
keeps  one  beany  and  jolly. —  C.  Kingsley, 
Letter,  May,  1856. 

Bear,  a  kind  of  barley  that  has  more 
than  two  rows  of  grain  in  the  ear. 
Jamieson  says  four  rows. 

The  valleys  for  the  most  part  are  covered 
with  beer  or  bigg,  and  the  hills  with  snow. 
—Modern  Account  of  Scotland,  1670  {Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  136). 

I  was  only  wanting,  said  Triptolemus  ... 
to  look  at  the  fear-braird,  which  must  be  sair 
laid  wi'  this  tempest. — Scott,  The  Pirate,  ch. 
vi, 

Bearance,  endurance.   In  the  original 

tolerantiam. 

Their  minds  are  inured  to  temperance  and 
bearance,  and  therefore  undergo  those  things 
which  are  inevitable  more  moderately  than 
other  persons. — Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  407. 

Bearbind,   bindweed.     Hood  spells 

it  bear-bine. 

The  Boots  I  speak  of  are  in  general  small 
and  soft,  not  unlike  the  Roots  of  Asparagus 
or  of  Bearbind.— Defoe,  Tour  thro1  G.  Britain, 
iii.  242. 

The  bear-bine  with  the  lilac  interlaced, 
The  sturdy  burdock  chok'd  its  slender  neigh- 
bour, 
The  spiry  pink. — Hood,  Haunted  House. 

Beardy,  bearded. 

Beard-less  Apollo's  beardy  Sons  did  once 
With  iuice  of  hearbs  rejoin  the  scattered 

bones 
Of  the  chaste  prince,  that  in  th'  Athenian 

court 
Preferred  death  before  incestuous  sport. 
Sylvester,  third  day,  first  veeke,  688. 


BEARERS 


(    45     )         BEAUTY-SLEEP 


Bearers,  helpers :  a  legal  term. 

If  we  cannot  hope  to  get  ourselves  quite 
off,  yet,  as  men  use  to  do  in  common  pay- 
ments and  taxes,  we  plead  hard  to  nave 
bearers  and  partners  that  may  go  a  share 
with  ns.— Sanderson,  i.  185. 

Bearess,  she-bear. 

And  when  he  got  raps  and  taps  and  slaps, 
Snatches  and  pinches,  snips  and  snaps, 

As  if  from  a  tigress  or  bearess, 
They  told  him  how  lords  would  oourt  that 

hand, 
And  always  gave  him  to  understand, 

While  he  rubb'd,  poor  soul, 

His  carrotty  poll, 
That  his  hair  had  been  pull'd  by  a  M  Hairess." 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Bear-leader,  a  travelling  tutor,  be- 
cause he  has  the  charge  of  a  cub.  See 
extract  s.  v.  Gerund-grinder. 

And  as  I  almost  wanted  bread, 
I  undertook  a  bear  to  lead, 
To  see  the  brute  perform  his  dance 
Through  Holland,  Italy,  and  France ; 
But  it  was  such  a  very  Bruin, 

.         •        •      .  •        •        • 
I  took  my  leave,  and  left  the  cub 
Some  humbler  Swiss  to  pay  and  drub. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  xxiii. 

They  pounced  upon  the  stray  nobility,  and 
seized  young  lords  travelling  with  their  bear- 
leaders.— Thackeray,  Bk.  of  Snobs,  ch.  vii. 

Bears.  Are  you  there  with  pour 
bears  ?  =  Are  you  still  harping  on  the 
same  string  ?  or,  Are  you  there  again  ? 
According  to  Joe  Miller  (No.  123)  this 
was  the  exclamation  of  a  man  who, 
not  liking  a  sermon  which  he  had  heard 
on  Elisha  and  the  bears,  went  on  the 
next  Sunday  to  a  different  church,  but 
found  the  same  clergyman  and  the 
same  discourse. 

Another  when  at  the  racket  court  he  had 
a  ball  struck  into  his  hazard,  he  would  ever 
and  anon  cry  out,  Estes  votts  la  avec  vos  ours  ? 
Are  you  there  with  your  bears?  which  is 
ridiculous  in  any  other  language  but  Eng- 
lish.— Howell,  Forraine  Travell,  sect.  3. 

0,  quoth  they,  here  is  an  accident  may 
save  the  man  ;  are  you  there  with  your  bears  ? 
we  will  quit  the  exercise  of  the  House's 
right  rather  than  that  should  be.— North, 
Examen,  p.  220. 

Beasthood,  the  nature  or  condition 

of  beasts.     R.  has  beastlihood. 

Many  a  Circe  island  with  temporary  en- 
chantment, temporary  conversion  into  heart- 
hood  and  hoghood. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III. 
Bk.  I.  ch.  vii. 

Beaten,  experienced ;  inured ;  also 


trite,  in  which  sense  it  is  used  now,  but 
only  with  the  words  path  or  track. 

There  the  Roman  king  with  the  strength 
only  of  his  old  beaten  souldiers  (veteran  i 
exercitus)  .  .  .  had  the  better. — Holland's 
Zdvy,  p.  10. 

A  beaten  politician  of  our  times,  learned  in 
the  wisdom  of  newer  state,  .  .  .  would  have 
projected  Moses  a  far  more  commodious  plot. 
—  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  117. 

A  man  beaten  to  the  trade  may  wrangle 
and  harangue  better  than  one  that  is  unex- 
perienced in  the  science  of  chicane. — Gentle' 
man  Instructed,  p.  522. 

To  ply  the  world  with  an  old  beaten  story 
of  your  wit,  and  eloquence,  and  learning.  .  . 
.  .  I  confess  I  have  neither  conscience  nor 
countenance  to  do  it. — Swift,  Tale  of  Tub, 
Dedic.  to  Lord  Somers. 

Beat  trade,  to  carry  on  trade. 

In  Holland  the  wives  are  so  well  vers'd  in 
bargaining,  cyphering,  and  writing,  that,  in 
the  absence  of  their  husbands  in  long  sea- 
voyages,  they  beat  the  trade  at  home. — Hotcell, 
Letters,  I.  ii.  15. 

Ever  since  our  merchants  have  beaten  a 
peaceful  and  uninterrupted  trade  into  this 
town  and  elsewhere. — Ibid.  I.  vi.  3. 

Beau  ideal,  perfect  model ;  the  high- 
est conceivable  type.  The  expression 
is  Anglioized,  but  Irving  uses  it  in  its 
French  form. 

From  poetry  or  romance  young  people 
usually  form  their  early  ideas  of  love,  before 
they  have  actually  felt  the  passion ;  and  the 
image  which  they  have  in  their  own  minds 
of  the  beau  ideal  is  cast  upon  the  first  objects 
they  afterwards  behold.  This,  if  I  may  be 
allowed  the  expression,  is  Cupid's  Fata  Mor- 
gana. Deluded  mortals  are  in  ecstasy  whilst 
the  illusion  lasts,  and  in  despair  when  it 
vanishes. — Miss  Edgeworth.  Belinda,  ch.  xix. 

The  common  orders  of  English  seem  won- 
derfully captivated  with  the  beau  ideal  which 
they  have  formed  of  John  Bull.— Irving, 
Sketch  Book  (John  Bull). 

My  ambition  is  to  give  them  a  beau  ideal 
of  a  welcome. — C.  Bronte,  J.  Eyre,  ch.  xxxiv. 

Beauidealize,  to  form  a  beau  ideal, 
q.v. 

I  shall  spare  you  the  flowers  I  have 
gathered,  the  trees  I  have  seen,  leaving  you 
to  beauidealize  them  for  yourself.  —  L.  E. 
Landon  (Life  by  Blanchard,  i.  60). 

Beauty-sleep,  the  sleep  before  mid- 
night. 

"Are  you  going?  it  is  not  late;  not  ten 
o'clock  yet."  "  A  medical  man,  who  may  be 
called  up  at  any  moment,  must  make  sure 
of  his  beauty-sleep."  —  Kingsley,  Two  Years 
Ago,  ch.  xv. 

Would  I  please  to  remember  that  I  had 


BEA-WAYMENTJNG     (     46    ) 


BECKETIST 


roused  him  up  at  night,  and  the  quality 
always  made  a  point  of  paying  four  times 
over  for  a  man's  loss  of  his  beauty-sleep.  I 
replied  that  his  loss  of  beauty-sleep  was  rather 
improving  to  a  man  of  so  high  a  complexion. 
— Blackmore,  Lorna  Doone,  ch.  bdv. 

Bea-waymentino,  bleating. 

Tell  me,  if  wolves  the  throat 
Have  caught  of  thy  dear  dam, 


Canst  thou,   poor   lamb,  become  another's 

lamb? 
Or  rather,  till  thou  die, 
Still  for  thy  dam  with  bea-waymenting  cry  ? 

Sidney,  Arcadia,  p  396. 

Bebang,  to  beat,  cudgel. 

A  s worn e  brother  of  his  .  .  .  bebang eth 
poore  paper  in  laud  of  bag-pudding. — Nashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  3fisc,  vi.  150). 

Bebasse,  to  kiss  heartily. 

Queen  Dido  shal  col  the,  and  smacklye 
bebasse  thee. — Stanyhurst,  AZn.,  i.  670. 

Bebay,  to  indent ;  to  form  bays. 

We  fro  land  harbours  too  mayne  seas  gyddye 

dyd  enter, 
Voyded  of  al  coast  sight  with  wild  fluds 

roundly  bebayed. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iii  196. 

Beblain,  to  strike  with  blains. 

Beblaine  the  bosome  of  each  mistres 
That  bares  her  brests  (lust  signes)  ghests  to 
allure. 
Davies,  Humour's  Heaven  on  Earth,  p.  43. 

Bebless,  to  surround  with  benedic- 
tions. 

If  I  have  seen  or  suffered  any  Poor 
To  lye  and  dye  Naked,  or  out  of  Door : 
Nay,  if  his  loynes  be-blest  not  mee  from 

harm, 
Because  my  Fleece  and  Cottage  kept  them 

warm. 

Sylvester,  Job  Triumphant,  iii.  499. 

Beblotched,  covered  with  blots,  or 
blotches  of  ink. 

Down  comes  a  proof  in  such  a  barbarous 
state,  so  beblotched  and  bedeviled,  that  I  am 
swearing,  Master  Bedford,  with  very  good 
reason.— R.  Southey,  Letters,  1807  (i.  412). 

Bebogged,  embogged. 

After  long  travelling,  his  feet  were  fixed 
in  Ireland,  where  he  was  not  bebogg'd  (as 
some,  otherwise  his  equals)  with  ill  success. 
—Fuller,  Worthies,  Dorset  (i.  313). 

Bebooted,  an  emphatic  form  of 
booted. 

Couriers  arrive  bestrapped  and  bebooted. — 
Carlyle,  Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  I.  ch  iii. 

Bebost,  embossed. 


In  hir  right  hand,  which  to  and  fro  did  shake, 
She  bare  a  skourge,  with  many  a  knottie 

string, 
And  in  hir  left  a  snaffle  bit  or  brake, 
Bebost  with  gold,  and  many  a  jingling  ring. 
Gascoigne,  Complaint  of  Philomene. 

Bebotch,  to  afflict  with  botches. 
Then  petti-botching  brokers  all  bebotch, 
That  m  a  month  catch  eighteene  pence  in 

pound. 

Davies,  Humour's  Heaven  on  Earth,  p.  44. 

Bebroid,  to  cover  with  embroidery. 

Vestures  of  gould  most  ritchlye  bebroyded. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  w.  497. 

Bebump,  to  knock  about. 

You  have  so  skilfully  hampered,  bo- 
thwacked,  belammed,  and  bebumped  the 
catchpole. — Urquhatfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  IV.  ch. 

•  •  • 

ami. 

Bbcack,  to  defile  with  ordure.  Ajax 
is  of  course  a  pun  on  "  a  jakes." 

Another  comes  with  wit,  too  costiue  then, 

Making  a  glister-pipe  of  his  rare  pen, 

And  through  the  same  he  all  my  brest  bc- 

cackes, 
And  turnes  me  so  to*  nothing  but  Ajax. 

Davies,  Paper 's  Complaint,  p.  75. 

Becapped,  furnished  with  a  cap. 

He  thus  appear'd  in  sprightly  glee, 
Becappyd  in  due  conformity ; 
For  to  give  him  a  sportsman's  air 
Some  fair  hand  did  his  cap  prepare. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  c.  v. 

Becedered,  spread  out  like  a  cedar  (?). 

So  neer  that  oft  ones  target's  pike  doth 

pearce 
Another's  shield,  and  sends  him  to  his  herse  ; 
And  gawdy  plumes  of  foes  (be-Cederedbrnue) 
Oft  on  their  foes  vnplumed  crests  do  wane. 
Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  318. 

Becheck,  to  rebuke. 

But  brutish  Cham,  that  in  his  brest  accurst 
The  secret  roots  of  sinf  ull  Atheisme  nurst : 

With  bended  brows,  with  stout  and  stern 

aspect, 
In  scornf  ull  tearms  his  Father  thus  be-cheekt. 

Sylvester,  The  Arke,  103. 

Beck,  to  imprison :  thieves'  cant  Cf . 
Beak. 

The  circle  with  the  two  dots  was  writ  by 
another  of  our  brotherhood,  and  it  signifies 
as  how  the  writer  . . .  was  becked,  was  asking 
here,  and  lay  two  months  in  Starabin. — 
Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  lv. 

Becketi8T,  one  like  Becket,  The  man 
referred  to,  it  will  be  seen,  was  not 
contemporary  with  Becket.  Cf.  Anti- 
Beck  ETI8T. 

He  was  a  great  Becketist,  viz.  a   stout 


BECKETIZE 


(     47     ) 


BEDINNER 


opposer  of  Regal  Power  over  Spiritual  Per- 
sons ;  on  which,  and  other  accounts,  he  wrot 
a  Book  to  Pope  Innocent  the  Fourth  against 
King  Henry  the  Third.— Fuller,  Worthies, 
Wilts  (ii.  467). 

Bbcketize,  to  favour  Becket.  Cf. 
Frbderize,  Spaniolize,  Ac.  Sp3aking 
of  Cleveland  the  poet  (Leicestershire), 
Fuller  speaks  of  some  who  have 
"  Clevelandized"  i.  e.  tried  to  imitate 
Lira. 

He  finds  little  favour  from  our  Historians 
of  his  age,  because  they  do  generally  Becket- 
ize.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Devon  (i.  276). 

Becloak,  to  cover  as  with  a  cloak. 

Torn  limbs,  tost  truncheons,  Shiver,  Fire, 

and  Smoak, 
As   with  thick  clouds,  both  Armies  round 

becloak.— Sylvester,  Battaile  of  1'vry,  138. 

Becollier,  to  blacken  as  a  collier. 
See  8.  v.  Becollow. 

Beoollow,  to  dirty. 

Too  foule-mouthed  I  am  to  becollow  or 
becollier  him  with  such  chimnie-sweeping 
attributes  of  smoking  and  parching. — Nashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  165). 

Becoronet,  to  adorn"  with  a  coronet. 

Open  scoundrels  rode  triumphant,  be- 
chademed,  becoronetted,  bemitrea.—Carlvle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  V.  ch.  i. 

Becrampouned,  encircled  or  fastened. 
A  crampon  is  the  socket  of  gold  in 
which  a  jewel  is  set ;  an  ouch. 

With  green  shrubs  and  pure  gould  neatly 

becrampound, 
His  shafts  on  shoulders  rattle. 

St  any  hurst,  Mn.,  iv.  154. 

Becravated,  adorned  with  a  cravat. 

What,  Tony,  i'  faith  ?  what,  dost  thou  not 
know  me  ?  By'r  Lady,  nor  I  thee,  thou 
art  so  becravated  and  so  beperiwigged.— Con' 
greve,  Way  of  the  World,  in.  15. 

BecriM80N,  to  redden. 

O  why  was  the  earth  so  beautiful,  be- 
crimsoned  with  dawn  and  twilight,  if  man's 
dealings  with  man  were  to  make  it  a  vale  of 
scarcity,  of  tears,  not  even  soft  tears? — 
Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  VII.  ch.  vi. 

Becrown,  to  crown. 

Then  father  Anchises  a  goold  boul  massye 

becrotming, 
With  wyne  brim  charged,  thee  Gods  celestial 

h&jleih.—Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iii.  537. 

Becrutched,  furnished  with  crutches. 

My  master  was  at  the  gate  becrutched;  I 
told  him  I'd  liever  have  seen  him  in  another 
disguise.— Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  Iv. 


Becupided,  covered  with  Cupids. 

The  Colisee  .  .  is  a  most  gaudy  Ranelagh, 
gilt,  painted,  and  becupided  like  an  opera.— 
Walpole,  Letters,  iii.  375  (1771). 

Becurse,  to  assail  with  curses. 

He  was  going  and  leaving  his  malison  on 
ns  root  and  branch ;  I  was  never  so  becursed 
in  all  my  days. — Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth, 
ch.  xlviii. 

Bedevilment,  confusion ;  trouble. 

The  lawyers  have  twisted  it  into  such  a 
state  of  bedevilment  that  the  original  merits 
of  the  case  have  long  disappeared  from  the 
face  of  the  earth.  —  Dickens,  Bleak  House, 
ch.  vui. 

If  you  will  open  your  bedevilments  to  me 
when  they  come  thick  upon  you,  I  may  show 
you  better  ways  out  of  them  than  you  can 
find  for  fyourself . — Ibid.,  Hard  Times,  ch. 
xxiii. 

Bedfast,  confined  to  bed ;  bedridden 

My  old  woman  is  bedfast. — Mrs.  GaskelU 
Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  ii. 

Bedfordshire.  To  be  for  Bedford- 
shire =  inclined  for  bed.  Many  names 
of  places  are  used  punningly  in  various 
phrases :  e.  g.  land  of  Nod  in  extract. 
Cf.LoTHBURY,  Needham's  Cross,  Birch- 

ING-LANE,  &C,  &C. 

Lady  Ans.  I'm  sure  'tis  time  for  all  honest 
folks  to  go  to  bed. 

Miss.  Indeed  my  eyes  draw  straws  (she's 
almost  asleep)  . .  . 

Col.  I'm  going  to  the  land  of  Nod. 

Ner.  Faith  I'm  for  Bedfordshire. 

Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  iii.). 

The  time  for  sleep  had  come  at  last, 
And  there  was  the  bed,  so  soft,  so  vast, 
Quite  a  field  of  Bedfordshire  clover. 

Hood,  3fiss  Kiltnansegg. 

Bediadem,  to  adorn  with  a  diadem. 

Open  scoundrels  rode  triumphant,  bedia- 
demed%  becoronetted,  be  mitred. — Carlyle,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  V.  ch.  i. 

Bediamond,  to  adorn  with  diamonds. 

Astarte's  bediamonded  crescent 
Distinct  with  its  duplicate  horn. 

E.  A.  Foe,  Ulalume  (ii.  21). 

Bediafer,  to  mark  in  patterns;  to 
enamel,  which  is  the  word  used  in  some 
copies. 

The   purling  springes,  groves,  birdes,  and 
well-weav'a  bowers, 
With  fields  bediaperd  with  flowers, 
Presente  their  shappes. 

Herrick,  Appendix,  p.  457. 

Bedinner,  to  provide  with  dinner. 

On  the  ninth  morning  of  April  these  forty 
Swiss  blockheads   arrive.  .  .  They  are  ha- 


BEDIP 


(    48    )         BEFEATHERED 


rangued,  bedinnered,  begifted.  —  Carlyle,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  V.  ch.  x. 

Bedip,  to  imbrue. 

The  warrior's  spear  bedipp*d  in  blood, 
And  discord  wild  in  angry  mood. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  c.  ii. 

Bedizenment,  coarae  or  gaudy  adorn- 
ment. 

Strong  Dames  of  the  Market,  they  sit 
there  . .  with  oak-branches,  tricolor  bedizen' 
ment,  firm  seated  on  their  cannons. — Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  iv. 

Bedlamer,  a   Tom  o'  Bedlam   (see 

H.)  or  mad  beggar. 

This  country  [the  Border]  was  then  much 
troubled  with  Dedlamers. —  North,  Life  of 
Lord  Guilford,  i.  271. 

Bedocumkntize,  to  supply  or  support 
with  evidence. 

Let  them  revolve  the  digests  of  our  Eng- 
lish discoveries,  cited  up  in  the  precedencs 
(sic)  and  bedocumentized  most  locupleatley. — 
Afashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  157). 

Bedowst,  washed  over;   thoroughly 

wetted. 

A  bruised  barke  with  billowes  all  bedowst. 
Gosson,  Speculum  Humanum,  p.  76. 

Bedress,  to  dress  up. 

The  bride,  whose  tonish  inclination 
Attended  to  the  ruling  fashion, 
To  make  her  entry  had  bedress'd 
Her  upright  form  in  all  her  best. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  c.  v. 

Bedrifted,  driven  about. 

And  poor  Orleans  Egalit6  himself,  for  one 
begins  to  pity  even  him ;  what  does  he  do 
with  them?  The  disowned  of  all  parties, 
the  rejected  and  foolishly  bedrifted  hither 
and  thither,  to  what  corner  of  nature  can  he 
now  drift  with  advantage  ?  —  Carlyle,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  III.  ch.  lii. 

Bedumb,  to  make  dumb. 

Every  soul  is  more  deafened  and  bedumbed 
by  increasing  corruptions,  by  actual  sins. — 
Dp.  Hall,  Cord.  {Deaf  and  Dumb). 

Bedusk,  to  darken. 

How  be  yt,  blynd  bayards,  we  plod  on  with 
phrensie  bedusked. — Stanyhurst,  j£n.,  ii.  254. 

Bedusted,  covered   or   mixed  with 

dust.  ■ 

Stoanes  dismembred  from  stoans,  smooke 
foggye  bedusted. — Stanyhurst,  Mn.,  ii.  632. 

Bee-hive  chair,  a  sort  of  porter's 

chair  with  a  wicker-work  top. 

In  front  of  the  chimney  stood  a  wooden 
bee-hive  chair. ,-^Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  iv. 

Beek,  to  bake.  The  word  would  now 
be  regarded  as  a  Scotticism. 


Go  home  now,  and  make  thyself  merry 
with  thy  wealth,  while  Christ  stands  mourn- 
ing in  the  streets;  .  .  .  beek  thy  pampered 
limbs  at  the  fire,  whiles  He  shakes  through 
cold. — Adams,  ii.  9. 

Be-epithet,  to  adorn  with  epithets. 

Your  campaign  in  Scotland  rolled  out  and 
well  be-epitheted  would  make  a  pompous 
work.—  Walpole,  Letters,  i.  157  (1746). 

Beer.  See  extract.  The  age  referred 
to  by  Fuller  is  that  of  Erasmus,  who 
complained  of  the  ale  (cervisia)  of 
Queen's  College,  Cambridge,  as  "  raw, 
smal,  and  windy."  Skelton  also  is 
speaking  of  "  King  Harry's  [VIII.] 
time." 

The  Dutchman's  strong  beere 
Was  not  hopt  over  heere, 
To  us  'twas  unknowne ; 
Bare  ale  of  our  owne 
In  a  bowle  we  might  bring 
To  welcome  the  king. 

Skelton,  Elynour  Rummin 
(Harl.  Misc.,  i.  415). 

Whereby  it  appears  ale  in  that  age  was  the 
constant  beverage  of  all  colled gea  before  the 
innovation  of  beere  (the  child  of  Hops)  was 
brought  into  England. — Fuller,  Hist.  ofCamb., 
v.  48. 

Beer,  to  drink  beer. 

He  surely  had  been  brandying  it  or  1*eerinj, 
That  is,  in  plainer  English,  he  was  drunk. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  138. 

Beer-chiller,  a  pot  or  vessel  used  to 
warm  beer.  The  name  seems  to  be 
given  on  the  Incus  a  non  lucendo 
principle.  In  another  part  of  the  same 
volume  (Mr.  Watkins  TotUe)  Dickens 
speaks  of  "  a  pint  pot,  the  contents  of 
which  were  chilling  on  the  hob." 

We  should  have  gone  dreaming  on  until 
the  pewter  pot  on  the  table,  or  the  little 
beer-chiller  on  the  fire,  had  started  into  life, 
and  addressed  to  us  a  long  story  of  days  gone 
by. — Sketches  by  Boz  (Parlour  Orator). 

Bees'-winged,  having  a  filmy  sub- 
stance in  it  like  a  bee's  wing.  This  is  a 
sign  of  age  in  port. 

His  port  is  not  presentable,  unless  bee$%- 
winged. — Hall,  Modern  English,  p.  32. 

Befeathered,  sprinkled  with  feathers. 

Like  as  the  haggard,  cloisterM  in  her  mew, 
To  scour  her  downy  robes,  and  to  renew 
Her  broken  flags,  preparing  to  o'erlook 
The  tim'rous  mallard  at  the  sliding  brook, 
Sets  off  from  perch  to  perch,  from  stock  to 

ground, 
From  ground  to  window;  thus  surveying 

round 
Her  dove-befeathered  prison. 

Quarles,  Emblems,  III.  i.  33. 


BEFET1SHED 


(     49     ) 


BEGRUNTLE 


Befetished,  given  over  to  fetichism, 

q.  v. 

I  object  only  to  a  connoisseur  in  swearing, 
as  I  would  to  a  connoisseur  in  painting,  &c., 
kc;  the  whole  sett  of  'em  are  so  hong 
round  and  befetisKd  with  the  bows  and 
triuckets  of  criticism. — Sterne,  Tr.  Shandy,  ii. 
157. 

Be  fettered,  manacled ;  enslaved. 

They  are  the  mute  representatives  of  their 
tongue-tied,  btfettered,  heavy-laden  nations. 
—Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  I.  ch.  x. 

Befoul,  to  dirty,  bespatter. 

Lawyers  can  live  without  befouling  each 
other's  names  ;  doctors  do  not  fight  duels. — 
Trollope,  BarchesUr  Towers,  ch.  xxi. 

Be  frilled,  adorned  with  a  frill. 

Mrs.  Farebrother,  the  Vicar's  white-haired 
mother,  bef rilled  and  kerchiefed  with  dainty 
cleanliness. — G.  Eliot,  Jfiddlemarch,  ch.  xvii. 

Befumb,  to  cloud  or  intoxicate. 

If  such  a  folly  hath  btfunCd  tout  brain, 
And  fill'd  your  phant'sie  with  presumption 

vain. 
With  idle  hopes ;  away  with  those  conceits. 
Sylvester,  Maiden's  Blush,  p.  141. 

Bkfdrrbd,  covered  with  furs. 

The  winter  came,  the  winds  were  bleak, 
And  the  cold  breeze  blew  o'er  the  lake ; 
When  Madam  Syntax  never  stirr'd, 
But  well  beruff'd  and  well  befurr'd. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  c.  v. 

Begarded,  covered    with    gards  or 

embroidery. 

My  too  strait-laced  tM-beyarded  girles 
The  skurome  of  nicenesse  (London  mistresses) 
Their  skins  imbroder  with  plague's  orient 
pearls. 
Davies,  Humour's  Heaven  on  Earth,  p.  43. 

Begarnish,  to  adorn. 

See  how  the  charger  bends  with  thy  lord's 

fish, 
What  Sparagus  begarnishes  the  dish. 

Stapylton,  Juvenal,  v.  04. 

Beggar.  The  knowledge  that  a 
beggar  has  of  his  dish  is  proverbially 
intimate;  referring  to  the  clap -dish 
which  beggars  carried  to  attract  atten- 
tion. See  N.,  s.  v.  clap-dish,  who  notes 
the  proverb,  but  gives  no  illustration. 

Know  him !  d'ye  auestion  it  ?  Odds  fish ! 
Sir,  does  a  beggar  Know  his  dish  ? 

Prior,  The  Conversation,  p.  80. 

Lady  An*.  Do  you  know  him,  Mr.  Never- 
out? 

Xev.  Know  him  ?  Ay,  Madam,  as  well  as 
a  beggar  knows  his  dish. 

Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  i.). 


Beggar-my-neighbour,  a  simple  a^d 
childish  game  at  cards,  described  in  H., 
but  without  quotation.  Southey's  de- 
scription is  more  complicated. 

I  cannot  call  to  mind  anything  which  is 
estimated  so  much  below  its  deserts  as  the 
game  of  Beggar-my-neighbour.  It  is  gener- 
ally thought  fit  only  for  the  youngest 
children,  or  for  the  very  lowest  and  most 
ignorant  persons  iuto  whose  hands  a  pack  of 
cards  can  descend.  .  .  .  You  take  up  trick 
by  trick ;  the  trump,  as  at  other  g»mes.  takes 
every  other  suit.  If  suit  is  not  followed, 
the  leader  wins  the  trick ;  but  if  it  is,  the 
highest  card  is  the  winner. — Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  cxlii. 

Beggary,  beggarly ;  poor.  See  ex- 
tracts, s.  w.  Clamper,  Cold  roste. 

Snch  beggary  wretches  as  had  nothing  to 
leese  were  nothing  medled  withal. — UdaVs 
Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  130. 

Begift,  to  load  with  gifts. 

On  the  ninth  morning  of  April  these  forty 
Swiss  blockheads  arrive.  .  .  .  They  are  ha- 
rangued, bedinnered,  begifttd. — Carlyte,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  V.  ch.  x. 

Begild,   to   adorn   as  with  gilding. 

The  Diets,  have  btgilt,  with  an  extract 

from  Jonson. 

Doth  a  man  perceive  his  heart  a  little  be- 
gilded  with  ostentation  ? — Adams,  ii.  465. 

The  lightning-flash  from  swords,  casks,  cour- 

ti  laces, 
With  quiv'ring  beams  begilds  the  neighbour 

grasses. — Sylvester,  Battaile  of  Yvry,  p.  102. 

Begirdle,  to  encircle. 

Like  a  ring  of  lightning,  they  volleying 
and  ca-iraing  begirdle  her  from  shore  to  shore. 
—Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  VII.  ch.  iii. 

Beglittered,  irradiated. 

This  sayd,  shee  turned  with  rose  color 
beaunlye  beglittered. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.  376. 

Beg  roan,  to  assail  with  groans. 

Not  ten  days  hence  Patriot  Brissot,  be- 
shouted  this  day  by  the  patriot  galleries,  shall 
fiud  himself  begroaned  by  them  on  account 
of  his  limited  patriotism. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev., 
Pt.  II.  Bk.  VI.  ch.  itf. 

Begruntle,  to  make  uneasy ;  at  least 
this  seems  to  be  the  meaning  in  this 
passage.  Perhaps  the  effect  is  put  for 
the  cause.  Persons  who  are  uneasy 
groan  or  gruntle,  which  last  word  is 
used  of  pigs  in  the  Rehearsal  and  in 
Jarvis's  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  IV. 
ch.  xvi. 

The  Spaniards  were  beqmntled  with  these 
scruples.— /fcwfrrf,  Life  of  Wit  Hams,  i.  131. 

E 


BEGUTTED 


(     5°     ) 


BEL  AD  YSHIP 


Begutted,  with  the  inside  taken  out 
or  destroyed. 

The  rats,  it  seems,  had  play'd  the  rig 
In  tearing  up  the  Doctor's  wig : 
All  discomposed  awhile  he  strutted, 
To  see  his  peruke  thus  begutted. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  c.  ii. 

Behack,  to  hack  to  pieces. 

The  tree  is  all  to  be~hackt  for  the  wood 
thereof,  reputed  of  soveraigne  vertue. — 
Sandys,  Travds,  p.  127. 

Behallowed,  consecrated. 

Whose   head  'beefrindged    with  behallowed 

tresses 
Seemes  like  Apollo's  when  the  moone  hee 

blesses. — Herrick,  Appendix,  p.  433. 

Behatted,  furnished  with  a  hat. 

Most  haply  too,  as  they  untied  him. 
He  saw  his  hat  and  wig  beside  him ; 
So  thus  bewigg'd  and  thus  behatted, 
Down  on  the  grass  the  Doctor  squatted. 
Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  iii. 

Beheaven,  to  make  happy ;  to  raise 
to  heaven.  The  word  is  used  by  Davies 
several  times. 

Now  shee    Chimeraes,  then    she    Beauties 

frame, 
That  doe  the  mynde  beheau'n  with  matchless 

blisse. — Davies,  Miruin  in  Modum,  p.  8, 

Behem,  to  surround,  hem  in. 

Armies  of  pains  extreme 
Afresh  invade  mee,  and  mee  round  behem. 
Sylvester,  Job  Triumphant,  i.  688. 
Whom  on  each  side  behem 
A  late  Repentance  or  a  flat  Despair. 

Ibid.,  Tobacco  Battered,  681. 

Behest,  to  promise. 

He  apertly  behesteth  to  send  the  Holy 
Ghost.— Philpot,  p.  379. 

Beholding,  attractive. 

When  he  saw  me,  I  assure  you,  my  beauty 
was  not  more  beholding  to  him  than  my 
harmony. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  Bk.  I.  p.  50. 

Behorrored,  shocked ;  terrified. 

And  the  Turkish  women  for'ard 
Were  frightened  and  behorrored. 

Thackeray,  The  White  Squall. 

Behoved,  necessary;  it  would  now 
be  regarded  as  a  Scotticism. 

He  had  all  those  endowments  mightily  at 
command  which  are  behoved  in  a  scholar.— 
Socket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  39. 

Behump,  to  fit  with  a  hump,  or  per- 
haps to  raise  a  swelling  upon  a  person. 

Behump  them,  bethump  them,  belump 
them,  belabour  them,  pepper  them. — Ur- 
quhart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  liii. 


Behypocrite,  to  accuse  of  hypocrisy. 

O  Christ !  wert  Thou  on  earth  as  once  Thou 

wert, 
How  would'st  Thou  now  behypocrit  man's 

hart. — Davies,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  75. 

Being,  was  used  formerly  where  we 
should  now  put  having;  unless  we 
joined  being  with  some  such  word  as 
engaged,  obliged,  &c. 

Being  to  take  footing  on  a  new  earth,  the 
inhabitants  might  prove  stronger  than  the 
invaders, — Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  71. 

Being  to  meet  a  lawyer  at  the  Rummer, 
where  I  now  left  him,  he  was  obliged  to 
leave  your  ladyship. — Centlivre,  The  Artifice, 
Act  III. 

The  King  being  to  go  to  Holland  leaves  the 
regency  in  the  hands  of  seven  lords. — Mis- 
son,  Travels  in  Eng.,  p.  271. 

Being  to  pass  near  his  door,  for  he  lives 
but  two  miles  from  Maidenhead,  I  sent  him 
word  I  would  call. —  Walpole,  Letters,  ii.  468 
(1763). 

When  the  general  tenor  of  his  character, 
and  the  circumstances  of  his  being  to  pay 
that  sum  the  next  day  came  to  be  considered, 
the  whole  artifice  was  seen  through. — John- 
ston, Chrysal,  i.  201. 

It  ended  in  Charles's  being  to  meet  him  at 
breakfast. — Miss  Austen,  Persuasion*  ch.  vii. 

Being  to  go  to  a  ball  in  a  few  days,  she 
was  very  impatient  to  get  rid  of  the  erup- 
tion.— Miss  Edgeicorth,  Out  of  Debt,  Out  of 
Danger,  ch.  ii. 

Be-inked,  stained  with  ink. 

One  dark  little  man  stood,  sat,  walked, 
lectured,  under  the  head-piece  of  a  bandit 
bonnet-grec,  and  within  the  girth  of  a  sorry 
paletot  much  be-inked,  and  no  little  adust. — 
Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xxzv. 

Bejewel,  to  cover  with  jewels ;  to 
make  brilliant. 

They  found  .  .  .  women  so  over-dressed, 
so  bejewelled,  so  coarse.  —  Mist  Edgeicorth, 
Helen,  ch.  xxzv. 

The  westering  sun  slants  into  the  church- 
yard by  some  unwonted  entry,  a  few  prism- 
atic tears  drop  on  an  old  tomb-stone,  and  a 
window  that  I  thought  was  only  dirty  is  for 
the  moment  all  bejewelled. — Dickens,  Uncom- 
mercial Traveller,  xxi. 

Bejig,  to  dance  about. 

No  more  he  fiddled  to  the  people, 
When  they  bejigg'd  it  'neath  the  steeple. 
Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  HI.  c  v. 

Belack,  to  blame. 

As  for  my  preaching  itself,  I  trust  in  God 
my  lord  of  London  cannot  rightfully  belack 
it,  nor  justly  reprove  it. — Latimer,  ii.  329. 

Beladyship,  to  address  by  the  title 
of  ladyship.     Cf.  B  em  a  dam. 


BEL  A  UD 


(     5i     ) 


BELL 


It  would  have  done  anybody's  heart  good 
to  bare  heard  how  Mrs.  Twist  did  be-ladyship 
my  poor  mother.  —  Nares.  Thinks  I  to  My- 
self, ii.  38. 

Belaud,  to  cover  with  praise. 

She  would  not  care  to  read  the  volumes 
over  which  her  pretty  ancestresses  wept  and 
thrilled  a  honored  years  ago;  which  were 
commended  by  divines  from  pulpits,  and 
belauded  all  Europe  over. — Thackeray,  Vir- 
ginians, ch.  xzvi. 

A  man  may  be  puffed  and  belauded,  envied, 
ridiculed,  counted  upon  as  a  tool,  and  fallen 
in  love  with,  or  at  least  selected  as  a  future 
husband,  and  yet  remain  virtually  unknown. 
— G.  Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch.  xv. 

Belave,  to  wash. 

Me  in  Thy  Blood  belave, 
And  in  my  soule  Thy  sacred  lawes  ingraue. 

Sylvester,  The  La  tee,  1112. 

That  long  large  Sea,  which  with  his  plentious 

waves 
A  third  or  fourth  part  of  the  world  be-laues. 

Ibid.,  The  Captaines,  147. 

Belcher,  a  handkerchief  named  after 
Belcher,  a  noted  pugilist,  used  both  as 
adjective  and  substantive. 

The  silver  fork  and  the  flat  iron,  the 
uvislin  cravat  and  the  Belcher  neckerchief, 
would  but  ill  assort  together. — Sketches  by 
Boz  {Pawnbroker9 s  Shop). 

Mr.  Wilkins  had  brought  a  pint  of  shrimps 
neatly  folded  up  in  a  clean  belcher  to  give  a 
zest  to  the  meal. — Ibid.  (Miss  Evans  and  the 
Eagle). 

Bkle,   den   or  covert.     Cf.  Scotch 

bield. 

The  fox  will  not  worry  near  his  bele,  but 
rangeth  far  abroad,  lest  he  be  espied. — 
Sandys,  p.  64. 

Belka vinos,  leavings. 

He  had  nothing  for  his  pence  but  the  wast 
heleavings  of  others' beastly  labours. — Greene, 
Thieves  falling  out,  1615  (Earl.  Misc.,  viii. 
392). 

Belecture,  to  beset  with  lectures. 

She  now  had  somebody,  or  rather  some- 
thing, to  lecture  and  belecture  as  before. — 
Savoy e,  Reuben  Medlicott,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xvi. 

Beletter,  to  write  to. 

It  was  now  high  time  for  Dr.  Modew,  the 
Vice-Chancellour,  and  Master  Roger  Askham, 
the  University  Oratour,  to  bestir  themselves. 
The  latter  belettered  all  the  Lords  of  the 
Privy-Councill. — Fuller,  Mist,  of  Cambridge, 
vii.  26. 

Belfry.  The  belfry  is  sometimes 
referred  to  as  the  part  of  the  church 
where  the  very  poorest  were.    Gaud  on 


(Tears  of  the  Ch.  p.  253)  speaks  of 
"  teaching  school  in  a  belfry "  as  a 
means  of  livelihood  for  a  deprived 
minister. 

And  being  always  desirous  to  climb  highest 
in  the  Church,  reckoning  themselves  more 
worthy  to  sit  there  than  another,  I  fear  me 
poor  Magdalene  under  the  board  and  in  the 
oelfry  hath  more  forgiven  of  Christ  than  they 
have. — Latimer,  i.  16. 

A  poor  woman  in  the  belfry  hath  as  good 
authority  to  offer  up  this  sacrifice,  as  hath 
the  bishop  in  his  pontificalibus. — Ibid.  i.  167. 

Man  would  have  cleared  the  Pharisee,  and 
condemned  the  Publican,  when  they  both 
appeared  in  the  temple  together — the  one, 
as  it  were,  in  the  choir,  the  other  in  the 
belfry. — Adams,  ii.  188. 

Beliefless,  unbelieving ;  infidel. 

Praise  you  his  bounty,  you  that  past  the 

Poles 
Beare    HeaVn's  Embassage    to    Belief-less 

Soules. — Sylvester,  Henrie  the  Great,  512. 

Believable,  credible :  unbelievable 
is  not  so  uncommon. 

It  would  certainly  be  more  natural-like 
and  believable. — Mrs.  Trollope,  Michael  Arm- 
strong, ch.  iv. 

Belight,  to  alight. 

A  mouse  of  high  degree,  which  lost  his  way, 
Wantonly  walking  forth  to  take  the  air, 
And  arriv'd  early,  and  beliglUed  there 
For  a  day's  lodging. 

Cotoley,  Essays  (Agriculture). 

Belitter,  to  heap  confusedly. 

A  chamber  hung  either  with  Dutch  pic- 
tures or  looking-glasses,  belittered  with  uri- 
nals or  empty  gally-pots. — The  Quack's  Aca- 
demy, 1678  {Harl.  Misc.,  ii.  33). 

Bell,  applied  to  the  noise  made  by 
deer,  especially  at  rutting-time.  Tenny- 
son uses  it  of  hounds.  The  first  extract 
is  from  an  inscription  at  Wharhcliff. 

"  Praye  for  the  soul  of  Sir  Thomas  Wort- 
ley.  .  .  He  caused  a  lodge  to  be  built  on  this 
crag  in  the  midst  of  Wharncliff  (the  old 
orthography)  to  hear  the  harts  bell,  in  the 

year  of  our  Lord  1510. n It  was  a  chase, 

and  what  he  meant  to  hear  was  the  noise  of 
the  stags. —  Walpole,  Letters,  ii.  5  (1766). 

Here  the  bellowing  harts  are  said  to  har- 
bour, the  throating  bucks  to  lodge,  the  bell- 
ing roes  to  bed,  the  beating  hares  to  form, 
the  tapping  conies  to  sit,  and  the  barking 
foxes  to  kennell. — Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  III. 
(pt.  i.)  ix.  1. 

Waife  again  changed  the  key  of  his  primi- 
tive music — a  melancholy  belling  note,  like 
the  belling  itself  of  a  melancholy  hart,  but 
more  modulated  into  sweetness.  —  Lytton, 
What  will  he  do  with  it  ?  Bk.  V.  ch.  iv. 

E2 


BELLAMOURE 


(     5*     ) 


EEMURMUR 


Then,  pressing  day  by  day  through  Lyonesse, 
Lost  in  a  rocky  hollow,  belling  heard 
The  hounds  of  Mark. 

Tennyson,  Last  Tournament. 

Bellamoure,  a  fair  lady-love;  it 
occurs  several  times  in  Davies. 

No  Bella mou re  should  then  be  better  hu'd. 
Davies,  Microcosms,  p.  22. 

His  wisdonie's  pow'r 
Did  choose  me  for  his  chiefest  Bellamoure. 

Ibid.  p.  92. 

Belled,  having  a  bell. 

A  hawk  belled  pouncing  on  a  bird. 

Arck.,xxxiv.  436  (1852). 

Belle-dame,  a  fashionable  lady  :  bel- 
dam formerly  meant  grandmother,  then, 
old  woman  ;  it  is  now  always  used  in 
a  disparaging  sense.  N.  says  that  in 
Spenser  the  word  has  the  meaning  of 
fair  lady,  but  if  he  refers,  as  I  suppose, 
to  F.  Q.f  111.  ii.  43,  the  name  is  given 
by  Bruomurt  "  to  her  aged  nourse  "  and 
=  Granny. 

Should  we  see  the  value  of  a  German 
prince's  ransom  gorgeously  attiring  each  of 
our  Ulle-dames,  if  neither  merchant,  butcher, 
brewer,  laceman,  mercer,  milliner,  nor  tailor 
would  trust  V — H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i. 
375. 

Bellows,  to  blow  as  with  a  bellows  ; 
to  pu£. 

She  pouted  out  her  blubber-lips,  as  if  to 
bellows  up  wind  and  sputter  iuto  her  hone- 
nostrils. — Ricltardson,  Cl.  Harloice,  v.  318. 

Belly-gut,  a  lazy,  greedy  fellow. 

Since  then  thou  wouldst  not  have  a  belly- 
gut  for  thy  servant,  but  rather  one  brisk  and 
agile,  why  then  dost  thou  provide  for  thy 
mind  a  minister  fat  and  unwieldy  ? — Bailey's 
Erasmus,  p.  346. 

Belongings.  The  Diets,  give  this 
word  as  meaning  endowments  or  qual- 
ities, with  a  quotation  from  Meamre 
for  Measure,  I.  i.,  but  it  also  signifies 
family,  relations,  or  household. 

When  Lady  Kew  said,  Sic  volo,  sic  juheo,  I 
promise  you  few  persons  of  her  ladyship's 
oelongings  stopped,  before  they  did  her  bid- 
dings, to  ask  her  reasons. — Thackeray,  New- 
comes,  ch.  xxxni. 

Belump,  is  intended  probably  to  have 
much  the  same  meaning  as  behump, 
q.  v. 

Bemad,  to  make  mad  or  furious ;  see 
quotation,  s.  v.  Wouxdable  ;  the  Diets, 
have  the  participle  bemadding^  but  only 
with  the  quotation  from  Lear,  III.  i. 


The  patriarch  herein  did  bewitch  and 
bemad  Godfrey.— Fuller,  Holy  War,  Bk.  II. 
ch.  v. 

How  much  Andronicus  was  bemadded 
hereat  may  easier  be  couceived  than  ezprest. 
—Ibid.,  Profane  St'Uc,  V.  xviii.  16. 

B em adam,  to  salute  with  the  title  of 
madam. 

They  do  so  all  to  bemadam  me,  I  thiuk 
they  think  me  a  very  great  lady. — Jonson, 
Bart.  Fair,  v.  3. 

Bemantled,  covered  as  with  a  mantle. 

The  village  spire  but  dimly  seen, 
The  straw-roof  'd  cot  upon  the  green 
With  spreading  vine  bemantled  o'er. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  c.  ii. 

Bemean,  to  lower. 

For  this  time  I  renounce  my  gentility,  and 
lessen  and  bemean  myself  to  the  lowness  of 
the  offender.— Jarvis's  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  II. 
Bk.  III.  ch.  xx. 

Bemitre,  to  adorn  with  a  mitre. 

Open  scoundrels  rode  triumphant,  bedia- 
demed,  becoronetted,  bemitred. — Carlyle,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  V.  ch.  i. 

B  EM  OAT,  to  surround  with  a  moat. 

A  silver  Brook  in  broken  streams  doth  gush, 
And  headlong  down  the  horned  Cliff  doth 

rush; 
Then,  winding    thence   above    and    under 

ground, 
A  goodly  Garden  it  be-moateth  round. 

Sylvester,  1th  day,  31. 

Bemoisten,  to  bedew. 

Affected  by  this  tender  grace, 
A  tear  stole  gently  down  her  face ; 
And,  wiping  her  bemoisten*d  eye, 
She  offered  this  sincere  reply. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  c.  vi. 

Bemouth,  to  declaim. 

They  heard  the  illustrious  furbelow 'd 
Heroically  in  Popean  rhyme  ° 

Tee- to- 1 urn 'd,  in  Miltonic  blank  bemouth'>d. 

Southey,  Nondescripts,  i. 

Bemud,  to  cover  with  mud,  and  so 

to  confuse. 

[This  hath]  so  troabledly  bemudded  with 
gnefe  and  care  every  cell  or  organ-pipe  of 
my  purer  intellectual  faculties,  that  no  more 
they  consort  with  any  ingenuous  playful 
merriments.  —  Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  {Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  157). 

Bemubmur,  to  murmur  round.  See 
quotation,  s.  v.  Beshout. 

Be  murmured  now  by  the  hoarse-flowing 
Danube,  the  light  of  her  patriot  supper-par- 
ties gone  quite  out,  so  lies  Theroigne. — 
Carlyle,  Fr.  Jfet.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  viii. 


BEMUZZLED 


(     S3     ) 


BE POUNCE 


'4 


\ 


Bemuzzled,  muzzled  up. 

The  young  lion's  whelp  has  to  grow  up  all 
bestrapped,  bemuzzled  in  the  most  extraor- 
dinary manner. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  86. 

Ben.  Oil  of  ben  =  benzoin ;  an  oint- 
ment held  to  be  of  great  efficacy.  See 
several  references  in  H. 

I  think  I  smell  him,  'tis  vermilion  sure, 
ha ;  oil  of  ben  ;  do  but  show  him  me,  widow. 
—  Jonson,    Fletcher,    and    Middleton,    The 
Widow,  ii.  1. 

Bender,  a  sixpence,  because  easily 
bent  (slang). 

u  What  will  you  take  to  be  paid  out  ?  "  said 
the  butcher.  "  The  regular  chummage  is  two- 
and-six.  Will  you  take  three  bob?"  "  And 
a  bender"  suggested  the  clerical  gentleman. 
"  Well,  I  don't  mind ;  it's  only  twopence  a 
piece  more/'  said  Mr.  Martin.  "What  do 
you  say  now?  we'll  pay  you  out  for  three- 
and-sixpence  a  week." — Dickens,  Pickwick 
Papers,  ch.  xlii. 

"  How  much  a  glass  think  you  ?  "  says 
Fred,  pulling  another  bumper;  "a  half- 
crown  think  ye  ?  a  half-crown,  Honeyman  ? 
By  cock  and  pye  it  is  not  worth  a  bender." — 
Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  xi. 

Benedictor,  an  eulogist. 

Ministers  have  multos  laudatores,  paucos 
datores,  many  praisers,  few  raisers;  many 
benediciors,  few  benefactors. — Adams,  i.  179. 

Bene  factor  ate,  to  provide  as  a  bene- 
factor, to  present. 

The  bishop  has  sent  a  Dr.  Nichols  to  me, 
to  desire  I  would  assist  him  in  a  plan  for  the 
east  window  of  his  cathedral,  which  he  in- 
tends to  benefactorate  with  painted  glass. — 
Walpole,  Letter*,  Hi.  282  (1769). 

Benefacture,  beneficence. 

Give  me  the  open  champain  of  a  general 
and    il limited    benefacture.  —  Bishop   Hall, 
Works,  viii.  256. 

Benefice,  benefit.  The  first  extract 
is  from  a  letter  from  Jane  Seymour  to 
the  Lords  of  the  Council,  announcing 
the  birth  of  her  son,  1537. 

We  have  thought  good  to  certifie  you  of 
this  same,  to  the  intent  ye  might  not  onely 
render  unto  God  condigne  thanks  and  praiso 
for  so  great  a  benefice,  but  also  continually 
pray  for  the  long  continuance  and  preserv- 
ation of  the  same. — Fuller,  Church  History, 
VII.  ii.  11. 

Verely  this  thvng  by  the  benefice  of  philo- 
sophic was  roted  in  hym,  that  he  stode  in 
drede  of  no  man  liuyng. — UdaTs  Erasmus* s 
Apophthegmes,  p.  70. 

Beneficial,  beneficent. 

He  fell  to  prayer  rehearsing  how  beneficial 
God  had  been  unto  him. — Latimer,  i.  541. 


Beneficious,  beneficent. 

The  Beauchamps  ....  acknowledge  Hab^r 
de  Bnrgo  ....  beneficious  to  them,  and  tontine 
the  same  by  their  armories. — Holland's  Cam- 
den, p.  362. 

Ben  J,  a  liquid  or  paste  of  intoxicat- 
ing qualities  procured  from  narcotic 
plants  such  as  henbane,  hemp,  &c. ; 
also  called  Bang  or  Bhang. 

Mesmerism  and  magic-lanterns,  benj  and 
opium  winna  explain  all  facts. — C.  Kingsley, 
Alton  Locke,  ch.  xxi. 

Bent,  beck. 

Naturall  men  must  haue  God  at  their  bent' 
—Hall,  Contempt.  (Golden  Calfe). 

Benter,  debenture.  The  speaker  is 
an  uneducated  man. 

Out  alas !  where  shall  I  make  my  mone, 
My  pouche,  my  b enters,  and  all  is  gone 

Edirards,  Damon  and  Pitheas 
(Dodsley,  O.  PI.  i.  281). 

Benvenue,  a  welcome. 

I  having  no  great  pieces  to  discharge  for 
his  ben-venue  or  welcomming  in,  with  this 
volley  of  rhapsodies  or  small-shotte  he  must 
rest  pacified.  —  Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  158). 

Bepatched,  adorned  with  patches  (on 
the  face) ;  also  patched  (of  a  gar- 
ment).    See  extract,  s.  v.  Betatterkh. 

The  use  of  patches  is  not  unknown  to  the 
French  ladies,  but  she  that  wears  them  must 
be  young  and  handsome.  In  England,  youug, 
old,  handsome,  ngly, all  are  bepatch'd  till  they 
are  bedrid. — Misson,  Travels  in  Eng.,  p.  214. 

Brperiwigged,  having  the  head  co- 
vered with  a  wig. 

What,  Tony,  i'  faith  ?  what,  dost  thou  not 
know  me  ?  By  'r  Lady,  nor  I  thee,  thou  art 
so  becravated,  and  so  beperiwigged. —  Con- 
greve,  Way  of  the  World,  iii.  15. 

Bepester,  to  plague,  injure. 

Valens  with  his  Arian  heresy  had  hepes- 
tered  the  Christian  world. — Adams,  i.  456. 

Bepilgrimed,  visited  by  pilgrims. 

Mr.  Lock  hart  thinks  there  was  no  literary 
shriue  ever  so  bepilf/rimed,  except  Forney  in 
Voltaire's  time. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  108. 

Bepommkl,  to  maul. 

I  have  known  a  harmless  good  old  srul 
of  eighty  still  bepommelled  and  stoned  by  irre- 
proachable ladies  of  the  straitest  sect  of  the 
Pharisees. — Thackeray,  Virginians,  ch.  xlix. 

Bepounpe,  to  bepowder ;  in  the  ex- 
tract =  to  stud. 


BEPUFF 


(     54     ) 


BESHO  UT 


Thee  beam*  with  brazed  copper  were  costlye 

bevounced  ; 
Ana  gates  with  the  metal  dooe  creake  in 

shrubated  harshing. 

St  any  hurst,  JEn.,  i.  433. 

Bepuff,  to  flatter. 

Even  the  Lord  Mayor  himself  was  a  Re- 
ality— not  a  Fiction  conventionally  bepuffed 
on  one  day  in  the  year  by  illustrious  frieuds, 
who  no  less  conventionally  laugh  at  him  on 
the  remaining  three  hundred  and  sixty-four 
days. — Dickens,  Uncommercial  Traveller,  ix. 

Bepuzzle,  to  puzzle. 

How  Yarmouth  of  itselfe  so  innumerable 
populous  and  replenished,  and  in  so  barraine 
a  plot  seated,  should  not  onely  supply  her 
inhabitants  with  plentifull  purveyance  of 
sustenance,  but  provant  and  victuall  more- 
over this  monstrous  army  of  strangers,  was 
a  matter  that  egregiously  bepuzled  and  en- 
tranced my  apprehension.  —  Nashe,  Lenten 
Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  140). 

Berampired,  fortified. 

O  Gods,  o  countrey,  o  Troywals  stronglye 
berampyerd. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  ii.  251. 

Berascal,  to  call  rascal.     Cf .  Bevil- 

LAIN. 

She  beknaved,  berascaUed,  berogued  the 
nnhappv  hero. — Fielding,  Jonathan  Wild,  Bk. 
II.  ch.  hi. 

Berebus,  to  cover  with  rebusses. 

His  [Sir  I.  Hawkewood'sl  Coenotaph  .  . 
{arched  over,  and,  in  allusion  to  his  name 
berebussed  with  Hawkes  flying  into  a  Wood) 
is  now  quite  flown  away  and  abolished. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Essex  (i.  350). 

Beribanded,  adorned  with  ribbons. 

Nutbrown  maids  and  nutbrown  men,  all 
clean-washed,  loud-laughing,  bedizened  and 
beribanded  ;  who  came  for  dancing,  for  treat- 
ing, and,  if  possible,  for  happiness. — Carlyle, 
Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  II.  ch.  ii. 

Beribbon,  to  deck  with  ribbons. 

He  was  so  beribbon'd  all  over,  that  one 
would  have  thought  all  the  milliners  in  the 
place  had  join'd  their  stocks  to  furnish  him. 
— T.  Brown,  Works,  iv.  210. 

Her  attire  was  as  flaunting  as  her  air  and 
her  manner :  she  was  rouged  and  beribboned. 
— Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  vii.  26. 

Beride,  to  ride  by  the  side. 

'Tis  so,  those  two  that  there  beride  him, 
And  with  such  graces  prance  beside  him, 
In  pomp,  infallibly  declare 
Themselves  the  sheriffs ;  he  the  Mayor. 
D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  cant.  2. 

Berinse,  to  wash. 

So  turn,  good  Lord,  O  turn  the  hearts  of 

Princes, 
Whose  rage  their  realms  with  Saints'  dear 

bloud  berinses. 

Sylvester,  Bcthulia's  Rescue,  vi.  218. 


Berretta,  a  priest's  cap. 

When  at  the  corner  cross  thou  did'st  him 

meet, 
Tumbling  his  rosaries  hanging  at  his  belt, 
Or  his  berretta,  or  his  tow  red  felt. 

If  all,  Sat.,  IV.  vii.  52. 

Berubrick,  to  mark  as  a  red  letter 

day. 

We  have  l*e~ru1rrick'd  each  day  in  the  week, 
almost  in  the  yeer,  with  English  blood. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI.  ii.  43. 

Berdffed,  wearing  ruffs. 

The  winter  came,  the  winds  were  bleak, 
And  the  cold  breeze  blew  o'er  the  lake  ; 
When  Madam  Syntax  never  stirr'd 
But  well  IterujjFd  and  well  bef  urr'd. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  c.  v. 

Bescorch,  to  burn.  Stanyhurst  (^n.., 
ii.  284)  speaks  of  "  that  od  Hector  .  .  . 
that  with  wyld  fire  thee  Greekish  nauye 
beskorched" 

Bescoundrel,  to  abuse  as  a  scoundrel. 

"  Surly  Sain  "  is  Dr.  Johnson. 

Surly  Sam,  inflamed  with  Tory  rage, 
Nassau  bescoundrels. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  101. 

Bescour,  to  overrun. 

France  too  is  bescoured  with  a  Devil's  pack, 
the  baying  of  which  at  this  distance  of  half 
a  century  still  Bounds  in  the  mind's  ear. — 
Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  IH.  Bk.  V.  ch.  v. 

Beseechingnes8,  deprecation ;  en- 
treaty. 

The  husband's  determination  to  mastery 
which  lay  deep  below  all  blandness  and 
beseechingness  had  risen  permanently  to  the 
surface  now. — G.  Eliot,  Romola,  ch.  xlviii. 

Beseen,  garment,  clothes.  The  parti- 
ciple beseen  is  used  by  old  writers  for 
"  clad." 

The  Curate  in  his  best  Beseen  solemnly 
received  him  at  the  Churchyard  stile.— Defoe, 
Tour  thro*  G.  Britain,  i.  405. 

Beset,  to  place  beside,  and  so  to 
transmit. 
Was  never  fox  but  wily  cubs  begets, 
The  bear  his  fierceness  to  his  brood  besets. 

Hall,  Sat.,  IV.  iii.  69. 

Beshackle,  to  hamper,  perplex. 

Who  this  King  should  bee,  beshackled  theyr 
wits.— Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi. 
170). 

Beshout,  to  greet  with  shouts.  See 
quotation,  *.  v.  Begroan. 

So  fare  the  eloquent  of  France,  bemur- 
mured,  beshauted.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III. 
Bk.  IV.  ch.  viii. 


BESHRIVELLED        (    55    ) 


BESPY 


Beshrivelled,  wrinkled ;  withered. 
Ill-luck  in  its  worst  guise  is  seen 
In  that  beshrivelled  face  and  mien. 
Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  HI.  c.  iii. 

Besing,  to  celebrate  in  song. 
When  Britain  first,  at  Heaven's  command, 
arose,  with  a  great  deal  of  allegorical  con- 
fusion, from  out  the  azure  main,  did  her 
guardian  angels  positively  forbid  it  [proper 
provision  for  an  aged  pauperess]  in  the 
Charter  which  has  been  so  much  testing, — 
Dickens,  Uncommercial  Traveller,  iii. 

Bbskokb,  to  tinge  with  smoke. 

They  burn  up  rapidly,  and  from  within 
there  rises  by  machinery  an  uncombustible 
statue  of  Wisdom,  which  by  ill-hap  gets  be- 
smoked  a  little ;  but  does  stand  there  visible 
in  as  serene  attitude  as  it  can. — Carlyle,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  VI.  ch.  iv. 

The  besmoked  evergreens  were  sprinkled 
with  a  dirty  powder,  like  untidy  snuff-takers. 
— Dickens,  Hard  Times,  ch.  xxh. 

Besmutted,  touched  with  smut. 

So  at  Marseilles,  what  one  besmutted,  red- 
bearded  corn-ear  in  this  which  they  cut ;  one 
gross  man  we  mean  with  copper-studded 
face  ?— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  HI.  Bk.  V.  ch. 
iii. 

Besoil,  to  soil,  cast  aspersions  on. 
See  extract,  *.  v.  Betoil. 

That  which  the  Commons  called  The  Re- 
monstrance of  the  state  of  the  Kingdom 
came  forth  by  their  voice  Decemb.  15,  to 
besoil  his  Majesty's  reign  with  studied  bitter- 
ness.— Racket,  life  of  Williams,  ii.  164. 

His  rosy  face  besoiled  with  un wiped  tears. 
Coleridge,  Foster- Mother's  Tale. 

Besom-weed,  the  besom-plant ;  cytisus 
scoparius.     See  N.  and  (>.,  5th  s.,  x. 

Others  will  perswade,  if  any  list  to  believe, 
that  by  a  witch-bridle  they  can  make  a  pair 
of  horses  of  an  acre  of  besome-weed. — Fuller, 
Holy  Slate,  Bk.  V.  ch.  iii. 

Besoothe,  to  soothe. 

When  they  were  gone,  Hee  'gan  embrace  and 

basse 
The  trembling  Lady ;  who  besoothes  him  thus. 
Sylvester,  Bethulia's  Rescue,  vi.  00. 

Bespaded,  provided  with  spade. 

The  neighbouring  villages  turn  out ;  their 
able  men  come  marching  to  village  fiddle,  or 
tambourine  and  triangle,  under  their  Mayor, 
or  Mayor  and  Curate,  who  also  walk  bespaded 
and  in  tricolor  sash. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt. 
II.  Bk.  I.  ch.  xi. 

Besparkle,  to  sparkle.  In  some 
copies  the  word  is  dixparkling. 


Mount  up  thy  flames,  and  let  thy  torch 
Display  thy  bridegroome  in  the  porch, 

In  his  desires 
More  towring  and  besj>arkling  than  thy  fires. 
Herrick,  Appendix,  p.  449. 

Bespeak.     See  quotation. 

"*,?e  D8en  thinking  of  bringing  out 
that  piece  of  yours  on  her  bespeak  night." 
"  When  ?  »  asked  Nicholas.  «  The  night  of 
her  bespeak,  her  benefit  night  when  her 
friends  and  patrons  bespeak  the  play."— 
Dickens,  Nicholas  Nickleby,  ch.  xxiv. 

Bespeak,  to  speak  ill  of,  or  ill- 
omened  ly. 

My  tongue  is  so  farre  from  bespeaking 
such  lands  with  any  ill  successe,  that  I  wish 
to  all  lawfully  possessed  of  them  .  .  .  that 
peaceably  and  prosperously  they  may  enjoy 
them.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  VI.  vii.  14. 

Bespectacled,  fitted  with  spectacles, 
and  so  dim-sighted. 

It  is  impossible  that  a  white-veiled,  lank, 
and  bespectacled  duenna  should  move  or 
excite  a  wanton  thought.  —  Jarvis's  Don 
Quixote,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  II.  ch.  xvi. 

In  a  most  blinkard,  bespectacled,  logic- 
chopping  generation,  Nature  has  gifted  this 
man  with  an  eye.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II. 
Bk.  I.  ch.  ii. 

Bespeeched,  pestered  by  speakers. 

Silence  is  deep  as  eternity;  speech  is 
shallow  as  time.  Paradoxical  does  it  seem  ? 
Woe  for  the  age,  woe  for  the  man,  quack- 
ridden,  bespeeched,  bespouted,  blown  about 
like  barren  Sahara,  to  whom  this  world-old 
truth  were  altogether  new.— Carlyle,  Misc.. 
iv.  138.  *  ' 

BE8PILL,  to  spill  about. 
By  every  drop  of  blood  bespilt, 
By  Afric's  wrongs,  and  Europe's  guilt, 
Awake!  arise!  revenge! 

Sout/iey,  To  tfte  Genius  of  Africa. 

Bespouted,  bespeeched,  q.  v. 

Bespue,  to  foul  with  vomit. 

That  bespues 
Her  husband. 

Stapylton,  Juvenal,  vi.  108. 

Bespurtle,  besprinkle. 

Come  down,  thou  ragged  cur,  and  snarl 
here;  I  give  thy  dogged  sullenness  free 
liberty:  trot  about, and  bespurtle  whom  thou 
pleasest. — Marston,  The  Malcontent,  i.  2. 

They  sputter  their  venom  abroad,  and  be- 
spurtle others. — Adams,  iii.  21. 

Bespy,  to  beset  with  espionage. 

Poor  Pitt !  They  little  know  what  work  he 
has  with  his  own  Friends  of  the  People, 
getting  them  bespied,  beheaded.  —  Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  III.  ch.  viii. 


BESTAR 


(     56     ) 


BETATTERED 


Best  a  r,  to  illumine,  or  to  spangle. 
The  poem  from  which  the  second  ex- 
tract is  taken  has  also  been  attributed 
to  Herrick.  In  the  last  quotation  the 
word  means  adorned  with  a  star  of 
some  knightly  order. 

O  lady-cow, 
Thou  shalt  no  more  bestar  thy  wanton  brow 
With  thine  eyes'  rayes. 

Sylvester,  The  Trophies,  274. 

A  rich  mantle  he  did  wear, 
Made  of  tinsel  gossamer ; 
Btstarred  over  with  a  few 
Diamond  drops  of  morniug  dew. 
Mennis,  Oberon's  Apparel  (1655). 

The  late  first  lord  of  the  Admiralty  .  .  . 
remains  among  his  bestarred  colleagues  still 
Mr.  Smith.  —  Spectator,  June  12,  1880,  p. 
739. 

Bkst-be-trdst,  credit. 

Thy  muse  is  a  nayler,  and  wears  clothes 
upon  best-be-trust ;  thou'rt  great  in  some- 
body's books  for  this,  thou  know'st  where : 
thou  wouldst  be  out  at  elbows  and  out  at 
heels  too,  but  that  thou  layest  about  thee 
with  a  bill  for  this,  a  bill. — Dekker,  Satiro- 
mastix  (Hawkin's  Eny.  Dr.,  III.  173). 

Beste,  a  game  like  loo :  sometimes 
written  beast. 

For  these  you  play  at  purposes, 
And  love  your  loves  with  A's  and  B's ; 
For  these  at  Beste  and  L'Ombre  woo, 
And  play  for  love  and  money  too. 

Hudibras,  III.  i.  1007. 
She  could  willingly  claw  Admiral  Pen- 
guin's eyes  out  for  not  being  able  to  save 
her  from  being  beasted ;  while  Dame  Owlet  is 
.  .  .  thinking  to  herself  how  fortunate  she  is 
to  have  snug  in  her  own  hand  the  happy  card 
that  is  to  do  the  business. — Wares,  Thinks  I 
to  Myself,  ii.  136. 

Besteeb,  to  guide,  pilot. 

How  blest  wert  thou  that  didst  thee  so 
besteere. — Davies,  Sonnet  to  Sir  T.  Erskin. 

Bestock,  to  stock  or  furnish. 

And  now  yf  ther  a  man  be  founde, 
That  lookes  for  such  prepared  grownd, 
Lett  hym,  but  with  indifferent  skill, 
Soe  good  a  soile  becstocke  and  till. 

Herrick,  Appendix,  p.  439. 

Bestow  at,  to  bestow  or  spend  on. 

Two  shafts  I  vainly  did  bestow 
At  two  great  princes,  but  of  both  my  arrows 
neither  slew. — Ghapman,  Iliad,  v.  209. 

Bbstraddle,  to  straddle  across. 

My  mischievous  imagination  would  picture 
him  spurring  a  cask  of  hardware,  like  rosy 
Bacchus  bestriding  a  beer-barrel,  or  the  little 
gentleman  who  bestraddles  the  world  in  the 
front  of  Hutching's  Almanack.  —  Irving, 
Salmayundi,  No.  12' 


Bestrapped,  strapped  up. 

The  young  lion's  wbelp  has  to  grow  up  all 
bestrapped, bemuzzled.—Carlyle, Misc., iv.  86. 

Bestroke,  to  caress. 

Who  would  not  then  consume 
His  sonle  to  ashes  in  that  rich  perfume, 
Bestroaking  fate  the  while 
He  burns  to  embers  on  the  pyle  ? 

Herrick,  Appendix,  p.  449. 

Bestuck,  studded. 

Thou  little  tricksy  Puck, 
With  antic  toys  so  funnily  bestuck, 
Light  as  the  singing-bird  that  wings  the  air. 

Hood,  Ode  to  my  Son. 

Besdlly,  to  render  foul  or  un pleas- 
ing. The  verseH  in  which  the  extract 
occurs  are  attributed  by  some  to  W. 
Stroude. 

The  limber  corps,  besully'd  o'er 
With  meagre  paleness,  does  display 
A  middle  state  'twixt  flesh  and  clay. 

Bp.  Corbet  on  Faireford  Windows. 

Bekung,  celebrated  in  song. 

Bewailed,  bewept,  besung  by  the  whole 
French  people  to  this  hour,  it  may  be  re- 
garded as  Barrere's  masterpiece. — Carlylt, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  V.  ch.  vi. 

Beswabm,  to  overrun. 

On  th'  other  side,  Thrace  subtle  Greece  be- 
swarms. — Sylvester,  The  Colonies,  356. 

Besweeten,  to  make  sweet.    In  some 
copies  the  word  is  besweettd. 
The  elves  present,  to  quench  his  thirst, 
A  pure  seed-pearl  of  infant  dew, 
Brought  and  besweetned  in  a  blew 
And  pregnant  violet. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  126. 

Bes  weltered,  draggled. 

Doughtye  Cloanthus 
And  oother  Trojans  with  rough  seas  stormye 
besweltred. — Si  any  hurst,  ALn.,  i.  497. 

Bktaint,  stained. 
What  gars  this  din  of  mirk  and  baleful  harm, 
Where  every  wean  is  all  betaint  with  blood  ? 

Greene,  James  IV.,  i.  3. 

Betake,  to  take  wrongly ;  to  mistake. 

So  He  was  .  .  .  the  Lamb  that  hath  been 
slain  from  the  beginning  of  the  world :  and 
therefore  He  is  called  jxuje  sacrifirium,  a  con- 
tinual sacrifice ;  and  not  for  the  continuance 
of  the  mass,  as  the  blanchers  have  blanched 
it  and  wrested  it,  and  as  I  myself  did  once 
betake  it.— Latimer,  i.  73. 

Betattereh,  torn. 

She  brought  a  gown  with  her,  but  so  be- 
pat  ch'd  and  bttatter'd,  111  warrant  you  it  had 
been  two  hundred  years  out  of  fashion. — T. 
Brown,  Works,  i.  240. 


BETHEL 


(     57     ) 


BE  VILLAIN 


Bethel      See  quotation. 

In  the  year  1680  Bethel  and  Cornish  were 
choseu  sheriffs.  The  former  used  to  walk 
about  more  like  acoru-cutter  than  Sheriff  of 
London.  He  kept  no  house,  but  lived  upon 
chops,  whence  it  is  proverbial  for  not  feast- 
ing to  Bethel  the  city. — North,  Examen,  p. 
93. 

Bethuxder,  to  strike  as  with  thunder. 

A  Tuileries  sold  to  Austria  and  Coblentz 
should  have  no  subterranean  passage.  Out 
of  which  might  not  Coblentz  or  Austria  issue 
some  morning,  and,  with  cannon  of  long 
range,  foudroyer,  bethunder  a  patriotic  Saint- 
Antoine  into  smoulder  and  ruin? — Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  III.  ch.  v. 

Bethwack,  to  belabour. 

You  have  so  skilfully  hampered,  bethwacked, 
belammed,  and  bebumped  the  catchpole. — 
UrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  xiii. 

Betide,  fortune. 

My  wretched  heart,  wounded  with  bad  betide, 
To  crave  his  peace  from  reason  is  addrest. 

Greene,  from  Never  too  Late,  p.  299. 

Betitle,  to  entitle. 

The  king-killers  were  all  swept  away,  and 
a  milder  second  picture  was  painted  over  the 
canvas  of  the  first,  and  betitled,  Glorious 
Revolution. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  Hi.  82. 

Betoc8IX,  to  sound  the  tocsin,  or  to 

assail  with  the  tocsin. 

It  has  deliberated,  beset  by  a  hundred 
thousand  armed  men  with  artillery- furnaces 
and  provision-carts.  It  has  been  betocsined, 
bestormed.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk. 
VII.  ch.  v. 

Bbtoiled,  wearied  with  toil. 

Poor  Lackalls,  all  betoiled,  besoiled,  en- 
crusted into  dim  defacement. — Carlyle,  Fr, 
Rev.,  Pfc.  I.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  iii. 

Betbample,  to  trample  down. 

Oat  of  which  strange  fall  of  formulas, 
tumbling  there  in  confused  welter,  U  tram- 
pled by  the  patriotic  dance,  is  it  not  passing 
strange  to  see  a  uew  formula  arise  ?  —Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  V.  ch.  iv. 

Betraynted,  same  as  bedreinted  (?), 

i.  e.  drenched,  fully  imbued.     "  With 

teares  all  bedreint "  (Chaucer,  Court  of 

Love,  577). 

I  thus  muttered  with  roystring  phrensye 
betray/tied. — Stanyhurst,  Mn.,  ii.  611. 

Betterment,  improvement.  In  the 
extract  from  Bunyan  no  betterment  = 
nothing  to  choose. 

In  very  deed,  God  doth  as  doth  a  prudent 

Sire, 
Who  little  careth  what  may  crosse  his  child's 

desire, 


But  what  may  most  availe  unto  his  better- 
ment. 

Sylvester,  Paradox  at/ at  fist  Libertie,  243. 

Truly,  said  Christian,  I  have  said  the  truth 
of  Pliable,  and  if  I  should  also  say  the  truth 
of  myself,  it  will  appear  there  is  no  better- 
ment 'twixt  him  and  myself. — Pilgrim's  Pro- 
yress,  Pt.  i.  p.  35. 

What  betterment  has  since  taken  place  in 
workhouses  is  largely  due  to  her  initiative. — 
Guardian  Newspaper,  June  9,  1880,  p.  767. 

Beturbaned,  adorned  with  a  turban. 
In  the  extract  it  rather  means  suggest- 
ive of  a  turban. 

He  had  composed  the  first  act  of  his 
"Sultan  Selim;"  but,  in  defiance  of  the 
metre,  he  soon  changed  the  title  to  "  Sultan 
Amurath,"  considering  that  a  much  fiercer 
name,  more  bewhiskered  and  beturbaned. — 
De  Quincey,  Autob.  Sketches,  i.  48. 

Between ity,  intermediate  condition. 
In  the  second  extract  cuckoldom  is  re- 
ferred to. 

The  house  is  not  Gothic,  but  of  that 
betweenity  that  intervened  when  Gothic  de- 
clined and  Palladian  was  creeping  in. —  Wal- 
pole,  Letters,  ii.  174  (1760). 

This  state  of  man,  and  let  me  add  obscenity, 
Is  not  a  situation  of  IteUceemty, 
As   some   word-coiners   are    disposed   to 
call't— 
Meaning  a  mawkish  as-it-were-ish  state, 
Containing  neither  love  nor  hate — 
A  sort  of  water-gruel  without  salt. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  206. 

The  letters  were  written  not  for  publica- 
tion .  .  .  and  to  rejoin  heads,  tails,  and 
betweenities  which  Hayley  had  severed. — 
Southey,  Letters,  iii.  448. 

Betwit,  to  taunt. 

Strange  how  these  men,  who  at  other  times 
are  all  wise  men,  do  now  in  their  drink  bet  in  it 
and  reproach  one  another  with  their  former 
conditions. — Pepys,  April  2, 1661. 

Be-ulcer,  to  cover  with  ulcers. 

Satan  .  .  .  having  Job  in  his  power  .  .  . 
only  be-ulcered  him  on  his  skin  and  outside 
of  his  body. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Yorkshire  (ii. 
520). 

Beveiled,  covered  with  a  veil. 

Wee  keepe  thee  midpath  with  darcknesse 
mightye  beueyled. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  ii.  369. 

Bevillain,  to  abuse  as  a  villain. 
North  has  also  berogue,  p.  117,  which 
word,  however,  is  in  N.  with  a  quot- 
ation from  another  writer.  Cf.  Br- 
rascal. 

After  Mr.  S.  Atkins  had  bevillained  the 
Captain  sufficiently,  he  was  bid  consider  till 
the  afternoon.— North,  Examen,  p.  247. 


BE  VOMIT 


(     58    )  BIBLIOLOGIST 


Bevomit,  to  vomit  at  or  round. 

Mentz  is  changing  into  an  explosive  crater ; 
vomiting  fire,  bevomited  with  fire. — Carlyle, 
Ft.  Ret,.,  Pt.  in.  Bk.  III.  ch.  iv. 

Bewelcome,  to  greet  with  welcome. 

King  Helenas,  with  a  crowding  coompanye 
garded, 
From  towne  to  us  buskling,  vs  as  his  freends 
freendlye  bewelcomd. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iii.  350. 

Bewhiskeb,  to  adorn  with  whiskers. 
Soe  extract,  s.  v.  Bet  urban  ed. 

'Twas  she  who  bewhisker'd  St.  Bridget. — 
Sterne,  2V.  Shandy,  iv.  12. 

The  rest  of  the  train  had  been  metamor- 
phosed in  various  ways;  the  girls  trussed 
up  in  the  finery  of  the  ancient  belles  of  the 
Bracebridge  line,  and  the  striplings  beiohis- 
kered  with  burnt  cork. — Irving,  Sketch-Book 
(Christmas  Dinner). 

Bewhistle,  to  whistle  round. 

Dumouriez  and  his  Staff  strike  the  spurs 
in  deep ;  vault  over  ditches  into  the  fields, 
which  prove  to  be  morasses;    sprawl  and 

{riunge  for  life,  bewhistled  with  curses  and 
ead.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  IIL  Bk.  III.  ch.  vi. 

Bewhiten,  to  jnake  white. 

The  cot  that's  all  bewhiten1  d  o'er, 
With  children  playing  at  the  door. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  xix. 

Bewigqed,  adorned  with  a  wig.  See 
quotation,  8.  v.  Behatted. 

There  was  one  individual  who  amused 
us  mightily:  this  was  one  of  the  betrigged 
gentlemen  in  the  red  robes. — Sketches  by 
Boz  (Doctors*  Commons). 

She  saw  strange  old  women,  painted,  pow- 
dered, and  bewigged,  in  hideous  imitation  of 
youth. — Black,  Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  riv. 

The  pile  was  in  half  a  minute  pushed  over 
to  an  old  betrigged  woman  with  eye-glasses 
pinching  her  nose.  —  G.  Eliot,  Daniel  De- 
ronda,  ch.  i. 

Bewinged,  furnished  with  wings. 

An  angel  throng,  bewinaed,  bedight 
In  veils  and  drowned  in  tears, 

Sit  in  a  theatre,  to  see 
A  play  of  hopes  and  fears. 
E.  A.  Poe%  Conquering  Worm  (ii.  31). 

Bewizard,  to  affect  by  magical  arts. 

She  cannot,  by  what  conjuring  you  will, 
Be  more  beunzarded  than  I'm  bewitched. 
Taylor,  St.  Clement 's  Eve,  i.  2. 

Bewound,  to  inflict  wounds. 

With  wounded  spirit  I  salute  Thy  wounds, 
O  tM-bewounding  Sacrifice  for  sinne ! 

Davies,  Muse's  Sacrijice,  p.  16. 

Bewpers,  material  for  flags. 

With  my  cozen  Richard  Pepys  upon  the 
'Change  about   supplying  us  with  bercpers 


from  Norwich,  which  I  should  be  glad  of,  if 
cheap. — Pepys,  June  16, 1664. 

Beysaunce,  obeisance. 

The  ancient  trade  of  this  realm  in  education 
of  youth  ([before  the  late  time  replenished 
with  all  mischief)  was  to  yoke  the  same  with 
the  fear  of  God,  in  teaching  the  same  to  use 
prayer  morning  and  evening,  ...  to  make 
beysaunce  to  the  magistrates,  kc.—  Hugyard, 
Displaying  of  the  Protestants,  p.  85  (1556). 

Bib-all-night,  a  confirmed  toper. 

Bats,  Harpies,  Syrens,  Centaurs,  Bilt-all- 
nights.  —  Sylvester,  Lacryma  Lacrymarum, 
101. 

Bibation,  drinking. 

Royal  cheer  and  deep  bibation. — S.  Naylei** 
Reynard  the  Fox,  4. 

Bibbf.ry,  drinking. 

I  never  eat  any  confections,  page,  whilst  I 
am  at  the  bibbery. — UrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk. 
I.  ch.  xl. 

Bible-oath,  a  solemn  oath  taken  on 
the  Bible.     Cf.  Book  oath. 

Madam  Marwood  took  a  book,  and  swore 
us  upon  it,  but  it  was  but  a  book  of  poems. 
So  lonp  as  it  was  not  a  Bible-oath,  we  may 
break  it  with  a  safe  conscience. — Congreve, 
Way  of  the  World,  v.  2. 

They  say  this  Oomnenus  is  sworn  friend 
and  minister  to  the  Devil.  I  tell  thee  Satan 
took  his  Bible-oath  to  back  him  out  in  aught 
he  put  his  hand  to. — Taylor,  Isaac  Comnenus, 
i.3. 

I  doubted  the  correctness  of  your  state- 
ment, though  backed  by  your  lordship's 
Bible-oath. — Thackeray ,  Virginians,  ch.  xcii. 

Biblicalitt,  any  matter  connected 
with  the  Bible. 

He  would  study  theology,  bibltcalities, .  . . 
then  seek  to  obtain  orders. — Carlyle,  Life  of 
Sterling,  Pt.  I.  ch.  xv. 

Bibliogony,  birth  or  pedigree,  t.  e. 

authorship  of  books. 

If,  I  say,  the  book  of  the  Doctor  were  in 
like  manner  to  be  denominated,  according  to 
one  or  other  of  the  various  schemes  of  biblio- 
aony,  which  have  been  devised  for  explaining 
its  phenomena,  the  reader  might  be  expected 
in  good  earnest  to  exclaim,  "  Bless  us,  what  a 
word  on  a  title-page  is  this !  " — Sou  they,  The 
Doctor,  Interchapter  xiii. 

Bibliologist,  one  learned  in  biblio- 
graphy. 

If  it  has  not  been  satisfactorily  ascertained 
whether  there  were  one,  two,  three,  or  four 
John  Websters,  after  so  much  careful  investi- 
gation by  the  most  eminent  bibliologi&ts, .  .  . 
by  whom  can  the  question  be  answered  con- 
cerning the  authorship  of  this  Opus?  — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  Interchapter  xviri. 


BIBLIOLOGY 


(     59    ) 


BILAND 


Bibliology,  book-lore. 

He  must  be  little  versed  in  bibliology  who 
has  not  learnt  that  such  reminiscences  are 
not  more  agreeable  to  an  author  himself  than 
they  are  to  his  readers  (if  he  obtain  any)  in 
after  times.  —  Southey,  The  Doctor,  Inter- 
chapter  x. 

Bibliopolio,  pertaining  to  book- 
selling. 

Sartor  Resarius  .  .  .  was  not  then  even  a 
book,  but  was  still  hanging  desolately  under 
bibliopolic  difficulties,  now  in  its  fourth  or 
fifth  year,  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  river, 
as  a  mere  aggregate  of  Magazine  Articles. — 
Carlyle,  Lift  of  Sterling,  Pt.  II.  ch.  ii. 

Bid  and  Beads.  This  appears  from 
the  context  to  be  some  sort  of  neckcloth 
or  ruffle. 

I  have  not  been  able  yet  to  laugh  him  out 
of  his  long  bid  and  beads.  Indeed  that  is 
because  my  mother  thinks  they  become  him ; 
and  I  would  not  be  so  free  with  him  as  to 
own  I  should  choose  to  have  him  leave  it  off. 
If  he  did,  so  particular  is  the  man,  he  would 
certainly,  if  left  to  himself,  fall  into  a  King- 
William's  cravat,  or  some  such  antique  chin- 
cushion,  as  by  the  pictures  of  that  prince 
one  sees  was  then  the  fashion. — Richardson, 
CI.  Harlowe,  ii.  6. 

Biddable,  complying ;  obedient. 

She  U  exceedingly  attentive  and  useful, 
and  not  at  all  presumptuous ;  indeed  I  never 
saw  a  more  biddable  woman. — Dickens,  Dom- 
bty  and  Son,  ch.  viii. 

A  more  gentle,  biddable  invalid  than  the 
poor  fellow  made  can  hardly  be  conceived. — 
H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  xliv. 

Bident,  an  instrument  with  two 
prongB. 

They  are  all  bound  t'  him  (on  my  word} : 
Mara  for  his  Cuirace,  Shield,  and  Sword ; 
The  blust'ring  JSol  for  his  bident, 
And  Neptune  for  his  massy  trident. 

Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  232. 

Bienness,  prosperity. 

There  was  a  prevailing  air  of  comfort  and 
"  bienness  "  about  the  people  and  their  houses. 
— Black,  Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  ii. 

Bifabious,    twofold ;     facing    both 

ways. 

He  is  a  violent  moderator  among  such 
Ufarious  anythingarians,  that  always  make 
their  interest  the  standard  of  their  religion. 
— T.  Brown,  Works,  iii.  97. 

Biforked,  having  two  ridges.  Bi- 
furcated is  more  common.  ''The  bi- 
forked hill "  is  Parnassus. 

Tis  true  with  little  care,  and  far  less  skill, 
I  pace  a  Poney  on  the  bifork'd  Hill. 

Colman,  Vagaries  Vindicated,  p.  175. 


Bifront,  twofaced. 

While    bi-front    Janus'    frosty    frowns    do 
threat. 

Sylvester,  second  day,  first  weeke,  492. 

O !  let  the  honour  of  their  names  be  kept, 

For  haviug  quencht  so  soon  so  many  fires, 
Disarm'd  our   arms,  appeas'd  the  heav'nly 

ires, 
Calm'd  the  pale  horror  of  intestin  hates, 
And  dammed  up  the  bi- front  Father's  gates. 
Ibid.,  the  Handy-Crafts,  49. 

Bio,  winter  barley.  See  quotation 
from  Had.  Misc.,  8.  v.  Bear  ;  also  L. 

The  big  (viz.  a  four-rowed  barley)  is  seldom 
ripe.— North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  273. 

They  have  commonly  pottage  to  dinner 
composed  of  cale  or  cole,  leeks,  barley  or  big, 
and  butter. — Smollett,  Humphrey  Clinker,  ii. 
104. 

Biqth,  size ;  bigness.  The  extract  is 
part  of  a  receipt  "  for  to  kill  a  corn." 

Take  of  the  bigth  of  a  walnut  of  all  yeast 
that  is  hard,  and  sticks  to  the  tub  side. — 
Queen's  Closet  Opened,  p.  104  (1655). 

Big-wig,  a  high  official ;  in  the  quot- 
ation from  Dickens,  an  eminent  lawyer. 

«•  Well  have  a  big-ma,  Charley ;  one  that's 
got  the  greatest  gift  of  the  gab  to  carry  on 
his  defence."  ....  "What  a  game!  what 
a  regular  game !  All  the  big-wigs  trying  to 
look  solemn,  and  Jack  Dawkins  addressing 
of  'em  as  intimate  and  comfortable  as  if 
he  was  the  judge's  own  son  making  a  speech 
arter  dinner." — Dickens,  Oliver  Twist,  ch.  xliii. 

Her  husband  was  a  member  of  the  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies,  a  Conseiller  oVEtat,  or  other 
French  big-wig. — Thackeray,  The  Newcomes, 
ch.  xlvi. 

So  you  are  going  to  sit  among  the  big-wigs 
in  the  House  of  Lords.— IT.  Kingsley,  Oeoffry 
Hamlyn,  ch.  xlv. 

Bigwiggism,  pomposity,  as  exhibited 
by  big-wig*,  q.  v. 

I  determined  not  to  try  anything  in  Lon- 
don for  a  good  many  years  at  least.  I  didn't 
like  what  I  saw  when  I  was  studying  there— 
so  much  empty  bigwiggism  and  obstructive 
trickery. — G.  Eliot,  Middltmarch,  ch.  xvii. 

Biland,  peninsula.  At  p.  668  of 
Holland's  Camden  it  is  used  indiffer- 
ently with  the  word  "  promontory  "  in 
reference  to  the  8.  W.  portion  of  Car- 
narvonshire.    It  is  also  spelt  byland. 

From  S.  Michael's  Mount  Southward,  im- 
mediately there  is  thrust  forth  a  biland  or 
demi-Isle. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  189. 

Beneath  this,  lyeth  West-Gower,  and  by 
reason  of  two  armes  of  the  Sea  winding  in, 
on  either  side  one,  it  becometh  a.  biland. — 
Ibid.  p.  646. 


BILGE 


(     60    )    BIRD  IN  THE  HAND 


Bilge,  to  knock  a  hole  in  the  bilge, 
being  that  part  of  the  bottom  of  a  ship 
on  which  she  would  rest  if  aground. 

We  chased  a  schooner,  which  ran  on  shore 
and  bilged. — Marryat,  Fr.  Mitdmay,  ch.  xiv. 

Bilk,  fallacious.  The  word  was  com- 
mon as  a  verb,  and  is  still  in  use ;  also 
as  a  substantive  =  nothing,  as  in  the 
second  quotation  (see  also  Jonson, 
Tale  of  Tub,  I.  i. ;  Hudibras,  III.  Hi. 
376)  ;  but  the  adjectival  use  is  rarer. 

To  that  [Oates's  plotj  and  the  author's 
bilk  account  of  it  I  am  approaching.— ybrtk, 
Examen,  p.  129. 

Bedloe  was  sworn,  and  being  asked  what 
he  knew  against  the  prisoner,  answered, 
Nothing.  .  .  .  Bedloe  was  questioned  over 
and  over,  who  still  swore  the  same  bilk. — 
Ibid.  p.  213. 

Billeting,  an  architectural  term  ap- 
plied to  an  ornament  often  used  in 
Norman  work,  being  an  imitation  of 
wooden  billets  placed  in  a  hollow 
moulding. 

The  piers  are  enriched  with  groupes  of 
small  columns  supporting  arches  ornamented 
with  archivolts  or  mouldings  enriched  with 
billeting.—  W.  Wilkins,  1796  {Arcfiaol.,  xii. 
164). 

Billy-roller.     See  extract. 

"  What  is  the  billy-roller  ?"..."  It's  a 
long  stout  stick,  ma'am,  that's  used  often 
and  often  to  beat  the  little  ones  employed  in 
the  mills  wheu  their  strength  fails." — Mrs. 
Trollope,  Michael  Armstrong,  ch.  xiv. 

Bilocation.     See  extract. 

"  The  word  bi location  has  been  invented  to 
express  the  miraculous  faculty  possessed  by 
certain  saints  of  the  Roman  Church,  of  being 
in  two  places  at  once. — E.  Tylor,  Primitive 
Culture,  i.  447. 

Bind.     See  extract,  and  H.,  s.  v. 

A  bind  of  eels  consists  of  ten  sticks,  and 
every  stick  of  twenty-five  eels. — Archaol., 
xv.  367  (1806). 

Bind.  When  a  falcon  seized  on  its 
prey  it  was  said  to  bind  with  it. 

A  hardie  hawke  is  highly  esteemed,  and 
they  have  a  kind  of  them  .  .  so  strangely 
courageous,  that  nothiug  flieth  in  the  aire 
that  they  will  not  bind  with. — Sandys,  Tra- 
vels, p.  76. 

A  cast  of  haggard  falcons,  by  me  mann'd, 
Eyeing  the  prey  at  first,  appear  as  if 
They  did  turn  tail ;  but  with  their  labouring 

wings 
Getting  above  her,  with  a  thought  their 

piuions 
Cleaving  the  purer  element,  make  in, 
And  by  turns  bind  irith  her. 

Massinger,  The  Guardian,  I.  i. 


Bind  prentice,  lay  under  compul- 
sion. 

His  promise  had  bound  him  prentice.  — 
Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  57. 

Bingo,  brnndy  (slang).  It  is  in  allu- 
sion probably  to  this  sense  of  the  word 
that  Scott  culled  the  sottish  baronet  in 
St.  Honoris  Well  Sir  Bingo  Binks. 

Some  soda-water  with  a  dash  of  bingo 
clears  one's  head  in  the  morning. — Hughes, 
Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xxxiii. 

BlNGY,  sour. 

I've  heerd  my  aunt  say  as  she  found  out 
as  summat  was  wrong  wi'  Nancy  as  soon  as 
the  milk  turned  bingy%  for  there  ne'er  had 
been  such  a  clean  lass  about  her  milk-cans 
afore  that.  —  Mrs.  Cask  ell,  Sylvia's  Lovers, 
ch.  xv. 

Biographke,  the  subject  of  a  bio- 
graphy. 

There's  too  much  of  the  biographer  in  it, 
and  not  enough  of  the  biographee. — Athenaum, 
Nov.  29,  1879,  p.  637. 

Biographist,  biographer. 

Want  of  honest  heart  in  the  Biographists 
of  these  Saints  .  .  betrayed  their  pens  to  such 
abominable  untruths. — Fuller,  JVorthies,  ch. 

•  •  a 

in. 

Birch,  to  strike  with  the  birch;  to 

flog. 

There  I  was  birch*  d,  there  I  was  bred, 
There  like  a  little  Adam  fed 

From  Learning's  woeful  tree ! 

Hood,  Ode  on  Prospect  of 
Clapham  Academy. 

Bird- baiting.   See  quotation,  and  H., 

s.  v.  Bird-batting. 

These  people  who  now  approached  were  no 
other,  reader,  than  a  set  of  young  fellows 
who  came  to  these  bushes  in  pursuit  of  a 
diversion  which  they  call  bird-baiting.  This 
...  is  performed  by  holding  a  large  clap-net 
before  a  lantern,  and  at  the  same  time  beating 
the  bushes :  for  the  birds  when  they  are  dis- 
turbed from  their  places  of  rest  or  roost 
immediately  make  to  the  light,  and  so  are 
enticed  within  the  net. — Fielding,  Jos.  An- 
drews, Bk.  II.  ch.  x. 

Bird-bow,  a  bow  for  shooting  bird- 
bolts,  q.  v.  in  N.  The  extract  is  from 
a  deposition  mude  towards  the  end  of 
the  sixteenth  century. 

About  one  fnrdeboioe  shot  from  the  said 
Master  Throckmorton's  House,  this  Exanim- 
ate, walking  with  Penry.  saw  lying  before 
him  in  ye  way  a  Roll  of  Paper. — Arbtr,  In- 
trod,  to  Mar  prelate  Controversy,  p.  134. 

Bird  in  the  hand,  something  cer- 
tain or  practical,  as  opposed  to  the  bird 


BIRDLESS 


(     61     ) 


BISHOPESS 


in  the  bush,  which  is  remote  and  un- 
certain. 

The  Prince  knew  well  where  he  was  now  ; 
when  all  their  capitulations  were  held  to 
be  star-shootings,  flashes,  aud  meteors,  with- 
out the  bird  in  the  hand.  —  Hacket,  Life  of 
Williams,  i.  163. 
Simple !  let  fly  the  bird  within  the  hand. 
To  catch  the  bird  again  within  the  bush, 

Tennyson,  Harold,  II.  ii. 

Birdless.     See  extract. 

He  had  hearde  of  a  certaine  rocke  in  the 
Indies,  whiche  by  reason  of  the  exceeding 
height  of  it  is  called  io  Greke  aopvo*.  bird- 
lesse,  as  if  ye  would  saie,  so  high  that  the 
birdes  mate  not  get  to  the  toppe  of  it. — UdaVs 
Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  217. 

Birdlime,  a  thief ;  one  to  whom  other 
people's  property  sticks ;  also  as  an 
adj.  thievish.    Cf.  Lime-fingered. 

My  rogue  of  a  son  has  laid  his  birdlime 
fingers  ou't. —  Vanbrugh,  Confederacy,  III.  ii. 
That  birdlime  there  stole  it. — Ibid.  v.  2. 

Bird's-eye,  having  yellow  spots  like 

birds1  eyes. 

He  wore  a  blue  bird's-eye  handkerchief 
ronnd  his  neck.  —  Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at 
Oxford,  ch.  xviii. 

Birdsnie,  a  term  of  endearment.  Cf. 
Pigsnie. 

Oh  my  sweet  birdsnie,  what  a  wench  have 
I  of  thee ! — Davenport,  City  Xight-Cap,  Act 

Alt 

Birds  of  a  feather,  people  of  the 
same  character  or  appearance.  The  last 
extract  gives  the  full  form  of  the  pro- 
verb. 

Reboam,  scorning  these  old  senators, 
Leans  to  his  younglings,  minions,  flatterers, 
Birds  of  a  feather  that  with  one  accord 
Cry  out,  importune,  and  persuade  their  lord 
Not  sillily  to  be  by  such  disturb 'd. 

Sylvester,  The  Schisms,  80. 

These,  for  distinction,  and  that  they  might 
be  known  al!  birds  of  a  feather,  are  suited  in 
cassocks  with  a  white  guard  athwart,  which 
gave  this  the  name  of  the  Parliament  of 
white  bends. — Hist,  of  Edward  II.,  p.  58. 

The  idle  and  dissipated  like  birds  of  a 
feather  fock  together. — Southey,  The  Doctor, 
ch.  lxv. 

Birthdays  seems  to  he  used  in  ex- 
tract for  days  of  infancy. 

Kent  thy  birthdays,  and  Oxford  held  thy 
youth.  —  Epitaph  on  Sir  Ph.  Sidney,  1591 
(Eng.  Garner,  i.  292). 

Biscuit-worms,  weevils.  The  fol- 
lowing is  from  the  first  edition  of  the 
Ancient    Mariner    (Lyrical    Ballads, 


1798) ;  in  later  editions  the  line  runs, 
•'  It  ate  the  food  it  ne'er  had  eat." 

The  marineres  gave  it  biscuit-worms, 
And  round  and  round  it  flew. 

Coleridge,  Ancient  Mariner,  Pt.  i. 

Bisexed,  of  two  sexes.  Sylvester 
calls  Adam  and  Eve  "our  bisexed 
parents  free  fcom  sin  n  (Colonies,  22). 
The  word  (but  for  the  context)  might 
be  taken  as  =  hermaphroditical,  in 
which  sense  Sir  T.  Browne  uses  bisexous. 

Bishop,  to  exercise  episcopal  func- 
tions (not  only  to  confirm). 

Harding  and  Saunders  bishop  it  in  England. 
—Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  IX.  ii.  12  (margin). 

Richard  Smith,  titulary  Bishop  of  Chalce- 
don,  taking  his  honor  from  Greece,  his  profit 
from  Euglaud  (where  he  hi  shaped  it  over 
all  the  Romish  Oatholiques),  was  now  very 
busie. — Ibid.  XI.  ii.  7. 

Bishop.  In  1831  two  men,  Bishop 
and  Williams,  drowned  an  Italian  boy 
in  Bethnal  Green,  in  order  to  sell  his 
body  to  the  doctors.  In  the  extract 
the  speaker  intends  to  throw  overboard 
a  young  fellow  whose  father  he  had 
murdered  some  years  before.  In  spite 
of  this  passage,  Bishop  has  escaped  the 
unenviable  privilege  enjoyed  by  Burke, 
a.  v.,  of  adding  a  new  word  to  the  Eng- 
lish language. 

I  Burked  the  papa,  now  Y\\  Bishop  the  son. 
Inyoldshy  Leg.  (Account  of  a  new  play). 

Bishop.  It  is  said  of  milk,  soup,  &c. 
that  is  burnt  that  the  bishop  has  put 
his  foot  in  it  ;  see  first  extract. 

If  the  porridge  be  burned  too,  or  the  meat 
over-roasted,  we  say,  The  bishop  hath  put  his 
foot  in  the  pot,  or,  The  bishop  hath  played  the 
cook,  because  the  bi whops  burn  whom  they 
lust,  and  whosoever  displeaseth  them.  — 
Tyndale,  i.  304. 

Spare  your  ladle,  sir;  it  will  be  as  the 
bishop's  foot  in  the  broth. — Milton,  Animadv. 
on  Remonstr.,  sect.  1. 

Lady  Ans.  "Why  sure*  Betty,  thou  art 
bewitcht ;  this  cream  is  burnt  too. 

Lady  Sm.  Why,  Madam,  the  bishop  has  set 
his  foot  in  it.  —  Swift,  Polite  Conversation 
(Conv.  i.). 

Have  an  eye  to  th'  milk,  and  see  as  it 
does n a'  boil  o'er,  for  she  cauna  stomach  it 
if  it's  bishopped  e'er  so  little. — Mrs.  Gaskell, 
Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  iv. 

Bishopess,  female  bishop,  or  a  bishop's 
wife.  In  the  extract  the  Popish  lam- 
pooner puts  the  word  into  the  mouch 
of  Queen  Elizabeth. 

I'll  see  who  'tis  that  dare  deny  'em 
For  Bishops,  full  as  good  as  I  am ; 


BISHOPLESS 


(    62     )     BLABBER-LIPPED 


Only  in  jurisdiction  lens 

Than  us,  their  Supream  Bishopese. 

Ward,  England's  Reformation, 
c.  ii.  p.  165. 

Bishoplbss,  without  a  bishop. 

Landaff,  .  .  for  the  poorness  thereof,  lay 
Bishopless  for  three  years  after  the  death 
of  Bishop  Kitchin. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Wales 
(ii.  560). 

Bishopric.  The  county  palatine  of 
Durham  was  so  called  ;  the  Bishop  pre- 
vious to  Will.  IV.,  6  &  7, 19,  having 
had  palatine  authority  therein. 

The  air  in  this  Bishopric  is  pretty  cold  and 
piercing.— Defoe,  Tour  thro*  G.  Brit.,  iii.  220. 

Mr.  Greaves  .  .  danced  at  the  [York]  As- 
sembly with  a  young  lady  from  the  bishopric. 
— Smollett,  Sir  L.  Greaves,  ch.  iii. 

BiSHOPSHiP,  episcopacy. 

If  therefore  the  superiority  of  bishop  ship 
be  grounded  on  the  priesthood  as  a  part  of 
the  moral  law,  it  cannot  be  said  to  be  an 
imitation. — Milton,  Reason  of  Ch.  Gov.,  Bk.  I. 
ch.  111. 

With  the  abolition  of  Most  Christian  King- 
ship, and  Most  Talleyrand  Bishopship,  all 
loyal  obedience,  all  religious  faith,  was  to 
expire. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  I.  ch.  vii. 

Bisk,  to  erase  (  Wright's  Prov.  Diet.). 
Southey  is  referring  to  a  chapter  in  The 
Doctor  which  some  prudish  book-club 
had  exscinded.  He  seems  to  mean 
that  it  was  cut  out,  not  merely  blotted 
out  with  a  pen. 

The  chapter  condemned  to  that  operation, 
the  chapter  which  has  been  not  bisked,  but 
semiramised,  is  the  hundred  and  thirty-sixth 
chapter,  concerning  the  pedigree  and  birth 
of  Nobs. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  chapter  extra- 
ordinary. 

Bisyllable,  dissyllable,  which  is  the 

more  usual  word. 

To  every  bisillable  they  allowed  two  times, 
and  to  a  trissillable  three  times. — Puttenftam, 
Arte  of  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iii. 

Bit,  at  full,  unrestrained  (so  we 
speak  of  giving  the  reins  to  passion). 

Israel,  whom  God  calleth  Jeshurun,  and 
oompareth  to  an  heifer  fed  in  large  and 
fruitful  pastures,  going  always  at  full  bit, 
grew  fat  and  wanton.— Sanderson,  iii.  194. 

BiTCHBRY,  whoredom. 

Thither  run  Sots  purely  to  be  drunk  that 
they  may  .  .  forget  the  treachery  of  their 
friends,  the  falsehood  of  their  wives,  the  dis- 
obedience of  their  children,  the  roguery  of 
their  lawyers,  the  bitchery  of  their  paramours, 
or  the  ingratitude  of  the  world. — T.  Brown. 
Works,  iii.  04. 

Bite.    The  Diets,  illustrate  this  word 


in  the  sense  of  a  deception,  but  in 
all  the  examples  the  word  is  preceded 
by  the  article ;  it  was,  however,  also 
used  as  an  interjection  =  the  modern 
expression,  Sold  1  and  also  adjectivally, 
as  by  (Dibber.  In  the  Spectator,  No. 
604,  the  greater  part  of  which  refers  to 
this  word  (see  also  No.  47),  there  is  a 
story  of  a  man  condemned  to  be  hung, 
who  sold  the  reversion  of  his  body  to 
a  surgeon  for  a  guinea.  "This  witty 
rogue  took  the  money,  and,  as  soon  as 
he  had  it  in  his  fist,  cries,  Bite/  I  am 
to  be  hang'd  in  chains." 

Miss.  I'm  sure  the  gallows  groans  for  you. 
Nev.  Bite,  Miss ;  I  was  but  in  jest. — Swift, 
Polite  Conversation  (Con v.  i.). 

Ld.  Mo.  Tift  possible  I  may  not  have  the 
same  regard  to  her  frown  that  your  Lordship 
has. 

Ld.  Fop.  That's  Bite,  I  am  sure ;  he'd  give 
a  joint  of  his  little  finger  to  be  as  well  with 
her  as  I  am. — Gibber,  Careless  Husband,  Act 
III. 

Bite  in,  to  swallow  or  conceal. 

It  was  worth  seeing  how  manly  hee  could 
bite  in  his  secret  want,  and  dissemble  his 
over-late  repentance. — Hall,  Epistles,  Dec.  i. 
Ep.  5. 

Let  him,  being  put  into  that  torturous 
engine  of  burning  brass,  called  the  horse, 
bite  in  his  anguish. — Adams,  i.  439. 

Bite-sheep,  a  scurrilous  corruption 
of  Bishop*  Gauden  speaks  of  those 
who  called  the  Bishops  "the  Popes,  the 
Antichrists,  the  Bite-sheeps,  the  Oppress- 
ors," &c,  and  goes  on  to  say,  "These 
foule  glosses  first  made  by  Martin  Mar- 
prelate"  (Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  617). 

Bitter,  to  make  bitter:  the  com- 
pound embitter  is  common. 

Tis  hops  that  give  a  bitterness  to  beer. 

Would  not  horse-aloes  bitter  it  as  well  ? 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  23 . 

Bizzarre,  eccentric.  L.  gives  the 
word,  but  no  earlier  example  than  from 
Hume. 

Matter  and  Motions  are  bizarr  things, 
humoursome  and  capricious  to  excess. — 
Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  659. 

Although  he  was  very  grave  in  his  own 
person,  he  loved  the  most  bizarr  and  irregular 
wits.— North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  117. 

Blabber-lippkd,  having  thick  lips. 
See  extract,  s.  v.  Baker-legged. 

Van.  My  poore  cosin  that  attends  the 
Dutchesse,  Lady  Jeronime. 

Eur.  What,  that  blaberlipt  blouse  ? — Chap- 
man, Mons.  DJ  Olive,  v.  i. 


BLABBING-BOOKS     (     63    )  BLACK  SHEEP 


Blabbing-books,  tell-tales. 

These  are  the  nettlers,  these  are  the 
blabbing-books  that  tell,  though  not  half,  your 
fellow*  feats. — Milton,  Animadv.  on  Remonst. 
Def.,  sect.  1. 

Black,  ugly.     Cf .  the  Latin  niger. 

Though  I  am  black,  I  am  sure  all  the  world 
will  not  forsake  me ;  and,  as  the  old  proverb 
fc,  though  I  am  black,  I  am  not  the  devil. — 
Peek,  Old  Wives1  Tale,  p.  453. 

To  break  off  this  for  the  entertainment  of 
vanity  is  more  absurd  than  for  a  husband  to 
leave  his  fair  and  chaste  wife,  peerless  for 
beauty  and  innocency,  for  the  embraces  of 
a  black  and  stigmatical  strumpet. — Adams, 
iii.  89. 

Black- art,  magic. 

These  Wizzards  ween  to  win  it  by  Black' 
Art.— Sylvester,  The  Trophies,  p.  631. 

Tet  will  he  never  study  the  black  and 
senseless  art  of  calculating  his  birth  and 
death. —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  54. 

Black-artist,  a  magician. 

Let's  also  flee  the  furious-curious  Spell 
Of  those  Black- Artists  that  consult  with 

HeU 
To  finde  things  lost. 

Sylvester,  Little  B arias,  408. 

Black-a-top,  black-haired. 

Can  you  fancy  that  black-a-toji,  snub-nosed, 
sparrow-mouthed,  paunch-bellied  creature? 
— Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  31. 

Blackaviced,  dark  -  complexioned. 
See  Jamieson,  s.  v. 

I  would  advise  her  blackaviced  suitor  to 
look  out;  if  another  comes  with  a  longer 
or  clearer  rent-roll,  he's  dished. — C.  Bronte, 
Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xix. 

Blackback,  the  great  black-backed 

gull  Larus  Marinus. 

Below  them  from  the  Gull-rock  rose  a 
thousand  birds,  and  filled  the  air  with  sound ; 
the  choughs  cackled,  the  hacklets  wailed,  the 
great  blackbacks  laughed  querulous  defiance 
at  the  intruders. — C.  Kingsley,  Westward  Ho, 
ch.  xxxii. 

Blackguard,  to  abuse. 

There's  enough  of  this  chaff ;  I  have  been 
called  names  and  blackguarded  quite  suffi- 
ciently for  one  sitting.  —  Thackeray,  New- 
comes,  ch.  xrix. 

Black-heart,  a  species  of  cherry. 

The  unnetted  black-hearts  ripen  dark, 
All  thine,  against  the  garden  wall. 

Tennyson,  The  Blackbird, 

Black  Monday.  Easter  Monday  in 
1360  was  so  cold  that  many  of  Edward 
III.'s  soldiers,  then  before  Paris,  died. 
See    H.   and  N.     North's  explanation 


refers  to  some  eclipse,  but  I  have  been 
unable  to  discover  any  eclipse,  likely  to 
be  meant  by  him,  occurring  on  a  Mon- 
day ;  perhaps  he  had  an  idea  that  the 
extreme  cold  on  Easter  Monday  1360 
was  caused  by  an  eclipse.  Blade  Mon- 
day also  =  the  Monday  on  which  school 
reopens. 

The  darkness  was  greater  than  under  the 
great  solar  eclipse  that  denominated  Black 
Monday. — North,  Examen,  p  505. 

She  now  hated  my  sight,  and  made  home 
so  disagreeable  to  me,  that  what  is  called  by 
school-boys  Black  Monday  was  to  me  the 
whitest  in  the  whole  year. — Fielding,  Tom 
Jones,  Bk.  VIII.  ch.  xi. 

Black -mouthed,  abusive;  foul- 
mouthed.   See  extract,  s.  v.  A vunculize. 

Black-on-white,  manuscript:  usually 
written  black-and-white,  as  in  the  first 
quotation. 

Now  am  I  down  in  black  and  white  for  a 
tame  fool ;  is  it  not  so  ? — Richardson,  Grandi- 
son,  ii.  6*9. 

The  original  covenant  stipulating  to  pro- 
duce Paradise  Lost  on  the  one  hand  and  five 
pounds  sterling  on  the  other  still  lies  (we 
have  been  told)  in  black-on-white,  for  in- 
spection and  purchase  by  the  curious,  at  a 
bookshop  in  Chancery  Lane. — CaiiyU,  Misc., 
iii.  79. 

His  accounts  lie  all  ready,  correct  in  black- 
on-white  to  the  uttermost  farthing. — Ibid., 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  II.  ch.  viii. 

Black  ox  (see  N.)  is  applied  to  one 
worn  out  with  age  or  care.  A  different 
proverb  seems  referred  to  in  the  ex- 
tract. 

Was  he  not  known  to  have  been  as  wild  a 
man,  when  he  was  at  first  introduced  into 
our  family,  as  he  now  is  said  to  be  ?  Tet 
then  the  common  phrase  of  wild  oats,  and 
black  oxen,  and  such-like  were  qualifiers. — 
Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  i.  344. 

Black- pot,  drinking  pot,  and  so  a 
reveller. 

I'll  be  prince  of  Wales  over  all  the  black- 
pots  in  Oxford. — Greene,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  100. 

Black  sheep,  a  reprobate;  a  mau- 
vaU  svjet.  See  another  extract  from 
Thackeray, «.  v.  Cloth. 

Jekvl  .  .  is  not  such  a  black  sheep  neither 
but  what  there  are  some  white  hairs  about 
him.— Scott,  St.  Ronan's  Well,  ii.  312. 

Their  father  had  never  had  the  courage  to 
acquaint  them  with  his  more  true,  kind, 
and  charitable  version  of  Tom's  story.  So 
he  passed  at  home  for  no  better  than  a  black 
sheep. — Thackeray,  Netccomes,  ch.  v. 


BLADDER  Y 


(    64     ) 


BLAY 


Bladdery,  swollen  out  like  bladders, 
la   dim    sea-cave    with    bladdery   sea-weed 

strewed. — Coleridge,  To  a  Lady. 
See  as  they  float  along  th'  entangled  weeds 
Slowly  approach,  upborne  on  bladdery  beads. 
Crabbe,  The  Borough,  Letter  be. 

Blade,  to  take  by  force,  as  with  the 

sword  or  blade. 

At  Damon's  lodging  if  that  you  see 

Any  sturre  to  arise,  be  still  at  hande  by  mee ; 

Bather  than  I  will  lose  the  spoile,  I  will  blade 

it  out.  —  Edwards,   Damon    and    Pithias 

(Dodsley,  O.  Pl.,i.  248). 

Blader,  one  who  makes  knife-blades. 

One  may  justly  wonder  how  a  knife  may 
be  sold  for  one  penny,  three  trades,  anciently 
distinct,  concurring  thereunto,  Mailers,  haft- 
makers,  and  sheath-makers,  all  since  united 
into  the  Corporation  of  Cutlers.  —  Fuller, 
Worthies,  Yorkshire  (ii.  492). 

Blades.    This  seems  to  have  been  one 

of  the  cant  names  for  the  roaring  boys  in 

the  seventeenth  century.    Cf.  Un blade. 

I  do  not  all  this  while  account  you  in 

The  list  of  those  are  called  the  blades  that 

roar 
In  brothels,  and  break  windows ;  fright  the 

streets 
At  midnight,  worse  than  constables;    and 

sometimes 
Bet  upon  innocent  bell-men  to  beget 
Discourse  for  a  week's   diet;   that    swear 

dammes 
To  pay  their  debts,  and  march  like  walking 

armories. 
With  poniard,  pistol,  rapier,  and  batoon, 
As  they  would  murder  all  the  king's  liege 

people, 
And  blow  down  streets. 

Shirley,  The  Gamester,  Act  I. 

Blanches,  a  glosser.  It  is  usually  a 
sporting  term,  and  so  Latimer  uses  it, 
p.  76.     See  N. ,  *.  v. 

So  He  was  .  .  the  Lamb  that  hath  been 
slaiu  from  the  beginuing  of  the  world ;  and 
therefore  he  is  called  jugc  sacrificium,  a  con- 
tinual sacrifice ;  aud  not  for  the  continuance 
of  the  mass,  as  the  blanchers  have  blanched 
it  and  wrested  it,  and  as  I  myself  did  once 
betake  it. — Latimer,  i.  73. 

Bland.    See  quotation. 

She  filled  a  small  wooden  quaigh  from  an 
earthen  pitcher  which  contained  bland,  a  sub- 
acid liquor  made  out  of  the  serous  part  of 
the  milk. — Scott,  The  Pirate,  ch.  vi 

Blandation,  an  illusion  ;  something 
that  appears,  but  is  unreal,  like  flattery 
(the  usual  meaning  of  the  word). 

There's  no  bodie,  nothing — a  meere  blanda- 
tion, a  deceptio  visus. — Chapman,  Widdowea 
Teares,  Act  V. 


Blandtloquous,  smooth-speaking. 

Though  he  flatter  with  the  voice  of  the 
hyena  at  the  door,  and  give  Wandiloqwnis 
proffers,  yet  "Janua  fallaci  non  sit  aperUx 
viro." — Adams,  ii.  64. 

Blandish  down,  to  soften. 

At  her  right  hand  in  this  cause  labours 
fair  Josephine,  the  widow  Beauharnais, 
though  in  straitened  circumstances:  intent, 
both  of  them,  to  blandish  down  the  grimneas 
of  republican  austerity,  and  recivilize  man- 
kind.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Bev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  VII. 
ch.  ii. 

Blanket.  An  illegitimate  child  is 
said  to  be  born  on  the  wrong  side  of  the 
blanket. 

Thof  my  father  wan't  a  gentleman,  my 
mother  was  an  honest  woman ;  I  didn't  come 
on  the  wrong  side  of  the  blanket,  girl. — Smollett + 
Humphrey  Clinker,  ii.  185. 

This  person  was  natural  son  to  a  gentle- 
man of  good  family.  .  .  "  Frank  Kennedy," 
he  said,  "  was  a  gentleman,  though  on  the 
wrong  side  of  the  blanket."— Scott,  Guy  Man- 
nering,  i.  83. 

Blanketing,  material  of  which  blan- 
kets are  made. 

Witney,  ...  so  famous  for  the  manufac- 
tures of  blanketing  and  rugs.  —  Defoe,  Tour 
thro1  G.  Britain,  ii.  275. 

Blastbob,  gust  of  wind.  Stanyhuret 
(JSn.,  i.  559)  has  blastpuf  in  the  same 
sense. 

Thee  boughs  flap  whurring,  when  stem 
with  blastbob  is  hacked.— Stanyhurst,  j£n.9 
iv.  467. 

Blasterus,  destructive ;  blasting. 

Much  lyke  as  in  corneshocks  sindged  with 

blasterus  hurling 
Of  South wynd  whizeling. 

Stanyhurst,  <En.,  ii.  314. 

Blater,  a  calf  (slang).  To  cry  beef  on 
a  blater  —  to  make  a  fuss  about  nothing. 

Don't  be  glim-flashy  ;  why  you'd  cry  beef 
on  a  blater. — Lytton,  Pelham,  ch.  Ixxxii. 

Blay,  to  bleat. 

The  multitude  to  Jove  a  suit  imparts, 
With  neighing,  Maying,  braying,  and  barking, 
ftoring  and  howling  for  to  have  a  king. 

Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  398. 

Then  adieu,  dear  flock,  adieu : 
But  alas,  if  in  your  straying 
Heavenly  Stella  meets  with  you, 
Tell  her  in  your  piteous  Maying 
Her  poor  slave's  unjust  decaying. 

Ibid.,  Astr.  and  Stella,  ninth  song. 

He  knows  not  the  bleaying  of  a  calf  from 
the  song  of  a  nightingale.—  Ilrid.,  Wanstead 
Pastoral,  p.  622. 


BLAZES 


(     °5     ) 


BLINKARD 


Blazes.  Like  blazes  =  very  vehe- 
mently ;  like  fire  (slang). 

The  hone  was  to  maddened  by  the  wound, 
and  the  road  bo  steep,  that  he  went  like  blazes. 
— Be  Quineey,  Spanish  Nun,  fleet.  24. 

Blazonmbnt,  ostentatious  publication. 

Perhaps  the  person  least  complacently  dis- 
posed towards  him  at  that  moment  was  Lady 
Mai  linger,  to  whom  going  in  procession  up 
this  country-dance  with  Grandoourt  was  a 
blazonment  of  herself  as  the  infelicitous  wife 
"who  had  produced  nothing  but  daughters*— 
Cr.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xxxvi. 

Bleach,  bleak. 

His  devotion  is  rather  to  be  admired  than 
his  discretion  to  be  commended,  leaving  a 
f rnitfull  soile  for  a  bleach,  barren  place. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  I.  vi.  4. 

Bleab,  to  loll  or  thrust  out. 

To  go  on  a  man  his  tiptoes,  stretching  out 
the  one  of  his  armes  forwarde,  the  other 
backwarde,  which  if  he  blered  out  his  tunge 
also,  myght  be  thought  to  daunoe  anticke 
verye  properlye. — Aseham,  Toxophilus,  p.  47. 

LAngula,  a  promontorie  or  hill  lying  in  the 
sea ;  a  narrows  peece  of  land,  or  a  long  ridge 
running  into  the  sea,  like  a  toong  Hearing  out 
of  the  mouth.— NomencUtor  (1585),  p.  389. 

[They]  stood  staring  and  gaping  upon  Him, 
wagging  their  heads,  writhing  their  mouths, 
yea,  blearing  out  their  tongues.  —  Andrewes, 
u.  173. 

Blkbt,  Blitum  Virgatum,  Strawberry 
Blite. 

Such  hearbs  as  haue  no  straight  and  direct 
root,  run  immediatly  into  hairie  threds,  as  we 
may  see  plainly  in  the  orach  and  bleet. — 
Holland,  Pliny,  six.  0. 

.    Buenos. 

8he  left  the  JSolian  harp  in  the  window, 
as  a  luxury  if  she  should  wake,  and  coiled 
herself  up  among  lace  pillows  and  eider 
blemos.—C.  Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  n. 

Bless  oneself,  to  be  surprised.  See 
extract  from  Gentleman  Instructed, 
s.  v.  Smart. 

Sir  Francis  bless'd  himself  to  find  such 
mercy  from  one  whom  he  had  so  grievously 
provok'd.— Hacket,  life  of  Williams,  i.  84. 

Gould  Sir  Thomas  look  in  upon  us  just 
now,  he  would  bless  himself,  for  we  are  re- 
hearsing all  over  the  house.— Miss  Austen, 
Mansfield  Park,  ch.  xviii. 

Bless  self  from,  have  nothing  to  do 
with. 

Since  my  master  longs  to  be  undone, 

The  great  fiend  be  his  steward ;  I  will  pray, 

And  bless  myself  from  him. 

Massinger,  City  Madam,  II.  i. 
Simeon  and  Levi  seemed  to  have  just  cause, 
the  whoredom  of  their  own  sister,  yet  their 


father  calls  them  brethren  in  evil  for  it, 
blesseth  his  honour  from  their  company,  and 
his  soul  from  their  secrecy. — Adams,  ii.  322. 

Blindation,   something    that    shuts 

out  the  light 

We  will  not  sit  down  charmed  with  the 
concealments  of  these  authors,  who  affectedly 
build  up  blindations  before  one  of  the  foulest 
knots  of  iniquity  that  ever  denied  the  sun's 
light. — North,  Examen,  p.  196. 

Blindish,  somewhat  blind. 

Gerard's  heart  was  better  than  his  nerves : 
he  saw  his  friend's  mortal  danger,  and  passed 
at  once  from  fear  to  blindish  rage.— itawfe, 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  xxiv. 

Blindless,  without  blinds. 

It  was  my  wont  to  wander  all  solitary, 
gazing  at  the  stars  through  the  high  blindless 
windows. — Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xx. 

The  new  sun 
Beat  through  the  blindless  casement  of  the 

room. — Tennyson,  Geraint  and  Enid. 

Bundling,  blind. 

O  that  my  head  were  a  fountain  of  tears, 
to  weep  for  and  bewail  the  stupidity,  yea, 
the  desperate  madness,  of  infinite  sorts  of 
people  that  rush  upon  death,  and  drop  into 
hell  blindling. —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  57. 

Blindman's  Holiday,  the  time  when 
it  is  too  dark  to  do  anything.  Florio 
(1597)  has  the  phrase,  s.  v.  feriato, 
"  vacancie  from  labour,  rest  from  work, 
blind  man '$  holiday;  "  perhaps  because 
then  the  blind  are  at  no  disadvantage. 

What  will  not  blind  Cupid  doe  in  the 
night,  which  is  his  blindman's  holiday?  — 
Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  {Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  167). 

Indeed,  madam, it  is  blindman's  holiday;  we 
shall  soon  be  all  of  a  colour. — Swift,  Polite 
Conversation  (Conv.  iii.). 

Blink.  H.  says,  "  According  to  Ken- 
nett,  MS.  Lansd.,  1033,  a  term  in  set- 
ting, when  the  dog  is  afraid  to  make  his 
point,  but  being  over-aw'd  comes  back 
from  the  scent,"  Hence  applied  to 
persons  who  wilfully  shut  their  eyes  to 
something. 

There's  a  bitch,  Towwonse,  by  G —  she 
never  blinked  a  bird  in  her  life. — Fielding, 
Jos.  Andrews,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xvi. 

It  is  prettily  said  on  behalf  of  the  poetic 
side  of  the  profession ;  there  is  a  prosaic  ene 
—well  blink  it.— Lytton,  What  will  he  do 
with  it?  TSk.  I.  ch.iv. 

Then  those  that  did  not  blink  the  terror  saw 
That  Death  was  cast  to  ground. 

Tennyson,  Gareth  and  Lynette. 

Blink abd,  purblind.  See  quotation 
b.v.  Bespectacled.  The  Diets,  only 
give  the  word  as  a  substantive. 

F 


BLITHE 


(     66     ) 


BLOOMLESS 


Blinkard  history  has  for  the  most  part 
all  but  overlooked  this  aspect. — Carlyle,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  V.  ch.  ▼. 

Blithe,  to  rejoice. 

Take  heed  by  me  that  blith'd  in  baleful 
bliss. — Saekville,  Duke  of  Buckingham,  st.  68. 

Blob,  a  babble,  splotch,  or  blot. 

Tom's  friend,  being  of  an  ingenious  turn 
of  mind,  suggested  sealing  with  ink,  and  the 
letter  was  accordingly  stuck  down  with  a 
blob  of  ink. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown's  School' 
days,  Pt.  I.  ch.  iii. 

14  All  that  it  wants,"  said  Bell,  with  a  criti- 
cal eye,  **  is  a  little  woman  in  a  scarlet  shawl 
under  the  trees  there,  ....  making  a  little 
blob  of  strong  colour,  you  know,  just  like  a 
lady-bird  among  green  moss. — Black,  Adven- 
tures of  a  Phaeton,  ch.  ▼. 

Block,  the  head  (slang). 

I  cleaned  a  groom's  boots  a  Toosday,  and 
he  punched  my  block  because  I  blacked  the 
tops. — H.  Kingsley,  Bavenshoe,  ch.  xxxv. 

Blondness,  fairness. 

How  lovely  this  creature  was,  .  .  herself 
so  immaculately  blond,  .  .  and  yet  with  this 
infantine  blondness  showing  so  much  ready, 
self -possessed  grace. — G.  Eliot,  Middlemarch, 
ch.  xvi. 

Blood.  Bad  blood  =  anger  or  dis- 
union. 

Partly  to  make  bad  blood,  and  partly  to 
force  the  king  to  let  the  parliament  meet 
and  sit,  which  by  diverse  prorogations  had 
been  put  off,  and  might  be  so  again,  they 
instituted  a  method  of  petitioning  the  king 
that  the  parliament  might  meet  and  sit. — 
North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  25. 

Blood.  Best  of  blood  =  nearest  of 
kin. 

He  is  my  brother,  and  my  beet  of  blood. — 
Machin,  Dumb  Knight,  Act  V. 

Blood-guiltless,  free  from  homicide 

or  murder. 

I  am  glad  you  have  got  rid  of  your  duel 
blood-guiltless. —  Walpole  to  Mann,  iii.  40 
(1753). 

Bloods,  blood  relations. 

I  have  so  many  cousius,  and  uncles,  and 
aunts,  and  bloods  that  grow  in  Norfolk,  that 
if  I  had  portioned  out  my  affections  to  them, 
as  they  say  I  should,  what  a  modicum  would 
have  fallen  to  each ! —  Walpole,  Letters,  i.  90 
(1741). 

Bloods,  lives.  The  singular  is  com- 
mon in  this  sense,  but  the  Diets,  give 
no  instance  of  the  plural. 

Your  majesty  remembers,  I  am  sure, 
What  cruel  slaughter  of  our  Christian  bloods 
These  heathenish  Turks  and  Pagans  lately 
made. — Marlowe,  2  Tamburlaine,  II.  i. 


Much  less  can  the  Seminaries  dying  in 
England  for  treason  arrogate  to  themselves 
the  glory  of  martyrdom,  though  a  vicious 
affectation  of  it  hath  hardened  them  to  such 
a  prodigality  of  their  bloods. — Adams,  i.  92. 

Worthy  to  be  bought  with  all  labour,  with 
expense  of  goods,  with  expense  of  bloods. — 
Ibid.  iii.  92. 

Bloods.  In  Peregrine  Pickle,  ch. 
zvi.,  it  is  stated  that  the  senior  boys  at 
Winchester  "  were  distinguished  by  the 
appellation  of  bloods."  The  term  is 
now  unknown  in  the  school,  even  by 
tradition. 

Blood-sloken,  blood  soaked. 

The  blood  that  they  have  shed  will  hide  no 

longer 
In  the  blood-sloken  soil,  but  cries  to  Heaven. 
Taylor,  Ph.  van  AH.,  Pt.  II.  ii.  1. 

Bloodstick,  "a  short  heavy  stick 
used  by  farriers  to  strike  their  lancet 
when  bleeding  a  horse  "  (H.,  who,  how- 
ever, gives  no  example). 

The  handle  [of  the  Protestant  flail]  resem- 
bled a  farrier  8  bloodstick. — North,  Examen, 
p.  573. 

Bloodsuck,  to  8ii ck  blood.  Shake- 
speare has  the  participial  adj.,  "  blood- 
sucking  sighs"  (3  lien.  VI. ,  V.  iv.). 

Thus  bloodsucketh  he  the  poore  for  his  own 
private  profite. — Greene,  Quip  for  Upstart 
Courtier  (Harl.  Misc.,  v.  418). 

Blood-supper,  a  murderous  or  blood- 
thirsty person.  Blood-sucker  is  used 
by  Shakespeare  and  others  in  this 
sense. 

A  cruell  deuelisshe  bio  ud supper  dronken 
in  the  bloude  of  the  sayntes  and  martens 
of  Christ. — Simon  Fish,  Suj>plication  for  the 
Beggars,  p.  6. 

Blood  -  thirsting,     thirsting     after 

blood. 

Assassination,  her  whole  mind 
Blood-thirsting,  on  her  arm  reclined. 

Churchill,  The  Duellist,  iii.  68. 

Blood- warm,  of  the  temperature  of 

blood. 

The  Temper  of  the  Water  is  equal  to  new 
Milk,  or  Blood-warm,  procuring  a  moderate 
perspiration.  —  Defoe,  Tour  thro*  G.  Brit., 
iii.  65. 

Bloodyful,  full  of  blood.  The  word 
in  original  is  crudeles. 

His  brest  he  vncloased,  thee  wound,  and 
Uuddyful  altars. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.  340. 

Bloomless,  without  bloom  or  blossom. 


m*mg^ 


BLOOMSBURY-BIRDS    (    67     ) 


BL  UCHERS 


The  hills  are  heathy,  save   that   swelling 

slope, 
Which  hath  a  gay  and  gorgeous  covering  on, 
All  golden  with  the  never-bloomless  furze, 
Which  now  blooms  most  profusely. 

Coleridge,  Fears  in  Solitude. 

Bloomsbuby-Birds. 

Oar  corner -miching  priests  with  the 
Bloomesberry- Birds  their  disciples,  and  other 
hot-spirited  recusants,  cut  out  the  way  with 
the  complaints  of  their  (no-grievous)  suffer- 
ings, which  involved  us  in  distractions. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  134. 

Bloused,  clothed  in  a  blouse  or  loose 
frock. 

There  was  a  bloused  and  bearded  French- 
man or  two. — C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch. 
xsriii. 

Blow,  to  defile.    Cf.  Fly-blow. 

He  suffered  them  most  patiently  to  lay 
their  hands  most  violently  upon  Him,  and 
to  bind  Him,  and  to  lead  Him  forth  as  a 
thief,  and  to  scorn  Him  and  buffet  Him,  and 
all-to  blow  or  file  Him  with  their  spittings. 
—Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  72. 

Blowen,  a  showy  woman :  used  dis- 
paragingly (thieves'  cant). 

Why  don't  they  have  a  short  simple  service 
now  and  then,  that  might  catch  the  ears  of 
the  roughs  and  the  Moreens,  without  tiring 
out  the  poor  thoughtless  creatures1  patience, 
as  they  do  now  ? — C.  Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  zi. 

Blowgdn,  a  gun  whose  missile  was 
propelled  by  the  breath. 

Many  of  them  too  are  armed  with  the 
pocuna,  or  blowgun,  of  the  Indians;  more 
deadly,  because  more  silent,  than  the  fire- 
arms.— C.  Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  xxiii. 

Blow  hot  and  cold,  to  be  treacherous 
or  inconsistent  The  expression  alludes 
to  the  story  referred  to  in  the  first  ex- 
tract. 

The  hermit  turned  his  guest  out  of  doors 
for  this  trick,  that  he  could  warm  his  cold 
hands  with  the  same  breath  wherewith  he 
cooled  his  hot  pottage. — Adams,  i.  169. 

Though  she  acknowledged  she  had  power 
from  the  Emperor  to  cause  cessation  of 
arms  in  the  Palatinate,  and  undertook  to 
put  that  power  forth,  yet  with  the  same 
breath  she  blew  hot  and  cold. — Hacket,  Life 
of  Williams,  i.  180. 

I  could  not  lightly  agitate  and  fan 
The  airier  motions  of  an  amorous  fancy, 
And  by  a  skill  in  blowing  hot  and  cold, 
And  changeful  dalliance,  quicken  you  with 
doubts. — Taylor,  Virgin  Widow,  iv.  5. 

Blow-line. 

Great  anglers  .  .  .  who  could  do  many 
things  besides  handling  a  blow-line.  —  C. 
Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  Introd. 


Blown,  flattered  or  puffed  up.  See 
N.,  8.  v. 

I  have  to  do 
With  many  men,  and  many  natures.    Some 
That  must  be  blown  and  soothed,  as  Lentulus, 
Whom  I  have  heaved  with  magnifying  his 

blood. — Jonson,  Catiline,  I.  i. 

Blown  off,  exploded. 

A  gross  fallacy  and  inconsequence,  con- 
cluding ab  imparibus  tanquam  paribus,  and 
more  than  sufficiently  confutea  and  blown 
off.— South,  iii.  222. 

Blow-out,  an  entertainment  or  feast. 

"  She  sent  me  a  card  for  her  blow-out,"  said 

Mowbray, "  and  so  I  am  resolved  to  go." — 
Scott,  St.  Ronan's  Well,  ii.  264. 

The  giving  good  feeds  is,  with  many  of 
these  worthies,  the  grand  criterion  by  which 
the  virtues  and  talents  of  mankind  are  mea- 
sured. In  the  city,  and  amongst  the  junior 
branches  of  certain  honourable  professions, 
which  shall  be  nameless,  the  phrase  is 
stronger,  but  the  value  and  meaning  are  pre- 
cisely the  same :  these  persons  call  a  similar 
favour  either  a  "spread"  or  a  "blow-out." 
Whenever  I  hear  a  man  use  either  of  these 
expressions  I  take  out  my  note-book  and 
insert  his  name  in  a  list  which  I  keep  there, 
the  classification  of  which  I  shall  here  omit, 
seeing  that  it  may  be  sufficient  to  observe, 
that  the  page  in  which  the  muster-roll  of 
such  persons  is  written,  is  that  which  is  the 
farthest  removed  from  another  list  which  I 
also  keep-— of  gentlemen. — Th.  Hook,  Man  of 
Many  Friends. 

Blubberation,  crying. 

They  sang  a  quartette  in  grand  bluhberation, 
The  stranger  cried,  Oh !    Mrs.  Haller  cried, 

Ah! 

H.  and  J.  Smith,  Rejected  Addresses,  p.  177. 

Blub-cheeked,  swollen-cheeked. 

Bough-blustering   Boreas,  nurst    with    Ri- 

phean  snowe. 
And    bltib-cheekt  Auster,  puft  with    fumes 

.  before, 
Met  in  the  midst,  jostling  for  room,  do  roar. 

Sylvester,  Tfie  Lawe,  1004. 

Bluchers,  boots  of  a  somewhat  com- 
mon and  clumsy  description. 

Islington  clerks  .  .  walked  to  town  in 
the  conscious  pride  of  white  stockings  and 
cleanly-brushed  Bluchers. — Sketches  by  Boz 
{Bloomsbury  Christening). 

It  will  not  unfrequently  happen  that  a  pair 
of  trowsers  inclosing  a  pair  of  boots  with  iron 
heels,  and  known  by  the  name  of  the  cele- 
brated Prussian  General  who  came  up  to 
help  the  other  christener  of  boots  at  Water- 
loo, will  be  flung  down  from  the  topmost 
story. — Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  xi. 

I  wouldn't  have  come  in  these  Bluchers,  if 
I  had  known  it.  Confound  it,  no.  Hoby 
himself,  my  own  bootmaker,  wouldn't  have 

F  2 


BL  UDDER 


(     6S     ) 


BLUE  RUIN 


allowed  poor  F.  B.  to  appear  in  Bluchers,  if 
he  had  known  that  I  was  going  to  meet  the 
Duke. — Ibid.  ch.  xiii. 

BLDDDER,to  talk  nonsensically.  Bale, 
in  his  Declaration  of  Bonner  8  Articles 
(Art.  xxxvi.),  calls  that  Bishop  "this 
bussard,  this  beast,  and  this  bluddering 
papiste." 

Ye  are  much  better  overseen  than  learned 
in  the  Scriptures  of  God,  as  your  old  blind 
bluddering  predecessors  hath  been.  —  Bale, 
Select  Works,  p.  193. 

Blue,  to  make  blue. 
[God]  playd  the  painter  when  He  did  so 

The  turning  globes,  blew'd  seas,  and  green'd 
the  field. 

Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  1175. 

Blue.  To  look  blue  =  to  be  sad  or 
discomfited,  referring  perhaps  to  the 
miserable  look  of  a  person  who  is  very 
cold ;  so  bluely  =  badly. 

He  still  came  off  but  bluely. — UrquharVs 
Rabelais,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  xxxv. 

Our  cavalier  had  come  off  but  bluely,  had 
the    lady's   rigour    continu'd.  —  T.    Brown, 
Works,  i.  284. 

Wise  sir,  I  fear 
We  shall  come  off  but  blewly  here. 

Ward,  England's  Reformation, 
cant.  i.  p.  67. 
But  when  Boscawen  came,  La  Clue 
Sheer'd  off,  and  look'd  confounded  blue. 
Warton,  Newsman's  Verses  for  1760. 

The  cunningest  engineers  can  do  nothing. 
Necker  himself,  were  he  ever  listened  to, 
begins  to  look  blue. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I. 
Bk.  V.  ch.  i. 

Blue,  to  make  look  blue  (?)  ;  to  dis- 
concert (?). 

King  Edward  III.,  who  was  deeply  in  love 
with  the  Countess  of  Salisbury,  was  very  for- 
ward to  take  up  a  (blue)  garter  which 
happen'd  to  drop  from  the  lady's  leg  while 
she  was  dancing  at  a  ball. . .  This  action  set 
many  of  the  company  a  laughing,  which  very 
much  blew'd  the  Countess. — Misson,  Travels 
in  Eng.  p.  170. 

Blue,  learned,  or  fond  of  literature 
(applied  to  women)  :  often  employed 
disparagingly  ;  also  as  a  substantive,  a 
learned  woman. 

He  was  a  little  the  more  anxious  not  to  be 
surprised  to-night,  lest  his  being  too  tired  for 
walking  should  be  imputed  to  his  literary 
preference  of  reading  to  a  blue.  At  tea  Miss 
Planta  again  joined  us,  and  instantly  be- 
hind him  went  the  book ;  he  was  very  right, 
for  nobody  would  have  thought  it  more  odd 
or  more  blue. — Mad.  D'Arblay%  Diary,  iv.  219. 

Le»  Dames  des  Roches,  both  mother  and 


daughter,  were  remarkable  and  exemplary 
women  ;  and  there  was  a  time  when  Poic tiers 
derived  as  much  glory  from  those  blue  ladies 
as  from  the  Black  Prince.  —  Southey,  Tlie 
Doctor,  ch.  lxxxix. 

Blue  blood,  a  Spanish  expression  for 
noble  blood ;  proDably  from  the  blue 
veins  of  the  Gothic  race  appearing  be- 
neath the  fair  skin,  as  distinguished 
from  the  dark  Moors,  in  whom  this 
would  not  be  visible. 

There  were  some  foreign  officers ;  one  in 
particular,  from  Spain,  of  high  rank  and 
Dirth,  of  the  sangre  azul,  the  blue  blood,  who 
have  the  privilege  of  the  silken  cord,  if  thev 
should  come  to  be  hanged. — Miss  Edgeworth, 
Helen,  ch.  xv. 

Her  blood  may  be  as  blue  as  King  Philip's 
own,  but  it  is  Spanish  still. — Kingsley,  West" 
ward  Ho,  ch.  xxix. 

Mary.  They  call  him  cold, 

Haughty,  ay,  worse. 

Renard.  Why,  doubtless  Philip  shows 

Some  of  the  bearing  of  your  blue  blood. 

Tennyson,  Queen  Mary,  i.  5. 

Blue-cap,  a  Scotchman.  The  refer- 
ence in  the  first  quotation  is  to  the 
battle  of  Bannockbourn. 

A  rabble  multitude  of  despised  Blue-caps 
encounter,  rout,  and  break  the  flower  of 
England. — Hist,  of  Edward  II.,  p.  39. 

Although  he  could  neither  write  nor  read, 
Tet  our  General  Lashly  cross'd  the  Tweed, 
With  his  gay  gang  of  bleio-caps  all. 

Merry  Drollerie,  p.  93. 

Blue  eyes,  black  eyes. 

To  whom  are  wounds,  broken  heads,  blue 
eyes,  maimed  limbs  ? —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  150. 

Blueism,  the  possession  or  affectation 
of  learning  in  a  woman. 

He  had  seen  the  lovely,  learned  Lady 
Frances  Bellamy,  and  had  fallen  a  victim  to 
her  beauty  and  Blueism. — Th.  Hook,  Man  of 
Many  Friends. 

Blue  point,  something  worthless.  A 
point  was  a  tag  or  lace,  and  blue  was 
the  usual  colour  of  a  servant's  livery  ; 
hence  blue  point  =  some  coarse  lace  or 
string  on  a  servant's  coat.  Point  by  it- 
self was  qsed  in  this  disparaging  sense. 

In  matters  not  worth  a  blewe  poinct . .  we 
will  spare  for  no  cost.—  Udal*s  Erasmus'* 
Apophth.,  p.  8. 

He  was,  for  the  respect  of  his  qualities, 
not  to  be  estemed  worth  a  blewe  point  or  a 
good  lous. — Ibid.  p.  187. 

I  am  sworn  servant  to  Virtue ;  therefore  a 
point  for  thee  and  thy  villanies.— -JRreton, 
Dream  of  Strange  Effects,  p.  17. 

Blue  buin,  gin  of  apparently  an  in- 
ferior   quality.      In   a    political    tract 


BLUES 


(    69     ) 


BLUSH 


published  in  1753,  the  English  are 
spoken  of  as  " expensive  in  blew  beer" 
which  may  perhaps  mean  the  same  as 
blue  ruin  (^.  and  Q.,  I.  ii.  246). 

He  sipped  no  olden  Tom  or  ruin  blue, 
Or  Nantz  or  cherry  brandy. 

Keats,  A  Portrait. 

Some  of  the  whole-hoggery  in  the  House 
of  Commons  he  would  designate  by  Deady, 
or  Wet  and  Heavy,  some  by  weak  tea,  others 
by  Blue  ruin,  Old  Tom,  which  rises  above 
Blue  ruin  to  the  tone  of  threepence  a  glass, 
and,  yet  more  fiery  than  Old  Tom,  as  being  a 
fit  beverage  for  another  Old  One  who  shall  be 
nameless,  gin  and  brimstone. — Southey,  The 
Doctor,  Interchapter  xvi. 

His  ear   caught  the  sound   of   the    word 
Morbleu! 

Pronounced  by  the  old  woman  under  her 
breath; 

Now,  not  knowing  what  she  could  mean  by 
Blue  Death, 

He  conceived  she  referred  to  a  delicate  brew- 
ing. 

Which  is  almost  synonymous,  namely,  Blue 
Ruin. 

Ingoldshy  Legends  (Bagman's  Dog). 

Blues.  Police,  from  the  colour  of 
their  uniform. 

Well,  that's  the  row,  and  who  can  guess  the 

upshot  after  all  ? 
Whether    Harmony    will    ever    make    the 

"  Arms  "  her  house  of  call ; 
Or  whether   this    here  mobbing,  as  some 

longish  heads  fortell  it, 
Will  grow  to  such  a  riot  that  the  Oxford 

Bluet  must  quell  it. 

Hood,  Row  at  the  Oxford  Arms. 

Blue-stocking,  a  learned  lady.  8ee 
L.,  who  quotes  Bos  well's  account  of  the 
origin  of  this  term ;  but  De  Quincey 
(Autob.  Sketches,  i.  358)  refers  it  rather 
to  an  old  Oxford  Statute  enjoining  the 
wearing  of  blue  stockings  on  the  stu- 
dents. Southey  says  that  Madame  de 
Stael  collected  round  her  "a  circle 
of  literati,  the  blue  legs  of  Geneva" 
(Doctor,  ch.  xxxiv.).  Walpole,  writing 
to  Hannah  More,  playfully  makes  it  a 
verb = to  put  on  blue  stockings. 

When  will  you  blue-stocking  yourself,  and 
come  amongst  us.— Letters,  iv.  381  (1784). 

That  d— d,  vindictive,  blue-stocking^  wild 
cat.— Scott,  St.  Rough's  Well,u.  245. 

Blue-stockinger,  a  literary  lady. 

Who  would  not  be  a  blue-stockinger  at  this 
rate?— J/arf.  D'ArUay,  Diary,  i.  326. 

Blueth,  blueness,  a  cant  word  of 
Walpole's. 

[Strawberry  Hill]  is  now  in  the  height  of 
its  green  th,  blueth,  gloomth,  honeysuckle, 


and  seringa-hood.  —  Walpole,  Letters,  i.  347 
(1754). 

I  will  not,  however,  tell  you  that  I  am 
content  with  your  being  there,  till  you  have 
seen  it  in  all  its  green  th  and  bltuth. — Ibid.  i. 
363. 

Bluet,  blueish. 

The  lips  were  bluey  pale. — Southey,  Thalaba, 
Bk.  II. 

Blunderbuss,  a  blunderer.  R.  says 
Pope  uses  it  metaphorically  in  Dunciad, 
iii.  150,  but  it  is  rather  a  pun  than  a 
metaphor,  and  is  not  confined  to  Pope. 
In  tf.  and  Q.,  IV.  iii.  661,  an  old  story 
is  related  of  a  lady  in  a  cathedral  town 
asking  the  schoolmaster,  "  Is  my  son  in 
a  fair  way  to  be  a  canon?"  u  A  very 
fair  way,  madam ;  he  is  a  blunderbuss 
already."  The  second  extract  is  de- 
rived from  the  same  quarter. 

If  any  man  can  shew  me  a  greater  Lycr,  or 
a  more  bragging  coxcomb  than  this  blunder- 
buss, he  shall  take  me,  make  me  his  slave,  and 
starve  me  with  whey  and  buttermilk.  — 
Blautus,  made  English,  Preface  (1694). 

No  wise  man  hardly  ever  reprehends  a 
blunderbuss  for  his  bulle,  any  other  way  than 
by  laughing  at  him. —  Wooiston,  Sixth  Disc, 
on  Miracles,  p.  50  (1729). 

He  too  pronounced  ex  cathedra  upon  the 
characters  of  his  cotemporaries.  . .  One  is  a 
blunderbuss,  as  being  a  native  of  Ireland,  an- 
other a  half-starved  louse  of  literature  from 
the  banks  of  the  Tweed. — Smollett,  Humphrey 
Clinker,  1.  122. 

Bldnderbussier,  a  man  armed  with 

a  blunderbuss. 

To  these  we  may  add  .  .  some  of  the 
blunderbussiers  of  the  Rye. — North,  Examen, 
p.  302. 

Blunkette,  a  light-blue  colour.    See 

H.,  s.  v. 

Some  (floures)  lyghte  and  entermedled 
wyth  whytishe,  some  of  a  sad  or  darke 
greene,  some  watrishe,6/unA;tftfc,gray,  grassie, 
hoarie,  and  Leeke  coloured.  —  Touchstone  of 
Complexions,  p.  100. 

Blunt,  money  (slang). 

"  It's  all  very  well,"  said  Mr.  Sikes,  "  but  I 
must  have  some  blunt  from  you  to-night/' 
"I  haven't  a  piece  of  coin  about  me," 
replied  the  Jew. —  Dickens,  Oliver  Tunst, 
ch. 


Blush.  To  blush  like  a  black  or 
blue  dog  =  not  to  blush  at  all  (see  N., 
s.  v.  black  dog).  A  friend  informs  me 
that  "  to  blush  like  a  blue  dog  in  a  dark 
entry  "  is  a  phrase  familiar  to  him  in 
this  sense  from  childhood,  and  such 
seems  to  be  the  meaning  in  the  extract 


BLUSTER-MASTER      (     70    ) 


BOB 


from  Swift ;  but  Gosson  appears  to  em- 
ploy it  as  a  threat.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested that  one  who  has  been  beaten 
black  and  blue  might  be  said  to  blush 
in  this  way. 

If  it  bee  my  fortune  too  meete  with  the 
learned  woorkes  of  this  London  Sabinus,  that 
can  not  playe  the  part  without  a  prompter, 
nor  vtter  a  wise  worde  without  a  piper,  you 
shall  see  we  will  make  him  to  blush  like  a 
black t  dogge,  when  he  is  graveled. — Gosson, 
Apologie  of  School  of  Abuse,  p.  75. 

Lord  Sp.  (to  the  Maid).  Mrs.  Betty,  how 
does  your  body  politick  ? 

Col.  Fye,  my  lord,  you'll  make  Mrs.  Betty 
blush. 

Lady  Sm.  Blush !  Ay,  blush  like  a  blue  doo. 
Stcift,  Polite  Conversation  (Con v.  i.). 

Bluster-master,  a  great  blusterer. 

Among  all  devices  to  thrust  him  under 
water  that  was  sinking  already,  none  was 
hatch t  of  more  despight  and  indignity  than 
a  book  publish 'd  by  a  Bluster- Master ',  ann. 
1636,  call'd  a  Coal  from  the  Altai.— Hacket, 
l*fe  of  Williams,  ii.  99. 

Blustery,  noisy ;  bragging.  Bluster- 
ous and  blustering  are  more  common. 

He  was  a  man  of  incurably  commonplace 
intellect,  and  of  no  character  but  a  hollow, 
blustery,  pusillanimous,  and  unsound  one. — 
Carlyle,  Life  of  Sterling,  Pt.  III.  ch.  v. 

Bo.  To  say  bo  to  a  thing  =  to  gain- 
say it.  A  shy  or  stupid  man  is  sup- 
posed not  to  be  able  to  say  Bo  to  a 
goose  ;  the  idea  perhaps  is  taken  from 
a  timid  child,  who  might  easily  be 
frightened  by  the  gabble  and  hiss.  Mr. 
Random's  somewhat  obvious  repartee 
is  anticipated  in  Swift's  Polite  Conv. 
(Conv.  i.). 

All  this  may  passe  in  the  Queene's  peace, 
and  no  man  say  bo  to  it. — Nashe,  Lenten 
Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  174). 

We  have  such  a  household  of  serving 
creatures,  unless  it  be  Nick  and  I,  there's 
not  one  amongst  them  all  can  say  bo  to  a 
goose. — Hey  wood  y  Woman  Killed  tetth  Kind" 
ness  (Dodsley,  O.  Plays,  iv.  118). 

A  scholard,  when  just  from  his  college  broke 

loose, 
Can  hardly  tell  how  to  cry  Bo  to  a  goose. 

Sicift,  Hamilton's  Bawn. 

The  soldier  with  great  vociferation  swore 
I  was  either  dumb  or  deaf,  if  not  both,  and 
that  I  looked  as  if  I  could  not  say  Boh! 
to  a  goose.  Aroused  at  this  observation,  I 
fixed  my  eyes  upon  him,  and  pronounced 
with  emphasis  the  interjection,  Boh!  — 
Smollett,  Hod.  Random,  ch.  hv. 

Boa,  a  long  fur  coiled  round  the 
neck  and  shoulders. 


Poor  Shenstone  hardly  appears  more  ri- 
diculous in  the  frontispiece  of  his  own 
works,  where,  in  the  heroic  attitude  of  a 
poet  who  has  won  the  prize,  and  is  about  to 
receive  the  crowu,  he  stands  before  Apollo 
in  a  shirt  and  boa,  as  destitute  of  another 
less  dispensable  part  of  dress  as  Adam  in 
Eden. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cczxii. 

Boak,  to  butt  (as  a  buck). 

On  the  reverse  [of  a  coin]  a  bull  booking 
with  his  homes. — Holland? t  Camden,  p.  99. 

Board.  Beneath  or  under  board  = 
secretly  or  underhand ;  above  board  is 
still  common.  South  has  knock  under 
board  where  we  should  say  *  knock 
under.1  Sidney  uses  under  board  for 
under  hatches. 

The  Bishop  so  covertly  and  clearly  con- 
veyed his  matters,  playing  under  the  board 
after  his  wonted  fetches.  —  Foxe,  v.  526 
(1553). 

I  was  taken  by  pirate,  who,  putting  me 
under  board  prisoner,  presently  set  upon 
another  ship. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  29. 

Those  need  not  to  play  beneath  board  who 
have  all  the  visible  game  in  their  own  hands. 
— Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  I.  iii.  6. 

For  persons  of  honour,  power,  or  place  to 
caress  and  sooth  up  men  of  dangerous  prin- 
ciples, and  known  disaffection  to  the  govern- 
ment, with  terms  and  appellations  of  respect, 
is  manifestly  for  the  government  to  knock 
under-board  to  the  faction. — South,  vi.  80. 

Here  was  no  acting  under  board  or  out  of 
sight ;  three  millions  of  men  were  spectators. 
— Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  386. 

Boat.  To  be  in  the  same  boat  =  to 
be  in  the  same  condition  or  circum- 
stances. 

What !  haue  ye  pain?  so  likewise  pain  haue 

we; 
For  in  one  boat  we  both  imbarked  be ; 
Vpoo  one  tide,  one  tempest  doth  vs  tosse ; 
Your  common  ill,  it  is  our  common  losse. 

Hudson,  Judith,  iii.  352. 

Boataqe,  shipping ;  traffic  by  boats. 

For  the  town  of  Penrith  in  Cumberland  he 
cut  a  passage  with  great  Art,  Industry,  and 
Ezpence,  from  the  Town  into  the  River  Pet- 
tenll,  for  the  conveiance  of  B outage  into  the 
Irish  Sea. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Westmoreland 
(ii.  428). 

Boat,  to  bellow.     R.  has  boation. 

The  Papists  teach  us  to  pray  unto  Thee, 
and  unto  all  the  company  of  heaven,  with 
boaying  and  bleating  in  the  quire. — Becon, 

111.  «Od% 

Bob,  a  shilling  (slang).  See  quota- 
tions s.  v.  Bender  and  Magpie. 

I  changed  a  shilling  (which  in  town  the 
people  call  a  Bob). — Ingoldshy  Leg.  (Misad- 
ventures at  Margate). 


BOBBER 


(     7i     ) 


BODY 


"  Well,  please  yourself,"  quoth  the  tinker ; 
"  you  shall  have  the  hooks  for  four  bob,  and 
you  can  pay  me  next  month."  "  Four  bobs — 
four  shillings :  it  is  a  great  sum,"  said  Lenny. 
— Lytton,  My  Novel,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  v. 

Bobber,  a  scoffer.    Cf.  N.,  s.  v.  Bob. 

The  Cholerique  are  bitter  taunters,  dry 
bobbers,  nyppinge  gybers  and  skornefuU 
mockers  of  others. — Touchstone  of  Complex- 
ions, p.  99. 

Bobbery,  disturbance:  an  Anglo- 
Indian  word. 

Ill  bet  a  wager  there'll  be  a  bobbery  in  the 
pigsty  before  long,  for  they  are  ripe  for  mis- 
chief.— Marryat,  Peter  Simple,  ch.  ii. 

He  escapes  from  the  city,  and  joins  some 

banditti, 
Insensible  quite  to  remorse,  fear,  and  pity ; 
Joins  in  all  their  carousals,  and  revels,  and 

robberies, 
And  in  kicking  up  all  sorts  of  shindies  and 

bobberies, 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (Hermann). 

Bobbish,  well ;  in  a  satisfactory  state 
(slang).  It  is  given  as  a  Wiltshire 
word  in  Britton's  Beauties  of  Wilt- 
shire, 1825. 

"The  pigs  is  well,"  said  Mr.  Squeers; 
"  the  cows  is  well,  and  the  boys  is  bobbtsh" — 
Dickens,  Nicholas  Nickleby,  ch.  Mi. 

And  now  are  you  all  bobbish,  and  how's 
Sixpennorth  of  halfpence?  —  Ibid.,  Great 
Expectations,  ch.  iv. 

Bobby,  a  slang  term  for  a  policeman, 
the  force  having  been  instituted  by  Sir 
Robert  Peel.     Cf .  Peeler. 

They  don't  go  a  headerin'  down  here  wen 
there  an't  no  Bobby  nor  gen'ral  Gove  fur 
to  hear  the  splash. — Dickens,  Uncommercial 
Traveller,  iii. 

Bob-fool,  to  play,  to  mock. 

What,  do  they  think  to  plav  bob-fool  with 
me  ? — Greene,  Alphonsus  K.  of  Arragon,  Act 

Bob  jerom,  a  short,  unfashionable 
wig :  the  one  referred  to  in  the  second 
extract  was  the  "  coachman's  best." 

"Hate  a  plaistered  pate;  commonly  a 
nutnacull;  love  a  good  bob  jerom."  "Why, 
this  is  talking  quite  wide  of  the  mark,"  said 
Mr.  Hobson,  u  to  suppose  a  young  lady  of 
fortune  would  marry  a  man  with  a  bob 
jerom."  —  Mad.  VArblay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  IX. 
ch.  i. 

The  effect  of  this  full-buckled  bob  jerom 
which  stuck  hollow  from  the  young  face  and 
powdered  locks  of  the  ensign  was  irresistibly 
ludicrous. — Ibid.,  Camilla,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xiii. 

Bobtail.    See  extract. 

Cousins  by  manage,  or  kinred  (as  they 


commonly  terme  it)  by  bobtails.—  Nomen- 
tlator,  p.  533. 

Bobtail,  a  species  of  arrow-head. 
See  extract. 

Those  that  be  lytle  brested  and  big  toward 
the  hede  called  by  theyr  lykenesse  taper 
fashion,  reshe  growne,  and  of  some  roerrye 
f  ellowes  bobtayles,  be  fit  for  them  whiche  shote 
vnder  hande. — Ascham,  Toxophilus,  p.  126. 

Bocher.  H.  sayB,  "  A  fish  called  a 
bocher  is  mentioned  in  Brit.  BiU.s  ii 
490." 

The  bocher  sweet,  the  pleasant  flounder 
thin. — Denny  s,  Secrets  of  Angling  (Eng.  Gar* 
ner,  i.  175). 

Boddice,  paib  op,  stays. 

What  a  natural  fool  is  he  that  would  be  a 
pair  of  bodice  to  a  woman's  petticoat,  to  be 
truss'd  and  pointed  to  them.—Marston,  Mal- 
content, iii.  1. 

Showed  my  wife  the  periwigg  made  for 
me,  and  she  likes  it  very  well,  and  so  to  my 
brother's,  and  to  buy  a  pair  of  boddice  for 
her.— Pepys,  Oct.  30, 1663. 

Bodelouce,  body-louse. 

And  home  she  went  as  brag  as  it  had  been  a 

bodelouce, 
And  I  after  her.  as  bold  as  it  had  been  the 

goodman  of  the  house. 

Gammer  Gurton's  Needle,  ii.  3  (1551). 

Bodilise,  to  make  gross,  or  cor- 
porealise. 

Unless  we  endeavour  to  spiritualise  our- 
selves, .  .  .  age  boditises  us  more  and  more, 
and  the  older  we  grow  the  more  we  are 
erabruted  and  debased. — Southey,  The  Doctor, 
ch.  clxxxiv. 

Bodkin  Beard,  a  beard  that  came 
down  in  a  point.  Taylor,  the  water- 
poet  (Superbice  Flagellum),  mentions 
among  beards,  "Some  sharp,  stiletto- 
fashion,  dagger-like." 

Scarfs,  feathers,  and  swerds, 
And  thin  bodkin-beards. 

Skelton,  Elynour  Eummin  (Harl. 
Misc.,i.4L6). 

,  Bodkin  lottery. 

Every  cobbler  here  .  .  .  shall  outsing  Mr. 
Abel;  .  .  .  every  trumpet  that  attends  a 
bodkin  lottery  sounds  better  than  Shore. — T. 
Brown,  Works,  ii.  245. 

Body.  This  verb  seems  formerly  to 
have  been  used  in  a  technical  sense 
by  the  Independents.  A  congregation 
formed  into  a  Church  was  said  to  be 
bodied^  and  they  who  agreed  to  this 
consented  to  bodying.  See  another 
extract  from  Gauden,  8.  v.  Independ- 

EKTED. 


BOEDIED 


(     72     ) 


BONE 


That  Church-way  which  they  called  Con- 
gregational, or  bodying  of  Christians.— Crov* 
den.  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  18. 

He  will  not  gratine  such  a  Minister  or 
such  a  little  Congregation  in  a  new  exotick 
way  of  bodying ,  that  is,  formally  covenanting 
and  verbally  engaging  with  them  and  to  them 
beyond  the  baptismal]  bond  and  vow. — Ibid. 
p.  37. 

Boedied,  query  bodied;  but  if  so, 
what  does  it  mean  ? 

I  went  to  Dr.  Keffler,  who  married  the 
daughter  of  the  famous  chymist  DrebbeU, 
inventor  of  the  boedied  scarlet.  —  Evelyn, 
IHary,  Aug.  1, 1666. 

Boa,  to  botch. 

I  would  they  would  .  .  .  become  sincere 
confessors,  or  else  leave  hogging  of  heresies 
to  their  own  damnation. — Pnilpot,  p.  308. 

Bog.  To  take  bog  =  to  scruple  or 
boggle  at 

Daily  experience  showeth  that  many  men 
who  make  no  conscience  of  a  lie,  do  yet  take 
some  bog  at  an  oath. — Sanderson,  ii.  230. 

Boggle-de- botch,  a  me 88  or  hash. 

A  fine  boggle-de-botch  I  have  made  of  it. 
...  I  am  aware  it  is  not  a  canonical  word — 
classical,  I  mean ;  nor  in  nor  out  of  any  dic- 
tionary perhaps — but  when  people  are  warm, 
they  cannot  stand  picking  terms.  —  Miss 
Edgeworth,  Helen,  ch.  xxvi. 

Boglbt,  little  bog. 

Of  this  tufty  flaggy  ground,  pocked  with 
bogs  and  boglets,  one  especial  nature  is  that 
it  will  not  hold  impressions.  —  Blackmore, 
Lorna  Doone,  ch.  lix. 

Bogtbot,  to  live  the  life  of  an  Irish 
peasant  or  bogtrotter. 

It  is  a  thousand  times  better,  as  one  would 
think,  to  bogtrot  in  Ireland,  than  to  pirk  it  in 
preferment  no  better  dressed. — North,  Ex- 
amen,  p.  323. 

Bole.    See  extract. 

Close  to  the  spot  .  .  there  was  a  bole,  by 
which  is  meant  a  place  where  in  ancient 
times  .  .  miners  used  to  smelt  their  lead 
ores. — Archaolog.,  vii.  170  (1786). 

Boller,  drinker;  one  fond  of  the 
flowing  bowl. 

A  feloe  hauying  sight  in  Phisiognomie  . . . 
when  he  had  well  vewed  Socrates  gaue  plain 
sentence  that  he  was  ...  a  greate  boiler  of 
wine,  and  a  vicious  foloer  of  all  naughtie 
appetites. — UdaTs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  36. 

Bolts,  chains  or  confinement. 

He  shall  to  prison,  and  there  die  in  bolts. 

Marlowe,  Edw.  II.,  I.  i. 

He  had  stood  in  the  pillory  himself,  and 
had  been  imprisoned  and  laid  in  bolts  at 
Suffolk  for  a  considerable  time.—- Sprat,  Rela- 


tion of  Young's  Contrivance,  1692  (Harl.  Misc., 

Bomba8E,  to  close  up,  as  with  bom- 
bace  or  cotton.  Bombast  is  the  more 
usual  form,  but  see  N.,  "  to  bombas  his 
hyring  "  =  to  stop  his  ears. 

"What  reason  hym  leadeth  to  my  suite 
too  boombas  his  hyring? — Stanyhurst,  JEn.9 
iv.  451. 

Bomdination,  humming.  Sir  T. 
Browne,  as  auoted  by  R,  and  L.,  has 
bombUation  in  this  sense. 

The  most  sonorous  fliers  of  this  order  are 
the  larger  humble-bees,  whose  bombination* 
booming,  or  bombing  may  be  heard  from  a 
considerable  distance.  —  Kirby  and  Sptnce, 
Entomology,  ii.  304. 

Bonadvbnturb,  a  species  of  ship  or 
boat  used  in  fishing. 

This  business  by  the  busses,  bonadventures, 
or  fisher-ships  .  .  .  will  bring  plenty  unto 
his  Majesty's  Kingdoms. — England's  Way  to 
Wealth,  1614  (Harl.  Misc.,  iii.  397). 

BoNA-PlDiCALLY,heartily;  thoroughly. 

Two  men  who  love  nonsense  so  cordially 
and  naturally  and  bona-fidically.  —  Souihey, 
Letters,  1822  (iii.  314). 

Bonarbt.     See  quotation. 

Such  as  those  Bonarets  in  Scythia  bred 

Of  slender  seeds,  and  with  green  fodder  fed, 

Although  their  bodies,  noses,  mouths,  and 

eys, 
Of  new-yeand  lambs  have  full  the  form  and 

guise ; 
And  should  be  very  lambs,  save  that  (for 

foot) 
Within  the  ground  they  fix  a  lining  root, 
Which  at  their  nauell  growes,  and  dies  that 

day 
That  they  have  brouz'd  the  neighbour  grass 

away. — Sylvester,  Eden,  570. 

Bond-led,  led  in  bonds :  the  refer- 
ence is  to  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac. 

The  Father  makes  the  pile :  Hereon  hee  layes 
His  bond-led,  blind-led  Son. 

Sylvester,  Maiden's  Blush,  1784. 

Bond  page,  a  slave  who  served   as 

page. 

One  of  the  bondpaaes  of  this  Pollio  had  by 
ohaunce  broken  a  dnnkyng  glasse  of  cristaU 
stone. — UdaTs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  289. 

Bonk,  to  steal  (slang).  See  quotation, 
«.  v.  Slack-bake. 

Bone,  a  feigned  obstacle.    "  I  have  a 

bone  in  my  leg  "  is  a  jocular  excuse  for 

not  moving. 

He  refused  to  speake,  allegeing  that  he  had 
a  bone  in  his  throte,  and  he  could  not  speake. 
— UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  375. 


BONE  OF  CONTENTION  (     73     ) 


BOOK-OATH 


Net.  Miss,  come,  be  kind  for  once,  and 
order  me  a  dish  of  coffee. 

Mist.  Pray  go  yourself;  let  us  wear  out 
the  oldest  first ;  besides,  I  can't  go,  for  I  have 
a  bone  in  my  leg. 

Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Oonv.  iii.). 

Bone  of  contention,  the  cause  of  a 
quarrel,  as  between  fighting  dogs. 

While  any  flesh  remains  on  a  bone,  it  con- 
tinues a  bone  of  contention. — H.  Brooke,  Fool 
of  Quality,  i.  249. 

Now  the  precious  leg  while  cash  was  flush, 
Or  the  Count's  acceptance  worth  a  rush, 

Had  never  excited  dissension ; 
But  no  sooner  the  stocks  began  to  fall, 
Than,  without  any  ossification  at  all. 
The  limb  became  what  people  call 

A  perfect  bone  of  contention. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Bon-mine.  Faire  bonne  mine  =  to 
put  a  good  countenance  on  a  matter.  In 
the  extract  it  seems  to  mean  a  feint  of 
resistance  by  way  of  bravado. 

We  expected  they  would  have  disputed 
our  passage  over  the  river  Dun,  but  they 
onely  made  a  bon-mine  there,  and  left  us  the 
Toone  of  Doncaster  to  quarter  in  that  night. 
—Sir  G.  Dudley  to  Prince  Rupert,  1644,  p.  3. 

Bon-mot,  a  witticism.  This  French 
expression  is  naturalized. 

She  is  absolutely  governed  by  a  favourite 
maid,  and  as  full  of  the  bon-mots  of  her  parrots 
as  I  used  to  be  of  yours,  my  loves,  when  you 
were  prattlers. — Richardson,  Grandison,  vii. 
223. 

Ton  need  not  hurry  when  the  object  is 
only  to  prevent  my  saying  a  bon-mot,  for 
there  is  not  the  least  wit  in  my  nature. — Miss 
Austen,  Mansfield  Park,  ch.  ix. 

Booby,  to  behave  like  a  booby. 

Those  brainless  pert  bloods  of  our  town, 
Those  sprigs  of  the  ton  who  run  decency 

down; 
Who  lounge,  and  who  loot,  and  who  booby 

about, 
No  knowledge  within,  and  no  manners  with- 
out.— Irving,  Salmagundi,  No.  iii. 

Booby  ism,  stupidity ;  folly. 

The  donkeys  who  are  prevailed  upon  to 
pay  for  permission  to  exhibit  their  lamentable 
ignorance  and  boobyism  on  the  stage  of  a 
private  theatre.  —  Sketches  by  Boe  (Private 
Theatres). 

Boody,  to  sulk.  Anglicized  form  of 
Fr.  bonder. 

"  Gome,"  said  she,  "  don't  boody  with  me ; 
don't  be  angry  because  I  speak  out  some 
home  truths." — Trollope,  Barchester  Towers, 
ch.  xxvii. 

He  is  left  to  boody  over  everything  by 
himself,  till  he  becomes  a  sort  of  political 
hermit. — Ibid.,  Prime  Minister,  ch.  lxxvi. 


Boohoo,  to  cry :  an  onomatopceous 

word. 

From  that  moment  the  babes  ne'er  caught 
sight 
Of  the  wretch  who  thus  sought  their  un- 
doing, 
But  pass'd  all  that  day  and  that  night 
In  wandering  about  and  boohooing. 

Ingoldsby  Leg.  (Babes  in  the  Wood). 

Bookery,  study ;  also  a  library  of 
books. 

Let  them  that  mean  by  bookish  business 
To  earn  their  bread,  or  hopeo  to  profess 
Their  hard  got  skill,  let  them  alone,  for  me, 
Busy  their  brains  with  deeper  bookery. 

Ball,  Satires,  II.  ii.  28. 

The  Abbe  Morellet  . . .  has  a  bookery  in 
such  elegant  order  that  people  beg  to  go 
and  see  it.— Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  vi.  346. 

Bookhood,  bookishness. 

The  preceding  paper  was  given  me  by  a 
gentleman,  who  has  a  better  opinion  of  my 
bookhood  than  I  deserve. —  Walpole,  Letters, 
vi.  398  (1772). 

Bookism,  bookishness ;  studiousness. 

There  was  nothing,  he  said,  of  which  he  had 
less  ambition  than  a  character  for  bookism 
and  pedantry.— M ad.  D'Arblay,  Diary, iv.  176. 

Book-learning,  education ;  scholar- 
ship:  a  common  phrase  among  the  poor. 

The  common  wish  of  advancing  their 
children  in  the  world  made  most  parents  in 
this  station  desire  to  obtain  the  advantage 
of  what  they  called  book-learning  for  any 
son  who  was  supposed  to  manifest  a  dis- 
position likely  to  profit  by  it. — Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  c. 

Book-money,  surplice  fees. 

He  had  all  the  book-money,  that  is,  the  fees 
for  marriages,  burials,  and  christenings. — 
Sprat's  Relation  of  Young's  Contrivance,  1692 
(Had.  Misc.,  vi.  219). 

Book-monger,  writer  of  books. 

He  was  a  great  Book-monger  ;  and  on  that 
score  Bale  (no  friend  to  Friers)  giveth  him. 
a  large  testimonial.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Wilts 
(ii.  468). 

Book-muslin,  open  or  clear  muslin. 

The  lady  in  the  back  parlour,  who  was 
very  fat,  and  turned  of  sixty,  came  in  a  low 
book-muslin  dress  and  short  kid  gloves. — 
Dickens,  Nicholas  Nickleby,  ch.  xiv. 

Book-oath,  oath  taken  on  a  book: 
usually  the  Bible.    Cf.  Bible-oath. 

He  that  layeth  his  hand  upon  a  book  in 
this  wise,  and  maketh  there  a  promise  to  do 
that  thing  that  he  is  commanded,  is  obliged 
there,  by  book-oath,  then  to  fulfil  his  charge. 
— Exam,  of  W.  Thorpe  (Bale,  Select  Works, 
p.  111). 


BOOKWRIGHT 


(     74     ) 


BORE 


Bookwright,  author. 

In  London,  at  this  moment,  any  young 
man  of  real  power  will  find  friends  enough 
and  too  many  among  hia  fellow  booktcrights. 
— C.  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xi. 

Bool,  bawl. 

Singing-men  that . .  in  churches  or  chapels 
may  roar,  bool,  bleat,  yell. — Becon,  ii.  300. 

Boorn,  explained  by  Fuller  in  the 
margin,  "  That  is,  the  Wort  or  boiled 
liquor."  The  extract  is  part  of  a  re- 
ceipt for  Metheglin. 

Take  to  every  six  Gallons  of  water  one 
Gallon  of  the  finest  Honey,  and  put  it  into 
the  Boorn,  and  labour  it  together  half  an 
hour.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Wales  (ii.  664). 

Boot.  Both  R.  and  L.  mention  this 
as  part  of  a  coach  used  for  luggage, 
and  this  is  now  its  meaning,  but 
formerly  it  accommodated  passengers 
also. 

On  Sunday  following,  the  King  in  the 
afternoon  came  abroad  to  take  the  air  with 
the  Queen,  his  two  brothers,  and  the  Infanta, 
who  were  all  in  one  coach ;  but  the  Infanta 
sat  in  the  boot  with  a  blue  ribbon  about  her 
arm,  of  purpose  that  the  Prince  might  dis- 
tinguish her. — Howell,  Letters,  I.  iii.  16. 

He  received  his  son  into  the  coach,  and 
found  a  slight  errand  to  leave  Buckingham 
behind,  as  he  was  putting  his  foot  in  the 
boot. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  196. 

Boot-garters.    See  quotation. 

His  leathern  breeches  were  faultless  in 
make,  his  jockey  boots  spotless  in  the 
varnish,  and  a  handsome  and  flourishing 
pair  of  boot-garters,  as  they  are  called,  united 
the  one  part  of  his  garments  to  the  other. — 
Scott,  Redgauntlet,  i.  326. 

Boot-hose,  boot-stockings,  q.  v. 

To  the  maid 
That  wash'd  my  boot-hose  there's  an  English 
groat. 
Beaum.  and  Fl.,  Knight  of  B.  Pestle,  iv.  2. 

This  old  gentleman,  with  his  boot-hose  and 
beard,  used  to  accompany  his  young  master. 
—North,  Life  of  Ld.  Guilford,  i.  33. 

"  This  is  what  I  call  coming  to  the  point," 
said  Mr.  Touchwood,  thrusting  out  his  stout 
legs,  accoutred  as  they  were  with  the  ancient 
defences  called  boot-nose,  so  as  to  rest  his 
heels  upon  the  fender. — Scott.  St.  Ronan's 
Well,  ii.  296. 

Bootless,  irremediable. 

Yet  rather,  when  I  have  the  wretch's  head, 
Then  to  the  king,  my  father,  will  I  send. 
The  bootless  case  may  yet  appease  his  wrath. 
If  not,  I  will  defend  me  as  I  may. 

Sackville,  Ferrex  and  Forrex,  ii.  2. 


Boot-stocxings,  very  long  stockings, 
covering  the  leg  like  jack- boots. 

The  Author  was  sent  from  Shaftesbury,  on 
a  little  pony  with  a  servant,  not  with  a  pair 
of  new  boots,  but  ingloriously  in  a  pair  of 
worsted  boot-stockings,  which  my  father  ob- 
served would  keep  my  under-stockings  from 
the  dirt  as  well  as  the  best  pair  of  boots  in 
Shaftesbury. — Bowles,  Note  to  Banwtll  Hill. 

Tou  will  not  observe  his  boot-stockings 
coming  high  above'  the  knees;  the  coat 
covers  them,  and  if  it  did  not,  you  would  be 
far  from  despising  them  now  [t.  e.  in  rough 
weather]. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  lvii. 

Boozer,  drunkard. 

This  landlord  was  a  boozer  stout, 
A  snuff-taker  and  smoker. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  303. 

Boozy,  drunken. 

Ere  the  Doctor  could  be  starred  out  of  Lis 
boozy  slumbers,  and  thrust  into  his  clothes 
by  bis  wife,  the  schoolmistress  was  safe  in 
bed. — C.  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  iii. 

Borborites.  See  extract.  Gr.  (Mp- 
/3opoc,  dung  or  mire. 

They  saw  not  onely  worthy  and  Reformed 
Bishops,  but  the  whole  Reformed  Church  of 
England  and  the  Majesty  of  the  Prince  so 
tome  and  bespattered  by  those  Borborites, 
those  uncleane  Spirits. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  672. 

Bordrie,  baldrick. 

The  meeting  of  the  gentry  was  not  then 
at  tipplinp-houses,  but  in  the  fields  or  forests, 
with  their  hawks  and  hounds,  with  their 
bugle-horns  in  silken  bor dries. — Aubrey,  Mis- 
cellanies, p.  216. 

Bore,  a  'dull,  tiresome  person.  L. 
gives  this,  with  quotation  from  the 
Return  from  Parnassus,  but  the  word 
in  that  passage  is  bur.  He  cites  then 
from  nothing  earlier  than  TalfouroVs 
Memoirs  of  C.  Lamb.  The  first  ex- 
tract is  from  A  Supplement  to  the  last 
Will  and  Test,  of  Anthony,  Earl  of 
Shaftsbury,  with  his  last  words  as  they 
were  taken  in  Holland,  where  he  died 
January  20, 1682  (London,  1683) ;  but 
what  precise  meaning  the  word  has  there 
is  not  clear  to  me.  I  doubt  whether  it 
is  used  in  the  modern  sense.  The  fire- 
blower  to  a  chemist  was  called  a  Lungs, 
and  there  is  some  pun  on  this ;  the 
bores  perhaps  =  Hollanders,  Dutch 
boere.  In  Burgoyne  it  seems  =  a  slow 
clumsy  fellow,  and  this  is  the  earliest 
undoubted  instance  I  have  yet  found 
of  any  approach  to  its  present  sense. 
As  referring  to  a  tfdng,  L.'s  first  instance 


BORN  DA  YS 


(     75     )      BOTTLE-COASTER 


is  from  Disraeli's  Coningsby.     See  ex- 
tract from  Peter  Pindar,  s.  v.  Vulgab. 

My  Lungs  (my  Ignoramus  Friends)  is  yours ; 
But  for  my  leights,  I  leave  'em  to  the  Bores, 
To  blow  the  bellows  of  each  new  Sedition 
On  any  change  of  Faction  or  Religion. 

Supplement,  &c.,  ut  supra. 

A  spring  of  the  chaise  broke  at  the  bottom 
of  the  hill ;  the  boy  was  quite  a  bore  in  tying 
it  up,  so  I  took  out  my  luggage,  and  deter- 
mined to  walk  home. — Burgoync,  Lord  of  the 
Manor,  Act  I.  (1781). 

'•He  is  known  by  fifty  names,"  said  Mr. 
Monckton ;  "his  friends  call  him  the  moralist; 
the  young  ladies,  the  crazy  man,  the  maca- 
ronis, the  bore." — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Cecilia, 
Bk.  I.  ch.  viii.  (1782). 

Learning's  become  a  very  bore  ; 
That  fashion  long  since  has  been  o'er. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  vi. 

Seeing  a  great  house  ...  is  generally 
allowed  to  be  the  greatest  bore  in  the  world. 
— Miss  Austen,  Mansfield  Park,  ch.  ix. 

Born  days,  a  vulvar  expression  for 
the  whole  life ;  all  the  days  since  one 
was  born. 

There  was  one  Miss  Byron,  a  North- 
amptonshire lady,  whom  I  never  saw  before 
in  my  born  days. — Richardson,  Grandison,  i. 
103. 

Craiglethorpe  will  know  just  as  much  of 
the  lower  Irish  as  the  Cockney  who  has  never 
been  out  of  London,  and  who  has  never  in 
all  his  bom  days  seen  an  Irishman  but  on  the 
English  stage. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Ennui,  ch.  ix. 

Borrow,  to  warrant ;  to  assure.     See 

quotation  in  R.  from  Spenser's  State  of 

Ireland. 

Her  eyes  carried  darts  of  fire, 
Feathered  all  with  swift  desire ; 
Yet  forth  these  fiery  darts  did  pass 
Pearled  tears  as  bright  as  glass, 
That  wonder  'twas  in  her  eyne 
Fire  and  water  should  combine, 
If  the  old  saw  did  not  borrow, 
Fire  is  love,  and  water  sorrow. 

Greene, from  Never  too  Late,  p.  296. 

Boscaresque,  abounding  in  shrub- 
bery. 

His  [Evelyn's]  garden  was  exquisite,  being 
most  boscaresque,  and,  as  it  were,  an  exemplar 
of  his  book  of  forest  trees. — North,  Life  of 
Li.  Guilford,  ii.  252. 

Bosh,  nonsense :  a  Turkish  word. 

I  always  like  to  read  old  Darwin's  Loves  of 
the  Plants,  bosh  as  it  is  in  a  scientific  point 
of  view. — C.  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  en.  x. 

Bosk,  a  bush.     See  H.,  s,  v. 

And  so  by  tilth  and  grange, 
And  vines,  and  blowing  bosks  of  wilderness, 
We  gained  the  mother-city  thick  with  towers. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  i. 


Bosket,  shrubbery. 

There  hovers  the  white  Celestial ;  in  white 
robe  of  linon  moucheU,  finer  than  moonshine ; 
a  Juno  by  her  bearing;  there  in  that  bosket. 
— Carlyle,  Diamond  Necklace,  ch.  ix. 

B'jsom-hung,  declined  on  the  bosom. 

All  whose  poor  seed,  like  violets  in  their 

beds, 
Now  grow  with  bosom-hung  and  hidden  beads. 
Chapman,  Iliad,  Dedic,  151. 

Bosom  sermons.  H.  says,  "  Bosom- 
sermons  are  mentioned  in  the  Egerton 
Papers^  p.  9,"  but  he  gives  no  explana- 
tion. In  the  subjoined  the  term  seems 
to  mean  discourses  learned  by  heart. 
The  quotation  is  the  marginal  note  to  a 
story  of  a  boy  who  was  taught  a  long 
oration  by  rote,  and  was  put  out  by  a 
question  being  asked  in  the  middle. 

Bosome  sermons  and  oracions  of  an  other 
mannes  making. — UdaTs  Erasmus's  Apophth., 
p.  243. 

Boss,  a  term  of  reproach.  Cotgrave 
gives,  "  A  fat  bosse.  Femme  Hen  grasse 
et  grosse  ;  une  coche" 

Disdainful  Turkess,  and  unreverend  boss! 
— Marlowe,  1  lumburlaine,  III.  ill. 

Boss,  master  :  an  Americanism. 

"  So,  boss"  began  the  ruffian,  not  looking  at 
him,  "  we  ain't  fit  company  for  the  likes  of 
that  kinchin,  eh?" — H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry 
Hamlyn,  ch.  xxiii. 

Botanographist,  a  writer  on  botany. 

Doctor  Bowie,  my  most  worthy  Friend, 
and  skilful  Botanographist. — Fuller,  Worthies, 
Northampton  (ii.  157). 

Botling,  a  species  of  fish. 

The  peel,  the  tweat,  the  botlina,  and  the  rest, 
With  many  more  that  in  the  deep  doth  lie 
Of  Avon,  Usk,  of  Severn,  and  of  Wye. 

Denny s%  Secrets  of  Angling 
(Eng.  Garner,  1. 175}. 

Bottle-bellied,    with    a    stomach 

swelling  out  like  a  bottle. 

He  is  like  some  choleric,  bottle-bellied  old 
spider,  who  has  woven  his  web  over  a  whole 
chamber. — Irving,  Sketch-Book  {John  Bull). 

Bottle- boy,  apothecary's  assistant. 

He  . .  .  utterly  fulfilled  the  ideal  of  a  bottle* 
boy,  for  of  him  too  as  of  all  things,  I  presume, 
an  ideal  exists  eternally  in  the  supra-sensual 
Platonic  universe. — Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago, 
ch.  i. 

Bottle-coaster,  tray  or  carriage  in 
which  the  decanters  were  sent  round 
the  table  after  dinner. 

I  wish  you  had  seen  the  two  Lady  R.s, 
sticking  close  to  .one  another;  their  father 


BOTTLED-ALE  (     76    ) 


BOW 


Pushing  them  on  together,  like  two  decanters 
>n  a  bottle-coaster,  with  such  magnificent  dia- 
mond labels  round  their  necks.— Miss  Edge" 
vorth,  Belinda,  ch.  v. 

Bottled-ale.  See  extract.  Dean 
Alexander  Howell,  the  person  referred 
to,  was  born  1510,  died  1601. 

Leaving  a  Bottle  of  Ale  (when  fishing)  in 
the  Grasse,  he  found  it  some  dayes  after,  no 
Bottle,  but  a  Gun,  such  the  sound  at  the 
opening  thereof ;  and  this  is  believed  (Casu- 
alty is  Mother  of  more  Inventions  than  In- 
dustry) the  original  of  Bottled-ale  in  England. 
—Fuller,  Worthies,  Lancashire  (i.  647). 

Bottle-green,  the  colour  of  the  green 
glass  of  which  bottles  are  made.  See 
quotation  s.  v.  Mountain  dew. 

The  bottle-green  was  a  famous  suit  to  wear, 
and  I  bought  it  very  cheap  at  a  pawnbroker's. 
.  .  .  1*11  be  married  in  the  bottle-green. — 
Dickens,  Nicholas  Nickleby,  ch.  li. 

At  the  drawing-room  he  looked  quite 
handsome  in  his  uniform  of  the  Newcome 
Hussars,  bottle-green  and  silver  lace.— Thack- 
eray, The  Newcomes,  ch.  xxxti. 

Bouch,  mouth  (French).  It  was  also 
used  for  an  allowance  of  meat  or 
drink  to  a  servant  in  a  palace.  See  N., 
8.  v. 

Heere  loa  behold  Boreas  from  bouch  of  north 

bio  Pelorus 
Oure  ships  ful  chargeth. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iii.  702. 

Boucherus,  butcherly. 

Much  lyke  as  a  fat  bul  beloeth,  that  setled 
on  altar 

Half  kild  escapeth  thee  missing  boucherus 
hatchet.— Stanyhurst,  ^En.,  ii.  236. 

Boughed,   covered    or  shaded   with 
boughs. 

Up  through  that  wood  behind  the  church. 
There  leads  from  Edward's  door 

A  mossy  track,  all  over  boughed 
For  half  a  mile  or  more. 

Coltridge,  Three  Grates. 

Boult,  a  narrow  piece  of  stuff.  See 
H.,  s.  v.  bolt. 

Though  you  be  crossbites,  foys,  and  nips, 
yet  you  are  not  good  lifts ;  which  is  a  great 
helpe  to  your  faculty,  to  filch  a  boult  of  satten 
or  velvet.— Greene,  Theeves  Falling  Out,  1615 
(Harl.  Misc.,  viii.  389). 

Boundal,  bound. 

It  was  well  for  all  sides  that  the  best 
divine,  in  my  judgement,  that  ever  was  in 
that  place,  Dr.  Davenant,  held  the  rains  of  the 
disputation;  he  kept  him  within  the  even 
boundals  of  the  cause.  —  Hacked  Life  of 
Williams,  i.  26. 

Boundane,  boundary* 


Thev  overranne  Iituania,  Podolia,  Polonia, 
and  those  countreys  which  are  the  E&3 
boundanes  of  Europe.  —  Fuller,  Holy  War, 
Bk.  IV.  ch.  ii. 

Boundift,  to  bound. 
Vntffl  this  day  (deer  Muse)  on  euery  side 
Within  straight  lists  thou  hast  been  bourtdiJCd. 

Sylvester,  The  Vacation,  2. 

Bouno-knife.  Boung  is  an  old  slang 
word  for  purse;  boung-knife  may 
therefore  be  the  knife  in  the  purse  or 
girdle.     Cf.  Cattle-bong. 

One  of  them  had  on  ...  a  skeine  like  a 
lmerybounp-knife.--Greene,  Quip  for  Upstart 
Courtier  {Harl.  Misc.,  v.  407). 

B0DNNIE8,  swellings  or  tumours  :  an 
East  Anglian  word.  Cf.  bunion,  and 
see  N.  and  Q.,  V.  viii.  113. 

There  be  no  vices  in  the  world  whereof  you 
maie  not  see  great  buddes,  or  rather  great 
bounnies  and  bunches  in  them. — Trahtron's 
Warning  to  England,  1568  (Mait  land's   Re- 
formation, p.  137). 

Bourreau,  executioner.  Several 
French  words  were  introduced  at  the 
Restoration  (see  Trench,  Eng.  Past 
and  Present,  p.  122) ;  some  of  these 
did  not  survive,  or  perhaps  ever  go  be- 
yond the  author  who  first  employed 
them. 

No  sooner  said,  but  it  was  done, 

The  Bourreau  did  his  worst ; 

Gaphny,  alas !  is  dead  and  gone, 

And  left  his  judge  accursed. 

Prior,  The  Viceroy. 
Bout,  a  circuit 

I  love  not  to  fetch  any  bouts  where  there 
is  a  nearer  way. — Adams,  ii.  14. 

Bow.  To  draw  or  pull  the  long  bote  = 
to  lie  or  exaggerate.  CI  the  extract 
from  Fuller,  *.  v.  Loose. 

If  on  your  head  some  vengeance  fell, 
Mfoirja,  for  every  tale  you  tell 

The  listening  Lords  to  cozen  ; 
If  but  one  whisker  lost  its  hue, 
Changed  (like  Moll  Coggin's  tail)  to  blue 

I'd  near  them  by  the  dozen.  ' 

But  still,  howe'er  you  dnv>  your  bow, 
Your  charms  improve,  your  triumphs  grow. 
Poetry  of  Antijacobin,  p.  63. 

King  of  Corpus  (who  was  an  incorrigible 
wag)  was  on  the  point  of  pulling  some  dread- 
ful long  bow,  and  pointing  out  a  half  dozen 
of  people  in  the  room  as  B.  and  H.  and  L.  &c 
the  most  celebrated  wits  of  that  day — 
Thackeray,  The  Newcomes,  ch.  i.  * 

Bow.  To  have  a  double  string,  or  two 
strings  to  one's  bow  =  to  have  two  re- 
sources or  alternatives. 


BOWERLY 


(   77   ; 


BR  ADO  ON 


The  Conqueror,  finding  himself  quitted  of 
this  obstacle,  takes  upon  him  the  regiment 
of  this  kingdom  with  a  double  string  to  his 
bote;  the  one  of  antient  title,  the  other  of 
conquest. — Mist,  of  Edward  II. ,  p.  36. 

A  man  in  Amsterdam  is  suffer' d  to  have 
but  one  religion,  whereas  in  London  he  may 
have  ttco  strings  to  his  bow.  —  T.  Brown, 
Works,  iv.  115. 

Miss  Bertram  . .  .  might  be  said  to  have  two 
strings  to  her  bow.  She  had  Bush  worth-feelings 
and  Crawford-feelings,  and  in  the  vicinity  of 
Sotherton  the  former  had  considerable  effect. 
— Miss  Austen,  Mansfield  Park,  ch.  viii. 

Bowebly,  large ;  burly  (?). 

He  had  seene  in  the  citee  of  Miletus 
many  and  the  same  right  greate  and  bowerly 
images  and  porturatures. — UdaVs  Erasmus  s 
Apophih.,  p.  208. 

The  bowerly  hostess,  for  a  cart-horse  fit, 
Scorns  Daphne's  reed-like  shape,  and  calls 
her  chit.—  Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  180. 

Bowbt,  lamp,  or  lamp-frame  ? 

For  a  bowet  to  ber  light  in  upon  the  Sacra- 
ment. —  Leverton,  Chwardens  Accts.,  1535 
(Arch.,  xli.  353). 

Bowie,  a  large  clasp-knife,  so  called 
from  Col.  James  Bowie,  a  native  of 
Georgia. 

I  took  the  precaution  of  bringing  my 
bowie  and  revolver  with  me,  in  case  the 
worst  came  to  the  worst. — C.  Kingsley,  Alton 
Locke,  ch.  xxvii. 

"  No  stakes,  no  dungeons,  no  blocks,  no 
racks,  no  scaffolds,  no  thumbscrews,  no 
pikes,  no  pillories,"  said  Chollop.  "No- 
thing but  revolvers  and  bowie  knives/'  re- 
turned Mark;  ''and  what  are  they?  not 
worth  mentioning.'* — Dickens,  M.  Chuzzlewit, 
eh.  zzziii. 

Bowse.  Bailey  says  bowse  among 
sailors  is  "  to  hale  or  pull  the  tackle. 
Commodore  Trunnion  uses  it  meta- 
phorically. See  quotation  s.  v.  Gum  ; 
also  from  Ingoldsby  Legends,  s.  v. 
Pigeon-toed. 

My  eyes !  how  she  did  pitch ! 
And  wouldn't  keep  her  own  to  join  no  line, 
Tho'  I  kept  bowsing,  bowsing  at  her  bow- 
line. 

Hood,  Sailor's  Apology  for  Bow-legs. 

Bow-string,  to  strangle  with  a  bow- 
string. 

A  sultan,  having  bow-stringed  his  vizier, 
promotes  some  one  else  to  the  post. — Savage, 
R.  Medlieott,  Bk.  I.  ch.  ix. 

Bow-wow,  a  dog. 

Let  my  obedience  then  excuse 

My  disobedience  now ; 
Nor  some  reproof  yourself  refuse, 

From  your  aggrieved  bow-wow. 

Cowper,  Beau's  Reply. 


It's  all  up  with  its  handsome  friend;  he 
has  gone  to  the  demnition  bow-wows. — Dick- 
ens, Nicholas  Xickleby,  ch.  lxiv. 

Box.  To  box  the  compass  =  to  go 
round  to  all  quarters  of  the  compass. 

After  a  week  or  so,  the  wind  would  regu- 
larly box  the  compass  (as  the  sailors  call  it)  in 
the  course  of  every  day,  following  where  the 
sun  should  be,  as  if  to  make  a  mock  of  him. 
— Blackmore,  Lorna  Doone,  ch.  xlii. 

Box.  To  be  in  the  wrong  box  is  to 
be  mistaken.  L.  gives  the  expression 
with  a  quotation  from  Sala,  but  it  is 
much  older. 

Sir,  quoth  I,  if  you  will  hear  how  St. 
Augustine  expoundeth  that  place,  you  shall 
perceive  that  you  are  in  a  wrong  box. — Ridley, 
p.  163  (1554). 

I  perceive  that  you  and  I  are  in  a  wrong 
box.— J.  Udall,  Diotrephes,  p.  31  (1588). 

But  Socrates  said,  Laugh  not,  Zophirus  is 
not  in  a  wrong  box. — Optick  Glasse  of  Humors 
(1639). 

Boxage,  boscage ;  shrubbery. 

The  rest  of  the  ground  is  made  into  seve- 
rall  inclosures  (all  hedge  worke  or  rowes  of 
trees)  of  whole  fields,  meadows,  boxages,  some 
of  them  containing  divers  acres. — Evelyn, 
Diary,  Ap.  i.  1644. 

Box-keepebes8,  woman  who  keeps 
the  boxes  at  a  theatre. 

Every  time  the  box-keeperess  popped  in  her 
head,  and  asked  if  we  would  take  any  refresh- 
ment, I  thought  the  interruption  odious. — 
Thackeray,  Miscellanies,  ii.  346. 

Boy,  to  provide  with  boys;  spoken 
of  a  wife  who  had  male  offspring :  also 
to  guard  with  boys.  L.  has  the  verb  in 
the  sense  of  "treat  as  a  boy."  Bre- 
ton's Mavillia  (p.  38),  when  attended 
merely  by  a  page,  speaks  of  herself  as 
"  manned  but  with  a  poore  boye,"  which 
illustrate 8  the  second  extract. 

Nor  hast  thou  in  his  nuptial  arms  en joy'd 
Barren  embraces,  but  wast  girl'd  and  boy'd. 
Corbet,  Death  of  Lady  Haddington. 
The  gates  were  shut,  and  partly  man'd, 
partly  boy'd  against  him. — Fuller,  Hist,  of 
Cambridge,  vi.  16. 

Boykin,  an  endearing  diminutive  of 
boy.  In  the  quotation  Anchises  is 
speaking  to  Mneaa.  H.  says  the  word 
is  to  be  found  in  Sir  John  Oldcastle 
and  Palsgrave's  Acolastus,  but  he  gives 
no  extract. 

But  now  I'm  fixt  to  go  along 
With  thee,  my  boykin,  right  or  wrong. 
Cotton,  Scarronides,  p.  80. 


* 

Beadoon,  snaffle  (?). 


BRAG 


(     78     ) 


BRANDLET 


I  have  always  made  it  a  rule  to  feel  his 
[the  horse's]  mouth  lightly,  and  generally 
more  with  the  bradoon  than  with  the  curb. — 
Nimrod  on  Condition  of  Hunters,  17. 

Brag,  to  challenge:  this  use  is  a 
Scotticism :  see  Jamieson. 

That  was  one  of  the  famous  cups  of  Tours, 
wrought  by  Martin  Dominique,  an  artist  who 
might  brag  all  Paris. — Scott,  Quentin  Dur- 
ward,  i.  60. 

Braggartly,  boastful. 

Who  ever  saw  true  learning,  wisdom,  or 
wit,  vouchsafe  mansion  in  any  proud,  vain- 
glorious, and  braggartly  spirit? — Chapman, 
Iliad,  iii.,  Comment. 

Braggle.     See  extract. 

There  is  a  way  to  catch  eels  by  "braa- 
gling  ;  "  thus : — Take  a  rod  small  and  tough, 
of  sallow,  hazel,  or  such  like,  a  yard  long,  as 
big  as  a  bean-stalk.  In  the  small  end  thereof 
make  a  nick  or  cleft  with  a  knife ;  in  which 
nick  put  your  strong  but  little  hook  baited 
with  a  red  worm,  and  made  sure  to  a  line  of 
ten  or  twelve  good  hairs,  but  easily,  that  the 
eels  may  null  it  out.  Go  into  some  shallow 
place  01  the  river  among  the  great  stones, 
and  braggle  up  and  down  till  you  find  holes 
under  the  stones.  There  put  in  your  hook 
so  baited  at  vour  rod's  end,  and  the  eel  under 
the  stone  will  not  fail  to  take  it.  Give  her 
time  to  put  it  over ;  and  then,  if  your  strength 
will  serve,  she  is  your  own. — Lawson,  Com- 
ments on  Secrets  of  Angling  (Eng.  Garner,  i. 
195). 

Braggon,  a  species  of  drink.     I  sup- 

Sose  the  same  as  bragget,  mentioned  by 
'.  and  L. 

Beside  ale  and  beer,  the  natural  drink  of 
part  of  this  isle  may  be  said  to  be  metheglin, 
braggon,  and  mead. — Hoxcell,  Letters,  ii.  54. 

Brain-foolery,  folly. 

The  very  essence  of  his  soule  is  pure  vil- 
lany ;  the  substance  of  his  brain-foolery;  one 
that  beleeues  nothing  from  the  starres  vp- 
ward. — Chapman,  Jfons.  D'Olive,  Act  V. 

Brain-hill,  brain-pan. 

Had  the  Gensdarmerv  of  our  great  writers 
no  other  enemy  to  fight  with?  nothing  to 
grind  in  their  brain-mill  but  orts? — Socket, 
Life  of  Williams,  i.  102. 

Brain-sick,  a  fool  or  madman  (usually 
an  adj.). 

Even  so,  some  brainsicks  Hue  there  now-a- 

daies, 
That  lose  themselues  still  in  contrary  waies. 
Sylvester,  fourth  day,  first  weeks,  150. 

Brain-Wright,  creator  of  the  brain. 
In  this  part  of  the  Brayn  the  Brayn-vright*s 

And  wisdom©  infinite  do  most  appear©. 

Davies,  Mirum  in  Modum,  p.  7. 


Brake.  H.  says  "  an  instrument 
for  dressing  hemp  or  flax.  See  Holly- 
band,  s.  v.  brosse"  In  the  extracts  it 
is  a  verb  or  participle. 

It  [flax]  must  be  watered,  dried,  braked, 
tew-tawecl,  and  with  much  labor  driuen  and 
reduced  in  the  end  to  be  as  soft  and  tender 
as  wooll.— Holland,  Pliny,  Bk.  xix.  (proem). 

There  must  be  planting,  cutting  down, 
bundling,  watring,  rippling,  braking,  wing- 
ling,  and  heckling  of  hemp.— Howell,  Parly 
of  Beasts,  p.  14. 

The  sad-yell ow-fly  made  with  the  buzzard's 
wings,  bound  with  black  braked  hemp. — Miss 
Edgeworth,  Absentee,  ch.  viii. 

Brake,  a  snare  :  the  idea  being  con- 
nected with  the  tangles  of  a  thicket  (?). 

Alas  what  should  I  doe 
With  that  enchanted  glass©  ?    See  diuels 

there? 
Or  (like  a  strumpet)  learne  to  set  my  lookes 
In  an  eternal  brake,  or  practise  juggling, 
To  keepe  my  face  still  fast,  my  hart  still 

loose  ? — Chapman,  Bussy  DAmbois,  Act  I. 

Bran,  slang  for  a  loaf.  See  quotation 
8.  v.  Lush. 

He  purchased  a  sufficiency  of  ready-dressed 
ham,  and  a  half -quartern  loaf,  or,  as  he  him- 
self expressed  it,  Ma  fourpenny  bran."  — 
Dickens,  Oliver  Tteist,  ch.  viii. 

Branded,  spotted.  II.  says  "  a  mix- 
ture of  red  and  black."  The  word  in 
tho  original  is  aUXov. 

They  saw  a  branded  serpent  sprawl 
So  full  amongst  them  from  above. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xii.  217. 

Brander,  a  gridiron. 

A  frying-pan,  two  branders,  a  flesh-hook 
and  flaming  spoon. — Inventory,  1708  {Dun- 
bar, Social  Life  in  Former  Days,  p.  212). 

Brandish,  to  shine,  twinkle.  Syl- 
vester uses  the  word  in  this  sense,  per- 
haps as  referring  to  the  gleam  of  a 
brandished  weapon ;  so  Heath  in  his 
translation  of  Horace,  1638,  speaks  of 
"  the  ray  of  a  brandished  sword." 

Thine  eys  already  (now  no  longer  eys, 
But  new  bright  stars)  doe  brandish  in  the 
skyes. — Sylvester,  Handy-crafts,  729. 

Though  waxen  old  in  his  long  weary  night, 
He  see  a  friendly  Sun  to  brandish  bright. 

Ibid.,  The  Arke,  393. 

Brandlet,  a  bird,  probably  so  called 
from  being  branded  or  marked  in  a 
peculiar  way;  perhaps  the  mountain- 
finch.    See  N".  and  Q.,  V.  x.  409. 

The  brandlet  saith,  for  singing  sweete  and 

softe, 
(In  hir  conceit)  there  is  none  such  as  she. 

Gascoigne,  Philomene. 


BRAND  Y 


(     79    ) 


BRAT 


Brandt,  to  drink  brandy.  The  verb, 
which,  however,  is  not  given  in  the 
Diets.,  is  usually  applied  to  mixing 
brandy  with  wine. 

He  rarely  had  been  brandying  it  or  beering, 
That  ia,  in  plainer  English,  he  was  drunk. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  138. 

Brandy-ball,  a  sweetmeat  in  favour 
with  boys. 

On  one  ride  was  the  gaudy  riband  making 
its  mute  appeal  to  rustic  gallantry ;  on  the 
other,  the  delicious  brandy-ball  and  alluring 
lollipop  compounded  after  the  most  approved 
receipt  in  the  True  Gentlewoman's  Garland, 
and  M  raising  the  waters  "  in  the  mouth  of 
many  an  expectant  urchin.  —  Ingoldsby 
Legends  (Leech  of  Folkestone). 

Brandt  is  Latin  for  a  goose,  pro- 
bably because  people  took  a  dram  after 
eating  goose.  There  may  be  a  catch  in 
this  way.  "What  is  the  Latin  for  a 
goose  ?  "  "  Ans(w)er,  Brandy ;  "  anser 
being  the  Latin  word  for  goose. 

Lord  Sm.  Well,  but  after  aU,  Tom,  can  you 
tell  me  what's  Latin  for  a  goose  ? 

Net.  O  my  lord,  I  know  that ;  why,  brandy 
is  Latin  for  a  goose,  and  Tace  is  Latin  for  a 
candle. 

Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  ii.). 

Brandy-pawnee,  Anglo-Indian  for 
brandy  and  water. 

"  I'm  sorry  to  see  you,  gentlemen,  drinking 
brandy-pawnee,1*  says  he ;  "  it  plays  the  deuce 
with  our  young?  men  in  India." — Thackeray, 
Newcomes,  ch.  l. 

I  took  up  natural  history  in  India  years 
ago  to  drive  away  thought,  as  other  men 
might  take  to  opium  or  to  brandy-pawnee. — 
Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xv. 

Brank.  H.  says  "to  hold  up  the 
head  affectedly ;  to  put  a  bridle  or  re- 
straint on  anything."  In  the  extracts 
it  seems  =  to  clatter,  to  come  in  with  a 
noise.     Jainieson  has  it  =  to  prance. 

There  was  a  rattle  of  horses'  feet  on  the 
stones,  and  the  clank  of  a  sabre,  and  Lieu- 
tenant Hornby  of  the  140th  Hussars  (Prince 
Arthur's  Own)  came  branking  into  the  yard 
with  two  hundred  pounds'  worth  of  trappings 
on  him. — //.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe%  ch.  xxxii. 

They  came  branking  into  some  pot-house, 
half  a  dozen  of  them,  and  talked  loud  about 
this  and  that. — Ibid.,  ch.  xlvii. 

Brank.  See  extract  There  is  a  pic- 
ture of  the  brank  in  the  work  cited. 

At  the  [Newcastle]  town-hall  I  was  shown 
a  piece  of  antiquity  called  a  brank.  It  con- 
sists of  a  combination  of  iron  fillets,  and  is 
fastened  to  the  head  by  a  lock  fixed  to  the 
back  part  of  it ;  a  thin  plate  of  iron  goes  into 
the  mouth,  sufficiently  strong,  however,  to 


confine  the  tongue,  and  thus  prevent  the 
wearer  from  making  any  use  of  that  restless 
member.  The  use  of  this  piece  of  machinery 
is  to  punish  notorious  scolds.  I  am  pleased 
to  find  that  it  is  now  considered  merely  as  a 
matter  of  curiosity. — Life  of  J.  Lackington, 
Letter  xliii. 

Brantle,  the  brawl.  N.,  L.,  and  R. 
have  bransle,  all  with  the  same  quota- 
tion from  the  Faerie  Queene,  III.  x.  8. 
Pepys  spells  it  bransle,  Nov.  15,  1666. 

The  King  takes  out  the  Duchess  of  York ; 
and  the  Duke  the  Duchess  of  Buckingham ; 
the  Duke  of  Monmouth  my  Lady  Castle- 
maine :  and  so  other  lords  other  ladies ;  and 
they  aanced  the  Brantle. — Pepys,  Dec.  30, 
1662. 

Brash,  eruption ;  rash. 

He  is  a  churl  with  a  soft  place  in  his  heart, 
whose  speech  is  a  brash  of  bitter  waters,  but 
who  loves  to  help  you  at  a  pinch. — Emtrson, 
quoted  in  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  ii. 

Brasmatias,  an  earthquake  consisting 
in  violent  perpendicular  upheavings  of 
the  earth  (ppaatrtiv,  to  boil).- — Arist. 
Mund.,  iv.  30.  See  N.  and  Q.,  V.  x. 
409. 

That  kinde  of  earthquake  which  as  I  deeme 
naturall  Philosophers  call  Brasmatias. — Hol- 
land's Camden,  p.  620. 

Brass,  money.  In  the  first  quotation 
from  Bp.  Hall  it  may  mean  copper 
money,  as  it  does  in  St.  Matt.  x.  9,  &c., 
but  in  the  other  extracts  it  =  money 
generally. 

Shame  that  the  muses  should  be  bought  and 

sold 
For  every  peasant's  brass  on  each  scaffold. 

Hall,  Satires,  I.  ill.  68. 

Hirelings  enow  beside  can  be  so  base, 

Tho'  we  should  scorn  each  bribing  varlet's 

brass.— Ibid.,  IV.  v.  12. 

"  There'll  be  Fosters  i'  th'  background,  as 
one  may  say,  to  take  t'  biggest  share  on  t' 
profits,"  said  Bell.  u  Ay,  ay,  that's  but  as  it 
should  be,  for  I  reckon  they'll  ha'  to  find  the 
brass  the  first."  —  Mrs.  Gaskell,  Sylvia's 
Lovers,  ch.  xx. 

Brass,  impudence. 

She  in  her  defence  made  him  appear  such  a 
rogue  upon  record,  that  the  Chief  Justice 
wondered  he  had  the  brass  to  appear  in  a 
court  of  justice. — North,  Examen,  p.  256. 

Brassy,  like  brass,  and  so,  impudent. 
In  Merchant  of  Venice,  IV.  i.  it  = 
hard. 

No,  Mister  Gattle— Betty  was  too  brassy. 
We  never  keep  a  servant  that  is  saucy. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  73. 

Brat,    a    north-country    word    for 


B RATH  EL 


(     80    )    BREAD  AND  CROW 


apron  or  pinafore.    Chancer  has  brail 

=  cloak  (Cant  Tales,  16,  349). 

~  We  had  nought  on  but  our  hats,  an*  bit* 
o'  blue  bedgowns,  an'  brats;  see  ye  may 
think  we  cuddent  be  varra  heeat. — Southey, 
The  Doctor,  Interchapter  xxiv. 

r.  Brathkl,  same  as  brothel,  which  was 
sometimes  used  for  a  harlot,  and  so 
generally  as  a  term  of  reproach  for  a 
woman.  Xantippe  is  the  brothel  referred 
to  in  the  extract. 

The  scoldyng  of  brothels  is  no  more  to  bee 
passed  on  then  the  squeking  of  wel  wheles. 
—UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  26. 

Brattice,  to  board  up.    See  L.,  9.  v. 

bretage. 

He  led  me  in  and  out  the  marshy  places 
to  a  great  round  hole  or  shaft  bratticed  up 
with  timber. — Blackmore,  Lorna  Boone,  ch. 
lviii. 

'    Bravada,    a  boast  or  fanfaronade. 

Bravado  is  more  usual.    Ital.  and  Span. 

bravata. 

And  yet  all  this  but  a  mere  flourish,  a 
faint  and  feigned  bravada. — Sanderson,  ii.  340. 

Bravade,  a  boast,  or  show  of  courage. 
Anglicized  form  of  preceding. 

My  blood  has  often  curdled  in  my  veins, 
when  I  heard  gentlemen  magnify  their  in- 
famous conquests,  and  raise  cruel  trophies 
on  the  ruins  of  women's  honour :  I  had  not 

Eatience  to  hear  the  bravades,  nor  power  to 
inder  'em. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  65. 
Some,  however,  with  outward  bravade,  but 
inward  tremblings,  went  searching  along  the 
walls,  and  behind  the  posts,  for  some  lurcher. 
— H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  101. 

Bravado,  a  braggart. 

We  will  march  about  like  bravadoes, 

Huffing,  and  puffing, 
And  snuffing,  and  calling  the  Spaniard. 

Jferry  Drollerie,  p.  16. 

Several  letters  in  the  House  about  the 
Fanatickes  in  several  places,  coming  in  great 
bodies,  and  turning  people  out  of  the 
churches, . . .  which  makes  them  stark  mad, 
especially  the  hectors  and  bravadoes  of  the 
House,  who  show  all  the  zeal  on  this  occmt 
Aon.—Pepys,  Feb.  28, 1667-68. 

Braver,  boaster. 

Our  countrimen  . . .  would  carrie  the  buck- 
lers full  easilie  from  all  forreine  brauers. — 
Nashe,  Pref.  to  Greene's  Menaphon,  p.  16. 

Bravery,  chivalry. 

The  Grandees  also,  and  others  of  the  Cas- 
tilian  Bravery  that  conducted  the  Prince  to 
the  Seas,  were  feasted  in  our  Admiral  at  a 
true  English  table,  free,  pleasant,  luxuriously 
bountiful.— Hacket,  life  of  Williams,  i.  162. 


Braveur,  courage.     Fr.  bravoure. 

It  was  want  of  judgment  not  to  know  that, 
if  the  matter  of  the  proclamation  was  not 
defensible,  as  it  was  manifestly,  yet  the 
braveur  of  the  carriage  had  made  him  friends. 
— North,  Examen,  p.  655. 

The  conversation  and  ordinary  discourse 
of  the  club  was  chiefly  upon  braveur  in  de- 
fending the  cause  of  liberty  and  property. — 
Ibid.  p.  572. 

Bravo,  a  brave  man:  usually  em- 
ployed opprobriously  of  a  swaggering 
ruffian  or  hired  assassin. 

Can  you  therefore  think  that  those  bravoe* 
who  tremble  more  at  the  shadow  of  a  dis- 
grace than  at  all  the  terrors  of  damnation 
will  buy  pardon  at  the  expense  of  their 
honour?—  Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  67. 

Brawl,  a  bravo.  A  jurgiis  in  the 
original. 

I  am  his  swabber,  his  chamberlain,  his 
footman,  his  clerk,  his  butler,  his  book- 
keeper, his  brawl,  his  errand  boy.— Bailey's 
Erasmus,  p.  42. 

Brawn-fallen,  lean ;  skinny. 

Where  brawr^falne   cheeks,   heart-scalding 
sighs,  and  dimmed  eyes  with  teares, 

Doe  shewe  in  Life's  anatomy  what  burthen 
Sorrowe  beares. 

Breton,  Melancholike  Humours,  p.  8. 

Poore  brawn-falne  begger,  whereon  dost 
thou  feede? — Aid.,  Pilgrimage  to  Paradise, 
p.  12. 

For  our  women  here  in  France,  they  are 
such  lean  braicn-falPn  jades. — Farquhar,  The 
Inconstant,  Act  1. 

Brat,  applied  to  the  roaring  of  a  lion, 
and  the  noise  made  by  a  buck. 

A  horse  neigheth,  a  lyon  brayes,  a  swine 
grunts.  —  Puttenham,  Arte  of  Eng.  Poesie, 
Bk.  III.  ch.  xvii. 

If  I  did  not  hear  a  bow  go  off  and  the  buck 
bray,  I  never  heard  deer  in  my  life. — Merry 
Devil  of  Edmonton  (Dodsley,  O.  PI.,  xi.  156). 

Bread-and-butter,  used  contempt- 
uously of  young  and  shy  girls :  the  ex- 
pression probably  owes  its  currency  to 
what  Byron  says  of  "  your  budding 
Miss":— 

The  Nursery  still  lisps  out  in  all  they  utter — 
Besides,   they  always  smell  of   bread-and- 
butter. — Beppo,  st.  89. 

One  was  a  middle-aged  clergyman,  and  the 
other  a  lady  at  any  rate  past  the  wishy- 
washy  bread-and-butter  period  of  life. — Trol- 
lope,  Barchester  Towers,  ch.  xli. 

Bread  and  crow  seems  to  be  used 
proverbially  for  "  every  one."  Perhaps 
there  is  some  allusion  to  JEsop's  fable,- 


BREAD-BASKET        (     81     ) 


BREDE 


as  though  the  fox  ate  not  only  the 
crow's  bread,  bat  the  crow  herself. 

The  gods  and  goddesses,  all  on  a  rowe, 
bread  and  crow,  from  Ops  to  Pomona  (the 
first  apple-wife),  were  so  dumpt  with  this 
miserable  wracke  that  they  beganne  to 
abhorre  all  moystnre  for  the  sea's  sake. — 
Xashe,  Lenten  Stuff  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  168). 

Bread-basket,  the  stomach.  Smol- 
lett uses  bread-room  (which  seems  to 
have  been  sea  slang)  in  the  same  sense. 
See  extract  $.  v.  Slino. 

Another  came  np  to  second  him,  bat  I  let 
drive  at  the  mark,  made  the  soup-maigre 
ramble  in  his  bread-basket,  and  laid  him 
sprawling.  —  Foote,  Englishman  in  Paris, 
Act  I. 

A  heavy  blow  was  struck  on  the  panel 
from  the  inside,  and  the  point  of  a  sharp 
instrument  driven  right  through,  close  to 
my  knees,  with  the  exclamation, "  What  do 
you  think  o'  that  now  in  a  policeman's 
bread-basket  ?  "— C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch. 
xxxiii. 

When  you  can't  fill  the  bread-basket,  shut 
it.  Go  to  sleep  till  the  Southern  dross  comes 
out  again. — Reade,  Never  too  Late  to  Mend, 
ch.  Ixx. 

Breadliness,  eating  together,  and 
consequent  intimacy;  what  Sir  T. 
Browne  calls  commentation. 

If  yo've  any  love  for  me  because  of  yo'r 
dead  mother's  love  for  me,  or  because  of  any 
fellowship  or  daily  breadlines*  between  us 
two,  pat  the  hard  thoughts  of  Philip  away 
from  out  yo'r  heart. — Mrs.  Oaskell,  Sylvia's 
Lovers,  ch.  xttix. 

Bread-room,  stomach. 

The  waiter  .  .  returned  with  a  quartern 
of  brandy,  which  Crowe,  snatching  eagerly, 
started  into  his  bread-room  at  one  cant. — 
Smollett,  L.  Greavet,  ch.  xvii. 

Brbadstitch,  braidstitch.  Gf .  Brede. 
The  extract  from  Taylor  is  quoted  from 
Southey's  Doctor,  ch.  ciii. 

Brave  bred-stitch,  fisher-stitch,  Irish-stitch, 
and  Queen-stitch. — Taylor  {the  voter  poet). 

They  understand  their  needle,  breadstitch, 
cross  and  change,  and  all  manner  of  plain 
work.—Goldsmith,  Vicar  of  Wakefield,  en.  xi. 

Brbady,  of  bread.  Breaden  is  more 
usual. 

Honorius  the  third,  bishop  of  Rome,  com- 
manded this  new  bready  god  to  be  honoured. 
— Hooper,  i.  527. 

Break-back,  over- weighty.  Cf.  Back- 
break. 

All  breake-backe  Crosses  which  we  vndergo 
Are  cast  vpoo  us  by  this  Euill  still. 

Davie*,  Summa  Totalis,  p.  21. 


Break-league,  a  covenant-breaker. 
L.  has  break-promise  and  break-vow- 
Dido,  in  Stanyhuret's  version  {JEn.,  iv. 
657),  invokes  Divine  vengeance  on  <l  al 
faythlesse  break  leages." 

Breambacked,  with  a  high-ridged 
back  like  a  bream.  It  is  a  horse  that 
is  spoken  of  in  the  extract. 

He  was  not  .  .  .  hollow-backed,  bream- 
backed,  long-backed,  or  broken-backed. — 
Southty,  The  Doctor,  ch.  exciii. 

Breast.    In  a  breast  —  abreast. 

He  then  commanded  his  general  ...  to 
draw  up  the  troops  in  close  order,  and  march 
them  under  me;  the  foot  by  twenty-four 
tn  a  breast,  and  the  horse  by  sixteen. — Surift, 
Voyage  to  Lilliput,  ch.  iii. 

Breast.  To  make  a  clean  breast  =  to 
tell  everything. 

You  know  all  about  it ;  ...  I  made  a  clean 
breast  to  you. — G.Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch.  lxvi. 

Breath.  To  keep  one's  breath  to  cool 
one's  broth  or  porridge  =  to  desist 
from  useless  argument  or  remonstrance. 
In  tide  extract  from  Bailey  the  original 
is  laterem  lavat,  he  washes  a  tile,  i.  e. 
loses  his  labour. 

My  lord,  save  your  breath  for  your  broth ; 
I  am  not  now  at  leisure  to  attend  you. — 
Machin,  Dumb  Knight*  Act  II. 

Truly,  sir,  you  may  please,  as  the  proverb 
runs,  to  keep  your  breath  to  cool  your  pottage, 
and  spend  it  no  longer  upon  me. — Howell, 
Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  85. 

You  have  no  reason  to  fear  a  peace  for 
these  ten  years :  the  pope  is  the  only  man 
that  persuades  them  to  come  to  an  agree- 
ment among  themselves,  but  be  had  as  g?ood 
keep  his  breath  to  cool  his  porridge. — Bailey's 
Erasmus,  p.  312. 

Breathy  swords,  swords  of  thy 
breath,  i.  e.  killing  words.  The  Rev. 
J.  Mitford  pronounces  this  "  more  bar- 
baric than  anything  we  have  met  with 
in  Peele,"  and  suggests  "breathed 
words,"  but  cf.  Ps.  Iv.  22.  Latham 
has  breathy  —  sending  out  as  breath. 

O  help,  my  David,  help  thy  Bethsabe, 
Whose  heart  is  pierced  with  thy  breathy 
swords. — Peele,  David  and  Bethsabe,  p.  485. 

Brede,  braid.  L.  marks  this  word 
as  obsolete ;  it  has  been  revived  by 
Keats  and  Tennyson.  See  quotation 
$.  v.  Volcanian,  and  cf.  Breadstitch. 

Psyche  ever  stole 
A  little  nearer,  till  the  babe  that  by  us, 
Half-lapt  in  glowing  gauze  and  golden  brede, 

O 


BREECHLOADER       (     82     )       BRIDE  WELLING 


Lay  like  a  new-falTn  meteor  on  the  grass 
Uncared  for,  spied  its  mother. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  vi. 

Breechloader,  a  rifle  that  is  loaded 
at  the  breech  instead  of  the  muzzle. 

There  are  two  herons  just  round  the  point, 
and  I  have  my  breechloader  and  a  dozen  car- 
tridges here.— Black,  Prineeis  of  Thule,  ch. 
xziii. 

Breedlino,  a  native  of  the  fen  country. 
L.  has  the  word,  but  only  with  quota- 
tion from  Macaulay.  Pepys,  describ- 
ing a  journey  from  Parson's  Drove  to 
Wisbeach,  writes : 

Over  most  sad  fenns,  all  the  way  observ- 
ing the  sad  life  which  the  people  of  the  place 
—which,  if  they  be  born  there,  they  do  call 
the  Breedlings  of  the  place — do  live.— Sept. 
17, 1663. 

Breeze,  to  blow. 

At  this  moment  the  noise  of  the  distant 
fight  breezed  up  louder  than  ever. — H.  Kings- 
ley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  zliv. 

Brrneaqe,  payment  for  burning  reeds 

in  the  fen  (?). 

To  Wyllm  Cortys  for  breneage  in  the  fen. 
— Leverton  Chwardens.  Accts.,  1585  (Arch., 
xli.  345). 

Brephophagist,  eater  of  children. 

The  writer's  brother  made  the  acquaintance 
in  California,  not  a  year  ago,  of  a  gentleman 
who  affirmed  that  babies  were  excellent  eat- 
ing. .  .  .  This  Brephophagist  was  a  well- 
dressed  and  nicely-mannered  man. — E.  Roe, 
Land  of  the  N.  Wind,  p.  265  (1875). 

Brethreed,  brotherhood. 

He  had  a  certain  breethreed  which  vsed  to 
resorte  and  gather  together  at  his  nous. — 
UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  377. 

Brewers,  briars  (?).  Fuller,  in  the 
margin,  calls  it  "  an  old  English  word." 

Willhelmus  Brewer.  His  mother,  unable 
(to  make  the  most  charitable  constructions) 
to  maintain,  cast  him  in  brewers  (whence  he 
was  so  named)  or  in  a  bed  of  brakes  in  New 
Forrest.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Devon  (i.  295). 

Bribble-brabblk,  chattering  or  quar- 
relling. 

You  are  a  foolish  bribble-brabble  woman, 
that  you  are. — The  Committee,  Act  IH. 

Bribe-groping,  corrupt;  bribe-seek- 
ing. 

The  bribe-groping  officer,  in  what  court 
soever  his  dition  lies,  is  an  oppressing  rider. 
— Adams,  i.  87. 

Briberyng,  robbing. 


God  gene  her  a  shamef nil  repreefe, 
For  it  is  the  moost  briberynge  thef e 
That  euer  was,  I  make  Gk>d  a  vowe. 
Dyaloge  betwene  a  Gentleman  and 
a  Husbandman,  p.  137. 

Bribes-walking,  bribery. 

There  was  bribes-walking,  money-making, 
making  of  hands,  quoth  the  prophet. — 
Latimer,  i.  156. 

Bribrebs,  female  briber. 

Now,  Belford,  see  us  all  sitting  in  judge- 
ment, resolved  to  punish  the  fair  bribress. — 
Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  vi.  66. 

Bric-a-brac  (Fr.),  odds  and  ends.  A 
bric-a-brac  shop  =  old  curiosity  shop. 

Two  things  only  jarred  on  his  eye  in  his 
hurried  glance  round  the  room:  there  was 
too  much  bric-a-brac,  and  too  many  flowers. 
— H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  xxxi. 

u  Haven't  an  affair  in  the  world,"  said 
Hans,  in  a  flighty  way ;  "  except  a  quarrel 
with  a  bric-a-brac  man." — G.  Eliot,  Daniel 
Deronda,  ch.  lxvii. 

Briccoll,  a  species  of  warlike  engine. 

Here  bends  the  Briccoll,  while  the  cable 

cracks, 
Their   Crosbowes   were  vprent  with   yron 

Backs.— Hudson's  Judith,  in.  109. 
Here  th'  Enginer  begins  his  Ram  to  rear ; 
Here  mounts  his  Trepan,  and  his  Scorpion 

there ; 
Bends  here  his  Bricol,  there  his  boysterons 

Bow. — Sylvester,  Bethulia's  Rescue,  iii.  109. 

Brick,  a  good  fellow;  mp&ysvoe 
dvrjp  ?  (Aristotle,  Eth. ,  i.  10).  This  is 
the  derivation  suggested  in  the  first 
quotation. 

In  brief  I  don't  stick  to  declare  Father  Dick, 
So  they  called  him  for  short,  was  a  regular 

brick  ; 
A  metaphor  taken,  I  have  not  the  page  aright, 
Out  of  an  ethical  work  by  the  Stagyrite. 
Ingoldsby  Leg.  (Brothers  of  Birchington). 

"  I  may  say/'  continued  Mr.  Peacock  em- 
phatically, "  that  he  was  a  regular  trump- 
trump  ! "  he  reiterated  with  a  start,  as  if  the 
word  had  stung  him — "trump!  he  was  a 
brick.'— Lytton,  The  Caxtons,  Bk.  XI.  ch.  v. 

Never  mind  me,  but  miud  yourself,  and 
mind  that  curate;  he  is  a  noble  brick. — C. 
Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xvii. 

Bricks.  Like  bricks  =  vehemently, 
quickly.  See  quotation  s.  v.  Midship- 
man. 

Bump  they  comes  agin  the  post,  and  out 
flies  the  fare  like  bricks. — Sketches  by  Box, 
The  Last  Cab-Driver. 

Bridewelling,  imprisoning  in  house 
of  correction.     Cf.  Newgated. 
Here  is  bridewelling,  banishing,  and  selling 


BEIDGELESS  (     83     ) 


BRISTLE 


of  people  to  slavery.— H.  Care's  Draconica, 
A.D.  1688. 

Bridgeless,  without  a  bridge,  or  that 
cannot  be  bridged. 

Alone  unchanged,  a  free  and  bridgeless  tide, 
Euphrates  rolls  along. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  v. 

Bridgem aster,  proprietor  of  a  bridge. 

The  Bridgemasters  were  obliged  to  exact 
at  the  Ferry  there  exorbitant  rates  for  con- 
veying passengers  over  the  Thames,  in  order 
the  better  to  support  the  said  [Staines]  bridge. 
—Defoe,  Tour  thro'  G.  Britain,  i.  233. 

Bbidle-cull,  a  highwayman,  who 
was  usually  mounted  (thieves'  cant). 
See  quotation  from  same  work,  $.  v. 
Buttock.    Cf.  Snaffling-lay. 

A  booty  of  £10  looks  as  great  in  the  eye 
of  a  bridle-cull,  and  gives  as  much  real  hap- 
piness to  his  fancy,  as  that  of  as  many  thou- 
sands to  the  statesman. — Fielding.  Jonathan 
Wild,  Bk.  I.  ch.  v. 

Bbidleless,  without  a  bridle. 

Far  over  the  plain 
Away  went  the  bridleless  steed. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  vi. 

Brtdport  dagger.    See  extract 

"  Stab'd  with  a  Brydvort  Dagger. ,"  That  is, 
hangM  or  executed  at  tne  Gallowes ;  the  best, 
if  not  the  most,  hemp  (for  the  quantity  of 
ground)  growing  about  Brydport.— Fuller, 
Worthies,  Dorset  (i.  310). 

Brief,  to  shorten.  R.  says,  "  Dr. 
Jamieaon  gives  instances  of  the  use  of 
brief  as  a  verb.  It  is  common  among 
English  lawyers,  as  to  brief  the  plead- 
ings-" R.  gives  no  example,  and  Jamie- 
son's  are  from  Scotch  writers. 

Thy  power  is  confined,  thy  time  is  limited  ; 
both  thy  latitude  and  extension  are  briefed 
up.— Adams,  ii.  135. 

Brig,  bridge. 

Look   thou  theer  wheer  Wrigglesby  beck 

comes  out  by  the  111. 
Feyther  run  up  to  the  farm,  an'  I  runs  up  to 

the  mill ; 
Anr  I'll  run  up  to  the  brig  ;  an*  that  thou'll 
live  to  see. 

Tennyson,  Northern  Farmer, 
New  Style. 

Brigadier  wig,  a  species  of  wig  used 
apparently  by  elderly  men  of  good 
position  —  worn  perhaps  by  senior 
officers  in  the  army. 

I . . .  had  no  conception  that  a  man  of  so 
respectable  an  appearance,  in  a  brigadier  vrig 
and  grave  habit,  that  looked  more  like  a 
justice  of  peace  or  high  sheriff  than  a  de- 
bauched rake,  could  be  guilty  of  any  rudeness 


or  indecent  behaviour.  —  Graves,  Spiritual 
Quixote,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xiii. 

Brigado,  brigade.     The  form  in  the 
extract  is  due  to  the  rhyme. 

Where    once    they    form'd    their   .troops, 

Brigados, 
Their  horn-works,  rampires,  pallizados. 

Cotton,  Scarronides,  p.  6. 

Brilliant,  to  make  brilliant  by 
polishing. 

Thank  you  a  thousand  times,  dear  Madam, 
for  your  obliging  letter  and  the  new  Bristol 
stones  you  have  sent  me,  which  would  pass 
on  a  more  skilful  lapidary  than  I  am  for 
having  been  brillianted  by  a  professed  artist, 
if  you  had  not  told  me  that  they  came  shin- 
ing out  of  a  native  mine,  and  had  no  foreign 
diamond  dust  to  polish  them.—  Walpole, 
Letters,  iv.  377  (1784). 

Brimse,  gadfly.     See  H.,  9.  v. 

I  vnderstand  they  are  all  in  a  fustian  fume, 
they  runne  to  and  fro  with  a  nettle  in  their 
noses,  and  lashe  out  their  heeles,  as  they  had 
caught  the  brimse,  which  is  a  plaine  token 
that  the  gawle  is  rubbed,  the  canker  toucht. 
— Gosson,  Apologie  of  Schoole  of  Abuse,  p.  64. 

Brimstone,  a  bad,  shrewish  woman. 

I  hate  the  law  damnably  ever  since  I  lost 
a  year's  pay  for  hindering  our  boatswain's 
mate's  brother  from  beating  his  wife.  The 
brimstone  swore  I  beat  her  husband,  and  so 
I  paid  for  meddling. — Johnston,  Chrysal,  ii. 
190. 

Brince,  to  pledge  in  drinking,  or  to 
offer  drink.  N.,  8.  v.  brinch,  quotes  that 
word  from  Lyly,  and  says,  "  An  unusual 
word  having  some  reference  to  drinking. 
If  an  error  of  the  press,  I  know  not 
what  the  reading  should  be."  See  also 
H. ,  s.  v. 

Luther  first  brinced  to  Germany  the  poi- 
soned cup  of  his  heresies,  blasphemies,  and 
satanisms. — Jewel,  ill.  265. 

Brine-seeth,  a  brine-pit,  from  the 
salt  water  of  which  salt  is  extracted  by 
boiling. 

From  Chester  we  kept  directly  on  East  to 
Middlewich,  .  .  .  chiefly  noted  for  makiug 
salt,  where  are  two  excellent  1>rine-seeths. — 
Defoe,  Tour  thro1  G.  Britain,  ii.  385. 

Bringing,  being  brought :  for  a  simi- 
lar use  of  the  participle  see  carrying, 
drawing,  starching. 

She  only  came  on  foot  to  leave  more  room 
for  the  harp  which  was  bringing  in  the  car- 
riage.— Miss  Austen,  Persuasion,  ch.  vi. 

Bristle,  brisk :  which  is  the  reading 
in  some  copies. 

g  2 


BRISTOL  MILK        (     84     ) 


BROOM 


The  bristle  mouse  may  feed  her  selfe  with 
crumms, 
Till  that  the  greene-eyed  kit  ling  comes. 

Herrtck,  Appendix,  p.  459. 

Bristol  milk.  See  extracts.  Pepys 
(June  13,  1668)  enjoyed  "plenty  of 
brave  wine,  and  above  all  Bristol  milk.'1 
Ld.  Braybrooke  quotes  from  the  first 
edition  of  Byron's  Eng.  Bards  and 
Scotch  Reviewers  (the  lines  are  altered 
in  later  editions)  : 

Too  much  in  turtle  BristoVs  sons  delight, 
Too  much  o'er  bowls  of  rack  prolong  the  night. 

"Bristol  Milk."  Though  as  many  Ele- 
phants are  fed  as  Cows  grased  within  the 
Walls  of  this  City,  yet  great  plenty  of  this 
metaphorical  Miuc,  whereby  Xeres  or  Sherry 
Sack  is  intended. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Bristol. 

The  repast  was  dressed  in  the  furnace,  and 
was  accompanied  by  a  rich  beverage  made  of 
the  best  Spanish  wine,  and  celebrated  over 
the  whole  kingdom  as  Bristol  milk. — Ma- 
caulay,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  Vol.  I.  ch.  iii. 

Brittany,  Britain  :  now  confined  to 
the  district  so  named  in  France. 

The  isle  of  Albion,  or  great  Brittany. — 
Howell,  Letters,  ii.  55. 

Broach-turner,  turnspit.  Cf.  Turn- 
broach  er. 

Dish-washer  and  broach-turner,  loon !  to  me 
Thou  smellest  all  of  kitchen  as  before. 

Tennyson,  Gareth  and  Lynette. 

» 

Broad.     See  first  extract 

A  broad  is  the  spread  of  a  river  into  a 
sheet  of  water,  which  is  certainly  neither 
lake  nor  lagoon. — Southey,  Letters  (1812),  ii. 
307. 

Then  across  the  mill-pool,  and  through 
the  deep  crooks,  out  into  the  broads,  and 
past  the  withered  beds  of  weeds  which  told 
of  coming  winter. — H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe, 
ch.  vni. 

Broad  Bottom.    See  quotation. 

The  Tories  declare  against  any  further 
prosecution,  if  Tories  there  are,  for  now  one 
hears  of  nothing  but  the  Broad  Bottom  ;  it  is 
the  reigning  cant  word,  and  means,  the  tak- 
ing all  parties  and  people  indifferently  into 
the  ministry. —  Walpole  to  Mann,  i.  93 
(1741-2). 

Broam,  apparently  some  sort  of  spirit 
or  goblin. 

The  approach  of  the  sun's  radiant  beams 
expelleth  goblins,  bugbears,  hob-thrushes, 
brooms,  screech-owl  mates,  night  -  walking 
spirits,  and  tenebrions. — UrquharVs  Rabelais, 
Bk.  III.  ch.  xxiv. 

Brocado.  Swift  in  the  annexed  quot- 
ation uses  the  Spanish  form  of  this 
word  to  suit  his  metre  ;  elsewhere  he 
has  brocade. 


Brocados,  and   damasks,   and  tabbies,  and 

gawses, 
Are  by  Robert  Ballantine  lately  brought  over. 
Swift,  Song  on  a  Seditious  Pamphlet. 

Brocatall.     See  extract. 

The  Vice  Chancellor,  Heads  of  Houses, 
and  Doctors,  being  seated  in  magisterial 
seates,  the  Vice  Chancellor's  chaire  and 
deske,  Proctors,  fee,  cover'd  with  Brocatall 
(a  kind  of  brocade)  and  cloth  of  gold,  the 
Universitie  Register  read  the  founder's  grant. 
—Evelyn,  Diary,  July  9, 1669. 

Broch  steeple,  a  pyramid ical  spire. 
H.  gives  the  reference,  but  not  the  words 
of  the  subjoined.  Broche  by  itself  is 
also  used  for  steeple.    See  N. 

Acuminato  erat  capite,  his  [Thersites']  head 
was  made  like  a  broch  steeple,  sharp©  and 
high  crown 'd,  which  among  all  physiogno- 
mers  imports  an  ill  affected  minae. — Optick 

Glasse  of  Humors,  p.  41  (1639). 

• 

Brogger.  In  the  Commons  Journals, 
i.  108  (1575),  mention  is  made  of  a 
"Bill  against  broggers  and  drovers/* 
H.  explains  brogger  as  "a  badger  [i.  e. 
a  huckster  or  hawker]  who  deals  in 
corn."  He  refers  to  Holinshed ;  but  in 
the  extract  it  may  mean  one  who  brogs 
or  prods  on  cattle ;  another  name  for 
drover.     See  N.  and  Q.,  V.  x.  410. 

Broke,  breach. 

Broke  for  broke,  eye  for  eye,  and  tooth  for 
tooth. — Becon,  ii.  94. 

Brokeress,  a  female  broker  or  go- 
between. 

Now  beldam  Brokresse  must  bee  with 
moouye  rewarded. — Stany hurst,  Conceites,  p. 
140. 

Bronsewinq,  a  small  insect. 

You  know  you've  no  more  fight  in  you 
than  a  bronsewing. —  H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry 
Hamlyn,  ch.  xxvi. 

Bronzify,  to  bronze,  or  cast  in  bronze. 

St.  Michael  descending  upon  the  Fiend  has 
been  caught  and  bronzified,  just  as  he  lighted 
on  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo.  . . .  He  is  as 
natural  as  blank  verse,  that  bronze  angel, 
set,  rhythmic,  grandiose. — Thackeray,  yew- 
comes,  ch.  xxxv. 

Broom,  to  sweep. 

He  had  .  .  to  yell  at  the  woodman  for 
clearing  not  enough  or  too  much,  to  rail  at 
the  poor  old  work-people  brooming  away  the 
fallen  leaves. — Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  lviii. 

Broom.  The  proverb  in  the  extract 
is  still  in  constant  use  to  express  the 
zeal  of  one  new  to  an  office. 


BROOM-SQUIRE        (    85     ) 


BR  UCKLE 


I  will  hence  to  the  court  with  all  hast  I  may, 
I  think  the  king  he  stirring,  it  is  now  bright 

day; 
To  wayte  at  a  pinch,  still  in  sight  I  meane, 
For  wot  yon  what?  a  new  fa-come  sweepes 
deane. 

Edwards,  Damon  and  Pithias 
(Dodsley,  O.  PL,  i.  233). 

Broom-squire.    See  quotation. 

"  Did  yon  ever,"  said  Tom, "  hear  the  story 
of  the  two  Sandhurst  broom  -  squires  ? " 
**  Broom-squires  ?n  u  So  we  call  in  Berkshire 
squatters  on  the  moor  who  live  by  tying 
heath  into  brooms." — C.  Kingsley,  Two  Years 
Ago,  ch.  xiv. 

Broomstick.  To  be  married  over 
the  broomstick  =  to  live  as  man  and 
wife  without  being  married.  In  some 
parts  of  England  this  is  called  "  jump- 
ing the  besom." 

Young  ladies  had  fain  single  women  re- 
main, 

And  unwedded  dames  to  the  last  crack  of 
doom  stick, 

Ere  marry  by  taking  a  jump  oJer  a  broomstick* 
Ingoldsby  Legends  (S.  Rom  wold). 

This  woman  in  Gerrard-street  here  had 
been  married  very  young,  over  the  broomstick 
(as  we  say),  to  a  tramping  man. — Dickens, 
Great  Expectations,  ch.  xlviii. 

Brother,  to  stand  in  the  relation 
of  brother,  or  to  address  a  person  as 
brother. 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  prudent  advice  of 
that  admirable  somebody  ('whose  principal 
fault  is  the  superiority  of  ner  talents,  and 
whose  misfortune  to  be  brother'd  and  sister'd 
by  a  couple  of  creatures  who  are  not  able  to 
comprehend  her  excellences),  I  might  at  one 
time  have  been  plunged  into  difficulties. — 
Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  vi.  407. 

By  such  missions  and  such  brothering  and 
sistering  he  kept  up  his  influence  among  his 
people.— Southey,  Letters,  1818  (iii.  97). 

Brow,  effrontery.    Cf.  Cheek. 

They  were  men  of  more  brow  than  brain » 
being  so  ambitious  to  be  known,  that  they  had 
rather  be  hiss'd  down  than  not  come  upon 
the  stage.— Fuller,  Holy  State,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  zi. 

Some  of  them  .  . .  have  . .  audacious  brows 
and  seared  consciences.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Churchy  p.  162. 

Brow-bending,  frowning. 

With  matrimonie  cometh  . . .  the  soure 
browbendyng  of  your  wifes  kinsfolkes,  the 
tattelyng  toungue  of  your  wifes  mother. — 
VdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  18. 

Brown,  a  penny  (slang). 

Two  or  three  chimney-sweeps,  two  or  three 

clowns, 
Playing  at  pitch  and  toss,  sport  their  browns, 
Ingoldsby  Legends  (Netley  Abbey) 


Brown    Bess,    the    old     regulation 

musket  with  a  brown  barrel :  it  is  no 

longer  in  use. 

Religion  Jack  did  never  profess, 

Till  he  had  shoulder 'd  old  Brown  Bess. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  c.  ii. 

Brown-bread,  ordinary ;  homely. 

He's  a  very  idiot  and  broion-bread  clown, 
and  one  I  know  the  wench  does  deadly  hate. 
—  Wily  Beguiled  (Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr.,  iii. 

They  drew  his  brown-bread  face  on  pretty 

gins, 
And  made  him  stalk  upon  two  rolling-pins. 
Bp.  Corbet  on  Great  Tom  of  Ch.  Ch, 

Brownetta,  a  brunette. 

In  bodye  fine  f ewterd,  a  brave  Brownetta. — 
Stanyhurst,  Conceites,  p.  141. 

Brown  George.     See  extract,   and 

cf.  L.,  s.  v.  George. 

He  looked  disdainfully  at  the  wig ;  it  had 
once  been  a  comely  jazey  enough,  of  the 
colour  of  over-baked  ginger-bread,  one  of 
the  description  commonly  known  during  the 
latter  half  of  the  last  century  by  the  name 
of  a  brown  George. — Ingoldsby  Legends  (Jar* 
vis's  Wig). 

Brown  George,  a  brown  loaf.  See 
L.,  s.  v.  George,  and  the  extract  he 
gives  from  Dryden.  The  original  in 
the  extract  is  bou&sin  de  pain. 

The  devil  of  one  musty  crust  of  a  brotm 
GeoWe  the  poor  boys  had  to  scour  their 
grinders  with. — UrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  iv. 
Author's  Prologue. 

Brown  George.      See  extract,  and 

L. ,  s.  v.  George. 

He  .  .  stood  behind  his  oak,  holding  his 
brown  George,  or  huge  earthenware  recept- 
acle, half  full  of  dirty  water,  in  which  nis 
bedmaker  had  been  washing  up  his  tea-things. 
— Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xxiv. 

Brownie,  an  elf  or  sprite  of  a  bene- 
volent character. 

You  talk  of  my  being  a  fairy,  but  I  am 
sure  you  are  more  like  a  brownie. — C.  Bronte, 
Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xxxvii. 

Browning,  perhaps  a  form  of 
Brownie:  winds  were  supposed  to  be 
raised  by  witches.     See  $,  v.  Lapland. 

Man  is  so  wicked  and  vngratious,  his  wit 
so  inventine,  that  he  will  be  sowing,  tending, 
and  plucking  that  with  his  own  hand  that 
calls  for  nothing  else  at  sea  but  winde ;  and 
neuer  rests  till  Browning  be  come. — Holland, 
Pliny,  Bk.  xix.  (proem). 

Bruckle,  brittle  (?).  Brickie  is  used 
in  Auth.  Vers.,  161 1.  H.  has  "  Bruckeled, 
wet  and  dirty;"  and   Herrick,  i.  1)6, 


BRUMMAGEM         (     86     ) 


BUCKEEN 


speaks  of  "bruckeVd  children."  It  is 
just  possible  that  the  word  in  Putt  en- 
ham  may  bear  this  meaning,  but  the 
other  seems  more  likely. 

Goe  now  and  giue  thy  life  vnto  the  winde, 

Trusting  unto  a  piece  of  bruckU  wood, 
Foure  inches  from  thy  death,  or  seaman  good, 
The  thickest  planke  for  shipboord  that  we 
And. 

Puttenham,  Arte  of  Eng.  Pome, 
Bk.  III.  ch.  xix. 

Brummagem,  applied  to  what  is  false, 
Birmingham  having  a  reputation  for 
spurious  manufactures.  In  the  first 
quotation  halfpenny  is  understood. 

He  picked  it  up,  and  it  proved  to  be  a 
Brumniejatn  of  the  coarsest  and  clumsiest 
kind,  with  a  head  on  each  side. — Southey, 
Tlte  Doctor,  ch.  cxl. 

Uncle  Sam  .  .  .  had  the  brutality  to  tell 
his  nephew  in  very  plain  terms,  that  if  ever 
he  found  that  Brummaqem  gent  in  Poole's 
rooms  again,  Poole  would  never  again  see  the 
colour  of  Uncle  Sam's  money. — Lytton,  What 
will  he  do  with  it  ?  Bk.  IV.  ch.  xvi. 

Brush.  See  extract,  which  is  given 
at  greater  length,  *.  v.  Pimp. 

Small  light  bavins  .  .  .  are  called  in  the 
taverns  a  Brush.  —  Defoe,  Tour  thro9  G. 
Britain,  i.  138. 

Brush,  hasty  departure. 

I  reminded  him,  not  without  blushing, 
of  my  having  no  money.  He  answered, 
"  That  signifies  nothing ;  score  it  behin^the 
door,  or  make  a  bold  brush,  and  take  no 
notice."  —  Fielding,  Tom  Jones,  Bk.  VIII. 
ch.  xii. 

Broshman,  a  painter. 

How  difficult  in  artists  to  allow 
To  brother  brushmen  even  a  grain  of  merit ! 
Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  138. 

Brusque,  abrupt.  A  French  word 
now  naturalized.     See  L.,  s.  v.  brush. 

You  rap  out  a  round  rejoinder,  which,  if 
not  blunt,  is  at  least  brusque. — C.  Bronte, 
Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xiv. 

Brurquerie,  bluntness.  A  Fr.  word 
Anglicized. 

Dorothea  looked  straight  before  her,  and 
spoke  with  cold  brusquerie. — G.  Eliot,  Middle- 
march,  ch.  ii. 

Brute,  applied  without  any  ill  mean- 
ing to  a  human  being.  See  extract  s.  v. 
Heels  in  neck.  Friar  Bacon,  having  in 
his  magic  glass  seen  two  scholars  kill 
each  other,  eoliloquizes — 

Bacon,  thy  magic  doth  effect  this  massacre : 
This  glass  prospective  worketh  many  woes ; 
And    therefore   seeing   these   brave   lusty 
Brutes, 


These  friendly  youths,  did  perish  by  thine 

art, 
Bod  all  thy  magic  and  thine  art  at  onoe. 

Greene,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  175. 

Bruterer,  prophesier,  or  soothsayer. 
This  is  Tyndale  s  explanation  of  the 
word  (i.  445),  which  he  uses  in  Deut. 
xviii.,  where  "  a  bruterer,  or  a  maker  of 
dismal  days  "  =  "  that  useth  divination, 
or  an  observer  of  times,"  in  our  version. 
Bruterer,  I  suppose,  therefore  =  one 
who  sends  forth,  under  real  or  pretended 
inspiration,  reports  or  bruits.  "  Who 
hath  believed  our  report  ?  "  (Isa,  liil  1). 

Bubbleable,  capable  of  being  duped. 

If  the  winner  is  bubbleable,  they  will  in- 
sinuate themselves  into  his  acquaintance. — 
The  Nicker  Nicked,  1669  {Harl.  Misc.,  ii. 
109). 

Bubble  and  squeak,  fried  beef  and 
cabbage;  used  also  contemptuously, 
like  gammon  and  spinach. 

Suoh  is  the  sound  (the  simile's  not  weak) 
Formed    by  what  mortals  bubble  call  and 

squeak, 
When  midst  the  frying-pan  in  accents  savage, 
The  beef  so  surly  quarrels  with  the  cabbage. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  29. 

Bank  and  title !  bubble  and  squeak  !  No !  not 
half  so  good  as  bubble  and  squeak ;  English 
beef  and  good  cabbage.  But  foreign  rank 
and  title !  foreign  cabbage  and  beef !  foreign 
bubble  and  foreign  squeak. — Lytton,  My  Novel, 
Bk.  VIII.  ch.  viii. 

Bubonic,  swollen ;  inflated. 

Bouse  opposition,  roared  a  tipsey  cook, 
With  hands  a-kimbo,  and  bubontc  look. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  29. 

Buccinatory,  blowing  or  trumpeting. 

My  uncle  Toby  instantly  withdrew  his 
hand  from  off  my  father's  knee,  .  .  .  and 
then  directing  the  buccinatory  muscles  along 
his  cheeks,  and  the  orbicular  muscles  around 
his  lips  to  do  their  duty,  he  whistled  Iilla- 
bullero. — Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  ii.  121. 

Buck. 

Half  the  river  fell  over  a  high  weir,  with 
all  its  appendages  of  bucks,  and  hatchways, 
and  eel-baskets,  into  the  Nun's-pool. — C. 
Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  Hi. 

Buckeen,  an  inferior  sort  of  squireen, 
q.  v. 

There  were  several  squireens  or  little 
squires,  a  race  of  men  who  have  succeeded 
to  the  buckeens  described  by  Young  and 
Crnmpe. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Absentee,  ch.  vii. 

The  spalpeen !  turned  into  a  buckeen,  that 
would  be  a  squireen,  but  can't. — Ibid^  Love 
and  Laic,  i.  4. 


BUCKET 


(     87     ) 


BUFF 


Bucket,  to  use  a  bucket;  also  to 
drench. 

Like  Danaides'  Sieve-like  Tab  is  filling  ever, 
Bat  never  fall  for  all  their  bucketing. 

Sylvester,  Memorials  of  Mortalities  st.  23. 

Wo  be  to  him  whose  head  is  bucketed  with 
waters  of  a  scalding  bath. — Socket.  Life  of 
Williams,  ii.  194. 

Bucket.  To  kick  the  bucket  =  to 
die  (slang). 

Chieftain,  if  thou  canst  at  all 

For  a  shipwrecked  Lady  angle, 
Clew  me  up  thy  Castle  wall ; 

Near  thee  doth  a  Bucket  dangle. 
Chieftain,  leave  me  not  to  drown  ; 

Save  a  Maid  without  a  smicket. 
If  the  Bucket  come  not  down, 

Soon  shall  I  be  doom'd  to  kick  it. 

Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  55. 

M  Fine  him  a  pot,"  roared  one, "  for  talking 
about  kicking  the  bucket ;  he's  a  nice  young 
man  to  keep  a  cove's  spirits  up,  and  talk 
about  '  a  short  life  and  a  merry  one.'  " — C. 
Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  ii. 

Bucket.  To  give  the  bucket  =  to 
dismiss,  or  give  the  sack.  In  the  ex- 
tract it  refers  to  the  rejection  of  an 
offer  of  marriage. 

He  were  sore  put  about  because  Hester 
had  gPen  him  the  bucket. — Mrs.  Gaskell,  Syl- 
via's Lovers,  ch.  xxi. 

Bucking,  jumping  up  high  and  sud- 
denly. 

"He  can  sit  some  bucking  horses  which 
very  few  men  will  attempt  to  mount." 
"  And  that  same  bucking,  Miss  Brentwood," 
said  Halbert,"  is  just  what  pozzies  me  utterly. 

1  got  on  a  bucking  horse  in  Sydney  the  other 
day,  and  had  an  ignominious  tumble  in  the 
sale-yard,  to  everybody's  great  amusement." 
— H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  zxviii. 

Buckish,  dandified. 

Mr.  Musgrave,  a  buckish  kind  of  young 
man  of  fashion. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  ii. 
182. 

But  it  so  hap'd,  among  the  rest 
The  farmer's  landlord  was  a  guest ; 
A  buckish  blade,  who  kept  a  horse 
To  try  his  fortune  on  the  course. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  xvii. 

Buckle,  to  submit ;    to  bend  (see 

2  Hen.  TV.,  1.  i,  quoted  by  L.) :  still 
in  use  among  shipwrights,  Ac. 

Teach  this  body 
To  bend,  and  these  my  aged  knees  to  buckle 
In  admiration  and  just  worship  to  you. 

Jonson,  Staple  of  News,  II.  i. 

The  Dutch,  as  high  as  they  seem,  do  begin 
to  buckle.— Pepys,  Dec.  17, 1664. 

[I]  took  up,  which  I  keep  by  me,  a  piece  of 


I 


glass  so  melted  and  buckled  with  the  heat  of 
the  fire  like  parchment. — Ibid.  Sept.  5, 1666. 
A  brave  man  scorns  to  buckle  to  fortune. — 
T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  171. 

Bucklers.  To  bang,  match,  take, 
or  hold  up  bucklers  =  to  fight  or  con- 
tend ;  to  yield  bucklers  =  to  submit ; 
to  carry  bucklers  from,  =  to  conquer. 
See  s.  v.  Braver.  Cf.  L.  and  N.,  s.  v. 

These  great  undertakers  have  snatched  up 
the  bucklers,  as  if  they  would  make  it  good 
against  all  comers. — Sanderson,  i.  289. 

Let  any  Papist  or  Precisian  in  the  world  give 
instance  but  in  any  one  single  thiug  doc- 
trinally  maintained  by  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, which  he  can  with  any  colour  of  truth 
except  against  as  a  commandment  of  men, 
....  we  will  yield  the  bucklers,  and  confess 
her  guilty. — Ibid.  ii.  159. 

A  rank  coward  may  take  up  the  bucklers, 
and  brave  it  like  a  stout  champion. — Ibid. 
ii.  339. 

Were  it  not  for  God's  marvellous  blessing 
on  our  studies,  and  the  infinite  odds  of  truth 
on  our  side,  it  were  impossible,  in  human 
probability,  that  we  should  hold  up  the  buck' 
lers  against  [the  Papists].— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist., 
X.  iii.  20. 

They  found  the  king  to  be  well  affected 
to  Bp.  Andrewes]  for  taking  up  the  bucklers 
or  him  against  Cardinal  BeUarmine. — Heylin, 
Ufe  of  Laud,  Bk.  i.  p.  64. 

Their  servants  at  market,  or  where  they 
met  (in  that  slashing  age),  did  commonly 
bang  one  another's  bucklers. — Aubrey,  Misc., 
p.  214. 

Buck-log,  a  beech  log.  See  L.,  s.  v. 
buckwheat.  Beech  is  the  best  firing- 
wood,  and  is  called  in  France  bois  au 
Seigneur, 

A  brutal  cold  country  this  for  a  man  to 
camp  out  in ;  never  a  buck-log  to  his  fire,  no, 
nor  a  stick  thicker  than  your  finger  for  seven 
mile  round.— H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn, 
ch.  v. 

Buckram,  to  stiffen  or  swell  out. 

His  most  holy  Book  .  .  . 
"Was  never  meant,  was  never  used  before, 
To  buckram  out  the  memory  of  a  man. 

Cowper,  Winter  Walk  at  Noon,  652. 

Buckrahize,  to  stiffen,  as  with  buck- 
ram. 
But  who  would  then  have  heard  of,  by  the 

by, 

The  Vice-suppressing  starch'd  Society? 
That  tribe  of   self-erected  Prigs,  —  whose 

leaven 
Consists  in  buckramizing  souls  for  Heaven. 
Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  126. 

Buff.    In  buff  =  naked. 

The  slaves  .  .  had  stripped  the  oommis- 
sary  to  his  buff. — Jarvit't  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  I. 
Bk.  III.  ch.  vui. 


BUFF 


(    88    ) 


BULK 


"  I  have  got  as  many  clothes  and  things  of 
all  kinds  as  would  serve  to  set  up  a  Mon- 
mouth-street  merchant:  if  the  place  had 
held  out  but  a  few  days  longer,  the  poor 
devils  must  have  done  duty  tn  their  Buff; 
ha !  ha !  ha !  "  "  And  the  properest  dress 
for  them/'  returned  the  admiral ; "  who  wants 
any  clothes  in  such  a  climate  as  this?" — 
Johnston,  Chrysal,  ii.  235. 

Titian's  famed  Goddess,  in  luxurious  buff, 
Was  the  first  piece  the  Parson  thrust  his  nose 
on. — Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  145. 

Buff,  fellow,  or,  as  we  now  say, 
buffer. 

Mayhap  old  buff  has  left  my  kinsman 
here  his  heir.— Smollett,  Roderick  Random, 
ch.  iv. 

Buff-coat,  a  soldier ;  or,  as  an  adjec- 
tive, military. 

Schismatical  pravity  will  grow  up  under 
the  licentiousness  of  war;  some  profane 
buff-coats  will  authorize  such  incendiaries. — 
Hacket,  lift  of  Williams,  ii.  170. 

Ti8  a  buff-coat  objection  that  his  Majesty 
consum'd  as  much  in  embassies  to  settle 
differences  by  accord,  and  did  no  good,  as 
would  have  maintained  a  noble  war,  and 
made  him  sure  of  his  demands. — Ibid.  ii.  224. 

Buffer,  fellow  (slang).    Cf.  Buff. 

Ill  merely  observe  as  the  water  grew  rougher* 
The  more  my  poor  hero  contiuued  to  suffer, 
Till  the  sailors   themselves  cried  in  pity* 
"Foot  buffer!" 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (Bagman9s  Dog). 

Buffooniru,  like  a  buffoon ;  ridicul- 
ous. 

All  their  actions  are  so  buffoomsh  and  mi- 
mical, that  any  would  judge  they  had  learned 
all  their  tricks  of  mountebanks  and  stage- 
players. — Kennefs  Erasmus,  Praise  of  Folly, 
p.  120. 

Buff-stop.    See  extract. 

Fat  flattens  the  most  brilliant  thoughts, 
Like   the    buff-stop    on    harpsichords   or 
spinnets — 
Muffling  their  pretty  little  tuneful  throats, 
That  would  have  chirped  away  like  linnets. 
WoUot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  122. 

Bugaboo,  a  hobgoblin ;  but  in  the 
extract  it  seems  =  a  magistrate,  as 
being  a  terror  to  evil-doers. 

We  have  done  many  a  mad  prank  together, 
which  I  should  not  like  the  bugaboos  and 
bulkies  to  know. — Lytton,  Pelham,  ch.  Lxxix. 

Buqgish,  terrifying. 

Of  father  Anchisee  thee  goast  and  grislye 

rescmblaunce, 
When  the  day  dooth  vannish,  when  lights  eke 

starrye  be  twinckling, 
In  sleep  mee  monisheth,  with  visadge  bug- 

gish  he  feareth. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iv.  372. 


Bugle.  This  word  is  explained  in 
the  Diets,  a  bull  or  buffalo,  and  this 
seems  to  be  its  proper  meaning;  but 
Fuller  uses  it  for  fallow  deer,  which  is 
also  the  word  in  our  Bible  in  Deut.  xiv. 
5;  1  Kings  iv.  23,  where  the  older 
version  gives  bugle.  For  more  about 
bugle,  especially  as  an  Isle  of  Wight 
word  and  tavern-sign,  see  iV.  and  Q  , 
II.  viii.  423,  461 ;  x.  493. 

Venison  both  red  and  fallow,  for  so  we  find 
in  Solomon's  bill  of  fare,  harts,  bucks,  and 
bugles.— Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  I.  v.  2. 

Bugle,  a  ghost.  See  Jamieson,  s.  r. 
bogilL  The  extract  occurs  in  a  letter 
to  Aubrey  from  "a  learned  friend  in 
Scotland." 

They  assigned  it  [second  sight]  to  Bugies 
or  Ghosts. — Aubrey,  Misc.,  p.  192. 

Bugle-beard,  shaggy  beard,  like  a 
buffalo.     N.  has  bugle-browed. 

Who  with  his  bristled,  hoarie,  bugle-beard, 
Comming  to  kiss  her,  makes  her  lips  afeard. 
Sylvester,  fourth  day,  first  tceeke,  708. 

Bugs.  To  swear  by  no  bugs  =  to 
swear  earnestly,  i.  e.  by  no  mere  empty 
things.  N.,  s.  v.  beggars,  gives  the 
phrase  "  to  swear  by  no  beggars." 

Caligula  .  .  .  bid  his  horse  to  supper,  gave 
him  wine  to  drink  in  cups  of  estate,  set 
barly  graines  of  golde  before  him  to  eate,  and 
swore  by  no  bugs  that  hee  would  make  him  a 
Consul. — Gosson,  Schoole  of  Abuse,  p.  33. 

Buildress,  female  builder. 

Sherah,  the  daughter  of  Ephraim  the 
younger,  the  greatest  buildres*  in  the  whole 
Bible. — Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  II.  ix.  8. 

Bulimy,  a  diseased  craving  for  food ; 
hunger  like  that  of  an  ox ;  or,  as  Bailey 
also  explains  it,  hunger  keen  enough  lo 
eat  an  ox.  Sylvester  has  boulime.  See 
extract,  s.  v.  Anorexie. 

I  do  not  mean  the  helluo  librorum, ....  nor 
those  first  cousins  of  the  north  who  labour 
under  a  bulimy  for  black  letter. — Sou  they, 
The  Doctor,  ch.  xvii. 

Bulk,  to  be  prominent ;  to  occupy 
space.     L.  has  it  as  an  active  verb. 

At  the  date  when  Johnson  was  a  poor 
rusty-coated  scholar  . . .  were  there  not  chan- 
cellors and  prime-ministers  enough ;  graceful 
gentlemen,  the  glass  of  fashion ;  honour- 
giving  noblemen,  dinner-giving  rich  men ; 
renowned  fire-eaters,  swordsmen,  gownsmen  ; 
quacks  and  realities  of  all  hues ;  any  one  of 
whom  bulked  much  larger  in  the  world's  eye 
than  Johnson  ever  did  ?  —  Carlyle,  Jtise. 
iii.  57. 


BULK 


(    89    ) 


BULLOCK 


Bulk,  to  belch. 

His  own  commendation  rambles  within 
him,  till  he  hath  bulked  it  out,  and  the  air 
of  it  is  unsavoury. — Adams,  i.  500. 

BuLKEB,  prostitute. 

He  is  the  treasurer  of  the  thieves'  ex- 
chequer, the  common  fender  of  all  bulkers 
and  shop-lifts  in  the  town.  —  Four  for  a 
Penny,  1678  (Harl.  Misc^  iv.  147). 

For  all  your  majors  scarce  will  make 
Me  think  what's  past  for  Virtue's  sake ; 
Or  that  this  bulker  of  the  town 
Came  only  here  to  rub  ye  down. 

D  Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  cant.  4. 
In  comparison  of  whom  (cheating  game- 
sters) the  common  bulkers  and  pickpockets 
are  a  very  honest  society. — T.  Brown,  Works, 
in.  60. 

Bulky,  a  constable  (thieves'  cant). 

We  have  done  many  a  mad  prank  together, 
which  I  should  not  like  the  bugaboos  and 
bulldes  to  know. — Lytton,  Pelham,  ch.  lxzix. 

Bull,  a  blunder.  The  earliest  ex- 
ample of  this  word  in  the  Diets,  is 
from  Milton's  Apology  for  Smectym- 
nuits.  1642.  The  following,  from 
Selden's  Table  Talk,  p.  230,  might 
possibly  be  a  little  earlier,  though  of 
course  its  exact  date  cannot  be  assigned. 

Predestination  is  a  point  inaccessible,  out 
of  our  reach ;  we  can  make  no  notion  of  it, 
'tis  so  full  of  intricacy,  so  full  of  contra- 
diction ;  'tis  in  good  earnest,  as  we  state  it, 
half  a  dozen  buns  one  upon  another. 

Bull,  a  crown  (slang). 

*'  But  what  did  he  do  with  you  ? "  "  Put 
me  in  a  horsepittle,"  replied  Jo,'  whisperiug, 
M  till  I  was  discharged ;  then  giv'  me  a  little 
money,  four  half  bulls,  wot  you  may  call 
half-crowns,  and  ses,  '  Hook  it ! '  * — Dickens, 
Bleak  House,  ch.  xlvi. 

Bull,  a  bubble. 

This  life  is  as  a  vapour,  as  a  shadow  passing 
and  fleeing  away,  as  a  fading  flower,  as  a 
bull  rising  on  the  water. — Dean  Novell  (Litur- 
gical Services,  Eliz.  Parker  Soc.,  p.  501). 

Bull-dog,  a  pistol.  Cf.  Barker. 
Beau  Clincher  provides  himself  with  a 
case  of  pocket  pistols  when  meaning 
to  go  to  the  Jubilee,  and  thus  anti- 
cipates a  rencontre  with  an  Italian 
bravo ; 

He  whips  out  his  stiletto,  and  I  whips  out 
my  bull-dog.  ~  Farquhar,  Constant  Couple, 
iii.  2. 

M I  have  always  a  brace  of  bull-dogs  about 
me."  ...  So  saying,  he  exhibited  a  very  hand- 
some, highly-finished,  and  richly-mounted 
pair  of  pistols. — &cott,  St.  Bonan*s  Well,  ii. 
191. 


Bull-dogism,  the  bull-dog  character, 
such  as  tenacity,  courage,  Ac. 

He  possessed  the  element  of  bull-dogism 
also. — Savage,  B.  Medlicott,  Bk.  II.  ch.  vi. 

Bull-dogs,  bailiffs ;  also  the  men  who 
attend  upon  the  Proctors  at  the  Uni- 
versities when  making  their  rounds, 
and  who  pin  unruly  undergraduates. 

Mock.  But  pray  what's  the  matter,  Mr. 
Lyric? 

Lyric.  Nothing,  sir,  but  a  shirking  book* 
seller  that  owed  me  about  forty  guineas  for 
a  few  lines.  He  would  have  put  me  off,  so  I 
sent  for  a  couple  of  bull-dogs,  and  arrested 
him. — Farquhar,  Love  and  a  Bottle,  iii.  2. 

We  unworthier  told 
Of  college :  he  had  climb 'd  across  the  spikes, 
And  he  had  squeezed  himself  betwixt  the 

bars, 
And  he  had  breath'd  the  Proctor's  dogs. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  Prologue. 

Bulleted,  hard  and  rounded  like  a 
bullet. 

Thee  clowne  stout  standeth  with  a  leshe 
of  bulleted  hard  stoans. —  Stany hurst,  Con- 
ceites,  p.  143. 

Bullet-headedness,  stolid  obstinacy ; 
a  quality  usually  found  with  a  head  of 
that  shape. 

The  great  defect  of  "Ellen  Middleton," 
lies  in  the  disgusting  sternness,  captious- 
ness,  and  bullet-headedness  of  her  husband. — 
E.  A.  Poe,  Marginalia,  Ixxiv. 

Bullfinch,  a  corruption  of  bull- 
fence  ;  a  stiff  fence  able  to  keep  bulls 
in  or  out  of  a  field. 

Sit  down  in  your  saddles  and  race  at  the 

brook, 
Then  smash  at  the  bullfinch. 

C.  Kingsley  (Life,  ii.  56). 

Bullion,  a  measure  of  capacity ;  an 
English  form  of  bouillon,  a  boiling. 
Each  boiling  in  a  salt-pan  was  limited 
to  twenty-four  gallons,  which  were  ex- 
pected to  produce  three  and  a  half  peck  s 
of  salt.     See  N.  and  Q.,  V.  x.  410. 

In  the  very  King's  booke  which  we  call 
Domesday  we  read  thus.  In  Wich  the  King 
and  Earle  have  eight  salt  pits,  which  in  the 
whole  weeke  wherein  they  boiled  and  wrought, 
yeelded  on  the  Friday  sizteene  Bullions. — 
Holland's  Camden,  p.  575. 

Bullock,  used  derisively  for  a  papal 
brief. 

I  send  you  here  a  bullock  which  I  did  find 
amongst  my  bulls,  that  you  may  see  how 
closely  in  time  past  the  foreign  prelates  did 
practise  about  their  prey. — Latimer,  ii.  378. 


BULLOCK 


(     90    ) 


B  VMMER  Y 


Bullock,  to  bully. 

You  have  charged  me  with  bullocking  you 
into  owning  the  truth ;  it  is  very  likely,  an't 
please  your  worship,  that  I  should  bullock 
him ;  I  have  marks  enow  about  my  body  to 
show  of  his  cruelty  to  me. — Fielding,  Tom 
Jones,  Bk.  II.  ch.  vi. 

Bull  plum,  prunus  spinosa. 

We  own  it  was  a  plum-tree  indeed,  but  not 
of  the  kind  Mr.  Sergeant  sets  forth,  a  dama- 
scen  plum ;  our  proofs  say  loudly  a  bull' 
plum. — Foote,  The  Lame  Lover ;  Act  III. 

Bull's-eye,  a  policeman's  lantern. 

We  don't  see  but  half  the  bulVs-eye  yet, 
and  don't  see  at  all  the  policeman  which  is 
a-going  on  his  beat  behind  the  buWt  eye. — C. 
Kingsley,  Letter,  May  1856. 

Bull's-eye,  a  coarse  sweetmeat 

He  had  just  arranged  a  master-piece ;  half- 
a-dozen  of  the  prettiest  children  sitting  be- 
neath a  broken  boat,  . . .  while  the  black- 
bearded  sea-kings  round  were  promising  them 
rock  and  bull's-eyes,  if  they  would  only  sit 
still  like  "gude  maids." — C.  Kingsley,  Two 
Yean  Ago,  ch.  xv. 

Bull's  feather,  a  horn.  To  bestmo 
the  bull' 8  feather  =  to  make  a  cuckold. 
One  of  the  pieces  in  Merrie  Drollerie,  p. 
264,  is  called  The  Bull's  Feather.  Cuck- 
olds are  styled  "knights  of  the  bulVs 
feather"  in  Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk. 
IV.  ch.  vii. 

A  good  whimsical  instrument,  take  it  alto- 
gether! But  what,  thinkest  thou,  are  the 
arms  to  this  matrimonial  harbinger?  . . .  Three 
crooked  horns,  smartly  top-knotted  with 
ribands ;  which  being  the  ladies'  wear,  seem  to 
intimate  that  they  may  very  probably  adorn, 
as  well  as  bestow,  the  bull's  feather. — Richard' 
son,  CI.  Harlowe,  v.  295. 

Bully,  some  sort  of  fish. 

On  a  narrow  spit  of  sand  between  the  rocks 
a  dozen  little  girls  are  laughing,  romping,  and 
pattering  about,  turning  the  stones  for 
u  shannies  "  and  "  bullies,  and  other  luckless 
fish  left  by  the  tide. — C.  Kinysley,  Two  Years 
Ago,  ch.  ii. 

Bully,  a  name  given  to  the  larger 

sloe. 

**  Dick  and  I  be  come  hither  to  pick  haws 
and  bullies? ..."  I  found  them  plucking  haws 
and  sloes  to  appease  their  hunger.19 — Smollett, 
Sir  L.  Greaves,  ch.  iii. 

Bully,  used  adjectivally,  fine;  he- 
roic. "  That's  bully  "  is  an  American- 
ism, and  means  "  that's  grand,  or  fine." 

So  when  Troy  chairmen  bore  the  wooden 

steed, 
Pregnant  with  Greeks,  impatient  to  be  freed 
(Those  fmlly  Greeks,  who,  as  the  moderns  do. 
Instead  of  paying  chairmen,  run  them  thro'), 


La'>c:>on  struck  the  outside  with  his  spear, 
And  each  imprison'd  hero  quak'd  for  fear. 

Swift,  Description  of  a  City  Shower. 

Bully  Dawson.  See  quotations. 
The  references  to  this  worthy  in  Tom 
Brown  are  numerous.  One  of  the 
Letters  from  the  dead  to  the  living  in 
from  Bully  Dawson  to  a  kindred  spirit 

Homer  not  only  makes  Achilles  invulner- 
able everywhere  but  in  his  heel,  but  likewise 
bestows  a  suit  of  impenetrable  armour  upon 
his  invulnerable  body.  Bully  Dawson  would 
have  fought  the  Devil  with  those  advantages. 
—  T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  72. 

I  never  saw  such  a  bouncing,  swaggering 
puppy  since  I  was  born ;  Bully  Dawson  was 
but  a  fool  to  him. — Goldsmith,  She  Stoops  to 
Conquer,  III.  i. 

What  is  remembered  now  of  Bully  Daw- 
son? all  I  have  read  of  him  is  that  he  lived 
three  weeks  on  the  credit  of  a  brass  shilling, 
because  nobody  would  take  it  of  him. — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cxxv. 

Bumb  blades,  heavy  or  large  swords. 

My  little  rapier 
Against  your  bumb  blades!    I'll  one  by  one 
dispatch  you. 

Massinger,  City  Madam,  i.  2. 

Bumbeloes.   See  extract;  the  country 

referred  to  is  India. 

We  were  met  by  above  a  hundred  girls 
carrying  on  their  heads  to  market  baskets  of 
dried  fish,  which  in  this  country  are  called 
bumbeloes.— Archaol.,  viii.  262  (1787). 

Bumble  foot,  a  club  foot. 

She  died  mostly  along  of  Mr.  Malone's 
bumble  foot,  I  fancy.  Him  and  old  Biddy 
were  both  drunk  a-fighting  on  the  stairs,  and 
she  was  a  step  below  he ;  and  he,  being  drunk 
and  bumble-footed  too,  lost  his  balance,  and 
down  they  came  together.  —  H.  Kingsley, 
Ravenshoe,  ch.  xli. 

Bumbo  is  explained  by  Smollett  in  a 

note  to  be  "  a  liquor  composed  of  rum, 

sugar,  water,  ana  nutmeg." 

[He]  returned  to  his  messmates,  who  were 
making  merry  in  the  ward-room,  round  a 
table  well  stored  with  bumbo  and  wine. — 
Smollett,  Roderick  Random,  ch.  xxxiv. 

Bum-brusher,  an  elegant  name  for  a 

schoolmaster. 

I  [Dionysius]  was  forced  to  turn  bum* 
brusher  in  my  own  defence,  a  condition  which 
best  suited  with  a  man  that  delighted  in 
tyranny  and  blood. — T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  86. 

Bummert    bond,     bottomry    bond ; 

bond  of  insurance  on  a  ship's  bottom. 

There  was  a  scrivener  of  Wapping  brought 
to  hearing  for  relief  against  a  bumfnery-bond. 
—North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  118*. 


BUMPTIOUS 


(     9i     ) 


BURKE 


Bumptious,  conceited.  See  quota- 
tion *.  v.  Gumption. 

No,  my  dearest  Padre;  bumptious!  no,  I 
deny  the  charge  in  toto;  I  haa  not  such  a 
thought,  or  rather  such  a  feel,  in  the  world. 
—Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  vi.  324. 

Bum-trap,  bailiff. 

The  noble  bum-trap,  blind  and  deaf  to  every 
circumstance  of  distress,  greatly  rises  above 
all  the  motives  to  humanity,  and  into  the 
hands  of  the  jailor  resolves  to  deliver  his 
miserable  prey.  —  Fielding,  Tom  Jones,  Bk. 
VII.  ch.  iii. 

Bun,  a  dried  stalk. 

But  what  shall  be  done  with  all  the  hard 
refuse,  the  long  buns,  the  stalks,  the  short 
shads  or  shives  ? — Holland,  Pliny,  ziz.  1. 

Bungalow,  a  one-storied  house  is  so 
called  in  India. 

He  had  found  her  so  friendless  that  he 
took  her  into  the  vacant  place,  and  installed 
her  there,  as  he  would  have  received  a 
traveller  into  his  bungalow. — Thackeray,  The 
Xetecomes,  ch.  v. 

Bungerly,  clumsy ;  slow. 

Oftentimes  the  more  shallow  in  knowledge 
the  more  bungerly  in  wickedness. — Adams, 
ii.  43. 

Bunk,  berth. 

If  I  knew  my  business  properly,  I  should 
at  this  point  represent  Charles  as  falling 
down  the  companion-ladder  and  spraining 
his  ankle,  or  as  having  over-eaten  himself, 
and  so  pass  over  the  rest  of  his  voyage  by 
saying  that  he  was  confined  to  his  hoik,  and 
saw  no  more  of  it. — H.  Kingsley,  Bavenshoe, 
ch.  Ii. 

Bunkum,  empty  declamation,  an 
American  expression  said  to  be  derived 
from  an  orator  who  persisted  in  speak- 
ing, though  be  had  few  or  no  listeners, 
alleging  that  he  was  speaking  to  Bun- 
combe, a  place  in  N.  Carolina,  which  he 
represented. 

_  Talk  plain  truth,  and  leave  bunkum  for 
right  honourables  who  keep  their  places 
thereby. — C.  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch. 
xxv. 

Bunting  lamb.  To  bunt  is  to  push 
with  the  head  as  a  ram.  See  N.  and 
Q.,  V.  x.  410. 

And  I  have  brought  a  twagger  for  the  nones 
A  banting  lamb. 

Peele,  Arraignment  of  Paris,  I.  i. 

Bub,  twang,  or  roughness. 

Their  honest  and  ingenuous  natures  com- 
ing to  the  universities  to  store  themselves 
with  good  and  solid  learning,  and  there  un- 
fortunately fed  with  nothing  else  but  the 


scragged  and  thorny  lectures  of  monkish  and 
miserable  sophistry,  were  sent  home  again 
with  such  a  scholastic  bur  in  their  throats  as 
hath  stopped  and  hindered  all  true  and  gener- 
ous philosophy  from  entering,  [and]  cracked 
their  voices  for  ever  with  metaphysical  gar- 
gurismB.— Milton,  Season  of  Ch.  Govt.,  Con- 
clusion. 

I  have  a  damned  fine  original  for  thee,  an 
aunt  of  my  own,  just  come  from  the  North, 
with  the  true  Newcastle  bur  in  her  throat. — 
Foote,  The  Minor,  Introduction. 

Bur,  sweetbread  of  a  calf.  The  ex- 
tract is  from  a  bill  which  Lackington 
says  was  put  up  in  a  shop  in  Petticoat- 
lane. 

Bumps  and  burs  sold  here,  and  baked 
sheep's-heads  will  be  continued  every  night, 
if  the  Lord  permit. — Life  of  J.  Lackington, 
Letter  xxviii. 

Burdock,  a  weed,  belonging  to  the 
genus  Arctium.  See  quotation  from 
H.  Kingsley  *.  v.  But. 

I  had  lain  so  many  nights 
A  bedmate  of  the  snail,  and  eft,  and  snake, 
In  grass  and  burdock. 

Tennyson,  The  Holy  Grail,  p.  67. 

Bureaucrat,  nn  administrative  official ; 
a  red-tapist.  See  quotation  *.v.  Pluto- 
crat. 

It  was  whispered  that  he  had  in  old  times 
done  dirty  work  for  Dublin  Castle  bureau- 
crats.— C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xx. 

Burgundy,  a  species  of  head-dress. 

Sir,  I  was  running  to  Mademoiselle  Furbelo, 
the  French  milliner,  for  a  new  burgundy  for 
my  lady's  head.  .  .  .  Oh,  sir,  that's  the  pret- 
tiest fashion  lately  come  over!  so  airy,  so 
French,  and  all  that !  The  pinners  are  dou- 
ble ruffled  with  twelve  plaits  of  a  side,  and 
open  all  from  the  face;  the  hair  is  frizzled 
all  up  round  the  head,  and  stands  as  stiff  as 
a  bodkin.  Then  the  favourites  hang  loose 
upon  the  temples,  with  a  languishing  lock  in 
the  middle.  Then  the  caul  is  extremely  wide, 
and  over  all  is  a  coronet  raised  very  high,  and 
all  the  lappets  behind. — Farquhar,  Sir  Harry 
midair,  i.  1. 

Burke,  to  stifle:  from  Burke,  who 
was  hung  in  1829  for  various  murders 
by  suffocation  of  people,  whose  bodies 
he  afterwards  sold  to  the  surgeons.  See 
s.  v.  Bishop. 

Although  neither  Burke  nor  Bishop  had 
then  [a.d.  1800j  gained  a  horrible  notoriety, 
his  own  observation  mi^bt  have  suggested  to 
him  how  easily  the  atrocities  to  which  the 
former  has  since  given  his  name  might  be 
committed.  —  Sketches  by  Boz  (The  Black 
Veil). 


BURN  DAYLIGHT      (    92     ) 


B  USHEL 


The  last  new  novel  seem'd  tame  and  flat, 
The  leg,  a  novelty  newer  than  that, 

Had  tripp'd  up  the  heels  of  fiction, 
It  burked  the  very  essays  of  Burke. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Burn  daylight,  said  of  having  can- 
dles in  before  it  is  dark.  Scott  makes 
it  =  take  a  lone  time.  I  do  not  under- 
stand Neverout  s  remark. 

Hearsay.  Her  nose  the  candle  .  .  . 

Shape.  How  bright  it  flames!  Put  ont 
your  nose,  good  lady,  you  burn  daylight. — 
Cartwright,  The  Ordinary,  i.  2. 

Lady  8m.  Here,  take  away  the  tea-table, 
and  bring  up  candles. 

Lady  Ans.  O,  Madam,  no  candles  yet,  I 
beseech  yon ;  don't  let  us  burn  daylight. 

Nev.  I  dare  swear,  Miss  for  her  part  will 
never  burn  daylight,  if  she  can  help  it.— 
Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  iii.). 

"Your  story,"  said  the  stalwart  Church- 
man ;  uburn  not  daylight  about  it ;  we  have 
short  time  to  spare." — Scott,  Ivanhoe,  ii.  304. 

Burn-grain,  destructive  of  grain. 

Turning  our  seed-wheat-kernel 
To  burn-grain  thistle  and  to  vapourie  darnel. 

Sylvester,  The  Furies,  165. 

Burnous,  a  long  cloak  with  a  hood 

at  the  back,  like  that  worn  by  Arabs. 

She  immediately  moved  towards  her  seat, 
saying, "  1  want  to  put  on  my  burnoue."  No 
sooner  had  she  readied  it  than  Mr.  Lush  was 
there,  and  had  the  burnous  in  his  hand. — G. 
Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xi. 

Burr,  an  ononis topoeo us  word  =  to 
murmur.  See  another  instance  from 
Wordsworth,  *.  v.  Dor-hawk. 

Burr,  burr, — now  Johnny's  lips  they  burr, 
As  loud  as  any  mill,  or  near  it. 

Wordsworth,  The  Idiot  Boy. 

Burrel,  a  kind  of  coarse  cloth.  See 
H.,  8.  v.  borel,  and  N.  and  Q.,  V.  x. 
409.  Fr.  bure  or  bureau  ;  the  termin- 
ation eau  is  frequently  found  as  el 
in  old  Fr. :  cf .  agnel,  agneau  ;  Span. 
buriel ;  Ital.  burello. 

His  white  mantle  was  shaped  with  severe 
regularity,  according  to  the  rule  of  Saint 
Bernard  himself,  being  composed  of  what 
was  then  called  burrel  cloth. — Scott,  Ivanhoe, 
ii.  213. 

Burst,  a  stretch  ;  expanse. 

Here  is  a  fine  burst  of  eountry.  —  Miss 
Austen,  Mansfield  Park,  ch.  viii. 

Busby,  cap  wqpi  by  hussars,  ar- 
tillery, &c. 

The  gleaming  helmet  or  the  imposing 
busby  may  surmount  the  feeblest  sort  of 
brain  that  could  with  decency  have  been  put 


within  a  human  skull. — Black,  Adventures  of 
a  Phaeton,  ch.  xxiv. 

Bush.  The  bush  is  the  box  of  the 
nave  of  a  wheel ;  to  bush  is  to  put  in 
or  renew  this. 

Nay,  a  new  pair  of  wheels  are  made 
(The  old  ones  being  much  decay'd), 
For  which  he  makes  such  lasting  tire 
As  all  the  Black-Smiths  do  admire : 
Bushes  the  naves,  clouts  th'  Axle-trees, 
And  twenty  finer  things  than  these. 
Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  233. 

Bush,  to  beat  about  as  for  game ; 
unless  it  be  the  same  as  busk  (q.  v. ), 
to  make  ready  (as  in  dressing). 

They  are  forced  to  bush  about  for  ways 
and  means  to  pay  their  rent  and  charges. — 
North,  Life  of  Ld.  Guilford,  ii.  81. 

Bush.  To  beat  about  the  bush  =  to 
go  to  work  in  a  rourdabout  way ;  the 
metaphor  is  taken  from  shooting. 

Stand  not  too  long  in  beating  of  a  bush, 
For  feare  the  bird   beguile  thee  with  her 
flight. — Breton,  Mother's  Blessing,  st.  12. 

Then  have  ye  the  figure  Periphrasis  ...  as 
when  we  go  altout  the  bush,  and  will  not  in 
one  or  a  few  words  expresse  that  thing 
which  we  desire  to  have  knowen,  but  do 
choose  rather  to  do  it  by  many  words.— 
Puttenham,  Arte  of  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III.  ch. 
xviii. 

You  must  know  /  went  round  the  bush,  and 
round-  the  bush,  before  I  came  to  the  matter. 
—  lanbntgh. Confederacy, iii.  2. 

Bush-draining.  In  some  parts  of 
England,  as  in  the  fen-land  of  Norfolk, 
when  a  road  is  made,  large  bushes  are 
thrown  down  some  few  feet  below  the 
level,  and  then  covered  with  earth  and 
stones,  thus  making  a  rough  sort  of 
drain. 

These  last  cold  and  wet  lands  have  been 
within  these  forty  years  greatly  improv'd  by 
draining  off  the  rain-water,  which  stagnated 
on  the  clayey  surface  as  in  a  cup,  and  chilled 
the  roots  of  the  corn ;  an  invention  called 
Bush-draining. — Defoe,  Tour  thro*  G.  Britain, 
ii.  173. 

Bushed,  wigged. 

Pan.  A  hall  thrust  full  of  bare  heads, 
some  bald,  some  bush'd, 
Some  bravely  branch  'd. 

Ron.  That  s  the  university, 

Larded  with  townsmen. 

Albumazar,  i.  3. 

Bushel,  used  adjectivally  for  large. 

When  judges  a  campaigning  go, 
And  on  their  benches  look  so  big, 

What  gives  them  consequence,  I  trow, 
Is  nothing  but  a  bushel  wig. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  226. 


BUSHING 


(    93    ) 


BUTTER 


The  snowy  linen  and  delicate  pantaloon 
alternates  with  the  soiled  check-shirt  and 
bushel  breeches. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rex.,  Pt.  II. 
Bk.  I.  ch.  xi. 

Bushing.  Bushes  are  sometimes 
planted  at  irregular  distances  in  places 
where  game  is  preserved,  so  that  poach- 
ers cannot  draw  a  net  over  the  ground. 

With  what  degree  of  wholesome  rigour 
his  rents  were  collected,  we  hear  not ;  still 
less  bj  what  methods  he  preserved  his  game, 
whether  by  u  bushing"  or  how. —  Carlyle, 
Past  and  Present,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iii. 

Bush  less,  bare ;  free  from  bushes. 

Meanwhile  the  new  companions  past  away 
Far  o'er  the  long  backs  of  the  busfiless  downs. 
Tennyson,  Lancelot  and  Elaine. 

Busk.     See  extract. 

This  fly,  and  two  links,  among  wood,  or 
close  by  a  bush,  moved  in  the  crust  of  the 
water,  is  deadly  in  an  evening,  if  you  come 
close  [t.  e.  hidden].  This  is  called  Busking 
for  trout. — Lavson,  Comments  on  Secrets  of 
Angling,  1653  (Eng.  Garner,  i.  194). 

Busk,  to  prepare  or  make  ready  (as 
in  dressing),  and  so  to  beat  about.  See 
Bush. 

The  ship  was  found  busking  on  the  seas 
without  a  mast  or  rudder.— The  Successful 
Pyrate,  i.  1. 

Go  busk  about,  and  run  thyself  into  the 
next  great  man's  lobby.  —  Wycherley,  Plain 
Dealer,  iii.  1. 

When  this  shew  of  suicide  had  in  their 
minds  filled  the  place  of  a  defence,  .  .  .  the 
parties  would  be  less  industrious  to  busk 
about  for  any  other. — North,  Examen,  p.  203. 

My  lord  Rochester  was  frighted,  and  was 
inclined  to  fall  off  from  this,  and  to  busk 
for  some  other  way  to  raise  the  supply. — 
Ibid,,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  198. 

Buss,  omnibus:  oftener  spelt  now 
with  a  single  s,  as  in  extract  from 
Barham  *.  v.  Slip-sloppy. 

Humours  were  rife  on  the  hackney-coach 
stands  that  a  buss  was  building  to  run  from 
Lisson-Grove  to  the  Bank,  down  Oxford 
Street  and  Holborn.— Sketches  by  Boz  (  The 
Last  Cabdriver), 

Bustle,  to  dispute. 

Above  200  yeeres  since  when  Edward  the 
Third  King  of  England  and  Philip  Valois 
bustled  for  the  very  kingdome  of  France. — 
Holland's  Camden,  p.  261. 

BU8TUABT,  incendiary. 

They  are  the  firebrands  and  bustuaries  of 
kingdoms. — Adams,  ii.  32. 

The  kindler  of  this  fire  is  principally  Satan. 
...  He  is  the  great  bustuary  himself,  and 
bath  other  deputed  inflamers  under  him. — 
1  bid.  ii.  157. 


Busy-bodiness,  meddling  disposition. 

If  I  chance  to  make  an  excursion  into  the 
matters  of  the  Commonwealth,  it  is  not  out 
of  curiosity  or  busybodinesse  to  be  medling 
in  other  men's  lines. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  II. 
be.  23. 

Busy-head,  a  busy-body. 

Many  a  busie-head  by  words  and  deeds 
Put  in  their  heads  how  they  may  compasse 
crownes. — Doxies,  Mierocosmos,  p.  57. 

But,  a  conical  basket  used  for  catch- 
ing fish. 

The  old  gentleman  had  got  hold  of  a  fish, 
and  a  big  one.  The  next  twenty  minutes 
were  terrible.  The  old  gentleman  gave  him 
the  but,  and  moved  slowly  down  along  the 
camp-shooting. . .  After  a  time  the  old  gentle- 
man began  to  wind  up  his  reel,  and  then  the 
lad,  topboots  and  landing-net  and  all,  slipped 
over  the  camp-shooting  (will  anybody  tell 
me  how  to  spell  that  word?  camps-heading 
won't  do,  my  dear  sir,  all  things  considered), 
and  lifted  the  fish  (he  was  nine  pound)  up 
among  the  burdocks  at  the  old  gentleman's 
feet. — H.  Kingsley,  Bavenshoe,  ch.  lxii. 

Butch,  to  butcher  or  kill. 

Go,  pudding-heart ! 
Take  thy  huge  offal  and  white  liver  hence, 
Or  in  a  twinkling  of  this  true-blue  steel 
I  shall  be  butching  thee  from  nape  to  rump. 
Taylor,  Ph.  van  Art.,  Pt.  II.  iii.  1. 

Butch eress,  female  butcher. 

At  length  the  butcheress  informed  us  .  .  . 
that  she  still  had  a  leg  of  veal. — HavanTs 
Dead  Cities  of  Zuyder  Zee,  translated  by  A. 
"Wood,  p.  75. 

Butcher-woman,  female  butcher. 

A  woman  that  goes  much  to  market  told 
me  t'other  day  that  the  butcher-women  of 
London,  those  that  sell  fowls,  butter,  eggs, 
&c.,  and  in  general  most  trades-people,  have 
a  particular  esteem  for  what  they  call  Hand- 
sel ;  that  is  to  say,  the  first  money  they 
receive  in  a  morning,  they  kiss  it,  spit  upon 
it,  and  put  it  in  a  pocket  by  itself. — Misson, 
Travels  in  England,  p.  130. 

Butler,  to  act  as  butler. 

Nobody  is  more  a  gentleman  than  my 
master ;  but  the  calling  he  is  of  allows  of 
no  catering  nor  buttering.  —  Jarvis's  Don 
Quixote,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  vii. 

Butt,  a  hassock.  See  s.  v.  Butt- 
woman. 

Butter,  to  flatter. 

I'll  butter  him,  trust  me.  Nothing  com- 
forts a  poor  beggar  like  a  bit  of  praise  when 
he's  down. — C.  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch. 
xxv. 

Butter.  One  who  looks  as  if  butter 
would  not  melt  in  his  mouth  =  a  de- 


BUTTER-WEIGHT     (    94     ) 


BY-JOB 


mure  or  (sometimes)  hypocritical  per- 
son. N.  gives  the  phrase  with  extract 
of  the  date  of  1687,  but  he  does  not 
notice  the  fuller  form  illustrated  in  the 
extracts. 

She  looks  as  if  butter  would  not  melt  in  her 
mouthy  but  I  warrant  cheese  won't  choak  her. — 
Sicift,  Polite  Conversation  (Con v.  i.). 

I  am  beginning  to  think  ye  are  but  a  queer 
ane — ye  look  as  tf  butter  wadna  melt  in  your 
mouth,  but  I  salt  warrant  cheese  no  choke  ye. — 
Scott,  St.  Ronan's  Well,  ii.  153. 

Butter-weight,  over  full  weight.  It 
was,  perhaps  still  is,  the  custom  in  many 
places  to  allow  eighteen  ounces,  or  even 
more,  to  the  pound  in  weighing  butter. 

They  teach  you  how  to  split  a  hair, 

Give and  Jove  an  equal  share ; 

Tet  why  should  we  be  lac'd  so  strait, 

I'll  give  my  M butter-weight. 

Swift,  Rhapsody  on  Poetry. 

Buttock  and    file,    a   shop  -  lifter 

(thieves'  cant). 

The  same  capacity  which  qualifies  a  mill- 
ben,  a  bridle-call,  or  a  buttock  and  file  to  arrive 
at  any  degree  of  emineuce  in  his  profession 
would  likewise  raise  a  man  in  what  the  world 
esteem  a  more  honourable  calling. — Fielding, 
Jonathan  Wild,  Bk.  I.  ch.  v. 

Buttwoman.     See  quotation. 

A  buttwoman  is  one  who  cleans  tbe  church, 
and  in  service  time  assists  the  verger  or 
pew-opener  in  showing  persons  into  seats. .  . 
in  the  west  of  England:  butt  is  an  old  word 
for  hassock;  hence  the  woman  who  has 
charge  of  these  butts  and  other  such  furniture 
of  the  pews  is  known  as  the  buttwoman.— 
Free  and  Open  Church  Advocate,  June  1, 1878. 

Buyable,  capable  of  being  bought; 

to  be  obtained  for  money. 

The  spiritual  fire  which  is  in  that  man, 
which,  shining  through  such  confusions,  is 
nevertheless  conviction,  and  makes  him 
strong,  and  without  which  he  had  not 
strength,  is  not  buyable  nor  saleable. — Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  I.  ch.  ii. 

Buz-wio,  big-wig,  q.  v. ;  perhaps  the 
idea  of  pompous  stupidity  is  also  con- 
veyed by  the  word.    Cf .  Buzz. 

All  was  upset  by  two  witnesses,  whom  the 
reader  . .  .  will  at  once  know  to  be  false  wit- 
nesses, but  whom  the  old  Spanish  buz-wigs 
doated  on  as  models  of  all  that  could  be 
looked  for  in  the  best. — De  Quincey,  Spanish 
Nun,  sect.  21. 

Buzz,  to  pour  out  the  lost  drops  from 
a  decanter. 


«4 


Get  some  more  port,  Bowls,  old  boy, 
whilst  I  buzz  this  bottle  here.  What  was  I  a 
saving?"    "I  think  you  were  speaking  of 


dogs  killing  rats,"  Pitt  remarked  mildly, 
handing  his  cousin  the  decanter  to  buzz. — 
Thackeray,  Vanity  Fair,  ch.  xxxiv. 

Buzz.  See  extract  The  Anti  jacobin 
having  spoken  of  "  P — r's  [Parrs]  buzz 
prose,"  adds  in  a  note — 

The  learned  reader  will  perceive  that  this 
is  an  elegant  metonymy,  by  which  the  quality 
belonging  to  the  outside  of  the  head  is  trans- 
ferred to  the  inside.  Buzz  is  an  epithet 
usually  applied  to  a  large  wig.  It  is  here 
used  for  swelling,  burly,  bombastic  writing. 
— Poetry  of  A  ntijacobin,  p.  58. 

Buzzard,  a  coward:  more  usually 
applied  to  a  blockhead.  Breton  prays 
to  be  delivered 

From  a  conspiracie  of  wicked  knaues, 
A  flight  of  buzzards,  and  a  denne  of  theeues. 

PasquiTs  Precession,  p.  8 

An  old  wise  man's  shadow  is  better  than  a 
young  buzzard's  sword. — G.  Herbert,  Jacula 
Prudentum. 

Buzze-mixt,  confused  noise. 

The  noyse  in  it  is  like  that  of  bees,  a  strange 
humming  or  buzze-mixt  of  walking,  tongues, 
and  feet. — Earle,  Microcosmographie  (PauVs 
Walk). 

Bychop,  a  bastard  ;  one  who  chops  in 

on  the  bye,  or  in  an  irregular  fashion. 

Cf .  By-slip  ;  the  Diets,  have  by-blow. 

First  I  have  sent 
By-chop  away;  the  cause  gone,  the  fame 
ceaseth. — Jonson,  Magnetic  Lady,  IV.  ii. 

By-founder,  a  second  founder,  or 
one  who  has  something,  but  not  all, 
of  the  credit  attaching  to  the  actual 
founder. 

As  for  the  bounty  of  Sir  Francis  Clerk,  it 
exceeded  the  bounds  of  Benefaction,  and 
justly  entitled  him  to  be  a  By-founder. — 
Fuller,  Hist,  of  Camb.,  vii.  27. 

Bygones,  the  past.  L.  notices  the 
substantival  use  of  this  word  in  the 
phrase,  "  Let  bygones  be  bygones*'  but 
gives  no  example. 

44  Don't  let  us  rake  up  bygones"  said  Tom  ; 
"if  I  ever  offended  you,  forgive  me."  — 
Dickens,  M.  Chuzzlewit,  ch.  xxxvii. 

Nor  is  it 
Wiser  to  weep  a  true  occasion  lost, 
But  trim  our  sails,  and  let  old  bygones  be. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  iv. 

I  told  Kew  that  bygones  had  best  be  bygones. 
— Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  lii. 

By-job,  a  job  out  of  the  ordinary 
course  of  business. 

Dorothy  kept  the  cash,  and  by  that  means 
kept  Jerry  within  tolerable  bounds,  unless 
when  he  could  secrete  a  tester  for  some  ty<- 
job. — Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  II.  ch.  ii. 


B  Y-NAMED 


(     95     ) 


CABRIOLET 


By-named,  nicknamed. 

Sir  Henry  Percy,  for  his  overforward  spirit 
and  youthfull  heat  by -named  Hot-Spurre, 
who  had  the  leading  of  the  English. — Hoi- 
land's  Camden,  p.  803. 

By-paper,  a  slip  of  paper. 

His  manner  was,  as  any  abuse  or  regula- 
tion came  in  his  mind  ...  he  set  it  down 
upon  some  by-paper,  or  book,  used  for  not- 
ing.— North,  life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  209. 

By-place,  a  secluded  place. 

Theirs  was  but  a  by-place,  and  no  great 
thoroughfare. — Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk. 
II.  ch.  xii. 

By-point,  a  side  issue. 

The  Court  of  Rome  meddled  not  with  the 
merits  of  the  cause,  but  fell  upon  by-points 
therein  of  lesser  concernment. — Fuller,  Ch. 
Hist.,  V.  ii.  7. 


By-slip,  a  bastard.  Cf.  By-chop  ; 
Side-slip. 

As  Pope  Paul  the  third  carried  himself  to 
his  ungracious  by-slips  (an  Incubus  could  not 
have  begot  worse),  who  made  no  further  in- 
quisition after  their  horrid  facts  but  to  say, 
Tbev  learnt  it  not  of  him. — Racket,  Life  of 
Williams,  ii.  37. 

By-wit,  craft. 

She  neuer  taught  him  how  to  crowch,  nor 

creepe, 
Nor  scorn,  nor  scoffe,  nor  hang  the  head  aside, 
Nor  sigh,  nor  sob,  nor  wipe  the  eye,  and 

weepe, 
Nor  hatefull  thoughts  in  louing  lookes  to 

hide: 
No,  no,  she  is  of  a  more  heuenly  nature, 
Then  with  such  by-wit  to  abuse  a  creature. 
Breton,  Soul's  Immortal  Croume,  1st  day. 


c 


Cab,  a  cavalier. 

Shall  not  his  bloud  be  doubly  avenged  up- 
on the  heads  of  such  barbarious,  worse  than 
bruiting  villaines  ?  But  the  misery  is  there 
is  no  bloud  amongst  the  Cabs  worthy  to  be 
named  in  the  same  day  ...  as  the  gallant 
Rainsborough's  bloud. — Mercurius  Mditaris, 
Not.  8, 1648. 

Cabby,  a  trowel,  or  small  spade. 

little  mattocks,  pick-axes,  grubbing  hooks, 
cabbies  (beches),  pruning  knives,  and  other 
iustruments  requisite  for  herborising.  — 
Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxiii. 

Cabinet,  secret  or  confidential.  In 
this  sense  cabinet  council  was  in  use 
long  before  what  we  now  understand 
by  that  word.  Milton,  Eikonoklastes,  ch. 
iv.,  speaks  of  a  cabinet  letter  of  Charles 
I.,  i.  e.  a  private  letter. 

Those  are  cabinet  councils, 
And  not  to  be  communicated. 

Massinger,  Duke  of  Milan,  ii.  1. 

Ton  are  still  my  cabinet  counsellors,  mv  bosom 
lies  open  to  you. — Ibid.,  Guardian,  ii.  3. 

These  persons  [in  1640]  made  up  the  com- 
mittee of  state,  which  was  reproachfully  after 
called  the  junto,  and  enviously  then  in  the 
Court,  the  Cabinet  Council. — Clarendon,  Hist, 
of  Rebellion,  i.  211  (ed.  1849). 

He  was  one  of  the  Cabinet  Council,  andpriyy 
to  the  Prince's  going  into  Spain. — Heylin, 
Life  of  Laud,  p.  105. 

Others  (being  onlv  of  Truth's  Councell) 
hact  not  received  such  private  instructions  as 
themselves,  being  Cabinet  Historians. — Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist.,  I.  v.  28. 


Others  still  gape  t'  anticipate 
The  Cabinet  Designs  of  Fate. 

Hudibras,  II.  in.  24. 

Cablegram,  a  message  by  the  electric 
cable :  the  word,  it  may  be  hoped,  is 
not  likely  to  be  generally  adopted. 

Mr.  George  Francis  Train  writes  to  us 
from  the  Langham  Hotel  under  date  Wed- 
nesday : — "  This  libel  appears  in  your  journal 
as  a  cablegram : — '  New  York,  20th. — George 
Francis  Train  has  been  sent  to  a  lunatic 
asylum. '  Will  you  please  make  the  amende 
honorable.  —  George  Francis  Train,  the 
coming  Dictator.'1  In  answer  to  this  appeal, 
we  can  only  say  we  have  pleasure  in  admit- 
ting that  the  fact  of  Mr.  Train  being  now  in 
London  is  complete  evidence  that  he  is  not 
in  an  American  lunatic  asylum. — The  Times, 
1873. 

Cable  -  hanger.  See  extract.  Ro- 
chester is  the  place  spoken  of. 

Persons  who  dredge  or  fish  for  oysters,  not 
being  free  of  the  fishery,  are  called  Cable- 
hangers,  and  are  presented  and  punished  by 
the  Court. — Defoe,  Tour  thro*  G.  Britain,  i. 
150. 

Caboose,  the  cooking  cabin  of  a  boat 

Fog  creeping  into  the  cabooses  of  collier- 
brigs  ;  fog  lving  out  on  the  yards,  and  hover- 
ins;  in  the  rigging  of  great  ships.  —  Dickens, 
Bleak  House,  ch.  l. 

Cabriolet,  a  sort  of  cap. 

All  we  hear  from  France  is  that  a  new 
madness  reigns  there,  as  strong  as  that  of 
Pontine  was.    This  is  la  fureur  des  cabriolets 


CACAM 


(    96     ) 


CADGER 


A  nglice,  one-horse  chairs,  a  mode  introduced 
by  Mr.  Ohild.  They  not  only  universally  go  ' 
in  them,  but  wear  them ;  that  is,  everything 
is  to  be  en  cabriolet.  The  men  paint  them  on 
their  waistcoats,  and  have  them  embroidered 
for  clocks  to  their  stockings ;  and  the  women, 
who  have  gone  all  the  winter  without  any- 
thing on  their  heads,  are  now  muffled  up  in 
great  caps  with  round  sides,  in  the  form  of, 
and  scarce  less  than,  the  wheels  of  chaises. — 
Walvole  to  Mann,  iii.  100  (1755). 

I  nave  bespoken  two  cabriolets  for  her  in- 
stead of  six,  because  I  think  them  very  dear, 
and  that  she  may  have  four  more  if  she  likes 
them.— Ibid.f  Utters,  iii.  376  (1771). 

Cacam,  a  wise  man  (Heb.  Dpn),  syno- 
nymous with  Rabbin,  and  still  current 
among  the  Jews  as  an  official  design- 
ation. 

They  have  it  [the  Law]  stucke  in  the  jambs 
of  their  doores,  and  couered  with  glasse; 
written  by  their  cacams,  and  signed  with  the 
names  of  God. — Sandys,  Travels,  p.  146. 

The  Talmud  is  stuffed  with  the  traditions 
of  their  Rabbins  and  Cacams. — Howell,  Let' 
ters,  ii.  8. 

Cacodemonise,  to  turn  into  an  evil 

demon. 

Take  the  most  beautiful  angel  that  ever 
painter  designed,  or  engraver  copied,  put  him 
on  a  beard,  and  the  celestial  character  will  be 
so  entirely  destroyed  that  the  simple  append- 
age of  a  tail  will  cacodemonise  the  Eudemon. 
— Southey,  The  Doctor,  Fragment  on  Beards. 

Cacogastric,  having  a  deranged 
stomach. 

Diderot  writes  to  his  fair  one  that  his 
clothes  will  hardly  button,  that  he  is  thus 
stuffed,  and  thus ;  and  so  indigestion  succeeds 
indigestion.  Such  narratives  fill  the  heart  of 
sensibility  with  amazement ;  nor  to  the  woes 
that  chequer  this  imperfect  cacogastric  state 
of  existence  is  the  tear  wanting. — Carlyle, 
Misc.,  iii.  221. 

Caco-zelot,  a  wicked  zealot. 

Some  spitef  ull  Caco~zelots  .  . .  have  not  so 
much  modesty  as  to  conceale  their  malice. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  62. 

Cacozelotry,  evil  zeal. 

Those  holy  Bishops  . .  have  been  cast  upon 
Dunghills,  as  Lazarus  and  Job,  by  the  coco* 
zelotry  of  some  men  in  our  times. — Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  623. 

Cad,  a  low  person ;  a  menial ;  espe- 
cially an  omnibus  conductor.  Some 
make  it  an  abbreviation  of  cadger,  others 
of  cadet,  others  refer  it  to  the  Scotch 
cadie.  The  weakest  of  a  brood  or  a 
litter  or  a  flock  is  called  a  cad  provin-  ' 
cially.     CI  Cade-lamb. 


The  spirited  proprietor,  knowing  Mr. 
Barker's  qualifications,  appointed  him  to  the 
vacant  office  of  cad  on  the  very  first  applica- 
tion. The  buss  began  to  run. — Sketches  by 
Boz  (The  First  Omnibus  Cad). 

Not  to  forget  that  saucy  lad 
(Ostentation's  favourite  cad), 
The  page,  who  looked  so  splendidly  clad, 
like  a  page  of  the  "  Wealth  of  Nations." 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Thirty  years  ago,  and  even  later,  the  young 
men  of  the  labouring  classes  were  "  the  cads," 
"  the  snobs,"  "  the  blackguards,"  looked  on 
with  a  dislike,  contempt,  and  fear  which  they 
were  not  backward  to  return.  —  Kingsley, 
Alton  Locke,  Preface  (1862). 

Cadator,  a  beggar  who  assumes  the 
character  of  a  decayed  gentleman. 

You  .  .  sot  away  your  time  in  Mongo's 
fumitory  among  a  parcel  of  old  smoak-dry'd 
cadators. — T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  179. 

Caddle,  fuss. 

Ther  wur  no  sich  a  caddie  about  sick  folk 
when  I  wur  a  bwoy. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at 
Oxford,  ch.  xxxiii. 

Caddowe,  a  coverlet. 

They  have  .  .  .  many  goodly  flockes  of 
sheepe,  which  they  sheare  twice  a  yeere,  and 
make  of  their  course  wooll,  rugges  or  shagge 
mantles,  caddowes  also  or  coverlets,  which  are 
vented  into  forraine  countries.  —  Holland's 
Camden,  ii.  63. 

Cade,  to  barrel  or  put  in  a  cask :  the 
word  is  given  in  the  Diets,  as  a  sub- 
stantive. 

The  rebel,  Jack  Cade,  was  the  first  that 
devised  to  put  redde-herrings  in  cades,  and 
from  hym  they  have  their  name.  Nowe  as 
wee  call  it  the  swinging  of  herrings  when  hee 
[we  ?]  cade  them,  so  in  a  halter  was  bee 
swung,  and  trussed  uppe  as  hard  and  round 
as  any  cade  of  herring  he  trussed  uppe  in  his 
tyme;  and  perhaps  of  his  being  so  swung 
and  trussed  up,  havyng  first  founde  out  the 
trick  to  cade  herring,  they  woulde  so  much 
honour  him  in  his  death  as  not  onely  to  call 
it  swinging  but  coding  of  herring  also. — 
Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  {Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  179). 

Cade-lamb,  a  house  lamb,  and  so  a 

pet  child.    See  Cad. 

Eh,  she'd  fine  work  wi'  ye,  I'll  warrant, 
bring-in'  ye  up  from  a  babby,  an1  her  a  lone 
woman  ;  it's  ill  bringin'  up  a  cade  lamb, — G, 
Eliot,  Adam  Bede,  ch.  x. 

Cadge,  to  beg. 

I've  got  my  living  by  casting  fortins,  and 
begging,  and  cadging,  and  such  like. —  H. 
Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  xv. 

Cadger,  the  bearer  or  carrier  of 
hawks.    Bailey,  and  after  him  H.,  give 


CADUCAL 


(    97     ) 


CALENDS 


"Cadge,  a  circular  piece  of  wood  on 
which  hawks  are  carried  when  exposed 
to  sale." 

The  expected  pleasure  of  the  first  clay's 
hawkiog  was  now  bright  in  his  imagination ; 
the  day  was  named,  the  weather  promised 
well,  and  the  German  cadger*  and  trainers 
who  had  been  engaged  . . .  came  down. — 
Miss  Edgeworth,  Helen,  ch.  xvii. 

Caducal,  liable  to  full. 

Nought  therefore  but  vain  sensibles  we  see 
eaducau. — H.  More,  Immortality  of  the  Soul, 
I.  in.  24. 

Caduce,  a  rod  or  caduceus. 

Heralds  in  blew  velvet  semee  with  flenrs 
de  lys,  caduces  in  their  hands  aud  velvet  caps 
on  their  heads. — Evelyn,  Diary,  Sept.  7, 1651. 

Cjesar,  to  make  like  Caesar ;  to  raise 

to  supreme  power. 

Crowned,  he  villifies  his  own  kingdom  for 
narrow  bounds,  whiles  he  hath  greater 
neighbours;  he  must  be  Casared  to  a  uni- 
versal monarch. — Adams,  i.  491. 

Gssarize,  to  rule. 

This  pow*r  hath  highest  vertue  of  Desire, 
And  Quarizeth  ore  each  appetite. 

Dames,  Microcosmos,  p.  25. 

Cage-work,  a  defence  to  conceal  or 
protect  men  in  time  of  action.  See 
quotation,  *.  v.  Cobridge-head. 

Cageling,  small  cage-bird. 

At  last  she  let  herself  be  conquered  by  him, 
And  as  the  cageling  newly-flown  returns, 
The  seeming-injured  simple-hearted  thing 
Came  to  her  old  perch  back  and  settled  there. 
Tennyson,  Merlin  and  Vivien. 
Am  I  as  a  child  perhaps,  chasing  a  flown 
cageling,  wbo  among  the  branches  free  plays 
and  peeps  at  the  offered  cage  (as  a  home  not 
to  be  urged  on  him),  and  means  to  take  bis 
time  of  coming,  if  ne  come  at  all? — Black' 
more,  Lorna  Doom,  ch. 


Cairn  ED,  crowned  with  a  cairn. 

When  the  lake  whiten'd,  and  the  pinewood 

roar'd, 
And  the  cairn'd  mountain  was  a  shadow. 
Tennyson,  Merlin  and  Vivien. 

Caitiff,  stingy. 

To  be  reserved  and  caitiff  in  this  part  of 
goodness  is  the  sordidest  piece  of  covetous- 
ness,  and  more  contemptible  than  the  pe- 
cuniary avarice. — Brown,  Rel.  Med.,  Pt.  ii. 
sect.  3. 

Cajole.  The  foreign  form  of  this 
word  in  the  extract  seems  to  intimate 
that  in  1660  it  was  not  naturalized,  and 
the  earliest  instance  of  the  verb  in  the 
Dicta,  is  from  Hudibras  (1674).     L., 


however,  hns  cajolery ',  with  a  quotation 

from  Monta^C  8  Devout  Essays  (1654). 

I  can  neither  cogg,«z//<?<)/<%nor  complement. 
— Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  76. 

Calais  market. 

He  that  bids  most  (like  Calais  market), 
whatsoever  be  the  cause,  shall  be  sure  of  the 
sentence.—  W.  Patten,  Exptd.  to  Scotl.,  1548 
(Eny.  Garner,  iii.  70). 

Calander,  a  kind  of  lark.  H.  gives 
the  word  with  one  or  two  references, 
but  no  extract. 

He  was  a  Triton  of  his  time,  and  a  sweete- 
singing  calander  to  the  state. — Nashe,  Lenten 
Stuffs  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  176). 

Calcinize,    to    calcine ;    reduce    to 

ashes. 

God's  dread  wrath,  which  quick  doth  caU 

cinize 
The  marble  mountains,  and  the  ocean  dries. 
Sylvester,  The  Trophies,  1200. 

Calcitrate,  to  kick. 

*  The  filly  was  soon  scared  out  of  her  seven 
senses,  and  began  to  .  .  calcitrate  it,  to  wince 
it,  to  frisk  it.—  Urquharts  Rabelais,  Bk.  IV. 
ch.  xiv. 

Calculate,  calculation. 

Nor  were  these  brothers  mistaken  in  their 
calculates,  for  the  event  made  good  all  their 
prognostics. — North,  Examen,  p.  602. 

They,  as  was  noted,  had  calculates  of  elec- 
tions, and  knew  by  their  rule  of  progression 
how  much  the  next  sessions  of  Parliament 
must  be  more  averse  to  the  Court  than  the 
last  was. — Ibid.  p.  609. 

Calefactory,  perhaps  the  silver  ball 
filled  with  hot  water,  placed  on  the  altar 
in  winter  for  the  priest  to  warm  his 
hands  on,  lest  from  their  being  numbed 
any  accident  should  happen :  it  was 
also  called  the  pome. 

A  calefactory  silver  and  gilt,  with  leaves 
graven,  weighing  nine  ounces  and  half. — 
Inventory  of  Lincoln  Cath.,  1536. 

Calends.  The  Greeks  did  not  reckon 
by  calends;  Greek  Calends  therefore 
=  never.  Suetonius  mentions  that  it 
was  a  favourite  expression  with  the 
Emperor  Augustus,  to  denote,  as  in  the 
second  quotation,  the  period  when  some 
people  might  be  expected  to  pay  their 
debts  (Octavius,  cap.  87). 

The  judgment  or  decree  shall  be  given 
out  and  pronounced  at  the  next  Greek  Ca- 
lends, that  is,  never. —  UrquharVs  Rabelais, 
Bk.  I.  ch.  xz. 

**Bnt,"  quoth  Pantagruel,  "  when  will  you 
be  out  of  debt?"  "At  the  next  enduing 
term  of  the  Greek  Kalends"  answered  Pan- 

H 


CALF 


(     98    ) 


CAMELIONIZE 


urge, "  when  all  the  world  shall  he  content.'1 
— Ibid.  Bk.  III.  ch.  iii. 

Calf.  To  eat  the  calf  in  the  cov/s 
belly  =  to  count  one's  chickens  before 
they  are  hatched. 

I  ever  made  shift  to  avoid  anticipations : 
I  never  would  eat  the  calf  in  the  cow's  belly, 
as  Lord  M.'s  phrase  is. — Richardson,  CI.  Har- 
low, iii.  136. 

ril  have  no  more  such  doings,  let  me  tell  ye ; 
No,  no,  no  eating  calves  in  the  cow's  belly. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  258. 

Calf-bed,  a  word  formed  jocosely  on 

the  model  of  child-bed. 

Tom  has  lost  a  cow  in  calf -bed. — Sou  they, 
Letters,  iii.  305  (1822). 

Calf-lolly,  a  term  of  reproach. 

Jobbinol  goosecaps,  foolish  loggerheads, 
flutoh  calf-lollies.— Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk. 
I.  ch.  xxv. 

Calf-love,  a  youthful  fancy,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  a  serious  attachment. 

It's  a  girl's  fancy,  just  a  kind  o'  calf-love*; 
let  it  go  by. — Mrs.  Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers, 
ch.  xx. 

Calico,  thin.    Cf.  Tiffany. 

In  such  a  place  as  that  your  callico  body 
(tenui  corpusculo)  had  need  have  a  good  fire 
to  keep  it  warm. — Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  37. 

Calioinosity,    darkness.       Sir    T. 

Browne  has  caligation. 

I  dare  not  ask  the  oracles;  I  prefer  a 
cheerful  calioinosity,  as  Sir  Thomas  Browne 
might  say. — O.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch. 


Caliqrapher,  a  good  writer. 

I  would  have  taught  him  in  three  weeks  a 
firm,  current,  clear,  and  legible  hand;  he 
should  have  been  a  caligrapher. — Scott,  Guy 
Mannering,  i.  280. 

An  affection  sprung  up  between  the  old 
painter  and  the  young  caligrapher. — Reade, 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  i. 

Caligulisms,  extravagances  like  those 
of  Caligula.  Walpole  says  of  Fred- 
erick Prince  of  Wales — 

Alas!  it  would  be  endless  to  tell  you  all 
his  Caligulisms. —  Letters  to  Mann,  ii.  103 
(1745). 

Calino.  Bailey  gives  call  as  an  old 
word  for  bravery:  it  is  just  possible 
that  calino  may  be  connected  with 
this,  and  =  a  gallant. 

Amongst  our  English  harmonious  calinos, 
one  is  up  with  the  excellence  of  the  brown 
bill  and  the  long  bowe ;  another  playes  his 
prizes  in  print  in  driving  it  home  with  all 
weapons  in  right  of  the  noble  science  of  de- 
fence ;  a  third  writer  passing  enamorately  of 


the  nature  of  white-meates. — Nashe,  Lenten 
Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  158). 

Hor.  0,oh! 

Tul.  Nay,  your  o,  oh's !  nor  your  colli  n-oes 
cannot  serve  your  turn. — Dekker,  Satiromas- 
tix  (Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr.,  iii.  191). 

Calor  (Lai),  heat. 

The  one  dries  up  the  Humour  Radical!, 
The  other  drowns  the  Calor  Natural!. 

Sylvester,  Tobacco  Battered,  517. 

Calotypist,  a  photographer:  the 
calotype  is  a  particular  photographic 
process.     See  L. 

Having  and  holding,  till 

I  imprint  her  fast 

On  the  void  at  last, 
As  the  sun  does  whom  he  will 
By  the  calotypist' s  skill. 

Browning,  Mesmerism. 

Calumnize,  to  calumniate. 

And  tho'  he  strips  us  to  our  skins, 
We'd  have  it  thought  'tis  for  our  sins, 
And  make  Heav'n  guilty  of  the  thing, 
Rather  than  calumnize  the  king. 

D'Urfey,  Athenian  Jilt. 

Calumny,  to  calumniate. 

Whereas  before  he  was  an  enemy,  and 
almost  a  persecutor  of  Christ,  he  was  now 
an  earnest  seeker  after  him,  changing  his 
old  manner  of  calumnying  into  a  diligent 
kind  of  conferring  both  with  Master  Bilney 
and  others. — Foxe,  Acts  and  Monuments,  p. 
1298,  ed.  1563. 

Calvar,  a  large  ship. 

Calvars  and  magars,  hulks  of  burden  great, 
Which  Brandimart  rebated  from  his  coast, 
And  sent  them  home,  ballass'd  with  little 
wealth. — Greene,  Orl.  Fur.,  i.  1. 

Calvinisticate,  to  "imbue  with  Cal- 
vinism. 

Cotton  Mather  is  such  an  author  as  Fuller 
would  have  been,  if  the  old  English  worthy, 
instead  of  having  been  from  a  child  trained 
up  in  the  way  he  should  go,  had  been  Calvin- 
isticated  till  the  milk  of  human  kindness  with 
which  his  heart  was  always  ready  to  overflow 
had  turned  sour. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch. 
xlvi. 

Cambio  (Ital.),  bill  of  exchange. 

I  commend  them  for  their  plain  downright 
dealing,  and  punctuality  in  payment  of  cam- 
bios,  contracts,  and  the  souldiers'  salary. — 
Howell,  Dodona's  Grove,  p.  20. 

Camelionize,  to  change  colour,  like 
the  chameleon. 

In  your  kingshipe  I  must  leave  you,  and 
repeate  how  from  white  to  redde  you  camt- 
lionized. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc., 
vi.  171). 


CAMEL-KNEED  (    99    ) 


CANDLE 


Camel-kneed,  having  knees  hardened 
like  those  of  a  camel.  Southey  remarks 
in  a  note,  that  when  he  used  this  epithet 
he  was  not  aware  that  the  likeness  had 
been  seriously  applied  to  St.  James,  of 
whom  Hegesippus  says,  "His  knees 
were  after  the  guise  of  a  cameVs  knee, 
benumbed  and  bereft  of  the  sense  of 
feeling  by  reason  of  his  continual  kneel- 
ing in  supplication  to  God,  and  petition 
for  the  people." 

I  have  led 
Some  camel-kneed   prayer-monger   through 
the  c*ve.—Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  v. 

Camklleb,  camel-driver. 

Oar  Companions  had  their  cradles  strucke 
down*  through  the  negligence  of  the  Camel- 
Urs.— Sandys,  Travels,  p.  137. 

Camenrs,  Muses ;  the  Camoence. 

Beuyne  Camenes,  that  with  your  sacred  food 
H&oe  fed  and  fosterde  vp  from  tender  yeares 
A  happye  man  that  in  your  fauour  stoode. 
Googe,  Sonette  of  Edwardes  of  the  Chappell. 

Camisole     (Fr.),    a    loose    jacket. 

Spenser  and  others  have  camis. 

Mrs.  ODowd,  the  good  housewife,  arrayed 
in  curl-papers  and  a  camisole,  felt  that  her 
duty  was  to  act,  and  not  to  sleep,  at  this 
juncture. — Thackeray,  Vanity  Fair,  ch.  xxx. 

Campaigned,  employed  in  campaigns. 

" Here"  said  I.  to  an  old  soldier  with  one 
hand,  who  had  been  campaigned,  and  worn 
oat  to  death  in  the  service, "  here's  a  couple 
of  sous  for  thee."  —  Sterne,  Sent.  Journey, 
Montriul. 

Campanalian,  pertaining  to  a  bell. 
Panurge's  fancy  sometimes  hears  the 
bells  bidding  him  marry,  and  some- 
times dissuading  him. 

This  campanalian  oracle  fretteth  me  to 
the  gats.—  Urquhart,  Rabelais,  Bk.  III.  ch. 
xxviti. 

Camps-squire,  groom. 

.  .  .  a  base  campe-squire  that  sometimes 

knowne  to  be, 
Had  now  usurped  five  yeares  past,  and  ruled 

with  tyranme. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  83. 

Canaoua  (Ital.),  dregs  of  the  people: 
the  French  form  canaille  has  become 
naturalized  among  us.  See  quotation, 
*.  v.  Rattle-headed. 

And  what  is  the  subject  matter?  Low 
plebeian  invention,  proper  only  for  a  canag- 
ita  of  poltroons  over  ale  to  babble  one  to 
another.— North,  Examen,  p.  306. 

Canaster,  a  kind  of  tobacco ;  pro- 
perly, the  rush  basket  in  which  it  was 
packed. 


But  a  plain  leg  of  mutton,  my  Lucy, 

I  pr'ythee  get  ready  at  three ; 
Have  it  smoking,  and  tender,  and  juicy, 

And  what  better  meat  can  there  be  ? 
And  when  it  has  feasted  the  master, 

Twill  amply  suffice  for  the  maid ; 
Meanwhile  I  will  smoke  my  canaster, 

And  tipple  my  ale  in  the  shade. 

Thackeray,  Imitation  of  Horace 
(Misc.  t.  76). 

Cancer,  to  crawl  like  a  crab. 

Other  things  advance  per  saltum — they  do 
not  silently  cancer  their,  way  onwards. — De 
Quincey,  Roman  Meals. 

Cancered,  eaten  as  by  cancer. 

The  strulbrug  of  Swift  .  .  .  was  a  wreck, 
a  shell,  that  had  been  burned  hollow  and 
cancered  by  the  fierce  furnace  of  life. — De 
Quincey,  Autob.  Sketches,  i.  05. 

Cancro,  an  ^Italian  imprecation ;  the 

cancer  take  you. 

Not  a  word  but  ah  and  oh,  and  now  and 
then  rise  off  his  bed  in  a  rage,  knitting  his 
brows  with  cancro,  and  then  he  spake  Italian. 
— Breton,  Phisition's  Letter,  p.  63. 

Agn.  I  haue  a  bodie  here  which  once  I 
lou'd 
And  honoured  above   all;   but  that  time's 

past  .  .  . 
That  shall  supply  at  so  extreme  a  need  the 
vacant  gibbet. 
Lys.  Cancro!  what,  thy  husband's  bodie ? 
Chapman,  Widdowes  Teares,  Act  V. 

Candid,  usually  =  fair,  unprejudiced ; 
in  extract,  however,  it  means  favourable. 

King  Charles  and  Queen  Mary  came  to 
Cambridge,  were  entertained  at  Trinity  Col- 
lege with  comedies,  and  expressed  candid 
acceptance  thereof. — Fuller,  Hist,  of  Camb., 
viii.  22. 

Candidate,  white. 

See'st  thou  that  cloud  that  rides  in  state, 

Part  ruby-like,  part  candidate? 

It  is  no  other  than  the  bed 

Where  Venus  sleeps,  half  smothered. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  288. 

Candle.  To  light  a  candle  to  the 
devil  is  to  be  a  subservient  assistant  in 
some  evil.  The  expression  refers  to  a 
belief  that  witches  used  to  burn  candles 
in  token  of  adoration  before  an  image 
of  the  devil.     See  N.  and  Q.,  II.  ix.  29. 

Though  not  for  hope  of  good, 

Yet  for  the  f eare  of  euill, 
Thou  maist  find  ease  so  proffering  up 

A  candell  to  the  deuell. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  148. 

Some  will  offer  to  kisse  the  hands  which 
they  wish  were  cut  off,  and  would  be  con- 
tent to  light  a  candle  to  the  devil,  so  they 
may  compasse  their  owne  ends.  —  Howell, 
Forraine  Travell,  sect.  8. 

H  2 


CANDLE 


(  i°o  ) 


CANDLESTICK 


Here  have  I  been  holding  a  candle  to  the 
devil,  to  show  him  the  way  to  mischief. — 
Scott,  Fair  Maid  of  Perth,  ii.  213. 

Candle.  Aot  to  be  able  to  hold  a 
candle  to  another  =  to  be  iar  inferior. 

I  used  to  say  no  one  could  hold  a  candle  to 
our  Grace,  but  she— she  looked  like  a  born 
queen  all  the  time. — C.  Kingsley,  Two  Year* 
Ago,  ch.  xv. 

A  Frenchman  is  conceited  enough,  but,  by 
George,  he  can't  hold  a  candle  to  a  Scutch- 
man. —  H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch. 
xzxii. 

Candle.    To  burn  the  candle  at  both 
ends  =  to  expend  strength  or  life  or 
money,  &c,  recklessly. 
Pay   the  debts   that   you   owe,  keep  your 

word  to  your  friends. 
But  don't  set  your  candles  alight  at  both  ends. 
Ingoldsly  Legends  (St.  Cuthbert). 

To  double  all  your  griefs,  and  burn  life's 

candle, 
As  village  gossips  Ray,  at  either  end. 

Kingsley,  Saint's  Tragedy,  iii.  1. 

Candle.  The  proverb  in  the  extract 
explains  itself.  Compare  the  expres- 
sion, "The  game  is  not  worth  the 
candle.11  Gosson  confesses  that  in 
times  past  he  had  written  comedies, 
but  adds — 

I  gaue  myself  to  that  exercise  in  hope  to 
thritie,  but  I  burnt  one  candle  to  seek  another, 
and  lost  both  my  time  and  my  tranell,  when 
I  had  doone. — School  of  Abuse,  p.  41. 

Candle.  Not  worth  the  candle  =  not 
worth  the  cost  or  trouble  :  the  proverb 
is  a  French  one. 

Let  him  not  trot  about  to  view  rare  col- 
lections of  cockle-shells,  or  skeletons,  or 
tadpoles  and  spiders;  for,  after  all,  these 
discoveries  are  not  worth  the  candle.— Gentle- 
man Instructed,  p.  556. 

Candle-fly,  Bailey's  translation  of 
pyralis,  a  winged  insect  supposed  to 
live  in  fire.  Bailey,  no  doubt,  was 
thinking  of  the  moth  attracted  by  the 
candle. 

Why  should  an  owl  be  an  enemy  to  small 
birds,  a  weasel  to  a  crow,  a  turtle-dove  to  a 
candle-fly  ? — Bailey's  Erasmus  Colloq.,  p.  392. 

Candle  -  rents,  perhaps  originally 
some  tenure  under  which  certain  altars 
or  shrines  were  to  be  supplied  with 
candles  (?). 

The  Dean  and  Chapter  of  Paul's  iu  giving 
up  their  accounts  to  the  King's  Commis- 
sioners pretended  themselves  yearly  losers  by 
some  of  these  chanteries.  For  generally  they 
were  founded  on  candle-rents  (houses  are 
London's  land),  which  were  subject  to  casu- 


altie,  reparations,  and  vacations. — Fuller,  Ch, 
Hist,,  VI.  vi.  16. 

The  redeeming  and  restoring  of  [Lay  im- 
propriations] was  these  Feoffees'  designe,  aud 
it  was  verily  believed  (if  not  obstructed  in 
their  endeavours)  within  fifty  yeers  rather 
purchases  than  money  would  have  been 
wanting  unto  them,  buying  them  generally 
(as  candle  -  rents)  at  or  under  twelve  yeers' 
valuation. — Ibid.  XI.  ii.  6. 

Candle,  sale  by  inch  of.  The  bid- 
dings were  made  while  the  inch  of 
candle  was  burning  ;  the  last  bidder  at 
the  time  of  its  going  out  was  the  pur- 
chaser. The  custom  is  not  altogether 
obsolete  (see  N,  and  Q.,  IV.  xi.  276). 

Pleasant  to  see  how  backward  men  are  at 
first  to  bid ;  and  yet  when  the  candle  is  going 
out  how  they  bawl,  and  dispute  afterwards 
who  bid  the  most  first.  And  here  I  observed 
one  man  cunninger  than  the  rest  that  was 
sure  to  bid  the  last  man,  and  to  carry  it ;  and 
inquiring  the  reason,  he  told  me  that  just 
as  the  flame  goes  out  the  smoke  descends, 
which  is  a  thiug  I  never  observed  before, 
and  by  that  he  do  know  the  instant  when  to 
bid  last.  —  Fepys,  Sept.  3,  1662  (see  also 
Nov.  6,  1660). 

On  a  sudden  it  turns  exchange,  or  a  ware- 
house for  all  sorts  of  commodities,  where 
fools  are  drawn  in  by  inch  of  candle,  as  we 
betray  and  catch  larks  with  a  glass. — Cha- 
racter of  a  Coffee-house,  1673  (Harl.  Misc., 
vi.  469). 

Sell  not  favours  by  inch  of  candle ;  there 
is  no  depending  on  bought  friendship.  — 
Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  211. 

I  intend  to  sell  my  pains  by  inch  of  candle  ; 
I'll  not  venture  one  single  pulse  but  upon 
good  security  and  high  interest.  —  Ibid,  p. 
526. 

Candles,  a  term  for  the  pendulous 

produce  "  madidi  nasi.19 

The  inveterate  culprit  was  a  boy  of  seven, 
vainly  contending  against  candles  at  his  nose 
by  feeblo  sniffing. — G.  Eliot,  Amos  Barton, 
ch.  ii. 

Candlestick.  Breton  seems  to  mean 
that  some  will  say  he  is  sworn  to  the 
candlestick  because  he  praises  women, 
though  I  do  not  understand  the  connec- 
tion. A  pajre  was  said  to  be  "  sworn  to 
the  pantofle"  (see  N.)  because  he  had 
to  carry  his  master's  slippers.  Can 
"  sworn  to  the  candlestick  "  mean  ad- 
dicted to  flattery,  shedding  brightness 
and  light  on  objects  ? 

Some  will  say  that  I  am  suvrne  to  tht  candle- 
stick ;  such  I  wish  their  noses  in  the  socket . 
And  this  I  say  further,  my  faith  was  not  yet 
so  much  had  in  question  to  bee  called  to  tht* 
candlesticke ;  bat  if  he  that 'say  so  have  been 


•-• 


;  ••• 


CAND  Y 


(  ioi  ) 


CANTALOON 


brought  to  the  like  booke  oath,  I  wish  hee  had 
eaten  the  strings  for  his  labour. — Breton, 
Praise  of  Vertuous  Ladies,  p.  57. 

Candy,  to  whiten :  generally  used  of 
ice,  or  snow,  or  sugar. 

The  end  of  all  is  to  shew  that  his  party 
were  not  so  ranch  to  blame  in  seeking  to 
cover  and  protect  such  an  egregious  offender 
as  Fitzharris  was,  and  thereby  to  candy  them 
op  to  posterity. — North,  Examen,  p.  305. 

Cane,  a  telescope. 

Them  not  transpiercing,  lest  our  eyes  should 

be 
As  theirs  that  Heav'n  through  hollow  Canes 

doe  see. 
Tec  see  small  circuit  of  the  Welkin  bright, 
The  Cane's  strict  compass  doth  so  clasp  their 

Sight. 

Sylvester,  sixth  day,  first  weeke,  545. 

Canel  coal.  See  extracts.  L.  has  it 
with  quotations  from  Encyclopaedias. 

He  staid  some  days  with  Sir  Roger  Brad- 
shaw,  whose  lordship  is  famous  for  yielding 
the  Canel  (or  Candle)  coal.  It  is  so  termed,  as 
I  guess,  because  the  manufacturers  in  that 
country  use  no  candle,  but  work  by  the  light 
of  their  coal  fires. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guil- 
ford, i.  278. 

Between  Wigan  and  Bolton  is  found  great 
Plenty  of  what  they  call  Canel  or  Candle  Coal, 
the  like  of  which  is  not  to  be  seen  in  Britain, 
or  perhaps  in  the  World.  By  putting  a 
lighted  Candle  to  them  they  are  presently  in 
a  Flame,  and  yet  hold  Fire  as  long  a*  any  Coals 
whatever,  and  burn  more  or  less  as  they  are 
placed  in  the  Orate,  flat  or  edgewise.  They 
are  smooth  and  sleek  where  the  pieces  part 
from  one  another,  and  will  polish  like  Ala- 
baster. A  Lady  may  take  them  up  in  a 
Cambrick  Handkerchief,  and  they  will  not 
soil  it,  tho'  they  are  as  black  as  the  deepest 
Jet.  They  make  many  curious  Toys  of  them. 
—Defoe,  Tour  thro*  G.  Brit.,  iii.  248. 

Cangeant.  N.  gives  this  word  with 
the  extract,  and  explains  it  "chang- 
ing '*  (?)  ;  but  there  is  no  question  about 
it,  as  Sylvester  himself  explains  it  in 
the  margin  "changeable."  He  may 
have  meant  it  as  a  French  word,  clian- 
gcanU 

The  vpper  garment  of  the  stately  Queen 
Is  rich  gold  tissu,  on  a  ground  of  green ; 
Where  th'  artfnll  shuttle  rarely  did  encheck 
The  cangeant  colour  of  a  mallard's  neck. 

Sylvester,  The  Decay,  107. 

Cank,  to  cackle. 

The  canking  of  some  Spanish  geese  .... 
threw  poor  Jerry  into  the  utmost  conster- 
nation.— Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  IV. 
ch.  iii. 

Canker- EAT,  to  eat  as  a  canker. 


Those  corruptions  which  Tyme  has  brought 
forth  to  fret  aud  canker-eate  the  same. — 
Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  222. 

Cannell,  kennel. 

It  was  pretty  to  see  how  hard  the  woman 
did  work  m  the  cannells,  sweeping  of  water, 
but  then  they  would  scold  for  drink,  and  be 
as  druuk  as  devils. — Pepys,  Sept.  6, 1686. 

Cannibalic,  pertaining  to  eaters  of 
human  flesh. 

Tom's  evil  genius  did  not  lead  him  into  the 
dens  of  any  of  those  preparers  of  cannibalic 
pastry,  who  are  represented  in  many  standard 
country  legends  as  doing  a  lively  retail  busi- 
ness in  the  metropolis ;  nor  did  it  mark  him 
out  as  the  prey  of  ring-droppers,  pea  and 
thimble  riggers,  duffers,  touters,  or  any  of 
those  bloodless  sharpers,  who  are  perhaps  a 
little  better  known  to  the  police. — Dickens, 
M.  Chuzzlewit,  ch.  xzxvii. 

Canning.,  power. 

Why  would  I  not  but  because  I  could  not  ? 
I  mean  because  my  canning  is  taken  away  b/ 
sin. — Bradford,  ii.  28. 

Cant,  to  toss  up  or  upset. 

The  inn-keeper,  who  was  here  this  very 
day,  held  a  corner  of  the  blanket,  and  canted 
me  toward  heaven  with  notable  alacrity. — 
Jarvis's  Don  Quixote,  ii.  140. 

The  best  swimmer  canted  out  of  a  boat 
capsized  must  sink  ere  he  can  swim. — Beads, 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  xxvii. 

A  mischievous  black  imp  canted  her  over, 
and  souse  she  went  into  the  river.  —  //. 
Kingsley,  Geqffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  xx. 

Cant,  a  turn  over. 

The  waiter  .  . .  returned  with  a  quartern 
of  brandy,  which  Crowe,  snatching  eagerly, 
started  into  his  bread-room  at  one  cant. — 
Smollett,  L.  Greaves,  ch.  xvii. 

Cantab,  a  Cambridge  man. 

As  for  the  young  Cantabs,  they,  as  was 
said,  had  wandered  a  little  over  the  south 
border  of  romantic  Spain. — Carlyle,  Life  of 
Sterling,  Pt.  I.  ch.  xiii. 

Cantabank.  a  common  bill  id  singer : 
used  disparagingly.  Cf.  Mountebank, 
Saltimbank. 

He  was  no  tavern  cantabank  that  made  it, 
But  a  Squire  minstrel  of  your  Highness' 
court. — Taylor,  Ph.  van  Art.,  Pt.  I.  iii.  2. 

Cantabbize,  to  imitate  Cambridge. 

Know  also  that  this  university  [Dublin] 
did  so  Cantabrize,  that  she  imitated  her  in 
the  successive  choice  of  her  Chancellours. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  IX.  vii.47. 

Cantaloon,  some  species  of  stuff. 

"Western  Goods  had  their  share  here  also ; 
and  several  booths  were  filled  with  Serges, 
Duroys,    Druggets,    Shalloons,    Cantalovn*, 


CANTANKEROUS        (102)        CAPE  MERCHANT 


Devonshire  Kersies,  &c. — Defoe,  Tour  thro* 
G.  Britain,  i.  94. 

Cantankerous,  ill-natured ;  cross- 
grained.     See  extract,  s.  v.  Jowdbr. 

I  hope,  Mr.  Faulkland,  an  there  are  three  of 
us  come  on  purpose  for  the  game,  you  won't 
be  so  cantankerous  as  to  spoil  the  party  by 
sitting  out. — Sheridan,  The  Rivals,  v.  3. 

I  never  knew  such  a  cantankerous  fellow 
as  you  are ;  you  are  always  fancying  I  am 
finding  fault  with  Sheila. — Black,  Princess 
of  Thule,  ch.  xv. 

Canterbury  rack,  a  gentle  pace,  like 
that  used  by  Canterbury  pilgrims ;  hence 
canter.    See  s.  t>.  Rack. 

For  his  grace  at  meat,  what  can  I  better 
compare  it  to  than  a  Canterbury  rack,  half 
pace,  half  gallop. — Character  of  a  Fanatic, 
1675  {Harl.  Misc.,  vii.  637). 

Canterbury  tale,  an  idle  story.  See 
first  extract ;  also  8.  v.  Full-mouth. 

Canterbury  Tales.  So  Chaucer  calleth  his 
Book,  being  a  collection  of  several  Tales  pre- 
tended to  be  told  by  Pilgrims  in  their  passage 
to  the  Shrine  of  Saint  Thomas  in  Canter- 
bury. But  since  that  time  Canterbury  Tales 
are  parallel  to  Fabula  Milesia,  which  are 
characterized,  nee  vera,  nee  verisimiUs.  — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Canterbury  (i.  527). 

"What,  to  come  here  with  a  Canterbury  tale 
of  a  leg  and  an  eye,  and  Heaven  knows  what, 
merely  to  try  the  extent  of  his  power  over 
you ! — Colman,  The  Deuce  is  in  him,  ii.  1. 

Cantick,  a  canticle. 

[He]  gave  thanks  unto  God  in  some  fine 
canticks  made  in  praise  of  the  Divine  bounty. 
— XJrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxiii. 

Canting  heraldry.    See  quotation. 

Sir  Hew  Halbert  .  .  was  so  unthinking  as 
to  deride  my  family  name,  as  if  it  had  been 
quasi,  Bear-warden ;  a  most  uncivil  jest,  since 
it  .  .  .  seemed  to  infer  that  our  coat-armour 
had  not  been  achieved  by  honourable  actions 
in  war,  but  bestowed  by  way  of  paranomasia, 
or  pun,  upon  our  family  appellation, — a  sort 
of  bearing  which  the  French  call  armoires 
parlantes,  the  Latins,  arma  cantantia,  and 
your  English  authorities  canting  heraldry, 
being  indeed  a  species  of  emblazoning  more 
befitting  canters,  gaberlunzies,  and  such  like 
mendicants,  whose  gibberish  is  formed  upon 
playing  upon  the  word,  than  the  noble,  hon- 
ourable, and  useful  science  of  heraldry. — 
Scott,  Waverley,  i.  141. 

Cantoners,  Swiss,  as  living  in  can- 
tons. 


own 
67. 


Those  poor  cantoners  could  not  enjoy  their 
ra  in  quiet.— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i. 

Canty,  cheerful. 


Then  at  her  door  the  canty  dame 
Would  sit  as  any  linnet  gay. 

Wordsworth,  Goody  Blake. 

Canvassado,  a  fencing  term  (see  H.) ; 
but  in  the  extract  it  clearly  stands  for 
camisado  (q.  v.  in  N.),  a  sudden  assault. 

To  marke  the  ordering  of  a  court  de  garde, 
To  note  the  rules  in  walking  of  the  rounde, 
The  scintenils,  and  euery  watch  and  warde, 
And  of  the  mines,  and  working  ynder  grounde : 
To  marke  the  planting  of  their  ambuscados, 
And  in  the  nignt  their  sodaine  canuassados. 
Breton,  Pilgrimage  to  Paradise,  p.  19. 

Cap.  A  woman  is  said  to  set  her  cap 
at  a  man  when  she  shows  an  inclina- 
tion to  marry  him  before  she  has  been 
asked ;  the  allusion  perhaps  is  to  her  de- 
sire to  look  her  best  when  the  favoured 
one  is  present. 

I  know  several  young  ladies  who  would  be 
very  happy  in  such  an  opportunity  of  setting 
their  caps  at  him. — Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote, 
Bk.  IIL  ch.  xi. 

When  Lord  Buckram  went  abroad  to  finish 
his  education,  you  all  know  what  dangers  he 
ran,  and  what  numbers  of  caps  were  set  at 
him. — Thackeray,  Book  of  Snobs,  ch.  v. 

Cap,  to  p*y  respect  to,  or  to  be  ob- 
sequious. The  word  is  common  in  this 
sense,  but  the  following  is  curious, 
from  being  applied  to  the  knee : 

But  if  a  smoothing  tongue,  a  fleering  face, 
A  capping  knee,  with  double  diligence 
By  close  colloging  creepe  into  thy  £race. 

Breton,  Mother's  Blessing,  st.  62. 

Cap.  To  fall  under  the  cap  •■=  to 
come  into  the  head. 

It  fell  not  under  every  one's  cap  to  give  so 
good  advice. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford, 
i.  84. 

If  the  reasons  of  his  decree  were  special, 
and  such  as  came  not  under  every  cap,  he 
cared  not  to  leave  the  expression  of  them 
to  the  precipitate  dispatch  of  a  blundering 
registrar. — ibid.  ii.  32. 

Cap  the  globe,  to  beat  everything, 
i.  e.  to  be  extremely  surprising. 

"  Well,"  I  exclaimed,  using  an  expression 
of  the  district,  "  that  caps  the  globe,  however." 
— C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xxxii. 

Cape-merchant,  wholesale,  dealer; 
one  who  had  vessels  of  his  own  which 
went  round  the  Cape  in  the  way  of 
trade. 

[I]  in  this  history  have  fetch'd  my  wares 
from  the  storehouse  of  that  reverend  pre- 
late [Usher],  the  Cape-merchant  of  all  learn- 
ing, and  here  in  little  remnants  deliver  them 
out  to  petty  country  chapmen. — Fuller,  Cfc. 
Hist.,  II.  vi.  4a 


CAPERNAITICAL        (  103  ) 


CAPTE 


Capernaitical,  belonging  to  Caper- 
naum. Bp.  Hall,  I  suppose,  is  referring 
to  St  John  vi.  52,  59,  60.  It  is  ob- 
servable that,  if  the  reprint  be  correct, 
he  does  not  begin  the  word  with  a 
capital  letter. 

What  an  infatuation  is  upon  the  Romish 
party,  that,  rather  than  they  will  admit  of 
any  other  than  a  gross,  literal,  capernaitical 
emse  in  the  words  of  our  Saviour's  sacra- 
mental supper,  This  is  my  body,  will  con- 
found heaven  and  earth  together. — Bp.  Hall, 
Works,  v.  52L 

Caper-witted,  flighty. 

Sorely  then,  whatsoever  any  caper-witted 
man  may  observe,  neither  was  the  king's 
chastity  stained,  nor  his  wisdom  lull'd 
•deep.—Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  227. 

Caphotade,  a  hash.  This  French 
word  has  not  been  naturalized  among 
us,  yet  Vanbrugh  puts  it  into  the  mouth 
of  a  valet  in  the  first  extract,  and  of  a 
waiting- woman  in  the  second,  as  though 
it  were  then  common. 

Ah,  the  traitor!  what  a  capilotade  of 
damnation  will  there  be  cooked  up  for  him. 
-The  False  Friend,  iiL  2. 

What  a  capilotade  of  a  story's  here !  The 
necklace  lost,  and  her  son  Dick,  and  a  for- 
tune to  marry,  and  she  shall  dance  at  the 
wedding  I— The  Confederacy,  iii  2. 

Capitalism,  possession  of  capital. 

The  Prince  de  Montcontour  took  his  place 
with  great  gravity  at  the  Paris  board, 
whither  Barnes  made  frequent  flying  visits. 
The  sense  of  capitalism  sobered  and  dignified 
Paul  de  Florae. — Thackeray,  The  Newcomes, 
ch.  xlvi. 

Capitalized,  headed. 

Beauteous  as  the  white  column,  capitalled 
with  gilding,  which  rose  at  her  side.  —  C. 
Bronte,  VtUette,  ch.  xz. 

Capon,  to  geld. 

Had  I  been  discover'd 
I  had  been  capon'd. 

Massinger,  Benegado,  L  i. 

Capon.  This  bird,  like  the  goose,  is 
taken  for  an  emblem  of  stupidity. 

MeteHus  was  so  shuttle  brained  that  euen 
in  the  middes  of  his  tribuneship  he  left  his 
office  in  Borne,  and  sallied  to  Pompeius  into 
Syria,  and  by  then  he  had  ben  with  him 
in  a  whyle,  came  flynging  home  to  Borne 
again  as  vyse  as  a  capon. — UdaVs  Erasmus's 
Apophth,,  p.  34L 

Capon  justice,  a  corrupt  magistrate, 
as  bribed  by  gifts  of  capons,  &c. 
Shakespeare  perhaps  is  alluding  to  the 
venality  as  well  as  the  good  living  of 
uthe  justice  with  fair  round  belly  with 


fat  capon  lined"  {As  You  Like  It, 
II.  vii.;. 

Judges  that  judge  for  reward,  and  say 
with  shame,  "Bring  you,"  such  as  the 
country  csMa'capon  justices. —  Ward,  Sermons, 
p.  128. 

They  have  many  things  of  value  to  truck 
for  which  they  always  carry  about  'em ;  as 
justice  for  fat  capons  to  be  delivered  before 
dinner. — Tom  Brown,  Works,  iiL  26. 

In  England,  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth, 
a  member  of  Parliament  denned  a  justice  of 
peace  to  be  "  an  animal  who  for  half  a  doaen 
chickens  will  dispense  with  half  a  dozen  penal 
statutes." — Miss  Edgeworth,  Ennui,  ch.  viii. 

Capon's  feathers.  See  quotation. 
Heylin  had  previously  said  that  Salcot 
was  otherwise  called  Capon. 

Salcot  of  Salisbury,  knowing  himself  ob- 
noxious to  some  court  displeasures,  redeems, 
his  peace,  and- keeps  himself  out  of  such 
danger,  by  making  long  leases  of  the  best 
of  his  farms  and  manors ;  known  afterwards 
most  commonly  by  the  name  of  Capon's 
feathers.— Heylin,  Reformation,  i.  212. 

Capricorn,  chamois.  The  Diets,  only 
give  the  word  as  signifying  the  zodiacal 
sign. 

He  shew'd  two  heads  and  homes  of  the 
true  capricome,  which  animal,  he  told  us, 
was  frequently  kill'd  among  the  mountainee. 
— Evelyn,  Diary,  1646  (p.  189). 

Caprint,  goatish.     L.  has  caprine. 

This  moment  I  am  as  grave  and  formal  in 
my  gate  as  a  Spanish  Don,  or  a  Beader  of  a 
Parish  marching  in  the  front  of  a  Funeral ; 
the  next,  as  frolicksome  as  a  capriny  Mon- 
sieur, leaping  and  frisking  about. — Cotton, 
Scarronides,  Preface. 

Caps.    To  pull  caps  =  to  quarrel. 
Behold  our  lofty  duchesses  pull  caps, 
And  give  each  other's  reputation  raps, 
As  freely  as  the  drabs  of  Drury's  school. 
Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  140. 

Captainess,  a  female  captain. 
.  .  .  darest  thou  counsel  me 
From  my  dear  Captainess  to  run  away  ? 

Sidney,  Astrophel  and  Stella,  88. 

Captate,  to  catch,  ensnare. 

Condescending  oft  below  himself  in  order 
to  captate  the  love  and  civil  favour  of  people. 
—Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  266. 

Capte,  capacity. 

To  some  apophthegmes  (where  Erasmus 
saied  nothing)  in  case  my  so  doyng  might 
anything  helpe  the  weake  and  tender  capte 
of  the  vnlearned  reader,  I  have  put  addicions. 
—Udal's  Erasmus's  Apophth.  (Translator's 
Pref.,  p.  vi.). 

A  mery  conceipt  to  those  that  are  of  capte 
to  take  it — Ibid.  p.  357. 


CARANT 


(  *°4  ) 


CARKLE 


Carant,  to  run.  See  extract,  «.  v. 
Appledrane,  where  the  word  is  spelt 
currant.  Both  extracts  are  in  the 
Devonshire  dialect. 

If  everybody's  ear  anting  about  to  once 
each  after  his  own  men,  nobody  '11  find 
notning  in  such  a  scrimmage  as  that. — C. 
Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  xxz. 

Cabbage,   shreds   and   clippings   of 

cloth :  us u ally  spelt  cabbage. 

Lupes  for  the  outside  of  his  suite  has  paide  ; 
But,  for  his  heart,  he  cannot  have  it  made ; 
The  reason  is,  his  credit  can  not  get 
Toe  inward  earbage  for  his  cloathes  as  yet. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  324. 

Carbonated,    reduced    to    carbon; 

burnt. 

AntiepiseopaU  Preachers  .  .  being  loth  to 
be  Carbonated  or  Crucified  Christians,  if 
they  can  help  it  —  Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  580. 

Carbon  ed,  broiled. 

Supped  with  them  and  Mr.  Pierce  the 
purser,  and  his  wife  and  mine,  where  we  had 
a  calf  s  head  carboned  ;  but  it  was  raw ;  we 
could  not  eat  it. — Pepys,  Jan.  1, 1660-61. 

Carbuncular,  liable  to  or  productive 
of  carbuncles. 

He  returned  more  distempered,  and  fell 
into  a  succession  of  boils,  fevers,  and  St. 
Anthony's  fire ;  indeed,  I  think,  into  such  a 
carbuncular  state  of  blood  as  carried  off  my 
brother. —  Walpole  to  Mann,  iii.  67  (1754). 

Carcass,  a  hollow  bomb  or  vessel 

filled  with  combustibles.    L.  has  car' 

cass-shell. 

Here  also  is  the  House  where  the  Firemen 
and  Engiueers  prepare  their  Fire-works, 
charge  Bombs,  Carcasses,  and  Qranadoes  for 
the  public  service.  —  Dsfoe,  Tour  thro*  G. 
Britain,  i.  135. 

Card,  a  character  (slang). 

Mr.  Thomas  Potter,  whose  great  aim  it  was 
to  be  considered  as  a  **  knowing  card,"  a 
"  fast  goer,*'  and  so  forth,  conducted  himself 
in  a  very  different  manner. — Sketches  by  Boz 
(Making  a  Night  of  it). 

"  The  fact  is," '  said  Lavender,  with  good- 
natured  impatience,  "you  are  the  most 
romantic  card  I  know." — Black,  Princess  of 
Thule,  ch.  x. 

Carder.  This  name  was  applied  to 
some  Irish  rebels  because  they  cruelly 
punished  their  victim**  by  driving  a 
card  or  hackle  into  their  bicks,  and 
dragging  it  down  the  spine.  See 
Wilde's  Irish  Popular  Superstitions, 
p.  79.  In  i.  4  of  the  drama  quoted,  a 
woman  is  spoken  of  as  sure  not  to  be- 
tray a  secret,  even  if  she  was  carded. 


It's  in  terror  of  hi 3  life  he  lives,  continu- 
ally dramiug  day  and  night,  and  croaking  of 
carders,  and  thrashers,  and  oak  boys,  and 
white  bovs,  aud  peep-o'-day  boys.  —  Miss 
Edgetoorth,  Love  and  Law,  ii.  3. 

This  shall  a  Carder,  that  a  Whiteboy  be, 
Ferocious  leaders  of  atrocious  bands. 

Hood,  Irish  Schoolmaster. 

Cardinal.  R.  and  L.  have  a  quota- 
tion from  Ayliffe,  who  says  they  are  so 
called  as  being  the  hinges  of  the  Church, 
but  Fuller,  agreeing  in  the  derivation 
from  cardo,  differs  as  to  the  applica-^ 
tion. 

Cardinals  are  not  so  called  because  the 
hinges  on  which  the  Church  of  Rome  doth 
move,  but  from  Cardo,  which  signifieth  the 
end  of  a  tenon  put  into  a  mortals,  being  ac- 
cordingly fixed  and  fastened  to  their  respect-  ! 
ive  Churches. — Fuller,  Worthies,  ch.  iv.  1 

Cardinalize,  to  redden  like  the  hat 
or  stockings  of  a  cardinal.  L.  has  the 
word  as  meaning  to  make  a  cardinal. 

The  redness  of  meats  being  a  token  that 
they  have  not  got  enough  of  the  fire,  whether 
by  boiliug,  roasting,  or  otherwise,  except 
shrimps,  lobsters,  crabs,  and  cray-fishes, 
which  are  cardinalized  with  boiling.  —  Lr- 
quharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxxix. 

Cardophagi,  thistle-eaters,  i.  e.  don- 
keys. 

Kick  and  abuse  him,  you  who  have  never 
brayed ;  but  bear  with  him,  all  honest  fellow- 
cardophagi  ;  long-eared  messmates,  recognize 
a  brother  donkey! — Thackeray,  Virginians, 
ch.  xix. 

Care,  mountain  ash. 

Ton  must  know  that  of  old  Dart  Moor 
was  a  forest — its  valleys  filled  with  alder  and 
hazel,  its  hill-sides  clothed  with  birch,  oak, 
and  *  care'  mountain  ash. — C.  Kingsley,  1849 
(Life,  i.  173). 

Careaway,  a  reckless  person.  In  the 
extract  from  Adams  there  is  a  pun  on 
carraway. 

But  as  yet  remayne  without  eyther  forcast 
or  consideration  of  any  thinge  that  may  after- 
ward turn  them  to  benefite,  playe  the  wan- 
ton yonkers,  and  wilfull  Careaway es. — Touch- 
stone of  Complexions,  p.  99. 

If  worldly  troubles  come  too  fast  upon  a 
man,  he  hath  a  herb  called  care-atcay. — 
Adams,  ii.  466. 

Carklb,  to  crinkle. 

The  blades  of  grass  .  .  turned  their  points 
a  little  way,  and  offered  their  allegiance  to 
wind  instead  of  water.  Yet  before  their 
carkled  edges  bent  more  than  a  driven  saw, 
down  the  water  came  again.  —  Blackmorc, 
Lorna  Doone,  ch.  xix. 


CARLINGS 


(  105  ) 


CARP-FISH 


Carlings.    "  Timbers  lying  fore  and 

aft,  along  from  one  beam  to  another, 

bearing   up  the  ledges   on  which   the 

planks    or    the    deck    are    fastened" 

{Bailey's  Diet). 

There  are  carlinps  at  the  aides  and  scores 
in  the  beams  in  midships. — Archaol.,  xx.  556 
(1324). 

Cabling  Sunday.  See  extracts; 
though  H.  gives  Palm  Sunday  as  Curl- 
ing Sunday,  but  says  the  dish  referred 
to  is  sometimes  eaten  on  the  previous 
Sabbath. 

Passion  Sunday  was  that  which  intervened 
between  mid  Lent  and  Palm  Sunday.  It  is 
called  to  this  day,  in  the  north  of  England, 
Car  Una  Sunday.— Arckaol.,  xv.  356  (1806). 

Carting  Sunday  or  Carl  Sunday.  Carlings 
or  Carls  are  gray  peas  steeped  in  water,  and 
fried  the  next  day  in  butter  or  fat.  .  .  They 
are  eaten  on  the  second  Sunday  before 
Easter,  formerly  called  Carl  Sunday.  The 
origin  of  the  custom  seems  forgotten. — 
Robinson'*  Whitby  Glossary,  1875  (E.  D.  S.). 

Carlip,  a  species  of  firearm. 

The  carlip  is  but  short,  wanting  some 
inches  of  a  yard  in  the  barrel. — The  Unhappy 
Marksman,  1659  {Harl.  Misc.,  iv.  7). 

Carmosel.  Bailey  gives  "Car- 
mousal,  a  Turkish  merchant-ship.*1 

I  and  six  more  .  .  .  were  sent  forth  in  a 
galliot  to  take  a  Greek  Carmosel. — Sanders, 
Voyage  to  Tripoli,  1587  (Eny.  Garner,  ii.  20). 

Carnaged,   bearing    the    marks    of 

carnage  or  slaughter. 

Look  yonder  to  that  carnaged  plain. — 
Soutkey,  Joan  of  Are,  Bk.  ix. 

C  ark  ate,  in  the  flesh.  In  the  ex- 
tract incarnate  is  used  as  though  the 
in  were  privative. 

I  fear  nothing  .  .  .  that  devil  earnate  or 
incarnate  can  fairly  do  against  a  virtue  so 
established. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  v.  46. 

Carosse  (Fr.),  carriage. 

The  number  of  carosses  is  incredible  that 
are  in  this  city. — Sandys,  Travels,  p.  259. 

Carpenter,  to  do  carpenter's  work. 

He  drew,  he  varnished,  he  carpentered,  he 
glued. — Miss  Austen,  Persuasion,  ch.  xi. 

The  Salle  des  Menus  is  all  new  carpentered, 
bedizened  for  them.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev..  Pt.  I. 
Bk.  IV.  ch.  iii. 

Here  he  took  to  gardening,  planting,  fish- 
ing, carpentering,  and  various  other  pursuits 
of  a  similar  kind.  .  .  .  On  all  such  occasions 
Mr.  Grim  wig  plants,  fishes,  and  carpenters 
with  great  ardour. — Dickens,  Oliver  Twist, 
eh.  liii. 

Carfe*e.     "The  stifning  Carpese" 


is  mentioned  by  Sylvester  among  "  ve- 
nemous  plants ' '  {The  Furies,  172). 

Carpet.  When  a  subject  or  plan  is 
mooted,  it  is  sometimes  said  to  be 
brought  upon  the  carpet,  i.  e.  on  the 
table :  carpet  was  formerly  used  for 
table-cloth. 

This  is  the  family  relation  of  these  three 
brothers  whose  lives  are  upon  the  carpet 
before  me. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford, 
Preface,  p.  xv. 

A  word  unluckily  dropping  from  one  of 
them  introduced  a  dissertation  on  the  hard- 
ships suffered  by  the  inferior  clergy ;  which, 
after  a  long  duration,  concluded  with  bring- 
ing the  nine  volumes  of  sermons  on  the 
carpet.  —  Fielding,  Jos.  Andrews,  Bk.  I.  ch. 
xvi. 

He  shifted  the  discourse  in  his  turn,  and 
(with  a  more  placid  air)  contrived  to  bring 
another  subject  upon  the  carpet.  —  Graves, 
Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  X.  ch.  xi. 

Carpet-bagger,  a  slang  term,  intro- 
duced from  America,  for  a  man  who 
seeks  election  in  a  place  with  which  he 
has  no  connection. 

Other  "earpet-bagoers"  as  political  knights- 
errant  unconnected  with  the  localities  are 
called,  have  had  unpleasant  receptions. — 
Guardian  Newspaper,  April  7, 1880. 

Carpet  gentry,  effeminate  gentry. 

Which  [strength  and  manhood]  our  strait- 
buttoned,  carpet,  and  effeminate  gentry  want- 
ing, cannot  endure  to  hold  out  a  forenoon  or 
afternoon  sitting  without  a  tobacco  bait,  or  a 
game  at  bowls. —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  119. 

Carpetless,  without  a  carpet. 

The  well-scoured  boards  were  carpetless. — 
Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xli. 

Carpet-monger,  a  carpet  knight. 

To  any  other  carpet-munger  or  primerose 
knight  of  Primero  bring  I  a  dedication. — 
Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  {Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  144). 

Carpet-swab,  carpet-bag  (slang). 

That  sailor-man  he  said  he'd  seen  that  morn- 
ing on  the  shore 

A  son  of  something — 'twas  a  name  I'd  never 
heard  before ; 

A  little  gallows-looking  chap — dear  me!  what 
could  he  mean  ? 

With  a  carpet-swab  and  mucking  togs,  and  a 
hat  turned  up  with  green. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (Misadv.  at  Margate). 

Carp- fish,  a  punning  name  for  a 
critic  or  caviller. 

But  I  waigh  it  not,  since  the  tongue  of 
an  adversary  cannot  detract  from  verity.  If 
any  the  like  carp-fsh  whatsoever  chance  to 
nibble  at  my  credits,  hee  may  perchannce 
swallow  down  the  sharp  hook  of  reproach 


CARRIAGEABLE        (  106  ) 


CASE 


and  iufamie  ere  he  be  aware. — Optick  Glass* 
of  Humours,  p.  10  (1639). 

Carriageable,  fit  for  carriages. 

The  mules  would  do  four  or  five  times  aa 
much  work  if  they  were  set  to  draw  any 
kind  of  cart,  however  rough,  on  a  carriageable 
road. — E.  Tylor,  Mexico  and  Mexicans,  p.  84 
(1861). 

Carriage-company,  people  who  keep 
their  carriages ;  so  in  the  first  quota- 
tion carriage-lctdy. 

No  carriage-lady,  were  it  with  never  such 
hysterics,  but  must  dismount  in  the  mud 
roads,  in  her  silk  shoes,  and  walk. — Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  VII.  ch.  v. 

There  is  no  phrase  more  elegant  and  to  my 
taste  than  that  in  which  people  are  described 
as  "  seeing  a  great  deal  of  carriage-company" 
— Thackeray,  The  Newcomes,  ch.  ix. 

Carriaged,  behaved. 

The  mistress  of  the  house  a  pretty,  well- 
carriaged  woman,  and  a  fine  hand  she  hath. 
—Pepys,  June  20, 1662. 

One  that  hath  not  one  good  feature  in  her 
face,  and  yet  is  a  fine  lady,  of  a  fine  iaillt, 
and  very  well  carriaged,  and  mighty  discreet. 
—Ibid,  June  14, 1664. 

Carriages,  behaviour:  the  plural  is 
peculiar. 

My  carriages  also  to  your  father  in  his 
distress  is  a  great  load  to  my  conscience. — 
Bunyan,  Pilgrim's  Progress,  Ft.  ii.  p.  11. 

Carrionere,  stinkard. 

Fie,  quoth  my  lady,  what  a  stink  is  here ! 
When  'twas  her  breath  that  was  the  car- 
rionere.— Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  227. 

Carrots,  red  hair. 

In  our  village  now,  thoff  Jack  Qauge  the 
exciseman  has  ta'en  to  his  carrots,  there's 
little  Dick  the  farrier  swears  hell  never  for- 
sake  his  bob,  though  all  the  college  should 
appear  with  their  own  heads.  —  Sheridan, 
Rivals,  i.  1. 

Carroty,  red :  applied  to  hair.  See 
quotation  from  Scott,  s.  v.  Peery. 

Kitty.  This  is  a  strange  head  of  hair  of 
thine,  boy ;  it  is  so  coarse  and  so  carotty. 

Lovel.  All  my  brothers  and  sisters  be  red 
in  the  poll.  —  Ibwnsend,  High  Life  Below 
Stairs,  Act  L 

Tom  is  here  with  a  fine  carrotty  beard, 
and  a  velvet  jacket  cut  open  at*  the  sleeves, 
to  show  that  Tom  has  a  shirt. — Thackeray, 
Newcomes,  ch.  xxiL 

Carry-castle,  an  elephant 

The  scaly  dragon  being  else  too  lowe 
For  th*  Elephant,  vp  a  thick  tree  doth  goe, 
So,  closely  ambush t  almost  every  day, 
To  watch  the  Carry-Castle  in  his  way. 

Sylvester,  sixth  day,  first  tceeke,  65. 


Carrying,  being  carried.  Cf.  Bring- 
ing, Searching  for  similar  construction. 

["WolseyJ  died  at  Leicester  Abbey,  as  he 
was  carrying  to  London,  where  he  was 
buried.— 2>*/k,  Tour  thro'  O.  Britain,  t  29. 

How  Don  Quixote  set  at  liberty  several 
unfortunate  persons,  who  were  carrying, 
much  against  their  wills,  to  a  place  they  did 
not  like. — Jarvis's  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  I.  Bk. 
III.  ch.  viii  (heading). 
(  The  trunks  were  fastened  upon  the  car- 
riages, the  imperial  was  carrying  out — Miss 
Edgeworth,  Belinda,  ch.  xxv. 

Cart.  To  put  the  cart  before  the 
horse  =  to  reverse  the  proper  order. 

While  she  liued  she  bad  a  school  and 
taughte ;  and  when  she  was  dedde,  she  had 
maisters  her  self.  .  .  The  tale  in  appar- 
ency bothe  is  standyng  against  all  naturall 
reason,  and  also  setteth  the  carte  before  the 
horses.— UdaTs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  859. 

Carted,  drawn  in  a  cart  to  execution ; 
it  was  usually  applied  to  those  who 
were  flogged  at  the  cart's  tail. 

Nor  as  in  Britain  let  them  curse  delay 
Of  law,  but  borne  without  a  form  away, 
Suspected,  tried,  condemned,  and  carted  in 
a  day. — Crabbe,  Tale  L 

Carterly,  pertaining  to  the  cart, 
and  so  rustic,  clownish. 

Thence  sprouteth  that  obscene  appellation 
of  Sarding  Sandes,  with  the  draffe  of  the 
carterly  hoblobs  thereabouts. — Nashe,  Lenten 
Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  160). 

Caryatid,  a  female  figure  dressed  in 
long  robes,  supporting  an  entablature. 
"When  the  Greeks  subdued  the  Carians 
they  introduced  these  architectural 
figures,  dressed  after  the  Cariatic  man- 
ner, in  memory  of  their  triumph. 

Two  great  statues,  Art, 
And  Science,  Caryatids,  lifted  up 
A  weight  of  emblem. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  iv. 

Cascade,  to  fall  in  a  cascade. 

In  the  middle  of  a  large  octagon  piece  of 
water  stands  an  obelisk  of  near  seventy  feet, 
for  a  Jet-d'-Eau  to  cascade  from  the  top  of 
it— Defoe,  Tour  thro'  G.  Britain,n.  218. 

Case,  suppose ;  in  case. 

What  if  he  staggers?  nay,  but  case  he  be 

FoiPd  on  his  knee  ? 
That  very  knee  will  bend  to  Heav'n,  and  woo 

For  mercy  too. — QuarUs,  Emblems,  ii.  14. 

Case,  a  garment. 

Doubtless  [Job]  had  his  wardrobe,  his 
change  and  choice  of  garments.  Yet  now 
how  doth  his  humbled  soul  contemn  them, 
as  if  he  threw  away  his  vesture,  saying,  I 


CASEINE 


(  io7  ) 


CAT 


have  worn  thee  for  pomp,  given  countenance 
to  a  silken  cast. — Adams,  i.  57. 

Finding  thirty  Philistines,  he  [Samson] 
bestowed  their  corps  on  the  earth,  and  their 
casa  on  their  fellow  countrymen. — Fuller, 
Pivah  Sight,  n.  xi.  21. 

Their  shooes  waxed  not  old,  but  their  feet 
did;  their  eases  were  spared,  and  persons 
•pffled.— Ibid.  TV.  iii.  8. 

Casein  e.  Kingsley  more  than  once 
uses  the  expression  in  the  extract  =  the 
correct  thing,  the  cheese,  caseine  being 
the  basis  of  cheese. 

Horn  minnow  looks  like  a  gudgeon,  which 
is  the  pure  caseine.  —  C.  Kingsley,  Letter, 
Hay,  1856. 

Casquetel,  small  casque  or  helmet. 

She  to  her  home  repair 'd. 
And  with  a  light  and  unplumed  casquetel 
She  helm'd  her  head. 

Southey,  Joan  of  Arc,  Bk.  ix. 

Cassakin,  a  little  cassock. 

Inhnmane  soules,  who  toucht  with  bloudy 
Taint,  J 

111  Shepheards,  shear©  not,  but  even  flay 

your  fold, 
To  tarn  the  Skin  to  Cassakins  of  Gold. 

Sylvester,  St.  Lewis,  544. 

Cassation,  annulling.  See  N.,  s.  v. 
caste,  which  verb  is  used  a  few  lines 
lower  down  in  the  place  whence  the 
first  extract  is  taken. 

Who  sees  not  in  this  overture  an  utter 
cessation  of  that  liturgy  which  is  pretended 
to  be  left  free.— Bp.  Hall,  Works,  x.  302. 

The  first  election  for  being  made  in  the 
night,  out  of  due  time,  and  without  solemne 
ceremony,  is  oppugned  by  the  king's  pro- 
curators: the  last  was  argued  by  some  of 
the  monkes  to  be  ill  by  reason  there  was  no 
cassation  of  the  first.— Daniel,  Hist.  ofEnq., 
p.  112.  ^ 

Cassino,  a  game  at  cards. 

lady  Middleton  proposed  a  rubber  of 
t'assino.—Miss  Austen,  Sense  and  Sensibility, 
ch.  rxiii. 

"Two  whist,  cassino,  or  quadrille  tables 
*dl  dispose  of  four  couple."  .  .  u  Great  case, 
little  cass,  and  the  spades,  Ma'am."— Nares, 
Vnnks  I  to  myself,  ii.  132. 

Cassock,  now  confined  to  ecclesi- 
astical dress,  but  once  applied  to  the 
dress  not  only  of  soldiers,  but  of 
women. 

Who  would  not  thinke  it  a  ridiculous  thing 
to  see  a  lady  in  her  xnilke-house  with  a  veluet 
gown,  and  at  a  bridall  in  her  cassock  of 
mockadoV—Puttenham,  Art.  of  Eng.  Poesie. 
Book  III.  ch.  xxiv. 


Her  taffta  cassock  might  you  see 
Tucked  up  above  her  knee. 

Greene,  p.  302. 
She  wore  a  chaplet  on  her  head, 
Her  cassock  was  of  scarlet  red. 

Ibid.  p.  305. 

Casson,  cant  term  for  beef. 

Here's  ruffpeck  and  casson,  and  all  of  the 

best, 
And  scraps  of  the  dainties  of  gentry  cofe's 

feast. — Broome,  Jovial  Crew,  Act  II. 

Cast,  "  a  second  swarm  of  bees  from 
one  hive  "(H). 

Such  as  hope  that  Mariners  will  hold  up  if 
Fishermen  be  destroyed,  may  aa  rationally 
expect  plenty  of  hony  and  wax,  though  only 
old  stocks  of  Bees  were  kept,  without  either 
casts  or  swarmes.— Fuller,  Worthies,  ch.  viii. 

Cast,  to  throw  the  thrashed  com 
from  one  side  of  the  bam  to  the  other, 
so  as  to  cleanse  it  from  dust,  &c. 

Some  winnow,  some  fan, 
Some  cast  that  can. 
In  casting  provide, 
For  seede  lay  aside. 

Tusser,  Husbandries  p.  53. 

Cast,  a  portion  of  bread :  perhaps 
applied  to  the  loaves  joined  together 
on  being  taken  out  of  the  oven.  See 
H. 

An  elephant  in  1630  came  hither  ambassa- 
dor from  the  great  Mogul  (who  could  both 
write  and  read),  and  was  every  day  allowed 
twelve  cast  of  bread,  twenty  quarts  of  Canary 
sack,  besides  nuts  and  almonds  — B.  Jonson, 
Discoveries  {Hear-say  news). 

Castellar,  pertaining  to  a  castle. 

It  was  a  curious  sample  of  ancient  castellar 
dungeons,  which  the  good  folks  the  founders 
took  for  palaces.  —  Walpole,  Letters,  iv.  480 
(1789). 

Castellet,  a  little  castle. 

The  erection  of  a  castellet  at  this  point 
would  then  become  desirable.  —  Arcmol., 
xxix.30(1841). 

Castle-monger,  a  builder  or  pro- 
prietor of  castles. 

His  subjects,  but  especially  the  Bishops 
(being  the  greatest  castle-mongers  in  that  age), 
very  stubborn,  and  not  easily  to  be  ordered. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  HI.  ii.  53. 

Casure,  cadence. 

Some  of  the  Catholics,  allured  with  the 
pleasant  casure  of  the  metre,  and  sweet 
sound  of  their  rhyme,  should  go  to  their 
assemblies. — Calfhill,  p.  298. 

Cat.     See  quotation. 

At  the  edge  of  the  moat  opposite  the 
wooden  tower,  a  strong  pent-house,  which 


CAT 


(  1 08  )       CATCHPOLE-SHIP 


they  called  a  cat,  might  be  seen  stealing  to- 
wards the  curtain,  aiid  gradually  filling  up 
the  moat  with  fascines  and  rubbish,  which 
the  workmen  flung  out  of  its  mouth. — JRcadet 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  xliii. 

Cat.  Enough  to  make  a  cat  speak 
»  something  astonishing  or  out  of 
the  way :  often  applied,  as  in  three  of 
the  subjoined  extracts,  to  astonishingly 
good  liquor. 

Gome  on  your  ways,  open  your  mouth 
here  is  that  which  will  give  language  to  you, 
eat. — Tempest,  ii.  2. 

I  have  spoken  for  ale  that  will  make  a  cat 
speak. — Breton,  Packet  of  Mad  Letters,  p.  50. 

A  spicy  pot, 

Then  do's  us  reason, 
Would  make  a  cat 
To  talk  high  treason. 
D'Urfey,  Two  (Queens  of  Brentford,  Act  I. 

Then  I  came  to  large  ropes  stretched  out 
from  the  mast,  so  that  you  must  climb  them 
wi  th  your  head  backwards.  The  midshipman 
told  me  these  were  called  the  cat-harpings, 
because  they  were  so  difficult  to  climb  that  a 
cat  would  expostulate  if  ordered  to  go  out  by 
them. — Marry att,  Peter  Simple,  ch.  vii. 

Talk,  miss !  it's  enough  to  make  a  Tom  cat 
speak  French  grammar,  only  to  see  how  she 
tosses  her  head. — Dickens,  Nicholas  Nicklehy, 
ch.  xii. 

Cat,  cat  of  nine  tails  ;  the  lash. 

Bash  coalised  kings,  such  a  fire  have  ye 
kindled;  yourselves  tireless,  your  fighters 
animated  only  by  drill-sergeants,  mess-room 
moralities,  and  the  drummer's  cat. — Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  VII.  ch.  iii. 

The  cat  was  purring  about  the  mat, 
But  her  mistress  heard  no  more  of  that 
Than  if  it  bad  been  a  boatswain's  cat. 

Hood,  Tale  of  a  Tempest. 

Cataclysmic,  pertaining  to  a  cata- 
clysm or  deluge. 

What  if  the  method  whereon  things  have 
proceeded  since  the  Creation  were,  as  geology 
as  well  as  history  proclaims,  a  cataclysmic 
method  ? — C.  Kingsley,  Yeast  (Epilogue). 

Catamaran  (Tamil.  Katta,  tied ; 
maram,  trees),  properly  a  small  raft, 
in  which  sense,  1.  e.  a  floating  stage,  it 
is  sometimes  employed  even  in  England. 
It  seems  also  to  have  been  used  at  the 
beginning  of  this  century  for  a  sort  of 
fire -ship  ;  hence  perhaps  its  application 
to  a  cross  or  cantankerous  old  woman  ; 
or  perhnps  this  use  was  simply  suggest- 
ed by  the  first  syllable.  See  N.  and  Q., 
V.  vi.  318,  437,  from  which  the  first 
and  last  extracts  are  taken. 

Great  hopes  had  been  formed  at  the  Ad- 
miralty [in  1804]  of  certain  vessels  which 


were  filled  with  combustibles  and  called 
catamarans. — Lord  Stanhope,  Life  of  Pitt,  iv. 
218. 

"  The  cursed  drunken  old  catamaran,"  cried 
he  ;  "  I'll  go  and  cut  her  down  by  the  head." 
— Marryatt,  Peter  Simple*  ch.  vi. 

"  What  a  woman  that  Mrs.  Mackenzie  is !  * 
cries  F.  B. ;  '*  what  an  infernal  tartar  and 
catamaran.** — Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  lxxv. 

The  fan  of  her  screw  propeller  came  in 
contact  with  a  floating  catamaran,  and  both 
blades  of  her  screw  were  bent. — Times,  Oct. 
25, 1876. 

Cat  and  doo  like,  a  quarrelsome  life. 

He  that  compareth  our  instruments  with 
those  that  were  vsed  in  ancient  times,  shall 
see  them  agree  like  dogges  and  cattes,  and 
meete  as  jump  as  Germans  lippes. — Gosson, 
School  of  Abuse,  p.  27. 

They  keep  at  Staines  the  old  Blue  Boar, 
Are  cat  and  dog,  and  rogue  and  whore. 

Swift,  Phyllis. 

Married  he  was,  and  to  as  bitter  a  precisian 
as  ever  eat  flesh  in  Lent ;  and  a  cat  and  dog 
life  she  led  with  Tony,  as  men  said.— -Scott, 
Kenilworth,  ch.  ii. 

Cata-physical,  infra-natural. 

A  visual  object,  falling  under  hyper- 
physical  or  cata- physical  laws,  loses  its  shadow. 
-De  Quincey,  Autob.  Sketches,  i.  837. 

Cata-presbyter,  one  opposed  to  the 
priesthood,  or  an  opposition  preacher. 
Giiuden  seems  to  apply  the  term  to  the 
ministers  of  dissenting  sects  who  were 
opposed  to  the  Anglicun  priesthood, 
and  to  each  other. 

Various  factions  . .  have  each  their  Anti- 
Ministers,  their  Cata- Presbyters,  or  counter- 
preachers  bandying  one  against  the  other. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  429. 

CATAruLTiER,  the  worker  of  a  cata- 
pult. 

The  besiegers  . .  sent  forward  their  sappers, 

Sioneers,  catapultiers.  and  crossbowmeu.  — 
bade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  xliii. 

Catch,  a  strongly  -  built  vessel  of 
8m a  11  burden  :  now  more  often  spelt 
ketch. 

One  of  the  ships  royal  with  the  catch  were 
sent  under  the  command  of  Captain  Love. — 
Howell,  Letters,  I.  iv.  1. 

The  fleete  did  Rail,  about  103  in  all,  besides 
small  catches. — Pepys,  April  25, 1665. 

Catcher,  one  who  sings  a  catch. 

"  But  where  be  my  catchers  ?  Gome,  a 
round,  and  so  let  us  drink."  (Stage  Direction  : 
This  catch  sung  and  they  drink  about.)  — 
Broome,  Jovial  Crew,  Act  IV. 

Catchpole-ship,  office  of  a  publican 
or  tax-collector. 


CATCH  SHILLING      (  109  ) 


CAUDATION 


This  catchpole-ship  of  Zaccheus  carried  ex- 
tortion in  the  face. — Bp.  Hall,  Works,u.  386. 

Catch  shilling,  something  of  no 
great  value,  but  meant  to  be  of  a  popular 
character,  so  as  to  sell. 

The  other  article  is  upon  a  catch  penny  or 
rather  catch  shilling  u  Life  of  Wellington." — 
Southey,  Letters,  ii.  402  (1815). 

Catechise,  to  chastise  or  reprove: 
often  so  used  by  the  poor,  not  without 
some  authority  for  it  in  literature.  Per 
contra,  I  have  been  informed  by  a 
Gloucestershire  clergyman  that  there 
chastise  sometimes  =»  to  question. 

Your  father  has  deserved  it  at  my  hands, 

Who,  of  mere  charity  and  Christian  truth, 

To  bring  me  to  religious  purity, 

And  as  it  were  in  catechising  sort, 

To  make  me  mindful  of  my  mortal  sins, 

Against  my  will,  and  whether  I  would  or  no, 

Seized  all  I  had. 

Marlowe,  Jew  of  Malta,  ii.  2. 

They  might  have  been  reclaimed,  if  used 
with  gentle  means,  not  catechised  with  fire  and 
fagot.— Fuller,  Holy  War,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xx. 

He  did  not  fail  of  catechizing  his  young 
friend  on  this  occasion.  He  said  he  was 
sorry  to  see  any  of  his  gang  guilty  of  a  breach 
of  honour ;  that  without  honour  priggery  was 
at  an  end. — Fielding,  Jonathan  Wild,  Bk.  HI. 
ch.  vi. 

Catechise,  catechism :  the  word 
occurs  frequently  in  Gauden,  e.  g.  pp. 
316,  549. 

The  Articles,  Creeds,  Homilies,  Catechise, 
and  Liturgy,  with  which  they  were,  or  might 
have  been,  well  acquainted. — Gauden,  Tears 
of  the  Church,  p.  55. 

Caterbrall,  a  sort  of  dance ;  a 
brawl  danced  by  four  persons.  In 
Davies's  Wit's  Bedlam,  p.  3,  the  word  is 
spelt  guarter-brauleSy  and  is  applied  to 
the  music  appropriated  to  the  dance. 

Angell-fac'd  fairies  (clad  in  vestures  white) 
Shal  come  in  tripping  hlithsom  Madrigal  Is 
And  foote  fine  horne-pipes,  jigges,  and  cater- 
brails. — Davits,  An  Extasie,  p.  94. 

Catebhllar,  an  extortioner. 

They  that  be  the  children  of  this  world,  as 
covetous  persons,  extortioners,  oppressors, 
caterpillars,  usurers,  think  you  they  come  to 
God's  storehouse  ? — Latimer,  i.  404. 

Near  of  kin  to  these  caterpillars  [pawn- 
brokers] is  the  unconscionable  tallyman. — 
Four  for  a  Penny,  1678  (Harl.  Misc.,\v.  148). 

Burton  in  his  sermon  on  Prov.  xxiv.  22  . . . 
abused  the  text  and  the  Bishops  sufficiently, 
calling  them  instead  of  fathers,  step-fathers, 
for  pillars,  caterpillars. — Barnard,  Life  of 
Heytin,  sect.  61. 


Cathedraticals,  dues  paid  by  the 
clergy  to  the  Bishop. 

Tou  do  not  pay  your  procurations  only, 
but  your  cathedraticals  and  synodals  also. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  54. 

Cathood,  the  state  of  being  a  cat. 

Were  I  endowed  with  the  power  of  sus- 
pending the  effect  of  time  upon  the  things 
around  me,  .  . .  decidedly  my  kitten  should 
never  attain  to  cathood. — Southty,  The  Doctor, 
ch.  xxv. 

We  have  a  face  with  a  certain  piquancy, 
the  liveliest  glib-snappish  tongue,  the  liveliest 
kittenish  manner  (not  yet  bardeued  into  cat' 
hood ),  with  thirty  pounds  a  year  and  prospects. 
— Carlyle,  Diamond  Necklace,  ch.  v. 

Cats  and  dogs.  To  rain  cats  and 
dogs  =  to  pour  with  rain.  Two  or 
three  derivations  of  this  phrase  have 
been  suggested,  but  perhaps  the  true 
one  is  still  to  seek:  rani  Aogag  =  surpris- 
ingly, or  corruption  of  Fr.  catadoupe, 
wat  erf  ull  ? 

I  know  Sir  John  will  go,  though  he  was 
sure  it  would  rata  cats  and  dogs. — Swift, 
Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  ii.). 

It  was  as  dark  as  pitch,  and  metaphorically 
rained  cats  and  dogs.  —  Ingoldsby  Legends 
(Grey  Dolphin). 

CAT's-rELLET,  a  game,  perhaps  the 
same  as  tip-cat. 

Who  beats  the  boys  from  cafs-pellet  and 
stool-ball?  —  British  Bellman,  1048  (Ilarl. 
Misc.,  vii.  625). 

Cattery,  an  establishment  of  cats. 

An  evil  fortune  attended  all  our  attempts 
at  re-establishing  a  cattery.  —  Southey,  The 
Doctor,  p.  684. 

Caucus.  See  quotation,  though  I 
think  Lord  Lytton  has  not  given  the 
usual  meaning  of  the  word,  which  sig- 
nifies a  meeting  of  one  particular  party 
to  select  candidates,  &c.  The  term 
appears  to  have  arisen  in  America  in 
the  earlier  half  of  the  hist  century.  The 
first  innings  of  this  kind  were  held 
in  ship-yards  in  Boston  ;  hence  called 
caulker* 8  meetings.  See  N.  and  Q.t 
1st  S.,  vol.  zi. ;  3rd  S.,  vols,  xi.,  xii. 

44 1  think  of  taking  a  hint  from  the  free  and 
glorious  land  of  America,  and  establishing 
secret  caucuses  :  nothing  like  'em."  *•  Cau- 
cuses ?"  u  Small  sub-committees  that  spy 
on  their  men  night  and  day,  and  don't  suffer 
them  to  be  intimidated  to  vote  the  other 
way." — Lytton,  My  Novel,  Bk.  XII.  ch.  xii. 

Caudation,  the  possession  of  a  tail. 

Crawley  ...  no  sooner  felt  his  hand  en- 
counter a  tail,  alight  in  size,  bnt  stiff  as  a 


CAULIFLOWER 


(     no    ) 


CENTRICAL 


pug's  and  straight  as  a  pointer's,  than  he 
uttered  a  dismal  howl,  ana  it  is  said  that  for 
a  single  moment  he  really  suspected  prema- 
ture caudation  had  been  inflicted  on  him  for 
his  crimes. — Reade,  Never  too  late  to  mend, 
ch.  Ixxvi. 

Cauliflower,  a  name  given  to  a  wig 
which  resembled  that  vegetable. 

Of  battles  fierce  and  warriors  big, 
He  writes  in  phrases  dull  and  slow, 

And  waves  his  cauliflower  wig, 
And  shouts, M  St.  George  for  Marlborow ! " 

Thackeray,  The  Drum. 

Caulker,  a  dram,  as  distinguished 
from  the  heavy,  which  is  beer  or  porter. 

Take  a  caulker?  Summat  heavy  then? 
No  ?  Tak  a  drap  o'  kindness  yet  for  auld 
langsyne. — C.  KinysUy,  Alton  Locke,  oh.  zxi. 

Cauponation,  tricks  of  adulteration, 
such  as  innkeepers  (caupones)  prac- 
tised with  their  liquors. 

Better  it  were  to  have  a  deformity  in 
preaching,  so  that  some  would  preach  the 
truth  of  God,  and  that  which  is  to  be 
preached,  without  cauponation  and  adulter- 
ation of  the  word,  ....  than  to  have  such 
a  uniformity  that  the  silly  people  should 
be  thereby  occasioned  to  continue  still  in 
their  lamentable  ignorance. — Latimer,  ii.  347. 

Causeway,  to  pave. 

The  stripped  hawthorn  and  hasel  bushes 
were  as  still  as  the  white  worn  stones  which 
causewayed  the  middle  of  the  path.  —  C. 
Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xii. 

Causey,  to  pave  as  a  causey  or 
causeway. 

These  London  kirkyards  are  causeyed  with 
through-stanes. — Scott,  Nigel,  i.  54. 

Cautioner,  bail.  Among  the  canons 
approved  by  Charles  I.  for  the  Church 
or  Scotland  was  the  following : — 

That  no  Presbyter  should  hereafter  become 
surety  or  cautioner  for  any  person  whatso- 
ever, in  civil  bonds  and  contracts,  under  pain 
of  suspension. — Heylin,  Life  of  Laud,  p.  299. 

Cavalcade,  to  go  in  procession. 

He  would  have  done  his  noble  friend  better 
service  than  cavalcading  with  him  to  Oxford. 
— North,  Examen,  p.  112. 

Cave  in,  to  sink  in  or  give  in,  like  an 

abandoned  mining-shaft. 

A  puppy,  three  weeks  old,  joins  the  chase 
with  heart  and  soul,  but  caves  in  at  about 
fifty  yards,  and  sits  him  down  to  bark. — H. 
Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  zxviii. 

Cavies,  cavaliers. 

In  the  meane  while  .  .  .  were  at  least 
sixty  great  gunnes  shot  off,  which  beat  up 
the  dirt  bravely  about  the  Cavies  eares. — 


True  Relation  of  a  brave  defeat  given  by  the 
forces  in  Plimouth  to  Skettum  Greenvile,  1645, 
p.  4. 

Celibataire,  bachelor. 

His  hard-hearted  betrayer  seemed  to  drop 
tears,  while  the  despairing  celibataire  de- 
scanted on  his  "  whole  course  of  love." — 
Godwin,  Mandeville,  ii.  268. 

Celical,  heavenly. 

By  stars  I  craue  you,  by  the  ayre,  by  the 

celical  houshold, 
Hoyse  me  hence. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iii.  610. 

Cellar,  a  case  or  box  (we  still  have 
salt-cellar) ;  more  especially  a  case  for 
liquors ;  a  cellaret 

Run  for  the  cellar  of  strong  waters  quickly. 
— Jonson,  Maanetic  Lady,  III.  i. 

His  wife  afterwards  did  take  me  into  my 
closet,  and  give  me  a  cellar  of  waters  of  her 
own  distilling. — Pepys,  April  1, 1668. 

Cellarous,  belonging  to  a  cellar. 

A  little  side-door,  which  I  had  never  ob- 
served before,  stood  open,  and  disclosed 
certain  cellarous  steps.  —  Dickens,  Uncom- 
mercial Traveller,  ix. 

Censoress,  female  censor. 

u  This  is  not  very  politic  in  us,  Miss  Bur- 
ney ;  to  play  at  cards  and  have  you  listen  to 
our  follies."  "  There's  for  you !  I  am  to  pass 
for  a  censoress  now."— Mad.  D'ArUay,  Diary, 
i.  157. 

Centenary,  a  centenarian ;  it  usually 
means  a  period  of  a  hundred  years,  or  a 
hundredth  anniversary. 

Centenaries,  he  thought,  must  have  been 
ravens  and  torlowes.—Southty,  The  Doctor, 
ch.  cxxxii. 

Centre  bit,  a  tool  for  boring  large 
circular  holes:  much  used  by  house- 
breakers. 

And  Sleep  must  lie  down  arm'd,  for  the  vil- 
lainous centre-bits 

Grind  on  the  wakeful  ear  in  the  hush  of 
the  moonless  nights. 

Tennyson's  Maud,  I.  i.  11. 

His  intelligence  bored  like  a  centre-bit  into 
the  deep  heart  of  his  enemy. — Reade,  Never 
too  late  to  mend,  ch.  ii. 

Centrical,  central. 

I  knew  the  church,  however ;  it  had  occa- 
sionally formed  a  centrical  point  in  my  ram- 
bles.— Godwin,  Mandeville,  1. 186. 

To  me  wealth  and  ambition  would  always 
be  unavailing;  I  have  lived  in  their  most 
centrical  possessions,  and  I  have  always  seen 
that  the  happiness  of  the  richest  and  the 
greatest  has  been  the  moment  of  retiring 
from  riches  and  from  power. — Mad.  DAr- 
blay.  Diary,  v.  431. 

"  It  is  time  then,"  said  Fitzurse,  "to  draw 


CENTRONEL 


( 


III 


) 


CHALK 


oar  party  to  a  head,  either  at  York,  or  some 
other  centrical  place." — Scott,  Ivanhoe,  i.  202. 

Centronel,  a  sentinel. 

These  milk-white  doves  shall  be  his  centronels, 
Who,  if  that  any  seek  to  do  him  hurt, 
Will  quickly  fly  to  Cytherea's  fist. 

Marlowe,  Dido,  II.  i. 

Centumyirate,  a  body  of  a  hundred 

men. 

A  cause  .  .  .  might  reasonably  have  lasted 
them  as  many  years,  finding  food  and  rai- 
ment all  that  term  for  a  centumvirate  of  the 
profession. — Sterne,  Tr.  Shandy,  ii.  198. 

Centurie,  I  suppose  the  common  and 

corrupt  pronunciation  of  sanctuary. 

Sanctuarram  or  the  Centurie,  wherein 
debtonrs  taking  refuge  from  their  credi- 
tours,  malefaetours  from  the  judge,  lived, 
the  more  the  pity,  in  all  security. — Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist^  vi.  286  {Hist,  of  Abbeys). 

Cerebrosity,  brain :  the  word  is  put 

into  the  mouth  of  an  ignorant  pedant. 

Attend  and  throw  your  ears  to  mee ...  till 
I  have  endoctrinated  your  plumbeous  cere- 
brosities. — Sidney,  Wanstead  Play,  p.  622. 

Ceremonize,  to  practise  ceremonies. 

They  suspected  lest  those  who  formerly 
had  outrunne  the  canons  with  their  addi- 
tionall  conformitie  {ceremonizing  more  than 
was  enjoyned)  now  would  make  the  canons 
come  up  to  them,  making  it  necessary  for 
others  what  voluntarily  they  had  preprac- 
tised  themselves.  —  Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XL 
iiL  14. 

Ceremony,  to  marry;  to  join  by  a 
ceremony. 

Or  if  thy  vows  be  past,  and  Hymen's  bands 
Have  ceremonied  your  unequal  hands, 
Annul,  at  least  avoid,  thy  lawless  act 
With  insufficiency,  or  pre-contract. 

Quarles,  Emblem*,  v.  8. 

Cebts,    certainly:     usually    written 

certes. 

But  certs  I  know  that  such  mistake  their 
ground. 
Fuller,  David's  Heavie  Punishment,  st.  27. 

For  certs  I  know  their  labour  was  but  lost. 

Ibid.  st.  38. 

Cest,  a  girdle ;   or,  as  Sylvester  ex- 

Slains  it  in  the  margin,  "  spouse-belt." 
tichardson  and  Latham  have  the  same 
single  quotation  from  Collins. 

Thou  trimm'st  the  trammels  of  thy  golden 

hair 
With  myrtle,  thyme,  and  roses;  and  thy 

brest 
Gird'st  with  a  rich  and  odoriferous  cest. 

Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  949. 


Ceston,  girdle ;  especially  the  girdle 
of  Venus. 

Mer.  Venus,  give  me  your  pledge. 
I  en.  My  ceston,  or  my  fan,  or  both? 

Peele,  Arraignment  of  Paris,  iii.  2. 

As  if  love's  sampler  here  was  wrought, 

Or  Citherea's  ceston,  which 

All  with  temptation  doth  bewitch. 

Merrick,  Hesperides,  p.  177. 

Chaff,  to  banter. 

A  dozen  honest  fellows  grinned  when  their 
own  visages  appeared,  and  chaffed  each  other 
about  the  sweethearts  who  were  to  keep 
them  while  they  were  out  at  sea.— C.  Kings- 
Icy,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xv. 

Chainless,  free ;  unfettered. 

If  the  free  Switzer  yet  bestrides  alone 
His  chainless  mountains,  'tis  but  for  a  time. 

Byron,  Ode,  130. 

Chainlet,  little  chain. 

"If  you  condemn  a  bow  of  ribbon  for  a 
lady,  monsieur,  you  would  necessarily  dis- 
approve of  a  thing  like  this  for  a  gentle- 
man," holding  up  my  bright  little  chainlet  of 
sUk  and  gold.  —  Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch. 
xxviii. 

Chaired,  installed  or  enthroned.  The 
word  more  usually  applies  to  that 
ceremony  formerly  undergone  by  a 
newly-elected  M.P.,  of  being  carried 
in  procession  in  a  chair,  as  depicted  by 
Hogarth. 

Aldwyth.  And  when  doth  Harold  go ? 

Morcar.  To-morrow  —  first    to   Bosham, 

then  to  Flanders. 
Aldw.  Not  to  come  back  till  Tostig  shall 
have  shown 
And  redden'd  with  his  people's  blood  the 

teeth 
That  shall  be  broken  by  us, — yea,  and  thou 
Chair' d  in  his  place. — Tennyson,  Harold,  i.  2. 

Ch  alder,  a  chauldron. 

The  quantity  of  coals  which,  one  year  with 
another,  are  burnt  and  consumed  in  and 
about  this  City,  is  supposed  to  be  about 
600,000  Chalders,  every  Chalder  containing 
thirty-six  bushels,  and  generally  weighing 
8000  weight.— Defoe,  Tour  thro'  O.  Britain, 
ii.  144. 

Chalk,  to  run  up  a  score,  that  being 
marked  with  chalk. 

I  shall  be  better  than  my  word,  and  pro- 
secute you  more  constantly  than  a  city  vint- 
ner does  a  cof^try  parliament  man  that 
chalk1  d  it  plentifully  last  winter  session. — T. 
Brown,  Works,  i.  182. 

Chalk.  Old  maids  who  wished  to  be 
married  were  said  to  eat  chalk,  which, 
with  oatmeal,  lime,  Ac,  seems  to  have 
been  a  remedy  for  the  green-sickness. 


CHALKS 


( 


112 


) 


CHANCEL 


How  can  any  man  in  his  right  wits  believe 
that  ten  thousand  green-sickuess  maidens  . . 
would  rather  die  martyrs  to  oatmeal,  loam, 
and  chalk  than  accept  such  able  doctors  and 
such  pleasant  physick  for  their  recoveries  in 
that  only  elixir  vita,  man  and  matrimony  ? — 
Reply  to  Ladies'  and  Bachelor*  Petition,  1694 
{Harl.  Misc.,  iv.  438). 

As  for  your  part,  Madam,  you  might  have 
had  me  once ;  but  now,  Madam,  if  you  should 
by  chance  fall  to  eating  chalk  or  gnawing  the 
sheets,  'tis  none  of  my  fault. — Farquhar, 
Constant  Couple,  v.  3. 

Before  that  any  voung,  lying,  swearing, 
flattering,  rakehelly  fellow  should  play  such 
tricks  with  me,  I  would  wear  my  teeth  to 
the  stumps  with  lime  and  chalk. — Ibid.,  The 
Inconstant,  ii.  1. 

DiscoulerM,  pale,  as  bastard  pearl, 
Or  oyster,  or  chalk-eating  girl 
That  oatmeal  with  it  chew'd. 

B'Urfey,  Plague  of  Impertinence. 

Chalks.  By  long  chalks  =  by  many 
degrees. 

They  whipp'd  and  they  spurr'd,  and  they 

after  her  press'd, 
But  Sir  Alured'4  steed  was  by  long  chalks 

the  best. — Ingoldsfty  Leg.  (S.  Bomtoold). 

A3  regards  the  body  of  water  discharged 
.  . .  the  Iudus  ranks  foremost  by  a  long  chalk. 
— Be  Quincey,  System  of  the  Heavens. 

Chalks.  To  walk  one's  chalks  is  a 
slang  expression  to  signify  going  away. 
Corruption  of  calx  (?). 

In  a  few  minutes  Tom  came  in.  "  Here's 
a  good  riddance!  The  prisoner  has  fabri- 
cated his  pilgrim's  staff,  to  speak  scientific- 
ally, and  perambulated  his  calcareous  strata." 
"What?"  "Cut  his  stick,  and  walked  his 
chalks,  and  is  off  to  London." — C.Kingsley, 
Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  i. 

Chaloupe,  a  shallop ;  a  small  craft 
Bailey  here  uses  the  French  form  of 
the  word,  though  in  his  Diet  he  only 
gives  the  English  one. 

There  was  a  pretty  many  of  us  upon  the 
shore  of  Calais,  who  were  carried  thence  in  a 
chaloupe  to  a  large  ship. — Bailey's  Erasmus, 
p.  255. 

Chamber  is  used  adjectivally  for 
effeminate  or  wanton:  so  chambering 
(roiraif)  in  Rom.  xiii.  13. 

The  good  Kalander ;  .  .  loved  the  sport  of 
hunting ;  ...  in  the  comparison  thereof  he 
disdained  all  chamber-delight — Sidney,  Ar- 
cadia, p.  33. 

Will  you 
Forbear  to  reap  the  harvest  of  such  glories, 
Now  ripe  and  at  full  growth,  for  the  embraces 
Of  a  slight  woman, or  exchange  your  triumphs 
For  chamber-pleasures  ? 

Massinger,  Bashful  Lover,  v.  3. 


Thou  shalt  not  neede  to  fear  the  chamber* 

scapes, 
The  siunes  'gainst  Nature,  and  the  brutish 

rapes. — Bavies,  An  Extasie,  p.  92. 

Chamber,  home ;  dwelling-place. 

a  London  ....  the  seat  of  the  British  Em- 
pire, and  the  kings  of  Eugland's  chamber.— 
Holland's  Camden,  p.  421. 

Chambeb-stead,  a  place  for  a  cham- 
ber. Cf.  Girdle-stead,  Market-stead, 
Ac. 

But  if  love  be  so  dear  to  thee,  thou  hast  a 

chamber-stead, 
Which  Vulcan  purposely  eontrivM  with  all 

fit  secrecy ; 
There  sleep  at  pleasure. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xiv.  230. 

Chambrier,  a  chamberlain. 
And  thou  shalt  have  with  thee  the  Graces, 

•  ••«•••• 

For  they,  to  grace  thee  not  despising, 
Shall  daily  wait  upon  thy  rising, 
(And  never  Asian  cavaliers 
Could  boast  they  had  such  chamlfriers). 

Cottony  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  270. 

Champertou8.  Champerty,  a  legal 
term,  is  in  the  Diets.:  it  refers  to  parting 
or  dividing  the  land.  In  the  extract 
Bp.  Hull  refers  to  his  controversy  with 
five  dissenting  ministers,  who  wrote 
under  the  name  of  Smectymnuus.  He 
probably  calls  their  combination  chain- 
pertous  on  account  of  this  division  of 
labour. 

This  champertous  combination  hath  gone 
about  by  mere  shews  of  proof  to  feed  the 
unquiet  humours  of  men. — Bp.  Hall,  Works, 
x.  372. 

Champion,  the  tenant  of  open,  un- 
enclosed land,  who  by  custom  allows 
the  incoming  tenant  to  summer-fallow 
such  ground  as  is  meant  for  wheat. 
The  occupier  of  woodland  or  enclosures 
keeps  the  whole  until  the  end  of  his 
term. 

New  fermer  may  enter  (as  champions  say) 
On  all  that  is  fallow  at  Lent  ladle  day : 
In  woodland,  old  fermer  to  that  will  not 

yeeld, 
For  loosing  of  pasture,  and  feede  of    his 

feeld. — Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  34. 

Cbampionize,  to  play  the  champion. 

With  reed-like  lance,  and  with  a  blunted 

blade, 
To  championize  vnder  a  tented  shade. 

Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  359. 

Chancel,  applied  to  a  sacred  division 
in  a  heathen  temple. 


CHANCY 


(     "3     ) 


CHAPMANR  Y 


The  priest  went  into  the  prine  chauncell, 
and  (as  though  he  had  spoken  with  God) 
eame  forth  againe,  and  annswered  that 
Jupiter  did  by  assured  promisse  make  him  a 
graunt  of  his  boune  that  he  asked. — UdaTs 
Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  233. 

Fierce  Mars  flew  through  the  air, 

....    and  then  his  own  hands  wrought, 
Which  from  his  fane's  rich  chancel,  cnrM,  the 
true  JSneas  brought. 

Chapman,  Hiadt  v.  507. 

Chancy,  uncertain. 

By  a  roundabout  course  even  a  gentleman 
may  make  of  himself  a  chancy  personage, 
raising  an  uncertainty  as  to  what  he  may  do 
next.— <?.  Eliot,  Darnel  Deronda,  ch.  xxviii. 

Change.  To  put  the  change  upon  a 
person  =*  to  deceive  or  mislead. 

I  have  so  contriv'd  that  Mellefont  will 
presently  in  the  chaplain's  habit  wait  for 
Cynthia  in  your  dressing-room ;  but  I  have 
mtt  the  change  u»on  her,  that  she  may 
oe  otherwise  employed.  —  Congreve,  Double 
Dealer,  v.  17. 

Those  enchanters  who  persecute  me  are 
perpetually  setting  shapes  before  me  as  they 
really  are,  and  presently  putting  the  change 
upon  me,  and  transforming  them  into  what- 
ever they  please.— Jorvu's  Don  Quixote,  Pt. 
II  Bk.  II.  ch.  ix. 

Tou  cannot  out  the  change  on  me  so  easy 
as  you  think,  for  I  have  lived  among  the 
quick-stirring  spirits  of  the  age  too  long  to 
swallow  chaff  for  grain. — Scott,  Kerrilworth, 
eh.  iii. 

Change-Church,  one  who  holds  vari- 
ous ecclesiastical  preferments  in  suc- 
cession. 

Boso  .  .  .  was  a  great  Change-Church  in 
Borne.  —  Fuller,  Worthies,  Hertfordshire  (i. 
429). 

Change-house,  a  Scotch  public-house. 

When  the  Lowlanders  want  to  drink  a 
cheerupping  cup,  they  go  to  the  public- 
house  called  the  change-house,  and  call  for 
a  chopin  of  twopenny.— Smollett,  Humphrey 
Clinker,  ii.  09. 

Changes.  To  ring  changes  is  to 
direct  or  regulate  variations,  or  to  re- 
peat certain  formula)  in  various  order. 
L.  has  illustrations  of  the  literal  use  of 
this  phrase  in  regard  to  bells,  but  not 
of  its  metaphorical  meaning. 

She  considereth  how  Quickly  mutable  all 
things  are  in  this  world,  God  ringing  the 
changes  on  all  accidents,  and  making  them 
tunable  to  His  glory. — Fuller,  Holy  State, 
IV.  xiii.  12. 

If  it  had  been  necessary  to  exact  implicit 
and  profound  belief  by  mysterious  and 
borisonant  terms,  he  could  have  amazed  the 


listener,  .  .  .  and  have  astounded  him  by 
ringing  changes  upon  Almugea,  Cazimi,  &c. — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  lxxxvi. 

Channellize,  to  hold  as  in  a  channel. 

His  Yaines  and  Nerues  that  channellize  His 

Blood, 
By  violent  conuulsions  all  confracted. 

Davies,  Holy  Hoode,  p.  20. 

Chant,  to  deal  dishonestly  in  horses. 

Jack  Firebrace  and  Tom  Humbold  of 
Spotsylvania  was  here  this  morning  chant- 
ing  horses  with  'em. — Thackeray,  Virginians, 
ch.  x. 

Chap,  a  fellow:  an  abbreviation  of 
chapman:  merchant  was  used  in  the 
same  contemptuous  way.  Bonner 
speaks  of  Latimer  and  Hooper  as  mer- 
chants (see  MaitlanoVs  Essays  on  the 
Reformation,  p.  369,  note).  The  ear- 
liest authority  for  chap  in  the  Diets,  is 
Byrom. 

Those  crusty  chaps  I  cannot  love, 
The  Diuell  doo  them  shame. 
Breton,  Toyes  of  an  Idle  Head,  p.  55. 

Chapel  is  the  kitchen,  "Ganeo,  &c, 
a  glutton,  such  an  one  whose  cha\ypel 
is  the  kitchen,  and  hie  bellye  his  ged  " 
(Nomenclator,  p.  526). 

Chaperon,  to  take  charge  of  a  young 

unmarried  lady  at  balls  or  in  public 

places.     Fr.  chaperon,  hood. 

I  shall  be  very  happy  to  chaperon  you  at 
any  time,  till  I  am  confined,  if  Mrs.  Dash- 
wood  should  not  Kke  to  go  into  public— 
Miss  Austen,  Senst  and  Sensibility,  ch.  xx. 

My  godmother,  knowing  her  son,  and 
knowing  me,  would  as  soon  have  thought  of 
chaperoning  a  sister  with  a  brother  as  of  keep- 
ing anxious  guard  over  our  incomings  and 
outgoings. — Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xxi. 

Chapleted,  garlanded ;  filleted. 

His  forehead  chapleted  green  with  wreathy 
hop. — Browning,  Flight  of  the  Duchess. 

Chaplinary,  chaplaincy. 

There  also  passed  some  other  Acts  .... 
for  enabling  Lay-Patrons  to  dispose  of  their 
Prebendaries  and  Chanlinaries  unto  Stu- 
dents.— Heylin,  Hist,  of  the  Presbyterians,  p. 
297. 

Chapmanable,    marketable;  fit   for 

selling. 

In  the  craft  of  catching  or  taking  it,  and 
smudging  it  (marchant  and  chapmanable  as 
it  should  be),  it  sets  a  worke  thousands.— 
Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  159). 

Chapmanry,  traffic  or  custom. 

He  is  moderate  in  his  prices,  .  .  .  which 
gets  him  much  chapmanry.  —  Document 
dated  1691  (Archeol^  xu.  191). 

I 


CHAPTER 


(     ii4     ) 


CHART 


Chapter,  to  divide  into  chapters. 

Notwithstanding  this  general  tradition  of 
Laugton's  chaptering  the  Bible,  some  learned 
men  make  that  design  of  far  ancienter  date. 
—Fuller,  Worthies,  Canterbury  (i.  528). 

Chapter,  head.  L.  has  the  verb 
chapter  =  to  take  to  task,  bring  to 
chapter  and  verse.  Fr.  chapitrer.  In 
the  first  three  extracts  the  noun  seems 
to  have  something  of  this  meaning. 

He  forgetting  all  playes  fast  and  loose  with 
me  to  y8  sum  of  350  1.  ...  an  hard  chapter, 
you'll  say,  forme. — Bp.  Frampton,  1699  (IAfe 
of  Ken,  p.  766). 

This  was  yet  a  harder  chapter  (concio)  than 
the  former. — Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  144. 

Necessity  is  a  hard  chapter  (telum). — Ibid. 
p.  209. 

There  are  some  chapters  on  which  I  still 
fear  we  shall  not  agree. —  Walpole,  Letters, 
iii.  150  (1766). 

On  that  charming  young  woman's  chapter 
I  agree  with  you  perfectly.  —  Ibid.  iv.  508 
(1791). 

Character,  a  cipher:  in  the  extract 
from  Richardson  it  =  short-hand. 

I  interpreted  my  lord's  letter  by  his 
character. — Pepys,  Jan.  18, 1660. 

Sir  H.  Bennet's  love  is  come  to  the  height, 
and  his  confidence,  that  he  hath  given  my 
lord  a  character,  and  will  oblige  my  lord  to 
correspond  with  him. — Ibid.  Judy  15, 1664. 

She  found  no  other  letter  added  to  that 
parcel;  but  this,  and  that  which  I  copied 
myself  in  character  last  Sunday  whilst  she 
was  at  Church,  relating  to  the  smuggling 
scheme,  are  enough  for  me. — Richardson,  Cl. 
Harlowe,  iv.  296. 

Characteristic.  See  quotation.  But 
does  it  not  mean  the  mention  of  the 
reigning  sovereign  by  name?  When 
Lord  Weymouth  at  last  took  the  oaths 
to  Queen  Anne,  and  had  her  prayed  for 
by  name  in  his  chapel,  Ken  ceased  to 
attend  there. 

In  another  letter  addressed  to  Lloyd,  he 
[Ken]  says, "  I  never  use  any  characteristic 
in  the  prayers  myself,  nor  am  present  when 
any  is  read."  By  this  expression  he  meant 
that  he  never  attended  any  solemn  days  of 
thanksgiving  or  public  fasts  appointed  by 
the  Government. — Life  of  Ken  by  a  Layman, 
p.  653. 

Chare -folk,  people  hired  to  do 
domestic  work  by  the  day.  See  R., 
s.  v.  chare. 

Such  who,  instead  of  their  own  servants, 
use  chair-fotke  in  their  houses,  shall  find 
their  work  worse  done,  and  yet  pay  dearer 
for  it.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Kent  (i.  481). 


Chari  Christ.     See  extract. 

They  [the  Irish]  take  unto  them  Wolves 
to  be  their  godsibs,  whom  they  tearme  Chari 
Christ,  praying  for  them  and  wishing  them 
well,  and  so  they  are  not  afraid  to  be  hurt 
by  them. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  146. 

Charioteer,  to  drive  a  chariot. 

Therefore  to  me  be  given 
To  roam  the  starry  path  of  Heaven, 

To  charioteer  with  wings  on  high, 
And  to  rein-in  the  Tempests  of  the  sky. 

Southey,  Ode  to  Astronomy. 

Charivari,  rough  music ;  disturbance ; 
riot :  a  French  word,  but  almost  natural- 
ized among  us. 

We  .  .  .  played  a  charivari  with  the  ruler 
and  desk,  the  fender  and  fire-irons.  —  C. 
Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xvii. 

Charley,  a  fox. 

A  nice  little  gone  or  spinney  where 
abideth  poor  Charley,  having  no  other  cover 
to  which  to  betake  himself  for  miles  and 
miles,  when  pushed  out  some  fine  November 
morning  by  the  Old  Berkshire. — Hughes,  Tom 
Brown's  Schooldays,  ch.  i. 

"  And  all  after  a  poor  little  fox ! M  "  You 
don't  know  Charley,  I  can  see/1  said  Halbert. 
"  Poor  little  fox  indeed !  why  it's  as  fair  a 
match  between  the  best-tried  pack  of  hounds 
in  England  and  an  old  dog-fox  as  one  would 
wish  to  see."— if.  Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn, 
ch.  xxviii. 

Charley.  The  old  watchmen  were 
called  Charlies ;  some  say  because 
Chari es  I.  in  1640  extended  and  im- 
proved the  watch  system  in  the  metro- 
polis. 

No  bumpkin  makes  a  poke  the  less 
At  the  back  or  ribs  of  old  Eleanor  S. 

As  if  she  were  only  a  sack  of  barley ; 
Or  gives  her  credit  for  greater  might 
Than  the  Powers  of  Darkness  confer  at  night 

On   that  other  old  woman,  the  parish 
Charley. — Hood,  Tale  of  a  Trumpet. 

Bludyer,  a  brave  and  athletic  man,  would 
often  give  a  loose  to  his  spirits  of  an  even- 
ing, and  mill  a  Charley  or  two,  as  the  phrase 
then  was.  —  Thackeray,  Sketches  in  London 
(Friendship). 

Charmer,  some  sort  of  fashionable 
dance. 

We  march'd  up  a  body  of  the  finest, 
bravest,  well-dressed  fellows  in  the  Uni- 
verse; our  commanders  at  the  head  of  us, 
all  lace  and  feather,  and  like  so  many  beaux 
at  a  ball.  I  dcn't  believe  there  was  a  man 
of  'em  but  could  dance  a  charmer. — Farqithar, 
The  Inconstant,  i.  2. 

Chart,  to  map  out. 


CHART 


(  "5  ) 


CHEAT 


What  ails  us  who  are  sound 
That  we  should  mimic  this  raw  fool  the 

world, 
Which  charts  us  all  in  its  coarse  blacks  or 

whites.— Tennyson,  Walking  to  the  Mail, 

Chart,  the  mariner's  compass.  Card 
is  so  used  by  Shakespeare,  &c,  from 
the  card  on  which  the  various  points 
are  marked. 

The  discovery  of  the  chart  is  but  of  late 
standing,  tho'  of  great  importance. — Gentle- 
man Instructed,  p.  412. 

Chased.  A  man  was  said  to  be 
chased  when  the  bottle  was  pushed 
towards  him  that  he  might  help  him- 
self. 

Why,  when  I  fill  this  very  glass  of  wine, 
cannot  I  push  the  bottle  to  you,  and  say, 
u  Fairford,you  are  chased?"— Scott,  Redyaunt* 
let,  Letter  i. 

Chasted,  kept  chaste. 

Ah,  chasted  bed  of  mine,  said  she,  which 
never  heretofore  couldest  accuse  me  of  one 
defiled  thought,  how  canst  thou  now  receive 
this  disastred  changling? — Sidney,  Arcadia, 
Bk.  II.  p.  lot). 

Chastelinq,  one  who  is  chaste. 
Becon  says  (iii.  568)  that  in  St.  Matt, 
xix.  we  are  told  of  "three  kinds  of 
chagtelings" 

Chasule,  chasuble.  See  Chesil. 
Fuller  says  a  priest  was  formally  de- 
graded 

By  taking  from  him  the  patin,  chalice, 
and  plucking  the  chasule  from  his  back.— 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  IV.  ii.  6. 

Chat,  point ;  state  of  the  case  (slang). 

Has  the  gentleman  any  right  to  be  in  this 
room  at  all,  or  has  he  not?  Is  he  com- 
mercial, or  is  he — miscellaneous?  That's 
the  chat,  as  I  take  it.— Trollope,  Orley  Farm, 
ch.  vi. 

Chatmate,    companion;     one    who 

chats  with  another. 

The  toothlesse  trotte  her  nurse  .  .  was  her 
only  chatmate  and  chambermaide.  —  Nashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  {Karl.  Misc.,  vi.  167). 

Chattation,  chat ;  conversation. 

Miss  Baldwin  would  have  dinner  served 
according  to  order,  and  an  excellent  dinner 
it  was,  and  our  chattation  no  disagreeable 
s&uce—Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  vi.  219. 

Chattbbist,  chatterer.  The  extract 
occurs  in  a  letter  supposed  to  be  written 
by  Hugh  Peters,  from  the  other  world, 
to  Daniel  Burgess — both  being  dissent- 
ing preachers  of  note  and  fluency. 


Ton  are  the  only  modern  chatterist  that  t 
hear  has  succeeded  me. — T.  Brown,  Works, 
ii.  204. 

Chattery,  light  conversation. 

She  then  would  not  sit  herself,  but  came 
and  stood  by  me  at  the  window,  and  entered 
into  an  easy  and  cheerful  chattery,  till  the 
return  of  the  Queen. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary, 
m.  273. 

All  Windsor,  and  almost  all  Berkshire, 
assembled  on  this  occasion ;  of  course  there 
was  no  lack  of  chattery  and  chatterers. — 
Jbid.  v.  17. 

Her  continued  and  unmeaning  chattery 
made  the  abort  term  of  her  stay  appear  long. 
— Jbid.,  Camilla,  Bk.  VIII.  ch.  ii. 

Chaucertsms,  expressions  such  as 
were  used  by  Chaucer. 

The  many  Chaucertsms  used  (for  I  will  not 
say  affected  by  him  [Spenser])  are  thought 
by  the  ignorant  to  be  blemishes. — Fuller, 
Worthies,  London  (U.  80). 

Chaud,  heat:  a  French  word  em- 
ployed as  English,  one  would  think, 
unnecessarily. 

The  over-hot  breathings  of  Ministers,  like 
the  chaud  of  Charcoale,  stifle  and  suffocate 
the  vital  spirits  of  true  Religion. — Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  574. 

Chaumberdakyns.     See  quotation. 

At  the  Commons'  petition  to  the  King  in 
Parliament  that  all  Irish  begging-priests 
called  Chaumberdakyns  should  avoid  the 
Bealm  before  Michaelmas  next,  they  were 
ordered  to  depart. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  IV.  ii. 
29. 

Chavel,  to  chew. 

Dissrm'd  of  teeth,  this  cha veils  with  his 
gnms. — Stapylton's  Juvenal,  x.  231. 

Chawbacon,  peasant,  or  country  la- 
bourer.   Cf.  Bacon-sliceb. 

The  chawbacons,  hundreds  of  whom  were 
the  Earl's  tenants,  raised  a  shout  that  well- 
nigh  brought  down  the  roof  of  the  Court- 
house.— Savage,  R.  Medlicott,  Bk.  II.  ch.  x. 

Cheap  Jack,  an  itinerant  vendor  of 
hardware,  Ac,  who  puts  up  his  articles 
at  a  certain  price,  and  gradually  cheap- 
ens them  until  he  gets  a  purchaser. 
He  also  recommends  his  wares  with  a 
good  deal  of  patter  or  oratory. 

You  don't  mean  to  say  that  you  would 
like  him  to  turn  public  man  iu  that  way, 
making  a  sort  of  political  Cheap  Jack  of  him- 
self. — G.  Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch.  vi. 

Cheat,  the  gallows  (thieves'  cant). 
Cf.  Nobbing-cheat. 

See  what  your  laziness  is  come  to ;  to  the 
cheat,  for  thither  will  you  go  now,  that's 

I  2 


CHE  A  TEE 


(  116) 


CHERR  Y 


infallible.— Fielding,  Jonathan  Wild,  Bk.  IV. 
ch.  ii. 

Cheatee,  a  dupe. 

In  this  city 
(As  in  a  fought  field,  crows  and  carkasses) 
No  dwellers  are  but  cheaters  and  eheateez. 

Albumazar,  I.  i. 

Checkle,  to  chuckle. 

Some  things  are  of  that  nature  as  to  make 
One's  fande  checkle  while  his  heart  doth  ake. 
Bunyan,  Pilgrim*  s  Progress,  Pt.  ii.,  Introd. 

Check-string,  a  string  held  by  the 
coachman,  the  end  of  which  passes  into 
the  carriage,  and  so  enables  any  one  in- 
side to  signal  the  driver  to  stop. 

The  young  man  was  in  the  high  road  to 
destruction,  and  driving  at  such  a  rate  that 
he  must  soon  have  overset  the  whole  under- 
taking— it  was  time  to  pull  the  check-string. 
— Colman,  Man  of  Business,  Act  III. 

Cheek,  impudence.  So  we  speak  of 
having  the  face  to  do  a  thing.  In  the 
old  play  or  Morality  called  ffycke* 
Scorner  (Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr.>  i.  101), 
Freewill  says  to  Perseverance,  who  has 
rebuked  him,  "  I  take  hyt  in  full  grete 
scorne  that  thou  shouldest  thus  cheke 
me ; "  perhaps,  however,  cheke  in  this 
place  =  check.    Cf.  Brow. 

"You  don't  happen  to  know  why  they 
killed  the  pig, do  you?"  retorts  Mr.  Bucket, 
with  a  steadfast  look,  but  without  loss  of 
temper.  "  No ! "  "  Why,  they  killed  him,M 
says  Mr.  Bucket,  u  on  account  of  his  having 
so  much  cheek :  don't  you  get  into  the  same 
position." — Dickens,  Bleak  House,  ch.  liv. 

She  told  him,  with  a  raised  voice  and  flash- 
ing eyes,  she  wondered  at  his  cheek,  sitting 
down  by  that  hearth  of  all  hearths  in  the 
world. — Reads,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  xlviii. 

Chebk  ball,  "  Gena,  Mala,  the  cheeke 
balle  "  (Nomenclator,  p.  28). 

Large  balls  of  cheeks,  taper  to  chin, 
From  ear  to  ear  she's  mouth'd. 

Ward,  England's  Reformation, 
cant.  i.  p.  13. 

Cheeky,  impudent. 

«  You  will  find,  Sir,"  said  Lee, "  that  these 
men  in  this  here  hut  are  a  rougher  lot  than 
you  think  for ;  very  like  they'll  be  cheeky.7* 
— H.  Kingsley,  Geojfry  Hamlyn,  ch.  xxvi. 

"I  will  say  this  for  you,"  remarked  In- 
gram slowly,  "that  you  are  the  cheekiest 
young  beggar  I  have  the  pleasure  to  know." 
—Black,  Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  xvii. 

Cheese.  See  first  extract,  and  so  any 
low  curtsey. 

What  more  reasonable  thing  could  she  do 
than  amuse  herself  with  making  cheeses  ?  that 
i»,  whirling  round  . . .  until  the  petticoat  is 


inflated  like  a  balloon,  and  then  sinking  into  a 
curtsey. — De  Quincey,  Autob.  Sketches,  ch.  vi. 
It  was  such  a  deep  ceremonial  curtsey  as 
you  never  see  at  present :  she  and  her  sister 
both  made  these  "  cheeses  "  in  compliment  to 
the  new-comer,  and  with  much  stately  agility. 
— Thackeray,  Virginians,  ch.  xxii. 

Cheese.  The  cheese  =  the  right  or 
best  thing.  Cf.  Caseine.  Some  have 
thought  it  a  corruption  of  la  chose  =  the 
thing.  There  is,  however,  an  old  pro- 
verb. "  After  cheese  comes  nothing  "  — 
cheese  being  the  crown  and  completion 
of  dinner. 

"  You  look  like  a  prince  in  it,  Mr.  Lint," 
pretty  Rachel  said,  coaxing  him  with  her 
beady  black  eyes.  "  It  is  the  cheese,"  replied 
Mr.  Lint. — Thackeray,  Codling $by. 

Cheese-toaster,  a  jocular  name  for 
a  sword.     See  quotation  from  Smollett, 

«.  V.  FLU8TBATI0N.      Cf.  TOASTING-IRON. 

I'll  drive  my  cheese-toaster  through  his  body. 
— Thackeray,  The  Virginians,  eh.  x.  ' 

Chequer,  to  pay  in,  as  into  the  ex- 
chequer ;  to  treasure  up. 

There  stayed  Wisdom's  matcht  to  nimble 

Wit, 
And  Nature  chequers  up  all  gifts  of  grace. 

Davies,  Wittes  Pilgrimage,  p.  32. 

There  were  some  dawninps  of  this  in  the 
question  which  was  not  earned  for  chequering 
tne  disbanding  money  into  the  Chamber  of 
London. — North,  Examcn,  p.  506. 

Chequin,  a  sequin.  The  Turkish 
sequin  is  worth  from  six  to  seven  shil- 
lings; it  appears,  however,  from  the 
second  quotation  that  coining  among 
the  Turks  is  of  late  introduction. 

I  am  sorry  to  hear  of  the  trick  that  Sir 
John  Ayres  pat  upon  the  Company  by  the 
box  of  hail-shot, .  .  .  which  he  made  the  world 
believe  to  be  full  of  chequins  and  Turkey 
gold. — Howell,  Letters,  I.  iv.  28. 

In  Turkey  . .  the  government  coins  only 
pence  and  halfpence,  which  they  call  par- 
raws,  for  the  use  of  the  poor  in  their 
markets;  and  yet  vast  sums  are  paid  and 
received   in  trade,  and   dispensed   by  the 

government;  but  all  in  foreign  money.,  as 
ollars,  chequeens,  pieces  of  eight,  and  the 
like.— North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  14. 

Chermez,  Coccus  ilicis,&n  insect  from 
which  a  scarlet  dye  is  procured. 

There  lives  the  Sea-Oak  in  a  little  shell, 
There  grows  untill'd  the  ruddy  Cochinel ; 
And  there  the  Chermez,  which  on  each  side 

arms 
With  pointed  prickles  all  his  precious  arms. 

Sylvester,  Eden,  600. 

Cherry,  to  redden. 

Close  in  her  closet,  with  her  best  complexions, 


CHERRYLET 


(  117  )  CHIFFONIERE 


She  mends  her  face's  wrinkle-full  defections ; 
Her  cheek  she  cherries,  and  her  ey  she  cheers, 
And  fains  her  (fond)  a  wench  of  fifteen  yeers. 

Sylvester,  The  Decay,  122. 

Chrrbylbt,  little  cherry. 

What  fresh  Buds  of  scarlet  Rose 
Are  more  fragrant  sweet  then  those, 
Then  those  Twins  thy  Strawberry  teats, 
Curled-purled  Cherryleis  ? 

Sylvester,  Ode  to  Astreta. 

Then  Nature  for  a  sweet  allurement  setts 
Two  smelling,  swelling,  bashful  cherelettes.1 

Herrick,  Appendix,  p.  434. 

Cherubimic,  pertaining  to  cherubs: 
the  adjective  cherubic  formed  from  the 
singular  is  the  usual  form. 

80  saying,  Mr.  Robinson  he  quitted 
With  cherubimic  smiles  and  placid  brows. 
WoUot,  Peter  Pindar,  p.  6. 

Chebdbins.  To  be  in  the  cherubim 
=  to  be  in  the  clouds  ;  unsubstantial. 

Diogenes  mocking  soch  quidificall  trifles, 
that  were  al  tit  the  cherubim,  said,  Sir  Plato, 
your  table  and  your  cuppe  I  see  very  well, 
but  as  for  your  tabletee  and  your  cupitee  I 
see  none  soche. — Udal's  Erasmus's  Apophth., 
p.  139. 

Cheshire  cat.  I  have  not  met  with 
any  satisfactory  explanatidh  of  the 
phrase. 

Lo !  tike  a  Cheshire  cat  our  court  will  grin. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  91. 

Mr.  Newcome  says  to  Mr.  Pendennis  in 
his  droll,  humorous  way, "  That  woman  grins 
like  a  Cheshire  cat."  Who  was  the  naturalist 
who  first  discovered  that  peculiarity  of  the 
cats  in  Cheshire  ? — Thackeray,  A'ewcomes,  ch. 
xxiv. 

Chesil,  chasuble  or  chesible.     See 

Chasule. 

How  is  it  meet  or  comely  that  those  shave- 
lings with  their  stoles  and  chesils  should 
have  mere  souldiers  or  richer  armour  and 
artillery  than  we?— Fuller,  Holy  State,  Bk. 
I.  ch.  xiii. 

Chest- worm,  angina  pectoris  (?). 

How  then  wilt  thou  bear  universal  tortures 
. . .  such  as  of  which  the  pangs  of  childbirth, 
burnings  of  material  fire  and  brimstone, 
gnawings  of  chest-worms,  drinks  of  gall  and 
wormwood,  are  but  shadows? — Ward,  Ser- 
mons, p.  60. 

The  approof  s  and  reproofs  of  it  [conscience J 
are  so  powerful  and  terrible,  the  one  cheering 
more  than  any  cordial,  the  other  gnawing 
more  than  any  chest-worm,  tormenting  worse 
than  hot  pincers. — Ibid.  p.  98. 

Cheval-glass,  a  large  swing-glass  in 

a  frame. 

In  the  places  of  business  of  the  great 
tailors,  the  cheval-glasses  are  dim  and  dusty 


for  lack  of  being  looked  into.— Dickens,  Un- 
commercial Traveller,  xvi. 

Chicaneur,  a  dishonest  or  shifty 
man.  An  attempt  has  been  made  to 
introduce  this  word  in  an  English  form, 
and  chicaner  is  used  by  Locke  and 
Burke,  but  it  cannot  be  said  to  be 
naturalized. 

His  lordship  was  sensible  of  the  prodigious 
injustice  and  iniquitable  torment  inflicted 
upon  suitors  by  vexatious  and  false  adver- 
saries, assisted  by  the  knavish  confederating 
officers,  and  other  chicaneurs  that  belong  to 
the  court. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii. 
73. 

Chicken.  To  be  no  chicken  =  to  be 
old. 

Then,  Cloe,  still  go  on  to  prate 
Of  thirty-six  and  thirty-eight ; 
Pursue  your  trade  of  scandal  packing, 
Tour  hints  that  Stella  is  no  chicken. 

Swift,  Stella's  Birthday,  1720. 

I  swear  she's  no  chicken;  she's  on  the 
wrong  side  of  thirty  if  she  be  a  day. — Ibid., 
Polite  Conversation  (Oonv.  i.). 

Chicken-pecked,  under  the  rule  of  a 
child,  as  hen-pecked  =  under  the  rule 
of  a  woman. 

What  am  I  the  better  for  burying  a  jealous 
wife  ?  To  be  chicken-peck' d  is  a  new  perse- 
cution more  provoking  than  the  old  one. — 
Burgoyne,  The  Heiress,  Act  III.  so.  i. 

Chicken  stake,  a  small  stake. 

These  dignified  personages  seem  to  have 
played  for  what  would  not  at  present  be 
called  a  chicken  stake.  —  Archaol.,  viii.  133 
(1787). 

Chiefkry,  body  of  chiefs. 

Much  about  this  time,  he,  together  with 
the  chief  try  or  greatest  men  of  Ulster,  by 
secret  parties  combined  in  an  association 
that  they  would  defend  the  Bomish  religion. 
— Holland's  Camden,  ii.  123. 

Chieflet,  a  petty  chief. 

The  Chief  or  chief  et  .  .  came  out  and  inter- 
changed a  few  words  of  masonic  laconism 
with  Salem. —  W,  G.  Palgrave,  Arabia,  i.  22 
(1805). 

Chi  E  FN  ess,  superiority. 

Some  have  said  that  the  first  in  the  seni- 
oritie  of  admition  was  accounted  the  princi- 
pall ;  but .  .  .  their  chiefnesse  was  penes  Regis 
arbitrium. — Fuller,  Worthies,  ch.  vi. 

Chiffoniere,  a  cupboard  (etymolo- 
gically  where  rags  may  be  stowed  away, 
but  usually  applied  to  an  .ornamental 
cupboard  in  a  arawing-room).  A  French 
word,  but  naturalized. 

Adele  was  leading  me  by  the  hand  round 


CHILD 


(  "8) 


CHIPEENER 


the  room,  showing  me  the  beautiful  books 
and  ornaments  on  the  consoles  and  chiffon- 
teres. — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xiii. 

The  box  was  found  at  last  under  a  chiffon- 
ier.— G.  Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch.  lxxz. 

Child.  To  be  with  child  is  used  for 
being  eager  or  longing  for  anything. 

I  sent  my  boy,  who,  like  myself,  is  with 
child  to  see  any  strange  thing. — Pepys,  May 
14,  1660. 

I  went  to  my  lord  and  saw  bis  picture, 
very  well  done,  and  am  with  child  till  I  get  it 
copied  out. — Ibid.  Oct.  9, 1660. 

I  am  with  child  to  hear  what  it  was  be  said 
('*  Aveo  scire  quid  dixerit "). — Bailey's  Eras' 
mus,  p.  355. 

Childkind,  children  spoken  of  col- 
lectively. 

During  the  Carnival  all  mankind,  woman- 
kind, and  childkind  think  it  not  unbecoming 
to  play  the  fool. — Carlyle,  Life  of  Sterling, 
Pt.  II.  ch.  vii. 

Childly,  in  a  child-like  manner.  B., 
L.,  and  H.  give  the  word  as  an  adjective, 
with  reference  to  Gower,  Lydgate,  and 
Hoccleve  respectively.  Latimer  used 
it  later  on  (i.  537)  :  "  a  childly  love." 
In  the  extract  it  is  an  adverb. 

Then  she  smiled  around  right  childly,  then 
she  gazed  around  rig[ht  queenly.  —  Mrs. 
Browning,  Lady  Geraldine*s  Courtship. 

CHiLDSHir,  relationship  as  a  child. 

Concluding  Christ  as  the  first  effect  of 
God's  ordination,  a  mediator,  in  some  sort  of 
God's  actual  choice,  and  our  potential  child- 
ship. — Adams,  iii.  101. 

Child's  part,  portion  of  inheritance 
pertaining  to  a  child. 

[A  hospital]  which  one  of  the  said  sisters 
built  and  enriched  with  her  own  patrimony 
and  child's  part. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  574. 

Chill-cold,  icy  cold. 

A  chill-cold  Bloud  (still  flowing  from  Dismay) 
Fleets  through  my  veines. 

Davies,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  49. 

Chim-cham,  crooked  ;   awkward.    In 

all  the  examples  in  the  Diets,  the  word 

is  him-kam  ;  but  see  L.,  s.  v.  cam. 

The  reason  of  all  this  chim-cham  stuff  is 
the  ridiculous  undertaking  of  the  author  to 
prove  Oates's  plot  (before  he  comes  at  it)  out 
of  Coleman's  papers,  that  are  nothing  to  the 
purpose. — North,  Examen,  p.  151. 

Chin,  to  put  chin  to  chin,  and  so  to 
embrace. 

She  shewed  me  a  troupe  of  faire  ladies, 
every  one  her  lover  colling  and  kissing,  chin- 
ning and  embracing,  and  looking  babies  in 
one  another's  eyes.  —  Breton,  Dreame  of 
Strange  Effects,  p.  17. 


Chincloth,  a  muffler  or  band  round 

the  chin.     The  Diets,  have  chinclout. 

Upon  the  head  they  put  a  cap,  which  they 
fasten  with  a  very  broad  chincloth. — Misson, 
Travels  in  Eng.,  p.  90. 

Chin-cushion,  a  name  given  to  cra- 
vats which  were  puffed  out  under  the 
chin.    See  extract,  8.  v.  Bid  and  Beads. 

Chink,  to  chuckle. 

He  chinked  and  crowed  with  laughing 
delight.— Mrs.  Gaskell,  Ruth,  ch.  18. 

Chink,  the  sound  of  the  grasshopper. 

Because  half  a  dozen  grasshoppers  under  a 
fern  make  the  field  ring  with  their  importu- 
nate chink j  whilst  thousands  of  great  cattle 
reposed  beneath  the  shadow  of  the  British 
oak,  chew  the  cud,  and  are  silent,  pray  do 
.not  imagine  that  those  who  make  the  noise 
are  the  only  inhabitants  of  the  field. — Burke, 
Fr.  Revolution,  p.  68. 

Chink,  fit  or  burst  (of  laughter). 

Mv  lord  and  lady  took  such  a  chink  of 
laughing  that  it  was  some  time  before  they 
could  recover. — H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality, 
i.  35. 

His  kind  face  was  all  agape  with  broad 
smiles,  and  the  boys  around  him  were  in 
chinks  of  laughing. — Mrs.  Gaskell,  Crawford, 
ch.  ix.         * 

Chinkers,  money ;  coins. 

Are  men  like  us  to  be  entrapp'd  and  sold 
And  see  no  money  down,  Sir  Hurly-Burly  ? 
We're  vile  crossbow-men,  and  a  knight  are 

you, 
But  steel  is  steel,  and  flesh  is  still  but  flesh, 
So  let  us  see  your  chinkers. 

Taylor,  Ph.  van  Artevelde,  Pt.  II.  iii.  1. 

Chip,  tasteless.     See  next  entry. 

His  appetite  was  gone,  and  cookeries  were 
provided  in  order  to  tempt  his  palate,  but  all 
was  chip.— North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  \\. 
205. 

Chip  in  porridge.  See  second  ex- 
tract ;  also  preceding  word. 

If  Porridge  were  my  only  cheer, 
Thy  Praise  or  Blame  must  both  appear 
Two  tasteless  chips  thrown  in't. 

Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  5. 

The  Burials  Bill  .  .  will  be  passed— if 
passed  at  all — because  it  is  thought  by  the 
majority  to  resemble  the  proverbial  chip  in 
porridge,  which  does  neither  good  nor  harm. 
—Church  Times,  June  25, 1880. 

Chipeener,  a  high-heeled  shoe.  See 
N.,  8.  ^  chioppinc,  who  gives  several 
forms  of  the  word,  but  not  this. 

I  do  not  love  to  endanger  my  back  with 
stooping  so  low ;  if  you  would  wear  chipeen- 
ers,  much  might  be  done.  —  Revenge;  or,  A 
Match  in  Newgate,  Act  III. 


CHIQUANCERY        (  119  ) 


CHOOSE 


Chiquakcsry,  chicanery. 

I  chall  not  advise  this  honourable  house  to 
use  any  chiquancery  or  pettifoggery. — Hacket, 
Life  of  William8,u.  151. 

Chjrographosophic,  a  judge  of  hand- 
writing. 

-  Bat  what  sort  of  handwriting  was  it  ?  " 
asked  I,  almost  disregarding  the  welcome 
coin.  **  Ou  then — aiblins  a  man's,  aiblins  a 
maid's:  he  was  no  chirographosophic  himsel'." 
— C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xxiv. 

Chiromachy,  a  hand-to-hand  fight. 

Things  came  to  dreadful  Chiromachies,  such 
scamiDgs  and  fightings  with  hands  and  arms 
of  flesh.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  544. 

Chiselmanship,  carving  or  sculpture 
of  an  un artistic  sort.  Mr.  Peacock 
tells  me  that  he  got  the  word  out  of 
one  or  other  of  Mr.  Buskin's  books. 

No  climbing  plant  was  permitted  to  defile 
this  elaborate  piece  of  chiselmanship. — Pea- 
cock, Rolf  Skirland,  i.  86  (1870). 

Co  it,  to  chirp.    N.  has  chiller. 

He  soars  like  an  eagle,  not  respecting  the 
chitting  of  sparrows. —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  108. 

Chitterling,  a  little  chit,  or  child. 

For  Theseus,  like  a  boisterous  Suiter, 
To  spirit  her  away  made  bold, 
When  she  was  but  poor  ten  years  old, 
A  little  snotty  chitterling, 
But  now  she's  quite  another  thing. 

Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  268. 

Chittes.     See  extract. 

Lenticula  is  a  poultz  called  chittes,  whiche 
(because  wee  here  in  England  haue  not  in 
vse  to  eate)  I  translate  peason.  —  UdaVs 
Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  101. 

Chivalresque,  pertaining  to  chivalry. 
Godwin  uses  it  as  a  French  word,  ital- 
icizing it. 

His  misanthropy,  therefore,  had  a  strange 
mixture  in  it  of  the  gallant  and  the  chevale- 
resque. — Godwin,  Mandeville,  ii.  71. 

His  account  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
might  almost  have  seemed  an  exaggerated 
panegyric,  if  it  had  painted  some  warrior  m 
a  chivalresque  romance.  —  Mad.  D'Arblay, 
Diary,  vii.  169. 

Chivy,  to  chase  (slang). 

IVe  been  a  chivied  and  a  chivied,  fust  by 
one  on  you  and  nixt  by  another  on  you,  till 
Tm  worritted  to  skins  and  bones. — Dickens, 
Bleak  House,  ch.  xlvi. 

Chock,  quite.    Chock  full  is  common 

=  quite  full,  or  choke  full. 

I  drew  a  shaft 
Chock  to  the  steel. 

Taylor,  Ph.  van  AH.,  Pt.  II.  iii.  1. 


Choice-full,  offering  plenty  of 
choice. 

For  costly   toys,  silk   stockings,  cambrick, 

lawn, 
Heer's  choice-full  plenty. 

Sylvester,  The  Colonies,  p.  681. 

Choired,  assembled  in  choir. 

Then,  his  eye  wild  ardours  glancing, 
From  the  choired  gods  advancing, 
The  Spirit  of  the  Earth  made  reverence  meet. 
Coleridge,  To  the  Departing  Year. 

Choised,  selected ;  chosen. 

Choised  seede  to  be  picked  and  trimly  well 

fide, 
For  seede  may  no  longer  from  threshing 

abide. — Tusser,  Husbandries  p.  133. 

Choke-bail,  a  choke-bail  action  = 
one  in  which  bail  was  not  admissible  ? 

Bailiff.  We  arrest  you  in  the  King's  name, 
at  the  suit  of  Mr.  Freeman,  guardian  to  Jere- 
miah Blackaere,  Esquire,  in  an  action  of  ten 
thousand  pounds. 

Widow.  How  ?  how  ?  in  a  chokebail  action. 
—  WycherUy,  Plain  Dealer,  v.  3. 

Chokey,  causing  to  choke ;  also  in- 
clined to  choke,  as  one  who  is  ready  to 
cry. 

It  is  the  Heart  but  not  the  core  of  Eng- 
land, having  nothing  course  or  choaky  therein. 
—Fuller,  Worthies,  Warwick  (ii.  402). 

The  allusion  to  his  mother  made  Tom  feel 
rather  chokey. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown's  School 
Days,  Pt.  I.  ch.  iv. 

Choose,  as  you  like ;  an  expression 
of  indifference. 

Boy.  They  will  trust  you  for  no  more 
drink. 

Mer.  Will  they  not?  let  'em  choose. — 
Beaum.  and  Fl.,  Knight  of  B.  Pestle,  iv.  5. 

Nev.  Miss,  Pray  be  so  kind  to  call  a  serv- 
ant to  bring  me  a  glass  of  small  beer :  I  know 
you  are  at  home  here. 

Miss.  Every  fool  can  do  as  they're  bid: 
make  a  page  of  your  own  age,  and  do  it 
yourself. 

Nev.  Chuse,  proud  fool ;  I  did  but  ask  you. 
—Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  i.). 

Nev.  Miss,  shall  I  help  you  to  a  pigeon?  . . . 

Miss,  No,  Sir,  I  thank  you. 

Nov..  Why  then  you  may  chuse. 

Ibid.  (Conv.  ii.). 

Choose.     To  choose  =  by  choice. 

The  sluggard  saith,  There  is  a  lion  in  the 
way,  and  then  he  steppeth  backward,  and 
keepeth  aloof  off.  But  the  worthy  magis- 
trate would  meet  with  such  a  lion,  to  choose, 
that  he  might  win  awe  to  God's  ordinance, 
and  make  the  way  passable  for  others,  by 
tearing  such  a  beast  in  pieces. — Sanderson, 
ii.  260. 


CHOP 


(  1 20  )  CHREMATISTIC 


The  Scots,  to  cAks*,  prefer  a  monarchy  be- 
fore any  other  government,  so  they  may 
govern  their  monarch.  —  Socket,  life  of 
Williams,  ii.  222. 

Widow.  Wilt  thou  choose  him  for  guardian, 
whom  I  refuse  for  husband  ? 

Jerry.  Ay,  to  choose,  I  thank  you. —  Wych~ 
erley,  Plain  Dealer,  iv.  1. 

Ben.  One  of  two  things  I  must  choose — 
either  to  be  a  lord  or  a  beggar. 

Mrs.  J/.  Be  a  lord  to  choose — though  I 
have  known  some  that  have  chosen  both. — 
Farquhar,  Twin  Rivals,  ii.  3. 

"Oh  then,"  said  Miss  Darnford, ** pray  let 
us  hear  it,  to  choose." — Richardson,  Pamela, 
a.  136. 

Chop,  an  exchange. 

The  Duke  had  made  it  his  humble  request, 
and  drew  on  the  King  hardly  to  make  a 
chop  with  those  demeasnes. — Maeket,  Life  of 
Wtlliams,  i.  187. 

Chop.  First  chop  =  first-rate.  A 
slang  expression,  which  seems  to  come 
from  the  Anglo-Chinese,  in  which  lan- 
guage chop  is  a  word  of  very  varied 
meaning. 

u  As  for  poetry,  I  hate  poetry."  u  Pen's 
is  not  first  chop,9*  says  Warrington. — Thack- 
eray* The  Xewcomes,  ch.  iv. 

You  like  to  be  master,  there's  no  denying 
that ;  you  must  be  first  chop  in  heaven,  else 
you  won't  like  it  much. — G.  Eliot,  Middle- 
march,  ch.  xiii. 

Chop.  At  the  first  chop  =  imme- 
diately, or,  as  we  say,  at  a  blow. 

Let  them  look  ou  God's  word,  and  compare 
their  judgment  with  the  Scripture,  and  see 
whether  it  be  right  or  no,  and  not  believe 
them  at  the  first  chop,  whatever  they  say. — 
Tyndale,  i.  241. 

While  Philippus  in  the  daye  time  toke  his 
reste  and  slepe,  a  sorte  of  the  Grekes  (whiche 
had  in  a  great  nombre  assembled  about  bis 
doore)  toke  peper  in  the  nose,  and  spake 
many  wordes  of  reproch  by  the  King,  for 
that  by  reason  of  his  slugging  they  might 
not  at  the  first  chop  be  brought  to  his  speche. 
—UdaVs  Erasmu/s  Apophthi,  p.  199. 

Choplogb,  chopper  of  logic,  and  so, 
sharp  answerer. 

Mery.  Well,  dame  distance,  if  he  beare 
you  thus  play  choploge  ; 
Oust.  What  will  he? 

Mery.        Play  the  deuill  in  the  horologe. 
Vdal,  Roister-Doisler,  iii.  2. 

He  . .  with  lacke  of  vitailles  brought  those 
choployes  or  greate  pratlers  as  lowe  as  dogge 
to  the  bow. — Ibid.,  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p. 
250. 

Chop-logic,  argument. 

Cloth-Breeches,  as  breefe  as  he  was  proud, 
swore  by  the  pike  of  his  staff e  that  his  chop- 


logicke  was  not  worth  a  pinne,  and  that  he 
would  turne  his  own  weapon  into  his  bosome. 
— Greene,  Quip  far  am  Upstart  Courtier  (Harl. 
Jfwr,  v.  399). 

Your  chop4oaike  hath  no  great  subtilty, 
for  simply  you  reason  of  foysting,  and  ap- 
propriate that  to  yourselves  (to  you  men  I 
mean)  as  though  there  were  not  women- 
foysts  and  nips  as  neate  in  that  trade  as 
you.  —  Ibid^  Theeves  Falling  Out  (Jbid.  viii. 
885). 

Chopological,  a  contemptuous  and 
ludicrous  substitute  for  tropologiccU* 
Cf.  Craziologist,  Futilttabian. 

80,  say  they,  the  literal  sense  killeth,  and 
the  spiritual  sense  giveth  life.  We  must 
therefore,  say  they,  seek  out  some  chopologi- 
cal  sense. — Tyndale,  i.  308. 

Choppimob,  same  as  chipeener,  q.  v.  ? 

Which  judges,  upon  every  encounter,  gave 
reward  to  the  best  deserver,  as  scarfs,  gloves, 
choppimors,  ribbons,  and  such  like. — Journey 
of  E.  of  Nottingham,  1605  (Harl.  Misc.,  iii. 

Choric,  like  or  belonging  to  a  chorus 
(in  a  Greek  tragedy). 

He  painted  to  himself  what  were  Dorothea's 
inward  sorrows,  as  if  he  had  been  writing  a 
choric  wail.  —  G.  Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch. 
xxxvii. 

Chorus,  to  speak  together;  to  join 
in  chorus. 

Let  evVy  song  be  chorust  with  his  name  ; 
And  music  pay  her  tribute  to  his  fame. 

Defoe,  True-Born  Englishman,  Pt.  II. 

Then  they  all  chorused  upon  me — **  Such  a 
character  as  Miss  Harlowe's,"  cried  one — **  A 
lady  of  so  much  generosity  and  good  sense," 
another. — Richardson,  Ct.  Harlowe,  vi.  228. 

Choose,  to  cheat  De  Quincey  pro- 
poses a  curious  etymology  for  this 
-word.  See  extract  8.  v.  Jowser,  The 
correct  derivation  is  given  in  the  Diets. 

Chowder.  The  Imp.  Diet,  says: 
"  In  New  England,  a  dish  of  fish  boiled 
with  biscuit,  &c.  In  Spanish,  chode  is 
a  paste  made  with  milk,  eggs,  sugar, 
and  flour.  In  the  West  of  England 
chowder-beer  is  a  liquor  made  by  boil- 
ing black  spruce  in  water,  and  mixing 
with  it  molasses."  It  is  probably  the 
last  that  is  referred  to  in  the  extract. 

My  head  sings  and  simmers  like  a  pot  of 
chowder. — Smollett,  L.  Greaves,  ch.  ivii. 

Chrematistic.  ".The  art  of  getting 
wealth  is  so  called  by  Aristotle  in  his 
Politics"  (note  by  Fielding  in  loc.). 
See  L.  s.  v.  chrematistics* 


CHRESTOMATHIC      (  121  ) 


CHUCKLE 


I  am  not  the  least  versed  in  the  chre- 
matistic  art,  as  an  old  friend  of  mine  called 
it  I  know  not  how  to  get  a  shilling,  nor 
bow  to  keep  it  in  my  pocket  if  I  had  it. — 
Fielding,  Amelia,  Bk.  I&.  ch.  v. 

Chrestomathic,  learning  good  things. 

The  second  belongs  to  a  science  which 
Jeremy,  the  thrice  illustrious  Bentham,  calls 
Phtbisosoics,  or  the  art  of  destruction  ap- 
plied to  noxious  animals,  a  science  which 
the  said  Jeremy  proposes  should  form  part 
0!  the  course  of  studies  in  his  Chrestomathic 
tchooX—SoHthey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  ccxxviii. 

Christ-cross-bow  to  Malachi.  Was 
there  some  primer  beginning  with  the 
alphabet,  and  ending  with  a  list  of  the 
Uld  Testament  books  ? 

Five  years  with  a  bib  under  his  chin ;  four 
years  in  travelling  from  Christ-cross-row  to 
Malaeki.Stente,  Trist.  Shandy,  iv.  133. 

Christdom,  the  rule  of  Christ  "  whose 
service  is  perfect  freedom." 

They  know  the  grief  of  men  without  its 
wisdom; 
They  sink  in  man's  despair  without  its 
calm; 
Are  slaves  without  the  liberty  in  Christdom, 
Are  martyrs,  by  the  pang  without  the  palm. 
Mr*.  Browning,  Cry  of  the  Children. 

Christbd..  Made  one  with  Christ  is, 
1  suppose,  the  meaning.  Gauden  says 
that  the  sectaries  amused  the  silly  vul- 
gar "  with  their  new  notions  and  strange 
expressions  of  being  Godded  with  God, 
Christed  with  Christ,  Spirited  with  the 
Spirit,  and  the  like  affectations  "  {Tears 
of  the  Church,  p.  196). 

Christ  enter,  Christendom. 

Would  God  this  same  word  might  not  be 
without  a  lye  saide  of  some  publique  officers 
of  Chrittentee,  by  whome  sometimes  is  bussed 
vp  and  hanged  on  the  galoes  a  poore  sely 
soole  that  hath  percase  pielfed  away  tenne 
grotes,  where  theimselfes  by  great  pielage 
...  do  growe  daily  and  encreaae  in  welth 
and  richesse,  do  manne  saying  blacke  is  their 
tjtn.—  UdaTs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  118. 

Christianize,  to  adopt  in  part  the 
Christian  religion.  This  neuter  sense 
of  the  verb  L.  notes  as  rare,  but  gives 
no  example. 

Prester  John  (though  part  he  Judaize) 
Both  in  some  sort  devoutly  Christianize. 

Sylvester,  Colonies,  370. 

Christlb,  to  cry. 

"And  I've  seed  mun  do  what  few  has; 
I've  seed  mun  christle  like  any  child/ 
"  What !  cry  ?  n  said  Amyas ;  "  I  shouldn't 
have  thought  there  was  much  cry  in  him."— 
C.  KingUey,  Westward  Ho,  ch. 


Chromolithic  (Gr.  xpupa,  colour; 
Xt0o£.  stone).    See  extract. 

An  impression  of  a  drawing  on  stone, 
printed  at  Paris  in  colours,  by  the  process 
termed  Chromolithic. — Proc.  of  Soc.  of  A  ntiq ., 
i.  22  (1844). 

Chronicler,  to  chronicle. 

Take  the  original  thereof  out  of  an  ano- 
nymal    croniclering     manuscript.  —  Fuller, 
Worthies,  Lincoln  (ii.  9). 

Chryselephantine,  formed  of  gold 

and  ivory. 

She  stood  motionless,  gazing  upon  the  sky, 
like  some  exquisite  chryselephantine  statue, 
all  ivory  and  gold. — C.  Kingsiey,  Hypatia,  ch. 
ix. 

Chrtsocoll,  carbonate  of  copper  (Gr. 
Xpwoc  coAAa),  as  found  with  or  adhering 
to  gold. 

Now  as  with  Gold  grows  in  the  self -same 

Mine 
Much  Chrysocholle,  and  also  Silver  fine, 
So  supreme  Honour  and  Wealth  (matcht  by 

none) 
Second  the  Wisdom  of  great  Salomon. 

Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  001. 

Chubbed,  chub-faced ;  fat 

Young  Skinker,  eldest  son  to  a  wealthy 
squire,  a  chubbed  unlucky  bov,  about  the  ape 
of  Lord  Richard,  put  one  hand  within  the 
other,  and  desired  Harry  to  strike  thereon.— 
H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  22. 

Chuck,  to  throw. 

Tes,  faith,  as  I've  a  soul  to  save, 
I  will  for  nothing  dig  her  grave ; 
Yes,  I  would  do  it  too  as  willing 
As  if  her  hand  had  chuck' d  a  shilling. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  c.  i. 

Her  toilet  was  simple.  She  had  merely  to 
"  chuck  "  her  bonnet  and  shawl  upon  the  bed. 
— Dickens,  Chuzzlewit,  ch.  xlix. 

Opinions  gold  or  brass  are  null. 
We  chuck  our  flattery  or  abuse 
Called  Csesar's  due,  as  Charon's  dues, 
I'  the  teeth  of  some  dead  sage  or  fool, 
To  mend  the  grinning  of  a  skull. 

Mrs.  Browning,  M  Died.1' 

Chuck-farthing,  trifling. 

Two  neighbouring  sovereigns  were  at  war 
together  about  some  pitiful  chuck-farthing 
thing  or  other. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlotce,  iv. 
840. 

Chuckle.  Chuckle  chin  =  double 
chin. 

The  dewlaps  from  his  chuckle  chin 
That  had  with  gorging  pampered  been. 

D%lhfey,  Athenian  Jilt. 

Chuckle,  to  mix,  throw  together. 
Between  eight  and  nine  in  comes  my  lady's 


CHUCKLEHEAD        (  122  ) 


CICHPEASE 


woman  to  range  in  order  and  method  all  the 
little  trinkets  of  the  toilet.  She  chuckles  to- 
gether a  whole  covy  of  essences  and  per- 
fumes.— Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  117. 

Chuckleuead,  a  fool. 

Is  not  he  much  handsomer  and  better 
built  than  that  great  chucklehead. — Smollett, 
Bod.  Random,  ch.  iii. 

Chufpiness,  churlishness ;  morose 
clownishness. 

In  spite  of  the  chuffiness  of  his  appearance 
and  churlishness  of  his  speech,  this  wag- 
goner's bosom  being  "made  of  penetrable 
stuff,"  he  determined  to  let  the  gentleman 
pass. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Absentee,  ch.  xvi. 

Chum,   properly  a    chamber-fellow, 

and  so  an  intimate  friend. 

As  it  was  plain  that  the  person  who  had 
robbed  him  had  possessed  himself  of  his  key, 
he  had  no  doubt,  when  he  first  missed  his 
money,  but  that  his  chum  was  certainly  the 
thief.— Fielding,  Tom  Jones,  Bk.  VIII.  ch.  xi. 

Chump- end,  thick  end:  usually  ap- 
plied to  the  thick  end  of  a  joint  of  meat. 

Biddy  . . .  distributed  three  defaced  bibles 
(shaped  as  if  they  had  been  unskilfully  cut 
off  the  chump-end  of  something),  more  illegibly 

{ Hinted  at  the  best  than  any  curiosities  of 
iterature  I  have  since  met  with. — Dickens, 
Great  Expectations,  ch.  x. 

Chumpish,  sullen ;  ill-tempered. 

He  made  the  simple  wench  his  wrath  abide ; 
With  chumpish  looks,  hard  words,  and  secret 

nips, 
Grumbling  at  her  w^en  she  his  kindness 

Bought.— Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  391. 

Chubch.  This  verb  is  only  used 
now  in  regard  to  a  woman  returning 
public  thanks  after  childbirth ;  she  is 
then  said  to  be  churched,  and  the  offici- 
ating clergyman  is  said  to  church  her ; 
but  Gauden,  speaking  of  the  schisms 
made  by  sectaries,  calls  them  "  strange 
methods  of  new  churching  men  and 
women  "  (Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  39). 

Cient,  scion.  Did  this  spelling  come 
from  an  idea  that  the  word  was  derived 
from  Lat.  dens,  moving,  and  so  shooting 
forth? 

He  had  a  numerous  and  beautiful  female 
kindred,  so  that  there  was  hardly  a  noble 
stock  in  England  into  which  one  of  these  his 
dents  was  not  grafted.  —  Fuller,  Worthies, 
Leicester  (i.  567). 

Churchlkss,  without  a  Church. 

I  confess  no  such  place  as  Trekingbam 
appeareth  at  this  day  in  any  Catalogue  of 
English  Towns ;  whence  I  conclude  it  a  Parish 
some  years  since  depopulated,  or  never  but  a 


Churchlesse  Village.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Lin- 
coln (ii.  19). 

Churchlet,  little  church. 

I  shall  not  need  to  instance  in  the  many 
defects  .  .  incident  to  these  (Ecelesiola  and 
Congregatiuncula)  little  Churchlets  and  scat- 
tered Conventicles.  —  Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  32. 

Churchlt,  ecclesiastical.  The 
proeme  from  which  the  extract  is  taken 
is  written  with  a  jocose  affectation  of 
archaism. 

Diverse  grave  points  also  hath  he  handled 
of  churchly  matters,  and  doubts  in  religion 
daily  arising,  to  great  clerks  only  apper- 
taining.—Gay,  Proeme  to  Shepherd's  Week. 

Churchbcot,  payment  due  to  the 
Church. 

[Knute]  also  charges  them  to  see  all 
Churchscot  and  Bomescot  fully  cleered  before 
his  returne—  Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  18. 

Churl,  to  grudge. 

A  traveller  coming  into  a  certain  house 
desired  some  meat :  the  mistress  being  some- 
thing nice  and  backward  to  give  him  victuals, 
"You  need  not,"  says  heyuchurle  me  in  a 
piece  of  meat." — Aubrey,  Miscellanies,^.  182. 

Churn-boots,  boots  like  a  churn  in 
shape.  In  H  alii  well's  Nursery  Rhymes 
of  England,  No.  477,  one  couplet  runs — 

44  She  churns  her  butter  in  a  booty 
And  instead  of  a  churn-staff  she  puts  in 
her  foot." 

There  is  also  a  Scotch  song  to  the  same 
effect. 

Here  is  the  sleeping  hamlet  of  Bondy: 
chaise  with  waiting-women ;  horses  all  ready, 
and  postilions  with  their  churn-boots  im- 
patient to  be  gone.— Car/yfc,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt. 
II.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  iii. 

Churn-staff,  the  stick  or  pole  used 
in  churning.  See  extracts,  s.  w.  Churn- 
boot,  Pandola. 

Chyme,  to  extract  by  chemical  pro- 
cess. 

What  antidote  against  the  terror  of  con- 
scieuce  can  be  chymed  from  gold  ? — Adams, 
i.  163. 

Cicatrine,  scarring  ? 

'Tis  not  like  thy  aloe,  cicatrine  tongue 
bitter:  no,  'tis  no  stabber,  but  like  thy 
goodly  and  glorious  nose,  blunt,  blunt,  blunt. 
— Dekker,  Satiromastix  (Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr, 
IH.  170). 

Cichpkare,  dwarf  pea  or  vetch.  See 
L.f  s.  v.  chich;  and  extract,  s.  v.  Fenc-> 

GREEK. 


CIDERAND 


(  123  )     CIRC UMAMB AGIO  US 


A  certain  dapper  fellow  .  .  did  before  the 
kings  presence,  cast  or  throw  a  kind  of  smal 
pake,  called  a  Cichpease,  through  a  needles 
eje.— Touchstone  of  Complexions,  Preface. 

Cider- and,  cider  mixed  with  spirits 
or  some  other  ingredient.      Cf.  Hot 

WITH,  COLD  WITHOUT. 

Barnabas,  the  surgeon,  and  an  exciseman 
were  smoking  their  pipes  over  some  cider' 
**f.— Fielding,  Jos.  Andrews,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xvi. 

Cigarette,  diminutive  of  cigar ;  mild 
tobacco  rolled  in  paper. 

If  you  forgive  me  we  shall  celebrate  our 
reconciliation  in  a  cigarette. — Black,  Princess 
»f  Tkule,  ch.  x. 

Cilick,  hair-cloth.  Sir  T.  Browne  has 
the  adj.  cfficiou*. 

We  have  heard  so  much  of  monks  .  .  . 
with  their  shaven  crowns,  hair-cilices,  and 
vows  of  poverty. — Coriyle,  Past  and  Present, 
Bk.  n.  en.  i. 

Cinque  and  Quatre,  one  who  has 
entered  his  fiftieth  year.  See  H.,  8.  v. 
cincater. 

{Prometheus.) 
Oh  Jupiter,  I'm  glad  to  see  thee, 
And  now  thou 'rt  here,  take  pity,  prithee, 
Upon  a  poor  old  Cinque  and  Quater, 
Had  paid  for  playing  the  Creator. 
Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  173. 

Cinque  and  Sice.  The  phrase  in  the 
extract  seems  to  mean  being  fearless  or 
desperate ;  the  idea  perhaps  being  that 
of  a  player  who  counts  on  having  the 
highest  throws  of  the  dice.  Cains  in 
Ms  Essay  on  Eng.  Dogs,  transL  by 
Fleming,  1576,  says  that  our  country- 
men love  mastiffs  "  for  their  careless- 
ness of  life,  setting  all  at  cinque  and 
«*"  (Eng.  Garner,  iii.  253). 

Cinque-outposts,  the  five  senses. 

I  was  fallen  soundly  asleep;  the  cinque- 
o*t*post$  were  shut  up  closer  than  usually, 
u>d  my  senses  so  treble-locked,  that  the 
noon,  had  she  descended  from  her  watery 
orb,  might  have  done  much  more  to  me  than 
»He  did  to  Bndymion.  —  A  Winter  Dream, 
1M9  {Hart.  Misc.,  vn.  203). 

I  had  fallen  into  so  sound  a  sleep,  as  if  the 
""roost*  (my  five  outward  senses)  had  been 
trebly  lockt  up.— Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts, 
p.32.  y   J 

Ciper,  cypress. 

A  eiver  by  the  churche  seat  abydeth 

By  oure  old  progeniotours  long  tyme  de- 

▼outlye  regarded.— Stany hurst,  JEn.,  ii.  740. 

Ciphers,  shorthand.    Cf.  Character. 
His  speeches  were  much  heeded,  and  taken 


by  divers  in  ciphers. — Hacket,  Life  of  Wil- 
liams, i.  82. 

Circuits er,  to  go  circuit ;  also,  one 
who  does  so.  L.  has  the  noun,  which 
is  sometimes  spelt  circuiter. 

Here  we  drop  our  circuiteer  ;  which  charac- 
ter lasted  till  his  lordship  was  made  solicitor- 
general.— AbrtA,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  92. 

But  now  to  return  to  his  lordship,  and  his 
circuiteering. — Ibid.  i.  261. 

Those  infinitely  grander  Drudges, 
The  big-wiggfd  circuiteering  Judges. 

Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  125. 

Circuity.  L.  defines  this, "  tendency 
to  assume  a  circular  form,"  and  this 
definition  accords  with  the  use  of  the 
word  in  the  extract  that  he  gives,  but 
the  word  has  other  meanings,  though 
all  of  course  having  in  them  the  idea 
of  something  circular.  Thus  in  Udal 
it  =  extent  or  round ;  in  Andrewes  it  = 
beating  about  the  bush. 

Alexander  .  .  .  conferred  vnto  the  same 
besides  his  owne  former  royalme  a  dominion 
of  muohe  more  targe  and  ample  circuitee  then 
the  same  whiche  he  was  Lorde  of  before. — 
UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  220. 

Very  clear  it  is,  the  prophecy,  without  all 
circuity,  noting,  naming,  and  in  a  manner 
pointing  to  it. — Andrewes,  i.  157. 

Circularnes8,  roundness,  circularity. 

In  forme,  at  the  first  view,  in  a  mass,  it 
doth  pretend  to  some  Circularness. — Fuller, 
Worthies,  Warwick  (ii.  402). 

Circulator,  a  juggler,  one  who  goes 

round  showing  tricks. 

I  could  never  yet  esteem  these  vapouring 
Seraphicks,  these  uew  Gnosticks,  to  be  other 
than  a  kind  of  Gipsy-Christians,  or  a  race 
of  Circulators,  Tumblers,  and  Taylers  in  the 
Church. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  200. 

Circulizk,  to  encircle. 

It  was  vnsow'd,  and  made  with  buttons  fast 
Of  orient  pearle  of  admirable  size 
Which  loopes  of  azur'd  silk  did  circulize. 

Davies,  An  Extasie,  p.  90. 
Mother  of  pearle  their  sides  shal  circulize. 

Ibid.  p.  93. 

Circtjm ambages,  indirectnesses,  beat- 
ings about  the  bush. 

From  you  I  shall  not  meet  with  . . .  the  de- 
preciating ia  differences,  the  affected  slights, 
the  female  circumambages,  if  I  may  be  allowed 
the  words. — Richardson,  Grandison,  iii.  165. 

Circtjmambagiou8,  round  about,  not 
keeping  to  the  point. 

Reader,  thou  mayest  have  thought  me  at 
times  disposed  to  be  circumambagious  in  my 
manner  of  narration. — Southey,  The  Doctor, 
ch.  xl. 


CIRCUMBIND  (  124  ) 


CIVETED 


Circumbind,  to  bind  round. 

The  fringe  that  circumbinds  it  too 
Is  spangle-work  of  trembling  dew. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  96. 

Circum-cross,  to  mark  round  with  a 
cross :  in  shaking  hands  a  sort  of  rude 
cross  is  formed. 

I  am  holy  while  I  stand 
Circum-crost  by  thy  pure  band ; 
But  when  that  is  gone,  again 
I,  as  others,  am  profaue. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  243. 

Circumferent,  surrounding. 

As  this  is  soft  and  pliant  to  your  arme 
In  a  circumferent  flexure,  so  will  I 
Be  tender  of  your  welfare  and  your  will. 
Chapman,  Gentleman  Usher,  Act  IV. 

Circumgyratory,  revolving. 

That  functionary,  however,  had  not  failed 
during  his  circumgyratory  movements,  to 
bestow  a  thought  upon  the  important  object 
of  securing  the  epistle. — E.  A.  Poe,  Bans 
Pfaal  (i.  5). 

Circumjacencies,  suburbs. 

All  the  mongrel  curs  of  themcircumjacencies 
yelp,  yelp,  yelp,  at  their  heels,  completing 
the  horria  chorus. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe, 
iv.  16. 

Circum-mortal,  surrounded  by  mor- 
tality. 

I've  paid  thee  what  I  promised ;  that's  not 

all; 
Besides  I  give  thee  here  a  verse  that  shall 
(When  hence  thy  circum-mortall  part  is  gone) 
Arch-like  hold  up  thy  name's  inscription. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  179. 

Circumroundabout,  a  beating  about 
the  bush  (a  tautologous  hybrid). 

Tou  must  now  come  with  your  hums  and 
your  haws,  and  the  whole  circumroundabout  $ 
of  female  nonsense,  to  stave  off  the  point 
your  hearts  and  souls  are  set  upon. — Richard' 
son,  Grandison,  vi.  155. 

Circumscriptible,  capable  of  being 
confined  or  limited.  Cf.  incomprehen- 
sible  in  Atb.  Creed. 

He  that  sits  on  high  and  never  sleeps, 
Nor  in  one  place  is  circumscriptible. 

Marlowe,  2  Tamburlaine,  ii.  2. 

Circumspacious,  large  in  circumfer- 
ence. 

When  Cato  the  severe 
Entred  the  circumspacious  theater ; 
In  reverence  of  his  person,  every  one 
Stood  as  he  had  been  turn'd  from  flesh  to 
stone. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  323. 

Ciroumspangle,  to  surround  with 
spangles ;  to  illumine. 


I've  travail'd  all  this  realm  throughout 
To  seeke  and  find  some  few  immortals  out 
To  circumspangle  this  my  spacious  sphere, 
(As  lamps  for  everlasting  shiniug  here). 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  286. 

Circumstant,  one  standing  round  ; 
a  spectator. 

Apollo's  curse 
Blast  these-like  actions,  or  a  thing  that's 

worse, 
When  these  circumstants  shall  but  live  to  see 
The  time  that  I  prevaricate  from  thee. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  82. 

Circumstipated,  surrounded. 

He  was  well  lodged  at  Whitehall,  pen- 
sioned, and  circumstipated  with  his  guards. — 
North,  Examen,  p.  223. 

Cirque-couchant,  lying  coiled  up. 

Until  he  found  a  palpitating  snake, 
Bright,  and  cirque-couchant  in  a  dusky  brake. 

Keats,  Lamia. 

Citheron,  a  cittern  or  guitar. 

Others  who  more  delighted  to  write  songs 
or  ballads  of  pleasure,  to  be  sung  with  the 
voice,  and  to  the  harpe,  lute,  or  citheron,  and 
such  other  musical  instruments,  they  were 
called  melodious  poets.  —  Puttenham,  Eng. 
Poesie,  Bk.  I.  ch.  zi. 

Citizenry,  townspeople. 

He  . .  sided  with  the  magistracy,  not  with 
the  citizenry.  —  Taylor,  Survey  of  Germ. 
Poetry,  i.  185. 

No  Spanish  soldiery  nor  citizenry  showed 
the  least  disposition  to  join  him. — Carlyle, 
Life  of  Sterling,  ch.  xiii. 

Citron,  a  liquor  distilled  with  the 
rinds  of  citrons :  it  is  also  called  citron- 
water. 

Now   deep  in   Taylor   and   the   books  of 

martyrs, 
Now  drinking  citron  with   his  Grace  and 

Charteris. 

Misc.  by  Swift,  Pope,  and 


ft,  rope,  a 
,  iv.  222. 


Arbuthnot 

Cityness,  political  matter.  Gr.  ttoXlc 
=  city  or  state,  iroXtru'a. 

They  take  exception  at  the  very  Title 
thereof,  "  Ecclesiastical  Politic,"  as  if  un- 
equally yoked ;  Church  with  some  mixture  of 
Cttynesse. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Devon  (i.  290). 

Civantick.    Cervantic  ? 

I  heard  Jervas  Fulwood,  now  their  chap- 
lain, preach  a  very  good  and  civantick  kind 
of  sermon,  too  good  for  an  ordinary  congre- 
gation—i^s,  May  24, 106*8. 

Civeted,  perfumed. ' 

Fops  at  all  corners,  ladylike  in  mien, 
Civeted  fellows,  smelt  ere  they  are  seen. 

Cowper,  Tirocinium,  830. 


CIVILITY 


(  "5) 


CLARET 


Civility,  a  civil  office. 

What  an  enormity  is  this  in  a  christian 
realm,  to  serve  in  a  civility \  having  the  profit 
of  a  provostship,  and  a  deanery,  and  a  parson- 
age.— Latimer,  i.  122. 

Civilize,  to  behave  with  decency. 

I  civilize,  lest  that  I  seem  obsccene, 
But  Lord  (Thou  know'st)  I  am  vnchaste, 
voclean. 

Sylvester,  The  Lawe,  p.  1100. 

Clack,  punctually ;  exactly. 

The  only  infelicity  of  the  whole  matter  is, 
as  I  said,  that  the  money  was  not  got ;  if  that 
had  fallen  in  clack,  the  King  had  compleated 
a  negotiation  of  as  great  difficulty,  and  with- 
al utility  for  the  people  of  England  as  had 
been  done  in  any  King's  reign. — North,  £r- 
cjua,  p.  535. 

Clad,  to  clothe. 

The  lamenting  of  deathes  was  chiefly  at  the 
very  burialls  of  the  dead, .  . .  which  was  done 
not  onely  by  cladding  the  mourners  their 
f  riendes  and  seruauntes  in  blacke  vestures  of 
shape  dolefull  and  sad,  but  also  by  wofull 
countenaunces  and  voyces,  and  besides  by 
poeticaU  mournings  in  verse. — Puttenham, 
Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxiv. 

What,  shall  I  clad  me  like  a  country  maid  ? 
—Greene,  James  IV.,  iii.  3. 

The  inlanders  .  . .  live  of  milke  and  flesh, 
•nd  clad  themselves  in  skins.  —  Holland's 
Camden,  p.  29. 

Claik-grese,  «.  =  barnacles.  See 
Bab-obese. 

Concerning  those  claik~geese,  which  some 
with  much  admiration  have  beleeued  to  grow 
out  of  trees  ...  I  would  gladly  thinke  that 
the  generation  of  these  birds  was  not  out  of 
the  logges  of  wood,  bat  from  the  very  ocean. 
-Hollands  Camden,  ii.  48. 

Clair  obscure,  distribution  of  light 

and  ebade.     See  L.,  s.  v.  chiaroscuro. 

As  masters  in  the  clair  obscure 
With  various  light  your  eyes  allure. 

Prior,  Alma,  ii.  25. 

Clam,  cold  moisture ;  clamminess. 

Around  you  is  but  starvation,  falsehood, 
corruption,  and  the  clam  of  death. — Carlyle, 
fir.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  V.  ch.  v. 

Clam,  clammy  (?).  More  is  speaking 
of  the  Egyptian  darkness,  such  as  men 
might  feel,  and  handle  with  their  hands, 
and  he  says  that  it 

The  hand  did  smite 
With  a  dam  pitchie  ray  shot   from  that 
CentraU  Night. 

H.  More,  Sleep  of  the  Soul,  iii.  33. 

Clamjamfebt,  a  mob  or  assembly. 
See  Jamieson,  «.  v. 
I  only  know  the  whole  clamjamfery  of  them 


were  there. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford, 
ch.  iz. 

Clamorous ness,  loud  talking ;  clam- 
our. 

The  obstinate  maintainers  of  errour  come 
with  their  tongues  tipt  with  clamorousnesse, 
as  their  proselyte  Auditors  do  with  eares 
stopt  with  prejudice.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  I. 
v.7. 

Clamper,  to  put  together  clumsily  (?). 

He  weiicth  up  many  brokenended  matters, 
and  fettes  out  much  rifraffe,  pelfery.  trump- 
ery, baggage  and  beggerie  ware  clamparde  vp 
of  one  that  would  seme  to  be  fitter  for  a  shop 
in  dede  than  to  write  any  boke. — Ascham, 
Toxophilus,  p.  83. 

Clami'RING,  clamouring. 

The  people,  already  tired  with  their  own 
divisions  (of  which  his  clampring  had  been  a 
principal  nurs),  and  beginning  now  to  espie  a 
haven  of  rest,  hated  anything  that  should 
hinder  them  from  it;  asking  one  another 
whether  this  were  not  hee,  whose  evil  tongue 
to  [no  ?]  man  could  escape  ? — Sidney,  Arcadia, 
Bk.  v.  p.  446. 

Clangour,  to  clang. 

At  Paris  all  steeples  are  clangouring,  not  for 
sermon. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Ft.  III.  Bk.  I. 
ch.  iv. 

Clapbread,  oatmeal  cake  clapped  or 
beaten  thin  and  hard.  Defoe  {Tour 
thro9  G.  Brit,  j  iii.  254)  speaks  of  "  sour 
oat-cakes  for  bread,  or  clapat-bread,  as 
it  is  called."  He  is  referring  to  the 
borders  of  Lancashire  and  Westmore- 
land. 

The  great  rack  of  clapbread  hung  overhead, 
and  Bell  Robson's  preference  of  this  kind  of 
oatcake  over  the  leavened  and  partly  sour 
kind  used  in  Yorkshire  was  another  source 
of  her  unpopularity. — Jfrs.  Gaskell,  Sylvia's 
Lovers,  ch.  iv. 

Clap-sticks.     See  quotation. 

He  was  not  disturbed  ...  by  the  watch- 
men's rappers  or  clap-sticks.  —  Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  1. 

Claret,  blood  (pugilistic  slang). 

The  words  are  a  pound  of  flesh — that's  clear 

as  mud. 
Slice  away  then,  old  fellow,  but  mind !  if  you 

spill 
One  drop  of  his  claret  that's  not  in  your  bill,* 
I'll  hang  you  like  Haman,  by  Jingo,  I  will ! 
Jngoldsby  Legends  (Mer.  of  Venice). 

"  You  be  all  covered  wi'  blood,  sir."  .  . . 
Drysdale  joined  in  assurances  that  it  was  no- 
thing but  a  little  of  his  friend's  "claret," 
which  he  would  be  all  the  better  for  losing. 
—Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xii. 


CLA  VERS 


(  "6) 


CLERUM 


Clayers,  keys. 

Where  as  by  art  one  selfly  blast  breath M  oat 
From  panting  bellowes,  passeth  all  about 
Winde  -  instruments ;   enters  by  th'  vnder 

clavers, 
Which  with  the  keys   the   Organ -master 

quavers. — Sylvester,  The  Columnes,  732. 

Clavestock,  a  chopper  for  cleaving 
wood. 

A  elauestoek  and  rabetstock  carpenters  crane, 
And  seasoned  timber  for  pinwood  to  haue. 

Tusser,  p.  38. 

Clawer,  a  flatterer. 

But  few,  if  dead,  are  flattered,  if  their  friends 
Iiue  not  in  wealth   or  greatnesse;  so  the 

scopes 
Of  all  such  claioers  scratch  for  priuate  ends. 
Davits,  Muse's  Teares,  p.  9. 

Cleanish,  rather  clean. 

A  bed  at  one  corner  with  coarse  curtains, 
.  .  .  but  a  coverlid  upon  it  with  a  cleanish  look. 
— Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  vi.  303. 

Clear,  undetected. 

Among  the  Lacedemonians,  a  clear  theft 
pass'd  for  a  vertue. — Gentleman  Instructed, 
p.  75. 

Clearcake,  some  sort  of  cake  or 
sweetmeat,  the  qualities  of  which  are 
described  iti  the  quotation. 

I  used  to  call  him  the  clearcake;  fat,  fair, 
sweet,  and  seen  through  in  a  moment.— 
WalpoU  to  Mann,  ii.  153  (1746). 

Cleet.  See  extract  In  Arch.,  x\i\i. 
352,  mention  is  made  of  an  urn  "  with 
four  small  bowed  handles  or  cleats.11 

The  four  corners  [of  the  coffin]  were 
strengthened  by  iron  handles  or  elects. — Arch., 
xxxi.  252  (1845). 

Cleopatrical,  profusely  luxurious, 
after  the  manner  of  Cleopatra.  Cf. 
Babilonical. 

I  went,  then  saw,  and  found  the  great  expense, 
The  fare  and  fashions  of  our  citizens. 
Oh  Cleopatrical !  what  wanteth  there 
For  curious  cost,  and  wondrous  choice  of  cheer. 

Hall,  Sat.,  HI.  iii.  17. 

Clergy,  ministers  of  heathen  reli- 
gion. 

The  Druid»  (for  so  they  call  their  diviners, 
wisemen,  and  estate  of  clergie)  esteem  no* 
thing  in  the  world  more  sacred  than  Misselto. 
....  Their  priests  or  clergie  men  chuse  of 
purpose  such  groves  for  their  divine  service. 
— Holland's  Camden,  p.  14. 

Clergy,  applied  to  women. 

I  took  her  to  be  one  of  the  clergywomen 
that  belong  to  the  place.  —  Foote,  Trip  to 
Calais,  ii.  1. 

I  found  the  clergy  in  general  persons  of 


moderate  minds  and  decorous  manners;  I 
include  the  seculars  and  regulars  of  both 
sexes. — Burke,  Fr.  Revolution,  p.  118. 

From  the  clergywomen  of  Windham  down 
to  the  charwomen  the  question  was  dis- 
cussed.— Mrs.  Oliphant,  Agnes,  i.  10. 

Clergy,  used  adjectivally.  L.  gives 
one  instance  from  a  living  writer. 

The  first  half  day  they  rode  they  light  upon 
A  noble  deargy  host,  Kitt  Middleton. 

Bp.  Corbet,  Iter  Boreale, 

Not  fearing  lest  he  should  meet  with  some 
outward  holy  thing  in  religion  which  his  lay 
touch  or  presence  might  profane;  but  lest 
something  unholy  from  within  his  own  heart 
should  dishonour  and  profane  in  himself  that 
priestly  unction  and  clergy- right  whereto 
Christ  hath  entitled  him. — Milton,  Reason  of 
Ch.  Government,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iii. 

A  corslet  is  no  canonical  coat  for  me,  nor 
suits  it  with  my  cfcrgiy-profession  to  proceed 
any  further  in  this  warlike  description. — 
Fuller,  Holy  State,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  xvii. 

Observe  those  cfcrw-sticklers  on  the  civil 
stage,  and  you  shall  seldom  find  them 
crowned  with  a  quiet  death. — Ibid.  Bk.  V. 
ch.  xviii. 

Clergy  of  belly,  respite  claimed  by 
a  pregnant  woman. 

Who  therefore  in  a  streight  may  freely 
Demand  the  clergy  of  her  belly. 

Butler,  Hudibras,  III.  i.  884. 

Clerk-ale,  a  feast  for  the  benefit  of 
the  clerk.  See  L.,  a.  v.  In  the  second 
extract  it  seems  to  be  the  actual  liquor 
— perhaps  some  benefaction  for  the 
clerk  on  Easter  Sunday. 

At  the  summer  assises  held  in  Exon,  anno 
1627,  an  order  was  made  by  Walter  then 
Chief  Baron,  and  Denham  one  of  the  puisne 
barons  of  the  court  of  Exchequer,  for  sup- 
pressing all  revels,  Church-ales,  Clerk-ales 
which  had  been  used  upon  that  day. — Hey- 
lin.  Life  of  Laud,  Bk.  iv.  p.  256. 

He,  and  some  other  frolicksome  fellows, 
being  one  Easter  Sunday  morning  at  the 
clerk's  house  at  Langford,  near  Wellington, 
drinking  (as  it  is  called)  clerk's-ale,  they  over- 
heard the  old  man  rehearsing  the  verses  of 
the  Psalms. — Life  of  J.  Lackington,  Letter  iii. 

Clero-mastic,    a    scourger    of    the 

clergy. 

These  dero-masticks  and  Church-destroyers 
still  maintain  a  most  implacable  war  against 
the  Church  of  England. — Gauden,  Tears  of 
the  Church,  p.  49. 

Clerum,  a  visitation  or  convocation 
sermon ;  a  concio  ad  clerum,  or  an  ex- 
ercise for  a  divinity  degree. 

This  I  heard  in  a  clerum  from  Dr.  Collings. 
— Fuller,  Hist,  of  Camb.  Univ.,  vi.  6. 


CLE  VER 


(  i*7  ) 


CLOCK 


On  Saturday  following,  immediately  after 
the  derum,  he  should  go  up  into  the  pulpit 
of  St.  Mary's. — Ibid.  vii.  17. 

Clevrr,  handsome. 

There  is  a  clever  (nitidu.ni)  neat  Church. — 
Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  242. 

Click,  to  snatch. 

*  I  take  'em  to  prevent  abuses," 
Cants  he,  and  then  the  Crucifix 
And  Chalice  from  the  Altar  clicks. 

Ward)  England's  Reformation, 
cant.  iv.  p.  397. 

Click,  a  sharp  noise.  The  Diets,  only 
give  it  as  a  verb. 

To  the  billiard-room  I  hastened ;  the  click 
of  balls  and  the  hum  of  voice  resounded 
thence. — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xxi. 

Client  age,  following;  clientele. 

They  sent  unto  him  their  disciples,  together 
with  them  which  were  of  the  faction  and 
clientage  of  Herod.— Bp.  Hall,  Works,  iv.  168. 

Clientele,    patronage :  an  unusual 

sense  of  this  word. 

Oar  laws,  said  I,  against  those  whose 
clientele  you  undertake  have  beeu  disputed 
both  by  Churchmen  and  Statesmen.  — 
Backet,  Life  of  WiUiams,  i.  213. 

Climacterian,  one  who  is  fond  of  a 

climax. 

Observe  the  author's  steps  continually 
rising ;  we  shall  find  him  on  many  occasions 
a  great  dimacterian. — North,  Examen,  p.  23. 

Climacteby,  the  working  up  to  a 
climax. 

He  wrought  upon  the  approaches  to  Oates's 
plot  with  notable  disposition  and  climacterv, 
often  calling  before  he  came  at  it. — North, 
Examen,  p.  233. 

He  is  an  artist  at  disposition  and  climactery 
for  the  setting  off  his  positions. — Ibid.  p.  478. 

Climbable,  capable  of  being  climbed. 

I  .  .  climbed  everything  climbable,  and  eat 
everything  eatable.  —  Savage,  R.  Medlicott, 
Bk.  II.  ch.  iii. 

Cling,  to  make  cling;  to  fasten  or 

clinch.     The    original    is    "  Hoerent 

paridibu*  scalce" 

They  clinge  thee  scalinges  too  wals. 
Stanyhurst,  Mn.,  ii.  412. 

Clint,  to  clench  or  make  fast. 

This  grievance  did  continue,  and  was  com- 
plained of  all  this  and  most  of  the  next 
long's  reign,  till  the  statute  of  praemunire 
was  made,  which  dinted  the  naile  which  now 
was  driven  in.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  III.  ix.  28. 

Clintino,  a  noise  or  thud,  as  of  a 

horse's  foot. 

Mountains  stretch 'd  around, 
Gloomy  was  their  tinting, 


And  the  horse's  hoofs 
Made  a  dismal  dinting. 

Thackeray,  Peg  of  Limavaddy. 

Clip,  to  fly,  from  cutting  the  air  or 
waves.  A  swift-sailing  ship  is  called  a 
clipper,  though  other  derivations  have 
been  proposed  for  this  (^.  and  Q.,  5th 
S.,  vols,  vi.,  vii.).  The  idea  of  cutting 
is  perhaps  connected  with  the  old  mean- 
ing of  clip,  to  embrace,  and  so  to  press, 
squeeze,  nip.  L.  has  one  exmnple  of 
clip  =  fly,  from  Dryden,  Ann.  Mir., 
st.  86. 

If  profit's  golden-finger 'd  charm  inveigles 
We  clip  more  swift  than  eagles. 

Quarles,  Emblems,  i.  13. 

The  wings  of  vengeance  clip  as  fast  as  they. 

Ibid.  ui.  12. 

Oh  that  the  pinions  of  a  clipping  dove 
Would  cut  my  passage  through  the  empty 
air. — Ibid.  iv.  2. 

Had  my  dull  soul  but  wings  as  well  as  they, 
How  I  would  spring  from  earth,  and  clip 
away. — Ibid.  v.  13. 

Clip,  to  embrace.  The  latest  example 

in  the  Diets,  of  the  word  in  this  sense 

is  from  Ray  the  naturalist.     In  some 

parts  of  the  country  the  custom  still 

prevails  on  certain  days  of  "clipping 

the  Church,"  i.  e.  a  number  of  people 

surround  the  church  with  joined  hands. 

Another  example  of  clip  =  embrace 

will  be  found  in  Kingsiey's,  Saint's 

Tragedy,  ii.  1. 

Yon  fair  sea 
That  clips  thy  shores  had  no  such  charms 
for  thee. — Cowper,  Expostulation,  551. 

The  Northmen,  led 
By  Sweyne  and  Olaf ,  landed  yesternight 
In  Porlock  Bay,  and  clipped  us  round  at 
Stoke. — Taylor,  Edwin  the  Fair,  v.  5. 

like  a  fountain  falling  round  me, 
Which  with  silver  waters  thin 
Clips  a  little  water  Naiad  sitting  smilingly 
within. — Mrs.  Browning,  Lost  Bower. 

Cliqueism,  party  exclusiveness. 

Their  system  is  a  sort  of  worldly-spiritual 
cliqueism:  they  really  look  on  the  rest  of 
mankind  as  a  doomed  carcase  which  is  to 
nourish  them  for  heaven. — G.  Eliot,  Middle* 
march,  ch.  xvii. 

Cloath,  skin(?). 

I  also  did  buy  some  apples  and  pork,  by 
the  same  token  the  butcher  commended  it 
as  the  best  in  England  for  cloath  and  colour. 
—Pepys,  Nov.  1, 1666. 

Clock,  beetle. 

The   Brize,   the   black-arm'd   Clock,  the 


CLOCKLESS 


(  128) 


CLOTH 


Gnat,  the  Butterflie.—iT.  More,  Life  of  the 
Soul,  i.  41. 

Clockless,  without  a  clock. 

0  learned,  Nature-taught  Arithmetician, 
Clockless  so  just  to  measure  time's  par- 
tition. 

Sylvester,  third  day,  first  toeeke,  379. 

Clodder,  to  coagulate. 

He  took  the  blood  of  calves  and  goats, 
mixing  it  with  water  that  it  might  not  dod- 
der and  congeal  together. — Bp.  Mall,  Works, 
iv.  500. 

Clodhopper,  a  country  fellow;  a 
clown. 

1  heard  one  of  your  clodhoppers  say  the 
other  day, "  The  squire  is  a  good  gentleman, 
he  often  gives  me  a  day's  work."  Now  I 
should  think  it  was  the  clodhopper  gave  the 
gentleman  the  day's  work. — Reade,  Never  too 
late  to  mend,  ch.  i. 

Clodhopping,  clumsy ;  loutish ;  heavy- 
treading,  as  one  who  is  accustomed  to 
go  over  ploughed  fields. 

What  a  mercy  you  are  shod  with  velvet, 
Jane !  a  clodhopping  messenger  would  never 
do  at  this  juncture. — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre, 
ch. 


Clod-pate,  thick  head.  In  Cymbe- 
line,  IV.  ii.,  clot-pole  is  used  in  the  same 
sense. 

There  is  more  logic  in  that  remark  .  .  * 
than  I  expected  from  your  clod-pate. — SmoU 
left,  L.  Greaves,  ch.  viii. 

Clog,  an  old-fashioned  wooden  al- 
manac.   See  H.,  s.  v. 

The  lineal  descendant  of  that  rimstoke  was' 
still  in  use  in  the  middle  of  England  at  the 
close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  though  it 
was  then, says  Plot,  a  sort  of  antiquity  so  little 
known  that  it  had  hardly  been  heard  of  in 
the  southern  parts,  and  was  understood  but 
by  few  of  the  gentry  in  the  northern.  Clogg 
was  the  English  name,  whether  so  called 
from  the  word  log,  because  they  were  gener- 
ally made  of  wood,  and  not  so  commonly  of 
oak  or  fir  as  of  box ;  or  from  the  resemblance 
of  the  larger  ones  to  clogs  "  wherewith  we 
restrain  the  wild,  extravagant,  mischievous 
motions  of  some  of  our  dogs,"  he  knew  not. 
— Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  xc. 

Clogdogdo,  an  incumbrance,  like  a 
clog  tied  to  a  dog.  See  quotation  s.  v. 
Clog. 

A  wife  is  a  scurvy  clogdogdo,  an  unlucky 
thing. — Jonson,  Silent  Woman,  IV.  i. 

Cloke-father,  a  cover  or  stalking- 
horse. 

Some  suspect  him  to  be  little  better  than 
a  counterfeit,  and  a  cloke-father  for  a  plot  of 


the  Pope's  begetting. — Fuller,  Holy  War,  I. 
viii.  2. 

Andronicus  the  Emperour  cunningly  de- 
rived the  whole  hatred  hereby  on  young 
Alexius  (whose  power  he  never  used  or 
owned,  but  onely  to  make  him  the  cloak- 
father  for  odious  acts). — Ibid.,  Holy  State,  V. 
xvm.  9. 

The  book  goes  under  the  name  of  Car- 
dinal Allen,  though  the  secular  priests  say  he 
was  but  the  cloak-father  thereof,  and  that 
Parsons  the  Jesuite  made  it. — Ibid.,  Ch.  Hist., 
IX.  vii.  24. 

Clome,  earthenware.  The  first  extract 
is  supposed  to  be  in  the  Devonshire 
dialect 

Now,  zester  Nan,  by  this  yow  see 
What  zort  of  vokes  gert  people  be ; 
What's  cheny  thoft  is  clome. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  169. 

In  your  account  of  the  ceremonies  now 
practised  in  Devon  at  Christmas  regarding 
the  apple-trees,  you  are  wrong  in  calling  it  a 
clayen  cup;  it  should  be  a  clome  or  ctomen 
cup:  thus  all  earthenware  shops  and  china 
shops  are  called  by  the  middling  class  and 
peasantry  clome  or  clomen  shops,  and  the 
same  in  markets  where  earthenware  is  dis- 
played in  Devon  are  called'  clome  standings. 
—  Correspondent,  Jan.  12,  1825,  in  Hone's 
Entry-day  Book,  ii.  p.  1652. 

The  Hang's  Grace  looked  but  sourly  upon 
me,  and  said  it  should  go  hard  but  that  the 
pitcher  which  went  so  oft  to  the  well  should 
be  broke  at  last.  Thereto  I  making  answer 
that  that  should  depend  on  the  pitcher, 
whether  it  were  iron  or  clomb,  he  turned  on 
his  heel,  and  presently  departed  from  me. — 
H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  i. 

Close- fights,  things  used  to  conceal 
or  protect  men  in  time  of  action.  See 
quotation  s.  t>.  Cobridgk-hkad. 

After  the  close 'fights  were  made  ready 
above,  ...  up  comes  the  master.  —  John 
Reynard* 5  Deliverance  (Harl.  Misc.,  i.  188). 

Close-time,  the  time  during  which  it 
is  unlawful  to  shoot  game,  or  to  fish. 

He  had  shot  in  the  course  of  his  walk  some 
young  wild-ducks,  as,  though  close-time  was 
then  unknown,  the  broods  of  grouse  were 
yet  too  young  for  the  sportsman.  —  Scott, 
Waverley,  i.  197. 

They  came  on  a  wicked  old  gentleman 
breaking  the  laws  of  his  country,  and  catch- 
ing perch  in  close-time  out  of  a  punt. — H. 
Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  lxiv. 

Cloth.  The  cloth  =  the  clerical 
profession,  or  the  clergy.  In  Tom 
Jones  it  is  used  of  the  military  profes- 
sion.   See  extract  s.  v.  Another. 

Much  civility  passed  between  the  two 
clergymen,  who  both  declared  the  great 
honour  they  had  for  the  doth.  —  Fieldiny, 
Jos.  Andrews, Bk.  I.  ch.  xvi. 


CLOTHED 


(  i*9  ) 


CL  UMME 


Another  black  sheep  in  the  Church? 
thought  I,  with  a  little  sorrow ;  for  I  don't 
care  to  own  that  I  have  a  respect  for  the 
cloth.— Thackeray,  Book  of  Snobs,  ch.  xxvii. 

If  there  is  one  epithet  I  hate  more  than 
soother,  it  is  that  execrable  word  cloth — used 
for  the  office  of  a  clergyman.  I  have  no 
time  to  set  forth  its  offence  now.  If  my 
reader  cannot  feel  it,  I  do  not  care  to  make 
him  feel  it.  Only  I  am  sorry  to  say  it  over- 
came my  temper.  "  Madam,"  I  said,  "  I  owe 
nothing  to  my  tailor."—  G.  Macdonald,  An- 
nals of  a  Quiet  Neighbourhood,  ch.  xiii. 

Clothed.  This,  I  suppose,  means 
that  the  figure  of  our  Lord  was  repre- 
sented as  clothed. 

Henry  Portman,  Esq.  also  placed  at  the 
Bast  End  a  cloathed  Besurrection-piece, 
painted  by  Sir  James  Thomhffl.— 2>e/<*.  Tour 
thro' G.Brit.,  ±245. 

Clothes-horse,  a  stand  on  which 
clothes  are  hung  to  dry. 

We  keep  no  horse  but  a  clothes-horse.— 
Sketches  by  Bot  {Hackney-coach  Stands). 

If  she  were  not  healthier  by  God's  making 
than  ever  she  will  be  by  yours,  her  charity 
would  be  by  this  time  double-distilled  selfish- 
ness ;  the  mouths  she  fed,  cupboards  to  store 
pod  works  in  ;  the  backs  she  warmed,  clothes- 
hones  to  hang  out  her  wares  before  God. — 
Kingsley,  Saint's  Tragedy,  iv.  2. 

Cloth-market,  a  cant  term  for  bed. 

3Vt.  Misg,  your  slave ;  I  hope  your  early 
riang  will  do  you  no  harm ;  I  find  you  are 
but  just  come  out  of  the  Cloth-market.— 
*"/<,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  i.). 

Cloth  of  pleasance,  a  napkin  where- 
with to  wipe  the  cup  after  drinking  (?), 
or  a  cloth  held  under  a  person's  chin 
while  drinking,  like  the  houselline:- 
cloth  (?).         *  S 

To-day  when  as  I  filled  into  your  cups, 

And  held  the  cloth  of  pleasance  whiles  you 

one  reached  me  such  a  rap. 

Marlowe,  Dido,  I.  i. 

Cloud.  Under  a  cloud  =  in  diffi- 
culties, or,  sometimes,  with  a  slur  on 
one's  character. 

I  have  known  him  do  great  services  to 
g^tlemen  under  a  cloud.— Fielding,  Amelia, 
ok.  V.  ch.  iv. 

I  will  s»y  that  for  the  English,  if  they  were 
«eua,  that  they  are  a  ceeveleesed  people  to 
gentlemen  that  are  under  a  cloud.  —  Scott, 
fodgauntlet,  ii.  285. 

Coavinses',  the  sheriff's  officer's, . .  coffee- 
room  is  at  the  back,  and  the  shadows  of 
■everal  gentlemen  under  a  cloud  loom  cloudily 
npou  the  blinds.  —  Dickens,  Bleak    House, 


Cloudlet,  small  cloud. 

m  Over  the  whole  brilliant  scene  Vesuvius 
rising  with  cloudlets  playing  round  its  summit. 
— Thackeray,  The  Newcomes,  ch.  xxxix. 
Sire,  I  replied,  joys  prove  cloudlets, 
Men  are  the  merest  Ixions. 

Browning,  The  Glove. 

Clownify,  to  make  dull  or  clownish. 

I  wish  you  would  not  so  clownifie  your  wit 
as  to  bury  your  vnderstanding  all  vnder  a 
clod  of  earth.— Breton,  Courtier  and  Country- 
man, p  7. 

Is  not  the  Clowiyfying  of  wit  the  Foolify- 
ing  of  understanding?— /to*,  p.  8. 

Clownist,  an  actor  of  clowns'  parts. 

We  are,  sir,  comedians,  tragedians,  tragi- 
comedians,  comi-tragedians,  pastorists,  hu- 
morists, clownists,  satirists.  —  Middltton, 
Mayor  of  Quinborough,  v.  1. 

Cloynino,  cheating. 

Such  texts  as  agree  not  with  the  cloynings  of 
your  conjurors,  and  the  conveyances  of  your 
sorcerers,  must  needs  be  seasoned  with  Aris- 
totle's physics,  and  sauced  with  John  Donse's 
subtleties.— Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  170. 

Club,  a  clown. 

The  fair  flatte  truthe  that  the  vplaudishe 
or  homely  and  playn  clubbes  of  the  countree 
dooeu  vse,  nameth  eche  thing  by  the  right 
names.— UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  289. 

Clubbers,  associates ;  those  who  club 
together. 

Tap.  Humbled  myself  to  marriage  with 
my  Froth  here, 

Gave  entertainment 

Well.  Yes,  to  whores  and  canters, 

Clubbers  by  night. 

Massingtr,  New  way  to  pay  old  debts,  I.  i. 

Clubster,  a  frequenter  of  clubs,  and 
so  a  boon  companion.  In  the  second 
quotation,  and  in  the  third  a.  v.  Spend- 
itore,  North  applies  the  word  to  mem- 
bers of  the  Green-Ribbon  Club. 

He  was  no  clubster  listed  among  good  fel- 
lows.—North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  145. 

The  house  was  doubly  balconied  in  the 
front,  as  may  be  yet  seen,  for  the  clubsters 
to  issue  forth  in  fresco  with  hats  and  perukes. 
— Ibid.,  Examen,  p.  572. 

Clue.  In  the  full  clue,  as  applied 
to  sails,  seems  to  mean  spread  to  full 
extent. 

The  next  day  following,  if  it  were  fine,  they 
would  cloud  the  whole  skie  with  canvas  by 
spreading  their  drabled  sailes  in  the  full  clue 
abroad  a  drying.— Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  149). 

Clumme.  Bailey  in  his  Diet,  has  clum, 
a  note  of  silence  :  perhaps  this  is  the 

K 


CLUMPY 


(  130  )  CO  AD  VENTURE 


meaning  in  the  extract ;  the  punctua- 
tion favours  the  idea  of  its  being  an 
interjection. 

He  is  as  freckled  about  the  gils,  and  lookes 
as  red  as  a  fox,  clumme,  and  is  more  surly 
to  be  spoken  with  than  ever  he  was  before. — 
Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  165). 

Clumpy,  in  clumps. 

Leaning  about  among  the  clumpy  bays, 
Look  at  the  clear  Apollo  while  he  plays. 

Leigh  Hunt,  Foliage,  p.  0. 

Clums,  dull ;  clumsy. 

Wherefore  the  prudent  Law-givers  of  old, 
Even  in  all  Nations,  with  right  sage  foresight 
Discovering  from  farre  how  clums  and  cold 
The  vulgar  wight  would  be  to  yield  what's 
right 
To  virtuous  learning,  did  by  law  design 
Great  wealth  and  honour  to  that  worth 
divine. — H.  More,  CupuTs  Conflict,  st.  61. 

Clunch,  stumpy ;  thick-set. 

I  found  him  [Dr.  Beattie]  pleasant,  un- 
affected, and  unassuming,  and  full  of  con* 
versible  intelligence,  with  a  round,  thick, 
clunch  figure,  that  promises  nothing  either 
of  his  works  or  his  discourse. — Mad.D'Arblay, 
Diary,  Hi.  397. 

She  is  fat,  and  clunch,  and  heavy,  and  ugly ; 
otherwise,  they  say,  agreeable  enough. — Ibid. 
iv.  272. 

Clunch,  to  clench. 

His  fingers  are  not  long  and  drawn  out  to 
handle  a  fiddle,  but  his  fist  is  cluncht  with 
the  habit  of  disputing. — Earle,  Microcosms 
graphie  (A  Downright  Scholar). 

Clunchfist,  a  miser ;  one  who  is 
close-fisted. 

Who  though  your  chests 
Vast  sums  of  money  should  to  you  afford, 
Would  ne'ertheless  add  more  unto  that  hoard, 
And  yet  not  be  content,  you  clunchfist s,  das- 
tards.— Urouhart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  liv. 

CLU9TEB0US,  thronging ;  gathered  in 
a  cluster.    See  extract  0.  v.  Gate. 

Clutterment,  noise ;  turmoil. 

The  philosopher . . .  thought  most  seriously 
to  have  withdrawn  himself  unto  a  solitary 
privacy,  far  from  the  rustling  clutterments  of 
the  tumultuous  and  confused  world. — Ur- 
quhart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xiii. 

Cly,  to  take :  a  cant  term.     See  ex- 
tract in  H.,  s.  v.  pannam. 
Here  safe  in  our  skipper  let's  cly  off  our 

peck, 
And  bowse  in  defiance  o'  th'  Harman-beck. 
Broome,  Jovial  Crew,  Act  II. 

Clyfakeb,  pickpocket  (thieves1  cant). 

They  were  gentlemen  sharpers,  and  not 
vulgar  cracksmen  and  clyfakers.  —  Lytton, 
Felham,  ch.  lxxxii. 


Clypakino.    See  extract 

'•  Harry  was  on  the  cross."  "On  the 
cross?"  said  Charles.  "Ah!"  the  boy 
said;  "he  goes  out  clyfaking,  and  such. 
He*8  a  prig,  and  a  smart  one  too ;  he's  fly,  is 
Harry."  "But  what  is  clyfakinq?"  said 
Charles.  "  Why,  a  prigging  of  wipes,  and 
sneeze-boxes,  and  ridicules,  and  such." — H. 
Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  xxxv. 

Clyster-pipe,  a  contemptuous  name 
for  an  apothecary.  Cf.  the  less  oppro- 
brious "  Gallipot." 

John  Haselwood,  a  proud,  starch'd,  formal, 
and  sycophantizing  cRster-vipe,  who  was  the 
apothecary  to  Clayton  when  he  practiced 
physick.— Life  of  A.  Wood,  May  3, 1661. 

Coach,  a  tutor  or  instructor ;  also,  as 
a  verb,  to  instruct :  a  slang  word  which 
has  now  almost  attained  to  a  recognized 
place  in  the  language. 

He  had  already  been  down  several  times  in 
pair-oar  and  four-oar  boats,  with  an  old  oar 
to  pull  stroke,  and  another  to  steer  and  coach 
the  young  idea.  —  Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at 
Oxford,  ch.  ii. 

Warham  was  studying  for  India  with  a 
Wancester  coach. — G.  Eliot,  Deronda,  ch.  vi. 

I  coached  him  before  he  got  his  scholarship; 
he  ought  to  have  taken  honours  last  Easter, 
but  he  was  ill. — Ibid.  ch.  xxxvii. 

Coachfulness,  abundance  of  coaches. 

My  purpose  was  fitly  inaugurated  by  the 
Dolphin's  Head,  which  everywhere  expressed 
past  coachfulness  and  present  coachlessness. 
— JXckens,  Uncommercial  Traveller,  xxii. 

Coachlessness,  want  of  coaches.  See 
extract  *.  v.  Coachfulness. 

Coachlet,  little  coach. 

In  my  light  little  coachlet  I  could  breathe 
freer.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  I. 
ch.  viii. 

Coadjutant,  a  helper. 

Oates  or  some  of  his  coadjutants  being 
touched  (not  in  conscience,  but)  with  the 
disappointment  of  their  work,  and  sensible 
of  a  better  trade  on  the  other  side,  might 
have  made  a  short  turn,  and  like  elephants 
have  overrun  their  own  party. — North,  Kr- 
amen,  p.  198. 

Coadjutatob,  assistant :  coadjutor  is 
the  usual  form. 

I  do  purpose  ...  to  act  as  a  coadjutator 
to  the  law,  and  even  to  remedy  evils  which 
the  law  cannot  reach.  —  Smollett,  Lancelot 
Greaves,  ch.  ii. 

Coadventure,  to  share  in  a  venture. 
L.  has  coadverUurer  from  Howell* 
Letters. 

This  hee  shall  observe  better  in  Italy, where 


CO-AGENCY 


(  13O 


COB -HO  USE 


the  Prince  holdeth  it  no  disparagement  to 
co-adventure,  and  pat  in  his  stake  with  the 
Marchant. — Howell,  Forraine  Travell,  sect.  vii. 

Co-agency,  co-operative  power. 

Now  therefore  began  to  open  upon  me 
those  fascinations  of  solitude  which,  when 
acting  as  a  co-agency  with  unresisted  grief, 
end  in  the  paradoxical  result  of  making  out 
of  grief  itself  a  luxury.— Be  Quincey,  Autob. 
Sketches,  i.  22. 

Coal-CARrierly,  servile ;  black- 
guardly.    See  N.  on  carrying  coal*. 

I  heard  your  father  say  that  he  would, 
many  you  to  Peter  Ploddall,  that  puck-fist, 
that  smudge-snout,  that  coal-carrierly  clown. 
-Wily  Beguiled  (Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr. iii.  302). 

Coalescency,  coalescence ;  aggre- 
gation. Gauden  speaks  of  the  primi- 
tive Churches  growing  "  by  an  nappy 
diffusion  and  holy  coalescency  to  such 
great  and  goodly  combinations"  {Tears 
of  the  Church,  p.  34). 

Coalise,  to  coalesce.  See  quotation 
*.  v.  Cat. 

Swedish  Qnstav,  sworn  Knight  of  the 
Queen  of  France,  will  lead  coalised  armies. 
-CailyU,  Ft.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  V.  ch.  v. 

CoAL-KlNDLRR,  a  stirrer-up  of  burning 
questions.     See  next  entry. 

It  may  be  a  coal-kindler  would  think  such 
counsel  as  this  not  worth  the  hearing. — 
Backet,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  104. 

Coals.  To  stir  coals  =  to  quarrel,  or 
incite  to  quarrel.  The  third  extract  is 
supposed  to  occur  in  a  letter  from  a 
servant 

He  gaue  oonnsaill  that  nothing  was  to 
be  denied  vnto  Alexander  on  their  behalf, 
onlesse  thei  had  assured  trust  and  confidence, 
if  he  would  take  peper  in  the  nose,  or  stiere 
cofc*,  to  wrynge  hym  to  the  wurse  with 
dynte  of  sworde. — UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth., 
p.  328. 

After  soche  sorte  did  he  vpbraid  to  the 
people  their  rashe  and  vnaduised  stierinq  of 
*ol**>  and  arisinges  to  warre.— Ibid.  p.  382. 

What,  as  I  sed  to  him,  Cuzzen  Titus,  signi- 
fies stirring  up  the  coles,  and  macking  strife, 
to  make  rich  gentilfolkes  live  at  varience  ? — 
Richardson,  d.  Harlowe,  iii.  262. 

Coal-scuttle  bonnet,  a  bonnet 
shaped  like  a  coal-scuttle. 

There  was  Bliss  Snevellici  ....  glancing 
from  the  depths  of  her  coal-scuttle  bonnet  at 
Nicholas.  —  Dickens,  Nicholas  Nickleby,  ch. 
zxiii. 

She  knew  Miss  Lydia  was  passing,  and 
though  Hetty  liked  so  much  to  look  at  her 
fashionable  little  coal-scuttle  bonnet,  with  the 
wreath  of  small  roses  round  it,  she  didn't 


mind  it  to-day.— G.  Eliot,  Adam  Bede,  ch. 
xviii. 

Coal-whipper,  one  engaged  in  load- 
ing and  unloading  collier  vessels. 

The  young  ladies  exhibited  a  proper  dis- 
play of  horror  at  the  appearance  of  the  coal- 
whippets  and  ballast-heavers.  —  Sketches  by 
Boz  (Steam  Excursion). 

He  had  such  a  pair  of  legs  as  a  painter 
would  have  given  to  an  Irish  chairman,  or 
one  of  the  swarthy,  demon-like  coal-whippers 
to  be  seen  issuing  from  those  black  arches  in 
the  Strand.— Savage,  Reuben  Medlicott,  Bk.  I. 
oh.  iii. 

Coast  man,  master  of  a  coasting 
vessel;  a  fisherman.  The  extract  re- 
fers to  the  month  of  February,  when 
Lent  usually  begins. 

To  coast  man  ride, 
Lent  staffe  to  prouide. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  86. 

Coatless,  without  a  coat. 

Seven  or  eight  sallow  starved  beings,  .  . 
coatless,  shoeless,  and  ragged,  sat  stitching, 
each  on  his  truckle  bed. — C.  Kingsley,  Alton 
Locke,  ch.  zxi. 

Coat-money,  an  exaction  levied  by 
Charles  I.  on  the  pretext  of  providing 
clothing  for  troops.  Cf.  Conduct- 
money, with  which  it  is  always  joined. 

Such  illegal  actions,  and  especially  to  get 
vast  sums  of  money,  were  put  in  practice \j 
the  King  and  his  new  officers,  as  monopolies, 
compulsive  knighthoods,  coat,  conduct,  and 
ship-money,  ...  as  gave  evident  proof  that 
the  King  never  meant  ...  to  recall  parlia- 
ments.— Milton,  Eikonoklastes,  ch.  i. 

He  was  put  into  such  a  good  condition, 
that  he  was  able  both  to  raise  and  maintain 
an  army  with  no  charge  to  the  common 
subject,  but  only  a  little  coat  and  conduct 
money  at  their  first  setting  out. — Heylin,  Life 
of  Laud,  Bk.  iv.  p.  382. 

Coax,  an  enticement ;  a  wheedling : 
the  usual  noun  is  coaxing. 

He  held  out  by  turn  coaxes  and  threats ;  in 
short  everything  but  an  amnesty. — Marryat, 
Fr.  Mildmay,  ch.  i. 

Cob,  to  beat. 

I  was  sentenced  to  be  cobbed  with  a  wor- 
sted stocking  filled  with  wet  sand. — Marryat, 
Fr.  Mildmay,  ch.  ii. 

Cob-house,  or  walls,  a  house  or 
walls  built  of  cob,  i.  e.  marl  mixed  with 
straw. 

The  subject  of  the  cob-icalls  of  the  western 
counties,  and  of  the  use  of  concrete  gener- 
ally in  all  ages,  .  .  .  has  beeu  curiously  illus- 
trated in  the  Quarterly  Revieio,  vol.  Iviii. — 
Archaol.,  xxx.  495  (1844). 

K  2 


COBRIDGE-HEAD      (  132  )         COCK-FIGHTING 


The  main  village  .  .  .  consisted  of  a  nar- 
row street  of  cob-houses  white-washed  and 
thatched.  —  H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn, 
ch.  vi. 

Cobridge-head.     See  quotation. 

The  English  fashion  was  to  heighten  the 
ship  as  much  as  possible  at  stem  and  stern, 
both  bv  the  sweep  of  her  lines  and  also  by 
stockades  ("  close-fights  and  cage-works  ")  on 
the  poop  and  forecastle,  thus  giving  to  the 
men  a  shelter,  which  was  further  increased 
by  strong  bulk-heads  ("cobridae- heads") 
across  the  main-deck  below,  dividing  the  ship 
thus  into  a  number  of  separate  forts,  fitted 
with  swivels  ("bases,  fowlers  and  murder- 
ers") and  loop-noled  for  musketry  and  arrows. 
— C.  Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  xx. 

Cobwebbkry,  flimsy  intricacy. 

Welcome  is  his  word,  there  where  he 
speaks  and  works,  and  growing  ever  wel- 
come* ;  for  it  alone  goes  to  the  heart  of  the 
business ;  logical  cobtcebbery  shrinks  itself  to- 
gether, and  thou  seest  a  thing,  how  it  is,  how 
it  may  be  worked  with. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev., 
Pt.  II.  Bk.  I.  ch.  ii. 

Cock,  a  familiar  form  of  address  = 
fellow ;  and  usually  has  "  old  "  pre- 
fixed. In  Erasmus  there  seems  to  be  a 
pun ;  the  French  being  polite  and  liberal 
in  their  entertainments. 

He  has  drawn  blood  of  him  yet :  well  done, 
old  cock. — Massinger,  Unnatural  Combat ,11.  i. 

I  am  going  to  an  old  club  of  merry  cocks 
(vetustissimum  Gallorum  contubernium)  to 
endeavour  to  patch  up  what  I  have  lost. — 
Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  378. 

He  was  an  honest  old  cock,  and  loved  his 

Sipe  and  a  tankard  of  cyder  as  well  as  the 
est  of  us. — Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk. 
VIII.  ch.  xxiv. 

Cock.  That  cock  won't  fight  =  that 
will  not  do. 

I  tried  to  see  the  arms  on  the  carriage,  but 
there  were  none  ;  so  that  cock  wouldn't  jight. 
— C  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xxiv. 

Cockadoodle,  to  crow  like  a  cock 
(onomatopoeou8). 

The  peacocks,  with  their  spotted  coates 
and  affrighting  voyces,  for  heralds,  they 
prickt  and  enlisted;  and  the  cockadoodling 
cocks  for  their  trumpeters. — Nashe,  Lenten 
Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  170). 

#  Cock-a-doodlb  bboth.      See  quota- 
tion. 

He  complains  that  "he  can't  peck,"  yet 
continues  the  cause  of  his  infirmity,  living 
almost  entirely  upon  cock-a-doodle  broth, — 
eggs  beat  up  in  brandy  and  a  little  water.— 
Meade,  Never  too  late  to  mend,  ch.  lxxxv. 

Cock-bbead,  food  for  fighting  cocks. 
Yon  squall  at  us  on  Shrove-Tuesday ;  you 


feed  us  with  cock-bread  and  arm  us  with 
steel  spurs  that  we  may  mangle  and  kill  each 
other  for  your  sport ;  you  build  cock-pits, 
you  make  us  fight  Welsh  mains,  and  give 
subscription  cups  to  the  winner. — South  cy, 
The  Doctor,  ch.  clxiv. 

Cocker,  a  dog  of  the  spaniel  kind, 
used  in  raising  woodcocks,  &c. 

I  myself  was  acquainted  with  a  little  Blen- 
he&mvocker,  one  of  the  smallest,  beautif  ullest, 
and  wisest  of  lapdogs  or  dogs  . . .  Shandy, 
so  hight  this  remarkable  cocker,  was  ex- 
tremely shy  of  strangers. —  Carlyle,  Jftsc, 
iv.  171. 

The  worthy  old  gentleman,  having  finished 
his  oration,  settled  himself  on  a  great  bench 
inside  the  chimney,  and  put  his  hawk  on  a 
perch  over  his  head,  while  his  cockers  coiled 
themselves  up  close  to  the  warm  peat-ashes. 
— C.  Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  v. 

Cocker,  cock-fighter. 

He  was  the  greatest  cocker  in  England  ;  he 
said  Duke  John  won  him  many  battles,  and 
never  lost  one. — Steele,  Conscious  Lovers,  Act 
IV. 

If  the  king  was  content  a  man  should 
out,  he  made  a  mark  at  his  name  ;  but  if  he 
would  not  part  with  him,  he  found  some 
jocular  reason  to  let  him  stand,  as  that  he 
was  a  good  cocker,  understood  hunting,  kept 
a  good  house.— North,  Examen,  p.  78. 

Cockernobe,  a  term  of  abuse,  applied 
in  the  quotation  to  hermits ;  it  means, 
I  suppose,  stuck-up  persons. 

And  also  by  these  prelates  these  cocker- 
noses  are  suffered  to  live  in  pride  and  hy- 
pocrisy, and  to  defoul  themselves  both  bodily 
and  ghostly. — Testament  of  W.  Thorpe  (Bale's 
Select  Works,  p.  130). 

Cocket.  H.  says,  "To  joyne  or 
fasten  in  building  as  one  joyst  or  stone 
is  cocketted  within  another." — Thomasii 
Did.,  1644. 

In  brest  of  the  Godesse  Gorgon  was  cocketed 

hardlye 
With  nodil  vnjoyncted  by  death. 

St  any  hurst,  Conceites,  p.  138. 

Cock-kightino.  To  beat  cock-fighting 
=  to  surpass  everything.  In  the  first 
extract  there  is  a  literal  reference  to 
cock-fighting. 

Ministers1  scufflings  and  contests  with  one 
another  is  beyond  any  Cock-fghting  or  Bear- 
baiting  to  the  vulgar  envy,  malice,  profane- 
nesse  and  petulancy. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  228. 

I  fear  the  contradiction  of  no  man  alive  or 
dead,  when  I  assert  that  my  friend  Chevy 
Slime  being  held  in  pawn  for  a  bill,  heats  any 
amount  of  cock-fighting  with  which  I  am 
acquainted.—  Dickens,  Martin  Chuzzlctcit,  ch. 
vii. 


COCKHORSE 


(  *33  ) 


COCKSHY 


The  Squire  faltered  oat,  "  Well,  this  beats 
cockfighting!  the  man's  as  mad  as  a  March 
hare,  and  has  taken  Dr.  Rickeybockey  for 
little  Lenny.  —  Lytton,  My  Hovel,  Bk.  in. 
ch.  xi. 

Cockhorse,  on  high,  and  so,  elated. 

The  ladies  sit  on  cockhorse  upon  scaffolds 
in  open  view. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  167. 

My  gentlemen  return'd  to  their  lodgings 
on  cockhorxe,  and  began  to  think  of  a  fund 
for  a  glorious  equipage. — Ibid.  p.  215. 

Cocking,  shooting,  as  of  wood-cock, 

&c. 

"You  shoot?"  "No."  "Pity;  there 
ought  to  be  noble  cocking  in  these  woods." — 
C  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xi. 

Cocking,  sparring  or  disputing,  as 

between  fighting-cocks. 

Betwene  Aristippus  and  Diogenes  the 
Cynike  there  was  moche  good  cocking  and 
striaing  whether  of  them  should  win  the 
spnrres  and  beare  the  bell." — UdaVs  Eras- 
tnns's  Apophth.,  p.  45. 

Cockle,  whimsical,  maggotty.  Jamie- 
son  gives  cockle-headed  as  meaning 
this.  There  is  no  corresponding  word 
in  the  original. 

His  cockle  brains  were  dashed  out  near  the 
Osaona  or  high-cross. — UrquharVs  Rabelais, 
8k.  IV.  ch.  xiii. 

Cocklba,   a    screw;    more  properly 

spelt  cochlea,  so  called  from  its  spiral 

form,  like  a  cockle. 

Inventions  for  drawing  off  the  waters  out 
of  the  fenns  about  it  being  by  bucketts, 
mills,  cockleas,  pumps,  and  the  like. — Evelyn, 
Diary,  Sept.  12, 1641. 

Cockle-demois,  half  cockle-shells  ? 

Next .  .  march  t  a  mock-maske  of  Baboons 
. . .  casting  Cockle-demois  about  in  courtesie, 
by  way  of  lardges.  —  Chapman,  Masque  of 
Mid.  Temple. 

Cockles,   ringlets j   cockle  means  to 

twist  or  wrinkle. 

The  Queen  bad  inkling ;  instantly  she  sped 
To  curl  the  cockles  of  her  new-bought  head. 

Sylvester,  The  Decay,  07. 

Cockles.  Cockle*  of  the  heart  =  the 
inmost  recesses  of  the  heart  L.,  who 
gives  the  phrase,  but  without  example, 
say 8,  "  The  most  probable  explanation 
lies  (1)  in  the  likeness  of  a  heart  to  a 
cockleshell ;  the  base  of  the  former  be- 
ing compared  to  the  hinge  of  the  latter ; 
(2)  in  the  zoological  name  for  the 
cockle  and  its  congeners  being  Car- 
dium,  from  the  Greek,  xaptia  =  heart." 

The  sight  . . .  after  near  two  months  ab- 


sence rejoiced  the  very  cockles  of  Jerry's 
heart.— Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  XII. 
ch.  xiv. 

Polyglot  toss'd  a  bumper  off ;  it  cheer'd 
The  cockles  of  his  heart. 

Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  147. 

Cocklet,  young  cock. 

Were  I  to  stop  praying  and  remembering 
my  own  sins  daily,  I  could  become  a  Demo- 
critus  Junior,  and  sitting  upon  the  bench  of 
contemplation,  make  the  world  my  cockpit, 
wherein  main  after  main  of  cocklets — the 
"  shell "  alas !  "  scarce  off  their  heads  "  come 
forth  to  slay  and  be  slain  mutually,  for  no 
quarrel,  except  "  thou-cock  art  not  me-cock, 
therefore  fight."— C.  Kingsley,  1845  (Life,  i. 
103). 

Cocknyed,     cockered ;     in    original 
fotum. 

But  Venus  enfuseth  sweet  sleepe  to  the 

partye  resembled. 
Too  woods  Idalian  thee  child  nice  cocknyed 

heauing 
In  seat  of  her  boosom. 

Stanyhurst,  AEn.,  i.  677. 

Cockneyism,  that  which  belongs  to 
or  denotes  a  cockney  or  Londoner. 

Tom  .  .  recognised  the  woman's  Berkshire 
accent  beneath  its  coat  of  cockneyism. — C. 
Kingsley,  TSco  Years  Ago,  ch.  xxiv. 

Cock  of  the  circuit.  See  quota- 
tions. The  second  shows  that  it  was  a 
title  for  leading  counsel  generally,  not 
for  one  in  particular,  and  so  far  the 
phrase  differs  from  cock  of  the  school, 
cock  of  the  walk,  &c. 

And  here  1  am  to  shew  what  great  appli- 
cation and  industry  he  used  in  that  branch 
of  his  practise,  which  in  a  few  years  raised 
him  to  the  post,  as  they  call  it,  of  cock  of  the 
circuit,  which  supposeth  him  (as  truly  he 
was)  a  counsel  of  one  side  or  other  in  every 
cause  of  value  to  be  tried. — North,  Life  of 
Lord  Guilford,  i.  68. 

He  was  exceedingly  careful  to  keep  fair 
with  the  cocks  of  the  circuit. — Ibid.  p.  69. 

Cook-rood,  i.  e.  cock -road,  a  net  for 

catching  birds,  especially  woodcocks. 

See  N.,  s.  vv.  cockshut,  and  glade. 

Thou  hast  thy  cockrood,  and  thy  glade 
To  take  the  precious  phesant  made. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  247. 

Cockshy,   something  put  up    as   a 

mark  to  be  thrown  at. 

This  was  as  if  the  great  geologists  . . .  had 
invited  two  rival  theorists  to  settle  the  ques- 
tion of  a  geological  formation  by  picking 
up  the  stones  and  appealing  to  the  test  of 
a  cockshy.  —  Lord  Strangford,  Letters  and 
Papers,  p.  215. 


COCK-STRIDE  (  134  ) 


COGGLED  Y 


Cock-stride,  a  curious  measure  of 
length.     There  is  an  old  saying — 

At  New  Year's  tide 

The  days  lengthen  a  coclfs-stride. 

It  is  now  February,  and  the  Sun  is  gotten 
up  a  cocke-stride  of  his  climbing. — Breton, 
Fantastickes  (February). 

Cock-tail,  a  drink. 

James,  my  fine  fellow,  jist  look  alive,  and 
breng  me  a  small  glass  of  brandy,  will  ye  ? 
Did  ye  iver  try  a  brandy  cock-tail,  Cornel  ? — 
Thackeray,  Tlie  Ncwcomes,  ch.  xiii. 

Cock-thrapplkd,  applied  to  a  hunt- 
ing horse  whose  windpipe  bends  like  a 
bow  when  he  bridles.  See  N.,  s.  v. 
cock-throppled. 

He  was  not  .  .  .  restiff,  vicious,  neck-re- 
versed, or  cock  -  thrappled,  ewe -necked  or 
deer-necked,  high  on  the  leg,  brokeu-kneed, 
...  or  sickle-hammed. — Southey,  The  Doctor, 
ch.  cxliii. 

Cock-treading.  The  extract  seems 
to  distinguish  this  both  from  the  yolk 
and  white. 

Then  beat  the  yolks  of  six  new  laid  eggs, 
and  put  them  into  the  wine  on  the  fire ;  then 
take  the  cock-treading  of  twelve  eggs  and  the 
white  of  one  egge,  and  beat  them  into  au 
oyl. — Queen* s  Closet  Opened,  p.  47. 

Cockwater.  The  extract  is  part  of 
a  humane  receipt  for  "cock-water  for 
a  consumption."  Southey  {Doctor,  ch. 
xxiv.)  refers  to  it. 

Take  a  running  cock,  pull  him  alive,  then 
kill  him,  cut  him  abroad  by  the  back,  take 
out  the  entrails,  and  wipe  him  clean,  then 
quarter  him  and  break  his  bones,  then  put 
him  into  a  rose-water  still  with  a  pottle  of 
sack.— Queen's  Closet  Opened,  p.  14  (1655). 

Cockyoly  birds,  little  birds. 

Major  Campbell  prepares  the  charming 
little  cockyoly  birds,  and  I  call  the  sun  in  to 
immortalise  them. — C.  King  si ey,  Two  Years 
Ago,  ch.  xv. 

Codd,  the  name  given  by  the  Charter- 
house boys  to  the  old  pensioners ;  per- 
haps an  abbreviation  of  codger. 

Yonder  sit  some  threescore  old  gentlemen 
pensioners  of  the  hospital.  Tou  hear  them 
coughing  feebly  in  the  twilight  —  the  old 
reverend  blackgowns.  Is  Codd  Ajax  alive, 
you  wonder ;  the  Cistercian  lads  called  these 
old  gentlemen  Codds,  I  know  not  wherefore. 
— lliackeray,  The  Newcomes,  ch.  lxxv. 

Codger,  old  fellow.  (See  L.,  8.  v. 
cozier)  :  in  the  first  extract  it  seems  = 
a  precise  person,  a  Squaretoes. 

He  gave  himself  the  airs  of  an  old  justice 
of  the  peace,  and  said  if  he  did  not  find  the 


affair  given  up,  nothing  should  induce  him 
ever  to  help  me  again.  What  a  mere  codger 
that  lad  has  turned  out!  —  Mad.  D'Arbiay, 
Camilla,  Bk.  IX.  ch.  iv. 

He's  a  rum  codger  you  must  know, 
At  least  we  poor  folk  thiuk  him  so. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  c.  i. 

"  I  haven't  been  drinkiug  your  health,  my 
codger?  replied  Mr.  Squeers. — Dickens,  Nicho- 
las Nickleby,  ch.  lx. 

My  uncle  Sam  is  more  anxious  about  my 
sins  than  the  other  codgers,  because  he  is  my 

fodfather. — Lytton,  What  will  he  do  with  it  ? 
\k.  IV.  ch.  ix. 

Ccelest,  celestial ;  blew  cosiest  =  sky- 
blue. 

Her  vtmost  robe  was  colour  blew  Ccelest. — 
Hudson,  Judith,  iv.  58. 

Coembody,  to  unite  in  one  body. 

Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit  will  then 
become  coembodied  in  this  Divine  body. — H. 
Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  ii.  252. 

Coffin,  in  the  extract  =  bier,  not 
what  we  now  call  coffin. 

For  mendynge  of  coffen  that  carrys  the 
corsses  to  church. — Churchwardens'  Accounts 
of  S.  MichaeTs,  Cornhill,  ed.  by  Overall,  p. 
112. 

Co-found,  to  found  at  the  same  time. 
Fuller  (  Worthies,  London,  ii.  58),  says 
that  the  steeple  of  St.  Paul's  "was  origin- 
al \y  co-founded  by  King  Ethelbert  with 
the  Body  of  the  Church. "  Co-founder  = 
joint  founder,  is  in  the  Diets. 

Coo-boat,  a  small  boat  or  cock-boat. 

As  for  the  Western  Scottish,  he  so  over- 
awed them,  as  that  no  man  who  built  ship 
or  cog-boat  durst  drive  into  it  above  three 
nailes. — Holland's  Camden,  ii.  206. 

Olave  fled  in  a  little  cog-boat  unto  his 
father-in-law,  the  Earle  of  Bosse.  —  Ibid. 
p.  210. 

Cogfoist,  a  cheat. 

I  had  thought  you  would  have  had  a  sack 
to  have  put  this  law-cracking  cogfoist  in 
instead  of  a  pair  of  stocks. —  Wily  Beguiled 
(Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr.  iii.  907). 

Coggle,  a  round  stone.  "  Coggles,  a 
large  gravel  stone  used  for  paving" 
(Peacock's  Manley  and  Corringham 
Glossary). 

A  flint  is  sooner  broken  with  a  gentle 
stroke  upon  a  feather-bed,  than  strucken 
with  all  tne  might  against  a  hard  coggle. — 
Sanderson,  i.  207. 

Coggledy,  rickety;  coggly  in  this 
sense  is  in  Jamieson. 

Take  care  of  that  step-ladder  though  ;  it  ia 
coggledy,  as  I  observed  when  you  came  down. 
— Miss  Edgeworth,  Helen,  ch.  xxv. 


COGITABUND 


(  *35  ) 


COLLATION 


COGITABUND,  thoughtful. 

These  gentlemen  with  very  eogitabund 
aspects  made  up  the  three  degrees  of  com- 
parison amongst  'em. — Tom  Brown,  Works, 
iii.  15. 

"  I  do  think  Latin  words  sound  very  odd. 
I  dare  say,  Miss  Buruey,  you  know  Latin 
very  well  ?  "  I  assured  her  to  the  contrary. 
tf  Well,"  said  the  little  fool,  "  I  know  one 
word."  "Do  you?  Pray,  what  is  it?" 
**Why,  it's  eogitabund;  it's  a  very  droll 
word."— Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  i.  313. 

Bosch,  in  a  clerical  dress,  is  seated  in  an 
easy-chair,  coqitabund,  with  a  manuscript 
open  before  him. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch. 
cxii. 

Cognominate,  to  sirname  or  nick- 
name.    See  extract  s.  v.  Diphrelatic. 

Coos,  false  dice. 

It  were  a  hard  matter  for  me  to  get  my 
dinner  that  day  wherein  my  master  had  not 
sold  a  dozen  of  devices,  a  case  of  cogs,  and 
a  suit  of  shifts  in  the  morning.  —  Greene, 
James  IV^  ii.  1. 

Cogue,  a  keg. 

Their  drink  is  ale  made  of  beer-malt,  and 
tunned  up  in  a  small  vessel  called  a  cogue; 
after  it  has  stood  a  few  hours,  they  drink  it 
out  of  the  cogue,  yest  and  all. — Modern  Ac- 
count of  Scotland,  1670  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  141). 

A  cogue  of  true  orthodox  Nantz  would  have 
corrected  the  crudity  of  the  custard.  —  T. 
Brown,  Works,  ii.  304. 

Cohabitatb,  to  dwell  together. 

Shall  the  graces  of  God  cohaJtitate  with  the 
vices  of  Satan  ?— Adams,  ii.  306. 

Cohibit,  to  restrain. 

It  was  scarce  possible  to  cohibite  people's 
talk.— North,  Life  of  Lard  Guilford,  i.  298. 

Cohorn,  a  brass  cannon,  so  named 
from  Cohorn,  the  celebrated  engineer. 

It  was  determined  in  a  council  of  war  that 
five  of  our  largest  ships  should  attack  the 
fort  on  one  side,  while  the  battery  played  it 
on  the  other,  strengthened  with  two  mortars 
and  twenty-four  cohorns.  —  Smollett,  Rod. 
Random,  ch.  xxxii. 

Coinless,  penniless ;  poor. 

Ton  thought  me  poor  and  friendless  too, 
And  look'd  for  homage  you  deem'd  due 
From  coinless  bards  to  men  like  you. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  c.  vii. 

Coin-made,  mercenary,  or  simoniacal. 

Coyne-made  Pastors  let  the  flock  decay. — 
Dames,  Muse's  Teares,  p.  13. 

COINQUINATION,  pollution.  CI  CONIN- 
QUINATE. 


Vntil  I  make  a  second  inundation 

To  wash  thy  purest  Fame's  coinquination, 

And  make  it  fit  for  fin  all  conflagration. 

Davies,  Commendatory  Poems,  p.  14. 

Cokaghee,  a  liquor.  See  quotation 
s.  v.  Stire. 

Cold  roste.  H.,  who  gives  this 
expression  without  example,  explains 
it 4C  nothing  to  the  point  or  purpose ; " 
in  the  extract  it  means  insigniiicunt. 

He  passed  by  a  beggerie  little  toune  of 
cold  roste  in  the  mountaines  of  Sauoye. — 
UdaTs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  297. 

Cold  without,  spirits  mixed  with 
cold  water,  and  without  sugar. 

I  laugh  at  fame.  Fame,  sir !  not  worth  a 
glass  of  cold  without;  and  as  for  a  glass  of 
warm  with  sugar,  and  five  shillings  in  one's 
pocket  to  spend  as  one  pleases,  what  is  there 
in  Westminster  Abbey  to  compare  with  it? 
— Lytton,  My  Novel,  Bk.  VI.  ch.  xx. 

Cole,  slang  term  for  money.  Wal- 
pole  gives  a  ballad,  1741,  in  which  the 
following  occurs : — 

This  our  captain  no  sooner  had  flnger'd  the 

cole, 
But  he  hies  him  aboard  with  his  good  Madam 

Vole. — Letters  to  Mann,  i.  22. 

Gome,  my  soul, 
Post  the  cole; 
I  must  beg  or  borrow. 
Burgoyne,  Lord  of  the  Manor,  Act  III. 

Moreover,  the  whole  of  the  said  cash  or  cole 
Shall  be  spent  for  the  good  of  said  old  woman's 
soul. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  {Old  Woman  in  Grey). 

Cole-fish,  a  species  of  gadus. 

Cole-fish  and  poore-John  I  haue  no  need 
off. — Breton,  Packet  of  Letters,  p.  24. 

Colibri,  humming-bird. 

"Look,  Frank,  that's  a  colibri;  you've 
heard  of  colilrris?n  Frank  looked  at  the 
living  gem  which  hung,  loud  humming,  over 
some  fantastic  bloom,  and  then  dashed  away, 
seemingly  to  call  its  mate,  and  whirred  ana 
danced  with  it  round  and  round  the  flower- 
starred  bushes,  flashing  fresh  rainbows  at 
every  shifting  of  the  lights.  —  C.  Kingsley, 
Westward  Ho,  ch.  xvii. 

Colicky,    pertaining   to   the   colic. 

See  L.,  who,  however,  has  no  example. 

I  have  the  pleasure  to  hear  that  my  mother 
is  already  better — a  colicky  disorder  to  which 
she  is  too  subject. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowc, 
ii.  256. 

Collation,  conference. 

Baronius  and  Binnius  will  in  no  ease  allow 
this  for  a  Oouncill  (though  elsewhere  ex- 
tending that  name  to  meaner  meetings)  onely 


COLLATIONER  (  136  ) 


COLTSTA  VES 


they  call  it  a  Collation,  because  (forsooth  ^  it 
wanted  some  Oouncill-formalitieB.  —  Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist.,  II.  ii.  90. 

Collation  ek,  one  who  partakes  of  a 
repast 

We,  meanwhile,  untitled  attendants,  stood 
at  the  other  end  of  the  room,  forming  a 
semicircle,  and  all  strictly  facing  the  royal 
collationers. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  iii.  90. 

Collatitious,  contributing. 

Neither  would  he  impatronize  his  name  to 
the  credit  of  that  work  which  should  be 
raised  up  by  other  men's  collatitious  liber- 
ality.—Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  46. 

Collegian,  same  as  Collegiate,  q.  v. 

It  became  a  not  unusual  circumstance  for 
letters  to  be  put  under  his  door  at  night 
enclosing  half-a-crown  .  .  .  for  the  Father 
of  the  Marshalsea,  "with  the  compliments 
of  a  collegian  taking  leave." — Dickens,  Little 
Dorrit,  ch.  vi. 

Collegiate,  an  inmate  of  a  debtor's 
prison. 

His  beginnings  were  debauched,  and  his 
study  and  first  practice  in  the  goal.  For 
having  been  one  of  the  fiercest  town-rakes, 
and  speut  more  than  he  had  of  his  own,  his 
case  forced  him  upon  that  expedient  for  a 
lodging,  and  there  he  .  .  .  busied  himself 
with  the  cases  of  his  feWow-collegiates. — 
North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  123. 

Collepixie,  a  will  o'  the  wisp  ;  also 

called  collepisHe. 

I  shall  be  ready  at  thine  elbow  to  plaie  the 
parte  of  Hobgoblin  or  Collepixie,  and  make 
thee  for  feare  to  weene  the  deuill  is  at  thy 
polle.— UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  125. 

Colliflory,  cauliflower.  Gerard 
spells  it  cole-flory. 

There  grow  out  of  the  same  colewort  other 
fine  collifories  (if  I  may  so  say),  or  tendrils. 
— Holland,  Pliny,  xix.  8. 

Colligener,  csenobite,  one  living  in 
a  monastery  or  college. 

St.  Augustine  in  his  book  entitled  De  operd 
monachorum  crieth  out  against  idle  colliytners. 
— Hutchinson,  Image  of  God,  p.  203. 

I  shoke  the  dust  of  my  fete  against  those 
wicked  colliyyners  and  prestes,  accordinge  to 
Christ e 'a  commaundement.  —  Vocacyon  of 
Johan  Bale,  1553  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  454). 

Collions.  See  quotation.  A  Hert- 
fordshire word. 

I  am  told  that  collions  is  another  term  for 
the  same  gateway  flitch  gate],  but  I  never 
heard  it  used.— Sir  G.  C.  Lewis,  Letters  (1840), 
p.  111. 

Coll  in  nt. 

Take  a  handful  of  hysop,  of  figs,  raisins, 


dates,  of  each  an  ounce,  of  Collipint  half  a 
handfull,  French  barley  one  ounce. — Queen's 
Closet  Opened,  p.  206  (1655). 

Collocutory,  conversational 

"We  proceed  to  give  our  imitation,  which  is 
of  the  Anuebean  or  Collocutory  kind. — Poetry 
of  Antijacobin,  p.  10. 

Colloquino,  conversing.    Perhaps  a 

misprint  for  colloguing* 

What  will  the  ghosts  of  your  grandfathers 
to  the  seventh  generation  say  to  this,  Alton  ? 
Colloguing  in  Pagan  picture  galleries  with 
shovel  -  hatted  Philistines?  —  C.  Kingsley, 
Alton  Locke,  ch.  vi. 

Colloquise,  to  converse. 

All  I  had  now  to  do  was  to  obey  him  in 
sileuce ;  no  need  for  me  to  colloquise  further. 
— C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  rrii. 

Colon  er,  colonist. 

[A  certain  tract  of  land]  they  made  over 
to  coloners  and  new  inhabitants. — Holland's 
Camden,  p.  138. 

Colour Y,  fond  of,  or  adorned  with, 
colour. 

Behold  there  starts  up  a  little  man  .  .  . 
roundly  charging  you  with  being  too  airy 
and  cheery — too  volatile  and  versatile — too 
flowery  and  coloury. — Miss  Bronte,  Villette, 
ch.  xxviii. 

Colt,   a  cheat  or  slippery  fellow. 

L.  has  the  verb  in  this  sense. 

Potiphar's  wife  accused  Joseph,  and  the 
Elders  Susannah,  of  such  crimes  as  they 
were  innocent  of  and  themselves  guilty.  An 
old  trick,  by  which  C.  Verres,  like  a  cunning 
colt  often  holpe  himself  at  a  pinch. — Sander- 
son, ii.  224. 

Colt.  To  have  a  colt's  tooth  =  to 
be  fond  of  youthful  pleasures,  to  be 
wanton ;  hence  Marlowe  uses  colt  for 
tooth. 

Nay,  we  will  break  the  hedges  of  their  mouths, 
And  pull  their  kicking  colts  out  of  their 
pastures. — 2  Tamburlaine,  iv.  4. 

Coltstaves,  a  coltstaff,  or  cowl  staff, 
is  a  long  pole  used  for  carrying  loads 
suspended  therefrom.  A  man  who  had 
been  beaten  by  his  wife  was  set  astride 
on  this,  and  carried  in  a  derisive  pro- 
cession ;  it  was  sometimes  called  riding 
skimmington,  or  riding  the  stang,  or,  as 
in  the  second  extract,  simply  riding. 
See  N.,  s.  v.  skimmington. . 

I  know  there  are  many  that  wear  horns 
and  ride  daily  upon  coltstaves,  but  this  pro- 
ceeds not  so  often  from  the  fault  of  the 
female  as  the  silliness  of  the  husband  who 
knows  not  how  to  manage  a  wife. — Howell, 
Letters,  iv.  7. 


COL  UMBINE 


km) 


COME  DOWN 


Down  to  Greenwich,  where  I  And  the 
stairs  full  of  people,  there  being  a  great 
riding  there  to  day  for  a  man,  the  constable 
of  the  town,  whose  wife  beat  him. — Fepys, 
Jane  10, 1667. 

Columbine,  a  plant,  so  called  from 
the  Lat.  columba,  a  pigeon,  as  when  its 
outer  petals  are  pulled  off  it  resembles 
that  bird ;  others  say,  because  pigeons 
are  fond  of  it. 

Next  we  will  act  how  young  men  wooe, 
And  sigh,  and  kiss,  as  lovers  do ; 
And  talke  of  brides,  and  who  shall  make 
That  wedding-smock,  this  bridal-cake ; 
That  dress,  this  sprig,  that  leaf,  this  vine ; 
That  smooth  and  silken  columbine. 

Her  rick,  Hesperides,  p.  231. 

And  the  wild  hop  fibred  closely, 
And  the  large-leaved  columbine. 
Arch  of  door  and  window-mullion 
Did  right  sylvanly  entwine. 

Mrs.  Browning,  The  lost  bower. 

Columel,  column. 

We  have  in  a  distinct  columel  assigned  the 
places  of  their  habitation. — Fuller 9  Worthies, 
ch.  xv. 

The  cathedral  .  .  .  challengeth  the  pre- 
cedency of  all  in  England  for  a  majestick 
Western  front  of  columel  work.  —  Ibid. 
Northampton  (ii.  159). 

Column al,  of  the  form  of  a  column. 

Columnar  is  the  commoner  word. 

Crag  overhanging,  nor  column al  rock 
Cast  its  dark  outline  there. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  6k.  xii. 

Com  at  ability,  accessibility. 

*  If  a  man  was  to  sit  down  coolly  and  con- 
sider within  himself  the  make,  the  shape, 
the  construction,  comatability,  and  conveni- 
ence of  all  the  parts  which  constitute  the 
whole  of  that  animal,  woman,  and  compare 
them  analogically"  —  "I  never  understood 
rightly  the  meaning  of  that  word,"  quoth 
my  uncle  Toby.— Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy, \.  212. 

Comb-brush,  a  ladies'  maid,  or  under 
ladies'  maid.  In  Foote's  Bankrupt,  a 
waiting-woman  is  called  Kitty  Comb- 
brush.  In  the  first  extract  it  is  a  ladies* 
maid  who  is  addressed. 

"Its  very  well,  Mrs.  Flipflap,  'tis  very 
well ;  but  do  yon  hear — Tawdry,  you  are  not 
so  alluring  as  you  think  yon  are— Comb-brush, 
nor  I  so  much  in  love. —  Vanbrugh,  False 
Friend,  iii.  2. 

The  maid  who  at  present  attended  on 
Sophia  was  recommended  by  Lady  Bellaston, 
with  whom  she  had  lived  for  some  time  in 
the  capacity  of  a  comb-brush. — Fielding,  Tom 
Jones,  Bk.  XVII.  ch.  viii. 

Comb-feat,  a  dressing  or  thrashing ; 


to  comb  the  head  of  a  person  has  the 
same  meaning. 

"Oome  hither,  I  must  show  thee  a  new 
trick,  and  handsomely  give  thee  the  comb- 
feat  "  (un  tour  de  peigne).  With  this  he 
took  him  by  the  throat,  saying  to  him, "  Thou 
flayest  the  Latin,  by  Saint  John  I  will  make 
thee  flay  the  fox,  for  I  will  now  flay  thee 
alive." — Urouhartfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  II.  ch.  vi. 

Die  Joan  and  Will ;  give  Bess  to  Ned, 
And  every  day  she  combs  his  head. 

Swift,  Joan  cudgels  Ned. 

ril  carry  you  with  me  to  my  country-box, 
and  keep  you  out  of  harm's  way,  till  I  find 
you  a  wife  who  will  comb  your  head  for  you. 
—Lytton,  What  will  he  do  with  it?  Bk.  IV. 
ch.  xvi. 

Combind,  to  bind  together. 
It  .  .  .  their  wills  combind s 
To  belch  their  hates,  vow'd  murdrers  of  thy 
fame. 

G.  Markham,  Tragedie  of  Sir  R.  Grinuile, 
p.  51. 

Combinemrnt,  combination. 

Having  no  firme  combinements  to  chayne 
them  together  in  their  publique  dangers, 
they  lay  loose  to  the  advantage  of  the  com- 
mon enemy. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.  p.  2. 

Comburoess,  a  fellow-burgess.  The 
Diets,  give  comburgher. 

The  Government  of  this  Town  is  by  a 
Mayor  and  Aldermen,  and  not,  as  some 
write,  by  an  Alderman  and  twelve  Corn- 
burgesses. — Defoe,  Tour  thro1  G.  Britain,  iii. 
37. 

Come-at-able,  attainable ;  accessible. 

The  poultry  was  not  so  come-at-able  as 
their  neighbours  desired. — T.  Brown,  Works, 
iv.  133. 

To  be  sure  the  best  beer  of  all  did  not 

appear, 
For  I've  said  twas  in  June,  and  so  late  in 

the  year 
The  Trinity  Audit  Ale  is  not  come-at-able, 
As  I've  found  to  my  great  grief,  when  dining 

at  that  table. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (S.  Dunstan). 

Comedient,  comedian. 

This  doth  the  Comedy  handle  so  in  our 
private  and  domestical  matters,  as  with 
hearing  it,  we  get  as  it  were  an  experience 
what  is  to  be  looked  for  of  a  niggardly 
Demea,  .  .  .  and  not  only  to  know  what 
effects  are  to  be  expected,  but  to  know  who 
be  such  by  the  dignifying  badge  given  them 
by  the  comedient. — Sidney,  Defence  of  Foesie, 
p.  552. 

Come  down,  to  pay. 

Do  you  keep  the  gentleman  in  discourse, 
while  I  speak  to  the  prisoner,  and  see  how 
he  can  come  down.— Johnston,  Chrysal.,  i.  139. 


COME  DOWN  (  138  )     COMMERCIALISM 


Come  down,  used  substantially  for 
a  fall. 

"Why,  you  are  the  unlicensed  doctor." 
"  I  was,  said  she, "  but  now  I'm  your  wor- 
ship's washerwoman."  The  dignitary  col- 
oured, and  said  that  was  rather  a  come  down. 
— Beade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  lii. 

Come-off,  evasion ;  escape. 

Had  e'er  disorders  such  a  rare  come-off? — 
Tuke,  Adventures  of  Five  Hours,  Act  V . 

It  would  make  one  grin  to  observe  the 
author's  come-off  from  this  and  the  rest  of 
the  charters  in  this  time. — North,  Examen, 
p.  644. 

Come  out.  When  a  young  lady  be- 
gins to  enter  into  society,  she  is  said  to 
be  out,  or  to  come  out.     See  Out. 

She  has  seen  nothing  at  all  of  the  world, 
for  she  has  never  been  presented  yet,  so  she 
is  not  come  out,  you  know ;  but  she's  to  come 
out  next  year. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Cecilia,  Bk. 
VI.  ch.  ii. 

Comet,  a  game,  long  since  obsolete, 
but  mentioned  by  Southerne  (see  L.) 
about  fifty  years  before  the  subjoined 
notice  of  it ;  also  by  Farquhar  in  Sir 
Harrv  Wildair,  ii.  2.  It  was  some- 
thinglike speculation,  and  was  a  favour- 
ite with  Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales. 

The  evenings,  we  walk  till  dark;  then 
Lady  Mary,  Miss  Leneve,  and  I  play  at  comet. 
—  WalpoU  to  Mann,  i.  203  (1742). 

Southey  names  it  among  other  old 

games  at  cards,  and  adds — 

Is  there  any  one,  I  s%,  who  has  ever  heard 
of  these  games,  unless  he  happens  to  know, 
as  I  do,  that  rules  for  playing  them  were 
translated  from  the  French  of  the  Abb6 
Bellecour,  and  published  for  the  benefit  of 
the  English  people,  some  seventy  years  ago, 
by  Mr.  F.  Newbery. — The  Doctor,  ch.  cxlii. 

Come  you  seven,  I  suppose  a  phrase 
used  in  some  game,  like  "  seven's  the 
main,"  and  so  a  gambler. 

Shall  I  be  made 
A  foolish  nouioe,  my  purse  set  a  broch 
By  euerie  cheating  come  you  seauen  ? 

Chapman,  All  Fooles,  II.  i. 

Comfort ati ve,  that  which  ministers 
comfort ;  the  Diets,  have  it  as  an  adj. 

The  two  hundred  crowns  in  gold  ...  as  a 
cordial  and  comfortative  I  carry  next  my 
heart.— Jarvis's  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  IV. 
ch.  vi. 

Comic,  a  comic  writer.  (L.  gives  a 
quotation  from  the  Toiler  where  it 
means  comedian.) 

Thus  did  he  study  some  paltry  half  hour 
with  his  eyes  fixed  upon  his  book,  but  as  the 


comic  saith,  his  mind  was  in  the  kitchen. — 
UrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xx. 

Comitial.  The  comitiall  ill  or  disease 
is  the  epilepsy  or  falling-sickness,  so 
called  because  if  any  one  were  seized 
with  it  during  the  comitia  or  public 
assemblies,  the  meeting  was  broken  up, 
the  omen  being  considered  bad. 

So  melancholy  turned  into  madnes, 
Into  the  jpalsie  deep-affrighted  sadoes ; 
Th'  U-habitude  into  the  dropsie  chill, 
And  Megrim  growes  to  the  Comttial4U. 

Sylvester,  The  Furies,  p.  583. 

Our  [asses]  liver,  hoofs,  or  bones  being 
redue'd  to  powder  are  good,  as  the  naturalists 
note,  against  the  epilepsy  or  comitiall  sick- 
nesse. — Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  26. 

Commacerate,  to  make  lean. 

They  are  the  most  traytours  themselves  to 
his  life,  health,  and  quiet,  in  continual  com- 
macerating  him  with  dread  and  terror. — 
Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  {Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  177). 

Commend,  compliment.    L.  says  this 

word  is  only  found  in  the  plural,  but 

the  extract  shows  this  to  be  a  mistake. 

The  singular  also  occurs  in  Pericles,  ii. 

2  (quoted  by  R.),  but  there  it  means 

praise. 

Phy.  Thanks,  master  jailer,  and  a  kind 
commend. 
Jail.  As  much  unto  your  ladyship. 

Machin,  Dumb  Knight,  Act  V. 

Commends,  a  commendation. 

You  give  yourself  a  plausible  commends. — 
Marmion,  Antiquary,  Act  I. 

Commentation,  comments  or  notes. 
I  suspect  North  means  the  word  for 
commentition  =  lie  :  though  he  may 
use  the  word  =  gloss.  Milton  has 
commentitious. 

His  papers  of  long  study,  and  much  com- 
mentation, with  his  choice  books,  were  either 
rifled,  or,  it  may  be,  burnt  with  Cawood 
Castle.— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  207. 

At  this  rate  he  works  to  cover  the  real 
truth  of  the  proceedings  of  those  times,  and 
in  their  room  sets  up  mere  inventions  and 
commentations  of  faction. — North,  Examen,  p. 
234. 

Commenty,  community.  The  extract 
is  a  quotation  from  Prov.  xxiv.  24 ; 
nations  is  the  word  in  the  Aath.  Version. 

Him  shall  the  people  curse,  yea,  the  com- 
menty shall  abhor  him. — Becon,  ii.  807. 

Commercialism,  trading  spirit. 

And  this  was  the  consistent  Nemesis  of  all 
poor  George's  thrift  and  cunning,  of  his 
determination  to  carry  the  buy-cheap-and- 
sell-dear  commercialism,in  which  he  had  been 


COMMEROVS 


(  *39  ) 


COMPASSL  Y 


brought  up,  into  every  act  of  life. — C.  Kings- 
ley,  Alton.  Locke,  ch.  xxxix. 

Commbrocs,  cumbrous. 

If  your  honour  will  hear  these  challenges, 
ye  shall  hear  such  eommerouse  trifles  and 
brabbles  that  ye  shall  be  weary.  —  Abp. 
Parker,  p.  249. 

Commix  at  ion,  mingling. 

The  trim  commutation 
Of  conf  us'd  fancies,  full  of  alteration, 
Makes  th"  understanding  dull. 

Sylvester,  Eden,  700. 

Commode,  a  procuress. 

A  pretty  lodging  we  have  hit  upon ;  the 
mistress  a  commode,  and  the  master  a — but 
who  can  this  ward  be? — Foote,  Englishman 
in  Paris,  Act  I. 

Commode,  accommodating. 

So,  sir,  am  I  not  very  commode  to  you  ? — 
Cibber,  Prov.  Husband,  Act  IV. 

Commodely,  conveniently. 

You  found  the  whole  garden  filled  with 
masks,  and  spread  with  tents,  which  remained 
all  night  very  commodely. —  Walpole  to  Mann, 
ii.  289  (1749). 

I  don't  mean  to  treat  you  with  a  rowing  for 
a  badge,  but  it  will  fall  in  very  commodely 
between  my  parties. — Ibid.,  Letters,  ii.  103 
(1750). 

Commoner,  a  sharer.  L.  has  it  in 
the  sense  of  one  having  rights  of  com- 
mon with  others,  but  Fuller  uses  the 
word  in  a  more  general  sense. 

Lewis  would  not  leave  them,  that  they 
might  not  leave  him,  but  resolved  to  be  a 
commoner  with  them  in  weal  and  wo. — Fuller, 
Holy  War,  TV.  xvi. 

Common ebess,  wife  of  a  commoner. 

Peers,  commoners,  and  counsel,  peeresses, 
co*moneresses  and  the  numerous  indefinites 
crowded  every  part. — Mad.  D'ArHay,  Diary, 
▼.  197. 

Commonplacbness,  ordinariness ;  an 
absence  of  anything  striking  or  re- 
markable. 

Our  Vicar  . .  .  happens  to  be  rather  drowsy 
and  even  depressing  in  the  monotony  of  his 
eommomplaccness.  —  Black,  Adventures  of  a 
Phaeton,  ch.  xix. 

Commorant,  a  resident. 

Rabbi  Jacob,  a  Jew  born,  whom  I  remem- 
ber for  a  long  time  a  commorant  in  the  Uni- 
versity.—Aodbet,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  10. 

I  never  heard  a  respondent  better  hunted 
m  all  my  time  that  I  was  a  commorant  in 
Cambridge. — Ibid.  i.  32. 

Commotion,  to  move,  disturb;  the 
extract  will  be  found  at  more  length 
«.  v.  Upbraid. 


He  felt  it  commotion  a  little  and  upbraid 
him. — Xashe,  Lenten  Stujjfe  (Harl.  Misc.  vi. 
166). 

Comographic,  description  of  a  kwuij. 
(See  quotation.) 

Condemn  not  this  our  Como-graphic  or 
description  of  a  country-town  as  too  low  and 
narrow  a  subject. — Fuller,  Hist,  of  Waltham 
Abbey,  p.  17. 

Compack,  pack  together. 

But  th1  art  of  man  not  only  can  compack 
Features  and  forms  that  life  and  nature  lack, 
But  also  fill  the  aire  with  painted  shoals 
Of  flying  creatures. 

Sylvester,  sixth  day,  first  weeke,  888. 

Them   giuing  children   moe   than  in   the 

heauen 
Are  starrie  circles  light  as  flrie  leauen : 
And  mo  then  Northren  windes  (that  driues 

the  rack) 
Of  Cyrene  sands  in  numbers  can  compack. 

Hudson,  Judith,  i.  318. 

Compact,  to  agree. 

Saturne  resolued  to  destroy  his  male  chil- 
dren, either  hauing  so  compacted  with  his 
brother  Titan,  or  to  preuent  the  prophesie, 
which  was  that  his  sonne  should  depose  him. 
—Sandys,  Travels,  p.  225. 

Compactile,  fastened  together. 

These  [garlands]  were  made  up  after  all 
ways  of  art,  compactile,  sutile,  plectile. — Sir 
T.  Brown,  Tract  II. 

Companioned,  accompanied. 

He  bowed  to  the  ground,  and  would  have 
taken  my  hand,  his  whip  in  the  other :  I  did 
not  like  to  be  so  companioned;  I  withdrew 
my  hand. — fiichardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  ii.  5. 

C0MPANIONLES8,  solitary. 

There  she  sat  and  sewed,  and  probably 
laughed  drearily  to  herself,  as  companionless 
as  a  prisoner  in  his  dungeon. — C.  Bronte,  Jane 
Eyre,  ch.  xvii. 

Company-keeper,  a"reveller,  or  rake. 

Yet  be  it  acknowledged  that  at  the  Age  of 
sixteen  I  became  a  company-keeper,  being  led 
into  idle  conversation  by  my  extraordinary 
love  to  singing. — Memoirs  of  P.  P.,  Clerk  of 
this  Parish. 

Compass,  in  a  circular  fashion.  Cf. 
"Compassed  window"  (Trail,  and 
Cress,  i.  2).  A  few  lines  below  the 
extract  Sandys  speaks  of  "a  compost 
roofe." 

The  other  part  .  .  .  doth  containe  within 
a  concaue  about  three  yards  square,  the  roofe 
hewne  compasse. — Sandys,  Travels,  p.  167. 

C0MPA8SLT,  fittingly ;  in  good  order. 

Th'  Eternall-Trine  who  made  all  compassly, 
Makes   the  vnder  waues  the  vppers  want 
supply. — Sylvester,  The  Lawe,  p.  640. 


COMPETITIONER       (  140  ) 


CON-ARGUER 


Competitioner,  a  fellow-petitioner. 

They  spake  to  the  Saints  . . .  moving  them 
to  be  competitioners  with  us  to  the  throne  of 
grace.— Bp.  Hall,  Works,  ix.  365. 

Compile,  accumulation. 

Hence  sprang  the  loves  of  Joue,  the  Sonne's 

exile, 
The  shame  of  Mars  and  Venus  in  a  net, 
Juno's  forsaken  bed,  Saturn's  compile 
Of  frantike  discontentment,  which  beset 
All  heauen  with  armes. 

G.  Markham,  Tragedie  of 
Sir  J2.  Grinuile,  p.  51. 

Compitor,  competitor;  for  which  it 
is  perhaps  a  misprint 

Harald,  being  at  hand,  carried  it ;  the  first 
act  of  whose  raigne  was  the  banishment,  and 
surprizing  all  the  treasure  of  his  stepmother, 
Queen  Emma ;  then  the  putting  out  the  eyes 
of  Alfried  her  sonne  his  compitor, — Daniel, 
Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  18. 

Complain,  complaint. 

He  sick  to  lose . 
The  amorous  promise  of  her  lone  complain, 
Swoon'd  murmuring  of  love,  and  pale  with 
pain. — Keats,  Lamia. 

Complect,  to  weave  together.  Ster- 
ling blames  Carlyle  for  using  this  word. 
See  extract  s.  v.  Environment. 

By  what  chains,  or  indeed  infinitely  com- 
plected tissues,  of  meditation,  this  grand 
theorem  is  here  unfolded  .  .  .  it  were  per- 
haps a  mad  ambition  to  attempt  exhibiting. 
— Carlyle,  Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  I.  ch.  viii. 

Complexionless,  without  a  complex- 
ion ;  colourless. 

In  those  four  male  personages,  although 
complexionless  and  eyebrowless,  I  beheld  four 
members  of  the  Family  P.  Salcy. — Dickens, 
Uncommercial  Traveller,  xxv. 

Compliant,  a  complier ;  the  word  is 

usually  an  adj.     Fuller  reckons  among 

the  objections  to  the  Liturgy — 

It  being  a  compliant  with  the  Papists  in  a 
great  part  of  their  service  doth  not  a  little 
confirm  them  in  their  superstition  and  idol- 
atry.—Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI.  x.  8. 

Complicacy,  complex  nature. 

Among  the  earliest  tools  of  any  complicacy 
which  a  man-of -letters  gets  to  handle  are  his 
class-books. — Carlyle,  Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  II. 
ch.  iii. 

Comply,  to  bend,  or,  perhaps,  to  em- 
brace. 

Witty  Ovid  by 
Whom  faire  Corinna  sits,  and  doth  comply 
With  yvorie  wrists  his  laureat  head. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  221. 


Compoundable,  capable  of  being 
compounded. 

A  penalty  of  not  less  than  forty  shillings 
or  more  than  five  pounds  compoundable  for  a 
term  of  imprisonment. — Dickens,  Uncommer- 
cial Traveller,  xii 

Compresbyter,  fellow  -  presbyter. 
Milton,  in  the  same  book,  but  two  or 
three  pages  earlier,  has  the  adj.  com- 
presbyteruzl,  and  this  is  given  by  R. 
and  L. 

Cyprian  in  many  places  .  .  .  speaking  of 
presbyters  calls  them  his  compresbyters,  as 
if  he  deemed  himself  no  other,  whereas  by 
the  same  place  it  appears  he  was  a  bishop. — 
Milton,  Of  Reformation  in  Eng.,  bk.  L 

Compulse,  to  compel. 

Many  parents  constrain  their  sons  and 
daughters  to  marry  where  they  love  not,  and 
some  are  beaten  aud  compulsed — Latimer,  i. 
170. 

Before  calamity  she  is  a  tigress ;  she  rends 
her  woes,  shivers  them  in  compulsed  abhor- 
rence.— Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  en.  xxiii. 

Compursion,  drawing  together. 

He  deemed  it  most  prudent,  in  the  situ- 
ation he  was  in  at  present,  to  bear  it,  if  pos- 
sible, like  a  Stoick ;  which,  with  the  help  of 
some  wry  faces  and  compursions  of  the  mouth, 
he  had  certainly  accomplished,  had  his  im- 
agination continued  neuter. — Sterne,  Trist. 
Shandy,  iii.  210. 

Compdtate,  to  compute. 

Garisons  disposed  in  senerall  limits  of  the 
land  with  their  companies,  consisting  of 
sundry  strange  nations,  computated  in  all  to 
be  fifty-two  thousand  foote,  and  three  hun- 
dred horse. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  4. 

Computator,  computer. 

The  intense  heat  ...  is  proved  by  compu- 
tators,  from  its  vicinity  to  the  sun,  to  be 
more  than  equal  to  that  of  red  hot  iron. — 
Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  i.  153. 

Comradeship,  intimate  fellowship. 

Some  of  his  Madeira  acquaintanceships 
were  really  good ;  and  one  of  them,  if  not 
more,  ripened  into  comradeship  and  friend- 
ship for  him. — Carlyle,  Life  of  Sterling,  Pt. 
II.  ch.  v. 

Con,  to  direct  the  course  of  a  ship. 
See  Cun. 

Con  the  ship,  so  ho !  mind  your  steerage. 
UrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  xx. 

I  could  con  or  fight  a  ship  as  well  as  ever. 
— Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  viiL 

Con-arguer,  an  opposer ;  an  arguer 
on  the  contrary  side. 

This  method  put  the  con-arguers  and  ob- 
jectors straight  into  the  midst  of  the  plot. — 
North,  Examen,  p.  234. 


CONCEDENCE  (  141  )     CONCUPISCENTIAL 


CONCEDKNCB,  COnC638ion. 

All  I  had  to  apprehend  was  that  a  daughter 
so  reluctantly  carried  off  would  offer  terms 
to  her  father,  and  would  be  accepted  upon  a 
mutual  conctdence ;  they  to  give  up  Solmes, 
she  to  give  up  me. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlow, 
iii.  116. 

Conceiter,  fancier.  Greene  (Mena- 
pkon,  p.  23)  calls  Dolphins  "  sweete 
conceipters  of  Musicke." 

Concblbbbate,  to  celebrate  together. 

Here  I  could  fareake  out  into  a  boundlesse 
race  of  oratory,  in  shrill  trumpetting  and 
oncelebrating  the  royall  magnificence  of  her 
government.  —  Nashe,  Lenten*  Stuff*  (Harl. 
J//*\,  vi.  149). 

Wherein  the  wives  of  Amnites  solemnly 
Concelebrate  their  high  feasts  Bacchanall. 

Holland's  Camden,  ii.  231. 

Concerned,  Irish  expression  for  in- 
toxicated ;  or,  flustered  with  drink. 

Which,  and  I  am  sure  I  have  been  his  serv- 
ant four  years  since  October, 

And  he  never  call'd  me  worse  than  sweet- 
heart, drunk  or  sober ; 

Not  that  I  know  his  .Reverence  was  ever 
concerned  to  my  knowledge, 

Tho'  yon  and  your  come-rogues  keep  him 
out  so  late  in  your  wicked  college. 
Swift j  Mary,  the  cook-maid,  to  Dr.  Sheridan. 

Oh,  she's  a  light-skirts!  yea,  and  at  this 

present 
A  little,  as  you  see,  concerned  with  liquor. 

Taylor,  Ph.  van  Art.,  Pt.  H.  iii.  3. 

Concerner,  one  who  belongs  to  or 
has  concerns  with  another  (?). 

He  had 
His  loves  too  and  his  mistresses ;  wasenterM 
Among  the  philosophical  Madams,  was 
As  great  with  them  as  their  conctrners;  and 

I  hear 
Kept  one  of  them  in  pension. 

Maine,  City  Watch,  i.  1. 

CoNCESsiBLE,  capable  of  being  granted. 

It  was  built  upon  one  of  the  most  con- 
cfisible  postulatums  in  Nature.  —  Sterne, 
Trist.  Shandy,  vi.  157. 

One  could  pity  this  poor  Irish  people; 
their  case  is  pitiable  enough.  The  claim 
they  started  with  in  1641  was  for  religious 
freedom.  Their  claim,  we  can  now  all  see, 
was  just;  essentially  just,  though  full  of 
intricacy ;  difficult  to  render  clear  and  con- 
cewble. — Carlyle,  Cromwell's  Letters,  &c.,  ii. 
44. 

Concinnb,  neat ;  elegant. 

Beauty  consists  in  a  sweet  variety  of  col- 
ours, and  in  a  conctnne  disposition  of  different 
parts.— ^cfeau,  i.  398. 

Concipient,  conceiving. 


Here  many  a  foetus  laugh  and  half  encore, 
Clings  to  the  roof,  or  creeps  along  the  floor ; 
By  puffs  concipient  some  in  ether  flit, 
Ana  soar  in  bravos  from  the  thundering  pit. 
J.  and  H.  Smith,  Rejected  Addresses,  p.  140. 

Concord,  to  set  at  one ;  to  bring  into 
harmony. 

He  lived  and  died  with  general  councils 
in  his  pate,  with  windmills  of  union  to  con- 
cord Borne  and  England,  England  and  Borne, 
Germany  with  them  both. — Hacket,  Life  of 
Williams,  i.  102. 

The  king  was  now  at  Whitehall,  and  the 
French  agents  plied  it  to  concord  conditions 
for  the  royal  marriage. — Ibid.  i.  212. 

Concord,  a  legal  instrument,  defined 
by  Bailey, "  an  agreement  between  par- 
ties who  intend  the  levying  of  fines 
upon  lands  one  to  another.*' 

One  John  Throkmorton,  a  justicer  of 
Cheshire  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  days,  for  not 
exhibiting  a  judicial  concord  with  all  the  de- 
fects of  the  same,  but  supplying  or  filling 
up  what  was  worn  out  of  the  authentical 
original,  was  fined  for  being  over  officious. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  III.  i.  0. 

After  the  licence  actually  obtained,  and 
the  king's  silver  paid,  without  which  the 
concord  is  no  fine,  the  fine  is  perfected, 
though  in  some  other  respects  deficient. 
Hence,  as  I  take  it,  the  concord  is  called  a 
fine  levied,  and  not  because  it  is  finis  litium. 
—North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  204. 

Concordious,  harmonious. 

The  King  found  himself  at  more  leisure 
and  freedom  in  the  absence  of  the  Lord 
Marquess  to  study  the  calling  of  a  comfort- 
able and  concordious  Parliament.  —  Hacket, 
Life  of  Williams,  i.  109. 

Concordiodsly,  harmoniously. 

The  business  was  concordiously  despatched. 
—Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  22. 

Concorrdpt,  to  corrupt  together. 

His  foule  contagion  concorrupted  all 
His  fellow-creatures. 

Sylvester,  Tobacco  Battered,  4. 

Concrede,  to  entrust:  perhaps  mis- 
print for  concredit. 

[I]  did  not  all  this  time  imagine  or  conceit 
that  he  intended  in  any  way  to  defraud  the 
trust  concreded  to  him  by  the  Parliament.— 
Sir  Hugh  Cholmley's  Revolt,  1643,  p.  4. 

Concubinize,  to  take  as  a  concubine. 

The  extract  is  quoted  by  Southey  in 

The  Cid,  p.  29. 

If  thou  beholdest  a  beautiful  woman,  con* 
cubtnite  her,  though  she  seem  coy ;  thou 
wilt  be  a  better  man.  —  Owen's  transl.  of 
Mabinogion. 

CONCUPISCENTIAL,  lustful. 


C0NCUPISC1BLE         (  142  )         CONFORMITAN 


By  the  practise  of  these  austerities  I 
thought  you  had  quench 'd  those  concupiscent 
fi'a#  flames.— Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  134. 

Concupiscible,    to    be    desired ;     it 

usually  means  desiring,  lustful,  as  in 

Meat,  for  Meat.  V.  i. 

Never  did  thy  eyes  behold  or  thy  concu- 
piscence covet  anything  in  this  world  more 
concupiscible  than  widow  Wadman. — Sterne, 
Tr.  Shandy,  v.  47. 

Concurrent,  an  opponent ;  a  Latin- 
ism. 

After  him,  Gratian  took  upon  him  the 
Empire  .  . . :  whereat  Marimus,  a  Spaniard 
borne,  his  concurrent,  and  withal  descended 
in  right  line  from  Oonstantinus  the  Great, 
.  .  .  wm  .  .  highly  discontented. — Holland's 
Camden,  p.  82. 

Whose  sonne  Patrick  was  by  the  Barrets 
his  concurrents  murdered  in  feud. — Ibid.  ii. 
40. 

Therefore  proceedes  he  by  all  meanea  to 
vexe  and  disgrace  him,  and  to  advance  his 
concurrent  the  Archbishop  of  Yorke. — Daniel, 
Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  72. 

Concutient,  meeting  together  with 
violence. 

The  negroes  on  the  maternal  estate  .  • 
would  meet  in  combat  like  two  concutient 
cannonballs. — Thackeray,  Virginians,  ch.  xl. 

Condiddle,  to  purloin.  H.  gives  it 
(but  without  example)  as  a  Devonshire 
word. 

"  Twig  the  old  connoisseur,"  said  the 
Squire  to  the  Knight, M  he  is  condiddling  the 
drawing."— Scott,  S.  Ronan's  Well,  i.  71. 

Conditure,  a  seasoning. 

Halec  or  Alec  .  .  .  was  a  conditure  and 
sawce  much  affected  by  antiquity.— &'r  T. 
Brown,  Tract  iv. 

Conduct,  or  Conduct  money,  an  ex- 
action levied  by  Charles  I.  on  the  pre- 
text of  paying  travelling  expenses  of 
troops.  Cf .  Coat-money,  with  which  it 
is  always  joined.  The  second  extract 
is  furnished  in  the  notes  to  Hales' 8 
Areopagitica,  2nd  ed. 

Who  shall  then  sticke  closest  to  ye,  and 
excite  others  ?  Not  he  who  takes  up  armes 
for  cote  and  conduct  and  his  four  nobles  of 
Danegelt.— -Milton,  Areopagitica,  p.  50. 

He  will  join  as  many  shields  together  as 
would  make  a  Roman  testudo  or  Macedonian 
phalanx,  to  fortify  the  nobility  of  a  new 
made  lord  that  will  pay  for  the  impresting 
of  them,  and  allow  him  coat  and  conduct 
money. — Butler,  Characters  {The  Herald). 

Confab,  an  abbreviation  of  confabu- 
late.    L.  has  it  as  a  substantive. 


Mrs.  Thrale  and  I  were  dressing,  and  as 
usual  confabbing. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  i. 
120. 

Confectionary,  store-room,  the  place 
where  confections  are  kept. 

Here,  ladies,  are  the  keys  of  the  stores,  of 
the  confectionary,  of  the  wine-vaults. — Rich- 
ardson,  Grandison,  ii.  226. 

Confer,  to  confer  on. 

I  tell  them  all  that  high  Jove  bowed  his 

head, 
As  first  we  went  aboard  our  fleet  for  sign  we 

should  confer 
These  Trojans  their  due  fate  and  death. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  ii.  907. 

Confessal,  confession. 

When  the  matter  is  so  plaine  that  it  can 
not  be  denied  or  traversed,  it  is  good  that  it 
be  justified  by  confessal  and  auoidance. — 
Puttenham,  Arte  of  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III.  ch. 


Confessionaire,  a  penitent ;  one  who 

has  made  confession. 

By  means  of  this  supposed  ingenuity, 
Lovelace  obtains  a  praise  instead  of  a  merited 
dispraise,  and,  like  an  absolved  confessionaire, 
wipes  off,  as  he  goes  along,  one  score,  to  begin 
another. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  ii.  153. 

Confessionary,  a  place  for  hearing 

confessions. 

We  concur  in  opinion  that  these  stalls,  of 
which  kind  there  are  many  in  good  preserv- 
ation, have  been  improperly  termed  confes- 
sionarUs  or  confessionals. — Archaol.  x.  299 
(1792). 

Confine,  a  neighbour.  (L.  marks 
this  word  as  rare  and  obsolete,  and  sup- 
plies a  single  instance ;  it  seems  worth 
while  to  add  another.  Sylvester  is 
speaking  of  the  confusion  of  languages.) 

Or  if  we  talk,  but  with  our  neer  confines, 
We  borrow  monthes,  or  else  we  work  by 
signes. 

Baltylon,  260. 

Confiscate,  in  the  extract  is  applied 
to  the  man,  though  of  course  it  is  his 
goods  that  are  really  referred  to. 

For  which  notorious  crimes,  .  . .  he  was 
committed  unto  ward,  and  breaking  prison, 
was  confiscated  and  proclaimed  traytor. — 
Heylin,  Hist,  of  the  Presbyterians,  p.  331. 

Conflagrate,  to  burn. 

Popularity  is  as  a  blaze  of  illumination, 
or  alas !  of  conflagration  kindled  round  a  man 
. .  .  conflagrating  the  poor  man  himself  into 
ashes  and  caput  mortuum. — Carlyle,  Jfisc, 
iv.  144. 

Con  form  it  an,  conformist.  Cf.  Nox- 
conformitant. 


CONFRAIR  Y 


(  '43) 


CONNATIVE 


With  God,  I  dare  boldly  say,  there  is 
neither  Caivinist  nor  Lutheran,  Protestant 
nor  Puritan,  Con/ormitan  or  Non-oonform- 
itan,  but  faith  and  love  in  Christ  is  all  in  all. 
—  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  8. 

Con fr airy,  a  fraternity. 

The  confrairies  are  fraternities  of  devotees 
who  inlist  themselves  under  the  banners  of 
particular  saints. — Smollett,  France  and  Italy, 
Letter  xxvii. 

Confrigerate,  to  freeze  together. 

There  stands  He  shaking  in  a  f  eauer-fit, 
While  the  cold  aire  His  wounds  confrigerates. 

Davies,  Holy  Soode,  p.  16. 

Confront,  an  opposition. 

He  finds  the  Parliament  professing  hos- 
tility against  him  by  their  command  and 
overt  act,  denying  him  way  into  the  town  of 
Hull,  and  the  use  of  his  Magazine ;  a  confront 
no  less  outrageous  than  if  they  had  given 
him  battel.— Hacket,  Life  of  fFilliams,  ii. 
187. 

Congredients,    things    that    come 

together ;  component  parts. 

The  congredients,  the  preparations  .  .  .  are 
so  held  as  to  be  conveyed  to  a  cleanly  mind 
by  no  language. — Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  vi. 
201. 

Congregationer,     Congregational  ist 

or  Independent. 

O  how  these  blasphemed  the  name,  and 
slander'd  the  footsteps  of  God's  Anointed, 
who  laid  our  good  King  forth  as  a  Papist 
to  their  rabble,  since  he  would  neither  be 
for  the  Consistorians  nor  Congregationers. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  197. 

Cohgbession,  meeting ;  contact ;  col- 
lision. 

Not  perplexing  you  in  first  or  last  with 
anything  handled  in  any  other  interpreter, 
further  than  I  must  conscionably  make  con- 
gression  with  such  as  have  diminished,  man- 
gled, and  maimed  my  most  worthily,  most 
tendered  author. — Chapman,  Comment  on  II.  i. 

Coninquinate,  to  pollute  together. 

O  let  these  wounds,  these  woundes  inde- 

prauate 

Be  holy  sanctuaries  for  my  whole  Man ; 

That  though  sinnes  sores  it  oft  coninquinate, 

Yet  there  it  may  be  made  as  white  as 

swanne. — Davies,  Holy  Rood,  p.  28. 

Conjugacy,  marriage. 

Every  History  of  England  shews  at  large 
what  good  and  great  works  Bishops  and 
other  Church-men  in  England  did,  not  onely 
in  their  Papal  Celibacy,  but  in  their  Primi- 
tive and  later  Conjugacy. — Gauden,  Tears  of 
the  Church,  p.  355. 

Conjugation,  marriage. 
Dick  heard,  and  tweedling,  ogling,  bridling, 


Turning  short  round,  strutting  and  sidleing, 
Attested  glad  his  approbation 
Of  an  immediate  conjugation. 

Cottper,  Pairing  Time  anticipated. 

Conjugial.     See  quotation. 

Conjugial  for  conjugal,  though  allowed  by 
a  few  Latiu  examples,  is  a  pedantry  on 
Swedenborg's  part. — C.  Kingslcy,  Lett,  and 
Mem.,  ii.  259. 

Conjuring,  solemn  entreaty:  con- 
juring usually  =  leger-de-main  from 
the  idea  of  the  dealer  in  magic  con- 
juring spirits  to  assist  him :  the  penult- 
imate of  the  word  in  this  sense  is 
short ;  in  the  extract  most  people  would 
pronounce  it  long.  Gauden  is  speaking 
of  the  exhortations  in  the  New  Test, 
to  peace  and  charity. 

These  holy  charms,  these  pious  and  pa- 
thetic conjurings,  these  Divine  prayings  and 
charitable  beseechings  are  much  forgotten. — 
—Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  132. 

Conjuror.  To  say  that  a  man  is  no 
conjuror  implies  that  he  is  not  very 
wise ;  this  sense  is  given  in  L.,  but  the 
quotation  appended  hardly  illustrates 
it.    Cf.  Witch. 

Sir  Sampson  has  a  son  that  is  expected  to- 
night ;  and  by  the  account  I  have  heard  of  his 
education  can  be  no  conjuror. — Congreve,  Love 
for  Love,  ii.  0. 

I  was  never  taken  for  a  conjuror  before,  I'd 

have  you  to  know. 
Lord!  said  I,  don't  be  angry,  I  am  sure  I 

never  thought  you  so : 
You  know,  I  honour  the  cloth ;  I  design  to 

be  a  Parson's  wife ; 
I  never  took  one  in  your  coat  for  a  conjuror 

in  all  my  life. 

Swift,  Petition  of  Frances  Ham's. 

Conks.     See  quotation. 

"Well  yo'  lasses  will  have  your  conks" 
(private  talks),  "I  know;  secrets  'bout 
sweethearts  and  such  like." — Mrs.  Gaskell, 
Sylvia* s  Lovers,  ch.  vi. 

Conn,  the  steerage.    See  Con. 

He  only  discovered  my  departure  by  the 
tittering  of  the  other  midshipmen  and  the 
quartermaster  at  the  conn.  —  Marry  at,  Fr. 
Mildmay,  ch.  iv. 

Connational,  belonging  to  the  same 
nation. 

It  is  a  sanction  of  nature  to  spare  the 
blood  of  citizens,  connatural,  collateral,  con- 
national  with  ourselves. — Adams,  i.  183. 

Connative,  f ell ow  -  native.  The 
meaning  of  the  extract  seems  to  be 
that  the  heathen  have  some  excuse  for 


CONNIVE 


(  *44  ) 


CONSORTIER 


using  tobacco,  it  being  indigenous  to 
their  country. 

Yet  tb*  Heathen  have  with  th'  ill  some  good 

withall, 
Sith  their  [there  ?]  connative  'tis  connaturall. 
Sylvester,  Tobacco  Battered,  40. 

Connive  on,  to  connive  at 

Pray  you  connive 
On  my  weak  tenderness. 

Massinger,  The  Picture,  iii.  2. 

Connive  with,  to  tamper  with  or  to 
pass  over. 

And  for  those  statutes  made  for  the  pre- 
servation of  religion,  they  are  all .  .  .in  full 
force,  and  in  free  execution ;  nor  were  they 
ever  intended  to  be  connived  with  in  the 
least  syllable. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i. 
178. 

Connixation,  swallowing  up  in  snow. 

As  we  have  never  had  a  rainbow  to  assure 
ns  that  the  world  shall  not  be  snowed  to 
death,  I  thought  last  night  was  the  general 
connixation. —  Walpole,  Letters,  ii.  337  (1782). 

Conquerlesb,  invincible. 

The  damned  Nauie  did  a  glimmering  send, 
By  which  Sir  Richard  might  their  power 

reueale, 
Which  seeming  conqueriesse  did  cenquests 

lend. 
G.  Markham,  Drag,  of  Sir  R.  Grinuile,  57. 

Conquest,  to  conquer. 

To  conquest  these  fellowes  the  man  I  wil 
play. — Preston,  King  Cambists  (Hawkins,  Eng. 
Dr.,  i.  261). 

Consacre,  to  consecrate. 
Lo  here  these  Champions  that  have  (bravely- 
Withstood  proud  Tvrants,  stoutly  consacring 
Their  lives  and  soules  to  God  in  suffering. 

Sylvester,  Triumph  of  Faith,  iii.  5. 

There  was  a  Peach-Tree  growing  there  amid 
God-Camosh  Temple,  to  him  consacred. 

Ibid.  Maiden's  Blush,  672. 

Consciuncle,  applied  contempt- 
uously to  an  over  -  scrupulous  con- 
science.    Cf.  Pa&siuncle. 

The  canonists  are  good  bone-setters  for  a 
bone  that  was  never  broken;  their  rubrics 
are  filled  with  punctilios  not  for  consciences, 
but  for  consciuncles. — Hacket,  Life  of  Wil- 
liams, i.  08. 

Conrentiently,   with  full  consent; 

ex  animo. 

Mentally,  spiritually,  charitably,  cordially, 
and  consentiently  he  still  adhered  to  the 
Catholick  Conformity  and  Unity. — Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  4. 

Consequences,  a  game,  something 
like  cross-readings. 


They  met  for  the  sake  of  eating,  drinking, 
and  laughing  together,  playing  at  cards  or 
consequences,  or  any  other  game  that  was 
sufficiently  noiqy. — Miss  Austen,  Sense  and 
Sensibility,  ch.  xxiii. 

Consequential,  an  inference  or  re- 
sult. 

It  may  be  thought  superfluous  to  spend  so 
many  words  upon  our  author's  precious 
observations  out  of  the  Lord  Clarendon's 
History,  and  some  consequentials  as  I  have 
done. — North,  Examen,  p.  29. 

Consequentialness,  pompous  arro- 
gance. 

Let 
Her  pamper'd  lap-dog  with  his  fetid  breath 
In  bold  bravado  join,  and  snap  and  growl, 
With  petulant  consequentialness  elate. 

Southey,  To  A .  Cunningham. 

Conservatory,  preservative.  Jer. 
Taylor  has  the  word  in  this  sense  as  a 
substantive. 

She  transmits  a  souvrain  and  conservatory 
influence  through  all  the  members,  without 
which  the  whole  man  must  in  the  fleetest 
article  of  time  be  but  a  cadaver. — Howell, 
Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  143. 

Considerables,  things  of  import- 
ance; for   similar  uses,  see  *.  v.  Ob- 

6ERVABLE8. 

He  had  a  rare  felicity  in  speedy  reading  of 
books,  and  as  it  were  but  a  turning  them 
over  would  give  an  exact  account  of  all 
considerables  therein.  —  Fuller,  Holy  State, 

II.  x.  7. 

The  passages  behind  the  curtain  (consider- 
ables concealed  from  us)  might  much  alter 
the  case.— Ibid.,  Ch.  Hist.,  II.  ii.  34. 

Few  considerables  in  that  age  (which  was 
the  crisis  of  regal  and  papal  power  in  this 
land)  will  escape  our  discovery  herein. — Ibid. 

III.  iii.  29. 

Consolate,  consolatory. 

Both  my  love  and  my  gratitude  would 
make  a  visit  now  and  then  from  my  dear 
Miss  Howe  the  most  consolate  thing  in  the 
world  to  me. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  vii. 
40. 

Consolatrix,  female  consoler. 

Love,  the  consolatrix,  met  him  again. — 
Mrs.  Oliphant,  Salem  Chapel,  eh.  xxvi. 

Console,  a  pier-table  or  bracket;  a 
French  word,  but  naturalized  with  us. 

Adele  was  leading  me  by  the  hand  round 
the  room,  showing  me  the  beautiful  books  and 
ornaments  on  the  consoles  and  chiffonieres. 
— C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xiii. 

Consortier,  taker  of  a  part  in  a  con- 
cert. 
His  lordship  had  not  been  long  matter  of 


CONSPIRACY  (  145  )        CONTEMPTUOUS 


the  viol,  and  a  sure  consortier,  but  he  turned 
composer.— North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii. 

Conspiracy,  combination  (physical). 

If  she  at  still,  that  is  best,  for  so  is  the 
conspiracy  of  her  several  graces,  held  best 
together  to  make  one  perfect  figure  of  beauty. 
Sidney,  Arcadia,  Bk.  III.  p.  383. 

C0.V8PIS8ATE,  to  thicken  together. 

For  that  which  doth  conspiesate  active  is.— 
H.  More,  Infinity  of  Worlds,  st.  14. 

*  C0N8TABILITY,  office  of  a  constable. 

The  King  still  creates  a  Constable  for  the 
ceremony  of  the  coronation;  but  his  Con- 
stability  ceases  immediately  after  the  cere- 
mony is  over.— Misson,  Travels  in  Eng.,  p. 

Constable.  To  outrun  the  constable 
=  to  get  into  pecuniary  difficulties. 

Afterwards  there  was  another  trick  found 
oat  to  get  money,  and  after  they  had  got 
it,  mother  Parliament  was  called  to  set  all 
right,  fcc.,  but  now  they  have  so  outrun  the 
constable.— Selden,  Table  Talk  (Money). 

"  Harkee,  mv  girl,  how  far  nave  yon  over- 
run the  constable  ?nl  told  him  that  the  debt 
amounted  to  eleven  pounds,  besides  the  ex- 
peace  of  the  writ.— Smollett,  Roderick  Ban' 
dan,  ch.  xxiii. 

Poor  man !  at  th'  election  he  threw  t'  other 

day, 
All  his  victuals,  and  liquor,  and  money  away ; 
And  some  people  think  with  such  haste  he 

began, 
That  soon  he  the  constable  greatly  outran. 

AnsUy,  New  Bath  Guide,  Letter  vii. 

Constitutionality,  adherence  to  the 
constitution ;  constitutionalism. 

Rule  afterwards  with  utmost  constitution'' 
*Kty;  doing  justice,  loving  mercy,  being 
shepherd  of  this  indigent  people,  not  shearer 
merely,  aid  shepherd's  similitude.—  Carlyle, 
J>.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  II.  ch.  iv. 

Consulage,  consulate. 

At  Council  we  debated  the  buisinesse  of 
the  Consulage  of  Leghorne. — Evelyn,  Diary, 
*W.  8, 1672. 

Consult,  a  person  consulted;  a 
doctor. 

u  Has  she  taken  the  dose  of  emetick?" 
nvs  the  doctor.  "  Yes,"  answered  the  maid, 
"  bat  it  had  no  effect."  "  Bon,"  cries  the  con- 
suit,  **  a  happy  prognostic."  "  It  cast  her  into 
convulsions,"  continued  the  maid.  "  Better 
yet,"  says  the  consult*1  —  Gentleman  In- 
Krurfef,p.543. 

Conbultivelt,  purposely. 

I  feare  it  would  be  a  theame  displeasant  to 
the  pave  modesty  of  the  discreet  present 
magistrates,  and  therefore  consultivefy  I  over- 


slip  it.— Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Hart.  Misc., 
vi.140). 

Consulto,  council. 

^  I  troubled  his  Highness  with  a  long  rela- 
tion of  the  consulto  we  had  about  His 
Majesty's  taking  the  oaths. — Rochet,  Life  of 

Williams,  i.  144. 

Scarce  any  in  all  the  consulto  did  vote  to 
my  Lord  Duke's  satisfaction. — Ibid.  i.  109. 

Consumedly,  excessively. 

I  believe  they  talkM  of  me,  for  they 
laugh 'd  consumedly. — Farquhar,  Beaux  Stra- 
tagem, III.  i. 

"  Have  you  seen  his  new  carriage  ?  M  saya 
Snarley.  **  Yes,"  says  Yow,  "  he's  so  consum- 
edly proud  of  it,  that  he  can't  see  his  old 
friends  while  he  drives." — Thackeray,  Shabby 
Genteel  Story,  ch.  iii. 

We  might,  if  we  chose,  go  into  a  small 
parlour  smelling  consumedly  of  gin  and  coarse 
tobacco. — Black,  Adventures  of  a  Phaeton, 
ch.  xviii. 

Consumeless,  unconsuinable ;  inde- 
structible. 

Look,   sister,   how    the   queasy  -  stomach  'd 

graves 
Vomit  their  dead,  and  how  the  purple  waves 
Scald  their  consumeless  bodies. 

Quarles,  Emblems,  iii.  14. 

Consumptuous,  consumptive. 

This  vitall  and  natural  Balsam  of  piety 
once  decayed,  dried  up,  or  exhausted  by  un- 
christian calentures,  no  wonder  if  the  whole 
constitution  of  Religion  grow  weak,  ricketty 
and  consumptuous.  —  Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  262. 

Containment.  L.  has  this  word  as 
competence ;  in  the  subjoined  passage 
it  seems  to  mean  substance,  that  which 
was  contained  in  the  estate. 

Twenty  pounds  a  moneth,  a  vast  sum  .  .  • 
enough  to  shatter  the  conteinmevt  of  a  rich 
man's  estate.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  IX.  iv.  9. 

Contemplant,  med  itative ;  observant. 

Contemplant  Spirits!  ye  that  hover  o'er 
"With  untired  gaze  the  immeasurable  fount 
Ebullient  with  creative  Deity. 

Coleridge,  Religious  Musings, 

Contempt,  to  contemn;  for  which, 
perhaps,  it  is  a  slip  of  the  pen  or  of 
the  press. 

I  regretted  that  the  Swedes  and  Danes 
should  so  much  contempt  each  other. — Southty, 
Letters,  1822  (iii.  350). 

Contemptuous,  denpised. 

The  preste  to  she  we  no  compassion,  the 
levite  to  ministre  no  mercye,  and,  last  of  all, 
the  contempt  vouse  Samaritane  to  exercise  all 

L 


CONTENTATION       (  146  )  CONTRA  YERVA 


the  offices  of  pitye. —  Vocaeyon  of  Johan  Bale, 
1553  (Ilarl.  Misc.,  vi.  451). 

Contentation,  usually = content ;  but 
in  the  extract  means  contention.  It 
may  be  a  misprint,  but  N.  gives  an  in- 
stance of  contention  being  employed, 
where  contentation,  i.  e.  content,  seemB 
to  be  meant. 

There  is  no  weak  contentation  between 
these,  and  the  labour  is  hard  to  reconcile 
them. — Adams,  i.  454. 

Contentfulness,  satisfaction. 

With  great  content  all  the  day,  as  I  think 
I  ever  passed  a  day  in  my  life,  because  of 
the  contentfulness  of  our  errand,  and  the 
nobleness  of  the  company,  and  our  manner 
of  going. — Pepys,  July  24, 1665. 

Contenument,  continuance. 

The  worst  I  wish  our  English  Gentry  is, 
that,  by  God's  blessing  on  their  thrift,  they 
may  seasonably  out-grow  the  sad  impres- 
sions which  our  Civil  Wars  have  left  in  their 
Estates,  in  some  to  the  shaking  of  their  con- 
tenument. —  Fuller,  Worthies,  Yorkshire  (ii. 
523). 

Contexture,  to  weave. 

Round  his  mysterious  Me  there  lies,  under 
all  these  wool-rags,  a  Garment  of  Flesh  (or 
of  Senses)  contextured  in  the  Loom  of  Heaven. 
— Carlyle,  Sartor  Kesartus,  Bk.  I.  ch.  z. 

Conticent,  silent. 

The  servants  have  left  the  room,  the  guests 
sit  conticent. — Thackeray,  Virginians,  ch.  Ii. 

Continent,  applied  by  Fuller  to  the 
inland  part  of  our  own  island ;  in  the 
second  quotation  it  signifies  the  limit 
or  boundary ;  that  which  contains. 

The  Danes  not  only  assailed  the  skirts 
and  outsides  of  the  land,  but  also  made  iu- 
rodes  many  miles  into  the  continent  thereof. 
—Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  II.  iv.  45. 

Nor  do  we  forget,  though  acted  out  of  the 
continent  of  England,  that  cruel  murder  in 
the  isle  of  Garnsey.— Ibid.  VIII.  ii.  24. 

Continent,  earth. 

Stay,  Sigismund,  forget'st  thou  I  am  he 
That  with  the  cannon  shook  Vienna  wall, 
And  made  it  dance  upon  the  continent  ? 

Marloive,  2  Tatnburlaine,  I.  i. 

Continuando,  continuation. 

He  .  .  makes  a  very  lacquey  of  Fitzharris, 
whose  plot  was  to  be  only  a  continuando  of 
that  which  he  held  forth. — North,  Examen, 
p.  233. 

Continuations,  one  of  the  numerous 
euphemisms  for  trousers.  Cf.  Inde- 
bcribables,  Inexplicables,  Inexpres- 
sibles, Unmentionables. 


A  sleek  man  ...  in  drab  shorts  and  con- 
tinuations, black  coat,  neck-cloth  and  gloves. 
— Sketches  by  Boz  (  Winglebury  Duel). 

Contrabanded,  smuggled ;  contra- 
band. 

Christian  shippes . . .  are  there  also  searched 
for  concealed  Slaues,  and  goods  contrabanded. 
— Sandys,  Travels,  p.  87. 

Contraconscient,  repugnant  to  con- 
science. 

The  most  reprobate  wretch  doth  commit 
some  contraconscient  iniquities,  and  hath  the 
contradiction  of  his  own  soul  by  the  rem- 
nants of  reason  left  in  it.— Adams,  i.  249. 

Contractly,  by  contraction. 

The  family  of  D'Alanson,  now  contractly 
called  Dalison. — Holland's  Canhden,  p.  544. 

Contrair,  contrary. 

So  Amram's  sacred  sonne,  in  these  projects 
Hade  one  selfe  cause    have    two  contrair 
effects. — Hudson* s  Judith,  ii.  224. 

Contrast.  This  word  is  of  some- 
what late  introduction  (Howell  uses  the 
Italian  form),  and  at  first  it  meant  a 
dispute.  Modern  Diets,  do  not  give 
this  meaning,  and  indeed  the  earliest 
authority  for  the  noun  furnished  there 
is  from  Bp.  Law  about  the  middle  of 
the  last  century.  In  V index  Anglims, 
1644  {Ilarl.  Misc.,  ii.  41),  contrast  is 
reckoned  among  that  "  ridiculous  mer-r 
chandise"  which  verbal  innovators 
"  seek  to  sell  for  current  .  .  and  I  am 
deceived  if  they  will  not  move  both 
your  anger  and  laughter."  Daniel,  how- 
ever, had  used  it  in  1617. 

He  married  Matilda  the  daughter  of 
Baldouin,  the  fift  Earl  of  Flaunders,  but 
not  without  contrast  and  trouble. — Daniel, 
Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  26. 

In  open  consistory  when  there  was  such 
a  contrasto  'twixt  the  cardinals  for  a  supply 
from  St.  Peter,  he  declared  that  he  was  well 
satisfy'd  that  this  war  in  Germany  was  no 
war  of  religion. — Howell,  Letters,  I.  vi.  8. 

There  was  tough  canvassing  for  voices, 
and  a  great  contrasto  in  the  conclave  'twixt 
the  Spanish  and  French  faction.  —  Ibid.  I. 
vi.  53. 

In  all  these  contrasts  the  Archbishop 
prevailed,  and  broke  through  mutinies  and 
high  threats. — Hacket,  Life  of  WilliatM,  ii. 
209. 

Contra-terva,  a  species  of  birth- 
wort  which  grows  in  Jamaica,  and  is 
used  as  an  antidote  against  poison  or 
infection. 

No  Indian  is  so  savage  but  that  he  knows 
the  use  of  his  tobacco  and  eontra-yerta. — 
Bp.  Hall,  Works,  viii.  167. 


CONTR1ST 


(  147  ) 


CONVE  Y 


Contrist,  to  sadden. 

He  heard  the  litanies  and  the  mementos 
of  the  priests  that  carried  his  wife  to  be 
boried,  upon  which  he  left  the  good  pur- 
pose he  was  in,  and  was  suddenly  ravished 
another  way,  saying,  Lord  God,  must  I  again 
contrist  myself? — UrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  II. 
cb.  1U. 

Twould  be  as  much  as  my  life  was  worth 
to  deject  and  contrist  myself  with  so  bad 
and  melancholy  an  account. — Sterne,  Irist. 
Shandy,  ii.  198. 

Control,  a  ruler. 

Hen  formed  to  be  instruments,  not  con- 
trols—Burke,  Fr.  Revolution,  p.  34. 

Controvebtistical,  controversial. 

Eudoxus  told  him  in  controvert  isti cat  de- 
bates, there  was  no  appeal  from  reason  to 
the  sword. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  850. 

Costruth,  to  agree  in  truth ;  a  hybrid 
word  coined  by  Hall. 

All  the  holy  doctrines  of  Divine  Scripture 
do,  as  that  Father  said  aright,  <rvva\i)Qiuuv, 
u  rontruth  with  "  each  other.  —  Bp.  Hall, 
Works,  viii.  662. 

Contumace,  seems  to  be  a  legal  term ; 
ft  declaration  that  a  person  is  contu- 
macious or  in  contempt. 

That  no  man's  name  should  be  expressed 
in  the  pulpit,  except  the  fault  be  notorious 
and  pnblick,  and  so  declared  by  an  assize, 
excommunication,  contumace,  and  lawful  ad- 
monition.— Heylin,  Hist,  of  the  Presbyterians, 
p.  358. 

Contumacitt,  perversity ;  contumacy 
is  more  common. 

A  solemn  high-stalking  man ;  with  such  a 
fund  of  indignation  in  him,  or  of  lateut 
indignation  ;  of  contumacity,  irrefragahility. 
—Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  80. 

Contuma"x,  contumacious. 

The  more,  sir,  that  ye  busy  for  you  to 
dnw  him  towards  you,  the  more  contumam 
he  is  made,  and  the  further  fro  you. — Exam, 
of  W.  Thorpe  (Bale's  Select  Works,  p.  121). 

She  was  pronounced  to  be  contumax  for 
defect  of  appearance. — Heylin,  Reformation, 
U.64. 

Contusive,  bruising. 

Te  Imps  of  Murder,  guard  her  angel  form, 
Check  the  rude  surge,  and  chase  the  hovering 

storm ; 
Shield  from  contusive  rocks  her  timber  limbs, 
And  guide  the  sweet  Enthusiast  as  she  swims. 
Poetry  of  A  nti jacobin,  p.  150. 

Convel,  to  tear  or  mangle. 

They  ought  and  must  repute,  hold,  and 
take  all  the  same  things  for  the  most  holv, 
most  sure,  and  most  certain  and  infallible 
words  of  God,  and  such  as  neither  ought  or 


can  be  altered  or  convelled  by  any  contrary 
opinion  or  authority. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist^  V. 
iii.  35. 

Convenience,  a  vehicle ;  though  in 
this  sense  it  seems  always  to  be  joined 
with  leathern. 

Now  I  consider  thy  face,  I  remember  thou 
didst  come  up  in  the  leathern  conveniency 
with  me.— Centli  vre,  Bold  Stroke  for  a  Wife, 
Act  V. 

A  rascally  slave  of  a  chairman  takes  me 
upon  the  north  side  of  my  outward  man  with 
one  of  the  poles  of  his  leathern  conveniency. 
— T.  Broicn,  Works,  iii.  117. 

What  sport  would  our  old  Oxford  acquaint- 
ance make  at  a  man  packed  up  in  this 
leathern  convenience  with  a  wife  and  chil- 
dren.— Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  XII. 
ch.  xi. 

Conventical,  conventual,  derived 
from  or  belonging  to  a  convent. 

The  gardener  .  .  .  had  mortgaged  a  month 
of  his  conventical  wages  in  a  borachio  or 
leathern  cask  of  wine. — Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy, 
V.  115. 

Conventicle.  The  quotation  refers 
to  the  Animadversions  upon  Sir  Richard 
Bakers  Chronicle  by  Thomas  Blount 
of  the  Inner  Temple.  The  earliest  quota- 
tion that  I  have  found  in  any  Diet, 
under  "conventicle"  is  from  Hall's 
Chronicle,  about,  160  years  after  Wic- 
lif's  death. 

The  said  Animadversions  were  called  in 
and  sileno'd  in  the  beginning  of  January,  by 
Dr.  Mews,  the  vice-chancellour,  because 
therein,  p.  30,  'tis  said  that  the  word  conven- 
ticle was  first  taken  up  in  the  time  of  Wick- 
liff.— A.  Wood,  Life,  Jan.  1671-2. 

Conversableness,  readiness  to  con- 
verse. 

The  women  of  the  family  of  Porretta  par- 
ticularly, he  says,  because  of  their  learuiug, 
freedom, and  conversablene$s,h&ve  been  called, 
by  their  enemies,  Frenchwomen. — Richard' 
son,  Grandison,  iii.  251. 

Conversation,  conversazione. 

Lady  Pomfret  has  a  charming  conversation 
once  a  week. —  Walpole,  Letters,  i.  71  (1740). 

Con  version  er,  missioner. 

The  Conversioner  (understand  Parsons  the 
Jesuite)  mainly  stickleth  for  the  Apostle 
Peter  to  have  first  preached  the  gospel  here. 
— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  I.  i.  7. 

Convey,  conveyance  or  transfer. 

A  clown's  sonne  must  be  clapt  in  a  velvet 
pantophle,  and  a  velvet  breech  ;  though  the 
presumptuous  a»«se  be  drowned  in  the  mer- 
cer's booke,  and  make  a  convey  of  all  his 

L  2 


C0NV1VAL 


(  148) 


COPPERS 


lands  to  the  usurer. — Greene,  Quip  for  an 
Upstart  Courtier  {Hart,  Misc.,  v.  403). 

Convival,  a  guest. 

The  number  of  the  conuiuals  at  priuate 
entertainments  exceeded  not  nine,  nor  were 
vnder  three. — Sandys,  Travels,  p.  78. 

Convolute,  that  which  is  rolled  up, 

as  in  a  ball. 

But  the  lower  lip  which  is  drawn  inwards 
with  the  curve  of  a  marine  shell — oh,  what 
a  convolute  of  cruelty  and  revenge  is  there ! — 
Dt  Quincey,  System  of  the  Heavens. 

Convulnerate,  to  join  in  wounding. 

For  as  thornes  did  His  head  convulnerate, 
So  rods  all  round  Him  did  excoriate. 

Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  13. 

Cony-gat,  a  rabbit-burrow. 

This  weasel-monger,  who  is  no  better  than 
a  cat  in  a  house,  or  a  ferret  in  a  cony-gat, 
shall  not  dissuade  your  majesty  from  a 
gardener,  whose  art  is  to  make  walks  plea- 
sant for  princes.  —  Pede,  The  Gardener's 
Speech,  p.  579. 

Conyngby,  a  rabbit-warren. 

There  is  a  conyngry  called  Milborowe  heth 
granted  by  the  King  to  John  Honteley. — 
Document,  circa  1521  (Archaol.,  xxv.  313). 

Cookebies,  dainties. 

His  appetite  was  gone,  and  cookeries  were 
provided  in  order  to  tempt  his  palate,  but  all 
was  chip. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii. 
205. 

Cool.  This  word  is  sometimes  used 
in  speaking  of  a  sum  of  money :  it 
usually  implies  that  the  sum  is  large. 
See  extract  from  Smollet,  «.  v.  Shake- 
bag. 

Suppose  you  .don't  get  sixpence  costs,  and 
lose  your  cool  hundred  by  it,  still  it's  a  great 
advantage. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Love  and  Law, 
i.  2. 

"  She  had  wrote  out  a  little  coddleshell  in 
her  own  hand  a  day  or  two  afore  the  accident, 
leaving  a  cool  four  thousand  to  Mr.  Matthew 
Pocket."  ...  I  never  discovered  from  whom 
Joe  derived  the  conventional  temperature  of 
the  four  thousand  pounds,  but  it  appeared  to 
make  the  sum  of  money  more  to  him,  and 
he  had  a  manifest  relish  in  insisting  on  its 
being  cool. — Dickens,  Great  Expectations,  ch. 
lvii. 

Coolth,  coolness;  a  word  formed 
like  Walpole's  blueth,  gloomth,  greenth. 

In  the  evening  my  father  and  Mrs.  Thrale 
seated  themselves  out  of  doors,  just  before 
the  Blue-room  windows,  for  coolth  and  chat. 
— Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  ii.  77. 

Coome,   a  measure  containing  four 
bushels.    See  L.,  s.  v.  comb. 
His  Majesty  measured  out  his  accumulated 


gifts,  not  by  the  bushel  or  by  the  coome,  but 
by  the  barn-full.—  Hacket,  Life  of  Williams 9 
i.  63. 

Coon,  shortened  form  of  racoon,  and 
applied  to  a  person :  it  is  an  American- 
ism that  has  been  adopted  in  England  ; 
a  gone  coon  is  one  who  is  in  extremity. 

If  you  start  in  any  business  with  an  empty 
pocket,  you  are  a  gone  coon. — Reade,  Never 
too  late  to  mend,  ch.  xxxvi. 

Cooperage,  the  place  where  coopers' 
work  is  done. 

[The  Ipswich  people  have]  room  for  erect- 
ing their  magazines,  warehouses,  roap-walks, 
cooperages,  &c.,  on  the  easiest  terms. — Defoe, 
Tour  thro'  G.  Britain,  i.  26. 

Cop,  to  throw. 

Then  clatter  went  the  earthen  plates, 
"  Mind,  Judie ! "  was  the  cry ; 

I  could  have  copH  them  at  their  pates, 
"  Trenchers  for  me,"  said  I. 

Bloomfeld,  The  Hotkey. 

Coparceny,  equal  partnership. 

The  English  exiles  .  .  .  had  a  church 
granted  unto  them,  yet  so  as  they  were  to 
hold  the  same  in  co-parcenie  with  the  French 
Protestants,  they  one  day,  and  the  English 
another.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  VIII.  ii.  43. 

Cope,  now  always  an  ecclesiastical 
vestment;  but,  as  Wheatley  remarks, 
not  formerly  so  invariably. 

Xantippe  had  pulled  awaie  her  house- 
ban  des  cope  from  his  backe,  even  in  the  open 
strete,  and  his  familiar  companions  gaue 
hym  a  by  warnyng  to  auenge  soche  a 
naughtie  touche  or  pranke  with  his  tenne 
coramandements.--  UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth., 
p.  27. 

The  side  robe  or  cope  of  homely  and  course 
clothe  soche  as  the  beggerie  pnilosophiers, 
and  none  els  vsen  to  weare. — Ibid.  p.  47. 

Cope,  an  exchange  or  bargain. 

Thomas,  maids  when  they  come  to  see  the 

fair, 
Count  not  to  make  a  cope  for  dearth  of  hay. 

Greene,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  157. 

Cope.   Gain  cope  =  to  attain  equality. 

If  I  should  set  the  mercies  of  our  land  to 
run  along  with  Israel's,  we  should  gain  cope 
of  them,  and  outrun  them. — Adams,  i.  350. 

Cofpers.  Hot  coppers  is  a  slang  ex- 
pression for  a  mouth  parched  through 
excessive  drinking. 

We  were  playing  Van  John  in  Blake's 
rooms  till  three  last  night,  and  he  gave  us 
devilled  bones  and  mulled  port.  A  fellow 
can't  enjoy  his  breakfast  after  that  without 
something  to  cool  his  coppers. — Hughes,  Tom 
Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  iii. 


COPPIL 


(  *49  ) 


CORNET 


Coppil.  Bailey  has  "Coppel,  Cup* 
pel,  a  pot  in  which  goldsmiths  melt 
and  fine  their  metal:  also,  a  sort  of 
crucible  used  by  chymists  in  purifying 
gold  or  silver."  In  the  extract  it  is  a 
verb  =  to  refine. 

Both  which  (as  a  most  noble  Knight,  Sir 
K.  D.,  hath  it)  may  be  illustrated  in  some 
measure  by  what  we  find  passeth  in  the  cop- 
pitting  of  a  fixed  metal],  which,  as  long  as 
any  lead,  or  drosse,  or  any  allay  remains 
with  it,  contiiiueth  still  melting,  flowing, 
and  in  motion  under  the  muffle. — Howell, 
tarty  of  Beasts,  p.  148. 

Copwebless,  without  cobwebs.  Prof. 
Skeat  [Etymol.  Diet.]  says  that  "cob- 
web" is  derived  "either  (1)  from  W. 
cob j  a  spider,  and  £.  web)  or  (2)  a 
shortened  form  of  aUercop^web,  from 
the  M.  E.  attercop,  a  spider.  Cf.  the 
spelling  copwebbe,  Golden  Boke,  c. 
xvii."  Another  and  later  instance  of 
this  spelling  is  subjoined. 

Amongst  the  Civil  Structures,  Westminster 
Hall  is  eminent  .  .  .  built  with  copwebless 
beams,  conceived  of  Irish  wood.  —  Fuller, 
Worthies,  Westminster  (ii.  103). 

Copy,  a  legal  instrument,  or  the  pro- 
perty held  thereby  (cf.  Macbeth,  III.  ii, 
quoted  by  L.,  *.  v.). 

I  am  the  lamle-lord,  Keeper,  of  thy  holds, 
By  copy  all  thy  living  lies  in  me. 

Greene,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  170. 

What  poor  man's  right,  what  widow's  copy, 
or  what  orphan's  legacy  would  have  been 
safe  from  us  ? — Andrewes,  Sermons,  v.  27. 

I  finde  that  Waltham  Abbey  (for  Benedic- 
tines at  the  first)  had  its  copie  altered  by 
King  Henry  the  Second,  ana  bestowed  on 
Augustiniane. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  vi.  1. 

Copy  of  countenance,  a  flam  or 
humbug. 

Whatsoever  he  prateth  of  a  rigorous  de- 
monstrative way  as  being  only  conclusive,  it 
is  bat  a  copy  of  his  countenance.  He  cannot 
be  ignorant,  or  if  he  be,  he  will  find  by  ex- 
perience that  his  ghttering  principles  will 
fail  him  in  his  greatest  need,  and  leave  him 
in  the  dirt.— Bramhall,  ii.  367. 

Now  he  saw  all  that  scheme  dissolved,  he 
returned  to  his  integrity,  of  which  he  gave 
an  incontestable  proof,  by  informing  Wild  of 
the  measures  which  had  been  concerted 
against  him ;  in  which,  he  said,  he  had  pre- 
tended to  acquiesce,  in  order  the  better  to 
betray  them ;  but  this,  as  he  afterwards  con- 
fessed on  his  death-bed,  i.e.  in  the  cart  at 
Tyburn,  was  only  a  copy  of  his  countenance  ; 
far  that  he  was  at  that  time  as  sincere  and 
hearty  in  his  opposition  to  Wild  as  any  of 
his  companions. — Fielding,  Jonathan  Wild, 
Bk.  III.  ch.  xiv. 


If  this  application  for  my  advice  is  not  a 
copy  of  your  countenance,  a  mask,  if  you  are 
obedient,  I  may  yet  set  you  right. — Foote, 
The  Author,  Act  11/ 

Coran  tree,  currant  tree. 

The  borders  of  which  grass  plots  are  coran 
trees. — Survey  of  the  Manor  of  WimJbledon, 
1649  {Arch.,  x.  424). 

Corduroy,  a  thick  ribbed  cotton  stuff. 
Prof.  Skeat  (Etymol.  Diet.  s.  v.  cord) 
say 8  that  the  word  is  not  easily  traced, 
but  is  said,  without  evidence,  to  be  a 
corruption  of  cordc  du  rot  or  king's 
cord.     Cf .  Duroy. 

Clad  in  a  tight  suit  of  corduroy,  spangled 
with  brass  buttons  of  a  very  considerable 
size,  he  at  the  first  stood  at  the  door  as* 
tounded. — Pickwick  Papers,  ch.  zii. 

Coreless,  weak,  without  pith. 

I  am  gone  in  years,  my  Liege,  am  very  old, 
Coreless  and  sapless,  weak,  and  needs  must 

crave 
Support  of  secular  force. 

Taylor,  Isaac  Comnenus,  II.  i. 

Cork  shoes,  seem  to  have  been  worn 
by  the  wealthy  or  fashionable.  See 
extract «.  v.  Cut-fingered. 

Strip  off  my  Bride's  array, 
My  corke-shoes  from  my  feet, 

And,  gentle  mother,  be  not  coy 
To  bring  my  winding-sheet. 

Roxburgh*  Ballads,  i.  249. 

Corn  aline,  cornelian. 

For  tablet  fine 
About  his  neck  hangs  a  great  cornaline. 

Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  919. 

Cornelius,  a  cornuto,  a  cuckold. 

Who  can  deride  me 
But  I  myself  ?  Ha,  that's  too  much !  I  know 

it, 
And  spight  of  these  tricks  am  a  Cornelius. 

Shirley,  The  Gamester,  Act  V. 

Corner-cap,  a  square  cap. 

It  was  my  hap  in  a  little  field  neere  unto  a 
church  in  a  countrey  towne  to  overtake  a 
little  old  man  in  a  gowne,  a  wide  cassock,  a 
night-cap,  and  a  corner-cap,  by  his  habit 
seeming  to  be  a  Divine. — Breton,  A  Mad 
World,  p.  8. 

Corner-miching,  skulking  or  sneak- 
ing. See  quotation  *.  v.  Bloomsbury, 
and  H.  s.  v.  mich.  Bp.  Hall  ( Works, 
ix.  260)  speaks  of  some  one  as  "  spider- 
catcher,  corner-creeper,  C.  E.,  pseudo- 
catholic  Priest/' 

Cornet,  to  play  on  the  cornet. 

Here's  a  whole  chorus  of  Sylnans  at  hand 
cometting  and  tripping  th'  toe.  —  Chapman, 
Widdowes  Teares,  Act  III. 


CORNIFICATION        (  150  )     CORRESPONDENCE 


Cornification,  formation  of  horn. 

The  short  and  straight  horns  were  stunted 
in  their  growth  ;  their  natural  tendency  was 
to  twist  like  a  sheep's  horn  ;  and  the  habit  of 
cornification  is  more  likely  to  have  been 
formed  nearer  home  than  in  the  interior  of 
Africa.— Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cxxviii. 

Cornish,  cornice. 

The  hinder  part,  being  something  more 
eminent  than  the  other,  is  surrounded  with 
ten  small  pillars  adjoyning  to  the  wall,  and 
sustaining  the  cornish. —Sandys.  Travels,  p. 
166.  *'  *  * 

Cornish  Diamonds,  transparent 
quartz.  See  extract  *.  v.  Cut-fingered. 
The  Cornish  Boy  in  the  last  extract 
is  Opie,  the  artist.  Fuller,  Worthies 
(Cornwall  Proverbs),  quotes — 
"  Hengsten  Down  well  ywrought. 

Is  worth  London  Town  dearly  bought " — 

and  adds,  "The  Cornish  diamonds 
found  therein  may  be  pure  and  orient 
.  .  .  the  coarsest  in  this  kind  are  higher, 
and  the  purest  still  the  lowest." 

Not  far  from  hence  is  Hengeston  Hill, 
which  produces  a  great  plenty  of  Cornish 
diamonds.— Defoe,  Tour  thro1  G.  Brit,  ii.  5. 

Speak,  Muse,  who  form'd  that   matchless 
he&d? 

The  Cornish  Boy  in  tin-mines  bred ; 

"Whose  native  genius,  like  his  diamonds,  shone 

In  secret,  till  chance  gave  him  to  the  sun. 

WoLcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  129. 

Cornish-huo,  a  peculiar  lock  in 
wrestling.  "  It  is  figuratively  applic- 
able to  the  deceitful  dealing  of  such 
who  secretly  design  their  overthrow 
whom  they  openly  embrace.  "—Fuller, 
Worthies  {Cornish  Proverbs). 

And  a  prime  wrestler  as  e'er  tript, 
E'er  gave  the  Cornish-hug,  or  hipt. 
Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  202. 
His  St.  Maw's  Muse  has  given  the  French 
troops  a  Cornish  huy,  and  flung  them  all 
upon  their  hack*.— Character  of  a  Sneaker, 
1705  (Hart.  Misc.,  ii.  354). 

Cornless,  without  corn. 

He  seemed  fully  alive  to  the  cornless  state 
of  the  parson's  stable.— Lytton,  Pelham,  ch. 
lxiv. 

Corn-riq,  corn-rick. 

Joe  "Waahford  had  himself  been  found, 
when  the  hue-and-cry  was  up,  hid  in  a  corn- 
rig  at  no  great  distance  from  the  scene  of 
daughter.— Ingoldsby  Legends  (Jarvis's  Wig). 

Cornute,  a  horned  person,  a  cuckold. 
The  Diets,  have  it  as  a  verb.— Shake- 
speare (Merry  Wives,  III.  v)  uses  the 
Italian  torin  corniUo. 


Your  best  of  friends,  your  dearest  Phylocles, 
Usurps  your  bed,  and  makes  you  a  cornute. 
Machin,  Dumb  Knight,  Act  III. 

Coronal  oath,  coronation  oath.  L. 
has  the  word  as  an  adjective,  but  only 
as  a  term  in  anatomy. 

Thelaw  and  his  coronal  oath  require  his 
undeniable  assent  to  what  laws  the  parlia- 
ment agree  upon. — Milton,  Eikonoklastes,  ch. 
vi. 

Coronet,  cornet ;  this  spelling  is  not 
infrequent  in  Civil  War  Literature. 

We  found  means  to  steale  upon  [them] 
with  Vrries  party  .  .  .  taking  two  coronets 
and  killing  forty  or  fifty  men.— Battaile  near 
Newbury  in  Berkshire,  Sept.  20,  1643,  p.  2. 

Coronis,  in  the  Greek  means  some- 
thing curved,  and  so  the  curved  line  or 
flourish  at  the  end  of  a  book  or  chapter, 
and  then  for  the  end  generally.  The 
word  had  a  place  in  Latin,  but  Hacket's 
precedent  has  not  been  followed  by 
English  writers. 

The  coronis  of  this  matter  is  thus;  some 
bad  ones  in  this  family  were  punish 'd  strictly, 
all  rebuk'd,  not  all  amended.-— /fodbrf.  Life 
of  Williams,  ii.  38. 

Corps,  substance,  income. 

He  added  ...  to  the  Doctor  of  the  Chair 
for  Law,  the  corps  of  a  good  prebend  in  the 
church  of  Salisbury. — Heylin,  Life  of  Laud, 
p.  180. 

Corpslet,  corslet, 

While  th'  Armorers  with  hammers  hard  and 

great 
On  stithies  strong  the  sturdy  Steele  doth 

beate. 
And  makes  thereof  a  corpslet  or  a  jacke. 

Hudson's  Judith,  i.  369. 

Corrept,  chiding,  abusive. 

If  these  corrept  and  corrupt  extasies  or 
extravagancies  be  not  permitted  to  such 
fanatick  triflers  .  .  .  they  presently  medi- 
tate the  most  desperate  separations. — Gau- 
den,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  212. 

Correptory,  rebuking.  Gauden 
(Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  430)  speaks  of 
"  the  Epistles  correptory  or  consolatory 
to  the  Seven  Asian  Churches." 

Correspondence.  The  derivation  in 
the  extract  seems  to  be  meant  seriously. 

I  loved  familiar  letter-writing,  as  I  had 
more  than  once  told  her,  above  all  the  species 
of  writing:  it  was  writing  from  the  heart 
(without  the  fetters  prescribed  by  method 
or  study)  as  the  very  word  cor-respondence 
implied.— Richardson,  d.  Harlotce,  iv.  291. 


.-** 


CORROBORANT        (  151  ) 


COSTUME 


Corroborant,  a  support ;  more  com- 
mon as  an  adjective.  See  another  ex- 
ample from  Southey,  %.  v.  Simples. 

Next  to  this  it  imported  to  comfort  the 
stomach,  and  to  cherish  the  root  of  mas, 
that  is  to  say,  the  brain,  with  its  proper 
corro?>orants,  especially  with  sweet  odours 
and  with  music. — Southey,  The  Doctor t  ch. 
217.  y 

Corroboratic,  strengthener. 

Get  a  good  warm  girdle,  and  tie  round  you ; 
tis  an  excellent  eorroboratick  to  strengthen 
the  loins.— r.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  186. 

Corrodt.  See  quotation  from  Fuller, 
and  *.  v.  Solvable. 

There  be  small  corrodies  in  Cambridge  for 
cooks  decayed. — Pp.  Gardiner  (Abp.  Parker's 
Correspondence,  p.  20). 

Xor  must  we  forget  the  benefit  of  corrodies, 
so  called  a  conradendo,  from  eating  together : 
for  the  heirs  of  the  foresaid  founders  (not  by 
coartesie,  but  composition  for  their  former 
favours)  had  a  priviledge  to  send  a  set  num- 
ber of  their  poor  servants  to  Abbeys  to  diet 
therein. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  VI.  iv. 

Corrol,  wrinkle? 

Spring  with   the  larke,  most  comely  bride, 

and  meet 
Your  eager  bridegroome  with  auspitious  feet. 
The  morn's  farre  spent ;  and  the  immortall 

Stume 
Corrols  his  cheeke  to  see  those  rites  not  done. 
Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  231. 

Corsart,  a  pirate. 

I  will  not  presume  to  prie  into  the  secrets 
of  the  Almighty  disposer  of  all  things,  whose 
handmaid  Nature  is,  how  farre  he  lets  loose 
the  reins  to  the  ill  spirit  of  the  aire,  to  cause 
such  sudden  impressions  upon  the  elements, 
whereof  there  are  daily  wonderful]  examples 
amongst  this  crue  of  corsaries. — Howell,  Do- 
dona's  Grove,  p.  83. 

Corvy,  some  engine  or  instrument 
used  in  a  siege. 

Here  croked  Coruies,  fleeing  bridges  tal, 
Their  scathf  ul  Scorpions  that  ruynes  the  wall. 

Hudson's  Judith,  iii.  111. 

Cosmocrat,  "  Prince  of  this  world." 

Tou  will  not  think,  great  Cosmocrat, 
That  I  spend  my  time  in  fooling. 

Southey,  Devil's  Walk. 

Cosmopolite,  usually  means  a  citizen 
of  the  world,  one  who  is  equally  at 
home  in  all  countries.  Adams,  how- 
ever, always  uses  it  of  a  worldling.  He 
has  a  sermon  (ii.  123)  on  the  rich  fool, 
entitled  The  Cosmopolite,  or  World's 
Favourite. 

The  vanity  of  carnal  joys,  the  variety  of 


vanities,  are  as  bitter  to  us  as  pleasant  to 
the  cosmopolite  or  worldling. — Adams,  i.  229. 

Cosmopolitism,    citizenship    of   the 

world ;  the  condition  or  attitude  of  a 

person  who  feels  no  special  ties  to  one 

place  or  circle  more  than  another. 

Indulgent  to  human  nature  in  general,  and 
loving  it,  but  not  with  German  cosmopolitism 
— first  and  best  loving  her  daughter,  her 
family. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Patronage,  ch.  xiv. 

Cosmorama,  a  view  of  the  world. 
"A  species  of  picturesque  exhibitions. 
It  consists  of  eight  or  ten  coloured 
drawings  laid  horizontally  round  a 
semi-circular  table,  and  reflected  by 
mirrors  placed  diagonally  opposite  to 
them.  The  spectator  views  them 
through  convex  ienses  placed  immedi- 
ately in  front  of  each  mirror.  The 
exhibition  takes  place  by  lamp-light 
only"  (Imp.  Diet.). 

The  temples,  and  saloons,  and  cosmoramas, 
and  fountains  glittered  and  sparkled  before 
our  eyes. — Sketches  by  Boz  (  VauxhaZl  by  day). 

Cosset,  to  nurse  or  coddle ;  in  use  in 
Sussex.  Spenser  has  cosset  for  a  pat- 
lamb.  Breton  (Fantastickes,  April) 
uses  the  word  adjectivally ;  "  the  cosset 
lamb  is  learned  to  butt."  It  is  also 
used  for  a  pet  of  any  sort,  or  (dispar- 
agingly) =  a  minion.  See  extract  s.  v. 
Tantany. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  late  King's  dayes, 
Episcopacy  and  the  state  of  the  Church  was 
even  pampered  and  cosetted  by  so  excessive  a 
favour  and  propensity  as  made  it  seem  his 
chief  favourite. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church, 
p.  375. 

I  have  been  cosseting  this  little  beast  up,  in 
the  hopes  you'd  accept  it  as  a  present. — H. 
Kingsley,  G.  Hamlyn,  ch.  xxvi. 

C08TELET  (Fr.),  cutlet. 

At  night  he  desired  the  company  of  some 
known  and  ingenious  friends  to  join  in  a 
costelet  and  a  Ballad  at  Chattelin's. — North, 
Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  91. 

It  had  a  fire-place  and  grate,  with  which 
he  could  make  a  soup, broil  costeletts,OT  roast 
an  egg. — Ibid.  ii.  270. 

Coster-boy,  a  boy  selling  costards, 

fruit,  vegetables,  &c,  in  the  streets. 

The  girl  found  for  them  the  man  they 
wanted  .  .  .  laying  down  the  law  to  a  group 
of  coster-boys,  for  want  of  better  audience. — 
C.  Kingsley,  Tico  Years  Ago,  ch.  xxiv. 

Costume,  to  dress. 

They  are  all  costumed  in  black.— C.  Bronte, 
Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xvii. 


COSTUOUS 


(  152  )      COUNTER-CURSE. 


Costuous,  costly. 

Nor  in  costuous  pearls  in  their  copes,  per- 
rours,  and  chasuble*,  when  they  be  in  their 
prelately  pompous  sacrifices.  —  Bale,  Select 
Works,  p.  526. 

Cotemporan,  a  contemporary. 

I  am  not  out  of  hopes  that,  when  times 
will  bear  it,  some  of  the  cotemporans,  faithful 
historians  (at  present  not  unprepar'd  for  it), 
will  suffer  their  labours  to  oome  forth.— 
North,  Examen,  p.  187. 

Coterel.     See  extract. 

Here  [Sheppey-isle]  are  several  Tumuli  in 
the  marshy  parts  all  over  the  island,  some 
of  which  the  inhabitants  call  Coterds  ;  these 
are  supposed  to  have  been  cast  up  in  memory 
of  some  of  the  Danish  leaders  who  were 
buried  here. — Defoe,  Tour  thro*  G.  Britain,  i. 
153. 

Cothurn,  tragic  buskin. 

How  the  cothums  trod  majestic, 
Down  the  deep  iambic  lines, 

And  the  rolling  anapaestic 
Curled  like  vapour  over  shrines. 

Mrs.  Browning,  Wine  of  Cyprus. 

Cotloft,  cockloft ;  garret. 

These  [idle  heirs]  ate  the  tops  of  their 
houses  indeed,  like  cotlofls  highest  and 
emptiest. — Fuller,  Holy  State,  I.  nv.  2. 

Cotton,  to  cocker ;  some  things  are 
carefully  preserved  in  lavender  and 
cotton. 

"It  is  the  most  infernal  shame,"  said 
Losely,  between  his  grinded  teeth, u  that  I 
should  be  driven  to  these  wretched  dens  for 
a  lodging,  while  that  man,  who  ought  to 
feel  bound  to  maintain  me,  should  be  rolling 
in  wealth,  and  cottoned  up  in  a  palace :  but 
he  shall  fork  out."— Lytton,  What  will  he  do 
with  it?  Bk.  vi.  ch.  v. 

Countable,  accountable. 

If  we  be  countable,  and  we  are  countable  at 
the  day  of  judgment  for  every  idle  word  we 
speak  . . .  what  less  than  damnation  can  they 
expect  that . . .  blaspheme  God  and  His  holy 
truth  ? — Sanderson,  li.  49. 

Countenance.  The  phrase  in  the 
extract  is  rather  peculiar ;  it  means  that 
the  two  armies  drawn  up  opposite  each 
other  passed  the  day  in  this  confront- 
ation without  actually  engaging. 

Both  armies  furnished  with  braue  men  of 
warre,  and  circumspect,  depart  without  in- 
counter  .  .  .  and  so  they  passed  the  day  in 
countenances,  and  nothing  was  done. — Daniel, 
Hist,  of  Eng.,p.  191. 

Counter,  to  encounter  or  meet  in 
opposition ;  it  is  also  a  technical  term 
in  pugilism.     See  last  extract 

Then  Diogenes  again  countreyng  saied,  If 


Aristippus  had  learned  to  be  contented  with 
rawe  herbes,  he  should  not  nede  to  be  the 
Kioges  hound. — UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth., 
p.  46. 

A  lie.  Falcons  that  tyrannize  o'er  weaker 
food, 
Hold  peace  with  their  own  feathers. 

Har.  But  when  they  counter 

Upon  one  quarry,  break  that  league  as  we  do. 

Albumazar,  V.  i. 

His  answer  countered  every  design  of  the 
interrogations. — North,  Examen,  p.  246. 

**  Brandy-and-water  in  the  morning  ought 
not  to  improve  the  wind,"  said  Tom  to  him- 
self, as  his  left  hand  countered  provokingly, 
while  his  right  rattled  again  ana  again  upon 
Trebooze's  watch-chain. —  C.  Kingsley,  Two 
Years  Ago,  ch.  ziv. 

Counterband,  contraband. 

I  have  not  seized  any  ships  of  yonrs ;  you 
carry  on  no  counterband  trade. —  Walpole  to 
Mann,  ill.  309  (1759). 

Plate  of  all  earthly  vanities  is  the  most 
impassable;  it  is  not  counterband  in  its 
metallic  capacity,  but  totally  so  in  its  per- 
sonal.— Ibid.,  Letters,  iii.  305  (1769). 

Counterbanded,  contraband. 

If  there  happen  to  be  found  an  irreverent 
expression  or  a  thought  too  wanton,  they  are 
crept  into  my  verses  through  my  inadvert- 
ency ;  if  the  searchers  find  any  in  the  cargo, 
let  them  be  staved  or  forfeited  like  counter- 
banded  goods. — Dryden,  Preface  to  Fables. 

Countehbane,  antidote ;  the  refer- 
ence in  the  second  extract  is  to  the  Tree 
of  Life. 

Th'  inchanting  Charms  of  Syren's  blandish- 
ments, 
Contagious  Aire — ingendring  Pestilence, 
Infect  not  those  that  in  their  mouthes  have 

ta'en 
Angelica — that  happy  counter-baen. 

Sylvester,  third  day,  721. 

Strong  counter-bane,  O  sacred  plant  divine. 

Ibid.,  Eden,  228. 

Counterbias,  to  set  against 

Nor  was  it  so  much  policy  or  reason  of 
State,  as  strength  of  true  Reason,  and  the 
pre  valencies  of  true  Religion  which  so  cou  nter- 
biassed  that  King's  judgement  against  Pres- 
bytery.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  604. 

Counterbrave,  boast  or  challenge 
against  another. 

Nor  thy  strength  is  approv'd  with  words, 

good  friend,  nor  can  we  reach 
The  body,  nor  make  th'  enemy  yield  with 

these  our  counterbraves. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xvi.  580. 

Counter-curse,  reciprocal  cursing. 

Uncharitable  arrogancies  have  .  .  .  filled 
and  inflamed  men's  minds  with  cruell 
counter-curses  and  angry  Anathemas  again sb 


COUNTERFORCE        (  153  ) 


COUPLET 


each  other. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church, 
p.  407. 

Counterforce,  opposing  or  counter- 
balancing power. 

Hen  began  to  see  the  necessity  of  an  ade- 
quate counterforce  to  push  against  this  over- 
whelming torrent. — De  Quincey,  Soman  Meals. 

Counterguard,  a  small  rampart  to 
protect  a  bastion. 

Furiously  playing  off  his  two  Gross  bat- 
teries at  the  same  time  against  the  counter' 
guard  which  faced  the  counterscarp. — Sterne, 
Tr.  Shandy,  v.  17. 

Counter-jumper,  a  shopman. 

"Sir, you  should  know  that  my  cheek  is 
not  for  jou."  ••  Why,"  said  he,  stifling  his 
anger,  **  it  seems  free  enough  to  every  counter- 
jumper  in  the  town." — C.  KingsUy,  Westward 
Hof  ch.  z. 

Counterleague,  to  confederate   a- 

gainst. 

This  king  . . .  (upon  this  defection  of  King 
Baliol,  and  his  league  made  with  France) 
counterleague*  with  all  the  princes  he  could 
draw  in,  eyther  by  gifts  or  allyance,  to 
strengthen  his  partie  abroad. — Daniel,  Hist. 
of  Eng.,  p.  163. 

Wise  men  thought  a  peace  could  not  well 
be  concluded  between  those  crowns,  without 
somewhat  privately  agreed  to  the  prejudice 
of  the  Protestant  princes  or  their  interests ; 
but  not  publicly,  lest  they  should  take  the 
alarm  and  counterleague  it. — North,  Examen, 
p.  21. 

Counterly,  belonging  to  the  counter 

or  prison  (?). 

Ye  stale  counterly  villain !  —  Preston,  AT. 
Cambists  {Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr.,  i.  305). 

Counterplead,  to  enter  counterpleas. 

There  is  a  tale  that  once  the  Hoast  of  Birds, 
And  all   the   Legions    of  grove  -  haunting 

Heards, 
Before  the  Earth  ambitiously  did  strive, 
And  counterplead  for  the  Prerogative. 

Sylvester,  The  Decay,  261. 

Counter-pole,  opposite  pole. 

This  u  prandium,"  this  essentially  military 
meal,  was  taken  standing  ....  Hence  the 
posture  in  which  it  was  taken  at  Borne,  the 
very  counter-pole  to  the  luxurious  posture  of 
dinner. — De  Quincey,  Roman  Meals. 

Counterpuff,  opposing  breeze. 

The  lofty  Pine  that's  shaken  to  and  fro 
With  Couriter-puJ*  of   sundry  winds  that 
blow.— Sylvester,  The  Fathers,  246. 

Counterpush,  to  thrust  against ;  op- 
pose. 

On  th'  other  side  the  Towns-men  are  not  slow 
With  counterplots  to  counterpush  their  foe. 

Sylvester,  The  Decay,  961. 


Counterpush,  a  thrust  against. 

Neither  of  them  had  regard  to  save  himself, 
so  he  might  wound  and  mischief  his  enemy, 
but  were  both  with  a  counterpush  that  quite 
pierced  their  targets,  run  into  the  sides, 
and  thrust  through. — Holland,  Ltvy,  p.  39. 

Counter-refer,  to  refer  back  inter- 
changeably. 

The  sincerity  of  any  business  may  be  known 
by  the  means  used  to  accomplish  it ;  for  if 
either  be  false  and  perfidious,  the  other  will 
be  so  also;  and  they  counter-refer  to  each 
other.— Nort h,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  102. 

Counter-scarf,  counterscarp ;  the 
rhyme  shows  that  it  is  not  a  misprint, 
though  it  may  be  the  cause  of  a  mis- 
spelling. 

See,  see,  quoth  he,  these  dust-spawn,  feeble 

dwarfs, 
See  their  huge  castles,  walls,  and  counter' 

scarfs. — Sylvester,  Babylon,  179. 

Counter-seas,  cross-seas. 

[The  Irish  Sea]  rageth  all  the  yeer  long 
with  surging  billows  and  counter-seas,  and 
never  is  at  rest  nor  navigable,  unlesse  it  be 
in  some  few  summer  daies. — Holland's  Cam- 
den, ii.  60. 

Counter-service,  reciprocal  service. 

One  cannot  use  th'  ayde  of  the  Powrs  below 
Without  some  Pact  of  Counter-services, 
By  Prayers,  Perfumes,  Homage,  and  Sacri- 
fice.—Sylvester,  The  Trophies,  716. 

Counterset,  to  match  or  parallel. 

In  all  thy  writings  thou  hast  such  a  vaine, 
As  but  thy  selfe  thy  selfe  canst  counterset. 

B.  Cox  to  Davies  (Davies, 
Humour's  Heaven,  p.  5). 

Counter-tune,  musical  part  answering 
to  another,  as  the  tenor  with  the  treble 
or  bass,  &c.  Sylvester  (Columnesy 
743)  speaks  of  "the  sweet-charming 
cvunter-tunes  "  formed  by  the  humors, 
seasons,  and  elements. 

Coupee,  to  cut  or  bow  as  in  dancing ; 
also,  a  eubst. 

Fleers,  cringes,  nods,  and  salutations, 
From  lords  in  debt  to  purple  judges, 
And  coupees  low  from  pauper  drudges. 

D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  c.  3. 

Here's  one  ne're  cares  who  th'  nation's  ruling, 
So  daughter  be  not  kept  from  schooling ; 
Would  lose  his  freedom  like  a  puppy, 
Bather  than  she  not  learn  to  conpee. — Ibid. 

Yon  shall  swear,  Til  sigh;  you  shall  sa! 
sa !  and  111  coupee,  and  if  she  flies  not  to  my 
arras  like  a  hawk  to  its  perch,  my  dancing- 
master  deserves  to  be  damned. — Farquhar, 
Constant  Couple,  iv.  1. 

Couplet,  to  compose  couplets. 


COURAGEMENT        (  154  ) 


COUSIN 


Me  thinks,  quoth  Sancho,  the  thoughts 
which  give  way  to  the  making  of  couplets 
can  not  be  many.  Couplet  it  as  much  as  your 
worship  pleases,  and  I  will  sleep  as  much  as 
I  can.— Jar  vis's  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  IV. 
ch.  xvi. 

Couragement,  encouragement. 

This  made  the  Rebel  1  rise  in  strength  and 

pride, 
From  Sov'raigne's  weaknesse  taking  courage- 

ment 
T'  assault  their  gates. 

Davies,  Microcosmos,  p.  6*2. 

Courant.     See  extract. 

I  mv  selfe  have  seene  so  fine  and  small  a 
thread,  that  a  whole  net  knit  thereof,  to- 
gether with  the  cords  and  strings  called 
Courants,  running  along  the  edges  to  draw  it 
in  and  let  it  out,  would  passe  all  through 
the  ring  of  a  man's  linger. — Holland,  Pliny, 
Bk.  XIX.  ch.  i. 

Courses,  sails. 

My  uncle  ordered  the  studding-sails  to  he 
hoisted,  and  the  ship  to  be  cleared  for  en- 
gaging, but  finding  that  (to  use  the  seamen's 
phrase)  we  were  very  much  wronged  by  the 
ship  which  had  us  in  chace,  and  which  by 
this  time  had  hoisted  French  colours,  he 
commanded  the  studding-sails  to  be  taken 
in,  the  courses  to  be  clewed  up,  the  main- 
topsail  to  be  backed,  the  tompions  to  be 
taken  out  of  the  guns,  and  every  man  to 
repair  to  his  quarters. — Smollett,  Rod.  Ran- 
dom, ch.  lxv. 

Coursing,  disputing  in  the  schools. 
See  L. ,  s.  v.  courser. 

180  bachelors  this  last  Lent,  and  ail  things 
earned  on  well,  bnt  no  coursing,  which  is  very 
bad.— A.  Wood,  Life,  Mar.  23, 1678. 

Court-element,  flattery.  Cf.  N.,  s.v. 
court-holy-water. 

For  the  rest  I  refer  me  to  that  famous 
testimony  of  Jerome  .  .  .  whose  interpreta- 
tion we  trust  shall  be  received  before  this 
intricate  stuff  tattled  here  of  Timothy  and 
Tit'is,  and  I  know  not  whom  their  successors, 
far  beyond  court  element,  and  as  far  beneath 
true  edification. — Milton,  Eikonoklastes,  ch. 
zvii. 

Courtesy.  To  make  courtesy  =  to 
raise  scruples. 

When  Dionysius  at  a  banket  had  com- 
manded that  all  the  companie  should  ad- 
dresse  themselfes  to  maske  ech  man  in 
purple  .  .  .  Plato  refused  to  doe  it  .  .  .  but 
Aristippus  made  no  courtesie  at  the  matter. — 
Udafs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  69. 

So  said  King  Alexander  very  like  himselfe 
to  one  Paullns,  to  whom  he  had  geuen  a 
very  great  gift,  which  he  made  curtesy  to 
accept,  saying  it  was  too  much  for  such  a 


mean  person,  "What,  quoth  the  King,  if  it  be 
too  much  for  thyselfe,  hast  thou  neuer  a 
friend  or  kinsman  that  may  fare  the  better 
by  it?— Puttenham,  English  Poesie,  Bk.  III. 
ch.  xxiv. 

Courtierism,  aspect  or  behaviour  of 
a  courtier. 

Prince  Schwartzenberg  in  particular  had  a 
stately  aspect  .  .  .  beautifully  contrasted 
with  the  smirking  saloon-activity,  the  perked- 
up  courtierism,  and  pretentious  nullity  of 
many  here. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  196. 

Courtledge,  an  append nge  to  a 
house ;  usually  written  curtilage :  a 
legal  term. 

At  the  back,  a  rambling  courtledge  of  barns 
and  walls,  around  which  pigs  and  bare-foot 
children  grunted  in  loving  communion  of 
dirt. — C.  Kingsley,  Westvcard  Ho,  ch.  xiv. 

Court-of-guard,  the  place  where  the 
guard  musters.  See  quotation  s.  v. 
canvassado :  also  the  watch  itself. 

Maugre  the  watch,  the  round,  the  court-of- 
guard, 
I  will  attend  to  abide  the  coward  here. — 

Greene,  Orl.  Furioso,  p.  94. 

They  keepe  a  court-of-guard  nightly ;  and 
almost  every  minute  of  the  night  the  watch 
of  one  sort  giues  two  or  three  knoles  with  a 
bell,  which  is  answered  by  the  other  in  order. 
—Sandys,  Travels,  p.  233. 

Court- water,  flattery :  usually  court- 
holy-water,  q.  v.  in  N.  Cf.  Court- ele- 
ment. 

He  is  after  the  nature  of  a  barber,  and  first 
trims  the  head  of  his  master's  humour,  and 
then  sprinkles  it  with  court-uxUer. — Adams, 
i.  5^3. 

Cousin.  To  have  no  cousin  =  to 
have  no  equal ;  to  be  cousin  =  to  be 
like.  See  quotation,  from  Chaucer's 
Prologue  in  JR. 

Of  the  same  Pirrhus  he  saied  at  an  other 
time  that  if  he  had  had  the  feacte  to  hold 
and  kepe  an  empire,  as  well  as  he  could  achiue 
and  winne  it,  he  had  had  no  cousin. —  UdaVs 
Erasmus's  Apophth..  p.  248. 

The  same  author  (p.  292)  says  of  Augustus 
Caesar,  who  would  only  have  his  deeds  re- 
corded by  good  and  grave  writers,  that  he 
was  "  in  deede  in  this  behalf  cousin  to  Alex- 
ander," of  whom  a  similar  trait  had  been 
previously  related. 

Lo  heer  are  pardons  half  a  dosen, 
For  ghostely  riches  they  have  no  cosen. 

Heyvood,  Four  Ps  (Dodsley, 
O.  PI,  i.  101). 

Cousin.  My  dirty  cousin,  or  my 
cousin  the  vjeaver,  is  a  contemptuous 


COUSIN  BETTY        (  155  ) 


CO  W-HIDE 


address,  usually  preceded  by  "marry 
come  up.'* 

Miss.  Gome,  here's  t'  ye  to  stop  your  mouth. 
.W.  I'd  rather  you  would  stop  it  with  a  kiss. 
MUs.  A  kiss !  marry  come  up,  my  dirty  cousin. 
Swift ,  Polite  Conv.  (Con v.  ii.). 
Marry  come  up !  I  assure  you,  my  dirty 
cousin,  thof  his  skin  be  so  white,  and  to  be 
sure  it  is  the  most  whitest  that  ever  was  seen, 
I  am  a  Christian  as  well  as  he. — Fielding, 
Tom  Jones,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  xiv. 

Cousin  Betty,  a  half-witted  person. 

I  dnnnot  think  there's  a  man  living — or 
dead  for  that  matter— as  can  say  Foster's 
wronged  him  of  a  penny,  or  gave  short 
measure  to  a  child  or  a  Cousin  Betty. — Mrs. 
Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  xiv. 

Cousinry,  kindred. 

The  family  was  of  the  rank  of  substantial 
gentry,  and  duly  connected  with  such  in  the 
counties  round  for  three  generations  back. 
Of  the  numerous  and  now  mostly  forgettable 
cuxsinry  we  specify  farther  only  the  Mashams 
of  Otes  in  Essex. — Carlyle,  Cromwell,  i.  21. 

Cousins.  To  call  cousins  =  to  claim 
relationship. 

He  is  half-brother  to  this  "Wit word  by  a 
former  wife,  who  was  sister  to  my  lady 
Wishfort,  my  wife's  mother ;  if  you  marry 
Hillamant,  you  must  call  cousins  too. — C'on- 
yr»w,  Way  of  the  World,  i.  5. 

Over  the  great  drawing-room  chimney  is 
the  coat  armour  of  the  first  Leonard,  Lord 
Dacre,with  all  his  alliances.  Mr.  Chute  was 
transported,  and  called  cousin  with  ten  thou- 
sand quarterings.  —  Walpole,  Letters,  i.  262 
(1752). 

My  new  cottage  ...  is  to  have  nothing 
Gothic  about  it,  nor  pretend  to  call  cousins 
with  the  mansion-house. — Ibid.  iii.  48  (1766). 

Unluckily  Sir  Ingoldsby  left  no  issue,  or 
*e  might  now  be  calling  cousins  with  («*- 
dnant)  Mrs.  Otway  Cave,  in  whose  favour 
the  abeyance  of  the  old  barony  of  Bray  has 
recently  been  determined  by  the  Crown. — 
Ingoldsby  Legends  (Ingoldsby  Penance). 

Coventry.  One  with  whom  others 
refuse  to  associate  is  said  to  be  sent  to 
Coventry.  Two  explanations  are  given 
in  A:  and  Q.,  I.  vi.  318, 589.  (1 )  That 
formerly  in  Coventry  the  citizens  would 
not  mingle  with  the  military  stationed 
there.  (2)  That  in  1642,  when  Charles 
1-  was  marching  from  Birmingham  to 
Shrewsbury,  the  Parliamentary  party 
seized  on  all  suspected  persons  that 
they  met  with  in  those  parts  and  sent 
them  to  Coventry. 

Though  he  frequently  in  the  course  of  the 
evening  repeated,  *'I  depend  upon  your 
promise,  I  build  upon  a  conference,  I  sent  his 
dependence  and  his  building  to  Coventry  by 


not  seeming  to  hear  him." — Mad,  D'Arblay, 
Diary,  iii.  434. 

Lord  Etherington  would  find  him,  bodily 
indeed  at  St.  Ronan's,  but  so  far  as  society 
was  concerned,  on  the  road  towards  the 
ancient  city  of  Coventry — Scott,  St.  Ronan's 
Well,  i.  201. 

Cover,  to  lay  the  table,  or  prepare  a 
banquet. 

These  scholars  know  more  skill  in  axioms, 
How  to  use  quips  and  sleights  of  sophistry, 
Than  for  to  cover  courtly  for  a  King. 

Greene,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  169. 

Cover-shame,  savin,  as  producing 
abortion. 

Those  dangerous  plants  called  cover-shame, 
alias  savin,  and  other  anti-conceptive  weeds 
and  poisons. — Reply  to  Ladies  and  JUatchelors 
Petition  (Harl.  Misc.,  iv.  440). 

Coverslut,  a  covering  worn  to  con- 
ceal dirt  or  untidiness.  L.  marks  it 
rare,  and  gives  quotation  from  Burke. 

Those  women  that  can  purchase  plads  need 
not  bestow  much  upon  other  clothes,  these 
cover-sluts  being  sufficient. — Modern  Account 
of  Scotland,  1670  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  139). 

Covin-tree.  In  a  note  to  the  sub- 
joined extract  Scott  says,  uThe  large 
tree  in  front  of  a  Scottish  castle  was 
sometimes  called  so.  It  is  difficult  to 
trace  the  derivation ;  but  at  that  dis- 
tance from  the  castle  the  laird  received 
guests  of  rank,  and  thither  he  conveyed 
them  on  their  departure."  May  it  not  be 
connected  with  convenio,  as  being  the 
place  of  meeting  ? 

I  love  not  the  castle  when  the  covin-tree 
bears  such  acorns  as  I  see  yonder. — Scott, 
Quentin  Durward,  i.  38. 

Cow-babe,  a  coward. 

Peace,  lowing  cow-babe,  lubberly  hobberde- 
hoy. — Davits  of  Hereford,  Scourge  of  Folly, 
Epig.  212. 

Cow-dab,  same  as  Cowshed,  q.  v. 
Let  but  a  cow-dab  show  its  grass-green  face, 
They're  up  without  so  much  as  saying  grace, 

And  lo !  the  busy  flock  around  it  pitches. 
Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  141. 

Cowhearted,  cowardly. 

A  thousand  devils  seize  the  cuckoldy  row- 
hearted  mongrel. — Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk. 
IV.  ch.  rix. 

The  Lady  Powis,  not  prevailing  with  him 
to  go  again  to  the  Earl  of  Shaftsbury,  patted 
him  with  her  fan,  and  called  him  a  cowhearted 
fellow. — North,  Exatnen,  p.  258. 

Cow-hide,  a  whip  ;  also  to  thrash. 


CO  WITCH 


(  156) 


COZZE 


And  what  might  be  their  aim  ? 

To  rescue  Afric's  sable  sons  from  fetters, 
To  save  their  bodies  from  the  burning  shame 

Of  branding  with  hot  letters ; 
Their  shoulders  from  the  cow-hide's  bloody 
strokes, 
Their  necks  from  iron  yokes  ? 

Hood,  A  Black  Job. 

He  got  his  skin  well  beaten — cow-hided,  as 
we  may  say  —  by  Charles  XII.  the  rough 
Swede,  clad  mostly  in  leather.  —  Carlyle, 
Misc.,  iv.  356. 

Cow-itch,  cowage  (see  L.  *.  v.  and 
Grey's  note  in  loc.);  a  sort  of  kidney- 
bean  belonging  to  £.  Indies,  the  pod  of 
which  is  covered  with  down  of  an  irri- 
tating nature  when  applied  to  the  skin. 

With  cow-itch  meazle  like  a  leper, 
And  choak  with  fumes  of  Ouiney-pepper ; 
Make  lechers  and  their  punks  with  dewtry 
Commit  phantastical  advowtry. 

HudWras,  III.  i.  319. 

Cowmeat,  fodder;  pasture;  horse- 
meat  is  a  common  expression. 

Som  cuntries  lack  plowmeat, 
And  som  doe  want  cowmeat. 

Tusser,  p.  102. 

Cowshed,  cow-dung. 

Queen.  O  dismall  newes !  what,  is  my  soue- 

raigne  blind? 
Lemot.  Blind  as  a  beetle,  madam,  that  a  while 

houering  aloft,  at  last  in  cowsheds  fall. 

Chapman,  Humerous  dayes  mirth,  p.  96. 

Cowsliped,  covered  with  cowslips. 
CI  Prim  rosed. 

Rich  with  sweets,  the  western  gale 
Sweeps  along  the  cowslijfd  dale. 

Southey,  Wat  Tyler,  Act  I. 

COW'S  THUMB. 

What  need  I  bring  more  topicks  for  illus- 
tration, since  you  see  'tis  as  plain  as  a  cow's 
thumb  ?—T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  40. 

Want  you  old  cloaks,  plain  shoes,  or  formal 
gravity?  You  may  fit  yourself  to  a  cow's 
thumb  among  the  Spaniards. — Ibid.  in.  26. 

Cow-thistle.  "'The  seeds  of  the 
great  Cow-thistle  dryed  and  made  in 
powder1  are  recommended  as  a  cattle 
medicine  in  MascaTs  Government  of 
Cattel  (1662).  We  do  not  know  what 
plant  is  intended  ;  it  is  perhaps  a  mis- 
print for  Sow-thistle"  (Britten  and 
Hollands  Eng.  Plant  Namesy  E.  D. 
S.).  It  is  not,  however,  a  misprint,  as 
the  word  occurs  also  in  the  following 
extract  of  the  date  1605. 

You  should  have  a  wife  that . .  would  . . 
bridle  it  in  her  countenance  like  a  mare  that 
were  knapping  on  a  cow-thistle. — Breton,  I 
pray  you  be  not  angry,  p.  6. 


Cowtheb,  to  cower. 

Plantus  in  his  Rudens  bringeth  in  fishermen 
cowthring  and  quaking. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  180). 

Coxcomb,  a  species  of  silver  lace 
frayed  out  at  the  edges. 

It  was  as  necessary  to  trim  his  light  grey 
frock  with  a  silver  edging  of  coxcomb,  that  he 
might  not  appear  worse  than  his  fellows. — 
Johnston,  Chrysal,  ch.  xi. 

Coy,  a  decoy.  See  N.  s.  v.,  who  seems 
to  regard  it  as  very  rare. 

They  must  couragiously  accuse  themselves 
in  their  examination,  that  they  may  be  more 
forcible  witnesses  against  the  Bishop;  but 
shall  be  as  so  many  coy-duks  to  cry  a  little  in 
the  ears  of  the  world,  until  the  great  mallard 
be  catch 't  in  the  coy. — Hacket,  life  of  Wil- 
liams, ii.  133. 

Coy-duck,  decoy-duck.  See  quot- 
ation 8.  v.  Coy. 

No  man  ever  lost  by  keeping  a  coy-duck. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  43. 

His  mam  scope  is  to  show  that  Grotius 
under  a  pretence  of  reconciling  the  Protestant 
Churches  with  the  Roman  Church,  hatli 
acted  the  part  of  a  coy-duck,  willingly  or 
unwillingly,  to  lead  the  Protestants  into 
Popery. — BramhaU,  iii.  504. 

Coytinoe,   throwing  (?),  perhaps  in 

some  peculiar  way. 

If  they  be  true  dise,  what  shyfte  wil  they 
make  to  set  ye  one  of  them  with  slyding, 
with  cogging,  with  foysting,  with  coytinyc, 
as  they  call  it. — Ascham,  Toxophilus,  p.  54. 

Coze  or  Cose,  to  be  snug. 

He  is  in  no  temper  to  meet  his  fellow- 
creatures — even  to  see  the  comfortable  gleam 
through  the  windows,  as  the  sailors  co*e 
round  the  fire  with  wife  and  child.  —  C. 
Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  iii. 

Coze,  a  snug  conversation. 

Miss  Crawford  .  .  .  proposed  their  going 
up  into  her  room,  where  they  might  have  a 
comfortable  coze.  —  Miss  Austen,  Mansfidd 
Park,  ch.  xxvi. 

Cozling,  a  little  cousin. 

For  money  had  stuck  to  the  race  through  life, 
(As  it  did  to  the  bushel  when  cash  so  rife 
Posed  Ali  Baba's  brother's  wife), 

And  down  to  the  cousins  and  cozlings, 
The  fortunate  brood  of  the  Kilmanseggs, 
As  if  they  had  come  out  of  golden  eggs, 

Were  all  as  wealthy  as  *'  Goslings." 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

COZZE,  a  fish. 

The  cod  and  cotze  that  greedy  are  to  bite. 
— Denny s,  Secrets  of  Angling  (kng.  Gamer, 
i.  166). 


CRAB 


(  157  )        CRADLE-TOMBED 


Crab.  To  catch  a  crab  =  to  fall 
backwards  by  missing  a  stroke  in  row- 
ing; to  this  of  course  the  rower  is  more 
liable  in  rough  weather.  In  the  ex- 
tract the  fisherman  puns  on  the  two 
sorts  of  crabcatching. 

Harold.  Fellow,  dost  thou  catch  crabs? 

Fisherman.  As  few  as  I  may  in  a  wind, 
and  le68  than  I  would  in  a  calm. — Tennyson, 
Harold,  ii.  1. 

Crabbish,  cross;  sour. 

Sloth  . .  regards  not  the  whips  of  the  most 
crabbish  Satyristes. —  Decker,  Seven  Deadly 
(tits,  ch.  iv. 

Crab- paced,  sour-looking. 

Such  crab  faced,  cankerd,  carlish  chuffs, 

Within  whose  hatef  ull  brestes 
Such  malice  bides,  such  rancour  broyles, 

Such  endles  enuy  rests, 
Esteame  them  not. 

A.  Neuyll,  Verses  prefixed  to 
Goose's  Eg  log  s. 

Crabsidle,  to  go  sideways  like  a  crab. 

Some  backwards  like  lobsters,  and  others 
crabsidling  along,  and  all  toiling  with  a  waste 
of  exertion. — Sou  they,  Letters  (1800),  i.  105. 

Crabsnowted,  same  as  Crab-faced, 

q.  v. 

But  as  for  those  crabsnowted  bestes, 

Those  ragyng  feends  of  hell, 
Whose  vile,  malicious,  hatef  ull  mindes 
With  boyling  rancour  swell. 

A.  Neuyll,  Verses  prefixed 
to  Googis  Eglogs. 

Crack,  to  break  into  a  house ;  thieves' 
cant    See  quotation  *.  v.  Crib. 

If  any  enterprising  burglar  had  taken  it 
into  his  hea-d  to  crack  that  particular  crib 
known  as  the  Bridge  Hotel,  and  got  clean 
off  with  the  swag,  he  might  have  retired  on 
the  hard-earned  fruits  of  a  well- spent  life 
into  happier  lands. — H.  Kingsley,  Bavenshoe, 
ch.  zxxvii. 

Crack,  a  lie. 

Miss  N.  There's  something  generous  in 
my  cousin's  manner.  He  falls  out  before 
faces  to  be  forgiven  in  private. 

Tony.  That's  a  damned  confounded  crack. 
Goldsmith,  She  stoops  to  conquer,  Act  II. 

Crackhalter,  a  rogue :  applied  to  a 
mischievous  boy.  Shakespeare  (Taming 
of  Shrew,  V.  i.)  has  crack-hemp. 

Tou  crackhalter, \i  I  catch  you  by  the  ears, 
111  make  yon  answer  directly. — Gascoigne, 
Supposes,  i.  4. 

Plutarch  with  a  caueat  keepeth  them  out, 
not  so  much  as  admitting  the  Title  crackhalter 
that  carieth  his  maister's  pantouffles  to  set 
foote  within  those  doores. — Gosson,Schoole  of 
Abuse,  p.  30. 


Crackheaded,  crazy. 

I  believe,  in  my  conscience,  she  likes  our 
crackheaded  old  doctor  as  well  as  e'er  a  young 
gentleman  in  Christendom. — Mad.DArUay, 
Camilla,  Bk.  V.  ch.  iii. 

Crackless,  whole ;  without  flaw. 

Then  sith  good  name's  (like  glasse)  as  frail 

as  clear, 
All  care  should  keep  it  cracklesse  in  thy  Dear. 
Davies,  Sir  T.  Overbury's  Wife,  p.  6. 

Crackrope,  a  rogue,  fit  to  be  hung. 
Cf.  Crackhalter. 

Away,  you  crackropes,  are  you  fighting  at 
the  court  gate?  —  Edwards,  Damon  and 
Pitheas  (Dodsley,  O.  PL,  i.  270). 

Robin  Goodfellow  is  this  same  cogging, 
pettifogging,  crackropes,  calves'-skins  com- 
panion.—  Wily  Beguiled  (Hawkins,  Eng. 
Dr.,  iii.  307). 

Cracksman,  a  burglar. 

Some  mortals  disdain  the  calm  blessings  of 

rest, 
Your  cracksman,  for  instance,  thinks  night" 

time  the  best. 

Jngoldsby  Legends  (S.  Aloys). 

Whom  can  I  play  with?  whom  can  I 
herd  with?  Cracksmen  and  pick-pockets. — 
Lytton,  What  will  he  do  with  it  ?  Bk.  VII. 
en.  v. 

I  have  heard  him  a  hundred  times  if  I 
have  heard  him  once,  say  to  regular  cracks- 
men in  our  front  office,  You  know  where  I 
live ;  now,  no  bolt  is  ever  drawn  there ;  why 
don't  you  do  a  stroke  of  business  with  me  ? — 
Dickens,  Great  Expectations,  ch.  zxv. 

Cradle.  Tusser  Redivivus  defines 
this  "  A  three-forked  instrument  of  wood 
on  which  the  corn  is  caught  as  it  falls 
from  the  sithe."  Tusser  reckons  among 
11  Husband  lie  Furniture  " — 

A  brush  sithe  and  grass  sithe,  with  rifle  to 

stand, 
A  cradle  for  harlie,  with  rubstone  and  sand. 

Husbandrie,  p.  37. 

Cradlehood,  infancy. 

A  chronographical  latine  table,  which  they 
have  hanging  up  in  their  Guildhall  of  all 
their  transmutations  from  their  cradlehoode 
infringeth  this  a  little. — Naslie,  Lenten  Stuffs 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  151). 

Cradle-practice,  an  easy  cure,  such 

as  the  speaker  could  effect  when  he 

began  his  career. 

The  cure  of  the  gout — a  toy,  without  boast 
be  it  said,  my  cradle-practice.  —  Massinger, 
Emp.  of  East,  iv.  4. 

Cradle-tombed,  still-born,  or  dead  in 
infancy. 


CRADLE-WALK         (  158  ) 


CRAVAT 


One  in  the  feeble  birth  beeomming  old, 
Is  cradle-toomb7d. 

Sylvester,  Babylon,  p.  511. 

Cradle- walk,  a  walk  over  which  the 
trees  meet  in  an  arch,  like  the  top  of  a 
cradle. 

The  cradle-walk  of  hornebeame  in  the 
garden  is,  for  the  perplexed  turning  of  the 
trees,  very  observable. — Evelyn,  Diary,  June 
9, 1662. 

The  garden  is  just  as  Sir  John  Germain 
brought  it  from  Holland;  pyramidal  yews, 
treillagos,  and  square  cradle-tcalks  with  win- 
dows clipped  in  them. —  If'atpole,  Letters,  ii. 
451  (1763). 

Cragguk,  seems  to  be  used  in  extract 

for  a  lean  scraggy  person. 

Anaximenes  the  rhetorician  had  a  panche 
as  fatte  and  great  as  he  was  able  to  lugge 
away  withall,  to  whome  Diogenes  came,  and 
spake  in  this  maner,  I  pray  you  geue  to  vs 
lene  craggues  some  beafy  to. — XJdaVs  Eras- 
mus's Apophth.,  p.  147. 

Crambe,  cabbage.  Calfhill  and  Gan- 
den  seem  to  use  this  word  as  an  English 
one — the  reference  of  course  is  to  the 
crambe  repetita  of  Juvenal,  vii.  154. 

I  marvel  that  you,  so  fine  a  feeder,  will  fall 
to  your  crambe. — Calfhill,  p.  320. 

No  repeated  Crambes  of  Christ's  discipline, 
of  Elders  and  Elderships  ...  no  engine  was 
capable  to  buoy  up  Presbytery.  —  Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  17. 

Cramoisy,  crimson  (Fr.  cramoisi). 

A  blustering,  dissipated  human  figure  with 
a  kind  of  blackguard  quality  air,  in  cramoisy 
velvet  or  other  uncertain  texture. — Carlyle, 
Past  and  Present,  Bk.  II.  ch.  i. 

He  gathered  for  her  some  velvety  cra- 
moisy roses  that  were  above  her  reach. — Mrs. 
Gaskell,  North  and  South,  ch.  in. 

Crampon  (Fr.),  an  iron  hook. 

Man  with  his  crampons  and  harping-irons 
can  draw  ashore  the  great  Leviathan. — 
Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  7. 

Cramp -stone.  Cramp -rings  were 
formerly  consecrated  on  Good  Friday, 
and  supposed  to  be  efficacious  in  cramp. 
See  N.,  8.  v.  Cramp-Ring. 

Ric.  I  have  the  cramp  all  over  me. 

Hil.  What  do  you  think 

Were  best  to  apply  to  it  ?    A  cramp-stone, 
as  I  take  it, 

Were  very  useful. 

Mas  singer,  Hie  Picture,  v.  1. 

Crane's-bill.    See  quotation. 

Is  there  any  blue  half  so  pure,  and  deep, 
and  tender,  as  that  of  the  large  crane's-bill, 
the  Geranium  prat  en  se  of  the  botanists? — 
Black ,  Adventures  of  a  Phaeton,  ch.  xx. 


Crank,  applied  to  a  ship  which  from 
overloading  cannot  keep  a  steady  course. 
See  quotation  from  Cook's  Voyages  in 
K.  In  the  subjoined  it  is  upplied  meta- 
phorically to  a  drunken  man. 

I  have  heard  as  how  you  came  by  your 
lame  foot  by  having  your  upper  decks  over- 
stowed  with  liquor,  whereby  you  became 
crank,  and  rolled,  d'ye  see,  in  such  a  manner 
that  by  a  pitch  of  the  ship  your  starboard 
heel  was  jammed  in  one  of  the  scuppers. — 
Smollett,  Peregrine  Pickle,  ch.  ii. 

Cranky,  cross. 

I  would  like  some  better  sort  of  welcome 
in  the  evening  than  what  a  cranky  old  brute 
of  a  hut-keeper  can  give  me. — H.  Kingsley, 
Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  xxvii. 

Cranok,  or  Cornook  is  the  same  as 
the  coomb,  or  half  a  quarter. 

In  the  same  yeere  [1318]  corne  and  other 
victuals  were  exceeding  deere.  A  cranok  of 
wheate  was  sold  for  three-and-twenty  shil- 
lings, and  wine  for  eight  denires. — Holland's 
Camden,  ii.  175. 

Crants,  crown  or  chaplet  (German, 
Kraniz).  The  word  occurs  in  Hamlet* 
V.  i. ;  though  in  some  editions  "rites" 
has  been  substituted.  L.  says,  "This 
word,  which  never  became  English, 
seems  to  have  been  used  by  Shake- 
speare on  the  strength  of  his  having 
learned  that  rose-crown  is  the  trans- 
lation of  the  name  of  one  of  his  charac- 
ters, Rosencrantz"  But  if  1603  be  the 
date  of  Hamlet  the  extract  shows  that 
the  word  had  been  used  eleven  years 
before.   See  also  Jamieson,  s.  v.  crance. 

The  filthy  queane  wean  a  craunce,  and  is 
a  Frenchwoman  forsooth. — Greene,  Quip  for 
Upstart  Courtier  (Harl.  Misc.,  v.  419). 

Crape,  to  crisp,  or  friz:   from  the 

French  creper. 

The  hour  advanced  on  the  Wednesdays 
and  Saturdays  is  for  curling  and  craping  the 
hair,  which  it  now  requires  twice  a  week. — 
Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  iii.  29. 

Crates. 

He  descends  as  low  as  his  beard  and  asketh 
.  .  .  whether  he  will  have  his  crates  cut  low 
like  a  juniper  bush,  or  his  suberches  taken 
away  with  a  rasor  ? — Greene*  Quip  for  Upstart 
Courtier  (Harl.  Misc.,  v.  406). 

Cravat,  to  wear  a  cravat. 

I  redoubled  my  attention  to  my  dress; 
I  coated  and  cravatted.  —  Lytton,  Pelham, 
ch.  xxxiii. 

So  nicely  dressed,  so  nicely  curled,  so 
booted  and  gloved  and  cravated,  he  was 
charming  indeed.— Miss  Bronte,  ViUette,  ch. 
xiv. 


CRAVAT-STRING        (  159  ) 


CREEP-MOUSE 


Cravat-string,  the  ends  of  the 
cravat  were  of  a  great  length,  and  came 
down  over  the  chest.  Brown  refers  to 
it  several  times  as  a  prominent  part  in 
a  beau's  dress. 

Come,  Dick,  says  I  (to  a  brother  of  the 
orange  and  cravat-string)  d —  me,  let  us  to 
the  play.— T.  Broum,  Works,  ii.  314. 

The  raffling  pantaloon  declares  the  flame, 
And  the  well-ty'd   cravat-string   wins   the 
dame.— Ibid.  iv.  223. 

Craven.  To  cry  craven  =  to  give 
in;  to  fail. 

When  all  humane  means  cry  craven,  then 
that  wound  made  by  the  hand  of  God  is 
cured  by  the  hand  of  His  Vicegerent. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  II.  vi.  33. 

Crawl,  to  growl :  so  growl  q.  v.  = 
crawl. 

My  guts  they  yawle,  crawle,  and  all  my 
belly  rumbleth.  —  Gammer  Gurton's  Needle, 
II.  i. 

Craw-thumper,  a  beater  of  the  breast ; 
a  name  given  to  Romanists  from  their 
doing  so  at  confession. 

"With  purer  eyes  the  British  vulgar  sees, 
We  are  no  craic-tkumpers,  no  devotees. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  138. 

Crayse.     H.   says   the  crow's-foot; 
but  it  is  distinguished  from  this  in  the 
extract :  it  probably  =  buttercup.    See 
Eng.  Plant  Names  (E.  D.  S.). 
The  little  larke-foot  shee'd  not  passe 
Nor  yet  the  flowers  of  three-leaved  grasse, 
With  milkmaids  Hunney-suckle's  phrase, 
The  crow's-foot,  nor  the  yellow  crayse. 

Roxb.  Ballads,  i.  340. 

Crazyoloqist,  a  contemptuous  cor- 
niption  of  craniologist     Cf.  Fotili- 

TARIAN,  FOOLOSOPHER. 

The  feeling  of  local  attachment  was  pos- 
sessed by  Daniel  Dove  in  the  highest  degree. 
Spurzheun,  and  the  crazyologists  would  have 
found  out  a  bump  on  his  head  for  its  local 
habitation.— Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  xxxiv. 

Cream,  to  pour  in  cream. 

He  sagared,  and  creamed,  and  drank,  and 
thought,  and  spoke  not.  —  Miss  Edgeworth, 
Helen,  ch.  zxzvi. 

Crease,  a  Malayan  dagger. 

And  on  the  tables  every  clime  and  age 
Tumbled  together,  celts  and  calumets 

The  cursed  Malayan  crease,  and  battle-clubs 
From  the  isles  of  palm. 

Tennyson,  The  Princess,  Prologue. 

Creasy,  creased,  as  when  the  skin  is 
wrinkled  up. 


From  her  lifted  hand 
Dangled  a  length  of  ribbon  and  a  ring 
To  tempt  the  babe,  who  reared  his  creasy 

arms, 
Caught  at  and  ever  miss'd  it,  and  they 

laugh 'd, — Tennyson,  Enoch  Arden. 

Creature,  drink.  In  the  first  ex- 
tract Mrs.  Day  finds  her  puritanical 
servant,  who  had  been  drinking  with 
an  Irish  footman,  intoxicated ;  in  the 
last  extract  it  means  food  generally. 
The  Irish  call  whisky  "the  creature." 

Oh  fie  upon't!  who  would  have  believ'd 
that  we  should  have  hVd  to  have  seen 
Obadiah  overcome  with  the  creature? — The 
Committee,  Act  IV. 

The  confusion  of  Babel  was  a  parcel  of 
drunkards,  who  fell  out  among  themselves 
when  they  had  taken  a  cup  of  the  creature. 
— T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  32. 

Come,  master,  let  us  go  and  get  something 
to  eat ;  you  will  never  be  able  to  hold  out  as 
Mr.  Whitfield  does.  He  seems  to  like  a  bit 
of  the  good  cretvr  as  well  as  other  folks. — 
Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  VII.  ch.  ii. 

Crede.  In  Bailey's  Diet,  there  is, 
"To  Cree  (wheat  or  barley),  to  boil 
it  soft." 

Take  rie  and  crede  it  as  you  do  wheat  for 
Furmity,  and  make  a  cawdle  of  it. — Queen's 
Closet  Opened,  p.  159, 1655. 

Creek,  to  form  a  creek  or  creeks. 

The  towne  is  .  .  .  fortified  by  Art  and 
Nature. .  .  .  The  salt  water  so  creeketh  about 
it,  that  it  almost  insulateth  it  —  Holland's 
Camden,  p.  451. 

Creepers,  "small  low  irons  in  a 
grate  between  the  andirons"  (Halli- 
well).  The  extract  is  said  to  be  the 
answer  given  by  a  curate  to  Archbishop 
Laud,  who  asked  him  what  he  thought 
of  the  Bishops. 

I  can  no  better  compare  you  than  with  the 
huge  brass  andirons  that  stand  in  great  men's 
chimneys,  and  us  poor  ministers  to  the  low 
creepers  ;  you  are  they  that  carry  it  out  in  a 
vain-glorious  show ;  but  we,  the  poor  curates, 
undergo  and  bear  the  burthen. — Rome  for 
Canterbury,  1641  (Harl.  Misc.,  iv.  379). 

Creepie,  a  stool. 

Methinks  some  of  ye  might  find  her  a 
creepie  to  rest  her  foot. — Reade,  Cloister  and 
Hearth,  ch.  Iv. 

The  three-legged  creepie-stooU,  that  were 
hired  out  at  a  penny  an  hour  to  such  market- 
women  as  came  too  late  to  find  room  on 
the  steps,  were  unoccupied.  —  Mrs.  Gaskell, 
Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  ii. 

Creep-mouse,  quiet. 

It  will  not  much  signify  if  nobody  hears  a 
word  you  say,  so  you  may  be  as  creep-mouse 


CREEPY 


(  160  ) 


CROAKY 


as  yon  like,  but  we  must  have  you  to  look  at. 
— Miss  Austen,  Mansfield  Park,  ch.  xv. 

Creepy,  crawling  as  with  fear. 

One's  whole  blood  grew  curdling  and 
creepy. — Browning,  The  Glove. 

Crenelkt,  an  embrasure  or  loop-hole. 

From  [these  structures]  the  besieged  de- 
livered their  missiles  with  far  more  freedom 
and  variety  of  range  than  they  could  shoot 
through  the  oblique  but  immovable  loop- 
holes of  the  curtain,  or  even  through  the 
slopiug  erenelets  of  the  higher  towers. — Reade, 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  xliii . 

Crenkllation,  an  embrasure. 

All  the  professions  are  so  book-lined,  book- 
hemmed,  book-choked,  that  wherever  these 
strong  hands  of  mine  stretch  towards  action, 
they  2nd  themselves  met  bv  octavo  ramparts 
flanked  with  quarto  crenellations. —  Lytton, 
The  Cartons,  Bk.  XII.  ch.  vi. 

Crepundio  (?). 

Our  quadrant  crepundios  .  .  spit  ergo  in 
the  mouth  of  euerie  one  they  meete. — Nashe, 
Pref.  to  Greene* »  Menaphon,  p.  8. 

Crib,  cant  term  for  stomach.  Cf. 
Bread-basket. 

Here's  pannum  and  lap,  and  good  poplars  of 

Tarrum, 
To  fill  up  the  crib,  and   to  comfort    the 

quarron.— Broome,  Jovial  Crew,  Act  II. 

Crib,  a  house  (thieves'  cant).  See 
quotation  s.  v.  Crack. 

There  were  two  young  brothers  made  it 
up  to  rob  the  squire's  house  down  at  Gidleigh. 
Thev  separated  in  the  garden  after  they 
cracked  the  crib,  agreeing  to  meet  here  in 
this  very  place,  and  share  the  swag.  —  H. 
Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  v. 

Criminative,  accusatory. 

The  courtiers  are  often  furious  and  (ac- 
cording to  the  doctrines  there)  criminative 
against  the  judges  that  are  not  easy,  as  being 
morose,  ill-bred,  and  disrespectful. — North, 
life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  200. 

Crimp.  See  extract.  H.  gives  this 
as  a  Norfolk  word,  but  in  the  quotation 
London  is  spoken  of. 

The  brokers  of  these  coals  are  called 
crimps;  the  vessels  they  load  their  ships 
with  at  Newcastle,  keels. — Defoe,  Tour  thro* 
G.  Britain,  ii.  144. 

Crimp,  to  decoy  into  the  army,  navy, 
or  other  service. 

To  the  reverend  fathers  it  seemed  that 
Denis  would  make  an  excellent  Jesuit,  where- 
fore they  set  about  coaxing  and  courting, 
with  intent  to  crimp  him. — Carlyle,  Misc., 
iii.  197. 


Criniparous,  hair-producing. 

Bears'  grease  or  fat  is  also  in  great  request, 
being  supposed  to  have  a  criniparous  or  hair- 
producing  quality.— Poetry  of  Antijacobin 
(note),  p.  83. 

Crinital,  having  hair :  as  applied  to 

a  star,  it  refers  to  a  train  of  light  left 

by  it. 

He  the  star  crinital  adoreth. 

Stanyhurst,  jEn.,  ii.  726. 

Crippledom,  state  of  being  a  cripple. 

What  with  my  crippledom  and  thy  piety, 
a  wheeling  of  thy  poor  old  dad,  we'll  bleed 
the  bumpkins. — Meade,  Cloister  and  Hearth, 
ch.  lv. 

Cripply,  crippled. 

Because  he's  so  cripply,  he  beant  to  work 
no  more. — Mrs.  Trollope,  Michael  Armstrong, 
ch.  iii. 

•  Crisp,  a  fine  lace  or  lawn:  in  the 
extract  silver = (I  suppose)  embroidered 
with  silver. 

Vpon  her  head  a  siluer  crisp  she  pind 
Loose  wauing  on  her  shoulders  with  the  wind. 

Hudson,  Judith,  iv.  51. 

Criticaster,  a  contemptuous  word 
for  critic.  Cf.  Poetaster.  See  also 
quotation  «.  v.  Critickin. 

That  people  which  is  a  God  in  intellect 
and  in  heart,  compared  with  the  criticasters 
that  try  to  misguide  it  with  their  shallow 
guesses  and  cant.— Reade,  Never  too  late  to 
mend,  ch.  xxvii. 

The  rancorous  and  reptile  crew  of  poet- 
icules  who  decompose  into  criticasters.  — 
Swinburne,  Under  the  Microscope,  p.  36. 

Criticism,  minute  point. 

Was  it  because  he  stood  on  this  punctilio 
or  criticisme  of  credit,  that  he  might  not 
hereafter  be  charged  with  cruelty  for  exe- 
cuting his  wife,  that  first  -he  would  be 
divorced  from  her?— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  V.  iv. 
25. 

Critickin,  small  critic. 

Mr.  Critickin,— for  as  there  is  a  diminutive 
for  cat,  so  should  there  be  for  critic, — I  defy 
you.— Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  lxxii. 

Many  are  the  attempts  which  have  been, 
made,  and  are  making  in  America  too  as  well 
as  in  Great  Britain,  by  critics,  critickins,  and 
criticasters  (for  these  are  of  all  degrees),  to 
take  from  me  the  Ignotum,  and  force  upon 
me  the  Magnificum  in  its  stead. — Ibid.  In- 
terchapter  xix. 

Croaky,  hoarse. 

His  voice  was  croaky  and  shrill,  with  a  tone 
of  shrewish  obstinacy  in  it,  and  perhaps  of 
sarcasm  withal. — Carlyle,  Life  of  Sterling, 
Pt.  II.  ch.  iv. 


CROCHET 


(  161  ) 


CROPPIE 


Crochet,  apparently  a  vestment; 
misprint  for  rochet  (?)  :  tinea  vestis  in 
original.  Erasmus  is  speaking  of  the 
garb  of  popes,  cardinals,  and  bishops. 

Their  upper  crocket  of  white  linen  is  to 
signify  their  unspotted  purity  and  innocence. 
—Kennefs  Erasmus**  Praise  of  Folly,  p.  126. 

Crock,  to  dirty ;  also,  as  a  substan- 
tive, dirt.  In  the  quotation  from  Miss 
Bronte  crack  seems  to  be  used  =  a  pot 
covered  with  dirt :  thus  combining  the 
two  meanings  of  the  word  given  in  L., 
«.  v. 

Do  yon  think,  ma'am,  that  I  was  very  fond 
of  such  dirt  beneath  my  feet,  as  I  couldn't 
condescend  to  touch  with  kitchen  tongs  with- 
out blacking  and  crocking  myself  by  the  con- 
tact?— Dickens,  Nicholas  Nickleby,  ch.  xlii. 

Here  I  stand  talking  to  mere  mooncalfs 
with  Uncle  Pumblechook  waiting,  and  the 
mare  catching  cold  at  the  door,  and  the  boy 
grimed  with  crock  and  dirt  from  the  hair  of 
bis  head  to  the  sole  of  his  foot. — Ibid.,  Great 
Expectations,  ch.  vii. 

A  shocking  ugly  old  creature,  Miss ;  almost 
m  black  as  a  crock. — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre, 
ch.  xviii. 

Crocket£d,  ornamented  as  with 
crockets. 

I  had  been  long  by  the  waterside  at  this 
lower  end  of  the  valley,  plaiting  a  little 
crown  of  woodbine  crocketed  with  sprigs  of 
heath. — Blackmore,  Lorna  Doone,  ch.  xxi. 

Crockets,  knobs  on  a  stag's  head. 

You  will  carry  the  horns  back  to  London, 
and  you  will  have  them  put  up,  and  you  will 
discourse  to  your  friends  of  the  span  and  the 
pearls,  of  the  antlers  and  the  crockets.  — 
blacky  Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  xxv. 

Crock-saw,  a  long-toothed  iron  plate 
like  a  saw,  which  hangs  at  the  back  of 
the  fire-place  to  carry  the  pots  and 
crocks ;  this  can  be  held  by  when  the 
fire  is  low. 

Master  Huckaback  stood  up,  without  much 
aid  from  the  crock-saw,  and  looked  at  mother 
&ad  all  of  us. — Blackmore,  Lorna  Doone,  ch. 
xiv. 

Croft,  a  corruption  of  carafe  (Fr.), 
a  fflafls  bottle  for  water. 

The  Bishop  crowned  his  glass,  quoting 
Pindar  in  praise  of  the  virtues  of  cold  water 
with  a  jovial  air,  and  pushed  the  croft  to  the 
Vicar.— Savage,  R.  Medlicott,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xiii 

Crofter,  the  holder  of  a  croft  or 
small  piece  of  ground. 

Now  there  is  no  more  tacksmen  to  be  the 
masters  of  the  small  crofters,  and  the  crofters 
tLey  would  think  they  were  landlords  them- 


selves if  there  were  no  dues  for  them  to  pay. 
— Black,  Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  iv. 

Croisee,    a    crusader;    one  marked 

with  the  cross. 

When  the  English  croisees  went  into  the 
East  in  the  first  Crusade,  a.d.  1096,  they  found 
St.  George  ...  a  great  warrior-saint  amongst 
the  Christians  of  those  parts. — Archttol.,  v. 
19  (1779).     • 

Crome,  hook  or  pincer. 

What  shall  I  speak  of  the  other  blessed 
martyrs  whereof  some  were  .  . .  rent  a  pieces 
with  hot  burning  iron  cromes. — Beam,  ii.  150. 

Crommell,  cromlech  ;  a  monument 
formed  by  two  large  upright  stones  with 
a  third  placed  transversely  on  the  top. 

Up  sprang  the  rude  gods  of  the  North, 
and  the  resuscitated  Druidiam  passing  from 
its  earliest  templeless  belief  into  the  later 
corruptions  of  crommell  and  idol. — Lytton, 
Cottons,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  ii. 

Croodle,  to  cuddle. 

"  There,"  said  Lucia,  as  she  clung  croodling 
to  him,  "  there  is  a  pretty  character  of  you, 
sir." — C.  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  x. 

Croon,  to  murmur  softly. 

Any  other  woman  would  have  been  melted 
to  marrow  at  hearing  such  stanzas  crooned 
in  her  praise. — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xxiv. 

Along  the  lonely  highway  this  was  the 
devil's  dirge  he  had  been  crooning  to  himself. 
— Black,  Adventures  of  a  Phaeton,  ch.  xxiv. 

Crop.    See  quotation. 

Who  was  Crop  the  Conjuror,  famous  in 
trivial  speech,  as  Merlin  in  romantic  lore,  or 
Doctor  Faustus  in  the  school  of  German 
extravagance  ? — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch .  cxxv. 

Crop-doublet,  a  short  doublet. 

Hospitality  went  out  of  fashion  with  crop- 
doublets  and  cod  pieces. — Love  will  find  out 
the  way,  I.  i. 

Crope,  crept.  The  Diets,  give  no 
later  example  of  this  form  than  fiom 
Chaucer  and  Gower. 

Another  witness  crope  out  against  the 
Lord  Stafford.— i\  or/A,  ICxamen,  p.  217. 

The  Captain  was  just  crope  out  of  Newgate, 
and,  as  was  observed,  began  his  fire  at  a 
distance. — Ibid.  p.  273. 

Cropper,  a  heavy  fall ;  a  tumble 
neck  and  crop. 

This  is  the  man  that  charged  up  to  my  as- 
sistance when  I  was  dismounted  among  the 
Suns,  and  kept  by  me,  while  I  caught  another 
orse.  What  a  cropper  I  went  down,  didn't 
I? — II.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  lvii. 

CRorriE.     Irish  rebel. 

Wearing  the  hair  short  and  <s  without 
powder  was,  at  this  time,  considered  a  mark  of 

M 


CROPSHIN 


(  162  ) 


CROUP 


French  principles.  Hair  bo  worn  was  called 
a  "  crop."  Hence  Lord  Melbourne's  phrase, 
u  crop  imitating  wig  "  [Poetry  of  A  nti-jaco- 
bin,  p.  41].  This  is  the  origin  of  "  croppies  " 
as  applied  to  the  Irish  rebels  of  1789. — Letter* 
of  Sir  G.  C.  Lewis,  p.  410. 

Cropshtn.    See  extract. 

There  was  a  herring,  or  there  was  not,  for 
it  was  but  a  cropshtn  (one  of  th£  refuse  sort 
of  herrings).  —  Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  176). 

Cross.  To  be  on  the  cross  =  to  be  a 
thief.     See  quotation  *.  v.  Cly-faking. 

The  young  woman  is  Bess,  and  perhaps  she 
may  be  on  the  cross,  and  I  don't  go  to  say 
that  what  with  flimping  and  with  cly-faking, 
and  such  like,  she  mayn't  be  wanted  some 
day  ....  Flimping  is  a  style  of  theft  which 
I  have  never  practised,  and  consequently  of 
which  I  know  nothing.  Cly-faking  is  stealing 
pocket-handkerchiefs. — H.  Kingsley,  Ravens- 
hoe,  ch.  lx. 

Cross  as  two  sticks,  extremely  cross. 

We  got  out  of  bed  baok'ards,  I  think,  for 
we're  as  cross  as  two  sticks. — Dickens,  Martin 
Chuzzlewit,  ch.  xxix. 

When  her  chamber-door  was  closed,  she 
scolded  her  maid,  and  was  as  cross  as  two 
sticks. — Thackeray,  The  Newcomes,  ch.  xzxiii. 

Cross-bars,  bars  sinister,  the  heraldic 
mark  of  illegitimacy. 

Few  are  in  love  with  Cross-bars,  and  to  be 
brother  to  a  by-blow  is  to  be  a  bastard  once 
removed.— Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  11. 

Crossbars,  misfortunes.  "  Hence 
grew  my  crossbars"  is  Stanyhuret's 
version  ( JSk.,  ii.  108)  of  "  Hinc  mihi 
prima  mali  lobes" 

Crossbitino,  cheat. 

I  grant  that  affronts,  tergiversations,  cross- 
bitings,  personal  reflections,  and  such  like, 
might  make  the  King  and  the  Duke  angry 
with  him. — North,  Examen,  p.  55. 

Cross-buttocks,    blows    across    the 

back  or  loins. 

Many  cross-buttocks  did  I  sustain,  and  pegs 
on  the  stomach  without  number. — Smollett, 
Roderick  Random,  ch.  xxvii. 

Cross- invite,  to  return  an  invitation. 

His  lordship  chose  to  be  so  far  rude  as  not 
to  cross-invite,  rather  than  bear  the  like  con- 
sequences of  such  another  intercourse  of  his 
own  designing. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford, 
ii.  142. 

Crossish,  rather  cross. 

Jane,  who  sometimes  used  to  be  a  little 
crossish, and  Cicely  too, wept  sadly. — Richard- 
ton,  Pamela,  i.  128. 


Cross-jingling,  antithetical  See 
quotation  from  Milton  s.  v.  Africanism. 

Cross-patch,  a  peevish  person.  Cf. 
Patchy. 

Cross-patch,  draw  the  latch, 
Sit  Dy  the  fire  and  spin. 

Old  Nursery  Rhyme. 

Thou's  fitter  to  be  about  mother  than  me ; 
I'm  but  a  cross-patch  at  best,  an'  now  it's 
like  as  if  I  was  no  good  to  nobody. — Mrs. 
Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  xxvi. 

Cross-point,  a  step  in  dancing. 

Nay  but,  my  friends,  one  hornpipe  further, 
a  refluence  back,  and  two  doubles  forward : 
what,  not  one  cross-point  against  Sundays  ? 
— Greene,  James  IV.,  IV.  iii. 

Cross- week,  Rogation- week.  The 
editor  of  Pilhington  says  because  the 
invention  of  the  Cross  occurred  at  that 
time  (May  3),  but  it  is  only  occasion- 
ally that  that  festival  occurs  in  Rogation 
week.  Might  it  not  be  so  called  from 
the  Cross  being  carried  about  the  parish 
in  the  Rogation  processions  ? 

From  whence  came  all  the  gang-days  to  be 
fasted  in  the  cross-week  ?—Pilkington,  p.  550. 

The  parson,  vicar,  or  curate,  and  church- 
wardens . .  shall  in  the  days  of  the  rogations 
commonly  called  Cross-week  or  Gang-days 
walk  the  accustomed  bounds  of  every  parish 
—Grindal,  p.  141. 

Crotcheteer,  a  man  who  has  whims 
or  crotchets. 

In  every  large  constituency  there  are  bands 
of  crotcheteers,  and  a  candidate  who  cares  to 
attach  these  crotcheteers  to  him  by  lavish 
promises  will  generally  find  his  account,  at 
any  rate  for  the  time  being,  in  so  doing. — 
London,  Dec.  21, 1878,  p.  580. 

Crotells,  the  ordure  of  a  hare.  N. 
has  crott  for  ordure  generally,  with  a 
quotation  from  Howell.  The  speaker 
in  the  extract  is  supposed  to  be  a  man 
who  has  been  turned  into  an  otter. 

The  fewmets  of  a  deer,  the  leases  of  a  fox, 
the  crotells  of  a  hare,  the  dung  of  a  horse, 
and  the  spraints  that  I  use  to  void  backward, 
are  nothing  so  foetid  [as  the  excrement  of 
man]. — Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  8. 

Oroup,  to  croak. 

Then  as  in  time  of  spring  the  water  is  warme, 
And  crouping  frogs  like  fishes  there  doth 

swarme ; 
But  with  the  smallest  stone  that  you  can 

cast 
To  stirre  the  streame,  their  crouping  staves 

as  fast.—  Hudson* s  Judith,  III.  48. 


CROUP 


(  i«3  ) 


CRUP 


Croup,  a  gambling  term  (see  quota- 
tion). The  superintendent  of  the  play 
at  a  gambling  table  is  called  a  croupier. 

I  have  a  game  in  my  hand,  in  which  if 
you'll  croup  me,  that  is,  help  me  to  play 
it.  yon  shall  go  five  hundred  to  nothing. — 
Cibher,  Provoked  Husband,  II.  i. 

Cbowdeb,  a  fiddler.  This  word  is  in 
the  Diets.  :  but  Fuller's  jocular  deriva- 
tion may  be  noticed. 

There  is  a  company  of  pretenders  to 
Masick,  who  are  commonly  called  Croicders, 
and  that  justly  too,  because  they  crowd  into 
the  company  of  gentlemen  both  unsent  for 
and  unwelcome. — Fuller,  Worthies,  ch.  z. 

Crowdes,  an  underground  vault 

Within  the  Church,  Saint  Wilfride'a  Needle 
was  in  our  grandfathers'  remembrance  very 
famous :  a  narrow  hole  was  this,  in  the  Crowdes 
or  close  vaulted  roome  under  the  ground. — 
Holland's  Camden,  p.  700. 

Crown.  The  poem  which  follows 
the  extract  is  in  auiebean  stanzas  of 
ten  lines,  each  stanza  beginning  with 
the  last  line  of  the  preceding  one. 

Stephen  again  began  this  dizain,  which 
was  answered  unto  him  in  that  kind  of  verse 
which  is  called  the  Crown. — Sidney,  Arcadia, 
p.  217. 

Cbqwnkd,  high-crowned. 

A  poor  decrepit  old  woman,  however,  in 
her  crowned  hat, ....  was  terribly  battered 
and  burnt. — Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk. 
IILch.  xx. 

Cbow-tbee. 

I  like  Thornfield,  its  antiquity,  its  retire- 
ment, its  old  crow-trees  ana  thorn-trees. — 
C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xv. 

Crow-trodden,  having  crow's  feet 
or  wrinkles  under  the  eyes,  and  so, 
aged.     Breton  prays  to  be  delivered. 

From  a  stale  peece  of  flesh  that  is  twice 

sodden, 
And  from  a  bloud-raw  roasted  peece  of  beefe, 
And  from  a  crauen  hen  that  is  crow-trodden. 

PasqulVs  Precession,  p.  9. 

Cruciada,  the  Spanish  cruzada,which 
meant  both  a  crusade,  and  a  papal  bull 
giving  privileges  to  those  who  joined 
therein.  It  bears  the  latter  sense  in  the 
extract. 

The  Pope's  Cruciada  drew  thou  sands  of 
soldiers  to  adventure  into  the  Holy  War. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  196. 

Cruciatory,  torturing. 

These  cruciatory  passions  do  operat  some- 
times with  such  a  violence  that  they  drive 
him  to  despair.  —  Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts, 
p.  7. 


Crucifixion,  torture. 

Say,  have  ye  sense,  or  do  ye  prove 
What  crucijlrions  are  in  love  ? 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  169. 

Crucify,  to  pillory. 

So  Bruin  fared, 
But  tug^d  and  pull'd  on  th' other  side, 
like  senv'ner  newly  crucify'd. 

Hudibras,  I.  Hi.  152. 

Is't  possible  that  you  whose  ears 

Are  of  the  tribe  of  Issachar's, 

And  might  (with  equal  reason)  either 

For  merit  or  extent  of  leather, 

With  William  Pryu's  before  they  were 

Retrench'd  and  crucify'd  compare. 

Ibid.,  Letter  to  Sidrophel,  14. 

Crud,  curdle. 

Barbarous  nations  who  lived  of  milke, .... 
had  the  feat  of  crudding  it  to  a  pleasant 
tartnesse  and  to  fat  butyr. — Holland's  Cam- 
den, p.  601. 

Crug,  the  commons  of  bread  at 
Christ's  Hospital. 

He  had  his  tea  and  hot  rolls  in  a  morning, 
while  we  were  battening  upon  our  quarter 
of  a  penny  loaf — our  crug — moistened  with 
attenuated  small  beer  in  wooden  piggins, 
smacking  of  the  pitched  leather  jack  it 
was  poured  from.  —  Lamb,  Essays  (Christ's 
Hospital). 

Crump,  a  deformed  or  crooked  per- 
son. It  was  more  used  as  an  adjective, 
and  the  diminutive  crumpled  is  still 
common,  though  not  applied  to  the 
body. 

That  piece  of  deformity!  that  monster! 
that  crump! — Vanbrugh,  AZsop,  Act  II. 

If  I  stand  to  hear  this  crump  preach  a 
little  longer,  I  shall  be  fool  enough  perhaps 
to  be  bubbled  out  of  my  livelihood. — Ibid., 
Act  III. 

Crumpler,  cravat,  from  the  creases 

in  which  it  is  folded. 

If  I  see  a  boy  make  to  do  about  the  fit  of 
his  crumpler,  and  the  creasing  of  his  breeches, 
and  desire  to  be  shod  for  comeliness  rather 
than  for  use,  I  cannot  'scape  the  mark  that 
God  took  thought  to  make  a  girl  of  him. — 
Blackmore,  Lorna  Boone,  ch.  iii. 

Crunch,  to  crush. 

A  crunching  of  wheels  and  a  splashing 
tramp  of  horse-hoofs  became  audible  on  the 
wet  gravel. — C.  Bronte ,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xviii. 

Crup,  abbreviated  form  of  crupper; 
from  stress  of  rhyme. 

Alarum'd  thus  from  sleep  I  rouse, 
And  got  a-strid  the  ridge  of  house, 
Deeming  it  politick  and  proper 
T'avoid  the  scandal  of  Eves-dropper ; 

M  2 


CRUP-SIIOULDERED     (  164  ) 


CULPABLE 


And  listening  sate  where  I  got  up, 
Till  I  had  almost  gauled  my  crup. 

Cottony  Scarronides,  p.  37. 

Crup-shouldered. 

Hee  hath  almost  no  hayre  on  his  head, 
and  he  hath  lost  one  of  his  eares ;  hee  goes 
crup  shouldered,  and  sits  downe  by  leisure. — 
Breton,  Miseries  of  Mavillia,  p.  49. 

Crusado,  a  Portugese   coin ;   those 

referred  to  by  Pepys  were  received  in 

payment  of  Queen  Catherine's  dowry. 

Spoke  to  my  Lord  about  exchange  of  the 
erusados  into  sterling  money.— Pepys,  Jane  2, 
1662. 

Crutch-back,  a  crooked  back. 

JEsope,  for  all  his  crutch-back,  had  a  quick 
wit.— Nine  Worthies  of  London,  1692  (Harl. 
Misc.,  viii.  437). 

Crying-out,  confinement.     The  verb 

is  more  common  (Hen.  VIII.,  V.  i. ; 

Pepys,  July  12,  1668,  &c). 

Aunt  Nell  who,  by  the  way,  was  at  the 
crying-out,  and  was  then  so  frighted,  so 
thankful  to  God,  and  so  happy  in  her  own 
situation  (no,  not  for  the  world  would  she  be 
other  than  she  was),  now  grudges  the  nurses 
half  their  cares.— Richardson,  Grandison,  vi. 
823. 

Cuck,  to  cuckoo. 

Clucking  of  moorfowls,  cuclcing  of  cuckoos, 
bumbling  of  bees. — Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk. 
III.  ch.  ziii. 

Cuck,  to  duck  on  the  cucking-stool. 

What  think  you  of  Alee  that  sells  butter? 

Her  neighbour's  head  clothes  she  off  pluck't, 
And  she  scolded  from  dinner  to  supper, 

Oh  such  a  scold  would  be  cuckt. 

Roxburgh  Ballads,  i.  54. 

Cuddy,  a  lout ;  it  is  one  of  the  nick- 
names of  the  donkey. 

It  cost  more  tricks  and  troubles  by  half. 
Than  it  takes  to  exhibit  a  six-legged  calf 
To  a  boothf ul  of  country  Cuddies. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Cue-ball,  piebald ;  skewbald. 

A  gentleman  on  a  cue -ball  horse  was 
coming  slowly  down  the  hill.  —  Blackmore, 
Lorna  Boone,  ch.  xxxix. 

Cuff,  an  old  fellow  or  miser. 

Gi.  You  must  know  I  boarded  with  An- 
t  rooms. 

Ja.  What  with  that  rich  old  cuff  ? 

Gi.  Yes,  with  that  sordid  hunks. 

Bailey's  Erasmus  Colloq.,  p.  371. 

Zounds!  they  are  just  here;  ten  to  one 
the  old  cuffm&j  not  stay  with  her;  111  pop 
into  this  close! — Colman,  Polly  Honeycombe, 
Scene  III. 

Cuit,  a  kind  of  sweet  wine.     See  H. 


Infused  also  it  is  many  waies,  and  after- 
wards either  preserved  in  cuit,  or  incorporat 
with  hony.— Holland,  Pliny,  xix.  5. 

Cule,  fundament. 

Then  foloweth  my  lord  on  his  mule, 
Trapped  with  gold  under  her  cule, 
In  every  point  most  curiously. 

Roy  and  Barlow,  Rede  me 
and  be  nott  tcrothe,  p.  56. 

Cull,  a  fool ;  cully  is  the  more  usual 
form. 

The  old  put  wanted  to  make  a  parson  of 
me,  but  d — n  me,  thinks  I  to  myself,  I'll 
nick  you  there,  old  cull ;  the  devil  a  smack  of 
your  nonsense  shall  you  ever  get  iuto  me. — 
Fieldina,  Tom  Jones,  Bk.  VII.  ch.  xii. 

I  will  show  you  the  way  to  empty  the 
pocket  of  a  queer  cull,  without  any  danger  of 
the  nubbin g  cheat. — Ibid.  Bk.  VIII.  ch.  xii. 

I  never  had  a  better  run  of  company  in 
my  life  than  to  enquire  into  that  affair ;  and 
they  all  of  the  right  sort — your  secret,  grave, 
old  rich  culls,  just  fit  to  do  business  with  — 
Johnston,  Chrysal,  ii.  17. 

Culmen,  height  or  acme  (Latin). 

He  had  the  advantage  of  the  common  tend- 
ency of  things  to  change,  which  from  a  cut- 
men  at  the  Restoration  went  continually  de- 
clining towards  the  Yale  of  bitterness  to  the 
Crown,  sedition,  and  rebellion. — North,  Kj> 
amen,  p.  118. 

The  copying  these  shameless  and  barbarous 
practices  of  that  age  is  the  culmen  of  the  his- 
torian's art  and  invention. — Ibid.  p.  145. 

Culottic,  having  breeches,  and  so 
belonging  to  the  more  respectable 
classes  as  opposed  to  the  Sansculottes. 
See  quotation  s.  v.  Habilatory. 

Young  Patriotism,  Culottic  and  Sansculot- 
tic,  rushes  forward  emulous. — Carlyle,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  VI.  ch.  iii. 

Let  the  guilty  tremble  therefore,  and  the 
suspect,  and  the  rich,  and  in  a  word  all 
manner  of  Culottic  men. — Ibid.  Pt.  III.  Bk. 
V.  ch.  ii. 

Culottism,  the  opposite  of  Sanscu- 
lottism,  q.  v.;  the  rule  or  influence  of 
the  more  respectable  classes ;  literally, 
breeched ness  or  inexpressibleness. 

Sansculottism,  anarchy  of  the  Jean-Jacques 
Evangel,  having  now  got  deep  enough,  is  to 
perish  in  a  new  singular  system  of  Culottism 
and  arrangement. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III. 
Bk.  VII.  ch.  i. 

He  who  in  these  epochs  of  our  Europe 
founds  on  garnitures,  formulas,  culottisnts  of 
what  sort  soever,  is  founding  on  old  cloth 
and  sheepskin,  and  cannot  endure. — Ibid. 
ch.  vi. 

Culpable,  a  culprit. 

One  thing  more  is  to  be  remembered  which 


CULT 


(  165) 


CURABLE 


▼a*  talked  in  coffee-houses  concerning  his 
lordship;  bat  by  those  only  who  were  the 
culpable*.— North,  life  of  Lord  Guilford,  II. 

*i*xO. 

Cult,  worship. 

Yet  how  distinguish  what  our  will  may 
wisely  save  in  its  completeness,  from  the 
heaping  of  cat-mummies  and  the  expensive 
f»?t  of  enshrined  putrefactions?—  G.  Eliot, 
Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xxxii. 

Cultch.  See  extract ;  "  they "  = 
people  of  Colchester. 

The  Spat  cleaves  to  Stones,  old  Oyster- 
shells,  pieces  of  wood,  and  such-like  things 
at  the  bottom  of  the  sea  which  they  call 
luftch.- Defoe,  Tour  thro9  G.  Brit.,  i.  9. 

Culvert  age,  forfeiture  of  vassal's 
land  to  the  lord.  When  the  King  of 
France  was  about  to  invade  England 
King  John  summoned — 

All  earles,  barons,  knights,  and  who  else 
could  bear  armes  of  any  condition,  to  bee 
ready  at  Doner  presently  upon  Easter,  furn- 
ished with  horse,  armour,  and  all  military 
prouision  .  . .  vnder  peine  of  Culuertage  ana 
perpetuall  servitude. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng., 
p.  116. 

Cum  for  y,  a  plant ;  belli*  perennis. 

To  restore  and  well  flesh  them,  they  com- 
monly gave  them  hog's  flesh,  with  oil,  butter, 
and  boney ;  and  a  decoction  of  Cumfory  to 
bouze.— Hir  T.  Brown,  Tract  V. 

Cum-twang,  a  term  of  abuse  or  re- 
proach, apparently  =  miser.  See  quot- 
ation at  large  *.  v.  Huddle-duddle. 

Gray-beard  huddle-duddles  and  crusty 
cum-twangs. —  Hashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  {Hart, 
Misc.,  vi.  147). 

Cun,  to  give  directions.  Cf.  Con  ; 
arid  see  H.  s.  v.  cund. 

I  must  confess  you  did  not  steer,  but  how- 
somever  you  cunned  all  the  way,  and  so,  as 
you  could  not  see  how  the  land  lay,  being 
bliud  of  your  larboard  eye,  we  were  fast 
ashore  before  you  knew  anything  of  the  mat- 
ter.—-*Swo#er<,  Peregrine  Pickle,  ch.  ii. 

Cunicular,  pertaining  to  the  cradle, 
childish. 

They  might  have  observed,  even  in  his 
funicular  days,  in  this.  Lodo wick  Muggleton, 
an  obstinate,  dissentious,  and  opposive  spirit. 
— Account  of  Lodotcick  Muggleton,  167o  (Harl. 
J/«c.,i.  610). 

Cunny-BERRY,  rabbit-hole. 

Swearing  .  .  .  that  the  walls  should  not 
keep  the  coward  from  him,  but  he  would 
fetch  him  out  of  his  Cunny-berry.— Sidney, 
Arcadia,  p.  277. 

Cr;p,  to  drink.  The  verb  occurs  in 
Ant.andCleup-t  II.  vii.=to  supply  with 


drink,  and  N.  gives  the  past  p  irticiple 
cupped,  intoxicated,  with  extract  from 
Taylor.  To  cup  usually  means  to  draw 
blood  by  means  of  a  cupping-glass,  as 
in  the  second  extract. 

The  former  is  not  more  thirsty  after  his 
cupping  than  the  latter  is  hungry  after  his 
devouring. — Adams,  i.  484. 

The  pleurisy ...  is  helped  much  by  cupping : 
I  do  not  mean  drinking. — Ibid.  i.  487. 

Cupboard.  To  cry  cupboard  =  to 
be  hungry. 

Footman.  Madam,  dinner's  upon  the  table. 
Col.  Faith  I'm  glad  of  it ;  my  belly  began  to 
cry  cupboard. 

Sicift,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  ii.). 

Cupidity,  is  now  almost  confined  to 
the  sense  of  avarice,  but  in  the  Bub- 
joined  it  means  that  love  over  which 
Cupid  is  supposed  to  preside. 

Love,  as  it  is  called  by  boys  and  girls,  shall 
ever  be  the  subject  of  my  ridicule.  Does  it 
not  lead  us  girls  into  all  manner  of  absurd- 
ities, inconveniences,  undutifulness,  dis- 
grace ?  Villainous  cupidity!  —  it  does.  — 
Richardson,  Grandtson,  vi.  105. 

She  calls  her  idle  flame  love — a  cupidity 
which  only  was  a  something  she  knew  not 
what  to  make  of. — Ibid.  vi.  179. 

Cup- moss,  Lecanora  Tartar  ea. 

Crowd  close,  little  snipes,  among  the  cup- 
moss  and  wolf  s-foot,  for  he  who  stalks  past 
you  over  the  midnight  moor,  meditates  a 
foul  and  treacherous  murder  in  his  heart. — 
H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  vi. 

Cupping-house,  a  tavern. 

How  many  of  these  madmen  ramble  about 
this  city !  that  lavish  out  their  short  times  in 
this  confused  distribution  of  playing,  dicing, 
drinking,  feasting,  beasting ;  a  cupping-house, 
a  vaulting-house,  a  gaming-house,  share  their 
means,  lives,  souls. — Adams,  i.  277. 

Cuprite,  libation. 

Juppiter  almighty,  whom  men  Maurusian, 

eating 
On  the  tabils  varnisht,  with  cuprits  magni- 

fye  dulye. — Stany hurst,  AZn,,  iv.  214. 

Cup-shotten,  drunken. 

This  is  no  part  of  that  sober  wisdom  which 
St.  Paul  commendeth  to  you,  but  of  that 
cup-shotten  wisdom  which  he  there  condemn- 
etn. — And  races,  v.  15. 

The  spring-tide  of  their  mirth  so  drowned 
their  souls  that  the  Turks  coming  in  upon 
them  cut  every  one  of  their  throats,  to  the 
number  of  twenty  thousand ;  and  quickly 
they  were  stabbed  with  the  sword  that  were 
cup-shot  before. — Fuller,  Holy  War,  Bk.  III. 
ch.  xvi. 

Curable,  curative ;  not,  as  now, 
capable  of  being  cured. 


CURACY 


(  166  )  CURTEL 


Nicephorus  and  the  Tripartite  History  re- 
port of  a  miraculous  fouutaine  by  the  high- 
way side,  where  Christ  would  have  departed 
from  the  two  disciples  :  who,  when  Hee  was 
conversant  upon  earth,  and  wearied  with  a 
long  journey,  there  washed  His  feet ;  the 
water  from  thenceforth  retaining  a  curable 
vertue  against  all  diseases. — Sandys.  Trauels, 
Bk.  III.  p.  174. 

Curacy,  guardianship. 

Perhaps  the  republican  party  concluded 
such  issue  must  come  to  the  Crown  young, 
and  then  they  had  a  game  de  integro  by  way 
of  curacy  and  protectorship. — North,  Examen, 
p.  290. 

Curat  ess,  a  female  curate,  or  curate's 
wife. 

A  very  lowly  curate  I  might  perhaps  essay 
to  rule ;  but  a  curatess  would  be  sure  to  get 
the  better  of  me.  —  TroUope,  Barchester 
Towers,  ch.  zzi. 

Curb,  to  swindle  or  rob  in  some  way. 
N.  gives  an  instance  of  the  word  =  to 
cringe  ;  it  may  refer  therefore  to  those 
who  for  the  purposes  of  fraud  attack 
their  victims  with  flattery  and  compli- 
ment. 

Though  you  can  f oyst,  nip,  prig,  lift,  curbe, 
and  use  the  black  art,  yet  you  cannot  cross- 
bite  without  the  helpe  of  a  woman. — Greene, 
Theeves  falling  out,  1615  (Hati.  Misc.,  viii. 
380). 

Curbless,  unrestrained. 

That  beck  itself  was  then  a  torrent,  turbid 
and  curbless. — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  ix. 

Curdle,  curd,  coagulation. 

There  is  a  kind  of  down  or  curdle  on  his 
wit,  which  is  like  a  gentlewoman's  train, 
more  than  needs. — Adams,  i.  501. 

Curious,  to  work  curiously  or  elabor- 
ately. 

For  tablet  fine 
About  his  neck  hangs  a  great  cornaline. 
Where  some  rare  artist  curiousing  upon't 
Hath  deeply  cut  Time's  triple-formed  front. 
Sylvester,  Magnificence,  p.  920. 

Curmudgel,  a  form  of  curmudgeon, 
adopted    apparently    from    stress    of 

rhyme. 

"Would  one 
Be  so  ungrateful  a  Curmudgel 
To  steal  away  his  Age's  Cudgel  ? 
Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  185. 

Curning,  churning,  grinding. 

Flie  where  men  feele 
The  curning  axel- tree  ;  and  those  that  suffer 
Beneath  the  chariot  of  the  snowy  beare. 
Chapman,  Bussy  D'Avifois,  Act  V. 

Curr,  an  onomatopoeous  word,  to  ex- 
press the  noiBe  of  owlets. 


The  owlets  hoot,  the  owlets  curr, 

And  Johnny's  lips  they  burr,  burr,  burr, 

As  on  he  goes  beneath  the  moon. 

Wordsworth,  The  Idiot  Boy. 

Curricle,  to  drive  as  in  a  curricle. 

Who  is  this  that  comes  curriding  through 
the  level  yellow  sunlight,  like  one  of  respect- 
ability keeping  his  gig? — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv. 
98. 

Currier,  a  candle ;  same  as  quarter, 
y.  v.  in  N.  Lights  were  used  in  catch- 
ing birds. 

The  Currier  and  the  lime-rod  are  the  death 
of  the  fowle,  and  the  faulcon's  bels  ring  tho 
death  of  the  mallard. — Breton,  Fantastickes 
(January). 

Curtainle88,  without  curtains. 

I  rose  up  on  my  curtainless  bed,  trembling 
and  quivering. — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch, 
xxxii. 

Curtalize,  to  curtail  or  crop. 

He  spake  much  of  his  own  abilities .  . .  and 
therefore  how  unworthy  it  was  to  curtalize 
his  eares,  generally  given  out  by  the  Bishop's 
servants  as  the  punishment  intended  unto 
him.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI.  ii.  6i. 

Curtana,  a  eword  without  an  edge, 
borne  before  our  Sovereigns  at  their 
coronation,  typifying  mercy.  It  is  said 
to  have  belonged  to  Edward  the  Con- 
fessor. 

Homage  denied,  to  censures  you  proceed ; 
But  when  Curtana  will  not  do  the  deed, 
You  lay  that  pointless  clergy-weapon  by, 
And  to  the  laws,  your  sword  of  justice,  fly. 

Dryden,  Hind  and  Panther,  ii.  419. 

Curted,  curt,  laconic. 

Bee  your  words  made  (good  Sir)  of  Indian 

wore, 
That  you  allow  mee  them  by  so  small  rate : 
Or  do  you  curted  Spartans  imitate, 
Or  do  you  mean  my  tender  ears  to  spare  ? 

Sidney,  Astrophel  and  Stella*  92. 

Curtel.  "  Double  curtel,  a  musical 
instrument  that  plays  the  bass " 
(Bailey).  Brown  used  the  word  in 
another  place.  See  extract  «.  v.  Out- 
grunt.  In  the  first  extract  it  seems  = 
a  measure  (of  liquor). 

The  poore  prisoners  complaine  how  cruel 
they  [gaolers]  be  to  them :  extorting  with 
extraordinary  fees,  selling  a  duble  curtail,  as 
they  call  it,  with  a  duble  juge  of  beere  for 
2  pence,  which  contains  not  above  a  pint 
ana  a  halfe. — Greene,  Quip  for  an  Upstart 
Courtier,  1592  (Harl.  Misc.,  v.  409). 

I  knew  him  by  his  hoarse  voice,  which 
sounded  like  the  lowest  note  of  a  double 
courtel.—T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  182. 


CURTSEY 


(  167  )    CUT  AND  COME  AGAIN 


Curtsey.  The  Editor  of  Ward  ex- 
plains this  as  "a  short  cut,"  which 
makes  sense,  but  is  there  any  authority 
for  this  use  of  the  word  ? 

The  whole  shire  must  be  troubled  to  hear 
mad  judge  of  a  cwrtsty  made  out  of  the  path, 
or  a  blow  given  upon  the  shoulder,  upon 
occasion  of  a  wager,  or  such  like  bauble-tres- 
passes which  I  shame  to  mention. —  Ward's 
Sermons ,  p.  131. 

Curtsie-capping,  low  salutations. 

If  they  do  so  admire  me  in  silks,  how  would 
they  cap  me  and  curtsey  me,  and  worship  me, 
if  I  were  in  velvets. — H.  Smith,  Sermons,  i. 
206. 

Great  Scipio  sated  with  fain'd  curtsie-capping, 
With  court  eclipses,  and  the  tedious  gaping 
Of  golden  beggars. 

Sylvester,  third  day,  first  weeke,  1060. 

Cushion,  the  seat  of  justice. 

[Chief  Justice  Hales]  became  the  cushion 
exceedingly  well. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guil- 
ford, i.  114. 

The  Court  of  Common  Pleas  had  been  out- 
witted by  the  King's  Bench,  till  his  lordship 
came  upon  the  cushion. — Ibid.  i.  123. 

Cushion,  to  put  aside  or  suppress ;  a 
metaphor  taken  from  billiards. 

The  apothecary  trotted  into  town,  now  in 
full  possession  of  the  Vicar's  motives  for 
desiring  to  cushion  his  son's  oratory. — Savage, 
R.  Mtdlicott,  Bk.  II.  ch.  x. 

Cushion.  Queen  Mary  was  often  mis- 
takenly believed  by  herself  and  others 
to  be  pregnant ;  hence  Queen  Mary1 8 
Cushion  =  protuberance,  that  produces 
nothing. — Some  suspected  Mary  of  an 
attempt  to  palm  off  a  supposititious 
child  on  the  nation. 

Thus  his  pregnant  motives  are  at  last 
proved  nothing  out  a  tympany,  or  a  Oueen 
Mary's  cushion. — Milton,  Euconoklastes,  ch.  Hi. 

It  is  an  hyperbole,  beyond  the  conception 
of  humanity,  that  a  King  pretending  to 
so  much  reason,  religion,  and  piety,  should 
praise  (or  rather  mock)  Qod  for  a  child, 
whilst  his  Queen  had  only  conceived  a  pillow, 
and  was  brought  to  bed  of  a  cushion ....  This 
was  the  old  contrivance  of  another  Mary- 
Queen.— Letter  from  the  Pope,  1689  (Harl. 
Misc.,  i.S70). 

Cushiony,  like  a  cushion. 

The  merchant  was  a  bow-legged  character, 
with  a  flat  and  cushiony  nose,  like  the  last 
new  strawberry.  —  Dickens,  Uncommercial 
Traveller,  ch.  x. 

Custodial,  the  tabernacle  in  which 
the  Host  is  reserved. 

The  priest  .  .  .  then  took  the  custodial, 
and  showed  the  patient  the  Corpus  Domini 
within. — Reade.  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  lxii. 


Custom,  to  -frequent  as  a  customer ; 
to  deal  at. 

Did  we  here  find  you  out,  customed  your 

house, 
And  help'd  away  your  victuals,  which  had 

else 
Lain  mouldy  on  your  hands? 

Maine,  City  Match,  ii.  5. 

Customer,  a  country  customer  =  a 
simple  fellow,  a  yokel ;  customer  is  also 
usea  in  an  opposite  sense,  as  meaning 
sharp  or  able ;  this  latter  is  noticed 
byL. 

The  country  fellow  .  .  .  picked  a  quarrel 
with  the  map,  because  he  could  not  find 
where  his  own  farm  stood.  And  such  a 
country  customer  I  did  meet  with  once. — 
Ueylin,  Cosmographie,  Preface. 

Cut,  to  run ;  common  as  a  slang  ex- 
pression, but  the  subjoined  are  early 
instances  of  its  use  in  this  sense . 

Caligula  lying  in  Fraunce  with  a  greate 
armie  of  fighting  menne,  brought  all  his 
force  on  a  sudden  to  the  sea  side,  as  though 
hee  intended  to  cutte  ouer  and  inuade  Eng- 
land.— Gosson,  Schoole  of  Abuse,  Ep.  Ded. 

I  fear  to  faint  if  (at  the  first)  too  fast 

I  cut  away,  and  make  too  hasty  haste. 

Sylvester,  first  day,  first  weeke,  p.  841. 

Cut,  to  ignore  an  acquaintance.  L. 
has  the  word  with  quotation  from 
Disraeli's  Young  Duke.  The  subjoined 
is  many  years  earlier. 

That  he  had  cut  me  ever  since  my  mar- 
riage, I  had  seen  without  surprise  or  resent- 
ment.—  Miss  Austen,  Sense  and  Sensibility, 
eh.  xliv. 

Cut,  the  act  of  purposely  ignoring  an 
acquaintance. 

We  met  and  gave  each  other  the  cut  direct 
that  night — Thackeray,  Snobs,  ch.  ii 

Cut.  To  cut  the  grass  from  under  a 
person  is  to  disconcert  him,  to  leave 
nim  without  any  plea  or  stand-point. 
We  usually  say  ground  instead  of  grass. 

My  lord  Clifford,  under  pretence  of  making 
all  his  interest  for  his  patron  my  Ld.  Arling- 
ton, cutt  the  grasse  under  his  feet,  and  pro- 
cur'd  it  for  himself,  assuring  the  king  that 
Lord  Arlington  did  not  desire  it. — Evelyn, 
Diary,  Aug.  J8, 1673. 

Cut  and  comb  again,  a  vulgar  ex- 
pression to  signify  that  there  is  abund- 
ance. 

Col.  I  vow  'tis  a  noble  sirloyn. 
Nev.  Ay,  here's  cut  and  come  again,  Miss. 
Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  ii.). 

Something  of  bold  and  new  design 
Dug  from  the  never-failing  mine, 


CUT- A  WA  Y 


(  i  «8  ) 


CYULE 


That's  work'd  within  your  fertile  brain, 
Where  all  is  cut  and  come  again. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  ch.  iv. 
Cut  and  come  ayain  was  the  order  of  the 
evening,  as  it  had  been  of  the  day ;  and  I 
had  no  time  to  ask  questions,  but  help  meat 
and  ladle  gravy. — Blackmore,  Lorna  Doom, 
ch.  xxix. 

Cut-away,  a  coat,  the  skirts  of  which 
are  cut  away,  so  that  they  do  not  hang 
down  as  in  a  frock-coat :  also  used  as 
an  adjective. 

He  had  ...  a  brown  cut-away  coat  with 
brass  buttons,  that  fitted  tight  round  a  spider 
waist. — Thackeray,  Shabby  Genteel  Story,  ch. 
viii. 

"  The  hounds !  "  calls  out  a  fifth-form  boy, 
clad  in  a  green  cut-away,  with  brass  buttons 
and  cord  trousers.  —  Hughes,  Tom  Brown'* 
Schooldays,  Pt.  I.  ch.  vi. 

Cute,  vulgar  abbreviation  of  acute  ; 
sharp,  clever.     See  extract  from  Foote, 

9.  V.  MlSCHIEFFUL. 

Truly,  Madam,  I  write  and  indite  but 
poorly ;  I  never  was  htte  at  my  learning. — 
Goldsmith,  Good-natured  Man,  iv.  2. 

"I  believe,''  continued  this  candid  per- 
sonage (who  had  never  been  in  any  of  the 
States)  "  they  [Yankees]  are  the  cruellest  set 
on  the  face  of  the  earth,  but  then  they  are 
the  'cutest  (that.is  their  own  word),  and  they 
are  a  precious  sight  too  'cute  to  disable  the 
beast  that  carries  the  grist  to  the  mill. — 
Reade,  Never  too  late  to  mend,  ch.  xxiii. 

Cuteness,  the  quality  indicated  by 
the  preceding  word. 

Who  could  have  thought  so  innocent  a  face 
could  cover  so  much  cuteness? — Goldsmith, 
Good-natured  Man,  II.  i. 

Cut-fingered.  Cork  shoes  (q.  v.) 
were  fashionable ;  "  cut-fingered  pumps, 
whatever  these  may  be,  seem  to  have 
been  the  reverse.  It  may  mean  pumps 
the  worse  for  wear,  with  a  gash  in  them 
here  and  there  like  a  cut  finger. 

Tie  as  good  to  go  in  cut-fingered  pumps  as 
cork  shoes,  if  one  wear  Cornish  diamonds  on 
his  toes. — Nashe,  1591  (Eng.  Garner,  i.  501). 

Cut-throatery,  murder. 

To  let  my  house  before  my  lease  be  out  is 
cut-throatery. —  Wily  Beguiled  (Hatckin's  Eng. 
Dr.,  iii.  300). 

Cuttle-bono,  a  knife  used  for  cutting 
purses :  or,  perhaps,  a  knife  carried  in 
the  purse  or  girdle.  Boung  is  a  cant 
term  for  purse. 


[He]  unsheathed  his  cuttle-bony,  and  from 
the  nape  of  the  necke  to  the  taile  dismem- 
bered him.  —  Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffs  (Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  172). 

Cutty  pipe,  a  short  pipe. 

I  was  whiling  away  my  leisure  hours  with 
the  end  of  a  cutty  pipe. — Scott,  Introduction 
to  Count  Robert  of  Paris. 

That  was  the  only  smoke  permitted  during 
the  entertainment,  George  Warringtou  him- 
self not  being  allowed  to  use  his  cutty  pipe. 
— Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  xxiii. 

Cut  up,  grieved. 

Poor  fellow,  he  seems  dreadfully  cut  up. — 
Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xxxii. 

Cut- water,  the  fore  part  of  a  ship's 

prow. 

One  tree  was  sold  for  £43 ;  eighteen  horses 
were  had  to  draw  one  part  of  it  when  slit, 
and  out  of  it  the  cut-water  to  the  Royal 
Sovereign  was  made. — Defoe,  Tour  thro'  G. 
Britain,  ii.  196. 

Cyclop^dy,  circle  of  knowledge. 

If  respect  be  had  to  the  severall  arts  there 
professed,  Sigebert  founded  schools  in  the 
plurall;  but  if  regard  be  taken  of  the  cy- 
dopady  of  the  learning  resulting  from  thane 
severall  sciences,  he  erected  but  one  grand 
school.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  II.  ii.  56. 

Cymbal-doctors,  teachers  givingf orth 
an  empty  sound ;  the  allusion,  of  course, 
is  to  1  Cor.  xiii.  1. 

These  petty  glosses  and  concerts  ....  are 
so  weak  and  shallow,  and  so  like  the  quibbles 
of  a  court  sermon,  that  we  may  safely  reckon 
them  either  fetched  from  such  a  pattern,  or 
that  the  hand  of  some  household  priest 
foisted  them  in,  lest  the  world  should  forgrt 
how  much  he  was  a  disciple  of  those  cymbal- 
doctors. — 3filton,  Eikonoklastes,  ch.  viii. 

Cypher-tunnels.     See  quotation. 

Peter-pence  .  .  .  was  a  penny  paid  for 
every  chimney  that  smoaked  in  England, 
which  in  that  hospitall  age  had  few  smoak- 
lesse  ones;  the  device  of  cypher-tunnels,  or 
mock-chimneys  merely  for  uniformity  of 
building,  being  unknown  in  those  days. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  V.  iii.  46. 

Cyule,  a  sort  of  boat 

Who  being  embarqu'd  in  forty  cyules  or 
pinnaces,  and  sailing  about  the  Rets*  coasts 
. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  128. 

After  that  came  three  Sonne*  of  a  Spanish 
knight  with  thirtie  ciules  with  them,  and  in 
every  ciule  thirtie  wives. — Ibid.  ii.  66. 


DAB 


(  169  )  DAMAGEMENT 


D 


Dab,  a  contemptuous  term  for  a  trifle. 
See  extract  *.  v.  Pushery. 

The  Count  may  have  procnred  for  her 
some  dirty  dab  of  a  negotiation  about  some 
acre  of  territory  more  for  Hanover. —  Wal- 
pole  to  Mann,  ii.  53  (1745). 

Catting  the  leaves  of  a  new  dab  called 
Anecdites  of  Polite  Literature,  I  found  my- 
self abused  for  defending  my  father. — I  bid.. 
Letters,  ii.  337  (1762). 

Dab,  a  pinafore.  The  word  is  in 
Peacock's  Manley  and  Corringham 
Glossary  (E.  I).  &)■ 

Beckon  with  my  washerwoman ;  making 
her  allow  for  old  shirts,  socks,  dabiis,  and 
markees,  which  she  bought  of  me. — Hue  and 
Cry  after  Dr.  Swift,  p.  9,  2nd  ed.  1714. 

Dab-wash.     See  extract. 

That  great  room  itself  was  sure  to  have 
clothes  hanging  to  dry  at  the  fire,  whatever 
day  of  the  week  it  was;  some  one  of  the 
large  irregular  family  having  had  what  was 
called  in  the  district  a  dab-wash  of  a  few 
articles  forgotten  on  the  regular  day. — Mrs. 
.  Gaskell,  Syfaia's  Lovers,  ch.  vi. 

Dacha-saltee,  a  franc  or  tenpence, 
from  the  Italian  died  soldi.  Cf .  Saltee 
(slang). 

What  with  my  crippledom  and  thy  piety, 
a  wheeling  of  thy  poor  old  dad,  we'll  bleed 
the  bumpkins  of  a  dacha-saltee.  —  Reade, 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  lv. 

Daddle,  hand  (slang). 

"VVerry  unexpected  pleasure!  tip  us  your 
daddle. — C.  Kinysley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  21. 

Daemonic,  pertaining  to  a  daemon. 

He  may  even  show  sudden  impulses  which 
have  a  false  air  of  damomc  strength,  because 
they  seem  inexplicable.  —  {•?.  Eliot,  Daniel 
Deronda,  ch.  xv. 

D<£Monocbacy,  a  rule  of  daemons. 

A  demonocracy  of  unclean  spirits 
Hath  governed  long  these  synods  of  your 
Church. — Taylor,  Isaac  Comnenus,  ii.  3. 

D^emonologeb,  one  skilled  in  daeinon- 
ology. 

If  the  Devil  himself,  black  accuser  as  he 
is,  could,  out  of  his  infernal  copia,  have  sup- 
plied more  livid  defamation  of  a  departed 
prince  than  this,  I  am  no  damonoloaer. — 
North,  Examen,  p.  652. 

Dagger-cheap,  dirt  cheap.  The 
Dagger  was  a  low  ordinary  in  Holborn, 
referred  to  by  Ben  Jonson  and  others ; 
the  fare  was  probably  cheap  and  nasty. 
See  my  note  in  N.  and  Q.,  V.  iii.  395. 


We  set  our  wares  at  a  very  easy  price ;  he 
[the  Devil]  may  buy  us  even  datffjer-cheap  as 
we  say. — A  ndreics,  Sermons,  v.  546. 

Dagonals,  org ie8  in  honour  of  Dagon. 

A  banquet  worse  than  Job's  children's,  or 
the  Dagonals  of  the  Philistines  (like  the 
Bacchanals  of  the  M&nades)  when  for  the 
shutting  up  of  their  stomachs,  the  house  fell 
down  and  broke  their  necks. — Adams,  i.  160. 

Daintification,  dandyism. 

He  seems  a  mighty  delicate  gentleman; 
looks  to  be  painted,  and  is  all  daintification 
in  manner,  speech,  and  dress. — Mad.  D'Ar- 
blay,  Diary,  i.  327. 

Daintipy,  to  make  dainty ;  to  refine 
away. 

My  father  charges  me  to  give  you  his 
kindest  love,  and  not  to  daintify  his  affection 
into  respects  or  compliments. — Mad.  D'Ar- 
blay,  Diary,  i.  414. 

Daintihood,  nicety ;  daintiness. 

It  is  no  little  difficulty  to  keep  pace  with 
her  refinement,  in  order  to  avoid  shocking 
her  by  too  obvious  an  inferiority  in  dainti- 
hood and  ton.  —  Mad.  D*Arblay,  Diary,  i. 
356. 

Dainty.  To  make  dainty  usually 
means  to  scruple,  or  to  be  particular 
(see  N.),  but  here  =  to  feast,  or  to  pre- 
pare a  delicacy. 

The  Arcadians  lived  on  acorns,  the  Argives 
on  apples  .  .  .  and  Jacob  here  made  dainty 
of  lentils. — Adams,  i.  5. 

Dainty -chapped,  particular  as  to 
eating. 

You  dainty-chapped  fellow,  you  ought  to 
be  fed  with  hay,  ii  you  had  such  commons  as 
you  deserve. — Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  42. 

Dainty-modth,  an  epicure. 

The  word  Oimbri  no  more  signifieth  a 
thief  e  than  ....  Sybarita  a  delicate  dainty- 
mouth. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  10. 

Daisy -cutteb,  a  trotting  horse. 

The  trot  is  the  true  pace  for  a  hackney ; 
and,  were  we  near  a  town,  I  should  like  to 
try  that  daisy-cutter  of  yours  upon  a  piece 
of  level  road  (barring  canter)  for  a  quart  of 
claret  at  the  next  inn. — Scott,  Bob  Roy,  i.  44. 

Damagement,  injury. 

And  the  more  base  and  brutish  pleasures  bee, 
The  more's  the  peine  in  their  accomplish- 
ment, 
And  the  more  vs'd  they  are  excessiuely, 
The  more's  the  soule  and  bodie's  damage- 
ment.— Davies,  Microcosmos,  p.  44. 


DANCERS 


(  170  )         DARING-GLASS 


Dancers,   stairs  (slang  or    thieves' 

cant). 

Come,  my  Hebe,  track  the  dancers,  that  is, 
go  up  the  stairs. — Lytton,  What  will  he  do 
with  it?  Bk.  III.  ch.  xvi. 

Dance  upon  nothing,  an  euphemism 
for  hanging. 

Just  as  the  felon  condemned  to  die, 

With  a  very  natural  loathing, 
Leaving  the  Sheriff  to  dream  of  ropes, 
From  his  gloomy  cell  in  a  vision  elopes, 
To  caper  on  sunny  greens  and  slopes, 
Instead  of  the  dance  ujton  nothing. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Dandified,  smart,  like  a  dandy. 

These  two  were  at  first  more  than  usually 
harsh  and  captious  with  Olive,  whose  pros- 
perity offended  them,  and  whose  dandified 
manners,  free-and-easy  ways,  and  evident 
influence  over  the  younger  scholars,  gave 
umbrage  to  these  elderly  apprentices.  — 
Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  xviii. 

Daneweed,  Eryngium  campestre. 
See  H.  8.  v.  Danes-blood,  and  L.  s.  v. 
Danewort. 

Everything  hereabouts  is  attributed  to  the 
Danes,  because  of  the  neighbouring  Daventry, 
which  they  suppose  to  have  been  built  by 
them.  The  road  hereabouts  too  being  over- 
grown with  Danetceed,  they  fansy  it  sprung 
from  the  blood  of  the  Danes  slain  in  battle ; 
and  that  if  upon  a  certain  day  in  the  year 
you  cut  it,  it  bleeds. — Defoe,  Tour  thro?  O. 
Brit.,  ii.  416. 

Danger.      To   make  danger   =   to 

hesitate. 

I  was  commanded  ...  to  swear  that  I 
should  truly  answer  unto  such  articles  and 
interrogatories  as  I  should  be  bv  them  ex- 
amined upon.  I  made  danger  of  it  awhile  at 
first,  but  afterwards  being  persuaded  by  them 
...  I  promised  to  do  as  they  would  have  me. 
— Dalaber,  1526  (Maitland  on  the  Reformation, 
p.  13). 

Dangerfdl,  dangerous. 

They'll  talk  like  learn'd  astronomers, 
Of  living  creatures  made  of  stars, 
As  lion,  Scorpion,  Bear,  and  Bull, 
And  other  things  less  danqerfvl. 

Ward,  England1  $  Reformation, 
c.  ii.  p.  172. 

Danglement,  act  of  dangling. 

It  was  an  infaust  and  sinister  augury  for 
Austin  Caxton,  the  very  appearance,  the  very 
suspension  and  danglement  of  any  puddings 
whatsoever  right  over  his  ingle-nook,  when 
those  puddings  were  made  by  the  sleek 
hands  of  Uncle  Jack. — Lytton,  Caxtons,  Bk. 
VII.  ch.  i. 

Dap.  H.  says,  "  a  hop  ortnrn  ;  hence 
the  habits  of  any  one. —  West."    The 


original  is.  Sola  viri  molles  aditus  et 
tempora  noras. 

His  daps  and  sweetening  good  moods  to 
the  soalye  were  opaed.--Stanyhurst,  JEn., 
iv.446. 

Darbies,  handcuffs  (slang).  In  the 
first  extract  the  reference  is  to  a  man 
involved  in  difficulties  by  usurers,  ore. 

They  tie  the  poore  soule  in  such  Darbies 
bands. — Greene,  Quip  for  an  Upstart  Courtier, 
1592  (Harl.  Misc.,  v.  405). 

"  Stay,"  cried  he, "  if  he  is  an  old  hand,  he 
will  twig  the  officer."  *  Oh,  I'm  dark,  Sir," 
was  the  answer :  "  he  won't  know  me  till  I 
put  the  darbies  on  him." — Reade,  Never  too 
late  to  mend,  ch.  i. 

Darbyshirian.  H.  gives  darby  = 
ready  money,  and  the  passage  seems  to 
admit  of  some  such  interpretation,  but 
it  is  obscure.  Hall  describes  himself 
as  asked  to  a  feast,  and  accepting  at 
once,  for  if  he  had  shown  the  least 
reluctance,  his  host  would  have  been 
glad  to  excuse  him.  He  counsels  men 
therefore  to  take  immediately  whatever 
is  offered.  But  though  I  suppose  this 
to  be  the  general  sense  of  the  passage, 
I  cannot  interpret  it  word  by  word.  I 
give  it  as  in  Mr.  Singer's  edition,  punc- 
tuation and  all,  though  that  can  hardly 
be  right ;  in  the  notes  it  is  passed  over 
sicca  pede,  after  the  manner  of  many 
commentators  where  the  text  is  really 
difficult. 

Two  words  for  money,  Darbyshirian  wise  ; 
(That's  one  too  many)  is  a  naughty  guise. 

Ball,  Sat.  III.  iii.  11. 

Dardanium,  a  bracelet.  The  wealth 
of  the  Durdani  or  Trojans  struck  the 
simpler  Greeks  with  wonder ;  hence 
Dardanian  became  an  epithet  of  gold, 
and  so  a  golden  ornament  is  called 
Dardanium. 

A  golden  ring  that  shines  upon  thy  thumb, 
About  thy  wrist  the  rich  Dardanium. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  28. 

Daredevil,  a  bold,  reckless  man.    L. 

gives  it  as  substantive  and  adjective, 

but  has  only  example  of  the  latter. 

I  deem  myself  a  daredevil  in  rhymes. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  189. 

I  know  a  set  of  exiles  over  there, 
Dare-devils,  that  would  eat  fire  and  spit  it  out 
At  Philip's  beard. 

Tennyson,  Queen  Mary,  III.  i. 

Daring-glass.  Larks  were  dared  or 
fascinated  in  various  ways  (see  N.  s.  v. 
dare)  ;  one  mode  was  by  mirrors  which, 


DARKLE 


(  171  )  DAVYS  SOW 


I  suppose,  dazzled  and  confused  them, 
making  it  easy  to  capture  them. 

New  notions  and  expressions  .  .  are  many 
times  .  .  the  daring-glasses  or  decoy es  to 
faring  men  into  the  snares  of  their  dangerous 
or  damnable  doctrines. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Churchy  p.  197. 

Darkle,  to  grow  dark. 

**  I  am  inclined  to  think,  sir,"  says  he,  his 
honest  brows  darkling  as  he  looked  towards 
me,  w  that  yoa  too  are  spoiled  by  this  wicked 
world." — Thackeray,  Ntwcomes,  ch.  lxvt 

The  chapel  is  lighted,  and  Founder's  Tomb 
with  its  grotesque  carvings,  monsters,  her- 
aldries, darkles  and  shines  with  the  most 
wonderful  shadows  and  lights. — Ibid.,  ch. 
Ixxv. 

Darklixgs,  in  the  dark ;  usually, 
darkling ;  it  may  be  that  the  word  is, 
in  the  extract,  in  apposition  with  serv- 
ants and  =  people  iu  the  dark. 

Thou  wouldest  fain  persuade  me  to  do  like 
some  idle  wanton  servants,  who  play  and 
talk  out  their  candle-light,  and  then  go  dark- 
It  nys  to  bed. — Bp.  Hall,  Works,  vii.  344. 

Darn,  a  euphemism  for  damn. 

"My  boy,"  said  another,  "was  lost  in  a 
typhoon  in  the  China  sea ;  darn  they  lousy 
typhoons." — H.  KingsUy,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  vi. 

Dartle,  to  dart  —  a  frequentative 
forui. 

All  that  I  know 

Of  a  certain  star 
Is,  it  can  throw 

(Like  the  angled  spar) 
Now  a  dart  of  red, 

Now  a  dart  of  blue  ; 
Till  my  friends  have  said 

They  would  fain  see  too  ' 
My  star  that  parties  the  red  and  the  blue. 

Browning,  My  Star* 

Dartman,  javelin-thrower. 

Without  an  aim  the  dartman  darts  his  spear, 
And  chance  performs  th'  effect  of  valour  there. 
Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  304. 

Dasher,  one  who  is  extravagant,  os- 
tentatious, or  fast. 

She  was  astonished  to  find  in  high  life  a 
degree  of  vulgarity  of  which  her  country 
companions  would  have  been  ashamed ;  but 
all  such  things  in  high  life  go  under  the 
general  term  dashing.  These  young  ladies 
were  dashers.  Alas !  perhaps  foreigners  and 
future  generations  may  not  know  the  mean- 
ing of  the  term. — Miss  Edgevcorth,  Almeria, 
p.  292. 

A  club 
Yclept  Four-horse  is  now  the  rage, 
And  fam'd  for  whims  in  equipage. 
Dashers  !  who  once  a  month  assemble, 
Make  creditors  and  coachmen  tremble ; 


And  dressM  in  colours  vastly  fine, 
Drive  to  some  public-house  to  dine. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  18. 

Dastardice,  cowardice. 

I  was  upbraided  with  ingratitude,  dastard- 
ice,  and  all  my  difficulties  with  my  angel 
charged  upon  myself,  for  want  of  following 
my  blows. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  vi.  49. 

Datary,  chronologer. 

Die  quinto  Elphegi.  I  am  not  datary 
enough  to  understand  this.  I  know  Elphegus 
to  be  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  Martyr, 
and  his  day  kept  the  nineteenth  of  April. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  III.  iv.  8. 

Dauohterling,  little  daughter. 

What  am  I  to  do  with  this  daughter  or 
daughterling  of  mine  ?  She  neither  grows  in 
wisdom  nor  in  stature. — Miss  Bronte,  Villette, 
ch.  zxv. 

Dauk,  Hindustani  dak,  a  post  for 
letters,  also  a  relay  of  horses  or  palan- 
quin bearers.  The  telegraph  is  called 
tar  dak  or  wire  post. 

After  the  sea  voyage  there  isn't  much 
above  1000  miles  to  come  by  dauk. — Hughes, 
Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xliv. 

Daukin,  a  fool ;  diminutive,  perhaps, 
of  daw,  and  coined  by  Calf  hill  to  rhyme 
with  Maukin. 

If  mother  Maukin  had  been  such  a  daukin 
as  to  think  every  minister  to  be  a  minstrel, 
as  you  do  every  mystery  to  be  a  sacrament, 
then  Martial  1  and  Maukin,  a  dolt  with  a 
daukin,  might  marry  together.—  Calf  hill,  p. 
236. 

Dauntingne8SE,  fear. 

Claudius  ....  foresends  Publius  Ostorius 
Scapula,  a  great  warrior,  pro-praetor  into 
Brittaine,  where  he  met  with  many  tur- 
bulencies,  and  a  people  hardly  to  be  ariuen, 
howsoeuer  they  might  be  led;  yet  as  one 
who  well  knew  his  mestier,  and  how  the  first 
euents  are  those  which  incusse  a  daungting- 
nesse  or  daring,  imployed  all  means  to  make 
his  expeditions  sodaine,  and  his  executions 
cruell. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  4. 

Davy's  sow.  David  Lloyd,  a  Welsh- 
man, had  a  sow  with  six  legs ;  on  one 
occasion  he  brought  some  friends  and 
asked  them  whether  they  had  ever  seen 
a  sow  like  that,  not  knowing  that  in  his 
absence  his  drunken  wife  had  turned 
out  the  animal,  and  gone  to  lie  down  in 
the  sty.  One  of  the  party  observed 
that  it  was  the  drunkest  sow  he  had 
ever  beheld.  The  proverb  in  the  second 
quotation  is  a  gratuitous  addition  of 
Bailey '8 ;  the  original  simply  has  teniu- 
lentus. 


DAVY  JONES  (  172  ) 


DEAD 


He  came  to  us  as  drunk  as  Davy's  sow. — 
Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Con v.  in.). 

When  be  comes  home,  after  I  have  been 
waiting  for  him  till  I  do  not  know  what  time 
at  night,  as  drunk  as  David's  sow,  he  does 
nothing  but  He  snoring  all  night  long  by  my 
aide. — Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  127. 

Davy  Jones.  To  go  to  Davy  Jones 
or  his  locker  is  nautical  English  for  to 
die  or  perish.  It  has  been  ingeniously 
conjectured  that  the  sea,  which  is  so 
often  the  sailor's  cemetery,  was  called 
Jonah's  locker  (Jonah  ii.  5,  6),  that  the 
prophet's  name  was  corrupted  into 
Jones,  and  Davy  prefixed  as  being  a 
common  name  in  Wales  (N.  and  Q.,  I. 
iii.  509). 

I  have  a  consort  off  these  islands,  and  be 
cursed  to  her.  She'll  find  me  out  some- 
where, though  she  parted  company  in  the 
bit  of  a  squall,  unless  she  is  gone  to  Davy 
Jones  too. — Scott,  Pirate,  ch.  viii. 

You  thought,  I  suppose,  I  bad  gone  to 
Davy's  locker.  .  .  I  read  the  account  of  the 
shipwreck  of  the  Dauntless. — 3fiss  Ferrier, 
The  Inheritance,  Vol.  III.  ch.  xix. 

Even  in  the  appellations  given  him  [the 
Devil]  by  familiar  or  vulgar  irreverence,  the 
same  pregnant  initial  prevails,  he  is  the 
Deuce,  and  Old  Davy,  and  Davy  Jones.— 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  clxxv. 

Dawbinq.     See  extract. 

At  this  period  [16th  cent.]  the  ancient 
process  of  forming  walls  by  means  of  in- 
durated earth  was  still  extensively  employed ; 
in  the  eastern  counties  this  was  called  dawb- 
iny,  and  the  term  is  still  retained  in  Norfolk 
and  Suffolk.— Arctueol.  xxx.  495  (1844). 


Dawn  light,  morning  light 

The  return  of  the  beautiful  daicn  light, 
whom  the  powers  of  darkness  had  borne 
away. — Cox,  Aryan  Mythology,  ii.  5. 

Day,  credit ;  a  distant  day  being  fixed 
for  payment.  Gascoigne  reckons-"  it 
among  the  signs  of  the  Millennium. 

"When  drapers  draw  no  gaines  by  giuing  day. 

Steele  Glas.,  p.  50. 

Faith  then  111  pray  you  'cause  he  is  my 

neighbour, 
To  take  a  hundred  pound,  and  give  him  day. 
Jonson,  Tale  of  a  Tub,  iv.  1. 

If  a  mean  man  .  .  .  have  something  to 
sell  to  his  necessitous  neighbour  that  must 
buy  upon  day  ...  it  is  scarce  credible,  did 
not  every  day's  experience  make  proof  of  it, 
how  such  a  man  will  skrew  up  the  poor  man 
that  falleth  into  his  hands. — Sanderson,  ii. 
354. 

Day-fever.  The  sweating  sickness 
wok,  I  suppose,  so  culled  from  the  short 


time  of  its  duration :  it  was  mortal  in  a 
few  hours. 

Fracastorius  also  writing  how  that  pestilent 
day-fever  in  Britaine,  which  we  commonly 
call  the  British  or  English  swet,  hapned  by 
occasion  of  the  soile. — Holland's  Camden,  p. 
24. 

Day-lights,  eyes  (slang). 

Good  woman!  I  do  not  use  to  be  so 
treated.  If  the  lady  says  such  another  word 
to  me,  d n  me,  I  will  darken  her  day- 
lights.— Fielding,  Amelia,  Bk.  I.  ch.  x. 

Day  net,  a  net  for  small  birds: 
another  instance  from  Burton  will  be 
found,  p.  469. 

As  larks  come  down  to  a  day  net,  many 
vain  readers  will  tarrie  and  stand  gazing 
like  silly  passengers,  at  an  an  tick  picture  in 
a  painter  8  shop,  that  will  not  look  at  a 
judicious  peece. — Burton,  Democ.  to  Reader, 
p.  5. 

Madam,  I  would  not  have  you  with  the  lark 
Play  yourself  into  a  day  net. 

Machin,  Dumb  Knight,  Act  II. 

Dayshine,  daylight. 

Wherefore  waits  the  madman  there 
Naked  in  open  dayshine  7 

Tennyson,  Gareth  and  Lynette. 

Day's-man,  usually  an  umpire,  but 
here  a  worker  by  the  day. 

He  is  a  good  day's-man,  or  journeyman,  or 
tasker,  which  is  an  excellent  mystery  of  well- 
living  and  redemption  of  time,  a  working 
up  our  salvation  m  holiness  and  righteous- 
ness all  the  days  of  our  life. — Ward,  Sermons, 
p.  105. 

Day-tall,  hired  for  the  day ;  work- 
ing by  the  job. 

Holla !  you  chairman,  here>  sixpence ;  do 
step  into  that  bookseller's  shop,  and  call  me 
a  day-tall  critick. — Sterne,  Trist.  Shand.,  iii. 
143. 

Deacon,  minister.  In  the  extract  it 
is  used  generally,  not  of  the  third  order 
of  the  ministry. 

They  whom  God  hath  set  apart  to  His 
ministry  are  by  Him  endued  with  an  ability 
of  prayer ;  because  their  office  is  to  pray  for 
others,  and  not  to  be  the  lip-working  deacons 
of  other  men's  appointed  words.  —  Milton, 
Apol.for  Smectymnuus. 

Dead,  a  dead  heat. 

Mammon  well  follow'd,  Cupid  bravely  led ; 
Both  touchers ;  equal  fortune  makes  a  dead  ; 
No  reed  can  measure  where  the  conquest  lies ; 
Take  my  advice ;  compound,  and  share  the 
prize. — Quartes,  Emblems,  Epig.  x. 

Dead,  in  a  faint. 

Sir  J.  Miunes  fell  sick  at  Church,  and  going 


DEADE  YE 


(  173  ) 


DEAR 


down  the  gallery  stairs,  fell  down  dead,  but 
come  to  himself  again,  and  in  pretty  well. — 
Pepys.  Sept.  11, 1664. 

Talking  with  my  brother  ...  I  looking 
toother  way,  heard  him  fall  down,  and  turned 
my  head,  and  he  was  fallen  down  all  along 
upon  the  ground  dead,  which  did  put  me  into 
a  great  fright  ...  he  did  preset  tly  come  to 
himself.— Ibid.  Feb.  7, 1666-67. 

I  presently  fell  dead  on  the  floor,  and  it 
was  with  great  difficulty  I  was  brought  back 
to  life. — Fielding,  Amelia,  Bk.  I.  ch.  ix. 

We  there  beheld  the  most  shocking  sight 
in  the  world,  Miss  Bath  lying  dead  on  the 
floor.  ....  Miss  Bath  was  at  length  re- 
covered, and  placed  in  her  chair. — Ibid.,  Bk. 
III.  ch.  ix. 

Dead-eye,  "  A  round  flattish  wooden 
block,  encircled  by  a  rope  or  an  iron 
band,  and  pierced  with  holes,  to  receive 
the  laniard,  .  .  used  to  extend  the 
shrouds  and  stays,  and  for  other  pur- 
poses "  (Imp.  Diet.) :  but  in  the  extract 
it  seems  to  oe  put  for  dead-light. 

So  I  lay  and  wondered  why  light 
Came  not,  and  watched  the  twilight, 
And  the  glimmer  of  the  sky-light 

That  shot  across  the  deck ; 
And  the  binnacle  pale  and  steady, 
And  the  dull  glimpse  of  the  dead-eye, 
And  the  sparks  in  fiery  eddy 

That  whirled  from  the  chimney  neck. 

Thackeray,  The  White  Squall. 

Dead  life,  the  memory  of  one  that 

i*  dead :  so  in  some  parts  of  England 

the  dead  year  of  a  person  =  the  year 

following  his  decease. 

The  king  ....  was  slain  upon  the  tomb 
of  their  two  true  servants,  which  they  caused 
to  be  made  for  them  with  royal  expenses  and 
notable  workmanship,  to  preserve  their  dead 
lites.— Sidney,  Arcadia,  Bk.  II.  p.  130. 

Dead-lights,  strong  wooden  ports 
made  to  fit  the  cabin  windows  in  a 
ship,  go  as  to  keep  out  the  waves  in  a 
storm. 

The  timbers  are  straining,  and  folks  are  com- 
plaining, 

The  dead-lights  are  letting  the  spray  and  the 
rain  in. 

In(fdd4by  Legends  (Brothers  of  Birchington). 

Dead  men.    See  extract 

Lord  Sm.  Ooine,  John,  bring  us  a  fresh 
bottle. 

Vol.  Ay,  my  lord,  and  pray  let  him  carry 
off  the  dead  men,  as  we  say  in  the  army 
(meaning  the  empty  bottles).— Strift,  Polite 
Uonvtnation  (Conv.  ii.). 

Deads.    See  extract. 

I  got  into  a  great  furze-croft,  full  of  deads 
(those  are  the  earth-heaps  they  throw  out  of 
the  shafts)  where  no  man  in  his  senses  dare 


go  forward  or  back  in  the  dark,  for  fear  of 
the  shafts. — C.  Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  xiii. 

Deady,  a  slang  name  for  gin.  Jon 
Bee's  Slang  Diet.  1823,  says,  "  so  called 
after  the  rectifier's  name  in  reality 
without  slangery.  Deady  is  dead  now, 
and  this  word  must  be  transferred  to 
our  addenda  in  the  next  edition  "  [where 
obsolete  slang  is  placed].  Sou  they, 
however,  seems  to  mean  beer  by  the 
word  in  the  following — 

Some  of  the  whole-hoggery  in  the  House 
of  Commons  he  would  designate  by  Deady, 
or  Wet  and  Heavy ;  some  by  weak  tea, 
others  by  Blue-Ruin. — Southey,  The  Doctor, 
Interchapter  xvi 

Deaf  (applied  to  nuts),  without  a 
kernel. 

These  inward  dispositions  are  as  the  kernel ; 
outward  acts  are  as  the  shell ;  he  is  but  a 
deaf  nut  therefore,  that  hath  outward  service 
without  inward  fear. — Bp.  Hall,  Works,  v.  81. 

Every  day,  it  seems,  was  separately  a  blank 
day,  yielding  absolutely  nothing — what  chil- 
dren call  a  deaf  not,  offering  no  kernel.  — 
De  Quincey,  Autob.  Sketches,  i.  91. 

Deaf  as   a    door,    stone-deaf:  we 

usually  say,  deaf  as  a  post. 

He  is  as  deafe  asadoore;  I  must  tell  him  a 
tale  in  his  eare,  that  all  the  towne  must  be 
privie  to,  or  else  hee  can  not  hcare  mee. — 
Breton,  Miseries  of  Mavillia,  p.  49. 

Deal.  See  N.,  s.  v.  dele-urine,  who 
says,  "  Said  to  be  a  species  of  Rhenish  ; 
certainly  a  foreign  wine,  but  I  know 
not  whence  named,  unless  it  was  im- 
ported at  Deal,  and  then  it  should  be 
spelt  accordingly.  But  Ben  Jonson, 
who  was  a  correct  man,  spelt  it  Dele." 
But  Shirley,  quoted  by  N.,  spells  it  Deal. 
So  does  Adams.  "  Dutch  in  the  ex- 
tract of  course  =  German. 

He  .  .  .  calls  for  wine  that  he  may  make 
known  his  rare  vessel  of  deal  at  home ;  not 
forgetting  to  [tell  ?]  you  that  a  Dutch  mer- 
chant sent  it  him  for  some  extraordinary 
desert. — Adams,  i.  500. 

Dean,  deacon. 

Eke  praye  (my  Priests)  for  them  and  for 

yourselues, 
For  Bishops,  Frelats,  Aichdeans,  deans,  and 

priests, 
And  al  that  preach  or  otherwise  professe 
God's  holy  word,  and  take  the  cure  of  soules. 
Oascoigne,  Steele  Glas,  p.  76. 

Dear,  to  endear. 
Nor  should  a  Sonne  his  Sire  loue  for  reward, 
But  for  he  is  his  Sire,  in  nature  dear'd. 

Davies,  Microcosmos,  p.  64. 


DEATH 


(  174) 


DECANTATE 


Death  and  the  cobbler;  in  the 
original  nuptice  Mortis  cum  Morte. 

Pe.  Whence  is  our  Gabriel  come  with  this 
bout  look  ?  What,  is  he  come  out  of  Tro- 
phonius's  cave  ? 

Ga,  No,  I  have  been  at  a  wedding. 

Pe.  What  wedding  is  it  that  you  have 
been  at  ?  I  believe  at  the  wedding  of  Death 
and  the  Cobbler. — Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  316. 

Deathiness,  an  atmosphere  of  death. 

Look !  it  burns  clear ;  but  with  the  air  around 
Its  dead  ingredients  mingle  deathiness. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  V. 

Deathling,  applied  by  Sylvester  to 
Adam  and  Eve,  as  subject  to  death  ; 
in  Swift  dtatklings  =  children  of  Death 
personified. 

Alas  fond  death-lings  /  O  behold  how  cleer 
The  knowledge  is  that  you  have  bought  so 
deer. — Sylvester,  The  Imposture,  p.  375. 
The  int'rest  of  his  realme  had  need 
That  Death  should  get  a  num'rous  breed ; 
Young  deathlings,  who  by  practice  made 
Proficients  in  their  father's  trade, 
With  colonies  might  stock  around 
His  large  dominions  underground. 

Swift,  Death  and  Daphne. 

Deathy,  pertaining  to  death. 

The  cheeks  were  deathy  dark, 
Dark  the  dead  skin  upon  the  hairless  skull. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  II. 

Deaurate,  golden. 

Of  so  eye-bewitching  a  deaurate  ruddie  dy 
is  the  skin-coat  of  this  landtgrave.— Nashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  164). 

Deave,  to  deafen,  stun,  or  bewilder. 

Indeed  we  were  deaved  about  the  affa- 
bility of  old  crabbit  Bodle  of  Bodletone- 
brae,  and  his  sister  Miss  Jenny,  when  they 
favoured  us  with  their  company  at  the  first 
inspection  ball.— Go/f,  The  Provost,  ch.  xxziv. 

"You  know  my  name;  how  is  that?" 
"White  magic;  I  am  a  witch  .  .  .  foolish 
boy,  was  it  not  cried  at  the  gate  loud  enough 
to  deave  one."— Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth, 
ch.  u. 

Debarrass,  to  rid ;  disembarrass. 

But  though  we  could  not  seize  his  person, 
said  the  captain,  we  have  deharrassed  ourselves 
tout  a  fait  from  his  pursuit.— Mad.  D'Arblay. 
Cecilia,  Bk.  VII.  ch.  v. 

I  was  deltarrassed  of  interruption ;  my 
half-effaced  thought  instantly  revived. — C. 
Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  x. 

Clement  had  time  to  debarass  himself  of 
his  boots  and  his  hat  before  the  light  streamed 
in  upon  him.— Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth, 
ch.  lxxxiv. 

Debarkment,  disembarkation. 
Our  troops  ought  not  to  have  shut  them- 
selves up  in  the  Goleta,  but  have  met  the 


enemy  in  the  open  field  at  the  place  of  de- 
barkment.— J  arms' s  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  I.  Bk. 
IV.  ch.  xii. 

Debate,  to  full  off,  to  abate. 

Artes  are  not  bothe  begunne  and  perfected 
at  once,  but  are  increased  by  time  and  studie, 
which  notwithstanding  when  they  are  at  the 
full  perfection  doo  debate  and  decrease  againe. 
—  Webbe,  Eng.  Poetrie,  p.  04. 

Debauchness,  dissipation ;  riotous 
living.  R.  has  debaiichedness  and  de- 
bauchtness. 

Those  are  commonly  least  patient  of  Phy- 
sitians  or  Chirurgeons  hands,  who  need  them 
most,  crying  out  of  other  men's  severities 
which  are  occasioned,  yea,  necessitated,  by 
their  own  debauchnesse  and  distempers. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  390. 

Debellation,  a  putting  a  stop  to 
war.  R.  and  L.  have  the  word  with 
the  same  quotation  from  Sir  T.  More, 
where  it  signifies,  conquest. 

Here  is  a  two-fold  army,  one  marching 
against  another,  seditio  et  sedatio ;  an  insur- 
rection and  a  debellation;  a  tumult  and  its 
appeasement. — Adams,  iii.  281. 

Debordment,  excess  (Pr.  deborder). 

They  have  almost  made  this  Church  an 
Augean  stable,  so  that  it  is  an  Herculean 
work  to  cleanse  it  of  all  those  debordments 
and  defilements  fain  upon  Christian  Reli- 
gion.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  214. 

Deboshment,  excess ;  debaiichedness. 

An  ordinarie  honest  fellow  is  one  whom  it 
concernes  to  be  calPd  honest,  for  if  he  were 
not  this  he  were  nothing ;  and  yet  he  is  not 
this  neither  ;  but  a  good  dull  vicious  fellow 
that  complyes  well  with  the  deboshments  of 
the  time,  and  is  fit  for  it.— Earle,  Microcos- 
mographie,  No.  77. 

It  is  an  otter  whom  I  remember  to  have 
transmuted  from  a  mariner  or  seaman  for 
his  deffoshments  here;  and  I  observe  there 
are  no  people  so  given  to  excesses  as  seamen 
when  they  come  ashore. — Howell,  Parly  of 
Beasts,  p.  5. 

Debouche,  to  turn  out  of. 

We  sat  and  watched  them  debouche  from 
the  forest  into  the  broad  river  meadows. — 
H.  KingsUy,  Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  xviii. 

Debt-bind,  to  oblige. 
Behold  Camillus,  he  that  erst  reviv'd 
The  state  of  Rome,  that  dying  he  did  find, 
Of  his  own  state  is  now,  alas,  depriv'd, 
Banish 'd  by  them  whom  he  did  thus  debt-bind. 
Sackville,  Duke  of  Buckingham,  at.  43. 

Decantate,  to  chant,  or  sing  out. 

If  every  one  of  us,  as  Virgil  saith,  had  an 
hundred  tongues  and  an  hundred  mouths, 
yet  were  we  not  able  sufficiently  to  decantate, 
sing,  and  set  forth  His  praises.— Becon,  i.  182. 


DEC  A  Y 


(  i7S  ) 


DEDAL1AN 


These  men  .  .  .  impertinently  decantate 
against  the  Ceremonies  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  99. 

Decay,  to  slacken. 

One  giueth  the  start  speedily,  and  perhaps 
before  he  come  half  way  to  th'  other  goafe, 
decay eth  his  pace  as  a  man  weary  and  faint- 
ing.— Pultenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iii. 

Dkcayablk,  capable  of  decay. 

Were  His  strength  decayable  with  time 
there  might  be  some  hope  in  reluctation ; 
but  never  did  or  shall  man  contest  against 
God  without  coming  short  home.  —  Adams, 
iii.  111. 

Dbcede,  to  depart  or  secede. 

Three  things  are  essential  to  Justine  the 
English  Reformation  from  the  scandal  of 
schume,  to  shew  that  they  had,  1.  just  cause 
for  which,  2.  true  authority  by  which,  3.  due 
moderation  in  what  they  deceded  from  Borne. 
—Fuller,  Ch.  Histn  V.  iii.  25. 

Decemberly,  like  December;  win- 
terly. 

The  many  bleak  and  deeemberly  nights 
of  a  seven  years  widowhood. — Sterne,  Trist. 
Shandy,  v.  208. 

Decextish,  fair. 

Fair  sir,  you  are  welcome:   do,  pray,  stop 

and  dine, 
You'll  take  our  potluck,  and  we've  decentish 
wine. 

Inyoldsby  Leaends  (Account 
of  a  new  play). 

Dechristianise,  to  make  unchristian, 

to  heathenise. 

The  next  step  in  de-Christianising  the  poli- 
tical life  of  nations  is  to  establish  national 
edncation  without  Christianity.  —  Disraeli, 
Lathair,  ch.  lxxziv. 

Decide,  to  cut  off.    The  quotation 

is  from  verses  spoken  by  a  child  when 

Queen  Elizabeth  visited  Norwich,  1579 ; 

in  modern  editions  of  Fuller  it  is  printed 

"  divides." 

Again,  our  seat  denies  us  traflfak  here, 
The  sea  too  near  decides  us  from  the  rest. 
Fuller,  Holy  State,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xz. 

Decimal,  relating  to  tithes :  decimal 
arithmetic,  is  applied  by  Milton  to  the 
reckoning  of  tithes  by  the  clergy. 

I  see  them  still  so  loath  to  unlearn  their 
decimal  arithmetic,  and  still  grasp  their  tithes 
as  inseparable  from  a  priest. — Milton,  Means 
to  remove  Hirelings. 

An  offer  was  also  made  for  regulating  the 
jurisdiction  of  Ecclesiastical  Courts  in  causes 
testamentary,  decimal,  and  matrimonial. — 
Heylin,  Hist,  of  Presbyterians,  p.  469. 

Decineb,  tithing  man. 


[This  hath  been  spoken]  to  all  from  the 
highest  and  greatest  to  the  lowest  and  least 
instrument  of  justice,  from  the  governor  of 
the  thousand  to  the  centurion,  from  him  to 
the  tithing  man  or  deciner. — Ward,  Sermons, 
p.  128. 

Decipher,  the  character  given  of  a 
man ;  that  which  shows  what  he  is. 

He  was  a  Lord  Chancellour  of  France, 
whose  decipher  agrees  exactly  with  this  great 
prelate,  sometimes  Lord  Keeper  of  the  Great 
Sesd.—Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  220. 

Declaim,  to  cry  down. 

This  banquet  then  .  .  .  is  at  once  declared 
and  declaimed,  spoken  of  and  forbidden. — 
Adams,  i.  175. 

Declinatory,  a  refusal,  or  evasion. 

This  matter  came  not  to  the  judges  to 
give  any  opinion ;  and  if  it  had,  they  had  a 
declinatory  of  course,  viz.  that  matters  of 
Parliament  were  too  high  for  them. — JYorth, 
Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  10. 

Deconcoct,  to  decompose,  or  separate. 

I  doubt  not  but  since  these  Benedictines 
have  had  their  crudities  deconcocted,  and  have 
been  drawn  out  into  more  slender  threads  of 
subdivision. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  vi.  p.  267. 

Decrescent,  waning. 

The  good  Queen, 
Repentant  of  the  word  she  made  him  swear, 
And  saddening  in  her  childless  castle,  sent, 
Between  the  increscent  and  decrescent  moon, 
Arms  for  her  son,  and  loosed  him  from  his 
vow. — Tennyson,  Gareth  and  Lynette. 

Decuman e,  tenth :  the  decumane 
wave  or  billino  =  the  tenth  or  largest 
wave.  • 

That  same  decumane  wave  that  took  us 
fore  and  aft  somewhat  altered  my  pulse. — 
UrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  xxiii. 

Out  of  a  vain  hope  to  make  many  little 
skiffs  and  cock-boats  in  which  to  expose 
themselves  ...  to  be  overwhelmed  and  quite 
sunk  by  such  decumane  billowes  as  those 
small  vessels  have  no  proportion  to  resist. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  30. 

Decurrence,  lapse ;  running  down. 

The  errataa  which  by  long  decurrence  of 
time,  through  many  men's  hands  have  befaln 
it,  are  easily  corrected. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  536. 

Decurtate,  to  shave. 

Hee  sends  for  his  barber  to  depure,  decur- 
tate, and  spunge  him. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  144). 

Dedalian,  varied.  See  L.,  s.  v.  dedal. 

From  time  to  time  in  various  sort 
Dedalian  Nature  seems  her  to  disport. 
Sylvester,  The  Arke,  425. 


DEDECORATE  (  176  ) 


DELIGNATE 


Dedecorate,  to  disgrace  or  disfigure. 

Why  lctt'st  weake  Wormes  Thy  head  de- 
decorate 
With  worthlesse  briers,  and  flesh-trans- 
piercing thorn  es? 

Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  13. 

Deed-doer,  perpetrator. 

rhe  deed-doers  Matrevers  and  Gourney  . . . 
durst  not  abide  the  triall. — Daniel,  Hist,  of 
Eng.,  p.  185. 

Deedy,  active  or  efficient. 

In  a  messenger  sent  is  required  celerity, 
sincerity,  constancy ;  that  he  be  speedy,  that 
he  be  needy,  ana,  as  we  say,  that  he  be 
deedy. — Adams,  ii.  111. 

Who  praiseth  a  horse  that  feeds  well,  but 
is  not  deedy  for  the  race  or  travel,  speed  or 
length  ? —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  165. 

The  appearance  of  the  little  sitting-room 
as  they  entered  was  tranquillity  itself ;  Mrs. 
Bates  deprived  of  her  usual  employment, 
slumbering  on  one  side  of  the  fire,  Frank 
Churchill  at  a  table  near  her  most  deedily 
occupied  about  her  spectacles,  and  Jane  Fair- 
fax, standing  with  her  back  to  them,  intent 
on  her  pianoforte. — Miss  Austen,  Emma,  vol. 
II.  ch.  z. 

Deep-thoughted,  having  deep 
thoughts. 

I  am  strong  in  the  spirit — deep-thoughted, 
clear-eyed.  —  Mrs.  Browning,  Rhapsody  of 
Life's  Progress. 

Defamator,  a  slanderer. 

We  should  keep  in  pay  a  brigade  of  hunters 
to  ferret  our  defamators,  and  to  clear  the 
nation  of  this  noxious  vermin,  as  once  we 
did  of  wolves. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  66.. 

Defiantness,  defiance. 

He  answered,  not  raising  his  voice,  but 
speaking  with  quick  defiantness.  —  G.  Eliot, 
Middlemarch,  ch.  bri. 

Defray,  to  pay :  we  only  speak  of 
defraying  expense  or  charges,  and  the 
Diets,  give  no  instance  of  any  other 
use. 

Therefore  {defraying  the  mariners  with  a 
ring  bestowea  upon  them)  they  took  their 
journey  together. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  6. 

Suddenly  a  dart  (none  knew  to  whose  hand 
the  honour  of  it  was  due)  did  wound  him  in 
the  thigh,  which  he  (doubtful  to  whom  he 
stood  debtor)  did  pay  back  to  many  (an 
extraordinary  interest) ;  with  the  death  of 
some  one  striving  to  defray  every  drop  of 
his  blood. — Ibid.  p.  328. 

The  Queen  had  gained  the  thirds  of  all 
Church  Rents  . .  .  upon  condition  of  making 
some  allowance  out  of  it  to  defray  the  minis- 
ters.— Heylin,  Hist,  of  Presbyterians,  p.  176. 

Degenerize,  to  degenerate.  Sylves- 
ter says  that  the  idolatrous  Israelites — 


Degeneric'd,  decay'd,  and  withered  quight. 

The  Vocation,  104. 

Deglutinate,  to  unstick. 

See,  see,  my  Soule  (ah,  harke  how  It  doth 

cracke!) 
The  Hand  of  Outrage  that  deglutinates 
His  Vesture,  glu'd  with  gore-blood  to  His 

backe. — Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  10. 

Degree,  to  advance  step  by  step. 
An  example  of  this  verb  is  fpven  from 
Hey  wood  by  R.,  who  says  it  rests  on 
that  authority.  The  subjoined  passnges 
show  that  this  is  a  mistake. 

Thus  is  the  soul's  death  degreed  up.  Sin 
gathers  strength  by  custom,  and  creeps  like 
some  contagious  disease  in  the  body  from 
joint  to  joint. — Adams,  i.  230. 

I  will  degree  this  noxious  neutrality  one 
peg  higher. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  189. 

Degust,  to  taste.  The  Diets,  quote 
Bp.  Hall  for  degiistaiian. 

A  soupe  au  vin,  madam,  I  will  digvst,  and 
gratefully. — Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  ii. 

Dejectly,  dejectedly;  the  adj.  de- 
ject is  in  N. 

I  rose  dejectly,  curtsied,  and  withdrew 
without  reply. — //.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality, 
ii.  237. 

Dejeration,  protestation;  misprint 
or  error  for  dejuralion  (?). 

Doubtless  with  many  vows  and  tears  and 
dejeraiions  he  labours  to  clear  his  intentions 
to  her  person. — Bp.  Hall,  Works,  ii.  258. 

Delayable,  capable  of  delay,  or  of 

being  delayed. 

Law  thus  divisible,  debateable,  and  delay- 
able,  is  become  a  greater  grievance  than  all 
that  it  was  intended  to  redress. — H.  Brooke, 
Fool  of  Quality,  i.  250. 

Delayed,  mixed ;  alloyed. 

Wine  delayed  with  water,  as  we  read  in 
Athenus,  the  Oaules  called  Dercoma.— Hot' 
land's  Camden,  p.  20. 

The  eye,  for  the  upper  halfe  of  it  of  a 
darke  browne,  for  the  nether  somewhat  yel- 
lowish, like  delayed  gold. — Ibid.  p.  476. 

Delegatory,  holding  a  delegated  or 
dependent  position. 

Some  politique  delegatory  Scipio  .  .  they 
would  single  forth,  if  it  might  bee,  whom 
they  might  depose  when  they  list,  if  he 
should  begin  to  tyranize.  —  Nashe,  Lenten 
Stvffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  170). 

Delignate,  to  deprive  of  wood. 

It  moves  me  much,  his  accusation  of  covet- 
ousness,  dilapidating,  or  rather  delignating 
his  bishoprick,  cutting  down  the  woods 
thereof,  for  which  he  fell  into  the  Queen's 
displeasure. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  IX.  iii.  34. 


DELINE 


(  177  )  DENDRANTHOPOLOGY 


Delink,  to  mark  out. 

A  certain  plan  had  been  delined  out  for  a 
farther  proceeding  to  retrieve  all  with  help 
of  the  Parliameut.— JVortA,  Examen,  p.  523. 

Delitescency,  retirement 

1069  and  1670  I  sold  all  my  estate  in 
Wilts.  From  1670  to  this  very  day  (I  thank 
God)  I  have  enjoyed  a  happy  delitescency. — 
Aubrey,  Life,  p.  13. 

If  I  am  asked  farther  reasons  for  the  con- 
dart  I  have  long  observed,  I  can  only  resort 
to  the  explanation  supplied  by  a  critic  as 
friendly  as  he  is  intelligent;  namely,  that 
the  mental  organization  of  the  Novelist  must 
be  characterized,  to  speak  craniologically,  by 
an  extraordinary  development  of  the  passion 
fop  delitescency.  —  Scott,  General  Pre/,  to 
WaverUy  Novels,  p.  26. 

Deluce  flower,  fleur  de  lis. 
Kyng  cuppe  and  lillies  so  beloude  of  all  men, 

And  the  deluce  Jlowre. 
Webbe,  Eng.  Poetrie,  p.  84. 

Demagogical,  factious ;  exciting  the 
rabble. 

There  is  a  set  of  demagogical  fellows  who 
keep  calling  out,  "  Farmer  this  is  an  oppress- 
or, and  Squire  that  is  a  vampyre/ — Lytton. 
My  Novel,  Bk.  XI.  ch.  ii. 

Demagogism,  the  work  of  dema- 
gogues ;  stirring  up  the  mob. 

The  last  five  years,  moreover,  have  cer- 
tainly been  years  of  progress  for  the  good 
cause.  The  great  drag  upon  it — namely, 
demagogism — has  crumbled  to  pieces  of  its 
own  accord.—  C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  Pre- 
face (1854). 

Demandate,  to  delegate  or  com- 
mission. Bp.  Hall  {Works,  x.  186) 
contends  for  a  Bishop  "exercising 
spiritual  jurisdiction  out  of  his  own 
peculiarly  demandated  authority/ ' 

Dematerialisation,  destruction  or 
evaporation  of  matter. 

Miss  Jemima's  dowry  .  .  .  would  suffice  to 
prevent  that  gradual  process  of  dematerialisa- 
tion which  the  lengthened  diet  upon  min- 
nows and  sticklebacks  had  already  made 
apparent  in  the  fine  and  slow-evanishing 
form  of  the  philosopher.— Lytton,  My  Novel, 
B«-  III.  ch.  xvii. 

Demilass,  a  woman  of  doubtful 
character  (?)  a  demirep  (?). 

At  this  hole  then  this  pair  of  demilasses 
planted  themselves.— Jarvis's  Don  Quixote, 
«.  I.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  xvi. 

Demilune,  a  crescent. 

It  is  an  immense  mass  of  stone  of  the 
■nape  of  a  demilune,  with  a  bar  in  the  middle 
of  the  concave.— North,  Life  of  Lord  Guil- 
ford, 1.  228. 


These  stately  figures  were  planted  in  a 
demilune  about  an  huge  fire.— Ibid.,  Examen* 
p.  578. 

He  laid  his  hand,  as  Drayton  might  have 
said,  on  that  stout  bastion,  horn-work,  rave- 
lin, or  demilune  which  formed  the  outworks 
to  the  citadel  of  his  purple  isle  of  man. — 
Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  viii. 

Demise,  to  free. 

The  Atheniens  he  commaunded  to  be  laied 
fast  in  shaccles  and  fetters  .  .  .  but  the  The-, 
banes  he  demised  and  let  go  at  their  libertee. 
—UdaPs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  215. 

Democritical.  There  were  some 
writings  of  Democritus  on  the  lan- 
guage of  birds,  &c. ;  hence  Btories 
connected  with  natural  history  that 
were  incredible  were  called  Fabulce 
Democriticce.  It  is  observable  that 
Bailey  spells  it  with  a  small  d. 

Not  to  mention  democritical  stories,  do  we 
not  find  by  experience  that  there  is  a  mighty 
disagreement  between  an  oak  and  an  olive- 
tree  'i— Bailey's  Erasmus's  Colloq.,  p.  394. 

Demolitionist,  demolishes 

Lafayette  has  saved  Vincennes,  and  is 
marching  homewards  with  some  dozen  of 
arrested  demolitionists.  —  Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev., 
Pt.  II.  Bk.  III.  ch.  v. 

Demount,  fall  down. 

Beautiful  invention;  mounting  heaven- 
ward so  beautifully,  so  unguidably !  . . .  Well 
if  it  do  not  PilAtre-like  explode,  and  demount 
all  the  more  tragically !— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev., 
Pt.  I.  Bk.  II.  ch.  vi. 

Demurity,  demureness.  L.  has  the 
word,  with  extract  from  Charles  Lamb, 
but  it  had  been  used  before. 

They  pretend  to  such  demurity  as  to  form 
a  society  for  the  Regulation  of  Manners. — 
T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  182. 

Demy,  a  close-fitting  garment. 

He  .  .  stript  him  out  of  his  golden  demy 
or  mandillion,  and  flead  him. — Nashe,  Lenten 
Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  166). 

Demy-cannon,  a  cannon  of  four 
inches  bore. 

Presently  does  the  demy-cannon  and  cul- 
verin  strive  to  drown  that  noise. — J.  Rey- 
nards Deliverance  {Harl.  Misc.,  i.  188). 

Dendranthopology,  study  based  on 
the  theory  that  man  had  sprung  from 
trees. 

Although  the  Doctor  traced  many  of  his 
acquaintance  to  their  prior  allotments  in  the 
vegetable  creation,  he  did  not  discover  swh 
symptoms  in  any  of  them  as  led  him  to  infer 
that  the  object  of  his  speculations  had  existed 
in  the  form  of  a  tree.  ...  He  formed,  there* 

N 


DENE 


(  178  ) 


DERAY 


fore,  no  system  of  dendranthopology. — Southey, 
The  Doctor,  ch.  ccxv. 

Dene,  a  sandy  tract  near  the  sea. 

Mrs.  Leigh  . .  went  to  the  rocky  knoll  out- 
side the  churchyard  wall,  and  watched  the 
ship  glide  out  between  the  yellow  denes,  and 
lessen  slowly  hour  by  hour  into  the  bound- 
less west. — C.  Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,ch.  xvi. 

Denning,  place  where  beasts  make 
their  lair. 

Where  God  hath  raised  up  zealous  preach- 
ers, in  such  towns  this  serpent  hath  no  nest- 
ling, no  stabling,  or  denning. —  Ward,  Ser- 
mons, p.  158. 

Denounce,  to  proclaim  (in  a  good 

sense).    Cf.  Fr.  accuser. 

In  Spaine,  under  the  leading  and  name  of 
his  sonne  Oonstans,  whom  of  a  Monk  he  had 
denounced  Augustus  or  Emperor,  he  warred 
with  fortunate  successe. — Holland's  Camden, 
p.  86. 

Denovement,  a  revolution. 

I  intend  now  to  present  a  denovement  of 
affairs,  a  new  turn  which  happened  upon 
certain  rectifications  brought  about  in  the 
City  of  London  in  the  year  1682.— North, 
Examen,  p.  595. 

Dentistical,  having  to  do  with  the 
teeth  or  dentistry. 

Even  the  crocodile  likes  to  have  his  teeth 
cleaned ;  insects  get  into  them,  and,  horrible 
reptile  though  he  be,  he  opens  his  jaws  in- 
offensively to  a  faithful  dentistical  bird,  who 
volunteers  his  beak  for  a  toothpick. — Lytton, 
My  Novel,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  i. 

To  know  that  he  is  always  keeping  a  secret 
from  her;  that  he  has,  under  all  circum- 
stances, to  conceal  and  hold  fast  a  tender 
double  tooth,  which  her  sharpness  is  ever 
ready  to  twist  out  of  his  head,  gives  Mr. 
Snagsby,  in  her  dentistical  presence,  much  of 
the  air  of  a  dog  who  has  a  reservation  from 
his  master. — Dickens,  Bleak  House,  ch.  uv. 

Denunciant,  denouncing. 

Of  all  which  things  a  poor  Legislative 
Assembly  and  Patriot  France  is  informed, 
by  denunciant  friend,  by  triumphant  foe. — 
Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  V.  ch.  v. 

Deodate,  a  gift  from  God.    L.  has  the 

word,  with  a  quotation  from  Hooker, 

but  it  means  there  a  gift  to  God. 

He  observed  that  the  Dr.  was  born  of 
New-Tear's  Day,  and  that  it  was  then  pre- 
saged he  would  be  a  deodate,  a  fit  new-year's 
gift  for  God  to  bestow  on  the  world. — Letter 
from  H.  Paman,  1653  (D'Oyly's  Life  of  San- 
croft,  ch.  ii.). 

DErABOCHiATE,  to  leave  the  parish. 

The  culture  of  our  lands  will  sustain  an 
infinite  injury  if  such  a  number  of  peasants 


were  to  deparochiate. —  Foote,  The  Orators 
ActL 

Deportator,  one  who  carries  away 

or  banishes  others. 

This  island  of  ours,  within  these  late  days, 
hath  bred  a  great  number  of  these  field- 
briers,  .  .  .  oppressors,  enclosers,  depopulat- 
ors,  deportators,  depravators. — Adams,  ii.  481. 

Depoulsour,  expeller. 

Hercules  was  in  olde  time  worshipped 
vnder  the  name  of  dAa£i*ajrof,  that  is.  the 
depoulsour  and  driuer  awaye  of  all  euills. — 
VdaTs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  190. 

Depravate,  to  malign,  disparage. 

Whereat  the  rest,  in  depth  of  scorne  and 

hate, 
His  Diuine  Truth  with  taunts  doe  depravate. 

Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  7. 

Deprecatory,  deprecation. 

There  the  author  strutted  like  an  Hector, 
now  he  is  passive,  full  of  deprecatories  and 
apologetics. — North,  Examen,  p.  343. 

Depbe8SIVene88,  depression. 

To  all  his  ever -varying,  ever -recurring 
troubles,  moreover,  must  be  added  this  con- 
tinual one  of  ill-health,  and  its  concomitant 
depressiveness. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iii.  88. 

De  put  able,  fit  to  be  deputed. 

All  these  fitted  Baillie  to  be  a  leader  in 
General  Assemblies  and  conclaves,  a  man 
dejmtable  to  the  London  Parliament  and 
elsewhither. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  224. 

Deputation,  authority  to  shoot  game. 

The  squire  declared  if  she  would  give 
t'other  bout  of  old  Sir  Simon,  he  would  give 
the  game-keeper  his  deputation  the  next 
morning.  .  .  In  the  morning  Sophia  did  not 
fail  to  remind  him  of  his  engagement,  and 
his  attorney  was  immediately  sent  for,  and 
ordered  to  stop  any  further  proceedings  in 
the  action,  and  to  make  out  the  deputation. 
— Fielding,  Tom  Jones,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  v. 

He  .  .  had  inquired  about  the  manor; 
would  be  glad  of  the  deputation,  certainly, 
but  made  no  great  point  of  it ;  said  he  some- 
times took  out  a  gun,  but  never  killed. — 
Miss  Austen,  Persuasion,  ch.  iii. 

Deputize,  to  act  as  deputy.  This 
strange  word  appears  in  an  advertise- 
ment in  the  Church  Times,  April  18, 
1879:  "Organist  An  amateur  wishes 
to  deputize  in  return  for  practice/' 

Debangeable,  liable  to  derangement ; 

delicate. 

The  real  impediment  to  making  visits  is 
that  derangeable  health  which  belongs  to  old 
age. — Sydney  Smith,  Letters,  1843. 

Derat,  disorder.  See  quotation  s.  v. 
High  tide. 


DERBY 


(  179  )       DETESTAB1LITY 


So  amid  glitter  of  iUuminated  streets  and 
Champs  Blysees,  and  crackle  of  fireworks, 
and  glad  deray  has  the  first  National  Assem- 
bly vanished. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Bk.  V.  ch.  i. 

Derby.  N.  has  Derby-ale,  and  says 
that  it  seems  to  have  been  a  popular 
drink  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth.  It  con- 
tinued so  long  after.  Tom  Brown 
repeatedly  refers  to  it,  often  using 
Derby  or  Darby  by  itself  as  a  syno- 
nym for  ale. 

Can't  their  Darby  go  down  but  with  a 
tone,  nor  their  tobacco  smoak  without  the 
harmony  of  a  Cremona  fiddle? — Works,  ii. 
162. 

Derisionaby,  derisive.  There  was  a 
club  that  ate  a  calf  8  head  on  January 
30  in  ridicule  of  the  commemoration 
of  Charles  I.'s  death.  This  is  spoken 
of  as  "that  deririonary  festival"  (T. 
Brown,  Works,  ii.  215). 

Derivate,  derived. 

Ye  swear!    If  peril  of  your  lands  or  life 
Should  stand  between,  ye  swear  of  life  and 

land 
To  take  no  count ;  but  putting  trust  in  Him 
From  whom  the  rights  of  kings  are  derivate, 
In  its  own  blood  to  trample  treason  out. 

Taylor,  Edwin  the  Fair,  i.  7. 

Dern,  a  door  or  gate-post. 

I  jnst  put  my  eye  between  the  wall  and 
the  dern  of  the  gate,  and  I  saw  him  come  up 
to  the  back-door.  —  C.  Kingsley,  Westward 
Ho,  ch.  xiv. 

Dernier,  last ;  as  in  many  otber 
cases,  tliis  French  word  is  used  by 
North  as  though  it  were  English. 

After  the  dernier  proof  of  him  in  this 
manner  ...  he  was  dismissed.  —  North, 
Etamen,  p.  620. 

Dkrogant,  derogatory,  disrespectful. 

The  other  is  both  arrogant  in  man,  and 
deroyant  to  God.— Adams,  i.  12. 

Derogate  to,  derogate  from. 

All  this  fell  into  a  harsh  construction, 
derogating  much  to  the  Archbishop's  credit. 
-Haeket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  218. 

Derrick,  a  piece  of  timber  to  sustain 
a  pulley  for  raising  weights. 

I  chanced  to  see  a  year  ago  men  at  work 
on  the  substructure  of  a  house  in  Bowdoin 
Square,  in  Boston,  swinging  a  block  of 
granite  of  the  sixe  of  the  largest  of  the 
Stonehenge  columns  with  an  ordinary  der- 
rick.—Emer  sen,  Eng.  Traits,  ch.  xvi. 

Descendentalism,  lowering,  depre- 
ciation. 


With  all  this  Descendentalism,  he  continues 
a  Transcendentalism  no  less  superlative; 
whereby  if  on  the  one  hand  he  degrade 
man  below  most  animals,  except  those 
Jacketed  Gouda  cows,  he  on  the  other 
exalts  him  beyond  the  visible  heavens,  al- 
most to  an  equality  with  the  gods. — Carlyle f 
Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  I.  ch.  x. 

Deserveless,  undeserving. 

lake  to  a  bride,  come  forth,  my  book,  at  last, 
With  all  thy  richest  jewels  overcast ; 
Say,  if  there  be  'mongst  many  gems  here  one 
Deserveless  of  the  name  of  Paragon. 

Herrick,  Hesperide*,  p.  79. 

Desirous,  desirable.  H.  0.  v.  says, 
"  It  sometimes  seems  to  be  used  for 
desirable,"  but  gives  no  example. 

Bo  desirous  were  the  terrible  torments 
unto  Vincent,  as  a  most  pleasant  banquet. — 
Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  586. 

Despicability,  despicableness. 

Such  courage  we  indeed  esteem  an  exceed- 
ing small  matter,  capable  of  co-existing 
with  a  life  full  of  falsehood,  feebleness,  pol- 
troonery, and  despicability. — Carlyle,  Misc., 
in.  94. 

Despotist,  supporter  of  despotism. 

I  must  become  as  thorough  a  despotist  and 
imperialist  as  Strafford  himself. — C.  Kingsley 
{Life,  ii.  M). 

Despotocracy,  the  rule  of  despots. 

Despotocracy,  the  worst  institution  of  the 
middle  ages — the  leprosy  of  society — came 
over  the  water ;  the  slave  survived  the  priest, 
the  noble  the  king. — Theod.  Parker,  Works, 
v.  262. 

Destate,  to  divest  of  state  or  gran- 
deur. 

The  king  of  eternal  glory,  to  the  world's 
eye  destatiny  himself  (though  indeed  not  by 
putting  off  what  he  had,  but  by  putting  on 
what  he  had  not)  was  cast  down  for  us  that 
we  might  rise  up  by  him. — Adams,  i.  430. 

Detergkncy,  cleansing  or  purifying 

power. 

Bath  water  .  . .  possesses  that  milkines*, 
detergency,  and  middling  heat,  so  friendly 
adapted  to  weakened  animal  constitutions. — 
Defoe,  Tour  thro*  G.  Britain,  ii.  290. 

Determinateness,  resolvedness. 

His  determinateness  and  his  power  seemed 
to  make  allies  unnecessary. — Miss  Austen, 
Mansfield  Park,  cb.  xiv. 

Detestability,  odiousnes8. 

As  young  ladies  are  to  mankind  precisely 
the  most  delightful  in  those  years  [19 — 25], 
so  young  gentlemen  do  then  attain  their 
maximum  of  detestalnlity. — Carlyle,  Sartor 
Resartus,  Bk.  ii.  ch.  iv.  ' 

N  7 


DETESTANT  (  180  ) 


DEVILDOMS 


Detkstant,  a  detester. 

The  Prince  and  Buckingham  were  ever 

Protestants ;  those  their  opposite*  you  know 

not  what  to  term  them,  unless  Attestants 

of  the  Romish  idolatry.  —  Hacket,  life  of 

Williams,  i.  121. 

Detiny,  detention,  holding  back  what 
is  due.    See  L.  s.  v.  detinue. 

There  are  that  will  restore  some,  but  not 
all ;  to  this  they  have  posse,  but  no  vdle  ;  let 
the  creditors  be  content  with  one  of  four. 
But  this  little  detiny  is  great  iniquity.— 
Adams,  i.  145. 

Dkvastitation,  destruction,   laying 

waste. 

Wherefore  followed  a  pitiful  devastation 
of  Churches  and  church-buildings  in  all 
parts  of  the  realm. — Heylin,  Hist,  of  the 
Presbyterians,  p.  164. 

De vaunt,  to  boast  The  Prior  of 
Northampton  in  his  surrender  to  Henry 
VIII.  confesses  that  he  and  his  fellows 
had  done  much 

Ta  the  most  notable  slaunder  of  Christ's 
holy  evangely,  which  in  the  forme  of  our 
professyon,  we  did  ostentate  and  openly 
devaunt  to  keep  moost  exactly. — Fuller,  Ch. 
Hist.,  vi.  p.  320. 

Deviate,  to  turn  out  of  the  way,  to 
mislead. 

A  wise  man  ought  not  so  much  to  give 
the  reins  to  human  passions  as  to  let  them 
deviate  him  from  the  right  path. — Cotton, 
Montaigne,  ch.  xxxv. 

Devil,  is  much  used  as  an  expletive. 
The  devil  he  is  1  is  an  exclamation  of 
surprise  or  alarm ;  the  devil  of,  or  the 
devil  a  bit  —  nothing,  or  not  at  all. 

The  Deuill  of  the  one  chare  of  good  werke 
they  doen. — UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p. 
132. 
Mess.  My  lord,  Musgrove  is  at  hand. 
K.  James.  Who  ?  Musgrove  ?  the  devil  he 
is  !  Come,  my  horse  I — Green,  Geo.-A-Greene, 
p.  257. 

Why  then,  for  fear,  the  devil  a  bit  for  love, 
I'll  tell  you,  sir. 

Lord  Digby,  Elvira,  iv.  1. 

Within.  Sir  Giles,  here's  your  niece. 
Hot.  My  niece !  the  devil  she  is  ! 

Love  will  find  out  the  way,  Act  IV. 

We  have  an  English  expression, "  The  Devil 
he  doth  it,  the  Devil  he  hath  it,"  where  the 
addition  of  Devil  amounteth  only  to  a  strong 
denial,  equivalent  to, **  He  doth  it  not,  he  hath 
it  not."  My  opinion  is,  if  the  phrase  took 
not  the  original  form,  yet  it  is  applyable  to 
our  common  and  causeless  accusing  of  Satan 
with  our  own  faults,  charging  nim  with 
thise  temptations  wherein  we  ourselves  are 
always  chiefly,  and  sometimes  solely,  guilty. 
—Fuller,  Worthies,' Gloucestershire. 


Devil.  To  play  the  devil.  L.  gives 
this  phrase,  but  no  example. 

Thus  far,  my  lords,  we  trained  have  our  camp 

For  to  encounter  haughty  Arragon, 

Who  with  a  mighty  power  of  straggling 

mates 
Hath  traitorously  assailed  this  our  land, 
And  burning  towns,  and  sacking  cities  fair, 
Doth  play  the  devil  wheresome'er  he  comes. 

Greene,  Alphonsus,  Act  I. 

Whether,  sir,  you  did  not  state  upon  the 
hustings,  that  it  was  your  firm  and  deter- 
mined intention  to  oppose  everything  pro- 
posed, . . .  and,  in  short,  in  your  own  memor- 
able words,  to  play  the  very  devil  with 
everything  and  everybody  ?— Dickens,  Nicho- 
las Nickleby,  oh.  xvi. 

Devil.  Scott,  in  a  note  to  the  first 
extract,  says,  "  The  villanous  character 
given  by  history  to  the  celebrated 
Goodwin,  Earl  of  Kent,  in  the  time  of 
Edward  the  Confessor,  occasioned  this 
proverb."    Great  of  course  =  intimate. 

I  was  well  satisfy 'd,  gave  him  his  sword, 
and  we  became  as  great  friends  as  the  Devil 
and  the  Earl  of  Kent.—T.  Brown,  Works,  ii. 
194. 

Lady  8m.  Miss,  I  hear  that  you  and  Lady 
Couplers  are  as  great  as  cup  and  can. 

Lady  Ans.  Ay,  as  great  as  the  Devil  and 
the  Earl  of  Kent.— Swift,  Polite  Conversation 
(Conv.  iii.). 

Devil.  When  the  devil  is  blind  = 
never. 

They  will  bring  it  [abolition  of  beggars] 
when  the  devil  is  blind  (id  fiet  ad  Calendas 
Gracas). — Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  216. 

Nev.  Fll  make  you  a  fine  present  one  of 
these  days. 

Miss.  Ay»  when  the  Devil  is  blind,  and  his 
eyes  are  not  sore  yet. 

Nev.  No,  Miss,  111  send  it  you  to-morrow. 

Miss.  Well,  well,  to-morrow's  a  new  day, 
but  I  suppose  you  mean  to-morrow  come 
never. — 'Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  i.). 

Devil  and  nine-pence.    See  extract. 

The  devil  and  nine-pence  go  with  her,  that's 
money  and  company,  according  to  the  laud- 
able adage  of  the  sage  mobility. — T.  Brown, 
Works,  iii.  245. 

Devil-dodger,  a  ranting  preacher. 

These  devil-dodgers  happened  to  be  so  very 

Powerful  (that  is,  noisy)  that  they  soon  sent 
ohn  home,  crying  out,  ne  should  be  damn'd. 
— Life  of  J.  Lacktngton,  Letter  vi. 

Devildoms,  dealings  with  the  devil. 

Ill  defy  you  to  name  us  a  man  half  so 
famous 

For  devildoms — Sir,  it's  the  great  Nostra- 
damus. 

Jngoldsby  Legends  (Lord  of  Thoulouse). 


DE  VI LESS 


(  i«i  ) 


DEVILTRY 


Deviless,  she  devil. 

There  was  not  angel,  man,  devil,  nor 
deviless  upon  the  place. — Urquharfs  Rabelais, 
Bk.  III.  ch.  xxvii. 

Though  we  should  abominate  each  other 
ten  times  worse  than  so  many  devils  and 
dtvilesses,  we  should  nevertheless,  my  dear 
creatures,  be  all  courtesy  and  kindness. — 
Sterne,  TV.  Shandy,  ii.  188. 

Devilet,  imp ;  little  devil. 

And  pray  now  what  were  these  devilet s  call'd? 
These  three  little  fiends  so  gay? 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (The  Truants). 

Devilkin,  little  devil. 

No  wonder  that  a  Beelzebub  has  his  devil- 
Hw  to  attend  his  call.  —  Richardson,  CI. 
Harlowe,  vi.  14. 

Blue  Artillery  men,  little  powder-tfevt'/Jbin*, 
plying  their  hell-trade  there  through  the  not 
ambrosial  night. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  IIL 
Bk.  IV.  ch.  v. 

Devil  looking  over  Lincoln.  See 
quotation  from  Fuller,  the  first  part  of 
which  is  from  the  Oxfordshire  Proverbs, 
and  the  latter,  beginning  "The  Devil 
b  the  map,"  &c,  from  those  of  Lin- 
colnshire. 

Than  wold  ye  looke  ouer  me  with  stomoke 

swolne 
Like  as  the  diuel  lookt  ouer  Lincoln*. 

Heywood,  Dial.,  Pt.  II.  ch.  ix. 
(Spenser  Soc.,  p.  75). 

Some  filch  the  original  of  this  proverb 
from  a  stone  picture  of  the  Devil,  which 
doth  (or  lately  did)  overlook  Lincoln  College. 
Sorely  the  architect  intended  it  no  further 
than  for  an  ordinary  antick,  though  behold- 
ers have  since  applied  those  ugly  looks  to 
envious  persons,  repining  at  the  prosperity 
of  their  neighbours,  and  jealous  to  be  over- 
topt  by  their  vicinity.  .  .  It  is  conceived  of 
more  antiquity  than  the  fore  -  mentioned 
College,  though  the  secondary  sense  thereof 
lighted  not  unhappily,  and  that  it  related 
originally  to  the  Cathedral  Church  in  Lin- 
cob.  .  .  .  The  Devil  is  the  map  of  malice, 
sad  his  envy  (as  God's  mercy)  is  over  all  his 
works.  It  gneves  him  whatever  is  given  to 
God,  crying  out  with  that  flesh  devil,  Ut  quid 
A*'  perditw  ?  what  needs  this  waste  ?  On 
which  account  he  is  supposed  to  have  over- 
looked this  church  when  first  finished  with  a 
torve  and  tetrick  countenance,  as  maligning 
men's  costly  devotion. — Fuller,  Worthies. 

Heatbcote  himself, and  such  large-acred  men, 
Lord*  of  fat  Kv'sham,  or  of  Lincoln  fen, 
Buy  every  stick  of  wood  that  lends  them 

heat, 
Bny  every  pullet  they  afford  to  eat; 
Yet  these  are  wights  who  fondly  call  their 

own 
Half  that  the  Devil  overlooks  from  Lincoln 

torn. 

rope,  Imit.  of  Horace,  Epist.  II.  ii.  246. 


Lord  Sp.  Has  your  ladyship  seen  the 
dutchess  since  your  falling  out? 

Lady  Sm.  Never,  my  lord,  but  once  at  a 
visit;  and  she  looked  at  me  as  the  Devil 
looked  over  Lincoln. — Swift,  Polite  Conversa- 
tion (Conv.  i.). 

Devil-may-care,  reckless.  Lord  Lyt- 
ton  always  writes  it  devil  -  me  -  care, 
which  comes  to  the  same  meaning  by  a 
different  road. 

Toby  Crackit,  seeming  to  abandon  as 
hopeless  any  further  effort  to  maintain  his 
usual  devil  -  may  -  care  swagger,  turned  to 
Chitling  and  said,  "When  was  Fagin  took 
then?  "— Dickens,  Oliver  Twist,  ch.  1. 

He  had  blue  eyes,  a  blonde  peruke,  a  care- 
less profligate  smile,  and  looked  altogether 
as  devil-me-care,  rakehelly,  handsome,  good- 
for-nought  as  ever  swore  at  a  drawer. — 
Lytton,  What  will  he  do  with  it?  Bk.  II. 
ch.  ii. 

Devil's  books,  cards.  Bailey,  in  his 
translation  of  Erasmus  8  Colloquies,  p. 
181,  calls  dice  "the  devil's  bones/' 
There  is  no  corresponding  expression 
in  the  original. 

The  ladies  there  must  needs  be  rooks, 
For  cards  we  know  are  Pluto's  books. 

Swift,  Death  and  Daphne. 

The  ladies  and  Tom  Gosling  were  propos- 
ing a  narty  at  quadrille,  but  he  refused  to 
make  one.  Damn  your  cards,  said  he,  they 
are  the  DeviVs  hooks. — Ibid.,  Polite  Conversa- 
tion (Conv.  iii.). 

Devil's  DD8T.     The  teazing  machine 

through  which  cotton  or  wool  is  passed 

to  prepare  it  for  carding  is  called  a 

devil.      The  refuse  thus   torn  out  is 

worked  sometimes    into   cheap  cloth, 

hence  called  deviCs  dust. 

Does  it  beseem  thee  to  weave  cloth  of 
devil's  dust  instead  of  true  wool,  and  cut  and 
sew  it  as  if  thou  wert  not  a  tailor,  but  the 
fraction  of  a  very  tailor? — Carlyle,  Jfisc,  iv. 
239. 

Devil's  coach-horse.  Mr.  Black- 
more  (note  in  loc.)  says,  "The  cock- 
tailed  beetle  has  earned  this  name  in 
England."  H.  has  "  Devil's  cow,  a  kind 
of  beetle  (Somerset)." 

As  this  atrocious  tale  of  his  turned  up 
joint  by  joint  before  her,  like  a  devil's  coach- 
horse,  mother  was  too  much  amazed  to  do 
any  more  than  look  at  him,  as  if  the  earth 
must  open. — Blackmore,  Loma  Doone,  ch.  iv. 

Deviltry,  diabolical  act;  devilry, 
which  is  the  more  usual  form. 

The  rustics  beholding  crossed  themselves 
and  suspected  deviltries. — Reade,  Cloister  and 
Hearth,  ch.  xcv. 


DEVIL  UPON  DUN     (  182  ) 


DEWLE 


Devil  upon  Dcn,  an  expression  signi- 
fying that  matters  are  worse  and  worse. 
Dun  was  a  common  name  for  a  horse ; 
hence  the  devil  on  horseback  =  the 
devil  or  mischief  with  increased  powers 
of  activity.  The  phrase  in  the  extract 
is  one  of  Urquhart1  s  many  enlargements 
on  the  original. 

Poor  Panurge  began  to  cry  and  howl  worse 
than  ever.  "  Babillebabou,  said  he,  shrug- 
ging up  his  shoulders,  quivering  all  over  with 
fear, "  there  will  be  the  devil  upon  dun.  This 
is  a  worse  business  than  that  the  other  day." 
— Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  xxxui. 

Devise,  to  imagine,  suppose. 

He deviseth  first  that  this  Brutus 

was  a  Consul  of  Rome. — Holland's  Camden, 
p.  8. 

Devitation,  a  warning  off ;  the  oppo- 
site of  invitation. 

If  there  be  any  here  that .  . .  will  venture 
himself  a  guest  at  the  devil's  banquet, 
raaugre  all  devitation,  let  him  stay  and  hear 
the  reckoning. — Adams,  i.  177. 

Devocate,  to  call  away  from,  and  so, 
to  rob. 

The  Commons  of  you  doo  complain, 
From  them  you  devocate. 

Preston,  K.  Gambises  (Hawkins, 
Eng.  Dr.,  i.  209). 

Devonshire,  To  Devonshire  land. 
See  extract. 

To  Devonshire  land  is  to  pare  off  the  sur- 
face or  top-turffe  thereof,  then  lay  it  together 
in  heaps  and  burn  it,  which  ashes  are  a 
marvaifous  improvement  to  battle  barren 
ground  .  .  .  An  husbandry  which,  wherever 
used,  retains  the  name  of  the  place  where  it 
was  first  invented,  it  being  usual  to  Devon- 
shire land  in  Dorsetshire,  and  in  other 
counties. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Devon  (i.  278). 

Devoterer,  adulterer.  In  some  edi- 
tions of  Becon  advouterer  is  the  word 
used. 

He  that  breaketh  wedlock  with  his  neigh- 
bour's wife  let  him  be  slain,  both  the  devoterer 
and  the  advouteress. — Becon,  i.  450. 

Devotionair,  a  devotee. 

The  Lord  Chief  Justice  Hales,  a  profound 
common  lawyer,  and  both  devotionair  and 
moralist,affected  natural  philosophy. — North, 
Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  264. 

Devotionals,  forms  of  devotion. 

Nor  have  they  had  either  more  cause  for, 
or  better  success  in,  their  disputing*  against 
the  devotionals  of  the  Church  of  England. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  87. 

Devotions,  objects  of  devotion.  Cf. 
Acts  xvii.  23,  uAs  I  passed  by  and 


beheld  your  devotions"  (etpdouara)  (see 

Trench  on  Auth.  Ver.  of  N.  T.,  p.  41). 

Dametas  began  to  speak  his  loud  voice,  to 
look  big,  .  .  .  swearing  by  no  mean  devotions 
that  the  walls  should  not  keep  the  coward 
from  him. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  277. 

Devour,  to  overcome:  a  Gallicism. 
So  perhaps  the  phrase  devour  distance 
=  to  make  little  of  it ;  to  be  intrusive 
or  familiar. 

He  that  setteth  forth  for  the  goal,  if  he 
will  obtain,  must  resolve  to  devour  all  diffi- 
culties, and  to  run  it  out. — Sanderson,i.  413. 

Wat  was  woundly  angry  with  Sir  John 
Newton,  Knight  (Sword-bearer  to  the  King 
then  in  presence),  for  devouring  his  distance, 
and  not  making  his  approaches  mannerly 
enough  unto  him. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Suffolk 
(ii.  346). 

Devout.  L.  has  this  as  meaning- 
devotee;  here,  however,  it  signifies 
devotion. 

This  is  the  substance  of  his  first  section 
till  we  come  to  the  devout  of  it,  modelled 
into  the  form  of  a  private  psalter. — Milton, 
Eikonoklastes,  ch.  i. 

Dewbeaters,  according  to  H.  oiled 
shoes,  but  in  Hacket  early  walkers. 

It  is  not  equity  at  lust  and  pleasure  that  is 
moved  for,  but  equity  according  to  decrees 
ind  precedents  foregoing,  as  the  dew-beaters 
have  trod  their  way  for  those  that  come 
after  them. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  57. 

De-Witt,  to  lynch.  John  De  Witt, 
Grand  Pensionary  of  Holland,  and  his 
brother  Cornelius,  were  massacred  by 
the  mob  at  Amsterdam  in  1672. 

It  is  a  wonder  the  English  nation  .  .  have 
not  in  their  fury  De-Witted  some  of  these 
men  who  have  brought  all  this  upon  us. 
And  I  must  tell  them  that  the  crimes  of  the 
two  unhappy  brothers  in  Holland  (which 
gave  rise  to  that  word)  were  not  fully  so 
great  as  some  of  theirs. — Modest  Enquiry 
into  the  Present  Disasters,  1690  (Life  of  Ken, 
p.  561). 

He  barbarously  endeavours  to  raise  in  the 
whole  English  nation  such  a  fury  as  may  end 
in  De-  Witting  us  (a  bloody  word  but  too  well 
understood).— Declaration  of  Bps.  in  answer 
to  Modest  Enquiry,  1690  (Ibid.  p.  566). 

To  her  I  leave  thee,  gloomy  peer, 
Think  on  thy  crimes  committed  ; 

Repent,  and  be  for  once  sincere, 
Thou  ne'er  wilt  be  De-  Witted. 

Prior,  The  Viceroy. 

Dewle,  lamentation. 

But  when  I  saw  no  end  that  could  apart 
The  deadly  dewle  which  she  so  sore  did 
make, 


DEW-RAKE 


(     183     ) 


DICKINS 


With  doleful  voice  then  thus  to  her  I 

*  SackvilU,  The  Induction,  st.  14. 

Dew-bake,  rake  used  for  the  surface 
of  a  lawn,  on  which  of  course  the  dew 
lies,  to  take  off  the  daisies,  &c.  (?). 

like  deto-rakes  and  harrowes  armed  with 
so  many  teeth,  that  none  great  or  small 
should  escape  them. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  381. 

Dewtrt,  the  Datura  plant,  which  has 

narcotic  qualities. 

Make  leeches  and  their  punks  with  dewtry 
Commit  phantastical  advowtry. 

Hudibras,  III.  i.  319. 

Dey- woman,  farm  or  dairy  woman. 

The  dey  or  farm-woman  entered  with  her 
pitchers  to  deliver  the  milk  for  the  family. — 
Scott,  Fair  Maid  of  Perth,  ii.  288. 

Diabolabch,  ruler  of  devils. 

Supposing,  however,  this  Satan  to  he  meant 
of  a  real  angel,  there  will  he  no  need  to  ex- 
pound it  of  the  Diabolarch. — J.  Oxlee,  Con- 
futation of  the  Diabolarchy,  p.  9. 

Diabolarch y,  rule  of  the  devil. 

The  final  and  concluding  argument  .  .  . 
against  the  received  dogma  of  the  DiaboU 
archy. — J.  Oxlee,  Confutation  of  the  DiaboU 
archy,  p.  30. 

Dialect,  to  speak  a  dialect 

By  corruption  of  speech  they  false  dialect 
and  misse-sound  it.— Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  166). 

Dial  of  Alexander.  The  conquests 
of  Alexander  the  Great  always  tended 
eastward  ;  hence,  perhaps,  the  expres- 
sion in  the  extract. 

I  conclude  it  [the  morning"!  is  in  itselfe  a 
blessed  season,  a  dispensing  of  the  first  dark- 
nesse,  and  the  diall  of  Alexander. — Breton, 
Fantastickes  (Morning). 

Diamantiferous,  diamond-bearing  or 
producing.  Diamondiferous,  it  would 
seem,  has  been  hazarded.  The  Aca- 
demy is  quoting  from  the  North  China 
Herald. 

Men  with  thick  straw  shoes  go  on  walking 
about  in  the  diamantiferous  sands  of  the 
valleys. — Academy,  Sept.  14,  1878. 

One  of  the  latest  creations  of  pretentious 
sciolism  which  I  have  noticed  is  diamondifer- 
ous, a  term  applied  to  certain  tracts  of  coun- 
try in  South  Africa.  Adamantiferous,  ety- 
mological ly  correct,  would  never  answer; 
but  all  except  pedants  or  affectatiooists  would 
be  satisfied  with  diamond-producing. — Dr. 
Hall,  Modern  Eng.,  p.  177. 

Diaphanal,  transparent :  diaphanous 
is  more  common. 


If  in  a  three-square  glasse  as  thicke,  as  cleere, 
(Being  but  dark  earth,  though  made  <tfa- 
phanall) 
Beauties  diuine  that  rauish  sence  appeare, 

Making  the  soule  with  joy  in  trance  to  fall, 
What  then,  my  soule,  shalt  thou  in  Heau'n 
behold, 
In  that  cleare  mirror  of  the  Trinity  ? 

Davits,  Wittes  Pilgrimage,  p.  21. 

To  thee  my  whole  man  is  dyaphanall, 
The  raies  of  whose  witt's  eyes  pierce  through 
mee  quite. — Ibid.  p.  38. 

Diapry,  variegated. 
The  diapry  mansions  where  man-kinde  doth 

trade 
Were  built  in  six  dayes. 

Sylvester,  The  Handy  Crafts,  654. 

They  ly  neerer  the  diapry  verges 
Of  tear-bridge  Tigris  swallow-swifter  surges. 

Ibid.,  The  Colonies,  428. 

Diavolarias,  devilries  ;  North  applies 
it  to  the  effigy-burnings  of  Jesuits  by 
the  mob. 

Thus  ended  these  diavolarias  never  to  ap- 
pear again  till  like  mischiefs  are  hatching.— 
North,  Examen,  p.  580. 

Dicacity,  licence  in  speech.  R.  says 
the  word  was  coined  by  Byrom,  and  L.'s 
quotation  from  Sp.  Quixote  does  not 
necessarily  contradict  this,  but  the  sub- 
joined passage  is  earlier  by  a  good 
many  years  than  Byrom,  and  the  word 
is  in  Cockeram's  Eng.  Did.,  1632,  and 
is  defined  "  much  babbling  or  scolding, 
scoffing  or  prating." 

Lucilius,  a  centurion  in  Tacitus  Annal.,lib. 
i.,  had  a  scornful  name  given  him  by  the 
military  dicacity  of  his  own  company. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  'Williams,  ii.  133. 

Dickey.    If  8  all  dickey  with  him  = 
it's  all  over  with  him  (slang). 
"Rs  all  dickey  with  poor  Father  Dick ;  he's 

no  more. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  {Brothers  of  Birchington). 

Dickky-birds,  little  birds. 

'Twas,  I  know,  in  the  spring-time  when  Na- 
ture looks  gay, 

As  the  poet  observes,  and  on  tree-top  and 
spray 

The  dear  little  dickey-birds  carol  away. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (Knight  awl  Lady.) 
Gladly  would  I  throw  up  history  to  think 

of  nothing  but  dickey-birds,  but  it  must  not 

be  yet. — C.  Kingsley  (Life,  ii.  41). 

DlCKlNS.     See  quotation. 

Cook.  What  for  the  bride-cake,  Gnotho  ? 
Gnotho.  Let  it  be  mouldy  now  'tis  out  of 
season, 
Let  it  grow  out  of  date,  currant,  and  reason  ; 
Let  it  be  chipt  and  chopt,  and  giveu  to 
chickens, 


DICK'S  HATBAND     (  184  )  DIFFRACTION 


No  more  is  got  by  that  than  William  Dickins 
Got  by  his  wooden  dishes. 

Massinger,  Old  Law,  Act  V. 
Who  was  William  Dickins,  whose  wooden 
dishes  were  sold  so  badly,  that  when  any  one 
lost  by  the  sale  of  his  wares,  the  said  Dickins 
and  his  dishes  were  brought  up  in  scornful 
comparison  ?—Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cxxv. 

Dick's  hatband.     See  quotation. 

Who  was  that  other  Dick  who  wore  so 
queer  a  hatband  that  it  has  ever  since  served 
as  a  standing  comparison  for  all  queer 
things?  .  .  .  Nothing,  said  the  Doctor,  is 
remembered  of  him  now,  except  that  he  was 
familiarly  called  Dick,  and  that  his  queer 
hatband  went  nine  times  round,  and  would 
not  tie. — Souther/,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cxxv. 

Dicky,  a  donkey. 

But  now,  as  at  some  nobler  places, 
Amongst  the  leaders  'twas  decreed 

Time  to  begin  the  Dicky  races, 
More  famed  for  laughter  than  for  speed. 
Bloomfield,  Richard  and  Kate, 

DlCT,  saying,  report. 

What,  the  old  diet  was  true  after  all  ? — 
Meade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  xxxti. 

Dictery,  a  saying. 

I  did  heap  up  all  the  dicteries  I  could 
against  women,  but  now  recant. — Burton, 
Anatomy,  584. 

Dictorial,  dictatorial.  I  should  have 
thought  this  a  misprint,  but  it  occurs 
twice  in  Clarissa  narlowe,  though  I 
have  not  the  reference  to  the  first  pas- 
sage, as  I  supposed  it  to  be  only  a 
printer's  error. 

Sally  was  laying  out  the  law,  and  prating 
in  her  usual  dictorial  manner. — Richardson, 
CI.  Harlowe,  vi.  107. 

Didder,  to  shake.     See  H. 

He  did  cast  a  squinting  look  upon  Goats- 
nose  diddering  and  shivering  his  chaps. — 
Urauhart,  Rabelais,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xx. 

Diddle  -  daddle,  nonsense,  fiddle- 
faddle. 

Mrs.  Thrale.  Oh,  apropos,  now  you  have  a 
new  edition  coming  out,  why  should  you  not 
put  your  name  to  it? 

Miss  Burney.  O,  ma'am,  I  would  not  for 
the  world. 

Mrs.  T.  And  why  not  ?  come  let  us  have 
done  now  with  all  this  diddle-daddle. — Mad. 
D'Arblay,  Diary,  i.  108. 

Diddledomks,  trifles,  kickshaws  ? 

When  thou  find  est  a  goose  for  thy  diet 
feede  him  with  a  dish  of  diddledomes,  for  I 
have  done  with  thee. — Breton,  Dreamt  of 
Strange  Effects,  p.  17. 

Didle,  to  dredge. 


I  should  despair  of  patience  to  didle  in 
their  mud  for  pearl-muscles. —  W.  Taylor, 
1803  (Robberdfs  Memoirs,  i.  471). 

Die-away,  languishing. 

As  a  girl  she  had  been  ...  so  romantic, 
with  such  a  soft,  sweet,  die-away  voice. — Miss 
Edgeworth,  Helen,  ch.  xix. 

Pray  do  not  give  us  any  more  of  those  die- 
away  Italian  airs. — C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke, 
ch.  xiv. 

Diet.    See  quotation. 

I  din'd  at  the  Comptroller's  [of  the  House- 
hold! with  the  Earle  of  Oxford  and  Mr.  Ash- 
burnham  ;  it  was  said  it  should  be  the  last  of 
the  public  diets  or  tables  at  Court,  it  being 
determined  to  put  down  the  old  hospitality, 
at  which  was  great  murmuring,  considering 
his  Majesties  vast  revenue  and  the  plenty  of 
the  nation. — Evelyn,  Diary,  Aug.  20, 1663. 

Dietic,  a  system  of  diet. 

All  sudden  skinning  over  or  closing  of  the 
orifices,  by  which  those  sharp  humours  are 
obstructed,  but  not  purged,  is  very  dangerous 
and  diffusive  of  the  mischief,  making  the 
source  of  the  malignity  to  flow  higher,  if  it 
be  not  drawn  away  by  . . .  gentle  dietics  or 
healing  applications. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  397. 

Died-gard,  the  oath,  "  So  help  me 
God :  "  at  least  this  I  suppose  to  be  the 
meaning.  "  Beck  "  perhups  signifies 
tacit  assent  notified  by  an  inclination  of 
the  head. 

His  master  Harding  could  not  produce  so 
much  as  a  probability  of  any  vow  anciently 
required  or  undertaken,  whether  by  beck  or 
Dieu-gard.—Bp.  Hall,  Works,  ix.  278. 

Diffamously,  injuriously ;  defama- 
torily.  The  speaker  in  the  extract  is 
Ralph  Allerton  when  on  his  trial  before 
Bonner,  1557. 

Whereupon  should  your  lordship  gather  or 
say  of  me  so  diffamously  ? — 3 fait /and  on  Re- 
formation, p.  556. 

Difference,  a  part  or  division. 

There  bee  of  times  three  differences :  the 
first  from  the  creation  of  man  to  the  Floud 
or  Deluge, .  .  .  the  second  from  the  Floud  to 
the  first  Olympias. .  . . — Holland's  Camden, 
p.  34. 

Diffraction,  a  breaking  in  pieces: 
the  word  is  applied  to  the  modifications 
which  light  undergoes  when  turned 
from  its  straight  course  by  passing  by 
the  edge  of  an  opaque  body. 

It  was  the  ring  of  Necessity  whereby  we 
are  all  begirt ;  happy  he  for  whom  a  kind 
heavenly  Sun  brightens  it  into  a  ring  of  Duty, 
and  plays  round  it  with  beautiful  prismatic 
diffractions,  yet  ever,  as  basis  and  as  bourne 


DIGGINGS 


(  i*5  ) 


DIMMERING 


for  oar  whole  being,  it  is  there. — Carlyle, 
Sat-tor  Resartus,  Bk.  II.  ch.  ii. 

Diggings,  used  for  any  place,  from  a 
continent  to  a  man's  lodgings.  The 
slung  Diet,  says,  "  probably  imported 
'from  California  or  Australia  with  refer- 
ence to  the  gold  diggings ; "  but  gold 
was  discovered  in  the  first  of  these 
places  in  1847,  and  in  the  second  in 
1851,  while  the  date  of  the  extract  is 
1843.  The  expression,  however,  very 
likely  came  from  some  mines,  or  per- 
haps from  settlers  digging  and  excavat- 
ing in  a  new  country.  It  seems  to  be 
of  American  origin,  and  an  American 
is  supposed  to  be  the  speaker  in  the 
extract. 

She  won't  be  taken  with  a  cold  chill  when 
she  realises  what  is  being  done  in  these  dig- 
<pags  ? — Dickens,  M.  Chuzzlewit,  ch.  xxL 

Dightly,  handsomely. 

Though  yon  depart  with  grief  from  or- 
chards full  of  fruits,  grounds  full  stocked, 
houses  dightly  furnished,  purses  richly  stuffed, 
from  mnsic,  wine,  junkets,  sports,  yet  go,  you 
must  go,  every  man  to  his  own  home. — 
Adams,  i.  27. 

Digital,  a  finger. 

Nor,  be  it  here  observed,  was  Mr.  Losely 
one  of  those  beauish  brigands  who  wear 
tawdry  scarfs  over  soiled  linen,  and  paste 
riugs  upon  unwashed  digitals. — Lytton,  What 
will  he  do  with  it  ?  Bk.  IV.  ch.  ix. 

Digitize,  to  finger. 

None  but  the  devil,  besides  yourself,  could 
have  digitized  a  pen  after  so  scurrilous  a 
manner. —  T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  211. 

Digress,  a  digression. 

Nor  let  any  censure  this  a  digress  from  my 
history.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist^  XI.  x.  43. 

Dilaniation,  a  tearing  in  pieces. 

Blessed  Ignatius  could  profess  to  challenge 
and  provoke  the  furious  lions  to  his  dilania- 
tion.—Pp.  Hall,  Works,  vi.  341. 

Dilatory,  delay. 

Criminals  of  that  sort  should  not  have  any 
assistance  in  matters  of  fact,  but  defend 
upon  plain  truth  which  they  know  beet, 
without  any  dilatories,  arts,  or  evasions. — 
North,  Life  of  Lord  Gvilford,  i.  285. 

Causes  of  this  nature  are  brought  before 
them  by  juries  or  informers,  and  (bating  some 
dilatories  in  form,  and  for  reasons  to  be  given) 
they  have  no  means  to  connive  or  stop  pro- 
ceedings at  all. — lhid.,Examen,  p.  444. 

Dilkmmakd,  placed  in  a  dilemma. 

Like  a  novel-hero  dilemma?  d,  I  made  up  my 
mind  to  be  ••  guided  by  circumstances."—  & 
A.  Pot,  Marginalia,  Introd. 


Dilettantish.  One  fond  of  art,  &c. , 
or  practising  it,  but  not  following  it  as 
a  profession,  is  called  a  dilettante  (Ital.). 
Dilettantish  therefore  meuns  very  much 
the  same  as  the  word  with  which  it  is 
coupled  in  the  extract. 

You  are  dilettantish  and  amateurish. — G. 
Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch.  xix. 

Diligence,  a  sort  of  stage  coach:  the 
name  is  common  in  France,  but  seems 
to  have  obtained  in  England  also  at  one 
time. 

If  it  were  possible  to  send  me  a  line  by  the 
diliuence  to  Brighton,  how  grateful  I  should 
be  for  such  an  indulgence  \—Mad.  D'Arblay, 
Diary,  i.  401  (1780). 

Now  Madam  says  (and  what  she  says  must 

still 
Deserve  attention,  say  she  what  she  will) 
That  what  we  call  the  diligence,  be-case 
It  goes  to  Londou  with  a  swifter  pace. 
Would  better  suit  the  carriage  of  your  gift, 
Beturning  downward  with  a  pace  as  swift. 

Cowper,  To  Mrs.  Newton. 

The  driver  of  the  diligence  from  Darlir  gton 
to  Durham  happened  to  be  much  inebriated. 
— Life  of  J.  Lackington,  Letter  xliv. 

Dilly-dally,  to  hesitate;  also  hesi- 
tating. 

What  you  do,  sir,  do ;  don't  stand  dilly- 
dallying.— Richardson,  Pamela,  i.  275. 

If  I  had  suffered  her  to  stand  shilly-shally, 
dilly-dally,  you  might  not  have  had  that 
honour  yet  awhile;  I  was  forced  to  use  a 
little  fatherly  authority  to  bring  her  to. — 
Fielding,  Tom  Jones,  Bk.  XVIII.  ch.  xii. 

I  knew  it  could  not  last— knew  she'd  dilly- 
dally with  Clary  till  he  would  turn  upon  bis 
heel  and  leave  her  there. — Miss  Edgeworth, 
Belinda,  ch.  xvii. 

Dilogical,  having  a  double  meaning. 

Some  of  the  subtler  have  delivered  their 
opinions  in  such  spurious,  enigmatical,  dilo- 
gical terms  as  the  devil  gave  his  oracles. — 
Adams,  i.  10. 

Dimension,  to  measure  or  space  out. 

I  propose  to  break  and  enliven  it  by  com- 
partments in  colours,  according  to  the  en- 
closed sketch,  which  you  must  adjust  and 
dimension. —  Walpole,  Letters,  i.  335  (1754). 

Dimensions.  A  death  of  dimensions 
=  a  protracted  death. 

In  pain  we  know  the  only  comfort  of  gravis 
is  brevis;  if  we  be  in  it,  to  be  quickly  out  of 
it.  This  the  Cross  hath  not,  but  is  wors  pro- 
lira,  a  death  of  dimensions,  a  death  long  in 
dying. — Andrewes,  Sermons,  ii.  170. 

Dimmering,  growing  dimmer. 

He  takes  an  affecting  farewell  of  the  sur- 
rounding scenery  of  nature,  on  which  his 


DIMMY 


(  186  ) 


DISALTERN 


dimmer  iw  eyes  are  preparing  to  close  for 
ever. —  Jr.  Taylor ',  Survey  of  Germ.  Poetry,  i. 
901. 

Dim  my,  dim. 

You  ditnmy  clouds,  which  well  employ  your 

staining 
This  chearful  Air  with  your  obscured  chear, 
Witness  your  woful  tears  with  daily  raining. 

/Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  441. 

Dimplement,  dimpling. 

Thou  sitting  alone  at  the  glass, 
Remarking  the  bloom  gone  away, 
Where  the  smile  in  its  dimplement  was. 
Mrs.  Browning,  A  Foist  Step. 

Ding,  to  beat  into  a  person ;  to  con* 
stantly  reiterate. 

If  I'm  to  have  any  {rood,  let  it  come  of 
itself;  not  to  keep  dinging  it,  dinging  it  into 
one  so.— -Goldsmith,  She  Stoops  to  Conquer, 
Act  II. 

Ding-dong,  to  ring. 

First  dinner  bell  rang  out  its  euphonious 

clang 
At  five — folks  kept  early  hours  then— and 

the  last 
Ding-donged,  as  it  ever  was  wont,  at  half -past. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  {Knight  and  Lady). 

Dingily,  forcibly,  as  one  that  dings  a 
thing  down. 

These  be  so  manifest,  so  plain,  and  do  con- 
fute so  dingily  the  sentence  and  saying  of 
Floribell.— Philpot,  p.  370. 

Dinging,  ringing  (of  a  bell). 

The  din  of  carta,  and  the  accursed  dinaina 
of  the  dustman's  bell. — Irving,  Sketch  Book 
(Boar's  Head  Tavern). 

Dinnery,  pertaining  to  dinner. 

I  .  .  .  disliked  the  dinnery  atmosphere  of 
the  salle  a  manger. — Mrs.  Gaskell,  Curious  if 
True. 

Diocesans,  people  in  a  diocese:  its 
usual  meaning  is  the  bishop  of  a  dio- 
cese. 

The  bishops  sold  to  the  curates,  and  other 
ecclesiastics  their  diocesans,  this  liberty  [to 
keep  concubines],  which  indeed  had  hitherto 
been  granted  them  by  the  first  council  of 
Toledo. — Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  II.  ch.vii., 
note. 

Middleton  is  said  to  bear  his  mitre  high  in 
India,  where  the  regni  novitas  (I  dare  say) 
sufficiently  justifies  the  bearing.  A  humility 
quite  as  primitive  as  that  of  Jewel  or  Hooker 
might  not  be  exactly  fitted  to  impress  the 
minds  of  those  Anglo- Asiatic  diocesans  with 
a  reverence  for  home  institutions.— Lamb, 
Essays  of  Elia  (Christ's  Hospital). 

Faithful  lovers  who  .  .  .  are  content  to 
rank  themselves  humble  diocesans  of  old 
Bishop  Valentine. — J  bid.  (Valentine's  Day). 


Diogenically,  cynically;  after  the 
manner  of  Diogenes. 

Their  other  qualities  are  to  despise  riches, 
not  Diogenically,  but  indolently,  to  be  sober, 
&c. — Misson,  Travels  in  Eng.,  p.  154. 

Diphbelatic,  chariot -driving  (Gr. 
tifpoc,  IXairvv). 

Under  this  eminent  man,  whom  in  Greek 
I  cognominated  Cyclops  diphrelates  (Cyclops 
the  charioteer),  I,  and  others  known  to  me, 
studied  the  diphrelatic  art. — De  Quincey,  Eng. 
Mail  Coach. 

Direct,  direction. 

"  Behold !  "  is  like  John  Baptist  in  Holy 
Writ,  evermore  the  avant-courier  of  some 
excellent  thing It  is  a  direct,  a  refer- 
ence, a  dash  of  the  Holy  Ghost's  pen. — 
Adams,  ii.  110. 

Dibectorizb,  to  bring  under  the 
Presbyterian  Directory  for  Public 
Worship. 

These  were  to  do  the  Journey-work  of 
Presbytery,  .  .  .  undertaking  to  Directorize, 
to  Unliturgize,  to  Catechize,  and  to  Disci- 
plinize  their  Brethren.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  009. 

Dirgeful,  moaning ;  lamenting. 

And  there,  soothed  sadly  by  the  dirgeful 

wind, 
Muse  on  the  sore  ills  I  had  left  behi  d. 

Coleridge,  Monody  on  Chatterton. 

Disableness,  impotence. 

When  his  life's  sun  is  ready  to  set,  he 
marries,  and  is  then  knocked  with  his  own 
weapon ;  his  own  disaJhlcness  and  his  wife's 
youthfulness,  like  bells,  ringing  all  in. — 
Adams,  i.  493. 

Disaccompaniep,  unaccompanied. 

To  dismisse  his  forces  he  was  content,  or 
any  thing  else  the  King  would  command 
him,  so  it  were  with  the  safety  of  his  life 
and  honour ;  but  to  come  disaccompanied 
was  for  neither. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  10. 

Disagreeability,  unpleasantness. 

He,  long-sighted  and  observant,  had  seen 
through  it  sufficiently  to  read  all  the  depres- 
sion of  countenance  which  some  immediate 
disagreeability  had  brought  on. — Mad.  D'Ar- 
May,  Diary,  ui  334. 

Disagreeables  (used  as  a  subst.), 
annoyances. 

I  had  all  the  merit  of  a  temperance  mar- 
tyr without  any  of  its  disagreeables.  —  C. 
Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xiv. 

Disaltern,  to  change  for  the  worse. 

But  must  I  ever  grind  ?  and  must  I  earn 
Nothing  but  stripes?    O  wilt  Thou  disaltern 
The  rest  Thou  gav'st  ? 

Quarles,  Emblems,  iii  4. 


DIS APRONED  (  187  ) 


DISCIPLINE 


Disapbonbd,  without  an  apron. 

I  entered  the  main  street  of  the  place,  and 
saw  .  .  .  the  aproned  or  disaprotud  Burghers 
moving-in  to  breakfast. —  Carlyle,  Sartor 
Besartus,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iii. 

Disabch  bishop,  to  deprive  of  the 
status  of  archbishop. 

So  after  that 
We  had  to  disarchbishop  and  unlord, 
And  make  you  simple  Granmer  once  again. 
Tennyson,  Queen  Mary,  iv.  2. 

Disasinated,  deprived  of  the  asinine 

nature. 

I  saw  yon  somewhat  earnest  in  banding 
arguments  with  that  asse,  but  how  have  you 
sped?  doth  he  desire  to  be  disasinated  and 
become  man  again  ?  —  Howell,  Parly  of 
Beasts,  p.  28. 

Disassent,    disagree    from;    deny: 

the  Diets,  have  the  word  as  a  Bubst. 

I  disassent  that  this  example  and  the  like 
ought  to  bee  drawen  in  consequence. — Hud- 
son's Judith  (To  the  Header). 

Disattune,  to  put  out  of  harmony. 

Thus  ever  bringing  before  the  mind  of  the 
harassed  debtor  images  at  war  with  love  and 
with  the  poetry  of  life,  he  disattuned  it,  so 
to  speak,  for  the  reception  of  Nora's  letters, 
all  musical  as  they  were  with  such  thoughts 
as  the  most  delicate  fancy  inspires  to  the 
most  earnest  love. — Lytton,  My  Novel,  Bk. 
XI.  ch.  zvi. 

Disaugment,  to  decrease. 

There  should  I  find  that  everlasting  treasure, 
Which  force  deprives  not,  fortune  disaug- 
ments  not. — Quarles,  Emblems,  v.  13. 

D isa vail,  to  be  of  no  service. 

Avail  you !  dear  Miss  Byron !  I  have  pride, 
madam,  .  .  .  but  give  me  leave  to  say  (and 
he  reddened  with  anger)  that,  my  fortune, 
my  descent,  and  my  ardent  affection  for  you 
considered,  it  may  not  disavail  you. — Rich- 
ardson, Grandison,  i.  124. 

u  I  am  an  Englishman,  gentlemen,'*  said  I, 
judging,  if  Austrians,  as  I  supposed  they 
were,  that  plea  would  not  disavail  me. — Ibid. 
ii.  54. 

Disavail,  loss. 

If  subjects'  peace  and  glorie  be  the  King's, 
And  their  disgrace  and  strife  his  disavaile, 
Then  O  let  my  weake  words  strongly  prevail©. 
Davits,  Microcosmos,  p.  11. 

Disbase,  to  debase,  for  which   Mr. 

Dyce  thinks  it  may  be  meant. 

First  will  I  die  in  thickest  of  my  foe, 
Before  I  will  disbase  mine  honour  so. 

Greene,  Alphonsus,  Act  V. 

Disburse,  payment 


Gome,  there  is 
Some  odd  disburse,  some  bribe,  some  gratu- 

lance, 
Which  makes  you  lock  up  leisure. 

Machin,  Dumb  Knight,  Act  V. 

The  annual  rent  to  be  received  for  all 
those  lands,  after  20  years  would  abundantly 

?ny  the  public  for  the  first  disburses. — Defoe, 
our  thro9  G.  Britain,  i.  842. 

Discaged,  uncaged. 

In  me  put  force 
To  weary  her   ears  with    one    continuous 

prayer, 
Until  she  let  me  fly  diseased  to  sweep 
In  ever-highering  eagle-circles  up 
To  the  great  Sun  of  Glory. 

Tennyson,  Gareth  and  Lynette. 

Discard.  In  the  extracts  discard  is 
used  in  a  peculiar  construction. 

I  only  discard  myself  of  those  things  that 
are  noxious  to  mv  body,  and  scandalous  to 
my  nature. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  293. 

The  old  man's  avarice  discarded  him  of  all 
the  sentiments  of  a  parent. — Ibid.  p.  492. 

Discask,  to  turn  out  of  a  cask. 

No  Tunny  is  suffered  to  be  sold  at  Venice, 
vnlesse  first  discaskt,  and  searcht  to  the  bot- 
tom©.— Sandys,  Travels,  p.  239. 

Discede,  to  depart. 

I  dare  not  discede  from  my  copy  a  tittle. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  II.  iv.  16. 

I  doe  highly  approve  that  there  should  be 
a  certain  form  of  prayer  and  ecclesiasticall 
rites,  from  which  it  should  not  be  lawf ull  for 
the  pastors  themselves  to  discede.  —  Ibid. 
VII.  ii.  18. 

Discentine,  lineal ;  in  regular  descent. 

[I  will]  also  acquaint  you  with  the  notable 
immunities,  franchises,  and  privileges  she  is 
endowed  with,  beyond  all  her  confiners,  by 
the  discentine  line  of  Kings  from  the  Con- 
quest.— Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi. 
149). 

Disciplinate,    to    discipline.       The 

word  is  put  in  the  mouth  of  a  pedantic 

schoolmaster. 

A  pedagogue,  one  not  a  little  versed  in  the 
disciplinatinq  of  the  juvenal  frie. — Sidney, 
Wanstead  Play,  p.  619. 

Discipline.  The  name  given  by  the 
Puritans  to  their  regimen.  See  extract 
from  Heylin  *.  v.  Dissent. 

This  heat  of  his  may  turn  into  a  zeal, 
And  stand  up  for  the  beauteous  discipline 
Against  the  menstruous  cloth  and  rag  of 
Borne. — Jonson,  Alchemist,  iii.  1. 

Now  the  blaze  of  the  beauteous  discipline 
fright  away  this  evil  from  our  house. — Ibid., 
Bart.  Fair,  i.  1. 


DISC1PLINIZE  (  1 88  )  DISEMBRUTE 


Disciflinize,  to  bring  under  dis- 
cipline.    See  extract  *.  v.  Dirkctorize. 

Discloistered,    released    from    the 

cloister,  or  from  monastic  vows:    the 

extract  refers  to  nuns. 

They  fell  a  murmuring  and  a  humming  at 
the  solitude  and  hardships  of  that  holy  pro- 
fession, and  to  think  too  often  on  man  with 
inordinat  desires  to  be  discloysterd,  and  lead 
a  more  dissolut  and  free  unbridled  life. — 
Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  134. 

Discolorisation,  discoloration ;  stain. 

The  shadow  of  the  archway,  the  discolorisa- 
tions  of  time  on  all  the  walls,  .  .  .  made  St. 
Q'len tin's  Castle  a  wonderful  and  awful 
fabric  in  the  imagination  of  a  child— Car- 
lyle,  Life  of  Sterling,  Pt.  I.  ch.  iii. 

Discolourate,  to  discolour. 

The  least  mixture  of  civil  concernment  in 
religious  matters  so  discolourated  the  Chris- 
tian candor  and  purity  hereof,  that  they  ap- 
peared in  a  temporal  hue. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist., 
III.  iii.  31. 

Disconcert,  disturbance  =  discon- 
certion is  in  the  Diets. 

The  waltzers  perforce  ceased  their  evolu- 
tions, and  there  was  a  brief  disconcert  of  the 
whole  grave  company. — E.  A.  Poe,  Masque 
of  the  Bed  Death. 

Disconforh,  to  differ  from. 

Judge  more  charitably  than  to  think  that 
they  do  it  only  out  of  crossness  to  disconform 
to  your  practise. — Hackel,  Life  of  Williams, 
i.  212. 

Discontentee,  a  discontented  person. 

The  priests  and  Jesuits,  especially  the 
latter,  traded  much  in  conventicles  and 
among  the  discontentees,  the  very  party  his 
Lordship  headed. — Xorth,  Examen,  p.  55. 

Discorporate,  disembodied. 

Instead  of  the  6even  corporate  selfish 
spirits,  we  have  the  four  and  twenty  millions 
of  discorporate  selfish.  —  Carlyle,  Misc.,  iii. 
198. 

Discourage,  to  lose  courage. 

Because  that  poore  Ghurche  shulde  not 
utterly  discouraae,  in  her  extreme  adversitees, 
the  Sonne  of  God  hath  taken  her  to  His 
spowse.  —  Vocacyon  of  Johan  Bale,  1553 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  464). 

Discourt,  to  dismiss  from  Court  or 
Court  favour.  R.  gives  a  quotation 
from  Speedy  to  whom  he  seems  to  think 
the  word  is  peculiar. 

It  behoves  his  Maiesty  to  uphold  the 
Duke  against  them,  who,  if  he  be  but  dis- 
court ed,  it  will  be  the  corner-stone  on  which 
the  demolishing  of  his  monarchy  will  be 
buildcd. — Heylin,  Life  of  Laud,  p.  151. 


DiscRBATK,  to  uncreate,  reduce  to 
chaos. 

But  both  vniting  their  diuided  seals, 
Took  up  the  matter,  and  appeas'd  the  brail, 
Which  doubtless  else  had  discreated  all. 

Sylvester,  second  day,  first  toeeke,  318. 

Discreet,  separate. 

What  the  Halls  in  Cambridge  wanted  of 
Oxford  in  number,  they  had  in  greatness ;  so 
that  what  was  lost  in  discrete  was  found  in 
continued  quantity. — Fuller,  Hist,  of  Camb. 
ii.  22. 

Discrete,  apparently  an  official  title. 

Though  they  have  no  worldly  honours, 
Yet  nether  kynges  ne  emperours, 

Nor  wother  states  of  the  teniperalte. 
Have  soche  stryfe  in  their  provision 
As  observauntes  in  their  religion, 

With  dedly  hatred  and  enmyte 
To  be  made  confessors  and  preachers, 
Wardens,  discretes,  and  ministers, 

And  wother  offices  of  prelacy. 

Roy  and  Barlow,  Sede  me  and  be 
nott  wroth,  p.  90. 

DiscretiuN.  To  yield  or  surrender 
at  discretion  is  a  common  phrase ;  to 
be  at  discretion  is  not  so  usual,  though 
of  course  it  means  the  same  thing,  L  c. 
to  be  at  the  disposal  of  the  conqueror, 
as  he  may  think  fit 

If  she  stays  to  receive  the  attack,  she  is  in 
danger  of  being  at  discretion.  —  Gentleman 
Instructed,  p.  154. 

Discrimination,  a  quarrel  (a  Latin- 
ism). 

Reproaches  and  all  sorts  of  unkind  dis- 
criminations   succeeded.  —  Hacket,  Life   of 
Williams,  i.  16. 

Discruciate,  to  torture. 

Sorrowes  divided  amongst  many,  lease 
Discruciate  a  man  in  deep  distrease. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  257. 

Discuss,  to  shake  off,  and  so,  to  finish. 

I  make  no  doubt  but  that  in  a  day  or  two 
this  troublesome  business  may  be  discussed  ; 
and  in  this  hope  we  are  preparing  for  our 
journey. — Smollett,  Humphrey  Clinker,  i.  177. 

Discustomed,  unaccustomed. 

If  now  no  more  my  sacred  rimes  distil 
With  artless  ease  from  my  discustom'd  quill : 
If  now  the  laurel  1  that  but  lately  shaded 
My  heating  temples,  be  disleav'd  and  vaded ; 


Blame  these  sad  times. 

Sylvester,  The  Arke,  2. 

Disembrute,  to  humanise. 

Friend.  According  to  your  notion  of  hero- 
ism, that  boor  aud  barbarian,  Peter  Alexio- 


DISENCOURAGE        (  189  )  DJSHERBAGE. 


witas  of  Russia,  was  the  greatest  hero  that 
ever  lived. 

Author.  True,  my  friend,  for  of  a  numerous 
people  he  disemlnruted  every  one  except  him- 
self.— H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  71. 

Disencourage,  to  discourage ;  R.  has 
di&encouragement. 

Come  on  then,  poor  Fan !  the  world  has 
acknowledged  you  my  offspring,  and  I  will 
disencourage  you  no  more. — Mad.  D'Arblay's 
Diary,  vi.  243. 

Disfamk,  ill  reputation. 

And  what  is  Fame  in  life  but  half  disfame, 
And  oounterchanged  with  darkness  ? 

Tennyson,  Merlin  and  Vivien. 

Disfkrtile,  to  make  barren. 

O  chastisement  most  deadly-wonderf  ull ! 
Th'  Heaven-cindred  cities  a  broad  standing 

pool 
Ore-flowes  (yet  flowes  not)  whose  infectious 

breath 
Corrupts  the  age,  and  earth  disfertileth. 

Sylvester,  The  I  ocation,  1347. 

DisrxowsRED,  stript  of  flowers.     Cf. 

DlSLEAVE. 

Our  disfiowred  trees,  our  fields  hail-torn, 
Our  empty  ears,  our  light  and  blasted  corn, 
Presage  us  famine. 

Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  1238. 

Deforestation,  clearing  forest- 
ground  of  trees,  and  throwing  it  into 
open  country  or  cultivation.  The  word 
occurs  again  in  Daniels  Hist.,  p.  118, 
margin. 

The  allowance  of  what  disforrestation  had 
heretofore  been  made  was  earnestly  urged. — 
Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  167. 

D18FRAUGHT,  to  unfreight,  discharge. 

Having  disfraughted  and  unloaded  his  lug- 
gage, to  snpper  he  sets  himself  downe  like  a 
lorde. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuff  (Hari.  Misc.,  vi. 
179). 

Disfurnishment,  bareness,  stripping. 

And  so  the  State  (having  all  the  best 
strength  exhausted,  and  none,  or  small  sup- 
plies from  the  Romans)  lay  open  to  the 
rapine  and  spoyle  of  their  northern  enemies, 
who  taking  the  advantage  of  this  disfurnish- 
ment,  never  left  till  they  had  reduced  them 
to  extreme  miseries. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.f 
p.  5. 

Disgouted,  released  from  gout. 

Lord  M.  looked  horribly  glum  ;  his  fingers 
claspt,  and  turning  round  and  round,  under 
and  over,  his  but  just  disgouted  thumb. — 
Richardson,  CI.  Harlove,  vi.  227. 

Disqown,  to  throw  off  a  gown,  and 
so  to  renounce  Holy  Orders. 


Then,  desiring  to  be  a  convert,  he  was 
reconciled  to  the  Church  of  Rome;  so  he 
disgowned  and  put  on  a  sword. — North,  Ex* 
atneny  p.  222. 

Disgrace,  to  put  out  of  countenance, 
to  cause  another  to  appear  inferior. 

In  thee  [Countess  of  Pembroke]  the  Les- 
bian Sappho  with  her  lyric  harpe  is  disgraced. 
—Nashe,  1591  (Eng.  Garner,  i.  600). 

Disgraciately,  disgracefully. 

All  this  he  would  most  disgraciately  ob- 
trude.— North,  Examen,  p.  28. 

Dishabitablb,  uninhabitable. 

I  know  I  can  expresse  my  duty  in  nothing 
more  then  iutreating  your  lordship  not  to 
beleeve  those  false  reports,  which  do  as  much 
make  London  dishabitable  as  the  plague  wont 
to  do. — Ld.  Falkland  to  Earl  of  Cumberland, 
1642,  p.  5. 

Dishallow,  to  make  unholy,  to  pro- 
fane. 

As  the  altar  cannot  sanctify  the  priest,  so 
nor  can  the  unholiness  of  the  priest  dishallow 
the  altar. — Adams,  ii.  289. 

Ye  that  so  dishallow  the  holy  sleep, 
Your  sleep  is  death. 

Tennyson,  Pelleas  and  Ettare. 

DlSHAUNT,  to  shun. 

So  wisely  she  dishaunted  the  resort 
Of  such  as  were  suspect  of  light  report. 

Hudson,  Judith,  iv.  125. 

Disheart,  to  dishearten. 

When,  therefore,  divine  justice  sinne  wil 
scurge, 
He  doth  dishart  their  harts  in  whom  it 
raignes. — Davies,  Microcosmos,  p.  42. 

Dished,  done  for  (slang). 

He  was  completely  dished — he  could  never 
have  appeared  again — the  rest  of  his  days 
must  probably  have  been  passed  in  the 
King's  Bench.— Nares,  Thinks  I  to  Myself,  i. 
208. 

I  would  advise  her  blackaviced  suitor  to 
look  out ;  if  another  comes  with  a  longer  or 
clearer  rent-roll,  he's  dished. — C.  Bronte,  Jane. 
Eyre,  ch.  xix. 

D18HERBAGE,  to  deprive  of  grass  or 
herbage.  The  first  part  of  the  quota- 
tion is  portion  of  an  inflated  speech 
made  by  a  rhetorician  to  Antigonus, 
who  turned  it  into  ridicule.  Perhaps 
Udal  uses  disherbage  as  a  strange  term, 
representing  the  affectedness  of  the 
original. 

"  The  snowe  casting  season  nowe  coming 
in  place  hath  made  this  climate  vtterly  desti- 
tute of  herbage,  or  hath  brought  this  climate 
to  clene  dtsherbageing."  .  .  .  These  wordes, 
XtnrofioTavtli/  iiroinat,  that  is, "hath  brought 


D1SHER0 


(   190  )  DISMEMBER 


this  climate  to  clene  disherbageing,1*  smellen 
all  of  the  inkehorae.  —  UaaTs  Erasmus' $ 
Apophth.,  p.  243. 

D18HERO,  to  make  unheroie. 

Thtre  is  a  hypothesis  now  current,  due 
probably  to  some  man  of  name,  for  its  own 
force  would  not  carry  it  far,  that  Mr.  Lock- 
hart  at  heart  has  a  dislike  to  Scott,  and  has 
done  his  best  in  an  underhand,  treacherous 
manner,  to  disherit  him. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  IV. 
143. 

Dishwash,  dishwater. 

Their  fathers,  their  grandfathers,  and  their 
great-grandfathers  . .  .  were  scullions,  dish- 
irash,  and  durty  draff e. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  180). 

Disimprison,  to  set  at  liberty. 

French  Revolution  means  here  the  open, 
violent  rebellion  and  victory  of  disimprisoned 
anarchy  against  corrupt,  worn-out  authority. 
—Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  VI.  ch.  i. 

Probably  there  is  much  light  waiting  us  in 
these  notes  of  his,  were  they  once  disim- 
prisoned into  general  legibility.— J  bid.,  Misc., 
1?.  312. 

Disindividualize,  to  deprive  of  in- 
dividuality, to  divest  of  character. 

He  was  answered  by  Miss  de  Bassompierre 
in  quite  womauly  sort;  with  intelligence, 
with  a  manner  not  indeed  wholly  disindividu- 
alized :  a  tone,  a  glance,  a  gesture  . .  .  still 
recalled  little  Polly.— Mist  Bronte,  Villette, 
ch.  xxv. 

Disinvigoratb,  to  weaken  or  relax. 

This  soft,  and  warm,  and  disinviyorativg 
climate.— Sydney  Smith,  Letters,  1844. 

"  Disjune,  breakfast  =  a  corruption  of 
the  French  dejeuner.  See  extract  from 
Naske's  Lenten  Stuffe  s.  v.  Orbngk. 

I  remember  his  sacred  Majesty  King 
Charles  when  he  took  his  disjune  at  Tillie- 
tudlem. — Scott,  Old  Mortality,  ch.  iii. 

Disknow,  to  disown,  fail  to  recognize. 

And  when  He  shall  (to  light  thy  sinf  ull  load) 
Put  manhood  on,  disknow  him  not  for  God. 

Sylvester,  The  Laxce,  851. 

Dislawyer,  to  deprive  of  the  status 
of  a  lawyer;  to  deny  a  man's  legal 
ability. 

In  the  meantime  vilifications  plenty ;  those 
were  at  their  tongue's  end.  He  was  neither 
courtier  nor  lawyer ;  which  his  lordship  hear- 
ing, he  smiled  saying,  That  they  might  well 
make  him  a  whore  master  when  they  had 
dislawyered  him. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guil- 
ford, ii.  237. 

Disleave,  to  strip  of  leaves.  See 
quotation  8  v.  Discustomed. 


There  Anster  never  roars,  nor  hail  disleaues 
Th'  immortal  groue,  nor  any  branch  bereaues. 
Sylvester,  The  Maynijicence,  666. 

Dislike,  unlike. 

Two  states  then  there  be  after  death,  and 
these  two  disjoined  in  place,  dislike  in  con- 
dition.— Andrewes, Sermons,  ii.  82. 

Dislink,  to  disjoin,  to  separate. 

And  there  a  group  of  girls 
In  circle  waited,  whom  the  electric  shock 
Dislink* d  with  shrieks  and  laughter. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  Prologue, 

Disloke,  to  dislocate. 

His  bones  and   joints   from  whence  they 
whilome  stood 
With  rackings  quite  dislokcd  and  distracted. 
Davits,  Holy  Roode,  p.  20. 

Dismal,  to  feel  dismal  or  melancholy. 

Miss  L.  sung  various  old  elegies  of  Jack- 
son, Dr.  Harrington,  and  Iinley,and  O !  how 
I  dismalled  in  hearing  them. — Mad.  D'Ar- 
blay,  Diary,  i.  344. 

Dibmality,  a  melancholy  thing. 

Hang  dismality,  leave  that  to  parsons. — 
Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  164. 

What  signifies  dwelling  upon  such  di natal- 
ities ?  If  I  think  upon  my  ruin  beforehand, 
I  am  no  nearer  to  enjoymeut  now  than  then. 
— Mad.  D'Arblay,  Camilla,  Bk.  VI.  ch.  xiv. 

DlSM ALNESS,  gloom. 

Oelia  thought  with  some  dismalness  of  the 
time  she  should  have  to  spend  as  bridesmaid 
at  Lowick.—  G.  Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch.  ix. 

Dismals.  In  the  first  two  extracts  = 
mourning  garments;  in  the  other  = 
.melancholy. 

What  a  charming  widow  would  she  have 
made!  how  would  she  have  adorned  the 
weeds !  .  .  .  Such  pretty  employment  in  new 
dismals,  when  she  had  hardly  worn  round 
her  blazing  joyfuls. — Richardson,  CI.  Har- 
&me,vit.  171. 

As  my  lady  is  decked  out  in  her  dismals, 
perhaps  she  may  take  a  fancy  to  faint. — 
Foote,  Trip  to  Calais,  Act  HI. 

He  comes,  and  seems  entirely  wrapt  up  in 
the  dismals :  what  can  be  the  matter  now  ? — 
Ibid.,  The  Liar,  Act  II. 

Dismember,  to  deprive  of  a  seat  in 
Parliament.  The  word  is  used  pun- 
ningly  in  the  first  extract 

O  House  of  Commons,  House  of  Lords, 

Amend  before  September : 
For  'tis  decreed  your  souldiers1  swords 
Shall  then  you  all  dismember. 

Needham,  Ena.  Rebellion,  1661  {Harl. 
Misc.,  ii.  522). 

The  parliament  met,  and  at  the  very  first 
the  new  members  were  attacked;  for  one 
stood    up   and   recommended   it   to   their 


DISMINISTERED       (  191  )         DISPENSATIVE. 


modesty  to  withdraw  while  the  state  of 
their  election  was  under  debate ;  as  they  did, 
and  were  soon  dismembered  by  vote  of  the 
house. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  163. 
Since  I  have  dismembered  myself,  it  is 
incredible  how  cool  I  am  to  all  politics. — 
WalpoU,  Letters,  iii.  290  (1769). 

Disministkbed,  freed  from  the  habits 
of  a  minister. 

Can  you  think  .  .  .  him  [Lord  Orford]  so 
totally  disministered  as  to  leave  all  thoughts 
of  what  he  has  been,  and  ramble  like  a  boy 
after  pictures  and  statues? —  Walpole  to 
Mann,  i.  280  (1743). 

Disnaturalise,  to  make  strange  or 
foreign. 

There  is  this  to  be  said  in  favour  of  retain- 
ing the  usual  form  and  pronunciation  of  this 
well-known  name  [Job],  that  if  it  were  dis- 
naturalised  and  put  out  of  use,  an  etymology 
in  our  language  would  be  lost  sight  of.  For 
a  job  in  the  working  or  operative  sense  of 
the  word  is  evidently  something  which  it 
requires  patience  to  perform ;  in  the  physical 
and  moral  sense,  as  when,  for  example,  in 
the  language  of  the  vulgar,  a  personal  hurt 
or  misfortune  is  called  a  bad  job,  it  is  some- 
thing which  it  requires  patience  to  support ; 
and  in  the  political  sense  it  is  something 
which  it  requires  patience  in  the  public  to 
endure ;  and  in  all  these  senses  the  origin  of 
the  word  must  be  traced  to  Job,  who  is  the 
proverbial  exemplar  of  this  virtue.  This 
derivation  has  escaped  Johnson;  nor  has 
that  lexicographer  noticed  the  substantives 
joking  and  jobation,  and  the  verb  to  jobe,  all 
from  the  same  root,  and  familiar  in  the 
mouths  of  the  people. — Southey,  The  Doctor, 
ch.  cxv. 

Disnounce,  to  tell  thoroughly :  prob- 
ably meant  for  a  blunder  =  announce, 
the  speaker  being  an  old  shepherd. 

Here  is  a  substantial  school-master  can 
better  disnounce  the  whole  foundation  of  the 
matter. — Sidney,  Wanstead  Play,  p.  619. 

Disobedientiary,  a  rebel. 

I  pray  God  amend  them,  or  else  I  fear 
they  be  .  .  .  sly,  wily  disobedientiaries  to  all 
good  orders. — Latimer,  ii.  389. 

Disoffice,  to  turn  out  of  office. 

O  very  wise  Parliament!  can  you  teach 
one  how  to  piece  liberty  and  this  covenant 
together?  for  all  that  refuse  it  must  be 
sequestred,  imprisoned,  disofRctd. — Socket, 
Life  of  mUiam$,&.20O. 

Dispack,  to  open  or  unpack. 

Whether  when  God  the  mingled  lump  di *■ 

packt, 
From  fiery  element  did  light  extract. 

Sylvester,  first  day,  first  weeke,  518. 

DiSPANGLE,  to  spangle  (distribu- 
tive))').    The  extract  is  from  an  edi- 


tion of  the  poem  published  with  the 
thirteenth  edition  of  the  Arcadia, 
1674.  But  in  the  edition  of  1598, 
reprinted  in  Arber's  Eng.  Garner, 
vol.  i.,  the  last  line  begins,  "  But  for 
to  spangle." 

Though  dusky  wits  dare  scorn  Astrologie, 
And  fools  can  think  those  Lamps  of  purest 
light, 
Whose  numbers,  waies,  greatness,  eternity, 

Promising  wonders,  wonders  do  inuite ; 
To  have  for  no  cause  birthright  in  the  skie, 
But  to  dispangle  the  black  weeds  of  night. 
Sidney,  Astrophel  and  Stella,  st.  26. 

Disparent,  variable ;  of  diverse  ap- 
pearance. 

Nor  useth  our  most  inimitable  imitator  of 
nature  this  cross  and  deformed  mixture  of 
his  parts  more  to  colour  and  avoid  too  broad 
a  taxation  of  so  eminent  a  person,  than  to 
follow  the  true  life  of  nature,  being  often  or 
always  expressed  so  disparent  in  her  crea- 
tures.— Chapman,  Iliad,  6k.  II.,  Comment. 

Dispaeple,  to  disperse.  H.  gives  the 
word  as  occurring  in  Lydgate,  but 
without  further  reference.  K.  has  dis- 
perpled. 

Her  wav'ring  hair  disparpling  flew  apart 

In  seemly  shed. 

Hudson,  Judith,  iv.  339. 

.Disfathy,  difference  of  feeling ;  the 
reverse  of  sympathy,  but  not  so  strong 
a  word  as  antipathy. 

He  was  a  cruel  experimentalist,  and  the 
dtspathy  which  this  must  have  excited  in  our 
friend,  whose  love  of  science,  ardent  as  it 
was,  never  overcame  the  sense  of  humanity, 
would  have  counteracted  the  attraction  of 
any  intellectual  powers,  however  brilliant. — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  lxxxv. 

It  is  excluded  from  our  reasonings  by  our 
dispathies. —  Palgrave,  Hist,  of  Norm,  and 
Eng.  (1857),  ii.  110. 

Dispence,  to  make  use  of,  as  one  who 
dispenses    abroad    what    he    has    ac- 

Suired  (?)  ;  or,  dispense  with  (?)  ;  but 
lis  last  nardly  seems  the  meaning. 

Excellent  devices  being  used  to  make  even 
their  sports  profitable ;  images  of  battels  and 
fortifications  being  then  delivered  to  their 
memory,  which  after,  their  stronger  judge- 
ments might  dispence. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p. 
122. 

Dispend  with,  to  dispense  with. 

If  a  present  punishment  be  suspended,  the 
future  shall  never  be  dispended  with. — Adams, 
i.  185. 

Dispensative,  a  preservative.  The 
Diets,  only  have  it  as  an  adj.,  but 
Fuller    (Worthies,   Norfolk,    ii.    140) 


DISPERSED 


(  192  )     DISSATISFACTORY 


mentions  a  book  by  Henry  Howard, 
afterwards  E.  of  North nmpton,  called, 
"  A  Despcnsative  against  the  Poyson  of 
supposed  Prophesies." 

Dispersed,  dishevelled. 

Come,  mournful  dames,  lay  off  your  broid- 

er'd  locks, 
And  on  your  shoulders  spread  dispersed  hairs. 
Greene,  Looking  Glass  for  Eng.,  p.  142. 

Dispirit,  to  disperse ;  cause  to  per- 
vade. 

Proportion  an  houres  meditation  to  an 
houres  reading  of  a  staple  authour.  This 
makes  a  man  master  of  his  learning,  and 
dispirits  the  book  into  the  Scholar.— Fuller, 
Holy  State,  III.  xviii.  5. 

Dispiritment,  despondency. 

Ah!  what  faiut  broken  quaver  is  that  in 
the  shout;  as  of  a  man  that  shouted  with 
the  throat  only,  and  inwardly  was  bowed 
down  with  dispiritment. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iii. 
219. 

Dispope,  to  deprive  of  popedom. 

Dost  thou  scorn  me, 
Because  I  had  my  Canterbury  pallium 
From  one  whom  they  disponed  ? 

Tennyson,  Harold,  III.  i. 

Disposn  ioned,  disposed. 

Lord  Clinton  was  indeed  sweetly  disposi- 
tioned  by  nature.— H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality, 
ii.  150. 

Disposoriks,  espousal. 

The  Princess  also  had  begun  to  draw  the 
letters  which  she  intended  to  have  written 
the  day  of  her  disposories  to  the  prince  her 
husband,  and  the  King  her  father  in  law. — 
Heylin,  Life  of  Laud,  p.  115. 

Dispost,  to  drive  from  a  post  or 
position. 

Now,  thinke  thou  see'st  this  Soule  of  sacred 
sceale, 
This  kindling  Cole  of  flaming  Charitie 
Disposted  all  in  post. 

Dairies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  12. 

Dispraisable,  blamable ;  illaudable. 

It  is  dispraisable  either  to  be  senseless  or 
fenceless. — Adams,  ii.  462. 

Disprinced,  deprived  of  princely 
honour  or  appearance. 

For  I  was  drenched  with  ooze,  and  torn  with 

briers, 
More  crumpled  than  a  poppy  from  the  sheath, 
And  all  one  rag,  disprinced  from  head  to  heel. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  v. 

Dispulverate,  scatter  in  dust 

Confusion  shall  dispulverate 
All  that  this  round  Orbiculer  doth  beare. 
.    Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  13. 


Dispute,  contest  in  warfare. 

Chichester  .  . .  had  received  some  soldiers 
of  His  Majesty's  party,  who  either  were  too 
few  to  keep  it,  or  found  it  not  tenable  enough 
to  make  any  resistance.  Waller  presents 
himself  before  it,  and  without  any  great  dis- 
pute, becomes  master  of  it.— Heylin,  Hist,  of 
the  Presbyterians,  p.  451. 

The  four  men  of  war  made  sail  for  the 
forts,  against  which  we  anchored  about  one 
in  the  afternoon ;  and  after  four  hours'  dis- 
pute went  to  the  westward.— Retaking  of  St. 
Helena,  1673  (Arber,  Eng.  Garner,  i.  61). 

Disquisition,  search ;  usually  only 
applied  to  mental  investigation. 

On  their  return  from  a  disquisition  as  fruit- 
less as  solicitous,  nurse  declared  her  appre- 
hensions that  Harry  had  gone  off  with  a 
little  favourite  boy  whom  he  had  taken  into 
service.— If.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  82. 

Disrange,  throw  out  of  rank. 

The  Norman  horsmen  .  . .  retired.  .  . .  The 
Englishmen,  supposing  them  to  flie,  presently 
disranged  themselves,  and  in  disray  pressed 
hard  upon  the  enemies. — Holland's  Camden, 
p.  317. 

Disraie,  to.  throw  into  confusion. 

The  Euglish  men,  supposing  now  that  they 
turned  backe  and  fled, . . .  display  their  ranks, 
and  being  thus  <2*#r<n  erf,presse  hard  upon  their 
enemies.  .  .  .  The  Normans  casting  them- 
selves suddenly  againe  into  array,  charge  the 
English  afresh,  and  thus  setting  upon  them 
being  scattered,  and  out  of  order, . . .  made 
an  exceeding  great  slaughter  of  them. — Hol- 
land's Camden,  p.  151. 

Have  these  so  yong  and  weak 


Disrayed  their  ranks. 

Sylvester,  The  Decay,  1124. 

Disrelish  able,  distasteful. 

That  the  match  with  the  Spanish  princess 
should  be  intended  no  more  was  disretishable, 
because  he  esteemed  her  nation  above  any 
other  to  be  full  of  honour  in  their  friendship. 
—Racket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  78. 

Disrespect  ability,  that  which  is  dis- 
reputable; blackguardism. 

Her  taste  for  disrespectability  grew  more 
and  more  remarkable. — Thackeray,  Vanity 
Fair,  ch.  Ixiv. 

Disrespectable,  a  mild  word  for  con- 
temptible. 

It  requires  a  man  to  be  some  disrespectable, 
ridiculous  Boswell  before  he  can  write  a 
tolerable  life.— Carlyle,  Diamond  Necklace, 
ch.  i. 

Dissatisfactory,  unsatisfactory. 
She  then  a  little  embarrassed  me  by  an 
iuquiry,  **  why  Major  Phillips  went  to  Ire- 


DISSAVAGE 


(  *93  ) 


DISTRAIT 


land  ?  "  for  my  answer . . .  seemed  dissatisfac- 
tory.—Mad.  UArblay,  Diary,  vi.  146. 

DissAYAGK,  to  civilize. 

Those  wilde  kingdomes 
Subdued  to  Rome  by  my  vnwearied  toyles ; 
Which  I  dissavag'd  and  made  nobly  ciuili. 

Chapman,  Casar  and  Pompey,  Act  I. 

Disseason,  to  spoil  the  flavour  of 
something. 

That  sea  was  found  to  be  higher  then 
Egypt,  which  made  them  misdoubt  that  it 
would  either  drowne  the  countrey,  or  else  by 
mixing  with  the  Nilus  disseason  his  waters.— 
Sandys,  Travels,  p.  106. 

Dissection,  dissected  portion,  seg- 
ment 

All  his  kindnesses  are  not  only  in  their 
united  form*,  bat  in  their  several  dissections 
fully  commendable.  —  Sidney,  Defence  of 
Poesie,  p.  554. 

Dissrlf,  to  put  one  beside  oneself,  to 
stupefy. 

Whence  comes 
This  shivering  winter  that  my  soule  benums, 
Freezes  my  senses,  and  disselfs  me  so 
With  drousie  poppy,  not  myself  to  knowe  ? 
Sylvester,  The  Trophies,  1116. 

Dissembleable,  having  a  deceptive 
appearance. 

As  he  that  said  by  himselfe  and  his  wife,  I 
thanke  God  in  fortie  winters  that  we  haue 
liued  together,  neuer  any  of  our  neighbours 
set  as  at  one,  meaning  that  they  neuer  fell 
out  in  all  that  space,  which  had  bene  the 
oirecter  speech  and  more  apart,  and  yet  by 
intendment  amounts  all  to  one,  being  neuer- 
thelesse  dissembleable,  and  in  effect  contrary. 
-Puttenham,  Arte  of  Ena.  Potsie,  Bk.  III. 
ch.  rix. 

Dissent,  to  differ  in  opinion  from ; 
possibly  the  omission  of  the  preposition 
may  be  a  printer's  error. 

Which  makes  it  seem  the  greater  wonder 
in  our  English  Puritans,  that  following  him 
«o  closely  in  pursuit  of  the  discipliue, . .  .  and 
pertinaciously  adhering  to  his  doctrine  of 
predestination,  they  should  so  visibly  dissent 
mm  in  the  point  of  the  Sabbath,— Beylin, 
tf'rf.  of  the  Presbyterians,  p.  27. 

Dissenterism,  nonconformity. 

He . . .  tried  to  lay  plans  for  his  campaign 
«ad  heroic  desperate  attempts  to  resuscitate 
the  shop-keeping  Dissenterism  of  Oarlingford 
into  a  lofty  Nonconformist  ideal.— Mrs.  OH- 
fhavt,  Salem  Chapel,  ch.  iii. 

Dissbverment,  sundering. 

He  who  is  taken  out  to  pass  through  a  fair 
•oene  to  the  scaffold,  thinks  not  of  the  flowers 
that  smile  on  his  road,  but  of  the  block  and 
•»-edge,  of  the  disseverment  of  bone  and 
vein.— C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xxvii. 


Disshiver,  to  break  in  pieces. 
And  shieldes  disshyuering  cracke. 

Webbe,  Eng.  Poetrie,  p.  60. 

Dissimulate,  to  dissemble,  conceal. 

Public  feeling  required  the  meagreness  of 
nature  to  be  dissimulated  by  tall  barricades  of 
frizzed  curls  and  bows.— G.  Eliot,  Middle- 
march,  ch.  iii. 

Dissimulator,  dissembler. 

Dissimulator  as  I  was  to  others,  I  was  like 
a  guilty  child  before  the  woman  I  loved— 
Zytton,  Pelhatn,  ch.  lxvii. 

Dissite,  distant. 
Britaine .  .  . 
Far  dissite  from  this  world'of  ours,  wherein 

we  ever  dwelt.— Holland's  Camden,  p.  46. 

Dissocial,  divisive  ;  one  who  breaks 
up  sociality. 

A  dissocial  man?     Dissocial  enough;   a 
natural  terror  and  horror  to  all  phantasms 
being  himself  of  the  genus  reality.— Carlvle\ 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  VII.  ch.  ii.  * 

Dissolve,  to  kill ;  to  produce  dissolu- 
tion. 

His  death  came  from  a  sudden  catarrh 
which  caused  a  squinancy  by  the  inflamma- 
tion of  the  interiour  muscles,  and  a  shortness 
of  breath  followed  which  dissolved  him  in  the 

*$%?'  °f   »Woo?  hoU™'  "~  Hacket>  Life  of 
Williams,  n.  227. 

Distanceless,  dull ;  without  any  dis- 
tant prospect. 

The  weather  that  day . .  was  truly  national ; 
a  silent,  dim, distanceless, rotting  day  in  March. 
— C.  KinysUy,  Yeast,  ch.  i. 

Distillation,  cold  in  the  head  (?), 
from  the  running  that  accompanies  it. 

It  [exercise  injudiciously  used]  bredeth 
Bheumes,  Catarrhs  and  distillations,^  maketh 
heavye,  and  bringeth  oppilation  to  the  lyeuer. 
— Touchstone  of  Complexions,  p.  104. 

Distinctly,  to  make  distinct.  The 
passage  is  quoted  by  W.  Proctor  from 
"an  American  pamphlet." 

So  could  the  same  artificial  light,  passed 
through  the  faintest  focal  object  of  a  tele- 
scope, both  distinctify  (to  coin  a  new  word 
for  an  extraordinary  occasion)  and  magnify 
its  feeblest  component  members.  —  Proctor, 
Myths  and  Marvels  of  Astronomy,  p.  247. 

Distrain,  restraint. 

The  King's  highness  (God  save  his  grace !) 
did  decree  that  all  admitted  of  universities 
should  preach  throughout  all  his  realm  as 
long  as  they  preached  well,  without  distrain 
of  any  man.— Latimer,  ii.  329. 

Distrait,  absent;  distracted  in 
thought :    a  French  word  that  may  be 

0 


DISTRIBUTIONIST     (  194  )  DIVISION  ATE 


considered  naturalized,  and  is  so  used 
in  the  extract. 

And  then  she  got  Grace  supper,  and  tried 
to  make  her  talk ;  but  she  was  distrait,  re- 
served.— C.  Kingsley,  Two  Year*  A  go,  ch.xxvi. 

Distribution  1ST,  one  employed    in 

distribution. 

The  distributionisU  trembled,  for  their 
popularity  was  at  stake.  .  .  The  popularity 
of  the  distribution  society  among  the  ladies 
of  our  parish  is  unprecedented. — Sketches  by 
Boz  (Ladies*  Societies). 

Distroubance,  disturbance. 

They  that  come  to  the  Church  for  to  pray 
devoutly  to  the  Lord  God,  may  in  their  in- 
ward wits  be  the  more  fervent,  that  all  tbeir 
outward  wits  be  closed  from  all  outward  see- 
ing and  hearing,  and  from  all  distroubance 
and  letting.— Eram.  of  W.  Thorpe  (Bale, 
Select  Works,  p.  96). 

Distroubler,  troubler ;  disturber. 

After  thy  knowledge  and  power  thou  shalt 
enforce  thee  to  withstand  all  such  distroublers 
of  Holy  Church.— £x«m.  of  William  Thorpe 
(Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  75). 

Disvelope,  disclose,  unwrap. 

Which  bloody  resolution,  since  the  time 
wherein  those  black  thoughts  disveloved 
themselves  by  action,  she  hath  under  ner 
hand  confirmed. — The  Unhappy  Marksman, 
1659  (Harl.  Misc.,  iv.  3). 

Disventurous,  disastrous. 

The  whole  mischief  comes  upon  us  to- 
gether, like  kicks  to  a  cur;  and  would  to 
God  this  disventurous  adventure  that  threat- 
ens us  may  end  in  no  worse. — JarvWs  Bon 
Quixote,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  xvi. 

Diswhipped,  deprived  of  a  whip. 

Is  it  peace  of  a  father  restored  to  his 
children,  or  of  a  taskmaster  who  has  lost  his 
whip?  .  .  .  Or,  alas!  is  it  neither  restored 
father,  nor  diswhipped  taskmaster  that  walks 
there,  but  an  anomalous  complex  of  both 
these?— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  I.  ch.  i. 

Diswindowed,  with  the  windows  de- 
stroyed. 

Ghastly  chdteaus  stare  on  you  by  the  way- 
side, disroofed,  diswindoieed.  —  Carlyle,  Ir. 
Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  V.  ch.  vii. 

Diswinged,  deprived  of  wings. 

But  indeed  what  of  Du  Barry?  A  foul 
worm,  hatched  by  royal  heat,  on  foul  com- 
posts, into  a  flaunting  butterfly;  now  dis- 
winged,  and  again  a  worm. — Carlyle,  Diamond 
Necklace,  ch.  ill. 

Dite,  saying. 

Which  dite  Paul  seemeth  to  have  taken 
out  of  the  prophecies  of  Daniel. — Phil  pot,  p. 
938. 


DiTTON,  ditty. 

Pantagruel  for  an  eternal  memorial  wrote 
this  Victoria!  ditton. —  Urquharfs  Rabelais, 
Bk.  II.  ch.  xxvii. 

Dittos,  a  suit  of  the  same  colour 
throughout. 

A  sober  suit  of  brown  or  snuff-coloured 
dittos  such  as  beseemed  his  profession. — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  lvi. 

Dive-doppel,  the  dive-dapper  or  dab- 
chick. 

Then  once  again  kneel  ye  down,  and  up 
again  like  dive-doppel 9. — Becon,  iii.  276. 

Divellicate,  to  tear  or  lacerate. 
The  speaker  is  Colonel  Bath,  of  whom 
it  is  said  (Bk.  III.  ch.  viii.)  "  all  his 
words  are  not  to  be  found  in  a  dic- 
tionary." 

My  brother  told  me  you  had  used  him 
dishonestly,  and  had  divellicated  his  character 
behind  his  back.— Fielding,  Amelia,  Bk.  V. 
ch.  vi. 

Diverberate,  to  strike  through. 

These  cries  for  blamelesse  blood  diuerberate 
The  high  resounding  Heau'n's  convexitie. 

Davies,  Holy  Roods,  p.  14. 

Divertment,  avocation. 

The  prosequution  of  a  full  establishment 
thereof  was  neither  by  him  or  his  successors 
(hauing  other  diuertments)  euer  throughly 
accomplished.—  Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eny.,  p.  83. 

Divested,  vested.  The  word,  of 
course,  has  usually  the  opposite  mean- 
ing ;  it  may  be  a  misprint,  or  it  may 
refer  to  God  transferring  part  of  His 
authority  to  kings  as  His  vicegerents. 

Insurrections  against  that  authority  which 
was  divested  by  God  in  His  Majesty's  person. 
— Heylin,  Hist,  of  the  Presbyterians,  p.  333. 

Divestiture,  putting  off;  depriva- 
tion. 

He  is  sent  away  without  remedy,  with  a 
divestiture  from  his  pretended  Orders. — Bp. 
Hall,  Works,  x.  226. 

Divexity. 

His  haire,  gold's  quintessence,  ten  times  re- 

fin'd, 
(In  substance  far  more  subtill  than  the  wind) 
Doth  glorifie  that  Heau'n's  Divexity, 
His  head,  where  Wit  doth  raigne  inuincibly. 
Davies,  Wittes  Pilgrimage,  p.  30. 

Divisionate,  to  divide:    a  pedantic 

schoolmaster  is  the  speaker. 

First,  you  must  divisionate  your  point  [of 

argument],  quasi  you  should  cut  a  chees  into 

two  particles, .  .  .  which  must  also  be  sub- 

divisionated  into  three  equal  species. — Sidney, 

Wanstead  Play,  p.  622. 


DIVISIVENESS  (  195  )         DOCTRINARITY 


Divisivbness,  tendency  to  division. 

So  invincible  is  man's  tendency  to  unite, 
with  all  the  invincible  divisiveness  he  has. — 
Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  III.  ch.  i. 

Dizain,  a  poem  of  ten  stanzas,  each 
of  ten  lines. 

Strephon  again  began  this  dizain. — Sidney, 
Arcadia,  p.  217. 

Do,  a  cheat  or  fraud  (slang). 

I  thought  it  was  a  do  to  get  me  out  of  the 
house. — Sketches  by  Boz  (Broker's  Man). 

Do,  trouble;  fuss.  Ado  is  not  un- 
common. 

Lord,  what  is  man,  either  Adam  or  Abra- 
ham, that  Thou  shouldest  be  thus  mindful  of 
him,  or  the  seed  or  sons  of  either,  that  Thou 
shouldest  make  this  da  about  him? — An- 
drews, Sermons,  i.  14. 

What  a  deal  a  do  was  here  to  bring  one 
innocent  man  to  his  grave  \— Fuller,  Fisgah 
Sight,  IV.  ii.  27. 

To  my  accounts,  but  Lord !  what  a  deal  of 
do  I  have  to  understand  any  part  of  them. — 
Pepy*,  March  31, 1666. 

To  Gresham  College,  where  a  great  deal  of 
do  and  formality  in  choosing  of  the  Council 
and  officers.— /Wd.  April  11, 1666. 

Doable,  possible;  capable  of  being 
done. 

^  John  Holies  indignantly  called  it  political 
simony,  this  selling  of  honours;  which  in- 
deed it  was ;  but  what  then  ?  It  was  doable, 
it  was  done  for  others. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv. 
316. 

Doatino-piecs,  a  darling. 

"  Pride  and  perverseness,"  said  he, "  with  a 
vengeance !  yet  this  is  your  doating-piece.n — 
Richardson,  Pamela,  i.  68. 

Dock,  properly  the  stump  left  when 
a  tail  has  been  docked,  and  so  the  seat 
of  honour. 

A  breech  close  unto  his  dock, 
HandsomM  with  a  long  stock. 

Greene,  Description  of  Gower,  p.  320. 

Their  crupper  is  a  stick  of  a  yard's  length 
put  across  their  docks. — Modern,  Description 
of  Scotland,  1670  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  137). 

Doctor,  to  adulterate. 

She  doctor' d  the  punch,  and  she  doctor' d  the 

negus, 
Taking  care   not   to   put   in  sufficient   to 

flavour  it. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (Housewtrming). 

The  Cross  Keys  .  .  .  had  doctored  ale,  an 
odour  of  bad  tobacco,  and  remarkably  strong 
cheese. — G.  Eliot,  Felix  Holt,  ch.  xxviii. 

Doctor,  to  call  or  make  a  doctor. 

Honor.  He  never  was  a  raal  counshilior, 
sure, — nor  jantleman  at  all. 
Phil.  Ob,  counshilior  by  courtesy — he  was 


an  attorney  once — just  as  we  doctor  the 
apotecary. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Love  and  Law, 
i.  1. 

I  am  taking  it  into  serious  deliberation 
whether  I  shall  or  shall  not  be  made  a 
Doctor,  and  ...  I  begin  to  think  that  no 
man  who  deliberates  is  likely  to  be  Doctored. 
—Southey,  Letters,  1820  (iii.  196). 

Doctor.  To  put  the  doctor  on  an- 
other =  to  cheat  him.  The  allusion, 
perhaps,  is  to  false  dice,  which  are 
called  doctors. 

Perhaps  ways  and  means  may  be  found  to 
put  the  doctor  upon  the  old  prig. — T.  Brovm, 
Works,  i.  236. 

Doctors.  The  three  doctors  in  the 
extracts  were  proverbially  famous. 

After  those  two,  Doctor  Diet  and  Doctor 
Quiet,  Doctor  Merriman  is  requisit  to  pre- 
serve health. — Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  23. 

Col.  Well,  after  all,  kitchen  physick  is  the 
best  physick. 

Lord  Sm.  And  the  best  doctors  in  the 
world  are  Doctor  Diet,  Doctor  Quiet,  and 
Doctor  Merriman. — Swift,  Polite  Conversation 
(Conv.  ii.). 

Doctors,  false  dice. 

Now,  Sir,  here  is  your  true  dice,  a  man 
seldom  gets  anything  by  them ;  here  is  your 
false,  Sir;  hey,  how  they  run!  Now,  Sir, 
those*  we  generally  call  doctors. — Centlivre, 
Gamester,  Act -I. 

Here,  said  he,  taking  some  dice  out  of  his 
pocket,  here's  the  stuff ;  here  are  the  imple- 
ments ;  here  an  the  little  doctors  which  cure 
the  distempers  of  the  purse. — Fielding,  Tom 
Jones,  Bk.  VIII.  ch.  xii. 

Doctor's  stpfj,  medicine :  in  the 
extract  from  Barb  am,  poison. 

The  man  said,  "-Then  it  must  be  as  it 
pleased  God,  for  he  could  not  take  Doctor* s 
stuff,  if  he  died  for-  it." — Graves,  Spiritual 
Quixote,  Bk.  X.  ch.  xvii 
I  know  not  what  she  heard  or  saw,  but  fury 

fill'd  her  eye, 
She  bought  some  nasty  .doctor9  s-stuff,  and  put 

it  in  a  pie. 

Jngoldsby  Legends  (Nell  Cook). 

He  always  remembers  when  I've  got  to 
take  my  doctor's  stuff,  and  I'm  taking  three 
sorts  now. — G.  Eliot,  Mill  on  the  Floss,  Bk.  I. 
ch.  ix. 

Doctrinarity,  stiff  pedantry  or  dog- 
matism. Littie*  says  that  doctrinaire 
was  "terme  politique  introduit  sous 
la  Restauratton  (lol4 — 30).  Homme 
politique  dont  Its  id&es  subordonnSes  a 
un  ensemble  de  doctrines  Stoient  semi- 
liberates  et  semi-conservatives.  Guizot 
is  cited  as  an  example  of  a  doctrinaire. 

0  2 


DOCUMENTATION     (  196  ) 


DOG-MAN 


The  word  is  now  always  used  disparag- 
ingly. 

Excess  in  doctrinarity  and  excess  in  ear- 
nestness are  threatening  to  set  their  mark 
on  the  new  political  generation.  —  Lord 
Strangford,  Letters  and  Papers,  p.  235 

Documentation,  instruction ;  advice. 

"  I  am  to  be  closeted,  and  to  be  document- 
ixed,"  proceeded  he;  "not  another  word  of 
your  documentation*^  dame  Selby,  I  am  not  in 
a  humour  to  bear  them ;  I  will  take  my  own 
way." — Richardson,  Grandison,  vi.  157. 

Documentise,  to  instruct.  See  ex- 
tract 8.  v.  Documentation. 

The  Attorney  General . . .  desired  the  wife 
would  not  be  so  very  busy,  being  as  he  said 
well  documentised,  meaning  by  this  White- 
acre.— North,  Examen,  p.  294. 

Dod,  see  extract. 

Our  husbandmen  in  Middlesex  make  a  dis- 
tinction between  dodding  and  threshing  of 
wheat,  the  former  being  only  the  beating  out 
of  the  fullest  and  fairest  grain,  leaving  what 
is  lean  and  lank  to  be  threshed  out  after- 
wards. Our  comment  may  be  said  to  have 
dodded  the  Sheriffes  of  several  Counties,  in- 
sisting only  on  their  most  memorable  actions. 
— Fuller,  Worthies,  ch.  xv. 

Dod,  see  extract. 

Robert  Dodford  was  born  in  a  Village  so 
called  in  this  County,  ...  so  named,  as  I 
take.it,  from  a  Ford  over  the  river  Avon,  and 
Dods,  Water-weeds  (commonly  called  by 
children  Cats-Tails),  growing  thereabouts. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Northampton  (ii.  170). 

Doddle,  to  shake. 

He  got  up  on  an  old  mnle  which  had  served 
nine  Kings,  and  so,  mumbling  with  his  mouth, 
nodding  and  doddlxng  his  head,  would  go  see 
a  coney  ferreted. — Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  I. 
ch.  xxii. 

Doo,  to  furnish  with  dogs.  Cf. 
Fuller's  use  of  boy* 

Surely  had  Brittain  been  then  known  to 
the  ancient  Romans,  when  first  (instead  of 
manning)  they  dogged  their  Capitol,  they 
would  have  furnished  themselves  with  Mas- 
tiff es  fetched  hence  for  that  purpose. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Somerset  (ii.  276). 

Doo,  cock,  as  of  a  gun,  from  a  sup- 
posed resemblance  to  a  dog  with  its 
head  raised. 

This  was  a  contrivance  ...  for  producing 
fire  by  the  friction  of  the  grooved  edges  of  a 
steel  wheel  .  .  .  against  a  piece  of  iron 
pyrites  .  .  .  held  in  a  cock  or  dog  which 
pressed  upon  it. — Arch.,  xxxi.  492  (1846). 

Doobolt.  An  iron  hook  or  bar  with 
a  sharp  fang  is  called  a  dog  or  dogbolt. 
Dogbolt  is  a  term  of  reproach  in  Ben 


Jonson  and'other  old  writers, though  why 
this  should  be  so  is  not  clear.     See  N. 

The  beams  are  .  .  .  fastened  to  the  sides 
with  bolts  not  unlike  our  dog-holts. — Arch., 
.  555  (1824). 


Dog-cook,  a  man -cook  (?). 

A  cellar  admirably  stocked,  a  first-rate  dog- 
cook  and  assistants,  a  set  of  horses  for  town, 
huuters  at  Melton,  and  racers  at  Newmarket, 
practically  sounded  his  merits  and  virtues. — 
Th.  Hook,  Man  of  many  Friends. 

Doggess,  a  bitch. 

Pretty  dogs  and  dogg esses  to  quarrel  and 
bark  at  me,  and  yet,  whenever  I  appear,  afraid 
to  pop  out  of  their  kennels. — Richardson,  CI. 
Harlowe,  vii.  131. 

Doggrel.  The  verb  is  unusual,  and 
should  mean  to  write  doggrel  verses; 
here  it  seems  to  refer  to  an  argument 
constantly  repeated.  The  freethinker 
boasts  that  his  religion  is  practised  by 
the  world ;  Eusebius  replies — 

If  general  practice  hits  right  with  the  pre- 
cepts of  your  religion,  they  are  fly-blown, 
and  were  I  disposed  to  doggrel  it,  I  would 
only  gloss  upon  that  text.  .  .  Wben  the 
question  is  about  good  and  evil,  practice 
stands  on  the  wrong  aide. — Gtnt'cman  In- 
structed, p.  43. 

Doggy,  like  dogs :  a  reproachf  ul  epi- 
thet. 

Pack  hence,  doggye  rakhels! — Stanyhurst, 
JEn.,  i.  145. 

Dog-logic,  a  word  formed  in  imita- 
tion of  dog-latin.  The  quotation  occurs 
in  Swift's  lines  "  upon  the  horrid  plot 
discovered  by  Harlequin,  the  B — p  of 
R— ch — r's  French  dog." 

I  own  it  was  a  dangerous  project, 
And  you  have  prov'd  it  by  dog-logick. 

Dog-looked,    disreputable  -  looking ; 

hang-dog. 

We  saw  a  wretched  kind  of  a  dog-looked 
fellow  with  a  tippet  about  his  neck. — I/Fs- 
trange,  Visions  of  Quevedo,  ch.  i. 

Dog-mad,  quite  mad ;  rabid. 

He  was  troubled  with  a  disease  reverse  to 
that  called  the  stinging  of  the  tarantula,  and 
would  run  dog-mad  at  the  noise  of  music, 
especially  a  pair  of  bagpipes. — Swift,  Tale 
of  Tub,  sect.  11. 

Dog-man,  a  man  having  to  do  with 
dogs. 

You  think  he  could  barter  and  cheat, 

And  filch  the  dog-man's  meat 
To  feed  the  offspring  of  God. 
Mrs.  Browning,  Napoleon  III.  t  a  Italy. 


DOGMAOLATRY        (  197  )  DOMESTICATE 


Dogmaolatrt,  worship  of  dogma. 

How  has  the  "  religious  world  "  fallen  into 
the  notion  that  no  one  believes  in  Christ 
who  does  not  call  Him  by  the  same  appella- 
tion as  themselves?  1.  From  the  dogma- 
olatry  of  the  last  two  centuries  (Popish  and 
Protestant).— C.  Kingsley,  1852  (Life,  i.268). 

Dogs.  To  go  to  the  dogs  is  to  be 
ruined  or  destroyed ;  the  reference  is 
to  a  worn-out  horse  sent  to  the  knack- 
er's. See  quotation  from  Dickens  s.  v. 
Bow-wow. 

Writs  are  out  for  me  to  apprehend  me  for 
my  plays,  and  now  I  am  bound  for  the  isle 
of  dogs. — Return,  from  Parnassus,  v.  3  (1606). 

I  should  soon  hope  to  see  that  accom- 
plished, if  that  mischievous  Ate  that  has  en- 
gaged the  two  most  mighty  monarchs  in  the 
world  in  a  bloody  war  were  sent  to  her  place, 
i.e.  to  the  dogs  (ic  Kopaicat). — Bailey's  Eras- 
mus, p.  266. 

Dog-shores,  pieces  of  timber  used  to 
prevent  a  vessel  from  starting  while  the 
keel-blocks  are  being  taken  out,  pre- 
p  iratory  to  launching. 

Go  over  the  side  again,  and  down  among 
the  ooze  and  wet  to  the  bottom  of  the  dock, 
in  the  depths  of  the  subterranean  forest  of 
dry-shores  and  stays  that  hold  her  up.— 
Dickens,  Uncommercial  Traveller,  zziv. 

Dog-sleep.  L.  defines  this  "pre- 
tended sleep,"  and  gives  an  extract 
from  Addison  in  which  it  bears  this 
meaning;  but  it  usually  signifies,  I 
think,  a  light,  fitful  sleep  disturbed  by 
the  slightest  sound. 

My  sleep  was  never  more  than  what  is 
called  dog-sleep  ;  so  that  I  could  hear  myself 
moaning,  and  was  often,  as  it  seemed  to  me, 
wakened  suddenly  by  my  own  voice. — Be 
Quincey,  Opium-eater,  p.  35. 

DogVtonque,  a  plant ;  cynoglossum 

officinale, 

I  think  he  killed  nobody,  for  his  remedies 
were  "womanish  and  weak."  Sage  and 
wormwood,  sion,  hyssop,  borage,  spikenard, 
dog's-tomgue,  our  Lady's  mantle,  feverfew,  and 
Faith,  and  all  in  small  quantities  except  the 
last. — Beade,  Cloister  ana  Hearth,  ch.  xciv. 

Dog-tired,  tired  as  a  dog.  Shake- 
speare (Taming  of  Shrew,  IV.  ii.)  has 
dog-weary. 

Tom  is  carried  away  by  old  Benjy,  dog- 
tired  and  surfeited  with  pleasure. — Hughes, 
Tom  Brown's  Schooldays,  Pt.  I.  ch.  ii. 

Dog  to  the  bow,  a  dog  used  in  shoot- 
ing :  such  dogs,  being  well  trained  and 
obedient,  were  taken  to  typify  humble 
or  subservient  people. 


And  eke  to  January  he  goth  as  lowe, 
As  ever  did  a  doggefor  the  bo  we. 

Chaucer,  Cant.  Tales,  9888. 

He  . .  with  lacke  of  vitailles  brought  those 
choploges  or  greate  pratlers  as  lowe  as  dogge 
to  the  bow. — UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  250. 

Do-little,  idle.  L.  has  the  word  as 
a  substantive. 

What  woman  would  be  content  with  such 
a  do-little  husband?  —  Rennet's  Erasmus's 
Praise  of  Folly,  p.  45. 

Dollarless,  poor ;  without  dollars. 

The  Korrises,  deceived  by  gentlemanly 
manners  and  appearances,  had,  falling  from 
their  high  estate,  received  a  dollarless  and 
unknown  man. — Dickens,  M.  Chuzzlewit,  ch. 
xvii. 

Dollop,  a  lump. 

The  great  blunderbuss,  moreover,  was 
choked  with  a  dollop  of  slough-cake. — Black- 
more,  Lorna  Doone,  ch.  ii. 

Dollship,  a  contemptuous  title  given 
to  women,  implying  that  they  are  pup- 
pets to  be  fondled  and  played  with. 

Tet  I  am  so  true  to  the  freemasonry  my- 
self, that  I  would  think  the  man  who  should 
dare  to  say  half  I  have  written  of  our  doll- 
ships  ought  not  to  go  away  with  his  life. — 
Richardson,  Grandison,  vi.  102. 

Dolly,  a  doxy,  or  mistress. 

Drink,  and  dance,  and  pipe,  and  play, 
Kisse  our  dollies  night  and  day. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  38. 

Dolphinate,  Dauphiny. 

One  Bruno  first  founded  them  [Carthu- 
sians] in  the  Dolphinate  in  France,  anno  1080. 
—Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  vi.  269. 

Doltefy,  to  make  dull  and  stupid. 

Such  as  women  be  of  the  warst  sort,  fond, 
f olish,  wanton, . . .  and  in  euerye  wise  doltefied 
with  the  dregges  of  the  Demi's  dounge  hill. 
— Aylmer,  Harborough  for  Faithful  Subjects, 
1559,  sig.  G.  III. 

Doly,  gloomy.  H.  gives  doley,  with 
this  meaning,  as  a  Northumberland 
word. 

This  dolye  chaunce  gald  us. — Stanyhurst, 
^En.,  ii.  431. 

Domesticate,  to  live  at  home :  usu- 
ally an  active  verb  =  to  tame,  render 
familiar.  One  of  Coleridge's  poems  is 
addressed  "To  a  young  friend,  on  his 
proposing  to  domesticate  with  the 
author." 

I  would  rather,  I  say,  see  her  married  to 
some  honest  and  tender-hearted  man,  whose 
love  might  induce  him  to  domesticate  with 
her,  and  to  live  peaceably  and  pleasingly 


DOMESTICISE  (  198  ) 


DOR- HA  WK 


within  his  family  circle,  than  to  see  her  mated 
with  a  prince  ci  the  blood. — H.  Brooke,  Fool 
of  Quality,  i.  305. 

DoMEhTiciSE,  to  render  domestic. 

I  have  some  observations  to  make  concern* 
ing  both  the  tea  and  the  tea-service,  which 
will  clear  the  Doctor  from  any  imputation 
of  intemperance  in  his  use  of  that  most 
pleasant,  salutiferous,  and  domesticising  be- 
verage.— Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  xxix. 

Dominical.  Dominical  letter  =  usu- 
ally Sunday  letter,  but  in  the  first  ex- 
tract "  the  dominicall  or  great  letters  " 
refer  to  the  memorials  of  events  in  our 
Saviour's  life,  such  as  Christmas,  Easter, 
&c.  In  the  second  extract  as  a  noun  it 
seems  =  the  Lord's  house. 

The  wisdome  and  piety  of  the  Church 
having  in  all  ages  written  in  Dominicall  or 
great  letters  those  most  remarkable  Histories 
of  our  Saviour's  transactions  on  earth  in  order 
to  our  redemption. —Gauden,  Tear*  of  the 
Church,  p.  111. 

Then  began  Christian  Churches,  Oratories, 
or  Dominical s  to  outshine  the  Temples  of  the 
Heathen  Gods. — Ibid.  p.  351. 

Donakeb,  a  cattle-stealer:  mentioned 
among  other  names  for  thieves  of  va- 
rious sorts  in  The  Nicker  Nicked,  1669 
(JIarl.  Misc.,  ii.  108). 

Done,  exhausted.  Sometimes  done 
for  is  used  in  the  same  sense. 

Not  so  the  Holland  fleet,  who,  tired  and  done, 
Stretch'd  on  their  decks  like  weary  oxen 

lie. — Dryderiy  Ann.  Mir.,  st.  70. 
She  is  rather  done  for  this  morning,  and 

must  not  go  so  far  without  help.  —  Miss 

Austen,  Persuasion,  ch.  xxiii. 

Done,  done  to  death. 

The  Lord  Cobham  said,  I  believe  that  in 
the  sacrament  of  the  altar  is  Christ's  very 
Body  in  form  of  bread,  the  same  that  was 
born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  done  on  the  Cross, 
dead,  and  buried. — Dale,  Select  Works,  p.  30. 

Donkky,  an  ass.  The  word  is  modern. 
Grose  says,  "  Perhaps  from  the  Spanish 
or  dan-like  gravity  of  the  animal,  en- 
titled also  the  King  of  Spain's  trump- 
eter." L.,  who  cites  no  example,  con- 
nects it  with  German  dichhopf,  thick 
head.  Prof.  Skeat  says  that  the  root 
of  the  word  is  dun,  a  common  name 
for  horse  or  aps,  and  that  the  affix  is 
a  diminutive,  quasi  dunnakie  (see  his 
EtymoL  Diet).  It  will  be  seen  that 
Wolcot  gives  it  as  a  London  word. 
Pegge  cites  it  as  an  Essex  provincial- 
ism. 


Thou  think'st  thyself  on  Pegasus  so  steady, 
But,  Peter,  thou  art  mounted  on  a  Neddy ; 
Or  in  the  London  phrase,  thou  Devonshire 

monkey, 
Thy  Pegasus  is  nothing  but  a  donkey. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  lie. 

Donkeydrome,  course  for  a  donkey- 
race  :  an  imitation  of  hippodrome.  To 
avoid  hybridism  it  should  be  onodrome. 

The  long-eared  beasts  were  named  after 
the  horses  of  the  sun.  This  aspiring  enter- 
prise naturally  ended  in  the  two  charioteers 
being  left  sprawling  in  the  dust  of  the 
donkeydrome. —  Savage,  R.  Mcdlicott,  Bk.  I. 
ch.  v. 

Donnish,  pertaining  to  a  don.  Uni- 
versity tutors,  heads  of  houses,  &c. 
are  called  done,  and  donnish  is  gener- 
ally used  in  reference  to  this. 

Unless  a  man  can  get  the  prestige  and  in- 
come of  a  don,  and  write  donnish  books,  it's 
hardly  worth  while  for  him  to  make  a  Greek 
and  Latin  machine  of  himself.  —  G.  Eliot, 
Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xvi. 

Do-nothing,  idle ;  also  a  substantive. 

Why  haven't  yon  a  right  to  aspire  to  a 
college  education  as  any  do-nothing  canon 
there  at  the  abbey,  lad? — (X  Kingsley,  Alton 
Locke,  ch.  iv. 

Curse  them,  sleek,  hard-hearted,  impotent 
do-nothings. — Ibid.  ch.  xxxii. 

Do-nothing-ne88,  indolence. 

A  situation  of  similar  affluence  and  do- 
nothing-ness  would  have  been  much  more 
suited  to  her  capacity  than  the  exertions 
and  self-denials  of  the  one  which  her  im- 
prudent marriage  had  placed  her  in. — Miss 
Austen,  Mansfield  Park,  ch.  xxxviii. 

Doobless,  without  a  door. 

Through  the  doorless  stone  archway  he 
could  see  a  long  vista  of  the  plain  below. — 
C.  Kingsley,  Hypatia,  ch.  xiii. 

Dorado,  a  rich  man  (Spanish). 

As  in  casting  account  three  or  four  men 
together  come  short  in  account  of  one  man 
placed  by  himself  below  them,  so  neither  are 
a  troop  of  these  ignorant  Doradoes  of  that 
true  esteem  and  value  as  many  a  forlorn 
person  whose  condition  doth  place  him  be- 
neath their  feet.  —  Drown,  Religio  Medici, 
Pt.  II.  sect.  1. 

Dorfly,  cockchafer. 

This  forest  was  most  horribly  fertile  and 
copious  in  dorfies,  hornets,  and  wasps. — 
Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xvi. 

Dor-hawk,  night-hawk. 

The  dor-hawk,  solitary  bird, 
Bound  the  dim  crags  on  heavy  pinions  wheel- 
ing, 
With  untired  voice  sings  an  unvaried  time ; 


DORME 


(  *99  ) 


DOULCURE 


Those  burring  notes  are  all  that  can  be  heard 

In  silence  deeper  far  than  that  of  deepest 

noon. —  Wordsworth,  The  Waggoner,  c.  i. 

Dorme,  a  doze. 

Not  a  calm  and  soft  sleep  like  that  which 
oar  God  giveth  His  beloved  ones,  but  as  the 
slumbering  dormes  of  a  sick  man,  very  short, 
and  those  also  interrupted  with  a  medley  of 
cross  and  confused  fancies.  —  Sanderson,  i. 
146. 

Dormeb,  demurrer  (?). 

These  lawyers  have  such  delatory  and 
forren  pleas,  such  dormers,  such  quibs 
[quips  ?]  and  quiddits.  —  Greene,  Quip  for 
Upstart  Courtier  (Harl.  Misc.,  v.  407). 

Dobmient,  dormant. 

Books  were  not  published  then  so  soon  as 
they  were  written,  but  lay  most  commonly 
dormient  many  years. — Bramhall,  ii.  142. 

Dobmition,  si  umber. 

Wert  thou  disposed  ...  to  plead,  not  so 
much  for  the  utter  extinction  as  for  the  dor- 
vutione  of  the  soul. — Bp.  Hall,  Works,vii.  295. 

Dotel,  dotard. 

For  so  false  a  doctrine  so  foolish  unlearned 
a  drunken  dotel  is  a  meet  schoolmaster. — 
Pilkington,  p.  586. 

Dotes,  endowments.  Sidney  himself 
puts  the  word  into  the  mouth  of  a  pe- 
dantic schoolmaster. 

Corydon.  Sing  then,  and  shew  these  goodly 
dotes  in  thee, 
With  which  thy  brainless  youth  can  equal 
me. 
sienalcat.         ..... 

The  dotes,  old  dotard,  I  can  bring  to  prove 
My  self  deserv's  that  choice,  are  onely  love. 
R.  B.'s  Continuation  of  Sidney's 
Arcadia,  p.  516. 

Now  the  thunder-thumping  Jove  trans- 
fund  his  dotes  into  your  excellent  formositie. 
Sidney,  Wanstead  Play,  p.  619. 

Dottle,  "the  refuse  of  a  pipe  of 
tobacco  which  is  left  at  the  bottom  of 
the  pipe*'  (Jamieson).  This  meaning 
scarcely  seems  to  suit  the  second  ex- 
tract. 

A  snuffer-tray  containing  scraps  of  half- 
smoked  tobacco, «*  pipe  dottles"  as  he  called. 
them,  which  were  carefully  resmoked  over 
and  over  again,  till  nothing  but  ash  was  left. 
— C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  vi. 

Just  when  you  wake  from  a  dreamless 
sleep  beneath  the  forest  boughs,  as  the  east 
begins  to  blaze,  and  the  magpie  gets  musical, 
you  dash  to  the  embers  of  last  night's  fire, 
and  after  blowing  many  firesticks,  find  one 
which  is  alight,  and  proceed  to  send  abroad 
on  the  morning  breeze  the  scene  of  last 
night's  dottle. — //.  Kingdcy,  Geoffry  Hamlyn, 
ch.  xix. 


Double.  To  double  ears  =*  to  close 
them  (as  with  wearisome  talk). 

This  that  I  tell  you  is  rather  to  solace  your 
eares  with  pretie  conceits  after  a  sort  of  long 
scholasticall  preceptes  which  may  happen 
have  doubled  them,  rather  then  for  any  other 
purpose. — Puttenham,  Eng.  Potsie,  Bk.  III. 
ch.  xxiv. 

Double-Joe.  The  Portuguese  coin 
Joannes  is  worth  about  36*.  A  double- 
Joe  would  =  in  value  a  Spanish  doub- 
loon. 

Haply  he  deems  no  eye  can  see 
The  shining  store  of  glittering  ore, 
The  fair  rose-noble,  the  bright  moidore, 
And  the  broad  Double- Joe  from  ayont  the  sea. 
Jngoldshy  Let/ends  (Hand  of  Glory). 

Doublet,  a  false  jewel.  See  Hudi- 
bras,  IL  i.  601,  with  note  in  Grey's 
edition. 

You  may  have  a  brass  ring  gilt  with  a 
doublet  (gemmd  farticid)  for  a  small  matter. 
— Baileys  Erasmus,  p.  330. 

Doubt,  redoubt. 

Forward  be  all  vour  hands, 
Urge  one  another.    This  doubt  down  that 

now  betwixt  us  stands, 
Jove  will  go  with  us  to  their  walls. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xii.  286. 

Douceness,  sweetness. 

Some  luscious  delight,  yea,  a  kind  of  ravish- 
ing douceness  there  is  in  studying  good  books. 
—  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  166. 

Dough-baked,  imperfectly  baked,  nnd 
so,  deficient  in  intellect.  Cf.  Half- 
baked. 

[Love  can]  make  these  dough-baked,  sense 
less,  indocile  animals,  women,  too  hard  for 
us  their  politic  lords  and  rulers. —  fVycherley, 
Country  Wife,  iv.  4. 

The  devil  take  thee  for  an  insensible 
dough-baked  varlet !— Richardson,  CI.  Har- 
lowe,  vii.  131. 

As  to  your  milksops,  your  dough-baked 
lovers,  who  stay  at  home  and  strut  among 
the  women,  when  glory  is  to  be  gained  in 
the  martial  field,  I  despise  them  with  all  my 
heart. — Ibid.,  Grandison,  i.  89. 

Douke.  * '  The  yellow  dovke  or  carot " 
is  Holland's  parenthetical  explanation 
of  the  plant  which  "  the  Latines  name 
the  French  parsnip,  but  the  Greek es 
Daucus"  {Pliny,  xix.  5). 

Doulcure,  sweetness,  gentleness.  L. 
has  dulcour  as  a  rare  word,  with  ex- 
ample from  Addison. 

I  have  given  special  order  to  the  judges 
for  sweetness  and  doulcure  to  the  English 
Catholicks.— J/«cA<*, Life  of  Williams,\.  116. 


DO  UP 


(  200  ) 


DOWSEPER 


Doup,  bottom,  or  broad  end  (Scotch). 
The  word  iii  the  original  is  coque,  or 
shell. 

Was  not  Minerva  born  of  the  brain,  even 
through  the  ear  of  Jove?  Adonis  of  the 
bark  of  a  myrrh  tree,  and  Castor  and  Pollux 
of  the  doupe  of  that  egg  which  was  laid  and 
hatched  by  Led*?— Urjuhart's  Rabelais,  Bk. 
I.  vi. 

Dove-monger,  a  seller  of  doves. 

We  first  fix  our  eyes  on  this  purging  of 
the  temple  from  dove-mongers,  money-chang* 
ers,  and  such  as  sold  sheep  and  oxen  therein. 
—Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  III.  ix.  9. 

Dover  Court.  N.,  after  quoting 
from  Ray  the  proverb,  "Dover-court, 
all  speakers  and  no  hearers,"  doubts 
whether  the  reference  is  to  Dovercourt 
in  Essex,  or  to  some  court  at  Dover 
rendered  tumultuous  by  the  numerous 
resort  of  seamen.  North  certainly  un- 
derstood it  of  Dover. 

They  were  at  variance  before  the  sheriff, 
as  in  the  proverbial  court  at  Dover,  all  speak- 
ers and  no  hearers. — North,  Examen,  p.  517. 

I  thought  the  whole  room  was  a  very  per- 
fect resemblance  of  Dover-court,  where  all 
speak,  but  nobody  heard  or  answered. — T. 
Brown,  Works,  III.  66. 

Dowde,  a  slatternly  woman. 

Except  Phosbus  (which  is  the  sonne)  had 
oughed  Voconius  a  6hame,  he  would  neuer 
haue  suffreed  him  to  begette  soche  foule 
babies  and  oule  faced  doudes  as  all  the  worlde 
should  afterward  wondre  at.— UdaVs  Eras- 
mush  Apophth.,  p.  344. 

Doest  thou,  being  f aire,  murmur©  at  the 
preferment  of  a  foule  one,  and  in  thy  rage 
calle  her  foule  dowde?— Breton,  A  Murmurer, 
p.  9. 

Dowgate.  The  devil  of  Dowgate. 
In  Dekker's  Satiromastix  (Hawkins, 
iii.  140),  Tucca,  addressing  a  woman 
by  various  names  out  of  old  story- 
books, calls  her,  among  the  rest,  "  My 
little  devil  0' Dowgate." 

He  does  so  ruffle  before  my  mistress  with 
his  barbarian  eloquence,  and  strut  before  her 
in  a  pair  of  Polonian  legs,  as  if  he  were  a 
gentleman-usher  to  the  Great  Turk,  or  the 
devil  of  Dowgate. — Wily  Beguiled  (Hawkins, 
Eng.  Dr.,  iii.  342). 

Dowl.  See  extract.  H.  gives  "  doul, 
a  wooden  pin  or  plug  to  fasten  planks 
with."  " 

These  boards  are  glued  together  and  dowled 
(fastened  to  each  other  by  plugs  like  the 
head  of  a  cask)  to  prevent  warping. — Arch., 
xxxvi.  458. 

Dowl,   a    great    blotch.      Jamieson 


gives,  "  Dowl,  a  large  piece,  as  dowles 
of  cheese." 

His  hat  (though  blacke)  lookes  like  a  medley 

hat, 
For  black's  the  ground,  which  sparingly  ap- 

peares, 
Then  heer's  a  dowle,  and  there  a  dabb  of  fat, 
Which  as  vnhansom  hangs  about  bis  earea. 
Davies,  Scourge  of  Folly,  p.  19. 

Down,  to  be  down  upon  ones  luck 
=  to  despond. 

Mr.  Eden,  on  the  contrary,  wore  a  sombre 
air.  Hawes  noticed  it,  mistook  it,  and  pointed 
it  out  to  Fry.  **  He  is  down  upon  his  luck  ; 
he  knows  he  is  coming  to  an  end." — Reade, 
Never  too  late  to  mend,  ch.  xxiii. 

Down  beard,  the  winged  seed  of  the 
thistle  or  sow-thistle. 

It  is  frightful  to  think  how  every  idle 
volume  flies  abroad  like  an  idle  globular 
downbeard,  embryo  of  new  millions;  every 
word  of  it  a  potential  seed  of  infinite  new 
downbeards  and  volumes. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv. 
263. 

Downcome,  heavy  fall ;  often  used 
colloquially  of  a  pouring  rain. 

Whenever  the  pope  shall  fall,  if  his  ruin 
be  not  like  the  sudden  downcome  of  a  tower, 
the  bishops,  when  they  see  him  tottering, 
will  leave  him. — Milton,  Reformation  in  Eng^ 
Bk.  I. 

Down-set,  nadir  or  lowest  point. 

The  rebels  . .  .  thought  it  their  best  and 
safest  course  straightly  to  besiege  it :  for  the 
Earle  supposed  it  was  the  most  important 
place  to  offend  and  annoy  them,  as  that  both 
his  honour  and  his  fortunes  were  for  ever  at 
their  down-set  if  he  might  not  recover  it. — 
Holland's  Camden,  vol.  ii.  p.  128. 

Down-weight,  full  weight. 

For  every  ounce  of  vanity  they  shall  receive 
downweight  a  pound  of  sorrow. — Adams,  i. 
310. 

It  was  not  possible  that  one  should  be  more 
liberal  than  Dean  Williams  was  in  attributing 
due  and  down-weight  to  every  man's  gifts.— 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  69. 

Downy,  having   downs;    the  word 

usually  =  soft  as  down. 

Halldown  . . .  seems  to  be  the  same  vein 
of  land  of  which  the  Forest  of  Dartmore, 
and  the  downy  part  of  Ashburton,  Islington, 
Bridford,  &c,  consist. — Defoe,  Tour  thro*  Gt. 
Britain,  i.  382. 

Do  WORD,  to  tell. 

Assure  thyself  that  when  we  come  to  the 
King,  we  will  do  him  tcorrf  of  this  thy  be- 
haviour.— Bunyan,  Pilgrim's  Progress,  i.  176. 

Dowseper,  one  of  the  douzenairs  of 
Charlemagne.     H.  has  examples  of  it 


DO  WSING 


(  201  )        DRAMATURGIST 


i  n  this  literal  meaning,  s.  v.  dozeper. 
Bale  uses  it  contemptuously  for  a 
champion. 

No  wise  man  will  think  that  Christ  will 
dwell  in  a  mouse,  nor  yet  that  a  mouse  can 
dwell  in  Christ,  though  it  be  the  doctrine  of 
these  doughty  dowsepers.— Bale,  Select  Works, 
p.  155. 

Dowsing,  a  thrashing.  The  word 
is  more  often  applied  to  putting  out  a 
candle  ;  "  dowse  the  glim  "  is  slang  or 
thieves'  cant  for  this.  Some  of  the 
quotations  in  R.,  s.  v.  dowse,  show  that 
the  word  was  in  use  before  Mr.  Dows- 
ing's  time  (Ang.  Sax.,  dwcesean,  to 
extinguish). 

A  certain  William  Dowsing,  who  during 
the  Great  Rebellion  was  one  of  the  Parlia- 
mentary visitors  for  demolishing  superstitions 
pictures  and  ornaments  of  churches,  is  sup- 
posed by  a  learned  critic  to  have  given  use  to 
an  expression  in  common  use  among  school- 
boys and  blackguards.  For  this  worshipful 
commissioner  broke  so  many  *'  mighty  great 
angels  "  in  glass,  knocked  so  many  apostles 
and  cherubims  to  pieces,  demolished  so  mauy 
pictures  and  stone  crosses,  and  boasted  with 
such  puritanical  rancour  of  what  he  had  done, 
that  it  is  conjectured  the  threat  of  giving 
any  one  a  dowsing  preserves  his  rascally  name. 
— SotUhey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cxxv. 

Dozzled,  dazed,  bewildered. 

In  such  a  perplexity  every  man  asks  his 
fellow,  What's  best  to  be  done  ?  and,  being 
dozzled  with  fear,  thinks  every  man  wiser 
than  himself  .—Racket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii. 
142. 

Drabble.  H.  has  drabble,  to  draggle 
in  the  mire  ;  the  noun  probably  means 
much  the  same  as  rabble. 

He  thought  some  Presbyterian  rabble 
In  test-repealing  spite  were  come  to  flout 
him, 
Or  some  fierce  Methodistic  drabble. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  54. 

Drabled,  draggled,  limp  with  moist- 
ure. 

The  next  day  following,  if  it  were  faire, 
they  would  cloud  the  whole  skie  with  can- 
vas by  spreading  their  drabled  sailes  in  the 
full  cine  abroad  a-drying. — Nasiie,  Lenten 
Stuffe  iHarl.  Misc.,  vi.  149). 

Dbaconically,  severely,  after  the 
manner  of  Draco. 

They  were  also  in  their  judicial  courts 
equally  tyrannous ;  the  one  in  the  Chancery, 
the  other  in  the  High  Commission ;  both  of 
them  at  the  Council-board  and  in  the  Star- 
chamber  alike  draconically  supercilious. — 
—  WoUey  and  Laud,  1641  (Harl.  Misc.,'vr. 
509). 


Draffle-sacked,  filled  with  draff,  or 
hogswash. 

Wo  be  to  that  glutton  which,  en  farcing  his 
own  stinking  and  draffiesacked  belly  with  all 
kind  of  pleasant  and  dainty  dishes,  suffer- 
eth  his  poor  needy  neighbour  to  perish  for 
hunger.— Btcon,  ii.  691. 

Draffsack,  a  sack  full  of  hog's  wash, 
so  a  gross,  greedy  fellow.     See  H.  s.  v. 

I  bade  menne  to  approche,  and  not  dounge- 
hylles  or  draffesackes. —  UdaVs  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  93. 

Drafty,  pertaining  to  a  draught  or 
jakes. 

Are  there  not  diuerse  skauingers  of  draftye 
poetrye  iu  this  oure  age?— Stany hurst,  Virgil, 
Dedic. 

Dragsman,  driver  of  a  drag  or  coach. 

He  had  a  word  for  the  hostler  about "  that 
grey  mare,"  a  nod  for  the  shooter  or  guard, 
ana  a  bow  for  the  dragsman. — Thackeray, 
Shabby  Genteel  Story,  ch.  i. 

Draostaff,  a  brake  or  scotcher. 

The  coach  wauting  a  dragstaff,  it  ran  back 
in  spite  of  all  the  coachman's  skill. — Defoe, 
Tour  thro'  G.  Brit.,  ii.  297.  | 

Drain,  a  drink  (slang). 

Those  two  old  men  who  came  in  u  just  to 
have  a  drain  *'  finished  their  third  quartern 
a  few  seconds  ago. — Sketches  by  Boz  (Gin- 
shops). 

Dram,  to  indulge  in  or  ply  with 
drams. 

It  is  loving  melancholy  till  it  is  not  strong 
enough,  and  he  grows  to  dram  with  horror. — 
Walpole,  Letters,  Aug.  28, 1752. 

Matron  of  matrons,  Martha  Haras ! 
Dram  your  poor  newsman  clad  m  rags, 
Warton,  Neicsman's  Verses  for  1770. 
He  will  soon  sink ;  I  foresaw  what  would 
come  of  his  dramming. — Foote,  The  Bankrupt, 
iii.  2. 

The  parents  in  that  fine  house  are  getting 
ready  their  daughter  for  sale,  .  .  .  praying 
her,  and  imploring  her,  aud  dramming  her, 
and  coaxing  her. — Thackeray,  The  Newcomes, 
ch.  xxviii. 

Dramaturgic,  histrionic,  and  so  un- 
real. 

Our  Assembly  of  Divines  sitting  earnestly 
deliberative  ever  since  June  last  will  direct 
us  what  form  of  worship  we  are  to  adopt ; 
some  form,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  not  grown 
dramaturgic  to  us,  but  still  awfully  symbol* 
ical  for  us. — Carlyle,  Cromwell,  i.  145. 

Dramaturgist,  contriver  of  a  drama. 

How  silent  now ;  all  departed,  clean  gone ! 
The  World- Dramaturgist  has  written,  Exeunt. 
— Carlyle,  Past  and  Present,  Bk.  II.  ch.  ii. 


DRAMATURGY        (  202  ) 


DRICKS1E 


Dramaturgy,  histrionism ;  theatri- 
cal ness. 

The  Millenary  petition  .  .  .  and  various 
other  petitions  to  his  Majesty  by  persons  of 
pious  straitened  consciences  had  been  pre- 
sented; craving  relief  in  some  ceremonial 
points,  which,  as  they  found  no  warrant  for 
them  in  the  Bible,  they  suspected,  with  a 
very  natural  shudder  in  that  case,  to  savour 
of  idol-worship  and  mimetic  dramaturgy. — 
Carlyle,  Cromwell,  i.  29. 

Drash.  to  thrash.  H.  gives  it  as  a 
Somerset  word,  but  the  extract  is  in  the 
dialect  of  the  next  county,  Devon. 

Now  Hawtry  took  a  world  of  pain, 
He  did  so  drash  about  his  brain, 
That  was  not  over-stored. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  157. 

Drattle,  a  mild  imprecation.  H. 
suggests  that  it  may  be  a  corruption  of 
throttle  ;  perhaps,  however,  it  is  a  fre- 
quentative form  of  drat. 

Drattle  'em  ;  thaay  be  mwore  trouble  than 
they  be  wuth. — Hughe*,  Tom  Brown  at  Ox- 
ford, ch.  xxiii. 

Draughts,  draught-cattle  (?). 

The  officers  and  soldiers  .  .  .  shall  be 
accomodate  with  draughts  in  their  march. — 
Rushworth,  Hist.  Coll.  (1644),  v.  649. 

Draw,  a  feeler ;  something  designed 

to  draw  on  a  person  to  show  or  reveal 

what  otherwise  might  be  hidden. 

This  was  what  in  modern  days  is  called  a 
draw.  It  was  a  guess  put  boldly  forth  as 
fact,  to  elicit  by  the  young  man's  answer 
whether  he  had  been  there  lately  or  not. — 
Beade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  v. 

Drawglove.  Drawgloves  was  a 
game  something  like  talking  on  the 
fingers :  it  is  frequently  referred  to  by 
Heriick.  See  N.  The  subjoined  is  a 
late  instance,  even  if  we  take,  not  the 
date  of  the  book,  but  the  time  in  which 
the  scene  is  laid,  viz. ,  subsequent  to  the 
devolution  of  1688.  The  singular 
form  is  also  noticeable. 

After  dinner  the  children  were  set  to 
questions  and  commands ;  but  here  our  hero 
was  beaten  hollow,  as  be  was  afterward  at 
drawglove  and  shuffle  the  slipper. — H.  Brooke, 
Fool  of  Quality,  i.  21. 

Drawing,  being  drawn.  For  a  similar 
use  of  the  participle  by  Miss  Austen, 
see  Bringing,  Carrying. 

Precedents  are  searching  and  plans  drawing 
up  for  that  purpose. —  Walpole,  Letters,  i.  94 

(1741). 

Drawlatch.  This  word  as  a  substan- 
tive =  thief  is  in  the  Dicta. ;  but  it  is 


used  by  Nashe  as  a  verb  =  to  creep  in 
furtively.     See  extract «.  v.  Bawwaw. 

Dreadnought,  see  quotation. 

Look  at  him  in  a  great-coat  of  the  closest 
texture  that  the  looms  of  Leeds  could  fur- 
nish—one of  those  dreadnoughts  the  utility 
of  which  seta  fashion  at  defiance.— Southey, 
The  Doctor,  ch.  lvii. 

Her  pleasant  face  peeped  over  the  collar 
and  capes  of  a  stout  dreadnought. — Lytton, 
My  Novel,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xi. 

Drearysome,  dreary. 
Who  roams  the  old  ruins  this  drearysome 
night? 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (  Witches9  Frolic). 

Dredgerman,  one  engaged  in  dredg- 
ing. 

In  these  courts  they  appoint . . .  the  quan- 
tity [of  oysters]  each  Dredgerman  shall  take 
in  a  day,  which  is  usually  called  Setting  the 
Stint.— Defoe,  Tour  thro*  G.  Brit.,  i.  160. 

Dresser,  a  hospital  student  or  attend- 
ant who  dresses  wounds. 

The  magistrate  and  clerk  were  bowed  in 
by  the  house-surgeon  and  a  couple  of  young 
men  who  smelt  very  strong  of  tobacco- 
smoke  ;  they  were  introduced  as  M  dressers." 
—Sketches  by  Boz  (The  Hospital  Patient). 

Dressing,  scolding ;  chastisement. 

If  ever  I  meet  him  again,  I  will  give  him 
such  a  dressing  as  he  has  not  had  this  many 
a  fay.— Miss  Austen,  Sense  and  Sensibility,  ch. 

XXX. 

Dribbet,  driblet. 

Their  poor  pittances  are  injuriously  com- 
pounded, and  slowly  payd  by  dribbets,  and 
with  infinite  delayes.— Gauden,  Tears  of  th* 
Church,?.  143. 

Dribblement,  a  trifle. 

To  shun  spight  I  smothered  these  dribMe- 
ments.—Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi. 
153). 

Dribbler,  one  who  weakly  maun- 
ders ;  a  driveller. 

The  aspirants  and  wranglers  at  the  bar, 
the  dribblers  and  the  spit-fires  (these  are  of 
both  sorts),  .  .  .  what  opinion  will  they  pro- 
nounce in  their  utter  ignorance  of  the  author? 
— Southey,  The  Doctor,  Interchapter  vii. 

Dribleting,  coming  drop  by  drop, 
and  so  meagre,  scanty. 

That  biting  poverty  or  tennity  of  their 
worldly  condition  . . .  hardly  to  be  relieved 
by  those  dribfitinq  pittances. — Gauden,  Tears 
of  the  Church,  p.  276. 

Dricksie,  dwarfish ;  stunted  (?). 
Dreich  or  Droich  is  a  Scotch  word  for 
dwarf.     See  Jamieson. 


DRIGE 


(  203  )  DROWNDED 


We  liken  a  yotrag  childe  to  a  greene 
twigge  which  ye  may  easiiie  bende  euery 
way  ye  list:  or  an  old  man  who  laboureth 
with  con  tin  u  all  iufirmities  to  a  drie  and 
dricksie  oke. — Puttenham,  Eng,  Poesie,  Bk. 
III.  ch.  zlx. 

DrigB,  drag  (?). 

Suppose  the  gentleman  wants  pence,  he 
[the  sergeant]  will  eyther  have  a  pawne,  or 
else  drige  him  to  the  counter. — Greene,  Quip 
for  Upstart  Courtier  (Karl.  Misc.,  v.  408). 

Dringle.  John  Dringle  seems  to 
belong  to  the  same  family  as  Tom 
Noddy.     To  dringte  is  to  dawdle. 

O  bnt  fsayth  another  John.  Dringle)  there 
is  a  booke  of  the  Bed  Herring's  Taile  printed 
four  terms  since,  that  made  this  stale. — 
Nash*,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  145). 

Dririmancy. 

There  learned  I  dririmancy,  scatomancy, 
pathology,  therapeasis,  and,  greater  than  all, 
anatomy. — Read*,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch. 
xx  vi. 

Drizzle,  light,  small  rain. 

Besides — why  could  you  not  for  drizzle  pray  ? 
Why  force  it  down  in  buckets  on  the  hay  ? 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  160. 

Droit,  a  due. 

The  pilfering*  of  the  orchard  and  garden 
I  confiscated  as  droits. — Marryat,  Fr.  Mild- 
may,  ch.  i. 

Drollic,  pertaining  to  a  droll  or 
puppet-show. 

Wild  .  .  took  forth  .  .  .  one  of  those 
beautiful  necklaces  with  which  at  the  fair  of 
Bartholomew  they  deck  the  well-whitened 
neck  of  Thalestris,  Queen  of  the  Amazons, 
Anna  Bullen,  Queen  Elizabeth,  or  some 
other  high  princess  in  drollic  story. — Field- 
ing, Jonathan  Wild,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iii. 

Drone,  drone-pipe  or  bagpipe. 

The  harmony  of  them  that  pipe  in  record- 
ers, flutes,  and  drones,  and  the  shrill  shout 
of  trumpets,  waites,  and  shawms,  shall  no 
more  be  heard  in  thee  to  the  delight  of  men. 
—Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  536. 

Drool,  to  drivel.  H.  gives  it  as  a 
Somersetshire  word. 

There  the  slave-holder  finds  the  chief 
argument  for  his  ownership  of  men,  and  in 
Africa  or  New  England  kidnaps  the  weak, 
his  mouth  drooling  with  texts. — Theod.  Parker 
{Life  by  Dean,  p.  159). 

Drop.     A  foal  is  technically  said  to 

be  dropped  when  it  is  born. 

I  will  allow  my  aunt  to  be  the  most  polite, 
intellectual,  delicate  -  minded  old  lady  in 
creation,  my  dearest  father,  if  you  wish  it ; 
only,  not  having  been  born  (I  beg  her  par- 
don, dropped)  in  a  racing-stable  as  she  was 


herself,  I  can  hardly  appreciate  her  conversa- 
tion always. — H.  Kingstey,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  v. 

Who  but  Tom  could  have  lit  the  old  man's 
face  up  with  a  smile  with  the  history  of  a 
new  colt  that  my  lord's  mare  Thetis  had 
dropped  last  week  Y—Ibid.,  Geoffry  Hamlyn, 
ch.  xvii. 

Drop.  To  have  a  drop  in  the  eye  = 
to  be  drunk. 

Nev.  O  faith,  Colonel,  you  must  own  you 
had  a  drop  in  your  eye,  for  when  I  left  you 
you  were  half  seas  over.— Swift,  Polite  Con- 
versation (Conv.  i.). 

Dropless,  seems  applied  in  the  ex- 
tract to  damp  which  comes  insensibly 
in  the  air,  as  distinguished  from  that 
caused  by  rain. 

You,  O  ye  wingless  Airs,  that  creep  between 
The  rigid  stems  of  heath  and  bitten  furze, 
Within  whose  scanty  shade,  at  summer-noon, 
The  mother-sheep  hath  worn  a  hollow  bed — 
Ye  that  now  cool  her  fleece  with  dropless 

damp, 
Now  pant  and  murmur  with  her  feeding 

lamb.— Coleridge,  The  Picture, 

Droning,  little  drop. 

Bightly  to  speak,  what  Man  we  call  and 
count, 
It  is  a  beamling  of  Diuinity, 
It  is  a  dropling  of  th'  EternaU  Fount 
It  is  a  moatling  hatcht  of  th'  Vnity. 

Sylvester,  Quadrains  ofPibrac,  st.  13. 

Drop-ripe,  so  ripe  as  to  be  ready  to 
drop  off  the  tree. 

The  fruit  was  now  drop-ripe  we  may  say, 
and  fell  by  a  shake.— Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  274. 

Dropsy-dry,  thirsty  through  dropsy. 
Many  dropsy-drie  forbeare  to  drinke 
Because  they  know  their  ill  'twould  aggra- 
vate.— Davies,  Microcosmos,  p.  25. 

Drowl,  to  utter  in  a  mournful  man- 
ner ;  perhaps  connected  with  drawl. 

O  sons  and  daughters  of  Jerusalem,  drowl 
out  an  elegy  for  good  King  Josias  l—Hacket, 
Life  of  Williams,  ii.  224. 

Drownage,  submersion. 

An  example  to  us  all,  not  of  lamed  misery, 
helpless  spiritual  bewilderment,  and  sprawl- 
ing despair,  or  any  kind  of  drownage  m  the 
foul  water  of  our  so  called  religious  or  other 
controversies  and  confusions,  but  of  a  swift 
and  valiant  vanquisher  of  all  these.— Carlyle. 
Life  of  Sterling,  Pt.  I.  ch.  i. 

Drownded,  a  common  vulgarism  for 
drowned. 

In  my  own  Thames  may  I  be  drownded, 
If  e'er  I  stoop  beneath  a  crown  *d  head. 

Surift,  Pastoral  Dialogue. 


BROWNER 


(  204  ) 


DUCK 


Take  pity  upon  poor  Miss;  don't  throw 
water  on  a  drownded  rat. — Ibid.,  Polite  Con," 
vcrsation  (Oonv.  i.). 

"  My  brother  Joe  was  his  father,"  said  Mr. 
Peggotty.  "Dead,  Mr.  Peggotty?"  I  hinted, 
after  a  respectful  pause.  "  Drotendead"  said 
Mr.  Peggotty.  —  Dickens,  David  Copper  field, 
ch.  iii. 

Drowner.     See  extract. 

In  June  last  a  further  discovery  was  made 
by  Robert  Wallan,  the  drowner  or  person  in 
charge  of  the  water  meadows,  —  Archaol., 
xxriv.  259  (1851). 

Drowse,  a  slumber. 

On  a  sudden  many  a  voice  along  the  street, 
And  heel  against   the  pavement   echoing, 

broke 
Their  drowse, — Tennyson,  Geraint  and  Enid. 

Drowsy-evil,  lethargy. 

If  a  man  or  woman  be  brought  to  extreme 
oblivion,  as  they  be  that  have  the  disease 
called  Letbargus  or  the  drowsy e-evill. — Touch' 
stone  of  Complexions,  p.  126. 

Droy,   to    labour;    usually    written 
droit* 
He  which  can  in  office  drudge  and  droy. 

Gascoigne,  Steele  Glasse,  p.  68. 

D RODGER,  a  drageoir  or  bonbon  box 
in  which  comfits  (dragSes)  were  kept. 
See  Lord  Braybrooke's  note  in  loc. 

To  London,  and  there  among  other  things 
did  look  over  some  pictures  at  Cade's  for  my 
house,  and  did  carry  home  a  silver  drudger 
for  my  cupboard  of  plate. — Pepys,  Feb.  2, 
1665-6. 

Druggel,  a  term  of  reproach. 

Slapsauce  fellows,  alabberdegullion  drug- 
gels,  lubbardly  louts. —  Urquharfs  Rabelais, 
Bk.  I.  ch.  zrv. 

Drum,  a  drummer. 

I  was  brought  from  prison  into  the  town 
of  Xeres  by  two  drums  and  a  hundred  shot. 
—  Peake,  Thru  to  Onet  1625  {Arber,  Eng. 
Gamer,  i.  633). 

Drum.  Drunk  as  a  drum  =  very 
dr  ink  ;  for  similar  comparisons  see  s.  v. 
Drunk.  We  say  tight  as  a  drum,  re- 
ferring to  the  tension  of  the  skin: 
tight  is  also  slang  for  drunk,  but  per- 
haps there  is  no  connection  between 
the  two  phrases.  See  extract  from 
Cotton,  8.  v.  Wheelbarbow. 

Ton  must  know  that  the  fellow  got  pre- 
sently as  drunk  as  a  drum;  so  I  had  him 
tumbled  into  a  chair,  and  ordered  the  fellows 
to  carry  him  home.  —  Farquhar,  Sir  Henry 
Wildair,  iv.  2. 

1) rumble-drone,  a  drone. 

Oh,  Mr.  Gary,  we  have  all  known  your 


pleasant  ways,  ever  since  you  used  to  put 
d rumble  -  drones  into  my  desk  to  Bideford 
school. — C.  Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  xviii. 

Drum-room,  ball-room. 

_  The  bonny  housemaid  begins  to  repair  the 
disordered  drum-room. — Fielding,  Tom  Jones, 
Bk.  XI.  ch.  ix. 

Drunk,  see  s.  w.  David's  sow,  Drum, 
Fish,  Lord,  Piper,  Rat,  Wheelbarrow. 

Dry,  bloodless.  The  extract  refers 
to  a  war  carried  on  by  excommunica- 
tions and  the  like. 

Thus  are  both  sides  busied  in  this  drie 
warre,  wherein,  though  there  were  no  sword, 
yet  it  gave  vexation  ynough. — Daniel,  Hist, 
of  Eng.,  p.  75. 

Dry-ditch,  to  labour  without  result, 
as  those  who  vainly  dig  for  water. 

There  would  be  no  end  to  repeat  with  how 
many  quarrels  this  unfortunate  Bishop  was 
provok'd,  yet  his  adversaries  did  but  dty- 
ditch  their  matters,  and  digged  in  vain, 
though  they  still  cast  up  earth. — Hacket, 
Life  of  Williams,  ii.  98. 

How  many  offers  of  accordance  did  he 
make  in  that  very  instant !  how  many  mes- 
sengers were  posted  to  London !  which  was 
no  better  than  to  dry-diteh  the  business,  for 
every  offer  of  grace  made  his  enemies 
haughty.-/***.,  ii.  188. 

Dualist,  one  who  holds  two  offices. 

He  was  a  Duallist  in  that  Convent  (and  if 
a  Pluralist  no  ingenious  person  would  have 
envied  him)  being  Canter  of  that  Church, 
and  Library-Keeper  therein. — Fuller,  Wor- 
thies, Wilts  (ii.  448). 

Duarchy,  the  rule  of  two  persons. 
Cf .  Triarchy. 

A  duarchie  in  the  Church  (viz.  two  Arch- 
bishops equal  in  power)  being  inconsistent 
with  a  monarchie  in  the  state,  they  have 
ever  countenanced  the  superiority  of  Canter- 
bury.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  III.  ii.  3. 

Dubitate,  to  doubt. 

What  dubitating,  what  circumambulating ! 
These  *vbole  six  noisy  months  (for  it  began 
with  Brienne  in  July)  has  not  Report  fol- 
lowed Report,  and  one  proclamation  flown  in 
the  teeth  of  the  other? — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev., 
Pt.  I.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  i. 

Much  in  these  two  hours  depends  on  Bou- 
ille ;  as  it  shall  now  fare  with  him,  the  whole 
future  may  be  this  way  or  be  that.  If,  for 
example,  he  were  to  loiter  dulntating  and  not 
come;  if  he  were  to  come  and  fail. — Ibid., 
Pt.  II.  Bk.  II.  ch.  vi. 

Duck.  A  lame  duck  is  Stock  Ex- 
change slang-  for  a  defaulter.  The  two 
first  quotations  belong  to  the  same 
year. 


DUCK  AND  DRAKE      (  205  )  DULCETNESS 


I  may  be  lame,  but  I  shall  never  be  a  duck, 
nor  deal  in  the  garbage  of  the  alley. —  Wal- 
pole,  Letters,  iii.  377  (1771). 

The  gaming  fools  are  doves,  the  knaves  are 

rooks, 
Change-alley   bankrupts  waddle   out    lame 

ducks. 

Garrick,  Prologue  to  Footers  Maid  of  Bath. 

Unless  I  see  Amelia's  ten  thousand  down 
you  don't  marry  her.  Ill  have  no  lame 
duck's  daughter  in  my  family. — Thackeray, 
Vanity  Fair,  ch.  ziii. 

Duck  and  drake,  to  waste  idly ;  to 
throw  away  anything,  as  children  do 
the  stones  in  the  game  of  that  name. 

I  would  neither  fawn  on  money  for 
money's  sake,  nor  duck  and  drake  it  away 
for  a  frolick. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  18. 

Is  it  then  no  harm  to  saunter  away  our 
lives,  and  like  children,  duck  and  drake  away 
a  treasure  able  to  buy  Paradise  ? — Ibid.  p. 
116. 

Duck's- meat,  a  term  of  reproach, 
ducks  not  being  clean  feeders. 

Here's  your  first  weapon,  ducksmeat! — 
Massinger,  Old  Law,  III.  ii. 

Duddle.  H.  says  "to  make  luke- 
warm," it  may  therefore  in  the  extract 
=  to  check  or  repulse,  but  perhaps  it 
is  meant  for  dudder,  to  shake.  See  R., 
who,  however,  has  it  only  as  a  neuter 
verb.  Patton  says  that  the  Scots  were 
provided  with  rattles  to  frighten  the 
horses  of  the  English  cavalry ; 

Howbeit  because  the  riders  were  no  babies, 
nor  their  horses  any  colts,  they  could  neither 
duddle  the  one  nor  affray  the  other. — Expcd. 
to  Scotl.,  1547  (Eng.  Garner,  iii.  129). 

Duddle,  nipple  (of  the  breast). 

Then  to  his  lips  Madge  held  the  bottle, 
On  which  he  suckt  as  child  at  duddle. 

Ward,  England's  Reformation,  p.  242. 

Duddles,  rags. 

So  good  men  now,  searching  the  festered 
cankers,  and  ripping  the  stinking  duddles  of 
popery  for  a  time,  smell  evil  in  the  noses  of 
the  wicked.— Pilkington,  p.  212. 

Duelsome,  given  to  duelling. 

Incorrigibly  duelsome  on  his  own  account, 
he  is  for  others  the  most  acute  and  peaceable 
counsellor  in  the  world. — Thackeray,  Paris 
Sketchbook,  ch.  ii. 

Due-timely,  in  good  time. 

I  have  for  both  been  caref ull  to  provide ; 
Their  extreme  thirst  due-timely  to  refresh, 
Conducting  them  vnto  a  fountaine  fresh. 
Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  1002. 

Duffer,  a  fool  or  blunderer:  pro- 
perly a   pedlar;    then,   a    hawker  of 


sham  jewellery,  watches  without 
works,  &c.  The  Slang  Diet,  says,  "  It 
is  mentioned  in  the  Frauds  of  London 
(1760)  as  a  word  in  frequent  use  in  the 
last  century  to  express  cheats  of  all 
kinds."  An  example  of  its  use  in  this 
last  sense  by  Dickens  will  be  found  s.  v. 
Cannibalio. 

"And  do  you  get  £800  for  a  small  pic- 
ture?" Mackenzie  asked  severely.  "Well, 
no,"  Johnny  said,  with  a  laugh,  "but  then  I 
am  a  duffer"— Black,  Princess  of  Thule,  ch. 
xxv. 

Dukeb.  The  Diet.  Rusticum  (1704) 
says  "  Ditcher  or  Doucker  is  a  kind  of 
cock  that  in  fighting  will  run  about  the 
clod  [i.  e.  pit]  almost  at  every  blow  he 
gives."  This  term  seems  in  the  ex- 
tract to  be  transferred  to  a  fidgetty, 
restless  horse. 

Do  you  love  a  spurr'd  horse  better  than  a 
duker  that  neighs  and  scrapes. — Killigrew, 
Parson's  Wedding,  V.  iv. 

Dukery,  duchy.  R.  has  diichery, 
with  a  quotation  from  Fabyan.  A 
certain  district  in  Nottinghamshire  is 
called  the  Dukery  from  having  had 
several  ducal  residences  in  the  vicinity. 
See  second  extract. 

The  Albertine  line,  electoral  though  it  now 
was,  made  apanages,  subdivisions,  unintel- 
ligible little  dukes  and  dukeries  of  a  similar 
kind. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  369. 

The  Dukeries  still  exist,  but  they  are  little 
more  than  a  geographical  expression.  Wel- 
beck  Abbey  is  the  last  of  those  palaces  for 
which  this  part  of  England  was  formerly 
famous.  Thoresby,  indeed,  remains,  but  it 
is  not  the  Thoresby  of  old.  Nor  has  it  now 
a  ducal  occupant,  and  the  successor  of  their 
Graces  of  Kingston  is  Earl  Manvers.  Clum- 
ber continues  under  the  shadow  of  a  domestic 
eclipse.  Worksop  Manor  has  changed  hands 
more  than  once  in  the  last  fifty  years,  and  is 
now  the  property  of  a  Commoner.  Of  Kive- 
ton  Hall,  where  once  the  Duke  of  Leeds 
dwelt,  not  one  stone  is  left  standing  upon 
another.— Standard,  Dec.  8, 1879. 

Dulce,  to  soothe. 

Severus, .  .  .  (because  he  would  not  leave 
an  enemie  behind  at  his  backe)  .  .  .  wisely 
with  good  foresight  dulceth  and  kindly  in- 
treateth  the  men. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  68. 

Dulcet,  sweet-bread. 

Thee  stagg  upbreaking  they  slit  to  the 
dulcet  or  inchepyn. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.  218. 

Dulcetnes8,  sweetness. 

Be  it  so  that  there  were  no  discommodities 
mingled  with  the  commodities ;  yet  as  I  be- 
fore have  said,  the  brevity  and  short  time 


DULLER Y 


(  206  ) 


DUNG-FARMER 


that  we  have  to  use  them  should  assuage 
their  dulcetness. — Bradford,  \.  338. 

Dullery,  dulnees ;  stupidity. 

Master  Antitus  of  Oresseplots  was  lieen- 
tiated,  and  had  passed  his  degrees  in  all 
dullery  and  blockishness. — Urquhart'*  Babe" 
lais,  Bk.  II.  ch.  zi. 

Dullish,  rather  dull  or  phlegmatic. 

They  are  somewhat  heavy  in  motion  and 
dullish,  which  must  be  imputed  to  the  quality 
of  the  clime. — Ho well ',  Parly  of  Beasts ,  p.  12. 

Dully,  dull. 

Far  off  she  seem'd  to  hear  the  dully  sound 
Of  human  footsteps  fall. 

Tennyson,  Palace  of  Art. 

Dumbledore,  humble  bee. 

Betsey  called  it  [monk's-hood]  the  dumble- 
dore's  delight,  and  was  not  aware  that  the 
plant  in  whose  helmet — rather  than  cowl — 
shaped  flowers  that  busy  and  best-natured  of 
all  insects  appears  to  revel  more  than  in  any 
other  is  the  deadly  aconite  of  which  we  read 
in  poetry. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cviii. 

'  Dumb  waiter,  a  revolving  tray  on 
which  various  articles  are  placed. 

A  number  of  servants  then  vanished  on 
the  instant,  leaving  a  dumb  waiter  of  silver 
behind  them.— H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  ii. 
260. 

Dump,  to  grieve  ;  to  sulk. 

With  choloricque  fretting  I  dumpt  and 
ranckled  in  anguish. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  ii. 
103. 

Dumping,  dulness. 

Diogenes  had  more  phansy  to  note  the 
brutish  grossenesse  and  dumping  of  the 
minde. — UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  128. 

Dumps,  money  (slang). 

May  I  venture  to  say  when  a  gentleman 

jumps 
In  the  river  at  midnight  for  want  of  the 

dumps, 
He  rarely  puts  on  his  knee-breeches  and 

pumps. — ingoldsby  Legends  (Sir  Rupert). 

Dumps,  marbles.  The  second  sense 
of  low  spirits  or  surliness  on  which 
Hood's  pun  is  founded  is  very  common. 

Thy  taws  are  brave,  thy  tops  are  rare, 
Our  tops  are  spun  with  coils  of  care, 
Our  dumps  are  no  delight. 

Hood,  Ode  on  Prospect  of  Clapham 
Academy. 

Dumps.  Gay's  third  Pastoral  is  en- 
titled "  Wednesday,  or  the  Dumps,11  on 
which  he  has  the  jocose  note  which 
forms  the  extract. 

Dumps  or  Dumbs,  made  use  of  to  express  a 
fit  of  the  Sullens.  Some  have  pretended 
that  it  is  derived  from  Dumops,  a  Kiug  of 


Egypt  that  built  a  Pyramid,  and  dy'd  of 
Melancholy.  So  Mopes  after  the  same 
manner  is  thought  to  have  come  from 
Merope,  another  Egyptian  King  that  dy'd 
of  the  same  distemper;  but  our  English 
Antiquaries  have  conjectured  that  Dumps, 
which  is  a  grievous  heaviness  of  spirits, 
comes  from  the  word  Dumplin,  the  heaviest 
kind  of  pudding  that  is  eaten  in  this  coun- 
try, much  used  in  Norfolk,  and  other 
counties  of  England. 

Dumpty,  short  and  thick.     Dumpy 

is  more  usual. 

Mary  comes  in  ;  a  little  dumpty  body  with 
a  yellow  face  aud  a  red  nose. — C.  Kingsley, 
Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xxv. 

Duncical,  stupid.    See  Dunsly. 

Many  godly-minded  persons  ...  by  the 
persuasions  of  certain  discreet  and  modest 
brothers  have  been  made  of  Romish  idolaters 
and  diligent  students  of  duncical  dregs,  dis- 
ciples of  great  hope  in  the  sincere  and  true 
evangelic  doctrine. — Coverdale,  i.  426. 

This  neck-question  as  I  may  term  it,  the 
most  dull  and  duncicall  Commissioner  was 
able  to  aske.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  VIII.  ii.  26. 

I  have  no  patience  with  the  foolish  dun- 
cical dog. — Rtchardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  viii.  100. 

Dundebbolt,  a  celt  or  fossil  belexn- 

nite. 

For  "  the  reumatis  "  boiled  dunderboU  is 
the  sovereign  remedy,  at  least  in  the  West  of 
Cornwall.  I  knew  an  old  woman  who  used 
to  boil  a  celt  (vulgarly  a  dunderboU  or  thun- 
derbolt) for  some  hours,  and  then  dispense 
her  water  to  the  diseased. — Polwhele,  Tradi- 
tions and  Recollections,  ii.  007  (1826). 

Dune,  ridge ;  mound.     See  R.  s.  v. 

down,  and  L.  s.  v.  dun. 

The  Spaniards  neared  and  neared  the  fatal 
dunes  which  fringed  the  shore  for  many  a 
dreary  mile. — C.  Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch. 
xxxi. 

Out  beyond  them  flush'd 
The  long  low  dune,  and  lazy-plunging  sea. 
Tennyson,  Last  Tournament. 

Dungeoner,  gaoler. 

Where  shall  I  learn  to  get  my  peace  again  ? 
To  banish  thoughts  of  that  most  hateful  land 
Dungeoner  of  my  friends,  that  wicked  strand 
Where  they  are  wrecked,  and  live  a  wrecked 
life.— Keats,  To . 

D unq- farmer,  one  who  has  to  do 
with  dirt  or  dung.  The  lady  referred 
to  is  S.  Helena,  who  was  said  to  he  a 
stabularia,  or  ostleress.  See  quotation, 
s.  v.  Ostleress.  The  allusion  in  the 
extract  is  to  Phil.  iii.  8. 

They  say  that  this  lady  was  at  first  an  in- 
holder  or  hostesse. . .  .  This  good  hostesse 
chose  to  be  reputed  a  dung- farmer  that  she 


DUJSIG-WET 


(  207  ) 


DUST 


might   thereby   gaine    Christ.  —  Holland's 
Camden,  p.  74. 

It's  the  stinkingest  dung-farmer,  foh  upon 
him! — Dekker,  Satiromastix  (Hawkins,  Eng. 
Dr.,  iii.  168). 

Dung-wbt,  thoroughly  wet,  having 
been  out  in  dirty  weather.  Dung  in 
this  compound  seems  merely  intensa- 
tive. 

Plautus  in  his  Rudens  bringeth  in  fishermen 
eowthring  and  quaking,  dung-wet  after  a 
storme. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc., 
vi.  180). 

Dunnock,  hedge-sparrow.     See  H. 

Hareton  has  been  cast  out  like  an  unfledged 
dunnock. — Miss  E.  Bronte,  ch.  iv. 

Dunsly.  A  man  dunsly  learned  is 
one  read  in  the  scholastic  theology  of 
which  Duns  Scotus  was  a  great  doctor. 
Latimer  also  no  doubt  means  a  play  on 
the  word,  and  would  insinuate  that  this 
man  was  a  learned  dunce,  which  last  is 
derived  from  Duns  Scotus,  as  the  school- 
men discouraged  classical  study. 

He  is  wilfully  witted,  Dunsly  learned, 
Moorly  affected,  bold  not  a  little,  zealous 
more  than  enough. — Latimer,  ii.  374. 

Dunstable,  plain,  downright.  See 
N.  and  H. 

Your  uncle  is  an  odd,  but  a  very  honest, 
Dunstable  soul. — Richardson,  Grandison,  vi. 
177. 

Dunstable,  plain  Dunstable  is  illus- 
trated in  N.,  but  in  the  following  it 
appears  as  a  place  to  which  women  of 
bad  character  might  be  sent  against 
their  will. 

I  am  so  glad  you  are  so  pleasant,  Kate ; 
yon  were  not  so  merry  when  you  went  to 
Dunstable. — Greene,  Thieves  falling  out,  1615 
(//ar/.Jf^viii.389). 

Dunsteby,  stupidity.    See  Dunsly. 

Let  every  indignation  make  thee  zealous, 
as  the  dunsteru  of  the  monks  made  Erasmus 
studious. —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  83. 

Duntlk,  to  dint. 

His  cap  is  duntled  in ;  his  back  bears  fresh 
stains  of  peat. — C.  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago, 
in  trod. 

Duopolizb,  to  engross  between  two. 

Some  rigid  Presbyterians  and  popular  In- 
dependents affect  with  great  magistery  to 
duopolize  aM  Church  power.— Gauden,  Tears 
of  the  Church,  p.  440. 

Dupeable,  gullible. 

Man  is  a  dupeable  nnimal.-r-Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  lxxxvii. 


Duplab,  duple.    See  quotation. 

( Whether  their  armatures  [=  cavalry  sol- 
diers] were  duplar  or  simplar  it  is  doubtful  1. 
Duptar  or  duple  armature  they  were  called 
in  those  daies  who  bad  double  allowances  of 
corue ;  simplar,  that  had  but  single. — Hol- 
land's Camden,  p.  783. 

Duplicate,  a  pawn-broker's  ticket. 

This  elegantly  attired  individual  is  iu  the 
act  of  entering  the  duplicate  he  has  just 
made  out,  in  a  thick  book.— -Sketches  by  Boz 
(Pawnbroker's  shop). 

Duretta,  a  coarse  kind  of  stuff,  so 
called  from  its  wearing  well. 

I  never  durst  be  seen 
Before  my  father  out  of  duretta  and  serge : 
But  if  he  catch  me  in  such  paltry  stuffs, 
To  make  me  look  like  one  that  lets  out 

money, 
Let  him  say,  Timothy  was  born  a  fool. 

Maine,  City  Match,  i.  5. 

Duroy,  a  species  of  stuff,  corduroy  ? 
q.  v. 

Western  Goods  had  their  share  here  also, 
and  several  booths  were  filled  with  Serges, 
Duroys,  Druggets,  Shalloons,  Cantaloons, 
Devonshire  Kersies,  &c. — Defoe,  Tour  thro' 
G.  Britain,  i.  94. 

Dust,  a  dead  body,  or  one  of  the 
atoms  that  compose  it. 

The  bodies  of  the  saints,  what  part  of  the 
earth  or  sea  soever  holds  their  dusts,  shall 
not  be  detained  in  prison  when  Christ  calls 
for  them. . . .  Not  a  dust,  not  a  bone  can  be 
denied. — Adams,  ii.  106. 

Dust,  disturbance. 

The  Bishop  saw  there  was  small  reason  to 
raise  such  a  dust  out  of  a  few  indiscreet 
words. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  61. 

Such  a  dust  was  raised  about  the  bill  of 
tonnage,  &c,  that  the  way  could  not  be  seen 
for  that  cloud,  to  come  to  a  quiet  end. — 
Ibid.  ii.  83. 

Our  lay  and  ecclesiastical  champions  for 
arbitrary  power  .  . .  have  raised  such  a  dust, 
and  kept  such  a  coil  about  the  divine,  here- 
ditary, and  indefeasible  right  of  kings. — H. 
Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  ii.  41. 

Not  expect  me !  that's  a  good  one !  And 
what  a  dust  you  would  have  made  if  I  had 
not  come. — Miss  Austen,  Northanger  Abbey, 
ch.  ix. 

Dust.  Down  with  the  dust  =  down 
with  the  money.  L.  gives  this  with 
an  example  from  a  farce  by  O'Keefe, 
but  the  two  first  extracts  are  older. 

My  lord,  quoth  the  king,  presently  deposit 
your  hundred  pounds  in  gold,  or  else  no 
going  hence  all  the  daies  of  your  life.  .  . . 
The  abbot  down  with  his  dust,  and  glad  he 


DUTCH  COURAGE       (  208  ) 


DYSPYCION 


escaped  bo,  returned  to  Beading. — Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist,  vi.  299. 

Amongst  the  collectors  for  the  Holy  Club 
there  most  be  one  fellow  that  eat  King 
William's  bread  . .  .  one  of  his  arts  was  to 
persuade  silly  old  women  to  tell  down  their 
dust  for  carrying  on  so  pious  a  work. — Modest 
Enquiry  into  Present  Disasters,  1090  {Life  of 
Ken,  p.  500). 

Ti8  horrible  to  die 
And  come  down  with  our  little  all  of  dust, 
That  dun  of  all  the  duns  to  satisfy. 

Hood,  Bianco**  Dream, 

Dutch  courage,  courage  inspired  by 
drink. 

A  true  Dutchman  never  fights  without  his 
head  full  of  brandy. — T.  Brown,  Works,)!. 
311. 

He  added  further  insult  by  saying  that  he 
supposed  his  antagonist  wanted  Dutch  cour- 
age, and  that  if  he  did  not  get  wine  enough 
in  the  cabin,  he  would  not  fight  at  all. — 
Marry  at,  Fr.  Mild  may,  ch.  iv. 

PuU  away  at  the  usquebaugh,  man,  and 
swallow  Dutch  courage,  since  thiue  English  is 
oozed  away.  —  C.  Kinysley,  Westward  Ho, 
ch.  zi. 

Dutch-defence,  a  sham  defence, 
"  mate  pertinaci." 

I  am  afraid  Mr.  Jones  maintained  a  kind 
of  Dutch  defence,  and  treacherously  delivered 
up  the  garrison  without  duly  weighing  his 
allegiance  to  the  fair  Sophia, — Fielding,  Tom 
Jones,  Bk.  ix.  ch.  v. 

Dutch  gold,  a  baser  metal  having 
the  appearance  of  gold  ;  it  is  mentioned 
by  Repton  (1832)  in  ArchceoL  xxiv.  175. 
Cf.  German  silver. 

Duty,  when  applied  to  money  due 
now  always  means  the  custom-house 
duties.  It  once  had  a  wider  significa- 
tion. The  mention  of  the  "  duty  to  the 
priest  and  clerk'1  first  appears  in  the 
Prayer-book  of  1552. 

They  neither  regarded  to  sette  him  to 
schole,  nor  while  he  was  at  schoole  to  paie 
his  schoolemaister's  duetie  —  UdaTs  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  309. 

The  man  shall  give  unto  the  woman  a  ring, 
laying  the  same  upon  the  book,  with  the 
accustomed  duty  to  the  Priest  and  Clerk. — 
Rubric  in  Marriage  Service. 

Duty,  the  performance  of  the  services 

of  the  Church  by  a  clergyman. 

Edmund  might,  in  the  common  phrase,  do 
the  duty  of  Thornton,  that  is,  he  might  read 


prayers  and  preach,  without  giving  up  Mans- 
field Park.— Miss  Austen,  Mansfield  Fork,  ch. 


Duumviracy,  union  of  two  in  author- 
ity. 

A  cunning  complicating  of  Presbyterian 
and  Independent  principles  and  interests 
together,  that  they  may  rule  in  their  Duum- 
viracy.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  438. 

Dwindlement,    dwindling,    coming 

down. 

It  was  with  a  sensation  of  dreadful  dwindle' 
ment  that  poor  Vincent  crossed  the  street 
again  to  his  lonely  abode. — Mrs.  Oliphant, 
Salem  Chapel,  ch.  i. 

Dyingnr68,  languishing,  as  though 
dying :  a  die-away  air. 

Tenderness  becomes  me  best,  a  sort  of 
dyingness. — Congreve,  Way  of  the  World,ui.5. 

Dyke.  Burke  applies  this  word  to 
the  Eng.  Channel  between  Dover  and 
Calais. 

I  have  often  been  astonished,  considering 
that  we  are  divided  from  you  but  by  a  slen- 
der dyke  of  about  twenty-four  miles  ...  to 
find  how  little  you  seem  to  know  of  us. — 
Reflections  on  Fr.  Revolution,  p.  68. 

Dyslogy,  dispraise. 

In  the  way  of  eulogy  and  dyslogy,  and 
summing  up  of  character,  there  may  doubtless 
be  a  great  many  things  set  forth  concerning 
this  Mirabeau. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  117. 

Dyspepsy,  indigestion ;  more  common 

in  its  Latin  form,  dyspepsia. 

u  Confound  Sowerbrowst,"  thought  the 
Doctor, "  if  I  had  guessed  he  was  to  come 
across  me  thus,  he  should  not  have  got  the 
better  of  his  dyspepsy  so  early." — Scott,  St. 
Ronan's  Well,  ii.  11. 

His  friends  asked  him  what  the  Doctor 
had  said.  Why,  said  the  squire,  he  told  me 
that  I've  got  a  dyspepsy.  I  don't  know  what 
it  is,  but  it's  some  aamn'd  thing  or  other,  I 
suppose. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  xciii. 

DYsrNEUMONY,  difficulty  of  breathing. 

I  have  —  rather  I  think  from  dyspepsia 
than  dyspneumony — been  often  and  for  days 
disabled  from  doing  anything  but  read. — ^/. 
Sterling,  1839  (CarlyUs  Life,  Pt.  III.  ch.  i.). 

Dyspycion,  disputation. 

Great  dyspycyons  were  among  the  Jewes 
at  Rome  concerning  Paule. —  Vocacyon  of 
Johan  Bale,  1553  (Harl.  Misc^  vi.  440). 


EAR 


(  209  ) 


EARSHRIFT 


E 


Ear.  At  first  ear  =  at  first  hear- 
ing; immediately. 

A  third  cause  of  common  errors  is  the 
credulity  of  men,  that  is,  an  easie  assent  to 
what  is  obtruded,  or  a  believing  at  Jirst  ear 
what  is  delivered  by  others. — Brown,  Vulgar 
Errors,  Bk.  I.  ch.  v. 

Ear.  Wine  of  one  ear  =  good  wine. 
One  of  the  annotators  of  Rabelais  says, 
"  I  have  introduced  the  same  with  good 
success  in  some  parts  of  Leicestershire, 
and  elsewhere,  speaking  of  good  ale, 
ale  of  one  ear  ;  bad  ale,  ale  of  two  ears, 
Because  when  it  is  good  we  give  a  nod 
with  one  ear;  if  bad,  we  shake  our 
head,  that  is,  give  a  sign  with  both  ears 
that  we  do  not  like  it."  Another  sug- 
gests, "  Wine  which  a  man  will  drink 
without  need  of  persuasion,  it  draws 
him  on  only  by  one  ear."  Scott,  it 
will  be  seen,  makes  the  two  ears  = 
good ;  but  Chambaud's  Fr.-Entj.  Diet. 
gives,  "Dm  vin  dune  or  exile  (vm  excel- 
lent), Good  wine.  Du  vin  de  deux 
oreUles  (mauvais  vin  out  fait  secouer 
les  oreilles),  Bad  wine. 

0  the  fine  white  wine!  upon  my  con- 
science it  is  a  kind  of  tsffatas  wine;  hiu, 
hin,  it  is  0/  one  ear  {il  est  a  une  oreille).— 
Urauhart's  Rabelais,  8k.  I.  ch.  v. 

1  trust  ye  will  applaud  my  Bordeaux ;  c*est 
des  deux  oreilles,  as  Captain  Vinsauf  used  to 
•ay.—  Waver  ley,  i.  97. 

Ear- confession,  private  or  auricular 
confession. 

Peter  of  Milan,  with  other  of  the  pope's 
martyrs,  .  .  .  died  for  the  pope's  power, 
pardons,  pilgrimages,  ear  -  confession,  and 
other  popish  matters.— Bale,  Select  Works, 
p.  57. 

Ear-deep,  reaching  the  ear  only. 

I  should  ill  deserve 
Thy  noblest  gift,  the  gift  divine  of  song, 
If  so  content  with  ear-deep  melodies 
To  please  all  profit-less,  I  did  not  pour 
Severer  strains. 

Southey,  Triumph  of  Woman,  870. 

Ear-drofpkr,  eaves-dropper. 

It  is  possible  an  ear-dropper  might  hear 
such  things  talk'd  at  cock-pits  and  dancing 
*hoo\n.-Hacket<  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  81. 

Earish,  auricular. 

His  [Antichrist's]   idolatrous   altars,  his 


earish  confession,  his  housel  in  one  kind  for 
the  lay,  .  .  .  and  all  his  petting  pedlary  is 
utterly  banished  and  driven  out  of  this  land. 
— Beam,  iii.  4. 

Earn,  a  Scottish  eagle. 

They  gleamed  on  many  a  dusky  tarn, 
Haunted  by  the  lonely  earn. 

Scott,  Lay  of  Last  Minstrel,  c.  iii. 

Ear-reach,  hearing ;  earshot 

Some  invisible  eare  might  be  in  ambush 
within  the  ear-reach  of  his  words. — Fuller, 
Holy  State,  V.  xviii. 

The  Bishop's  chief  care  herein  was  the 
setting  up  of  oompleat  Boods,  commonly 
called  (but  when  without  his  ear  -  reach) 
Bonner's  Block-Almightie. — Ibid.,  Waltham 
Abbey,  p.  18. 

Ears.  To  hang  ears  «•  to  incline 
ear ;  to  listen. 

Hang  your  ears 
This  way,  and  hearluB  praises. 

Jonson,  Majestic  Lady,  L  i. 

Ears.  To  shake  the  ears  =  to  nod 
or  shake  the  head,  and  so,  as  Walpole 
seem 8  to  use  it,  to  chuckle.  Howell 
refers  to  the  gesture,  as  indicating  dis- 
comfiture. 

But  I  my  self  e 

•  ••••• 

Broke  fleame  some  twice  or  thrice,  then 

shooke  mine  eares 
And  lickt  my  lipps,  as  if  I  begg'd  attention. 
Chapman,  Mons.  Dy  Olive,  Act  II. 

They  shut  their  gates  against  him,  and 
made  him  to  shake  his  ears,  and  to  shift  for 
his  lodging. — Howell,  Letters,  I.  i.  21. 

How  merry  my  ghost  will  be,  and  shake  its 
ears,  to  hear  itself  quoted  as  a  person  of 
consummate  prudence. —  Walpole,  Letters,  i. 
168  (1747). 

Ears.  To  deep  upon  both  ears  =  to 
sleep  soundly.  The  proverb  is  a  Latin 
one.    See  Terence.  Ileaut.,  II.  iii.  100. 

Let  him  set  his  heart  at  rest ;  I  will  re- 
move this  scruple  out  of  his  mind  that  he 
may  sleep  securely  upon  both  ears. — Bramhall, 
iii.  518. 

Earshrift,  private  or  auricular  con- 
fession. 

And  upon  this  either  contempt  or  super- 
stitious fear  drawn  from  the  papists  lenten 
S reparation  of  forty  days,  earshrift,  displing, 
«.,  it  oometh  to  pass  that  men  receiving  the 
Supper  of  the  Lord  but  seldom,  when  they 

P 


EARSORE 


(  **o  ) 


ECONOMY 


fall  tick  mutt  have  the  Sapper  ministered 
unto  them  in  their  houses. — Cartwright's 
Admonition,  quoted  in  Whitgift,  ii.  556. 

Tour  eareshrift  (one  part  of  your  penance) 
it  to  no  purpose. — Calf  hill,  Answer  to  Mar- 
trail,  p.  243. 

EAR80RE,  an  annoyance  to  the  ear. 

Eyesore  is  common. 

The  perpetual  jangling  of  the  chimes  too 
in  all  the  great  towns  of  Flanders  is  no  small 
ear-tore  to  ua.— T.  Brotcn,  Work*,  i.  306. 

Earwig,  a  secret  counsellor.  A 
favourite  word  with  Hacket:  in  addi- 
tion to  the  subjoined,  see  ii.  152,  195. 

O  hearken  not  to  Rehoboam's  earwigs. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  50. 

If  all  counsels  offer'd  to  princes  were 
spread  out  before  many  witnesses,  ear-vigas 
that  buss  what  they  think  fit  in  the  retird 
closet,  durst  not  infect  the  royal  audience 
with  pernicious  glosing. — Ibid.  i.  85. 

Ear-worm,  a  secret  counsellor. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  oath  to  protect 
such  an  ear-worm,  but  he  may  be  appeached. 
—Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  if.  152. 

Easement,  a  legal  term  for  an  accom- 
modation, such  as  a  right  of  way,  Ac, 
which  one  man  has  of  another ;  also,  a 
house  of  office:  hence  the  equivoque 
in  the  following. 

They  [the  Scotch]  should  not  go  for  to 
impose  upon  foreigners ;  for  the  bills  in  their 
houses  say  they  have  different  easements  to 
let ;  and  behold  there  is  nurro  geaks  in  the 
whole  kingdom.— AnoOett,  Humphrey  Clinker, 
ii.  48. 

Easterling.  L.  defines  this  "  a  na- 
tive of  any  country  Eastward  of  an- 
other," but  the  word  had  also  a  nar- 
rower signification.     See  extracts. 

Then  shall  the  easterlinges  (vpon  hope  to 
recover  their  olde  and  greater  priuileges) 
aide  him  with  men,  money,  and  shippes. — 
Bp.  Ponet  (Maitland  on  Reformation,  p.  170). 

The  merchants  of  the  East-Land  parts  of 
Almain  or  High  Germany  (well  known  in 
former  times  by  the  name  of  Easterlings). — 
Heylin,  Reformation,  i.  230. 
a  The  High-Dutch  of  the  Hans  Towns  an- 
tiently  much  conversed  in  our  Land  (known 
by  the  name  of  Easterlings). — Fuller,  Wor- 
thies, ch.  xxiv. 

Easy,  indifferent :  perhaps  as  being 
easy  to  get,  not  recherche.  H.  has,  as 
provincialisms,  easy-beef  =••  lean  cattle, 
easy-end  =  cheap. 

The  maister  of  the  feast  had  set  vpon  the 
table  wine  that  was  but  easie  and  so-so. — 
Udal's  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  348. 

Eaton,  see  extract 


The  common  sort  of  people  doe  plainly 
say,  these  Roman  Workes  were  made  by 
Giants,  whom  in  the  North  parts  they  use 
to  call  in  their  vulgar  tongue  Eatons,  for 
Heathens  (if  I  be  not  deceived)  or  Ethnicks. 
—Holland's  Camden,  p.  63. 

Eave,  to  shelter,  as  under  eaves. 

His  hat  shap't  almost  like  a  cone, 
Taper  at  top,  the  wide  end  down ; 
With  narrow  rim  scarce  wide  enough 
To  eave  from  rain  the  staring  ruff. 

Ward,  England's  Reformation,  c.  i. 
p.  102. 

Eaver.  H.  gives  it,  s.  v.  Ever,  as  a 
Devonshire  word  for  rye-grass,  and 
Devonshire  is  the  county  referred  to 
in  the  extract. 

Neither  doth  it  fall  behind  in  meadow- 
ground  and  pasturage,  elover,  eaver,  and 
trefoil  grass,  and  turneps. — Defoe,  Tour  thro' 
G.  Brit.,  i.  362. 

Ebaptization,  cutting  off  from  the 
benefits  of  baptism  (?). 

Presbytery  began  to  hasten  its  march  in 
its  might,  furiously  enough,  .  .  .  trying  the 
metal  and  temper  of  its  Censures  by  Ebap- 
tizations,  Corrections,  Abstentions,  Excom- 
munications.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church, 
p.  16. 

Ebriety,  is  used  in  the  extract  for 
sobriety,  its  real  meaning  being  drunk- 
enness. Hook's  mistake  probably  arose 
from  the  fact  that  ineoriety  also  == 
drunkenness,  and  so,  regarding  the  in 
as  privative,  he  supposed  ebriety  to 
mean  the  reverse. 

This  amiable  abstemiousness  was  joked 
upon  in  various  ways  by  the  rest  of  the 
party,  but  the  Colonel,  who  was  quite  aware 
of  his  meu,  set  their  ebriety  down  to  the 
right  cause. — Th.  Hook,  Man  of  many  friends. 

Ebuccinator,  trumpeter. 

The  ebuccinator,  shewer,  and  declarer  of 
these  news,  I  have  made  Gabriel,  the  angel 
and  ambassador  of  God. — Becon,  i.  43. 

Ecliptical,  elliptical. 

He  conceives  this  word,  On  mine  honour, 
wraps  up  a  great  deal  in  it,  which  unfolded 
and  then  measured,  will  be  found  to  be  a 
large  attestation,  and  no  less  than  an  eclip- 
tical oath.— Fuller,  Holy  State,  IV.  xii.  10. 

Economy,  management  of  a  house- 
hold. The  word  is  now  so  often  used 
for  frugality,  that  the  following  quota- 
tion seems  worth  noting. 

Fain.  He  keeps  open  house  for  all  comers. 

Wid.  He  ought  to  be  very  rich,  whose 
awonomy  is  so  profuse. — Centlivre,  7ne  Arti- 
fice, Act  IV. 


»SH 


m 


ECSTATIC 


(  211  ) 


EFFORT 


Ecstatic,  enthusiast. 

Old  Hereticks  and  idle  Ecstatic**,  such  as 
tte  very  primitive  times  were  infinitely  pes- 
tered withal.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Churcfcp. 

Edacious,  voracious. 

.^1U«  ^noe  •  •  •  wto  that  ancient  manse 
of  Kilwinning ;  all  vanished  now  to  the  last 
stone  of  it  long  since ;  swallowed  in  the 
depths  of  edacious  Tune.-Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv. 

Edentate,  toothless  creature. 

I  tried  to  call  to  him  to  move,  bat  how 

wn^V  VFlfl"?"  ^  "J™*  articulate  a 
word  *>-.<,.  Ktngsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xrxvi. 

Edge.     Out  of  edge  =  on  edge. 
Pentium  stupor.    A  bluntness  of  the  teeth, 
when  with  eating  soure  and  sharpe  thiugs! 

1585  fe  428)  °f  ^-X***'*  *<»nenclator\ 

Edgingly,  gingerly.    To  edge  in  = 
w  slide  in,  is  a  common  expression. 

Jtf^f  ^J™016  •  •  •  while  the  new  beau 
awkwardly  followed,  but  more  edgingly,  as  I 
may  say,  setting  his  feet  mincingly,  to  avoid 

t"^.? grrUp?n  "?  leader,8  heela.-JfroWrf- 
»»,  CI.  Harlowe,  ii.  220. 

Edibilatoby,  having  to  do  with  edi- 
bles or  eating. 

Edibilatory  Epicurism  holds  the  key  to  all 
morality.— Lytton,  Pelham,  ch.  lviii. 

Edifie,  to  rise  in  the  estimation  of. 

Nor  did  he  edifie  better  with  the  Queen, 
than  he  did  with  the  Bixbjects.-Hey lift,  Hist. 
of  the  Presbyterians,  p.  191. 

But  little  did  this  edifie  with  the  Leading- 
gn  m  the  House  of  Commons.— /Aid.  p. 

Education,  publishing. 

w°?L  of   *his    Doctor's   posthume-books 
w^L-      n  h*PRie  in  their  education,  I  mean 

r.w    g/Te!l!TOO«ilt  forth  mt0  fche  world.- 
**llcr,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI.  i.  M. 

Eelskins.  These  not  being  very 
valuable,  a  merchant  of  eelsHns  = 
one  who  has  nothing  left  him  worth 

He  that  wyU  at  all  aduentures  vse  the 
was,  knowinge  no  more  what  is  to  be  done 
W?.?111^  thftn  in  a  caulme,  shall  soone 

52?f  *  "^A"*  •/  "le  >*innes.-Ascham, 
JOfophilus,  p.  151.  ' 

Eehie,  wild. 

It's  like  those  eerie  stories  nurses  tell. 

Browning,  Bp.  BlougranCs  Apology. 
Eerily,  in  a  strange,  unearthly  way. 

an?  ?**  lhe  voice  of  a  human  being  .  .  . 

u?lnfiSp0k^i,J  V™1  and  woe  5  "Mly,  eerily, 
^gently. -c.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  mv.  * 


Eeriness,  weirdness. 

We  all  know  what  a  sensation  of  loneliness 
or  "  eeriness  "  (to  use  an  expressive  term  of 
the  ballad  poetry)  arises  to  any  small  party 
assembling  in  a  single  room  of  a  vast  deso- 
late mansion.— De  Quincey,  Modem  Supersti- 
tion. 

Effectress,  female  worker  or  cause. 

They  haue  ...  a  Chappel  dedicated  to  the 
Virgin  Mary  called  Madonna  del  Scopo,  re- 
puted effectresse  of  miracles,  and  much  inuo- 
cated  by  sea-faring  men.— Sandys,  Travels, 
p.  8. 

Effectually,  actually ;  in  fact ;  en 
effet. 

Although  his  charter  can  not  be  produced 
with  the  formalities  used  at  his  creation  . . . 
yet  that  he  was  effectually  Earle  of  Cam- 
bridge by  the  ensuing  evidence  doth  suffi- 
ciently appear.— Fuller,  Hist,  of  Camb.  Univ., 

1.  JtL. 

Nor  would  any  thing  check  me  from  going 
the  greatest  lengths  with  your  sister,  whom 
I  think  effectually,  though  perhaps  not  mali- 
ciously, a  most  wicked  thing. —  Walpole  to 
Mann,  iii.  157  (1756). 

I  perceived  that  something  darkened  the 
passage  more  than  myself,  as  I  stepped  along 
it  to  my  room ;  it  was  effectually  Mons. 
Dessin,  the  master  of  the  hotel.— Sterne, 
Sentimental  Journey  (Calais). 

Efficace,  efficacy. 
Yet  'tis  not  he  with  whom  I  mean  to  knit 
Mine  inward  covenant ;  th*  outward  seal  of  it 
Ismael  may  bear,  but  not  the  efficace, 
(Thy  son,  but  after  flesh,  not  after  grace). 

Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  1026. 
[Angels]  by  the  touch  of  their  Hue  efficace, 
Containing  bodies  which  they  seem  t'  em- 
brace.— Ibid.  1116. 

Efficiat,  efficient ;  causative. 
The  poniard  that  did  end  their  fatal  lives 
Shall  break  the  cause  efficiat  of  their  woes 

(breaks  the  glass). 

Greene,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  175. 

Effigiation,  image. 

No  such  effigiation  was  therein  discovered, 
which  some  nineteen  weeks  after  became 
visible.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  X.  ii.  53. 

Effloresce,  to  blossom  forth. 

Cities,  especially  cities  in  revolution,  are 
subject  to  these  alternations;  the  secret 
course  of  civic  business  and  existence  effer- 
vescing and  efflorescing  in  this  manner  as  a 
concrete  phenomenon  to  the  eye.—Carlvle* 
Fr.  Rev.,  K  III.  Bk.  III.  ch.  i. 

Effort,  to  stimulate. 

He  effbrted  his  spirits  with  the  remem- 
brance and  relation  of  what  formerly  he  had 
been,  and  what  he  had  done.— Fuller,  Wor- 
thies, Cheshire  (i.  189). 

P2 


EFFORTLESS 


(  al*  ) 


ELBOW 


Effortless,  without  an  effort. 

Bat  idly  to  remain 
Were  yielding  effortless,  and  waiting  death. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  IV. 

Self-abandoned,  relaxed,  and  effortless,  I 
seemed  to  have  laid  me  down  in  the  dried- 
np  bed  of  a  great  river. — C.  Bronte,  Jans 
Eyre,  eh.  xxvi. 

Effbontuously,  impudently. 

He  moat  effrontuously  affirms  the  slander. 
— North,  Examen,  p.  23. 

If  these  other  clergy  bad  carried  it  unduly, 
effrontuously,  or  authoritatively  only  towards 
the  Dissenters  without  any  reasons  alledged 
or  pious  invitations,  had  not  all  the  kingdom 
rang  of  the  matter? — Ibid.,  p.  326. 

Effulmination,  denunciation. 

The  Popes  medled  so  far  beyond  their 
own  bounds,  attempting  to  send  out  effulminr 
ations  against  Christian  kings  in  all  countries. 
—Hacket,  Life  of  William*,  i.  82. 

Efrret,  an  imp  or  devil.  It  is  the 
Arabic  word  for  the  devil. 

"Wadna  ye  prefer  a  meeracle  or  twa?" 
asked  Sandy,  after  a  long  pull  at  the  whisky- 
toddy.  u  Or  a  few  efreets?"  added  I.— C. 
Kingsley,  Alton  Lock*,  ch.  xxi. 

Egelidate,  to  thaw. 

Then  should  my  teares  egelidate  His  Gore, 
That  from  His  Blood-founts  for  me  flowtt 
before. — Davies,  Holy  Boode,  p.  20. 

Eoo.  To  break  the  egg  in  the  pocket 
=  to  spoil  the  plan. 

This  very  circumstance  of  so  many  and 
considerable  persons  ranking  themselves 
among  the  Tones,  broke  the  egg,  as  they  say, 
in  the  pockets  of  the  Whigs,  and  soon  re- 
duced them  to  the  terms  of  compounding  to 
be  rid  of  the  distinction.  —  North,  Examen, 
p.  824. 

Ego-bald,  completely  bald ;  smooth 

as  an  egg. 

His  chin  was  as  smooth  as  a  new-laid  egg 
or  a  scraped  Dutch  cheese. — Dickens,  Martin 
Chutzlewit,  ch.  xxix. 
If  thou  blurt  thy  curse  among  our  folk, 
I  know  not — I  may  give  that  egg-bald  head 
The  tap  that  silences. 

Tennyson,  Harold,  v.  1. 

Eggs.  To  come  in  with  five  eggs  ■= 
to  make  a  foolish  remark  or  suggestion. 
The  second  and  third  extracts  are  taken 
from  Mr.  Roberts's  notes  on  the  first. 
I  do  not,  however,  think  that  his  ex- 
planation of  the  "  five  eggs  "as  a  silly 
rumour  or  mare's-nest  is  quite  correct, 
for  it  does  not  suit  the  passages.  Sylla 
had  really  resigned  the  dictatorship  ;  it 
was  no  invention  or  error  of  the  egg- 
merchants. 


To  certain  persons  comyng  in  with  their 

Jlue  egges,  how  that  Sylla  had  geuen  ouer  his 

office  of  Dictature,  as  he  shuld  do,  wher  as 

Caesar  kept  it  still  ...  he  aunswered,  ko. — 

Udal's  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  303. 

Whiles  another  gyueth  counsell  to  make 
peace  wyth  the  Kvnge  of  Arragone  .  .  . 
Another  cummeth  in  wyth  hys  v.  eggs,  and 
aduyseth  to  howke  in  the  Kynge  of  Castell. 
Robinson's  More'*  Utopia  (1551),  trig.  E.  vi. 

One  sayd,  a  well  favoured  olde  woman  she  is ; 
The  diuell  she  is,  saide  another ;  and  to  this 
In  came  the  third  with  his  Jive  egges,  and 

sayde, 
Fiftie  yere  a  goe  I  knew  her  a  trym  mayde. 
Heywood,  Proverbs,  Pt.  II.  cap.  i. 

Egos.  To  tread  upon  eggs  =  to 
walk  warily,  as  on  delicate  ground. 

A  prince's  Qanimede,  with  every  day  new 
suits,  as  the  fashion  varies,  going  as  if  he 
trod  upon  egges. — Burton,  Anatomy,  p.  531. 

This  gave  him  occasion  to  ruminate  all  the 
whole  proceeding,  to  find  if  any  slip  had  been 
made  (for  he  all  along  trod  upon  eggs),  and 
he  could  find  nothing  possible  to  be  cavilled 
upon.— North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  245. 

Eggs.  Sure  as  egqs  is  eggs,  an  ele- 
gant asseveration,  perhaps  derived  from 
the  proverbial  likeness  of  one  egg  to 
another  (see  next  entry);  but  Prof. 
De  Morgan  (N.  and  Q.,  III.  vi.  203) 
suggests  that  this  is  a  corruption  of  the 
logician's  announcement  of  identity, 
x  is  x,  and  hence  the  ungrammatical 
form  in  which  the  proverb  appears. 

If  she  lives  to  Lammas-day  next  6he  will 
be  but  fourteen  years  old,  as  sure  as  eggs  is 
*<J9S- — Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  VII. 
ch.  xi. 

And  the  bishop  said,  "  Sure  as  eggs  is  eggs 
This  here's  the  bold  Turpin." 

Dickens,  Pickwick,  ch.  xliii. 

Eggs.  The  likeness  of  one  egg  to 
another  was  proverbial. 

Lod.  What  am  I  fitted,  gallants?   am  I 

fitted? 
Jasp.  To  the  life ;  able  to  cheat  suspicion, 
and  so  like 
Father  Antony  the  confessor,  that  I  protest 
There's  not  more  semblance  in  a  pair  of  eggs. 
Davenport,  City  Night-Cap,  Act  III. 

Eke-name.     See  extract. 

We  have  thousands  of  instances  .  .  of 
such  eke  -  names  or  epithet  -  names  being 
adopted  by  the  person  concerned. — Archeeol., 
xliii.  110  (1871). 

Elabour,  to  elaborate  ;  work  out. 

The  marrow  .  .  is  a  nourishment  most 
perfectly  elalnmred  by  nature.  —  UrquharCs 
Rabelais,  Author's  Prologue. 

Elbow.     To  shake  the  elbow  =  to 


ELBOW-POLISH        (  213  ) 


EL1GENT 


gamble.     Tom  Brown  (Works,  ii.  46) 

uses  "Knight  oftfie  elbow  "  =  gamester. 

He's  always  shaking  his  heels  with  the 
ladies  and  his  elbows  with  the  lords. —  Van- 
brugh,  Confederacy ,  Act  I. 

There's  yet  a  gang  to  whom  our  spark  sub- 
mits. 
Tour  elbow-shaking  fool  that  lives  by  's  wits. 
Prologue  by  a  friend  to  Farquhar's 
Constant  Couple. 

Elbow  -  polish,  polish  on  furniture 

produced  by  rubbing. 

Nowhere  else  could  an  oak  clock-case  and 
an  oak  table  have  got  to  such  a  polish  by  the 
hand;  genuine  elbow-polish,  as  Mrs.  Poyscr 
called  it,  for  she  thanked  God  she  never  had 
any  of  jour  varnished  rubbish  in  her  house. 
—G.  Eliot,  Adam  Bede,  Bk.  I.  ch.  vi. 

Elbows.  The  saying  in  the  extract 
is  a  mode  of  expressing  that  there  is  no 
traceable  relationship ;  as  we  sometimes 
say,  They  are  both  descended  from 
Adam. 

Ld.  8p.  Pray,  my  Lady  Smart,  what  kin 
are  you  to  Lord  Pozz  ? 

Lady  Sm.  Why,  his  grandmother  and  mine 
had  four  elbows.— Swift,  Polite  Conversation 
(Con  v.  i.). 

Elbows.  Out  at  elbows  =  poor,  in 
difficulties.  L.  has  the  phrase  in  its 
literal  sense,  applied  to  dress:  in  at 
elbows  =  comfortable,  or  respectable ; 
a  less  common  phrase  than  the  other. 

Fellow  in  arms,  quoth  he?  he  may  well 
call  him  fellow  in  arms ;  I  am  sure  they  are 
both  out  at  elbows. — MiddUton.  Mayor  of 
Quinborough,  Act  V. 

It  is  a  fervour  not  very  frequent  ...  to 
embrace  Religion  in  rags,  and  virtue  when  it 
is  vagrant  and  mendicant,  out  at  heels  and 
elbows. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  257. 

Sneak  into  a  corner, . . .  down  at  heels  and 
out  at  elbows.— Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  212. 

I  don't  suppose  you  could  get  a  high  style 
of  man  . .  .  f  orpay  that  hardly  keeps  him  in 
at  elbows. — G.  Eliot,  Middlemarch,  en.  xxxviii 

Eldern,  of  the  elder  tree. 

Weeds  are  counted  herbs  in  the  beginning 
of  the  spring;  nettles  are  put  in  pottage, 
and  sallats  are  made  of  eldern-buds.-- Fuller, 
Holy  State,  I.  ▼.  2. 

Electioneer,  to  canvass,  or  to  be  busy 
in  an  election. 

He  . . .  took  care  to  engage  in  his  interest 
all  those  underlings  who  delight  in  galloping 
round  the  country  to  electioneer. — Miss  Edye- 
worth,  Bosanna,  ch.  Hi. 

Election  be reb,  a  person  busy  in  an 
election ;  an  agent  or  canvasser. 

Her  urgent  entreaties  were  now  joined  to 


those  of  Lord  Glistonbury,  and  of  many 
loud-tongued  electioneer ers^  who  proved  to 
Vivian,  by  everything  but  calculation,  that 
he  must  be  returned  if  he  would  but  stand. 
— Miss  Edgeworth,  Vivian,  ch.  ii. 

Elegize,  to  lament  as  in  an  elegy. 

I  had  written  thus  far,  and  perhaps  should 
have  elegized  on  for  a  page  or  two  farther, 
when  Harry,  who  has  no  idea  of  the  dignity 
of  grief,  blundered  in. —  Walpole,  Letters,  l. 
329  (1754). 

Element,  the  air. 

And  sodenly  he  loked  npe  into  the  elyment 
and  said,  God  sane  hir  grace! — Petition 
circa  1553  (Archaol.,  rriii.  31). 

Eleutheromania,  madness  for  free- 
dom. 

Our  peers  have  in  too  many  cases  laid  aside 
their  frogs,  laces,  bag-wigs ;  and  go  about  in 
English  costume,  or  ride  rising  in  the  stirrups 
in  the  most  headlong  manner ;  nothing  but 
insubordination,  eleutheromania,  confused,  un- 
limited opposition  in  their  heads. — Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  III.  ch.  iv. 

Eleutheromaniac,  mad  for  freedom. 

Eleutheromaniac  philosophedom  grows  ever 
more  clamorous. — Carlyie,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk. 
11.  ch.  v. 

Elevated,  intoxicated. 

I  went  and  was  very  plentifully  entertained 
.  . .  with  a  capacious  vessel  of  this  most  noble 
Diapente,  insomuch  that  we  were  all  elevated 
above  the  use  of  our  legs  as  well  as  our 
reason. — T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  194. 

His  depth  of  feeling  is  misunderstood ;  he 
is  supposed  to  be  a  little  elevated,  and  no- 
body heeds  him. — Dickens,  Martin  Chuzzle- 
wit,  ch.  ix. 

Elevation.    See  quotation. 

"  They  as  dinnot  tak'  spirits  down  thor, 
tak'  their  pennord  of  elevation  then — women- 
folk especial."    "What's  elevation  ?n  .  .  . 
"Opium,  bor*  alive,  opium." — C,  Kingsley, 
•Alton  Locke <,  ch.  xii. 

Elfish,  intractable,  like  an  elf; 
generally  applied  to  human  beings,  or 
else  to  fairies,  Ac. 

The  Cypres  tree  ...  is  elfishe  and  frowarde 
to  spring  vp. — UdaVs  Erasmus* s  Apophth.,  p. 
329. 

Elf-locked,    having     elf-locks    or 

tangled  hair. 

The  elfe-lockt  fury  all  her  snakes  had  shed. 
Stapylton,  Juvenal,  vii.  83. 

Eligbnt,  an  elector. 

The  eligents,  who  make  the  king  by  their 
vote,  are  tyed  fast  by  their  own  oaths  and 
faith  to  their  own  *ct.  —  Hacketi  Life  of 
Williams,  ii.  201. 


ELIGHT 


(  214  ) 


EMBOSS 


Elight,  to  alight. 

As  sone  as  he  had  brought  the  hone  backe 
again  and  had  elighted  down,  his  father  moste 
louingly  kissing  his  cheeke,  said,  O  my  dere 
sonne,  go  serche  out  some  other  kingdom 
meete  for  thee,  for  Macedonia  is  already  all 
too  litle  for  thee. — UdaPs  Erasmus's  Apophth., 
p.  225. 

Elingcate,  to  deprive  of  the  tongue. 

The  damned  Doomes-man  hath  Him  judg'd 

to  death, 
The  Diu'll  that  Diull  elinguate  for  his  doome. 
Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  14. 

Eloper,  one  who  elopes. 

Nothing  less,  believe  me,  shall  ever  urge 
my  consent  to  wound  the  chaste  propriety 
of  your  character,  by  making  you  an  eloper 
with  a  duellist. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Cecilia,ch.u. 

Eloquious,  eloquent 

Eloquious  boarie  beard,  father  Nestor,  you 
were  one  of  them  ;  and  you,  M.  Ulisses,  the 
prudent  dwarfe  of  Pallas,  another ;  of  whom 
it  is  Illiadized  that  your  very  nose  dropt 
sugarcandie. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  16*2). 

Elritch,  strange,  weird. 

The  little  man  laughed  a  little  laugh, 
sharp  and  elritch,  at  the  strange  cowardice  of 
the  stalwart  daredevil. — Lytton,  What  will  he 
do  with  it?  Bk.  VI.  ch.  v. 

Elucidative,  explanatory. 

Such  a  set  of  documents  may  hope  to  be 
elucidative  in  various  respects.  —  Carlyle, 
Cromwell,  i.  10. 

Eluctate,  to  struggle  out. 

They  did  eluctate  out  of  their  injuries 
with  credit  to  themselves. — Hacket,  Life  of 
Williams,  i.  36. 

Elveb-cake.    See  extract ;   and   L. 

b.  v.  elver. 

Cainsham  Eiver  is  noted  for  producing 
multitudes  of  little  eels  in  the  spring  of  the 
year ;  these  the  people  catch  when  they  are. 
about  two  inches  long ;  and,  having  boiled 
them,  they  make  them  into  small  cakes  for 
sale.  These  elver-cakes  they  dispose  of  at 
Bath  and  Bristol ;  and  when  they  are  fried 
and  eaten  with  butter,  nothing  can  be  more 
delicious. — Defoe,  Tour  thro*  O.  Britain,  ii. 
806. 

Emandenbis,  one  who  writes  from 

the  dictation  of  another;    it  may  be 

only  a  misprint  for  amanuensis. 

All  their  clerks,  emanuenses,  notaries,  ad- 
vocates, proctors,  secretaries, .  .  .  would  all 
lose  their  several  employments. — Kentiefs 
Erasmus,  Praise  of  Folly,  p.  129. 

Embarged,  in  a  barge.  R  has  em- 
barge  =  to  lay  an  embargo  on. 


Triumphall  musick  from  the  floud  arose, 
As  when  the  8oueraigne  we  embarg'd  doe  see, 
And  by  faire  London  for  his  pleasure  rowes. 
Drayton,  Robert  of  Normandy. 

Embarrel,  to  pack  in  a  barrel. 

Our  cmbarreld  white-herrings  . .  .  last  in 
long  voyages. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  {Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  179). 

Embassatobial,  pertaining  to  an  am- 
bassador. 

Why  should  an  ambassador  desire  that  his 
embassatorial  letters  to  his  master  should  be 
burnt  before  witness? — North,  Examen,  p. 
581. 

Embassatrix,  ambassadress. 

Here  was  not  only  a  message  by  word  of 
mouth  from  the  King  of  France  by  a  great 
princess  sent  on  that  errand,  but  an  embassa- 
trix resident  to  pursue  the  point  of  raising 
the  grandeur  of  France. — North,  Examen,  p. 
479. 

Embenched,  banked  up. 

Gerdicus  .  .  .  was  the  first  May-lord  or 
captaine  of  the  Morris-daunce  that  on  those 
embenched  shelves  stampt  his  footing. — Nashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  150). 

Embered,  strewn    with    embers    or 

ashes. 

On  the  vrhite-ember'd  hearth 
Heapt  up  fresh  fuel. 

Southey,  Joan  of  Arc,  Bk.  II. 

Emblanch,  to  whiten. 

It  was  impossible  that  a  spot  of  so  deep  a 
dye  should  be  emblanched. — Heylin,  Life  of 
Laud,  p.  260. 

Embloodt,  to  make  bloody  or  san- 
guinary. 

Oh  the  unmatchable  cruelty  that  some 
men's  religion  (if  I  may  so  call  it)  hath  em- 
bloodied  them  to ! — Adams,  ii.  146. 

Embogged,  plunged  in  a  bog. 

General  Murray  .  .  .  got  into  a  mistake 
and  a  morass,  attacked  two  bodies  that  were 
joined  when  he  hoped  to  come  up  with  one 
of  them  before  the  junction,  was  enclosed, 
embogged,  and  defeated. —  Walpole  to  Mann, 
iii.  3*92  (1760). 

Ehbolismic,  intercalated.  They  who 
used  the  lunar  year  of  354  days  ad- 
justed it  to  the  solar  year  by  the  occa- 
sional intercalation  of  a  year  of  thirteen 
months. 

The  signs  and  symbols  of  the  thirteen 
months  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  embolismic  year. 
—Arch.,  xliv.  146  (1871). 

Emboss,  boss ;  protuberance. 

In  this  is  a  fountaine  out  of  which  gushes 


EMBRACIVE 


(    21$) 


ENARM 


a  river  rather  than  a  streeme,  which  ascend- 
ing a  good  height  breakes  upon  a  round 
embosse  of  marble  into  millions  of  pearles.— 
Evelyn,  Diary,  Nov.  17, 1644. 

Estbracive,  caressing  in  a  demon- 
strative way. 

Not  less  kind  in  her  way,  though  less 
expansive  and  embracive,  was  Madame  de 
Montcontour  to  my  wife.— Thackeray,  The 
Neweomes,  ch.  lvii. 

Embrake,  entangle.    See  E kb rake. 

Revenged  hee  would  bee  by  one  chimera 
of  imagination  or  other,  and  hamper  and 
embrake  her  in  those  mortal  straights  for  hir 
disdaine.— Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffie  (Hart.  Misc., 
▼i.  176). 

Embrawn,  to  harden.  The  extract  is 
given  at  greater  length  s.  v.  Itinerate. 

It  will  embrawne  and  iron-crust  his  flesh. — 
Nashe,  Lenten  Stuge  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  165). 

Embrixo  Days,  Ember  Days. 

They  introduced,  by  little  and  little,  a 

Seneral  neglect  of  the  Weekly  Fasts,  the 
oly  time  of  Lent,  and  the  Embring-days. — 
Heylin,  Hist,  of  the  Presbyterians,  p.  389. 

Embroil,  disturbance. 

It  was  well  for  him  that  the  Parliament 
was  dissolved,  else  they  had  pursued  .their 
impeachment  against  him,  ana  what  an  em- 
broil it  had  made  in  Parliament  is  not  easy 
to  conjecture. — North,  Examen,  p.  568. 

Evbrtologically,  according  to  the 
rules  of  embryology,  which  science 
studies  the  fetal  development  of  crea- 
tures. 

Is  the  hyppolais  a  warbler  embryologically, 
or  is  he  a  yellow  finch,  connected  with  serins 
and  canaries,  who  has  taken  to  singing? — C. 
KingsUy,  1867  (Life,  ii.  203). 

Embryotic,  pertaining  to  an  embryo. 
See  extract  $.  v.  Un mechanize. 

Emergement,  an  unexpected  occur- 
rence. 

Go  it  would,  as  fast  as  one  man  could  con- 
vey it  in  speech  to  another  all  the  town  over ; 
it  being  usnally  observed  that  such  emerge' 
ments  disperse  in  rumor  unaccountably. — 
Norths  Examen,  p.  401. 

Emergencies,  casual  profits:  wind- 
falls. 

And  now  he  is  actually  possessed  not  only 
of  the  jurisdiction,  but  of  the  rents,  profits, 
and  emeraencies  belonging  to  a  Bishop  of 
Bath  and  Wells. — Heylin,  Life  of  Laud,  p. 
159. 

Eicon VENBS8,  susceptibility  to  emo- 
tion. The  adj.  emotive  is  given  by  R. 
with  a  quotation  from  Brooke  ;  it  is  of 
frequent  occurrence  in  Daniel  Deronda. 


The  more  exquisite  quality  of  Deronda's 
nature — that  keenly  perceptive,  sympathetic 
emotivenesB  which  ran  along  with  bis  specu- 
lative tendency — was  never  more  thoroughly 
tested. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xL 

Empanoplied,  fully  armed. 

The    lists  were   ready.     Empanoplied   and 

plumed 
"We  entered  in,  and  waited,  fifty  there 
Opposed  to  fifty. — Tennyson,  Princess,  v. 

Empiem,  an  imposthume  in  the  breast. 

The  spawling  empiem,  ruthless  as  the  rest, 
With  foul  impostumes  fils  his  hollow  chest. 
Sylvester,  The  Fairies,  402. 

Empire,  to  assume  authority  over. 

They  should  not  empire  over  Presbyteries, 
but  be  subject  to  the  same. — Heylin,  Hist, 
of  the  Presbyterians,  p.  217. 

Emplumed,  adorned  as  with  feathers. 
R.  has  implumed  =  featherless,  with 
extracts  from  Drayton. 

Angli  angeli  (resumed 
From  the  medieval  story) 

Such  rose  angelhoods,  emplumed 
In  such  ringlets  of  pore  glory. 
Mrs.  Browning,  Sony  for  Ragged  Schools* 

Emportment,  passion;  indignation: 
a  French  word  used  by  North  as  though 
it  were  English. 

His  lordship,  being  provoked  would  warm, 
as  I  could  discern  by  the  air  of  his  counten- 
ance, but  few  less  acquainted  with  him  could 
perceive  anything  of  it;  and  he  was  the 
more  silent  as  he  discerned  any  such  emport- 
ment  in  himself. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guil- 
ford, ii.  53. 

To  lay  aside  emportments  so  justly  pro- 
voked, and  come  to  the  two  papers  which  I 
had  almost  forgot. — Ibid.,  Examen,  p.  663. 

Emprise,  to  undertake. 
In  secret  drifts  I  lingered  day  and  night, 
All  how  I  might  depose  this  cruel  king, 
That  seem'd  to  all  so  much  desired  a  thing, 
As  thereto  trusting  I  emprised  the  same. 

SackviUe,  The  Duke  of  Buckingham,  st.  58. 

Enair,  to  air  or  employ.     It  in  the 
extract  is  the  lady's  tongue. 
Who,  when  she  lists  (with  balm-breath's 

ambrosie) 
Shee  it  enatres  in  prose  and  poesy. 

Davies,  Wittes  Pilgrimage,  p.  31. 

Enarch,  to  arch  in. 

God  . . .  caused  the  blacke  cloudes  to  poure 
down  vpon  them  store  of  funerall  teares, 
enarching  the  ayre  with  a  spatious  rainebow. 
— Speed,  History,  Bk.  IX.  ch.  xii. 

Enarm,  to  arm. 
While  shepherds  they  enarme  vnus'd  to  din- 
ger.—Hudson's  Judith,  i.  371. 


ENBASTE 


(  "6  ) 


ENDAMJStlFY 


Enbastk,  to  steep  or  embue. 

It  is  not  agreeable  for  the  Holy  Ghost, 
which  may  not  suffer  the  Church  to  err  in 
interpreting  the  Scriptures,  to  permit  the 
same  notwithstanding  to  be  oppressed  with 
superstition,  and  to  be  enbasted  with  vain 
opinions. — Fhilpot,  p.  375. 

Enbrake,  to  ensnare,  entangle.    See 

Em  BRAKE, 

Being  enbraked  and  hampered  in  the  middes 
of  those  mortalle  streightes,  he  might  even 
in  his  life  time  begin  to  lacke  the  vse  of  all 
the  elementes. — UdaTs  Erasmus' $  Apophth., 
p.  286. 

Encaptivk,  to  take  captive. 

She  sent  all  her  Jewells  to  the  Jewish 
Lumbarde  to  pawn,  to  buy  and  encaptive  him 
to  her  trenchour,  but  her  purvey  our  came  a 
day  after  the  faire. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuff* 
{Harl.  Jtfwc.,  vi.  174). 

Encarnalize,  to  make  gross  or 
fleshly. 

We  shudder  bat  to  dream  our  maids  should 

ape 
Those  monstrous  males  that  carve  the  living 

hound, 
And  cram  him  with  the  fragments  of  the 

grave, 
Or  in  the  dark,  dissolving  human  heart, 
And  holy  secrets  of  this  microcosm, 
Dabbling  a  shameless  hand  with  shameful 

jest, 
Encarnalize  their  spirits. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  iii. 

Enchaired,  seated  in  the  chair,  pre- 
siding. 

But  thou,  Sir  Lancelot,  sitting  in  my  place 
Enchair*d  to-morrow,  arbitrate  the  field. 

Tennyson,  The  Last  Tournament. 

Enchequer,  to  checker,  to  arrange  in 

chequered  pattern. 

For  to  pave 
The  excellency  of  this  cave, 
Squirrels1  and  children's  teeth  late  shed 
Are  neatly  here  encheguered. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  177. 

Enclarited,  mixed  with  claret. 

Lips  she  has  all  rubie  red, 
Cheeks  like  creame  enclarited. 

Herricky  Hesperides,  p.  140. 

Enclasp,  to  clasp  round. 

O  Union,  that  enclaspest  in  thyne  armes 
All  that  in  Heau*n  and  Earth  is  great  or  good. 

Davits,  Bien  Venu,p.S. 

Enclitical.  An  enclitical  is  a  par- 
ticle which  throws  back  the  accent, 
on  the  foregoing  syllable ;  hence  in  the 
quotation  it  is  used  of  a  lean-to. 

The  barrel  . . .  stood  in  a  little  shed  or 


enclitical  penthouse. — Graves,  Spiritual  Quix- 
ote, Bk.  II.  ch.  vii. 

Encoached,  borne  in  a  coach. 

Great  Tamburlaine 
(Like  Phaeton)  drawne,  encoacht  in  burnisht 
gold. — Davies,  JPittes9  Pilgrimage,  p.  22. 

Encolure.  This  is  a  French  word, 
meaning  the  neck  of  an  animal,  applied 
also  to  the  way  in  which  the  neck  is 
set  on  the  shoulders;  a  "crisped  en- 
colure "  would  be  a  neck  with  a  short, 
cropped  mane,  or  perhaps  a  curly-haired 
neck. 

Hair  in  heaps  lay  heavily 
Over  a  pale  brow  spirit-pure, 
Carved  like  the  heart  of  the  coal-black  tree, 
Crisped  like  a  war-steed's  encolure. 

Browning,  The  Statue  and  the  Bust. 

Encomionize,  to  praise. 

Tou  would  prefer  him  before  tart  and 
galingale  which  Chaucer  preheminentest  en- 
comionizeth  above  all  junquetries  or  confec- 
tioneries whatsoever.— Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffs 
{Harl.  Jfisc^  vi.  158). 

Encomy,  praise ;  encomium. 

Many  popish  parasites  and  men-pleasing 
flatterers  have  written  large  commendations 
and  encomies  of  those. 

Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  7. 

Encourage,  to  strengthen:    used 

quaintly  in  the  extract. 

Erasmus  had  his  Lagena  or  flagon  of  wine 
(recruited  weekly  from  his  friends  at  London) 
which  he  drank  sometimes  singly  by  it  selfe, 
and  sometimes  encouraged  his  faint  Ale  with 
the  mixture  thereof. — Fuller,  Hist,  of  Catnb^ 
v.  48. 

Encumbrous,  troublesome.  The  ex- 
tract is  from  a  letter  of  Bp.  Gardiner  to 
the  Protector  Somerset,  1547. 

To  avoid  many  encumbrous  arguments, 
which  wit  can  devise  against  the  truth,  I 
send  to  your  grace  the  copy  of  mine  answer. 
— Strype,  Cranmer,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iii.  (note). 

Encdrled,  twisted ;  interlaced. 

Implye 
Like  streames  which  flow 
Encurlld  together,  and  noe  difference  show 
In  their  siluer  waters. 

Herrick,  Appendix,  p.  450. 

End.  To  get  the  better  end  of  =  to 
get  the  better  of.  We  speak  of  having 
hold  of  the  right  or  wrong  end  of  the 
stick. 

By  all  which  it  should  seem  we  have  rather 
cheated  the  devil  than  he  us,  and  have  gotten 
the  better  end  of  him.— Sanderson,  i.  183. 

Endamnify,  to  injure. 


ENDEARANCE         (  217  )        ENGASTROMITH 


Those  who  hired  the  fishing  of  that  lake 
adjoining,  were  endamnified  much  by  the 
violent  breaking  in  of  the  seas.  —  Sandys, 
Travels,  p.  276. 

Endearance,  affection. 

But  my  person  and  figure  you'll  best  under- 
stand 

From  the  picture  I've  sent  by  an  eminent 
hand; 

Show  it  young  Lady  Betty,  by  way  of  en- 
dearance, 

And  to  give  her  a  spice  of  my  mien  and 


Anstey,  New  Bath  Guide,  Letter  10. 

Exdiablee,  possess,  as  with  a  devil. 

Such  an  one  as  might  best  endiablee  the 
rabble,  and  .  set  them  a  bawling  against 
popery. — North,  Examen,  p.  571. 

Endiablemsnt,  diabolical  possession. 

There  was  a  terrible  rage  of  faces  made  at 
him,  as  if  an  endiablement  had  possessed  them 
all.— North,  Examen,  p.  008. 

En di bons,  andirons.  Ezek.  xl.  43, 
margin,  "endirons  or  the  two  hearth- 
stones ; "  the  text  has  hooks.  Perhaps 
this  form  of  the  word  arose  from  the 
iron  supports  at  each  end  of  the  fire- 
place on  which  the  logs  rested.  End- 
iron  has,  however,  nothing  to  do  ety- 
mologically  with  end  or  iron.  See 
Wedgewood. 

Endomr,  to  cover  as  with  a  dome. 

And  here  among  the  English  tombs, 

In  Tuscan  ground  we  lay  her ; 

While  the  blue  Tuscan  sky  endomes 

Our  English  words  of  prayer. 

Mrs.  Browning,  Child's  Grave 
at  Florence. 

Endotb,  to  endow. 

Their  own  heirs  do  men  disherit  to  endote 
them.— Tyndale,  i.  249. 

Ends.  To  make  both  ends  meet  =  to 
live  within  one's  income. 

Worldly  wealth  he  cared  not  for,  desiring 
onely  to  make  both  ends  meet ;  and  as  for  that 
little  that  lapped  over,  he  gave  it  to  pious 
uses. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Cumberland. 

If  I  can  but  make  both  ends  meet,  that's  all 
I  ask  for. 

Miss  Austen,  Mansfield  Park,  ch.  iii. 

Endunobon,  to  imprison. 

It,  being  a  sweaty  loggerhead,  greasie 
sowter,  endungeoned  in  his  pocket  a  twelve- 
month, stunk  so  over  the  pope's  palace,  that 
not  a  scullion  but  cried,  "Fob!" — Nashe, 
Lenten  Stujk  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  172). 

Were  we  endungeoned  from  our  birtb,  yet  wee 
Would  weene  there  were  a  sunne. 

Dairies,  Mirum  in  Modum,  p.  26. 


Enemy,  a  synonym  for  time,  as  that 
which  is  constantly  enfeebling  us,  and 
bringing  us  to  our  end;  it  is  also  an 
enemy  which  many  people  try  to  kill. 

"  How  goes  the  enemy,  Snobb  ?  "  asked  Sir 
Mulberry  Hawk.  "Four  minutes  gone." — 
Dickens,  Nicholas  Nickleby,  ch.  xiz. 

En  farce,  to  stuff. 

Therefore  have  I  now  prepared  for  you  a 
godly  potation  worthy  this  time,  that  you 
may  go  home  again  from  me,  not  with 
mouths,  but  with  minds,  not  with  bellies, 
but  with  souls,  replenished  and  enforced  with 
celestial  meat. — Becon,  Potation  for  Lent,  i. 
91.  J 

Enfavour,  favour. 

a  If  any  shall  enfavour  me  so  far  as  to  con- 
vince me  of  any  error  therein,  I  shall  in  the 
second  edition  (God  lending  me  life  to  set  it 
out)  return  him  both  my  thanks  and  amend- 
ment.— Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  V.  i. 

Enfear,  to  frighten. 

But  now  a  woman's  look  his  hart  enfeares. 

Hudson,  Judith,  v.  S3. 

En  fertile,  to  fertilize. 

From  the  sea  ...  it  swelleth  up  with 
mountaines,  unless  it  bee  where  the  rivers 
Dee  . . .  and  Done  make  way  for  themselves 
and  enfertile  the  fields. — Holland's  Camden, 
ii.  46. 

Enfester,  to  fester  in. 

His  Vesture  glu'd  with  gore-blood  to  His 
Backe, 
Which  His  enfettered  sores  exulcerates. 

Davies,  Holy  Boode,  p.  10. 

Enframe,  to  enclose. 

But  all  the  powers  of  the  house  of  Godwin 
•  Are  not  enframed  in  thee. 

Tennyson,  Harold,  i.  1. 

Enfbenzibd,  maddened. 

With  an  enfrenzied  grasp  he  tore  the  jasey 
from  his  head. — IngoTdsby  Legends  {Jarvis's 
Wig). 

Enfume,  to  blind  or  obscure  with 
smoke.  Davies  says  that  "perturba- 
tions" 

Gainst  their  Guides  doe  fight, 
And  so  enfume  them  that  they  cannot  see. 

Mierocosmos,  p.  38. 

Engage,  engagement,  bargain. 

No  man  can*say  it's  his  by  heritage, 
Nor  by  lepade  or  testatour's  device, 
Nor  that  it  came  by  purchase  or  engage, 
Nor  from  his  Prince  for  any  good  service. 
Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III.  ch.  zix. 

Engastromith,  ventriloquist,  and  so 
magician.  CI  Isaiah  xliv.  25  (Sep- 
tuagint),  and  my.  Bible  English^  p.  24. 


ENGINE 


(218) 


ENORME 


So  all  inoenst  the  pale  enaastromith 

(Rul'd  by  the  furious  spirit  he's  haunted  with) 

Speakes  in  his  womb. 

Sylvester,  The  Imposture,  p.  280. 

Engine,  gin  or  trap. 

The  hidden  engines,  and  the  snares  that  lie 
So  undiscovered,  bo  obscure  to  th*  eye. 

Quarles,  Emblems,  iii.  9. 

Engine,  to  assault. 

We  fear  not  Taurus,  the  bull,  that  shoots 
his  horns  from  Rome,  nor  Scorpio  that  sends 
his  venomous  sting  from  Spain,  nor  the  un- 
christened  Aries  of  infidels,  profane  and  pro- 
fessed enemies  to  engine  and  natter  our  walls. 
— Adams,  i.  29. 

Engore.  The  Diets,  give  this  word 
=  to  pierce,  but  in  the  extract  it  =  to 
make  bloody,  and  also  at  xii.  212.  Cf. 
Ingore. 

A  most  unmanly  noise  was  made  with  those 

he  put  to  sword, 
Of  groans  and  outcries.    The  flood  blush'd 

to  be  so  much  sugar1  d 
With  such  base  souls. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xxi.  22. 

Engrand,  to  make  great,  aggrandize. 

The  Duke  ...  by  all  means  endeavoured 
to  engrand  his  posterity. — Fuller,  Hist,  of 
Comb.,  vii.  42. 

Engraven,  to  engrave. 

As  our  Maker  has  stamp'd  His  image  in 
our  foreheads,  so  He  has  also  engraven'd  the 
knowledge  of  Himself  in  our  souls. — Gentle- 
man Instructed,  p.  250. 

Enhavacino,  destruction. 

The  earth  hath  not  scanted  her  fruits,  but 
our  concealing*  have  been  close,  our  enhavac- 
ings  ravenous,  our  transportations  lavish. — 
Adams,  i.  87. 

Enhearten,  to  encourage. 

When  their  agents  came  to  him  to  feel  his 
pulse,  they  found  it  beat  so  calm  and  even, 
that  he  sent  them  messages  to  enhearten 
them.—Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  II.  141. 

Enhuile,  to  anoint. 

Then  they  used  ...  to  kill,  and  offer  their 
sacrifices;  yea,  and  their  manner  was  to 
enhuile  or  anoint  their  very  altars  all  over. — 
Holland's  Camden,  p.  771. 

Enjoy,  joy,  happiness. 

As  true  love  is  content  with  his  enjoy. 
And  asketh  no  witnesse  nor  no  record. 
Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III.  cb.  zix. 

En  kennelled,  shut  in  a  kennel. 
Davies  speaks  of  Diogenes  as   "  the 

That  alwaies  in  a  tub  enkennelTd  lies. 

Microcosmos,  p.  84. 


Enkernelled,  enclosed  in  a  kernel. 

When  I  muse 
Upon  the  aches,  anxieties,  and  fears 
The  Maggot  knows  not,  Nicholas,  xnethinks 
It  were  a  happy  metamorphosis 
To  be  enkernelVd  thus. 

Southey,  Nondescripts,  vi 

Enl  aw  belled,  crowned  with  laurels. 

For  Swaines  that  con  no  skill  of  holy  rage 
Bene    foe-men    to    faire   skil's   enlawreWd 
Queen. — Davies,  Eclogue,  p.  20. 

Enluring,  enticement 

They  know  not  the  detractions  of  slander, 
underminings  of  envy,  provocations,  heats, 
enlurings  of  lusts. — Adams,  i.  311. 

Enmingle,  to  immingle. 

Love  embitter' d  with  tears 
Suits  but  ill  with  my  years, 
When  sweets  bloom  enminaled  around, 

Burgoyne,  Lord  of  the  Manor,  I.  i. 

Enmontery. 

He  was  shot  through  the  enmontery  of  the 
left  arm,  and  the  arrow  dividing  those  grand 
auxiliary  vessels,  he  died  of  the  flux  of  blood 
immediatly. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  X.  v.  12. 

Enneal. 

In  those  to  shew  himselfe  rather  artificial! 
then  naturall  were  no  lesse  to  be  laughed  at 
than  for  one  that  can  Bee  well  inough  to  vse 
a  paire  of  spectacles,  or  not  to  heare  but  by 
a  trunke  put  to  his  eare,  nor  feele  without 
a  paire  of  ennealed  glooues,  which  things  in 
deed  helpe  an  infirme  sence,  but  annoy  the 
perfit.— Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III.  oh. 
xxv. 

Ennealogue.     See  quotation. 

In  the  aforesaid  ten  commandments  as 
exemplified  in  the  council  of  Alfred,  the 
second  commandment  is  wholly  expunged. 
.  .  .  The  worst  is,  when  this  was  wanting 
the  Decalogue  was  but  an  Ennealogue. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  II.  iv.  42. 

Enniche,  to  place  in  a  niche  or  con- 
spicuous position. 

Slawkenbergius,  .  . .  indeed,  in  many  re- 
spects, deserves  to  be  ennich'd  as  a  prototype 
for  all  writers,  of  voluminous  works  at  least, 
to  model  their  books  by. — Sterne,  TV.  Shandy , 
III.  29. 

Enorme,  to  make  monstrous:    this 

verb  is  often  used  by  Davies,  who  also 

spells  it  with  an  %. 

Then  lets  hee  friends  the  fantacie  enorme 
With  strong  delusion*  and  with  passions  dire. 
Davies,  Mirum  iu  Modum,  p.  9. 

They  stand  still  falling  whom  He  doth  vphold. 
And  who  goes  carelesse,  ourelesse  He  enormes. 
Ibid.,  Mane's  Sacrifice,  p.  50. 


ENOUGH 


(  219  )  ENTER-KNOW 


Thy  Hands  that  form'd,  reform 'd,  and  me 
conformed, 
Were  to  a  Crosse  transfixed  for  my  sake, 
To  help  my  hate  fall  hands  that  sinue  inorm'd. 

Ibid.,  p.  12. 

Enough  and  enough,  more  than 
enough.  The  second  quotation  is  from 
a  letter  of  "Daddy  Cripps"  to  Miss 
Burney. 

Every  one  of  us,  from  the  bare  sway  of  his 
own  inherent  corruption,  carrying  enough  and 
enough  about  him  to  assure  his  final  doom. — 
South,  Sermons*  vi.  126. 

The  play  has  wit  enough  and  enough,  but 
the  story  and  the  incidents  don't  appear  to 
me  interesting  enough  to  seize  and  keep  hold 
of  the  attention  and  eager  expectations  of 
the  generality  of  audiences. — Mad.  DfArblay, 
Diary,  i.  300. 

Enpovbr,  impoverish. 

Lest  they  should  theym  selves  enpover 

And  be  brought  into  decaye, 
Pover  cilly  shepperdis  they  gett, 
Whome  into  their  farmes  they  sett 
Itfvynge  on  mylke,  whyg,  and  whey. 

Roy  and  Barlow,  Rede  me  and 
bt  nott  wrothe,  p.  100. 

Enrage,  to  rage:    usually  an  active 

verb. 

My  father,  I  am  certain  by  his  letter,  will 
now  hear  neither  petition  nor  defence;  on 
the  contrary,  he  will  only  enrage  at  the 
temerity  of  offering  to  conf nte  him. —  Mad. 
D'Arblay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  IX.  cb.  vii. 

Ensaint,  to  canonize. 

For  his  ensainting,  looke  the  almanack  in 
the  beginning  of  Aprill,  and  see  if  you  can 
finde  out  such  a  saint  as  Saint  Gildarde, 
which  in  honour  of  this  gilded  fish,  the  pope 
so  ensainted. —  Nashe,  Lenten  Stvjffe  (Harl. 
Miic.,  vi.  174). 

ENsnoRE,  to  enharbour. 

Then  Death  (the  end  of  ill  unto  the  good) 
Enshore  my  soule  neer  drownd  in  flesh  and 
blood. — Davits,  Wittes  Pilgrimage,  p.  40. 

Enshored,  received  on  shore.     De- 

venere  locos,  in  original. 

Tbeare  they  were  enshoared,  wheare  thow 
shalt  shortlye  see  townwals.  —  Stanyhurst, 
jEn^  i.  850. 

Ensindok,  to  wrap  in  a  sindon  or 

linen   cloth,      aivdovi  is    the   word   in 

Matt  zxvii.  59. 

Now  doth  this  loving  sacred  Synaxie 
(With  diuine  orizons  and  deuout  teares) 
Ensindon  Him  with  choicest  draperie. 

Davits,  Holy  Roode,  p.  28. 

Eksorcell. 

Not  any  one  of  all  these  honor'd  parts 
Tour  princely  happes  and  habites  that  do 
moue, 


And  as  it  were  ensoreell  all  the  hearts 
Of  Christen  kiugs  to  quarrel  for  your  loue. 
Sir  T.  Wyai,  quoted  in  Puttenham, 
Bk.  III.  ch.  xix. 

Ensp angle,  to  cover  with  spangles. 

One  more  by  thee,  love  and  desert  have  Bent 
T'  enspangle  this  expansive  firmament. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  204. 

Entask,  to  lay  a  task  upon. 

Tet  sith  the  Heav'ns  haue  thus  entaskt  my 
layea, 

It  is  enough,  if  heer-by  I  invite 
Som  happier  spirit  to  do  thy  Muse  more  right. 
Sylvester,  4  day,  1st  noeeke,  56. 

Extempest,  to  visit  with  storm. 

Such  punishment  I  said  were  due 
To  natures  deepliest  stained  with  sin — 

For  aye  entempesting  anew 

The  unfathomable  hell  within ; 

The  horror  of  their  deeds  to  view, 

To  know  and  loathe,  yet  wish  and  do. 

Coleridge,  Pains  of  Sleep. 

Enter,  to  set  on  game. 

No  sooner  had  the  northern  carles  begun 
their  hunts-up  but  the  Presbyterians  flock'd 
to  London  from  all  quarters,  and  were  like 
hounds  ready  to  be  entred. — Hacket,  Life  of 
Williams,  ii.  143. 

Enterbathe,  to  bathe  mutually ;  to 

intermingle  tears. 

Lo  at  thy  presence,  how  who  late  were  prest 
To  spur  their  steeds,  and  couch  their  staues 

in  rest 
For  fierce  incounter,  cast  awav  their  spears, 
And  rapt  with  joy,  them  enterbathe  with  tears. 

Sylvester,  Handicrafts,  21. 

Enterbraid,  to  lace  together. 

Their  shady  boughs  first  bow  they  tenderly, 
Then  enterbraid,  aud  bind  them  curiously. 
Sylvester,  Handicrafts,  209. 

Enterflow,  channel.     Holland  also 

uses  the  verb  interflow^  q.  v. 

These  Hands  ....  are  severed  one  from 
another  by  a  narrow  enter/low  of  the  Sea 
betweene. — Holland's  Camden,  ii.  215. 

Enterkiss,  to  kiss  mutually ;  to  come 

in  contact. 

And  water  'nointing  with  cold-moist   the 

brims 
Of  th'  enter-kissing  turning  globes  extreams, 
Tempers  the  heat. 

Sylvester,  2nd  day,  1st  weeke,  1050. 

Enter  -  know,  to  be  mutually  ac- 
quainted. 

I  have  desired  ...  to  enter-know  my  good 
God,  and  his  blessed  Angels  and  Saints. — 
Bp.  Hall,  Inv.  World,  Pref . 


ENTERMEWER  (  220  )         ENVIRONMENT 


Entermewer.  H.,  who  gives  no 
quotation,  defines  it  "  a  hawk  that 
changes  the  colour  of  its  wings.'1 

Nor  must  you  expect  from  high  antiquity 
the  distinctions  of  Eyass  and  Bamage  Hawks, 
of  Sores  and  Entermewers.—Sir  T.  Brown, 
Tractb. 

Ent ermine,  an  intervening  mine,  or 

entrance  of  a  mine  (?). 

While  hotlv  thus  they  skirmish  in  the  vault, 
Quick  Ebedmelech  closely  hither  brought, 
A  dry-fat  sheath'd  in  latton  plates  without, 
Within  with  feathers  filPd,  and  round  about 
Bortt  full  of  holes  (with  hollow  pipea  of 

brass) 
Save  at  one  end,  where  nothing  out  should 

paw; 
Which  (having  first  his  Jewish  troops  retir'd) 
Just  in  the  mouth  of  th'  enterminene  fir'd. 

Sylvester,  The  Decay,  049. 

ENTER8PLIT,  to  Split  in  two. 

There's  not  a  shaft  but  hath  a  man  for 

white, 
Nor  stone  but  lightly  in  warm  bloud  doth 

light; 
Or  if  that  any  fail  their  foes  to  hit 
In  fall,  in  flight  themselves  they  enter-split. 
Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  301. 

Enthwite,  to  chide.    See  Entwite. 

By  that  word  he  means  to  enthwite  them, 
and,  as  1  may  say,  to  cry  them  down. — An- 
drews, Sermons,  v.  20. 

Entiltment,  shed ;  tent. 

The  best  houses  and  walls  there  were  of 
mudde,  or  canvas,  or  poldavies  entiltment s. — 
JVajfo,  Lenten  Stuffs  (Harl.  Misc*  vi.  171). 

Entire,  used  as  a  subst.  for  entirety. 

I  am  narrating  as  it  were  the  Warrington 
manuscript,  which  is  too  long  to  print  in 
entire. — Thackeraq,  Virginians,  ch.  lzni. 

Entire  horse,  a  stallion. 

One  of  these  old  soldiers  was  what  the 
Spaniards,  with  the  gravity  peculiar  to  their 
language,  call  a  Caballo  Padre,  or  what  some 
of  our  own  writers,  with  a  decorum  not  leas 
becoming,  appellate  an  entire  horse. — Southey, 
The  Doctor,  ch.  cxxxvi. 

Entohologi8E,  to  pursue  the  study  of 
insects,  or  to  collect  specimens. 

It  is  too  rough  for  trawling  to-day,  and  too 
wet  for  entomologising.—C.  Kingsley,  1849 
(Life,  i.  171). 

Entbadas  (Spanish),  revenues;  in- 
come.    See  Entrates. 

His  own  revenues  of  a  large  extent, 
But  in  the  expectation  of  his  uncle1 
And  guardian's  entradas,  by  the  course 


Of  nature  to  descend  on  him,  a  match 
For  the  best  subject's  blood. 

Jiassinger,  Guardian,  V.  ill. 

Entrain,  to  draw  on. 

The  Mutiueers  were  grown  so  weak, 

They  found  'twas  more  than  time  to  squeak: 

They  call  for  work,  but  'twas  too  late : 
The  Stomach  (like  an  aged  maid, 
Shrunk  up  for  want  of  human  aid) 
The  common  debt  of  nature  paid, 

And  with  its  destiny  entrained  their  fate. 
Vanbrugh,  JEsop,  Act  II. 

Entrates,  revenues.    See  Entradas. 

The  Lord  Treasurer  Cranfeild,a  good  hue- 
band  of  the  entrates  of  the  Exchequer,  com- 
plain'd  against  him  to  the  Bong. — Hacket, 
Life  of  Williams,  i.  83. 

Entrelice,  trellis  work  (?). 

I  observed  that  the  appearing  timber 
punchions,  entrelices,  &c.,  were  all  so  cover'd 
with  scales  of  slate,  that  it  seemed  carv'd  in 
the  wood  and  painted,  the  slate  fastened  on 
the  timber  in  pretty  figures  that  has,  like  a 
coate  of  armour,  preseiVd  it  from  rotting. — 
Evelyn,  Diary,  Jan.  3, 1666. 

Entwite,  twit;  blame.  See  En- 
thwite. 

Thou  doest  naught  to  entwite  me  thus, 
And  with  soche  wordes  opprobrious 
To  vpbraid  the  giftes  amorous 
Of  the  glittreyng  Goddesse  Venus. 

UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth^  p.  165. 

Enumerate  is  used  in  the  extract  for 
innumerable.  "  Things  creeping  innu- 
merable" is  the  reading  both  in  the 
Bible  and  Prayer-Book  versions. 

And  as  Thy  wealth  the  Earth  do's  bound, 
So  wondrous  is  the  spacious  Sea, 

Where  fish  enumerate  are  found, 
And  small  and  great  depend  on  Thee. 
D'Urfey,  Poem  on  Psalm  CIl\ 

Enunciator,  declarer. 

The  inquisitive  servants  .  .  .  were  all 
questioning  her  about  the  news  of  which  she 
wast  he  first,  and  not  very  intelligible  enunci- 
ator.— Miss  Edyeworth,  Ennui,  oh.  xv. 

Enunied,  united. 

Neither  can  any  man  at  all  be  made  clean 
.  .  .  except  by  faith  they  be  enunied  and 
joined  together  in  the  body  of  Him  which 
without  any  carnal  enticement  and  morti- 
ferous  delectation  was  conceived. —Becon,  i. 
79. 

Envapour,  to  surround  with  vapour. 

On  a  still-rocking  couch  lies  blear-ey'd  Sleep* 
Snorting  alowd,  and  with  his  panting  breath 
Blowes  a  black  fume,  that  all  envajxmreth. 
Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  555. 

Environment,  surrounding.  This 
word    is    now    not    uncommon.     The 


EN  WRITE 


(  221  ) 


EPISCOPIZE 


second  extract  is  from  a  letter  from 
Sterling  to  Carlyle  about  the  Sartor 
Jtoartus  of  the  latter  (1835).  R., 
however,  quotes  Philemon  Holland  for 
the  word. 

Man's  whole  life  and  environment  have 
been  laid  open  and  elucidated. — Carlyle, 
Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  I.  ch.  i. 

First  aa  to  the  language.  A  good  deal  of 
thia  is  positively  barbarous.  '*  Environment? 
u  vcstura],"  u  stertorous,"  u  visualised,"  "com- 
plected," and  others,  to  be  found,  I  think,  in 
the  first  twenty  pages,  are  words,  so  far  as  I 
know,  without  any  authority ;  some  of  them 
contrary  to  analogy ;  and  none  repaying  by 
their  value  the  disadvantage  of  novelty. — 
Ibidn  Life  of  Sterling,  Pt.  II.  ch.  ii. 

A  shape  hitherto  unnoticed,  stirred,  rose, 
came  forward;  a  shape  inharmonious  with 
the  environment,  serving  only  to  complicate 
the  riddle  further. — Miss  Bronte,  VUlette,  ch. 
xvi. 

Exwrite,  to  inscribe. 

What  wild  heart  histories  seemed  to  be  en- 

urritten 
Upon  those  crystalline  celestial  spheres. 
E.  A.  Foe,  To  Helen  (ii.  18). 

Eoan,  eastern;  pertaining  to  the 
dawn. 

Armenian  girls 
Gall  him  the  Mithra  of  the  middle  world, 
That  sheds  Eoan  radiance  on  the  West. 
Taylor,  Isaac  Comnenus,  iii.  5. 

Eparch,  a  commander. 

The  prefects  and  the  eparchs  will  resort1 
To  the  Bucoleon  with  what  speed  they  may. 
Taylor,  Isaac  Comnenus,  ii.  3. 

Ephkmebalities,  transient  trifles. 

This  lively  companion  ....  chattered 
epkemeralities  white  Gerard  wrote  the  im- 
mortal lives. — Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch. 
Lri 

Epichorial,  belonging  to  the  country. 

Local  or  epichorial  superstitions  from 
every  district  of  Europe  come  forward  by 
thousands. — De  Quincey;  Modern  Supersti- 
tion. 

Epicure,  to  live  like  an  epicure ;  to 

epicurize. 

They  did  Epicure  it  in  daily  exceedings,  as 
indeed  where  should  men  fare  well,  if  not  in 
a  King's  HiJl?— Fuller,  Hist,  of  Comb.,  ii.48. 

Epicurbly,  delicately ;  luxuriously. 

His  horses  (quatenus  horses)  are  proven- 
dered  as  em'curely. —  Nashe,  Lenten  Stuff e 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  179). 

Epigrammatarian,  epigrammatist. 

Onr  epigrammatarians,  old  and  late, 
Were  wont  be  blamed  for  too  licentiate. 

Hall,  Satires,  I.  ix.  29. 


Epigrammatism,   epigrammatic al 

character. 

The  latter  [derivation]  would  be  greedily 
seized  by  nine  philologists  out  of  ten,  for  no 
better  cause  than  its  epigrammatism. — E.  A. 
Toe,  Marginalia,  lxvii. 

Epigraph,  an  inscription.  L.  (who 
gives  no  example)  quotes  from  Todd  : 
"  Dr.  Johnson  gives  the  Greek  angli- 
cised in  epigraphe,  a  word  of  four  syl- 
lables, as  he  places  the  accent  on  the 
second.  But  I  take  epigraph  to  be  an 
old  English  word,  merely  with  the 
superfluous  final  c,  as  was  formerly 
common,  and  intended  like  paragraph 
or  autograph  to  be  pronounced  in 
three  syllables. " 

Dr.  Meret,  a  learned  man  and  library 
Keeper  shew*d  me  .  .  .  the  statue  and  epi- 
<rraj>h  under  it  of  that  renowned  physitian 
Dr.  Harvey,  discoverer  of  the  circulation  of 
the  blood.— Evelyn,  Diary,  Oct.  3, 1662. 

Epikt  (IxuUita)  "expresses  exactly 
that  moderation  which  recognises  the 
impossibility  cleaving  to  formal  law  of 
anticipating  and  providing  for  all  cases 
that  will  emerge,  and  present  them- 
selves to  it  for  decision;  which,  with 
this,  recognises  the  danger  that  ever 
waits  upon  the  assertion  of  legal  rights 
lest  they  should  be  pushed  into  moral 
wrongs,  lest  the  summumjus  should  in 
fact  prove  the  gumma  injuria  ;  which, 
therefore,  pushes  not  its  own  rights  to 
the  uttermost,  but  going  back  in  part 
or  in  the  whole  from  these,  rectifies 
and  redresses  the  injustices  of  justice  " 
(Trench^  New  Test.  Synonyms,  sect.  43). 

I  am  provoked  of  some  to  condemn  this 
law,  but  I  am  not  able,  so  it  be  but  for  a 
time,  and  upon  weighty  considerations;  so 
that  it  be  used  rarely,  seldomly :  for  avoiding 
disturbance  in  the  commonwealth,  such  an 
epikv  and  moderation  may  be  used  in  it.— 
Latimer,  i.  182. 

Epiphoneme,  an  exclamation.  This 
Anglicised  form  is  not  common. 

[The  wise  man]  in  th'  ende  cryed  out  with 
this  Epyphoneme,  Vanitas  vanitatum  et  omnia 
vanitas. — Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  II.  ch. 
hi. 

Episcopant,  a  bishop. 

The  intercession  of  all  these  apostolic 
fathers  could  not  prevail  with  them  to  alter 
their  resolved  decree  of  reducing  into  order 
their  usurping  and  over-provendered  episco- 
pants. — Milton,  Prelatical  Episcopacy. 

Episcopize,  to  consecrate  to  the  epis- 


EPISTAL 


(    222    ) 


ESCRITOIRE 


copal  office.    The  word  usually  signifies 

to  exercise  that  office. 

They  alleged  that  he  had  even  pressed  the 
Greek  to  consecrate  him  a  bishop  also.  .  .  . 
There  seems  reason  to  believe  that  Wesley 
was  willing  to  have  been  episcopized  upon 
this  occasion. — Southey,  Life  of  Wesley,  ch. 
xjcvi. 

Epistal,  epistyle  or  architrave.  R. 
gives  epistyle,  but  his  only  extract  is 
from  Evelyn,  who  uses  the  Latin  epis- 
tylium. 

The  walls  and  pauement  of  polished  mar- 
ble, circled  with  a  great  Corinthian  wreath, 
with  pillars  and  Epistals  of  like  workman- 
ship.—Sandys,  Travels,  p.  287. 

Epitaph eb,  a  writer  of  epitaphs. 

Epitaphers  .  .  .  swarme  like  Crowes  to  a 
dead  carcas. — Nashe,  Pref.  to  Greene's  Mena- 
phon,  p.  14. 

Epitaphio,  epitaph. 

An  epitaphic  is  the  writings  that  is  sette  on 
deade  mennes  toumbes  or  graues  in  memory 
or  common  dacion  of  the  parties  there  buried. 
— UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  221. 

Epopceist,  a  writer  of  epics. 

It  is  not  long  since  two  of  our  best-known 
epopceist  s,  or,  to  use  the  more  common  term, 
of  our  novel-writers,  have  concluded  each  a 
work  published  by  instalments. — Phillips, 
Essays  from  the  Times,  ii.  321. 

Eposculation,  kissing. 

L  pass  over  your  .  .  .  incurvations  and 
eposculations,  your  benedictions  and  humilia- 
tions.— Beeon,  iii.  283. 

Equestrial,  equestrian:    for  which 

it  may  be  a  misprint. 

There  are  two  others  of  the  same  King, 
one  equestrial,  and  most  furiously  ugly,  in 
Stocks-market,  and  the  other  in  Soho-square. 
— Misson,  Travels  in  Eny.,  p.  309. 

Equinoctia,  equinoxes.  Shakespeare 
had  already  used  the  English  form 
equinox  {Othello,  ii.  3). 

Shepherds  of  people  had  need  know  the 
calenders  of  tempests  in  state,  which  are 
commonly  greatest  when  things  grow  to 
equality,  as  natural  tempests  about  the  equi- 
noctia.— Bacon,  Essays  {Seditions). 

Equipage,  equality.  This  sense,  as 
Bp.  Jacobson  observes,  clears  up  the 
passage  in  the  Merry  Wive*  of  Wind- 
sor, which  has  perplexed  commentators. 
See  N. ,  s.  v.  The  expression  only  oc- 
curs in  the  quarto,  and  is  not  found  in 
the  best  modern  editions. 

Falsi.  I  will  not  lend  thee  a  penny. 
Pist.  I  will  retort  the  sum  in  equijtaae. 

ii.2. 


Nor  doth  it  sound  well  that  the  examples 
of  men,  though  never  so  godly,  should,  as  to 
the  effect  of  warranting  our  actions,  stand  in 
so  near  equipage  with  the  commands  of  God, 
as  they  are  here  placed  jointly  together, 
without  any  character  of  difference  so  much 
as  in  degree. — Sanderson,  Preface,  1855,  ii.  10. 

EQUITAL,  requital. 

[A  besieged  general]  rather  used  the  spade 
than  the  sword, .  .  .  referring  the  revenge 
rather  to  the  end,  than  to  a  present  equital. 
— Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  266. 

Equi value,  to  put  on  a  par. 

He  has  the  fault  of  all  our  antiquaries, 
to  equivalue  the  noble  and  the  rabble  of 
authorities.  —  W.  Taylor,  1803  (Robberds' 
Memoir,  i.  470.) 

Eremital,  belonging  to  a  hermit ; 
eremitish,  or  eremitical,  are  the  more 
usual  adjectives. 

Would  or  would  not  this  godfather  general 
have  been  happier  in  a  convent  or  hermitage 
than  he  was  in  thus  following  his  own  hu- 
mour ?  It  was  Dr.  Dove's  opinion  that  upon 
the  whole  he  would  ;  not  that  a  conventual, 
and  still  less  an  eremital  way  of  life  would 
have  been  more  rational. —  Southey,  Ths 
Doctor,  ch.  lxviii. 

Eristic,  a  controversialist.  See  ex- 
tract from  Gauden,  s.  v.  Enchiie.  L. 
has  the  word  as  an  adjective,  with  a 
quotation  from  a  work  published  in 
1698 ;  Gauden's  book  appeared  nearly 
forty  years  earlier. 

Erradund,  wandering. 

"While  I  have  listened  and  looked  on  .  .  . 
have  you  with  your  errabund  guesses,  veering 
to  all  points  of  the  literary  compass,  amused 
the  many-humoured  vet  single-minded  Pan- 
tagruelist,  the  quotationipotent  mottocrat. — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  Interchapter  ziii. 

Esclandre,  disturbance ;  this  French 
word  is  ulmost  naturalised.  Mr.  Kings- 
ley  does  not  italicise  it  nor  apparently 
mark  it  as  foreign. 

Scoutbush,  to  avoid  esclandre  and  misery, 
thought  it  as  well  to  waive  the  proviso,  and 
paid  her  her  dividends  as  usual.— C.  Kinysley, 
Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xi. 

Escript,  writing. 

Te  have  silenced  almost  all  her  able  guides, 
and  daily  burn  their  escripts. — British  Bell- 
man, 1648  {Harl.  Misc.,  vn.  625). 

Escritoire,  a  desk  or  bureau. 

A  hundred  guineas  will  buy  you  a  rich 
escritoir  for  your  billets-doux. — Farquhar* 
Constant  Couple,  v.  1. 

Sir  Charles  .  .  .  broke  the  seals  that  had 


ESMA  YLE 


(  223  ) 


EUNUCH 


been  affixed  to  the  cabinet*  and  eseritores. — 
Richardson,  Grandison,  ii,  223. 

Esmayle,  or  Em  A  yle,  enamel.  The 
second  extract  is  from  N.  and  Q.,  I.  v. 
467. 

Set  rich  rubie  to  red  esmayle, 

The  raven's  plume  to  peacock's  tail. 

Lay  me  the  farkes  to  lizard's  eyes. 

The  duakie  cloud  to  azure  skies ; 


There  shall  no  lease  an  ods  be  seene 
In  mine  from  euery  other  Queen. 
Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xix. 

It  is  reported  that  the  Pope  long  since 
gaoe  them  [Icelanders]  a  dispensation  to 
receine  the  Sacrament  in  ale,  insomuch  as 
for  their  vncessant  frosts  there,  no  wine  but 
was  turned  to  red  emayle  as  soon  as  euer  it 
came  amongst  them. — ATashe,  Terrors  of  the 
Night  (1594),  D.  iii. 

Espinette.  L.  defines  spinet  (the 
more  usual  form),  a  small  harpsichord, 
but  Pepys  distinguishes  between  the 
two. 

Called  upon  one  Hayward,  that  makes 
virginalls,  and  there  did  like  of  a  little  espi- 
nette,  and  will  have  him  finish  it  for  me ;  for 
I  had  a  mind  to  a  small  harpaichon,  but  this 
takes  up  less  room. — Pepys,  Ap.  4, 1068. 

At  noon  is  brought  home  the  espinette  I 
bought  the  other  day  of  Hayward ;  cost  me 
£5.-1  hid.,  July  15. 

To  buy  a  rest  for  my  espinette  at  the  iron- 
monger's.— Ibid.,  July  20. 

Espousage,  marriage. 

Such  one  as  the  King  can  find  in  his  heart 
to  love,  and  lead  his  life  in  pure  and  chaste 
espousage, — Latimer,  i.  94. 

ESQUIXRES8B,  female  esquire.  The 
extract  is  of  the  date  1596. 

The  principal  mourneress  apparelled  as  an 
esquieresse. — Fosbroke,  Smyth's  Lives  of  the 
Berkeley*,  p.  211. 

Estbait,  to  narrow  or  confine. 

80  that  at  this  day  the  Turk  hath  estrayted 
us  very  nere,  and  brought  it  within  a  right 
narrow  compass,  and  narrower  shall  do,  say 
thay,  as  long  as  we  go  about  to  defend 
Crrafandome  by  the  sword. — Sir  T.  More, 
Dialog*,  p.  145. 

Estbangfull,  foreign. 

And  over  these  (being  on  horse  backe)  they 
drew  greanes  or  buskins  embrodered  with 
gould,  and  euterlac't  with  rewes  of  fethers ; 
altogether  estrangfull  and  Indian  like. — 
Chapman,  Masque  of  Mid.  Temple. 

Estrange  to,  estrange  from. 

'    Mr.  Meekly  had  long  estranged  himself  to 
Enfield.— #.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  ii.  152. 


Etch,  to  eke,  augment.  H.  gives  it 
as  a  Kentish  word. 

Where  the  lion's  skin  is  too  short,  we  must 
etch  it  out  with  the  fox's  case.  —  Cotton* s 
Montaigne,  ch.  v. 

Etkrne,  to  eternise  or  render  im- 
mortal. 

Then  thus  I  spake,  O  spirits  diuine  and 

learned, 
Whose    happy   labours    haue    your    lands 

eterned. —  Sylvester,  Babylon,  697. 

O  idiot's  shame,  and  envy  of  the  learned ! 
O  verse  right-worthy  to  be  ay  eterned. 

Ibid^  The  Trophies,  977. 

Ethereality,  airiness;  spirituality. 

Fire,  energy,  ethereality  have  departed.  I 
am  the  soil  without  the  sun,  the  cask  with- 
out the  wine,  the  garments  without  the  man. 
— Lytton,  Pelham,  ch.  lxxiii. 

Etiolated,  debilitated. 

I  bad  the  pleasure  of  encountering  him ; 
left  a  bullet  in  one  of  his  poor  etiolated  arms, 
feeble  as  the  wing  of  a  chicken  in  the  pip, 
and  then  thought  I  had  done  with  the  whole 
crew. — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xv. 

Ettle,  a  nettle.  In  the  Chwardens' 
Accounts  of  Minchinghamptoii.  1688, 
one  shilling  appears  as  paid  "for 
cutting  ettles"  {ArchceoL,  xxxv.  451). 

Euchite,  one  who  prays. 

Fanatick  Brrour  and  Levity  would  seem 
an  Euchite  as  well  as  an  Eristick,  Prayant 
as  well  as  predicant,  a  Devotionist  as  well  as 
a  Disputant,  insinuating  itself  with  no  less 
cunning  under  a  Votary's  Cowle  than  in  a 
Doctor's  Chair,  in  Prayers,  Sacraments,  and 
Euchologies  as  well  as  in  Preachings,  Dis- 
putations, and  Writings. — Gauden,  Tears  of 
the  Church,  p.  93. 

Euclionism,  stinginess:  from  Euclio, 
a  miser,  im.the  Anlularia  of  Plautus. 
See  quotation  more  at  length,  s.  v. 
Hdddle-duddle. 

Their  miserable  euclionisme  and  snudgery. 
— Nashe,  Lenten  Stujfe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  147). 

EudjEMON,  a  good  angel.  See  quota- 
tion more  at  length,  s.  v.  Cacodemonise. 

The  simple  appendage  of  a  tail  will  caco- 
demonise the  Eudemon. — Southey,  The  Doctor, 
Fragm.  on  Beards. 

EudjEMonism,  a  system  which  attri- 
butes happiness  to  good  luck  or  destiny. 

Ethics,  braced  up  into  stoical  vigour  by 
renouncing  all  effeminate  dallyings  with  Eu~ 
damonism,  would  indirectly  have  co-operated 
with  the  sublime  ideals  of  Christianity. — De 
Quincey,  Last  Bays  of  Kant. 

Eunuch,  as  an  adj.,  =  unproductive. 
He  had  a  mind  wholly  eunuch  and  un- 


EUNUCHISE 


(  224  ) 


EVICKE 


generative  in  matter*  of  literature  and  taste. 
— Godwin,  MandevUU,  Hi.  90. 

Eunuchise,  to  emasculate. 

Never  thinking  them  or  their  Religion 
sufficiently  circumcised,  till  they  are  quite 
excoriated,  exsected,  eunuehised,  that  is,  made 
so  poor  and  dispirited. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  821. 

Eupeptic,  having  a  good  digestion ; 
healthful.      8ee    quotation    «.  v.   Eu- 

PRACTIC. 

The  eupeptic  right-thinking  nature  of  the 
man,  his  sanguineous  temper  with  its  vivacity 
and  sociality, ....  all  these  fitted  Baillie  to 
he  a  leader  in  General  Assemblies  and  con- 
claves, a  man  deputable  to  the  London  Par- 
liament and  elsewhither.  —  Carlyle,  Misc., 
iv.  224. 

Eupbactic,  acting  well. 

An  easy  laconic  gentleman  of  grave  polite- 
ness ;  apt  to  lose  temper  at  play,  yet  on  the 
whole  good-humoured,  eupeptic,  and  «m- 
practic. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iii.  215. 

Euthanasia  The  Diets,  give  this 
word  with  a  quotation  from  Sp.  Hall, 
but  it  does  not  seem  to  have  been  quite 
naturalized  in  1678,  when  Abp.  San- 
croft,  writing  to  Bp.  Morley,  says — 

There  is  no  man,  I  think,  who,  observing 
you  to  make  to  land,  and  ready  to  put  into 
port,  did  not  follow  you  with  his  good  wishes 
that  your  anchors  and  cable  might  hold ;  that 
you  might  ride  safe  there  from  all  harms, 
and  enjoy  a  long  and  an  easy  old  age,  and 
at  last  find  that  happy  tvdavaata  that  always 
attends  a  life  led  according  to  the  rules  of 
our  great  and  common  Master. — D'Oyley's 
Life  of  Sancroft,  ch.  iv. 

Evacuatory,  a  purge. 

An  imposthume  calls  for  a  lance,  and  op- 
pletion  for  unpalatable  evacuatories. — Gentle- 
man Instructed,  p.  809. 

E vacuity,  a  vacancy. 

Fit  it  was,  therefore,  so  many  evacuitie* 
should  be  filled  up,  to  mount  the  meeting  to 
a  competent  number. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI. 
ix.  7. 

Evanesce,  to  vanish  in  a  subtle  or 

imperceptible  way. 

I  believe  him  to  have  evanesced  or  evapor- 
ated.— De  Quincey,  Conf.  of  an  Opium-eater, 
p.  79. 

Evangelicalism,  the  teaching  and 
habits  of  those  who  styled  themselves 
Evangelical ;  low-Church  ism. 

Evangelicalism  had  cast  a  certain  suspicion 
as  of  plague-infection  over  the  few  amuse- 
ments which  survived  in  the  provinces. — G. 
Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch.  xvi. 


Evapor,   to  evaporate.     The  word 

occurs  again  in  Sandys,  p.  268. 

JStna  here  thunders  with  an  horrid  noise ; 
Sometimes  blacke  clouds  euaporeth  to  skies. 

Sandys,  Travels,  p.  243. 

Evasive,  an  evasion. 

The  party  took  courage,  and  fallowed  their 
game  full  cry,  like  hounds  in  view,  without 
much  trouble  about  precautions  and  evasive*  : 
they  stuck  at  nothing. — North,  Examen,  p. 
90. 

But  what  may  not  be  said  and  wrote,  if 
this  author's  evasive*  may  pass?  —  Ibid.  p. 
899. 

Eve-droppbb,  a  thief ;  one  who  loiters 
about  a  house  for  an  unlawful  purpose. 
It  is  usually  applied  to  a  spy  or  listener, 
and  spelt  eaves  or  eves-dropper;  eaves 
is  both  sing,  and  plural. 

Soldiers  may  come  within  the  statute  of 
murder,  as  well  as  pads  on  the  highway,  and 
may  be  as  guilty  of  thefts  as  eve-droppers  or 
cut-purses.— Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  181. 

Eveish,  curious,  like  Eve. 

I  saw  it  was  a  long  letter;  I  felt  very 
Eveish,  my  dear ;  Lacy  said  afterwards  that 
I  did  so  leer  at  it ;  an  ugly  word,  importing 
slyness. — Richardson,  Grandison,  vi.  210. 

Even-down,  downright,  plain,  simple. 

The  rain,  which  had  hitherto  fallen  at 
intervals,  in  an  undecided  manner,  now  bunt 
forth  in  what  in  Scotland  is  emphatically 
called  an  even-down  pour. — Miss  Ferrier,  In- 
heritance, vol.  II.  ch.  xvi. 

Oh  what  a  moody  moralist  yon  grow ! 
Tet  in  the  even-down  letter  you  are  right. 

Taylor,  Ph.  van  AH.,  Pt.  I.  i.  10. 

Everlasting,  a  strong  sort  of  cloth. 
H.  says  u  formerly  much  worn  by  serv- 
ants. 

From  the  quickset  hedge  aforesaid  he  now 
raised,  with  all  due  delicacy,  a  well-worn  and 
somewhat  dilapidated  jacket,  of  a  stuff  by- 
drapers  most  pseudonymouslv  termed  "  ever- 
lasting"— Ingoldsby  Legends  (Jarvifs  Wig). 

Evebsive,  destructive,  subversive, 
which  is  the  commoner  word. 

No  man  or  nations  of  men  can  possibly  be 
bound  by  any  consents  or  contracts  eversive 
of  the  laws  of  God  and  of  their  own  nature. 
—H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  ii.  39. 

Such  a  strange  medley  of  fighting  incon- 
sistencies and  self-evident  absurdities .  . .  are 
wholly  eversive  of  every  principle  of  right, 
reason,  and  common  sense. — Ibid.  ii.  133. 

Evicke,  ibex. 

The  evicke  skipping  from  a  rock  into  the 

breast  he  smote, 
And  headlong  feU'd  him  from  his  cliff. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  iv.  122. 


EVIDENCER 


(  225  )  EXCURSIONER 


Evidences,  a  witness. 

Oatea  wrought,  as  it  seems,  for  bis  good, 
to  bring  him  into  the  preferment  of  an 
etidencer's  place.— Nort h,  Examen,  p.  238. 

Means  were  made  that  he  should  have  an 
allowance  and  his  pardon,  to  capacitate  him 
for  swearing  all  this,  and  no  body  knows 
what  more.  The  King  granted  the  former 
for  some  time,  but  would  not  cany  the  latter 
so  far  as  to  restore  him  to  the  state  of  an 
evidencer. — Ibid.  p.  259. 

Evidible,  capable  of  giving  evidence. 

Every  of  which  particulars  will  be  justif  yd, 
if  need  should  require,  by  the  othes  of  divers 
evidible  witnesses. — Yorkshire  Diaries,  1647 
{Surtees  Soc.),  p.  21. 

EvULGE,  to  publish. 

I  made  this  recueil  meerly  for  mine  own 
entertainment,  and  not  with  any  intention 
to  evulge  it. — Pre/,  to  A  nnot.  on  Sir  T.  Browne* $ 
Beligio  Medici. 

Ewe-necked,  having  a  hollow  in  the 
neck. 

The  animal  he  bestrode  was  a  broken-down 
plough-horse  . . .  gaunt  and  shagged,  with  a 
ewe-neck,  and  a  head  like  a  hammer. — Irving, 
Sketch  Book  {Sleepy  Hollow). 

Such  a  courser !  all  blood  and  bone,  short- 
backed,  broad-chested,  and,  but  that  he  was 
a  little  ewe-necked,  faultless  in  form  and 
figure. — Ingoldtby  Legends  {Grey  Dolphin). 

Ewrie,  the  place  where  the  ewers  for 
washing  the  hands  before  and  after 
meals  were  kept.    See  H.,  s.  v.  ewery. 

u  No,"  says  the  King, w  shew  me  the  way, 
111  go  to  Sir  Richard's  chamber,**  which  he 
immediately  did,  walking  along  the  entries 
after  me,  as  far  as  the  ewrie,  till  he  came  up 
into  the  roome  where  I  also  lay.— Evelyn, 
Diary,  March  1, 1671. 

Exaggerative,  hyperbolical. 

Hear  Vicars,  a  poor  human  soul  sealously 
prophesying  as  if  through  the  organs  of  an 
ass,  in  a  not  mendacious,  yet  loud-spoken, 
exaggerative,  more  or  less  asinine  manner.—- 
Carlyle,  Cromwell,  i.  142. 

Exam,  examination  (a  common  ab- 
breviation). 

Things  may  be  altered  since  the  writer  of 
this  novelette  went  through  his  exam. — 
Driven  to  Borne  (1877),  p.  67. 

Exasperate,  to  increase  in  severity ; 

usually  an  active  verb. 

The  distemper  exasperated,  till  it  was  mani- 
fest she  could  not  last  many  weeks. — North, 
Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  158. 

Excath  borate,  to  condemn  authori- 
tatively or  ex  cathedra. 


Whom  sho'd  I  feare  to  write  to,  if  I  can 
Stand  before  you,  my  learn'd  diocesan  ? 
And  never  shew  blood-guiltinesse  or  feare 
To  see  my  lines  excathedrated  here. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  66. 

Excelbitudb,  height. 

"Bouse  thy  spirites  out  of  this  drowse 
lethargie  of  mellancholly  they  are  drencht 
in,  and  wrest  them  up  to  the  most  out- 
stretched ayry  straine  of  elevation,  to  chauut 
and  carroll  forth  the  alteza  and  excelsitude  of 
this  monarchal!  fludy  induperator. — Nashe, 
Lenten  Stuffs  {Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  157). 

Excerebrate,  to  cast  out  from  the 
brain. 

Hath  it  [faith]  not  sovereign  virtue  in  it  to 
excerebrate  all  cares,  expectorate  all  fears  and 
griefs  ?—  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  25. 

Excise,  duty  on  certain  articles  con- 
sumed at  home.  Howell  fixes  the 
Great  Rebellion  as  the  time  when  this 
word  became  familiar.  The  only  in- 
stance supplied  by  the  Diets,  of  an 
earlier  date  is  one  from  Sir  J.  Hay  ward. 

We  have  brought  those  exotic  words  plun- 
dering and  storming,  and  that  once  abomin- 
able word  excise,  to  be  now  familiar  among 
them. — Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  37. 

Exciseman,  the  extract  shows  that 
this  word  was  not  in  literary  use  at  the 
time. 

A  certain  number  of  Gangers,  called  by 
the  Vulgar,  Excise-men.— Defoe,  Tour  thro9 
G.  Britain,  ii.  108. 

Excrdciament,  anguish. 

To  this  wild  of  sorrowes  and  excruciament 
she  was  confined.  —  Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffs 
{Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  177). 

Excurse,  to  digress :  excur  is  in  the 
Diets. 

But  how  I  excurse!  Yet  thou  usedst  to 
say  thou  likedst  my  excursions. — Biehardson, 
CI.  Harlowe,  iii.  71. 

Excursion,  projecting  addition  to  a 
building. 

Sure  I  am  that  small  excursion  out  of 
gentlemen's  halls  in  Dorcetshire  (respect  it 
Bast  or  West)  is  commonly  called  an  orial.— 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  vi.  p.  285. 

Let  the  model  of  countrey  Churches  be  well 
observed,  wherein  such  excursions  of  building 
as  present  themselves  beyond  the  old  fabric* 
(from  which  ofttimes  they  differ,  as  neater 
and  newer)  were  since  erected,  and  added,  as 
intended  and  used  for  chanteries. — Ibid.  p. 
354. 

Excursioner,  one  who  goes  on  nn 
excursion.    Excursionist  is  more  usual 

Q 


EXCURSIVENESS       (  226  )  EXPECTORATE 


now,  and  is  marked  "recent"  by  L., 
who  gives  no  example. 

The  royal  excur  si  oners  did  not  return  till 
between  six  and  seven  o'clock.  —  Mad. 
D'Arblay,  Diary,  III.  111. 

Exoursiveness,  a  running  out.  The 
extract  seems  to  imply  that  the  word 
was  a  new  one.  The  only  example  in 
the  Diets,  is  of  the  date  1798. 

Remember  that  your  excursiveness  (allow 
me  the  word,  I  had  a  rasher  in  my  head) 
upon  old  maids  and  your  lord,  can  only  please 
yourself. — Richardson,  Grandison,  v.  313. 

Excutikidian,  one  who  believes  that 
saving  faith  or  grace  can  be  wholly 
lost  or  shaken  off. 

I  am  sorry  that  any  of  onr  new  Excutijidi- 
ans  should  pester  your  Suffolk. — Bp.  Halt, 
Works,  x.  499. 

Execrations,  cursing. 

Off  went  his  hat  to  one  corner  of  the 
room,  his  wig  to  the  other.  D — n — n  seize 
the  world !  and  a  whole  volley  of  such  like 
execrations  wishes. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe, 
viii.  99. 

Execrative,  vilifying,  cursing. 

Foul  old  Rome  screamed  execratively  her 
loudest,  so  that  the  true  shape  of  many 
things  is  lost  for  us.  .  . .  Into  the  body  of 
the  poor  Taters,  execrative  Roman  history 
intercalated  an  alphabetic  letter;  and  so 
they  continue  Tartars  of  fell  Tartarean 
nature  to  this  day. — Carlyle,  Pr,  Rev.,  Pt. 
III.  Bk.  i.  ch.  i. 

Execratory,  abusive,  denunciatory. 

I  shall  take  the  liberty  of  narrating  Lance- 
lot's fanatical  conduct  without  execratory 
comment,  certain  that  he  will  still  receive 
his  just  reward  of  condemnation. — C.  Kings- 
ley,  Yeast,  ch.  xiv. 

Executant,    one  who  executes    or 

performs. 

Rosamond,  with  the  executants  instinct, 
had  seized  his  manner  of  playing. — G.  Eliot, 
Middlemarch,  ch.  xvi. 

Exeltered,  furnished  with  an  axle- 
tree.  In  his  catalogue  of  "  husbandlie 
furniture  "  Tusser  reckons, 

Strong  exeltered  cart  that  is  clouted  and  shod. 

Husbandries  p.  36. 

Exemit,  taken  out  of  the  common 
herd,  excellent. 

Of  whose  fair  sex  we  come  to  offer  seven, 
The  most  exempt  for  excellence. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  ix.  004. 

Exhilaraxt,  that  which  exhilarates. 

To  Leonard  it  was  an  exhilarant  and  a 
cordial  which  rejoiced  and  strengthened 
him.— Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  lxxvii. 


Exigent,  requiring,  standing  in  need 
of ;  the  word  is  not  uncommon  a*  a 
substantive  =  necessity,  and  L.  has 
one  instance  of  it  as  an  adjective  from 
Burke,  but  rather  in  the  sense  of  press- 
ing or  critical,  "  this  exigent  moment." 

But  now  this  body,  exigent  of  rest, 
"Will  needs  put  in  a  claim. 

Taylor,  Ph.  van  Art.,  Pt.  II.  i.  2. 
This  age 
Shall  aptly  choose  as  answering  best  its  own, 
A  love  that  dims  not,  nor  is  exigent, 
Encumbers  not  the  active  purposes, 
Nor  drains  their  source. 

Ibid.,  Edtcin  the  Fair,  ii.  2. 

Exioenter,  "  an  officer  of  the  Com- 
mon Pleas  who  makes  out  exigents  and 
proclamations  in  all  actions  in  which 
process  of  outlawry  lies  "  (Bailey). 

The  cursitors  are  by  counties;  these  are 
the  Lord  Chancellor's.     The  philizers.  and 
exigenters  are  by  counties  also,  and  are  of  the 
Common  Pleas.— North,  Life  of  Lord  Guil- 
ford, i.  186. 

Exoculation,  putting  out  eyes. 

The  history  of  Europe  during  the  dark 
ages  abounds  with  examples  of  exoculation% 
as  it  was  called  by  those  writers  who  endea- 
voured, towards  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  to  introduce  the  style-ornate 
into  our  prose,  after  it  had  been  banished 
from  poetry. — Southey,  Roderick,  ii.  note. 

Expansivity,  expansiveness. 

In  a  word  offences  (of  elasticity  or  expans- 
ivity) have  accumulated  to  such  height  in 
the  lad's  fifteenth  year,  that  there  is  a  deter- 
mination taken  on  the  part  of  Rhadaman- 
thus-Scriblerus  to  pack  him  out  of  doors. — 
Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  87. 

Expectedly,  in  conformity  with  ex- 
pectation. 

Lord  Mansfield  .  .  .  unexpectedly  is  sup- 
ported by  the  late  Chancellor,  the'  Duke  of 
Newcastle,  and  that  part  of  the  Ministry, 
and  very  expectedly  by  Mr.  Fox. —  Walpolt  to 
Mann,  iii.  277  (1768). 

Expectless,  unexpected. 

But  when  hee  saw  mee  enter  so  expectlesse, 
To  heare  his  base  exclaimes  of  mnrther,  mur- 

ther, 
Made  mee  thinke  noblesse  lost,  in  him  quicke 
buried. 

Chapman,  Revenge  of  Bussy  DyAmbois, 
Act  II. 

Expectorate,  to  clear  the  breast, 
and  so  to  confide.  Now  only  used  of 
spitting.    See  quotation  s.  v.  Excere- 

BRATE. 

Sir  George  came  hither  yesterday  to  ex- 
pectorate with  me,  as  he  called  it.     Think 


EXPEDIENCY         (  227  ) 


EXSCRIPT 


bow  I  pricked  up  my  ears,  as  high  as  King 
Midas,  to  hear  a  Lyttelton  vent  his  griev- 
ances against  a  Pitt  and  Qrenvilles. —  Wal- 
pole,  Letters,  i.  370  (1754). 

Expediency,  expedient. 

The  Doctor  was  chosen  by  the  college  of 
Westminster  their  clerk  to  sit  in  convoca- 
tion, where  he  proposed  a  most  excellent 
expediency  (which  would  be  of  happy  use  if 
still  continued),  for  the  satisfaction  of  some 
scrupulous  members  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, about  the  ceremonies  of  our  Church. 
— Barnard,  Life  of  Heylxn,  p.  cxvii. 

Expedientially,  for  the  Bake  of  ex- 
pediency. 

"Whenever  we  deviate — though  we  should 
never  deviate  save  expedientially  —  from 
accepted  usage,  a  strict  observance  of  ana- 
logy, and  of  aualogy  taken  in  its  most  com- 
prehensive acceptation,  is  invariably  indis- 
pensable.— Hall,  Modern  English,  p.  39. 

Expenditrix,  a  woman  who  dis- 
burses money. 

Mrs.  Celier  was  the  go-between  and  ex- 
penditrix in  affair*,  which  lay  much  in 
relieving  of  Catholics,  and  takiug  them  out 
of  prisons. — North,  Examen,  p.  257. 

Expeboefaction,  awaking ;  arous- 
ing. 

Having,  after  such  a  long  noctivagation 
and  variety  of  horrid  visions,  returned  to  my 
perfect  experyefaction,  I  began,  by  a  serious 
recollection  of  myself,  to  recall  to  my 
thoughts  by  way  of  reminiscence  those  dis- 
mal! and  dreadfull  objects  that  had  appeared 
unto  me. — Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  45. 

Expert,  one  who  has  had  special 
experience  in  some  branch  of  study. 
This  noun  is  now  in  frequent  use,  but 
is  not  in  the  Diets. 

How  bountifully  have  Providence  and  the 
wisdom  of  .our  ancestors  provided  us  with 
popes,  priests,  philologists,  and  other  pro- 
curators, specialists,  and  experts. —  Hall, 
Modem  English,  p.  38. 

Expiscatory,  fishing  out 

By  innumerable  confrontations  and  expis- 
catory  questions,  through  entanglements, 
doublings,  and  windings  that  fatigue  eye 
and  soul,  this  most  involute  of  lies  is  finally 
winded  off. — Carlyle,  Diamond  Necklace,  ch. 
xvi. 

Expleat,  satisfy. 

Nothing  under  an  Infinite  can  expleat  and 
satiate  the  immortal  minde  of  man. — Fuller^ 
Pisgah  Sight,  IV.  vii.  2. 

Expletive.  In  ordinary  use,  and  in 
all  the  quotations  given  in  the  Diets., 
this  substantive  has  reference  to  words 
which  fill  up  a  line  or  speech,  but  are 


in  themselves  superfluous :  perbops  its 
most  frequent  application  at  present  is 
to  on  the,  but  in  the  extract  it  means 
diddledomes  (q.  v.)  or  kickshaws. 

There  were  three  fine  grown  pullets,  an 
excellent  Yorkshire  ham,  a  loin  of  veal,  and 
the  custard-pudding  which  Mrs.  Quick  had 
tossed  up,  adorned  with  currant-jelly,  a 
gooseberry  tart,  with  other  ornamental  ex- 
pletives of  the  same  kind. — Grates,  Spiritual 
Quixote,  Bk.  IX.  ch.  xv. 

Expression  al,  belonging  to  expres- 
sions ;  phraseological. 

To  enumerate  and  criticize  all  the  verbal 
and  expressional  solecisms  which  disfigure 
our  literature  would  be  an  undertaking  of 
enormous  labour. — Hall,  Modern  English, 
p.  36. 

Expressionless,  devoid  of  expression. 

For  their  depth  of  expressionless  calm,  of 
passionless  peace,  a  polar  snow-field  could 
alone  offer  a  type. — Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch. 
xx. 

He  was  a  small  man,  with  an  impenetrable, 
expressionless  face,  who  never  was  known  to 
unbend  himself  to  a  human  being.  —  H. 
Kinusley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  xiii. 

Tne  hard,  glittering,  expressionless  eyea 
were  watching  her. — Black,  Princess  of  Thule, 
ch.  xvi. 

Expressless,  inexpressible. 
I  may  pour  forth  my  soul  into  thine  arms, 
With  words  of  love,  whose  moaning  inter* 

course 
Hath  hitherto  been  stayed  with  wrath  and 

hate 
Of  our  expressless  bann'd  inflictions. 

Marlowe,  1  Tamburlaine,  V.  ii. 

Expuqnance,  capture. 
If  he  that  dreadful  JSgia  bears,  and  Pallas, 

grant  to  me 
Th*  expug nance  of  well-builded  T*oy,  I  first 

will  honour  thee 
Next  to  myself  with  some  rich  gift. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  viii.  247. 

Exquiritiveness,  exquisiteneBS. 

If  this  specimen  of  Slawkenbergius*s  tales, 
and  the  exquisitiveness  of  his  moral,  should 
please  the  world,  translated  shall  a  couple  of 
volumes  be.— Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  iii.  118. 

Exrcript,  extracted  writing.  Davies 
describes  our  Lord's  Passion  as  the  poll- 
deed  by  which  we  are  discharged  trom 
our  liabilities.  "The  speare  the  pen, 
His  pretious  blood  the  inke."  lie  does 
not  insert  the  s  when  it  follows  ex. 
There  are  two  examples  of  this  in  the 
extract.     See  also  Exstercorate. 

Ah,  might  it  please  Thy  dread  Exuperanoe 
To  write  th'excript  thereof  in  humble  hearts. 

Davies,  Holy  Roods,  p.  13. 

Q  2 


EXSIBILATION  (  aa8  ) 


EYE 


Exsibilation,  hissing  off ;  condemn- 
ation. 

Who  can  choose  hut  blush  to  hear  those 
who  would  go  for  Orthodox  Christians,  now, 
at  the  latter  end  of  the  day,  after  so  many 
ages  of  exsibilation,  to  take  upon  them  the 
defence  of  a  noted  heretic? —  Bp.  Hall, 
Works,  x.  237. 

Exstercorats,  to  dung  out    For  the 

spelling  see  Exscript. 

Shall  fleshlesse  frailtie,  O  shall  euer  flesh 
Extercorate  her  filth  Thee  to  annoy? 

Davies,  Holy  Roods,  p.  20. 

Exsuffle,  to  breathe  upon. 

At  Easter  and  Whitsontide  ....  they 
which  were  to  be  baptized  were  attired  in 
white  garments,  exorcised,  and  exsuffied,  with 
sundrie  ceremonies,  which  I  leave  to  the 
learned  in  Christian  antiquities. — Holland's 
Camden,  p.  768. 

Extenuative,  extenuating  plea  or 
circumstance. 

The  Author  brings  in  the  matter  by  way 
of  enormity,  one  of  those  that  is  to  extenuate 
the  intended  rebellion  and  massacre  at  the 
Bye,  where  we  shall  arrive  as  soon  as  these 
extenuatives  are  dismissed. — North,  Examen, 
p.  320. 

Enter  then  a  concise  character  of  the 
times,  which  he  puts  forward  as  another 
extenuative  of  the  intended  rebellion. — Ibid. 
p.  370. 

Exteriall,  external. 

Fyrst  beware  in  especiall 
Of  the  outwarde  man  exteriall, 
Though  he  shewe  a  fayre  aperaunce. 
Boy  and  Barlow,  Read  me  and 
be  nott  wroth,  p.  123. 

Extebminion,    extermination.      See 

H.  8.  v. 

To  whom  she  werketh  vtter  confusion  and 
exterminion,  the  same  persones  she  doeth 
firste  laughe  upon  and  flatre  with  some  vn- 
quod  prosperitee  of  things. — UdaTs  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  182. 

Externity,  outwardness. 

The  internity  of  His  ever-living  light 
kindled  up  an  externity  of  corporeal  irradi- 
ation.— H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  ii.  249. 

Extractable,  able  to  be  extracted. 

No  more  money  was  extractable  from  his 
pocket.  —  Dickens.    Uncommercial  Traveller, 

•  •  •  ™ 

XXV1U. 

Extravaoanzi8T,  extravagant  or 
eccentric  person. 

Cornelius  Webbe  is  one  of  the  best  of 
that  numerous  school  of  extravaganzists  who 
spraup  from  the  ruins  of  Lamb.— £.  A.  Foe, 
Marginalia,  exv. 


Extbumperb,  extempore:  a  jocose 
perversion  of  the  word. 

Sir  Thomas  More  in  lyke  case  gybeth  at 
one  that  made  vaunt  of  certeyn  pild  verses 
clowted  vp  extrumpere. — Stanyhurst,  Virgil, 
Dedic. 

Extrinsecals,  outward  accidents  or 
circumstances;  things  not  pertaining 
to  the  substance. 

Knox  and  Whittingham  were  as  much 
bent  against  the  substance  of  the  book  as 
against  any  of  the  circumstantials  and  «r- 
trinsecals  which  belonged  unto  it. — Hcylin, 
Reformation,  ii.  179. 

Exul,  exile.  The  Latin  word  pro- 
bably got  into  the  text  inadvertently. 

Seeing  his  soldiers  somewhat  distressed,  he 
sendeth  for  the  regiment  of  the  Roman  exuls. 
— Holland,  Livy,  p.  46. 

Exustible,  capable  of  being  burnt  up. 

Contention  is  like  fire,  for  both  burn  so 
long  as  there  is  any  exustible  matter  to  con- 
tend with. — Adams,  ii.  149. 

Eye,  a  window. 

All  the  nobility  had  contracted  themselves 
to  live  in  coops  of  a  dining-room,  a  dark 
back-room  with  one  eye  in  a  corner,  and  a 
closet.—  WalpoU  to  Mann,  i.  318  (1743). 

Eye.  At  eye  =  at  a  glance,  very 
plainly. 

We  trust  that  He  whose  cause  it  is,  and 
who  hath  begun  this  notable  work  in  you, 
shall  perform  it  to  the  glory  of  God, .  . .  and 
to  the  comfort  of  the  whole  Christian  world, 
which,  as  may  appear  daily  at  eye,  laboareth 
universally  to  be  disburdened  from  that  old 
tyrannical  yoke.  —  Abo.  Parker  to  Q.  Eliz, 
(Correspondence,  p.  130). 

Eye.  All  my  eye  =  nonsense ;  un- 
true. Sometimes,  "all  my  eye  and 
Betty  Martin  ; "  the  explanation  that  it 
whs  the  beginning  of  a  prayer,  M  O 
mxki  beate  Martine"  will  not  hold 
water.  Dr.  Butler,  when  head-master 
of  Shrewsbury  (he  became  Bp.  of  Lich- 
field in  1836),  told  his  boys  that  it  arose 
from  a  gipsy  woman  in  Shrewsbury 
named  Betty  Martin  giving  a  black  eye 
to  a  constable,  who  was  chaffed  by  the 
boys  accordingly.  The  expression  must 
have  been  common  in  1837,  as  Dickens 
give 8  one  of  the  Brick-lane  Temperance 
testimonials  as  from  "Betty  Martin, 
widow,  one  child,  and  one  eye  n  (Pick- 
wick,  ch.  xxxiii.) ;  it  occurs  also  in  St. 
Ronari*  Well,  ch.  xxxi.  All  my  eye 
may  have  come  from  the  phrase  us^d 
by  Bramhall  and  Brown,  which  Fuller 


EYE 


(  229  ) 


E  YE-  WAITER 


soys  was  used  proverbially  of  him  who 
made  a  bargain  detrimental  to  himself 
(  Worthies,  Anglesey,  ii.  671). 

You  have  had  conferences  and  conferences 
again  at  Poissy  and  other  places,  and  gained 
by  them  just  as  much  as  you  might  put  in 
your  eye,  and  see  never  the  worse, — Bram- 
hall,  i.  68. 

Bating  Namure,he  might  have  put  all  the 
glorious  harvests  he  yearly  reap'd  there  into 
his  eye,  and  not  have  prejudice!  his  royal 
sight  in  the  least.— T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  329. 

The  tenderness  of  spring  is  all  my  eye, 
And  that  is  blighted. — Hood,  Spring. 

Eye.  To  have  by  the  eye,  i.  e.  in 
abundance,  so  that  it  should  satisfy  the 
eye  as  well  as  the  stomach. 

Ith.  Troth,  master,  I'm  loth  such  a  pot  of 
pottage  should  be  spoiled. 

Bar.  Peace,  Ithamore,  'tis  better  so  than 
spared; 
Assure  thyself  thou  shalt  have  broth  by  the 

eye; 
My  purse,  my  coffer,  and  myself  is  thine. 

Marlowe,  Jew  of  Malta,  iii.  4. 

Here's  money  and  gold  by  tji*  eye,  my  boy. 
Beaum.  and  Fl.,  Knt.  of  B.  Pestle,  ii.  2. 

Eye-bbkis,  eye-lashes  (?). 

They  die  their  eye-breis  and  eye-browes: 
(the  latter  by  art  made  high,  halfe  circular, 
and  to  meete,  if  naturally  they  do  not.) — 
Sandys,  Travel*,  p.  67. 

Eye-brine,  tears. 

The  Judge  that  would  be  lik'st  Him,  when 

he  giues 
His  doome  on  the  delinquent   most   that 

grieues 
Powders  his  words  in  Eye-brine. 

Davies,  Sir  T.  Overbury,  p.  13. 

Eyebbowlks8,  without  eyebrows. 

In  those  four  male  personages,  although 
compleadonless  and  eyebrowless,  I  beheld  four 
subjects  of  the  Family  P.  Salcy. — Dickens, 
Uncommercial  Traveller,  xxv. 

Eye-retorting,  looking  backward. 

And  a  third  rode  upon  a  rounded  rack, 
As  on  the  eye-retorting  dolphin's  back, 
That  let  Anon  ride  him  for  the  pleasure 
Of  his  touched  harp. 

Leigh  Hunt,  Foliage,  p.  28. 

Eyes.     "  To  cry  one's  eyes  out,"  to 


weep  excessively.     Fuller  puns  on  this 
expression. 

The  face  of  the  Church  was  so  blubber'd 
with  teares,  that  she  may  seem  almost  to 
have  wept  her  eyes  out,  having  lost  her  Beers 
and  principall  pastours. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  I. 
▼.22. 

Eye-sorrow,  eye-sore ;  a  grievance 
to  the  eight. 

Saint  Antoine  turns  out,  as  it  has  now 
often  done,  and,  apparently  with  little  super- 
fluous tumult,  moves  eastward  to  that  eye- 
sorrow  of  Vincennes. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt. 
II.  Bk.  III.  ch.  v.  <i 

These  hungry  magnificent  individuals,  of 
whom  Sardanapalus  Hay  is  one,  and  supreme 
Oar  another,  are  an  eye-sorrow  to  English 
subjects. — Ibid.,  Misc.,  Iv.  319. 

Eye-spot,  a  kind  of  lily  of  a  violet 
or  black  colour,  with  a  red  spot  in  the 
midst  of  each  leaf.     See  note  in  loc. 

And  here  amid  her  sable  cup 
Shines  the  red  eye-spot,  like  one  brightest  star 
The  solitary  twinkler  of  the  night. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  VI. 

Eye-star,  the  centre  of  the  eye-spot, 

q.  v.  (?). 

The  episodes  and  digressions  fringe  [the 
story]  like  so  many  featherlets  leading  up  to 
that  catastrophe,  the  gem  or  eye-star,  for 
which  the  whole  was  formed,  and  in  which 
all  terminate. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  Preface. 

Eye  -  wages,  specious  but  unsub- 
stantial payment. 

If  sometimes  He  temporally  reward  hypo- 
crites, is  it  not  either  for  their  own  or  for 
their  work's  sake,  as  if  He  either  accepted 
their  persons  or  approved  their  obedience? 
.No ;  it  is  but  lex  talionis,  He  dealeth  with 
them  as  they  deal  with  Him.  They  do  Him 
but  eye-service,  and  He  giveth  them  but  eye- 
wages. — Sanderson,  iii.  28. 

Eye -waiter,  an  eye -servant;  one 
who  is  only  careful  while  the  master's 
eye  is  on  him. 

His  lordship's  indulgence  to  servants  cost 
him  very  dear ;  for  most  of  them  were  but 
eye-waiters,  and  diligent  only  for  fear  of  los- 
ing their  places,  otherwise  negligent  and 
wasteful.— North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii. 
316. 


FAB  UL  ATE 


(  J3°  ) 


FAIE 


F 


Tabulate,  to  fable. 

[The  tongue  is]  w>  guarded  ...  as  if  it 
were  with  giauts  in  an  enchanted  tower,  as 
they  fabulate,  that  no  man  may  tame  it.— 
Adams,  i.  10. 

Fac,  faith ;  a  word  that  appears  in 
oaths  in  slightly  varied  forms  as  below. 

Dap.  rtac  I  do  not,  you  are  mistaken. 
Face.  How !  swear  by  your  fac,  and  in  a 
thing  so  known  unto  the  doctor  ?  .  . . 
Dap.  r foe's  no  oath. 

Jonson,  Alchemist,  I.  i. 

E.  Know.  No,  no,  you  shall  not  protest,  cox. 
Step.  By  my  fackings  but  I  will,  by  your 
leave. — Ibid.,  Lv.  Man  in  his  Hum.,  i.  2. 

I  suppose  he  has  left  me  mourning ;  but 
ifackins  if  that  be  all,  the  devil  shall  wear 
it  for  him  for  me. — Fielding,  Tom  Jones,  Bk. 
V.  ch.  viii. 

Vfags  the  gentleman  has  oanght  a  Tartar, 
says  Mr.  Towwousa.— Ibid.,  Joseph  Andrews, 
Bk.  I.  oh.  ziv. 

Facer,  a  braggadocio ;  one  who  pos- 
sesses cheek. 

Shall  the  adversaries  of  the  truth  be  dumb  ? 
Nay,  there  be  no  greater  talkers,  nor  boasters, 
and  facers  than  they  be. — Latimer,  i.  268. 

Facer,  a  blow  in  the  face.  See 
another  extract  from  Barhain,  8.  v.  Fib. 

As  the  knife  gleam'd  on  high,  bright  and 

sharp  as  a  razor, 
Blogg,  starting  upright,  tipped  the  fellow  a 

facer. — Ingoldsby  Legends  (Bagman's  Dog)% 

I  should  have  been  a  stercoraceous  mendi- 
cant if  I  had  hollowed  when  I  got  a  facer. — 
C.  Kingsley,  Letter,  May  1856. 

Faciate,  front,  facade  (Ital.  facci- 
at  a). 

The  faciate  of  this  Cathedral  is  remarkable 
for  its  historical  carving. — Evelyn,  Diary, 
June  27, 1654. 

Facsimile,  an  exact  copy ;  this  word 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  common  in 
North's  time. 

He  took  a  paper,  and  made  what  they  call 
a  fac  simile  of  the  marks  and  distances  of 
those  small  specks,  as  were  not  scraped  out. 
— North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  109. 

Factor,  to  trade  or  act  as  agents. 

Send  your  prayers  and  good  works  to  factor 
there  for  you,  and  have  a  stock  employed  in 
God's  banks  to  pauperous  and  pious  uses. — 
Ward,  Sermons,  p.  173. 


Factorage,  agent's  commission. 

He  put  £1000  into  Dudley's  hands  to  trade 
for  him,  to  the  end  that  his  brother  Montague 
might  have  the  benefit  of  the  factorage, — 
North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  292. 

Fad,  whim,  fancy. 

"  It  is  your  favourite  fad  to  draw  plans. w 
"  Fad  to  draw  plans !  Do  you  think  I  only 
care  about  my  fellow-creatures'  houses  in 
that  childish  way  ?  »—G.  Eliot,  Middlemarch, 
ch.  iv. 

Fadoodles,  trifles,  nonsense. 

And  when  all  the  stuff  in  the  letters  are 
scann'd  what  fadoodles  are  brought  to  light. 
—Hacket,  Ufeof  Williams,ii.  131. 

Fag,  to  work  hard,  to  labour.  R., 
who  gives  this  sense  with  no  example, 
says,  '•  The  verb  and  noun,  though 
common  in  speech  (especially  at  our 
public  schools),  are  not  so  in  writing." 

I  am  sure  I  faa  more  for  fear  of  disgrace 
than  for  hope  of  profit. — Mad.  D'Arbtay, 
Diary,  i.  235. 

When  Mr.  Minns  had  fogaed  up  the  shady 
side  of  Fleet-street,  Oheapcdde,  and  Thread- 
needle-street,  he  had  become  pretty  warm. — 
Sketches  by  Boz  (Mr.  Minns). 

Fag,  a  boy  in  the  lower  part  of  the 
school  who  has  to  perform  various 
offices  for  a  senior  laa  who  is  said  to 
fag  him. 

Oh  for  that  small,  small  beer  anew, 
And  (heaven's  own  type)  that  mild  sky-blue 

That  wash'd  my  sweet  meals  down ; 
The  master  even !  and  that  small  Turk 
Thkt  fagu'd  me !  worse  is  now  my  work. 

A  fag  for  all  the  town. 

Hood,  Retrospective  Review. 

Fag,  fatigue. 

Mr.  Allen  says  it  is  nine,  measured  nine, 
but  1  am  sure  it  can  not  be  more  than  eight, 
and  it  is  such  a  fag,  I  come  back  tired 
to  death. — Miss  Austen,  Northanger  Abbey, 
ch.  iii. 

Faggery,  the  syBtem  of  fagging  at 

public  schools. 

Faggery  was  an  abuse  too  venerable  and 
sacred  to  be  touched  by  profane  hands. — De 
Quincey,  Autob.  Sketches,  l.  210. 

Fair,  to  prosper.  Hcec  turn  successit, 
olid  oggrediendum  est  vid ;  that  is, 

This  waie  it  will  ne  frame  ne  foie, 
Therefore  must  we  proue  an  other  waie. 
UdoVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  373. 


FAILER 


(  231  ) 


FALLTRAP 


Faileb,  failure. 

Granting  that  Philip  wan  the  younger; 
yet  on  the  fader  or  other  legal  interruption 
of  the  Line  of  Margaret, .  . .  the  Queen  of 
England  might  put  in  for  the  next  Succession. 
— Heylin,  Hist,  of  the  Presbyterians,  p.  131. 

Faineance,  sloth,  indolence. 

The  mask  of  sneering  faineance  was  gone ; 
imploring  tenderness  and  earnestness  beamed 
from  his  whole  countenance. — C.  Kingsley, 
Hypatia,  ch.  xxvii. 

Faixtfull,  faint,  languishing. 

Gather  all  in  one 
Those  fluent  springs  of  your  lamenting  tears, 
And  let  them  stream  along  my  faintfuH 
looks. — Greene,  Orl.  Fur.,  p.  98. 

Fair.  After  the  fair  =  too  late. 
The  subjoined,  which  is  of  the  date 
1597,  shows  the  origin  of  this  expres- 
sion. See  another  early  instance  from 
Nashe,  s.  v.  Encaptive. 

A  ballad,  be  it  neuer  so  good,  it  goes  a 
begging  after  the  faire.  —  Breton,  Wifs 
Trenehmour,  p.  9. 

Fairwkather,  delicate.  See  quota- 
tion from  Smollett,  8.  v.  Wishy-washy. 

No,  master,  I  would  not  hurt  you ;  me- 
thinks  I  could  throw  a  dozen  of  such  fair- 
weather  gentlemen  as  you  are.— if.  Brooke, 
Fool  of  Quality,  ii.  165. 

Fairyism,  that  which  resembles  or  is 

suggestive  of  fairies. 

The  duchess  of  Grafton,  who  had  never 

happened  to  be  here  before  .  .  .  perfectly 

entered  into  the  air  of  enchantment  and 

fairyism  which  is  the  tone  of  the  place. — 

Walpole,  Letters,  ii.  431  (1763). 

Fairy-money,  money  given  by  the 
fairies  was  said  after  a  time  to  change 
into  withered  leaves  or  rubbish.  H. 
gives  fairy-money  =  found  treasure. 

In  one  day  Scott's  high-heaped  money- 
wages  became  fairy-money  and  nonentity. — 
Carlyle,  Misc.  fv.  181. 

Pisistratus  draws  the  bills  warily  from  his 

Kcket,  half-suspecting  they  must  already 
ve  turned  into  withered  leaves  like  fairy* 
money. — Lytton,  Caxtons,  Bk.  XVII.  ch.  vi. 

Fairy  pavements,  cubes  used  in 
Roman  pavements.  The  country  people 
referred  to  in  the  extract  are  those  of 
Nottinghamshire. 

Some  small  stone  cubes  about  an  inch 
square,  which    the    country  people   called 
fairy  pavements. — Archetol.,  viii.  364  (1787). 

Faithful,  a  trusty-adherent.  See 
extract  from  the  same  paper,  %.  v. 
Purse-leech. 


"We  likewise  call  to  mind  your  other  bill 
for  his  majesty's  referring  the  choice  of  his 
privy-couucil  unto  jou,  coloured  by  your 
outcries  against  those  his  old  faithfuls. — 
British  Bellman,  1648  (Harl.  Misc.,  vii.  626). 

Faithfdllist,  a  believer. 

Ton  have  not  long  ago  seen,  read,  and 
understood  the  great  and  inestimable  Chron- 
icles of  the  huge  and  mighty  giant  Gargan- 
tua,and  like  upright  faithful  lists  (fdeles), 
have  firmly  believed  all  to  be  true  that  is 
contained  in  them. — Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk. 
II.  (Prologue). 

Fake,  to  rob  (thieves'  cant). 

All  who  in  Blois  entertain  honest  views 
Have  long  been  in  bed,  and  enjoying  a  snooze, 
Nought  is  waking  save  Mischief  and  Faking 
And  a  few  who  are  sitting  up  brewing  or 
baking. — Ingoldsby  Legends  (S.  Aloys). 

There  the  folk  are  music-bitten,  and  they 
molest  not  beggars,  unless  they  fake  to  boot, 
and  then  they  drown  us  out  of  hand. — Reade, 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  lv. 

Fakement,   any    dishonest    practice 

(thieves'  cant). 

I  cultivated  his  acquaintance,  examined  his 
affairs,  and  put  him  up  to  the  neatest  little 
fakement  in  the  world ;  just  showed  him  how 
to  raise  two  hundred  pounds  and  clear  him- 
self with  everybody,  just  by  signing  his 
father's  name. — H.  Kingsley,  Oeqffry  Hamlyn, 
ch.  v. 

Fal-lal,  finicking. 

The  family-plate  too  in  such  quantities,  of 
two  or  three  years1  standing,  must  not  be 
changed,  because  his  precious  child,  humour- 
ing his  old  fal-lal  taste,  admired  it,  to  make 
it  all  her  own. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  i. 
322. 

Fallalishly.  I  suppose  the  word 
=  sentimentally ;  the  old  maid  referred 
to  had  had  a  love  disappointment  in 
former  years. 

Some  excuse  lies  good  for  an  old  soul  whose 
whole  life  has  been  but  one  dream  a  little 
fallalishly  varied. — Richardson,  Grandison,  v. 
300. 

Fallals,  showy  dress  or  ornaments. 

Mrs.  Prim.  And  thou  dost  really  think 
those  fallals  become  thee  ? 

Mrs.  Lov.  I  do  indeed. —  Centlivre,  Bold 
Stroke  for  a  Wife,  Act  II. 

He  found  his  child's  nurse,  and  his  wife, 
and  his  wife's  mother,  busily  engaged  with  a 
multiplicity  of  boxes,  with  flounces,  feathers, 
fallals,  and  finery.  —  Thackeray ,  Nticcomes, 
ch.  lxxi. 

Falltrap,  a  trap  to  lead  to  a  fall,  or 

perhaps  a  trap  that  falls  from  under  one. 

We  walk  in  a  world  of  plots ;  strings  uni- 
versally spread  of  deadly  gins  and  falltrap  s 


FAMEFUL 


(  232  )     FARCE  AND  LADLE 


baited  by  the  gold  of  Pitt.— CarlyU,  Fr.  Rev., 
Pt.  IU.  Bk.  VI.  ch.  i. 

Fameful,  famous. 

Whose  foaming  stream  strives  proudly  to 

compare 
(Even  in  the  birth)  with  fame-fulTst  floods 

that  are. 

Sylvester,  third  day,  first  veeke,  377. 

If  many  worlds  ye  seek,  or  ages  line, 
Perhaps  ye  should  not  find  occasion  such 
As  now  rich  Opportunity  doth  giue 
To  make  you  fame  full,  though  it  empt 
your  pouche. — Davies,  Bien  Venu,  p.  6. 

Famili8tic,  pertaining  to  the  sect 
called  the  Family  of  Love. 

And  such  are,  for  onght  that  ever  I  could 
discern,  those  Seraphick,  Anabaptistick,  and 
Familistick  Hyperboles,  those  proud  swelling 
words  of  vanity  and  novelty  with  which  those 
men  use  to  deceive  the  simple  and  credulous 
sort  of  people.— Gauden,  Team  of  the  Church, 
p.  195 

Fan  is  used  very  curiously  in  the 
subjoined ;  probably  it  is  a  mistake  for 
fantasy.  There  is  a  marginal  reference 
to  Acts  xzv.  23,  where  Agrippa  and 
Bernice  are  described  as  comtng  ptra. 
woXX^fc  pavracriaz.  Even  then  the  use  of 
fantasy  for  pomp  or  show  is,  in  Eng- 
lish, remarkable. 

All  the  power  of  all  the  princes  on  the 
earth  have  not  power  over  one  silly  soul  to 
destroy  it.    All  the  glory  of  them  is  called  * 
but  a  great  big  fan  or  pomp. — Andrews,  Ser- 
mons, v.  553. 

Fanaticise,  to  act  as  a  fanatic. 

A  man  once  committed  headlong  to  re- 
publican or  any  other  transcendentalism, 
and  fighting  and  fanaticising  amid  a  nation 
of  his  like,  becomes  as  it  were  enveloped  in 
an  ambient  atmosphere  of  transcendentalism 
and  delirium.— CarlyU,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk. 
III.  ch.  ii. 

Fancical,  fanciful.     The  extract  is 

quoted  in  Southeys  Doctor,  ch.  xciv. 

After  they  have  completed  their  tuning, 
they  will  (if  they  be  masters)  fall  into  some 
kind  of  voluntary  or  fancical  play  more  in- 
telligible.—?'. Mace,  1676. 

Fancify,  to  fancy— for  which  it  is 
perhaps  a  misprint. 

The  good  she  ever  delighted  to  do,  and 
fancified  she  was  born  to  do.  — Richardson. 
CI.  Harlowe,  vi.  344. 

Fancy,  the  prize  rinff,  or  pugilism. 
See  quotation  from  Southey,  *.  v.  Fib. 

They  hurried  to  be  present  at  the  ex- 
pected scene  with  the  alacrity  of  gentlemen 
of  the  fancy  hastening  to  a  set-to.— Scott,  St. 
Jtomnsi  mil,  ii.  211. 


The  clients  were  proud  of  their  lawyers' 
unscrupulousness,  as  the  natrons  of  the  fancy 
are  proud  of  their  champion's  condition. — G. 
Eliot,  Janet's  Repentance,  ch.  ii. 

Fanfaronadino, flourishing;  display. 
The  Diets,  have  fanfaron  and  fan- 
faronade. 

There,  with  ceremonial  evolution  and  ma- 
noeuvre, with  fanfaronadino,  musketry  sal- 
voes, and  what  else  the  Patriot  genius  could 
devise,  they  made  oath  and  obtestation  to 
stand  faithfully  by  one  another  under  law 
and  king.— CarlyU,  Fr.  Revn  Pt.  II.  Bk.  I. 
ch.  viii. 

Fanfaroon,  a  flourish,  or  show. 

To  Sir  G.  Carteret;  and,  among  other 
things,  he  told  me  that  he  was  not  for  the 
fanfaroone,  to  make  a  show  with  a  great  title, 
as  he  might  have  had  long  since,  but  the  main 

thing  to  get  an  estate. — Fepys,  Aug.  14, 1665. 

e  - 

Fangle,  to  fashion.     The  participle 

is  not  uncommon  with  "  new  "  prefixed. 

He  that  thinks  it  the  part  of  a  well-learned 
man  to  have  read  diligently  the  ancient 
stories  of  the  Church,  and  to  be  no  stranger 
in  the  volumes  of  the  Fathers,  shall  have  all 

iudicious  men  consenting  with  him ;  not 
tereby  to  control  aud  new  fangle  the  Scrip- 
ture, God  forbid !  but  to  mark  how  corrup- 
tion and  apostasy  crept  in  by  degrees. — 
Milton,  Of  Frelattcal  Episcopacy. 

Fantailed.  The  hat  usually  worn 
by  coalheavers,  dustmen,  &c.  is  so 
called  from  having  a  flap  at  the  back, 
spreading  out  like  a  fan. 

Amazed  she  stands, 
Then  opes  the  door  with  cinder-sabled  hands, 
And  "  Matches  "  calls.   The  dustman,bubbled 

flat, 
Thinks  'tis  for  him,  and  doffs  his  fan-taiVd 

hat. 

J.  and  H.  Smith,  Rejected  Addresses, 

p.  142. 
Fantast,  a  fanciful  person. 

Somewhat  too  little  of  a  fantast,  this  Votes 
of  ours! — CarlyU,  Misc.,  iv.  159. 

It  is  not  easy  for  me  to  write,  without  a 
strong  sense  of  loathing,  the  name  of  this 
acrid  fantast,  and  idoliser  of  brute  force. — 
Hall,  Modern  English,  p.  19. 

Fantasticality,  fantasticalness. 

No  affectation,  fantasticality,  or  distortion 
dwelt  in  him!  no  shadow  of  cant. — CarlyU, 
Misc.,  iv.  146. 

Fab,  to  remove  to  a  distance. 

I'm  sure  I  wish  the  man  was  farred  who 
plagues  his  brains  wi?  striking  out  new  words. 
— Mrs.  GaskeU,  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  x. 

Fabce  and  ladle,  a  nonsensical 
story.      The  writer  quoted   by   Swift 


FARCICAL 


(  233  ) 


FASTISH 


(W.  Wotton)  refers  to  the  story  of  the 
Ladle  versified  by  Prior. 

It  is  grievous  to  see  him  in  some  of  his 
writings  going  oat  of  his  way  to  be  waggish, 
to  tell  ns  of  u  a  cow  that  pricked  up  her  tail ; " 
and  in  his  answer  to  this  discourse,  he  says, 
"it  U  all  a  farce  and  ladle."— Swift,  Tale  of 
a  Tub  ;  Apdl.  for  Author. 

A  ladle  for  our  silver  dish 

Is  what  I  want,  is  what  I  wish. 

A  ladle,  cries  the  man,  a  ladle! 

'Odzooks.  Corisca,  you  have  prayed  ill : 

What  should  be  great  you  turn  to  farce. 

Prior,  The  Ladle. 

Farcical.  The  farcy  is  a  disease  in 
horses  which  Sterne  imprecates  on  the 
li  imilatorum  servum  pecus,"  and  so 
farcical  house  is  one  to  receive  such 
people;  perhaps  there  is  some  sort  of 
allusion  to  the  more  ordinary  meaning 
of  farcical, 

I  scorn  to  be  as  abusive  as  Horace  upon 
the  occasion,  but  if  there  is  no  catachresis  in 
the  wish,  and  no  sin  in  it,  I  wish  from  my 
soul  that  every  imitator  in  Great  Britain, 
France,  and  Ireland,  had  the  farcy  for  his 
pains;  and  that  there  was  a  good  farcical 
house  large  enough  to  hold,  aye,  and  sub- 
limate them  shag-rag  and  bobtail,  male  and 
female,  all  together. — Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy, 
iv.  4. 

Farewell,  to  bid  farewell  to. 

Till  she  brake  from  their  arms 

And  fare-welling  the  flock  did  homeward 
wend. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  91. 

Farfalla,  a  fire-fly;  an  attempt  to 
introduce  an  Italian  word  into  the 
language. 

Lord  giue  her  me ;  alas !  I  pine,  I  die ; 
Or  if  I  line,  I  line  her  flame-bred  flie ; 
And  (new  Farfalla)  in  her  radiant  shine 
Too  bold  I  borne  these  tender  wings  of  mine. 
Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  362. 

Far-fetcht,  well-stored,  with  many 
things  fetched  from  far  ? 

. .  .  Nature  making  her  beauty  and  shape 
but  the  most  fair  Cabinet  of  a  far-fetcht 
minde. — Sidney's  Arcadia,  p.  506.. 

Farmage,  the  management  of  farms. 

They  do  by  farmage 
Brynge  the  londe  into  a  rearage, 
Contempnynge  the  state  temporall. 

Roy  and  Barlow,  Rede  me  and 
be  nott  wroth,  p.  102. 

But  now  their  ambitious  suttlete 
Maketh  one  f  earme  of  two  or  thre, 

Ye  some  tyme  they  bringe  vi.  to  one, 
"VThich  to  gentillmen  they  let  in  farmage, 
Or  elies  to  ryche  marchauntes  for  avauntage, 
To  the  vndoynge  of  husbande  man  ech  one. 
Dyaloge  betwene  a  Gentillman  and 
a  husbandman,  p.  139. 


Farmstead,  farm  house  or  place. 

fle  takes  possession  of  the  farmstead 
(Ingles,  the  place  is  called) ;  barricades  him- 
self there.— Carlyle,  Life  of  Sterling,  Pt.  I. 
ch.  xni. 

I . . .  then  went  wandering  away  far  along 
chausees,  through  fields,  beyond  cemeteries, 
Catholic  and  Protestant,  beyond  farmsteads, 
to  lanes  and  little  woods.  —  miss  Bronte, 
Villette,  ch.  xv. 

Fashion,  a  corruption  of  farcy,  a 
disease  in  horses. 

If  he  have  outward  diseases  as  the  spavin, 
splent,  ring-bone,  wind-gall,  or  fashion,  or, 
sir,  a  galled  back,  we  let  him  blood. — Greene, 
Looking  Glass  for  London,  p.  120. 

His  gouty  hocks  with  fleshy  Sashoons, 
Like  horses  lookt  that  has  the  Fashions. 

Cotton,  Scarronides,  p.  34. 

Fashionables,  people  of  fashion.  L. 
notices  this  substantival  use,  but  gives 
no  example. 

Here  was  a  full  account  of  the  marriage, 
and  a  list  of  all  the  fashionables  who  attended 
the  fair  bride  to  the  hymeneal  altar. — Miss 
Edgeworth,  Helen,  ch.  ii. 

Fast.      Calfhill  uses  the  word    as 

signifying  a  holy  time,  and  applies  it 

to  the  Easter  feast. 

To  begin  with  that  which  bred  in  the 
Church  a  miserable  schism  for  many  years 
together,  the  Easter  fast ;  was  it  always  and 
in  every  place  uniformly  observed  ? — Calfhill, 
Answer  to  Martially  p.  269. 

Fabt-fancikd,  bound  by  love;   the 

opposite  to  fancy-free. 

Thou  com'st  in  post  from  merry  Fressingfield, 
Fast-fancied  to  the  keeper's  bonny  lass. 

Greene,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  160. 

Fasting-spittle,  was  supposed  to  be 
Specially  efficacious,  whether  for  good 
or  evil.  Adams  uses  the  term  in  a  sort 
of  punning  way,  to  signify  fasting. 

Delicate*  to  excite  lust  are  spurs  to  post  a 
man  to  hell.  It  is  fasting  spittle  that  must 
kill  his  tetter.— Adams,  i.  494. 

Let  him  but  fasting  spit  upon  a  toad, 
And  presently  it  bursts  and  dies. 

Massinger,  Very  Woman,  in.  1. 

They  have  their  cups  and  chalices, 
Their  pardons  and  indulgences ; 
Their  beads  of  nits,  bels,  books,  and  wax 
Candles  forsooth,  and  other  knacks ; 
Their  holy  oyle,  their  fasting-spittle, 
Their  sacred  salt  here  not  a  little. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  98. 

Fasti8H,  rather  fast  or  dissipated. 

The  intercourse  has  commenced  under  the 
auspices  of  Harry  Foker,  son  of  Foker's 
Entire,  an  old  school-fellow,  a  short,  stout, 


FAT 


(  234  ) 


FAVOUROUS 


empty,  good-natured,  and  over-dressed — in 
other  words  a  ufastish  "  young  man. — Phil' 
lips,  Essays  from  the  Times,  ii.  330. 

Fat.  The  fat  is  in  the  fire  =  all  is  in 
confusion,  or  has  failed.  The  speaker 
in  the  first  extract  is  a  pedantic  school- 
master. 

O  face,  tact,  or  all  the  fat  will  be  ignified. — 
Sidney,  Wanstead  Play,  p.  623. 

Ger.  Here's  a  woman  wanting. 

Count.  We  may  go  whistle;  all  the  fat's 
t'  the  fire. — Two  Noble  Kinsmen,  iii.  5. 

One  would  have  thought  that  the  examina- 
tion failing,  and  no  vote  passed  tending  that 
way,  all  this  fat  had  been  in  the  fire. — North, 
Examen,  p.  023. 

Fat,  now  spelt  vat,  and  applied  to  a 

tub  or  vessel  of  large  size,  but  formerly 

=  any  case. 

A  London  alderman  .  .  .  sold  a  Jew  five 
fatts  of  right-handed  gloves  without  any 
fellows  to  them.—  T.  Brown,  Works,  iii.  23. 

Fatamorgana,  an  optical  illusion 
which  presents  a  vision  of  men,  palaces, 
&c,  seen  sometimes  in  the  water,  some- 
times in  the  air,  and  most  frequently 
visible  in  the  Strait  of  Messina.  See 
extract  from  Miss  Edge  worth,*,  v.  Beau- 
ideal. 

He  [Coleridge]  says  once  he  had  skirted 
the  howling  deserts  of  Infidelity ;  this  was 
evident  enough ;  but  he  had  not  had  the 
courage,  in  defiance  of  pain  and  terror,  to 
press  resolutely  across  said  deserts  to  the  new 
firm  lands  of  Faith  beyond ;  he  preferred  to 
create  logical  fatamoryanas  for  himself  on 
this  hither  side,  and  laboriously  solace  him- 
self with  these. — Carlyle,  Life  of  Sterling, 
ch.  viii. 

Father-in-law,  the  father  of  one's 
husband  or  wife ;  but  sometimes  used 
(though  it  is  a  vulgarism)  as  meaning 
step-father.  It  has  this  sense  in  the 
extracts,  yet  the  speaker  in  the  first  is 
Mrs.  Howe,  who  is  represented  as  in  a 
fair  social  position,  and  in  the  second 
is  Mrs.  Grandcourt,  a  lady  of  birth  and 
education.     Cf.  Mother-in-law. 

I  know  Nancy  could  not  bear  a  father-in- 
law  :  she  would  fly  at  the  very  thought  of 
my  being  in  earnest  to  give  her  one. — Rich* 
orison,  Ul.  Harlowe,  iv.  186. 

I  did  not  like  my  father-in-law  to  come 
home. — G.  Eliot,  Darnel  Deronda,  ch.  lvi. 

Father-bick,  pining  after  a  father. 
Cf.  Motherbick,  Home-sick. 

An  angel  in  some  things,  but  a  baby  in 
other*;  so  father-sick,  so  family-fond. — 
Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  iii.  316. 


Fathom,  to  engulf. 

Instead  of  his  lascivious  Delilahs  that 
fathomed  him  in  the  arms  of  lust,  behold 
adders,  toads,  serpents,  crawling  on  his 
bosom. — Adams,  L  241. 

Fatidicency,  divination. 

Let  us  make  trial  of  this  kind  of  fatidi- 
cency.— Urquhart,  Rabelais,  Bk.  HI.  ch.  six. 

Fatiguesohe,  fatiguing,  laborious. 

The  Attorney-General's  place  is  very  nice 
and  fatiguesome. — North,  Examen,  p.  515. 

•   Fatiloqdent,    fate  -  speaking,    pro- 
phetic. 

In  such  like  discourses  of  fatiloquent  sooth- 
sayers interpret  all  things  to  the  best. — 
Urquhart,  Rabelais,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xxii. 

Fatlino,  diminutive  of  fat ;  unusual 

as  an  adjective. 

The  babe  . .  . 
tJncared  for,  spied  its  mother  and  began 
A  blind  and  babbling  laughter,  and  to  dance 
Its  body,  and  reach  its  failing  innocent  arms 
And  lazy,  lingering  fingers. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  vi. 

Fauterer,  favourer. 

Be  assured  thy  life  is  sought,  as  thou  ait 
the  fauterer  of  all  wickedness. — Seylin,  Life 
of  Laud,  p.  198. 

Fauxety,  a  play  on  the  word  falsity. 
In  Nut  tail's  edition  the  word  in  the  first 
extract  is  given  faiusetSs  ;  in  the  second, 
falsities. 

I  cannot  therefore  but  sadly  bemoan  that 
the  Lives  of  these  Saints  are  so  darkened 
with  Popish  Illustrations,  and  farced  with 
Fauxeties  to  their  dishonour. — Fuller,  Wor- 
thies, ch.  iii.  (i.  8). 

God  forbid  that  this  author's  faurities 
should  make  us  undervalue  this  worthy  King 
and  Martyr.— Ibid.  Suffolk  (ii.  327). 

Favourites,  short  curls  on  the  top 
of  the  head :  they  came  in  in  the  reign 
of  Charles  II. 

The  favourites  hang  loose  upon  the  temples, 
with  a  languishing  lock  in  the  middle. — Far- 
quhar,  Sir  H.  Wudair,  I.  L 

What's  here?  all  sorts  of  dresses  painted 
to  the  life;  ha!  ha!  ha!  head-cloaths  to 
shorten  the  face,  favourites  to  raise  the  fore- 
head.— Centlivre,  Platonick  Lady,  iii.  1. 

Sooner  I  would  bedeck  my  brow  with  lace, 
And  with  immodest  fav'rites  shade  my  face. 

Cray,  The  Espousals. 

Favodrous,  apt  to  win  favour. 

When  women  were  wont  to  be  kindharted, 
conceits  in  men  were  verie  favourous. — Bre- 
ton, Wifs  Irenchmour,  p.  9. 


FAIVNINGNESS         (  235  ) 


FEE-FARMER 


Fawninqness,  smoothness,  syco- 
phancy. 

I'm  for  peace,  and  quietness,  and  fawning' 
net*. — De  Quincey,  Murder  as  a  Fine  Art. 

Fax,  hair. 

The  Englishmen  dwelling  beyond  Trent 
called  the  baire  of  the  head  Fax.  Whence 
also  there  is  a  family  .  . .  named  Faire-fax, 
of  the  faire  bush  of  their  haire. — Holland's 
Camden,  p.  692. 

Feanser,  fernshaw  ?  q.  v. 

The  lady  is  a  hunting  gone 
Over  f earner  that  is  so  high. 

Roxburgh  Ballads,  ii.  352. 

Feasb,  to  sneeze.  Robin  Goodfellow 
is  the  speaker  in  the  extract. 

Tet  now  and  then  the  maids  to  please, 
I  card  at  midnight  up  their  wool : 

And  while  they  sleep,  snort  f — t  and  /ease, 
With  wheele  to  shreds  their  flax  I  pull. 

Roxburgh  Ballads,  ii.  380. 

Feasible,  probable. 

"  As  yon  say,  James,**  cried  Mr.  Fenton, 
"  this  account  seems  pretty  feasible.  —  27. 
Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  ii.  2. 

Feat,  employment. 

The  feat  of  merchandizing  is  nowhere 
condemned  throughout  the  holy  Scriptures. 
. — BuUinger,  Dec.  III.  Serm.  i.  (ii.  31). 

Featherbed,    used   adjectivally  = 

effeminate. 

Each  featherbed  warrior  who  rides  from 
Knightsbridge  to  Whitehall  and  from  White- 
hall to  Knightsbridffe  is  gifted  with  the 
glorious  traditions  of  great  armies  and  in- 
numerable campaigns. — Black,  Adventures 
of  a  Phaeton,  ch.  xxiii. 

Feather-brained,  giddy. 

To  a  feather-brained  school-girl  nothing  is 
sacred. — Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  20. 

Feather-glory,  light  and  transitory 

glory. 

And  it  is  no  light  matter,  bat,  as  St.  Paul 
calleth  it,  alminov  fidpot,  "an  everlasting 
weight  of  glory."  Glory,  not  like  ours  here, 
feither-glory,  but  true,  that  hath  weight  and 
substance  in  it. — Andrews,  Sermons,  i.  31. 

Feathebhead,  a  light  frivolous  per- 
son. 

Show  the  dullest  olodpole,  show  the 
haughtiest  featherhead  that  a  soul  higher 
than  himself  is  actually  here;  were  his 
knees  stiffened  into  brass,  he  must  down 
aud  worship.— Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  136. 

Philip.  Courtney,  belike. 
Mary.  A  tool  and  featherhead! 

Tennyson,  Q.  Mary,  V.  i. 


Feather-headed,  giddy ;  foolish. 
Cf.  Feather-pated. 

Ah  thou  hast  miss'd  a  man  (but  that  he 
is  so  bewitch 'd  to  his  study,  and  knows  no 
other  mistress  than  his  mind)  so  far  above 
Has  feather-headed  puppy.  —  Cibber,  Love 
makes  a  man,  Act  II. 

Tou're  too  feather-headed  to  mind  if  any- 
body was  dead,  so  as  you  could  stay  upstairs 
a-dressing  yourself  for  two  hours  by  the 
clock. — G.  Eliot,  Adam  Bede,  ch.  viii. 

Featheblet,  small  feather. 

The  episodes  and  digressions  fringe  [the 
story]  like  so  many  featherlet s. — Sovihey,  The 
Doctor  (Preface). 

Feather-monger.  Birds  are  so  called 
in  the  extract. 

Some  fowler  with  his  nets,  as  this  host 
of  feather-mongers  were  getting  up  to  ride 
double,  involved  or  in  tangled  them.— N*she, 
Lenten  Stuff*  {Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  170). 

Feather-pated,  giddy;  fickle.  CI 
Feather-headed. 

«  The  villains,"  he  said,  •<  the  base  treach- 
erous villains,  to  desert  me  at  this  pinoh  ! " 

"  Nay,  say  rather  the  feather-pated,  giddy 
madmen,**  said  Waldemar,  "who  must  be 
toying  with  follies,  when  such  business  was 
in  hand.*' — Scott,  Ivanhoe,  ii.  196. 

Feature,  to  resemble. 

Mrs.  Yincy  in  her  declining  years,  and  in  the 
diminished  lustre  of  her  housekeeping,  was 
much  comforted  by  her  perception  that  two  at 
least  of  Fred's  boys  were  real  Vincys,  and 
did  not  " feature "  the  Garths.  —  G.  Eliot, 
Middlemarch,  ch.  last. 

Fee,  a  gratuitous  treat 

Take  my  purse,  fetch  me 
A  stand  of  ale,  and  set  it  in  the  market-place, 
That  all  may  drink  that  are  athirst  this  day ; 
For  this  is  for  a  fee  to  welcome  Robin  Hood 
To  Bradford  town. 

Greene,  Geo-a-Greene,  p.  267. 

Feeder,  often  means  servant  (see 
N.  $.  v.),  but  in  the  first  of  the  subjoined 
passages  it  signifies  master  or  em- 
ployer, in  the  second  parasite;  cf. 
"feeder  of  my  riots "  (//.  Hen.  IV. 
v.  5). 

His  feeders  still  not  thinking  this  enough, 
have,  of  late,  put  him  upon  another  jobb.— 
The  Loyal  Observator,  1683  (Harl.  Misc., 
vi.  70). 

Mr.  Thornhill  came  with  a  couple  of 
friends,  his  chaplain  and  feeder. —  Vicar  of 
Wakefield,  ch.  vii. 

Fee-farmer,  one  who  holds  land 
from  a  superior  lord  in  fee-simple. 


tEELER 


(  *3*  ) 


FENOUILLET 


As  when  bright  Phebtu  (Landlord  of  the 

light) 
And  his  fee-farmer  Luna  most  are  parted, 
fie  sets  no  sooner  but  shee  comes  in  sight. 

Davits,  Holy  Rood*,  p.  13. 

Feeler,  something  tentative. 

After  potting  forth  his  right  leg  now  and 
then  as  a  feeler,  the  victim  who  dropped  the 
money  ventures  to  make  one  or  two  distinct 
dives  after  it. — Dickens,  Sketches  by  Box,  ch.  i. 

Fegue,  to  discomfit  or  injure. 

No  treat,  sweet  words,  good  mien,  bat  sly 

intrigue, 
That  must  at  length  the  jilting  widow  fegue. 
Wycherley,  Love  in  a  Wood,  1. 1. 

For  Man  of  war  as  wanton  was 

At  fifty,  as  a  colt  at  grass ; 

And  had  not  th'  times  his  honour  fegxCd 

As  often  now  had  been  iutriug'd. 

D'  TJrfey,  Collin's  Walk,  cant.  i. 
When  Oataline  a  league 
Had  made,  the  Senators  to  feaue. 

Ibid.  cant.  ii. 
Fell,  earnest ;  intent 

I  am  bo  fell  to  my  business,  that  I,  though 
against  my  inclination,  will  not  go.—Pepys, 
Jan.  15, 1666-67. 

Fell,  to  hem  down  a  joined  piece  of 
work. 

Bach  taking  one  end  of  the  shirt  on  her  knee, 
Again  began  working  with  hearty  good-will, 
Felling  the  seams,  and  whipping  the  frill. 

Jngoldsby  Legends  (Aunt  Fanny). 

Fellowess,  contemptuous  for  a 
woman. 

Who  can  have  patience  with  such  fellows 
and  fellowesses?  —  Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe, 
in.  117. 

Tour  bachelor  uncles  and  maiden  aunts  are 
the  most  tantalizing  fellows  and  fellowesses 
in  the  creation.  —  Mad.  D'Arblay,  Camilla, 
Bk.  iz.  ch.  v. 

Felon,  stolen. 

Thus  hee  that  conquered  men,  and  beast 

most  cruell, 
(Whose  greedy  pawes  with  fellon  goods  were 

found) 
Answer'd  Goliah's  challenge  in  a  duell. 

Fuller,  David's  Hainovs  9inne,  st.  19. 

Feloness,  female  felon. 

And  what  was  the  pitch  of  his  mother's 

yellowness  ? 
How  she  turned  as  a  shark  to  snap  the 

spare-rib 
Clem  off,  sailors  say,  from  a  pearl-diving 

Carib, 
When  she  heard  what  she  called  the  flight 

of  the  feloness. 

Browning,  Flight  of  the  Duchess. 

Femalitt,  female  nature ;  applied 
disparagingly.      Sir.    T.   Browne   has 


feminality.  Femality  is  also  used 
adjectivally  in  Granaison.  See  s.  v. 
Infanglehent. 

No  doubt  but  he  thought  he  was  obliging 
me,  and  that  my  objection  was  all  owing  to 
femality  as  he  calls  it ;  a  word  I  don't  like ; 
I  never  heard  it  from  Sir  Charles. — Richard- 
son,  Grandison,  vi.  154. 

Feminile,  feminine. 

Perhaps  it  might  have  been  well  if  I  had 
resolved  upon  a  further  designation  of  chap- 
ters, and  distributed  them  into  masculine 
and  feminine ;  or  into  the  threefold  arrange- 
ment of  virile,  feminile,  and  puerile. — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  xiz. 

Feminineity,  womanliness;  that 
which  is  characteristic  of  a  woman :  the 
Dicta,  have  feminality  and  feminity. 

Margaret  made  excuses  all  so  reasonable 
that  Catherine  rejected  them  with  calm  con- 
tempt ;  to  her  mind  they  lacked  feminineity. 
Beaae,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  lxviii. 

Fence,  a  receiver  of  stolen  goods. 

CI  Fender. 

"What  have  you  got  to  say  for  yourself, 
yon  withered  old  fence,  eh  ?  "  '•  I  was  away 
from  London  a  week  and  more,  my  dear,  on 
a  plant,"  replied  the  Jew. — Dickens,  Oliver 
Twist,  ch.  zxxiz. 

Fender,  defender.  Cf.  Fence.  R., 
who  gives  no  example,  says,  "  A  com- 
mon word  in  speech,  though  not  in 
writing."  L.  has  it  in  two  senses,  viz., 
the  ordinary  one  of  an  iron  plate  laid 
before  the  fire  to  prevent  the  coals  from 
falling  into  the  room,  and  the  pieces  of 
cable,  &c.  which  are  hung  over  a  ship's 
side  to  act  as  buffers  to  prevent  her 
from  rubbiug  against  the  wharf  or 
other  ships. 

He  is  the  treasurer  of  the  thieves'  ex- 
chequer, the  common  fender  of  all  bulkers 
and  shop-lifts  in  the  town. — FourforaPenny, 
1678  {Marl.  Misc.,  iv.  147). 

Fenlander,  inhabitant  of  the  fens. 

Laurence  Holebeck  was  born,  saith  my 
Author,  apud  Girvios;  that  is,  amongst  the 
Fenlanders.  —  Fuller,  Worthies,  Lincoln  (ii. 
12). 

Fen-man,  an  inhabitant  of  the  fens. 

If  you  ask  how  you  should  rid  them,  I  will 
not  point  you  to  the  fen-men,  who,  to  make 
quick  dispatch  of  their  annoyances,  set  fire 
on  their  fens. — Adams,  ii.  480. 

Fenouillet  (Fr.fenouillette),  fennel- 
water. 

Dined  with  Lord  P 1.     He's  a  silly 

fellow.    Went  home  to  take  some  fenouillet 


FENSIVE 


(  237  ) 


FETE 


I  was  so  sick  of  him.    Resolved  never  to  be 
a  Lord.— Dr.  Swift's  Seal  Diary,  p.  5  (1715). 

Fknsive,  defensive.  The  spirit  of 
Hector  speaks  of  his  hand  "  that  fensiue 
seruice  had  eended  "  (Stanyhurst,  JSn., 
ii.  301). 

Fenugreek,  a  plant,  the  Trigonella. 
See  quotation  from  Sterne  more  at 
length,  *.  v.  Sweet  Cecily. 

To  preserne  nauewes,  it  is  a  singular  medi- 
cine for  them  to  hAuefent-greek  sowed  among, 
as  also  for  beets  to  do  the  like  with  cich 
pease. — Holland,  Pliny,  xix.  10. 

Poultices  of  marsh-mallows,  mallows,  bonus 
Henrietta,  white  lilies,  and  fenugreek — Sterne, 
Trist.  Shandy,  v.  111. 

Feoffee,  a  trustee. 

He  and  his  patrimonie  was  committed  to 
certain  execntours  or  f coffers. — UdaVs  Eras- 
mus'* Apophth.,  p.  369. 

Fee  (?).  In  Gibson's  translation 
"sea-commodities"  ia  the  correspond- 
ing expression. 

Hantshire  .  .  .  is  .  .  .  rich  in  plenteous 
pasture,  and  for  all  commodities  of  fer  most 
wealthy  and  happie. — Holland's  Camden,  p. 
259. 

Ferling,  ward  [in  a  borough]. 

In  King  Edward  the  Confessor's  time  (that 
I  may  note  so  much  out  of  domesday  booke), 
there  were  in  this  Borough  foure  Ferlings, 
that  is,  Quarters  or  Wards. — Holland's  Cam- 
den, p.  497. 

Fermentate,  to  leaven. 

The  largest  part  of  the  Lords  were  fer~ 
meniated  with  an  anti-episcopal  sourness.— 
Socket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  179. 

Fernshaw,  fern-brake  or  fern-thicket. 

He  bade  me  take  the  Gipsy  mother, 
And  set  her  telling  some  story  or  other 
Of  hill  or  dale,  oakwood  or  fernshaw. 

Drowning,  Flight  of  the  Duchess. 

Ferociekt,  ferocious. 

Nothing  so  soon  tames  the  madnesse  of 
people  as  their  own  fierceness  and  extrava- 
gancy ;  which  at  length,  as  S.  Cyprian  ob- 
serves, tires  them  by  taking  *w*y  their 
breath,  and  vainly  exhausting  their  ferocient 
spirits. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  142. 

Ferrandin,  a  stuff  made  of  silk 
mixed  with  some  other  material,  like 
what  is  now  called  poplin.  See  Lord 
Braybrooke's  note  on  the  first  quotation 
for  further  particulars. 

My  wife  came  home,  and  seeming  to  cry ; 
for  bringing  home  in  a  coach  her  new  fer~ 
randin  waistcoate,  in  Cheapside,  a  man  asked 
her  whether  that  was  the  way  to  the  Tower, 
and  while  she  was  answering  him,  another 


on  the  other  side  snatched  away  her  bundle 
out  of  her  lap.— Pepys,  Jan.  28, 1662-3. 

After  long  resolution  of  having  nothing 
but  black,  I  did  buy  a  coloured  silk  fer- 
randin. — Ibid.  June  8,  1665. 

I  know  a  great  lady  that  cannot  follow  her 
husband  abroad  to  his  haunts  because  her 
ftrrandine  is  so  ragged  and  greasy  whilst  his 
mistress  is  as  fine  as  fi 'pence  in  embroidered 
satins. —  Wycherley,  Love  in  a  Wood,  v.  2. 

Ferrivorous,  iron  eating. 

The  idiot  at  Ostend  .  .  died  at  last  in  con- 
sequence of  his  appetite  for  iron.  .  .  .  This 
poor  creature  was  rea\\j ferrivorous. — Southey, 
The  Doctor,  ch.  exxvih. 

Fertily,  plenteously;  in  a  fertile 
manner. 

Who,  being  grown  to  man's  age,  as  our 
own  eyes  may  judge,  could  not  but  fertily 
requite  his  Father's  Fatherly  education. — 
Sidney,  Arcadia,  Bk.  ii.  p.  155. 

Ferule,  to  strike  with  the  ferule  or 
cane. 

I  shoulde  tel  tales  out  of  the  schoole,  and 
bee  ferruled  for  my  faults  or  hyssed  at  for  a 
blab,  yf  I  layde  al  the  orders  open  before 
your  eyes. — Gossan,  Schoole  of  Abuse,  p.  24. 

Festrawe,  a  festue  or  fescue,  a 
pointer  used  in  teaching  children  their 
letters,  &c. 

Then  to  the  fourth,  the  Westerne  world  she 
came, 
And  there  with  her  eyes  festrawe  paints  a 

stone 
Stranger  then  strange,  more  glorified  then 
glorie. 

G.  Markham,  Tragedie  of  Sir 
R.  Grinuile,  p.  49. 

I  had  past  out  of  Crosse-rowe,  speld  and 
put  together,  read  without  Kf est  raw. — Breton, 
Chrimello's  Fortunes,  p.  6. 

Fetchlife,  a  prognostication  of 
death ;  perhaps  a  misprint  for  fetc/i* 
light,  q.  v.  in  N. 

Also  on  thee  turrets  the  skrich  howle,  lyke 

fetchliefe  ysetled, 
Her  burial  roundel  doth  ruck. 

Stanyhurst,  jEn.,  iv.  486. 

Fetch-wateb,  a  drawer  of  water. 

But  spin  the  Greek  wives'  webs  of  task, 
and  their  fetch-water  be.  —  Chapman,  IliadL 
vi.  495. 

Fete,  to  entertain  at  a  feast.  L. 
notes  the  word  as  naturalized,  but  only 
gives  example  of  the  substantive. 

The  murder  thus  out,  Hermann's  fSted  and 

thanked, 
While  his  rascally  rival  gets  tossed  in  a 

blanket. — Ingoldshy  Legends  {Hermann). 


1 


FETICHISM 


(  «3») 


FIDDLE 


Feticbism,  degraded  superstition. 
The  negroes  of  West  Africa  make  fetish 
of  any  object  that  strikes  their  fancy, 
as  a  stone,  or  tree,  and  the  like,  and 
worship  it. 

[They]  descended  deeper  and  deeper,  one 
after  the  other,  into  the  realms  of  confusion, 
. .  .  craving  after  signs  and  wonders,  dabbling 
in  magic,  astrology,  and  barbarian /eft  cAifffM. 
— C.  Kingsley,  Hypatia,  ch. 


Fetich istic,  belonging  to  or  con- 
nected with  fetish  worship. 

Oar  resuscitated  Spirit  was  not  a  pagan 
philosopher,  nor  a  philosophizing  pagan  poet, 
bat  a  man  of  the  fifteenth  century,  inherit- 
ing its  strange  web  of  belief  and  unbelief, 
of  Epicurean  levity  and  fetiehistic  dread. — 
0.  Eliot,  Bomola  (Proem). 

Fetish.    See  Fetichism. 

Tou  are  always  against  superstitions,  and 
yet  you  make  work  a  fetish.  You  do  with 
work  just  as  women  do  with  duty ;  they  carry 
about  with  them  a  convenient  little  god,  and 
they  are  always  worshipping  it  with  small 
sacrifices. — Black,  Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  x. 

Fettle,  good  condition. 

It's  a  fine  thing  ...  to  have  the  chance  of 
getting  a  bit  of  the  country  into  good  fettle, 
as  they  say,  and  putting  men  into  the  right 
way  with  their  farming. — G.  Eliot,  Middle- 
march,  oh.  xl. 

Fkture,  birth,  or  offspring. 

Some  of  them  engendered  one,  some  other 
such  fetures,  and  every  one  in  that  he  was 
delivered  of  was  excellent  politic,  wise. — 
Latimer,  i.  50. 

Feuage,  a  tax  on  every  hearth  or 
chimney.    See  Fowage. 

The  Prince  of  Wales  . . .  imposing  a  new 
taxation  upon  the  Gascoignes,  of  Feuage  or 
Ohymney  mony,  so  discontented  the  people, 
as  they  exclaime  against  the  government  of 
the  English. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  214. 

Few.    A  few  (*.  e.  some)  broth  or 

I>ottage  is  an  expression  used  in  Scot- 
and  and  the  north  of  England  ;   also 
in  Devonshire. 

They  be  content  with  a  penny  piece  of 
beef  among  four,  having  a /etc  pottage  made 
of  the  broth  of  the  same  beef. — Lever,  Ser- 
mons, 1550. 

They  had  sold  their  birthright ...  to  the 
Pope  for  a  few  pottage. — Adams,  i.  6. 

There  are  some  excellent  family  broth 
making  below,  and  1*11  desire  Tibby  to  bring 
a  fete. — Miss  Ferrier,  Marriage,  ch.  iii. 

Here's  a  rahm, .  . .  it's  weel  enengb  to  ate 
a  few  porridge  in. — Miss  E.Bronte,  Wuthering 
Heights,  ch.  xiii. 


Few,  a  few,  used  ironically  for  "a 
good  deal." 

I  trembled  a  few,  for  I  thought  ten  to  one 
but  he'd  say,  "He?  not  he,  I  promise  you." 
—Mad.D'Arblay,  Diary,  i.  28. 

If  one  man  in  a  town  has  pluck  and  money, 
he  may  do  it ;  it'll  cost  him  a  few  ;  I've  had 
to  pay  the  main  part  myself. — C.  KingsUy, 
Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xxv. 

Fewsty,  mouldy ;  fusty. 

Tf  a  feaste  beynge  neuer  so  great  lacked 
bread,  or  had  fewsty  and  noughty  bread,  all 
the  other  daynties  shulde  be  vnsauery  and 
litle  regarded. — Ascham,  Toxophilus,  p.  76. 

Fewtrils,  trifles ;  little  things. 

I  ha'  paid  to  keep  her  awa'  fra*  me ;  these 
five  year  I  ha'  paid  her ;  I  ha'  gotten  decent 
fewtrils  about  me  agen.  —  Dickens,  Hard 
Times,  ch.  xi. 

Fib,  to  Lit  repeatedly  when  the 
adversary's  Lead  is  "in  chancery" 
(pugilistic  slang). 

I  have  been  taking  part  in  the  controversy 
about M  Bell  and  the  Dragon,"  as  you  will  see 
in  the  Quarterly,  where  I  have  fibbed  the 
Edinburgh  (as  the  fancy  say)  most  com- 
pletely.—Southey,  Letters,  1811  (ii.  236). 

There  would  come  on 
A  sort  of  fear  his  spouse  might  knock  his 

head  off, 
Demolish  half  his  teeth,  or  drive  a  rib  in, 
She  shone  so  much  in  facers  and  in  fibbing. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  {The  Ghost). 

Fibber,  petty  liar.  L.  has  fibster, 
with  quotation  from  Thackeray. 

Your  royal  grandsire  (trust  roe,  I'm  no  fibber) 
Was  vastly  fond  of  Colley  Cibber. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  137. 

Fiction,  fashioning. 

The  long  having  made  positive  laws  and 
decrees, .  .  .  disdains  that  a  groom  should 
contradict  and  annul  those  to  dignify  and 
advance  other  of  his  own  fiction. — Adams, 
U.  90. 

We  have  never  dreamt  that  parliaments 
had  any  right  whatever  to  violate  property, 
to  overrule  prescription,  or  to  force  a  currency 
of  their  own  fiction  in  the  place  of  that  which 
is  real,  and  recognised  by  the  law  of  nations. 
—Burke, Reflections  on  Fr.  Revolution,^.  124. 

Fiddle.  To  play  first  or  second 
fiddle  is  to  take  the  chief  or  subordinate 
part  respectively. 

To  say  that  Tom  had  no  idea  of  playing 
first  fiddle  in  any  social  orchestra,  but  was 
always  quite  satisfied  to  be  set  down  for  the 
hundred  and  fiftieth  violin  in  the  band,  or 
thereabouts,  is  to  express  his  modesty  in 
very  inadequate  terms. — Dickens,  Martin 
Chuzzlewit,  ch.  xii. 


HDDLE 


(  239> 


•FIGURELESS 


It  wy  evident  that  since  John  Marston's 
arrival  he  had  been  playing,  with  regard  to 
Matt,  second  fiddle,  if  yon  can  possibly  be 
induced  to  pardon  the  extreme  coarseness  of 
the  expression. — H.  Kingsley,  Bavenshoe,  ch. 

1      »••  Sr  «r 

Inn. 

Fiddle,  a  fool  or  trifler. 

He  that  walkes  wanton  with  his  head  aside, 
And  knowes  not  well  how  he  may  see  his 
feete, 
And  she  that  mineeth  like  a  maiden  bride, 
And  like  a  shadow  slideth  through  the 
streete; 
Howeuer  so  their  mindes  in  money  meete, 
Measure  their  humours  justly  by  the 

middle, 
He  may  be  but  a  foole,  and  she  *  fiddle. 
Breton,  PasquiVs  Madcappe,  p.  9. 

As  his  rank  and  station  often  find  him  in 
the  best  company,  his  easy  humour,  whenever 
he  is  called  to  it,  can  still  make  himself  the 
fiddle  of  it. — Cihber,  Apology,  ch.  i. 

Fiddle.  The  quotation  from  Fuller 
may  perhaps    explain    the    phrase  in 

Smollett 

This  man  could  not  fidle,  could  not  tune 
himself  to  be  pleasant  and  plausible  to  all 
Companies. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Lancashire. 

Tour  honour's  face  is  made  of  a  fiddle ; 
everv  one  that  looks  on  you  loves  you. — 
Smollett,  Sir  L.  Greaves,  ch.  viii 

Fiddlecome,  nonsensical. 

Do  you  think  such  a  fine  proper  gentleman 
as  he  cares  for  a  fiddlecome  tale  of  a  draggle- 
tailed  prM—Vanbrugh,  The  Relapse,  iv.  1. 

Fiddle-headed.  The  handles  of 
forks  and  spoons  are  sometimes  made 
after  a  pattern  which  bears  some  re- 
semblance to  a  fiddle ;  these  are  called 
fiddle-headed,  or  fiddle-patterned. 

Try  him  wherever  you  will,  you  find 
His  miud  in  his  legs,  and  his  legs  in  his  mind, 
All  prongs  and  folly,  in  short  a  kind 
Of  fork  that  is  fiddle-headed. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

I  could  not  see  my  table-spoons,  I  looked, 

but  could  not  see 
The  little  JddU-pattern'd  ones  I  use  when 
I'm  at  tea. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  {Misadventures  at 
Margate). 

Fiddler's  fare.  See  quotations  from 
Howell  and  Swift. 

Let  the  world  know  you  have  bad  more 
thin  Jidler'i  fare,  for  you  have  meat,  money, 
and  cloth.— Machin,  Dumb  Knight,  Act  IV. 

He  was  dismissed  Jidler-like,  with  meat, 
drink,  and  money. — Howell,  Party  of  Beasts, 
p.  128.  J  *  J 


Miss.  Did  your  ladyship  play  ? 

Lady  Sm.  Yes,  and  won;  so  I  came  off 
with  fidler's  fare,  meat,  drink,  and  money. — 
Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  iii.).    . 

Fiddlestick.  See  quotation.  Fiddle- 
sticks taper  away  to  a  point;  hence 
used  of  nonsense  which  ends  in  nothing. 
This  is  Grose's  explanation. 

At  such  an  assertion  he  would  have  ex- 
claimed, A  fiddlestick!  Why  and  how  that 
word  has  become  an  interjection  of  contempt 
I  must  leave  those  to  explain  who  can. — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  clxxxix. 

She  wanted  to  marry  her  cousin,  Tom 
Povntx,  when  they  were  both  very  young, 
and  proposed  to  die  of  a  broken  heart  when  I 
arranged  her  match  with  Mr.  Newcome.  A 
broken  fiddlestick!  she  would  have  rained 
Tom  Poynta  in  a  year.— Thackeray,  Nexccomes, 
ch.  x. 

Fierize,  to  burn  or  kindle. 

But  aire  turn  water,  earth  may  fierite, 
Because  in  one  part  they  do  symbolize. 
Sylvester,  second  day,  first  veeke,  264. 

Fifty- weight,  half  a  hundred- 
weight. 

Packing  on  my  back  about  fifty-weight  of 
iron  bolts.— Mayo,  Kaloolah  (1840),  p.  140. 

Fight,  bulwark ;  propugnaculum. 
N.  has  several  examples  of  the  word, 
but  only  as  belonging  to  ships. 

They  fiercely  set  upon 
The  parapets,  and  pulTd  them  down,  raa'd 

every  foremost  fight, 
And  all  the  buttresses  of  stone  that  held 

their  towers  upright 
They  tore  away  with  crows  of  iron,  and 

hoped  to  ruin  all. 
The  Greeks  yet  stood,  and  still  repaired  the 

tote-fights  of  their  wall. 

Chapman,  Uiad,  xii.  271. 

Fightless,  without  fighting. 

Say  that   the   God   of  Warre,  Father  of 
Chinalrie, 

The  Worthies,  Heroes,  all  famed  Conquer- 
ours, 

Centaurs,  Gyants,  victorious  Victorie, 

Were  all  this  Grinuil's  hart-sworne  para- 
mours, 

Yet  should  we  fightlesse  let  our  sbyp's  force 
flie? 

G.  Markham,  Trag.  of  Sir  B.  Grinvile, 
p.  69. 

FIGLE88,  without  figs. 

The  fioless  fig-tree,  the  graceless  Christian, 
is  good  for  nothing. — Adams,  ii.  184. 

Figurelbbs,  shapeless. 

I  write  (detested)  on  the  tender  skins 
Of  time-lee  infants,  and  abortive  twins, 
(Torn  from  the  wombe)  these  figures  figure* 
les.— Sylvester,  The  Trophies,  682. 


FIGURIE  -  (  240  ) 


FJREBOOTE 


Figubik,  embroidery. 

That  worthy  Emperour 
Which  rulde  the  world,  and  had  all  welth 

atwil, 
Gould  be  content  to  tire  his  wearie  wife, 
His  daughters,  and  his  niepces  euerychone, 
To  spin  and  worke  the  clothes  that  he  shuld 

weare, 
And  neaer  carde  for  silks  or  sumptuous  cost. 
For  oloth  of  gold,  or  tinsel  figurte. 

Gascoigne,  Steel  Glas,  p.  71. 

Figurist.     See  extract. 

The  Symbolists,  Fiaurists,  and  Significatists 
. . .  are  of  opinion  that  the  faithful  at  the 
Lord's  Supper  do  receive  nothing  but  naked 
and  bare  signs. — Rogers  on  39  Articles,  p.  289. 

Fil,  a  filly  or  foal. 

A  kind  of  a  second  NagVhead  fable,  a  fil 
of  the  same  race,  both  sire  and  dam,  begotten 
by  the  father  of  lies  upon  a  slanderous 
tongue,  and  so  sent  post  about  the  world  to 
tell  false  tidings  of  the  English. — Sancroft, 
Consecration  Sermon,  1660  (p'Oyly's  Life,  p. 
845). 

File,  a  pickpocket  (thieves1  cant). 

The  greatest  character  among  them  was 
that  of  a  pickpocket,  or,  in  their  language,  a 
file. —  Fielding,  Jonathan  Wild,  Bk.  IV.  ch. 
zui. 

Filiate,  to  connect  aa  by  descent. 
Affiliate  is  the  usual  form.  Filiation 
will  be  found  in  R.  and  L.,  but  it  ap- 
pears to  be  only  a  technical  term  in 
theology. 

Master  Rabelais  says  that  the  Bishop  called 
the  mother  of  the  Three  Kings  St.  Typhaine ; 
it  is  certain  that  such  a  Saint  was  made  out 
of  La  Sainte  Epiphanie,  and  that  the  three 
kings  of  Cologne  were  filiated  upon  her. — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  xci. 

Many  parts  indeed  authenticate  them- 
selves, bearing  so  strong  a  likeness  that  no 
one  can  hesitate  at  filiating  them  upon  the 
ipsissimus  Luther. — Ibid.  ch.  ccxxxi. 

Filing- lay,  picking  pockets  (thieves* 
cant). 

I  am  committed  for  the  filing-lav,  man, 
and  we  shall  be  both  nubbed  together.  I' 
faith,  my  dear,  it  almost  makes  me  amends 
for  being  nubbed  myself,  to  have  the  pleasure 
of  seeing  thee  nubbed  too. — Fielding,  Jona- 
than Wild,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  ii. 

Findable,  discoverable. 

Such  persons  .  .  have  nothing  more  to  be 
said  of  them  findable  by  all  my  endevours. 
— Fuller,  Worthies,  ch.  xxv. 

A  man's  ideal 
Is  high  in  heaven,  and  lodged  with  Plato's 

Not  findable  here.— Tennyson,  The  Sisters. 


Fine.  Fine  as  fivepence  ==  very 
smart.  Cf.  Clean  as  a  penny,  s.  v. 
Penny. 

Be  not,  Jug,  as  a  man  would  say,  finer 
than  fivepence,  or  more  proud  than  a  peacock. 
—Grim  the  Collier,  Act  II. 

His  mistress  is  as  fine  as  JC pence  in  em- 
broidered satins.  —  WycherUy,  Love  in  a 
Wood,  v.  2. 

Miss.  Pray,  how  was  she  drest? 

Lady  Sin.  Why,  she  was  as  fine  as  five- 
pence;  but  truly  I  thought  there  was  more 
cost  than  worship.— Swift,  Polite  Conversa- 
tion (Conv.  iii.). 

Fineeb,  to  veneer. 

The  Italians  call  it  [marquetry]  pietre  eom- 
messe,  a  sort  of  inlaying  with  stones,  analo- 
gous to  the  fineering  of  cabinets  in  wood. — 
Smollett,  France  and  Italy,  Letter  xxviii. 

Fine-nosed,  delicate ;  fastidious. 

The  monks  themselves  were  too  fine-nosed 
to  dabble  in  tan-fatts.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  VI. 
u.  I. 

Fingent,  forming ;  fashioning. 

Ours  is  a  most  fictile  world,  and  man  is 
the  most  fingent,  plastic  of  creatures. — Car- 
lyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  I.  ch.  ii. 

Fingers'  ends.  To  arrive  at  one's 
fingers!  ends  =  to  be  brought  to  great 
poverty,  when  one  gnaws  one's  fingers' 
ends ;  to  live  by  one's  fingers1  ends  = 
by  industry  or  manual  labour. 

If  any  parte  of  Musick  haue  suffred  ship- 
wrack,  and  armed  by  fortune  at  their  fingers 
endes,  with  shewe  of  gentilitie  they  take  vp 
faire  houses,  receiue  lusty  lasses  at  a  price 
for  boorders,  and  pipe  from  morning  to 
euening  for  wood  and  coale. — Gossan,  School* 
of  Abuse,  p.  36. 

How  many  goodly  cities  could  I  reckon  up 
that  thrive  wholl  v  by  trade,  where  thousands 
of  inhabitants  live  singular  well  by  their 
fingers*  ends. — Burton,  Democ.  to  Reader,  p. 
55. 

Finkle,  fennel.  The  heading  of 
ch.  ix.  in  Bk.  XX.  of  Hollands  Pliny 
is,  "  Of  Finkle  or  Fennell,  and  Hempe." 

Fireboote,  "  fuel  for  necessary  occa- 
sions,  which  by  common  law  any  tenant 
may  take  out  of  the  lands  granted  to 
him"  (Bailees  Did.). 

There  are  a  great  number  of  pollard  trees 
standing  and  growing  upon  the  commons 
aforesaid,  the  crops  whereof  as  they  grow 
are  usually  cut  by  the  copiehoulders  of  the 
sayd  maner,  and  taken  and  converted  by 
them  for  fireboote  according  to  the  custom 
thereof ;  but  the  bulkes  and  bodies  of  those 
pollards  belonging  to  the  lords  of  the  sayd 
maner.— Survey  of  Maner  of  Wimbledon,  16 19 
(Arehaol.,  x.  443). 


FIRE  EATER 


<*4i  ) 


FISH 


Fire-kateb,  a  fierce  fellow:  gener- 
ally used  rather  contemptuously.  See 
quotation  from  Tennyson  *.  v.  Dare- 
devil, and  from  Carlyle  *.  v.  Bulk. 

Barnes  need  not  get  up  in  the  morning  to 
punch  Jack  Belsize's  head.  I'm  sorry  for 
your  disappointment,  you  Feochnrch-street 
fire-eater. — Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  xxix. 

Fire-hook,  a  hook  used  for  pulling 

down  burning  houses.     See  N.,  whose 

only  quotation  is  from  the-  Nomenclator. 

God  will  plague  thee,  and  those  teeth  that 
tare  my  harnilesse  face  will  the  divel  teare 
out  with  a  hot  fire-hooke. — Breton,  Miseries 
of  Mcndllia,  p.  51. 

The  engines  thunder'd  through  the  sheet, 
Fire-hook,  pipe,  bucket,  all  complete. 

J.  and  H.  Smith,  Refected 
Addresses,  p.  80. 

Firehou8E,  hearth. 

The  constant  rent  he  settled  were  the 
Peter-pences  to  the  Pope  of  Borne  to  be 
paid  out  of  every  firehouse  in  England. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  II.  iii.  13. 

Fireship,  prostitute,  especially  one 
who  is  diseased. 

Xev.  Well,  bat,  Sir  John,  are  you  ac- 
quainted with  any  of  our  fine  ladies  yet,  any 
of  our  famous  toasts  ? 

Sir  John.  No,  damn  your  Jlreships ;  I  have 
•  wife  of  my  own. — Swift,  Polite  Conversation 
(Conv.  ii.). 

This  wit  advised  him  to  keep  clear  of  me, 
for  I  was  a  fireship.  **  A  Jireship !  (replied 
the  sailor)  more  like  a  poor  galley  in  distress 
that  has  been  boarded  by  such  a  fireshig  as 
you.n— Smollett,  Roderick  Random,  ch.  zxiii. 

Firework,  work  wrought  in  the  fire : 
not,  as  now,  pyrotechnics. 

His  heart  the  aniiile  wheron  the  denill 
frames  his  fireworke. — Breton,  A  Murmurer, 
p.  10. 

Firework,  a  display  of  fireworks. 

We  have  not  yet  done  diverting  ourselves : 
the  night  before  last  the  Duke  of  Richmond 
gave  a  firework ;  a  codicil  to  the  peace. — 
Wdpole  to  Mann,  ii.  297  (1749). 

Firmament,  strength ;  confirmation. 

By  surveying  over  hastily  he  did  quite 
oversee  all  our  principal  evidence,  and  the 
Attest  firmaments  of  our  CAuee.— Bramhall, 
ii.  24. 

Firmless,  unsteady ;  shifting. 

It  [Astronomy]  leaues  swift  Tigris,  and  to 

Nile  retires, 
And,  waxen  rich,  in  Egypt  it  erects 
A  famous  School,  yet  firmless  in  affects, 
It  falls  in  lone  with  subtle  Grecian  wits. 
Sylvester,  The  Columnes,  607. 


Past  the  Bed  Sea,  heer  vp  and  down  we  float 
On  firmless  sands  of  this  vast  desert  here. 

Ibid.,  The  Lave,  926. 

Firmorie,  infirmary. 

J nfirmarium,  or  the  Firmorie  (the  Ouratour 
whereof  Infirmarius),  wherein  persons  down- 
right sick  (trouble  to  others,  and  troubled  by 
others,  if  lodging  in  the  dormitorie)  had  the 
benefit  of  physick,  and  attendance  private  to 
themselves. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  vi.  p.  286. 

Firret,  to  ferret,  "  nearer  to  the 
Latin  viverra  and  the  Italian  fierretto 
than  the  more  modern  form,  ferret" 
(Jacobson,  note  in  loc.). 

If  Israel  turn  their  backs  upon  their 
enemies,  up,  Joshua,  and  make  search  for  the 
troubler  of  Israel,  firret  out  the  thief,  and 
do  execution  upon  him. — Sanderson,  in.  88. 

Firry,  of  the  fir-tree. 

And  oft  I  heard  the  tender  dove 
In  firry  woodlands  making  moan, 
Tennyson,  Millerfs  Daughter, 

First.    At  first  =  immediately. 

He  bids  them  put  the  matter  in  adventure 
and  then  but  whistle  for  an  angel,  and  they 
will  come  at  first. — Andrews,  Sermons,  v.  523. 

Firstly,  in  the  first  place.  R.  has 
no  example  of  this  word,  and  De 
Quincey  (Spanish  Nun,  sect.  6)  writes, 
"  First  (for  1  detest  your  ridiculous  and 
most  pedantic  neologism  of  firstly) — 
first  the  shilling  for  which  I  have  given 
a  receipt ;  secondly  two  skeins  of  suit- 
able thread."  L.  quotes  from  Sylves- 
ter's Du  Bartas,  *'  the  wound  the  old 
serpent  firstly  gave  us." 

F1R8TSHIP,  beginning. 

Two  Firstships  met  in  this  man,  for  he 
handselled  the  House-Convent. . . .  Secondly, 
he  was  the  first  Carmelite  who  in  Cambridge 
took  the  degree  of  Doctor  in  Divinity. — Ful- 
ler, Worthies,  Suffolk  (ii.  840). 

Fisc,  exchequer.  L.  marks  this  word 
as  rare,  and  gives  a  single  example  from 
Burke  ;  an  earlier  and  later  instance  are 
subjoined.  Daniel  also,  Hist,  of  Eng., 
p.  169,  speaks  of  informers  as  "  fruitful! 
agents  for  the  fiske." 

Peru,  they  say  (supposing  Ophir  so), 

By  yeerly  fleets  into  his  fisk  doth  now. 
Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  609. 

The  streams  were  perennial  which  fed  his 
fisc.  When  new  supplies  became  necessary, 
the  first  person  that  had  the  felicity  to  fall 
in  with  him,  friend  or  stranger,  was  sure  to 
contribute  to  the  deficiency. — Lamb,  Essays 
of  Elia  (Two  Races  of  Men). 

Fish.  Drunk  as  a  fish  =  very  drunk 

R 


FISHABLE 


(  *4*  ) 


FIZZ 


'Gad,  my  head  begins  to  whim  it  about. 
Why  dost  thon  not  speak  ?  thou  art  both  as 
drunk  and  as  mute  as  a  fish. — Congreve,  Way 
of  the  World*  iv.  9. 

Fishable,  capable  of  being  fished. 

There  was  only  a  small  piece  of  fishable 
water  in  Englebourn.— Hughes,  Tom  Brown 
at  Oxford,  ch.  zlvii. 

Fish-broth,  water. 

The  churlish  frampold  waves  gave  him  his 
belly-full  of  flsh-broath.—Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffs 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  108). 

Fishkr'8  knot,  a  slip-knot,  the  ends 
of  which  lie  horizontally,  and  will  not 
become  untied. 

Then  end  to  end,  as  f alleth  to  their  lot, 
Let  all  your  links,  in  order  as  tbey  lie, 
Be  knit  together  with  t\isX  fisher's  knot 
That  will  not  slip,  nor  with  the  wet  untie ; 
And  at  the  lowest  end,  forget  it  not, 
To  leave  a  bout  or  compass  like  an  eye, 
The  link  that  holds  your  hook  to  hang 

upon, 
When  you  think  good  to  take  it  off  and  on. 
Dennis,  Secrets  of  Angling  (Arbert 
Eng.  Garner,  1. 150.) 

Fish- fag,  a  disparaging  name  for  a 
female  tish-hawker. 

Who  deemed  himself  of  much  too  high  a 

rank, 
With  vulgar  fish-fags  to  be  forced  to  chat. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  106. 

Fishmongers'  fair,  Lent.  In  Mars- 
tan* 8  Malcontent  one  of  the  characters 
says,  "Then  we  agree?"  the  other 
replies,  "As  Lent  and  fishmongers." 
And  Nashe  in  his  Lenten  Stuffe  {Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  161^  says  that  if  it  were  not 
for  the  herring  "fishmongers  might 
keepe  Christmasse  all  the  yeere,"  t.  e. 
would  have  no  trade. 

It  was  at  a  time  when  it  is  the  fishmongers* 
fair  (tempus  quo  regnant  piseatores)  and  the 
Dutcherr  time  to  be  starved.— Bailey's  Eras* 
mus,  p.  219. 

Fistic,  pugilistic. 

In  fistic  phraseology,  he  had  a  genius  for 
coming  up  to  the  scratch,  wherever  and  what- 
ever it  was,  and  proving  himself  an  ugly 
customer.— ifefca*,  Hard  Times,  ch.  ii. 

Fitchy,  pointed.  In  heraldry  a  cross 
is  said  to  be  fticMe  when  the  lower  part 
ends  in  a  point. 

•  Bach  board  had  two  tenons  fastned  in 
their  silver  sockets,  which  sockets  some  con- 
ceive made  fitchy  or  picked,  to  he  put  into 
the  earth.— Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  IV.  iv.  14. 

Fittt,  subject  to  fits. 


They . . .  turned  out  so  sickly  and  Jltty  that 
there  was  no  rearing  them  anyhow. — JS'ans, 
Thinks  I  to  Myself,  11.  168. 

Fitty,  suitable. 

Oicero,  Varro,  Quintilian,  and  others 
strained  themselues  to  giue  the  Greek  wordes 
Latin  names,  and  yet  nothing  so  apt  mdjitty. 
— Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III.  ch.  ix. 

Five-finger,  also  called  the  crow- 
fish,  a  species  of  Asterias  or  star-fish. 

There  are  great  penalties  by  the  Admiralty- 
Court  laid  upon  those  that ...  do  not  tread 
under  their  feet,  or  throw  upon  the  shore,  a 
fish  which  they  [people  of  Colchester]  call  a 
Five-Jinger,  resembling  the  rowel  of  a  spur, 
because  that  fish  gets  into  the  Oysters  when 
they  gape,  and  sucks  them  out. — Defoe,  lour 
thro'  G.  Britain,  i.  10. 

Fiver,  a  five-pound  note  (slang).  Cf . 
Tenner. 

I'll  trot  him  .  . .  against  any  horse  you  can 
bring  for  a  fiver. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at 
Oxford,  ch.  vi. 

Fives,  fist,  as  being  formed  of  the 
five  fingers :  a  slang  term. 

Whereby,  altho'  as  yet  they  have  not  took  to 
use  their  Jives, 

Or,  according  as  the  fashion  is,  to  sticking 
with  their  knives, 

I'm  bound  there'll  be  some  milling  yet,  and 
shakings  by  the  collars, 

Afore  they  choose  a  chairman  for  the  Glori- 
ous Apollers. 

Hood,  Row  at  the  Oxford  Arms. 

Then  let's  act  like  Count  Otto,  and  while  one 

survives, 
Succumb  to  our  she-saints,  videlicet  wives ; 
That  is,  if  one  has  not  a  good  bunch  of  fives. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  (S.  OdiUe). 

Fives,  a  game  something  like  tennis, 
but  the  ball  is  played  by  the  hand  ; 
hence  its  name.     See  preceding  entry. 

Or  as  you  may  see  in  the  Fleet  or  the  Bench, 
(Many  folks  do  in  the  course  of  their  lives) 

The  well-struck  ball  rebound  from  the  wall, 
When  the  gentlemen  jail-birds  are  playing 
ht  fives. — Ingoldsby  Legends  (8.  Medard). 

The  little  man  was  playing  at  fives  against 
the  bare  wall. . .  .  He  had  no  ball  to  play 
with,  but  he  played  with  a  brass  button. — ht. 
Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  xxxv. 

Fix,  a  difficulty  (slang). 

It's  "  a  pretty  particular  Fix" 

Bloudie  Jacke, 
She  is  caught  like  a  mouse  in  a  trap. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  {Bloudie  JaeJce). 

We  were  now  placed  in  an  uncommonly 
awkward./br. — Blacky  Adventures  of  a  Phaetony 
ch.  zxv. 

Fizz,  to  make  a  hissing  or  sputtering 
sound. 


FIZZLE 


(  *43  ) 


FLANNEL 


Thou  oft  hast  made  thy  fiery  dart 
Fizz  in  the  hollow  of  his  heart. 
Cotton,  Burlesque  upon.  Burlesque,  p.  249. 

Fizzle,  an  onomatopoeous  word,  sig- 
nifying the  sound  of  singeing  hair,  or  of 
hot  iron  plunged  into  water,  or  the  like. 

Whose  bearda — this  a  black,  that  inclining 

to  grizzle — 
Are  smoking,  and  curling,  and  all  in  a  fizzle. 
Ingoldslty  Legends  (Auto-da-Fe). 

Flabell,  to  fan. 

It  is  continually  flabelled,  blown  upon,  and 
aired  by  the  north  winds. — Urquh art's  Ra- 
belais, Bk.  I.  ch.  xxxii. 

Flag,  a  pinion. 

The  haggard  cloister'd  in  her  mew 
To  scour  her  downy  robes,  and  to  renew 
Her  broken  flays*  preparing  to  overlook 
The  tim'rous  mallard  at  the  sliding  brook, 
Jets  oft  from  perch  to  perch. 

Quarks,  Emblems,  III.  i. 

Flagged.  The  admiral  in  the  quota- 
tion is  the  ship  which  carries  the  ad- 
miral's flag.     See  L.  «.  v.  Admiral. 

At  thy  firmest  age 
Thou  hadst  within  thy  bole  solid  contents 
That  might  have  ribb'd  the  sides  and  plank'd 

the  deck 
Of  some  flagged  admiral. 

Cowper,  Yardley  Oak. 

Flagman,  an  admiral.    Cf.  Flagged. 

To  Mr.  Lilly's  the  painter's,  and  there  saw 
the  heads,  some  finished,  and  all  begun,  of 
the  Flagamen  in  the  late  great  fight  with  the 
Duke  of  York  against  the  Dutch.— Pepys, 
April  18, 1666. 

He  was  a  kind  of  Flagman,  a  Vice-Admiral, 
ia  all  those  expeditions  of  good  fellowship. 
— Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  535. 

Flagon et,  small  flagon. 

And  in  a  burnisht./fagroRt/  stood  by 
Beere  small  as  comfort,  dead  as  charity. 

Herrick,  Uesperides,  p.  281. 

Flagre. 

Tarre,  mlstrease  (quoth  shee),  we  commonly 
«se  when  the  wound  is  not  deepe ;  but,  ber- 
l&dy,  for  tliis  I  can  tell  you  what  we  will  doo, 
*  little  fiaare,  and  the  white  of  a  new  laid 
egge  mingled  with  a  little  honey,  you  shall 
■ee  I  will  make  a  medicine  for  him. — Breton, 
Miseries  of  Mauillia,  p.  40. 

Flail,  to  strike  as  with  a  flail. 

And  in  an  od  corner  for  Mars  they  be  stern- 

tu\ye  flayling 
Hudge  spoaks  and  chariots. 

St  any  hunt,  Conceites,  p.  138. 

Flam,  humbugging.     The  word  is 
given  in  the  Diets,  as  verb  and  sub- 


stantive, but  in  the  extract  it  is  used 
adjectivully. 

To  amuse  him  the  more  in  his  search,  she 
addeth  a  flam  story  that  she  had  got  his 
hand  by  corrupting  one  of  the  letter-carriers 
in  London. — Sprat,  Relation  of  Young1*  Con- 
trivance,  1692  {Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  224). 

Flam  an,  a  flamingo  (the  description 
of  the  bird  is  not  in  the  original). 

Others  grew  in  the  legs,  and  to  see  them 
you  would  have  said  they  had  been  cranes, 
pr  the  reddUh-long-billed-storklike-scrank- 
legged  sea-fowls,  called  flamans,  or  else  men 
walking  upon  stilts  or  scatches. — UrquharVs 
Rabelais,  IX  i. 

Flamboyant.    This  French  word,  as 

an  architectural  term,  may  be  considered 

naturalized  among  us. 

Mods,  de  Caumont's  name  is  Flamboyant, 
alluding  to  the  waving  of  a  flame,  and  the 
tracery  of  the  windows  of  this  style  .  .  gives 
very  forcibly  the  idea  of  this  waving  in  its 
dividing  lines. — Archaol.,  xxiv.  179  (1834). 

Flame,  sweetheart. 

How  will  she  outshine  all  our  Caermarthen 
ladies :  and  yet  we  have  charming  girls  in 
Caermarthen.  Am  I,  or  am  I  not  right,  Mr. 
Beeves,  as  to  my  nephew's  flame,  as  they 
call  it? — Richardson,  Grandison,  i.  46. 

I  suppose  she  waa  an  old  flame  of  the 
Colonel's,  for  their  meeting  was  uncom- 
monly ceremonious  and  tender. — Thackeray, 
Newcomes,  ch.  xxii. 

Flameful,  burning. 

Pale  phlegm,  or  saffron-coloured  choler, 
In  feeble  stomacks  belch  with  divers  dolor, 
And  print  vpon  our  vnderstanding's  tables, 
That    water  -  wracks,  this    other  flamefull 
fables.— Sylvester,  Eden,  401. 

Flamfews,  kickshaws ;  trifles. 

Voyd  ye  fro  these  flamfews,  quoa  the  God. 
—Stanyhurst,  Conceites,  p.  138. 

Flanker,  pavement  at  the  side  of 
a  road. 

In  July  and  August  was  the  high  way  from 
near  the  end  of  St.  Clement's  Church  to  the 
way  leading  to  Marston  pitched  with  pebbles, 
and  the  paths  or  flankers  with  hard  white 
atones.— Zf/<s  of  A.  Wood,  1682. 

Flannel,  soft  or  warm.  In  the 
second  extract  it  seems  *=*  flaccid. 

About  this  time  of  year  I  have  little  fevers 
every  night,  which  bid  me  repair  to  a  more 
flannel  climate.  —  H'alpole,  Letters,  iii.  9 
(17*4). 

Some  old  duchess,  as  a  badger  gray, 
(Her  suags  by  Time,  sure  deutist,  snatched 
away) 
With  long,  \taik,  flannel  cheeks. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  152. 
R  3 


FLANTADOE  (  244  ) 


FLA  UNT 


Flantadoe,  a  word  coined,  I  sup- 
pose, by  Stany hurst:  the  original  is 
spumas  salts  are  ruebant. 

Tward  Sicil  Isle  soantiy  thee  Trojan  nauye 

dyd  enter, 
And  the  sea  salte  foaming  wyth  braue/an- 

tadoe  dyd  harrow. 

St  any  hurst,  Mn.,  i.  44. 

Flapdoodle.  See  extracts.  H.  gives 
it,  without  example,  as  a  West  country 
expression. 

"  It's  my  opinion,  Peter,  that  the  gentle- 
man has  eaten  no  small  quantity  of  flap- 
doodle  in  his  lifetime."  "What's  that, 
O'Brien  Y  n  replied  I ;  M I  never  heard  of  it." 
"Why,  Peter,"  rejoined  he,  "it's  the  stuff 
they  feed  fools  on." — Marry  at,  Peter  Simple, 
ch.  xxviii. 

"I  shall  talk  to  our  regimental  doctors 
about  it,  and  get  put  through  a  course  of 
f ool's-diet  before  we  start  for  India."  "  Flap- 
doodle, they  call  it,  what  fools  are  fed  on." 
—Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xli. 

Flapper,  a  young  wild  duck. 

Iightbody  happened  to  be  gone  out  to 
shoot  flappers. —  Miss  Edgeworth,  Manoeu- 
vring, ch.  xiv. 

Flappet,  a  flap  or  ledge. 

What  brave  spirit  could  be  content  to  sit 
in  his  shop  with  a  flappet  of  wood,  and  a 
blue  apron  before  him, .  .  that  might  pursue 
feats  of  arms? — B.  and  Fl.,  Knight  of  Burn- 
ing Pestle,  L  3. 

Flappish,  careless  or  untidy,  as 
having  things  loose  and  flapping  about. 

I  see  your  keys !  see  a  fool's  head  of  your 
own :  had  I  kept  them  I  warrant  they  had 
been  forthcoming :  you  are  so  flappish,  you 
throw  'em  up  and  down  at  your  tail. — The 
Committee,  Act  IV. 

Flappits,  finery ;  fallals. 

The  sign  of  the  Golden  Ball,  it's  gold  all 
over,  where  they  sell  ribbands,  and  flappits, 
and  other  sort  of  geer  for  gentlewomen. — 
Cibber,  Provoked  Husband,  Act  I. 

Flash,  flashy;  showy  but  unsub- 
stantial. 

Loath  I  am  to  mingle  philosophical  cor- 
dials with  Divine,  as  water  with  wine,  lest 
my  consolations  should  be  flash  and  dilute. — 
Ward,  Sermons,  p.  63. 

Flash.  H.  says,  "  A  common  word 
for  a  pool/'  In  the  extract  it  seems  to 
mean  a  sufficient  depth  of  water. 

I  was  gone  down  with  the  barge  to  London ; 
and  for  want  of  a  flash,  we  lay  ten  weeks 
before  we  came  again.— Dialogue  on  Oxford 
Parliament,  1081  (Harl.  Misc.,  ii.  116). 

Flash,  slang. 


14  His  checks  no  longer  drew  the  cash, 
Because,  as  his  comrades  explain 'd  in  flash, 
He  had  overdrawn  his  badger." 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Flashes,  a  showy  or  fashionable 
person. 

They  are  reckoned  the  flashers  of  the  place, 
yet  everybody  laughs  at  them  for  their  airs, 
affectations,  and  tonish  graces  and  imper- 
tinences.— Mad.  IfArblav,  Diary,  i.  260. 

Dr.  Harrington,  I  find,  is  descended  in  a 
right  line  from  the  celebrated  Sir  John  Har- 
rington, who  was  godson  of  Queen  Elizabeth, 
and  one  of  the  gayest  writers  and  flashers  of 
her  reign. — Ibid.  i.  333. 

Flashman,  rogue. 

"You're  playing  a  dangerous  game,  my 
flashman,  whoever  you  are,"  said  Lee,  rising 
savagely ;  "  I've  shot  a  man  down  for  less 
than  that."— H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn, 
ch.  ▼. 

Flat,  a  fool ;  opposite  of  sharp. 

Why  your  face  is  as  black  as  your  hat ! 
Your  fine  Holland  shirt  is  all  over  dirt, 
And  so  is  your  point-lace  cravat. 

What  a  Flat, 
To  seek  such  an  asylum  as  that. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (Bloudie  Jaclce). 

"  You  did  not  seek  a  partner  in  the  peerage, 
Mr.  Newcome."  "  No,  no,  not  such  a  con- 
founded flat  as  that,"  cries  Mr.  Newcome. — 
Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  xvi. 

Flatchet,  an  instrument  of  some 
kind :  the  original  is  cuspide.  The  word 
occurs  again  (J?n.,  iii.  241)  where 
Virgil  has  ernes. 

This  sayd,  with  pojuted  flatchet  thee  moun- 

tan  he  broached, 
Bush  do  the  winds  forward  through  perst 

chinck  narrolie  whirling. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn,,  i.  91. 

Flats,  some  kind  of  false  dice. 

What  false  dise  vse  they !  as  dise  stopped 
with  quicksiluer  and  heares,  dise  of  a  vaunt- 
age,  flattes,  gourdes  to  chop  and  chat  id  ge 
whan  they  lyste  to  lette^the  trew  dise  fall 
vnder  the  table,  and  so  take  vp  the  false. — 
Ascham,  Toxophilus,  p.  54. 

Flatterable,  open  to  flattery. 

He  was  the  most  flatterable  creature  that 
ever  was  known. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guil- 
ford, i.  118. 

Flat-tiring,  downright  fatigue  (?). 

Having  already  past  over  the  greatest  part 
of  Arcadia, ...  his  Horse  (nothhig  guilty  of 
his  inquisitiveness)  with  flat-tiring  taught 
him  that  discreet  stays  make  speedy  journies. 
— Sidney,  Arcadia,  Bk.  i.  p.  42. 

Flaunt  a  flaunt,  streaming. 


FLA  Y-FLINT 


(  245  ) 


FLE  YKE 


TTbat  be  they?  women  masking  in  men's 

weedes, 
With   dntchkin  dublets   and   with   jerkins 

jaggde, 
With  Spanish  spangs,  and  ruffes  set  out  of 

France, 
With  high  eopt  hattes,  and  fethers  flaunt  a 
flaunt  ?~Gascoigne,  Steel  Glas  (Epilog us). 
Thy  fethers  flaunt  a  flaunte 

Are  blowne  awaie  with  winde. 
Breton,  Floorish  vpon  Fancie,  p.  18. 

Flay-flint,  a  miser ;  one  who  would 

skin  a  flint. 

There  lived  &  flay-flint  near,  we  stole  his  fruit. 
Tennyson,  Walking  to  the  Mail, 

Flatsome,  frightful ;   terrifying :    a 

North  country  word. 

Shoo!  not  oppen't  an  ye  mak  jexflaysome 
dins  till  neeght. — Miss  E.  Bronte,  Wutkering 
Heights,  ch.  ii. 

Fleak,  a  hurdle.    Cf .  Fleyke  ;  and 
see  Peacock's  Manley  and  Corringkam 
Glossary  (E.  D.  S.). 
The  painful  pioners  wrought  against  their 

With  fleak*  and  fagots  ditches  yp  to  fill. 

Hudson's  Judith,  iii.  116. 

Damagikg  Fleaxs.  E.  W—  and  O.  W — 
-were  charged  . .  .  with  damaging  a  fleak,  the 
property  of  Lord  Foley. . .  .  Police-sergeant 
Hind  . .  .  found  they  had  broken  the  fence. 
He  matched  the  pieces,  and  they  fitted  to- 
gether.— Gainsburgh  News,  June  27, 1868. 

Fleawobt,  inula  conyza*    Sylvester 
reckons  among  "  pernicious  plants ; " 
The  (hwpsie-breeding,  sorrow-bringing  psylly, 
Heer  called  Flea-wurt. 

Sylvester,  The  Furies,  177. 

Flebile,  lachrymose. 

Alackaday!  a  flebile  style  this  upon  a 
mournful  occasion. — North,  Examen,  p.  49. 

His  voice  falters,  and  he  is  let  down  from 
bis  touring  tragics,  and  takes  to  the  more 
calm  and  moderate  style,  not  without  a  tanct 
of  the  flebile,  as  under  some  mortification,  or 
rather  utter  despair. — Ibid.  p.  374. 

Fleckless,  spotless. 

O  hard  when  love  and  duty  clash !    I  fear 
My  conscience  will  not  count  me  fleckless. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  ii 

Children  demand  that  their  heroes  should 
be  fleckless,  and  easily  believe  them  so. — G. 
Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xvi. 

Fledgy,   newly  fledged;    also,  fea- 
thery. 
Lyke  bees 

When  they  do  foorth  carry  theyre  young 
swarme  fledggie  to  gat  bring. — Stanyhurst, 
AZn.,  i.  415. 


"Where  a  fledgy  sea-bird  choir 

Soars  for  ever. — Keats,  FingaTs  Cave, 

The  swan  soft  leaning  on  hex  fledgy  breast. 

Ibid.,  Otho  the  Great,  ii.  2. 

Fleece,  a  snatch ;  an  endeavour  to 
fleece. 

There's  scarce  a  match-maker  in  the  whole 
town,  but  has  had  a  fleece  at  his  purse. — 
Centlivre,  The  Beau's  Duel,  ii.  2. 

Flemish,  to  wave ;  flourish. 

Here  on  this  alder  stump,  not  an  hour  old ; 
I  thought  they  beauties  starns  weren't  flem- 
ishing for  nowt. — Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago, 
ch.  iv. 

Flemish  bond,  a  method  of  laying 
bricks. 

Workmen  began  to  use  what  they  call  the 
Flemish  bond,  which  is  the  strongest  as  well 
as  the  oldest  regular  bond  used  in  building. 
—Archaol.,  iv.  106  (1777). 

Flesh,  to  clothe  with  flesh. 

This  bare  sceleton  of  time,  place,  and  per- 
son must  be  fleshed  with  some  pleasant  pas- 
sages.— Fuller,  Worthies,  ch.  i. 

Flesh-bird,  a  carrion  bird,  as  the 
vulture,  &c. 

O'er  his  uncoffined  limbs 
The  Hocking  flesh-birds  screamed. 
Coleridge,  To  a  Young  Man  of  Fortune. 

Fleshhold,  flesh  enough  for  teeth  to 

seize  on. 

There  was  fleshhold  enough  for  the  rhym- 
ing Satirists  and  the  wits  of  those  times, 
whereon  to  fasten  the  sorest  and  the  strong- 
est teeth  they  had. — Sanderson,  iii.  106. 

FLE8H-SPADE8,  nail8. 

My  landlady,  highly  resenting  the  injury 
done  to  the  beauty  of  her  husband  by  the 
flesh-spades  of  Bin.  Honour,  called  aloud  for 
revenge  and  justice. — Tom  Jones,  Bk.  XI. 
ch.  viii. 

Fletcher.  "  Jack  Fletcher  and  his 
bolt "  seems  a  proverbial  expression  for 
things  dissimilar.  Fletcher  ■■  arrow- 
maker;  hence  the  reference  is  to  the 
distinction  between  the  intelligent  work- 
man and  the  dead  product  of  his  skill. 

We  are  as  like  in  conditions  as  Jack  Fletcher 

and  his  bowlt, 
I  brought  up  in  learning,  but  he  is  a  very  dolt. 
Edwards,  Damon  and  Pithias  (Dodsley, 
O.  PI.,  i.  232). 

Fleyke,  a  gate,  or  paling,  or  part  of 
a  stall.  See  H.  s.  v.  Flake,  and  cf. 
Fleak. 


FLICT 


(  246  ) 


FLOCKERS 


To  discuss  divinity  they  nought  adread, 
More  meet  it  were  for  them  to  milk  kye  at 
tfleyke. 

Song  of  John  Nobody  (Strype,  Cranmer, 
Vol.  II.  App.,  p.  636). 

Flict,  to  afflict.  Stanyhurst  spells 
the  word  two  different  ways  in  the 
same  line,  unless  /lighted  =»  forced  to 
fly. 

My  self  erst  flighted  to  reliue  thee  flirted  I 
learned. — Stanyhurst,  Mn.,  i.  615. 

Fudge,  to  become  fledged. 

They  every  day  build  their  nests,  every 
houre  flidge,  and  in  tearme-time  especially 
flutter  they  abroad  in  flocks. — Greene,  Theeves 
falling  out,  1615  (Harl.  Misc.,  viii.  383). 

Flight,  to  scold. 

Then  pardon  me  for  these  uncourteons  words 
The  which  I  in  my  rage  did  utter  forth, 
Prick'd  by  the  duty  of  a  loyal  mind ; 
Pardon,  Alphonsus,  this  my  first  offence. 
And  let  me  die  if  e'er  I  flight  again. 

Greene,  Aiphonsus,  Act  II. 

Flimp,  to  hustle ;  to  rob.  See  quota- 
tion more  at  length,  s.  v.  Cross. 

Flimping  is  a  style  of  theft  which  I  have 
never  practised,  and  consequently  of  which 
I  know  nothing. — H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe, 
ch.  x. 

Flimsy,  bank-notes  or  other  paper- 
money  (slang). 

In  English  Exchequer-bills  full  half  a  million, 
Not  kites  manufactured  to  cheat  and  inveigle, 
But  the  right  sort  of  flimsy,  all  signed  by 
Monteagle. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  {Met.  of  Venice). 

Fling,  a  dance. 

So  he  stept  right  up  before  my  gate, 
And  danced  me  a  saucy  fling. 

Hood,  The  Last  Man. 

Fling.  Full  fling  =  headlong,  vio- 
lently. 

A  man  that  hath  taken  his  career,  and 
runs  full  fling  to  a  place,  cannot  recoil  him- 
self,  or  recall  his  strength  on  the  sudden. — 
Adams,  i.  237. 

Fling  away,  or  out,  or  from,  to 
leave  hastily  (in  anger).  Holland  uses 
it  =  escape.  Udal  (see  quotation  *.  v. 
Shuttle-brained)  has  the  word  in  this 
sense  without  any  preposition  attached. 

His  towne  was  not  far  off, . . .  which  as  he 
assaulted  in  two  severall  places,  the  Britons 
flung  out  at  a  back  way :  but  many  of  them 
in  their  flight  were  taken. — Holland's  Cam- 
den, p.  37. 

With  tliis  he  flings  away  in  discontentment, 
as  if  he  meant  with  speed  to  quit  the  king- 
dom.— Hist,  of  Edv.  11.,  p.  153. 


He  flung  from  her  and  went  ont  of  the 
room. — Richardson,  Grandison,  iv.  209. 

Flingbrand,  quarrelsome ;  polemical. 

I  would  to  God  some  amongst  as  had  one 
dram  of  this  grace  [discretion]  mingled  with 
their  whole  handfuls  of  zeal.  It  would  a 
little  cool  the  preternatural  heat  of  the  fling- 
brand  fraternity,  as  one  wittily  calleth  them. 
— Adams,  i.  125. 

Flint.  The  common  phrase  to  skin 
a  flint  assumes  in  the  extract  a  some- 
what different  shape. 

For  their  fare,  it  was  course  in  the  quality, 
and  yet  slender  in  the  quantity  thereof ;  in- 
somuch that  they  would  in  a  manner  make 
pottage  of  a  flint.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  III.  vi.  37. 

Flinted,  hardened ;  cruel. 

Also  we  the  byrthplace  detest  of  flinted 
VUsses. — Stanyhurst,  Mn.,  iii.  279. 

Flipflap,  a  flighty  person. 

The  light  airy  flipflap,  she  kills  him  with 
her  motions. —  Vanbrugh,  False  Friend,  I.  i. 

Flipper,  the  finlike  arm  and  deterior- 
ated hand  of  the  seal,  and  so  applied 
(in  slang)  to  a  man's  fist. 

Thus  limb  from  limb  they  dismembered  him 
So  entirely,  that  e'en  when  they  came  to 
his  wrists, 
With  those  great  sugar-nippers  they  cat  off 
his  flippers, 
A*  the  Clerk  very  flippantly  termed  his 
fists. — Ingoldsby  Legends  (Gengulphus). 

A  fist  like  a  seal's  flipper  proclaimed 
him  the  prize-fighter. — H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry 
Hamlyn,  ch.  ziv. 

Flitch,  buttock:  usually  applied 
only  to  a  beast,  especially  a  pig. 

Although  he  has  no  riches, 
But  walks  with  dangling  breeches, 
And  skirts  that  want  their  stiohes, 
And  shewes  his  naked  fitches, 
Tet  he'll  be  thought  or  seen 
So  good  as  Oeorge-a-Green. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  278. 

Floccinaucities,  worthless  things. 

He  did  not  suppose  that  trifles  and/orrt- 
noueities,  of  which  neither  the  causes  nor 
consequences  were  of  the  slightest  import, 
were  predestined. — Southty,  The  Doctor,  ch. 
clxxz. 

Flock,  to  hold  in  scorn  (flocei  ?) 
We  do  hym  loute  and  Jfocke, 
And  make  him  among  vs  our  common  sport- 
ing-stocke.—  Udal,  Roister  Doister,  iii.  3. 

Flockers,  those  who  flock  or  crowd 

to  a  place. 

The  earth  was  overlaid 
With  flockers  to  them. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  ii.  71. 


FLOCKLESS 


(  247  ) 


FLOWER 


Flookless,  without  a  flock. 

Yon  mast  remove  the  flockless  pastors,  or 
the  payment  of  the  priesthood  will  be  use- 
legs. — Sydney  Smith,  Letters,  1843. 

Flock  -pated,  silly.  Cf.  Feather- 
headed. 

And  he  that  would  be  a  poet 
Must  in  no  ways  bejlock-pated  : 

His  ignorance,  if  he  show  it, 

He  shall  of  all  scftollers  be  hated. 

Roxburgh  Ballads,  ii.  496. 

Flog -master,  one  who  wields  the 
lash. 

Busby  was  never  a  greater  terror  to  a 
blockhead,  or  the  Bridewell  Jlog-master  to  a 
night- walking  strumpet. — T.  Brown,  Works, 
fi.205. 

FL00DLE88,  arid. 

A  fruit-lea,  Jlood-les,  yea,  a  land-les  land. 

Sylvester,  The  Lawe,  1107. 

Flooke,  a  flounder. 

Nor  would  I  be  a  byrd  within  a  cage, 

Nor  dogge  in  kennell,  nor  a  bore  in  stye ; 
Nor  crab-tree-staffe  to  leane  vpon  for  age, 
Nor  wicked  line  to  leade  a  youth  awrye ; 
Nor  like  a  Jtooke  that  floates  but  with  the 

flndde, 
Nor  like  an  eele  that  Hues  but  in  the  mudde. 
Breton,  I  mould  and  I  would  not,  st.  122. 

Floorcloth,  a  cloth  made  of  hemp 
and  flax,  prepared  in  a  particular  way : 
usually  employed  for  backstairs,  pas- 
sages, &c. 

I've  heard  our  front  that  faces  Drury  Lane 
Much  criticised ;  they  say  'tis  vulgar  brick- 
work, 
A  mimic  manufactory  of  floor-cloth. 

J.  and  H.  Smith,  Rejected 
Addresses,  p.  121. 

It  was  a  neat,  dull  little  house  on  the  shady 
aide  of  the  way,  with  new  narrow  floorcloth 
in  the  passage. — Sketches  by  Boz  (Our  Next* 
Door  Neighbour). 

Floor-cloth,  to  cover  with  floor- 
cloth. 

The  drawing-room  at  Todgers's  was  out  of 
the  common  style ;  ...  it  was  floor-clothed 
all  over,  and  the  ceiling,  including  a  great 
beam  in  the  middle,  was  papered. — Dickens, 
Martin  Chuetlewit,  ch.  ix. 

Floppy,  loose ;  flapping  about. 

In  those  days  even  fashionable  caps  were 
large  and  floppy. — G.  Eliot,  Amos  Barton, 
ch.  ii. 

Florence,  a  wine  or  liqueur. 

The  chest  of  Florence  which  puzzled  James 
and  me  so  much  proves  to  be  Lord  Hert- 
ford's drams. —  Walpole  to  Mann,  iii.  255 
(1757). 


I  told  Mr.  Fox  of  the  wine  that  is  coming, 
and  he  told  me  what  I  had  totally  forgot, 
that  he  has  left  off  Florence,  and  chooses  to 
have  no  more. — Ibid.  iii.  329  (1758). 

Florent,  flourishing. 

Sinopa  (o  long)  was  ...  a  jlorent  citee, 
and  of  greate  power.  —  UdaVs  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  77. 

Scandal  has  our  Jlorent  glory  spoil'd. — 
D'Urfey,  Two  Queens  of  Brentford,  Act  II. 

Florishes,  flowers  (in  women). 

As  childe-great  women,  or  green  maids  (that 

miss 
Their  terms  appointed  for  their  florishes) 
Pine  at  a  princely  feast,  preferring  far 
Red  herrings,  rashers,  and  (som)  sops  in  tar. 

Sylvester,  The  Lawe,  897. 

Flosotjlet,  a  bud.     Herrick,  writing 

on  a  lady  who  died  in  childbed,  leaving 

a  daughter,  says, 

But  when  your  own  faire  print  was  set 
Once  in  a  virgin  fosculet 
Sweet  as  yourself,  and  newly  blown, 
To  give  that  life  resign'd  your  own. 

Hesperides,  p.  133. 

Flotes8,  scum. 

If  thou  burnest  blood  and  fat  together  to 
please  God,  what  other  thing  dost  thou  make 
of  God,  than  one  that  had  lust  to  smell  to 
burnt  flotess?—Tyndale,  ii.  215. 

Flotter,  to  flutter  or  falter. 

Ah !  how  sick  am  I !  my  strength  is  gone, 
my  sight  faHeth  me,  my  tongue  fottereth  in 
my  mouth. — Becon,  iii.  94. 

Flourishable,  blooming ;  attractive. 

The  devil  doth  but  cozen  the  wicked  with 
his  cates :  as  before  in  the  promise  of  deli- 
cacy, so  here  of  perpetuity.  He  sets  the 
countenance  of  continuance  on  them,  which 
indeed  are  more  fallible  in  their  certainty 
than  flourishable  in  their  bravery.— A  dams, 
i.  217. 

Flouting-stock,  a  butt.  In  the 
second  extract  it  seems  rather  =  jests, 
hoaxes. 

This  is  well ;  he  has  made  us  his  vlouting- 
stog. — Mery  Wives  of  Windsor,  III.  i. 

You  are  wise  and  full  of  gibes  and  vlouting- 
stocks,  and  'tis  not  convenient  you  should  be 
cozened. — Ibid.  IV.  v. 

I  was  treated  as  nothing,  a  Jloutina-stock 
and  a  make-game,  a  monstrous  and  abortive 
birth,  created  for  no  other  end  than  to  be 
the  scoff  of  my  fellows.— Godwin,  Mandeville, 
i.  263. 

Flower.  "  The  flower  of  youth  "  is 
a  common  expression,  but  flower  by 
itself  =  prime.  It  will  be  seen  that 
the  two  elder  writers  quoted  use  the 
plural. 


FLOWER  AGE 


(  248  ) 


FL  UNKY 


Fyrst  whan  englonde  was  in  his  floures, 
Ordred  by  the  temporall  gouernoures, 
Knowenge  no  spiritual!  jurisdiction; 
T.iau  waa  ther  in  eohe  state  and  degre 
Uaboundance  and  plentnous  prosperity, 
Peaceable  welthe  without  amiooion. 

Dyaloge  between  a  Gentillman 
and  a  husbandman,  p.  138. 

If  he  be  young  and  lusty,  the  devil  will  put 
in  his  heart,  and  say  to  him,  What !  thou  art 
in  thy flowers,  man;  take  thy  pleasure. — 
Latimer,  i.  431. 

The  virgin  in  her  flowr, 
The  fresh  young  youth,  the  sucking  children 

small, 
And  hoary  head  dead  to  the  ground  shall  fall. 

Sylvester,  The  Laioe,  1449. 

Dr.  Playfere  departed  out  of  this  world, 
in  the  46  year  of  his  life,  in  his  flower,  and 
prime. — Racket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  18. 

"  Being  formed  for  society,  and  beiug  cut 
off  in  your  flower,  you  know."  M  I  say,"  in- 
terposed the  other  quickly,  "  what  are  you 
talking  of  ?  Dou't !  Who's  a  going  to  be 
c  it  off  in  their  flowers?  " — Dickens,  Barnaby 
Jiu  Ige,  ch.  lxxiv. 

Flowerage,  flowers ;  blossoms. 

O,  as  that  evening  Sun  fell  over  the  Champ- 
de-Mars  . . .  saw  he  on  his  wide  zodiac  road 
other  such  sight  ?  A  living  garden  spotted 
and  dotted  with  such  flowerage ;  all  colours 
of  the  prism,  the  beautif  ullest  blent  friendly 
with  the  usefullest. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt. 

II.  Bk.  I.  ch.  zi. 

St.  Edmund's  shrine  glitters  now  with 
diamond  flowerages,  with  a  plating  of  wrought 
gold. — Ibid.,  Past  and  Present,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iii. 

Flowretry,  decoration  in  imitation 
of  flowers. 

The  cedar  wa«  so  curiously  carved  with 
imagery  of  flowers,  palms,  and  Cherubims, 
that  the  walls  of  the  house  seemed  at  the 
same  time  a  garden  of  flowers,  a  grove  of 
trees,  yea,  and  a  paradise  of  angels.  Nor 
was  all  this  flowretry,  and  other  celature  on 
the  cedar,  lost  labour. — Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight, 

III.  v.  4. 

Fluctuancy,  fluctuation  ;  wavering. 

They  may  have  their  storms  and  tossings 
sometime,  partly  by  innate  fluctuancy,  as  the 
rollings  and  tidings  of  the  sea,  and  partly  by 
outward  winds  and  tempests. — Gauden,  Tears 
of  the  Church,  p.  222. 

Fluctuate,  to  unsettle:    usually  a 

verb  neuter. 

The  younger  sisters  are  bred  rebels  too,  but 
the  thought  of  guiding  their  mother,  when 
such  royal  distinction  was  intended  her,  flat- 
tered and  fluctuated  them. — Mad.  D'Arblay, 
Diary,  iv.  204. 

Fluctuous,  flowing ;  pertaining  to 
the  waves.  See  quotation  more  at 
length  s.  v.  Imbristle. 


Madona  Amphitsite' a  fluctuous  demeans. — 
Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  151). 

Fludy,  pertaining  to  the  sea  or  flood. 
Nashe  calls  the  herring  "  this  monarch- 
uWfludy  induperator."  See  quotation 
s.  v.  Excelsitude. 

Flue,  influenza. 

I  have  had  a  pretty  fair  share  of  the  flue, 
and  believe  I  am  now  well  rid  of  it  at  last. — 
Southey,  Letters,  1839  (iv.  574). 

Fluence,  stream.  The  Diets,  only 
give  the  word  =  fluency. 

That  he  first  did  cleanse 
With  sulphur,  then  with  fluences  of  sweetest 
water  reuse. — Chapman,  Iliad,  xvi.  224. 

Fluke,  a  hydatid,  or  parasitical  in- 
testinal worm,  so  called  from  its  like- 
ness to  a  flounder. 

like  sheep-boys  stuffing  themselves  with 
blackberries,  while  the  sheep  are  licking  up 
flukes  in  every  ditch. — Kingsley,  Sainfs  Tra- 
gedy, ii.  8. 

Fluke,  something  unexpected ;  a 
chance  (slang). 

These  conditions  are  not  often  fulfilled,  I 
can  tell  you ;  it  is  a  happy  fluke  when  they 
are. — Black,  Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  six. 

Flummox,  to  confound. 

My  'pinion  is,  Sammy,  that  if  tout  governor 
don't  prove  a  alleybi,  hell  be  what  the 
Italians  call  reg'larly  flummoxed. — Pickwick 
Papers,  ch.  xxxiii. 

Flump,  to  put  down  with  violence. 

Bellows  went  skimming  across  the  room, 
chairs  were  flumped  down  on  the  floor,  and 
poor  Gambouge's  oil  and  varnish-pots  went 
clattering  through  the  windows.— Thackeray, 
Paris  Sketch-Book,  ch.  v. 

Flunkeydom,  the  domain  of  flunkeys 
or  servile  people.  See  quotation  8.  v. 
Obscurantism. 

Can  von  deny  that  you've  been  off  and  on 
lately  between  flunkeydom  and  the  Cause, 
like  a  donkey  between  two  bundles  of  hay  ? 
— C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xxvii. 

Flunky,  a  livery  servant ;  hence  ap- 
plied to  a  servile  person.  L.  has  the 
word  with  quotations  from  Thackeray. 
I  add  the  following  as  showing  that 
Carlyle  in  1838  regarded  the  term  as  a 
Scotticism.  The  word  occurs  two  or 
three  times  in  Miss  Ferrier's  Inheritance 
(1824). 

In  all  this  who  sees  not  sensuality,  preten- 
sion, boisterous  imbecility  enough;  much 
that  could  not  have  been  ornamental  in  the 
temper  of  a  great  man's  over-fed  great  man 
(what  the  Scotch  name  flunky),  though  it  had 


FLUSH 


(  249  ) 


FLY 


been  more  natural  there  ?—  Car lyle,  Mite, 
iii.  55. 

Flush,  a  term  at  primero,  when  the 
cards  were  of  a  suit ;  also  at  cribbage. 
Gilford  says  that  five  and  fifty  was  tne 
highest  number  to  stand  on  at  primero, 
and  if  a  flush  accompanied  this,  the 
hand  was  irresistible. 

I  bring  you 
No  cheating  Glim  o'  the  doughs,  or  Claribels, 
That  look  as  big  as  five  and  fifty  and  flush.  ^ 

Janson,  Alchemist,  I.  i. 

There  was  nothing  silly  in  it  [whist],  like 
the  nob  in  cribbage — nothing  superfluous. 
No  flushes,  that  most  irrational  of  all  pleas 
that  a  reasonable  being  can  set  up ;  that  any 
one  should  claim  four  by  virtue  of  holding 
cards  of  the  same  mark  and  colour,  without 
reference  to  the  playing  of  the  game,  or 
the  individual  worth  or  pretensions  of  the 
cards  themselves. — Lamb,  Essays  of  Elia 
{Mrs.  Battle). 

Flushenize,  to  make  like  the  men  of 
Flushing ;  to  adopt  the  drinking  habits 
of  the  Dutch. 

0  that  these  healthes  that  makes  so  many 

ricke, 
Were  buried  in  the  lake  of  Leathe  quicke ! 
For  since  our  English  (ah!)  were  Flushenit'd, 
Against  good  manners  and  good  men  tbey 

iricke. — Danes,  Mirum  in  Modum,  p.  10. 

Flushing,  a  woollen  material,  so 
called  from  the  place  where  it  is  manu- 
factured. 

He  walked  his  battlements  under  fire,  as 
some  stout  skipper  paces  his  deck  in  a  suit  of 
Flushing,  calmly  oblivious  of  the  April  drops 
that  fall  on  his  woollen  armour. —  Reade, 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  xliii. 

Fluctuated,  tipsy.  Flustered  is  more 
common. 

We  were  coming  down  Essex  Street  one 
night  a  little  frustrated,  and  I  was  giving  him 
the  word  to  alarm  the  watch. — Spectator,  No. 
493. 

Fluctuation,  confusion ;  flurry. 

*  Bless  me,"  said  she,  '*  how  soon  these  fine 
yonng  ladies  will  be  put  into  flusterations*— 
Richardson,  d.  Harlowe,  ii.  204. 

A  fine  gentleman  with  a  pig's  tail  and  a 
golden  sord  by  his  side  came  to  comfit  me. 
...  My  fellow  survant  Umphry  Klinker  bid 
him  be  sivil,  and  he  gave  tne  young  man  a 
dowse  in  the  chops,  but  I  fackms  Mr.  Klin- 
ker wa'nt  long  in  his  debt;  with  a  good 
raken  sapling  he  dusted  his  doublet  for  all 
his  golden  chease-toaster,  and  fipping  me 
nnder  his  arm,  carried  me  huom,  I  nose  not 
how,  being  I  was  in  such  a  fiustration*— 
Humphrey  Clinker,  i.  126. 


He  felt,  all  over  him,  a  mix'd  sensation, 
A  kind  of  shocking,  pleasing,  queer  fust  rat  ion. 
Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  140. 

Flustrdm,  agitation. 

We  may  take  the  thing  quietly  without 
being  in  a  jluslrum. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Ab- 
sentee, ch.  v. 

Flutch,  adjective,  a  reproachful 
term. 

Jobbinol  goose-caps,  foolish  loggerheads, 
pitch  calf -lollies. — Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk. 
"I.  ch.  xxv. 

Flute,  to  sound  as  a  flute.  See 
quotation  *.  v.  Lute. 

So  said  he,  and  the  barge  with  oar  and  sail 
Moved  from  the  brink,  like  some  full-breasted 

swan, 
Th&t,  Jlutirxg  a  wild  carol  ere  her  death, 
Ruffles  her  pure  cold  plume,  and  takes  the 

flood 
With  swarthy  webs. 

Tennyson,  Passing  of  Arthur. 

Flute-doux,  a  species  of  flute :  the 
latter  part  of  the  word  intimating  its 
sweetness. 

Trick.  There's  five-and-twenty  couple  of 
bears  are  to  dance  a  dance  in  Paris-garden 
before  the  king;  and  four-and-twentv couple 
of  French  apes  play  to  them  upon  the  fute- 
doux. 

Dash. .  . .  Four-and-twenty  bears  dance  to 
flute-douxes  I 

Revenge,  or  A  Match  in  Newgate,  Act  II. 

Flutenist,  flute-player. 

These  village-known  cheeks  that  in  country 

listes 
Were  fencers'  men,  these  sometimes  futenists 
Beare  office  now. — Stapylton,  Juvenal,  iii.  42. 

Fly,  to  travel  by  a  fly.  Coach  was 
employed  as  a  verb  in  the  same  way. 
See  also  Litter. 

We  then  JLied  to  Stogursey  just  to  see  the 
Church. . .  .  Tuesday,  Poole  fied  us  all  the 
way  to  Sir  T.  Ackland's  Somersetshire  seat. 
—Southey,  Letters,  1836  (iii.  478). 

Fly,  wide  awake ;  sharp.  See  quota- 
tion *.  v.  Clyfakino. 

"  Do  what  I  want,  and  I  will  pay  you  well." 
..."lam  /fy,"says  Joe  ; "  but  fen  larks,  you 
know:  stow  hooking  it." — Dickens,  Bleak 
House,  ch.  xvi. 

Fly,  a  carriage  for  hire :  it  seems  at 
first  to  have  been  applied  to  carriages 
drawn  by  men. 

A  nouvelle  kind  of  four-wheel  vehicles 
drawn  by  a  man  and  an  assistant  are  very 
accommodating  to  visitors  and  the  inhabit- 
ants; they  are  denominated  jfys,  a  name 
given  by  a  gentleman  at  the  Pavilion  upon 
their  first  introduction  in  1816 ;  and  as  they 


FOB  US 


(  250  ) 


FOLLY 


have  superseded  the  sedan  chairs,  we  hare 
given  a  list  of  fares  for  the  use  of  those 
vehicles  at  the  end  of  the  work. —  WrighVs 
Brighton  Ambulator,  1818. 

Legs  the  tightest  that  ever  were  seen, 
The  tightest,  the  lightest  that  danced  on  the 
green, 
Cutting  capers  to  sweet  Kitty  Clover. 
Shatter'd,  scattered,  cut,  and  bowl'd  down, 
Off  they  go,  worse  off  for  renown, 
A  line  in  the  Times  or  a  talk  about  town, 
Than  the  leg  that  a  fly  runs  over. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Fobus,  a  terra  of  reproach. 

Ay,  you  old  fobus,  and  you  would  have 
been  my  guardian,  would  you,  to  have  taken 
care  of  my  estate,  that  half  of  't  should 
never  come  to  me,  by  letting  long  leases  at 
pepper-corn  rents? —  Wycher 'ley, Plain  Dealer, 
II.  1. 

Fcedifragous,  covenant-breaking. 

We  see  it  [adultery]  plagued  to  teach  us 
that  the  sin  is  of  a  greater  latitude  than  some 
imagine  it ;  unclean,  fcedifragous,  perjured. 
— Adams,  i.  260. 

Fog,  gross;  bloated.     Foggy  is  the 

usual  adjective. 

A  fowle  fog  monster,  great  swad,  depriued 
of  eyesight. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iii.  672. 

Fogle,  slang  for  a  silk  handkerchief ; 
/ogle-hunter  is  a  stealer  of  such. 

"  What's  the  matter  now  ?  "  said  the  man 
carelessly.  "  A  young  fogle-kunter"  replied 
the  man  who  had  Oliver  in  charge.  "Are 
you  the  party  that's  been  robbed,  sir?  "  en- 
quired the  man  with  the  keys.  "  Yes,  I  am," 
replied  the  old  gentleman,  "  but  I  am  i  ot 
sure  that  this  boy  actually  took  the  hand- 
kerchief."— Dickens,  Oliver  Tidst,  ch.  xi. 

"If  you  don't  take  fogies  and  tickers — " 
u  What's  the  good  of  talking  in  that  way  ?  " 
interposed  Master  Bates ;  "  he  don't  know 
what  you  mean."  "  If  you  don't  take  pocket 
handkechers  and  watches,"  said  the  Dodger, 
reducing  his  conversation  to  the  level  of 
Oliver's  capacity,  *'  some  other  cove  will." — 
Ibid.  ch.  xviii. 

Fugramitt,  stupidity.    See  Fogrum. 

Nobody's  civil  now,  yon  know ;  'tis  a  fo- 

S 'amity  quite  out. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Camilla, 
k.  II.  ch.  v. 

Fogrum,  fogeyish ;   stupid.    L.  has 
fogrum  as  a  substantive  =  fogy,  in 
which  sense  also  it  occurs  elsewhere  in 
Camilla. 

Father  and  mother  are  but  a  couple  of 
fogrum  old  fools. — Foote,  Trip  to  Calais, 
Act  I. 

Do  you  think  I  come  hither  for  such 
fay  rum  stuff  as  that?— Mad.  D'Arblay,  C«- 
milla,  Bk.  II.  ch.  v. 


Foil.     To  give  foil  =  to  discomfit ; 

to  take  a  foil  =  to  accept  discomfiture. 

Lose,  gentle  lords,  but  not  by  good  King 

Edward ; 
A  baser  man  shall  give  you  all  the  foil, 

Greene,  Geo-a-Greene,  p.  261. 

Bestir  thee,  Jaques,  take  not  now  the  foil. 
Lest  thou  didst  lose  what  foretime  thou 
didst  gain. — Ibid.,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  168. 

[The  devil]  is  not  only  content  to  take  a 
foil,  but  even  out  of  the  same  thing  wherein 
he  was  foiled  maketh  he  matter  of  a  new 
temptation,  a  new  ball  of  fire. — Andrewes, 
Sermons,  v.  513. 

Foil,  the  track  of  an  animal.  To 
run  foil  is  to  run  over  the  same  track, 
to  double;  to  take  foil  (see  extract 
*.  v.  Foote  saunte)  seems  to  have  the 
same  meaning. 

No  hare  when  hardly  put  to  it  by  the 
hounds,  and  running  foil,  makes  more  doub- 
lings and  redoublings  than  the  fetcht  com- 
pass, circuits,  turns,  and  returns  in  this  their 
intricate  peregrination.— Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight, 
IV.  iii.  6. 

I  think  I  was  hard  run  enough  by  your 
mother  for  one  man ;  but  after  giving  her  a 
dodge,  here's  another—; follows  me  upon  the 
foil. — Fielding,  Tom  Jones,  Bk.  VII.  ch.  iv. 

Safe  from  the  fury  of  the  critic  hounds, 
O  Bruce,  thou  treadest  Abyssinian  grounds, 
Nor  can  our  British  noses  hunt  thy  foil. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  187. 

Foldedlt,  in  folds. 

The  habite  of  her  Priest  was ...  a  pentacle 
of  siluered  stnffe  about  her  shoulders,  hang- 
ing foldedly  down. — Chapman,  Masque  of 
Mid.  Temple. 

Folly.     See  quotations. 

They  saw  an  object  amidst  the  woods  on 
the  edge  of  the  hill,  which  upon  enquiry  they 
were  told  was  called  Shenstone's/otfy.  This 
is  a  name  which,  with  some  sort  of  propriety, 
the  common  people  give  to  any  work  of 
taste,  the  utility  of  which  exceeds  the  level 
of  their  comprehension. — Graves,  Spiritual 
Quixote,  Bk.  IX.  ch.  vii. 

There  is  nothing  in  this  world  which  so 
provokes  scorn  as  the  utterly  wasted  ex- 
penditure on  some  proud  building  which, 
after  a  vast  outlay,  he  who  planned  it,  having 
totally  miscalculated  his  means,  is  compelled 
to  leave  unfinished. .  .  .  We  know  indeed  how 
this  scorn  will  often  embody  itself  in  a  name 
given  to  the  unfinished  structure.  It  is  called 
this  roan's  or  that  man's  "folly ; "  and  the 
name  of  the  foolish  builder  is  thus  kept  alive 
for  long  after-years  on  the  lips  of  men. — Abp. 
Trench,  Westminster  Abbey  Sermons,  p.  130. 

Folly,  to*  fool. 

Let  me  shun 
Such  follying  before  thee. 

Keats,  Endymion,  Bk.  i. 


FONTAL 


(  *5i  ) 


FOOTY 


Fontal,  belonging  to  the  font. 

This  day  among  the  faithful  placed, 

And  fed  with  fontal  manna, 
O  with  maternal  title  graced — 
Dear  Anna's  dearest  Anna. 
Coleridge,  Christening  of  a  Friend's  Child, 

Fontakge,  a  head-dress  introduced 

at  the  Court  of  Louis  XIV.  about  1680 

by    Mademoiselle    Fontange.     L.  says 

"  rare,  obsolete,  if   ever  naturalised/' 

and  quotes  Spectator,  No.  98. 

Now  bad  the  goddess  of  the  year 
Long  nourish'd  in  her  summer  geer, 
And  envious  autumn  in  revenge 
With  dust  had  spoil'd  her  green  fountange. 
D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  canto  2. 

The  Duchess  of  Burgundy  immediately 
undressed,  and  appeared  in  a  fontange  of  the 
new  standard. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  105. 

It  edifies,  I  am  sure,  and  would  become 
Quality,  and  fits  as  genteely  on  ladies  as 
French  fontanges. — Ibid.  p.  152. 

Font- name,  Christian  name. 

Some  presume  Boston  to  be  his  Christian, 
of  Bury  his  Sirname.  But  .  .  Boston  is  no 
Font-name.  —  Fuller,  Worthies,  Lincoln  (ii. 
20). 

Fool- fat,  to  the  full,  and  more  (?). 
Or  is  it  a  substantive  =  bloated  folly  ? 

Nay,  we  must  now  have  nothing  brought  on 

stages, 
But  puppetry,  and  pide  ridiculous  antickes; 
Hen  thither  come  to  laugh,  and  feede  fool' 
fat. 

Chapman,  Revenge  of  Bussy  D'Ambots, 
Act  I. 

Foolocracy,  rule  of  fools :  a  hybrid 
word ;  morocracy  would  be  more  cor- 
rect. 

Yet  this  is  better  than  the  old  infamous 
jobbing,  and  the  foolocracy  under  which  it 
has  so  long  laboured. — Sydney  Smith,  Letters, 
1832. 

Foolosopheb,  a  contemptuous  cor- 
ruption of  philosopher.  Cf.  Crazy- 
olooist,  Futilitarian. 

Some  of  your  philosophers  (or  foolosophers 
more  properly)  have  had  the  faces  to  affirm 
that  we  [women]  were  not  of  the  name 
species  with  men. — Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts, 
p.  54. 

Foot  seems  to  mean  "trip"  in  the 
extract. 

Harry,  giving  him  a  slight  foot,  laid  him 
on  the  broad  of  his  back. — a.  Brooke,  Fool 
of  Quality,  ii.  166. 

Foot. 

Now  trust  me  not,  readers,  if  I  be  not 
already  weary  of  pluming  and  footing  this 


sea-gull,  so  open  he  lies  to  strokes. — Milton, 
Apot.for  Smectymnuus,  p.  125. 

Foot.  To  put  one's  best  foot  forward 
or  foremost  =  to  make  haste. 

But  put  your  best  foot  forward,  or  I  fear 
That  we  shall  miss  the  mail. 

Tennyson,  Walking  to  the  Mail. 

Footback.  N.  gives  an  extract  from 
Taylor,  who  speaks  of  "footback  trot- 
ting travellers, '  and  observes  that  it  is 
singularly  used ;  it  is  not,  however, 
peculiar  to  Taylor ;  it  refers,  of  couree, 
to  pedestrians  carrying  a  bundle  or 
knapsack  on  their  backs. 

Tolossa  hath  forgot  that  it  was  sometime 
sackt,  and  beggars  that  euer  they  caried  their 
fardles  on  footback. — Nashe,  Pref.  to  Greene's 
Menaphon. 

Foote  Saunt.  Hnlliwell  says,  "A 
game  at  cards  mentioned  in  the  School 
of  Abtise."  Saunt  or  cent  (q.  v.  in  N.) 
was  a  game  at  cards ;  but  in  the  sub- 
joined there  seems  to  me  some  double 
entendre,  though  I  know  not  what ;  for 
how  could  people  play  a  game  at  cards 
without  cards?  moreover,  is  foote  joined 
with  saunt  or  cent  anywhere  else  ? 

In  our  assemblies  at  plaves  in  London  you 
shall  see  .  .  .  euche  playing  at  foote  Saunt 
without  cardes,snch  ticking,  such  toying,  such 
smiling,  such  winking,  and  such  manning 
them  home  when  the  sportes  are  ended,  that 
it  is  a  right  comedie  to  marke  their  be- 
hauiour,  to  watch  their  conceites,  as  the 
catte  for  the  mouse,  and  as  good  as  a  course 
at  the  game  itselfe  to  dogge  them  a  little  or 
followe  aloofe  by  the  print  of  their  feete, 
and  so  discouer  by  slotte  where  the  deare 
taketh  foyle. — Gosson,  Schoole  of  Abuse,  p.  35 

Foot- folk,  infantry. 

A  favourite  book  of  his  grandfather  had 
been  the  life  of  old  George  Frundsberg  of 
Mindelheim,  a  colonel  of  foot-folk  in  the  Im- 
perial service  at  Pa  via  fight. — Thackeray,  The 
Virginians,  ch.  lziii. 

Footman,  lazy  tonrgs? 

They  were  to  me  like  a  dumb  waiter,  or 
the  instrument  constructed  by  the  smith, 
and  by  courtesy  called  a  "footman ;  "  they 
did  what  I  required,  and  I  was  no  further 
concerned  with  them. — Godwin,  MandevilU, 
iii.  67. 

Foott,  poor ;  mean. 

I  think  it  would  be  a  very  pretty  bit  of 
practice  to  the  ship's  company  to  take  her 
out  from  under  that  footy  battery. — Marryat, 
Peter  Simple,  ch.  zxxiii. 

Nobody  wants  you  to  shoot  crooked ;  take 
good  iron  to  it,  and  not  footy  paving-stones. 
— C.  Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  ix. 


FOPPERL V 


(  *5*  ) 


FOREDELE 


FoPPBRLY,  foppish ;  foolish. 

Ill  set  my  foot  to  his,  and  fight  it  out 
with  him,  that  their  fopperly  god  is  not  so 
good  as  a  Red-herring. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stvffe 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  167). 

Fop's  alley,  a  passage  up  the  centre 
of  the  pit  in  the  old  Opera  House, 
where  dandies  congregated. 

Daring  the  last  dance  she  was  discovered 
by  Sir  Robert  Floyer,  who,  sauntering  down 
fop's  alley,  stationed  himself  by  her  side. — 
Mad.  D'Arblay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iv. 

Foranize,  to  speak  or  act  as  a 
foreigner.  Fuller,  remarking  that  Pits 
called  a  certain  private  gentleman  no- 
bUis,  says  that  the  word  out  of  England 
does  not  imply  more  than  gentle  birth, 
and  adds  in  the  margin,  "  Our  country- 
man, Pits,  did  foramze  with  long  living 
beyond  the  seas." —  Worthies,  Warwick 
(ii.  417). 

Forbearant,  patient ;  forbearing. 

Whosoever  had  preferred  sincerity,  earnest- 
ness, depth  of  practical  rather  than  theoretic 
insight, .  .  .  must  have  come  over  to  London, 
and  with  forbearant  submissiveness  listened 
to  our  Johnson. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iii.  237. 

Forbid,  to  defy,  or  challenge. 

To  them  whom  the  mist  of  envy  hath  so 
blinded  that  they  can  see  no  good  at  all  done 
but  by  themselves,  1  forbid  them,  the  best  of 
them,  to  show  me  in  Rheims  or  in  Rome,  or 
any  popish  city  Christian,  such  a  show  as  we 
have  seen  here  these  last  two  days. — An- 
dreses, Sermons,  v.  36. 

Forbiddingnkss,  that  which  repels. 

If  she  has  near  her  a  person  to  whom  she 
might  communicate  her  whole  mind  without 
doubt  of  her  fidelity,  yet  there  may  be  a/or- 
biddingness  in  the  person,  a  difference  in 
years,  in  degree. — Richardson,  Grandison,  iii. 
264. 

Forcelet,  a  linen  cloth  (?). 

Our  doctrine  taketh  no  authority  of  private 
folk,  of  women,  of  forcelets,  of  napkins 
[linteis  atque  lineis]. — Jewel,  i.  260. 

Fore.  To  the  fore  =  in  a  prominent 
position ;  ready  at  hand.  According  to 
Barham  this  is  an  Irish  phrase,  but  it 
is  now  common  in  England. 

Two  or  three  score 
Of  magnificent  structures  around,  perhaps 

more, 
As  our  Irish  friends  have  it,  are  there  to  the 

fore. — Ingoldsby  Legends  {Auto-da- Fe). 

Foreacquaint,  to  get  knowledge  be- 
fore li  and. 
Walk  every  day  a  turn  or  two  with  death 


in  thy  garden,  and  well  foreacquaint  thyself 
therewithal. —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  53. 

Even  foxes,  and  hares,  and  other  such 
vermin,  foreacquaint  themselves  with  muses, 
thickets,  and  burrows,  into  which,  when  they 
are  chased  and  hunted,  they  may  repair  for 
safety.— Ibid.  p.  67. 

Fore-ages,  time  past. 

In  fore-aqes  men  of  great  titles  would 
patronise  tne  writing  of  good  studies. — 
Breton,  Wit's  Private  Wealth  (Dedic). 

Fore-backwardly,  preposterously ; 
putting  cart  before  horse. 

Exercise  indeed  we  do,  but  that  very  fore- 
backwardly;  for  where  we  should  exercise  to 
know,  we  exercise  as  having  known. — Sidney, 
Defence  of  Poesie,  p.  561. 

Fore-buttock,  breast. 

Now  with  a  modern  matron's  careful  air, 
Now  herf ore-buttocks  to  the  navel  bare. 

Mtsc.  by  Swift,  Pope,  and  Arbuthnot, 
iv.  222  (ed.  1733). 

Forechace,  the  hunt  forwards.  The 
Trojans  were  in  pursuit  of  the  Greeks 
that  they  might  seize  the  body  of 
Patroclus — 

But  when  th'  Ajaoes  turn'd  on  them,  and 

made  their  stand,  their  hearts 
Drunk  from  their  faces  all  their  bloods,  and 

not  a  man  sustain 'd 
The  forechace  nor  the  after-fight. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xvii.  637. 

Foreconclude,  to  conclude  previ- 
ously. 

They  held  the  same  confederation  fore- 
concluded  by  Alfred. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng., 
p.  12. 

Forecondemn,  to  condemn  before- 
hand. 

What  can  equally  savour  of  injustice  and 
plain  arrogance  as  to  prejudice  and  forecon- 
demn his  adversary  in  the  title  for  "  slander- 
ous and  scurrilous  "  ?  —  Milton,  Apol.  for 
Smectymnuus,  p.  103. 

Fore  court,  front  court 

Englishmen  in  ancient  time  called  in  their 
language  an  Entry,  and  fore  Court  or  Gate- 
house, Inbopou. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  815. 

Foredecreb,  to  preordain. 

God  had  fore-decreed  to  make  it  His  owne 
worke  by  a  cleaner  way. — Daniel,  Hist,  of 
Eng.,  p.  162. 

Foredeem,  to  presage. 

Of  a  frende  it  was  more  standing  with 
humanitee  and  gentlenesse  to  hope  the  best 
then  to  foredeme  the  worste. — Udal's  Eras- 
mus's Apophth.,  p.  320. 

Foreoele,  advantage.     See  H.  *.  v. 
To  one  demaunding  what  auantage  he  had 


FOREDONE 


(  353  )    FOREIMAGINATION 


by  his  philosophic,  "  Though  nothing  els," 
aaied  he, w  yet  at  lestwise  tYasforedele  I  haue, 
that  I  am  readie  prepared  to  al  maner  for- 
tune, good  or  badde."  —  UdaVs  Erasmus's 
Apopkth.,  p.  157. 

Foredone,  previous. 

And  then  behoveth  us  to  take  upon  us 
sharp  penance,  continuing  therein,  for  to 
obtain  of  the  Lord  forgivness  of  our  fort' 
done  sins,  and  grace  to  abstain  us  hereafter 
from  sin. — Exam,  of  W.  Thorpe  (Bale,  Select 
Works,  p.  67). 

Fore-door,  front  door.     See  extract 

S.  V.  SUBTBRRESTRIAL. 

The  tiger-hearted  man  .  .  by  force  carried 
me  through  a  long  entry  to  the  fore-door. — 
Bichardson,  Grandison,  i.  248. 

Fork  faint,  very  languishing. 

And  with  that  word  of  sorrow,  sXLforefaint 
She  looked  up. 

Sackville,  Induction,  st.  15. 

Fork  patch  e,  forethought  or  sub- 
tlety. Fetch  is  a  common  word  for 
contrivance. 

I  thought  that  a  forrener  and  a  straunger 
bad  bene  all  one.  But  bylike  it  includeth 
soffl  great  mistery  knowne  only  to  his  Lord- 
smyppes  politicke  wisdome  that  they  be  here 
reckned  two,  as  he  is  a  man  of  a  great  fore 
fatche.— Bale,  Declaration  of  Bonner's  Articles, 
1554  (Art.  zi.). 

Fore  feel,  to  feel  beforehand. 

With  unwieldy  waves   the  great  sea 
forefeels  winds 
That  both  ways  murmur. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xiv.  13. 

Forefit,  to  prepare. 

Mark  such  as,  sentenced  by  judges  and 
physicians,  foreknow  their  death,  yet  with- 
out special  grace  forefit  themselves  never  the 
more  carefully. —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  54. 

Foreform,  to  prepare. 

They  will  have  no  reserve  upon  them, 
no  foref armed  evasions  or  contrivances  for 
ipe.—iT.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  176. 


Foregate,  entrance  gate. 

The  nether  towne  .  .  .  fensed  with  a  wall, 
with  a  castle  also  thereto,  and  a  foregate  at 
the  entrance  into  it.  —  Hollands  Camden, 
ii.  81. 

Beare  vp  the  Crosse ;  and  euer  looke  vpon't 
As  on  the  only  key  of  Heav'n'a \  foregate. 

Davits,  Muse's  Teares,  p.  15. 

Some  postern  or  back-door  for  a  gift  to 
come  in  when  the  broad  fore-gates  are  shut 
against  it. — Adams,  ii.  259. 

Foregather,  to  hold  close  inter- 
course with. 


And  he  waggled  his  tail,  as  much  as  to  say, 
"Mr.  Blogg,  we've  foregathered  before  to- 
day."— Ingoldsby  Legends  {Bagman's  Dog). 

"I  am  ...  a  man  of  my  word."  "Ay, 
and  a  man  who  is  better  than  his  word," 
cried  Catherine;  "the  only  one  I  ever  did 
foregather."  —  Reads,  Cloister  and  Hearth, 
ch.  Uv. 

Instead  of  foregathering  with  an  old  friend, 
you  discover  that  you  have  to  make  a  new  ac- 
quaintance.— H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  vii. 

Foregrown,  overgrown. 

To  be  quiet  from  the  inward,  violent, 
injurious  oppressors,  the  fat  and  forearown 
rams  within  our  own  fold,  is  a  special  bless- 
ing.— Andrews,  v.  137. 

Forehead.  Forehead  of  the  morning 
is  Chapman's  rendering  olfipi  pa\a,  very 
early.  Cf.  "top  of  the  morning,"  though 
that  rather  refers  to  the  best  part  of  the 
morning. 

I'll  launch  my  fleet,  and  all  my  men 
remove ; 
Which  (if  thou  wilt  use  so  thy  sight,  or 

think'st  it  worth  respect) 
In  forehead  of  the  morn  thine  eyes  shall  see, 

with  sails  erect 
Amidst  the  fishy  Hellespont. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  ix.  847. 

Fjoreheaded,  headstrong";  tender- 
foreheaded  =  gentle,  meek. 

The  Gnosticks,  Valentinians,  Cataphry- 
gians, .  .  .  were  tender-foreheaded  and  simple- 
spirited  people  compared  to  those  high- 
crested  and  Seraphick  Sophisters. — Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  47. 

Our  zeal  to  Qod's  glory  (saith  he),  our  love 
to  His  Church,  and  the  due  planting  of  the 
same  in  this  For-headed  age,  should  be  so 

warm Hey  litis  Hist,  of  the  Presbyterians, 

p.  278. 

Foeeheadless,  brazen ;  impudent. 

•If  Jethro  called  for  courage  in  those 
modest,  primitive  times,  and  among  a  people 
newly  tamed  with  Egyptian  yokes,  what  do 
our  audacious  and  foreheadless  swaggerers 
require? — Ward,  Sermons,  p.  121. 

Forehearse  (?).  Love  is  the 
wounder  referred  to. 

Ay  me  poore  man,  with  many  a  trampling 

teare 
I  feele  him  wound  the  forehearse  of  my  heart. 

Greene,  Menaphon,  p.  87. 

Foreimagination,  anticipation. 

If  any  of  us  had  but  half  the  strength  of 
Paul's  faith,  or  life  of  his  hope,  or  cheerful 
foreim aginations,  which  he  had  of  this  feli- 
city, we  could  not  but  have  the  same  desires 
and  longings  for  our  dissolution,  and  fruition 
of  them. —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  68. 


FOREKING 


(  254  ) 


FORESHAPE 


Fore  kin  a,  a  predecessor  on  the 
throne. 

Why  didst  thou  let  so  many  horsemen  hence  ? 
Thy  fierce  forekings  had  ciench'd  their  pirate 

hides 
To  the  bleak  church  doors,  like  kites  upon  a 

barn. — Tennyson,  Harold,  iv.  3. 

Forelittbb,  to  litter  or  bring  forth 
prematurely.  Cf.  extract  from  Greer e, 
*.  v.  Puppy. 

As  forelittring  bitches  whelp  blvnd  pup- 
pies, so  I  may  bee  perhaps  entwighted  of 
more  haste  then  good  speede. — Stany  hurst, 
Virgil,  Dedic. 

Foremelt,  to  melt  beforehand. 

Loue's  vshering  fire 
Foremelting  beautie,  and  loue's  flame  itselfe. 
Chapman,  Gentleman  Vsher,  Act  IV. 

Fobemind,  to  intend. 

Neauer  I  foremynded  (let  not  mee  falslye  be 

threpped) 
For  toe  slip  in  secret  by  flight. 

Stany  hurst,  £n.,  iv.  354. 

Fore-name,  Christian  name. 

His  soune,  carrying  the  same  fort-name, 
not  degenerating  from  his  father,  lived  in 
high  honour. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  320. 

Forenioht,  previous  night.  Cf. 
After-morn  in  Tennyson. 

And  I  that  in  forenight  was  with  no  weapon 

agasted, 
And  litel  esteemed  thee  swarms  of  Greekish 

assemblye, 
Now  shiuer  at  shaddows. 

Stanyhursi,  JEn.,  ii.  753. 

Forensive,  legal. 

One  thing  remains  that  is  purely  of  epis- 
copal discharge,  which  I  will  salute  and  go 
by,  before  I  look  upon  his  forensive  or  poli- 
tical transactions. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams, 
i.  97. 

Forepayment,  prepayment. 

I  had  £100  of  him  in  forepayment  for  the 
first  edition  of  Espriella,  or  rather  in  part  of 
forepayment. — Southey,  Letters,  1807  (11.  9). 

Foreplan,  to  prearrange. 

She  had  learnt  very  little  more  than  what 
had  been  already  foreseen  and  foreplanned  in 
her  own  mind. — Miss  Austen,  Sense  and  Sens- 
ibility,  ch.  xxxviii. 

Forepoint,  to  predestine  ;  foreshow. 

These  three  (as  distressed  wrackes),  pre- 
sented by  some  further  forepoynting  fate, 
coueted  to  clime  the  mountaine.  —  Greene, 
Menaphon,  p.  27. 

This  (as  forepointing  to  a  storme  that  was 
gathering  on  that  coast)  began  the  first  dif- 
ference with  the  French  nation.  —  Daniel, 
Hist,  of  Eng.y  p.  10. 


Forequote,  to  cite  beforehand. 

As  publik  and  autentik  rowles  for equoting 
Confused  thf  events  most  worthy  noting 
In  His  deer  Church,  His  darling  and  delight. 
Sylvester,  The  Columnes,  454. 

Fore-report,  to  declare  beforehand. 

Fame  falls  most  short  in  those  transcend- 
ents which  are  above  her  predicaments,  .  .  . 
but  chiefly  in  fore-reporting  the  happinesse 
in  heaven.— Fuller,  Holy  State,  Bk.  III.  ch. 
xxiii. 

Fore-request,  to  ask  beforehand. 

Whereas  Papists  plead  that  Offa  had  fore- 
requested  the  granting  of  these  priviledgea 
from  the  Pope,  no  mention  at  all  thereof 
appears  in  the  charter  of  his  foundation 
(here  too  large  to  insert),  but  that  all  was 
done  by  his  own  absolute  authority. — Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist.,  II.  iii.  38. 

Fore  resemble,  to  prefigure. 

He  .  .  .  stiffly  argues  that  Christ  being  as 
well  king  as  priest  was  as  well  fore-resembled 
by  the  kings  then  as  by  the  high  priest ;  so 
that  if  his  coming  take  away  the  one  type,  it 
must  also  the  other.— Milton,  Reason  of  Ch. 
Government,  Bk.  I.  ch.  v. 

Fore-resolution,  previous  resolve. 

Men  that  want  this  fore-resolution  are  like 
a  secure  city,  that  spends  all  her  wealth  in 
furnishing  her  chambers  and  furbishing  her 
streets,  but  lets  her  bulwarks  fall  to  the 
ground. — Adams,  iii.  26. 

Foresend,  to  send  beforehand. 

Claudius  .  .  .  fore  sends  Publius  Ostorius 
Scapula,  a  great  warrior,  propraetor  into 
Britaine. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  4. 

Foresentence,  prophetic  doom. 

When  wine  had  wrought,  this  good  old  man 

awook, 
Agniz'd  his  crime,  ashamed,  wonder-strook 
At  strength  of  wine,  and  toucht  with  true 

repentance, 
With  prophet  mouth  'gan   thus  his  son's 

fore-sentence. — Sylvester,  The  Arke,  p.  599. 

Foreshadow,  a  shadowing  before ;  an 
anticipatory  sketch.  The  verb  is  com- 
mon. 

It  is  only  in  local  glimpses  and  by  signifl- 
cant  fragments  .  .  .  that  we  can  hope  to 
impart  some  outline  or  foreshadow  of  this 
doctrine.  —  Carlyle,  Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  I. 
ch.  viii. 

Dubious  on  the  distracted  patriot  imagin- 
ation wavers,  as  a  last  deliverance,  some 
foreshadow  of  a  National  Guard. — Ibid.,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  V.  ch.  iii. 

Foreshape,  to  prepare;  to  mould 
beforehand. 

But  let  it  be  propounded  on  his  part, 
Or  by  the  seculars  before  the  Synod, 


F0RESL1P 


(  25s) 


FORKED 


And  we  shall  eoforeskape  the  minds  of  men 
Thai  by  the  acclaim  of  most,  if  not  of  all, 
It  shall  be  hailed  acceptable. 

Taylor,  Edwin  the  Fair,  iii.  3. 

Fobeslip,  to  lose  previously. 

You  shall  hare  them  burnish,  and  grow 
thicke,  yea,  and  then  make  hast  for  amends 
of  the  former  timeforeslipt. — Holland,  Pliny, 
xix.  6. 

Foresnaffle,  to  restrain  by  anti- 
cipation. 

Had  not  Iforeenaffied  my  mynde  by  votary e 

promise 
Not  toe  yoke  in  wedlock  ? 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iv.  17. 

Forespeak,  to  bewitch,  and  so  to 
invoke  evil.     Cf.  Bespeak,  and  see  H. 

The  sly  Enchanter,  when  to  work  his  will 
And  secret  wrong  on  some  forespoktn  wight, 
Frames  wax  in  form  to  represent  aright 
The  poor  unwitting  wretch  he  meaus  to  kill ; 
And  pricks  the  image,  framed  by  magic's  skill, 
Whereby  to  vex  the  party  day  and  night. 

Daniel,  Sonnet  X.  (Arber't 
Eng.  Garner,  i.  535). 

I  doe  not  forespeak  or  imprecate  a  further 
evil  day  upon  any. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  337. 

Forespeaker,  an  introducer;  one  who 

prepares  the  way  for  another. 

Wee  must  get  him  .  .  .  gloues,  scarfes, 
and  fannes  to  bee  sent  for  presents,  which 
might  be  as  it  were  forespeakers  for  his 
entertainment. — Breton,  Grimello's  Fortunes, 
p.  10. 

Forest.  The  Antiquary  referred  to 
for  this  curious  derivation  is  stated  in 
a  note  to  be  "  Sir  Robert  Cotton  (under 
the  name  of  Mr.  Speed)  in  Huntingdon- 
shire." 

Now  was  the  South-west  of  this  County 
made  a  Forest  indeed,  if,  as  an  Antiquary 
hath  observed,  a  Forest  be  so  called,  quia 
foris  est,  because  it  is  set  open  and  abroad. — 
fuller,  Worthies,  Hants  (i.  399). 

Foreteam,  front  shaft  or  pole  (Latin 

Umn). 

Their  chariots  in  their  foreteams  broke. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xvi.  352. 

Forethreaten,  to  threaten  before- 
hand. 

Druina's  monarch  himself,  when  all  his 
peat  sages  were  at  a  stand,  hit  right  upon 
it ;  for  it  being  forethreatned,  and  advertise- 
ment being  fortunately  lighted  upon,  that  a 
sudden  blow  should  he  given,  which  should 
be  no  sooner  doing  than  a  piece  of  paper 
burning,  His  Majesty  .  . .  positively  avouched 
that  it  must  be  some  project  of  nitre.— 
Howell,  Dodona's  Grove,  p.  44. 


Foreweep,  to  weep  before ;  to  usher 
in  with  weeping. 

The  sky  in  sullen  drops  of  rain 
Forewept  the  morn. 

Churchill,  The  Duellist,  i.  155. 

Fobewithered,  withered  away. 

Her  body  small,  forewither'd,  and  forespent, 
As  is    the    stalk    that    summer's   drought 
oppress 'd. — Sackville,  Induction,  st.  12. 

Fore- world,  the  antediluvian  world. 

It  were  as  wise  to  bring  from  Ararat 
The  fore-world's  wood  to  build  the  magic  pile. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  be. 

Forfeitment,  penalty. 

Then  many  a  Lollard  would  in  forfeitment 
Bear  paper-faggots  o'er  the  pavement. 

Hall,  Sat.,  II.  i.  17. 

Foroalded,  thoroughly  gsilled. 

But  sure  that  horse  which  tyreth  like  a  roile, 
And  lothes  the  grief e  of  his  foryalded  sides, 
Is  better  much  than  is  the  harbrainde  colte. 
Gascoigne,  Complaint  of  Philomene,  p.  117. 

Forgettable,  obscure ;  unremark- 
able. 

Of  the  numerous  and  now  mostly  forget' 
table  cousinry  we  spe  ify  farther  only  the 
Mashams  of  Otes  in  Essex. — Carlyle,  Crom- 
well, i.  21. 

Forgivingness,  placability. 

Sir  Charles  .  .  was  always  happy  in  making 
by  his  equanimity,  generosity,  and  forgiving- 
ness,  fast  friends  of  inveterate  enemies.— 
Richardson,  Grandison,  vi.  115. 

Fortsfamiliation,  the  establishment 
of  a  son  away  from  the  father's  house, 
with  a  certain  sum,  beyond  which  he  is 
to  expect  nothing.  R.  has  the  verb, 
g.  v.  ;  it  is  a  legal  term. 

My  father  could  not  be  serious  in  the 
sentence  of  for is-f ami liation  which  he  had  so 
unhesitatingly  pronounced. — Scott,  Sob  Roy, 
i.  37. 

Foristell,  breach  of  the  forest 
laws  (?) 

The  inhabitants,  as  we  read  in  King 
William  the  Conqueror's  booke,  were  .  .  . 

?[uitte  and  quiet  from  all  custome,  beside 
or  robbery,  peace-breach,  and  Foristell. — 
Holland's  Camden,  p.  350. 

Forked.  To  fork  out  «  to  give 
money  is  a  common  slang  phrase.  See 
quotations,  v.  CoTTON.but  query  whether 
this  is  the  meaning  in  the  first  extract. 

Sooner  the  inside  of  thy  hand  shall  grow 
Hisped  and  hairie,  ere  thy  palm  shall  know 
A  postern-bribe  took,  or  a/orAr«Z-fee 
To  fetter  Justice,  when  she  might  be  free. 

Herrick,  Hesperidis,  p.  216. 


FORLORN 


(  256) 


FORRELL 


If  I  am  willing  to  fork  out  a  sum  of  money, 
he  may  be  willing  to  give  up  his  chance  of 
Diplow.— G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  zxviii. 

Forlorn,  a  forlorn  hope. 

The  squadron  nearest  to  your  eye 
Is  his  Forlorn  of  infantry. 


The  Forlorn  now  halts  for  the  van, 
The  Rearguard  draws  up  to  the  main. 

Cotton,  Winter,  1689  (Eng.  Garner, 
i.  219). 

Formable,  shapely.  In  the  second 
extract  it  =  plastic. 

Thys  profit  is  gott  by  trauelling,  that  what- 
soeuer  he  wryteth  he  may  so  express©  and 
order  it,  that  hys  narrative  may  be  formable. 

—  Wehbe,  English  Poetrie,  p.  90. 

The  Papists  .  .  .  call  that  sacred  writ  a 
nose  of  war,  formable  to  any  construction. — 
Adams,  ii.  338. 

Formaliser,  formalist;  a  man  of 
routine. 

It  was  notorious  that  after  this  secretary 
retired  the  king's  affairs  went  backwards; 
wheels  within  wheels  took  place ;  the  minis- 
ters turned  formalisers,  and  the  court  mys- 
terious.—-North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,\\.  144. 

Formalities,  special  dress.  In  the 
subjoined  quotations  it  is  applied  to 
academical,  municipal,  sacerdotal,  and 
Quaker's  garb;  also,  as  by  Earle,  to 
what  would  now  be  called  the  get  up 
of  an  affected  man. 

You  find  him  in  his  slippers,  and  a  pen  in 
his  eare,  in  which  formality  he  was  asleep. 

—  Earle,   Microcosmographie  {Pretender    to 
Learning). 

She  took  her  leave  of  the  University,  .  .  . 
the  Doctours  attending  her  in  their  formali- 
ties as  far  as  Shotover. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist., 

IX.  i.  73. 

Egg -Saturday,  Edward  Bagshaw,  MJL, 
and  student  of  Ch.  Ch.,  presented  his  bache- 
laurs  ad  deter  mi  nandum,  without  having  on 
him  any  formalities,  whereas  every  deaue 
besides  had  formalities  on. — Life  of  A .  Wood, 
Feb.  12, 1668-9. 

Requiring  .  .  .  the  several  companies  in 
the  City  to  attend  solemnly  in  their  formali- 
ties as  she  went  along.  —  Heylin,  Life  of 
Laud,  Bk.  III.  p.  241. 

The  priests  went  before  in  their  formali- 
ties.— Aubrey,  Misc.,  p.  218. 

Mrs.  Lov.  I  hopM  to  have  been  quiet, 
when  once  I  had  put  on  your  odious  for- 
mality here. 

Cot.  Then  thou  wearest  it  out  of  compul- 
sion, not  choice,  friend. 

Mrs.  Lov.  Thou  art  in  the  right  of  it, 
friend. 

Centlivre,  Bold  Stroke  for  a  Wife,  Act  V. 

Former,  a  predecessor. 


We  must  be  content  in  common  speech  to 
use  the  terms  of  our  formers  devised. —  W. 
Patten,  Erped.  to  Scotland,  1547  (Arber,  Eng. 
Garner,  iii.  59). 

Formic,  pertaining  to  formica  or 
ants.  In  the  extract  the  word  is  em- 
ployed generally.  In  ordinary  use  it 
only  occurs  in  the  phrase  formic  acid, 
a  pungent  acid  supplied  by,  or  similar 
to  that  supplied  by,  ants. 

When  we  are  told  to  go  to  the  ant  and 
the  bee,  and  consider  their  ways,  it  is  not 
that  we  should  borrow  from  them  formic 
laws  or  apiarian  policy. — Southey,  The  Doctor, 
ch.  xcvi. 

Formidabilitt,  power  of  causing 
fear. 

A  Mackintosh  has  been  taken  who  reduces 
their  formidability  bv  being  sent  to  raise  two 
clans,  and  with  orders,  if  they  would  not 
rise,  at  least  to  give  out  they  had  risen,  for 
that  three  clans  would  leave  the  Pretender 
unless  joined  by  these  two. —  Walpole  to 
Mann,  ii.  98  (1745). 

Formositie,  beauty.     The  speaker  is 

a  pedantic  schoolmaster. 

The  thunder-thumping  Jove  transfused  his 
dotes  into  your  excellent  formositie. — Sidney, 
Wanstead  Play,  p.  619. 

Formulary,  formal. 

An  English  workman  should  have  been, 
called  in  to  assist  to  have  here  mended  the 
formulary  part,  which  is  grossly  mistaken, 
and  shows  plainly  the  romance  of  a  foreigner. 
— North,  Reflections  on  Le  Clerc,  p.  675. 

There  is  .  .in  the  incorruptible  Sea-green 
himself,  though  otherwise  so  lean  Bud  formu- 
lary, a  heartfelt  knowledge  of  this  latter  fact. 
—Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  III.  ch.  ii. 

Forne,  former. 

Gangameli  is  as  much  as  to  save  the 
Camel's  hous;  whiche  it  is  saied  that  a 
certain  king  in  forne  yeares,  when  he  had  on 
a  dromedarie  camele  escaped  the  handes  of 
his  enemies,  builded  there.— UdaTs  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  210. 

Fornesse,  foreland. 

Whiles  I  looked  round  .  .  .  Fornesse  the 
other  part  of  this  shire  appeared  in  sight, 
which  the  sea  hath  after  a  sort  violently 
rent  apart  from  the  rest.  ...  So  much,  that 
thereupon  it  tooke  the  name.  For  with  us 
in  our  language,  For-nesse  and  Foreland  is  all 
one  with  the  Latine  Promontorium  anterius 
(that  is,  a  Fore-promontory).  —  Holland's 
Camden,  p.  754. 

Forrell,  to  bind.  The  cover  of  a 
book  is  still  called  in  Devonshire  the 
farrol  (cf.  Fr.  fourrcau).  At  present 
book-binders  call  an  inferior  kind  of 


FOFS  AND  AGAJNSTS  (  257  )  FOUR-IN-HAND 


vellum  forrel,  probably  because  used 
in  covering"  books. 

As  for  Joaephua  his  conceit,  that  the 
second  edition  of  the  temple  by  Zorobabel, 
as  it  was  new  forrelled  and  filletted  with 
gold  by  Herod,  was  a  statelier  volume  then 
the  first  of  Solomon ;  it  is  too  weak  a  sur- 
mise to  have  a  confutation  fastned  to  it. — 
Fuller,  Holy  State,  Bk.  ILL  ch.  xxiv. 

Fobs  and  Againsts,  advantages  and 
disadvantages.  The  Anglo-Latin  pros 
and  cons  is  more  usual. 

I  knew  all  about  it  at  the  time ;  I  was 
privy  to  all  the  fors  and  againsts.  —  Miss 
Austen,  Persuasion,  ch.  ui. 

Forslip,  suffer  to  escape. 

Hee  .  .  .  shifted  off  and  dallied  with  them 
"till,  untill  they  hsdforslipt  the  opportunity 
of  pursuing  him.— Holland's  Camden,  ii.  127. 

Fort,  brave  ;  strong.  In  the  second 
extract  it  perhaps  =  tipsy,  fortified 
with  liquor. 

O  goodly  man  at  arms, 
la  fight  a  Paris,  why  should  fame  make  thee 

fort  'gainst  our  arms, 
Being  such  a  fugitive  ? 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xvii.  112, 
But  if  he  come  home  fort  to  bed, 

te  ra  la  tal  da  ral  de  ra  do, 
I  will  not  strive  to  wrong  his  head, 
ThoJ  by  the  foretop  he  is  led. 

Roxburgh  Ballads,  ii.  422. 

Fobthdeal,  step  in  advance;  pro- 
gress.    Udal  says  that  to  begin  well  is 

As  good  mforthdeale  and  auantage  towards 
thende  of  the  werke  as  if  a  good  portion  of 
the  same  wer  alredie  finished.  —  Erasmus. 
Apophth^  p.  41,  note. 

Forth-fabe,  passing-bell. 

Item,  that  from  henceforth  there  be  no 
knells  or  forth-fares  rung  for  the  death  of 
*ny  man.— Hooper,  Injunctions,  1561. 

Fortitudinous,  endowed  with  forti- 
tude. The  term  is  used  by  Colonel 
Bath,  of  whom  it  is  said  (Bk.  III.  ch. 
Jin.),  "All  his  words  are  not  to  be 
found  in  a  dictionary." 

He  rose  immediately,  and  having  heartily 
embraced  Booth,  presented  him  to  his  friend, 
■aymg  he  had  the  honour  to  introduce  to 
mm  as  hrave  and  aa  fortitudinous  a  man 
m  any  in  the  king's  dominions.  —  Fielding, 
Amelia,  Bk.  V.  ch.  vi.  v' 

Fortune,  to  provide  witb  a  fortune  • 
to  dower.  ' 

I  must  go  to  him  and  to  his  as  an  obliged 
to*  half-fortuned  venon.  —  jRickardson,  a. 
narlowe.  l.  299. 

?,®  j*.*°  /«*««  ber  out  to  a  young  lover. 
—Ibid.  u.  160. 


Fossicking.  H.  gives  this  as  a 
Warwickshire  word  =  troublesome.  In 
the  extract  it  seems  to  mean  persistent, 
and  persistency  is  often  troublesome. 
Is  this  word  connected  with  Fussock,  a 
provincial  name  for  the  ass  ? 

They  [the  Chinese]  are  more  suited  by 
habit,  characteristics,  and  physique  to  plod- 
ding, fossicking,  persevering  industry  than 
for  hard  work.— Eraser's  Mag.,  Oct.  1878, 
p.  449. 

Foster,  a  fosterer  or  cherisher. 

He  plays  the   serpent   right,  described  in 

Esop's  tale, 
That  sought  the  fosters  death,  that  lately 

gave  him  life. 
Greene,  Looking  Glass  for  London,  p.  131. 

Fount  aineeb,  manager  or  director  of 
a  fountain. 

On  one  of  these  walks,  within  a  square  of 
tall  trees,  is  a  basilisc  of  copper,  which, 
managed  by  the  fountainere,  casts  water 
neere  00  feet  high.  .  .  .  The  fountaineere 
represented  a  showre  of  raine  from  the  topp. 
—Evelyn,  Diary,  Feb.  27, 1644. 

Fount  ainlet,  a  little  fountain. 

In  the  aforesaid  Village  there  be  two 
Fountainelets,  which  are  not  farre  asunder. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Huntingdon  (i.  468). 

Fourb,  to  cheat ;  also  a  swindler.  It 
is  a  frequent  word  in  North's  Examen. 

I  ask  then  how  those  who  fourbed  others 
become  dupes  to  their  own  contrivances. — 
Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  370. 

If  a  lawyer  ...  has  the  foresight  to  lay 
in  a  provision  for  age  and  accidents,  he  must 
be  dubb'd  a  cheat,  and  posted  up  for  a  fourb 
and  impostor.— Ibid.  p.  525. 

The  referring  these  fourbs  to  the  secre- 
tary's office  to  be  examined  always  frustrated 
their  designs.  —  North,  Life  of  Lord  Guil- 
ford, ii.  40. 

Fourbery,    cheat;   deception.     See 

FURBERT. 

A  child  will  scream  out  at  its  nurse  under 
the  disguise  of  a  vizard,  but  take  it  off.  and 
he  turns  the  very  object  of  fear  into  play  and 
diversion ;  you  have  unmask'd  the  fourbety, 

Sou  have  discovered   the  imposture;    why 
ave  you  less  assurance  than  a  child?  — 
Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  373. 

Four- eared,  ass ;  a  double  ass. 
I  would  I  were  the  gallant  Courtizan 
That  euer  put  a  four-ear'd  asse  to  schoole. 
Breton,  I  would  and  I  would  not,  st.  82. 

Four  -  in  -  hand,  with  four  horses 
driven  from  the  box. 

It  is  excessively  pleasant  to  hear  a  couple 
of  these  four-in-hand  gentlemen  retail  their 
exploits  over  a  bottle.— Irving,  Salmagundi, 
No.  iii. 

S 


FOUR-LANE-END        (  258  ) 


FRANKIFY 


Thus  off  they  went,  %n<L,  four-in-hand, 
Dash'd  briskly  tow'rds  the  promis'd  land. 
Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  zx. 

Fodr-lane-end,  a  place  where  four 

roads  meet. 

He  being  also  anathematized,  was  interred 
at  a.  four-lane-end  without  the  city. — Archaol., 
viii.  203  (1787). 

Four-poster,  a  large  bed  with  four 
posts  to  it. 

a  Will  you  allow  me  to  in-quire  why  you 
make  up  your  bed  under  that  'ere  deal 
table?"  said  Sam.  "'Cause  I  was  always 
used  to  a  four-poster  afore  I  came  here,  and 
I  find  the  legs  of  the  table  answer  rust  as 
well,"  replied  the  cobbler. — Pickwick  Papers, 
ch.  xliv. 

Nobody  mistook  their  pew  for  their  four- 
poster  during  the  sermon. — Reade,  Never  too 
late  to  mend,  ch.  vii. 

Fourteenth  night,-  fortnight. 

It  was  agreed  that  there  shuld  be  a  truce : 
....  yet  so  as  it  might  be  free  for  both 
sides,  after   fourteen    daies    waring    given 

aforehand,  to  begin  warre  afresh 

The  queen  was  highly 

offended  ....  that  hee  had  agreed  upon 
such  a  cessation  as  might  every  fourteenth 
night  be  broken. — Holland's  Camden,  ii.  131. 

Four-wheeler,  a  four-wheeled  cab, 
as  distinguished  from  a  hansom. 

He,  having  sent  on  all  their  luggage  by  a 
respectable  old  four-wheeler,  got  into  the 
hansom  beside  her, 

Black,  Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  x. 

Fowaqe,  hearth-money.  See  Feu- 
age. 

Bethink  ye,  Sirs, 
What  were  the  fowage  and  the  subsidies 
When  bread  was  but  four  mites  that's  now  a 

groat?— Taylor,  Ph.  van  AH.,  Pt.  I.  ii.  6. 

Fox,  to  make  tipsy,  is  plentifully 
illustrated  by  N. ;  but  he  does  not  give 
the  phrase  flay  the  fox  =  be  sick  after 
drinking  (escorcher  U  regnard) ;  either, 
says  Cotgrave,  because  in  spewing  one 
makes  a  noise  like  a  fox  that  barks,  or 
else  (from  the  subject  to  the  effect) 
because  the  flaying  of  so  unsavoury  a 
beast  will  make  any  one  spew.  See 
quotation  t.  v.  Comb- feat. 

Which  made  all  these  good  people  there 
to  lay  up  their  gorges,  and  vomit  what  was 
upon  their  stomachs  before  all  the  world,  as 
if  they  had  flayed  the  fox. — Urquhart's  Rabe- 
lais, Bk.  II.  ch.  xvi. 

Fox  and  Gerse,  a  game  played  with 
pegs  or  draughtsmen. 


"  Can  you  play  at  no  kind  of  game,  Master 
Harry? ,r  a  A  little  at/or  and  geese,  madam." 
— H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  367. 

Fox  whelp,  a  liquor.  See  quotation 
more  at  length  s.  v.  Stire. 

Fox  whelp,  a  beverage  as  much  better  than 
champagne  as  it  is  honester,  wholesomer, 
and  cheaper.  —  Southey,  The  Doctor,  Inter- 
chapter  xvi. 

For,  some  sort  of  cheat  or  swindler. 

Though  you  be  crossbites,/oy«,  and  nips, 
yet  you  are  not  good  lifts. — Greene,  Theeves 
falling  out,  1615  (Harl.  Misc.,  viii.  389). 

Frab,  to  harass ;  scold. 

I  was  not  kind  to  you ;  I  frahbed  you  and 
plagued  you  from  the  first,  my  lamb. — Mrs. 
Gaskell,  Ruth,  ch. 


Fragmentariness,    brokenness; 

want  of  continuity. 

This  stupendous  fragmentariness  height- 
ened the  dream-like  strangeness  of  her  bridal 
life. — G.  Eliot,  MiddUmarch,  ch.  xx. 

Frag  Rous,  fragrant,  which  is  the 
reading  in  other  copies. 

Oh  doe  not  fall 
Fowle  in  these  noble  pastimes,  least  you  call 

Discord  in,  and  so  divide 
The  gentle  bridegroome  and  the  fragrous 
bride. — Herrick,  Appendix,  p.  453. 

Frame,  to  move  (N.  country). 

Frame  upstairs,  and  make  little  din. — Miss 
E.  Bronte,  Wuthering  Heights,  ch.  v. 

An  oath,  and  a  threat  to  set  Throttler  on 
me  if  I  did  not  frame  off,  rewarded  my  per- 
severance.— Ibid.  ch.  xiii. 

Frame,  a  raft. 

Out,  people,  out  vppon    them,  follow  fast 

with  fires  and  flames, 
Set  sayles  aloft,  make  out  with  oares,  in 

ships,  in  boates,  in  frames. 

Phaer's  JEneid,  Bk.  iv. 

Frame-house,  a  place  in  which  things 

are  framed   or  fashioned.      Bradford 

uses  the  word  again,  pp.  54,  86. 

The  cross  .  .  is  the  frame-house  in  which 
God  frameth  His  children  like  to  His  Son 
Ohnst.— Bradford,  ii.  78. 

Francised,  Frenchified. 

He  was  an  Englishman  Francised,  who, 
going  over  into  France  a  young  man,  spent 
the  rest  of  his  life  there. — Fuller,  Worthies 
{Hertford),  i.  435. 

Frankift,  to  give  a  Frank  dress  to. 
CI  Frenchify. 

As  for  Frankifying  their  own  names,  the 
Greeks  do  it  worse  than  we  do. — Lord  Strang- 
ford,  Letters  and  Papers,  p.  150. 


FRANSICAL 


(  259  )        FRENCH  LEA  VE 


Fransical,  frantic. 

A  certain  fransical  maladie  they  call  Love. 
—Sidney,  Wanstead  Play,  p.  619. 

Frantic,  a  roadman. 

Fantastik  frantiks  that  would  innovate, 
And  every  moment  change  your  form  of 
state.— Sylvester,  The  Captaines,  1194. 

So  madly  do  these  frantics  spend  their 
time  and  strengths  by  doing  and  undoing, 
tying  hard  knots  and  untying  them. — Adams, 
L275. 

[The  hypocrite]  is  a  frantic  too,  for  he 
incurs  the  world's  displeasure  in  making  a 
shew  of  godliness,  God's  double  displeasure 
in  making  bat  a  shew. — Ibid.  i.  280. 

Frantic,  to  act  like  a  madman. 

The  Arctic  needle  that  doth  guide 
The  wand 'ring  shade  by  his  magnetic  pow'r, 
And  leaves  his  silken  gnomon  to  decide 

The  question  of  the  controverted  hour, 
First  frantics  up  and  down  from  side  to  side. 

Quarles,  Emblems,  v.  4. 

Fraxzy,  cross. 

I  dare  say  ye  warna  franzy,  for  ye  look  as 
if  ye'd  ne'er  been  angered  i'  your  life. — G. 
Eliot,  Adam  Bede,  ch.  x. 

Frapping,  fretting;  chafing.  Cf. 
Hor.  Ep.>  L  i.  9. 

The  hone  ...  is  sometimes  spurred  on  to 
battle  so  long  till  he  draw  his  gats  after  him 
for  frapping,  and  at  last  falls  down,  and  bites 
the  ground  instead  of  grass. — Kennefs  Eras- 
mus, Praise  of  Folly,  p.  53. 

Fratch,  a  quarrel. 

I  ha*  never  had  no  fratch  afore  sin  ever  I 
were  born  wi'  any  o'  my  like ;  Gonnows  I 
b*'  none  now  that  s  o'  my  makin'. — Dickens, 
Hard  Times,  ch.  xx. 

Fraudsman,  cheat 

Yon  shall  not  easily  discern  between  ...  a 
tradesman  and  &  fraudsman. — Adams,\x.  240. 

Fray,  a  rubbing,  so  as  to  make  bare 
or  shabby :  the  verb  is  common. 

Tis  like  a  lawnie  firmament,  as  yet 
Quite  dispossest  of  either  fray  or  fret. 
Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  86. 

Freak ixo,  eccentric  ;  fantastic. 

Visited  Sir  J.  Minnes,  who  continues  ill* 
bat  he  told  me  what  a  mad  freaking  fellow 
Sir  Ellis  Layton  hath  been,  and  is,  and  once 
at  Antwerp  was  really  mad. — Pepys,  Jan.  25, 
1664-65. 

Fream,  to  roar,  or  cry  out.  H.  gives 
*'  Freaming,  the  noise  made  by  the 
boar  at  rutting-time. "  Cf.  Froam.  It 
is  possible  that  Stanyhurst  formed  the 
word  from  the  Latin  fremere,  and  that 
in  the  extracts  it  means  to  rage.     The 


person  referred  to  in  the  first  quotation 
is  Laocoon  in  the  folds  of  the  serpent. 

Hee  freams,  and  skrawling  to  the  skye 
brays  terribil  hoyseth. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  ii. 
234. 

Hudffe  fluds  lowdlye/reamtiw  from  moun- 
tains loftye  be  trowlling. — Ibid.,  J2n.,  iv. 
169. 

Frechon,  freckles. 

Wrinkles,  pimples,  redde  streekes,  frech- 
ons,  haires,  warts,  neves,  inequalities. — Bur- 
ton, Anatomy,  p.  558. 

Freckly,  freckled. 

Thus  on  tobacco  does  he  hourly  feed, 
And  plumps  his  freckly  cheeks  with  stinking 
weed. — T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  117. 

Frederize,  to  take  the  part  of  the 
Emperor  Frederick. 

But  upon  the  Pope's  .  .  .  dispising  the 
king's  message  (who,  he  said,  began  to 
Frederize),  it  was  absolutely  here  ordayned, 
vnder  great  penalty,  that  no  contribution  of 
money  should  be  given  to  the  Pope  by  any 
subject  of  England. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng., 
p.  138. 

Free-boot,  robbery. 

Julius  Tutor,  who  robbed  his  fellow- 
theeves,  for  he  pillaged  the  Cilicians,  that 
lived  themselves  upon  free  boote. — Stapylton, 
Juvenal,  viii.  124,  note. 

Freedstool,  a  stool  or  chair  placed 
near  the  altar  to  which  offenders  fled 
for  sanctuary.  See  H.  The  Freed- 
Stool  of  Beverley  is  described  in  Defoe  8 
Tour  thro1  G.  Brit.,  iii.  189. 

Athelstan  his  son  succeeded  King  Edward* 
being  much  devoted  to  St.  John  of  Beverley, 
on  whose  church  he  bestowed  a  f  reed-stool 
with  large  priviledges  belonging  thereunto. 
—Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  II.  v.  9. 

Fremescent,  raging.  Cf.  Fream. 
Carlyle  has  the  noun  &\bo,  fremescence, 
in  the  fourth  chapter  of  the  same  book, 
but  this  is  given  in  Latham. 

Thuriot  shows  himself  from  some  pin- 
nacle, to  comfort  the  multitude  becoming 
suspicious, fremescent. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt. 
I.  Bk.  V.  ch.  vi. 

French  leave.  A  person  who  dis- 
appears without  leave  or  notice,  or  who 
helps  himself  to  something  unasked,  is 
said  to  take  French  leave*  The  expres- 
sion has  been  repeatedly  canvassed  in 
N.  and  Q.y  but  nothing  quite  satisfac- 
tory arrived  at. 

I  felt  myself  extremely  awkward  about 
going  away,  not  choosing,  as  it  was  my 
first  visit,  to  take  French  leave,  and  hardly 
knowing  how  to  lead  the  way  alone  among 

S  2 


FRENETICALLY        (  260  ) 


FR1TILLAR  Y 


so  many  strangers. — Mad.  D*Arblay,  Diary. 
ii.  199. 

Tou  are  going  to  quit  me  without  warning 
— French  leave — is  that  British  conduct? — 
Lytton,  What  will  he  do  with  it?  Bk.  I.ch.x. 

Frenetically,  madly. 

All  mobs  are  properly  f renaies,  and  work 
frenetically  with  mad  fits  of  hot  and  cold. — 
Carlyle,  Fr.  Bev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  II.  ch.  ii 

Frenzie,  mad. 

That /route  merchant  that  would  make 
and  strike  up  matches  of  hundreds  and 
thousands  with  parties  absent,  as  if  they 
were  present. —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  54. 

All  these  sharpers  have  but  *  frenzy  man's 
sleep.— IHd.  p.  100. 

Frequently,  populously. 

The  place  became  frequently  inhabited  on 
every  side :  as  approved  both  healthfull  and 
delightf  ull.— Sandys,  Travels,  p.  279. 

Fresh.  Fresh  as  butter,  or  painty  a 
punning  simile. 

There  are  the  marks  cut  by  the  old  fellows 
— horse-hoofs,  hatchets,  initials,  &c. — as  fresh 
as  print.— C.  Kingsley,  1864  (Life,  ii.  177). 

Brewer  says  to  his  driver,  "Now  is  your 
horse  pretty  fresh  ?  "  . . .  Driver  says  he's  as 
fresh  as  butter.— Dickens,  Mutual  Friend,  Bk. 
XI.  ch.  iii. 

Fresh,  excited  with  wine  (slang). 

Drinking  was  not  among  my  vices.  I 
could  get  "fresh,"  as  we  call  it,  when  in 
good  company  and  excited  by  wit  and  mirth ; 
but  I  never  went  to  the  length  of  being 
drunk. — Marryat,  FY.  Mildmay,  ch.  ziii. 

Freshish,  rather  fresh  or  new. 

If  the  mould  should  look  a  little  freshish, 
it  won't  be  so  much  suspected. — Richardson, 
Pamsla,  i.  174. 

Frettation,  annoyance ;  discom- 
posure. 

I  never  knew  how  much  in  earnest  and  in 
sincerity  she  was  my  friend  till  she  heard  of 
my  infinite  frettation  upon  occasion  of  being 
pamphleted.— Mad.  D'ArUay,  Diary,  i  144. 

Frettished,  numbed. 

Some  other  trifles  ...  I  durst  not  let  come 
abroad  in  the  chill  criticall  aire,  lest  hap  they 
mought  have  been  frettisht  for  want  of 
learning's  true  cloathing.— Optick  Glasse  of 
Humors,  To  the  Reader  (1039). 

Fretty,  with  fret-work. 
But,  Oxford,  O  I  praise  thy  situation, 
Passing  Pernassus,  Mnses'  habitation ! 
Thy  bough-deckt  dainty  walkes,  with  brooks 

beset, 
Fretty,  like  Ghristall  knots,  in  mould  of  jet. 
Doxies,  Sonnet  to  Oxford  Univ. 

Friary,  the  institution  of  friars  ;  it 


commonly  means  the  house  in  which 
friars  live.  Of.  the  same  author's  use 
of  Nunnery. 

When  John  Milverton  his  successour  began 
(in  favour  of  Friery)  furiously  to  engage 
against  bishops  and  the  secular  clergy,  the 
Carmelites'  good  masters  and  dames  began 
to  forsake  them.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  vi.  p.  272. 

Friday- faced,  mortified ;  melancholy- 
looking. 

Marry,  out  upon  him !  what  ufriday-fac'd 
slave  it  is!  I  think  in  my  conscience  his 
face  never  keeps  holiday. —  Wily  Beguiled 
(Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr.,  iii.  356). 

Fridge,  to  fray  or  fret  L.  has  it 
as  meaning  to  move  quickly.  There 
seem  to  have  been  two  words ;  one 
fridge  from  A.  S.  frican  to  dance  ;  the 
other  frig,  from  Latin  fricare,  Italian 
fregare  to  rub.  Fridge  is  still  used  in 
Lincolnshire  :  "  he  has  fridged  hi* 
clothes  ;  "  "  this  collar  fridges  my 
neck." 

All  pretended  that  their  jerkins  were  made 
after  this  fashion ;  you  might  have  rumpled 
and  crumpled,  and  doubled  and  creased,  and 
fretted  mad  fridged  the  outside  of  them  all 
to  pieces. — Sterne,  Tr.  Shandy,  ii.  116. 

Friggling,  wriggling;    rubbing  to 

and  fro. 

How  was  the  head  of  the  beast  cut  off  at 
the  first  in  this  nation  ?  Is  it  harder  for  us 
to  cut  off  Hie  friggling  tail  of  that  hydra  of 
Borne  ? —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  173. 

Friuot,  (?)  Erasmus  has  been  speak- 
ing of  a  contented  cuckold. 

And  indeed  it  is  much  better  to  be  such 
a  hen-pecked  friaot  (sic  errare),  than  always 
to  be  racked  and  tortured  with  the  grating 
surmises  of  suspicion  and  jealousy,  —  Ken- 
nel's Erasm.,  Praise  of  Folly,  p.  26. 

Frimbed,   strange;    usually  written 

fremd,  q.  v.  in  H. 

But  of  a  stranger  mutual  help  doth  take : 
As  perjur'd  cowards  in  adversitie 
With  sight  of  fear  from  friends  to  frimb'd 
do  flie.— -Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  88. 

Friskin,  a  gay  frisky  person. 

Sir  Q.  I  gave  thee  this  chain,  manly  Tucca. 
Tuc.  Ay,  say'st  thou  so,  friskin  ? 
Dekker,  Satiromastix 

(Hawkins  Eng.  Dr.,  iii.  138). 

Fritillary,  a  species  of  butterfly  ; 
it  also  is  the  name  of  a  plant.  See 
quotation  s.  v.  Lady's  Slipper:  the 
name  in  both  cases  comes  from  the 
marking  on  the  plant  or  insect  being 
like  those  on    the  boards  for  chess, 


FRIVALL 


(  *6i  ) 


FRUBBER 


backgammon,  &c.   (fritillus,  a  dice- 
box). 

The  white  admirals  and  silver-washed 
fritillarits  flit  round  every  bramble-bed. — C 
KingsUy,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  ixiii. 

Fbivall,  shortened  form  of  frivolous. 
Cf.  Scurril,  Scurrilous,  Futile, 
Fctilous. 

"Sfoote,  hee's  not  ashamde  besides  to  charge 

mee 
With  a  late  promise ;  I  most  yeeld  indeed. 
I  did  (to  shift  him  with  some  contentment) 
Make  such  ifrivall  promise. 

Chapman,  All  Fooles,  II.  i. 

Frixe,  frisky. 

Fain  would  she  seem  all  frixe  and  frolic 
still.— Hall,  Sat.  VI.  i.  294. 

Friz,  hair  curled  or  roughed  up ; 
usually  a  verb. 

Before— the  carls  are  well  confin'd, 
The  tails  fall  gracefully  behind ; 
While  a  full  wilderness  of  friz 
Became  the  lawyers  cunning  phis. 
Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour,  II.  c.  2. 

Frizado,  to  border  irregularly. 

While  on  a  day  by  a  clear  brook  they  trauell, 
Whose  gurgling  streams  frizadoed  on  the 

gravell. 
He  thus  bespake. 

Sylvester,  The  Handy-Crafts,  691. 

Frizure,  hair-dressing. 

His  hair  was  of  a  dark  brown,  and  though 
it  had  not  received  the  fashionable/m«r*, 
it  was  grown  thick  enough  to  shade  his  face, 
and  long  enough  to  curl. — Graves,  Spiritual 
Quixote,  Bk.  V.  ch.  vi. 

Frizzt,  rough. 

Mr.  Lush's  prominent  eyes,  fat  though 
not  clnmsy  figure,  and  strong  black  grey- 
besprinkled  hair  of  frizzy  thickness  .  .  . 
created  one  of  the  strongest  of  her  anti- 
pathies.— O.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  zi. 

Fro  am,  to  growl,  or  grunt ;  /ream, 
q.  v.,  is  according  to  H.  the  proper  verb 
to  use  of  the  noise  made  by  a  boar  at 
rutting-time.  The  extract  refers  to  a 
boar  who  had  once  been  a  man. 

He  did  in  a  manner  grind  his  racers  and 
tusks,  and  eztreamly  froam  at  his  own  coun- 
trymen, taxing  them  of  divers  vices. — Howell, 
Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  113. 

Frog,  part  of  a  horse's  foot. 

His  hoofs  black,  solid,  and  shining;  his 
instep  high,  his  quarters  round,  the  heel 
broad,  the  frog  thin  and  small,  the  sole  tbin 
and  concave. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  rxliii. 

Frog-clock,  frog-hopper  (?)  of  the 
tribe  Cicadiadce. 


The  flood  washing  down  worms,  flies* 
frog-clocks,  &c.—Lauson,  Comments  on  Secrets 
of  Angling,  1653  (Eng.  Garner,  i.  100), 

Frogling,  little  frog,  tadpole. 

He  does  not  fail  the  gnats  of  the  air,  the 
wormlings  of  the  earth,  nor  the  froglings  of 
the  water.— Jarvis's  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  I.  Bk. 
III.  ch.  iv. 

Frolic,  a  plaything  or  ornament. 
Cf.  Toy. 

The  name  [Rimmon]  signifieth  a  pome* 
granate,  as  one  will  have  it,  who  thereupon 
concludes  it  to  be  Venus,  because  apples 
were  dedicated  unto  her,  and  her  image 
commonly  made  with  such  fruit  as  nfrolich 
in  her  hand.— Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  IV.  vii. 
40. 

Frolicky,  merry,  frolicking. 

There  is  nothing  striking  in  any  of  these 
characters,  yet  may  we,  at  a  pinch,  make  a 
good  frolicky  half -day  with  them.  —  Rich- 
ardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  v.  348. 

Frondent,  leafy.  See  quotation 
s.  v.  Parasol. 

Near  before  us  is  Versailles,  New  and 
Old;  with  that  broad,  frondent  Avenue  de 
Versailles  between,  —  stately  —  frondent, 
broad,  three  hundred  feet  as  men  reckon, 
with  its  four  rows  of  elms.  —  Carlyle,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  VH.  ch.  vi. 

Frost,  to  rough  a  horse's  shoes  in 
frosty  weather  by  turning  up  the  end. 
Smollett  (France  and  Italy,  Letter  38) 
speaks  of  his  mules  being  frost- shod. 

Up  before  day  to  dress  myself  to  go  toward 
Erith,  which  I  would  do  by  land,  it  being  a 
horrible  cold  frost  to  go  by  water ;  so  bor- 
rowed two  horses  of  Mr.  Howell  and  his 
friend,  and  with  much  ado  set  out,  after  my 
horses  being  frosted,  which  I  know  not  what 
it  means  to  this  day. — Pepys,  Nov.  26, 1606. 

Froyter,  fratry  or  refectory  of  a 
monastery.  H. ,  s.  v.  frater-hovse,  says, 
that  it  is ll  spelt  froyter  in  Bale's  Kynge 
Jokan,  p.  27.  Another  instance  is 
subjoined. 

Ooncernynge  the  fare  of  their  froyter 
I  did  tell  the  afore  partly. 

Roy  and  Barlow,  Rede  me  and 
be  nott  wroth,  p.  83. 

Frubber,  a  rubber.  In  the  annexed 
quotation  it  is  a  term  of  reproach  ad- 
dressed to  a  waiting-woman,  whom  the 
speaker  suspects  of  aiding  his  sister- 
in-law  in  an  intrigue.  It  is  perhaps 
applied  to  an  unprincipled  attendant  in 
the  same  way  that  a  flatterer  was  some- 
times called  a  stroker  or  a  claicback. 


FRUCTIFIABLE  (  262  )  FULIGINOSITY 


"Well  said,  frublter,  was  there  no  souldier 
here  lately  'i  —  Chapman,  fViddow*s  Teares, 
v.  ii. 

Fructifiable,  capable  of  bearing 
fruit. 

Say  the  fig-tree  does  not  bear  so  soon  as  it 
is  planted  .  .  .  but  now  it  is  grown  fructi- 
JiabU. — Adams,  n.  178. 

Fructual,  fruitful. 

It  is  fructual ;  let  it  be  so  in  operation. 
It  gives  us  the  fruit  of  life ;  let  us  return  it 
the  fruits  of  obedience. — A  dams,  i.  362. 

Fruitrn,  to  make  fruitful. 

Thou  usest  the  influence  of  heaven  to 
fruiten  the  earth.— -Bp.  Hall,  Works,  ii.  006. 

Frumpery,  reproach ;  abuse. 

Tyndarus  attempting  too  kiss  a  fayre  lasse 
with  a  long  nose 

Would  needs  bee  finish,  with  bitter  frumpery  e 
taunting. — Stanyhurst,  Conceites,  p.  145. 
That  which  he  doeth  is  only  to  conskite, 
spoil,  and  defile  all,  which  is  the  cause  where- 
fore he  hath  of  men  mocks,  frumperies  and 
bastonadoes.  —  UrquharVs  Kabelais,  Bk.  I. 
ch.  xl. 

FRUMPI8H,  CT08R. 

Methought  she  looked  very  frumpish  and 
jealous. — Foote,  The  Author,  Act  II. 

Frundle,  two  pecks. 

A  frundle  of  lyme.— Leverton  Chtoardens 
Accts.  1557  (Archaol.  xli.  362). 

Frushb.  "  Frushe  and  leauings  "  is 
the  rendering  of  one  word  in  the  origi- 
nal (reliquiae).  H.  gives  /rush  as  a  N. 
country  word  for  wood  that  is  apt  to 
break  or  splinter ;  so  it  seems  here  to 
be  used  contemptuously  for  something 
rotten  or  refuse.  The  wandering  Tro- 
jans are  spoken  of  as 

Al  the  frushe  and  leauings  of  Greeke,  of 
wrathful  Achilles. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.  38. 

Frust,  a  section  or  portion,  though 
in  the  subjoined  it  seems  to  adhere 
more  closely  to  the  meaning  of  the 
Latin,  and  to  signify  a  crumb. 

There  is  a  soft  sera  in  every  gentle  mortal's 
life  when  such  a  story  affords  more  pabulum 
than  all  the  trusts,  and  crusts,  and  rusts  of 
antiquity,  which  travellers  can  cook  up  for 
it.— Trist.  Shandy,  V.  150. 

Frustre,  to  frustrate.    Cf .  Illustre. 

Haue  these  that  yet  doo  craul 
Vpon  all  fowre,  and  cannot  stand  at  all, 
Withstood  your  fury,  and  repulst  your  powrs, 
Frustred  your  rams,  fiered  your  flying  towrs? 
Sylvester,  The  Decay,  1127. 

Fruz-tower,  a  high  frizzed  head- 
dress. 


The  father  bought  a  powder-horn,  and  an 
almanac,  and  a  comb-case ;  the  mother  a 
great  fruz-tower,  and  a  fat  amber  necklace. — 
Co/tgreve,  Old  Bachelor,  iv.  8. 

Fucago,    perhaps    a    misprint    for 

farrago. 

He  that  would  see  more,  it  is  his  best 
course  to  confer  with  their  council,  and  look 
over  the  large  impertinencies  of  litigious 
courts,  than  to  expect  them  in  this  piece, 
whose  small  bulk  .  .  .  when  stuffed  with 
their fucagoes  of  tautologies,  would  be  swelled 
beyond  its  intended  growth. — The  Unhappy 
Marksman,  1659  (Hart.  Misc.,  iv.  4). 

Fuddle,  drink. 

Don't  go  away ;  they  have  had  their  dose 
of  fuddle  (jam  perpotarunt). — Bailey's  Eras- 
mus, p.  125. 

Fuddle-cap,  a  drunkard  or  boon 
companion. 

Having  overnight  carry'd  my  Indian  friend 
to  the  Tavern.  ...  I  introdue'd  his  pagan 
worship  into  a  Christian  society  of  true 
protestant  fuddle-caps.  —  T.  Brown,  Works, 
lii.  93. 

Fudge  in,  to  thrust  in.  See  H.,  who 
has  it  as  a  Suffolk  word  =  to  poke  with 
a  stick,  and  cites  an  instance  of  fud'je 
up  used  metaphorically. 

Now  let  us  see  your  supposes  .  .  .  That 
last  suppose  is  fudged  in,  why  would  you 
cram  these  upon  me  for  a  couple? — Foote, 
The  Bankrupt,  iii.  2. 

Fuellage.  H.  gives  fuel  as  a  Here- 
fordshire word  for  garden-stuff,  and 
this  seems  to  be  the  meaning  of  fuel- 
lage. 

There  is  not  an  hearbe  throughout  the 
garden  that  taketh  vp  greater  compasse  with 
fuellage  than  doth  the  beet. — Holland,  Pliny, 
xix.  8. 

Fugle,  to  act  as  guide  or  director. 

See  L.,  s.  v.  fugleman. 

He  has  scaffolding  set  up,  has  posts  driven 
in  ;  wooden  arms  with  elbow  joints  are  jerk- 
ing and  fugling  in  the  air,  in  the  most  rapid 
mysterious  manner. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt. 
III.  Bk.  V.  ch.  vii. 

Fulourous,  flashing  like  lightning. 

He  heard  him  talk  one  day  in  nightgown 
and  slippers  for  the  space  of  two  hours  con- 
cerning earth,  sea,  and  air,  with  a  fulgurous 
impetuosity  almost  beyond  human. — GarlyU* 
Misc.,  iii.  194. 

Fuliginosity,  smokiness ;  the  allu- 
sion in  the  quotation  is  to  smouldering 
passions. 

In  the  old  Marquis  there  dwells  withal  a 
crabbedness,  stiff  cross-grained  humour,  a 


FULKER 


(  263  ) 


FUNERALS 


latent  fury  and  fuliginosity  very  perverting. 
— Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  79. 

-  Fclkbb,  a  pawn-broker. 
Cle.  I  lay  thee  my  faith  and  honesty  in 
pawn. 

Du.  A  pretty  pawn;  the  fulkers  will  not 
lend  yon  a  farthing  upon  it.  —  Gascoigne, 
Supposes,  ii.  3. 

Fcll  mouth,  a  mouth  full  of  words  ; 

a  chatterer. 

Whosoeuer,  Samela,  descanted  of  that 
lone,  tolde  you  a  Canterbury  tale;  some 
propheticall  full  mouth  that,  as  he  were  a 
Cooler's  eldest  sonne,  would  by  the  laste 
tell  where  another's  shooe  wrings. — Greene, 
Jfenapkon,  p.  54. 

Fcll  mouth,  eagerly ;  in  full  cry. 

She  was  coming  full  mouth  upon  me  with 
her  contract.  —  Farquhar,  The  Inconstant, 
Act  II. 

Full  mouthed,  having  the  mouth 
full  of  food,  and  so  festive.  L.  has 
the  word  in  its  more  usual  meaning  of 
u  loud-sounding." 

Cheer  up,  my  soul,  call  home  thy  sp'rits, 

and  bear 
One  bad  Good-Friday  ;  full-mouth'd  Easter's 

near. — Quarles,  Emblems,  v.  7  (Epigram). 

Full  out,  quite ;  altogether. 

Sacrilege  the  Apostle  ranks  with  idolatry, 
as  being  full  out  as  evil,  if  not  worse  than  it. 
— Andrewes,  ii.  351. 

Fulminant,  fulminating. 

Twas  then  the  Devotee  his  journey  trod 
In  darkness  and  in  terror,  tow'rd  his  God, 
While  the  drear  Clergy,  fulminant  in  ire, 
Flash 'd,  through  his  bigot  Midnight,  threat- 
'ning  fire. 

Colman,  Vagaries  Vindicated,  p.  194. 

Fulsamick,  fulsome ;  disgusting. 

Oh  filthy,  Mr.  Sneer!  he's  a  nauseous 
figure,  a  most  fulsamick  fop.  —  Congreve, 
Double  Dealer,  iii.  10. 

Fumado.     See  extracts. 

Cornish  pilchards,  otherwise  called  fw 
mados,  taken  on  the  shore  of  Cornewall  from 
July  to  November.  —  Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffs 
{Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  165). 

They  . . .  invent  new  tricks  as  sawsages, 
ancboves,  tobacco,  caveare,  pickled  oysters, 
herrings,  fumados,  kc,  innumerable  salt 
meats  to  increase  their  appetite. — Burton, 
Anatomy,  p.  74. 

Their  [pilchards]  numbers  are  incredible, 
imploying  a  power  of  poor  people  in  polling 
(that  is,  beheading),  gutting,  splitting,  pow- 
dering, and  drying  them,  and  then  (by  the 
name  of  Fumadoes)  with  oyle  and  a  lemon, 
they  are  meat  for  the  mightiest  Don  in 
Spain. — Fuller,  Worthies  {Cornwall). 


Fume,  to  flatter. 

Thus  by  degrees  self-cheated  of  their  sound 
And  sober  judgement,  that  he  is  but  man, 
They  demi-deify  and  fume  him  so, 
That  in  due  season  he  forgets  it  too. 

Cowper,  Winter  Morning  Walk,  206. 

Fumb,  the  incense  of  praise. 

Pardon,  great  prelate,  sith  I  thus  presume 
To  sence  perfection  with  imperfect  fume. 

Davies,  To  worthy  persons,  p.  52. 

How  would  our  Democritus  have  been 
affected  to  see  a  wicked  caitiffe  or  foole,  a 
very  idiot,  a  f  unge,  a  golden  asse,  a  monster 
of  men  to  have  many  good  men  ...  to  smo- 
ther him  with  fumes  and  eulogies  .  . .  because 
he  is  rich. — Burton,  Democ.  to  Reader,  p.  34. 

Fume,  a  passionate  person  ;  one  apt 

to  get  in  a  fume. 

The  notary's  wife  was  a  little  fume  of  a 
woman,  and  the  notary  thought  it  well  to 
avoid  a  hurricane  by  a  mild  reply. — Sterne, 
Sent.  Journey,  The  Fragment. 

Fumify,  to  impregnate  with  smoke. 

We  had  everyone  ramm'd  a  full  charge  of 
sot-weed  into  our  infernal  guns,  in  order  to 
fumify  ova  immortalities. — T.Brown,  Works, 
ii.  190. 

Fumitory,  smoking-room. 

You  ...  sot  away  your  time  in  Mongo's 
fumitory  among  a  parcel  of  old  smoak-dry'd 
cadators.— J.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  179. 

Fund.  The  first  three  quotations 
offer  examples  of  two  Gallicisms  in  the 
use  of  this  word.  In  the  fund  =  at 
bottom  (an  fond)  ;  on  his  own  fund  = 
on  his  own  account  (sur  son  jrrapre 
fond).  In  the  fourth  extract  the  sense 
resembles  that  in  the  first,  and  ==  main 
body  or  aggregate. 

I  know  madam  does  fret  you  a  little  now 
and  then,  that's  true ;  but  in  the  fund  she  is 
the  softest,  sweetest,  gentlest  lady  breathing. 
—  Vanbrugh,  Confederacy,  Act  IV. 

The  translating  most  of  the  French  letters 
gave  me  as  much  trouble  as  if  I  had  written 
them  out  of  my  own  fund. — T.  Brown,  Works, 

i.  171. 

Your  brother  Gal.  is  extremely  a  favourite 
with  me ;  I  took  to  him  for  his  resemblance 
to  you,  but  am  grown  to  love  him  upon  his 
own  fund. —  Walpole  to  Mann,  ii.  260  (1748). 

pfhe  people]  are  as  a  perpetual  fountain, 
from  whence  the  three  estates  arise;  or 
rather  as  a  sea  of  waters,  in  which  three 
exalted  waves  should  claim  pre-eminence, 
which  yet  shall  not  be  able  to  depart  from 
their  fund,  but  in  relation  are  dissoluble  and 
resolvable  therein.  —  H.  Brooke,  Fool  of 
Quality,  ii.  38. 

Funebals,  funeral  sermon.  In  the 
third  extract  the  word  is  in  the  singular 


FUNGOID 


(  264) 


FUSS 


We  are  almost  at  the  end  of  books;  these 
paper-works  are  now  preaching  their  own 
funerals.— Goad,  Preface  to  DelVs  Work*. 

In  the  absence  of  Dr.  Humfreys  designed 
for  that  service,  Mr.  Giles  Laurence  preached 
his  funerals.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist^  IX.  iii.  2. 

I  could  learn  little  from  the  minister  which 
preached  his  funeral. — Ibid.,  Worthies,  Here* 
ford  (i.  454). 

Fungoid,  fungus-like. 

"The  seed  of  immortality  has  sprouted 
within  me."  "  Only  &  fungoid  growth  I  dare 
say— a  crowing  disease  in  the  lungs,"  said 
Deronda. — O.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  eh. 
xxxvii. 

Funk,  fright 

If  they  And  no  brandy  to  get  drunk 
Their  souls  are  in  a  miserable  funk. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  58. 

Nothing  sobers  a  man  so  completely  as 
funk. — Ingoldsby  Legends  (Bagman*  Dog). 

Funky,  frightened.  Dickens  calls 
the  nervous  junior  counsel  for  the 
defendant  in  Bardell  v.  Pickwick,  Mr. 
Phunky.  See  also  quotation  s.  v.  Mon- 
key. 

I  do  feel  somewhat  funky. — Naylor,  Bey* 
nard  the  Fox,  46. 

Funny  bone,  that  part  of  the  elbow 
over  which  the  ulnar  nerve  passes ; 
any  blow  on  this  gives  a  person  a  sort 
of  electric  shock ;  hence  the  name. 

They  smack  and  they  thwack, 
Till  your  funny  bones  crack, 
As  if  you  were  stretched  on  the  rack. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  (Bloudie  Jacke). 

His  arm  was  not  broken ;  he  had  merely 
received  a  blow  on  that  part  which  anatom- 
ists call  the  funny-bone  ;  a  severe  blow  which 
sent  the  pistol  spinning  into  the  air,  and 
caused  the  gentleman  to  scream  with  pain. 
— Thackeray,  Shabby  Genteel  Story,  cb.  ix, 

Furbkry,  cheat.    Cf.  Fourbery. 

In  the  perambulation  of  Italy  young  tra- 
vellers must  be  cautious,  among  diuers  others 
to  avoyd  one  kind  of  furbery  or  cheat  where- 
unto  many  are  subject. — Howell,  Instructions 
for  Forratne  Travail. 

Furibund,  raging ;  furious. 

The  brawny,  not  yet  furibund  figure,  we 
say,  is  Jacques  Dan  ton. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev., 
Pt.  I.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  iv. 

Poor  Louison  Ohabray  .  .  .  has  a  garter 
round  her  neck,  and  furibund  Amazons  at 
each  end.— Ibid.  Pt.  I.  Bk.  VII.  ch.  vii. 

Furicano,  a  jocular  corruption  of 
hurricano. 

They  were  altogether  in  a  plumpe  on 
Chrifltmasse  eve  was  two  yere,  when  the 
great  flood  was,  and  there  stird  up  such  ter- 


nados  and  furicanos  of    tempests. — Xashc, 
Lenten  Stufe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  164). 

Furioso,  a  violent  impetuous  man. 

A  violent  man  and  a  furioso  was  deaf  to 
all  this.— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  218. 

You  would  have  thought  this  one-and- 
twenty  came  in  a  direct  line  from  Hercules, 
he  played  the  Furioso  so  lively. — Gentleman 
Instructed,  p.  19. . 

Furnish,  equipage;    provision.      L. 

has  the  noun  =  sample,  with  extract 

from  Greene  s  Groatsworih  of  Wit. 

Hee  sends  him  a  whole  Furnish  of  all 
vessels  for  his  chamber  of  cleane  gold. — 
Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng,  p.  168. 

Furnishmknt,  supply.  Spenser  (F. 
Q.,  IV.  iii.  38)  has  furniment  =  furni- 
ture. In  the  second  extract  Hacket  has 
been  speaking  of  many  qualifications 
for  the  post  of  Speaker  possessed  by 
Sir  T.  Crew. 

No  other  thing  was  thought  or  talked  on, 
but  onely  preparations  and  furnishments  for 
this  businesse. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  93. 

Yet  with  all  this  furnishment,  out  of  a 
custom  which  modesty  had  observ'd,  Sir 
Thomas  deprecated  the  burthen. — Hacket, 
Life  of  Williams,  i.  176. 

Furr,  far. 
As  Venus  Bird,  the  white,  swift,  lovely  Dove, 

Doth  on  her  wings  her  utmost  swiftness 

prove, 
Finding  the  gripe  of  Falcon  fierce  not  furr. 

Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.*  90. 

Furt,  theft. 

Break  not  the  sacred  league 
By  raising  civil  theft ;  turn  not  your  fvrt 
'Gainst  your  own  bowels. — Albumazar,  V.  i. 

Furthersome,  advantageous. 

In  enterprises  of  pith  a  touch  of  stratagem 
often  proves  furthersome. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev^ 
Pt.  I.  Bk.  III.  ch.  vi. 

Fuse,  the  track  of  a  buck  in  the  grass. 

There  wants  a  scholar  like  an  hound  of  a 
sure  nose,  that  would  not  miss  a  true  scent, 
nor  run  upon  a  false  one,  to  trace  those  old 
Bishops  in  their  fuse.— Hacket,  Life  of  Wil- 
liams, i.  14. 

Fusillade,  to  shoot  with  guns  or 
fusils. 

Military  execution  on  the  instant:  give 
them  shriving  if  they  want  it ;  that  done, 
fusillade  them  all. — Carlyle,  Life  of  Sterling, 
Pt.  I.  ch.  xiii. 

Fuss,  a  term  of  reproach.  Diana  in 
the  Fuss  spoken  of. 


FUSTY 


(  **5  ) 


GAD-FL  Y 


B  it  that  great  ramping  Fuss,  thy  Daughter, 
A  Mankind-Trull  inur'd  to  slaughter, 
To  the  soft  sex's  foul  disgrace, 
Rambles  about  from  place  to  place. 

Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  233. 

Fusty,  moping. 

At  nooa  home  to  dinner,  where  my  wife 
still  in  a  melancholy, /tetfy  humour,  and  cry- 
ing, and  do  not  tell  me  plainly  what  it  is. — 
Pepys,  June  18, 1668. 

Pdttlitarian,  one  who  pursues  what 
is  worthless  ;  a  skit  on  utilitarians.  See 
quotation  j.  v.  Giomanity,  where  the 
word  is  an  adjective.  Cf.  Crazyolo- 
gist,  Foolosopher. 

A*  for  the  whole  race  of  Political  Econo- 
mists, oar  Malthusites,  Benthamites,  Utili- 
tarians, or  Futilitarians,  they  are  to  the 
Gjvernment  of  this  country  such  counsellors 
as  the  magicians  were  to  Fhanoh.—Soutkey, 
The  Doctor,  ch.  xxxv. 


Futiuze,  to  make  futile ;  to  fritter 
away. 

Her  whole  soul  and  essence  is  J 'utilized  and 
extracted  into  show  and  superflcials.— H 
Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  218. 

Futurable.     See  quotation. 

What  the  issue  of  this  conference  con- 
cluded would  have  been,  is  only  known  to 
Him  who  knew  what  the  men  of  Keilah 
would  doe,  and  whose  prescience  extends  not 
only  to  things  future,  but  futurable,  having 
the  certain  cognizance  of  contingents  which 
might,  yet  never  actually  shall,  come  to  passe. 
—Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI.  iii.  51.  ^^ 

Fuzd,  fuddled ;  probably  an  abbrevi- 
ation of  fuzded. 

Tne  University  troop  dined  with  the  B.  of 
Ab.at  Bicot,  and  came  home  well  fuzd  — 
Lift  of  A.  Wood,  July  14, 1685. 


G 


Gab.  Gift  of  the  gab  =  power  of 
talking. 

I  always  knew  you  had  the  gift  of  the  gah 
of  course,  but  I  never  believed  you  were  half 
the  man  yon  are. — Dickens,  Martin  Chuzzle- 
vit,  ch.  xxvii. 

Gabblement,  chattering. 

They  rush  to  the  attack  thousands  strong, 
with  brandished  cutlasses  and  fusils,  with 
caperings,  shoutings,  and  vociferation,  which, 
if  the  Volunteer  Company  stands  firm,  dwin- 
dle into  staggerings,  into  quick  gabblement, 
into  panic  flight  at  the  first  volley,  perhaps 
before  it— CarlyU,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  V. 
ch.  iv. 

Gabelleman,  a  tax-collector. 

He  flung  gabellemen  and  excisemen  into 
the  river  Durance  (though  otherwise  a  most 
dignified,  methodic  man)  when  their  claims 
were  not  clear.— Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  76. 

Gabebt,  "  a  kind  of  lighter  used  in 
the  river  Clyde,  probably  from  the 
French  gabare."  (Note  by  Scott  on 
second  extract.)  The  first  quotation  is 
from  the  Buckinghamshire  Herald, 
June  1,  1793,  and  is  cited  by  Cowper 
in  a  note  to  his  poem,  The  Birds  Nest. 

Glasgow,  May  23.  In  a  block  or  pulley 
near  the  head  of  the  mast  of  a  gabert,  now 
lying  at  the  Broomielaw,  there  is  a  chaffinch's 
nest  and  four  eggs. 

I  swung  and  bobbit  yonder  as  safe  as  a 
gabbart  that's  moored  by  a  three-pUe  cable 
at  the  Broomielaw.— Scott,  Rob  Roy,  ii.  219. 


Gaby,  a  fool. 

Now  dont  stand  laughing  there  like  a 
great  gaby,  but  come  and  shake  hands.— if 
Kxngsley,  Geaffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  ix. 

Gad.     Shakespeare  {Lear,  I.  ii.)  has 

upon  the  gadn  —  upon  the  sudden. 

In  the  extract  it  means  restless,  eoine 

about.  '  6      8 

I  have  no  very  good  opinion  of  Mrs. 
Charles's  nursery -maid.  I  hear  strange 
stones  of  her ;  she  is  always  upon  the  gad.— 
Mtss  Austen,  Persuasion,  ch.  vi. 

Gadabout,  a  rambler;  also  as  an 
adjective. 

Mr.  Binnie  woke  up  briskly  when  the 
Colonel  entered.  "  It  is  yon,  you  gadabout, 
is  it?  "  cried  the  civilian.— Thackeray,  New- 
comes,  ch.  viii. 

Why  should  I  after  all  abuse  the  gadabout 
propensities  of  my  countrymen?  —  Hughes 
Tom  Brown's  School-Days,  ch.  i.  ' 

Gadbee,  gadfly. 

You  see  an  ass  with  a  brizze  or  a  gadbee 
under  bis  tail,  or  fly  that  stings  him,  run 
hither  and  thither  without  keeping  any  path 
or  way.— UrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xliv. 

Gad-fly,  one  who  is  constantly  going 
about ;  a  seeker  after  gaiety. 

Your  Harriet  may  turn  gad-fly,  and  never 

be  easy  but  when  she  is  forming  parties. 

Richardson,  Grandison,  i.  135. 

You  have  a  few  good  qualities ;  are  not  a 


GAG 


(  266  ) 


GALL1  WASP 


modern  woman ;  have  neither  wings  to  your 
shoulders,  nor  gad-Jly  in  your  cap. — Ibid.  v. 
S3. 

Gag.  In  theatrical  slang  an  actor  is 
said  to  gag  when  he  says  more  than  is 
set  down  for  him  in  his  part. 

Little  Swills  in  what  are  professionally 
known  as  "  patter  "  allusions  to  the  subject 
is  received  with  loud  applause ;  and  the  same 
vocalist  **  gaas  "  in  the  regular  business  like 
a  man  inspired. — Dickens,  Bleak  House,  ch. 
xxx  ix. 

Gag,  usually  applied  to  that  which 

keeps  the  mouth  open :  here  to  the  eye. 

The  eyelid  is  set  open  with  the  gags  of 
lust  and  envy. — Adams,  i.  73. 

Gage,  cant  term  for  a  quart  pot.    See 

II. 

I  bowse  no  lage,  but  a  whole  gage 
Of  this  I  bowse  to  you. 

Broome,  Jovial  Crew,  Act  II. 

G aixish,  volatile  (?).  Gain  =  quick : 
usually  in  a  good  sense. 

This  orator  is  not  like  others  of  his  rank, 

Who    from    their    gainish    and   fantastick 
humours 

Go  through  the  streets,  spotted  with  pea- 
cocks' plumes, 

Wearing  all  colours,  laces,  broideries. 

Machin,  Dumb  Knight,  Act  V. 

Gainsay,  contradiction. 

He  .  .  was  the  umpire  in  all  disputes, 
setting  his  hat  on  one  side,  and  giving  his 
decisions  with  an  air  and  tone  admitting  of 
no  gainsay  or  appeal.  —  Irving,  Sketch  Book 
(Sleepy  ifollow). 

Gain  some,  well-favoured  or  fascinat- 
ing ;  opposite  of  ungainly. 

Thou  whom  oft  I  have  seen 
To  personate  a  gentleman,  noble,  wise, 
Faithful,  and  gainsome,  and  what  virtues  else 
The  poet  pleases  to  adorn  you  with. 

Massinger,  Roman  Actor,  iv.  2. 

Galactite,  a  fossil  substance  which, 

when  immersed  in  water,  makes  it  the 

colour  of  milk. 

And  as  base  morter  serveth  to  unite 
Red,  white,  gray  marble,  jasper,  galactite  : 
So,  to  connex  my  queint  discourse,  sometimes 
I  mix  loose,  limping,  and  ill-polisht  rimes. 
Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  51. 

Galenite,  a  physician,  or  disciple  of 

Galen. 

Not  much  unlike  a  skilfull  Galenite, 

Who  (when  the  crisis  comes)  dares  even 

fortell 
Whether  the  patient  shall  do  ill  or  well. 

Sylvester,  The  Trophies,  793. 

Galimatias.  L.  defines  this  "non- 
sense,  talk   without   meaning;"     and 


such  is  the  signification  of  the  word  in 
French,  but  it  is  sometimes  used  for 
mixture  or  hodge-podge,  as  in  the  sub- 
joined. 

Lady  Mary  Wortley  is  arrived.  .  .  .  Her 
dress,  like  her  languages,  is  a  galimatias  of 
several  countries ;  the  groundwork  rags,  and 
the  embroidery  nastiness. —  Walpole,  Letters, 
ii.  332  (1762). 

Gallegalaghes,  Galloglaghes, 
Gallowglasses  (q.  v.  in  N.)f  heavy- 
armed  Irish  foot-soldiers. 

Item,  on  the  second  day  before  the  Ides 
of  November,  the  Lord  Richard  Glare  slew 
fiue  hundred  of  Gallegalaghes.  —  Holland's 
Camden,  ii.  167. 

Also  in  the  same  yeere  Fennynghir 
O'Coughir  slew  Cale-Rotte,  and  with  him  of 
Galloglaghes  and  others  about  three  hundred. 
— Ibid.  p.  172. 

Gallerian,  galley  slave  (Fr.  gale- 
ricri). 

The  prerogative  of  a  private  centinel  above 
a  slave  lies  only  in  the  name,  and  the  ad- 
vantage, if  any,  stands  for  the  gallerian. — 
Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  183. 

Gallicised,  Frenchified,  which  latter 
is  an  old  word,  and  is  used  by  Beau- 
mont and  Fletcher. 

Being,  since  my  travels,  very  much  gal- 
licised in  my  character,  I  ordered  a  pint  of 
claret. — Sydney  Smith,  Letters,  1835. 

Gallipot,  a  contemptuous  name  for 
an  apothecary.     Cf .  Clystebpipe. 

"  One  may  ask  one's  medical  man  to  one's 
table  certainly ;  but  his  family,  my  dear  Mr. 
Snob ! "  "  Half  a  dozen  little  gallipots,11  inter- 
posed Miss  Wirt,  the  governess. — Thackeray, 
Book  of  Snobs,  ch.  xxvii. 

"  It's  Vidler  the  apothecary !  By  heavens, 
Lady  Ann,  I  told  you  it  would  be  so.  Why 
didn't  you  ask  the  Miss  Vidlers  to  your 
ball  ?"...."  Barnes  scratched  their  names,'* 
cried  Ethel,  "  out  of  the  list,  mamma.  Ton 
know  you  did,  Barnes;  you  said  you  had 
gallipots  enough." — Ibid.,  Newcomes,  ch.  xiv. 

Gallivant,  to  roam  about  pleasure- 
seeking. 

You  were  out  all  day  yesterday,  and  galli- 
vanting somewhere,  I  know. — Dickens,  A'ich. 
Nickleby,  ch.  Lriv. 

While  we  find  God's  signet 

Fresh  on  English  ground, 
Why  go  gallivanting 

With  the  nations  round  ? 

C.Kingsley  (Life,  ii.  24). 

Galliwasp,  Celestns  occiduu*,  a 
poisonous  reptile  of  the  W.  Indies. 

Then  all,  sitting  on  the  sandy  turf,  defiant 
of  galliicasps  and  jack-spaniaros,  and  all  the 


GALLOWS 


(  267  ) 


GAME 


weapons  of  the  insect  host,  partook  of  the 
equal  banquet. — C.  Kingsley,  Westward  Ho, 
ch.  xvii. 

Gallows,  braces.    H.  has  gallaces  as 

a  Yorkshire  word. 

The  Reverend  John  Bowie,  Vicar  of  Id- 
miston,  Wiltshire,  was  a  thick-set  man  in  gar- 
ments which,  though  originally  black,  had 
been  tanned  by  many  a  summer's  sun  into  a 
russet  brown  ;  his  underclothes  were  unsup- 
ported by  those  indispensable  articles  of 
decent  attire  denominated  gallows,  and  his 
wig  was  a  counterpart  of  Dr.  Parr's.  — 
Warner's  Literary  Recollections,  i.  100. 

Gallows,  very. 

The  pleece  come  in,  and  got  g alters  well 
kicked  about  the  head. — H.  Kingsley,  Ravens- 
hoe,  ch.  xli. 

Gallows-bird,  a  criminal ;  one  who 
has  suffered  on  the  gallows,  or  deserves 
to  do  so. 

It  is  ill  to  check  sleep  or  sweat  in  a  sick 
man,  said  he;  I  know  that  far,  though  I 
n**er  minced  ape  nor  gallows-bird. — Readef 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  xxviii. 

G  allows  -  faced,  rascally  -  looking. 
So  Goldsmith  (Good-natured  Man,  Act 
V.),  "  Hold  him  fast,  he  has  the  gallows 
in  his  face."  CI  gallows-looking  in 
extract  from  Ingoldsby  Legends,  s.  v. 
Carpet-swab.  Irving  in  the  Sketch 
Book  describes  Rip  van  Winkle's  dog 
as  sneaking  about  "  with  a  gallows  air," 
L  e.  a  hang-dog  air. 

Art  thou  there,  thou  rogue,  thou  hang- 
dog, thou  gallows-faced  vagabond  ?  —  H. 
Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  ii.  16. 

Gallowsness,  badness. 

Spinning  indeed !  It  isn't  spinning  as  you'd 
be  at,  111  be  bound,  and  let  you  have  your 
own  way ;  I  never  knew  your  equals  for 
gallowsness. — G.  Eliot,  Adam  Bede,  ch.  vi. 

Gallows-ripe,  ready  for  hanging. 

Jourdan  himself  remains  unhanged ;  gets 
loose  again  as  one  not  yet  gallows-ripe. — 
Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  V.  ch.  in. 

Gallows-strings,  a  term  of  reproach. 
Cf.  Crack-rope,  Hang-string. 

Ay,  hang  him,  little  Gallows-strings, 
He  does  a  thousand  of  these  things. 
Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  214. 

Gally,  to  frighten  or  bewilder.     See 

N.  s.  v.  gallow. 

The  next  day  being  Sunday,  call'd  by  the 
natives  of  this  country  [Devonshire]  Maze- 
Snnday  (and  indeed  not  without  some  rea- 
son, for  the  people  looked  as  if  they  were 
gal  lied),  I  was  wak'd  by  the  tremendous  sound 
of  a  horse-trumpet. — T.  Brown,  Works,u\.205. 


Galooned,  trimmed  with  galoon  lace. 

Those  enormous  habiliments  .  .  were  not 
only  slashed  and  galooned,  but  artificially 
swollen-out  on  the  broader  parts  of  the  body 
by  introduction  of  bran.  —  Carlyle,  Sartor 
Resartus,  Bk.  I.  ch.  vii. 

Galopin,  a  street  boy.  Scott  has 
not  marked  the  word  aB  a  foreign  one, 
(1.  e.  it  is  not  in  italics),  though  it  is  of 
course  French. 

"  He  gave  me  half-a-crown  vince,  and  for- 
bade me  to  play  it  awa'  at  pitch  and  toss." 
u  And  you  disobeyed  him,  of  course  ?  n  **  Na, 
I  didna  disobeyed  him :  I  played  it  awa'  at 
neevie-neevie-nick-nack."  "Well,  there  is 
sixpence  for  thee ;  lose  it  to  the  devil  in  any 
way  thou  think'st  proper."  So  saying  he 
gave  the  little  galopin  his  donation. — Scott, 
St.  Ro nan's  Well,  ii.  197. 

Galra verging,  wandering  about  ; 
gallivanting. 

The  elderly  women  . .  .  had  their  plays  in 
out-houses  and  by-places,  just  as  the  witches 
lang  syne  had  their  sinful  possets  and  galra- 
vitchings. — Gait,  Annals  of  Parish,  ch.  ii. 

She  thinks  as  because  she's  gone  galra- 
verging,  I  maun  ha'  missed  her,  and  be 
ailing. — Mrs.  Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  vi. 

Galy  halfpenny.  Venetian  mer- 
chants who  traded  to  England  in  their 
gal  lies  brought  their  own  money,  called 
galley-halfpence,  to  trade  with,  to  the 
injury  of  our  countrymen.  They  were 
repeatedly  forbidden  by  our  sove- 
reigns, Hen.  IV.,  V.,  VI.,  and  VIII. ; 
and  the  holders  of  them  were  required  to 
send  them  to  the  Tower,  to  be  changed 
into  English  money.  See  N.  and  Q., 
IV.  ii.  344,  501,  whence  the  first  quot- 
ation is  taken. 

1521-22.  Resaved  for  ij  voces  of  galy- 
halfepenys  sold  this  yere  vi"  iiij4. — Church- 
wardens* Account-Book. 

He  himself  hath  thousands  lying  by  him 
in  store  unoccupied,  and  will  neither  help 
his  poor  neighbour,  nor  scarcely  give  a  galy 
halfpenny  to  a  needy  creature  in  extreme 
necessity.  —  Barlow's  Dialoge,  1553  (Jfait- 
land's  Ref,  p.  307). 

Gambalocke.    The  word  is  explained 

in  the  margin  as  "  a  kind   of  riding 

gowne." 

Clothed  he  [an  Arab  sheik]  was  in  a 
Gambalocke  of  scarlet ;  battened  vnder  the 
chin  with  a  bosse  of  gold. — Sandys,  Travels, 
p.  153. 

Game,  of  good  courage ;  game  for  = 

up  to,  ready  for. 

Hold  up  your  head,  and  show  'em  your 
face ;  I  an't  jealous,  but  I'm  blessed  if  I  an 't 
game. — Sketches  by  Boz  (Prisoners7  Van). 


GAME 


(  26S) 


GANNYNG 


If  you  don't  stop  your  jaw  about  him, 
you'll  have  to  fight  me ;  and  tbat>  a  little 
more  than  you're  game  for,  I'm  thinking. — 
H.  Kingsley,  Geoff ry  Hamlyn,  ch.  xxvi. 

Game,  lame  or  crooked :  a  corruption 
of  cam  or  kam. 

It  was  converted  into  an  inn,  and  marked 
by  a  huge  sign  representing  on  the  one  side 
St.  Bonan  catching  hold  of  the  devil's  gam* 
leg  with  his  episcopal  crook,  as  the  story 
may  be  read  in  his  veracious  legend,  and  on 
the  other  the  Mowbray  Arms.  —  Scott,  St. 
Bonan* i  Welly  i.  11. 

The  chair,  which  Bacon  was  requested  to 
take  on  entering,  broke  down  with  the  pub- 
lisher. Warrington  burst  out  laughing,  said 
that  Bacon  had  got  the  game  chair,  and 
bawled  out  to  Pen  to  fetch  a  sound  one  from 
his  bedroom. — Thackeray,  Pendennis,  ch.  xli. 

Gamefull,  adj.  =  full  of  game. 

Thy  long  discourse 

Of  gamefull  parks,  of  meadowes  fresh,  ay- 
spring-like  pleasant  fields. 

Holland's  Camden,  p.  290. 

Gameness,  pluck ;  spirit 

Whatever  else  you  might  think  of  Blake, 
there  was  no  doubt  about  his  gameness. — 
Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xxiv. 

Gamester.  See  extract  The  Vale 
referred  to  is  the  Vale  of  White  Horse. 

I  must  tell  you,  as  shortly  as  I  can,  how 
the  noble  old  game  of  back-sword  is  played ; 
for  it  is  sadly  gone  out  of  late,  even  in  the 
Vale,  and  may  be  you  have  never  seen  it. 
The  weapon  is  a  good  stout  ash-stick  with  a 
large  basket-handle,  heavier  and  somewhat 
shorter  than  a  common  single-stick.  The 
players  are  called  "  old  gamesters  " — why,  I 
can't  tell  you — and  their  object  is  simply  to 
break  one  another's  heads :  for  the  moment 
that  blood  runs  an  inch  anywhere  above  the 
eyebrow,  the  old  gamester  to  whom  it  belongs 
is  beaten,  and  has  to  stop.  —  Hughes,  Tom 
Brown's  School-Days,  ch.  ii. 

Gamestress,  female  gambler. 

To  two  characters,  hitherto  thought  the 
most  contradictory,  the  sentimental  and  the 
flirting,  she  writes  yet  a  third,  till  now  be- 
lieved incompatible  with  the  pleasures  and 
pursuits  of  either ;  this,  I  need  not  tell  you, 
is  that  of  a  gamestress.  —  Mad.  D'ArUay, 
Camilla,  Bk.  X.  ch.  v. 

Gamey,  brave  (slang). 

**  Youll  be  shot,  I  see,"  observed  Mercy. 
"Well,ncriedMr.Baile;r,Mwotff  lam;  there's 
something  gamey  in  it,  young  ladies,  ain't 
there?" — Dickens,  Martin  Chuzslewit,  ch.  xi. 

Gammon,  to  wheedle  with  flattery ;  to 
deceive ;  also  as  a  substantive. 

So  then  they  pours  him  out  a  glass  of  wine, 


and  gammons  him  about  his  driving,  and  gets 
him  into  a  reg'lar  good  humour. — Dickens, 
Pickw'ck  Papers,  ch.  riii. 

Lord  bless  their  little  hearts,  they  thinks 
it's  all  right,  and  don't  know  no  better,  but 
they're  the  wictims  o'  gammon,  Samivel, 
they're  the  wictims  o'  gammon. — Ibid.  ch. 
zxvii. 

In  short  the  Pedler  so  beset  her, 
Lord    Bacon   couldn't  have  gammoned  her 

better  .—Hood,  Tale  of  a  Trumpet. 

Gamner,  a  gambler. 

Thoughe  these  verses  be  very  ernestlie 
wrytten,  yet  they  do  not  halfe  so  griaely 
sette  oat  the  horyblenes  of  blasphemy  which 
sue  he  gamners  vse,  as  it  is  indede,  and  as  I 
have  hearde  my  seU.—Ascham,  Toxophilus, 
p.  56. 

Gamming,  gambling. 

When  the  nyghte  and  lurking  corners 
giueth  lease  occasion  to  vnthriftinesse  than 
lyghte  daye  and  opennes,  then  shal  shotynge 
and  such  gamninge  be  in  summe  comparison 
lyke. — Ascham,  Toxophilus,  p.  53. 

Finding  his  conscience  deepelye  gauld 
with  thee  owtragious  oathes  hee  vsed  too 
thunder  owt  in  gamening,  hee  made  a  few 
verses  as  yt  were  his  cygnea  oratio. — Stany- 
hurst,  Epitaphes,  p.  153. 

Gan,  cant  term  for  a  mouth. 

This  bowse  is  better  than  rom-bowse, 
It  sets  the  gan  a  giggling. 

Broome,  A  Jovial  Crew,  Act  II. 

Gander,  to  ramble,  gad. 

Then  she  had  remembered  the  message 
about  any  one  calling  being  shown  up  to 
the  drawing-room,  and  had  gandertd  down 
to  the  hall  to  give  it  to  the  porter;  after 
which  she  gandertd  upstairs  to  the  dressing- 
room  again.  —  H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch. 
zlvn. 

Who  knows  but  what  Nell  might  come 
gandering  back  in  one  of  her  tantrums  and 

ril  everything?  —  Ibid.,  Geoffry  Hamlyn, 
x. 

Ganders'  wool,  feathers.  Cf. 
Feather-headed. 

Such  braines  belined  with  gander1 's-tcooll. — 
Breton,  PasqviVs  FooVs-cappe,  p.  23. 

Ganger,  foreman  of  a  gang  of 
navvies. 

On  Saturday  evening  a  man  named  Charles 
Frost,  a  ganger  in  the  employ  of  the  Midland 
Bailway  Company,  was  run  over,  about  half 
a  mile  from  the  Matlock  Bridge  Station,  by 
a  special  fish  train  from  Manchester. — Leeds 
Mercury,  May  8th,  1871. 

Gannyng,  giving  ? 

Augustus  .  .  after  gannyng  hym  thanks, 
commaunded  a  thousande  pieces  of  money 
to  be  genen  him  in  reward. — UdaTs  Eras- 
mus1s  Apophth.,  p.  277. 


GAOLBIRD 


(  **9) 


GARGANET 


Gaol-bird,  a  criminal.  L.  has  jail- 
bird, but  with  quotation  from  no  earlier 
source  than  T.  Moore.  Jail-bird  occurs 
in  Davies's  Sonnet  to  Lady  Rich,  and  is 
used  adjectivally,  "  a  jail-bird  heauenly 
nightingale/1 

It  is  the  piety  and  the  true  valour  of  an 
army,  which  gives  them  heart  and  victory ; 
which  how  it  can  be  expected  out  of  ruffians 
mdgaolJrirds,  I  leave  to  your  consideration. 
—Hist,  of  Edward  II.,  p.  146. 

The  poor  innocent  man  had  been  in  danger 
of  being  hanged  for  a  traitor  to  King  James, 
by  the  perjury  of  these  two  gaol-bird*. — 
Sprat,  Relation  of  Young's  Contrivance,  1692 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi  254). 

A  battle  shall  be  more  successfully  fought 
by  serving  men,  posters,  bailiffs,  padders, 
rognea,  jail-birds,  aod  such  like  tag-rags  of 
mankind  than  by  the  most  accomplished 
philosophers. — Keimefs  Erasmus,  Praise  of 
Folly,  p.  31. 

Gaolebess,  female  gaoler. 

My  saucy  gaoleress  assured  me  that  all  my 
oppositions  would  not  signify  that  pinch  of 
snuff. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  ii.  72. 

Gapes.  The  gapes  =  a  fit  of  yawn- 
ing. 

Another  hour  of  music  was  to  give  delight 
or  the  gapes,  as  real  or  affected  taste  for  it 
prevailed. — Miss  Austen,  Persuasion,  ch.  xx. 

Gaping  stock,  object  of  open-mouthed 
wonder. 

I  was  to  be  a  gaping  stock  and  a  scorn  to 
the  young  volunteers. — Godwin,  Mandeville, 
ii.  40. 

Gapped,  a  slang  term  for  getting  the 
worst  of  it.  The  second  quotation 
where  the  word  =  jigged,  illustrates 
the  first.  In  the  third  extract  it  refers 
to  the  thinning  of  the  ranks  of  troops 
under  fire. 

I  will  never  meet  at  hard-edge  with  her ; 
if  I  did  (and  yet  I  have  been  thought  to  carry 
a  good  one)  I  should  be  confoundedly  gappea, 
I  can  see  that  (alluding  to  two  knives,  I 
suppose,  gapping  each  other). — Richardson, 
Grandison,  l.  120. 

My  uncle  Toby  knew  little  of  the  world ; 
and  therefore  when  he  felt  he  was  in  love 
with  widow  Wadman,  he  had  no  conception 
that  the  thing  was  any  more  to  be  made  a 
mystery  of  than  if  Mrs.  Wadman  had  given 
him  a  cut  with  a  gap'd  knife. — Sterne,  Trist. 
Shandy,  vi.  66 

Beady!  take  aim  at  their  leader — their 
masses  are  gapp'd  with  our  grape.—  Tennyson, 
Defence  of  Lucknow. 

Gabb,  to  clothe. 

These  black  dog-Dons 
Garb  themselves  bravely. 

Tennyson,  Queen  Mary,  III.  i. 


Garbage,  to  gut,  or  clean  (fish,  &c). 

His  cooke  founde  the  same  ring  in  the 
bealy  of  a  fyshe  which  he  garbaiged  to 
dresse  for  his  Lordes  diner. — UdaVs  Eras- 
mus's Apophth.,  p.  182. 

The  cob  had  maunged  the  gobets  foule 
garbaged  haulfe  quick.  —  Stanyhurst,  j&n., 
lii.  639. 

Pilchards  .  .  .  are  then  taken,  garbaged, 
salted,  hanged  in  the  smoake.  —  Holland's 
Camden,  p.  186. 

Garcion.  See  quotation  and  extract 
s.  v.  Gromet. 

It  seemeth  some  of  these  Anti-Boreals 
were  men  of  Gentile  extraction,  especially 
the  two  first  (styled  in  the  pardon  Masters), 
importing,  I  believe,  more  than  the  bare 
umversitie  title ;  as  also  Bartholomew  de 
Walton  and  William  his  brother,  because 
waited  on  by  William  de  Merton,  their  gar- 
cion, that  is,  their  servant.  For  it  cometh 
from  the  French  Garcon,  or  the  Italian,  Gar- 
zone,  and  is  used  even  by  the  barbarous 
Grecians  of  the  middle  ages,  yap£ovviov 
ir  a  pa  AaTtvoi*  rd  irai&lov. — Fuller,  Camb. 
Univ.,  i  48. 

Garden  age,  horticulture,  also  garden- 
stuff.  R.  gives  this  word  s.  v.  garden, 
and  quotes  another  passage  from  Hol- 
land's Pliny,  in  which  it  occurs,  but  by 
a  misprint  gardeninge  is  given  in  the 
extract. 

Since  they  be  grown  into  so  great  request, 
I  must  not  ouer-passe  the  gardtnage  to  them 
belonging. — Holland,  Pliny,  zix.  8. 

He  [Evelyn]  read  to  me  very  much  also  of 
his  discourse  ne  hath  been  many  years  and 
now  is  about,  about  Gardenage,  which  will 
be  a  most  noble  and  pleasant  piece. — Pepys, 
Nov.  5, 1666. 

The  street  was  also  appropriated  to  the  sale 
of  fish  and  gardenage. — Man,  Hist,  of  Reading 
(1816),  p.  147. 

Garden-gout.  See  extract.  Garden- 
houses  had  a  bad  reputation,  and  in 
Peel e' s  Jests  garden-whore  =  a  very 
common  prostitute. 

When  young  men  by  whoring,  as  it  com- 
monly falls  out,  get  the  pox,  which,  by  way 
of  extenuation,  they  call  the  common  garden- 
gout  {Neapolitanam  scabiem)  ...  do  they  not 
epicurize  gloriously  ?  —  Bailey's  Erasmus,  p. 
405. 

Gardenhood,  the  idea  or  aspect  of  a 

garden. 

Except  some  thousand  more  lamps  and  a 
covered  passage  all  round  the  garden  which 
took  off  from  the  gardenhood,  there  was 
nothing  better  than  on  a  common  night. — 
Walpole,  Utters,  iii  279  (1769). 

Garganet,  jewelled  collar;  usually 
written  carcanet. 


GARGARISM 


(  *7o  ) 


GAUDY 


Thee  Pearle  and  gould  crowns  too  bring 
with  yaryanet  heauye.  —  St  any  hurst,  JEn., 
i.  630. 

Gargarism,  a  gargle.  In  the  extract 
(which  see  more  at  length  *.  v.  Bur) 
it  is  used  figuratively  for  something 
that  sticks  in  the  throat. 

They  . . .  cracked  their  voices  for  ever  with 
metaphysical  gargarisms. — Milton,  Reason  of 
Ch.  Government,  Conclusion. 

Garget,  a  swelling  in  the  throat 
(Fr.  gar  gate,  the  windpipe) ;  yet  this 
does  not  seem  to  be  the  meaning  in  the 
two  last  extracts. 

The  drunkard  is  without  a  head,  the 
swearer  hath  a  yaryet  in  his  throat. — Adams, 
i.  123. 

If  it  were  granted  that  the  covetous  were 
mad,  the  world  itself  would  run  of  a  yaryet; 
for  who  18  not  bitten  with  this  mad  dog  ? — 
Ibid.  i.  280. 

The  proud  man  is  bitten  of  the  mad  dog, 
the  flatterer,  and  so  runs  on  a  yaryet. — Ibid. 
i.  486. 

Garlandry,  filleting. 

The  lavished  yarlandry  of  woven  brown 
hair  amazed  me. — Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch. 
xiv. 

Garnish- mo  net,    commission    for 

trouble    taken ;    garnish    usually    = 

prisoner's  fees. 

You  are  content  with  the  ten  thousand  pound, 
Defalking  the  four  hundred  garnish-money  ? 
Jonsont  Maynetic  Lady,  v.  6. 

Garstun.     See  extract. 

A  small  paddock  or  yarstun,  called  from  a 
former  owner  of  the  land,  Purbrick's  Close. 
— Arch.,  xxxvii.  140  (1857). 

Garth,  a  small  enclosure. 

Few  people  are  here  buried  in  their  kirks, 
except  of  their  nobility,  but  in  the  Idrk-yarths. 
—Modern  Account  of  Scotland,  1670  {Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  138). 

The  Cross  made  in  the  infant's  forehead, 
(All  godly  Protestants  abhor  it), 
Is  Superstition,  so  are  Crosses 
In  Kirk-Garths,  and  in  market-places. 
Ward,  England's  Reformation,  ch.  iii.  p.  200. 

Then  calling  down  a  blessing  on  his  head, 
Caught  at  his  hand,  and  wrung  it  passion- 
ately, 
And  passed  into  the  little  garth  beyond. 

Tennyson,  Enoch  Arden. 

Gaselier,  a  pendent  lamp  lighted  by 
gas. 

As  we  both  entered  the  drawing-room,  we 
found  Bell  standing  right  under  the  central 
gaselier,  which  was  pouring  its  rays  down 
on  her  wealth  of  golden-brown  hair. — Black, 
Adventures  of  a  Phffton,  ch.  iii. 


Gashly,  ghastly ;  now  a  vulgarism. 

Their  warm  and  wanton  embraces  of  living 
bodies  ill  agreed  with  their  offerings  I>iis 
manibus  to  gashly  ghosts.  —  Fuller,  Pisyah 
Siyht,  IV.  vii.  27. 

By  all  that  is  hirsute  and  yashly!  I  cry, 
taking  off  my  furr'd  cap,  and  twisting  it 
round  my  finger,  I  would  not  give  sixpence 
for  a  dozen  such. — Tr.  Shandy,  v.  215. 

Gassampine,  cotton  cloth  (?) ;  gos- 
sampine  (Cotgrave)  and  gossamptno 
(Florio)  =  the  cotton  plant 

And  on  his  altar's  fume  these  Turkey  cloths. 
This  gassampine  and  gold  I'll  sacrifice. 

Greene,  Looking  Glass  for  London,  p.  135. 

Gastfulness,  ghastliness. 

...  A  aolitarie  darkness :  which  as  natur- 
ally it  breeds  a  kinde  of  irksome  yastfulnt  .<«, 
so  it  was  to  him  a  most  present  terror. — 
Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  406. 

Gastrolater,  one  whose  god  is  his 
belly. 

Pantagruel  observed  two  sorts  of  trouble- 
some and  too  officious  apparitors,  whom  he 
very  much  detested.  The  first  were  called 
Engastrimythes,  the  others  Gastrolaters. — 
Vrquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  lviii. 

Gastrolatrous,  belly- worshipping. 

The  variety  we  perceived  in  the  dresses  of 
the  gastrolatrous  coquillons  was  not  less. — 
Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  lviii. 

Gate,  to  confine  to  college,  t.  e .  within 
the  gates :  a  penalty  sometimes  inflict- 
ed at  the  Universities. 

The  dean  gave  him  a  book  of  Virgil  to 
write  out,  and  gated  him  for  a  fortnight  after 
hall. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xii. 

Gate,  to  go.  H.  says,  "  the  track  of 
an  animal  was  called  his  gate.11 

Three  stags  sturdye  were  vnder 
Neere  the  seacost  yatiny,  theym  slot  thee 

clusterus  heerdflock 
In  greene  frith  browsing. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.  190. 

Gateless,  without  a  gate  or  approach ; 
inaccessible. 

Some  say  that  gold  hath  power 
To  enter  without  force  a  gateless  tower. 

Machin,  Dumb  Knight,  V.  i. 

Gatetrip,  footstep ;  mode  of  walk- 
ing. 

Too  moothers  counsayl  thee  fyrye  Cupid o 

doth  barcken, 
Of  puts  he  his  feathers,  fauoring  with  gaie- 

trip  lulus. — Stanyhurst,  jEn.,  i.  675. 

Gaudy,  gaiety. 

Balls  set  off  with  all  the  glittering  gavdy 


GAUM 


(271  ) 


GEESE 


of  silk  and  silver  are  far  more  transporting 
than  country  wakes. — Gentleman  Instructed, 
p.  553. 

Gaum,  sensible. 

She  were  a  poor  friendless  wench,  a  parish 
prentice,  but  honest  and  gaum~\ike,  till  a  lad 
as  nobody  knowed  come  o'er  the  hills  one 
sheep-shearing  fra'  Whitehaven. — Mrs.  Gas- 
Jcdly  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  xv. 

Gaum,  to  paw  about. 

Don't  be  mauming  and  gauming  a  body  so. 
Can't  you  keep  your  filthy  hands  to  your- 
self ?— Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Oonv.  ii.). 

Gaumless,  vacant;  half  silly:  a 
North  country  word.  Gaum  (connect- 
ed with  Gumption,  q.  v.)  =  to  under- 
stand. A.  S.  gyman%  to  perceive.  See 
Robinson1  s  Whitby  Glossary  (E.  D.  S.). 

Did  I  ever  look  so  stupid :  so  "  gaumless  " 
as  Joseph  calls  it? — E.  Bronte,  Wuthering 
Heights,  ch.  xxi. 

Gaunch,  impalement  on  a  hook;  a 
Turkish  punishment :  the  verb  is  in  the 
Diets. 

I  swear  by  our  prophet  and  the  God  of  our 
prophet,  that  I  would  rather  suffer  the  gaunch 
than  put  the  smallest  constraint  on  your 
person  or  inclinations. — H.  Brooke,  Fool  of 
(polity,  ii.  289. 

Gaunt,  to  make  lean. 

Lyke  rauening  woolfdams  vpsoackt  and 
(jaunted  in  hunter. — Stanyhurst,  jSh.,  ii.  366. 

Gaufub,  a  gaby.  H.  has  "  gaups,  a 
simpleton.     South." 

The  great  qaupus  never  seed  that  I  were 
pipeclaying  the  same  places  twice  over. — 
Mrs.  Gaskell,  Ruth,  ch.  xvi. 

Gaur,  a    large    animal    of    the   ox 

species. 

The  Major  [has  stuck  many  a  pig,  shot 
many  a  gaur,  rhinoceros,  and  elephant. — C. 
Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xviii. 

Gawish.  H.  gives,  "  Gawish,  gay : 
it  occurs  in  Wright's  Display  of  Dutie, 
4to,  Lond.,  1589 ; "  but  in  the  subjoined 
it  seems  =  foolish. 

A  oawish  traveller  that  came  to  Sparta  . .  . 
standing  in  the  presence  of  Lacon  a  long  time 
upon  one  leg,  that  he  might  be  observed 
and  admired,  cried  at  the  last,  "  O  Lacon, 
thou  canst  not  stand  so  long  upon  one  leg." 
"  True,"  said  Lacon,  "  but  every  goose  can." 
—Adams,  i.  502. 

Gawk,  an  awkward  lounging  fellow. 

A  certain  gawk,  named  Chevalier  de  Gas- 
**ud,  accustomed  to  visit  in  the  bouse  at 
Manosque,  sees  good  to  commence  a  kind  of 
theoretic  flirtation  with  the  little  brown  wife. 
—CarlyU,  Misc.,  iv.  98. 


A  Duke  of  Weissenfels  for  instance :  fool- 
ish old  gawk,  whom  Wilhelmina  Princess 
Boyal  recollects  for  his  distracted  notions. — 
Ibid.  iv.  359. 

Gawky,  is  only  given  as  an  adjective 
in  the  Diets.  The  extract  is  quoted  in 
Archceol.  xxiv.  188. 

Some  wear  their  hats  on,  pointed  into  the 
air ;  those  are  the  Gawkies. — London  Chron- 
icle, xi.  167  (1762). 

Gawne  (apparently),  to  long  after 
or  reach  after. 

I  take  not  I,  as  some  do  take, 
To  gape  and  gawne  for  honours  hye, 

But  Court  and  Cayser  to  forsake, 
And  lyue  at  home  full  quyetlye. 

Googe,  Sonnette  to  H.  Cobham. 

Gayitby,  finery. 

A  bride  (though  never  so  mean  a  person 
or  silly  servant)  is  decked  and  dressea  in  all 
gayitry  lent  unto  her  by  her  neighbours. — 
Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  IV.  vi.  5. 

Gays,  usually  means  pictures  (see  L. 
and  N.),  but  here  =  gaiety  or  showy 
things  generally.  Breton  has  it  in  the 
singular. 

And  though  perhaps  most  commonly  each 

youth 

Is  giuen  in  deede  to  follow  euery  gaye  ; 

And  some  of  these  are  touched  with  vn truth, 

Yet  some  there  be  that  take  a  better  waye. 

Breton,  Toyes  of  an  Idle  Head,  p.  28. 

O  how  I  grieue  deer  Earth,  that  (given  to 

g*y*) 

Most  of  best  wits  contemn  thee  now  a  days : 
And  noblest  hearts  proudly  abandon  quight 
Study  of  hearbs,  and  country  life's  delight." 
Sylvester,  3rd  day,  1st  weeke,  1040. 

Gazke,  person  gazed  at. 

Such  a  group  would  relieve  both  parties — 
gazer  and  gazee — from  too  distressing  a  con- 
sciousness.— De  Quincey,  Autob.  Sketches,  i. 
157. 

Gazeless,  unseeing ;  not  looking. 

Desire  lies  dead  upon  the  gazeless  eye. 
Wolcot ,  P.  Pindar,  p.  98. 

Gee-ho.  See  first  extract  A  gee- 
ho-coach  seems  to  be  a  heavy  coach 
from  the  country. 

They  drew  all  their  heavy  goods  here 
[Bristol]  on  sleds  or  sledges,  which  they  call 
Gee-hoes,  without  wheels. — Defoe,  Tour  thro* 
G.  Britain,  ii.  814. 

Ply  close  at  inns  upon  the  coming  in  of 
waggons  and  gee-JuMsoachn.  —  T.  Brown, 
Works,  ii.  262. 

Geese.  A  man  who  thinks  his  own 
geese  swans  is  one  who  over-estimates 
what  belongs  to  him.     It  will  be  seen 


GELASTIC 


(  272  )        GENSDARMERY 


that  Bailey |  in  substituting  an  English 
proverb  for  the  Latin,  has  somewhat 
spoilt  the  appropriateness  of  the  re- 
joinder. 

Ga.  Every  man's  own  geese  are  swans  (sua 
cut  que  sponsa  videtur  pulcherrima). 

Al.  If  that  proverb  held  good,  we  should 
not  have  so  many  adulteries. — Bailey's  Eras- 
mus, p.  316. 

Tygh  high,  tygh  high,  and  sweet  delight ! 

He  tickles  this  age  who  can 
Call  Tullia's  ape  a  marmasite, 

And  Leda's  goose  a  swan. 

British  Bibliographer,  quoted  in  Southey's 
Doctor,  Interchapter  vii. 

And  now  as  to  Dr.  Whately,  I  owe  him  a 
great  deal.  He  was  a  man  of  generous  and 
warm  heart,  fie  was  particularly  loyal  to 
his  friends,  and,  to  use  the  common  phrase, 
" all  his  geese  were  swans" — Newman,  Apolo- 
gia, p.  60. 

Gelastic,  something  risible :  both  a 
substantive  and  adjective. 

My  friendly  pill  .  .  causes  all  com- 
plexions to  laugh  or  smile,  even  in  the  very 
time  of  taking  it,  which  it  effects  by  dilating 
and  expanding  the  gelastic  muscles.  —  T. 
Brown,  Works,  ii.  140. 

Happy  man  would  be  his  dole  who,  when 
he  had  made  up  hi*  mind  in  dismal  resolu- 
tion to  a  dreadful  course  of  drastics,  should 
find  that  gelastics  had  been  substituted,  not 
of  the  Sardonian  kind. — Southey,  The  Doctor, 
ch.  extraordinary. 

Gelt,  tax. 

All  these  the  king  granted  unto  them 
cum  Sacha  tt  Socha,  Tol  and  Teum,  &c.,  free 
from  all  gelts  and  payments. — Fuller,  Wal- 
tham  Abbey j  p.  7. 

Gemmary,  knowledge  of  gems.  Sir 
T.  Browne  has  gemmary  as  an  adjec- 
tive. 

In  painting  and  gemmary  Fortunato,  like 
his  countrymen,  was  a  quack. — E.  A.  Poe, 
Cask  of  Amontillado. 

Gemmen,  vulgar  abbreviation  of 
gentlemen. 
At  home  our  Bow-street  gemmen  keep  the 

laws. — Byron,  Beppo,  st.  86. 

Here  the  new  maid  chimed  in,  "  Ma'am,  salts 

of  lemon 
Will  make  it  in  no  time  quite  fit  for  the 

gemman." 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (Aunt  Fanny). 

Genealogy,  offspring;  generation. 

The  family  consisted  of  an  old  grey-headed 
man  and  his  wife,  with  five  or  six  sons  and 
sons-in-law,  and  their  several  wives,  and  a 
joyous  genealogy  out  of  them. — Sterne,  Sent. 
Journey,  The  Slipper. 


General  ess,  female  general. 

He  hastily  nominates  or  sanctions  gensr- 
alesses,  captains  of  tens  and  fifties. — Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  VII.  ch.  v. 

Genethliac,  a  nativity  caster. 

Oommend  me  here  to  all  genethliacs,  casters 
of  nativities,  star- worshippers,  by  this  token, 
that  they  are  all  impostors,  and  here  proved 
fools. — Adams,  i.  9. 

Do  not  the  hist'ries  of  all  ages 
Relate  miraculous  presages 
Of  strange  turns  in  the  world's  affairs 
Foreseen  by  astrologers,  soothsayers, 
Ghaldseans,  learn 'd  genethliacks, 
And  some  that  have  writ  almanacks  ? 

Hudibras,  II.  iii.  689. 

Genetic,  pertaining  to  the  genesis 
or  origin  of  things. 

All  revolutions,  articles,  and  achievements 
whatsoever,  the  greatest  and  the  smallest 
which  this  world  ever  beheld,  have  not  once, 
but  often,  in  their  course  of  genesis  depended 
on  the  veriest  trifles.  ...  So  inscrutable  is 
genetic  history ;  impracticable  the  theory  of 
causation,  and  transcends  all  calculus  of 
man's  devising. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  78. 

Genetical,  having  relation  to  the 
genesis  or  origin. 

A  complete  picture  and  Genetical  History 
of  the  Man  and  his  spiritual  Endeavour  lies 
before  you. — Carlyle,  Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  I. 
ch.  xi. 

Geneva  print,  sometimes  applied  to 
drink  (see  quotation  from  Massinger  in 
L.),  and  this  is  also  the  meaning,  I 
suppose,  of  a  passage  in  Chapman's 
Moris.  D' Olive,  Act  II.,  where  a  puri- 
tanical weaver,  whose  "  face  was  like 
the  ten  of  diamonds,  pointed  each- 
where  with  pushes,"  is  said  to  be 
"purblind  with  the  Geneva  print;11 
there  being  an  equivoque  intended 
between  his  spiritual  and  spirituous 
studies.  In  the  subjoined,  however,  it 
signifies  a  puritanical  fashion  in  dress. 

Shee  is  a  nonconformist  in  a  close  sto- 
macher and  ruffle  of  Geneua  print,  and  her 
puritie  consists  much  in  her  linen. — Earfe, 
Microcosmographie  (Shee  precise  Hypocrite). 

Gensdarmery,  a  corps  or  army. 

Had  the  gensdarmery  of  our  great  writers 
no  other  enemy  to  fight  with  ? — Hacket,  Uf'e 
of  WiUiams,  i.*102. 

The  greater  part  of  the  gentry  now  dis- 
persed ;  the  whimsical  misfortune  which  had 
befallen  the  gens  oVarnverie  of  Tillietndlem 
furnishing  them  with  huge  entertainment. — 
Scott,  Old  Mortality,  ch.  iii. 


GENS  HARMES        (  273  ) 


GERR1NG 


Gens  d'armes,  soldiers. 

We  come  not  here,  my  lord,  said  they,  with 

armes 
For  to  resist  the  chok  of  thy  Gens  d'armes. 

Hudson,  Judith,  v.  538. 

Genteelize,  to  become  or  make  gen- 
teel.   See  Gentilize. 

A  man  cannot  dress  but  his  ideas  get 
cloth 'd  at  the  same  time ;  and  if  he  dresses 
like  a  gentleman,  every  one  of  them  stands 
presented  to  his  imagination  genteelized  along 
with  him.— ^r/w,  Trist.  Shandy,  vi.  138. 

Gentilize,  to  raise  to  the  rank  of 
gentleman.  Milton,  as  quoted  by  R. 
and  L.,  has  the  participle  =  adopting 
Gentile  habits.     See  Genteelize. 

Dissembling  broakers,  made  of  all  deceipts, 
Who  falsine  your  measures  and  your  weights 
T*  inrich  yonr  seines,  and  your  vnthrif  ty  Sons 
To  gentilize  with  proud  possessions. 

Sylvester,  third  day,  first  weeke,  527. 

Gentle- heart,  a  plant 

Strip  her  of  spring-time,  tender  whimpring 

maids, 
Now  antumne's  come,  when  all  those  flowrie 
aids 
Of  her  delayes  must  end ;  dispose 
That  lady-smock,  that  pansie,  and  that  rose 
Neatly  apart ; 
But  for  prick-madam,  and  for  gentle-heart 
And  soft  maiden's-blush,  the  bride 
Makes  holy  these ;  all  others  lay  aside. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  121. 

Gentlemanhood,  qualities  or  con- 
dition of  a  gentleman.  L.  has  gentle- 
tnanship. 

In  his  family,  gentle,  generous,  good- 
humoured,  affectionate,  self  -  denying ;  in 
society,  a  delightful  example  of  complete 
gentUmanhood. —  Thackeray,  Roundabout  Pa- 
pers, xx. 

Geognosis,  knowledge  of  the  earth. 

He  has  no  bent  towards  exploration,  or 
the  enlargement  of  our  geognosis. — G.  Eliot, 
Middtemarch,  ch.  ix. 

Geognost,  a  person  having  know- 
ledge of  the  earth's  crust,  &c. 

The  travellers,  except  to  the  volcano  dis- 
trict of  Sinai,  have  been  such  bad  geognosis, 
that  I  cannot  get  enough  from  them.  —  C. 
KingsUy,  1863  (Life,  ii.  141). 

Geography.  The  earliest  example 
of  this  word  given  in  the  Dicta,  is 
from  Hackluyt  (1589).  Udal,  in  1542, 
thought  the  word  needed  explanation. 

Strabo,  in  his  werke  of  geographie,  that  is 
to  saie,  of  the  description  of  the  earth, 
wryteth,  &c. — UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p. 
317. 


Geolatry,  earth-worship. 

To  this  succeeded  astrolatry  in  the  Eaxt, 
and  geolatry  in  the  West. — Cox,  MythoL  of 
Aryan  Nations,  i.  95. 

Geometer,  a  gauger. 

Instead  of  a  quart-pot  of  pewter 
I  fill  small  jugs,  and  need  no  tutor ; 
I  quartridge  give  to  the  geometer 

Most  duly ; 
And  he  will  see,  and  yet  be  blind. 

Robin  Conscience,  1683  (Harl. 
Misc.,  i.  52). 

Geometry.  To  hang  by  geometry  = 
angularly,  out  of  shape,  in  confusion. 
Cf.  Jommetry.  In  the  extract  one  of 
the  characters,  who  has  been  living 
under  the  disguise  of  a  servant  by  the 
name  of  Jar  vis,  "  enters  like  a  gentle- 
man very  brave,  with  Jarvia's  cloaths 
in  *s  hand,"  and  sa3's — 

Look  you,  here's  Jarvis  hangs  by  geometry, 
and  here's  the  gentleman. — Rowley,  Match 
at  Midnight,  Act.  III. 

I  am  a  pander,  a  rogue  that  hangs  together, 
like  a  beggar's  rags,  by  geometry. — Davenport, 
City  Myht-Cap,  Act  IV. 

George  noble,  a  gold  coin  worth 
6j.  Sd.  current  in  Henry  VIII. 's  time  ; 
but  can  this  be  the  coin  referred  to  by 
Cotton  ? 

Nor  full  nor  fasting  can  the  carle  take  rest. 
Whiles  his  George-nobles  rusten  in  his  chebt, 
He  sleeps  but  once,  and  dreams  of  burglary. 

Hall,  Satires,  IV.  vi.  31. 

When  having  twelve  ounces  he  bound  up 

my  arm, 
And  I  gave  him  two  Georges  which  did  him  no 

harm. — Cotton,  Voyage  to  Ireland,  canto  2. 

Geremumble,  a  comic  word,  having, 
I  suppose,  no  very  definite  meaning, 
but  =  prepare  in  some  way  or  other 
for  food. 

He  .  .  delivered  him  the  king  of  fishes, 
teaching  hym  how  to  geremumble  it,  sawce 
it,  and  dresse  it. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stvjffe  (Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  172). 

German.    See  quotation. 

German  is  by  his  very  name  Guerre-man, 
or  man  that  wars  and  gars.  —  Carlyle,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  III.  ch.  ii. 

Germanise,  to  translate  into  German. 

The  Dutch  hath  him  who  Germanised  the 

story 
Of  Sleidan.— Sylvester,  Babylon,  624. 

G erring.  N.  has  "  Gerre,  quarrelling, 
evidently  from  the  French  guerre." 
He  quotes  from  R.  Paynell,  which  is, 
he  says,  the  only  passage  where  he  has 
found  it,  and  he  therefore  considers  it 

T 


GERSUME 


(  274  ) 


GIBBET 


"  only  as  an  affectation  of  the  author." 
It  is  possible  that  gerring  in  the  extract 
is  connected  with  this  substantive. 

With  the  musicians  also  he  found  fault,  for 
that  about  their  harpes  and  other  musicall 
instrumentes  thei  would  bestowe  great© 
labour  and  diligence  to  set  the  strynges  in 
right  tune,  and  had  manen  gerring  quite  and 
clene  out  of  al  good  accord  or  frame. — UdaVs 
Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  85. 

Gersume,  a  fine  :  at  least  in  the  mar- 
gin is  put  "fine,  as  some  take  it." 

Norwich, ...  as  wee  reade  in  that  Domes- 
day Booke, .  . .  paide  unto  the  king  twenty 
pounds  ;  .  .  .  but  now  it  paieth  seventy 
pounds  by  weight  to  the  king,  and  an 
hundred  shillings  for  a  gersume  to  the 
queene. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  474. 

Gerund-grinder,  a  schoolmaster. 

Here  is  the  glass  for  pedagogue*}  pre- 
ceptors, tutors,  governours,  gerund-grinders, 
and  bear-leaders  to  view  themselves  in. — 
Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  iv.  112. 

Gerund-grinding,  teaching  or  learn- 
ing of  grammar  technically. 

Other  departments  of  schooling  had  been 
infinitely  more  productive  for  our  young 
friend  than  the  gerund-grinding  one. — Car* 
lyU,  life  of  Sterling,  Pt.  I.  ch.  iv. 

Olassicafity  .  .  .  greatly  distinguishable 
from  mere  gerunds-grinding,  and  death  in 
longs  and  shorts.— Ibid. 

Gesticular,  full  of  action. 

Electricity  ...  is  pasting,  glancing,  ges- 
ticular.— Emerson,  Eng.  Traits,  ch.  xiii. 

Gestion,  order ;  good  bearing. 

Is  she  a  woman  that  objects  this  sight, 
able  to  worke  the  chaos  of  the  world  into 
gestion? — Chapman,  Humerous  Dayes  Mirth, 
p.  79. 

Gesturement,  gesture. 

Meanwhile  our  poets  in  high  parliament 
Sit  watching  every  word  and  gesturement. 

Hall,  Satires,  I.  iii-  46. 

Gesturer,  actor. 

[The  poet]  may  likewise  exercise  the  part 
of  gesturer,  as  though  he  seemed  to  meddle 
in  rude  and  common  matters,  and  yet  not  so 
deale  in  them  as  it  were  for  variety  sake, 
nor  as  though  he  had  laboured  them 
'  thoroughly,  but  tryfled  with  them,  nor  as 
though  he  had  sweat  for  them,  but  practised 
a  little.—  Webbe,  Discourse  of  Eng.  Poetrie, 
p.  95. 

GK8TUROD8,  full  of  gesture. 

Some  be  as  toyinge,  gesturous,  and  counter- 
feicting  of  anything  by  ymitation,  as  Apes. 
— Touchstone  of  Complexions,  p.  97. 

Getable,  procurable. 

I  do  not  mean  to  plunder  you  of  any  more 


prints,  but  shall  employ  a  little  collector  to 
get  me  all  that  are  getable.—  Walpole,  Letters, 
ui.  283  (1709). 

Get -nothing,  an  idler  who  earns 
nothing. 

Every  get-nothing  is  a  thief,  and  lariness  is 
a  stolen  water. — Adams,  i.  192. 

Get-up,  dress ;  appearance. 

There  is  an  air  of  pastoral  simplicity  about 
their  whole  get-up.— H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe, 
ch.  xliii. 

Ghast,  ghastly ;  awful. 

1st  Lady.  How  ghast  a  train ! 

2nd  Lady.   Sure   this    should   be   some 

splendid  burial. 

Keats,  Otho  the  Great,  v.  5. 

Ghaut.    See  extract. 

I  wrote  this,  remembering  in  long,  long 
distant  days  such  a  ghaut  or  river-stair  at 
Calcutta.—-  Thackeray,  Roundabout  Papers, 

•  •• 

ZVUl. 

Ghostess,  female  ghost. 

In  the  mean  time  that  she, 
The  said  Ghostess,  or  Ghost,  as  the  matter 

may  be, 
From  impediment,  hindrance,  and  let  shall 

be  free 
To  sleep  in  her  grave. 

Ingoldsby  Legends.  (Old  Woman  in  Grey). 

Ghtll,  "in  the  dialect  of  Cumber- 
land and  Westmoreland  is  a  short  and, 
for  the  most  part,  a  steep  narrow  valley, 
with  a  stream  running  through  it" 
( Wordsworth,  The  Idle  Shepherd  Boys, 
or  Dungeon-Ohyll  Farce,  note).  See 
L.  s.  v.  gill. 

I  wandered  where  the  huddling  rill 
Brightens  with  water-breaks  the  sombrous 

gkyll.—  Wordsworth,  Evening  Walk. 

Giantish,  over  tall. 
Their  stature  neither  dwarf  nor  giantish, 
But  in  a  comely  well-dispos'd  proportion. 

Randolph,  Muses  Looking-Glass,  ▼.  L 

Giantry,  hugeness. 

The  flimsy  giantry  of  Ossian  has  introduced 
mountainous  horrors. —  Walpole,  Letters,  iv. 
880  (1784). 

Gibbet,  shoulder  (gigot).  Among 
the  false  or  blasphemous  opinions  com- 
plained of  by  the  Lower  House  of  Con- 
vocation in  1536  is  the  following — 

That  the  holy  water  is  more  savoury  to 
make  sauce  with  than  the  other,  because  it 
is  mixt  with  salt ;  which  is  also  a  very  good 
medicine  for  a  horse  with  a  gall'd  back,  yea, 
if  there  be  put  an  onyon  thereunto,  it  is  a 
good  sauce  for  a  gibbet  of  mutton.— Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist.,  V.  iv.  28. 


GIFT 


(  *75  ) 


GIPSY 


Gift,  to  give.  This  verb  is  in  the 
Diets.,  but  the  examples  are  only  of 
the  use  of  the  past  participle. 

He  wu  just  the  sort  of  wild,  fierce,  bandit 
hero  whom  I  could  have  consented  to  gift 
with  my  hand.— C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch. 
xvii. 

For  the  world  must  love  and  fear  him 
Whom  I  gift  wih  heart  and  hand. 

Mrs.  Browning,  Swan's  Nest. 
The  Regent  Murray  gifted  all  the  Church 
property  to  Lord  Sempill.-V.  Cameron  Lees, 
Abbey  of  Paisley,  p.  201  (1868). 

GlFTLING,  little  gift. 

The  kindly  Christmas  tree may 

you  hare  plucked  pretty  giftlingt  from  it.— 
Thackeray,  Roundabout  Papers,  x. 

Gig,  flighty  person.  See  N.  s.  v. 
giglet. 

Charlotte  L.  called,  and  the  little  gig  told 
all  the  qnarrels  and  all  Its  malheurs  of  the 
domestic  life  she  led  in  her  family,  and  made 
them  all  ridiculous  without  meaning  to  make 
herself  bo.— Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  i.  390. 

GIOANTE8QUE,  giant-like. 

In  the  neighbourhood  of  a  river-system  so 
awful — of  a  mountain-system  so  unheard  of 
in  Europe,  there  would  probably,  by  blind, 
unconscious  sympathy,  grow  up  a  tendency 
to  lawless  and  gigantesque  ideals  of  adventur- 
ous life.— 2fe  Quincey,  Spanish  Nun,  Post- 
script. 

Giganticide,  giant-killer. 

The  exoteric  person  mingles,  as  usual,  in 
society,  while  the  esoteric  is  like  John  the 
Giganticide  in  his  coat  of  darkness.—  Southey, 
The  Doctor,  Interchapter,  xii. 

Gigantomachy,  battle  of  the  Giants. 

They  looked  more  like  that  Gigantomachy, 
the  Giants  assaulting  Heaven  and  the  Gods, 
than  that  Good  fight  of  faith.— Gauden,  Tears 
of  the  Church,  p.  MA. 

Gigmanity,  a  word  coined  by  Carlyle 
to  signify  a  Philistine  respectability. 
See  quotation  *.  v.  Squibelet,  where 
the  following  note  is  subjoined.  "  Q. 
What  do  you  mean  by  respectable  ?  A. 
He  always  kept  a  gig  "  (Thurtell's  trial). 

The  word  international  introduced  by  the 
immortal  Bentham,  and  Mr.  Carlyle ?s  gig- 
manity— to  coin  which  by  the  way  it  was 
necessary  to  invent  facts — are  significantly 
characteristic  of  the  utilitarian  philanthro- 
pist and  of  the  futilitarian  misanthropist 
respectively.— Hall,  Modern  English,  p.  19. 

Gignitive,  productive  of  something 
else. 

There  are  at  the  commencement  of  the 
third  volume  four  Interchapters  in  succes- 
sion, and  relating  to  each  other,  the  first 


gignitive  hut' not  generated,  the  second  and 
third  both  generated  and  gignitive,  the 
fourth  generated  but  not  gignitive. — Sou  they, 
The  Doctor,  Interchapter  ziv. 

Gim,  fine ;  spruce.    See  Jim. 

He's  as  fine  as  a  prince,  and  as  gim  as  the 
best  of  them.  —  Vanbrugh,  The  Confederacy, 
Act  I. 

Gimmon,  a  double  ring :  usually 
written  gimmal,  q.  v.  in  N. 

A  ring  of  a  rush  would  tye  as  much  Loue 
together  as  a  Gimmon  of  golde.  —  Greene, 
Menaphon,  p.  88. 

Gin,  squaw,  or  wife  of  an  Indian  or 
Australian  native,  and  so  an  old  woman 
generally.  See  quotation  s.  v.  Myall- 
bough. 

An  Australian  settler's  wife  bestows  on 
some  poor  slaving  gin  a  cast-off  French 
bonnet;  before  she  has  gone  a  hundred 
yards,  her  husband  snatches  it  off,  puts  it 
on  his  own  mop,  quiets  her  for  its  loss  with 
a  tap  of  the  waddle,  and  struts  on  in  glory. 
— C.  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xiii. 

Gingerbread,  used  adjectivally  and 
in  a  disparaging  sense  of  showy  adorn- 
ment. 

The  rooms  are  too  small,  and  too  much 
decorated  with  carving  and  gilding,  which  is 
a  kind  of  gingerbread  work. — Smollett,  France 
and  Italy,  Letter  zxz. 

G  INGLE-BO Y8,  coins. 

Aug.  Yon  are  hid  in  gold 

O'er  head  and  ears. 

Hir.  We  thank  our  fates,  the  sign  of  the 
gingle-boys  hangs  at  the  door  of  our  pockets. 
— Massinger,  Virgin  Martyr,  ii.  2. 

G ingles,  shingles. 

It  is  observed  of  the  gingles,  or  St.  Anthony 
his  fire,  that  it  is  mortall  if  it  come  once 
to  clip  and  encompasse  the  whole  body. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  IX.  i.  60. 

Gipsous,  clayey. 

Others  looked  for  it  [cause  of  sweating 
sickness]  from  the  earth,  as  arising  from  an 
exhalation  in  moist  weather  out  of  gipsous 
or  plaisterly  ground.— Fuller,  Camb.  Univ., 
vii.  86. 

Gipsy,  as  a  term  of  reproach  is  gener- 
ally applied  to  a  woman,  and  usually 
in  a  playful  way;  the  gipsy  in  the 
extract  is  Spenser,  Edw.  1 1,  's  favourite. 

This  overture  being  come  to  the  Queen's 
ear,  and  withal  the  knowledge  how  this 
Gipsie  had  marshal  I'd  his  cunniug  practice, 
and  had  prescrib'd  the  way  for  her  escape, 
.  .  .  she  seemed  wondrously  well-pleas'd. — 
Hist,  of  Edw.  II.,  p.  88. 

t2 


GIRD 


(  *7*  ) 


GLED 


Gird,  a  spurt  N.  gives  an  instance 
from  North's  Plutarch  of  gird  as  a 
verb  =  to  leap  or  bound. 

like  a  haggard,  you  know  not  where  to 
take  him.  He  hunts  well  for  a  gird,  but  is 
soon  at  a  loss. — Adams,  i.  475. 

Gibding-hook,  cutting  or  reaping- 
hook. 

The  oats,  oh  the  oats,  'tis  the  ripening  of 

the  oats ! 
All  the  day  they  have  been  dancing  with 

their  flakes  of  white, 
Waiting  for  the  girding-hook  to  be  the  nag's 
delight. 

Exmoor  Harvest  Song  (Lama 
Doone,  ch.  nixT*  l 

Girdle.  ^  To  have  under  one's  girdle 
=  to  have  in  subjection. 

Such  a  wicked  brotbell 
Which  sayth  vnder  his  girthell 
He  holdeth  Kyngs  and  Princes. 

Roy  and  Barlow,  Rede  me  and 
be  not  wroth,  p.  114. 

Let  the  magnanimous  junto  be  heard,  who 
would  try  the  hazard  of  war  to  the  last,  and 
had  rather  lose  their  heads  than  put  them 
under  the  girdle  of  a  presbyterian  conventicle. 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  215. 

Girl.  See  first  extract :  in  the 
second  the  speaker  is  supposed  to  be 
a  hind. 

The  roebuck  is  the  first  year  a  kid,  the 
second  year  a  girl,  the  third  year  a  hemuse. 
—Return  from  Parnassus,  ii.  5  (1606). 

Those  pretty  fawns,  prickets,  sorrells, 
hemuses  and  girls,  whereof  some  are  mine, 
which  I  brought  into  the  world  without  any 
paio  or  help  of  midwife.— Howell,  Parly  of 
Beasts,  p.  62. 

Girsb.  N.  has  "girse,  a  girth?" 
with  a  quotation  from  Taylor,  1630. 
Subjoined  is  a  somewhat  earlier  in- 
stance :  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
meaning  is  as  conjectured. 

One  day,  as  the  king  was  alone  on  the 
shores,  there  sallies  out  of  the  fort  a  com- 
pany of  horse,  whereof  three  ranne  at  him  so 
violently,  and  all  strooke  his  hone  together 
with  their  launces  as  they  brake  pectorall, 
airses,  and  all,  that  the  horse  slips  away,  and 
leaues  the  king  and  the  saddle  on  the  ground. 
— Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  46. 

Givbn-way,  allowed. 

Is  this  the  price  of  all  thy  pains  ?  Is  this 
the  reward  of  thy  given-way  liberty? — Sid- 
ney, Arcadia,  p.  360. 

Glaciaridm,  a  place  where  ice  is 
kept  for  skating  purposes:  a  word 
formed  like  aquarium. 

The  real  ice  at  the  Chelsea  glaeiarium 


was  obtained  by  the  use  of  liquid  sulphurous 
acid.  —  Nineteenth  Century,  March,  1878,  p. 
555. 

Glade.  To  go  to  glade,  evidently 
=  to  set — is  it  from  the  sun  sinking 
behind  the  trees  ? 

Likening  her  Majestie  to  the  Sunne  for 
his  brightness©,  but  not  to  him  for  bis  pas- 
sion, which  is  ordinarily  to  go  to  glade,  and 
sometime  to  suffer  eclypse.  —  Puttenham, 
Eng.  Poesie,  p.  116. 

Phoebus  now  goes  to  glade  ;  then  now  goe  wee 
Vnto  our  sheddes  to  rest  vs  till  he  rise. 

Davies,  Eglogue,  255. 

Gladift,  rejoice ;  become  glad. 

Have  you  Mr.  Twining  still  ?  oh  that  he 
would  come  and  mortify  upon  our  bread 
and  cheese,  while  he  would  gladify  upon 
our  pleasure  in  his  sight. — Mad,  JjAruay, 
Diary,  vi.  193. 

Glaringness,  floridness. 

Among  them  all  none  pleased  him  so  much 
as  those  composed  by  the  famous  Feliciano 
de  Silva:  for  the  glaringness  of  his  prose, 
and  the  intricacy  of  his  style,  seemed  to  him 
so  many  pearls. — Jarvis's  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  I. 
Bk.  I.  ch.  i. 

Glass,  applied  by  rather  a  violent 
metonymy  to  a  stream  "  splendidior 
vitro.1 
Out  of  the  stone  a  plentious  stream  doth 

gush, 
Which  murmurs  through  the  plain,  proud 

that  his  glass, 
Gliding  so  swift,  so  soon  reyoungs  the  grass. 
Sylvester,  The  Lawe,  p.  954. 

Glasstness,  glazed  appearance.  R. 
gives  the  word  without  example.  Smol- 
lett seems  to  think  it  requires  an  apo- 
logy, though  perhaps  this  only  refers 
to  the  application  of  it  in  this  passage. 

The  alassyness  (if  I  may  be  allowed  the 
expression)  of  the  surface,  throws,  in  my 
opinion,  a  false  light  on  some  parts  of  the 
picture. — Smollett,  France  and  Italy,  Letter 
zxxi. 

Glaziers,  gipsy  cant  for  eyes.  The 
extract  means,  Look  out  with  all  your 
eyes,  I  Bwear  by  the  devil,  a  magis- 
trate is  coming. 

Tonre  out  with  your  glaziers,  I  swear  by  the 

ruffin, 
That  we  are  assaulted  by  a  queer  cuffin. 

Broome,  A  Jovial  Crew,  Act  II. 

Gled. 

Come,  knave,  it  were  a  good  deed  to  gled 

thee,  by  cockes  bones, 
Seest  not  thy  handiwarke?  sir  Bat,  can  you 
forbear  him. 

Gammer  Gurton's  Needle  {Hawkins' 
Eng.  Dr.,  i.  235). 


GLIB 


(  277  ) 


GLORRE 


Glib,  slippery. 

Or  colour,  like  their  own 
The  parted  lips  of  shells  that  are  upthrown, 
With  which,  and  coral,  and  the  glib  sea 

flowers, 
They  furnish  their  faint  bowers. 

Leigh  Hunt,  Foliage,  p.  20. 

Guddery,  slippery*  See  quotation  $.v. 

Popweed,  and  W  edgewood,  s.  v.  glidder. 

Two  men  led  my  mother  down  a  steep 
and  gUddery  stair-way.  —  Blackmore,  Lorna 
Doone,  ch.  iv. 

Glim,  a  light  or  candle :  also  an  eye. 

u Let's  have  a  glim"  said  Sikes,  "or  we 
shall  go  breaking  ournecks." — Dickens,  Oliver 
Trist,  ch.  xvi. 

It  is  not  a  farthing  glim  in  a  bedroom,  or 
we  should  have  seen  it  lighted.  It  is  some 
one  ap;  we  mast  wait  till  they  roost. — Reade, 
Nerer  too  late  to  mend,  ch:  xlviii. 

Harold  escaped  with  the  loss  of  a  glim. — 
Jngddiby  Legends  (Housewarming). 

Glim  flashy,  angry;  flaring  up 
(slang). 

Don't  be  glim/ashy ;  why  you'd  cry  beef 
on  a  Water. — Lytton,  Pelham,  ch.  lxxxii. 

Glimmer-gowk,  an  owl. 

T5  sit  like  a  graat  glimmer-gowk  wi'  'is 
glasses  athnrt  'is  noase. — Tennyson,  The  Vil- 
lage Wife. 

Gummeby,  glimmering. 

Shal  wee,  father  heunlye,  be  careless© 
Of  thy  claps  thundring  ?  or  when  fiers  glim- 
rye  be  listed 
In  clowds  grim  gloomming? 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iv.  216. 

Glint,  to  glean  ;  also  as  a  subst. 

The  sight  of  the  stars  glinting  fitfully 
through  the  trees,  as  we  rolled  along  the 
avenue. — Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xx. 

The  few  persevering  gnats,  who  were  still 
dancing  about  in  the  slanting  glints  of  sun- 
shine, that  struck  here  aud  there  across  the 
lanes,  had  left  off  humming. — Hughes,  Tom 
Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xlvii. 

Glisten,  a  gleam :  usually,  a  verb. 

The  sight  of  a  piece  of  gold  would  bring 
into  her  eyes  a  green  glisten,  singular  to 
witness. — Mist  Bronte,  I  illette,  ch.  xiv. 

Glitterance,  glitter. 

From  the  glitterance  of  the  sunny  main 
He  tnrn'd  his  aching  eyes. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  XII. 

Gloam,  twilight ;  usually  written 
gloaming. 

I  saw  their  starved  lips  in  the  gloam, 
With  horrid  warning  gaped  wide, 

And  I  awoke  and  found  me  here, 
On  the  cold  hill's  side. 

Keats,  La  Belle  Dame  sans  merci. 


Globist,  one  who  understands  the  use 

of  the  globes. 

Before  my  traveller  puts  himself  to  such 
peregrinations,  'tis  requisit  he  should  know 
the  use  of  the  globe  beforehand  .  .  .  Being 
a  good  globist  hee  will  quickly  find  the  senitb, 
the  distances,  the  climes,  and  the  parallels. 
— Howell,  Instructions  for  Forraine  Travel 
(Appendix). 

Gloomish,  gloomy. 

With  toole  sharp  poincted  wee  boarde  and 

peroed  his  owne  light 
That  stood  in  his  lowring  front  gloommish 

malleted  onlye. 

Stanyhurst,  ^x?n.,  iii.  649. 

Gloomth,  gloom. 

One  has  a  satisfaction  in  imprinting  the 
gloomth  of  abbeys  and  cathedrals  on  one's 
house. —  Walpole  to  Mann,  iii.  40  (1753). 

Strawberry,  with  all  its  painted  glass  and 
gloomth,  looked  as  gay  when  I  came  home  as 
Mrs.  Cornelia's  ball  room. —  Walpole,  Letters, 
iii.  331  (1770). 

Glork,  to  stare.  See  H.,  who  has 
two  instances  of  it,  but  the  subjoined 
is  a  comparatively  late  example. 

Sometimes  it  hap't,  a  greedy  gull 
Would  get  his  gullet  cram'd  so  full 
As  t'  make  him  glore  and  gasp  for  wind. 
Ward,  England's  Reformation, 
o.  ii.  p.  222. 

Gloriosee,  a  boaster :  Anglicized 
form  of,  or  perhaps  misprint  for,  glo- 
rioso. 

Emptie  vessells  haue  the  highest  sounds, 
hollowe  rockes  the  loudest  ecchoes,  and 
prattling  gloriosers  the  smallest  performance 
of  courage. — Greene,  Menaphon,  p.  82. 

Glorioso,  a   boaster :    cf.  Fdrioso, 

Gratioso,  Ac. 

Some  wise  men  thought  his  Holinesse  did 
forfeit  a  parcel  of  his  infallibility  in  giving 
credit  to  such  a  Glorioso,  vaunting  that  with 
three  thousand  Souldiers  he  would  beat  all 
the  English  out  of  Ireland.— Fuller,  Worthies, 
Devon  (i.  284). 

Glorre.  In  Nuttall's  edition  the 
word  is  printed  glare.  Any  slimy  or 
ropy  substance  was  called  glere  (see 
N.).  Fr.  glaire:  perhaps  this  is  what 
is  meant,  and  =  fat. 

Nothing  but  fulness  stinteth  their  [hogs] 
feeding  on  the  Mast  falling  from  the  Trees, 
where  also  they  lodge  at  liberty  (not  pent 
up,  as  in  other  places,  to  stacks  of  Pease) 
which  some  assign  the  reason  of  the  fineness 
of  their  flesh ;  which  though  not  all  glone 
(where  no  bancks  of  lean  can  be  seen  for  the 
deluge  of  fat)  is  no  less  delicious  to  the 
taste,  and  more  wholesome  for  tffe  stomack. 
—Fuller,  Worthies,  Hants,  (i.  400). 


GLORY 


(  *73  ) 


GO 


Glory,  to  make  glorious,  or  glorify. 

Her  attendant  train  may  pass  the  troop 
That  gloried  Veuus  on  her  wedding  day. 
Greene,  Looking  glass  for  England,  p.  118. 

See 
How  he  that  glories  Heaven  with  an  honour 
Covets  to  glorify  himself  with  honesty. 

Davenport,  City  NighUcap,  Act  I. 

Globylbss,  bereft  of  glory. 

He  on  whose  glory  all  thy  joy  should  stay 
Is  soulless,  glory  fas,  and  desperate. 

Peele,  Battle  of  Alcazar,  ii.  3. 

Glossem,   gloss.      I  suppose  meant 

for  gloss  'em. 

The  Ohurch  of  Rome  shall  vie  strange 
glossems  and  oeremonious  observations  with 
them.—£p.  Hall,  Work$,  v.  13. 

Gloucester.    See  extract. 

The  old  proverb,  As  sure  as  God's  at 
Gloucester,  certainly  alluded  to  the  vast 
number  of  churches  and  religious  founda- 
tions here.— Defoe,  Tour  thro*  Great  Britain, 
ii.  322. 

Glout,  to  sulk,  to  look  heavily.  R. 
says  it  is  found  as  late  as  Milton  and 
Garth :  the  subjoined  are  more  recent. 

Jenny  (turning  away  and  glowting).  "I 
declare  it,  I  won't  bear  it."  —  Cibber,  Pro- 
voked Husband,  Act  IV. 

When  the  fray  was  over,  I  took  my  friend 
aside,  and  asked  him,  how  he  came  to  be  so 
earnestly  against  me.  To  which  with  some 
glouting  confusion  he  replied,  "  Because  you 
are  always  jeering  and  making  a  jest  of  me 
to  every  boy  in  the  school."— Ibid.,  Apology, 
ch.  i. 

When  we  came  to  the  top  behold  the 
mows  fallen !  and  such  quantities,  and  con- 
ducted  by  such  heavy  clouds  that  hung 
alouting,  that  I  thought  we  could  never 
nave  waded  through  them. —  Walpole,  Let- 
ters,  i.  35  (1739). 

She  had  been  greatly  therefore  disap- 
pointed in  the  morning  .  .  .  and  had  been 
in  what  is  vulgarly  called  a  glouting  humour 
ever  since.— Fielding,  Tom  Jones,  Bk.  VII. 
ch.  via. 

If  I  find  his  aspect  very  solemn, u  Gome, 
come,  no  glouting,  friend,1*  I  will  say,  and 
perhaps  smile  in  his  face.  —  Richardson, 
Grandison,  iv.  165. 

Glout.  In  the  gloiit  =  in  the  sulks  j 
angry. 

My  mamma  was  in  the  glout  with  her  poor 
daughter  all  the  vr*y— Richardson,  CI.  Har- 
lotoe,  ii.  140. 

Gluttoning,  gluttony. 

Come,  honest  cook,  let  me  see  how  thy 
imagination-  has  wrought  as  well  as  thy 
fingers,  and  what  curiosity  thou  hast  shown 


in  the  preparation  of  this  banquet,  for  glut- 
toning  delights  to  be  ingenious.— Marmion, 
Antiquary,  Act  IV. 


»» 


Glto.  H.  Bays  "glig,  a  blister, 
which,  used  metaphorically,  may  be 
the  meaning  in  the  following  quatrain 
made  by  a  man  whom  Peele  had  swin- 
dled. 

Peele  is  no  poet,  but  a  gull  and  a  clown, 
To  take  away  my  clothes  and  gown ; 
I  vow  by  Jove,  if  I  can  see  him  wear  it, 
I'll  give  him  a  glyg,  and  patiently  bear  it. 
Peele'*  Jests,  1627,  p.  117. 

Gnabble,  nibble.      Gnibling  occurs 

in  Stanyhurst's  Dedic.  to  his  Virgil. 

"  Take  us  these  little  foxes,"  was  wont  to 
be  the  suit  of  the  Ohurch,  "for  they  anabbU 
our  grapes,  and  hurt  our  tender  hrancne*." — 
Ward,  Sermons,  p.  158. 

Gnarl,  snarl.  The  word  is  used  as  a 
verb  by  Shakespeare.     See  N. 

My  caress  provoked  a  long  guttural  gnarl. 
— Miss  E.  Bronte,  Wuthering  Heights,  ch.  i. 

Gnat-snapper,  a  term  of  abuse ;  per- 
haps =  a  stupid  fellow  with  his  mouth 
always  open.  It  is  also  the  name  of 
the  beccafico,  and  is  sometimes  written 
"gnat-snap.'1 

Grout -head  gnat  -  snappers,  lob-dotterels, 
gaping  changelings.  —  Urquhart*s  Rabelais, 
Bk.  I.  ch.  xxv. 

Gnombd,  haunted  by  gnomes. 

Philosophy  will  clip  an  Angel's  wings, 
Conquer  all  mysteries  by  rule  and  line, 
Empty  the  haunted  air  and  gnomed  mine. 

Keats,  Lamia,  Pt.  II. 

Gnostic,  knowing.      See  quotation 

S.  V.  TOGGBD. 

I  said  you  were  a  d — — d  gnostic  fellow, 
and  I  laid  a  bet  you  have  not  been  always 
professional.— Scott,  St.  Ronan's  Well,  i.  91. 

Go,  a  measure  of  drink;  go-down 
was  the  term  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury.   See  N. 

And  many  more  whose  quality 
Forbids  their  toping  openly, 
Will  privately,  on  good  occasion, 
Take  six  gc-dotcns  on  reputation. 

D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  canto  4. 
So  they  went  on  talking  politics,  puffing 
cigars,  and  sipping  whiskey-and-  water,  an  til 
the  goes,  most  appropriately  so  called,  were 
both  gone.— Sketches  by  Boz  (Making  a  night 
of  it). 

The  goes  of  stout,  the  Chough  and  Crow, 
the  welsh  rabbit,  the  Red  Cross  Knight,  .  .  . 
the  song  and  the  cup,  in  a  word,  passed 
rouud  merrily. — Thackeray,  JVewcomts,  ch.  i. 


GO 


(  279  )        GODDESS-HOOD 


V 

Go,  a  proceeding  (slang). 

Well,  this  is  a  pretty  go  is  this  here !  an 
uncommon  pretty  go.  —  Dickens,  Nicholas 
Kickleby,  eh.  lvii. 

I  see  a  man  with  his  eye  poshed  out ;  that 
was  a  rum  go  as  ever  I  see. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel 
Deronda,  ch.  vii. 

Goad-groom,  a  carter  or  ploughman ; 
one  who  uses  the  goad.  In  the  Divine 
Wctkes  (Cavtaine*,  710)  Sylvester  calls 
Sangar  or  Sraamgar  a  Goad-man,  and  in 
the  margin  a  Plough-swain. 

[Thou]  by  one  man,  one  Goad-groom  (silly 

Sangar), 
Destroy'dst  six  hundred  in  religious  anger. 

Sylvester,  Little  Bartas,  877. 

G0AD8TER,  a  driver;   one  who  uses 

the  goad. 

Voltaire's  hones  are  by  and  by  to  be  carried 
from  their  stolen  grave  in  the  Abbey  of 
Scallieree  to  an  eager  stealing  grave  in  Paris, 
his  birth-city:  all  mortals  processioning  and 
perorating  there;  cars  drawn  by  eight 
white  horses,  goadsters  in  classical  costume 
with  fillets  and  wheat-ears  enough ;  though 
the  weather  is  of  the  wettest. — Carlyle,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  III.  ch.  vii. 

Go-ahead,  forward ;  progressive. 

Tou  would  fancv  that  the  go-ahead  party 
try  to  restore  order  and  help  business  on. 
Not  the  least — C.  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago, 
ch.  ziv. 

Goal,  to  imprison. 

Trounce  him,  goal  him,  and  bring  him  upon 
his  knees,  and  declare  him  a  reproach  and 
scandal  to  his  profession.  —  South,  Sermons, 
vi.52. 

Goar,  to  scoop  or  dig ;  now  usually 
spelt  gore,  and  =  to  pierce  with  the 
horn  (as  of  a  bull,  Ac.). 

I  have  ever  dissented  from  their  opinion 
who  maintain  that  the  world  was  created  a 
levell  cbampian,  mountains  being  only  the 
product  of  Noah's  flood,  where  the  violence 
of  the  waters  aggested  the  earth  goared  out 
of  the  hollow  valleys.— JWfer,  Ch.  Hist.,  Bk. 
ix^Dedic. 

Gob. 

If  you  put  into  your  furnaces  a  quantity 
of  stuff  in  which,  for  instance,  alumina  pre- 
ponderates and  silica  preponderates,  your 
furnaces  will  not  flux,  but  they  gob. — North 
Line.  Iron  Co.  v.  Winn,  Queen's  Bench,  Nov. 
22, 1877. 

Gobber-tooth,  a  projecting  tooth. 
Burton  (Anal,  of  Mel.,  p.  515)  has 
gubber  tusked. 

Duke  Richard  was  low  in  stature,  crook- 
backed,  with  one  shoulder  higher  than  the 


other,  having  a  prominent  gobber  -  tooth,  a 
war-like  countenance  which  well  enough  be- 
came a  soldier.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist ,  IV.  iii.  8. 
That  pen  that  reports  her  [Anna  Boleyn] 
lean  -  visaged,  long  -  sided,  gobber  -  toothed, 
yellow  -  oomplexioned,  with  a  wen  in  her 
neck,  both  manifests  his  malice,  and  dis- 
parageth  the  judgement  of  King  Henry, 
whom  all  knew  well  read  in  books,  and 
better  in  beauties. — Ibid.  V.  iv.  20. 

Go-by-ground,  low.  Gauden,  argu- 
ing in  favour  of  a  sufficient  provision 
for  the  clergy,  asks  what  would  he 
thought  of  making  Judges,  Mayors,  Ac. 
of  "hungry  th red-bare  wretches,"  and 
whether  anything  could  be  more  de- 
spicable than  "  such  mushroome  magis- 
trates, such  go-by-ground  Governours  " 
(Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  521).  N.  has 
the  word  as  a  substantive. 

God,  to  deify;   to  treat  as  a  God. 

The  first  extract  is  given  by  R.  and  by 

L.,  but  it  will  be  seen  that  it  is  not  quite 

peculiar  to  Shakespeare.     See  also  *.  v. 

Chbist. 

This  last  old  man 
Lov'd  me  above  the  measure  of  a  father, 
Nay,  godded  me  indeed. — Coriolanus,  V.  iii 

Some  'gainst  their  king   attempting  open 

treason, 
Some  godding  Fortune  (idol  of  ambition). 

Sylvester,  Miracle  of  Peace,  sonnet  30. 

Goddam.  It  is  to  be  feared  that 
Flanders  was  not  the  only  country  in 
which  our  armies  swore  terribly.  Lord 
Stanhope,  in  his  Essay  on  Joan  of  Arc, 
quotes  the  subjoined  from  a  con- 
temporary chronicle,  and  adds  that 
though  he  had  often  heard  the  name 
applied  to  an  Englishman,  he  had 
hitherto  believed  it  to  be  modem,  as 
he  had  previously  met  with  no  earlier 
instance  than  in  Beaumarchais'ifana^ 
de  Figaro.  In  the  second  extract  God- 
damme  =  rake. 

a  Joan,  let  us  eat  this  shad-fish  to  dinner 
before  you  set  out."  "  In  the  name  of  God," 
said  she,  "  it  shall  not  be  eaten  till  supper, 
by  which  time  we  will  return  by  wav  of  the 
bridge,  and  bring  back  with  us  a  prisoner,  a 
Goddam,  who  shall  eat  his  share  of  it." — 
Stanhope's  Essays,  p.  90. 

Others  were  of  the  town-cut,  young  God- 
dammes  that  spoke  ill,  and  lived  worse. — 
Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  556. 

Goddess- hood,  status  of  a  goddess. 

Should  not  my  beloved,  for  her  own  sake, 
descend  by  decrees  from  goddess-hood  into 
humanity  ? — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  iv.  300. 


GODDIKIN 


(  280) 


GOLILIA 


Goddikin,  a  little  god. 

For  one's  a  little  Goddikin, 
No  bigger  than  a  skittle-pin. 

Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque, 
p.  281. 

God-pull,  inspired. 

Homer,  Musieus,  Ouid,  Maro,  more 
Of  those  god-full  prophets  longe  before 
Uolde  there  eternall  fiers. 

Herrick,  Appendix,  p.  440. 

Gods,  a  name  given  to  those  who  sit 
in  the  upper  gallery  of  a  theatre.  The 
French  call  this  gallery  Paradis* 

Each  one  shilling  god  within  reach  of  a  nod 

is, 
And  plain  are  the  charms  of  each  gallery 
goddess. 

J.  and  H.  Smith,  Rejected  Addresses, 
p.  128. 

G0D6HOUSE,  almshouse,  which  is  the 
explanation  of  the  term  given  in  the 
margin.  In  Southampton  there  is 
a  chapel  (now  used  for  the  Anglican 
Service  in  French)  dedicated  to  St. 
Julien.  It  has  almshouses  attached  to 
it,  and  is  usually  called  God's  House. 

Built,  they  say,  it  was  by  Sir  Richard  de 
Abberbury,  Knight, who  also  under  it  founded 
for  poore  people  a  godshouse.  —  Holland's 
Camden,  p.  284. 

Goffer,  to  crimp. 

"What's  the  matter  with  your  ruff?" 
asked  Lady  Betty ;  "  it  looks  very  neat,  I 
think."  M  Neat !  ...  Ill  have  to  get  it  all 
goffered  over  again." — Miss  Ferrier,  Inherit' 
ance,  ch.  xxi. 

Goggle,  to  roll  about  (the  eyes). 
The  Diets,  have  no  example  of  this  as 
an  active  verb. 

In  temple  corners  hee  gogled  his  eyesight. 
—Stanyhurst,  Mn.,  i.  438. 

He  goggled  his  eyes,  and  groped  in  his 
money  -  pocket.  —  Walpole,  Letters,  iii.  174 
(1766). 

Goggles,  spectacles  made  of  coloured 
glass,  wire,  or  gauze,  to  protect  the  eyes 
from  light,  dust,  &c. 

I  nearly  came  down  a-top  of  a  little  spare 
man  who  sat  breaking  stones  by  the  road- 
side. He  stayed  his  hammer,  and  said,  re- 
garding me  mysteriously  through  his  dark 
goggles  of  wire,  **  Are  yon  aware,  sir,  that 
you've  been  trespassing?"  —  Dickens,  Vn- 
commercial  Traveller,  xzii. 

GoGMAGOG,  a  jocose  term  for  a  big 
or  strong  pereqn.  N.  has  gogmagogical 
=  large,  with  quotation  from  Taylor, 
the  water  poet. 

Be  valiant,  my  little  gogmagogs,  I'll  fence 


with  all  the  justices  in  Hertfordshire.  — 
Merry  Devil  of  Edmonton  (Dodsley,  O.  PI., 
xi.  140). 

Goings  on,  proceedings.  The  simple 
word  '  goings '  is  used  in  this  sense, 
Job  xxxiv.  21. 

The  family  did  not,  from  his  usual  goings 
on,  expect  him  back  again  for  many  weeks. — 
Miss  Austen,  Mansfield  Park,  ch.  v. 

Golden  eye.  L.  defines  it  a  species 
of  duck  {Anas  clangula),  but  Sylvester 
in  a  marginal  note  explains  it  to  be 
the  "  Guilt-head,'1  which  was  a  fish, 
the  Aurata  or  Aurella*  See  Fuller, 
Holy  War,  III.  xxiii.  4. 

The  delicate,  end-chewing  Golden- Eye, 
Kept  in  a  weyre,  the  widest  space  doth  spy. 
And,  thrusting  in  his  tail,  makes  th'  Osiars 

gape 
With  his  oft  flapping,  and  doth  so  escape. 

Sylvester,  fifth  day,  first  iceeke,  p.  313. 

Goldfinch,  a  gold  piece.  Cf. 
Yellow-hammer. 

Sir  ff.  Don't  you  love  singing-birds, 
madam  ? 

Angel.  ( Aside.)  That's  an  odd  question  for 
a  lover.    (Aloud.)  Yes,  sir. 

Sir.  H.  Why  then,  madam,  here  is  a  nest 
of  the  prettiest  goldfinches  that  ever  chirped 
in  a  cage. — Farquhar,  Constant  Couple,  ii.  2. 

Goldny,  the  fish  gilthead. 

The  oisters  of  Tarentum,  fish  of  Helops, 
The  goldny  of  Cilicia,  Chios  scallops. 

Davies,  An  Extasie,  p.  94. 

G0LE8.  By  Goles,  an  oath ;  a  minced 
version  of  By  God. 

Why  then,  by  Goles !  I  will  tell  you.    I 
hate  you  and  I  can't  abide  you. — Fielding, 
An  old  man  taught  wisdom. 
Hark,  hark !  'tis  the  signal  by  goles  ! 

It  sounds  like  a  funeral  knell. 
Oh,  hear  it  not,  Duncan  !  it  tolls 
To  call  thee  to  heaven  or  hell. 

J.  and  H.  Smith,  'Rejected  Addresses, 
p.  173. 

Golilia.  Spanish  golilla,  a  Mttte 
starched  band  sticking  out  under  the 
chin,  like  a  ruff. 

Mons.  Let  me  not  pot  on  that  Spanish 
yoke,  but  spare  me  my  cravat,  for  I  love 
cravat  f  urieusement. 

Don.  Off,  off,  off  with  it,  I  say !  Come, 
refuse  the  ornaments  principal  of  the  Spanish 
habit!  (Takes  him  by  the  cravat,  pulls  it 
off,  and  the  Black  puts  on  the  golilia.) 

Mons.  Will  you  have  no  mercv,  no  pity  ? 
alas !  alas !  alas !  Oh,  I  had  rather  put  on 
the  English  pillory  than  that  Spanish  golilia. 
—  Wycherley,  Gent.  Dane.  Mast.,  iv.  1. 

I  cannot  well   comprehend  what   those 


GOLL-SHEAVES         (  281  )        GOOD-NATURED 


pretenders  to  science  would  be  at  who 
fasten  on  the  first  notions,  and  will  no  more 
part  with  them  than  a  Spaniard  with  his 
basket-hilt  or  golilia. — Gentleman  Instructed, 
p.  254. 

He  wore  about  his  neck  ...  a  small  ruff, 
which  had  serv'd  him  formerly  instead  of  a 
golitte,  when  he  hVd  at  Madrid. — T.  Brown, 
Work*,  iv.  210. 

Goll-sheaves.  H.  gives  u  gole,  big, 
fall,  florid,  prominent,  rank  as  grass, " 
&c.  Goll-sheaves  perhaps  =  sheaves  of 
overgrown  corn  with  empty  ears. 

The  rest  of  the  articles  were  goll-sheaves 
that  went  ont  in  a  suddain  blaze. — Hacket, 
Life  of  Williams,  ii.  92. 

Goloshed,  furnished  with  goloshes, 
or,  perhaps,  made  waterproof. 

His  boots  had  suffered  in  the  wars :  great 
pains  had  been  taken  for  their  preservation ; 
they  had  been  soled  and  heeled  more  than 
once;  had  they  been  goloshed,  their  owner 
might  have  defied  Fate. — Ingoldsby  Legends 
(Grey  Dolphin). 

Gonoph,  a  fool  or  lout.  See  H.  *.  v. 
gnoffe. 

I  am  obliged  to  take  him  into  custody ; 
he's  as  obstinate  a  young  gonoph  as  I  know ; 
he  won't  move  on. — Dickens,  Bleak  House, 
ch.  zix. 

Good-bodied,  having  -&  good  figure. 

Saw  all  my  family  np,  and  my  father  and 
sister,  who  is  a  pretty  good-bodied  woman, 
and  not  over  thick,  as  I  thought  she  would 
have  been,  but  full  of  freckles,  and  not 
handsome  in  face. — Pepys,  May  31, 1666. 

Goodfellow,  a  reveller ;  it  was  also 

used  of  a  thief.    See  H. 

This  they  said,  because  it  was  well  known 
that  Sir  Roger  had  been  a  Goodfellow  in  his 
youth.  But  he  answered  them  very  wisely: 
*•  Indeed,"  saith  he,  **  in  youth,  I  was  as  you 
are  now,  and  I  had  twelve  fellows  like  unto 
myself,  but  not  one  of  them  came  to  a  good 
end." — Ascham,  Schoolmaster,  p.  60. 

I  have  been  employed 
By  some  the  greatest  statesmen  of  the  king- 
dom 
These  many  years;  and  in  my  time  conversed 
With  sundry  humours,  suiting  so  myself 
To  company,  as  honest  men  and  knaves, 
Goodfellows,  hypocrites,  all  sorts  of  people. 
Jonson,  Magnetic  Lady,  I.  i. 

We  must  not  only  avoid  sinne  itself, 
but  also  the  causes  and  occasions  thereof, 
amongst  which  bad  compauy  (the  lime  twigs 
of  the  devil)  is  the  chiefest,  especially  to 
catch  those  natures  which,  like  the  uoodfelhw 
planet  Mercuric,  are  most  swayed  by  others. 
—Fuller,  Holy  State,  III.  v.  3. 

Good-foe-little,  not  worth  much. 


The  little  words  in  the  republic  of  letters 
are  most  significant.  The  trisyllables,  and 
the  ramblers  of  syllables  more  than  three, 
are  but  the  good-for-little  magnates. — Rich- 
ardson, CI.  Harlowe,  iv.  298. 

Good-for-nothing,  worthless. 

I  believe  I  may  put  it  to  your  score  that  I 
have  not  a  guest  to-day,  nor  any  besides  my 
own  family,  and  you  good-for-nothing  ones 
(inutiles). — Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  187. 

He  is  to  be  married  very  soon  ;  a  good-for- 
nothing  fellow !  I  have  no  patience  with  him. 
— Miss  Austen,  Sense  and  Sensibility,  ch.  zxz. 

Good  -  for  -  nothingness,  worthless- 
ness. 

How  do  these  gentry  know  that,  supposing 
they  could  trace  back  their  ancestry  for  one, 
two,  three,  or  even  five  hundred  years,  that 
then  the  original  stems  of  these  poor  fami- 
lies, though  they  have  not  kept  such  elaborate 
records  of  their  good-for-nothingness,  as  it 
often  proves,  were  not  still  deeper  rooted. — 
Richardson,  Pamela,  ii.  54. 

Goodish,  rather  good,  or  large. 

I  fetched  a  goodish  compass  round  by  the 
way  of  the  Cloven  Bocks. — Blackmore,  Lorna 
Doone,  ch.  lviii. 

Good  morrows,  compliments  or  com- 
monplaces: the  expression  refers,  I 
suppose,  to  the  formal  and  empty 
greetings  exchanged  when  acquaint- 
ances meet. 

After  this  saiyng  the  commenaltie  of 
Athenes,  which  had  afore  condemned  him, 
were  sodainly  stricken  againe  in  loue  with 
hym,  and  saied  that  he  was  an  honest  man 
again  and  loued  the  citee,  and  many  gate 
good  morowes. — UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth. 
p.  376. 

She  spoke  of  the  domesticall  kind  of  cap- 
tivities and  drudgeries  that  women  are  put 
unto,  with  many  such  good  morraics. — Howell, 
Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  67. 

Some  might  be  apt  to  say,  the  devil's  in  a 
man  that  grieves  for  the  loss  of  a  wife; 
that  a  dead  wife  is  the  best  piece  of  house- 
hold goods  a  man  can  have ;  that  it  would  be 
as  preposterous  to  shed  tears  at  the  interring 
our  left  rib  as  to  go  into  mourning  for  getting 
out  of  prison, .  . .  and  a  thousand  such  good 
morrows.—  T.  Brown,  Works,  iii.  245. 

Good-natured  is  used  by  theological 
writers  of  that  goodness  which  a  man 
may  have  without  having  the  grace  of 
God.  The  first  quotation  is  borrowed 
from  Trench's  Deficiencies  of  Hug.  Diets.; 
in  the  second  the  word  is  not  used  in 
its  strict  theological  sense,  and  signifies 
what  we  now  call  well-conditioned,  but 
conveys  much  higher  eulogy  than  it 
does  at  present.     This  inferior  use  of 


GOODY 


(  ri*  ) 


GOSSAN 


the  word  was,  however,  current  in 
Fuller's  time,  and  South  (vi.  109)  has 
some  pungent  remarks  thereon. 

Good  nature,  being  the  relics  and  remains 
of  that  shipwreck  which  Adam  made,  is  the 
proper  and  immediate  disposition  to  holiness. 
When  good  nature  is  heightened  by  the  grace 
of  God,  that  which  was  natural  becomes  now 
spiritual. — Jeremy  Taylor,  Sermon  at  Funeral 
of  Sir  J.  Dalstone. 

We  take  our  leaves  of  Tyndal  with  that 
testimony  which  the  Emperour's  procurator 
or  attorney-general  (though  his  adversary) 
gave  of  him,  "  Homo  futt  doctus,  pius  et 
bonus:"  He  was  a  learned,  a  godly,  and  a 
good-natured  man. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  V.  iv.  41. 

Goody,  a  contemptuous  word  to 
denote  what  is  well  intentioned,  but 
weak  and  mawkish. 

All  this  may  be  mere  qoody  weakness  and 
twaddle  on  my  part. — Sterling,  in  Carlyle's 
life,  Pt.  II.  ch.  v. 

One  can't  help  in  his  presence  rather  try- 
ing to  justify  his  good  opinion ;  and  it  does 
so  tire  one  to  be  goody  and  to  talk  sense. — 
Miss  Bronte,  VUletts,  eh.  ix. 

Goose,  to  hiss  (theatrical  slang). 

He  was  goosed  last  night,  he  was  goosed  the 
night  before  last,  he  was  goosed  to-day.  He 
has  lately  got  in  the  way  of  being  always 
goosed,  and  he  can't  stand  it. — Dickens,  Hard 
Times,  ch.  vi. 

Goose-horns.  In  the  Quern's  Closet 
Opened,  p.  77  (1655),  there  is  a  receipt 
for  "  A  Powder  for  the  Wind  in  the 
Body,"  which  has,  among  other  ingre- 
dients, "pillings  of  goose-horns,  of 
capons,  and  pigeons." 

Goose-skin,  a  creeping  of  the  flesh  is 
so  called.    Cf.  Anserine. 

Her  teeth  chattered  in  her  head,  and  her 
skin  began  to  rise  into  what  is  vulgarly 
termed  goose-skin. — Miss  Ferrier,  Inheritance, 
ch.  ii. 

Gor-belly,  a  big  belly.  See  ST.  In 
all  the  examples  in  the  Diets,  it  is  used 
of  a  glutton,  not  of  the  stomach  itself. 

The  devils  of  Growland,  with  their  crump 
shoulders,  side  and  gor-bellies,  crooked  ana 
hawmed  legges. . . — Holland's  Camden,  p.  530. 

Gordian,  to  knot ;  aleo  (as  an  adjec- 
tive) knotted. 

She  had 
Indeed  locks  bright  enough  to  make  me  mad : 
And  they  were  simply  gordiarCd    up  ana 
braided. — Keats,  Endymxon,  Bk.  I. 

She  was  a  gordian  shape  of  dazzling  hue. 

Ibid.,  Lamia. 

Gore  is  used  rather  peculiarly  in 
the  extract  =  clotted  mass. 


From  their  foreheads  to  their  shoes  they 
were  in  one  gore  of  blood.— H.  Brooke,  Fool 
of  Quality,  i.  68. 

Gorqonize,  to  petrify  as  by  the 
glance  of  the  Gorgon. 

What  eies  so  Gorgoniz*d  that  can  endure 
To  see  the  AU-vpholder  f ore'd  to  bow  ? 

Davies,  Holy  Boode,  p.  15. 

Gormaqon.  The  society  of  Gorraa- 
gons  was  one  similar  to  that  of  Free- 
masons: it  was  in  existence  from  1725- 
38,  when  it  was  dissolved.  See  N* 
and  Q.,  V.  vii.  152,  and  the  extract 
from  Pope,  «.  v.  Gregorian. 

Gosling.  To  shoe  a  goose  or  gosling 
=  to  engage  in  a  foolish  or  fruitless 
task.  See  next  extract,  also  N.  and 
Q.,  III.  vii.  457. 

As  fit  a  sighte  it  were  to  see  a  goose  shodds 

or  a  sadled  oowe, 
As  to  hear  the  pratling  of  any  soehe  Jack 

Strawe— New  Customs,  I.  i.  (1573). 

All  this  while,  according  to  the  old  proverb, 
I  have  bin  shooing  of  aostinqs  ;  I  have  spent 
my  labour  and  breath  to  little  purpose. — 
— Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  132. 

"The  smith  that  will  meddle  with  all 
things  may  go  shoe  the  aoslings,"  an  old  pro- 
verb which,  from  its  mixture  of  drollery  and 
good  sense,  became  ever  after  a  favourite  of 
mine. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Lams  Jervas,  ch.  iii. 

Gosling.  The  previous  entry  shows 
that  to  shoe  geese  =  to  engage  in  a 
foolish  task ;  hence  perhaps  the  appli- 
cation of  the  proverb  as  given  by  Put- 
tenham  to  a  woman's  too  easily  moved 
tears.  The  form  of  it  used  by  Sir  H. 
Taylor  is  given  in  N.,  s.  v.  goose,  from 
Withafs  Diet.,  1634 ;  it  will  also  be 
found  in  Burtons  Anat.  of  Melancholy, 
p.  494. 

By  the  common  prouerbe,  a  woman  will 
weepe  for  pitie  to  see  a  gosling  got  barefoot*. — 
Futtenham,  Arte  of  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III.  ch. 
xxiv. 

Pity!  As  great  a  pity  to  see  a  woman 
weep  as  to  see  a  gosling  go  barefoot. — Taylor, 
Virgin  Widow,  i.  3. 

Gospel-shop,  a  Methodist  chapel. 

As  soon  as  I  had  procured  a  lodging  and 
work,  my  next  enquiry  was  for  Mr.  Wee- 
ley's  Gospel-shops. — life  of  J.  Lackington, 
Letter  xix. 

Gossan,  yellow  earth,  just  above  a 
vein  of  metal. 

This  gossan  (as  the  Cornish  call  it)  ...  I 
suspect  to  be  not  merely  the  matrix  of  the 
ore,  but  also  the  very  crude  form  and  materia 
prima  of  all  metals. — Kingsley,  Westuard  Ho, 
ch.  xiii. 


GOTCH 


(  **3) 


GRAINER 


Gotch,  a  pitcher. 

Once,  passing  by  this  very  tree, 
A  gotch  of  milk  I'd  been  to  fill, 

You  ahoulder'd  me,  then  laugh 'd  to  see 
Me  and  my  gotch  spin  down  the  hill. 

Bloomfield,  Richard  and  Kate, 

Gothian,  a  Goth. 

Among  their  other  worthy  praises  which 
they  have  justly  deserved,  this  had  not  been 
the  least,  to  be  counted,  among  men  of 
learning  and  skill,  more  like  unto  the  Gre- 
cians than  unto  the  Gothians  in  handling  of 
their  verse. — Ascham,  Schoolmaster,  p.  195. 

Gotibb,  guitar. 

Touch  bat  thy  lire,  my  Harrie,  and  I  heare 
From  thee  some  raptures  of  the  rare  gotire. 
Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  296. 

Go-to-meeting,  a  slang  expression 
for  best:  usually  applied  to  clothes, 
such  as  people  wear  on  a  Sunday. 

I  want  to  give  you  a  true  picture  of  what 
every-day  school  life  was  in  my  time,  and  not 
a  kid-glove  and  go-to-meetiTig-co&t  picture. — 
Hughes,  Tom  Brown's  School-Days,  Pt.  II. 
ch.  v. 

Brave  old  world  she  is  after  all,  and  right 
well  made;  and  looks  right  well  to-day  in 
her  go-to-meeting  clothes. — C  Kingsley,  Two 
Years  Ago,  ch.  av. 

Gougeb,  one  who  gouges  or  stabs. 

It  is  true  there  are  gamblers  and  aouaers 
and  outlaws. — Flint,  Recollections  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, p.  176  (1826). 

Gor/L.  H.  gives  this  as  a  substantive 
=  gum  of  the  eye :  in  the  extract  it  is 
a  verb. 

There  is  a  kind  of  earthliness  in  the  best 
eye,  whereby  it  is  gouled  up.  —  Bp.  Hall, 
Works,  vi.  317. 

Goulatrb  (Ft.  gouliafrc),  a  greedy- 
gut 

O  howe  all  the  substaunce  of  your  Realme, 
forthwith  your  swerde,  power,  crowne,  dig- 
nite,  and  obedience  of  your  people,  rynneth 
hedlong  ynto  the  insariabill  whyrlepole  of 
these  gredi  ooulafres  to  be  swalowed  and 
devoured. — Simon  Fish,  Supplication  for  the 
Beggars,  p.  10. 

Gourdes,  a  torrent.  H.  gives  from 
Elyot,  1569,  "  Aquilegium,  a  gourde  of 
water  which  commeth  of  rayne."  The 
extract  is  from  N.  and  Q.,  I.  i.  335 
(see  also  pp.  356,  419). 

Let  the  qourders  of  raine  come  downe  from 
you  and  all  other  heretikes,  let  the  floudes 
of  worldly  rages  thrust,  let  the  windes  of 
9a  than 's  temptations  bio  we  their  worst,  this 
house  shall  not  be  ouerthrowen. — Harding 
ayiitut  Jewel  (Antw.,  1565),  p.  189. 


Gownesept  is  Stanyhurat's  rendering 

of  gentem  togatam. 

[Juno]  shal  enter 
In  leage  with  Romans,  ana  gownesept  charelye 
tender.— Stany hurst,  Mn.,  i.  269. 

Gotal.     See  extract. 

We  were  come  to  a  long  deep  goyal,  as  they 
call  it  on  Exmoor,  a  word  whose  fountain  and 
origin  I  have  nothing  to  do  with.  Only  I 
know  that  when  little  boys  laughed  at  me  at 
Tiverton  for  talkiug  about  a  goyal,  a  big  boy 
clouted  them  on  the  head,  and  said  that  it 
was  in  Homer,  and  meant  the  hollow  of  the 
hand.  And  another  time  a  Welshman  told 
me  that  it  must  be  something  like  the  thing 
they  call  a  pant  in  those  parts.  Still  I  know 
what  it  means  well  enough,— to  wit,  a  long 
trough  among  wild  hills,  falling  towards  the 

Slain  country,  rounded  at  the  bottom  per- 
aps,  and  stiff  more  than  steep  at  the  sides 
of  it.  Whether  it  be  straight  or  crooked 
makes  no  difference  to  it. — Blackmort,  Lorna 
Doom,  ch.  iii. 

Grace-stroke,  finishing  touch  ;  coup 
de  grace  ;  originally  the  merciful  stroke 
which  put  a  wounded  enemy  or  a  tor- 
tured prisoner  out  of  his  misery :  the 
dagger  which  did  this  was  called  the 
muericorde;  hence  grace -stroke  = 
completion  generally. 

It  was  not  without  the  greatest  surprise  in 
the  world  that  I  heard  from  my  lady  your 
mother  your  intentions  led  you  to  our  neigh- 
bouring kingdom  of  Scotland,  to  perfect  and 
give  the  grace-stroke  to  that  very  liberal  edu- 
cation you  have  so  signally  improved  in 
England. — Scotland  characterised,  1701  {Harl. 
Misc.,  vii.  377). 

Gracy,  full  of  teaching  about  grace  ; 
what  would  now  be  called  "  evangeli- 
cal." 

In  the  morning  heard  Mr.  Jacomb  at  Lad- 
gate  upon  these  word*, (<  Christ  loved  you, 
and  therefore  let  us  love  one  another,"  and 
made  a  gracy  sermon  like  a  Presbyterian. — 
Pepys,  April  14, 1661. 

Gradionately,  gradually. 

To  recount . . .  how  he  came  to  be  king  of 
fishes,  and  gradionately  how  from  white  to 
red  he  changed,  would  require  as  massie  a 
toombe  [tome]  as  Hollinshead. — Nashe,  Lenten 
Stuffe  {Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  167). 

Graftlinq,  a  little  or  tender  graft. 

In  th'  orchards  at  Monoeaux  or  Blois 
The   Gardner's  care  over  some  Graftlings 

choice, 
The  second  year  of  their  adoption  there 
Makes  them  as  good  and  goodly  fruits  to 

bear. — Sylvester,  St.  Lewis,  88. 

Grain er,  garner.    See  Granier. 


GRAINS  OF  PARADISE  (  284  ) 


GRAPH1ES 


He  wyll  brynge  the  wheat©  into  hys  barne 
or  grayner. — Jiaie,  Enterlude  of  Jokan  Bapt., 
1538  (Uarl.  Misc.,  i.  110). 

Grains  of  Paradise,  hot  aromatic 
seeds  gathered  on  the  Guinea  coast,  of 
a  cordiul  and  stimulating  quality. 

Look  at  that  rough  o'  a  boy  gaun  out  o' 
the  pawnshop,  where  he's  been  pledging  the 
handkerchief  he  stole  this  morning,  into  the 
ginshop,  to  buy  beer  poisoned  wi'  grains  o* 
paradise  and  coceulus  indicus.—  C.  Kinysley, 
Alton  Locke,  ch.  viii. 

G rammer,  grandfather.  I  do  not 
know  whether  in  the  extract  this  word 
is  put  by  a  slip  of  the  pen  or  press  for 
gramfer,  which  is  the  provincial  form 
of  grandfather  given  in  H.,  and  which 
I  have  often  heard.  Grammer  usually 
=  grandmother. 

How  different-looking  the  young  ones  are 
from  their  fathers,  and  still  more  from  their 
grandfathers !  Look  at  those  three  or  four 
old  grammers  talking  together  there.  For  all 
their  being  shrunk  with  age  and  weather, 
you  wont  see  such  fine-grown  men  any- 
where else  in  this  booth. — C.  Kingsley,  Yeast. 
ch.  zui. 

Granadier.  This  word  is  in  the 
Diets.,  but  the  extract  is  an  earlier 
example  than  any  there  given,  and 
marks  the  introduction  of  the  word. 

Now  were  brought  into  service  a  new  sort 
of  soldiers  call'd  Granadiers,  who  were 
dextrous  in  flinging  hand  granados,  every 
one  having  a  pouch  full.  —  Evelyn,  Diary, 
June  29, 1678. 

Grand,  to  make  great. 

But  yet  His  justice  to  extenuate 
To  graund  His  grace  is  sacrilegious. 

Davies,  Summa  Totalis,  p.  6. 

Grandeza,  greatness ;  honour.  An 
Italian  and  Spanish  word  used  as  Eng- 
lish. 

I  can  not  denie  but  her  dominions  are 
very  spacious,  that  the  Sunne  never  forsakes 
her  auite,  perpetually  shining  in  some  part 
or  other  above  her  hemisphere :  a  grandeza, 
I  confesse,  that  none  of  all  the  foure 
monarchies  could  vaunt  of.  —  Howell,  Do- 
dona's  Grove,  p.  10. 

He  made  semblance  to  be  mightily  taken 
with  it,  saying  that  of  all  the  grandezas  he 
had  received  since  his  coming  to  his  royall 
court,  this  surmounted  all  the  rest.  —  Ibid. 
p.  101. 

Grandiose,  grand,  but  rather  with 
the  idea  of  pomposity  connoted.  See 
extract  «.  v.  Bronzify.  "This  word  is 
ro  much  needed  that  its  being  a  mal- 
formation is  the  more  to  be  deplored. 


We  took  it  from  the  French,  before 
whom,  however,  the  Italians  had 
educed  qrandioso  from  grandis,  a- 
gainst  all  law  "  (Hall,  Modern  15ng- 
lithy  p.  289). 

Mr.  Urquiza  entered  first  with  a  strut  more 
than  usually  grandiose, — De  Quincey,  Spanish 
Nun,  sect.  xii. 

This  attenuated  journal  had  ...  an  alder- 
manic,  portly,  grandiose,  FaUtaffian  title. — 
Lytton,  Caxtons,  Bk.  X.  ch.  vi. 

Hardly  anything  could  seem  more  gran-' 
diose,  or  fitter  to  revive  in  the  breasts  of 
men  the  memory  of  great  dispensations  by 
which  new  strata  had  been  laid  in  the  history 
of  mankind. — G.  Eliot,  Romola,  ch.  xxi. 

Grand-leet,  great  assembly. 

In  the  grand-letts  and  solemn  elections  of 
magistrates,  every  man  had  not  prerogative 
alike.—  Holland,  Livy,  p.  25. 

Grand-master,  chamberlain.  See 
Great-master. 

God  is  the  great  Grand-master  of  the  king's 
house,  and  will  take  account  of  every  one 
that  beareth  rule  therein. — Latimer,  i.  93. 

Grand-panch,  a  great-bellied  fellow  ; 
a  gourmand. 

Our  grand-panches  and  riotous  persons 
haue  deuised  tor  themselues  a  delicat  kind  of 
meat  out  of  corn  and  grain. — Holland,  Pliny, 
xix.  4. 

Grane,  to  strangle. 

And  off  set  John,  with  all  his  might, 

To  chase  me  down  the  yard, 
HU  I  was  nearly  granJd  outright, 

He  hugg'd  so  woundy  hard. 

BloomJSeld,  The  Horkey. 

Granier,  garner.    See  Grainer. 

That  other,  if  be  in  his  Granier  stores 
What  ever  hath  beene  swept  from  Lybian 
flores. — Heath's  Horace;  Oae  I. 

Grantland,  Greenland. 

Vast  Grantland,  compassed  with  the 
frozen  sea. — Marlowe,  2  Tamhurlaine,  I.  i. 

Grapelet,  a  little  grape. 

I  hold 
Thy  small  head  in  my  hand — with  its  grape- 
lets  of  gold 
Growing  bright  through  my  fingers. 

Mrs.  Broiening,  Rhapsody  of  Life's 
Progress, 

Grapkry,  grape-house. 

She  led  the  way  to  a  little  conservatory, 
and  a  little  pinery,  and  a  little  grapery,  and 
a  little  aviary.  —  Miss  Edgeicorth,  Absentee, 
ch.  vi. 

Graphies,  studies  such  as  geography, 
biography,  chalcography,  &c.  Cf. 
Isms,  Ologies. 


GEASPINGNESS         (  285  ) 


GRAVE 


Verbe,  qrapkies,  and,  climax  of  intellectual 
misery,  the  multiplication  table. — L.  E.  Lon- 
don (Life  by  Blanchard,  i.  48). 

Graspingness,    rapacity ;    covetous- 

neas. 

To  take  all  that  good-nature,  or  indulgence, 
or  good  opinion  confers  shews  a  want  of 
moderation,  and  a  graspingness  that  is  un- 
worthy of  that  indulgence. — Richardson,  CI. 
Marlowe,  i.  137. 

Grabpless,  relaxed ;  not  grasping. 

From  my  graspless  hand 
Drop  friendship's  precious  pearls,  like  hour- 
glass sand. — Coleridge,  On  a  Friend. 

Grass,  to  bury  in  the  grass  ;  also  to 

land  a  fish  (on  the  grass). 

One  arrow  mnst  be  shot  after  another, 
though  both  be  great,  and  never  found  again. 
Socket,  Life  of  William*,  ii.  20. 

Well  away  to  Snowdon 
For  our  ten  days'  sport, 
Fish  the  August  evening, 
Till  the  eve  is  past, 
Whoop  like  boys  at  pounders 
Fairly  played  and  grassed. 

C.  Kingsley,  1856. 

Who  amongst  you,  dear  readers,  can  appre- 
ciate the  intense  delight  of  grassing  your 
first  big  fish  after  a  nine  months'  fast?  — 
Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xxxvi. 

Grass.  To  give  grass  =  to  yield  ; 
it  was  an  ancient  form  by  which  a  con- 
quered people  yielded  their  soil  to  the 
victor.  See  Pliny,  Nat.  Hist.,  Bk. 
XXII.  cap.  iv. 

Speak,  ye  attentive  swains  that  heard  me  late, 
Needs  me  give  grass  unto  the  conquerors  ? 
Hall,  Defiance  to  Envy,  prefixed  to 
Satires. 

Grass.  To  let  no  grass  grow  under 
ones  foot  =  to  make  haste,  not  to 
loiter. 

There  hath  grown  no  grasse  on  my  heele 
since  I  went  hence. — Udal.  Roister  bolster , 
in.  3. 
Maistresse,  since  I  went  no  grasse  hath  grown* 

on  my  hele, 
But  maister  Tristram  Trustie  here  maketh 

no  speede. — Ibid.  iv.  5. 

Mr.  Tulkinghorn  .  .  is  so  good  as  to  act  as 
my  solicitor,  and  grass  don't  grow  under  his 
feet,  I  can  tell  ye.  —  Dickens,  Bleak  House, 
ch.xiziii. 

Grass.  To  pluck  grass.  See  quot- 
ation. 

No  man  could  pluck  the  grass  better  to 
know  where  the  wind  sat ;  no  man  could 
•pie  sooner  from  whence  a  mischief  did  rise. 
Socket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  16. 


Grassant,  in  progress  ;  in  full  swing. 
Latin,  grassari. 

Those  innovations  and  mischiefs  which 
are  now  arassant  in  England. — Gauden,  Tears 
of  the  Church,  p.  183. 

Prejudices,  as  epidemical  diseases,  are 
grassant. — North,  Examen,  p.  131. 

Can  it  be  believed  that  a  people  ever  were 
willing  or  consented  that  thieves,  malefac- 
tors, and  cheats  everywhere  arassant  should 
have  liberty  to  ravage  and  destroy  at  their 
pleasure  ? — Ibid.  p.  339. 

G rati 080,  a  favourite ;  in  Spanish  = 
a  buffoon. 

The  Lord  Marquess  of  Buckingham,  then 
a  great  Gratioso,  was  put  on  by  the  Prince 
to  ask  the  King's  liking  to  this  amourous 
adventure. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  114. 

Our  excellent  Camden  shifts  in  this  an- 
swer for  Queen  Elizabeth's  sake,  whose 
affections  were  so  strong  to  Robert.  Earl  of 
Leicester,  that  he  knew  not  whether  it  were 
a  synastria,  a  star  which  reigned  at  both 
their  births,  that  made  him  a  Gratioso  to  so 
brave  a  lady. — Ibid.  ii.  195. 

At  length  the  Gracioso  presented  himself 
to  open  the  scene.  He  was  saluted  on  his 
first  appearance  with  a  general  clap,  by  which 
I  perceived  that  he  was  one  of  those  spoiled 
actors  in  whom  the  pit  pardons  everything. — 
Gil  Bias,  transl.  by  Smollet,  Bk.  VII.  ch.  vi. 

Gratulance,  pecuniary  compliment 
or  gratification ;  a  fee  or  bribe. 

Come,  there  is 
Some  odd  disburse,  some  bribe,  some  gratu- 
lance, 
Which  makes  you  lock  up  leisure. 

Machin,  Dumb  Knight,  Act  V. 

Gratulant,  congratulating. 

The  white-robed  multitude  of  slaughtered 

saints 
At  Heaven's  wide-opened  portals  gratulant 
Receive  some  martyred  Patriot. 

Coleridge,  Destiny  of  Nations. 

Gradndcie8.  The  editor  of  the 
Harl.  Misc.  suggests  that  this  word  is 
the  same  as  craunces,  used  a  little  lower 
down  in  the  same  passage.  See  N.  s.  v. 
Crants. 

Such  brooches,  such  bracelets,  such  ground' 
eies  ...  as  hath  almost  made  Englande  as 
full  of  proud  foppries  as  Tyre  and  Sidon 
were.  —  Greene,  Quip  for  Upstart  Courtier 
(Harl.  Misc.,  v.  419). 

Gravaments,  representations,  grava- 
mina* 

Mr.  Nevell  shall  deliver  to  you  a  bill  of 
the  gravaments  of  two  or  three  of  the  fellows 
most  given  to  good  letters.  —  Latimer  to 
Cromwell,  1537  (Remains,  p.  378). 

Grave  "signifieth  but  an  Eirle: 
but  here  it  is  vsurped  for  the  chief 


GRA  VE 


(  *86) 


GRECIAN 


captain  Josuah "  (marginal  note  in 
8ylvester).  N.  has  the  word,  but  only 
in  connection  with  Maurice  of  Nassau, 
concerning  whom,  in  addition  to  what 
is  stated  there,  see  Howell,  Letters,  I. 
iv.  15. 

When  with  the  rest  of  all  his  boast,  the 

Grave 
Marcheth  amain  to  giue  the  town  a  braue, 
They  straight  re-charge  him. 

Sylvester,  The  Captaines,  362. 

Grave.  An  involuntary  shudder  or 
shiver  without  apparent  cause  is  popu- 
larly said  to  be  caused  by  some  one's 
walking  over  the  grave  (t.  e\,  I  suppose, 
the  ground  that  will  hereafter  form  the 
grave)  of  the  person  so  affected. 

Miss  (shuddering).  Lord,  there's  somebody 
walking  over  my  grave. — Swift,  Polite  Con- 
versation (Conv.  i.). 

Sometimes  somebody  would  walk  over  my 
grave,  and  give  me  a  creeping  in  the  back, 
which,  as  far  as  I  can  find  out,  proceeded 
from  not  having  my  braces  properly  buttoned 
behind. — H.  Kingstey,  Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch. 


Grave- fellow,  the  sharer  of  a  grave. 

In  Scripture  we  only  meet  with  one  Post- 
hume  -  Miracle,  viz.,  the  Gravt  -fellow  of 
Elisha  raised  with  the  touch  of  his  bones. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Bucks  (i  135). 

Gravel.  To  gravel  up  =  to  choke 
up  with  gravel. 

O  thou,  the  fountain  of  whose  better  part 
Is  earth'd  and  gravelVd  up  with  vain  desire. 

Quaries,  Emblems,  i.  7. 

Gravelled,  stranded  :  now  only  used 
figuratively.  See  Trench,  Select  Glos- 
sary, s.  v. 

So  long  he  drinks,  till  the  black  caravell 
Stands  still  fast  gravelled  on  the  mud  of  hell. 

Hall,  Satires,  III.  vi.  14. 

Grave-man,  sexton. 

The  bold  grave-man  at  the  meeting 
Gave  the  rude  clown  so  sound  a  beating, 
That  he  forsook  his  hop'd-f  or  bride, 
While  with  bis  spade  tne  conq'ror  plied, 
Stroke  after  stroke,  the  seat  of  shame, 
Which  blushing  Mases  never  name. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  c.  2. 

Graveporer,  one  who  pores  or  medi- 
tates on  his  grave,  as  having  one  foot 
in  it  already  (?).  Stanyhurst  ( J2n.,  iv. 
641)  calls  Anchises  JEuea8*8  "  bed  red 
graueporer  old  syre."  The  original  is 
confectum  mtate. 

Gravet,  a  grave  person ;  one  of 
weight ;  pletate  gravem. 


In  this  blooddye  riot  they  soom  grauet  haplye 

beholding 
Of  geason  pietee,  doo  throng  and  greedelye 

listen.— Stanyhurst,  JEn^  i.  159. 

Gray,  to  make  gray. 

Thou  hast  ploughed 
Upon  my  face,  canst  thou  undo  a  wrinkle. 
Or  change  bat  the  complexion  of  one  hair  ? 
Yet  thou  hast  (jray'd  a  thousand. 

Shirley,  Bird  in  a  Cage,  Act  V. 

Grease.  To  melt  his  arease  =  to 
perspire,  to  lose  flesh,  and  so  to  pine 
away.  Cotton  (Burlesque  upon  Bur- 
Usque,  p.  287)  has  **  melt  my  suet" 
with  the  same  meaning. 

The  adventurous  Earl  Henry  of  Oxford, 
seeming  to  tax  the  Prince  of  Orange  of 
slackness  to  fight,  was  set  upon  a  desperate 
work,  where  he  melted  his  grease,  and  so,  being 
carry 'd  to  the  Hague,  he  died  also. — Howtll, 
Letters,  I.  iv.  15. 

The  day  was  exceedingly  hot,  and  as  the 
hungry  hunters  followed  the  chase  with  great 
ardour,  Rubio's  horse  was  overheated,  and,  as 
the  phrase  was,  melted  his  grease, — Southey, 
The  Doctor,  ch.  cxliv. 

Great,  to  aggrandise. 

O  base  ambition !    This  false  politick, 
Plotting  to  great  himself,  our  deaths  doth 
seek.— Sylvester,  The  Lave,  639. 

Great  00,  the  final  examination  at 
the  University :  the  modern  term  is 
"  greats." 

At  school  they  never  flogg'd  him, 

At  college,  though  not  fast, 
Tet  his  little  go  and  great  go 
He  creditably  pass  d. 

Thackeray,  King  of  Brentford*  s 
Testament. 

Great  -  master,  chamberlain.  See 
Grand-master. 

I  was  very  much  troubled,  even  this  time 
twelvemonth,  when  I  was  in  commission 
with  my  Lord  Great  Master  and  the  Earl  of 
Southampton,  for  altering  the  Court  of  Aug- 
mentations.—Gantoier  to  Duke  of  Somerset, 
1547. 

Greats,  the  final  University  examin- 
ation, or  great  go  (slang).  See  extract 
8.  v.  Smalls. 

Grecian,  a  gay  fellow.  "  Merry  as 
a  Greek,"  was  a  proverb  which  has 
been  corrupted  into  "  merry  as  a  grig." 

Amongst  the  horsemen  whose  curiosity  had 
drawn  them  to  hear  Wildgoose  was  a  well- 
booted  Grecian  in  a  fustian  frock  and  jockey 
cap.  —  Graves  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  XI. 
ch.  xiv. 


GEEJDALJNE 


(  **7  ) 


GREGS 


Gbkdalihe,  some  sort  of  stuff  (?). 

His  love,  Lord  help  us!  fades  like  my 
gredaUne    petticoat.  —  KiUigrew,    Parson1* 
Wedding,  ii.  4. 

Gree,  favour.  The  word  is  illustrated 
in  the  Diets.,  but  the  following  is  a 
comparatively  late  instance  of  its  use. 

History  .  . .  (after  the  partial  gree  of  the 
late  authors)  has  been  to  all  good  purposes 
silent  of  him. — North,  life  of  Lord  Guilford, 
i.  6. 

Greek.  R.,  after  noticing  what  N. 
says  as  to  this  word  =  boon  companion, 
adds, u Latterly  a  Greekh&a  been  applied 
to  a  character  of  less  openness ;  not  to 
a  bonvivant,  but  to  a  gambler."  "  Lat- 
terly "  is  a  vague  term,  but  it  was  cer- 
tainly so  used  in  1528. 

In  carde  playinge  he  is  a  goode  greke 
And  can  akyll  of  post  and  glyeke, 
Abo  a  payre  of  dyce  to  trolle. 

Boy  and  Barlow,  Rode  mo  and  be  nott 
wroth*,  p.  117. 

He  was  an  adventurer,  a  pauper,  a  black- 
leg, a  regular  Greek.— Thackeray.  Newcomes, 
en.  xxxvi. 

Greek,  to  imitate  the  Greeks ;  arm- 
txtri  (ffor.  Sat.,  II.  ii.  11).  The 
fashion  referred  to  is  that  of  emptying 
as  many  cups  of  wine  as  there  were 
letters  in  the  name  of  the  reveller's 
mistress. 

Those  were  prouerbially  said  to  Greeks  it 
that  qnaft  in  that  fashion. — Sandys,  Travels, 
p.  79. 

G been.  This  epithet  is  by  metonymy 
applied  to  the  flame  that  issues  from 
green  wood. 

For  this  humour  beinge  enkindled  and  sette 
on  heate,  maye  well  bee  lykened  to  areene 
flame  or  as  wet  woode,  which  sendetn  out 
nothing  but  stoare  of  thick  moyst  smoak. — 
Touchstone  of  Complexions,  p.  117. 

Greenery,  foliage ;  shrubbery. 

And  here  were  forests  ancient  as  the  hills, 
Enfolding  sonny  spots  of  preenery. 

Coleridge,  Kubla  Khan. 

Oh,  the  blessed  woods  of  Sussex !  I  can  hear 

them  still  around  me, 
With  their  leafy  tide  of  greenery  still  rippling 

up  the  wind. 

Mrs.  Browning,  Lady  Qeraldine. 

The  Archery  Hall,  with  an  arcade  in  front, 
showed  like  a  white  temple  against  the 
greenery  on  the  northern  side. — G.  Eliot, 
Deronda,  ch.  x. 

GREEN-F18H,  cod. 

A  peece  of  Greene-fish  with  sorrell  sauce 
is  no  mean  seruice  in  an  ale-house. — Breton, 
Wife  Trenehmour,  p.  10. 


Greenies,  freshmen:  the  University 
spoken  of  is  that  of  Ley  den. 

It  would  not  be  convenient  forme  to  enter 
minutely . . .  into  the  course  of  our  student's 
life  from  the  time  when  he  was  entered 
among  the  Greenies  ol  this  famous  university, 
nor  to  describe  the  ceremonies  which  were 
used  at  his  ungreening. — Sou  they,  The  Doctor, 
ch.  1. 

Greenless,  not  green. 

But  Beauty  Oracelesse  is  a  Saillesse  Bark, 
Agreenlesse  Spring,  a  goodly  lightlesse 
Room. 
Sylvester,  Memorials  of  Mortalitie,  st.  26. 

Green  rushes,  a  salutation  to  a  per- 
son whom  the  speaker  had  not  seen  for 
a  long  time.  When  guests  were  ex- 
pected fresh  green  rushes  were  strewed 
on  the  floor,  before  carpets  came  into 
use.  Hence  green  rushes  =»  You  are 
quite  a  stranger,  and  must  be  so  treated. 

a  Indeede,  Doron,  you  saye  well,  it  is  long 
since  wee  met ; . . .  when  you  come  you  shall 
haue  greene  rushes,  you  are  such  a  straunger. 
— Greene,  Menaphon,  p.  85. 

Greene  rushes!  M.  Francisco,  it  is  a  won- 
der to  see  you  heere  in  this  country. — Breton, 
Merry  Wonders,  p.  5. 

Grrenth,  greenness.     See  Blueth. 

I  found  my  garden  brown  and  bare,  but 
these  rains  nave  recovered  the  gree  nth. — ~ 
Walpole,  Letters,  i.  304  (1753). 

Neatness  and  areenth  are  .  .  .  essential  in 
my  opinion  to  the  country.— Ibid.  iii.  320 
(1769). 

Gregary,  ordinary ;  belonging  to  the 
arex  (?),  or  congregational  (?).  Hall 
is  extolling  the  martyrs,  Ac.  of  the 
English  Church  in  comparison  with 
sectaries. 

Men  that  gave  their  blood  for  the  Gospel, 
and  embraced  their  fagots  flaming,  which 
many  gregary  professors  held  enough  to 
carry  cola  and  painless.— 2?/>.  Mall,  Works, 
x.  270. 

Gregorian.  The  Gregorians  were  a 
society  similar  to  the  Freemasons.  See 
N.  and  Q.,  IL  vi.  273. 

Nor  pass'd  the  meanest  unregarded ;  one 
Bose  a  Gregorian,  one  a  Oormagon. 

Pope,  Dunciad,  iv.  576. 
There  is  scarce  an  individual,  whether 
noble  or  plebeian,  who  does  not  belong  to 
one  of  these  associations,  which  may  be 
compared  to  the  free  masons,  gregoreans,  and 
antigallicans  of  England.— -Smollett,  France 
and  Italy,  Letter  xxvii. 

Greg8,  narrow  breeches  or  tights. 
H.  says  "wide,  loose  breeches,"  but 


GREMIAL 


(  ^88  ) 


GRJPOLOUS 


the  subjoined  quotation  does  not  agree 

with  this. 

His  breeches  . . .  were  not  deep  and  large 
enough,  but  round  strait  cannioned  aregs, 
having  in  the  seat  a  piece  like  a  keeping's 
tail,  and  therefore  in  French  called  de  chausses 
a  queue  de  melius. — Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk. 
II.  ch.  vi. 

Gremial,  one  who  resides  in  the 
bosom  (gremio)  of  the  University. 

A  great  Prelate  in  the  Chnrch  did  bear 
him  no  great  good- will  for  mutual  animosities 
betwixt  them,  whilest  Gremials  in  the  Uni- 
versity.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Kent  (i.  609). 

These  things  made  him  always  cast  a  fa- 
vourable aspect  upon  the  universities,  .  .  . 
which  the  governors  and  the  rest  of  the 

S'tmials  very  well  knew. — Strype,  Cranmer, 
k.  II.  ch.  vi. 

Grey- hound.  The  two  following 
derivations  of  this  word  are  worth 
preserving  as  curiosities.  The  first  is 
from  a  Treatise  on  Eng.  Dogs}  by  Dr. 
Caius,  written  in  Latin,  1536,  and  trans- 
lated by  A.  Fleming,  1576. 

The  Greyhound,  called  Leporarius,  hath 
his  name  of  this  word  Gre,  which  word 
soundeth  Gradus  in  Latin,  in  English  degree. 
Because  among  all  dogs  they  are  the  most 
principal,  occupying  the  chief  place;  and 
being  simply  and  absolutely  the  best  of  the 
gentle  kind  of  hounds. — Eng.  Garner,  iii.  264. 

I  have  no  more  to  observe  of  these  Grey- 
hounds, save  that  they  are  so  called  (being 
otherwise  of  all  colours)  because  originally 
imployed  in  the  hunting  of  Grays  ;  that  is, 
Brocks  or  Badgers. — Fuller,  Worthies  (Lin- 
coln, ii.  4). 

Grief.  To  come  to  grief  =  to  fail, 
die,  meet  with  misfortune,  &c. 

As  for  coming  to  grief,  old  boy,  we're  on  a 
good  errand,  I  suppose,  and  the  devil  him- 
self can't  harm  us. — C.  Kingsley,  Two  Years 
Ago,  ch.  xxi. 

Grieffull,  grievous ;  melancholy. 
This  word  occurs  in  the  Faerie  Queen, 
VI.  viii.  40.  N.  adds,  "  Church  says, 
*  This,  if  I  mistake  not,  is  a  compound 
word  of  his  own.1  He  did  mistake,  for 
it  is  used  by  other  writers  as  early," 
and  he  quotes  two  passages  from  Sack- 
villfs  Ferrex  and  Porrex  ;  but  the  sub- 
joined is  older  still  by  about  a  quarter 
of  a  century. 

Soche  pushes  in  the  visages  of  men  are 
angrie  things  and  grefful. —  UdaPs  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  79. 

Griefly,  indicative  of  grief. 

"With  dayly  diligence  and  griefly  groans  he 
wan  her  affection. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  154. 


Grievment,  injury :  a  word  perhaps 
invented  for  the  rhyme. 

His  battels  won  and  great  atchievmenfcs, 
Wounds,  bruises,  bangs,  and  other  grievments. 
Ward,  England's  Reformation, 
cant.  i.  p.  90. 

Griffin,  freshman  in  Indian  service. 

Pip-sticking  is  pretty — very  pretty,  I  may 
say,  if  you  have  two  or  three  of  the  right 
sort  with  you:  all  the  Griffins  ought  to 
hunt  together  though. — H.  Kingsley,  Geojfry 
Hamlyn,  ch.  xxviii. 

Griffinish,  griffin-like ;  fierce. 

For  me,  thro'  heathen  ignorance  perchance, 
Not  having  knelt  in  Palestine,  I  feel 
None  of  that  griffinish  excess  of  zeal, 
Some  travellers  would  blaze  with  here  in 
France. — Hood,  Ode  to  Roe  Wilson, 

Grill,  a  gridiron. 

They  have  wood  so  hard  that  they  cleave 
it  into  swords,  and  make  grills  of  it  to  broil 
their  meat. — Cotton's  Montaigne,  ch.  xxiv. 

Grillatalpa,  mole-cricket. 

Bats  shrieked,  and  grillatalpas  joined  the 
sound. — Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  44. 

Grim,  to  make  grim. 

Bailly  and  his  Feuillants,  long  waning  like 
the  moon,  had  to  withdraw  then,  making 
some  sorrowful  obeisance,  into  extinction, 
or  indeed  into  worse,  into  lurid  half-light, 
gritnmed  by  the  shadow  of  that  Bed  Flag  of 
theirs.—  Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  V. 
ch.  viii. 

Grind,  hard  work  (slang). 

We  lost  him  [the  fox]  after  sunset,  after 
the  fiercest  grind  I  have  had  this  nine  years. 
— C.  Kingsley,  1852  {Life,  i.  275). 

Grinder,  a  private  tutor ;  a  coach : 
usually  applied  to  one  who  crams  pupils 
for  a  particular  examination. 

Put  him  into  the  hands  of  a  clever  grinder 
or  crammer,  and  they  would  soon  cram  the 
necessary  portion  of  Latin  and  Greek  into 
him. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Patronage,  ch.  iii. 

Gripe,  a  drain.  L.  has  grip  in  this 
sense,  with  a  quotation  which  speaks 
of  it  as  a  Scotch  word. 

Up  and  down  in  that  meadow  for  an  hour 
or  more  did  Tom  and  the  trembling  youth 
beat  like  a  brace  of  pointer  dogs,  stumbling 
into  gripes  and  over  sleeping  cows.  — 1\ 
Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xxv. 

Gripolous,  grasping ;  avaricious. 

The  labourer's  hire  cries  in  the  gripotous 
landlord's  hand. — Adams%  i.  213. 

What  cosmopolite  ever  grasped  so  much 
wealth  in  his  gripulous  fist  as  to  sing  to  him- 
self a  Sttfficit  f—Ihid.  i.  434. 


GXIPPINGNESS        (  289  ) 


GROPPLE 


Grippingmess,  avarice.    Bp.  Hall  has 

grippiene&s. 

One  with  an  open-handed  freedom  spends 
all  he  lays  his  fingers  on;  another  with  a 
logick- fisted  grippingnesa  catches  at  and 
grasps  all  he  can  come  within  the  reach  of. 
—Rennet's  Erasmus,  Praise  of  Folly,  p.  87. 

Gkit,  an  American  expression  =  sub- 
stance, pluck,  staying-power,  or  the 
like. 

What  a  lovely  girl  she  is !  and  a  real  lady 
— Voir  noble — the  real  genuine  grit,  as  Sam 
Slick  says,  and  no  mistake. —  C.  Kingsley, 
Alton  Locke,  ch.  vi. 

Come  and  see  the  fighting,  .  .  .  and  tell 
people  what  it's  all  really  like.  .  .  Come 
and  give  us  the  real  genuine  grit  of  it,  for 
if  you  cant,  who  can? — H.  Kingsley,  Two 
Years  Ago,  ch.  xxiv. 

They  came  to  a  rising  ground,  not  sharp, 
bat  long ;  and  here  youth,  and  grit,  and  sober 
living  told  more  than  ever. — Reade,  Cloister 
•*d  Hearth,  ch.  xxi. 

Grizkl,  a  meek  woman,  from  the 
well-known  story  of  Griselda.  The 
word  in  extract  is  not  printed  with  a 
capital  letter. 

He  had  married  five  shrews  in  succession, 
and  made  grizels  of  every  one  of  them  before 
they  died. — H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  ii.  15. 

Grizzle,  a  species  of  wig. 

Emerg'd  from  his  grizzle,  th'  unfortunate 

Prig 
Seems  as  if  he  was  hunting  all  night  for  his 

wig. — Anstey,  New  Bath  Guide,  Letter  xi. 

Kven  our  clergy  when  abroad  moult  their 
feathered  grizzles,  cast  off  their  pndding- 
sleeves,  and  put  on  white  stockings,  long 
swords,  and  bag-wigs. — Colman,  The  Spleen, 
Act  II. 

Groat.  Grey  groat  is  used  for 
something  of  no  value,  a  brass  farthing 
as  we  now  say. 

Ill  not  leave  him  worth  a  grey  groat. 
_  Marlowe,  Jew  of  Malta,  iv.  4. 

"  It  will  be  nonsense  fining  me,'1  said  An- 
drew, doughtily,  "that  hasna  a  grey  groat 
to  pay  a  fine  wi'— it's  ill  taking  the  breeks 
aff  a  Hielandman."— Scott,  Rob  Roy,  ii.  140. 

Gbobiax,  a  sloven. 

Let  them  be  never  so  clownish,  rude  and 
torrid,  Qrobians  and  sluts,  if  once  they  be  in 
We,  they  will  be  most  ueat  and  spruce. — 
Itxrton,  Anatomy,  p.  530. 

Be  sure  that  he  who  is  a  Grobian  in  his 
o^n  company  will  sooner  or  later  become  a 
Grobian  in  that  of  his  friends. — C.  Kingsley, 
Westward  Ho,  ch.  ii. 

Grocerlt,  belonging  to  the  grocery 
trade. 


Yet  never  since  Scandal  drank  bohea, 
Or  sloe,  or  whatever  it  happened  to  be, 
For  some  grocerly  thieves 
Turn  over  new  leaves, 
Without  much  amending  their  lives  or  their 

tea; 
No,  never  since  cup  was  fill'd  or  stirr'd 
Were  such  vile  and  horrible  anecdotes  heard. 

Hood,  Tale  of  a  Trumpet, 

Grog,  to  make  into  grog;  to  mix 
water  with  spirits. 

The  Excise  authorities  found  in  a  vault 
135  empty  spirit  casks  and  23  casks  contain- 
ing weak  spirit  or  grog.  It  was  set  forth 
for  the  prosecution  that  the  defendants  had 
"grogged  "  the  casks  by  putting  in  hot  water, 
and  thereby  had  extracted  15  gallons  of  proof 
spirit  on  which  duty  had  not  been  paid.  In 
defence  it  was  admitted  that  the  casks  had 
been  "grogged,"  but  it  was  urged  that  the 
defendants  were  not  spirit  dealers,  and  that 
when  duty  was  paid  upon  the  whisky  as  it 
left  the  bonded  warehouse,  those  who  bought 
it  could  do  with  it  what  they  pleased. — 
Lincoln,  Rutland,  and  Stamford  Mercury, 
March  8, 1878. 

Groggy,  shaky ;  unsteady  on  the 
legs ;  confused. 

He  turned  and  gazed  at  Dolphin  with  the 
scrutinising  eye  of  a  veterinary  surgeon. 
" I'll  be  shot  if  he  is  not  groggy"  said  tbe 
Baron. — Ingoldsby  Legends  (Grey  Dolphin;, 

"Since  bis  last  attack,"  Barnes  used  to 
say,  "my  poor  old  governor  is  exceedingly 
shaky,  very  groggy  about  the  head." — Thack- 
eray y  Newcomes,  ch.  xxix. 

Gboin,  lust. 

They  set  the  sign  of  the  Cross  over  their 
outer  doors,  and  sacrifice  to  their  gut  and 
their  groin  in  their  inner  closets. — B.  Jonson, 
Discoveries  (Impostura). 

Gromet.  Those  who  were  employed 
in  servile  offices  on  board  ship,  waiting 
on  the  seamen,  &c,  were  called  grum- 
metts :  from  Low  Latin  gromettus,  the 
original  of  our  groom.  In  Sussex  an 
awkward  boy  is  called  a  grummut. 
See  Parish's  Sussex  Dialect;  also  N.  and 
Q.,  I.  i.  337,  358,  where  the  following 
is  quoted  from  Jeukes'  Charters  of  the 
Cinque  Ports,  under  date  1229. 

Servicia  inde  debita  domino  regi  xxi  naves, 
et  in  qualibet  nave  xxi  homines,  cum  uno  gar- 
done  qui  dicitur  gromet. 

G  roomless,  without  a  groom. 

St.  Aldcgonde  .  .  was  lounging  about  on 
a  rough  Scandinavian  cob,  as  dishevelled 
as  himself,  listless  and  groomless. — Disraeli, 
Lothair,  ch.  xxviii. 

Gropple,  to  grope. 


GROSSFULL 


(  290  )  GRUB-PEGASUS 


The  boys  .  .  .  bad  gone  off  to  tbe  brook 
to  "aropple"  in  the  brook  for  cray-fish.  — 
Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xxx, 

Grossfull,  gross. 

Let  me  beare 
My  grossest  faults  as  grosse-full  as  they  were. 
Chapman,  Revenge  of  Jiussy  D'Ambois,  i.  2. 

G rossi  e,  gross. 

Wild-foule  being  more  dainty  and  digest- 
able  than  Tame  of  the  same  kind,  as  spend- 
ing their  grossie  humours  with  their  activity 
and  constant  motion  in  flying.  —  Fuller, 
Worthies,  Lincoln  (ii.  2). 

Groud,  troubled  (?)  See  H.  s.  v. 
Grow. 

Asses  and  such  like  beasts  that  can  not 
stale  or  be  groud  and  wrong  in  the  bellie. — 
Holland,  Pltny,  xx.  6. 

Ground.  To  set  on  ground  =  to  dis- 
comfit, to  floor,  to  gravel. 

The  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  had  no 
further  end  but  to  set  Him  on  ground,  and 
so  to  expose  Him  to  the  contempt  of  the 
people. — Andrewes,  v.  127. 

Ground-fast,  sunk  in  the  ground. 

In  Yorkshire  they  kneel  on  a  ground-fast 
stone  and  say — 

All  hail  to  the  moon,  all  hail  to  thee, 
I  prithee,  good  moon,  reveal  to  me 
'  This  night  who  my  husband  shall  be.  # 
Defoe,  Duncan  Campbell,  Introduction. 

Groundsill,  to  put  down  a  thresh- 
old. 

The  milder  glances  sparkled  on  the  ground, 
And  groundsilVd  every  door  with  diamond. 

Quarles,  Emblems,  v.  14. 

Grouplet,  little  group. 

This  multitudinous  French  people,  so  long 
simmering  and  buzzing  in  eager  expectancy, 
begins  heaping  and  shaping  itself  into  or- 
ganic groups,  which  organic  groups  again 
hold  smaller  organic  grouplets. — Carlyle,  Fr, 
Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  ii. 

Grouthead.  H.  says,  "stupidly 
noisy  (Sussex) ;  also  large  or  great- 
headed,  stupid."  We  associate  a  large 
head  with  intellect,  but  perhaps  the  idea 
is  not  of  length,  as  a  long-headed  man, 
or  breadth,  as  in  a  broad  forehead,  but 
thickness  —  blockheaded.  The  term 
occurs  in  the  volley  of  abuse  poured 
upon  Gargantua's  people  by  the  eake- 
bakers  of  Lerne\  It  is  difficult  to  say 
which  of  the  two  meanings  given  by 
H.  it  bears  in  that  place,  nor  does  the 
original  help  us  to  determine ;  for,  in 
this  as  in  several  other  places,  Urqu- 
hart  in  his  translation  has  added  con- 


siderably to  the  already  copious  vocabu- 
lary of  Rabelais.  Probably,  however, 
it  means  stupidly  noisy,  being  asso- 
ciated with  gnatsnapper  (see  quotation 
*.  v.). 

Grouze,  devour  noisily:  still  in  use 
in  Lincolnshire. 

Like  swine  under  the  oaks,  we  grouze  up 
the  akecorns,  and  snouk  about  for  more,  and 
eat  them  too ;  and  when  we  have  done,  lie 
wronting  and  thrusting  our  noses  in  the 
earth  for  more,  but  never  lift  up  so  much  as 
half  an  eye  to  the  tree  that  shed  them. — 
Sanderson,  iii.  187. 

Grovecrop,  a  grove:  luciu  is  the 
word  in  the  original. 

In  town's  myd  center  theare  sprouted  a 
groavecrop. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.  424. 

Growl    seems  in  the   extract  =  to 

crawl.     See  Crawl. 

He  died  of  lice  continually  growling  out  of 
his  fleshe,  as  Scylla  and  Herode  did. — UdaVs 
Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  178. 

Growler,  a  cant  name  for  a  four- 
wheel  cab.  It  will  be  seen  that  Udul 
uses  growl  =  to  crawl ;  this,  however, 
is  probably  not  the  origin  of  the  name  ; 
it  may  perhaps  refer  to  the  creaking 
noise  made  by  an  ill-built  vehicle,  or  to 
the  murmurs  of  those  inside  evoked  by 
the  slowness  of  their  progress. 

The  London  four-wheeled  Cab,  as  actually 
existing,  is  one  of  the  worst  public  vehicles 
in  Europe ;  and  though,  by  a  process  of  ex- 
tremely natural  selection,  tne  so  -  called 
"  Growler "  is  gradually  disappearing  before 
the  more  genial  Hansom,  yet  there  are  grave 
objections  to  urge  against  the  Hansom  itself. 
The  four-wheeler,  meanwhile,  may  already 
be  looked  upon  as  doomed  beyond  all  chance 
of  redemption. — Standard,  Nov.  7, 1879. 

Groyl,  to  growl ;  in  the  second  ex- 
tract =  growler  or  mutterer.  The 
Diets,  give  no  example  of  growl  earlier 
than  Pope  and  Gay. 

His  tusk  grimlye  gnashing,  in  seas  far 
waltred  he  groyleth. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iii. 
678. 

Fame  the  groyl  vngeutil  then  whom  none 
swifter  is  extant. — Ibid.,  JEn.,  iv.  179. 

Grubby,  dirty. 

They  lookM  so  ugly  in  their  sable  hides ; 

So  dark,  so  dingy,  like  a  grubby  lot 
Of  sooty  sweeps  or  colliers. 

Hood,  A  Black  Job. 

Grub-Pkgasus.  Grub  Street  was  the 
abode  of  poor  authors,  and  has  become 
a  recognized  word  in  the  language  np- 


GRUDGMENT 


(  29i  ) 


GR  YPHE 


plied  to  literary  performances  of  in- 
ferior character.  Swift,  in  the  Intro- 
duction to  his  Tale  of  a  Tub,  coins  the 
adjective  Grubcean. 

Nor  could  I  mount  my  Pad  for  a  Day's 
journey,  but  strait  some  paultry  poet,  astride 
his  Grub-Pegasus,  wrote  at  me,  or  rode,  and 
sent  his  Hue  and  Cry  after  me.— Dr.  Swiff  $ 
Seal  Diary,  Dedic.  (1715). 

Gbudgment,  discontent. 
This,  see,  which  at  my  breast  I  wear, 
Ever  did  (rather  to  Jacynth's  grudgment), 
And  ever  shall,  till  the  Day  of  Judgment. 
Drowning,  Flight  of  the  Duchess. 

Gruel.  One  who  is  killed  or  other- 
wise punished  is  said  to  have  got  his 
gruel  (slang). 

He  gathered  in  general  that  they  expressed 
great  indignation  against  some  individual. 
"  He  shall  have  his  gruel,"  said  one.— Scott, 
Guy  Mannering,  i.  287. 

He  refused,  and  harsh  language  ensued, 
Which  ended  at  length  in  a  duel, 

When  he  that  was  mildest  in  mood 
Gave  the  truculent  rascal  his  gruel. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  {Babes  in  the  Wood). 

Gruelled,  done ;  exhausted  (slang). 

Wadham  ran  up  by  the  side  of  that  first 
Trinity  yesterday,  and  he  said  that  they 
were  as  well  gruelled  as  so  many  posters 
before  they  got  to  the  stile.  —  C.  Kingsley, 
Alton  Locke,  ch.  xii. 

Grueller,  a  thing  hard  to  get  over; 
a  floorer  or  graveller  (slang). 

This  £25  of  his  is  a  grueller,  and  I  learnt 
with  interest  that  you  are  inclined  to  get  the 
fish's  nose  out  of  the  weed.  I  have  offered 
to  lend  him  £10.— C.  Kingsley,  Letter,  May, 
1856. 

Gruesome,  terrible;  also  terrified; 
shuddering.  Awful  and  fearful  have 
the  same  twofold  meaning. 

What's  in  the  Times?    A  scold 
At  the  Emperor  deep  and  cold ; 
He  has  taken  a  bride 
To  his  gruesome  side 
That's  as  fair  as  himself  is  bold. 

Browning,  A  Lovers'  Quarrel. 
Nature's  equinoctial  night-wrath  is  weird, 
grewsome,  crushing.—  C.  Kingsley,  Two  Tears 
Ago,  ch.  iii. 

These  trees,  and  pools,  and  lonesome  rocks, 
*&d  setting  of  the  sunlight,  are  making  a 
9jue*me  coward  of  thee.— Blackmore,  Lorna 
Doom,  ch.  vii. 

Gruffish,  rather  gruff.  See  extract 
from  Colman  *.  v.  Bakeb-kneed. 

"How  do  you  do?"  said  a  short, elderly 
gentleman  with  a  qruMsh  voice— Sketches  by 
Koz  (Watkins  Tottte). 


Gruft,  to  begrime. 

An*  'is  noase  sa  grufted  wi'  snuff  es  it 
couldn't  be  scroob'd  awaay.— Tennyson,  Vil- 
lage Wife. 

Grumbles,  grime ;  dirt. 

When  these  come  once  to  stirring,  and 
trouble  overtaketh  them,  as  sooner  or  later 
they  must  look  for  it,  then  the  grumbles  and 
mud  of  their  impatience  and  discontent  be- 
ginneth  to  appear,  and  becometh  unsavoury 
both  to  God  and  man. — Sanderson,  I  150. 

Grdmbletonian,  grumbler ;  scolder. 

Father-in-law  has  been  calling  me  whelp 
and  hound  this  half  year.  Now,  if  I  pleased, 
I  could  be  so  revenged  upon  the  old  grumble- 
tonian.  —  Goldsmith,  She  Stoops  to  Conquer, 
Act  I. 

Grumbol,  a  term  of  reproach ;  grum 
=  surly. 

Come,  grumbol,  thou  shalt  mum  with  us ; 
come,  dog  me,  sneaksbill.  —  Dekker,  Satiro- 
mastix  {Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr.,  iii.  174). 

Grumness,  sourness. 

Well,  Jack,  by  thy  long  absence  from  the 
town,  the  grumness  of  thy  countenance,  and 
the  slovenliness  of  thy  habit,  I  should  give 
thee  joy,  should  I  not,  of  marriage  ? —  Wych- 
erley,  Country  Wife,  I.  i. 

Grumpish,  cross:  grumpy  is  more 
common. 

If  you  blubber  or  look  grumpish,  HI  have 
you  strapped  ten  times  over. — Mrs.  Trollope, 
Michael  Armstrong,  ch.  vi. 

Grunter,  a  pig.  The  first  quotation 
is  part  of  a  song  full  of  gipsy  cant 
words,  but  Scott  and  Tennyson  use 
ffrunler  as  an  ordinary  term  for  a  pig. 

Here's  grunter  and  bleater,  with  tib  of  the 

buttery, 
And    Margery  Prater,  all    dress'd  without 

sluttery. — Broome,  A  Jovial  Crew,  Act  II. 

A  sort  of  lurcher,  half  mastiff,  half  grey- 
hound, .  .  ran  limping  about  as  if  with  the 
purpose  of  seconding  his  master  in  collecting 
the  refractory  grunters. — Scott,  Ivanhoe,  i.  12. 

A  draggled  mawkin  thou, 
That  tends  her  bristled  grunters  in  the  sludge 

Tennyson,  Princess,  v. 

Grutnol,  a  term  of  abuse ;  a  great 
noil  or  head ;  a  blockhead.  See  Grout- 
head. 

Noddy  meacocks,  blockish  orulnols,  doddi- 
pol-joltheads.  —  UrquharVs  liabelais,  Bk.  I. 
ch.  zzv. 

Gryphe,  hieroglyph  (?) 

He  appeals  also  to  the  law6  of  the  land, 
that  if  such  letters  had  come  to  him  like 
Merlin's  rhimes  and  Rosicrucian  bumbast, 
that  no  law  or  practice  directs  the  subject  to  . 

U  2 


GRYPHONESQVE       (  292  )      GUILLOTINEMENT 


bring  such  gryphes  and  oracles,  but  plain, 
literal,  grammatical  notions  of  libels,  to  a 
justice  of  peace,  against  a  known  and  clearly 
decipher \1  magistrate. — Hacket,  Life  of  WiU 
Hants,  ii.  132. 

Gryphonesqub,  griffin-like. 

Blanche  had  just  one  of  those  faces  that 
might  become  very  lovely  in.  youth,  and 
would  yet  quite  justify  the  suspicion  that 
it  might  become  gryphonesque,  witch-like,  and 
grim. — Lytton,  Vaxtons,  Bk.  XVIII.  ch.  iii. 

Guard.  De  Quincey  says  in  a  note, 
"I  know  not  whether  the  word  is  a 
local  one  in  this  sense.  What  I  mean 
is  a  sort  of  fender,  four  or  five  feet 
high,  which  locks  up  the  fire  from  too 
near  an  approach  on  the  part  of  chil- 
dren." The  word  is,  I  think,  common 
all  over  England,  and  also  designates 
the  much  smaller  and  slighter  protec- 
tions used  for  tires  in  drawing-rooms, 
&c. 

My  three  sisters  with  myself  sat  by  the 
firelight  round  the  guard  of  our  nursery. — 
De  Quincey,  Autob.  Sketches,  i.  IS. 

GUBBAHAWN. 

When  you  can't  catch  salmon,  you  catch 
trout,  and  when  you  can't  catch  trout,  you'll 
whip  on  the  shallow  for  poor  little  gubba- 
haicns. — C.  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xiii. 

Gubbe,  lump ;  same  as  gob,  q.  v.  in  L. 

A  bodie  thinketh  hymself  well  emended 
in  his  substaunce  and  riches  to  whom  hath 
happened  some  good  gubbe  of  money.  — 
UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apopkth.,  p.  14. 

Gudgeon.  See  L.  *.  v.  for  remarks 
on  the  voracity  ascribed  to  this  fish  : 
the  peculiarity  in  the  extracts  is  the 
adjectivul  use  of  the  word. 

This  is  a  bait  they  often  throw  out  to  such 
gudgeon  princes  as  will  nibble  at  it.  —  T. 
Brown,  Works,  i.  90. 

In  vain  at  glory  gudgeon  Boswell  snaps. — 
Wolcot,  P.  Ptndar,  p.  107. 

Gudgeons,  the  rings  that  bear  up 
the  rudder  of  a  ship.  The  extract  is 
a  portion  of  a  comparison  between  the 
parts  of  a  man's  body  and  the  parts  of 
a  ship. 

The  keel  is  his  back,  the  planks  are  his 
ribs,  the  beams  his  bones,  the  pintal  and 
gudgeons  are  his  gristles  and  cartilages. — 
Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  9.  • 

Guffaw,  a  loud  laugh. 

F.  B.  goes  up  to  the  draughtsman,  looks 
over  bis  shoulder,  makes  one  or  two  violent 
efforts  as  of  inward  convulsion,  and  finally 
explodes  in  an  enormous  guffaw. — Thackeray, 
Newcomts,  ch.  lxv. 


A  smile  is  allowable,  but  an  intelligent 
smile  tipped  with  pity,  please,  and  not  the 
empty  guffaw  of  the  nineteenth  century 
jackass,  burlesquing  Bibles,  and  making 
fun  of  all  things  except  fun. — Reade,  Cloister 
and  Hearth,  ch.  Iii. 

Guggle,  to  catch  in  the  throat,  so  as 
to  impede  clear  speaking.  An  onoma- 
topceous  word. 

Something  rote  in  my  throat,  I  know  not 
what,  which  made  me  for  a  moment  avpgle, 
as  it  were,  for  speech. — Richardson,  Ci.  Har- 
lowe,  vi.  305. 

All  France  is  ruffled,  roughened  up  (me- 
taphorically speaking)  into  one  enormous, 
desperate-minded,  red,  guggling  turkey-cock. 
—Oarlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  iv. 

Dobbin  .  .  fell  back  in  the  crowd,  crow- 
ing and  sputtering  until  he  reached  a  safe 
distance,  when  he  exploded  among  the  aston- 
ished market-people  with  shrieks  of  yelling 
laughter.  "Hwat's  that  gawky  guggling 
about?"  said  Mrs.  ODowd.  —  Thackeray, 
Vanity  Fair,  oh.  xxviii. 

Guidelessness,  want  of  guidance. 

Hast  thou  too  to  fight  with  poverty  and 
guidelessness,  and  the  cravings  of  an  unsatis- 
fied intellect?  —  C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke, 
ch.  u. 

Guieeie,  deceit  (?)  Gut  (from  French 
gtieux)  =  a  sharper,  and  is  not  peculiar 
to  Brathwaites  Honest  Ghost,  aa  N. 
supposed.     See  H. 

This  pangue  or  auierie  of  loue  doth  especi- 
ally aboue  all  others  innade  and  possess© 
soche  persones  as  been  altogether  drouned 
in  idlenesse.  —  UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apopkth  n 
p.  131. 

Metellus  himself  being  of  his  mother's 
condicions,  was  veray  light  and  mutable,  and 
one  that  could  none  other  but  folowe  euery 
sodain  guerie  or  pangue  that  6hotte  in  his 
braine—  Ibid.  p.  341. 

•  Guile.  H.  gives  no  example,  but 
explains  it  "  a  guile  of  liquor,  %.  e.  as 
much  as  is  brewed  at  once." 

Thee  best  befits  a  lowly  6tyle, 
Teach  Dennis  how  to  stir  the  guile  ; 
With  Peggy  Dixon  thoughtful  sit, 
Contriving  for  the  pot  and  spit. 

Swift,  Panegyric  on  the  Dean. 

Guillian,  a  follower  of  William  III. 

Grave  bishops,  barons,  baronets, 
The  Guillians,  and  the  Jacobites. 

D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  cant.  3. 

Guillotinkment,  death  by  guillotine. 

Phillipe  Egalite', .  .  .  before  guillotinement, 
begat  the  present  King  of  the  French. — 
Carlyle,  Diamond  Necklace,  ch.  ix. 

In  this  poor  National  Convention,  broken, 
bewildered  by  long  terror,  perturbations,  and 


GUINEA-PIG 


(  *93  ) 


GUN 


gvillotinement,  there  if  no  pilot. — Ibid.,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  HI.  Bk.  VII.  ch.  ii. 

Guinea-pig,  a  term  of  reproach. 

A  good  seaman  he  is  as  ever  stept  upon 
forecastle,  and  a  brave  fellow  as  ever  crackt 
bisket — none  of  your  Guinea-pigs,  nor  your 
fresh- water,  wishy-washy,  fair-weather  fowls. 
—Smollett,  Roderick  Random,  ch.  xxiv. 

Guinea-pig,  a  name  jocosely  given 
to  those  whose  fee  is  a  guinea.  The 
guinea-pig  in  the  first  extract  was  a 
veterinary  surgeon. 

u  Ob,  oh,"  cried  Pat,  "  how  my  hand  itches, 
Thou  guinea  nig,  in  boots  and  breeches. 
To  trounce  thee  well." 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  c.  iv. 

Guinea-piqs. — There  is  an  order  in  the 
Anglican  Church  which  bears  a  certain  ana- 
logy to  the  mendicant  friars  of  the  middle 
ages.  Hie  members  thereof  are  styled 
"guinea-pigs"  and  they  are,  for  the  most 
part,  unattached  or  roving  parsons,  who  will 
take  any  brother  cleric's  duty  for  the  moder- 
ate remuneration  of  one  guinea.  —  Chicago 
Ch.  Paper,  quoted  in  Ch.  Review,  Jan.  2, 1880. 

Guire  Cove,  queer  cove  (?),  i.  e.  a 
rogue.  To  nip  a  bounge  is  to  cut  a 
parse. 

You  can  lift,  or  nip  a  bounge,  like  a  Guire 
Cote,  if  you  want  pence. — Greene,  Quip  for 
Up*tart  Courtier  (Harl.  Misc.,  v.  418). 

Guise,  to  disguise,  or  dress  up. 

To  guise  ourselues  (like  counter-faiting  ape) 
To  th*  guise  of  men  that  are  but  men  in 
shape.— Sylvester,  Th*  Vocation,  p.  192. 

Abbe  Maury  did  not  pull ;  but  the  char- 
coal men  brought  a  mummer  guised  like  him, 
and  he  had  to  pull  in  effigy. — Carlyle,  Fr. 
&NPt.II.Bk.I.ch.xi. 

Gule,  gullet.     H .  has  it  =  gluttony. 

There  are  many  throats  so  wide  and  gules 
v>  gluttonous  in  England  that  they  can  swal- 
low down  goodly  Cathedral*. — Gauden,  Tears 
of  the  Church,  p.  323. 

Gcllery,  a  pond  for  gulls. 

Two  other  instances  of  such  inland  gulleries 
exist  in  England.—  E.  Trollope,  Sleaford 
(1872),  p.  68.  ^  J 

Gully.    See  quotation. 

"  Can  you  tell  me  with  what  instruments 
they  did  it?"  "With  fair  gullies  (gouets), 
which  are  little  haulch-backed  denii-knives, 
the  iron  tool  whereof  is  two  inches  long,  and 
the  wooden  handle  one  inch  thick,  and  three 
inches  in  length."—  Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk. 
Ich.  xxvii. 

The  poor  simple  bairn  himsell  .  .  .  had 
p*e  mair  knowledge  of  the  wickedness  of 
human  nature  than  a  calf  has  of  a  fiesher's 
9*'ty.— Scott,  St.  Ronan's  Well,  i.  242. 


Gult,  red :  gules  (Fr.  gueules)  is  an 
heraldic  term  for  that  colour. 

Such  poor  drifts  to  make  a  national  war 
of  a  surplice  brabble,  a  tippet  scuffle,  and 
engage  the  untainted  honour  of  English 
knighthood  to  unfurl  the  streaming  red  cross, 
or  to  rear  the  horrid  standard  of  those  fatal 
guly  dragons  for  so  unworthy  a  purpose. — 
Jfilton,  Ref.  in  Eng.,  Bk.  II. 

Gum,  chatter,  or,  as  we  still  say, 

jaw. 

Pshaw f  pshaw!  brother,  there's  no  occa- 
sion to  bowss  out  so  much  unnecessary  gum  ; 
if  you  can't  bring  your  discourse  to  bear  on 
the  right  subject,  you  had  much  better  clap 
a  stopper  on  your  tongue. — Smollett,  Pert' 
grine  Pickle,  ch.  xiv. 

Gummed,  stiff  or  starched. 

We  bate  the  stiff  and  gumm'd  deportment 
of  the  Italian.  —  Gentleman  Instructed,  p. 
546. 

Gumptious,  proud. 

"  She  holds  her  head  higher,  I  think,"  said 
the  landlord,  smiling.  "She  was  always — 
not  exactly  proud  like,  but  what  I  calls 
gumptious. 

"  I  never  heard  that  word  before,"  said  the 
Parson,  laying  down  his  knife  and  fork. 
"  Bumptious,  indeed,  though  I  believe  it  is 
not  in  the  dictionary,  has  crept  into  familiar 
parlance,  especially  amongst  young  folks  at 
school  and  college." 

"  Bumptious  is  bumptious,  and  qumpfious 
is  gumpttous"  said  the  landlord,  delighted  to 

Enzzle  a  parson.    "Now,  the  town  beadle  is 
umptiou6,  and  Mrs.  Avenel  is  gumptious." 
41  She  is  a  very  respectable  woman,"  said 
Mr.  Dale,  somewhat  rebukingly. 

uIn  course,  sir;  all  gumytrms  folks  are; 
they  value  themselves  on  their  respectability, 
and  looks  down  on  their  neighbours." 

Parson  (still  philologically  occupied). — 
Gumptious— gumptious.  I  think  I  remember 
the  substantive  at  school  **ot  that  my  master 
taught  it  to  me.  u  Gumption,"— it  means 
cleverness. 

Landlord  (doggedly).—  There's  gumption 
and  gumptious!  Gumption  is  knowing;  but 
when  I  say  that  sum  un  is  gumptious,  I  mean 
— though  that's  more  vulgar  like — sum  un 
who  does  not  think  small  beer  of  hisself. — 
Lytton,  My  Novel,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  xii. 

Gun.  Son  of  a  gnn,  a  rather  dis- 
respectful synonym  for  a  "  man." 

We  tucked  him  in,  and  had  hardly  done 
When,  beneath  the  window  calling. 

We  heard  the  rough  voice  of  a  son  of  a  gun 
Of  a  watchman,  **  One  o'clock  "  bawling. 
IngoldsJry  Legends  (Cynotaph,  note). 

Gun.     Great  guns  =  great  people. 

What  great  pieces  hath  he  [the  devil]  had 
of  bishops  of  Borne,  which  have  destroyed 
whole  cities  and  countries,  and  have  slain 


GUN 


(  *94  ) 


GYTRASH 


and  burnt  many!     What  great  guns  were 
those ! — Latimer j  i.  27. 

Guy.    Sure  as  a  gun  =  quite  sure. 

Comers  with  his  dagger  a  promising 
assassin ;  the  guns  and  firelocks  dead-doing 
things ;  as  sure,  they  say,  as  a  gun. — North, 
Examen,  p.  168. 

I  laid  down  my  basin  of  tea, 

And  Betty  ceased  spreading  the  toast, 
u  As  sure  as  a  gun,  sir,"  said  she, 
u  That  must  be  the  knock  of  the  post.'* 
Macaulay,  Country  Clergyman's 
Trip  to  Cambridge. 

Gunneress,  female  gunner. 

The  seized  cannon  are  yoked  with  seized 
cart-horses:  brown-locked  Demoiselle  Th6- 
roigne,  with  pike  and  helmet,  sits  there  as 
gunneress. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  VII. 
ch.  v. 

Gurtie.    See  extract. 

It  staies  the  gurtie  or  running  out  of  the 
belly  in  4  footed  beasts. — Holland,  Pliny, 
xx.  5. 

Gushet,  piece  of  armour  in  front  of 

the  arm-pit :  the  name  survives  in  the 

gusset  of  a  shirt. 

Then  every  man  amongst  them  with  a  fair 
joy,  and  fine  little  country  songs,  set  up  a 
huge  big  post,  whereunto  they  hanged  .  .  . 
a  horseman's  mace,  gushet -Armour  (gousse  ts) 
for  the  armpits,  leg-harness,  and  a  gorget. — 
Urquharfs  Raltclais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxvii. 

Gutless,  disembowelled. 

The  falcon  (stooping  thunder-like) 
With  suddain  souse  her  to  the  soyl  shall 

strike, 
And  with  the  stroak  make  on  the  senseless 

ground 
The  gut-les  quar  once,  twice,  or  thrice  re- 
bound.— Sylvester,  The  La  we,  643. 

Gutling,  a  glutton.     N.  has  it,  but 

only  refers  to  Withal' s  Diet 

The  poets  wanted  no  sport  the  while,  who 
made  themselves  bitterly  merry  with  de- 
scanting upon  the  lean  skulls  and  the  fat 
paunches  of  these  lazy  gutlings. — Sanderson, 
iii.  106. 

Guts.  To  have  guts  in  the  brains 
=  to  have  sense. 

Quoth  Ralpho,  Truly  that  is  no 
Hard  matter  for  a  man  to  do 
That  has  but  any  guts  in  's  brains. 

Hudihras,  I.  iii.  1091. 

His  brother  boars,  I  presume,  will  h&ve 
more  outs  in  their  brains  for  the  future  than 
to  pick  a  quarrel  with  such  as  preserve  their 
lives. — T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  278. 

The  fellow's  well  enough,  if  he  had  any 
guts  in  his  brains. — Sicift,  Polite  Conversation 
(Conv.  i.). 


Gut,  a  figure  stuffed  with  straw 
carried  about  by  boys  on  Nov.  5,  to 
represent  Guy  Fawkes  :  the  eflSgy  is 
afterwards  burnt.  Any  odd-looking, 
ugly,  or  ill-dressed  person  is  sometimes 
called  a  guy. 

Once  on  a  fifth  of  November  I  found  a  Guy 
trusted  to  take  care  of  himself  there,  while 
his  proprietors  had  gone  to  dinner. — Dickens, 
Uncommercial  Traveller,  xxi. 

Guzzle,  drink.  The  Diets,  give  this 
substantive  as  meaning  an  insatiable 
person,  also  a  ditch  or  drain. 

Where  [have  you]  squander'd  away  the 
tiresome  minutes  of  your  evening  leisure 
over  seal'd  Winchesters  of  threepenny 
guzzle?— T.  Broten,  Works,  ii.  180. 

Guzzler,  excessive  drinker. 

Being  an  eternal  guzzler  of  wine,  his 
mouth  smelt  like  a  vintner's  vault.  —  T. 
Brown,  Works,  iii.  265. 

GyNjEceum,  the  woman's  part  of  the 

house ;  the  harem. 

Women  up  till  this 
Cramp'd  under  worse  than  South-Sea  isle 

taboo, 
Dwarfs  of  the  gynecaum,  fail  so  far 
In  high  desire. — Tennyson,  Princess,  iii. 

Gynethusia,  sacrifice  of  women. 

The  traces  of  a  kind  of  Suttee — aynethusia, 
as  it  has  been  termed  —  may  be  looked  for 
in  the  earlier  tombs  of  the  ancient  Britons. 
—Archaol.,  xlii.  188  (1868). 

Gynophagite,  woman-eater. 

He  is  worse  than  Polyphemus,  who  was 
only  an  Anthropophagos ;  he  preys  upon  the 
weaker  sex,  and  is  a  Gynophagite. — Lytton, 
My  Novel,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xxii. 

Gyp,  the  Cambridge  term  for  a  college- 
servant  ;  in  Oxford  called  a  scout. 

Where's  your  portmanteau?  Oh,  left  it 
at  the  Bull  ?  Ah,  I  see ;  very  well,  we'll 
send  the  gyp  for  it  in  a  minnte. — C.  Kings- 
ley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xii. 

Gyreful,  revolving ;  encircling.  In 
the  original,  jEn.,  viii.  432,  sequacibus. 

Theyre  labor  hoat  they  folow;  toe  the 
flame  fits  gyreful  awarding.  —  Stanyhurst, 
Conceites,  p.  138. 

Gytrash.    See  extract. 

I  remembered  certain  of  Bessie's  tales, 
wherein  figured  a  North-of-Bngland  spirit, 
called  a  M  Gytrash  ;  "  which,  in  the  form  of 
horse,  mule,  or  large  dog,  haunted  solitary 
ways,  and  sometimes  came  upon  belated 
travellers. — C.  Bivnte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xii. 


HABASSIA 


(  *9S  ) 


HAG 


H 


IlABASSlA,  Abyssinia. 

Thro'  all  the  huge  continent  of  Afric, 
which  is  estimated  to  be  thrice  bigger  than 
Europe,  there  is  not  one  region  entirely 
Christian  but  Habassia  or  Ethiopia. — Howell, 
Letters,  ii.  9. 

Habassin,  an  Abyssinian. 

Hee  made  Prester  John  an  African,  and 
placed  him  in  Ethiopia,  in  the  Habassins 
countrey. — Howell,  Instructions  for  Forraine 
Travell,  sect.  zii. 

Habkrdashkress,  female  huckster. 

Thalestris  the  Amazonian  ...  is  here  be- 
come a  haberdasheress  of  small  wares.  —  T. 
Brown,  Works,  ii.  272. 

Habilablb,  capable  of  being  clothed. 

Teufelsdrockh  hastens  from  the  Tower  of 
Babel  to  follow  the  dispersion  of  mankind 
over  the  whole  habitable  and  habitable  globe. 
— Carlyle,  Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  I.  ch.  v. 

Habilatort,  having  to  do  with 
habiliments  or  garments. 

A  small  French  hat .  .  was  set  jauntily  in 
the  centre  of  a  system  of  long  black  curls, 
which  my  eye,  long  accustomed  to  penetrate 
the  arcana  of  habilatory  art,  discovered  at 
once  to  be  a  wig. — Lytton,  Pelham,  ch.  lxxix. 

For  indeed  is  not  the  dandy  culottic, 
habilatory,  by  law  of  existence ;  a  cloth- 
animal  ;  one  that  lives,  moves,  and  has  his 
being  in  cloth  ? — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  HI. 
Bk.  VII.  ch.  ii. 

Habituary,  habitual. 

Too  well  he  knew  how  difficult  a  thing  it 
was  to  invert  the  course  of  Nature,  especially 
being  confirmed  by  continuance  of  practice, 
and  made  habituary  by  custom.  —  Hist,  of 
Edward  II.,  p.  3. 

Hack  and  Manger  =  rack  and 
manger,  q.  v.  Hack  or  Heck  =  rack 
is  used  in  Lincolnshire,  as  well  ae  in 
Scotland.  See  Peacock's  Manley  and 
Corringham  Glossary  (E.  D.  S.). 

The  servants  at  Lochmarlie  must  be  living 
at  hack  and  manger. — Miss  Ferrier,  Marriage, 
ch.  xxvi. 

Six  stout  horses  . .  had  been  living  at  heck 
and  manger. — Ibid.,  Inheritance,  ii.  237. 

Hacklet,  or  Haglet,  a  sea-bird. 

The  land -birds  are  left;  gulls,  haglets, 
petrels,  swim,  dive,  and  hover  around.  — 
Emerson,  English  Traits,  ch.  ii. 

Below  them,  from  the  Gall -rock,  rose  a 
thousand  birds,  and  filled  the  air  with  sound ; 
the  choughs  cackled,  the  hacklets  wailed,  the 
great  black-backs  laughed  querulous  defiance 


at  the  intruders.  —  C.  King  situ,   Westward 
Ho,  ch.  xxxii. 

Hacklog,  a  chopping-block. 

Out  of  my  own  earliest  newspaper  reading 
I  can  remember  the  name  Vitus  as  a  kind  of 
editorial  hacklog  on  which  able  editors  were 
wont  to  chop  straw  now  and  then. — Carlyle, 
Life  of  Sterling,  Pt.  I.  ch.  iii. 

Hackney,  a  hackney  coach. 

To  dinner  by  a  hackney,  my  coachman  be- 
ing this  day  about  breaking  of  my  horses  to 
the  coach. — Pepys,  Dec.  14, 1668. 

I  would  more  respect  a  General  without 
attendance  in  a  hackney,  that  has  obligM  a 
nation  with  a  peace,  than  him  who  rides  at 
the  head  of  an  army  in  triumph,  and  plunges 
it  into  an  expensive  war.  —  Gentleman  In- 
structed, p.  195. 

Nay,  now,  from  what  he  saw  last  night, 
The  Doctor  thought  that  Pat  was  right, 
Who  soon  the  traveling  baggage  bore 
Straight  to  the  hackney  at  the  door. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  c.  iv. 

Hadlakd,  a  man  who  has  owned 
land  and  lost  it.  Davies,  in  a  note  to 
one  of  his  Commendatory  Poems,  p.  3, 
says,  "Few  Hadlands  take  pleasure 
to  behold  the  land  they  had." 

They  dub  him  "  Sir  John  had  Land  "  before 
they  leave  him,  and  share,  like  wolves,  the 
poore  novice's  welth  betwixt  them  as  a  pray. 
— Greene,  Quip  for  an  Upstart  Courtier,  1592 
(Harl.  Misc.,  v.  405). 

Haft,  to  drive  up  to  the  haft  or  hilt. 

This  mye  blade  in  thye  body  should  bee 
with  speedines  hafted. — Stanyhurst,  Conceites, 
p.  143. 

Hag,  hake,  or  poor  John  (?). 

The  hot  pebbles  at  hi^h-tide  mark  .  .  .  are 
beautifully  variegated  with  mackerels'  heads, 
gurnets'  fins,  old  hag,  lob-worm,  and  mussel- 
baits. — Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  ii. 

Hag.    See  extract. 

The  brokers  of  these  coals  are  called 
crimps;  the  vessels  they  load  their  ships 
with  at  Newcastle,  Keels;  and  the  ships 
that  bring  them,  Cats,  and  Hags  or  Hag- 
boats,  Fly-boats,  and  the  like.— Defoe,  Tour 
thro1  G.  Britain,  ii.  144. 

Hag,  now  always  applied  to  a  female, 
but  Byron  says  to  Labrosse — 

Curst  be  thy  throte  and  soule,  Rauen, 
Schriech-owle,  hag. — Chapman,  Byron's  Con- 
spiracie,  Act  HI. 


HAG,  TAG,  AND  RAG    (  296  ) 


HALCYON 


And  so  he  stopt,  but  swelling  with  such  pride, 
As  if  his  braine  would  haue  with  poison 
burst, 
To  whom  the  pi  1  grime  presently  replied, 
Avauut,  foule  fiende,  aud  monster  most 
accurst; 
Thou  hate  of  heauen,  and  greatest  hagge  of 
hell, 
What  wicked  tale  hast  thou  presumde  to 
tell? 

Breton,  Pilgrimage  to  Paradise,  p.  11. 

Hag,  tag,  and  rag,  rabble.  Tag, 
rag,  and  bobtail  is  the  usual  expression. 
See  N.  *.  v.  Tag.  H.  gives  "flag, 
idle  disorder.     Somersetshire." 

Than  was  all  the  rable  of  the  shippe,  hag, 
tag,  and  rag,  called  to  the  reckeninge,  rushe- 
linge  together  as  they  had  bene  the  cookes 
of  helle  with  their  great  Cerberus. —  Voca- 
ct/on  of  Johan  Bale,  1663  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi. 
469). 

Hagweed,  besom-weed,  q.  v. 
For  awful  coveys  of  terrible  things, 
With  forked  tongues  and  venomous  stings, 
On  hagxceed,  broomsticks,  and  leathern  wings, 
Are  hovering  round  the  hut. 

Hood,  The  Forge, 

Hair,  to  catch  ;  to  draw  as  by  a  hair. 

Those  who  wish  for  what  they  have  not 
forfeit  the  enjoyment  of  what  they  have; 
when  they  desire  eagerly  they  hope  too  fast, 
and  are  haired  by  fear. — Gentleman  Instructed, 
p.  218. 

Hair.  To  take  a  hair  of  the  dog 
that  bit  one  =  to  take  a  dram  when 
suffering  from  the  effects  of  over- 
drinking; sometimes  applied  to  other 
homoeopathic  proceedings.  In  the  Life 
of  Sister  Dora  a  case  is  mentioned  of 
a  patient  bitten  by  a  dog,  who  had 
literally  plastered  the  sore  with  some 
hairs  of  the  animal.  The  first  extract 
is  given  in  Peacock's  Manley  and  Cor- 
ringham  Glossary  (E.  D.  8.). 

But  be  sure,  over  night  if  this  dog  do  you 
bite, 

Tou  take  it  henceforth  for  a  warning, 
Soon  as  out  of  your  bed,  to  settle  your  head, 

Take  a  hair  of  his  tail  in  the  morning. 
Hilton,  Catch  that  Catch  can  (1652). 

Lady  Sm  But,  Sir  John,  your  ale  is  terribly 
strong  and  heady  in  Derbyshire,  and  will 
soon  make  one  drunk  and  sick ;  what  do  you 
then  ? 

Sir  J.  Why,  indeed  it  is  apt  to  fox  one, 
but  our  way  is  to  take  a  hair  of  the  same  dog 
next  morning.  —  Swift,  Polite  Conversation 
(Conv.  ii.). 

Elsley  need  not  be  blamed  for  pitying  her 
[Italy] ;  only  for  holding  with  most  of  our 
poets  a  vague  notion  that  her  woes  were  to 
be  cured  by  a  hair  of  the  dog  tcho  bit  her; 


viz.,  by  homoeopathic  doses  of  that  same 
"  art "  which  has  been  all  along  her  morbid 
and  self-deceiving  substitute  for  virtue  and 
industry.— Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  x. 

Hair.     Both  of  a  hair  =  both  alike. 

For  the  pedlar  and  the  tinker,  they  are  two 
notable  knaves,  both  of  a  haire,  and  both 
eosen-germaines  to  the  devill.— Greene,  Quip 
for  Upstart  Courtier  (Harl.  Misc.,  v.  417). 

Hairbush,  head  of  hair. 

A  oerteyn  lightning  on  his  headtop  glistered 

harmelesse, 
His  crisp  locks  f  rixeling,  his  temples  prittelye 

streaking, 
Heer  with  al  in  trembling  with  speede  wee 

ruffled  his  hearebush. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  ii.  711. 

Hairlet,  a  little  hair. 

A  stronger  lens  reveals  to  you  certain 
tiniest  hairlets.—G.  Eliot,  MiddUmarcK,  Bk. 
I.  ch.  vi. 

Hairpatch,  hair-cloth  (?). 

They  affirm  these  hyperthetical  or  super- 
lative sort  of  expressions  and  illustrations 
are  too  bold  and  bombasted ;  and  out  of  that 
word  is  spun  that  which  they  call  our  fustian, 
their  plain  writing  being  stuff  nothing  so 
substantial,  but  such  gross  sowtege  or  hair- 
patch  as  every  goose  may  eat  oats  through. 
—Chapman,  Iliad,  xiv.  (Comment.). 

Hair- splitter,  one  who  makes  very 
nice  or  minute  distinctions. 

It  is  not  the  cavilling  hmr-splittcr,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  the  single-eyed  servant  of 
truth,  that  is  most  likely  to  insist  upon  the 
limitation  of  expressions  too  wide  or  too 
vague. -De  Quincey,  Autob.  Sketches,  i.  61. 

Hake,  a  weapon  of  some  kind.  H. 
says  "  a  small  hand-gun." 

He  said  we  must  Paul's  swerde  now  take, 
Splay  the  banner,  strike  vp  the  droonie, 
Fall  to  array,  pike  and  halfe  hake, 
Play  now  the  men,  the  time  is  come. 

T.  E,  1665  (Maitland's  Ref^  p.  169). 

Hake,  a  sliding  pothook. 

On  went  the  boilers,  till  the  hake 
Had  much  ado  to  bear  'em. 

BloomJUld,  The  Horkey. 

Halcyon,  calm ;  quietude.  The  word 
is  often  used  adjectivally  in  this  sense, 
halcyon  days,  &c,  but  the  substantive 
is  usually  applied  to  the  bird  only. 

He  has  been  here  these  two  hours,  courting 
the  mother  for  the  daughter,  I  suppose,  yet 
she  wants  no  courting  neither :  'tis  well  one 
of  us  does,  else  the  man  would  have  nothing 
but  halcyon,  and  be  remiss  and  saucy  of 
course. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  ii.  4. 

All  is  halcyon  and  security.— /Wrf.  iii.  355. 


HALF 


(  297  ) 


HAMMER 


Half,  a  term  at  school:  there  are 
usually  three  halfs  in  the  year. 

It . .  .  has  completely  stopped  the  boats 
for  this  half. — Sir  G.  C.  Lews,  Letters,  p.  3. 

Half-baked,  raw ;  inexperienced : 
silly.  "  Ephraira  is  a  cake  not  turned  " 
(Hosea  vii.  8).     Cf.  Dough-baked. 

He  must  scheme  forsooth,  this  half-baked 
Scotch  cake !  He  must  hold  off  and  on,  and 
be  cautions,  and  wait  the  result,  and  try  con- 
clusions with  me,  this  lamp  of  natural  dough ! 
— Scott,  St.  Ronans  WeU,  ii.  221. 

He  treated  his  cousin  as  a  sort  of  harmless 
lunatic,  and,  as  they  say  in  Devon,  half- 
baked. — C.  Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  iii. 

••  Clever  ?  "  "  A  sort  of  half-baked  body," 
said  Heale. — Ibid.,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  iv. 

Half-baptized,  applied  by  the  ignor- 
ant to  a  child  who  has  been  privately 
baptized ;  it  is  also  used  of  a  person 
deficient  in  knowledge  or  acuteness. 
In  the  extract  from  Southey  it  means 
lialf-Chratian. 

Irish  kernes, 
Ruffians  half-clothed,  half-human,  half -bap- 
tized.— Southey,  Joan  of  Arc,  Bk.  ii. 

"Can  such  things  be?"  exclaimed  the 
astonished  Mr.  Pickwick.  "  Lord  bless  your 
heart,  sir,"  said  Sam,  u  why  where  was  you 
half-baptized — that's  nothin',  that  aint." — 
Pickwick  Papers,  ch.  xiii. 

u  And  now  about  business,"  said  the  beadle, 
taking  out  a  leathern  pocket-book:  "the 
child  that  was  half-bavtized,  Oliver  Twist,  is 
nine  years  old  to-day.' —Oliver  Ttrist,  ch.  ii. 

u  If  you  please,  sir,  will  you  be  so  good  as 
to  half -baptize  the  baby  ?  "  "  Oh,  certainly, 
but  which  half  of  him  am  I  to  baptize  ?  " — 
Parish*  Diet,  of  Sussex  Dialect,  1875,  s.  v. 

Halflinq,  halfpenny,  i,  e.  a  penny 
cut  in  half,  for  halfpennies  were  not 
coined  until  the  time  of  Edward  L,  A.D. 
1279. 

"I  warrant  thee  store  of  shekels  in  thy 
Jewish  scrip."  "  Not  a  shekel,  not  a  silver 
penny,  not  a  halfling,  so  help  me  the  God  of 
Abraham ! "  said  the  Jew,  clasping  his  hands. 
— Scott,  Ivanhoe,  i.  76. 

Half-saved.    See  quotation. 

William  Dove's  was  not  a  case  of  fatuity. 
Though  all  was  not  there,  there  was  a  great 
deal.  He  was  what  is  called  half-saved. 
Some  of  his  faculties  were  more  than  ordin- 
arily acute,  but  the  power  of  self-conduct 
was  entirely  wanting  in  him. — Southey  The 
Doctor,  ch.  x. 

Half- square,  a  term  in  timber-mea- 
suring, fully  explained  in  an  extract 
from  Leybourris  Complete  Surveyor, 
1674,  given  in  Lord  Braybrooke's  note. 


Pepys  in  his  Diary  wrote  by  mistake 
off  square. 

Mr.  Deane  of  "Woolwich  and  I  rid  into 
Waltham  Forest,  and  there  we  saw  many 
trees  of  the  King's  a-hewing ;  and  he  showed 
me  the  whole  mystery  of  off-square,  wherein 
the  King  is  abused  in  the  timber  that  he 
buys,  which  I  shall  with  much  pleasure  be 
able  to  correct. — Pepys,  Aug.  18, 1662. 

Half-thick,  a  sort  of  stuff. 

I  followed  this  Post-road  from  Liverpool 
to  Bury,  both  manufacturing  towns  in  Lan- 
cashire, and  the  last  very  considerable  for  a 
sort  of  coarse  goods  called  Half-thicks  and 
Kersies. — Defoe,  Tour  thro'G.  Britain,  iii.  135. 

Halifax  law,  or  inquest.  See  Holy- 
fax. 

Hall.  This  word  is  often  used  in 
the  sense  of  place  with  some  other 
prefixed  which  defines  it :  thus  Liberty 
Hall  =  a  place  where  every  one  can  do 
as  he  likes. 

Met  you  with  Ronca?   'tis  the  cunning'st 

nimmer 
Of  the  whole  company  of  culpurse  hall. 

Albumazar,  iii.  7. 

Beat  down  their  weapons !  my  gate  ruffians1 

hall! 
What  insolence  is  this ! 

Massinger,  City  Madam,  i.  2. 

Gentlemen,  pray  be  under  no  restraint  in 
this  house ;  this  is  Liberty-hall,  gentlemen  ; 
you  may  do  just  as  you  please  here.— Gold- 
smith, She  Stoops  to  Conquer,  Act  II. 

«*  Bachelors1  Hall,  you  know,  cousin,"  said 
Mr.  Jonas  to  Charity.  "I  say,  the  other 
one  will  be  having  a  laugh  at  this  when  she 
gets  home,  won't  she  ?  " — Dickens,  M.  Chuz- 
zlewit,  ch.  xi. 

Halo,  to  surround  with  a  halo. 

His  grey  hairs 
Gurl'd,  life-like,  to  the  fire, 
That  haloed  round  his  saintly  brow. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  ix. 

I  wiped  my  tears  and  hushed  my  sobs, 
fearful  lest  any  sign  of  violent  grief  might 
waken  a  preternatural  voice  to  comfort  me, 
or  elicit  from  the  gloom  some  haloed  face 
bending  over  me  with  strange  pity.  —  C. 
Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  ii. 

Halter,  to  haggle  (?). 

Therenppon  they  broke  off ;  the  one  urg- 
ing that  he  had  offered  it  him  so  before,  and 
the  other  that  hee  might  have  tooke  him  at 
his  proffer,  which  since  he  refused,  and  now 
halperd  with  him,  as  he  eate  up  the  first,  so 
would  he  eate  up  the  second. — Nashe,  Lenten 
Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  172). 

Hammer,  German   ammer  =  bunt- 
ing ;     so    yellow  -  hammer  =  yellow 


HAMMER 


(  298  ) 


HANDJAR 


bunting.     Does  "  hammer  of  the  right 

feather  "  =  bird  of  the  right  feather  ? 

Slight  I  euer  tooke  thee  to  be  a  hammer 
of  the  right  feather,  but  I  durst  haue  layed 
my  life  no  man  could  euer  haue  .  . .  eramd 
such  a  gudgeon  as  this  downe  the  throate  of 
thee. — Chapman,  Mons.  D] 'Olive,  Act  IV. 

Hammer  and  tongs,  violently. 

The  noise  you  ladies  have  been  making, 
Mrs.  Gamp!  Why  these  two  gentlemen 
have  been  standing  on  the  stairs  outside  the 
door,  nearly  all  the  time,  trying  to  make  you 
hear,  while  you  were  pelting  away  hammer 
and  tongs. — Martin  Chuzzlewit,  ch.  xlix. 

Mr.  Malone,  howling  like  a  demon,  and 
horribly  drunk,  followed  by  thirty  or  forty 
worse  than  himself,  dashed  out  of  a  doorway 
close  by,  and,  before  they  had  time  to  form 
line  of  battle,  fell  upon  them  hammer  and 
tongs. — H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  lx. 

Hammer  -  cloth,  cloth  (originally  a 
skin,  A.S.  hama,  a  skin)  thrown  over 
a  coach-box.  See  L.  s.  v.  The  sub- 
joined is  given  as  an  early  instance  of 
the  word. 

Hamer  clothes,  with  our  arms  and  badges  of 
our  colours, and  all  other  things  apperteininge 
unto  the  same  wagon. — Document  temp.  Q. 
Mary,  i.  {Archaol.,  xvi.  91). 

Hampered,  loaded  with  hampers.    Cf . 

PANNIERED. 

One  ass  will  carry  at  least  three  thousand 
such  books,  and  I  am  persuaded  you  would 
be  able  to  carry  as  many  yourself,  if  you 
were  well  hampered.  —  Bailey's  Erasmus,  p. 
325. 

Hamper  up,  to  conclude;  put  the 
finish  to  ;  pack  up. 

Well,  Lord  of  Lincoln,  if  your  loves  be  knit, 
And  that  your  tongues  and  thoughts  do 

both  agree, 
To  avoid  ensuing  jars,  I'll  hamper  up  the 

match. 
I'll  take  my  portace  forth,  and  wed  you  here. 
Greene,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  162. 

Hanckle,  to  fasten  tightly. 

A  third  sort  .  .  .  walk  not  soberly,  and 
uprightly,  and  orderly  in  their  calling,  like 
an  unruly  colt  that  will  over  hedge  and 
ditch;  no  ground  will  hold  him,  no  fence 
turn  him.  These  would  be  well  fettered 
and  side-hanckled  for  leaping.  —  Sanderson, 
ui.  93. 

Hand.    See  quotation. 

Flitches  of  bacon  and  hands  (i.  e.  shoulders) 
of  pork,  the  legs  or  hams  oeing  sold,  as 
fetching  a  better  price)  abounded.  —  Mrs. 
Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  iv. 

Hand.  To  stand  in  hand  =  to  con- 
cern. 


Let  their  enemies  know  then  that  they 
have  to  deal  with  God,  not  with  them ;  it  is 
His  cause  rather  than  theirs ;  they  but  His 
agents.  It  standeth  Him  in  hand,  it  toucheth 
Him  in  honour. — Andrewes,  iv.  14. 

Handbook,  a  manual  (Germ,  hatid- 
buck).  This  word,  now  so  common, 
does  not  seem  to  be  as  old  as  the  cen- 
tury. A  writer  in  N.  and  Q.  mentions 
"  A  Handbook  for  modelling  wax 
flowers/1  published  in  1814.  Sir  H. 
Nicolas,  however,  in  1833,  thought 
the  word  too  exotic  to  appear  in  the 
title  of  his  work. 

No  labour  has  been  spared  to  render  the 
volume  what  the  Germans  would  term,  and 
which,  if  our  language  admitted  of  the  ex- 
pression, would  have  been  the  fittest  title  for 
it,  The  Hand-Book  of  History.  —  Nicolas, 
Chronol.  of  Hist.  (Preface). 

Handfast,  close-fisted. 

Some  will  say  women  are  covetous:  are 
not  men  as  handfast?  —  Breton,  Praise  of 
Vertuous  Ladies,  p.  57. 

Hand- fast-maker,  marriage-maker ; 

in  extract,  translation  ofjjronuba. 

Britona,  hand-fast-maker  shee, 
All  clad  in  Laurell  greene. 

Holland: s  Camden,  p.  388. 

Hand-gripe,  seizure  by  the  hand ; 
close  struggle.  H.  and  L.  have  handy- 
gripes.  See  quotation  s.  v.  Quarter- 
stroke. 

Hee  that  both  globes  in  His  own  hand-gripe 
holds. — Sylvester,  Panaretus,  1258. 

The  last  man  of  France,  who  could  have 
swayed  these  coming  troubles,  lay  there  at 
hand-grips  with  the  unearthly  power. — Car- 
lyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  III.  ch.  vii. 

Hand-gyve,  to  manacle. 

A  poor  Legislative,  so  hard  was  fate,  had 
let  itself  be  hand-gyved. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev., 
Pt.  III.  Bk.  I.  ch.  i. 

Handicap,  a  game,  which  is  described 

at  length  in  N.  and  Q.,  1st  S.,  xi.  491. 

Here  some  of  us  fell  to  handicap,  a  sport 
that  I  never  knew  before,  which  was  very 
good.— Pepys,  Sept.  18, 1600. 

Handjar,  a  dagger:  it  would  be 
more  correctly  written  khan-djar: 
the  word  is  used  in  Arabic,  Turkish, 
Persian,  and  Hindustani. 

A  vast  crowd  of  men  in  small  caps  and 
jackets  and  huge  white  breeches,  and  armed 
with  all  the  weapons  of  Palikari,  handjars  and 
yataghans,  and  silver  -  sheathed  muskets  of 
uncommon  length,  and  almost  as  old  as  the 
battle  of  Lepanto,  always  rallied  round  his 
standard. — Disraeli,  Lot  hair,  ch.  lxxiii. 


HANDKERCHIEF      (  299  ) 


HANGING 


Handkerchief,  to  wipe  the  eyes ;  to 
use  a  handkerchief. 

The  servants  entering  with  the  dinner,  we 
hemmed,  handkerchief w,  twinkled,  took  up 
our  knives  and  forks.— Richardson,  Grand  t- 
ton,  ii.  180. 

Handle.    A  person  of  title  is  said  to 

have  a  handle  to  his  name. 

Lord  Highgate  had  turned  to  me :  "  There 
was  no  rudeness,  you  understand,  intended, 
Mr.  Pendennis;  but  I  am  down  here  on 
some  business,  and  don't  care  to  wear  the 
handle  to  my  name.  Fellows  work  it  so, 
don't  you  understand?  Never  leave  it  at 
rest  in  a  country  town." — The  Newcotnes,  ch. 
lvii. 

Handmaid,  to  act  as  an  attendant. 

Intolerable  is  the  pride  of  natural  philoso- 
phy, which,  should  handmaid  it  to  Divinity, 
when  once  offering  to  rule  over  it. — Fuller, 
Hist,  of  Camb.  Univ.,  Ep.  Ded. 

Hands.  To  hold  up  hands  =  to 
give  in;  either  from  holding  up  the 
hands  in  supplication,  or  to  show  that 
there  is  no  weapon  in  them,  and  no 
further  resistance  intended. 

I  yield  vnto  you  this  noble  victorie,  and 
hold  vp  my  handes. — Traheron,  Aunstoere  to  a 
privie  Papiste,  1558,  Sig.  B.  iii. 

Handsaw.  All  the  world  to  a  hand- 
saw =  a  thousand  to  one ;  almost  cer- 
tain. 

Tis  all  the  world  to  a  handsaw  but  these 
barbarous  Rascals  would  be  so  ill-manner'd 
as  to  laugh  at  us  as  confidently  as  we  do  at 
them. — Cotton,  Scarronides,  Preface. 

Hand-smooth,  quite  fiat,  so  that  the 
hand  could  pass  over  it  without  en- 
countering any  obstacle. 

His  soldiours  (although  it  were  then  a 
greate  raine  to  leat  theim)  sodainly  with  all 
their  might  assailing  the  canine  of  their 
enemies,  wonne  it,  and  beate  it  downe  hande 
smootiu. —  XJdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  313. 

Handsomeish,  rather  handsome. 

He  is  a  fine,  jolly,  hearty,  handsomeish  man. 
— Bichardson,  Grandison,  vi.  334. 

Handspeab,  a  short  spear. 

There  was  another  manner  of  striking  the 
boll  in  the  face  with  short  spears,  to  the 
which  went  divers  lords  and  gentlemen  very 
well  mounted,  their  pages  following  them 
with  divers  hand-spears  for  that  purpose. — 
Journey  of  E.  of  Nottingham,  1605  (Harl. 
Misc.,  iii.  441). 

Hand  to  fist,  heartily  or  continu- 
ously. 

His  landlord  did  once  persuade  him  to 
drink  his  ague  away;  and  thereupon  going 


to  the  alehouse  an  hour  or  two  before  it  was 
come,  they  set  hand  to  fist  and  drunk  very 
desperatly.  —  Life  of  A.  Wood,  March  4, 
1652. 

Honest  Frank !  many,  many  a  dry  bottle 
have  we  crack'd  hand  to  fst. — Farquhar,  Re- 
cruiting Officer,  Act  III. 

Handy  combat,  hand-to-hand  fight. 

Her  foes  from  handle  combats  cleane  desist ; 
Yet  still  incirkling  her  within  their  powers 
From  farre  sent  shot,  as  thick  as  winter's 
showers. 

G.  Markham,  Tragedie  of  Sir  R. 
Grinuile,  p.  76. 

Handy-cuffs,  blows. 

His  rhetoric  and  conduct  were  at  perpetual 
handy-cuffs.— Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  ii.  206. 

Handylabour,  manual  labour. 

Robert  Abbat  of  Molisime per- 

swaded  his  owne  disciples  to  live  with  their 
handylabour,  to  leave  Tithes  and  Oblations 
unto  the  Priests  that  served  in  the  Diocese. 
— Holland's  Camden,  ii.  110. 

Hane.  N.  gives  this  word  with  a 
quotation  from  Sandys  s  Travels^  and 
adds,  "  I  presume  inns  or  caravanserais ; 
perhaps  a  Turkish  word."  The  follow- 
ing passage  puts  the  meaning  assigned 
out  of  doubt. 

They  [Turks]  are  great  founders  of  hospi- 
talls,  of  Hants  to  entertain  travellers,  of 
bridges,  &c.  —  Howell,  Instructions  for  For- 
raine  Travell  (Appendix). 

Hang,  a  clump  of  weeds  hanging 
together  (?). 

It  might  be  a  hassock  of  rushes ;  a  tuft  of 
the  great  water-dock;  a  dead  dog;  one  of 
the  u  hangs  "  with  which  the  club-water  was 
studded,  torn  up  and  stranded;  but  yet  to 
Tom  it  had  not  a  canny  look. — Kingsley,  Two 
Years  Ago,  ch.  zxv. 

Hang  able,  liable  to  be  hung. 

By  Acts  of  Parliament  and  Statutes  made 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  and  his  two 
daughters,  all  those  people  calling  them- 
selves Bohemians  or  Egyptians  are  hangable 
as  felons  at  the  age  of  14  years,  a  month 
after  their  arrival  in  England,  or  after  their 
first  disguising  themselves. — Misson,  Travels 
in  Eng.,  p.  122. 

Hanger,  handle. 

On  pulling  the  hanger  of  a  bell,  the  great 
door  opened. — H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  ii. 
225. 

Hanging,  unfixed ;  shifting. 

Some  of  the  Inhabitants  are  of  opinion 
that  the  land  there  is  hollow  and  hanging  ; 
yea,  and  that,  as  the  waters  rise,  the  same 
also  is  heaved  up.— Holland's  Camden,  p.  690 


HANGING-SLEEVES    (  300  ) 


IIARA  TEEN 


Hanging-sleeves,  strips  of  the  same 
piece  as  the  dress  or  gown  hanging 
down  behind,  like  the  leading  -  strings 
on  an  undergraduate's  gown.  In  the 
extract  it  =  bachtring,  q.  v.,  which 
Cowper  associates  with  the  bib. 

Bellarmine  and  others  do  [excuse]  the 
Popes  pristine  submission  to  the  Emperours 
by  reason  of  their  minority,  being  then  in 
their  bibs  and  hanging-sleeves. — Gauden,  Tears 
of  the  Church,  p.  580. 

Hang  out,  to  reside  (slang). 

u  I  say,  old  boy,  where  do  you  hang  out?" 
Mr.  Pickwick  replied  that  he  was  at  present 
suspended  at  the  George  and  Vulture. — 
Pickwick  Papers,  ch.  xxx. 

I've  found  two  rooms  at  Chelsea,  not  many 
hundred  yards  from  my  mother  and  sisters, 
and  I  shall  soon  be  ready  to  hang  out  there. 
— G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  cb.  xxxvii. 

Hang -string,  a  term  of  reproach 
implying  that  the  person  to  whom  it  is 
applied  is  likely  to  hang  on  a  string 
from  the  gallows.  Cf.  Crackropb, 
Gallows  -  string.  In  the  extract 
Japhet  is  not  the  son  of  Noah,  but 
lapetus. 

A  child,  thou  little  Rakehell  thou ! 
A  pretty  child  thou  art,  I  trow ; 
Older  than  Japhet,  little  Hang-string, 
Tho'  one  might  wear  thee  in  his  Band-string. 
Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  179. 

Hakgum  tuum.  This  phrase  evi- 
dently =  punishment  by  hanging. 
Probably  there  is  some  story  belonging 
to  it. 

Tom.  They  shall  not  come  and  rob  him  by 
a  strong  hand. 

Will.  They  durst  hardly  do  that ;  for  then 
it  had  come  to  hangum-tuum. 

Dialogue  on  Oxford  Parliament 
(Harl.  Misc.,  ii.  127). 

Hang- worthy,  worthy  to  be  hung. 

Rebels,  whose  naughtier  minds  could  not 
trust  so  much  to  the  goodness  of  their 
prince,  as  to  lay  their  hang-worthy  necks 
upon  the  constancie  of  his  promised  pardon. 
— Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  426. 

Hank  for  hank,  on  equal  terms? 
knot  for  knot?  Hanks  are  wooden 
rings  fixed  on  the  ship's  stays,  but  I 
do  not  suppose  there  is  any  reference 
to  these. 

I  thought  it  best  to  take  a  bargain  in  this 
stout  ship,  which  I  knew  to  be  as  good  a 
sea-boat  as  ever  turned  to  windward,  and 
able  to  go  hank  for  hank  with  anything  that 
swims  the  ***.— -Johnston,  Chrysal.,  ii.  189. 

Hansom,  a  two-wheeled  cab,  so  called 
from  the  inventor,  open  in  front  j  the 


driver's  seat  is  behind  the  cab,  the  reins 
being  pawed  over  the  roof.  See  extract 
s.  v.  Growler. 

He  hailed  a  cruising  hansom,  which  he  had 
previously  observed  was  well  horsed ;  "  TSa 
the  gondola  of  London,"  said  Lothair,  as  he 
sprang  in. — Disraeli,  Lothair,  ch.  xxvi. 

She  did  indeed  glance  somewhat  nervously 
at  the  hansom  into  which  Lavender  put  her, 
apparently  asking  how  such  a  tall  aua  narrow 
two-wheeled  vehicle  could  be  prevented 
toppling  over.  —  Black,  Princess  of  ThvU, 
ch.  x. 

Happify,  to  make  happy. 

This   Prince   unpeerd   for   Clemency   and 
Courage, 
Justly  surnam'd  the  Great,  the  Good,  the 
Wise, 
Mirour  of  Future,  Miracle  of  Fore- Age, 
One  short  mishap  for  ever  hanpifies. 

Sylvester,  Henry  the  Great,  642. 

Happy,  to  make  happy. 

By  th*  one  hee  happied  his  own  soule  with  rest, 
By  th'  other  also,  hee  his  People  blest. 

Sylvester,  St.  Lewis,  75. 

They  happy  That  that  is  insensible.— 
Davies,  Humour's  Heauen  on  Earth,  p.  48. 

Happy-go-lucky,  casual,  unpremedit- 
ated, careless.  See  quotation  *.  v. 
ne'er-do-weel.  In  the  first  extract  it  is 
an  exclamation  =  all  right. 

If  I  get  into  Mrs.  Martha's  quarters  you 
have  a  hundred  more:  if  into  the  widow's 
fifty: — happy-go-lucky. —  Wycherley,  Love  in 
a  Wood,  1. 1.% 

The  first  thing  was  to  make  Carter  think 
and  talk,  which  he  did  in  the  happy-go-lucky 
way  of  his  class,  uttering  nine  mighty  simple 
remarks,  and  then  a  bit  of  superlative 
wisdom,  or  something  that  sounded  like  it. 
— Reade,  Never  too  late  to  mend,  ch.  iv. 

Harassment,  worry. 

Little  harassment*  ...  do  occasionally 
molest  the  most  fortunate. — Lytton,  Pelham9 
ch.  lxiii. 

I  have  known  little  else  than  privation, 
disappointment,  unkindness,  and  harassment. 
—L.  E.  Landon  (Life  of  Blanchard,  i.  56). 

Harateen,  a  sort  of  stuff.  Sympson 
in  his  edition  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher 
(1760),  says  that  Philip  and  Cheyney, 
q.  v. ,  is  "  a  sort  of  stuff  at  present  in 
common  use,  but  goes  now  by  the 
appellation  of  harrateen" 

You  never  saw  such  a  wretched  hovel, 
lean,  nnpainted,  and  half  its  nakedness 
barely  shaded  with  harateen  stretched  till  it 
cracks. —  Walpole,  Letters^  ii.  4  (1756). 

Thick  harateen  curtains  were  close  drawn 
round  the  bed. — Smollett,  Sir  L.  Greaves,  ch. 
xvi. 


HARBOUR 


(  301  )        HARLEQUINADE 


Harbour,  to  trace  home,  to  earth. 

I  have  in  this  short  time  made  a  great 
progress 

Towards  your  redress ;  I  come  from  harbour- 
ing 

The  villains  who  have  done  you  this  affront. 
Tuke,  Adventures  of  Five  Hours,  Act  III. 

Hardbeam,  hornbeam.     See  H. 

Birche,  hardbeme,  some  ooke,  and  some 
asshe,  beynge  bothe  stronge  ynoughe  to 
stande  in  a  bowe,  and  also  lyght  ynoughe  to 
flye  far,  are  best  for  a  meane.  —  Ascham, 
Toxophilus,  p.  125. 

Hard-bitten,  weather-beaten. 

Tardrew  .  .  .  was  a  shrewd,  hard-bitten 
choleric  old  fellow,  of  the  shape,  colour,  and 
consistence  of  a  red  brick.  —  Kinysley,  Two 
Years  Ago,  oh.  ii. 

Hard -edge,  at  hard  edge  =  with 
naked  weapons  or  in  serious  conflict ; 
without  the  gloves,  as  the  boxer  might 
aay. 

By  all  that's  good,  I  must  myself  sing 
■mail  in  her  company ;  I  will  never  meet  at 
hard-edge  with  her ;  if  I  did  (and  vet  I  have 
been  thought  to  carry  a  good  one)  I  should 
be  confoundedly  gapped. — Richardson,  Gran- 
dison,  i.  120. 

Harden,  inferior  flax.  Cf.  Hards, 
Herden. 

A  shirt  he  had  made  of  coarse  harden, 
A  collar-band  not  worth  a  farthing. 

Ward,  England's  Reformation, 
c.  ii.  p.  235. 

Hard-headed,  sensible;  matter-of- 
fact. 

Mrs.  Dickens  is,  in  Mrs.  Thrale's  phrase,  a 
sensible  hard-headed  woman.  —  Mad.  D  Ar- 
blay,  Diary,  i.  261. 

Hardish,  hard ;  the  word  now  means 
rather  hard,  as  in  the  second  quotation, 
but  not  so  in  the  first. 

And  for  my  pillow  stuffed  with  down, 
The  hardish  hillocks  have  sufficed  my  turn. 

Greene,  Alphonsus,  Act  IV. 

**You  are  a  cruel  hard-hearted  woman," 
sobbed  Margaret.  "Them  as  take  in  hand 
to  guide  the  weak  Deed  be  hardish" — Reade, 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  lxxix. 

Hards,  the  refuse  of  flax. 

No  snch  yron-fisted  Ciclops  to  hew  it  out 
of  the  flint,  and  run  thorow  any  thing,  as  these 
frost-bitten  crab-tree  fac't  lads  spunne  out 
of  the  hards  of  the  towe,  which  are  donsel 
Herring's  lackeys  at  Tarmout  every  fishing. 
— Xashe's  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  161). 

What  seems  to  you  so  easy  and  certain  is 
to  me  as  difficult  as  it  would  be  to  work  a 
steel  hauberk  out  of  hards  of  flax.  —  Scott, 
Fair  Maid  of  Perth,  i.  97. 


Hard  up,  poor ;  at  the  end  of  one's 
resources. 

He  returned,  and  being  hard  up,  as  we  say, 
took  it  into  his  head  to  break  a  shop-window 
at  Liverpool,  and  take  out  some  trumpery 
trinket  stuff.— Th.  Hook,  The  Sut  her  lands. 

[He]  produced  a  specimen  of  his  hand- 
writing, and  gave  her  to  understand  that  he 
was  in  want  of  copying  work  to  do,  and  was, 
not  to  put  too  fine  a  point  upon  it,  hard  up. 
— Dickens,  Bleak  House,  ch.  xi. 

Hare.  To  hunt  for  hares  with  a 
tabor  =  to  engage  in  a  hopeless  task — 
the  noise  of  the  tabor  of  course  giving 
the  hare  good  warning. 

The  poore  man  that  gives  but  his  bare  fee, 
or  perhaps  pleads  in  forma  pauperis  he  hunt- 
ethfor  hares  with  a  taber,  and  gropeth  in  the 
darke  to  find  a  needle  in  a  botle  of  hay. — 
Greene,  Quip  for  an  Upstart  Courtier  {Harl. 
Misc.,  v.  407). 

Harebrain,  a  silly  or  flighty  person. 
See  extract  8.  v.  Niddipol  ;  the  adjective 
is  not  uncommon. 

Ah  foolish  harebraine. 
This  is  not  she. 

Udal,  Roister  Doister,  i.  4. 

She  is  mad  by  inheritance,  and  so  are  all 
the  kinred,  an  hare-braine,  with  many  other 
secret  infirmities. — Burton,  Anatomy,  p.  549. 

No  honest  man  shall  be  the  better  for  a 
Scotch  reformation  ;  wherein  the  hare-brains 
among  us  are  engaged  with  them. — Hacket, 
Life  of  Williams,  ii.  137. 

Hare-foot.  I  give  the  extract  as 
recording  a  proverb  which  I  have  not 
elsewhere  met  with.  I  suppose  that 
hare-foot  might  =  coward,  one  swift 
to  run  away,  and  that  the  proverb  is 
equivalent  to  the  well-known  "  He  that 
fights  and  runs  away,  may  live  to  fight 
another  day." 

And  hence  a  third  proverb,  Betty,  since 
you  are  an  admirer  of  proverbs,  Better  a 
hare-foot  than  none  at  all ;  that  is  to  say, 
than  not  to  be  able  to  walk. — Richardson,  CI. 
Harlawe,  ii.  118. 

Hark  back,  to  draw  back ;  a  person 
who  recurs  to  some  subject  that  had 
been  previously  mentioned  is  also  said 
to  hark  back  to  it;  the  metaphor  is 
taken  from  the  hunting-field. 

There  is  but  one  that  harks  me  back. — 
Taylor,  Ph.  van  AH.,  Pt.  I.  i.  9. 

Harlequinade,  extravaganza. 

The  Female  Quixote  is  no  exception.  That 
work  has  undoubtedly  great  merit,  when 
considered  as  a  wild  satirical  harlequinade; 
but  if  we  consider  it  as  a  picture  of  life  and 
manners,  we  must  pronounce  it  more  absurd 


HARLEQUINERY      (  302  ) 


HASH 


than  any  of  the  romances  which  it  was 
designed  to  ridicule.  —  Maeaulay,  Essays 
{Mad.  VArblay). 

Harlequin ery,  style  of  play  or  act- 
ing in  which  Harlequin  plays  a  promi- 
nent part ;  harlequinade. 

The  French  taste  is  comedy  and  harlequin' 
ery. — Richardson,  Pamela,  iv.  80. 

Harman-beck,  thieves1  cant  for  con- 
stable.   See  extract  in  H.  s.  v.  pannam. 

Here  safe  in  our  skipper  let's  cly  off  oar 

pecKf 
And  bowse  in  defiance  o'  tV  Harmon-heck. 
Browne,  Jovial  Crew,  Act  II. 

Harnessemrnt,  equipment ;  the  mar- 
gin gives  complements. 

To  every  knight  he  allowed  or  gave  100 
shillings  for  his  harnessements.  —  Holland's 
Camden,  p.  174. 

Harp  and  harrow.  The  meaning  of 
this  saying  is  obvious  from  the  extracts, 
but  its  origin  is  to  me  unknown. 

The  Lord's  Sapper  and  yonr  peevish, 
popish,  private  mass  do  agree  together  like 
God  and  the  devil,  Christ  and  Belial,  light 
and  darkness,  truth  and  falsehood,  and,  as 
the  common  proverb  is,  like  harrt  and  harrmc, 
or  like  the  hare  and  the  houna. — Becon,  iii. 
283. 

Bedlem  . . .  admits  of  two  amusing  queries, 
whether  the  persons  that  ordered  the  build- 
ing of  it  or  those  that  inhabit  it  were  the  mad- 
dest ?  And  whether  the  name  and  thing  be 
not  as  disagreeable  as  harp  and  harrow/  — 
Tom  Brown,  Works,  iii.  29. 

Harquebus,  used  as  a  plural,  and 
for  harquebussiers. 

He  marcheth  in  the  middle,  guarded  about 
With  full  five  hundred  harquelntse  on  foot. 

Peele,  Battle  of  Alcazar,  IV.  i. 

Eight  thousand  harquebuze  that  served  on 
foot. — Ibid.  V.  i. 

Harrage,  to  harass  or  harrow. 
R.  gives  the  word  with  a  quotation 
from  the  Worthies,  and  suggests  that 
it  was  perhaps  meant  for  harass.  The 
following  quotations  show  that  it  was  a 
regular  word,  at  all  events  with  Fuller; 
not  a  misprint. 

God  therefore  thought  it  fit  that  other 
dioceses  should  now  take  their  turnes,  that 
this  of  Lincoln,  harraged  out  before,  should 
now  lie  fallow.  —  Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  VUI. 
ii.  16. 

Of  late  the  Danes  .  .  .  had  harraged  all 
this  countrey.— Ibid.,  Hist  of  Camb.  Univ., 
I.  i. 

^  Most  miserable  at  this  time  was  the  con- 
dition of  Cambridge,  for  the  Barons,  to  de- 
spight  King  John,  with  their  forces  /wr- 


raged  and  destroyed  the  Town  and  County 
thereof. — Ibid.  i.  28. 

Harry-ruffian,  swaggerer. 

When  I  past  Paules,  and  travelTd  in  that 

walke 
Where  all  oure  Brittaine-sinners  swear  and 

talk; 
Ould  Harry-ruffians,  bankerupts,  soothsayers, 
And  youth  whose  coasenage  is  as  old  as 

theirs. — Bp.  Corbet,  Elegy  on  Bp.  Ravis. 

Harsh,  to  sound  harshly ;  to  crack. 
Stanyhurst  also  uses  harsliing&s  a  sub- 
stantive ;  see  extract  *.  v.  BErouNCE. 
In  the  quotation  a  tree  is  spoken  of 
which  wood-cutters  strike  again  and 
again. 

At  length  with  rounsefal  from  stock  vn- 
truncked  yt  harssheth. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  ii. 
055. 

Harshen,  to  harden,  or  make  harsh. 

Three  years  of  prison  might  be  some  ex- 
cuse for  a  soured  and  harshened  spirit. — C. 
Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xxxii. 

His  brow  was  wrinkled  now  ;  his  features 
harshened. — Ibid.,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  xi. 

Hartfordshire  kindness.     See  first 

extract,  which,  however,  seems  to  offer 

an  insufficient  explanation,  for  such  an 

act  of  courtesy  could  not  have  been 

peculiar  to  this  county. 

This  is  generally  taken  in  a  good  and 
grateful  sense  for  the  mutual  return  of 
Favours  received ;  it  being  (belike)  observed 
that  the  people  in  this  county  at  entertain- 
ments drink  back  to  them  who  drank  to 
them. — Fuller,  Worthies  {Hartfordshire). 

Lord  Sm.  Tom,  my  service  to  you. 

Nev.  My  Lord,  this  moment  I  did  myself 
the  honour  to  drink  to  your  lordship. 

Lord  Sm.  Why,  then,  that's  Hartfordshire 
kindness. — Swift,' Polite  Conversation  (Conv. 
ii.). 

Harum-scarum,  wild ;  thoughtless. 
Mad.  D'Arblay  spells  the  word  pecu- 
liarly. 

He  seemed  a  mighty  rattling  harem- 
scarem  gentleman.  —  Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary, 
i.  358  (1780). 

She  was  one  of  the  first  who  brought  what 
I  call  harum-scarum  manners  into  fashion. — 
Miss  Edgeworth,  Belinda,  ch.  iii. 

They  had  a  quarrel  with  Sir  Thomas  New- 
come's  own  son,  a  harum  scarum  lad,  who 
ran  away,  and  then  was  sent  to  India. — 
Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  v. 

Harvestless,  barren. 

These  judgments  on  the  land, 
Harvestless  autumns,  horrible  agues,  plague. 
Tennyson,  Queen  Mary,  v.  1 . 

Hash.    To  make  a  hash  =  to  make 


HASKERDL  Y 


(  3°3  ) 


HAY 


a  mess,  to  destroy:    a  metaphor,  of 
course,  taken  from  the  kitchen. 

A  flourish  trumpets ! — sound  again ! 

He  comes,  bold  Drake,  the  chief  who  made  a 
Fine  hash  of  all  the  pow'rs  of  Spain. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (Housewarming)* 

Haskerdly,  rough.  H.  has  haskerde, 
a  rough  fellow. 

Some  'haskerdly  peizaunts,  &  rascall  per- 
sons, havinge  such  coloured  beards,  be  prat- 
lers  and  praters. — Touchstone  of  Complexions, 
p.  130. 

Hatband.  A  gold  hatband  =  a 
nobleman  at  the  University ;  a  tuft. 

His  companion  is  ordinarily  some  stale 
fellow  that  has  beene  notorious  for  an  ingle 
to  gold  hatbands,  whom  bee  admires  at  first, 
afterwards  scomes. — Earle,  Mxcrocosmogra* 
phit  {Young  Gentleman  of  the  UniversiUe). 

Hate  able,  capable  of  being  hated. 
Loveable  is  common. 

Really  a  most  notable,  questionable,  hate- 
able,  lovable  old  Marquis.  —  Carlyle,  Misc., 
iv.  78. 

Hate  spot,  very  pure;  shrinking 
from  pollution.  It  was  supposed  that 
the  ermine  died  if  its  skin  were  soiled. 

Her  shoulders  be  like  two  white  Doves, 
Pearching  within  square  royal  rooves 
Which  leaded  are  with  silver  skin, 
Passing  the  hate  spot  Emerlin. 

Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  141. 

Hatless,  without  a  hat. 

So  much  for  shoeless,  hatless  Masaniello ! 
—Leigh  Hunt,  High  and  Low. 

The  whole  mob  rushed  tumultously,  just 
in  time  to  see  an  old  man  on  horseback 
dart  out  and  gallop  hatless  up  the  park. — C, 
Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xxviii. 

Haulch-backed  (?) 

"  Can  you  tell  me  with  what  instruments 
they  did  it?"  "With  fair  gullies,  which 
are  little  haulch-backed  demi-knives." —  Urqu- 
harfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxvii. 

Haum,  to  lounge,  which  is  the  ex- 
planation given  by  Mr.  Tennyson  in  a 
note  to  the  extract.  "  Ilawm,  to  move 
about  awkwardly,"  occurs  in  Peacock's 
Maidey  and  Corringliam  Glossary 
(E.D.  S.).    Cf.  Hawmed. 

Guzzlin'  an'  soakin'  an'  smoakin'  an' 
hamun9  about  i*  the  laanes.  —  Tennyson, 
Northern  Cobbler. 

Haunce,  to  raise  or  advance.  This 
word  is  in  R.,  with  two  extracts  from 
Chaucer.  I  should  not  therefore  have 
inserted  it  here  were  it  not  that  L.  and 
Halliwell  and  Wright  in  their  addi- 
tions to  N.  give  "hanced  =  (apparently) 


intoxicated,"  with  extract  from  Taylor. 
The  word  is  no  doubt  the  same  as  that 
usejj  by  Chaucer  and  Stanyhurst,  and 
applied  figuratively  to  intoxication,  as 
"  elevated  "  now  is. 

Yeet  the  tre  stands  sturdy:  for  as  yt  toe 

the  skytyp  is  haunced, 
So  far  is  y t  crampornd  with  roote  deepe  dibled 

at  helgat's.— Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iv.  468. 

Hausture,  draught. 

It  is  just  matter  of  lamentation  when 
souls  .  .  .  fall  to  such  apostacy  as  with 
Demas  to  embrace  the  dunghill  of  this 
world,  and  with  an  hausture  to  lick  up  the 
mud  of  corruption. — Adams,  ii.  199. 

Haut,  to  raise  on  high  (?) 

Chief e  stay s  vpbearing  crochea  high  from  the 

antlier  hauted 
On  trees  stronglye  fraying. 

Stanyhurst,  JSn.,  i.  193. 

Having,  covetous. 

The  apostles  that  wanted  money  are  not 
so  having :  Judas  hath  the  bag,  and  yet  he 
must  have  more,  or  he  will  filch  it.— Adams, 
ii.  249. 

Jane,  the  elder  sister,  held  that  Martha's 
children  ought  not  to  expect  so  much  as 
the  young  Waules ;  and  Martha,  more  lax  on 
the  subject  of  primogeniture,  was  sorry  to 
think  that  Jane  was  so  " having*1 — G.  Eliot, 
Middlcmarch,  ch.  xxxv. 

Hawbuck,  a  clown. 

Away,  away !  down  the  dusty  lane 

They  pull  her,  and  haul  her,  with  might  and 

main; 
And  happy  the  hawbuck,  Tom  or  Harry, 
Dandy  or  Sandy,  Jerry  or  Larry, 
Who  happens  to  get  a  leg  to  carry. 

Hood,  Tale  of  a  Trumpet. 

Bless  my  heart !  excuse  me,  Sir  Bfohard — 
to  sit  down  and  leave  you  standing!  'Slife, 
sir,  sorrow  is  making  a  hawbuck  of  me. — C. 
Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  v. 

Hawkish,  pertaining  to  a  hawk.    See 

quotation  from  Carlyle  8.  v.  Accipitral. 

She  must  have  been  very  beautiful  as  a 
young  girl,  but  was  'now  too  fierce  and 
fiawkish  looking. — H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry  Ham- 
lyn,  ch.  vi. 

Hawmed,  bandy.  N.  has  "Haume- 
legged,  bandy-legged,"  with  WithaVs 
Diet,  as  an  authority.  Peacock  {Man- 
ley  and  Corringliam  Glossary)  gives 
"'hawm,  to  move  about  awkwardly." 
Cf .  Haum. 

The  Devils  of  Crowland  with  their  crimp 
shoulders,  side  and  gor-bellies,  crooked  and 
hawmed  legges. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  530. 

Hay.  To  carry  hay  on  the  horn  =  to 
be  dangerous  or  aggressive.    Oxen  that 


HAY 


(  304  ) 


HEADLONG 


were  fierce  had  hay  wrapped  round  their 
horns.  The  proverb  was  a  Latin  one. 
14  Fotnum  habet  in  cornu  "  (Horace,  Sat., 
I.  i.  34). 

Last  has  no  eares ;  he's  sharpe  as  thorn, 
And  fretf ull  carries  hay  in  '#  home. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  176. 

Hay.  To  make  hay  is  to  throw 
everything  into  confusion. 

Mist  G.  O,  father,  how  you  are  making  hay 
of  my  things ! 

Christy.  Then  I  wish  I  could  make  hay 
of  them,  for  hay  is  much  wanting  for  the 
horses. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Rose,  Thistle,  and 
Shamrock,  i.  2. 

Every  moveable  article  in  the  room — fur- 
niture, crockery,  fender,  fire-irons — lay  in  one 
vast  heap  of  broken  confusion  in  the  corner 
of  the  room.  .  .  "What  a  devil  that  Welter 
is  when  he  gets  drink  into  him,  and  Marlowe 
is  not  much  better.  The  fellows  were  mad 
with  fighting  too.  I  wish  they  hadn't  come 
here  and  made  hay  afterward*."— if.  Kings- 
ley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  vii. 

Hay- asthma,  usually  now  called  hay- 
fever. 

I  escaped  from  the  hay-asthma  with  a  visit 
of  one  month. — Southey,  Letters  (1827). 

Hay-crome,  hay-rake. 

They  fell  downe  on  their  mary-bones,  and 
lift  up  their  hay-cromes  unto  him. — J\ashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  166). 

Hayn,  a  covetous  man  or  a  miser. 
See  another  instance  from  Udal  s.  v. 
Paunched.  Jamieson  has  Haiti  as  a 
verb  =  to  be  penurious. 

He  signified  that  .  .  .  who  were  soch  a 
niggarde  or  hayn  that  he  coulde  not  finde  in 
his  harte  afore  that  daye  to  departe  with  an 
halfpeny  to  any  creature  liuing,  for  soche 
a  feloe  to  be  hyghe  tyme  ones  in  bis  life 
to  begin  to  departe  with  somewhat  to  the 
poore. —  UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  129. 

Sparing,  pinching,  and  plaiyng  the 
nygardes  or  naynes  belonged  to  cookes  and 
not  to  kinges. — Ibid.  p.  241. 

Head.  A  man  whose  intellects  are 
bewildered  or  disordered  is  said  to  be 
off  his  head. 

At  present  he  is  off  his  head :  he  does  not 
know  wbat  he  says,  or  rather  he  is  incapable 
of  controlling  his  utterances. — Black,  Adven- 
tures of  a  Phaeton,  ch.  xiii. 

Head.  To  lose  one'8  head  is  a  com- 
mon expression,  though  Poe  (comment- 
ing on  Lady  G.  Fullerton's  Ellen 
Middleton)  censures  it  as  a  Gallicism : 
it  usually,  however,  =  to  become  con- 
fused, to  lose  presence  of  mind,  rather 
than  to  be  crazy. 


But  the  chief  merit  after  all  is  that  of  the 
style,  .  .  .  although  it  has  now  and  then  an 
odd  Gallicism — such  as  "  she  lost  her  head," 
meaning  she  grew  crazy. — E.  A.  Poe,  Mar- 
ginalia, lxxiv. 

Head.  To  put  one  in  the  head  of  it 
=  to  put  it  into  one* s  head,  to  suggest 
an  idea. 

The  Bishops,  vpon  the  permission  of  build- 
ing castles,  so  outwent  the  Lords  in  magnifi- 
cence, strength,  and  number  of  their  erec- 
tions, and  especially  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury, 
that  their  greatnesse  was  much  maligned  by 
them,  putting  the  king  in  head  that  all  these 
great  castles .  . .  were  onely  to  entertaine  the 
partie  of  Maude.  —  Daniel,  Hist,  of  Ena., 
p.  60. 

"  Nay,  nay,  like  enough,"  says  Partridge, 
"and  now  yon  put  me  in  the  head  of  it,  I 
verily  and  sincerely  believe  it  was  the  devil, 
though  I  could  not  perceive  his  cloven  foot." 
— Tom  Jones,  Bk.  IA.  ch.  vi. 

Head-cloth,  a  covering  for  the  head. 

^What's  here?  all  sorts  of  dresses  painted 
to  the  life ;  ha !  ha !  ha !  head-cloaths  to 
shorten  the  face,  favourites  to  raise  the  fore- 
head.— Centlivre,  Platonic  Lady,  iii.  1. 

He  gave  me  two  suits  of  fine  Flanders 
laced  head-clothes. — Richardson,  Pamela,  i.  12. 

Header,  a  plunge  head  foremost. 
See  extract  from  Dickens,  *.  v.  Bobby, 
where  header  is  used  (by  a  street-boy) 
as  a  verb. 

No  time  to  go  down  and  bathe ;  111  get 
my  header  somewhere  up  the  stream. — C. 
Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xviii. 

Headfast,  the  rope  at  the  head  of  a 
ship  by  which  it  is  fastened  to  wharfs, 
&c. 

The  Ships  ride  here  so  close,  as  it  were, 
keeping  up  one  another  with  their  Head-fasts 
on  shore. — Defoe,  Tour  thro1  G.  Britain,  1. 64. 

Headhung,  despondent. 

Gentlemen,  be  not  head-hung ;  droop  not. 
— Shirley,  Bird  in  a  Cage,  Act  III. 

Headlinos,  headlong:  wrongly  ex- 
plained by  editor  of  Parker  Soc.  ed.  as 
neadlong  persons.  N.  has  this  udverb, 
but  without  the  final  8. 

The  foolish  multitude  everywhere, . . .  ns  a 
raging  flood  (the  banks  broken  down),  run- 
neth headlings  into  all  blasphemy  and  devil- 
ishness. — Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  608. 

Headlong,  to  precipitate. 

If  a  stranger  be  setting  his  pace  and  face 
towards  some  deep  pit  or  steep  rock — such  a 
precipice  as  the  cliffs  of  Dover — how  do  we 
cry  aloud  to  have  him  return !  yet  in  mean 
time  forget  the  course  of  our  own  sinful 


HEADLONGLY        (  3°5  )        HEARTHSTEAD 


ignorance  that  headlong  s  us  to  confusion. — 
Adams,  iii.  93. 

Headlong ly,  in  a  headlong  way. 

So  snatchingly  or  headlongly  driven,  flew 
Juno. — Chapman,  Iliad,  xv.  (Comment.). 

Head  nor  foot.    We  say  now  "  head 

nor  tail.11 

Is  it  possible  that  this  gear  appertain  any 
thing  to  my  cause  ?  I  find  neither  head  nor 
foot  in  it. — Gascoigne,  Supposes,  ii.  1. 

Hearing-time,  hooking  time ;  catch- 
ing time  (?).  Herring  fishing  is  spoken 
of. 

Now  it  is  high  keaking-time,  and  bee  the 
windes  never  so  easterly  adverse,  and  the 
tjde  fled  from  us,  wee  must  violently  towe 
and  hale  in  our  redoubtable  sophy  of  the 
floating  kingdom  of  Pisces. — Nashe,  Lenten 
Stuffe  {Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  156). 

Heap.  A  person  much  embarrassed 
or  surprised  is  said  to  be  struck  all  of  a 
heap. 

Now  was  I  again  struck  all  of  a  heap. 
However,  soon  recollecting  myself,  "Sir," 
said  I,  "  I  have  not  the  presumption  to  hope 
such  an  honour." — Richardson,  Pamela,  i.  297. 

I  am  very  glad  this  passed  before  I  came 
down,  for  else  I  think  1  should  have  struck 
htm  all  of  a  heap. — Mad.  1/Arblay,  Diary, 
i.  234. 

The  interrogatory  seemed  to  strike  the 
honest  magistrate,  to  use  the  vulgar  phrase, 
all  of  a  heap. — Scott,  Rob  Roy,  ii.  100. 

Heapeflood,  a  heavy  sea. 

One  ship  that  Lycius  dyd  shrowd  with  faith- 
ful Orontes 

In   sight  of  captayne  was  swasht  wyth  a 
roysterus  heapefud. 

Stanyhurst,  Ma.,  i.  124. 

Heape-meale,  confusedly. 

They  got  together  spices  and  odours  of  all 
sorts, . . .  and  thereon  pour  the  same  forth  by 
heape-meale. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  71. 

Heart.  With  a  heart  and  a  half = 
very  readily  or  heartily. 

Coz.  Do  you  drink  thus  often,  lady  ? 

Pet.  Still  when  I  am  thirsty,  and  eat  when 
I  am  hungry ; 
Such  junkets  come  not  every  day ;  once  more 

to  you, 
With  a  heart  and  a  half,  i'  faith. 

Massinger,  Grand  Duke  of  Florence, 
iv.  3. 

Heart.  Next  tlte  heart  =  fasting, 
and  is  usually  applied  to  drink  taken 
b"fore  breakfast ;  wine,  having  greater 
effect  then,  was  supposed  to  go  direct 
to  the  heart.  See  N.  and  Q.,  V.  vols. 
vii.f  viii.  The  phrase  occurs  also  in 
Holland's   Pliny,  xx.  4,   and   Queen's 


Closet  Opened,  p.  73.  Stapylton's 
note  is  on  a  passage  where  Juvenal 
speaks  of  an  iEthiop  "  nunquam  tibi 
mane  videndus.11 

In  his  time  was  brought  up  a  newe  founde 
diete,  to  drink  wine  in  the  morning  nexte  the 
harte. — UdaPs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  359. 

This  was  staying  at  Kingston  with  our 
unlucky  hostess  that  must  be  dandled,  and 
made  drunk  next  her  heart :  she  made  us  slip 
the  very  cream  o'  th'  morning.  —  Rowley, 
Match  at  Midnight,  Act  I. 

The  Romans  held  it  ominous  to  see  a 
Blackamoore  next  their  hearts  in  a  morning. 
— Stapylton,  Juvenal,  vi.  637. 

Queen  Artemisia,  .  .  .  living  chast  ever 
after  her  husband  Mausolus  his  death,  got 
his  ashes  all  put  in  wines,  whereof  she  would 
take  down  a  dramm  every  morning,  fastiug 
and  next  her  heart. — Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts, 
p.  60. 

Heart.  To  have  the  heart  in  the 
mouth  *=  to  be  frightened. 

My  heart  is  in  my  mouth  ;  my  mouth  is  in 
my  hand. — Grim  the  Collier,  Act  II. 

As  I  was  walking  from  the  stable  t'other 
night  without  my  lanthorn,  I  fell  across  a 
beam  that  lay  in  the  way,  and  faith  my  heart 
icas  in  my  mouth  ;  I  thought  I  had  stumbled 
over  a  spirit. — Addison,  The  Drummer,  I.  i. 

I'm  a  watching  for  my  master ;  my  heart's 
in  my  mouth;  if  he  was  to  catch  me  away 
from  home,  he'd  pretty  near  murder  me. — 
Dickens,  Bleak  House,  ch.  viii. 

Heart-bound,  hard-hearted ;  stingy. 

The  most  laxative  prodigals,  that  are  lavish 
and  letting  fly  to  their  lusts,  are  yet  heart- 
bound  to  the  poor. — Adams,  i.  109. 

Heart-certain,  thoroughly  certain. 

One  felt  heart-certain  that  he  could  not  miss 
His  quick-gone  love. 

Keats,  Endymion,  Bk.  i. 

Heartening,  encouragement. 

The  call 
Of  Mars  to  fight  was  terrible,  he  cried  out 

like  a  storm, 
Set  on  the  city's  pinnacles;  and  there  he 

would  inform 
Sometimes  his  heart'nings. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xx.  53. 

H earthen.  Wolcot  in  a  note  says, 
li  Hearthen  means  a  small  bundle  of 
firewood ;  it  is  now  almost  obsolete, 
and  seldom  found  but  in  old  law- 
books." 

He  told  them  that  his  master  had  mistook 
A  word  in  ancient  Modus  for  a  half  hen, 
Which  meant  a  faggot  —  that's  to  say,  a 
Hearthen. — P.  Pindar,  p.  64. 

Hearthstead,  place  of   the  hearth. 


HEART  IN  HOSE        (  $ot  ) 


HEDERATED 


Cf.   Girdle-stead,  Knee-stead,  Mar- 
ket-stead, Noon-stead. 

The  most  sacred  spot  upon  earth  to  him 
was  his  father's  hearth-stead. — Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  xxxiv. 

Heart  in  hose.  The  heart  is  said 
to  sink  in  one  who  is  afraid  or  dis- 
couraged ;  hence  it  was  spoken  of  as 
going  into  some  nether  garment,  as 
boots  or  hose.  Breton  (Good  and  Bad, 
p.  9)  describes  the  untrained  soldier  as 
'*  hanging  downe  his  head,  as  if  his 
heart  were  in  his  hose,11 

Hearty,  eminent. 

Bsay,  that  hearty  prophet,  coofirmeth  the 
same. — Latimer,  i.  356. 

We  read  how  that  Judas  Machabeus,  that 
hearty  captain,  sendeth  certain  money  to 
Jerusalem,  to  make  a  sacrifice  for  the  dead. 
— Ibid.  i.  515. 

Heathendom,  heathenism. 

He  trims  his  paletots,  and  adorns  his  legs, 
with  the  flesh  of  men  and  the  skins  of 
women,  with  degradation,  pestilence,  heathen- 
dom, and  despair. — C.  Kingsley,  Cheap  Clothe* 
and  Nasty. 

Heathenry,  heathenism. 

Are  jou  so  besotted  with  your  philosophy, 
and  your  heathenry,  and  your  laziness,  and 
your  contempt  for  God  and  man,  that  you 
will  see  your  nation  given  up  for  a  prey,  and 
your  wealth  plundered  by  heathen  dogs  ? — 
C.  Kingsley,  Hypatia,  ch.  vi. 

Heathery,  heathy ;  of  the  nature  of 
heather. 

I  found  the  house  amid  desolate  heathery 
hills. — Emerson,  Eng.  Traits,  ch.  i. 

He .  . .  threw  himself  on  the  heathery  scrub 
which  met  the  shingle. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown's 
School-Days,  Pt.  II.  ch.  ix. 

Heave  at,  to  oppose ;  to  murmur 
against.  See  quotation  from  Bale,  *.  v. 
Mammetrous. 

They  did  not  wish  government  auite  taken 
away ;  only  the  king's  person  they  heaved 
at ;  him,  for  some  purpose,  they  must  needs 
have  out  of  the  way. — Andrewes,  iv.  12. 

In  vain  have  some  heaved  at  this  office, 
which  is  fastned  to  the  state  with  so  con- 
siderable a  revenue. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  V. 
iv.  8. 

The  Bishops'  places  of  which  they  were  so 
anciently  possest  in  Parliament  were  heaved 
at—Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  167. 

Heaven,  to  place  in  heaven,  and  so 
to  make  happy.  See  quotation  from 
Adams,  *.  v.  Hell. 

He  heavens  himself  on  earth,  and  for  a 
little  pelf  cozens  himself  of  bliss. — Adams, 
i.  194. 


Heaven-high,  very  lofty.  Cf.  Sky- 
high. 

Their  Heav'n-high  roofes  shal  be  embattelled 
With  adamant  in  gold  enuelloped. 

Davies,  An  Extasie,  p.  93. 

H  eave-shouldered,  high-shouldered. 

Oaptaines  that  wore  a  whole  antient  in  a 
scarf e,  which  made  them  goe  heave-shouldered. 
—Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  157). 

Heavy,  beer  and  porter  mixed 
(slang). 

Here  comes  the  heavy;  hand  it  here  to 
take  the  taste  of  that  fellow's  talk  out  of  my 
mouth. — C.  Kinysley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  ii. 

Heavyish,    rather    heavy,    whether 

physically  or  mentally. 

I  solemnly  assure  you  I  am  only  heavyish, 
not  ill.— Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  ii.  300. 

Halloo!  halloo! 
They  have  done  for  two, 
But  a  heavyish  job  remains  to  do. 

Hood,  The  Forge. 

Hecatontarchy,  rule  of  a  hundred. 

What  would  come  to  pass  if  the  choice  of 
a  governor  or  governors  were  referred  to  the 
thousands  and  millions  of  England  ?  Beware 
a  Heptarchy  again,  beware  a  Hecatontarchy. 
—Hachet,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  202. 

Hecatontomes,  hundreds  of  volumes. 

Hypocrites !  the  gospel  faithfully  preached 
to  the  poor,  the  desolate  parishes  visited  and 
duly  fed,  loiterers  thrown  out,  wolves  driven 
from  the  fold,  had  been  a  better  confutation 
of  the  pope  and  mass  than  whole  hecaton- 
tomes of  controversies. — Milton,  Ammadv.  on 
Remonst.  (to  the  Postscript). 

Heckinq,  wearing ;  hacking. 

He  took  himself  to  be  no  mean  doctor, 
who,  being  guilty  of  no  Greek,  and  being 
demanded  why  it  was  called  an  hective  fever ; 
because,  saith  he,  of  an  necking  cough  which 
ever  attendeth  this  disease. — Fuller,  Holy 
State,  Bk.  I.  ch.  ii. 

Hectastyle,  having  six  pillars. 

One  of  the  largest  and  most  correct  hecta- 
style  porticoes  in  the  kingdom.— Defoe,  Tour 
thro1  G.  Britain,  ii.  301. 

Hectic,  a  blush  or  high  colour. 

The  poor  Franciscan  made  no  reply:  a 
hectic  of  a  moment  passed  across  his  cheek, 
but  could  not  tarry — Nature  seemed  to  have 
done  with  her  resentments  in  him. — Sterne, 
Sent.  Journey,  The  Monk. 

Hederated,  crowned  or  adorned  with 
ivy. 

He  appeareth  there  neither  laureated  nor 
hederated  Poet  (except  the  leaves  of  the 
Bayes  and  Ivy  be  withered  to  nothing  siuce 
the  erection  of  the  Tomb),  but  only  rotated, 


HEDGE 


(  307  ) 


HEEL-TAPS 


having  a  Chaplet  of  four  Roses  about  his 
he*d.— Fuller,  Worthier  Yorkshire  (ii.  513). 

Hedge.  To  hang  in  the  hedge  =  to 
be  at  a  stand-still.  In  the  old  Play  or 
Morality  called  Hycke-Scorner  (Haw- 
kins, Eng.  Dr.,  I  95)  the  reprobate, 
offended  at  the  reproof  of  Pity,  says, 
"  Whan  my  soule  hangeth  on  thehedqe, 
cast  stones,"  and  then  orders  Pity  to  be 
put  in  the  stocks.  Here  the  meaning 
seems  to  be,  When  I  am  dead  you  may 
cast  stones  at  me,  if  you  will,  but  now 
you  shall  be  punished. 

They  presently  voted  that  the  king  be 
desired  to  pat  all  Catholiques  out  of  employ- 
ment, and  other  high  things;  while  the 
business  of  money  hangs  in  the  hedge, — Pepys, 
Oct.  27, 1066. 

Hedgeless,  without  hedges. 

As  they  paced  along  the  dreary  hedgeless 
stubbles,  they  both  started. — C.  Kingsley, 
Yeast,  ch.  xiii. 

There  was  a  dreamy  sunny  stillness  over 
the  hedgeless  fields. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda, 
ch.  hriv. 

Hedge  wine,  poor,  cheap  wine :  wine 

perhaps  made  of  flowers  or  herbs,  as 

cowslip  wine,  &c. ;  but  hedge  is  often 

used   as  a  disparaging  prefix—  hedge- 

'  priest,  hedge-tavern,  &c. 

Your  wines  be  small  hedge  vines,  or  haue 
taken  salt  water.  —  Breton,  Wonders  worth 
Hearing,  p.  10. 

Holds  her  to  homely  cates  and  harsh  hedge- 
vine 
That  should  drink  Poesy's  nectar. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  Ep.  Ded.,  111. 

Heels.  Dawn  at  heels  =  slovenly, 
like  one  who  shuffles  about  in  slippers 
or  old  shoes.  See  quotation  s.  v. 
Elbows. 

Heels.  To  throw  up  a  man's  heels 
=  to  floor  or  conquer  him. 

Though  Great-grace  is  excellent  good  at 
his  weapons,  and  has  and  can,  so  long  as  he 
keeps  them  at  sword's  point,  do  well  enough 
with  them ;  yet  if  they  get  within  him,  even 
Faint-heart,  Mistrust,  or  the  other,  it  shall 
go  hard  but  they  will  throw  up  his  heels. — 
Pilgrim's  Progress,  Pt.  i.  p.  208. 

Heels.  To  turn  up  or  topple  up  the 
heels  =  to  die ;  toes  up  =  dead,  in 
modern  slang.    Cf.  Topple  up  tail. 

The  backewinter,  the  frostebiting,  the 
eclipse  or  shade,  and  sickness©  of  Yarmouth, 
was  a  great  sicknesse  or  plague  in  it  1348,  of 
which  in  one  yeare  seaven  thousand  and 
fifty  people  toppled  up  their  heeles  there.— 
Xashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  152). 


The  bove  was  somewhat  sickly  with  fruite, 
berries,  plummes,  and  such  geare  that  he  had 
eaten  abroade,  that  when  he  came  to  good 
lodging  and  good  dyet,  he  even  turned  up  his 
heeles. — Breton,  Miseries  of  Mauillia,  p.  42. 

His  heels  he'll  kick  up, 
Slain  by  an  onslaught  fierce  of  hiccup. 
Browning,  Flight  of  the  Duchess. 

Heels.  To  take  his  heels  =  to  run 
away.  We  say  take  to  his  heels.  As 
Puttenham  remarks,  it  is  a  colloquial 
expression,  not  adapted  for  heroic  sub- 
jects. To  get  the  heels  of  another  = 
to  outstrip. 

If  an  historiographer  shall  write  of  an 
emperor  or  king,  how  such  a  day  hee  joyned 
battel  with  his  enemie,  and  being  ouer-laide 
ranne  out  of  the  fields,  and  took  his  heeles,  or 
put  spurre  to  his  horse  and  fled  as  fast  as  hee 
could,  the  termes  be  not  decent,  but  of  a 
meane  souldier  or  captains  it  were  not  un- 
decently  spoken. — Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie, 
Bk.  III.  ch.  xxiii. 

If  ye  had  seen  him  take  his  heeles,  and  run 
away  from  you  into  the  wildernesse,  what 
could  ye  haue  said  or  done  more? — Hall, 
Contemplations  (Golden  Calfe). 

"  What !  (cried  I,  astonished)  a  matrimo- 
nial scheme  ?  O  rare  Strap,  thou  bast  got 
the  heels  of  me  at  last." — Roderick  Random, 
ch.  xlvii. 

Heels.  To  cool  or  kick  one's  heels 
=  to  wait ;  to  cool  heels  is  noticed  in  N. 

I  suppose  this  is  a  spice  of  foreign  breed- 
ing, to  let  your  uncle  kick  his  heels  in  your 
heXL—Foote,  The  Minor,  Act  II. 

In  this  parlour  Amelia  cooled  her  heels,  as 
the  phrase  is,  near  a  quarter  of  an  hour. — 
Fielding,  Amelia,  Bk.  VI.  ch.  ix. 

My  Lord,  the  Jews 
Have  been  these  three  hours  in  the  outer  hall, 
Much  kicking  of  their  heels,  and   cursing 
Meroz. — Taylor,  Virgin  Widow,  i.  2. 

Heels  in  neck,  headlong. 

One  Oerdicus,  a  plashing  Saxon, . . .  leapt 
aground  like  a  sturoie  bruite,  and  his  yeomen 
bolde  cast  their  heels  in  their  necke,  and  friskt 
it  after  him.— Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  150). 

Heel -taps,  the  small  remains  of 
liquor  left  in  a  glass,  or  the  fag  end  of 
a  t>ottle.  Different  attempts  to  explain 
this  phrase  may  be  seen  in  N.  and  Q., 
5th  S.,  vol.  xii. 

As  there  was  a  proper  objection  to  drink- 
ing her  in  heel-taps,  said  the  voice,  we'll  give 
her  the  first  glass  in  the  new  magnum. — 
Nicholas  Nickleby,  ch.  xxzii. 

Kick  took  off  his  heel-taps,  bow'd,  smiled 

with  an  air 
Most  graciously  grim,  and  vacated  the  chair. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  (St.  Cuthbert). 

X  2 


HEIGH-HO 


(  3o8) 


HEM  USE 


II  El  a  H -HO,  to  sigh  for ;  an  interjec- 
tion turned  into  a  verb.  Cf.  Pish, 
pshaw,  &c. 

It  was  just  the  sort  of  house  which  youth- 
ful couples,  newly  united  by  Holy  Church, 
htiyh-ho'd  for  as  they  passed. — Savage,  R. 
MedlieoU,  Bk.  I.  ch.  i. 

Height,  to  exalt. 

If  He  bore  affection  to  us  in  our  rags,  His 
love  will  not  leave  us  when  we  are  heiyhted 
with  His  righteousness,  and  shining  with  His 
jewels.— Adams,  i.  400. 

Imagine  ....  numbers  of  people  that 
not  many  hours  before  had  their  several 
chambers  delicately  heiyhted,  now  confusedly 
thrust  together  into  one  close  room. — Ibid. 
i.  421. 

Hell,  to  place  in  hell.  The  passage 
from  Spenser  is  quoted  by  N.,  who 
says  that  hell  has  been  supposed  to  be 
another  form  of  hele,  to  cover,  but  that 
this  is  not  satisfactory.  Spenser,  I 
think,  uses  the  verb  in  the  same  sense 
as  Adams  ("  lands  "  being  the  anteced- 
ent to  "  them  ").    Cf.  Heaven. 

Else  would  the  waters  overflow  the  lands, 
And  fire  devoure  the  ayre,  and  hell  them 

quight.— F.  Queene,  TV.  x.  35. 

The  dead  to  sin  are  heavened  in  this  world, 
the  dead  in  sin  are  helled  here  by  the  tor- 
menting anguish  of  an  unappeasable  con- 
science.— Adams,  i.  231. 

Hellness,  hellishness,  with  an  allu- 
sion to  the  title,  Highness. 
There's  not  a  king  among  ten  thousand  kings, 

But  gildeth  those  that  glorifie  his  folly, 
That  sooth  and  smooth,  and  call  his  HelUness 
holy.— Sylvester,  The  Capiaines,  1007. 

Hell- wain.  H.,  who  gives  no  ex- 
ample, says,  "A  supernatural  waggon, 
seen  in  the  sky  at  night."  The  extract 
is  quoted  by  Irving  in  a  note  to  the 
article  in  his  Sketch-Book  on  Stratford- 
on-Avon. 

They  have  so  fraid  us  with  bull-beggars, 
spirits,  witches,  urchins, .  .  .  the  man  m  the 
oke,  the  hell-waine,  the  fierdrake,  the  puckle, 
Tom  Thombe,  hobgoblins,  Tom  Tumbler, 
boneless,  and  such  other  bugs,  that  we  were 
afraid  of  our  own  shadowes.  —  Scot,  Bis- 
eoverie  of  Witchcraft. 

Helmless,  rudderless. 

Tour  National  Assembly,  like  a  ship  water- 
logged, helmless,  lies  tumbling. — Catiyle,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  VI.  ch.  v. 

Help-tire,  a  curious  compound :  the 
meaning  is  that  a  horse  is  a  help  to 
those  wbo  are  tired,  but  the  speaker 


was  still   fresh.      There  is   no    corre- 
sponding word  in  the  original. 

My  pow'rs  are  yet  entire, 
And  scorn  the  help-tire  of  a  horse. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  v.  252. 

Helter-skelteriness,  hastiness ;  im- 
petuosity. 

While  the  picturesqueness  of  the  numerous 
pencil-scratches  arrested  my  attention,  their 
helter-skelteriness  of  commentary  amused  me. 
— E.  A.  Foe,  Marginalia,  Introduction. 

Helve.  To  throw  tlu  helve  after  the 
hatchet  =  to  go  all  lengths ;  when  part 
has  been  lost,  to  throw  away  the  rest. 
The  metaphor  may  be  taken  from 
2  Kings  vi.  5,  6. 

If  shee  should  reduce  the  Spaniard  to  that 
desperate  passe  in  the  Netherlands,  as  to 
make  him  throw  the  helve  after  the  hatchet, 
and  to  relinquish  those  provinces  altogether, 
it  would  much  alter  the  case. — Howell,  In- 
structions for  Forraine  Travell,  sect.  9. 

Hemerobaptist.  See  extract.  The 
sect  was  of  Jewish  origin. 

In  the  Word  of  God  .  .  .  one  Baptisme  i* 
mentioned  (which  place  the  Hemerobaptist s 
or  daily  dippers  slighted). — Gauden,  Tears  of 
the  Church,  p.  296. 

Hemerocallis,  the  day-lily. 

The  hemerocallis  is  the  least  esteemed,  be- 
cause one  day  ends  its  beauty. — Bp.  Hall, 
Works,  viii.  183. 

Hemi-circle,  half-circle.  Ben  Jon- 
son  (quoted  by  L.)  has  the  more  cor- 
rect hemi-cycle. 

Her  browes  two  hemi-circles  did  enclose,* 
Of  rubies  ranged  in  artificiall  roes. 

Davies,  An  Extasie,  p.  89. 

Hempstring,  a  term  of  reproach,  like 
crackhemp,  or  crackrope,  implying  that 
the  person  so  called  deserves  or  is  likely 
to  be  hung. 

If  I  come  near  you,  hempstring,  I  will  teach1 
you  to  sing  sol  fa. — Gascoigney  Supposes,  iv.  3. 
Vau.  A  perfect  young  hempstring  / 
Van.  Peace,  least   he  overheare  you.  — 

Chapman,  Mans.  1?  Olive,  v.  1. 

1 

Hemusb.  See  first  extract;  in  the 
second  the  speaker  is  supposed  to  be  aj 
hind.  , 

The  roebuck  is  the  first  year  a  kid,  the 
second  year  a  girl,  the  third  year  a  hem  use* 
— Return  from  Parnassus,  ii.  5  (1(100).  j 

Those  pretty  fawns,  prickets,  eorrells,  he* 
muses,  ana  girls,  whereof  som  are  mine,  which 
I  brought  into  the  world  without  any  pain 
or  help  of  midwife. — Howell,  Parly  of  Bta>t*% 
p.  62. 


HE NA  TRICE 


(  309  )  HERITANCE 


Hen  at  rice,  jocularly  for  female 
cockatrice. 

It  is  affirmed  that  there  is  no  female  basil- 
isk, that  is,  no  henatrice,  the  cock  laying  only 
male  eggs. — Southey,  The  Doctor ',  ch.  cc. 

Hence,  to  send  or  go  away.  N. 
gives  the  second  extract,  and  says, 
"Sylvester  has  unwarrantably  made  a 
verb  of  to  hence,  in  the  sense  of  to  go 
away.  I  am  not  aware  of  any  other 
instance." 

60,  bawling  Cor,  thy  hungry  maw  go  fill 
On  yon  foul  flock,  belonging  not  to  me. 
With  that  his  dog  he  henc'd,  his  flock  he 
cursed. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  93. 

Herewith  the  Angell  henc't,  and  bent  his 

flight 
Tow  Yds  our  sad  Citie. 

Sylvester,  Panaretus,  128J. 

Henoe.     See  extract. 

The  present  name  [Stonehenge]  is  Saxon, 
though  the  work  is,  beyond  all  comparison, 
older,  signifying  an  hanging  rod  or  pole,  t.  e. 
a  Gallows,  from  the  hanging  parts,  archi- 
traves, or  rather  imposts;  ana  pendulous 
rocks  are  still  in  Yorkshire  called  Henges. — 
Defoe,  Tour  thro'  G.  Britain,  i.  305. 

Henpeck,  undue  rule  by  a  wife.  Cf. 
Chickex-pecked. 

Consider  the  .  .  .  Saumaises  now  bully- 
fighting  for  a  hundred  gold  Jacobuses,  now 
closeted  with  Queen  Christinas,  .  .  .  anon 
cast  forth  (being  scouted  and  confuted),  and 
dying  of  heartbreak  coupled  with  henpeck. — 
Curly  It,  Misc.,  iii.  208. 

Hex-peckery,  state  of  subjection  to 
a  wife  by  a  husband. 

He  had  fallen  from  all  the  heieht  and 
pomp  of  beadleship,  to  the  lowest  depth  of 
the  most  snubbed  nen-peckery. — Oliver  Twist, 
ch.  xxxvii. 

Heraldry.    See  quotation. 

Nothing  sat  heavier  upon  his  spirits  than 
a  great  arrear  of  business,  when  it  happened ; 
for  he  knew  well  that  from  thence  there 
sprang  up  a  trade  in  the  register's  office 
called  heraldry,  that  is,  buying  and  selling 
precedence  in  the  paper  of  causes,  than  which 
there  bath  not  been  a  greater  abuse  in  the 
sight  of  the  sun. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guil- 
ford, ii.  86. 

Herb,  to  graze;  to  crop  herbage. 
The  speaker  in  the  extract  is  a  boar. 

So,  sir,  I  bid  you  farewell,  for  I  am  going 
to  kerb  it  among  that  tuft  of  trees. — Howell, 
Parly  of  Beast*,  p.  113. 

Herb-John,  some  tasteless  pot-herb. 
Britten  and  Holland  give  Hypericum 
perforatum  as  the  botanical  name  of 
Herb-John,  but  do  not  think  that  this 


is  the  plant  referred  to  in  Gumall. 
The  thin -leaved  mug -wort  or  clarie, 
called  by  Cotgrave  Herbe  de  Saint 
Jean,  has  been  suggested.  See  N.  and 
Q.,  II.  vols.  vii. — ix. 

Balm,  with  the  destitution  of  God's  bless- 
ing, doth  as  much  good  as  a  branch  of  herb- 
John  in  our  pottage. — Adams,  i.  376. 

Herb-John  in  the  pot  does  neither  much 
good  nor  hurt. — Gumall,  Christian  Armour , 
Pt.  ii.  p.  12. 

Herden,  flaxen ;  made  of  hards,  q.  v. 

Ton  must  haue  an  herden  or  wullen  cloth 
waxed,  wherwith  euery  day  you  must  rubbe 
and  chafe  your  bowe,  tyll  it  shyne  and  glyt- 
ter  wythall.— Atcham,  ToxophUus,  p.  118. 

They  are  to  be  beaten  and  punned  in  a 
great  stone  mortar,  or  vpon  a  stone  floore, 
with  an  hurden  mallet  or  tow-beetle. — Hoi- 
land,  Pliny,  xix.  1. 

Hkrdflock,  a  flock :  one  of  Stany- 
huret's  words.     See  extract  8.  v.  Prede. 

Herd-maid,    shepherd esB.     Herdess 

is  in  the  Diets. 

I  sit  and  watch  a  herd-maid  gay.  —  Lyric*, 
he,  ed.  by  W.  Byrd,  1587  (Eng.  Gar.,  ii.  76). 

Herehence,  hence.    "  Written  *  her- 

ence  *  (says  Bp.  Jacobson),  it  is  still  in 

use  in  the  counties  of  Somerset,  Wilts, 

and  Hereford,  as  '  therence '  also  is  for 

'thence.'" 

*     We  are  herehence  resolved  that  we  are  not 
-  to  do  any  evil  that  good  may  come  of  it. — 

Sanderson,  ii.  52. 
The  use  that  we  may  make  herehence  is, 

that  since  he  fell  let  us  take  heed  that  we 

fall  not.— Ibid.  v.  353. 

Hereticate,  to  class  or  denounce  as 
a  heretic. 

Let  no  one  be  minded  on  the  score  of  my 
neoterism  to  hereticate  me  as  threatening  to 
abet  some  new-fangled  form  of  religious 
heterodoxy.  Jupiter  forbid  that  I  should 
think  of  setting  up  as  a  theologue.  It  is 
just  because  I  would  not  be  confounded  with 
the  patrons  of  neologism  or  neology,  that  I 
prefer  to  use  neotensm  and  its  conjugates. 
If  human  affairs  were  ruled  by  prudence, 
the  term  'innovation'  would  be  strictly 
neutral;  but  in  common  usage,  as  Bentley 
justly  remarks,  thereby  "expression  is  given 
to  the  sentiment  of  displeasure.1*  Neoterism, 
as  being  a  vocable  still  unfamiliar,  possesses 
the  advantage  of  indifference,  in  not  sug- 
gesting either  praise  or  dispraise.  —  Hail, 
Modern  English,  p.  19. 

Heritaxce,  heritage ;  patrimony. 

These  were  my  heritance, 
O  God !  thy  gifts  were  these. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  i. 


HERRINALSON        (  310  ) 


HESTERNAL 


Herkinalson,  a  hermaphrodite. 

Thus  he  thinketh  it  a  great  deal  the  safer 
way  to  make  the  pope  an  herkinalson,  or  by 
miracle  to  turn  him  from  a  man  into  a  wo- 
man, than  simply  and  plainly  to  confess  that 
ever  dame  Joan  was  Pope  in  Borne. — Jewel, 
iv.  656. 

He rle.  H.  gives  *'  Herle,  a  twist, 
fillet,  Gawayne"  but  this  scarcely  seems 
the  meaning  in  the  extract 

The  shell-fly  for  the  middle  of  July,  made 
of  greenish  wool,  wrapped  about  with  the 
herle  of  a  peacock's  tail. — Miss  Edgeworth, 
Absentee,  ch.  viii. 

Heroic,  to  celebrate  in  heroic  verse. 

Homer  of  rats  and  frogs  hath  heroiqut  it. 
— Xashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Hart.  Misc.,  vi.  158). 

Heroine,  to  play  the  heroine. 

What  lessened  the  honour  of  it  somewhat 
in  my  mother's  case  was  that  she  could  not 
heroine  it  into  so  violent  and  hazardous  an 
eztream  as  one  in  her  situation  might  have 
wished. — Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  i.  02. 

Herring  is  a  fish  that  dies  as  soon 
as  it  is  taken  out  of  the  water ;  hence 
the  phrase  in  the  quotation. 

Bel.  Constant !  and  in  mourning  ?  Pray, 
who's  dead  ? 

Const.  One  for  whom  I  ought  to  grieve, 
did  it  not  smooth  a  passage  to  Belinda's 
arms  through  the  hearts  of  our  inexorable 
parents. 

Bel.  Your  father,  sir  ? 

Clinch.  The  same,  madam ;  he's  as  dead 
as  a  herring,  I  promise  you. 

Centlivre,  Maws  Bewitched,  Act  I. 

"  Dead ! "  (says  my  uncle,  looking  at  the 
body)  "  ay,  ay,  I'll  warrant  him  as  dead  as  a 
herring." — Smollett,  Bod.  Random,  ch.  iv. 

Herring.  Never  a  barrel  the  better 
herring  =  just  as  bad  as  some  one  else 
to  whom  reference  had  been  made,  i.  e, 
the  herrings  in  one  barrel  are  of  the 
same  quality  as  those  in  another.  Cf. 
extract*,  v.  Barrel.  In  Bailey's  Colloq. 
of  Erasmus,  p.  373,  Similes  habebant 
labra  lactucas  is  translated,  "  The  devil 
a  barrel  the  better  herring,"  though 
the  old  English  proverb,  "  Like  lips, 
like  lettuce,"  would  have  given  the 
original  literally.  In  the  second  extract 
Gosson  is  comparing  cooks  and  painters 
on  the  one  side,  and  dramatists  on  the 
other. 

Two  feloes  being  like  flagicious,  and 
neither  barrel  better  herring,  accused  either 
other. — VdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,p.  187. 

Therefore  of  both  baiTelles  I  judge  Cookes 
and  Painters  the  better  hearing.  —  Gosson, 
Schoole  of  Abuse,  p.  32. 


I  lyk  not  barrel  or  hearing. — Stanyhurst, 
AEn.,  ii.  56. 

M New  a  barrel  the  better  herring*  cries 
he ;  "  noscitur  a  socio  is  a  true  saying.  It 
must  be  confessed  indeed  that  the  lady  in 
the  fine  garments  is  the  civiler  of  the  two ; 
bat  I  suspect  neither  of  them  are  a  bit  better 
than  they  should  be." — Fielding,  T.  Jones, 
Bk.  X.  ch.  v. 

Vive  la  reine  Billingsgate !  the  ThaJestris 
who  has  succeeded  Louis  Quatorse.  A  com- 
mittee of  those  Amasons  stopped  the  Duke 
of  Orleans,  who,  to  use  their  style,  I  believe 
is  not  a  barrel  the  better  herring. —  Walpole, 
Letters,  iv.  480  (1789). 

Herring-bone,  to  work  in  a  zigzag 
pattern  like  herring-bones ;  used  also 
as  an  architectural  term  for  work  of 
that  fashion. 

For  there,  all  the  while,  with  air  quite  be- 
witching, 

She    sat    herring-boning,    tambouring,     or 
stitching. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (Knight  and  Lady). 

The  walls  to  this  room  were  3  feet  thick, 
with  herring-bone  masonry. — Arch.,  xxxv.  384 
(1863). 

Herring er,  one  who  goes  herring- 
fishing. 

He  would  do  anything  in  his  contempt 
for  "a  lot  of  long-shore  merchant-skippers 
and  herringers,  who  went  about  calling  them- 
selves captains,  and  fancy  themselves.  Sir,  as 
good  as  if  they  wore  the  Queen's  uniform." 
— C.  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xiv. 

Hersrd,  formed  like  a  hearse. 
Southey  explains  in  a  note  that  the 
bowmen  were  usually  arranged  in  the 
shape  of  a  hearse,  about  two  hundred 
in  front  and  but  forty  in  depth.  The 
hearse  referred  to  is  not  the  carriage 
now  so  called,  but  a  triangular  frame 
of  iron  on  which  a  number  of  lighted 
candles  were  placed  at  funeral  ob- 
sequies. 

From  his  hersed  bowmen  how  the  arrows 
fled  \— Southey,  Joan  of  Arc,  Bk.  ii. 

Hesitatory,  vacillating. 

In  the  mean  time  his  being  suspicions, 
dubious,  cautelous,  and  not  soon  determined, 
bnt  hesitatory  at  unusual  occurrences  in  his 
office,  made  mm  pass  for  a  person  timidous, 
and  of  a  fickle,  irresolute  temper. — A'orth, 
Examen,  p.  596. 

Hesternal,  belonging  to  yesterday. 

N.  has  kestem,  with  quotation   from 

Holinshed. 

I  rose  by  candle-light,  and  consumed,  in 
the  intensest  application,  the  hours  which 
every  other  individual  of  our  party  wasted 


HETAIRISM 


(  3"  ) 


HIGHBO  V 


in  enervating  slumbers  from  the  hesUrnal 
dissipation  or  debauch.  —  Lytton,  Pelham, 
c)i.  Ivii. 

H  eta  I R  ism,  promiscuous  intercourse. 

The  primitive  condition  of  man  socially 
was  one  of  pure  hetairism. — Sir  J.  Lubbock, 
Orig.  of  Civilization,  p.  67. 

Hewt,  height  (?).   H.  has  hewt,  high. 

The  word  in  the  original  is  sedes.    The 

rendezvous    spoken    of    is   "  tumulus 

trmplumque  vHustum  desertas  Cereris" 

From  diuerse  corners  to  that  hewt  wee  wyl 
make  asemblye. — St  any  hurst,  JEn.,  ii.  742. 

Hey-day,  joyous  excitement. 

Keep  it  up,  jolly  ringers,  ding  dong  and 
away  with  it  again.  A  merry  peal  puts  my 
spirits  quite  in  a  hey-day. — Burgoyne,  Lord  of 
the  Manor,  I.  i. 

Hey-go-mad,  without  bounds  ;  as  an 
adjective,  extremely  anxious  or  desirous. 

When  they  are  once  set  a  going,  whether 
right  or  wrong,  'tis  not  a  halfpenny  matter; 
away  they  go  cluttering  like  key-go-mad. — 
Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  i.  2. 

Tisn't  Mr.  Bounderby,  'tis  his  wife ;  yo'r 
not  fearfo'  o'  her ;  yo  was  hey-go-mad  about 
her  an  hour  sin. — Dickens,  Hard  Timet,  ch. 
xxii. 

Hey-passe,  a  juggler's  term  :  often 
joined  with  repasse. 

Ha'  you  forgotten  me  ?  you  think  to  carry 
it  away  with  your  hey-passe  and  repasse. — 
Marlowe,  Faustus,  v.  1. 

The  poets  were  triviall  that  set  up  Helen's 
face  for  such  a  top-gallant  summer  may- 
pole for  men  to  gaze  at,  and  strouted  it  out 
so  in  their  buskind  braves  of  her  beautie; 
whereof  the  only  Circe's  heypasse  and  repasse 
was  that  it  drew  a  thousand  ships  to  Troy 
to  fetch  her  back  with  a  pestilence. — Nashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  162). 

You  wanted  but  hey-pass  to  have  made 
your  transition  like  a  mystical  man  of  Star- 
bridge.  But  for  all  your  sleight  of  hand, 
our  just  exceptions  against  liturgy  are  not 
vanished.  —  Milton,  Animadv.  on  Bemonst., 
sect.  3. 

Hibbrnologist,  one  learned  in  mat- 
ters relating  to  Ireland. 

We  may  fairly  contrast  his  Hibernology 
with  that  of  the  Hibernologists  of  the  present 
generation.  —  Lord  Strangford,  Letters  and 
Papers,  p.  231. 

Hibebnolooy,  teaching  about  Ire- 
land :  a  word  formed  like  ^Egyptology. 
See  preceding  extract. 

Hickock,  hiccup. 

The  voice  is  lost  in  hickcocks,  and  the 
breath  is  stifled  with  right— Howell,  Parly  of 
Beasts,  p.  23. 


Go  to  the  stomack,  it  hatb  . . .  singultus 
or  the  hi  cock. — Ibid.  p.  78. 

Hidage,  a  tax  levied  on  every  hide 
of  land. 

All  the  king's  supplies  made  from  the 
very  beginning  of  his  raigne,  are  particu- 
larly againe  and  opprobriously  rehersed,  as 
.  .  .  Garucage,  Hydage,  Escuage,  Escheates, 
Amercements,  and  such  like. — Daniel,  Hist, 
of  Eng.,  p.  136. 

Hide-blown,  gorged ;  having  the 
skin  stuffed  out. 

Ye  slothful,  Hide-blown,  gormandizing 
niggards. — Taylor,  Ph.  van  Art.,  Pt.  I.  i.  3. 

Hide  Park  on  the  water.  The 
Thames,  as  being  a  fashionable  place 
of  resort  formerly. 

I  promised  to  go  this  evening  to  Hide 
Park  on  the  water,  but  I  protest  I'm  half 
afraid. — Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Con v.  i.). 

Hiding,  a  thrashing. 

"  La,  Susan,"  said  George,  with  a  doleful 
whine,  "  I  wasn't  going  to  shed  the  beggar's 
blood  ;  I  was  only  going  to  give  him  a  hiding 
for  his  impudence." — Reade,  Never  too  late  to 
mend,  ch.  l. 

HiERAriCRA,  aloes  and  canella  bark 
made  into  a  powder  with  honey.  In 
the  quotation  from  Ward  reference  is 
made  to  the  derivation  of  the  word 
ttpoq,  sacred,  iwcpdc,,  bitter. 

There  is  too  much  of  this  bitter  zeal,  of 
this  Hierapicra  in  all  our  books  of  contro- 
versies.—  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  76. 

Tugwell  began  to  complain  of  being  very 
chill,  and  of  the  head-ache,  and  said  "be 
was  certainly  going  to  have  a  fit  of  the  ague, 
and  should  not  be  able  to  go  any  further." 
He  then  heavily  bemoaned  himself,  and  said, 
"  If  he  were  at  home, .  .  .  Madam  Wildgoose 
would  send  him  some  Higry  pigry,  which 
would  stop  it  at  once."  —  Graves,  Spiritual 
Quixote,  Bk.  VIII.  ch.  zix. 

Higglery  goods,  such  goods  as  a 

higgler  or  hawker  sells. 

Bound  the  circumference  is  the  Butter- 
market,  with  all  the  sorts  of  Higglery  goods. 
—Defoe,  Tour  thro*  G.  Britain,  ii.  142. 

Highboy,  a  High  Tory  and  Church- 
man, supposed  to  favour  Jacobitism. 
North  mentions  Highmen  as  used  in 
this  sense.  See  quotation  8.  v.  Mob- 
bify,  and  cf.  Low-boy. 

Sir  Bog.  I  am  amaz'd  to  find  you  in  the 
interest  of  the  High-boys,  you  that  are  a 
clothier!  What,  can  you  be  for  giving  up 
trade  to  France,  and  starving  poor  weavers  ? 

Aid.  Trade,  pish,  pish,  our  parson  says 


HIGH-COCKALORUM    (  312  ) 


HINCH 


that's  only  the    Whigs'   cant.  —  Centlivre, 
Gotham  Election. 

Rog.  Sly.  Down  with  that  frenchify'd  dog, 
Tickup.    No  High  Boy,  no  High  Boy ! 

Shot.  No  Worthy,  no  Worthy;  a  High 
Boy,  a  High  Boy!  [Exeunt Jlghting. 

Ibid. 

High-cook- a-lorum,  a  game  in  which 
one  set  of  boys  stoop  down  in  a  row, 
and  another  set  jump  on  their  backs, 
and  then  repeat  three  times ''  high-cock- 
a-lorum  jig,  jig,  jig.'*  If  the  boys  who 
give  the  backs  do  not  break  down 
under  the  weight  till  these  words  have 
been  said,  they  change  parts  with  their 
companions. 

Prisoner's  base,  rounders,  high- cock -a' 
lorum,  cricket,  football,  he  was  soon  initiated 
into  the  delights  of  them  all. — Hughes,  lorn 
Brown's  School-Days,  Pt.  I.  ch.  Hi. 

High-day,  full  vigour:  hey-day  is 
more  usual. 

The  bucks  of  Edinburgh  .  .  .  have  a  cer- 
tain shrewdness  and  self-command  that  is 
not  often  found  among  their  neighbours  in 
the  high-day  of  youth  and  exultation. — 
Smollett,  Humphrey  Clinker,  ii.  50. 

Restless  Bnssot  brings  up  reports,  accusa- 
tions, endless  thin  logic ;  it  is  the  man's 
hitfh-day  even  now.  —  Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt. 
II.  Bk.*V.  ch.  vii. 

Highering,  ascending. 

In  me  put  force 
To  weary  her   ears  with    one  continuous 

prayer, 
Until  she  let  me  fly  discaged  to  sweep 
In  ever-highering  eagle-circles  up 
To  the  great  Sun  of  Glory. 

Tennyson,  Gareth  and  Lynette. 

HlGHERMOST,  highest. 

The  purest  things  are  placed  highermost. 
The  earth  as  grossest  is  put  in  the  lowest 
room,  the  water  above  the  earth,  the  air 
above  the  water. — Adams,  i.  244. 

HiQHGATE,  highway.  In  the  quota- 
tion DunHtable  is  used  disparagingly ; 
it  usually  is  coupled  with  plainness  and 
downrightnes8. 

Then  should  many  worthy  spirit*  get  up 
the  hiahgate  of  preferment,  and  idle  drones 
should  not  come  nearer  than  the  Dunstable 
highway  of  obscurity. — Adams,  i.  46. 

High  shoes.  The  extract  from 
Breton  purports  to  be  from  a  "  country- 
man's letter  to  his  beloved  sweetheart.'' 
High  shoes  were  part  of  a  rustic's  dress 
— highlows(?).  Cf.  Upstart.  At  p.  262 
of  Gauden's  work  he  speaks  of  "  hob- 
nails and  high  shoes" 


Belccve  me  I  loue  thee,  and  if  my  hi.jh 
shoots  come  home  on  Saturday,  He  see  thee 
on  Sunday. — Breton,  Packet  of  Letters,  p.  49. 
.  Marvel  not  if  a  man  of  so  lofty  a  spirit 
could  humble  himself  so  far  as  to  sneak  so 
correctedly  in  such  auditories  full  of  ignoble 
sectaries  and  high-shone  clowns.  —  Hacket, 
Life  of  Williams,  ii.  165.  i 

No  ingenuous  man  or  woman  thought  that  I 
High  Shoes  and  the  Scepter  of  Government 
.  .  .  could  well  agree  together.  —  Gaiuh  w,  I 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  17. 

The  high  Shoon  of  the  Tenant  payes  for  the  I 
Spanish-leather  Boots  of  the  Landlord. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Hai'tford. 

Hightipe,  great  festival. 

One  may  hope  it  will  be  annual  and  peren- 
nial ;  a  Feast  of  Pikes,  FHe  des  Piques^  not- 
ablest  among  the  hightides  of  the  year. — 
Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  I.  ch.  x. 

So  have  we  seen  fond  weddings  (for  indi- 
viduals, like  nations,  have  their  hightid^* 
celebrated  with  an  outburst  of  triumph  and 
deray  at  which  the  elderly  shook  their  heads. 
— Ifa'd.  ch.  xii. 

Hilary  term.  To  keep  Hilary 
term  =  to  be  cheerful  or  merry  (Lat. 
hilaris).  Fuller  (Worthies,  Yorl'shirr, 
ii.  495)  has  a  similar  pun,  writing, 
"  Mirth,  ...  if  it  doth  not  trespi^ 
in  time,  caiwe,  and  measure,  Heraclitns, 
the  sad  philosopher,  may  percluuu'o 
condemn;  but  Saint  Hilary,  the  good 
father,  will  surely  allow." 

When  God  speaks  peace  to  the  soul  .  .  . 
it  gives  end  to  all  jars,  and  makes  a  man 
keep  Hilary  term  all  his  life. — Adams,  i.  63. 

Hildebrandine,  pertaining  to  or  like 
Hildebrand  (Pope  Gregory  VII.). 

They  sought  by  Hildebrandine  arts  to  exalt 
themselves  above  all  that  is  called  God  in 
civil  Magistracy.  —  GauiUn,  Tears  of  tie 
Church,  p.  566. 

Himp,  to  limp.  The  first  extrnt 
occurs  in  a  very  free  translation  of 
Iliad,  ii.  212 — 219,  containing  the  de- 
scription of  Tliersites.  The  original  is 
simply  ^wXoc  3'  ertpov  iro&i. 

Lame  of  one  leg,  and  himping  all  his 
dayes. —  Udal's  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  1103. 

He  toke  heauily  that  the  aeformitee  and 
disfigure  of  hymfring  on  the  one  legge,  wh'c'i 
had  come  to'  him  oy  the  saied  wounde  did 
still  remain. — Ibid.  p.  231. 

Hinch,  to  be  stingy  ;  to  grudge. 

These  Komaines  of  whome  I  speake,  heinp: 
stressed  and  almoste  brought  to  the  last  cast 
by  the  long  and  daungerous  warres  of  Hani- 
bal  and  the  Frenche,  did,  lyke  louing  fathers 
to  their  countrey,  briug  in  their  mony  ami 
goodes,  without  hinchinj  or  pinching,  to  re- 


IirND-SHIFTERS         (  313  ) 


HISN 


Heft?  the  charges  of  their  common  welth.— 
Aylmer,  Har borough  for  faithful  subjects, 
lo59,  Sig.  O.  iv. 

Hind-shifters,  heels. 

Marry,  for  diving  into  fobs  they  [kan- 
garoos] are  rather  lamely  provided  a  priori ; 
but  if  the  hue  and  cry  were  once  up,  they 
would  show  as  fair  a  pair  of  kind-shifters  as 
the  expertest  loco-motor  in  the  colony. — 
Essays  of  Elia  (Distant  Correspondents). 

Hinge,  hinj  or  hemp;  Cannabis 
Indica :  from  this  several  drugs  are 
prepared.     Cf.  Bknj. 

I  went  from  Agra  to  Satagam  in  Bengal, 
in  the  company  of  180  boats  laden  with  salt, 
opium,  hinge,  lead,  carpets,  and  divers  other 
commodities. — R.  Fitch,  1592  (Eng.  Garner, 
iii.  194). 

Hingeless,  without  a  hinge. 

Tis  a  wondrous  thing  to  see  that  mighty 

Mound, 
Hintjeless  and  Axless,  turn  so  swiftly  round. 
Sylvester,  Little  Bartas,  264. 

Hint,  used  peculiarly  here  =  after 
that  hint  or  example  (?) ;  or  can  it 
mean  condition  ? 

If  you  be  seers  of  Christ's  flock,  do  as 
Jacob  did,  that  thriving  shepherd,  look  well 
to  your  sheep  when  they  are  in  conceiving. 
What  colour  and  tincture  you  give  them  in 
that  hint,  you  shall  know  them  by  it  for 
many  years  after. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams, 
ii.  57. 

Hir,  to  give  a  cross-buttock  in  wrest- 
ling ;  to  throw  one's  adversary  over  the 
hip.  See  N.  on  the  phrase  have  on  t/ie 
hip.  The  following  extract  rather 
Hiipports  Johnson's  first  explanation  of 
the  passage  in  the  Merchant  of  Venice. 

And  a  prime  wrestler  as  e'er  tript, 
E'er  gave  the  Cornish  hug  or  hipt. 

Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque, 
p.  202. 

Hip,   melancholy  :    abbreviation   of 

hypochondria, 

A  little  while  ago  thou  wast  all  hip  and 
vapour,  and  now  thou  dost  nothing  but 
patronise  fun. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Camilla,  Bk. 
VI.  ch.  x. 

Hippiatry,  horse-surgery. 

The  horse  pulled  out  his  foot ;  and,  which 
is  a  wonderful  thine  in  hipaiatrie,  the  said 
horse  was  thoroughly  curea  of  a  ringbone 
which  he  had  in  that  foot. —  Urquhart's  Babe' 
la  is,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxxvi. 

Hippogony,  pedigree  or  origin  of  a 
horse. 

There  was  nothing  supernatural  in  Nobs. 
His  hippoyony,  even  if  it  had  been  as  the 


Doctor  was  willing  to  have  it  supposed  ha 
thought  probable,  would  upon  his  theory 
have  been  in  the  course  of  nature,  though 
not  in  her  nsual  course.  —  Soul  hey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  cxliv. 

Hipps  or  Hippo  for  hypochondria 
are  among  the  "  abbreviations  exqui- 
sitely refined  "  that  Swift  sneers  at  in 
the  introduction  to  Polite  Conversation, 

Her  ladyship  was  plaguily  bambed ;  I  war- 
rant it  put  her  into  the  Hipps.  —  Swift, 
Polite  Conversation  (Oonv.  i.). 

Heaven  send  thou  hast  not  got  the  Hyps, 
How  ?    Not  a  word  come  from  thy  lips  ? 

Ibid.,  Cassinus  and  Peter. 

When  his  mind  is  serene,  when  he  is 
neither  in  a  passion,  nor  in  the  hipps  (sol- 
licitus),  nor  in  liquor,  theu  being  in  private, 
you  may  kindly  advise  him. — Bailey's  Eras- 
mus, p.  130. 

Hirablk,  u  alias  Gyraffa,  alias  Ana- 
hula  ;  an  Indian  sheep  or  a  wilde  sheep  " 
(Sylvester  in  margin). 

Neer  th*  elephant  comes  th'  horned  Hirable, 
Stream-troubling  Camell,  and  strong-necked 
bull. 

Sylvester,  sixth  day,  first  iceeke,  104. 

Hircine,  goatish,  and  so  strong- 
smelling. 

The  landlady  saw,  calmly  put  down  her 
work,  and  coming  up,  pulled  a  hircine  man 
or  two  hither,  and  pushed  a  hircine  man  or 
two  thither,  with  the  impassive  countenance 
of  a  housewife  moving  her  furniture. — Reade, 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  en.  xxiv. 

Hirundinr,  pertaining  to  swallows. 

Why  mention  our  Swallows, .  .  .  swashing 
to  and  fro  with  animated,  loud,  long-drawn 
chirpings,  and  activity  almost  super-Atrun- 
dine. — Carlyle,  Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  IL  ch.  ii 

Hish,  explained  by  the  editor  {Par- 
ker Soc.  edit.)  "to  make  an  insulting 
objection  ;  "  it  is  only  anothor  form  of 
hiss. 

The  clear  truth  so  manifestly  proved  that 
they  cannot  once  hish  against  it.—  Tyndale, 
i.  432. 

Hiske,  to  open  the  mouth. 

To  hiske  against  them  [the  Pope,  &c]  was 
counted  to  cut  the  coat  of  Christ  that  had 
never  a  seam. — Becon,  i.  294. 

His'n,  a  vulgarism  for  his.  The 
writer  in  the  extract  is  supposed  to  be 
Mr.  Anthony  ILirlowe,  a  gentleman  of 
family  and  fortune. 

Mr.  Solmes  will  therefore  find  something 
to  instruct  you  in.  I  will  not  show  him  this 
letter  of  yours,  though  you  seem  to  desire  it, 
lest  it  should  provoke  him  to  be  too  severe  a 


HISPAN1CISM  (  314  ) 


HOB 


schoolmaster  when  70a  are  hiin. — Richard' 
son,  d.  Harlow,  i.  242. 

Hispanicism,  a  Spanish  idiom. 

Temple  had .  .  .  gradually  formed  a  style 
singularly  lucid  and  melodious,  superficially 
deformed  indeed  by  gallicisms  and  hispam- 
cisms  picked  up  in  travel  or  in  negotiation, 
but  at  the  bottom  pure  English. — Macaulay, 
Essays  (Sir  W.  Temple). 

Historianess,  female  historian. 

She  is  a  great  historianess,  a  most  charm- 
ing, delightful  woman. — L.  E.  London  (Life 
by  Blanchard,  i.  48). 

Historiktte,  little  history.  This 
French  word  is  almost  or  quite  natural- 
ized now.  L.  has  it,  but  with  no  earlier 
instance  than  from  Disraeli*  s  Coningsby. 
Tom  Brown  uses  the  Italian  form. 

She  thus  continued  her  tragical  historietto. 
—T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  268. 

It  is  not  amiss  to  subjoin  here  an  historiette 
to  shew  the  value  of  this  minister. — North, 
Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  14a 

Historiograph,  a  writer  of  history. 

One  might  expect  from  an  historiograph  a 
plain,  honest,  and  full  narration  of  tne  fact 
drawn  from  the  authorities. — North,  Examen, 
p.  397. 

Historiography,  historical  writing. 

Haue  you  not  beene  a  little  red  in  histori- 
ographie,  or  doo  you  not  remember  anie 
pretty  accident  that  hath  fallne  out  in  your 
trauaile,  which  in  the  discourse  of  your 
kiodnes  might  doe  well  to  entertaine  the 
tyme  with?— Breton,  Wits  Trenchtnour,  p. 
13. 

Histrionicism,  theatrical  or  artificial 

manner.   The  Diets,  have  histrionism. 

How  could  this  girl  have  taught  herself, 
in  the  solitude  of  a  savage  island,  a  species  of 
histrionicism  which  women  in  London  circles 
strove  for  years  to  acquire,  and  rarely  ac- 
quired in  any  perfection? — Black, Princess  of 
Thule,  ch.  vi. 

Hit,  thrown :  a  Berkshire  provincial- 
ism. 

It  was  as  neat  a  street  as  one  ever  sees  in 
a  fishing  village,  that  is  to  say,  rather  an  un- 
tidy one,  for  of  all  human  employments, 
fishing  involves  more  lumber  and  mess  thau 
any  other.  Everything  past  use  was  hit,  as 
they  say  in  Berkshire,  out  into  the  street. — 
H.  Kingsley,  Bavenshoe,  ch.  xlii. 

Hitch,  to  hobble. 

When  the  water  began  to  ascend  up  to 
their  refuged  hills,  and  the  place  of  their 
hope  became  an  island,  lo,  now  they  hitch 
up  higher  to  the  tops  of  the  tallest  trees.— 
Adams,  iii.  71. 


Punishment  this  day  hitches  (if  she  stil 
hitch)  after  Grime  with  frightful  shoes-of- 
•wiftness.  —  Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt  I.  Bk.  V. 
ch.  v. 

Hitchell,  to  tease,  or  heckle. 

An  hundred  women,  who  sitting  round  in 
a  ring,  with  a  food  fire  in  the  mids  before 
them,  fell  to  nitchell  and  dresse  hemp.— 
Holland's  Camden,  p.  819. 

Hithermore,  nearer. 

The  . .  .  part  of  the  Citty  that  stood  on  the 
hithermore  Banke. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  472. 

Hity  -  tity,  bo  -  peep  (?)  ;  Peacock 
(Manley  and  Corringham  Glossary, 
E.  D.  S.;  gives  "  Highty-tighty,  a  see- 
saw ; "  also  off-hand,  hoity-toity. 

What  wilt  thou  say  now,  if  Rachel  stand 
now,  and  play  hity-tity  through  the  keyhole, 
to  behold  the  equipage  of  thy  person? — 
Jonson,  Case  is  Altered,  iv.  4. 

You  know  very  well  what  I  mean,  sir! 
Don't  try  to  turn  me  off  in  that  highty-tighty 
way !—  Thackeray,  Netocomes,  ch.  xlii. 

Hizlino,  whistling  or  hissing  sound : 
an  onomatopoeous  word. 

Then  a  prosperns  hiding 
Of  south  blast  puffing  on  sayles  doth  sum- 
mon us  onward. 

Stanyhurst,  JSn.,  iii.  369. 

Hoarse,  to  become  hoarse. 

There  is  some  hope  of  the  sinner  whiles  he 
can  groan  for  his  wickedness,  and  complain 
against  it,  and  himself  for  it;  but  when  his 
voice  iahoarsed — I  mean  his  acknowledgement 
gone — his  case  is  almost  desperate. — Adams, 
i.  355. 

Hoarsen,  to  make  or  grow  hoarse. 

I  shall  be  obliged  to  hoarsen  my  voice,  and 
roughen  my  character. — Richardson,  CI.  Har- 
lotoe,  v.  79. 

The  last  words  had  a  perceptible  irony  in 
their  hoarsened  tone. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel  De~ 
ronda,  ch.  xl. 

,    Hoast,  cough. 

They  were  all  cracking  like  pen-guns  ;  but 
I  gave  them  a  sign  by  a  loud  hoast  that  Pro- 
vidence sees  all. — Gait,  Annals  of  the  Parish, 
ch.  ii. 

I'll  make  him  a  treacle-posset ;  it's  a  famous 
thing  for  keeping  off  hoasts. — Mrs.  Gaskell, 
Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  xziv. 

Hob.  H.  (who  gives  no  example) 
says,  "  A  -email  piece  of  wood  of  a 
cylindrical  form,  used  by  boys  to  set 
up  on  end  to  put  halfpence  on,  to 
chuck  or  pitch  at  with  another  half- 
penny, or  piece  made  on  purpose,  in 
order  to  strike  down  the  hob,  and  by 
that  means  throw  down  the  halfpence ; 


HOBALL 


(3i5  ) 


IIOBSON 


and  all  that  lie  with  their  heads  upwards 
are  the  pitcher's,  and  the  rest,  or  wo- 
men, are  laid  on  again  to  be  pitched  at." 

Sailor.  To  tell  your  honour  the  truth,  we 
were  at  hob  in  the  hall,  and  whilst  ray  brother 
and  I  were  quarrelling  about  a  cast,  he  sluuk 
by  us. —  Wycherley,  Plain  Dealer,  I.  i. 

HOBALL,  a  fool. 

Ye  are  such  a  calfe,  such  an  asse,  such  a 

blocke, 
Such  a  lilburne,  such  a  hoball,  such  a  lobcocke. 
Udal,  Roister  Doister,  iii.  3. 

Hobbedyhoyish,  approaching  the 
time  of  life  between  boy  and  man. 

When  Master  Daw  full  fourteen  years  had 
told, 
He  grew,  as  it  is  term'd,  hobbedyhoyish  ; 
For  Cupidons  and  Fairies  much  too  old, 
For  Calibans  and  Devils  much  too  boyish. 
Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  12. 

Hobble,  to  tie  an  animal's  fore  or 
back  lees  loosely  round,  so  as  to  pre- 
vent it  from  straying  far. 

What  tramp  children  do  I  see  here,  attired 
in  a  handful  of  rags,  making  a  gymnasium 
of  the  shafts  of  the  cart,  making  a  feather- 
bed of  the  flints  and  brambles,  making  a  toy 
of  the  hobbled  old  horse,  who  is  not  much 
more  like  a  horse  than  any  cheap  toy  would 
be  ? — Dickens,  Uncommercial  Traveller,  zi. 

Hobble,  a  difficulty. 

The  army  of  the  Spanish  kings  got  out  of 
a  sad  hobble'  among  the  mountains  at  the 
Pass  of  Losa  by  the  help  of  a  shepherd,  who 
showed  them  the  way. — Lytton,  Caxtons,  Bk. 
XIV.  ch.  i. 

Hobbyhobsical,  connected  with  a 
whim  or  hobby. 

One  single  quetre  of  three  words  unseason- 
ably popping  in  full  upon  him  in  his  hobby' 
horsical  career. — Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  iii.  46. 

He  .  . .  marched  back  to  hide  himself  in 
the  manse  with  his  crony,  Mr.  Cargill,  or  to 
engage  in  some  hobbyhorsical  pursuit  con- 
nected with  his  neighbours  in  the  Aultoun. 
^-Scott,  St.  Ronan's  Well,  ii.  137. 

Hobgoblin,  to  frighten  by  bugbears. 

We  have  been  hobgoblin* d  too  long  into 
religion,  but,  God  be  thank'd !  the  vizard  is 
torn  off,  and  the  cheat  is  unmask'd. — Gen- 
tleman Instructed,  p.  348. 

Hoblob,  clown ;  lout. 

The  rustical  hoblohs 
Of  Crete*,  of  Dryopes,and  payncted  clowns 

Agathyrsi 
Dooe  fetch  theyre  gambalds. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iv.  150. 

Thence  sprouteth  that  obscene  appellation 
of  Sarding  Sandes  with  the  draffe  of  the 
carterly  hoblohs  thereabouts. — Nashe,  Lenten 
Stuffe  (Bart.  Misc.,  vi.  150). 


Hobnail,  rustic. 

Hee  thinks  nothing  to  bee  vices  but  pride 
and  ill  husbandrie,for  which  hee  wil  grauely 
disswade  youth,  and  has  some  thriftie  hob- 
nayle  prouerbes  to  clout  his  discourse. — 
Earle,  Microcotmographie  (Plaine  country 
fellow). 

Hobnail,  to  tread  down  roughly,  as 
by  hobnailed  shoes. 

The  Queen  of  England,  or  the  rabble  of 

Kent? 
The  reeking  dungf  ork  master  of  the  mace ! 
Tour  havings  wasted  by  the  scythe  and  spade, 
Tour  rights  and  charters  hobnaiVd  into  slush. 
Tennyson,  Queen  Mary%  ii.  2. 

Hob  or  nob.  N.  explains  the  word, 
as  now  used  convivially,  to  mean  "  ask- 
ing a  person  whether  he  will  have  a 
glass  of  wine  or  not ; "  but  it  rather 
refers  to  two  persons  clinking  their 
glasses  together,  preparatory  to  drink- 
ing each  other's  health ;  hence  it  sig- 
nihes  to  be  on  friendly  or  intimate 
terms.  In  the  first  extract  an  affected 
fop  is  sneering  at  English  dinner- 
parties.   See  extract  s.  v.  Baldicoot. 

Then  in  solemn  silence  they  proceed  to 
demolish  the  substantials,  with  perhaps  an 
occasional  interruption  of, M  Here's  to  you, 
friends,"  "Hob  or  nob?  "Tour  love  and 
mine." — Foote,  The  Author,  Act  I. 

Having  drunk  hob  or  nob  with  a  young 
lady  in  whose  eyes  he  wished  to  appear  a 
man  of  consequence,  he  hurried  out  into  the 
summer-house. —  Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote, 
Bk.  VIII.  ch.  xxi. 

I  have  . .  .  seen  him  and  his  poor  com- 
panion hob-and-nobbing  together,  until  they 
could  scarce  hold  the  noggin  out  of  which 
they  drank. — Thackeray,  Virginians,  ch.  Ii. 

"Have  another  glass?"  "With  you; 
Hob  and  nob,n  returned  the  sergeant ;  "  the 
top  of  mine  to  the  foot  of  yours;  the  foot 
of  yours  to  the  top  of  mine ;  ring  once,  ring 
twice ;  the  best  tune  on  the  musical  glasses 
— your  health !  "—Dickens,  Great  Expecta- 
tions, ch.  v. 

Hobson,  a  Cambridge  carrier,  who 
died  in  1630-1.  He  let  out  horses,  and 
is  said  to  have  insisted  on  his  customers 
always  taking  the  horse  which  hap- 
pened to  be  next  the  door.  Hence 
Hobson1 8  choice  =  no  choice  at  all.  If 
the  phrase  was  in  use  among  his  con- 
temporaries, it  is  curious  that  Milton, 
who  wrote  two  jocose  epitaphs  on  Hob- 
son,  should  make  no  allusion  to  it. 
Brown  refers  to  some  piece  of  advice 
which  was  current  in  Hobson's  name, 
but  which,  as  he  states  it,  does  not 
seem  to  be  very  recondite. 


BOB'S  POUND  (  316  ) 


BOGAN 


Where  to  elect  there  is  but  one, 

Tis  Hobson's  choice,  Take  that  or  none. 

Ward,  England's  Reformation, 
c.  4,  p.  326. 

There  was  no  opposition,  which  was  a  dis- 
gust to  the  common  people,  for  they  wanted 
a  competition  to  make  the  money  fly ;  and 
they  said,  Hobson's  choice  was  no  choice. — 
North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  163. 

As  for  those  that  are  married,  the  best  way 
they  can  take,  as  I  presume,  is  to  live  as  easy 
as  they  can ;  and  following  the  good  counsel 
of  Hobson  the  carrier,  so  to  manage  them- 
selves as  not  to  tire  before  their  journey's 
end. — T.  Brown,  Works,  iv.  175. 

Hob's  pound,  a  fix :  another  form  of, 

or  perhaps  a  misprint  for,  Lob's  pound, 

q.  v.  in  N. 

What !  are  you  all  in  Hob's  pound  ?  Well, 
they  as  will  may  let  you  out  for  me. — Mad. 
D'Arblay,  Camilla,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  iii. 

Hock,  hocks,  deep  mire. 

Hockly  in  the  Hole,  so  named  of  the  miry 
way  in  winter  time. .  .  .  For  the  old  English- 
men our  Progeni tours  called  deepe  myre  hock 
and  hocks. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  402. 

Hockley  in  the  Hole,  the  bear-gar- 
den at  Clerkenwell,  but  applied  by 
Butler  to  the  stocks,  "  alluding  pro- 
bably "  (says  Dr.  Grey)  "to  the  two  old 
ballads  entitled,  Hockley  1  tK  Hole,  to 
the  tune  of  the  Fidler  in  the  Stocks." 

For  ho  no  sooner  was  at  large, 

But  Trulla  straight  brought  on  the  charge, 

And  in  the  self-same  limbo  put 

The  Knight  and  Squire, where  he  was  shut. 

Where  leaving  them  at  Hockley  €  th'  Hole 

Their  bangs  and  durance  to  condole,  &c. 

Hudibras,  I.  iii.  1C03. 

Hocus,  a  conjurer. 

Our  pamphlet-monger  (that  sputters  out 
senseless  characters  faster  than  any  hocus  can 
vomit  inkle)  will  needs  take  upon  him  to  be 
dictator  of  all  society. — Coffee-Houses  Vindi- 
cated, 1675  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  473). 

Did  you  never  see  a  little  hocus,  by  sleight 
of  hand  popping  a  piece  several  times  first 
out  of  one  pocket,  and  then  out  of  another, 
persuade  folks  he  was  damnable  full  of 
money,  when  one  poor  size  was  all  bis  stock  ? 
—Loyal  Observator,  1683  (Harl.  Misc.,  vl  67). 

Hocus,  to  drug  liquor. 

"  The  opposite  party  bribed  the  barmaid 
at  the  Town  Arms  to  hocus  the  brandy-and- 
water  of  fourteen  unpolled  electors  as  was  a 
stoppin'  in  the  house."  "What  do  you 
mean  by  hocussing  brandy-and-watcr  ?  "  in- 
quired Mr.  Pickwick.  "  Puttin'  laud'num  in 
it,"  replied  Sam.— Pichcick  Papers,  ch.  xiii. 
For  once  in  the  palace  we  find  Lady  Alice 
Again  playing  tricks  with  her  Majesty's 
chalice, 


In  the  way  that  the  jocose  in 
Our  days  term  hocussing. 

Inyoldsby  Legends  (Housewarming). 

Hocus-pocuslt,  by  stratagem,  or  as 
by  a  conjuring  trick. 

Many  of  their  hearers  are  not  only  method- 
istically  convinced  or  alarmed,  but  are  also 
hocus-pocusly  converted  ;  for  as  some  of  their 
preachers  employ  all  their  art  and  rhetoric 
to  alarm  and  terrify,  so  others  of  them  use 
their  utmost  skill  to  give  them  assurance  of 
their  sins  being  pardoned. — Life  of  J.  Lack- 
ington,  Letter  vii. 

Hodded,  bearing  a  hod. 

Workmen  in  olden   times  would  mount  a 

ladder 
With  hodded  heads. 

J.  and  H.  Smith*  Rejected  Addresses, 
p.  120. 

Hodge,  a  peasant  or  countryman. 

These  Arcadians  are  giuen  to  take  the 
benefit  of  euerie  Hodge,  when  they  will  sacri- 
fice their  virginitie  to  Venus,  .  .  .  and  sure 
this  boy  is  but  some  shepheards  bastard. — 
Greene,  Menaphon,  p.  58. 

Hodge-razors.  See  quotation ;  so 
called  because  sold  to  country  bump- 
kins (?) 

Hodge-razors  in  all  conceivable  kinds  were 
openly  marketed,  which  were  never  meant 
to  shave,  but  only  to  be  sold. — Carlyle,  Misc., 
iv.  289. 

Hoo,  a  shilling :  an  old  cant  term, 
not  peculiar  to  Ireland. 

"  It's  only  a  tester  or  a  hog  they  want 
your  honour  to  give  'em,  to  drink  your 
honour's  health,"  said  Paddy.  "  A  hog  to 
drink  my  health  ?  "  "  Ay,  that  is  a  thirteen, 
plase  your  honour ;  all  as  one  as  an  English 
shilling.*' — Miss  Edgeworth,  Ennui,  ch.  vi. 

Hog,  to  scrape  a  ship's  bottom 
under  water. 

A  very  bad  world  indeed  in  some  parts — 
hogged  the  moment  it  was  launched  —  a 
number  of  rotten  timbers. —  JVolcot,  P.  Pin- 
dar, p.  168. 

Hoo.  Every  hog  his  own  apple  = 
every  one  for  himself. 

I  let  them  have  share  and  share  while  it 
lasted ;  howsomever,  I  should  have  remem- 
bered the  old  saying,  Every  hog  his  own  apple  ; 
for  when  they  found  my  hold  unsto wed,  they 
went  all  hands  to  shoohng  and  begging ;  and 
because  I  would  not  take  a  spell  at  the  same 
duty,  refused  to  give  me  the  least  assistance. 
— Smollett,  Rod.  Random,  ch.  xti. 

Hogan,  some  sort  of  liquor.  Taylor, 
the  water  poet,  speaks  of  a  "  high  and 
mighty  drink  called  Rug,"  and  again 
of    "  Hogen  Mogen  Rugs/'      Perhaps 


HOG  AN  MOGAN        (  317  ) 


HOLLOW 


some  liquor  was  called  Hogan  from  its 
high  or  heady  qualities.  See  N.  and Q-, 
V.  i.  14.  \ 

Those  who  toast  all  the  family  royal 

In  bumpers  of  Hogan  and  Nog, 
Have  hearts  not  more  true  or  more  loyal, 
Than  mine  is  to  sweet  Molly  Mog. 

Misc.  by  Swift,  Pope,  &c.f  iv.,  222 
(ed.  1733). 

For  your  reputation  we  keep  to  ourselves 
your  not  hunting  nor  drinking  hogan,  either 
of  which  here  would  he  sufficient  to  lay  your 
honour  in  the  dust. — Gray  to  H.  Walpole, 
1737. 

Hogan  Mooan,  high  and  mighty :  a 
corruption  of  Hoognwqende,  the  title 
of  the  States  of  the  Netherlands  ;  hence 
sometimes  =  Dutch;  sometimes  used 
for  any  persons  who  are  great,  or  think 
themselves  so. 

But  I  have  sent  him  for  a  token 
To  your  low-country  hogen-mogen. 

Hudibras,  III.  i.  1440. 

The  poor  distressed  is  become  Hogan" 
Mogan,  and  the  servus  servorum,  dominus 
dominantium. — Character  of  a  Fanatic,  1675 
(Ilarl.  Misc.,  vii.  036). 

Are  . .  .  oar  armies  commanded  by  hogan- 
tnogan  generals  that  hate  our  nation? — T. 
Brown,  Works,  iv.  122. 

I  perceive  that  the  Temple  and  Grey's  Inn 
have  declared  me  a  pubhck  enemy  to  the 
Hoghen-Moghen  learned  in  the  law. — Gentle- 
man Instructed,  p.  520. 

Hogget,  a  two-year  old  sheep. 

Two  or  three  of  the  weakHer  hoggets  were 
dead  from  want  of  air. — Blackmore,  Lorna 
Doone,  ch.  xlii. 

Hoggish,  piggishness  ;  brutal  excess. 

At  Corrachattachin's,  in  hogaism  sunk, 
I  got  with  punch,  alas !  confounded  drunk. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  108. 

Hoghood,  the  nature  of  a  hog. 

The  reckless  shipwrecked  man  flung  ashore, 
...  as  hungry  Parisian  pleasure-hunter  and 
half-pay,  on  many  a  Circe  island  with  tempo- 
rary enchantment,  temporary  conversion  into 
beasthood  and  hoy  hood. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev., 
Pt.  HI.  Bk.  I.  ch.  vii. 

Hog  in  armour,  a  simile  for  a  person 

accoutred  very  cumbrously. 

There  were  abundant  of  those  silken  back, 
breast,  and  potts  made  and  sold  that  were 
pretended  to  be  pistol  proof ;  in  which  any 
man  dressed  up  was  as  safe  as  in  a  house,  for 
it  was  impossible  any  one  could  go  to  strike 
him  for  laughing;  so  ridiculous  was  the 
figure,  as  they  say  of  hogs  in  armour, — North, 
Examen,  p.  572. 

Hog-rubbeb,  a  clown. 


The  very  rusticks  and  hog-rubbers,  ...  if 
once  they  tast  of  this  Loue  liquor,  are  inspired 
in  an  instant. — Burton,  Anatomy,  p.  536. 

Hogs.     To  drive  hogs  =  to  snore. 

I'gad  he  fell  asleep,  and  snored  so  loud, 
that  we  thought  he  was  driving  his  hogs  to 
market. — Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  ii.). 

Hogsteeb,  a  boar  in  its  third  year. 
See  H.  s.  v.  hoggaster. 

Hee  scornes  theese  rascal  tame  games,  but  a 

sounder  of  hogsteers, 
Or  thee  brownye  lion   too  stalck  fro  the 

mountain  he  wissheth. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iv.  163. 

Hoicks,  to  salute  or  encourage  with 
the  hunting  cry. 

Our  adventurer's  speech  was  drowned  in 
the  acclamations  of  the  fox-hunters,  who 
now  triumphed  in  their  turn,  and  hoicksed 
the  speaker,  exclaiming,  "Well  opened, 
Jowler;  to  'un,  to  'un  again,  Sweetlips." — 
Smollett,  Sir  Z.  Greaves,  ch.  ix. 

Hold,  holding,  land  or  tenement. 

I  am  the  landlord,  keeper,  of  thy  holds, 
By  copy  all  thy  living  lies  in  me. 

Greene,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  170. 

Holdfast,  firm ;  steady. 

O  Goodnesse,  let  me  (Badnesse)  thee  em- 
brace 

With  hold-fast  armes  of  euer-lasting  loue. 

Davies,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  12. 

Hole,  a  scrape  (slang). 

I  should  be  in  a  deadly  hole  myself  if  all 
my  customers  should  take  it  into  their  heads 
to  drink  nothing  but  water-gruel. — Smollett, 
Sir  L.  Greaves,  ch.  xvi. 

I  should  take  great  pleasure  in  serving 
you,  and  getting  you  out  of  this  hole,  but  my 
lord,  you  know,  is  a  great  man,  and  can,  in  a 
manner,  do  what  he  pleases  with  poor  people. 
— Johnston,  Chrysal,  i.  132. 

Holinight,  festal  night. 

When  the  dusk  holiday  or  holinight 
Of  fragrant-curtain'd  love  begins  to  weave 
The  woof  of  darkness  thick  for  hid  delight. 

Keats,  The  Day  is  Gone. 

Hollanderess,  woman  of  Holland. 

Being  a  Hollanderess,  she  only  sent  me 
most  wretched  food.  —  Heine,  Prose  Misc., 
transl.  by  Fleishman,  p.  101. 

Hollow,  complete ;  out  and  out,  or 
easily.  L.  notices  this  colloquialism, 
but  gives  no  example. 

So,  my  lord,  you  and  I  are  both  distanced  > 
a  hollow  thing,  damme.  —  Colman,  Jealous 
Wife,  Act  V. 

Wildfire  reached  the  post,  and  Squire 
Burton  won  the  match  hollow. — Mist  Edge- 
worth,  Patronage,  ch.  iii 


HOLMEN 


(3i8) 


HONE 


Holmen,  belonging  to  the  holm  tree. 

Hee  makes  a  shift  to  cut  an  holmen  pole. 
Sylvester,  Maiden's  Blush,  541. 

The  lad  here  loads  the  Asse  with  holmen 
sprayes. — Ibid.  1782. 

Holus-bolus,  all  at  once.  See  extract 

8.  v.  Sar. 

She  appeared  to  lose  all  command  over 
herself,  and  making  a  sudden  snatch  at  the 
heap  of  silver,  put  it  back  holus-bolus  in  her 
pocket.—  Wilkie  Collins,  The  Moonstone,  Pt. 
I.  ch.  zv. 

Holy,  to  canonize. 

Harp.  I  hug  thee 

For  drilling  thy  quick  brains  in  this  rich  plot 
Of  tortures  'gainst  the  Christians;  on!   I 
hug  thee. 
Theoph.  Both  hug  and  holy  me. 

Massinger,  Virgin  Martyr,  ii.  2. 

HOLTFAX  LAW  or  INQUEST,  to  be  hung 
first  and  tried  afterwards.  It  is  sug- 
gested (N.  and  Q.,  V.  iv.  179)  that  this 
may  be  the  origin  of  the  phrase,  "  Go 
to  Halifax;11  also  of  the  mention  of  this 
town  in  the  thieves1  Litany:  "From 
Hell,  Hull,  and  Halifax^  Good  Lord, 
deliver  us."  The  tirst  quotation  is 
from  the  same  vol.  of  N.  and  Q  ,  p. 
16,  and  is  part  of  an  unpublished  letter 
from  Wentworth,  explaining  his  con- 
duct in  the  matter  of  Lord  Mount- 
morris. 

Alas!  all  this  comes  too  late.  Hallifax 
laws  hath  been  executed  in  kinde;  I  am 
allready  hanged,  and  now  wee  cum  to  ex- 
amine and  consider  of  the  evidence. 

More  cruel  than  the  craven  satire's  ghost, 
That  bound  dead  bones  unto  a  burning  post; 
Or  some  more  straight-laced  juror  of  the  rest 
Impanel'd  of  an  Holyfax  inquest. 

Hall,  Sat.,  IV.  i.  18. 

Home.  To  bring  oneself  home  =  to 
recover  what  had  been  previously  lost. 

Her  patroness  had  very  different  fortune, 
having  lost  every  rubber ;  and,  what  was  still 
worse,  several  by-bets  which  she  had  made  to 
brinq  herself  home.— Johnston,  Chrysal,  i.218. 

H*e  is  a  little  out  of  cash  just  now,  as  you 
may  suppose  by  his  appearance,  so  instead  of 
buying  liooks,  he  comes  to  sell  them.  How- 
ever, he  has  taken  a  very  good  road  to  bring 
himself  home  again,  for  we  pay  very  hand- 
somely.—Mad.  D'Arblay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  VIII. 
ch.  viii. 

Homely,  rough;  rude.  The  word 
might  still  be  so  applied  to  fare,  ac- 
commodation, &c,  but  not  as  in  the 
extract. 

Homely  playe  it  is  and  a  madde  pastime 
where  men  by  the  course  of  the  game  go 


together  by  the  eares,  and  many  times 
murdre  one  an  other.—  UdaTs  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  218. 

Homer,  closer;  more  home. 

To  put  the  affront  the  homer,  [Prince 
Bupert]  resolv'd  that  very  day  to  march 
quite  thorow  the  middle  of  the  Quarters. — 
Prince  Rupert's  late  beating  up  the  rebels9 
quarters  at  Post-comb  and  Chenner,  1943,  p.  2. 

Home-sickness,  a  pining  for  home. 

Home-sickness  is  a  wasting  pang, 
This  feel  I  hourly  more  and  more : 

There's  healing  only  in  thy  wings, 
Thou  breeze  that  play'st  on  Albion's  shore! 

Coleridge,  Home-sick. 

I  firmly  believe  in  the  magnetic  effect  of 
the  place  where  one  has  been  bred,  and  have 
continually  the  true  "heimweh,"  home-sickness, 
of  the  Swiss  and  Highlanders. — C.  Kingsley 
(Life,  i.  3). 

Homewardly,  in  the  direction  of 
home. 

It  was  eve 
When  homewardly  I  went. 

Southey,  Hannah. 

Homilistical,  belonging  to  or  suited 
for  homilies:  homiletical  is  the  usual 
word. 

These  were  the  grand  Divines  in  all  Times 
and  Places,  not  superficially  armed  with 
light  armour,  onelv  for  the  preaching  or 
Homilisticall  flourishes  of  a  Pulpit,  but  with 
the  weighty  and  complete  armour  of  veter- 
ane  and  valiant  souldiers. — Gauden,  Tears  of 
the  Church,  p.  621. 

Homunculk,  mannikin. 

The  giant  saw  the  homuncule  was  irascible, 
and  played  upon  him. — Reade,  Cloister  and 
Hearth,  ch.  vii 

Homy,  home-like. 

I  saw  .  .  .  plenty  of  our  dear  English 
"lady's  smock"  in  the  wet  meadows  near 
here,  which  looked  very  homy. — C.  Kingsley, 
1864  (Life,  ii.  168). 

Hone.  See  extract:  the  locality 
referred  to  is  Yorkshire. 

Districts  abounding  in  circular  barrows, 
or,  as  they  are  here  called  from  the  Norse 
name,  hones,  and  redundantly,  hone-hills. — 
Arcfueol.,  xlii.  170  (1868). 

Hone,  to  lament. 

Some  of  the  oxen  in  driving  missed  their 
fellows  behind,  and  honing  after  them,  bel- 
lowed, as  their  nature  is.  —  Holland,  Livy, 
p.  6. 

She  brought  a  servant  up  with  her  (said 
he),  who  hones  after  the  country,  and  is  seri- 
ally gone,  or  soon  will. — Richardson,  Grandi- 
son,  i.  264. 


HONEST  WOMAN       (  319  ) 


HOOK 


Thou  awakest  to  hone,  and  pine,  and  moan, 
as  if  she  had  drawn  a  hot  iron  across  thy 
lips.— Scott,  Fair  Maid  of  Perth,  i.  105. 

He  lies  pitying  himself,  honing  and  moan- 
ing over  himself. — Lamb's  Essays  (The  Con' 
valescent). 

Honest  woman.  A  woman  who  is 
married  after  having  been  seduced  is 
said  to  be  made  an  honest  woman. 
Richardson  calls  it  a  Lancashire  phrase, 
but  I  fancy  it  is  common  in  most  parts 
of  England. 

"You  yourself  was  brought  to  bed  of 
sister  there  within  a  week  after  you  was 
married."  u  Yes,  hussy,1'  answered  the  en- 
raged mother, "  so  I  was,  and  what  was  the 
mighty  matter  of  that?  I  was  made  an 
honest  woman  then ;  and  if  you  was  to  be 
made  an  honest  woman  I  should  not  be 
angry."— Fielding,  Tom  Jones,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  ix. 

The  Lord  grant,  say  I,  that  he  may  be  laid 
hold  of,  and  obliged  to  make  a  ruined  girl  an 
honest  woman,  as  they  phrase  it  in  Lanca- 
shire.— Richardson,  Grandison,  iv.  275. 

Honey -bird,  bee. 

The  world  have  but  one  God,  Heav'n  but  one 

Sun, 
Quails  but  one  chief,  the  Hony-Birds  but 

one, 
One  Master-Bee. 

Sylvester,  The  Captaines,  1143. 

Honey-blob.    See  first  extract. 

As  he  returned  to  the  Tower,  he  stopped 
the  coach  at  Charing  Cross  to  buy  honey- 
blobs,  as  the  Scotch  call  gooseberries. —  Wal- 
pole,  Letters,  i.  144  (1746). 

Bosey  had  done  eating  her  pine-apple, 
artlessly  confessing  (to  Percy  Sibwright's 
inquiries)  that  she  preferred  it  to  the  rasps 
and  ninny-blobs  in  her  grandmamma's  garden. 
— Thackeray j  Newcomes,  ch.  xxiii. 

Honeymoon,  to  spend  a  honeymoon. 

As  soon  as  I  can  get  his  discharge,  and  he 
has  done  honeymooning,  we  shall  start. — 
Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xlvii. 

Honey-people,  bees. 

Nor  never  did  the  pretty  little  king 

Of  hony-people  in  a  sunshine  day 

Lead  to  the  field  in  orderly  array 

More  busie  buzzers,  when  he  casteth  (witty) 

The  first  foundations  of  bis  waxen  city. 

Sylvester,  The  Furies,  336. 

Honey-sops,  a  term  of  endearment. 

Will.  Ha,  my  sweet  honey-sops,  how  dost 
thou? 
Peg.  Well,  I  thank  you,  William. 

Wily  Beguiled  (Hawkins,  Eng. 
Dr.,  iii.  330). 

Honorificence,  honour;  a  doing  of 
honours. 


There  is  honorificentia  atatis,  the  honorifi- 
cence of  age.^&p.  Hall,  Works,  x.  255. 

Honour  bright,  a  colloquial  assur- 
ance of  truth  or  sincerity. 

The  phrase  of  the  lowest  of  the  people  is 
w  honour  bright,"  and  their  vulgar  praise, 
"  His  word  is  as  good  as  his  bond."— Emerson, 
Eng.  Traits,  ch.  vii. 

Honours,  obeisance ;  reverence. 

We  observed  there  a  colonel  and  his  agent, 
upon  whom  a  pretty  brisk  youth  of  about 
seventeen  attended  at  three  or  four  yards* 
distance  in  the  rear,  and  made  his  honours 
upon  every  occasion.— T.  Brown,  Works,  iii. 
121. 

Caroline  arose  from  her  seat,  made  her 
curtsey  awkwardly  enough,  with  the  air  of 
a  boarding-school  miss,  her  hands  before  her. 
My  father  let  her  make  her  honours,  and  go 
to  the  door.— Richardson,  Grandison,  ii.  190. 

Hoodwink,  disguise;  concealment. 
N.  quotes  Drayton  for  this  substantive, 
but  there  it  means  a  game  (hoodman- 
blind). 

No  more  dooth  she  laboure  too  mask  her 
Phansye  with  hudwinck.  —  Stanyhurst,  JEn., 
iv.  176. 

Hoop.  To  beat  or  pad  the  hoof,  or 
to  be  upon  the  hoof  =  to  walk ;  to  be 
on  the  move. 

A  mischance  befel  the  horse  which  lam'd 
him  as  he  went  a  wat'ring  to  the  Seine,  inso- 
much that  the  Secretary  was  put  to  beat  the 
hoof  himself,  and  foot  it  home.  —  Howell, 
Letters,  I.  i.  17. 

These  employments  are  laborious  and 
mortifying ;  a  man  that  is  thus  upon  the  hoof 
can  scarce  find  leisure  for  diversion. — Gentle- 
man Instructed,  p.  293. 

Charley  Bates  expressed  his  opinion  that 
it  was  time  to  pad  the  hoof.  This,  it  occurred 
to  Oliver,  must  be  French  for  going  out,  for 
directly  afterwards  the  Dodger,  and  Charley, 
and  the  two  young  ladies  went  away  to- 
gether.— Oliver  Twist,  ch.  ix. 

Hoofy,  belonging  to  a  hoof.  Hip- 
pocrene,  a  fountain  near  Helicon,  is 
said  to  have  sprung  up  when  the  ground 
was  struck  by  the  hoof  of  Pegasus. 

Then  parte  in  name  of  peace,  and  softly  on 
With  numerous  feete  to  Hoofy  Helicon. 

Herrick,  Appendix,  p.  441. 

Hook.  To  hook  it  is  slang  for  to 
depart,  or  run  away  ;  perhaps  from  the 
practice  referred  to  in  the  next  entry. 
See  quotation  8.  v.  Fly. 

Every  school-boy  knows  that  the  lion  has 
a  claw  at  the  end  of  his  tail,  with  which 
he  lashes  himself  into  fury.     When   the 


HOOK 


(  320  ) 


HORN-MAD 


experienced  hunter  sees  him  doing  that,  he, 
so  to  speak, "  hooks  it" — H.Kingsley,  Ravens- 
hoe,  ch.  be. 

Hook.  Thieves  used  to  steal  things 
hanging  up  in  shops  by  dexterously 
removing  them  with  a  hook. 

Is  not  this  braver  than  sneak  all  night  in 
danger, 

Picking  of  locks,  or  hooking  cloths  at  win- 
dows.— Albumazar,  iii.  3. 

Hooker,  a  thief ;  one  who  snatched 
things  from  a  shop  or  stall  with  a  hook. 
See  H.  s.  v.  hoker.    Cf.  Hook. 

A  false  knaue  needs  no  brokers,  but  a  broker 

Needs  a  false  knaue  (a  hangman  or  a  hooker). 

Davies,  Scourge  of  Folly,  p.  43. 

These  sly  theeues  and  night-hookers  .  . 
committed  such  felonious  outrages. — Sol- 
land,  Pliny,  xix.  4. 

Hooky,  hooked. 

And  then  the  sordid  bargain  to  close, 
With  a  miniature  sketch  of  his  hooky  nose, 
And  his  dear  dark  eves  as  black  as  sloes, 
And  his  beard  and  whiskers  as  black  as  those, 
The  lady's  consent  he  requited. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Hoose,  hose  (?) ;  clothe  with  hose  (?). 

Clothe  cut  ouerthwart  and  agaynste  the. 
wnlle  can  neuer  hoose  a  manne  cleane. — 
Ascham,  Toxophilus,  p.  124. 

Hop,  a  dancing  party  of  an  unfashion- 
able kind,  though  not  always  restricted 
to  such,  especially  in  the  present  day. 

Whilst  the  people  of  fashion  seized  several 
places  to  their  own  use,  such  as  courts, 
assemblies,  operas,  balls,  &c,  the  people  of 
no  fashion,  besides  one  royal  place  called  his 
Majesty's  Bear-garden,  have  been  in  constant 
possession  of  all  hops,  fairs,  revels,  &c. — 
Fielding,  Jos.  Andrews,  Bk.  IL  ch.  xiii. 

[The  vulgar]  now  thrust  themselves  into 
all  assemblies,  from  a  ridotto  at  St.  James's 
to  a  hop  at  Botherhithe. —  Smollett,  Hum- 
phrey Clinker,  i.  134. 

I  remember  last  Christmas,  at  a  little  liov 
at  the  Park,  he  danced  from  eight  o'clock 
till  four. — Miss  Austen,  Sense  and  Sensilrility, 
ch.  ix. 

I  guess  this  is  a  different  sort  of  business 
to  the  hops  at  old  Levison's,  where  you  first 
learned  the  polka,  and  where  we  had  to  pay 
a  shilling  a  glass  for  negus.  —  Thackeray, 
Newcomes,  ch.  xxu. 

Hop.    The  absurd  etymology  in  the 

extract  may  be  worth  preserving. 

No  commodity  starteth  so  soon  and  sink- 
eth  so  suddainly  in  the  price,  whence  some 
will  have  them  [hops']  so  named  from  hopping 
in  a  little  time  betwixt  a  great  distance  in 
valuation. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Essex  (i.  337). 


Hopper,  a  hop-picker. 

Many  of  these  hoppers  are  Irish,  but  many 
come  from  London. — Dickens,  Uncommercial 
Traveller,  xi. 

Hopper-crow.  Hoirper  =  a  seed- 
basket,  and  crows  follow  the  farmer 
when  he  is  sowing  corn,  picking  up 
what  they  can,  yet  this  seems  hardly 
to  explain  "gather  feathers*'  in  the 
extract. 

What !  was  I  born  to  be  the  scorn  of  kin  ? 
To  gather  feathers  like  a  hopper-crow, 
And  lose  them  iu  the  height  of  all  my  pomp  ? 

Greene,  James  IV.,  v.  2. 

Hopper-hipped,  lame  in  the  hip. 

She  is  bow-legged,  hopper-hipned,  and  be- 
twixt pomatum  and  Spanish  rea  has  a  com- 
plexion like  Holland  cheese. —  Wycherley9 
Love  in  a  Wood,  ii.  1. 

Hop -scot,  a  game,  usually  called 
hopscotcfi.  A  boy  hopping  on  one 
foot  pushes  therewith  a  stone  from  one 
square  to  another  in  a  plan  marked  on 
the  ground. 

A  very  common  game  at  every  school 
called  hop-scot. — Archaologia,  ix.  18  (1789). 

Horkey,  harvest-home  feast. 

Home  came  the  jovial  Horkey  load, 

Last  of  the  whole  year's  crop ; 
And  Grace  amongst  the  green  boughs  rode, 

Bight  plump  upon  the  top. 

Bloomjield,  The  Horkey. 

Hormangorgs,  apparently  =  legs  or 
feet. 

Without  those  gaiters  I  know  not  how  my . 
poor  hormangorgs  are  to  be  kept  warm. — 
Southey,  Letters,  1811  (ii.  235). 

Horner,  adulterer  or  cuckold-maker. 

And  many  a  Lawyer  was  painstaker 
Twixt  cuckold  and  the  cuckold-maker ; 
Till  th'  Jury  weighing  the  disgraces. 
And  that  it  might  be  their  own  cases, 
Their  favour  gave  with  sense  adorn 'd, 
Not  to  the  horner,  but  the  horn'd. 

D'Urfey,  Collins  Walk, cant.  3. 

Horn-mad,  raving  mad :    generally 

with  some  reference  to  cuckold om. 

All  that  I  speak  I  mean,  yet  I'm  not  mad, 
Not  horn-mod,  see  you  ?   Go  to,  show  yourself 
Obedient,  and  a  wife. — Jonson,  Fox,  iii.  6. 

Proud  and  vainglorious  persons  are  cer- 
tainly mad ;  and  so  are  lascivious :  I  can  feele 
their  pulses  beat  hither,  home  mad  some  of 
them,  to  let  others  lye  with  their  wives  and 
winke  at  it. — Burton,  Democ.  to  BeacUr,  p.  74. 

Death  and  Furies,  will  you  not  hear  me  ? 
Why,  by  Heaven,  she  laughs,  grins, points  to 
your  back ;  she  forks  out  cuckoldom  with  her 
fingers,  and  you're  running  horn  mad  after 


HORN-MADDED         (  321  )      HORSE  AND  FOOT 


your   fortune.  —  Congreve,   Double   Dealer, 
Act  IV. 

Horn-madded,  made  very  mad: 
there  is  probably  also  a  reference  to 
cuckoldom. 

The  Houses  know  not  what  to  think, 
The  Cits  horn-madded  be. 

Needham,  Eng.  Rebellion,  1661 
(Earl.  Misc.,  ii.  523). 

Horn-sheath,  scabbard  of  horn. 

Among  other  customs  they  have  in  that 
town  [Genoa],  one  is,  that  none  must  carry  a 

grinted  knife  about  him ;  which  makes  the 
ollander,  who  is  us'd  to  snik  and  snee,  to 
leave  his  horn-sheath  and  knife  a  shipboard 
when  he  comes  ashore. — Howell,  Letters,  I. 
i.  41. 

Horrific  at  ion,  something  that 
causes  horror. 

As  the  old  woman  and  her  miserable  blue 
light  went  on  before  us,  I  could  almost  have 
thought  of  Sir  Betrand,  or  of  some  German 
horrtjteaUons.  —  Miss  Edgeworth,  Belinda, 
ch.  hi. 

Horrisonant,  terribly  sounding. 

If  it  had  been  necessary  to  exact  implicit 
tod  profound  belief  by  mysterious  and  hori- 
sonant  (sic)  terms,  he  could  have  amazed  the 
listener  with  the  Lords  of  Decanats,  the  Five 
Fortitudes,  and  the  Head  and  Tail  of  the 
Dragon. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  lxxxvi. 

Horror,  awe,  without  any  repug- 
nance implied. 

That  super-oodlestial  food  in  the  Lord's 
Supper  which  a  Christian  ought  not  once  to 
think  of  without  a  sacred  kind  of  horror  and 
reverence. — Socket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  56. 

The  Abbey  of  Westminster  .  .  .  struck  a 
sort  of  sacred  horror  into  us,  and  inspired  an 
unsought  devotion  to  the  deity  it  was  erected 
to.— r.  Brown,  Works,  iii.  126. 

Horrors,  extreme  depression,  especi- 
ally that  which  follows  on  bard  drink- 
ing, or  the  terror  suffered  in  delirium 

tremens. 

As  you  promise  our  stay  shall  be  short,  if 
I  don't  die  of  the  horrors,  I  shall  certainly 
try  to  make  the  agreeable. — Miss  Ferrier, 
Marriage,  ch.  iii 

Give  me  the  keys,  dad,  and  let  me  get  a 
drink  of  brandy;  I've  been  vexed  and  had 
nought  to  drink  all  night.  I  shall  be  getting 
the  horrors  if  I  don't  have  something  before 
I  go  to  bed. — JET.  Kingsley,  Geoffry  Mamlyn, 
ch.  vi. 

Horse,  a  stand  or  framework  on 
which  anything  is  placed  or  sup- 
ported. Cf.  Clothes-horse.  The  ex- 
tract is  from  a  description  by  a  gentle- 
man to  an  English  friend  of  his  passage 
over  M.  Cenis. 


A  kind  of  horse,  as  it  is  called  with  you, 
with  two  poles  like  those  of  chairmen,  was 
the  vehicle;  on  which  is  secured  a  sort  of 
elbow-chair  in  which  the  traveller  sits  — 
Richardson,  Qrandison,  iv.  299. 

Horse,  to  ride ;  also  to  mount  a  boy 
on  another  person's  back,  for  the  con- 
venience of  flogging  him.  L.  has  an 
instance  where  the  word  is  used  of  a 
man  who  was  carrying  a  deer  on  his 
back. 

Up  early,  and  my  father  and  I  alone  talked 
about  our  business,  and  then  we  all  horsed 
away  to  Cambridge. — Pfpys,  Sept.  19, 1661. 

Here,  Jacky,  down  with  his  trousers,  and 
horse  him  for  me  directly . — JET.  Brooke,  Fool 
of  Quality,  i.  104. 

Andrew  was  ordered  to  horse,  and  Frank  to 
flog  the  criminal.—/^,  i  232. 

H0R8K,  used  as  a  term  of  reproach : 
this  I  suppose  to  be  the  meaning  of  the 
pun  in  the  second  extract. 

If  I  tell  thee  a  lie,  spit  in  my  face,  call  me 
horse. — 1  Hen.  IV.,  II.  iv. 

Your  mayor  (a  very  horse,  and  a  traitor  to 
our  city)  .  .  .  must  quarrel  with  the  boys 
at  their  recreations. — British  Bellman,  1648 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vii.  636). 

Tell  the  old  rascal  that  sent  you  hither 
that  I  spit  in  his  face,  and  call  him  horse. — 
Smollett,  P.  Pickle,  ch.  xiv. 

Horse. 

After  this  we  went  to  a  sport  called  selling 
of  a  horse  for  a  dish  of  eggs  and  herrings,  and 
sat  talking  there  till  almost  twelve  at  night. 
—Pepys,  Feb.  2, 1669-60. 

Horse.  To  ride  the  high  horse  =  to 
take  high  ground  ;  to  be  proud. 

She  appeared  to  be  on  her  high  horse  to- 
night; both  her  words  and  her  air  seemed 
intended  to  excite  not  only  the  admiration, 
but  the  amazement  of  her  auditors.  —  C. 
Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xvii. 

Booster  forsooth  must  ride  the  high^  horse 
now  he  is  married  and  lives  at  Chanticlere, 
and  give  her  warning  to  avoid  my  company 
or  his. — Thackeray,  The  Nevcomes,  ch.  lvii. 

Horse  and  foot,  right  and  left. 

I  made  a  dangerous  thrust  at  him,  and 
violently  overthrew  him  horse  and  foot. — > 
Grim,  The  Collier,  Act  IV. 

The  house  always  found  out  who  were 
their  guardians  and  sponsors  to  answer  for 
them;  and  such  never  failed  through  their 
indiscretions,  presumptions,  importunities, 
subterfuges,  or  tricks,  to  give  advantage 
against  themselves ;  and  in  a  few  days  com- 
monly were  routed  horse  and  foot. — North, 
Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  175. 

She  played  at  pharaoh  two  or  three  times 
at  Princess  Croon's,  where  she  cheats  horse 
and  foot.—  Walpole,  Letters,  i.  87  (1740). 


HORSE  AND  HATTOCK  (  322  ) 


HORSINESS 


Horse  and  Hattock.  See  quotation 
and  H.  a.  v. 

Being  in  the  fields,  he  heard  the  noise  of 
a  whirlwind,  and  of  voices  crying,  Horse  and 
Hattock  (this  is  the  word  which  the  fairies 
are  said  to  use  when  they  remove  from  any 
place),  whereupon  he  cried  Horse  and  Hattock 
also,  and  was  immediately  caught  up  and 
transported  through  the  air  by  the  fairies. — 
— Letter  to  Aubrey,  March  25,  16*95  {Misc., 
p.  149). 

Away  with  you,  sirs,  get  your  boots  and 
your  beasts— horse  and  hattock,  I  say,  and  let 
us  meet  at  the  East  Port. — Scott,  Fair  Maid 
of  Perth,  \.  140. 

Horse  -  godmother,   a  large  coarse 

woman. 

In  woman,  angel-sweetness  let  me  see, 
No  galloping  horse-godmothers  for  me. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  14. 

Horse-koper,  horse-dealer.  Cope  = 
to  exchange.  The  place  spoken  of  is 
Penkrige  in  Staffordshire. 

We  were  told  there  were  not  less  than  an 
hundred  jockeys  or  horse-copers,  as  they  call 
them  there,  from  London,  to  buy  horses  for 
sale.— Defoe,  Tour  thro1  G.  Britain,  ii.  897. 

Horse-meal,  food  without  drink. 

Eating  never  hurt  any  one  who  washed 
down  his  victuals  with  a  glass  of  good  wine ; 
horse-meals  indeed  are  enough  to  choak  hu- 
man creatures. — Johnston,  Chrysal,  i.  220. 

Horse  nest,  something  ridiculous  or 
unfounded :  mares  nest  is  more  com- 
mon. 

Soom  grammatical  pullet,  hacht  in  Dis- 
pater  his  sachel,  would  stand  clocking  agaynst 
mee,  as  though  hee  had  found  an  horse  nest,  in 
laying  that  downe  for  a  fait  that  perhaps  I 
dooe  knowe  better  then  hee. — Stanyhurst, 
Virgil  (To  the  Reader). 

To  laugh  at  a  horse  nest, 
And  whine  too  like  a  boy, 

If  anything  do  crosse  his  minde, 
Though  it  be  but  a  toy. 

Breton,  Schoole  of  Fancie,  p.  6. 

Horse  night-cap.  N.,  who  cites  the 
first  extract,  explains  it  "  a  bundle  of 
straw,"  but  it  seems  to  mean  a  night- 
cap used  at  executions. 

Those  that  clip  that  they  should  not,  shall 
have  a  horse  night-cap  for  their  labour. — 
Pennyless  Parliament,  1008  {Harl.  Misc.,  i. 
181). 

He  better  deserves  to  go  up  Holbourn  in  a 
wooden  chariot,  and  have  a  horse  night-cap 
put  on  at  the  farther  end. — Dialogue  on  Ox- 
ford Parliament,  1681  (Ibid.  ii.  125). 

Horse-play,  rough  sport.  Horse  in 
composition  often  means  large  or  coarse : 
horse-laugh)  horse-godmother,  &c. 


They  served  you  right  enough;  will  you 
never  have  done  with  your  horse-play? — 
Cibber,  Prov.  Husband,  Act  II. 

Horseponded,  ducked  in  a  horsepond. 

"  Horsewhipt !  Miss  Beverley,  pray  did 
you  say  any  such  thing?"  *'  Ay,"  cried 
Moncton  again, "  and  not  only  horsewhipt, 
but  horseponded,  for  she  thought  when  one 
had  heated,  the  other  might  cool  you." — 
Mad.  D'ArUay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  VL  ch.  x. 

If  she  had  ordered  me  to  be  horseponded, 
I  do  protest  to  you  I  would  not  have  de- 
murred.— Ibid.,  Camilla,  Bk.  III.  ch.  x. 

Horse  running,  horse  race. 

The  Forest  of  Galtres,  . . .  very  notorious 
in  these  daies  by  reason  of  a  solemne  ho  rue 
running,  wherein  the  horse  that  outrun  net h 
the  rest  hath  for  his  prise  a  little  golden  bell. 
—Holland's  Camden,  p.  723. 

Horses.  To  set  up  horses  together  =» 
to  unite  or  agree.  See  another  extract 
from  Brown,  s.  v.  Tub-drubber. 

If  the  Spaniards  and  French  set  up  their 
horses  no  better  in  your  world  than  they  do 
with  us,  'tis  easy  to  predict  that  the  unna- 
tural conjunction  of  the  two  kingdoms  will 
be  soon  sbatter'd  to  pieces.  —  T.  Brown, 
Works,  ii.  288. 

Horse's-leo,  a  species  of  bassoon. 

He  was  also  taught .  .  .  how  to  play  pass- 
ably upon  several  of  those  numerous  instru- 
ments which  make  up  a  complete  country 
choir;  that  called  the  Horsc's-leg  being 
Asaph's  favourite ;  though,  to  speak  the 
truth,  nearly  as  much  music  might  have 
been  brought  out  of  its  prototype  as  he  ever 
produced  from  the  Bassoon  itself. — Legends 
of  London,  ii.  183  (1832). 

Horse-trick,  a  rough  practical  joke. 

Make  her  leap,  caper,  jerk,  and  laugh,  and 

sing, 
And  play  me  horse-tricks. 

Merry  Devil  of  Edmonton  (Dodsley,  O. 
PI.,  xi.  136). 

Horsewoman,  a  woman  who  rides. 

Nor  did  her  attendant  do  her  much  good 
by  his  comments  on  Miss  Crawford's  great 
cleverness  as  a  horsewoman. — Miss  Austen, 
Mansfield  Park,  ch.  vii. 

Horsiness,  that  which  pertains  to 
horses,  as  the  smell  of  a  stable. 

Eliz.  Your  boots  are  from  the  horses. 
Bed.  Ay,  my  lady. 

"When  next  there  comes  a  missive  from  the 

Queen, 
It  shall  be  all  my  study  for  one  hour 
To  rose  and  lavender  my  horsiness, 
Before  I  dare  to  glance  upon  your  Grace. 
Tennyson,  Queen  Mary,  iii.  5. 


HORSY 


(  3«3  ) 


HOT  WATER 


Hobst,  connected  with  horses  ;  sport- 
ing. 

There  was  a  gentleman  with  bandy  legs 
who  was  horsy.  I  strongly  object  to  using  a 
slang  adjective,  if  any  other  can  be  got  to 
supply  its  place ;  but  by  doing  so  sometimes 
ooe  avoids  a  periphrasis,  and  does  not  spoil 
one's  period.  Thus  I  know  of  no  predicate 
for  a  gentleman  with  a  particular  sort  of 
hair,  complexion,  dress,  whiskers,  and  legs, 
except  the  one  I  have  used  above.  —  H. 
Kinysley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  zzx. 

Hose.  The  hose  are  meant  for  the 
feet  or  legs,  hence  perhaps  a  man  with 
a  hose  on  his  head  =  a  fool,  one  with 
the  wrong  side  uppermost. 

Well,  come,  a  man's  a  man  if  he  has  but  a 
h>se  on  his  head. — Swift,  Polite  Conversation 
(Conv.  ii.). 

IIose,  the  outer  covering  of  straw  or 
corn. 

The  hot  San  arising  sealeth  (to  use  the 
Husbandman's  phrase)  the  Mildew  upon  the 
Straw,  and  so  intercepteth  the  nourishment 
betwixt  the  Root  and  the  Ear,  especially  if 
it  falleth  not  on  the  Hoase  (which  is  but 
another  case,  and  hath  another  Tunicle  under 
it),  but  on  the  stripped  Straw  near  to  the 
top  of  the  Stalk.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Middle- 
sex (ii.  48). 

The  honey-dews  . . .  close  and  glew  up  the 
tender  hose  of  the  ear. — Ellis,  Modem  Hus- 
handauxn,  II.  i.  2  (1750). 

f     Hose  and  doublet,  out  and  out  (?)  ; 

i  or  perhaps   "  hose  and  dublet  stinck- 

ard  "  =  one  who  bewrays  his  clothes. 

0  tis  a  grave  old  louer  that  same  Duke, 
And  chooses  minions  rarely,  if  you  marke 

him: 
The  noble  Medice,  that  man,  that  Bobbadilla, 
That  foolish   knaue,  that   hose  and   dublet 

stinckard. — Chapman, Gentleman  rsA*r,v.l. 

H06ELESS,  without  stockings. 

,  She  smiled,  and  calmly  seating  herself, 
protruded  her  foot,  shod,  but  noseless  and 
Kente&.—Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  xxiv. 

Host.  To  reckon  without  one's  host 
==  to  be  disappointed  in  a  plan.  Hey- 
lin  gives  the  proverb  in  a  fuller  fonn. 
See  also  H.  *.  v. 

He  that  hath  to  deale  with  that  nation 
[Spain]  must  have  good  store  of  phlegme 
1  and  patience,  and  both  for  his  staye  and  sue- 
cease  of  businesse,  may  often  reckon  without 
h's  host  upon  the  businesse  went  about,  and 
for  any  one  to  prescribe  a  precise  time  to 
conclude  any  businesse  there,  is  to  reckon 
""'thout  one's  host. — Howell,  Forraine  Travell, 
•wt.  10. 

I    The  old  English  proverb  telleth  us  that 
}uthty  that  reckon  without  their  host  are  to 


reckon  twice ; n  and  so  it  fared  with  this  in- 
fatuated people. — Heylin,  Hist,  of  Reforma- 
tion, i.  93. 

Hot-brain,  an  impetuous,  fiery  per- 
son. 

Orators'  wives  shortly  will  be  known  like 
images  on  water-stairs,  ever  in  one  weather- 
beaten  suit,  as  if  none  wore  hoods  but  monks 
and  ladies, .  .  .  nor  perriwigs  but  players  and 
hot-brains. — Machin,  Dumb  Knight,  Act  I. 

Hotel.  See  extract.  Ash's  Diction- 
ary (1775)  has  "  Hostel,  an  inn,  an 
hotel ;  "  Barclay  (1792)  has  "  Hostel, 
pronounced  Hotel ; "  and  Walker  (1817) 
gives  "  Hostel,  Hotel,  a  genteel  inn : 
this  word  is  now  universally  pronounced 
and  written  without  the  «."  In  the 
quotation  from  Combe  the  word  requires 
to  be  pronounced  after  the  fashion  of 
Meg  Dods. 

This  Gallic  word  (hfitel)  was  first  introduced 
in  Scotland  during  the  author's  childhood, 
and  was  so  pronounced  [hottle]  by  the  lower 
class. — Scott,  St.  Ronan's  Well,  ch.  i.,  note. 

He  a  convenient  sitting  shared ; 
Pat  took  his  place  beside  the  guard ; 
And  having  safe  arriv'd  in  town, 
At  Hatchett's  Hotel  were  set  down. 
Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  c.  vi. 

Hot- foot,  quickly ;  eagerly :  in  the 
fortnfote-hot  it  occurs  in  early  writers. 
SeeH. 

The  stream  was  deep  here,  but  some  fifty 
yards  below  was  a  shallow  for  which  he  made 
off  hot-foot. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown's  School" 
Days,  Ft.  I.  ch.  iz. 

Hot-  pot.  Grose,  quoted  by  H.,  defines 
it  a  mixture  of  ale  and  spirits  made 
hot,  and  it  is  still  used  in  Sussex  in  this 
sense  (Parish's  Glossary),  but  in  the 
subjoined  extract  it  means  some  hot 
edible. 

The  Colonel  himself  was  great  at  making 
hash  mutton,  hot-pot*  curry,  and  pillau. — 
Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  xvi. 

Hottentotism.    See  extract. 

The  very  name  of  Hottentots  applied  to 
the  Mamaques  and  other  kindred  tribes  ap- 
pears to  be  .  .  a  rude  imitative  word  coined 
by  the  Dutch  to  express  the  clicking  "  hot  en- 
tot,"  and  the  term  Hottentotism  has  been, 
thence  adopted  as  a  medical  description  of 
one  of  the  varieties  of  stammering.  —  E. 
Tyler,  Primitive  Culture,  i.  172. 

Hotterino,  raging. 

Haply,  but  for  her,  I  should  ha'  gone 
hot  ten  ng  mad. — Dickens,  Hard  Times,  ch.  xi. 

Hot  water,  scrape,  or  state  of  quar- 
relling. 

T  2 


HOULLIES 


(  324  )       HOUSE-TO-HOUSE 


M  It  is  our  battle  he  is  describing."  «  Which 
of  'em  ?  we  live  in  hot-water." — Reads,  Never 
too  late  to  Mend,  ch.  lxx. 

Tom  .  .  .  was  in  everlasting  hot  water  as 
the  most  incorrigible  scapegrace  for  ten 
miles  round. — C.  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago, 
ch.  i. 

Houllies.    See  extract. 

The  occasion  why  I  was  mention'd  was 
from  what  I  had  said  in  my  Sylva  three 
years  before  about  a  sort  of  f uell  for  a  neede 
which  obstructed  a  patent  of  Lord  Carling- 
ford,  who  had  been  seeking  for  it  himselfe. 
...  In  the  meantime  they  had  made  an 
experiment  of  my  receipt  of  houllies,  which  I 
mention  in  my  booke  to  be  made  at  Maes- 
tricht  with  a  mixture  of  charcoal  dust  and 
loame,  and  which  was  tried  with  success©  at 
Gresham  Oolledge. — Evelyn,  Diary,  July  2, 
1667. 

Hound.  The  etymology  in  the  text 
is  cited  as  curious,  rot  as  correct.  The 
extract  is  from  a  Treatise  on  English 
Dogs,  written  by  Dr.  Caius  in  Latin  for 
Conrad  Gesner,  1536,  and  translated  by 
A.  Fleming,  1576. 

Sound  is  derived  of  our  English  word 
"hunt."  One  letter  changed  into  another, 
namely,  T  into  D,  as  "  hunt/' u  hund : "  whom 
if  you  conjecture  to  be  so  named  of  your 
country  word  Hunde,  which  signifieth  the 
general  name  "  Dog,"  because  of  the  simili- 
tude and  Jikeness  of  the  words,  I  will  not 
stand  in  contradiction,  friend  Gesner !  . .  . . 
As  in  your  language  hunde  is  the  common 
word,  so  in  our  natural  tongue  dog  is  the 
universal ;  but  hound  is  particular,  and  a 
special ;  for  it  signifieth  such  a  dog  only  as 
serveth  to  hunt,  and  therefore  it  is  called  a 
hound. — Eng.  Garner,  iii.  263. 

House.  L.  illustrates  The  House  = 
House  of  Parliament,  also  theatre  ;  but 
The  House  likewise  =  the  Union  work- 
house. 

We've  had  Larkins  the  baker  coming  to 
inquire  if  there's  parish  pay  to  look  to  for 
tout  bill,  Mrs.  Armstrong,  and  I  have  told 
htm  No,  not  a  farthing,  not  the  quarter  of  a 
farthing,  unless  you'll  come  into  the  house. — 
Mrs.  Trollops,  Michael  Armstrong,  ch.  iv. 

House-dove,  a  stay-at-home. 

Then  the  home-tarriers  and  house-doves 
that  kept  Some  still  began  to  repent  them 
that  it  was  not  their  hap  to  go  with  him. — 
North's  Plutarch,  Coriolanus,  p.  14  (ed.  Skeat). 

Tie  as  daintie  to  see  you  abroad  as  to  eate 
a  messe  of  sweete  milke  in  Italy ;  you  are 
pronde  such  a  house  doue  of  late,  or  rather 
so  good  a  Huswife,  that  no  man  may  see  you 
unaer  a  couple  of  Capons.  —  Greene,  Mena- 
phon,  p.  85. 

I  .  .  .  was  not  such  a  house-dove  .  .  .  but 
that  I  had  visited  some  houses  in  London. — 


Ibid.,  Theeves  falling  out,  1615  (ffarl.  Misc., 
viii.  401). 

He  had  two  daughters  that  knew  well  how 
to  order  a  house :  they  were  his  house-doves, 
but  now  they  are  flown.  —  Broome,  Jovial 
Crew,  Act  IV. 

H0U8ELE8SNE88,  the  condition  of 

having  no  house. 

In  the  course  of  those  nights  I  finished 
my  education  in  a  f  idr  amateur  experience  of 
houselessness. — Dickens,  Uncommercial  Travel- 
ler, xiii. 

H0U8ELET,  little  house. 

The  style  of  building  strikes  as  being 
more  roomy  and  gentlemanlike  than  the 
squeezed  cabin-parloured  houselets  of  Dover. 
—  W.  Taylor,  1802  (Robberds,  Memoir,  i.  410.) 

Housemate,  one  who  resides    with 

another. 

A  stranger  of  reverend  aspect  entered, 
and,  with  grave  salutation,  stood  before  the 
two  rather  astonished  housemates. — Carlyle, 
Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  II.  ch.  i. 

House-mother,  the  mistress  of  a 
family:  housewife  is  the  more  usual 
term. 

Men  know  not  what  the  pantry  is  when  it 
grows  empty ;  only  house-mothers  know.  O 
women,  wives  of  men  that  will  only  calculate, 
and  not  act!  PatrollotUm  is  strong;  but 
death  by  starvation  and  military  onfall  is 
stronger.  PatrollotUm  represses  male  pa- 
triotism, but  female  patriotism  ?  —  Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  VII.  ch.  iii. 

The  house-mother  comes  down  to  her  family 
with  a  sad  face. — Thackeray,  Roundabout  Pa- 
pers, xviii. 

House  out  or  windows,  a  state  of 
confusion. 

We  are  at  home  now;  where,  I  warrant 
you,  you  shall  find  the  house  Jlung  out  of  the 
windows.— Beaum.  and  Fl.,  Knt.  of  B.  Pestle, 

m  •  •        mm 

111.  5. 

Who  troubles  the  house?  Not  unruly, 
headstrong,  debauched  children,  that  are 
ready  to  throw  the  house  out  of  windows, 
but  the  austere  father. — Bp.  Hall,  Hrorks, 
v.  195. 

44 1  rejoice  you  are  come/*  savs  she ;  "  did 
you  not  meet  the  house  in  the  square?" 
**  What  means  my  Emily  ?  »  u  Why,  it  has 
been  flung  out  of  windows,  as  the  saying  is. 
Ah,  Madam,  we  are  all  to  pieces." — Richard- 
son, Grandison,  iv.  219. 

House-to-house,  a  compound  word 
used  adjectivally,  and  meaning  that 
every  house  in  a  place  is  visited  or 
canvassed  or  inspected,  as  the  case 
may  be,  in  regular  order. 

I  am  struck  more  and  more  with  the 
amount  of  disease  and  death  I  see  around 


HOUSE-WARM  (  325  ) 


HUDDLE 


me  in  all  classes,  which  no  sanitary  legisla- 
tion whatsoever  could  touch,  unless  you  had 
a  complete  house-to-house  visitation  of  a 
government  officer,  with  powers  to  enter 
every  house,  to  drain  and  ventilate  it,  and 
not  only  do  that,  bat  to  regulate  the  clothes 
and  the  diet  of  every  inhabitant,  and  that 
among  all  ranks. — C.  Kingsley,  1859  (Life,  ii. 


House-warm,  to  make  a  feast  on 
persons  going  into  a  new  house.  The 
substantive  house-warming  is  in  com- 
mon use. 

Up,  and  was  presented  by  Burton,  one  of 
our  smiths'  wives,  with  a  very  noble  cake, 
which  I  presently  resolved  to  have  my  wife 
go  with  to-day,  and  some  wine,  and  house- 
ram  my  Betty  Michell.  —  Pepys,  Nov.  1, 
1666. 

Housty.     See  quotation. 

Lady  Grenvile  .  .  had  a  great  opinion  of 
Lucy's  medical  skill,  and  always  sent  for  her 
if  one  of  the  children  had  a  housty,  i.  e.  sore- 
throat. — C.  Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  xv. 

Hovable,  suitable.  In  the  edition 
of  1555  the  reading  is  behouabU. 

Vouchesane  to  here  our  wretchednes,  and 
proayde  a  convenyent  and  houable  remedy 
for  the  same. — Bp.  Fisher,  p.  51. 

How  and  about,  full  particulars. 

Be  good,  and  write  me  everything  how 
and  about  it ;  and  write  to  the  moment ;  you 
cannot  be  too  minute. — Richardson,  Grandi- 
am,  vi.  63. 

Howry,  filthy.     See  Glossary  to  the 

Exmoor  Scolding  (E.  D.  S.),  s.  v.  horry. 

I  'ears  es  Vd  gie  fur  a  howry  owd  book 
thatty  pound  an'  moor. — Tennyson,  Village 

Howsomdeveb,  a  common  vulgarism 
for  however.  Howsomever  occurs  in 
a  quotation  from  Smollett,  s.  v.  Hoo. 
The  countrymen  referred  to  in  the 
second  extract  are  Berkshire  men. 

I  didn't  like  my  burth  tbo',  howsomdever, 
Because   the  yarn,  you   see,  kept  getting 
tauter. 

Hood,  Sailor's  Apology  for  Bow-legs. 

Hotcsufndever,  as  vour  countrymen  say,  I 
shall  have  a  shy  at  him. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown 
at  Oxford,  ch.  xliv. 

Hoydenish,  romping. 

She  is  very  handsome,  and  mighty  gay  and 
giddy,  half  tonish  and  half  hoydenish. — Mad. 
D'Arblay,  Diary,  i.  306. 

She  would  be  the  better  for  a  little  polish- 
ing, wouldn't  she,  eh?  Too  hoydenish  and 
forward,  I  ain  afraid ;  too  fond  of  speaking 
the  truth.  —  H.  Kingsley,  Qeoffry  Hamlyn, 
ch.  xxviii. 


Hub,  abbreviation  of  husband. 

Tell  me  the  prattle  of  our  town, 
Of  all  that's  passing  and  has  past, 
Since  your  dear  Hub  beheld  it  last. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  ix. 

Hubber-bubber,  in  a  state  of  rage  or 
excitement. 

But  as  the  staircase  he  descended, 
He  found  the  passage  well  defended ; 
There  the  hag  stood,  all  hubber-bubber, 
A  haif-dress'd  form  of  living  blubber. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  c.  iv. 

Hubbubish,  noisy. 

Better  remain  by  rubbish  guarded, 
Than  thus  hubbubish  groan  placarded. 

J.  and  H.  Smith,  Rejected  Addresses, 
p.  58. 

Huck,  hip. 

Once  of  a  frosty  night  I  slithered  and 
hurted  my  huck. — Tennyson,  Northern  Cobbler. 

Huckaback,  a  stout,  coarse  material ; 
hence  used  by  Walpole  for  permanent, 
something  that  will  stand  wear  and  tear. 

Campbell  -  goodness  no  more  wears  out 
than  Campbell-beauty ;  all  their  good  quali- 
ties are  huckaback. — Walpole,  Letters,  ii.  121 
(1750).    " 

Madame  Dunois  in  the  Fairy  Tales  used 
to  tapestry  them  with  jonquils,  but  as  that 
furniture  will  not  last  above  a  fortnight  in 
the  year,  I  shall  prefer  something  more 
huckaback.— Ibid.  iii.  24  (1765). 

Huckle-bone,  according  to  the  Diets, 
hip-bone,  and  in  some  places  it  means 
this,  but  see  extract. 

'  AirrpdyaXot  is  in  Latin  talus,  and  it  is 
the  little  square  huccle  bone  in  the  ancle  place 
of  the  hinder  legge  in  all  beastes,  sauing  man, 
and  soche  beastes  as  haue  fingers,  as  for  ex- 
ample, apes  and  mounkeis,  except  also  beastes 
that  haue  the  houfe  of  the  fote  not  clouen, 
but  whole. —  TJdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p. 
185. 

Huckson,  hock  or  ankle. 

Orr  sweet  lady,  reach  to  me 
The  abdomen  of  a  bee ; 
Or  commend  a  cricket's  hip, 
Or  his  huckson  to  my  scrip. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  239. 

Hudde,  a  husk;   and  so  a  term  of 

reproach :  an  empty  fellow. 

What,  ye  brain-sick  fools,  ye  hoddy-pecks, 
ye  doddy-pouls,  ye  huddes,  do  ye  believe 
Him  ?  are  ye  seduced  also  ? — Latimer,  i.  136. 

Huddle,  confusedly. 

It  is  impossible  to  set  forth  either  all  that 
was  (God  knoweth!)  tumultuously  spoken, 
and  like  as  of  mad  men  objected  of  so  many, 
which  spake  oftentimes  huddle,  so  that  one 
couldn't  well  hear  another. — Ridley,  p.  304. 


HUDDLE 


(  326  ) 


HVGMA  TEE 


Hcjddlk,  a  term  at  shovel-board. 

The  Earl  of  Kildare,  seeing  his  writ  of 

death  brought  in,  when  he  was  at  shnffle- 

board,  throws  his  cast  with  this  in  his  month, 

44  Whatsoever  that  is,  this  is  for  a  huddle." — 

Ward,  Sermons,  p.  58. 

Huddle  and  kettle.  Huddle  = 
an  old  person,  is  in  N.,  but  I  do  not 
know  what  kettle  means  in  this  con- 
nection. 

Stro.  O  noble  Crone, 

Now  such  a  huddle  and  kettle  neuer  was. 

Chapman,  Gentleman  Vsher,  ii.  1. 

Huddle  -  duddle,  an  old  decrepit 
person. 

Those  gray -beard  huddle  -  duddles  and 
crusty  cum-twaugs  were  strooke  with  such 
stinging  remorse  of  their  miserable  euclion- 
isme  and  snudgery  that  bee  was  not  yet  cold 
in  his  grave  but  they  challenged  him  to  be 
borne  amongst  them. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe 
(Marl.  Misc.,  vi.  147). 

Huddle  upon  huddle,  all  in  a  heap. 

Randal's  fortunes  come  tumbling  in  like 
lawyers'  fees,  huddle  upon  huddle. — Rowley, 
Match  at  Midnight,  Act  IV. 

Hue,  beauty. 

Nor  do  I  come,  as  Jupiter  did  erst 
Unto  the  palace  of  Amphitryon, 
For  any  fond  or  foul  concupiscence 
Which  I  do  bear  to  Alcumena's  hue . 

Greene,  Alphonsus,  Act  III. 

As  thus  I  sat  disdaining,  of  proud  Love, 
M  Have  over,  ferryman,"  there  cried  a  boy ; 
And  with  him  was  a  paragon  for  hue, 
A  lovely  damsel  beauteous  and  coy. 

Ibid.  p.  300  (from  Never  too  late). 

Hue  and  cry,  to  hunt. 

But  what  is  become  of  the  rest  of  our 
minor  plots  of  the  Sham  ?  We  may  hue  and 
cry  all  over  his  book,  and  hear  no  tidings  of 
them. — North,  Examen,  p.  233. 

Hueless,  colourless. 

The  wild  expression  of  intense  anguish 
. .  .  dwelt  on  those  hueless  and  sunken  fea- 
tures.— Lytton,  Pelham,  ch.  vi. 

His  face  flushed ;  olive  cheek  and  hueless 
forehead  received  a  glow.— C.  Bronte,  Jane 
Eyre*  ch.  xxvi. 

Huff,  a  swaggerer. 

There  are  many  men  in  the  world  who, 
without  the  least  arrogance  or  self-conceit, 
have  yet  so  just  a  value  both  for  themselves 
and  others,  as  to  scorn  to  flatter  and  gloss, 
to  fall  down  and  worship,  to  lick  the  spittle 
and  kiss  the  feet  of  any  proud,  swelling, 
overgrown,  domineering  huff  whatsoever. — 
South,  vi.  107. 

I  was  acquainted  with  a  captain  ;  he  was  a 
man  of  punctilio  and  ceremony,  better  at  his 
tongue  than  at  his  weapon ;  he  swore  better 


than  he  fought,  and  was  more  famous  for 
caning  his  company  than  for  storming  half- 
moons.  This  young  huff  commanded  a  ser- 
geant to  pay  him  respect. — Gentleman  lit' 
structed,  p.  185. 

Huffcap,  as  meaning  strong  ale,  is 
given  in  N.,  but  in  the  extract  it  is 
used  as  an  adjective. 

In  what  towne  there  is  the  signe  of  the 
three  mariners,  the  huffe-cappest  drink  in  that 
house  you  shall  be  sure  of  alwayes. — Nashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Marl.  Misc.,  vi.  180). 

Huffiness,  readiness  to  take  of- 
fence. The  writer  of  a  letter  in  The 
Guardian  newspaper,  March  17, 1880, 
speaks  of  "  huffiness  (if  I  may  coin  the 
word)." 

It  would  be  time  well  spent  that  should 
join  professional  studies  with  that  degree  of 
polite  culture  which  gives  dignity  and  cures 
huffiness. — Lytton,  What  will  he  do  with  it  ? 
Bk.  IV.  ch.  xi. 

Huffle.  H.  gives  this  as  a  West- 
country  word  =  to  blow  unsteadily  or 
rough.  Juno  addresses  iEolus,  as  em- 
powered by  Jove, 

Too  swage  seas  surging,  or  raise  by  blus- 
terus  huffing. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.  75. 

Huff-puffed,  swollen ;  bloated. 

Hvff-pufft  Ambition,  tinder-box  of  war, 
Down-fall  of  angels,  Adam's  murderer ! 

Sylvester,  The  Decay,  12. 

Huffy,  ready  to  take  offence.  L. 
has  both  huffy  and  huffiness,  but  in  a 
somewhat  different  sense. 

Huffy!  decidedly  huffy!  and  of  all  causes 
that  disturb  regiments  and  induce  courts- 
martial,  the  commonest  cause  is  a  huffy  lad. 
—Lytton,  What  will  he  do  with  it?  Bk.  IV. 
ch.  xi. 

Huge,  used  as  a  substantive  for  bulk. 
The  Arke  of  God  which  wisedom  more  did 

holde 
In  Tables  two,  then  all  the  Greeks   haue 

tolde; 
And  more  than  euer  Rome  could  comprehend 
In  huge  of  learned  books  that  they  ypend. 

Hudson's  Judith,  i.  102. 

Hugger,  to  wrap  up ;  conceal.  Cf. 
Hugger-mugger. 

Goe,  Muse,  abroade,  and  beate  the  world 

about, 
Tell  trueth  for  shame  and  hugger  vp  no  ill. 
Breton,  PasquiVs  Madcappe,  p.  11. 

Hugmatee,  apparently  some  sort  of 
drink. 

No  hugmateenoT  flip  my  grief  can  smother, 
I  lov'd  thee,  Dobbin,  better  than  my  brother. 

T.  Brown,  Works,  iv.  218. 


HULCHY 


(  327  ) 


HUMBLING 


Hulchy,  humpy. 

What  can  be  the  signification  of  the  uneven 
shrugging  of  her  hulchy  shoulders  ? 

Urquhart,  Rabelais,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xvii. 

Hulder,  alder  (?). 

Hulder,  black  thorne,  semes  tree,  beche* 
elder,  aspe,  and  ealowe,  eyther  for  theyr 
wekenes  or  lyghtenesse  make  holow,  starting, 
studding,  gaddynge  shaftes. — Ascham,  Toxo- 
philus,  p.  125. 

Hulking,  huge  ;  unwieldy.  Hulk  is 
a  big  ship,  and  is  applied  by  Shake- 
speare to  Fal  staff. 

Why,  Tom,  you  are  grown  a  huge  hulking 
fellow  since  I  saw  you  last. — H.  Brooke,  Fool 
of  Quality,  ii.  165. 

Hulky,  big ;  loutish. 

I  want  to  go  first  and  have  a  round  with 
that  hulky  fellow  who  turned  to  challenge 
me. — G.  Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch.  lvi. 

Hull,  holly. 

Oft  did  a  left  hand  crow  foretell  these 
things  in  her  hull  tree.—  Webbe,  Discourse  of 
Eng.  Poetrie,  p.  74. 

Hullabaloo,  noise ;  outcry. 

Because  some  half-a-dozen  farmers  sent 
me  a  round-robin  to  the  effect  that  their 
rents  were  too  high,  and  I  wrote  them  word 
that  the  rents  should  be  lowered,  there  was 
such  a  hullabaloo, — you  would  have  thought 
heaven  and  earth  were  coming  together. — 
Lytton,  Caxtons,  Bk.  XIV.  ch.  v. 

Hulve,  pipe  (?). 

The  trunk  or  hulve  that  should  convey  the 
water. — Giles  Jacob,  Complete  Court-Keeper 
(1781),  p.  114. 

Humber,  hummer  (?).  The  river 
according  to  some  is  so  called  from  its 
noise.  "  Well  may  the  Humber  take 
its  name  from  the  noise  it  makes,  for 
in  an  high  wind  it  is  incredibly  great 
and  terrible"  (Defoe,  Tour  thro'  G. 
Britain,  iii.  11).  though  at  p.  60  of  the 
same  volume  another  derivation  is 
given,  viz.,  from  Humber,  a  piratical 
Northern  chief. 

The   Nightingale,  pearcht   on   the   tender 

spring 
Of  sweetest  hawthorn,  hangs  her  drowsie 

wing, 
The    Swallow's    silent,    and    the   lowdest 

Humber, 
leaning    upon   the    earth,  now  seems   to 

slumber. — Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  606. 

Hum,  to  humbug  or  deceive. 

I  don't  mean  to  cajole  you  hither  with  the 
expectation  of  amusement  or  entertainment ; 
you  and  I  know  better  than  to  hum  or  be 


hummed  in  that  manner.  —  Mad.  D'ArUay, 
Diary,  ii.  153i 

"Come,  gentle  Spring,  ethereal   mildness, 
come ! " 
Oh,  Thomson,  void  of  rhyme  as  well  as 
reason, 
How  could 'st  thou  thus  poor  human  nature 
hum  ? 
There's  no  such  season. 

Hood,  Spring. 

Hum  and  haw,  to  hesitate ;  to  beat 
about  the  bush ;  used  also  (in  the  first 
quotation)  as  a  substantive. 

Peters  more  scurvily  said  the  business  was 
so  long  doubtful,  that  God  was  brought  to 
his  hums  and  hatces,  which  way  he  should 
fling  the  victory. — Paman  to  Sancroft,  March 
5, 1652  (D'Oyley's  Life  of  Sancroft,  p.  49). 

"  Well,  you  fellow,"  says  my  lord,  "  what 
have  you  to  say  ?  Don't  stand  humming 
and  hatring,  but  speak  out." — Tom  Jones,  Bk. 
VIII.  ch.  xi. 

Humanify,  to  make  man. 

I  will  not  dispute  whether  He  could  not 
have  received  us  again  to  favour  by  some 
nearer  and  easier  way  than  for  His  own  Son 
to  be  humanified,  and  being  man  to  be  cruci- 
fied.— Adams,  iii.  211. 

Humbled,  galled  (?). 

If  one  lav  them  very  hot  to  kibed  or 
humbled  heeles,  they  will  cure  them. — Hol- 
land, Pliny,  xx.  3. 

Humblefication,  humility. 

The  Prospectus  . . .  has  about  it  a  sort  of 
unmanly  humblejication  which  is  not  sincere. 
—Southey,  Letters,  1809  (ii.  120). 

Humble-pie.  To  eat  humble-pie  = 
to  submit  or  apologize.  It  is  a  pun  on 
umble-pU,  a  pie  made  of  the  umoles  of 
an  animal.     See  L. 

"  You  drank  too  much  wine  last  ni^ht,  and 
disgraced  yourself,  sir,"  the  old  soldier  said. 
"You  must  get  up  and  eat  humble-pie  this 
morning,  my  boy.  — Thackeray,  Newcomes, 
ch.  xiv. 

Humblesso,  an  obeisance ;  a  jocular 
form  of  humblesse. 

He  kissed  his  hand  thrice  and  made  as 
many  humblessos  ere  he  would  finger  it. — 
Naihe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  172). 

Humbling.  N.,  s.  v.  humble-bee,  says 
that  Todd  has  produced  from  Chaucer 
an  instance  of  humbling  in  the  sense 
of  humming  or  rumbling.  An  example 
from  a  later  writer  is  subjoined,  and 
another  still  later,  i.  e.  from  Stanyhurst, 
will  be  found,  a.  v.  Mutterous. 

It  is  better  to  say  it  sententious^  one 
time,  than  to  run  it  over  an  hundred  times 


HUM-BOX 


(328  ) 


HURL 


with  humbling  and  rambling.  —  Latimer,  i. 
344 

Hum -box,  a  pulpit  (slang).  See 
extract «.  v.  Jackey. 

Humbuggable,  gullible. 

My  charity  does  not  extend  so  far  as  to 
believe  that  any  reasonable  man  {humbuggable 
as  the  animal  is)  can  have  been  so  humbugged. 
— Southey,  Letters,  1825  (iii.  488). 

Humbugs.    See  extract 

He  had  provided  himself  with  a  paper  of 
humbugs  for  the  child;  humbugs  being  the 
north-country  term  for  certain  lumps  of  toffy 
well  flavoured  with  peppermint. — Mrs.  Gas- 
hell,  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  ziiii. 

Humdrum,  a  stupid  fellow ;  also  pros- 
ing, common-place  talk :  the  word  is 
usually  an  adjective. 

By  gads-lid  I  scorn  it,  I,  so  I  do,  to  be  a 
consort  for  every  hum-drum. — Jonson,  Every 
Man  in  his  Humour,  i.  1. 

I  am  frequently  forced  to  go  to  my  harp- 
sichord to  keep  me  awake,  and  to  silence  his 
humdrum. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  iii.  191. 

Humdurgeon,  nervous  illness ;  hypo- 
chondria (slang). 

His  ravings  and  humdurgeon  will  unman  all 
our  youngsters. — Lytton,  Pelham,  ch.  lux. 

Humgbuffin,  a  terrible  or  repulsive 

person. 

All  shrunk  from  the  glance  of  that  keen- 
flashing  eye. 

Save  one  horrid  Humgruffin,  who  seem'd  by 
his  talk, 

And  the  airs  he  assumed,  to  be  cock  of  the 
walk. — Ingoldsby  Legends  (St.  Cuthbert). 

Humorologt,  the  study  of  humour. 

Oh  men  ignorant  of  humorology!  more 
ignorant  of  psychology !  and  most  ignorant 
of  Pantagruelism !— Sout hey,  The  Doctor,  In- 
terchapter  xiii. 

Humorsombness,  caprice. 

I  never  blame  a  lady  for  her  humor someness 
so  much  as,  in  my  mind,  1  blame  her  mother. 
— Richardson,  Grandison,  iv.  25. 

Humph,  to  mutter  an  interjectional 
sound    like  humph.     Cf.   to   pish,  to 

PSHAW,  tO  TUT. 

Fanny  was  first  roused  by  his  calling  out 
to  her,  after  humphing  and  considering  over  a 
particular  paragraph, "  What's  the  name  of 
your  great  cousin  in  town,  Fan  ?  " — Miss 
Austen,  Mansfield  Park,  ch.  adv. 

Hundreds  in  Essex.    See  extracts. 

From  hence  [Tilbury  Fort]  there  is  nothing 
for  many  miles  together  remarkable  but  a 
continued  level  of  unhealthy  marshes  called 
The  Three  Hundreds,  till  we  come  before 
Leigh.— Defoe,  Tour  thro1  G.  Britain,  i.  7. 


Some  airs  have  been  observed  by  natural- 
ists to  breed  agues  as  the  hundreds  in  Essex. 
—T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  212. 

The  shadow  of  the  theatre  is  starving,  and 
the  air  of  it  as  naturally  produces  poverty  as 
that  of  the  hundreds  in  Essex  begets  agues. — 
Ibid.  iv.  198. 

Hunfyshskin,  skin  of  the  hound-fish 
or  dog-fish. 

Many  archers  vse  to  haue  summe  place 
made  in  theyr  cote  fitte  for  a  lytle  fyle,  a 
stone,  a  Hunfyshskin,  and  a  cloth  to  dresse 
the  shaft  fit  agayne  at  all  nedes.— Ascham, 
Toxophilus,  p.  161. 

Hungerland,  connected  with  him- 
gerlin  (?);  perhaps  rather  Hungarian, 
as  the  ruffs  are  described  as  Spanish. 

Your  Hungerland  bands,  and  Spanish  quel- 
lio  ruffs. — Massinger,  City  Madam,  iv.  4. 

Hungerworm,  insatiable  hunger. 

Hath  any  gentleman  the  hunger-worm  of 
covetousness?  here  is  cheer  for  his  diet. — 
Adams,  i.  161. 

Hunkers,  hams ;  haunches.  H.  gives 
it  as  a  North-country  word,  but  the 
speaker  in  the  extract  is  an  Irishwoman. 
Hunkering  is  sometimes  now  used  to 
describe  the  practice  of  those  who  in 
church  bob  their  heads  against  the 
bookboard,  or  sit  upon  their  haunches 
instead  of  kneeling  properly. 

My  anshestors  sat  on  a  throne,  when  the 
McBrides  had  only  their  hunkers  to  sit  upon. 
— Miss  Edgeworth,  Love  and  Law,  i.  4. 

Hunt  the  whistle,  a  romping  game 
in  which  a  blinded  person  has  a  whistle 
fastened  to  him :  the  other  players  blow 
this  from  time  to  time,  and  the  blinded 
one  tries  to  catch  the  blower. 

What  pastimes  be  they  ?  we  bent  enough 
for  hunt  the  whistle  nor  blind-man's  buff. — 
Foote,  The  Author,  ii.  1. 

Hurdle  seems  to  =  heap  in  the 
quotation,  unless  it  be  a  misprint  for 
huddle. 

Hard  by  was  Absalom's  tomb,  consisting  of 
a  great  pit  to  hold,  and  a  great  heap  of 
stones  to  hide  a  great  traitor  under  it.  .  .  . 
No  methodicall  monument  but  this  hurdle  of 
stones  was  fittest  for  such  a  causer  of  confu- 
sion.—Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  H.  ii.  15. 

Hurl,  to  throw :  the  idea  of  great 
force  and  violence,  always  associated 
with  the  word  now,  is  not  conveyed  in 
the  extracts. 

A  heavenly  veil  she  hurls 
On  her  white  shoulders. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xiv.  150. 


HURLEMElSiT     '      (  329  ) 


HYPER 


Since  I  wan  hurVd  among  these  walls  [the 
Fleet  prison]  I  had  divers  fits  of  melancholy. 
— Howell,  Letters,  ii.  30. 

HURLEMENT,  C0nfu810n. 

King  Edward, .  .  .  discouering  both  this 
accident  and  the  hurlement  made  by  the 
change  of  place,  slacks  not  to  take  aduantage 
thereof. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  200. 

Hurry.     See  extract. 

The  wrongful  heir  comes  in  to  two  bars  of 
qnick  music  (technically  called  a  hurry),  and 
goes  on  in  the  most  shocking  manner. — 
Sketches  by  Box  {Greenwich  Fair). 

Hurry-durry,  rough  ;  hasty  (?). 

*Tis  a  hurry-durry  blade:  dost  thou  re- 
member after  we  had  tugged  hard  the  old 
leaky  long-boat  to  save  his  life,  when  I  wel- 
comed him  ashore,  he  gave  me  a  box  on  the 
ear,  and  called  me  fawning  water-dog. —  Wy* 
ckerley,  Plain  Dealer,  i.  1. 

Hurted,  hurt.  See  extract  s.  v. 
Huck. 

I  am  afraid  he  is  hurted  very  sadly. — H. 
Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  273. 

Randal.  He's  but  little  hurted. 
Honor.  Hurted  !  and  by  who  ?  by  yon,  is  it  ? 
Miss  Edgeworth,  Love  and  Law,  ii.  2. 

Hurtlessness,  innocence. 

The  maids  ....  hoping  that  the  goodness 
of  their  intention,  and  the  hurtlessness  of 
their  sex,  shall  excuse  the  breach  of  the 
commandment. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  235. 

Husband.  The  etymology  in  the 
extracts  is  now  exploded,  but  yet  is 
worth  recording. 

The  name  of  a  husband  what  is  it  to  saie  ? 
Of  wife  and  the  houshold  the  band  and  the 
staie. — Tusser,  p.  16. 

See  my  guardian,  her  husband.  Unfashion- 
able as  the  word  is,  it  is  a  pretty  word :  the 
house-band  that  ties  all  together :  is  not  that 
the  meaning?  —  Richardson,  Grandison,  vi. 
375. 

Husbandly,  frugally. 

The  noble  client  reviewed  his  bill  over  and 
over,  for  however  moderately  and  husbandly 
the  cause  was  managed,  he  thought  the  sum 
total  a  great  deal  too  much  for  the  lawyers. 
— North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  36. 

Hussy,  hussif ,  q.  v.  in  L. 

I  went  towards  the  pond,  the  maid  follow- 
ing me,  and  dropt  purposely  my  hussy  ;  and 
when  I  came  near  the  tiles  I  said,  "Mrs. 
Anne,  I  have  dropt  my  hussy" — Richardson, 
Pamela,  i.  162. 

Huzza.  This  word  is  in  the  Diets. ; 
but  the  extract  from  North  is  given  as 
seeming  to  show  that  huzza,  as  a  com- 
mon cheer,  came  in  in  Charles  II. f s 


reign ;  nor  do  any  of  the  quotations  in 
R.  or  L.  contradict  this.  The  last  extract 
supplies  an  absurd  etymology.  In  the 
quotations  from  Wycherley  huzza  is  used 
as  a  substantive  and  adjective  =  rake 
or  rakish. 

We  are  not  so  much  afraid  to  be  taken  up 
by  the  watch  as  by  the  tearing  midnight 
ramblers  or  huzza  women.  —  Wycherley, 
Gentleman  Dancing  Master,  i.  2. 

You  begin  to  be  something  too  old  for  us ; 
we  are  for  the  brisk  huzzas  of  seventeen  or 
eighteen. — Ibid. 

It  is  not  to  be  denied  but  at  many  meet- 
ings good  fellowship  in  way  of  healths  ran 
into  some  extravagance  and  noise,  as  that 
which  they  call  huzzaing,  an  usage  then  at  its 
perfection.  It  was  derived  from  the  marine, 
and  the  shouts  the  seamen  make  when  friends 
come  aboard  or  go  off.  .  .  So  at  all  the  Tory 
healths,  as  they  were  called,  the  cry  was 
reared  of  Huzza  !  which  at  great  and  solemn 
feasts  made  a  little  noise. — North,  Examen, 
p.  617. 

This  most  learned  monk  [Ooronelli]  informs 
us  in  his  account  of  England  that  the  Huzza, 
which  is  the  cry  of  the  London  mob  when 
they  are  pleas'd,  comes  from  the  Hebrew 
word  Hosanah.  What  a  charming  thing  it  is 
to  understand  etymology. — Misson,  Travels 
in  Eng.,  p.  43. 

Hydrargire,  quicksilver. 

For  th'  hidden  loue  that  now-a-dayes  doth 

holde 
The   steel    and    loadstone,  hydrargire   and 

golde, 
Th'  amber  and  straw. 

Sylvester,  The  Furies,  67. 

Hydroptic,  dropsical;  thirsty:  hy- 
dropic is  the  usual  form. 

He,  soul- hydroptic  with  a  sacred  thirst, 
Sucked  at  the  flagon. 

Browning,  Grammarian1 s  Funeral. 

Hymnish,  of  the  nature  of  a  hymn. 
Sonnets  are  carroled  hymnish 
By  lads  and  maydens. 

Stanyhurst,  Mn.,  ii.  248. 

Hyper.  See  second  quotation  ;  in  the 
first  extract  it  of  course  stands  for 
hypercritic. 

Critics  I  read  on  other  men, 
And  hypers  upon  them  apain  ; 
From  whose  remarks  I  give  opinion 
On  twenty  books,  yet  ne'er  look  in  one. 
Prior,  Ep.  to  Fleetwood  Shepherd,  168. 

I  call  you  then  Mr.  Hyper  not  for  the  sake 
of  giving  you  a  nickname,  but  for  the  sake  of 
distinguishing  you  from  other  religionists  to 
whom  you  do  not  belong.  You  know  that 
the  term  is  simple  enough,  meaning  nothing 
more  than  beyond,  and  that  it  is  the  well- 
known  designation  of  those  who  go  beyond 


HYPERDOLIN  (  330  ) 


IGNOMIO  US 


Calvin.-— Cater,  Punch  in  the  Pulpit  (1863), 
p.  110. 

Hyperdolin,  misprint  for  Knippkb- 

dollin,  q.  v.  (?). 

And  now  he  makes  his  doctrine  suitable  to 
his  text,  and  owns  aboveboard  ....  that  him- 
self and  his  hyperdolins  are  the  only  Israelites, 
and  all  the  rest  Egyptians. — Character  of  a 
Fanatick,  1675  {Hart.  Misc.,  vii.  636). 

Hypernatural,    beyond   nature ;    a 
caricature. 
By  way  of  contrast  there  is  Heep,  articled 


clerk,  articled  ont  of  charity,  whom  to  de- 
scribe description  fails  ;  .  . .  him,  too,  we  axe 
inclined  to  put  in  the  category  of  the  hyper- 
naturals. — Phillips,  Essays  from  the  Times,  ii. 
324. 

Hypocon,  an  abbreviation  of  hypo- 
chondria :  the  first  syllable  only  is  the 
more  usual  abbreviation. 

You  have  droop' d  within  a  few  years  into 
such  a  dispirited  condition  that  'tis  as  much 
as  a  plentiful  dose  of  the  best  canary  can  do 
to  remove  the  hypocon  for  a  few  minutes. — 
T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  233. 


Iambical,  connected  with  or  belong- 
ing to  iambics. 

Amongst  us  I  name  but  two  Iambical 
poets:  Gabriel  Harvey  and  Richard  Stany- 
nurst,  because  I  have  seen  no  more  in  this 
kind.  —  Meres,  Eng.  literature,  1598  (Eng. 
Garner,  ii.  100). 

Ichthyophagous,  fish-eating. 

A  wretched  ichthyophagous  people  must 
make  shocking  soldiers,  weak  as  water. — De 
Quincey,  Autob.  Sketches,  i.  78. 

Icre.  "  An  icre  is  ten  Bars  "  (Gibson's 
Camden,  margin,  in  loc.). 

As  we  find  in  the  Survey  booke  of  Eng- 
land, the  king  demanded  in  manner  no  other 
tribute  than  certain  lores  of  Iron,  and  Iron 
barres. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  361. 

Idknticalness,  sameness. 

She  has  an  high  opinion  of  her  sex,  to 
think  they  can  charm  so  long  a  man  so  well 
acquainted  with  their  identicalness. — Richard- 
son, CI.  Harlowe,  iv.  201. 

Idle,  indolence. 

And  knowing  Good  becomes  more  good  the 

more 
It  is  encommon'd,  he  applies  therefore 
T'  instruct  her  in  the  faith,  and  (enuious- 

idle) 
His  brains  rich  talent  buries  not  in  idle. 

Sylvester,  Magnijictnce,  1319. 

Idol,  to  idolize. 
O  happy  people,  where  good  princes  raign, 

Who  idol  not  their  pearly  scepter's  glory, 
But  know  themselves  set  on  a  lofty  story, 
For  all  the  world  to  see  and  censure  too. 

Sylvester,  Babylon,  20. 

Idolant,  an  idolater. 

A  countlesse  boast  of  craking  Idol  ants 
By  Esay's  faith  is  here  confounded  all. 

Sylvester,  Triumph  of  Faith,  st.  3. 


Idolastre,  idolatrous. 

Her  yv'ry  neck  and  brest  of  alabastre. 
Made  heathen  men  of  her  more  idolastre. 

Hudson,  Judith,  iv.  359. 

Idolify,  to  make  an  idol  of. 

If  it  had  been  the  fate  of  Nobs  thus  to  be 
idolifed,  and  the  Itzacx  had  been  acquainted 
with  his  character,  they  would  have  com- 
pounded a  name  for  him.  —  Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  cxliv. 

Idolism,  idohitry.  The  only  instance 
of  this  word  in  the  Diets,  is  from 
Paradise  Regained,  iv.  234,  where, 
however,  "it  means  'vain  opinions,* 
4  fancies,'  from  tUuikov,  a  '  phantom '  of 
the  mind"  (Jerram's  edit.,  Longman's 
London  Series). 

Much  less  permits  he  thorough  all  his  land 
One  rag,  one  relique,  or  one  signe  to  stand 
Of  idolism,  or  idle  superstition 
Blindely  brought    in  without  the  Word's 
commission. — Sylvester,  The  Decay,  502. 

A  people  wholly  drown'd 
In  idolism,  and  all  rebellious  sins. 

Ibid.  518. 

Idolographical,  writing  about 
idols. 

I  should  have  looked  at  some  of  the  Lisbon 
idols  with  more  satisfaction  if  I  had  been 
acquainted  with  their  adventures,  as  recorded 
in  this  extraordinary  idolographical  work. — 
Southey,  Letters,  1826  (ui.  639). 

Ignomious,  ignominious.  Ignomy  is 
used  by  Shakespeare  and  others  for 
ignominy,  but  the  Diets,  have  no 
instance  of  the  adjective. 

As  lately  lifting  up  the  leaves  of  worthy 
writers'  works, 


IGNOTE 


(331  ) 


IMBRISTLE 


Wherein,  as  well  as  famous  facts,  ignomious 
placed  are, 

Wherein  the  just  reward  of  both  is  mani- 
festly shown. 

Peele,  Prologue  to  Sir  Clyomon, 

Ignote,  an  unknown  person.  The 
Diets,  have  the  word  as  an  adjective. 

Their  judgement  was,  the  girts  of  peace 
were  slack,  but  not  broken.  This  is  couched 
in  the  admonitions  of  an  ignote  unto  King 
James. — Racket,  life  of  Williams,  i.  169. 

Such  ignote*  were  not  courted,  but  passed 
over  as  a  pawn  at  chess  that  stood  out  all  of 
[of  all  ?]  play.— Ibid.  ii.  144. 

Iliadized,   related  or  celebrated  in 

the  Iliad. 

Ulysses, ...  of  whom  it  is  ffliadized  that 
your  very  nose  dropt  sugarcandie. — Nashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Marl.  Misc.,  vi.  162). 

Illecebbation,  allurement. 

Modesty  .  .  .  restrains  the  too  great  free- 
dom  that  youth  usurps,  the  great  familiarity 
of  pleasant  illecebrations,  the  great  continual 
frequentations  of  balls  and  feasts. — T.  Brown, 
Works,  iv.  292. 

Illect,  to  allure. 

Theyre  superfluous  rychesse  illeeted  theym 
to  vnclene  lust  and  ydelnesse. — Simon  Fish, 
Supplication  for  the  Beggars. 

Ill faringly,  improperly ;  awkwardly. 

Another  of  our  vulgar  makers  spake  as 
illfaringly  in  this  verse. — Puttenham,  Eng. 
Poesie,  Bk.  III.  ch.  zxiii. 

Illiquefact,  to  moisten. 

See  how  the  sweat  fals  from  His  bloodlesse 

browes, 
Which  doth  illiquefact  the  clotted  gore. 

Davits,  Holy  Roode,  p.  15. 

Illish,  indisposed. 

If  I  find  myself  illish  at  any  time,  which 
is  seldom,  I  eat  a  little  of  the  gumm  of  that 
pine-tree,  and  it  cures  me. — Howell,  Parly 
of  Beasts,  p.  100. 

Ill-tempered,  in  a  bad  state  of 

health  or  blood. 

Put  on  a  half  shirt  first  this  summer,  it 
being  very  hot ;  and  yet  so  ill-tempered  I  am 
grown,  that  I  am  afraid  I  shall  catch  cold, 
while  all  the  world  is  afraid  to  melt  away. — 
Pepys,  June  28, 1664. 

Illuminer,  illuminator ;  one  who 
illuminates  books,  MSS.,  &c. 

He  became  the  best  Illuminer  or  Limner 
of  our  age.  —  Fuller,  Worthies,  Cambridge 
(i.  167). 

Illtjminous,  bright ;  clear. 

This  life,  and  all  that  it  contains,  to  him 
Is  but  a  tissue  of  illuminous  dreams 


Filled  with  book-wisdom,  pictured  thought, 

and  love 
That  on  its  own  creations  spends  itself. 

Taylor,  Edwin  the  Fair,  ii.  2. 

Illusionable,  liable  to  illusions. 

One  who  had  been  in  the  maturity  of  his 
powers  and  reputation  when  those  illusionable 
youths  were  in  their  cradles. — The  Academy, 
Sept.  6, 1879,  p.  167. 

Illustbe,  to  make  bright  or  glorious. 

See  quotation  s.  v.  Passe-man. 

No  sooner  said  He,  Be  there  light,  but  lo 
The   formless  lump   to  perfect  form  gan 

growe; 
And  all  illustred  with  light's  radiant  shine, 
Dof  t  mourning  weeds,  and  deckt  it  passing 

fine. — Sylvester,  first  day,  first  weeke,  534. 

A  husband's  nobless  doth  illustre 
A  mean-born  wife. 

Ibid.,  fourth  day, first  weeke,  728. 

Imaoilet,  a  small  image. 

Italy  affords  finer  Alabaster,  whereof  those 
Imagilets  wrought  at  Ligorn  are  made. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Stafford  (ii.  301). 

Imbeb,  ember. 

O  gracious  God,  remove  my  great  incumbers, 
Kindle  again  my  faith's  ne'er-dying  imbers. 

Sylvester,  The  Arke,  29. 

Imbolish,  abolish,  or  infringe  upon ; 
perhaps  it  is  meant  as  a  specimen  of 
a  cutpurse's  English,  yet  there  is  no 
other  solecism  in  his  short  speech.  A 
female  foist  is  the  speaker  in  the  second 
quotation,  and  there  imbollish  seems  = 
embezzle. 

Tush,  (saves  another  cutpurse)  though  the 
man  were  so  simple  of  himselfe,  yet  shall 
he  not  offer  the  Church  so  much  wrong  as, 
by  yeelding  to  the  mace,  to  imbolish  Paul's 
libertie,  and  therefore  I  will  take  his  part. — 
Greene,  Theeves  falling  out,  1615  (Harl.  Misc., 
viii.  387). 

You  poore  theeves  doe  only  steale  and  pur- 
loyne  from  men,  and  the  harme  you  doe  is 
to  imbollish  men's  goods,  and  bring  them  to 
poverty. — Ibid.  (lb.  p.  391). 

Imbrake,  to  entangle  as  in  a  brake. 

John  ....  imbraked  the  state  and  him- 
selfe in  those  miserable  iucombrances  thorow 
his  violences  and  oppression  as  produced 
desperat  effects. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p. 
108. 

Imbrier,  to  entangle  in  a  thicket. 

Why  should  a  gracious  prince  imbrier  him- 
self any  longer  in  thorns  and  do  no  good, 
but  leave  his  woo  11  behind  him?  —  Socket, 
Life  of  Williams,  ii.  192. 

Imbristle,  to  make  rough.  I  give 
the  extract  as  printed  and  punctuated 


IMITANCY 


(  33*  ) 


IMPATRON 


in  the  Hart.  Misc.,  but  I  suppose  it 
should  be  "  Madona  Amphitrite  s,"  the 
commas  after  each  of  those  words  be- 
ing deleted. 

All  the  fennie  Lerna  betwixt,  that  with 
reede  is  so  imbristled,  being  (as  I  have  fore- 
spoke  or  spoken  tofore)  Madona,  Amphitrite, 
fluctuous  demeans  or  fee-simple.  —  Nashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  151). 

Imitancy,  tending  to  imitate. 

The  servile  imitancy,  and  yet  also  a  nobler 
relationship  and  mysterious  union  to  one 
another  which  lies  in  such  imitancy,  of  man- 
kind might  be  illustrated  under  the  different 
figure,  itself  nothing  original,  of  a  flock  of 
sheep. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  ill.  67. 

Immatchless,  incomparable. 

Thou  great  Soveraigne  of  the  earth, 
Onelie  immatchlesse  Monarchesse  of  hearts. 
G.  Markham,  Iraaedie  of  Sir  R.  Grinuile 
{Dedic.  to  the  Fairest). 

Immensible,  immeasurable. 

For  should  I  touch  thy  rainde  (intangible, 
Fraught  with  whateuer  makes  or  good  or 

great, 
As  learning,  language,  artes  immensihle% 
Witt,  courage,  courtesie,  and  all  compleat ;) 
I  should  bat  straine  my  skill  to  do  thee 

wrong. — Davits,  To  Worthy  Persons,  p.  52. 

Immensive,  huge. 

Then  this  immensive  cup 

Of  aromatike  wine, 
Catullus,  I  quaffe  up 

To  that  terce  muse  of  thine. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  84. 

Immerd,  to  cover  with  dung. 

Let  daws  delight  to  immerd  themselves  in 
dung,  whilst  eagles  scorn  so  poor  a  game  as 
flies. — Quarles,  Dedic.  to  Emblems. 

Immetbical,  unmetrical ;  unrhythm- 
ical. 

French  and  Italian  most  immetrical, 
Their  many  syllables  in  harsh  collision 
Fall  as  they  break  their  necks. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  To  the  Reader,  154. 

Immortal.  The  use  of  the  word  in 
the  quotation  is  noticeable ;  mortal 
enemy  being  the  common  phrase. 

This  I  was  glad  of,  and  so  were  all  the 
rest  of  us,  though  I  know  I  have  made  my- 
self an  immortal  enemy  by  it. — Pepys,  Jan. 
29, 1668-9. 

Immound,  to  dam  in. 

The  straight  and  narrow  streamed  fennes, 
And  inland  seas  which  many  a  mount  m- 
mounds. 

Sylvester,  third  day,  first  tceeke,  218. 

Immoveables,  fixtures ;  property  that 


cannot  be  moved :   moveables  is  com- 
mon to  express  the  reverse  of  this. 

The  Jewes  . . .  stayed  till  this  time,  which 
brought  him  a  greater  benefit  by  confiscatuig 
all  their  Immovables,  with  their  Tallies  and 
Obligations. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  160. 

The  Judges  consulted  of  the  matter,  and 
in  the  end  adjudged  Segraue  guilty  of  death, 
and  all  his  moueables  and  immovables  forfeited 
to  the  king. — Ibid.  p.  168. 

Immure,  to  fortify ;  its  usual  mean- 
ing is  to  shut  up  within  walls. 

With  stones  soon  gathered  on  the  neighbour 

strand. 
And  clayie  morter  ready  there  at  hand. 
Well  trode  and  tempered,  he  immures  his 

fort. — Sylvester,  Handi-Crafts,  375. 

For  in  the  Heav'ns  above  all  reach  of  ours 
He  dwels  immured  in  diamantioe  towers. 

Ibid.,  The  Arke,  237. 

These  [walls]  appcare  to  haue  immured 
but  a  part  of  the  citie. — Sandys,  Travels,  p. 
114. 

iMrANE,  to  embody  with  bread. 

We  must  believe  that  He  cometh  down 
again  at  the  will  of  the  priests  to  be  impaned 
or  inbreaded  for  their  belly's  commonwealth, 
like  as  He  afore  came  down  at  the  will  of  His 
Heavenly  Father  to  be  incarnated  or  infleshed 
for  our  universal  soul's  health. — Bale,  Select 
Works,  p.  206. 

Imparleance,  colloquy.  R.  has  im- 
parlance as  a  legal  term,  signifying' 
permission  given  to  suitors  to  arrange 
a  matter  before  the  court  by  private 
conference  between  themselves.  In 
the  extract,  however,  the  word  is  used 
generally. 

She  will  have  no  imparleance,  no  discours- 
ing ;  if  they  desir'd  their  own  peace,  and  her 
assured  favour,  they  then  must  entertain 

and  follow  her  conditions No  more 

imparleance  is  allow'd  or  will  be  heard,  no 
second  motion. — Hist,  of  Edw.  11^  p.  124. 

Impassivity,  impassiveness. 

We  have  cold  aristocratic  impassivity,  faith- 
ful to  itself  even  in  Tartarus. — Carlyle,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  vii. 

Have  thy  eye-glasses,  opera -glasses,  thy 
Long-Acre  cabs  with  white-breeched  tiger, 
thy  yawning  impassivities,  pococurantisms. — > 
Ibid.,  Past  and  Present,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xvii. 

Impasture,  to  set  to  feed ;   to  turn 

out  to  graze. 

Adultery  .  .  .  sets  paleness  on  his  cheek 
and  impostures  grief  in  his  heart. — Adams,  i. 
184. 

I mp at ron,  to  furnish:  impatronize 
is  more  usual. 


IMPEACH  WITH        (  333  )       IMPOSSIBILITATE 


He  .  .  .  impatroned  himselfe  with  three 
peeces  of  ordinance  which  he  caused  to  be 
haled  into  the  Tower. — Remarkable  Occur- 
rence* in  the  Northern  Paris  (1642),  p.  10. 

Impeach  with,  to  accuse  or  impeach 
of. 

I  doubt  not  of  tout  generosity,  but  people 
unacquainted  with  your  temper  impeach  you 
with  avarice. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  535. 

Imperatorian,  imperial. 

He  did  so  little  bear  up  with  an  impera- 
torian resolution  against  the  method  of  their 
ways  who  thrust  his  counsel  out  of  doors,  that 
the  flies  suck'd  him  where  he  was  gall'd,  and 
he  never  rub'd  them  off.  —  Hacket,  Life  of 
Williams,  i.  167.* 

He  professed  not  to  meddle  by  any  Im- 
peratorian or  Senatorial  power  with  matters 
of  Beligion. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p. 

Imperatorious,  imperial ;  befitting  a 
ruler. 

You  have  heard  his  Majesty's  speech, 
though  short,  yet  full  and  princely,  and 
rightly  imperatorious,  as  Tacitus  said  of 
Galba's.— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  9. 

Imperial,  a  large  travelling  trunk 
made  to  lit  the  top  of  the  carriage. 
Imperiale  in  French  is  defined  as  It 
desxus  de  carrasse,  and  the  term  is  ap- 
plied to  the  top  of  other  things. 

The  trunks  were  fastened  upon  the  car- 
riages, the  imperial  was  carrying  out. — Miss 
JSdgeworth,  Belinda,  ch.  zzv. 

Couriers  and  ladies'-maids,  imperials  and 
travelling  carriages,  are  an  abomination  to 
me. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown's  School-Days,  Pfc. 
L  ch.  i. 

Imperible,  contracted  form  of  im- 
perishable. 

O  is  there  not  another  life  imperible, 
Sweet  to  the  guiltlesse,  to  the  guilty  terrible  ? 
Sylvester,  Little  Bartas,  761. 

Impersuadableness,  inflexibility. 

You  break  my  heart,  indeed  you  do,  by 
your  impersuadableness.  —  T.  Brown,  Works, 
1.3. 

Impertinence,  to  treat  with  imper- 
tinence. 

I  do  not  wonder  that  you  are  impertinenced 
by  Richcourt.  —  Walpole  to  Mann,  in.  155 
(175(5). 

Impetrable,  compliant;  easy  to  be 
entreated. 

How  impetrable  hee  was  in  mollifying  the 
adamantinest  tiranny  of  mankinde. — Nashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  157). 

Impleadable,  not  to  be  pleaded 
against  or  evaded. 


An  impenetrable  judge,  an  impleadable  in- 
dictment, an  intolerable  anguish  shall  seize 
upon  them. — Adams,  i.  196. 

Impledge,  to  pledge ;  to  entrust. 

The  Lower  Lis 
They  to  the  utmost  will  dispute,  for  there  . 
Their  Chief,  who  lacks  not  capability, 
Will  justly  deem  their  all  to  be  impledged. 
Taylor,  Ph.  van  Art.,  Pt.  II.  v.  2. 

The  Earl  inclines,  but  ere  he  shall  impledge 
Or  the  Lord  Heretoch  or  himself,  be  looks 
To  be  assured  the  synod,  late  convened 
For  other  ends,  will  wisdom  learn  from  you. 
Ibid.,  Edwin  the  Fair,  iii.  3. 

Impliable,  unaccommodating;  un- 
fitting. 

All  matters  rugged  and  impliable  to  the 
design  must  be  suppressed  or  corrupted. — 
Worth,  Examen,  p.  32. 

Implicit,  obedient ;  submissive.  We 
often  speak  of  implicit  obedience  = 
complete  obedience,  but  the  word  is 
not  usually  employed  by  itself  in  this 
sense. 

When  a  parcel  of  silly  implicit  fools  had 
done  the  business  for  him,  then  forsooth  he 
must  appear  at  the  head  of  his  court-harlots 
and  minstrels,  and  make  a  magnificent  entry 
thro'  the  breach. — T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  30. 

Cecilia  was  peremptory,  and  Mary  became 
implicit.  —  Mad.  D'Arblay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  X. 
ch.  vni. 

Imploratory,  imploring. 

On  the  21st  of  March  goes  off  that  long 
exculpatory  imploratory  letter.  —  Carlyle, 
Diamond  Necklace,  ch.  vii. 

Importance,  matter  of  importance. 

Quoth  Ralph,  Not  far  from  hence  doth  dwell 
A  cunning  man,  hight  Sidrophel, 
That  deals  in  destiny's  dark  counsels, 
And  sage  opinions  of  the  moon  sells ; 
To  whom  all  people,  far  and  near, 
On  deep  importances  repair. 

Hudibras,  II.  iii.  110. 

Importune,  an  importunate  person. 

In  Spaine  it  is  thought  very  vndecent  for 
a  courtier  to  craue,  supposing  that  it  is  the 
part  of  an  importune.  —  Puttenham,  Eng. 
Poesie,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xxiv. 

If  justice  must  stay  till  such  importunes 
are  satisfied,  there's  a  ne  plus  ultra  of  all 
law. — North,  Examen,  p.  644. 

Imposable,  gullible.  See  quotation 
s.v.  Prattique. 

If  he  had  been  a  dissolute  ranting  man, 
as  some  were,  or  a  weak  imposable  wretch, 
they  had  liked  him  much  better. — North, 
Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  54. 

Impossibilitatb,  to  render  impos- 
sible. 


IMPOSSIBILITY         (334  ) 


IN  AMOR  ATE 


How  many  accidents  might  for  ever  have 
impossibilitated  the  existence  of  this  incom- 
parable work! — Southey,  The  Doctor,  Inter- 
chapter  vi. 

Impossibility,  helplessness. 

When  we  say,  Lead  us  not  into  temptation , 
we  learn  to  know  oar  own  impossibility  and 
infirmity ;  namely,  that  we  be  not  able  of  our 
own  selves  to  withstand  this  great  and  mighty 
enemy  the  devil. — Latimer,  i.  432. 

Impostrix,  impostress. 

I  am  heartily  sorry  that  the  gravity  of 
John  Fisher,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  should  be 
so  light,  and  the  sharp  sight  of  Sir  Thomas 
More  so  blinde,  as  to  give  credit  to  so  notori- 
ous an  impostrix, — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,V.  ii.  47. 

Impostury,  imposture. 

All  con  joyne  (the  Latins  excepted)  in  cele- 
bration of  that  impostury  of  fetching  fire 
from  the  Sepulcher  upon  Easter  eue.  — 
Sandys,  Travels,  p.  173. 

Impregnate  in  the  extract  is  used 
for  impregnable,  or  rather  invulnerable. 

Bring  me  the  caitiff  here  before  my  face, 
Tho'  made  impregnate  as  Achilles  was. 
D'Urfey,  Two  Queens  of  Brentford,  Act  II. 

Imprompt,  unready. 

Nothing  I  think  in  nature  can  be  supposed 
more  terrible  than  such  a  rencounter,  so 
impromptu  so  ill-prepared  to  stand  the  shock 
of  it  as  Dr.  Slop  was. — Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy, 
i.  219. 

Improper,  to  appropriate,  make  over. 
R.,  in  reference  to  an  extract  which  he 
gives  from  Milton's  A  vol.  for  Smectym- 
nuus,  says,  "  One  of  Milton's  antagon- 
ists appears  to  have  used  improper  as  a 
verb."  The  subjoined  show  that  the 
word  was  not  so  strange  as  R.  and 
apparently  also  Milton  thought  it. 

Man  is  impropred  to  God  for  two  causes. 
— Bi>.  Fisher,  p.  267. 

That  childe  so  impronreed  to  a  wrong 
mother  may  proprely  in  latin  be  called  par- 
tus suppositious. — UdaTt  Erasmus's  Apophth., 
p.  157. 

The  word  of  God  being  so  universal,  meet 
for  all  diseases,  for  all  wits,  and  for  all 
capacities,  for  M.  Harding  to  improper  the 
same  only  unto  a  few,  it  is  both  far  greater 
dishonour  unto  God,  and  also  far  greater 
injury  unto  God's  faithful  people,  than  if  he 
would  in  like  manner  improper  and  inclose 
the  sunbeams  to  comfort  tne  rich  and  not  the 
poor. — Jewel,  ii.  671. 

Improperacion,  impropriation. 

Jef.  Thou  knowest  nott,  Watkyn  felowe, 
How  they  have  brought  to  sorowe 
In  lykwyse  the  spritualte. 
Wat.  By  what  manner  cavillacion  ? 


Jef.  Surly  through  improperacion 
Of  innumerable  benefices. 

Roy  and  Barlow,  Rede  me  and  be  nott 
terothe,  p.  100. 

Impropery  seems  to  be  used  in  the 
sense  of  chiding  or  scoffing. 

Sara,  the  daughter  of  Raguel,  desiring  to 
be  delivered  from  the  impropery  and  im- 
braiding,  as  it  would  appear,  of  a  certain 
default  wherewith  one  of  her  father's  hand- 
maidens did  irabraid  her  and  cast  her  in  the 
teeth,  forsook  all  company. — Becon,  i.  131. 

Improvisation,  an  impromptu. 

This  speech  . .  .  was  not  indeed  entirely  an 
improvisation,  but  had  taken  shape  in  inward 
colloquy. — G.  Eliot,  Middlemarcn,  ch. 


Improvisatory,  impromptu;  unpre- 
meditated. 

Write  with  or  without  rime,  as  happens  to 
accommodate  best  your  improvisatory  method 
of  composition. —  W.  Taylor  of  Norwich,  1806 
(Memoir,  ii.  133). 

Impulse,  to  impel. 

I  leave  these  prophetesses  to  God,  that 
knows  the  heart, .  .  .  whether  they  were  im- 
pulsed like  Balaam,  Saul,  and  Caiaphas,  to 
vent  that  which  they  could  not  keep  in,  or 
whether  they  were  inspired  like  Esaias  and 
the  prophets  of  the  Lord. — Racket,  Life  of 
Williams,  ii.  49. 

Impqne,  unpunished. 

The  breach  of  our  national  statutes  can 
not  go  immtne  by  the  plea  of  ignorance. — 
Adams,  i.  235. 

Impure,  to  grow  impure.  R.  and  L. 
have  an  extract  from  Bp.  Hall  with 
this  verb,  where,  however,  it  =  to  make 
impure. 

The   more   the   Body   dures,  Soule   more 

in  d  tires ; 
Never  too  soon  can  shee  from  thence  exile ; 
Pure  in  shee  came;  there  living,  shee  im- 

pures  ; 
And  suffers  there  a  thousand  woes  the  while. 
Sylvester,  Memorials  of  Mortalitie,  st.  70. 

Inaccessible,  unapproachable,  and 
so  excelling  in  power.  The  word  in 
the  original  is  aa-rrrovc.  The  same 
translation  occurs  xx.  450.  Chapman 
also  renders  it  tough,  desperate,  too  hot 
to  touch. 

Curb  your  tongue  in  time,  lest  all  the  Gods 
in  heav'n 
Too  few  be  and  too  weak  to  help  thy  punish'd 

insolence, 
When  my  inaccessible  hands  shall  fall  on  thee. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  i.  550. 

Inamorate,  enamoured. 


INAMORATELY       (  335  )  INCINDERMENT 


His  blood  was  framde  for  euerie  shade  of 

vertue 
To  rauish  into  true  inamourate  fire. 

Chapman,  Mons.  Dy Olive,  iv.  1. 

Inamorately,  lovingly.     Naslie  also 

has   enamorately.     See  quotation  a.  v. 

Calino. 

Of  the  neyboring  sands, ...  it  is  so  inamor- 
ately protected  and  patronized,  that  they 
stand  as  a  trench  or  guarde  about  in  the 
night  to  keep  off  their  enemies.  —  Nashe, 
Lenten  Stvffe  (Harl.  Misc,vi.  149). 

In  an  im  advertence,  inadvertence. 

The  like  spirit  did  possess  Optatus,  who  in 
the  treatise  cited  by  R.  0.  doth  continually 
call  the  Donatists  "  brethren,"  not  by  chance 
or  inanimadvertence,  but  upon  premeditation. 
— Bramhall,  ii.  31. 

Inapostate,  attentive ;  not  standing 

away  from. 

The  man  that  will  but  lav  his  eares 
As  inapostate  to  the  thing  he  heares, 
Shall  be  [by  ?]  bis  hearing  quickly  come  to  see 
The  truth  of  travails  lesse  in  bookes  then  thee. 
Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  354. 

Inarked,  placed  in  the  ark. 

Greater  and  better  then  inarked  he, 
"Which  iu  the  world's  huge  deluge  did  snruiue. 
G.  Markham,  Tray,  of  Sir  R.  Grinuile, 
p.  59. 

Inauthoritativeness,  want  of  com- 
mission or  authority. 

I  furnished  them  not  with  precarious 
praters, ...  in  whom  ignorance  and  impu- 
dence, inability  and  inauthoritativeness,  con- 
tend which  shall  be  greatest. — Gauden,  Tears 
cf  the  Churchy  p.  53. 

Inbread,  to  embody  with  bread. 

We  must  believe  that  He  cometh  down 
again  at  the  will  of  the  priests  to  be  impaned 
or  inbreaded  for  their  bellies'  commonwealth. 
—Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  206. 

Inbreak,  irruption :  outbreak  is  com- 
mon.    Cf.  Inburst. 

Deshnttes  and  Varigny,  massacred  at  the 
first  inbreak,  have  been  beheaded  in  the 
Marble  Court.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk. 
VII.  ch.  x. 

Inburst,  irruption  :  outburst  is  suffi- 
ciently common.    Cf .  Inbreak. 

Boundless  chaos  of  insurrection  presses 
slumbering  round*  the  palace,  like  ocean 
round  a  diving-bell,  and  may  penetrate  at 
any  crevice.  Let  but  that  accumulated  in- 
surrectionary mass  find  entrance,  like  the 
infinite  inburst  of  water. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev., 
Pt.  I.  Bk.  VII.  ch.  ix. 

Incaressino,  cold;  harsh. 


This  incaressing  humour 
Hath  taught  my  soul  a  new  philosophy. 

Machin,  Dumb  Kniyht,  Act  III. 

Incarnate,  in  the  flesh,  but  is  used 
in  the  extract  as  though  the  in  were 
privative,  and  the  word  meant  "  not  in 
the  flesh." 

I  fear  nothing  .  .  .  that  devil  carnate  or 
incarnate  can  fairly  do  against  a  virtue  so 
established. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlotce,  v.  46. 

Incautelods,  incautious. 

All  advantage  of  cavil  at  the  expressions 
of  the  Judges,  if  any  had  been  incautelous, 
was  lost  to  the  faction. — North,  Examen,  p. 
288. 

Incave,  to  shut  up  in  a  cave.  Dray- 
ton, quoted  by  R.,  has  incavem. 

The  bristled  Bore  and  Bear© 
Incaued  rage. — Sandys,  Travels,  p.  307. 

Incedingly,  progressingly. 

Even  in  the  uttermost  frenzy  of  energy  is 
each  moonad  movement  royally,  imperially, 
indecinffly  upborne. — Miss  Bronte,  rillette, 
ch.  xxiii. 

Incense,  to  flatter.    Cf.  Fume. 

He  is  dipp'd  in  treason  and  overhead  in 
mischief,  and  now  must  be  bought  off  and 
incensed  by  his  Sovereign,  as  the  Devil  is  by 
the  Indians,  that  he  may  do  no  more  harm.— 
Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  212. 

Incensory,  altar  of  incense. 

A  cup  of  gold,  crown'd  with  red  wine,  he 

held 
On  th*  holy  incensory  pour'd. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xi.  686. 

Incentre,  to  centre. 

Nor  is  your  love  incentred  to  me  only  in 
your  own  breast,  but  full  of  operation. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  135. 

Inchaste,  unchaste. 

Now  you  that  were  my  father's  concubines, 
Liquor  to  his  inchaste  and  lustful  fire, 
Have  seen  his  honour  shaken  in  his  house. 
Feele,  David  and  Bethsabe,  p.  476. 

Incidentary,  incidental ;  occasional. 

He  had  been  near  fifty  years  from  the 
county  of  Carnarvon  and  the  town  of  Con- 
way, unless  by  incidentary  visits.  —  Hacket, 
Life  of  Williams,  ii.  208. 

Incidentless,  uneventful. 

My  journey  was  incidentless,  but  the 
moment  I  came  into  Brighthelmstone  I  was 
met  by  Mrs.  Thrale. — Mad.  Dy  Arblay,  Diary, 
ii.  158. 

Incinderment,  reduction  to  ashes: 
incineration  is  the  usual  word. 


1NCITATIVE 


(  336  )  INCULCATE  TO 


Hee,  like  the  glorious  rare  Arabian  bird, 
Will  soon  result  from  His  incinderment. 

Davies,  Holy  Roods,  p.  26. 

Incitative,  a  provocative  or  stimu- 
lant. 

They  all  carried  wallets,  which,  as  appeared 
afterwards,  were  well  provided  with  incita- 
fives,  and  such  as  provoke  to  thirst  at  two 
leagues'  distance.— Jarvis's  Don  Quixote,  Pt. 
II.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  ii. 

Incoqnoscibility,  the  state  of  being 

unknown. 

If  .  .  .  the  imperial  philosopher  should 
censure  the  still  incognoscible  author  for  still 
continuing  in  incognoscibility  for  the  same 
reason  that  he  blamed  the  Ancient  of  the 
Deep,  I  should  remind  him  of  the  Eleusinian 
Mysteries.—  Souther/,  The  Doctor,  Interchapter 
six. 

Incognoscible,  unknowable.  See 
Incoqnoscibility. 

Incognito  I  am  and  wish  to  be,  and  incog- 
noscible it  is  in  my  power  to  remain.—  Southey, 
The  Doctor,  Interchapter  xz. 

Incompletion,  incompleteness. 

I  have  lost  the  dream  of  Doing, 
And  the  other  dream  of  Done, 
The  first  spring  in  the  pursuing, 
The  first  pride  in  the  Begun, — 
First  recoil  from  incompletion,  in  the  face  of 
what  is  won. 

Mrs.  Browning,  The  Lost  Dower. 

Incomportable,  intolerable. 

It  was  no  new  device  to  shove  men  out  of 
their  places  by  contriving  incomportable  hard- 
ships to  be  put  upon  them. — Norths  Examen, 
p.  39. 

He  took  another  course,  and  carried  his 
point  by  setting  up  what  was  called  the 
Country  Party  to  an  incomportable  height. — 
Ibid.  p.  57. 

Inconcrete,  abstract. 

There  is  not  in  all  the  world  a  more  pure, 
simple,  inconcrete  procreation  than  that 
whereby  the  mind  conoeiveth  the  word 
within  it. — A  ndrewes,  Sermons,  i.  88. 

Inconform,  disagreeing  with. 

A  way  mos£  charitable,  most  comfortable, 
and  no  way  inconform  to  the  will  of  God  in 
His  Word. —  Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church, 
p.  291. 

Inconsequential,  of  no  consequence ; 
usually  =  illogical. 

As  my  time  is  not  wholly  inconsequential,  1 
should  not  be  sorry  to  have  an  early  oppor- 
tunity of  being  heard.  —  Mad.  D'Arblay, 
Cecilia,  Bk.  IX.  ch.  ill. 

Inconsiderate,  a  thoughtless  person. 
I  was  as  willing  as  the  gay  inconsiderate  to 


call  another  cause,  as  he  termed  it — Richard- 
son, d.  Harlowe,  iii.  168. 

Inconsistents,  inconsistencies. 

As  for  other  inconsistents  with  truth,  which 
depend  as  retainers  on  this  relation  of  King 
Lucius,  they  prove  not  that  this  whole  story 
should  be  refused,  but  refined. — Fuller,  Ch. 
Hist.,  I.  ii.  4. 

Inconsistible,   variable ;   unable  to 

agree. 

It  hath  a  ridiculous  phis,  like  the  fable  of 
the  old  man,  his  ass,  and  a  boy,  before  the 
inconsistible  vulgar. — North,  Examen,  p.  029. 

Inconvertibleness,  unchangeable- 
ness. 

The  fixity  or  inconvertibleness  of  races,  as 
we  see  them,  is  a  weak  argument  for  the 
eternity  of  these  frail  boundaries. — Emerson, 
Eng.  Traits,  ch.  iv. 

Incorporino,  joining  in  a  body. 

O  where  is  then  the  Holy  Flock, 
Galled  in  one  Hope,  built  on  one  Rock, 
Into  one  Faith  incorporina  ? 

Sylvester,  All  is  not  gold  that  glitters, 
st.  10. 

Incrasion,  immingling  (Gr.  cpacric). 
Sylvester  inveighs  against  tobacco. 

By  whose  incrasion 
The  Vitall  Spirits  in  an  unwonted  fashion 
Are  bay'd  and  barred  of  their  passage  due 
Through  all  the  veins. 

Tobacco  Battered,  454. 

Increditable,  discreditable. 

Hypocrisy  and  dissimulation  are  always 
increditable,  but  in  matters  of  religion  mon- 
strous to  a  sacrilege. — Gentleman  Instructed, 
p.  145. 

Incredited,  unbelieved. 

He  [Hazael]  was  brought  to  this  self- 
incredited  mischief,  as  impossible  as  at  first  he 
judged  it,  at  last  he  performed  it. — Adams, 
ii.  354. 

Increscent,  waxing. 

The  good  Queen, 
Repentant  of  the  word  she  made  him  swear, 
And  saddening  in  her  childless  castle,  sent, 
Between  the  increscent  and  decrescent  moon, 
Arms  for  her  son. 

Tennyson,  Gareth  and  Lynette. 

Incubation.    See  extract. 

This  place  was  celebrated  for  the  worship 
of  JSsculapius,  in  whose  temple  incubation, 
i.  e.  sleeping  for  oracular  dreams,  was  prac- 
tised.— E.  Tylor,  Primittoe  Culture,  ii.  121. 

Inculcate  to,  to  inculcate  on. 

Some  Leading-men,  who  . . .  spared  not  to 
inculcate  to  them  the  apparent  dangers  in 
which  Religion  stood. — Heylin,  Hist,  of  the 
Presbyterians,  p.  226. 


INCUMBENTESS         (  337  )        INDIFFERENCED 


Incumbentess,  female  incumbent  or 
possessor. 

Yoa  may  make  your  court  to  my  Lady 
Orford  by  announcing  the  ancient  barony  of 
Clinton,  which  is  fallen  to  her  by  the  death 
of  the  last  incumbentess. —  Walpole  to  Mann, 
ill  371  (1700). 

Incumbition,  incubation. 

The  souls  of  connoisseurs  themselves  bv 
long  friction  and  incumbition  have  the  happi- 
ness at  length  to  get  all  be-virtued,  be-pictured, 
be-butterflied,  and  be-fiddled.— £fcrn*,  Trist. 
Shandy,  i.  181. 

Incurrence,  incursion. 

We  should  no  more  think  of  the  Blessed 
Deity  without  the  conceit  of  an  infinite  re- 
splendence, than  we  can  open  our  eyes  at 
noon-day  without  an  incurrence  and  admis- 
sion of  an  outward  light.— Bp.  Hall.  Works, 
v.  421. 

Incurtained,  shaded  by  curtains. 
Bright  day  is  darkned  by  incurtained  light. 
G,  Markham,  Tragedie  of  Sir  R.  Grinuile, 
p.  66. 

Incusse,  to  strike  in.  See  quotation 
more  at  length  *.  v.  Daungtingnesse. 

The  first  events  are  those  which  incusse  a 
dauntingnesse  or  daring.  —  Daniel,  Hist,  of 
E*9*  P-  4- 

Incute,  to  strike  in. 

This  doth  incute  and  beat  into  our  hearts 
the  fear  of  God.— Becon,  i.  63. 

Indbfinity,  vagueness :  indefiniteness 
or  indefinUude  are  the  more  usual 
forms. 

He  can  insinuate  the  vilest  falsehoods  in 
the  world,  and  upon  trial  come  off  upon  the 
ambiguity  or  indemnity  of  his  expressions. — 
North,  Examen,  p.  144. 

Indelectable,  unpleasant. 

Then  stiffened  and  starched  (let  me  add) 
into  dry  and  indelectable  affectation,  one  sort 
of  these  scholars  assume  a  style  as  rough 
as  frequently  are  their  manners.— Richardson, 
a.  Harlowe,  viii.  327. 

Indelicate,  a  coarse  or  indelicate 
person. 

What  strange  inddicates  do  these  writers 
of  tragedy  often  make  of  our  sex !— Richard- 
son, Pamela,  iv.  59. 

Indent,  a  covenant :  the  verb  is  not 
uncommon. 

In  negotiating  with  princes  we  ought  to 
seeke  their  fauour  by  humilitie,  and  not  by 
sternnesse,  nor  to  trafficke  with  them  by  way 
of  indent  or  condition,  but  frankly. — Putten- 
ham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xxiv. 

Independence.    See  quotation.    The 


earliest  example  in  the  Diets,  is  from 
Pope,  except  that  in  the  translation 
of  Milton's  Defence  of  the  People  of 
England'  we  read  of  "the  independency 
of  a  king." 

Every  one  who  is  conversant  with  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  with  the  literature  of  the 
reigns  of  Elizabeth,  James,  and  Charles  I., 
must  have  perceived  in  how  much  kindlier 
relations  the  different  classes  of  society 
existed  toward  each  other  in  those  days  than 
they  have  since  done.  The  very  word  in-' 
dependence  had  hardly  found  a  place  in  the 
English  language,  or  was  known  only  as  de- 
noting a  mischievous  heresy. — Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  excii. 

Independented,  made  independent, 
or  on  the  independent  model. 

The  new  titles  or  style  of  bodyed  and  con- 
gregated, associated  or  independented  and 
new-fangled  Churches. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  43. 

Independentism,  Independency. 

Anabaptisme  or  Presbyterisme  or  Inde- 
pendentisme  .  .  .  rudely  justled  Episcopacy 
out  of  the  Church  of  England.— Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  564. 

Indepravate,  pure. 
O   let  these  Wounds,  these  Woundes  in- 
deprauate, 
Be  holy  Sanctuaries  for  my  whole  Man. 

Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  28. 

Indescribabler,  a  euphemism  for 
trousers.  Cf.  Continuations,  Inex- 
plicable, Inexpressibles,  Unmention- 
ables. 

As  a  giant  is  not  so  easily  moved,  a  pair  of 
indescribables  of  most  capacious  dimensions, 
and  a  huge  shoe,  are  usually  brought  out, 
into  which  two  or  three  stout  men  get  all  at 
once,  to  the  enthusiastic  delight  of  the  crowd, 
who  are  quite  satisfied  with  the  solemn  as- 
surance that  these  habiliments  form  part  of 
the  giant's  e very-day  costume.—  Sketches  by 
Box  {Greenwich  Fair). 

Indical,  connected  with   an  index. 

The  extract  recalls  Pope's  lines — 

How  index-learning  turns  no  student  pale, 
Tet  holds  the  eel  of  Science  by  the  tail. 

Dunciad,  i.  279. 

I  confess  there  is  a  lazy  kind  of  Learning 
which  is  onely  indical ;  when  Scholars  (like 
Adders,  which  onely  bite  the  Horse  heels) 
nible  but  at  the  Tables,  which  are  calces 
librorum,  neglecting  the  body  of  the  Book. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Norfolk  (ii.  135). 

Indifferenced,  having  an  appear- 
ance of  indifference. 

I  again  turned  to  her,  all  as  indifferenced 
over  as  a  girl  at  the  first  long-expected  ques- 

z 


INDIGESTIVE  (  338  )  INESCAPABLE 


tion,  who  waits  for  two  more. — Richardson, 
a.  Harlowe,  iii.  186. 

Indigestive,  dyspeptic. 

She  was  a  cousin,  an  indigestive  single 
woman,  who  called  her  rigidity  religion,  and 
her  liver  love. — Dickens,  Great  Expectations, 
ch.  xxv. 

Indiqnancy,    indignation.      Spenser 

(F.  Q.j  III.  xi.  13)  has  malignance. 

Engrossed  by  the  pride  of  self-defence, 
and  the  indignancy  of  unmerited  unlrind- 
ness,  the  disturbed  mind  of  Camilla  had  not 
yet  formed  one  separate  reflection. — Mad. 
D'ArMay,  Camilla,  Bk.  III.  ch.  i. 

Individuitt.     See  quotation. 

Zorobabel's  temple,  acquiring  by  Herod's 
bounty  more  beauty  and  bigness,  continued 
the  same  temple,  God's  unintermitted  service 
(the  life  and  soul  thereof)  preserving  the 
tndividuity  or  oneness  of  this  temple  with 
the  former. — Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  III.  (pt.  ii.) 
vi.  9. 

Indivine,  unholy.  Milton  (quoted 
by  R.)  has  undivine  =  unlike  a  divine ; 
in  which  sense  also  Daniel  uses  it,  say- 
ing that  the  Bishop  of  Hereford,  from 
the  text,  My  head  acheth,  "  concludes 
most  undevinely"  that  the  head  of  a 
kingdom  might  be  removed  (Ilist.  of 
Eng.,  p.  182). 

His  brother  Clarence  (o  crime  capitall !) 
He  did  rebaptize  in  a  outt  of  wine, 
Being  jelous  of  him  (how  soere  loiall) : 
A  Turkish  providence  most  indivine. 

Davies,  Microcosmos,  p.  57. 

Indread,  to  fear. 

So  Isaak's  sonnes  indreading  for  to  feel 
This  tyrant,  who  pursued  mm  at  the  heel, 
Dissundring  fled. — Hudson,  Judith,  i.  57. 

Inductile,  stiff. 

After  all,  he  is  no  inductile  material  in 
some  hands. — Miss  Bronte,  ch.  xxxv. 

Indulgiate,  to  indulge. 

Sergius  Oratus  was  the  first  that  made  pits 
for  them  about  his  house  here;  more  for 
profit  than  to  indulgiate  his  gluttony.  — 
Sandys,  Travels,  p.  293. 

Indult,  grant ;  indulgence. 

If  the  Bishops  of  Borne  could  have  con- 
tented themselves  to  enjoy  these  temporali- 
ties, ....  and  to  have  acknowledged  them, 
as  many  of  their  fellow-bishops  do,  to  have 
issued  not  at  all  by  necessary  derivation 
from  their  spiritual  power,  but  merely  and 
altogether  from  the  free  and  voluntary  indult 
of  temporal  princes,  the  Christian  Church 
had  not  so  just  cause  of  complaint. — Sander- 
son, ii.  240. 

Induperator.      This    archaic    form 


of  imperator  is  used  by  Nashe,  not 
apparently  as  a  Latin  word.  See  quota- 
tion s.  v.  Excelsitudb,  where  he  speaks 
of  the  herring  as  "this  monarchall 
fludy  indupcrator." 

Industrialism,  industry. 

Has  he  not  seen  the  Scottish  Brassmith's 
Idea  .  .  .  preparing  us,  by  indirect  but  sure 
methods,  Industrialism,  and  the  Government 
of  the  Wisest?  —  Carlyle,  Sartor  Besartus, 
Bk.  II.  ch.  iv. 

Industry.  Of  industry  =  on  pur- 
pose :  a  Latinism. 

When  Homer  made  Achilles  passionate, 
Wrathf  ull,  reuengef  ull,  and  insatiate 
In  his  affections,  what  man  will  denie 
He  did  compose  it  all  of  Industrie, 
To  let  men  see  that,  &c. 

Chapman,  Revenge  of  Bussy 
D'Ambois,  Act  III. 

Inearth,  to  bury  in  the  earth. 

The  Ethiop,  keen  of  scent, 

Detects  the  ebony, 
That  deep-inearth'd,  and  hating  light, 
A  leafless  tree,  and  barren  of  all  fruit, 
With  flM»lrnA—  feeds  her  boughs  of  raven 
grain. — Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  i. 

Inebrious,  intoxicating. 

Whilst  thou  art  mixing  fatal  wines  below, 
Such  that  with  scorching  fever  fill  our  veins, 
And  with  inebrious  fumes  distract  our  brains. 

T.  Brown,  Works,  iv.  331. 

Ineffectuality,  something  power- 
less. 

Lope  do  Vega  ....  plays  at  best,  in  the 
eyes  of  some  few,  as  a  vague  aurora-borealis, 
and  brilliant  ineffectuality. —  Carlyle,  Misc., 
iv.  144. 

Ineloquence.  See  quotation.  Mil- 
ton has  indoquent. 

To  us,  as  already  hinted,  the  Abbot's  elo- 
quence is  less  admirable  than  his  indoquence, 
his  great  invaluable  talent  of  silence. — Car- 
lyle,  Past  and  Present,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xi. 

Inertion,  sluggishness :  inertness,  or 
the  Latin  inertia,  are  more  common. 

Inaction,  bodily  and  intellectual,  pervading 
the  same  character,  cannot  but  fix  disgust 
upon  every  stage  and  every  state  of  life. 
Vice  alone  is  worse  than  such  double  iner- 
tion. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Camilla,  Bk.  I.  ch.  v. 

Inescapable,  inevitable ;  not  to  be 
eluded. 

The  limit  of  resistance  was  reached,  and 
she  had  sunk  back  helpless  within  the  clutch 
of  inescapable  anguish.  —  G.  Eliot,  Middle- 
march,  ch.  lxxx. 

She  was  looking  along  an  inescapable  path 
of  repulsive  monotony.  —  Ibid.,  Daniel  De- 
ronda,  ch.  xxvi. 


INEXCELLENCE        (  339  ) 


INFESTED 


Inexcellence,  dishonour. 

Blush,  Heaven,  to  lose  the  honour  of  thy 

nune! 
To  see  thy  footstool  set  upon  thy  head ! 
Aiid  let  no  baseness  in  thy  haughty  breast 
Sustain  a  shame  of  such  inexcellence. 

Marlowe,  2  Tamburlaine,  v.  3. 

IxexecutablEj  that  cannot  be  car- 
ried out. 

The  king  has  accepted  this  constitution, 
knowing  beforehand  that  it  will  not  serve :  he 
studies  it,  and  executes  it  in  the  hope  mainly 
that  it  will  be  found  inexecutable. — Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  V.  ch.  v. 

L\ expectable,  not  to  be  looked  for. 

What  loud  cries  did  beat  on  all  sides  at  the 
gates  of  heaven !  and  with  what  inexpectable, 
unconceivable  mercy  were  they  answered ! — 
Bp.  Hall,  Works,  v.  223. 

Inexpectant,  not   expecting.     See 

lTN  EXPECTANT. 

Loverless  and  inexpectant  of  love,  I  was  as 
safe  from  spies  in  my  heart-poverty  as  the 
beggar  from  thieves  in  his  destitution  of 
purse. — Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xiii. 

Inexpectly,  unexpectedly. 

I  startled  to  meet  so  inexpectly  with  the 
name  of  Bishop  Hall  disgracefully  ranked 
with  Priests  and  Jesuits. — Bp.  Hall,  Works, 
riii.503. 

Inkxperiencedness,  inexperience. 

The  damsel  has  three  things  to  plead  in 
her  excuse:  the  authority  of  her  parents, 
the  persuasion  of  her  friends,  and  the  inex- 
periencedness  of  her  age. — Bailey's  Erasmus, 
p.  318. 

Inexplicables,  a  euphemism  for 
trousers.     Cf.    Inexpressibles,  Inde- 

SCMBABLES,  UNMENTIONABLES. 

He  usually  wore  a  brown  frock-coat  with- 
out a  wrinkle,  light  inexplicables  without  a 
spot,  a  neat  neckerchief  with  a  remarkably 
neat  tie,  and  boots  without  a  fault. — Sketches 
by  Boz  {Mr.  Minns). 

Inexposable,  not  to  be  exposed ; 
secure. 

Those  whom  nature  or  art,  strength  or 
sleight,  have  made  inexposable  to  easy  ruin, 
may  pass  unmolested. — Adams,  i.  83. 

In  fall,  incursion. 

Lincolnshire,  infested  with  in/alls  of  Cam- 
deners,  has  its  own  malignancies  too. — 
Carlyle,  Cromwell,  i.  115. 

In  fame,  infamous. 

I  believe  it  is  the  first  time  that  a  scan- 
dalous infame  state  libel  was  honoured  with 
a  direct  encomium  in  a  solemn  History  that 
titles  itself  compleat.  —  North,  Examen,  p. 
142. 


Infamize,  to  dishonour. 

With    Bcornfull  ^laughter  (graceless)  thus 

began 
To  infamize  the  poor  old  drunken  man. 

Sylvester,  The  Arke,  577. 

Infancy,  inexpressiveness ;  silence : 
used  with  strict  etymological  propriety. 

"Where  canst  thou  show  any  word  or  deed 
of  thine  which  might  have  hastened  her 
peace?  Whatever  thou  dost  now  talk,  or 
write,  or  look  is  the  alms  of  other  men's 
active  prudence  and  zeal.  Dare  not  now  to 
say  or  do  anything  better  than  thy  former 
sloth  and  infancy.  —  Milton,  Reason  of  Ch. 
Government,  Bk.  li. 

So  darklv  do  the  Saxon  Annals  deliver 
their  meaning  with  more  than  wonted  in- 
fancy.— Ibid.,  Hist,  of  Enij.,  Bk.  v. 

Infanglement,  scheme. 

Neither  you  nor  your  niece  know  ^iow, 
with  your  fine  souls  and  fine  sense,  to  go 
out  of  the  common  femalitv  path,  when  you 
get  a  man  into  your  gin,  however  superior 
he  is  to  common  infanylements,  ana  low 
chicanery,  and  dull  and  cold  forms. — Rich- 
ardson,  Grandison,  vi.  150. 

Infaust,  unlucky. 

It  was  an  infaust  and  sinister  augury  for 
Austin  Caxton.  —  Lytton,  The  Caxtons,  Bk. 
VII.  ch.  i. 

In  feasibility,  impracticability. 

The  infeacibility  of  the  thing  they  peti- 
tioned for  to  be  done  with  justice  gave  the 
denyall  to  their  petition. — fuller,  Ch.  Hist., 
IH.  v.  42. 

Infect,  to  infest. 

A  ruler  ....  whose  office  was  ....  to 
represse  the  depredations  and  robberies  of 
Barbarians,  but  of  Saxons  especially,  who 
grievously  infected  Britaine.  —  Holland's 
Camden,  p.  325. 

Infectible,  capable  of  being  infected. 

Such  was  the  purity  and  perfection  of  this 
thy  glorious  guest,  that  it  was  not  possibly 
infectible,  nor  any  way  obnoxious  to  the 
danger  of  others'  sin. — Bp.  Hall,  Works,  ii. 
600. 

Infelonious,  not  felonious ;  not  liable 

to  legal  punishment. 

The  thought  of  that  infelonious  murder 
had  always  made  her  wince.  —  G.  Eliot, 
Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  iii. 

Infested,  become  habitual. 

Their  vitious  living  shamefully  increaseth 
and  augmenteth,  and  by  a  cursed  custome  so 
grown  and  infested  that  a  great  multitude  of 
the  religious  persons  in  such  small  houses  do 
rather  choose  to  rove  abroad  in  apostasie  than 
to  conform  themselves  to  the  observation  of 
good  religion. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  vi.  p.  310. 

z  2 


INFESTIVE 


(  34o  ) 


INHVRL 


Infestivb,  annoying.  N.  gives  tho 
word  as  not  uncommon,  but  offers  no 
example  ;  the  other  Diets,  do  not 
notice  it. 

For  I  will  all  their  ships  inflame,  with  whose 

infestivf  smoke, 
Fear-shrunk,  and  hidden  near  their  keels, 

the  oonquer'd  Greeks  shall  choke. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  viii.  151. 

Infilling,  that  which  is  used  to  fill 
up  a  hole  or  hollow. 

The  fragments  [of  pottery],  not  having 
been  deemed  of  any  value  by  the  workmen, 
were  wheeled  away,  and  buried  with  the 
infilling.— Arch.,  xliu.  122  (1871). 

Infinition,  infinitude ;  boundless- 
ness. Davies  is  speaking  of  the  horror 
caused  by  the  thought  of  annihilation. 

For  what  joy  is  so  great,  but  the  conceipt 

Of  falling  to  his  Inanition 
Of   blacke  Non-essence,  will  confound   it 
straight  ? 

Davies,  Wittes  Pilgrimage,  p.  23. 

Infinitives,  endless  quantities. 
Great  Lord,  to  whom  infinitiues  of  fame 
Flock  like  night  starres  about  the  siluer 
moooe. 
G.  Markham  (Dedic.  to  Earl  of  Sussex), 
Tragedie  of  Sir  R.  Grinuile. 
He,  that  the  spvrit  of  a  single  man 
Should  contradict  innumerable  wills, 
Fie,  that  infinitiues  of  forces  can 
Nor  may  effect  what  one  conceit  fulfills. 

Ibid.  p.  69. 
Influino,  influence. 

Canst  thon  restrain  the  pleasant  influing 
Of  Pleiades  (the  Ushers  of  the  Spring)? 

Silvester,  Job  Triumphant,  iv.  461. 

Inforkst,  to  turn  into  forest. 

Twelve  knights  or  legall  men  are  chosen  in 
euery  shire,  vpon  their  oath,  to  disparte  the 
old  forests  from  the  new ;  and  all  such  as 
were  found  to  haue  been  inforested  since 
the  first  coronation  of  Henry  the  second  to 
be  disafforested.— Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p. 
X28. 

The  South-West  part  of  this  County  is 
called  the  New  Forrest . . .  because  the  Junior 
of  all  Forrests  in  England ;  many  having 
been  dis-  none  in-forrested  since  the  Con- 
quest.—Fuller,  Worthies,  Hants. 

Inform,  allege. 

Whatsoever  hath  been  done,  hath  been 
my  only  attempt,  which,  notwithstanding, 
was  never  intended  against  her  chastity.  But 
whatsoever  hath  been  informed,  was  my  fault. 
—Sidney,  Arcadia,  Bk.  V.  p.  461. 

Infringible,  unbreakable  :  the  word, 
if  used  now,  would  rather  mean  capable 
of  being  broken  or  infringed. 


Hauing  betwixt  themselues  sealed  wit] 
their  hands  the  infringible  band  of  faith  am 
troth  in  the  heart, . . .  hee  tooke  leaue  of  hi 
faire  lady.  —  Breton,  An  olde  man's  Usioi 
P  13. 

Infructuou8,  fruitless ;  unprofitable 

The  wolf  living  is  like  Rumney  Marsh 
hyeme  malus,  mstate  moUstus,  nunguam  bonm 
.  .  Thus  every  way  is  this  wolf  infructuous- 
Adams,  ii.  120. 

Infund,  to  pour  in. 

They  are  .  .  .  only  the  ministers  of  Hii 
which  infundeth  and  poureth  into  all  me 
grace.— Becon,  ii.  562. 

Ingore,  to  clot    Cf.  Engore. 

Cut  out  this  arrow,  and  the  blood,  that  i 

ingor'd  and  dry, 
Wash  with  warm  water  from  the  wound. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xL  74] 

Ingratttity,  ingratitude. 

Did  Curtius  more  for  Rome  than  I  for  thee 
That  willingly  fto  saue  thee  from  annoy 
Of  dire  dislike  tor  ingratuitee) 
Do  take  vpon  me  to  expresse  thy  joy, 
And  so  my  Muse  in  boundlesse  seas  destroie 
Davies,  Microcosmos,  p.  19. 

Ingredient,  a  person  entering. 

If  sin  open  her  shop  of  delicacies,  Solomo 
shews  the  trap-door  and  the  vault ;  .  .  .  i 
she  discovers  the  green  and  gay  flowers  c 
delice,  he  cries  to  the  ingredients,  Latet  ampu 
in  herbd, — The  serpent  lurks  there. — A  da  mi 
i.  159. 

Inhaunt,  to  frequent  or  keep  about 

This  creeke  with  running  passadge  the 
channel  inhaunteth. — Stanykurst,  jEn.y  i.  1$ 

Inheritant,  inherent. 

By  the  light  of  grace  wee  feel©  in  ow 
selues  an  apprehension  or  participation  o 
those  graces  that  essentially  doe  onely  dwej 
and  are  inheritant  in  the  Diuine  Nature.- 
Breton,  Divine  Considerations,  p.  8. 

Inhiate,  to  gape  upon ;  to  open  th( 

mouth  (with  desire  to  seize).     Bp.  Hal 

uses  inkiation. 

How  like  gaping  wolves  do  many  of  then 
inhiate  and  gape  after  wicked  Mammon  !  — 
Becon,  i.  25a 

Inhoused,  housed. 

They  follow  her  to  hell. 
And  there,  inhoused  with  their  mother  Night 
All  foure  deuise  how  heauen  and  earth  tc 
spight. 
G.  Markham,  Tragedie  of  Sir  R.  Grinuil^ 
p.  51. 

Inhurl,  to  drive  or  cast  in. 

"Would  God  your  captayn  with  sootherne 

blastpuf  inhurled 
Heere  made  his  arriual. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.  559. 


TNIMICITIOUS  (  34i  )         INOBLIGALITY 


Inimicitious,  hostile. 

Tia  wrote  ...  to  drive  the  gall  and  other 
bitter  juices  from  the  gall-bladder,  liver,  and 
sweet-bread  of  his  majesty's  subjects,  with 
ill  the  inimicitious  passions  which  belong  to 
them,  down  into  their  duodenums. — Stern*, 
Trist.  Shandy,  iii.  178. 

LVIQUITABLE,  Unjust. 

Who  ever  pretended  to  gainsay  or  resist 
in  Act  of  Parliament,  although,  by  natural 
possibility,  it  may  be  as  inimitable  as  any 
sction  of  a  single  person  can  be?  —  North, 
Esatnen,  p.  333. 

His  lordship  was  sensible  of  the  prodigious 
injustice  and  iniquitable  torment  inflicted 
upon  suitors  by  vexations  and  false  advers- 
iries.— Ibid.,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  73. 

Iniquitably,  unjustly. 

He  used  to  exaggerate  the  monstrous  im- 
pudence of  counsel  that  insisted  so  iniquit" 
eHy.—Xorth,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  68. 

Ix jealous,  to  make  jealous. 

They  lined  together  in  that  amitie  as  on[e] 
bed  and  boord  is  sayd  to  haue  serued  them 
both,  which  so  iniealosed  the  olde  king  as  he 
called  home  his  sonne.  —  Daniel,  Hist,  of 
Eny.*  p.  93. 

Ixjelly,  to  bury  in  jelly. 

A  pasty  costly-made, 
Where  quail  and  pigeon,  lark  and  leveret  lay, 
Like  fossils  of  the  rock,  with  golden  yolks 
Imbedded  and  injellied. 

Tennyson,  Audley  Court. 

Inkle,  to  guess :  inkling  as  a  sub- 
stantive is  not  uncommon. 

tt  John,"  cried  my  mother, "  you  are  mad ! " 
And  yet  she  turned  as  pale  as  death,  for 
women  are  so  quick  at  turning,  and  she 
inkled  what  it  waa.—Blackmore,  Lorna  Doone, 
ch.  Iii. 

Inkle-beggar,  a  beggar  that  sells 
cheap  tape,  &c. 

From  the  courtier  to  the  carter,  from  the 
kdy  to  the  inkle-beggar,  there  is  this  excess. 
—Adams,  ii.  437. 

Inkle- we  aver,  a  weaver  of  inkle,  a 
sort  of  inferior  tape.  R.  notices  the 
Baying  "  as  thick  as  inkle-weavers  "  as 
being  common  in  the  North,  but  gives 
no  example.  The  manufacture  of 
inkle  was  introduced  by  foreign  weav- 
ers (refugees  for  religion  in  sixteenth 
century) ;  these  of  course  consorted 
much  together ;  hence  the  phrase. 

•  Why,  she  and  you  were  as  great  as  two 
i>tkle- weavers  ;  I  am  sure  I  have  seen  her  hug 
you  as  the  devil  hugged  the  witch.— Swift, 
Polite  Conversation  (Oonv.  i.). 

The  clerk  called  the  banes  of  marriage 
betwixt  Opaniah  Lashmeheygo  and  Tapitha 


Brample,  spinster ;  he  mought  as  well  have 
called  her  inkle-  weaver,  for  she  never  spun  an 
hank  of  yarn  in  her  life. — Smollett,  Humphrey 
Clinker,  ii.  184. 

Inleck,  hole  where  water  leaks  in. 

Graunt  plancks  from  forrest  too  clowt  oure 
battered  inlecks. — Stanyhurst,  Mn.,  iii.  538. 

Inmeats,  entrails.  The  word  is  given 
in  Peacock's  Manley  and  Corringham 
Glossary  (E.  D.  S.)  as  meaning  "the 
edible  viscera  of  pigs,  fowls,  &c." 

Get  thee  gone, 
Or  I  shall  try  six  inches  of  my  knife 
On  thine  own  inmeats  first. 

Taylor,  Ph.  van  Art.,  Pt.  II.  in.  1. 

Inmore,  inner. 

Of  these  Angles,  some  part  having  passed 
forward  into  the  inmore  quarters  of  Ger- 
manic, . .  .  went  as  farre  as  Italic. — Holland's 
Camden,  p.  131. 

Innascibility,  incapability  of  being 

born  or  begotten ;  an  attribute  of  God 

the  Father. 

Innascibility  we  must  admitt 
The  Father. 

Davies,  Minim  in  Modum,  p.  17. 

Innect,  to  join  together. 

He . . .  gave  (in  allusion  of  his  two  Bishop- 
ricks,  which  he  successively  enjoyed)  two 
annulets  innected  in  his  paternal  coat. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Durham  (i.  329). 

Innodate,  to  knot  up ;  to  implicate. 

Her  subjects  are  declared  absolved  from 
the  oath  of  allegiance,  and  every  other  thing 
due  unto  her  whatsoever.  And  those  which 
from  henceforth  obey  her  are  innodated  with 
the  anathema. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  IX.  ii.  24. 

Innominables,  trousers ;  inexpress- 
ibles, q.  v. 

The  lower  part  of  his  dress  represented 
innominables  and  hose  in  one. — Southey,  The 
Doctor,  p.  688. 

Innovative,  making  changes,  or  in- 
troducing novelties. 

Some  writers  are,  as  to  manner  and  diction, 
conservative,  while  others  are  innovative. — 
Hall,  Modern  English,  p.  27. 

Innoxiousness,  harmle8snes8. 

I  should  hold  it  wrong  to  make  over  to 
any  other  judgement  than  my  own  the  dan- 
ger or  the  innoxiousness  of  any  and  every 
manuscript  that  has  been  cast  into  my  power. 
—Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,vu.  373: 

Inobligality,  unbindingness. 

So  apparent  is  the  repugnancy  of  the  mat- 
ter of  this  vow  with  the  precepts  of  Christian 
charily  and  mercy,  that  if  all  I  have  hitherto 
said  were  of  no  force,  this  repugnancy  alone 


IN01L 


(  342  )  INSEPARIZED 


were  enough,  without  other  evidence,  to 
prove  the  unlawfulness,  and  consequently 
the  invalidity  or  inobliyality  thereof. — San- 
derson, v.  67. 

Inoil,  to  anoint  The  extract  is  from 
a  speech  of  Crantner's  at  the  coronation 
of  Edward  VI.,  1646. 

The  oil,  if  added,  is  hut  a  ceremony :  if  it 
he  wanting,  that  king  is  yet  a  perfect  mon- 
arch notwithstanding,  and  God's  anointed,  as 
well  as  if  he  was  inoiled.—Strype,  Cranmer, 
Bk.  II.  ch.  i. 

Inopinable,  inconceivable. 

These  eight  miles  or  days'  journeys  may 
be  called  paradoxa,  that  is  to  say,  inopinable, 
incredible,  and  unbelievable  sayings;  for  if 
Christ  had  not  spoken  it  Himself,  who  should 
have  believed  it? — Latimer,  i.  476. 

Inordinancy,  extravagance ;  excess* 
The  Diets,  give  inordinacy. 

In  order  to  reform  this  inordinancy  of  his 
desires,  his  patron  addressed  him  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner. — H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality, 
i.  12. 

I  scarce  remember  to  have  experienced  the 
smallest  discontent,  save  what  arose  from  the 
inordinancy  of  my  wife's  affection  for  me. — 
Ibid.  i.  328. 

Inpath,  an  intricate  way ;  via  invia, 

Italy  is  hence  parted  by  long  crosse  dan- 
gerous inpaths. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iii.  396. 

Inpravable,  incorruptible. 

He  ...  set  before  his  eyes  alwav  the  eve 
of  the  everlasting  judge  and  the  inpravable 
judging-place. — Becon,  i.  105. 

Inquirist,  inquirer. 

But  the  inquirist  keeping  himself  on  the 
reserve  as  to  his  employers,  the  girl  refused 
to  tell  the  day  or  to  give  him  other  particu- 
lars.— Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  iv.  321. 

Inquisite,  to  inquire  into. 

He  inquisited  with  justice  and  decorum, 
and  determined  with  as  much  lenity  towards 
his  enemies  as  ever  prince  did. — North,  Life 
of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  40. 

It  is  a  transcendent  justification  to  be  thus 
inquisited,  and  in  every  respect  acquitted. — 
Ibid.,  Exarnen,  p.  621. 

Inquisitress,  female  inquisitor. 

The  innocent  intrigue,  abetted  by  the 
poetic  Julia,  is  brought  to  light  by  that 
black-haired  inquisitress. —  Phillips,  Essays 
from  the  Times,  ii.  326. 

Little  Jesuit  inquisitress  as  she  was,  she 
could  see  things  in  a  true  light. — Miss  Bronte, 
Villeite,  ch.  xxvi 

Inroder,  invader. 

The  Danes  never  acquired  in  this  land  a 
long  and  peaceable  possession  thereof,  living 


here  rather  as  inroders  than  inhabitants. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  ch.  xxiv. 

Inrush,  to  rush  in. 

As  the  land  draweth  backward,  the  sea . . . 
inrusheth  upon  a  little  region  called  Keimcs. 
—Holland's  Camden,  p.  654. 

Inrush,  irruption. 

A  long  and  lonely  voyage,  with  its  mono- 
tonous days  and  sleepless  nights,  its  sickness  1 
and  heart-loneliness,  has  given  me  oppor- 
tunities for  analysing  my  past  history  which 
were  impossible  then  amid  the  ceaseless  in- 
rush of  new  images,  the  ceaseless  ferment  of 
their  recombination  in  which  my  life  was 
passed  from  sixteen  to  twenty-five.  —  C. 
Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  vii. 

In  asking  Deronda  if  he  knew  Hebrew, 
Mordecai  was  so  possessed  by  the  new  inrush 
of  belief,  that  he  had  forgotten  the  absence 
of  any  other  condition  to  the  fulfilment  of 
his  hopes. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch. 
xxxviii. 

Ins   and   outs,  windings;    various 

turns. 

Follow  their  whimsies  and  their  ins  and 
outs  at  the  consulto  when  the  Prince  was 
among  them. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i. 
152. 

Ixsea,  to  surround  by  the  sea. 

The  sun  cast  many  a  glorious  beam 
On  our  bright  armours,  horse  and  foot  insca'd 
together  there. — Chapman,  Iliad,  xi.  637. 

Insensible,  a  thoroughly  apathetic  or 
hard-hearted  person. 

Nay,  would'st  thou  believe  it?  those 
brawny  insensibles  the  chairmen  take  it  to 
heart,  and  threaten  to  renounce  flip  and  all 
fours  since  thou  hast  decreed  to  leave  Eng- 
land.— T.  Brown,  Works,  iv.  193. 

His  reason  and  the  force  of  his  resolutions 
enabled  him  on  all  occasions  to  contain  him- 
self, and  to  curb  the  very  first  risings  of  pas- 
sion, and  that  in  such  a  degree  that  he  was 
taken  almost  for  an  insensible. — North,  Life 
of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  53. 

What  an  insensible  must  have  been  my 
cousin,  had  she  not  been  proud  of  being 
Lady  Grandison. — Richardson,  Grandison,  vi. 
405. 

Insensiblist,  an  apathetic  man  ;  in 
the  extract  =  one  who  affects  apathy. 

Mr.  Meadows,  .  .  .  since  he  commenced 
insensiblist,  has  never  once  dared  to  be 
pleased,  nor  ventured  for  a  moment  to  look 
in  good  humour. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Cecilia, 
Bk.  IV.  ch.  ii. 

Inseparizkd,  inseparable.  Sylvester 
says  that  Diocletian 

Knew  well  the  Cares  from  Crowns  tn- 
separizd. — Memorials  of  Mortalitie,  st.  43. 


INSEQUENT 


(  343  ) 


INSURANCE 


Insequent,  subsequent. 

The  debt  was  not  cancell'd  to  that  rigid 
and  hard  servant,  for  if  he  had  his  Apocha 
or  quietance,  to  speak  after  the  manner  of 
men,  he  were  free  from  all  insequent 
demands. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  25. 

The  storm  will  gather,  and  burst  out  into 
a  greater  tempest  in  all  insequent  meetings. 
— Ibid.  i.  50. 

Lnserene,  to  disturb. 

Death  stood  by, 
Whose  gastly  presence  inserenes  my  face. 

Dairies,  Holy  Roods,  p.  18. 

Inseverable,  not  to  be  severed. 

We  had  suffered  so  much  together,  and 
the  filaments  connecting  them  with  my 
heart  were  ...  so  inseverable. — Dt  Quineey, 
Antob.  Sketches,  i.  88. 

Insidiation,  guile. 

Though  heaven  be  sure  and  secure  from 
violent  robbers,  yet  these  by  a  wily  insidia- 
tion enter  into  it,  and  rob  God  of  His  honour. 
— Adams,  i.  131. 

Ixsighted,  possessed  of  insight. 

Justus  Lipeius,  deepely  insighted  in  under- 
standing old  authors.  —  Hollands  Camden, 
p.  687. 

Insolent,  an  insolent  person. 

When  the  insolent  saw  that  I  did  not  dress 
as  he  would  have  had  me,  he  drew  out  his 
face  glouting  to  half  the  length  of  my  arm. 
— Richardson,  Grandison,  iv.  284. 

Insolid,  light. 

The  second  defect  in  the  eye  is  an  insolid 
levity.— Adams,  ii.  881. 

Insomxolence,  sleeplessness. 

Twelve  by  the  kitchen  clock !  still  restless ! 
One !  O,  Doctor,  for  one  of  thy  comfortable 
composing  draughts !  Two !  here's  a  case  of 
insomnolence  ! — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  vi. 
A.  1. 

Ambition's  fever,  envy's  jaundiced  eye. 
Detraction  that  exulcerates,  aguish  fear, 
Suspicion's  wasting  pale  insomnolenee, 
With  hatred's  canker. 

Taylor,  Edwin  the  Fair,  i.  2. 

Inspect  into,  to  inspect ;  examine : 

inspicere  in  is  sometimes  used  in  Latin. 

He  had  not  more  vigilantly  inspected  into 
her  sentiments  than  he  had  guarded  his  own 
from  a  similar  scrutiny.  —  Mad.  D'Arblay, 
Cecilia,  Bk.  I.  ch.  i. 

Inspectress,  female  inspector  or 
overlooker. 

Inspectress  General  of  the  royal  geer.— 
Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  36. 

Instant,  to  urge. 

Pilate  would  shed  no  innocent  blood,  but 
laboured  to  mitigate  the  bishops'  fury,  and 


instanted  them,  as  they  were  religious,  to 
shew  godly  favour.  —  Bale,  Select  Works, 
p.  242. 

Instant,  instance;  pressing  appli- 
cation. 

Upon  her  instant  unto  the  Romanes  for 
aide,  Garisons  were  set,  Cohorts  and  wings  of 
foot  and  horse  were  sent,  which  after  sundry 
skirmishes  with  variable  event,  delivered  her 
person  out  of  perill.  —  Holland's  Camden, 
p.  687. 

Instanter,  instantly. 

Ay,  Beauty  the  Girl  and  Love  the  Boy, 
Bright  as  they  are  with  hope  and  joy, 

How  their  souls  would  sadden  instanter, 
To  remember  that  one  of  those  wedding  bells 
Which  ring  so  merrily  through  the  dells 
Is  the  same  that  knells 
Our  last  farewells, 
Only  broken  into  a  canter. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Institution.   "  The  institution  "  was 

a  common  euphemism  for  slavery  in 

America. 

I  am  not  going  into  the  slavery  question, 
I  am  not  an  advocate  for  "  the  institution." 
— Thackeray,  Roundabout  Papers,  xvii. 

Institutionary,  pertaining  to  insti- 
tution to  a  preferment. 

Dr.  Grant  had  brought  on  apoplexy  and 
death  by  three  great  institutionary  dinners 
in  one  week. — Miss  Austen,  Mansfield  Park, 
ch.  zlvii. 

Institutress,  foundress. 

The  queen  was  then  lying  in  state  in  this 
coffin  at  the  convent  at  Ch  ail  lot,  near  Paris, 
of  which  she  had  been  the  institutress  and 
patroness. — Archaol.,  nri.  549  (1827). 

Instreaming,  access ;  flowing  in. 

He  put  out  his  ungloved  hand.  Mordecai, 
clasping  it  eagerly,  seemed  to  feel  a  new 
instreaming  of  confidence. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel 
Deronda,  ch.  zl. 

In8tbumentalisr,  to  make  or  build 
up. 

In  the  making  of  the  first  man,  God  first 
instrumentalised  a  perfect  body,  and  then 
infused  a  living  soul. — Adams,  iii.  147. 

Insulphured,  impregnated  with 

sulphur. 

Meere  heate 
Of  aire  insulphur'd  makes  the  Patient  sweate. 

Sandys,  Travels,  p.  265. 

Insurance,  engagement ;  betrothal. 

And  dyd  not  I  knowe  afore  of  the  insurance 

Betweene  Gawyn  Goodlucke  and  Christian 

Custance? — Udal,  Roister  Doister,  iv.  6. 


INSURGENCE  (  344  )         INTERFRICTION 


Insurgence,  rising  on  or  against 

There  was  a  moral  insurgence  in  the  mind* 
of  grave  men  against  the  Court  of  Home. — 
G.  Eliot,  liomola,  ch.  lxri. 

Insurrection  er,  a  rebel. 

What  had  the  people  got  if  the  Parlia- 
ment, instead  of  guarding  the  Grown,  had 
colleagued  with  Venner  and  other  insur- 
rectioners  ? — North,  Examen,  p.  418. 

Insurrector,  insurgent;  rebel. 

They  not  onely  sided  with  his  Gherionian 
insurrectors  against  him,  but  .  .  .  they  most 
basely  for  a  sum  of  mouy  delivered  him 
over  to  the  plesure  of  his  Gherionian 
enemies. — Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  129. 


Inswathe,  to  infold. 


Hay 


Pent  in  a  roofless  close  of  ragged  stones  ; 
Inswathed  sometimes  in  wandering  mist. 
Tennyson,  St.  Simeon  Stylites 

Intake,  enclosure  of  land  from  a 
common.  See  Peacock's  Manley  and 
Corringham  Glossary  (E.  D.  S.). 

After  the  Norman  Conquest,  when  a  great 
part  of  the  first  City  was  turn'd  into  a 
Castle  by  King  William  I.,  it  is  probable 
they  added  the  last  intake  southward  in  the 
angle  of  the  Witham. — Defoe,  Tour  thro1  G. 
Britain,  iii.  4. 

Intemperant,  intemperate. 

Soche  as  be  intemperaunt,  that  is,  foloers 
of  their  naughtie  appetites  and  lustes,  doe  in 
this  poinct  erre,  that  thei  tbinke  those 
thynges  to  be  sweete  and  honest  whiche  are 
nothyng  so. — UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p. 
15. 

Intenbate,  to  strengthen  or  in- 
tensify. 

Poor  Jean  Jacques !  .  . .  with  all  misform- 
ations  of  Nature  intensated  to  the  verge  of 
madness  by  unfavourable  fortune. — Carlyle, 
Misc.,  iii.  211. 

As  if  to  intensate  the  influences  that  are 
not  of  race,  what  we  think  of  when  we  talk 
of  English  traits  really  narrows  itself  to  a 
small  district. — Emerson,  Eng.  Traits,  ch.  iv. 

Intensation,    stretch;   ascending 

climax. 

There  are  cooks  too,  we  know,  who  boast 
of  their  diabolic  ability  to  cause  the  patient, 
by  successive  intensations  of  their  art,  to  eat 
with  new  and  ever  new  appetite,  till  he 
explode  on  the  spot. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iii.  221. 

Interact,  to  act  reciprocally,  one  on 
another. 

The  two  complexions,  or  two  styles  of 
mind — the  perceptive  class,  and  the  practical 
finality  class — are  ever  in  counterpoise,  inter- 
acting  mutually. — Emerson,  Eng.  Traits,  ch. 
xiv. 


Intercomplexity,  entanglement. 

IntercompUxities  had  arisen  between  all 
complications  and  interweaving*  of  descent 
from  three  original  strands. — De  Quincey, 
Spanish  Nun,  sect.  20. 

-  Interconnection,  mutual  connection. 

There  have  been,  and  there  are  cases 
where  two  stars  dissemble  an  interconnection 
which  they  really  have,  and  other  cases 
where  they  simulate  an  interconnection  which 
they  have  not. — De  Quincey,  System  of  the 
Heavens. 

Intercurled,  enlaced. 

Queen  Helen,  whose  Jacinth-hair  curled 
by  nature,  but  intercurled  by  art  (like  a  fine 
brook  through  golden  sands),  had  a  rope  of 
fair  pearl. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  69. 

Intercut,  to  intersect. 

There  was  another  reson  which  induced 
me  to  this  transmutation,  for  it  related  to 
the  quality  of  the  countrey  whence  he 
sprung,  which  is  so  inlayed  and  every  where 
so  intercutt  and  indented  with  the  sea  or 
fresh  navigable  rivers  that  one  cannot  tell 
what  to  call  it,  either  water  or  land. — Howell, 
Parly  of  feasts,  p.  5. 

Interdestructiveness,  mutual  de- 
8tructiveness. 

There  are  antipathies  and  properties  inter- 
changeably irreconcilable  and  destructive  to 
each  other,  that  fit  one  human  being  to  be 
the  source  of  another's  misery.  Beyond 
doubt  I  bad  found  this  true  opposition  and 
interdestructiveness  in  Clifford.  —  Godtein, 
Mandeville,  ii.  103. 

Interessado,  an  interested  person. 

Should  not  then  these  interessados  resolve 
upon  some  desperate  fact,  costa  che  cost  a  y  to 
sustain  the  credit  of  Oates,  which  was 
notoriously  sinking?  —  North,  Exavun,  p. 
198. 

Interbstedness,  a  regard  for  one's 
own  private  views  or  profit.  Dis- 
interestedness, to  express  the  reverse  of 
this,  is  common. 

I  might  give  them  what  degree  of  credit  I 
pleased,  and  take  them  with  abatement  for 
Mr.  Solmes*s  interestedness,  if  I  thought  fit. — 
Richardson,  Of.  Harlow,  ii.  243. 

Interflow,  to  flow  in.  Holland  also 
uses  the  substantive  enter/low,  q.  v. 

What  way  the  current  cold 
Of  Northern  Ocean  with  strong  tides  doth 
interflow  and  swell. 

Holland's  Camden,  p.  12. 

Interfriotion,  rubbing  together. 

Kindling  a  fire  by  interfriction  of  dry 
sticks  was  a  secret  almost  exclusively  Indian. 
— De  Quincey,  Spanish  Nun,  sect.  16. 


1NTERGERN 


(  345  )       INT0LERAB1LITY 


Intergkbx,  to  interchange  grins  or 
snarls. 

The  eager  dogs  are  cheer 'd  with  claps  and 

cryes, 
The  angry  beast  to  his  best  chamber  flies, 
And  (angled  there)  sits  grimly  inter-geming, 
And   all  the  earth  rings  with  the  terryes 

yearning. — Sylvester,  The  Decay \  938. 

Interlardment,  intermixture.  Jn 
the  extract  it  means  insertion  of  di- 
gressions, reflections,  &c. 

I  know  thou  cheerest  the  hearts  of  all  thy 
acquaintance  with  such  detached  parts  of 
mine  [letters]  as  tend  not  to  dishonour 
characters  or  reveal  names ;  and  this  gives 
me  an  appetite  to  oblige  thee  by  interlard- 
ment. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  ill.  89. 

Interlock,  to  lock  or  clasp  together. 

I  felt  my  fingers  work  and  my  hands  inter' 
lock. — Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xxvii. 

Interlocutrice,  a  woman  con- 
versing. 

Have  the  goodness  to  serve  her  as  audi- 
tress  and  interlocutriee.  —  C.  Bronte,  Jane 
Eyre,  ch.  ziv. 

Intermingledom,  mixture. 

The  case  is  filled  with  bits  and  ends  to 
ribbons,  patterns,  and  so  forth,  of  all  manner 
of  colours,  faded  and  fresh ;  with  intermingle' 
dome  of  gold-beaters'  skin  plasters  for  a  cut 
finger. — Richardson,  Grandison,  vi.  184. 

Iktebmiss,  respite  ;  interval. 

They  think  not  fit  to  trust  the  care  to 
others,  but  do  become  themselves  the  super- 
visors, which,  for  a  time,  of  force  enforced 
their  absence ;  in  which  short  inter  miss  the 
king  relapseth  to  his  former  errour. — Hist, 
of  Edward  II.,  p.  94. 

Intermission,  intervention. 

It  was  provided  ....  that  such  Contro- 
versies .  .  .  should  be  decided  by  the  ordin- 
ary course  of  Justice,  or  by  some  amicable 
and  friendly  Composition  amongst  them- 
selves ;  and  that  no  other  .  .  .  towns,  whom 
those  Countries  did  no  way  concern,  shall  in 
any  part  meddle  by  way  of  friendly  inter- 
mission tending  to  an  accord. — Hey  tins  Hist, 
of  the  Presbyterians,  p.  126. 

Intebnity,  inwardness;  interior 
presence. 

The  internity  of  His  ever-living  light  kin- 
dled up  an  externity  of  corporeal  irradiation. 
—H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  ii.  249. 

Internunciess,  female  envoy. 

Iris,  that  had  place 
Of  internunciess  from  the  Gods. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  zv.  140. 

Internuncioship,  agency  as  a  mes- 
senger. 


Several  billets  passed  between  us  before  I 
went  out,  by  the  internuncioship  of  Dorcas. 
— Richardson,  CI.  Harlow*,  v.  6. 

Interpasb,  to  pass  between. 

Many  skirmishes  interpassed,  with  surprise- 
ments  of  castles,  but  m  the  end  a  treaty 
of  peace  was  propounded. — Daniel,  Hist,  of 
Eng.,  p.  47. 

Interpoler. 

Tour  ladies,  after  they  have  travelled 
thither  with  some  liberal  interpoler,  carry 
home  with  them  more  than  their  husbands 
are  worth. — T.  Brown,  Works,  in.  64. 

Interpolity,  exchange  of  citizenship. 

You  whose  whole  theory  is  an  absolute 
sermon  upon  emigration,  and  the  transplant- 
ing and  interpolity  of  our  species,  you,  sir, 
should  be  the  last  man  to  chain  your  son, 
your  elder  son,  to  the  soil. — Lytton,  Caxtons, 
Bk.  XIII.  ch.  i. 

Intertraffic,  to  trade  together. 

Through  peace  and  perfect  government  this 
land 
May  in  her  rich  commodities  abound ; 
Which  may  confirm  the  neighbour-friend- 
ship's band, 
And  intertrafficke  with  them  tonne  for 
pound. — Davies,  Microcosmos,  p.  61. 

Intertwine,  interweaving ;  mixture. 

Ill 
Such  intertwine  beseems  triumphal  wreaths 
Strewed  before  thy  advancing. 

Coleridge,  To  Wordsworth. 

Intervisit,  to  exchange  visits. 

Here  we  trifled,  and  bathed,  and  inter' 
visited  with  the  company  who  frequent  the 
place  for  health. — Evelyn,  Diary,  June  27, 
1664. 

Interwound,  to  exchange  wounds  ; 
to  wound  mutually. 

The  Captain  chooses  but  three  hundred  out, 
And  arminp  each  but  with  a  trump  and  torch, 
About  a  mighty  pagan  hoast  doth  march, 
Making  the  same,  through  their  dead  sodain 

sound, 
With  their  owne  arms  themselves  to  inter' 

wound. — Sylvester,  The  Captaines,  823. 

Intext,  contents. 

Besides  rare  sweets,  I  had  a  book  which  none 
Co'd  reade  the  intext  but  my  selfe  alone. 
Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  243. 

Intimado,  confidant ;  close  friend. 

Did  not  I  say  he  was  the  Earl's  Intimado  ? 
— North,  Examen,  p.  23. 

There  is  a  gentleman  of  no  good  character 
(an  intimado  of  Mr.  Lovelace)  who  is  a  con- 
stant visitor  of  her. — Richardson,  CI.  Hav 
lowe,  vii.  359. 

Intolerability,  unbearableness ;  ex- 
cessive badness. 


INTOXICABLE  ,        (  346  ) 


INVICT 


The  goodness  of  yoar  true  pun  is  in  the 
direct  ratio  of  its  intoler ability. — E.  A .  Poe, 
Marginalia,  Introd. 

Intoxicable,  capable  of  being  in- 
toxicated. 

If  the  powers  they  were  to  lean  on  were 
not  willing  friends,  and  the  people  not  so 
intoxicable  as  to  fall  in  with  their  brutal 
assistance,  no  good  could  come  of  any  false 
plot. — North,  Examen,  p.  314. 

Intoxicate,  to  poison. 

What  is  to  be  looked  for  in  a  dispenser? 
This,  surely : .  .  .  that  he  give  meat  in  time ; 
give  it,  I  say,  and  not  sell  it ;  meat,  I  say, 
and  not  poison.  For  the  one  doth  intoxicate 
and  slay  the  eater,  the  other  feedeth  and 
nourisheth  him. — Latimer,  i.  35. 

Because  the  poyson  of  this  opinion  does  so 
easily  enter,  and  so  strangely  intoxicate,  I 
shall  presume  to  give  an  antidote  against  it. 
— South,  Sermons,  iii.  144. 

Intracted,  drawn  in. 

For  cruell  thirst  came  out  of  Cvren  land, 
Where  she  was  fostred  on  that  burning  sand, 
With  bote  intracted  tongue,  and  sonken  een. 

Hudson,  Judith,  iii.  299. 

Intrado,  income.  See  Entrado  and 
Entratas.  In  the  third  extract  the 
word = entry. 

The  Pope's  income  ran  the  highest  in 
England  under  King  Henry  the  third  and 
King  Edward  the  first,  before  the  statute  of 
Mortmaine,  and  after  it  that  of  Premunire 
was  made,  for  these  much  abated  his  intrado. 
—Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  V.  iii.  35. 

The  royal  intrado  was  so  much  increased 
in  the  late  King's  time,  that  for  the  better 
managing  of  it  the  King  erected  first  the 
court  of  Augmentation,  and  afterwards  the 
court  of  Surveyors. — Heylin,  Hist,  of  Ref,  i. 
286. 

And  now  my  lady  makes  her  intrado,  and 
begins  the  great  work  of  the  day. — Gentle* 
man  Instructed,  p.  117. 

Intrain,  to  draw  on;    to  beguile. 

See  s.  v.  Entrain. 

Th'  Hebrew  Captain  then 
Flies  as  affeard,  and  with  him  all  his  men 
Disorderly  retire,  still  faining  so 
Till  (politik)  be  hath  intrayn'd  the  foe 
Bight  to  his  ambush. 

Sylvester,  The  Captaines,  379. 

Intrico,  intricacy. 

The  potions  of  school  divinity  wrought 
easily  with  him,  so  that  he  was  not  lost  a 
whit  in  their  intricoes.  —  Hacket,  Life  of 
Williams,  i.  12. 

Intriguess,  a  scheming  woman. 

His  family  was  very  ill  qualified  for  that 
place,  his  lady  being  a  most  violent  intriguess 
in  business. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford, 
i.  168. 


The  wife  for  her  part . .  .  was  a  compleat 
intriguess. — Ibid.,  Era  men,  p.  197. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  a  word  used  in 
the  days  of  Charles  II.,  and  still  intelligible 
in  our  times,  should  have  become  obsolete  ; 
viz.,  the  feminine  for  intriguer — an  intrigues*. 
See  the  Life  of  Lord  Keeper  North. — Miss 
Edgetcorth,  Manoeuvring,  ch.  i. 

Intriguish,  connected  with  plot  or 
intrigue. 

Considering  the  assurance  and  application 
of  women,  especially  to  affairs  that  are  in- 
triguish, we  must  conclude  that  the  chief 
address  was  to  Mrs.  Wall.— North,  Examen, 
p.  193. 

Intboduct,  to  introduce. 

The  Chaplain's  full  and  absolute  parts  did 
introduct  him  to  this  love  and  liking.  — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  29. 

Inturn,  a  term  in  wrestling.  See 
Halliwell  $.  v. 

When  th'  hardy  Major,  skilled  in  wars, 
To  make  quick  end  of  fight  prepares, 
By  strength  o'er  buttock  cross  to  hawl  him, 
Aid  with  a  trip  i'  th*  inturn  mawl  him. 

Wrfey,  Collin's  Walk,  cant.  2. 

Inusitate,  unusual. 

I  find  some  inusitate  expressions  about 
some  mysteries  which  are  scarcely  intelligible 
or  explicable. — Bramhall,  ii.  61. 

Inustion,  burning. 

A  kingdom  brought  him  to  tyranny, 
tyranny  to  .  . .  inustion  of  other  countries, 
among  which  Israel  felt  the  smart  in  the 
burning  of  her  cities  and  massacring  her 
inhabitants.— Adams,  ii.  S54. 

Invectiveness,  abusiveness. 

Some  wonder  at  his  invectiveness  ;  I  wonder 
more  that  he  inveigheth  so  little. — Fuller, 
Worthies,  Hants  (i.  414). 

Inveigh  on,  to  attack  with  re- 
proaches. R.  gives  one  example  of 
inveigh  at;  otherwise  all  the  extracts 
in  the  Diets,  give  the  word  with  the 
usual  preposition,  against. 

I  can  hardly  inhold  from  inveighing  on  his 
memory. — Fuller,  Hist,  of  Camb.,  viii.  16. 

Investion,  investiture. 

We  knew,  my  lord,  before  we  brought  the 

crown, 
Intending  your  investion  so  near 
The  residence  of  your  despised  brother, 
The  lords  would  not  be  too  exasperate 
To  injury  or  suppress  your  worthy  title. 

Marlowe,  1  Tamburlaine,  i.  1. 

Invict,  unconquered. 

Who  weens  to  vanquish  him  makes  him 
invict.  —  Sylvester,  Trophies  of  Hen.  the 
Great,  151. 


IN  VINA  TE 


(  347  )      IRREFRAGABILITY 


Invinate,  incorporated  with  wine. 

Christ  should  be  impanate  and  invinate. — 
Cranmer,  i.  305. 

Invite,  invitation. 

The  Lamprey  swims  to  his  Lord's  invites. 
— Sandys,  Travels,  p.  305. 

Everybody  bowed  and  accepted  the  invite 
but  me,  and  I  thought  fitting  not  to  hear  it, 
for  I  have  no  intention  of  snapping  at  invites 
from  the  eminent. — Mad.  DyArblay,  Diary , 
i.  105. 

Adepts  in  every  little  meanness  or  contriv- 
ance likely  to  bring  about  an  invitation  (or, 
as  they  call  it  with  equal  good  taste,  an 
invite). — Th.  Hook,  Man  of  Many  Friends. 

Guest  after  guest  arrived  :  the  invites  had 
been  excellently  arranged. — Sketches  by  Boz 
{Steam  Excursion). 

Involuble,  immovable.  Sylvester 
speaks  of  God  as 

Infallible,  involuble,  insensible.  —  Little 
Bartas,  161. 

Involute,  involved :  also  used  sub- 
stantival ly. 

The  style  is  so  involute  that  one  cannot 
help  fancying  it  must  be  falsely  constructed. 
— E.  A.  Poe,  Marginalia,  oxvii. 

Far  more  of  our  deepest  thoughts  and 
feelings  pass  to  us  through  perplexed  com- 
binations of  concrete  objects,  pass  to  us  as 
involutes  (if  I  may  coin  that  word)  in  com- 
pound experiences  incapable  of  being  disen- 
tangled, than  ever  reach  us  directly,  and  in 
their  own  abstract  shapes.  —  De  Quincey, 
Autob.  Sketches,  ch.  i. 

Inwall,  inner  wall. 

The  hinges  piecemeal  flew,  and  through  the 

fervent  little  rock 
Tb under 'd  a  passage;   with  his  weight  thf 

inwall  his  breast  did  knock. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xii.  448. 

In-yoat,  to  pour  in.    See  L.  *.  v. 

yoU. 

O  that  my  words  (the  words  I  now  assever) 
Were  writ,  were  printed,  and  (to  last  for 

ever) 
Were  grav'n  in  Marble  with  an  yron  pen 
With  Lead  in-yoated  (to  fill  up  a?en). 

Sylvester,  Job  Triumphant,  ii.  271. 

I  0  U,  a  promise  to  pay. 

Hee  teacheth  od  f  ellowes  play  tricks  with 
their  creditors,  who  instead  of  payments 
write  I  O  V,  and  so  scoffe  many  an  honest 
man  out  of  his  goods. — Breton,  Courtier  and 
Countryman,  p.  9. 

Ieacund,  passionate. 

A  spirit  cross-grained,  fantastic,  iracund, 
incompatible. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  87. 

Iracundiously,  angrily. 

He, .  .  .  drawing  oat  his  knife  most  iracun- 


diously, at  one  whiske  lopt  off  his  head. — 
Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffs  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  166). 

Ibid,  the  circle  round  the  pupil  of 
the  eye :  iris  is  more  usual. 

Brown  eyes  with  a  benignant  light  in  their 
irids,  and  a  fine  pencilling  of  long  lashes 
round,  relieved  the  whiteness  of  her  large 
front. — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  v. 

Many  a  sudden  ray  levelled  from  the  irid 
under  his  well-charactered  brow.  —  Ibid., 
Villette,  ch.  xvi. 

Irons.  To  have  many  irons  in  the 
fire  =  to  have  many  plans  or  occupa- 
tions. To  pat  every  iron  in  the  fire  = 
to  try  every  means. 

Elaiana . . .  hath  divers  nurseries  to  supplie, 
many  irons  perpetually  in  the  fire. — Howell, 
Dodonas  Grove,  p.  38. 

They  held  it  hot  agreeable  to  the  rules  of 
prudence  to  have  too  many  irons  in  the  Jire. 
— Heylin,  Reformation,  i.  261. 

You'll  find  that  I  hare  more  irons  V  th1 
Jire  than  one ;  I  doan't  come  of  a  fool's  errand. 
— Gibber,  Provoked  Husband,  Act  III. 

Anthony  Darnel  bad  begun  to  canvass,  and 
was  putting  every  iron  in  the  Jire. — Smollett, 
Sir  L.  Greaves,  ch.  Hi. 

Irrealizable,  that  cannot  be  realized 
or  defined. 

It  may  be  that  the  constancy  of  one  true 
heart,  the  truth  and  faith  of  one  mind  ac- 
cording to  the  light  He  has  appointed,  import 
as  much  to  Him  as  the  just  motion  of  satel- 
lites about  their  planets,  of  planets  about 
their  suns,  of  suns  around  that  mighty,  un- 
seen centre,  incomprehensible,  irrealizable, 
with  strange  mental  effort  only  divined. — 
Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xxxvi. 

Irreclaimableness,  incorrigible  state. 

Enormities  . .  .  which  are  out  of  his  power 
to  atone  for,  by  reason  of  the  death  of  some 
of  the  injured  parties,  and  the  irreclaimable- 
ness  of  others. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  viii. 
407. 

Irreconcilable  is  often  used  now 
as  a  substantive  of  any  who  will  admit 
no  compromise  on  the  point  in  which 
they  are  interested. 

Sleep  and  I  have  quarrelled ;  and  although 
I  court  it,  it  will  not  be  friends.  I  hope  its 
fellow-irreconcilables  at  Harlowe-place  enjoy 
its  balmy  comforts. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe, 
iii.  178. 

Irreflective,  thoughtless. 

From  this  day  I  was  an  altered  creature, 
never  again  relapsing  into  the  careless,  irre- 
Jlective  mind  of  childhood.  —  De  Quincey, 
Autob.  Sketches,  i.  362. 

Irrefragability,      unbendingness  ; 
obstinacy. 
A  solemn,  high-stalking  man,  with  such  a 


1R RELATION  (  348  ) 


ITEM 


fund  of  indignation  in  him,  or  of  latent 
indignation  ;  of  contmnacity,  irrefragability. 
— Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  80. 

Irrelation,  want  of  relation. 

The  utter  irrelation,  in  both  cases,  of  the 
audience  to  the  scene  . .  .  threw  upon  each 
a  ridicule  not  to  be  effaced.  —  De  Quincty, 
Autob.  Sketches,  i.  190. 

Irrkpassable,  that  cannot  be  re- 
passed. 

He  had  past  already  (miserable) 
Of  Styx  so  black  the  flood  irrepassaMe. 

Hudson,  Judith,  vi.  250. 

Irresuscitably,  in  a  completely  dead 

way;  incapable  of  revival. 

The  inner  man  .  .  .  sleeps  now  irresusciU 
ably  at  the  bottom  of  his  stomach. — Carlyle, 
Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  II.  ch.  ii. 

Irretention,  want  of  retaining 

power. 

From  irretention  of  memory  he  could  not 
recollect  the  letters  which  composed  his 
name. — De  Quincey,  Last  Days  of  Kant, 

Irbevitable,  not  to  be  evaded. 

To  conclude,  for  their  force  it  is  irreuitable, 
for  were  they  not  irreuitable,  then  might 
eyther  propernesse  of  person  secure  a  man,  or 
wisedome  preuent  am. — Chapman,  All  Fooles, 
ActV. 

Irrite,  vain ;  useless. 

These  irrite,  forceless,  bugbear  excommuni- 
cations, the  ridiculous  affordments  of  a  mer- 
cenary power,  are  not  unlike  those  old  night- 
spells  which  blind  people  had  from  mongrel 
witches.— Adams,  ii.  180. 

Iby,  angry. 

Fcr  to  be  angery  and  not  to  sinne 

Is  an  obligatorie  heast  divine ; 

For  whiles  we  are  that  holy  anger  in 

(Not  wholly  angery),  it  is  a  signe 

We  flame  with  that  which  doth  our  soules 

refine: 
For  in  our  Soules  the  try  pow'r  it  is 
That  makes  vs  at  vnhallowed  thoughts  repine. 
Davies,  Microcosmos,  p.  74. 

Island,  to  insulate. 

She  distinguished  ...  a  belt  of  trees,  such 
as  we  see  in  the  lovely  parks  of  England, 
but  islanded  by  a  screen  of  thick  bushy  under- 
growth.— Be  Quincey,  Spanish  Nun,  sect.  18. 

Islandish,  insular.  Dr.  Dee,  Petty 
Navey  Royal,  1576  (Ena.  Garner,  ii. 
65),  speakB  of  "our  Islandish  Mon- 
archy. 

Isle,  to  insulate ;  to  make  an  island  ; 
also  to  dwell  on  an  isle. 


And  isled  in  sud'len  seas  of  light 

My  heart,  piere'd  thro'  with  fierce  delight, 

Bursts  into  blossom  in  his  sight. 

Tennyson,  Fatima. 

Lion  and  stoat  have  isled  together,  knave, 
In  time  of  flood. — Ibid.,  Gareth  and  Lynette. 

Ism,  being  the  termination  of  many 
words  denoting  forms  of  religious  belief, 
is  used  as  a  generic  term  for  sects  or 
dogmas. 

It  has  nothing  to  do  with  Calvinism  nor 
Arminianism  nor  any  of  the  other  isms. — 
Southey,  Letters,  1809  (ii.  182). 

This  is  Abbot  Samson's  Catholicism  of  the 
twelfth  century — something  like  the  Ism  of 
all  true  men  in  all  true  centuries,  I  fancy. 
Alas,  compared  with  any  of  the  Isms  current 
in  these  poor  days,  what  a  thing! — Carlyle, 
Past  and  Present,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xv. 

Isthim,  isthmus. 

Logh  Nesse, .  .  .  from  which,  by  a  verie 
small  Isthim  or  partition  of  hils,  the  Logh 
Lutea  or  Louthia  ...  is  divided. — Holland's 
Camden,  ii.  60. 

ITALI8H,  Italian. 

All  this  is  true,  though  the  feat  handling 
thereof  be  altogether  Italish. — Bale,  Select 
Works,  p.  9. 

The  book  of  conformities  of  Frances  to 
Christ  written  by  an  Italish  friar  called  Bar- 
tholomew Pisanus. — Ibid.  p.  205. 

Itchless,  incorruptible ;  not  having 
an  itching  palm  (?). 

But  thon  art  just  and  itchlesse.snd  dost  please 
Thy  genius  with  two  strengthening  buttresses. 
Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  270. 

Item,  a  hint;  admonition,  or  re- 
minder. 

Our  neighbours'  harms  are  items  to  the 
wise. —  Whetstone,  Life  of  Gascoigne,  st.  13. 

Every  infirmity  in  our  brother,  which 
should  rather  be  an  item  to  us  of  our  frailty, 
serveth  as  fuel  to  nourish  this  vanity. — San- 
derson, iii.  262. 

A  secret  item  was  given  to  some  of  the 
bishops  by  some  of  their  well-wishers  to 
absent  themselves  in  this  licentious  time  of 
Christmas.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI.  iv.  15. 

He  that  lives  in  such  a  place  as  this  is,  and 
that  has  to  do  with  such  as  we  have,  has  need 
of  an  item  to  caution  him  to  take  heed  every 
moment  of  the  day. — Pilgrim's  Progress,  Pt. 
II.  p.  150. 

By  many  terrible  items  did  the  vengeance 
of  God  remind  them  of  it  for  many  suc- 
ceeding generations. — South,  Sermons,  vi.  222. 

My  uncle  took  notice  that  Sir  Charles  had 
said  he  guessed  at  the  writer  of  the  note. 
He  wished  he  would  give  him  an  item,  as 
he  called  it,  whom  he  thought  of. — Richard- 
son, Grandison,  vi.  292. 


ITENERATE 


(  349  )    JACK  IN  THE  CELLAR 


Itknerate,  tender  (?). 

But  to  tbinke  on  a  red-herring,  such  a  hot 
stirring  meat©  it  is,  is  enough  to  make  the 
oravenest  dastard  proclaime  fire  and  sword 
against  Spaine ;  the  most  itenerate  virgine-wax 
phisnomy  that  taints  histhroate  with  the  least 
ribbe  of  it,  it  will  embrawne  and  iron-crust  his 
&eAh.-XasheyLentenStuffe  {ffarl.  Mise.,vi.  165). 


Izzaed,  Z.  "  As  crooked  as  an  izzart, 
deformed  in  person,  perverse  in  dis- 
position. An  oddity."  —  Robinson's 
Whitby  Glossary  (E.  D.  S.). 

He  ran  . . .  through  the  A's  and  B's  and 
C's,  quite  down  to  lizard.— Nans.  Thinks  I  to 
Myself,  ii.  87. 


Jabkll.  H.  says,  "A  term  of  con- 
tempt more  usually  applied  to  a  woman 
than  a  man."  It  is,  however,  addressed 
to  the  latter  in  the  following. 

What,  thn  jabell,  canst  not  have  do? 
Thu  and  thi  cumpany  shall  not  depart 
Tyll  of  our  distavys  ye  have  take  part. 

Candlemas  Day,  1512  (Hawkins,  Eng. 
Dr.,  i.  18). 

Jacatoo,  cockatoo. 

The  Physick  or  Anatomie  Schole  adorn M 
with  some  rarities  of  natural  things,  but 
nothing  extraordinary  save  the  skin  of  a 
jaccall,  a  rarely  coloured  jacatoo,  or  pro- 
digious huge  parrot.  —  Evelyn,  Diary,  July 
11,  1654. 

Jack,  explained  in  a  note  in  loc.  to 
be  "  a  cant  word  for  a  Jacobite. n 

With  every  wind  he  sail'd,  and  well  cou'd 

tack, 
Had  many  pendents,  but  abhorr'd  a  Jack. 

Swift,  Elegy  on  Judge  Boat. 

Jack,  knave. 

If  you  were  not  resolved  to  play  the  Jacks, 
what  need  you  study  for  new  subjects,  pur- 
posely to  abuse  your  betters? — Beaum.  and 
Fl.,  Knight  of  Burning  Pestle,  Induction. 

Going  back  again,  Sir  R.  Brookes  overtook 
us  coming  to  town;  who  played  the  jacke 
with  us  all,  and  is  a  fellow  that  I  must  trust 
no  more.— Pevys,  Feb.  23, 1667-68. 

Well,  Mr.  Neverout,  take  it  as  you  please  ; 
but  I  swear  you're  a  saucy  Jack  for  using 
such  expressions. — Swift,  Polite  Conversation 
(Conv.  i.). 

"He  calls  the  knaves  Jacks,  this  boy," 
said  Eatella  with  disdain,  before  our  first 
game  was  out. — Dickens,  Great  Expectations, 
cb.  vui. 

Jack-adams,  a  fool. 

All  the  reward  truly  of  my  great  services 
was  to  be  made  Lucifer's  jester,  or  fool  in 
ordinary  to  the  devil ;  a  pretty  post,  thought 
I,  for  a  man  of  my  principles,  that  from  a 
Quaker  in  the  other  world,  I  should  be  me- 
tamorphosed into  a  jack-adams  in  the  lower 
one.— T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  220. 

Jackanapes  coat,  dandy  coat  (?). 
Cf.  Jessimt. 


This  morning  my  brother  Tom  brought 
me  my  jackanapes  coat  with  silver  buttons. 
—Pepys,  July  5, 1660. 

Jackasrism,  stupidity. 

Gently,  gently,  Miss  Muse!  mind  your  Ps 

and  vour  Qs ; 
Don't  be  malapert  —  laugh,  Miss,  but  never 

abuse ! 
Calling  names,  whether  done  to  attack  or  to 

back  a  schism, 
Is,  Miss,  believe  me,  a  great  piece  of  jackass- 

ism. — Ingoldsby  Legends  (  Wedding-Day). 

Jack  Cap,  a  helmet. 

The  several  Insurance  Offices  . .  have  each 
of  them  a  certain  set  of  men  whom  they 
keep  in  constant  pay,  and  furnish  with  tools 
proper  for  their  work,  and  to  whom  they  give 
Jack  Caps  of  leather,  able  to  keep  them  from 
hurt,  if  brick  or  timber,  or  anything  not  of 
too  great  a  bulk,  should  fall  upon  them. — 
Defoe,  Tour  thro'  G.  Britain,  ii.  148. 

Jackey,  gin  (slang).  Cf .  Old  Tom. 
The  extract  is  translated  in  a  note, 
"Well,  you  parson  thief,  are  you  for 
drinking  gin  or  talking  in  the  pulpit  ?  " 

Well,  you  parish  bull  prig,  are  you  for 
lushing  jackey  or  pattering  in  the  hum-box  ? 
— Lytton,  Pefham,  ch.  lxxx. 

Jack-in-office,  a  consequential  petty 
official :  used  also  adjectivally. 

Some  folks  are  Jacks -in -office,  fond  of 
power. —  Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  52. 

I  hate  a  Jack-in-office  martinet. — Ibid.  p. 
181. 

tt  You're  a  Jack-in-office,  sir."  "  A  what  ?  " 
ejaculated  he  of  the  boots.  "  A  Jack-in-office, 
sir,  and  a  very  insolent  fellow." — Sketches  liy 
Boz  (Parliamentary  Sketch). 

Jack  in  the  cellar,  a  child  in  the 

womb ;  a  translation  of  Hans  en  Kel- 

der,  q.  v.  in  N. 

When  his  companions  drank  to  the  Hans 
en  Kelder,  or' Jack  in  the  low  cellar,  he  could 
not  help  displaying  an  extraordinary  com- 
placence of  countenance,  and  signified  his 
intention  of  sending  the  young  dog  to  sea. — 
Smollett,  Peregrine  Pickle,  ch.  x. 


JACK  NASTY 


(  350  ) 


J  AG  HI  RE 


Jack  Nasty,  a  term  of  reproach  for 
a  sneak  or  a  sloven. 

Tom  and  his  younger  brothers,  as  they  grew 
up,  went  on  nlaying  with  the  village  boys, 
without  the  idea  of  equality  or  inequality 
(except  in  wrestling,  running,  and  climbing) 
ever  entering  their  heads,  as  it  doesn't  till 
it's  put  there  by  Jack  Nastys  or  fine  ladies' 
maids.  —  Hughes,  Tom  Brawn1 1  School-Days, 
Pt.  I.  ch.  iii. 

Jack  of  all  trades,  one  who  can 
put  his  hand  to  anything:  often  used 
contemptuously  of  a  smatterer — "  Jack 
of  all  trades,  and  master  of  none."  Cf. 
John  of  all  trades. 

They  [Jesuits]  are  Jacks-of-all-trades,  and 
creep  into  all  sects,  partly  to  conceal  them- 
selves, and  partly  to  foment  and  stir  up 
division. — Misson,  Travels  in  Ena.,  p.  143. 

He  is  a  bit  of  a  Jack  of  ail  trades,  or, 
to  use  his  own  words,  a  regular  Robinson 
Crusoe.— Sketches  by  Boz,  ch.  li. 

Jack  of  lanthorn.  This  name  of 
the  ignis  faiuus  is  given  to  watchmen 
in  the  extract,  a  lanthorn  being  part  of 
their  equipment. 

Who  should  come  by  before  I  could  get 
up  again,  but  the  constable  going  his  rounds, 
who  quickly  made  me  centre  of  a  circle  of 
Jack  of  lanthoms. — T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  195. 

Jackonet,  usually  spelt  jaconet.  L. 
says,  "[Fr.  jaconas]  kind  of  muslin  so 
called,  of  close  texture  (in  opposition 
to  the  book  muslins,  which  are  open  or 
clear) ;  for  example  see  muslin"  where, 
however,  no  instance  of  the  word  jaco- 
net is  to  be  found. 

It  would  be  mortifying  to  the  feelings  of 
many  ladies  could  they  oe  made  to  under- 
stand how  little  the  heart  of  man  is  affected 
by  what  is  costly  or  new  in  their  attire ;  how 
little  it  is  biassed  by  the  texture  of  their 
muslin,  and  how  unsusceptible  of  peculiar 
tenderness  towards  the  spotted,  the  sprigged, 
the  mull,  or  the  jackonet.  —  Miss  Austen, 
Northanger  Abbey,  ch.  x. 

Jack-puddinghood,  buffoonery. 

Grossatesta,  the  Modenese  minister,  a  very 
low  fellow,  with  all  the  jack-puddinyhood  of 
an  Italian.—  Walpole  to  Mann,  ii.  295  (1749). 

Jack-sauce,  an  impudent  fellow.  H. 
says,  "It  occurs  in  How  to  choose  a 
good  wife,  1634."  The  first  extract  is 
not  later  than  1582. 

Heere  is  a  gay  world !  boyes  now  set  old  men 

to  scoole: 
I  sayd  wel  inough ;  what,  Jack  sawce,  think'st 
cham  a  fool  ? 

Edwards,  Damon  and  Pitheas  (Dodsley, 
0.  PL,  i.  271). 


If  I  wotted  it  would  have  made  him  such 
a  Jack-sauce  as  to  have  more  wit  than  his 
vore-fathers,  he  should  have  learn'd  nothing 
for  old  Agroicus,  but  to  keep  a  talley. — Ran- 
dolph, Muses*  Looking-Glass,  iv.  4. 

JACK-8PANIARD,  8COrpion. 

Then  all,  sitting  on  the  sandy  turf,  defiant 
of  galliwasps  and  jack- Spaniards  %  and  all  the 
weapons  of  the  insect  host,  partook  of  the 
equal  banquet. — C.  Kingsley,  Westward  Ho, 
ch.  xvii. 

Jackstraw,  a  light  fellow;  a  cox- 
comb ;  also,  as  an  adjective,  unregarded 
or  unsubstantial,  like  an  effigy  stuffed 
with  straw.  Cf.  man  of  straw,  s.  v. 
Straw. 

You  are  a  saucy  Jack-straw  to  question 
me,  faith  and  troth. —  Wycherley,  Love  in  a 
Wood,  i.  2. 

How  now,  madam!  refuse  me!  I  com- 
mand you  on  your  obedience  to  accept  of 
this ;  I  will  not  be  a  jackstraw  father. — 
Richardson,  Grandison,  vii.  63. 

Jackstraws,  a  game  like  spillikins. 

One  evening  Belinda  was  playing  with 
little  Charles  Percival  at  jackstraws.  .  .  . 
"  You  moved,  Miss  Portman,"  cried  Charles. 
u  Oh,  indeed  the  king's  head  stirred  the  very 
instant  papa  spoke.  I  knew  it  was  impos- 
sible that  you  could  get  that  knave  clear  off 
without  shaking  the  king.  Now,  papa,  only 
look  how  they  were  balanced." — Miss  EJye- 
worth,  Belinda,  ch.  xix. 

Jade  as  a  term  of  reproach  is  usually 
applied  to  a  woman. 

And  thus  the  villaine  would  the  world  per- 
swade 
To  prowde  attemptes  that  may  presume 
too  high, 
But  earthly  joies  will  make  him  prove   a 
jade, 
When  vertue  speakes  of  loue's  diuinity. 
Breton,  Pilgrimage  to  Paradise,  p.  10. 

Jaoger,  a  pedler.  The  word  is  in  use 
in  Cheshire  for  one  who  sells  coal  in 
small  cartloads. 

I  would  take  the  lad  for  tkjagaer,  but  he 
has  rather  ower  good  havings,  ana  he  has  no 
pack. — Scott,  The  Pirate,  ch.  v. 

Jaghire.  "In  the  East  Indies  an 
assignment  of  the  government  share  of 
the  produce  of  a  portion  of  land  to  an 
individual,  either  personal,  or  for  the 
support  of  a  public  establishment,  par- 
ticularly of  a  military  nature"  (Imp, 
Diet.)  ;  but  see  second  extract. 

I  say,  madam,  I  know  nothing  of  books; 
and  yet,  I  believe,  upon  a  land  carriage 
fishery,  a  stamp  act  or  &  jag-hire,  I  can  talk 
my  two  hours  without  feeling  the  want  of 
them. — Goldsmith,  Good-Natured  Man,  Act  II. 


JAIL 


•  <  351  ) 


JAUL 


Thomas.  Sir  Matthew  will  settle  upon  Sir 
John  and  his  lady,  for  their  joint  lives,  a 
jagyhire. 

Sir  J.  Ajagghire  ? 

Thomas.  The  term  is  Indian,  and  means  an 
annual  income. — Foote,  The  Nabob,  Act  I. 

Jail,  to  imprison.  A  writer  in  N. 
and  Q.,  IV.  xi.  94,  says,  "  I  find  in  a 
New  York  paper  a  very  handy  word 
which  we  nave  not  yet  adopted  — 
jatfaf." 
And  sith  our  Bodyes  doe  but   Jaile   our 

Minde, 
While  we  haue  Bodyes,  we  can  ne'er  be  free. 
Davits,  Mus^s  Sacrifice,  p.  81  (1612). 

He  that  boasteth  the  strength  of  his  body 
doth  but  brag  how  strong  the  prison  is 
wherein  he  is  jailed. — Adams,  i.  227  (1614). 

Eriz.  My  jailor 

Bedinafield.  One  whose  bolts, 

That  jaxl  you  from  free  life,  bar  you  from 
death. — Tennyson,  Q.  Mary,  iii.  5. 

Jail,  goal. 

There  is  no  method  for  an  arrival  to 
wisdom,  and  consequently  no  tract  to  the 
Jail  of  happiness,  without  the  instructions 
and  directions  of  folly. — Kennefs  Erasmus, 
Praise  of  Folly,  p.  43. 

Jail-fever.  In  days  when  prisons 
were  crowded  and  ill  ventilated,  it  was 
very  common  for  a  fever  to  break  out 
among  the  prisoners,  and  sometimes 
prove  fatal  to  those  before  whom  they 
were  brought  for  trial. 

We  may  be  out,  with  all  our  skill  so  clever, 
And  what  we  think  an  ague  prove  jail-fever. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  266. 

Janglery,  empty  chatter.  R.  has  the 
word  with  quotation  from  Gower.  In 
the  subjoined  extract  it  is  used  adjec- 
tivally. 

But  loa  to  what  purpose  do  I  chat  such 
janglerye  trim  trams ?--Stanyhurst,  ^En.,  ii. 
113. 

Japan,  a  black  cane. 

like  Mercury,  you  must  always  carry  a 
caduceus  or  conjuring  japan  in  your  hand, 
capped  with  a  civet  •'box.  —  The  Quack's 
Academy,  1678  (Harl.  Misc.,  ii.  33). 

Japannish,  belonging  to  Japan.  In 
the  extract  it  seems  to  refer  to  the 
gaudy  ornamentation  on  Japanese 
work. 

In  some  of  the  Greek  delineations  (the 
Lycian  painter,  for  example)  we  have  already 
noticed  a  strange  opulence  of  splendour, 
characterisable  as  half-legitimate,  half-mere- 
tricious, a  splendour  hovering  between  the 
raffaelesque  and  the  japannish.  —  Carlyle, 
Life  of  Sterling,  ch.  vi. 


Jab.  On  the  jar  =  on  the  turn,  a 
little  way  open.  L. ,  8.  v.,  refers  to  ajar, 
and  says  that  jar  in  this  sense  is  now 
never  found  as  a  separate  word,  but  I 
think  it  is  not  uncommon  colloquially. 

The  door  was  on  the  jar,  and,  gently 
opening  it,  I  entered  and  stood  behind  her 
un  perceived. — U.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i. 
oil. 

**I  see  Mrs.  Bardell's  street  door  on  the 
On  the  what  ?  "  exclaimed  the  little 


»    *i 


jar 

judge.  "  Partly  open,  my  lord,7*  said  Sergeant 
Snubbin.  "  She  said  on  the  jar,"  said  the 
little  judge,  with  a  cunning  look.  "  It's  all 
the  same,  my  lord,"  said  Sergeant  Snubbin. 
— Pickwick  Papers,  ch.  xxxiv. 

Jargonist,  one  who  uses  a  particular 
jargon,  or  repeats  by  rote  cant  or 
favourite  phrases. 

"And  pray  of  what  sect/'  said  Camilla, 
^is  this  gentleman?"  "Of  the  sect  of 
jargonists,  answered  Mr.  Gosport ;  "  he  has 
not  an  ambition  beyond  paying  a  passing 
compliment,  nor  a  word  to  make  use  of  that 
he  has  not  picked  up  at  public  places." — 
Mad.  D'Arblay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  ii. 

Nothing  in  the  language  of  the  jaraonists 
at  whom  Mr.  Gosport  laughed,  nothing  in 
the  language  of  Sir  Sedley  Oarendel,  ap- 
proaches this  new  Euphuism.  —  Macaulay, 
Essays  (Mad.  D'Arblay). 

Jarl,  to  snarl ;  quarrel.  The  extract 
is  addressed  to  a  dog :  Lelaps  is  another 
dog.     Cf.  Jaul. 

What  if  Lelaps  a  better  morsel  find 

Than  you  earst  knew?    Bather  take  part 

with  him 
Than  jarl. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  224. 

Jarry,  jarring ;  reverberating. 

Theese  flaws  theyre  cabbans  wyth  stur 
EDMijarrye  doe  ransack. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i. 
63. 

Jarvie,  hackney  coach-man.  L.  has 
the  word  as  signifying  both  the  carriage 
and  its  driver,  but  the  extract  from 
Theodore  Hook  only  illustrates  the 
former  meaning. 

The  Glass-coachman  waits,  and  in  what 
mood !  A  brother  jarvie  drives  up,  enters 
into  conversation ;  is  answered  cheerfully  in 
jarvie  dialect ;  the  brothers  of  the  whip 
exchange  a  pinch  of  snuff,  decline  drinking 
together,  and  part  with  good  night. — Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt  II.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  iii. 

Jaul,  to  grumble.    Cf .  Jarl. 

Well,  111  not  stay  with  her :  stay,  auotha  ? 
To  be  yauld  and  jauPd  at,  and  tumbled  and 
thumbled,  and  tost  and  turn'd,  as  I  am  by  an 
old  hag. —  Wily  Beguiled  (Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr., 
iii.  317).  « 


JAUM 


(  352  ) 


JEMMY 


Her  father  o'  th'  other  side,  he  yoles  at  her 
andjoles  at  her,  and  she  leads  such  a  life  for 
you,  it  passes. — Ibid.  (lb.  iii.  342). 

Jaum,  jamb  or  side-post. 

The  jaumes  of  tlie  lights  being  all  of  well 
wrought  free  stone. — Survey  of  Maner  of 
Wimbledon,  1649  (Arch.,  x.  403). 

Jaunty,  brisk ;  smart.  The  earliest 
example  of  this  word  in  the  Diets,  is 
from  a  work  published  in  1662,  quoted 
by  L.,  and  it  occurs  in  the  Tatler, 
Spectator,  and  Guardian.  The  annexed 
quotations,  however,  will  show  that  it 
was  scarcely  naturalized  then,  and  still 
often  wore  its  foreign  dress.  Smart, 
quoted  by  R.,  writes  it  as  an  English 
word,  but  spells  it  jauntee;  so  does 
Fielding. 

Turn  you  about  upon  your  heel  with  a 
janti  air,  bum  out  the  end  of  an  old  song ; 
cat  a  cross  caper,  and  at  her  again. — Farquhar, 
The  Inconstant,  Act  I. 

Your  vivacity  and  jantie  mien  assured  me 
at  first  sight  that  there  was  nothing  of  this 
foggy  island  in  your  composition. — Centlivre, 
Hold  Stroke  for  a  Wife,  ii.  1. 

My  jauntee  sergeant  was  very  early  here 
this  morning.  —  Fielding,  Amelia,  Bk.  V. 
ch.  vii. 

Javelin,  to  pierce  as  with  a  javelin. 

Scarce  had  she  ceased,  when  out  of  heaven  a 

bolt 
(For  now  the  storm  was  close  above  them) 

struck, 
Furrowing  a  giant  oak,  taidjavelining 
With  darted    spikes    and    splinters   of  the 

wood 
The  dark  earth  round. 

Tennyson,  Merlin  and  Vivien. 

Javil.     See  extract. 

Then  must  the  foresaid  jauils  or  stalkes 
bee  hung  out  a  second  time  to  be  dried  in 
the  sun. — Holland,  Pliny,  xix.  i. 

Jaw,  to  talk  a  good  deal,  especially 
in  scolding  ;  also  a  substantive. 

He  swore  woundily  at  the  lieutenant,  and 
called  him  lousy  Scotch  son  of  a  whore,  . .  . 
and  swab,  and  lubbard,  whereby  the  lieu- 
tenant returned  the  salute,  and  they  jaiced 
together  fore  and  aft  a  good  spell. — Smollett , 
Bod.  Random,  ch.  xxiv. 

If  you  don't  Rtop  your  jaic  about  him, 
you'll  have  to  fight  me.  —  H.  Kingsley, 
Geoff ry  Hamlyn,  ch.  xxvi. 

Jaw-fallkn,  depressed,  chop-fallen ; 
in  second  extract,  astonished ;  open- 
mouthed. 

He  may  be  compared  to  one  uojaiof alien 
with  over -long  fasting  that  he  cannot  eat 
meat  when  brought  unto  him.  —  Fuller, 
Worthies,  Essex  (i.  345).  * 


The  people  who  came  about  us,  as  we 
alighted,  seemed  by  their  jaic-f alien  faces 
and  goggling  eyes  to  wonder  at  beholding  a 
charming  young  lady. — Richardson,  CI.  Har- 
lowe,  iii.  54. 

J  A  whole.  See  quotation.  In  Robin- 
son's Whitby  Glossary  (E.  D.  S.)  the 
word  is  given  as  meaning  "a  fissure 
or  opening  in  the  land,  as  the  mouth 
of  a  stream.  The  arched  entrance  to 
a  cavern." 

Before  the  door  of  Saunders  Jaup  .  .  . 
yawned  that  odoriferous  gulf,  ycleped  in 
Scottish  phrase  the  jawhole  ;  in  other  words, 
an  uncovered  common  sewer.  —  Scott,  St. 
Ronan's  Well,  ii.  141. 

Jawless,  without  a  jaw. 

The  jawless  bum  by  signs  begged  his  par- 
don, for  speak  he  could  not.  —  UrqttharCs 
Rabelais,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  xv. 

Jazkrent,  a  short  coat  of  mail  with- 
out sleeves.     See  H.  s.  v.  jesseraunt. 

Ajazerent  of  double  mail  he  wore. 

Southey,  Joan  of  Arc,Tlk.  VII. 

Jealous,  to  suspect:  still  used  in 
Scotland. 

This  unwonted  coldness  in  youth  is  the 
more  to  be  jealoused  that,  previous  to  the 
marriage,  the  man  did  express  an  eager 
impatience  to  enjoy  his  young  bride. — The 
Great  Bastard,  &c.,  1689  (Sari.  Misc^  iv. 
235). 

Jehup,  to  urge  horses  on,  from  the 
sound  made  by  drivers. 

May  I  lose  my  Otho,  or  be  tumbled  from 
my  phaeton  the  first  time  I  jehup  my  sor- 
rels, if  I  have  not  made  more  haste  than  a 
young  surgeon  in  his  first  labour. — Foote, 
Taste,  Act  II. 

Jeltron,  some  piece  of  armour. 

No  armure  so  stronge  in  no  dystresse, 
Habergyon,  helme,  ne  yet  no  Jeltron, 
Hycke-Scorner  (Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr.,  i.  78). 

Jembles,  hinges. 

For  a  pare  of  Jembles  for  the  stoole  dore 
x* — Leverton  Chwardens  Accts.,  1588  (Arch^ 
xli.  366). 

Jemmy,  as  an  adjective  =  neat ;  smart 
See  L.,  who  adds  that  the  word  is  used 
substantially,  but  gives  no  example. 
In  the  extract  it  signifies  a  particular 
sort  of  boot  of  a  dandy  description. 
Smollett  (H.  Clinker,  i.  148)  speaks  of 
tk  new  jemmy  boots." 

Buck.  Hark'ee,  Mr.  Subtle,  111  out  of  my 
tramels  when  I  hunt  with  the  king. 
Subtle.  Well,  well. 


JEMMY 


(  353  ) 


JEWS  TIN 


a  with  my  jemmyt:  none  of 
i  and  jack-boots  for  me. 
Englishman  in  Paris,  Act  I. 

sheep's  head,  said  to  be 
ecause  James  V.  break- 
ne  before  the  battle  of 
o  a  crowbar  (slang). 

7  returned  with  a  pot  of  porter 
■  sheep's  beads,  which  gave 
;ral  pleasant  witticisms  on  the 
es,  founded  upon  the  singular 
"jemmies  "  being  a  cant  name 
;m,  and  also  to  an  ingenious 
ch  used  in  his  profession. — 
Ticist,  ch.  xx. 

crow-bars  — jemmies  is  the 
e  they  bear — 

ough  lock,  and  bolt,  and  bar — 
ight  is  there ! 
igoldshy  Let/ends  (Nell  Cook), 

ato  (?).  This  name  is  given 
any  articles  :  a  great-coat, 
sheep's  head. 

the  shop  perhaps  is  in  the 
□e,  or  the  firewood  and  hearth- 
ny  other  line  which  requires  a 

of  eighteen  pence. — Sketches 
Dials). 

gentleman. 

pe  6ay  (ko  I)  of  such  ijentman. 
im  not  (ko  she),  doe  the  best 

er  Doister,  iii.  3  (see  also  iii.  5). 

From  Jericho  to  June  = 
ice. 

is  tremendous,  and  when  he 
on  would — to  use  an  expres- 
rn,  which  he  had  picked  up 
are — would  send  a  man  from 
\e.  —  Ingoldsby  Legends  (Grey 

mentioned  by  Davies  in 
reauen  on  Earth,  p.  45,  and 
note  to  be 

ler  but  feeding,  and  when  he 
much  as  his  panch  can  hold, 
td  tree,  and  there  straines  out 
gested  betweane  the  twist  of 
so  againe  presently  falles  to 
ig  full,  agaiue  to  the  tree,  and 
i  feede. 

retch ;     throw    out,    as   a 
his  elbows  in  pulling  his 

er  tower  as  one  of  our  Irish 
i  not  so  wide  as  a  belfre,  and 
lot  jert  out  his  elbowes  in.— 
Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi  167). 

[  letters.  There  are  per- 
taalem  who  tattoo  on  the 


arm  of  visitors,  if  they  wish  it,  the 
sign  of  the  cross,  with  the  name  of  the 
city  and  the  date  of  their  visit. 

"  If  heaven  should  ever  bless  me  with  mora 
children,"  said  Mr.  Fielding,  "I  have  de- 
termined to  fix  some  indelible  mark  upon 
them,  such  as  that  of  the  Jerusalem  letters." 
—H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  258. 

Jess.  See  quotation.  The  metaphor 
is  taken  from  the  jess  or  strap  by  wnich 
the  hawk  was  fastened  to  the  hand. 

A  motion  to  a  confession  of  our  filthiness, 
and  the  corrupt  affections  that  dwell  in  us. 
The  first  resting-place  or  jess  in  this  pro- 
gress.— Norden7s  Progress  of  Piety,  p.  47. 

Jessimy.  dandy ;  delicate  (?).  Cf.  Jack- 
anapes coat. 

I  did  this  day  call  at  the  New  Exchange, 
and  bought  her  a  pair  of  green  silk  stock- 
iugs,  ana  garters,  and  shoe-strings,  and  two 
pair  of  jessimy  gloves,  all  coming  to  about 
2Zs.—Pepys,  Feb.  15, 1668-9. 

Jestee,  a  butt. 

The  mortgager  and  mortgagee  differ  the 
one  from  the  other  not  more  in  length  of 
purse  than  the  jester  &nd  jestee  do  in  that  of 
memory. — Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  i.  55. 

Jesuitocracy,  rule  of  Jesuits. 

If  the  state  of  Borne  don't  show  his  idea 
of  man  and  society  to  be  a  rotten  lie,  what 
proof  would  you  have  ?  perhaps  the  charm- 
ing results  of  a  century  of  Jesuitocracy,  as 
they  were  represented  on  the  French  stage 
in  the  year  1793? — C.  Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  v. 

Jesuitry,  subtle  argument;  special 
pleading. 

The  poor  Girondins,  many  of  them,  under 
such  fierce  bellowing  of  Patriotism,  say 
Death ;  justifying,  motivant,  that  most  miser- 
able word  of  theirs  by  some  brief  casuistry 
and  Jesuitry.  Verjmiaud  himself  says  Death ; 
justifying  by  Jesuitry.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt. 
III.  Bk.  II.  ch.  vii. 

Jetstone,  jet.  The  allusions  to  jet 
attracting  straws,  &c.  are  frequent  in 
old  writers. 

It  giues  Wit*  edge,  and  drawes  them  too 
like  jetstone. — Davies,  Commendatory  Poems, 
p.  13. 

Jewelly,  jewel-like ;  sparkling. 

The  jewelly  star  of  life  had  descended  too 
far  down  the  arch  towards  setting  for  any 
chance  of  reaacending  by  spontaneous  effort. 
— De  Quincey,  Spanish  Nun,  sect.  19. 

Jews  tin.    See  extract,  which  is  from 

a  letter  to  Prof.  Max  Mull  or. 

What  you  say  about  metamorphic  language 
is  most  true  (even  in  my  little  experience). 
You  do  not  mention  *  f™»  *»'« '     T^ia  i« 


Jews  tin* 
A  A 


This  is 


JIB 


(  354  )         JOCKEY-CART 


lumps  of  smelted  tin  (if  I  recollect  right) 
with  a  coating  of  hydrated  oxide  of  tin,  which 
is  caused  by  lying  in  water  and  bog.  Jew* 
tin  is  found  inside  Jews'  houses,  or  in  the 
diluvium  of  old  stream  works.  May  this 
not  be  merely,  according  to  your  etymology, 
'house  tin/  the  tin  found  in  the  houses r— 
C.  Kingsley,  1806  (Life,u.  106). 

Jib.  The  cut  of  a  man's  iib  =  his 
outward  appearance,  the  metaphor  being 
token  from  the  jib-sail  of  a  ship. 

If  she  disliked  what  sailors  call  the  cut  of 
their  jib, .  .  .  none  so  likely  as  they  to  give 
them  what  in  her  country  is  called  a  sloan. 
—Scott,  St.  BonaiCs  WeU,  i.  22. 

Not  know  an  Avenel !  We've  all  the  same 
cut  of  the  jib,  have  not  we,  father  ? — Lytton, 
My  Novel,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  zxiii. 

Jiggered,  an  imprecation.  The  ex- 
pression arose  from  the  suffering  caused 
by  the  chigoe  insect  in  the  West  Indies, 
which  burrows  in  the  feet  of  the  bare- 
footed negroes.    See  Jiggers. 

u  Well,  then,"  said  he,  w  I'm  jiggered  if  I 
don't  see  you  home."  This  penalty  of  being 
jiagered  was  a  favourite  supposititious  case 
of  his.  He  attached  no  definite  meaning  to 
the  word  that  I  am  aware  of,  but  used  it, 
like  his  own  pretended  Christian  name,  to 
affront  mankind,  and  convey  an  idea  of 
something  savagely  damaging.  When  I  was 
younger  I  had  had  a  general  belief  that  if 
he  had  jiggered  me  personally,  he  would 
have  done  it  with  a  sharp  and  twisted  hook. 
— Dickens,  Great  Expectations,  ch.  xvii. 

Jiggers,  the  chigoes.    See  Jiggered. 

Numbers  are  crippled  by  the  jiggers,  which 
scarcely  ever  in  our  colonies  affect  any  but 
the  negroes.— Southey,  Letters,  1810  (ii.  201). 

Jillet,  a  contemptuous  term  for  a 
flighty  girl :  more  familiar  to  us  in  the 
contracted  form  jilt. 

Were  it  not  well  to  receive  that  coy  jillet 
with  something  of  a  mumming  ?— Scott,  Fair 
Maid  of  Perth,  u.  264. 

Jim,  neat.     See  Gim. 

Though  Surry  boasts  its  Oatlands, 
And  Glare  moot  kept  eajim  ; 

And  though  they  talk  of  Southcote's, 
Tis  but  a  dainty  whim. 

Wcdpole,  Letters,  i.  422  (1755). 

Jimp.  H.  says  "slender."  It  seems 
rather  in  the  extract  to  mean  the  same 
as  Jim,  q.  v. 

The  kidnapping  crimp  took  the  foolish  young 

imp 
On  board  of  his  cutter  so  trim  and  no  jimp. 
Ingoldslty  Legends  (Account  of  a 
New  Play). 


Job.  For  a  jocose  etymology  of  this 
word  by  Southey  see  quotation  «.  v. 

DlSNATURALISE. 

Job.    To  job  a  carriage  or  horses  = 
to  have  them  on  hire,  not  as  one's  own  ; 
the  word  is  also  used  adjectivally. 
Whitbread,  d'ye  keep  a  coach,  or  job  one, 

Job,  job,  that's  cheapest;  yes,  that's  best, 
that's  best  —  Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  21. 

He  made  nothing  by  letting  him  have  jo& 
horses  for  £150  a  year. — Miss  Edgeworth, 
The  Lottery,  ch.  i. 

Job'8  comforters,  people  who,  like 
Job's  friends,  aggravate  the  sorrow 
they  pretend  to  console,  or  who  say 
disagreeable  things. 

Lady  8m*  Indeed,  Lady  Answerall,  pray 
forgive  me,  I  think  your  ladyship  looks  a 
little  thinner  than  when  I  saw  you  last. 

Miss.  Indeed,  Madam,  I  think  not;  but 
your  ladyship  is  one  of  Job's  comforters. 

Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Oonv.  iii.)- 

Job's-news,  bad  news,  such  as  Job's 

servants  brought  to  him. 

Poverty  escorts  him  ;  from  home  there  can 
nothing  come  except  Job's -news. — Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  HI.  ch.  iv. 

Job's-post,  a  messenger  of  evil  tid- 
ings.   Cf  Job's-news. 

It  was  Friday  the  eighth  of  March  when 
this  JoVs-nost  from  Dumouriez,  thickly  pre- 
ceded ana  escorted  by  so  many  other  Job's- 
posts,  reached  the  National  Convention. — 
Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  III.  ch.  iv. 

Jockey,  a  contemptuous  term  for  a 
Scotchman,  taken  from  their  calling 
Jack  Jock. 

What  could  Lesly  have  done  then  with 
a  few  nntrain'd,  unarmed  Jockeys  if  we  had 
been  true  among  ourselves? — Racket y  Life 
of  Williams,i\.  142. 

England  deserv'd  worse,  and  heard  worse 
than  these  Jocky  -  pedlars  that  chafferd 
away  their  king,  and  our  countrymen  are 
received  abroad  in  some  places  to  this  day  as 
the  off-scouring  of  Europe. — Ibid.,  ii.  223. 

But  now  the  Covenant's  gone  to  wrack, 
They  say  it  looks  like  an  old  almanack ; 
For  Jockie  is  grown  out  of  date 
And  Jenny  is  thrown  out  of  late. 

Merry  Drollerie,  p.  94. 

Jockey-cart. 

It  was  many  years  since  the  bones  of  Mr. 
Parsons  had  been  exposed  to  any  conveyance 
more  rough  and  rude  than  Sir  Matthew's 
jockey -cart,  which  was  constructed  with 
excellent  and  efficient  springs. — Mrs.  Trol- 
lops, Michael  Armstrong,  ch.  xvii. 


JOCKEYJSM 


(  355  )        J01NTURELESS 


Jockeyism,  race-riding;  horsiness. 

He  was  employed  in  smoking  a  cigar, 
sipping  brandy  and  water,  and  exercising  his 
conversational  talents  in  a  mixture  of  slang 
and  jockeyism. — Lytton,  Pelhom,  ch.  lxi. 

Jocqlatte,  chocolate. 

To  a  coffee  house  to  drink  Jocolatte, — very 
good.— Pepys,  Nov.  24, 1664. 

They  dranke  a  little  milk  and  water,  but 
not  a  drop  of  wine ;  they  also  dranke  of  a 
sorbet  Bnajacolait. — Evelyn,  Diary,  Jan.  24, 
1682. 

On  Kursmas  day  at  mworn  they  gav  us 
sum  reed  stuff  to  t'  breakfast, — I  think  it 
maun  ha'  been  Jocklat,  but  we  dud  not  like 
't  at  af,  t  ommost  puzzened  us. — Southey,  Hie 
Doctor,  Interchapter  xxiv. 

Joe,  an  old  joke,  such  as  is  found 
in  the  collection  that  goes  under  the 
name  of  Joe  Miller ;  also,  a  fourpenny- 
bit,  a  name  derived  from  Mr.  Joseph 
Hume,  who  urged  the  issue  of  such 
coin  ;  the  coin,  however,  referred  to  in 
the  extracts  was,  as  Wolcot  expluins  in 
a  note,  "  a  Portugal  coin  vulgarly 
called  a  Johannes.'1    Cf.  Double- joe. 

Of  what  use  a  story  may  be  even  in  the 
most  serious  debates  may  oe  seen  from  the 
circulation  of  old  Joes  in  Parliament,  which 
are  as  current  there  as  their  sterling  name- 
sakes used  to  be  in  the  city  some  threescore 
years  ago. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  xvi. 

Be  sure  to  make  him  glow 
Precisely  like  a  guinea  or  a  Jo. 

P.  Pindar,  p.  132. 

Joggle.    See  extract 

The  excrescences  in  the  sides  of  the  stones 
by  which  tbey  are  locked  into  each  other, 
aud  which  in  masons'  language  would  be 
called  a  joggle. — Arch^  xxvii.  384  (1838). 

John- a- Duck's  mare.    See  quotation. 

I  am  like  John-a-Duck's  mare,  that  will  let 
no  man  mount  her  but  John-a-Duck. — Scott, 
Jvanhoe,  ii.  40. 

John  Bulltsm,  English  character. 
Irving  also  uses  Bullum  by  itself. 

Little  Britain  may  truly  be  called  the 
hearts  core  of  the  city;  the  stronghold  of 
John  Bullism. — Irving,  Sketch  Book  {Little 
Britain). 

Unluckily,  they  sometimes  make  their 
boasted  Bullism  an  apology  for  their  preju- 
dice or  grossness.— Ibid.  (John  Bull). 

John  Cheese,  a  clown :  this  at  least 
I  suppose  to  be  the  meaning.  Ascham, 
in  the  "  little  rude  verse  "  made  "  long 
ago,"  i.  e.  long  before  the  Schoolmaster 
was  written,  says  that  a  man  who  could 
not  laugh,  lie,  &c.  would  never  get  on 
at  Court. 


To  laugh,  to  lie,  to  flatter,  to  face, 
Four  ways  in  Court  to  win  men  grace. 
If  thou  be  thrall  to  none  of  these, 
Away  good  Peekgoose,  hence  John  Cheese. 

Schoolmaster,  p.  48. 

John  of  all  trades,  a  smatterer: 
used  contemptuously.    Cf .  Jack  of  all 

TRADES. 

Whv,  you  mungrel, 
You  John  of  all  trades,  have  we  been  your 

guests 
Since  you  first  kept  a  tavern  ? 

Maine,  City  Match,  ii.  5. 

John  Trot,  a  name  for  a  clown ; 
and  so  ordinary,  commonplace. 

Our  travelling  gentry  either  return  from 
the  tour  of  Europe  as  mere  Euglish  boors  as 
they  went — John  Trot  still— or  come  home 
at  best  mere  French  petit  maitres. — Colman, 
Musical  Lady,  ii.  1. 

The  merest  John  Trot  in  a  week  you  shall  zee 
Bienpoli,  bienfrize',  tout  a  fait  un  Mar<ruis. 
Foote%  Englishman  xn  Paris,  Epilogue. 

As  to  bis  person  and  appearance,  they  are 
much  in  the  John-Trot  style. — Mad.D'Arblay, 
Diary,  i.  203  (1779). 

What  other  powers  of  Pat's  invention 
It  might  have  been  our  lot  to  mention, 
If  nought  had  stopp'd  his  tongue's  career, 
Or  clos'd  poor  Lucy's  curious  ear, 
This  John-Trot  verse  does  not  profess 
To  tell,  or  e'en  presume  to  guess. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  c.  ill. 

Join,  to  enjoin. 

And  they  join  them  penance,  as  they  call 
it,  to  fast,  to  go  pilgrimages,  and  give  so 
much  to  make  satisfaction  withal. — Tyndale, 
i.  281. 

Jointless,  stiff ;  rigid. 

*'  Let  me  die  here,"  were  her  words,  re- 
maining jointless  and  immovable. — Richard' 
son,  CI.  Harlotoe,  vi.  38. 

Joint-sick,  suffering  from  pain  in 

the  joints. 

How  from  tihwjoynt-sick  Age  to  bite  the 
gowt. — Davies,  Jrittes  Pilgrimage,  p.  41. 

Jointureless,  without  jointure  ;  ap- 
plied to  a  wife  who  had  nothing  settled 
on  her  by  her  husband  as  provision  after 
his  decease. 

Three  daughters  in  my  well-built  court  un- 
married are  and  fair : 

Laodice,  Chrysothemis  that  hath  the  golden 
hair, 

And  Iphianassa;  of  all  three  the  worthiest 
let  him  take 

All  jointureless  to  Peleus'  court;  I  will  her 
jointure  make, 

And  that  so  great  as  never  yet  did  any  maid 
prefer. — Chapman,  Iliad,  ix.  160. 

A  A  2 


JOKESMITH 


(  356J 


JUBILATE 


Jokbsmith,  a  manufacturer  of  jokes. 

I  feared  to  give  occasion  to  the  jests  of 
newspaper  jokesmiths. — Southey,  Letters,  1813 
(ii.  336). 

Mjjokesmith  Sidney,  and  all  his  kidney. 

Ibid.,  DexiVt  Walk. 
JOLLITBY,  jollity. 

No  doubt  it's  an  honourable  employment 
for  a  master  to  play  the  mimick  and  scara- 
mouch before  his  men,  .  .  .  and  to  strain 
jollitry  not  into  annual  (for  once  a  Tear  a 
wise  man  may  have  leave  to  be  mad),  bnt 
into  a  daily  madness. — Gentleman  Instructed, 
p.  637. 

Most  of  those  quarrels  that  end  in  blood 
begin  in  wine ;  joltitrv  drunk  too  high  de- 
generates into  fury. — llnd.,  p.  538. 

Jommetry,  geometry.  In  the  quota- 
tion it  implies  awkwardness,  angularity. 
See  Geometry. 

Miss.  Lord !  my  pettycoat,  how  it  hangs 
by  jommetry. 

Net.  Perhaps  the  fault  may  be  in  your 
shape. — Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Oonv.  i.). 

Jorum,  a  tumbler  or  other  vessel  full 

of  liquor. 

The  host  smiled,  disappeared,  and  shortly 
afterwards  returned  with  a  steaming  jorum, 
of  which  the  first  gulp  brought  water  into 
Mr.  Bumble's  eyes. — Dickens,  Oliver  Twist, 
ch.  xxxvii. 

Joss,  a  Chinese  idol. 

Who  dotes  on  pagods,  and  gives  up  vile  man 
For  niddle-noddle  figures  from  Japan ; 
Critick  in  jars  and  josses,  shews  her  birth 
Drawn,  like  the  brittle  ware  itself,  from  earth. 

Colman,  Jealous  Wife,  Epilogue. 
Down  with  dukes,  earls,  and  lords,  those 

pagan  Josses, 
False  Gods !—  Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  286. 

Jot,  to  bump. 

And  then  lay  overthrown 
Numbers   beneath    their   axle-trees;   who, 

lying  in  flight's  stream, 
Made  th'  after  chariots  jot  and  jump  in 
driving  over  them. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xvi.  380. 

Jourtng.  N.  gives  this  word  = 
swearing;  and  H.  says  jourinps  in 
Devonshire  dialect  =  scoldings ;  in  ex- 
tract it  has  a  third  meaning :  the  place 
referred  to  is  Somersetshire. 

As  this  way  of  boorish  speech  is  in  Ireland 
called  The  Brogue  upon  the  Tongue,  so  here 
it  is  named  Jourina.  It  is  not  possible  to 
explain  this  fully  by  writing,  because  the 
difference  is  not  so  much  in  the  orthography 
as  in  the  tone  and  accent;  their  abridging 
the  speech,  Cham  for  I  am,  Chill  for  I  will, 
Don  for  do  on  or  put  on,  and  Doff  for  do  off 
or  put  off,  and  tne  tike.— Defoe,  Tour  thro* 
O.  Britain,  i.  380. 


Jovialise,  to  cheer ;  make  jovial. 

The  bishop  did  the  honours  with  a  spirit, 
a  gaiety,  and  an  activity  tfontjovialised  us  all, 
and  really  we  were  prodigiously  lively. — 
Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  i.  364. 

JoviALisT,  festive:  the  Diets,  only 
give  the  word  as  a  substantive. 

There  shall  thy  Jouialist  Mechanicalls 
Attend  this  table  all  in  scarlet  cappes. 
Davits,  Commendatory  Poems,  p.  5. 

Jowder.     See  quotation* 

Mr.  Penruddock  gave  a  spiteful  hit,  being, 
as  he  said,  of  a  cantankerous  turn,  to  Mr. 
IVeluddra,  principal  jowder,  i.  e.  fish-salesman 
of  Aberalva. — Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch. 
xiv. 

Jowseb.    See  extract.    The  proposed 

derivation  of  chouse  is  incorrect. 

There  are  in  England  a  class  of  men  who 
practise  the  Pagan  rhabdomancy  in  a  limited 
sense.  They  carry  a  rod  or  rhabdos  (pdptox ) 
of  willow :  this  they  hold  h  orison  tally  ;  and 
by  the  bending  of  the  rod  towards  the  ground 
they  discover  the  favourable  places  for  sink- 
ing  wells ;  a  matter  of  considerable  import- 
ance in  a  province  so  ill-watered  as  the  north- 
ern district  of  Somersetshire.  These  people 
are  locally  called  jowsers  ;  and  it  is  probable 
that  from  the  suspicion  with  which  their  art 
has  been  usually  regarded  amongst  people  of 
education,  as  the  mere  legerdemain  trick  of 
the  prof essional  Dousterswivet  (see  the  An- 
tiquary), is  derived  the  slang  word  to  chouse 
for  swindle. — De  Quincey,  Modern  Supersti- 
tion. 

Jotned-patent,  associated  as  a  part- 
ner. 

[A  king  purposing  to  take  a  second  wife  in 
the  life-time  of  the  first  was]  so  incredibly 
blinded, . . .  that  he  could  think  such  a  queen 
would  be  content  to  be  joyned-patent  with 
another  to  have  such  a  husband.— Sidney, 
Arcadia,  p.  207. 

Jcbaltbb,  Gibraltar. 

Even  from  Persepolis  to  Mexico, 
And  thence  unto  the  straits  of  Jubalter. 
Marlowe,  1  Tamburlaine,  iii.  3. 

We  kept  the  narrow  strait  of  Jubalter, 
And  made  Canaria  call  us  kings  and  lords. 

Ibid.,  2  Tamburlaine,  i.  3. 

Jubilate,  to  rejoice. 

The  States-General ...  is  there  as  a  thing 
high  and  lifted  up.  Hope  jubilating  cries 
aloud  that  it  will  prove  a  miraculous  Braaen 
Serpent  in  the  wilderness. — CarlyU,  Fr.  Bet^ 
Pt.  I.  Bk.  V.  ch.  i. 

The  hurrahs  were  yet  ascending  from  our 
jubilating  lips. — De  Quincey,  Autob.  Sketches, 
ch.  ii. 

Jubilate,  joy,  or  perhaps  it  is  an 


JUDAIZATION  (  357  >        JURAMENTALLY 


expression  of  rejoicing,  from  the  first 

word  of  Psulm  c.  in  Latin. 

They  were  all  in  the  highest  triumph,  and 
would  speedily  be  with  us  in  a  joint  jubilate 
on  the  banks  of  the  Avon. — H.  Brooke,  Fool 
of  Quality,  ii.  244. 

Judaization,  conversion  into  a  Jew. 

Under  the  graver's  hand  Sir  Smug  became 
Sir  Smouch,  a  son  of  Abraham. . . . 

Poor  Smouch  endured  a  worse  judaization 
Under  another  hand. 

Southey,  To  A.  Cunningham. 

Judasly,  Judas-like :  also  an  adverb. 

Jonas  . . .  hvred  a  shyppe  to  thentent  he 
myght  Judasly  flee  from  the  face  of  our 
lorde  God.— Bt>.  Fisher,  p.  203. 

Shall  any  oi  them  prove  a  devil,  as  Christ 
said  of  Judas  ?  or  ever,  as  these  with  us  of 
late,  have  to  do  with  any  devilish  or  Judasly 
fact? — Andrews,  i.  15. 

It  must  needs  be  barbarously  covetous  and 
Judasly  sacriligious. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  519. 

Jug,  a  term  of  contempt  applied  to 
women. 

(Meretrix.)  Doost  thou  think  I  am  a  six- 
pennyjug? — Preston,  King  Cambists  {Haw 
kins,  Eng.  Dr.,  i.  266). 

Hark  ye,  don't  you  marry  that  ill-man* 
ner'd  Jug,  the  relict  of  a  cheating  old  rogue 
that  has  not  left  a  foot  of  estate  but  what  he 
deserved  to  be  hang'd  for. — Centlivre,  Pla» 
tonic  Lady,  Act  III. 

Jugulate,  to  kill. 

Let  three  years  pass,  and  this  clamorous 
Parlement  shall  have  both  seen  its  enemy 
hurled  prostrate,  and  been  itself  ridden  to 
foundering  (say  rather,  jugulated  for  hide 
and  shoes),  and  lie  dead  in  a  ditch. — Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  III.  ch.  vii. 

Juke,  roost.  The  second  extract  is 
given  in  Britten's  Old  Country  and 
Farming  Words  (E.  D.  S.).  The  first 
edition  of  Worlidge  was  in  1669. 

The  beasts  of  the  field  take  rest  after  their 
feed,  and  the  birds  of  the  ayre  are  tXjuke  in 
the  bushes. — Breton,  Fantastiekes  (Ttoelue  of 
the  Clocke). 

Imitating  their  [pheasants']  notes  at  their 
juking-time,  which  is  usually  m  the  morning 
and  in  the  evening. —  Worlidge,  Sy  sterna  Agri- 
culture (3rd  ed.,  1681),  p.  252. 

Jumble,  to  make  shift ;  to  manage, 

though  perhaps  awkwardly. 

I  have  forgotten  my  logic,  but  yet  I  can 
jumble  at  a  syllogism,  and  make  an  argument 
of  it  to  prove  it  by. — Latimer,  i.  247. 

Jumpers,  a  sect  that  arose  in  Wales 
about  the  middle  of  the  last  century : 


jumping  and  leaping  under  spiritual 
excitement  form  part  of  their  worship. 

Jenny  [was]  a  Welshwoman;  her  rude 
forefathers  were  goat -herds  on  week-days, 
and  Jumpers  on  Sundays.— Savage,  B.  Med- 
licott,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xii. 

Jungle  usually  =  a  thickly- wooded 
swamp,  but  a  note  to  the  extract  ex- 
plains it  as  "  a  kind  of  small  bamboo." 

The  wild  boar  and  royal  tiger  ....  are 
found  here  in  great  plenty,  the  woods  and 
thick  jungles  affording  excellent  shelter  for 
beasts  of  prey.— A rchaol.,  viii.  252  (1787). 

Juniper,  bitter:  but  see  third  ex- 
tract, which  is  given  in  Old  Country 
and  Farming  Words  (E.  D.  S.). 

Bishop  Grouthead,  offended  thereat,  wrote 
Pope  Innocent  the  fourth  . .  a  juniper  letter, 
taxing  him  with  extortion  and  other  vitious 
practices. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  III.  iv.  29. 

She  will  read  me  a  juniper  lecture  {hand 
suave  encomium)  for  coming  home  in  such  a 
pickle. — Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  39. 

When  women  chide  their  husbands  for  a 
long  while  together,  it  is  commonly  said, 
they  give  them  a  juniper  lecture ;  which,  I 
am  informed,  is  a  comparison  taken  from 
the  long  lasting  of  the  live  coals  of  that 
wood,  not  from  its  sweet  smell;  but  com- 
parisons run  not  upon  all  four.  —  Ellis, 
Modern  Husbandman,  VII.  ii.  142  (1750). 

Junkery,  sweetmeats. 

Marchpaines  or  wafers,  with  other  like 
junkerie. — UdaPs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  116. 

Junkettaceous,  fond  of  gaiety  or 
junketting. 

Now  you  have  a  whole  summer  to  your- 
self, and  you  are  as  junkettaceous  as  my  Lady 
Northumberland.  Pray,  what  horse-race  do 
you  go  to  next? — Walpole,  Letters,  ii.  156 
(1760). 

Junonical,  pertaining  to  Juno. 

Yeet  do  I  stil  feare  me  theese  f ayre  Junonical 

harbours. 
In  straw  thear  lurcketh  soom  pad. 

Stanyhurst,  AEn.,  i.  656. 

Junquetries,  sweetmeats. 

You  would  prefer  him  before  tart  and 
galingale,  which  Chaucer  preheminentest 
encomionizeth  above  all  junquetries  or  con- 
fectioneries whatsoever. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stvffe 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  158). 

Juramentally,  with  an  oath. 

The  emperor  .  .  heartily  intreated  him  to 
make  choice  of  any  whatsoever  thing  in 
Borne  was  most  agreeable  to  his  fancy,  with 
a  promise,  juramentallv  confirmed,  that  he 
should  not  be  refused  of  his  demand.  — 
UrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xix. 


JURANT 


(  358  ) 


KANGAROO 


J u rant,  swearing ;  also  one  who 
takes  an  oath. 

Not  that  such  universally  prevalent,  uni- 
versally jurant  feeling  of  nope  could  be  a 
unanimous  one.  —  Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II. 
Bk.  I.  ch.  vii. 

Jurant  and  Dissident  with  their  shaven 
crowns  argue  frothing  everywhere.  —  Ibid., 
Pt.  II.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  ii. 

Juror,  a  swearer ;  one  who  has  taken 

an  oath.      Bp.  Ken  uses  the  term  in 

contradistinction  to  nonjuror. 

I  am  a  juror  in  the  holy  league, 

And  therefore  hated  of  the  Protestants. 

Marlowe,  Massacre  at  Paris,  ii.  6. 

All  the  people  that  were  there  swore  every 
man  by  the  Sancts  of  his  parish ;  the  Paris- 
ians, which  are  patched  up  of  all  nations,  and 
all  pieces  of  countries,  are  by  nature  both 
good  jurors  and  good  jurists,  and  somewhat 
overweening. — UrouharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  oh. 
xvii. 

Frampton  had  M  never  interrupted  com- 
munion with  the  jurors"  and  would  concur 
in  anything  which  tended  to  peace. — life  of 
Ken  by  a  Layman,  p.  691. 

Just  (Fr.  joute)^  a  game  or  tourna- 
ment ;  joutes  mr  Veau. 

Round  it  are  courts  of  trefflage  that  serve 
for  nothing,  and  behind  it  a  canal,  very  like 
a  horse-pond,  on  which  there  are  fireworks 
vad  justs. —  Walpole,  Letters,  iii.  375  (1771). 

Justiciary,  legal. 

The  heart  of  the  Jews  is  empty  of  faith  ; 
swept  with  the  besom  of  hypocrisy,  a  jusii-' 
eiary,  imaginary,  false-conceited  righteous- 
ness.- Adams,  u.  37. 


JCSTITIAR,  judge. 

Of  the  Lord  Keeper  North  no  single  worJ 
slips  from  his  pen,  .  .  .  and,  considering  the 
value  of  this  great  justitiar,  ...  is  not  so 
notorious  partiality  in  such  a  pompous  writer 
of  history  wonderful  ? — North,  Life  of  Lord 
Guilford,  i.  2. 

All  which  were  amply  conceded  to  him, 
even  by  his  adversaries ;  which  they  ex- 
pressed by  owning  him  an  excellent  justiciar, 
and  that  includes  all  the  rest. — Ibid.,  ii.  62. 

Justment,  that  which  is  due  (?). 

That  for  seven  lusters  I  did  never  come 
To  doe  the  rites  to  thy  religious  tombe ; 
That  neither  haire  was  cut  or  true  teares 

shed 
By  me  o'er  thee  adjustments  to  the  dead, 
Forgive,  forgive  me. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  25. 

Jut,  a  shove;  kick;  also  a  projec- 
tion. 

Mery.  I  will  not  see  him,  but  giue  him  a 
jutte  indeed. 
I  cry  your  mastershyp  mercie. 

Roist.  And  whither  now  V 

As  fast  as  I  could  runne,  sir,  in  poste  against 
you. —  Udol,  Roister  Doister,  iii.  3. 

The  fiend,  with  a  jut  of  his  foot,  may  keep 
off  the  old,  from  dread  of  the  future. — Mad. 
D'ArMay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iii. 

The  fowlers  spread 
Their  gear  on  the  rocks'  bare  juts. 

Browning,  By  the  Fireside. 

Juvenile,  a  young  person. 

"  Yes,  yes,  yes,"  cried  the  juveniles,  both 
ladies  and  gentlemen ;  "  let  her  come,  it  will 
be  excellent  sport."  —  Miss  Bronte,  Jane 
Eyre,  ch.  xviii. 


K 


KA,  quoth.     Cf.  Ko. 

Enamoured,  quod  you?  have  ye  spied  out 

that? 
Ah,  sir,  mary  nowe,  I  see  you  know  what  is 

what. 
Enamoured,  ka  ?  mary,  sir,  say  that  againe. 
Tidal,  Roister  Doister,  I.  ii. 

Huan.  Her  coral  lips,  her  crimson  chin, 
Her  silver  teeth  so  white  within. 

Zan.  By  Gogs-bones  thou  art  a  flouting 
knave: 
"  Her  coral  lips,  her  crimson  chin ! "  Ka, 
wilshaw. — Peele,  Old  Wives  Tale,  p.  455. 

Kades,  sheep's  dung.     H.  gives  it  as 
a  Lincolnshire  word. 

I  rather  think  the  kades  and  other  filth 
that  fall  from  sheep  do  so  glut  the  fish  that 


they  will  not  take  any  artificial  bait. — La*r~ 
son,  Comments  on  Secrets  of  Angling,  1653 
(Eng.  Garner,  i.  197). 

Kalotypography,  beautiful  printing. 
English  words  derived  from  caXoc 
usually  begin  with  c;  kaleidoscope  is 

Eerhaps  the  only  ordinary  exception, 
ince  Southey  used  this  word,  Mr.  Fox 
Talbot  has  invented  a  photographic  pro- 
cess which  he  called  the  calotype,  thus 
adopting  the  commoner  spelling. 

Perfect  therefore  it  shall  be,  as  far  as 
kalotypography  can  make  it.  —  Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  ii.  A.  1. 

Kangaroo,  the  name  of  a  species  of 
chair  which  seems  to  have  been  fashion- 
able in  1834,  the  date  of  the  extract. 


KAROS 


(  359  ) 


KEEP-OFF 


It  was  neither  a  lounger,  nor  a  dormeuse, 
nor  a  Cooper,  nor  a  Nelson,  nor  a  kangaroo : 
a  chair  without  a  name  would  never  do ;  in 
all  things  fashionable  the  name  is  more  than 
half.  Such  a  happy  name  as  kangaroo.  Lady 
Cecilia  despaired  of  finding.  —  Miss  Edge- 
wrth,  Helen,  ch.  xvi. 

Kabos,  headache ;  drowsiness. 

The  Karos,  th'  Apoplexie,  and  Lethargic, 
As  forlorn  hope  assault  the  enemy 
On  the  same  side. 

Sylvester,  The  Furies,  356. 

Kabrawan,  caravan. 

The  sentiment  might  easily  have  come  .  . 
to  Tor  or  Sues,  towns  at  the  bottom  of  the 
gulf,  and  from  thence  by  karrawans  to  Cop- 
toe.— Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  iv.  62. 

Kabum-ple.    See  quotation. 

Athelstane  .  .  swallowed  to  his  own  single 
share  the  whole  of  a  large  pasty  composed 
of  the  most  exquisite  foreign  delicacies,  and 
termed  at  that  time  a  karum-pie. —  Scott, 
Ivanhoe,  i.  217. 

Kathenotheism.    See  extract. 

( Max  Miiller,  in  a  lecture  on  the  Veda,  has 
given  the  name  of  kathenotheism  to  the  doc- 
trine of  divine  unity  in  diversity. — E.  Tyler, 
Primitive  Culture,  ii.  254. 

Keckle,  to  chuckle ;  to  laugh ;  also 
a  substantive. 

The  auld  carles  keeklet  with  fainness  as 
they  saw  the  young  dancers. — Gait,  Annals 
of  the  Parish,  ch.  xlviii. 

"I'  glide  faith,"  cried  the  bailie,  with  a 
keckle  of  exultation,  "here's  proof  enough 
now." — Ibid^  Provost,  ch.  xii. 

"  Ah !  you're  a  wag,  sir,"  keckled  the  old 
man. — C.  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  iv. 

Kedge,  brisk. 

I'm  surely  growing  young  again, 
I  feel  myself  so  kedge  and  plump, 

From  head  to  foot  I've  not  one  pain, 
Nay,  bang  me  if  I  couldn't  jump. 

Bloomjuld,  Richard  ana  Kate. 

Keel,  the  name  given  to  boats  used 
by  the  colliers  at  Newcastle.  See  H. 
and  extract  s.  v.  Crimp.  In  the  extract 
from  Sylvester  it  =»  ship  generally. 

Thou  and  thy  most  renowned  noble  brother 
Came  to  the  Court  first  in  a  ktelt  of  Sea- 
ooale. 

Chapman,  Revenge  of  Bussy 
D'Ambois,  Act  I. 

Such  is  thy  case 

To  have  thy  vessell  full  of  Vertues  split, 
Where  lighter  keels  and  empty  never  hit. 

Sylvester,  An  Elegit. 

He  had  come  to  Newcastle  about  a  year 
ago  in  expectation  of  journeyman  work, 
along  with  three  young  fellows  of  his  ac- 


quaintance who  worked  in  the  keels. — Smol- 
lett, Roderick  Random,  ch.  viii. 

Keeling,  a  small  cod.  See  quota- 
tion s.  v.  Oregs. 

For  the  soling  of  them  were  made  use  of 
eleven  hundred  hides  of  brown  cows,  shapen 
like  the  tail  of  a  keeling. —  Urquharfs  Rabe- 
lais, Bk.  I.  ch.  viii. 

Keep,  the  food  that  a  person  con- 
sumes. 

Ruth's  salary  of  forty  pounds  was  gone, 
while  more  of  her  "  keep,n  as  Sally  called  it, 
was  thrown  upon  the  Bensons. — Mrs.  Gas- 
kell,  Ruth,  ch.  xxviii. 

Keep  cut.  N.  has  this  phrase 
with  a  quotation  from  Cotgrave's  Wits 
Interpreter,  1671,  but  no  explanation. 
"  To  xeep  within  bounds "  would  suit 
the  sense  both  in  that  passage  and  in 
all  the  subjoined,  i.  e.  to  keep  in  the 
groove  marked  out.  In  the  second  ex- 
tract Breton  is  describing  "  a  graceless 
grove  that  never  did  man  good." 

Good  brother  Philip,  I  have  born  you  long, 
I  was  content  you  should  in  favour  creep 
While  craftily  you  seemed  your  cut  to  keep. 
As  though  that  fair  soft  hand  did  you  great 
wrong. 

Sidney,  Astrophel  and  Stella,  85. 

There  might  he  see  a  monkey  with  an  ape, 
Climing  a  tree,  aud  cracking  of  a  nut : 

One  sparrow  teache  an  other  how  to  gape, 
But  not  a  tame  one  taught  to  keepe  the  cut. 
Breton%  Pilgrimage  to  Paradise,  p.  8. 

At  the  marriage  of  Sir  Philip  Herbert  with 
the  Lady  Susan  Vere, .  .  .  many  great  ladies 
were  made  shorter  by  the  skirts, .  .  .  like  the 
Little  Woman ;  and  Sir  Dudley  Carletou 
says,  "  They  were  well  enough  served  that 
they  could  keen  cut  no  better.  If  the  reader 
asks,  What  is  Keeping  cut  ?  he  asks  a  question 
I  cannot  answer. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  Inter- 
chapter  xvii. 

Keepebess,  a  woman  who  keeps  a 
man. 

Hardly  ever,  I  dare  say,  was  there  a  keeper 
that  did  not  make  a  keeperess  ;  who  lavished 
away  on  her  kept-fellow  what  she  obtained 
from  the  extravagant  folly  of  him  who  kept 
her. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  vi.  359. 

Keeping-room,  parlour. 

Like  many  other  buildings  of  the  same 
date  and  style,  that  which  was  designated  as 
the  keeping-room  or  parlour  was  the  passage 
of  the  house. — Freeman's  Life  of  W.  Kirby, 
p.  219  (1852). 

Keep-ofp,  long,  and  so  adapted  for 
keeping  foes  at  a  distance :  the  original 
is  fiaxptf. 


KEEP-WORTHY         (  360  )  KIBBLE-CHAIN 


He  fought  not  with  a  keep-off spear,  or  with 

a  far-shot  bow, 
But  with  a  massy  club  of  iron. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  vii.  121 

Keep-worthy,  worth  preservation. 

Bodmer  .  .  was  the  editor  of  the  Zurich 
Charter  .  .  .  and  of  other  keep-worthy  docu- 
ments.— Taylor,  Survey  of  German  Poetry,  i. 
182. 

K  ell  re  "  is  the  miner's  name  for  a 
substance  like  a  white  soft  stone  which 
lies  above  the  floor  or  spar,  near  to  a 
vein  "  (Note  by  Miss  Edgewortk  in 
loc).  The  scene  of  the  story  from 
which  the  extract  is  taken  is  in  Corn- 
wall. 

I  also  saw  them  secrete  a  lump  of  spar  in 
which  they  had  reason  to  guess  there  were 
Cornish  diamonds,  as  they  call  them,  and 
they  carefully  hid  the  bits  of  kellus  which 
they  had  picked  out,  lest  the  viewer  should 
notice  them  and  suspect  the  truth.  —  Mist 
Edgetoorth,  Lame  Jervas,  ch.  i. 

Kelter  in  many  dialects  =  rubbish ; 
perhaps,  therefore,  in  extract  it  means 
poor,  valueless.  Peacock  (Manley  and 
Corringham  Glossary,  E.  D.  S.)  gives 
"  kelterly,  rubbishy. n 

He  put  him  on  an  old  Kelter  coat. 
And  Uose  of  the  same  above  the  knee. 
Roxburgh  Ballads,  ii.  350. 

Kembo,  to  crook ;  to  place  akimbo. 

44  Oons,  madam !  "  said  he,  and  he  kemhoed 
his  arms,  and  strutted  up  to  me.  .  .  .  "  Kem- 
hoed arms!  my  lord,  are  you  not  sorry  for 
such  an  air?" — Richardson,  Granditon,  iv. 
288,  290. 

Kempstock.     See  quotation. 

Panurge  took  two  great  cables  of  the  ship, 
and  tied  them  to  the  kempstock  or  capstan 
which  was  on  the  deck  towards  the  hatches. 
—  Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xxv. 

Ken,  to  lie  within  sight  or  ken  of. 

Pliny  calleth  a  place  in  Picardy  Portnm 
Morinorum  Britannicum,that  is,  The  British 
haven  or  port  of  the  Morines,  either  for  that 
they  tooke  ship  there  to  passe  over  into 
Britain,  or  because  it  kenned  Britaine  over 
against  it  on  the  other  side  of  the  Sea.— 
Holland's  Camden,  ii.  221. 

Ken,  a  house  (thieves'  slang).  Bonking 
in  the  first  extract  is  no  doubt  misprint 
for  bouzing ;  a  bouzing-ken  =  a  public- 
house. 

Then  do  I  cry,  Good  your  worship, 
Bestow  some  small  denier  a, 

And  bravely  then  at  the  bouking  ken 
I'll  bouse  it  all  in  beer  a. 

Merry  Drollerie,  p.  205. 


To  say  nothing  at  all  of  those  troublesome 

swells, 
Who  come  from  the  play-houses,  flash  he  is, 

and  hells. — Ingoldsby  Legends  (St.  Aloys). 

Kennino-placb,  a  prominent  object. 
In  Gibson's  translation  the  extract  is 
"a  spectacle  exposed  to  the  eye  of  all 
the  world." 

Chester  ....  standeth  forth  as  a  kenning- 
place  to  the  view  of  eyes.— Holland's  Camden, 
p.  006. 

Kernell,  to  embattle  (cren&ler).  In 
margin  "kemellare,  what  it  is.1'  H. 
has  the  substantive  with  examples. 

The  king  had  given  him  License  to  fortifie 
and  kernell  his  mansion  house;  that  is,  to 
embatle  it. — Holland?*  Camden,  p.  753. 

These  walls  are  kernelled  on  the  top. — 
Archmol.,  iii.  202  (1775). 

Kettle  of  fish,  a  mess  or  disturb- 
ance. Kidellus  or  kiddle  is  a  fishing 
weir,  and  the  keddle  or  kettle-nets  are 
large  stake-nets  used  for  catching  fish 
therein.  Probably  this  is  the  origin  of 
the  phrase.  A  kettle  of  fish  is  also 
applied  to  a  species  of  picnic  described 
in  the  second  extract. 

Fine  doings  at  my  house !  a  pretty  kettle 
of  fish  I  have  discovered  at  last!  Who 
the  devil  would  be  plagued  with  such  a 
daughter?— Fieldi ng,  T.  Jones,  Bk.  XVIII. 
ch.  vui. 

A  kettle  of  fish  is  a  fits  chamvltre  of  a  par- 
ticular kind.  .  .  A  large  caldron  is  boiled 
by  the  side  of  a  salmon  river,  containing  a 
quantity  of  water,  thickened  with  salt  to  the 
oonsistence  of  brine.  In  this  the  fish  is 
plunged  when  taken,  and  eaten  by  the  com- 
pany fronds  super  viridi. — Scott,  St.  Ronan"s 
Well,  i.  210. 

Key  of  the  street.  A  person  who 
has  no  house  to  go  to  at  night,  or  is 
shut  out  from  his  own,  is  said  to  have 
the  key  of  the  street. 

44  There,"  said  Lowten, "  it's  too  late  now : 
you  can't  get  in  to-night ;  you've  got  the  key 
of  the  street,  my  friend." — Pickwick  Papersf 
ch.  xlvii. 

Keyless,  unlocked ;  without  a  key. 

Faith  and  simplicity  had  guarded  that 
keyless  door  more  securely  than  the  houses 
of  the  laity  were  defended  by  their  gates 
like  a  modern  jail.  —  Reads,  Cloister  and 
Hearth,  ch.  xciv. 

Kibble-chain,  the  chain  that  draws 
up  the  kibble  or  bucket  from  a  mine. 

One  day  at  the  shaft's  mouth,  reaching 
after  the  kibble-chain  —  maybe  he  was  in 
liquor,  maybe  not,  the  Lord  knows,  but — I 


KICKABLE 


(361  ) 


KINGLIHOOD 


didn't  know  him  again,  sir,  when  we  picked 
him  ap. — C.  Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  viii. 

Kick  able,  capable  of  being  kicked  ; 
or  adapted  for  that  process. 

Riff?  was  a  most  unen  gaging  kickabU  boy 
— G.  Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch.  xfi. 

He  was  not  unconscious  of  being  held 
kickable. — Ibid.,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xii. 

Kickee,  a  person  kicked. 

He  .  .  was  seen  .  .  .  kicking  him  at  the 
same  time  in  the  most  ignominious  manner  ; 
and  in  return  to  all  demands  on  the  part  of 
the  kickee  to  know  the  reason  for  such  out- 
rage, simply  remarking, "  You  are  Pigviggin." 
— Savage,  R.  MedlicoU,  Bk.  III.  ch.  viii. 

Kid,  a  young  child ;  though  this  is 
slang,  kidnap  is  in  ordinary  use. 

And  at  her  back  a  kid  that  cry'd 
Still  as  she  pinch'd  it,  fast  was  ty'd. 

DUrfey,  Collin's  Walk,  cant.  iv. 
A  fig  for  me  being  drowned  if  the  kid  is 
drowned  with  me,  and  I  don't  even  care  so 
much  for  the  kid  being  drowned,  if  I  go 
down  with  him.  —  Meade,  Never  too  late  to 
mend,  eh.  xxiii. 

Kiddkrminstebkd,    covered  with    a 

Kidderminster  carpet. 

*•  The  hour  when  daylight  dies  "  is  equally 
dear  to  shopkeeper  and  shepherd,  and  as 
charming  in  tbe  tradesman's  contracted  and 
Kidder  minster  ed  parlour  as  in  the  rosiest 
thatched  cottage. — Savage,  R.  MedlicoU,  Bk. 
III.  ch.  i. 

Kiddy,  some  piece  of  now  obsolete 

slang  ;  not  in  the   Slang  Diet,  which 

has  u  Kiddily,  fashionably/*  but  this 

does  not  seem  the  meaning  here. 

It  was  his  ambition  to  do  something  in 
the  celebrated  "  Kiddy  "  or  stage-coach  way. 
— Sketches  by  Boz  {Making  a  night  of  it). 

Kiddy-pie,  a  pie  made  of  goat's  or 
kid's  flesh. 

The  goats  furnished  milk  and  Kiddy-pies. 
—Kinysley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  iv. 

Kidney-lipt,  hare-lipped. 

First,  Jollie's  wife  is  lame ;  the  next,  loose* 

hipt, 
Sqnint-ey'd,  hook-nos'd,  and  lastly  kidney' 

Upt. — Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  64. 

Kilbuck,  a  term  of  contempt. 

Thar.  Well,  have  you  done  now,  Ladie  ? 
Art,  O  my  sweet  kilbuck. 
Thar.   You   now  in    your   shallow  pate 
thinke  this  a  disgrace  to  mee. 

Chapman,  Widdotoes  Teares,  Act  I. 

Kill-crop.     See  quotation. 

Concerning  the  kill-crops,  as  his  country- 
men the  Saxons  call  them,  whom  the  devil 
leaves  in  exchange,  when  he  steals  children 


for  purposes  best  known  to  himself,  Luther 
does  not  express  any  definite  opinion,  farther 
than  that  they  are  of  a  devilish  nature  .... 
In  Saxonia  near  unto  Halberstad  was  a  mau 
that  also  had  a  killcrop,  who  sucked  the 
mother  and  five  other  women  dry,  and  be- 
sides devoured  very  much.  —  Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  cexxx. 

Kill-man,  man  slaughtering.  "  Kill 
man  Merion,"  is  Chapman's  highly  con- 
densed rendering  of  Mnpiovrjc  r'  ara- 
Xavroc  'EvvaAiy  avSpwpovry. 

Whom  war-like  Idomen  did  lead,  co-partner 

in  the  fleet 
With  kill-man  Merion. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  ii.  573. 

Kill-time.     See  quotation. 

That  which  as  an  occasional  pastime  he 
might  have  thought  harmless  and  even 
wholesome,  seemed  to  him  something  worse 
than  folly  when  it  was  made  a  kill-time,  the 
serious  occupation  for  which  people  were 
brought  together,  the  only  one  at  which 
some  of  them  ever  appeared  to  give  them- 
selves the  trouble  of  thinking. — Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  lxv. 

Kil-mkn,  brick-makers  or  ki!n-men. 

These  busie  Kil-men  ply  their  occupations 
For  brick  and  tyle;   there  for  their  firm 

foundations 
They  dig  to  hell. — Sylvester,  Babylon,  164. 

Kilt,  to  turn  up  short,  like  a  kilt. 

She  kilted  up  her  gown  to  run.  —  Reade, 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  xxxiii. 

Kimbo,  as  a  verb.    See  Kembo. 

Kincob,  brocaded  work  (Hindustani 
Kimkhwab). 

He  is  the  son  of  Colonel  Newcome,  O.  B., 
who  sends  her  shawls,  ivory  chessmen, 
scented  sandal-wood  work-boxes  and  kincob 
scarfs. — Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  v. 

Kindle- fire,  promoter  of  strife,  fire- 
brand. 

Heere  is  he  the  kindJU-fire  between  these 
two  mighty  nations,  and  began  such  a  flame 
as  lasted  aboue  an  hundred  yeeres  after,  and 
tbe  smoake  thereof  much  longer.— Daniel, 
Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  189. 

Kindling  coal,  a  coal  left  smoulder- 
ing overnight  for  the  purpose  of  light- 
ing the  fire  in  the  morning. 

Thou  kindling  cole  of  an  infemall  fire, 
Die  in  the  ashes  of  thy  dead  desire. 

Breton,  Pilgrimage  to  Paradise,  p.  12. 

Kinglihood,  royalty. 

He  neither  wore  on  helm  or  shield 
The  golden  symbol  of  his  kinglihood, 
But  rode  a  simple  knight  among  his  knights. 
Tennyson,  Coming  of  Arthur. 


KIP 


(  362  )       KITCHEN-PHYSIC 


Kip.  To  tatter  a  kip  =  to  wreck  a 
house  of  ill  fame. 

My  business  was  to  attend  him  at  auctions, 
to  put  him  in  spirits  when  he  sat  for  his 
picture,  to  take  tne  left  hand  in  his  chariot 
when  not  filled  bj  another,  and  to  assist  at 
tattering  a  kip,  as  the  phrase  was,  when  we 
had  a  mind  for  a  frolic. —  Vicar  of  Wakefield, 
ch.xx. 

Kippered,  dried  by  smoking.  Sal- 
mon are  said  to  be  kipper  after  spawn- 
ing when  they  are  very  thin ;  hence 
the  term  is  applied  to  them  when  dried. 

Mingling  with  scents  of  butter,  cheese,  and 
gammons, 
Tea,  coffee,  sugar,  pickles,  rosin,  wax, 
Hides,  tallow,  Kussia-matting,  hemp,  and 
flax, 
Salt-cod,  red-herrings,  sprats,  and  kippered 
salmons. — Hood,  The  Turtles. 

Kibdlino,  brandishing  (?). 

Now  the  youth  grows  mad, 
The  moon-man  that  was  sad, 
Starts  up  as  wild  as  he, 
With  frowning  angry  look, 
Stood  kirdling  with  his  hook, 
And  demands  what  he  might  be. 

Merry  Drollerie,  p.  41. 

Kiss-cheeks,  an  epithet  of  tears  as 
wetting  the  cheek. 

Thus  doubting  clouds  o'ercasting  heav'nly 

brain 
At  length  in  rows  of  kiss-cheeks  tears  they 

rain. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  85. 

Kisses,  a  person  kissed. 

This  Hebe  Mr.  Gordon  greeted  with  a 
loving  kiss,  which  the  kisses  resented. — 
Lytton,  Pelham,  ch.  1. 

Kit,  a  light  woman. 

Such  foolish  Kittes  of  such  a  skittish  kinde 
In  Bridewell  booke  are  every  where  to  finde 
Breton,  PasquiVs  Fooles-cappe,  p.  2\\ 

Kit  had  lost  her  key,  miscarri- 
age (?),  or  perhaps,  diarrhoea.  Perdre 
la  clef  de  set  f esses  is  a  vulgar  French 
expression  for  the  latter  disorder. 

Oblations  and  offerings  of  meats,  of  otes, 
images  of  wax,  bound  pens  and  pins  for 
deliverance  of  bad  husbands,  for  a  sick  cow, 
to  keep  down  the  belly,  and  when  "  kit  had 
lost  her  key."—W.  Patten,  Exped.  to  Scotln 
1547  (Eng.  Garner,  iii.  71). 

Kit  with  the  canstick,  some  sprite 
or  demon  ;  will  o'  the  wisp  (?).  Can- 
stick  =  candle-stick  (see  Hen,  IV.,  III. 
i.).  The  extract  is  quoted  by  Washing- 
ton Irving  in  a  note  to  his  article  on 
Stratford  on  Avon  in  the  Sketch  Book* 

They  have  so  fraid  us  with  bull-beggars, 
spirits,  witches, .  .  .  kit  with  the  cansticke, .  .  . 


and  such  other  bugs,  that  we  were  afraid  of 
our  own  shadowes.  —  Scot,  Discoverie  of 
Witchcraft  (1584). 

Kitchen  -  cordials,  kitchen  -  physic, 
q.  v. 

If  nor  a  dram  of  treacle  sovereign, 
Or  aqua- vitas,  or  su  gar-can  dian, 
Nor  kitchen-cordials,  can  it  remedy, 
Certes  his  time  is  come,  needs  mought  he  die. 

Hall,  Sat.,  II.  iv.  31. 

Kitchendom,  the  domain  of  the  kit- 
chen. 

What  knowest  thou  of  flowers,  except  belike 
To  garnish  meats  with  ?  hath  not  our  good 

king 
Who  lent  me  thee,  the  flower  of  kitchendom, 
A  foolish  love  for  flowers? 

Tennyson,  Gareth  and  Lynette. 

Kitchener,  cook. 

The  industry  of  all  crafts  has  paused; 
except  it  be  the  smith's  fiercely  hammering 
pikes,  and  in  a  faint  degree  the  kitchener's 
cooking  off-hand  victuals. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev., 
Pt.  I.  Bk.  V.  ch.  v. 

Kitchen-gain,  kitchen-stuff;  drip- 
ping. 

The  sweat  upon  thy  face  doth  oft  appear 
Like  to  my  mother's  fat  and  kitchen-gain. 

Greene,  p.  291. 

Kitchenist,  a  cook,  as  one  whose 
work  lies  in  the  kitchen.  Sylvester 
reckons  among  those  whose  lot  it  is  to 
live  in  smoke, 

Brick-makers,  Brewers,  Colliers,  Kitchin- 
ists. — Tobacco  Battered,  427. 

Kitchen-latin,  inferior  latin. 

Observe  too  what  it  is  that  he  sees  in  the 
city  of  Paris :  no  feeblest  glimpse  of  those 
D'Alemberts  and  Diderot*,  or  of  the  strange 
questionable  work  they  did;  solely  some 
Benedictine  priests,  to  talk  kitchen-latin  with 
them  about  Editiones  principes.  —  Carlyle, 
Misc.,  iii.  102. 

Kitchen-physic,  nourishing  diet,  fit 
for  an  invalid.    Cf.  Kitchen-cordials. 

For  myselfe,  if  I  be  ill  at  ease,  I  like  kit- 
chyn  physicke ;  I  make  my  wife  my  doctor, 
and  my  garden  my  apoticanes  shop. — Greene, 
Quip  for  Upstart  Courtier  (Hart.  Misc.,  v. 
406). 

Nothing  will  cure  this  man's  understanding 
but  some  familiar  and  kitchen-physic,  which, 
with  pardon,  must  for  plainness  sake  be  ad- 
ministered unto  him.  Gall  hither  your  cook. 
— Milton,  Animadv.  on  Remonst.,  sect.  2. 

The  cook's  boy  in  the  kitchen  . .  .was  then 
master  cook  for  the  whole  family;  and  he 
performed  his  part  so  well  in  making  their 
broths  and  other  necessaries,  that  he  was  the 
best  physician  among  the  doctors ;  for  by  his 


KITCHEN-POKERNESS  (  363  )      KNICKERBOCKERS 


kitchen-physic  the  sick  was  cured.—  Barnardt 
Life  of  Heylin,  p.  113. 

Cot.  Well,  after  all,  kit chen-phy sick  is  the 
best  physick. 

Ld.  S.  And  the  best  doctors  in  the  world 
Doctor  Diet,  Doctor  Quiet,  and  Doctor 
Merry  man.  —  Swift,  Polite  Conversation 
(Conv.  ii.). 

Kitchen  -  P0KERNK68,  extreme  stiff- 
ness. 

He  looked  something  like  a  vignette  to  one 
of  Richardson's  novels,  and  had  a  clean- 
cravatisb  formality  of  manner,  and  kitchen' 
pokerness  of  carriage  which  Sir  Charles  Gran- 
dison  himself  might  have  envied. — Sketches 
by  Boz  (  WatHns  Tottle). 

Kite.    A  man  who  raises  money  on 

a  bill  is  said  to  fly  a  kite  (slang). 

Here's  bills  plenty — long  hills  and  short 
bills — but  even  the  kites,  which  I  canity  as 
well  as  any  man,  won't  raise  the  money  for 
me  now. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Love  and  Law, 
i.2. 

In  English  Exchequer-bills  f  nil  half  a  million, 
Not  kites  manufactured  to  cheat  and  inveigle, 
But  the  right  sort  of  flimsy,  all  signed  by 
Monteagle. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (Jfer.  of  Venice). 

Kitlinq,  sharp ;   kitten-like. 

His  kitling  eyes  begin  to  run 

Quite  through  the  table,  where  he  spies 

The  homes  of  paperie  butterflies. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  126. 

Kitten  hood,  state  of  being  a  kitten. 

For  thou  art  beautiful  as  ever  cat 
That  wantoned  in  the  joy  of  kittenhood. 

Southey,  Nondescripts,  i. 

Kittenish,  kitten-like. 

Such  a  kittenish  disposition  in  her  I  called 
it ;  for  it  is  not  so  much  the  love  of  power 
that  predominates  in  her  mind,  but  the  love 
of  playfulness. — Richardson,  Grandison,  iv. 
115. 

Kittle,  to  tickle. 

A  man  must  hug,  and  dandle,  and  kittle, 
and  play  a  hundred  little  tricks  with  his  bed- 
fellow.— Kennel's  Erasmus,  Praise  of  Folly, 
p.  23. 

Kittle,  ticklish;  difficult  to  deal 
with. 

Women  are  kittle  folk,  manage  them  who 
can. — Reade,  Never  too  late  to  mend,  ch.  viii. 

Knackino,  downright  (?). 

distance.  Tush,  ye  speake  in  jest. 

Mery.  Nay  sure,  the  partie  is  in  good  knack' 
ing  earnest. 

Udal,  Roister  Doister,  iii.  2. 

Knapknob,  swelling  lamp.  Knap 
=  hill. 


Enquyrye  was  eke  made 
For  to  snip,  in  the  foaling,  from  front  of 

fillye  the  knapknob, 
That  the  mare  al  greedy  dooth  snap. 

Stanyhurst,  uiEn.,  iv.  550. 

Knatch,  to  knock. 

One  day  hee  gathered  all  the  sicke,  lame, 
and  impotent  people  of  Rome  into  one  place, 
where  hee  hamperd  their  feete  with  straunge 
deuisea,  gaue  them  softe  sponges  in  their 
hands  to  throw  at  him  for  stones,  and  with  a 
great  clubbe  knatched  them  all  on  the  hed  as 
they  had  been  giauntes. — Gosson,  Schoole  of 
Abuse,  p.  47. 

Knave,  to  make  a  knave  of. 

At  the  first  sight  of  a  raw  gentleman,  they 
fly  at  him  like  a  vulture  at  the  quarry,  and 
for  the  same  end  also,  to  prey  first  upon  his 
virtue,  then  upon  his  money:  how  many 
nets  do  they  lay  to  ensnare  the  squire  and 
knave  themselves. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p. 
477. 

Knaving,  abuse. 

No  comfortable  scriptures,  nor  yet  anything 
to  the  soul's  consolation,  may  come  out  of 
the  mouths  of  these  spiritual  fathers,  but 
dog's  rhetoric  and  cur's  courtesy,  knavings, 
brawlings,  and  quarrellings.  —  Bale,  Select 
Works,  p.  173. 

Kneadingly,  like  one  who  kneads ; 
pressing  together. 

And  I  perceived  how  she 
Who  loosed  it  with  her  hands,  pressed  knead- 

inqly, 
As  though  it  had  been  wine  in  grapy  coats. 
Leigh  Hunt,  Foliage,  p.  30. 

Knees.  To  sit  on  one's  knees  =  to 
kneel. 

His  Majesty  .  . .  calling  me  to  him  before 
the  whole  company,  I  sitting  upon  my  knees, 
he  gave  me  an  especial  charge. — Life  of 
Phineas  Pette,  temp.  James  I.  {Arch.,  xii.  254). 

Knez,  a  prince,  applied  to  the  Czar. 
Velikie  Knez  =  Grand  Duke,  in  the 
present  day. 

There  are  above  forty  severall  nations, 
both  in  Europe  and  Asia,  which  have  the 
Slavonick  for  their  vulgar  speech ;  it  reacheth 
from  Mosco,  the  court  of  the  great  Knez,  to 
the  Turk's  Seraglio  in  Constantinople,  aud 
so  over  the  Propontey  to  divers  places  in 
Asia. — Howell,  Forraine  Travell,  sect.  11. 

The  knez  of  them  [letters]  may  know  what 

Prester  John 
Doth  with  his  camels  in  the  torrid  zone. 
Ibid.,  Verses  prefixed  to  Familiar  Letters. 

Knickerbockers,  loose  trowsers,  end- 
ing at  the  knee,  after  the  manner  of 
the  Dutch,  and  met  by  a  long  stocking 
— much  worn  by  children,  sportsmen, 
&c. 


KNICK-KNACK- A  TORY  (  364  ) 


KNOCK  OFF 


The  puffed  trunk-hose  of  1580—1600  co- 
existed with  the  finest  cap-a-pie  armour  of 
proof.  They  gradually  in  the  country,  where 
they  were  ill  made,  became  slops,  i.  e.  hoick* 
erbockers.—C.  Kingsley,  1869  {Life,  ii.  94). 

Knickerbockers,  surely  the  prettiest  boy's 
dress  that  has  appeared  these  hundred  years. 
— Thackeray,  Roundabout  Papers,  viii. 

Knick-knack-atory,  a  collection  of 
knick-knacks;  an  old  curiosity  shop. 
In  the  extract  from  Richardson  the 
initial  k  in  the  first  part  of  the  word  is 
omitted,  but  retained   in   the  second.. 

Cf.  NlCK-NACKERY. 

One  Mr.  Webb,  a  rich  philosopher,  lived  in 
Bloomsbury.  He  was  single,  and  his  house 
a  sort  of  knick-knack-atory. — North,  Life  of 
Lord  Guilford,  ii.  252. 

For  my  part,  I  keep  a  knicknackatory  or 
toy-shop. — T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  15. 

I  know  he  has  judgement  in  nick-knack- 
atones,  and  even  as  much  as  I  wish  him  in 
what  is  called  taste. — Richardson,  Grandison, 
v.  71. 

Knick-knacker,  a  trifler. 

Other  kind  of  knick-knackers  there  are, 
which  betwixt  knaue  and  foole  can  make  an 
ilfauord  passage  through  the  world. — Breton, 
Strange  Xeices,  p.  6. 

Knick-knackeries,  curious  or  ele- 
gant trifles. 

He  has  attempted,  in  this  instance,  to  be- 
come ...  a  Writer  of  a  short  Epick  Poem, 
stuff' d  with  romantick  knick-knackeries, — 
Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  42. 

Knick  -  knacks,  light  refreshment ; 
kickshaws. 

He  found  me  supporting  my  outward 
tabernacle  that  was  fatigued,  starved,  and 
distempered,  with  some  knick-knacks  (deli' 
ciis)  at  the  confectioner's. — Bailey1  s  Erasmus, 
p.  377. 

Knighthood-money.    See  quotation. 

He  was  fined  in  October,  1630,  for  refusing 
the  honour  of  knighthood,  a  matter  then 
lately  brought  up  to  obtain  money  for  his 
majestie's  use.  This  money  which  was  paid 
by  all  persons  of  40  li.  per  an.  that  refused 
to  come  in  and  be  dub'd  knights,  was  called 
knighthood-money. — Life  of  A.  Wood,  1642. 

Knipperdollin,  a  fanatical  fool. 
Knipperdollin  was  an  Anabaptist  leader 
under  John  of  Leyden ;  he  was  executed 
1536.     See  Hyperdolin. 

Hold!  quoth  Collin, 
I  am  not  such  a  Knipperdollin, 
Not  to  allow,  as  the  case  stands, 
That  you  are  stronger  of  your  hands. 

D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  cant.  i. 


Knipperkin,    a    small    measure    of 
drink.     See  N.,  8.  v.  Nipperkin. 

Although  I  would  not  lose  my  credit 
By  letting  the  town  know  I  quaff'd 
A  quart  of  claret  at  a  draught, 
Yet  here  with  such  a  friend  as  you, 
A  brother,  and  in  private  too, 
Myself  a  foe  must  needs  profess 
To  all  such  knipperkins  as  this. 

D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  cant.  iv. 

Knit,  compounded. 

If  the  cakes  at  tea  eat  short  and  crisp, 
they  were  made  by  Olivia ;  if  the  gooseberry 
wine  was  well  knit,  the  gooseberries  were  of 
her  gathering. — Vicar  of  Wakefield,  ch.  xvi. 

Knitch,  a  bundle. 

If  I  dared  break  a  hedge  for  a  knitch  of 
wood,  they'd  put  me  in  prison. — C.  Kingsley, 
Alton  Locke,  ch.  xxviii. 

Knitting-cup,  a  cup  of  wine  handed 
round  after  a  couple  Lad  been  knit  to- 
gether in  matrimony ;  also  called  the 
contracting-cup. 

Mind 
The  parson's  put  to  engage  him  in  the  busi- 
ness; 
A  knitting-cup  there  must  be. 

Jonson,  Magnetic  Lady,  iv.  1. 

Knive,  to  cut  with  a  knife. 

A  brute  who  in  cold  blood  knived  and  tor- 
tured them  with  bis  own  hand. — F.  Walpolc, 
The  A  nsayrii,  ii.  8. 

Knives,  pair  of,  scissors. 

I  pray,  when  you  write  next,  to  send  me 
.  .  .  half  a  dozen  of  pair  of  knives, — Hovell, 
Letters,  I.  i.  14. 

I  must  desire  you  (as  I  did  once  at  Rouen) 
to  send  me  .  .  half  a  dozen  pair  of  knives  by 
the  merchant's  post. — Ibid,  I.  ii.  20. 

Knocking-underness,  submission. 

I'm  for  peace,  and  quietness,  and  fawn- 
in  gness,  and  what  may  be  styled  knocking- 
underness. — De  Quincey,  Murder  as  a  Fine 
Art. 

Knock  -  kneed,  having  the  knees 
turned  somewhat  in,  and  so  knocking 
together. 

Once  I  thought  my  body  was  a  church, 
My  head  the  belfry ;  and  you'd  scarce  believe 
What  clangour  and  what  swinging  to  and  fro 
Went  on,  and  how  the  belfry  rock'd  and 

reel'd, 
Till  Death,  the  knock-kneed  laggard,  came  to 

Church.— Taylor,  St.  Clements  Eve,  iv.  2. 

Knock  off,  to  desist  or  give  up  ;  and 
so,  to  die.  The  expression  is  still  in 
common  use  among  the  working  classes, 
especially  of  leaving  off  work. 


KNOCK  UNDER  TABLE    (  365  ) 


KNURLY 


Id  noting  of  their  nativities,  I  have  wholly 
observed  the  instructions  of  Pitseus,  where 
I  knock  off  with  his  death,  my  light  ending 
with  his  life  on  that  subject. — Fuller,  Wor- 
thies, ch.  x. 

My  gentleman  knocks  off,  and,  like  the 
serpent,  exposes  his  tail  to  save  his  head, 
1.  e.  drops  his  titles,  offices,  and  greatness, 
and  gives  up  his  favouriteship  with  all  its 
appurtenances,  to  save  his  skin. — Gentleman 
Instructed,  p.  211. 

It  was  your  ill  fortune  to  live  amongst 
such  a  refractory,  perverse  people,  .  .  that 
would  not  knock  off  in  any  reasonable  time, 
but  lived  long  on  purpose  to  spite  their  rela- 
tions.— T.  Brown,  Works,  iv.  183, 

Knock  under  table,  to  yield. 
South  has  "knock  under  board."  See 
g.  v.  Board  ;  knock  under  is  the  more 
usual  expression. 

If,  therefore,  after  this  "  I  go  the  way  of 
my  fathers,"  I  freely  waive  that  haughty 
epitaph,  magnis  tamen  excidit  ausis,  and  in- 
stead knock  under  table  that  Satan  hath  be- 
guiled me  to  play  the  fool  with  myself. — 
AsgUVs  Argument,  &c.,  1700,  quoted  in 
Sout  key's  Doctor,  ch.  clxxii. 

I  hope  you'll  be  brought  to  knock  under 
the  table,  and  own  that  you  have  given  me 
and  yourself  a  great  deal  of  unnecessary 
trouble.— T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  296. 
He  that  flinches  his  glass,  and  to  drink  is 

not  able, 
Let  him  quarrel  no  more,  but  knock  under 

the  table.— Ibid*  iv.  16. 

Knock  up,  to  tire. 

If  Fanny  would  be  more  regular  in  her 
exercise,  she  would  not  be  knocked  up  so 
soon. — Miss  Austen,  Mansfield  Park,  ch.  vii. 

Knot,  bud. 

Whose  suits  hung  upon  him  like  fruits  on 
the  citron-tree ;  it  bore  some  ripe  ones,  and 
some  sour  ones,  some  in  the  knot*  and  some 
in  the  blossom  altogether. — Racket,  life  of 
Williams,  ii.  88. 

Knot  in  a  rush.  To  seek  a  knot  in 
a  rush  =  to  look  for  a  needle  in  a  bottle 
of  hay.  H.  refers  to  Elyot  s.  v.  scirpus. 

Cf.  A  PIMPLE   IN  A  BENT,  S.  V.  PlMPLE. 

I  saw  a  great  many  women  using  high 
wordes  to  their  husbands ;  some  striving  for 
the  breeches,  others  to  have  the  last  word ; 
some  fretting  they  could  not  find  a  knot  in  a 
rush,  others  striving  whether  it  were  wooll  or 
hair  the  goat  hsxe. —-Greene.  Quip  for  Upstart 
Courtier(Harl.  Misc.,  v.  397). 
The  bed  of  snakes  is  broke,  the  tricks  come 

out, 
And  here's  the  knot  ?  the  rush. 

Davenport,  City  Night-Cap,  Act  III. 

Knowing,  well-appointed;  fashion- 
able.   Cf .  Gnostic. 


Many  young  men  who  had  chambers  in 
the  Temple,  made  a  very  good  appearance  in 
the  first  circles,  and  drove  about  town  in 
very  knowina  gigs. — Miss  Austen,  Sense  and 
Sensibility,  ch.  xix. 

Knowledgeable,  educated ;  intel- 
ligent. L.  has  the  word,  but  in  the 
sense  of  "  cognisable." 

Ill  noane  deny  that  in  a  thing  or  two  I 
may  be  more  knowledgeable  than  Coulson. 
I've  had  a  deal  o'  time  on  my  hands  i'  my 
youth,  and  I'd  good  schooling  as  long  as 
father  lived. — Mrs.  Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers, 
ch.  xxi. 

Knowledge- box,  head. 

By  Bedford's  cut  I've  trimm'd  my  locks, 
And  coal-black  is  my  knowledge-bos, 
Callous  to  all,  except  hard  knocks 
Of  thumpers. 
Poetry  of  Antijacobin,  p.  116. 

Knownest,  best  known. 

Death  is  the  knownest  and  unknownest  thing 
in  the  world;  that  of  which  men  have  the 
most  thoughts  and  fewest  meditations.  — 
Ward,  Sermons,  p.  53. 

?  Know  thy  Master.  See  extrnct, 
which  is  taken  from  the  Parish  Regis- 
ters of  Loughborough,  Leicestershire. 

June,  1551.  The  Swatt  called  new  ac- 
quyntance,  alles  Stoupe  Knave,  and  Know 
thy  Master,  began  the  xxiiiith  of  this  monethe 
1551. — Archaol.  xxxvui.  107. 

Knuckle-deep,  considerably ;  having 

the  whole  hand  in. 

You  shall  find  St.  Paul  (1  Cor.  vi.  5) 
offend  against  this  bill,  ana  intermeddle 
knuckle-deep  with  secular  affairs  by  inhibiting 
the  Corinthians  very  sharply  for  their  chi- 
canery, pettifoggery,  and  common  barretry 
in  going  to  law  one  with  another. — Socket, 
Life  of  Williams,  ii.  170. 

Knuckle  down  or  under,  to  give 
way,  perhaps  from  bending  the  knee. 

So  he  knuckled  down  again,  to  use  his  own 
phrase,  and  sent  old  Hulker  with  peaceable 
overtures  to  Osborne.  —  Thackeray,  Vanity 
Fair j  ch.  xlii. 

When  the  upper  hand  is  taken  upon  the 
faith  of  one's  patience  by  a  man  of  even 
smaller  wits  . .  .  why  it  natnrally  happens 
that  we  knuckle  under  with  an  ounce  of 
indignation.  —  Blackmore,  Lorna  Doone,  ch. 
liv. 

Knurlt,  gnarled,  knotted. 

Why,  thus  sffbuld  statesmen  doe 
That  cleave  through  knots  of  craggie  pollicies 
Use  men  like  wedges,  one  strike  out  another, 
Till  by  degrees  the  tough  and  knurly  trunke 
Be  rived  in  sunder. 

Marston,  Antonio  and  Mellida,  iii.  3. 


KNURRED 


(  366  )  LACHRYMENTAL 


Knurrkd,  knotted  or  studded. 

Thee  gates  of  warfare  wyl  then  bee  man- 

nacled  hardly 
With   Steele    bunch    chavne    knob   clingd, 

knurd  and  narrolye  linefeed. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.  281. 

Knurry,  knotty,  contorted.  L.  has 
the  word  as  part  of  a  compound, 
'  knurry  -  bulked  oak  "  (Drayton). 
Chaucer  (Cant.  Tales,  1979),  has 
Knarry. 

Vnder  the  oaken  bark 
The  knurry  knot  with  branching  veins  we 

mark 
To  be  of  substance  all  one  with  the  tree. 

Sylvester,  fourth  day,  first  weeke,  103. 

....  The  knurry  knob  oake  tree, 
Thogh    craggy  in  griping,  in  strength  sur- 
passeth  a  smooth  slip. 

Stany hurst,  Conceites,  p.  143. 

Ko,  quoth.  Cf.  Ka.  Stanyhurst  has 
quoa.    See  *.  v.  Flamfews. 

Bawawe  what  ye  say  (Ko  I)  of  such  a  jent- 

mau: 
Nay,  I  feare  him  not  {Ko  she),  doe  the  best 

he  can. —  Udal,  Router  Doister,  iii.  3. 


Kritarchy,  the  rule  of  the  Judges. 

Samson,  Jepthah,  Gideon,  and  other 
heroes  of  the  Kritarchy.  —  Southey,  The 
Doctor,  Interchapter  xvii. 

Kudos,  praise.  This  Greek  noun  is 
almost  naturalized.  Southey  uses  it  in 
the  extract  as  a  verb. 

Bepraised  in  prose  it  was,  bepraised  in  Terse, 
Lauded  iu  pious  Latin  to  the  skies, 
Kudos' d  egregiously  in  heathen  Greek. 

Soutftey,  Nondescript*,  I. 

Kurisees.     See  extract. 

The  renegado  Wogan  with  twenty-four  of 
Ormond's  Kurisees. — Letter  of  O.  Cromwell, 
Dec.  19, 1649. 

What  Kurisees  are  I  do  not  know ;  may  be 
cuirassiers  in  popular  locution;  some  nick- 
name for  Ormond's  men,  whom  few  loved. — 
Carlyle,  Cromwell's  Letters,  &c.,  ii.  95. 

K ye- bosk,  a  street  slang  term  ;  now, 
I  think,  obsolete.  The  slang  Diet, 
gives  Kibosh,  nonsense  or  palaver. 

"  Hooroar ! "  ejaculates  a  pot-boy  in  paren- 
thesis, "  put  the  Kyebosk  on  her,  Mary." — 
Sketches  by  Boz  (Seven  Dials). 


Label,  a  tassel  or  pendant  strip. 
Fuller  (Ch.  Hi*.,  III.  iii.  13),  calls 
Dover  "the  utmost  edge,  brink,  and 
labell"  of  England. 

And  a  knit  night-cap  made  of  coarsest  twine, 
With  two  long  labels  button 'd  to  his  chin. 

Hall,  Sat.  IV.  ii.  24. 

Balak  met  Balaam,  standing  as  it  were  on 
his  tiptoes,  on  the  very  last  label  of  his  land. 
—Fuller,  Pisyah  Siyht,  IV.  i.  19. 

Labour- in- vain,  seems  to  have  been 
a  favourite  sign ;  the  picture  was  that 
of  a  negro  being  washed  to  make  him 
white.  I  remember  some  thirty  years 
ago  a  large  toy-shop  in  Southampton 
that  had  this  picture  in  the  window, 
with  the  legend,  "  Labour  in  vain,  and 
so  it  will  be  to  find  a  cheaper  shop 
than  this.'* 

Let  nature  do  her  best,  we  dwelt  at  the 
sign  of  the  Labour-in-vain.  Only  Christ 
hath  washed  us. — Adams,  i.  398. 

That  Commission  ended  at  Labour-in-vain; 
not,  as  the  old  emblem  is,  to  go  about  to 
make  a  black-moor  white,  but  to  make  him 
that  was  white  to  appear  like  a  black-moor. 
—Hacket,Life  of  Williams,  II.  67. 


Labourous,  industrious. 

But  sober,  honest,  wittie,  thriftie,  kinde. 
Good  shape,  good  face,  expert,  and  labourous, 
Good  hand,  good  heart,  good  spirit  and  good 

minde, 
Discreetly  careful,  and  not  covetous. 

Breton,  Mother's  Blessing  %  p.  9. 

Labyrinth,  to  shut  up  in  a  maze  or 
labyrinth. 

How  to  entangle,  trammel  np,  and  snare 
Your  soul  in  mine,  and  labyrinth  von  there. 
Like  the  hid  soeLt  in  an  unbudded  rose. 

Keats,  Lamia,  Pt.  II. 

Lace,  to  open.  Miss  Edge  worth 
suggests  in  a  note  "perhaps  from 
lacker ,  to  loosen." 

Larry  .  .  drove  .  .  over  great  stones  left 
in  the  road  by  carmen,  who  had  been  driving 
in  the  gudgeons  of  their  axle-trees  to  hinder 
them  from  lacing. — Miss  Edyeroorth,  Absentee, 
ch.  x. 

Lachrymental,  tearful ;  lugubrious. 

To  see  each  wall  and  publike  post  defil'd 
With  diuers  deadly  elegies,  compil'd 
By  a  foule  swarme  of  Ouckoes  ox  our  times, 
In  lamentable  lachrymentall  rimes. 

A .  Holland  (Davits'  Scourge 
of  Folly,  p.  81). 


LACK 


(367)     LADY  OF  PLEASURE 


Lack,  to  rake. 

"  We  are  lacking  her  through  and  through 
every  shot,"  said  he;  "leave  the  small 
ordnance  alone  yet  awhile,  and  we  shall 
sink  her  without  them. — Kingsley,  Westward 
Mo,  ch.  zz. 

Alongside  ran  hold  Captain  John  [Haw- 
kins], and  with  his  next  shot,  says  his  son, 
an  eye-witness, "  lacked  the  admiral  through 
and  through." — Ibid.,  ch.  xxviiL 

Lack,  blame.    Cf.  Belack. 

.  He  did  not  stayne  ne  put  to  lacke  or  re- 
bake  his  royall  autoritie  in  geuing  sentence. 
—  UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p  197. 

Lackstock,  a  man  without  money 
invested  in  the  funds,  Ac. 

We  poor  lacklands  and  lackstocks. — Southey, 
Letters,  1820  (iii.  212). 

Lack-thought,  vacant ;  foolish. 

An  air 
So  lack-thought  and  so  lackadaisycal. 

Southey,  To  A.  Cunningham. 

Lacqueian,  pertaining  to  a  lackey :  a 
word  coined  to  represent  a  coined  word 
in  the  original,  lacayuna. 

Love  would  not  lose  the  opportunity 
offered  him  of  triumphing  over  a  lacqueian 
heart. — Jarvis't  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  IV. 
ch.  iv. 

Lacrymals,  tears. 

Something  else  I  said  that  made  her 
laugh  in  the  midst  of  her  lacrymals. — Rich- 
ardson, Grandison,  vi.  317. 

Lacune,  a  gap. 

It  is  plain  that  after  them  there  is  a  lacune 
or  blank  which  is  to  be  filled  up  with  the 
kings  death. — North,  Examen,  p.  149. 

Ladage,  boyhood. 

Heer  I  have  past  my  ladage  fair  and  good, 
Heer  first  the  soft  down  on  my  cheek  did 
bud.— Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  170. 

Ladder  to  heaven.  There  are  two 
plants  to  which  this  name  is  given : 
Pofemonium  cceruleum,  also  called 
Jacob's  ladder ;  and  Polygonatum 
rmdtijlorum,  sometimes  styled  Solo- 
mon's seal.  See  Britten  and  Holland's 
Eng.  Plant  Names  (E.  D.  S.). 

I  ornamented  it  with  a  rich  wreath  of 
roses,  entwined  with  certain  other  flowers, 
famed  for  their  close  connection  with  such 
exploits,  such  as  love  and  idleness,  heart's 
ease,  ladder  to  heaven,  lords  and  ladies,  love 
in  a  mist,  none  so  pretty,  true  love  of  Canada, 
and  bachelor's  buttons. — Nares,  Thinks-I-to- 
myself,  n.  41. 

Laddess,  a  girl. 


I  know  he  is  a  very  amiable  lad,  and  I  do 
not  know  that  she  is  not  as  amiable  a  laddess. 
—  Walpole,  Letters,  iii.  243  (1768). 

Ladies  love.      This  plant  is  not 

noticed  in  Britten  and  Holland's  Eng. 

Plant  Names. 

His  cap  was  made  of  ladyes  loue, 
So  wondrous  light  that  it  did  moue 
If  any  humming  gnat  or  flie 
Buz'd  the  aire  in  passing  by. 

Merrick,  Appendix,  p.  481. 

Lads-love,  southern-wood.  Boy's- 
love  is  given  as  a  name  of  this  plant  in 
Britten  s  Beauties  of  Wiltshire,  1825. 

She  gathered  a  piece  of  southern-wood, 
and  stuffed  it  up  her  nose  by  way  of  smell- 
ing it.  "What, ten  you  call  this  in  your 
country  ?  "  asked  she.  "  Old  man,"  replied 
Ruth.  "We  call  it  here  ladfs-love."—Mrs. 
Gaskell,  Ruth,  ch.  xviii. 

Lady,  to  play  the  lady. 

A  Jacke  will  be  a  gentleman 
A  mistris  Needens  lady  it  at  least. 

Breton,  PasquiCs  Madcappe,  p.  10. 

Lady,  wife :  this  vulgarism  is  not  so 
very  modern.  The  extract  is  from  a 
letter  of  Ph.  Skippon,  1644. 

General  Ruthen's  lady  was  taken  seven 
or  eight  miles  hence  this  day. — Rushworth, 
Pt.  IH.  Vol.  II.  p.  723. 

Lady-clock,  lady-bird. 

You're  not  turning  your  head  to  look  after 
some  moths,  are  you  ?  That  was  only  a  lady- 
clock,  child,  *  flying  away  home/ — C.  Bronte, 
Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xxhi. 

Lady-cow,  a  lady-bird:  in  the  first 
extract  it  is  addressed  as  a  term  of 
reproach  by  Goliath  to  David. 

O  Lady-cow, 
Thou  shalt  no  more  bestar  thy  wanton  brow 
With  thine  eyes  rayes. 

Sylvester,  The  Trophies,  p.  274. 
A  pair  of  buskings  they  did  bring 
Of  the  cow4adyes  currall  winge. 

Herrick,  Appendix,  p.  475. 

Lady  op  pleasure,  a  courtesan. 
North  has  "lady  of  diversion."  See 
quotation  s.  v.  Shah. 

Thence  the  king  walked  to  the  Dutchess 
of  Cleveland,  another  lady  of  pleasure  and 
curse  of  our  nation. — Evelyn,  Diary,  March 
5, 1671. 

Now  I  find  that  the  strict  pretences  which 
the  ladies  of  pleasure  make  to  strict  modesty 
is  the  reason  why  those  of  quality  are 
asham'd  to  wear  it.  —  Farquhar,  Constant 
Couple,  Act  III. 

You  may  rig  out  a  first  rate  ship  at  less 
expense  than  a  lady  of  pleasure :  she  must 


LAD  Y  OF  THE  LAKE    (  368  ) 


LAITH 


appear  at  Hyde  Park  with  a  glittering  equip- 
age, and  shroud  the  scandal  of  her  life  under 
a  veil  of  embroidery. — GentUman  Instructed, 
p.  288. 

Lady    of  the  lake,  a  courtesan; 

from  the  old  romance  of  Sir  Lancelot 

and  the  Lady  of  the  Lake. 

All  women  would  be  of  one  piece, 
The  virtuous  matron  and  the  miss ; 
The  nymphs  of  chaste  Diana's  train, 
The  same  with  those  in  Lewkner's  Lane, 
But  for  the  difference  marriage  makes 
Twixt  wives  and  Ladies  of  the  Lakes. 

Hud&ras,  III.  i.  868. 

Our  Lady  of  the  Lake 
In  mistick  praise  of  Collin  spake. 

D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  cant,  iv 

Lady's  Finger,  a  species  of  potato ; 
also  the  kidney- vetch,  the  flowers  of 
which  are  yellow,  but  on  some  of  the 
Cornish  cliffs  and  a  few  other  places 
they  ore  crimson,  purple,  cream-coloured 
and  white. 

They  have  buried  the  fingers  and  toes, 

Bloudie  Jacke, 
Of  the  victims  so  lately  your  prey ; 
From  those  fingers  and  eight  toes 
Sprang  early  potatoes, 
*  Lodges'  Fynqers '  they'r  called  to  this  day, 

So  tney  say, 
And  you  usually  dig  them  in  May. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  {Bloudie  Jacke). 

Each  has  . .  its  ridge  of  brown  sand,  bright 
with  golden  trefoil  and  crimson  lady's-finyer. 
— Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  vi. 

Lady's  Fingers,  a  species  of  biscuit, 
so  called  from  the  shape.  See  quota- 
tion s.  v.  Parliament. 

"  Fetch  me  that  ottoman,  and  prithe  keep 
Your  voice  low/'  said  the  Emperor,  "and 

steep 
Some  lady's  fingers  nice  in  Candy  wine." 

Keats,  Cap  and  Bells,  at.  48. 

Lady's  Slipper.  Cypripedium  cat- 
ceolus,  an  orchidaceous  plant 

Charles  .  .  .  walked  beside  William  across 
the  spring  meadows,  through  the  lengthen- 
ing grass,  through  the  calthas  and  the 
orchises  and  the  ladies  slippers,  and  the 
cowslips  and  the  fribillaries,  through  the 
budding  garden  which  one  finds  in  spring 
among  the  English  meadows.— if.  Kingsley, 
Bavenshoe,  ch.  Llv. 

Lag,  to  steal :  in  the  second  extract 
lugged  ==  caught. 

Some  corne  away  lag 
In  bottle  and  bag. 
Some  Steele  for  a  jest 
Eggs  out  of  the  nest. 

Tusser,  Eusbandrie,  p.  54. 


Poore  cunnie  so  bagged 
Is  scone  ouer  lagged. 

Ibid.,  p.  86. 

Lag,  to  imprison  or  transport:  also 
a  convict.     Cf .  preceding  entry. 

"He  is  my  brother  on  one  side  of  the 
house  at  least,"  said  Lord  Etherington,  "  and 
I  should  not  much  like  to  have  him  fagged 
for  forgery."— Scott,  S.  Bonan's  Well,  ii.  201. 

They'll  ask  no  questions  after  him,  fear 
they  should  be  obliged  to  prosecute,  and  so 
get  him  lagged. — Oliver  7Vn«f,ch.  xvi. 

At  last  he  fell  in  with  two  old  lags  who 
had  a  deadly  grudge  against  the  captain. — 
Beadt,  Never  too  late  to  mend,  ch.  lx. 

Lage,  cant  term  for  wash,  and  so, 
poor  thin  drink. 

I  bowse  no  lage,  but  a  whole  gage 
Of  this  I  bowse  to  you, 

Broome,  A  Jovial  Crew,  Act  II. 

Laqgoose,  laggard. 

Beware   of  Gill    lag  goose,   disordering    the 

house, 
Mo  dainties  who  catcheth  than  craftie  fed 

mouse. — Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  174. 

Laid,  laid  down  as  to  sleep. 

Pol.  The  maids  and  her  half -valentine  have 
plied  her 
With  courtesy  of  the  bride-cake  and   the 

bowl, 
As  she  is  laid  awhile. 
Lady  T.  Oh,  let  her  rest. 

Jonson,  Tale  of  a  Tub,  iii.  5. 

Thev  that  have  drunk  "  the  cup  of  slum- 
ber "  had  need  to  be  bidden  "  awake  and 
stand  up,"  for  they  are  sluggish  and  laid. — 
Adams,  1. 169. 

Lair.  Peacock  (Manley  and  Cor- 
ringham  Glossary,  JE.  D.  S.)  gives 
Layer,  i.  e.  lair,  "  the  place  where  cattle 
lie  " — hence  perhaps  applied  in  extracts 
to  rabbits  of  the  same  litter  or  stock  ; 
for  this  seems  the  meaning. 

His  bride  and  hee  were  both  rabbets  of 
one  later. — Breton,  Merry  Wonders,  p.  8. 

A  warrener  propounded  to  Thomas  Earl  of 
Exeter,  that  he  should  have  a  burrough  of 
rabbets  of  what  colour  he  pleased.  *•  Let 
them  be  all  white-skinned,"  says  that  good 
Earl.  The  undertaker  killed  up  all  the  rest, 
and  sold  them  away,  but  the  white  lair. — 
Socket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  186. 

Laired.    See  extract. 

In  Scotland  also,  cattle  ventnring  in  a 
quaking  moss  are  often  mired  or  laired,  as  it 
is  called. — Lyell,  Princ.  of  Geology,  ii.  510 
(12th  ed.). 

Laith,  a  barn.     See  H.  s.  v.  lathe. 

T'  maister's  down  i'  t1  fowld.  Go  round 
by  th'  end  of  laith,  if  ye  we  went  to  spake 


LAPLAND 


(  37T  ) 


LAUGH 


I  have  been  in  the  catacombs— caves  very 
curious  indeed — we  were  lapidated  by  the 
natives,  pebbled  to  some  purpose,  I  give  you 
my  word.— Scott,  St.  Ronan's  Well,  ii.  207. 

Lapland.  Lapland  was  famous  for 
witches  ;  they  were  supposed  to  be 
able  to  sell  winds  to  sailors.  The  first 
extract  is  from  some  commendatory 
verses  prefixed  to  Lawes's  Ay  res  and 
Dialogues,  1653. 

Hence  all  the  Ayres  flow  pure  and  unconfin'd, 
Blown  by  no  mercenary  Lapland  wind, 
No  stolen  or  plundered  fancies,  but  born  free, 
And  so  transmitted  to  Posteritie. 

F.  Finch. 

O  enigmatical  rod  which,  like  the  stick  of 
a  Lapland  charmer,  after  an  hasty,  dirty,  em- 
barrassed journey,  most  ungraciously  throws 
or  destroys  its  rider. — Hue  and  Cry  after  Dr. 
Swift,  p.  18  (1714). 

Larchen,   of  larch.      Cf.    Eldern  ; 

HOLMEN. 

Her  brothers  were  the  craggy  hills, 

Her  sisters  larchen  trees ; 
Alone  with  her  great  family 

She  lived  as  she  did  please. 

Keats,  Meg  Merrilies. 

Larcher,  larch. 

nrtvKt),  the  larcher  tree,  whose  gum  is 
exceeding  bitter.  —  Chapman,  Iliad,  xv., 
Comment. 

Larson,  a  filcher :  used  apparently  as 
an  English  word,  except  that  it  has  the 
cedille. 

Strong  thieves  should  live ;  only  some  poor 
petty  larcons  and  pilferers  should  come  to 
execution. — Bishop  Hall,  Works,  v.  181. 

Larder,  a  washing-place  ;  perhaps  a 
misprint  for  launder. 

Sins  of  a  lesser  size  never  trouble  us ;  we 
mind  not  the  washing  of  them  with  a  few 
sorrowful  tears ;  but  when  a  great  sin  comes 
and  disquiets  the  conscience,  then  repent- 
ance, that  old  laundress,  is  called  for,  and 
in  that  larder  we  wash  out  both  the  great 
offences  and  the  rest. — Adams,  iii.  273. 

Larg.  Largo  in  music,  slowly  :  larg 
therefore,  I  suppose,  is  a  slow  note, 
one  to  be  dwelt  upon. 

O  let  the  longest  Largs  be  shortest  Briefes 
In  this  discordant  note. 

Davies,  3ficrocosmos,  p.  81. 

Largition,  bounty. 

As  wise  Spots  wood  says  upon  Malcolm  the 
Second,  necessity  is  the  compauion  of  im- 
moderate lar(/ition.  and  forceth  to  unlawful 
shifts.— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  225. 

Larrup,  to  beat  (slang). 


There  was  no  rope-dancing  for  me;  I 
danced  on  the  bare  ground,  and  was  larruped 
with  the  rope.— Dickens,  Hard  Times,  ch.  v. 

LASHLES8,  without  lashes. 

His  lashless  eyelids  stretch 
Around  his  demon  eyes. 

Keats,  Lamia,  Pt.  II. 

Lask,  to  suffer  from  diarrhoea :  un- 
common as  a  verb. 

So  soft  childhood  puling 
Is  wrung  with  worms  begot  of  crudity, 
Are  fand  ?]  apt  to  laske  through  much  hu- 
midity.—Sylvester,  The  Furies,  529. 

Last,  endurance. 

It's  a  fair  trial  of  skill  and  last  between 
us,  like  a  match  at  football  or  a  battle. — 
Hughes,  Tom  Browns  Schooldays,  Pt.  II.  ch. 
vii. 

Latifundian,  wide-apread. 

The  matters  [were]  openly  transacted,  and 
never  opposed  or  contradicted  in  any  single 
fact  affirmed  in  it,  although  the  interest  of  a 
very  latifundian  faction  was  concerned. — 
North,  Exdmen,  p.  414. 

L ati bier.  See  quotation  ;  also  H. 
and  L. 

Latimer  is  the  corruption  of  Latiner ;  it 
signifies  he  that  interprets  Latin  ;  and  though 
he  interpreted  French,  Spanish,  or  Italian,  he 
was  called  the  King's  Latiner,  that  is,  the 
King's  interpreter.  —  Selden,  Table  Talk,  p. 
179. 

Latinless,  without  a  knowledge  of 
Latin. 

Latinlesse  dolts,  saturnine  heavy-headed 
blunderers,  my  invective  hath  relation  to. — 
Nashe,  Lenten  Stujfe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  176). 

You  remember  it  in  Claudian,  eh,  Pelham  ? 
Think  of  its  being  thrown  away  on  those 
Latinless  young  lubbers.  —  Lytton,  Pelham, 
ch.  xxii. 

Lation,  "  among  philosophers,  is  the 
translation  or  motion  of  the  natural 
body  from  one  place  to  another  in  a 
right  line  "  {Baileys  Diet.). 

Make  me  a  heaven ;  and  make  me  there 
Many  a  lesse  and  greater  spheare  ; 
Mtke  me  the  straight  and  oblique  lines, 
The  motions,  lotions,  and  the  signs. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  48. 

Latish.  rather  late. 

Dinner  .  .  .  will  be  a  little  latish  to-day. — 
Richardson,  Pamela,  ii.  172. 

Latter-mint,  a  later  species  of  mint 

Savory,  latter-mint,  and  columbines. 

Keats,  Endymion,  Bk.  IV. 

Laugh.  A  person  who  is  disap- 
pointed, and  so  is  sad  when  he  IvA 


LA  UNCH 


(  37«  ) 


LAXITY 


hoped  tfl  rejoice,  is  said  to  laugh  or 
smile  on  the  wrong  side  of  fas  mouth  or 
face. 

little  knowest  thou,  laughing  Joaillier- 
Bijoutier,  great  in  thy  pride  of  place,  in  tby 
pride  of  savoir-faire,  what  the  world  has  in 
store  for  thee.  Thou  laughest  there ;  by- 
and-by  thou  wilt  laugh  on  the  wrong  side  of 
thy  face  mainly. — Carlyle,  Diamond  Necklace, 
ch.  iii. 

Ladies  may  smile,  but  they  would  smile  on 
the  wrong  side  of  their  pretty  little  mouths,  if 
they  had  been  treated  as  I  have  been. — Jliss 
Edgeworth,  Helen,  ch.  xzvi. 

Launch,  to  lance  ;  also  a  lancing. 

If  I  shal  perceaue  that  it  shal  be  to  your 
welth,  I  will  not  stieke  to  giue  you  a  launch 
or  two. — Traheron,  155S  (Jfaitland  on  Reform- 
ation, p.  80). 

Wherefore  at  my  handes  you  shal  loke  to 
hane  your  boils  launched,  and  to  haue  cor- 
rosies  and  smarting  plaisters  laied  vpon  them 
vntil  thei  be  cured. — Ibid.  {lb.  p.  82). 

Laubized,  crowned  with  laurel. 

Our  humble  notes,  though  little  noted  now, 
Lauriz'd  hereafter. 

Sylvester,  Posthumous  Sonnets,  III. 

Lautitiohs,  costly. 

To  sup  with  thee  thou  didst  me  home  invite, 
And  niad'st  a  promise  that  miue  appetite 
Sho'd  meet  and  tire  on  such  lautitious  meat, 
The  like  not  Heliogabalus  did  eat. 

Merrick,  Hesperides,  p.  281. 

Lavender,  to  perfume  with  lavender. 
See  quotation  4.  v.  Horsiness. 

The  solemn  clerk  goes  lavender' d  and  shorn, 
Nor  stoops  his  back  to  the  ungodly  pair. 
Hood,  Two  Peacocks  of  Bedfont. 

Lavish,  expenditure. 

Such  lavish  will  I  make  of  Turkish  blood, 
That  Jove  shall  send  his  winged  messenger 
To  bid  me  sheathe  my  sword  and  leave  the 
field. — Marlowe,  2  Tamburlaine,  i.  3. 

Would  Atropos  would  cut  my  vital  thread, 
And  so  make  lavish  of  my  loathed  life. 

Wily  Beguiled  (Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr., 
iii.  323). 

Lavolto,  to  leap  high  as  in  the  lavolta 

dance.     See  N.  s.  v. 

Do  but  marke  him  on  your  walles,  any 
morning  at  that  season,  how  he  sallies  and 
lavoltos. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffs  (Harl.  Misc., 
vi.  164). 

Law,  a  start,  or  an  allowance  of  time. 

In  the  first  extract  it=  licence.   Fuller, 

more  suo,  puns  upon  that  word. 

Thou  canst  give  such  law 
To  thy  detractive  speeches. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xvii.  154. 


This  winged  Pegasus  posts  and  speeds 
after  men,  easily  gives  them  late,  fetches 
them  up  again,  gallops  and  swallows  the 
ground  he  goes. —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  55. 

These  late  years  of  our  Civil  Wars  have 
been  very  destructive  unto  them;  and  no 
wonder  if  no  Law  hath  been  given  te  Hares, 
when  so  little  hath  been  observed  toward 
men— FulUr,  Worthies,  Ducks. 

Law,  to  litigate. 

Sir  Samuel  Bernardiston  brought  a  writ  of 
error  of  this  Exchequer  chamber  judgment 
into  the  House  of  Lords,  and  there  the 
Knight  lawed  by  himself,  for  no  person 
opposed  him. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford, 
i.  103. 

Lawdaughter,  daughter  in  law. 

And  Hecuba  old  Princesse  dyd  I  see,  with 

number,  an  hundred 
Lawdaughters. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  ii.  526. 

Lawe,    monumental    tumulus    of 

stones. 

[Certain  hills  in  Northumberland]  where- 
upon (and  that  is  wonderfull)  there  be  many 
▼err  great  heapes  of  stone,  called  La  tee s^ 
which  the  neighbour  inhabitants  be  verily 
perswaded  were  in  old  time  cast  up  and  layd 
.together,  in  remembrance  of  some  there 
slaiue. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  802. 

Lawfather,  father  in  law.  Chora- 
bus  is  spoken  of  as 

Soon  to  King  Priamus  by  law ;  thus  he  late- 
father  helping. — Stanyhurst,  JEnH  ii.  354. 

Lawing,  cutting  claws  off  a  dog's 
foot  to  prevent  him  from  hunting. 
See  quotation  s.  v.  Unlawed.  L.  has 
lawing >  but  with  meagre  explanation. 

Lawn  (?),  apparently  some  sort  of 

torture  or  punishment. 

Here  thou  shrinkest  to  think  of  the  gout, 
colic,  stone,  or  strangurian,  shiverest  to  hear 
of  the  strappado,  the  rack,  or  the  lawn. — 
Ward,  Sermons,  p.  00. 

Lawn,  to  make  into  lawn. 

Give  me  taste  to  improve  an  old  family  seat 

By  lawning  an  hundred  good  acres  of  wheat. 

Anstey,  New  Bath  Guide,  Conclusion. 

Lax,  to  relax. 

Anextream  fear  and  an  extream  ardour 
of  courage  do  equally  trouble  and  lax  the 
belly. — Cotton's  Montaigne,  ch.  xli. 

Laxity,  roominess. 

The  hills  in  Palestine  generally  had  in 
their  sides  plenty  of  caves,  and  those  of 
such  laxity  and  receipt  that  ours  in  England 
are  but  conny-boroughs,  if  compared  to  the 
palaces  which  those  hollow  places  afforded. 
— Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  II.  v.  5. 


LAY 


(  373  ) 


LEAN-TO 


Lay.  law. 


"Hs  churchman's  lay  and  verity 
To  live  in  love  and  charity. 

Peele,  Edward  /.,  p.  381. 

Lay,  a  scheme  or  plan ;  especially 
applied  to  the  projects  of  thieves,  or  to 
the  special  line  of  dishonesty  that  they 
adopt. 

I  have  found  them  ont  to  he  sure,  and 
well  I  might ;  for  it  was  I  first  set  them  on 
the  lay.— -Johnston,  Chrysal,  ch.  xxviii. 

M  The  Kinchins,  my  dear,"  said  Fagin,  "  is 
the  young  children  that's  sent  on  errands  by 
their  mothers  with  sixpences  and  shillings ; 
and  the  lay  is  just  to  take  their  money  away 
— they've  always  got  it  ready  in  their  hands 
— then  knock  'em  into  the  kennel,  and  walk 
off  very  slow,  as  if  there  were  nothing  else 
the  matter  but  a  child  fallen  down  and  hurt 
itself. — Dickens,  Oliver  Twist,  ch.  xlii. 

Layery,  growing  in  layers. 

From  thick  to  thick,  from  hedge  to  layery 
beech. — Leigh  Hunt,  Foliage,  p.  9. 

Lay-holding,  seizing ;  apprehend- 
ing. 

Laid  hold  on  him  with  most  lay-holding 
grace. — iSidney,  Arcadia,  p.  89. 

Laystow,   a  dungheap ;    the  place 

where  dirt  is  deposited  :  usually  written 

laystall.    H.  notices  the  spelling  lay- 

stoare. 

In  Cyclops  kennel,  thee  laystow  dirtye,  the 
foule  den. — Stanyhurst,  Mn.,  iii.  628. 

Lazarous,  leprous ;  diseased. 

Our  godly  sorrow  for  our  sins  is  like  the 
pool  of  Bethesda;  when  that  angel  from 
heaven,  gracious  Repentance,  hath  troubled 
the  waters,  the  lazarous  soul  does  but  step 
into  them,  and  is  cured. — Adams,  iii.  299. 

Laze,  laziness  ;  inaction :  the  verb  is 

not  uncommon. 

Thus  folded  in  a  hard  and  mournful  late, 
Distress'd  sat  he. 

Greene  {from  If  ever  too  Late),  p.  301. 

Lazybones,  slothful  person. 

Goe  tell  the  labourers  that  the  lazie  bones, 
That  will  not  worke,must  seeke  the  beggars 
gaines. 

Breton,  PasquiVs  Madcappe,  p.  12. 

Gome  on,  can't  yer?  what  a  lazybones  jet 
are,  Charlotte. — Dickens,  Oliver  Twist,  ch. 
xlii. 

44  We  want  to  get  into  your  shop."  "  What 
for  in  Heaven's  name  ?  n  u  Shoon,  lazybones.1* 
— Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  zziv. 

Lazyboots,  same  as  lazybones ;  the 
word  alludes,  I  suppose,  to  the  lagging 
tread  of  an  indolent  person. 


Nancy,  as  might  ha'  watched,  is  gone  to 
her  bed  this  hour  past,  like  a  lazyboots  as  she 
is. — Mrs.  Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  xxxv. 

Leaden-spirited,  dull ;  depressed. 

Let  leane-fao'd  leaden-spirited  Saturnists 
(Who,  madde  with  melancholy,  mirth  detest) 
Prate  what  they  list. 

Davies,  Humours  Heaven  on  Earth, 
p.  10. 

Leaders,  the  fore  -  horses  ;  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  wheelers  who  are 
next  the  carriage. 

St.  Foix  takes  a  post-chaise, 
With  for  wheelers  two  bays,  and  for  leaders 
two  grays. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  (Black  Mousquetaire). 

Leads,  a  roof ;  so  a  thanks,  a  pains, 
a  stews,  &c. 

If  the  mind  of  any  man  be  so  exalted  that 
he  looketh  down  on  his  brethren  as  if  he 
stood  on  the  top  of  a  leads,  and  not  on  the 
same  ground  they  do,  that  man  is  high- 
minded. — Andrewes,  Sermons,  v.  13. 

Leaf.  To  turn  over  a  new  leaf  = 
to  reform.     See  extract  s.  v.  Mat. 

Except  such  men  think  themselves  wiser 
than  Cicero  for  teaching  of  eloquence,  they 
must  be  content  to  turn  a  new  leaf. — Ascham, 
Schoolmaster,  p.  155. 

Ye  daily  only  consult  how  to  delude  and 
abuse  the  country ;  .  . .  but  ye  shall  see  now 
it  hath  found  your  knavery,  it  will  shortly 
turn  you  over  another  leaf. — British  Bellman, 
1648  (Harl.  Mix.,  vii.  632). 

Sir  Charles  Grandison's  great  behaviour, 
as  he  justly  called  it,  had  made  such  impres- 
sions, not  only  upon  him,  but  upon  Mr. 
Merceda,  that  they  were  both  determined  to 
turn  over  a  new  leaf. — Richardson,  Grandisonf 
ii.  102. 

Leaf,  flap  of  a  hat. 

Harry  let  down  the  leaf  of  his  hat,  and 
drew  it  over  his  eyes  to  conceal  his  emotions. 
— H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  ii.  129. 

Leafiness,  show  of  leaves. 

But  for  these  barren  fig-trees, 
With  all  their  flourish  and  their  leafiness, 
We  have  been  told  their  destiny  and  use. 

Southey,  Alderman* s  Funeral. 

Lean,  to  make  lean. 

The  spiritual  [dropsy]  likewise,  though  it 
leans  the  carcase,  lards  the  conscience. — 
Adams,  i.  481. 

Lean-to,  a  shed  attached  to  and 
partly  supported  by  another  building : 
used  also  adjectivally. 

The  poor  leper  approached  the  church 
under  an  extended  pent-house  or  lean-to. — 
Archaol.,  xxiii.  107  (1830). 

Piety  does  not  save  the  bed-ridden  old 


LEAP 


(  374  ) 


LEGIONED 


dame,  bed-ridden  in  the  lean-to  garret,  who 
moans,  It  is  the  Lord,  and  dies. — Kingsley, 
Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xvii. 

She  nodded  her  head  in  the  direction  of 
the  door  opening  out  of  the  house-place  into 
the  lean-to,  which  Sylvia  had  observed  on 
drawing  near  the  cottage.  —  Mrs.  G  ask  ell, 
Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  zliii. 

Leap,  a  weel  or  trap  to  catch  fish. 

The  basket-makers  now  gather  their  rods, 
and  the  fishers  lay  their  leapes  in  the  deep. — 
Breton,  Fantastickes  (October). 

Leap.  To  take  a  leap  in  the  dark  = 
to  die.  Cf.  Rabelais's  dying  speech, 
Je  men  vay  chercher  un  grand  peut- 
estre,  which  Mot  ten  x  translates,  "  1  am 
just  going  to  leap  into  the  dark"  The 
phrase  is  now  often  applied  to  any 
action  of  which  the  consequences  can- 
not be  foreseen. 

My  fever  had  brought  me  to  a  very  low 
condition,  so  that  I  expected  every  moment 
when  I  should  take  a  leap  in  the  dark. — T. 
Brown,  Works,  iii.  212. 

Learnable,  capable  of  being  learnt. 

These  be  mysteries,  yet  in  some  measure 
learnable ;  great  depths,  vet  we  may  safely 
wade  in  them. — Adams,  id.  08. 

When  the  lesson  comes,  if  it  does  come,  I 
suppose  it  will  come  in  some  learnable  shape. 
— Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  zviii. 

Leat,  an  artificial  water  channel. 
See  Mill  leat. 

Plymouth  Leat.  This  artificial  brook  is 
taken  out  of  the  river  Mew,  towards  its 
source  at  the  foot  of  Sheepston  Tor  in  a 
wild  mountain  dell.  Leat,  Late,  or  Lake,  as 
it  is  sometimes  pronounced,  is  perhaps  a 
corruption  of  lead  or  conductor,  being  ap- 
plied, I  believe,  to  any  artificial  channel  for 
conducting  water. — Marshall,  Rural  Economy 
of  W.  ofEng.,  ii.  260  (1706). 

I  have  a  project  to  bring  down  a  leat  of 
fair  water  from  the  hill-tops  right  into 
Plymouth  town. — C.  Kingsley,  Westward  Ho, 
ch.  zvi. 

Leather,  to  beat.    Cf.  to  Hide. 

If  you  think  I  could  carry  my  point,  I 
would  so  swinge  and  leather  my  lambkin; 
God !  I  would  so  curry  and  claw  her. — Foote, 
Mayor  of  Garret,  Act  I. 

We  snail  hev  a  pretty  house  wi'  him  if 
she  doesnt  come  back;  he'll  want  to  be 
leather  in'  us,  I  shouldn't  wonder.  He  must 
hev  somethin1  t'ill-use  when  he's  in  a  pas- 
sion.— G.  Eliot,  Janet* s  Repentance,  ch.  xzi. 

Lebanonian,  pertaining  to  Lebanon. 

He  the  wisest  man 
Feasted  the  woman  wisest  then,  in  halls 
Of  Lebanonian  cedar. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  II. 


Lectukess,  a  female  lecturer. 

'*  But,"  continued  the  animated  lecturcssy 
"  you  must  understand  me." — Th.  Hook,  Manx 
of  many  Friends. 

Lee- gage,  the  lee  or  unexposed  side. 
Cf.  Weather-gage. 

He  is  a  quick  apprehensive  knave,  who  sees 
his  neighbour's  blind  side,  and  knows  how  to 
keep  the  lee-gage  when  his  passions  are  blow- 
ing high. — Scott,  Jvanhoe,  u.  205. 

Leek? 

O  magistrates,  who  (to  contract  the  great) 
Make  sale  of  justice  on  your  sacred  seat ; 
And,  breaking  laws  for  bribes,  profane  your 

place 
To  leaue  a  leek  to  your  vnthankfull  race. 

Sylvester,  third  day,  first  weeke,  515. 

Leer,  to  sneak  away,  to  go  oblique- 
ly, usually  applied  to  the  glance. 

I  met  him  once  in  the  streets,  but  be 
leered  away  on  the  other  side,  as  one 
ashamed  of  what  he  had  done. — Pilgrim's 
Progress,  Pt.  I.  p.  117. 

Leer,  a  leer-eye  — *n  eye  glancing 
on  all  sides;  in  the  quotation  from 
Jonson  leer  =  left. 

Clay  with  his  hat  turn'd  up  o'  the  leer  side 
too.— -Jonson,  Tale  of  a  Tub,  i.  2. 

A  suspitious  or  jealous  man  is  one  that 
watches  himself e  a  mischief e,  and  keepes  a 
Isare  eye  still,  for  feare  it  should  escape  him. 
Earle,  Microcosmographie,  No.  78. 

Left.  Over  the  left,  implies  incredul- 
ity or  contradiction  of  what  has  been 
said. 

With  Mr.  Solmes  you  will  have  something 
to  keep  account  of,  for  the  sake  of  you  and 
your  children :  with  the  other,  perhaps  you 
will  have  an  account  to  keep  too ;  but  an 
account  of  what  will  go  over  the  left  shoulder  ; 
only  of  what  he  squanders,  what  he  borrows, 
and  what  he  owes,  and  never  will  pay. — 
Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  i.  242. 

Leg,  to  make  a  leg  or  obedience. 

The  fool  doth  pass  the  guard  now, 
He'll  kiss  his  hand  and  leg  it. 

Shirley,  Bird  in  a  Cage,  v.  1. 

Leg-rail.  To  give  leg-bail  =  to  run 
away.     Hood  has  it  as  a  verb. 

He  has  us  now  if  he  could  only  give  us 
leg-hail  again ;  and  he  must  be  in  the  same 
boat  with  us. — Dickens,  Oliver  Twist,  ch.  xix. 
What  a  leg  to  leg-bail  Embarrassment's  serf! 
What  a  leg  for  a  Leg  to  take  on  the  turf ! 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Legioned,  enrolled  or  formed  in  a 
legion ;  banded.    Cf.  Regimented. 

So  once  more  days  and  nights  aid  me  along 
Like  legion*d  soldiers. 

Keats,  Endymion,  Bk  II. 


LEGIONIZE 


(  375  ) 


LEVANT 


Leoionize,  to  form  in  a  legion. 

Descend,  sweet  Angels  (legioniz'd  in  rankest, 
And  make  your  Heau'n  on  His  Sepulchers 
bankes.— Z>am>*,  Holy  Roode,  p.  28. 

Legs.  To  be  on  last  legs  =  to  be  on 
the  point  of  collapse  or  dissolution. 

I  was  on  my  last  legs,  gasping  and  giving 
up  the  ghost,  for  want  of  the  cordial  of  your 
correspondence.— T.  Brown,  Works,  iii.  237. 

She  can't  possibly  last  long,  for  she's  quite 
upon  her  last  legs. — Mad.  D  Arblay,  Cecilia, 
Bk.  VII.  ch.  v. 

Lengthy.  See  quotation.  L.  does 
not  give  the  word  ;  R.  says,  "Length-y, 
adj.,  has  lately  been  introduced  (from 
America  ?)  ;  it  is  regularly  formed,  but 
not  wanted :  our  word  is  longsome." 
Pope  has  lengthful. 

Sometimes  a  poet  when  he  publishes  what 
in  America  would  be  called  a  lengthy  poem 
with  lengthy  annotations,  advises  the  reader 
in  his  preface  not  to  read  the  notes  in  their 
places  as  they  occur  .  .  .  but  to  read  the 
poem  by  itself  at  &nt.-—Southey,  The  Doctor, 
ch.  clx. 

This  gave  so  lengthy  a  look  to  his  thin 
person. — Mrs.  Trotlope,  Michael  Armstrong, 
ch. 


Lentil-dew.     See  extract 

Lentil-dew,  a  name  given  to  the  duckweed, 
a  green  mantle  of  the  standing  pool,  in  old 
herbals.—  W.  Taylor,  1800  (Rohberds's  Memoir, 
i.  345). 

Lent-lover,  a  cold  platonic  lover. 

Leaving  a  rabble  of  long  prologues  and 
protestations  which  ordinarily  these  dolent 
contemplative  lent-lovers  (amoreux  de  quar- 
esme)  make,  who  never  meddle  with  the 
lle&h.—Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xzi. 

Lepkrize,  to  smite  with  leprosy. 

Moses  by  Faith  doth  Miriam  leperize. 

Sylvester,  Triumph  of  Faith,  iv.  7. 

Lepbt,  leprosy. 

Such    are    king's-euils,  dropsie,  gout,  and 

stone, 
Blood-boyling  lepry,  and  consumption. 

Sylvester,  The  Furies,  557. 

Lessen,  to  soar  up  or  beyond :  a  tech- 
nical term  in  falconry ;  derived,  I  sup- 
pose, from  the  fact  of  the  hawk's 
appearing  smaller  and  smaller  as  it  rises. 

Our  two  sorrows 
Work,  like  two  eager  hawks,  who  shall  get 

highest ; 
How  shall  I  lessen  thine  ?  for  mine,  I  fear, 
Is  easier  known  than  cur'd. 

Beaum.  and  Fl.,  King  and  No  King,  iv.  1. 

In  mounting  up  in  Antiquity,  like  hawks, 
they  did  not  only  lessen,  but  fly  out  of  sight. 
Fuller,  Worthies,  ch.  xvi. 


A  flight  of  madness,  like  a  faulcon's  lessen* 
ing,  makes  them  the  more  gaz'd  at. — Collier, 
Eng.  Stage,  p.  73. 

Letch,  "  an  idle,  foppish  fancy"  (H.), 

but  in  the  extract  it  =  strong  desire. 

Robinson  (  Whitby  Glossary,  E.  D.  S.) 

gives  "  Lech,  pron.  letch,  lust" 

And  surely  if  we,  rather  than  revenge 

The  slaughter  of   our  bravest,  cry  them 

shame, 
And  fall  upon  our  knees,  and  say  we've 

sinn'd, 
Then  will  the  Earl  take  pity  on  his  thralls, 
And  pardon  us  our  letch  for  liberty. 

Taylor,  Ph.  van  Art.,  Pt.  I.  ii.  6. 

Lethargised,  afflicted  with  lethargy. 

The  lethargised  is  not  less  sick  because 
he  complains  not  so  loud  as  the  aguish. — 
Adams,  i.  353. 

Lethargy,  litharge ;  white  lead. 

lie  onely  now  emboss  my  book  with  brass, 
Dye  't  with  vermilion,  deck  't  with  coperass, 
With  gold  and  silver,  lead  and  mercury, 
Tin,  iron,  orpine,  stibium,  lethargy. 

Sylvester,  Third  day,  first  weeke,  903. 

There  among  her  wreakf  ul  baits  she  mixes 
Quicksilver,  lithargie  and  orpiment, 
Wherewith  our  entrails  are  oft  gnawn  and 
rent. — Ibid.,  The  Furies,  p.  188. 

Letification,  rejoicing.  N.  has  the 
verb. 

The  last  yeer  we  shewid  you,  and  in  this 

place, 
How  the  shepherds  of  Christ  by  thee  made 

letification. 
Candlemas  Day,  Introduction  (a.d.  1512). 

Levbier,  a  grey-hound  (Fr.  Uvrier). 

He  hath  your  grey-hound,  your  mungrel, 
your  mastiff,  your  Uvrier,  your  spaniel. — 
Return  from  Parnassus,  ii.  5  (1006). 

Levant.  To  throw  or  run  a  levant  is 
a  term  in  gaming  which,  as  Partridge 
was  not  allowed  to  put  his  question,  I 
am  unable  certainly  to  explain;  it 
seems  from  the  quotations  to  mean  play- 
ing without  paying,  arid  so  a  man  who 
runs  away  from  his  creditors  is  said  to 
levant. 

Crowd  to  the  hazard  table,  throw  a  fa- 
miliar levant  upon  some  sharp  lurching  man 
of  quality,  and,  if  he  demands  his  money, 
turn  it  off  with  a  loud  laugh,  and  cry  you  11 
owe  it  him  to  vex  him. — Gibber,  Prov.  Hus- 
band, Act  I. 

"  Never  mind  that,  man  "  [having  no  money 
to  stake],  "  e'en  boldly,  run  a  levant "  (Part- 
ridge was  going  to  inquire  the  meaning  of 
the  word,  but  Jones  stopped  his  mouth), 
**  but  be  circumspect  as  to  the  man." — Tom 
Jones,  Bk.  VIII.  en.  xii. 


LEVEL 


(  376  ) 


LICK-PENNY 


Level,  tax.  H.  gives  "  level,  to  tax 
or  assess."  Breton  prays  to  be  de- 
livered 

From  taking  lentil  by  vnlawfull  measure. 

PasquiVs  Precession,  p.  8. 

Levettis,  leavings. 

They  gave  almes,  bat  howe  ? 
When  they  have  eaten  ynowe, 

Their  gredy  paunches  replennisshynge, 
Then  gadder  they  vp  their  levettis, 
Not  the  best  morsels,  but  gobbettis, 
Which  vnto  pover  people  they  deale. 

Roy  and  Bartow,  Rede  me  and  be 
nott  wroth,  p.  80. 

For  the  best  meate  awaye  they  carve, 
Which  for  their  harlottia  must  serve, 

With  wother  frendes  of  their  kynne ; 
Then  proll  the  servynge  officers, 
With  the  yemen  that  be  wayters 

So  that  their  levettis  are  but  thynne. 

Ibid.,  p.  98. 

Lewis-hole.  The  Imp.  Diet  gives  a 
picture  of  a  lewis,  and  describes  it  as 
"  an  instrument  of  iron  used  in  raising 
large  stones  to  the  upper  part  of  a 
building.  It  operates  by  the  dove- 
tailing of  one  of  its  ends  into  an 
opening  in  the  stone,  so  formed  that 
no  vertical  force  can  detach  it." 

The  wells  are  almost  entire,  and  perhaps 
the  work  of  the  Romans,  except  the  upper 
part,  which  seems  repaired  with  the  ruins  of 
Boman  buildings,  for  the  lewis-holes  are  still 
left  in  many  of  the  stones. — Defoe,  Tour 
thro*  G.  Britain,  ii.  287. 

L.EXICOGRAPHI8T,  lexicographer. 

It  is  a  pious  fancy  of  the  good  old  lexico- 
graphic, Adam  Littleton,  that  our  Lord  took 
up  nis  first  lodging  in  a  stable  amongst  the 
cattle,  as  if  He  had  come  to  be  the  Saviour 
of  them  as  well  as  of  men. — Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  184. 

Libbard,  leopard ;  the  word  is  in 
the  Diets.,  but  with  no  such  recent 
examples. 

The  lion,  and  the  libbard,  and  the  bear 
Graze  with  the  fearless  flocks. 

Cowper,  Winter's  Walk  at  Noon,  773. 

Twelve  sphered  tables  by  silk  seats  insphered, 
High  as  the  level  of  a  man's  breast  rearM 
On  libbard's  paws. — Keats,  Lamia. 

Libel.  Fuller  (  Worthies,  Lancashire, 
i.  544)  suggests  the  following  punning 
etymology:  "Many  a  Lycbdl  ('Lye' 
because  false ;  '  Bell,'  because  loud) 
was  made  upon"  [Bancroft]. 

Licentiate,  licentious. 

Onr  epigrammatarians,  old  and  late, 
Were  wont  be  blamed  for  too  licentiate. 

Hall,  Sat.,  I.  ix.  29. 


Lichen ed,-  a  word  signifying  the 
effect  produced  by  an  overgrowth  of 
lichens. 

And  there  they  lay  till  all  their  bones  were 

bleaoh'd, 
And  lichen'd  into  colour  with  the  crags. 

Tennyson,  Lancelot  and  Elaine. 

Under  eaves  of  lichened  rock  she  had  a 
windiug  passage,  which  none  that  ever  I 
knew  of  durst  enter  but  herself.  —  Black' 
more,  Lorna  Doone,  ch.  xvii. 

Yon  can  go  close  down  to  the  water,  and 
find  still  pools  reflecting  the  silver-lichened 
rocks. — Black,  Adventures  of  a  Phaeton,  ch. 
xvii. 

Lichenoub,  covered  with  lichen. 

Her  partner's  young  richness  of  tint 
against  the  flattened  hues  and  rougher  forms 
of  her  aged  head  had  an  effect  something 
like  that  of  a  fine  flower  against  a  lichenous 
branch. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xxxvi. 

Lick,  to  thrash.  L.  has  the  word 
with  extract  from  Thackeray,  and  it  is 
common  enough  all  over  England,  but 
Wolcot  seems  to  regard  it  as  a  Devon- 
shire provincialism. 

Who,  if  she  dare*3  to  speak  or  weep, 

He  instantly  would  kick  her ; 
And  oft  (to  use  a  Devonshire  phrase) 
The  gentleman  would  lick  her. 

P.  Pindar,  p.  305. 

Lick-box,  a  glutton  or  epicure. 
Epistemon,  describing  the  occupations 
and  habits  of  some  of  the  departed  in 
Elysian  fields,  says, 

Agamemnon  a  lick  -  box  (lichecasse).  — 
Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xxx. 

Lick-dish,  a  parasite.  H.  says  the 
phrase  liar  liar  lick-dish  is  an  old  one, 
being  found  in  the  tragedy  ef  ffofman, 
1631.  The  subjoined  is  80  years  earlier, 
according  to  Oldys,  though  the  earliest 
known  edition  is  1575. 

Thou  Her  lickdish,  didst  not  say  the  neele 
wold  be  gitton? — Gammer  GurtonU  Needle, 
v.2. 

Licking,  a  thrashing. 

In  vulgar  terms,  he'd  had  his  lickina, 
Not  with  Ma'am's  cuffs,  but  by  her  kicking. 
Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  ch.  iii. 

Licking  is  used  curiously  in  extract, 
and  seems  =  painting  or  anointing. 

Jezebel,  for  all  her  licking,  la  cast  out  of 
the  window.— Bishop  Sail,  Works,  viii.  144. 

Lick -penny,  something  expensive. 
London  Lick -penny  is  quoted  as  a 
proverb  in  The  Curates  Conference, 
1641    (Earl    Misc.,  i.    498),   and    in 


LICK-PLATTER 


(  377  ) 


LIFT 


Fuller  (Worthies,  London),  who  re- 
marks, -''The  best  is  ...  it  is  also 
London  get  Penny  to  those  who  live 
here,  and  carefully  follow  their  vo- 
cations." 

You  talked  of  a  law-suit— law  is  a  lick- 
penny,  Mr.  Tyrrel,— no  counsellor  like  the 
pound  in  purse.— Scott,  S.  Ronan's  Well,  ch. 
xxviii. 

Lick-flatter,  a  parasite. 

He  had  a  passion  for  independence,  which, 
though  pushed  to  excess,  was  not  without 
grandeur.  No  lick-platter,  no  parasite,  no 
toad-eater,  no  literary  beggar,  no  hunter  after 
patronage  and  subscriptions.  —  Lytton,  My 
JYovel,  Bk.  VI.  ch.  xxiu\  * 

Lick-spigot,  a  drawer  or  waiter  at  a 
tavern. 

I^t  the  cunningest  licke-spiggot  swelt  his 
heart  out,  the  beere  sbal  never  foame  or 
froath  in  the  cuppe.— Nashe,  Lenten  Stuff* 
{Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  178).  * 

Gnotho.  Fill,  lick-spigot. 
Drawer.  Ad  imum,  sir. 

Massinger,  Old  Law,  IV.  i. 

Lick-trencher,  parasite. 

Art  hardy,  noble  Huon  ?  art  magnanimous, 
lick-trencher?— Dekker,  Satiromastue  (Haw- 
kins, Eng.  Dr.,  Hi.  159). 

Lidded,  covered  by  the  lid,  and  so 
downcast. 

But  the  forgotteu  eye  is  still  fast  lidded  to 

the  ground, 
As  palmer's  that  with  weariness  mid-desert 

shrine  hath  found. 

Keats,  Birthplace  of  Burns. 

So  said,  one  minute's  while   his  eyes    re- 
mained 
Half  lidded,  piteous,  languid,  innocent. 

lb.,  Cap  and  Bells,  st.  20. 

Lidless,  as  applied  to  the  eye,  un- 
sleeping. 

To  an  eye  like  mine, 
A  lidless  watcher  of  the  public  weal, 
Last  night  their  mask  was  patent. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  IV. 

Lie-a-bed,  a  sluggard. 

If  you  had  got  up  time  enough  you  might 
have  secur'd  the  stage,  but  you  are  a  lazy 
lie-a-bed.— Foote,  Mayor  of  Garrett,  Act  I. 

Where  tnere  are  two  lie-a-beds  in  a  house, 
there  are  a  pair  of  ne'er-do-weels.— /teak, 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  xlvi. 

Lie  at  or  upon,  to  importune  or  in- 
stigate ;  lay  a*  =  to  attack  is  a  Surrey 
provincialism. 

The  old  dotard,  he  that  so  instantly  doth 
lie  upon  my  father  for  me.—Gascoigne,  Sup- 
poses, I.  i. 

Dame   Tullia   lay   ever   upon   him,  and 


pricked  forward  his  distempered  and  troubled 
mind. — Holland,  Livy,  p.  27. 

He  told  her  because  she  lay  sore  upon  him 
—Judges  xiv.  17. 

His  mother  and  brother  had  lain  at  him, 
ever  since  he  came  into  his  master's  service, 
to  help  him  to  money.— Evam.  of  Joan  Perry. 
&c.,  1676  (Harl.  Misc.,  III.  640). 

Lieu,  place.  L.  says  this  word  is 
only  used  in  the  phrase  in  lieu  of,  and 
the  examples  given  by  him  and  R.  do 
not  contradict  this.  Bp.  Andrewes  is 
speaking  of  the  offer  of  "  all  the  king- 
doms of  the  world "  made  by  the 
devil  to  our  Lord,  if  He  would  worship 
him. 

One  would  think  it  a  very  large  offer  to 
give  so  great  a  lieu  for  so  small  a  service.— 
Andrewes,  v.  544. 

Lifeblood.  The  involuntary  quiver 
in  the  lip  or  eyelid  is  vulgarly  said  to 
be  caused  by  the  lifeblood.  The  second 
extract  is  given  in  Peacock's  Manley 
and  Gorringham  Glossary  (E.  D.  8.). 

My  upper  Up  had  the  motion  in  it,  throb- 
bing like  the  pulsation  which  we  call  the 
lifeblood.— Richardson,  Grandison,  vi.  241. 

That  curious  muscular  sensation  or  quiver, 
to  which  the  vulgar  give  the  name  of  live 
blood.— B.  W.  Richardson,  Diseases  of  Modern 
Life,  p.  163. 

Life-likeness,  likeness  to  life. 

I  had  found  the  spell  of  the  picture  in  an 
absolute  life-likeness  of  expression,  which,  at 
first  startling,  finally  confounded,  subdued, 
and  appalled  me.-£.  A.  Poe,  Oval  Portrait. 

Lifer,  one  transported  for  life. 

They  know  what  a  clever  lad  he  is  ;  he'll 
be  a  lifer;  they'll  make  the  artful  nothing 
less  than  a  lifer.  —  Dickens,  Oliver  Twist, 
ch.  xliii. 

Liferentrix,  woman  having  a  life 
rent  interest  in  some  property. 

lAdy  Margaret  Bellenden  .  . .  liferentrix 
of  the  barony  of  Tillietudlem.  —  Scott,  Old 
Mortality,  ch.  ii. 

Lifesome,  lively. 

0  Edward,  you  are  all  to  me, 

1  wish  for  your  sake  I  could  be 
More  lifesome  and  more  gay. 

Coleridge,  Three  Graves. 

Lift,  a  shop-lifter.  See  quotation 
*.  v.  Boult. 

Women  ...  are  more  subtile,  more  dan- 
gerous in  the  commonwealth,  and  more  full 
of  wiles  to  get  crownes  than  the  cunningest 
foyst,  nip,  lift,  prigs,  or  whatsoever  that  lives 
at  this  day.— Greene,  Theeves  falling  out,  1615 
(Harl.  Misc.,  yui.  384).  J        *       ' 


LIFTINGS 


(378) 


LIL  Y-LIVER 


Liftings,  attempts;  tentative  at- 
tacks.   Cf.  Heave  at. 

There  had  been  some  liftings  at  him  in  the 
Court  by  Sir  John  Cook,  who  had  informed 
against  him  to  the  Lord  Treasurer  then 
being. — Heylin,  Life  of  Laud,  p.  180. 

Ligger.    See  extract. 

The  stones  which  composed  these  primi- 
tive .  .  .  mills  .  .  were  two ;  an  upper  stone 
or  runner,  and  a  nether,  called  in  Derbyshire 
a  ligger,  from  the  old  word  lig,  to  lie. — 
Archaol.,  vii.  20  (1785). 

Lighterage,  price  paid  for  unloading 
ships  by  lighters  or  boats.  In  a  He- 
port  to  Lord  Burleigh  of  the  Cost  of 
delivering  a  Tun  of  Gascoigny  Wine 
in  England,  in  November,  1583  (Eng. 
Garner,  i.  46),  one  item  is — 

The  lighterage,  carriage,  and  porters7  due, 
£0  2s.  Sd. 

Light-fingered,  dishonest. 

Is  any  tradesman  light-fngered,  and  lighter- 
conscienced? — Adams,  i.  161. 

He  knew  him  to  be  a  little  light-fingered, 
and  given  to  lying  and  swearing. — Dialogue 
on  Oxford  Parliament,  1681  (Harl.  Misc.,  ii. 
124). 

Lightful,  glorious;  also,  joyous. 
R.  has  the  word  =  full  of  light  (Wic- 
lifs  translation  of  "St.  Matt.  vi.  22). 

Daily  once  they  all  should  march  the  round 
About  the  city  with  horn-trumpets  sound, 
Bearing  about  for  only  banneret 
The  lightful  ark,  God's  sacred  cabinet. 

Sylvester,  The  Captaines,  109. 

Tho'  my  heart  was  lightful  and  joyous  be- 
fore, yet  it  is  ten  times  more  lightsome  and 
joyous  now.  —  Pilgrim's  Progress,  Pt.  II. 
p.  60. 

Lightheadedness,  wandering ;  de- 
lirium. 

So  lovely  a  voice  uttering  nothing  but  the 
incoherent  ravings  of  lightheadedness. — Mad. 
D'Arblay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  A.  ch.  ix. 

Lightly,  to  make  light  of;  to  dis- 
dain. 

The  King  of  Peace  would  have  a  king  of  rest 
To  build  His  temple  farre  aboue  the  best ; 
His  House,  whose  front  vpreard  so  high  and 

eaven, 
That  lightlied  earth,  and  seemed  to  threat 

the  heaven. — Hudson's  Judith,  i.  78. 

I  began  to  think  John  Rawson  had  per- 
haps not  been  so  very  mad,  and  that  I'd  done 
ill  to  lightly  his  offer  as  a  madman. — Mrs. 
Gaskell,  Ruth,  ch.  xvi. 

Lightman,  linkman. 

The  stars  might  go  to  sleep  a-nights, 
And  leave  their  work  to  these  new  lights ; 


The  midwife  moon  might  mind  her  calling, 
And  noisy  lightman  leave  his  bawling. 

T.  Brown,  Works,  iv.  255. 

Likeable,  pleasant ;  capable  of  being 

liked. 

It  is  a  very  likeable  place,  being  one  of 
the  most  comfortable  towns  in  England. — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  xxxiv. 

Liked,  was  likely ;  liked  to  have  done 
=  nearly  did. 

He  probably  got  his  death,  as  he  liked  to 
have  done  two  years  ago,  by  viewing  the 
troops  for  the  expedition  from  the  wall  of 
Kensington  -  Garden. —  Walpole,  Letters,  ii. 
193  (1700). 

Lilac.  It  would  appear  from  the 
extract  that  lilac  trees  were  not  very 
familiar  objects  in  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  Bacon,  however, 
mentions  "the  lilach  tree."  The  Per- 
sian lilac  was  cultivated  in  England 
about  1638,  the  common  lilac  about 
1597. 

A  fountaine  of  white  marble  with  a  lead 
cesterne,  which  fountaine  is  set  round  with 
six  trees  called  lelack  trees. — Survey  of  AFon- 
such  Palace,  1650  (Archaol.,  v.  434). 

Lilburne,  a  stupid  fellow. 

Ye  are  such  a  calfe,  such  an  asse,  such  a 

blocke, 
Such  a  lilburne,  such  a  hoball,  such  a  lob- 

cocke. — Udal,  Roister  Doisttr,  iii.  3. 

Lilly.  See  quotations.  So  called 
from  the  N.  pole  in  a  compass  being 
distinguished  by  nfleur  de  lis. 

As  to  the  Pole  the  lilly  bends 
In  a  sea-compass,  and  still  tends, 
By  a  magnetic  mystery, 
Unto  the  Arctic  point  in  sky, 
Whereby  the  wandering  piloteer 
His  course  in  gloomy  nights  doth  steer. 

Hoicell,  Letters,  iii  A. 

If  we  place  a  needle  touched  at  the  foot 
of  tongs  or  andirons,  it  will  obvert  or  turn 
aside  its  lillie  or  north  point,  and  conform 
its  cuspis  or  south  extream  with  the  andiron. 
— Brown,  Vulgar  Errors,  Bk.  II.  ch.  ii. 

Lilt,  a  song  with  "  swing  "  or  "  go  " 
in  it ;  also,  to  sing  in  a  spirited  manner. 

Which  of  Charles  Mackay's  lyrics  cau 
compare  for  a  moment  with  the  JEschylean 
grandeur,  the  terrible  rhythmic  lilt,  of  his 
"Cholera  Chant"?  —  C.  Kingsley,  Alton 
Locke,  ch.  ix. 

Hech,  but  she  would  lilt  that  bonnily. — 
Ibid.  ch.  xxxiii. 

Lily-liver,  a  coward. 

When  people  were  yet  afraid  of  me,  and 
were  taken  in  by  my  swagger,  I  always  knew 
that  I  was  a  lily-liver,  and  expected  that  I 


LIMBER 


(  379  ) 


LIONESS 


should  be  found  out  some  day. — Thackeray, 
Roundabout  Papers,  xii. 

Limber,  to  make  pliant. 

Her  stiff  hams,  that  have  not  been  bent  to 
a  civility  for  ten  years  past,  are  now  limbered 
into  courtesies  three  deep  at  every  word. — 
Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  iii.  366. 

Lime- fingered,  thievish,  applied  to 
those  to  whose  lingers  other  people's 
property  sticks.     CI  Birdlime. 

All  my  fyngers  were  arayed  with  lytne, 
So  I  oonvayed  a  cuppe  manerly. 
Hycke-Scorner  {Hawkins,  Eny.  Dr.,  i.  99). 

Who  troubles  the  house?  .  .  .  Not  care- 
less, slothful,  false,  lime 'fingered  servants; 
but  the  strict  master. — Bp.  Hall,  Works,  v. 
195. 

Lime- rod,  a  stick  smeared  with  bird- 
lime, used  iu  catching  birds;  more 
usually  called  lime-twig. 

The  currier  and  the  lime-rod  are  the  death 
of  the  fowle. — Breton,  Fantastickes  (January). 

Limitary,  a  beggar  or  canvasser 
within  certain  limits  or  districts. 

Great  were  the  sums  of  money  which  the 
piety  of  the  design  and  the  diligence  of  their 
li notaries  brought  in  from  their  several  walks* 
Heylin,  Life  of  Laud,  p.  210. 

Limpabd,  a  cripple. 

What  could  that  gouty  limpard  have  done 
with  so  fine  a  dog  ? —  Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk. 
I.  ch.  xxxix. 

Limpingness,  lameness. 

Lord  W.  did  hobble,  and  not  ungracefully, 
-with  Mrs.  Selby . . .  and  both  were  applauded ; 
the  time  of  life  of  the  lady,  the  Itmpingness 
of  my  lord,  considered. — Richardson,  Grandi* 
son,  vi.  376. 

Lineate,  to  delineate. 

Life  to  the  life  the  Ohessboord  Ungates. 
Sylvester,  Memorials  of  Mortalitie,  st.  8. 

Liner,  a  steam-ship  belonging  to  one 
of  the  great  steam-lines. 

The  spinning  -  jenuy  and  the  railroad, 
Cunard's  liners  and  the  electric  telegraph, 
are  to  me,  if  not  to  you,  signs  that  we  are, 
on  some  points  at  least,  in  harmony  with  the 
universe. — C.  Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  v. 

He  caught  the  glimpse  of  the  spars  and 
funnel  of  a  great  liner  above  the  smoke  to 
the  left. — H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  liv. 

Lines.  Hard  lines  =  a  hard  lot : 
so  in  Ps.  xvi.  6,  the  Bible  version  has, 
"  The  lines  are  fallen  unto  me  in  pleas- 
ant places : "  in  the  Prayer-book,  the 
word  is  "Jot." 

The  old  seaman  paused  a  moment.  "  It  is 
hard  lines  for  me,    he  said, "  to  leave  your 


honour  in  tribulation." — Scott,  Redgauntlet, 
i.  290. 

Gad,  Sir,  that  was  hard  lines  !  to  have  all 
the  pretty  women  one  had  waltzed  with 
every  evening  through  the  Trades,  and  the 
Httle  children  one  had  been  making  play- 
things for,  holding  round  one's  knees,  and 
screaming  to  the  doctor  to  save  them.  — 
Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  iv. 

Lingerly,  Iingeringly ;  slowly. 

Sometimes,  preoccupied  with  her  work, 
she  sang  the  refrain  very  low,  very  lingerly. 
— C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  iii. 

Lingual,  pertaining  to  the  tongue: 
the  word  is  usually  applied  to  those 
sounds  formed  by  the  tongue,  but  as 
L.  s.  v.  observes,  the  term  is  too  general. 

Here  indeed  becomes  notable  one  great 
difference  between  our  two  kinds  of  civil 
war ;  between  the  modern  lingual  or  Parlia- 
mentary-logical kind,  and  the  ancient  or 
manual  kind  in  the  steel  battlefield. — Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  I.  ch.  U. 

Linqy,  heathy. 

His  cell  was  upon  a  lingy  moor,  about  two 
miles  from  Mulgrave  Castle.  —  Ward,  Eng- 
land's Reformation,  p.  396  (margin). 

Linhay,  an  open  shed  attached  to  a 

farm-yard. 

Home  side  of  the  linhay,  and  under  the 
ashen  hedge-row,  where  father  taught  me  to 
catch  blackbirds,  all  at  once  my  heart  went 
down. — Blaekmore,  Lama  Doone,  ch.  iii. 

Link,  a  kind  of  sausage,  though 
apparently  distinguished  from  it  in  the 
following  quotations.     See  H. 

He  was  ordinarily  well  furnished  with 
gammons  of  bacon  .  . .  plenty  of  links,  chit- 
terlings, and  puddings  in  their  season,  to- 
gether with  . . .  great  provision  of  sausages. 
— UrquharCs  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  iii. 

Then  followed  seven  camels  loaded  with 
links  and  chitterlings,  hog's  puddings  and 
sausages. — Ibid.,  Bk.  II.  ch.  ii. 

Lino,  a  silk  gossamer  stuff. 

He  absolutely  insisted  upon  presenting  me 
with  a  complete  suit  of  gauze  lino. — Mad. 
D'ArUay,  Diary,  i.  310  (1780). 

Lint,  fluff  or  flue. 

He's  brushing  a  hat  almost  a  quarter  of 
an  hour,  and  as  long  a  driving  the  lint  from 
his  black  cloaths  with  his  wet  thumb.— The 
Committee,  Act  II. 

Lioness,  a  remarkable  woman:  the 
term  is  also  applied  to  ladies  visiting 
the  University. 

Bring  Mr.  Springblossom  —  Mr.  Winter- 
blossom — and  all  the  lions  and  lionesses ;  we 
have  room  for  the  whole  collection. — Scott, 
&  Roman's  Well,  i.  129. 


LIONISE 


(38o) 


LIQUOR 


Mr.  Tupman  was  doing  the  honours  of  a 
lobster  salad  to  several  lionesses. — Pickwick 
Papers,  ch.  xv. 

For  the  last  three  months  Miss  Newcome 
has  been  the  greatest  lioness  in  London,  the 
reigning  beauty,  the  winning  horse,  the  first 
favourite  out  or  the  whole  Belgravian  harem. 
— Thackeray,  The  Newcomes,  ch.  xli. 

M  Now,  boys,  keep  your  eyes  open,  there 
must  be  plenty  of  lionesses  about :  and  thus 
warned,  the  whole  load,  including  the  cor- 
nopean player,  were  on  the  look-out  for  lady 
visitors,  profanely  called  lionesses. — Hughes, 
Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xxv. 

Lionise,  to  show  the  lions  or  objects 
of  interest.  See  extract  8.  v.  Paste- 
board. 

He  had  lionised  the  distinguished  visitors 
during  the  last  few  days  over  the  University. 
— Disraeli,  Lothair,  ch.  xziv. 

Lionism,  celebrity ;  the  condition  of 

being  a  lion. 

An  anecdote  or  two  may  be  added  to  bear 
out  the  occasional  references  to  the  honours 
and  humours  of  lionism  which  they  contain. 
— Chorley,  Mem.  of  Mrs.  Hemans,  ii.  25. 

Lip,  to  notch. 

In  these  daies  the  maner  is  lightly  to 
barb©  and  pluck  off  with  a  sarding  hook  the 
beards  or  striugs  of  the  root,  that  being  thus 
nipped  and  lipped  (as  it  were)  they  might 
nourish  the  body  of  the  plant.  —  Holland, 
Pliny,  xix.  6. 

"Tis  a  brave  castle,"  said  the  armourer 
.  .  .  '*it  were  worth  lipping  a  good  blade 
before  wrong  were  offered  to  it." — Scott,  Fair 
Maid  of  Perth,  i.  168. 

Lip,  to  utter  (Shakespeare,  as  quoted 
in  the  Diets. ,  uses  it  for  a  kiss). 

Salt  tears  were  coming,  when  I  heard  my 

name 
Most  fondly  lipp'd,  and  then  these  accents 

came.—  Keats,  Endymion,  Bk.  I. 

Lip-born,  merely  verbal,  not  hearty. 

Why  had  he  brought  his  cheap  regard  and 
his  lip-horn  words  to  her  who  had  nothing 
paltry  to  give  in  exchange.  —  G.  Eliot, 
Middlemarch,  ch.  Ixxx. 

Lip-comport,  consolatory  words. 

Lip -comfort  cannot  cure  me.    .Pray  you, 

leave  me 
To  mine  own  private  thoughts. 

Massinger,  Maid  of  Honour,  iii.  1. 

Lip  -  comforter,  one  who  consoles 
with  mere  words. 

Court-moralists, 
Reverend  lip-comforters  that  once  a  week 
Proclaim  how  blessed  are  the  poor. 

Southcy,  Soldiers  Funeral. 


LlPB. 

Tou  shal  se  a  weake  smithe  which  wyl 
wyth  a  lipe  and  turning  of  his  arme  take  vp 
a  barre  of  yron  yat  another  man  thrise  as 
stronge  can  not  stirre. — Ascham,  Toxophilus, 
p.  89. 

Liplick,  a  kiss. 

When  she  shal  embrace  thee,  when  lyp- 
licks  sweetlye  she  fastneth.  —  Stanyhurst, 
JSn.,  i.  672. 

Lipogrammatist,  one  who  writes  a 

Eoem  or  other  composition  from  which 
e  excludes  some  letter. 

No  author  ever  shackled  himself  by  more 
absurd  restrictions,  not  eren  the  lipoaram- 
matists  or  those  who  built  altars  ard  hatched 
eggs  in  verse,  than  Mr.  Fox,  when  be  resolved 
to  use  no  other  words  in  his  History  than 
were  to  be  found  in  Dry  den. —  Southty  in 
Quarterly  Review,  xv.  561. 

Lip-position,  impracticable  theory  : 

applied  in  extract  to  the  philosophical 

utterances  of  Seneca. 

His  house  full 
Of    children,   clients,    servants,    flattering 

friends 
Soothing  his  lip-positions. 

Massinger,  Maid  of  Honour,  iv.  3. 

Lip-reward,  empty  promises. 

To  euery  act  she  giues  huge  lip-reward* 
Lauish  of  oathes,  as  falsehood  of  her  faith. 
G.  Markham,  Tragedie  of  Sir  R.  Grinuile, 
p.  56. 

Lip-righteousnbss,  a  mere  profes- 
sion of  righteousness. 

Dost  thou  think 
To  trick  them  of  their  secret  ?  for  the  dupes 
Of  humankind  keep  this  lip-righteousness. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  V. 

Lip-salve,  flattering  speech. 

Spencer,  that  was  as  cunning  as  a  serpent, 
finds  here  a  female  wit  that  went  beyoDd 
him,  one  that  with  his  own  weapons  wounds 
his  wisdome,  and  taught  him  not  to  trust  a 
woman's  lip-salve,  when  that  he  knew  her 
breast  was  nll'd  with  rancour. — Hist,  of  Edtc. 
II.,  p.  91. 

Liquescent,  liquid ;  moist. 

At  the  end  of  our  path  a  liquescent 
And  nebulous  lustre  was  born, 

Out  of  which  a  miraculous  crescent 
Arose  with  a  duplicate  horn. 

E.  A.  Poe,  inalume  (ii.  21). 

Liquor.  To  liquor  a  man's  boots  = 
to  cuckold  him. 

He  unfortunately  happen 'd  to  catch  her 
with  a  new  relation,  of  whom  he  was  a  little 
jealous,  believing  for  some  reasons  he  had  an 
underhand  design  of  liquoring  his  boots  for 
him. — T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  252. 


LIRIPIPIONATED       (  381  ) 


LOAF 


Liripipionatkd,  hooded ;  wearing 
the  liripoop,  q.  v.  in  N. 

Master  Janotua  . .  .  liripipionated  with  a 
graduate's  hood  . . .  transported  himself  to 
the  lodging  of  .Gargantua.  —  UrqyJharVs 
Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xviii. 

Listen  ess,  attention;    the  opposite 

to  listlessness. 

Then  take  me  .this  errand, 
And  what  I  shal   prophecy  with  tentiue 
listenu  harcken. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iii.  254. 

Lithe,  to  make  pliant. 

The  Grecians  were  noted  for  light,  the 
Parthians  for  fearful,  the  Sodomites  for 
gluttons,  like  as  England  (God  save  the 
sample!)  hath  now  suppled,  lithed  and 
stretched  their  throats. — Adams,  i.  308. 

Lithoclast,  stone-breaker. 

A  party  of  horsemen  .  .  .  were  ready  at 
the  gates  of  the  mosque  to  assist  the  litho- 
clast as  soon  as  he  should  have  executed  his 
task. — Burekhardt,  Travels  in  Arabia,  i.  307. 

Lithographize,  to  lithograph. 

This  picture  has  been  lithographtzed  from 
a  drawing  by  Mr.  Kerrich. — Archmol.,  xxii. 
452  (1829). 

Litter,  to  carry  in  a  litter. 

These  Pagan  ladies  were  litter'd  to  Gam- 
pus  Martius,  ours  are  coached  to  Hyde-Park. 
— Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  112. 

Little-go,  the  first  examination  at 
the  University ;  the  final  one  being  the 
great- gv :  these  terms  are  now  almost 
obsolete  ;  "  smalls  "  and  "  greats  "  have 
taken  their  place. 

He  was  busily  engaged  in  reading  for 
the  little-go,  and  must  therefore  decline  the 
delight  he  had  promised  himself  of  passing 
the  vacation  at  Ginqbars  Hall. — Thackeray, 
Shabby  Genteel  Story,  ch.  vii. 

Liveable,  fit  for  residence. 

There  will  be  work  for  five  summers  at 
least  before  the  place  is  liveable.  —  Miss 
Austen,  Mansfield  Park,  ch.  xxv. 

Liverer,  a  servant  in  livery.  Patten, 
Exped.  to  Scotl.,  1648  (Garner,  iii.  74), 
praising  the  magnificence  of  the  Eng- 
lish nobles,  speaks  of  "  their  sumptuous 
suits  of  liverers" 

Liver-grown,  having  enlarged  liver. 

After  six  fits  of  a  quartan  ague  with  which 
it  pleased  God  to  visit  him,  died  my  deare  son 
Richard  ...  I  sufferM  him  to  be  open'd, 
when  they  found  that  he  was  what  is  vul- 
garly call'd  liver-grown. — Evelyn,  Diary,  Jan. 
27,  1858. 

He  had  observed  the  same  symptom,  but 


was  informed  by  his  friend  that  she  was 
only  liver-grown,  and  would  in  a  few  months 
be  as  well  in  the  waist  as  ever. — Smollett, 
Roderick  Random,  ch.  xlvii. 

Liversick,  sick  at  heart. 

Demon,  my  friend,  once  liversick  of  love, 
Thus  learn  'd  I  by  the  signs  his  grief  remove ; 

But  mark,  when  once  it  comes  to  Gemini, 
Straightway  fish-whole  shall  thy  sick  liver 
be.— Hall,  Sat.,  II.  vii.  47. 

Livery,  applied  to  a  kept  mistress. 

Now  'cause  I  am  a  gamester  and  keep  ordin- 
aries, 
And  a  livery  punk  or  so,  and  trade  not  with 
The  money-mongers'  wives,  not  one  will  be 
Bound  for  me. 

Massinger,  City  Madam,  i.  3. 

Ten  livery  whores,  she  assured  me  on  her 

credit, 
With  weeping  eyes  she  spake  it. 

Ibid.,  A  very  Woman,  ii.  2. 

Livery.  One  of  the  livery  =  a 
cuckold. 

lis  .  .  out  of  fashion  now  to  call  things 
by  their  right  names.  Is  a  citizen  a  cuckold  ? 
no,  he's  one  of  the  livery. — Revenge,  or  a 
Match  in  Newgate,  Act  I. 

Li  very-table,  a  side-table  or  cup- 
board. 

If  there  were  ten  tables  provided  for  that 
purpose,  the  twelve  cakes  could  not  be 
equally  set  upon  them  without  a  fraction. 
I  conceive  therefore  the  other  nine  only  as 
side-cupboards  or  livery-tables,  ministerial  to 
that  principal  one,  as  whereupon  the  shew- 
bread  elect  was  set  before  the  consecration 
thereof,  and  whereon  the  old  shew-bread 
removed,  for  some  time  might  be  placed, 
when  new  was  substituted  in  the  room 
thereof.— Fuller,  Fisgah  Sight,  Bk.  V.  ch. 

XVUl. 

Livetide,  fortune ;  property. 

She  . . .  founded  a  house  heere  for  maidens 
that  were  lepers,  and  endowed  the  same 
with  her  owne  patrimony  and  livetide.  — 
Holland's  Camden,  p.  245. 

Livish,  a  herb  of  the  genus  Ligus- 

ticum. 

As  for  loueach  or  liuish,  it  is  by  nature 
wild  and  savage. — Holland,  Pliny,  xix.  8. 

Loaded,  magnetised. 

Great  kings  to  war  are  pointed  forth, 
Like  loaded  needles  to  the  North. 

Prior,  Alma,  747. 

Loaf,  to  idle  about :  an  American 
expression.     See  Wedgwood,  s.  v. 

Shoeblacks  are  compelled  to  a  great  deal  of 
unavoidable  loafing ;  hut  certainly  this  one 
loafed  rather  energetically,  for  he  was  hot 


LOAFER 


(382  ) 


LOGGER 


and  frantic  in  his  play.  —  H.  Kingsley, 
Ravenshoe,  ch.  xli. 

How  can  you  go  down  to  the  beach  by 
yourself  amongst  all  those  loafing  vaga- 
bonds, who  would  pick  your  pocket  or  throw 
stones  at  you? — Black,  Princess  of  Thule, 
ch.  xiv. 

Loafer,  idle  lounger. 

The  loafer  in  moleskin  stood  at  some  little 
distance,  scowling  and  muttering  scornful 
observations  at  the  same  time. — Blacky  Ad- 
ventures  of  a  Phaeton,  ch.  zviii. 

Loathe,  to  disgust. 

Let  not  the  voice  of  Ithay  loathe  thine  ears. 
Peele,  David  and  Bethsabe,  p.  475. 

There  shall  they  heap  their  preys  of  carrion, 
Till  all  his  grave  be  clad  with  stinking  bones. 
That  it  may  loathe  the  sense  of  every  man. 

Ibid.,  p.  482. 

Lob  be  your  comfort,  go  to  the 
deuce.  Cf.  Lob's  pound  in  Nares,  who, 
however,  offers  no  materials  for  a  bio- 
graphy of  Lob. 

Lob  be  your  comfort,  and  cuckold  be  your 
destiny.— Peele,  Otd  Wives  Tale,  p.  455. 

LOBBISH,  loutish. 

Their  lobbish  guard, ...  all  night  had  kept 
themselves  awake  with  prating  how  valiant 
deeds  they  had  done  when  they  ran  away. — 
Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  430. 

Lob-dotterel,  a  loutish  fool. 

Grouthead  gnat  -  snappers,  lob  -  dotterels, 
gaping  changeUngs.  —  Vrquharfs  Rabelais, 
Bk.  I.  ch.  xxv. 

Lob-like,  clumsy ;  loutish. 

Four  or  Ave  times  he  yawns,  and  leaning  on 
His  (Lob-like)  elbowe  hears  this  message  don. 
Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  589. 

Loblolly,  lubber.    See  extract  from 

Cotton,  s.  v.  Amoring. 

This  lob-lollie  with  slauering  lips  would  be 
making  loue.  —  Breton,  Grimelkfs  Fortunes, 
p.  9. 

Loblolly  Boy,  a  ship-surgeon's  mate.. 

I  was  not  altogether  without  mortifications 
which  I  not  only  suffered  from  the  rude 
insults  of  the  sailors  and  petty  officers, 
among  whom  I  was  known  by  the  name 
of  Loblolly  Boy,  but  also  from  the  disposition 
of  Morgan. — Smollett,  Roderick  Random,  ch. 
xxvii. 

Lobscourse,  or  lobscouse ;  a  sea  dish 

of  meat,  onions,  &c,  stewed  together. 

The  genial  banquet  was  intirely  composed 
of  pea-dishes  ...  a  dish  of  hard  fish  swim- 
ming in  oil  appeared  at  each  end,  the  sides 
being  furnished  with  a  mass  of  that  savoury 
composition  known  by  the  name  of  loh's 
course,  and  a  plate  of  salmagundy. — Smollett, 
Peregrine  Pickle,  ch.  ix. 


Lobster,  soldier;  generally  supposed 
to  be  in  allusion  to  the  red  coat,  but 
probably  the  term  originally  referred 
to  the  soldier's  cuirass.  In  1643,  just 
before  the  battle  of  Lansdown,  Sir 
Arthur  Haslerig's  regiment  came  down 
from  London  with  new  bright  iron 
breast  and  back  plates,  and  were  called 
Lobsters  by  the  King's  troops.  German 
Krebs  =  lobster,  and  also  cuirass.  See 
N.cuidQ.tV.  v.  286. 

The  soldiers  call  them  vagrants.  .  .  .  The 
women,  on  the  other  hand,  exclaim  against 
lobsters  and  tatterdemalions,  and  defy  'em  to 
prove  'twas  ever  known  in  any  age  or  country 
in  the  world  that  a  red-coat  died  for  religion. 
—T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  73. 

Locale,  place.  This  French  word  is 
naturalised ;  the  final  e  which  belongs 
to  it  in  its  English  dress  may  be  a 
mistake,  or  perhaps  designed  to  dis- 
tinguish it  from  the  adj.  local. 

But  no  matter — lay  the  locale  where  yon 

may, 
And  where  it  is  no  one  exactly  can  say, 
There's  one  thing  at  least  which  is  known 

very  well. 
Ingoldslty  Legends  (Old  Woman  in  Grey). 

Lock-up,  a  prison ;  also  used  adjec- 
tivally. 

And  bucks  with  pockets  empty  as  their  pate, 
Lax  in  their  gaiters,  laxer  in  their  gait ; 
Who   oft,    when    we  our   house  lock  up, 

carouse 
With  tippling  tipstaves  in  a  lock-up  house. 

J.  and  H.  Smith,  Rejected  Addresses,  p.  164. 

u  We'll  begin  in  some  out-of-the-way  place 
till  we  get  used  to  it."  "  And  end  in  the 
lock-up,  I  should  say,"  said  Tom. — Hughes, 
Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  vi. 

Locupleatly,  richly.  See  extract 
from  Nashe,  s.  v.  Bedocumentizb. 

Locust,  to  devour  and  lay  waste, 
like  locusts. 

This  Philip  and  the  black-faced  swarms  of 

Spain, 
The  hardest,  cruellest  people  in  the  world, 
Gome  locusting  upon  us,  eat  us  up, 
Confiscate  lands,  goods,  money. 

Tennyson,  Queen  Mary,  II.  i. 

Log-end,  thick  end. 

The  most  heavy  log-end  of  Christ's  Cross 
is  laid  upon  many  of  them. — Gauden,  Tears 
of  the  Church,  p.  122. 

Logger,  stupid. 

My  head  too  heavy  was  and  logger 
Even  to  make  a  Pettifogger. 
Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  158. 


LOGGERHEAD         (  383  ) 


LOMBARD 


Loggerhead,  an  inferior  species  of 
turtle. 

All  the  Mediterranean  tnrtle  are  of  the 
kind  called  loggerhead,  which  in  the  West 
Indies  are  eaten  by  none  but  hungry  seamen, 
negroes,  and  the  lowest  class  of  people. — 
Smollett,  France  and  Italy,  Letter  sx. 

Log- headed,  stupid.  Shakespeare 
( Taming  of  Shrew,  iv.  1)  has  logger- 
headed. 

For  well  I  knew  it  was  some  mad-headed 

childe 
That  invented  this  name  that  the  log-headed 
knave  might  be  begilde. 

Edwards,  Damon  and  Pitheas  (Dodsley, 
O.  P/.,  i.  287). 

Logicalization,  the  making  logical. 

The  mere  act  of  inditing  tends,  in  a  great 
degree,  to  the  logicalization  of  thought. 

E.  A.  Poe,  Marginalia,  xvi. 

Logicalize,  to  make  logical. 

Thought  is  logicalized  by  the  effort  at 
(written)  expression. — E.  A.  Poe,  Marginalia, 
xvi. 

Logic-fisted,  consistently  grasping  ? 
or,  simply,  close-fisted  (?).  The  origi- 
nal of  the  whole  extract  is — "  Hie  fes- 
tinat  quidquid  habet  profundere ;  Me 
per  fas  nefasgue  congerit." 

One  with  an  open-handed  freedom  spends 
all  be  lays  his  fingers  on;  another  with  a 
logick-  filed  grippingness  catches  at  and 
grasps  all  he  can  come  within  the  reach  of. 
— Kennefs  Erasmus,  Praise  of  Folly,  p.  87. 

Logicioner,  logician. 

There  is  no  good  looicioner  bnt  would  think, 
I  think,  that  a  syllogism  thus  formed  of  such 
a  thieving  major,  a  runaway  minor,  and  a 
traitorous  consequent  mnst  needs  prove,  at 
the  weakest,  to  such  a  hanging  argument. — 
Patten,  Exped.  to  Scotl.,  1548  (Eng.  Garner, 

■••         1nii\  *  " 

ill.  137). 

Logocract,  government  by  words. 

In  this  country  every  man  adopts  some 
particular  slang-whanger  as  the  standard  of 
nis  judgment,  and  reads  everything  he  writes, 
if  he  reads  nothing  else ;  which  is  doubtless 
the  reason  why  the  people  of  this  logocracy 
are  so  marvellously  enlightened.  —  Irving, 
/Salmagundi,  No.  xiv. 

Loiolite,  a  Jesuit.    Cf.  Loyolist. 

The  third  vv-cpamrivr^v  that  contended 
with  the  Jesuit  for  the  palm  of  victory,  and 
to  bring  eye-salve  to  the  dim-sighted  lady, 
was  Dr.  Laud,  then  Bishop  of  St.  David's, 
who  galled  Fisher  with  groat  acuteness; 
which  the  false  Loiolite  traduced,  and  made 
slight  in  his  reports. — Racket,  life  of  Wil- 
liams, i.  172. 

Lolion.      The  editor  (Parker  Soc. 


ed.)  quotes  from  Eliot.  Biblioth.,  "  a 
vicious  grayne,  called  rine  of  darn  ell, 
whiche  commonlye  groweth  amonge 
wheate." 

They  had  no  pleasure  to  hear  the  Scribes 
and  the  Pharisees ;  they  stank  in  their  nose ; 
their  doctrine  was  unsavoury;  it  was  of 
lotions,  of  decimations  of  aniseed,  and  cum- 
min, and  such  gear — Latimer,  i.  200. 

Loll,  one  who  lolls  about ;  a  loafer. 

Then  let  a  knaue  be  known  to  be  a  knaue, 
A  thiefe  a  villaine,  and  a  churle  a  hogge ; 
A  minkes  a  menion,  and  a  rogue  a  slaue, 
A  trull  a  tit,  an  vsurer  a  dogge, 
A  lobbe  a  loute,  a  heavy  lou  a  logge ; 
And  euery  birde  go  rowst  in  her  owne 

nest, 
And  then  perhaps  my  Muse  will  be  at 
rest. 
Breton,  Pasquifs  Madcappe,  p.  10. 

Lollard,  a  loller,  used  in  extract 
punningly. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  the  attainment  of 
Christian  knowledge  that  men  should  sit 
all  their  life  long  at  the  foot  of  a  pulpited 
divine;  while  he,  a  lollard  indeed  over  his 
elbow  cushion,  in  almost  the  seventh  part  of 
forty  or  fifty  years,  teaches  them  scarce  half 
the  principles  of  religion. — Milton,  Means  to 
remove  hirelings. 

Loller,  one  who  lolls.  See  extract 
from  Stanyhuret,  s.  v.  Muffe  maffe, 
where  it  seems  =  lubber.  R.  has  the 
word,  but  only  as  =  Lollard. 

Griselda,  who  was  .  .  one  of  the  fashion- 
able toilers  by  profession,  established  herself 
upon  a  couch.  —  Miss  Edgeworth,  Griselda, 
ch.  xi. 

Lollop,  to  lounge  or  idle  about. 

Here's  fine  discipline  on  board,  when  such 
sculking  sons  of  b— ches  as  you  are  allowed, 
on  pretence  of  sickness,  to  lollop  at  your 
ease,  while  your  betters  are  kept  to  hard 
duty. — Smollett,  Roderick  Random,  ch.  xxxiv. 

If  one's  ever  so  cold,  he  lollops  so  that  one 
is  quite  starved.  —  Mad.  D'Arblay,  Cecilia, 
Bk.  II.  ch.  iv. 

She  does  so  stoop  and  lollop,  as  the  women 
call  it.—- Scott,  St.  Ronan's  Well,  ii.  219. 

A  superb  Adonis  rose  with  an  injured  look, 
and  led  Gerard  into  a  room  where  sat  or 
lolloped  eleven  ladies,  chattering  like  mag- 
pies.— Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  Hi. 

Lombard.  N.  gives  this  as  meaning 
a  banker,  but  it  also  signifies  a  bank. 
See  extract  s.  v.  Encaptive. 

The  royal  treasure  he  exhausts  in  pride 
and  riot ;  the  jewels  of  the  Crown  are  in  the 
Lumbard. — Hist,  of  Edtr.  II.,  p.  27. 

A  Lombard  unto  this  day  signifying  a  bank 
for  usury  or  pawns. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hint,  III. 
v.  10. 


LOMBARDEER  (  384  ) 


LOOT 


Lombardeeb,  a  banker. 

By  their  profession  they  are  for  the  most 
part  brokers  and  Lombaraeers. — Howell,  Let* 
ters,  I.  vi.  14. 

Lombard- Street.  Lombard-  Street 
to  a  China  Orange  =  very  long  odds. 

Here  I  shall  inform  the  small  critic  what 
it  is  M  a  thousand  pounds  to  a  penny/1  as  the 
nursery  song  says,  or  as  the  newspaper  re- 
porters of  the  King  have  it,  Lombard-Street 
to  a  China  Orange*  no  small  critic  already 
knows,  whether  he  be  diurnal,  hebdomadal, 
monthly,  or  trimestral,  that  a  notion  of 
progressive  life  is  mentioned  in  Bishop 
Berkeley's  Minute  Philosopher. —Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  ccx. 

44  It  is  Lombard-Street  to  a  China  Orange" 
quoth  Uncle  Jack.  '*  Are  the  odds  in  favour 
of  fame  against  failure  really  so  great? 
Tou  do  not  speak,  I  fear,  from  experience, 
brother  Jack,"  answered  my  father. — Lytton, 
Caxtons,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  iii. 

London    Pride,    a   common   plant, 
saxifraga  umbrosa. 
A  pride  there  is  of  rank,  a  pride  of  birth, 

A  pride  of  learning  and  a  pride  of  purse, 
A  London  pride,  in  snort,  there  be  on  earth 

A  host  of  prides,  some  better  and  some 
worse.—  Hood,  Ode  to  Roe  Wilson. 

Long,  two  breves  in  music.     See  L. 

Here,  because  our  life  is  short,  we  sing  it 
in  breves  and  seroibreves ;  hereafter  we  shall 
sing  it  in  longs  for  ever. — Adams,  iii.  122. 

Longanimity,  foresight ;  the  word 
usually  =  forbearance,  long-suffering, 
and  in  this  sense  is  illustrated  in  the 
Diets. 

Mentally  short-sighted  as  she  affected  to 
be,  none  had  more  longanimity  for  their  own 
interest.— Miss  Edgeworth,  Absentee,  ch.  vii. 

Long  arm,  a  person  who  reaches 
across  a  table,  &cM  for  anything  is  said 
to  make  a  long  arm. 

It  divided  them,  and  it  divided  them  not ; 
for  over  that  arme  of  the  sea  could  be  made 
a  long  arm'.  —  Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl. 
3fisc.,  vi.  167). 

Long-bullets,  a  game  played  by 
casting  stones.  H.  says,  "a  North- 
country  game,"  but  the  scene  of  the 
extract  is  Ireland. 

"When  you  saw  Tady  at  long-bullets^  play, 
Tou  sat  and  lous'd  him  all  a  sunshine  day. 
Swift,  Dermot  and  Sheelah. 

L0NGI8H,  pretty  long.  See  quotation 
from  Hood  *.  v.  Blues. 

The  head  was  longish,  which  is  always  the 
best  sign  of  intellect. — Carlyle,  Life  of  Ster- 
ling, Pt.  II.  ch.  ii. 

Farmer  Bobson  left  Haytersbank  betimes 


on  a  lonoish  day's  journey,  to  purchase  a 
horse. — Mrs.  Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  ix. 

Longitudinarian,  having  to  do  with 

longitude. 

What  was  the  centre  of  London  for  any 
purpose  whatever — latitudinarian  or  longitu- 
dinarian— literary,  social,  or  mercantile? — 
De  Quincty,  Autob.  Sketches,  i.  188. 

Long-minded,  patient 

[A  judge  must  be]  long-minded  to  endure 
the  rusticity  and  homeliness  of  common 
people  in  giving  evidence,  after  their  plain 
fashion  and  faculty. — Ward,  Sermons,  p.  120. 

Longshore,  water  side,  applied  to 
those  whose  haunts  are  along  shore ; 
used  also  as  a  substantive.  It  is  gener- 
ally employed  disparagingly. 

Our  captain  said,  The  'longshore  thieves 
Are  laughing  at  us  in  their  sleeves. 

Browning,  Waring. 

I  want  none  of  your  rascally  lurching  long- 
shore vermin,  who  get  five  pounds  out  of  this 
captain,  and  ten  out  of  that,  and  let  him 
sail  without  them  after  all,  while  they  are 
stowed  away  under  women's  mufflers  and 
in  tavern  cellars. — Kingsley,  Westward  Ho, 
ch.  i. 

Out  of  the  way,  you  loafing  longshores! 
shouts  the  Lieutenant. —  Ibid.,  Two  Years 
Ago,  ch.  iii. 

Loose.     See  first  extract. 

We  call  this  figure  [homoio  teleuton]  fol- 
lowing the  original,  the  like-Zoos*,  alluding  to 
th'  Archer's  terne,  who  is  not  said  to  finish 
the  feate  of  his  shot  before  he  give  the  loose, 
and  deliver  his  arrow  from  his  bow,  in  which 
respect  we  vse  to  say  marke  the  loose  of  a 
thing  for  marke  the  end  of  it. — Puttenham, 
Arte  of  Eng.  Poesie,  ch.  xvi. 

Surely  the  poet  gives  a  twang  to  the  loose 
of  his  arrow,  making  him  [Robin  Hood] 
shoot  one  a  cloth-yard  long  at  full  forty- 
score  mark,  for  compass  never  higher  than 
the  breast,  and  within  less  than  a  foot  of 
the  mark. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Notts. 

Loose-kirtle,  a   woman   of  bad 

character.     See  N.  a.  v.  Loose-bodied 

gown. 

Here's  a  fellow  calls  himself  the  captain 
of  a  ship,  and  her  Majesty's  servant,  and 
talks  about  failing,  as  if  he  were  a  Barbican 
loose-kirtle  trying  to  keep  her  apple-squire 
ashore. — Kingsley,  Westward  IIo,  ch.  xxx. 

Loot,  to  plunder:  an  East  Indian 
word. 

I  cannot  quite  satisfy  my  mind  whether 
it  was  originally  intended  for  the  reception 
of  coals,  or  bodies,  or  as  a  place  of  temporary 
security  for  the  plunder  "  looted n  by  laun- 
dresses.—  Dickens,  Uncommercial  Traveller, 
xiv. 


LOPE 


(3*5  ) 


LOVE 


Lope,  to  leap :  this  use  is  noted  both 
by  N.  and  EL,  but  they  give  no  ex- 
ample, save  of  its  use  as  the  old  per- 
fect of  leap:  it  is  also  a  substantive. 
Lope-off,  to  g°  away  in  a  secret  sly 
manner,  is  still  in  use  in  Sussex  (Parish's 
Glossary). 

This  whinyard  has  gard  many  better  men 
to  lope  than  thou.  —  Greene,  James  IV. 
Induction. 

His  malice  lopes  at  a  venture,  and  his 
ignorance  is  no  check  to  \t.—Northy  Examen, 
p.  73. 

I  cannot  do  the  author  justice  ....  with- 
out taking  a  large  lope  over  the  next  reign. 
— Ibid.,  p.  618. 

It  is  more  than  probable  that  in  process 
of  time  he  had  advanced  himself  by  the 
pure  strength  of  his  genius,  but  not  by  such 
large  strides  as  he  made  in  getting  money 
and  loping  into  preferments  as  he  did,  with- 
out the  aid  of  friends  and  good  fortune. — 
I  bid.,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  00. 

Lord.  Drunk  as  a  lord  =  very 
drunk:  for  similar  comparisons  see 
*.  v.  Drunk. 

If  I,  said  he,  remember  right, 

I  was  most  lordly  drunk  last  night. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  i.  c.  7. 
I  took  care  to  make  him  mix  his  liquors 
well,  and  before  11  o'clock  I  finished  him, 
and  had  him   as   drunk  as  a  lord,  sir. — 
Thackeray,  Misc.,  ii.  237. 

Lord.  "In  Suffolk  husbandry  the 
man  who  (whether  by  merit  or  by 
sufferance  I  know  not)  goes  foremost 
through  the  harvest  with  the  scythe 
or  the  sickle,  is  honoured  with  the  title 
of  Lord,  and  at  the  Horkey  or  Har- 
vest-home feast  collects  what  he  can 
for  himself  and  brethren  from  the 
f  irmere  and  visitors  to  make  a  frolic 
afterwards,  called  "  the  largess  spend- 
ing" (Preface  by  Bloomfield  to  the 
Ballad  in  which  the  extract  occurs). 

*~~Jfy  Lord  begg'd  round,  and  held  his  hat. 
Says  Farmer  Gruff,  says  he, 
There's  many  a  lord,  Sam,  I  know  that, 
Has  begg'd  as  well  as  thee. 

Bloomfield,  The  Horkey. 

Lord  have  mercy  upon  me.     See 

extract 

The  Uliake  passion,  or  a  peine  and  wring- 
ing in  the  small  gats,  which  the  homelier 
sort  of  phisicians  doe  call  Lorde  have  mercy 
upon  me. — JVomenclator,  1585,  p.  433. 

Lordkin,  little  lord. 

Princekin  or  lordkin  from  his  earliest  days 
has  nurses,  dependents,  governesses,  little 
friends,  schoolfellows  . . .  flattering  him  and 


doing  him  honour.  —  Thackeray,  The  New- 
comes,  ch.  liii. 

Lords  and  ladies,  the  wild  Arum. 

There  were  great  "lords  and  ladies" 
(arums)  there,  growing  in  the  bank,  twice 
as  big  as  ours,  and  not  red,  but  white  and 
primrose— most  beautiful.— C.  Kingsley,  1864 
(Zt/«,  ii.  171). 

Even  in  the  Lords  and  Ladies  clumped  in 
the  scoop  of  the  hedgerow  .  .  .  there  was 
aching  ecstasy,  delicious  pang  of  Lorna. — 
Blackmore,  Lorna  Doone,  ch.  xvii. 

Loric,  breast-plate  (Latin,  lorica). 

Each  with  his  bay-leaf  fillet,  loose-thonged 

vest, 
Loric,  and  low-browed  Gorgon  on  the  breast. 

Browning,  Profits. 

Lose,  loss. 

Alms  and  good  deeds  are  sacrifices  pleasing 
to  God ;  but  without  zeal  the  widow's  mites 
are  no  better  than  the  rest ;  it  is  the  cheer- 
ful lose  that  doubleth  the  gift.—  Ward,  Ser- 
mons, p.  78. 

Loud,  showy  =  more  so  than  good 
taste  would  allow. 

This  Edward  had  picked  up  ...  a 
thoroughly  Irish  form  or  character ;  fire  and 
fervour,  vitality  of  all  kinds  in  genial  abund- 
ance ;  but  in  a  much  more  loquacious,  osten- 
tatious, much  louder  style  than  is  freely 
patronised  on  this  side  of  the  Channel. — 
Carlyle,  Life  of  Sterling,  Pt.  I.  ch.  ii. 

Lounderer,  an  idler,  a  vagabond. 

Lousengers  and  lounderers  are  wrongfully 
made  and  named  hermits,  and  have  leave  to 
defraud  poor  and  needy  creatures  of  their 
livelihood,  and  to  live  by  their  false  winning 
and  begging  in  sloth  and  in  other  divers 
▼ices. — Testament  of  Wm.  Thorpe  (Bale,  Select 
Works,  p.  130). 

Lounge,  a  place  where  people  pass 
away  idle  time. 

She  went  with  Lady  Stock  to  a  bookseller's, 
whose  shop  served  as  a  fashionable  lounge. 
— Miss  Edgeworth,  Almeria,  p.  278. 

Louvre,  a  dance.  The  scene  to 
which' tlie  extract  refers  is  laid  at  the 
Court  of  William  and  Mary. 

As  soon  as  the  minuet  was  closed,  the 
princess  said  softly  to  Harry  in  French, 
"  The  Louvre,  sir,  if  you  please."  This  was 
a  dance  of  the  newest  fashion,  and  was  cal- 
culated to  show  forth  and  exhibit  a  graceful 
person  in  all  the  possible  elegances  of  move- 
ment and  attitude.  —  H.  Brooke,  Fool  of 
Quality,  ii.  99. 

Love.  To  play  for  love=  to  play 
for  nothing.  In  reckoning  a  score, 
that  of  the  player  who  has  counted 
nothing  is  said  to  be  love.    This  is  the 

CO 


LOVE 


(  3»6) 


LOW-DAY 


meaning  of  the  word  in  the  first  quota- 
tion. 

Ton  reckon  your  chickens  before  they  are 
hatched;  I  have  seen  those  lose  the  game 
that  have  had  so  many  for  love  (Vidx  qui 
vincerent  ab  hoc  numero,  qui  nihil  haotbant).— 
Bailey7 8  Erasmus,  p.  46. 

When  I  am  in  sickness,  or  not  in  the  best 
spirits,  I  sometimes  call  for  the  cards,  and 
play  a  game  at  piquet  for  love  with  my 
cousin  Bridget. — Essays  of  Elia  {Mrs.  Battle 
on  Whist). 

Love,  a  game  in  which  one  holds  up 
one  or  more  fingers,  and  another,  with- 
out looking,  guesses  at  the  number.  In 
some  editions  of  Erasmus  the  word  in 
the  original  is  micatione. 

If  any  unlearned  person  or  stranger  should 
come  in,  he  would  certainly  think  we  were 
bringing  up  again  among  ourselves  the 
eountrjnneu's  play  of  holding  up  our  fin- 
gers (dimicatione  digitorum,  i.  e.  the  play  of 
love). — Bailey's  Erasm.,  Colloq.,  p.  159. 

Love.  No  love  last,  between  people, 
usually  means  that  they  dislike  each 
other ;  in  the  first  extract,  however,  it 
signifies  that  their  affection  had  never 
been  interrupted ;  in  the  second,  from 
the  same  work,  it  bears  the  more  com- 
mon sense. 

I  kissed  her :  "  And  is  it  for  me,  my  sweet 
cousin,  that  you  shed  tears?  there  never  was 
love  lost  between  us :  but  tell  me,  what  is  de- 
signed to  be  done  with  me  that  I  have  this 
kind  instance  of  your  compassion  for  me." — 
Richardson,  CI.  Marlowe,  ii.  217. 

He  must  needs  say  there  was  no  love  lost 
between  some  of  my  family  and  him. — Ibid., 
in.  150. 

Loveablb,  amiable ;  winning  affec- 
tion. The  extract  shows  that  the  word 
was  not  familiar,  as  it  is  now,  in  1814. 
L.  gives  only  extract  from  Tennyson's 
Elaine^  but  R.  has  a  quotation  from 
Wiclif. 

"  There  is  something  so  soothing,  so  gentle, 
so  indulgent  about  Mrs.  Percy,  so  foveaMe." 
"  She  is  . .  .  very  loveable — that  is  the  exact 
word."  u  I  fear  it  is  not  English  ,"  said  Miss 
Hauton.  "  //  merite  bien  Petre"  said  God- 
frey.— Miss  Edgeworth,  Patronage,  ch.  v. 

Loveach,  a  herb  of  the  genus  Ligus- 
ticum. 

As  for  loveach  or  liuish,  it  is  by  nature 
wild  and  sauage.— Holland,  Pliny,  xix.  8. 

Love-bird,  a  small  bird  of  the  parrot 
species. 

Mr.  Guppy  going  to  the  window  tumbles 
into  a  pair  of  lovebirds,  to  whom  he  says  in 
his  confusion,  '*  I  beg  yonr  pardon,  I  am 
sure."— Dickens,  Bleak  House,  ch.  xxix. 


Unless  they  are  two  behind  a  carriage- 
perch  they  pine  away,  I  suppose, ...  as  one 
love-bird  does  without  his  mate. — Thackeray, 
Lovel  the  Widower,  ch.  iv. 

Love-child,  bastard.  See  quotation 
from  Miss  Austen  0.  v.  all  to  one. 

Nothing  won't  do  us  no  good,  unless  we 
all  repent  of  our  wicked  ways,  our  drinking, 
and  our  dirt,  and  our  love-children,  and  our 
picking  and  stealing. —  C.  Kingsley,  Alton 
Locke,  ch.  xxviii. 

What  a  source  of  mischief  in  all  our  coun- 
try parishes  is  the  one  practice  of  calling  a 
child  born  out  of  wedlock,  a  '  love-child '  in- 
stead of  a  bastard.  It  would  be  hard  to 
estimate  how  much  it  has  lowered  the  tone 
and  standard  of  morality  among  us ;  or  for 
how  many  young  women  it  may  have  helped 
to  make  the  downward  way  more  sloping 
still. — Abp.  Trench,  Study  of  Words,  ch.  li. 

Lovke,  the  person  loved. 

Violent  love  on  one  side  is  enough  in  con- 
science, if  the  other  party  be  not  a  fool  or 
ungrateful :  the  lover  and  lovee  make  gener- 
ally the  happiest  couple. — Richardson^  Gran- 
dison,  vi.  47. 

LOVKFDLL,  full  Of  love. 

Th'  euerlasting  Voice 
Which  now  again  reblest  the  lovefull  choice 
Of  sacred  wedlock's  secret  binding  band. 
Sylvester,  The  Colonies,  505. 

Lovelings,  little  loves. 

These  frollike  louelings  freighted  nests  do 

make 
The  balmy  trees  oV-laden  boughs  to  crack. 
Sylvester,  The  Magnificent*,  092. 

Love -lornn  ess,  state  of  desolation, 
through  desertion  of  a  lover. 

It  was  the  story  of  that  fair  Gostanza  who 
in  her  love-lornness  desired  to  live  no  longer. 
— G.  Eliot,  Romola,  ch.  hri. 

Loverless,  without  a  lover. 

Loverless  and  inexpectant  of  love,  I  was  as 
safe  from  spies  in  my  heart-poverty,  as  the 
beggar  from  thieves  in  his  destitution  of 
purse. — Miss  Bronte,  ViUette,  ch.  ziii. 

Love- worth,  that  which  is  worthy 

of  love. 

Homer  for  himself  should  be  belov'd, 
Who  ev*ry  sort  of  love-worth  did  contain. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  To  the  Reader,  73. 

Low-boy,  a  name  for  a  Whig  and 
low  churchman. 

No  fire  and  faggot !  no  wooden  shoes !  no 
trade-sellers !  a  low-boy,  a  low-boy  !  —  Cent- 
livre,  Gotham  Election. 

Low-day,  an  ordinary  day,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  a  feast-day  or  high- 
day. 


L0W1SH 


(  387  )  LUCK-PENNY 


Such  days  as  wear  the  badge  of  holy  red 
Are  for  Devotion  marked  and  sage  Delights, 
The  vulgar  Low-days  undistinguished 
Are  left  for  Labour.  Games,  and  sportful 
Sights.  ^ 

Campion,  lyrics,  &c.,  1613, 
Eng.  Garner,  iii.  286. 

Lowish,  rather  low. 

Money  runs  a  little  lowish,  after  what  I 
have  laid  out.— Richardson,  Pamela,  i.  82. 

Loyalty.  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill  (Logic,  Pt. 
IV.  ch.  v.  1,  quoted  in  L.)  remarks 
that  though  this  word  once  signified 
fair  open  dealing  and  fidelity  to  engage- 
ments, it  is  now  restricted  to  fidelity  to 
the  throne.  Mr.  Mill  adds  that  he  is 
not  sufficiently  versed  in  the  history  of 
courtly  language  to  be  able  to  say  by 
what  process  this  change  came  about. 
"  I  can  only  suppose  that  the  word  was 
at  some  period  the  favourite  term  at 
court  to  express  fidelity  to  the  oath  of 
allegiance,  until  at  length  those  who 
wished  to  speak  of  any  other,  and,  as  it 
was  deemed,  inferior  sort  of  fidelity, 
either  did  not  venture  to  use  so  digni- 
fied a  term,  or  found  it  convenient  to 
employ  some  other  in  order  to  avoid 
being  misunderstood."  The  extract 
from  North  supports  Mr.  Mill's  hypo- 
thesis, and  fixes  the  time  of  Charles  II. 
as  the  period ;  though  probably  loyalty, 
as  understood  in  that  reign  or  by  Roger 
North,  meant  much  more  than  simple 
fidelity  to  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and 
implied  thorough  partisanship  in  behalf 
of  the  measures  of  the  Court. 

So  few  gentlemen  of  the  law  were  noted 
for  loyalty  (I  use  the  word  of  that  time)  that 
it  was  made  a  wonder  at  Court  that  a  young 
lawyer  should  be  so.— North,  Examen,  p.  513. 

Loyolist,  a  follower  of  Ignatius 
Loyola.  Howell,  in  the  book  cited, 
frequently  uses  the  term.    Cf .  Loiolitb. 

Of  late  years  that  super-politick  and  irre- 
fragable society  of  the  Loyolists  have  propt 
up  the  ivy.— Howell,  Dodona's  Grove,  p.  00. 

Lozs,  praise. 

And  that  thy  loze  ne  name  may  neuer  dye, 
Nor  thy  state  turne  stayed  by  destinie. 

Puttenham,  Eny.  Poesze,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xix. 

Lozengk  -  coach,  a  dowager's  car- 
riage; a  widow*  s  arms  being  on  a 
lozenge. 

I  am  retired  hither  like  an  old  summer- 
dowager  ;  only  that  I  have  no  toad-eater  to 
take  the  air  with  me  in  the  back  part  of  my 
lozenge-coach,  and  to  be  scolded.—  fValpole, 
to  Mann,  ii.  172  (1746). 


Lozknged,  shaped  like  a  lozenge. 

There  shot  out  the  friendly  gleam  again 
from  the  lozenged  panes  of  a  very  small 
latticed  window. — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch. 
xxviii. 

Lubberliness,  loutishness ;  clumsy 

weight. 

You,  like  a  lazr  hulk,  whose  stupendous 
magnitude  is  full  big  enough  to  load  an  ele- 
phant with  lubberliness. — T.  Brown,  Works, 
u.  179. 

Lubber's-hole,  the  vacant  space  be- 
tween the  head  of  a  lower  mast,  and 
the  edge  of  the  top  ;  it  offers  an  easier 
way  of  getting  into  the  top  than  by  the 
f  uttock  shrouds. 

And  yet,  Sir  Joseph,  Fame  reports  you  stole 
To  Fortune's  top-mast  through  the  lubber* 
hoU.—  Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  232. 

I  was  afraid  to  venture,  and  then  he  pro- 
posed that  I  should  go  through  lubber's  hole, 
which  he  said  had  been  made  for  people 
like  me.  I  agreed  to  attempt  it,  as  it  appeared 
more  easy,  and  at  last  arrived  . . .  in  the 
main-top. — Marry att,  P.  Simple,  ch.  vii. 

Lucency,  brightness ;  lustre. 

These  are  the  Septemberers  (Septem- 
briseurs)  ;  a  name  of  some  note  and  lucency, 
but  lucency  of  the  Nether-fire  sort.— Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  I.  ch.  vi. 

Luciferous,  devilish.  The  Diets, 
have  the  word  in  the  sense  of  light- 
bringing. 

I  must  teach  ye  ones  again  to  frame  your 
sentences,  els  wold  ye  couple  your  sorcerous 
masmongers  with  God's  maiestye  in  one 
honour,  which  we  wil  not  take  at  your  luci* 
ferns  perswasyons. — Bale's  Decl.  of  Bonner's 
Articles,  1554  (Art.  i.). 

Lucklest,  most  unlucky. 

Nay  faith,  mine  is  the  luckiest  lot, 
That  ever  fell  to  honest  woman  yet. 

Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  202. 

Luckly,  prosperous. 

Our  first  encounter  by  fortun  lucklye  was 
ayded. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  II.  304. 

The  peaceable  days  of  the  wicked,  and  their 
luckly  proceedings  in  this  world,  by  the  tes- 
timony of  Job,  enrageth  their  impudence 
against  Heaven. — Adams,  i.  908. 

Luck-penny,  a  small  sum  returned 
by  the  vendor  for  luck  on  the  comple- 
tion of  a  bargain.  H.  gives  it  as  a 
North-country  word  ;  it  seems  to  be 
current  in   Ireland  also.      Cf.   Luck- 

STROKEN. 

Didn't  I  give  fifteen  guineas  for  him,  bar- 
ring the  luck-penny  ?  —  Miss  Edgeworth, 
Ennui,  ch.  vi. 

CC  2 


LUCKS 


(  388) 


LUNGE 


Lucks,  locks  of  wool  twisted  on  the 
finger  of  a  spinner  at  the  distaff.  Ken- 
net  defines  tucks  as  "  Looks  and  flocks 
of  coarse  and  refuse  wool ;  "  also  called 
dag-wool. 

She  straight  slipp'd  off  the  wall  and  hand, 
And  laid  aride  her  lucks  and  twitches, 

And  to  the  hutch  she  reach'd  her  hand, 
And  gave  him  out  his  Sunday  breeches. 

BloomJUld,  Richard  and  Kate. 

Luck-strokrn,  having  received  the 

luck-penny,  q.  v. 

Go,  take  possession  of  the  church-porch  door, 
And  ring  thy  bells,  luckstroken  in  thy  fist ; 
The  parsonage  is  thine  or  ere  thou  wist. 

Hall,  Satires,  II.  v.  17. 

Lucky.  To  make  or  cut  one's  lucky 
»  (in  slang  language)  to  run  away. 

That  was  all  out  of  consideration  for 
Fagin,  'cause  the  traps  know  that  we  work 
together,  and  he  might  have  got  into  trouble 
if  we  hadn't  made  our  lucky,— Oliver  Twist, 

%_  Ml 

ch.  xvui. 

Lucky,  handy ;  unlucky  in  the  oppo- 
site sense  is  not  uncommon. 

Bellm.  Perhaps  I  may  have  occasion  to 
use  you,  you  used  to  be  a  lucky  rogue  upon 
a  pinch. 

Mast.  Ay,  master,  and  I  have  not  forgot 
it  yet. 

Centlivre,  Love's  Contrivance,  Act  I. 

Lucrative,  greedy  of  gain. 

He  requires  no  such  diligence  as  the  most 
part  of  our  lucrative  lawyers  do  use,  in  defer- 
ring and  prolonging  of  matters  and  actions 
from  term  to  term. — Latimer,  i.  110. 

*    Lucubrate,  to  study  by  candle-light; 
hence  generally,  to  discuss. 

I  like  to  speak  and  lucubrate  my  fill. 

Byron,  Beppo,  st.  47. 

Ludditb8,  machine- breakers  ;  so 
called  from  Ned  Lud,  an  idiot  whojbad 
a  propensity  for  breaking  frames.  They 
first  rose  towards  the  end  of  1811,  and 
had  a  skirmish  with  the  military  in 
1812.  The  Rejected  Addresses  pub- 
lished in  the  following  October  refer 
to  them  more  than  once. 

Who  makes  the  quartern  loaf  and  Luddites 
rise? 

J.  and  H.  Smith,  Rejected 
Addresses,  p.  5. 

A  sanguinary  plot  has  been  formed  by 
some  united  Irishmen  combined  with  a  gang 
of  Luddites.— Ibid^p.  150. 

Ludlam's  dog.  Cotton  in  a  marginal 
note  to  the  first  extract  says,  "  Tis  a 
proverb  that  Ludlam's  Dog  lean'd  his 
head  against  a  wall  when  he  went  to 


bark."  '  A  correspondent  of  N.  and  Q-, 
L  i.  382,  observes  that  the  phrase  is 
very  familiar  in  South  Yorkshire, 
especially  in  Sheffield  ;  another  version 
is  that  the  dog  laid  himself  down  to 
bark. 

Squire  tineas,  huge  Tarpawlin, 
Like  Ludlam's  Curr  on  truckle  lolling. 

Cotton,  Scarronides,  p.  1. 


Who  was  Ludlam  whose  dog  was  so  lazy 
that  he  leant  his  head  against  a  wall  to  bark  ? 
— Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cxxv. 

LUK,  to  sift. 

I  had  new  models  made  of  the  sieves  for 
lueina,  the  box  and  trough,  the  buddle, 
wrecK,  and  tool.  —  Miss  Edgeworth,  Lame 
JervaSfCh.vL. 

Lug-loaf,  heavy ;  loutish. 

She  had  little  reason  to  take  a  cullian,  lug- 
loaf  y  milksop  slave,  when  she  may  have  a 
lawyer,  a  gentleman  that  stands  upon  his 
reputation  in  the  country. —  WUy  Beguiled 
(Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr.,  iii.  334;. 

Lukbt,  window ;  look-out  (?). 

Hope  and  feare  .  .  made  her  .  .  to  un- 
loope  her  luket  or  casement,  to  look©  whence 
the  blasts  came. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Hart 
Misc.,  vi.  108). 

Lummy,  first-rate  (slang).  '  Robinson 
( Whitby  Glossary,  E.  D.  S.)  gives  it 
as  a  word  used  in  that  neighbourhood. 
"  A  lummy  lick  «  a  delicious  morsel." 

To  think  of  Jack  Dawkins — lummy  Jack — 
the  Dodger  —  the  artful  Dodger  —  going 
abroad  for  a  common  twopenny-halfpenny 
aneeae-box. — Dickens,  Oliver  Tvnst,  eh.  xliii. 

Lumpers,  militia-men. 

He  hath  a  cursed  spite  to  us  because  we 
shot  his  father.  He  was  going  to  bring  the 
lumpers  upon  us,  only  he  was  afeared,  last 
winter.  —  Blackmore,  Loma  Doone,  ch. 
xxxviii. 

Lunary,  white  as  the  moonlight  (?). 

Cause  then  your  parlour  to  be  kept  carefully, 

Wash'd,  rubVd,  perf  um'd,  hang'd  round  from 
top  to  bottom 

With  pure  white  lunary  tap'stry,  or  needle- 
work; 

But  if  'twere  cloth  of  silver,  'twere  much 
better. — Albumasar,  ii.  3. 

Lunge,  to  run  a  horse  round  in  a 
ring. 

He  came  one  day  as  the  coachman  was 
lunging  Georgy  round  the  lawn  on  the  gray 
pony. — Thackeray,  Vanity  Fair,  oh.  xlvL 

The  centre  of  this  quad,  in  place  of  the 
trim  grass-plat,  is  occupied  by  a  tan  lunging 
ring. — H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  iii. 


LUNG  LESS 


(389) 


LYRIC 


Lungless,  without  lungs. 

A  body  heartlesse,  lunglesse,  tongnelesse 
too.— Sylvester,  Trophies,  760. 

Lurch,  a  game  at  tables.  See  L., 
who,  however,  gives  no  example. 

By  two  of  my  table-men  in  the  corner- 
point  I  have  gained  the  lurch. — Vrquhorfs 
Rabelais,  Bk.  II.  oh.  xii. 

My  mind  was  only  running  upon  the  lurch 
and  tric-trac— Ibid.,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xii. 

Lady ha*  cried  ber  eyes  out  on  lotting 

a  lurch,  and  almost  her  wig.  —  WalpoU, 
Letters,  iv.  371  (1784). 

Lurch,  a  swindle. 

The  tapster  having  many  of  these  lurches 
fell  to  decay.— Pse^*  Jests,  p.  619. 

Lurch.    To  lie  at  lurch = to  lay  wait 

Another  Epicurean  companie,  lying  at 
lurch,  as  so  many  vultures,  watching  for  a 
prey  of  Church  goods,  and  ready  to  rise  by 
the  downfall  of  any.  —  Burton,  Democ.  to 
Reader,  p.  29. 

Luripup8,  tricks ;  antics  (?). 

I  see  you  have  little  to  doe  that  have  so 
much  leisure  to  play  your  luripups. — Breton, 
Packet  of  Letters,  p.  34. 

Lurk  back,  to  snatch  back. 

Mine  are  those  herbs,  mine  those  charms, 
that  not  only  lurk  back  (revocat)  swift  time 
when  past  and  gone,  but,  what  is  more  to 
be  admired,  clip  its  wing,  and  prevent  all 
farther  flight. — Rennet's  Erasmus's  Praise  of 
Folly,  p.  18. 

Lush,  intoxicating  drink ;  said  to  be 
derived  from  Lushington,  a  brewer; 
also,  as  a  verb,  to  drink. 

Two  half  -  quartern  brans,  pound  of  best 
fresh,  piece  of  double  Glo'ster,  and,  to  wind 
up  all,  some  of  the  richest  sort  you  ever 
lushed.— Oliver  Twist,  ch.  zxziz. 

"  He  gave  us  a  thundering  supper ;  lots  of 
lush."  «  What  is  lush  ?  "  "  Tea,  and  coffee, 
and  barley-water,  my  dear." — Bead*,  Never 
too  late  to  mend,  ch.  1. 

Lushey,  tipsy. 

It  was  half-past  four  when  I  got  to  Somers- 
Town,  and  then  I  was  so  uncommon  lushey 
that  I  couldn't  find  the  place  where  the 
latch-key  went  in. — Pickwick  Papers,  oh.  zx. 

Luskard,  a  kind  of  grape. 

It  is  a  celestial  food  to  eat  for  breakfast 
hot  fresh  cakes  with  grapes,  especially  the 
frail  clusters,  the  great  red  grapes,  the  mus- 
cadine, the  verjuice  grape,  and  the  luskard. 
—Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  L  oh. 


Lute,  to  sound  sweetly  like  a  lute. 

And  in  the  air,  her  new  voice  luting  soft, 
Cried, "  Lycius !  gentle  Lycius ! " 

Keats,  Lamia. 


Knaves  are  men 
That  lute  and  flute  fantastic  tenderness, 
And  dress  the  victim  to  the  offering  up. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  iv. 

Lutrin,  a  lectern. 

Sacristies,  lutrins,  altar-rails,  are  pulled 
down;  the  mass-books  torn  into  cartridge 
papers.  —  Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk  V . 
ch.  iv. 

Lutulent,  muddy. 

These  then  are  the  waters, . . .  the  lutulent, 
spumy,  macnlatory  waters  of  sin. — Adams,  i. 
166. 

Luxate,  out  of  joint.  R.  and  L. 
have  the  word,  but  only  with  quotation 
from  Wiseman's  Surgery. 

Spotted  we  were,  and  nothing  but  naked* 
nesfl  was  left  to  cover  us ;  sick,  but  without 
care  of  our  cure ;  deformed  and  luxate  with 
the  prosecution  of  vanities. — Adams,  i.  399. 

Lyddern,  an  idle  fellow ;  one  who  is 

lither. 

It  is  better  (they  say  in  Northfolke)  that 
younge  Lyddemes  wepe  than  olde  men. — 
Vocacwon  of  John  Bale,  1553  (Harl.  Misc., 

Lying  to,  adjacent  to. 

Neither  bee  there  wanting  woods  heere 
. .  .  and  parkes ;  for  many  there  are  lying  to 
Noblemen's  and  gentlemen's  houses  re- 
plenished with  game. — Holland's  Camden,  p. 
459. 

Lynce,  a  lynx  (Bp.  Hall,  quoted  by 

R.,  has  llyncean'). 

This  prudent  counsellor  unto  his  prince, 
Whose  wit  was  busied  with  his  mistress'  heal, 
Secret  conspiracies  could  well  convince ; 
Whose  insight  pierced  the  sharp-eyed  lynce; 
He  is  dead. 

Greene,  Maiden's  Dream  {Prudence). 

Lynch,  to  punish  without  legal  pro- 
cess ;  to  take  the  infliction  of  punish- 
ment into  private  hands.  Some  attri- 
bute the  ongin  of  the  term  to  a  farmer 
of  this  name  in  Virginia  or  Carolina, 
who  acted  thus ;  some  to  a  commander 
called  Lynch,  who  in  1687-8  was  sent 
to  suppress  piracy  on  American  coasts 
(the  term  is  said  to  have  come  into  use 
at  end  of  17th  century),  while  others 
refer  it  to  a  word  lingeor  lynch=tobeat, 
still  current  in  some  parts  of  England. 

The  prison  was  burst  open  by  the  mob, 
and  George  was  lynched,  as  he  deserved.— 
Emerson,  Eng.  Traits,  ch.  ix. 

Lyric,  to  sing  in  a  lyrical  way. 

Parson  Punch  makes  a  very  good  shift  still, 
and  lyrics  over  his  part  in  an  anthem  very 
handsomely. — T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  249. 


L  YR1SM 


(  390  )         MACHICOLATED 


Lyrism,  musical  performance. 

The  lyrism,  which  had  at  first  only  mani- 
fested itself  by  David's  sotto  voce  perform- 
ance of  "  My  love's  a  rose  without  a  thorn," 
had  gradually  assumed  a  rather  deafening 
and  complex  character.  —  G.  Eliot,  Adam 
Bede,  ch.  liii. 

Lythb,  a  species  of  cod. 

There  is  no  need  for  good  fishing  when 


you  catch  lythe  ...  It  is  only  a  big  white 
fly  you  will  need,  and  a  long  line,  and  when 
the  fish  takes  the  fly,  down  he  goes,  a  great 
depth.  Then  when  you  have  got  him,  and 
be  is  killed,  you  must  cut  the  sides  as  you 
see  that  is  done,  and  string  him  to  a  rope 
and  trail  him  behind  the  boat  all  the  way 
home.  If  you  do  not  that,  it  is  no  use  at  all 
to  eat. — Black,  Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  ii. 


M 


M.  To  have  no  M.  under  your 
girdle  =  to  be  wanting  in  proper  re- 
spect, i.  e.  not  to  use  the  title,  Mr.  or 
Madam. 

Mery.  Hoighdagh,  if  faire  mistreaae  dis- 
tance sawe  you  now, 
Ralph    Royster  Doister  were  hir  owne  I 
warrant  you. 
Royster.  Near*  an  M  by  your  girdle  ? 
Mery.  Your  goode  mastershype 

Maistersbyp  were   her   owne  niistreshyp's 
mistreshyp. 

Udal,  Roister  Doister,  iii.  3. 

Miss.  The  devil  take  you,  Neverout,  besides 
all  small  curses. 

Lady  Ans.  Marry  come  up,  what,  plain 
Neverout  ?  methinka  you  might  have  an  M 
under  your  girdle,  Miss. — Swift,  Polite  Con- 
versation (Conv.  i.). 

Macaroni,  a  dandy.  The  Spectator 
(No.  47)  uses  the  word  of  a  jack-pud- 
ding. The  earliest  use  of  it  in  its 
other  sense  that  I  have  met  with  is  in 
an  epilogue  by  Goldsmith ;  the  second 
quotation  assigns  the  origin  of  the 
word — 

To  this  strange  spot  rakes,  maccaromes,  cits, 
Come  thronging  to  collect  their  scatter'd 
wits. 
Goldsmith,  Epilogue  to  an  uncertain  play. 

The  Italians  are  extremely  fond  of  a  dish 
they  call  Macaroni,  composed  of  a  kind  of 
paste ;  and  as  they  consider  this  as  the  sum- 
mum  bonum  of  all  good  eating,  so  they  figura- 
tively call  every  thing  they  think  elegant 
and  uncommon  Macaroni.  Our  young  travel- 
lers, who  generally  catch  the  follies  of  the 
countries  they  visit,  judged  that  the  title  of 
Macaroni  was  very  applicable  to  a  clever  fel- 
low; and  accordingly,  to  distinguish  them- 
selves as  such,  they  instituted  a  Olub  under 
this  denomination,  the  members  of  which 
were  supposed  to  be  the  standards  of  taste. 
The  infection  at  St.  James's  was  soon  caught 
in  the  city,  and  we  have  now  Macaronies  of 
every  denomination,  from  the  Oolonel  of  the 
Train'd-Bands  down  to  the  Printer's  Devil, 
or  errand-boy.    They  indeed  make  a  most 


ridiculous  figure,  with  hats  of  an  inch  in  the 
brim,  that  do  not  cover,  but  lie  upon  the 
head ;  with  about  two  pouuds  of  fictitious 
hair,  formed  into  what  is  called  a  dub,  hang- 
ing down  their  shoulders,  as  white  as  a 
baker's  sack :  the  end  of  the  skirt  of  their 
coat  reaches  not  down  to  the  first  button  of 
their  breeches,  which  are  either  brown  striped, 
or  white,  as  wide  as  a  Dutchman's ;  their 
coat-sleeves  are  so  tight  they  can  with  much 
difficulty  get  their  arms  through  the  cuffs, 
which  are  about  an  inch  deep,  aud  their  shirt- 
sleeve, without  plaits,  is  pulled  over  a  bit  of 
Trolly  Lace.  Their  legs  are  at  times  covered 
with  all  the  colours  of  the  rainbow;  even 
flesh-coloured  and  green  silk  stockings  are 
not  excluded.  Their  shoes  are  scarce  slip- 
pers, and  their  buckles  within  an  inch  of 
the  toe.  Such  a  figure,  essenced  and  per- 
fumed, with  a  bunch  of  lace  sticking  out 
under  its  chin,  puzzles  the  common  passen- 
ger to  determine  the  thing's  sex ;  and  many 
have  said,  by  your  leave,  madam,  without 
intending  to  give  offence. — Pocketbook,  1773. 

Macaroon,  a  sort  of  sweet  cake  or 
biscuit.  The  word  in  this  sense  is 
given  in  L.  with  a  quotation  from  Miss 
Acton's  Cookery  Book,  1850;  the  ex- 
tract is  nearly  240  years  older. 

If  you  chance  meet  with  boxes  of  white 

comfits, 
Marchpane,  and  dry  Bucket,  macaroons,  and 

diet-bread, 
Twill  help  on  well. — Albumazar,  ii.  3. 

Maoco,  a  gambling  game. 

The  servant  brought  back  word  that  the 
play-party  bad  not  yet  broken  up ;  his  uncle 
was  still  at  the  macco-tstole. — Th.  Hook,  Man 
of  many  friends. 

When  the  supper  was  done,  and  the 
gentlemen  as  usual  were  about  to  seek  the 
*»o<ra-table  upstairs,  Harry  said  he  was  not 
going  to  play  any  more.— Thackeray,  The  Vir- 
ginians, oh.  lui. 

Machicolated.  furnished  with  machi- 
colations, or  holes  made  through  the 
roof  of  portals  to  the  floor  above,  so 
that    molten    pitch,     &c,    might   be 


MACHINE 


(  39*  ) 


MADPASH 


poured  down  on  the  heads  of  assail- 
ants. 

The  oak-door  is  heavy  and  brown, 
And  with  iron  it's  plated,  and  machieolated 
To  pour  boiling  oil  and  lead  down. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (Bloudie  Jacks). 

The  lofty  walls  of  the  old  balliam  still 
stood,  with  their  machieolated  turrets,  loop- 
holes, and  dark  downward  crannies  for  drop- 
ping stones  and  fire  on  the  besiegers. — C. 
Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  vii. 

The  wide-wing'd  sunset  of  the  misty  marsh 
Glared  on  a  huge  machieolated  tower, 
That  stood  with  open  doors. 

Tennyson,  The  Last  Tournament, 

Machine,  a  carriage  or  coach :  the 
only  vehicle  now  so  called  is  a  bathing 
machine. 

"Here,  you  my  attendants,"  cried  she, 
stamping  with  her  foot,  "  let  mv  machine  be 
driven  up ;  Barbacela,  Queen  of  Emmets,  is 
not  used  to  contemptuous  treatment."  She 
had  no  sooner  spoken  than  her  fiery  chariot 
appeared  in  the  air. — Goldsmith,  Citizen  of 
the  World,  Letter  xlviii. 

E'en   though   I'd   the   honour   of   sitting 

between 
My  lady  Stuff-Damask  and  Peggy  Moreen, 
Who   both   flew   to   Bath  in  the  nightly 

machine. 

Anstey,  New  Bath  Guide,  Letter  jriii. 

A  pair  of  bootikins  will  set  out  to-morrow 
morning  in  the  machine  that  goes  from  the 
Queen's  Head  in  the  Gray's  Inn  Lane.  To 
be  certain,  you  had  better  send  for  them 
where  the  machine  inns. —  Walpole,  Letters, 
iv.  12  (1775). 

"  Coachman,  if  you  don't  go  this  moment, 
I  shall  get  out,"  said  Mr.  Minns  .  .  .  "Going 
this  minute,  sir,"  was  the  reply :  and  accord- 
ingly the  machine  trundled  od  for  a  couple  of 
hundred  yards. — Sketches  bg  Box  (Mr.  Minns). 

Machinize,  to  fashion  or  form. 

The  traveller  .  .  reads  quietly  The  Times 
newspaper,  which,  by  its  immense  corre- 
spondence and  reporting,  seems  to  have 
machinized  the  rest  of  the  world  for  his 
occasion. — Emerson,  Eng.  Traits,  ch.  iii. 

Macks,  some  species  of  bird. 

One  Cortina  .  .  when  he  supped  on  a  time 
with  Augustus  toke  vp  a  leane  birde  of  the 
kinde  of  blacke  mackes  out  of  the  disbe,  and, 
holding  it  in  his  hand,  he  demaunded  of  Omar 
whether  he  might  send  it  awaie.  —  VdaVs 
Erasmus's  Apophth^  p.  274. 

Mackninny,  puppet  show  (?). 

He  was  good  at  draught  and  design,  and 
could  make  hieroglyphics  of  Popery  and 
arbitrary  power ;  and  represent  emblematic- 
ally the  downfall  of  majesty  as  in  his  raree- 
show  and  mackninny,  as  I  touched  before. — 
Xorth,  Examen,  p.  590. 


Macuxatory,  defiling. 

These  then  are  the  waters  .  .  .  the  luta- 
lent,  spumy,  maculatory  waters  of  sin. — 
Adams,  i.  166. 

Madam,  to  address  as  madam.  See 
extract  from  Southey,  9.  v.  Sir. 

I  am  reminded  of  my  vowed  obedience; 
Madam1  d  up  perhaps  to  matrimonial  per- 
iection.— Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  viii.  803. 

Madbrain,  a  madcap.  Shakespeare 
has  it  as  an  adjective  (Taming  of  the 
Shrew,  iii.  2)  :  so  also  has  Davies 
(Paper* 9  Complaint,  1.  14). 

Here's  a  madbrain  o'  th'  first  rate,  whose 
pranks  scorn  to  have  presidents. — Middleton, 
A  mad  world  my  Masters,  Act  I. 

Brent,  a  wilae  madhraine,  wns  at  length 
banished  out  of  the  reahne. — Holland's  Cam- 
den, p.a812. 

Madder,  a  wooden  vessel,  mazer  (?). 

Usquebaugh  to  our  feast 

In  pails  was  brought  up, 
An  hundred  at  least, 

And  a  madder  our  cup. 

Swift,  Irish  Feast. 

Madefy,  moisten. 

The  time  was  when  the  Bonners  and 
butchers  rode  over  the  faces  of  God's  saints, 
and  madefied  the  earth  with  their  bloods. — 
Adams,  i.  85. 

Madhead,  mad  fellow. 

Some  madhead  in  the  world  might  have  as 
much  leysure  to  read  as  I  had  [to]  write. — 
Breton,  Merry  Wonders  (To  the  Reader). 

Madhbaded,  giddy ;  crazy. 

Hee  that  will  put  himselfe  in  needelesse 

daanger 
To  f ollowe  a  mad-headed  companie. 

Breton,  PasquiTs  Fooies-cappe,  p.  28. 

For  a  few  mad-headed  wenches,  they  seek 
to  bring  all,  yea,  most  modest  matrons,  and 
almost  all  women  in  contempt. — Ibid.,  Praise 
of  Vertwjus  Ladies,  p.  56. 

Madling,  mad  or  goin£  mad ;  also  a 
mad  person:  still  used  in  neighbour- 
hood of  Whitby.  See  Robinsoirs  Glos- 
sary (B.  D.  S.). 

80m  takes  a  staf  for  hast,  and  leaues  his 

launce, 
Some  madling  runnes,  som  trembles  in  a 

traunce. — Hudson,  Judith,  vi.  240. 

Gooid-for-naught  madling!  .  .  .  flinging 
t'  precious  sifts  o'  God  under  fooit.  —  E. 
Bronte,  Wutkering  Heights,  ch.  ziii. 

Madpash,  wild ;  cracked. 

Let  us  leave  this  madpash  bedlam,  this 
hair-brained  fop.—  Urquhart,  Rabelais,  Bk. 
III.  ch.  zzv. 


MADRIGALLER  (  392  )  MAGNIFICAT 


Madrigalleb,  a  composer  of  madri- 
gals.    L.  has  madrigalut. 

Sonneteers,  songsters,  satyrists,  panegy- 
rists, madriyallers,  and  such  like  impedi- 
ments of  Parnassus. —  Tom  Brown,  Works, 
ii.155. 

Mafflkd.  See  extract :  maffie  =  to 
stammer  is  in  the  Diets. 

She  was  what  they  call  in  the  country 
maffled,  that  is,  confused  in  her  intellect. — 
Southey,  Letters,  1820  (iii.  186). 

Mao,  an  abbreviation  of  magazine. 

And  now  of  Hawkesbury  they  talked, 
Who  wrote  in  mays  for  hire. 

WoUot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  309. 

Mag,  a  halfpenny  (slang). 

If  he  don't  keep  such  a  business  as  the 
present  as  close  as  possible,  it  can't  be  worth 
a  may  to  him. — Dickens,  Bleak  House,  ch.  liv. 

As  long  as  he  had  a  *'  may  "  to  bless  him- 
self with,  he  would  always  be  a  lazy,  useless 
humbug. — JET.  Kinysley,  Ravenshae,  ch.  ix. 

Mag,  talk,  chattering  (?):  the  expres- 
sion in  the  extract  is  Mrs.  Thrale's. 

"I  can  figure  like  anything  when  I  am 
with  those  who  can't  figure  at  all." 

Mrs.  T.  "  Oh,  if  you  have  any  may  in  you, 
well  draw  it  out."— Mad.  D'ArUay,  Diary,  i. 
100. 

Magab,  a  great  ship. 

Filling  our  seas  with  stately  argosies, 
Calvars  and  mayors,  hulks  of  burden  great. 

Greene,  Orl.  Fur^  I.  i. 

Magazine,  to  store. 

He  entered  among  the  Papists  only  to  get 
information  of  persons  and  particulars,  with 
such  secrets  as  he  could  spy  out,  that  being 
mayaxined  up  in  a  diary  might  serve  for 
materials. — North,  Examen,  p.  222. 

Maggot,  seems  to  be  used  in  the 
extract  as  we  might  use  butterfly,  a 
careless,  idle  fellow.  The  original  is 
nihil  fuerit  te  nugacius.  Akerman's 
Wilts.  Glossary  (1842)  gives  magotty— 
frisky,  playful.  A  man  suffering  from 
rheumatism  told  me  that  in  the  fine 
weather  he  went  about  "  as  peart  as  a 
maggot." 

Po.  I  admire  you  had  so  much  prudence, 
when  you  were  as  great  a  maggot  as  any  in 
the  world  when  you  were  at  Paris. 

Gl.  Then  my  age  did  permit  a  little  wild- 
new. — Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  177. 

Maggs  diversions.  One  of  the  titles 
thought  of  by  Dickens  for  the  book 
which  eventually  was  called  David 
GopperHeld  was  "Mag's  Diversions, 
being    the    personal    history    of    Mr. 


Thorn ns  Mag  the  younger  of  Blunder- 
stone  House."  It  is  to  this  he  refers  in 
the  second  quotation. 

Who  was  Mayy,  and  what  was  his  diver- 
sion ?  was  it  brutal,  or  merely  boorish  ?  the 
boisterous  exuberance  of  rude  and  unruly 
mirth,  or  the  gratification  of  a  tyrannical 
temper  and  a  cruel  disposition  ? — Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  czxv. 

I  suppose  I  should  have  to  add  though  by 
way  of  motto,  And  in  short  it  led  to  the  very 
Mao's  Diversions.  Old  saying.  Or  would  it 
be  better,  there  being  equal  authority  fur 
either,  And  in  short  they  all  played  Mag** 
Diversions.  Old  Saying? — Forster,  Life  of 
Dickens,  Vol.  II.  ch. 


Magian,  magician.  L.  has  the  word 
as  an  adjective  =  pertaining  to  the 
magi. 

Leave  her  to  me,  rejoined  the  magian. 

Keats,  Cap  and  Belts,  st.  60. 

Magisteriality,  domination.  R.  and 
L.  have  the  word  in  its  technical 
chemical  sense. 

When  these  statutes  were  first  in  the  state 
or  magisteriality  thereof,  they  were  severely 
put  in  practice.— .FWfer,  Ch.  Hist.,  Bk.  IX. 
fv.  11. 

Magistratical,  pertaining  to  magis- 
trates. 

They  are  allowed  the  highest  marks  of 
magistratical  honour;  scarlet  gowns,  the 
Sword,  and  Gap  of  Maintenance,  and  four 
Sergeants  at  Mace.  —  Defoe,  Tour  thro*  G, 
Britain,  ii.  824. 

Magnanimate,  to  cheer ;  make  great- 
hearted. 

Present  danger  magnanimates  them,  and 
inflames  their  courage,  but  expectation  makes 
it  languish. — Hoveu,  Dodonafs  Grove,  p.  4. 

Magnificat.  The  proverb  is  ex- 
plained in  the  extract. 

A  swine  to  teache  Minerua  was  a  proverbe 
against  soche  . . .  that  wil  take  vpon  theim 
to  be  doctours  in  those  thinges  in  whiche 
theimselfes  haue  no  skill  at  all,  for  whiche 
we  saie  in  Englishe,  to  correct  Magnificat  be- 
fore he  haue  learned  Te  Deum. — Udavs  Eras- 
mus's Apophth.,  p.  380. 

Magnificat  at  Mattins,  something 
out  of  place :  in  the  second  quotation 
it  is  the  same  expression  in  the  original. 

The  note  is  here  all  out  of  place  . . .  and 
so  their  note  oomes  in  like  Magnificat  at 
mattins. — Andrewes,  Sermons,  v.  49. 

He  shoed  the  geese,  tickled  himself  to 
make  himself  laugh,  and  was  cook-ruffin  in 
the  kitchen  ;  made  a  mock  at  the  gods,  would 
cause  sing  Magnificat  at  matins,  and  found  it 


MAGNILOQUENT       (  393  ) 


MAIN 


▼err    convenient    so   to    do.  —  UrquharVs 
Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xi. 

Magniloquent,  high  and  mighty  in 
speech.  R.  and  L.  have  magniloquence, 
each  with  the  same  quotation  from 
Bentley. 

She  was  a  trifle  more  magniloquent  than 
usual,  and  entertained  tu  with  stories  of 
colonial  governors  and  their  ladies. — Thacke- 
ray, Newcomes,  ch.  xxiii. 

Magnisonant,  great-sounding. 

He  was  an  anonymous  cat ;  and  I  having 
just  related  at  breakfast  with  universal  ap- 
plause, the  story  of  Bumpelstilzchen  from  a 
German  tale  in  Grimm's  collection,  gave  him 
that  strange  and  magnisonant  appellation. — 
Southey,  The  Doctor  (Cats  of  Greta  Hall). 

Magpie,  sixpence  (slang). 

I'm  at  low-water-mark  myself— only  one 
bob  and  a  magpie;  but  as  far  as  it  goes  111 
fork  oat  and  stump.  Up  with  you  on  your 
pins.  There  ;  now  then,  Morrice. — Dickens, 
Oliver  Twist,  ch.  viii. 

Magpie,  a  name  frequently  applied 
to  bishops  from  the  mingled  black  and 
white  of  their  robes ;  it  is  now  those 
garments,  not  the  wearers,  which  usu- 
ally bear  the  name.  Other  references 
will  be  found  in  N.  and  Q-,  IV.  xi.  220. 

Lawyers,  as  vultures,  had   soar'd    up  and 

down, 
Prelates,  like  magpies,  in  the  air  had  flown, 
Had  not  the  eagle's  letter  brought  to  light 
That  subterranean  horrid  work  of  night. 

Howell,  Verses  prefixed  to  Familiar  Letters. 

Boot  out  of  them  all  Anti-Christian 
tyranny  of  most  abominable  Bishops;  let 
not  those  Silkworms  .and  Magpies  have 
dominion  over  us. — T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  107. 

Mahogany.  See  extract:  the  date 
of  the  conversation  is  1781.  In 
Haydn's  Did.  of  Dates  (ed.  Vincent) 
it  is  stated  of  the  wood,  u  Mahogany  is 
said  to  have  been  brought  to  England 
by  Raleigh  in  1595,  and  to  have  come 
into  general  use  about  1720."  Southey 
refers  to  this  liquor  {The  Doctor,  Inter- 
chapter  xvi.)  but  his  notice  of  it  is 
evidently  taken  from  Boswell. 

Mr.  Eliot  mentioned  a  curious  liquor  pecu- 
liar to  his  country,  which  the  Cornish  fisher- 
men drink.  They  call  it  mahogany  ;  and  it 
is  made  of  two  parts  gin  and  one  part  treacle, 
well  beaten  together.  I  begged  to  have 
some  of  it  made,  which  was  done  with  proper 
skill  by  Mr.  Eliot.  I  thought  it  very  good 
liquor;  and  said  it  was  a  counterpart  of 
what  is  called  Athol  porridge  in  the  High- 
lands of  Scotland,  which  is  a  mixture  of 
whiskey  and  honey.  Johnson  said,  u  that 
must  be  a  better  liquor  than  the  Oornish,  for 


both  its  component  parts  are  better."  He 
also  observed,  M  Mahogany  must  be  a  modern 
name ;  for  it  is  not  long  since  the  wood  called 
mahogany  was  known  in  this  country."  — 
Boswell,  Life  of  Johnson,  viii.  53  (ed.  1835). 

Mahometical,  Mahometan. 

Your  understanding  is  drown'd  in  sensu- 
ality, .  .  and  you  are  stark  mad  with  your 
Mahometical  happiness.  —  Gentleman  In- 
structed, p.  282. 

What  snail  I  say  ...  of  those  obscenities 
that  make  up  here  the  Mahometical  Elysium 
of  libertines,  and  in  good  time  will  throw 
them  into  the  real  hell  of  Christians  ? — Ibid., 
p.  561. 

Mahohetist,  Mahometan;  Turk. 
The  extract  is  from  a  translation  of  the 
work  quoted,  made  by  W.  T.,  1604. 

He  [Charles  the  Great]  became  so  great, 
that  the  King  of  the  Mahometists  sought  his 
friendship.  —  Pedro  Mexia,  Hist,  of  all  the 
Roman  Emperors,  p.  525. 

Mahohitb,  Mahometan. 

0  christian  cor'siue  I  that  the  Mahomite 
With  hundred  thousands  in  Vienna  plaine, 

His  mooned  standards  hath  already  pight ; 
Prest  to  join  Austrich  to  his  Thracian 
raigne. 
Sylvester,  Miracle  of  Peace,  Sonnet  38. 

Maiden' s- blush,  a  name  for  the  gar- 
den rose. 

1  came,  'tis  true,  and  lookt  for  fowle  of  price, 
The  bastard  phenix,  bird  of  paradice ; 

And  for  no  less  than  aromatick  wine 
Of  maydens-blush,  commixt  with  jessimine. 

Herrickj  Hesperides,  p.  281. 

Maidlt,  effeminate. 

O  cowards  all,  and  maydly  men, 
Of  courage  faynt  and  weake. 

Googe,  Epitaphe  on  M.  Shelley. 

Maid  of  all  work,  a  servant  who 

does  all  the  work  of  the  house.     One 

of  the  characters  in  Miss  Austen's  Sense 

and  Sensibility,  ch.  xxxviii.,  speaks  of 

44  A  stout  girl  of  all  works." 

Maiheme,  the  offence  of  maiming 
another. 

Who  is  he  (though  he  be  greued  never  so 
sore)  for  the  murdre  of  his  ancestre,  rauisshe- 
ment  of  his  wyfe,  of  his  doughter,  robbery, 
trespas,  maiheme,  dette,  or  eny  other  offence 
dare  ley  it  theyre  charge  by  any  wey  of 
notion.— Simon  Fish,  Supplication  of  the  Beg- 
gars, p.  8. 

Main,  to  furl. 

When  it  is  a  tempest  almost  intolerable 
for  other  ships,  and  maketh  them  main  all 
their  sails,  these  hoist  up  theirs,  and  sail 
excellently  well.  —  T.  Stevens,  1579  (Eng. 
Garner,  i.  132). 


MA1NPRISER 


(  394  )  MALEFACTOR 


Mainpriskr,  surety. 

The  same  yeere  [1317]  the  Potentates  of 
Ireland  assembled  themselves  to  the  Parlia- 
ment at  Dublin :  and  there  was  the  Barle  of 
Ulster  enlarged,  who  tooke  his  oath,  and 
found  mainprise™  or  sureties  to  answer  the 
writs  of  law  and  to  pursue  the  Kings  enemies. 
—Holland's  Camden,  ii.  176. 

.   Major,  of  age. 

The  young  King  (Louis  XIV.)  who  had 
lately  been  declared  major >,  had  gone  through 
the  solemnity  of  his  coronation. — Godwin, 
MandevUle,  ii.  226. 

Major,  to  strut. 

Can  it  be  for  the  puir  body  M'Durk's 
health  to  major  about  in  the  tartans  like  a 
tobacconist's  sign  in  a  frosty  morning? — 
Scott,  St.  Ronan's  WeU,  ii.  11. 

Majorats,  to  augment.  Bacon  has 
majoration. 

Then  the  conformative  and  proper  opera- 
tions of  the  rationall  soul  begin  upon  the 
embryo,  who  proceeds  to  majoration  and 
augmentation  accordingly ;  and  it  is  no  lease 
then  an  absurdity  to  think  that  the  infant 
after  conception  should  be  majorated  by  the 
influence  of  any  other  soul  than  that  from 
whom  he  received  his  formation. — Howell, 
Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  142. 

Major-domo.    See  quotation. 

This  word  is  borrowed  of  the  Spaniard 
and  Italian,  and  therefore  new  and  not  usuall, 
but  to  them  that  are  acquainted  with  the 
affaires  of  court ;  and  so  for  his  jolly  magni- 
ficence (as  this  case  is)  may  be  accepted 
among  courtiers,  for  whom  this  is  specially 
written.  A  man  might  haue  said  in  stead  of 
Motor  -domo  the  French  word  (maistre  d' 
hostell)  but  ilfauoredly,  or  the  right  English 
word,  Lord  Steward.  But  methinks  for  my 
owne  opinion  this  word  maiordomo,  though 
he  be  borrowed,  is  more  acceptable  than  any 
of  the  rest.  —  Puttenham,  Poesie,  Bk.  Ill 
ch.  iv. 

Make-game,  a  butt. 

I  was  treated  as  nothing,  a  flouting-stock 
and  a  make-game,  a  monstrous  and  abortive 
birth,  created  for  no  other  end  than  to  be 
the  scoff  of  my  fellows.  —  Godwin,  Mande- 
viUe,  i.  263. 

Make-king,  a  name  given  to  the  £. 
of  Warwick,  the  king-maker. 

Anne  Beauchamp  . . .  married  to  Bichard 
Nevil,  Earl  of  Salisbury  and  Warwick ;  com- 
monly called  the  Make-King,  and  may  not 
she  then,  by  a  courteous"  proportion,  be 
termed  the  Make-Queen.— Fuller,  Worthies, 
Oxford  (ii.  223). 

Make-law,  ordaining  laws.  "  Make- 
law  Ceres  "  is  Stany  hurst's  translation 
(JEn.)  iv.  61)  of  legiferce  Ccreri. 


Makeshift,  an  imperfect  or  rough 
substitute  for  something  better;  also 
used  adjectivally. 

44  When  will  life  return  to  this  cathedral 
system  ?  n  "  When  was  it  ever  a  living 
system,"  answered  the  other ;  **when  was  it 
ever  anything  but  a  transitionary  makeshift 
since  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries  ?  " — 
C.  Kingsley,  Yeast,  cb.  xvii. 

One  is  apt  to  read  in  a  makeshift  attitude, 
just  where  it  mipht  seem  inconvenient  to  do 
so. — O.  Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch.  xv. 

I  am  not  a  model  clergyman,  only  a  decent 
makeshift. — Ibid.,  ch.  xvu. 

Make-up,  appearance  produced  by 
dress,  bearing,  habits,  &c. 

Perhaps  he  owed  this  freedom  from  the 
sort  of  professional  make-up  which  penetrates 
skin,  tones,  and  gestures,  and  defies  all 
drapery,  to  the  fact  that  he  had  once  been 
Captain  Gaskin. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda, 
ch.  iii. 

Making,  a  poem. 

For  fro  thy  makings  milk  and  mellie  flowes, 
To  feed  the  songster-swaines  with  Art's  soot- 
meats. — Davies,  Eclogue,  1.  20. 

Malappropriate,  to  misapply. 

She  thrust  the  hearth-brush  into  the  grates 
in  mistake  for  the  poker,  and  mal-appropri- 
ated  several  other  articles  of  her  craft. — Miss 
E.  Bronte,  TFuthering  Heights,  ch.  xxxii. 

Malapropoism,  unsuitable  and  blun- 
dering conduct  or  speech. 

Sadly  annoyed  he  is  sometimes  by  her 
malapropoisms. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Helen,  ch. 

XXV. 

Malarious,  pertaining  to  or  causing 
malaria,  i.  e.  impurity  of  air  arising 
from  bad  drainage,  decomposing  vege- 
table matter.  &c. 

If  it  shall  awaken  the  ministers  of  religion 
to  preach  that  [Sanitary  Reform] — I  hardly 
ought  to  doubt  it — till  there  is  not  a  fever 
alley  or  a  malarious  ditch  left  in  any  British 
city,  then,  indeed,  this  fair  and  precious  life 
will  not  have  been  imperilled  in  vain. — C. 
Kingsley,  1871  {Life,  ii.  279). 

Malefactor,  usually  =  criminal, 
but  sometimes  =  one  who  has  injured 
another,  and  is  opposed  to  benefactor. 
Fuller  (Hist,  of  Cambridge,  iv.  19) 
mentions  that  Edward  IV.  took  land 
from  King's  College  to  the  value  of 
£1000  a  year:  the  margin  has,  "King 
Edward  the  fourth  a  malefactour  to 
this  College."  And  again  (Ibid,  viii. 
28),  "Some  Benefactors  in  repute  are 
Malefactors  in  effect."  The  malefactor 
referred  to  by  Brooke  is  a  lawyer  who 


MALEFICATE  (  395  ) 


MAMMONITE 


had  led  his  client  into  long  and  useless 
litigation. 

George  Warmhouse  was  mounted  on  a 
round  ambling  nag,  and  rode  much  at  his 
ease  by  the  chariot  of  his  malefactor. — H. 
Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  252. 

Malefic  ate,  to  bewitch.  The  Diets, 
have  malificiate. 

Exorcist.  What  will  not  a  man  do  when 
once  he  is  maleficated  ! 

Eunuch.  Ay,  and  who  could  bring  him 
round  withoutyour help? 

Taylor j  Isaac  Comnenus,  ii.  4. 

Malefictal,  injurious. 

The  late  mention  of  the  prelate's  advice 
in  passing  a  law  so  malefictal  onto  them, 
giueth  me  just  occasion  to  name  some,  the 
principal  persons  of  the  Clergie  present 
thereat.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  III.  vi.  14. 

Malbvolo  (Ital.),  a  malicious  person. 

Cf .  CURIOSO,  FURI080,  Ac. 

Many  plots  were  discovered  daily  against 
our  religion  and  our  laws,  in  which  ye 
Machiavels  of  Westminster,  ve  Malevolos, 
might  have  claimed  the  chiefest  livery,  as 
Beelzebub's  nearest  attendants.  —  British 
Bellman,  1648  (Harl.  Misc.,  vii.  625). 

Malignant,  a  name  given  by  the 
Roundheads  to  the  Cavaliers.  R.  gives 
a  quotation  from  Clarendon. 

About  this  time  [1641]  the  word  Malign- 
ant was  first  born  (as  to  the  common  use;  in 
England;  the  deduction  thereof  being  dis- 
putable, whether  from  malus  ignis,  bad  fire ; 
or,  malum  lignum,  bad  fewell;  but  this  is 
sure,  betwixt  both,  the  name  made  a  com- 
bustion all  over  England.  It  was  fixed  as  a 
note  of  disgrace  on  those  of  the  King's  party. 
—Fuller,  Ch.  Hist^  XI.  iv.  32. 

Mal-influbnce,  evil  influence. 

Opium  .  .  .  left  the  body  weaker  and 
more  crazy,  and  thus  predisposed  to  any 
mal-infiuence  whatever.  ■•-  Be  Quincey,  Conf. 
of  Optum-eater  (Appendix). 

Malt,  to  drink  beer  (slang). 

She  drank  nothing  lower  than  curacoa 
Maraschino,  or  pink  noyau, 
And  on  principle  never  malted. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Malt  above  wheat.  To  have  the 
malt  above  the  wheat  or  the  meal  is  a 
proverbial  expression  =  to  be  drunk. 
The  time  to  which  Breton  refers  is 
harvest. 

Malt  is  now  above  wheat  with  a  number  of 
mad  people. — Breton,  Fantasticks,  p.  7. 

When  the  malt  begins  to  get  above  the  meal, 
they'll  begin  to  speak  about  government  in 
kirk  and  state.— Scott,  Old  Mortality,  ch.  iv. 


Maltee.     See  extract. 

The  vulgar  adjective  from  Malta  used  by 
sailors  and  others  in  the  island  is  Maltee.  I 
suppose  they  argued  that  as  the  singular  of 
bees  is  bee,  so  the  singular  of  Maltese  is 
Maltee.— Sir  G.  C.  Lewis,  Letters  (1837),  p. 
77. 

Maltman,  maltster.  It  will  be,  ac- 
cording to  Gascoigne,  among  the  signs 
of  the  Millennium, 

When  colliers  put  no  dust  into  their  sacks, 
When  maltemen  make  us  drink  no  firmentie. 

Steel  Glas,  p.  79. 

Maltmasteb,  maltster. 

The  good  sale  of  malt  raiseth  the  price  of 
barley.  ...  If  the  poor  cannot  reach  the 
price,  the  maltmaster  will. — Adams,  ii.  246. 

Malty,  pertaining  to  or  connected 
with  malt. 

Mysterious  men  with  no  names  . .  fly  about 
all  those  particular  parts  of  the  country,  on 
which  Doodle  is  at  present  throwing  himself 
in  an  auriferous  and  malty  shower. — Dickens, 
Bleak  House,  ch.  xl. 

Mamish,  foolish,  effeminate,  mammy- 
ish  (?).  Bp.  Hall,  speaking  of  the 
husband  having  rule  over  the  wife, 
says — 

Bnt  why  urge  I  this?  None  but  some 
mamish  monsters  can  question  it. — Works,  v. 
464. 

Mammamouchi,  buffoonish. 

He  drops  his  mammamouchi  outside  of 
Oates's  plot  in  the  dark,  no  more  to  be  heard 
of  in  that  reign. — North,  Examen,  p.  283. 

Mammetrous,  idolatrous. 

John  frith  is  a  great  mote  in  their  eyes 
for  so  turning  over  their  purgatory,  and 
heaving  at  their  most  monstrous  mass  or 
mammetrous  mazan,  which  signifieth  bread 
or  feeding.— Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  165. 

Mammonism,  devotion  to  Mammon  or 
gain. 

Alas!  if  Hero-worship  become  Dilettant- 
ism, and  all  except  Mammonism  be  a  vain 
grimace,  how  much  in  this  most  earnest 
earth  has  gone,  and  is  evermore  going,  to 
fatal  destruction ! — Carlyle,  Past  ana  Present, 
Bk.  II.  ch.  xvi. 

Mammonite,  a  follower  or  acquirer 
of  gain.  Tennyson,  in  Maud,  uses  it 
as  an  adjective,  as  Eingsley  had  before 
him,  in  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xxxiii. 

If  he  will  desert  his  own  class,  if  he  will 
try  to  become  a  sham  gentleman,  a  parasite, 
and,  if  he  can,  a  Mammonite,  the  world  will 
compliment  him  on  his  noble  desire  to  "  rise 
in  life." — C.  Eingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  v. 


MAMMOTHREPT       (  396  )     MANY-SAINTS-DAY 


Mammothrept,  a  spoilt  child. 

And  for  we  are  the  Mammothrept*  of  Sinne, 
Crosse  vs  with  Christ  to  weane  our  joys 
therein. — Davie*,  Holy  Roode,  p.  15. 

Man,  to  brave,  like  a  man. 

Ant.  Well,  I  most  man  it  out;  what 
would  the  Queen  ?—Dryden,  All  for  Love, 
Act  II. 

Managerial,  of  or  belonging  to  a 
manager. 

Having  providentially  been  informed,  when 
this  poem  was  on  the  point  of  being  sent  off, 
that  there  is  but  one  hautboy  in  the  band,  I 
averted  the  storm  of  popular  and  managerial 
indignation  from  the  need  of  its  blower. — J. 
and  H.  Smith,  Rejected  Addresses,  p.  158. 

His  hour  of  managerial  responsibility  past, 
he  at  once  laid  aside  his  magisterial  austerity. 
— Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xiv. 

At  that  period  of  the  day,  in  warm  weather, 
she  usually  embellished  with  her  genteel 
presence  a  managerial  board-room  over  the 
public  otboe.—Dtckens,  Hard  Times,  ch.  xvii. 

Man-case,  body. 

He  had  an  handsome  man-case,  and  better 
t  had  been  empty  with  weakness  than  (as  it 
was)  ill  fill'd  with  vitiousness.— Fuller,  Ch. 
Hist.,  III.  vii.  13. 

Manch  (in  heraldry),  the  figure  of 

an  ancient  sleeve  of  a  coat. 

A  rowle  of  parchment  Clun  about  him  beares, 
Charg'd  with  the  armes  of  all  his  ancestors : 
And  seems  halfe  ravisht  when  he  looks  upon 
That  bar,  this  bend,  thaj,  fern,  this  cheveron. 
That  manch,  that  moone,  this  martlet,  and 
that  mound. — Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  316. 

Mangonist,  a  slave-dealer ;  one  who 
sells  men  or  women. 

I  hate,  I  nauseate  a  common  prostitute 
who  trades  with  all  for  gain ;  one  that  sells 
human  flesh,  a  mangonist.  —  Revenge,  or  a 
Match  in  Newgate,  Act  I. 

Mangy,  mange. 

The  dog  whose  mangy  eats  away  his  haire. 
St  apy lion's  Juvenal,  viii.  42. 

Manifesto,  to  issue  manifestos  or 
declarations. 

I  am  to  be  manrfestoed  against,  though  no 
prince ;  for  Miss  Howe  threaten!  to  have  the 
case  published  to  the  whole  world. — Richard' 
son,  CI.  Harlow,  viii.  261. 

Serene  Highnesses  who  sit  there  proto- 
coling, and  manifestoing,  and  consoling  man- 
kind.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,pt.  II.  Bk.  VI. ch. iii. 

Man  in  the  oak,  apparently  some 
sort  of  sprite  or  demon.  See  extract 
s.  v.  Hell-wain. 

-  Manipular,  handling ;  having  to  do 
with  the  hands. 


Mr.  Squills  seized  the  pen  that  Roland 
had  thrown  down,  and  began  mending  it 
furiously,  thereby  denoting  symbolically  how 
he  would  like  to  do  with  Uncle  Jack,  could 
he  once  get  him  safe  and  snug  under  his 
manipular  operations.— Zyttow,  Caxtons,  Bk. 
XI.  ch.  vii. 

Manceuvrkr,  an  intriguer.  The  Diets, 
have  manoeuvre  as  noun  and  verb, 
though  these  words  appear  to  be  of 
modern  introduction,  Burke  being  the 
earliest  authority  cited.  It  will  be  seen 
that  matueuvrer  was  regarded  by  Miss 
Edgeworth  at  the  beginning  of  this 
century  as  an  exotic. 

This  charming  widow  Beaumont  is  a, 
manatuvrer.  We  can't  well  make  an  English 
word  of  it.  The  species,  thank  Heaven!  is 
not  so  numerous  yet  in  Eugland  as  to  require 
a  generic  name. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Manoeu- 
vring, ch.  i. 

Mansard,  a  curb  roof.  More  fully 
described  in  a  quotation  from  Gwilt  in 
L.,  but  the  subjoined  extract  gives  the 
period  of  its  introduction. 

Louis  XIV. .  .  covered  the  roof  [of  Cham- 
bord]  with  unsightly  mansards,  at  the  in- 
stigation of  his  favourite  architect,  Mansard. 
—Feudal  Castles  of  France,  p.  232. 

MAN8I0NARY.     See  extract. 

They  might  be  perhaps  the  habitations  of 
the  mansionaries,  or  keepers  of  the  Church. 
—Archaol.,  xiii.  293  (1800). 

Manuary,  a  consecrated  glove. 

Some  brought  forth  canonisations,  some 
expectations,  some  pluralities  and  unions, 
some  tot-quote  and  dispensations,  some  par- 
done,  and  these  of  wonderful  variety,  some 
stationaries,  some  jubilaries,  some  pocularies 
for  drinkers,  some  manuaries  for  handlers 
of  relicks,  some  pedaries  for  pilgrims,  some 
osoularies  for  kissers. — Latimer,  i.  49. 

Manufact,  manufacture. 

And  lay  the  ensigne  of  their  pride, 
Their  silken  ornaments,  aside ; 
Which  would  have  been  a  wholesome  act 
T'  encourage  woollen  manufact. 

D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  cant.  3. 

Many-feet,  Anglicized  name  for 
polypi. 
Som  have  their  hands  groveling  betwixt  their 

feet, 
As  th*  inky  Cuttles  and  the  Many-feet. 

Sylvester,  Fifth  day,  first  week,  87. 

Many-Saints-Day,  Pentecost. 

Of  those  three  thousand  gained  (on  Many- 
Saints -Day)  by  Saint  Peter  at  Jerusalem 
with  the  preaching  of  one  sermon,  each  one 
might  punctually  and  precisely  tell  the  very 


MANY-WEATHERED    (  397  )         MARKS  WOMAN 


moment  of  their  true  conversion.  —  Fuller, 
Ck.  Hist.,  iii..  Dedication. 

Many- weathered,  variable  in 
weather. 

The  day, 
Changeful  and  many  ~  weathered,  seem'd  to 
smile. — Southey,  The  Evening  Rainbow. 

Maple,  mop. 

Cales  beards,  aa  broade  as  scullers  maples 
that  they  make  cleane  their  boates  with. — 
JVashe,  Lenten  Stuffs,  Dedie.  (Hart.  Misc.,  vi. 
144). 

Mappist,  a  maker  of  maps. 

Yet  learned  Manpists  on  a  paper  small 
Draw  (in  Abbriagement)  the  whole  Type  of 

all; 

And  in  their  Chamber  (painlesse,  peril-lease) 
See  in  an  hoar,  and  circuit  Land  and  Seas. 

Sylvester,  Little  Bartas,  311. 

Mapsticks.  Cry  mapsticks  is  an 
apologetic  expression ;  mapsticks  = 
mopsticks,  but  it  is  difficult  to  trace 
how  the  expression  acquired  the  mean- 
ing which  it  evidently  has  in  the  text. 
Two  conjectures,  not  very  satisfactory, 
will  be  found  in  N.  and  Q>,  2nd  8.  ii. 
315,  472. 

Miss.  Ton  would  not  have  one  be  always 
upon  the  high  grin. 

Ntv.  Cry  mapsticks,  madam,  no  offence  I 
hope. — Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  i.). 

March.    The  proverb  in  the  extract 

is  in  common  use. 

Then  came  my  lord  Shaf  tebury  like  the 
month  of  March,  as  they  say,  in  like  a  lion 
and  out  like  a  lamb.  —  North,  life  of  Lord 
Guilford,  ii.  74. 

Marcher,   one  who   marches;    a 
soldier. 
Thirst,  hunger,  in  th'  oppressed  joints,  which 

no  mind  can  supply, 
They  take  away  a  marcher's  knees. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xix.  161. 

Marchman,  a  borderer;  one  on  the 
marches. 

Now  Bowden  Moor  the  marchman  won, 
And  sternly  shook  his  plumed  head. 

Scott,  Lay  of  Last  Minstrel,  c.  i. 

Mare-lady.  May-lady  (?).  Cf. 
Mat-lord. 

It  is  the  part  of  an  heathenish  woman, 
and  not  of  a  Christian  matron,  to  be  decked 
and  trimmed  like  a  mart-lady  or  the  queen 
of  a  game. — Becon,  ii.  346. 

How  unseemly  a   thing  then  is  it   for 
homely  and  base  maids  ...  so  to  trick  ano# 
trim  their  bodies,  as  though  they  were  mare' 
ladies  or  puppets  in  a  game. — Ibid.,  ii.  370. 


Margery  Prater,  gipsy  cant  for  a 
hen  from  its  constant  clucking.  Mar- 
gery was  also  prefixed  to  howlet.    See 

Here's  grunter  and  bleater  with  tib  of  the 

butt'ry, 
And   Margery  Prater,  all  dressU  without 

slutt'ry. — Broome,  A  Jovial  Crew,  Act  II. 

Marials,  hymns  in  honour  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin. 

More  tolerable  of  the  two,  and  yet  blas- 
phemously enough,  do  they  give  it  to  the 
Blessed  Virgin  in  the  closing  of  their  rhym- 
ing Marials. —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  5. 

Marinal,  salt ;  bitter. 

These  here  are  festival,  not  marinal  waters. 
—Adams,  i.  168. 

Marinership,  seamanship. 

Euery  bodie  without  excepcion  would  crie 
fie  on  him  that  would  take  vpon  him  to  sitte 
and  holde  the  stierne  in  a  shippe,  hauing 
none  experience  in  the  f  eate  of  marinershippe. 
—  XJdaVs  Erasmus,  Apophth.,  p.  6. 

Maritorious,  fond  of  a  husband. 

Dames  maritorious  ne're  were  meritorious. 
— Chapman,  Bussy  D'Ambois,  Act  II. 

Mariturient,  wishing  to  become  a 
husband. 

Mason  .  .  .  was  notwithstanding,  in  his 
fellow-poet's  phrase,  a  long  while  mariturient, 
and  "  praying  to  heaven  to  give  him  a  good 
and  gentle  governess." — Southey,  The  Doctor, 
ch.  cxxvi. 

Markee,  some  article  of  clothing ; 
misprint  for  market,  which  H.  says  is  a 
kind  of  night-cap  ? 

Beckon  with  my  washerwoman ;  making 
her  allow  for  old  shirts,  socks,  dabbs,  and 
markees,  which  she  bought  of  me. — Hue  and 
Cry  after  D.  Swift,  p.  9, 2nd  ed.  1714. 

Market,  to  send  to  market  to  sell ; 

also  to  go  to  market  to  buy.    R.  gives 

market  as  a  verb,  but  no  example. 

Industrious  merchants  meet  and  market  there 
The  World's  collected  wealth. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  iv. 

The  crop  of  these  two  States  is  now  being 
marketed.— The  Standard,  May  21, 1875. 

Markingly,  attentively. 

Pyroclee  markinqly  hearkened  to  all  that 
Dametas  said. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  417. 

Markswoman,  an  archeress ;  a  wo- 
man who  aims  at  a  mark. 

The  thought  throbbed  in  many  a  fair 
bosom  that  their  ladyships  might  miss  their 
aim  . .  and  that  there  might  then  be  room 
for  less  exalted,  but  perhaps  not  less  skilful 


MARK  WORTHY         (  398  ) 


MARTINET 


markswomen  to  try  their  chance. — Scott,  St. 
Ronan's  Well,  i.  809. 

Markworthy,  noteworthy. 

To  the  commonest  eyesight  a  markworthy 
old  fact  or  two  may  visibly  disclose  itself. — 
Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  298. 

Marl.  See  extract :  marl  now  gener- 
ally denotes  a  clay  soil  with  some  ad- 
mixture of  lime;  but  on  the  Lincoln- 
shire Wolds  it  still  =  chalk.  See 
Peacock's  Manley  and  Corringham 
Glossary  (E.  D.  S.). 

Marlborough,  so  called  from  its  hills  of 
chalk,  which  antiently  was  called  marl. — 
Defoe,  Tour  thro1  G.  Britain,  ii.  52. 

Marlock,  to  frolic  ;  also  as  a  sub- 
stantive. The  marlock  referred  to  in  the 
second  quotation  is  the  taking  off  a 
hat  in  the  way  of  salutation. 

Dost  ta'  mean  to  say  as  my  Sylvie  went 
and  demeaned  hersel'  to  dance  and  marlock 
wi'  a*  th'  fair-folk  at  th'  Admiral's  Head?— 
Mrs.  Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  xi. 

Ay,  courtin'  what  other  mak'  o'  thing  is  t, 
when  thou's  gazin'  after  yon  meddlesome 
chap,  as  if  thou'd  send  thy  eves  after  him, 
and  be  making  marlocks  back  at  thee?  — 
Ibid.,  ch.  xxvii. 

Maronibt,  a  Virgilian  ;  a  disciple  of 

Virgil. 

And  he,  like  some  imperious  Maronist, 
Conjures  the  Muses  that  they  him  assist. 

Hall,  Sat.,  I.  iv.  7. 

Marquesal,  belonging  to  a  marquess. 

The  countess . .  had  been  accustomed  to  see 
all  eyes  not  royal,  ducal,  or  marquesal  fall 
before  her  own. — Trollope,  Barchester  Towers, 
ch.  xxxvii. 

Marquess.  Lady  Marquess  =  mar- 
chioness. Sam  Weller  therefore  had 
some  authority  for  his  "  female  markis." 
The  lady  in  the  first  extract  was  Anne 
Boleyn,  a  Marchioness  in  her  own  right : 
there  was  no  male  marquess  of  Pem- 
broke. 

There  came  in  a  Masque  my  lady  Marquess 
of  Pembroke. — Triumph  at  Calais  and  Bou- 
logne, 1532  (Eng.  Garner,  ii.  89). 

Up  and  by  coach  to  the  coach-maker's; 
and  there  I  do  find  a  great  many  ladies  sitting 
in  the  body  of  a  coach  that  must  be  ended 
by  to-morrow :  they  were  my  Lady  Marquis 
of  Winchester,  Bellasis,  and  other  great 
ladies,  eating  of  bread  and  butter,  and  drink- 
ing ale.— Pepys,  Ap.  30, 1669. 

There's  no  daughters  at  my  place,  else  o' 
course  I  should  ha'  made  up  to  vun  on  'em. 
As  it  is,  I  don't  think  I  can  do  vith  any  thin' 
under  &  female  markis. — Pickwick  Papers, 
ch.  xxxvii. 


Marriage  lines,  marriage  certificate. 

And  I  took  out  of  my  bosom,  where  they 
lie  ever,  our  marriage  lines,  and  kissed  them, 
again  and  again. — Keade,  Cloister  and  Hearth* 
ch.  Iv. 

Marsh-diver,  some  species  of  bird ; 
the  bittern  (?). 

My  voice 
Bang  false ;  but  smiling,  "  Not  for  thee," 

she  said, 
"  O  Bulbul,  any  rose  of  Gulistan 
Shall  burst  her  veil;  marsh-divers,  rather, 

maid, 
Shall  croak  thee  sister." 

Tennyson,  Princess,  iv. 

Martello  Tower.  L.  says,  "  from 
a  fort  in  Corsica  so  named/'  but  see 
extracts. 

The  origin  of  Martello  Towers  I  believe  to 
have  been  that  when  piracy  was  common  in 
the  Mediterranean . .  the  Italians  built  towers 
near  the  sea,  in  order  to  keep  a  watch  and 
give  warning  . . .  This  warning  was  given  by 
striking  on  a  bell  with  a  hammer ;  and  hence 
these  towers  were  called  torri  da  martello.  I 
cannot  remember  where  I  read  this  explan- 
ation, but  I  am  sure  that  I  found  it  in  some 
credible  book.  —  Sir  G.  C.  Lewis,  Letters 
(1862),  p.  412. 

An  attack  was  made  on  the  tower  of 
Mortella  in  Corsica  by  the  British  forces 
both  by  sea  and  land  in  February  1794.  The 
tower  was  taken  after  an  obstinate  defence, 
but  the  two  attacking  ships  were  beaten  off. 
This  circumstance  is  likely  to  have  given 
rise  to  the  confusion  between  Martello  Totrer* 
generally,  and  this  tower  of  Mortella.  See 
James's  Naval  Hist,  of  Great  Britain  (Lond. 
1822)  vol.  i.  p.  286,  where  the  event  is  de- 
scribed.— Ibid.,  p.  417. 

Martenist,  a  follower  of  Martin 
Marprelate. 

After  such  biting  petitions  and  Satyrick 
Pasquils  (worthy  of  such  Martenists)  came 
open  menacings  of  Princes  and  Parliaments, 
Priests  and  People  too. — Gauden,  Tears  of 
the  Church,  p.  61. 

Martial,  a  martialist ;  a  soldier. 

The  Queen  of  martial s 
And  Mars  himself  conducted  them. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  zviii.  469. 

Others  strive 
like  sturdy  Martials  far  away  to  drive 
The  drowsy  Droanes  that  harbour  in  the  hive. 
Fuller,  David's  Sinne,  st.  36. 

Martinet. 

Old.  Prithee,  don't  look  like  one  of  your 
holiday  captains  now-a-days,  with  a  bodkin 

Axj  your  side,  you  martinet  rogue. 

*  Man.  .  .  .  What,  d'  ye  find  fault  with 
martinet  ?  let  me  tell  yon,  sir,  'tis  the  best 
exercise  in  the  world  ;  the  most  ready,  most 


MARTINET 


(  399  ) 


MA  TA  FUND A 


emsy,  most  graceful  exercise  that  ever  wu 
used,  and  the  most — 

Old.  Nay,  nay,  sir,  no  more;  sir,  your 
servant ;  if  you  praise  martinet  once,  I  nave 
done  with  yon,  nr — Martinet !  Martinet ! 

Wycherley,  Plain  Dealer,  HI.  i. 

Mabttnet,  some  military  engine  (?). 

Him  passing  on, 
From  some  huge  martinet,  a  ponderous  stone 
Crush'd. — Southey,  Joan  of  Arc.,  Bk.  viii. 

Martingale,  a  gambling  term ;  sig- 
nifying the  doubling  of  stakes,  again 
and  again,  until  the  player  wins. 

You  have  not  played  as  yet  ?  Do  not  do 
so  ;  above  all  avoid  a  martingale  if  you  do. — 
Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  xzviii. 

Martyrly,  martyr-like. 

They  flew  in  their  very  faces  and  eyes 
without  any  respect  to  their  Age,  Learning, 
Piety,  Sanctity  and  Martyrly  Constancy. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  15. 

Martyrly  fervencies  are  kept  high  and  in- 
tense by  the  Antiperistasis  of  persecution. — 
Ibid.,  p.  34. 

Marvel-monger,  one  who  invents  or 
retails  wonders. 

The  Marvel-mongers  grant  that  He 
Was  moulded  up  but  of  a  mortal  metal. 
Beaumont,  Psyche,  xviii.  92. 

Mase,  a  term  at  basset. 

ril  make  a  parol!  ;  I  mase  as  mnch  more ; 
your  card  loses,  Sir  James,  for  two  guineas, 
yours,  Captain,  loses  for  a  guinea  more. — 
Centlivre%  The  Basset-Table,  Act  IV. 

Mask  art,  masquerade;   profanely 

applied  by  some  of  the  less  respectable 

Reformers  to  the  Mass.    Cf.  Masking. 

Such  as  have  most  wickedly  called  the 
Mass  a  Maskarye,  and  the  priests  vestments 
masking  clothes, . . .  may  well  be  compared 
with  Pilate's  men.  —  Christopherson,  1554 
(Maitland  on  Reformation,  p.  803). 

Masked,  bewildered:  according  to 
H.  mothered  in  this  sense  is  still  in 
use.  See  quotation  in  N. ;  also  8 p. 
Sanderson,  iii.  20,  with  Jacobson's  note. 

He  doth  the  benighted  traveller  a  dis- 
courtesie  rather  than  a  kindnesse,  who 
lendetk  him  a  lantern  to  take  it  away, 
leaving  him  more  masked  than  he  was  be- 
fore.— Fuller,  Holy  War,  Bk.  III.  ch.  zii. 

Masking.    See  Maskary. 

They  are  also  no  followers  of  the  Scrip- 
tures; but  peradventure  they  never  read 
them  but  as  they  find  them  by  chance  in 
their  popish  portifoliums  and  masking  books. 
—Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  175. 

William  Plaine  .  . .  was  also  charged,  that 
seeing  a  priest  go  to  mass,  he  said, "  Now 


you  shall  see  one  in  masking" — Maitland  on 
Reformation,  p.  293. 

Mast,  to  feed  on  mast. 

He  was  wont  to  rebuke  the  beneficed  men 
.  .  .  being  idle,  and  masting  themselves  like 
hogs  of  Bpicurus'  flock. — Becon,  ii.  425. 

Master,  the  jack  at  bowls :  mistress 
is  the  more  common  term.     See  N. 

At  diceplay  euery  one  wisheth  to  caste 
well ;  at  bowles  euery  one  cranes  to  kisse  the 
maister. — Gosson,  Schoole  of  Abuse,  p.  60. 

Masterfast,  tied  to  a  master. 

Whoso  hath  ones  married  a  wife  is  not 
now  from  thensforthe  all  together  his  owne 
man,  but  in  maner  half  maisterfast. — VdaVs 
Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  87. 

Masterhood,  imperiousness. 

I  would  .  .  .  accommodate  quietly  to  his 
masterhood,  smile  undisturbed  at  his  in- 
eradicable ambition. — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre, 
ch.  xxxiv. 

Mast-head,  to  send  to  the  mast- 
head for  a  certain  time,  as  a  punish- 
ment. 

The  next  morning  I  was  as  regularly  mast' 
headed,  to  do  penance  during  the  greater 

Srt  of  the  day  for  my  deeds  of  darkness. — 
arryat,  Fr.  MUdmay,  ch.  iv. 
If  you  mast-head  a  sailor  for  not  doing  his 
duty,  why  should  you  not  weathercock  a 
parishioner  for  refusing?  to  pay  tithes?  — 
Sydney  Smith  (Life,  ch.  ix.). 

Mat,  a  mattress. 

(Enter  Careful,  and  tumbles  over  the  mat.) 
"  A  pox  on  your  pride,  we  must  have  mats 
with  a  vengeance,  but  I'll  turn  over  a  new 
leaf  with  this  house,  111  warrant  you ;  Til 
have  no  mats,  but  such  as  lie  under  the 
feather-beds." — Centlivre,  Beau's  Duel,  iv.  1. 

MatjEOLOGY,  foolish  words:  tbe 
words  referred  to  in  the  extract  are 
such  as  astromancy,  coscinomanqj,  &c, 
Ac. 

The  sapience  of  our  forefathers  and  the 
defectiveness  of  our  dictionaries  are  simul- 
taneously illustrated  by  the  bead-roll  of 
mataology  embodied  in  the  extract  here 
following. — Hall,  Modern  English,  p.  87. 

Matjsotechnie,  a  useless  or  foolish 
business. 

A  condign  guerdon  (doubtlesse)  and  verv 
fit  to  countervayle  such  a  peevish  practice  k 
unnecessarie  Mataotechnie.  —  Touchstone  of 
Complexions  (Preface,  p.  6). 

Matafunda.     See  extract. 

That  murderous  sling, 
The  matafunda,  whence  the  ponderous  stone 
Fled  fierce. 

Southey,  Joan  of  Arc,  Bk.  viii. 


MATCH 


(  4oo  ) 


MAUM 


Match.  A  set  match  =  a  conspiracy. 

They  saw  him  anointed  from  God,  and 
(lest  they  should  think  this  a  set  match 
betwixt  the  brethren)  they  saw  the  earth 
opening,  the  fire  issuing  from  God  ypon 
their  emulous  opposites. — Holly  Contempla- 
tions (Aaron's  Censer  and  Rod), 

Mathematic,  a  mathematician. 

The  Memphian  priests  were  deep  philoso- 
phers, 
And  curious  gazers  on  the  sacred  stars, 
Searchers  of  Nature,  and  great  mathematicks, 
Yer  any  letter  knew  the  ancient'st  Attiks. 

Sylvester,  The  Colonies,  294. 

Mathematical,  astrological ;  also,  an 
astrologer. 

Though  I  do  by  the  authority  of  God's 
laws  and  man's  laws  damn  this  damnable  art 
mathematical,  I  do  not  damn  such  other  arts 
and  sciences  as  be  associated  and  annexed 
with  this  unlawful  astrology.  —  Hooper,  i. 
830. 

The  stars,  the  planets,  and  signs  in  the 
firmament  shall  be  strange  pods,  if  we,  being 
deceived  with  the  mathematical*,  shall  wholly 
hang  on  them. — Bollinger,  Deo.  II.,  Serm.  2. 

Mathook,  a  mattock. 

Lyes  and  libels  served  as  spades  and  mat- 
hooks  to  work  with. — North,  Examen,  p.  592. 

Matriarch,  the  mother  and  ruler  of 
a  family ;  wife  of  a  patriarch.  In  1873 
the  New  York  Times  uses  the  word 
"  matriarch,  if  we  may  be  allowed  to 
coin  a  feminine  for  patriarch."  The 
extract  shows,  however,  that  it  had 
been  coined  before. 

Dr.  Souther  has  classed  this  injured 
Matriarch  [Job's  wife]  in  a  triad  with  Xan- 
tippe  and  Mrs.  Wesley. — Southey,  The  Doc- 
tor, ch.  cxvii. 

Matter.  Much  about  the  matter  = 
pretty  right. 

Dt.  Then  you  tell  me  your  vessel  is  leaky  ? 

Er.  Ton  are  much  about  the  matter  (hand 
nutltum  aberras  a  scopo), — Bailey's  Erasmus, 
p.  352. 

Matter.  All  is  a  matter = it  is  all 
the  same. 

Whether  we  make  the  common  readers 
to  laugh  or  to  lowre,  all  is  a  matter. — Put' 
Unham,  Poesie,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xiii. 

Our  maker  therfore  at  these  dayes  shall 
not  .  .  .  take  the  termes  of  Northern-men, 
such  as  they  vse  in  dayly  talke,  whether 
they  be  noblemen  or  gentlemen,  or  of  their 
best  clarkes,  all  is  a  matter.— Ibid,,  Bk.  III. 
ch.  iv. 

Matterkul,  pregnant;  full  of  matter. 

I  turned  to  V.  Bourne;  what  a  sweet, 
unpretending,    pretty-mannered,   matterful 


creature!  sucking  from  every  flower,  making 
a  flower  of  everything. — C.  Lamb  to  Words- 
worth, 1815,  p.  97. 

Mattebless,  immaterial  in  both  its 
senses,  t.  e.  spiritual,  and  of  no  conse- 
quence. Ben  Jonson,  as  quoted  by  R. 
and  by  L.,  has  the  word,  but  applies  it 
to  verse  which  is  void  of  matter  or 
substance. 

Tis  matterless  in  goodness  who  excels, 
He  that  hath  coin  hath  all  perfections  else. 

May,  The  Old  Couple,  II.  i. 

Ye  grisly  ghosts   that  walk  in  shades  of 

night, 
Like  shades  whose  substance  (though  quite 

matterUsse) 
The  dayly  fowle  offender  doth  affright. 

Davies,  Wittes  Pilgrimage,  p.  35. 

Matter-of-course,  phlegmatic,  in- 
different. 

I  won't  have  that  sort  of  matter-of-course 
woqwenceDce.— Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford, 
ch. 


Matutines,  matins. 

Matutines  [were]  at  the  first  hour  or  six  of 
the  clock,  when  the  Jewish  morning  sacrifice 
was  offered ;  and  at  what  time  Christ's  Re- 
surrection was  by  the  angels  first  notified  to 
the  women. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  vi.  p.  287. 

Maud,  a  shepherd*  s  plaid. 

Michael  Armstrong,  promoted  to  a  place 
of  trust,  might  have  been  seen  sitting  upon 
the  hill-side  in  one  of  the  most  romantic 
spots  in  Westmoreland,  a  shepherd's  maud 
wrapped  round  his  person,  a  sheep-dog  at 
his  feet. — Mrs.  Troltope,  Michael  Armstrong, 
oh.  xxviii. 

Maugre.  R.  and  L.  give  this  only 
as  an  adverb.  H.  says  the  substantive 
=  misfortune,  while  N.  has  it  =  harm. 
In  the  subjoined  it  means  unfriendli- 
ness or  grudge. 

Pollio  had  afore  tyme  been  angrie  and 
foule  out  with  Timagines,  and  had  none 
other  cause  to  surceasse  his  maugre,  but 
that  Oassar  begun  to  take  displeasure  with 
the  saied  Timagines.  —  UdaPs  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  289. 

Maukin,  a  cloth  used  by  bakers  in 

cleaning  out  their  oven. 

Gome  forth,  my  lord,  and  see  the  cart 
Drest  up  with  all  the  country  art ; 
See  here  a  maukin,  there  a  sheet 
As  spotlesse  pure  as  it  is  sweet. 

Herrick,  Hcsperides,  p.  106. 

Maum,  to  paw  about. 

Nev.  (takes  Miss's  hand).  Oome,  Miss,  let 
us  lay  all  quarrels  aside  and  be  friends. 

Miss,  Don't  be  mourning  and  gauming  s 
body  so !    Cant  you  keep  your  filthy  hands 


MAUNDING 


(  401  )        MEADOW-CRAKE 


to    yourself  ?  —  Swift,  Polite    Conversation 
(Con*,  ii.). 

Maundtno,  commanding;  imperious- 
ly ess. 

He  died  untimely  for  oar  Bishop's  good, 
who  acknowledgeth  it  under  his  hand,  that 
he  dealt  fairly  with  him ;  not  reckoning  by 
his  maundings  and  rough  language,  Which 
came  from  him  to  please  the  supervising 
prelate. — Hacket,  Life  of  William*,  ii.  116. 

Mausole,  tomb ;  mausoleum. 

No  gorgeous  mausole  grac't  with  flattering 

verse, 
Bternizeth  her  trunk,  her  house,  and  bene. 
Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  1424. 

And  if  I  fall  in  such  a  sea  of  praise. 
What  rarer  mausole  may  my  bones  include  ? 
Ibid.,  Sonnets  on  the  Peace  in  France,  xii. 

Max,  gin  (slang).  Jon  Bee  [J.  Bad- 
cock]  in  Diet,  of  Turf,  &c,  says  that 
it  is  an  abbreviation  of  Maxime,  and 
means  properly  the  best  gin,  though 
now  used  indiscriminately. 
Who,  doffing   their   coronets,  collars,  and 

ermine,  treat 
Boxers  to  Max  at  the  One  Tun  in  Jermyn 

Street. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (Bagman '*  Dog). 

May-hill.  May  is  a  trying  month 
for  invalids ;  hence  the  expression,  to 
clitnb  up  May-kill,  i.  e.  to  get  through 
that  month  safely.  It  appears  from 
the  extract  that  in  the  early  part  of  the 
seventeenth  century  ale  was  little  drunk 
except  in  winter. 

Whereas  in  our  remembrance  Ale  went 
out  when  Swallows  came  in,  seldom  appear- 
ing after  Easter;  it  now  hopeth  (having 
climbed  up  May-hill)  to  continue  its  course 
all  the  year. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Derbyshire 
(i.252).  y 

May-lord,  the  leader  of  a  frolic  or 
May-game.  Burton,  quoted  by  R.,  has 
May-lady.    Cf.  Mare-lady. 

Cerdicus  .  .  .  was  the  first  May -lord,  or 
captaine  of  the  Morris-daunce  that  on  those 
embenched  shelves  stampt  his  footing.  — 
Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffs  (Hart.  Misc^  vi.  150). 

Mayorlet,  petty  mayor. 

The  patriotic  mayor  or  mayorlet  of  the 
village  of  Moret  tried  to  detain  them. — Car- 
lyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  in.  ch.  iv. 

Mayor  of  Queenborough.  "The 
Miyor  of  Quinborough "  was  the  name 
of  a  comedy  by  Middleton :  "  a  simple 
play  "  (Pepys,  June  16,  1666).  Some 
clowns  contend  in  it  for  the  office  of 
mayor  of  Queenborough. 


The  recorder  Howel  appeared ;  and  to 
avert  the  rule  for  an  attachment,  alledged  .  . . 
the  disorder  that  might  happen  in  the  city, 
if  the  mayor  were  imprisoned.  The  chief 
justice  put  his  thumbs  in  his  girdle,  as  his 
way  was,  and,  "Tell  me  of  the  mayor  of 
London  ? "  said  he :  "  tell  me  of  the  mayor 
of  Queenborough. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guil- 
ford, i.  114. 

Mazan.    See  quotation. 

John  Frith  is  a  great  mote  in  their  eyes, 
for  so  turning  over  their  purgatory,  and 
heaving  at  their  most  monstrous  mass,  or 
mammetrous  mazan,  which  signineth  bread 
or  feeding. — Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  165. 

Mazard,  cup ;  usually  written  mazer 
Mazard  generally  means  head. 

They  lived  sluttishlv  in  poor  houses,  where 
they  ate  a  great  deal  of  beef  and  mutton, 
and  drank  good  ale  in  a  brown  mazard. — 
Aubrey,  Misc.,  p.  213. 

Mazard,  a  species  of  cherry.  H. 
says,  "in  good  esteem  for  making 
cherry-brandy." 

He  .  .  .  had  no  ambition  whatsoever  be- 
yond pleasing  his  father  aud  mother,  gettiug 
by  honest  means  the  maximum  of  red  qnar- 
renders  and  mazard  cherries,  and  going  to 
sea  when  be  was  big  enough.— C  Kingsley, 
Westward  Ho,  ch.  i. 

Mazarine,  a  deep  blue  colour. 

For  the  weather  at  once  appeared  clear  and 

serene, 
And  the  sky  up  above  was  a  bright  mazarine. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  (S.  Romwold). 

Mazarine,  a  gown,  which  derived  its 
name  from  the  Duchess  of  Mazarin 
(Bailey  speaks  of  a  Mazarine  hood 
with  this  derivation) ;  or  perhaps  the 
word  refers  to  the  colour  of  the  dress, 
a  mazarine  blue. 

Bring  my  silver'd  mazarine, 
Sweetest  gown  that  e'er  was  seen. 
Anstey,  New  Bath  Guide,  Letter  ix. 

Mazeful,  bewildering.  The  com- 
parison in  the  extract  is  between  an 
unsympathetic  mistress  and  Night. 

Silence  in  both  displays  his  sullen  might, 
Slow  heaviness  in  both  holds  one  degree 

In  both  a  mazeful  solitariness. 

Sidney,  Astrophel  and  Stella,  96. 

Meadow-Crake,  "  the  corn-crake  or 
landrail :  Ortygometra  Crex."  Pea- 
cock's Manley  and  Corringham  Glos- 
sary (E.  D.  S.),  where,  however,  it  is 
ppeft  meadow-creak. 

D  D 


MEAL 


(  4°*) 


MEER 


My  voice 
Bang  false;  but  smiling,  "Not  for  thee" 

she  said, 
"  O  Bulbul,  any  rose  of  Gulistan 
Shall  bunt  her  veil ;  marahdivers,  rather, 

maid, 
Shall  croak  thee  sister,  or  the  meadow-crake 
Grate  her  harsh  kindred  in  the  grass." 

Tennyson,  Princess,  iv. 

Meal,  sand-bank :  a  Norfolk  word. 

The  cows,  daring  the  hot  weather  when 
they  are  attacked  by  the  fly,  get  over  the 
meales,  the  name  given  to  the  sandbanks. — 
Freeman's  Life  of  W.  Kirby,  p.  147. 

Meal -house,  place  where  meal  is 
stored. 

Now  hairing  seene  all  this, 

Then  shall  you  see  hard  by 
The  Pastrie,  Meale-house,  and  the  roome 

Whereas  the  Coales  do  ly. 


The  Meale-house  is  a  place 

With  set  mischiefe  fraught. 
For  sure  the  meale  is  made  of  corne 

Y*  is  much  worse  then  naught. 

Breton,  Forte  of  Fansie,  p.  16. 

Meaningness,  significance. 

She  met  me  at  her  dressing-room  door,  and 
looked  so  lovely,  so  silly,  and  so  full  of  un- 
meaning meaningness. — Richardson,  Grandi- 
son,  vi.  341. 

Meanless,  meaningless. 

Fair  sylphish  forms  who,  tall,  erect,  and 

slim, 
Dart  the  keen  glance,  and  stretch  the  length 

of  limb ; 
To  viewless  harpings  weave  the  meanless 

dance, 
Wave  the  gay  wreath,  and   titter  as  they 

prance. — Poetry  of  Antijacobin,  p.  126. 

Meanor,  demeanour ;  behaviour. 

If  the  testimony  of  that  lady  be  true  (it  is 
but  one,  and  a  most  domestick  witness),  I  do 
not  shuffle  it  over  as  if  his  meanor  to  the 
Lord  Marquess  were  not  a  little  culpable. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  108. 

Measurelessness,  unlimited 
quantity. 

Feigned  and  preposterous  admiration  .  . 
varied  by  a  corresponding  measurelessness  in 
vituperation  made  the  woof  of  all'  learned 
intercourse. — G.  Eliot,  Romola,  ch.  xix. 

Meat,  to  feed.  The  Diets,  only  give 
the  participle  mealed  with  extract  from 
Tusser. 

Good  husbandrie  meateth 
His  friend  and  the  poore. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  139. 


Haste  then  and  meat  your  men : 
Though  I  must  still  say  my  command  would 
lead  them  fasting  forth. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xix.  196. 

Think  it  therefore  no  disgrace  in  a  city-inn 
to  see  your  horse  every  dav  yourself,  and  to 
see  him  well  meated. — Peacham,  Art  of  Living 
in  Ijondon,  1642  {Harl.  Misc.,  ix.  88). 

Carriers  are  so  merciful  to  their  horses ; 
meat  them  well  to  prevent  their  tyring. — 
Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  IV.  v.  19. 

Medalled,  decked  or  presented  with 
a  medal. 

Irving  went  home  medalled  by  the  King, 
diplomatised  by  the  University,  crowned, 
and  honoured,  and  admired.  —  Thackeray, 
Roundabout  Papers,  xx. 

Mediate,  opposed  to    immediate. 

There  were  three  Abps.  between  Becket 

and  Langton. 

To  dispatch  Becket  out  of  our  ways,  just 
a  jubilee  of  years  after  his  death,  Stephen 
Langton  his  mediate  successor  removed  his 
body.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist ,  IIL  ii.  69. 

Medical  finger,  the  middle  finger : 
it  is  the  only  finger  supplied  by  both 
nerves  of  the  arm ;  possibly  this  may 
be  the  reason  for  the  name. 

At  last  he,  with  a  low  courtesy,  put  on  her 
medical  finger  a  pretty  handsome  golden  ring. 
— Urquhart,  Rabelais,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xvii. 

Meditationist,  compiler  of  medi- 
tations. 

Jeremy  Taylor's  is  both  a  flowery  and  a 
fruitful  stile:  Hervey  the  Meditationist's  a 
weedy  one. — Sou  they  %  The  Doctor,  Interchap- 
ter  xxii. 

Medite,  to  meditate. 

Her  hand  (vn bidden)  in  her  sampler  sets 
The  King  of  Iuda's  name  and  counterfets: 
Who,  mediiing  the  sacred  Temple's  plot, 
By  th'  other  twin  at  the  same  time  is  shot. 
Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  770. 

Medley,  cloth  of  a  mixed  colour. 

This  mystery  [Clothing]  is  vigorously  pur- 
sued in  this  County;  and  I  am  informed 
that  as  Medleys  are  most  made  in  other 
shires,  as  good  Whites  as  any  are  woven  in 
this  County.  —  Fuller,  Worthies,  Wilts  (ii. 
435). 

Medy,  Mediolanum  or  Milan. 

Ambrose,  the  bishop  of  the  church  of 
Medy.—Philpot,  p.  373. 

Meer.  The  following  note  is  ap- 
pended to  the  subjoined  extract  "  This 
word  is  used  for  want  of  a  better.  It 
means  the  practice  common  in  hilly 
countries  of  making  a  portion  of  the 
hill,  running  along  the  Burface  of  it, 


MEET-HELP 


(  403  )         MERCANTILITY 


level  for  purposes  of  cultivation,  leaving 
it  nearly  perpendicular  for  a  few  feet, 
and  beginning  another  level  at  the 
bottom." 

No  doubt  it  [a  field]  was  formerly 
ploughed,  and  in  it  are  some  meers.  —  T. 
Baker  (1819),  (Archaol.,  six.  168). 

Meet- help,  help-meet;  wife. 

I  have  been  so  fortunate  in  my  discoveries 
of  him  and  his  meet-help  that  now  I  look 
upon  the  loathsome  heap  of  scandalous 
materials  I  have  got  together  against  him, 
I  am  almost  ashamed  to  make  it  public. — 
Sprat1*  Relation  of  Young'*  Contrivance,  1692 
(Hart.  Misc^  vi.  217). 

Meipsead,  an  egotistical  writing. 
Sou  they  coined  this  word  on  the  model 
of  Iliad,  &c. 

My  letters  to  you  are  such  pure  meipseads 
that  I  have  seldom  room  or  leisure  for  any 
but  personal  concerns.  —  Southey,  Letters, 
1817  (III.  57). 

Melled,  honied. 

That  hast  the  ayr  for  farm,  and  heav'n  for 

field, 
Which  sugred  mel,  or  melled  sugar  yield. 

Sylvester,  The  Lawe,  841. 

Mellie,  honey. 

For     fro    thy    makings    milk    and    mellie 
flowes.  Davies,  Eclogue,  1.  20. 

Melodic,  belonging  to  melody. 

Herr  Klesmer  played  a  composition  of 
his  own  ...  an  extensive  commentary  on 
some  melodic  ideas  not  too  grossly  evident. — 
G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  v. 

Melodist,  a  master  of  melody. 

That  predominance  of  the  imaginative 
faculty  or  of  impassioned  temperament  which 
is  incompatible  with  the  attributes  of  a  sound 
understanding  and  a  just  judgement,  may 
make  a  rharjsodist,  a  melodist,  or  a  visionary 
.  . .  but  imagination  and  passion  thus  unsup- 
ported will  never  make  a  poet  in  the  largest 
and  highest  sense  of  the  appellation. — Sir 
H.  Tayler,  Preface  to  Ph.  van  Artevelde. 

Melophonist,  a  singer  of  melodies. 

Here,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Hebrew  melo- 
phonists,  I  would  insinuate  no  wrong  thought. 
— Thackeray,  A  Dinner  in  the  City. 

Meltable,  fusible,  capable  of  being 

melted. 

Iron  . .  is  the  most  impure  of  all  metals, 
hardly  meltable.  —  Fuller,  Worthies,  Salop 
(ii.  253). 

Memoirism,  memoir-writing. 

Have  we  not  done  what  lay  at  our  hand 
towards  reducing  that  same  memoirism  of 
the  eighteenth  century  into  history,  and 
weaving  a  thread  or  two  thereof  nearer  to 


the  condition  of  a  web? — Carlyle,  Misc.,  ii 
242. 

Memorability,  remarkableness. 

The  first  years  of  Daniel's  abode  in  Don- 
caster  were  distinguished  by  many  events  of 
local  memorability.  —  Southey,  The  Doctor, 
ch.  xlvii. 

Memorables,  remarkable  things ;  for. 
similar  uses  see  s.  v.  Observables. 

He  employed  John  Leland,  a  most  learned 
antiquary,  to  perambulate  and  visit  the  ruins 
of  all  abbeys,  and  record  the  memorables 
therein.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  X.  vi.  24. 

Hundreds  of  memorables  haue  met  in  your 
Lordship's  life.— Ibid.,  Ch.  Hist.,  vi.  p.  8S9. 

Memorandummer,  a  taker  of  notes. 

He  had  lately,  he  told  me,  had  much  con- 
versation concerning  me  with  Mr.  Boswell. 
I  feel  sorry  to  be  named  or  remembered  by 
that  biographical  anecdotical  memorandum' 
met,  till  his  book  of  poor  Dr.  Johnson's  life 
is  finished  and  published. — Mad.  D'Arblay, 
Diary,  iii.  335. 

Memph,  an  Egyptian.    Sylvester  uses 
Memphytist    and    Memphian    in    the 
same  way,  first  day,  first  week,  312, 
783. 
Thou  mak'st   th'  Ichneumon  (whom   the 

Memphs  adore) 
To  rid  of  poysons  Nile's  manured  shoar. 

Sylvester,  sixth  day,  first  weeke,  260. 

Menise,   minnow.      See  II.  s.  v. 

mengy 

And  speak  of  such  as  in  the  fresh  are  found, 

The  little  roach,  the  menise  biting  fast. 

Denny s,  Secrets  of  Angling 

(Eng.  Garner,  i.  p.  167). 

The  trout  will  take  also  the  worm,  menise, 

or  any  bait. — Lauson,  Comment  on  Dennys, 

1653  (Ibid.,  i.  195). 

Mennom.     See  extract. 

The  minnow  still  called  .  . .  mennom  in  the 
north  of  England  is,  as  far  as  I  can  learn,  at 
present  totally  disregarded  as  an  article  of 
diet— Arch.,  xv.  352  (1806). 

Mensall. 

The  chiefe  Lord  had  certaine  lands  in 
Demesne,  which  were  called  his  Loghtii,  or 
mensall  lands  in  Demesne. — Sir  John  Davis 
quoted  in  Holland's  Camden,  ii.  141. 

Mentality,  mental  cast  or  habit. 

Hndibrss  has  the  same  hard  mentality, 
keeping  the  truth  at  once  to  the  senses  and 
to  the  intellect. — Emerson,  Eng.  Traits,  ch. 
xiv. 

Mercantility,  mercantile  spirit. 

44  Stay,  you  are  a  holy  man,  and  I  am  an 
honest  one ;  let  us  make  a  bargain  "  .  .  . . 
And  his  eyes  sparkled,  and  he  was  all  00 

D  D  2 


MERCHANDIZER        (  404  )  MESSMAKING 


fire  with  mercantility. — Beads,  Cloister  and 
Hearth,  ch.  lxxvi. 

Mkbchandizkr,  merchant ;  trafficker. 

That  which  did  not  a  little  amuse  the 
merchandizes  was  that  these  pilgrims  set  very 
light  by  all  their  wares. — Pilgrim's  Progress, 
Pt.  I.  p.  153. 

Mrrchantrt,  trade.     Bp.  Sanderson 

(v.  106)  uses  merchandry. 

I  wish  human  wit,  which  is  really  very 
considerable  in  mechanics  and  merchantry, 
could  devise  some  method  of  cultivating 
canes  and  making  sugar  without  the  manual 
labour  of  the  human  species. —  Walpole,  Let' 
ters,  iv.  482  (1789). 

Mkbchks,  marches ;  borders. 

Mercia,  so  called  because  it  lay  in  the 
middest  of  the  island,  being  the  merches  or 
limits,  on  which  all  the  residue  of  the  King- 
domes  did  hound  and  border.— J»W/er,  Ch. 
Hist.,  I.  v.  17. 

Merciless,  used  as  a  substantive. 

I  pray  in  vain  a  merciless  to  move. 

Daniel,  Sonnet  IV.  {Eng.  Gamer, 
i.  582). 

Mercy-stock,  propitiation.  Becon 
(ii.  459)  quoting  1  St.  John  ii.  2,  uses 
this  word  for  propitiation. 

Our  Saviour  and  Mercy-stock  saith  that 
this  knowledge  is  eternal  life. — Hutchinson, 
p.  2. 

Who  jnstifieth  and  saveth  us,  but  He  who 
is  our  Saviour,  our  Ransom,  our  Spokesman, 
our  Jfercy-stock  7 — Ibid.,  p.  192. 

Mkrda,  ordure.  North  perhaps  uses 
the  Latin  out  of  delicacy ;  otherwise 
merd  or  mard  is  an  Eng.  word,  and  is 
used  by  Jonson  and  Burton. 

[He]  deals  forth  his  merda  by  the  hirelings 
of  the  times,  that  he  might  not  stink  in  all 
companies,  and  so  be  found  out  by  those 
that  otherwise  do  not  know  him.  —  North, 
Examen,  p.  644. 

Meretrician,  meritricious,  pertain- 
ing to  a  harlot. 

Take  from  human  commerce  Meretrician 
amours,  you  would  find  a  horrid  confusion  of 
all  things  and  incestuous  lusts  disturb  every 
family.— T.  Brown,  Works,  iii.  263. 

Meridian,  thorough-paced  ;  the  word 
is  often  used  figuratively  as  a  sub- 
stantive. 

Was  it  not  strange  usage  of  a  Queen  Con* 
sort,  when  such  an  effrontery  out  of  the 
mouth  of  a  meridian  villain  in  public  .  .  . 
should  be  let  pass  without  so  much  as  a 
reprehension. — North,  Examen,  p.  186. 

Meridies,  meridian  ;  middle :  the  use 
of  the  Latin  form  is  noticeable. 


About  the  hour  that  Cynthia's  silver  light 
Had  touch 'd  the  pale  meridies  of  the  night. 
Cowley's  Essays  (Agriculture). 

Merlon,  the  plain  part  of  an  em- 
battled parapet,  between  two  embra- 
sures. 

The  parapet  often  had  the  merlons  pierced 
with  long  chinks,  ending  in  round  holes 
called  oeiUeta— Arch.,  xii.  147  (1796). 

The  merlons  and  embrasures  with  which 
the  main  portion  of  the  building  was  fur- 
nished are  comparatively  dilapidated. — Ibid. 
(1841). 

Merrie-go-sorie,  a  mingling  of 
laughter  and  tears ;  an  hysterical  affec- 
tion. 

Joying  to  see  the  kinde  heart  of  this  other 
olde  gentleman,  sorie  to  be  an  occasion  of 
such  anger  to  himselfe,  and  trouble  to  his 
house,  betwixt  a  merriego  sorie  I  fell  to  such 
weeping  as  quite  spilde  mine  eyes,  and  had 
almost  hurst  my  heart. — Breton,  Miseries  of 
Mauillia,  p.  49. 

The  ladle  with  a  merrie  go  sortie  . .  .  made 
him  this  answer©.  —  Ibid.,  Fortunes  of  two 
Princes,  p.  25. 

Merripy,  to  amuse. 

The  description  of  the  benefit  and  the 
crowd  diverted  me  so  much,  that  I  read  it 
in  public,  and  it  merryfied  us  ail. — Mad. 
D'ArUay,  Diary,  i.  324. 

Merry-go-down,  strong  ale. 

I  present  you  with  meate,  and  you  (in 
honourable  conrtesie  to  requite  mee)  can 
do  no  less  than  present  mee  with  the  best 
morning's  draught  of  merry-go-downe  in  your 
quarters. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffs,  Dedication 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  146). 

Merry-night.  "  A  term  well  known 
in  the  North  of  England,  and  applied 
to  rural  festivals,  where  young  persons 
meet  in  the  evening  for  the  purpose  of 
dancing "  (  Wordsworth's  note  in  loc). 
A  fuller  description  ot  the  merry-night 
will  be  found  in  Willan's  West  York- 
shire Glossary  (E.  D.  S.). 

He  hears  a  sound,  and  sees  the  light, 
And  in  a  moment  calls  to  mind 
That  'tis  the  village  Merry-Night. 

Wordsworth,  The  Waggoner,  c.  II. 

Meskeito  (Sp.  mesquita),  a  mosque. 

The  very  Mahometans  . .  have  their  sepul- 
chres near  the  Meskeito;  never  in  it. — Bp. 
Hall,  Works,  v.  514. 

Message,  to  announce,  or  deliver  a 
message. 

He  dyd  in  expressed  commaund  to  me 
message  his  errand. — Slanyhurst,  JEn.,  iv.  377. 

Messmaking,  eating  together. 


MESTIVE 


(  405  )     MICROCEPHALOUS 


This  friendship  begau  by  messmaking  in 
the  temple  hall. — Worth,  Lift  of  Lord  Guil- 
ford, i.  59. 

Mestivr,  sad.     N.  has  mestfull. 

The  Melancholy's  mestiue,  and  too  full 
Of  f earefull  thought*,  and  cares  vnrequisit. 

Davits,  Microcosmos,  p.  31. 

Now  hane  they  scal'd  this  mestiue  moun- 
taine  top. — Ibid.,  Holy  Roode,  p.  16. 

Metagk,  measurement. 

Acts  have  very  lately  passed  in  relation  to 
the  admeasurement  or  metage  of  coals  for 
the  city  of  Westminster. — Defoe,  Tour  thro* 
G.  Britain,  ii.  145. 

Metals,  mines. 

It  was  impossible  to  live  without  oar  king, 
but  as  slaves  live,  that  is,  such  who  are 
civilly  dead,  and  persons  condemned  to 
tnctals.—Bp.  Taylor,  Dud.  Dub.  (Dedic). 

Mktaphrased,  closely  translated. 
Bp.  Hall  addresses  some  verses  to 
Sylvester  on  "  his  Bartas  metaphrased.'* 

M  staph ysicianish,  science  of  meta- 
physics. 

Phrenology,  and  in  great  measure,  meta- 
physicianism  have  been  concocted  d,  priori. — 
E.  A.  Pot,  Imp  of  the  Perverse. 

Mktaphysicked,  made  metaphysical. 

I  send  you  a  new  Strawberry  edition, 
which  yon  will  find  extraordinary,  not  only 
as  a  most  accurate  translation,  but  as  a  piece 
of  genuine  French,  not  metaphysicked  by  La 
Harpe,  by  Thomas,  &c.—  Walpole,  Letters,  iv. 
306  (1782). 

Mbtempsychosize,  to  cause  the  soul 

to  change  from  one  body  to  another. 

He  allowed  that  even  Lsaak  Walton  of 
blessed  memory  could  not  have  shown  cause 
for  mitigation  of  tbe  sentence,  if  Bhadam- 
anthus  and  his  colleagues  in  the  court  below 
had  .  .  .  sewed  him  metempsychosized  into  a 
frog  to  the  arming-iron  with  a  fine  needle 
and  silk. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  ccxii. 

Meteor,  applied  to  hail,  &c.  In  the 
second  extract  the  speaker  is  supposed 
to  be  a  man  who  has  been  turned  into 
an  otter. 

Hail,  an  ordinary  meteor,  murrain  of  cattle 
an  ordinary  disease,  yet  for  a  plague  to 
obdurate  Pharaoh  miraculously  wrought. — 
Hall,  Invis.  World,  Bk.  I.  sect.  ii. 

I  have  a  good  warm  coat  about  me  that 
will  last  me  all  my  life  long  without  patch- 
ing or  mending ;  which  kind  of  fences  against 
the  injuries  of  time  and  tyranny  of  the 
meteors,  indulgent  Nature  provides  for  us 
sensitive  creatures  before  we  come  into  the 
world.— Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  13. 


Meteoro8COPE,  instrument  for  ob- 
serving the  heavenly  bodies. 

Meanwhile, 
With  astrolabe  and  meteoroscope, 
I'll  find  the  cusp  and  alfridaria. 

Albumazar,  ii.  5. 

Metopomanct,  divination  from  what 
is  seen  in  a  person's  face :  called  also 
nutoposcopy. 

By  the  arts  of  astrology,  geomancy, 
chiromancy,  metopomancy,  and  others  of  a 
like  stuff  and  nature,  he  foretelleth  all 
things  to  come. —  Urquhart,  Rabelais,  Bk. 
III.  ch.  xxv. 

Metromaniac,  mad  after  metrical 
composition. 

He  seemed  to  have  acquired  the  facility  of 
versification,  and  to  display  it  with  almost 
metromaniac  eagerness. —  W.  Taylor,  Survey 
of  German  Poetry,  L  183. 

Metropolis.  The  extract  is  a  note  of 
Udal's ;  the  true  derivation  is  that 
which  he  rejects  from  urjTtjp\jirj]  rpoc,, 
iroAif. 

The  greke  worde  is  utrrpfaroXtt,  as  if  ye 
shoulde  saye,  the  place  where  all  euils  are 
concerned,  or  from  whence  all  euils  doen 
issue.  For  it  is  compouned  not  of  uirpov 
measuring,  nor  of  furrqp,  *pdt,  mother,  but 
of  unrpa,  urn-pat,  a  matrice,  that  is  to  saie 
the  place  of  concepcion  and  of  issuying. 
And  therof  is  Metropolis  called  the  chief 
citee  where  the  Archbishop  of  any  prouiuce 
hath  his  See,  and  hath  all  the  other  diocesses 
of  that  prouince  subject  to  him,  as  Canter- 
bury and  Torke  here  in  Englande. — UdaCs 
Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  131. 

Metusiast,  one  who  holds  transub- 
stantiation. 

The  Metastasis  and  Papists  . .  believe  the 
substance  of  bread  and  wine  is  so  changed 
into  the  substance  of  Christ  His  Body,  as 
nothing  remaineth  but  the  real  Body  of 
Christ,  besides  the  accidents  of  bread  and 
wine. — Sogers  on  39  Articles,  p.  289. 

Micacious,  sparkling.  L.  has  the 
word  but  only  in  a  literal  sense,  as* con- 
nected with  mica. 

There  is  the  Cyclopean  stile  of  which 
Johnson  is  the  great  example,  the  sparkling 
or  micacious  possessed  by  Hazlitt,  and  much 
affected  in  Reviews  and  Magazines— Southey, 
The  Doctor,  Interchapter  xxii. 

Mice-eyed,  keen-eyed. 

O  for  a  legion  of  mice-eyed  decipherers  and 
calculators  uppon  characters  now  to  augurate 
what  I  mean  by  this.— Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe 
(Harl.  Misc.,  v\.  177). 

Microcephalous,  small-headed,  and 
so,  deficient 


M1CR0L0GY  (  406  ) 


MILIT1ATE 


When  you  have  old  oak  chairs,  a  microce- 
phalous imot  would  know  that  you  must  have 
an  old  oak  table.  —  Black,  Adventures  of  a 
Phaeton,  ch.  zzv. 

Microloqy,  minuteness  about  words ; 

hair-splitting. 

I  like  Eichorn  better  than  Paulas ;  there  is 
less  micrology,  less  tweezering  at  trifles,  in 
his  erudition. —  W.  Taylor  of  Norwich,  1806 
(Life  by  Robberds,  ii.  146). 

Mid,  a  midshipman. 

I  have  written  to  Bedford  to  learn  what 
mids  of  the  Victory  fell  in  that  action. — 
Southey,  Letter*,  1812  (ii.  315). 

Middle,  to  balance  or  compromise. 

And  now  to  middle  the  matter  between 
both,  it  is  a  pity  that  the  man  they  favour 
has  not  that  sort  of  merit  which  a  person  of 
a  mind  so  delicate  as  that  of  Miss  Harlowe 
might  reasonably  expect  in  a  husband.— 
Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  i.  102. 

This  way  of  putting  it  is  middling  the 
matter  between  what  I  have  learned  of  my 
mother's  over-prudent  and  your  enlarged 
notions. — Ibid.  iii.  214. 

Middling  gossip,  a  go-between. 
What  do  you  say  unto  a  middling  gossip 
To  bring  you  ay  together  at  her  lodging? 
Jonson,  Devil  is  an  Ass,  i.  3. 

Middlingness,  mediocrity. 

*'  I  make  it  a  virtue  to  be  content  with  my 
middlingness,"  said  Deronda  smiling ;  "  it  is 
always  pardonable,  so  that  one  does  not  ask 
others  to  take  it  for  superiority.'1 — G.  Eliot, 
Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xxxv. 

M1DLE8S,  without  a  middle.  Sylvester 
speaks  of  the  world  as 

An  unbeginning,  midlesse,  endlesse  Ball.— 
First  day,  first  week,  343. 

Midshipman's  half-pay.  See  extract. 

Tou  fellows  worked  like  bricks,  spent 
money,  and  got  midshipman's  half-pay  (no* 
thing  a-day  and  find  yourself)  and  monkey's 
allowance  (more  kicks  than  halfpence). — C. 
Kingdey,  Letter,  May  1856. 

Midterranean,  Mediterranean. 

Narrow  Mid-terranean  Sea 
Which  from  rich  Europe  parts  poor  Africa. 

Sylvester,  Colonies,  86. 

Miff,  irritated.  The  Diets,  give  it  as 
a  substantive  =  pet  or  quarrel. 

Tou  are  right  about  Burnett,  but  being 
miff  with  him  myself,  I  would  not  plead 
against  him  in  the  least  particular. —  W. 
Taylor,  1802  (Robberds's  Memoir,  i.  447). 

Mignarize,  to  soothe,  treat  gently. 

Men  that  are  sound  in  their  morals,  and  in 
minutes  imperfect  in  their  intellectuals,  are 
best  reclaimed  when  they  are  mignariz'd  and 


stroked  gently. — Hacktt,  Life  of  Williams, 
i.  95. 

Migrant,  one  who  removes  from  one 

place  to  another. 

Your  Grace  has  thrown  open  (for  those 
who  are  denied  admittance  into  the  palaces 
of  Parnassus)  a  cottage  on  its  borders  where 
the  unhappy  migrants  may  be,  if  not  magni- 
ficently, at  least  hospitably,  entertained. — 
Foote,  Dedic.  to  The  Minor. 

Milchy,  milkgiving. 

There,  milchy  goats  come  freely  to  the  Paile, 

Nor  doe  glad  flocks  with  dugs  distended  fail. 

Heath's  Odes  of  Horace,  Epode  16. 

Mild,  pity. 

Then  Progne  phy  for  thee, 
Which  kildst  thine  only  child, 

Phy  on  the  cruel  crabbed  heart 
Which  was  notmovde  with  milde. 
Gascoigne,  Complaint  of  Philomene. 

Milder,  to  moulder. 

Unthankf ull  wretch !    God's  gifts  thus  to 

reject, 
And  maken  nought  of  Nature's  goodly  dower, 
That  milders  still  away  through  thy  neglect. 
H.  More,  Cupid's  Conflict,  st.  15. 

Mildew.  Wedgwood  thinks  that  it 
is  owing  to  its  white  colour  that  mil- 
dew is  connected  with  honey-dew. 

Some  will  have  it  called  Mildew  quasi 
Maldew  or  Ill-dew ;  others  Meldew  or  Honey- 
dew,  as  being  very  sweet  (oh  how  lushious 
and  noxious  is  Flattery !)  with  the  astrins;- 
ency  thereof  causing  an  atrophy  on  [or  f*] 
consumption  in  the  Grain.  His  etymology 
was  peculiar  to  himself,  who  would  have  it 
termed  Mildew,  because  it  grindeth  the  Grain 
aforehand,  making  it  to  dwindle  away  almost 
to  nothing.  —  Fuller,  Worthies,  Middlesex 
(ii.  47). 

Mildewy,  belonging  to  mildew. 

The  damp  mildewy  smell  which  pervades 
the  place  does  not  conduce  in  any  great 
degree  to  their  comfortable  appearance. — 
Sketches  by  Box  (Private  Theatres). 

Milrmarke,  a  milestone. 

London-stone,  which  I  take  to  have  been 
a  milliary  or  milemarke  such  as  was  in  the 
mercate  place  at  Rome. — Holland's  Camden, 
p.  423. 

Militiate.  In  Walpole  =  to  raise 
militia  ;  in  Sterne,  militiating  ==  mili- 
tary. 

We  continue  to  militiate,  and  to  raise  light 
troops,  and  when  we  have  armed  every  ap- 
prentice in  England,  I  suppose  we  shall 
transfer  our  fears  to  Germany.—  Walpole  to 
Mann,  iii.  346  (1758). 

In  the  story  of  my  father  and  his  christen- 
names,  I  had  no  thought  of  treading  upon 


MILK-AND-WATER        (  407  ) 


MILLING 


Francis  the  first,  nor  in  the  affair  of  the 
uose  upon  Francis  the  ninth,  nor  in  the 
character  of  my  uncle  Toby,  of  characterizing 
the  militiating  spirits  of  my  country. — Trist. 
Shandy,  iii.  177. 

Milk-and-water,  feeble ;  insipid. 

What  slays  a  veteran  may  well  lay  a  milk- 
and-water  bourgeois  low. — Reade,  Cloister  and 
Hearth,  ch.  xxvi. 

Milkdame,  foster-nurse,  wet-nurse. 

Shee  speaks  too  Barsen  thee  nurse  of  seallye 

Sichsus, 
For  then  her  owne  mylckdame  in  byrth  soyl 

was  breathles  abyding. 

Stany  hurst,  JEn.,  iv.  681. 

Milk-full,  flowing  with  milk ;  fertile. 

O  hony-dropping  hills  we  yerst  frequented! 
O  milk-full  vales  with  hundred  brooks  in- 
dented ! 
Delicious  gardens  of  deer  Israel ! 

Sylvester,  The  Decoy,  1053. 

Milkmadge,  milkmaid ;  Madge  or 
Margery  being  a  common  female  name. 
At  1.  515,  Stanyliurst  uses  Margery 
for  a  witch. 

Shal  I  now  lyke  a  castaway  milckmadge 
On  mye  woers  formoure  be  fawning? 

Stany  hurst,  JEn.,  iv.  572. 

Milk-meats,  butter,  cheese.  &c. 

Well  then,  compare  ...  a  Jew  abstaining 
from  swine's  flesh,  and  a  Christian  abstain- 
ing from  flesh  and  milk-meats  (lactariis)  on 
Friday. — Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  274. 

Milk-warm,  of  the  temperature  of 
new  milk.  Cf.  extract  s.  v.  Blood- 
warm. 

The  water  is  but  just  milk-ioarm,  so  that 
it  is  no  less  pleasant  to  go  into  than  sanative. 
Defoe,  Tour  thro1  G.  Britain,  iii.  80. 

They  had  baths  of  cool  water  for  the 
summer ;  but  in  general  they  used  it  milk- 
warm. —  Smollett,  France  and  Italy,  Letter 
xxxii. 

Mill,  the  treadmill.     See  quotation 

from  Barham  *.  v.  Nuts. 

**  Was  you  never  on  the  mill  ?  "  <•  What 
mill  ?  "  enquired  Oliver.  "  What  mill  ?  why 
the  mill — the  mill  as  takes  up  so  little  room 
that  it  11  work  inside  a  stone-jug. — Dickens, 
Oliver  Twist,  ch.  viii. 

Mill,  to  heat  up  and  froth. 

They  then  got  up,  and  having  breakfasted 
on  a  pot  of  milled  chocolate,  they  hurried  to 
London. — H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  235. 

Mill,  to  fight ;  also  a  substantive. 

My  lord  related  all  his  feats  in  London, 
how  he  had  been  to  the  watchhouse,  how 
many  bottles  of  champaign  he  had  drunk, 


how  he  had  milled  a  policeman,  &c.  kc.— 
Thackeray,  Shabby  Genteel  Story,  ch.  viii. 

He  had  storm 'd  and  treated  her  ill 
Because  she  refus'd  to  go  down  to  a  mill, 
She  didn't  know  where,  but  remembered  still 

That  the  millet's  name  was  Mendoza. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Now  whether  that  word  hath  origin  in  a 
Greek  term  meaning  a  conflict,  as  the  best- 
read  boys  asseverated,  or  whether  it  is  nothing 
more  than  a  figure  of  similitude  from  the 
beating  arms  of  a  mill,  such  as  I  have  seen 
in  counties  where  are  no  water-brooks,  but 
folk  made  bread  with  wind,  it  is  not  for 
a  man  devoid  of  scholarship  to  determine. 
Enough  that  they  who  made  the  ring  inti- 
tuled the  scene  a  mill,  whilst  we  who  must 
be  thumped  inside  it  tried  to  rejoice  in  their 
pleasantry,  till  it  turned  upon  the  stomach. 
— Blackmore,  lama  Doone,  ch.  ii. 

Mill-ben,  a  housebreaker  (thieves' 
cant). 

The  same  capacity  which  qualifies  a  mill- 
ben,  a  bridle-cull,  or  a  buttock  and  file  to 
arrive  at  any  degrees  of  eminence  in  his  pro- 
fession, would  likewise  raise  a  man  in  what 
the  world  esteem  a  more  honourable  calling. 
—Fielding,  Jonathan  Wild,  Bk.  I.  ch.  v. 

Milldoll,  to  do  work  on  the  tread- 
mill ?  (thieves'  cant). 

Marry  come  up,  good  woman !  the  lady's  a 
—as  well  as  myself,  and  though  I  am  sent 
hither  to  mill-doll,  1  have  money  enough  to 
buy  it  off  as  well  as  the  lady  herself.— Field- 
ing, Amelia,  Bk.  I.  ch.  x. 

Millenarian,  one  who  looks  for  the 
millennium. 

Those  who  endeavour  to  revive  the  fable 
of  the  Millenarians  are  therein  contrary  to 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  cast  themselves 
down  headlong  into  the  Jewish  dotages. — 
Articles  of  Religion,  1552  (Art.  xli.). 

Tour  very  costermonger  trolls  out  his 
belief  that  "there's  a  good  time  coming," 
and  the  hearts  of  gamins  as  well  as  millen- 
arians, answer,  "  True ! n — C.  Kingsley,  Feast. 
ch.  xvu. 

Milliart,  a  milestone. 

London-stone,  which  I  take  to  have  been 
a  milliary  or  milemarke,  such  as  was  in  the 
mercate  place  at  Borne. — Holland's  Camden, 
p.  423. 

Millifold,  thousandfold. 

Yet  ere  he  parts  his  kisses  millifold 
Bewray  his  loue  and  louing  diligence. 

Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  27. 

Milling,  a  thrashing. 

Now  Patrick,  having  fed  his  cattle, 
Brush'd  up  his  breakfast  with  a  battle ; 
Not  such  as  boxing  heroes  try,  * 

To  gain  the  well-paid  victory ; 


MILLIONIST 


(408  ) 


MING 


Or  where  resentment's  rage  fulfilling, 
One  blood  gives  t'other  blood  a  milling. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  c.  ii. 

Millionist,  millionnaire. 

His  revenue  is  less  than  that  of  many  a 
British  peer,  great  commoner,  or  commer- 
cial millionist.  —  Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch. 
ccxxxiii. 

Millionized,  accustomed  to  millions. 

To  our  now  millionized  conceptions  the 
foregoing  accompts  appear  to  be  in  a  very 
moderate  ratio, — Arch.,  xxxiii.  201  (1849). 

Mill-kkn,  a  housebreaker;  men- 
tioned among  other  names  for  thieves 
of  various  sorts  in  The  Nicker  Nicked, 
1669  (Harl.  Misc.,  ii.  108). 

Mill-lbat,  a  stream  that  conveys 

water  to  a  mill.     Cf.  Leat. 

The  spot  ...  is  separated  on  the  north- 
east from  the  high  land  by  the  mill-teat 
which  feeds  the  town  water-mill  at  Ware. — 
ArchaoL,  xxiv.  351  (1832). 

Millocrat,  a  mill-owner;  a  pro- 
minent manufacturer. 

Millocrats  .  .  .  pile  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands, and  acres  upon  acres,  by  the  secret 
mysteries  of  their  wonderful  compound  of 
human  and  divine  machinery. — Mrs.  Trollope, 
Michael  Armstrong,  ch.  ziii. 

Those  manufacturing  fellows the 

true  blood-suckers,  the  venomous  millocrats. 
— Lytton,  Cartons,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iv. 

Millocratism,  government  by  mil- 
locrats, q.  v. 

His  errors  arose  from  intense  sympathy 
with  the  sufferings  he  had  witnessed,  amidst 
the  misery  which  accompanies  the  reign  of 
millocratism. — Lytton,  Caxtons,  Bk.  XIII.  ch. 
iv. 

Mill-tail.     See  extract. 

The  Mill-tail,  or  Floor  for  the  water  below 
the  wheels,  is  wharf ed  up  on  either  side  with 
stone. — Defoe,  Tour  thro*  G.  Britain,  i.  386. 

Milt,  moult  (?). 

Let  men's  beards  milt,  and  women's  bosoms 

bleed; 
Call  forth  my  barbers. 

Pesle,  Edward  J.,  p.  400. 

Milwell.  " Myllewell,  a  sort  of 
fish,  the  same  with  what  in  Lincoln- 
shire is  called  millwyn,  which  Spelman 
renders  green  fish  ;  but  it  was  certainly 
of  a  different  kind."  Kennett,  Paroch, 
Antiq.  Gloss.  (1695). 

The  yellow  ling,  the  milwell  fair  and  white. 
Dennys,  Secrets  of  Angling  (Eng.  Garner, 
*       i.  166). 

Mim,  prim ;  retiring. 


Wenches  are  brought  up  sa  mim  now-a- 
days ;  i'  my  time  they'd  ha'  thought  na'  such 
great  harm  of  a  kiss. — Mrs.  Gaskell,  Sylvia's 
Lovers,  ch.  viii. 

Mimm.  The  original  is  minimos,  a 
humbler  title  than  the  minors.  Fuller 
(see  extracts,  v.  Subter-stjbterlativk) 
wonders  that  none  of  the  friars  in  their 
affected  humility  had  founded  an  order 
of  Minor  minimos  :  according  to  Eras- 
mus, but  he  is  perhaps  joking,  there 
was  some  such  title. 

Some  will  be  called  cordeliers,  and  these 
subdivided  into  capuchines,  minors,  mimms, 
and  mendicants. — Kennct 's  Erasm.,  Praise  of 
Folly,  p.  112. 

MlNDE-PARTS,  8enS08. 

He  (thinking  his  daughter's  little  wits  had 
quite  left  her  great  nowl)  began  to  take  her 
in  his  arms ;  thinking  perchance  her  feeling 
sense  might  call  her  mtnde  parts  unto  her. — 
Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  407. 

Mineless,  without  a  mine. 

There,  without  stroak,  to  conquer  in   the 

field, 
And  mineless  make  their  tumbling  wals  to 

yield. — Sylvester,  Little  Bartas,  866. 

Mineralogize,  to  collect  or  study 
minerals. 

He  was  botanizing  or  mineralogizina  with 
OToole's  chaplain. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Ennui, 
ch.  xi. 

Miner val,  a  gift  from  a  scholar  to  a 
master. 

The  chief  Minerval  which  he  bestowed 
upon  that  Society  was  the  structure  of  a 
most  goodly  library,  the  best  iu  that  kind  in 
all  Cambridge.— Racket,  Life  of  Williams,  i. 
96. 

Ming,  to  mention.  N.  gives  the 
word  in  the  sense  of  "to  mi*;"  and 
then,  giving  the  first  quotation,  adds, 
"  Hall  seems  to  use  it  for  to  mention, 
but  it  may  mean,  to  mix  in  conversa- 
tion." The  second  extract  from  the 
same  writer,  however,  shows  that  he 
used  it  for  "  to  mention ; "  and  Mr. 
Singer  states,  "The  word  was  in  use  iD 
Northamptonshire  in  the  times  of  Ray 
and  Lye. 

Could  never  man  work  thee  a  worser  shame, 
Than    once    to    minge  thy  father's  odious 
name.-M,  Sat.  IV.  ii.  80 

Meanwhile  the  memory  of  his  mighty  name 
Shall  live  as  long  as  aged  earth  shall  last : 

Enrolled  on  the  beryl  walls  of  fame, 

Aye  mimfd,  aye  mourn 'd. — Ibid.,  Elegy  on 

Dr.  Whitaher.  w 


MINIFY 


(  409  ) 


MINX 


Minify,  to  make  little. 

Is  man  magnified  or  minified  by  consider- 
ing himself  as  tinder  the  influence  of  the 
heavenly  bodies? — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch. 
197. 

Minikin,  properly,  a  lute  string.    See 

H.,  8.  v. 

Sir  Francis  answered  him  with  the  old 
simile,  that  his  Lordship  was  no  good  musician, 
for  he  would  peg  the  minikin  so  high  that  it 
cracked. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  147. 

This  day  Mr.  Caesar  told  me  a  pretty  ex- 
periment of  his,  of  angling  with  a  minnikin, 
a  gut-string  varnished  over,  which  keeps  it 
from  swelling,  and  is  beyond  any  hair  for 
strength  and  smallness.  —  Pepys,  March  18, 
1667. 

Minimificence,  little  doings ;  op- 
posed to  magnificence. 

When  all  your  magnificences  and  my 
minimificences  are  finished,  then  ....  1  fear 
we  shall  begin  others. —  Walpole,  Letters,  ii. 
122  (1759). 

Miniminess,  extreme  smallness. 
And  re  wee,  referring  to  what  is  said 
about  Bethlehem  in  Micah  v.  2,  and  St. 
Matthew  ii.  6,  says  that  the  prophet's 
word  parvula  (Vulgate)  is  turned  by 
the  Evangelist  into  minima;  from  this 
he  coins  the  term  in  the  extract ;  for, 
after  naming  certain  fitnesses  in  the 
selection  of  Bethlehem  as  the  birth- 
place of  our  Lord,  he  adds, 

But  these,  though  they  agree  well,  yet 
none  of  them  so  well  as  tins,  that  it  was 
minima — the  very  miniminess,  as  1  may  say, 
of  it. — Andrewes,  i.  160. 

Minion,  a  small  gun. 

Then  let  us  bring  our  light  artillery, 
Minions,  falc'nets,  and  sakers  to  the  trench. 

Marlowe,  II.  Tomb.  iii.  3. 

Misionette,  delicate;  effeminate. 

Last  night  at  Vauxhall  his  minionette  face 
seemed  to  be  sent  to  lauguish  with  Lord  K. 
Bertie's.—  Walpole,  Letters,  i.  205  (1749). 

Minionise,  to  favour ;  Da  vies  is 
speaking  of  the  Apostles  as  the  minions 
of  our  Lord. 

Tou  did  none  other  than  His  Minions  did, 
Whom,  of  base  groomes,  His  grace  did  min- 

ionize, 
Tet  in  His  trouble  all  their  heads  they  hid. 

Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  26. 

Ministello,  a  poor,  petty  minister. 

What  pitiful  Ministellos,  what  pigmy  Pres- 
byters, what  plebeian  Preachers  this  nation 
in  after-ages  is  like  to  have ! — Gauden,  Tears 
of  the  Church,  p.  194. 

Ministbator,  administrator. 


Having  a  reverence  for  so  much  as  is  called 
the  law,  and  the  ministrators  of  it  in  that 
time,  I  thought  it  reasonable  to  bid  defiance 
to  this  bold  traducer,  and  turning  turn  round 
shew  his  canvass  back.  —  North,  Examen, 
p.  74. 

Ministry.  See  quotation.  "That 
time  "=  time  of  Charles  II. 

To  shew  an  instance  of  the  author's  tack- 
ing the  terms  used  of  late  to  the  affairs  of 
that  time,  .  .  .  I  must  tell  him  that  the 
word  Ministry  was  not  then  in  use,  but 
Counsellors  or  Courtiers.  For  the  King  him- 
self then  took  so  much  upon  him,  that  the 
ministers  had  not  that  aggregate  title,  as 
if  the  Government  had  been  but  a  Party, 
and  the  ministers  swayed  it  as  they  were 
disposed  to  favour  or  to  frown.  —  North, 
Examen,  p.  69. 

Minorative.     See  quotation. 

I  let  pass  how  for  a  minorative  or  gentle 
potion  he  took  four  hundred  pound  weight 
of  colophoniac  scaramony. — Urguhart's  Rabe- 
lais, Bk.  II.  ch.  33. 

Minorite,  an  inferior  or  subordinate. 

For  a  better  colour  to  make  licentious 
invectives,  the  Bespondent  takes  no  notice 
that  a  Bishop  wrote  the  letter :  for  why  not 
rather  some  minor ite  among  the  clergy? — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  102. 

Minsical,  delicate. 

A  certain  shee  creature,  which  wee  shep- 
herds call  a  woman,  of  a  minsical  counten- 
ance.— Sidney,  Wanstead  Play,  p.  619. 

Minth,  mint. 

The  primrose,  and  the  purple  hyacinth, 
The  dainty  violet,  and  the  wholesome  minth. 
Peele,  Arraignment  of  Paris,  I.  i. 

Minutary,  precise  to  a  minute  or 
tittle. 

In  such  no  mortal  man  can  assign  the 
minutary  juncture  of  time,  when  preparing 
grace  (which  cleared  the  ground)  ended,  and 
saving  grace  (which  finish 'd  the  fabrick  of 
conversion)  did  first  begin. — Puller,  Ch.  Hist., 
III.  Dedication. 

Minute-men.    See  quotation. 

An  account  is  come  of  the  Bostonians 
having  voted  an  army  of  sixteen  thousand 
men,  who  are  to  be  called  minute-men,  as 
they  are  to  be  ready  at  a  minute's  warning. 
—  Walpole,  Letters,  iv.  2  (1775). 

Minx,  a  lap-dog;  now  applied  (like 
bitch)  as  a  term  of  reproach  to  a  woman. 
Sylvester  (The  Captaines,  386)  has 
Minks  as  the  proper  name  of  a  dog ;  in 
that  case,  however,  it  is  a  gray-bitch. 

There  are  tye  dogs  or  mastifes  ft  r  keep- 
inge  of  houses;  there  ben  litle  minns  or 
pupees  that  ladies  keepe  in  their  cbaumbers 
for  especial  jewels  to  playe  withal.  .  . .  When 


MIP 


(  410  )  MI  SCONCE  IT 


I  am  hungry  I  am  a  title  mynxe  f  ul  of  playe, 
and  when  my  bealy  is  full  a  mastife.—  UdaTs 
Erasmus1*  Apophth.,  p.  143. 

Mip.  H.  gives  this  as  a  nymph,  but 
in  the  extract  Furor  and  Phantasm  a, 
who  are  addressed,  are  of  the  mascu- 
line gender. 

Come,  brave  mips,  gather  up  your  spirits, 
and  let  us  march  on  like  adventurous 
knights.  —  Return  from  Parnassus,  Hi.  4 
(1006). 

Mire,  to  wonder. 

Heere  but  alas  he  myred  what  course  may 
be  warelye  taken. — Stanyhurst,  ^En.f  iv.  292. 

Mirific,  marvel-making. 

In  the  space  of  very  few  years  you  should 
be  sure  to  see  the  sancts  much  thicker  in 
the  roll,  more  numerous,  wonder-working, 
and  mirific. —  Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  III. 
ch.  iv. 

Misachievement,  wrong-doing. 

Let  them  sink  in  obscurity  that  hope  to 
swim  in  credit  by  such  mis-atchievements. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Cornwall  (i.  209). 

Misact,  to  act  or  represent  badly. 

The  player  that  mi  sad  s  an  inferior  and 
unnoted  part  carries  it  away  without  cen- 
sure.— Adams,  i.  391. 

Misadventurous,  unfortunate. 

He  was  bent  upon  the  search  of  his  misad- 
venturous adventures. — Jarvis's  Don  Quixote, 
Pt.  II.  Bk.  II.  ch.  i. 

1  feared 
The  tidings  of  our  misadventurous  synod 
Augured  but  ill  for  both  of  you. 

Taylor,  Edwin  the  Fair,  iv.  1. 

Misadvertence,  carelessness,  want  of 
attention. 

And  once  by  misadvertence  Merlin  sat 
In  his  own  chair,  and  so  was  lost. 

Tennyson,  Holy  Grail. 

Misanthropos.  This  word  is  used 
by  Shakespeare  (Timon  of  Athens,  iv. 
3),  and  the  second  extract  would  seem 
to  show  that  in  1660  it  had  not  then 
been  Anglicised.  The  earliest  instance 
of  misanthrope  given  in  the  Diets,  is 
from  Swift. 

Defye  them  all.    finravdpturoi 

And  sqynteyd  monsters  ryght 
They  are. 

A.  NevyU,  Verses  prefixed 
to  Gooae's  Eylogs. 

Sir,  I  am  grown  a  tru  misanthropos,  a 
hater  of  men. — Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p. 
131. 

Misavkr,  to  assert  wrongly. 


Job  hath  mis-averrd. 
And,  wide  of  Wisdome,  his  discourse  hath 
err'd. 

Sylvester,  Job  Triumphant,  iv.  215. 

Miscall,  to  abuse:    the  distinction 

marked  by  Fuller  is  worth  noting.     Cf . 

Spenser,  F.  Queene,  IV.  iv.  24. 

I  admire  much  that  Matthew  of  West- 
minster writeth  him  [Walter  de  Wenlock] 
William  de  Wenlock,  and  that  a  Monk  of 
Westminster  should  (though  not  mt'scaff) 
mis-name  the  Abbot  thereof. — Fuller,  Wor- 
thies, Salop  (ii.  257). 

Miscape,  to  let  forth  inadvertently. 

Not  one  day  of  all  my  lyfe,  no,  not  one 
houre  I  trow,  was  so  truely  expended  to  the 
pleasure  of  God,  but  many  deeds,  words,  and 
thoughtes  miscajped  me  in  my  lyfe. — Bp. 
Fisher,  Sermons,  1.  359. 

Miscensure,  misjudge :  also,  a  sub- 
stantive. 

Pardon  us,  Antiquitie,  if  we  miscensure 
your  actions,  which  are  ever  (as  those  of 
men)  according  to  the  vogue  and  sway  of 
times. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  101. 

Therefore,  my  Friends,  return,  recant,  recall 
Tour  hard  opinions,  and  mis-Censures  all. 

Sylvester,  Job  Triumphant,  ii.  162. 

Mischancy,  unlucky. 

If  ever  I  should  be  so  mischancy  as  to 
last  so  long  as  Ghysbrecht  did  . . .  I'll  thank 
and  bless  any  young  fellow  who  will  knock 
me  on  the  head. — Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth, 
ch.  xix. 

Mischiefful,  mischievous. 

Ah !  many's  the  merry  freak  we  have  had ! 
for  this  I  must  say,  though  Mat  was  but 
bad  at  his  book,  for  mischiefful  matters  there 
wasn't  a  more  ingenious,  cuterer  lad  in  the 
school.— Foote,  The  Nabob,  Act  III. 

Miscoloured,  wrongly  coloured,   or 

represented. 

There  was  a  £rand  half-truth  distorted 
and  miscoloured  in  the  words,  that  silenced 
me  for  the  time. — C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke, 
ch.  xxxiii. 

Miscommit,  to  do  amiss. 

Remit,  o  Lord,  what  I  have  ill  omitted ; 
Remove  (alas !)  what  I  have  mis-committed. 
Sylvester,  Job  Triumphant,  i.  518. 

Miscomplain,  to  complain  wrongly. 

Therefore  doth  Job  open  his  mouth  in  vain, 
And  voyd  of  knowledge  vet,  yet  mis-com- 
plain.— Sylvester,  Job  Triumphant,  iv.  256. 

Misconceit,  to  misconceive. 

If  you  would  not  misconceit  that  I  studi- 
ously intended  your  defamation,  you  shoulde 
have  thicke  haile-shot  of  these. — Nashe,  Len- 
ten Stuff  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  180). 


MISCONSTRUABLE      (  4"  ) 


MIS-KEEP 


Misconstruable,  capable  of  mis- 
construction. 

If  he  had  been  taken  up  as  a  presupposed 
prostitute  oat  of  the  goal  without  any  dis- 
covery leading  to  him,  it  had  been  miscon- 
struabU,  but  not  when  there  was  express 
proof  that  he  was  concerned. — North,  Ex~ 
amen,  p.  113. 

Discontentment,  discontent. 

I  here  no  specialte  of  the  Kinges  Majestes 
ntyscontentement  in  this  matter  or  landes,  but 
confusely  that  my  doinges  should  not  be 
wel  taken.  —  Bp.  Gardiner  to  Paget,  1546 
(Jfaitland  on  Be/.,  p.  332). 

Miscreation,  wrong  or  distorted 
making. 

Great  dirty  warrens  of  houses,  miscalled 
cities,  peopled  with  savages  and  imps  of  our 
own  misertation. — C.  KingsUy,  1871  {Life,  ii. 
277). 

Miscredit,  to  disbelieve. 

The  miscredited  Twelve  hasten  back  to  the 
chateau  for  an  answer  in  writing. — Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  VII.  ch.  vii. 

Misdain,  to  misdeem  ;  misrepresent. 

None  but  papistes  or  traytors  can  justly 
accuse  them  of  treason  or  disobedience ;  of 
whom  to  be  misdained  or  slandered  is  in  the 
eyes  of  the  godly  no  small  commendation 
and  prayse. — Goodman,  1555  (Maitland  on 
Reformation,  p,  122). 

Misdoom,  to  misjudge. 

Know,  there  shall  Judgment  com 
To  doom  them  right  who  others  (rash)  mis* 
doom. — Sylvester,  Job  Triumphant,  ii.  287. 

Mis-eating,  wrongful  eating. 

So  that  th'  old  yeers  renewed  generations 
Cannot  asswage  his  venging  indignations, 
Which  haue  no  other  ground  to  prosecute 
But  the  miseating  of  a  certain  fruit. 

Sylvester,  The  Imposture,  497. 

Misenroll,  to  enroll  wrongly. 

To  say  thou  wast  the  forme  (that  is  the  soule) 
Of  all  this  all,  I  should  thee  mistnroule 
In  booke  of  life. 

Davits,  Musis  Sacrifice,  p.  64. 

Misepiscopist,  a  hater  of  bishops  or 
of  episcopacy.    Cf.  Misoclebe. 

Those  misepiscopists  .  . .  envied  and  denyed 
that  honour  to  this  or  any  other  Bishops. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  640. 

Miserable,  a  wretch. 

His  lordship,  .  .  .  where  he  saw  reason, 
inclined  to  assist  the  miserables.  —  North, 
Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  314. 

lis  a  cruel  journey  to  send  a  few  miser- 
ables. — Sterne,  Ant.  Journey,  Montriul. 

Hundreds  of  orphans  and  widows,  and 
other   miserables,  perish  for  want  of   the 


sustenance  which  one  infernal  appetite  de- 
vours without  remorse. — H.  Brooke,  Fool  of 
Quality,  i.  371. 

Misfaith,  mistrust. 

A  woman  and  not  trusted,  doubtless  I 
Might  feel  some  sudden  turn  of  anger  born 
Of  your  misfaith. 

Tennyson,  Merlin  and  Vivian. 

Mis-fate,  misfortune. 

Be  mute  that  list  and  muzzle  they  their  stile, 
On  whom  his  Bounty  never  daign'd  to  smile, 
Were  't  throw  their  own  misfate  in  having 

none, 
Or,  having  Vertues,  not  to  have  them  known. 
Sylvester,  Panaretus,  1405. 

Mis  fond,  foolishly  fond.  Sylvester 
(Little  Bartas,  822)  says  that  kings 
ought  to  protect  their  subjects  "  with- 
out mufond  affection." 

Misfortunate,  unfortunate. 

We  were  the  poorest  of  all,  madam,  and 
have  been  misfortunate  from  the  beginning. 
—Mad.  D'Arblay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  I.  ch.  ix. 

My  master  aware, 
If  he  should  lose  the  day,  the  cause  should 

lie 
In  that  misfortunate  wasting  of  his  strength 
By  sending  aid  to  Ypres. 

Taylor,  Ph.  van  Art.,  Pt.  II.  iv.  4. 

Misgestured,  awkward  or  careless 
in  outward  bearing. 

The  God  of  spirits  doth  most  respect  the 
soule  of  our  devotion,  yet  it  is  both  vnman- 
nerly  and  irreligious  to  be  misgestured  in 
our  prayers. — Hall,  Contemjylotions  (Foyle  of 
Amalek). 

Mis-heed,  carelessness.  See  another 
example    from    Sylvester    8.  v.    Un- 

HALLOW-WASHED. 

But  I  think  better  not  be  borne, 
Or,  born,  hence  quickly  to  return 

To  our  Mother's  dusty  lap ; 
Than  living,  daily  here  to  dye, 
In  cares,  and  feares,  and  miserie, 

By  Mis-heed,  or  by  Mis-hap. 

Sylvester,  Map  of  Man,  312. 

Misintelligence,  wrong  information. 

Mr.  Lort  was  certainly  misinformed  ...  I 
showed  one  or  two  of  them  to  a  person  since 
my  recovery,  who  may  have  mentioned  them, 
and  occasioned  Mr.  Lort's  misintelligence. — • 
Walpole,  Letters,  iv.  151  (1779). 

Mis-keep,  to  keep  wrongly.  Cf. 
Eccles.v.  13,  "  riches  kept  for  the  own- 
era  thereof  to  their  hurt. ' 

Goods  are  great  Us  to  those  that  cannot  use 

them; 
Misers   mis~keep,  and    Prodigals  mis-spend 

them. 
Sylvester,  Memorials  of  Mortalitie,  st.  75. 


MISLIGHT 


(  412  )     M1SRESEMBLANCE 


Mislight,  to  light  wrongly,  to  lead 
by  a  false  light. 

No  Will  o'  th'  Wispe  mislight  thee ; 
Nor  snake  or  slow-worme  bite  thee. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  232. 

Mislikeness,  bad  likeness. 

This  countenance,  such  as  it  is, 
So  oft  by  rascally  mislikenesa  wrong'd. 

Southey,  To  A.  Cunningham, 

Mislike  with,  to  dislike ;  disapprove 

of. 

Wise  and  graue  men  doe  naturally  mislike 
with  all  sodaine  innouations,  specially  of 
lawes. — Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  II.  ch. 
xui. 

Misliveb,  an  evil  liver. 

Therefore  as  mislyuers  obstinate, 
Tbey  were  destroyed  nowe  of  late 
With  pestilence  and  dent  of  sworde. 

Roy  and  Harlow,  Rede  me  and 
be  nott  wroth,  p.  121. 

M18LOCATION,  misplacement.  Fuller, 
inserting  Sir  W.  Windsor  among  the 
Bucks  Worthies,  says,  "  I  am  confident 
herein  is  no  mislocation,"  (i.  141). 

Misluck,  to  meet  with  bad  fortune  \ 

to  miscarry.* 

They  are  to  ride  by  two  different  roads 
towards  Bohemia,  that  if  one  misluck,  there 
may  still  be  another  to  make  terms. — Carlyle, 
Misc.,  iv.  343. 

Mis-manners,  ill  breeding. 

I  hope  your  honour  will  excuse  my  mis- 
manners  to  whisper  before  yon  ;  it  was  only 
to  give  some  orders  about  the  family. —  Van- 
brughy  The  Relapse,  iv.  1. 

Mismate,  to  mismatch. 

Be  not  too  wise, 
Seeing  that  ye  are  wedded  to  a  man, 
Not  all  mismated  with  a  yawning  clowu. 
Tennyson,  Geraiwt  and  Enid. 

Misoclere,  clergy-hating.     Cf.  Mis- 

EPISC0P1ST. 

King  Henry  the  sixth  acted  herein  by 
some  misoclere  courtiers  sent  this  Archbishop 
for  a  new  year's  gift  a  shred -pie  indeed, 
as  containing  pieces  of  cloath  and  stuff  of 
several  sorts  and  colours,  in  jeer  because  his 
father  was  a  taylor. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.  IV. 
iii.  11. 

MtsooRAMMATisT,  hater  of  letters  or 
learning. 

Wat  Tyler  .  .  being  a  Misogrammatist  (if 
a  good  Greek  word  may  be  given  to  so  bar- 
barous a  rebel)  bated  every  man  that  could 
write  or  read. — Puller,  Worthies,  Suffolk  (U. 
341). 

Mispaint,  to  paint  wrongly. 


In  the  details,  lucent  often  with  fine 
colour,  and  dipt  in  beautiful  sunshine,  there 
are  several  things  misseen,  untrue,  which  is 
the  worst  species  of  mispainting. — Carlyle, 
Life  of  Sterling,  Pt.  II.  ch.  v. 

Mispatch,  having  patches  in  wrong 
places. 

Now  and  then  flitted  in,  to  the  number  of 
half-a-dozen  or  more  by  turns,  subordinate 
sinners  .  .  wiuking  and  pinking,  mispatcherl* 
▼awning,  stretching.  —  Richardson,  CI.  H*r- 
lowe,  viii.  158. 

Misplead,  to  plead  wrongly. 

Perhaps  the  mispleading  of  a  word  shall 
forfeit  all.— Adams,  ii.  482. 

Mispolicy,  wrong  policy ;  in  the  ex- 
tract it  seems  to  mean  disaffection. 

Any  man  may  graduate  in  the  schools  of 
Irreligion  and  Mispolicy,  if  he  have  a  glib 
tongue  and  a  brazen  forehead. — Southey,  Th* 
Doctor,  ch.  xcvi. 

Mispdnctuate,  to  stop  wrongly. 

The  writer  who  neglects  punctuation,  or 
mis-punctuates,  is  liable  to  be  misunderstood. 
— E.  A.  Poe,  Marginalia,  V. 

Mispursdit,  a  wrong  or  mistaken 
pursuit. 

The  constant  gist  of  his  discourse  was 
lamentation  over  the  sunk  condition  of  the 
world,  which  he  recognised  to  be  given  up 
to  Atheism  and  Materialism,- full  of  mere 
sordid  misbeliefs,  mispursuits,  and  miaresnlts. 
— Carlyle,  Life  of  Sterling,  ch.  viii. 

Misreper,  to  refer  or  report  wrongly. 

For  how  can  humane  wisdome  chuse  but 

erre, 
When  all  hir  science  comes  from  th*  outward 

senses, 
Which  oft  misapprehend  and  missereferre, 
And  so  betrays  our  best  intelligences. 

Dames,  Mirum  in  Modum,  p.  12. 

Misreflect,  to  reflect  wrongly;  mis- 
represent. 

To   the   censorious  world  who,  like    false 

glasses, 
Mingling  their  own  irregular  figures, 
Misreflect  the  object,  I  shall  appear 
Some  sinful  woman,  sold  to  infamy. 

Tuke,  Adventures  of  Five  Hours,  Act  IV. 

Misreporter,  one  who  reports 
wrongly. 

We  find  yon  shameful  liars  and  mis- 
reporters. — Philpot,  p.  115. 

I  am  glad  to  see  you,  Mr.  Belford,  said 
she ;  I  must  say  so,  let  misrevorters  say  what 
they  will.— Richardson,  C7.  Harlqwe,  viL  264. 

Misresemblance,  bad  likeness. 

The  gallery 
Of  the  Dutch  Poet's  mtsresemMances. 

Southey,  To  A,  Cunningham, 


MISRESULT 


(  4i3) 


MISS  W A  Y 


Misresult,  a  wrong  or  mistaken  re- 
sult.    See  extract  *.  v.  Mxspubsuit. 

Missal,  a  missive. 

As  the  Puritans  were  encouraged  to  this 
separation  by  the  Missals  and  decretory 
Letters  of  Theodore  Beza,  .  .  so  were  the 
Papists  animated  to  their  defection  by  a 
Bull  of  Pope  Pius  the  Fifth.— Hey  tin's  Hist, 
of  the  Presbyterians,  p.  261. 

Miss- answer,  failure. 

He  that  after  the  misse-answer  of  the  one 
talent,  would  not  trust  the  euill  seruant  with 
a  second,  because  Hee  saw  a  wilful  neglect, 
will  trust  Moses  with  his  second  Law  because 
Hee  saw  fidelitie  in  the  worst  errour  of  his 
zeale. — Hall, Contemplations  ( Vaylt  of  Moses). 

Missatical,  pertaining  to  the  mass. 

He  profess'd  open  adherence  to  the 
Romish  Church,  and  did  not  renounce  the 
missatical  corruption  of  their  priesthood. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  101. 

Missee,  to  take  a  wrong  view :  see 
another  example  from  the  same  author 
*.  v.  Mispaint. 

Herein  he  fundamentally  mistook,  mis-saw, 
and  so  miswent,  poor  Prince,  in  all  manner 
of  ways. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  236. 

Mis-sense,  misunderstand.  Sylvester 
has  the  word  as  a  substantive  dedicating 
Honour's  Farewell  to  certain  noble 
persons  "  without  Offence,  without 
Mis-tense,  or  Blame/' 

The  false  prophets  . . .  caused  the  people 
not  only  to  mislike  the  gospel  of  Christ  that 
they  had  received  at  St.  Paul's  hand,  but  also 
to  mis-sense  the  sacraments. — Jewel,  i.  3. 

Mis-sentence,  wrong  sentence. 

That  mis-sentence  which  pronounced  by  a 
plain  and  understanding  man  would  appear 
most  gross  and  palpable,  by  their  colours, 
quotations,  and  wrenches  of  the  law  would 
be  made  to  pass  for  current  and  specious. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  72. 

Mission,  to  send  or  commission. 

Me  Allah  and  the  Prophet  mission  here. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  V. 

Lamia 


Missioned  her  viewless  servants. 

Keats,  Lamia,  Pt.  II. 

General  Belgrano  with  a  force  of  a  thousand 
men  missioned  by  Buenos  Ayres  came  up  the 
river.— Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  274. 

MissisH,  affected  ;  sentimental.  Cf . 
Missy. 

But,  Lizzy,  you  look  as  if  you  did  not  en- 

ioy  it.    Ton  are  not  going  to  be  missish,  I 
iope,  and  pretend  to  be  affronted  at  an  idle 


report. — Miss  Austen,  Pride  and  Prejudice, 
ch.  lvii. 

How  grieved  I  am  you  do  not  like  my 
heroine's  name;  the  prettiest  in  nature!  I 
remember  how  many  people  did  not  like 
that  of  Evelina,  and  called  it  affected  and 
missish  till  they  read  the  book.  —  Mad. 
D'Arblay,  Diary,  vi.  47. 

Miss-maze,  a  labyrinth.  "I  was  all 
of  a  mizmaze  "=  1  was  all  in  bewilder- 
ment (Parish's  Sussex  Glossary). 

Patterne  of  Vice,  and  Mould  of  Vanitie, 
Made  of  the  Molde  that  marres  whatere  it 
makes; 
Error's  misse-maze,  where  lost  is  Veritie, 
Or  blinded  so,  that  still  wrong  course  it 
takes. — Davits,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  10. 

Misspeak,  to  blame  or  calumniate. 

JEn  .  .  Ah,  shepherds,  you  bin  full  of  wiles, 

and  whet  your  wits  on  books, 
And  rape  poor  maids  with  pipes  and  songs 

and  sweet  alluring  looks. 
Dig  .  Mi sspeak  not  all  for  hir  amiss;  there 

bin  that  keepen  flocks, 
That  never  chose  but  once,  nor  yet  beguiled 

love  with  mocks. 

Pede,  Arraignment  of  Paris,  III.  i. 

Who  but  mis-speaks  of  Thee,  hee  spets  at 
Heaven. — Sylvester,  The  Decay,  616. 

Missucceed,  to  turn  out  ill.     R  has 

missuccess,  with  extract  from  Bp.  Hall. 

Miscarriages  in  his  Government  (many  by 
mismanaging,  more  by  the  missucceeding  of 
matters)  exposed  him  [Richard  II.]  to  just 
exception. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Lincoln  (ii.  7). 

Missuit,  to  suit  ill. 

That  Robe  of  Power,  which  those  doth  much 

mis-suit, 
Who  have  not  on  rare  Vertue's  richest  Suit. 

Sylvester,  St.  Lewis,  585. 
He  will  not  swagger  nor  boast 

Of  his  country's  meeds,  in  a  tone 
Missuiting  a  great  man  most 

If  such  should  speak  of  his  own. 
Mrs.  Browning,  Napoleon  III.  in  Italy. 

Missummation,  misreckoning,  mis- 
take in  adding  up. 

An  inroad  on  the  strongbox,  or  an  erasure 
in  the  ledger,  or  a  mis-summation  in  a  fitted 
account,  could  hardly  have  surprised  him 
more  disagreeably. — Scott,  Bob  Boy,  i.  24. 

Missure,  mission. 

This  current  parts  itself  into  two  rivulets 
— a  commission,  a  commixtion  :  the  missure, 
'*  I  send  you,"  the  mixture,  "  as  lambs  among 
wolves." — Adams,  ii.  110. 

Mis- sway,  to  misrule. 

Omitting  other  Princes,  to  descend 
To  the  first  Edward,  that  did  just  refine 


MISSY 


(  4H  ) 


M1XTIF0RM 


This  Common-weale,  and  made  the  same 
ascend 
When  through  mis-swaying  it  seem'd  to 
decline. — Davits,  Microcosmos,  p.  60. 

Missy,  sentimental;  young-ladyish. 
Gf.  Missish. 

Her  ladyship,  I  am  convinced,  has  too 
much  discrimination,  and  values  herself  too 
highly  to  make  such  a  missy  match. — Miss 
Edueworth,  Vivian,  ch.  xiii. 

You  cannot,  I  conceive,  satisfy  yourself 
with  the  common  namby-pamby  little  missy 
phrase,  **  ladies  have  nothing  to  do  with 
politics." — Ibid.,  Helen,  ch.  xxviii. 

Mistkll,  to  miscount. 

Their  prayers  are  by  the  dozen,  when  if 
they  miss-tell  one,  they  thinke  all  the  rest 
lost. — Breton,  Strange  Neves,  p.  5. 

And  that  Bizanttan  Prince  that  did  miss-tell 
A  four-fould  Essence  in  the  onely  One. 
Sylvester,  Triumph  of  Faith,  c.  i.  st.  xxxv. 

Mistitlb,  to  describe  "wrongly. 

Who  then  will  venture  to  declare 
That  man's  mistitled  sorrow's  heir? 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  xxi. 

Mistless,  free  from  mist. 

How  soft  are  the  nights  of  the  continent ! 
How  bland,  balmy,  safe!  No  sea-fog;  no 
chilling  damp ;  mistless  as  noon,  and  fresh  as 
morning. — Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  adv. 

Mistradition,  wrongful  tradition. 

My  faith  would  seem 
Dead  or  half-drown  'd,  or  else  swam  heavily] 
Against  the  huge  corruptions  of  the  Church, 
Monsters  of  mistradition,  old  enough 
To  scare  me  into  dreaming, *•  What  am  I, 
Cranmer,  against  whole  ages  ?  " 

Tennyson,  Queen  Mary,  iv.  2. 

Mistral,  see  extract. 

Did  you  ever  hear  of  a  mistral  ?  It  is  on 
this  wise.  The  whole  of  the  air  between  the 
Alps  and  Pyrenees  rushes  into  the  Mediter- 
ranean from  north-west — a  three  or  four 
days'  gale,  with  a  bright  blue  sky,  cold  wind, 
parchiug  and  burning,  with  not  dust  merely 
but  gravel  flying  till  the  distances  are  aa 
thick  as  in  an  English  north-easter.  It  is 
a  fearful  wind,  and  often  damages  crops 
severely;  but  they  say  it  is  healthy  and 
bracing. — C.  Kingsley,  1864  {Life,  ii.  178). 

Mistreat,  to  ill-treat. 

A  poor  mistreated  democratic  beast. 

Southey,  Nondescripts,  iv. 

Mistress,  to  become  mistress  of. 
Cf.  Master,  which  is  in  common  use. 

This  one  is  a  first-rate  gilder,  she  mistressed 
it  entirely  in  three  days. — Reade,  Never  too 
late  to  Mend,  ch.  zlii. 


Mistressly,  pertaining  to  the  mistress 

of  a  household. 

Will  he  take  from  me  the  mistressly  man- 
agement, which  I  had  not  faultily  dis- 
charged?— Richardson,  CI.  HarUnoe,  i.  298. 

M18U8ANCE,  misusage. 

The  clients  at  the  bar  had  studied  the  good 
nature  of  this  Lord,  and  presaged  that  after 
he  had  chafed  at  their  misusanee,  they  might 
promise  to  themselves  a  good  cast  of  his 
office  long  before  the  sun  set. — Hacket,  Life 
of  Williams,  i.  202. 

Mis-waste,  to  lavish  foolishly. 

Their  Health,  Wealth,  Wit,  misvasted, 
Are  but  as  blossoms  blasted. 

Sylvester,  Spectacles,  st.  viii. 

Mis-word,  a  cross,  wrong,  or  awk- 
ward word ;  still  used  in  Sussex  and 
Surrey. 

That  form  of  rule  is  a  right  comon-weal, 
Where  all  the  people  haue  an  enter-deal : 
Where  (without  aw  or  law)  the  tyrant's 

sword 
Is  not  made  drunk  with  blond  for  a  miss- 
word. — Sylvester,  The  Captaines,  1015. 
I  haue  receiued  your  snappish  letter, 
whereby  I  see  you  are  more  angry  then  I 
thought  you  would  haue  beene  for  a  mis- 
word  or  two.  —  Breton,  Packet  of  Letters, 
p.  23. 

Miter,  top  (?)  ;  as  mitre  is  a  head- 
covering. 

For  like  as  in  a  limbeck  th'  heat  of  fire 
Baiseth    a    vapour,  which    still    mounteth 

higher 
To  the  still's  top ;  when  th*  odoriferous  sweat 
Above  that  miter  can  no  further  get, 
It  softly  thickning  falleth  drop  by  drop. 
Sylvester,  third  day,  first  treekc,  138. 

Mitigatory,  extenuation. 

Now  he  is  grown  milder,  and  with  much 
moderation  concerned  for  the  poor  sufferers  ; 
he  talks  of  hard  usages,  and  straining  points 
of  law  in  cases  of  life,  and  such  mitigatories. 
— North,  Examen,  p.  316. 

Mixible,  capable  of  mingling. 

Mizion  vnites  things  mixible  by  change, 
Or  intermingling  of  their  substances : 
Things  mixible  are  they  which,  though  they 
range, 
Are  yet  contained  in  cither's  essences. 
Davies,  Summa  Totalis,  p.  9. 

Mixtiform,  of  mixed  shape ;  com- 
posed of  miscellaneous  elements. 

The  General  .  .  .  speaks  vaguely  some 
smooth  words  to  the  National  President, 
glances,  only  with  the  eye,  at  that  so  mixti- 
form National  Assembly ;  then  fares  forward 
towards  the  Chateau. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt. 
I.  Bk.  VII.  ch.  ix. 


MIZES 


(4i5  ) 


MODE 


Mizes.  "The  proGts  of  lands ;  taxes  or 

tallages:  expences  or  costs."   (Bailees 

Diet.) 

Yon  threaten  . . .  those  that  shall  refuse 
to  pay  any  of  your  illegal  and  (now  that  the 
war  is  ended)  unnecessary  impositions  by 
way  of  excise,  loan,  mizes,  weekly  and 
monthly  assessments.  —  British  Bellman, 
1648  (Harl.  Misc.,  vii.  628). 

Mob.  See  quotation  from  North. 
Farquhar  uses  mob  for  clown.  The 
club  to  which  North  refers  was  the 
Green  Ribbon  Club. 

I  may  note  that  the  rabble  first  changed 
their  title,  and  were  called  the  mob,  in  the 
assemblies  of  this  club.  —  North,  Examen, 
p.  574. 

Enter  Kite  with  a  mob  in  each  hand  drunk. 
— Farquhar,  Recruiting  Officer,  Act  II. 

Whenever  this  word  [niob]  occurs  in  our 
writings,  it  intends  persons  without  virtue 
or  sense  in  all  stations ;  and  many  of  the 
highest  rank  are  often  meant  by  it. — Fielding, 
Tom  Jones,  Bk.  I.  ch.  ix.  note. 

Mobbify  out,  to  drive  out  by  a  mob, 
to  rabble. 

This  same  High  and  Low  shall  .  . .  serve 
for  noise,  and  mobbifv  out  at  elections  con- 
formable loyal  gentlemen,  whom  we  will 
cry  down  for  High  Men,  that  is  Adherents 
to  Popery. — North,  Examen,  p.  346. 

Mob-driver,  demagogue. 

Colonel  Hildmay  an  old  Rumper,  and  late 
mob-driver  in  Essex. — North,  Examen,  p.  126. 

Yet  a  sideling-writer  in  harness  upon  the 
road  to  a  rebellion,  without  a  single-faced 
instance,  shall  cry,  O  the  Papists  are  set  up ! 
just  as  his  mob-drivers  did  to  their  rabble. — 
Ibid.,  p.  343. 

Mobile,  mover,  or  principle  of 
motion. 

O  Heaven  crystalline, 

Which  by  thy  watry  hue 
Dost  temper  and  refine 
The  rest  in  azurM  blue ; 
His  glory  sound, 
Thou  first  Mobile, 
Which  mak'st  all  wheel 
In  circle  round. 

Howell,  Letters,  I.  v.  11. 

Mobma6ter,  a  demagogue. 

Faction  always  sustains  their  project  of 
destroying  the  Government  by  inflaming  the 
rabble,  or  at  least  by  making  an  appearance 
as  if  they  were  inflamed,  which  is  done  by  a 
sort  of  military  disposition  of  mob-masters 
about  in  corners,  that  upon  the  watch- word 
are  to  bring  forward  some  hare-brained  rout 
which  they  call  the  people. — North,  Examen, 
p.  571. 

Mobocracy,  rule  of  the  mob. 


It  is  a  good  name  that  a  Dr.  Stevens  has 
given  to  our  present  situation  (for  one  can- 
not call  it  a  Government),  a  Mobocracy. — 
Walpole  to  Mann,  iii.  245  (1757). 

I  must  tell  you  a  gooa  sort  of  quirk  of 
Mr.  Wilkes,  who,  when  the  power  of  the 
mob  and  their  cruelty  were  first  reciting, 
quarrelled  with  a  gentleman  for  saying  the 
French  government  was  become  a  democracy, 
and  asserted  it  was  rather  a  mobocracy. — Mad. 
D'Arblay,  Diary,  v.  76. 

Mocayare,  mockado ;   a  stuff  made 

in  imitation  of  velvet  (Ital.  moccaiaro). 

There  are  also  cotton  wool ;  tanned  hides ; 
hides  in  the  hair ;  wax ;  camlets ;  mocayares  ; 
grogerams.—  Campion,  Trade  to  Scio,  1570 
{Eng.  Gamer,  i.  52). 

Moccinigo,  a  small  Venetian  coin, 
worth  about  ninepence. 

Tou  shall  not  give  me  rix  crowns,  nor  five, 
nor  four,  nor  three,  nor  two,  nor  one,  nor 
half  a  ducat ;  no,  nor  a  moccinigo.  Sixpence 
it  will  cost  you. — Jonson,  Fox,  II.  i. 

Mockado,  mockery:  the  word  is 
usually  applied  to  a  stuff;  a  mock- 
velvet.     See  N. 

Neither  of  them  would  sit,  nor  put  their 
hats  on :  what  mockado  is  this  to  such  a 
poor  soul  as  I. — Richardson,  Pamela,  ii.  37. 

Mock-god,  a  derider  of  God. 

Think  of  this,  you  monsters,  scorners,  and 
mock-gods,  that  forget  your  consciences,  lest 
they  awake  and  tear  you  in  pieces.—  Ward, 
Sermons,  p.  100. 

But  what  shall  I  say  to  such  mock-god-like 
Bsaus?— Ibid.,  p.  125. 

Mock-guest,  one  who  seems  to  offer 
hospitality,  but  only  in  empty  show,  like 
the  Barmecide  in  the  Arabian  Nights. 

Though  charity  commands  me  to  believe 
that  some  women  which  hang  out  agues, 
notwithstanding  will  not  lodge  strangers; 
yet  those  mock-guests  are  guilty  in  tempting 
others  to  tempt  them.  —  Fuller,  Holy  State, 

I.  i.  7. 

Mock-mouths:  " mouths  have  they 
and  speak  not.'1 

Those  idols  with  their  hands  were  so  far 
from  defending  themselves,  that  their  mock- 
mouths  could  not  afford  one  word  to  bemoan 
their  finall  destruction. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hut.. 

II.  ii.  43. 

Mode,  to  follow  the  mode;  to  be 
fashionable. 

Here  he  was  accounted  dypotKorrpot, 
somewhat  clownish,  by  the  Romish  Court, 
because  he  could  not  mode  it  with  the 
Italians.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Sussex  (ii.  388). 

He  could  not  mode  it,  or  comport  either 
with  French  fickleness  or  Italian  pride. — 
Ibid.,  Warwick,  ii.  407. 


MODELIZE 


(416  ) 


MOKE 


Modelizk,  to  model     See  Modulize. 

Which  .  .  some  silly  saints  and  devout 
bunglers  will  undertake  to  manage  and 
modelize  beyond  their  line  and  measure. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  426. 

Moderation-monger,    professor    of 

moderation,  used  contemptuously. 

Would  St.  Paul  have  rebuked  such  new- 
fashion 'd  extraordinary  Christians,  or  would 
he  not?  And  if  he  would,  do  we  imagine 
that  he  would  have  done  it  in  the  modern 
treacherous  dialect,  Touch  not  my  rebels 
and  do  my  fanaticks  no  harm  ?  No  moder- 
ation-monger under  heaven  shall  ever  per- 
suade me  that  St.  Paul  would  have  took 
such  a  course  with  such  persons.  —  South, 
vi.  83. 

Moderatress,  female  moderator  or 

President. 

As  there  was  something  too  little,  so  some- 
thing too  much  for  a  canonicall  councill ; 
Hilda,  a  woman,  being  Moderatresse  therein, 
which  seemed  irregular.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist, 
II.  ii.  90. 

Moderatbix,  mode  rat  ress,  q.  v. 

Wisedom  from  above 
Is  th'  only  moderatrix,  spring,  and  guide, 
Organ  and  honour  of  all  gifts  beside. 

Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  348. 

Make  your  demands, 
I'll  sit  as  moderatrix,  if  they  press  you 
With  over-hard  conditions. 

Massinger,  City  Madam,  ii.  2. 

The  Queen  Mother,  moderatrix  of  this  and 
all  other  solemn  negotiations  in  France  at 
that  time. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  210. 

The  debate  was  closed,  and  referred  to 
Mrs.  Shirley  as  moderatrix.  —  Richardson, 
Grandison,  vi.  387. 

Modernity,  a  piece  of  modern  work ; 
modernness. 

But  here  is  a  modernity  which  beats  all 
antiquities  for  curiosity. —  Walpole,  Letters,  i. 
313  (1753). 

Now  that  the  poems  have  been  so  moch 
examined,  nobody  (that  has  an  ear}  can  get 
over  the  modernity  of  the  modulations,  and 
the  recent  cast  of  the  ideas  and  phraseology. 
Ibid.,  iv.  297  (1782). 

Modestless,  wanting  in  modesty. 

Alas !  how  faithles  and  how  modest-les 

Are  you  that  (in  your  Ephemerides) 

Mark  th'  yeer,  the  month,  the  day,  which 

euermore 
Gainst  yeers,  months,  days,  shall  dam-vp 

Saturnes  dore. 

Sylvester,  First  day,  first  weeke,  410. 

Modesty.  To  modesty  away  =  to 
lose  through  modesty. 

Twice  already  have  you,  my  dear,  if  not 
oftener,  modesty*d  airay  such  opportunities 


as  you  ought  not  to  have  slipped. — Richard- 
son, CI.  Harlotce,  iv.  88. 

Modesty-bit,  "  a  narrow  lace  which 
runs  along  the  upper  part  of  the  stays 
before,  being  a  part  of  the  tucker." 
This  is  Addison's  deGnition  (in  the 
Guardian)  of  the  modesty-piece  as 
given  in  L. 

Smile  if  you  will,  young  ladies!  your 
great-grandmothers  wore  large  hoops, peaked 
stomachers,  and  modesty-bits. — Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  lvi. 

Modicum,  inannikin. 

Marc.  Where  are  you,  you  modicum,  you 
dwarf? 
Mart.  Here,  giantess,  here. 

Massinger,  Duke  of  Milan,  Act  I  J. 

Modulet,  a  little  model,  applied  here 
to  man  as  the  microcosm. 

But  soft,  my  mtise !  what,  wilt  thou  re-repeat 
The  little  world's  admired  modulet  ? 

Sylvester,  Seventh  day,  first  weeke,  747. 

Modulize,  to  model.     See  Modelize. 

While  with  the  Duke,  th'  Eternal!  did  devise, 
And  to  his  inward  sight  did  modulize 
His  Tabernacle's  admirable  form. 

Sylvester,  The  Law,  1115. 

Mody,  fashionable ;  modish. 

Mr.  Longman  would  have  me  accept  of 
several  yards  of  Holland,  and  a  silver  snuff- 
box, and  a  gold  ring  ....  I  said,  M  O,  dear 
Mr.  Longman,  you  make  me  too  rich  and  too 
mody. — Richardson,  Pamela,  i.  128. 

Mohock. 

Bob  Tench  was  never  at  a  loss  for  expedi- 
ents, and  had  always  a  little  phial  of  Fryar's 
Balsam  in  his  pocket,  some  gold-beater's 
skin,  and  court-plaister,  as  well  as  his  cork- 
screw and  mohock. — Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote, 
Bk.  X.  ch.  zxiv. 

Moistry,  moisture. 

No  Shire  can  shew  finer  ware,  which  hath 
so  large  measure ;  being  generally  fruitful, 
though  little  moistry  be  used  tnereon. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  So/nerset  (ii.  275). 

Moited,  moithered  (V).  The  meaning 

seems  to  be  "  made  u  game  of,"  "  baited." 

I  would  not  willingly  be  present  when 
They  interchange  their  hearts ;  she  will  shew 

too  much 
A  tyrant,  if  she  be  not  satisfied 
With  what  was  mine,  but  I  must  be  moited 
To  be  their  triumph. 

Shirley,  The  Gamester,  Act  V. 

Moke,  a  donkey :  said  to  be  a  gipsy 

word. 

Miss  Chummey,  when  entreated  by  two 
young  gentlemen  of  the  order  of  coster- 
mongers,  inclines  to  the  one  who  rides  from 


MOLE-SPADE  (  4*7  )        MONEY  MONGER 


market  on  a  moke,  rather  than  to  the  gentle- 
man who  sella  hia  greens  from  a  handbasket. 
—  Thackery,  Newcomes,  ch. 


Mole-spade,  a  spade  or  spud  used  in 
prodding  for  moles  (?). 

Poore  Menaphon  neither  asked  hia  swaynes 
for  his  sheepe,  nor  tookc  hia  mole-spade  on 
his  necke  to  see  his  pastures— Greene,  Mena- 
phon, p.  S3. 

Molest,  trouble. 

Thus  clogg'd  with  love, 'with  passions,  and 

with  grief, 
I  saw  the  country  life  had  least  molest. 

Greene  {from  the  Morning 
Garment),  p.  309. 

Moliture,  multure,  a  fee  paid  in 
kind  for  the  use  of  a  mill.  See  Moul- 
tdre. 

This  claim  of  universal  power  and  authority 
doth  bring  more  moliture  to  their  mill. — 
Bramhall,  ii.  159. 

Moloch ize,  immolate  as  to  Moloch. 

The  people  are  as  thick  as  bees  below, 
They  hum  like  bees — they  cannot  speak — 

for  awe ; 
Look  to  the  skies,  then  to  the  river,  strike 
Their  hearts,  and  bold  their  babies  up  to  it 
I  think  that  they  would  Molochize  them  too, 
To  have  the  heavens  clear. 

Tennyson,  Harold,  I.  i. 

Moment,  to  arrange  to  a  moment. 

All  accidents  are  minuted  and  momented  by 
Divine  Providence.— -iWfcr.  Worthies,  Suffolk 
(ii.  334). 

Momently,  each  moment ;  moment  by 
moment.  The  Diets,  have  momentally  ; 
momentarily. 

Her  face  grew  momently  darker,  more 
dissatisfied,  and  more  sourly  expressive  of 
disappointment. — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch. 
xviii. 

He  contrived  to  impress  me  momently  with 
the  conviction  that  I  was  put  beyond  the 
pale  of  his  favour. — Ibid.,  ch.  xxxv. 

Momish,  foolish.  The  verses  from 
which  the  extract  is  taken  are  by  Alex- 
ander Neuyll. 

Right  so  thy  Muse  (o  worthy  Googe), 

Thy  pleasaunt  framed  style, 
Discoverd  lyes  to  momish  mouthes, 

Reprochfull  tongs,  and  vyle 
Diffaming  minds. 

Verses  prefixed  to  Googe's  Eylogs. 

Monasterially,  iiionastically. 

It  is  not  the  habit  that  makes  the  monk, 
many  being  monasterially  accoutred,  who 
inwardly  are  nothing  less  than  monachal. — 
Crquhart,  Rabelais,  bk.  i.,  Author's  Prologue. 


Monday.  Working  men  who  are  given 
to  drink,  very  often  make  Monday  a 
holiday;  not  being  up  to  their  work 
after  the  Sunday's  dissipation ;  hence 
it  is  called  Saint  Monday.  For  Black 
Monday  see  «.  v.  Black. 

I  continued  with  him  several  years,  work- 
ing when  he  worked,  and  while  he  was  keep- 
ing Saint  Monday,  I  was  with  boys  of  my 
own  age,  fighting,  cudgel-playing,  wrestling, 
&c. — life  of  J.  Lackington,  Letter  iii. 

Monday's  Handsell.  H.  says  "  Han- 
sel-Monday is  the  first  Monday  in  the 
year,  when  it  is  usual  to  make  presents 
to  children  and  servants."  Patten  re- 
lates how  a  Captain  and  twenty-one 
soldiers,  "a  bunch  of  beggars,"  gave 
themselves  up  to  the  English,  and  that 
the  Captain  and  six  of  these  were  given 
into  the  custody  of  the  Provost  Mar- 
shall rather  "  to  take  Monday's  hand- 
sell  than  for  hope  of  advantage." — 
(Earned,  to  ScotL,  1548.  Eng.  Garner, 
iii.  84). 

Money.  "  Money  makes  the  mare  to 
go,"  a  saying  expressive  of  the  power 
of  money ;  but  also  frequently  used  to 
insinuate  that  a  bribe  has  been  taken. 

As  money  makes  the  mare  to  go, 
Even  so  it  makes  the  lawyer  too. 

D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  cant.  ii. 

I'm  making  the  mare  go  here  in  Whitford, 
without  the  money  too  sometimes. — Kingsley, 
Two  Fears  Ago,  7ntrod. 

Money-dropper,  a  sharper  who  scrapes 
acquaintance  with  a  dupe  by  asking 
him  about  a  piece  of  money  which  he 
pretends  to  have  just  picked  up ;  this 
oegets  confidence  and  companionship, 
which  the  cheat  takes  advantage  of  to 
fleece  the  other.     Cf .  Ring-dropper. 

He  assured  us  .  . .  that  this  polite,  honest, 
friendly,  humane  person  who  had  treated  us 
so  civilly,  was  no  other  than  a  rascally  money- 
dropper,  who  made  it  his  business  to  decoy 
strangers  in  that  manner  to  one  of  his  own 
haunts,  where  an  accomplice  or  two  were 
always  waiting  to  assist  in  pillaging  the  prey 
they  had  run  down. — Smolletty  Rod.  Random, 
ch.  xv. 

Money-monoer,  a  dealer  in  money ; 
an  usurer.  See  quotation  from  Mas- 
singer  s.  v.  Livery. 

Thievery  needs  no  more  than  the  name  to 
prove  it  a  water  of  stealth  .  .  a  sin  which 
usurers  and  money-mongers  do  bitterly  rail 
at. — Adams,  i.  186. 

The  money -monger  hath  least  need  of  all 
other  men  to  say  his  prayers,  bee  it  wet  or 

K  K 


MONEY-MONGERING     (  418  ) 


MONOTONIST 


dry,  bee  it  tempest  or  calme  ...  he  shall  bee 
sure  of  his  money,  for  time  onely  works  for 
him.—  R.  Turner,  Usurer's  Plea  answered, 
p.  10  (1633). 

Money  -  mongering,  dealing  with 
money  (in  a  grasping  way). 

The  last  place  in  which  he  will  look  for 
the  cause  of  his  misery  is  in  that  very  money- 
monoering  to  which  he  now  clings  as  fran- 
tically as  ever.— C.  Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  xv. 

Money-sack,  purse. 
The  Money-sacke  best  kept  the  land  from 
BSLck.—Davies,  Microcosmos, p.  61. 

Mongibell.  Mongibello  or  Monte 
Gibello  is  the  name  given  to  M.  uEtna 
by  the  Sicilians,  and  so  is  used  for  a 
volcano  generally. 

Within  us  we  felt  too  often  such  flamings, 
such  furnaces  or  Monyibells  of  fires. — Howell, 
Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  134. 

Monied.  Chapman  makes  Nestor 
speak  of  cattle  which  had  been  taken 
as  "  soon-monied  wares"  (Iliad,  xi.  590), 
that  is,  I  suppose,  easily  exchanged  for 
money.  There  is  no  corresponding  word 
in  the  original. 

Monkey,  to  imitate,  as  a  monkey 
does. 

And  many  murmured, "  From  this  source 
What  red  blood  must  be  poured ! " 

And  some  rejoined,  *'  'Tis  even  worse ; 
What  red  tape  is  ignored ! " 

All  cursed  the  Doer  for  an  evil, 

Called  here,  enlarging  on  the  Devil — 
There,  monkeying  the  Lord. 

Mrs.  Browning \  Tale  of  Villafranca. 

Monkey.  To  suck  the  monkey  is, 
properly,  to  abstract  wine  or  spirits 
from  a  cask  by  the  insertion  of  a  tube ; 
in  the  second  extract  it  is  put  for 
drinking  generally :  the  first  gives  yet 
another  meaning  to  it. 

"Do  you  know  what  sucking  the  monkey 
means?  "  *  No,  sir."  "  Well  then,  101  fell 
you;  it's  a  term  used  among  seamen  for 
drinking  rum  out  of  cocoa  nuts,  the  milk 
having  been  poured  out,  and  the  liquor 
substituted." — Marryat,  Peter  Simple,ch.  xxx. 
St.  Foix  never  would  drink  now,  unless  he 

was  dry ; 
Besides,  what  the  vulgar  call  sucking  the 

monkey 
Has  much  less  effect  on  a  man  when  he's 

funky. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  {Black  Mousquetaire). 

Monkey's  allowance.     See  extract. 

You  fellows  worked  like  bricks,  spent 
money,  aud  got  midshipman's  half -pay 
(nothing   a   day,  and    find   yourself)    and 


monkey's  allowance  (more  kicks  than    half- 
pence).— C.  Kingsley,  Letter,  May,  1856. 

Monk-monger,    fosterer    of    monas- 

ticism. 

Oswald  (a  great  monk-monger,  of  whom 
hereafter)  held  York  and  Worcester. — Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist.,  II.  v.  24. 

Monmouth,  a  fiat  cap.  See  extracts. 
In  Defoe's  Tour  thro1  G.  Britain  (ii 
339),  Bewdloy  or  Beaulieu  in  Worcester- 
shire is  spoken  of  as  well  supplied, 
among  other  things,  with  "  Caps,  which 
the  Dutch  Seamen  buy,  called  Mon- 
mouth Caps," 

The  best  Caps  were  formerly  made  at 
Monmouth  .  .  But,  on  the  occasion  of  a  great 
plague  hapning  in  this  Town,  the  trade  was 
some  years  since  removed  hence  to  Beaudly 
in  Worcestershire,  yet  so  that  they  are  called 
Monmouth  Caps  unto  this  day  ...  If  at  this 
day  the  phrase  of  wearing  a  Monmouth  Cap 
be  taken  jn  a  bad  acception,  I  hope  the  in- 
habitants of  that  Town  will  endeavour  to 
disprove  the  occasion  thereof.  —  Fuller, 
Worthies,  Monmouth  (ii.  116). 

The  Welsh  his  Monmouth  use  to  wear, 
And  of  the  same  will  brag  too. 

Merrie  Drollerie,  p.  25. 

Monoculate,  one-eyed. 

Philosophy  unbaptized  with  grace  is  said 
to  be  monoculate,  to  have  but  one  eye,  and 
that  is  of  natural  reason ;  a  left  eye  of  the 
soul. — Adams,  ii.  378. 

Monograph,  treatise  on  a  single  sub- 
ject, or  on  a  single  branch  of  a  wide 
subject.  In  1843  Sir  R.  Murchison  had 
used  the  term  in  an  essay,  but  it  was 
quite  unfamiliar  to  Sydney  Smith,  who, 
rather  curiously,  seems  to  have  no  idea 
of  what  it  might  mean.  L.  has  the 
word,  but  no  example. 

The  only  expression  I  quarrel  with  is 
monograph:  either  it  has  some  conventional 
meaning  among  geologists,  or  it  only  means 
a  pamphlet — a  book. — 8.  Smith,  Letters,  1843. 

Monopole,  monopoly. 

Some  shuffled  for  some  office ;  some  to  game 
Some  monopole,  which  then  could  not  be  got ; 
For  Fortune  did  those  monopole*  restraine, 
Because  she  thought  'twas  in  hir  rule  a  blot 
To  pleasure  one  by  all  her  subjects'  paine. 
Dairies,  Humour's  Heaven  on  Earth,  p.  35. 

Monopolite,  monopolist 

You  marchant  mercers,  and  monopolites, 
Gain-greedy  chapmen,  perjur'd  hypocrites. 
Sylvester,  Third  day,Jtrst  weeke,  522. 

Nor  privie  Theeves,  nor  proud  Monopolites. 
Ibid.,  Hymn  of  Alms,  300. 

Monotonist,  one  who  harps  on  one 
subject. 


MONSTER-MAN         (  419  ) 


MOON-FACE 


If  I  ruin  such  a  virtue,  sayest  thou! 
Eternal  monotonist! — Richardson,  Cl.  Har- 
loice,  iv.  136. 

Moxstkr-man,  giant 

Which  like   the  vaunting  monster-man  of 

Gath, 
Haue  atirr'd  against  vs  little  David's  wrath. 
Sylvester,  The  Imposture,  6*38. 

Monster-master,  brute-tamer.  The 
extract  refers  to  Nimrod. 

This  monster-master  stout, 
This  Hercules,  this  hammer-ill,  they  tender, 
And  call  him  (all)  their  Father  and  Defender. 

Sylvester,  Babylon,  85. 

Monstricide,  slaughter  of  a  monster. 

Andromeda  had  been  a  good  deal  exposed 
to  the  Dragon  in  the  course  of  the  last  five 
or  six  days;  and  if  Perseus  had  cut  the 
latter's  cruel  head  off,  he  would  have  com- 
mitted not  unjustifiable  monstricide. — Thack- 
eray,  The  Virginians,  ch.  xxv. 

Monstriferous,  portentous. 

This  monstriferouse  empire  of  women  .... 
U  most  detestable  and  damnable.  —  Knox, 
First  Blast  (Maitland's  Reformation,  p.  129). 

Monthlino,  a  being  of  a  month  old  : 
a  word  formed  like  yearling.  The 
extract  is  from  "  Address  to  my  Infant 
Daughter,  on  being  reminded  that  she 
was  a  month  old." 

Yet  hail  to  thee, 
Frail,  feeble   Monthling!  —  by  that   name 

methinks 
Thy  scanty  breathing  time  is  portioned  out 
Not  idly. —  Wordsworth. 

Moo,  to  low :  an  onomatopceous  word. 

1  can  mind  now  how  I  used  to  smell  the 
grass,  and  see  the  dew  shining,  and  hear  the 
pretty  sweet  cows  a  mooing. — Mrs.  Trollops, 
Michael  Armstrong,  ch.  xxiv. 

Moo-cow,  a  childish  name  for  the  cow ; 
imitation  of  the  lowing. 

The  sheeps  all  baa'd,  the  asses  bray'd, 
The  moo-cow  low'd,  and  Grizzle  neigh'd. 
Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  xiv. 

Mood,  anger. 

Romulus  met  them  with  an  army,  and  in 
one  small  skirmish  made  proof  how  Mood 
{iram)  without  might  is  vain  and  bootless. — 
Holland,  Livy,  p.  7. 

And  now  my  father  in  his  mood  may  slay 
this  poor  bondsman,  but  for  his  love  and 
loyal  service  to  me. — Scott,  Ivanhoe,  ii.  88. 

Moodishly,  sulkily. 

He  had  thought  himself  of  consequence 
enough  to  behave  moodishly.— Ricliardson, 
Grandison,  i.  166. 

Moon,  to  dawdle ;  to  indulge  in 
vague  and  idle  dreams,  like  a  person 


staring  at  the  moon  instead  of  attend- 
ing to  the  world's  business:  in  the 
second  quotation  from  Kingsley  it  = 
enjoying  the  moon-light. 

He  neglected  alike  work  and  amusement 
for  lazy  mooning  over  books,  and  the  dreams 
which  books  called  up. — Kingsley,  Two  Years 
Ago4  ch.  i. 

From  7  to  10  the  whole  population  will  be 
in  the  streets,  not  sunning  but  mooning  them- 
selves.— Kinasley,  1864  (Life,  ii.  175). 

Do  you  think  Lavender  and  Sheila  spend 
their  time  in  mooning  up  in  that  island  of 
theirs  ? — Black,  Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  xxvii. 

Moon.  A  blue  moon  is  a  vulgar  ex- 
pression for  the  Greek  Calends.  The 
subjoined  extract  shows  that  a  blue 
moon  as  meaning  something  impossible 
or  absurd  is  an  expression  at  least  350 
years  old. 

Tf  they  saye  the  mone  is  belewe, 
We  must  beleve  that  it  is  true, 
Admittynge  their  iuterpretacion. 

Roy  and  Barlowe,  Rede  me  and 
be  not  wroth,  p.  114. 

Moon.  To  make  a  man  believe  that 
the  moon  is  made  of  green  cheese  =  to 
impose  upon  him  completely.  In  the 
second  extract  Orosian  =  Welshman  ; 
in  the  third,  the  saying  is  varied  though 
the  sound  is  similar. 

"With  this  plesaunt  mery  toye  he  made 
his  frendes  beleue  the  moone  to  be  made  of  a 
grene  chese. —  XJdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p. 
193. 

To  make  a  pure  Orosian  thirst  for  blisse, 
And  daily  say  his  prayers  on  his  knees, 

Is  to  persuade  him  that  most  certain  'tis 
The  moon  is  made  of  nothing  but  green  cheese : 

And  then  he'd  ask  of  God  no  greater  boon 

Then  place  in  heven  to  feed  upon  the  moon. 
Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  120. 

Tou  may  as  well  persuade  me  the  moon  is 
made  of  a  cream  cheese,  as  that  any  nobleman 
turned  himself  into  a  writing-master  to  ob- 
tain Miss  Groves.  —  Mrs.  Lennox,  Female 
Quixote,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  i. 

Moon-drake.     The  extract  is  from 

some  nonsense  verses  by  Corbet 

Marke !  how  the  lanterns  clowd  mine  eyes, 
See  where  a  moon-drake  'gins  to  rise. 

Bp.  Corbet,  A  Non  Sequitur. 

Moon- face,  an  Oriental  term  for  a 
beautiful  woman. 

He  blandly  received  their  caresses ;  took 
their  coaxing  and  cajolery  as  matters  of 
course,  and  surveyed  the  beauties  of  his 
time  as  the  Caliph  the  moon -faces  of  his 
harem. — Thackeray,  The  Newomts,  ch.  liii. 

E  £  2 


MOON-RAKING 


(  420  ) 


MOROSO 


Moon-rakinq,  wool-gathering; 
spoken  of  one  who  is  absent  and  dis- 
traught. Wiltshire  people  are  some- 
times called  moon-rakers,  from  some 
story  of  a  rustic  who,  mistaking  the 
reflection  of  the  moon  in  a  stream  for  a 
cheese,  tried  to  fieh  it  up  with  his  rake. 

It  irked  me  much  that  any  one  should 
take  advantage  of  me ;  yet  everybody  did  so 
as  soon  as  ever  it  was  Known  that  my  wits 
were  gone  moon-raking. — Blackmore,  Lorna 
Boone,  ch.  xvii. 

Moon-sick,  crazy ;  lunatic. 

If  his  itch  proceed  from  a  moon-sick  head, 
the  chief  intention  is  to  settle  his  brains. — 
Adams,  i.  602. 

Moony,  stupid  ;  dawdling ;  given  to 
mooning. 

Heiresses  vary,  and  persons  interested  int 
one  of  them  beforehand  are  prepared  to  find 
that  she  is  too  yellow  or  too  red,  tall  and 
toppling  or  short  and  square,  violent  and 
capricious  or  moony  and  insipid.  —  G.  Eliot, 
Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xxii. 

Moobery,  the  Moorish  quarter. 

They  arose  and  entered  the  moorery,  and 
slew  many  moors,  and  plundered  their 
houses.— Southey,  Chron.  of  the  Cid,  p.  386 

(1808). 

Moot  up,  to  dig  up. 

A  huge  portion  of  it  on  all  sides  had,  to 
use  the  provincial  term,  been  "mooted  up," 
and  carried  away,  for  the  sake  of  the  stone 
for  building  purposes. — Archaol.,  zzxvii.  428 
(1855). 

Mop,  a  fair  at  which  servants  are 
hired. 

Many  a  rustic  went  to  a  statute  fair  or 
mop,  and  never  came  home  to  tell  of  his 
hiring. — Mrs.  Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  i. 

Mope,  a  spiritless  person.  This  word 
is  in  the  Diets. ;  but  an  absurd  deriva- 
tion of  it  from  Merops  may  be  seen, 
8.  v.  Dumps.  Perhaps  in  that  passage 
mopes  does  not  mean  spiritless  persons, 
but  dumps  or  vapours. 

Moppet,  a  grimace. 

Albeit  we  see  them  sometimes  counterfeit 
devotion,  yet  never  did  old  ape  make  pretty 
moppet  (mow). — UrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  III. 
{Authors  Prologue). 

Mopsy-eyed,  the  same,  I  suppose,  as 
mop-eyed,  short-sighted,  though  mopsy 
—  a  puppet,  so  it  might  mean  vacant- 
eyed,  like  a  doll. 

44 Pretty  mopsy-eyed  soul!"  was  her  ex- 

Sression:   "aud  was  it  willing  to  think  it 
ad  still  a  brother  and  sister  ?  n — Richardson, 
a.  Harlowe,  i.  335. 


Mobat,  a  drink  made  of  honey,  flav- 
oured with  the  juice  of  mulberries. 
See  quotation  *.  v.  Pigment. 

There  was  grace  after  meat  with  a  fist  on 

the  board, 
And  down  went  the  morat,  and  out  flew  the 

sword. — Taylor,  Edwin  the  Fair,  ii.  6- 

Six  meals  a  day, 
With  morat  and  spiced  ale  is  generous  living. 

Ibid.,  iii.  7. 

Moreen,  a  stout  woollen  stuff,  used 

for  curtains,  &c. 

Mr.  Harding,  however,  thought  the  old 
reddish-brown  much  preferable  to  the  gaudy 
buff -coloured  trumpery  moreen  which  Mrs. 
Proudie  had  deemed  good  enough  for  her 
husband's  own  room.  —  Trollope,  Barchesitr 
Towers,  ch.  v. 

Morepobk,  a  bird,  so  called  from  its 
note.     Cf.  Pork-porking. 

Somewhere,  apparently  at  an  immense  dis- 
tance, a  morepork  was  chanting  his  mono- 
tonous cry. — H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry  Uamlx/n, 
ch. 


Morish,  insufficient,  i.  e.  requiring  a 
new  supply ;  sometimes  used  in  a  good 
sense  for  nice,  that  of  which  one  would 
like  to  have  more.  See  Peacock's 
Mardey  and  Corringham  Glossary 
(E.  D.  S.). 

Lady  S.  How  do  you  like  this  tea,  Colonel  ? 

Col.  Well  enough,  Madam,  but  methinks 
it  is  a  little  morish. 

Lady  S.  Oh  Colonel,  I  understand  yon ; 
Betty,  bring  the  canister.— Stcift,  Polite  Con- 
versation (Conv.  i.). 

Morning-stead,  the  place  of  the 
morning,  and  so,  morning. 

Toward  morning-sted 
To  mighty  Pharaoh  the  Almighty  sent 
A  double  dream. 

Sylvester,  Maiden's  Blush,  1176. 

Mornly,  in  the  morning. 

All  the  winged  quiers 
Which  mornly  warble  on  green  trembling 

briers 
Ear-tickling  tunes. 

Sylvester,  Babylon,  327. 

Morologically,  in  the  way  of  moro* 
logy,  »'.  e.  the  science  that  deals  with 
fools. 

Morologically  speaking,  the  production  is 
no  richer  or  sillier  than  your  prwe-fool  from 
Gloucestershire.  —  Lord  Strangford,  Letters 
and  Papers,  p.  164. 

Moroso,  a  surly  person.  Cf .  Fcrioso, 
Gratioso,  &c.      Fuller  is  speaking  of  , 


M0RPHET1C 


(  421  )        MOTHER-IN-LAW 


those  who  would  object  to  organs,  even 
in  private  houses. 

Such  Morosos  deserve  not  to  be  owners 
of  an  articulate  voice  sounding  through  the 
Organ  of  a  Throat. —  Worthies,  Denbigh  (ii. 

588). 

Morphetic,  pertaining  to  sleep; 
slumberous. 

I  never  can  sleep  when  I  try  for  it  in  the 
day-time;  the  moment  I  cease  all  employ- 
ment my  thoughts  take  such  an  ascendance 
over  my  morphetic  faculty,  that  the  attempt 
always  ends  in  a  deep  and  most  wakeful 
meditation. — Mad.  D^ArUay's  Diary,  iv.  195. 

I  am  invulnerably  asleep  at  this  very  mo- 
ment; in  the  very  centre  of  the  morplutic 
domains. — Ibid.,  Camilla,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iv. 

Morrice,  a  slang  word  for  move  !  be 
off  I  See  quotation  s.  v.  Magpie.  Per- 
haps the  allusion  is  to  the  morris-dance. 

Tony.  I  don't  value  her  resentment  the 
bounce  of  a  cracker ;  zounds,  here  they  are ! 
Morrice!  Prance!  (Exit  Hastings). — Gold' 
smith,  She  stoops  to  conquer,  Act  III. 

Morrice,  to  dance  as  a  morrice- 
dance. 

However  it's  quite 
As  wild  a  night 
As  ever  was  known  on  that  sinister  height 
Since  the  Demon-dance  was  morriced. 

Hood,  The  Forge. 

Morrowing,  procrastination. 

If  he  importune  thee  with  borrowing, 
Or  careless  liue  upon  thy  purse's  spending ; 
Or  daily  put  thee  off  with  morrowing, 
Till  want  do  make  thee  wearie  of  thy  lending. 
Breton,  Mother's  Blessing,  st.  66. 

Mort.     See  extract. 

The  saddler  he  stuffs  his  pannels  with 
straw  or  hay,  and  overglaseth  them  with 
haire,  and  makes  the  leather  of  them  of 
marts  or  tan'd  sheep's  skins. — Greene,  Quip 
for  an  Upstgrt  Courtier  (Harl.  Misc.,  v.  413;. 

Mortar,  a  cap ;   the  square  college 
cap  is  sometimes  called  a  mortar-board. 
No  more  shall  man  with  mortar  on  his  head 
Set  forward  towards  Borne. 

Bp.  Corbet  to  T.  Coryate. 

Some  of  them  wore  a  mortar  on  their 
heads,  so  ponderous  that  they  could  look 
neither  upward,  nor  on  either  side,  but  only 
downward  and  forthright.  —  Fuller,  Pisgah 
Sight,  IV.  vi.  4. 

Mortar  up,  to  fasten  up  with  mortar. 

Electricity  cannot  be  made  fast,  mortared 
up,  and  ended  like  London  Monument. — 
Emerson,  Eng.  Traits,  ch.  xiii. 

Mort-cloth,  funeral  hangings. 

The  vast   Ohamp-de-Mars  wholly  hung 


round  with  black  mort-cloth;  which  mort- 
cloth  and  expenditure  Marat  thinks  had 
better  have  been  laid  out  in  bread  in  these 
dear  days,  and  given  to  the  hungry  living 
patriot.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  II. 
ch.  vi. 

Morter-man,  a  mason.  Bp.  Gauden 
in]  applying  this  term  to  the  Babel- 
builders  was  probably  thinking  of  Gen. 
xi.  3,  "  slime  had  they  for  morter." 

They  are  likely  to  produce  no  better  suc- 
cessors either  to  this  Church  or  Nation  than 
those  morter-men  did,  whose  work  deserved 
the  nick-name  of  Babel  or  Confusion. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  513. 

Mortstone.  In  a  note  Sir  H.  Taylor 
says,  "This  was  a  large  stone  by  the 
way-side  between  a  distant  village  and 
the  parish  church,  on  which  the  bearers 
of  a  dead  body  rested  the  coffin." 

"Rs  here, 
Six  furlongs  from  the  chapel.  "What  is  this  ? 
Oh  me !  the  mortstone  ! 

Taylor,  Edwin  the  Fair,  v.  7. 

Moscoviter,    a    Russian.      Rabelais 

simply  has  Sarmates ;  the  explanation 

is  Urquhart'B. 

The  falconry  .  .  .  was  yearly  supplied  and 
furnished  by  the  Candianes,  Venetians,  Sar- 
mates, now  called  Moscoviters,  with  all  sorts 
of  most  excellent  hawks. —  Urquhart's  Rabe- 
lais, Bk.  I.  ch.  Iv. 

Motelings,  little  motes,  applied  in 
the  extract  to  bees.  See  quotation  *.  v. 
Dropling. 

A  crowd  of  moatlings  hums 
Above  our   heads,  who   with  their  cipres 

wings 
Decide  the  quarrel  of  their  little  kings. 

Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  335. 

Mother.  A  fit  of  the  mother  =  hy- 
steria, but  in  the  extract  the  expression 
is  used  by  a  sort  of  pun  for  pregnancy. 

If  after  all  the  sin  quickens  in  her  womb, 
and  that  within  nine  months  she  be  in  dan- 
ger to  fall  into  Jits  of  the  mother,  what  pangs, 
what  throws,  what  convulsions  tear  this  poor 
creature's  breast!  —  Gentleman  Instructed, 
p.  80. 

Mother-in-law,  step-mother.  The 
word  in  this  sense  is  now  little  used 
except  by  the  uneducated,  e.  g.  Mr. 
Sam.  Weller,  passim,  but  the  meaning 
is  not  a  new  one.  In  the  fifth  series 
of  iV.  and  Q.,  vii.  519,  an  instance  is 
given  from  a  will  dated  1553  ;  while  in 
viii.  137,  a  modern  example  is  supplied 
from  Lord  Lytton's  Parisians.  In  the 
vestry  of  my  church  hangs  a  copy  of 


MOTHER-NAKED       (  4«  )  MOUNTEBANK 


verses,  undated,  but  belonging  to  the 
earlier  half  of  the  17th  century,  enti- 
tled "  Smith's  moumfull  peale  of  bells 
on  the  late  decease  of  his  most  vertuous 
and  piouslie  disposed  mother-in-law, 
Mrs.  Sarah  Smith  of  Pear  Tree."  In- 
stances will  also  be  found  in  Richard- 
son's Grandison,  iv.  261,  and  in  Miss 
Austen's  Sense  and  Sensibility,  ch.  i. 
Cf.  Father-in-law. 

Mother-naked,  completely  naked,  as 
when  born  of  his  mother. 

Young  Harry  on  the  other  hand  had  every 
member  as  well  as  feature  exposed  to  all 
weathers ;  would  run  about  mother-naked  for 
near  an  hour  in  a  frosty  morning.  —  H. 
Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  3. 

A  square  blanket,  twelve  feet  in  diagonal, 
is  provided  ...  in  the  centre  a  slit  is  effected 
eighteen  inches  long;  through  this  the 
mother-naked  trooper  introduces  his  head 
and  neck. — Carlyle,  Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  I. 
ch.  vii. 

Mother's  daughter.     H.  illustrates 
"every  mother's  son"  =  every  man. 
Gauden  (Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  407) 
has,  "  every  mother's  child." 
Ladies !  thou,  Paris,  mov'st  my  laughter, 
They're  deities  ev*ry  mother's  daughter. 
Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  258. 

Mothersome,  maternally  anxious. 

1  hope  excuse,  miss,  if  I  seem  over  mother- 
some  and  foolish  about  him. — Mrs.  Trollope, 
Michael  Armstrong,  ch.  xv. 

Motiveless,  without  motive  or 
reason. 

What  but  the  accident  of  birth  or  educa- 
tion had  made  us  to  differ  from  those  we 
loathed  or  despised?  And  had  not  this 
accident  given  us  rather  a  motiveless  con- 
tempt and  abhorrence  for  other?,  than  any 
real  advantage  over  them  ? — Godwin,  Mande- 
ville,  ii.  75. 

Motivelessness,  aimlessnesa,  ab- 
sence of  motive. 

That  calm  which  Gwendolen  had  pro- 
mised herself  to  maintain  had  changed  into 
sick  motivelessness. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda, 
ch.  xxiv. 

Motley,  a  fool ;  porhaps  in  the  first 
quotation  it  may  rather  mean,  vaga- 
bond. 

Alas !  'tis  true  I  have  gone  here  and  there, 
And  made  myself  a  motley  to  the  view. 

Shakespeare,  Sonnet  ex. 
Jaques (to  Touchstone).    Will  you  be  mar- 
ried, motley  ?— As  you  like  it,  iii.  3. 

Motley,  to  variegate. 


With  thousand  dies  Hee  motleys  all  the 
meads.— Sylvester,  Eden,  89. 

Mottocrat,    motto-king;    one    who 

has  mottoes  at  command. 

Tou  with  your  errabund  guesses,  veering 
to  all  points  of  the  literary  compass,  amused 
the  many-humoured,  yet  single-minded  Pan- 
tagruelist,  the  quotationipotent  mottocrat. — 
Sou  they,  The  Doctor,  Interchapter  xiii. 

Moult,  to  change  or  get  rid  of ;  pro- 
perly applied  to  birds  shedding  tlieir 
leathers,  but  by  way  of  jest  to  other 
things. 

Our  hero  gave  him  such  a  sudden  fist  in 
the  mouth  as  dashed  in  two  of  his  teeth 
that  then  happened  to  be  moulting.  —  H. 
Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  104. 

I  do  not  aim  yet  at  such  preferment  as 
walking  upstairs;  but  having  moulted  my 
stick,  I  flatter  myself  I  shall  come  forth 
again  without  being  lame. —  Walpole,  Letters, 
w.  349  (1770). 

I  every  day  intended  to  thank  you  for  the 
copy  of  Nell  Gwyn's  letter,  till  it  was  too 
late;  the  gout  came,  and  made  me  moult 
my  quill.— Ibid.,  iii.  506  (1775). 

Our  men  of  rank  .  .  .  are  not  the  only 
persons  who  go  by  different  appellations  iu 
different  parts  of  their  lives.  We  all  moult 
our  names  in  the  natural  course  of  life. — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  lxzx. 

Moult  and  Moult,  a  great  number  ? 

On  the  eve  we  went  to  the  Franciscans* 
Church  to  hear  the  academical  exercises; 
there  were  moult  and  moult  clergy. —  Wat- 
pole,  Letters,  i.  39  (1739). 

Moulture.  See  quotation  and  cf. 
Moliture. 

Out  of  one  sack  he  would  take  two  moul- 
tures  or  fees  for  grinding. —  Urquharfs  Rabe- 
lais, Bk.  I.  ch.  xi. 

Moundless,  without  a  mound.  Syl- 
vester (Second  day,  first  week,  59)  calls 
Chaos  u  that  great  maundleise  Mound." 
I  suppose  his  meaning  to  be  that  Chaos 
was  a  great  heap  of  matter  without 
form  or  shape,  and  so  while  in  one 
sense  a  mound,  yet  unlike  it  as  being 
without  any  set  arrangement 

Mountain  dew,  whiskey. 

His  nose  it  is  a  coral  to  the  view, 
Well  nourish'd  with  Pierian  potheen ; 
For  much  he  loves  his  native  mountain  de* : 
But  to  depict  this  dye  would  lack,  I  ween, 
A  bottle-red  in  terms  as  well  as  bottle-green. 

Hood,  Irish  Schoolmaster. 

Mountebank,  to  play  the  fool. 
Shakespeare  (Coriol.  iii*  2)  has  the 
verb  =»  to  cheat 


MOUNTEBANKISH     (  423  ) 


MO  W-  YARD 


This  Jack, 
This  paltry  mountebanking  quack. 

Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  221. 

Doubtless  she  is  most  holy — but  for  wisdom 
Say  if  'tis  wise  to  spurn  all  rules,  all  censures, 
And  mountebank  it  in  the  public  ways 
Till  she  becomes  a  jest. 

Kingsley,  Saint's  Tragedy,  ii.  4. 

Do  not  suppose  I  am  going,  sicut  mens  est 
tnos,  to  indulge  in  moralities  about  buffoons, 
paint,  motley  and  mountebanking. — Thackeray, 
Roundabout  Papers,  VIII. 

MOUNTEBANKISH,  juggling. 

I  espy  a  fox  near  that  hedge  who  was  a 
Saturnian  merchant  born  in  Rugilia,  whom 
for  his  cunningness  in  negotiating,  and  for 
som  Hocos-pocos  and  mountebankish  tricks  I 
transformed  to  a  fox.  —  Howell,  Parly  of 
Beasts,  p.  87. 

Mounted  Andrew,  a  merry  andrew 

or  mountebank. 

While  mounted  Andrews,  bawdy,  bold,  and 

loud, 
Like  cocks,  alarum  all  the  drowsy  crowd. 

Verses  prefixed  to  Kennet's  Erasm. 
Pr.  of  Folly.. 

Mountenance,  value.  N.  says,  "  a 
word  belonging  to  the  age  of  Chaucer, 
Gower,  &c,  but  retained  by  Spenser." 
It  is  also  used  by  Jonson. 

Man  can  not  get  the  mount' nance  of  an  egg- 
shell 
To  stay  his  stomach. — Tale  of  a  Tub,  Hi.  5. 

Mourn,  sorrow. 

Hold,  take  her  at  the  hands  of  Radagon, 
A  pretty  peat  to  drive  your  mourn  away. 
Greene,  Looking-Glass  for  London,  p.  124. 

Happy  in  sleep ;  waking,  content  to  languish. 
Embracing  clouds  by  night ;   in  day  time 

mourn  ; 
All  things  I  loathe. 

Daniel,  Sonnet,  xix.  (Eng.  Garner, 
i.  590). 

Mourneress,  female  mourner. 

The  principal  mourneress  apparelled  as  an 
esquieresse. — Fosbrooke,  Smith's  Lives  of  the 
Berkeleys,  p.  211  (1596). 

Mournsome,  mournful. 

Then  there  came  a  mellow  noise,  very  low 
and  mournsome.  —  Blackmore,  Lorna  Boone, 
ch.  hi. 

Mouse.  A  man  or  a  mouse  =  some- 
thing or  nothing. 

He  was  utterly  mynded  to  put  all  in 
hasarde  to  make  or  marre,  and  to  bee  man  or 
mens. — Udal's  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  298. 

The  lawyer  makes  his  clyent  either  a  man 
or  a  mouse. — Breton,  Fantasticks  {Ten  o'clock). 

Mouskkin,  little  mouse. 

"  Frisk  about,  pretty  little  mousekin,"  says 


grey  Grimalkin,  purring  in  the  corner  and 
keeping  watch  with  her  green  eyes. — Tliacke- 
ray,  The  Virginians,  ch.  xxxviii. 

Mousle,  to  pull  about ;  the  word  is 
still  in  use  in  Sussex.  In  Wycherley's 
Country  Wife,  II.  i.  we  have  "  toused 
and  moused. 

He ...  so  mousled  me. — Wycherley,  Country 
Wtfe,  iv.  3. 

Ben's  a  brisk  boy ;  he  has  got  her  into  a 
corner ;  Father's  own  son,  'faith  he'll  touzle 
her  and  mouzle  her. — Congreve,  Love  for  Love, 
Act  HI.  *  J 

Mouth-organ,  "  a  gew-gaw  or  Jew's 
(jaw's)  harp"  (Holdemess  Glossary, 
E.  D.  S.). 

The  instrumental  accompaniments  rarely 
extended  beyond  the  shovels  and  a  set  of 
Pan  pipes  better  known  to  the  many  as  a 
mouth-organ. — Sketches  by  Boz  {First  of  May). 

Mouthy,  full  of  talk. 

Another  said  to  a  mouthy  advocate,  Why 
barkest  thou  at  me  so  sore?  —  PuttenJiam, 
Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xvii. 

Moveabled,  furnished. 

They  entered  into  that  straw  -  thatched 
cottage,  scurvily  built,  naughtily  moveabled, 
and  all  besmoked. —  Urquhart,  Rabelais,  Bk. 
HI.  ch.  xvii. 

Move- all,  the  name  of  a  game,  ap- 
parently like  My  Lady's  Toilet. 

Come,  Morrice,  you  that  love  Christmas 
sports,  what  say  you  to  the  game  of  move-all  ? 
— Mad.  B'Arblay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  L  ch.  ii. 

Mow,  to  make  mouths  or  faces  ;  the 
Diets,  give  no  later  example  of  this 
verb  than  from  the  Tempest. 

I  heard  at  my  back  a  noise  like  that  of  a 
baboon  when  he  mows  and  chatters. — Smol- 
lett, Rod.  Random,  ch.  lviii. 

While  Lenny  was  present  to  be  mowed  and 
jeered  at,  there  had  been  no  pity  for  him  . . . 
Not  that  those  who  had  mowed  and  jeered 
repented  them  of  their  mockery. —  Lytton, 
My  Novel,  Bk.  HI.  ch.  xxiv. 

Mowers.  No  morsel  for  mowyers  = 
not  to  be  obtained  by  a  poor  man. 

Lais,  an  harlot  of  Corinthe  of  excellent 
beautie,  but  so  dere  and  costly  that  she  was 
no  inorsell  for  motryers.  She  was  for  none 
but  lordes  and  gentlemen  that  might  well 
paie  for  it. — Udal's  Erasmus's  Apophth.,j>.  379. 

Mow-yard,  place  where  the  corn  is 

stacked. 

We've  been  reaping  all  the  day,  and  we  never 
will  be  beat, 
Bet  fetch  it  all  to  mow-yard,  and  then  we'll 
thank  the  Lord. 

Exmoor  Harvest  Song  {Lorna  Boone, 
ch.  xxix.). 


MO  WL 


(  424  ) 


MUFFLE 


Mowl,  same  as  mow,  q.  v.  (?)  or  = 
mewl  (?). 

like  mimes  they  mope  and  motel,  and 
utter  fake  sounds  for  hire.  —  Carlyle,  Fr. 
Rev. f  Bk.  I.  ch.  iv. 

Muchness.  Much  of  a  muchness  = 
much  the  same. 

**  But  you  mustn't  go  to  show  me  the  very 
wicked  ones."  •*  Why  they  are  all  pretty 
much  of  a  muchness  for  that."  —  Reade,  Never 
too  late  to  mend,  ch.  xviii. 

"  Some  of  our  fellow  countrymen,"  said 
Halbert, "  are,  it  seems  to  me,  more  detest- 
ably ferocious  than  savages,  when  they  once 
get  loose."  "  Much  of  a  muchness,  no  better, 
and  perhaps  no  worse,"  said  Sam. — H.  Kings- 
ley,  Geoffru  Hamlyn,  ch.  xxviii. 

Oh !  child,  men's  men ;  gentle  or  simple, 
they're  much  of  a  muchness. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel 
Deronda,  ch.  xxxi. 

Mucker,  to  fail,  or  make  a  mess  of  a 
business ;  also  a  substantive.  In  ex- 
tract from  C.  Kingsley  it  =  heavy  fall. 

He .  . .  earned  great  honour  by  leaping  in 
and  out  of  the  Loddon  ;  only  four  more  do- 
ing it,  and  one  receiving  a  mucker. — C.  Kings' 
ley,  1852  (Life,  I  275). 

By -the -oye  "Welter  has  muckered;  you 
know  that  by  this  time.— H.  Kingsley,  Ravens- 
hoe,  ch.  xiv. 

Muckibus,  tipsy. 

At  a  great  supper  t'  other  night  at  Lord 
Hertford's,  if  she  [Lady  Coventry]  was  not 
the  best  humoured  creature  in  the  world  I 
should  have  made  her  angry  ;  she  said  in  a 
very  vulgar  accent,  if  she  drank  any  more, 
she  should  be  muckibus.  "  Lord !  "  said  Lady 
Mary  Coke,  "What  is  that?"  "Oh!  it  is 
Irish  for  sentimental.''—  Walpole,  Letters,  i. 
498  (1756). 

Muckingtogs,  corruption  of  Macin- 
tosh ;  although  referring  to  the  togs 
which  people  wear  when  mucking  about 
in  rain  and  mud.  See  quotation  from 
Ingoldsby  Legends  s.  v.  Carpet-swab. 

Mucksy.  See  quotation.  Mucky  is 
in  the  Diets.,  and  Lye  has  muxy  as  a 
Devonshire  word.     Cf.  Mux. 

Mary  runs  in,  combs  her  hair,  slips  a  pair 
of  stockings  and  her  best  gown  over  her  dirt, 
and  awaits  the  coming  guests,  who  make  a 
few  long  faces  at  the  *' mucksy  sort  of  a 
place,"  but  prefer  to  spend  the  night  there 
than  to  bivouac  close  to  the  enemy's  camp. — 
Kingsley,  Westtoard  Ho,  ch.  xiv. 

When  the  ground  appeared  through  the 
crust  of  bubbled  snow  ...  it  was  all  so 
soaked  and  sodden,  and,  as  we  call  it,  mucksy, 
that  to  meddle  with  it  in  any  way  was  to  do 
more  harm  than  good. — Blackmore,  Lorna 
Doone,  ch.  xlvi. 


Mucky,  to  dirty. 

She  even  brought  me  a  clean  towel  to 
spread  over  my  dress,  "  lest,"  as  she  said,  "  I 
should  mucky  it." — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre, 
ch.  ixii. 

Muddify,  to  dirty. 

Dou't  muddify  your  charming  simplicity 
with  controversial  distinctions  that  will  sour 
your  sweet  piety. —  Walpole,  Letters,  iv.  491 
(1789). 

Muddle-head,  a  confused  person. 

Mankind  are  not  wanting  in  intelligence : 
but,  as  a  body,  they  have  one  intellectual 
defect ;  —  they  are  muddle-heads.  —  Reade  y 
Never  too  late  to  mend,  ch.  vi. 

Mudlark.  L.,  who  gives  no  ex- 
ample, says,  "  Colloquial  or  slang  for  a 
dirty  boy  who  dabbles  along  the  mini 
of  canals  or  rivers ;  "  and  this,  I  think, 
is  its  usual  meaning,  but  see  extract. 

He  .  .  became  what  is  called  a  mud-lark  ; 
that  is,  a  plunderer  of  the  ship's  cargoes  that 
unload  in  the  Thames.— Miss  Edgeworth, 
Lame  Jervas,  ch.  iii. 

Muffin-cap,  flat  cap  worn  by  charity 
school  boys,  &c. 

His  jealousy  was  roused  by  seeing  the  new 
boy  promoted  to  the  black  stick  and  hat- 
band, while  he,  the  old  one,  remained  station- 
ary in  the  muffin-cap  and  leathers. — Dickens, 
Oliver  Twist,  ch.  vi. 

Mr.  Peters,  though  now  a  wealthy  man, 
had  received  a  liberal  education  at  a  charity 
school,  and  was  apt  to  recur  to  the  days 
of  his  muffin-cap  and  leathers.— Ingoldsby 
Legends  (Spectre  of  Tappington). 

Muffe  maffe,  a  reproachful  epithet, 
though  I  cannot  define  its  meaning* 
more  exactly,  as  there  is  no  expression 
corresponding  to  it  in  the  original. 
Stany hurst,  however,  makes  iEneas 
speak  of  the  sleeping  Polyphemus  as 
"  the  muffe  maffe  loller  "  (J5n.  III.  647). 
Stanyhurstis  fond  of  such  jingles  as 
ruffe  raffe,  swish  swash,  &c. ;  and  muff 
=  a  fool  was  in  use  in  his  time.  See  N. 
Miff  mqff  is  given  by  H.  as  a  North 
country  word  for  nonsense. 

Muffle.  "  Among  chymists  is  the 
cover  of  a  test  or  coppel  which  is  put 
over  it  in  the  fire  "  (Bailey's  Diet.). 

Both  which  (as  a  most  noble  knight  Sir 
K.  D.  hath  it)  may  be  illustrated  in  some 
mesure  by  what  we  find  passeth  in  the  cop- 
pilling  of  a  fixed  metall,  which  as  long  as 
any  lead  or  drosse  or  any  allay  remains  with 
it,  continueth  still  melting,  flowing,  and  in 
motion  under  the  muffle.— Howell,  Parly  of 
Beasts,  p.  148. 


MUFFLED 


(  425  )  MUMBLEMENT 


Muffled,  blinded. 

Muffled  pagans  know  there  is  a  God,  but 
not  what  this  God  is. — Adams,  iii.  160. 

Mufti,  an  officer,  &c.  not  wearing 
his  uniform  is  said  to  be  in  mufti. 
Mufti  being  the  high -priest  among 
Mahomedans,  the  term  may  have  been 
adopted  by  our  troops  in  India  to  sig- 
nify a  peaceful  garb. 

He  has  no  mufti-coaJt,  except  one  sent  him 
out  by  Messrs.  Stultz  to  India  in  the  year 
1821. — Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  viiL 

Muo,  face  or  mouth  (slang). 

Egad,  Tom,  they  used  to  call  vou  the  Knight 
of  the  woful  countenance,  and  Clive  has  just 
inherited  the  paternal  mug.  —  Thackeray, 
Newcomes,  ch.  lvi. 

I  fought  the  best  man  of  the  lot,  and 
thrashed  him  so  that  his  whole  mug  was  like 
a  ball  of  beet-root. — Reade,  Never  too  late  to 
mend,  ch.  lxxxii. 

Mugget,  explained  by  sWolcot  in  a 
note,  "part  of  the  entrails  of  certain 
cattle."  H.  gives  the  word  in  the  plural 
=  chitterlings. 

I'm  a  poor  botching  tailor  for  a  court, 
Low  bred  on  liver,  and  what  clowns  call 
mugget. — P.  Pindar,  p.  192. 

Mugle,  confuse,  muddle  ? 

You  must  no  more  look  to  force  or  mugle 
men  with  the  name  of  a  Parliament. — British 
Bellman,  1648  {Harl.  Misc.,  vii.  634). 

Mule.  One  mule  doth  scrub  another 
=one  fool  flatters  another. 

I  need  not  flatter  these,  they'll  do  't  them- 
selves, 
And  cross  the  proverb  that  was  wont  to  Bay 
One  mule  doth  scrub  another,  here  each  ass 
Has  learn'd  to  clean  himself. 

Randolph,  Muses1  Looking  Glass,  iii.  4. 

Mulierose,  fond  of  women.  L.  gives 
mulierosity,  with  quotation  from  Henry 
More. 

Well  then,  dame,  mulierose — that  means 
wrapped  up  body  and  soul  in  women;  so 
prithee  tell  me,  how  did  you  ever  detect  the 
noodle's  mulierosity?  —  Reade,  Cloister  and 
Hearth,  ch.  xxxiii. 

Mull,  a  thick  kind  of  muslin. 

It  would  be  mortifying  to  the  feelings  of 
many  ladies  could  they  be  made  to  under- 
stand how  little  the  heart  of  man  is  affected 
by  what  is  costly  or  new  in  their  attire ;  how 
little  it  is  biassed  by  the  texture  of  their 
muslin,  and  how  unsusceptible  of  peculiar 
tendencies  towards  the  spotted,  the  sprigged, 
the  mull  or  the  jackonet. — Miss  Austen,  North- 
anger  Abbey,  ch.  x. 


Mullet,  a  common  name  for  a  cow 
in  Suffolk. 
Leave  milking  and  drie  vp  old  tnulley  thy 

cow, 
The  crooked  and  aged  to  fatting  put  now. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  135. 

Mulliegrums,  bad  temper,  the  blues. 
Mulligrubs  is  more  usual. 

Peter's  successour  was  so  in  his  mulliegrums 
that  he  had  thought  to  have  buffeted  him. — 
— Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  {Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  172). 

Mulsack.  The  first  extract  is  from 
some  nonsense  verses  by  Bp.  Corbet; 
whether  there  is  any  reference  to  the 
"famous  chimney-sweeper,"  1  do  not 
know :  but  it  is  unlikely,  unless  there 
had  been  two  generations  of  chimney- 
sweeps of  this  name. 

The  putrid  skyes 
Eat  mulsacke  pyes, 
Backed  up  in  logicke  breeches. 

Bp,  Corbet,  A  Non  Sequitur. 

Machara,  A  man  then  as  famous  for  a 
Oryer  as  Mulsack  is  now  for  a  Chimney- 
sweeper.— Stapylton,  Juvenal,  vii.  8,  note. 

Multipormous,  varied. 

His  multiformous  places  compelTd  such  a 
swarm  of  suitors  to  hum  about  him. — Hacket, 
Life  of  Williams,  i.  204. 

Multiplex,  manifold. 

In  favour  of  which  unspeakable  benefits  of 
the  reality,  what  can  we  do  but  cheerfully 
pardon  the  multiplex  ineptitudes  of  the 
semblance  ? — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  137. 

Trade  everywhere,  in  spite  of  multiplex 
confusions,  has  increased,  is  increasing  — 
Ibid.,  iv.  256. 

Multiramified,  divided  into  many 
branches. 

The  Headlongs  claim  to  be  not  less  genuine 
derivatives  from  the  antique  branch  of  Cad- 
wallader,  than  any  of  the  last  named  multi- 
ramijied  families. — Peacock,  Headlong  Hall, 
ch.  i. 

Multuple,  manifold. 

It  introduced  two  reports  instead  of  one, 
and  multuple  attendances.  —  North,  Life  of 
Lord  Guilford,  ii.  78. 

Mumble-matins,  a  contemptuous 
name  for  an  ignorant  priest,  as  was  also 
Sir  John.    See  N.  s.  v.  sir. 

How  can  they  be  learned  having  none  to 
teach  them  but  Sir  John  3Iumble-matins  ? — 
Pilkington,  p.  26. 

Mumblement,  in u mble  ;  an  indistinct 

sound. 

Lasource  answered  with  some  vague  pain- 
ful mumblement. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pfe.  III. 
Bk.  III.  ch.  viii. 


MUMCHANCE  (  426  ) 


MUSHY 


The  sound  of  them  is  not  a  voice  con- 
veying knowledge  or  memorial  of  any  earthly 
or  heavenly  tbiug ;  it  is  a  wide-spread  inar- 
ticulate slumberous  mumblement,  issuing  as 
if  from  the  lake  of  eternal  sleep.  —  Ibid., 
Cromwell,  i.  2. 

Mumchance,  originally  a  game  at 
which  silence  was  imperative  (Bee  N.), 
then  for  silence  or  a  silent  person.  In 
the  extract  Mumchance  is  personified, 
and  even  a  biographical  incident  men- 
tioned concerning  him. 

Why,  Miss,  you  are  in  a  brown  study; 
what's  the  matter  ?  methinks  you  look  like 
Mumchance  that  was  haug'd  for  saying  no- 
nothing. — Swift,Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  i.). 

Mummanize,  to  embalm  as  a  mummy. 

Deere  Vault,  that  veil'st  him,  mummanize 

his  corse, 
Till  it  arise  in  Heauen  to  be  crown'd. 

Davies,  M use's  Teares,  p.  9. 

Mumps,  dumps. 

The  Sunne  was  so  in  his  mumps  uppon  it 
that  it  was  almost  noone  before  hee  could 
goe  to  cart  that  day. — Naske,  Lenten  btuffe 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  168). 

Mums,  lips  (slang). 

Why,  you  jade,  you  look  so  rosy  this 
morning,  I  must  have  a  smack  at  your 
mums. — Foote,  The  Minor,  Act  I. 

Munkral,  official  ?  Adams  is  argu- 
ing that  though  there  is  an  indelible 
character  of  priesthood  in  both  bishop 
and  priest,  the  former  has  a  superiority 
in  jurisdiction.  I  suppose  the  meaning 
to  be  that  a  bishop  is  not  merely  pri- 
mus inter  pares,  but  that  certain  offices 
pertain  to  aim  alone. 

To  be  a  bishop  then  is  not  a  numeral  but 
a  muttered  function ;  a  priority  in  order,  a 
superiority  in  degree. — Adams,  ii.  266. 

Murine,  belonging  to  mice. 

The  superabundance  of  the  murine  race 
must  have  been  owing  to  their  immense 
fecundity,  and  to  the  comparatively  tardy 
reproduction  of  the  feline  species.— Poetry 
of  Anti jacobin  (note),  p.  131. 

Murphy,  a  potato,  from  the  fondness 
of  the  Irish  for  the  vegetable.  See 
extract  *.  v.  Tuck-shop.  There  seems, 
however,  to  have  been  a  special  kind 
of  potato  called  "  murphies.''  See 
Peacock's  Manley  and  Corringham 
Glossary  (E.  D.  S). 

There  I  watch  a  puss 
Playing  with  two  kittens ; 

Playing  round  the  fire, 
Which  of  blazing  turf  is, 


Roaring  to  the  pot 

Which  bubbles  with  the  murphies. 

Thackeray,  Pey  of  Limavaddy. 

Murrain,  plaguy  (used  adjectivally). 

It  is  a  tnurrion  crafty  drab.  —  Gamine  r 
Gurton's  Needle  (Hawkins*  Eng.  Dr.,  i.  195). 

Thar's  not  within  this  land 
A  muriner  cat  than  Gib  is  betwixt  the  Terns 

and  Tine, 
Shafe  as  much  wit  in  her  head  almost  as 

chave  in  mine. — Ibid,  (Ibid.,  i.  209). 

My  Lady  was  in  such  a  murrain  haste  to 
be  here,  that  set  out  she  would,  thof  I  told 
her  it  was  Ohildermass  Day. — Cibber,  Pro- 
voked Husband,  Act  I. 

Murrainly,  excessively ;  plaguily. 

And  ye  'ad  bene  there,  cham  sure  you* Id 
murrenty  ha  wondred.  —  Gammer  Gurton's 
Needle  (Haickinsy  Emj.  Dr.,  i.  202). 

Muscipular,  mousy ;  connected  with 
or  pertaining  to  mice.  The  word  is 
coined  in  imitation  of  Johnson's  Latin- 
isms.  Parturient  is  used  by  H.  More. 
Muscipula  is  Latin  for  "  mouse-trap." 

Parturient  mountains  have  ere  now  pro- 
duced muscipular  abortions.  —  J.  and  II. 
Smith,  Rejected  Addresses,  p.  92. 

MUSE-MAN,  poet. 

Each  driueling  Lozel  now 
That  hath  but  seene  a  Colledge,  and  knows 

how 
To  put  a  number  to  John  Seton's  prose, 
Starts  vp  a  sudden  Muse-man,  and  streight 

throws 
A  packe  of  Epigrams  into  the  light. 
Whose  vndigested  mish-mash  would  affright 
The  very  ghost  of  Marti  all. 

A .  Holland  (Davies,  Scourye 
of  Folly,  p.  80). 

Mushed,  shattered ;  depressed. 

You're  a  young  man,  eh,  for  all  you  look 
so  mushed. — G.  Eliot,  Silas  Marner,  ch.  x_ 

Mushroomed,  promoted  from  low 
origin  :  the  substantive  =  upstart,  at  id 
the  adjectival  use  (e.  g.  "mushroom 
nobility ")  is  common.  The  verb  is 
said  in  the  extract  to  be  a  peculiar  ex- 
pression of  Lovelace*  s,  to  whom  it  is 
attributed. 

None  but  the  prosperous  upstart,  mush- 
roomed into  rank  (another  of  his  peculiars), 
was  arrogantly  proud  of  it. — Richardson,  Cl. 
Harlowe,  i.  297. 

Mushy,  in  several  dialects  =  soft ; 
crumbling.  Perhnps  it  means  in  the 
extract,  She  is  not  foolishly  or  demon- 
stratively soft,  but,  &c. 

A  child-bearing  tender-hearted  thing  is 
the  woman  of  our  people ;  her  children  are 


MUSIC 


(  427  ) 


MUT1NISE 


mostly  stout,  as  I  think  you'll  say 
Addy's  are,  and  she's  not  mushy,  hut  her 
heart  is  tender.— Or.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda, 
ch.  xlvi. 

Music,  to  play  music. 

A  man  must  put  a  mean  valuation  upon 
Christ  to  leave  him  for  a  touch  upon  an 
instrument,  and  a  faint  idea  of  future  tor- 
ments to  be  fiddled  and  musick'd  into  hell. — 
Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  135. 

Musk :l ess,  unmusical ;  inharmonious. 

Their  musicklesse  instruments  are  frames  of 
brasse  hung  about  with  rings,  which  they 
jingle  in  shops  according  to  their  march- 
ings.— Sandys,  Travels,  p.  172. 

Musk-cod,  an  abusive  term,  applied 
to  a  scented  courtier. 

Hot.  Deliver  this  letter  to  the  young  gal- 
lant Druso,  he  that  fell  so  strongly  in  love 
with  me  yesternight. 

A  sin.  It's  a  sweet  musk-cod,  a  pure  spic'd 
gull. — Dekker,  Satiromastix  {Hawkins,  Eny. 
Dr.,  iii.  130). 

I've  breath  enough  at  all  times,  Lucifer's 

musk-cod, 
To  give  your  perfumed  worship  three  venues. 

Massinger,  Old  Law,  iii.  2. 

Musmilion,  musk  melon. 

There  is  a  musk  milion  ground  trenched, 
manured,  and  very  well  ordered  for  the 
gTOweth  of  musmilions,  which  borders,  herbes, 
flowers,  and  musmilion  ground,  wee  valew 
to  bee  worth  £3.Survey  of  Manor  of  Wim- 
bledon, 1649  (Archaol.  x.  432). 

Muson,  seems  to  mean  a  horn. 

If  I  suffer  this,  we  shall  have  that  damn'd 
courtier  pluck  on  his  shoes  with  the  parson's 
musons.  Fine  i'  faith !  none  but  the  small 
Le rite's  brow  to  plant  your  shoeing  horn- 
seed  in. — Killigrew,  Parson's  Wedding,  v.  4. 

Musroll,  nose-band  of  bridle. 

Their  bridles  have  not  bits,  but  a  kind  of 
musroll  of  two  pieces  of  wood. — Modern  Ac- 
count of  Scotland,  1670  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  137). 

Must,  mouldiness ;  mustiness. 

A  smell  as  of  unwholesome  sheep,  blend- 
ing with  the  smell  of  must  and  dust,  is  refer- 
able to  the  nightly  (and  often  daily)  con- 
sumption of  mutton  fat  in  candles,  and  to 
the  fretting  of  parchment  forms  and  skins 
in  greasy  drawers.  —  Dickens,  Bleak  House, 
ch.  xzzviii. 

Mdstachoes,  applied  to  ears  of  corn ; 

we  speak  of  bearded  grain. 

Heer  for  our  food  millions  of  flowrie  grains, 
With  long  mustachoes,  waue  vpon  the  plains. 
Sylvester,  Third  day,  first  ice  eke,  811. 

Mustard- token,  something  very 
minute. 


A  piece  of  silver!  I  never  had  but  two 
calves  in  my  life,  and  those  my  mother  left 
me ;  I  will  rather  part  from  the  fat  of  them 
than  from  a  mustard-token's  worth  of  argent. 
— Massinger,  Virgin  Martyr,  ii.  2. 

Muster,  the  technical  term  for  a 
company  of  peacocks. 

Master  Simon  .  .  told  me  that  according 
to  the  most  ancient  and  approved  treatise 
on  hunting  I  must  say  a  muster  of  peacocks. 
—Irving,  Sketch  Book  (Christmas  Day). 

Musty,  to  grow  musty.  In  the  first 
extract  a  gambler  tells  a  friend  he  shall 
not  allow  a  hundred  pounds  which  he 
has  received  to  grow  musty,  1.  e.  hoard- 
ed, instead  of  being  staked. 

Wil.  But  hark  thee,  hark  thee,  Will,  did'st 
win  it  ? 

Ha.  No,  but  I  may  lose  it  ere  I  go  to  bed ; 
Dost  think  ft  shall  musty?  what's  a  hundred 
pound  ?— Shirley,  The  Gamester,  Act  II. 

Tou  .  .  keep  your  reputation  mustying 
upon  an  old  foundation,  which  is  ready  to 
sink  for  want  of  being  repair'd  by  some 
notable  achievements.— T.  Drown,  Works,  ii. 
180. 

Musty,  moping.    Cf.  Fusty. 

On  her  birthday 
We  were  forced  to  be  merry,  and,  now  she's 
musty. 

We  must  be  sad  on  pain  of  her  displeasure. 
Massinger,  Duke  of  Milan,  ii.  1. 
Apollo,  what's  the  matter,  pray, 
You  look  so  mustily  to-day  ? 
Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  226. 

Mutabilate,  to  change. 

Pye,  Doctor,  fye !  you  know  it  is  a  folly 
Thus  to  submit  and  yield  to  melancholy ; 
For  'twill  mutabilate  poor  nature  s  light, 
And  turn  its  day  into  a  gloomy  night. 
T.  Brown,  Works,  iv.  243. 

Mutation,  post-house. 

Neere  or  upon  these  Causeys  were  seated 
....  mutations;  for  so  they  called  in  that 
age  the  places  where  strangers,  as  they 
journied,  did  change  their  post  horses, 
draught-beasts,  or  wagons. — Holland's  Cam- 
den, p.  65. 

Mutile,  to  mutilate. 

Hee  sees  high  Arches,  huge  shining  heaps  of 

stone 
Maim'd,  mutiVd,  murder'd  by  years  wasteful 

teen. — Sylvester,  Spectacles,  st.  32. 

Mutiner,  a  mutineer. 

Murmurers  are  like  to  mutiners,  where  one 
cursed  villaine  may  be  the  mine  of  a  whole 
camp. — Breton,  A  Murmurer,  p.  8. 

Mutinise,  to  mutiny. 

Or  if  they  must  be  thoughts,  and  a  multi- 


MUTISM 


(428) 


NAB 


tude,  jet  .  .  .  that  they  had  not  presumed 
unto  so  bold  approaches  as  to  mutinise  apud 
me,  within  my  heart. — Adams,  iii.  281. 

Mutism,  silence. 

Paulina  was  awed  by  the  savants,  but  not 
quite  to  mutism;  she  conversed  modestly, 
diffidently. — Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  oh.  xxvh. 

Mutteration,  subdued  grumbling: 

a  word  coined  by  Miss  Grandison. 

So  the  night  passed  off  with  prayings, 
hopings,  and  a  little  mutteration.  (Allow  me 
that  word,  or  find  me  a  better.) — Richardson, 
Grandison,  iv.  282. 

Mutterods,  muttering;  buzzing. 

Lyke  bees  in  summer  season,  through  rus- 

ticall  hamlets, 
That    flirt   in  soonbeams,  and    toyle  with 

mutterus  humbling. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.  414. 

Mutton,   "a  French  gold  coin,  so 

called  from  its  being  impressed  with 

the  image  of  a  lamb"  {Note  by  Scott 

in  loc). 

He  will  pay  you  gallantly;  a  French 
mtUton  for  every  hide  I  have  spoiled,  and  a 
fat  cow  or  bullock  for  each  day  I  have  been 
absent.—  Scott,  Fair  Maid  of  Perth,  i.  112. 

Mutuality,  exchange  of  good  offices. 

His  kindnesses  seldome  exceed  courtesies. 
Hee  loues  not  deeper  mutualities,  because 
he  would  not  take  sides,  nor  hazard  himselfe 
on  displeasures,  which  he  principally  avoids. 
— Earle,  Microcosmographie  {Plausible  Man). 

Mutuation,  exchange. 

O  blessed  mutation,  blessed  mutuation! 
What  we  had  ill,  (and  what  had  we  but  ill  ?) 
we  changed  it  away  for  His  good. — Adams, 
i.  396. 

Mux,  to  make  a  mess  of.    Cf .  Muckst. 

My  mother  and  Nicholas  Snowe  .  .  had 
thoroughly  muxed  up  everything,  being  too 
quick-headed. — Blackmore,  Lorna  Doone,  ch. 
lxii. 

Muzzing,  stupidly  loitering  (?).  The 
speaker  in  the  extract  is  the  Hon.  Mrs. 


Cholmondeley,  sister  of  Peg  Woffing- 

ton. 

If  you  but  knew,  cried  I,  to  whom  I  am 
going  to-night,  and  who  I  shall  see  to-night, 
you  would  not  dare  keep  me  muzzing  here. — 
Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  1. 158. 

Muzzy,  muddled  with  drink ;  also, 
stupid,  confused. 

Lord  Frederick  Foretop  and  I  were  care- 
lessly sliding  the  Banelagh  round,  picking 
our  teeth,  after  a  damned  muzzy  dinner  at 
Boodle's. — Foote,  Lame  Lover,  Act  I. 

Mr.  L.  a  sensible  man  of  eighty-two,  strong, 
healthy,  and  conversable  as  he  could  have 
been  at  thirty-two ;  his  wife  a  dull  muzzy  old 
creature ;  his  sister  a  ditto. — Mad.  D'Arblay, 
Diary,  i.  305  (1780). 

A  few  of  the  more  iudefatigable  were  con- 
tinuing their  labours,  receiving  reports  from 
scouts,  giving  orders,  laying  wagers,  and  very 
muzzy  with  British  principles  and  spirits. — 
Lytton,  My  Xovel,  Bk.  XII.  ch.  xxxi. 

Myall-bough. 

"  There's  some  folks  don't  believe  in 
witches  and  the  like,"  he  continued,  "  but  a 
man  that's  seen  a  naked  old  hag  of  a  gin  ride 
away  on  a  myall-bough,  knows  better." — //. 
Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  ▼. 

Myoner,  miner. 

The  myoners  . . .  fully  wrought  the  mine 
through  the  castle  wall. — Sir  T.  Fairfax  to 
Lenthall,  Aug.  15,  1645. 

Myrrhy,  redolent  of  myrrh,  per- 
fumed. 

As  pours  some  pigeon    from   the  myrrhy 

lands, 
Bapt  by  the  whirlblast  to  fierce  Scythian 

strands 
Where  breed  the  swallows. 

Browning,  Waring. 

Mythologist,  a  writer  of  fables ; 
usually  one  who  investigates  or  ex- 
plains myths.  L1  Estrange  put  forth  an 
edition  in  English  of  the  "Fables  of 
jEsop,  and  other  eminent  Mythologist  &  ; 
3rd  edit,  1669." 


N 


Nab.  H.  says,  "  a  cant  term  for  the 
head,"  but  in  the  extracts  it  means  a 
hat. 

Kite.  Off  with  your  hats !  'Ounds,  off  with 
your  hats :  this  is  the  Captain,  the  Captain. 

1st  Mob.  We  have  seen  Captains  afore  now, 
mun. 


2nd  Mob.  Ay,  and  Lieutenant-Captains  too: 
s'flesh,  I'll  keep  on  my  nab. 

1st  Mob.  And  I'se  scarcely  d'off  mine  for 
any  Captain  in  England. 

Farquhar,  Recruiting  Officer,  Act  II. 

There  were  particularly  two  parties,  viz., 
those  who  wore  hats  fiercely  cocked,  and 


NAB 


(  429  ) 


NAPPED 


those  who  preferr'd  the  nab,  or  trencher  hat 
with  the  brim  flapping  over  their  eyes. — 
Fielding,  Jonathan  Wild,  Bk.  II.  ch.  vi. 

Nab,  a  rising  ground. 

Will  you  just  turn  this  nab  of  heath,  and 
walk  into  my  house  ?—E.  Bronte,  Withering 
Heights,  ch.  ixi. 

Nabalitick,  churlish,  like  Nabal 
(1  Sam.  xxv.  3). 

^  It  is  then  a  sin  arguing  a  Nabalitick  and 
Tile  heart  to  meditate  nothing  but  vile  and 
illiberal  things  for  Qod.—Gauden,  Tears  of 
the  Church,  p.  353. 

Nabobbery,  the  nabob  class. 

"How  particularly  great  he  is  to-night; 
he  reminds  me  of  a  nabob."  "Nabobbery  it- 
self," said  Hyacinth. — Savage,  R.  Medltcott, 
Bk.  II.  ch.  x. 

Nabobess,  female  nabob ;  wife  of  a 
rich  man,  especially  of  one  who  had 
made  his  fortune  in  India. 

There  are  few  nabobs  and  nabobesses  in  this 
country.— Walpole,  Letters,  iii.  375  (1771). 

I  must  alter  the  disposition  of  my  acres 
once  more ;  I  will  have  no  nabobs  nor  na- 
bobesses in  my  family. — Burgoyne,  Maid  of 
the  Oaks,  Act  IV. 

Mrs.  Major  Waddell  played  the  Nabob's 
lady  as  though  she  had  been  born  a  Nabobess. 
— Miss  Ferrier,  Inheritance,  Vol.  II.  ch.  xiv. 

Nads,  adze.  So  nawl  or  nail  for  awl. 

An  ax  and  a  nods  to  make  troffe  for  thy 
hogs. — Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  36. 

Nag,  to  keep  on  with  complaints  or 

reproaches. 

Forgive  me  for  nagging ;  I  am  but  a  wo- 
man.— Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  xcvii. 

Nail.  To  hit  the  nail  on  the  head 
=  to  speak  to  the  point ;  to  touch  the 
matter  exactly.  The  proverb  is  illus- 
trated in  N.,  but  the  following  are 
earlier  by  more  than  70  years  than  the 
earliest  example  there. 

Thou  hyttest  the  nayle  vpon  the  heed, 
For  that  is  the  thiuge  tnat  they  dreed, 
Least  Scripture  shuld  come  vnto  light. 

Dyaloge  hetweene  a  Gentillman  and 
Husbandman,  p.  142. 
Did  she  not  (think  yon)  hit  the  nail  on  the 
head  in  thus  taunting  this  bishop?  —  Bale,. 
Select  Works,?.  202. 

Naivety,  piquant  simplicity.  The 
French  naivetS  is  naturalized  among  us, 
but  this  English  form  is  peculiar. 

His  apologies  and  the  like,  when  in  a  fit  of 
repentance  he  felt  commanded  to  apologise, 
were  full  of  naivety,  and  very  pretty  and 
ingenious. — Carlyle,  Life  of  Sterling,  l't.  II. 
ch.  iii. 


Namby-pamby,  to  talk  mincingly ;  to 
flatter :  the  word  is  usually  an  adjec- 
tive. 

A  lady  of  quality  . .  .  sends  me  Irish  cheese 
and  Iceland  moss  for  my  breakfast,  and  her 
waiting  gentlewoman  to  namby-pamby  me. — 
Miss  Edgeworth,  Absentee,  ch.  xvi. 

Name-father,  inventor  of  names. 

I  have  changed  his  name  by  virtue  of  my 
own  single  authority.  Knowest  thou  not 
that  I  am  a  great  name-father  ? — Richardson, 
CI.  Harlotce,  iv.  45. 

Name-son,  godson,  or  perhaps  only 
namesake. 

God  for  ever  bless  your  honour!  I  am 
your  name-son  sure  enough. — Smollett,  Sir  L. 
Greaves,  ch.  iii. 

The  Major  was  . . .  highly  flattered  by  the 
interest  expressed  for  his  little  name-son. — 
Miss  Ferrier,  Inheritance,  Vol.  I.  ch.  xxvi. 

Nan-boys,  effeminate  men  (?). 

The  gittarn  and  the  lute,  the  pipe  and  the 
flute, 
Are  the  new  alamode  for  the  nan-boys  ; 
With  pistol  and  dagger  the  women  out- 
swagger 
The  blades  with  the  muff  and  fan,  boys. 

Merry  Drollerie,  p.  12. 

Nannicock,  a  silly,  affected  person. 

See  H.  s.  v.  nanny  hen. 

Hee  that  doth  wonder  at  a  weathercocke, 
And  plaies  with  euery  feather  in  the  winde, 
And  is  in  love  with  euery  nannicocke. 

Breton,  PasquiPs  Fooles-cappe,  p.  23. 

Nap.  Grose  says,  "  to  cheat  at  dice 
by  securing  one  chance."  The  term 
referred  to  by  Defoe  was  in  use  at 
Halifax,  and  is  applied  to  stealing. 

Assisting  the  frail  square  die  with  high 
and  low  f  ullums,  and  other  napping  tricks. — 
T.  Brown,  Works,  iii.  00. 

Hand  Napjring,  that  is,  when  the  criminal 
was  taken  in  the  very  act  [of  stealing  cloth]. 
—Defoe,  Tour  thro'  G.  Britain,  iii.  143. 

N  a  pell,  Lathyru*  macrorrhizus, 
called  in  Scotland  gnajyperts  or  knap- 
peris,  and  in  Ireland  napj)erty. 

Hot  napell  making  lips  and  tongue  to  swell. 
Sylvester,  The  Furies,  179. 

Napkin,  to  wrap  in  a  napkin. 

Let  every  man  beware  of  napkining  up  the 
talent  which  was  delivered  him  to  trade 
withal. — Sanderson,  iii.  97. 

Napped,  having  a  soft  or  woolly  nap. 

He  had  come  on  foot  without  attendants, 
was  dressed  in  a  plain  napped  coat,  and  had 
the  mien  and  appearance  of  an  honest  coun- 
try grazier. — H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i. 

282. 


NAPPY 


(  430  )    NAUGHT  OF,  TO  BE 


Nappy,  soft.    The  Diets,  only  give 

the  word  as  applied  to  ale  =  strong. 

The  lint  or  nappie  downe  which  linnen 
cloth  beareth  in  manner  of  a  toft  cotton  .  . 
is  of  great  vse  in  Phyaicke. — Holland,  Pliny, 
xix.  i. 

Narcotism,  condition  produced  by 
narcotics ;  coma. 

From  what  I  see  of  the  case  . .  narcotism  is 
the  only  thing  I  should  be  much  afraid  of. — 
G.  Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch.  lxx. 

Narrate,  to  relate.  This  verb  is  not 
in  R.,  and  L.  only  cites  for  it  Buckle's 
Hist,  of  Civilization.  In  the  extract  it 
is  italicized  as  a  Scotticism. 

Thou  tellest  me  that  when  I  have  least  to 
narrate,  to  speak  in  the  Scottish  phrase,  I  am 
most  diverting. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  vi. 
223. 

Narrow,  ne'er  a.     Cf.  Arrow. 

I  warrants  me  there  is  narrow  a  one  of 
all  those  officer  fellows  but  looks  upon  him- 
self to  be  as  good  as  arrow  a  squire  of  500/. 
a  year. — Tom  Jones,  Bk.  VIII.  ch.  ii. 

As  for  master  and  the  young  squire,  they 
have  as  yet  had  narro  glimpse  of  the  true 
light. — Humphrey  Clinker,  i.  181. 

Narrow- breath ed,  short  of  breath. 

He  that  is  asthmatical,  narrotc-breathed  in 
his  faith,  cannot  but  be  lumpish  and  melan- 
choly.— Adams,  iii.  96. 

Nasology,  the  science  of  noses. 

Mr.  Dickens  is  as  deep  in  nasology  as  the 
learned  Slawkenbergitis ;  his  people  are  per- 
petually wagging  their  noses,  or  flattening 
them  against  windows,  or  rubbing  them,  or 
evincing  some  restlessness  or  other  in  con- 
nection with  them. — Phillips,  Essays  from 
the  Times,  ii.  336. 

Nation,  a  body  or  company*:  we  use 
tribe  in  the  same  way.  The  word  is 
sometimes  used  as  an  adverb  =  very, 
but  in  that  case  it  is  an  abbreviation  of 
tarnation  or  damnation. 

A  public  defamer  of  the  whole  nation  of 
dissenters. — North,  Examen,  p.  416. 

Nothing  was  difficult  but  his  attendance 
upon  and  dealing  with  the  court ;  .  .  .  that 
captious  nation. — Ibid.,  life  of  Lord  Guilford, 
i.  172. 

The  whole  nation  of  the  law  were  at  that 
time  apprised  of  all  the  arguments  pro  and 
con. — Ibid.,  ii.  267. 

The  French  had  such  a  nation  of  hedges, 
aud  copses,  and  ditches.  —  Sterne,  Trist. 
Shantly,  iv.  85. 

What  a  nation  of  herbs  he  had  procured. 
— Ibid.,  v.  117. 

Natitial,  nativity. 


Scarce  fourteen  times  had  hee  beheld  the 

birth 
Of  th'  happy  Planet   (which  presag'd  his 

Worth) 
Predominant  in  his  Natitiall. 

Sylvester,  Henrie  the  Great,  39. 

Native,  an  English  oyster. 

What  different  lots  our  stars  accord ! 
This  babe  to  be  hail'd  and  woo'd  as  a  lord, 

And  that  to  be  shunn'd  like  a  leper! 
One  to  the  world's  wine,  honey,  and  corn, 
Another,  like  Colchester  native,  born 

To  its  vinegar  only  and  pepper. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

His  eyes  rested  on  a  newly-opened  oyster- 
shop  on  a  magnificent  scale,  with  natives 
laid  one  deep  in  circular  marble  basins  in 
the  windows.  —  Sketches  by  Boz  (Mr.  John 
D  ounce). 

Natter,  to  nag ;  to  find  fault 

"  Ha'  a  drop  o*  warm  broth  ?  "  said  Lisbeth, 
whose  motherly  feeling  now  got  the  better 
of  her  nattering  habit. — G.  Eltot,  J  dam  Bede, 
ch.  iv. 

Nattered,  querulous ;  impatient. 

As  she  said  of  herself,  she  believed  she 
grew  more  "nattered"  as  she  grew  older; 
but  that  she  was  conscious  of  her  "  nattered' 
ness  "  was  a  new  thing.— Mrs.  Gaskell,  Ruth, 
ch.  xxix. 

Naturalness,  absence  of  affectation. 
Thackeray  did  not  coin  this  word,  or  at 
least  was  not  the  first  to  use  it ;  it  occurs 
in  South,  Dry  den,  and  Addison.    See  L. 

Gentility  is  the  death  and  destruction  of 
social  happiness  amongst  the  middle  classes 
in  England.  It  destroys  naturalness  (if  I 
may  coin  such  a  word)  and  kindly  sympa- 
thies.—  Thackeray,  Misc.,  ii.  293. 

He  seems  to  have  risen  above  himself,  by 
a  sudden  inspiration,  into  that  true  natural' 
ness  which  is  the  highest  expression  of  the 
spiritual. — C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  vi. 

Natural  writer,  a  naturalist. 

A  lapwing,  which  bird  our  natural  writers 
name  Vannellus. — Sir  T.  Brown,  Tract  iv. 

Naturize.  To  naiurize  all =  to  refer 
everything  to  Nature. 

Who  is  a  Nature  supernaturall  ? 

So  say  Diuines,  so  sayes  Phylosophy  : 
Which  call  God  Nature,  naturizing  all 

That  was,  or  is,  or  shal  in  Nature  be. 

Davies,  Summa  Totalis,  p.  6. 

Naught  of,  to  be,  to  be  regard- 
less of. 

For  this  their  nureelings  sake,  both  man 
and  wife  abstaine  from  carnall  company 
together ;  .  .  .  .  and  to  have  the  suckling  of 
the  little  child  they  count  a  sufficient  re- 
ward for  being  naught  of  their  bodies. — Hol- 
land's Camden,  ii.  i43. 


NAUSEATION  (  431  ) 


NECK 


Nauseation,  disgust. 

It  caused  not  onely  a  nauseation  iu  the 
people  of  England  of  Danish  kings,  but  also 
an  appetite,  yea  a  longing,  after  their  true 
and  due  Sovereign.  —  Fuller.  Ch.  Hist..  II. 
vi.  10. 

Nausity,  aversion ;  nausea. 

It  has  in  truth  given  me  a  kind  of  nausity 
to  meaner  conversations. — Cotton's  Montaigne, 
ch.  lxxvi. 

Navel.  The  man  without  a  navel = 
Adam ;  for,  says  the  Annotator,  "  the 
navel  being  only  of  use  to  attract  the 
aliment  in  utero  materno,  and  Adam 
having  no  mother,  he  had  no  use  of  a 
navel,  and  therefore  it  is  not  to  be  con- 
ceived he  had  any." 

'Us  I  that  do  infect  myself ;  the  man  with- 
out a  navel  yet  lives  in  me. — Sir  T.  Brown, 
Iieligio  Medici,  Pt.  II.  sect.  x. 

Navel-stead,  place  of  the  navel. 

Full  in  the  navel-stead 
He  ripp'd  his  belly  up. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xxi.  173. 

Navicular,  belonging  to  a  ship.  The 
"  navicular  spokesman  "  in  the  extract 
is  a  Thames  waterman. 

u  Rare  game,  master !  "  cries  our  navicular 
spokesman.— Tom  Brown,  Works,  iii.  138. 

Navigator,  a  labourer  employed  in 
cutting  or  digging  trenches,  sluices, 
&c. :  usually  abbreviated  to  Navvy,  q.  v. 

There's  enough  of  me,  sir,  to  make  a  good 
navigator,  if  all  trades  fail.  — C.  Kingsley, 
Yeast,  ch.  xi. 

I  dare  say  you  could  drop  down  into  a 
navigator,  or  a  shoeblack,  or  something  in 
that  way  to-morrow,  and  think  it  pleasant. — 
Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xli. 

Navvy,  a  labourer  engaged  in  dig- 
ging or  cutting  trenches,  sluices,  &c. : 
an  abbreviation  of  Navigator,  q.  v. 

That  Tim  Goddard  stole  all  my  clothes, 
and  no  good  may  they  do  him  ;  last  time  as 
I  went  to  gaol  I  gave  them  him  to  kep,  and 
he  went  off  for  a  navvy  meantimes.  —  C. 
Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  viii. 

Nay-less,  persistent ;  one  who  will 
not  take  No  for  an  answer. 

Like  a  nay-lesse  Wooer, 
Holding  his  cloak,  shee  puis  him  hard  unto 
her.— Sylvester,  Maiden's  Blush,  991. 

Nazardly,  mean  ;  foolish. 
What !  such  a  nazardly  Pigwiggen, 
A  little  Hang-strings  in  a  Biggin. 

Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque, 
p.  201. 


Near,  miserly.  The  expression  in 
Bp.  Andrewes  is  similar. 

This  is  that  which  makes  the  devil  so  good 
a  husbacd  and  thrifty,  and  to  go  near  hand: 
what  need  he  give  more  when  so  little  will 
serve  ?— Andrewes,  v.  546. 

Then  came  up  Solmes's  great  estate:  his 
good  management  of  it  «  A  little  too  near 
indeed,  was  the  word  (Oh  how  money-lovers, 
thought  I,  will  palliate!  Yet  my  mother  is  a 
princess  in  spirit  to  this  Solmes).— Richard- 
son,  CI.  Harlowe,  i.  194. 

"  This  is  not  my  doctrine,"  cried  Hobson : 
I  am  not  a  near  man  neither;  but  as  to 
ping  at  that  rate,  it's  quite  out  of  charac- 
ter. —Mad.  D'Arblay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  LX.  ch.  i. 
Mr.  Barkis,  being  now  a  little  nearer  than 
he  used  to  be,  always  resorted  to  this  same 
device  before  producing  a  single  coin  from 
nis  store.—  Dickens,  David  Copperfield,  ch. 

Neatherders,  woman  who  looks  after 
cattle.     The  Diets,  give  neatress. 
But  hark  bow  I  can  now  express© 
My  love  unto  my  neatherdesse. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  261. 
What  doth  cause  this  pensiveness, 
Thou  most  lovely  neatheardesse  ? 

Ibid.,  p.  327. 

Neck,  to  decapitate  or  strangle.  Syl- 
vester and  Breton  use  neck  and  give  the 
neck  in  relation  to  the  pieces  at  chess, 
in  which  case  "  neck  "  seems  to  mean 
"  take."    See  next  entry  but  one. 

This  leaps,  that  limps,  this  checks,  that  necks, 
that  mates, 

Their  Names  are  diverse,  but  their  Wood 
is  one. 

Sylvester,  Memorials  of  Mortalitie,  st.  viii. 
The  plot  had  a  fatal  necking  stroke  at  that 
execution.— North,  Examen,  p.  220. 
Throw  iu  a  hint  that  if  he  should  neglect 
One  hour,  the  next  shall  see  him  in  my  grasp, 
And  the  next  after  that  shall  see  him  neck'd. 

Keats,  Cap  and  Bells,  st.  22. 

Neck.  To  break  the  neck  =  to  strike 
at  the  root  of.  A  man  who  has  got 
through  the  hardest  part  of  a  task  is 
said  to  have  broken  the  neck  of  it. 

The  last  instance  of  his  lordship's  care  of 
the  suitors  was  to  quicken  the  dispatch  at 
the  register's  office  and  (if  possible)  to  break 

the  neck  of  those  wicked  delays  used  there 

North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  80. 

His  Knighthood,  dating  from  the  very  year 
of  Cromwell's  invasion  (1G49),  indicates  a 
man  expected  to  do  his  best  on  the  occasion  ; 
as  in  all  probability  he  did,  had  not  Tredah 
Storm  proved  ruinous,  and  the  neck  of  this 
Irish  war  been  broken  at  once.— Carlyle,  Life 
of  Sterling,  ch.  ii. 


NECK 


(  432  ) 


NEEDLE 


Neck.  To  give  the  neck  =  to  give 
the  necking-stroke,  to  finish  off  ? 

The  king  himself  is  haufhtie  Care, 
Which  ouerlooketh  all  his  men, 

And  when  he  seeth  how  they  fare, 
He  steps  among  them  now  and  then, 

Whom  when  his  roe  presumes  to  checke, 

His  seruants  stand  to  give  the  nee  he. 

Breton,  Daffodils  and  Primroses,  p.  5. 

And  when  you  plaie  beware  of  checke. 
Know  how  to  saue  and  give  a  necke. 

Ibid. 

Neck  and  crop,  head  over  heels,  or 
completely.    See  extract  s.  v.  Squad. 

Neck  and  heels,  violently;  in  an 
irregular  manner. 

The  liberty  of  the  subject  is  brought  in 
neck  and  heels  as  they  say,  that  the  Earl 
might  be  popular. — North,  Examen,  p.  72. 

Sir  John.  Can  nobody  tell  me  how  he  was 
seized  ? 

Contrast.  Seized !  why  by  that  ruffian,  neck 
and  heels. 

Burgoyne,  Lord  of  the  Manor,  iii.  4. 

Neckhandkerchief,  a  cravat.  Ker- 
chief is  a  covering  for  the  head ;  so 
neckhandkerchief  is  a  very  peculiar 
word. 

Open  the  top  drawer  of  the  wardrobe,  and 
take  out  a  clean  shirt  and  neck  handkerchief. 
— C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xx. 

Necklace,  a  band  for  the  neck ; 
usually  of  gold  or  silver  or  precious 
stones ;  not  so  in  the  extract. 

A  plain  muslin  tucker  I  put  on,  and  my 
black  silk  necklace  instead  of  the  French 
necklace  my  lady  gave  me.  —  Richardson, 
Pamela,  i.  64. 

Neck  or  nothing,  ready  to  run  all 
hazards. 

The  world  is  stock 'd  with  neck  or  nothing  ; 
with  men  that  will  make  over  by  retail  an 
estate  of  a  thousand  pound  per  annum  to  a 
lawyer  in  expectation  of  being  pleaded  into 
another  of  two  hundred.  —  Gentleman  In- 
structed, p.  526. 

Neck-question,  question  affecting  the 
lifp. 

The  Sacrament  of  the  Altar  was  the  main 
touchstone  to  discover  the  poor  Protestants. 
...  This  neck-question,  as  I  may  terme  it, 
the  most  dull  and  d  unci  call  Commissioner 
was  able  to  aske. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  VIII. 
ii.  26. 

Necrolatry,  worship  of  the  dead. 

Egypt  the  native  land  of  necrolatry. — 
Etcald,  Hist,  of  Isi'ael  (Eng.  trans.),  iii.  50. 

Necromancino,  exercising  necrom- 
ancy. 


The  dead  soldier  in  Lucan  whom  the 
mighty  necromancing  witch  tortures  back  into 
a  momentary  life. — Be  Quincey,  Autobiog, 
Sketches,  i.  173. 

Nectarell,  sweet  as  nectar.  Crashaw 

has  nectareal ;  nectareous  is  also  in  use.  • 

Put  on  your  silks ;  and  piece  by  piece 
Give  them  the  sceut  of  amber-greece ; 
And  for  your  breaths  too,  let  them  smell 
Ambrosia-like  or  nectarell. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  17. 

Neddy,  a  donkey.  L.,  who  gives  no 
example,  thinks  it  a  corruption  of  an 
heady  (animal);  but  more  than  one 
Christian  name  is  bestowed  on  this 
animal ;  e.  g.  Cuddy,  Dicky,  Jack, 
See  extract  *.  v.  Donkey. 

Her  donkeys  wandering  at  their  own  sweet 
will  answered  the  bay  of  the  bloodhound 
with  a  burst  of  harmony.  "  They  'm  laugh- 
iug  at  us,  Keper,  they  neddies ;  we  'm  lost 
our  labour  here." — Kingsley,  Westward  Ho, 
ch.  xv. 

Need-be,  necessity. 

Princess  de  Lamballe  has  lain  down  on 
bed ;  "  Madame,  you  are  to  be  removed  to 
the  Abbaye."  "  I  do  not  wish  to  remove ;  I 
am  well  enough  here."  There  is  a  need-?* 
for  removing. — Cariyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III. 
Bk.  I.  ch.  iv. 

Needfire,  fire  produced  by  rubbing 

two    pieces  of   wood   together.       See 

Wedgwood  s.  v.    In  the  extract  it  = 

beacon. 

The  ready  page  with  hurried  hand 
Awaked  the  needfire' s  slumbering  brand, 
And  ruddy  blushed  the  heaven. 

Scott,  Lay  of  Last  Minstrel,  c.  iii. 

Needful,  used  substantially  for  that 
which  is  necessary  or  essential ;  "  the 
needful"  is  a  common  expression  for 
money. 

Mrs.  Air.    You  have  the  needful? 
Mr.  Air.    All  but  five  hundred  pounds 
which  you  may  have  in  the  evening. 

Foote,  The  Cozeners,  Act  III. 

"  He  does  not  say  how  much  his  share  will 
come  to,  do  he,  Edward?"  "No,  ma'am, 
you  see  he  writes  in  a  great  hurry,  and  he 
has  only  time,  as  he  says,  to  mention  the 
needful."  "  And  is  not  the  money  the  need- 
ful?" said  Sir  John  Hunter. — Miss  Edge* 
worth,  Manoeuvring,  ch.  viii. 

For  particulars  Isabella  could  afford  to 
wait ;  the  needful  was  comprised  in  Morland's 
promise. — Mist  Austen,  Northanger  Abbey, 
ch.  xv. 

Needle.    See  extract  for  a  jocose 

derivation. 

This  industrious  Instrument,  Needle,  quasi 
jVe  idle,  as  some  will  have  it,  maintaineth 


NEEDLING 


(  433  ) 


NEGROFY 


many    millions. — Fuller,    Worthies,  London, 
ii.  60. 

Needling,  one  in  want. 

Sire  a  good  tarn  shall  never  guerdon  want, 
A  gift  to  needling s  is  not  given  but  lent. 

Sylvester,  The  Sehisme,  467. 

Needly,  prickly,  bristling. 

As  I  looked  down  on  his  stiff  bright  head- 

Siece,  small  quick  eyes,  and  black  needly 
eard,  he  seemed  to  despise  me  (too  much  as 
I  thought)  for  a  mere  ignoramus  and  country 
bumpkin. — Blaekmore,  Lorna  Boone,  ch.  xziii. 

Needdom,  the  domain  of  want  or 
need. 

Idleness  is  the  coach  to  bring  a  man  to 
Needdom,  prodigality  the  post  -  horse.  — 
Adams,  i.  496. 

Needments,  necessaries.  R.  and  L. 
give  the  word,  each  with  a  single, 
though  different,  quotation  from  the 
F.  Queene,  to  which  may  be  added  one 
from  Colin  Clout9 8  come  home  againe, 
line  193 ;  it  is  not  however  confined  to 
Spenser. 

The  scrip  with  needments  for  the  mountain 
air. — Keats,  Endymion,  Bk.  I. 

Nrednot,  a  superfluity :  still  in  use, 
says  Abp.  Trench,  among  Quakers. 

Whosoever  shall 'observe  the  abundance  of 
gold  and  silver  in  Solomon's  time  in  the  city  of 
Jerusalem,  will  conclude  this  country  not  to 
be  the  cistern,  but  fountain,  of  those  metals. 
As  if  Divine  Providence  had  so  divided  it, 
that  other  lands  should  be  at  the  care  and 
cost  to  bear,  dig  out,  and  refine,  and  Judaea 
have  the  honour  and  credit  to  use,  expend, 
yea  neglect  such  glittering  need  -  nots  to 
humane  happinesse. — Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight, 
Bk.  I.  ch.  iii. 

Needsly,  of  necessity.  The  Diets, 
have  needly. 

Upon  a  vow  who  spouseth  me  must  needsly 

take  in  hand 
The  flying  serpent  for  to  slay  which  in  the 

forest  is. — Peele,  Sir  Clyomon,  I.  i. 

Needy-hood,  state  of  want. 

Floure  of  fuz-balls,  that's  too  good 
For  a  man  in  needy-hood  ; 
But  the  meal  of  mill-dust  can 
Well  content  a  craving  man. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  239. 

Ne'  er-be-oood,  a  worthless  fellow ;  a 
tie 'er-do-well,  which  is  the  commoner 
word. 

Why,  'tis  that  ne'er-he-good,  thy  Son, 
Has  made  me  do  what  I  have  done. 
Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  214. 

Ne' er- do-well,  wild ;  also,  as  a  sub- 


stantive, a  worthless  person.     See  quot- 
ation 8.  V.  LlE-A-BED. 

The  one,  Ebsworthy,  was  a  plain,  honest,' 
happy-go-lucky  sailor,  and  as  good  a  hand  as 
there  was  in  the  crew;  and  the  other  was 
that  same  ne'er-do-ioeel  Will  Parracombe,  his 
old  school-fellow  who  had  been  tempted  by 
the  gipsy-Jesuit.— KingsUy,  Westward  Ho, 
ch.  xziv. 

Neevie-neevie-nick-nack,  a  street- 
boy's  gambling  game :  one  holds  up 
marbles  or  the  like  in  his  clenched  fist, 
while  another  guesses  at  the  number. 
''  Nivinivinach  '  is  mentioned  among 
the  games  played  at  by  Gargantua 
(Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxii.). 
In  the  original  it  is  a  lanique  noque. 

44  He  gave  me  half-a-crown  yince,  and  for- 
bade me  to  play  it  awa  at  pitch  and  toss." 
"  And  you  disobeyed  him,  of  course  ?  "  "  Na, 
I  didna  disobeyed  him ;  I  played  it  awa  at 
neevie-neevie-nick-naek." — Scott,  St.  Ronan's 
Well,  ii.  197. 

Nefast,  wicked. 

"  They  don't  please  you  ;  no  accounting 
for  tastes."  "  I  beg  your  pardon  ;  I  account 
for  yours,  if  you  really  take  for  truth  and 
life  monsters  so  nefast  and  flagitious."  — 
Lytton,  Caxtons,  Bk.  X.  ch.  i. 

Neg,  nag. 

They  [Northumbrians]  were  a  comical  sort 
of  people,  riding  upon  negs,  as  they  call  their 
small  horses. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford, 
i.  272. 

Neoant,  one  who  denies.  The  ex- 
tract is  quoted  by  Strype  from  W. 
Kingsmill's  Defence  of  Priests'  Mar- 
riage,  p.  352. 

The  affirmants  of  this  proposition  were 
almost  treble  so  many  as  were  the  negants. 
— Strype,  Cranmer,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iv. 

Negatory,  denying. 

As  vet  no  gilt  autograph  invites  him,  per- 
mits him;  the  few  gilt  autographs  are  all 
negatory,  procrastinating. — Carlyle,  Diamond 
Necklace,  ch. ri. 

On  Friday  the  15th  of  July,  1791,  the 
National  Assembly  decides,  in  what  negatory 
manner  we  know. — Ibid.,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II. 
Bk.  IV.  ch.  ix. 

Negotiatrix,    female    manager    or 

negotiator. 

Our  fair  negotiatrix  prepared  to  show  the 
usual  degree  of  gratitude  towards  those  who 
had  been  the  principal  instruments  of  her 
success. — Miss  Edgeicorth,  Manoeuvring,  ch. 
xv. 

Neqrofy,  to  turn  into  a  negro. 

F  F 


NEMO  SCIT 


(  434  )      NEVER   THE  NEAR 


And  if  no  kindly  cloud  will  parasol  me, 
My  very  cellular  membrane  will  be  changed, 
I  shall  be  negrofied. 

Southey,  Nondescripts,  Hi. 

Nemo  scit,  an  unknown  quantity.  In 
the  first  quotation  a  large  amount  is 
meant ;  in  the  second,  where  Gauden  is 
speaking  of  the  inward  illuminations, 
&c.  which  some  put  forward  as  evi- 
dences of  their  acceptance  with  God, 
the  reverse  is  implied. 

Licences  to  marry  within  degrees  forbid- 
den ;  for  Priests'  base  Sonnes  to  succeed  their 
fathers  in  a  benefice,  and  a  hundred  other 
particulars,  brought  yearly  a  Nemo  scit  into 
the  Papal  treasury.  —  Fuller,  Ch.  Hist^  V. 
iii.  41. 

These  are  (a  nemo  scit)  as  easily  denied  as 
they  are  rashly  affirmed,  being  indiscover- 
able  and  incommunicable  to  any  but  God's 
and  a  man's  own  spirit. — Gauden,  Tears  of 
the  Church,  p.  214. 

Neotebism,  novelty ;  innovation  : 
used  by  Dr.  Hall  in  reference  to  new 
words,  as  a  term  not  exciting  prejudice, 
like  neologism  or  innovation.  See 
quotation  «.  v.  Heretic  ate. 

Neoterisms  we  must  have,  however,  to  the 
end  of  time,  and — such  are  human  imitative- 
ness  and  ignorance — the  bad  are  likely  to  be 
patronized  by  the  thoughtless  quite  as  readily 
as  the  good. — Hall,  Modern  English,  p.  19. 

Nepotious,  addicted  to  nepotism; 
over-fond  of  nephews. 

It  may  be  questioned  whether  fond  uncles 
are  not  as  numerous  as  unkind  ones,  notwith- 
standing our  recollections  of  King  Richard 
and  the  Children  in  the  Wood.  We  may 
use  the  epithet  nepotious  for  those  who  carry 
this  fondness  to  the  extent  of  doting,  and,  as 
expressing  that  degree  of  fondness,  it  may  be 
applied  to  William  Dove ;  he  was  a  nepotious 
uncle. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  x. 

With  such  a  chapter,  therefore,  will  I 
brighten  the  countenance  of  many  a  dear 
child,  and  gladden  the  heart  of  many  a 
happy  father,  and  tender  mother,  and  nepo- 
tious uncle  or  aunt. — Ibid.  ch.  exxix. 

Nepotist,  one  guilty  of  nepotism. 

Were  they  to  submit . .  to  be  accused  of 
Nepotism  by  Nepotists? — Sydney  Smith,  1st 
Letter  to  Archd.  Singleton, 

Nervelet,  small  nerve. 

I  dream'd  this  mortal  part  of  mine 
Wan  metamorphosed  to  a  vine ; 
Which  crawling  one  and  every  way, 
Enthrall'd  my  dainty  Lucia. 
Methought  her  long  small  legs  and  thighs 
I  with  my  tdndrils  did  surprize ; 
Her  belly,  buttocks,  and  her  waste 
By  my  soft  nerv'lits  were  embrae'd. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  13. 


Nervy,  strong ;  sinewy.  R.  and  L. 
have  the  word,  and  the  latter  marks  it 
as  obsolete,  which  no  doubt  it  is,  al- 
though a  modern  instance  of  its  use 
may  be  adduced. 

Between 
His  nervy  knees  there  lay  a  boar-spear  keen 

Keats,  Endymion,  Bk.  I. 

Nescio,  a  proverbial  phrase  to  ex- 
press the  difficulty  which  an  unknown 
man  finds  in  getting  preferment. 

The  man  .  .  .  seemed  very  fit  to  make  a 
Governour ;  but,  as  our  Cambridge  term  is,  he 
was  staid  with  Nescios :  he  was  not  known 
in  court  nor  city.— Socket,  Life  of  Williams, 
ii.  97. 

Nescious,  ignorant. 

He  that  understands  our  thoughts  long 
before  they  are  born  cannot  be  nescious  of 
our  works  when  they  are  done. — Adams,  ii. 
171. 

Nest,  to  relieve  nature. 

The  most  mannerly  step  but  to  the  door, 
and  nest  upon  the  stairs. — Modern  Account 
of  Scotland,  1670  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  137). 

Nestle-cock,  a  foundling.  N.  has 
nescoch,  with  quotation  from  Dun  ton's 
Ladie*?  Diet.,  who  refers  also  to  cock- 
ney; of  which  Fuller  says  some  take  it 
for  "One  coaks'd  or  cocker'd\made  a 
wanton  or  a  nestle-cock  of." —  worthies, 
London  (ii.  55). 

Net,  to  cover  with  a  net 

It  would  have  grieved  him  sorely,  he  said, 
to  leave  his  favourite  tree  to  strangers,  after 
all  the  pains  he  had  been  at  in  netting  it  to 
keep  off  the  birds. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Belinda, 
ch.  xxi. 

Nettie,  natty. 

Though  danger  be  mickle, 
And  fauour  so  fickle, 
Tet  dutie  doth  tickle 

My  fansie  to  wright. 
Concerning  how  prettie, 
How  fine  and  how  nettie, 
Good  huswife  should  jettie 

From  morning  to  night. 

Tusser,  p.  159. 

Never-strikb,  a  man  who  never 
yields. 

So  off  went  Yeo  to  Plymouth,  and  re- 
turned with  Drew  and  a  score  of  old  never- 
strikes. — Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  xvi. 

Never  the  near,  never  the  nearer; 
to  no  purpose. 

I  will  not  dispute  the  matter  with  them, 
saith  God,  from  day  to  day,  and  never  the 
near.— Latimer,  i.  245. 


NEW-FASHION  (  435  ) 


NICOR 


Poor  men  put  up  bills  every  day,  and 
never  the  near.— Ibid.,  p.  275. 

Boh.  I  kept  a  great  house  with  small 
cheer,  bat  all  was  ne*er  the  near. 

Ober.  And  why  ? 

Boh.  Because  in  seeking  friends  I  found 
table -guests  to  eat  me  and  my  meat. — 
Greene,  James  the  Fourth,  Induction. 

Men  may  search  for  a  thing,  and  be  never 
the  near,  because  they  cannot  search  it  out. 
—Sanderson,  ii.  328. 

New-fashion,  to  rearrange  or  to 
modernize. 

Had  I  a  place  to  new-fashion,  I  should  not 
put  myself  into  the  hands  of  an  improver. — 
Miss  Austen,  Mansfield  Park,  ch.  vi. 

Newqated,  imprisoned.  C£  Bride- 
welling. 

Soon  after  this  he  was  taken  up  and  New- 
gated. — North,  Exatnen,  p.  258. 

News,  a  messenger  with  news. 

In  the  mean  time  there  cometh  a  News 
thither  with  his  horse  to  go  over,  and  told 
us  he  did  come  from  Islington  this  morning. 
—Pepys,  July  31, 1665. 

News.  A  house  where  they  took  in 
the  new  seems  to  have  been  once  a 
euphemism  for  a  brothel 

During  the  election  at  Taunton,  a  gentle- 
man, .  .  seeing  the  hostler,  asked  him  if  he 
could  inform  him  where  they  took  in  the  news. 
The  hostler,  understanding  him  in  a  literal 
sense,  directed  him  to  a  bookseller's  shop  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  way.  .  .  .  "The 
gentleman  never  asked  me  for  a  bad  house ; 
he  only  asked  me  for  a  house  where  they  took 
in  the  news." — Life  of  J.  Lackington,  pp.  84, 
86. 

Newsless,  without  news. 

We  are  in  such  a  news-less  situation,  that 
I  have  been  some  time  too  without  writing 
to  yo\x.—  }Valpole  to  Mann,  ii.  191  (1746). 

Next  door,  approach ;  nearness. 

The  next  doore  of  death  sads  him  not,  but 
bee  expects  it  calmely  as  his  turne  in  nature. 
— Earle,  Microcosmographie  {Good  old  man). 

Nexter,  next 

And  in  the  nexter  night 

Ful  many  times  do  crie, 
Remembring  yet  the  ruthf ul  plight 
Wherein  they  late  did  lie. 

Gascoigne,  Complaint  of  Philomene, 
p.  111. 

Nib,  to  nibble. 

When  the  fish  begin  to  nib  and  bite, 
The  moving  of  the  float  doth  them  bewray. 
Dennis,  Secrets  of  Angling  (Eng. 
Garner,  i.  151). 

Nicher,  to  chuckle  in  a  quiet  way. 


In  the  north  of  England  the  word  also 
means  to  neigh. 

The  old  crone  unicheredn  a  laugh  under 
her  bonnet  and  bandage. — C.  Bronte,  Jane 
Eyre,  ch.  xix. 

Nichil.    See  extract. 

There  is  an  Officer  in  the  Exchequer,  called 
Clericus  Nihilorum,  or  the  Clerk  of  the 
JVichills,  who  maketh  a  Roll  of  all  such  sums 
as  are  niehilVd  by  the  Sheriff  upon  their 
estreats  of  the  Green  Wax,  when  such  sums 
are  set  on  persons,  either  not  found,  or  not 
found  solvible. — Fuller,  Worthies,  ch.  xxv. 

Nicifinity,  finicalness.  The  198th 
Epigram  in  Davies's  Scourge  of  Folly 
is  "Against  Rontae's  base  pride,  light 
waight,  and  too  much  affected  nxci- 
finky." 

Nick,  to  break  windows.  Those 
who  amused  themselves  by  breaking 
windows  in  their  frolics  were  called 
nickers.  See  L.,  «.  v.,  who  does  not, 
however,  give  the  verb. 

So  through  the  street  at  midnight  scours, 
Breaks  watchmen's  heads,  and  chairmen's 

glasses, 
And  thence  proceeds  to  nicking  sashes. 

Prior,  Alma,  1306. 

Nick-eared,  crop-eared. 

Hold  thy  peace, 
Thou  nick-ear* d  lubber ;  what  have  we  to  do 
With  whys  and  wherefores? 

Taylor,  Ph.  van  Art.,  Vt.  II.  iii.  1. 

Nickers.  H.,  who  givesno  example, 
says,  "  Nicker,  a  little  ball  of  clay  or 
earth  baked  hard  and  oiled  over  for 
boys  to  play  at  nickers" 

You  find  one,  out  of  a  wonderfull  conde- 
scension and  exemplary  point  of  humility, 
playing  at  Nickers  and  Marbles,  or  Cherry- 
pit,  or  some  such  imperial  recreation. — 
Cotton,  Scarronides,  Preface. 

Nick-nack,  a  feast  where  all  con- 
tribute ;  a  picnic. 

Janus.  I  am  afraid  I  can't  come  to  cards, 
but  shall  be  sure  to  attend  the  repast.  A 
nick-nack^  I  suppose  ? 

Cons.  Yes,  yes,  we  all  contribute  as  usual : 
the  substantiate  from  Alderman  Surloin's; 
Lord  Frippery's  cook  finds  fricasees  and 
ragouts;  Sir  Robert  Bumper's  butler  is  to 
send  in  the  wine,  and  I  shall  supply  the 
desert. — Foote,  The  Nabob,  Act  I. 

Nick-nacky,  full  of  knick-knacks. 
Cf.  Knick-knackatory. 

His  dressing-room  is  a  perfect  show,  so 
neat  and  nick-nacky. — Miss  Ferrier,  Inherit- 
ance, i.  86. 

Nicor.     See  extract. 

F  F  2 


NIDDIPOL 


(436) 


NIGHTY 


u  Did  you  ever  tee  a  nicer  ?  "  **  My  brother 
saw  one  in  the  northern  sea,  three  fathoms 
long,  with  the  body  of  a  bison-boll,  and  the 
head  of  a  cat,  and  the  beard  of  a  man,  and 
tusks  an  ell  long  lying  down  on  its  breast, 
watching  for  the  fishermen ;  and  he  struck 
it  with  an  arrow,  so  that  it  fled  to  the 
bottom  of  the  sea,  and  never  came  up 
again."  "What  is  a  nicor,  Agilmand?" 
asked  one  of  the  girls.  "  A  sea-devil  who 
eats  sailors."—  Kingsley,  Hypatia,  ch.  xii. 

Niddipol,  foolish. 

What  niddipol  hare  brayne 
Would  scorne  this  couenant  ? 

Siany hurst,  JEn.,  iv.  110. 

Niddle-noddle,  vacillating,  or  per- 
haps head  -  shaking,  and  so  affecting 
wisdom  after  the  manner  of  Lord  Bur- 
leigh in  The  Critic.  See  also  extract 
s.  v.  Joss.  It  is  also  used  as  a  verb,  to 
shake  or  wag. 

State-physicians, 
And  niddle-noddle  politicians. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  c.  i. 

Her  head  niddle-noddled  at  every  word. 

Hood,  Mist  Kilmansegg. 

Nidging,  trifling ;  insignificant 

If  I  was  Mr.  Mandlebert,  I'd  sooner  have 
her  than  any  of  'em,  for  all  she's  such  a 
nidging  little  thing.  —  Mad.  UArblay,  Ca- 
milla, Bk.  Y.  ch.  iii. 

Nid-nod,  to  shake  or  wag. 

That  odd  little  nid-nodding  face  is  too 
good  to  be  kept  all  to  ourselves ;  and  'tis  so 
comical,  all  its  nods  and  grimaces  seem  as  if 
directed  to  our  box. — Miss  Ferrier,  Inherit- 
ance, iii.  104. 

And  Lady  K.  nid-nodded  her  head, 
Lapped  in  a  turbau  faucy-bred. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Nieceship,  the  relationship  of  a  niece. 

She  was  a  descendant  of  Noah,  and  of  his 
eldest  son  Japhet ;  she  was  allied  to  Ham, 
however,  in  another  way  besides  this  remote 
nieceship. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  lxxii. 

Nig,  to  be  stingy. 

Is  it  not  better  to  healpe  the  mother  and 
mistre«  of  thy  country  with  thy  goods  and 
body,  than  by  withholding  thy  hande,  and 
nigging,  to  make  her  not  hable  to  kepe  out 
thine  ennemy?  —  Aylmer,  Harborough,  &c., 
1559  (Maitland  on  Re/.,  p.  218). 

Niggerling,  a  little  nigger. 

Black  Venus  rises  from  the  soapy  surge, 
And  all  the  little  Niggerlings  emerge 
As  lily-white  as  mussels. 

Hood,  A  Black  Job. 

Tom  Macaulay  beheld  the  flight 
Of  these  three  little  dusky  sons  of  night, 
And  his  heart  swell 'd  with  joy  and  elation ; 


"  Oh  see,"  quoth  he, u  those  niggerlings  three, 
Who  have  just  got  emancipation." 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (The  Truants). 

Night-cat.  See  extract.  The  trial 
referred  to  is  that  of  Hardy,  Theiwall, 
&c.  in  1794. 

The  prisoners  were  charged  with  having' 
provided  arms,  and  instruments  called  night' 
cats,  for  impeding  the  action  of  cavalry  in 
the  streets.  .  .  .  Although  a  model  of  the 
night-cat  had  been  exhibited  at  a  meeting,  it 
did  not  appear  that  anv  had  been  ordered. — 
Massey,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  iii.  381. 

Night-eater,  a  flea. 

The  innes  now  begin  to  prouide  for  gheat*, 
and  the  night-eaters  in  the  stable  pinch  the 
trauailer  in  his  bed.  —  Breton,  Fantastickes 
(September). 

Nighted,  benighted.  Shakespeare 
uses  the  word  {Lear,  IV.  v. ;  Hamlet,  I. 
ii.),  but  in  a  figurative  sense. 

Now  to  horse ! 
I  shall  be  nighted;  but  an  hour  or  two 
Never  breaks  square  in  love. 

Jonson,  Fletcher  and  Middleton, 
The  Widow,  Act  II. 

Nightingalize,  to  sing  like  a  night- 
ingale. 

He  sings  like  a  lark  when  at  morn  he  arises, 
And  when  evening  comes  he  nightingalizes. 

Southey,  Nondescripts,  viii. 

Nightman,   a   man   who  empties 

privies,  &c.  at  night. 

In  another  is  .  .  an  advertisement  of  a 
milch-ass,  to  be  sold  at  the  Nightman's  in 
Whitechapel—  T.  Brown,  Works,m.  29. 

Farriers   should  write  on  farcys  and  the 
glanders, 
Bug-doctors  only  upon  bed-disorders ; 
Farmers  on  land,  ploughs,  pigs,  ducks,  geese, 
and  ganders, 
Nightmen  alone  on  aromatic  odours. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  149. 

Night-suns,  entertainments  which 
brighten  the  night  seem  to  be  so  called. 

I  will  not  speake  of  every  dayes  delight, 

They  are  so  various,  full  of  Rarities. 

But  are  there  not  sweet  pleasures  for  the 

night? 
Maskes,  Bevels,  Banquets,  Mirthf  ull  Come- 
dies, 
Night-Sunnes,  (kind  Nature's  dearest  Prodi- 
gies) 
Which  work  in  men  with  powerfull  In- 
fluence, 
As  having  their  first  life,  best  motion 
thence. 

Hubert,  Hist,  of  Edward  II, 
1629,  p.  18. 

Nighty,  pertaining  to  night. 


NIGRITUDE 


(  437  ) 


NOBBLE 


Wee  keepe  thee  midpath  with  darcknesse 
nightye  beueyled. 

Stanyhurst,  J£n.,  ii.  369. 

Nigritude,  blackness. 

I  like  to  meet  a  sweep,  .  .  .  one  of  those 
tender  novices  blooming  through  their  first 
nigritude,  the  maternal  washings  not  quite 
effaced  from  the  cheek.  —  Essays  of  Elia, 
Chimney  Sweepers. 

We've  scrubbed  the  negroes  till  we've  nearly 
killed  'em, 
And  finding  that  we  cannot  wash  them 

white, 
But  still  their  nigritude  offends  the  sight, 
We  mean  to  gild  'em. 

Mood,  A  Black  Job. 

Nihilhood,  nullity. 

For  111  being  but  a  meere  defect  of  Good, 
It  followes  then  its  but  a  meere  Defect ; 

Which  is  no  more  but  a  meere  Nihilhood, 
For  Want  can  be  no  more  in  no  respect, 
And  not  to  bee  is  nothing  in  effect. 

Davits,  Mirum  in  Modum,  p.  23. 

Nill,  unwillingness. 

It  shall  be  their  misery  semper  velle  quod 
nunquam  erit,  semper  nolle  quod  nunquam  non 
erit — to  have  a  will  never  satisfied,  a  nill 
never  gratified. — Adams,  i.  239. 

Nillt-willy,  nolens  volens:  usually 

written  Willy-nilly,  q.  v. 

A  priest  you  shall  be  before  the  year  is 
out,  nilly-tmlly. — Reads,  Cloister  and  Hearth, 
ch.  ix. 

Nilotic,  belonging  to  the  Nile. 

I  .  .  laid,  confounded  with  all  unutterable 
slimy  things,  amongst  reeds  and  Nilotic 
mud. — De  Quincey,  Opium  Eater,  p.  151. 

Nimious,  excessive. 

They  ought ...  to  account  their  very  feet 
beautiful  for  their  Lord's  and  embassage's 
sake,  only  with  this  proviso,  that  divine  and 
nimious  aderation  be  not  given.  —  Ward, 
Sermons,  p.  8. 

Nimshite.  Jehu,  the  son  of  Nimshi, 
drove  furiously;  hence  Jehu  is  often 
applied  to  a  coachman.  Nimshite  I 
have  not  found  elsewhere. 

Those  Nimshites  who  with  furious  zeal  drive 

on, 
And  build  up  Rome  to  pull  down  Babylon. 

Defoe,  Hymn  to  the  Pillory. 

Nine-eted.  H.  says,  "a  term  of 
reproach,"  but  gives  neither  explanation 
nor  example.  I  suppose  it  means  squint- 
ing.   See  Nine  ways. 

Out  of  doors,  I  say :  come  out.  111  fetch 
ye  out  with  a  horse-pox  for  a  damnable, 

? trying,  nine-ey'd  witch. — Plautus,  made  Eng- 
inh,  Preface  (1094). 


You  son  of  a  nine-eyed  whore,  d'ye  come 
to  abuse  me?  —  Farquhar,  The  Inconstant, 
Act  II. 

Nine-pegs,  nine-pins. 

Playing  at  nine-pegs  with  such  heat 
That  mighty  Jupiter  did  sweat. 

Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  192. 

Nines.  To  the  nines  —  to  perfection. 
In  the  second  extract  the  word  is  in  the 
singular,  which,  I  think,  is  less  usual. 

He's  such  a  funny  man,  and  touches  off 
the  Londoners  to  the  nines. — Gait,  Ayrshire 
Legatees,  ch.  viii. 

He  then  .  .  .  put  his  hand  in  his  pockets, 
and  produced  four  beautiful  sets  of  handcuffs 
bran  new,  polished  to  the  nine. — Reade,  Never 
too  late  to  mend,  ch.  lxv. 

Nine  ways.  To  look  nine  ways  is  a 
strong  expression  for  squinting.  The 
extract  is  supposed  to  be  from  a  free 
translation  of  Iliad,  ii.  212 — 219,  con- 
taining the  description  of  Thersites. 
The  line  subjoined  is  the  translation  of 
a  single  word  in  the  original,  ^oAr^c, 
which  used  to  be  rendered  "  squinting, 
though  it  probably  has  a  different  ety- 
mology from  that  formerly  assigned 
to  it,  and  means  bandy-legged.  Mr. 
Roberts,  in  his  note  on  the  extract, 
observes,  "  Modern  roughs  say,  '  He 
looks  nine  ways  for  Sunday.'"  Cf. 
Nine- eyed. 

Squyntyied  he  was,  and  looked  nyne  waits. 
~-UdaUs  Erasmus* s  Apophth.,  p.  203. 

Ninny- whoop,  a  fool. 

Do  they  think  to  have  to  do  with  a  ninny- 
whoop,  to  feed  you  then  with  cakes? — 
UrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxxii. 

Nip,  a  small  dram  (slang). 

He  sat  down  instantly,  and  asked  for  a  little 
drop  of  comfort  out  of  the  Dutch  bottle ; 
Mrs.  Yolland  sat  down  opposite  to  him,  and 
gave  him  his  nip.  —  Wilkie  Collins,  The 
Moonstone,  Pt.  I.  ch.  zv. 

Young  Eyre  took  a  nip  of  whisky,  and 
settled  himself  so  as  to  hear  Lavender's 
story. — Black,  Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  xxiii. 

Niplet,  little  nipple. 

He  with  his  pretty  finger  prest 
The  rubie  niplet  of  her  breast. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  77. 

So  like  to  this,  nay  all  the  rest, 
Is  each  neate  niplet  of  her  breast. 

Ibid.,  p.  175. 

Nobble,  to  secure  or  get  hold  of. 

The  oulv  friend  she  ever  had  was  that  old 
woman  with  the  stick — old  Kew;  the  old 
witch  whom  they  buried  four  months  ago 


NOBBY 


(  438  ) 


NODDY 


after  nobbling  her  money  for  the  beauty  of 
the  family. — Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  IviL 

Nobby,  good ;  capital. 

I'll  come  back  in  the  course  of  the  evening, 
if  agreeable  to  you,  and  endeavour  to  meet 
your  wishes  respecting  this  unfortunate 
family  matter,  and  the  nobbiest  way  of 
keeping  it  quiet.  —  Dickens,  Bleak  House, 
ch.  liv. 

Noble,  used  curiously  in  extract  for 
great,  prodigious.  It  recalls  the  splm- 
dide  mendax  of  Horace,  though  really 
the  two  phrases  have  from  their  con- 
text quite  different  meanings. 

That  Saturnus  should  geld  his  father 
Ooelius,  to  th'  intent  to  make  him  vnable  to 
get  any  moe  children,  and  other  such  matters 
as  are  reported  by  them,  it  seemeth  to  be 
some  wittie  deuise  and  fiction  made  for  a 
purpose,  or  a  very  noble  and  impudent  lye. — 
Puttenham,  Eng.  Poetic,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xii. 

Noble.  To  turn  or  bring  a  noble  to 
ninepence  was  a  proverbial  expression, 
signifying  decay  or  degeneracy.  The 
Latin  proverb  for  which  Bailey  offers 
this  equivalent  is  "  ab  equis  ad  asinos." 

Many  of  you  [women]  are  so  lavish  that 
you  make  the  poor  husband  oftentimes  to 
turn  a  noble  to  ninepence. — Howell,  Parly  of 
Beasts,  p.  59. 

En.  Have  you  given  over  study  then  ? 

Po.  Altogether ;  I  have  brought  a  noble  to 
ninepence,  and  of  a  master  of  seven  arts  I 
am  become  a  workman  of  but  one  art. — 
Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  180. 

Nobler,  a  go  or  glass  (slang). 

And  I  has  two  noblers  of  brandy,  and  one 
of  Old  Tom  ;  no,  two  Old  Toms  it  was  and  a 
brandy.—-  H.  King  si ey,  Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch. 


Nocence,  guilt. 

I  would  iniquity  was  not  bolder  than 
honesty,  or  that  innocence  might  speed  no 
worse  than  nocence. — Adams,  i.  212. 

Nochell.  To  cry  nochell  in  the  ex- 
tract seems  to  mean  the  same  as  a  word 
which  was  added  to  our  language  to- 
wards the  end  of  1880,  to  '  Boycott/ 
though  probably  Gaffer  Block  only 
said  that  he  would  not  be  responsible 
for  debts  contracted  by  his  wire.  The 
word  seems  the  same  as  Nichill,  q.  v. 

Will.  The  first  I  think  on  is  the  king's 
majesty  (God  bless  him!),  him  they  cried 
nochell. 

Sam.  What,  as  Gaffer  Block  of  our  town 
cried  his  wife  ? 

Will.  I  do  not  know  what  he  did;  but 
they  voted  that  nobody  should  either  borrow 
or  lend,  nor  sell  nor  buy  with  him,  under 


pain  of  their  displeasure.  —  Dialogue  on 
Oxford  Parliament,  1681  (Harl.  Miscn  ii- 
114). 

Noctivaoant,  wandering  by  night. 

The  lustful  sparrows,  noctivagani  adul- 
terers, sit  chirping  about  our  houses. — Adams, 
i.  347. 

Nod.  Land  of  Nod  =  sleep.  See 
Bedfordshire. 

Oh  bed,  oh  bed,  delicious  bed !  .  .  . 
To  the  happy,  a  first-class  carriage  of  ease 
To  the  land  of  Nod,  or  where  you  please ; 
But  alas !  for  the  watchers  and  weepers. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Nodcock,  simpleton :  used  in  extract 
adjectivally.     N.  has  nodgecock. 

So  nodcoke  I  that  long 
Haue  serued  thee  like  a  slaue, 

For  my  reward,  by  dew  desart, 
Repentance  gained  haue. 

Breton,  Floorish  upon  Fancie,  p.  22. 

Noddie-peak,  silly ;  blockheaded. 

Woodcock  slangams,  ninnie-hammer  fly- 
catchers, noddie-peak  simpletons. — JJrquharVs 
Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxv. 

Noddle,  to  shake. 

He  used  at  the  Temple  to  be  described  by 
his  hatchet  face  and  shoulder  of  mutton 
hand,  and  he  walked  splay,  stooping  and 
noddling. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i. 
184. 

She  noddled  her  head,  was  saucy,  and  said 
rude  things  to  one's  face. — Graves,  Spiritual 
Quixote,  Bk.  V.  ch.  x. 

NODDLE-CASE,  a  wig. 

Next  time  you  have  occasion  for  a  new 
noddle-case,  if  you  please,  I'll  recommend 
you  to  the  honestest  pern  wig-maker  in  Chris- 
tendom.— T.  Broum,  Works,  ii.  197. 

Noddy,  foolish.  The  word  is  not 
common  as  an  adjective,  except  in 
composition,  as  noddy -poll,  noddy- 
peak. 

You  present  us  with  an  inane  nihil,  a  new 
directory  of  a  noddy  synod. — British  Bellman, 
1648  (Harl.  Misc.,  vfi.  627). 

Noddy,  to  make  a  fool  of. 

If  such  an  asse  be  noddied  for  the  nonce, 
I  say  but  this  to  helpe  his  idle  fit, 
Let  him  but  thanke  himself e  for  lacke  of 
wit. 
Breton,  PasquiVs  Fooles-cappe,  p.  24. 

Noddy.  The  extract  is  from  Can- 
ning's Rovers,  II.  i.,  where  the  cha- 
racters are  introduced  playing  All- 
fours,  q.  v.  Several  other  terms  of  the 
game  are  mentioned.  In  a  note  it  is 
stated,  "  A  noddy,  the  reader  will  ob- 
serve, has  two  significations — the  one  a 


NODE 


(  439  ) 


NONEST 


knave  at  all -fours ;  the  other  a  fool  or 
booby."  There  was  also  a  game  at 
cards  called  noddy*    See  N. 

Beef.  I  beg. 

Pudd.  (deals  three  cards  to  Beefington). 
Are  you  satisfied? 

Beef.  Enough.    What  hare  you? 

Pudd.  High,  Low,  and  the  Game. 

Beef.  Damnation !  'tis  my  deal  (deals ; 
turns  up  a  knave).  One  for  his  heela !  (tri- 
umphantly). 

Pudd.  Is  king  highest  ? 

Beef.  No !  (sternly).  The  Game  is  mine. 
The  knave  gives  it  me. 

Pudd.  Are  knaves  so  prosperous?  Ay, 
marry  are  they  in  this  world :  they  have  the 
game  in  their  hands;  your  kings  are  but 
noddies  to  them. — Poetry  of  Antijacobin,  p. 
199. 

Node,  a  botch.  L.  (who  quotes  from 
Wiseman* s  Surgery)  says,  "  rarely  used 
except  in  a  scientific  sense."  The 
nodes  of  a  watch  are,  I  suppose,  the 
figures,  or  perhaps  the  keyholes,  which 
in  old-fashioned  watches  are  often  in 
the  face. 

Whilst  beauty  fit  to  charm  the  Gods, 
Was  studded,  like  a  watch,  with  nodes. 
D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  cant.  4. 

Noqqin.  "Partition  framed  of 
timber  scantlings,  with  the  interstices 
filled  up  by  brick  "  (L.,  s.  v.  nogging, 
but  no  example  is  given). 

Many  of  them  [Cinque-Port  court-houses] 
seem  to  have  undergone  little  alteration,  and 
are  in  general  of  a  composite  order  of  archi- 
tecture, a  fanciful  arrangement  of  brick  and 
timber,  with  what  Johnson  would  have  styled 
"  interstices  reticulated  and  decussated  be- 
tween intersections  "  of  lath  and  plaster.  Its 
less  euphonious  designation  in  the  Weald  is 
a  noggin. — Ingoldsby  Legends  (Jarvis's  Wig). 

Noggin-staves.  To  go  to  noggin- 
staves  =  to  go  to  pieces,  or  to  be  all  in 
confusion.    Cf.  Sticks  and  staves. 

Silence,  or  my  allegory  will  go  to  noggin- 
staves. — Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  v. 

Nohow.  To  look  nohow  =  to  be  out 
of  countenance,  or  embarrassed. 

I  could  not  speak  a  word ;  I  dare  say  I 
looked  no-how. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary, i.  161. 

Nointer,  an  anointer.  Stapylton 
always  uses  the  forms  noint,  nointer, 
Ac,  even  in  the  notes,  where,  of  course, 
there  is  no  metre  to  require  it 

Tell  me  what's  he  in  whom  comes  every  man? 

A  Rhetorician,  a  Grammarian, 

A  Painter,  Nointer,  Augur,  Geometrician. 

Stapylton,  Juvenal,  iii.  91. 

Noisancb,  annoyance. 


There  is  no  snake  in  this  countrey,  nor  any 
venemous  thing  whatsoever ;  howbeit  munh 
noisance  they  have  every  where  by  wolves. — 
Holland's  Camden,  ii.  63. 

Nonchalance,  carelessness. 

He  sat  there  pursuing 
His  suit,  weighing  out  with  nonchalance 
Fine  speeches  like  gold  from  a  balance. 

Browning,  The  Glove. 

Nonchalant,  careless:  a  French 
word  almost  naturalized. 

The  chief  of  the  Turky  Company  were 
also  the  demagogues  or  heads  of  the  faction 
in  the  city,  and  were  most  hearkened  to  by 
the  nonchalant  merchants  that  went  with 
faction  scarce  knowing  why. — North,  Examen, 
p.  463. 

Nonchalantly,  coolly ;  carelessly. 

I  said  nonchalantly,  "  Mr.  Rochester  is  not 
likely  to  return  soon,  I  suppose." — C.  Bronte, 
Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xvii. 

Noncon,  a  nonconformist ;  also  ns 
an  adjective. 

The  very  Noncons  and  the  Church,  we  see, 
Tho'  when  they  pray  to  God,  they  disagree, 
Yet  fight  with  uniformity  for  thee. 

T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  128. 

The  king  extended  his  mercy  to  diverse, 
as,  for  instance,  to  one  Rosewell,  a  Non-Con 
teacher  convict  of  high  treason.  —  Northt 
Examen,  p.  645. 

Nothing,  however,  in  former  times  excited 
so  great  a  sensation  in  the  small  world  of 
Noncons  as  the  death  of  one  of  their  divines. 
— Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cxxxiii. 

Non-con pobmitancy,  nonconformity. 

Officers  ecclesiastical  did  prosecute  pre- 
sentments, rather  against  non-conformitancy 
of  ministers  and  people  than  for  debaucheries 
of  an  evil  life. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams, 

••  A  A 

n.  44. 

Non  -  confobmitant,  a  nonconform- 
ist.     Cf.  CONFOBMITAN. 

They  were  of  the  old  stock  of  non-con- 
formitants,  and  among  the  seniors  of  his 
college,  who  look'd  sour  upon  him,  because 
he  was  an  adherent  to  ana  stickler  for  the 
discipline  and  ceremonies  of  the  Church  of 
England. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  0. 

This  Bishop  being  not  indiligent  to  preach 
the  Gospel,  for  which  St.  Paul  and  our  own 
canons  had  provided,  was  deciphered  to  the 
king  for  an  upholder  of  non-conformitants. — 
Ibid.  ii.  39. 

None -child,  own  child;  a  darling. 

An  effemminate  foole  is  the  figure  of  a 
baby, ...  his  father's  loue,  and  his  mother's 
none-child. — Breton,  Good  and  Bad,  p.  13. 

Nonest,  nonce. 

For  the  nonest  I  forbare  to  allege  the 
learneder  sort,  lest  the  unlearned  should  say 


NONJURABLE         (  440  ) 


NOSE 


they  could  no  skill  on  such  books. — PiVdng- 
ton,  p.  644. 

Nonjurable,  incapable  of  being 
sworn.  North  (Examen,  p.  264)  calls 
Dangerfield,  who  on  account  of  his 
notorious  perjuries  was  incapacitated 
from  being  a  witness,  "  a  nonjurable 
rogue." 

Nonplush,  to  discomfit.  To  be  at  a 
nonplush  =  to  be  at  a  loss.  This  pro- 
nunciation of  nonplus  is  very  common 
in  my  Hampshire  parish — it  gives  the 
point  to  Hood's  pun  in  the  extract. 

Below  he  wears  the  nether  garb  of  males, 
Of  crimson  plush,bnt  non-plushed  at  the  knee. 

Hood,  Irish  Schoolmaster. 

Nonresidence,  digression. 

I  might  here  infer  to  your  observation 
without  any  nonresidence  from  the  text  that 
the  Ohnrch  is  called  JUia  Jerusalem*  the 
daughter  of  the  people,  for  her  beauty,  for 
her  purity. — Adams,  i.  398. 

Nonresident,  diverging. 

But  by  the  leave  of  his  gravity,  he  was 
herein  non-resident  from  the  troth  itself,  in 
deriving  a  work  so  useful  in  the  kind  thereof 
for  honest  and  civil  delectation. — Life  of  Sir 
P.  Sidney,  prefixed  to  the  Arcadia. 

He  himself  is  more  non-resident  from  his 
theme  than  a  discontinue  is  from  his  charge. 
— Adams,  i.  473. 

Nonsciknce,  the  reverse  of  science ; 
unscientific  error. 

The  doctor  talked  mere  science  or  non- 
science  about  humours,  complexions,  and 
animal  spirits. — Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch. 
xxi 

Nonsuch,  an  unequnlled  person  or 
thing.  Sylvester  applies  it  to  Plato's 
ideal  Republic,  and  is  himself  addressed 
as  4*  Rare  Muses'  Non-such  "  in  some 
commendatory  verses  by  R.  N.  Gent. 

Therefore    did   Plato   from  his  None-Such 

banish 
Base  Poetasters. — Sylvester,  Urania,  st.  42. 

The  Scripture  .  .  .  presenteth  Solomon's 
[temple]  as  a  none-such  or  peerless  structure, 
admitting  no  equall,  much  less  a  superiour. 
—Fuller,  Pisgak  Sight,  III.  (Pt.  II.)  viii.  1. 

You  are,  as  indeed  I  have  always  thought 
you,  a  nonsuch  of  a  woman.  —  Richardson, 
Grandison,  i.  166. 

Noodledoh,  a  word  formed  like 
rascaldom  and  scoundreldom,  and  ex- 
pressing noodles  collectively. 

Lord  So-and-so,  his  coat  bedropt  with  wax, 
All  Peter's  chains  about  his  waist,  his  back 
Brave  with  the  needlework  of  Noodledotn, 
Believes. 

Browning,  Bp.  B  long  ram's  Apology. 


Nose,  an  informer  (thieves'  cant). 

Now  Bill — so  the  story,  as  told  to  me,  goes— 
And  who,  as  his   last   speech  sufficiently 

shows, 
Was  a  regular  trump,  did  not  like  to  turn 

Nose. — Ingoldsby  Legends  {The  Drummer). 

Nose.  As  plain  as  the  nose  on  ones 
face,  i.  e.  very  obvious. 

Those  fears  and  jealousies  appeared  after- 
wards to  every  common  man  as  plain  as 
the  nose  on  his  face  to  be  but  meer  forgeries 
and  suppositious  things. — Howell,  Parly  of 
Beasts,  p.  35. 

As  witness  my  hand,  Valentine  Legend,  in 
great  letters ;  why  'tis  as  plain  as  the  nose  in 
one's  face. — Congreve,  Love  for  Love,  iv.  8. 

The  gentleman  talks  main  well,  and  has 
made  it  as  vlain  as  the  nose  in  one's  face, 
if  one  did  but  understand  him.  —  Graves, 
Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  V.  ch.  xviii. 

Nose.  To  cast  in  the  nose  =  to  twit. 
We  say  more  usually,  to  cast  in  the 
teeth. 

A  feloe  had  cast  him  in  the  nose  that  he 

Sue  so  large  monie  to  soche  a  naughtie 
abbe.—  UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  65. 

Nose.  To  follow  ones  nose  =  to  go 
straight  on.  The  saying,  as  appears 
from  the  quotations,  was  sometimes  ex- 
panded not  very  delicately. 

He  that  follows  his  nose  always  will  very 
often  be  led  into  a  stink.—  Congreve,  Lore 
for  Love,  iv.  10. 

Footman.  Madam,  I  don't  know  the  house. 

Lady  Sm.  Well,  that's  not  for  want  of 
ignorance:  follow  your  nose,  go,  enquire 
among  the  servants. — Swift,  Polite  Conversa- 
tion (Conv.  i.). 

Tugwell  very  civilly  inquired  which  was 
the  Bristol  Road.  "  Follow  your  nose,  and 
your  a-se  will  tag  after,"  says  a  taylor's 
prentice.  —  Graves, '  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk. 
VI.  ch.  i. 

Nose.  To  hold  a  mans  nose  to  the 
grindstone  =  to  be  hard  on  bim,  or 
triumph  over  him. 

It  wil  be  a  shame  and  to  great  a  vilanie 
for  you  which  in  al  ages  have  been  hable  to 
hold  their  nose  to  the  grindstone,  nowe  either 
for  sparing  of  your  goodes,  which  is  nig- 
gardie,  or  feare  of  your  hues,  which  is 
cowardise,  to  be  their  pesantes,  whose  lordes 
your  anncettors  were. — Aylmer,  Harborough, 
&c.,  1559  {Maitland  on  Ref.<  p.  220). 

Covetous  hands  and  sacrilegious  hearts 
hold  the  nose  of  Religion  so  long  to  the  grind- 
stone of  their  Reformations,  till  they  have 
utterly  defaced  the  Justice  and  Charity,  the 
Order  and  Beauty  of  Christian  Religion. 
— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  321. 

I  shall  not  neglect  bringing  the  grindstone 
to  bear,  nor  yet  bringing  Dusty  Boffin's  note 


NOSE 


(  44i  ) 


NOTIONLESS 


to  it.  "His  nose  once  brought  to  it  shall  be 
held  to  it  by  these  hands,  Mr.  Venus,  till  the 
sparks  flies  out  in  showers. — Dickens,  Our 
Mutual  Friend,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xiv. 

Nose.  To  be  bored  through  the  nose 
=  to  be  cheated. 

I  have  known  divers  Dutch  gentlemen 
grosly  guld  by  this  cheat,  and  som  English 
bor'd  tuso  through  the  nose  this  way. — Howell, 
Forraine  Travetl,  sect.  8. 

Nosebag,  bag  containing  a  horse's 
provender:  fastened  on  to  his  nose 
when  he  feeds. 

Calm  as  a  hackney  coach-horse  on  the  Strand, 
Tossing  about  his  nose-baa  and  his  oats. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  266. 

There  was  Bell  at  his  head,  talking  in  an 
endearing  fashion  to  him  as  the  Lieutenant 
pulled  the  strap  of  the  nosebag  up ;  and  one 
horse  was  safe.  —  Black,  Adventures  of  a 
Phaeton,  ch.  xiii. 

Nosecloth,  pocket-handkerchief:  it 
may,  however,  in  the  extract  refer  to 
the  can  in  which  Silenus  buried  his 
nose  or  face. 

That  proverbial  fceeundi  calices  that  might 
wel  haue  been  doore  keeper  to  the  Kanne  of 
Silenus,  when  nodding  on  his  Asse  trapt  with 
iuie,  hee  made  his  moist  nosecloth  the  pausing 
intermedium  twixt  euerie  nappe.  —  Nashe, 
Jntrod.  to  Greeners  Menaphon,  p.  15. 

Noses.  To  tell  or  count  noses  =  to 
take  the  numbers  present.  The  expres- 
sion is  usually  somewhat  contemptuous, 
as  where  votes  numerantur  non  ponder- 
antur. 

The  polle  and  number  of  the  names  ...  I 
think  to  be  but  the  number  of  the  Beast,  if 
we  onely  tell  noses,  and  not  consider  reasons. 
— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  105. 

The  other  eaten  of  the  pincers  was  their 
lordships'  legislative  vote,  and  their  odds  in 
number  above  the  bishops,  if  you  counted  men 
by  noses. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  168. 

Nor  think  yourself  secure  in  doing  wrong, 
By  telling  noses  with  a  party  strong. 

Swift  to  Gay. 

They  would  have  had  it  in  their  power 
to  say  they  gave  their  opinions  without  any 
reasons,  an  if  their  had  been  none  better 
than  number  or  telling  noses. — North,  Ex- 
amen,  p.  523. 

Nosey.  See  extract.  The  expres- 
sion is  not  in  Grose,  nor  in  Hotten's 
Slang  Diet. 

An  admirable  caricature  of  a  musician, 
what  the  vulgar  of  this  day  would  call  a 
nosey,  playing  on  a  violin. — Archaol.,  ix.  143 
(1789). 

Nosocome.   See  quotation.   The  word 


is  taken  from  the  original  French,  and 
that  from  the  Greek  (voVoc  topia). 

He  . .  gave  order  that  the  wounded  should 
be  dressed  and  had  care  of  in  his  great  hos- 
pital or  nosocome. — Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk. 
I.  ch.  Ii. 

Nostrum monoersh ip,  ability  to  pro- 
vide expedients  or  remedies :  an  absurd 
word  coined  by  Lovelace. 

^  Should  I  be  outwitted  with  all  my  senten- 
tious boasting  conceit  of  my  own  nostrum- 
monger  ship  (I  love  to  plague  thee,  who  art  a 
pretender  to  accuracy,  and  a  surface-skimmer 
in  learning,  with  out-of-the-way  words  and 
phrases),  I  should  certainly  hang,  drown,  or 
shoot  myself. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  iii. 
134. 

Nosy,  with  a  prominent  nose. 

The  history  leaves  them,  to  give  an  account 
who  the  knight  of  the  looking-glasses  and 
his  nosy  squire  were. — Jarvis's  Don  Quixote, 
Pt.  II.  Bk.  II.  ch.  xiv. 

Notability,  notableness ;  capability 
of  managing  well. 

But  she  was,  I  cannot  deny, 
The  soul  of  notability  ; 
She  struggled  hard  to  save  the  pelf. 
Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  xxvi. 

Notched,  a  term  applied  to  the 
Roundheads  on  account  of  their  closely- 
cut  hair;  also  to  any  persons  with 
cropped  hair. 

She  had  no  resemblance  to  the  rest  of  the 
notch' d  rascals. — The  Committee,  Act  I 

Some  of  the  most  eminent  citizens  who 
can  afford  it  have  two  religions  going  at 
once,  and  will  march  you  gravely  at  the 
head  of  six  notch' d  apprentices  to  church  in 
the  morning,  and  a  meeting  in  the  after- 
noon.—T.  Drown,  Works,  i.  210. 

Noteless,  unmusical.  Both  R.  and 
L.  have  the  word  =  not  attracting 
notice. 

The  Bagpipe  with  its  squeak  and  drone, 
Or  Parish-Clerk  with  noteless  tone, 
Are  Owls  to  us  sweet  singers. 

D*Urfey,  Ttco  Queens  of  Drentford, 
Act  I. 

Nothing-do,  an  idler.  Cf.  Do-no- 
thino. 

What  innumerable  swarms  of  nothing-does 
beleaguer  this  city  \— Adams,  ii.  182. 

Notionless.  Da  vies  means  to  say 
that  God  knows  essentially  (i.  e.  because 
He  is  God)  everything,  even  thing  that 
never  have  existed  or  will  exist,  but 
man  can  only  form  notions  of  existent 
things.  God  then  is  called  notionless,  as 
not  deriving  His  knowledge  in  this  way. 


NOTOR  Y 


(  442  ) 


NUMBER  Y 


And  though  of  That  which  is  not  nor  shal  be 
Can  be  no  Notion,  so  no  knowledge  right, 
Tet  Creatures  only  knowe  in  that  degree, 
But  God  knowes  (Notionlesse)  essentially. 

Davies,  Summa  Totality  p.  23. 

Notoby,  notorious. 

Wat.  Did  they  eny  grevaunce  to  hyin  ? 
Jef.  Out  of  this  ly f e  they  did  hym  trymme, 
Because  he  was  Goddis  servaunte. 

Wat.  He  did  some  faulte  gretly  notary. 
Jef.  No  thynge  but  for  a  mortuary 
The  preates  agaynst  hym  did  aryse. 

Roy  and  Barlow,  Rede  me  and  be 
nott  wrothe,  p.  104. 

Nource-oarden,  nursery. 

A  Colledge,  the  nource-aarden  (as  it  were) 
or  plant  plot  of  good  letters. — Holland's 
Camden,  p.  393. 

Nource-son,  foster-son. 

Sir  Thomas  Bodley,  a  right  worshipfull 
knight,  and  a  most  worthy  nource-son  of  this 
Vniversity .—Holland's  Camden,  p.  382. 

Nourice,  to  nurse. 

The  Siren  Venus  nouriced  in  her  lap 
Fair  Adon. 

Greene,  Sonnet  from  Perimedes,  p.  293. 

Nous,  sense.  This  Greek  word  has 
become  quite  naturalized.  In  Peter 
Pindar,  p.  236,  the  word  is  in  Greek 
characters. 

But  soon  her  superannuated  nous 
Explain'd  the  horrid  mystery. 

Hood,  A  Fairy  Tale. 

Don't  give  people  nicknames,  don't  even  in 

fun 
Gall  any  one  "  snuff-coloured  son  of  a  gun ; " 
Nor  fancy,  because  a  man  nous  seems  to  lack, 
That,  whenever  you  please,  you  can  give  him 

the  sack. — Ingoldsoy  Legends  (St.  Medard). 

Novice,  used  adjectivally  ;  inex- 
perienced. 

A  novice  theef  that  in  a  closet  spies 
A  heap  of  gold  that  on  the  table  lies ; 
Pale,  fearfull,   shiuering,   twice   or   thrice 

extends, 
And  twice  or  thrice  retires  his  fingers'  ends. 
Sylvester,  The  Imposture,  338. 

These  novice  lovers  at  their  first  arrive 
Are  bashful!  both. 

Ibid.,  The  Magnificence,  836. 

The  wisest,  unexperienced,  will  be  ever 
Timorous  and  loath  with  novice  modesty. 

Milton,  Paradise  Regained,  iii.  241. 

Noviciate,  inexperienced :  the  word 
is  usually  a  substantive  meaning  the 
period  which  a  novice  has  to  pass 
through  before  taking  vows. 

I  discipline  my  voung  noviciate  thought 
In  ministeries  of  heart-stirring  song. 

Coleridge,  Religious  Musings. 


Novilant,  a  recorder  of  new  or 
modern  events. 

For  things  past  he  was  a  perfect  Historian  ; 
for  things  present  a  judicious  Novilant ;  and 
for  things  to  come  a  prudentiall  (not  to  say 
propheticall)  Conjectures  —  Fuller,  Wor- 
thies, Essex  (i.  365). 

Both  Novelants  and  Antiquaries  must  be 
content  with  many  falsehoods;  the  one 
taking  Reports  at  the  first  rebound  before 
come  to ;  the  other  raking  them  out  of  the 
dust,  when  past  their  perfection.  —  Ibid.y 
Monmouth  (ii.  119). 

Nub,  to  hang  (thieves*  cant).  See 
quotation  &  v.  Filing-lay. 

All  the  comfort  I  shall  have  when  you  are 
nubbed  is  that  I  gave  you  good  advice. — 
Fielding,  Jonathan  Wild,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  ii. 

Nubbing- cheat,    thieves'   term    for 

gallows.    Cf.  Cheat. 

I  will  show  you  a  way  to  empty  the  pocket 
of  a  queer  cull  without  any  danger  of  the 
nubbing-cheat. — Fielding,  Tom  Jones,  Bk.  VIII. 
ch.  xii. 

Nudifidian,  one  who  has  a  bare 
faith. 

A  Christian  must  work ;  for  no  nudifidian^ 
as  well  as  no  nullifidian,  shall  be  admitted 
into  heaven. — Adams,  ii.  280. 

Nuke.  Bailey  defines  this  "the 
hinder  part  of  the  head,  the  noddle," 
but  this  does  not  seem  the  meaning  in 
the  extract. 

So  Jove  himself,  as  poets  tell  us, 
Bred  in  his  head  his  daughter  Pallas, 
Whom  Vulcan  midwiv'd  at  a  hole, 
With  hatchet  nuke,  clove  in  his  poll. 

Ward,  England's  Reformation, 
cant.  1.  p.  2. 

Nullah.  See  extract  (an  Indian 
word). 

Do  you  know  what  a  nullah  is  ?  Well,  it's 
a  great  gap,  like  a  huge  dry  canal,  fifteen  cr 
twenty  feet  deep. — Hughes,  Tom  Brovcn  at 
Oxford,  ch.  xliv. 

Nullize,  to  make  nothing ;  to  waste 
away. 

A  lowly  Fortune  is  of  all  despised, 
A  lofty  one  oft,  of  itselfe,  nullized. 

Sylvester,  Honour's  Farewell,  82. 

Nuhbery,  melodious. 

No  time  lost  Jubal ;  th'  unf  nil  harmony 
Of  vneven  hammers  beating  diversly 
Wakens  the  tunes  that  his  sweet  mtmbery 

soule 
Ver  birth  (some  think)  learn 'd  of  the  war- 
ling  Pole. 

Sylvester,  Handie-Crafts,  1320. 


NUMBER  V 


(  443  )        NYMPHOLEPTIC 


This  is  the  noble,  sweet,  voice-ord'ring  Art 
Breath's  measurer,  the   guide  of  supplest 

fingers 
On    living -dumb,  dead  -  speaking,  sinnew- 

singers, 
TV  accord  of  discords,  sacred  Harmony 
And  numb'ru  Law. 

Ibid.,  The  Columns,  25. 

Numbeby,  numerous. 

Thy  numbry  Flocks  in  part  shall  barren  be. 

Sylvester,  The  Lawe,  1320. 
So  many  and  so  numb'ry  armies  scatter 'd. 

Ibid.,  Battle  of  Yvry,  25. 

NumbboU8,  capable  of  scansion. 

The  greatest  part  of  -Poets  haveaparelled 
their  poetical  inventions  in  that  numerous 
kind  of  writing  which  is  called  Verse. — 
Sidney,  Defence  of  Poesie,  p.  548. 

Num-cumpus,  a  fool ;  one  non  compos. 

Sa  like  a  groat  num-cumpus  I  blubber'd  awaay 
o'  the  bed. — Tennyson,  Northern  Cobbler, 

Nummbt.     See  quotation. 

This  nonemete,  which  seems  to  have  been 
a  meal  in  lieu  of  a  nap,  is  still  the  word  by 
which  luncheon  was  called  at  Bristol  in  my 
childhood,  but  corrupted  into  nunvnet. — 
Southey,  Common  PI.  Book,  i.  477. 

Nun,  to  cloister  up  as  a  nun. 

If  you  are  so  very  heavenly-minded  .  ;  I 
will  have  you  to  town,  and  nun  you  up  with 
Aunt  Nell. — Richardson,  Grandison,  ▼.  50. 

Nunchbon,  luncheon.  Originally 
the  mid-day  drink ;  from  Middle  Eng- 
lish schenche,  a  drink ;  A.  S.  scencan, 
to  pour  out  drink.  See  N.  and  Q. ,  5th 
S.,  iv.  366.  The  latest  example  in  the 
Diets,  is  from  Hudibras;  two  more 
recent  are  subjoined. 

Tugwell,  by  a  kind  of  instinct,  began  to 
rummage  his  wallet  for  something  to  eat, .  . . 
and  they  took  a  comfortable  noonchine  to- 
gether.— Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  IX. 
ch.  v. 

I  left  London  this  morning  at  eight  o'clock, 
and  the  only  ten  minutes  I  have  spent  out 
of  my  chaise  since  that  time  procured  me 
a  nunchion  at  Marlborough. — Miss  Austen, 
Sense  and  Sensibility,  ch.  xliv. 

Nunnery,  the  institution  of  conven- 
tual life  for  women,  not  the  building 
in  which  they  live.  Cf.  Friary.  Fuller 
observes  that  some  suppose  Jephthah's 
daughter  to  have  made  a  vow  of  per- 
petual virginity,  and  gives  as  his 
authority  in  the  margin, 

Nicolas  Lyra  in  locum,  with  most  Roman 
commentators  since  his  time,  in  hope  to  found 
nunnery  thereupon. — Pisyah  Siyht,  II.  iii.  11. 

Nurse-father,  nursing-father,  fos- 
terer. 


K.  Edward, knowing  himself  to  be  a 

maintainer  and  Nurse- father  of  the  Church, 
ordained  three  new  Bishopricks.— Holland's 
Camden,  p.  232. 

Nurse-mother,  foster-mother. 

And  thus  much  briefly  of  my  deare  Nurte- 
mother  Oxford.— Holland's  Camden,  p.  383. 

Nursery,  a  nurse-child. 

Bethshan  was  afterwards  called  Nysa  by 
humane  writers  (and  at  last  Scythopolis), 
from  Nysa,  Bacchus  his  nurse,  whom  he  is 
said  there  solemnly  to  have  buried.  A  jolly 
dame  no  doubt,  as  appears  by  the  well  bat- 
tling of  the  plump  boy,  her  nursery. — Fuller, 
Pisyah  Siyht,  II.  viii.  21. 

Nurt,  to  push  with  the  horns.    Wenr 

net  in  extract  =  a  calf  just  weaned. 

Curst  cattle  that  nurteth 
Poore  wennel  soon  hurteth. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  55. 

Nutrient,  nourishing. 

How  does  the  young  reality,  young  Sans- 
culottism,  thrive?  The  attentive  observer 
can  answer.  It  thrives  bravely;  putting 
forth  new  buds,  expanding  the  old  buds  into 
leaves,  into  boughs.  Is  not  French  existence, 
as  before,  most  prurient,  all  loosened,  most 
nutrient  for  it  ?—Carlylc,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk. 
I.  ch.  ii. 

Nuts,  that  which  pleases  one  greatly. 
To  be  nuts  on  =  to  be  very  fond  of. 
The  first  extract  is  a  travesty  of  "  Hoc 
Ithacus  velit,  hoc  magno  mercentur 
Atridcer 

It  will  be  nuts,  if  my  case  this  is, 
Both  for  Atrides  and  Ulysses. 

Cotton,  Scarronides,  p.  15. 

This  was  nuts  to  the  old  Lord,  who  thought 
he  had  outwitted  Frank. — North,  Life  of  Lord 
Guilford,  i.  87. 

My  aunt  is  awful  nuts  on  Marcus  Aurelius  ; 
I   beg  your  pardon,  you  don't  know  the 

Shrase;  my  aunt  makes  Marcus  Aurelius 
er  Bible. — Black,  Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  xi. 

Nymph-hay. 

Old  Jaques  .  .  could  see  from  his  house 
the  nuns  of  the  priory  of  St.  Mary's  (juxta 
Kington)  come  forth  into  the  nymph-hay 
with  their  rocks  and  wheels  to  spin,  and  with 
their  sewing  work. — Aubrey,  Misc.,  p.  219. 

Nympholeptic,  nymph-catching ; 
endeavouring  to  seize  nymphs.  Mrs. 
Browning  uses  the  word  again  in  The 
Lost  Bower. 

Nymphs  of  mountain,  not  of  valley,  we  are 

wont  to  call  the  Muses ; 
And   in  nympholeptic  climbing  poets  pass 
from  mount  to  star. 

Mrs.  Broicning,  Lady  Geraldine's 
Courtship. 


OADE 


(  444  ) 


OBJURE 


o 


Oadk,  woad. 

Somewhat  of  oade,  wines,  wainscot,  and 
Bait  were  found  in  the  town. — Patten,  Exped. 
to  Scotl.y  1548  (Eng.  Gamer,  iii.  134). 

Oarless,  without  oars.  Sylvester 
(2nd  day,  1283)  speaks  of  a  ship  as 
<l  mast-less,  oar-less,  and  from  harbour 
far." 

Oase,  osiers. 

Som  make  their  roofs  with  fearn,  or  reeds,  or 

rushes, 
And  som  with  hides,  with  oase,  with  boughs, 

and  bushes. 

Sylvester,  Handie-Crafts,  367. 

But  then  hee  sinks ;  and,  wretched,  rould 

along 
The  sands,  and  Oase,  and  rooks,  and  mud 

among. — Ibid.,  Schisme,  1003. 

Oatmeal.  To  think  all  the  world 
oatmeal  =  (perhaps)  to  consider  all 
the  world  capable  of  being  devoured 
or  subdued. 

Leosthenes  had  perswaded  the  citee  of 
Athenes  to  make  warre,  beeyng  set  agog  to 
thinks  all  the  tporlde  otemele,  and  to  imagin 
the  recouering  of  an  high  name  of  freedoms 
and  of  principalitee  or  soueraintee. — UdaVs 
Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  329. 

Oatmeal. 

As  I  hope  to  live  and  breathe,  I'D,  111,  I'll 
blow  you  all  up  without  gunpowder  or  oat' 
meal,  if  an  honest  gentlemau  is  thus  to  be 
fooled  with. — Richardson,  Grandison,  vi.  156. 

Oats.  To  sow  wild  oats  =  to  have 
had  one's  fling ;  and  so,  to  reform. 
See  L.,  but  this  is  an  earlier  example  of 
the  whole  phrase  than  is  given  in  the 
Diets. 

We  meane  that  wilful]  and  unruly  age, 
which  lacketh  rypeness  and  discretion,  and 
(as  wee  saye)  hath  not  sowed  all  theyr  toy  eld 
Oates.  —  Touchstone  of  Complexions,  p.  99 
(1576). 

Ob.     See  second  extract. 

They  peep  and  mutter  like  Obs  and  Py- 
thons, whispering  as  out  of  the  earth  and 
their  bellies,  not  from  their  hearts,  more 
dubiously  than  the  Oracles  of  Apollo,  and 
more  obscurely  than  the  Sybil's  leaves. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  336. 

It  seems  worthy  of  notice  tnat  this  magical 
fascination  is  generally  called  Obi,  and  the 
magicians  Obeah  men,  throughout  Guinea, 
Negroland,  &c. ;  whilst  the  Hebrew  or  Syriac 
word  for  the  rites  of  necromancy  was  Ob  or 
()hh,  at  least  when  ventriloquism  was  con- 
cerned.— De  Quincey,  Modem  -S'ujterstition. 


Ob  ambulate,  to  walk  about. 

They  do  not  obambulate  and  wander  up  and 
down,  but  remain  in  certain  places  and  re- 
ceptacles of  happiness  or  unhappineaa.  — 
Adams,  iii.  148. 

Obbraid,  reproach.  Patten,  relating 
how  Hen.  VIII.  not  only  released  some 
Scotch  prisoners,  but  gave  them  pre- 
sents, says  that  he  repeats  not  this  to 
fling  such  good  turns  in  their  teeth,  but 
the  subject  may  "  without  obbraid  of 
benefits  recount  the  bounty  of  his 
Prince's  largesse." — Exped.  to  SeotL, 
1648  (Eng.  Garner,  iii.  66). 

Obiit-sono,  funeral  song ;  dirge. 

They  spice  him  sweetly,  with  salt  teares 

among, 
And  of  sad  sighes  they  make  their  Obiit-song. 

Davits,  Holy  Roode,  p.  27. 

Obitual  DAT.  anniversary  of  death. 

Edw.  Wells,  M.A.,  student  of  Oh.  Ch., 
spoke  a  speech  in  praise  of  Dr.  John  Fell, 
being  his  obitual  day  ....  This  speech  was 
founded  by  John  Gross,  apothecary,  one  of 
the  executors  of  the  said  Dr.  Fell. — Life  of 
A.  Wood,  July  10, 1694. 

Obituarist,  the  recorder  of  a  death  ; 

the  writer  of  a  notice  in  memoriam. 

He  it  was  who  composed  the  whole  peal 
of  Stedman  s  triples,  5040  changes,  which 
his  obituarist  says  had  till  then  been  deemed 
impracticable. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch. 


Object,  obstacle. 

To  him  that  putteth  not  an  object  or  let 
(I  use  the  schoolmen's  words),  that  is  to  say, 
to  him  that  hath  no  actual  purpose  of  deadly 
sin  [the  sacraments]  give  grace,  righteous- 
ness, forgiveness  of  sins. — Becon,  iii.  380. 

Objectless,    purposeless ;     without 

aim  or  object. 

Strangers  would  wonder  what  I  am  doing, 
lingering  here  at  the  sign-post,  evidently 
objectless  and  lost.  —  C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre, 
ch.  xxviii. 

Objectual,  eternal ;  visible. 

A  circular  thing  implies  a  perpetuity  of 
motion.  It  begins  from  all  parts  alike,  et  in 
seipso  desirxit,  ends  absolutely  in  itself  with- 
out any  point  or  scope  objectual  to  move  it. 
— Adams,  i.  6. 

Thus  far . .  concerning  the  material  temple, 
external  or  objectual  idols. — Ibid.,  ii.  296. 

Objure,  to  swear. 

As  the  people  only  laughed  at  him,  he 
cried  the  louder  and  more  vehemently ;  nay, 


OBLIGATE 


(  445  ) 


OBSOLETED 


at  last  began  objuring,  foaming,  imprecating. 
— Carlylc,  Misc.,  i.  853. 

Obligate,  to  oblige :  a  vulgarism. 
It  is  also  a  technical  term  among  Free- 
masons. 

A  lady  in  them  oases  is  much  to  be  pitied, 
for  she  is  obligated  to  take  a  man  upon  his 
own  credit,  which  is  tantamount  to  no  credit 
at  all. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  X.  ch.  vi. 

The  Royal  Princes,  according  to  ancient 
custom,  were  introduced  as  Knights  of  the 
Temple,  and  haying  been  properly  obligated, 
were  invested  as  Knights  of  the  Temple  and 
Malta.— Standard,  Dec.  15, 1879. 

Obligeant,  obliging :  one  of  several 
French  words  used  by  North  as  though 
they  were  English.  Cf.  Bbavkur, 
Orage,  &c. 

It  is  prodigious  that  a  parcel  of  monstrous 
incredible  lyes  exalted  by  solemn  perjury, 
shall  be  thus  tenderly  treated  in  the  soft  and 
obligeant  style  of  superstructures,  and  subse- 
quent additions. — North,  Examen,  p.  193. 

Oblique,  to  slant  or  incline. 

He  sat  upon  the  edge  of  his"chair,  placed 
at  three  feet  distance  from  the  table,  and 
achieved  a  communication  with  his  plate  by 
projecting  his  person  towards  it  in  a  line 
which  obitqued  from  the  bottom  of  his  spine. 
— Scott,  Waverley,  i.  101. 

Oblite,  dim ;  smeared  over  (obtttus). 

Surely  the  water  of  them  is  more  clear 
than  the  place  alleadged  out  of  the  Canticles 
to  prove  Solomon  the  author  thereof,  where 
but  obscure  and  oblite  mention  is  made  of 
those  water-works. — Fuller,  Pisgah  Siykt,  II. 
v.21. 

Oblivionise,  to  sink  in  oblivion. 

I  now  see  him  so  seldom,  so  precariously, 
and  with  such  difficulty  to  himself,  that  I  am 
perpetually  preparing  myself  for  perceiving 
his  thoughts  about  me  oblivionised.—Mad. 
t)yArblay,  Diary,  v.  129. 

Obmurmuring,  objection. 

Thus,  maugre  all  th'  obmurmvrings  of  sense, 
We  have  found  an  essence  incorporeall. 

H.  More,  Immortality  of  the  Soul, 
II.  ii.  10. 

Obnixely,  earnestly    (Lat.   obnixe). 

The  extract  is  from  a  letter  from  E. 

Codrington  to  Sir  E.  Dering,  May  24, 

1641. 

Most  humbly  and  most  obnixely  I  must 
beseech  both  them  and  you. — Proceedings  in 
Kent  (Camden  Soc.). 

Obscurantism,  moral  darkness. 

No  wonder  then  that  these  gifted  dames 
had  soon  to  complain  of  Elsley  Vavasour  as 
a  traitor  to  the  cause  of  progress  and  civil- 
ization ;  a  renegade  who  had  fled  to  the  camp 


of  aristocracy,  flunkey  dom,  cl>scurantism, 
frivolity,  and  dissipation.  —  Kiwjsley,  Two 
Years  Ago,  ch.  xi. 

Obscurantist,  promoting  moral  dark- 
ness. 

Tou  working  men  complain  of  the  clergy 
for  being  bigoted  and  obscurantist,  and  hating 
the  cause  or  the  people. — C.  Kingsley,  Alton 
Locke,  ch.  zvii. 

Obsecrate,  to  beseech.  Richardson 
writes,  "The  verb  to  obsecrate  is  given 
by  Dr.  Nott  in  his  Glossary  to  Sir 
Thomas  Wyat:  it  has  not  occurred 
to  us  in  the  poems." 

It  was,  however,  in  vain  that  Andrew  Fair- 
service  employed  his  lungs  in  obsecrating  a 
share  of  Dougal's  protection.— &*o/f,  Rob  Roy, 
ii.  223. 

Observables,  notable  things.  Fuller 
is  fond  of  these  substantival  adjectives. 
Cf.  Considerables.  Memorables,  Occa- 
sion als,  Ornamentals,  Remark ables. 

Thus  satisfied  for  the  main  that  Herod 
rebuilt  Zorobabel's  temple,  come  we  to  some 
memorable  observables  therein.  —  Fuller, 
Pisgah  Sight,  III.  (Pt.  II.)  vii.  1. 

Know  roost  of  the  rooms  of  thy  native 
countrey  before  thou  goest  over  the  thresh- 
hold  thereof ;  especially  seeing  England  pre- 
sents thee  with  so  many  observables. — Ibid., 
Holy  State,  III.  iv.  4. 

Some  observables  on  the  method  and 
manner  of  their  meeting. — Ibid.,  Ch.  Hist., 
II.  iv.  3,  margin. 

Observal,  observation. 

The  full  force  of  the  libel  will  not  appear 
without  a  previous  observal  of  what  has  been 
said  of  them. — North,  Examen,  p.  059. 

Observer,  flatterer. 

His  just  contempt  of  jesters,  parasites, 
Servile  observers,  and  polluted  tongues.     > 
Chapman,  Revenge  of  Bussy  D'Ambois, 
Act  IV. 

Obsidious,  besetting  (from  without). 

Lock  up  this  vessel  with  the  key  of  faith, 
bar  it  with  resolution  against  sin,  guard  it 
with  supervisiting  diligence,  and  repose  it  in 
the  bosom  of  thy  Saviour.  There  it  is  safe 
from  all  obsidious  or  insidious  oppugnations, 
from  the  reach  of  fraud  or  violence. — Adams, 
i.  261. 

Obsign,  to  seal. 

The  sacrament  of  His  Body  and  Blood, 
whereby  He  doth  represent,  and  unto  our 
faith  give  and  obsign  unto  us  Himself  wholly, 
with  all  the  merits  and  glory  of  His  Body 
and  Blood. — Bradford,  p.  395. 

Obsoleted,  out  of  date. 

Those  [books]  that  as  to  authority  are 
obsoleted,  go  rounder  off-hand,  because  they 


OBSOLETISM  (  446  ) 


OCHRE 


require  little  common-placing. — Norths  JSr- 
amen,  p.  24. 

The  defendant  appeared,  and  pleaded  to 
issue  in  battle,  which  law  was  then  and  is 
yet  in  force,  though  obsoleted. — Ibid.,  life  of 
Lord  Guilford,  i.  130. 

Obsoletism,  an  archaism. 

Does  then  the  warrant  of  a  single  person 
validate  a  neoterism,  or,  what  is  scarcely  dis- 
tinguishable therefrom,  a  resuscitated  ob- 
solete'sm  ?—Hall,  Modem  English,  p.  35. 

Obstination,  obstinacy. 

There  was  false  lawe  with  oryble  vengeaunce, 
Frowarde  obstynacyon  with  myscherous  go- 
vernaunce. 
Hycke-Scorner  {Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr.,  i.  90). 

The  stone  of  obstination  must  be  taken 
away  from  our  hearts,  ere  we  can  hear  thy 
reviving  voice.  —  Bp.  Hall,  Coni.  (Lazarus 
raised). 

Obstined,  hardened ;  made  obstinate. 

You  that  doo  shut  your  eyes  against  the 

rayes 
Of   glorious  light,  which    shineth   in   our 

dayes; 
Whose  spirits  self  -  obstin'd  in  old  musty 

error 
Bepulse  the  Truth. 

Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  1274. 

Obstbeperate,  to  make  a  loud  noise. 

Thump,  thump,  thump,  obstreperated  the 
abbess  of  Andouillets  with  the  end  of  her 
gold-headed  cane  against  the  bottom  of  the 
calesh. — Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  v.  120. 

Obstropulous,  vulgar  corruption  of 
obstreperous. 

ril  be  hanged,  said  she,  if  Sawny  Waddle 
the  pedlar  has  not  got  up  in  a  dream  and 
done  it,  for  I  heard  him  very  obstropulous  in 
his  sleep. — Smollett,  Roderick  Random,  ch.  viii. 

I'm  sure  you  did  not  treat  Miss  Hard- 
castle,  that  was  here  a  while  ago,  in  this 
obstropalous  manner. — Goldsmith,  She  stoops 
to  conquer,  Act  III. 

Obstupefaction,  the  state  of  being 

stunned  or  stupefied,    as   with  grief, 

amazement,  Ac. 

I  leave  also  Sophronio  preparing  for  his 
journey,  and  inexpressible  it  is  what  a  black 
kind  of  obstupefaction  and  regret  all  the 
world  was  possessed  withal  in  Elaiana's 
court. — Howell,  Dodona's  Grove,  p.  109. 

Obtempeb,  to  obey. 

The  feruent  desire  which  I  bad  to  obtemper 
vnto  your  Majestie's  commandement .  . .  en- 
couraged mee. — Hudson's  Judith  (Ep.  Dedic). 

Obtention,  procurement:  a  word 
coined  by  Mad.  D'Arblay  to  signify 
that  which  is  obtained. 

There  was  no  possibility  of  granting  a 


pension  to  a  foreigner,  who  resided  in  his 
own  country,  while  that  country  was  at  open 
war  with  the  laud  whence  he  aspired  at  its 
obtention,  a  word  I  make  for  my  passing  con- 
venience.— Mad.  JfArUay,  Diary,  vii.  140. 

Obtobtion,  twisting. 

Whereupon  have  issued  those  strange  ob~ 
tortious  of  some  particular  prophecies  to 
private  interests. — Bp.  Hall,  Works,  viii.  500. 

Obtrectator,  a  slanderer. 

Some  were  of  a  very  strict  life,  and  a 
great  deal  more  laborious  in  their  cure  than 
their  obtrectators. — Hacktt,  life  of  Williams, 
i.95. 

The  blast  that  help'd  to  blow  down  this 
cedar  was  the  breath  of  obtrectators  and  tale- 
bearers.—/Wi.t  ii.  19. 

Obturation,  stopping  up  anything* 
by  smearing  something  over  it. 

Some  are  deaf  by  an  outward  obturation, 
whether  by  the  prejudice  of  the  Teacher,  or 
by  secular  occasions  and  distractions. — Bp. 
Hall,  Cont.  (Deaf  and  Dumb). 

Obviate,  to  meet;  seldom  found  in 
the  literal  meaning.  The  first  extract 
is  quoted  in  Dr.  Hall's  Modem  Eng- 
lish, p.  111.  It  is  put  in  the  mouth  of 
"Signieur  Worde  -  monger,  the  ape  of 
eloquence,"  and  is  a  skit  on  pedantic 
and  affected  expressions. 

As  on  the  way  I  itenerated  [sic] 
A  rurall  person  I  obviated. 

&  Rowlands,  Knave  of  Clubbs,  1600. 

Our  reconciliation  with  Rome  is  clogged 
with  the  same  impossibilities;  she  may  be 

gone  to,  but  will  never  be  'met  with  ;  such 
er  pride  or  peevishness  not  to  stir  a  step  to 
obviate  any  of  a  different  religion. — Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist.,  XL  ix.  74. 

Occasionals,  impromptus.  For 
similar  instances  of  substantive-adjec- 
tives, see  Observables. 

"Hereat  Mr.  Dod  (the  flame  of  whose  seal 
turned  all  accidents  into  fuel)  fell  into  a 
pertinent  and  seasonable  discourse  (as  none 
better  at  occasionals)  of  what  power  men 
have  more  than  they  know  of  themselves  to 
refrain  from  sin. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI.  ix. 
82. 

Ochidore,  shore-crab. 

"O!  the  ochidore!  look  to  the  blue  orAt- 
dore.  Who've  put  ochidore  to  maister's 
pole?"  It  was  too  true;  neatly 'inserted, 
as  he  stooped  forward,  between  his  neck  and 
his  collar,  was  a  large  live  shore-crab,  hold- 
ing on  tight  with  both  hands.  —  Kingsley, 
Westtrard  Ho,  ch.  ii. 

Ochre,  money,  from  the  colour  of 
gold  (slang). 


OCIVITY 


(  447  )  OFFENDICLE 


If  you  want  to  cheek  us,  pay  your  ochre 
at  the  doors  and  take  it  out. — Dickens,  Hard 
Times,  oh.  vi. 

OCIVITY,  sloth. 

"We  owe  to  ourselves  the  eschewing  and 
avoiding  of  idleness  and  ocivity. — Hooper,  ii. 
92. 

Octastic,  a  stanza  of  eight  lines. 

They  found  out  their  sentence  as  it  is 
metrified  in  this  octastic.  —  Urquhart,  Ra- 
belais, Bk.  III.  ch.  xvii. 

Octave,  a  stanza  of  eight  lines. 

With  mournful  melodie  it  continued  this 
octave. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  351. 

October,  ale,  from  the  month  in 
which  it  was  brewed.  See  quotation 
s.  v.  St i re.  Emerson,  who  is  speaking 
of  England  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
seemB  to  be  unaware  that  it  was  simply 
ale. 

Ld.  Sm.  Tom  Neverout,  will  you  taste  a 
glass  of  the  October? 

JVev.  No,  faith,  my  lord,  I  like  your  wine ; 
and  I  won't  put  a  churl  upon  a  gentleman. 
— Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Oonv.  ii.). 

We  sat  over  a  tankard  of  October.  —  H. 
Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  ii.  77. 

The  country  gentlemen  had  a  posset  or 
drink  they  called  October. — Emerson,  English 
Traits,  ch.  xiv. 

Odd,  different. 

How  ferre  odde  those  persones  are  from 
the  nature  of  this  prince  which©  neuer 
thinken  theira  selfes  to  be  praysed  enough. 
—  UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  185. 

Odd-comb-shortly,  a  chance  or  in- 
definite time. 

Col.  Miss,  when  will  you  be  married  ? 
Miss.    One   of    these    odd-come-shortlies, 
Colonel.  —  Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Oonv. 

i.).  ^ 

They  say  she  is  to  be  married  and  off  to 
England  ane  of  thae  odd-come-shortlies  wi' 
some  of  the  gowks  about  the  Waal  down-by. 
—Scott,  St.  Ronan's  Well,  i.  803. 

Oddments,  trifles ;  remnants. 

I  have  still  so  many  book  oddments  of 
accounts,  examinations,  directions,  and  little 
household  affairs  to  arrange. — Mad.  D'Ar- 
blay,  Diary,  vi.  54. 

Odkman,  writer  of  an  ode. 

Edward  and  Harry  were  much  braver  men 
Than  this  new-christened  hero  of  thy  pen ; 
Yes,  laurelled  Odeman,  braver  far  by  half  .J 
WoUot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  18. 

Odist,  writer  of  an  ode. 

We  hardly  know  which  to  consider  as  the 
greater  object  of  compassion  in  this  case — 
the  original  odist  thus  parodied  by  his  friend, 


or  the  mortified  Parodist  thus  mutilated  by 
his  printer. — Poetry  of  Antijacobin,  p.  24. 

Odorable,  capable  of  being  smelt. 

The  Philosopher  gathers  a  triple  pro- 
portion, to  wit,  the  arithmeticall,  the  geo- 
metrically and  the  musicall.  And  by  one  of 
these  three  is  euery  other  proportion  guided 
of  the  things  that  haue  conueniencie  by  re- 
lation, as  the  visible  by  light,  colour,  and 
shadow;  the  audible  by  stirres  times  and 
accents ;  the  odorable  by  smelles  of  sundry 
temperaments;  the  tastible  by  sauours  to 
the  rate,  the  tangible  by  his  objects  in  this 
or  that  regard. — Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk. 
II.  ch.  i. 

Odorless,  without  smell. 

It  is  tasteless,  but  not  odorless.  —  E.  A. 
Poe,  Hans  Pfaal  (i.  8). 

Odoured,  perfumed:  ill-odoured  = 
unsavoury. 

His  eyes  and  his  very  thoughts  are  not  his 
own,  and  are  wholly  directed  to  a  gilded, 
nauseous,  iVL-odoured  idol.—  Godwin,  Monde- 
vilU,  i.  250. 

Oeillet.     See  extract. 

The  parapet  often  had  the  merlons  pierced 
with  long  chinks  ending  in  round  holes  called 
oeillets.—Arch.,  zii.  147  (1796). 

(Enomel,  mixture  of  wine  and  honey. 

So  to  come  back  to  the  drinking 

Of  this  Cyprus — it  is  well, 
But  those  memories,  to  my  thinking, 

Make  a  better  anomel. 

Mrs.  Browning,  Wine  of  Cyprus. 

Offcast,  rubbish ;  something  re- 
jected. 

The  offcasts  of  all  the  professions — doctors 
without  patients,  lawyers  without  briefs. — 
Savage,  K.  Medlicott,  Bk.  III.  ch.  vi. 

Off-chop,  to  chop  off. 

Her  head  shee  felt  with  whiffing  steel  off- 
chopt. 
Sylvester,  Memorials  of  Mortalitie,  st.  41. 

Off-cutting,  cutting  off:    offcut 

(substantive)  is  a  technical    term  in 

printing.     See  L. 

Besides  th'  off-cutting  of  all  passages, 
As  well  of  succours  as  of  forrages. 

Sylvester,  Panaretus,  779. 

Offence,  to  offend. 

All  the  world,  by  thee  offenced, 
With  such  a  present  may  be  recompenced. 

Hudson,  Judith,  vi.  323. 

Offendant,  offender. 

If  the  offendant  did  consider  the  grief  e  and 
shame  of  punishment, he  would  containe  him- 
selfe  within  the  compasse  of  a  better  course. 
—Breton,  Packet  of  Letters,  p.  43. 

Offendicle,  a  stumbling-block.   The 


OFFENSIBLE 


(448  ) 


OIL  WA  Y 


second  extract  is  quoted  in  Pilkington's 

works,  but  is  part  of  a  Romish  tract, 

published  1561. 

What  is   a  slander  to  offend  or  to  be 
offendicle  to  any  man  ? — Becon,  iii.  610. 
As  the  prophet  Jeremy  says, "  They  have 

fmt  offeitdtcles  in  the  house  of  Qod  and  pol- 
ubed  it."— Pilkington,  p.  484. 

Offensible.  In  the  extract  Breton 
is  speaking  of  the  Incarnation,  and 
seems  to  mean  that  the  Divine  glory 
without  such  vail  of  flesh  would  have 
been  too  much  for  man. 

This  essence  all  incomprehensible, 
Yet  willing  in  His  mercies  to  be  knowne, 

That  glorie  might  not  be  offensible. 
That  in  a  shadowe  onely  should  be  showne. 
Breton,  Rauisht  Soule,  p.  7. 

Offensive,  usually = giving  offence, 
but  in  the  extract  =  taking  it. 

I  still  feared  to  dare  so  haute  an  attempt 
to  so  braue  a  personage;  lest  she  offensiue 
at  my  presumption,  I  perish  in  the  height 
of  my  thoughts. — Greene,  Menaphon,  p.  53. 

Office.  To  give  the  office  =  to  help, 
or  hint,  or  play  into  the  hands  of. 

I'll  give  you  the  office  ;  Til  mark  you  down 
for  a  good  claim. — Reade,  Never  too  late  to 
mend,  ch.  lis. 

"You're  not  a  deceiving  imp?  you  brought 
no  one  with  you  ?  "  M  No,  sir,  no ! »  "  Nor 
giv'  no  one  the  office  to  follow  you  ?  "  M  No." 
—Dickens,  Great  Expectations,  ch.  iii. 

Officiary,  subordinate. 

The  City  and  Signiory  of  Geneva  .  .  was 
governed  by  officiary  and  titular  Earls. — 
Heylin,  Hist,  of  Presbyterianism,  p.  3. 

Officine,  office- room.  A  section  in 
Fuller's  Ch.  Hist,  Bk.  VI.  p.  284,  is 
headed,  "Of  the  prime  officers  and 
officines  of  Abbey 8.  ' 

Officious  is  now  always  used  in  a 
bad  sense,  of  one  who  is  fussy  or  too 
forward  in  proffering  services.  The 
subjoined  is  an  example  of  the  better 
meaning,  of  a  later  date  bjr  nearly  a 
century  than  any  given  in  the  Diets. 

They  were  tolerably  well-bred ;  very  offi- 
cious, humane,  and  hospitable ;  in  their  con- 
versation frank  and  open.— Burke,  on  French 
Revolution,  p.  111. 

Offscums,  contemptible  people.  L. 
has  qffscum  as  an  adjective. 

I  see  the  drift.    These  offscums  all  at  once, 
Too  idlely  pampred,  plot  rebellions. 

Sylvester,  The  La  we,  328. 

Off-shake,  to  shake  off. 

His  fruit,  yer  ripe,  shall  be  offi  shaken  al\. 

Sylvester,  Job  Triumphant,  ii.  76. 


Oodoastic,  a  stanza  of  eight  lines. 

It  will  not  be  much  out  of  the  byas  to  in- 
sert (in  this  Ogdoastique)  a  few  verses  of  the 
Latine  which  was  spoken  in  that  age. — 
Howell,  Forraine  Travell,  sect.  xi. 

Ogive,  having  a  Gothic  arch. 

The  large  ogive  window  that  lighted  the  hall. 
Ingoldsby  Lsgends  (St.  Romwold). 

Oorillon,  a  little  ogre. 

What  treatment  of  his  wife,  what  abuse 
and  brutal  behaviour  to  his  children,  who, 
though  ogrillons,  are  children! — Thackeray, 
Roundabout  Papers,  xv. 

Oil,  study,  as  at  night  by  lamp- 
light. Pytheas  told  Demosthenes 
(Plutarch's  Life  of  Demosthenes,ch.  viii.) 
that  all  his  arguments  smelt  of  the  lamp 
(iXAvx^wv  oZnv).  In  Udal's  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  370,  this  is  rendered  "  smell 
of  the  candle." 

In  reason  whereof,  I  am  perswaded,  that 
none  of  indifferent  judgement©,  shall  think 
his  oyle  and  labour  lost. — Touchstone  of  Coat' 
plexions,  Preface,  p.  vii. 

In  our  first  gamesome  age  our  doting  sires, 
Corked  and  cared  to  have  us  lettered, 
Sent  us  to  Cambridge,  where  our  oyl  is  spent. 
Return  from  Parnassus,  iii.  5. 

Oil  of  angels,  a  gift  or  bribe  of 
money,  the  reference  being  of  course 
to  the  coin,  angel. 

Lawyers  are  troubled  with  the  heat  of  the 
liver,  which  makes  the  palms  of  their  hands 
so  hot,  that  they  cannot  be  cool'd,  unlesse 
they  be  rub'd  with  the  oile  of  angels. — Greene, 
Qutp  for  Upstart  Courtier  (Harl.  Misc.,  v. 

407). 

I  have  seen  him 
Cap  a  pie  gallant,  and  his  stripes  wash'd  off 
With  oil  of  angels. 

Massinger,  Duke  of  Milan,  iii.  2. 

Oil  of  holly,  a  beating.  N.  has  oil 
of  baston  and  oil  of  whip  with  the  same 
meaning. 

The  oil  of  holly  shall  prove  a  present 
remedy  for  a  shrewd  housewife. — Pennyless 
Parliament,  1008  (Harl.  Misc.,  i.  183). 

Oil  of  swallows.     See  quotation. 

Southey  says   in   a  note  that  he  has 

known  it  applied  in  the  present  century. 

For  broken  bones,  bones  out  of  joint,  or 
any  grief  in  the  bones  or  sinews,  oil  of 
swallows  was  pronounced  exceeding  sove- 
reign, and  this  was  to  be  procured  by  pound- 
ing twenty  live  swallows  in  a  mortar  with 
about  as  many  different  herbs. — Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  xxiv. 

Oilway,  a  hole  made  for  the  purpose 
of  receiving  oil  to  lubricate  hinges,  &c. 


OIMEE 


(  449  ) 


0LIVAR1AN 


A  curious  illustration  of  the  portcullis  is 
seen  over  the  entrance  of  Goodrich  Castle ; 
a  circular  aperture  in  the  wall  on  either  side 
shows  where  its  roller  worked ;  an  oblique 
perforation  in  the  stone  served  as  an  oilxoay 
to  render  its  revolutions  easier. — Arch.,  xxix. 
62  (1841). 

Oimee,  alas  !  This  Anglicized  form 
of  the  Greek  dipo*  seems  to  have  puzzled 
a  former  reader  of  Howell,  for  in  my 
copy  obscene  is  suggested  in  a  marginal 
annotation  in  an  apparently  contempo- 
rary handwriting.  The  speaker  in  the 
extract  is  an  otter  who  was  once  a 
man. 

How  is  this?  I  not  only  hear,  but  I  under- 
stand the  voice  of  a  man.  Ounce!  I  am 
afraid  that  Morphandra  hath  a  purpose  to 
re  transform  me,  and  make  me  put  on  human 
shape  again. — Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  5. 

Old-cattish,  old-maidish. 

Don't  I  begin  to  talk  in  an  old-cattish 
maimer  of  cards? — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary, 

1.    «jOtj. 

Olden,  to  age. 

He  looked  very  much  oldened,  and  it  seemed 
as  if  the  contest  and  defeat  had  quite  broken 
him. — Thackeray,  Pendennis,  ch.  lxx. 

He  looks  terribly  ill,  pale,  and  oldened. — 
Ilid^  Xewcomes,  ch.  lxviii. 

Old  Gentleman,  a  euphemism  for  the 
devil. 

I  know  not  who'll  take  'em  for  saints,  but 
the  old  gentleman  in  black. — T.  Brown,  Works, 
iil  102. 

We  have  a  genuine  witch  in  the  house, 
who  is  in  close  alliance  with  the  old  gentle- 
man.— C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xviii. 

Old  Gooseberry,  like  Old  Scratch,  or 
Old  Harry,  a  familiar  name  for  the 
devil. 

In  your  tower  there's  a  pretty  to-do ; 
All  the  people  of  Shrewsbury  playing  Old 
Gooseberry 

With  your  choice  bits  of  taste  and  vertu. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  (Bloudie  Jack). 

Ill  play  Old  Gooseberry  with  the  office, 
and  make  you  glad  to  buy  me  out  at  a  good 
high  figure. — Dickens,  Martin  Chuzzlewit, 
ch.  xxxviii. 

He  ran  in  his  breeches  and  slippers  down 
the  lawn,  and  began  blowing  up  like  Old 
Gooseberry. — H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,ch.  lxiv. 

Oldgrey,  an  ancient ;  a  greybeard. 

Hee  'rested  wylf ul  lyk  a  wayward  obstinat 
oldgrey. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  li.  679. 

Old-maidish,  like  an  old  maid ;  and 
so,  particular,  fidgety. 

Her  cousin  Miss  Dorothy,  who  lives  with 
her,  and  began,  you  know,  to  grow  rather 


old-maidish,  as  we  say,  ma'am,  made  a  sudden 
conquest  of  Mr.  Bumper. — Colman,  The  Deuce 
is  in  him,  ii.  1. 

Lord,  child,  don't  be  so  precise  and  old- 
maidish. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Camilla,  Bk.  V. 
ch.  VUL 

It  is  really  pitiable  to  see  such  feelings  in 
a  woman  of  her  age,  with  those  old-maidish 
little  ringlets. — G.  Eliot,  Janet1  s  Repentance, 
ch.  in. 

Old-maidism,  state  of  being  an  old 
maid ;  advanced  spinsterhood. 

The  Miss  linnets  were  in  that  temperate 
zone  of  old-maidism,  when  a  woman  will  not 
say  but  that  if  a  man  of  suitable  years  and 
character  were  to  offer  himself,  she  might 
be  induced  to  tread  the  remainder  of  life's 
vale  in  company  with  him. — G.  Eliot,  Janet's 
Repentance,  ch.  iii. 

Old  man,  southern  wood  ;  also  called 
Lad's  love,  q.  v. 

A  few  berry  bushes,  a  black  currant  tree 
or  two, ...  a  cabbage  bed,  a  bush  of  sage, 
and  balm,  and  thyme,  and  marjoram,  with 
possibly  a  rose-tree  and  old  man  growing  in 
the  midst, . . .  such  plants  made  up  a  well- 
furnished  garden  to  a  farm-house.  —  Mrs. 
Gaskell,  Sylvia1  s  Lovers,  ch.  i. 

Oldster,  an  elderly  or  grown-up 
person. 

I  became  the  William  Tell  of  the  party, 
as  having  been  the  first  to  resist  the  tyranny 
of  the  oldsters. — Marryat,  Frank  Mildmay, 
ch.  ii. 

I  know  oldsters  who  have  a  savage  pleasure 
in  making  boys  drunk. — Thackeray,  Misc., 
ii.  343. 

A  more  ill-mannered  fellow  I  never  saw  in 
my  life  ;  to  go  away  and  hide  yourself  with 
that  lovely  young  wife  of  yours,  and  leave  all 
us  oldsters  to  bore  one  another  to  death. — 
H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  xlvi. 

Old  Tom,  a  name  for  a  strong  sort  of 
gin.  See  quotation,  «.  w.  Blue-ruin  ; 
Nobler.  According  to  Jon  Bees  Slang 
Diet.,  1823,  the  term  is  properly  appli- 
cable to  the  cask  containing  the  liquor. 

There  are  two  side-aisles  of  great  casks, 
painted  green  and  gold,  enclosed  within  a 
light  brass  rail,  and  bearing  such  inscriptions 
as  "Old  Tom,  549,"  "Young  Tom,  360," 
"Samson,  1421";  the  figures  agreeing,  we 
presume,  with  gallons  understood. — Sketches 
by  Boz  (Gin-shops). 

Olivader,  of  an  olive  hue. 

The  Queene  ariv'd  with  a  traiue  of  Portu- 
guese ladies  in  their  monstrous  fardingals  or 
guard  -  infantas,  their  complexions  olivailer 
and  sufficiently  unagreeable.— Evelyn,  Diary, 
May  30, 1662. 

Olivarian,  Cromwellian. 
Monday  a  terrible  raging  wind  hapued, 

Q  Q 


OLIVER 


(  450  )  0NEIR0CRITE 


which  did  much  hurt.  Dennis  Bond,  a  great 
Olivarian  and  antimonarchist,  died  on  that 
day,  and  then  the  Devil  took  Bond  for 
Oliver's  appearance.—  Life  of  A.  Wood,  Aug. 

30  1658. 

It  would  have  been  somewhat  difficult  to 
have  inspired  Mrs.  Willis  with  a  cordial 
sentiment  for  an  Olivarian  or  a  republican. 
— Godwin,  Mandeville,  iii.  285. 

Oliver.  Swtet  Oliver  seems  =  good 
fellow. 

One  boone  you  must  not  refuse  mee  in  (if 
you  be  boni  socii,  and  sweete  Olivers).— Nashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Karl.  Mix.,  vi.  180). 

Ologies.  The  sciences  are  sometimes 
spoken  of  under  this  name,  ology  being 
the  termination  of  the  name  of  several 
of  them.    CI  Isms. 

She  had  attended  a  world  of  fashionable 
lectures,  and  was  therefore  supposed  to 
understand  Chemistry,  Geology,  PhUolofflr, 
and  a  hundred  other  ologies. — Aares,  Thinks- 
1-to-myself,  i.  68. 

Omissible,  capable  of  being  omitted 
or  dispensed  with. 

He  brings  to  light  things  new  and  old ; 
now  precious  illustrative  private  documents, 
now  the  poorest  public  heaps  of  mere  pamph- 
leteer and  parliamentary  matter,  so  attain- 
able elsewhere,  often  so  omissible  were  it  not 
to  be  attained.— Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  71. 

Omni-erudite,  universally  learned. 

If,  however,  he  followed  the  example  of 
Peiresc  without  choosing  to  mention  his 
name,  that  omnt-erudite  man  himself  is  likely 
to  have  seen  the  books  from  whence  Gaffarel 
derived  his  knowledge.— Sovihey,  The  Doctor, 
ch.  zcv. 

Omnify,  to  make  everything  of. 

He  affects  nothing  more,  nothing  else  in  a 
manner  than  ...  to  cry  down  and  nullify  all 
other  excellencies  whatsoever,  that  he  might 
. . .  magnify  or  rather,  as  you  see  (Col.  m. 
11)  omnify  his  Lord  and  Master  Christ.— 
Ward,  Sermons,  p.  3. 

Omniparent,  parent  of  all. 
O  Thou  all  powref  ul-kind  Omniparent, 
"What  holds  Thy  hands  that  should  defend 
Thy  head  ? 
Is  sinne  so  strong  or  so  omnivalent 
That  by   her   pow'r  Thy  pow'r  is  van- 
quished ?—Davies,  Holy  Soode,  p.  12. 

Omni-prevalent,  having  entire  in- 
fluence. 

Being  Chaplain  to  the  Karl  of  Dunbar, 
then  omni-prevalent  with  King  James,  he 
was  unexpectedly  preferred  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury.  —  Fuller,  Worthies,  Surrey  (ii. 
360). 

Omniregency,  universal  rule. 


The  Omniregency  of  Divine  Providence  is 
the  Tree  of  Life  in  the  midst  of  the  garden 
of  the  world.— Racket,  Life  of  Williams,  i. 

38. 

Omni-significancb,  universal  mean- 
ing. 

The  conspicuous  and  capacious,  &c,  which 
in  its  omrd-siynificance  may  promise  anything, 
and  yet  pledges  the  writer  to  nothing.  — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  xciii. 

Omnisufficient,  all-sufficient. 

These  staffs  princes  must  lean  upon,  being 
such  Gods  as  die  like  men,  and  such  masters 
as  are  neither  omnisufficient  nor  independent. 
—Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  103. 

Omnivalence,  omnipotence. 
This  shewes  the  Sire's  compleat  omnipotence, 

That  still  begets  a  Sonne  as  great  as  He ; 
Which  Sonne  is  but  the  Sire's  Intelligence, 

Making  another  one  Omnivalence. 

Davies,  Summa  Totalis,  p.  17. 

Omnivalent,  all-powerful.  See  ex- 
tract «.  v.  Omniparrnt. 

Omnividency,  universal  inspection. 

It  is  well  they  had  so  much  modesty  as 
not  to  pretend  inspection  into  the  Book  of 
life,  seeing  all  other  books  have  come  under 
their  Omnividencie.— Fuller,  Worthies,  ch.  x. 

Omoplatoscopy.     See  extract. 

The  principal  art  of  this  kind  is  divination 
by  a  shoulder-blade,  technically  called  sca- 
pulimancy  or  omoplatoscopy,  —  &  Tyler, 
Primitive  Culture,  i.  124. 

Onbethink,  think  on. 

Now  for  my  cousins  John  and  Jeremiah ; 
they  are  rich  i'  world's  gear,  but  they'll  prize 
what  I  leave  'em  if  I  could  only  onbethink 
me  what  they  would  like.  —  Mrs.  Gaskell, 
Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  vii. 

Oncoming,  approach. 

We  are  angered  ...  by  hearing  in  hard 
distinct  syllables  from  the  lips  of  a  near 
observer,  those  confused  murmurs  which  we 
try  to  call  morbid,  and  strive  against  as  if 
they  were  the  oncoming  of  madness.  —  G. 
Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch.  xx. 

One  and  twenty,  a  youth. 

The  young  Squire  first  took  the  pet,  then 
clouds  began  to  rise,  which  made  me  expect 
a  tempest,  nor  was  I  deceived  in  my  conjec- 
ture . .  .  you  would  have  thought  this  one  and 
twenty  came  in  a  direct  line  from  Hercules, 
he  played  the  Furioso  so  lively  .—Gentleman 
Instructed,  p.  19. 

Oneirocrite,  a  judge  or  interpreter 
of  dreams.  See  second  extract  *.  t'. 
Oneirologist. 

It  is  requisite  for  the  better  reading,  ex- 
plaining, and  unfolding  of  these  somniatory 


ONEIROLOGIST         (  451  )         ONYGOPHAGIST 


vaticinations  and  predictions  of  that  nature, 
that  a  dexterous,  learned,  skilful,  wise,  in- 
dustrious, expert,  rational,  and  peremptory 
expounder  or  interpreter  be  pitched  upon, 
such  a  one  as  by  the  Greeks  is  called  Oniro- 
crit  or  Oniropolist. — Urquhart,  Rabelais,  Bk. 
III.  ch.  xiii. 

Oneirologist.  See  second  quotation. 
There  is  a  book  still  extant  on  the 
interpretation  of  dreams  by  Artemi- 
dorus. 

Hear  how  Artemidorus,  not  the  oneirolo- 
gist, but  the  great  philosopher  at  the  court 
of  the  Emperor  Sferamond,  describes  the 
appearances  which  he  had  observed  in  dis- 
secting some  of  those  unfortunate  persons 
who  had  died  of  love. — Southey,  The  Doetort 
ch.  lxzvi. 

The  ooeirocrites  or  oneirologistt,  as  they 
who  pretended  to  lay  down  rules  for  the 
interpretation  of  dreams  call  themselves,  say 
that  if  any  one  dreams  he  has  the  head  of  a 
horse  on  his  shoulders  instead  of  his  own,  it 
betokens  poverty  and  servitude. — Ibid.,  ch. 
cxxviii. 

Oneiropolibt,  an  interpreter  of 
dreams.  See  quotation  *.  v.  Oneiro- 
crite. 

One  or  other,  altogether;  beyond 
comparison. 

My  dear,  you  are  positively,  one  or  other, 
the  most  censorious  creature  m  the  world. — 
Cihber,  Careless  Husband,  Act  V. 

I  declare  'twas  a  design,  one  or  other,  the 
best  carry  'd  on  that  ever  I  knew  in  my  life. 
— Ibid. 

Indiana  has,  one  or  other,  the  prettiest  face 
I  ever  saw. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Camilla,  Bk.  I. 
ch.  ii. 

One  rate,  to  load. 

I  will  not  onerate  and  overcharge  your 
stomachs  with  too  much  meat  at  once. — 
Becon,  i.  67. 

Kilvert  onerated  the  Bishop  with  ten 
charges  together. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams, 
II.  122. 

One-sided,  partial ;  taking  in  only  one 
side.  De  Quincey  in  a  note  to  the  ex- 
tract says,  "  It  marks  the  rapidity  with 
which  new  phrases  float  themselves  into 
currency  under  our  present  omnipre- 
sence of  the  press,  that  this  word,  now 
(viz.,  in  1853)  familiarly  used  in  every 
newspaper,  then  (viz.,  in  1833)  required 
a  sort  of  apology  to  warrant  its  intro- 
duction." 

Those  features  of  your  town  will  illustrate 
what  the  Germans  mean  by  a  one-sided  (ein- 
seitiger)  judgment. — Autob.  Sketches,  i.  290. 

Onfall,  attack.  See  quotation  8.  v. 
House-mother. 


Nay,  look :  green  uniforms  faced  with  red ; 
black  cockades,  the  colour  of  night !  Are  we 
to  have  military  onfall,  and  death  also  by 
starvation?— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  VII. 
ch.  ui. 

Onioned,  flavoured  with  an  onion. 
In  the  extract  it  is  applied  to  a  tear  not 
getiuine,  but  produced  by  smelling  an 
onion. 

Master  Broadbrim,  like  a  hopeful  heir, 
Pored  o'er  his  father's  will,  and  dropped  the 
onioned  tear. —  Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  58. 

Onlooker,  a  spectator  or  looker-on. 

You  may  rely  upon  me  for  knowing  the 
times  and  the  seasons  adapted  to  the  different 
stages  of  a  work  which  is  not  to  be  mea- 
sured by  the  facile  conjectures  of  ignorant 
onlookers. — G.  Eliot,  Jfiddlemarch,  ch. 


Only,  except.  In  the  sense  of  "  except 
that"  it  is  common  in  the  Bible  and 
elsewhere  (see  Macavlay's  Hist.,  Vol. 
III.  p.  32,  note). 

Here,  take  all  the  trinkets,  only  the  bait 
that  I'll  use.— The  Committee,  Act  V. 

This  morning  Captain  Cocke  comes,  and 
tells  me  that  he  is  now  assured  that  it  is  true 
what  he  told  me  the  other  day,  that  our 
whole  office  will  be  turned  out,  only  me, 
which  whether  he  says  true  or  not,  I  know 
not. — Pepys,  Aug.  22,  1668. 

I  have  written  day  and  night,  I  may  say, 
ever  since  Sunday  morning,  only  church-time 
or  the  like  of  that.— Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe, 
i.  248. 

Onomatoloqist,  student  of  names. 

What  would  our  onomatologist  have  said 
if  he  had  learned  to  read  these  words? — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  clxxvi. 

Ontologic,  having  to  do  with  on- 
tology, or  the  science  of  being. 

My  father  and  my  uncle  Toby's  discourse 
upon  Time  and  Eternity  was  a  discourse 
devoutly  to  be  wished  for;  and  the  petu- 
lancy  of  my  father's  humour  iu  putting  a 
stop  to  it  as  he  did,  was  a  robbery  of  the 
Ontologic  Treasury  of  ....  a  jewel.— Sterne, 
Trist.  Shandy,  ii.  181. 

Onus,  burden.     This  Latin  word  is 

naturalized. 

I  again  move  the  introduction  of  a  new 
topic,  ...  on  me  be  the  onus  of  bringing  it 
forward. — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xvii. 

On ygoph agist,  one  who  bites  his 
nails. 

I  was  sitting  at  my  desk,  pen  in  hand  and 
in  mouth  at  the  same  time  (a  substitute 
for  biting  the  nails  which  I  recommend  to 
all  onygophagists). — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch. 
iii.  Ai. 

G  G  2 


OORALI 


(  452  )         OPINIASTRETY 


Oobali,  curare :  both  of  which  names 
are  forms  of  a  South  American  word 
applied  by  the  Indians  of  Spanish 
Guiana  and  North  Brazil  to  a  poisonous 
extract  in  which  they  dip  their  arrows. 
It  is  obtained  from  some  plant,  perhaps 
the  Paullinia  Cururu  of  the  soap- 
wort  family.  The  object  of  its  ad- 
ministration in  cases  of  vivisection 
would  be  to  produce  a  sedative  action 
upon  the  muscles,  so  as  to  prevent 
struggling,  whilst  the  vital  functions 
remained  unaffected.  This  poison  is 
excluded  from  the  anaesthetics  allowed 
under  the  Vivisection  Act 

I  could  think  he  was  one  of  those  who  would 

break  their  jests  on  the  dead, 
And  mangle  the  living  dog  that  had  loved 

him  and  fawn'd  at  his  knee, 
Drench'd  with  the  hellish  oorali. 

Tennyson,  In  the  Children's  Hospital. 

Opacular,  opaque. 

The  main  good  these  things  do  is  only  to 
clarify  the  understanding,  previous  to  the 
application  of  the  argument  itself,  in  order 
to  free  it  from  any  little  motes  or  specks  of 
opacular  matter. — Sterne,  Trist,  Shandy,  ii. 
185. 

Open,  used  substantively  for  open 
country. 

Then  should  we  make  a  burst  to  get  clear 
of  the  trees,  and  should  soon  find  ourselves 
in  the  open. — Dickens,  Uncommercial  Travel' 
ler,  xi. 

Between  the  dark  green  lines  of  the 
hedges  we  met  maidens  in  white  with  scar- 
let opera-cloaks,  coming  home  through  the 
narrow  lane :  then  we  got  into  the  open,  and 
found  the  shores  of  the  silver  lake. — Black, 
Adventures  of  a  Phaeton,  ch.  xxvi. 

Open-battockino,  knouting  (?) 

A  Russian  judge  . .  fears  the  boiling  caul- 
dron or  open-battocking. —  Wordy  Sermons, 
p.  124. 

Open-doored,  very  receptive;  hos- 
pitable. 

Some, 
Whose  ears  are  open-doored  to  phantoms, 

swear 
"When  they  would  sleep  o*  nights  they  hear 

the  voice 
That  was,  they're  pleased  to  say,  ne'er  born 

of  man, 
And  scared  the  synod. 

Taylor,  Edwin  the  Fair,  iv.  1. 

Bnter,  therefore,  and  partake 
The  slender  entertainment  of  a  house 
Once  rich,  now  poor,  but  ever  open-doored, 

Tennyson,  Geratnt  and  Eneid. 


Open- handedness,  liberality:  open- 
handed  being  opposed  to  close-listed. 

The  banker  had  given  him  a  hundred 
pounds.  Various  motives  urged  Bulstrode 
to  this  open-handedness.  —  G.  Eliot,  Middle- 
march,  ch.  lxviii. 

Open-tail,  a  name  given  to  the  med- 
lar, as  being  a  laxative;  also  a  light 
woman. 

Elate  still  exclaimea  against  great  medlers, 

A  basic-body  hardly  she  abides.  .  . 
I  muse  her  stomacke  now  so  much  should 

faile 
To  loathe  a  medlar,  being  an  open-taile. 

Davies,  Scourge  of  Folly,  p.  10. 

Operant,  a  workman. 

No  Egyptian  taskmaster  ever  devised  a 
slavery  like  to  that,  our  slavery.  No  frac- 
tious operants  ever  turned  put  for  half  the 
tyranny  which  this  necessity  exercised  upon 
us. — Last  Essays  of  Elia  (Newspapers  thirty- 
Jive  years  ago). 

Ophiolatry,  serpent-worship. 

For  a  single  description  of  negro  ophiolatry 
may  be  cited  Bosnian's  description  from 
Whydah  in  the  Bipht  of  Benin.— E.  Tylor, 
Primitive  Culture,  ii.  233. 

Ophite,  green  porphyry:  the  spell- 
ing in  the  first  extract  may  be  a  mis- 
print. 

At  the  head  of  the  former  stands  a  column 
of  opite,  on  which  is  a  statue  of  Justice. — 
Evelyn,  Diary,  Oct.  22, 1644. 

Towards  the  left  are  the  statues  of  Ro- 
mulus and  Remus  with  the  Wolf,  all  of 
brasse,  plac'd  on  a  column  of  ophite  stone 
which  they  report  was  brought  from  the 
renowned  Bphesian  temple. — Ibidn  Oct.  25, 
1644. 

Opiated,  drugged  with  a  narcotic. 

The  opiated  milk  glews  up  the  brain. 

Verses  prefixed  to  KenneVs  Erasmus, 
Praise  of  Folly. 

Opilestone,  perhaps  the  same  as 
ophite,  q.  v. 

It  is  placed,  as  I  remember,  on  a  pillar  of 
opilestone,  with  divers  other  antiq  urnee. — 
Evelyn,  Diary,  Oct.  19,  1644. 

Opinant,  one  who  forms  an  opinion. 

The  opinions  differ  pretty  much  according 
to  the  nature  of  the  opinants. — Thackeray, 
Roundabout  Papers,  iv. 

Opiniaster,  an  obstinate,  self-willed 

person. 

As  for  lesser  projects,  and  those  opiniasters 
which  make  up  plebeian  parties,  I  know 
my  lines  to  be  diametrall  against  them.— 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  12  (Preface). 

Opiniastrety,  obstinacy.     R.  and  L. 


■*SB 


0P1NIATRE 


(  453  ) 


O RANGER  Y 


have  opiniatrety ;  the  latter  says,  "  This 
word,  though  it  has  been  tried  in  dif- 
ferent forms,  is  not  yet  received,  nor 
is  it  wanted.1 ' 

But  though  these  Protestants  were  wor- 
thy of  this  contumely,  yet  surely  the  Roman- 
ists are  no  fit  persons  to  object  it,  whose 
opiniastrcty  did  hinder  an  uniform  Reforma- 
tion of  the  Western  Church. — Brajmhall,  ii. 
71. 

And  little  thinks  Heretick  madness,  she 
At  God  Himself  lifts  up  her  desperate  heels, 
Whene'er  her  proud  Opiniastrete 
Against  Ecclesiastick  Sanctions  swells. 

Beaumont,  Psyche,  xyi.  st.  203. 

Opiniatrb   seems  in  extract  to  be 

used  as  a  verb  =  to  follow  one's  own 

opinion  obstinately.    The  Diets,  give  it 

as  substantive  and  adjective. 

It  is  common  in  consults  for  doctors  to 
differ;  and  Dr.  Short  might  differ  from 
what  opinion  prevailed,  but,  in  the  case  of  a 
king,  must  not  opiniatre,  when  the  cause 
was  regularly  by  consult  law  carried  against 
him. — North,  Examen,  p.  648. 

Opisometer,  an  instrument  for  mea- 
suring curved  lines  in  a  map. 

The  contents  of  Mr.  Stanford's  shop 
seemed  to  have  been  scattered  about  the 
room,  and  Bell  had  armed  herself  with  an 
opisometer,  which  gave  her  quite  an  air  of 
importance. — Block,  Adventures  of  a  Phaeton, 
en.  m. 

Opobopolist.     See  quotation. 

A  certain  man  stood  at  a  fruiterer's  stall, 
or  oporopolisVs,  if  you  would  have  it  in  Greek. 
— Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  219. 

Oppignoration,  a  pledge. 

The  form  and  manner  of  swearing  .  .  . 
by  oppignoration,  or  engaging  of  some  good 
which  we  would  not  lose ;  as,  Our  rejoicing 
in  Christ,  our  salvation,  God's  help,  &c  — 
Andrewes,  Sermons,  v.  74. 

Oppletion,  fulness:  repletion  is  the 
more  common  word. 

Health  of  the  body  is  not  recovered  with- 
out pain ;  an  imposthume  calls  for  a  lance, 
and  oppletion  for  unpalatable  evacuatories.—* 
Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  309. 

Opportune ful,  propitious. 

If  we  let  slip  this  opportuneful  hour, 
Take  leave  of  fortune. 

Middleton,  Mayor  of  Quinborough, 
Act  IV. 

Oppose,  to  offer  or  propose. 

Let  his  true  picture  through  your  land  be 

sent, 
Opposing  great  rewardes  to  him  that  findes 

him. 
Chapman,  Blinde  Begger  of  Alexandria,  i.  1. 


Oppositionist,  member  of  the  Opposi- 
tion. 

This  fairness  from  an  oppositionist  pro- 
fessed brought  me  at  once  to  easy  terms 
with  him. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  iv.  70. 

Oppositionless,  without  an  Opposi- 
tion party. 

The  parliament  is  met,  but  empty  and 
totally  oppositionless. —  Walpole,  Letters,  ii. 
82  (1758). 

OPP08IVB,  contradictory;  cantanker- 
ous. 

They  might  have  observed,  even  in  his 
cunicular  days,  in  this  Lodowick  Muggleton, 
an  obstinate,  dissentious,  and  opposive  spirit. 
— Account  of  L.  Muggleton,  1676  (Harl.  Misc., 
i.  610). 

Oppressure,  oppression ;  injury. 

The  oppressures  that  in  three  and  twenty 
years  without  intermission  exercis'd  the 
defence  and  patience  of  one  man,  made 
him  stand  the  stronger.  —  Hacket,  Life  of 
Williams,  ii.  222. 

Oracle,  a  cant  term  for  a  watch. 

Out  of  the  right  fob  hung  a  great  silver 
chain,  with  a  wonderful  kind  of  engine  at 
the  bottom.  .  .  .  He  called  it  his  oracle,  and 
said  it  pointed  out  the  time  for  every  action 
of  his  life. — Swift,  Voyage  to  lilliput,  ch.  ii. 

Col.  Pray,  my  lord,  what's  a  clock  by  your 
oracle? 

Lord  Sp.  Faith,  I  can't  tell ;  I  think  my 
watch  runs  upon  wheels. — Ibid.,  Polite  Con- 
versation (Conv.  i.). 

Oracler,  giver  of  an  oracle. 

Pyrrhus,  whom  the  Delphian  oracler 
Deluded  by  his  double-meaning  measures. 

Sylvester,  Sixth  day,  first  weeke,  823. 

Orage,  a  storm.  A  French  word,  not 
naturalized  among  us,  though  North 
does  not  seem  to  use  it  as  a  foreign 
word. 

Though  his  gains  by  his  office  were  great, 
they  were  much  greater  by  his  practice ;  for 
that  flowed  in  upon  him  like  an  orage,  enough 
to  overset  one  that  had  not  an  extraordinary 
readiness  in  business. — JVorth,  Life  of  Lord 
Guilford,  i.  170. 

There  was  then,  enough  of  the  Church  and 
loyal  party  in  full  credit  at  that  time,  espe- 
cially citisens,  to  stem  that  orage  of  faction. 
— Ibid.,  Examen,  p.  632. 

Oragious,  stormy. 

M.  D'lvry,  whose  early  life  may  have  been 
rather  oragious,  was  yet  a  gentleman  perfectly 
well  conversed. —  Thackeray,  Nciocomes,  ch. 
xxxi. 

Orangery,  a  species  of  snuff. 
"  Mockmode,  .  .  taking  snush,  sneezes," 
on  which  his  dancing-master  exclaims, 


OR  A  TOR  J  AN 


O  Lord,  sir,  you  must  never  sneeie ;  'tis  as 
unbecoming  after  orangery  as  grace  after 
meat. — Farquhar,  Love  and  a  Bottle,  ii.  2. 

Oratorian,  rhetorical. 

Here  is  a  reverend  person  who  relates  the 
fact  of  a  conspiracy  in  a  good  method,  exact 
style,  and  beautiful  English  ;  in  a  word,  in  an 
oratorian  way. — North,  Examen,  p.  420. 

Orbe,  bereaved. 

No  father  adopts  unless  he  be  orbe,  have 
no  child  ;  or  if  he  have  one,  for  some  deep 
dislike  have  cast  him  off. — Andrewes,  i.  59. 

Orbical,  circular. 

Thee  moone   three   seasons   her   passadge 
orbical  eended. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iii.  658. 

Orderable,  complying ;  obedient. 
Cf.  Biddable. 

The  king's  aveneness  to  physick,  and  im- 
patience under  it,  .  .  was  quickly  removed 
above  expectation ;  the  king  (contrary  to  his 
customs)  being  very  orderable  in  all  his  sick- 
nesee— Fuller,  Ch.  Mitt.,  X.  vii.  22. 

Ordinary,  a  settled  order  or  use  for 

public  service. 

Osmund,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  devised  that 
Ordinary  or  form  of  service,  which  hereafter 
was  observed  in  the  whole  kingdom. — Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist.,  III.  i.  23. 

Ordinative,  ordaining. 

Episcopall  power  and  precedency  .  .  im- 
mediately succeeded  the  Apostles  in  that  or- 
<it native  and  gubemative  eminency. — Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  259. 

Ordinatob,  ruler. 

If  Nature,  and  her  ordinator,  God,  deny 
health,  how  un valuable  are  their  riches. — 
Adams,  i.  424. 

Orenge,  apparently  a  mistress  (?). 

The  churlish  frampold  waves  .  .  .  tossed 
his  dead  carcasse,  well  bathed  or  parboyled, 
to  the  sandy  threshold  of  his  leman  or  orenge, 
for  a  disjune  or  morning  breakfast. — Nashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  168). 

Organ,  taste  or  palate. 

What  is  agreeable  to  some  is  not  to  others ; 
what  touches  smoothly  my  organ  may  grate 
upon  yours. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  367. 

Organie,  marjoram ;  origanum  vul- 
garc. 

(Persons)  may  take  out  of  their  own  homish 
gardens  ana  ground  such  things  as  in  strength 
and  operation  countervayle  these  aforesaid, 
that  is  to  wit,  Kosemarie,  Basil,  Saverie, 
Organie,  Marjoram,  Dill,  Sage,  Baulme,  &c. 
— Touchstone  of  Complexions,  p.  00. 

Organifs,  instruments. 

Youth  and  love 
Were  th'  vnresisted  organies  to  seduce  you. 
Chapman,  All  Fooles,  ii.  1. 


(  454  )  ORKYN 

Oroanity,  organism. 

Many  put  out  their  force  informative 
In  their  ethereall  corporeity, 
Devoid  of  heterogeneall  oryanity. 

H.  More,  Immortality  of  the  Soul, 
I.  ii.  24. 


Organizate,  to  organize :  in  the 

tract  it  is  a  participle. 

Death  our  spirits  doth  release 
From  this  distinguish'd  organizate  sense. 

H.  More,  Fraexistency  of  the  Soul, 
St.  21. 

Orqanons,  organs. 

0  thou  great  God,  ravish  my  earthly  sprite  ! 
That  for  the  time  a  more  than  human  skill 
May  feed  the  organons  of  all  my  sense. 

Peele,  David  and  Bethsabe,  p.  484. 

Our  little  world  is  made  with  much  respect. 
Our  mother  Nature  hath  been  wise  and  kind. 
By  whom  we  have  our  orqanons  asedgn'd 
To  execute  what  so  our  thoughts  intend. 
Hubert,  Hist,  of  Edw.  II.,  p.  16. 

Orient,  a  pearl.  Sterling  (Life  by 
Carlyle,  Pt.  II.  ch.  ii.)  reckons  this 
among  the  "new  and  erroneous  locu- 
tions '  in  Sartor  Resartns. 

It  is  indeed  .  .  a  very  Sea  of  Thought ; 
neither  calm  nor  clear,  if  you  will ;  yet 
wherein  the  toughest  pearl-diver  may  dive  to 
his  utmost  depth,  and  return  not  only  with 
sea-wreck,  but  with  true  orients.  —  CorlyU, 
Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  I.  ch.  ii. 

Orifex,  orifice ;  opening. 

1  feel  my  liver  pierced,  and  all  my  veins, 
That  there  begin  and  nourish  every  part, 
Mangled  and  torn,  and  all  my  entrails  bathed 
In  blood  that  straineth  from  their  orifex. 

Marlowe,  2  Tamburlaine,  iii.  4. 

Origin,  to  originate. 

This  proverb  was  origined  whitest  England 
and  Wales  were  at  deadly  feude.  —  Fuller, 
Worthies,  Cardigan  (ii.  578). 

Orkie. 

Oblig'd  he  was  not  to  account 
To  what  those  incomes  did  amount ; 
Nor  distribution  make  o'  th*  gold 
But  when  he  pleas'd  or  pastor  would. 
Which  seldom  chanc't,  the  poorest  of  'em 
Gould  scarcely  wrest  an  Orkie  from  him. 
Ward,  England's  Reformation, 
c.  i.  p.  126. 

Orkyn,  an  earthen  pot  (Latin,  orcd). 
N.,  s.  v.  ork,  cites  a  passage  where,  as 
he  says,  ork  seems  to  mean  drinking 
vessel. 

They  that  goo  about  to  bye  an  yerthen 
potte  or  vessell  for  an  orkyn  dooe  knocke 
vpon  it  with  their  knuccle. —  VdaVs  Eras- 
mus's Apophth^  p.  91. 


ORLE 


(  455  ) 


OTIATIOJN 


Orle,  in  heraldry  a  border  round 

the  shield. 

His  arms  were  augmented  with  an  Orle  of 
Lions'  paws. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Cumberland 
(i.249). 

Ornamentals,  adornments.  For 
similar  uses  see  8.  v.  Obsebvables. 

In  the  time  of  the  aforesaid  William  Hey- 
worth,  the  Cathedral  of  Litchfield  was  in 
the  verticall  height  thereof,  being  (though 
not  augmented  in  the  essentials)  beautified 
in  the  ornamental*  thereof.  —  Fuller,  Ch. 
Hist.,  IV.  ii.  65. 

These  light-armed  Schismaticks  and  small 
Skirmishers  are  like  Pot-guns  to  Canons  or 
Pigmies  to  Giants,  seeking  to  deface  the 
Pinnacles  and  Ornamentalls  of  Religion,  but 
not  capable  to  shake  the  foundations  of  it. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  86. 

Ornithomancy.     See  extract. 

Omiihomancy  (or  the  derivation  of  omens 
from  the  motions  of  birds)  grew  into  an 
elaborate  science.  —  J>e  (juincey,  Modern 
Superstition, 

Ornithoscopy,  watching   birds    for 

purposes  of  divination. 

Speaking  of  ornithoscopy  in  relation  to 
Jews,  I  remember  another  story. — De  Quincey, 
Modern  Superstition. 

Orphancy,  orphanhood. 

Yet  did  not  thy  Orphancy  nor  my  Widdow- 
hood  deprive  us  of  the  delightful  prospect 
which  the  hill  of  honor  doth  yield. — Sidney, 
Arcadia,  p.  237. 

Obthopnic,  one  who  suffers  from 
orthopncea,  and  can  only  breathe  in  an 
upright  position. 

A*  they  prescribe  for  the  asthma,  which  is 
a  disease  in  the  body,  to  avoid  perturbations 
of  the  mind,  so  let  this  orthopnic,  for  the 
help  of  his  mind,  avoid  needless  perturba- 
tions of  the  body. — Adams,  i.  506. 

Osiered,  twisted  in  a  pattern   like 
osiers  forming  a  basket. 
Garlands 

In    baskets    of    bright    osier' d   gold   were 
brought. — Keats,  Lamia,  Pt.  II. 

08TELEB,  ostler. 

What  office  then  doth  the  star-gaier  bear? 
Or  let  him  be  the  heaven's  osteUr, 
Or  tapster  some,  or  some  be  chamberlain, 
To  wait  upon  the  guests  they  entertain. 

Hall,  Sat.,  II.  vii.  40. 

Ostend,  to  appear  prominently. 

The  time  was  when  his  affection  ostended 
in  excess  towards  her.  —  Bp.  Hall,  Cont. 
(Adonijah). 

Ostent,  to  display ;  to  boast. 


Such  a  church  sometimes  is  more  swelling 
in  bigness,  and  ostents  a  more  bulky  show. — 
Adams,  i.  410. 

Malice  not  only  discovers,  but  ostenteth  her 
devilish  effects. — Ibid.,  i.  415. 

Ostleress.     See  first  quotation. 

Because  she  [Empress  Helena]  visited  the 
stable  and  manger  of  our  Saviour's  nativitie, 
Jews  and  Pagans  slander  her  to  have  been 
stabularia,  an  ostleresse,  or  a  she-stable-groom. 
—Fuller,  Holy  War,  Bk.  I.  ch.  iv. 

A  plump-arm'd  Ostleress  and  a  stable  wench 
Came  running  at  the  call. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  i. 

Ostlery,  hostelry ;  inn. 

Good  Saturn  self,  that  homely  emperor, 
In  proudest  pomp  was  not  so  clad  of  yore, 
As  is  the  unaer-groom  of  the  ostlery, 
Husbanding  it  in  work-day  yeomanry. 

Hall,  Sat.,  III.  i.  73. 

Ostry,  an  inn.  The  inn,  being  ready 
for  guests  at  all  hours,  has  its  faggot 
always  burning.  For  another  reference 
to  ostry-wood  see  extract  s.  v.  Pimp. 

Dick.  What,  Robin,  you  must  come  away 
and  walk  the  horses. 

Bob.  I  walk  the  horses !  I  scorn  't  i*  faith. 
.  .  .  Keep  further  from  me,  O  thou  illiterate 
and  unlearned  hostler.  .  .  .  Keep  out  of  the 
circle,  I  say,  lest  I  send  you  into  the  ostry 
with  a  vengeance. — Marlowe,  Faustus,  ii.  3. 

Think,  mistress,  what  a  thing  love  is: 
why  it  is  like  an  orfry-faggot,  that,  once  set 
on  fire,  is  as  hardly  quenched  as  the  bird 
crocodile  driven  out  of  her  nest.— Greene, 
Looking  Glass  for  London,  p.  133. 

Tom  Tapster,  .  .  .  you  cannot  be  content 
to  pinch  with  your  small  pots  and  your 
ostrie  faggots,  but  have  your  tugges  to  draw 
men  on  to  villanie. — Ibid.,  Quip  for  Upstart 
Courtier  {Harl.  Misc.,  v.  413). 

Other-gates,  dissimilar :  usually  an 

adverb,  as  in  Twelfth  Night,  V.  i. 

All  which  are  the  great  works  of  true, 
able,  and  authoritative  Ministers,  requiring 
other-yates  workmen  than  are  (now)  in  many 
places  much  in  fashion  among  common 
people. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  19 
(Preface). 

Other-guess,  a  corruption  of  athei^ 
guise;  noticed  in  the  Diets.,  but  with- 
out example. 

If  your  kinsman,  Lieutenant  Bowling,  had 
been  here,  we  should  have  had  other 'guess 
work. — Smollett,  Roderick  Random,  ch.  xxxii. 

Tou  have  to  do  with  other -guess  people 
now. — Ibid.,  ch.  xlvii.^ 

Ot  I  at  ion,  taking  ease ;  leisure. 

I  haue  obserued  [others]  in  many  of  the 
princes  Courts  of  Italie  to  seeme  idle  when 
they  be  earnestly  occupied,  and  en  tend  to 
nothing  but  mischieuous  practises.  and  do 


OTIOUS 


(  456  )  OUT-BLUSTER 


buuly    negotiat    by   ooulor   of   otiation.  — 
Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xxv. 

Otioub,  leisurely.  Otiose  is  some- 
times used,  though  L.  does  not  give 
the  word,  and  R.  only  cites  Paley  for 
it.  The  speaker  in  the  extract  is  com- 
paring the  burdens  of  public  men  with 
those  of 

Private  men  (whose  otious  care 

Scarce  passe  the  threshold  of  their  own  door 

dare). — Sylvester,  Bethulia's  Rescue,  v.  121. 

Otohy,  a  skeleton :  a  corruption  of 
anatomy. 

Lord  Sp.  Lady  Smart,  does  not  your  Lady- 
ship think  Mrs.  Fade  is  mightily  altered 
since  her  marriage  ? 

Lady  Sm.  Why,  my  lord,  she  was  hand- 
some in  her  time ;  but  she  can't  eat  her  cake 
and  have  her  cake.  I  hear  she's  grown  a 
meer  otomy. 

Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  i.). 

Oubliktte.  In  some  dungeons 
there  were  concealed  holes  or  traps 
down  which  the  prisoner  was  thrust, 
and  perished.  He  was  lost  and  for- 
gotten;  hence  the  name,  which  is 
French,  but  the  word  is  often  used  as 
English. 

As  if  we  had  talked  in  following  one 

Up  some  long  gallery.  "  Would  you  choose 
An  air  like  that?— the  gait  is  loose — 

Or  noble."    Sudden  in  the  sun 

An  oubliette  winks.    Where  is  he  ?    Gone. 

Mrs.  Browning,  Died. 

Ouohlvng,  the  hooting  of  an  owl. 

He  toke  verie  euill  rest  in  the  nightes  by 
reason  of  an  owle  breakyng  his  slepe  euery 
half©  hower  with  her  oughlyng.  —  UdaVs 
Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  277. 

Our  Lady's  mantle,  Alchemilla 
vulgaris. 

I  think  he  killed  nobody,  for  his  reme- 
dies were  "  womanish  and  weak."  Sage  and 
wormwood,  sion,  hyssop,  borage,  spikenard, 
dog's-tongue,  our  Lady's  mantle,  feverfew, 
and  Faith,  and  all  in  small  quantities  except 
the  last.  —  Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  en. 
xciv. 

Out,  not  at  home.  This  common 
colloquial  expression  is  given  by  L. 
without  example. 

When  we  reached  Albion  Place  they  were 
out ;  we  went  after  them,  and  found  them 
on  the  pier.— Miss  Austen,  Mansfield  Park, 
ch.  v. 

Out.  When  a  young  lady  has  left 
the  school-room  and  goes  into  society, 
she  is  technically  said  to  be  out. 

Pray,  is  she  out  or  not?     I  am  puzzled; 


she  dined  at  the  parsonage  with  the  rest  of 
you,  which  seemed  like  being  out ;  and  yet 
she  says  so  little  that  I  can  hardly  suppose 
she  is. — Miss  Austen,  Mansfield  Park,  ch.  ▼. 

Out-active,  to  exceed  in  activity- 
No  wonder  if  the  younger  out-active  those 

who  are  more  ancient.  —  Fuller,   Worthies, 

London. 

0 u t- A N  D-o uter,  a  thorough-going 
person. 

I  am  the  roan  as  is  guaranteed  by  unim- 
peachable references  to  be  an  out-and-outer 
in  morals.  —  Dickens,  Nicholas  Nickleby, 
oh.  lx. 

Master  Clive  was  pronounced  an  out-and- 
outer,  a  swell,  and  no  mistake. — Thackeray, 
The  Newcomes,  ch.  xvii. 

Outas,  to  Bhout  or  exclaim. 

These  cried  there,  like  mad  moody  Bed- 
lams, as  they  heard  the  thunder,  **  They 
are  damned,  they  are  damned ; "  their  wise 
preachers  outasing  the  same  at  Paul's  cross. 
—Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  244. 

Outas,  octave  (ecclesiastical). 

The  same  Adam  by  a  decree  of  the  Church 
was  on  the  Munday  after  the  outas  of  Easter 
the  yeere  1328,  burnt  at  Hoggis. — Holland's 
Camden,  ii.  181. 

Out  ASK  ed.  When  banns  have  been 
published  three  times,  the  couple  are 
said  to  be  outasktd.  H.  says  this  is 
the  term  in  the  south-east  of  England : 
in  Hampshire  the  phrase  is  asked  out. 

All  other  suitors  were  left  in  the  lurch, 
And  the  parties  had  even  been  outasked  in 
Church. — Ingoldsby  Legends  {St.  Romwdd). 

Outbargain,  to  get  the  better  in  a 
bargain. 

The  two  parties  with  their  opposite  inter- 
ests stand  at  bay,  or  try  to  outwit  or  out- 
bargain each  other. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Helen, 
ch.  xix. 

Out-blundeb,  to  surpass  in  blunder- 
ing. 

Hell  out-talk  a  Frenchwoman,  and  out- 
blunder  au  Irishman  or  Teaguelander's  un- 
derstanding.— T.  Brown,  Works,  iii.  108. 

Out-bluster,  to  drive  a  person  from 
his  purpose  by  blustering :  at  least  this 
seems  its  meaning  in  the  first  extract, 
and  perhaps  in  the  second  too,  though 
generally  the  word  would  mean  to  sur- 
pass another  in  blustering. 

Those  wives  .  .  .  can  suffer  themselves  to 
be  out-blustered  and  out-gloomed  of  their 
own  wills,  instead  of  being  fooled  out  of 
them  by  acts  of  teuderness  and  complais- 
ance.— Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  ii.  15. 

If  ever  I  steal  a  teapot,  and  my  women 
don't  stand  up  for  mc,  pass  the  article  under 


OUT-BOLT 


(457  ) 


OUTFALL 


their  shawls,  whisk  down  the  street  with 
it,  out-Muster  the  policeman,  and  utter  any 
amount  of  fibs  before  Mr.  Beak,  those  beings 
are  not  what  I  take  them  to  be. — Thackeray, 
Roundabout  Papers,  xxxii. 

OUT-BOLT,  bolt  OUt 

Those  .  .  .  first  blot  oat  Episcopacy  that 
they  may  blot  and  out-holt,  set  up  and  pull 
down  Magistracy.  —  Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  557. 

Outbound,  to. bound  beyond ;  to  ex- 
cel in  activity. 

He  could  outran  the  reindeer,  and  out- 
bound the  antelope.  —  H.  Brooke,  Fool  of 
Quality,  ii.  23. 

Out-brazen,  to  surpass  in  impudence. 

The  expertest  devils  .  .  .  see  their  impu- 
dence out-brazen'd  by  a  club  of  mortal  puri- 
tans.— T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  216. 

Outbrother,  an  outpensioner. 

That  good  old  blind  bibber  of  Helicon,  I 
wot  well,  came  a  begging  to  one  of  the  chief 
cities  of  Greece,  and  promised  them  vast 
corpulent  volumes  of  immortality,  if  they 
would  bestowe  upon  him  but  a  slender  out- 
brother's  annuity  of  mutton  and  broth,  and 
a  pallet  to  sleep  on.  —  Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  147). 

Outbuild,  to  build  beyond  what  one 
has  means  for.  Both  K.  and  L.  give 
the  word  =  to  excel  in  durability,  with 
extract  from  Young,  Sixth  Night: 
"  Virtue  alone  outbuilds  the  pyramids." 
In  the  extract  perhaps  overbuild  would 
have  been  more  usual. 

She  had  left  off  building  castles  in  the  air, 
but  she  had  outbuilt  herself  on  earth. — Miss 
Edgeworth,  Helen,  ch.  viii.  . 

Outbuzz,  to  drown  some  other  sound 
by  the  noise  of  buzzing ;  so,  generally, 
to  out-clamour. 

The  flies  at  home  that  ever  swarm  about 
And  cloud  the  highest  heads,  and  murmur 

down 
Truth  in  the  distance — these  outbuzz' d  me. 

Tennyson,  Columbus. 

Outcast,  to  throw  out. 

It  being  the  custom  of  all  those  whom  the 
Court  casts  out,  to  labour  by  all  means  they 
can  to  outcast  the  Court. — Heylin,  Life  of 
Laud,  p.  156. 

Outcome,  visible  result.  I  have  not 
come  across  any  earlier  instance  of  this 
now  common  word  than  that  in  the 
first  extract. 

We  do  the  man's  intellectual  endowment 
great  wrong  if  we  measure  it  by  its  mere 
logical  outcome. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iii.  59  (1832). 

The  only  outcome  of  that  new  sense  of 


responsibility  was  a  rapid  increase  in  the 
number  of  floggings.  —  Kingsley,  WesticaitU 
Ho,  ch.  ii. 

In  the  young  bliss  of  loving  he  took 
Gwendolen's  perfection  as  part  of  that  good 
which  had  seemed  one  with  life  to  him, 
being  the  outcome  of  a  happy,  well-embodied 
nature. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  vi. 

Out-compliment,  to  eclipse  or  drive 
out  by  compliments  or  caresses. 

He  thrice  embraced  Her,  and  gently  strove 
Her  sorrow's  fullness  to  out-compliment. 

Beaumont,  Psyche,  xxiii.  st.  181. 

Out-corner,  an  out-of-the-way  place. 

Through  the  want  of  this  catechising 
many  which  are  well  skilled  in  some  dark 
out-corners  of  divinity  have  lost  themselves 
in  the  beaten  road  thereof. — Fuller,  Holy 
State,  II.  ix.  5. 

Outcountenance,  to  outf  ace  or  with- 
stand. 

"See  which  of  our  beardlesse  yongsters 
will  take  ye  in,  when  I  [Menaphon]  haue 
cast  you  foorth."  «  Those,"  quoth  she, "  that 
outcountenance  Menaphon  and  his  pelfe,  and 
are  better  able  than  your  selfe."  —  Greene, 
Menaphon,  p.  64. 

While  high  Content  in  whatsoever  chance 
Makes  the  brave  mind  the  starres  outcounten- 
ance.— Davies,  Muse's  Teares,  p.  14. 

Outdacious,  wild:  a  common  vul- 
garism for  audacious. 

Ya  wouldn't  find  Charlie's  likes— 'e  were 

that  outdacious  at  '6am, 
Not  thaw  ya  went  to  raake  out  Hell  wi'  a 

small-tooth  coamb. 

Tennyson,  The  Village  Wife. 

Outdaciousne88,  audacity :  a  vul- 
garism. 

They  have  the  outdaciousness  to  complain 
that  the  rents  are  raised. —  Mrs.  Trollope, 
Michael  Armstrong,  ch.  iv. 

Out-edge,  extremity ;  outer  limit. 

Her  fame  had  spread  itself  to  the  very 
out-edge  and  circumference  of  that  circle. — 
Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  i.  70. 

A  couple  of  sparrows  upon  the  out-edge  of 
his  window. — Ibid.,  Sent.  Journey,  The  Pass- 
port. 

Out-equivocate,,  to  surpass  in 
equivocation. 

The  Jesuites,  being  out-shot  in  their  own 
bow,  complained  that  he  out-equivocated  their 
equivocation.  —  Fuller,  Worthies,  Kent  (i. 
500). 

Outfall,  outlet. 

Haddenham  Level  in  the  Isle  of  Ely  .  . 
contains  0500  acres,  which  were  overflowed 
chiefly  through  the  neglect  of  preserving 
and  clearing  the  out-falls  into  the  Sea. — 
Defoe,  Tour  thro1  G.  Britain,  i.  91. 


OUTFIND 


(458) 


OUTLOOK 


Out  find,  to  find  out. 
Though    envy  strive,  yet  secret-searching 

time 
With  piercing  insight  will  the  truth  outfind. 
Greene,  from  Never  too  late,  p.  299. 

Out-flino,  sally. 

Deronda,  inclined  by  nature  to  take  the 
ride  of  those  on  whom  the  arrows  of  scorn 
were  falling,  could  not  help  replying  to 
Pash's  out-Jiing. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda, 
ch.  zUi. 

Outolare,  to  exceed  in  prominence. 

His  monstrous  score  which  stood  outglaringail 
Its  hideous  neighbours. 

Beaumont,  Psyche,  xiv.  st.  178. 

Outolitter,  to  exceed  in  radiance. 

All  Cherubs  and  all  Seraphs  have  I  seen 
In  their  high  beauties  on  HeavVs  Holydays, 
But  still  the  gracious  splendour  of  this  Queen 
Sweetly  outglitters  their  best  tire  of  rays. 

Beaumont,  Psyche,  ii.  St.  218. 

Out-gloom,  to  drive  a  person  from 
his  purpose  by  ill- temper :  at  least  this 
seems  the  meaning  in  the  extract  (for 
which  see  *.  v.  Out-bluster),  though, 
according  to  the  analogy  of  similar 
words,  it  would  mean  to  surpass  in 
gloom. 

Outgrain,  to  out-dye. 

She  blushed  more  than  they,  and  of  their  own 
Shame  made  them  all  asham'd,  to  see  how  far 
It  was  outpurpled  and  outgrain'd  by  Her. 

Beaumont,  Psyche,  iii.  st.  51. 

Out-grunt,  to  excel  in  grunting. 

Not  a  porter  here  plies  at  the  corner  of  a 
street,  but  with  his  stubbed  fingers  can  make 
a  smooth  table  out-grunt  the  harmony  of  a 
double  curtel.—  T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  246. 

Out-hymn,  to  excel  in  hymnody. 

Inspired  by  that,  my  thoughts  will  quicker 

flow, 
And  111  by  far  out-hymn  the  fam'd  De  Foe. 

'T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  132. 

Out-isles,  islands  circumjacent. 

With  which  I  accordingly  will  end  this 
booke,  purposing  to  speake  of  the  out-Isles, 
Orcades,  Hebudes,  or  Hebrides,  and  of  Shet- 
land, in  their  due  place. — Holland's  Camden, 
ii.  54. 

Out-lament,  to  exceed  in  lament- 
ation. 

If  I  thought  complaining  would  make  you 
a  farthing  the  better,  I  would  out-weep  a 
church-spout,  and  out-lament  a  widow  that 
has  buried  three  husbands,  and  now  laments 
for  a  fourth. — T.  Brown,  Works,  iv.  175. 

Outlandish er,  foreigner. 
Hollanders,    Zealanders,    Scots,    French, 


Westerne-men,  Northren  -  men,  besides  adl 
the  hundreds  and  wapentakes  nine  miles 
eompasse,  fetch  the  best  of  their  viands  said 
mangery  from  her  market.  For  ten  weeks 
together  this  rabble  rout  of  outlandiskers  are 
biUetted  with  her.  —  Nashe,  Lenten  StuJJFe 
(Hurl.  Misc.,  vi.  149). 

Outlash,  to  exaggerate.  L.  has 
overlash,  a  word  which  Fuller  also 
uses. 

Malice  hath  a  wide  mouth,  and  loves  to 
outlash  in  her  relations.  —  Fuller,  Pisgah 
Sight,  III.  (Pt.  II.)  iii.  5. 

Outlash,  a  breaking  out. 

Underneath  the  silence  there  was  an  out- 
lash of  hatred  and  vindictiveness. — G.  Eliot, 
Daniel  Deronda,  ch. 


Outlavishing,  extravagant. 

He  being  now  growne  poore  by  his  out-' 
lauishing  humour,  began,  it  seemes,  to  be 
little  respected.  —  Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng^  p. 
52. 

Outlier,  nonconformist. 

I  hope  every  worthy  and  true  English  Pro- 
testant of  the  Kstablish'd  Church  (for  I  have 
no  hopes  of  the  outlyers)  will  favourably 
allow  the  following  poem. — D'Urfey,  Collin's 
Walk,  Preface. 

Out-limbs,  limbs,  as  opposed  to 

vitals. 

The  Albingenses  hope  to  find  favour  if 
men  consider  .  .  .  the  errours  themselves 
which  are  rather  in  the  outlimbes  than  vitalls 
of  "religion. — Fuller,  Holy  War,  Bk.  III.  ch. 


It  was  not  a  scratch,  but  a  wound :  not  a 
wound  in  a  fleshy  parts  or  outlimbs  of  the 
body,  but  in  the  very  head,  the  throne  of 
reason.— Ibid.,  Good  Thoughts  in  Worse  Times 
(Pers.  Med.,  iv.). 

Some  accessions  therefore  might  be  made 
(though  not  to  the  vitall  parts, as  I  may  say) 
to  the  out-lims  of  the  temple. — Ibid.,  Pisgah 
Sight,  IU.  (Pt.  II.)  iii.  3. 

Out-list,  outside  edge ;  selvage. 

The  outlist  of  Judah  fell  into  the  midst  of 
Dan's  whole  cloth.— Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  II. 
x.22. 

Outliver,  survivor. 

Seven  they  were  in  all,  all  aliue  and  well 
in  one  day,  six  dead  in  the  other ;  the  out- 
liuer  becoming  a  conuert  to  their  religion. — 
Sandys,  Travels,  p.  186. 

Out-lodgings,  lodgings  in  the  town 
outside  the  College  gates. 

As  for  out-lodgings  (like  galleries,  necessary 
evils  in  popular  Churches),  ne  rather  tolerates 
than  approves  them. — Fuller,  Holy  State,  II. 
xiv.  3. 

Outlook,    prospect;    survey.     The 


OUTLOOKER 


(  459  ) 


OUT-ROOMS 


Diets,  only  give  a  single  instance  of 
this  substantive,  and  then  in  the  sense 
of  foresight. 

The  condensed  breath  ran  in  streams  down 
the  panes,  chequering  the  dreary  outlook  of 
chimney-tops  and  smoke. — C.  King  sley,  Alton 
Locke,  oh.  h. 

I  went  to  Hamburg  to  study,  and  after- 
wards to  Gbttingen,  that  I  might  take  a 
larger  outlook  on  my  people  and  on  the 
Gentile  world. —  G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda, 
ch.  zl. 

Outlookeb,  one  who  looks  abroad; 
and  so,  in  the  extract,  an  inconstant 
lover. 

They  may  be  kinde,  but  not  constant,  and 
Loue  lones  no  out-lookers. — Breton,  Packet  of 
Letters,  p.  43. 

Out-match,  excel ;  to  be  more  than 
a  match  for. 

In  labour  the  Oze  will  out-toile  him,  and 
in  subtlitie  the  Fox  will  out-match  him. — 
Breton,  Diynitie  of  Man,  p.  14. 

Out-metaphor,  to  excel  in  metaphor. 

Those  very  persons  . . .  out-metaphor' d  all 
Parnassus  in  their  operas. — T.  Brown,  Works, 
i.  192. 

Out-move,  to  outgo ;  to  exceed  in 
quickness. 

My  father's  ideas  ran  on  as  much  faster 
than  the  translation,  as  the  translation  out- 
moved  my  uncle  Toby's.  —  Sterne,  Trist. 
Shandy,  ill.  40. 

Out- nook,  projecting  nook  or  corner. 

And  yet  this  goodly  globe  (where  we  as- 
semble) 

Though  hung  in  th'  ayr  doth  neuer  selfly 
tremble  ; 

For  it's  the  midst  of  the  concentrik  orbs 

Whom  neuer  angle  nor  out-nook  disturbs. 

Sylvester,  The  Columnes,  194. 

Out-of-doors,  used  as  an  adjective 
=  in  the  open  air.  H.  has  indoor  with 
extract  from  Disraeli. 

Her  out-of-doors  life  was  perfect ;  her  in- 
doors life  had  its  drawbacks. — Mrs.  Gaskell, 
North  and  South,  ch.  ii. 

Out-passion,  to  exceed  in  passion. 

Thy  patriot  passion, 
Siding  with  our  great  Council  against  Tostig, 
Out-passion* d  bis. — Tennyson,  Harold,  iii.  1. 

Outpeak,  to  rise  on  the  peak  or 
summit. 

Lucifer  outpeakiny  in  tips  of  mounted  hill  Ida 
On  draws  thee  dawning. 

Stany  hurst,  JEn.,  ii.  828. 

Out-please,  to  please  beyond  some- 
thing that  has  pleased  before. 


A  lapidary . .  shews  the  buyer  an  orient 
pearl,  and  having  a  little  fed  his  eye  with 
that,  outpleaseth  bim  with  a  sapphire.  — 
Adams,  h.  203. 

Outpoison,  to  exceed  in  venom. 

Must  sweet  Arabia's  beds  belch  out  a  stink 
Outpois*ning  all  the  Bane  of  Thessaly  ? 

Beaumont,  Psyche,  xi.  223. 

Out-power,  to  exceed  in  power. 

In  the  Saxon  Heptarchy  there  was  gener- 
ally one  who  out-powered  all  the  rest. — Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist.,  II.  iii.  41. 

Out-praise,  to  exceed  or  vie  with 
another  in  praising. 

(  We  had  much  literary  chat  upon  this  occa- 
sion, which  led  us  to  a  general  discussion, 
not  only  of  Pope's  life,  but.  of  all  his  works, 
which  we  tried  who  should  out-praise. — Mad. 
D'Arblay,  Diary,  ii.  71. 

Out-price,  to  excel  in  value. 

And  so  the  best  men,  though  inherent  Vice 

May  ouerweigh  their  Vertue,  yet  we  see 
Th'  are  called  vertuous  by  their  Vertue's 
price, 
That  doth  out-price  the  Vice,  though  more 
it  be. — Dames,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  44. 

Out-purple,  to  dye  of  a  more  brilliant 
purple.  See  extract  «.  v.  Outgrain, 
where  both  words  =  outblush. 

Out-ray,  to  spread  out  in  array  (of 
battle)  ;  and  generally,  to  radiate  forth. 

All  the  time  the  great  JSacides 
Was  conversant  in  arms,  your  foes  durst  not 

a  foot  address 
Without  their  posts,  so  much  they  f ear'd  his 

lance  that  all  controll'd, 
And  now  they  out-ray  to  your  fleet. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  v.  793. 

Man's  soul  from  God's  own  life  outray'd. — 
H.  More,  Immortality  of  the  Soul,  III.  ii.  23. 

Out-rent,  rent  paid  out. 

John  unto  John,  Davies  to  Davies  sends 
This  little  draught  of  new  loue's  large  deuise. 

A  kinde  acceptance  shall  your  out-rent  be. 

Davies,  Sonnet  to  J.  Davies. 

Outrive,  to  tear  out.  Bp.  Hall 
speaks  of  the  impatient  reader,  who 

Should  all  in  rage  the  curse-beat  page  out- 
rive.— Sat.,  TV.  i.  11. 

Out-rooms,  outlying  offices. 

As  for  judicial  astrology  (which  hath  the 
least  judgement  in  it)  this  vagrant  hath  been 
whipt  out  of  all  learned  corporations.  If 
our  artist  lodgeth  her  in  the  out-rooms  of  his 
soul  for  a  night  or  two,  it  is  rather  to  hear 
than  believe  her  relations.  —  Fuller,  Holy 
State,  II.  vii.  6. 

The  Roman  Empire  now  grown  ruinous 


OUT-RUNNER  (  460  ) 


OUTSPURN 


could  not  repair  its  out-rooms,  and  was  fain 
to  let  them  fall  down  to  maintain  the  rest. — 
Ibid.,  Ch.  Hist.,  I.  v.  15. 

Out- runner,  offshoot ;  branch. 

Gad  bait  is  a  worm  bred  under  stones  in  a 
shallow  river,  or  in  some  out-runner  of  the 
river. — Lauson,  Comments  on  Secrets  of  Ang- 
ling, 1653  {Eng.  Garner,  i.  194). 

Out- saint,  to  excel  in  sanctity. 

Poets  (1  grant)  haue  libertieto  giue 
More  height  to  Grace  than  the  Superlative : 
80  hath  a  Painter  lioeuce  too  to  paint 
A  Saint-like  face  till  it  the  Saint  out- saint. 
Davies,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  63. 

Outsale,  an  auction. 

They  that  care  not  to  be  good  will  think 
how  to  be  wise ;  yet  did  they  ever  think  of 
that  that  make  away  the  inheritance  of  God's 
holy  tribe  in  an  outsale  ?  Tis  an  unthrifty 
sin.— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  206. 

Out -search,  to  probe  to  the  bottom  ; 
to  explore.  The  extract  is  a  translation 
from  a  writing  of  Bucar's. 

We  must  in  like  manner  take  heed  we 
diminish  not  the  force  and  majesty  of  Christ's 
sacraments  set  forth  by  the  Holy  Ghost, 
rather  of  us  to  be  believed  than  by  our 
natural  reason  to  be  out-searched. — Strype, 
Cranmer,  Append.,  ii.  599. 

Outsend,  to  emit.  - 

What !  doth  the  Sun  his  rayes  that  he  out- 
sends 
Smother  or  choke  ? 

H.  More,  Immortality  of  the  Soul, 
III.ii.42. 

Outsen  dings,  messages  or  other 
things  sent  abroad. 

The  sea  being  open  vnto  him,  his  outsend- 
ings  might  bee  without  view  or  noting. — 
Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  122. 

Outsetting,  beginning ;  start, 

The  charity  that  I  am  most  intent  upon 
promoting  in  France  and  in  England  too,  is 
that  of  giving  little  fortunes  to  young 
maidens  in  marriage  with  honest  men  of 
their  own  degree,  who  might,  from  such  an 
outsetting,  begin  the  world,  as  it  is  called, 
with  some  hope  of  success.  —  Richardson, 
Grandison,  iii.  18. 

Out-shrill,  to  exceed  in  sound. 

Arm-arming  trumpets,  lofty  clarions, 
Rock-battering  bumbards,  valour-murdering 


guns 


Dire  instruments  of  death,  in  vain  yee  toyl. 
For  the  loud  cornet  of  my  long-breath'd  stile 
Out-shrills  yee  still. 

Sylvester,  The  Law,  20. 

0UTSIDE8,  hypocrites,  or  perhaps  (in 
the  first  quotation)  people  with  nothing 


in  them,  as  we  now  say.  The  third 
quotation  illustrates  the  only  surviving 
use  of  this  word  as  applied  to  persons, 
i.  e.  outside  passengers. 

If  Democritus  were  alive  now,  he  should 
see  strange  alterations,  a  new  company  of 
counterfeit  visards,  whiflers,  Cumane  aases, 
maskers,  mummers,  painted  puppets,  outside*, 
phantastick  shadows,  gulls,  monsters,  giddy- 
heads,  butterflies.— Burton,  Democ.  to  Reader, 
p.  27. 

The  rest  are  hypocrites,  ambodezten,  out- 
sides.— Ibid.,  p.  36. 

There  was  a  good  coach  dinner,  of  which 
the  box,  the  four  front  outsides,  the  one 
inside,  Nicholas,  the  good-tempered  man, 
and  Mr.  Squeers  partook. — Dickens,  Nicholas 
Nickleby,  en.  v. 

Outsioht,  sight  for  that  which   is 

without. 

There  are,  as  I  heare,  so  many  painters 
of  women's  faces,  so  many  instracters  of 
women's-  tongues,  and  so  manie  flatterers  of 
women's  humors,  that  if  a  man  haue  not  both 
his  insight  and  his  out  sight  f  he  may  pay  home 
for  his  blindenesse. — Breton,  Old  Man's  Lesson, 
p.  11.       ' 

Outsing,  to  surpass  in  singing.  See 
extract «.  v.  Outswim. 

Outslino,  to  project ;  cast  forth. 

'TIS  opinion 
That  makes  the  riven  heavens  with  trumpets 

ring, 
And  thundring  engine  murd"roas  balls  out- 

sling. 

H.  More,  Immortality  of  the  Soul,  II.  iii.  5. 

Outsnatch,  to  seize  violently. 
Baging  raptures  do  his  soul  outsnatch. 

H.  More,  Life  of  the  Soul,  i.  60. 

Outsparkled,  outshone. 

Yet  when  the  starry  Peacock  doth  display 
His  train's  full  Orb,  the  winged  People  all 
Disgraced  into  anger  and  dismay 
Let  their  outsparkled  plumes  sullenly  fall. 

Beaumont,  Psyche,  i.  st.  84. 

Outspend,  to  exceed  in  expenditure. 

He  had  already  acquired  more  envy  and 
hatred  among  his  friends  and  neighbours  by 
the  superior  degree  of  intimacy  he  had  con- 
trived to  achieve  with  her,  than  by  all  his 
successful  struggles  to  outspend  them  all. — 
Mrs.  Trollope,  Michael  Armstrong,  ch.  ii. 

Outspit,  to  spit  further  than  another. 

In  the  extract  tie  allusion  is  to  a  reptile 

spitting  poison. 

The  first  sup  bold  Menander  got,  and  by 
That  cankering  liquor  so  infected  grew 
That  Simon  he  outspit  in  heresy. 

Beaumont,  Psyche,  zviii.  st.  161 . 

OUTSPURN,  to  spurn  away. 


OUTSTAY 


(46i  ) 


OUT- WOMAN 


When  my  deere,  Lord,  sayd  not,  What  dost 

thou  here  ? 
Or,  Get  thee  hence !  or  like  a  dog  outspume 

mee, 
But  from  my  sinne  vnto  His  mercie  turne 

me. — Breton,  Blessed  Weeper,  p.  11. 

Outstay,  to  stay  longer  than  another 
person. 

After  a  little  deliberation,  she  concluded 
to  outstay  him. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Cecilia,  Bk. 
IX.  ch.  iii. 

He  would  go,  and  Lucy,  who  would  have 
outstayed  him,  had  his  visit  lasted  two  hours, 
soon  afterwards  went  away. — Hiss  Austen, 
Sense  and  Sensibility,  ch.  xxxv. 

Outstrain,  to  surpass  in  exertion ; 
also  to  stretch  out 

But  vivid  John,  in  whose  soft  bosom  reign'd 
More  names  of  youth,  and  more  of  gallant 

love, 
Quickly  his  fellow-traveller  outstreinyd 
In  ardor's  race. 

Beaumont,  Psyche,  xv.  st.  144 

The  outstrain'd  tent  flags  loosely. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  III. 

Out-sum,  to  outnumber. 

The   prisoners  of  that  shameful   day  out' 

summed 
Their  victors. 

Southey,  Joan  of  Arc,  Bk.  II. 

Out-superstition,  to  exceed  in  super- 
stition. Fuller,  in  his  Worthies,  under 
the  head  of  Saints  of  Lincolnshire, 
remarks  that  in  thirteen  convents  there 
were  700  Monks  and  1100  Nuns,  adding, 
"  Women  out-superstition  Men  "  (ii.  8). 

Outswift,  to  outstrip. 

And  on  the  sand  leaving  no  print  behinde, 
Outswifted  arrows,  and  outwent  the  winde. 

Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  855. 

But  the  Joyes  of  Earthly  Mindes, 
Worldly  Pleasures,  vain  Delights, 
Far  outswift  far  sudden  flights, 
Waters,  Arrowes,  and  the  Windes. 

Ibid.,  Spectacles,  25. 

Outswim,  to  beat  in  swimming. 

In  swiftnesse  the  Hare  will  outrun  him, 
and  the  Dolphin  outswim  him ;  in  sweetnesse 
the  Nightingale  outsing  him. — Breton,  Dig' 
nitie  of  Man,  p.  14. 

Some  on   swift   horseback  to  outswim  the 
Wind.— Sylvester,  Maiden's  Blush,  595. 

Out-syllablk,  to  exceed  in  number 
of  syllables. 

This  Nation  hankered  after  the  Name  of 
Plantagenet;  which,  as  it  did  out-syllable 
Tudor  in  the  mouths,  so  did  it  out-vie  it 
in  the  affections  of  the  English.  —  Fuller, 
Worthies,  Warwick  (ii.  406). 


Out -thunder,  to  be  louder  than 
thunder. 

Though  he  out-thunder  heaven  with  blas- 
phemies, .  .  yet  still  he  hopes  to  be  saved  by 
the  mercy  of  God. — Adams,  ii.  277. 

Out-toil,  to  surpass  in  endurance  of 
work. 

In  labour  the  Oxe  will  out-toile  him. — 
Breton,  Dignitie  of  Man,  p.  14. 

Out  -  toiled,  over  -  wearied ;  worn 
out. 

Clifford  .  . .  commanded  his  souldiers,  out- 
toiled  with  travelling  so  farre,and  having  but 
small  store  of  gun-powder,  to  passe  over  the 
mountaines. — Holland's  Camden,  ii.  130. 

Out-travel,  to  exceed  in  extent  or 
quickness  of  travelling. 

She  then  besought  him  to  go  instantly, 
that  he  might  out-travel  the  ill  news,  to  his 
mother.— Mad.  D'Arblay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  X. 
ch.  ii. 

OUT-TUFT,  tO  puff  OUt. 

Tee  might  betweene  the  buttons  see 
Her  smocke  out-tuft  to  show  her  levitee. 

Davies,  An  Extasie,  p.  90. 

Our- vigil,  to  out-watch ;  exceed  in 

vigilance. 

The  tender  care  of  King  Charles  did  out- 
vigil  their  watchfullness. — Fuller,  Worthies, 
Kent  (ii.  490). 

Out- wealth,  to  exceed  in  wealth. 

What  arts  did  Churchmen  in  former  times 
use  when  they  did  so  much  out-wit  and  out- 
wealth  us!  —  Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church, 
p.  253. 

Out-wino,  to  turn  the  wing  of  an 
army. 

Colonel  Dean's  and  Colonel  Pride's  [men] 
outicinging  the  enemy,  could  not  come  to  so 
much  share  of  the  action.  —  Cromwell  to 
Lenthall,  Aug.  20,  1648  {Carlyle's  Cromwell, 
i.  291). 

Out-wit  usually  =  to  cheat,  and  all 
the  examples  in  the  Diets,  illustrate 
this  sense ;  but  Gauden  employs  it  as 
meaning  to  excel  in  ability.  See  extract 
*.  v.  Out-wealth,  where  he  is  speaking 
of  the  greater  honour  which  Church 
ministers  had  in  old  time. 

Out- woman,  to  excel  as  a  woman. 

I  have  heard 
She  would  not  take  a  last  farewell  of  him. 
She  fear'd  it  might  unman  him  for  his  end. 
She   could  not  be  unmann'd,  no,  nor  out- 

woman'd — 
Seventeen — a  rose  of  grace. 

Tennyson,  Queen  Mary,  iii.  1. 


OVA  NT 


(  462  )  OVER-DRINK 


Ovant,  triumphing  with  an  ovation. 

Plautius  ....  sped  so  well  in  his  battels, 
that  Claudius  passed  a  decree,  that  he  should 
ride  in  pety  triumph  ovant. — Holland's  Cam- 
den, p.  42. 

And  over  Catacratus,  whom,  as  I  said,  he 
discomfited  and  put  to  flight,  hee  rode  ovant 
in  pety  triumph. — Ibid.,  p.447. 

Ovary,  pertaining  to  an  ovation. 

Their  honorary  crowns  triumphal,  ovary, 
civical,  obsidional,  had  little  of  flowers  in 
them.— Sir  T.  Brown,  Tract  ii. 

Oven.  To  be  in.  the  name  oven  =  to 
be  in  the  same  case.  See  another  sense 
in  H.  8.  v. 

"  Why  the  dickens  didn't  you  tell  me  all 
this  before,  sir?  "  said  Evans,  ruefully;  "it 
is  no  use  now  I've  been  and  gone  into  the 
same  oven  like  a  fool."—  Reade,  Never  too  late 
to  mend,  ch.  ziv. 

Oven-cake,  a  baked  cake.  That 
referred  to  in  the  first  quotation  we 
find  from  the  previous  chapter  to  have 
been  muffins. 

I  think  he  might  have  offered  us  a  bit  of 
his  oven-cake.  —  Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote, 
Bk.  VII.  ch.  ii. 
And  he  did  such  a  breakfast  make 
On  new-bak'd  loaf  and  oven-cake, 
That  they  all  look'd  with  wond'ring  eye 
At  his  gaunt  mouth's  artillery. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  c.  iii. 

Oven-wood,  wood  only  fit  for  burn- 
ing (?)- 

Oaks  intersperse  it,  that  had  once  a  head, 
But  now  wear  crests  of  oven-wood  instead. 

Coicper,  Needless  Alarm,  12. 

Overalls,  leggings. 

The  other  leaned  more  against  the  rock, 
half  sitting  and  half  a-straddle,  and  wearing 
leathern  overalls,  as  if  newly  come  from 
riding. — Blackmore,  Lorna  Doone,  ch.  xxxvii. 

Over- awn,  to  overshadow. 

Above  the  depth  four  over-awning  wings, 

Unplum'd,  and  huge  and  strong, 

Bore  up  a  little  car. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  iii. 

Overbearance,  annoyance. 

Will  this  benevolent  and  lowly  man  retain 
the  same  front  of  haughtiness,  the  same 
brow  of  overbearance,  the  same  eye  of  eleva- 
tion, the  same  lip  of  ridicule,  and  the  same 
glance  of  contempt?  —  H.  Brooke,  Fool  of 
Quality,  i.  216. 

Over- bias,  to  influence  unduly. 

I  find  some  men  of  worth  .  .  .  over-awed 
by  the  vulgar,  or  over-biassed  by  their  own 
private  interests.  —  Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  180. 


Over-black,  to  cloud  or  besmirch. 

Nor  hath  the  Brittaines  any  honour  by 
that  antiquity  of  his,  which  over-blacks  them 
with  such  vgly  deformities  as  we  can  see  no 
part  cleere. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  6. 

Over-body,  to  make  too  material ;  to 

despiritualize. 

Then  was  the  priest  set  to  con  his  motions 
and  his  postures,  his  liturgies  and  his  lur- 
ries, till  the  soul  by  this  means  of  over-hody- 
ing  herself,  given  up  justly  to  fleshly  de- 
lights, bated  her  wing  apace  downward. — 
Milton,  Reformation  in  England,  Bk.  i. 

Over-bred,  too  polite.  Gauden  calls 
those  who  were  afraid  to  uphold  the 
Church  of  England  when  unpopular 
"  over-bred  and  too  much  gentlemen  " 
{Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  14,  Preface). 
under-bred  is  common. 

Overburn,  to  cover  with  flames. 

The  first  word  of  the  text,  but,  is  a  strong 
engine  set  to  the  walls  of  purgatory,  to  over- 
turn them  and  overburn  them  with  the  fire  of 
hell. — Adams,  ii.  471. 

Overcatch,  to  go  beyond ;  to  deceive. 

But  ere  they  came  unto  the  place  to  win  or 
lose  the  matche, 

For  feare  the  Ducke  with  some  odde  craft 
the  Goose  might  ouercatch. 

The  Gander  ran  unto  the  Cranes  and  Cor- 
morants, and  praid, 

Before  the  match  was  won   and  lost,  the 
wager  might  be  staid. 

Breton,  Strange  Newes,  p.  13. 

Over-critic,  hypercritic. 

Let  no  Over-critick  causlesly  cavil  1  at  this 
coat. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Devon  (i.  295). 

Over-dare.    R.  has  this  word  =  to 

exceed  in  daring ;  to  be  rash ;  but  it 

also  means,  as  in  extract,  to  daunt. 

Let  not  the  spirit  of  iEacides 
Be    over-dar'd,  but   make    him    know    the 

mightiest  Deities 
Stand  kind  to  him. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xx.  116. 

Overdoer,  one  who  does  more  than 

is  necessary  or  expedient. 

Do  you  know  that  the  good  creature  was 
a  methodist  in  Yorkshire  ?  These  overdoers, 
my  dear,  are  wicked  wretches:  what  do 
they  but  make  religion  look  unlovely,  and 
put  underdoers  out  of  heart? — Richardson, 
Grandison,  v.  50. 

Over-drink,  to  drink  too  much. 

These  sins  being  so  national  and  natural 
to  the  countries :  to  over-drink  in  Germany ; 
to  over-eat  in  England;  to  wantonine  in 
Italy  and  Venice ;  to  quarrel  in  France ;  tod 
to  be  envious  in  Spain. — Adams,  ii.  479. 


O  VER-DRIP 


(463) 


OVERLOOK 


Over-drip,  to  overhang.  Cf .  Over- 
drop. 

God  was  offended  at  the  Court,  which 
over-drip't  so  many  with  its  too  far-spreading 
branches  of  arbitrary  and  irregular  power. — 
Hackety  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  132. 

Over-drop,  to  overshadow.  Cf.  Over- 
drip,  and  see  H.  s.  v.  over-dreep. 

The  kinp  may  be  satisfied  to  settle  the 
choice  of  his  high  promotions  in  one  minion ; 
so  will  never  the  people :  and  the  Advanced 
is  sure  to  be  shaken  for  his  height,  and  to  be 
malign'd  for  over-dropping.  —  Backet,  Life 
of  Williams,  ii.  15. 

What  spoyle  and  bavock  they  may  be 
tempted  in  time  to  make  upon  one  another, 
while  they  'seek  either  to  overdrop  or  to 
destroy  each  other. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  22. 

Overface,  to  outface  or  abash.  H. 
has  it  as  a  Somersetshire  word  =  to 
cheat. 

The  lord  chancellor  earnestly  looked  upon 
him  to  have  belike  overfaced  him;  but  he 
gave  no  place ;  that  is,  he  ceased  not  in  like 
manner  to  look  on  the  lord  chancellor  still 
and  continually. — Bradford,  i.  465. 

Over-fame,  to  exaggerate. 

The  city  once  entred  was  instantly  con- 
quered (whose  strength  was  much  over- 
famed). — Fuller,  Profane  State,  V.  xviii.  14. 

Overfawn,  to  flatter  grossly. 

And  neuer  be  with  flatterers  ouerfawnd. — 
Breton,  Mother's  Blessing,  at.  43. 

Over- flourish,  to  exaggerate. 

I  cannot  think  that  the  fondest  imagination 
can  over-fourish  or  even  paint  to  the  life  the 
happiness  of  those  who  never  check  nature. 
— Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  279. 

The  fondness  of  imagination  always  mag- 
nifies temporal  pleasures:  fancy  over-four- 
iihes  the  object,  and  paints  beyond  the  life. 
—Ibid.,  p.  202. 

Overoaze,  to  look  at  too  much  (so 
as  to  dazzle  or  weaken  the  eyes). 

Oh  that  Wit  were  not  amazed 
At  the  wonder  of  his  senses, 
Or  his  eyes  not  overgazed 
In  Minerva's  excellences. 

Breton,  Melancholike  Humours, 
p.  13. 

Overget,  to  get  over.  Sidney,  as 
quoted  by  L.,  has  it  =  to  overtake. 

Edith  cannot  sleep,  and  till  she  overgets 
this  she  cannot  be  better. — Southey,  Letters, 
1803  (i.  230). 

Overglaze.  Greene  says  the  saddler 
"stufEes  his  pannels  with  straw  or 
hay,  and  overglaseth  them  with  haire  " 
(see  extract  «.  v.  Mort),  i.  e.  he  hides 


inferior  materials  with  a  thin  covering 
of  something  better.  Overglaze  would 
generally  mean  to  glaze  over,  to  give  a 
glazed  surface  to  something. 

Overgloom,  to  overshadow. 

The  cloud-climbed  rock,  sublime  and  vast, 
That  like  some  giant  king  o'ery looms  the  hill. 

Coleridge,  To  Cottle. 

Overglut,  overfed. 

While  epicures  are  overglut,  I  ly  and  starue 

for  foode, 
Because  my  conscience  can  not  thriue  vpon 

ill  gotten  goode. 

Breton,  Melancholike  Humours,  p.  9. 

Overgrown  apparently  means  ex- 
hausted :  the  labour  being  too  much 
for  them.  In  the  first  quotation  it 
seems  to  signify  stolen,  though  it  is 
difficult  to  see  how  this  sense  can  be 
got  out  of  the  word. 

Their  theft  is  so  well  known  that  it  needs 
no  prouing ;  they  are  forced  to  keep  watch 
over  all  they  have  to  secure  it ;  their  cattle 
are  watched  day  and  night,  or  otherwise 
they  would  be  overgrown  by  morning.  — 
Modern  Account  of  Scotland,  1670  {Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  140). 

If  you  will  study,  let  it  be  to  know  what 
part  of  my  land's  fit  for  the  plough,  what  for 
pasture,  to  buy  and  sell  my  stock  to  the  best 
advantage,  and  cure  my  cattle  when  they  are 
overgrown  with  labour. — Cibber,  Love  makes 
the  man,  Act  I. 

Over-inspection,  overlooking. 

The  Students  when  writing  private  letters 
wer%  used  to  cover  them  with  their  other 
hand  to  prevent  over  •  inspection.  —  Fuller, 
Hist,  of  Camb.,  vi.  13. 

Over-intreat,  to  over-persuade. 

John  Coles  Esquire  of  Somerset-shire  over- 
intreated  him  into  the  Western  parts.  — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Bedfordshire  (i.  119). 

Over-keep,  to  keep  too  strictly. 

If  God  would  have  a  Sabbath  kept,  they 
over-keep  it. — Adams,  ii.  339. 

Over-linger,  to  detain  too  long. 

He  loves  not  to  over-linger  any  in  an  afflict- 
ing hope,  but  speedily  dispatcheth  the  fears 
or  desires  of  his  expecting  clients. — Fuller, 
Holy  State,  IV.  i.  17. 

Overlook,  to  bewitch. 

If  you  trouble  me,  I  will  overlook  (i.  e. 
fascinate)  you,  and  then  your  pigs  will  die, 
your  horses  stray,  your  cream  turn  sour, 
your  barns  be  fired. — C.  Kingsley,  Westward 
Ho,  ch.  iv. 

I  tell  you  she  has  overlooked  me,  and  all 
this  doctor's  stuff  is  no  use,  unless  you  can 


OVERMATCH         (  464  ) 


OVERTAKEN 


say  a  charm  an  will  undo  her  devil's  work. — 
H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  viii. 

Over-match,   to  marry  above  one's 

station. 

If  a  yeoman  have  one  sole  daughter,  he 
roust  over-match  her  above  her  birth  and 
calling  to  a  gentleman  forsooth.  —  Burton, 
Anatomy, -p.  579. 

Over-moneyed,  bribed.  In  the  same 
work  (Suffolk,  ii.  338)  Fuller  uses 
undtr-mtmied  in  the  same  sense. 

Some  suspect  his  officers'  trust  was  under- 
mined (or  over-moneyed  rather),  whilst  others 
are  confident  they  were  betrayed  by  none 
save  their  own  security. — Fuller,  Worthies, 
Lancashire  (i.  558). 

Overnet,  cover  as  with  a  net. 

He  . .  has  spider-threads  that  overnet  the 
whole  world;  himself  sits  in  the  centre, 
ready  to  run. — Carlyle,  Diamond  Necklace, 
ch.  iv. 

Calonnes,  Breteuils  hover  dim,  far  flown, 
overnetting  Europe  with  intrigues.  —  Ibid., 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  V.  ch.  v. 

Overniceness,  excessive  delicacy. 

Overniceness  may  be  underniceneas. — Rich- 
ardson, CI.  Harlowe,  v.  8. 

Over-preach,  to  preach  above  (the 
heads  of  the  people,  as  we  say). 

Many  of  us  so  over-preached  our  people's 
capacities,  that  the  generality  of  our  auditors, 
after  many  years'  preaching,  were  very  little 
edified,  nothing  amended,  being  kept  at  too 
high  a  rack,  both  of  affected  Oratory  and 
abstruse  Divinity.  —  Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  117.  • 

0VERPRES80R,  oppressor. 

Fitz  Stephen  calleth  him  Violentus  Cantii 
incubator,  that  is,  the  violent  overpressor  of 
£ent. — Holland's  Camden,  p  352. 

Over-purchase,  to  pay  too  much  for. 

He  who  buys  a  satisfaction,  tho'  never  so 
glittering,  at  the  eipence  of  duty,  is  sure  to 
over-purchase. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  280. 

Whosoever  buys  either  wealth  or  honour 
at  the  price  of  a  crime,  over-purchases. — Ibid., 
p.  528. 

Over- purchase,  a  dear  bargain. 

Mirth  at  the  eipence  of  Virtue  is  an  over* 
purchase. — Collier,  Eng.  Stage,  p.  161. 

Over-rack,  to  over-strain  ;  to  torture 
excessively.  In  the  second  extract 
Da  vies  is  speaking  of  jealousy. 

So  shonlde . .  their  over-rackte  Khethorique 
bee  the  ironicall  recreation  of  the  Reader. — 
Nashe,  Introd.  to  Greene's  Menaphon,  p.  8. 

The  racke  that  ouer-racks  the  ouer-londe. — 
Davie*,  Microcosmos,  p.  77. 


But  our  new  knowledge  hath  for  tedious  train 
A  drooping  life,  and  over-racked  brain. 

Sylvester,  Eden,  293. 

Overset,  overcharge;  assess  too 
highly. 

The  usurers  and  publicans  .  .  bought  in 
great  the  emperor's  tribute,  and  to  make 
their  most  advantage,  did  overset  the  people. 
—7yiKiafc,ii.71. 

Ovkrshadowy,  overshadowing. 

The  Fig  Tree  . .  hath  her  Figs  aboue  the 
leaf,  because  it  is  so  large  and  otter shado  trie. 
—Holland,  Pliny,  Nat.  Hist.,  xvi.  26. 

Overshine,  to  excel ;  outshine. 

But  now  the  man  that  overshin'd  them  sdl, 
Sing,  Muse. — Chapman,  Iliad,  ii.  673. 

The  Primate  of  Armagh  .  .  .  overshintd, 
both  as  to  his  Learning,  Judgement,  and  Life 
(as  the  Sun  in  the  firmament),  all  those 
Comets  and  Meteors. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  646. 

Overshroud,  to  overshadow ;  darken. 

What  shadowes  here  doe  ouershroicde  the 
eie!  —  Breton,  Countess  of  Pembroke's  Loue, 
p.  23. 

Over-sow,  to  sow  another  crop  on  one 
already  existing.  In  Sylvester  it  = 
sprinkled  over,  or  perhaps  is  meant  for 
a  different  word,  over-sewn,  i.  e.  em- 
broidered. Adams  no  doubt  had  in 
his  mind  the  "  superseminavit "  of  the 
Vulgate  reading  of  St.  Matt  xiii.  25. 

Cf.  SUPERSEMINATION. 

Whilst  he  sleeps,  the  enemy  oversows  the 
field  of  his  heart  with  tares. — Adams,  i.  480. 

An  azure  scarf  all  over-son^n 
"With  crowned  swords,  and  scepters  over- 
thrown.— Sylvester,  Panaretus,  125. 

Overstately,  too  haughtily;  over- 
bearingly. 

Tarquiniua  the  proude  .  .  for  his  high 
minde  and  ouerstately  vsing  his  dtezens,  and 
for  his  moste  horrible  crueltee,  encurred  their 
mortal  disdaiu  and  hatred. — XJdaVs  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  306. 

Overstrain,  excessive  exertion. 

Nancy,  who  does  not  love  him, . . .  says  it 
was  such  an  overstrain  of  generosity  from 
him  that  it  might  well  overset  him. — Rich- 
ardson, Grandison,  vi.  144. 

Overtaken,  intoxicated. 

He  was  temperate  also  in  his  drinking, 
drinking  often,  but  very  often  not  above  one 
or  two  spoonfuls  at  once,  which  strangers 
observing,  and  not  knowing  the  small 
quantity  he  sip'd,  carried  away  an  error  with 
them,  which  £rew  into  a  false  fame ;  but  I 
never  spake  with  the  man  that  saw  him  over- 
taken.—Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  225. 


OVER-THINK  (  465  ) 


OWLS 


I  that  was  almost  continually  with  him 
never  saw  him  in  a  condition  that  they  call 
overtaken,  and  the  most  hath  been  but  just 
discoverable  in  his  speech.— North.  Life  of 
Lord  Guilford,  i.  90. 

Archy  M'Alpine,  when  he  happens  to  be 
overtaken  (which  is  oftener  the  case  than  I 
could  wish),  reads  me  a  long  lecture  upon 
temperance  and  sobriety.  —  Smollett,  Hum- 
phrey Clinker,  ii.  58. 

Over-think,  to  over-estimate. 
What  man,  like  Job,  himselfe  so  over- 
thinks?— Sylvester,  Job  Triumphant,  iv.  147. 

Over-tipled,  intoxicated. 

Richard  the. last  Abbot,  Sonne  to  Earle 
Gislebert,  being  over-tipled,  as  it  were,  with 
wealth,  disdaining  to  bee  under  the  Bishop 
of  Lincoln,  dealt  with  the  king  . . .  that  a 
Bishops  See  might  be  erected  here.  —  Hol- 
land's Camden,  p.  493.       * 

Overvalue,  to  exceed  in  value. 

She  gave  me  a  look  that  overvalued  tho 
ransom  of  a  monarch.— H.  Brooke,  Fool  of 
Quality,  ii.  239. 

Over- vault,  to  arch  over. 

Polycarp  of  old 
. .  By  the  glories  of  the  burning  stake 
O'er-vaultcd.—Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  IX. 

Over  -  weeningness,  presumption  ; 
undue  pride. 

The  effect  of  the  father's  over-weeningness 
was  that  the  son  got  only  more  generally 
laughed  at.—  Savage,  M.  Medlicott,  Bk.  I. 
ch.  xvi. 

Over -weight  (used  adjectivally), 
excessive. 

He  displaced  Guy,  because  he  found  him 
of  no  over-weight  worth,  scarce  passable  with- 
out favourable  allowance.— Fuller,  Holy  War* 
Bk.  II.  ch.  xlii. 

Overwell,  to  overflow. 

Then  after  going  round  a  little,  with  sur- 
prise of  daylight,  the  water  overwelled  the 
edge,  and  softly  went  through  lines  of  light 
to  shadows  and  an  untold  bourne. — Black- 
more,  Lorna  Doone,  ch.  xix. 

Overwit,  to  outwit.  R.  has  the  par- 
ticiple overtvitted,  with  a  quotation  from 
Swift.  It  will  also  be  found  in  Hacket's 
Life  of  Williams,  i.  138,  226. 

Fortune  our  foe  we  cannot  overwit, 
By  none  but  thee  our  projects  are  cross-bit. 
Wycherley,  Love  in  a  Wood,  v.  6. 
Some  call  it  overwitting  those  they  deal 
with.— Tom  Brown,  Work's,  iii.  23. 

Overwrite,  to  superscribe. 

Tis  a  tale  indeed, .  .  .  and  is  overwritten, 
The  Intricacies  of  Diego  and  Julia.— Sterne, 
Trist.  Shandy,  iii.  117. 


Over-tear,  to  make  too  old.  L.  has 
overyeared  as  an  adjective,  with  quot- 
ation from  Fairfax. 

There  is  not  a  proverb  salts  your  tongue,  but 

plants 
Whole  colonies  of  white  hairs.    Oh,  what  a 

business 
These  hands  must   have,  when  you   have 

married  me, 
To  pick  out  sentences  that  over-year  you ! 

AVmmazar,  iv.  13. 

Ovicide,  sheep-slaughter. 

There  it  lay— the  little  sinister-looking 
tail  impudently  perked  up,  like  an  infernal 
gnomon  on  a  Satanic  dial-plate ;  larceny  and 
ovicide  shone  in  every  hair  of  it. — Ingoldshy 
Legends  (Jarvis's  Wig). 

Oviposit,  to  deposit  eggs. 

An  insect . .  .  gets  into  the  feet  of  people 
as  they  walk,  sucks  their  blood,  oviposits  in 
them,  and  so  occasions  very  dangerous  ulcers. 
— Kirby  and  Spence,  Entomology,  i.  90. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  new  word  [ovi- 
posit] may  be  admitted,  as  the  laying  of  eggs 
cannot  otherwise  be  expressed  without  a 
periphrasis.  For  the  same  reason  its  sub- 
stantive, Oviposition,  will  be  employed. — 
Ibid.,  note. 

Owl,  wool. 

I  have  toiled  and  moyled  to  a  good  purpose 
for  the  advantage  of  Matt's  family,  if  I  can't 
safe  as  much  owl  as  will  make  me  an  under 
petticoat.— iSmo/fctt,  Humphrey  Clinker,  i.  89. 

Owler,  a  dealer  in  wool. 

To  gibbets  and  gallows  your  owlers  advance, 
That,  that's  the  sure  way  to  mortify  France  ; 
For   Monsieur  our  nation  will    always  be 

gulling, 
While  you  take  such  care  to  supply  him 

with  woollen.—  T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  134. 

Owl  in  an  ivy  bush,  a  comparison 
for  a  stupid  fellow. 

Lord  Sp.  Prithee,  how  did  the  fool  look  ? 

Col.  Look!  I'  gad,  he  look'd  for  all  the 
world  like  an  owl  in  an  ivy  bush.  —  Swift, 
Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  i.). 

Owlino  Trade,  wool  trade. 

The  Owling  Trade,  or  clandestine  exporting 
of  wool,  seems  removed  from  Romney  Marsh 
to  this  Coast. — Defoe,  Tour  thro1  G.  Britain, 
i.  159. 

Owlism,  stupidity.  In  the  extract 
the  reference  is  to  lawyers. 

Their  oidisms,  vnlturisms,  to  an  incredible 
extent,  will  disappear  by  and  by  ;  their  hero- 
isms only  remaining. — Carlyle,  Past  and  Pre- 
sent, Bk.  II.  ch.  xvii. 

Owls.  Owls  to  Athens,  a  classical 
proverb,  having  the  same  meaning  as 
coals  to  Newcastle  ;  Athens  being,  as 

II  H 


OWLY 


(  466  ) 


PA  CABLE 


Fuller  says  (Worthies^  Northumbcr- 
land),  "  plentifully  furnished  with  f  owle 
of  that  feather." 

To  be  instant  with  that  importunity,  where 
a  people  U  sufficiently  enrich'd  already  in 
all  knowledge,  some  perhap  would  apply 
the  old  proverb  unto  it,  that  it  were  to  bnng 
owls  to  Athens.  —  Hacket,  Life  of  Williams, 
i.  217. 

Our  soil  produces  more  Politicks  than  all 
Europe  besides  ;  bo  that  to  transport  foreign 
is  to  send  owls  to  Athens.  —  Gentleman  In- 
strutted,  p.  545. 

Owly,  purblind. 

Now  Adam's  fault  was  not  indeed  so  light 
As  seems  to  reason's  sin-bleard  ovflie  sight. 
Sylvester,  The  Imposture,  535. 

Leaue  a  twinckling  eye  to  owlie  sights. — 
Breton,  Packet  of  Letters,  p.  26. 

Owly  eyed,  owl-eyed. 

Their  wicked  minds,  blind  to  the  lipht  of 
Virtue,  and  owly  eyed  in  the  night  of  wicked- 
ness.— Sidney,  A  rcadia,  p.  303. 

Own,  private ;  selfish. 

We  do  not  lay  aside  Common  Prayer 
of  our  own  accord,  or  out  of  any  dialike 
thereof,  neither  in  contempt  of  our  lawful 
governors  or  of  the  laws,  nor  out  of  any  base 
compliance  with  the  times,  or  other  unworthy 
secular  own  ends. — Sanderson,  v.  55. 

Ownness,  individuality. 

Napoleon, .  . .  with  his  ownness  of  impulse 
and  insight,  with  his  mystery  and  strength, 
in  a  word,  with  his  originality  (if  we  will 
understand  that),  reaches  down  into  the 
region  of  the  perennial  and  primeval.  — 
CarlyUy  Misc.,  iv.  198. 

Ox  bo  we,  the  bow  of  wood  that  goes 
round  the  draught  ox's  neck. 

With  oxbowes  and  oxyokes,  and  other  things 

mo, 
For  oxteeme  and  horseteeme  in  plough  for 

to  go. — Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  36. 

Oxboy,  boy  who  tends  cattle  :  always 

now  called  cow-bay. 

The  oxboy  as  ill  is  as  hee, 
Or  worser,  if  worse  may  be  found. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  143. 


Oxrunq,  a  staff  used  in  driving  oxen. 

Admetus's  neatherds  give  Apollo  a  draught 
of  their  goatskin  whey  bottle  (well  if  they  do 
not  give  him  strokes  with  their  oxrungs),  not 
dreaming  that  he  is  the  Sun-God. — Carlyle, 
Fr.  Bet.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  I.  ch.  vii. 

Oxteam,  a  team  of  oxen.  See  extract 
*.  v.  Oxbowe. 

And  Goad-man  Sangar,  whose  industrious 

hand 
With  Ox-teem  tils  his  tributarie  land. 

Sylvester,  The  Captain**,  711. 

Oxy,  pertaining  to  an  ox. 

He  took  hia  arrow  by  the  nock,  and  to  his 

bended  breast 
The  oxy  sinew  close  he  drew. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  iv.  139. 

Oyster.  A  stopping  or  choking 
oyster  is  used  of  a  retort  or  device 
which  puts  another  to  silence.  The 
first  and  last  quotations  are  from  the 
notes  to  Roberts's  edition  of  Udal's 
Erasmus. 

I  have  a  stopping  oyster  in  my  poke. — 
Skelton,  ed.  Dyce,  i.  48. 

At  an  other  season  to  a  feloe  laiyng  to 
his  rebuke  that  he  was  ouer  deintie  of  his 
mouthe  and  diete,  he  did  with  this  reason 
gine  a  stopping  oistre. — UdaVs  Apopkthegmes 
of  Erasmus,  p.  61. 

Herewithall  his  wife  to  make  up  my  mouth, 
Not  onely  her  husband's  taunting  tale  avouth, 
But  thereto  deviseth  to  cast  in  my  teeth 
Checks  and  choking  oysters. 

Heywootfs  Proverbs,  cap.  xi. 

Oysterer,  an  oyster-seller. 

Not  scorning  scullions,  coolers,  colliers, 
Jakes-farmers,  fidlers,  ostlers,  oysterers. 

Sylvester,  Tobacco  Battered,  267. 

Ozimus,  probably  an  iron  ore.  Bniley 
in  his  Diet,  gives  "  Osmunds,  the  oar  of 
which  iron  is  made  (Old  Statute)." 
H.  also  has  "  Osmond,  a  kind  of  iron." 

He  sent  ozimus,  steel,  copper,  ke. — Heylin, 
Hist,  of  Ref. ,i.  232. 


Pabouches,  slippers. 

1  always  drink  my  coffee  as  noon  as  my 
feet  are  in  my  pabouches ;  it's  the  way  all 
over  the  East.— Scott,  St.  Ronan's  Well,  ii. 
187. 

Pacable,  placable ;    peaceable.      It 


occurs  again  in  cli.  x.  of  The  Virgini- 
ans. 

The  august  prince  who  came  to  rule  over 
England  was  the  most  parable  of  sovereigns. 
— Thackeray,  Virginians,  ch.  iii. 

That  last   Roundabout  Paper  .   .  .  was 


PACIFICITY 


(467  ) 


PATNTERL  V 


written  in  a  potable  and  not  unchristian  frame 
of  mind.— Ibid.,  Roundabout  Papers,  vi. 

Pacipicity,  pacific  influence  or  inten- 
tions. 

We  are  hoping  here  for  peace,  and  trust- 
ing with  the  old  confidence  in  Mr.  Pitt's 
pacificity.  —  W.  Taylor,  1800  (Robberdss  Me- 
moir, i.  356). 

Paci Picons,  quiet;  peaceful. 

He  watch 'd  when  the  king's  affections 
were  most  still  and  pacificous;  and  besought 
his  Majesty  to  think  considerately  of  his 
chaplain. — ffacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  63. 

Such  as  were  transported  with  warmth  to 
be  a  fighting  prevail'd  in  number  before  the 
pacificdus. — Ibid.,  i.  79. 

Pack,  a  term  of  reproach.  The  only 
reason  for  giving  an  example  of  such  a 
common  word  is  that  it  is  rare  to  find 
it  without  "  naughty  "  prefixed.  It  is 
also  in  the  quotation  addressed  to  a 
boy,  not,  as  is  more  usual,  to  a  woman. 

Cocles.  God  save  you,  sir ! 
Master.  What  does  this  idle  pack  want  ? 

Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  44. 

Packing  penny.  To  give  a  packing 
penny  =  to  dismiss,  as  with  a  parting 
present.  The  speaker  is  joking  her 
sister,  who  had  seemed  averse  to  mar- 
riage, on  her  having  changed  her  mind. 

Will  you  give 
A  packing  penny  to  virginity  ? 
I  thought  you'd  dwell  so  long  in  Cypres  isle, 
You'd  worship  Madam  Venus  at  the  length. 
Jonson,  Case  is  Altered,  iii.  3. 

Packpaunch,  a  devourer.  Stany- 
hurst  (jEn.,  iv.  187)  calls  Rumour  "  a 
foule  fog  packpaunch"  The  original 
is  merely  "  Monstrum  horrendum  in- 
gens." 

Pacturb,  composition. 

The  stone  of  this  country  has  naturally 
a  slaty  pacture,  and  splits  easily.  —  Arch., 
zxxiv.  92(1851). 

Pad,  a  reptile ;  abbreviation  of  pad- 
dock, which  properly  is  a  toad.  See 
extract  $.  v.  Junonical. 

Master  Bailey,  sir,  ye  be  not  such  a  fool, 
well  I  know,  but  ye  perceive  by  this  tingling 
there  is  a  ttad  in  the  straw  (thinking  that 
Hodg  his  nead  was  broke,  and  that  gam- 
mer wold  not  let  him  come  before  them). — 
Gammer  Gurtonfs  Needle,  v.  2. 

I  haue  .  .  .  poynted  to  the  strawe  where 
the  padd  lurkes,  that  euery  man  at  a  glirase 
might  descry  the  beaste. — Gosson,  Schoole  of 
Abuse,  p.  63. 

Latet  anguis  in  herbd,  there  is  a  pad  in  the 
straw,  and  invisible  mischief  lurking  therein. 
—Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  III.  (Pt.  II.)  viii.  3. 


Padding.  L.  gives  pad,  to  travel 
gently,  but  adds  no  example.  In  the 
extract  it  seems  rather  to  denote  quick 
movement. 

Mercy  looking  behind  her  saw,  as  she 
thought,  something  most  like  a  lyon,  and  it 
came  a  great  nodding  pace  after. — Pilgrim's 
Progress,  ii.  105. 

Pad-nag,  to  amble. 

Will  it  not  moreover  give  him  pretence 
and  excuse  oftener  than  ever  to  pad- nag  it 
hither  to  good  Mrs.  Howe's  fair  daughter? 
—Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  iii.  235. 

Pad-staff,  pack-staff  (?). 

With  his  Pad~staffe  he  did  dig  a  square 
hole  about  it.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Surrey  (ii. 
355). 

Pagan,  a  prostitute. 

In  all  these  places 
I  have  had  my  several  pagans  billeted 
For  my  own  tooth. 

Massinger,  City  Madam,  ii.  1. 

Paggbd,  pregnant.     Query,  bagged. 

The  male  deere  puts  out  the  veluet  head, 
and  the  pagged  doe  is  neere  her  fawning.  — 
Breton,  Fantastickes  {May). 

PAGGLE,  to  dangle  ;  hang  heavily  (?). 
In  the  second  extract  Nashe's  meaning 
seems  to  be  that  Hero  was  pregnant. 

And    forty  kine  with  fair  and  fournish'd 

heads, 
With  strouting    dugs  that  paggle   to  the 

ground, 
Shall  serve  thy  dairy,  if  thou  wed  with  me. 
Greene,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  171. 

Hero  .  .  was  pay  led  and  timpanized,  and 
sustained  two  losses  under  one.  —  Nashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  169). 

Pailer,  a  straw  bed  or  palliasse. 

As  for  vs  here  in  Italy,  even  as  our  maner 
was  in  old  time  to  lie  and  sleep  vpon  straw- 
beds  and  chaffy  couches,  so  at  this  day  wee 
vse  to  call  our  paiUrs  still  by  the  name  of 
Stramenta. — Holland,  Pliny,  Bk.  XIX.  ch.  i. 

Pain,  to  suffer. 

So  shalt  thou  cease  to  plague,  and  I  to  pain. 
Daniel,  Sonnet  xi.  (Eng.  Garner,  i.  586). 

Paint,  slang  for  to  drink. 

The  muse  is  dry, 
And  Pegasus  doth  thirst  for  Hippocrene, 
And  fain  would  paint  —  imbibe  the  vulgar 

call— 
Or  hot,  or  cold,  or  long,  or  short. 

Kingsley,  Tito  Years  Ago,  ch.  xxiv. 

Painterly,  pertaining  to  the  work 
of  a  painter. 

A  very  white  and  red  vertue,  which  you 
could  pick  out  of  a  painterly  glose  of  a  visage. 
—Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  47. 

Ii  II  2 


PAINTINGNESS 


(  468  ) 


PALTOCKES 


Paintingness,  picturesqueness :  bo 
we  speak  of  word-painting. 

One  cannot  enough  praise  the  expression 
aud  paintingness  of  the  style.—  W.  Taylor, 
1801  {Robberds's  Memoir,  i.  374). 

Palabba,  speech ;  palaver  (Spanish). 

To  conquer  or  die  is  no  theatrical  palabra 
in  these  circumstances,  but  a  practical  truth 
and  necessity. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III. 
Bk.  V.  ch.  vi. 

PalvEoethnology,  the  science  that 
treats  of  ancient  races  or  nations.  See 
L.  s.  v.  ethnology. 

It  is  of  course  of  great  importance  to  the 
students  of  pahroethnology  and  archaeology 
to  know  what  foundation  of  truth  there  was 
in  the  notice  of  the  particular  position  of 
the  necropolis. — Archaologia,xUi.  103  (1863). 

Palestra,  the  gymnasium. 

Make  him  athletic  as  in  days  of  old, 
Learn'd  at  the  bar,  in  the  palastra  bold. 

Covoper,  Conversation,  842. 

Palate-man,  epicure.  Fuller  again, 
in  speaking  of  garlic  in  Cornwall,  writes, 
"Our  Palate  people  are  much  pleased 
therewith  "  (i.  206). 

Whether  these  tame  be  as  good  as  wild 

5heasants,  I  leave  to  Pallaie-men  to  decide. — 
?uller,  Worthies,  Bucks  (i.  134). 

Palaver,  to  chatter :  very  often  with 
a  subaudition  of  humbug. 

I  had  therefore  sufficient  occupation  in 
telling  her  nursery  tales,  and  palavering  the 
little  language  for  her  benefit. — Miss  Bronte, 
Vilkltt,  ch.  xiii. 

PALEMrouR,  a  flowered  stuff ;  it  some- 
times also  means  an  embroidered  shawl 
or  robe  worn  as  a  sign  of  rank.  The 
name  is  probably  from  the  town  of 
Palam-pnr,  in  the  north  of  Guzerat. 

Oh,  sir,  says  he,  since  the  joining  of  the  two 
companies  we  have  had  the  finest  Bettelees, 
Palempores,  Bafts,  and  Jamwars  come  over 
that  ever  were  seen. — T.  Brown,  Works,  i. 
213. 

Scraps  of  costly  Indian  chintzes  and  palem- 
pours  were  intermixed  with  commoner  black 
and  red  calico  in  minute  hexagons. — Mrs. 
Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  xii. 

Paletot,  a  light  overcoat :  a  French 
word,  more  common  with  us  some  years 
ngo  than  now.  See  quotation  from  C. 
Kingsley  j.  v.  Heathendom. 

A  fellow  with  a  hat  and  beard  like  a  bandit, 
a  shabby  paletot,  and  a  great  pipe  between 
his  teeth. — Thackeray,  Misc.,  ii.  393. 

Instead  of  the  threadbare  rusty  black  coat 
of  the  morning,  he  wore  one  of  light  drab 
which  looked  as  if  it  had  dhce  been  a  hand- 


some loose  paletot,  now  shrunk  with  washing. 
— G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xxxiv. 

Palimpsest,  a  term  more  commonly 
applied  to  MS.  written  on  a  previously 
used  parchment.  In  the  extract  the 
word  refers  to  sepulchral  brasses  en- 
graved on  each  side. 

Palimpsest  brasses  are  also  found  at  Berk- 
hampstead.— Arch.,  xxx.  124  (1843). 

Palinodical,  retracting. 

Hor.  I  writ  out  of  hot  blood,  which  being 
cool, 
I  could  be  pleas'd,  to  please  you,  to  quaff 

down 
The  poison *d  ink  in  which  I  dip'd  your  name. 
Tuc.    Say'st    thou    bo,    my    palinodical 
rhymster  ? 

Dekker,  Satiromastix  {Hawkins, 
Eng.  Dr.,  iii.  160). 

Palisado,  to  enclose  with  palisades. 

The  Ditch  is  palisadoed.— Defoe,  Tour  thro1 
G.  Britain,  i.  6. 

Such  a  foss£  as  we  make  with  a  cuvette  in 
the  middle  of  jt,  and  with  covered  ways  and 
counterscarps  pallisadoed  along  it. — Sterne* 
Trist.  Shandy,  ii.  60. 

Pallateen. 

Here  one  they  found  stufft  quite  brimfull 
Of  patches,  paints,  and  Spanish  wooll, 
With  top-knots  fine  to  make  'em  pretty, 
With  tippet,  pallateen,  and  settee. 

Cotton,  Scarronides,  p.  63. 

Palm  full,  fruitful  in  palm-trees. 

Neare  where  Idume's  dry  and  sandy  Soil 
Spreads  palmfull  f orrests  dwelt  a  man  yer- 
while. — Sylvester,  Job  Triumphant,  67. 

Palpitant,  trembling ;  palpitating. 

The  grocer,  palpitant,  with  drooping  lip 
sees  his  sugar  tare. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II. 
Bk.  V.  ch.  iv. 

Palsy,  used  adjectivally  for  pained. 

Mark  what  a  pure  vermilion  blush  has  dyed 
Their  swelling  cheeks,  and  how  for  shame 

they  hide 
Their  palsy  heads,  to  see  themselves  stand 

by 
Neglected. — Quarles,  Emblems,  i.  1. 

Bind  up  the  palsy  knees,  that  are  not  well 
knit  up  in  the  joints. — Sanderson,  i.  404. 

Palterly,  paltry. 

It  is  instead  of  a  wedding  dinner  for  his 
daughter,  whom  I  saw  in  palterly  clothes, 
nothing  new,  but  a  bracelet  that  her  servant 
had  given  her.— Pepys,  Feb.  22, 1660-67. 

Paltockes  Inne,  a  very  poor  place. 

Comming  to  Chenas,  a  blind  village,  in 
comparison  of  Athens  a  Paltockes  Inne,  he 
found  one  Miso  well  governing  his  house. — 
Gosson,  Schoole  of  Abuse,  p.  52. 


PALTRER 


(  469  )  PAN-PUDDING 


Swiftlye  they  determind  too  flee  from  a 

oountrye  so  wycked, 
Paltocks  Inne  leauing,toowrinche  thee  nauye 

too  southward. — Stanyhurst,  j£n.y  iii.  65. 

Paltrer,  a  shuffler. 

There  be  of  you,  it  may  be,  that  will  ac- 
count me  a  paltrer  for  hanging  out  the  signe 
of  the  Kedde-herring  in  my  title-page,  and 
no  such  feast  towards  for  ought  you  can 
see. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffs  (Harl.  Misc..  vi. 
149). 

Paludament,  a  military  cloak.  A 
Latin  word  Anglicized. 

Immediately  came  "  sweeping  by,"  in  gor- 
geous paludaments,  Paulus  or  Marius,  girt 
round  by  a  company  of  centurions.  —  De 
Quincey,  Opium  Eater,  p.  144. 

Paludious,  marshy. 

The  lions  in  Mesopotamia  .  .  are  destroyed 
by  gnats;  their  importunity  being  such  in 
those  paludious  places,  that  the  lions  by 
rubbing  their  eyes  grow  blind,  and  so  are 
drowned. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p. 
60. 

Pamphleteering,  writing  or  publish- 
ing pamphlets. 

By  pamphleteering  we  shall  not  win. 
Pamphlets  are  now  too  common. — C.  Kings- 
ley,  1870  (Life,  ii.  246). 

Pampilian,  stuff  such  as  that  of 
which  servants'  coats  were  made. 
See  H. 

Lolio's  side  coat  is  rough  pampilian, 
Gilded  with  drops  that  down  the  bosom  ran. 

Hall,  Sat.,  IV.  ii.  19. 

Pan.  To  savour  -of  the  pan  =  to 
savour  of  the  source  whence  it  pro- 
ceeds, to  betray  its  origin ;  also  to 
savour  of  heresy;  see  second  quota- 
tion. Southey,  in  a  note,  remarks  that 
the  French  have  an  equivalent  phrase, 
"  sentir  le fagot." 

Let  him  translate  a  work  of  JSneas  Sylvius, 
De  gestis  Basrliensis  Concilii ;  in  the  which, 
although  there  be  many  things  that  savour- 
eth  of  the  pan,  and  also  he  himself  was  after- 
ward a  bishop  of  Rome,  yet  I  dare  say  the 
papists  would  glory  but  a  little  to  see  such 
books  go  forth  in  English. — Ridley  to  Bern- 
here,  1554  (Bradford,  ii  160). 

Bishop  Nix  of  Norwich,  one  of  the  most 
infamous  for  his  activity  in  this  persecution, 
used  to  call  the  persons  whom  he  suspected 
of  heretical  opinions,  "men  savouring  of  the 
frying-pan." — Southey,  Book  of  the  Church, 
eh.  xi. 

Panaret,  all-virtuous  one. 

Wilt   have  our  bodies  which    Thou  didst 

create? 
Then  take  them  to  Thee,  Thou  true  Panaret. 

Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  13. 


Pandean  pipes,  a  wind  instrument 
made  of  reeds  fastened  together,  such 
as  Pan  is  represented  playing.  Cf. 
Panpipe. 

He  looked  abroad  into  the  street ;  all  there 
was  dusk  and  lonely ;  the  rain  falling  heavily, 
the  wiud  playing  Pandean  pipes,  aud  whist- 
ling down  the  chimney-pots.  —  Thackeray, 
Shabby  Genteel  Story,  ch.  iv. 

Pandola,  a  musical  instrument — mis- 
print for  Italian  pandora,  English  pan- 
dore  or  bandore,  a  sort  of  lute  (?). 

Their  raw  red  fingers,  gross  as  the  pipes 
of  a  chamber  -  organ,  which  had  been  em- 
ployed in  milking  the  cows,  in  twirling  the 
mop  or  churn  -  staff,  being  adorned  with 
diamonds,  were  taught  to  thrum  the  pan- 
dola, and  even  to  touch  the  keys  of  the 
harpsichord. — Smollett,  L.  Greaves,  ch.  iii. 

Panegyre,  praise ;  panegyric. 

Instead  of  costly  Suits  of  curious  showes, 
Of  precious  Gifts,  %f  solemn  Panegyres, 
Accept  a  Heart. 

Sylvester,  Maiden* s  Blush  (Dedic). 

Panegyrick,  to  praise. 

I  had  rather  be  reproached  for  sobriety 
than  caress'd  for  intemperance;  and  lam- 
pooned for  a  virtue  than  paneyyrick'd  for  a 
vice. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  539. 

Pangpul,  tortured ;  suffering. 

Overwhelmed  with  grief  and  infirmity,  he 
bowed  his  head  upon  his  pangful  bosom. — 
Richardson,  CI.  Harloxce,  vii.  224. 

Pannel,  to  saddle,  used  chiefly  of 
mules  or  asses. 

He  saddled  Rosinante  with  his  own  hands, 
and  pannelled  his  squire's  beast.  —  Jarvis's 
Don  Quixote,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  III.  ch.  iii. 

Pannier ed,  loaded  with  panniers. 
Cf.  Hampered. 

Small  change  it  made  in  Peter's  heart 
To  see  his  gentle  panniered  train 
With  more  than  vernal  pleasure  feeding, 
Where'er  the  tender  grass  was  leading 
Its  earliest  green  along  the  lane. 

Wordsworth,  Peter  Bell,  Pt.  I. 

Panpipe,  a  pipe  of  reeds  such  as  Pan 

was  represented  with.      Cf.  Pandean 

pipe. 

At  the  end  of  the  lime-tree  avenue  is  a 
broken  -  nosed  damp  Faun  with  a  marble 
panpipe,  who  pipes  to  the  spirit  ditties  which 
I  believe  never  had  any  tune.  —  Thackeray, 
The  Neircomes,  ch.  xlvii. 

Pan  -  pudding,  pancake.  H.  says, 
"A  mention  of  the  pan  -  puddings  of 
Shropshire  occurs  ii*  Taylors  Works, 
1630,  i.  U6.M 


PANTALOON 


(  470  ) 


PARADISIAC 


Their  buttocks 
Have  left  a  peck  of  flour  in  them  ;  beat  them 

carefully 
Over  a  bolting-hutch,  there  will  be  enough 
For  a  pan-puddiny. 

Mutdleton,  Mayor  of  Quinborouyh,  Act  V. 

Your  begging  progress  is  to  ramble  out 
this  summer  among  your  father's  tenants; 
and  'tis  in  request  among  gentlemen's 
daughters  to  devour  their  cheesecakes,  ap- 
ple-pies, cream  and  custards,  flapjacks,  aud 
pun-puddinjs. — Broome,  Jovial  Crew,  Act  II. 

Pantaloon.  That  this  article  of 
dress  was  once  only  used  by  gentry 
is  shown  in  the  firat  quotation.  See 
a  notations  s.  w.    Okay  at  string  and 

TITUPPINQ. 

I  could  not  but  wonder  to  see  pantaloons 
and  shoul dor-knots  crowding  among  the 
common  clowns. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guil- 
ford, i.  273. 

St.  Pantaleon  .  .  .  was  in  more  especial 
fashion  at  Venice ;  and  so  many  of  the  grave 
Venetians  were  in  consequence  named  after 
him,  that  the  other  Italians  called  them 
generally  Pantaloni  in  derision.  .  .  .  Now 
the  Venetiaus  wore  long  small-clothes ;  these 
as  being  the  national  dress  were  called  Pan- 
It/oni  also ;  and  when  the  trunk  -  hose  of 
Elizabeth's  days  went  out  of  fashion  we  re- 
ceived them  from  France  with  the  name  of 
pantaloons. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  Interchap- 
ter  zx. 

Panter,  the  butler,  or  keeper  of  the 
pantry. 

Though  all  the  bread  be  committed  unto 
the  vantery  yet  for  his  fellows  with  him. 
which  give  the  thanks  unto  their  lord,  ana 
recompense  the  panter  again  with  other  kind 
of  service  in  their  offices. — Tyndale,  i.  466. 

Pantile,  dissenting.    Grose  says,  be- 
*  c  uise  dissenting  chapels  were  so  often 
roofed  with  pantiles. 

Mr.  Tickup's  a  good  churchman,  mark 
that !  He  is  none  of  your  occasional  cattle, 
noue  of  your  hellish  pantile  crew. — Centlivre, 
Gotham  Election. 

This  rascal  Sly  was  against  the  peace,  I 
remember  it  well ;  and  I'll  have  you  hang'd 
for 't,  I  will,  you  pantile  monster. — Ibid. 

Panyard,  pannier. 

I  saw  a  man  riding  by  that  rode  a  little 
way  upon  the  road  with  me  last  night,  and 
he  being  going  with  venison  in  bis  panyard* 
to  London,  I  called  him  in,  and  did  give 
him  his  breakfast  with  me.— Pepys,  Aug.  7, 
1661. 

PAPALI8T,  Papist. 

Patriot  PEscuyer  .  .  .  determines  on  going 
to  Church  in  company  with  a  friend  or  two, 
not  to  hear  mass,  which  he  values  little,  but 


to  meet  all  the  Papalists  there  in  a  body. — 
Carlyle,  Fr.  Ret.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  V.  ch.  iii. 

PArKUY,  like  paper;  thin,  fluttering. 

His  kitling  eyes  begin  to  runne 

Quite  through  the  table,  where  he  spies 

The  homes  of  paperie  butterflies. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  126. 

Papish,  Papist. 

Mark  my  last  words — an  honest  living  get ; 
Beware  of  Papishes,  and  learn  to  knit. 

Gay,  The  What  d*  ye  call  it  ?  ii.  5. 

They  were  no  better  than  Papishes  who 
didjiot  believe  in  witchcraft. — Smollett,  Sir 
L.  Greaves,  ch.  vii. 

Papmrat,  milk  for  babes. 

I  cannot  bide  Sir  Baby  .  .  . 

Keep  him  off 
And  pamper  him  with  papmeat,  if  ye  will, 
Old  milky  fables  of  the  wolf  and  sheep, 
Such  as  the  wholesome  mothers  tell  their 
boys. — Tennyson,  Pelleas  and  Ettare. 

Papyral,  formed  of  paper. 

Uncle  Jack,  whose  pocket  was  never  with- 
out a  wet  sheet  of  some  kind,  drew  forth  a 
steaming  papyral  monster. — Lytton,  Caxtons, 
Bk.  VII.  ch.  ii. 

Par,  "a  small  fish,  not  unlike   a 

smelt,  which  it  rivals  in  delicacy  and 

flavour"  (note  by  Smollett). 

The  ruthless  pike  intent  on  war, 
The  silver  eel,  and  mottled  par. 

Ode  to  Levcn-  Water  (H.  Clinker, 

ii.  82). 

"  Eachiu  resembles  Conachar,"  said  the 
Glover,  **  no  more  than  a  salmon  resembles  a 
par,  though  men  say  they  are  the  same  fish 
in  a  different  state."  —  Scott,  Fair  Maid  of 
Perth,  ii.  216. 

Through  the  water,  splash  squire,  viscount, 
steward  and  hounds,  to  the  horror  of  a  shoal 
of  par,  the  only  visible  tenants  of  a  pool 
which  after  a  shower  of  rain  would  be  alive 
with  trout.  —  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch. 

XVUl. 

Parachute,  to  send  down  as  in  a 
parachute.  See  extract  from  Col  in  an 
s.v.  Balloon. 

Parader,  admirer:  at  least  this 
seems  its  meaning  in  the  extract,  the 
idea  perhaps  being  of  a  lover  parading 
before  his  mistress,  and  endeavour- 
ing to  show  himself  off  to  the  best 
advantage. 

What  think  you,  my  dear,  of  compromis- 
ing with  your  friends,  by  rejecting  both 
your  men  and  encouraging  my  parader. — 
Richardson,  CI.  ffarlowe,  ii.  3. 

Paradisiac,  belonging  to  paradise. 


PARADO 


(  47i  ) 


PARCELLIZE 


The  paradisiac  beauty  and  simplicity  of 
tropic  humanity. — C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke, 
ch.  xl. 

Parado,  parade ;  display.  The 
earliest  example  of  parade  (which  we 
get  from  the  French)  in  the  Diets,  is 
from  Paradise  Lost  (iv.  79),  which 
was  published  eight  years  after  Gau- 
den's  book  appeared.  The  word  will 
be  found  again  at  p.  190,  "all  this 
bustling  and  parado. 

No  less  terrible  was  this  paradox  and 
parado  of  Presbyterian  Discipline  and 
Severity. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p/10. 

Pabafront,  asuperfrontal:  the  hang- 
ing which  covers  the  top  of  the  altar, 
as  distinguished  from  the  frontal  orsuf- 
front  that  covers  the  side. 

What  is  set  apart  to  God  should  be  differene'd 
in  its  name  from  common  things,  that  religion 
might  have  a  dialect  proper  to  itself,  as 
paten,  chalice,  corporal,  albe,  parafront,  suf- 
front,  for  the  hangings  above  and  beneath 
the  table. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  107. 

The  main  engine  at  this  time  for  advancing 
money  was  the  speeding  of  a  commission  in- 
to all  parts  of  the  realm  ...  to  seize  upon  all 
hangings,  altar  •  cloths,  fronts,  parafronts, 
copes  of  all  sort,  with  all  manner  of  plate. — 
Hey  tin,  Reformation,  i.  281. 

Parage,  equality. 

He  thought  it  a  disparagement  to  have  a 
parage  with  any  of  his  rank ;  and  out  of 
emulation  did  dry  his  substance  that  it  might 
not  flow  so  fast  into  charitable  works. — 
Racket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  115. 

Paragonize,  to  compare  ;  and  so  to 
exalt  by  comparison.     See  an  example 

8.V.  ESMAYLE. 

Though  we  might  call  this  figure  very  well 
and  properlv  the  Paragon,  yet  dare  I  not  so 
to  doe  for  feare  of  the  courtiers'  enuy,  who 
will  haue  no  man  vse  that  term  but  after  a 
courtly  manner,  that  is,  in  praysing  of  horses, 
haukes,  hounds,  pearles,  diamonds,  rubies, 
cmerodes.  and  other  precious  stones ;  speci- 
ally of  faire  women  whose  excel  lencie  is 
discovered  by  varagonizing  or  setting  one  to 
another,  whicn  moved  the  zealous  poet, 
speaking  of  the  mayden  Queene  to  call  her 
the  paragon  of  Queeaes. — Puttenham,  Evy. 
Poesie,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xix. 

Paragonless,  unsurpa88ed. 

Having  had  good  cheare  at  their  tables 
more  than  once  or  twice  whiles  I  loytered  in 
this  paragonlesse  fish-town,  citty,  towne  or 
cuntry . —  Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc., 
vi.  103). 

Parallelogram,  an  instrument  for 
copying  designs,  prints,  &c,  now  called 
a  pentayraph.  t 


This  evening  Mr.  Spong  come,  and  sat  late 
with  me, and  first  tola  me  of  the  instrument 
called  a  parallelogram,  which  I  must  have 
one  of,  allowing  me  his  practice  thereon  by  a 
map  of  England.— Pepys,  Oct.  27, 1668. 

To  see  Mr.  Spong .  .  .  and  there  I  had  most 
infinite  pleasure,  not  only  with  his  ingenuity 
in  general,  but  in  particular  with  his  showing 
me  the  use  of  the  parallelogram,  by  which 
he  drew  in  a  quarter  of  a  hour  before  me,  iu 
little  from  a  great,  a  most  neat  map  of  Eug- 
land,  that  is,  all  the  outlines. — Ibid.,  Dec.  9, 
1668. 

Parallelogram ical,  in  the  form  of 
a  parallelogram. 

Rhomboides  i&&parallelogramtnical  figure, 
with  unequall  sides  and  oblique  angles. — 
H.  More,  Interpretation  General. 

The  table  being parallelogramical  and  very 
narrow,  it  afforded  a  fair  opportunity  for 
Yorick,  who  sat  directly  over  against  Phuta- 
torius,  of  slipping  the  chestnut  in. —  Trist. 
Shandy,  iii.  213. 

Paralogize,  to  reason  falsely; 
though  in  the  subjoined  extract  the  idea 
of  falseness  does  not  seem  intended. 

I  had  a  crotchet  in  my  head  here  to  have 
given  the  nines  to  my  pen,  and  ran  astray 
thorowout  all  the  coast-townes  of  England 
. . .  and  commented  and  paralogized  on  their 
condition  in  the  present  and  in  the  preter 
tense.  —  Wash's  Lenten  Stuffe  (Marl.  Misc., 
vi.  153). 

Paramour.  The  subjoined  is  a  late 
instance  of  the  use  of  this  word  in  an 
honourable  sense.  No  scandal  is  implied 
by  it  against  Lieutenant  Lismahago 
and  Mrs.  Tabitha  Bramble. 

But  my  aunt  and  her  paramour  took  the 
pas,  and  formed  indeed  such  a  pair  of  originals 
as,  I  believe,  all  England  could  not  parallel. 
— Humphrey  Clinker,  ii.  199. 

Parasital,  parasitical. 

He  saw  this  parasital  monster  fixed  upon 
his  entrails,  like  the  vulture  on  those  of  the 
classic  sufferer  in  mythological  tales. — Lytton, 
What  will  he  do  with  it  ?  Bk.  VIII.  ch.  vii. 

Parasol,  to  shade  as  with  a  parasol. 

And  if  no  kindly  cloud  will  parasol  me, 
My  very  cellular  membrane  will  be  changed, 
I  shall  be  negrofied. 

Southey,  Nondescripts,  iii. 
Frondent  trees  parasol  the  streets,  thanks 
to  nature  and  the  Virgin. — Carlyle,  Misc., 
iv.  268. 

Parcellize,  to  divide. 

And  that  same  majesty  which  (as  the  base 
And  pedestal)  supports  the  waight  and  grace, 
Greatness  and  glory  of  a  well-rul'd  state, 
Is  not  extinguish  t  nor  extenuate, 


FARCER  Y 


(  472  ) 


PARQUETTED 


By  being  parcelliz'd  to  a  plurality 
Of  petty  kinglings. 

Sylvester,  The  Captaines,  1154. 

Parceby,  apportionment. 

This  part  was  to  Helen  us  by  wylled  par- 
cerye  lotted.— Stanyhurst,  /En.,  iii.  347. 

Parchfully,  dimly. 

In  the  den  are  drumming  gads  of  Steele 
parchfully  sparckling. — Stanyhurst,  Conceites, 
p.  137. 

Parch mentarian,  a  book  bound  in 

parchment. 

Brackets  in  my  study . .  support  the  parch* 
mentarians. — Southey,  Letters,  1808  (ii.  03). 

Parchment  lace,  lace  of  a  superior 
quality ;  made  with  gold  or  silver. 
See  Passement. 

Nor  gold  nor  silver  parchment  lace 
Was  worne  but  by  our  nobles, 

Nor  would  the  honest,  harmless  face 
Wear©  ruffes  with  so  many  doubles. 
Roxburgh  Ballads,  ii.  450. 

PARELIE8.  u  Trapf)\ia  are  vivid  clouds 
which  bear  the  image  of  the  Sunne" 
(H.  More,  Interpretation  Generall). 

And  though  these  outward  forms  and  gawdy 

features 
May  quail  like  rainbows  in  the  roscid  sky, 
Or  glistring  Paretics  on  other  meteors, 
Yet  the  clear  Light  doth  not  to  nothing  flie. 

H.  More,  Immortality  of  the  Soul,  I.  iii.  25. 

Parentele.  H.  has  this  word 
(though  without  example)  as  meaning 
kindred  ;  in  the  extract  it  seems  to 
signify  parentage.  The  same  writer 
in  his  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  when 
giving  an  account  of  the  family  puts 
in  the  margin, "  Family  and  parentele." 
See  also  ii.  209. 

There  were  not  so  many  noble  families 
strove  for  him,  as  there  were  cities  strove 
for  the  parentele  of  Homer.  —  North,  Ex- 
amen,  p.  223. 

Parge  work,  work  that  is  pargeted 
or  plastered. 

A  border  of  freet  or  parge  tcorke  ....  the 
seeling  is  of  the  same  fret  or  parge  vorke. — 
Survey  of  Manor  of  Wimbledon,  1649  (Arch., 
x.  403). 

Park.  The  extract  contains  one  of 
Fuller's  etymologies,  which  seems  worth 
preserving. 

The  word  Parvus  appears  in  Yarro  (deriv'd 
no  doubt  A  parcendo,  to  spare  or  save)  for  a 
place  wherein  such  cattle  [Deer]  are  pre- 
served.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Oxford  (i.  217;. 

Parliament,  conference;  parley. 


And  in  the  42.  yeere  of  the  same  king, 
in  Carbry,  after  a  certain  Parliament  ended 
betweene  the  Irish  and  English,  there  were 
taken  prisoners. — Holland's  Camden,  ii.  194. 

Parliament,  a  sweetmeat. 

Roll,  roll  thy  hoop,  and  twirl  thy  tops, 
And  buy,  to  glad  thy  smiling  chops, 
Crisp  parliament  with  lollypops, 
And  fingers  of  the  Lady. 

J.  and  H.  Smith,  Rejected 
Addresses,'}*.  85. 

Parliament  Christmas,  a  name 
given  by  some  to  Christinas  day  on 
the  change  from  the  old  style  to  the 
new.  One  of  my  parishioners  who 
died  at  an  advanced  age  in  1866 
would  never  acknowledge  that  we  kept 
Christmas  on  the  right  day ;  she  knew 
that  Jan.  6th  was  the  proper  anniver- 
sary, because  once,  as  a  girl,  she  had 
seen  bees  swarming  at  midnight  on 
Jan.  5th. 

Both  Christmas  Days  were  kept  at  the 
Orange.  There  were  people  in  those  times 
who  refused  to  keep  what  they  called  Par- 
liament Christmas.  But  whether  the  old 
computation  or  the  new  were  right  was  a 
point  on  which  neither  the  master  nor  mis- 
tress of  this  house  pretended  to  give  an 
opinion. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cix. 

Parodist,  writer  of  a  parody. 

*We  hardly  know  which  to  consider  as  the 
greater  object  of  compassion  in  this  case — 
the  original  Odist,  thus  parodied  by  his 
friend,  or  the  mortified  Parodist,  thus  muti- 
lated by  his  printer. — Poetry  of  Antijacobin, 
p.  24. 

Paroxysm,  a  quarrel;  the  word  is 
used  curiously  in  the  quotation  from 
Milton,  for  a  great  quantity. 

The  greatest  contention  happening  here 
was  the  paroxysm  betwixt  Paul  and  Barna- 
bas.— Fuller,  Pisgah  Sioht,  IV.  i.  29. 

The  paroxisme  continued  and  encreased 
betwixt  the  Scotish  Bishops  .  .  .  and  such 
who  celebrated  Easter  after  the  Roman  rite. 
— Ibid.,  Ch.  Hist.,  II.  ii.  88. 

In  the  very  midst  of  the  paroxisme  between 
Hooker  and  Travers,  the  latter  still  bare 
(and  none  can  challenge  the  other  to  the 
contrary)  a  reverend  esteem  of  his  adversary. 
— Ibid.  IX.  vii.  59. 

I  will  not  run  into  a  paroxysm  of  citations 
again  in  this  point. — Milton,  Reformation  in 
Eng.,  Bk.  i. 

Paroxysmic,  spasmodic. 

like  the  Quakers,  they  fancy  that  they 
honour  inspiration  by  supposing  it  to  be 
only  extraordinary  and  paroxysmic.  —  C 
Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xv. 

Parqueted,  inlaid. 


PARREE 


(  473  )  PASSAMENTED 


The  roomes  are  wainscotted,  and  some  of 
them  parquetted  with  cedar,  yew,  cypresse, 
be.— Evelyn,  Diary,  Aug.  23, 1678. 

Parree,  fencing-bout ;  parry  (?) 

Mr.  George  Jefferies  and  one  of  the 
prisoner's  witnesses  had  a  parree  of  wit. — 
Aorth,  Examen,  p.  589. 

Parrhbsy,  boldness  of  speech 
(Greek,  irappnaia). 

An  honest  and  innocent  parrhesy  or  free- 
dome  of  speech  such  as  becomes  the  Messen- 
ger of  Heaven,  the  Minister  of  Christ,  and 
the  Ambassadour  of  God.—  Gauden,  Tears  of 
the  Church,  p.  274. 

Parrot,  to  chatter,  like  a  parrot. 

Put  you  in  mind  in  whose  presence  you 
stand ;  if  you  parrot  to  me  long,  go  to— 
Chaptnan,  fVidaowes  Teares,  Act  V. 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  Riderhood,  quailing  a 
little,  "I  am  willing  to  be  silent  for  the 
purpose  of  hearing;  but  dont  Poll  Parrot 
me."- Dickens,  Our  Mutual  Friend,  Bk.  II. 
ch.  zii. 

Parson  and  clerk,  a  children's  game, 
explained  by  the  quotations. 

Age  has  not  only  made  me  prudent,  but, 
luckily,  lazy,  and  without  this  latter  extin- 
guisher, I  do  not  know  but  that  farthing 
caudle  my  discretion  would  let  my  snuff  of 
life  flit  to  the  last  sparkle  of  roily,  like 
what  children  call  the  parson  and  clerk  in  a 
bit  of  burnt  paper. —  Walpole,  Letters,  iv.  455 
(1788). 

So  when  a  child,  as  playful  children  use, 
Has  burnt  to  tinder  a  stale  last-year's  news, 
The  flame  extinct,  he  views  the  roving  fire. 
There  goes  my  lady,  and  there  goes  the 

squire ; 
There  goes  the  parson,  oh !  illustrious  spark, 
And  there,  scarce  less  illustrious,  goes  the 

clerk. 

Cowper,  On  observing  some  names 
of  little  note  in  the  Biog.  Brit. 

Parsonet,  a  little  parson,  jocosely 
applied  to  a  parson's  child. 

The  Parson  dearly  lov'd  his  darling  pets, 
Sweet,  little,  ruddy,  ragged,  Parsonet s. 

Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  132. 

Parsonic,  pertaining  to  a  parson. 
See  quotation  8.  v.  Sap. 

Vain-Glory  glow'd  in  his  parsonick  heart. 
Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  138. 
Hence  he,  in  calm  parsonic  state, 
Approach  *d  the  lordly  mansion  gate. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  iii.  c.  5. 
His  manners  I  think  you  said  were  not 
to  your  taste — priggish  and  parsonic? — ('. 
Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xxxvii. 

Parson's  week,  lasts  from  Monday 
till  the  Saturday  week  following. 


Get  my  duty  done  for  a  Sunday,  so  that  I 
may  be  out  a  Parson's  week. — J.  Price,  1800, 
in  Life  of  H.  F.  Carey,  i.  144. 

Partile.  "  Partile  aspect  (in  Astro- 
logy), the  most  exact  and  full  aspect 
that  can  be1'  (Bailey's  Diet). 

Saturn  was  lord  of  my  geniture,  culmin- 
ating, &c.,  and  Mars  principal  significator  of 
manners  in  partile  conjunction  with  mine 
Ascendent. — Burton,  Democ.  to  Reader,  p.  3. 

Partlesse,  explained  by  Da  vies  in  a 
note  "  without  good  partes." 

For  man  of  woorth  (say  they)  with  parts 

indow'd 
The  tymes  doe  not  respect,  nor  wil  relive, 
But  wholly  vnto  partlesse  Spirits  giue. 

Davies,  Microcosmos,  p.  72. 

Partlet,  a  hen.  N.  says  that  it  is 
used  in  this  sense  by  Chaucer  and 
others  down  to  Dryden,  who  is  also 
the  last  author  quoted  for  it  in  the 
other  Diets. 

I  forgot  to  take  your  orders  about  your 
poultry ;  the  partlet  $  have  not  laid  since  I 
went.—  Walpole,  Letters,  i.  130  (1746). 

Paschalists,    disputers    about    the 

proper  time  of  Easter. 

Tradition  hath  had  very  seldom  the  gift  of 
persuasion,  as  that  which  church  histories 
report  of  those  east  and  western  paschalists, 
formerly  spoken  of,  will  declare. — Milton, 
Prelatical  Episcopacy. 

Paschall,  a  large  candle  used  by 
Roman  ists  at  Easter. 

After  the  Jewes  be  thus  baptized,  they  be 
brought  into  the  church,  and  there  they  see 
the  hallowing  of  the  paschall,  which  is  a 
mightie  great©  wax  taper. — Munday's  Eng- 
lish Romayne  Life,  1590  (Harl.  Misc.,  vii. 
150). 

Pasigraphy,  a  writing  meant  for 
all,  i.  e.  in  a  character  and  language 
universally  intelligible.  Leibnitz  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  such  an  universal 
language.  The  illuminator's  art  is  so 
called,  I  suppose,  as  appealing  to  the 
eyes  of  all  alike,  just  as  pictures  have 
been  termed  "the  books  of  the  un- 
learned." 

The  illuminator  of  a  manuscript  blazons 


in  his  pasigraphy  only  the  capital  of  the 

TV .  Tt 
ii.  53).  * 


paragraph  —  Jr.  Taylor  (Robberdsfs  Memoirs, 


Passage,  to  pass  or  cross. 

Then  Beauclerk  passaged  to  Lady  Daven- 
ant. — Miss  EdgcwoHh,  Helen,  ch.  xvii. 

Passamented.    See  quotation  and  H. 
s.  v.  jxissamen. 


PASSEMENT 


(  474  )        PATCH-PANNEL 


Above  this  he  wore,  like  others  of  his  age 
and  degree,  the  Flemish  hose  and  doublet, 
which  in  hononr  of  the  holy  tide  were  of 
the  best  superfine  Euglish  broad  cloth,  light 
blue  in  colour,  slashed  out  with  black  satin, 
and  passamented  (laced,  that  is)  with  em- 
broidery of  black  silk.— Scott,  Fair  Maid  of 
PeHh,  i.  76. 

Passkment,  lace.  See  H.  s.  v.  passa- 
men  :  " pasmain  lace  of  green  caddis  " 
is  mentioned  in  Pattonn  Exped.  to 
ScotLy  1548  (Eng.  Gamer,  iii.  92). 

Figures  and  figuratiue  speeches  .  .  be  the 
flowers  as  it  were,  and  coulonrs  that  a  poet 
setteth  vpon  his  language  of  arte,  as  the  em- 
broderer  doth  his  stoip  and  perle  or  passe- 
ments  of  gold  vpon  the  stuffe  of  a  princely 
garment. — Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III. 
ch.  i. 

Passional,  dealing  with  the  passions. 

The  poetry,  of  course,  is  low  and  prosaic ; 
only  now  and  then,  as  in  Wordsworth,  con- 
scientious ;  or  in  Byron,  jxxssional ;  or  in 
Tennyson,  factitious.— Emerson,  E»g.  Trails, 
ch.  xiv. 

Passiuncle,  a  miniature  or  petty 
passion.  ('£.  Consciunclk.  De  Quin- 
cey  referring  to  the  use  of  the  word 
vibratiuncle  by  Hartley  says, 

Now,  of  men  and  women  generally,  paro- 
dying that  terminology,  we  ought  to  say — 
not  that  they  are  governed  by  passions,  or 
at  all  capable  of  passions,  but  of  passiuncle*, 
—Autob.  Sketches,  i.  177. 

Passiveless,  not  passive. 

Which  Hate  is  no  less  great  than  He  is  good, 
That's  infinite,  for  nought  in  Him  is  lease : 

Wert  in  him,  as  in  us,  a  passive  moode, 
He  were  not  God,  for  God  is  passiuelesse. 
Davies,  Mirum  in  Jffodum,  p.  20. 

Pass-lamb,  paschal  lamb. 

I  will  compare  circumcision  with  Baptism 
and  the  pass  lamb  with  Christ's  supper. — 
Tyndale,  iii.  245. 
There's  not  a  house    but   hath   som  body 

slain, 
Save  th'  Israelites,  whose  doors  were  markt 

before 
With  sacred  Pass-lamb* s  sacramental  1  gore. 

Sylvester,  The  Laxce,  583. 

Pass-man,  superhuman. 

The  passe-man  wisdom  of  th'  Isacian  prince, 
A  light  so  bright,  set  in  such  eminence, 
(Unhideable  by  enuious  arrogance 
Vnder  the  bushell  of  black  ignorance) 
Shines  euery  where,  illustrates  euery  place. 
Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  1254. 

Pass-praise,  beyond  all  praise. 

That  skin,  whose  pass-praise  hue  scorns 
this  poor  term  of  white. — Sidney,  Astrophel 
and  Stella,  77. 


Pasteboard,  visiting  card  (slang). 

I  shall  just  leave  a  pasteboard;  but  I'm 
not  in  the  humour  to  be  dancing  about  lion- 
izing.—  Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch. 
xzv. 

Paste  eggs.     See  extract. 

In  some  part  of  the  North  of  England 
such  eggs  [Easter  eggs]  are  still  also  pre- 
sented to  children  at  Easter,  and  caXled paste 
(pasque)  eggs. — Arch.,  xv.  359  (1806). 

Pastkl,  a  name  given  to  (so-called) 
coloured  chalks  made  by  grinding  col- 
ours, and  making  them  up  into  a  paste 
with  gum ;  -this  is  used  instead  of  oil 
or  water-colours,  and  dries  in  the  man- 
ner of  chalk.  The  term  is  also  applied 
to  the  picture  itself  done  in  this  way. 

What  awfully  bad  pastels  there  were  on 
the  walls !  what  frightful  Boucher  and  Lan- 
cret  shepherds  and  shepherdesses  leered  over 
the  portieres. — Thackeray,  Netccomes,  ch.  lxiii. 

Mr.  Lavender  bad  finished  another  of 
those  charming  heads  in  pastel,  which  at  a 
distance  remiuded  one  of  Greuze. — black, 
Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  iii. 

Pastille,  "small  aromatic  ball, 
burnt  to  scent  the  air  of  a  room" 
(Latham,  who  gives  no  example). 

Its  rooms  and  passages  steamed  with 
hospital  smells,  the  drug  and  the  pastille 
striving  vainly  to  overcome  the  effluvia  of 
mortality. — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  ix. 

Pastorist,  an  actor  of  pastorals. 

We  are,  sir,  comedians,  tragedians,  tragi- 
comedians,  comi- tragedians,  pastorists,  hu- 
morists, clownists,  satirists.  —  Jfiddleton, 
Mayor  of  Quinborough,  V.  i. 

Past-price,  invaluable. 

The  Soule  is  such  a  precious  thing 
As  costs  the  price  of  past-price  deerest  bloud. 
Davies,  Mirum  in  Modum,  p.  6. 

Pasty,  like  paste,  white  or  flabby. 

You're  very  pale  and  pasty.  —  G.  Eliot, 
Middlemarch,  ch.  liii. 

Patch.  To  be  not  a  patch  on  some 
person  or  thing  =  to  be  not  at  all  equal 
to  him  or  it 

Soldier,  you  are  too  late :  he  is  not  a  patch 
on  you  for  looks,  but  then — he  has  loved 
me  so  long. — Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch. 
xxxvii. 

Patch  -  pannel,  shabby  ;  botched  : 
also  as  a  substantive,  a  ragged  fellow. 

Hang  thee,  patch-pannel ! — Dekker,  Satiny- 
tnastix  (Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr.,  iii.  140). 

Whv,  noble  Cerberus,  nothing  but  patch- 
pannel  6tnff,  old  gallimawfries,  and  cotten 
candle  eloquence. —  Wily  Beguiled^  Prologue 
(Ibid.,  iii.  293). 


PATCHY 


(  475  ) 


PATRIZATE 


Patchy,  cross. 

**  He'll  be  a  bit  patchy  then,  won't  he?  " 
*'  Well,  just  for  a  while  of  course  he  will," 
said  Mrs.  Moulder,  "  but  there's  worte  than 
him.  To-morrow  morniug  maybe  he'll  be 
just  as  sweet  as  sweet ;  it  don't  hang  about 
him  sullen-like." — Trollope,  Orley  Farm,  vol. 
II.  ch.  ill. 

Pater  cove,  a  hedge  priest  (gipsy 

slang) :     also    called     patrico.       See 

Broome's  Jovial  Beggars. 

My  idea  at  the  moment  was  to  disguise 
myself  in  the  dress  of  the  pater  cove. — Lytton, 
Pelham,  ch.  Ixxx. 

Patereros,  chambered  pieces  of 
ordnance.  See  H.  who  refers  to  Archce- 
ologia,  xxviii.  376,  but  gives  no  extract 

His  habitation  is  defended  by  a  ditch,  oyer 
which  he  has  laid  a  draw-bridge,  and  planted 
bis  courtyard  with  patereroes  continually 
londed  with  shot. — Smollett,  Peregrine  Pickle, 
ch.  i. 

I  can  see  the  brass  patararoes  glittering  on 
her  poop. — Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  xix. 

Paternoster,  a  line  to  which  hooks 
are  attached  at  given  intervals,  also, 
leaden  shots  to  sink  it.  The  likeness 
of  these  last  to  beads  in  a  rosary  gave 
the  name.  In  a  rosary  one  bead  larger 
than  the  rest  is  called  the  Paternoster, 
whence  the  name  is  sometimes  applied 
to  the  entire  rosary. 

"  Here's  your  gudgeons  and  minnows,  sir, 
as  you  bespoke,"  quoth  Harry,  "  and  here's 
that  paternoster  as  you  gave  me  to  rig  up." — 
C.  Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  iii. 

He . .  saw  through  the  osiers  the  hoary  old 
profligate  with  his  paternoster  pulling  the 
perch  out  as  fast  as  he  could  put  his  line  in. 
— H.  Kinysley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  lxiv. 

Paternoster  while,  the  brief  time 

occupied  in  saying  the  paternoster. 

Alexander  in  his  childhood  excessiuely 
making  incense  and  sacrifice  unto  the  goddes, 
and  euery  pater  noster  vthyle  renning  to  take 
still  more  of  the  frankincense. —  Udal's  Eras- 
mus's Apophth.,  p.  205. 

Patibulary,  pertaining  to  a  pati- 
bulum,  or  fork-snaped  gibbet. 

Infinitely  terrible  is  the  Gallows;  it  be- 
strides with  its  patibulary  fork  the  pit  of 
bottomless  terror. — Carlyle,  Diamond  Neck- 
lace,  ch.  xvi. 

Over  all,  rising  as  ark  of  their  Covenant 
the  grim  patibulary  fork,  forty  feet  high. — 
Jbid.,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  II.  ch.  viii. 

Patish,  to  stipulate.  See  H.  s.  v. 
patising. 

[He  was]  let  go  immediatly  vpon  the 
briugyng  of  the  money  which  the  pirates 


pati  shed  for  his  raunsome. —  Udal's  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  293. 

Patois.  See  extract :  the  word  may 
be  said  to  be  naturalized  among  us. 

Patois,  from  the  Latin  word  patavinitas, 
means  no  more  than  a  provincial  accent  or 
dialect.  It  takes  its  name  from  Patavivm 
or  Padua,  which  was  the  birthplace  of  Iivy, 
who,  with  all  bis  merit  as  a  writer,  has  ad- 
mitted into  his  history  some  provincial  ex- 
pressions of  his  own  country.  —  Smollett, 
France  and  Italy,  Letter  zxi. 

Patriarch,  applied  to  an  English 
Archbishop.  Abp.  Abbot  was  styled 
by  the  Lord  Keeper,  "  Primate  and 
Patriarch  of  all  his  [the  King's] 
Churches "  (Rushworth>  Hist.  Coll., 
i.  61). 

This  godly  King  was  superabundant  in 
his  care  that  the  See  of  York  should  be  richer 
by  parting  with  this  house,  as  is  manifest  by 
the  Lord  Keeper's  letter  sent  to  that  worthy 
Patriarch  of  the  North  [Abp.  Toby  Matthew]. 
— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  187. 

Patriarch dom,  a  patriarchate;  the 
office  or  rule  of  a  patriarch. 

Whenever  the  pope  shall  fall,  if  his  ruin 
be  not  like  the  sudden  downcome  of  a  tower, 
the  bishops,  when  they  see  him  tottering, 
will  leave  him,  and  fall  to  scrambling,  catch 
who  may,  he  a  patriarch  dom,  and  another 
what  comes  next  nand. — Milton,  Reformation 
in  Eng.,  Bk.  i. 

Pat ri arch ical.  patriarchal. 

The  Patriarchicall  Tradition  and  Practise 
before  the  Law  of  Moses. — Gauden,  Tears  of 
the  Church,  p.  519. 

Patriciate,  patrician  order;  nobility. 

The  professor  stopped  to  deliver  a  lecture 
or  address  on  the  villa  of  Hadrian  ....  It 
was  varied  by  portraits  of  the  Bmperor  and 
some  of  his  companions,  and  after  a  rapid 
glance  at  the  fortunes  of  the  imperial  patii- 
ciate,  wound  up  with  some  conclusions  favour- 
able to  communism. — Disraeli,  Lothair,  ch. 
xxv.  * 

Patriotess,  female  patriot. 

A  patriot  (or  some  say  it  was  a  patriotess, 
and  indeed  the  truth  is  undiscoverable), 
while  standing  on  the  firm  deal-board  of 
Fatherland's  altar,  feels  suddenly  with  in- 
describable torpedo-shock  of  amazement,  his 
boot-sole  pricked  through  from  below. — 
Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  ix. 

Patrizate,  to  imitate  a  father. 

In  testimony  of  his  true  affection  to  the 
dead  Father  in  his  living  Son,  this  Gentle- 
man is  thought  to  have  penned  that  most 
judicious  and  elegant  Epistle  (recorded  in 
Holinsbed's  History,  page  1266)  and  pre- 
sented it  to  the  young  Earl,  conjuring  him, 


PATROCINATE  (476)      PAUNCH-GUTTED 


by  the  cogent  arguments  of  example  and 
rule,  to  patrizate.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Hart- 
ford (i.  431). 

Patrocinate,  to  support ;  patronize. 

Preach  it  up  and  patrocinate  it,  prattle  on 
it  and  defend  it  as  much  as  you  will,  even 
from  hence  to  the  next  Whitsuntide,  if  you 
please  so  to  do,  yet  in  the  end  you  will  be 
astonished  to  find  you  shall  have  gained  no 
ground  at  all  upon  me.— Urquhart's  Rabe- 
lais, Bk.  III.  ch.  v. 

Patrollotism,  system  of  military 
police  or  patrols.  See  quotation  *.  v. 
House-mother. 

The  caricaturist  promulgates  his  emblem- 
atic tablature:  Le  Patrouillotisme  chassant 
le  Patriotism,  Patriotism  driven  out  by 
Patrollotism.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk. 
VII.  ch.  i. 

Pattened,  wearing  pattens. 

Wherever  they  went  some  pattened  girl 
stopped  to  courtesy,  or  some  footman  in 
dishabille  sneaked  off. — Miss  Austen,  North- 
anger  Abbey,  ch.  xxiii. 

Pattening.  See  first  extract :  it  is 
also  used  of  going  about  in  pattens. 

He  drew  out  of  me  all  my  story— ques- 
tioned me  about  the  way  "  Lunnon  folks  " 
lived,  and  whether  they  got  any  shooting  or 
"pattening" — whereby  I  found  he  meant 
skating. — C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xii. 

These  household  cares  involve  much  pat- 
tening and  coxmiet-pattening  in  the  back 
yard.— Dickens,  Bleak  House,  ch.  xxvii. 

Pattens.     The  tongue  on  patten*, 
i.  e.  clattering. 
But  there  an  ye  had  hard  her,  how  she  began 

to  acolde, 
The  tonge  it  were  onpatins. 

Gammer  uurtons  Needle  (Hawkins, 
Eng.  Dr.,  i.  199). 

Patternable,  not  unexampled. 

If  'twere  the  fashion  auy where  beside, 
For  Sense  and  Passion  thus  in  chains  to 
lie,   . 
Our  souls  it  would  not  torture  to  be  ty'd 
In  patternable  slavery ;  but  why 
Must  all  the  World  laugh  at  our  Woes, 

whilst  We 
The  sole  Examples  of  this  bondage  be. 
Beaumont,  Psyche,  xx.  st.  257. 

Patty-pan,  a  little  pan  in  which  a 
patty  is  placed. 
Thy  book  with  triumph  may  indulge   its 

pride; 
Preach  to  the  patty-pans  sententious  stuff, 
And  hug  that  idol  of  the  nose,  called  snuff. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  110. 

Patulous,  open.     L.   gives  it,  but 
only  as  a  medical  word. 


The  ear  yet  hears  more  than  ever  the  eye 
saw,  and  by  reason  of  its  patulous  admission, 
derives  that  to  the  understanding  whereof 
the  sight  never  had  a  glance. — Adams,  iii.  15. 

Paucify,  to  make  few. 
,  We  thought  your  exclusion  of  bishops 
out  of  the  upper  house  .  .  had  been  .  .  to 
paucify  the  number  of  those  you  conceived 
would  counter  vote  you.  —  British  Bellman, 
1648  {Hart.  Misc.,  vu.  626). 

Pauciloquie,  speaking  little. 

Fear  no  discredit  by  Pauciloquie, 
All  Jesus'*  footsteps  high  and  noble  are  ; 
Never  was  stripped  Sheep  more  mute  than 
He.— Beaumont,  Psyche,  xx.  st.  202. 

Paul's  Pigeons.  See  extract. 
Fuller  refers  to  Stowe's  Survey  as  his 
authority  for  the  nick-names. 

Nicolas  Heath  was  born  and  had  his  child- 
hood in  the  City  of  London,  being  noted  for 
one  of  St.  Anthonie's  Pigs  therein  (so  were 
the  Scholars  of  that  School  commonly  called, 
as  those  of  St.  Paul,  PauVt  Pigeons).— FulUr, 
Worthies,  London  (i.  65). 

Paul's -walker,  a  quid  nunc  or 
gossip.    See  N.  s.  v.  Paul's. 

One  Mr.  Wiemark,  a  great  Novilant  and 
constant  PauTs  walker.  —  Fuller,  Worthies, 
Suffolk  (ii.  336). 

Paum,  to  palm;  a  late  use  of  thia 
form. 

To  get  rid  of  him  he  made  an  interest,  and 
pa ttmed  him  upon  the  Turkey  Company. — 
North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  l.  53. 

Paunch-bellied,  pot-bellied. 

Can  you  fancy  that  black- a- top,  snub- 
nosed,  sparrow-mouthed,  paunch-bellied  crea- 
ture ? — Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  31. 

Paunched,  stuffed  with  food ;  the 
usual  meaning  of  the  word  is  impaled, 
or  disembowelled. 

Certain  persones  esteming  and  saiyng  that 
Demades  had  nowe  geuen  ouer  to  be  soche 
an  haine  as  he  had  been  in  time  past ;  **  Yea 
marie  (quoth  Demosthenes)  for  nowe  ye  see 
him  f  ul  paunched  as  lions  are."  For  Demades 
was  couetous  and  gredie  of  money ;  and  in 
deede  the  lions  are  more  gentle  when  their 
bealies  are  well  filled.  —  UdaVs  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  382. 

Paunch-gut,  pot-belly. 

All  that  paunch-gut  and  little  carcase  of 
thine  is  nothing  but  a  sackful  of  proverbs 
and  sly  remarks. — Jarvis's  Don  Quixote,  Pt 
II.  Bk.  III.  oh.  xi. 

Paunch- gutted,  fat*  pot-bellied. 

What  would  this  paunch-gutted  fellow  have 
in  this  house?— Jarvis's  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  II. 
Bk.  I.  ch.  ii. 


PA  UNCHY 


(  477  ) 


PEAKY 


Paunchy,  pot-bellied. 

The  gay  old  boys  are  paunchy  old  men  in 
the  disguise  of  young  ones. — Sketches  by  Boz 
{Mr.  John  Bounce). 

Padperess,  female  pauper. 

Everybody  else  in  the  room  had  fits,  ex- 
cept the  wards- woman,  an  elderly  able-bodied 
fxiuperess. — Dickens,  Uncommercial  TravelUr, 
lii. 

Pauperization,  making  paupers: 
usually  applied  in  relation  to  injudi- 
cious alms-giving,  by  which  people  are 
encouraged  to  depend  on  the  benevo- 
lence of  others  instead  of  their  own 
exertions. 

AH  the  modern  schemes  for  the  ameliora- 
tion which  ignore  the  laws  of  competition 
must  end  either  in  pauperization  .  .  or  in 
the  destruction  of  property.—  C.  Kingsley, 
Yeast,  ch.  vi. 

There  is  no  pauperization  of  the  peasantry 
around ;  the  theory  is  that  Queen  Tita  and 
Bell  merely  come  in  to  save  the  cost  of  dis- 
tribution, and  that  nothing  is  given  away 
gratis,  except  their  charitable  labour.  — 
Black,  Adventures  of  a  Phaeton,  ch.  xvi. 

Pauperous,  poor. 

If  you  believe  there  be  a  country  and  city 
that  lies  eastward,  a  new  Jerusalem,  where 
there  are  rich  commodities,  as  rich  as  any  in 
the  East  Indies,  send  your  prayers  and  good 
works  to  factor  there  for  you,  and  have  a 
stock  employed  in  God's  banks  to  pauperous 
and  pious  uses. —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  173. 

Pavesade.  Cotton,  in  a  note,  ex- 
plains it,  "  a  defence  of  shields  ranged 
by  one  another."  R.#  und  H.  have 
pavese. 

A  number  of  harquebusiers  drawn  up 
ready,  and  charged  and  all  covered  with  a 
p<ivesade,\ike  a  galliot. — Cotton's  Montaigne, 
ch.  lxxix. 

Pavid,  fearful. 

Eagles  go  forth  and  bring  home  to  their 
eaglets  the  lamb  or  the  pavid  kid. — Thackeray, 
Roundabout  Papers,  xxxii. 

Pavonian,  pertaining  to  a  peacock. 

Instinct  or  inspiration  .  .  directed  my 
choice  to  the  pavonian  pen.  —  Sou  they,  The 
Doctor,  Preface. 

Pawnable,  capable  of  being  pawned. 

Gines,  who  had  neither  gratitude  nor  good- 
nature, resolved  to  steal  Sancho  Panza's  ass, 
making  no  account  of  Rosinante,  as  a  thing 
neither  pawnable  nor  saleable. — Jarvis's  Don 
Quixote.  Pt.  I.  Bk.  III.  ch.  ix. 

Peachy,  peach  like. 

At  this  moment  a  beautiful  little  girl 
about  five  years  old  got  on  the  bed,  and 


nestled  her  peachy  fheek  against  her  mo- 
ther's.— H.  Kinysley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  iii. 

Peacock,  to  exhibit ;  also  to  make 
proud.  Cf.  French,  se  pavaner,  and 
see  the  second  extract. 

I  can  never  deem  that  love  which  in 
haughtie  hearts  proceeds  of  a  desire  only  to 
please,  and  as  it  were  peacock  themselves. — 
Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  57. 

You  who  understand  and  feel  Italian  so 
well,  how  expressive  are  some  of  its  words ! 
Pavoneggiarsi !  untranslateable.  One  can- 
not say  well  in  English  to  peacock  oneself  . .  . 
An  Englishman  is  too  proud  to  boast — too 
bashful  to  strut ;  if  ever  he  peacocks  himself, 
it  is  in  a  moment  of  anger,  not  of  display. — 
Miss  Edgeworth,  Helen,  ch.  xiv. 

Tut,  he  was  tame  and  weak  enow  with  me, 
Till  peacocked  up  with  Lancelot's  noticing. 

Tennyson,  Oareth  and  Lynette. 

Peacock  in  his  pride.  The  bird  is 
so  called  when  it  has  its  tail  fully  dis- 
played. At  banquets  a  peacock  was 
sometimes  served,  with  the  feathers  so 
arranged. 

There  were  snipes,  there  were  rails,  there 

were  woodcocks  and  quails, 
There  were  peacocks  served  up  in  their  pride 

(that  is  tails). 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (&  Romwold). 

And  there  they  placed  a  peacock  in  his  pride 
Before  the  damsel. 

Tennyson,  Gareth  and  Lynette. 

Peagoose,  a  silly  fellow ;  but  see  N. 
a.  v.  peak  goose. 

Tour  lordship  has  the  right  garbe  of  an 
excellent  courtier ;  respect's  a  clowne  sup- 
ple-jointed, courtesie's  a  verie  peagoose  ;  'tis 
stiffe  ham'd  audacity  that  carries  it. — Chap- 
man, Mons.  Df  Olive,  Act  III. 

The  simple  goosecap  Lycus  of  Thebes,  the 
doating  blockhead  Agenor,  the  phlegmatic 
peagoose  Asopus. — Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk. 
III.  ch.  xii. 

Peakril,  belonging  to  the  Peak  in 
Derbyshire :  both  adjective  and  sub- 
stantive. 

The  Peakrills,  as  they  are  called,  are  a 
rude,  boorish  kind  of  people ;  but  bold, 
daring,  and  even  desperate  in  their  search 
into  the  bowels  of  the  earth. — Defoe,  Tour 
thro9  G.  Britain,  iii.  79. 

The  weight  of  this  pig  [of  lead],  as  I  am 
informed  by  Mr.  Nightingale,  is  1261b.,  a 
proper  load  for  a  small  peakril  horse  to 
travel  with,  day  by  day,  in  bad  roads. — 
Archaol.,  y.  375  (1779). 

Peaky,  tapering  to  a  peak. 

Or  over  hills  with  peaky  tops  engrail'd. 

Tennyson,  Palace  of  Art. 


PEALE 


(478  ) 


PEDICULOUS 


Pealr. 


Now  be  we  peale  pelted  from  tope  of  bar- 
bican hautye .— Stany hurst,  JEn.,  ii.  429. 

Pearl,  a  white  spot  in  the  eye. 
See  H. 

The  next  day  came  hither  an  old  bishop 
who  had  a  pearl  in  his  eye. — Fox,  vii.  104 
(Maitland  on  Reformation,  503). 

Boast  oot  of  your  eyes ;  it  is  feared  yon 
have  Balaam's  disease,  a  pearl  in  your  eye, 
Mammon's  prestriction.  —  Milton,  A  nitnadv. 
on  Remonst.,  sect.  3. 

Pearled,  blotched  :  carbuncle  is  the 
jewel  more  often  used  as  a  simile. 

To  whom  are  all  kinds  of  diseases,  in- 
firmities, deformities,  pearled  faces,  palsies, 
dropsies,  headaches,  if  not  to  drunkards? — 
Ward,  Sermons,  p.  ISO. 

Pearls,  marks  on  the  deer's  horn 

near  the  root. 

You  will  carry  the  horns  back  to  London, 
and  you  will  have  them  put  up,  and  you  will 
discourse  to  your  friends  of  the  span,  and 
the  pearls  of  the  antlers,  and  the  crockets. — 
Black,  Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  xxv. 

Pearmonger.  Why  a  pearmonger 
is  credited  with  pertness  I  cannot  say, 
unless  it  be  from  the  similarity  between 
pear  and  pert  or  peart.  The  word  pert 
may  not  mean  what  we  now  signify 
by  it,  but  cheerful,  sharp,  or  brisk,  in 
which  sense  it  is  still  used  provincially : 
this  is  evidental'y  the  meaning  in  the 
second  extract,  and  perhaps  in  the  other 
also.    See  «.  v.  Maggot. 

Miss.  Lord,  Mr.  Neverout,  you  are  grown 
as  pert  as  a  pearmonger  this  morning. — 
thrift,  Polite  Conversation  (Oonv.  i.). 

Pert  as  a  Pearmonger  I'd  be, 

If  Molly  were  but  kind, 
Oool  as  a  cucumber  would  see 

The  rest  of  women-kind. 

Gay,  Neic  Song  of  Xew  Similes. 

Pearte,    openly;    abbreviation    of 

apert. 

Moreover  that  no  clarcke  be  so  bolde, 
Privy  or  pearte  with  hym  to  holde, 
Preachynge  ought  in  his  favoure. 

Roy  and  Barlowe,  Rede  me  and 
be  nott  icrothe,  p.  48. 

Peasebolt,  pease  in  the  straw. 

With  peasebolt  and  brake 
Some  Drew  and  bake. 

Tusser,  Husband rie,  p.  45. 

Pease-liolt  with  thy  pease  he  will  haue 
His  household  to  feede  and  his  hog. 

Ibid.,  p.  143. 

Peas-hook,  instrument  for  cutting 
peas. 


They  are  now  lost,  or  converted  to  other 
uses,  even  literally  to  plough-shares  an<l 
peas-hooks, — Defoe,  Tour  thro'  G.  Britain,  ii. 
203. 

Peccadil,  a  petty  fault:  the  word 
seems  to  be  Anglicized  in  the  extract 
for  the  sake  of  the  rhyme. 

But  for  so  small  a  Peccadil 
To  send  a  man  up  Holborn-hilL, 
An  act  is  of  an  odious  dye, 
And  an  unheard-of  cruelty. 
Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  161 

Peccaddlia,  peccadillo,  slight 
offence. 

It  were  a  smal  faulte  and  a  verie  pecca- 
dulia  in  them  to  dissemble  the  truth  of 
religion.  —  Traheron,  Warning  to  England* 
1558  {Maitland  on  Ref,  p.  136). 

Peck,  a  cant  term  for  food.     See  H. 

Here  safe  in  out  skipper  let's  cly  off  our 
peck. — Broome,  A  Jovial  Crew,  Act  II. 

Peck  of  troubles.  The  earliest  ex- 
ample of  this  phrase  in  Nares  is  from  *i 
letter  dated  1618.  The  subjoined  is 
from  a  document  circa  1535.  The  Mr. 
More  referred  to  was  afterwards  Sir 
Thomas  More. 

The  said  George  cam  to  this  deponent,  and 
told  hym  that  Mr.  More  was  in  a  peeks  nf 
troubles. — Arch.,  xxv.  97. 

Peck  point,  a  game. 

So  Panurge  .  . .  played  away  all  the  points 
of  his  breeches  at  primus  tt  secundus,  and  at 
peck  point,  in  French  called  La  Vergetie.— 
Vrgukarfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xviii. 

Pedary,  a  scandal. 

Some  brought  forth  .  .  mannaries  for 
handlers  of  relicks,  some  pedaries  for  pil- 
grims, some  oscularies  for  kissers. — Latimer, 
1.49. 

Pedicular,  lousy.  The  speaker  in 
the  first  extract  is  supposed  to  be  a 
mm  who  has  been  turned  into  an  as*. 

I  am  not  subject  to  breed  lice  and  other 
vermin ;  whereas  this  pedicular  disease,  with 
a  nomberlesse  sort  of  other  maladies  aud 
distempers,  attend  mankind. — Howell,  Parly 
of  Beasts,  p.  26. 

Has  humanity  ever  been  put  to  a  viler  use 
than  by  the  Banians  at  Surat,  who  support 
a  hospital  for  vermin  in  that  city,  and  regale 
the  souls  of  their  friends  who  are  undergoing 
penance  in  the  shape  of  fleas,  or  in  loathsome 
pedicular  form,  by  hiring  beggars  to  go  in 
among  them,  aud  afford  them  pasture  for 
the  night? — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  ccxii. 

Pediculous,  lonsy. 

Like  a  lowsy  pediculous  vermin,  thou'st 
but  one  suit  to  thy  back. — Dekker,  Satiiv 
mastix  {Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr.,  iii.  115). 


PEDLARISM 


(  479  ) 


PEGMA 


Pedlarism,  petty  dealing. 

The  Scots  kick  against  the  decrees  of  fate, 
and  instead  of  pedlars,  a  title  their  ancestors 
acquiesced  in  for  two  thousand  years  and 
upwards,  set  up  for  merchants  forsooth ;  but 
if  ever  they  make  anything  on'fc,  says  he 
(and  if  they  are  not  at  last  reduc'd  to  their 
old  antient  pedtarism),  V\\  forfeit  my  reputa- 
tion of  a  prophet  to  you. — T.  Brown,  Works, 
i.  188. 

Pee  and  Cue.  I  do  not  understand 
this  expression  in  the  first  extract.  To 
mind  ones  Ps  and  Qs  is,  according  to 
Grose,  "to  be  attentive  to  the  main 
chance ; "  but  I  think  it  more  usually 
means,  to  be  careful  on  points  of  pro- 
priety, to  be  particular  in  behaviour. 
See  extract  s.  v.  Jackassism.  The  ex- 
pression arose  perhaps  in  the  printing 
office,  from  the  resemblance  of  the  p  to 
the  q. 

A  sin.  If  you  fly  out,  ningle,  here's  your 
cloak ;  I  think  it  rains  too. 

Hot.  Hide  my  shoulders  iu't. 

A  sin.  Faith,  so  thou'dst  need;  for  now 
thou  art  in  thy  pee  and  cue :  thou  hast  such 
a  vi  llano  us  broad  back  that  I  warrant  thou'rt 
able  to  bear  away  any  man's  jests  in  Eng- 
land.— Dekker,  Satiromastix  (Hawkins,  Eng. 
Dr.,  iii.  130). 

And  I  full  five  and  twenty  year 
Have  always  been  schoolmaster  here ; 
And  almost  all  you  know  and  see, 
Have  learn  'd  their  Ps  and  Qs  from  me. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  c.  i. 

Peel,  a  species  of  fish. 

The  ved,  the  tweat,  the  botling,  and  the 
rest. — Dennys,  Secrets  of  A  ngling  (Eny.  Gar- 
ner, i.  175). 

Peel,  a  tower. 

This  kind  of  building  was  called  in  Scot- 
land a  peel,  and  in  England  a  keep  or  dun- 
geon.— Archaol.,  x.  102  (1792). 

Peeldnesse,  baldness. 

Disease,  scab,  and  peeldnesse.  —  Holland's 
Camden,  ii.  143. 

Peeler,  a  policeman  (slang) :  so 
called  from  Sir  R.  Peel,  who  instituted 
the  force. 

He's  gone  for  a  peeler  and  a  search-war- 
rant to  break  open  the  door. — C.  Kingsley, 
Alton  Locke,  ch.  xxxv. 

Peepers,  eyes.  The  Alsatian  slang 
in  the  second  quotation  is  explained  in 
a  note  to  mean,  "  Slash  him  over  the 
eyes  with  your  dagger.' 


it 


Ha !  whom  do  my  peepers  remark  ? 
Tis  Hebe  with  Jupiter's  jug ; 


O  no,  'tis  the  pride  of  the  Park, 
Fair  Lady  Elizabeth  Mugg. 

J.  and  H.  Smith,  Rejected  Addresses, 
p.  102. 

"  I  smell  a  spy,"  replied  the  other,  looking 
at  Nigel ;  "  chalk  him  across  the  peepers  with 
your  cheery." — Scott,  Fortunes  of  Nigel,  ch. 
xvii. 

The  next  question  was  how  long  they 
should  wait  to  let  the  inmates  close  their 
peepers. — Reade,  Never  too  late  to  mend,  ch. 
xlviii. 

Peerdom,  lordship  (?).  It  seems  to 
be  distinguished  from  barony  in  the 
extract. 

The  Comte*  contains  twelve  peerdoms  aud 
as  many  baronies. — Archaol.,  iii.  200  (1775). 

Peerish,  pertaining  to  a  peer. 

All  this  would  not  have  done  alone ;  for 
any  other  peer  out  of  the  list  of  protesters 
might  have  been  taken,  and  made  a  peerish 
example  of. — North,  Examen,  p.  109. 

Peery,  inquisitive;  cautious;  sus- 
picious. 

All  these  things  put  together  excited  their 
curiosity ;  and  they  engaged  a  peery  servant, 
as  they  called  a  footman  who  was  drinking 
with  Kit  the  hostler  at  the  tap-house,  to 
watch  all  her  motions. — Richardson,  CI.  Har~ 
lowe,  v.  71. 

44 1  am  not  a  person  to  betray  people,  but 
you  are  so  shy  and  peery ;  .  .  if  you  have 
been  upon  the  snaffiing-lay — yon  understand 
me,  I  am  sure."  "  Not  I,"  answered  Booth, 
44  upon  my  honour."  "Nay,  nay,"  replied 
the  keeper,  with  a  contemptuous  sneer ;  "  if 
you  are  so  peery  as  that  comes  to,  you  must 
take  the  consequences." — Fielding,  Amelia, 
Bk.  II.  ch.  ix. 

A  queer,  shambling,  ill-made  urchin,  .  .  . 
with  a  carroty  pate  in  huge  disorder,  a 
freckled,  sun-burnt  visage,  with  a  snub  nose, 
a  long  chin,  and  two  peery  grey  eyes  which 
had  a  droll  obliquity  of  vision. — Scott,  Kenil- 
worth,  i.  170. 

From  her  twisted  mouth  to  her  eyes  so  peery, 
Each  queer  feature  asked  a  query. 

Hood,  Tale  of  a  Trumpet. 

Peg,  a  blow. 

Many  cross-buttocks  did  I  sustain,  and 
pegs  on  the  stomach  without  number.  — 
Smollett,  Roderick  Random,  ch.  xxvii. 

Pegma.  R.  and  L.  have  pegm,  with 
a  quotation  from  B.  Jonson,  where  it 
means  some  theatrical  machina  ;  in  the 
subjoined  the  reference  seems  rather  to 
be  to  the  speeches  spoken  therefrom. 

We  shall  heare  from  his  Lordship  .  .  . 
what  presentments  are  towards,  and  who 
penned  the  pegmas,  and  so  forth. — Chapman, 
Widdowes  Teares,  Act  II. 


PEGTOPS 


(  480  ) 


PENCHANT 


Pegtops,  trousers  wide  at  the  top, 
and  tapering  down  like  a  pegtop. 

Pegtops  and  a  black  bowler  hat  strike  no 
awe  into  the  beholders.— H.  King  shy,  Ravens- 
hoe,  ch.  lxvi. 

Peisant,  heavy. 

Yet  like  the  valiant  Palme  they  did  sustaine 
Their  peisant  weight.— Hudson' s  Judith,u.  82. 

PEIZLES8,  light. 

Like  peizless  plume  born  vp  by  Boreas  breath, 
With  all  these  wings  I  soar  to  seek  my  death. 
Sylvester,  The  Schism*,  978. 

Pejoration,  deterioration.  The 
word  is  also  a  Scotch  law-term,  signify- 
ing deterioration. 

Hence  these  luxations,  distortions,  dis- 
locations, .  .  .  which  pejorations  as  to  the 
piety,  peace,  and  honour  of  this  Nation,  no 
man  that  hath  eyes  to  see  and  a  heart  to  be 
sensible  of  can  behold  without  sad  and 
serious  deploring.  —  Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  131. 

Pejority,  worse  condition. 

There  was  but  one  devil  before,  now  there 
are  eight.  .  .  .  This  pejority  of  his  state  may 
be  amplified  in  six  respects. — Adams,  ii.  65. 

Pelerine,  a  lady's  cape. 

Silks,  muslins,  prints,  ribbons,  pelerines 
are  awfully  dear. — L.  E.  London  {Life  by 
Blanchard,  i.  111). 

Pelf.  See  quotation.  The  examples 
in  the  Diets,  do  not  bear  out  Putten- 
ham's  censure  of  this  as  a  low  word ; 
at  present  it  is  little  used  in  serious 
writing. 

Another  of  our  vulgar  makers  spake  as 
illfaringly  in  this  verse  written  to  the  dis- 

E raise  of  a  rich  man  and  couetous.  "  Thou 
ast  a  miser's  minde  (thou  hast  a  prince's 
pelfe) ; "  a  lewde  terme  to  be  spoken  of  a 
prince's  treasure,  which  in  no  respect  or  for 
any  cause  is  to  be  called  pelfe,  though  it  were 
neuer  so  meane,  for  pelfe  is  properly  the 
scrappes  or  shreds  of  taylors  and  skinners, 
which  are  accompted  of  so  vile  price  as  they 
be  commonly  cast  out  of  dores,  or  otherwise 
bestowed  vpon  base  purposes :  and  carrieth 
not  the  like  reason  or  decencie,  as  when  we 
say  in  reproch  of  a  niggard  or  vserer,  or 
worldly  couetous  man,  that  he  setteth  more 
by  a  little  pelfe  of  the  world  than  by  his 
credit,  or  nealth,  or  conscience.  For  in 
comparisons  of  these  tresours  all  the  gold  or 
siluer  in  the  world  may  by  a  skornefull  terme 
be  called  pelfe. — Puitenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk. 
III.  ch.  xxih. 

Pelican,  a  species  of  shot  or  shell. 

When  your  relation,  General  Guise,  was 
marching  up  to  Carthagena,  and  the  pelicans 
whistled  round  him,  he  said,  "  What  would 


Chloe  [the  Duke  of  Newcastle's  cook]  give 
for  some  of  these  to  make  a  pelican  pie  ?  "— 
Walpole  to  Mann,  iii.  84  (1754). 

Pellum,  dust.  Pelham  in  thin 
sense  is  given  as  a  Somersetshire  word 
(Country  and  Farming  Words,  E.  D. 
S.).  The  extract  is  in  the  Devon 
dialect. 

Zom  hootin',  heavin',  soalin',  hawlin', 
Zom  in  the  mucks  and  pellum  sprawtin.' 
Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  155. 

Pettish,  angry. 

[He]  flings 
Among  the  elves,  if  mov  d,  the  stings 
Of  pettish  wasps. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  176. 

Peltry, folly (?).  N.haspeijfer==fool. 

As  Publius  gentilly  received  Paale,  and 
by  hym  was  healed  of  all  hys  dyseases,  so 
ded  myne  host  Lambert  receyve  me  also 
gentilly,  and  by  me  was  dely  vered  from  hys 
vayne  beleve  of  purgatorye,  and  of  other 
popjshpeltryes. —  Vocacyion  of  Johan  Bale, 
1653  ( Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  440). 

Pemmican,  meat  dried,  pulverised, 
and  mixed  with  fat. 

Not  forgetting  a  large  quantity  of  pro- 
visions, such  as  pemmican,  in  which  much 
nutriment  is  contained  in  comparatively 
little  bulk.— E.  A.  Poe,  Hans  Pfaal  (i.  11). 

Penance,  to  punish,  or  inflict  pen- 
ance. 

Did  I  not  respect  your  person,  I  might 
bring  you  upon  your  knees,  and  penance 
your  indiscretion.— Gentleman  Instructed,  p. 
523. 

I  would  not  see  thee  dragg'd  to  death  by 

the  hair, 
Penanced,  and  taunted  on  a  scaffolding. 

Keats,  Otho  the  Great,  iv.  1. 

I  saw 

The  pictured  flames  writhe  round  a  penanced 
soul. — Southey,  Joan  of  Arc,  bk.  iii. 

Pen-and-ink-horn,  a  portable  writing- 
case  ;  ink/torn  by  itself  is  common. 

^  They  .  .  ,  projected  the  general  destruc- 
tion of  all  that  wore  &  pen-and-ink-horn  about 
them,  or  could  write  or  read. — Fuller,  Ch. 
Hist.,  IV.  i.  18. 

Penary,  penal,  in  the  way  of  punish- 
ment. Gauden  says  that  God  some- 
times sends  afflictions  on  Churches  or 
individuals  "not  alwayes  for  penary 
chasti8ment8,  but  oft  for  tnall  of 
graces"  (Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  76). 

Penchant,  inclination.  This  French 
word  is  naturalized  among  us. 

How  far  Kirkby  was  in  the  original  depths 
and  lengths  does  not  appear,  but  he  shews  a 


PENCRAFT  (  481  ) 


PENNY 


strong  penchant  to  have  his  story,  and  the 
plot  itself,  as  it  was  called,  to  be  believed. — 
North,  Era  men,  p.  171. 

The  impertinence  of  all  thio  shows  the 
author's  penchant  towards  disguises.— Ibid., 
p.  329. 

Pen-craft,  authorship. 

I  would  not  give  a  groat  for  that  man's 
knowledge  in  pen-craft  who  does  not  under- 
stand tins. — Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  i.  185. 

Pkxde,  a  pen ;  an  enclosure :  also  a 
verb. 

It  shewed  and  represented  to  the  eye 
muche  what  the  facion  or  likenesse  of  a 
caige  for  byrdes,  or  of  a  pende  wherein 
to  kepe  other  beastes. —  XJdaVs  Erasmus?* 
Apophth.,  p.  135. 

His  high  praise  and  commendacion  was 
not  to  be  hidden  or  pended  within  the  li mites 
and  precintes  of  Grece,  but  rather  to  ren 
abroad e  throughout  all  coastes  and  partes  of 
the  worlde. — Ibid.,  p.  244. 

Pendilatory,  pendulous. 

I  have  seen  above  five  hundred  hanged, 
but  I  never  saw  any  have  a  better  counten- 
ance in  his  dangling  and  pendilatory  swag- 
ging. — UrquharCs  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xlii. 

Pendulate,  to  hang,  or  swing. 

The  ill-starred  scoundrel  pendulates  between 
Heaven  and  Earth,  a  thing  rejected  of  both. 
— Carlyle,  Diamond  Necklace,  ch.  xvi. 

Penetrant,  a  far-sighted  person ;  a 
solver  of  enigmas. 

Our  penetrants  have  fancied  all  the  riddles 
of  the  Public,  which  in  the  reign  of  King 
Charles  II.  were  many,  came  N.  N.  E. — 
North,  Examen,  p.  121. 

Pen-feathered,  newly  flpdged; 
short -winged.  See  N.  s.  v.  pinfeather, 
and  quotation  from  Prior  in  R. 

Yonr  intellect  is  pen-feathered,  too  weak- 
wing'd  to  soar  so  high.  —  Gentleman  In* 
structed,  p.  470. 

P  e  N  f  u  L .  A  pen/id  of  news  is  a 
quaint  expression,  meaning,  I  suppose, 
as  much  as  could  be  recorded  by  a  pen 
dipped  only  once  in  the  inkstand. 

I  came  to  town  yesterday,  and  as  nsual, 
found  that  one  hears  much  more  news  in 
the  country  than  in  London.  I  have  not 
picked  up  a  penful  since  I  wrote  to  my 
lord. —  Walpcle,  Letters  to  Lady  Ossory,  I.  11 
(1771). 

Pkn-gossip,  to  go<?8'p  by  correspond- 
ence. R;chardson  (Sir  C.  Grandison, 
vi.  233)  has  penprattlinj. 

It'  I  were  not  rather  disposed  at  this  time 
to  pen-yo*$ip  with  your  worship. — Southey, 
Letters,  1818  (in.  85). 


Pen-gun,  pop-gun.  See  extract  s.  v. 
Hoast. 

The  mankin  feels  that  he  is  a  born  Man, 
that  his  vocation  is  to  work.  The  choicest 
present  you  can  make  him  is  a  Tool ;  be 
it  knife  or  pen-aun,  for  construction  or  for 
destruction.  —  Carlyle,  Sartor  JResartus,  Bk, 
II.  ch.  ii. 

Penile,  peninsula. 

Hee  came  to  anchor  in  the  hauen  of  Hogy 
Saint  Vast  in  Constantino,  a  great  cape  of 
land  or  penile  in  Normandy. — Speed,  History, 
Bk.  IX.  ch.  xii. 

Pen-master,  caligraphist. 

When  two  such  transcendent  Pen-master* 
shall  again  come  to  be  born  in  the  same 
Shire,  they  may  even  serve  fairly  to  engross 
the  Will  and  Testament  of  the  expiring 
Universe.  —  Fuller,  Worthies,  Hereford  (1. 
454). 

Pennied,  possessed  of  a  penny. 

The  one-pennied  Boy  has  his  penny  to 
spare. —  Wordsworth,  Power  of  Music. 

Pennipotent,  strong  on  the  wing. 
In  a  note  to  Microcosmos,  p.  41. 
Davies  says,  "  Hope's  winges  are 
pennipotent " 

Dismount  your  tow'ring  thoughts,  aspiring 
Minds, 
Vnplume  their  wings  in  flight  pennipotent. 
Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  15. 

Penniworth.  To  cast  penniworths 
=*  to  count  the  cost,  to  balance  advan- 
tages and  disadvantages. 

When  Caesar  saied,  "  Be  al  dice  alreadie 
cast,"  his  meaning  was,  to  bee  now  ouerlate 
to  repente  that  he  had  doen,  or  to  cal  again 
yesterdaie :  and  therefore  that  he  would 
now  cast  no  more  penztcorthes  in  the  matter, 
but  go  through  with  his  purpose,  channce 
as  it  would. — UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p. 
298. 

Penny.  Clean  as  a  penny  «■  quite 
clean.     Cf.  Fine  as  fivepence. 

I  will  go  as  I  am,  for,  though  ordinary,  I 
am  as  clean  as  a  penny,  though  I  say  it. — 
Richardson,  Pamela,  ii.  56. 

Penny.  Penny  and  paternoster  are 
frequently  joined  together,  as  in  the 
old  proverb,  "No  penny,  no  pater- 
noster" signifying  "  nothing  for  no- 
thing." In  the  extract  from  Gascoigne 
it  means  "  neither  for  love  nor  money." 

If  I  had  thought  yon  would  have  passed 
to  the  terms  you  now  stand  in,  pity  nor 
pension,  penny  nor  paternoster  should  ever 
ha\  e  made  nurse  once  to  open  her  mouth  in 
the  cause.— Gascoigne,  Supposes,  i.  1. 

1  I 


PENNY 


(482  ) 


PENURIOUS 


Penny.  A  penny  for  your  thoughts, 
a  common  expression  in  addressing 
one  who  is  in  a  brown  study. 

Come,  friar,  I  will  shake  him  from  his  damps ; 

(  Comes  forward.) 
How  cheer  you,  sir?  a  penny  for  your  thought. 
Greene,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  161. 

Penny.  To  think  my  penny  silver = 
to  have  a  good  opinion  of  myself. 

Alvira.  Believe  me,  though  she  say  that 
she  is  fairest, 
I  think  my  penny  silver,  by  her  leave. 

Greene,  Looking  Glass  for  London,  p.'123. 

There  are  more  batehelors  than  Roger, 
and  my  penny  is  as  good  silver  as  yours. — 
Breton,  Packet  of  Mad  Letters,  p.  20. 

Penny-rent. 

He  shall  never  marry  my  daughter,  look 
you,  Don  Diego,  though  he  be  my  own 
sister's  son,  and  has  two  thousand  five  hun- 
dred seventy-three  pounds  sterling,  twelve 
shillings  and  twopence  a  year  penny-rent. — 
Wtfcherley,  Gentleman  Dancina  Master,  ill.  1. 

He  proposes  a  joiuture  of  1200/.  a  year, 
penny-rents,  and  400  guineas  a  year  for  her 
private  pirse. — Richardson,  Grandison,  iv.  43. 

"Tuey  usually  give  them."  answered  the 
priest,  "some  benefice,  or  cure,  or  verger- 
ship,  which  brings  them  in  a  good  penny-rent, 
besides  the  perquisites  of  the  altar.  — Jarvis's 
Don  (Quixote,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  III.  ch.  xii. 

Penny  wedding,  a  wedding  at  which 
the  guests  contribute  towards  the  set- 
ting up  in  life  of  the  new-married 
couple. 

Love  that  no  golden  ties  can  attach. 
But  nestles  under  the  humblest  thatch, 
And  will  fly  away  from  an  Emperor's  match 
To  dance  at  a  penny  wedding. 

Hood,  miss  KUmansegg. 

Penny  white,  rich. 

Of  the  first  sort  we  account  the  she-Bene* 
dictiues,  commonly  called  black  nuns,  but 
I  assure  you  peny  white,  being  most  richly 
endowed.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  VI.  i.  38. 

Penny  wise  and  pound  foolish,  a 
proverbial  saying  applied  to  those  who 
neglect  the  main  chance  while  careful 
about  small  economies. 

Nor  would  I  advise  him  to  cary  about  him 
any  more  money  than  is  absolutly  necessary 
to  defray  his  expences,  for  some  in  this 
particular  have  beene  peny-wise  and  pound- 
foolish,  who  in  hopes  of  some  small  benefit 
in  the  rates  have  left  their  priucipall,  ex- 
posing their  persons  and  purses  to  dayly 
hazard.— Howell,  Forroine  Travell,  sect.  5. 

Pension,  expenditure;  also,  as  a 
verb,  to  lodge  or  live  together. 


TV  Almighty  made  the  mouth  to  recom- 

pence 
The  Btomnk'*  pension,  nnd  the  time's  expenee. 
Sylvester,  Sixth  day,  first  weeke,  585. 

When  they  meet  with  any  person  of  note 
and  eminency,  and  journey  or  pension  with 
him  any  time,  they  desire  him  to  write  his 
name  with  some  short  sentence,  which  they 
call  the  mot  of  remembrance.  —  Howell, 
Forroine  Travell,  sect.  4. 

Penstock,  a  flood-gate.  The  extract 
is  from  an  estimate  for  the  improve- 
ment of  Sandwich  Harbour. 

For  Clay-Dams,  Penstocks  and  Drains  may 
amount  to  about  .£10,000  0s.  Od.  —  Defoe, 
Tour  thro*  G.  Britain,  i.  183. 

Pentagrron,  a  conjurer's  mysterious 

charm  or  figure  (?)     Of.  Pentacle. 

The  great  ar  jh-ruler,  potentate  of  hell, 
Trembles  when    Bacon    bids    him    or   his 

fiends 
Bow  to  the  force  of  his  pentageron. 

Greene,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  155. 

Oonjnring  and  adjuring  devils  and  fiends, 
With  stole  and  alb  and  strong  pentaaeron. 

Ibid.,  p.  176. 

Pentamktrise,  to  turn  into  a  penta- 
meter. 

44  Well  begun,"  says  the  Proverb.  "  is  half 
done."  Horace  has  been  made  to  say  the 
same  thing  by  the  iusertiou  of  an  apt  word 
which  pentametrises  the  verse:  **  Dimidium 
facti  qui  bene  capit  habetT —  Southry,  The 
Doctor,  Fragm.  on  Mortality. 

Pentweezle,   a  term   of    reproach. 
Foote  gives  this    name   to   a   foolish 
alderman  and  his  wife  in  his  comedy, 
Taste. 
Sim.  I'm  glad  I  miss'd  this  weapon,  I'd 
had  an  eye 
Popt  out  ere  this  time,  or  my  two  butter- 
teeth 
Thrust  down  my  throat  instead  of  a  flap- 
dragon. 
Lys.  There's  two,  pentweezle.    (Hits  him.) 
Masaingcr,  The  Old  Law,  iii.  2. 

Penultim,  penultimate. 

The  first  male  line  of  the  Darcys  being 
thus  determined,  a  second  race  succeeded, 
derived  from  Norman  Darcy,  the  joenultim 
Lord  in  the  last  pedigree. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist* 
vi.  p.  324. 

Penurious.  "  Ignorant  ladies  often 
mistake  the  word  penurion*  for  nice 
and  dainty"  {Note  bv  Swift  in  loc.). 
Bailey  in  his  Diet,  defines  the  word 
"  covetous,  niggardly,  stingy;  also 
nice." 

She's  grown  so  nice  and  so  penurious 
With  Socrates  and  Ep  enrius. 

Swift,  Panegyrick  on  the  Lian. 


PEN  WO  MAN 


(  483  )         PEREGRINATE 


Penwoman,  female  writer. 

Why,  love,  you  have  not  written  already ! 
You  have,  I  protest!  O  what  a  ready  pen- 
woman!—  Richardson,  CI.  Harloice,  i.  329. 

Pepper-and-salt,  applied  to  cloth  of 
mingled  black  and  white. 

Tl» ere  was  a  porter  on  the  premises,  a 
wonderful  creature  in  a  vast  red  waistcoat 
and  a  short-tailed  pepper-and-salt  coat. — 
Dickens,  Martin  Chuzztewit%  ch.  xxvii. 

Half  a  dozen  men  of  various  ages  . . .  were 
listening  with  a  look  of  concentrated  intelli- 
gence to  a  man  in  a  pepper-and-salt  dress. — 
G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xlii. 

Pepper-pot,  a  very  hot  West  Indian 
dish. 

That  most  delicate  palate-scorching  soop 
called  pepper-pot,  a  kind  of  devil's  broth 
much  e»t  m  the  Went  Indies,  is  always  the 
firnt  dish  brought  to  our  table.— T.  Brown, 
Works,  ii.  215. 

Turenes  of  flattery  are  prepared  so  hot 
By  courtiers — a  delicious  pepper-pot. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  204. 

Peptic,  connected  with  digestion,  in 
the  extract  =  capable  of  digesting. 
L.  gives  the  word,  but  without  ex- 
ample, except  that  he  says  "  Peptic 
Precepts"  is  the  title  of  a  work  on 
digestion,  by  Dr.  Kitchener. 

The  whole  not  as  dead  stuff,  but  as  living 
pabulum,  tolerably  nutritive  for  a  mind  as 
yet  so  peptic. — Carlyle,  Sartor  Resartus,  Bk. 
II.  ch.  iii. 

Pepticity,  good  digestion. 

A  most  cheery,  jovial,  buxom  countenance, 
radiant  with  pepticity,  good  humour,  and 
ma ui fold  effectuality  in  peace  and  war. — 
Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  254. 

Perambulator,  a  little  carriage  for 
children,  propelled  by  the  hand  of  the 
person  in  charge  of  them. 

She  is  an  ordinary  young  lady  .  .  .  who, 
after  marriage,  calmly  and  complacently 
sinks  into  the  dull  domestic  hind,  whose 
only  thought  is  of  butchers'  bills  and  per- 
ambulators.— Black,  Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  ii. 

Perambulatory,  incidental ;  perhaps 
a  misprint  for  preambtdatory^  i.  e.  pre- 
liminary. 

There  be  some  perambulatory  things  that 
I  will  but  salute,  a*  first  the  name  of  the 
Creed. — Adams,  iii.  86. 

Perare  plums,  apparently  some 
species  of  plum.  Tusser  names  among 
the  "  trees  or  fruites  to  be  set  or  re- 
mooued  "  in  January, 

Perare  plums  black  and  yelow. — Tusser,  p. 
76. 


Perch,  a  candelabrum  to  bear  perchers 

or  long  candles.     See  N.  s.  v.  percher. 

Mv  lord  Mayor  hath  a  perch  to  set  on  his 
perchers  when  his  gesse  be  at  supper. — Calf" 
hill,  Answer  to  Martiall,  p.  300. 

Perch.  To  tip  over  the  perch  =  to 
die.  To  hop  the  twig  is  sometimes  used 
in  the  same  way  in  modern  slang. 

Either  through  negligence,  or  for  want  of 
ordinary  sustenance,  they  both  tipt  over  the 
perch.—  UrquharVs  Rabelais,Bk.  III.  (Author's 
Prologue). 

My  heart  has  aked  every  time  these  five 
years,  when  I  have  play'd  the  sexton  in 
Hamlet,  for  fear  when  I  am  once  got  into 
the  grave,  the  grim  tyraut  should  give  me  a 
turn  over  the  perch,  and  keep  me  there  for 
jesting  with  mortality. — T.  Brown,  Works, 
ii.  237. 

Her  late  husband  could  not  stand  in  the 
matrimonial  contention  of  who  should?  but 
tipt  off  the  perch  in  it,  neither  knowing  how 
to  yield,  nor  knowing  how  to  conquer. — 
Richardson,  CI.  Uarlowe,  vi.  350. 

Percollice,  a  portcullis. 

I  cannot  thinke  that  cittie  to  be  safe  that 
strikes  downe  her  percollices,  rammes  vp  her 
gates,  and  sufferetn  the  euimie  to  enter  the 
posterne. — Gosson,  Schoole  of  Abuse,  p.  32. 

Pkrcullis,  portcullis. 

Battering  all  the  wall  over  the  percullxs. — 
J.  Randolph,  Honour  Advanced,  p.  3. 

Percunctorily,  dilatorily. 

This  is  he  that  makes  men  serve  God  per* 
cunctorily,  perfunctorily  ;  to  go  slowly  to  it, 
to  sit  idly  at  it. — Adams,  ii.  46. 

Perdiuo,  a  desperate  man. 

The  Duke  of  Monmouth,  with  his  party 
of  Perdidos,  had  a  game  to  play  whi -h  would 
not  shew  in  quiet  times. — North,  Examen,  p. 
475. 

Perdition  money.     See  quotation. 

He  regulated  also  some  disorders  of  the 
quire,  particularly  the  exacting  of  sconces  or 
perdition  money,  which  he  divided  among 
them  that  best  deserved  it,  who  diligently 
kept  prayers,  and  attended  upon  other 
Ohtirch  duties. — Barnard,  life  of  Heylin,  p. 
112. 

Perborate,  to  traverse. 

Two  pillars,  .  .  which  Hercules  (when 
he  had  peregrated  all  the  worlde,  as  ferre  as 
any  lande  went)  did  erecte  and  set  vp  for  a 
memoriall  that  there  he  "had  been. — UdaVs 
Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  297. 

Peregrinate,  foreign. 

I  perceive  too  that  there  is  something  out- 
landish, peregrinate,  and  lawless  about  me. — 
Lytton,  Cartons,  Bk.  XVIII.  oh.  ii. 

Imagine  this  figure,  grotesque,  peregrinate, 

I  I  2 


PEREGRINITY         (  484  ) 


PERK 


and  to  the  eye  of  a  peasant  certainly  diaboli- 
cal ! — Ibid.,  My  Novel,  Bk.  I.  cb.  iv. 

Peregrin ity.  L.  gives  this  word  = 
strangeness,  with  the  two  first  quota- 
tions. In  Carlyle  it  denotes  travel  or 
wandering. 

These  people,  sir,  that  Gerrard  talks  of, 
may  have  somewhat  of  a  peregrinity  in  their 
dialect,  which  relation  has  augmeuted  to  a 
different  language.  —  Johnson  in  BoswelCt 
Tour  to  the  Hebrides,  p.  140,  second  edition. 

Mr.  Bos  well  says  that  Dr.  Johnson  coined 
this  word,  and  upon  being  asked  if  it  was  an 
English  one,  he  replied,  No.  ...  It  is,  how- 
ever, an  old  English  word;  and  being  in- 
serted in  the  vocabulary  of  Oockeram  early 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  may  be  presumed 
to  have  been  in  use ;  but  it  is  not  worthy  to 
be  revived. — Todd. 

A  new  removal,  what  we  call  "his  third 
peregrinity"  had  to  be  decided  on;  and  it 
was  resolved  that  Rome  should  be  the  goal 
of  it.— Carlyle.  Life  of  Sterling,  Pt.  II.  ch.  vi 

Perfection,  to  perfect.  Cf.  Affec- 
tion, Reflection. 

Both  our  labours  tending  to  the  same 
general  end,  —  the  perfectioning  of  onr 
countrymen  in  a  most  essential  article, — the 
right  use  of  their  native  language. — Foote, 
The  Orators,  Act  I. 

Perfectless,  far  from  perfection ;  a 

stronger  word  than  imperfect. 

Fond  Epicure,  thou  rather  slept'st  thyself 
When  thou  did'st  forge  thee  such  a  sleep- 
sick  elf 
For  life's  pure  Fount,  or  vainly  fraudulent 
(Not  shunning  the  Atheist's  bin,  but  punish- 
ment), 
Imaginedst  a  God  so  perfectless, 
In  works  defying  whom  thy  words  profess. 
Sylvester,  Seventh  day,  first  weeke,  133. 

Perfebvid,  very  ardent. 

What  adjectives  that  perfervid  Uhlan  may 
have  been  using — and  he  was  rather  a  good 
hand  at  expressing  his  satisfaction  with  any- 
thing—we did  not  try  to  hear. — Black,  Ad- 
ventures of  a  Phaeton,  ch.  xxi. 

Perfixtly,  exactly ;  definitely.  The 
extract  is  from  the  1611  ed.  ;  in  the 
CherUey  Worthies  ed.  the  word  is  pre- 
fixtly. 

But    though    these    works    surmount    all 

nature's  might, 
Though  his  own  sages  them  of  gnile  acquight, 
Though  th'  are  not  casuall  (sith  the  holy 

man  • 

Foretels  perfirtly   what,  and    where,  and 

when), 
And  though  that,  liuing  in  the  midst  of  his, 
The  Israelites  be  free  from  all  of  this, 
Th'  incensed  tyrant,  strangely  obstinate, 
Retracts  the  leave  he  grauted  them  of  late. 

Sylvester,  The  Laws,  561. 


Performance,  performance. 

To  cross  this  match 
I  used  some  pretty  sleights,  but  I  protest 
Such  as  but  sat  upon  the  skirts  of  art ; 
No  cou juration*,  nor  such  weighty  spells 
As  tie  the  soul  to  their  performancy. 

Merry  Devil  of  Edmonton  (Dodsley, 
O.  PI.,  xi.  168). 

Perfumt,  sweet-scented. 

The  sweet  atmosphere  was  tinged  with 
the  perfumy  breath  which  always  surrounded 
Her. — Mrs.  Oliphant,  Salem  Chapel,  ch.  xiiL 

Pergola.  Evelyn  uses  this  Italian 
word  as  though  it  were  familiar  in 
English :  it  rather  means  an  arbour  or 
bower  than  a  stand. 

Neere  this  is  a  pergola  or  stand  built  to 
view  the  sports.  —  Evelyn,  Diary,  July  20, 
1654. 

Periclitate,  to  search  or  test. 

And  why  so  many  grains  of  calomel? 
Santa  Maria!  and  such  a  dose  of  opium, 
periclitating,  pardi !  the  whole  family  of  ye 
from  head  to  tail  ? — Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  v. 
195. 

Pericrane,  pericranium. 

The  soundest  arguments  in  vain 
Attempt  to  storm  thy  pericrane. 

D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  cant.  I. 

And  when  they  join  their  pericranies 
Out  skips  a  book  of  miscellanies. 

Swift,  Pottry,  a  Rhapsody. 

These  issued  out  of  Penry's  brain, 
And  Udal's  fruitful  pericrane. 

Ward,  E>iy land's  Reformation, 
c.  iii.  p.  259. 

Peril-less,  without  danger.  See  ex- 
tract s.  v.  Mappist. 

Perition,  perishing ;  annihilation. 

Were  there  an  absolute  perition  in  our  dis- 
solution, we  could  not  fear  it  too  much. — 
Bp.  Ball,  Works,  vi.  411. 

Perjuration,  perjury. 

The  Cardinal  .  .  .  forgave  them  all  their 
perjurations,  schisms,  and  heresies. — Fox,  vi. 
579  (Maitland  on  Reformation,  p.  533). 

Perjury-mongering.  Harold  applies 
this  epithet  to  William,  because  he  en- 
trapped him  into  taking  an  oath  which 
he  meant  to  break. 

Edith,  Edith, 
Get  thou  into  thy  cloister  as  the  king 
WilPd  it;   be  safe:   the  perjury-mongering 

Court 
Hath  made  too  good  an  use  of  Holy  Church 
To  break  her  close. — Tennyson,  Harold,  v.  1. 

Perk,  a  pirk :  but  see  quotation. 
Miss  Edge  worth  (Ennui,  ch.  viii.)  says, 


PERKIN 


(  485  ) 


PERSPIRE 


"  Just  what  would  feed  a  cow  is  suffi- 
cient in  Ireland  to  f orm  a  park" 

Upon  inquiry  how  many  deer  his  father 
had  in  his  perk,  the  truth  will  out,  though 
to  shame  both  Scot  and  devil,  That  his 
father  kept  no  deer  in  his  perk,  aud  that 
the j  call  an  inclosure  a  perk  in  his  country. 
— Scotland  characterized,  1701  \Harl.  Misc., 
viii.  370). 

Pkrkin,  a  name  given  by  Evelyn  to 
the  Duke  of  Monmouth,  and  by  others 
to  the  Pretender,  in  aLusion  to  Peikin 
Warbeck. 

The  Perkin  had  been  made  to  believe  that 
the  king  had  married  her. — Evelyn.  Diary, 
July  15, 1686. 

I'll  undertake  to  prove  this  fellow  deep  in 
the  interest  of  young  Perkin.—  Cent  It  vre, 
Gotham  Election. 

If  you  ran  bring  me  unquestionable  proofs 
of  your  being  an  honest  man  .  .  .  and  that 
you'd  spend  every  shilling  of  my  portion 
iu  defence  of  liberty  and  property  against 
Perkin  and  the  Pope,  I'll  sign,  seal,  and  de- 
liver myself  into  your  hands  the  next  hour. 
—Ibid. 

Pbrpensity,  attention. 

I  desire  the  reader  to  attend  with  utmost 
perpensity;  for  now  I  proceed  to  unravel 
this  knotty  point.— Swift,  Tale  of  Tub,  sect.  9. 

Perpetrable,  capable  of  being 
perpetrated. 

No  wickedness  perpetraMe  with  safety  will 
be  left  undone  for  attaining  the  corrupt 
purchase.— Forth,  Examen,  p.  128. 

Peepetuaunce,  perpetuity. 

For  if  trust  to  the  gospell  do  purchase  per* 

petuaunce 
Of  life  unto  him  who  therein  hath  confidence. 
What  shall  the  light  do  ? 

New  Custom,  II.  i. 

Perpolitr,  very  polished. 

I  find  those  numbers  thou  do'st  write 
To  be  most  soft,  terce,  sweet,  and  perpolite. 
Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  323. 

Pebpondeb,  to  thoroughly  weigh  or 
pjnder. 

Perponder  of  the  Red-Herringe's  priority 
and  prevalence.— Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Hart. 
Mite,  vi.  157). 

Pebbour,  fringe  or  trimming  of 
vestments.  See  N.  and  Q.,  3rd  S.  III. 
449. 

Their  copes,  perrours,  and  chasubles,  when 
they  be  in  their  prelately  pompous  sacrifices. 
—Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  528. 

Perscrutation,  scrutiny. 

Such  guessing,  visioning,  dim  perscrutation 
of  the  momentous  future! — Carlyle,  Past 
and  Present,  Bk.  II.  ch.  viii. 


Persecutive,  persecuting. 

Use  is  made  of  persecutive  and  compelling 
power,  which  is  rather  brutish  than  humane. 
—Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  396. 

Persrcutress,  female  persecutor. 

Juno  the  Patronesse  of  the  chast,  and 
implacable  Persecutresse  of  immodest  women. 
— Stapylton,  Juvenal,  vi.  51,  note. 

Persecutrix,  female  persecutor. 

Knox  .  .  .  calls  her  .  .  .  that  Idolatrous 
and  mischievous  Mary  of  the  Spaniards 
blond,  and  cruel  persecutrix  of  God's  people. 
— Heylin,  Hist,  of  the  Presbyterians,  p.  142. 

The  venom  was  ejaculated  into  the  eyes 
and  upon  the  lips  of  its  persecutrix. — Kirby 
and  Spence,  Entomology,  i.  132. 

Persian,  a  species  of  silk ;    in  the 

second  extract,  a  window  blind. 

You  .  .  .  have  had  your  jerkin  made  of 
a  gum  taffeta,  and  the  body  liniug  of  it  of  a 
sarcenet  or  thin  persian.  —  Sterne,  Trist. 
Shandy,  ii.  115. 

Before  thy  song  (with  shifted  rhymes 

To  suit  my  name)  did  I  undo 
The  persian  ?    If  it  stirred  sometimes, 
Thou  hast  not  seen  a  hand  push  through 
A  foolish  flower  or  two. 

Mrs.  Browning,  Parting  Lovers. 

Persiflage,  light  raillery:  foreign 
words  in  the  book  quoted  are  always 
marked  by  italics ;  Miss  Edgeworth 
therefore  by  not  so  marking  pereiflnge, 
though  it  occurs  more  than  once,  seems 
to  regard  this  French  term  as  natural- 
ised. 

Beauclerc  could  not  be  drawn  out  either 
by  Churchill's  persiflage  or  flattery. — Miss 
Edgeworth,  Helen,  ph.  xvi. 

Personality,  usually  means  indi- 
vidua'ity  of  any  one,  or  else  personal 
reflection  on  another:  in  the  extract 
personalities  =  personal  qualities,  or 
advantages. 

I  now  and  then,  when  she  teases  me  with 
praises  which  Hickman  cannot  deserve,  in 
return  fall  to  praising  those  qualities  and 
personalities  in  Lovelace,  which  the  other 
-  never  will  have.  —  Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe, 
ii.  133. 

Perspirate,  to  perspire. 

The  sun  breaks  out  in  furious  Maze, 
I  perspirate  from  head  to  heel. 

Thackeray,  Carmen  Lilliense. 

Perspire,  to  breathe  through :  usually 
of  the  moisture  exuded  through  the 
pores. 

What  gentle  winds  perspire  /  As  if  here 
Never  nad  been  the  northern  plunderer 
To  strip  the  trees. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  240. 


PERSTAND 


<  4»6  ) 


PETTED 


Perstand,  to  understand.  I  have 
only  met  with  this  in  Peele's  Clyomon, 
but  v\  that  it  occurs  several  times. 

But,  lady,  say  what  is  yonr  will,  that  it  I 
may  perstand. — Peele,  Clyomon  and  Clamy- 
des,  I.  i. 

Perstrictive,  compressing. 

They  .  .  make  no  perstrictive  or  invective 
stroke  against  it.  —  Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  333. 

Persuadableness,  a  complying  dis- 
position. 

He  might  mean  to  recommend  her  an  a 
wife  by  snowing  her  persuadableness. — Miss 
Austen,  Mansfield  Parle,  ch.  xxviii. 

PERD8INE,  Peruvfan. 

The  American,  the  Perusine,  and  the  very 
Oanniball  do  sing  and  also  say  their  highest 
and  holiest  matters  in  certaine  riming  ver- 
aicles,  and  not  in  prose. — Puttenham,  Eng. 
Poesie,  Bk.  I.  ch.  v. 

The  soule  divine 
With  this  wilde  Goose-grasse  of  the  Perusine 
Hath  f  oure  great  quarrels. 

Sylvester,  Tobacco  Battered,  599. 

Pervert,  one  who  has  been  con- 
verted to  a  different  form  of  religion 
or  politics  from  that  favoured  by  the 
speaker;  most  generally  applied  to 
those  who  join  the  Church  of  Rome, 
having  been  previously  Protestants  or 
Anglicans.  It  is  a  word  of  late  intro- 
duction. L.  gives  it  without  example. 
See  Vert. 

That  notorious  u pervert n  Henry  of  Na- 
varre and  France.  —  Thackeray,  Roundabout 
Papers,  i. 

Pervicacy,  obstinacy ;  pervicacious- 
ne*8  is  the  word  in  the  Diets. 

Thomas  of  Oanterburie,  whom  hee  so  ad- 
mired for  his  piety,  while  others  condemned 
him  for  pervtcacie  against  his  prince. — Hol- 
land's Camden,  i.  328. 

While  Presbytery  continued  thus  humble 
and  poor  in  spirit,  it  was  esteemed  honest 
and  excusable  upon  Christian  charity,  plead- 
ing not  pervicacy,  but  necessity.  —  Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  13. 

Once  more  I  write,  although  imperiously 
prohibited  by  a  younger  sister ;  your  mother 
will  have  me  do  so,  that  you  may  be  desti- 
tute of  all  detence,  if  you  persist  in  your 
pervicacy.  Shall  I  be  a  pedant,  Miss,  for 
this  word  ? — Richardson,  CI.  Harlove,  ii.  31. 

Pessimism,  the  worst  or  lowest  point, 
or  the  spirit  which  regards  every  tiling 
as  rapidly  deteriorating. 

Public  criticism  is,  upon  works  of  fine 
literature,  at  the  very  point  of  pessimism. — 
Southey,  Letters,  1812  (ii.  253). 


Pbstful,  pestiferous. 

After  long  and  pestful  calms, 
With  slimy  shapes  and  miscreated  life 
Poisoniug  the  vast  Pacific,  the  fresh  breeze 
Wakens  the  merchant-sail  uprising. 

Coleridge,  Destiny  of  Nation*. 
The  Lybians pest-full  and  un-blest-full  shore- 

Sylvester,  The  Schisme,  417. 

Pesture,  injury ;  annoyance. 

The  King  of  France  repayring  his  wracked 
navie,  and  the  King  of  England's  long  stay- 
ing for  his,  forced  them  both  to  winter  in 
Sicilia,  to  the  great  pesture  and  disturbance 
of  that  people,  themselves,  and  theirs. — 
Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  98. 

Peter.  To  rob  Peter  to  pay  Paul. 
See  second  quotation  ;  Westminster 
Abbey  is  dedicated  to  St.  Peter. 

You  may  make  a  shift  by  borrowing  from 
Peter  to  pay  Paul  (faciez  versure)  and  with 
other  folks'  earth  fill  up  his  ditch. —  f>- 
quhart,  Rabelais,  Bk.  III.  ch.  iii. 

The  lands  of  Westminster  so  dilapidated 
by  Bishop  Thirlby  that  there  was  almost 
nothing  left  to  support  the  diguity  .  .  .  Most 
of  the  lands  invaded  by  the  great  men  of  the 
court,  the  rest  laid  out  for  reparation  to  the 
church  of  St.  Paul,  pared  almost  to  the  very 
quick  in  those  days  of  rapine.  From  hence 
first  came  that  significant  by-word  (as  is 
said  by  some;  of  robbing  Peter  to  pay  Paul. 
—Heylin,  Hist,  of  Ref.\  256. 

Petitor,  a  candidate. 

A  very  potent  (I  cannot  say  competitor, 
the  Bishop  himself  being  never  a  petitor  for 
the  place,  but)  desirer  of  this  office  was 
frustrated  in  his  almost  assured  expectation 
of  the  same  to  himself. — Fuller,  Ch*  Hist., 
XI.  ii.  48. 

Petrary,  a  machine  to  cast  stones. 

When  King  John  besieged  Bedford  Castle, 
there  were  on  the  East  side  one  petrary  and 
two  mangonels  daily  applying  against  the 
tower.— Archaol.,  iv.  384  (1777). 

Some  the  mangonels  supply, 
Or  charging  with  huge  stones  the  murderous 

sling 
Or  petrary. — Southey,  Joan  of  Arc,  bk.  viii. 

Petroville,  patrol  ? 

And  the  sheriffs  mounted  alia  capparisonee 
with  their  blue  coat  attendance,  rode  the 
Petroville  about  the  city  almost  all  night, 
and  no  one  attempted  to  make  a  bonefire. — 
North,  Examen,  p.  580. 

Pette,  dimple ;  pit. 

If  shee  have  her  hand  on  the  pette  in  her 
cheeke,  he  is  twyrking  of  his  mnstachios. — 
Breton,  Praise  of  Vertuous  Ladies,  p.  57. 

Petted,  offended. 

I  would  have  sent  to  inquire  after  them, 
but  I  was  petted  at  their  neglect  of  us  during 


PETTICOAT 


(  487  ) 


PHALAR1K 


onr  long  illness.—  H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality, 
i.  193. 

Petticoat,  used  adjectivally  for 
feminine.  L.  gives  petticoat  gi/vem- 
mtnt ;  and  adds,  "For  example  see 
under  press"  where,  however,  none  is 
to  be  found. 

Innkeeper.  What  does  this  petticoat 
preacherTroRftonAf  ru*]  do  here?  Get  yon  in, 
and  mind  your  kitchen. 

Wife.  Well,  so  I  will. 

Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  186. 

Author.  Mayhap  I  can  produce  still  better 
authority  to  prove  to  you,  my  friend,  that 
woman  was  not  merely  intended  to  form 
and  instruct  us,  to  soften  and  polish  the 
rudeness  of  our  mass;  she  was  also  ap- 
pointed to  native  empire  and  dominion  over 
man. 

Friend.  By  all  means,  my  dear  sir,  I  am 
quite  impatient  to  be  instructed  in  the  poli- 
cies and  constitution  of  this  your  petticoat- 
government. — H.  Brooke,  Foot  of  (quality,  i. 
199. 

Out  came  the  very  story,  which  I  had  all 
along  dreaded,  about  the  expurgation  of  my 
poems,  with  the  coarsest  ali'sions  to  petti- 
coat influence. — C.  Kinysley,  Alton  Locke,  ch. 
xxvii. 

Pettier,  scho'ars  low  in  the  school. 

Mr.  Lamb,  whom  succeeding  times  knew 
to  be  Dean  of  Arches,  came,  by  holding  fast 
to  Fortune's  middle  finger,  from  a  school- 
master that  taught  petiies,  to  a  proctor  in 
Christian  Courts,  and  so  to  an  official. — 
Racket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  37. 

Petto,  in  petto  =  in  the  breast,  and 

so,  in  reserve :  this  Italian  phrase  has 

almost    been    naturalized    among    us. 

See  extract  s.  v.  Warrish. 

In  this  view  they  were  open  and  clear; 
making  no  ceremony  of  declaring  what  the 
next  Parliament  was  to  inflict  upon  their 
adversaries,  whatever  else  they  might  hold 
undeclared  in  petto. — North,  Examtn,  p.  609. 

Pew,  a  box  in  a  theatre.  Lord  Bray- 
brooke  infers  from  this  that  pews  in 
church es  were  comparatively  rare,  as 
the  word  had  not  acquired  exclusively 
its  present  meaning.  He  adds,  "It 
would  appear  from  other  authorities 
that  between  1646  and  1660  scarcely 
any  pews  had  been  erected  ;  and  Sir  C. 
Wren  is  known  to  have  objected  to 
their  introduction  into  his  London 
churches."  Pepys,  however,  frequently 
mentions  his  pew  in  church.  Milton 
uses  the  word  of  a  sheep-pen,  with 
contemptuous  reference  to  those  pews 
from  which  "the  hungry  sheep  look 
up,  and  are  not  fed." 


His  sheep  oft-times  sit  the  while  to  as 
little  purpose  of  benefiting,  as  the  sheep  in 
their  pews  at  Smithfield. — Milton,  Means  to 
remove  Hirelings. 

To  White  Hall,  and  there,  by  means  of 
Mr.  Cooling,  did  get  into  the  play,  the  only 
one  we  have  seen  this  winter ;  it  was  The 
Five  Hours  Adventure ;  but  I  sat  so  far  I 
could  not  hear  well,  nor  was  there  any  pretty 
woman  that  I  did  see,  but  my  wife,  who  sat 
in  my  Lady  Fox's  pew  with  her.  —  Pepys, 
Feb.  15,  1668-9. 

Pewter- knots,  studs  or  ornaments 
mude  of  pewter  (?) 

Bavish  a  lock 
From  the  yellow  waiting-woman,  use  strata- 
gems 
To  get  her  silver  whistle,  and  way-lay 
Her  pewter-knots  or  bodkin  ? 

Maine,  City  Match,  ii.  3. 

Pezle  mezle,  pell-mell. 

The  Author  falls  pezle  mezle  upon  the 
king  himself.— North,  Examen,  p.  53. 

The  State  may  alter,  and  then  he  falls  in 
pesle-mesle. — Ibid.,  p.  151. 

Phalanstere,  a  French  word,  but 
used  as  English  in  the  subjoined,  the 
accent  being  omitted.  C.  Fourier,  the 
founder  of  Socialism,  wished  to  asso- 
ciate men  together  in  capital,  work, 
and  talent,  and  to  divide  them  into 
groupes,  series,  and  phalanges,  the  pha- 
lange was  to  be  the  simplest  social 
unit.  From  this  word,  phalanste)re 
was  manufactured  on  the  model  of 
monastere,  to  express  the  dwelling- 
place  of  the  phalange. 

Tracts  which  . .  .  having  first  laid  it  down 
as  a  preliminary  axiom  that 
"The  cloud-capt  towers,  the  gorgeous  palaces, 
The  solemn  temples,  the  great  globe  itself, 
Yea,  all  which  it  inherit,  shall  dissolve," 
substituted  in  place  thereof  Monsieur 
Fourier's  symmetrical  phalanstere,  or  Mr. 
Owen's  architectural  parallelogram. — Lytton, 
My  Novel,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  viii. 

The  man  who  thinks  it  would  be  so  much 
more  pleasant  to  live  at  his  ease  in  a  phalan- 
stere than  to  work  eight  or  ten  hours  a  day. 
— Ibid. 

Phalanstery,  same  as  phalanstere, 
q.  ▼. 

Every  room  of  it  held  its  family,  or  its 
group  of  families — a  phalanstery  of  all  the 
fiends. — C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  viii. 

England  is  a  huge  phalanstery,  where  all 
that  man  wants  is  provided  within  the  pre- 
cinct.— Emerson,  Eng.  Traits,  ch.  iii. 

Phalarik,  explained  in  the  margin, 
"  Instruments  of  warr  wherein  wild 
fire  is  put :  "  derived  from  Phalaris  the 


PHANTIKE 


(  488  )        PHILANTHROPE 


tyrant  of  Agrigentum,  for  whom  Peril- 
lus  made  the  brazen  bull  in  which  men 
were  roasted  alive.  Phalariiks  ure 
described  by  Montaigne :  see  Cottons 
Translation,  ch.  xxxvii. 


With  brakes  and  slings  and  Phalariks  they 

play, 
To  fier  their  fortress  and  their  men  to  slay. 

Sylvester,  The  Decay,  964 

Phantike,  fanatic. 

So  doth  the  Phantike  (lifting  vp  his  thought 
On  Satan's  wing)  tell  with  a  tongue  dis- 
traught 
Strange  oracles. 

Sylvester,  The  Imposture,  234. 

Pharaoh,  strong  ale.  H.  says  it  is 
mentioned  in  Praise  of  Yorkshire  Ale, 
1697,  p.  3.  See  also  extract  from  Tom 
Brown  s.  v.  Threb-thbkads. 

Pharaoh,  a  game  with  cards,  fashion- 
able in  the  last  century ;  it  resembled 
basset,  and  is  often,  and  more  correctly, 
spelt  faro  (Italian)  ■=  1  will  make. 
See  extract  from  Walpole  s.  v.  Quinzk. 
Pharaon  in  the  first  extract  may  be  a 
misprint. 

Nannette  last  night  at  twinkling  Pharaon 

play'd, 
The  cards  the  Taillier's  sliding  hand  obeyed. 

Gay  to  PtUteney. 

May  I  never  taste  the  dear  ctalight  of 
breaking  a  Pharaoh  bank,  or  bullying  the 
whole  room  at  a  brag-party,  if  ever  I  was  in 
thought,  word,  or  deed,  accessary  to  his  infi- 
delity.— The  way  to  keep  him,  Act  i.  (1760). 

Behold  a  hundred  coaches  at  her  door, 
Where  Pharo  triumphs  in  his  mad  career. 
Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  249. 

Pharoh,  =  shout  (in  use  among  the 
Irish  soldiery). 

That  barbarous  Pharoh  and  outcry  of  the 
Soldiers,  which  with  great  straining  of  their 
voice  they  use  to  set  up  when  they  joine 
battaile.— HollaneTs  Camden,  u.  75. 

Piiabol,  perhaps  a  misprint  for 
pharos,  a  watch-tower.  The  extract  is 
portion  of  a  comparison  between  the 
parts  of  a  man  and  the  parts  of  a  ship. 

His  ears  are  the  two  chief  scuttles,  his 
eyes  are  the  pfutrols,  the  stowage  is  his 
mouth.— Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  10. 

Pheon,  the  barbed  head  of  a  dart : 
most  commonly  used  as  a  term  of 
heraldry. 

Can'st  thou  his   skin  with   barbed  Pheons 
pierce? 

Sylvester,  Joh  Triumphant,  iv.  599. 


Philander,  to  court  or  flirt,  used 
of  either  sex,  but  general  y  of  men. 
Thackeray  (Esmond,  Bk.  III.  ch.  iv.) 
uses  the  word,  on  which  Dr.  Hall 
(Modern  English,  p.  275)  remarks, 
"  Who  in  Queen  Anne's  time  ever  heard 
...  of  tiie  verbs  cede,  olden,  philan- 
der?  This  verb  not  impossibly  did 
not  see  the  light  till  after  Mr.  Thackeray 
himself.  The  allusion  it  conveys  is 
old."  The  first  extract  from  Miss 
Edge  worth,  however,  is  of  earlier  date 
than  1812,  the  year  of  Thackeray's 
birth.  Philandering  is  also  given  sis  a 
Norfolk  provincialism  in  Hollo  way's 
Diet.,  1838;  and  in  Spurden's  Supple- 
ment to  Forby's  Vocubulary  of  East 
Anglia  (E.  D.  S.),  we  nnd,  "Philan- 
der, v.  real  Greek ;  how  we  came  by  it 
is  marvellous  ;  used  not  only  of  young 
girls  roaming  in  search  of  their  sweet- 
hearts, but  lads  occupied  in  the  same 
tender  pursuit.' *  In  Beaum.  and  Fl., 
Laws  of  Candy,  one  of  the  dramatis 
persona?  is  "Philander,  Prince  of  Cy- 
prus, passionately  in  love  with  Erota ;  " 
and  the  noun  as  applied  to  a  lover  may 
have  come  from  this.  In  Congreve's 
Way  of  the  World,  V.  i.,  which  ap- 
peared in  1700,  Lady  Wishfort  says, 
"I'll  couple  you;  I'll  baste  you  to- 
gether, vou  and  your  Philander;  "  and 
in  the  Toiler  for  May  10,  1709,  Sieele 
describes  Philander  ns  "  the  most 
skilful  of  all  men  in  an  address  to 
women." 

Sir  Kit  was  too  much  taken  up  philander- 
ing, to  consider  the  law  iu  this  case. — Miis 
Edyeworth,  Castle  Rackrent,  Pt.  II.  ^1800). 

He  will  coquet  for  a  time,  and  keep  philan- 
dering on  till  he  suits  himself,  and  then  he'll 
jilt  us. — Ibid.,  Vivian,  ch.  vii. 

Yon  can't  go  philandering  after  her  again 
for  six  weeks.  —  G.  Eliot,  D.  Deronda,  ch. 

XXV. 

Philanderer,  a  flirter;  one  who 
bangs  about  women. 

At  last,  without  a  note  of  warning,  ap- 
peared in  Beddgelert  a  phenomenon  which 
rejoiced  some  hearts,  but  perturbed  also  the 
spirits,  not  only  of  the  Oxford  philanderers, 
but  those  also  of  Elsley  Vavasour. — Kingsley, 
Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xix. 

Philanthrope,  a  philanthropist,  or 
lover  of  men. 

^  He  had  a  goodness  of  nature  and  disposi- 
tion in  so  great  a  degree  that  he  may  be  de- 
servedly styled  a  philanthrope. — North,  Lite 
of  Lord  Guilford,  11.  127. 


PHILANTHR0P1STIC   (  489  )  PHILOFELIST 


Philanthropistic,  professing  bene- 
volence. 

Over  the  wild-surging  chaos  in  the  leaden 
air  are  only  suddeu  glares  of  revolutionary 
lightning ;  then  mere  darkress  with  philan- 
thropistic phosphorescences,  empty  meteoric 
lights. — Carlyle,  Life  of  Sterling,  ch.  v. 

Philarea,  a  genus  of  Mediterranean 
evergreen  shrubs,  Be  vend  species  of 
which  are  cultivated  in  our  gardens. 

In  his  garden  he  has  four  large  round 
philarcas  smooth  clipped,  raised  on  a  single 
stalk. — Document  dated  1691  (Jrch.y  tii.  188). 

His  fears  of  being  discovered  to  act  on 
both  sides  had  made  him  take  the  rushing 
of  a  little  dog  (that  always  follows  him) 
through  the  phy  Hi  rta-hedge  for  Betty's  being 
at  hand. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  hi.  111. 

Philargurods.  money-loving,  a  word 
used  by  L' Estrange  of  Hey  1  in,  and 
sneered  at  in  the  subjoined. 

He  sufficiently  confuted  the  calumny  of 
L'E^trange  who  said,  accordiug  to  his  geutill 
and  new  mode  of  writing  hard  words,  the 
Doctor  was  philaraurous,  when,  poor  man, 
what  he  parted  with,  aud  what  he  was  plun- 
dered of,  he  had  fcarce  enough  left  to  "  in- 
sconce  his  person  from  frigidity,"  according 
to  the  good  squire's  language.  —  Barnard, 
Life  of  Heylin,  p.  194. 

Philautia,  self-love;  but  Tyndale 
uses  it  for  philosophy,  implying,  per- 
haps, that  self-love  was  mingled  with 
this.  Joseph  Beaumont  (Psyche)  has 
philauty  several  times ;  and  it  occurs 
also  in  Urquhart's  Rabelais  >  Bk.  III. 
ch.  xxix. 

They  will  say  yet  more  shamefully  that 
no  man  can  understand  the  Scriptures  with- 
out  philautia,  that  is  to  say,  philosophy.  .  .  . 
And  there  corrupt  they  their  judgements 
with  apparent  arguments,  aud  with  alleging 
unto  them  texts  of  logic,  of  natural  philautia, 
of  metaphysic,  and  moral  philosophy.  — 
Tyndale,  i.  154, 157. 

Philazer,  or  Philizer,  an  officer  in 
the  Common  Pleas,  more  properly  spelt 
JUazer^  one  who  files  those  writs 
whereon  he  makes  out  process.  See 
quotation  s.  v.  Ex  I o enter. 

Thomas  Wiuford  .  .  had  formerly  heen 
philazer  of  Surrey,  &c,  and  surrendered  that 
office  into  my  hands.—  North,  Life  of  Lord 
Guilford,  ii.  47. 

Philigree,  an  incorrect  spelling  of 
filigree. 

It  is  a  little  play-thing-house  .  .  .  set  in 
enamelled  meadows  with  philigree  hedges. — 
Waljxtle,  Letter*,  i.  163. 

On  this  stole  were  placed,  at  about  the 


distance  of  six  inches  from  each  other,  quatre- 
foils  of  philligree-work. —  Archaol.,  iii.  382 
(1775). 

Philip  and  Cheyney.  N.  says,  "A 
sort  of  stuff ; "  and  H.,  who  refers  to 
N.,  says,  u  formerly  much  esteemed." 
I  believe  the  reverse  to  have  been  the 
case.  In  the  first  passage  in  N.  (Beaum. 
and  Fl.,  Wit  at  Several  Weapons,  II. 
i.),  Lady  Rainous  sneers  at  a  sum  of 
money  as  scarce  enough  "  to  put  a  lady 
in  Philip  and  Cheyney  ...  like  a 
chain  ber- in  a  id  ;  "  in  the  second  (Tay- 
lor, Praise  of  Htmpseed),  the  meaning 
is  that  not  only  is  there  no  silver,  or 
gold,  or  tissue,  but  even  Philip  and 
cheiny  are  "not  within  our  bounds." 
Hence  Philip  and  Cheiny  came  to  be 
used  as  two  names  to  signify  tag,  rag, 
and  bobtail ;  so  we  say,  Tom,  Dick,  or 
Harry.  The  words  "more  than  a 
good  meiny"  seem  to  have  been  often 
added,  perhaps  more  for  the  sake  of 
the  jingle  than  of  the  sense.  In  the 
third  extract  Becon  is  speaking  of 
prayers  for  the  dead. 

It  was  not  his  entent  to  bryng  unto  Sylla 

phi  Up  and  cheinie.  mo  than  a  good  memy, 

but  to  bryng  liable  souldiours  of  manhood 

approued  and  well  tried  to  his  handes. — 

Udal's  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  311. 

Loiterers  I  kept  so  meanie, 
Both  rhilip,  Hob,  and  Cheanie. 

Tusser,  p.  8. 

Ye  pray  for  Philip  and  Cheny  more  than  a 
good  "meany. — Becon,  iii.  270. 

Philistines,  bailiffs,  or  even,  as  in 
the  passage  quoted  from  Smollett, 
creditors :  the  more  modern  use  of  the 
word  is  noticed  in  L.,  though  Swift 
seems  to  use  it  something  in  this  sense. 

Lady  Cons.  But,  Colonel,  they  say  you 
went  to  Court  last  night  very  drunk ;  nay, 
I  am  told  for  certain  you  had  been  among 
the  Philistians.  —  Swift,  Polite  Conversation 
(Conv.  i.). 

She  was  too  ignorant  of  such  matters  to 
know  that  if  he  had  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  the  Philistines  (which  is  the  name  given 
by  the  faithful  to  bailiffs),  he  would  hardly 
have  been  able  so  soon  to  recover  his  liberty. 
— Fielding \  Amelia,  Bk.  V.  ch.  vi. 

I  must  make  an  effort  to  advance  what 
further  will  be  required  to  take  my  friend 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  Philistines. — Smollett, 
Humphrey  Clinker,  ii.  191. 

Philofklist,  a  lover  of  cats. 

Dr.  Southey,  who  is  known  to  be  a  philo- 
felist,  and  confers  honours  upon  his  cats 
according  to  their  services,  has  raised  one  to 


PHILOGALIST  (  490  ) 


PIAZZJAN 


the  highest  rank  in  peerage.— Southey,  The 
Doctor,  Fragment  of  Interchapter. 

He  made  himself  acquainted  with  all  the 
philofelists  of  the  family.  —  J  bid.  (Cats  of 
Greta  Hall). 

Philogalist,  a  lover  of  milk. 

Ton  .  .  are  a  philogalist,  and  therefore 
understand  . .  .  cat  nature. — Southey,  Letters, 
1812  (iii.  240). 

Ph I lo -garlic,  loving  garlic:  so 
Southey  has  Philo-pig.  See  *.  v.  Bald- 
sib. 

With  these  pkilo-garlic  men  Kate  took 
her  departure.  —  De  Quincey,  Spanish  Attn, 
sect.  9. 

Philogtny,  love  of  womanhood. 

We  will  therefore  draw  a  curtain  over  this 
scene  from  that  philooyny  which  is  in  us. — 
Fielding,  Jonathan  Wild,  Bk.  I.  ch.  x. 

He  was  a  Turk,  the  colour  of  mahogany, 
And  Laura  saw  him,  and  at  first  was  glad. 

Because  the  Turks  so  much  admire  philoayny, 
Although  their  usage  of  their  wives  is  sad. 

Byron,  Beppo,  st.  70. 

Philologue,  a  philologist.  L.  says 
that  philologue,  the  best  form  of  the 
word,  is  the  rarest  (it  is  in  none  of  the 
other  Diets.,  and  the  only  example  he 
gives  is  from  his  own  writings),  and 
philologer,  the  worst  form,  is  the  most 
frequent.  In  the  subjoined  philologue 
is  the  word  in  the  original,  and  in  the 
Glossary  attached  to  Barry's  edition  of 
Rabelais  is  explained,  "ami  des  lettres; 
philologv*." 

This  is  the  fittest  and  most  proper  hour 
wherein  to  write  these  high  matters  and 
deep  sentences,  as  Homer  knew  very  well, 
the  paragon  of  all  pfiilologues. — Urauharfs 
BabelaiSybV.  i.  (Author's  Prologue). 

Philosophedom,  the  realm  of  philoso- 
phy. 

They  entertain  their  special  ambassador  in 
Philosophedom,  their  lion's  provider  to  furnish 
Philosophe-provender.  —  Carlyle,  Misc.,  iii 
216. 

Phosphorus,  the  morning  star;  the 
bringer  of  light.  D'Urfey  addresses 
the  Earl  of  Dorset  as  "The  Morning 
Planet,  Photfer  of  your  time." 

John  Baptist  was  that  Phosphorus  or  morn- 
ing star,  to  signify  the  sun's  approaching. — 
Adams,  iii.  224. 

He  wants  nothing  but  a  blue  ribbon  and  a 
star  to  make  him  shine  the  very  Phosphorus 
of  our  hemisphere.  Do  vou  understand 
those  two  hard  words?  If  you  don't,  I'll 
explain  'em  to  you. — Congreve,  Double  Dealer, 
ii.  1. 


Photometrician,  measurer  of  light. 

Dr.  Zollner,  the  eminent  German  phcto- 
metrician. — R.  A.  Proctor,  The  Sun  (1871),  p- 
302. 

Phraseman.  speaker  of  phrases. 

The  poor  wretch,  who  has  learnt  his  only 

prayers 
From    curses,  who   knows    scarcely  words 

enough 
To  ask  a  blessing  from  his  Heavenly  Father, 
Becomes  a  fluent  phraseman,  absolute 
And  technical  in  victories  and  deceit, 
And  all  our  dainty  terms  for  fratricide. 

Coleridge,  Fears  in  Solitude. 

Phrontisterion,  school  or  semimary. 
L.  has  phrontutery  with  extract  from 
a  work  of  1672. 

Pan.  Whose  lodging's  this?  is  't  not  the 

astrologer's  ? 
Ron.  His  lodging?   no!    'tis  the  learn'd 

phrontisterion 
Or  most  Divine  Albumaiar. 

Albumazar,  i.  3. 

Phthisicky,  consumptive. 

One  was  for  consuming  975  papers  of 
tobacco  in  six  months,  without  any  asaist- 
auoe,  to  the  poisoning  of  many  a  ptisicky 
citizen  about  Temple  Bar.  —  T.  Brovn, 
Works,  ii.  190. 

As  to  the  watering-places,  I'm  told  nobody 
goes  there  that's  fit  to  go  anywhere  else — 
cripples  and  sharpers — phthisicky  old  gentle- 
women and  frolicksome  young  ones. — Col- 
man,  The  Spleen,  Act  I. 

Phthisozoics.     See  extract. 

The  second  belongs  to  a  science  which 
Jeremy,  the  thrice  illustrious  Ben tham,  calls 
Phthisozoics,  or  the  art  of  destruction  ap- 

Slied  to  noxious    animals.  —  Southey,  The 
>octor,  ch.  cexxviii. 

Physeter,  a  large  whale.  R.  does 
not  give  the  word,  though  s.  v.  whirl- 
pool he  has  a  quotation  from  Holland 
in  which  it  occurs. 

When  on  the  surges  I  perceiue  from  fax 
Th'    Ork,    Whirlpool,    Whale,   or    huffing 

Physeter, 
Methinks  I  see  the  wandering  ile  again 
(Ortygian  Delos)  floating  on  the  main. 

Sylvester,  Fifth  day,  first  weeke,  109. 

Piaculary,  criminal. 

He  lived  and  died  with  general  councils 
in  his  pate,  with  windmills  of  union  to  con- 
cord Rome  and  England,  England  and  Rome, 
Germany  with  them  both,  and  ail  other 
sister  Churches  with  the  rest,  without  asking 
leave  of  the  Tridentine  Council.  This  was 
his  piaculary  heresy. — Racket,  Life  of  Wil- 
liams, i.  102. 

Piazzian,  pertaining  to  a  piazza  or 
arcade. 


PICCANINNY  (  491  ) 


PIECENER 


Or  where  in  Plato's  gardens  palatine, 
Mulciber's  columns  gleam  in  far  piazzian 
line. — Keats,  Lamia. 

Piccaninny,  a  child :  a  West  Indian 
word. 

Bat  spite  of  pounds  or  guineas, 

Instead  of  giviug  any  hint, 

Of  turning  to  a  neutral  tint, 
The  plaguy  negroes  and  their  piccaninnies 
Were  still  the  colour  of  the  bird  that  caws. 

Hood,  A  Black  Job, 

Pick,  the  diamond,  in  a  playing-card, 
so  culled  from  the  point. 

And  here  and  there 
And  farther  off,  and  everywhere ; 
Throughout  that  brave  mosaick  yard 
Those  picks  or  diamonds  in  the  card : 
With  peeps  of  harts,  and  club,  and  spade, 
Are  here  most  neatly  interlaid. 

Herrxck,  Hesperides,  p.  177. 

Pickage,  money  paid  for  breaking 
ground  by  those  who  set  up  booths  at 
fairs.  The  extract  is  from  the  form 
used  in  granting  the  freedom  of  Bever- 
ley. 

Know  ye  that  King  Athelstan  of  famous 
memory  did  grant  ...  an  exemption  of  all 
manner  of  Imposts,  Toll,  Tallage,  Stallage, 
Tannage,  Lastage,  Pickage,  Wharfage.  — 
Defoe,  Tour  thro*  G.  Britain,  in.  188. 

Pickled,  roguish :  a  troublesome  or 
mischievous  child  is  still  often  called  a 
pickle.  R.  gives  the  phrase,  a  pickled 
rogtte^  but  no  example. 

His  poor  boy  Jack  was  the  most  comical 
bastard— ha,  ha,  ha,  ha,  ha, — a  pickled  dog,  I 
shall  never  forget  him. — Farquhar,  Recruit" 
ing  Officer,  Act  V. 

Pick-pocketism,  picking  pockets. 

The  ordinary  pick-pocket  filches  a  purse, 
and  the  matter  is  at  an  end.  He  neither 
takes  honor  to  himself  openly  on  the  score 
of  the  purloined  purse,  nor  does  he  subject 
the  individual  robbed  to  the  charge  of  pick' 
pocketism  in  his  own  person. — E.  A,  Foe, 
Marginalia,  clxxxviii. 

Pick-purse  (used  adjectivally),  mer- 
cenary ;  fraudulent.  The  speaker  is  a 
Protestant  prisoner  arraigned  before 
Bonner,  1555. 

Such  pick-purse  matters  is  all  the  whole 
rabble  of  your  ceremonies;  for  all  is  but 
money  matters  that  ye  maintain. — Maitland 
on  Reformation,  p.  529. 

Pickthank,  to  obtain  by  false  and 
flattering  means. 

It  had  been  a  more  probable  story  to  have 
said  he  did  it  to  pickthank  an  opportunity  of 
getting  more  money.  —  North,  Examen,  p. 
278. 


Pick-tooth,  leisurely ;  as  it  is  in 
vacant  moments  that  the  toothpick  is 
usually  employed. 

My  lord  and  I  after  a  pretty  cheerful  tete- 
a-tete  meal,  sat  ns  down  by  the  fireside  in  an 
easy,  indolent,  pick-tooth  way  for  about  a 
quarter  of  an  hour. — Cibber,  Provoked  Hus- 
band, Act  m. 

Picquerer,  a  skirmisher;    one  who 

carries  on  a  guerilla  warfare. 

This  I  shall  do,  as  in  other  concerns  of 
this  history,  by  following  the  author's  steps, 
for  he  is  now  a  picquerer,  relates  nothing 
bat  by  way  of  cavil. — North,  Examen,  p.  406. 

Picturesquish,  belonging  to  the 
picturesque. 

For  many  a  mile  he  had  not  seen 
But  one  unvarying  level  green ; 
Nor  had  the  way  one  object  brought 
That  wak'd  a  picturesquish  thought. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  i.  c.  16. 

Pie,  the  name  given  by  printers  to 
their  types  when  mixed  together  in 
confusion,  referring  I  suppose  to  "the 
number  and  hardness  of  the  rules  called 
the  Pi*." 

Unordered  paradings  and  clamour,  not 
without  strong  liquor;  objurgation,  insub- 
ordination ;  your  military  ranked  arrange- 
ment going  all  (as  the  typographers  say  of 
set  types  in  a  similar  case)  rapidly  to  pie. — 
Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iv. 

This  same  Dictionary  without  judgment 
and  without  arrangement,  bad  Dictionary 
gone  to  pie,  as  we  may  call  it,  is  the  store- 
house from  which  subsequent  biographies 
have  all  furnished  themselves. — Ibid.,  Crom- 
well, i.  12. 

Piece.  The  Diets,  give  this  =  a 
woman,  but  it  also  sometimes  means  a 
man.  In  the  second  extract  a  woman 
is  addressing  a  man. 

What  complyings  and  cringings  must  this 
poore  perplexed  Minister  use  to  fence  him- 
self against  the  crafty  agitations  of  bis  spite- 
full  neighbours  and  those  pragmatick  pieces 
who  in  every  corner  doe  hover  over  the  heads 
of  Ministers,  as  Kites  doe  over  Pigeons. — Gau- 
den,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  228. 

Many  fears  urge  my  eares 
That  I  should  careful  be, 

I  f  eare  I  match  a  crabbed  piece 
If  I  should  marry  thee. 

Roxburgh  Ballads,  ii.  441. 

Piecener.    See  extract. 

The  children  whose  duty  it  is  to  walk 
backwards  and  forewards  before  the  reels, 
on  which  the  cotton,  silk,  or  worsted  is 
wound,  for  the  purpose  of  joining  the 
threads  when  they  break  are  called  r'ecer 


PIECER 


(  492  ) 


PIKE 


or  pieceners. — Mrs.  Trollope,  Michael  Arm- 
strong, ch.  viii. 

Pieces.    See  Piecener. 

Pieces,  at  all,  at  all  points. 

The  image  of  a  man  at  Armes  on  horse- 
backe,  armed  at  all  peeces,  with  a  launce  in 
his  hand. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  780. 

Horsemen  armed  at  all  peeces. — Ibid.,  p. 
783. 

Pielf,  to  pilfer.  See  quotation  *.  v. 
Christen  tee. 

The  one  partee  bad  pielf ed  or  embesleed 
awaie  a  thiug  of  the  others. — XJdaVs  Eras- 
mus's  Apophtk.y  p.  141. 

Piq-cheer,  food  from  the  pig,  as 
ham,  sausages,  pork,  &c.  ;  the  word  is 
used  in  Yorkshire,  and  applied  especi- 
ally to  dishes  mude  from  the  viscera  of 
the  pig.  See  Holderness  Glossary  (E. 
D.  S.). 

Christmas  was  formerly,  as  now,  the  prin- 
cipal 6easom  for  pig-cheer. — Arch.,  xliv.  208 
(1871). 

Pigeon-toed,  putting  the  feet  down 
straight,  not  turning  out  the  toes. 

The  jacket,  the  loose  trousers  bows'd  up 

together — all 
Guiltless  of    braces    as    those    of    Charles 

Wetherall, 
The   pigeon-toed   step    and    the    rollicking 

motion, 
Bespoke   them   two   genuine   sons  of   the 

Ocean. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (Dead  Drummer). 

Pigeon  wood. 

My  lady  Hervey,  who  you  know  doats 
upon  everything  French,  is  charmed  with 
the  hopes  of  these  new  shoes,  and  has  already 
bespoke  herself  a  pair  of  pigeon  icood. —  JVal- 
pole,  Letters,  i.  121  (1745). 

Pigment,  explained  by  Scott  in  a 
note  in  loc.  as  "  a  sweet  and  rich 
liquor  composed  of  wine  highly  spiced, 
and  sweetened  also  with  honey." 

Oswald,  broach  the  oldest  wine-cask ;  place 
the  best  mead,  the  mightiest  ale,  the  richest 
morat,  the  most  sparkling  cider,  the  most 
odoriferous  pigments  upon  the  board. — Ivan- 
hoe,  i.  49. 

Pigmie,  a  small  species  of  apple  ? 

A  foot  like  a  bear,  a  leg  like  a  bedstaff ,  a 
hand  like  a  hatchet,  an  eye  like  a  pig,  and  a 
face  like  a  winter  pigmie.  —  Rowley,  Match 
at  Midnight,  Act  II. 

Pigs.  To  bring  pigs  to  a  fine  market 
s=  to  be  disappointed  or  unsuccessful ; 
to  carry  pigs  to  market  =  to  deal  or  do 

business. 


Strap  with  a  hideous  groan  observed  that 
we  had  brought  our  pigs  to  a  fine  market. — 
Smollett,  R.  Random,  ch.  xv. 

Roger  may  carry  his  pigs  to  another  market. 
—Ibid.,  H.  Clinker,  i.  89. 

Pigs.  Please  the  pigs,  a  very  com- 
mon expression  =  if  all  be  well.  Some 
have  supposed  it  to  be  a  corruption 
of  "  pleuse  the  pix,"  which  held  the 
Host;  others  think  it  an  abbreviation 
of  "  please  the  pixies,"  or  fairies.  See 
extract  *.  v.  Pop. 

I'll  have  one  of  the  wigs  to  carry  into  the 
country  with  me,  and  please  the  pig*. — T. 
Brown,  Works,  ii.  198. 

Pig-sconck,  a  fool ;  a  pig's  head. 

Jonson,  quoted  by  K..has  "pig-headed 

sconce." 

Ding.  He  is  no  pig-sconce,  mistress. 
Secret.  He  has  an  excellent  head-piece. 

Massinger,  City  Madam,  III.  i. 

Pig  together,  to  associate  together 
in  a  confused  or  untidy  way. 

When  reason  sleeps,  extravagance  breaks 
loose ;  quality  and  peasantry  pig  together ; 
there  is  no  difference  between  a  lord  and  a 
lacquey,  but  that  he  is  more  to  blame. — 
Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  537 

How  the   Smiths   contrived    to   live,    and 

whether 
The  fourteen  Murphy*  all  pjgg'd  together. 

Hood,  Tale  of  a  Trumpet. 

Pike,  a  turnstile ;  also  an  abbrevi- 
ation of  turnpike.  The  second  quot- 
ation is  taken  from  a  note  on  the  first 
in  Bp.  Jacobson's  edition  of  Sanderson. 
To  pass  the  pikes  was  a  proverbial 
phrase  expressive  of  difficulty.  Another 
example  will  be  found  in  Burton's  An- 
atomy  of  Melancholy,  p.  589. 

Neither  John's  mourning  nor  Christ's 
piping  can  pass  the  pikes;  but  the  one  hath 
a  devil,  the  other  is  a  glutton  and  a  wine- 
bibber. — Sanderson,  ii.  45. 

There  were  many  pikes  to  be  passed  through, 
a  complete  order  of  afflictions  to  be  under- 
gone and  accomplished. — Hacket,  3rd  Sermon 
on  the  Transfiguration. 

"Wery  queer  life  is  a  /nfo-keeper's,  sir 
..  .  .  they're  all  on  'em  men  as  has  met 
with  some  disappointment  in  life,"  said  Mr. 
Weller,  senior  .  .  .  "Consequence  of  vich 
they  retires  from  the  world,  and  shut  them- 
selves up  in  pikes.n — Pickwick  Papers,  ch. 
xxii. 

Pike,  quarrel  (?) 

Consisting  of  manifold  dispositions  there 
was  dayly  wauerin^,  sometimes  pikes  amongst 
themselues. — Darnel,  Mist,  of  Eng.,  p.  151. 

This  caused  new  pikes  of  displeasure.— 
Ibid.,  p.  153. 


PIKEMAN 


(  493  ) 


PILOTEER 


Pikeman,  a  turn-pike  keeper. 

Then  there  was  .  .  .  the  cheery  toot  of 
the  guard '8  horn  to  warn  some  drowsy  pike- 
man  or  the  ostler  at  the  next  change. — 
Hughes,  Tom  Brown's  School  Days,  Pt.  I. 
ch.  iv. 

Pilate's  voice,  a  loud  voice,  such  as 
belonged  to  the  part  of  Pilate  in  the 
mystery-plays. 

He  heard  a  certain  oratour  speaking  out 
of  measure  loude  and  high,  and  altogether 
in  Pilate's  voice. — VdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth., 
p.  382. 

Pilch,  to  pilfer. 

Some  steale,  some  pilch, 
Some  all  away  filch. 

Tusser,  Husbandries  p.  33. 

Pile,  Applied  to  a  town. 

Takiug  a  jorney  on  a  time  to  the  towne 
of  Myndus,  he  sawe  great  wide  gates  and  of 
gorgious  or  royal  building,  where  as  the 
towne  was  but  a  little  preaty  pyle.—  UdaTs 
Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  146. 

Pile,  castle. 

They  left  neither  pile,  village,  nor  house 
standing  unburnt. — Expedition  in  Scotland, 
1544  (Ena.  Garner,  i.  119). 

The  inhabitants  at  this  day  call  it  Mil- 
nesse;  and  as  small  a  village  as  it  is,  yet 
hath  it  a  pile. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  775. 

Swinburne,  a  little  castle  or  pile,  which 
gave  name  unto  a  worthy  family. — Hid., 
p.  806. 

Pilgrimage,  to  go  as  a  pilgrim. 

To  Egypt  shell  pilgrimage,  at  Meroe  fill, 
Warme  drops  to  sprinkle  Isis  Temple. 

Stapylton,  Juvenal,  vi.  555. 

He  .  .  pilgrimaged  from  one  sanctuary  to 
another— Escape  of  Charles  II.  1660  (Harl. 
Misc.,  iv.  447). 

Like  pilgrimaging  rats, 
Unawed  by  mortals,  and  unscared  by  cats. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  186. 

Pilgrim-salve,  an  old  ointment.    See 

H.,  but  in  the  subjoined  it  =  ordure. 

The  whole  pavement  is  pilgrim-salve,  most 
excellent  to  liquor  shoes  withal,  and  soft 
and  easy  for  the  bare-foot  perambulators. — 
Modern  Account  of  Scotland,  1670  (Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  137). 

Pill.    See  extracts :  also  H.  «.  v. 

Pill  is  a  small  creek  capable  of  holding 
vessels  to  load  and  unload.  It  is  perhaps  a 
word  peculiar  to  the  Severn. — Archeol.,  xxix. 
163  (1819). 

The  terra  pyll  is  still  nsed,  and  means  a 
creek  subject  to  the  tide.  The  pylls  are  the 
channels  through  which  the  draining*  of  the 
marshes  enter  the  river. — P.  de  la  Garde  on 
Loch  Canal,  Exeter,  1840  (Ibid.,  xxviii.  19). 


About  two  miles  north  of  Oldbury  is  a 
pill  or  mouth  of  a  brook.  —  Ibid.,  xiz.  10 
(1841). 

Pill,  to  black  ball. 

He  was  coming  on  for  election  at  Bay's* 
and  was  as  nearly  pilled  as  any  man  I  ever 
knew  in  my  life. — Thackeray,  Neiccomes,  ch. 
xxx. 

Pillar.  From  pillar  to  post,  or 
From  post  to  pillar  =  to  and  iro. 

From  thee  poast  toe  piler  with  thoght  his 
rackt  wyt  he  tosseth. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iv. 
296. 

And,  dainty  duke,  whose  doughty  dismal 

fame 
From  Dis  to  Dsedalus,/rom  post  to  pillar 
Is  blown  abroad,  help  me   thv  poor  well- 
wilier. — Ttco  Noble  Kinsmen,  lii.  5. 

In  the  tyme  of  her  sister  Queene  Marie's 
raigne  how  was  she  handled?  tost  from 
pillar  to  post,  imprisoned,  sought  to  be  put 
to  death.  —  Breton,  Character  of  Elizabeth, 
p.  5. 

Our  Guards  from  pillar  banged  to  post, 
He  kick'd  about  till  they  were  lost. 

Cotton,  Scarronides,  p.  62. 

Pillaret,  small  pillar. 

The  Cathedrall  of  Salisbury  (dedicated  to 
the  Blessed  Virgin)  is  paramount  in  this 
kind,  wherein  the  Doors  and  Ohappells  equal 
the  Months,  the  Windows  the  Davs,  the 
Pillars  and  Pillaret  s  of  Fusil  1  Marble  (an 
ancient  Art  now  shrewdly  suspected  to  be 
lost)  the  Hours  in  the  Year. — Fuller,  Wor- 
thies, Wilts  (ii.  436). 

[A  font]  at  Ancaster  with  interlaced  arches 
on  long  pillarets,  like  another  at  Neswick  in 
Yorkshire.— Archaol.,  x.  188  (1792). 

Pillion,  the  head-dress  of  a  priest. 
See  H. :  hence  pylyoned  =  adorned 
with  such  head-dress. 

The  idolatour,  the  tyraunt,  and  the  whore- 
mongar  are  no  mete  mynisters  for  hym, 
though  they  be  never  so  gorgyously  mytered, 
coped,  and  tippeted,  or  never  so  finely  forced, 
pylioned  and  scarletted. —  Vocacyon  of  Jolian 
Bale,  1553  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  442). 

Pill-monger,  contemptuous  name 
for  an  apothecary. 

There  has,  Major,  been  here  an  impudent 
pill-monger,  who  has  dar'd  to  scandalize  the 
whole  body  of  the  bench. — Foote,  Mayor  of 
Garret,  Act  I. 

Piloteer,  pilot. 

As  to  the  Pole  the  lilly  bends 
In  a  sea-compass,  and  still  tends, 
By  a  magnetic  mystery, 
Unto  the  Arctic  point  in  sky, 
"Whereby  the  wandering  piloteer 
His  course  in  gloomy  nights  doth  steer. 

Howell,  Letters,  iii.  4. 


PILL-PATE 


(  494  ) 


PINTADO 


Pill-pate,  shaveling;  one  who  has 
the  tonsure. 

These  smeared  pill-pates,  I  would  say  pre- 
lates, first  of  all  accused  him,  and  afterward 
pronounced  the  sentence  of  death  upon  him. 
— Becon,  ii.  815. 

Pilotless,  without  a  pilot. 

Though  Rudder -lease,  not  Pilot -lease  this 

Boat 
Among  the  Reeds  by  the  Floud's  side  did 

float.— Sylvester,  The  Lav*,  168. 

Pilulous,  like  or  belonging  to  a  pill. 

Has  any  one  ever  pinched  into  its  pilulous 
smallness  the  cobweb  of  pre-matrimonial 
acquaintanceship?— G.  Eliot,  Middlemarch, 
ch.  ii. 

P  i  m  p l  B.  Pimple  in  a  bent,  some- 
thing very  minute.  Cf.  Knot  in  a 
bush. 

I  could  lay  down  heere  sundrye  examples, 
were  yt  not  I  should  bee  thoght  oner  curious, 
by  prying  owt  a  pimple  in  a  bent. — Stany- 
hui  st,  JEneid,  Dedic. 

Pimps.  See  extract.  Grose  says 
that  they  are  so  called  because  they  in- 
troduce the  coals  to  the  fire. 

Here  they  make  those  faggots  which  the* 
wood-mongers  call  Ostrey-wood,  and  in  par- 
ticular those  small  light  bavins  which  are 
used  in  taverns  in  London  to  light  their 
fagots,  and  are  called  in  the  taverns  a  Brush, 
and  by  the  wood-men  Pimps.— Defoe.  Tour 
thro'  G.  Britain,  i.  138. 

Pinch-commons,  miser. 

What  if  this  house  be  strewed  in  rains 
before  morning?  Where  would  be  the 
world's  want  in  the  crazed  projector,  and 
the  niggardly  pinch-commons  by  which  it  is 
inhabited  ?—&»«,  Pirate,  i.  92. 

Pincdshioned,  pierced  or  perforated 
like  a  pincushion. 

Her  heart  was  pt'ncushioned  with  his  filial 
Crimea.— Thackeray,  Lovel  the  Widower,  ch.  iv. 

Pindfool,  a  ludicrous  and  sarcastic 
form  of  pinfold. 

Then  began  the  pindfools  and  cloisters  to 
be  made  in  the  Churches  to  reserve  their 
new  God  in.— Hooper,  i.  527. 

Pin-drop.  A  pin-drop  silence  =  a 
profound  silence,  in  which  one  might 
hear  a  pin  drop. 

A  pin-drop  silence  strikes  o'er  all  the  place. 

Leiyh  Hunt,  Rimini,  c.  i. 

Pin-eyed.  Crabbe  explains  in  a 
note,  "  An  auricula,  or  any  other  single 
flower,  is  so  called^  when  the  stigma 
(the  part  which  arises  from  the  seed- 


vessel)  is  protruded  beyond  the  tube  of 
the  flower,  and  becomes  visible." 

This  is  no  shaded,  run-off,  pin-eyed  thing, 
A  king  of  flowers,  a  flower  for  England's 
king. — Crabbe,  Borough,  Letter  viii. 

Pink,  a  beauty.  Pink  of  perfection, 
courtesy,  &c,  are  expressions  still  in 
use,  and  are  illustrated  by  L.,  but  pink 
by  itself  in  this  sense  is  less  common. 

He  had  a  pretty  pincke  to  his  own  wedded 
wife. — Breton,  Merry  Wonder*,  p.  7. 

Pins,  legs.    See  extract  s.  v.  Magpie. 

Than  wolde  I  renne  thyder  on  my  pynnes 
As  fast  as  I  myght  go. 

Hycke-Scorner  (Hawkins,  Eng.  Drn 
i.  102). 

His  body  is  not  set  upon  nice  pinnes  to  bee 
turning  and  flexible  for  euery  motion,  bnt 
his  scrape  is  homely,  and  his  nod  worse. 
—  Earle,  Microcosmoyraphie  (Downe-right 
scholler). 

Mistake  you !  no,  no,  your  legs  would  dis- 
cover you  among  a  thousand ;  I  never  saw  a 
fellow  better  set  upon  his  pins. — Burgoyne, 
Lord  of  the  Manor,  lii.  3. 

Pins.  To  drink  at  pins.  See  ex- 
tract. Fuller  adds  in  the  margin, 
"  Hence  probably  the  proverb,  He  is  in 
a  merry  pin."  The  ordinance  given 
in  the  quotation  is  one  of  those  at 
the  Synod  of  Westminster,  A.D.  1102. 
There  is  a  picture  of  a  peg  -  cup  in 
Hone's  Year  Book,  p.  482,  where  it  is 
said  they  were  ordained  by  King  Edgar 
to  limit  the  draught,  and  so  prevent 
drunkenness,  which  had  increased  urder 
Danish  example.  If  this  were  the 
object,  it  was  not  attained,  if  Fuller's 
statement  be  correct. 

That  priests  should  not  go  to  public  drink- 
in  gs,  nee  ad  pinnae  bihant,  nor  drink  at  pins. 
This  was  a  Dutch  trick  (but  now  used  in 
England)  of  artificial  drunkenness  out  of 
a  cup  marked  with  certain  pins,  and  he  ac- 
counted the  man  who  could  nick  the  pin, 
drinking  even  unto  it ;  whereas  to  go  above 
or  beneath  it  was  a  forfeiture.— Fuller,  Ch. 
Hist.,  III.  ii.  3. 

Pins  and  needles,  the  tingling  sen- 
sation which  attends  the  recovery  of 
circulation  in  a  benumbed  limb. 

A  man  .  .  .  may  tremble,  stammer,  and 
show  other  signs  of  recovered  sensibility  no 
more  in  the  range  of  his  acquired  talents 
than  pins  and  needles  after  numbness. — G. 
Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  lxiiL 

Pintado,  painted  cloth  (?). 

To  Woodcott.  when  I  supped  at  my  lady 
Mordannt's  at  Ash  ted,  where  was  a  roome 
hung  with  Pintado,  full  of  figures  greate  and 


PINTLE 


(  495  ) 


PISSEBOLLE 


small,  prettily  representing  sundry  trades 
and  occupations  of  the  Indians  with  their 
habits.— Evelyn,  Diary,  Dec.  30, 1665. 

Pintle.  L.?  who  gives  no  example, 
says,  "  corruption  of  pendulum :  hook 
of  upper  half  of  each  hinge  by  which 
the  rudder  is  hung."  The  extract  is 
portion  of  a  comparison  between  the 
parts  of  a  man's  body  and  the  parts  of 
a  ship. 

The  planks  are  his  ribs,  the  beams  his 
bones,  the  pintel  and  gudgeons  are  his  gristle 
and  cartilages. — Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  9. 

Pin  wood,  wood  fit  for  pegs. 

A    clauestock    and    rabetstock    carpenter's 

crane, 
And  seasoned  timber  for  pinwood  to  hane. 

Tussers  Husbandrie,  p.  38. 

Pionbes  are  among  the  "necessarie 
herbes  to  growe  in  the  garden  for  phy- 
sick,  not  rehersed  before,"  mentioned 
in  Tussers  Husbandries  p.  97:  now 
Anglicised  into  peonies. 

Pipe,  to  set  layers  (?). 

No  botanist  am  I ;  nor  wished  to  learn 
from  you  of  all  the  muses  that  piping  has  a 
new  signification.  I  had  rather  that  you 
handled  an  oaten  reed  than  a  carnation  one, 
yet  setting  layers  I  own  is  preferable  to 
reading  newspapers,  one  of  the  chronical 
maladies  of  this  age. —  Walpole,  Letters,  iv. 
440  (1788). 

Pipe.    To  pipe  the  eye  =  to  cry. 

Then  reading  on  his  'bacco  box, 

He  heav'd  a  heavy  sigh  ; 
And  then  began  to  eye  his  pipe, 

And  then  to  pipe  his  eye. 

Hood,  Faithless  Sally  Brown, 

He  was  very  frail  and  tearful:  for  being 
aware  that  a  shepherd's  mission  was  to  pipe 
to  his  flocks,  and  that  a  boatswain's  mission 
was  to  pipe  all  hands,  and  that  one  man's 
mission  was  to  be  a  paid  piper,  and  another 
man's  mission  was  to  pay  the  piper,  so  he 
had  got  it  into  his  head  that  his  own  peculiar 
mission  was  to  pipe  his  eye;  which  he  did 
perpetually. — Dickens,  Martin  Chuzzlewit,  ch. 
xxxii. 

Pipe  merry,  merry  from  wine  (which 
is  stored  in  pipes). 

Wine  delinereth  the  harte  from  all  care 
and  thought  when  a  bodie  is  pipe  merie. — 
XJdaVs  Erasmus1 s  Apophth.,  p,  159. 

Piper.  Drunk  as  a  'piper  or  fiddler 
=  very  drunk.  For  similar  compari- 
sons see  *.  v.  Drunk. 

Jerry  thought  proper  to  mount  the  table, 
and  harangue  in  praise  of  temperance ;  and 
in  short  proceeded  so  loug  in  recomme  ding 
sobriety,  and  in  tossing  off  horns  of  ale,  that 


he  became  as  drunk  as  a  piper.  —  Graves, 
Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  X.  ch.  xxuc. 

Piper.  To  pay  the  piper  =  to  be  at 
the  expense ;  to  be  the  loser. 

"I  like  not  that  music,  father  Oedric," 
■aid  Athelstane.  .  .  .  "  Nor  I  either,  uncle/' 
said  Wamba. "  I  greatly  fear  we  shall  have  to 
pay  the  piper" — Scott,  Ivanhoe,  i.  267. 

Negotiation  there  now  was.  .  .  .  Dupont 
de  Nemours  as  daysman  between  a  Colonel 
and  a  Marquis,  both  in  high  wrath ; — Buf- 
fiere  to  pay  the  piper. — Carlyle,  Miscellanies, 
iv.  89. 

Pipkinnet,  little  pipkin. 

God !  to  my  little  meale  and  oyle, 
Add  but  a  bit  of  flesh  to  boyle ; 
And  Thou  my  pipkinnet  shalt  see 
Give  a  wave-offering  to  Thee. 

Herrick,  Noble  Numbers,  p.  404. 

Pipy,  long  like  a  pipe. 

Desolate  places  where  dank  moisture  breeds 
The  pipy  hemlock  to  strange  overgrowth. 

Keats,  Endymion,  Bk.  i. 

Piratess,  a  female  pirate. 

The  pi  rate 8  and  piratesses  had  controul  of 
both. —  W.  H.  Russell,  My  diary  North  and 
South,  i.  103. 

Pirouette  (Fr.),  to  whirl  round. 

If  I  were  to  put  on  such  a  necklace  as 
that,  I  should  feel  as  if  I  had  been  pirouet- 
ting.— G.  Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch.  i. 

Pibcicapture,  fish-taking.  See 
quotation  more  at  length  s.  v.  Snatch- 
ing. 

Snatching  is  a  form  of  illicit  piscicapture. 
—-Standard,  Oct.  21, 1878. 

Pissabed.  L.,  who  gives  no  ex- 
ample, says,  "Name  given  to  the 
dandelion  (Leontodon  taraxacum)  from 
its  tendency  to  act  on  the  urine.  Wol- 
cot  in  a  note  says  that  the  second  Lord 
Chatham  was  made  F.  R.  S.  for  pre- 
senting some  such  plant  to  the  Royal 
Society. 

Through  him  each   trifle-hunter  that  can 

bring 
A  grub,  a  weed,  a  moth,  a  beetle's  wing, 
Shall  to  a  Fellow's  dignity  succeed  ; 
Witness  Lord  Chatham  and  his  piss-a-bed. 

P.  Ptndar,p.  234. 

Pissebolle,  a  chamber-pot. 

She  beyng  moche  the  more  incensed  by 
reason  of  her  housbandes  quietnesse  and 
stilnesse,  powred  doune  a  pissebolle  upon 
hym  out  of  a  windore.  —  XJdaVs  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  25. 

Whereat  manye  men  are  commonly  at 
heynouslye  offended,  and  take  the  matter  in 
as  greate  snuff e,  as  they  would  to  be  crowned 


P/SS  JN  A  Q  UILL         (  496  ) 


PL  A  CATION 


with  Kpyseebolle. — Touchstone  of  Complexion, 
p.  99. 

Piss  IN  A  quill.  This  coarse  expres- 
sion =  to  agree  in  a  course  of  action, 
seems  to  be  used  proverbially. 

So  strangely  did  Papist  and  Fanatic,  or  (as 
it  stood  then)  the  Anti-Court  party  p — s  in 
a  quill ;  agreeing  iu  all  things  that  tended 
to  create  troubles  and  disturbances. — North, 
Exatnen,  p   70. 

Because  we  are  apt  to  think  a  little  amiss 
of  Ferguson,  he  would  have  us  believe  that 
he  and  the  Secretary  p — d  in  a  quill ;  they 
were  confederates  in  this  No  Fanatic  plot. — 
Ibid.,  p.  399. 

Pistoleer,  one  who   holds  or  fires 

a  pistol ;   the  word  is  formed  on  the 

model  of  cannoneer. 

Is  the  Chalk-Farm  pistoleer  inspired  with 
any  reasonable  belief  and  determination  ;  or 
is  he  hounded  ou  by  haggard  indefinable 
fear? — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iii.  94. 

Pit,  to  put  cocks  in  a  cock -pit  for 
battle:  hence  the  phrases,  to  pit  one 
person  against  another ;  or  to  shoot  or 
fly  the  pit. 

Their  enemies  rejoyce,  their  friends  turn 
craven,  and  all  forsake  the  pit  before  the 
battle.— Hist,  of  Edward  II.,  p.  120. 

The  whole  nation  came  into  the  interests 
of  the  Crown,  and  siguified  as  much  by 
almost  universal  acclamations  and  addresses; 
all  expressing  utmost  detestatiou  and  abhor- 
rence of  the  Whig  priuciples,  which  made 
the  whole  party  shoot  the  pit  and  retire. — 
North,  Exatnen,  p.  327. 

Toe  pitting  them  [cocks]  as  they  call  it, 
for  the  diversion  and  eutertaiument  of  man 
was,  I  take  it,  a  Grecian  contrivance. — 
Archaol.,  iii.  133  (1775). 

We  were  all  to  blame  to  make  madam 
here  fy  the  pit,  as  she  did.  —  Richardson, 
Pamela,  ii.  30o. 

I've  pledged  myself  to  produce  my  beauty 
at  the  next  ball,  and  to  pit  her  against 
their  belle  for  any  money.—  Miss  Ed  ye  worth, 
Belinda,  ch.  xvii. 

Pit-a-pat,  tread  quickly. 
As  in  grape-haruest  with  vnweary  pains 
A  willing  troup  of  merry-singing  swains, 
With  crooked  hooks  the  stroutiug  clusters 

cut, 
In  frails  and  flaskets  them  as  quickly  put, 
Bun  bow'd  with  burthens  to  the  fragraut  fat, 
Tumble  them  in,  and  after  pit-a-pat 
Up  to  the  waste. 

Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  1137. 

Pitch,  to  pave  roughly. 

In  July  and  Augu*t  was  the  highway 
from  near  the  end  ot  St.  Clement's  Church 
to  the  way  leadiug  to  Marston  pitched  with 
pebble*.— Z*/e  of  A.  Wood,  July  10, 1682. 


Pitch  and  toss,  a  common  grime 
with  street  boys ;  throwing  up  a  cup- 
per and  calling  heads  or  tails  ;  hence 
to  play  pitch  and  toss  with  anything 
is  to  be  careless  or  wasteful  about  it. 
Cf.  Ducks  and  drakes. 

The  bounding  pinnace  played  a  game 

Of  dreary  pitch  and  toss, 
A  game  that  on  the  good  dry  land 
Is  apt  to  bring  a  loss. 

Hood ,  7%e  Sea-spell. 
If  anybody  says  the  Radicals  are  a  ret  of 
sneaks,  Brummagem  halfpennies,  scamps 
who  want  to  play  pitch-and-toss  with  the 
property  of  the  country,  you  can  say.  Look 
at  the  member  for  North  Loamshire. — G. 
Eliot,  Felix  Holt,  ch.  xix. 

Pitch-brand,  black  mark. 

David  makes  this  the  pitch-brand,  as  it 
were,  of  wicked  wret  he*,  They  call  not  upou 
God.— Bp.  Hall,  Works,  v.  660. 

PlTCHER-sotJLED,  shallow  (?)  ;  trans- 
parent. 

He  looks  like  a  pitcher- soul ed  fellow,  and 
I  know  little  or  he  is  as  harmless  as  a  piece 
of  bread. — Jarvis's  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  II.  Bk. 
III.  ch.  xv. 

Pitch-farthing,  chuck  -farthing, 
which  is  the  commoner  word. 

A  group  of  half-grown  lads  were  playing 
at  pitch-farthing. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at 
Oxford,  ch.  xix. 

PlTCHKBTTLED,  puzzled.       Scotch, 

kittled,  with  pitch   intensative,  or  ex- 
pressive of  darkness  ? 

Thus,  the  preliminaries  settled, 
I  fairly  find  myself  pitchkettled, 
And  cannot  see,  though  few  see  better, 
How  I  shall  hammer  out  a  letter. 

Cowper,  Epistle  to  Lloyd. 

Pitted,  dimpled :  only  used  now  of 
indentations  which  are  not  reckoned 
beautiful,  as  small-pox  marks. 

Her  pitted  cheeks  aperde  to  be  depaint 
With  mixed  rose  and  lilies  sweet  and  faint. 

Hudson,  Judith,  iv.  351. 

Pittle-pattle,  to  chatter. 

In  our  deeds  I  fear  me  too  many  of  us 
deny  God  to  be  God,  whatsoever  we  pittle* 
pattle  with  our  tongues. — Latimer,  i.  106. 

Placation,  propitiation. 

They  were  the  first  that  instituted  sacri- 
fices 01  placation,  with  inuocations  and  wor- 
ship to  them  as  to  Gods. — Puttenham,  Eng. 
Poesie,  Bk.  I.  ch.  iii. 

The  people  were  taught  and  persuaded  by 
such  ptacations  and  worships  to  receaue  any 
helpe,  comfort,  or  beneute  to  thexnselues. — 
Ibid.,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xii. 


PLACEBO 


(  497  ) 


PLASM  A  TOR 


Placebo.  To  be  at  the  school  of 
Placebo  =  to  be  time-serving  :  the 
usual  phrase  is  "to  sing  Placebo." 
See  N.  *.  v. 

Nowe  they  haue  bene  At  the  skoole  of 
Placebo,  and  ther  they  haue  lerned  amongst 
ladyes  to  daunse  as  the  deuill  lyst  to  pype. 
—Knox,  Godlu  Letter,  1644  (Maitland,  &- 
formation,  p.  88). 

Placentious,  pleasing ;  amiable. 

He  was  .  .  a  placentious  Person,  gaining 
the  good-will  of  all  with  whom  he  conversed 
—Fuller,  Worthies,  York  (ii.  642). 

Plage,  region.  R.  has  the  word,  but 
only  as  a  plural. 

Yon  that  have  marched  with  happy  Tarn* 

borlaine 
As  far  as  from  the  frozen  flags  of  heaven, 
Unto  the  watery  morning's  ruddy  bower. 

Marlowe  I.  Tamburlaine,  iv.  4. 

He  brings  a  world  of  people  to  the  field, 
From  Scythia  to  the  oriental  plage 
Of  India.— Ibid.,  2  Tamb.,  1. 1. 

Plagiary-ship,  plagiarism  j  literary 
theft. 

Such  Plagiary-ship  ill  becometh  Authors 
or  Painters.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Warwick  (ii. 
417). 

Plain,  to  lament;  this  word  is  in 
the  Diets.,  but  the  extract  marks  well 
the  distinction  between  plain  and  com- 
plain, though  the  former  word  is  some- 
times used  for  the  latter. 

Though  he  plain,  he  doth  not  complain  ; 
for  it  is  a  harm,  but  no  wrong,  which  he 
hath  received. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  117. 

Plaisterish,  cretaceous. 

Fracastorius supposeth  that  the 

IMand  gpt  the  name  Albion  of   the  saide 
plaisterish  Soile. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  24. 

Plaisterly,  of  the  nature  of  plaster. 

Others  looked  for  it  (cause  of  sweating- 
sickness)  from  the  earth,  as  arising  from  an 
exhalation  in  most  weather  out  of  gipsous  or 
plaisterly  ground.  —  Fuller,  Hist,  of  Camb., 
vii.  36. 

Planetary,  wandering. 

After  the  prince's  out  leap,  the  King  lin- 
gred  at  New-market  till  the  time  was  nigh 
that  every  day  tidings  were  expected  of  his 
safe  arrival  in  Spain,  that  he  might  shew 
himself  to  the  Lords  at  Whitehall  with 
better  confidence,  which  he  did  March  30, 
being  the  first  day  that  the  Lord  Keeper 
spake  with  the  King  about  his  dear  son's 
planetary  absence.  —  Hacket,  Life  of  Wil- 
liams, i.  115. 

I  am  credibly  informed  he  in  some  sort 
repented  his  removall  from  his  parish,  And 
disliked  hit  own  erratic*!  and  planetary  life. 
—Fuller,  Ch.  Bist.,  DC.  vii.  68. 


Plangent,  beating,  and  in  its  second- 
ary meaning,  beating  the  breast,  and 
so,  lamenting.  In  the  latest  edition  of 
Ph.  van  Artevelde  (1877),  Sir  H.  Taylor 
has  altered  the  word  to  "  restless. "  In 
former  editions,  he  says  in  a  note,  "  I 
have  adopted  this  (as  it  sounds  to  my 
ears)  very  euphonious  epithet  from  a 
little  poem  called  "  The  Errors  of  Ec- 
stadey  by  W.  Darley ;  a  poem  which  is 
full  of  this  sort  of  euphony,  and  re- 
markable on  other  accounts." 

The  seaman  who  sleeps  sound  upon  the  deck, 
Nor  hears  the  loud  lamenting  of  the  blast, 
Nor  heeds  the  weltering  of  the  plangent 
wave. — Ph.  van  Artevelde,  Pt.  I.  i.  10. 

Planoor,  plaint. 

Every  one  mourneth  when  he  heareth  of 
the  lamentable  plangors  of  Thracian  Orpheus 
for  his  dearest  Eurydice  — Meres,  Eng.  Liter- 
ature, 1598  (Enp.  Garner,  ii.  96). 

Planless,  indefinite ;  without  a  plan. 

One  half  of  the  armed  multitude  .  .  .  had 
been  employed  in  the  more  profitable  work 
of  attacking  rich  houses,  not  with  planless 
desire  for  plunder,  but  with  that  discrimin- 
ating selection  of  such  as  belonged  to  the 
chief  Piagnoni,  which  showed  that  the  riot 
was  under  guidance.  —  G.  Eliot,  Bomola, 
ch.  lxvi. 

Plant,  the  stock  or  apparatus  used 

in  a  business. 

What  with  the  plant,  as  Mr.  Peck  tech- 
nically phrased  a  great  upas-tree  of  a  total, 
branching  ont  into  types,  cases,  printing- 
presses,  engines,  &c my  father's  for- 
tune was  reduced  to  a  sum  of  between  seven 
and  eight  thousand  pounds.  —  Lytton,  The 
Caxtons,  Bk.  XI.  ch.  vl 

Plant-plot,  cultivated  land. 

Tributes  also  were  imposed  ....  for 
Oorne-grounds,  plant-plots,  groves  or  parks. 
— Holland's  Camden,  p.  100. 

Which  ....  they  translated  hither  as 
unto  a  more  fruitefull  plant-plot— Ibid. ,  p. 
377. 

Plap,  an  onomatopceous  word  to  sig- 
nify the  dropping  of  water,  or  some 
similar  sound. 

There  is  Barnes  Newcome's  eloquence 
still  plapping  on  like  water  from  a  cistern. 
— Thackeray,  Netccomes,  ch.  lxvi. 

The  white  bears  winked  their  pink  eyes, 
as  they  plapped  up  and  down  by  their  pool. 
— Ibid.,  Roundabout  Papers,  x. 

Plasm ator,  former :  this  and  the 
succeeding  word  were  euggested  by 
the  words  in  the  original. 

The  sovereign  plasmator,  God  Almighty, 
hath  endowed  and  adorned  human  nature  at 

K  K 


PLASMA  TURE  (  498  ) 


PLENIPO 


the  beginning.— Urquhart,  Rabelais,  Bk.  II. 
ch.  viii. 

PLA8MATURB,  form. 

By  death  should  be  brought  to  nought 
that  so  stately  frame  and  plasmature  wherein 
the  man  at  first  had  been  created.—  Urqu~ 
hart,  Babelais,  Bk.  II.  ch.  viii. 

Platecote,  coat  of  mail :  the  Diets, 
give  instances  of  plate  =  armour. 
Spenser  has  plated-cote,  and  yron-coted 
plate:  breast-plate  is  still  common. 

An  helmette  and  a  Jacke  or  platecote 
hideth  all  partes  of  a  manne,  sauyng  the 
legges. — Udal's  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  308. 

Platform,  to  plan ;  to  lay  oat ;  also, 
to  rest  as  on  a  platform. 

Some  .  .  do  not  think  it  for  the  ease  of 
their  inconsequent  opinions  to  grant  that 
church  discipline  is  platformed  in  the  Bible, 
but  that  it  is  left  to  the  discretion  of  men. — 
Milton,  Reason  of  Ch.  Gov.,  ch.  i. 

And  this  dog  was  satisfied 

If  a  pale  thin  hand  would  glide 

Down  his  dewlaps  sloping —  # 
Which  he  pushed  his  nose  within, 
After  platf arming  his  chin 

On  the  palm  left  open. 

Mrs.  Browning,  To  Flush. 

Platitudinarian,  a  retailer  of  plati- 
tudes or  common-placeB. 

You  have  a  respect  for  a  political  plati- 
tudinarian as  insensible  as  an  ox  to  every- 
thing he  can't  turn  into  political  capital. — G. 
Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  zxii. 

Plaud,  to  applaud. 
That  at  our  banquet  ail  the  Gods  may  tend, 
Plauding  our  victorie  and  this  happie  end. 
Chapman,  Blind  Begger  of  Alexandria 
(Conclusion). 
But  you  fast  friends  of  foul  carnality 
And  false  to  God,  His  tender  sonne  do  gore, 
And  plaud  yourselves  if  't  be  not  mortally. 
H.  More,  Life  of  the  Soul,  iii.  39. 

Plausibelize,  to  recommend. 

He  endeavoured  to  work  himself  into  their 
.good  will  by  erecting  and  endowingof  re- 
ligious houses,  so  as  to  plausibelize  himself, 
especially  among  the  clergy.  —  Fuller,  Ch. 
Hist,  IV.  iv.  7. 

Plausible,  applauding ;  rejoicing. 

I  will  haste  to  declare  of  what  virtue  and 
strength  the  true  and  Christian  prayer  is, 
that  men  knowing  the  efficacy  and  dignity, 
yea,  and  the  necessity  thereof,  may  with  the 
pure  plausible  and  joyful  minds  delight  in 
it. — Becon,  i.  141. 

Playactorism,  histrionism. 

Sterling's  view  of  the  Pope,  as  seen  in 
these  his  gala  days,  doing  his  big  playactor- 
ism under  God's   earnest   sky,  was   much 


more  substantial  to  me  than  his  studies  in 
the  picture  galleries. — Carlyle,  Life  of  Ster- 
ling, Pt.  II.  ch.  vii. 

Pleasable,  pleasant. 

I  have  been  compeled  to  speake  in  your 
presens  (and  in  presens  of  others)  suche 
thinges  as  were  not  pleasable  to  the  eaxes  of 
men.— Knox,  Godly  Letter,  1544  {Maitland, 
Reformation,  p.  188). 

Pleasurable,  in  the  extracts  plea- 
sure-seeking ;  its  ordinary  sense  is 
pleasure-giving. 

A  person  of  his  pleasurable  turn  and  active 
spirit  could  never  have  submitted  to  take 
long  or  great  pains  in  attaining  the  qualifi- 
cations he  is  master  of.  —  Richardson,  CI. 
Harlowe,  i.  74. 

On  the  restoration  of  his  Majesty  of  plea- 
surable memory,  he  hastened  to  court,  where 
he  rolled  away  and  shone  as  in  his  native 
sphere.— H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  2. 

Pleasurer,  a  pleasure-seeker.  Sir  T. 
Browne  has  pleasurist. 

Let  us  turn  now  to  another  portion  of  the 
London  population  ...  we  mean  the  Sun- 
day pleasurers.  —  Sketches  by  Boz  {London 
Recreations). 

Pleasureless,  devoid  of  pleasure. 

He  himself  was  sliding  into  that  pleasure- 
less  yielding  to  the  small  solicitations  of  cir- 
cumstance, which  is  a  commoner  history  of 
perdition  than  any  single  momentous  bar- 
gain.— G.  Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch.  lxxix. 

Plebe,  people ;  mob. 
But  still  the  Plebe  with  thirst  and  fury  prest, 
Thus  roaring,  raving,  'gainst  their  Chiefs 

contest. 

Sylvester,  Bethulia's  Rescue,  iii.  391 . 

Plectile,  woven. 

The  crowns  and  garlands  of  the  Ancients 
....  were  made  up  after  all  ways  of  art, 
compactile,  sutile,  plectile.  —  Sir  T.  Brown, 
Tract  II. 

Plenipo,  plenipotentiary. 

Til  give  all  my  silver  amongst  the  drawers, 
make  a  bonfire  before  the  door,  sav  the  pltni- 
pos  have  signed  the  peace,  and  the  Bank  of 
England's  grown  honest.—  Vanbrugh,  Prov. 

Wife,  iii.  1. 

All  passed  well,  and  the  plenipos  returned 
with  their  purchase,  the  return  of  the  elec- 
tion, back  to  London.— North,  Life  of  Lord 
Guilford,  i.  163. 

Wliiteacre  .  .  was  the  treason  plenipo  at 
that  time. — Ibid.,  Examen,  p.  297. 

We  were  buoyed  up  here  for  some  days 
with  the  hope  that  General  Laurington  was 
gone  to  England  as  plenipo,  to  end  the  dread 
contest  without  effusion  of  blood.  —  Mad, 
D'Arblay,  Diary,  vi.  329. 


PLENTIFY 


(  499  )  PL0WWR1GHT 


PusNTiFy,  to  make    plenteous ;    to 

enrich. 

For  alms  (like  levain)  make  our  goods  to 

rise, 
And  God  His  owne  with  blessings  plentifUs. 
Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  1145. 

Pleonast,  one  who  uses  redundant 
or  tautologous  expressions. 

Ere  the  mellifluous  pleonast  had  done  oil- 
ing his  paradox  with  fresh  polysyllables  .  . 
he  met  with  a  curious  interruption. — Reade, 
Hard  Cash,  ch.  xxv. 

Plication,  a  fold :  plicature  is  more 
usual,  though  complication  is  common. 

Thou  hadst  the  two  letters  in  thy  hand. 
Had  they  been  in  mine,  the  seal  would  have 
yielded  to  the  touch  of  my  warm  finger 
(perhaps  without  the  help  of  the  post-office 
bullet) ;  and  the  folds,  as  other  plications 
have  done,  opened  of  themselves  to  oblige 
my  curiosity. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  vi. 
345. 

Why  the  deuce  should  you  not  be  sitting 
precisely  opposite  to  me  at  this  moment, .  . . 
thy  juridical  brow  expanding  its  plications,  as 
a  pun  rose  in  your  fancy. — Scott,  Redgauntlet, 
Letter  i. 

Plod  shoes,  thick ;  fit  for  plodding 
over  rough  ground. 

How  like  a  dog  will  you  look,  with  a  pair 
of  plod  shoes,  your  hair  cropp'd  up  to  your 
ears,  and  a  bandbox  under  your  arm. —  Van* 
burgh,  Confederacy,  Act  I. 

Because  I  ha'n  t  a  pair  of  plod  shoes  and  a 
dirty  shirt,  you  think  a  woman  won't  ven- 
ture upon  me  for  a  husband. — Ibid.,  JEsop., 
ActV. 

Plooky,  pimpled.  In  the  Holderness 
Glossary  (E.  D.  S.),  pluke,  pronounced 
plook,  is  given  as  a  Yorkshire  word. 

His  face  was  as  plooky  as  a  curran'  bun, 
and  his  nose  as  red  as  a  partan's  tae. — Gait, 
Provost,  ch.  xxxii. 

Plot,  plan,  with  no  ill  or  secret 
meaning. 

Th'  eternall  Plot,  th'  Idea  fore-conceiv'd, 
The  wondrous  Form  of  all  that  Form  re- 

ceiv'd, 
Did  in  the  Work-man's  spirit  divinely  lie. 

Sylvester,  The  Columnes,  424. 

She  likes  Brampton  House  and  Seat  better 
than  ever  I  did  myself,  and  tells  me  how  my 
Lord  hath  drawn  a  plot  of  some  alterations 
to  be  made  there. — Pepys,  Sept.  27, 1662. 

Plotter,  to  trample.  H.  has  plouter, 
to  wade  through. 

Miss's  pony  has  trodden  down  two  rigs  o' 
corn,  and  plottered  through,  raight  o'er  into 
t*  meadow. — E.  Bronte,  Wutheriny  Heights, 
ch.  ix. 


Plough,  to  pluck  in  an  examination 
(University  slang). 

These  two  promising  specimens  were  not 
"ploughed,"  but  were  considered  fit  and  pro- 
per persons  to  teach  that  Keligion  to  others, 
the  history  of  which  they  were  so  lament- 
ably ignorant  of  themselves.— Driven  to  Bom* 
(1877),  p.  69. 

Plough-tree,  plough-handle. 

I  whistled  the  same  tunes  to  my  horses, 
and  held  my  plough-tree  just  the  same  as  if 
no  King  or  Queen  had  ever  come  to  spoil  my 
tune  or  hand. — Blackmore,  Lorna  Boone,  eh. 
lxxiv. 

Plounce,  plunge ;  flounce. 

Our  observation  must  not  now  launch  into 
the  whirlpool,  or  rather  plounce  into  the 
mudd  and  quagmire  of  the  people's  power 
and  right  pretended,  That  the  sovereignty  is 
theirs,  and  originally  in  them.— Hacket,  Life 
of  Williams,  u.  200. 

Plousiocracy,  the  rule  of  the  wealthy. 
PltUocracy  =  the  rule  of  wealth,  is  more 
common.   Southey  has  Plutarchy,  q.  v. 

To  say  a  word  against  the  suitorcide  delays 
of  the  Court  of  Chancery,  or  the  cruel  pun- 
ishments of  the  Game-laws,  or  against  any 
abuse  which  a  rich  man  inflicted  and  the 
poor  man  suffered,  was  treason  against  the 
plousiocracy.  —  Sydney  Smith,  Preface  to 
Essays  from  Edinb.  Rev. 

Plow  meat,  food  made  of  corn,  as 
distinguished  from  that  derived  from 
pasture- land  8. 

•  Som  cuntries  lack  plow  meat, 

And  som  doe  want  cow  meat. 

Tusser,  Rusbandrie,  p.  102. 

Plowstar,  Charles's  wain:  geminos 
Triones. 

Thee  lights  starrye  noting  in  globe  celestial 
hanging, 

The  seun  stars  stormy,  twise  told  thee  plow- 
star,  eke  Arcture. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iii.  528. 

Plowswain,  a  ploughman.  See  «.  v. 
Goad-groom. 

I  forced 
Thee  sulcking  swinker  thee  soyle,  thoghe 

craggie  to  sunder ; 
A  labor  and  a  trauaile  too  plowswayns  hert- 

elye  welcoom. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,\.  4. 

Beasts  leave  their  stals,  plough-swains  their 

fires  forego, 
Nor  are  the  meadows  white  with  drifts  of 

snow. 

Heath's  Odes  of  Horace,  Bk.  I.  Ode  4. 

Plowwright,  maker  of  ploughs. 
Tusser  (p.  137)  dividing  the  corn  har- 
vest into  ten  equal  parts  gives, 

K  K  2 


PLUCKED 


(  5°o  ) 


PLUTARCH* 


One  part  tot  plowwrite,  cart  write,  knacker, 
and  smith 

Plucked,  a  man  who  fails  to  pass  his 
examination  is  said  to  be  plucked. 

He  went  to  college,  and  he  got  tducked,  I 
think  they  call  it.  — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre, 
ch.  x. 

He  had  been  a  medical  student,  and  got 
plucked,  his  foes  declared,  in  his  examination. 
— C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xx. 

Plucked.  A  good  or  well  plucked 
person  is  one  of  courage  and  endur- 
ance ;  a  hard-plucked  one  is  a  person 
deficient  in  tenderness. 

"  Shall  I  break  off  with  the  finest  girl  in 
England,  and  the  best-plucked  one,  and  the 
cleverest  and  wittiest?*' ...  a  By  Jove,  you 
are  a  good-plucked  fellow,  Farintosh."  — 
Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  lix. 

Many  a  youngster  beginnirg  to  drag  his 
legs  heavily,  and  feel  his  heart  beat  like  a 
hammer,  and  the  bad-plucked  ones  thinking 
that  after  all  it  isn't  worth  while  to  keep  it 
np. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown's  Schooldays,  Pt.  I. 
ch.  vii. 

A  very  sensible  man,  and  lias  seen  a  deal 
of  life,  and  kept  his  eyes  open,  but  a  terrible 
hard-plucked  one.  Talked  like  a  book  to  me 
all  the  way,  but  be  hanged  if  I  don't  think 
he  has  a  thirty-two  pound-shot  under  his 
ribs  instead  of  a  heart— Ki ngsley,  Two  Years 
Ago,  ch.  iv. 

Pluck  penny,  a  game. 

He  that  is  once  so  skilled  in  the  art  of 
gaming  as  to  play  at  Pluck  penny,  will  quickly 
oome  to  Sweepstake. — Theeves,  Theeves,  or  Sir 
J.  GalVt  proceedings  in  Derbyshire  (1643), 
p.  2. 

Plucky,  courageous. 

If  you're  plucky,  and  not  over  subject  to 

fright. 
And  go  and  look  over  that  chalk-pit  white, 
You  may  see,  if  you  will,  the  ghost  of  old 

Gill 
Grappling  the  ghost  of  Smuggler  Bill. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  {Smuggler's  Leap), 

Plumb,  thoroughgoing. 

Neither  can  an  opposition,  neither  can  a 
ministry  be  always  wrong.  To  be  a  plumb 
man  therefore  with  either  is  an  infallible 
mark  that  the  man  must  mean  more  and 
worse  than  he  will  own  he  does  mean. — 
Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  iv.  262. 

Plumbeous,  leaden  (L.  has  plum- 
bean).  The  speaker  is  a  pedantic 
schoolmaster. 

Attend  and  throw  your  ears  to  me*  ...  till 
I  have  endoctrinated  your  plumbeous  cere- 
brosities. — Sidney,  Wanstead  rlay,  p.  622 

Plumblbss,  unfathomable 


The  moment  shot  away  into  the  plumbless 
depths  of  the  past,  to  mingle  with  all  the 
lost  opportunities  that  are  drowned  there. — 
Dickens,  Hard  limes,  ch.  xv. 

Plumery,  plumage. 

Then  in  the  dewy  evening  sky, 
The  bird  of  gorgeous  plumery 
Poised  his  wings  aud  hover'd  nigh. 

Southey,  Kehama,  x.  90. 

Plummy,  good ;  desirable. 

The  poets  have  made  tragedies  enough 
about  signing  one's  self  over  to  wickedness 
for  the  sake  of  getting  something  plummy. 
O.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xvi. 

Plumper,  a  man  who  gives  all  his 
votes  to  one  candidate  in  a  contested 
election  is  said  to  plump  for  him.  The 
votes  so  given  are  called  plumpers. 

Mr.  Brooke's  success  murt  depend  either 
on  plumpers  which  would  leave  Bagster  in 
the  rear,  or  on  the  new  minting  of  Tory 
votes  into  reforming  votes.— G.  Eliot,  Mid- 
dlemarch,  oh.  li. 

Plum- porridge,  applied  to  a  man 
contemptuously.    Cr.  Pudding-head. 

I'll  be  hanged  though 
If  he  dare  venture ;  hang  him,  plum-por- 
ridge! 
He  wrestle?  he  roast  eggs. 

Two  Noble  Kinsmen,  ii.  2. 

Plunger,  *  according  to  the  Slang 
Diet.,  a  cavalry  man ;  but  it  also 
means  one  who  has  gone  to  the  bad. 

It's  an  insult  to  the  whole  Guards,  my 
dear  fellow,  after  refusing  two  of  us,  to 
marry  an  attorney,  and  after  all  to  bolt  with 
*  plunger. — Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xvi. 

PlubipresencE)  presence  in  more 
places  than  one. 

Toplady.  Does  not  their  invocation  of 
saints  suppose  omnipresence  in  the  saints  ? 

Johnson.  No,  Sir;  it  supposes  only  pluri- 
presence;  and  when  spirits  are  divested  of 
matter,  it  seems  probable  that  they  should 
see  with  more  extent  than  when  in  an  em- 
bodied state. — Boswell,  Life  of  Johnson,  iii. 
299. 

The  high  prerogative  of  ubiquity  orplvri- 
presence. — OxUe,  Confutation  of  Diabotarchy, 
p.  2. 

Plushy,  like  plush ;  soft  and  shaggy. 

Sometimes  she  gave  a  stitch  or  two ;  but 
then  followed  a  long  gaie  out  of  the  win- 
dow, across  the  damp  gravel  and  plushy 
lawn. — H.  Kingsley,  Geofiy  Hamlyn,  ch.  iv. 

Plutarchy,  rule  of  wealth. 

We  had  our  monarchy,  our  hierarchy,  and 
our  aristocracy,  .  .  .  but  we  had  no  plu- 
tarchy, no  millionaires,  no  great  capitalist*, 
to  break  down  the  honest  and  industrious 


PLUTOCRAT 


(  Soi  ) 


POIGNE 


trader  with  the  weight  of  their  overhearing 
aud  overwhelming  wealth.  —  Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  cii. 

Plutocbat,  one  who  rules  in  virtue 
of  wealth. 

When  they,  the  tyrants  of  the  earth,  who 
lived  delicately  with  her,  rejoicing  in  her 
sin*,  the  plutocrats  and  bureaucrat*,  the 
money-changers  and  devourers  of  labour, 
are  crying  to  the  rocks  to  hide  them,  and  to 
the  hills  to  cover  them  from  the  wrath  of 
Him  that  sitteth  on  the  throne,  then  labour 
shall  be  free  at  last.  —  C.  Kingsley,  Alton 
Locke,  ch.  xli. 

Po,  a  sub-devil. 

This  is  some  pettifogging  fiend, 
Some  under  door-keeper's  friends'  friend, 
That  undertakes  to  understand, 
And  juggles  at  the  second  hand ; 
And  now  would  pass  for  Spirit  Po, 
And  all  meu's  dark  concerns  foreknow. 

Hudibras,  III.  i.  1395. 

There  was  one  Mr.  Duke,  a  busy  fanatic  in 
Devonshire  in  Charles  II.'s  days,  whom  old 
Sir  Edward  Seymour  used  to  call  Spirit  Po  ; 
that  said  Po  being  a  petit  dtable,  a  small  devil 
that  was  presto  at  every  conjurer's  nod. — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cxxxix. 

Poad  ?    H.  has  pode  =  tadpole. 

Neverthelesse  amonge  this  araye, 
Was  not  theare  one  called  Coclaye, 
A  littell  pratye  f oolysshe  poade  ? 

Roy  and  Barlow,  Rede  me  and 
be  nott  wrothe,  p.  43. 

Poat.  The  Holderness  Glossary 
(E.  D.  S.)  gives  Pooat,  to  trifle,  to 
dawdle  ;  perhaps  this  is  the  meaning  in 
the  subjoined.  Sylvester  is  describing 
the  effeminate  Sardanapalus. 

See  how  he  poats,  paints,  frizzles,  fashions 
him. — Bethulia's  Rescue,  v.  215. 

Pocket-borough,  a  borough  the  re- 
presentation of  which  was  virtually  in 
the  hands  of  one  proprietor.  One  of 
the  objects  of  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832 
was  to  do  away  with  these. 

"  When  I  think  of  Burke,  I  can't  help 
wishing  somebody  had  a  pocket  -  borough 
to  give  you,  Ladislaw."  ..."  Pocket-boroughs 
would  be  a  fine  thing,"  said  Ladislaw,  "if 
they  were  always  in  the  right  pocket,  and 
there  were  always  a  Burke  at  hand." — G. 
Eliot,  Jftddlemarch,  ch  xlvi. 

Pocket-cloth,  pocket-handkerchief. 

Cannot  I  wipe  mine  eyes  with  the  fair 
pocket-cloth,  as  if  I  wept  for  all  your  abomin- 
ations?— T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  3. 

Pocket  of  wool.  H.  says,  "  Half  a 
sack  of  wool  is  called  a  pocket :  "  but 
see  extract. 


Here  [at  Stourbridge  Fair]  I  saw  what  I 
have  not  observed  in  any  other  County  of 
England,  a  Pocket  of  Wool;  which  seems  to 
have  been  at  first  called  so  in  mockery,  this 
Pocket  being  so  big  that  it  loads  a  whole 
waggon,  and  reaches  beyond  the  most  ex- 
treme parts  of  it,  hanging  over  both  before 
and  behind ;  and  these  ordinarily  weigh  a 
Ton  or  2500  pound  weight  of  wool  in  one 
bag.— Defoe,  Tour  thro*  G.  Britain,  i.  96. 

Pocket-pistol,  a  small  flask. 

He  .  .  swigged  his  pocket-pistol. — Nay  lor, 
Reynard  the  Fox,  p.  42. 

A  glass  bottle  enclosed  in  a  leather  case, 
commonly  called  a  pocket-pistol. — Babbage, 
Passages  in  Life  of  a  Philosopher,  p.  218 
(1864). 

Pock-fretten,  marked  with  smalt 
pox. 

He  is  a  thin  tallish  man,  a  little  pock* 
fretten,  of  a  sallowish  complexion. — Richard- 
son, CI.  Hariowe,  vi.  137. 

Pococurante,  a  careless  man;  a 
trifler.  This  Italian  word  is  now  pretty 
well  naturalized  in  our  language. 

Leave  we  my  mother  (truest  of  all  the 
Poco-curantes  of  her  sex  J  careless  about  it, 
as  about  everything  else  in  the  world  which 
concerned  her.— Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  iv.  214. 

"  I  believe  yon  are  misinformed,  sir,"  said 
Jekyl  drily,  and  then  resumed,  as«deftly  as 
he  could,  his  proper  character  of  a  poco- 
curante.-—Scott,  St.  Ronan's  Well,  ii.  190. 

Pococtjrantism,  indifference ;  apathy. 

Have  thy  eye-glasses,  opera-glasses,  thy 
Long- Acre  cabs  with  wnite-breeched  tiger, 
thy  yawning  impassivities, ,poeocurantisms. — 
Carlyle,  Past  and  Present,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xvii. 

POCULARY,  cup. 

Some  brought  forth  ....  pocularies  for 
drinkers,  some  manuaries  for  handlers  of 
reticks,  some  pedaries  for  pilgrims. — Lati- 
mer, i.  49. 

Podestate,  a  chief. 

I  haue  sene  of  the  greatest  podestates  and 
grauest  judges  and  preaidentes  of  Parliament 
in  Fraunce. — Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III. 
ch.  xxv. 

Poeticule,  a  poetaster. 

The  rancorous  and  reptile  crew  of  poeticules 
who  decompose  into  criticasters. — A .  C.  Swin- 
burne, Under  the  Microscope,  p.  36. 

Poione.  H.  has  poigniet,  wristband, 
so  perhaps  the  reference  in  the  quotation 
is  to  false  dice  being  kept  up  the  sleeve. 

The  witnesses  which  the  faction  kept  in 
poigne  (like  false  dice,  high  and  low  Fullhams) 
to  be  played  forth  upon  plots  and  to  make 
discoveries  as  there  was  occasion,  were  now 
chapf alien. — North,  Examen,  p.  108. 


PZ  ZTAJtCm 


'■--rt?*3-   i  ma  who  gires  all   I 

— .  i  ji  sui  ^  fi*mp  for  him.  T  ■ 
a  *,  Z--SB  in  .'j_t-ii  pj*mperi. 

»ii  waua  amid  kan  Boiler  is 
« :1  «  w  =».  im  Btntiv  of  7  7 
«  is  afurauj  vavwj. — O.  Eliot. A' 


neus  -rat  who  hu  gone  to  the  bad. 
ti  M  — U  *•  tb*  white  Guard*,  mj 


PLUTOCRAT 

trader  with  the  ™**t  of  i 


l    I»        1ml   m 
.    rf    m«=.        .,- 

the  hill*  to  a 

Him  that  Htteth  o*  tbe  -J 

II  be   free  at  «■«.— C  Wi  J 

Lock*,  A.  A 
Po,  4  mb-dcriL 

Thia  it  «m  pnuf ofttjni  6t>(L 

Sorcuj  undo-  dnor-k«(it*  »  frimi*  b-JSK. 
That  muhftekca  to  nnd'iHaiitL 
And  joggle*  at  the  xra-  bill 
And  now  would  pad  for  Saiga  ?>. 

flat  -™.  rn  i,  ;» 

There  n  ne  Mr.  Dokci  fcwr  *toaBc  a 

Deronahire  in  Charl™  Il.'t  cm.  wiion  oi 

Sir  Edward  Seymour  wed  »  caZ  ™—  »i 

that  said  Pa  bong  a  jWu  iaiit  a  •Dkl  ord. 

Sattluy,  IV  Bortur,  ch-  tmjx. 

Poad?     H.  has  ptxfc  =  Mprie. 

Nererthelesae  among*  tin  «*>. 

Was  not  theare  one  called  Cscx*. 

A  lit  tell  prat  ye  f  ool  ymh-  aw  ' 

fin  a*f  *=*»_  lair  vw 

it  lot!  wrcth,,  f   a  ' 

Poat.    The  ffoldtntm  Z'.mmr*       £      "^"■*fera.. 
(E.  D.  S.)  gives  PooaL  v,  infc.  a     t  j^"  "*"■  — -P— m  -j-**-^* 
dawdle;  perhaps  tliuuth*  ■  '"" 

the  subjoined.     Sylvester  n  i_ 
the  effeminate  Sardanipala*. 

"  i  ■  -■■■  j    •  A  ■  ■   niiiin  r_ 

him.— SaOaiw'l  Ikv,?.  US. 


POINDER 


(  502  ) 


POLITICONE 


The  engineers  .  .  .  determined  what  was 
to  be  communicated,  and  in  what  manner, 
aud  what  to  be  kept  in  poigne,  secret  from 
them.— Ibid.,  p.  393. 

Poindeb,  a  man  who  pens  or  pounds 
straying  cattle :  pinder  or  pinner  are 
more  common  forms. 

The  poinder  chafes  and  swears  to  see  beasts 
in  the  corn,  yet  will  pull  up  a  stake,  or  cut  a 
tether,  to  find  supply  for  his  pinfold. — Adams, 
i.  163. 

Pointable,  capable  of  being  pointed 

out. 

You  know,  quoth  I,  that  in  Elias'  time, 
both  in  Israel  and  elsewhere,  God's  church 
was  not  pointable  ;  and  therefore  cried  he  out 
that  he  was  left  alone. — Bradford,  i.  552. 

Points.  To  come  to  points  =  to  fight 
with  swords. 

They  would  have  come  to  points  immedi- 
ately, had  not  the  gentlemen  interposed. — 
Smollett,  Sir  L.  Greaves,  ch.  iii. 

Poisonie,  poisonous.  In  Sixth  day 
also,  284,  Sylvester  calls  the  crocodile 
"  Nile' 8  poysony  pirate." 

Never  pale  Enuie's  poysonie  heads  do  hiss 
To  gnaw  his  heart,  nor  vultur  Auarice. 

Sylvester,  Third  day,  first  weeke,  1072. 

Poke,  Bcrofula. 

Aubanus  Bohemus  referres  that  struma  or 
poke  of  the  Bavarians  and  Styrians  to  the 
nature  of  their  waters. — Burton's  Anatomy, 
p.  71. 

Poke,  a  bonnet,  the  top  of  which 
projects  over  the  face. 

Governesses  don't  wear  ornaments;  you 
had  better  get  me  a  grey  frieze  livery  and  a 
straw  poke,  such  as  my  aunt's  charity  children 
wear. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xxiv. 

Poker.     Old  Poker  =  the  devil. 

The  very  leaves  on  the  horse-chesnuts  are 
little  snotty-nosed  things  that  cry  and  are 
afraid  of  the  north  wind,  and  cling  to  the 
bough  as  if  Old  Poker  was  coming  to  take 
them  VHKj.—  WalpoUjLetterSt'vr.  359  (1784). 

Poky,  poor ;  shabby. 

The  ladies  were  in  their  pokiest  old  head- 
gear and  most  dingy  gowns  when  they  per- 
ceived the  carriage  approaching. — Thackeray, 
The  Newcomes,  ch.  lvii. 

Polklkss,  without  a  pole. 

Horses  that  draw  a  pole-lesse  chariot. — 
Stapylton,  Juvenal,  x.  156. 

Poley,  without  horns ;  polled.  Poly- 
cow  is  in  Mr.  Gower's  Surrey  Provin- 
cialisms (£.  D.  8.). 

If  it  had  been  any  other  bea?t  which 
knocked  me  down  but  that  poley  heifer,  I 


should  have  been  hurt.— ZT.  Kingsley,  Gtoffry 
Hamlyn,  ch.  xxix. 

Polianthea,  a  commonplace  book 
containing  many  flowers  of  eloquence, 
&c. 

The  collector  of  it  says,  moreover,  that  if 
the  like  occasion  come  again,  he  shall  less 
need  the  help  of  breviates  or  historical 
rhapsodies  than  your  reverence  to  eke  oat 
your  sermonings  shall  need  repair  to  postils 
or  poliantheas. — Milton,  Betnonst.  Defence, 
Postscript. 

His  profession  is  like  his  allegiance,  &  mere 
fucus :  yet  so  well  laid  on,  one  at  first  sight 
could  not  but  swear  it  were  natural ;  his 
commonplace,  polyanthea  and  concordance, 
and  the  height  of  his  school-divinity,  the 
Assemblies-catechism. — Character  of  a  Fa*a- 
tick,  1675  (Harl.  Misc.,  vii.  636). 

Polipraqmatick,  a  busy  -  body. 
Heylin  (Life  of  Laud,  p.  330)  says 
that  Burton  in  his  sermon  on  Nov.  5 
called  the  Bishops  "  Jesuited  poliprag- 
matichf" 

Polish,  Polish  draughts,  a  form  of 
the  game  still  used  on  the  Continent. 
The  board  has  100  squares ;  the  pieces 
when  crowned  can  move,  like  a  bishop 
in  chess,  from  one  end  of  the  board  to 
the  other. 

Can  yon  play  at  draughts,  polish,  or  chess  ? 
— H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  367. 

Politicise,  to  deal  with  politics. 

But  while  I  am  politicising,  I  forget  to  tell 
you  half  the  purport  of  my  letter. —  Walpole 
to  Mann,  iii.  281  (1758). 

Not  to  politicise  too  much,  I  believe  the 
world  will  come  to  be  fought  for  somewhere 
between  the  north  of  Germany  and  the  back 
of  Canada.— Ibid.,  iii.  338  (1759). 

Politico,  a  politician,  and  so  one 
whose  conduct  is  guided  by  consider- 
ations of  policy  rather  than  principle. 

He  is  counted  cunning,  a  meere  politico,  a 
time-server,  an  hypocrite.  —  Gauden,  Tears 
of  the  Church,  p.  256. 

Our  politicos  also  object  that  the  people 
were  before  the  king. — Racket,  Life  of  Wil- 
liams, ii.  201. 

Politicone.  politician. 

He  was  certainly  a  true  Matchiavellian 
politicone,  and  his  skill  lay  in  the  English 
State. — North,  Examen,  p.  118. 

The  plot  was  to  introduce  the  Catholic 
religion  by  such  means  as  the  politicones  of 
that  interest  thought  most  conducing. — Ibid., 
p.  209. 

His  friends  he  enjoyed  at  home,  but  formal 
visitants  and  politicones  often  found  him  out 
at  his  chambers. — Ibid.,  Life  of  Lord  Guil- 
ford, i.  155. 


POLITIEN 


(  S03  ) 


POMPING 


Politien.    See  quotation. 

Politien  ...  is  receiued  from  the  French- 
men, bat  st  this  day  vsuall  ia  Court  and  with 
all  good  secretaries;  and  cannot  finde  an 
English  word  to  match  him,  for  to  haue  said 
a  man  politique  had  not  bene  so  wel ;  bicause 
in  trueth  that  had  bene  no  more  than  to 
haue  said  a  ciuil  person.  Politien  is  rather 
a  surueyour  of  ciuilitie  than  ciuil,  and  a 
publique  minister  or  counsellor  in  the  state. 
— Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III.  ch.  iv. 

Pollabchy,  rule  of  the  mob. 

A  contest .  .  .  between  those  representing 
oligarchical  principles  and  the  vol  larch  1/. —  W. 
//.  Russell,  My  Diary,  North  and  South,  ii. 
340. 

Pollened,  covered  with  pollen. 

And  we  wallow'd  in  beds  of  lilies,  and  chanted 

the  triumph  of  Finn, 
Till  each  like  a  golden  image  was  pollen* d 

from  head  to  feet. 

Tennyson,  Voyage  of  Maeldune. 

Pollino-pence,  taxes. 

Wil  Englishmen,  or  can  thei,  suffer  to  be 
poled  and  pilled  moste  miserably  in  payeng 
continually  suche  polingpence  and  intoller- 
able  toll  ages  for  all  maner  graine  and  breade, 
befe,  beare,  and  mutton  ? — Bradford,  Suppli- 
cacyon,1565  (Maitland  on  Reformation,  p.  167). 

Tea,  rather  then  thy  bravery  should  faile, 
begge  poicling  pence  ior  the  verye  smooke 
that  comes  out  of  poore  men's  chemnies  ? — 
Greene,  Quip  for  an  Upstart  Courtier,  1592 
(Harl.  J/iwr.,  v.  399). 

Pollock,  a  species  of  cod. 

Oh,  the  lazy  old  villain !  he's  been  round 
the  rocks  after  pollock  this  evening,  and 
never  taken  the  trouble  to  bale  the  boat  up. 
— Kxngsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  vi. 

Polony,  vulgar  abbreviation  of 
Bologna  sausage. 

They  were  addicted  to  polonies;  they 
didn't  disguise  their  love  for  Banbury  cakes ; 
they  made  bets  in  ginger-beer,  and  pave  and 
took  the  odds  in  that  frothing  liquor. — 
Thackeray,  Xewcomes,  ch.  xviii. 

He  likewise  entertained  his  guest  over  the 
soup  and  fish  with  the  calculation  that  he 
(Bounderby)  had  eaten  in  his  youth  at  least 
three  horses  under  the  guise  of  polonies  and 
saveloys. — Dickens,  Hard  Times,  ch.  xviii. 

Polt,  blow. 

If  any  one  hath  spite  enough  to  give  me  a 
polt,  thinking  to  falsify  my  faith  by  taking 
away  my  life,  I  only  desire  them  first  to 
qualify  themselves  for  my  executioners. — 
Asgill,  Argument,  &c.  1700  (Southey's  Doctor, 
ch.  clxxii.). 

One  of  those  who  stood  close  by  him,  be- 
lieving he  was  making  a  mock  of  them,  lifted 
np  a  pole  he  had  in  his  hand,  and  gave  him 
such  a  polt  with  it  as  brought  Sancho  Panza 


to  the  ground.— Jarviis  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  II. 
Bk.  II.  ch.  x. 

If  he  know'd  I'd  got  you  the  knife,  he'd  go 
nigh  to  give  me  a  good  polt  of  the  head. — 
Mad.  D'Arblay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  II.  ch.  ix. 

Polycephalist,  one  who  has  many 

heads  or  rulers. 

Both  which  methods  must  have  left  the 
enlarged  and  numerous  Churches  of  Christ 
either  Acephalists,  confused  without  any 
head,  or  Polycephalists,  burdened  with  many 
bear's. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  541. 

Polyoamically,    in    a    polygamous 

manner  or  direction. 

To  suppose  the  family  groups,  of  whom 
the  majority  of  emigrants  were  composed, 
polygamically  possessed,  would  be  to  suppose 
an  absurdity. — Dickens,  Uncommercial  Travel" 
ler,  xx. 

Polygamize,  to  indulge  in  polygamy. 

Did  it  not  suffize, 
O^lustf  ull  soule,  first  to  polygamize  ? 
SufnVd  it  not,  O  Lamech,  to  distain 
Thy  nuptiallbed? 

Sylvester,  Handy  Crafts,  603. 

Polyphonian,  many-voiced. 

I  love  the  air ;  her  dainty  sweets  refresh 
My  drooping  soul,  and  to  new  sweets  invite 

me; 
Her  shrill-mouth'd  choir  sustain  me  with 

their  flesh, 
And  with  their  polyphonian  notes  delight  me. 

Quarles,  Emblems,  v.  6. 

Polytheous,  having  to  do  with  many 
god  8. 

Heav'n  most  abhor'd  Polytheous  piety  .— 
Beaumont,  Psyche,  xxi.  st.  58. 

Polythore.     See  extract. 

I  went  to  that  famous  physitian  Sir  Fr. 
Prujean,  who  shew'd  me  his  laboratorie, .  .  . 
he  plaied  to  me  likewise  on  the  polythore,  an 
instrument  having  something  of  the  harp, 
lute,  theorbo,  &c.  It  was  a  sweete  instru- 
ment, by  none  known  in  England,  or  de- 
scrib'd  by  any  author,  nor  us'd  but  by  this 
skilfull  and  learned  doctor.— Evelyn,  Diary, 
Aug.  9, 1661. 

Pomk-roie,  a  species  of  apple. 

Hauing  gathered  a  handfull  of  roses,  and 
plucking  off  an  apple  called  a  Pome-roie,  hee 
returned.—  Bret  on,  Strange  Fortunes  of  Two 
Princes,  p.  1°. 

Pomolooist,  one  acquainted  with 

fruits. 

Our  pomologists  in  their  lists  select  the 
three  or  the  six  best  pears  "for  a  small 
orchard. " — Emerson,  Eng.  Traits,  ch.  i. 

POMPING,  pompous. 

As  for  example  take  their  pompynge  pryde, 
and  ye  shall  proue,  their  purpose  once  ob- 


poMPOoy 


(  504  ) 


POP 


teined,  thei  will  treade  your  heads  in  the 
dust. — Bradford,  Supplicacyon,  1555  (Matt- 
land,  Reformation,  p.  162). 

Pompoon,  top-knot  [Fr.  pompon]. 

Marian  drew  forth  one  of  those  extended 
pieces  of  black  pointed  wire  with  which,  in 
the  days  of  toupees  and  pompoons,  our  fore- 
mothers  were  wont  to  secure  their  fly-caps 
and  head-gear. — Ingoldsby  Legends  {Leech  of 
Folkestone). 

Pond,  to  pen  up  as  in  a  pond. 

Another  flood-gate  .  .  ponds  the  whole 
river,  so  as  to  throw  the  waste  water  over  a 
strong  stone  weir  into  its  natural  channel. — 
Defoe,  Tour  thro1  G.  Britain,  i.  379. 

Ponder,  meditation. 

He  laughed  a  little,  and  soon  after  took 
his  leave,  not  without  one  little  flight  to 
give  me  for  a  ponder. — Mad.  ITArblay,  Diary, 
iv.  27. 

Pondkrlino,  little  weight. 

The  child  was  weighed,  and  yelled  aa  if 
the  scale  had  been  the  font.  "Courage, 
dame,"  cried  Gerard ;  **  this  is  a  good  sign  ; 
there  is  plenty  of  life  here  to  battle  its 
trouble."  "Now  blest  be  the  tongue  that 
tells  me  so,"  said  the  poor  woman.  She 
hushed  her  vonderling  against  her  bosom, 
and  stood  aloof  watching,  whilst  another 
woman  brought  her  child  to  scale. — Reade, 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  xxxvi. 

Ponderose,  weighty. 

A  grand  alliance  with  the  Emperor  and 
Spain  brought  down  a  ponderose  army  out  of 
Germany. — North,  Examen,  p.  470. 

Pontific,  belonging  to  a  bridge. 
Milton  {Par.  Lost,  x.  312)  has  "art 
pontifical"  =  bridge  -  building,  which 
sense,  Todd,  quoted  by  L.,  believes  to 
be  "peculiar  to  Milton,  and  perhaps 
was  intended  as  an  equivocal  satire  on 
Popery."  It  will  be  seen  that  Sterne 
uses  substantially  the  same  word  in  a 
similar  sense.  The  speaker  has  had 
his  hat  blown  off  on  the  Pont  Niuf. 

L'ickless  man  that  I  am,  ...  to  be  driven 
forth  out  of  my  house  by  domestic  winds, 
and  despoiled  of  my  castor  by  pontific  ones. 
— Sent.  Journey,  The  Fragment. 

Pont-levis,  a  drawbridge  (French)." 

Yonder's  a  plum-tree  with  a  crevice 
An  owl  would  build  in,  were  he  but  sage, 

For  a  lap  of  moss  like  a  fine  pont-levis 
In  a  castle  of  the  middle  age, 

Joins  to  a  lip  of  gum  pure  amber. 

Browning,  Sibrandus  Schafnabvrgensis. 

Pony,  twenty-five  pounds. 

"Which  hint  is  not  taken,  any  more  than 
the  bet  of  a  "pony,"  which  he  offers  five 


minutes  afterwards,  that  he  will  jump  his 
Irish  mare  in  and  out  of  Aberalva  pound. — 
Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xviii. 

Pooh-pooh,  to  put  aside  with  con- 
tempt. In  the  third  extract  it  is  used 
adjectivally. 

The  question  ...  of  its  effect  upon  health 
has  been,  as  Members  of  Parliament  say, 
pooh-poohed. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  Fragment 
on  Beards. 

Though  he  stared  somewhat  haughtily 
when  he  found  his  observations  actually 
pooh-poohed,  he  was  not  above  being  con- 
vinced.— Lytton,  My  Novel,  Bk.  II.  ch.  vi. 

There  is  a  Saturnine  philosopher  standing 
at  the  door  of  his  book-shop,  who,  I  fancy, 
has  a  pooh-pooh  expression  as  the  triumph 
passes. — Thackeray,  Roundabout  Papers,  iv. 

Poop,  "to  cheat;  to  deceive;  to 
cozen"  (H.,  who,  however,  gives  no 
example). 

Hodge.  But  there  ich  was  powpte  indeed. 
Diccon.  Why,  Hodge  ? 

Hodge.  Boots  not,  man,  to  tell ; 
Cham  so  drest  amonst  a  sort  of  fooles,  chad 
better  be  in  hell. 
Gammer  Gvrton's  Needle  (Hawkins's  Eng. 
Dr.,  i.  186). 

Pooped,  a  ship  is  said  to  be  pooped 
when  a  high  sea  breaks  over  her  poop. 

He  was  pooped  with  a  sea  that  almost  sent 
him  to  the  bottom. — Smollett,  Sir  JL  Greaves, 
ch.  xvii. 

Poop-noddy,  "the  game  of  love" 
(Halliwell). 

Crick.  I  can  tell  you  he  loves  her  well. 

Gripe.  Nay,  I  trow. 

Crick.  Yes,  I  know ;  for  I  am  sure  I  saw 
them  close  together  at  poop-noddy  in  her 
closet. —  Wily  Beguiled  (Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr., 
iii.  310). 

Poor  Robin,  an  almanack. 

I  was  informed  she  discern'd  by  the  beat 
of  the  pulse  a  Feast  from  a  Feria,  without 
the  help  of  poor  Robin. — Gentleman  Instructed, 
p.  120. 

Pop,    to  make   a  nois.e  (with    the 

mouth). 

Still  to  dilate  and  to  open  his  breaste  with 
coughing,  hawking,  neesing  and  popping  or 
smacking  with  the  mouthe. — Touchstone  of 
Complexions,  p.  124. 

Pop,  ginger-beer. 

Home-made  pop  that  will  not  foam, 
And  home-made  dishes  that  drive  one  from 
home. — Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

With    lobsters    and    whitebait,  and    other 
swate-meats, 
And  wine,  and  nagus,  and  imperial  pop. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  (The  Coronation). 


POP 


(  SOS  ) 


P0RKESP1CK 


Pop.  To  pop  the  question,  to  make 
a  proposal  of  marriage. 

Plagued  with  his  doubts  and  your  own 
diffidences ;  afraid  he  would  now,  and  now, 
and  now,  pop  out  the  question  which  he  had 
not  the  courage  to  put. — Richardson,  Gran' 
dison,  vi.  103. 

I  suppose  you  popped  the  question  more 
than  once,  when  you  were  a  young — I  beg. 
your  pardon — a  younger  man. — Sketches  by 
Bot  (  Watkins  Tottle). 

He  had  fixed  in  his  heart  of  hearts  upon 
that  occasion  ...  to  whisper  to  Mrs. 
M*Catchley  those  soft  words  which  —  but 
why  not  let  Mr.  Richard  Avenei  use  his  own 
idiomatic  and  unsophisticated  expression. 
«*  Please  the  pigs,"  then  said  Mr.  Avenei  to 
himself,  " I  shall  pop  the  question" — Lytton, 
My  Novel,  Bk.  V.  ch.  xvii 

Pope's  eye,  gland  surrounded  with 

fat  in  the  middle  of  a  leg  of  mutton. 

Yon  should  have  the  hot  new  milk,  and 
the  pope* s  eye  from  the  mutton,  and  every 
foot  of  you  would  become  a  yard  in  about  a 
fortnight. — Blackmore,  Lorna  Doone,  ch.  1. 

Pope's  head,  a  broom  with  a  very 
long  handle :  also  called  a  Turk's  head 
g.  v. 

Bloom.  You're  no  witch  indeed  if  you 
don't  see  a  cobweb  as  long  as  my  arm.  Run, 
run,  child,  for  the  pope's  head. 

House.  Pope's  head,  ma'am  ? 

Bloom.  Ay,  the  pope's  head,  which  you'll 
find  under  the  stairs. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Love 
and  Liw,  i.  5. 

Yon  are  not  going  to  send  the  boy  to 
school  with  this  ridiculous  head  of  hair; 
why,  his  school-fellows  will  use  him  for  a 
pope's  head. — Savage,  Reuben  Medlicott,  Bk.  i. 
ch.  m. 

Popgunnery,  use  or  discharge  of 
popguns :  used  figuratively  in  extract. 

We  now  demand  the  light  artillery  of  the 
intellect.  ...  On  the  other  hand,  the  light- 
ness of  the  artillery  should  not  degenerate 
into  popgunnery  —  t>y  which  term  we  may 
designate  the  character  of  the  greater  por- 
tion of  the  newspaper  press  —  their  sole 
legitimate  object  being  the  discussion  of 
ephemeral  matters  in  an  ephemeral  manner. 
— E.  A.  Foe,  Marginalia,  xxv. 

Popipy,  to  make  a  Papist. 

The  Prince  and  Buckingham  were  ever 
Protestants ;  those  their  opposite*  you  know 
not  what  to  term  them,  unless  detestants  of 
the  Romish  idolatry.  As  if  all  were  well  so 
they  be  not  Popifed,  though  they  have  de- 
parted from  the  Church  in  which  they  were 
baptized.— Racket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  121. 

Popjoying,  some  mode  of  fishing  (?). 

Benjy  had  carried  off  our  hero  to  the 

canal  in  defiance  of  Charity,  and  between 


them,  after  a  whole  afternoon's  popjoying, 
they  had  caught  three  or  four  small  coarse 
fish  and  a  perch.  —  Hughes,  Tom  Brown's 
School  Days,  Pt.  I.  ch.  ii. 

Poplars  of  Yarrum,  cant  term  for 
butter-milk.  See  extract  in  H.,  s.  v. 
pannam. 

Here's  pannum  and  lap,  and  good  poplars 
of  Yarrum. — Broome,  Jovial  Crew,  Act  fl. 

Popper,  a  gun  or  mortar. 

And  all  round  the  glad  church  lie  old  bottles 

With  gunpowder  stopped, 
Which  will  be,  when  the  Image  re-enters, 

Religiously  popped. 
And  at  night  from  the  crest  of  Oalvano 

Great  bonfires  will  hang, 
On  the  plain  will  the  trumpets  join  chorus. 

And  more  poppers  bang. 

Browning,  Englishman  in  Italy. 

Poppet,  to  jog  or  carry:  onoma- 
topoeous  perhaps,  representing  the  mo- 
tion of  the  chair. 

These  lines  of  Bowe  have  got  into  my 
head ;  and  I  shall  repeat  them  very  devoutly 
all  the  way  the  chairmen  shall  poppet  me 
towards  her  by  and  by.  —  Richard  son,  CI. 
Harlowe,  v.  16. 

Popple,  tares. 

Thou  shewest  plainly  here  thy  deceit, 
which  thou  hast  learned  of  them  that  travail 
to  sow  popple  among  wheat. — Examination 
of  William  Thorpe  (Bale's  Works,  p.  119). 

Popple,  to  bubble. 

His  brains  came  poppling  out  like  water. — 
Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  226. 

Popular,  crowded. 

Who  should  maintain  the  nice  lady  in  her 
carriage  whirling  through  the  popular  streets? 
— Adams,  i.  42. 

Pop- weed,  the  fresh- water  bladder- 
weed. 

I  stuck  awhile  with  my  toe-balls  on  the 
slippery  links  of  the  pop-weed,  and  the  world 
was  green  and  gliddery,  and  I  durst  not  look 
behind  me. — Blackmore,  Lorna  Doone,  ch.  vii. 

Porcupine,  to  cause  to  stand  up,  like 
a  porcupine's  quills. 
Thus  did  the  cooks  on  Billy  Ramus  stare, 
Whose  frightful  presence  porcupined  each 

hair. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  50. 

Porkbspick,  porcupine.  N.  notices 
this  corruption  of  porc-pisce,  but  gives 
no  example. 

He  gaue  for  his  deuice  the  porkespick  with 
this  pqsie  pres  et  loign,  both  farre  and  neare. 
— Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xii. 


PORK-PORKING  (  506  ) 


POST 


Pork-forking,  onomatopoeous  epithet 

of  the  raven's  cry ;  CI  Murk  Pork. 

From  the  mountains  nigh, 
The  rav'ns  begin  with  their  pork-porking  cry. 

Sylvester,  The  Schisme,  285. 

Portifolium,  the  breviary,  portass, 
or  portif orium ;  portiforium  is  so 
called,  because  it  could  be  easily 
carried  /was,  out  of  doors. 

I  marvel  that  bishops  can  not  see  this  in 
themselves,  that  they  are  also  no  followers 
of  the  Scriptures;  but  peradventure  they 
never  read  them,  but  a*  they  find  them  by 
chance  in  their  popish  portii of  turns  and  mask- 
ing books. — Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  175. 

Though  they  never  have  beads,  Latin 
primers,  portifoliomes,  nor  other  signs  of 
hypocrisy,  yet  are  they  promised  to  have 
atonement  with  God. — Ibid.,  p.  369. 

Portify,  to  assume  greater  import- 
ance than  belongs  to  one.  Thackeray 
coined  this  word  in  allusion  to  the 
saying,  "Claret  would  be  port  if  it 
could?* 

I  grant  you  that  in  this  scheme  of  life 
there  does  enter  ever  so  little  hypocrisy ; 
that  this  claret  is  loaded,  as  it  were ;  bat 
your  desire  to  portify  yourself  is  amiable,  is 
pardonable,  is  perhaps  honourable. — Thack- 
eray, Roundabout  Papers,  xiv. 

Port-mantick,  portmanteau. 

He  would  linger  no  longer,  and  play  at 
cards  in  King  Philip's  palace,  till  the  messen- 
ger with  the  port-mantick  came  from  Borne. 
— Racket,  Life  of  miliamsji.  100. 

Portmantca,  portmanteau. 

His  portmantua  had  been  carried  into  a 
chamber.  .  .  .  He  sent  orders  to  his  servant 
to  bring  hinportmantua. — Mrs.  Lennox,  Hen- 
rietta, Bk.  V .  ch.  x. 

Portugal,  Portuguese. 

Now  have  I  set  these  Portugals  a-work, 
To  hew  a  way  for  me  unto  the  crown. 

Peele,  Battle  of  Alcazar,  iv.  2. 
The  Portugal  found  a  road  to  the  East 

Indies  by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. — Howell, 

Letters,  I.  i.  95. 

Porture,  portrait  or  effigy ;  the  mar- 
ginal summary  has  porterature.  H. 
has  porture  =  carriage,  demeanour. 

The  porture  of  a  man  in  brasse  or  stone 
should  Dee  bought  up  with  three  thousand 
pieces  of  coyn,  where  as  a  pecke  of  mele  was 
to  bee  soldo  for  twoo  brasse  pens.  And  yet 
ther  nedeth  no  such  image  or  porture  for  anie 
necessarie  vse  of  mannes  life,  without  meale 
there  is  no  possibilitie  of  maintaining  the 
life— UdaTs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  99. 

Port- way,  Port-high- way,  or  High- 
rouT-WAY  =  a  paved  highway. 


The  Port-way,  or  High  paved  street  named 
Bath-gate.— Holland's  Camden,  p.  557. 

The  high  Port-way,  or  Roman  street. — Ibid-, 
p.  507. 

I  observed  moreover  . .  .  another  High  port- 
way  also,  called  Ould  street. — Ibid.,  p~  540. 

This  toune  .  .  .  standeth  upon  the  old 
Port  High-tcay.—Ibid.,  p.  550. 

Pos,  positive.    See  extract,  «.  v.  Rep. 

It  is  perhaps  this  humour  of  speaking  no 
more  than  we  needs  must,  which  has  so 
miserably  curtailed  some  of  our  words,  that 
in  familiar  writings  and  conversations  they 
often  lose  all  but  their  first  syllables,  as  in 
mob,  rep,  pos,  incog,  and  the  like-,  and  as  all 
ridiculous  words  make  their  first  entry  into 
a  language  by  familiar  phrases,  I  dare  not 
answer  for  these  that  they  will  not  in  time 
be  looked  upon  as  a  part  of  our  tongue. — 
Spectator,  No.  exxxv. 

She  shall  dress  me  and  flatter  me,  for  I 
will  be  flattered,  that's  pos. — Addison,  Tht 
Drummer,  Act  III. 

Pose,  to  assume  an  attitude,  like  one 
who  is  sitting  to  an  artist. 

He  .  .  .  "posed  "  before  her  as  a  hero  of 
the  most  sublime  kind. — Thackeray,  Shabby 
Genteel  Story,  ch.  vi. 

Posed,  firm,  the  reverse  of  flighty. 

An  old  settled  person  of  a  most  posed, 
staid,  and  grave  behaviour. — Urquhart,  Rabe- 
lais, Bk.  III.  ch.  xix. 

Pos  I  ED.  inscribed  with   a  posy  or 

motto. 

Some  by  a  strip  of  woven  hair 
In  posted  lockets  bribe  the  fair. 

Gay,  To  a  Young  Lady. 

Possession,  idea ;  prepossession. 

I  have  a  strong  possession,  that  with  thia 
five  hundred  I  shall  win  five  thousand. — 
Cibber,  Prov.  Husband,  Act  I. 

Possession ers,  those  belonging  to 
religious  orders  endowed  with  lands,  as 
distinguished  from  the  mendicants.  H. 
notices  this  sense,  but  gives  no  example. 

They  are  nether  gostly  nor  divine. 
But  lyke  to  brut  beastes  and  swyne, 
"Waltrynge  in  synf  ull  wretchednes. 
I  speake  this  of  the  possessianers, 
All  though  the  mendicant  orders 
Are  nothynge  lease  abhominable. 

Roy  and  Barlow,  Rede  me  and 
be  nott  wrotht,  p.  62. 

Post,  the  game  of  post  and  pair. 
See  N.  s.  v.,  who  however  gives  no 
example  of  post  by  itself.  See  also 
quotation  s.  v.  Greek. 

He  cometh  in  only  with  jolly  brags  and 
great  vaunts,  as  if  he  were  playing  at  post, 
and  should  win  all  by  vying. — Jewel,  i.  429. 


POST  ALONE 


(  507  ) 


POTHEAD 


Post  alone,  quite  alone. 

And  when  whole  hosts  were  pras'd  to  stroy 

my  foen. 
She  chaog'd  her  cheer,  and  left  me  post  alone, 
Sackville,  Stafford  Duke  of  Buckingham, 
st.  49. 

Her  self  left  also  she  deemed 
Pott  aloan,  and  soaly  from  woonted  com- 
panye  singled.— Stany hurst,  -J?n.,  iv.  492. 

Posted,  made  a  post-captain. 

Tell  me  if  when  I  returned  to  England  in 
the  year  eight  with  a  few  thousand  pounds, 
and  was  posted  into  the  Laconia,  if  I  had  then 
written  to  you,  would  you  have  answered  my 
letter? — Miss  Austen,  Persuasion,  ch.  xxiii. 

Whispers  were  afloat,  which  came  to  the 
ears  of  the  Admiralty,  and  prevented  him 
from  being  posted, — Marry  at,  Peter  Simple, 
ch.  Iv. 

Post-ferment,  the  opposite  of  pre- 
ferment. Fuller  in  another  passage, 
and  also  South,  speak  of  being  "  pre- 
ferred downwards." 

This  his  translation  was  a  Post-ferment, 
6eeingthe  Arch-bishoprick  of  Saint  Andrews 
was  subjected  in  that  age  unto  York. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Durham  (i.  329). 

Postscribe,  to  write  after. 

He  that  took  from  sin  the  power  to  con- 
demn us,  took  also  from  it  the  power  to  reign 
in  our  mortal  bodies.  And  the  second  is  but 
a  consequent  of  the  first,  postscribed  with 
that  word  of  inference,  '*  Now  then,"  &c. — 
Adams,  i.  325. 

It  was  but  mannerly  in  Bellarmine  to  post- 
scribe  two  of  his  tomes  with  Laws  Deo,  Vir* 
ginique  Matri  Maria, — Ibid.,  ii.  7. 

Postvide,  to  shut  the  door  when  the 
steed  is  stolen ;  to  be  wise  after  the 
event. 

"  When  the  daughter  is  stolen,  shut  Pep- 
per-gate ;"  .  .  .  when  men  instead  of  pre- 
yenting  postvide  against  dangers.  —  Fuller, 
Worthies,  Chester  (i.  200). 

Pot.  To  make  the  pot  with  two  ears 
=■  to  set  the  arms  akimbo. 

Thou  sett'st  thy  tippet  wondrous  high, 
And  rant'st,  there  is  no  coming  nigh ; 
See  what  a  goodly  port  she  bears, 
Making  the  pot  with  the  two  ears. 

Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  236 . 

Pot.  To  keep  the  pot  boiling  =  to 
keep  things  going,  to  provide  for  the 
necessaries  of  life.  So  artists  call  pic- 
tures which  are  painted  rather  for  im- 
mediate sale  than  for  artistic  fume,  pot- 
boilers. 

Whatsoever  Kitching  found  it,  it  was  made 
poor  enough  before  he  left  it ;  so  poor  that 
it  is  hardly  able  to  keep  the  pot  boilinj  for  a 


parson's  dinner.  —  Heylin,  Reformation,  p. 
212. 

No  fav'ring  patrons  have  I  got, 
But  just  enough  to  boil  the  pot. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  xxiii. 

"  Keep  the  pot  bilin\  Sir,"  cried  Sam ;  and 
down  went  Wardle  again,  and  then  Mr. 
Pickwick,  and  then  Sam,  and  then  Mr. 
Winkle,  and  then  Mr.  Bob  Sawyer,  and 
then  the  fat  boy,  and  then  Mr.  Snodgrass, 
following  closely  upon  each  other's  heels.-— 
Dickens,  Pickwick  Papers,  ch. 


Pot,  to  shoot  or  kill  (for  the  pot). 

The  arrow  flew,  the  string  twanged,  but 
Martin  had  been  in  a  hurry  to  pot  her,  and 
lost  her  by  an  inch.  —  Reade,  Cloister  and 
Hearth,  ch.  viii. 

"  You  don't  seem  to  care  about  shooting 
guillemots,  Lavender."  "Well,  you  see, 
potting  a  bird  that  is  sitting  on  the  water—  " 
said  Lavender,  with  a  shrug.  "  Oh,  it  isn't  as 
easy  as  you  might  imagine."— Black,  Prin- 
cess of  Thule,  ch.  xxiii. 

Potato-jaw,  mouth.  The  extract  is  a 
speech  of  the  Duke  of  Clarence's  to  Mrs. 
Schwellenberg.  Potato-trap  is  more 
common. 

"  Hold  you  your  potato-jaw,  my  dear," 
cried  the  Duke,  patting  her. — Mad.  D'Ar- 
blay,  Diary,  v.  209. 

Potator,  drinker. 

Barnabee,  the  illustrious  potator,  saw  there 
the  most  unbecoming  sight  that  he  met  with 
in  all  his  travels.— Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch. 
xliv. 

Pot-boy-dom,  the  pot-boy  class ;  per- 
sons of  that  sort  of  social  position : 
word  formed  like  rascaldom,  scoundrel- 
dom,  &c. 

It  is  a  part  of  his  game  to  ingratiate  him- 
self with  all  pot-boy-dom,  while  at  heart  he  is 
as  proud,  exclusive  an  aristocrat  as  ever  wore 
nobleman's  hat. — C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke, 
ch.  xiii. 

Potentiary,  power :  only  nsual  in 
the  compound,  plenipotentiary. 

Before  Olive  made  his  accustomed  visit  to 
his  friends  at  the  hotel  opposite,  the  last 
great  potentiary  had  arrived  who  was  to  take 
part  in  the  family  congress.  —  Thackeray, 
Newcomes,  ch. 


Pot-gutted,  fat;  having  a  large  cor- 
poration. Pot-bellied  is  the  more  usual, 
and  perhaps,  of  the  two,  the  more 
elegant  expression. 

I  a  vessel  of  broth !  yea  pot-gutted  rascal 
no  more  thai  yourself !  —  Graves,  Spiritua 
Quixote,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  viii. 

Pothead,  a  stupid  fellow. 


POTHEEN 


(  5o8  ) 


POUND 


She  was  too  good  for  a  poor  pot-head  like 
me.—Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  xv. 

Potheen,  whiskey.    See  Potsheen. 

His  nose  it  is  a  coral  to  the  view, 
Well  nourish'd  with  Pierian  potheen. 

Hood,  Irish  Schoolmaster. 

Potion,  to  drug. 

Lord  Roger  Mortimer,  ....  hauing  cor- 
rupted his  keepers,  or  (as  some  others  write) 
hailing  pottoned  them  with  a  sleepy  driiike, 
escaped  out  of  the  Tower  of  London.  — 
Speed,  History,  Bk.  IX.  oh.  zl 

Pot-liquor,  thin  broth,  or  the  liquor 
in  which  meat  has  been  boiled. 

Mr.  Oeoffry  ordered  her  to  come  daily  to 
his  mother's  kitchen,  where,  together  with 
her  broth  or  pot-liquor,  he  contrived  to  slip 
something  more  substantial  into  Dorothy's 
pipkin.  —  Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  I. 
ch.  ix. 

In  the  distribution  of  these  comestibles,  as 
in  every  other  household  duty,  Mrs.  Bagnet 
develops  an  exact  system :  sitting  with  every 
dish  before  her ;  allotting  to  every  portion 
of  pork  its  own  portion  of  vot-liouor,  greens, 
potatoes,  and  even  mustard. — Dxckens,  Bleak 
House,  ch.  xxvii. 

Pot  -  luck.  To  take  pot-luck  =  to 
accept  an  impromptu  invitation  to  din- 
ner, where  no  special  preparation  for  a 
guest  has  been  made. 

The  gentleman  said,  as  Wildgoose,  he  sup- 
posed, had  not  dined,  he  should  be  very 
welcome  to  take  pot-luck  with  him ;  that  his 
house  was  but  at  the  end  of  the  avenue  of 
firs,  and  he  was  just  going  to  dinner.  — 
Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  IX.  ch.  xii. 

He  never  contradicted  Mrs.  Hackit,  a 
woman  whose  pot-luck  was  always  to  be  re- 
lied on. — G.  Eliot,  Amos  Barton,  ch.  i. 

Potman,  servant  at  a  public-house 
who  attends  to  the  pots,  cleaning  them, 
carrying  thein  out,  calling  for  them, 
&c.    Potboy  is  more  common. 

The  potman  thrust  the  last  brawling 
drunkards  into  the  street. — Dickens,  Uncom- 
mercial Traveller,  xiii. 

Potsheen.  See  extract.  The  word 
is  usually  spelt  potheen,  q.  v. 

"  A  glass  of  what,  in  the  name  of  heaven  ?  " 
said  Lord  Colambre.  u  Potsheen,  plase  your 
honour ;  beca-ase  it's  the  little  whiskey  that's 
made  in  the  private  still  or  pot ;  and  sheen 
because  its  a  fond  word  for  whatsoever  we'd 
like,  and  for  what  we  have  little  of,  and 
would  make  much  of." — Miss  Edgeworth,  Ab- 
sentee, ch.  x. 

Potter.  "In  the  dialect  of  the 
North,  a  hawker  of  earthenware  is  thus 
designated  "  ( Wordsworth,  note  in  loc.). 


A  Potter,  air,  he  was  by  trade.— Peter  BtU 
Pt.I. 

Pottle,  a  childish  game. 

I  have  as  little  inclination  to  write  verses 
as  to  play  at  pottle  or  whip-top. — Southey, 
Letters,  1822  (iu.  334). 

PoT-wiLLOKEB.  See  extract:  mis- 
print for  pot- walloper  (?). 

The  election  of  members  here  [Taunton] 
is  by  those  whom  they  call  pot-walloners,  that 
is  to  say,  every  inhabitant,  whether  house- 
keeper or  lodger,  who  dresses  his  own  victuals ; 
to  make  out  which,  several  inmates  or  lodgers 
will,  some  little  time  before  the  election, 
bring  out  their  pots,  and  make  fires  in  the 
street,  and  boil  victuals  in  the  sight  of  their 
neighbours,  that  their  votes  may  not  be  called 
in  question.— 2>s/o6,  Tour  thro*  G.  Britain, 
ii.  18. 

Pot-walloping,  the  "pot-boiling,  or, 
in  the  extract,  the  sound  caused  by  it 

The  trumpet  that  once  announced  from 
afar  the  laurelled  mail  .  .  .  has  now  given 
way  for  ever  to  the  pot-toallnrings  of  the 
boiler. — De  Quincey,  Eng.  Mail  Coach. 

Pouch,  to  purse  up. 

He  pouched  his  mouth,  and  reared  himself 
up,  and  swelled. — Richardson,  Grandison,  v. 

58. 

Pouch-mouth,  open-mouthed  (?),  or 
with  pu  reed-up  mouth  (?).  Ambidexter, 
the  vice  or  buffoon  in  Preston's  King 
Cambises,  uses  "  Goodman  pouch - 
mouth'1  as  a  term  of  reproach  or 
insult  {Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr.,  i.  263,  305). 

Players,  I  mean,  theaterians,  pouch-mouth 
stage-walkers. — Dekker,  Satiromastix  (Hate- 
kins,  Eng.  Dr.,  iii.  172). 

Poulter's  measure,  poulterer's  mea- 
sure.    See  quotation. 

The  commonest  sort  of  verse  which  we  vse 
nowaday es  (vis.,  the  long  verse  of  twelue 
and  fourtene  Billables)  I  know  not  certainly 
howe  to  name  it,  vnlesse  I  should  say  that  it 
doth  consist  of  poulter's  measure,  which  giueth 
xii  for  one  dozen  and  xiiijjfor  another. — 
Gascoigne,  Instruction  concerning  the  making 
of  verse,  p.  39. 

The  first  or  the  first  couple  hauing  twelue 
Billables,  the  other  fourteene,  which  versi- 
fyers  call  powlters  measure,  because  so  they 
tallie  their  wares  by  dozens. —  Webbe,  Dis- 
course of  Eng.  Poetrie,  p.  62. 

Pounce,  usually  applied  only  to  the 
talons  of  a  bird  of  prey. 

A  lion  may  be  judg'd  by  these  two  claws 
of  his  pounce. — Uacket,  Life  of  Williams, 
i.  71. 

Pound,  to  wager,  and  so  to  be  certain. 
44  Don't  be  out  of  temper,  my  dear,"  urged 


POUND 


(  509  )         PRJESC1ENTIAL 


Fagin,  submissively ;  '.**  I  have  never  forgot 
you,  Bill,  never  once."  "No!  I'll  pound  it 
that  70a  han't,"  replied  Sikes,  with  a  bitter 
grin. — Dickens,  Oliver  Twist,  oh.  xxxix. 

Pound,  to  bruise  or  beat :  this  sense 
is  given  in  the  Dicta. ;  hence  it  =  to 
plod  heavily. 

A  fat  farmer,  sedulously  pounding  through 
the  mud,  was  overtaken  and  bespattered  in 
spite  of  all  his  struggles. — C.  Kingsley,  Yeast, 
ch.  i. 

Pour,  a  heavy  rain  :  the  compound 

down-pour  is  more  common. 

He  mounted  his  horse,  and  rode  home  ten 
miles  in  tpour  of  rain. — Miss  Ferrier,  Destiny, 
ch.  xx. 

Poverish,  to  impoverish. 

No  violent  showr 
Poverisht  the  land,  which  frankly  did  produce 
All  fruitfull  vapours  for  delight  and  use. 

Sylvester,  Eden,  156. 

Powder-monkey,  a  ship's  boy:  pro- 
perly one  who  carried  powder  from  the 
magazine  to  the  gun. 

Lucifer  himself,  I'm  sure,  should  he  wage 
new  war  with  heaven,  would  not  have  given 
threepence  a  piece  to  have  listed  them  into 
his  service ;  they  would  not  have  been  fit  for 
so  much  as  powder-monkeys,  to  have  handed 
fire  and  brimstone  after  the  army. — T.  Brown, 
Works,  ii.  212. 

Ellangowan  had  him  placed  as  cabin-boy, 
or  potodtr-monkey,  on  board  an  armed  sloop 
or  yacht  belonging  to  the  revenue. — Scott, 
Guy  Mannering,  ii.  305. 

Power,  a  quantity :  the  word  is  often 
used  in  old  writers  of  a  number  of  men, 
a  military  force. 

I  am  providing  a  power  of  pretty  things 
for  her  against  I  see  ner  next. — Richardson, 
Pamela,  ii.  389. 

Pow-sowdy.  H.  gives  "powsoddy, 
a  Yorkshire  pudding,"  but  see  extract, 
where  the  locality  spoken  of  is  West- 
moreland. 

The  principal  charm  of  the  "  gathering  "  . . 
was  not  assuredly  diminished  to  the  men  by 
the  anticipation  of  excellent  ale,  .  .  .  and 
possibly  of  still  more  excellent  pow-sowdy  (a 
combination  of  ale,  spirits,  and  spices). — De 
Quineey,  Autob.  Sketches,  ii.  109. 

Practicality,  active  work. 

The  fair  Susan,  stirring  up  her  indolent 
enthusiasm  into  practicality,  was  very  suc- 
cessful in  finding  Spanish  lessons,  and  the 
like,  for  these  distressed  men. — Carlyle,  Life 
of  Sterling,  ch.  x. 

Practise,  to  carry  out :  the  usage  of 

the  word  in  the  quotation  is  peculiar. 

I  copied  &n  inscription  set  up  at  the  end  of 


a  great  road,  which  vex  practised  through  an 
immense  solid  rock  by  bursting  it  asunder 
with  gunpowder.  —.Walpole,  Letters,  i.  36 
(1739). 

Pr^adamitical,  existing  before 
Adam. 

Upon  what  memorials  do  you  ground  the 
story  of  your  pra-adamitical  transactions  ? — 
Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  414. 

Prjeliation,  battle ;  contention. 

We  have  stirred  the  humors  of  the  foolish 
inhabitants  of  the  earth  to  insurrections,  to 
warr  sxApntliation.— Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts, 
p.  33. 

PrjEMETIAL,  pertaining  to  the  first- 
fruits  ;  first-gathered. 

If  we  should  not,  therefore,  freely  offer  to 
your  Majesty  some  prametial  handfuls  of 
that  crop,  whereof  you  may  challenge  the 
whole  harvest,  bow  could  we  be  but  shame- 
lessly unthankful  ?— Bp.  Hall,  Dedic.  to  K. 
James. 

Praemunire,  used  as  a  verb = to  bring 
within  the  penalties  of  a  praemunire. 
For  you  must  know  that  Horn  desir'd 
To  have  good  Bonner  pramunired. 
Ward,  England's  Reformation,  c.  2,  p.  166. 

pRiEMUNiRE,  scrape ;  confusion.  The 
expression  is  derived  from  the  legal 

Eenalties  attending  a  praemunire.     Cf. 
ISERARA. 

If  the  law  finds  you  with  two  wives  at  once, 
There's  a  shrewd  nremunire. 

Massinger,  Old  Law,  Act  V. 

He  getting  me  drunk  one  night,  I  was 
married  to  her,  and  was  ready  to  cut  my 
own  throat  the  next  day ;  but  I,  seeing  what 
a  priminary  I  had  by  my  ludness  brought 
myself  in,  I  saw  that  it  could  not  be  avoided. 
—Letter  of  Robert  Young,  1680  (Harl.  Misc., 
vi.334). 

I'm  in  such  a  fright !  the  strangest  quan- 
dary and  premunire!  I'm'all  over  in  a  uni- 
versal^  agitation.  —  Congre've,  Double  Dealer. 
Act  IV. 

So  my  lady  has  brought  herself  into  a  fine 
premumre. — Centlivre,  The  Gamester,  Act  IV 

Prjsnatal,  previous  to  birth. 

The  Doctor  thought  there  was  no  creature 
to  which  you  could  trace  back  so  many  per- 
sons in  civilized  society  by  the  indications 
which  they  afforded  of  habits  acquired  in 
their  pra  natal  professional  education.— 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cexxix. 

Pr£  sciential,  fore-knowing;  pre- 
saging. 

Love's  of  so  quick  a  sight,  that  he 
Aforehand  with  his  object  is, 

And  into  dark  Futurity 
With  prasciential  rays  doth  press. 

Beaumont,  Love's  Eye* 


PR&1ER 


(  510  )  PREBENDARY 


Prater,  post.     See  extract  from 

Naslie  s.  v.  Paralogize. 

To  come,  when  Micah  wrote  this,  and  in 
the  future ;  bat  come,  when  St.  Matthew 
cited  it,  and  in  the  prater — "  When  Jesus  was 
born  at  Bethlehem."  But  future  and  prater 
both  are  in  time,  so  this  His  birth  in  time. — 
Andrewes,  i.  162. 

Prage,  same  as  prog  or  prod  (?). 

Theyre  blades  they  brandisht,  and  keene 

jprages  goared  in  entrayls 
Of  stags  seun  migty. 

Stanyhurst,  uEn.,  i.  196. 

Pragmatic,  a  busy-body. 

Such  pragmaticks  . .  .  labour  impertinently. 
— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  502. 

Pragmatical,  busy  (in  a  good  sense). 
The  word  is  not  generally  used  so,  nor 
do  the  Diets,  furnish  any  example. 

I  received  instructions  how  to  behave  in 
towne  with  directions  to  masters  and  bookes 
to  take  in  search  of  the  antiquities,  churches, 
collections,  &c.  Accordingly  the  next  day, 
Nov.  6th,  I  began  to  be  very  pragmatical. — 
Evelyn,  IHary,  Nov.  5, 1644. 

Pragmatism,  busy  impertinence. 

Mrs.  Dollop,  the  spirited  landlady  of  the 
Tankard,  in  Slaughter  Lane, .  .  had  often  to 
resist  the  shallow  pragmatism  of  customers 
disposed  to  think  that  their  reports  from  the 
outer  world  were  of  equal  force  with  what 
had  "  come  up  "  in  her  mind.  —  G.  Eliot, 
Middlemarch,  ch.  lxxi. 

Pragmatizer,  busy-body. 

The  pragmatizer  is  a  stupid  creature ;  no- 
thing is  too  beautiful  or  too  sacred  to  be 
made  dull  and  vulgar  by  his  touch. — E.  Tylor, 
Primitive  Culture,  i.  407. 

Praise-worth,  praiseworthy. 

Whose  praise- loorth  vertures,  if  in  verse  I 

now  should  take  in  hand 
For  to  comprize  .  .  . 

Holland's  Camden,  p.  290. 

Pram.     See  extract. 

Around  us  lay  the  foreign  steamers,  mostly 
English,  each  with  its  crowd  of  boats  and 
prams.  These  prams  are  huge  barges  roofed 
over,  and  resemble  for  all  the  world  game- 
pies  or  old-fashioned  monitors. — Roe,  Land 
of  the  North  Wind,  p.  158  (1875). 

Prancome,  something  odd  or  strange. 

Gog's  hart,  I  durst  have  laid  my  cap  to  a 

crowu, 
Ch'  would  learn  of  some  prancome  as  soon  as 
ich  cham  to  town. 

Gammer  GurtonJs  Needle  (Hawkins, 
Eng.  Dr.,  i.  173). 

Prat,    cant    term    for    a    buttock. 
See  H. 


First  set  me  down  here  on  both  my  prats. 
— Broome,  Jovial  Crete,  Act  II. 

Prateful,  chattering ;  loquacious. 

The  French  character  seems  to  me  much 
altered ;  . .  the  people  are  more  circumspect, 
less  prateful.  —  Taylor  of  Norwich,  1802 
(Memoir,  1.  208). 

Prattiqde,  practice ;  habits. 

How  could  any  one  of  English  education 
and  vrattique  swallow  such  a  low  rabble  sug- 
gestion? Much  more  monstrous  is  it  to 
imagine  readers  so  imposable  upon  to  credit 
it  upon  any  one's  bare  relation.  —  North, 
Examen,  p.  306. 

Prattle-basket,  a  talkative  woman. 
H.  explains  it  a  talkative  child,  but 
Breton  is  speaking  of  a  man's  wife. 
Cf.  Bawdy-basket. 

But  if  she  be  ilfauor'd,  blind  and  old, 
A  prattle-basket,  or  an  idle  slut. 

Breton,  Mother1  s  Blessing,  st.  74. 

Pratye,  talkative. 

Nevertheless©  amonge  this  araye, 
Was  there  not  one  called  Coclave, 
A  littell  pratye  foolysshe  poade  ? 

Roy  and  Barlow,  Rede  me  and 
be  nott  torothe,  p.  43. 

Prayant,  one  who  prays.  See  ex- 
tract more  at  length  s.  v.  Euchite. 

Fanatick  Erruur  and  Levity  would  seem 
an  Euchite  as  well  as  an  Eristick,  Prayant 
as  well  as  predicant. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  93. 

Prayer-monger,   a  contemptuous 

name  for  one  who  prays. 

I  have  led 
Some  camel-kneed  prayer-monger  through 
the  c&ve.—Soidhey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  V. 

Pray -pray -fashion,    imploringly  ; 

clasped  as  in  prayer. 

"  Pray,  sir,  forgive  me ; "  and  she  held  up 
her  hands  pray-pray-fashion,  thus. — Rtchard- 
son,  Gr ami  son,  li.  183. 

Preallably,  previously  (Fr.  preal- 
lablement). 

No  swan  dieth  until  preallably  he  have 
sung. — UrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  ill.  ch.  xxi. 

Prearm,  to  forearm. 

These  be  good  thoughts  to  prearm  our 
souls. — Adams,  iii.  25. 

Pre- aver,  to  affirm  beforehand ;   to 

prophesy. 

Another,  past  all  hope,  doth  pre-auerr 
The  birth  of  John,  Christ's  holy  Harbenger. 
Sylvester,  First  day,  first  weeke,  778. 

Prebendary,  a  prebend ;  usually, 
the  holder  of  that  preferment. 


PRECAUTIONARY      (  511  ) 


PREDECLARE 


A  prebendary  was  offered  me,  as  they  call 
it :  it  was  a  good  fat  benefice,  and  I  accepted 
it. — Bailey**  Erasmus ,  p.  184. 

Precautionary,  precaution :  usually 
an  adjective. 

Thou  seest,  Belford,  by  the  above  pre- 
cautionaries,  that  I  forget  nothing. — Richard- 
son,  CI.  Harlowe,  iv.  49. 

Precautious,  provident ;  careful. 

It  was  not  the  mode  of  the  Conrt  in  those 
days  to  be  very  penetrant,  precautious,  or 
watchful. — North,  Examen,  p.  93. 

Precession,  a  going  before  or  pre- 
cedence. L.  quotes  a  passage  from 
Barrow  on  the  Pope's  Supremacy, 
where  it  means  precedence,  Dut  it  is 
seldom  used  except  in  the  phrase  pre- 
cession of  the  equinoxes.  Breton,  how- 
ever, has  a  poem  called  Pasquil's  Pre- 
cession, which  is  a  sort  of  satirical 
Litany.  I  suppose,  therefore,  he  em- 
ploys the  terra  in  the  sense  of  prayer, 
as  though  it  came  from  preces. 

Precessor,  predecessor.  Bp.  Hall, 
who  had  been  Curate  of  Waltham,  in 
a  letter  to  Fuller,  who  then  held  that 
office  (Aug.  30,  1651),  signs  himself, 
"  Your  much  devoted  friend,  precessor, 
and  fellow-labourer,  Jos.  Hall,  B.  N." 
{Fuller,  Ch.  Histj  X.  v.  7).  In  the 
extract,  if  the  punctuation  be  right,  it 
is  used  adjectivally. 

Fordham  was  herein  more  court-like  and 
civil  to  this  Eudo,  than  Thomas  Arundel, his 
Precessour  Bishop  of  Ely. — Fuller,  Hist,  of 
Camb.,  iii.  62. 

Precipation,  precipitation:  perhaps 
a  misprint. 

The  Dorien  .  .  his  falls,  sallyes,  and  com- 
passe  be  diuers  from  those  of  the  Phrigien, 
the  Phrigien  likewise  from  the  Lydien,  and 
all  three  from  the  Eolien,  Miolidien,  and 
Ionien,  mounting  and  falling  from  note  to 
note  such  as  be  to  them  peculiar,  and  with 
more  or  lease  leasure  or  precipation. — Putten- 
ham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xi. 

Precipice,  a  headlong  fall. 

I  am  more  amazed, 
Nay  thunderstruck,  with  thy  apostacy 
And  precipice  from  the  most  solemn  vows 
Made  unto  heaven. 

Massinger,  Maid  of  Honour,  ii.  5. 

Cam.  Tell  me,  when  you  saw  this 

Did  not  you  grieve,  as  I  do  now  to  hear  it  ? 

Ador.  His  precipice  from  goodness  raising 
mine, 
And  serving  as  a  foil  to  set  my  faith  off, 
I  had  little  reason. — Ibid.,  v.  1. 


His  fall  is  with  a  precipice,  from  a  sublime 
pinnacle  of  honour  to  a  deep  puddle  of 
penury. — Adams,  iii.  293. 

Precisionize,  to  lay  down  precise 
rules  or  statements. 

What  a  pity  the  same  man  does  not  .  .  . 
precisionize  other  questions  of  political 
morals!— Sir  G.  C.  Lewis.  Letters  (1847),  p. 
143. 

Preclusion,  shutting  out  by  antici- 
pation. 

Here  be  twins  conceived  together,  born  to- 
gether ;  yet  of  as  different  natures  and  quali- 
ties as  if  a  vast  local  distance  had  sundered 
their  births,  or  as  if  the  originary  blood  of 
enemies  had  run  in  their  several  veins.  It 
is  St.  Augustine's  preclusion  of  all  star-pre- 
dictions out  of  this  place. — Adams,  i.  9. 

Precur8IVE,  fore-running;  prepara- 
tory. 

But  soon  a  deep  precursive  sound  moaned 
hollow. — Coleridge,  Destiny  of  Nations. 

Predatorious,  predatory;  fond  of 
plunder. 

These  are  the  holy  sparks,  these  the  bless- 
ed flames  of  uncharitable  and  unquenchable 
zeale,  .  .  burning  in  some  men's  reforming 
breasts  so  long,  till  they  become  predatorious 
and  adulterou8,consumptionaryand  culinary, 
false  and  base  fires.  —  Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  321. 

Predr,  plunder.  See  also  extract 
8.  v.  Rinet.  R.  cites  Holinshed  for 
the  word,  and  says  that  it  was  pe- 
culiar to  him.  Stanyhurst  was  one  of 
Holinshed's  assistants  in  compiling  his 
Chronicle,  and  perhaps  the  passage 
cited  by  R.  is  due  to  him. 

For  we  hither  sayld  not  thee  Moors  with  an 

armye  to  vanquish, 
Or  from  their  region  with  prede  too  gather 

an  heard  flock. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.  514. 

Predecess,  to  precede ;  to  occupy 
before  another.  The  verb  is  coined 
by  Walpole  from  the  substantive  pre- 
decessor. 

Lord  John  Sackville  predecessed  me  here. 
—  Walpole,  Letters,  i.  164  (1747). 

Predecessive,  preceding. 

Our  noble  and  wise  prince  has  hit  the  law 
That  all  our  predecessive  students 
Have  miss'd,  unto  their  shame. 

Massinger,  Old  Law,\.  1. 

Predeclare,  to  foretell. 

Though  I  write  fifty  odd,  I  do  not  carry 
An  almanack  in  my  bones  to  predeclare 
What  weather  we  shall  have. 

Massinger,  Guardian,  i.  1. 


PREDESERT 


(  5»  ) 


PRE  LATELY 


Like  a  rough  surgeon, 
Without  a  feeling  in  yourself  you  search 
My  wounds  unto  the  quick,  then  predeclare 
Tne  tediousness  and  danger  of  the  cure. 

Ibid.,  A  Very  Woman,  ii.  2. 

Predesert,  previous  merit. 

Some  good  offices  we  do  to  friends,  others 
to  strangers,  but  those  are  the  noblest  that 
we  do  without  predesert.  —  Ly  Estrange' s  Se- 
neca'* Morals,  en.  ii. 

PREDE8TINARY,  predestinarian. 

The  Zwinglian  Gospellers  .  .  .  began  to 
scatter  their  predestinary  doctrines  in  the 
Reign  of  King  Edward.— Heylin's  Hist,  of 
the  Presbyterians,  p.  21. 

Predevour,  to  devour  in  anticipation. 

Sir  Thomas  Cooke  .  .  was  cast  before- 
hand at  the  Court  (where  the  Lord  Rivers 
and  the  rest  of  the  Queen's  kindred  had  pre- 
devoured  his  estate),  and  was  onely  for  for- 
malities sake  to  be  condemned.  —  Fuller, 
Worthies,  Notts  (ii.  207). 

Prediction al,  prophetic ;  predictive. 

The  contests  betwixt  Scholars  and  Scholars 
.  .(  were  observed  predictional,  as  if  their 
animosities  were  the  Index  of  the  Volume 
of  the  land— Fuller,  Worthies.  Oxford  (ii. 
221). 

Pbedie  (?) :  misprint  for  prettye  (?), 
or  b  ready  (?). 

Divers  light  and  lewd  persons  be  not 
ashamed  or  af erde  to  say,  Why  should  I  see 
the  sacring  of  the  high  Masse  ?  Is  it  any- 
thing else  but  a  piece  of  bread,  or  a  little 
predxe  round  Robin  ?— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  V. 
iv.  28. 

Prediscover,  to  foresee. 

These  holy  men  did  prudently  prediscover 
that  differences  in  judgements  would  un- 
avoidably happen  in  the  Charch.  —  Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist.,  IX.  i.  52f 

Predominate,  predominant ;  ruling. 

He  gave  way  to  his  predominate  bias. — 
Richardson,  Grandison,  ii.  141. 

Predone,  exhausted.  Fordone  is 
used  in  this  sense  in  old  authors  :  e.  g. 
"  All  with  merry  task  fordone  "  {Midi. 
Night's  Dream,  V.  ii.). 

I  am  as  one  desperate  and  predone  with 
various  kinds  of  work  at  once. — C.  Kingsley, 
1859  {Life,  ii.  99). 

Pre  doom,  to  fore-ordain. 

She  went  forth  alone, 

To  the  predoomed  adventure. 

Coleridge,  Destiny  of  Nations. 

Some  read  the  king's  face,  some  the  queen's, 
and  all 


Had  marvel  what  the  maid  might  be,  but 

most 
PredoonCd  her  as  unworthy. 

Tennyson,  Lancelot  and  Elaine. 

Preferable  is  frequently  used  by 
Richardson  in  the  sense  of  "  prefer- 
ring." 

I  have  a,  preferable  regard  for  Mr.  Love- 
lace.— CI.  Harlowe,  i.  203. 

Lady  L.,  don't  think  to  rob  me  of  my 
Harriet's  preferable  love,  as  you  have  of  Sir 
Charles's :  I  will  be  best  sister  here. — Sir  C. 
Grandison,  ii.  15. 

If  we  could  be  so  happy  as  to  have  Miss 
Byron  for  our  guest,  I  am  sure  of  my  sister, 
and  it  would  be  my  preferable  wish. — Ibid., 
ii.  106. 

Lady  D.  .  .  .  knowing  too  my  preferable 
regard  for  your  brother. — Ibid.,  vi.  204. 

Prefidence,  excessive  confidence. 

Out  of  Christ's  conquest  he  [the  devil] 
makes  a  new  assault ;  that  is,  since  He  will 
needs  trust,  he  will  set  Him  on  trusting,  He 
shall  trust  as  much  as  He  will.  As  the  for- 
mer tempted  Him  to  diffidence,  so  this  shall 
tempt  Him  to  prefdence. — A  ndrewes,  Sermons, 
v.  513. 

Prefract,  obstinate.  Bp.  Gardiner 
said  to  Bradford  at  his  examination, 
Jan.  29,  1555— 

Thou  wast  so  prefract  and  stout  in  reli- 
gion.— Bradford,  i.  474. 

Pregage,  to  pledge  beforehand. 

The  members  of  the  Councell  of  Trent, 
both  Bishops  and  Abbots,  were  by  oath  pre- 
qaged  to  the  Pope  to  defend  and  maintain 
his  authority  against  all  the  world. — Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist.,  IX.  i.  42. 

Pregnancy,  a  promising  youth. 
Fuller  has  the  s?ime  expression  in  his 
Worthies  (Barkshire  Statesmen). 

This  was  the  fashion  in  his  reign,  to  select 
yearly  one  or  moe  of  the  most  promising 
pregnancies  out  of  both  universities,  and  to 
oreed  them  beyond  the  seas  on  the  king's 
exhibitions  unto  them.  —  Fuller,  Ch.  Hist., 
VI.  p.  340. 

Prejudice  to,  to  prejudice  against. 

The  perverseness  and  contradiction  I  have 
too  often  seen  in  some  of  ray  visits,  even 
among  people  of  sense,  as  well  as  condition, 
had  prejudiced  me  to  the  married  state. — 
Richardson,  Pamela,  ii.  317. 

Prelateitt,  the  notion  of  prelacy. 

Neither  shall  I  stand  to  trifle  with  one 
that  would  tell  me  of  quiddities  and  for- 
malities, whether  prelaty  or  prelateity  in 
abstract  notion  be  this  or  that. — Milton,  Ch. 
Gov.  against  Prelaty,  Bk.  II.  ch.  i. 

Prelatelt,  prelatical 


PRELATIAL 


(  513  )  PRESTIDIGITAL 


Their  copes,  perrours,  and  chasubles,  when 
they  be  in  their  prelately  pompous  sacrifices. 
— Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  526. 

Prklatial,  episcopal. 

Servants  came  in  bearing  a  large  and 
magnificent  portfolio ;  it  was  of  morocco  and 
of  grelatial  purple.  —  Disraeli,  Lothair,  ch. 
xvin. 

Prelatish,  episcopal. 

In  any  congregation  of  this  island  that 
hath  not  been  altogether  furnished  or  wholly 
perverted  with  prelatish  leaven,  there  will 
not  want  divers  plain  and  solid  men.  — 
Milton,  Apol.for  Smectymnuus. 

Premeditatkdness,  deliberate  cha- 
racter, opposed  to  extempore  effusions : 
Gauden  is  speaking  of  the  Prayer-Book. 

Its  order,  premeditatedness,  and  constancy 
of  devotion  was  never  forbidden  or  disal- 
lowed by  God.— Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  89. 

Premio,  premium. 

It  is  just  as  if  the  ensurers  brought  in  a 
catalogue  of  ensured  ships  lost,  taking  no 
notice  of  ships  arrived  and  premios. — North, 
Eramen,  p.  490. 

In  all  which  offices  the  premio  is  so  small, 
and  the  recovery,  in  case  of  loss,  so  easy  and 
certain,  that  nothing  can  be  shewn  like  it  in 
the  world.— Defoe,  Tour  thro1  Q.  Britain,  ii. 
111. 

Prepare,  to  go ;  repair. 

With  these  Instructions  he  prepares  to  the 
Court  of  Scotland,  makes  himself  known 
unto  the  king,  .  .  .  —Heylin's  Hist,  of  the 
Presbyterians,  p.'  220. 

Prkpractise,  to  do  previously. 

They  suspected  lest  those  who  formerly 
had  outrunne  the  canons  with  their  addi- 
tional conformitie  ^ceremonizing  more  than 
was  enjoyned)  now  would  make  the  canons 
come  up  to  them,  making  it  necessary  for 
others  what  voluntarily  they  had  preprac- 
tised  themselves.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI.  iii. 
14. 

Preprovidk,  to  provide  in  advance. 

Before  livings  were  actually  void,  he  pro- 
visionally pre-provided  incumbents  for  them. 
—Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  III.  ix.  25. 

Pbesagious,  predictive ;  ominous. 

Some  supernatural  cause  sent  me  strange 
visions,  which  being  confirmed  with  pre- 
sayiou*  chances,  I  had  gone  to  Delphos,  and 
there  received  this  answer.— Sidney,  Arcadia, 
p.  204. 

Presbytebism,  Presbyterianism.  See 
extract  from  Gauden  *.  v.  Independ- 
entism. 

It  looks  not  all  like  Popery  that  Preshy- 
ttrtsrn  was  disdained  by  the  king ;  his  father 


had  taught  him  that  it  was  a  sect  so  per- 
fidious, that  he  found  more  faith  among  the 
Highlanders.— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii. 
197. 

Pre-scene,  induction  or  prologue. 

O  holy  knot  in  Eden  instituted, 

Not  in  this  earth,  with  blood  and  wrongs 

polluted, 
Frofan'd  with  mischiefs,  the  pre-scane  of  hell 
To   cursed  creatures  that  Against  Heaven 

rebell. 

Sylvester,  Sixth  day,  first  weeke,  1072 

Prescribe,  to  prefix  in  writing :  not 
often  used  literally.  The  subjoined  is 
from  Chapman's  Dedication  of  Byron's 
Gonspiracie  and  Tragedie  to  Walsing- 
ham,  1608. 

Hailing  heard  your  approbation  of  these 
in  their  presentment,  I  could  not  but  pre- 
scribe them  with  your  name. 

Presidentess,  female  president. 

I  became  by  that  means  the  presidentess  of 
the  dinner  and  tea-table. — Mad.  D'Arblay, 
Diary,  iii.  171. 

Presidiary,  a  guard :  the  Diets,  have 
the  word  as  an  adjective. 

Not  one  of  those  heavenly  presidiaries 
struck  a  stroke  for  the  prophet. — Bp.  Hall, 
Cont.  (Elisha  and  the  Assyrians). 

Press,  to  commit  to  the  press;  to 
print  The  subjoined  is  quoted  by 
Heylin  from  a  dedication  by  Laud 
(1637)  to  the  king  of  an  appendix  to  a 
book  by  Dr.  White. 

The  discourse  upon  this  conference  .  . 
staid  long  before  it  could  endure  to  be 
pressed. — Heylin,  life  of  Laud,  p.  121. 

Pressman,  a  man  engaged  in  press- 
ing grape-juice. 

One  only  path  to  all,  by  which  the  press- 
men came 
In  time  of  vintage. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xviii.  515. 

Press-master,  leader  of  a  press- 
gang. 

Are  not  our  sailors  paid  and  encouraged 
to  that  degree,  that  there  is  hardly  any  need 
of  press-masters? — T.  Brown,  Works,  iv.  123. 

[Pallas]  Whispered  into  the  Major's  ear 
To  act  a  Wapping  Press-master. 

D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  c.  2. 

Presti digital,  having  fingers  fit  for 
juggling. 

Meadows  was  ambidexter.  The  two  hands 
he  gathered  coin  with  were  Meadows  and 
Crawley.  The  first  his  honest,  hard-working 
hand;  the  second  his  three-fingered  Jack, 
his  prestidiyital  hand. — Reade,  Never  too  late 
to  mend,  ch.  vi. 

L  L 


PRE-STUD  Y 


(  5H  ) 


PRIDE 


Pre-study,  to  study  beforehand. 

He  .  .  never  broached  what  he  had  not 
brewed,  but  preached  what  he  had  pre-studied 
some  competent  time  before. — Fuller,  Wor- 
thies, Cambridge  (i.  165). 

Pretkrcanink,  beyond  the  capacity 
or  nature  of  a  dog. 

A  great  dog  .  .  .  pawed  me,  however, 
quietly  enough,  not  staying  to  look  up  with 
strange  pretercanine  eyes  in  my  face,  as  I 
half  expected  it  would.  —  C.  Bronte,  Jane 
Eyre,  ch.  zii. 

Preternatcralism,  unnatural  state. 

Camille'8  head,  one  of  the  clearest  in 
France,  has  got  itself  .  .  saturated  through 
every  fibre  with  preternaturalism  of  sus- 
picion.— Carlyle,  A.  JZe*.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  III. 
ch.  vui. 

Preternuptial.  "  A  pretemuptial 
person  "  is  a  delicate  expression  for  an 
adulterer. 

Nay,  poor  woman,  she  by  and  by,  we  find, 
takes  up  with  preternuptial  persons. — Car- 
lyle, Misc.,  iv.  97. 

Pretexture,  pretext. 

Now  we  have  studied  both  textures  of 
words  and  pretextures  of  manners,  to  shroud 
dishonesty. — Adams,  ii.  416. 

Pretorture,  to  torture  beforehand. 

Remarkable  was  their  cruelty  in  pretor- 
turing  of  many  whom  afterwards  they  put 
to  death.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  VIII.  ii.  27. 

Prevenancy,  attention ;  readiness. 

La  Floor's  prevenancy  (for  there  was  a 
passport  in  his  very  looks)  soon  set  every 
servant  in  the  kitchen  at  ease  with  him. — 
Sterne,  Sent.  Journey,  The  Letter. 

Previse,  to  prewarn,  or  inform  before- 
hand. 

Mr.  Pelham,  it  will  be  remembered,  has 
prevised  the  reader  that  Lord  Vincent  was 
somewhat  addicted  to  paradox.  —  Lytton, 
Pelham,  ch.  xv.  (note). 

Prey,  to  ravage  (with  direct  ob- 
jective). 

The  said  Justice  preied  the  countrey  Tir- 
connell. — Holland's  Camden,  ii.  166. 

►   Priamist,  a  son  of  Priam. 

Then  snatch'd  he  up  two  Priamists  that  in 
one  chariot  stood. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  v.  166. 

Prick,  to  adorn,  or  embroider.  See  H. 

I  would  [women]  would  (as  they  have 
much  wricking),  when  they  put  on  their  cap, 
I  would  they  would  have  this  meditation: 
"  I  am  now  putting  on  my  power  upon  my 
head."  If  they  had  this  thought  in  their 
minds,  they  would  not  make  so  much  prick- 


ing up  of  themselves  as  they  do  now  a  davs, 
—Latimer,  i.  253. 

It  is  not  idle  going  about, 
Nor  all  day  pricking  on  a  clout, 
Can  make  a  man  to  thriue. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  155. 

Prickant,  spurring,  and  so,  travel- 
ling. In  the  second  extract  it  =  sharp, 
or  perhaps  jutting  out. 

What  knight  is  that,  squire?  ask  him  if  he 

keep 
The  passage,  bound  by  love  of  lady  fair, 
Or  else  but  prickant. 

Beaum.  and  Fl.t  Knt.  of  the  B.  Pestle,  ii.  5. 

Without  his  door  doth  hang 
A  copper  basin  on  &  prickant  spear. 

Ibid^  iii.  2. 

Pricker,  light  horseman. 

There  were  assembled  in  their  camp  .  .  . 
two  thousand  horsemen, "prickers"  as  they 
[the  Scotch]  call  them  .  .  .  Four  or  five  of 
this  Captain's  prickers  with  their  gads  ready 
charged  did  right  hastily  direct  their  course. 
—  W.  Patten,  Exped.  to  Scotland,  1548  (Any 
Garner,  III.  63,  88). 

This  sort  of  spur  was  worn  by  a  body  of 
light  horsemen,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII., 
thence  called  prickers.— Arehmol.,  VIII.  113 
(1787). 

Prick  -  he  -  dainty,  a  fine,  affected 
person. 

Tib.  Then  shall  ye  see  Tibet,  sirs,  treade 

the  mosse  so  trimme, 
Nay,  why  sayd  I  treade  ?    Te  shall  see  hir 

glide  and  swimme, 
Not  lumperdee  clumperdee  like  our  Span- 

iell  Big, 
Trupen.  Mary  then,  prick-me-dainti*,  come 

toste  me  a  fig. 

Udal,  Roister  Doister,  II.  3. 

Bailie  Pirlet,  who  was  naturally  a  gabby 
prick^me-dainty  body, enlarged  at  great  length 
with  all  his  well  dockit  words,  as  if  they  were 
on  chandlers  pins. — Gait,  The  Provost,  ch. 
xxxi. 

Prickbhot,  a  bowshot,  space  between 

the  archer  and  the  mark. 

The  tents,  as  I  noted  them,  were  divided 
into  four  several  orders  and  rewes  lying  east 
and  west,  and  a  prickshot  asunder. — Patten, 
Exped.  to  Scotland,  1548  (Eng.  Garner,  III. 
99). 

Pricky,  prickly. 

A  prickie  stalke  it  hath  of  the  owne  .  .  . 
prickie  moreouer  it  is  like  a  thorne. — Hol- 
land, Pliny,  xix.  S. 

Holme-trees  grow  plentifully  with  their 
sharp  prickey  leaves  alwaies  greene. — Ibid., 
Camden,  p.  351. 

Pride,  to  be  proud :  all  the  examples 
in  the  Diets,  give  it  as  a  reflective  verb, 
which  is  its  present  use. 


PRIDE 


(  SiS  ) 


PRIMITIV1TY 


Neither  were  the  vainglorious  content  to 
pride  it  upon  success,  and  to  stamp  it  upon 
their  money, "  God  with  us,"  but  sharpned 
their  presumption  against  the  king's  friends 
with  insultations  and  revilings. — Backet,  Life 
of  Williams,  II.  203. 

It's  a  madness  to  pride  in  oar  shame,  and 
to  look  big  because  we  are  poor  and  indigent. 
— Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  21. 

To  pride,  dear  brother,  in  greatness  is  a 
pompous  folly.— Ibid.,  p.  138. 

You  only  pride  in  your  own  abasement, 
and  glory  in  your  shame. — H.  Brooke,  Fool 
of  Quality,  i.  36*8. 

I  regretted  he  was  no  more  ;  he  would  so 
much  have  vrided  and  rejoiced  in  showing 
his  place. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  V.  30. 

Pride,  full  force  ? 

The  princes  were  even  compelled  by  the 
hail  that  the  pride  of  the  wind  blew  into 
their  faces,  to  seek  some  shrouding  place. — 
Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  132. 

Pridian,  belonging  to  the  previous 
day. 

Thrice  a  week  at  least  does  Gann  breakfast 
in  bed — sure  sign  of  pridian  intoxication. — 
Thackeray,  Sfiabby  Genteel  Story,  ch.  ii. 

Priest,  priestess. 

On  a  seate  of  the  same  Chariot,  a  little 
more  eleuate,  sate  Eunomia,  the  Virgine 
Priest  of  the  Goddesse  Honor. — Chapman, 
Masque  of  the  Mid.  Temple. 

Priest,  to  hold  or  exercise  the  office 
of  priest ;  one  ordained  'to  the  second 
order  in  the  ministry  is  now  often  said 
to  be  priested. 

Honour  God  and  the  bishop  as  high-priest, 
bearing  the  image  of  God  according  to  his 
ruling,  and  of  Christ  according  to  his  priest* 
ing. — Milton,  Prelatical  Episcopacy. 

Priggish,  dishonest :  the  word  usually 

means  conceited  or  pragmatical. 

Every  prig  is  a  slave.  His  own  priggish 
desires  which  enslave  him  themselves,  betray 
him  to  the  tyranny  of  others. — Fielding, 
Jonathan  mid,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  iii. 

Priggish,  thievery;  "here"  in  the 
second  quotation  is  Newgate ;  also  con- 
ceit, or  pragmaticalness ;  priggishness 
is  commoner. 

How  unhappy  is  the  state  of  priggism! 
how  impossible  for  human  prudence  to  fore- 
see and  guard  against  every  circumvention ! 
— Fielding,  Jonathan  Wild,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iv. 

"While  one  hath  a  roguery  (a  priggism  they 
here  call  it)  to  commit,  and  another  a  roguery 
to  defend,  they  must  naturally  fly  to  the 
favour  and  protection  of  those  who  have  power 
to  give  them  what  they  desire.— Ibid.,  Bk. 
IV.  ch.  iii. 


Tour  great  Mechanics'  Institutes  end  in 
intellectual  priggism. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown* » 
Schooldays,  Ft.  I.  ch.  ii. 

Prill,  stream. 

Each  siluer  prill  gliding  on  golden  sand. 
Dairies,  Microcosmos,  p.  12. 

Driue  on  thy  flocke  then  to  the  motley  plaines 
Where  by  some  prill  that  'mong  the  nib- 
bles plods, 
Thou,  with  thine  oaten  reede  and  quaintest 
6  trainee, 
May  rapt  the  senior  swaines  and  minor 
gods. 

Ibid.,  Eclogue,  1. 150. 

Prim,  privet*    See  L.  s.  v.  privet. 

Set  priuie  or  prim, 
Set  boxe  like  nim. 
Set  giloflowers  all, 
That  growea  on  the  wall. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  38. 

Prim,  to  purse  up  the  mouth,  or  to 
prepare  oneself  generally  in  a  precise 
way ;  and  so  to  be  particular  or  strait- 
laced. 

Have  I  not  known  these  many  years 
Thy  love  to  th'  tribe  with  the  long  ears, 
Where  primming  sister,  aunt,  or  coz, 
Tune  their  warm  zeal  with  hum  and  buz  t 
D'Urfty,  Collin's  Walk,  Cant.  I. 
When  she  was  primmed  out,  down  she  came 
to  him. — Richardson,  CL  Harlotve,  iii.  37. 

Tell  dear  Kitty  not  to  prim  up  as  if  we 
had  never  met  before. — Mad.  D'Arblay, 
Diary,  ii.  108  (1781). 

With  other  thought  mark  also  the  Abb6 
Maury ;  his  broad,  bold  face,  mouth  accur- 
ately primmed,  full  eyes  that  ray  out  intelli- 
gence, falsehood. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I. 
Bk.  IV.  ch.  iv. 

Primage,   allowance    paid  by  the 

shipper  of  goods  to  master  and  sailors 

for  loud  ing  the  vessel  therewith.     In  a 

Report  to  Lord  Burleigh  of  the  coat  of 

delivering  a  Tun  of  Gascoigny  unite  in 

England  in  November,  16o3  (Arber, 

Eng.  Garner,  i.  46),  one  item  is — 

"  The  freight,  primage,  and  Dover  money 
on  the  tun,  £1.  13.  0." 

And  in  Linschoten's  Voyage  to  Goa, 
1594,  we  are  told  that  in  the  Spanish 
car  racks  employed  on  the  Indian  voy- 
ages, the  Master  and  the  Pilot  had 
specified  wages,  "  as  also  '  Primnge,' 
and  certain  tons  of  freight"  {Ibtd.f 
Eng.  Garner,  iii.  19). 

Primitivity,  primitiveness. 

Oh !  I  can  tell  yon  the  age  of  George  the 
Second  is  likely  to  be  celebrated  for  more 
primitivity  than  the  disinterestedness  of  Mr. 
Deard.—  Walpole  to  Mann,  iii.  331  (1759). 

L  L  2 


PRIMROSED 


(  5i«  ) 


PROCESS 


Prim  rosed,  adorned  or  covered  with 
primroses :  cf.  Cowbliped. 

It  stood  cloee  to  the  roadside,  not  one  of 
▼our  broad,  level,  dusty,  glaring  causeways, 
but  a  rig-sag,  up-and-down  primrosed  by- 
road.— Savage,  Reuben  Medlicott,  Bk.  I.  ch.  1. 

Princekin,  little  prince.  Cf.  Lord- 
kin. 

Every  one  of  us  according  to  his  degree 
can  point  to  the  Princekins  of  private  life 
who  are  nattered  and  worshipped. — The  New- 
comes,  ch.  liii. 

Princeless,  without  a  prince. 

This  county  is  Princeless,  I  mean,  affords 
no  Royal  nativities. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Rut" 
land  (II.  242). 

Princelet,  a  petty  prince. 

German  princelets  might  sell  their  country 
niece-meal  to  French  or  Russian. — C.  Kings- 
ley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xxxii. 

Princeling,  a  young  or  petty  prince. 

Our  hopes,  our  just  desires  pursu'd, 
To  see  our  Princeling  with  a  name  indu'd. 

Sylvester,  Panaretut,  4. 
The  struggle  in  his  own  country  has  en- 
tirely deprived  him  of  revenues  as  great  as 
any  forfeited  by  their  Italian  princelings.— 
Disraeli,  Lothair,  ch.  zlix. 

Princessly,  having    the  rank  of 

princess. 

The  busy  old  tarpaulin  uncle  I  make  but 
my  ambassador  to  Queen  Annabella  Howe, 
to  engage  her  (for  example -sake  to  her 
princessly  daughter)  to  join  in  their  cause. — 
Richardson,  CI.  Harlow,  i.  221. 

Princum-Prancum.  Grose  gives  "  Mrs. 

Princum  Prancum,  a  nice,  precise,  formal 

madam." 

Princum  Prancum  is  a  fine  dance. — Burton 
Anatomy,  p.  533. 

What  dance  ? 
No  wanton  jig  I  hope,  no  dance  is  lawful 
But  Prinkum-Prankum. 

Randolph,  Muses'  Looking  Glass,  v.  1. 

Princum 8,  niceties  of  behaviour, 

scruples. 

My  behaviour  may  not  yoke 
With  the  nice  princums  of  that  folk. 

D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  Cant.  I. 

Privacy,  a  private  matter. 

The  dislikers  of  the  Liturgie  bare  them- 
selves high  upon  the  judgement  of  Master 
Calvin  in  his  letter  (four  years  since)  to  the 
Duke  of  Somerset,  Lord  Protectour,  now  no 
longer  a  privacie%  because  publickly  printed 
in  his  Epistles. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  VII.  ii.  18. 

Privik,  privet.  See  quotation  from 
Tusser  *.  v.  Prim. 


The  borders  round  about  are  set  with  priuie 

sweete, 
Where  neuer  bird  but  nightingale  preaumde 

to  set  his  feete. 
N.  Breton,  Daffodils  and  Primroses,  p.  3. 

Prize,  to  risk  or  venture. 

Thou'rt  worthy  of  the  title  of  a  squire, 
That  durst,  for  proof  of  thy  affection, 
And  for  thy  mistress'  favour,  prize  thy  blood. 

Greene,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  175. 

Prizeable,  valuable ;  in  use  in  Sussex. 

Be  careful  of  what  love  you  venture  few ; 
For  in  so  much  as  love  is  better  worth, 
So  prudence  is  more  prizeable  in  love. 

Taylor,  Virgin  Widow,  II.  i. 

The  courage  of  the  tongue 
Is  truly,  like  the  courage  of  the  hand, 
A  prizeable  possession. 

Ibid.,  St.  Clements  Eve,  I.  i. 

Pro  and  con,  used  as  a  verb,  to  weigh 
the  arguments  on  both  sides.  See 
quotation  from  Southey  «.  v.  Shtlli- 
shallirr. 

A  man  in  soliloquy  reasons  with  himself, 
and  pros  and  cons  and  weighs  all  his  designs. 
— Congreve,  Epist.  Ded.  to  Double  Dealer. 

My  father's  resolution  of  putting  me  into 
breeches  .  .  .  had  nevertheless  been  pnfd 
and  cori&,  and  judicially  talked  over  betwixt 
him  and  my  mother. — Sterne,  Tr.  Shandy,  iv. 
197. 

PROBALITY,  probability. 

[After  describing  a  far-fetched  derivation 
for  the  name  Brigantes.]  But  if  such  a  con- 
jecture may  take  place,  others  might  with  as 
great  probality  derive  them  from  the  Brigantes 
of  Bntaine. — Holland's  Camden,  ii.  p.  84. 

Probatorie,  house  for  novices. 

In  the  same  yeere  Christian  Bishop  of 
Iismore  . .  .  and  Pope  Eugenius,  a  venerable 
man,  with  whom  he  was  in  the  Probatorie  at 
Clarevall,  who  also  ordained  him  to  be  the 
Legate  in  Ireland, .  .  .  departed  to  Christ.— 
Holland's  Camden,  ii.  151. 

Probe,  a  printer's  proof. 

The  thanksgiving  for  the  queen's  majesty's 
preservation  I  have  inserted  into  the  collect, 
which  was  apter  place  in  mv  opinion  than 
in  the  psalm ;  ye  shall  see  in  the  probe  of 
the  print,  and  after  judge.  —  GrindaTs  Re- 
mains, p.  268. 

Procerous,  lofty. 

The  compasse  about  the  wall  of  this  new 
mount  is  five  hundreth  foot,  .  .  .  and  the 
procerous  stature  of  it,  so  embailing  and 
girdling  in  this  mount,  twentie  foot  and  Mxe 
inches. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Jfise-, 
vi.  153). 

Process,  to  sue  by  legal  process. 

He  was  at  the  quarter-sessions  proce$*?f 
his  brother. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Ennui,  ch.  viii 


PROCESSION  (  517  )        PROLEGOMENOUS 


Procession,  to  go  in  procession. 
Bale,  quoted  by  R.,  speaks  of  men 
being  processioned,  i.  e.  beset  with 
processions  (and  other  externals  of 
religion). 

There  is  eating,  and  drinking,  and  pro- 
cessioning, and  masquerading. — Colman,  Man 
and  Wife,  Act  I. 

Thirteen  St.  Edmundsbury  monks  are  at 
last  seen  processioning  towards  the  Win- 
chester Manorhouse.  —  CarlyU,  Past  and 
Present,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xcviii. 

Truly  this  hisolatio  suits  my  old  bones 
better  than  processioning. — Kinysley,  Saint's 
Tragedy,  v.  1. 

Processioner,  one  who  goes  in  pro- 
cession. 

The  processioners  seeing  them  running  to- 
wards them,  and  with  them  the  troopers  of 
the  holy  brotherhood  with  their  cross-bows, 
began  to  fear  some  evil  accident. — Jarvis's 
Don  Quixote,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  xxv. 

Prochronism,  anachronism. 

The  prochronisms  in  these  mysteries  are 
very  remarkable. — Archctol.,  xxvii.  252  (1838). 

Proclaim  ant,  proclaimed 

I  was  spared  the  pain  of  being  the  first 
proclaimant  of  her  flight. — E.  Bronte,  Wuther- 
ing  Heights,  ch.  xii. 

Pboctorized,  an  undergraduate  sent 
for  a  proctor  for  some  misdemeanour 
is  said  to  be  proctorized. 

One  don't  like  to  go  in  while  there's  any 
chance  of  a  real  row,  as  you  call  it,  and  so 
gets  proctorized  in  one's  old  age  for  one's 
patriotism. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford, 
ch.  xii. 

Prodigalise,  to  lavish. 

Major  Mac  Blarney  prodigalises  his  offers 
of  service  in  every  conceivable  department 
of  life.— Zytton,  Cartons,  Bk.  XVII.  ch.  i. 

Productivity,  power  of  production. 

They  have  reinforced  their  own  produc- 
tivity, by  the  creation  of  that  marvellous 
machinery  which  differences  this  age  from 
any  other  age. — Emerson,  Eng.  Traits,  ch.  z. 

Profanatory,  profaning. 

Every  one  now  had  tasted  the  wassail-cup, 
except  Paulina,  whose  pas  de  fee  on  de  fan- 
tasie  nobody  thought  of  interrupting  to  offer 
so  profanatory  a  draught. — Miss  Bronte,  Vil- 
lette,  ch.  xxv. 

Professoress,  female  professor. 

If  I  had  children  to  educate,  I  would  at 
ten  or  twelve  years  of  age,  have  a  professor, 
or  professoress,  of  whist  for  them. — Thack- 
eray, Roundabout  Papers,  xxx. 

Proficiat.  " Properly  (Cotgrave 
says),  a  fee  or  benevolence  bestowed 


on  bishops  in  manner  of  a  welcome, 
immediately  after  their  instalment." 

[He]  would  have  caused  him  to  be  burnt 
alive,  had  it  not  been  for  M organ te,  who  for 
his  proficiat  and  other  small  fees  gave  him 
nine  tuns  of  beer.— Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk. 
II.  oh. 


Proficiency,  a  start  or  advance; 
generally  applied  to  the  student,  not 
the  study. 

By  means  whereof  the  Hebrew  and  Chal- 
daiok  tongues,  which  few  in  Oxon  under- 
stood, when  I  first  came  thither,  became  to 
be  so  generally  embraced,  and  so  chearfully 
studied,  that  it  received  a  wonderful  pro- 
ficiency, and  that  too  in  a  shorter  time  than 
a  man  can  easily  imagine. — Heylin,  Life  of 
Laud,  p.  317. 

Profuser,  lavisher. 

Fortune's  a  blind  profuser  of  her  own, 
Too  much  she  gives  to  some,  enough  to  none. 
Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  255. 

Prog,  food.  The  word  is  in  R.  and 
L.,  but  the  subjoined  is  an  earlier  ex- 
ample than  any  there  given. 

The  Abbot  also  every  Saturday  was  to 
visit  their  beds,  to  see  if  they  had  not  shuf- 
fled in  some  softer  matter  or  purloyned  some 
progge  for  themselves. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  v. 
p.  290. 

Progenerate,  to  beget 

They  were  all  progenerated  colonies  from  a 
Scythian  or  Tartar  nce.—Archaol.,  ii.  250 
(1773). 

Progermination,  birth ;  growth. 

Ignoble  births  which  shame  the  stem 
That  gave  progermination  unto  them. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  270. 

Prohibiter,  one  who  forbids. 

Cecilia,  with  a  sort  of  steady  dismay  in 
her  countenance,  cast  her  eyes  round  the 
church,  with  no  other  view  than  that  of  see- 
ing from  what  corner  the  prohibiter  would 
start. —  Mad.  DUrblay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  IX. 
ch.  vui. 

Proker.  Colman,  in  a  note,  says, 
" Hibernicb,  proker;  Anglict,  poker.*' 

Before  the  antique  Hall's  turf  fire 
Was  stretch'd  the  Porter,  Con  Maguire, 
Who,  at  stout  Usquebaugh's  command, 
Snor'd  with  his  proker  in  his  hand. 

Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  46. 
The  proker s  are  not  half  so  hot  or  so  long, 
By  an  inch  or  two,  either  in  handle  or  prong. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  (Old  Woman  in  Grey). 

Prolegomenous,  introductory. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  in  the  prolegomenous 
or  introductory  chapter  to  say  something  of 
that  species  of  writing  which  is  called  the 


PROLIFY 


(  518  )         PROPERTY-MAN 


marvellous.— Fielding,  Tom  Jones,  Bk.  VIII. 
oh.  i. 

Prolipt,  to  bring  forth  offspring. 

There  remained  in  the  heart  of  such  tome 
piece  of  ill-temper  unreformed,  which  in 
time  prolified,  and  sent  out  great  and  wast- 
ing sins. — Sanderson,  v.  338. 

Prolix,  long:  usually  applied  to  a 
speech,  or  argument,  or  book. 

She  had  also  a  most  prolix  heard  and 
mustachios.— Evelyn,  Diary,  Sept.  15, 1655. 

Prolocutrix,  spokeswoman. 

Lady  Countesse,  hath  the  Lords  made  you 
a  charter,  and  sent  you  (for  that  you  are  an 
eloquent  speaker)  to  be  their  aduocate  and 
prolocutrix? — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,p.  141. 

A  furious  clash  fell  between  them  who 
should  be  the  prolocutrix. — Howell,  Parly  of 
Beasts,  p.  33. 

Prolongate,  to  prolong  or  lengthen. 

His  prolongated  nose 
Should  guard  his  grinning  mouth  from  blows. 
Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  c.  ii. 

Promenader,  walker ;  see  next  entry. 
Promenade  as  a  substantive  is  at  least 
as  old  as  1648.  See  quotation  from 
Bp.  Mountague  in  R.  and  L. ;  the  latter 
also  has  promenade  as  a  verb,  with  an 
example  from  Tennyson. 

Play,  laughter,  or  even  a  stare  out  of  win- 
dow at  the  sinful,  merry,  Sabbath-breaking 
promenaders  were  all  forbidden. — C.  Kingsley, 
Alton  Locke,  ch.  i. 

Promenaderkss  woman  taking  a 
walk. 

Frilled  promenaders  saunter  under  the 
trees ;  white-muslin  promenaderess,  in  green 
parasol,  leaning  on  your  arm. — Carlyle,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  VI.  ch.  iv. 

Promiscuity,  confusion. 

The  God-abstractions  of  the  modern  poly- 
theism are  nearly  in  as  sad  a  state  of  per- 
plexity and  promiscuity  as  were  the  more 
substantial  deities  of  the  Greeks.  —  E.  A. 
Foe,  Marginalia,  lxxv. 

Promisefull,  full  of  promises. 

So  som  he  wins  with  promisefull  intreats, 
With  presents  som,  and  som  with  rougher 
threat*. — Sylvester,  Babylon,  96. 

Promontorious,  overhanging  like  a 
promontory,  and  so,  high  and  pre- 
dominant. 

The  Papists  brag  of  their  numerous  multi- 
tude, and  promontorious  celsitude. — Adams, 
i.422. 

Promontory,  used  adjectivally  = 
high ;  projecting. 


He  found  his  flockes  grazing  vpon  the 
Promontorie  Mountainea.  —  Greene,  Mena- 
phon,  p.  23. 

Who  sees  not  that  the  clambering  goats 
get  upon  rocks  and  promontory  places?  — 
Adams,  i.  428. 

Promo val,  advancement. 

Tell  me  if  my  recommendation  can  in 
anything  be  steadable  for  the  promoval  of 
the  good  of  that  youth. — Urguhart's  Rabe- 
lais, Bk.  III.  ch.  xxix. 

Prompterical,  pertaining  to  a 
prompter. 

The  Prompter's  Boy,  Messieurs,  must  stand 
Near  the  Stage-Door,  close  at  the  Prompter's 

hand; 
Holding  a  Nomenclature  that's  numerical. 
Which  tallies  with  the  Book  prompterical. 

Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  14. 

Propagate,  to  scatter. 

This  short  harangue  propagated  the  Juncto, 
and  put  an  end  to  their  resolves ;  however 
they  took  care  of  their  fee,  but  then  left  all 
concern  for  the  lady  behind  them. — Gentle- 
man Instructed,  p.  544. 

Propagatrkss,  female  promoter. 

Tell  me  freely  if  you  have  a  mind  to  see 
Saturnia  again,  your  native  soyle  .  .  .  the 
prime  propagatresse  of  religion  and  learning. 
—Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  89. 

Propenbely,  deliberately. 

Others  .  .  .  looked  upon  it  on  the  con- 
trary as  a  real  and  substantial  oath  pro- 
pensly  formed  against  Yorick. — Sterne,  TrisU 
Shandy,  iii.  203. 

Propensive,  favourable. 

Edward  the  Thirde  of  his  propensive  minde 
towardes  them,  united  to  Yarmouth  Kirtley- 
road  from  it  seaven  mile  vacant.  —  JVashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  152). 

Proper ation,  haste. 

There  is  great  preparation  of  this  banquet, 
properation  to  it,  participation  of  it. — Adams, 
1.  216. 

Properly,  quite ;  entirely. 

Thence  he  carried  me  to  the  filing's  closet, 
where  such  variety  of  pictures  and  other 
things  of  value  and  rarity  that  I  was  pro- 
perly confounded,  and  enjoyed  no  pleasure 
in  the  sight  of  them. — Pepys,  June  24, 1664. 

All  which  I  did  assure  my  lord  was  most 
properly  false,  and  nothing  like  it  true. — 
Ibid.,  July  14, 1664. 

Property-man,  the  man  in  a  theatre 
who  makes  or  provides  the  things  re- 
quired for  the  dramas  represented  at 
theatres. 

The  religion  of  the  day  is  a  theatrical 
Sinai,  where  the  thunders  are  supplied  by 


PROPHECY-MONGER      (  519  ) 


PROSEMAN 


the  property-man. — Emerson,  Eng.  Traits,  ch. 
xiii. 

Prophecy-monger,  an  inventor  of 
prophecies. 

The  English  [are]  observed  by  f orrainera 
to  be  the  greatest  prophecy-mongers,  and 
whilst  the  Devil  knows  their  diet,  they  shall 
never  want  a  dish  to  please  the  palate. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Histn  IV.  u.  46. 

Prophet,  to  prophesy. 

Nor  propheting  Helenus  when  he  foretold 

dangerous  hard  haps, 
Forspake  this  burial  mourning,  nor  filthye 

Celssno.— Stanyhurst,  J2n.,  III.  727. 

Prophetize,  to  prophesy. 

Heer  sorrow  stopt  the  door 
Of  his  sad  voice,  and  almost  dead  for  woe, 
The  prophetizing  spirit  forsooke  him  so. 

Sylvester,  Handie  Crafts,  785. 

Nor,  thrild  with  bodkins,  raves  in  f rantik- 

wise, 
And  in  a  f  urie  seems  to  provhetize. 

Ibid.,  Schisme,  563. 

Propless,  without  support  or  props. 

The  dull  Earth's  propless  massie  Ball 
Stands  steddy  still. 

Sylvester,  Seventh  day,  first  weeke,  94. 
This  our  Globe  hangs  proplesse  in  the  air. 

Ibid.,  Little  Bartas,  287. 

Bncrease  thy  streames,  laye  ope  the  water- 
springs, 
That  earth's  foundations  (proplesse)  may 
appeare. — Davies,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  12. 

Propontky,  the  Propontis,  or  Sea  of 
Marmora. 

There  are  above  forty  several]  nations, 
both  in  Europe  and  Asia,  which  have  the 
Sclavonick  for  their  vulgar  speech ;  it  reach- 
eth  from  Mosco  the  court  of  the  great  Knez 
to  the  Turk's  seraglio  in  Constantinople, 
and  so  over  the  Propontey  to  divers  places  in 
Asia. — Howell,  Forraine  Travell,  Sect.  xi. 

Proposedly,  purposely. 

They  had  proposedly  been  plann'd  and 
pointed  against  him. — Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy, 
i.  117. 

Propriate,  special,  or,  perhaps,  ap- 
propriated; assimilated. 

But  any  simple  Tom  will  tell  ye, 
The  source  of  life  is  in  the  belly, 
From  whence  are  sent  out  those  supplies, 
Without  whose  propriate  sympathies 
We  should  be  neither  strong  nor  wise. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  c.  7. 

Propulsity,  propulsion ;  motive 
power.     Davies  says  of  Eternity — 

It  euer  was :  that  was  ere  Time  had  room© 
To  stirre  itself e  by  Heau'n's  propulsity. 

Davies,  Summa  Totalis,  p.  10. 


Prorex,  viceroy. 

In  the  second  part  of  Tamburlaine, 
Orcanes  is  described  in  the  Dramatis 
Persona?  as  King  of  Natolia,  and  Ga- 
zellus  as  Viceroy  of  Byron ;  the  latter 
addresses  the  former  (I.  i.)  as  "Prorex 
of  the  world." 

Create  him  Prorex  of  all  Africa. — Mar- 
lotoe,  1  Tamburlaine,  I.  i. 

Proritation,  provocation ;  challeng- 
ing. 

Your  Maimonides,  after  all  your  prori- 
tation, holds  no  other  than  fair  terms  with 
our  Samaritan  Chronicle. — Bp.  Hall,  Works, 
x.  899. 

Prosaicism,  the  character  of  prose. 

As  regards  verbal  construction,  the  more 
prosaic  a  poetical  style  is,  the  better. 
Through  this  species  of  vrosaicism,  Cowper, 
with  scarcely  any  of  the  higher  poetical 
elements,  came  very  near  making  nis  age 
fancy  him  the  equal  of  Pope. — E.  A,  Poe, 
Marginalia,  xxviii. 

Prosaist,  one  devoid  of  the  poetical 
temperament. 

Without  life,  without  colour  or  verdure ; 
that  is  to  say,  Mignet  is  heartily  and  alto- 
gether a  prosaist;  you  are  too  happy  that  he 
is  not  a  quack  as  well. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv. 
121. 

Prosapie,  stock  (Latin,  prosapia). 

My  harte  abhorreth  that  I  should  so 
In  a  woman's  kirtle  my  pelf  disguise, 

Beyng  a  manne,  and  begotten  to 
Of  a  mannes  prosapie,  in  manly  wise. 

XJdaVs  Erasmus,  Apophth.,  p.  69. 

Proscenium,  the  front  of  the  stage :  a 
Latin  word,  but  used  as  English. 

Lips  she  has,  all  rubie  red, 
Cheeks  like  creame  enclarited : 
And  a  nose  that  is  the  grace 
And  proscenium  of  the  face. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  146. 

During  his  time,  from  the  Proscenium  ta'en, 
Thalia  and  Melpomene  both  vanish 'd. 

Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  16. 
These  thoughts  dwelt  long  with  Sterling ; 
and  for  a  good  while,  I  fancy,  kept  posses- 
sion of  the  proscenium  of  his  mind ;  madly 
parading  there  to  the  exclusion  of  all  else. 
—Carlyle,  Life  of  Sterling,  Pt.  I.  ch.  xiv. 

Proscind,  to  rend. 

They  did  too  much  proscind  and  prostitute 
(as  it  were)  the  Imperial  purple. — Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  573. 

Proseman,  a  prose  writer.  The 
second  extract  is  from  some  compli- 
mentary verses  from  Garrick  to  John- 


PROSNE 


(  520  ) 


PROTOCOL 


son  on  the  publication  of  the  English 
Dictionary. 

Although  a  prayse  or  other  report  may  be 
allowed  beyond  credit,  it  may  not  be  beyond 
all  measure,  specially  in  the  proseman. — 
Puttenham,  Eng.Poesie,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xviii. 

Let  them  rally  their  heroes,  send  forth  all 

their  powers, 
Their  verse-men  and  prose-men,  then  match 

them  with  ours. 

Boswell,  Life  of  Johnson,  ii.  53. 

Prosne.    See  quotation. 

I  will  conclude  this  point  with  a  saying, 
not  out  of  Calvin  or  Beza  who  may  be 
thought  partial,  but  out  of  a  prosne  or 
homily  made  .  .  .  two  hundred  years  ago. 
— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  66. 

Prosopopby,  personification.  This 
Anglicised  form  of  prosopopoeia  has 
not  become  current. 

The  wittessly-malicinus  prosopopey  wherein 
my  Befuter  brings  in  the  Reverend  and 
Peerless  Bishop  of  London  pleading  for  his 
wife  to  the  Metropolitan,  becomes  well  the 
mouth  of  a  scurril  Mass-priest. — Bp.  Hall, 
Works,  v.  235. 

Prospectless,  without  any  view. 

Imagine  its  being  as  dismal  and  prospect- 
less  as  if  it  stood  "on  Stanmore's  wintry 
wild ! "—  Walpole,  Letters,  iii.  330  (1770). 

ProbTITE. 

But  Fortune,  that  can  change  her  mind, 
Weary  at  last  of  being  unkind, 
And  thinking  now  her  Prostite  had 
For  youth's  excursions  dearly  paid, 
Concludes  it  time  to  give  him  aid. 

IfUrfey,  Athenian  Jilt, 

Prostrator,  one  who  overturns. 

Common  people  .  .  are  the  great  and 
infallible  prostrators  of  all  religion,  vertue, 
honour,  order,  peace,  civility,  and  humanity, 
if  left  to  themselves. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  189. 

Protarch,  a  chief  ruler. 

In  the  age  of  the  Apostles  and  the  age 
next  succeeding,  the  highest  order  in  the 
Church  under  the  Apostles  were  national 
Protarchs  or  Patriarchs. — Bramhall,  ii.  149. 

Protectee,  person  protected.    The 

Fr.  protegi  may  be  deemed  naturalised. 

Your  protectee,  White,  was  clerk  to  my 
cousin.—  W.  Taylor  of  Norwich,  1807  (Me- 
moirs, ii.  198). 

Protectiveness,  sense  of  extending 

protection. 

Among  the  blessings  of  love  there  is 
hardly  one  more  exquisite  than  the  sense 
that  in  uniting  the  beloved  life  to  ours  we 
cau  watch  over  its  happiness,  bring  comfort 
where  hardship  was,  and  over  memories  of 


privation  and  suffering  open  the  sweetest 
fountains  of  joy.  Deronda's  love  for  Mirah 
was  strongly  imbued  with  that  blessed  pro- 
tectiveness.—  G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch- 
lxx. 

Protectoral,  pertaining  to  a  pro- 
tector, or,  as  in  the  extract,  to  the  Pro- 
tector.    L.  has  protectories. 

The  death  of  Cromwel  .  .  .  and  perhaps 
some  untoward  circumstances  that  occurred 
in  the  contention  of  the  representative 
system  and  the  protectoral  power,  over- 
turned to  the  very  foundation  that  fabric  of 
government  which  he  had  so  ably  begun  to 
erect. — Godwin,  MandevilU,  i.  225. 

Protectorian,  pertaining  to  the  Pro- 
tector ;  Cromwellian.  L.  has  protec- 
tories,. 

This  Lord  .  .  .  during  the  tyranny  of  the 
Protectorian  times  kept  his  secret  Loyalty  to 
his  Sovereign.  —  Fuller,  Worthies,  Hereford 
(i.  465). 

Protervity,  petulance. 

Companion  to  T.  Becket  in  his  exile,  but 
no  partner  in  his  protervity  against  his 
Prince.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Wilts  (ii.  442). 

Protested,  a  bill  not  accepted  or  not 
paid  by  the  person  on  whom  it  is  drawn 
is  Baid  to  be  protested.  This  is  applied 
in  the  second  extract  to  one  person 
not  endorsing  the  statement  made  by 
another. 

The  bill  lies  for  payment  at  Dollar's  and 
Co.,  in  Birchin-lane,  and  if  not  taken  up  this 
afternoon  will  be  protested.  —  Colznan,  The 
Spleen,  Act  I. 

41 1  said— I  did  nothing,"  cried  Lady  Cecilia, 
.  .  .  An  appealing  look  to  Helen  was  how- 
ever protested.  **  To  the  best  of  my  recol- 
lection at  least,"  Lady  Cecilia  immediately 
added.— Miss  Edgeworth,  Helen,  ch.  vi. 

PR0TE8TI0N,  protestation:  the  word 
seems  to  be  meant,  in  the  extract,  to 
jingle  with  "  affection,"  like  "  glances  " 
with  "fancies." 

Neither  may  I  think  your  glannces  to 
be  fancies,  nor  your  greatest  protestion  any 
assurance  of  deepe  affection. — Greene,  Menu- 
phon,  p.  54. 

Protocanonical,  applied  to  the 
canonical  books  of  Scripture,  as  dis- 
tinguished from'  the  Apocryphal  or 
deutero-canonical  books. 

[The  Creed]  is  the  word  of  God,  though 
not  the  Scripture  of  God,  not  sovereign  but 
subordinate,  not  protocanonical  Scripture,  yet 
the  key  of  the  holy  Scripture. — Adams,  iii.  86. 

Protocol,  to  issue  protocols. 


PROTO-PARENTS        (  521  ) 


PSALM 


Serene  Highnesses  who  sit  there  protocol- 
liny,  and  manife&toing,  and  consoling  man- 
kind. —  Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  VI. 
en.  in. 

Photo-parents,  Adam  and  tive,  as 

being  our  first  parents :  a  hybrid  word. 

For  since  onr  Proto-parenti  lowest  fall, 
Onr  wisdom's  highest  pitch  (God  wot)  is  low. 
Davies,  Microcosmos,  p.  23. 

Protrack,  to  protract. 

Bub  with  thy  Dayes  thy  Dolours  to  protrackt 
Thou  shalt  from  thence  unto  Bethulia  pack. 
Sylvester,  Bethulia' s  Rescue,  ii.  439. 

Protractor,  an  instrument  in  survey- 
ing* by  which  angles  are  taken. 

This  parallelogram  is  not,  as  Mr.  Sheres 
would  the  other  day  have  persuaded  me,  the 
same  as  a  protractor,  which  do  so  much  the 
more  make  me  value  it,  but  of  itself  is  a  most 
useful  instrument. — Pepys,  Feb.  4, 1668-9. 

Protrite,  worn  out. 

They  are  but  old  and  rotten  errors,  pro* 
trite  and  putid  opinions  of  the  ancient  Gnos- 
tickB.—  Gaudtn,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  195. 

Proud,  to  make  or  be  proud. 

Sister  proudes  sister,  brother  hardens  brother, 
And  one  companion  doth  corrupt  another. 
Sylvester,  The  Trophies,  1333. 
There    prowdeth    Pow'r,    here    Prowesse 
brighter  shines. —  Ibid.,  Henrie  the  Great, 
117. 

Proudlino,  a  proud  person. 

Milde  to  the  Meek,  to  Proudlings  sterne 
and  strict. — Sylvester,  Henrie  the  Great,  152. 

Provender,  to  feed. 

His  horses  (quatenus  horses)  are  pro- 
rendered  as  epicurely. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffs 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  179). 

Proven  UE8,  provisions. 

Our  liberal  Creator  hath  thought  good  to 
furnish  our  tables  with  .  .  .  the  rich  aud 
dainty  provenues  of  our  gardens  and  orchards. 
— Bp.  Hall,  Works,  vi.  376. 

Proverb.    See  extract. 

Some  will  have  a  Proverb  so  called  from 
verbum  a  word,  and  pro  (as  in  proavus)  sig- 
nifying before,  being  a  speech  which  time 
out  of  mind  hath  had  peaceable  possession 
in  the  mouths  of  many  people.  Others  de- 
duce it  from  verbum  a  word,  and  pro  for  vice 
(as  in  pro-prases),  instead  of,  because  it  is 
sot  to  be  taken  in  the  literal  sense,  one  thing 
beint;  put  for  another.  —  Fuller,  Worthies, 
cb.  ii. 

Proverbialize,  to  use  proverbs. 

But  I  forbear  from  any  f nrther  wroverUal- 
izing,  lest  I  should  be  thought  to  nave  rifled 
my  Erasmus's  adages.  —  KenneVs  Erasmus, 
Praise  of  Folly,  p.  135. 


Proverbize,  to  make  into  a  proverb  ; 
to  call  proverbially. 

For  house-hold  rules  read  not  the  learned 

writs 
Of  the  Stagirian  (glory  of  good  wits) ; 
Nor  his  whom  for  his  honny-steepea  stile, 
They  proverbiz'd  the  Attik-house  yer-while. 
Sylvester,  Seventh  day,  first  week,  653. 

Provisionless,  foodless. 

The  air  clipped  keen,  the  night  was  fanged 

with  frost, 
And  they  provisionless. 

Coleridge,  Destiny  of  Nations. 

Prowess ful,  powerful ;  vigorous. 

Nimrod  usurps :  his  prowesful  policy 
To  gain  himself  the  goal  of  souerainty. 

Sylvester,  Babylon  (Argument). 

Prowlery,  robbery ;  cheat. 

Thirty-seven  monopolies  with  other  shark- 
ing prowleries  were  decry'd  in  one  proclama- 
tion.— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  51. 

Prudery.  The  extract  shows  that 
in  1718  this  word  was  somewhat  un- 
familiar; the  speaker,  however,  is  a 
Quaker  hosier's  wife,  who,  of  course, 
was  not  likely  to  be  among  the  first  to 
pick  up  new  terms  of  that  kind.  The 
earliest  example  of  prudery  in  the 
Diets,  is  from  the  Toiler,  No.  126 
(1709). 

Mrs.  Lov.  The  world  begins  to  see  your 
prudery. 

Mrs.  Prim.  Prudery!  What,  do  they 
invent  new  words  as  well  as  new  fashions  ? 
Ah !  poor  fantastic  age,  I  pity  thee. — Cent- 
livre,  Bold  Stroke  for  a  Wife,  Act  II. 

Prunellaed,  gowned ;  the  barristers' 
gowns  being  made  of  stuff  called  pru- 
nello.  Grose  gives  "  Mr.  Prunella  =  a 
parson,1 '  for  a  similar  reason. 

Nods  the  prunella'd  bar,  attorneys  smile. 

J.  and  H.  Smith,  Rejected  Addresses, 
p.  136. 

Prutenic,  Prussian.  Rimhold  in 
1562  published  a  work  on  the  motions 
of  the  heavenly  bodies,  which  he  called 
Prutmicce  Tabulce  ccelestium  motuvm, 
and  he  states  that  he  styles  these  tables 
Prutenic,  to  transmit  to  posterity  the 
memory  of  the  liberality  of  Albert, 
Duke  of  Prussia,  to  whom  the  book  is 
dedicated.    See  N.  and  Q.,  I.  i.  284. 

I  trust  anon,  by  the  help  of  an  infallible 
guide,  to  perfect  such  Prutenic  tables,  as 
shall  mend  the  astronomy  of  our  wide  ex- 
positors.— Milton,  Doct.  and  Disc,  of  Divorce, 
ch.  i. 

Psalm,  to  sing. 


PSALMOD  Y 


(  522  ) 


PUDGY 


That  we  her  subjects,  whom  He  blesseth  by 

her, 
Psalming  His  praise  may  sound  the  same  the 

higher. — Sylvester,  Handie  Crafts,  73. 

Psalmody,  to  sing. 

It  is  an  event  which  can  be  looked  on; 
which  may  still  be  execrated,  still  be  cele- 
brated and  psalmodied;  but  which  it  were 
better  now  to  begin  understanding. — Carlyle, 
Misc.,  iv.  119. 

The  deathless  suicidal  Vengeur  is  written 
deep  in  innumerable  French  songs  and 
psalmody ings. — Ibid.,  iv.  211. 

Psaltkrian,  Bweet,  like  the  notes 

of  a  psaltery.     (Cf.  Ezek.  zzxiii.  32; 

Ecclus.  zl.  21.) 

Then  once  again  the  charmed  God  began 
An  oath,  and  through  the  serpent's  ears  it 

ran 
Warm,  tremulous,  devout,  psalterian. 

Keats,  Lamia. 

Psaltery,  usually,  a  musical  instru- 
ment, but  here  =  psalter. 

She  had  been  such  a  good  and  religious 
woman;  so  good  indeed  that  she  knew  all 
the  Psaltery  by  heart,  ay,  and  a  great  part 
of  the  Testament  besides. — Essays  of  Elia 
{Dream-children). 

Pseudo-bible,  false  Bible. 

The  work  which  the  reader  has  now  the 
privilege  of  perusing  is  as  justly  entitled  to 
the  name  of  the  Koran  as  the  so-called 
pseudo-bible  itself,  because  the  word  signifies 
"that  which  ought  to  be  read.1* — Southey, 
The  Doctor,  Interchapter  ix. 

Pseudodoz,  false  opinion. 

Shame  we  not  to  call  sickness  healthy 
and  to  maintain  the  atheistical  pseudodox, 
which  jud^eth  evil  good  and  darkness  light? 
— Adams,  1.  435. 

According  to  the  Hebrew  paradox,  Nothing 
is  good  but  a  woman ;  which  others  lewdly 
thwart  with  a  pseudodox,  Nothing  is  bad  but 
a  woman. — Ibid.,  ill.  138. 

Pseudodox  all,  false ;  mistaken.  In 
the  extract  Oroiia— Wales;  Gherionian 
=  English. 

Orosia  is  much  degenerated  from  what 
she  was  by  the  Gherionian  sectaries,  who 
have  infected  the  inhabitants  with  so  many 
pseudodoxall  and  gingling  opinions. — Howell, 
Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  122. 

Psychal,  pertaining  to  the  soul. 

There  are  some  who  will  find  it  hard  to 
reconcile  the  psychal  impossibility  of  refrain- 
ing from  admiration  with  the  too -hastily 
attained  mental  conviction  that,  critically, 
there  is  nothing  to  admire. — E.  A.  Pot,  Mar- 
ginalia, xxx  vi. 

Psychopannuchist,  one  who  believed 


that  the  soul  after  death  entered  on  an 
eternal  night  or  sleep. 

The  Saducees  might  deny  and  overthrow 
the  resurrection  against  Christ;  or  the 
Psychopannuchists  the  soul's  immortality. — 
Oauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  283. 

Psylly,  the  flea-wort,  inula  oonyza. 

The  dropsie-breediog,  sorrow-bringing  psylly  * 
Here  called  flea-wort.— Sylvester,  The  Furies* 
176. 

Ptochogony.     See  extract. 

The  whole  plan  of  the  Bishop  of  London 
is  a  ptochopony—*  generation  of  beggars. — 
Sydney  Smith,  Third  Letter  to  Archd.  Singleton 

Publicatb,  to  publish. 

Little  sins  in  them  [the  Clergy],  if  pub- 
licated,  grow  great  by  their  scandal!  and  con- 
tagion.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  115. 

Pucker,  consternation ;  disturbance. 

The  whole  parish  was  in  a  pucker;  some 
thought  the  French  had  landed;  others 
imagined  the  commodore's  house  was  beset 
by  thieves. — Smollett,  Peregrine  Pickle,  ch.  ii. 

Pucklk,  a  spirit;  a  puck.  See  ex- 
tract $.  v.  Hell- wain. 

Puddeb,  to  potter:  the  Diets,  only 
have  it  as  an  active  verb. 

Som  almost  alwayes  pudder  in  the  mud 
Of  sleepy  pools,  and  neuer  brook  the  flood 
Of  crystall  streams. 

Sylvester,  Fifth  day,  first  week,  172. 

Pudding-heart,  coward. 

Go,  pudding-heart, 
Take  thy  huge  offal  and  white  liver  hence. 

Taylor,  Ph.  van  Art.,  Pt.  II.  iii.  1. 

Puddtng-house,  stomach.  Cf.  Bread- 
basket. 

He  .  .  thrust  him  downe  his  pudding-house 
at  a  gobbe.  —  Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  166). 

Puddle,  a  term  of  contempt;  used 
both  as  substantive  and  adjective. 

It  seems  the  puddle-poet  did  hope  that  the 
jingling  of  his  rhymes  would  drown  the 
sound  of  his  false  quantity. — Fuller,  Ch. 
Hist.,  I.  iii.  1. 

I  remember,  when  I  was  quite  a  boy,  bear- 
ing her  called  a  limping  old  puddle. — Maa\ 
D'ArMay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  VII.  ch.  v. 

Pudgy,  soft  and  fat. 

The  vestry  clerk,  as  everybody  knows,  is  a 
short  pudgy  little  man  in  black. — Sketches  by 
Boz,  en.  i. 

She  surveyed  him  blandly ;  and  with  in- 
finite grace  put  forward  one  of  the  pudgy 
little  hands  in  one  of  the  dirty  gloves. — 
Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  vii. 


PUDSEY 


(523) 


PULPITMAN 


Pddsey,  fat,  pudgy  ;  hands  are  play- 
fully called  pud*. 

He  arose,  took  the  little  thinp  from  me, 
kissed  its  forehead,  its  cheek,  its  lips,  its 
little  pudsey  hands,  first  one,  then  the  other. 
— Richardson,  Grandison,  vii.  232. 

Pueriles,  childish  things. 

Which  seek  .  .  to  reduce  ancient  churches 
of  long  growth,  of  tall  and  manly  stature,  to 
their  pueriles,  their  long  coats  and  cradles. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  27. 

Puerility,  the  time  of  childhood ; 
usually  =  childishness. 

Whether  it  be  Tully  or  Panetius  that  says 
it,  or  both,  it  is  well  said,  as  I  learnt  it  in 
my  lessons  of  puerility. — Rackety  life  of 
Williams,  i.  30. 

Puff-ring. 

The  goldsmith  is  not  behinde  .  .  .  they 
are  most  of  them  skil'd  in  alcumie,  and  can 
temper  mettals  shrewdly,  with  no  little  profit 
to  themselves,  and  disadvantage  to  the  buier ; 
beside  puffe-ringes  and  quaint  conceits,  which 
I  omit. — Greene,  Quip  for  Upstart  Courtier 
{Harl.  Misc.,  v.  416). 

Puffroar,  noisy  blowing. 

East,  weast,  and  south  wynd  with  pufroare 
mightelye  ramping.— Stanyhurst,  JEn.y  II. 
437. 

Puff-stone. 

That  soft,  easy-to-be  wrought  stone  at 
Great  Banington  called  puff-stone,  prodi- 
giously strong  and  lasting;  a  great  deal  of 
which  hath  been  used  in  the  repairs  of  West- 
minster Abbey.  —  Defoe,  Tour  thro1  G, 
Britain,  u.  284. 

Puff- wig,  a  species  of  wig. 

Here,  sirrah,  here's  ten  guineas  for  thee ; 
get  thyself  a  drugget  suit  and  a  puff-wig, 
and  so  I  dub  thee  Gentleman-Usher. — Far- 
quhar,  The  Inconstant,  Act  I. 

Pug,  a  name  given  to  the  fox. 

There  is  a  dead  silence  till  vug  is  well  out 
of  cover,  and  the  whole  pack  well  in  .  .  . 
Away  he  goes  in  gallant  style,  and  the  whole 
field  is  hard  up,  till  pug  takes  a  stiff  country. 
— Miss  Edgercorth,  Absentee,  ch.  viii. 

Cunning  old  farmers  rode  off  at  inexpli- 
cable angles  to  some  well-known  haunts  of 
pug.—  C.  Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  i. 

Pug,  applied  to  a  woman ;  the 
original  gouge  =  woman,  but  often 
with  an  ill  signification. 

In  the  vigour  of  his  age  be  married  Gargu- 
melle,  daughter  to  the  king  of  the  Parpaillons, 
a  jolly  pug,  and  well-mouthed  wench. —  Ur- 
quhart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  iii. 

Pug,  "a  kind  of  loam"  (Parish's 
Sussex  Glossary) ;  but  pugs  in  extracts 


seem  to  be   another  name  for  rotten 
chaff,  &c. 

It  can  not  abide  rank  mucke,  but  content- 
eth  itself e  with  rotten  chaffe  or  pugs,  and 
such  like  plain  mullock. — Holland,  Pliny, 
zix.  5. 

The  best  way  to  keep  onions  is  in  corn, 
chaf ,  and  such  like  pugs. — Ibid.,  xix.  6. 

Pugil,  a  boxer. 

He  was  no  little  one,  but  saginati  corporis 
bellua,  as  Curtius  says  of  Dioxippus  the 
pugil. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  L  37. 

Puginesquery,  that  which  has  to  do 
with  ecclesiastical  architecture,  from 
Pugin,  the  well-known  architect. 

When  they  talk  Puginesquery,  I  stick  my 
head  on  one  side  attentively,  and  "  think  the 
more,"  like  the  lady's  parrot. — C.  Kingsley, 
Yeast,  ch.  vi. 

Pugnant,  conflicting.  Gauden  (Tears 
of  the  Church,  p.  652)  hopes  for  a  time 
when  those  in  high  places  will  deter- 
mine matters  with  a  view  to  the  future 
happiness  of  their  country,  rather  than 
"  to  the  present  pregnant  and  pugnant 
interests. 

Thee  fat[e]s  are  pugnant. — St  any  hurst, 
jEn.,  iv.  463. 

Pugnose,  nose  turned  up  like  a  pug's. 

Then  half  arose,  from  beside  his  toes, 
His  little  pug-dog  with  his  little  pugnose. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  (Hand  of  Glory). 

Puissing,  buzzing ;  in  some  copies 

the  word  is  puling. 

The  merry  crickett,  puissing  flye, 
The  piping  gnatt  for  minstrillsey. 

Herrick,  Appendix,  p.  471. 

Pull,  advantage. 

You  will  be  the  companion  of  her  pleasures ; 
dressed  as  well  as  herself,  courted  by  every 
man  who  has  a  design  upon  her,  and  make  a 
market  of  her  every  day.  Oh,  you'll  have 
quite  the  pull  of  me  in  employment.  — 
Burgoyne,  Lord  of  the  Manor,  Act  III.  sc.  i. 

Why  does  not  some  one  publish  a  list  of 
the  young  male  nobility  and  baronetage, 
their  names,  weights,  and  probable  fortunes  ? 
I  don't  mean  for  the  matrons  of  May  Fair ; 
they  have  the  list  by  heart  and  study  it  in 
secret,  but  for  young  men  in  the  world ;  so 
that  they  may  know  what  their  chances  are, 
and  who  naturally  has  the  pull  over  them. — 
Thackeray,  The  JYevxomes,  ch.  xli. 

Pulfitarian,  a  preacher. 

The  Scottish  brethren  were  acquainted  by 
common  intercourse  with  these  directions 
that  had  netled  the  aggrieved  pulpitarians. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  90. 

Pulpitman,  preacher. 


PURSE-PINCHED       (  526  ) 


PUZZLEDOM 


gowned  vultures  "  (Democ.  to  Reader, 
p.  49). 

PURSE-PINCHKD,  poor. 

Ladies  and  Lords,  purse-pinched  and  soule- 
pain'd, 
Poore,  Rich  and  all  (rich  in  allblessednesse), 
Blesse  Him  by  whom  yee  haue  till  now  re- 
main 'd, 
To  tast  these  Tymes  which  yeeld  sweet 
joyes  vnfain'd. 

Davies,  Ificrocosmos,  p.  14. 

Pursument,  pursuit. 

The  Spachies  are  horsemen,  weaponed  for 
the  most  part  at  once  with  bow,  mase,  lance, 
harquebush,  and  cymiter ;  whereof  they  haue 
the  seuerall  vses,  agreeing  with  their  fights, 
their  flights,  or  pursuments. — Sandys,  Travels, 
p.  48. 

Puseyism,  a  name  given  to  the  great 
religious  revival,  now  more  commonly 
spoken  of  as  the  Oxford  movement. 
u  Great  of  course  was  my  joy  when  in 
the  last  days  of  1833  he  [Dr.  Pusey] 
showed  a  disposition  to  make  common 
cause  with  us.  His  Tract  on  fasting 
appeared  as  one  of  the  series  with  the 
date  of  December  21.  He  was  not, 
however,  I  think,  fully  associated  in 
the  movement  till  1835  and  1836,  when 
he  published  his  Tract  on  Baptism,  and 
started  the  Library  of  the  Fathers.  He 
at  once  gave  to  us  a  position  and  a 
name"  (Newman,  Apologia,  p.  136). 

Had  there  been  no  Coleridge,  neither  hae 
this  been,  nor  had  Euglish  Puseyism,  or  some 
other  strange  enough  universal  portents 
been. — Carlyle,  Life  of  Sterling,  Pt.  II.  ch.  ii. 

Pushery,  pushing ;  forwardness.  The 
extract  is  from  a  letter  of  Mr.  T wiring's, 
the  translator  of  Aristotle's  Poetics. 

I  actually  asked  for  this  dab  of  prefer- 
ment ;  it  is  the  first  piece  of  pusJiery  I  ever 
was  guilty  of. — Mad.  D'Arbtay,  Diary,  iv. 
45. 

Puss-gentleman,  an  effeminate  man. 

I  cannot  talk  with  civet  in  the  room, 
A  fine  puss-gentleman  that's  all  perfume. 

Cotcper,  Conversation,  284. 

Put,  question,  or  thrust,  as  we  some- 
times say. 

The  dear  creature,  I  doubted  not,  wanted 
to  instruct  me  how  to  answer  the  captain's 
home put. — Richardson,  CI.  JIarlowe,  iv.  316. 

Put-case,  one  who  suggests  or  argues 
hypothetical  cases.  Put-case  was  an 
expression  in  our  older  writers  =  sup- 
pose. 

He  used  to  say  that  no  man  could  be  a 


good  lawyer  that  was  not  a  put-case. — North, 
Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  20. 

Pute,  a  word  that  seems  always  to 
be  joined  with  "pure,"  and  to  have 
much  the  same  meaning. 

Armioius  .  .  .  acknowledges  faith  to  be 
the  pure  pute  gift  of  God. — Bp.  Hail,  Works, 
x.432. 

Pure,  Pute  Italians  preferred  in  England 
transmitted  the  gain  they  got  .  .  into  their 
own  country. — Fuller,  Worthies,  York  (ii. 
640). 

Dangerfield  had  the  honour  to  be  a  single 
discoverer  of  a  pure  and  pute  sham-plot,  name 
and  thing,  and  was  concerned  in  nothing  else ; 
which  stamped  that  famous  title  upon  his 
performance,  from  whence  the  very  word  sham 
was  taken,  to  serve  in  the  English  language 
with  like  propriety  as  <jrcv&>«  in  the  Greek. 
— North,  Examen,  p.  256. 

That  cause  .  .  was  pure  and  pute  factions. 
— Ibid.,  p.  527. 

Put  fair  for,  to  be  in  a  fair  way  of 
attaining — to  bid  fair  for  is  the  more 
usual  phrase.  ' 

And  he  had  put  fair  for  it,  had  not  death 
prevented  him,  by  which  his  life  aud  projects 
were  cut  off  together. — Heylin,  Hist,  of  the 
Presbyterians,  p.  130. 

Putidness,  putridity. 

High-tasted  sawces  made  with  garlick  or 
onions,  purposely  applied  to  tainted  meats, 
to  make  their  putidness  less  perceptible. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  190. 

Putt,  stake  or  scheme?  something 
put  out  ? 

2nd  Stockbroker.  Are  you  a  bull  or  a  bear  to- 
day, Abraham? 

3rd  Stockbroker.  A  bull  faith ;  but  I  have  a 
good  putt  for  next  week. 

Centlivre,  Bold  Stroke  for  a  Wife,  iv.  1. 

Puttyer,  one  who  works  with  putty ; 

a  glazier. 

There  are  some  cracked  old  houses  where 
the  painters  and  plumbers  and  puttyers  are 
always  at  work.  —  Thackeray,  Lotxl  the 
Widower,  ch.  ii. 

Put-up.    See  quotation. 

"  Well,  master,"  said  Blathers  .  .  .  « this 
warn't  a  put-up  thing."  "Aud  what  the 
devil's  a  put-up  thing  ?  "  demanded  the  doctor 
impatiently.  "  We  call  it  a  put-up  robbery, 
ladies,"  said  Blathers,  turning  to  them  as  if 
he  pitied  their  ignorance,  but  had  a  contempt 
for  the  doctor's,  *'  when  the  servants  is  in  it." 
— Dickens,  Oliver  Twist,  ch.  xxxi. 

Puzzledom,  bewilderment. 

I  was  resolved  to  travel  with  him  into  the 
land  of  puzzledom. — Richardson,  CI.  Hartotee, 
vi.  367. 


PYCKARDE 


(  527  )        QUADRUPEDISM 


Mark  Armsworth  poured  a  libation  to  the 
goddess  of  puzzledom  in  the  shape  of  a  glass 
of  port. — KingsUy,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xxvi. 

Ptckarde.     See  quotation. 

A  yonge  man  of  Estsexe  called  Thomas 
-was  comminge  and  goynge,  which  for  his 
maister's  affayres  into  Scotlande  had  hyred  a 
small  ship,  there  called  ipyckarde. —  Vocacyon 
of  Johan  Bale,  1553  (Hart.  Misc.,  vi.  455). 

Pymper,  pamper,  coddle. 

Good  mistress  Statham  .  .  seeing  what  case 
I  was  in,  hath  fetched  me  home  to  her  own 
house,  and  doth  pymper  me  up  with  all 
diligence,  for  I  fear  a  consumption. — Latimer  > 
ii.  386. 

Pyroballogy,  treatise  or  discourse 
on  casting  fire. 


He  was  enabled  by  the  help  of . .  Gobesius's 
military  architecture  and  pyroballogy,  trans- 
lated from  the  Flemish,  to  form  his  discourse 
with  passable  perspicuity. — Sterne,  Tr.  Shandy, 
i.  180. 

Ptrolator,  a  fire  worshipper. 

The  fire  [was  rejected]  as  having  too  near 
an  analogy  to  the  religion  of  the  pyrolators. 
—Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  VIII.,  note. 

Pythonist,  a  masculine  of  Pythoness ; 
perhaps  Caiaphas  is  so  called  in  refer- 
ence to  St.  John  xi.  51. 

See  the  conjuring,  proud,  remorceless  Priest 
Rend,  in  full  rage,  (too  like  a  furious  fiend) 
The  pompous  vestures  of  this  Pithonist, 
When  Christ  doth  (vrg'd)  aright  His  cause 
defend. 

Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  7. 


Q 


Quacking  titles.     See  quotation. 

He  has  an  admirable  knack  at  quacking 
titles  ;  perhaps  you  may  not  know  what  that 
is,  sir ;  but  for  my  part  I  do  not,  I  confess, 
understand  it,  but  they  tell  me  when  he  gets 
an  old  good-for-nothing  book,  he  claps  a 
new  title  to  it,  and  sells  off  the  whole  im- 
pression in  a  week.  —  Centlivre,  A  Gotham 
Election. 

Quackle,  to  choke ;  also,  to  quack : 
the  word  being  in  each  sense  onoma- 
topoeous.    See  quotation  8.  v.  Skriggle. 

As  he  was  drinking,  the  drink,  or  some- 
thing in  the  cup,  quackled  him,  stuck  so  in 
his  throat  that  he  could  not  get  it  up  nor 
down,  but  strangled  him  presently. —  Ward, 
Sermons,  p.  153. 

Simple  ducks  in  those  royal  waters  quackle 
for  crumbs  from  young  royal  fingers. — Car- 
lyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  I.  ch.  i. 

Quadrimanous,  f our-handed :  usually 
written  quadrumanous,  and  applied  to 
a  class  of  animals  which  includes  apes 
and  monkeys.  In  the  extract  a  com- 
parison between  these  and  some  of  the 
revolutionary  demagogues  is  implied. 

Hence  arises  the  complexional  disposition 
of  some  of  your  guides  to  pull  everything  in 
pieces.  At  this  malicious  game  they  dis- 
play the  whole  of  their  quadrimanous  ac- 
tivity.— Burke  on  Fr.  Rev.,  p.  139. 

Quadristllable,  a  word  of  four 

syllables. 

A  distinction  without  a  difference  could 
not  sustain  itself ;  and  both  alike  disguised 
their  emptiness  under  this  pompous  auadri' 
syllable.    All  words  are  suspicious,  tnere  is 


an  odour  of  fraud  about  them,  which — being 
concerned  with  common  things — are  so  base 
as  to  stretch  out  to  four  syllables. — De  Quin- 
cey,  Roman  Meals. 

Quadrivious,  in  four  ways :  the  Diets, 
give  quadrivial. 

This  speedily  bred  a  small  but  numerous 
vermin.  When  the  cheese  was  so  rotten 
with  them  that  only  the  twigs  and  string 
kept  it  from  tumbling  to  pieces  and  walking 
off  quadrivious,  it  came  to  table.  —  Reade, 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  xxiv. 

Quadrupedal,  pertaining  to  a  quad- 
ruped ;  four-footed  ;  also  as  a  substan- 
tive =  quadruped.  The  speaker  in 
the  second  extract  is  supposed  to  be  a 
man  who  has  been  turned  into  an  otter. 

Morphandra  hath  been  pleased  to  promise 
me  the  favor  as  to  turn  you  into  Man  again, 
if  you  have  a  mind  to  it ;  and  from  that 
groveling  quadrupedal  shape  to  make  you  an 
erect  and  a  rational  creture  once  again.  — 
Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  6. 

My  bloud,  in  statu  quo  nunc  be  observed,  I 
confess  to  be  the  coldest  of  any  quadrupedals, 
— Ibid.,  p.  11. 

Quadrupedated,  turned  into  quadru- 
peds ;  turned  into  beasts. 

Spotted  we  were,  and  nothing  but  naked- 
ness was  left  to  cover  us,  .  .  .  quadrupedated 
with  an  earthly,  stooping,  grovelling  cqvet- 
ousness. — Adams,  i.  399. 

Quadrupedibm,  the  condition  of  a 
quadruped. 

Among  the  Mahometans  also  quadruped- 
ism  is  not  considered  an  obstacle  to  a  certain 


QU&DAM 


(  528  )  QUARTER  BOYS 


kind  of  canonisation. — Southey,  The  Doctor, 
ch.  cxcix. 

Qu^dam,  loose  women. 

He  killed  up  the  deer  of  the  park ;  settles 
in  Bugden-House  for  three  summers  with  a 
seraglia  of  Quadam,  sells  an  organ  that  cost 
120/.  at  IQl.—Haeket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii. 
128. 

Quaff,  a  draught. 

Basni,  now  Alvida  begins  her  quaff. 
And  drinks  a  full  carouse  unto  her  king. 
Greene,  Looking  Glass  for  London,  p.  141. 

Quafftidk,  time  of  drinking. 

Quaftyde  aproacheth, 
And  showts  in  nighttyme  doo  ringe  in  loftye 
Oithaeron. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iv.  314. 

QUAITE. 

Nothing  but  earth  to  earth,  no  pompons 

weight 
Upon  him,  but  a  pibble  or  a  quaite. 

Bp.  Corbet,  Iter  Boreale. 

Quakerish,  somewhat  quaker-like. 

Don't  address  me  as  if  I  were  a  beauty ;  I 
am  your  plain  Quakerish  governess.  —  C. 
Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xxiv. 

Her  rippling  hair,  covered  by  a  quakerish 
net-cap,  was  chiefly  grey. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel 
Deronda,  ch.  xviii. 

Quaky,  shaky. 

Poor  old  Twoshoes  is  so  old  and  toothless 
and  quaky  that  she  can't  sing  a  bit. — Thack- 
eray, Roundabout  Papers,  xxix. 

Qualm,  to  feel  faint  or  ill ;  in  the 
second  quotation  it  =  make  sick. 

Let  Jesse's  sov'reign  flow'r  perfume  my 
qualminy  breast. — Quarles,  Emblems,  v.  2. 

Solicitude  discomposes  the  head,  jealousy 
the  heart ;  envy  qualms  on  his  bowels,  pro- 
digality on  his  purse. — Gentleman  Instructed, 
p.  560. 

Quamier,  quavemire  or  quagmire. 

If  earth  be  not  soft, 
60  dig  it  aloft. 
For  quamier  get  bootes, 
Stub  alders  and  rootes. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  75. 

Quandary,  to  hesitate.  Both  R.  and 
L.  quote  "I  am  qnandaried"  from 
Otway. 

He  quandaries  whether  to  go  forward  to 
God,  or,  with  Demas,  to  turn  back  to  the 
world.— Adams,  i.  505. 

Quaquiner,  a  fish :    it   is    Bailey's 

translation  of  aranei  pUcis. 

There  is  a  little  fish  in  the  form  of  a  scor- 
pion, and  of  the  size  of  the  fish  quaquiner. — 
Bailey's  Erasmus's  Colloq.,  p.  393. 

Quau,  object  of  pursuit  j  quarry. 


The  falcon  (stooping  thunder-like ) 
With  suddain  souse  her  to  the  aoyl  shal 

strike, 
And  with  the  stroak  make  on  the  senseless 

ground 
The  gut-lea  quar  once,  twice,  or  thrice  re- 

bound.— Sylvester,  The  Laws,  643. 

Quarelbt,  little  square. 

Some  ask'd  how  pearls  did  grow,  and  where, 

Then  spoke  I  to  my  girle 
To  part  her  lips,  and  shew'd  them  there 

The  quarelets  of  pearl. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  22. 

Quar-mak,  quarry-man. 

The  sturdy  quar-man  with  steel-headed  cones, 
And  massive  sledges  slenteth  out  the  stones. 
Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  1110. 

Quarrelsomeness,  habit  of  quarrel- 
ing, or  disposition  to  quarrel.  Thack- 
eray seems  to  think  the  word  wants 
an  apology,  but  the  Diets,  illustrate  it 
from  Bp.  Hull  and  Geo.  Herbert. 

Even  among  these  Stygians  this  envy 
and  quarrelsomeness  (if  you  will  permit  me 
the  word)  survive. — Thackeray,  Eoundabout 
Papers,  zxviii. 

Quarrender,  a  species  of  apple. 

He . . .  had  no  ambition  whatsoever  beyond 
pleasing  his  father  and  mother,  getting  by 
honest  means  the  maximum  of  red  quar- 
renders  and  mazard  cherries,  and  going  to 
sea  when  he  was  big  enough.  —  Kingsley, 
Westward  Ho,  ch.  i. 

Quarrier,  a  quarryman. 

The  men  of  Rome,  which  were  the  con- 
querors of  all  nations  about  them,  were  now 
of  warriors  become  quarrier 3,  hewers  of  stoue 
and  day  laborers. — Holland,  Livy,  p.  35. 

Quarron,  body:  a  cant  term.  See 
H.  s.  v.  quarromes. 

Here's  pannum  and  lap,  and  good  poplars  of 

Yarrum, 
To   fill    up  the  crib,  and  to  comfort   the 

quarron.— Broome,  Jovial  Crew,  Act  II. 

Quarter.  See  extract  De  Quincey 
suggests,  "as  the  origin  of  this  term, 
the  French  word  cartayer,  to  manoeuvre 
so  as  to  evade  the  ruts." 

The  postillion  (for  so  were  all  carriages 
then  driven)  was  employed,  not  by  fits  and 
starts,  but  eternally,  in  quartering — i.  e.  in 
crossing  from  side  to  side—  according  to  the 
casualties  of  the  ground. — Autob.  Sketches, 
i.  298. 

Quarter-boys,  the  chimes  of  a  clock 
that  strike  the  quarters. 

Their  quarter-boys  and  their  chimes  were 
designed  for  this  moral  purpose  as  much  as 
the  memento  which  is  bo  commonly  seen 


QUAR7ER00N  (  5*9  ) 


QVEENDOM 


upon  an  old  clock  face,  and  so  seldom  upon 
a  new  one. — Sou  they,  The  Doctor,  ch.  xxix. 

Quarteboon,  quadroon ;  one  with 
fourth  part  of  black  blood. 

Your  pale-white  Creoles  have  their  griev- 
ances: and  your  yellow  Quarteroons?  .  .  . 
Quarteroon  Og&  .  .  felt  for  his  share  too  that 
insurrection  was  the  most  sacred  of  duties. — 
Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  H.  Bk.  V.  ch.  iv. 

Quarter  stroke,  a  blow  with  a 
quarter-staff. 

If  preachers  and  spirituall  ministers  be 
sache,  where  be  we  when  we  come  to  hand- 
gripes?  They  must  not  only  florishe,  but 
they  must  know  their  quarter  strookes,  and 
the  waye  how  to  defend  their  head. — Ayt- 
mer,  Harborouah  for  faithful  subjects,  1559 
{Maitland  on  Information,  p.  216). 

Quartodeciman,  one  who  maintained 
that  Easter  was  to  be  celebrated  on  the 
14th  day  of  the  moon  in  March,  what- 
ever day  of  the  week  that  might  happen 
to  be. 

Victor,  Bishop  of  Rome,  .  .  in  the  case  of 
Easter  grew  so  zealously  exasperated  against 
the  Greek  and  Eastern  Churches  as  Quarto- 
decimans  that  he  thought  them  worthy  to 
be  excommunicated. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  600. 

Quashey,  a  pumpkin. 

With  regard  to  these  said  quasheys,  .  .  . 
the  beat  way  of  dressing  them  is  to  stew 
them  in  cream. — Southey,  Letters,  ill.  391 
(1823). 

Quatch,  a  word.  H.  gives  it  as  a 
Berkshire  word. 

Noe ;  not  a  quatch,  sad  poets ;  doubt  you 
There  is  not  greife  enough  without  you  ? 
Bp.  Corbet,  Elegy  on  Death  of  Q.  Anne. 

Quatorzain,  a  poem   or  stanza  of 

fourteen  lines ;  a  sonnet. 

Put  out  your  rushlights,  you  poets  and 
rhymers !  and  bequeath  your  crazed  quator' 
zains  to  the  chandlers. — Nashe,  1591  (Eng. 
Garner,  i.  499). 

Quave,  quake. 

...  the  waterish  Fenne  below 
Those  ground-workes  laid  with  Stone  uneath 

coulde  beare 
(So  quaving  soft  and  moist  the  Bases  were). 

Holland's  Camden,  p.  530. 

Queachy,  wet ;  washy  (see  N.),  and 
so  helpless. 

I'n  got  no  daughter  o'  my  own — ne'er  had 
one — an*  I  warna  sorry,  for  they're  poor 
queechy  things,  gells  is.  —  G.  Eliot,  Adam 
Bede,  ch.  z. 

Queazen,  to  sicken ;  make  queasy. 


The  spirable  odor  and  pestilent  steame  .  . 
would  have  queazened  him. — Nashe,  Lenten 
Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  173). 

Qcteckshoes,  kickshaws.  Cf.  Qu  elk- 
shoes. 

Hath  not  (I  beseech  you)  this  English 
world,  Prince  and  Peasant,  Pastors  and  Peo- 
ple, great  and  small,  had  enough  both  in 
cities  and  in  villages  of  these  late  Hashshes, 
Olives,  and  Queckshoes  of  Religion  ? — Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  204. 

Queen  Anne  is  dead  =  stale  news. 
The  first  extract,  in  which  Bp.  Corbet 
satirizes  the  numerous  elegies  on  Anne 
of  Denmark,  Queen  of  James  I.,  might 
lead  us  to  suppose  that  the  saying  re- 
ferred to  her  rather  than  to  her  great 
grand-daughter;  but  in  Swift's  Polite 
Conversation,  which  was  written  about 
1710,  though  not  published  for  some 
years  after,  Queen  Elizabeth  is  the 
sovereign  whose  demise  is  classed 
among  things  generally  known.  The 
extract  from  Kichardson  may  have 
some  connection  with  the  saying ;  this 
at  least  may  have  led  him  to  use  Queen 
Elizabeth's  reign  as  a  synonym  for 
antiquity. 

Noe ;  not  a  quatch,  sad  poets ;  doubt  you 
There  is  not  greife  enough  without  you  ? 
Or  that  it  will  asswage  ill  newes 
To  say,  Shee's  dead  that  was  your  muse  ? 
Bp.  Corbet,  Elegy  on  Death  of  Q.  Anne. 

Lady  8m.  Pray,  what  news,  Mr.  Neverout  ? 
Nev.  News  ?    Why,  madam,  Queen  Eliza- 
beth's dead. — Polite  Conv.  (Con v.  i.). 

We  will  leave  the  modern  world  to  them- 
selves, and  be  Queen  Elizabeth's  women. — 
Richardson,  Grandison,  i.  296. 

Lord  Brougham,  it  appears,  isn't  dead, 
though  Queen  Anne  is. — lngoldsby  Legends, 
Account  of  a  New  Play. 

"  He  was  my  grandfather's  man,  and  served 
him  in  the  wars  of  Queen  Anne,"  interposed 
Mr.  Warrington.  On  which  my  lady  cried 
petulantly,  "  Oh  Lord,  Queen  Anne's  dead,  I 
suppose,  and  we  ain't  a  going  into  mourning 
for  her." — Thackeray,  Virginians,  ch.  lxziii. 

Qdeen-oraft,  art  of  ruling  as  a 
queen.  King-craft  was  a  favourite 
expression  of  James  I. 

She  [Q.  Elizabeth]  was  well  skilled  in  the 
Queen-craft— Fuller,  Worthies,  Kent  (i.490). 

Queendom,  queenly  condition  or 
character. 

Where,  O  Juno,  is  the  glory 
Of  thy  regal  look  and  tread? 
Will  they  lay  for  evermore  thee 
On  thy  dim,  straight,  golden  bed  ? 

M  M 


QUEEN ES 


(  53o  ) 


QUERL 


Will  thy  queendom  all  lie  hid 
Meekly  under  either  lid? 

Mrs.  Browning,  The  Dead  Pan. 

Qukknk8  Oilliflowers,  explained  in 
Messrs.  Payne  and  Heritage's  Glossary 
to  Tusser  (E.  D.  S.)  to  be  "  the  Dame's 
Violet,  also  called  Rogue's  or  Winter 
Gilliflower.  Hespens  matronalis." 
They  are  mentioned  by  Tusser  among 
"  herbes,  branches,  and  flowers  for 
windowes  and  pots"  (p.  96). 

Queenhood,  queenliness. 

Low  bow'd  the  tributary  Prince,  and  she, 
Sweetly  and  statelily,  and  with  all  grace 
Of  womanhood  and  queenhood,  answer'd  him. 
Tennyson,  Geraint  and  Enid. 

Queen ITE8,  partisans  of  Queen  Caro- 
line, wife  of  George  IV. 

He  thought  small  beer  at  that  time  of 
some  very  great  patriots  and  Queenites. — 
Southey,  The  Doctor ',  Interchapter  xvi. 

Queenlet,  petty  queen. 

In  Prussia  there  is  a  Philosophe  King,  in 
Russia  a  Philosophe  Empress;  the  whole 
North  swarms  with  kinglets  and  queenlets  of 
the  like  temper.  Nay,  as  we  have  seen,  they 
entertain  their  special  ambassador  in  Philo- 
sophedom,  their  lion's  provider  to  furnish 
special  Philosophe  -  provender.  —  Carlyle, 
Misc.,  iii.  216. 

Queen'  s-game,  some  game  at  tables. 

Here  Love  at  tick-tack  plaies,  or  at  Queeris- 

game, 
But  Irish  hates  for  hauing  tricks  too  blame. 
Davies,  Wittes  Pilgrimage,  p.  32. 

r- 

Queer,  to  ridicule  ;  sneer  at  (slang). 

A  shoulder-knotted  Puppy,  with  a  grin, 
Queering  the  threadbare  Curate,  let  him  in. 
Cclman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  144. 

Queer  cuffin,  a  magistrate :  thieves* 
cant.  See  quotation  from  Broome  «.  v. 
Ruffin. 


Ml 


Go  away,"  I  heard  her  say,  "  there's  a 
dear  man,"  and  then  something  about  a 
"  queer  cujin,"  that's  a  justice  in  these  cant- 
ers' thieves'  Latin. — Kingsley,  Westward  Ho, 
ch.  xiv. 

Queerer,  a  hoaxer  or  ridiculer. 

Twould  be  most  tedious  to  describe 
The  common-place  of  this  facetious  tribe, 
These  wooden  wits,  these  Quizzers,  Queerers, 

Smokers, 
These  practical  nothing-so-easy  Jokers. 

Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  150. 

Queerish,  rather   queer ;    in   a   bad 

way. 

This  happy  event  gave  his  Majesty  leisure 
to  turn  his  attention  to  Scotland,  where 
things,  through  the  intervention  of  William 


Wallace,  were    looking    rather    quetrish.— 
Ingoldsby  Legends  {Grey  Dolphin). 

"  You  Englishmen  go  to  work  in  a  queerish 
kind  of  way,"  said  he  ;  "  you  send  a  parcel 
of  soldiers  to  live  on  an  island  where  none 
but  sailors  can  be  of  use." — Marryat,  Frank 
Mildmay,  ch.  xx. 

Queer  Street.  To  be  in  Queer 
Street  =  to  be  in  bad  circumstances  of 
some  sort :  illness,  debt,  &c. 

"  111  tell  you  what,  sir,"  said  the  Major, . . 
"  a  fair  friend  of  ours  has  removed  to  Quftr 
Street."  "What  do  yon  mean,  Major?" 
inquired  Mr.  Dombey.  "I  mean  to  say, 
Dombey,"  returned  the  Major, "  that  you'll 
soon  be  an  orphan-in-law ;  .  .  .  your  wife's 
mother  is  on  the  move." — Dickens,  Dombey 
and  Son,  ch.  xl. 

I  am  very  high  in  Queer  Street  just  now, 
ma'am,  having  paid  your  bills  before  I  left 
town. — Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xiv. 

Quelk-chose,  kickshaw. 
For  Time  now  swels  (as  with  some  poysonous 

weede) 
With    paper    Quelk-chose,  never    smelt   in 

Scholes. — Davies,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  5. 

Quell,  weapon.  In  Macbeth,  I.  vii. 
it  signifies  murder. 

Awfully  he  stands, 
A  sovereign  quell  is  in  his  waving  hands ; 
No  sight  can  bear  the  lightning  of  his  bow. 

Keats,  Endymion,  Bk.  ii. 

Quench,  extinction.    See  also  Iliad, 

xxi.  511,  &c. 

A  harmful  fire  let  run, 

none  came 
To  give  it  quench. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xix.  363. 

QUENCH-COAL. 

Zeal  hath  in  this  our  earthly  mould  little 
fuel,  much  quench-coal ;  is  hardly  fired,  soon 
cooled. —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  71. 

Yet  this  is  not  so  ordinary  as  to  extinguish 
it  [zeal]  by  the  quench-coal  of  sin. — Ibid.,  p. 
84. 

Prynne  follows  next,  and  publisheth  two 
books  at  once  (or  one  immediately  on  the 
other),  one  of  these  called  The  Quench-coal,  in 
answer  unto  that  called  A  coal  from  the 
Altar—  Heylin,  Life  of  Laud,  p.  328. 

Querister,  questioner. 

Direct  enough  was  this  answer  after 
Christ's  single  doctrine,  but  not  after  tbe 
pope's  double  and  covetous  meanings  for 
his  oiled  querister's  advantage. — Bale,  Select 
Works,  p.  199. 

Querl,  hand-mill ;  perhaps  misprint 
for  quern. 

Pisones  wer  surnamed  a  pisendo,  of  grind- 
ing with  a  querle,  because  it  was  their  in- 
uencion. — UdaTs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  338. 


QUERULATION        (  53*  ) 


QUI-HI 


Querulation,  complaint. 

Will  not  these  mournings,  menaces,  queru- 
lotions,  stir  your  hearts  ? — Adams,  i.  349. 

Quest-dove,  ring-dove.  Queests&re 
also  mentioned  among  the  birds  served 
up  at  Grandgousier's  banquet  (Bk.  I. 
cli.  xxxvii.). 

Panurge  halved  and  fixed  upon  a  great 
stake  the  horns  of  a  roe-buck,  together  with 
the  skin  and  the  right  forefoot  thereof,  .  .  . 
the  wings  of  two  bustards,  the  feet  of  four 
quest-doves, .  .  .  and  a  goblet  of  Beauvois. — 
Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xzvii. 

Questword,  a  bequeathment. 

The  legacies  or  quest  word  of  the  deceased 
supplied  the  rest. — Archmol.,  z.  197  (1792). 

Queue,  to  fasten  in  a  queue  or  pig- 
tail. 

The  sons  in  short,  square-skirted  coats, 
with  rows  of  stupendous  brass  buttons,  and 
their  hair  generally  queued  in  the  fashion 
of  the  times.  —  Irving,  Sketch-Bock  (Sleepy 
Hollow). 

Quew,  cue. 

At  the  third  time  the  great  door  openeth, 
for  he  shut  in  one  before  of  purpose  to  open 
it  when  his  quew  came. — Calfhiu,  Answer  to 
Jfartiall,  p.  209. 

Quicksandy,  having  quicksands. 

The  rotten,  moorish,  quicksandy  grounds 
that  some  have  set  their  edifices  on  have 
failed  their  hopes. — Adams,  i.  358. 

Quick-wood,  quickset. 

[He]  in  a  pond  in  the  said  close,  adjoining 
to  a  quick-wood  hedge,  did  drown  his  wife. — 
A  ubrey,  Misc.,  p.  101. 

Quiddany.  L.,  who  supplies  no  ex- 
ample, gives  the  word  as  meaning 
"  marmalade,  a  confection  of  quinces 
made  with  sugar :  "  and  N.  has. u  Quid- 
danet,  a  confection  between  a  syrup 
and  marmalade.  —  Duntori*  Ladies' 
Diet." 

Boyl  the  syrup,  until  it  be  as  thick  as  for 
quiddany.  —  Queen's   Closet  Opened,  p.  204 

(1656). 

Quiddell,  to  criticise ;  the  speaker 
asks  a  clown,  who  is  boasting  of  his 
bass  voice,  to  sing.     See  next  entry. 

Set  up  your  buffing  base,  and  we  will 
quiildell  upon  it.  —  Edwards,  Damon  and 
PiVuas  (Dodsley,  O.  PL,  i.  279). 

Quiddle,  a  fidget  (?). 

The  Englishman  is  very  petulant  and  pre- 
cise about  his  accommodation  at  inns,  and  on 
the  roads ;  a  quiddle  about  his  toast  and  his 
chop. — Emerson,  Eng.  Traits,  ch.  vi. 


Quidifical,  triflingly  subtle. 

Diogenes,  mocking  soch  quidijicall  trifles 
that  were  al  in^he  cherubins,  said,  Sir  Plato, 
your  table  anTr  your  cuppe  I  see  very  well, 
but  as  for  your  tabletee  and  your  cupitee  I 
see  none  soche. — Udal's  Erasmus's  Apoplith., 
p.  139. 

Quid  pro  quo,  an  equivalent  This 
Latin  phrase  may  be  regarded  as  na- 
turalised. 

Let  him  trap  me  in  gold,  and  111  lap  him 
in  lead ;  quid  pro  quo.  —  Middleton,  A  Mad 
World,  My  Masters,  Act  II. 

And  at  the  morning's  breakfast  table, 
I  doubt  not  but  T  shall  be  able 
With  all  fair  reas'ning  to  bestow 
What  you  will  find  a  quid  pro  quo  ; 
Which  I  translate  for  Madam,  there, 
A  Bowland  for  your  Oliver. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  c.  iii. 

Quien,  a  dog  (thieves'  cant). 

Curse  these  quiens,  said  he;  and  not  a 
word  all  dinner  time  but  Curse  the  quiens. 
I  said  I  must  know  who  they  were  before  I 
would  curse  them.  Quiens  ?  why,  that  was 
dogs;  and  I  knew  not  even  that  much. — 
Readc,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  lv. 

Quieten,  to  quiet. 

I  will  stay,  .  .  partly  to  quieten  the  fears 
of  this  poor  faithful  fellow. — Mrs.  Gaskell, 
Ruth,  ch.  xxxiv. 

Quietism,  quiet.  The  Diets,  only 
give  it  as  meaning  the  system  of  the 
religious  body  called  Quietists. 

He  would  no  doubt  have  preferred  receiv- 
ing me  alone,  had  he  not  feared  that  the 
thoughtlessness  of  my  years  might  some- 
times make  me  overstep  the  limits  of  quiet- 
ism which  he  found  necessary.  —  Godtcin, 
Mandeville,  i.  110. 

Quietize,  to  make  quiet ;  to  calm. 

Solitude,  and  patience,  and  religion,  have 
now  quietiied  both  father  and  daughter  into 
tolerable  contentment.  —  Mad.  D7Arblay, 
Diary,  v.  271. 

Qui-hi,  an  English  resident  or  official 
in  Bengal,  from  the  Hindustani  rol,  any 
one,  and  hat,  is ;  Is  there  any  one  V 
being  the  form  used  for  calling  a  serv- 
ant. Many  more  servants  are  required 
in  Bengal  than  in  the  other  two  pre- 
sidencies, the  influence  of  caste  being 
so  much  stronger  there ;  hence  Madras 
and  Bombay  people  call  the  Bengalese 
officials  Qui-his. 

The  old  boys,  the  old  generals,  the  old 
colonels,  the  old  qui-his  from  the  club  came 
and  paid  her  their  homage.  —  Thackeray, 
Newcomes,  ch.  brii. 

MM2 


QUILL 


(  532  ) 


QUI- VIVE 


Quill.  To  be  under  the  quill  =  to 
be  written  about. 

The  subject  which  is  now  under  the  quill 
is  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln.  —  Hacket,  Life  of 
Williams,  it.  28. 

Quillet.  N.  s.  v.  remarks  that  Mr. 
Pegge  says  that  this  word  means  "a 
small  parcel  of  land,  but  gives  no  au- 
thority for  it  except  Minshew,  who 
says  nothing  of  the  land."  Halliwell 
and  Wright  add  that  the  word  is  "  very 
common  in  Anglesea  in  the  present 
day,  signifying  a  small  strip  of  land  in 
the  middle  01  another  person's  field, 
commonly  marked  out  by  boundary 
stones,  and  arising  from  the  tenure  of 
gavelkind  formerly  in  force  there." 

"Suffolk  Stiles."  It  is  a  measuring  cast 
whether  this  Proverb  pertaineth  to  Essex  or 
this  County;  and  I  believe  it  belongeth  to 
both,  which,  being  inclosed  Countries  into 
petty  quillets,  abound  with  high  Stiles. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Suffolk  (ii.  326). 

Quill-man,  a  writer:  the  reed  on 
which  weavers  wind  their  heads  for 
the  shuttle  is  called  a  quit.    See  IT. 

And  next  observe  how  this  alliance  fits, 
For  weavers  now  are  just  as  poor  as  wits : 
Their  brother  quill -men,  workers  for  the 

stage, 
For  sorry  stuffe  can  get  a  crown  a  page ; 
But  weavers  will  be  kinder  to  the  players, 
And  sell,  for  twenty  pence,  a  yard  of  theirs. 
Swift ,  Epilogue  to  a  Play  for  benefit  of 
Irish  weavers. 

Quilted,  stuffed  (?) 

He  sat  with  me  while  I  had  two  quilted 
pigeons,  very  handsome  and  good  meat. — 
Pepys,  Sept.  26, 1668. 

Quinze,  a  game  of  cards  somewhat 
similar  to  vingt-un,  only  15  is  the  game. 

There  were  silver-pharaoh  and  whist  for 
the  ladies  that  did  not  dance;  deep  basset 
and  qutnze  for  the  men. —  Walpole  to  Mann, 
ii.  253  (1748). 

Gambling  the  whole  morning  in  the  Alley, 
and  sitting  down  at  night  to  quinze  and 
hazard  at  St.  James's.  —  Colman,  Man  of 
Business,  Act  IV. 

Qoippkr,  jester ;  quibbler. 

And  here,  peraduenture,  some  desperate 
quijyper  will  canuaze  my  proposed  compari- 
son.— Nashe,  Introd.  to  Greeks  Menaphon, 
p.  14. 

Quibace,  cuirass. 

For  all  their  bucklers,  morions,  and  quiraces 
Were  of  no  proofe  agaiust    their  peisant 
maces. — Hudson,  Judith,  v.  365. 


Quirily,  revolvingly.   H.  has  "quisle 

wind,  a  whirlwind. 

Soom  doe  slise  out  collops  on  spits  yeet 
quirily e  trembling. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.  219. 

Qc  1ST  RON.  It.  quotes  for  this  Chaucer, 
Rom.  of  Rose,  886,  and  says,  "  Mr.  Tyr- 
whitt  thinks — a  scullion,  un  guerrym  de 
cuisine:  perhaps,  as  Urrv  suppose-*!, 
a  beggar,  from  the  Fr.  Qutstrer,  to  a*k, 
to  beg."  It  may  be  useful  to  riie 
another  example  for  this  word.  Dido, 
in  her  indignation  at  the  departure  of 
iEneas,  says — 

Fro  the  shoare  late  a  runnygat  hedgebret, 
A  tarbreeche  quystroune  dyd  I   take,  with 
phrensye  betrasshed. 

Stanyhurst,  jEn.,  iv.  393. 

Quitch,  couchgrass.  L.  has  quitch- 
grass. 

Full  seldom  doth  a  man  repent,  or  use 
Both  grace  and  will  to  pick  the  vicious  qnif  k 
Of  blood  and  custom  wholly  out  of  hira. 
Tennyson,  Geraint  and  Enid. 

Quits,  fair,  not  in  debt.  Double  or 
quit  {quits  is  more  common)  =  tl-it 
the  loser  of  a  wager  should  have  a 
chance  of  wiping  out  the  score  against 
him ;  but  if  his  luck  is  again  bad,  that 
he  should  pay  double. 

He  has  one  ransom  with  him  already; 
methinks  'twere  good  to  fight  double  or  quit. 
— Beaum.  and  FL,  King  and  no  King,  iii.  1. 

Lady  F.  So,  you  see.  I  am  importuned  by 
the  women  as  well  as  the  men. 

Bel.  (aside).  And  she's  quits  with  them 
both. —  Vanbrugh,  Provoked  Wife*  iii.  1. 

There  are  four  guineas,  you  know,  that 
came  out  of  my  good  lady's  pocket  when  she 
died,  that  with  some  silver  my  master  gave 
me,  ...  do  you  think,  as  I  had  no  wages,  I 
may  be  supposed  to  be  quits?  By  quits  I 
cannot  mean  thnt  my  poor  services  should  be 
equal  to  my  lady's  goodness,  for  that's  im- 
possible. But  ...  I  would  ask  whether  .  •  • 
I  may  not  have  earned,  besides  my  keeping, 
these  four  guineas. — Richardson,  Pamela*  I 
100. 

Quitture,  discharge;   issue.     See 

also  Iliad,  xxiv.  374. 

Still  drink  thou  wine,  and  eat, 
Till  fair-hair'd  Hecamed  hath  giv'n  a  little 

water-heat 
To  cleanse  the  quitture  from  thy  wound. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xir.  7. , 

Quiverish,  tremulous. 

Then  f urth  with  a  quiverish  horror.         | 
Stanyhurst,  AZn.,  iii.  30. 

Qui- vive,  the  challenge  of  the  Fren«  h  | 
sentries  =  who  goes  there  ?    heniT  i{* 
be  on  the  qui  vive  =  to  be  on  the  alert )  j 


QUIXOTE 


(  533  ) 


QUOZ 


the   expression   is    naturalised   among 

us :    in   the  extract,  however,  it  is  in 

italics. 

Our  new  King  Log  we  cannot  complain  of 

as  too  young,  or  too  much  on  the  qui-vive. — 

Miss  Edgetcorth,  Patronage,  ch.  viii. 

Quixote,  to  act  like  Don  Quixote. 

When  you  have  got  the  devil  in  your  body, 
and  are  upon  your  rantipole  adventures,  you 
shall  Quixote  it  by  yourself  for  Lopez. — 
Vanbrugk,  False  Friend,  iv.  2. 

Quiz,  to  ridicule. 

This  is  the  gentleman  who  once  actually 
sent  a  messenger  up  to  the  Strangers'  gallery 
in  the  old  House  of  Commons,  to  inquire  the 
name  of  an  individual  who  was  using  an  eye- 
glass, in  order  that  he  might  complain  to  the 
Speaker  that  the  person  in  question  was 
quizzing  him. — Sketches  Ity  Jioz  (Parliament' 
art/  Sketch). 

Quiz.  L.  gives  this  word  as  =  one 
who  tries  to  make  another  ridiculous,  a 
biinterer;  it  also  signifies  one  who  is 
himself  absurd,  or  a  subject  for  quiz- 
zing. In  the  second  extract  it  is  one 
of  George  III.'s  daughters  who  uses 
the  word  which,  as  Mad.  D' Arblay  re- 
marks, would  not  have  been  employed 
by  Queen  Charlotte. 

Dick.  What  a  damn'd  gig  you  look  like. 

Pa  ny  loss.  A  gig !  Umph  ;  that's  an  Eton 
phrase — the  Westminsters  call  it  quiz. — Col- 
tuan,  Heir  at  Law,  iv.  3. 

Twas  the  Queen  dressed  her;  you  know 
what  a  figure  she  used  to  make  of  herself 
with  her  odd  manner  of  dressing  herself; 
but  mamma  said,  "Now  really,  Princess 
Royal,  this  one  time  is  the  last,  and  I  cannot 
suffer  you  to  make  such  a  quiz  of  yourself." 
.  .  .  The  word  quiz,  you  may  depend,  was 
never  the  Queen's. — 5 fad.  D' Arblay,  Diary, 
vi.  138  (1797). 

Youug  ladies  have  a  remarkable  way  of 
letting  you  know  that  they  think  you  a 
44  quiz?  without  saying  the  word. — C.  Bronte, 
Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xxi. 

Quizical,  ridiculous ;  perhaps  in  the 
second  extract  it  =  quizzing. 

I  believe  you  have  taken  such  a  fancy  to 
the  old  quizical  fellow  that  you  can't  live 
without  him.  —  Miss  Edgemorth,  Belinda, 
ch.  ix. 

How  many  fugitive  leaves  quizzical,  imag- 
inative, or  at  least  mendacious,  were  flying 
about  in  newspapers.  —  Carlyle,  Diamond 
Aecklace,  ch.  xvi. 

Quizzificatiox,  joke ;  hoax. 

After  all,  my  dear,  the  whole  may  be  a 
quizzification  of  Sir  Philip's.  —  Miss  Edge- 
worth,  Belinda,  ch.  xi. 


Quizzify,  to  make  odd  or  ridiculous. 

The  caxon  quizzijies  the  figure,  and  thereby 
mars  the  effect  of  what  would  otherwise 
have  been  a  pleasing  as  well  as  appropriate 
design. — Sou  they,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cxri. 

Qoizziness,  eccentricity. 

His  singularities  and  affectation  of  affecta- 
tion always  struck  me:  but  both  these  and 
his  spirit  of  satire  are  mere  quizziness;  his 
mind  is  all  solid  benevolence  and  worth. — 
Mad.  D Arblay,  Diary,  vi.  187. 

Quoddlk,  to  parboil.  See  L.  8.  v. 
coddle.  L.  gives  quoddle  as  a  verb 
neuter,  with  extract  from  Stillingfleet, 
who  speaks  of  "  a  duck  quoddling  in  a 
pool/' 

Take  your  pippins  green  and  quoddle  them 
in  fair  water,  but  let  the  water  boyl  first  be- 
fore you  put  them  in. — Queen's  Closet  Opened, 
p.  204  (1655). 

Quodlibetic,  given  to  niceties  and 
subtle  points. 

How  partial  are  the  principles  of  some 
Protestant  Preachers,  of  some  Quodlibetick 
Presbyters ! — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p. 
681. 

Quorum,  materials  or  requisites ;    a 

peculiar  use  of  the  word. 

Here  the  Dutchmen  found  fuller's  earth, 
a  precious  treasure,  whereof  England  hath 
(if  not  more)  better  than  all  Christendom 
besides;  a  great  commodity  of  the  quorum 
to  the  making  of  good  cloath. — Fuller,  Ch. 
Hist.,  III.  ix.  12. 

Quot ability,  fitness  for  quotation. 

It  is  the  prosaicism  of  these  two  writers 
[Cowper  and  Moore]  to  which  is  owing  their 
especial  quot  ability. — E.  A.  Poe,  Marginalia, 
xx  viii. 

Quotationipotent,  powerful  in  quo- 
tation. 

Tou  with  your  errabund  guesses  veering 
to  all  points  of  the  literary  compass,  amused 
the  many  -  humoured,  yet  single  -  minded, 
Pantagruelist,  the  quotationipotent  mottocrat. 
— Soutfiey,  The  Doctor,  Interchapter  xiii. 

Quoz,  quiz ;  it  seems  to  be  both  a 
singular  and  plural  noun. 

What  does  the  old  quoz  mean?  does  he 
want  me  to  toss  him  in  a  blanket? — Mad. 
D Arblay,  Camilla,  Bk.  VII.  ch.  ix. 

44  Upon  my  honour,"  cried  Lynmere  piqued, 
"  the  quoz  of  the  present  season  are  beyond 
what  a  man  could  have  hoped  to  see." 
"Quoz!  what's  quoz?"  he  replied.  "Why, 
it's  a  thing  there's  no  explaining  to  you  sort 
of  gentlemen ;  and  sometimes  we  say  quiz, 
my  good  old  sir."— Ibid.,  Bk.  VII.  ch.  xiii. 


RABBET-STOCK        (  534  )        RAFFAELESQUE 


R 


Rabbet  -  stock,  a  joiner's  tool  for 
cutting  rabbets  or  joists.  See  extract 
*.  v.  Clave-stock. 

Rabbit,  to  ferret  for  rabbits. 

She  liked  keeping  the  score  at  cricket,  and 
coming  to  look  at  them  fishing  or  rabbiting 
in  her  walks. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxfora, 
oh.  xxx. 

Rabbit,  a  small  boat  (?) 

Ned  Finch  t'other  day, on  the  conquest  of 
Montreal,  wished  the  king  joy  of  having  lost 
no  subjects  but  those  that  perished  in  the 
rabbits.  Fitzroy  asked  him  if  he  thought 
they  crossed  the  great  American  lakes  in 
such  little  boats  as  one  goes  in  to  V auxhall : 
he  replied,  "Yes,  Mr.  Pitt  said  the  rabbits," 
— it  was  in  the  falls,  the  rapids. —  Walpole, 
Letters,  ii.  191  (1700). 

Rabble,  low,  vulgar,  pertaining  to 

the  rabble  or  mob. 

How  could  any  one  of  English  education 
and  prattique  swallow  such  a  low  rabble 
suggestion  Y — Forth,  Examen,  p.  306. 

Rabious,  raging,  fierce. 

Ethelred  languishing  in  minde  and  body, 
Edmond  his  sonne  surnamed  Ironside,  (to 
oppose  youth  to  youth)  was  implored  against 
this  rabious  inuador. — Daniel,  Mtst.  of  Eng., 
p.  15. 

Race.    See  quotation. 

The  Spanish  fashion,  in  the  West  Indies 
at  least,  though  not  in  the  ships  of  the 
great  Armada,  was,  for  the  sake  of  carrying 
merchandise,  to  build  their  men-of-war  flush- 
decked,  or,  as  it  was  called,  race  {razes),  which 
left  those  on  deck  exposed  and  open.  — 
Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch. 


Rack,  to  go  between  a  trot  and  an 
amble.  N.  has  the  substantive  with  ex- 
tract from  Taylor,  the  water-poet.  Cf. 
Canterbury  rack. 

He  was  thorough-paced  in  all  Spiritual 
Popery  .  .  .  but  in  Secular  Popery  (as  I  may 
term  it,  touching  the  interest  of  Princes)  he 
did  not  so  much  as  rack.— Fuller,  Worthies, 
Northampton  (ii.  173). 

He  himself  became  a  racking  but  no 
thorough-paced  Protestant. — Ibid.,  Stafford 
(ii.  305). 

Rack  and  manoer.  To  live  at  rack 
and  manger  =  to  live  of  the  best  at 
free  cost.  Naehe,  Lenten  Stttfe  (Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  165),  says,  the  herring  is  such 
a  choleric  food  that  "whoso  ties  him- 
self to  rack  and  manger"  to  it  shall 


have  a  child  that  will  be  a  soldier  be- 
fore he  loses  his  first  teeth. 

Free  from  danger, 
Muakein  may  live  at  rack  and  manger. 

Poetry  of  Antijacobin,  p.  213. 

John  Lackland  . . .  tearing  out  the  bowels 
of  St.  Edmundsbury  Convent  (its  larders 
namely  and  cellars)  in  the  most  ruinous  way 
by  living  at  rack  and  manger  there. —  Carlyley 
Past  and  Present,  Bk.  II.  ch.  L 

Rackbter,  a  rake ;  one  who  is  con- 
stantly seeking  gaiety. 

At  a  private  concert  last  night  with  my 
cousins  and  Miss  Clements  ;  and  again  to  be 
at  a  play  this  night ;  I  shall  be  a  rocketer,  I 
doubt. — Richardson,  Grandison,  i.  117. 

Rackety,  gay,  noisy. 

In  all  things  he  acquitted  himself  as  a 
model  officer,  and  excited  the  admiration 
and  respect  of  Sergeant  Major  Mac  Arthur, 
who  began  fishing  at  Bowie,  to  discover  the 
cause  of  this  strange  metamorphosis  in  the 
rackety  little  Irishman. — Kingsley,  Two  Tears 
Ago,  ch.  vii. 

Raddle,  to  rouge  coarsely;  also  a 
substantive.     Cf.  Ruddle. 

Can  there  be  any  more  dreary  object  than 
those  whitened  and  raddled  old  women  who 
shudder  at  the  slips? — Thackeray, A'ewcomes, 
ch.  xx. 

That  bony  old  painted  sheep-faced  com- 
panion, who's  raddled  like  an  old  bell-wether. 
— Ibid.,  ch.  xliii. 

Some  of  us  have  more  serious  things  to 
hide  than  a  yellow  cheek  behind  a  raddle  of 
rouge. — Ibid.,  Roundabout  Papers,  xxxii. 

Raddleman.    See  extract. 

"  Rutland  Raddleman."  .  .  Rod  here  is  the 
same  with  red,  (onely  more  broadly  pro- 
nounced) .  .  Raddleman  then  is  a  Reddleman, 
a  trade  (and  that  a  poor  one)  onely  in  this 
county,  whence  men  bring  on  their  backs  a 
pack  of  red  stones  or  oker,  which  they  sell 
to  their  neighbouring  countries  for  the  mark- 
ing of  sheep. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Rutland  (ii. 
242). 

Raff,  a  scamp,  or  low  fellow. 

Myself  and  this  great  peer, 
Of  these  rude  raffs  became  the  jeer. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  xx. 

That  fisherman  they  talk  of,— Masaniello, 
Was  clearly,  by  his  birth,  a  sorry  fellow  ; 
One  of  the  raffs  we  shrink  from  in  the  street, 
Wore  an  old  hat,  and  went  with  naked  feet 

Leigh  Hunt,  High  and  Lotr. 

Raffaelesque,  after  the  manner  of 


RAFFISH 


(  535  ) 


RAILROAD 


Raffaele.     It  is  observable  that  in  the 

extract  it  is  not  spelt  with  a  capital  K. 

In  some  of  the  Greek  delineations  (The 
Lycian  Painter,  for  example)  we  have  already 
noticed  a  strange  opulence  of  splendour, 
characterisable  as  half -legitimate,  half-mere- 
tricious— a  splendour  hovering  between  the 
rajfaclesqxu  and  the  japannuh.— - Carlyle,  Life 
of  Sterling,  ch.  vi. 

Raffish,  disreputable. 

It  used  to  be  considered  that  a  sporting 
fellow  of  a  small  college  was  a  sad,  raffish, 
disreputable  character.— Thackeray,  Shabby 
Genteel  Story,  ch.  viii. 

44  Zooks,  sir ;  I  am  fallen,  but  I  am  always 
a  gentleman."  Therewith,  Losely  gave  a 
vehement  slap  to  his  hat,  which,  crushed  by 
the  stroke,  improved  his  general  appearance 
into  an  aspect  so  outrageously  raffish,  that, 
but  for  the  expression  of  his  countenance, 
the  contrast  between  the  boast  and  the  man 
would  have  been  ludicrous. — Lytton,  What 
will  he  do  with  it  ?  Bk.  VII.  ch.  v. 

Rafter,  to  roof  with  rafters. 

Buildyng  an  hous  euen  from  the  found- 
ation vnto  the  vttermoste  raftreyng  and 
reiring  of  the  roofe.  —  UdaCs  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  260. 

Rag.  Gentlemen  of  the  order  of  the 
rag  =  military  officers. 

It  is  the  opinion  which,  I  believe,  most  of 
you  young  gentlemen  of  the  order  of  the  rag 
deserve. — fielding,  Amelia,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iv. 

Ragamuffin,  ragged  ;  the  Diets,  give 
no  instance  of  this  word  used  adjec- 
tivally. 

Mr.  Aldworth  .  .  turned  over  the  rest  of 
this  ragamuffin  assembly  to  the  care  of  his 
butler. — Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  viii. 
ch.  xxiii. 

Rage.   The  E.  D.  S.  editors  of  Tusser 

make  rage  in  this  place  an  adjective  = 

wild,  dissipated,  but  why  may  it  not  be 

a  verb? 

Where  cocking  dads  make  sawsie  lads, 
In  youth  so  rage  to  begin  age, 
Or  else  to  fetch  a  Tibourne  stretch, 
Among  the  rest. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  214. 

Ragg,  ragstone.  See  quotation  $.  v. 
Amygdaloid. 

No  man  will  rough-cast  a  marble  wall, 
but  mud  or  unpolished  ragg.  —  Bp.  Hall, 
Works,  v.  114. 

A  little  diamond  may  be  more  worth  than 
a  whole  quarry  of  ragg. — Sanderson,  i.  391. 

Ragged-robin,  the  meadow  lychnis. 

And  should  some  great  court-lady  say,  the 

Prince 
Hath  pick'd  a  ragged-robin  from  the  hedge, 


And  like  a  madman  brought  her  to  the 

court, 
Then  were  ye  shamed. 

Tennyson,  Geraint  and  Enid. 

The  viscid  petals  of  the  ragged-robin  glim- 
mered a  bright  crimson  as  they  straggled 
through  the  thorny  branches  of  the  haw- 
thorn.— Black,  Adventures  of  a  Phaeton,  ch. 


Raggery,  raggedness. 

There  were  the  .  .  grim,  portentous  old 
hags,  such  as  Michael  Angelo  painted,  draped 
in  majestic  raggery. — Thackeray,  Newomes, 
ch. 


Rag-mannered,  rude,  vulgar. 

This  young  lady  swears,  talks  smut,  and  is 
upon  the  matter  just  as  rag-manner* d  as  Mary 
the  Buxsome. — Collier,  Eng.  Stage,  p.  220. 

Ragman's  rewe.  See  Ragman's 
Roll  in  N.     Cf.  Rig-my-roll. 

These  songes  or  rimes  (because  their 
originall  beginnyng  issued  out  of  Fescenium) 
wer  called  in  iktine  Fescennina  Carmina  or 
Fescennini  rythmi  or  versus;  whiche  I  doe 
here  translate  (according  to  our    English 

Srouerbe)  a  ragman* s  rewe  or  a  bible.  For  so 
ooe  we  call  a  long  jeste  that  railleth  on  any 
Eersone  by  name,  or  touch  eth  a  bodie's 
onestee  somewhat  nere. — UdaVs  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  274. 

Rag  out,  to  fray,  or  become  ragged. 
The  extract  is  part  of  a  speech  from  a 
cobbler  to  Lord  Burleigh. 

Leather  thus  leisurely  tanned  and  turned 
many  times  in  the  Fat  will  prove  serviceable, 
which  otherwise  will  quickly  fleet  and  rag 
out.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Middlesex  (ii.  35). 

Rah  ate,  to  rate,  scold. 

He  neuer  linned  rahatyng  of  those  per- 
sones  that  offred  sacrifice  for  to  haue  good 
health  of  bodie. —  UdaTs  Erasmus's  Apophth., 
p.  86. 

Raillery,  a  jest ;  the  use  of  the 
indefinite  article  with  the  word  is 
peculiar. 

They  take  a  pleasing  raillery  for  a  serious 
truth. —  Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  13. 

Sometimes  they  let  fly  a  raillery,  and 
shoot  a  joke. — Ibid.,  p.  00. 

Railroad,  railway.  L.,  who  gives 
the  word  without  example,  says  that 
railway  is  probably  the  older  word. 

Even  the  giddiness  attendant  on  a  journey 
on  this  Manchester  railroad  is  not  so  perilous 
to  the  nerves  as  that,  too  frequent  exercise 
in  the  merry-go-round  of  the  ideal  world. — 
Scott,  Introd.  to  Count  Robert  of  Paris  (1831). 

On  Monday  I  shall  set  off  for  Liverpool  by 
the  railroad  which  will  then  be  opened  the 
whole  way. — Lord  Macaulay,  1838  (Trevel- 
yanys  Life,  ii.  14). 


RAINBO  WED 


(  536  ) 


RAMPAGE 


Rainbowed,  encircled  with  a  rainbow 

or  aureole. 

See  him  stand 
Before  the  altar,  like  a  rainhowed  saint. 

Kinysley,  Saint's  Tragedy,  i.  3. 

Raines,  tine  linen  manufactured  at 
Rennes  ;  the  word  is  variously  spelt. 

No  man  will  buy  their  wares  any  more ; 
the  wares  of  gold  and  silver,  and  of  precious 
stones ;  neither  of  pearl,  and  silk,  and  raines, 
and  purple,  and  scarlet.—  Bale,  Select  Works, 
p.  526. 

She  should  be  apparelled  beautifully  with 
pure  white  silk,  or  with  most  fine  raines. — 
Ibid.,  p.  542. 

Thou  that  wast  clothed  in  raynes,  and 
purple,  and  scarlet .  .  shalt  come  to  nought. 
— Becon,  ii.  415. 

Alas,  that  great  city  that  was  clothed  in 
reins,  and  scarlet,  and  purple! — Jewel,  ii 
931. 

Rainless,  free  from  rain. 

Rainles,  their  soyl  is  wet,  and  dowdies,  fat, 
Itself  s  inoist  bosom  brings  in  this  and  that. 

Sylvester,  The  Lawe>  528. 

A  sense,  awful  and  yet  cheering,  of  a 
wonder  and  a  majesty,  a  presence  and  a 
voice  around,  in  the  cliffs  and  the  pine- 
forests,  and  the  great  blue  rainless  heaven. 
— C.  Kinysley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xxzvi. 

The  next  day  was  one  of  dry  storm ;  dark, 
beclouded,  yet  rainless. — Miss  Bronte,  Vil- 
lette,  ch.  ziii. 

Rainy  day.  To  lay  vp  for  a  rainy 
day,  to  save  for  a  time  of  need. 

This  they  caught  as  an  advantage  we  see, 
and  laid  it  up  for  a  rainy  day,  and  three 
years  after,  out  they  came  with  it. —  An- 
drews, ii.  346. 

Eryo,  saith  the  Miser,  part  with  nothing, 
but  keep  all  against  a  wet  day. — Fuller,  Wor- 
thies, ch.  xi. 

Rake,  a  hawk  is  said  to  rake  when 
flying  wide  of  the  quarry. 

Their  talk  was  all  of  training,  terms  of  art, 

Diet  and  seeling,  jesses,  leash  and  lure. 

'*  She  is  too  noble,"  he  said, "  to  check  at 

pies, 
Nor  will  she  rake;  there  is  no  baseness  in 

her."— Tennyson,  Merlin  and  Vivien. 

Rakehellonian,  a  wild  dissolute 
fellow. 

I  have  been  a  man  of  the  town,  or  rather 
a  man  of  wit,  and  have  been  confess'd  a 
beau,  and  admitted  into  the  family  of  the 
rakehellonians. — T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  313. 

Rake-kennel,  a  scavenger 

We  will  commit  the  further  discussion  of 
the  poet  to  a  committee  of  gold-finders,  or  a 
club  of  rake-kennels. — Gentleman  Instructed, 
p.  44a. 


Rakery,  dissipation. 

He  not  only  diverted  but  instructed  bis 
lordship  in  all  the  rakery  and  intrigues  of 
the  leud  town. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guil- 
ford, ii.  300. 

The  fatigue  of  a  London  winter  between 
Parliament  and  rakery  is  a  little  too  much, 
without  interruption,  for  an  elderly  person- 
age.— Walpole  to  Mann,  ii.  339  (1750). 

Raks  jaks,  "wild  pranks  "(H.).  In 
Gammer  Gurton's  Needle  {Hawkins, 
Una.  Dr.,  L  204),  a  scolding  woman 
addressee  another  female  as,  "  Thou 
slut,  thou  kut,  thou  rakes,  thoujVz£e«." 

Dare  ye  loa,  curat  baretoura,  in  this  my 

Segnorie  regal 
Too  raise  such  raks  jaks  on  seas,  and  danger 

vnordered? — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.  142. 

Ramble  -  headed,  feather  -  headed  ; 
unsteady. 

Lord,  how  we  ramble-headed  creatures 
break  in  upon  ourselves ! — Richardson,  Gran- 
dison,  vi.  34. 

Ram-cat,  a  Tom-cat 

I'm  told  thou  keenest  not  a  single  male ; 

Nothing  but  females  at  thy  board  to  cram  ; 
That  no  he-lapdog  near  thee  wags  his  tail, 

Nor  cat  by  vulgar  people  called  a  ram, 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  174. 

Ramex.  rupture:  a  Latin  word,  hut 
apparently  in  as  common  use  as  other 
similar  terms,  hernia^  fistula,  &c,  when 
The  Widow  was  written. 

A  tooth,  ha !  ha ! 
I  thought 't  had  been  some  gangrene,  fistula, 
Canker  or  ramex. 

Jonson,  Fletcher  and  Middleton, 
The  Widow,  iv.  2. 

Rammish,  lustful :  the  word  usually 
means  strong-smelling. 

Go,  Cupid's  rammish  pandar,  go. 

Quarles,  Emblems,  II.  i. 

Rampacious,  spirited  ;  unruly :  ram- 
pageous is  more  common. 

He  got  his  own  horse  down  to  a  straw  a 
day,  and  would,  unquestionably  have  ren- 
dered him  a  very  spirited  and  rampacious 
animal  on  nothing  at  all,  if  he  had  not  died 
four  and  twenty  hours  before  he  was  to  have 
had  his  first  comfortable  bait  of  air. — Dickens, 
Oliver  Twist,  ch.  ii. 

Rampage,  a  state  of  angry  excite- 
ment ;  also  as  a  verb,  to  tear  about. 

Were  I  best  go  to  finish  the  revel  at  the 
Griffin?  But  then  Maudie  will  rampange 
on  my  return. — Scott,  Fair  Maid  of  Perth,  i. 
343. 

"She  sot  down,"  said  Joe,  "and  she  got 
up,  and  she  made  a  grab  at  Tickler,  and  she 


RAMPAGEOUS 


(537  ) 


RASCALDOM 


rampaged  out.  .  .  .  She's  been  on  the  ram- 
jxiye  this  last  spell  about  five  minutes." — 
Dickens,  Great  Expectations,  cb.  ii. 

They  rampaged  about  wi'  their  grooms,  an' 
was  'on  tin'  arter  the  men. — Tennyson.  The 
Village  Wife. 

Rampageous,  violent;  unruly.  Cf. 
Rampacious. 

As  the  land  and  kingdom  gradually  settled 
down  into  an  orderly  state,  the  farmers  and 
country  folk  [had]  no  cause  to  drive  in  their 
herds  and  flocks  as  in  the  primitive  ages 
of  a  rampageous  antiquity. — Gait,  Provost, 
ch.  xv. 

There's  that  Will  Maskery,  sir,  as  is  the 
rampageousest  Methodis  as  can  be. — G.  Eliot, 
Adam  Bede,  ch.  v. 

He  is  a  lion — a  mighty,  conquering,  ram- 
pageous Leo  Belgicus.  —  Thackeray,  Round- 
about Papers,  ch.  xix. 

Ramshackle,  crazy ;  out  of  repair. 

There  came  .  .  .  my  lord  the  cardinal,  in 
his  ramshackle  coach. — Thackeray,  Newcomes, 
ch.  xxxv. 

The  difficulty  of  getting  it  into  the  ram- 
shackle vettunno  carriage  in  which  I  was 
departing  was  .  .  .  great. — Dickens,  Uncom- 
mercial Traveller,  xxviii. 

Rancho,  a  Mexican  word,  signifying 
a  place  where  cattle  are  reared. 
And  we  won  it,  and  many  a  town 
And  rancho  reaching  up  and  down. 

Joaquim  Miller,  Songs  of  the 
Sierras,  p.  41. 

Rank-brained,  coarse. 

Insavia  is  that  which  euery  Rank-brainde 
writer  and  judge  of  Poeticall  writing  is  rapt 
withal ;  when  hee  presumes  either  to  write 
or  censure  the  height  of  Poesio. — Chapman, 
Masque  of  the  Mid.  Temple,  Preface. 

Rankle,  vb.  act ;  to  attack ;  carp  at ; 
make  sore. 

His  teeth  rankle  the  woman's  credit. — 
Adams,  ii.  224. 

Ransomable,  capable  of  being  ran- 
somed. 

Deign 
For  these  fit  presents  to  dissolve  the  ransom- 
able  chain 
Of  my  lov'd  daughter's  servitude. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  i.  20. 

I  passed  my  life  in  that  bath  with  many 
other  gentlemen  and  persons  of  condition, 
distinguished  and  accounted  as  ransomable. 
— JarvisJs  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  IV.  ch. 
xm 

Aantantinglt,  extravagantly. 

I  would  not  be  snibd,  or  have  it  cast  in 

.  my  dishe  that  therefore  I  prayse  Yarmouth 

so  rantantingly,  because  I  never  elsewhere 

bayted    my    horse.  —  Nashe,  Lenten   Stuffe 

{Had.  Misc.,  vi.  153). 


Rantipole,  a  reckless  wild  fellow. 
R.  gives  the  word  as  a  noun,  but  with- 
out example  :  it  is  also  a  verb  and 
adjective. 

I  was  always  considered  as  a  rantipole,  for 
whom  anything  was  good  enough. — Marryat, 
Fr.  Mildmay,  ch.  xv. 

Rap,  to  swear,  especially  to  swear 
falsely  :  thieves'  cant :  perhaps  sug- 
gested by  the  phrase  rapping  out  an 
oath. 

As  to  Mr.  Snap's  deposition  in  his  favour, 
it  was  the  usual  height  to  which  the  ardour 
of  that  worthy  person's  friendship  too  fre- 
quently carried  him.  It  was  his  constant 
maxim  that  he  was  a  pitiful  fellow  who 
would  stick  at  a  little  rapping  for  his  friend. 
—Fielding,  Jonathan  mid,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xiii. 

Though  I  never  saw  the  lady  in  my  life, 
she  need  not  be  shy  of  us ;  d — n  me !  I  scorn 
to  rap  against  any  lady.— Ibid^  Amelia,  Bk. 
I.  ch.  x. 

Rapfully,  violently. 

Then  far  of  vplandish  we  doe  view  thee  fird 

Sicil  ./Etna, 
And  a  seabelch  grounting  on  rough  rocks 

rapfulye  fretting. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn\,  iii.  566. 

Rapper,  knocker  of  a  door. 

He  stood  with  the  rapper  of  the  door 
suspended  for  a  full  minute  in  his  hand. — 
Sterne,  Trist.  Shatidy,  vi.  143. 

Rapshin.  In  Rennet's  translation  of 
Erasmus  8  Praise  of  Folly,  p.  53, 
among  the  inconveniences  to  which  a 
horse  is  subjected  mention  is  made  of 
"  his  rapshin  and  fetters  when  he  runs 
agrass :  T  there  is  nothing  correspond- 
ing to  this  in  the  original,  but  I  sup- 
pose rapshin  to  be  that  with  which  a 
horse  is  hobbled,  and  which  may  flap 
or  rap  against  its  leg. 

Rascabilian,  a  rascal.  Cf.  Raska- 
bilia. 

Their  names  are  often  recorded  in  a  court 
of  correction,  where  the  ^register  of  rogues 
makes  no  little  gaine  of  rascabilians. — Bre- 
ton, Strange  Newes,  p.  6. 

Rascaldom,  rascality.     Cf.    Scoun- 

DBELDOM. 

As  to  Lamotte,  the  husband,  he  for  shelter 
against  much,  decisively  dives  down  to  the 
subterranean  shades  of  Rascaldom  ;  gambles, 
swindles. — Carlyle,  Diamond  Necklace,  ch.  vi. 

Denis  during  these  ten  years  of  probation 
walked  chiefly  in  the  subterranean  shades  of 
Rascaldom. — Ibid.,  Misc.,  iii.  202. 

How  has  this  turbulent  Alexandrian  ras- 
caldom been  behaving  itself  in  my  absence  ? 
— Kingsley,  Hypatia,  ch.  ii. 


RASCALDRY  (  53*  )  RATTLEPATE 


Rascaldry,  rascality,  or  the  class 
that  practises  it. 

So  base  a  rascaldry 
As  is  too  farre  from  thought  of  cbyualry. 
Breton,  PasquiVs  FooUs-cappe,  p.  21. 

RascalE88,  female  rascal. 

Then  shall  I  have  all  the  rascals  and  ras- 
calesses  of  the  family  come  creeping  to  me. 
— Richardson,  CI.  Harlotce,  i.  221. 

Rascalism,  the  quality  pertaining  to 
a  rascal :  scoundrelism  is  in  the  Diets., 
but  not  this  word. 

A  tall  handsome  man  with  ex-military 
whiskers,  with  a  look  of  troubled  gaiety  and 
rascalism. — Carlyle,  Diamond  Necklace,  ch. 
xiv. 

Rabhbd,  burnt  by  hasty  cooking. 
Bee  H. :  Fuller  refers  to  Fox,  Vol.  I. 
p.  920. 

Mr.  Fox  .  .  .  eonfesseth,  and  take  it  in 
his  own  words,  that  the  former  edition  of  his 
Acts  and  Monuments  was  hastily  rashed  up 
at  the  present  in  such  shortnesse  of  time  .  .  . 
that  it  betraied  him  to  many  mistakes. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  IV.  ii.  61. 

Raskabilia,  rascally,  worthless 
people. 

Beware  raskabilia,  slothfull  to  wurke. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  25. 

Raspy,  rough. 

Such  a  raspy,  untamed  voice  as  that  of  his 
I  have  hardly  heard. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  197. 

Rat,  to  desert  a  cause,  as  rats  are 
said  to  leave  a  falling  house. 

Lastly,  as  to  the  Pagan  who  played  such  a 

trick, 
First  assuming  the  tonsure,  then  cutting  his 

stick, 
There  is  but  one  thing  which  occurs  to  me — 

that 
Is, — Don't  give  too  much  credit  to  people 

who  rat. 

Jngoldsby  Legends  (Lay  of  St.  Aloys). 

Egad,  sir,  the  country  is  going  to  the  dogs ! 
Our  sentiments  are  not  represented  in  Par- 
liament or  out  of  it.  The  County  Mercury 
has  ratted,  and  be  hanged  to  it !  and  now  we 
have  not  one  newspaper  in  the  whole  shire 
to  express  the  sentiments  of  the  respectable 
part  of  the  community.  —  Lytton,  Caxtons, 
Bk.  II.  ch.  iv. 

Rat.  Drunk  as  a  rat  =  very  drunk : 
for  other  similar  comparisons  see  «.  v. 
Drunk. 

He  walks  about  the  country 
With  pike-staff  and  with  bntchet, 

Drunk  as  a  rat,  you'd  hardly  wot 
That  drinking  so  he  could  trudge  it. 
Merry  Drollerie,  p.  28. 


Ratiocinant,  reasoning. 

I  have  not  asked  this  question  without 
cause  causing,  and  reason  truly  very  ratio-' 
cinant. — UrqukarVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  III.  ch.  vi. 

Rationability,  power  of  reasoning. 

Rationability  being  but  a  faculty  or  speci- 
fical  quality,  is  a  substantial  part  of  a  man, 
because  it  is  a  part  of  his  definition,  or  his 
essential  difference. — Bramhall,  ii.  24. 

Rationable,  reasonable,  or  in  pos- 
session of  reason:  the  speaker  in  the 
extract  is  an  uneducated  person. 

She  was,  I  take  it,  on  this  matter  not 
quite  rationable.— Miss  Edgeworth,  Belinda, 
ch.  xxvi. 

Ratter,  one  who  rats  or  apostatises. 

In  the  famous  old  print  of  the  minister 
rat-catcher  in  the  Westminster  election,  the 
likeness  to  each  rat  of  the  day  is  lost  tons, 
but  the  ridicule  on  placemen  ratters  remains. 
^-Miss  Edgeworth,  Helen,  ch.  xxvii. 

Rattery,  apostasy ;  tergiversation. 

Such  a  spectacle  refreshes  me  in  the  rattery 
and  scoundrelism  of  public  life.  —  Sydney 
Smith,  Letters,  1822. 

Rattle,  rebuke. 

Richardson  was  again  convented  at  the 
Council  Table,  and  peremptorily  commanded 
to  reverse  his  former  orders  at  the  next 
assizes  for  that  county;  withal  receiving 
such  a  rattle  for  his  former  contempt  by  the 
Bishop  of  London,  that  he  came  out  blubber- 
ing.— Heylin,  Life  of  Laud,  p.  267. 

Rattle-bladder,  a  bladder  filled 
with  peas  or  the  like  to  make  a  noise  ; 
used  in  frightening  birds  off  ^orn 

Our  consciences  now  quite  unclogged  from 
the  fear  of  his  [the  Pope's]  vain  terricula- 
ments  and  rattle-bladders,  and  from  the  fond- 
ness of  his  trim-trams  and  gugaws. — Patton, 
Exped.  to  Scot.  1548  (Eng.  Garner,  iii.  70). 

Rattlehead,  a  thoughtless  fellow. 

Many  rattleheads  as  well  as  they,  did 
bestir  them  to  gain-stand  this  match. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  WiUiams,  i.  130. 

Rattle-headed,  giddy ;  flighty. 

I  rather  fancy  that  the  rattle-headed  fellow 
her  husband  has  broke  the  poor  lady's  heart. 
— Farquhar,  Sir  Harry  Witdair,  v.  3. 

As  for  the  People,  it  is  an  ordinary  trope 
of  the  author's  by  a  rattle-headed  scum  of 
the  Oanaglia  to  fetch  in  the  people  forsooth. 
— North,  Examen,  p.  114. 

Rattlepate,  a  giddy,  thoughtless 
person.    Cf.  Rattlehead. 

I  ought  to  have  told  you  of  that  doctor  a 
fortnight  ago  ;  but,  rattlepate  as  I  am,  I 
forgot  all  about  it.  —  Kingsley,  Two  Yoars 
Ago,  ch.  xi. 


RATTLE-PATED  (  539  ) 


REBAPTIST 


Rattle-pated,  giddy ;  shallow. 

There  is  a  noisy  rattle-pated  fellow  of 
rather  low  habits.  —  Irving,  Sketch  Book 
(John  Bull). 

Rattletrap,  a  contemptuous  term 
for  a  thing,  as  rattlehead  is  for  a 
person. 

"He'd  destroy  himself  and  me  too,  if  I 
attempted  to  ride  him  at  such  a  rattletrap  as 
that.9  A  rattletrap!  The  quintain  that  she 
had  put  up  with  so  much  anxious  care  .  .  . 
It  cut  her  to  the  heart  to  hear  it  so  de- 
nominated by  her  own  brother.  —  Trollops^ 
Barchester  Towers,  ch.  xxxv. 


Raucid,  harsh. 

Methinks  I  hear  the  old  boatman  paddling  s 
by  the  weedy  wharf,  with  raucid  voice  bawl-" 
ing, "  Sculls,  Sculls."— C.  Lamb,  To  the  shade 
of  Elliston. 

Rave.  Bp.  Jacobson  has  the  follow- 
ing note  on  the  subjoined  extract. 
"  To  rave  into.  So  in  the  editions  of 
1660  and  1671.  The  first  edition  has, 
'  to  rove  into  ;  '  those  of  1681  and 
1686,  '  to  rake  into.'  Rave,  as  a  noun 
substantive,  is  still  in  use  in  Lincoln- 
shire and  elsewhere,  for  the  effect  of 
exposure  produced  by  the  removal  of 
a  partition  wall  in  whole  or  in  part, 
or  the  like.  The  meaning  therefore 
probably  is,  to  tear  them  rudely  open, 
and  discover  their  nature  and  aggrava- 
tions." Mr.  Peacock  in  the  Manley 
and  Corringham  Glossary  (E.  D.  S.). 
has  "Rave  up,  to  pull  up,  to  gather 
together ;  commonly  used  in  regard  to 
gathering  up  evil  stories  of  some  one." 
See  also  H.  s.  v.  Sanderson,  though 
a  Yorkshire  man  by  birth,  spent  most  of 
his  life  in  Lincolnshire. 

It  can  be  little  pleasure  to  us  to  rave  into 
the  infirmities  of  God's  servants,  and  briug 
them  upon  the  stage. — Sanderson,  i.  100. 

Ravelment,  entanglement. 

A  series  of  ravelments  and  squabbling 
grudges  which,  says  Mademoiselle  with 
much  simplicity,  the  Devil  himself  could 
not  understand. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iii.  212. 

Raver,  one  who  raves ;  a  madman.    , 

As  old  decrepite  persons,  yong  Infantes, 
fooles,  Madmen  and:  Ravers. — Touchstone  of 
Complexions,  p.  94. 

Raveby,  extravagance ;  raving. 

Their  raveries  are  apt,  not  onely  to  amuse 
the  vulgar  people,  but  to  mend  their  own 
fortunes. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p. 
366. 


Reject  them  not  as  the  raveries  of  a  child. 
— Sir  J.  Sempill,  Sacrilege  sacredly  handled 
(Introduction). 

Rax,  to  stretch. 

So  he  raxes  his  hand  across  t'  table,  an' 
mutters  summat  as  he  grips  mine.  —  Mrs. 
Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  xliii. 

Rayn,  to  arraign. 

They  sue  their  subiettis  at  the  lawe, 
Whom  they  make  nott  worth  a  strawe, 
Raynynge  them  giltless  at  the  barre. 

Roy  and  Barlow,  Rede  me  and 
be  nott  wrothe,  p.  98. 

Reacheb,  exaggeration. 

I  can  hardly  believe  that  Reacher,  which 

another  writeth  of  him  [Strongbow],  that 

"  with  the  palms  of  his  hands  he  could  touch 

his  knees,  though  he  stood  upright." — Fuller, 

Worthies,  Monmouth  (ii.  117). 

Re-admiral,  to  reappoint  to  the  office 
of  admiral. 

Peerebrowne  did  not  only  hold  his  office 
all  the  time  of  that  King  doeing  plausible 
service,  but  was  againe  re-admirald  by  Ed- 
ward the  Third.— Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  152). 

Reakes,  pranks :  in  the  first  quotation 
it  is  used  as  a  singular.  Cf .  a  leads,  a 
thanks,  a  stews,  &c. 

Love  with  Rage  kept  such  a  reakes  that  I 
thought  they  would  have  gone  mad  together. 
— Breton,  Dream  of  Strange  Effects,  p.  17. 

The  sound  of  the  hautboys  and  bagpipes 
playing  reeks  with  the  high  and  stately  tim- 
ber.— Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  III.  ch.  u. 

It  were  enough  to  undo  me  utterly,  to  fill 
brimful  the  cup  of  my  misfortune,  and  make 
me  play  the  mad-pate  reeks  of  Bedlam. — 
Ibid.,  Bk.  III.  ch.  iz. 

Realistically,  in  a  manner  that  has 
regard  to  objects  as  they  really  exist, 
not  as,  for  the  purposes  of  art  or  poet- 
ry, they  might  be  idealized. 

"Agrippa's  legs  will  never  do,"  said 
Deronda.  "  The  legs  are  good  realistically" 
said  Hans,  his  face  creasing  drolly  ;  "  public 
men  are  often  shaky  about  the  legs." — G. 
Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xxzvil 

Reanimate,  to  revive:   usually  an 

active  verb.     Cf .  the  same  writer's  use 

of  animate,  q.  ▼. 

"  There  spoke  Miss  Beverley ! "  cried  Del- 
vile,  reanimatino  at  this  little  apology. — Mad. 
D'Arblay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  IX.  ch.  v. 

Rebaptist,  one  who  baptizes  again, 

or  undergoes  baptism  a  second  time. 

Some  for  rebaptist  him  bespatter, 
For  dipping  rider  oft  in  water. 

T.  Brown,  Works,  iv.  270. 


REBLESS 


(  540  ) 


RECKLING 


Rebless,  to  bless  Again. 

He  shall  reblesse  thee  with  ten  thousand 
blisses. — Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  26. 

Reblew,  to  make  blue  again. 

Heav'n's  sacred  imp,  fair  Goddess  that  re- 

new'st 
Th'  old  golden  age,  and  brightly  now  reblew'st 
Our  cloudy  sky,  making  our  fields  to  smile. 

Sylvester,  Handy  Crafts,  13. 

Rebus,  to  form  into  a  rebus. 

John  Morton,  Cardinal  and  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  .  .  .  was  a  learned  man,  and  bad 
a  fair  library  (rebus'd  with  More  in  text  and 
Tun  under  it)  partly  remaining  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  late  Earl  of  Arundell. — Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist.,  IV.  iv.  34. 

Recalment,  recalling ;  countermand- 
ing. 

I  followed  after 
And  asked  a*  a  grace  what  it  all  meant, 
If  she  wished  not  the  rash  deed's  recalment. 

Browning,  The  Glove. 

Recasket,  to  replace  in  a  box  or 
casket. 

I  had  hardly  time  to  reeasket  my  treasures, 
and  lock  them  up,  when  she  was  at  my  side. 
— Miss  Bronte,  Vtllette,  ch.  xadv. 

Receipt,  accommodation,  power  of 
reception ;  very  frequent  in  Fuller,  8.  v. 
Laxity. 

As  for  receipt,  a  house  had  better  be  too 
little  for  a  day  than  too  great  for  a  year. — 
Fuller,  Holy  State,  III.  vii.  7. 

His  popular  manner  was  of  such  receipt 
that  he  had  room  to  lodge  all  comers. — Ibid., 
V.  xix.  10. 

The  greatest  place  of  receipt  in  Samaria  .  . 
was  that  void  place  at  the  entering  of  the 
gate. — Ibid.,  Ptsgah  Sight,  II.  ix.  25. 

London,  by  reason  of  the  receit  thereof, 
was  likely  to  prove  the  residing  place  for  the 
English  monarch. — Ibid.,  Ch.  Hist.,  II.  ii.  1. 

Recentre,  to  replace  in  the  midst. 

Now  I  recentre  my  immortal  mind 
In  the  deep  sabbath  of  meek  self-content. 
Coleridge,  To  the  departing  Year. 

Reoeptable,  receptacle;  perhaps  a 
misprint,  but  it  occurs  again  at  p.  256, 
and  in  neither  case  is  it  noted  in  the 
list  of  errata ;  at  p.  187,  however,  and 
elsewhere  receptacle  is  used. 

The  good  Josias  .  .  ordained  that  that 
place  (before  a  Paradise)  should  be  for  ever 
a  receptable  for  dead  carcases.  —  Sandys, 
Travels,  p.  186. 

Receptiveness,  power  or  readiness  to 

receive  :  receptivity  is  more  common. 

Many  of  her  opinions,  such  as  those  on 
Church  government  and  the  character  of 


Archbishop  Laud,  seemed  too  decided  under 
every  alteration  to  have  been  arrived  at  other- 
wise than  by  a  wifely  receptiveness. — G.  Eliot, 
Daniel  Deronda.  ch.  iii. 

Receptiveness  is  a  rare  and  massive  power 
like  fortitude. — Ibid.,  ch.  xl. 

Recess,  to  withdraw;  to  place  in 

retirement. 

Behind  the  screen  of  his  prodigious  elbow 
you  will  be  comfortably  recessed  from  curious 
unpertinents. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Manoeuvring, 
ch.  xiv. 

Rechant,  to  sing  antiphonally. 

*Hark,  hark,  the  cheerful  and  rechaunting  cries 
Of  old  and  young,  singing  this  joifull  dittie. 

Sylvester,  Handy  Crafts,  31. 

•  Rechaos,  to  reduce  again  to  chaos. 
See  another  extract  from  Davies,  s.  v. 
Reget. 

So  shall  thy  stay,  when  states  re-chaosed  lie, 
Make  thee  great  Steward  to  Eteruitie. 

Davies,  Sir  T.  Overbury,  p.  16. 

Rechekr,  to  cheer  again. 

Let  neuer  Sunne  recheere  them  with  his  raies, 
That  Justice  Sonne  haue  thus   in  purple 
clowded. — Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  27. 

Rechew,  to  chew  the  cud. 

Nor  could  he  (as  some  beasts  rechew  their 

meat, 
To  cause  the  same  the  better  to  disgest) 
Rechew  this  Bread. 

Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  23. 

Rechild,  to  become  a  child  again. 

Just  Dauid's  just  Son,  for  thy  father's  sake, 
For  his  deer  loue,  for  all  that  he  did  make 
Of  thee  a  childe,  when  he  (re-child»'ng)  sought 
With  childish  sport  to  still  thy  cryes. 

Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  526. 

Reciprocal,  applied  to  the  returning 
tide.  Fuller  uses  the  word  in  the  same 
way ;  see  $.  v.  Refluous. 

The  havens  that  are  so  choked  up  with 
sand  brought  in  with  the  reciprocall  course 
of  the  tides.— Holland's  Camden,  p.  206. 

Rkciprocalty,  mutual  change. 

With  a  reciprocalty  pleasure  and  paine  are 
still  united,  and  succeed  one  anotner  in  a 
ring. — Burton,  Anatomy,  p.  12. 

An  acknowledged  reciprocalitv  in  love 
sanctifies  every  little  freedom. — Kichardson, 
CI.  Harlow,  hi.  188. 

Reckling,  is  defined  by  H.,  who 
gives  no  example,  "  the  smallest  and 
weakest  of  a  brood  of  animals ; "  in 
first  quotation  it  is  an  adjective,  and 
in  both  is  applied  to  a  human  being. 

A  mother  dotes  upon  the  reckling  child 
More  than  the  strong. 

Taylor,  Ph.  van  Art.,  Pt  II.  v.  3. 


RECLAIM 


(  541  ) 


RED-GUM 


O  ay,  what  say  ye  to  Sir  Valence,  him 
Whose  kinsman  left  him  watcher  o'er  his 

wife 
And  two  fair  babes,  and  went  to  distant 

lands : 
Was  one  year  gone,  and  on  returning  found, 
Not  two  but  three ;  there  lay  the  reckling, 

one 
But  one  hour  old. 

Tennyson,  Lancelot  and  Elaine. 

Reclaim,  to  reform:  usually  an 
active  verb. 

Obliged  to  assume  such  airs  of  reformation, 
that  every  varlet  of  ye  has  been  afraid  I 
should  reclaim  in  good  earnest. — Richardson, 
CI.  Harlowe,  iii.  33.  u 

Reclaim,  to  cry  again,  to  re-echo. 

Melt  to  tears,  pour  out  thy  plaints,  let 
Echo  reclaim  them.  —  Greene  {From  the 
Mourning  Garment),  p.  307. 

Reclear,  to  clear  again. 

He  hurts  and  heals,  He  breaks  and  maketh 

sound; 
And  so,  when  Pharao  doth  Him  humbly 

pray, 
Recleers  the  floods,  and  sends  the  frogs  away. 

Sylvester,  The  Lawe,  469. 

Thick  streams  recleer  when  storms  and 
stirrings  cease. — Ibid.,  Memorials  of  Mor- 
talitie,  Ft.  II.  st.  lzxxvii. 

Recommendums,  praises ;  commend- 
ations. 

Even  those  that  attend  uppon  the  pitch- 
kettle  will  bee  drunke  to  my  good  fortunes 
and  recommendums.  —  Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe 
(Hart.  Misc.,  vi.  180). 

Reconnoitre,  to  recognize  (a  Galli- 
cism). 

He  would  hardly  have  reconnoitred  Wild- 
goose  however  in  his  short  hair,  and  his 
present  uncouth  appearance. — Graves,  Spirit' 
ual  Quixote,  Bk.  TV.  ch.  i. 

Reconnoitre,  a  survey.  R.  and  L. 
only  give  it  as  a  verb ;  and  even  the 
verb  Addison  (Spectator,  No.  165) 
ridicules  as  an  outlandish  word,  nor 
did  Johnson  give  it  a  place  in  his  Diet. 

Satisfied  with  his  reconnoitre,  Losely  quitted 
the  skeleton  pile. — Lytton,  What  will  he  do 
with  it,  Bk.  X.  ch.  i. 

Recourse,  to  have  recourse  to. 

The  court  recount  to  lakes,  to  springs,  and 

brooks, 
Brooks,  springs,  and  lakes  had  the  like  taste 

and  looks. — Sylvester,  The  Lawe,  432. 

These  dogmatists  dare  not  recourse  to 
Scripture. — Racket ,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  201. 

Recrew,  to  recruit. 

One  intire  troop  with  some  other  odd 
troopers,  and  some  stragling  foot,  that  were 


to  recrew  other  companies. — Prince  Rupert* s 
beating  up  of  the  Rebel  Quarters  at  Post-comb 
and  Chinner  (1643),  p.  xvi. 


Recross,  to  oppose  again. 

For  when  we  first  to  liue  well  goe  about, 
Ware  crost  and  recrost  by  the  Reprobate. 
Davies,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  53. 

Recrucify,  to  crucify  afresh. 

Our  sins  .  .  .  were  the  Judas  betraying, 
the  Herod  mocking,  the  Pilate  condemning, 
the  Longinus  wounding,  the  hand  of  Jews 
recrucifying-  Christ. — Adams,  ii.  349. 

Recrudescence,  the  becoming  raw 

again ;  reopening.     Bacon  has  recrud- 

ency* 

The  king  required  some  regulations  should 
be  made  for  obviating  the  recrudescence  of 
those  ignoramus  abuses  for  the  future,  that 
bad  been  so  scandalous  before.  —  North, 
Examen,  p.  632. 

Rkctangularity,  right-angled  shape 
or  figure. 

She  sketched  in  strong  caricature  my 
relaxed  elongation  of  limb,  and  his  rigid 
rectangulurity.  —  Miss  Edgeworth,  Ennui, 
ch.  ii. 

Recueil  (Fr.),  collection. 

I  made  this  recueil  merely  for  mine  own 
entertainment. — Pref.  to  Annot.  on  Brown's 
Religio  Medici. 

Recureful,  recovering ;  healing. 

Let  me  for  euer  hide  this  staine  of  beauty 
With  this  recureful  maske. 

Chapman,  Gentleman  Vsher,  Act  V* 

Redaction,  drawing  back. 

It  stands  not  without  doors  as  a  mendicant 
flexanimous  persuader,  but  enters  into  the 
closets  of  the  heart,  shoots  the  bar,  unlocks 
the  bolts,  takes  away  all  reluctation  and 
redactvrn, — infuseth  a  pliable  willingness. — 
Ward,  Sermons,  p.  31. 

Redan,  fortification  with  two  faces, 
forming  a  salient  angle :  the  word  be- 
came very  familiar  to  us  in  the  Crimean 
War. 

Upon  the  surface  of  which  [bowling-green] 
by  means  of  a  large  roll  of  pack-thread,  ana 
a  number  of  small  piquets  driven  into  the 
ground  at  the  several  angles  and  redans,  he 
transferred  the  lines  from  his  paper. — Sterne, 
Trist.  Shandy,  iv.  217. 

Red-gum,  an  eruption  common  in 
newly  -  born  infants.  The  word  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  gums,  but  comes 
from  A.  S.  gundy  corruption.  See  L., 
also  H.  s.  v.  red-gown. 

Their  heads  are  hid  with  skalln, 
Their  limbs  with  red-gums. 

Sylvester,  The  Furies,  p.  531. 


RED-LETTER  DA  Y     (  542  ) 


REFLECT 


I  found  Charlotte  quite  in  a  fume  about 
the  child :  she  was  sure  it  was  very  ill ;  it 
cried  and  fretted,  and  was  all  over  pimples. 
So  I  looked  at  it  directly,  and,  "  Lord,  my 
dear,"  says  I, "  it  is  nothing  in  the  world  but 
the  red-gum." — Miss  Austen,  Sense  and  Sensi- 
bility, ch.  xxxvii. 

Red-letter  day,  a  bright  day;  a 
festival,  the  Church  festivals  being 
printed  with  red  ink  in  the  Calendar. 

It  is  the  old  girl's  birthday ;  and  that  is 
the  greatest  holiday  and  reddest-letter  day 
in  Mr.  Bagnet's  calendar.  —  Dickens,  Bleak 
House,  ch.  xlix. 

Redo,  to  do  over  again. 

Prodigality  and  luxurie  are  no  new  crimes, 
and  .  .  we  do  but  re-do  old  vices. — Sandys, 
Travels,  p.  262. 

Redound,  result;  the  verb  is  com- 
mon, but  the  substantive  is  not  in  the 
Diets. 

We  give  you  welcome :  not  without  redound 
Of  use  and  glory  to  yourselves,  ye  come 
The  first-fruits  of  the  stranger. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  ii. 

Red-Sea.     Ghosts  were  supposed  to 

be  effectually  laid  in  this. 

If  the  Conjuror  be  but  well  paid,  he'll 
take  pains  upon  the  ghost,  and  lav  him,  look 
ye,  in  the  Red-Sea,  and  then  he's  laid  for  ever. 
— Addison,  The  Drummer,  Act  II. 

Drain  we  the  cup — 
Friend,  art  afraid, 
>  Spirits  are  laid 

In  the  Red-Sea. 
Thackeray,  The  Mahogany  Tree. 

Red-shanks.  L.  says,  a  name  given 
to  Scotch  Highlanders  on  account  of 
their  bare  legs ;  but  it  was  applied  to 
the  native  Irish  also,  as  to  which  N. 
seems  a  little  doubtful.  Nashe's  ety- 
mology is  of  course  jocular. 

The  Scotish  jockies  or  Red-Shanks  (so  sur- 
named  of  their  immoderate  maunching  up 
the  red-shanks  or  red-herrings)  upholde  and 
make  good  the  same. — Nashe's  Lenten  Stuffe 
(Zfarl.  Misc.,  vi.  163). 

Though  all  the  Scottish  hinds  would  not 
bear  to  be  compared  with  the  rich  counties 
of  South  Britain,  tbey  would  stand  very  well 
in  competition  with  the  peasants  of  France, 
Italy,  and  Savoy,  not  to  mention  the  moun- 
taineers of  Wales,  and  the  red-shanks  of 
Ireland. — Smollett,  Humphrey  Clinker,  ii.  41. 

Red-tape,  official :  used  disparagingly 
of  routine  administration.  For  example 
of  the  substantive  see  *.  v.  Monkey. 

We  working  men,  when  we  do  come  out 
of  the  furnace,  come  out,  not  tinsel  and 
papier  mache,  like  those  fops  of  red-tape 


statesmen,  but  steel  and  granite. — C.  Kings- 
ley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  iv. 

Red-tapist,  a  man  who  is*  a  stickler 

for  official  routine. 

Tou  seem  a  smart  young  fellow,  but  you 
must  throw  over  that  stiff  red-tapist  of  yours, 
and  go  with  Public  Opinion  and  myself. — 
Lytton,  My  Novel,  Bk.  X.  ch.  zz. 

Red  winds,  blight. 

The  goodliest  trees  in  a  garden  are  soonest 
blasted  with  red  winds. —  Ahp.  Sandys,  Ser- 
mons, p.  103. 

Reel,  to  make  reel ;  to  shake. 

We  thought  our  Crowne  so  staid  with  many 
props 

(So  yong  and  strong),  that  no  cold  puf  of 
feare 

(However  strong)  could  once  but  shake  our 
hopes 

Which  now  this  blast  doth  reels  and  back- 
ward beare. — Davies,  Muse's  Tearts,  p.  6. 

Reel,  to  gather  yarn  off  the  spindle. 
L.  gives  the  word  without  example. 

I  say  nothing  of  his  lips ;  for  they  are  so 
thin  and  slender  that,  were  it  the  fashion  to 
reel  lips,  as  they  do  yarn,  one  might  make  a 
skein  of  them.— J arvi a' s  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  II. 
Bk.  III.  ch.  zv. 

Reezed.  N.  explains  this  word  as 
rusty,  and  probably  he  is  right  in  the 
passages  that  he  cites ;  but  in  the  sub- 
joined extract  it  cannot  signify  this, 
but  rather  fried  or  scorched. 

Their  souls  may  at  last  be  had  to  heaven, 
though  first  for  a  while  they  be  reezed  in 
purgatory. — Adams,  i.  65. 

Refaction,  retribution. 

The  soveraigne  minister,  who  was  then 
employed  in  Elaiana,  was  commanded  to  re- 
quire refaction  and  satisfaction  against  the 
informers,  or  rather  inventours  and  forgers 
of  the  aforesaid  misinformation.  —  Howell, 
DodonaJs  Grove,  p.  113. 

Re- fathered,  applied  to  a  man  who 

finds  that  an  only  child  whom  he  had 

thought  dead  was  alive. 

At  the  happy  word,  "  he  lives," 
My    father    stoop'd,    re-fathered,   o'er    my 
wounds. — Tennyson,  Princess,  vi. 

Reflame,  to  burst  again  into  flame. 
Stamp  out  the  fire,  or  this 
Will  smoulder  and  reflame,  and  burn  the 

throne 
Where  you  should  sit  with  Philip. 

Tennyson,  Queen  Mary,  i.  5. 

Reflect,  to  bend  again ;  to  appease. 

Such  rites  beseem  ambassadors,  and  Nestor 
urged  these, 

That  their  most  honours  might  reflect  en- 
raged (Eacides. — Chapman,  Iliad,  ix.  180. 


REFLECTION 


(  543  ) 


REGENCE 


Reflection,  to  reflect.  Cf.  Affec- 
tion, Perfection. 

But  refiectioning  apart,  thou  seest,  Jack, 
that  her  plot  is  beginning  to  work.— Rich- 
ardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  vi.  3. 

Refloweb,  to  cause  to  flower  again. 
See  quotation  8.  v.  Regbeen. 

Her  footing  makes  the  ground  all  fragrant- 
fresh; 
Her  sight  rtfiowres  th'  Arabian  wilderness. 
Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  805. 

Refluous,  flowing  back. 

The  stream  of  Jordan,  south  of  their  going 
over,  was  not  supplied  with  any  reciprocall 
or  refluous  tide  ont  of  the  Dead  Sea.  — 
Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  II.  i.  17. 

Reform,  to  inform. 

The  prophet  Esay  also  saith,  "  Who  hath 
reformed  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord,  or  who  is  of 
His  council  to  teach  Him  ?  " — Becon,  ii.  39. 

Reformeress,  female  reformer. 

Holy  Colette  of  portentous  sanctity,  the 
Reformeress  of  the  Poor  Clares.  —  Southey, 
The  Doctor,  ch.  codii. 

Re  fracture,  a  breaking  back;  an- 
tagonism. 

More  veniall  and  excusable  may  those  ver- 
ball  reluctancies,  reserves,  and  refractures 
(rather  than  anything  of  open  force  and 
hostile  rebellions)  seem. — Gauden,  Tears  of 
the  Church,  p.  562. 

Refresher,  an  extra  fee  to  a  bar- 
rister, given  after  the  payment  of  the 
first. 

Every  fortnight  or  so  I  took  care  that  he 
should  receive  a  " refresher"  as  lawyers  call 
it,  —  a  new  and  revised  brief  memorialising 
my  pretensions. — De  Quincey,  Sketches,  1. 72. 

Refrication,  a  rubbing  up  afresh. 

The  second  care  must  be  had  of  the  me- 
mory, that  a  deep  impression  be  made,  fre- 
quent refreshing  and  refrication  be  used  with 
David's  watchword,  "  My  soul,  forget  not  all 
His  benefits." —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  138. 

In  these  legal  sacrifices  there  is  a  continual 
refrication  of  the  memory  of  those  sins  evenr 
year  which  we  have  committed. — Bp.  Hall, 
Works,  iv.  501. 

Refugeeism,  the  condition  of  a  re- 
fugee, i.  6.  of  one  who  has  taken  refuge 
in  another  country  from  dangers  (usu- 
ally political)  that  threatened  him  in 
his  own. 

A  Pole,  or  a  Czech,  or  something  of  that 
fermenting  sort,  in  a  state  of  political  re- 
fugeeism.— G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xxii. 

Regale,  a  treat  or  entertainment. 
The  Diets,  do  not  give  this  word  as  a 


substantive,  though  it  is  not  uncommon. 
Another  instance  from  Cowper  may  be 
found  in  The  Garden^  551. 

Handsome  regales  sometimes  buoy  up 
credit. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  18. 

Our  new  acquaintance  asked  us  if  ever  we 
had  drank  egg-flip ;  to  which  we  answering 
in  the  negative,  he  assured  us  of  a  regale, 
and  ordered  a  quart  to  be  prepared. — Smol- 
let,  Roderick  Random,  ch.  xiv. 

Their  breath  a  sample  of  last  night's  regale. 
— Cowper,  Tirocinium,  834. 

The  breakfast  merited  such  eulogiums  as 
French  hosts  are  wont  to  confer  upon  their 
regales. — Scott,  Quentin  Durward,  i.  42. 

Regale  in,  to  take  pleasure  in ;  to 
enjoy. 

The  little  girl  performed  her  journey 
in  safety ;  and  at  Northampton  was  met  by 
Mrs.  Norris,  who  thus  regaled  in  the  credit  of 
being  foremost  to  welcome  her. — Miss  Austen, 
Mansfield  Park,  ch.  ii. 

Regalia,   entertainment ;   delicate 

food. 

After  having  a  long  time  treated  their 
prisoners  very  well,  and  given  them  all  the 
regalias  they  can  think  of,  he  to  whom  the 

Prisoner  belongs,  invites  a  great  assembly  of 
is  kindred  and  friends. — Cotton,  Montaigne, 
ch.  xxiv. 

The  Town  shall  have  its  regalia:  the 
Coffee-house  gapers,  I'm  resolv'd,  shan't 
want  their  Diversion. — D*Urfey,  Two  Queens 
of  Brentford,  Act  I. 

Rbualio,  a  banquet  or  regale. 

Do  you  think  .  .  that  the  fatal  end  of 
their  journey  being  continually  before  their 
eyes,  would  not  alter  and  deprave  their 
palate  from  tasting  these  rey alios? — Cotton, 
Montaigne's  Essays,  ch.  xvi. 

Regalitie,  a  territorial  jurisdiction 

conferred  by  the  king. 

There  be  civill  Courts  also  in  everie  rega- 
litie, holden  by  their  Bailiffes,  to  whom  the 
kings  have  gratiously  granted  royalties. — 
Holland's  Camden,  ii.  8. 

Regalo,  entertainment. 

I  thank  you  for  the  last  regalo  you  gave 
me  at  your  Museum,  and  for  the  good  com- 
pany.— Howell,  Letters,  I.  vi.  20. 

I  congratulate  you  on  your  regalo  from 
the  Northumberland's. —  Walpole  to  Mann, 
iii.  285  (1758). 

Regence,  government. 

Some  were  for  setting  up  a  king, 
But  all  the  rest  for  no  such  thing, 
Unless  King  Jesus :  others  tampered 
For  Fleetwood,  Desborough,  and  Lambert; 
Some  for  the  Rump,  and  some  more  crafty 
For  Agitators  and  the  Safety ; 


REGENDER 


(  544  ) 


REIGN 


Some  for  the  Gospel  and  massacres 
Of  spiritual  affidavit-makers, 
That  swore  to  any  human  regencc 
Oaths  of  supremacy  and  allegiance. 

Hudibras,  III.  ii.  275. 

Regkndkr,  to  renew ;  rekindle. 

Furth  spirits  fyre  freshlye  regendred. — 
Stanyhunt,  JEn.,  ii.  496. 

Regenerative,  giving  new  birth  or 
life. 

She  had  been  crushing  and  extirpating 
out  of  her  empire  for  centuries  past  all 
which  was  noble,  purifying,  regenerative, 
divine. — Kingsley,  Hypatia,  ch.  xvii. 

She  identified  him  with  the  struggling 
regenerative  process  in  her,  which  had  begun 
with  his  action. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda, 
ch.  1st. 

Regerminate,  to  sprout  forth  again. 

And  surely  as  man's  health  and  strength 

are  whole, 
His  appetites  regerminate,  his  heart 
Re-opens,  and  his  objects  and  desires 
Shoot  up  renewed. 

Taylor,  Ph.  van  Art.,  Pt.  II.  Hi.  2. 

Regbt,  to  generate  again.  R.  has 
the  word  =  reobtain,  with  quotation 
from  Daniel. 

Tory,  although  the  mother  of  vs  all, 
Regetts  thee  in  her  wombe :  thou  fill'st  her  so 
"With  glory  of  thy  vertues,  that  shee  shall 
Preserue  thy  name  till  she  re-chaosed  go 
To  purging  flames. 

Davies,  Scourge  of  Folly,  p.  52. 

Regian,  used  by  Fuller  of  those  who 
upheld  the  royal  supremacy  as  against 
the  Pope ;  by  Hacket,  of  royalists. 

This  is  alleadged  and  urged  by  our  Regions 
to  prove  the  king's  paramount  power  in 
ecclesiasticis. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  II.  iii.  38. 

Arthur  Wilson  .  .  favours  all  republicans, 
and  never  speaks  well  of  regions  lit  is  his 
own  distinctions)  if  he  can  possibly  avoid  it. 
—Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  39. 

Regime,  rule:  a  French  word 
naturalized. 

I  dream  in  my  sleep  of  the  new  regime 
which  is  to  come,  and  I  see  only  trouble, 
and  again  trouble. — H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe, 
ch.  xv. 

Regimental,  a  suit  of  regimentals. 

If  they  had  been  ruled  by  me,  they  would 
have  put  you  into  the  guards.  You  would 
have  made  a  sweet  figure  in  a  regimental. — 
Colman,  Man  of  Business,  Act  II. 

Regimented,  drawn  up  or  formed 
into  a  regiment.  R.  has  this  word 
with  a  quotation  from  Adam  Smith, 
who  evidently  thought  it  had  not  been 
used  before. 


As  in  all  states  there  is  a  civil  as  well  as 
military  administration,  so  in  this  Oxford 
(Economy  the  Faction  had  another  order 
regimented,  being  a  detachment  from  the 
libelling  garrison  in  London.  —  Nortk,  Ex- 
amen,  p.  100. 

If  women  were  to  be  regimented,  he  would 
carry  an  army  into  the  field  without  beat  of 
drum. — Richardson,  Grandison,  iii.  314. 

Regimented  companies  of  men,  of  whom 
our  Jocelin  is  one,  devote  themselves  in 
every  generation  to  meditate  here  ou  man's 
nobleness  and  awfnlness. — Carlyle,  Fast  and 
Present,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iii. 

REGL08S,  to  put  a  fresh  gloss  on ; 
to  make  shine  again.  Sylvester  (Job 
Triumphant,  ii.  63)  refers  to  houses 
"  rebuilt,  regilt,  reglost,  reglas'd  ;  " 
and  Davies  speaks  of  a  fat  man  in  a 
suit  of  satin  whose  grease 

So  reglosst  the  sat  ten's  glosse  that  it 
Was  varnisht  like  their  vailes  that  turn  the 
spit. 

Davies,  Humours  Heaven  on  Earth,  p.  6. 

Regnipide,  destroyer  of  a  kingdom. 

Regicides  are  no  less  than  regnicides,  for 
the  life  of  a  king  contains  a  thousand  thou- 
sand lives ;  and  traitors  make  the  land  sick 
which  they  live  in. — Adams,  i.  418. 

Regreen,  to  make  green  again. 

The  Sommer's  sweet  distilling  drops 
Vpon  the  meadowes  thirsty  yawning  chop*, 
Regreens    the  greens,  and  doth  the  flowrs 

reflowr 
All  scorcht  and  burnt  with  Auster's  parching 

powr.— Sylvester,  The  Arke,  66. 

Reguerdonment,  requital. 

In  generous  requerdonment  whereof  he 
sacramental  ly  obliged  himself e.  —  Ndshe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  {Hart.  Misc.,  vi.  163). 

Reigle,  to  regulate.  R.  and  H. 
have  the  word  as  a  substantive  = 
groove,  or  channel. 

My  letter  was  written  to  the  Justices  for 
the  reigling  of  the  same. — Hacket,  Life  of 
Williams,  i.  92. 

There  is  a  clear  statute  made,  27  Eliz.,  for 
the  drawing  all  Westminster,  St.  Clement, 
and  St.  Martins  le  Grand,  London,  into  a 
corporation  to  be  reigled  by  a  Dean,  a 
Steward,  twelve  Burgesses,  and  twelve  As- 
sistants.— Ibid.,  ii.  175. 

All  ought  to  regie  their  lives,  not  by  the 
Pope's  Decrees,  but  Word  of  God. — Fuller, 
Worthies,  Wales  (ii.  558). 

Reign.  Adams  uses  once  in  a  reign 
=  once  in  a  way. 

If  ever,  in  a  reign,  he  lights  upon  a  humour 
to  business,  it  is  to  game,  to  cheat,  to  drink 
drunk. — Adams,  i.  481. 

If,  once  in  a  reign,  he  invites  his  neighbours 


REIMBOSK 


(  545  )       REMEMBERABLE 


to  dinner,  he  whiles  the  time  with  frivolous 
discourses  to  binder  feeding. — Ibid.,  i.  483. 

Reimbosk,  to  re-enter  the  lair. 

The  Ampelonian  Satyr,  having  thus  dis- 
gorged his  stomack  suddenly  ran  in  and  re- 
tmbosch'd  himself. — Howell,  Dodona"s  Grove, 
p.  14. 

Reinoendeb,  to  regenerate.  Milton 
(Animadv.  on  Remonst.,  sect.  4)  speaks 
of  "  the  renovating  and  reingendering 
Spirit  of  God." 

Reister,  a  trooper. 

Offer  my  services  to  Butrech,  the  best 
doctor  among  reisters,  and  the  best  reister 
among  Doctors.  —  Sir  P.  Sidney  to  Hubert 
Languet,  Oct.  1577  (Zurich  Letters,  ii.  293;. 

Reject i ble,  to  be  rejected. 

Will  you  tell  me,  my  dear,  what  you  have 
thought  of  Lovelace's  best  and  of  his  worst  ? 
How  far  eligible  for  the  first,  how  far  reject* 
ible  for  the  last  ? — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe, 
i.  280. 

Relict,  is  generally  used  as  a  sub- 
stantive =  widow :  in  the  first  extract 
it  =  deserted,  in  the  second  =  left,  or 
surviving. 

How  unseemly  was  it  that  God  Himself 
should  have  the  reversion  of  profaneness 
assigned  to  His  service,  and  His  worship 
wedded  to  the  relict,  yea  (what  was  worse) 
whorish  shrines  formerly  abused  with  idol- 
atry.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist,  I.  ii.  11. 

His  Relict  Lady  .  .  .  lived  long  in  West- 
minster.— Ibid.,  Worthies,  Lincoln  (ii.  13). 

Relief-ful,  comforting. 

Never  was  there  a  more  joyous  heart  .  .  . 
ready  to  burst  its  bars  for  relief-ful  expres- 
sion.— Richardson,  CI.  Hctrlowe,  v.  82. 

Relievement,  mitigation ;  relief. 

His  delay  yeelds  the  king  time  to  oonfirme 
his  friends,  vnder-worke  his  enemies,  and 
make  himself  strong  with  the  English,  which 
he  did  by  granting  relaxation  of  tribute 
with  other  relieuements  of  their  doleances. — 
Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  45. 

Reliever.    See  extract. 

In  some  sweating  places  there  is  an  old 
coat  kept  called  the  "  reliever"  and  this  is 
borrowed  by  such  men  as  have  none  of  their 
own  to  go  out  in. — C.  Kingsley,  Cheap  Clothes 
and  Nasty. 

Religiosity,  religious  exercise :  also 
profession  of  religion. 

Soporific  sermons  .  .  .  closed  the  domestic 
reliyiosities  of  those  melancholy  days.  — 
Son  they,  The  Doctor,  ch.  ix. 

He  was  obstinate  and  ruthless,  and  in 
spite  of  his  religiosity  (for  all   men  were 


religious  then)  was  by  no  means  a  "  con- 
sistent walker."— Kingsley,  Westward  Ho, 
ch.  xiii. 

Reliquation,  upshot ;  that  which  is 
got  by  liquation,  or,  perhaps,  the  resi- 
duum ? 

The  reliquation  of  that  which  preceded  is, 
it  looks  not  all  like  Popery  that  Presby- 
terism  was  disdained  by  the  king :  his  father 
had  taught  him  that  it  was  a  sect  so  per- 
fidious, that  he  found  more  faith  among  the 
Highlanders.— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii. 
197. 

Relishable,  capable  of  being  relished 
or  enjoyed. 

By  leeven  soured  we  make  relishable  bread 
for  the  use  of  man. — Adams,  ii.  346. 

Rely,  to  rest  (physically). 

Ah  see  how  His  most  holy  Hand  relies 
Vpon  His  knees  to  vnder-prop  His  charge. 

Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  15. 

Rely  to,  to  rely  on. 

Instead  of  apologies  aud  captation  of  good 
will,  he  relies  to  this  fort,  passeth  not  for 
man's  day. —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  107. 

Remarkable,  a  noteworthy  thing  : 
for  similar  uses  see  *.  v.  Observables. 

Jerusalem  won  by  the  Turk,  with  wof  ull 
remarkdbles  thereat. — Fuller,  Holy  War,  Bk. 
II.  ch.  xlvi.  (title). 

The  northern  parts  with  much  ice  have 
some  crystal,  and  want  not  their  remarkable s. 
Ibid.,  Holy  State,  III.  iv.  6. 

In  other  remarkables  Cade  differed  from 
Jack  Straw.— Ibid.,  Ch.  Hist.t  IV.  iii.  22. 

The  chief  remarkable  there  was  a  little 
port  which  that  gentleman  with  great  con- 
trivance, and  after  many  disappointments, 
made  for  securing  snlall  craft  that  carried 
out  his  salt  and  coal. — North,  Life  of  Lord 
Guilford,  i.  206. 

Remblere,  riddle  (?). 

"Would  any  antiquarie  would  explicate 
unto  mee  this  remblere  or  quidditie  whether 
those  turbanto  groutheads,  that  hang  all 
men  by  the  throates  on  iron  hookes  (even  as 
our  toers  hang  all  there  herrings  by  the 
throates  on  wodden  spits)  first  learnd  it  of 
our  herring-men,  or  our  herring-men  of  them. 
— Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Hart.  Misc.,  vi.  166). 

Reheant,  returning. 

Most  exalted  Prince, 
Whose  peerless  Knighthood,  like  the  remeant 

sun, 
After  too  long  a  night  regilds  our  clay. 

Kingsley,  Saint's  Tragedy,  ii.  8. 

Rememberable,  capable  of  being  re- 
membered ;  memorable. 

Rightly  it  is  6aid  of  utter,  utter  misery 
that  it  "  cannot  be  remembered."    Itself,  as 

N  N 


REMEMBERABLY      (  546  ) 


REP 


a  rememberable  thing,  is  swallowed  op  in  its 
own  chaos.  —  De  (juincey,  Autob.  Sketches, 
ch.  i. 

Bear  witness  that  rememberabU  day. 
When,  pale  as  yet,  and  fever -worn,  the 

Prince 
Who  scarce  had  pluck'd  his  flickering  life 

again, 
From  half-way  down  the  shadow  of  the 

grave, 
Past  with  thee  thro'  thy  people  and  their 

love. — Tennyson,  To  the  Quern. 

Rememberably,  in  a  way  to  be  re- 
membered. 

My  golden  rule  is  to  relate  everything  as 
briefly,  as  perspicuously,  and  as  rememberably 
as  possible. — Southey,  1806  (Mem.  of  Taylor 
of  Norwich,  ii.  77). 

Rememberer,  one  who  remembers. 
Miss  Byron  was  not  the  first  to  make 
the  word.  L.  has  it  with  extract  from 
Wotton. 

This,  Lncy,  is  the  state  of  the  unhappy 
case,  as  briefly  and  as  clearly  as  my  memory 
will  serve  to  give  it.  And  what  a  rememberer, 
if  I  may  make  a  word,  is  the  heart !  Not  a 
circumstance  escapes  it. — Richardson,  Grandi- 
son,  iv.  66. 

Remercies,  thanks.  Spenser  uses 
the  verb  (F.  Q„  II.  xi.  16):  a  Galli- 
cism. 

So  mildely  did  he  beying  the  conquerour, 
take  the  vnthankf  ulnesse  of  persones  Dy  hym 
conquered  and  subdued,  who  did  .  .  .  not 
render  thankee  ne  saie  remercies,  for  that 
thei  had  been  let  bothe  safe  and  sounde. — 
UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  185. 

Remigable,  fit  to  be  rowed  upon ; 

the  extract  is  a  translation  of  Horace, 

Ars  Pott.,  65,  "aptaque  remis" 

Where  steril  remigable  marshes  now 
Feed  neighboring  cities,  and  admit  the  plough. 

Cotton's  Montaigne,  ch.  xxiv. 

Remindful,  remembering. 

Meanwhile,  remindful  of  the  convent  bars, 
Bianca  did  not  watch  these  signs  in  vain. 

Hood,  Bianca  s  Dream. 

Reminiscitory,  remembering,  or  hav- 
ing to  do  with  the  memory. 

I  still  have  a  reminiscitory  spite  against 
Mr.  Job  Jonson. — Lytton,  Pelham,  ch.  lxziii. 

Remise,   to  send  back,  or  resolve. 

R.  has  the  verb,  but  only  as  a  legal 

term. 

Yet  thinke  not  that  this  too-too-much  re- 
mises 

Ought  into  nought. 

Sylvester,  2nd  day,  1st  week,  164. 

Remisses.  negligences. 


Such  manner  of  men  as  by  negligence  of 
magistrates  and  remisses  of  lawes,  euery 
countrie  breedeth  great  store  of. — Puttenham, 
Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  i.  ch.  xix. 

Remonstrable,  demonstrable. 

Was  it  such  a  sin  for  Adam  to  eat  a  for- 
bidden apple?  Yes;  the  greatness  is  re- 
monstrable in  the  event. — Adams,  ii.  356. 

Remonstratory,  expostulatory. 

"  Come,  come,  Sikea,"  said  the  Jew,  appeal- 
ing to  him  in  a  remonstratory  tone. — Dickens, 
Oliver  Twist,  ch.  xvi. 

Remdtation,  changing  back. 

The  mutation  or  rarefaction  of  water  into 
air  takes  place  by  day,  the  remutation  or 
copdensation  of  air  into  water  by  night. — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cczvii. 

Rendesvouser,  an  associate. 

•  His  lordship  retained  such  a  veneration 
for  the  memory  of  his  noble  friend  and 
patron  Sir  Jeofry  Palmer,  that  all  the  old 
rendesvouser*  with  him,  were  so  with  his 
lordship. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i. 
291. 

Reneger,  denier,  renegade. 

Their  forefathers  .  .  .  were  sometimes 
esteemed  blest  Reformers  by  most  of  these 
modern  Renegers,  Separates,  and  Apostates. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  57. 

Renego,  renegade ;  perhaps  a  mis- 
print for  renegado. 

This  renego  sailed  from  our  ports  in  the 
end  of  April. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i. 
99. 

Rennfble,  fluent. 

The  like  must  we  say  for  prayer ;  the  gift 
whereof  he  may  be  truly  said  to  have,  not 
that  hath  the  most  rennible  tongue;  for 
prayer  is  not  so  much  a  matter  of  the  lips  as 
of  the  heart ;  but  he  that  hath  the  most 
illuminated  apprehension  of  the  Ood  to 
whom  he  speaks. — Bp.  Hall,  Works,  vi.  478. 

Renunciance,  renunciation. 

Each  in  silence,  in  tragical  renunciance, 
did  And  that  the  other  was  all  too  lovely. — 
Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  V.  ch.  iii. 

Rep,  apparently  an  inferior  sort  of 
fiddle,  or  perhaps  anything  of  an  in- 
ferior kind.  H.  gives  it  =  "  a  jade,  or 
lean  horse." 

Thus  prove  a  crowd  a  Stainer,  or  Amati, 
No  matter  for  the  fiddle's  sound ; 

The  fortunate  possessor  shall  not  bate  ye 
A  doit  of  fifty,  nay,  a  hundred  pound : 

And  though  what's  vulgarly  baptized  a  rep, 

Shall  in  a  hundred  pounds  be  deemed  dog- 
cheap. —  Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  152. 

Rep,  abbreviation  for  reputation, 
sneered  at  by  Swift  (in  the  Introduction 


REPAIRABLE  (  547  )  REPRESENTEE 


to  Polite  Conversation)  and  Addison  ; 
see  quotation,  s.  v.  Pos.  It  was  mainly 
used  in  the  asseveration  pon  rep. 

FlowerM  callioocs  that  fill  our  shoars. 

And  worn  by  dames  of  rep',  as  well  as  whores. 

D'Urfey,  Two  Queens  of  Brentford,  Act  I. 

Nev.  Madam,  have  you  heard  that  Lady 
Queasy  was  lately  at  the  Play-house  in  Gog  ? 

Lady  8m.  What,  Lady  Queasy  of  all  women 
in  the  world !    Do  you  say  it  upon  rep  ? 

Nev.  Pozz  ;  I  saw  her  with  my  own  eyes. 
Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Oonv.  i.). 

Repairable,  capable  of  being  re- 
paired. See  extract  8.  v.  Repentable. 
L.  gives  repairable  without  example. 

Repairer,  restorer. 

Abraham  (Melius,  the  repairer  of  ancient 
geography. — Holland's  Camden,  ii.  221. 

Repastour,  one  who  takes  a  repast. 

They  doe  plye  theire  commons  lyke  quick 
and  greedye  repastours. — St  any  hurst,  JSn..  i. 
217. 

Repeat,  repetition.  Achilles  recapi- 
tulates the  causes  which  led  to  his 
inaction,  and  adds,  ''And  so  of  this 
repeat  enough  "  {Chapman,  Iliad,  xvi. 
57 ).  L.  has  repeat  as  a  substantive,  but 
only  as  a  musical  term. 

Repelless,  invincible. 

Two  great  Armados  howrelie  plow'd  their 

way, 
And  by  assaulte  made   knowne   repellesse 
might. 
G.  Markham,  Tragedie  of  Sir  R.  Orinuile, 
p.  71. 

Repent,  repentance. 

Last  a  passion  of  repent, 
Told  me  flat,  that  desire 
"Was  a  brand  of  love's  fire, 
Which  consumeth  men  in  thrall, 
Virtue,  youth,  wit,  and  all. 

Greene,  from  Never  too  late,  p.  295. 

Repent  hath  sent  me  home  with  empty  hands 
At  last  to  tell  how  rife  our  follies  are. 

J  bid.,  p.  299. 

Repentable,  capable  of  being  re- 
pented of. 

It  seems  scarce  pardonable  because  'tis 
scarce  a  repentable  sin  or  repairable  malice. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  05. 

Reperriwig,  to  cover  again  at  the 
top,  applied  to  leaves  covering  the 
trees.  Sylvester  has  the  simple  verb 
"periwig"  in  the  same  connection 
{nandie  Crafts,  1 87),  and  is  ridiculed  for 
this  by  Dryden.  Howell  also  (Dodona's 
Grove,  p.  100)  speaks  of  c*  Druina's 
royall  Oke,  whose  top  being  already 


periwigid  with  snowy  age,  was  sickly 
and  impotent.'* 

The  sappy  blood 
Of  trees  hath  twice  reperriwigd  the  wood 
Since  the  first  siege. 

Sylvester,  The  Decay,  815. 

Repertor,  finder. 

Let  others  dispute  whether  Anah  was  the 
inventor  or  only  the  repertor  of  mules,  the 
industrious  founder,  or  the  casual  finder  of 
them.— Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  IV.  ii.  32. 

Repine,  grudge. 

And  ye,  fair  heaps,  the  Muses'  sacred  shrines, 
(In  spite  of  time  and  envious  repines) 
Stand  still  and  flourish. 

Hall,  Satires,  II.  ii.  8. 

Rbpleat,  to  fill  full. 

Gold  and  hunger  never  yet 

Co'd  a  noble  verse  beget ; 

But  your  boules  with  sack  repleat. 

Herrick,  Hesperxdes,  p.  238. 

Replexion,  reweaving(?),  and  so  re- 
flection ;  for  which  it  is  perhaps  a 
misprint. 

Now  begins  the  sunne  to  give  light  unto 
the  ayre,  and  with  the  replexion  of  his  beames 
to  warme  the  cold  earth. — Breton,  Fantas- 
tickes  (Spring). 

Replicate,  to  reply. 

They  cringing  in  their  neckes,  like  rata 
smothered  in  the  holde  poorely  replicated, . . 
"With  hunger,  and  hope,  and  thirst  wee 
content  ourselves."  —  Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe 
(HaH.  Misc.,  vi.  180). 

Replume,  to  preen  again,  to  re-ar- 
range. 

The  right  hand  replumed 
His  black  looks  to  their  wonted  composure. 

Browning,  Saul. 

Reportory,  report. 

In  this  transcursive  reportory,  without  some 
observant  glance  I  may  not  dully  overpasse 
the  gallant  beauty  of  their  haven. — Nashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  149). 

Reposure,  repose. 

It  was  the  Franciscans  antient  Dormitory, 
as  appeareth  by  the  concavities  still  extant 
in  the  walls,  places  for  their  severall  reposure. 
— Fuller,  Hist,  of  Camb.,  viii.  19. 

Representee,  seems  to  mean,  in  the 
extract,  a  representative;  it  should 
rather  signify  a  person  represented,  a 
constituent.  The  word  occurs  again 
in  the  same  sense,  p.  495. 

Which  is  no  hard  matter  where  Bishops 
are  chosen  (as  anciently  they  were)  by  the 
suffrages  of  the  Presbyters  or  Ministers  of 
the  Diocese  either  personally  present,  or,  to 
avoid  noise  and  tumult  incident  to  many,  by 

KN2 


REPROBABLE  (  548  ) 


RESCOUNTER 


their  proxies  and  representees  chosen  and  seat 
from  their  several!  distributions. — Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  448. 

Reprobable,  reproveable. 

It  is  nothynge  reprobable 
To  declare  his  mischefe  and  whordom. 
Roy  and  Barlow,  Rede  me  and  be  nott 
wrothe,  p.  26. 
No  thynge  ther  in  was  reprobable, 
But  all  to  gedder  true  and  veritable, 
Without  heresy  or  eny  faolte. 

Ibid.,  p.  44. 

Reprobacy,  wickedness. 

"I  should  be  sorry,"  said  he,  "that  the 
wretch  would  die  in  his  present  state  of 
reprobacy." — H.  Brooke,  Foot  of  Quality,  ii. 
134. 

Reptonize,  to  lay  out  as  Repton 
would :  a  word  formed  like  Macadamize, 
Boswellize,  &c.  Humphrey  Repton, 
born  1752,  died  1818,  published 
"  Sketches  and  Hints  on  Landscape 
Gardening"  (1794). 

Jackson  assists  me  in  Reptonizing  the 
garden.— Southey,  Letters,  1807  (ii.  4). 

ItEruBLicARiAN,  a  republican. 

There  were  republicarians  who  would  make 
the  Prince  of  Orange  like  a  Statholder. — 
Evelyn,  Diary,  Jan.  15,  1680. 

Republicate,  to   set  forth  afresh; 

rehabilitate. 

The  Cabinet-men  at  Wallingford-house 
set  upon  it  to  consider  what  exploit  this 
lord  should  commence,  to  be  the  darling  of 
the  Commons  and  as  it  were  to  republicate 
his  lordship,  and  to  be  precious  to  those  who 
had  the  vogue  to  be  the  chief  lovers  of  their 
country. — Racket,  Life  of  William*,  i.  137. 

Repullulation,  a  rebudding.  R. 
and  L.  have  the  verb  with  one  and  the 
same  quotation  from  Howell  $  Dodonas 
Grove,     Herrick  has  it  also,  p.  141. 

Here  I  myselfe  might  likewise  die, 
And  vtterly  forgotten  lye, 
But  that  eternall  poetrie 
Repullulation  gives  me  here 
Unto  the  thirtieth  thousand  yeere, 
When  all  now  dead  shall  reappeare. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  284. 

Repullulescent,  springing  up  afresh. 

One  would  have  believed  this  expedient 
plausible  enough,  and  calculated  to  obviate 
the  ill  use  a  repullulescent  faction  might 
make,  if  the  other  way  was  taken. — North, 
Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  190. 

Repulpit,  to  restore  to  the  pulpit. 

You  have  ousted  the  mock-priest,  repulpited 
The  shepherd  of  St.  Peter,  raised  the  rood 

again 
And  brought  us  back  the  mass. 

Tennyson,  Q.  Mary,  i.  5. 


Repurge,  to  cleanse  again. 

All  which  haue  either  by  their  priuate 
readings  or  publique  workes  repurged  the 
errors  of  Arte  expelde  from  their  pari  tie. — 
Nashe,  Pref.  to  Greene's  Menaphon,  p.  11. 

Repurge  your  spirits  from  euery  hatefull 
tin.— Hudson's  Judith,  i.  188. 

Repurplb,  to  make  purple  again,  to 
doubly  dye  with  purple. 

The  purple  robe  is  oft  re-purpelled 
With  royall  blood. 

Davies,  Sir  T.  Overbury,  p.  17. 

Requiescence,  return  of  rest 

Such  bolts  clutched  promptly  overnight, 
and  launched  with  the  early  new  morning, 
shall  strike  agitated  Paris,  if  not  into  re- 
quiescence,  yet  into  wholesome  astonishment. 
—Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  HI.  ch.  viii. 

Requisition,  to  require,  and  so,  to 
press  into  service. 

Such  hundredfold  miscellany  of  teams, 
requisitioned  or  lawfully  owned,  making  way, 
hitting  together,  hindering  each  other. — 
Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  I.  ch.  viii. 

Twelve  thousand  masons  are  requisitioned 
from    the    neighbouring   country   to    raze 
Toulon  from  the  face  of  the  earth. — Ibid^ 
Bk.  V.  ch.  iii. 

Requite,  requital. 

Is  this  thy  just  requite?  —  Preston,  K. 
Cambists  {Hawkins,  Eny.  Dr.,  i.  285). 

Requiteless,  free  ;  voluntary ;  not 
given  in  return  for  something  else. 

For  this  His  love  requiteless  doth  approue, 
He  gaue  her  beeing  meerly  of  free  grace, 
Before  she  was,  or  could  His  mercie  moue. 

Davies,  Microcosmos,  p.  63. 

Rere-account,  a  supplemental 
charge :  an  after-reckoning. 

Such  reckonings  without  the  host  are  ever 
subject  to  a  rere-account. — Fuller,  Holy  War, 
III.  ch.  xxii. 

Though  the  second  offering  of  David  was 
far  short  of  the  first  in  number  of  talents, 
yet  it  is  beheld  in  Scripture  as  most  solemn 
and  of  highest  importance.  .  .  This  insinu- 
ates that  at  this  rere-account  the  talents  were 
talents  indeed,  and  though  in  number  fewer, 
in  worth  more  considerable  than  the  former. 
— Ibid.,  Pisgah  Sight,  III.  Pt.  II.  i.  5. 

Re-relapse,  a  repeated  falling  back. 

Our  shines  (I  feare)  will  worke  worse  after- 
claps, 
And  tber's  most  danger  in  a  re-relapse. 

Sylvester,  Miracle  of  Peace,  Sonnet  35. 

Rescounter.  Grose,  who  gives  the 
word  in  the  plural,  says,  "  The  time  of 
settlement  between  the  bulls  and  bears 
of  Exchange-alley,  when  the  losers  must 


RESEARCHER  (  549  )     RESURRECTIONIST 


pay  their  differences,  or  become  lame 
ducks,  and  waddle  out  of  the  Alley." 

You  know  the  rescounter  day,  sir ;  and  if 
Mr.  Beverley  does  not  pay  his  differences 
within  these  four-and-twenty  hours,  the 
world  cannot  hinder  his  being  a  lame  duck. 
— Colman,  Man  of  Business,  iv.  1. 

Researcher,  investigator. 

He  was  too  refined  a  researcher  to  lie  open 
to  so  gross  an  imposition.  —  Sterne,  Trist. 
Shandy,  ii.  87. 

Reshare,  to  share  again. 
Semiramis  (whose  vertue  past  compare) 
This  furious  passion  her  did  so  remoue 
From  that  shee  was,  that  lusting  to  reshare 
Hir  Sonne,  her  Sonne  her  thread  of  life  did 

share. — Davies,  Microcosmos,  p.  66. 

Resignal,  resignation.  Bp.  Jacob- 
son  says,  "  I  have  not  been  able  to  trace 
this  form  in  any  other  writer."  The 
words  are  the  opening  of  a  sermon  on 
1  Sam.  zii.  3. 

A  bold  and  just  challenge  of  an  old  Judge 
made  before  all  the  people  upon  his  resignal 
of  the  government  into  the  hands  of  a  new 
King. — Sanderson,  ii.  330. 

Resignant,  resigner. 

Upon  the  25th  of  October  Sir  John  Suck- 
ling ^brought  the  warrant  from  the  King  to 
receive  the  Seal ;  and  the  good  news  came 
together,  very  welcome  to  the  resignant, 
that  Sir  Thomas  Coventryshould  have  that 
honour.— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  27. 

Resilient,  springing  back:  resilience 
is  in  the  Diets. 

Their  act  and  search 
Stretched  to  the  furthest  is  resilient  ever, 
And  in  resilience  hath  its  plenary  force. 

Taylor,  Edwin  the  Fair,  iii.  5. 

Resins:,  to  sink  again. 

When  Thou  hadst  plung'd  me  in  the  Font  of 
Grace, 
So  clens'd  the  filth  I  was  conceiued  in, 
Though  there  I  vow'd  to  keepe  me  in  that 
case, 
I  brake  my  vow,  and  me  resuncke  in  sinne. 
Davies,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  29. 

Resistant,  antagonistic  :  a  favourite 
word  with  G.  Eliot.  Bp.  Pearson, 
quoted  by  R.  and  L.,  has  it  as  a  sub- 
stantive. 

This  excommunication  .  .  .  simplified  and 
ennobled  the  resistant  position  of  Savon- 
arola.— O.  Eliot,  Romola,  ch.  Iv. 

Respiring,  breath. 

They  could  not  stir   him  from  his  stand, 

although  he  wrought  it  out 
"With  short  respirings,  and  with  sweat. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xvi.  102. 


Resplendishing,  new  splendour.  R. 
has  the  word  as  an  adjective,  with  ex- 
tract from  Elyot    * 

And  as  the  Sonne  doth  glorifie  each  thing 
(Howeuer  base)  on  which  he  deigns  to 
smile ; 
So  your  cleare  eyes  doe  giue  resplendishing 
To  all  their  objects,  be  they  ne'er  so  vile. 
Davies,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  7. 

Rest,  a  wrest  by  which  the  strings 
of  musical  instruments  were  tightened. 

Home,  calling  on  the  virginall  maker,  buy 
ing  a  rest  for  myself  to  tune  my  tryangle.  • 
Pepys,  April  1,  1663. 

Restant,  in  possession  of. 

With  him  they  were  restant  all  those 
things  that  the  foolish  virgins  could  wish 
for,  beauty,  daintie,  delicates,  riches,  faire 
speech. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  362. 

Resultive,  reciprocal. 

There  is  such  a  sympathy  betwixt  several 
sciences  (as  also  betwixt  the  learned  lan- 
guages) that  (as  in  a  regular  fortification 
one  piece  strengtheneth  another)  a  resultive 
firmness  ariseth  from  their  complication. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  Bk.  II.  Dedication. 

RE8TJRGE,  to  rise  again;  a  word 
jocularly  coined  from  the  hatchment- 
motto,  Re&urgam. 

I  wish  my  grandfather  were  here,  and 
would  resurge,  as  he  promises  to  do  on  his 
tombstone. — Thackeray,  Virginians,  ch.  viii. 

Hark  at  the  dead  jokes  resurging  ! — Ibid., 
Roundabout  Papers,  xviii. 

Resurgent,  rising  again. 

The  resurgent  threatening  past  was  making 
a  conscience  within  him. — G.  Eliot,  Middle* 
march,  ch.  bri. 

Resurrectionary,  rising  again,  re- 
viving. 

Old  men  and  women,  ugly  and  blind,  who 
always  seemed  by  resurrectionary  process  to 
be  recalled  out  of  the  elements  for  the 
sudden  peopling  of  the  solitude. — Dickens, 
Uncommercial  Traveller,  vii. 

Resurrectionist,  one  who  digs  up 
corpses  in  order  to  sell  them  to  the 
surgeons  for  dissection.  The  crimes  of 
Burke  and  Hare  and  Bishop  who  mur- 
dered people  in  order  to  sell  their 
bodies  caused  an  Act  to  be  passed  in 
1832,  which  provided  that  unclaimed 
bodies  in  workhouses,  hospitals,  &c, 
should  be  given  for  dissection.  This 
stopped  the  trade  of  the  resurrection- 
ists, and  the  word  is  likely  to  become 
less  and  less  familiar.  In  the  extract 
it  is  used  metaphorically. 


RETAIL 


(  55o  ) 


REVOKE 


He  was  merely  a  resurrectionist  of  obsolete 
heresies. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Helen,  ch.  xi. 

Retail,  retaliation ;  law  of  retail  = 
lex  talionis. 

He  that  doth  injury  may  well  receive  it. 
To  look  for  good  and  do  bad  is  against  the 
law  of  retail. — Adams,  ii.  116. 

Retbnt.  H.  gives  tent  —  to  scare, 
as  a  Yorkshire  word:  perhaps  this  is 
the  senBe  of  retent  in  the  extract. 

Their  hidions  horses  braving  loud  and  clear, 
Their  Pagans  fell  with  clamour  huge  to  hear, 
Made  such  a  dinne  as  made  the  heauen  re- 
sound, 
Relented  hell,  and  tore  the  fixed  ground. 

Hudson's  Judith,  in.  134. 

Retex,  to  reweave ;  alter. 

Neither  King  James,  King  Charles,  nor 
any  Parliament  which  gave  due  hearing  to 
the  frowardness  of  some  complaints  did  ever 
appoint  that  any  of  his  orders  should  be  re- 
tarsi. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  57. 

Reticule,  a  lady's  hand-bag,  pro- 
perly of  net- work.  L.  has  the  word 
without  example. 

There  were  also  five  loads  of  straw,  but 
then  of  those  a  lady  could  take  no  more 
than  her  reticule  could  carry. — De  Quincey, 
Spanish  Nun,  sect.  9. 

Retract,  a  retreat. 

They  erected  forts  and  houses  in  the  open 
plains,  turning  the  natives  into  the  woods 
and  places  of  fastnesse,  whence  they  made 
eruptions  and  retracts  at  pleasure. — Howell  y 
Dodona's  Grove,  p.  35. 

Retractile,  capable  of  being  drawn 
back. 

The  pieces  in  a  telescope  are  retractile 
within  each  other. — Kirby  and  Spence,  Ento- 
mology, i.  151. 

Retreater,  one  who  gives  way  or 

retreats. 

He  stopt  and  drew  the  retreaters  up  into  a 
body,  ana  made  a  stand  for  an  hower  with 
them. — Prince  Ruperfs  beating  up  the  rebels' 
Quarters  at  Post-combe  and  Chenner,  p.  8. 

Retreatment,  retreat;  in  the  ex- 
tract =  the  Hegira. 

Our  Prophet's  great  retreatment  we 
From  Mecca  to  Medina  see. 

jyUrfey,  Plague  of  Impertinence, 

Retributor,  repayer. 

God  is  a  just  judge,  a  retributor  of  every 
man  his  own. — Adams,  i.  190. 

Retrospect,  to  look  back  upon. 

You  and  I  have  often  retrospected  the 
faces  and  minds  of  grown  people ;  that  is  to 
say,  have  formed  images  for  [from  ?]  their 


present  appearances  outside  and  in  (as  far  as 
the  manners  of  the  person  would  justify  us 
in  the  latter)  what  sort  of  figures  they  made 
when  boys  and  girls. — Richardson,  CI.  Har- 
love,  ii.  8. 

My  life,  any  more  than  yours,  may  not  be 
a  long  one ;  and  I  will  not  sully  the  white- 
ness of  it  (pardon  my  vanity,  I  presume  to 
call  it  so  on  retrospecting  it,  regarding  my 
intentions  only)  by  giving  way  to  an  act  of 
injustice. — Ibid.,  Grandison,  n.  61. 

Rett,  hunt? 

Some  members  took  up  the  greatest  part 
of  the  time  in  speaking  to  the  redress  of 
petty  grievances,  like  spaniels  that  rett  after 
larks  and  sparrows  in  the  field,  and  pass  over 
the  best  game. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i. 
109. 

Reumicast,  mucus  of  the  nose. 

Betweene  the  filthy  reumicast  of  his  blood- 
shotten  snowt  there  appeared  smal  holes. — 
Greene,  Quip  for  an  Upstart  Courtier  (Harl. 
Misc.,  v.  404). 

Revel-dash,  noise;   riot.    Cf.  revel- 

coyle  and  revel-rowt  in  N. 

Have  a  flurt  and  a  crash, 
Now  play  revel-dash. 

Green,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  164. 

Revenued,  endowed  with  income  or 
revenue. 

Sir  Edmund  de  Trafford,  f  K™fht8>  we*e  -.  • 

Fuller,  Worthies,  Lancashire  (i.  554) 
Reverable,  to  be  revered. 

The  character  of  a  gentleman  is  the  most 
reverable,  the  highest  of  all  characters. — H. 
Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  115. 

Revict,  to  reconquer;  reobtain. 

Lord  Chancellor  EUesmere,  upon  a  full 
hearing,  adjudged  these  two  sued-for  pre- 
bends clearly  to  be  returned  to  the  Church, 
until  by  common  law  they  could,  if  possibly, 
be  r evicted. — Bp.  Hall,  Autob^  p.  xxvii. 

Re  view  age,  work  of  reviewing. 

Whatever  you  order  down  to  me  in  the 
way  of  reviewage  I  shall  of  course  execute. — 
W.  Taylor  of  Norwich,  1807  (Jfemoirs,ii.  214). 

Revive,  revival. 

Hee  is  dead,  and  therefore  grieue  not  thy 
memorie  with  the  imagination  of  his  new 
rewhu. — Greene,  Menaphon,  p.  50. 

Revoke,  a  term  at  whist ;  a  revoke 
takes  place  when  the  player  does  not 
follow  the  suit  led,  though  able  to  do  so. 

She  never  made  a  revoke;  nor  ever  passed 
it  over  in  her  adversary  without  exacting 
the  utmost  forfeiture. — Lamb,  Essays  of  Eli* 
(Mrt.  Battle  on  Whist). 


REVOLUTIONARY     (  551  ) 


RIB  ROAST 


Lord !  Hazeldean ;  why  that's  the  most 
bare-faced  revoke,  ha,  ha,  ha!  trump  the 
qneeu  of  diamonds,  and  play  out  the  king! 
Well,  I  never !  —  Lytton,  My  Novel,  Bk.  i. 
ch.  xii. 

Revolutionary,  a  promoter  of  revo- 
lutions ;  a  revolutionist. 

It  is  necessary  for  every  student  of  history 
to  know  what  manner  or  men  they  are  who 
become  revolutionaries,  and  what  causes 
drive  them  to  revolution.  —  C.  Kingsley, 
Alton  Locke,  Preface  (1862). 

Revolve,  revolution:  also,  thought. 

When  Midelton  saw  Grinuill's  hie  revolve, 
Past  hope,  past  thought,  past  reach  of  all 

aspire, 
Once  more  to  moue  him  flie,  he  doth  resolue. 
G.  Markham,  Tragedie  of  Sir  R. 
Grinuile,  p.  50. 

In  all  revolves  and  turns  of  state 
Decreed  by  (what  dee  call  him)  fate. 

jyurfey,  Collin's  Walk,  cant.  i. 

Re-water,  to  pour  water  on  again. 

The  Vrchin  of  the  Sea  in  pieces  rent, 
JU~wUer*d  joynes,  and  Hues  incontinent. 
Davits,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  64. 

Re-young,  to  make  young  again ;  to 
refresh.    See  extract  s.  v.  Glass. 

Rbetory,  a  rhetorician. 

They  are  (and  that  cannot  be  otherwise) 
of  the  same  profession  with  the  rhetories  at 
Rome,  as  much  used  to  defend  the  wrong  as 
to  protect  and  maintain  the  most  upright 
cause.— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  72. 

Rhimy,  rhyming. 

Playing  rhimy  plays  with  scurvy  heroes. — 
T.  Brown,  Works,  III.  30. 

Rhinocerot,  rhinoceros.  This  form 
appears  in  the  authorized  version  of 
1611  (Isa.  xxxiv.  7,  margin),  but  is 
altered  in  modern  Bibles. 

But  his  huge  strength  and  subtle  wit  can  not 
Defend  him  from  the  sly  rhinocerot. 

Sylvester,  Sixth  day,  first  week,  53. 

For  a  plough  he  $ot 
The  horn  or  tooth  of  som.  rhinocerot. 

Ibid.,  Handie  Crafts,  295. 

Rhotacism.  See  second  quotation, 
and  s.  v.  Wharlino. 

Young  Daniel  was  free  from  all  the  isms 
in  Lily,  and  from  rhotacism  to  boot. — Southey, 
The  Doctor,  ch.  xvii. 

Neither  the  Spaniards  nor  Portuguese 
retain  in  their  speech  that  strong  rhotacism 
which  they  denoted  by  the  double  rr,  and 
which  Camden  and  Fuller  notice  as  peculiar 
to  the  people  of  Carlton  in  Leicestershire. — 
Ibid.,  ch.  ccxxiii. 


Rhubarb,  used  adjectivally  =  bitter. 

But  with  your  rhubarb  words  ye  must  con- 
tend 
To  grieve  me  worse. 

Sidney,  Astr.  and  Stella,  xiv. 

Rhubarbarum,  rhubarb. 

Children if  one  should  begin  to 

tell  them  the  nature  of  the  Aloes  or  Rhu- 
barbarum they  should  receive,  would  sooner 
take  their  Physick  at  their  ears  than  at  their 
mouth. — Sidney,  Defence  of  Poesie,  p.  550. 

Rial.  H.  says,  uan  English  pold 
coin  worth  about  fifteen  shillings/'  but 
gives  no  example. 

In  like  manner,  you  farmers  and  franklins, 
you  yomen  and  rich  cobbes,  abroad  with 
your  rusty  ryals  and  your  old  angels  which 
you  hourd  up.  —  Aylmer,  Harhorough,  &c., 
1554  (Maitland  on  Reformation,  p.  221). 

Ribands,  reins. 

We  have  all  heard  it  said  in  the  course  of 
our  lives, 

"  Needs  must  when  a  certain  old  gentleman 
drives ; " 

'Tis  the  same  with  a  lady,  if  once  she  con- 
trives 

To  get  hold  of  the  ribands,  how  vainly  one 
strives 

To  escape  from  her  lash,  or  to  shake  off  her 
gyves. — Ingoldsby  Legends  (S.  Odille). 

He  drove  his  own  phaeton  when  it  was 
decidedly  low  for  a  man  of  fashion  to  handle 
the  ribands. — Phillips,  Essays  from  the  Times, 
i.  76. 

If  he  had  ever  held  the  coachman's  ribbons 
in  his  hands,  as  I  have  in  my  younger  days, 
he  would  know  that  stopping  is  not  always 
easy. — G.  Eliot,  Felix  Holt,  ch.  xvii. 

Ribbanings,  ribbons. 

The  f  airie-psalter, 
Grao't  with  the  trout-flies'  curious  wings, 
Which  serve  for  watched  ribbanings. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  96. 

What  gloves  we'll  give  and  ribanings. 

Ibid.,  p.  231. 

Ribless,  without  ribs;  so  fat  that 
tbe  ribs  cannot  be  felt. 

Where  toil  shall  call  the  charmer  health  his 

bride, 
And  laughter  tickle  plenty's  ribless  side. 
Coleridge,  To  a  Young  Ass. 

Rib  roast,  to  beat,  is  illustrated  in 
the  Diets.;  but  in  the  subjoined  "to 
give  a  rib  to  roast "  does  not  seem  to 
submit  to  a  beating,  but  rather  to  exact 
retribution. 

Though  the  skorneful  do  mocke  me  for  a 
time,  yet  in  the  ende  I  hope  to  giue  them  al 
a  ryhbe  to  roste  for  their  paynes. — Gascoigne, 
Steel  Glass,  Ep.  Ded. 


RICK 


<  55*) 


RILE 


Rick,  a  heap  ;  usually  applied  to  hay 
or  corn. 

Great  King,  whence  came  this  courage  (Titan- 
like), 
So  many  hils  to  heap  vpon  a  rick. 

Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  1147. 

Ricketly,  afflicted  with  rickets,  and 
so,  weak.  See  another  extract  from 
Gauden  *.  v.  Stop-game. 

No  wonder  if  the  whole  constitution  of 
Religion  grow  weak,  ricketly \  and  consump- 
tuous. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  262. 

Rid,  to  clear  ground. 

A  short  time  ago,  as  some  persons  were 
ridding  a  piece  of  ground  near  Matlock 
Bank,  .  .  .  they  discovered  an  old!  pig  of 
lead  buried  a  few  inches  below  the  surface. 
— Archaol.,  vii.  170  (1785). 

Rideable,  capable  of  being  ridden. 

I  rode  everything  rideable.  —  Savage,  R. 
Medlicott,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iii. 

Ride  and  tie.    See  quotation. 

Mr.  Adams  discharged  the  bill,  and  they 
were  both  setting  out,  having  agreed  to  ride 
and  tie;  a  method  of  travelling  much  used 
by  persons  who  have  but  one  horse  between 
them,  and  is  thus  performed.  The  two  tra- 
vellers set  out  together,  one  on  horseback, 
the  other  on  foot :  Now  as  it  generally  hap- 
pens that  he  on  horseback  outgoes  him  on 
foot,  the  custom  is  that  when  he  arrives  at 
the  distance  agreed  on,  he  is  to  dismount, 
tie  his  horse  to  some  gate,  tree,  post,  or  other 
thing,  and  then  proceed  on  foot ;  when  the 
other  comes  up  to  the  horse,  unties  him, 
mounts,  and  gallops  on ;  till  having  passed 
by  his  fellow-traveller,  he  likewise  arrives  at 
the  place  of  tying. — Fielding,  Joseph  Andrews, 
Bk.  II.  ch.  ii. 

Rident,  smiling ;  grinning. 

A  smile  so  wide  and  steady,  so  exceedingly 
rident  indeed  as  almost  to  be  ridiculous,  may 
be  drawn  upon  her  buxom  face,  if  the  artist 
chooses  to  attempt  it. — Thackeray \  Newcomes, 
ch.  xxiv. 

Rider,  a  commercial  traveller. 

They  come  to  us  as  riders  in  a  trade, 
And  with  much  art  exhibit  and  persuade. 

Crabbe,  Borough,  Letter  iv. 

Its  master  ne'er  maintained  a  rider, 
like  those  who  trade  in  Paternoster  Row, 
But  made  his  business  travel  for  itself, 
Till  he  had  made  his  pelf. 

Hood,  A  fairy  tale. 

Riderless,  without  a  rider. 

He  caught  a  riderless  horse,  and  the  cornet 
mounted. — H.  KingsUy,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  liv. 

Ridiculosity,  a  joke ;  something  to 
raise  a  laugh. 


Bring  your  good-natured  Muses,  all  jour 
witty  jests,  your  bywords,  your  banters, 
your  pleasantries,  your  pretty  sayings,  and 
all  your  ridiculosities  along  with  you.  — 
Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  64. 

Rio,  to  make  free  with. 

Some  prowleth  for  fewel,  and  some  away 

rig 
Fat  goose  and  the  capon,  duck,  hen,  and  the 

pig. — Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  43. 

If  he  presume  to  enter  our  house,  and  rig 
euery  corner,  searching  more  then  belongs 
to  his  office,  we  lay  holde  on  his  locks,  turne 
him  away  with  his  backe  full  of  stripes,  and 
his  handes  laden  with  his  owne  amende*. — 
Gosson,  Schools  of  Abuse,  p.  54. 

Rigged,    ridged,    hunched.      Hall 

reckons  among  popular  sights — 

The  young  elephant,  or  two-tailed  steer, 
Or  the  rigg'd  camel,  or  the  Addling  frere. 

Satires,  IV.  ii.  96. 

Right-handed,  a  right-handed  error 
=  a  mistake  on  the  right  side,  an  error 
arising  from  pushing  to  excess  that 
which  in  itself  is  right. 

St.  Paul  tells  us  of  divisions,  and  factions, 
and  schisms  that  were  in  the  Church  of 
Corinth;  yet  these  were  not  about  the 
essentials  of  religion,  but  about  a  right- 
handed  error,  even  too  much  admiration  of 
their  pastors. — Bramhall,  ii.  28. 

Rightless,  wrongfully;  in  the  second 
quotation  it  means  deprived  of  rights. 
See  another  instance  from  Sylvester  of 
the  first  sense,  *.  v.  Taxless. 

Whoso  enters  rightUs 
By  force,  is  forced  to  go  out  with  shame. 

Sylvester,  The  Captaines,  37. 

Thou  art  liable  to  the  Ban  of  the  Empire 

— hast  deserved  to  be  declared  outlawed  and 

fugitive,     landless     and    rightless.  —  Scott, 

Quentin  Durward,  ii.  87. 

Rig-my-roll,  prolix ;  circuitous.  See 
N.  8.  v.  ragman  8  roll-  The  extract  is 
noteworthy  for  the  spelling,  and  the 
adjectival  use  ;  the  meaning  here  seems 
to  be  routine.  See  the  explanation  of 
rigmarole  in  L. 

You  must  all  of  you  go  in  one  rig-my-roll 
way,  in  one  beaten  track  —  Richardson, 
Grandison,  vi.  155. 

Rigorism,  stiffness,  austerity. 

Tour  morals  have  a  flavour  of  rigorism  ; 
they  are  sour,  morose,  ill-natur'd,  and  call 
for  a  dram  of  Charity. — Gentleman  Instructed, 
p.  09. 

Rile,  to  irritate.  This  word  is  some- 
times regarded  as  an  Americanism,  but 
it  i6  not  so.    See  Roil. 


RILL 


(  553  ) 


RIVALESS 


Eh  but  the  moor  she  riled  me,  she  druv 
me  to  drink  the  moor. — 

Tennyson,  Northern  Cobbler, 

Rill,  a  little  stream.  The  quotation 
is  only  noteworthy  as  showing  that 
the  word  was  unfamiliar  to  North,  who 
perhaps  thought  it  peculiar  to  the 
county  (Devonshire)  of  which  he  was 
speaking.  The  Diets.,  however,  show 
that  it  was  used  by  Drayton,  Milton, 
Pope,  &c. 

It  stands  at  the  mouth  of  a  rill  (as  it  is 
called)  of  water. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guil- 
ford, i.  266. 

Rimless,  without  a  rim. 

The  other  wore  a  rimless  hat. —  Words' 
worth,  Beggars. 

Rinet,  rind,  crust,  that  which  binds 
together. 

Thee  water  hard  curded  with  the  chil  ysie 
rinet. — St  any  hurst,  Conceites,  p.  136. 

And  toe  mar  a  virgin,  to  a  freend  such 

curtesy e  tending 
"Were  not  a  practise  honest,  nor  a  preede  toe 

be  greatlye  recounted ; 
Thee  rinet  of  friendship,  vertu,  such  treach- 

erye  damneth. — Ibid.,  p.  139. 

Ring,  to  lunge,  q.  v. 

She  caught  a  glimpse  through  the  glass 
door^opening  on  the  park,  of  the  General, 
and  a  fine  horse  they  were  ringing. — Miss 
Etlycworth,  Helen,  ch.  vi. 

Ring,  fourth  finger,  or  ring-finger. 

The  thumb  in  chiromancy  we  give  Venus, 
The  forefinger  to  Jove,  the  midst  to  Saturn, 
The  ring  to  Sol,  the  least  to  Mercury. 

Jonson,  Alchemist,  I.  i. 

Ring-dropper,  one  who  for  swindling 
purposes  scrapes  acquaintance  with  a 
stranger  by  asking  him  if  he  is  the 
owner  of  a  ring  which  the  sharper 
pretends  to  have  picked  up.  Cf .  Money- 
dropper. 

Tom's  evil  genius  did  not  .  .  .  mark  him 
out  as  the  prey  of  ring-droppers,  pea  and 
thimble-riggers,  duffers,  touters,  or  any  of 
those  bloodless  sharpers. — Dickens,  M.  Chuz- 
zlevrit,  ch.  xxxvii. 

Ring-fence,  an  encircling  fence. 

In  that  Augustan  era  we  descry  a  clear 
belt  of  cultivation, .  .  running  in  a  ring-fence 
about  the  Mediterranean.  —  Dt  Quincey, 
Roman  Meals. 

Ring-hedge,  ring-fence;    boundary 

encircling  property,  &c. 

Lo,  how  Apollo's  Pegasses  prepare 
To  rend  the  ring-hedge  of  our  Horizon. 

Davits,  Summa  Totalis,  p.  11. 


Ringle,  to  ring  hogs. 

For  rooting  of  pasture  ring  hog  ye  had  neede, 
Which  being  wel  rivgled  the  better  do  f  eede : 
Though  vong  with  their  elders  wil  lightly 

keepe  best, 
Yet  spare  not  to  ringle  both  great  and  the 

rest. — Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  41. 

Riotry,  riotou8ne8s. 

I  hope  your  electioneering  riotry  has  not, 
nor  will  mix  in  these  tumults. —  Walpole, 
Letters,  iv.  221  (1780). 

They  at  will 
Enter'd  our  houses,  lived  upon  our  means 
In  riotry,  made  plunder  of  our  goods. 

Taylor,  Ph.  van  Art.,  Pt.  I.  i.  3. 
It  [Punch's]  is  a  voice  that  seems  to  be  as 
much  in  accord  with  the  noise  of  towns  and 
the  riotry  of  fairs,  as  the  note  of  the  cuckoo 
with  the  joyousness  of  spring  fields. — Southey, 
The  Doctor,  ch.  zziii. 

Ripple,  to  rub  the  seed  vessels  off 
flax.  See  extract  from  Howell,  s.  v. 
Brake. 

Ripponeers,  men  of  Ripon. 

The  Corporation  of  Rippon  in  Yorkshire 
presented  their  petition  to  Queen  Anne  .  .  . 
the  Ripponeers  humbly  addressed  themselves 
to  Queen  Anne. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  X.  ii.  15. 

Rise,  to  take  a  rise  out  of  a  person 
=  to  make  him  a  butt,  or  to  provoke 
him  (slang). 

Possibly  taking  a  rise  out  of  his  worship 
the  corregidor  as  a  repeating  echo  of  Don 
Quixote.  —  De  Quincey,  Spanish  Nun,  sect, 
zxiii. 

Rise-bushes,  sticks  cut  for  burning. 

See  H.  8.  v.  rise. 

The  streets  were  barricadoed  up  with 
chaines,  harrowes,  and  waggons  of  bavins 
or  rise-bushes.  —  Relation  of  Action  before 
Cyrencester  (1642),  p.  4. 

Risky,  attended  with  risk  or  danger. 

No  young  lady  in  Miss  Verinder's  position 

could  manage  such  a  risky  matter  as  that 

by  herself ;  a  go-between  she  must  have. — 

Wilkie  Collins,  The  Moonstone,  Pt.  I.  ch.  xxi. 

Rither,  rudder. 

He  jumpeth  and  course th  this  way  and 
that  way,  as  a  man  roving  without  a  mark, 
or  a  ship  fleeting  without  a  rither. — Jewel, 
iii.  136. 

Ritratto,  picture  (Italian). 

Let  not  this  ritratto  of  a  large  landscape 
be  thought  trifling.— North,  Examen,  p.  251. 

Tis  more  like  a  ritratto  of  the  shadow  of 
Vanity  herself.— Sterne,  Tr.  Shandy,  iv.  186. 

Rivaless,  female  rival. 

Oh,  my  happy  rivaless  !  if  you  tear  from 


RIVERL1NG 


(  554  )        ROBIN  HOOHS 


me  my  husband,  be  is  in  his  own  disposal, 
and  I  cannot  help  it. — Richardson,  Pamela, 
iv.  153. 

Riverling,  rivulet  or  spring. 

Of  him  she  also  holds  her  siluer  springs, 
And  all  her  hidden  crystall  riverhngs. 

Sylvester,  3rd  day,  1st  week,  133. 

[God]  sent  as  from  the  liuely  spring 
Of  Has  Dioineness  som  small  riueru'ng. 

Ibid.,  6th  day,  1st  week,  755. 

Rivet,  bearded  wheat. 

White  wheat  or  else  red,  red  riuet  or  whight, 
Far  passeth  all  other  for  land  that  is  light. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  48. 

Road-worthy,  fit  for  travelling; 
likely  to  go  well. 

It  was  one  of  the  rapidost  constitutions 
ever  put  together ;  made,  some  say,  in  eight 
days,  by  Herault  Sechelles  and  others ;  pro- 
bably a  workmanlike  road-worthy  constitution 
enough.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev^  Pt.  III.  Bk.  III. 
ch.  iv. 

Roaned,  roan  (?) ;  yet  it  seems  used 
as  a  depreciatory  term  rather  than  as 
denoting  colour. 

[He]  had  euer  more  pitty  on  one  good 
paced  mare  then  two  roaned  curtalles.  — 
Breton,  Merry  Wonders,  p.  6. 

Roar.     Up  in  a  roar  —  in  an  uproar. 

When  Demosthenes  refused  to  doe  it,  the 
people  began  to  be  vp  in  a  rore  against  hym. 
— UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  371. 

Roarer,  a  broken-winded  horse. 

His  stalls  in  London  were  crowded  with 
useless  steeds,  his  stalls  at  Melton  inhabited 
by  slugs  and  roarers.  —  Th.  Hook,  Man  of 
many  friends. 

I  never  heard  but  one  worse  roarer  in  my 
life,  and  that  was  a  roan:  it  belonged  to 
Pegwell  the  corn-factor;  he  used  to  drive 
him  in  his  gig  seven  years  ago,  and  he 
wanted  me  to  take  him,  but  I  said, "  Thank 
you,  Peg,  I  don't  deal  in  wind  instruments. 
.  .  But  what  the  hell !  the  horse  was  a  penny 
trumpet  to  that  roarer  of  yours." — G.  Eliot, 
Middlemarch,  ch.  xxiii. 

Roaster,  a  sucking-pig  fit  for  roast- 
ing. 

When  we  keep  a  roaster  of  the  sucking 
pigs,  we  choose,  and  praise  at  table  most, 
the  favourite  of  its  mother.  —  Blackmore, 
Lorna  Doone,  ch.  1. 

Roast  meat.  To  cry  roast  meat,  not 
to  be  able  to  keep  one's  good  fortune  to 
one-self. 

He  might  have  swallowed  those  holy  (but 
now  desecrated)  morsells  in  secret,  and  not 
have  proclaimed  on  the  housetop  to  all  the 
world  the  rost-meat  he  hath  gotten. — Gavden, 
Tars  of  the  Church,  p.  682. 

They  may  imagine  that  to  trumpet  forth 


the  praises  of  such  a  person  would,  in  the 
vulgar  phrase,  be  crying  Roast  Meat,  and 
calling  in  partakers  of  what  they  intend  to 
apply  solely  to  their  own  use.  —  Fielding, 
Tom  Jones,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  v. 

The  foolish  beast  not  being  able  to  fare 
well  but  he  must  cry  roast  meat  .  .  .  would 
needs  proclaim  his  good  fortune  to  the  world 
below. — Lamb,  Essays  of  Elia  {Christ's  Hos- 
pital). 

Roatino.  H.  gives  "rooty ;  rank, 
as  grass.     Yorkshire." 

The  good  shepherd  will  not  let  his  sheep 
feed  in  hurtful  and  rooting  pastures. — Pit' 
kington,  p.  490. 

Rob-altar,  a  sacrilegious  plunderer. 

"Will  a  man  rob  God?"  .  .  .  Bat  alas 
what  law  can  be  given  to  rob^sltars? — 
Adams,  i.  179. 

Robe,  the  legal  profession.  Gentle- 
men of  the  robe  or  long  robe  =  barris- 
ters. In  the  first  extract  from  Foote 
he  uses  it  of  the  clergy  also :  "  the 
gown  "  is  the  more  usual  term  for  that 
profession. 

Squires  of  the  long  robe,  he  does  humbly  show 
He  has  a  just  right  in  abusing  you 
Because  he  is  a  Brother-Templar  too. 

Wycherley,  Plain  Dealer  (Epilogue). 

Our  ancestors  unquestionably  were  at  that 
time  unblessed  by  the  liberal  and  learned 
profession  of  the  long  robe. — H.  Brooke,  Fool 
of  Quality,  i.  248. 

The  two  orders  of  the  long  robe  next  de- 
mand our  attention,  and  . .  the  pre-eminence 
is  unquestionably  due  to  the  priesthood. — 
Foote,  The  Orators,  Act  I. 

I  was  some  years  in  the  Temple,  but  the 
death  of  my  brother  robb'd  the  robe  of  my 
labours. — Aid.,  Lame  Lover,  Act  III. 

His  honour  was  even  then  a  gentleman  of 
the  long  robe,  being  in  truth  a  baby  in  arms. 
Thackeray,  Roundabout  Papers,  xviii. 

Robin,  a  trimming  on  the  front  of 
the  dress. 

In  this  parcel  pinned  together  an  several 
pieces  of  printed  calico,  remnants  of  silk, 
and  such  like,  that,  if  good  luck  should 
happen,  and  I  should  get  work,  would  serve 
for  robins  and  facings. — Richardson,  Patmala, 
i.  98. 

I  most  gladly  assented,  and  got  my  work, 
of  which  I  have  no  small  store,  believe  me ! 
— morning  caps,  robins,  &c.  &c.,  all  to  pre- 
pare from  day  to  day.  —  Mad.  D'Arblay, 
Diary,  iv.  171. 

Robins,  and  caps,  and  sheets,  and  pillow-cases 
Lose  their  sad  stains,  and  smile  with  lily- 
faces.—  Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  237. 

Robin  Hood's  penny-worths.  See 
first  extract. 


ROB ORATE 


(  555  ) 


ROLLICK 


"To  sell  Robin  Hood1 s  penny-worths:*  It 
is  spoken  of  things  sold  under  half  their 
value ;  orf  if  you  will,  half  sold,  half  given. 
Robin  Hood  came  lightly  by  his  ware,  and 
lightly  parted  therewith;  so  that  he  could 
afford  the  length  of  his  Bow  for  a  yard  of 
Velvet.  Whithersoever  he  came,  he  carried 
a  Fair  along  with  him,  Chapmen  crowding 
to  buy  his  stollen  commodities.  —  Fuller. 
Worthies,  Notts. 

Soldiers  seized  on  all  that  he  had  in  Aires- 
ford  for  the  use  of  the  Parliament  (as  they 
pretended),  but  sold  as  they  passed  along  to 
any  chapman  at  inconsiderable  rates,  Robin 
Hood's  pennyworths,  what  they  had  a  mind 
to.— Barnard,  life  of  Heylin,  p.  cxli. 

Roborate,  to  strengthen. 

This  Bull  also  relateth  to  ancient  privi- 
ledges  of  Popes  and  Princes  bestowed  upon 
her ;  which  herein  are  roborated  and  con- 
firmed.— Fuller,  Hist,  of  Camb.,  ii.  36. 

Rob-thief,  one  who  steals  from 
another. 

His  extortion  hath  erst  stolen  from  others, 
and  now  he  plays  rob-thief,  and  steals  from 
himself.— Adams,  i.  195. 

Roch,  to  harden  like  a  rock. 

Thee  winter's  coldnesse  thee  ziuer  hardlye 
rocking.— Stanyhurst,  Conceites,  p.  136. 

Rochet,  a  bishop  ;#  he  being  desig- 
nated by  a  distinctive  part  of  his  dress ; 
so  we  now  sometimes  speak  of  "a 
muster  of  lawn-sleeves"  The jivord  is 
also  used  adjectivally  =  episcopal. 

Take  glorious  Gardiner,  blow-bolle  Bonner, 
tottering  Tunstal,  wagtaile  Weston,  and 
carted  Chicken,  and  all  the  other  fine  Rocket 
men  of  England.— Bale's  Decl.  of  Bonner's 
Articles,  Art.  xxiv. 

Our  prelatical  schism  and  captivity  to 
rocket  apophthegms.  —  Milton,  Of  Reform- 
ation in  Eng.,  Bk.  II. 

They  would  strain  us  out  a  certain  figur- 
ative prelate,  by  wringing  the  collective 
allegory  of  those  seven  angels  into  seven 
single  rochets.  — Ibid.,  Reason  of  Ch.  Gov., 
Bk.  I.  ch.  v. 

Rock,  a  hard  sweetmeat.  See  ex- 
tract *.  v.  Bullseye. 

Rockish,  rocky. 

Thee  pacient  panting  shee  thumpt  and  launst 

wyth  a  fyre  bolt, 
And  wythal  his  carcasse  on  rockish  pinnacle 

hanged.— Stanyhurst,  Mn.,  i.  54. 

Rockbay,  rock  array  (?),  a  shelf  of 
rocks. 

Then  we  grate  on  rockrayes  and  bancks  of 
stoanye  Pachynus. 

Stanyhurst,  Mi.,  iii.  714. 

Rock-water. 


An  essay  upon  ice,  or  a  treatise  of  the 
sovereign  efficacy  of  rock-water  .  .  will  be  a 
very  cooling  satisfaction  to  your  parboil  'd 
friends.— T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  191. 

The  river  Wherfe  . .  runs  in  a  bed  of  stone, 
and  looks  as  clear  as  rock-water. — Defoe,  Tour 
thro'  G.  Britain,  iii.  124. 

While  I  .  .  am  all  on  fire  with  the  rage  of 
slighted  love,  thou  art  regaling  thyself 
with  phlegm  and  rock-water.  —  Richardson, 
d.  Harlowe,  vii.  131. 

I  dare  say  she  has  signified  this  reconcili- 
ation to  her  with  intermingled  phlegm  and 
wormwood ;  and  her  invitation  most  cer- 
tainly runs  all  in  the  rock-water  style.— Ibid.. 
vii.  239.  ' 

R  o  c  o  L  0,  cloak  ;  roquelaure.  Cf . 
Roquelo. 

I  have  often  seen  him  strolling  in  the 
most  shady  and  unfrequented  parts  of  the 
Elysian  fields,  muffled  up  in  a  plain  brown 
rocolo.—Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  vi.  353. 

Rodster,  angler.  I  do  not  know  of 
any  authority  for  this  word  except  the 
newspaper  cited,  nor  does  it  seem  to 
be  much  wanted. 

The  affair  was  under  the  control  of  the 
Sheffield  Amalgamated  Anglers'  Association, 
and  there  were  close  upon  500  competitors, 
who  included  in  their  ranks  rodsters  from 
all  parts  of  the  three  kingdoms. — Leeds  Mer- 
cury, July  8, 1879,  p.  8. 

Roe,  red. 

So  doth  the  fox  the  lamb  destroy,  we  see, 
The  lion  fierce  the  beaver  roe  or  grey. 

Dennys,  Secrets  of  Angling  (Eng. 
Garner,  i.172). 

Roil,  to  make  turbid  ;  hence  an 
angry  person  is  said  to  be  riled. 

What  are  the  chief  miseries  of  this  life 
but  the  sordid  apparel  of  the  soul,  the  black 
thoughts,  the  speckled  phantasies,  dark  ob- 
livion, roiled  soiled  affections? — Ward,  Ser- 
mons, p.  65. 

The  lamb  down  stream  roiled  the  wolf's 
water  above. — North,  Examen,  p.  359. 

The  state  was  not  very  much  roiled  with 
faction.— Ibid.,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  181. 

His  spirits  were  very  much  roiled. — Ibid., 
ii.  69. 

That  his  friends  .  .  .  should  believe  it  was 
what  roiled  him  extremely. — Ibid.,  ii.  241. 

Rollers,  large  waves. 

From  their  feet  stretched  away  to  the 
westward  the  sapphire  rollers  of  the  vast 
Atlantic,  crowned  with  a  thousand  crests  of 
flyinp  foam.  —  Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch. 
xxzii. 

Rollick,  to  frolic,  to  move  gaily. 
L.  has  rollicking  as  an  adj.,  and  this  is 
the  usual  form. 


ROLL  UP 


(  556  ) 


ROOMSTEAD 


The  shrieks  of  his  lute  rose  shrill  above 
the  shrieks  of  the  flying  and  the  wounded, 
and  its  wild  waits-time  danced  and  rollicked 
on  swifter  and  swifter  as  the  old  singer  mad- 
dened, in  awful  mockery  of  the  terror  and 
agony  around. — Kingsley,  Hypatia,  ch.  xxix. 

Roll  up,  to  chant.  The  editor 
(Parker  Soc.)  compares  the  expression 
with  running  up  the  notes  of  the 
gamut. 

They  care  for  no  understanding:  it  is 
enough  if  thou  canst  roll  up  a  pair  of  matins 
or  an  evensong,  and  mumble  a  few  cere- 
monies.— Tyndale,  i.  243. 

Roly-poly,  unstable. 

We  have  plotted  and  laboured  long  to 
turn  this  glorious  monarchy  into  a  peddling, 
roly-poly,  independent  Anarchy. — Speech  of 
Miles  Corbet,  1647  (Harl.Misc.,  i.  273). 

Roly  poly,  a  vulgar  fellow. 

I'll  have  thee  in  league  first  with  these 
two  roily  poolies.  —  Dekker,  Satiromastix 
(Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr.),  iii.  116. 

Romancist,  romancer;  teller  or  in- 
ventor of  stories. 

A  story!  what  story?  Pere  Silas  is  no 
romancist. — Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xxxv. 

Romanticism,  taste  or  feeling  for 
romance. 

Romanticism,  which  has  helped  to  fill  some 
dull  blanks  with  love  and  knowledge,  had 
not  yet  penetrated  the  times  with  its  leaven, 
and  entered  into  everybody's  food. — G.  Eliot, 
Middlemarch,  ch.  xix. 

Although  doubtless  a  girl's  romanticism 
was  a  pretty  thing,  it  would  have  to  yield 
to  the  actual  requirements  of  life. — Black, 
Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  xiii. 

Romanticist,  one  belonging  to  the 
romance  era,  as  distinguished  from  the 
classical ;  alBO  one  of  a  romantic  char- 
acter or  genius.  Kingsley  (  Westward 
Ho,  ch.  ix.J  calls  Raleigh  "  a  true 
romanticist. 

You,  reader,  like  myself,  will  breathe  a 
malediction  on  the  Classical  era,  and  thank 
your  stars  for  making  you  a  Romanticist. — 
Be  Quincey,  Roman  Meals. 

Romanticness,  romantic  appearance. 

Having  heard  me  often  praise  the  roman- 
ticness  of  the  place,  she  was  astonished  .  .  . 
that  I  should  set  myself  against  going  to  a 
house  so  much  in  my  taste. — Richardson,  CI, 
Harlowe,  ii.  40. 

Romanza.  It  is  curious  that  Fuller, 
who  is  not  greatly  given  to  foreign 
words,  should  use  this  instead  of 
romance,  which  had  long  been  an 
English  word. 


I  am  afrraied  that  our  Infidel  Age  will 
not  give  credit  thereunto,  as  conceiving  it 
rather  a  Romanza  or  a  Fiction  than  a  thing 
really  performed. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Surrey 
(ii.  '665). 

I  confess  the  story  of  this  Westmerland- 
Hercules  soundeth  something  Romanza  like. 
— Ibid.,  Westmoreland,  ii.  432. 

Rombelow,  or  Rum  below,  a  burden 
to  an  old  sea-song ;  but  in  the  extract 
from  Marlowe  there  is  nothing  nautical 
about  it.  Hycke-  Scorner  (Hawkins, 
Eng.  Dr.,  i.  38)  names  among  other 
places  to  which  he  has  travelled,  "the 
londe  of  Rumbelowe  thre  myl  out  of 
hell."  Stanyhurst  (J2n„  i.  206)  speaks 
of  the  Trojans  as  sailing  "  through  Sicil 
his  raging  wyld  frets  and  rumbolo 
rustling." 

The  fleering  Scots, 
To  England's  high  disgrace,  have  made  this 

jig: 
"  Maids  of  England,  sore  may  you  mourn 

For  your  lemans  you  have  lost  at  Bannocks- 
bourn, 
With  a  heave  and  a  ho. 
What  weeneth  the  King  of  England 
So  soon  to  have  won  Scotland, 
With  a  rombelow  ?  n 

Marlowe,  Edw.  II.,  ii.  2. 

Romizkd,  Romish.     Cf.  Anglized. 

The  Romiz'd  faction  were  zealous  in  his 
behalf,  -Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  III.  iv.  16. 

JIondelet,  a  roundelay. 

Then  have  you  also  a  rondlette,  the  which 
doth  alwayes  end  with  one  selfe  same  foote 
or  repeticion,  and  was  thereof  (in  my  iudge- 
ment)  called  a  rondelet. — Gascoigne,  p.  3d. 

Rooker,  a  cheat. 

Bookers  and  sharpers  work  their  several 
ends  upon  such  as  they  make  a  prey  of. — 
Kennefs  Erasm.,  Praise  of  Folly,  p.  76. 

Rookle,  to  rummage,  to  rout  about. 

What'U  they  say  to  me  if  I  go  a  routing 
and  rookliny  in  their  drains,  like  an  old  sow 
by  the  way-side? — Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago, 
ch.  xiv. 

Rookler,  a  pig,  from  its  roohling 
about.     See  previous  entry. 

Such  were  then  the  pigs  of  Devon ;  not  to 
be  compared  with  the  true  wild  descendant 
of  Noah's  stock,  high- withered,  furry,  griz- 
zled, game-flavourea  little  rooklers,  whereof 
many  a  sownder  still  grunted  about  S  win  ley 
down  and  Braunton  woods. — Kingsley,  West- 
ward Ho,  ch.  viii. 

Roomstead,  lodging. 

His  grams  take  up  six  or  seven  houses  or 
room  steads.  —  Document  dated  1691  {An?kn 
xii.  188). 


ROOMTHSOME  (  557  ) 


ROTTOCKE 


Roomthsome,  spacious. 

By  the  sea-side  on  the  other  side  stoode 
Heroe's  tower ;  .  .  .  a  cage  or  pigeon-house 
roomthsome  enough  to  comprehend  her. — 
Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  167). 

Rootlet,  little  root 

The  tree  whose  rootlets  drink  'of  every 
river. — Kingsley,  Saint's  Tragedy,  v.  2. 

Root-of-hbart,  by  heart,  so  as  to 
be  able  to  repeat  anything  without 
having  it  before  the  eyes.  Banyan 
perhaps  confused  root  with  rote. 

I  advise  that  thou  put  this  letter  in  thy 
bosome;  that  thou  read  therein  to  thyself 
and  to  thy  children,  until  you  have  got  it  by 
root-of-heart. — Pilgrim* s  Progress,  Pt.  II.  p. 
11. 

Ropes,  thick,  glutinous]  substance 
found  in  beer,  &c. 

A  pickled  minnow  is  very  good,  if  you 
catch  him  in  a  stickle  with  the  scarlet  fingers 
upon  him,  but  I  count  him  no  more  than  the 
ropes  in  beer  compared  with  a  loach  done 
properly. — Blackmore,  Lorna  Doone,  ch.  vii. 

Ropes,  intestines ;  there  is  a  quotation 
from  an  old  writer  in  N. ;  but  a  com- 
paratively modern  instance  is  subjoined. 

The  second  course,  a  brace  of  ostriches 
roasted,  at  the  upper  end,  with  the  ropes  on 
a  toast.— Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  X. 
ch.  zi. 

Rope-sick,  diseased  in  the  ropes  or 
entrails  (?). 

Rope-sick  herrings  that  will  not 'serve  to 
make  barrelled  herrings  by  their  own  law 
they  must  not  bring  home  into  Holland. — 
England's  way  to  win  wealth,  1614  (Harl. 
Misc.,  iii.  397). 

Ropes  of  pearl,  strings  of  pearls. 
The  expression  in  Lothair  has  been 
ridiculed,  but  it  is  not  modern ;  see 
extract  *.  v.  Intercurl. 

What  lady 
I'  th'  primitive  times  wore  ropes  of  pearl  or 
rubies  ?  • 

Maine,  City  Match,  ii.  2. 

TH  give  you  counsel  worth  two  ropes  of 
pearl.— Killigrew,  Parson's  Wedding,  ii.  5. 

I  want  ropes  of  pearls. — Disraeli,  Lothair, 
ch.  xxxiii. 

Roquelo,  a  cloak,  roquelaure.  Cf. 
Rocolo. 

She  then  saw,  parading  up  and  down  the 
hall,  a  figure  wrapped  round  in  a  dark  blue 
roquelo.— Mad.  D'Arblay,  Camilla,  Bk.  IX. 
ch.  iv. 

Rosated,  crowned  or  adorned  with 
roses. 


He  appeareth  there  neither  laureated  nor 
hederated  Poet .  .  .  but  only  rosated,  having 
a  Chaplet  of  four  Roses  about  his  head.— 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Yorkshire  (ii.  513). 

Rose,  to  perfume,  as  with  roses. 
See  extract  from  Tennyson,  8.  v.  Horsi- 

NESS. 

A  rosed  breath  from  lips  rosie  proceeding. 
— Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  234. 

Ross  of  Pottern.     See  quotation. 

Who  was  old  Ross  of  Pottern,  who  lived 
till  all  the  world  was  weary  of  him?  All 
the  world  has  forgotten  him  now. — Southey, 
The  Doctor,  ch.  czxv. 

Rota-room,  in  1659  a  political  de- 
bating society  called  the  Rota,  was 
established  at  Miles's  Coffee-House  in 
New  Palace  Yard.  It  was  dissolved 
at  the  Restoration,  but  I  suppose  it  is 
from  this  that  a  coffee-house,  being  a 
place  where  politics  were  discussed,  is 
called  in  the  extract  a  rota-room. 

A  coffee-house  is  ...  a  rota-room,  that, 
like  Noah's  Ark,  receives  animals  of  every 
sort.  —  Character  of  a  Coffee-House%  1673 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  465). 

Rote,  a  regular  row  or  rank.  See 
extract  8.  v.  Backstone. 

Rot-gut,  ah  epithet  applied  to  bad 
liquor,  as  having  a  deleterious  effect  on 
the  stomach  and  bowels.     H.  and  L. 
have  it  as  a  substantive. 
A  poor  old  woman,  with  a  diarrhoea, 
Brought  on  by  slip-slop  tea  and  rot-gut  beer, 

Went  to  Sangrado  with  a  woeful  face. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  53. 
•Then  there's  fuddling  about  in  the  public- 
houses,  and  drinking  bad  spirits,  and  punch, 
and  such  rot-gut  stuff. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown's 
School  Days,  Pt.  I.  ch.  vi. 

Rottenly,  crumbly. 

A  rottenly  mould 

Is  land  woorth  gould. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  44. 

Rottle,  an  onomatopceous  word  = 
to  gurgle. 

Why,  Bacchus,  dost  thou  think  that  she 
Takes  a  delight  in  cruelty ; 
In  hearing  blood  in  throats  to  rottle 
Like  liquor  from  a  streight-mouth'd  bottle  ? 
Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  282. 

Rottocke,  or  Ruttocke,  a  stick  (?). 
Diogenes  swearing  by  St.  Marie  may 
be  noted. 

^  Being  asked  how  he  would  be  buried,  he 
bidde  that  his  dead  carkesse  should  bee  cast 
out  in  the  fieldes  without  sepulture.  Then 
said  his  frendes,  "  What,  to  the  fowles  of 


ROTULA 


(  558  ) 


ROUND  UP 


the  aier  and  to  the  wyld  beastes?"  "No, 
by  Saint  Marie/'  quoth  Diogenes  again ;  "  not 
so  in  no  wise,  but  hue  me  a  little  rottocke 
hard  beside  me  wherewith  to  beate  them 
away." — Udaly$  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  174. 

He  put  abrode  the  looures  of  the  tente 
with  a  ruttocke  that  he  hadde  in  his  hande. 
— Ibid.  p.  241. 

Rotula,  elbow :  the  word  is  usually 
applied  to  the  knee-pan,  though  Patella 
is  more  common.     Fr.  rotule. 

The  ball  entered  my  clothes  and  flesh,  and 
lodged  on  to  the  rotula  of  my  left  arm. — H. 
Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  126. 

Rotuker  (Fr.  roturier),  a  plebeian ; 
yet  the  context  seems  rather  to  require 
a  trade :  perhaps  it  stands  for  a  small 
farmer.  The  speaker  is  supposed  to  be 
an  ass  who  was  once  an  Artonian  [i.  e. 
French]  peasant. 

I  was  once  a  man,  an  Artonian  born ;  my 
profession  was  both  a  vineyard-man  and  a 
roturer. — Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  18. 

Rouge,  to  blush  or  redden :  usually 
to  apply  rouge. 

They  all  stared,  and  to  be  sure  I  rouged 
pretty  high. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  i.  314. 

Madame  d'Henin,  though  rouged  the  whole 
time  with  confusion,  never  ventured  to  ad- 
dress a  word  to  me. — Ibid.,  vii.  102. 

Rough  it,  to  endure  hardship  or  in- 
convenience. 

Take  care  of  Fanny,  mother ;  she  is  tender, 
and  not  used  to  rough  it  like  the  rest  of  us. 
— Miss  Austen,  Mansfield  Park,  ch.  xxxviii. 

You  are  going  then  to  Spaiu — to  rough  it 
amid  the  storms  of  war? — Carlyle,  Life  of 
Sterling,  ch.  x. 

Rough-rider,  one  who  breaks  horses. 

Lancelot  had  bought  him  out  of  the  Pytch- 
ley  for  half  his  value  as  unrideably  vicious 
when  he  had  killed  a  groom  and  fallen 
backwards  on  a  rough-rider.  —  C.  Kingdey, 
Yeast,  ch.  i. 

Round.  To  lead  the  round  =  to  be 
a  ring-leader. 

Ah !  villains,  hath  that  Mortimer  escaped? 
With  him  is  Edmund  gone  associate  ? 
And  will  Sir  John  of  Henault  lead  the  round  7 

Marlowe,  Edit.  II,  iv.  3. 

Round-about,  a  dance. 

Though  the  Miss  Flamboroiiffhs  were 
reckoned  the  very  best  dancers  in  the  parish, 
aud  understood  the  jig  and  the  round-about 
to  perfection,  yet  they  were  totally  un- 
acquainted with  country  dances. — Vicar  of 
Wakefield,  ch.  ix. 

Roundaboutation,  circumlocution. 

To  finish  my  tale  without  roundaboutation. 
— H.  and  J.  Smith,  Rejected  Addressee,  p.  177. 


Rounders,  a  boy's  game. 

Prisoner's  base,  rounders,  high-cock-a-lor- 
um,  cricket,  foot-ball,  he  was  soon  initiated 
into  the  delights  of  them  all.  —Hughes,  Tom 
Brown's  School  Days,  Pt.  I.  ch.  iii. 

Round  or  Rattle,  in  every  case  (?). 

In  conjunction  with  them,  or  out  of  con- 
junction, round  or  rattle,  if  he  were  rich,  he 
must  be  made  a  booty  or  a  compounder. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  206. 

Round- Robin,  a  seditious  person. 
Perhaps  because  dissatisfied  people 
sometimes  make  complaint  to  their 
superiors  by  a  round -robin. 

These  Wat  Tylers  and  Round-Robins  being 
driven  or  persuaded  out  of  Whitehall,  there 
was  a  buzz  among  them  to  make  their  way 
to  Westminster  Abbey ;  some  said.  Let  us 

Sluck  down  the  organs ;  some  cried,  Let  us 
eface  the  monuments.  —  Hacket,  Life  of 
WUliams,  ii.  177. 

Round-Robin,  a  blasphemous  name 
given  by  some  of  the  more  disreputable 
of  the  reforming  party  to  the  sacra- 
mental wafer.  See  quotation  s.  v.  Pre- 
die,  and  Ridley?*  Works,  p.  265.  H. 
says  round-robin  =  a  small  pancake, 
in  Devonshire. 

Certain  fond  talkers  .  .  .  invent  and  apply 
to  this  most  holy  sacrament  names  of  de- 
spite and  reproach,  as  to  call  it  Jack-in-the- 
Box,  and  Round-Robin,  and  such  other  not 
only  foul,  but  blasphemous  names. — Cover- 
dale,  i.  426. 

Whereas  the  Sacrament  was  in  those  times 
delivered  unto  each  communicant  in  a  small 
round  wafer,  commonly  called  by  the  name 
of  Sacra/nentum  Altaris,  or,  The  Blessed 
Sacrament  of  the  Altar,  and  that  such  parts 
thereof  as  were  reserved  from  time  to  time 
were  hanged  up  over  the  altar  in  a  pix  or 
box,  these  zealous  ones,  in  hatred  to  the 
Church  of  Rome,  reproached  it  by  the  odious 
names  of  Jack-in-a-oox,  Round  Robin,  Sacra- 
ment of  the  Halter,  and  other  names  so  un- 
becoming the  mouths  of  Christians  that  they 
were  never  taken  up  by  the  Turks  and  In- 
fidels.— Heylin,  Reformation*,  i.  99. 

Rounds,  soldiers  who  go  the  rounds 
to  see  that  sentinels  are  at  their  post : 
more  usually  called  in  old  times  "  gen- 
tlemen of  the  round  "  (Jonson,  Every 
Man  in  his  Rum.,  iii.  2). 

To  send  out  strong  patroulles  or  Rounds 
for  skouting  all  along  the  CharwelL — Prince 
Rupert's  beating  up  the  rebels,  1643,  p.  13. 

Round  up,  to  rebuke.  In  the  Pil- 
grim's Progress,  Pt>  I.  p.  175,  we  read, 
"Then  Christian  roundly  answered, 
saying,  ( Demas,  thou  art  an  enemy  to 


ROUND  Y 


(  559  )  ROYSTEROUS 


the  right  ways  of  the  Lord,1 "  &c.  The 
marginal  summary  is, "  Christian  round- 
ethup  Demas." 

Roundy,  round. 

Her  roundy  sweetly  swelling  lips  a  little 
trembling. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  287. 

Rounsepal,  big,  large.     In  another 

extract  from  Stanyhurst,  «.  v.  Harsh, 

it  seems  to  be  used  as  a  substantive  = 

a  heavy  fall.     Cf .  Rdncivall. 

Thee  rounseual  helswarme 
Of  Oyclopan  burdens. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  Hi.  690. 

Rousing,  brisk. 

A  Jew,  who  kept  a  sausage  shop  in  the 
same  street,  had  the  ill  luck  to  die  of  a 
strangury,  and  leave  his  widow  in  possession 
of  a  rousing  trade. — Sterne,  Tr.  Shandy,  vi. 
109. 

Rodtish,  disorderly. 

The  Common  Hall,  instead  of  being  de 
melioribus,  became  a  routish  assembly  of  sorry 
citizens. — North,  Examen,  p.  93. 

Routle,  to  disturb,  rout  out. 

A  misdoubt  me  if  there  were  a  felly  there 
as  would  ha'  thought  o'  routling  out  yon 
wasps'  nest. — Mrs.  Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers, 
ch.  xziii. 

Rouzle,  to  rumple. 

Well,  I  protest  you  are  a  waggish  man ; 
Lord,  how  you  have  rouzVd  and  touzl'd  one ! 
All  my  rigging  hangs  as  if  'twas  zhaked  on 
with  a  shed  vork,  as  the  old  zaying  is. — 
Centlivre,  Platonick  Lady,  Act  IV. 

Rover.  The  Imp.  Diet,  defines 
Roving  as  "  the  operation  which  gives 
the  first  twist  to  cotton  thread  by  draw- 
ing it  through  an  eye  or  aperture." 

On  the  first  stage  were  the  Teaser,  Carder, 
Rover,  Spinner,  Reeler  of  the  Cotton  Wool. 
— Defoe,  Tour  thro'  G.  Britain,  iii.  180. 

Roverie,  piracy. 

These  Norwegians,  who  with  their  mani- 
fold robberies  and  roveries  did  most  hurt 
from  the  Northern  Sea,  took  up  their  haunt 
into  this  Hand. — Holland1*  Camden,  ii.  205. 

Rowdy,  a  blackguard  or  ruffian ;  an 
American  term. 

A  drunken  gambling  cut-throat  rovody  as 
ever  grew  ripe  for  the  gallows. — C.  Kinysley, 
Tioo  Years  Ago,  ch.  x. 

Reader,  if  you  do  not  know  that  a  man 
will  act  from  sentiment  long,  long  years 
after  he  has  thrown  principle  to  the  winds, 
you  had  better  pack  up  your  portmanteau, 
and  go  and  live  five  years  or  more  among 
Australian  convicts  and  American  rowdies. — 
H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  lix. 


Rowen-tailed,  Rowen  is  the  after- 
growth of  corn  or  grass ;  this  may  have 
something  to  do  with  the  expression. 
The  time  that  Breton  speaks  of  is 
harvest. 

Bucks  now  are  in  season,  and  partridges 
are  rowen-taild,  and  a  good  retriuer  is  a 
spaniell  worth  the  keeping. — Breton,  Fantas- 
tickes,  p.  7. 

Rowing,  a  process  in  dressing  cloth ; 
smoothing  it  with  a  roller. 

The  cloth  worker,  what  with  rowing  and 
setting  in  a  fine  nap ;  with  powdering  it  and 
pressing  it ;  with  shering  the  wooll  to  the 
proofe  of  the  threed,  deale  so  cunningly  that 
they  prove  themselves  the  draper's  minister 
to  execute  his  subtleties. — Greene,  Quip  for 
Upstart  Courtier  (Harl.  Misc.,*.  416). 

The  number  of  hands  which  it  employs  in 
this  town  and  adjoining  villages  in  spinning, 
carding,  rotcina,  pulling,  weaving,  be,  is 
almost  incredible.  —  Defoe,  Tour  thro9  G. 
Britain,  ii.  335. 

Rowlet,  a  8m nil  groove. 

Bulky  carts  are  made  with  four  rowlets 
fitting  these  rails,  whereby  the  carriage  is  so 
easy  that  one  horse  will  draw  down  four  or 
five  chaldron  of  coal. — North,  life  of  Lord 
Guilford,  i.  265. 

Wherever  there  was  like  to  be  a  friction, 
a  rowlet  was  placed  to  receive  it. — Ibid.,  ii. 
269. 

Royalize,  to  bear  royal  sway ;  the 
Diets,  only  have  this  as  an  active  verb, 
and  with  a  quotation  from  Richard 
III.,  i.  3,  where  it  means  "to  make 
royal,"  as  it  does  also  in  the  closing 
lines  of  Greenes  Friar  Bacon,  and  in 
Marlowe,  1  Tamb.,  ii.  3. 

Whom  without  force,  vproar,  or  ryualing 
Nature,  and  Law,  and  Fortune  make  a  King, 
Even  he,  (my  son,)  must  be  both  just  and 

wise, 
If  long  he  look  to  rule  and  royalize. 

Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  79. 

Royolet,  a  petty  prince.  L.  has 
roytelet,  with  a  quotation  from  Hey  1  in. 

These  royolets  contented  themselves  that 
their  crowns  (though  not  so  big)  were  as 
bright,  their  scepters  (though  not  so  great) 
were  as  glistering  as  those  of  the  mightiest 
monarchs. — Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  I.  viii.  1. 

There  were  indeed  at  this  time  two  other 
royolets,  as  onely  Kings  by  his  leave,  vis., 
Beorred,  King  of  Mercia,and  Edmond,  King 
of  East-Angles.— Ibid.,  Ch.  Hist.,  II.  iv.  10. 

ROY8TEROD8,  unruly,  revelling.  See 
extract  from  Stany hurst,  «.  v.  Heap- 
flood. 

"Was  the  like  ever  heard  of  ?  The  roytter- 
ous  young  dogs ;  carolling,  howling,  breaking 


RUBBING  POST         (  560  )  RUE-BARGAIN 


the  Lord  Abbot's  sleep.— Carlyle,  Past  and 
Present,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xv. 

Rubbing  tost.     See  extract. 

These  Kistvaens  are  numerous,  but  they 
have  been  generally  deprived  of  their  lone 
covering  stones,  which  have  been  converted 
to  rubbing  posts,  as  they  are  termed  in  the 
West  of  England,  for  the  cattle. — Archaol., 
xxii.  434  (1829). 

Rubbish-walling.     See  extract. 

There  is  a  want  of  homogeneity  in  the 
manner  of  style  which  resembles  what  the 
masons  call  rubbish-tcalling,  where  fragments 
of  anciently  hewn  and  sculptured  stone  are 
built  in  with  modern  brick-bats  and  pebbles 
of  the  soil.— IT.  Taylor  of  Norwich,  1805 
(Memoir,  ii.  107). 

Rubelet,  little  ruby. 

And  in  the  midst,  to  grace  it  more,  was  set 
A  blushing-pretty-peeping  rubelet. 

Herriek,  Hesperides,  p.  243. 

Rub  OFF)  to  depart  hastily.  Cf. 
Brush. 

In  a  huff  he  call'd  for  his  horse,  rub'd  off, 
and  left  the  field  to  Eusebius. — Gentleman 
Instructed,  p.  351. 

Rubor,  redness. 

Mr.  Justice  Jones  .  .  .  being  of  Welsh 
extraction,  was  apt  to  warm,  and,  when 
much  offended  often  shewed  his  heats  in  a 
rubor  of  his  countenance. — North,  Examen, 
p.  563. 

Rubric,  to  enact,  as  by  a"  rubric ; 
also,  to  put  in  the  calendar. 

Hee  firmed  and  rubrickt  Kentishmen's 
gaviU-lrinde  of  the  son  toinherite  at  fifteene. 
— Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  153). 

He  [the  Pope]  is  too  saucy  .  .  .  stretching 
his  arm  to  heaven,  in  rubricking  what  saints 
he  list. — Adams,  ii.  255. 

Rubric,  pertaining  to  the  calendar. 
Hacket  means  that  the  Romanists  en- 
rolled in  the  list  of  their  worthies  many 
to  whom  they  had  no  claims;  hence, 
he  speakB  of  rubric  lies :  rubric  martyr 
=  one  who  has  a  place  in  the  martyr- 
ology. 

They  were  of  the  most  addicted  to  the 
Church  of  Rome  .  .  .  impostors  that  are 
accustomed  to  bestow  rubrick  lies  upon  the 
best  Saints  of  God,  and  whom  they  can  not 
pervert  living,  to  challenge  for  theirs  when 
they  are  dead. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i. 
223. 

The  grand  jury  have  presented  his  [Boling- 
broke's]  works,  and  as  long  as  there  are  any 
parsons,  he  will  be  ranked  with  Tindal  and 
Toland;  nay,  1  don't  know  whether  my 
father  won't  become  a  rubric  martyr,  for 
having  been  persecuted  by  him. —  Walpole  to 
Mann,  iii.  86  (1754). 


Rubric.  The  meaning  of  the  extract 
is,  I  suppose,  that  the  Gardes  Fran- 
caises  are  to  us  mere  red  lines  of  men, 
whom  we  cannot  individualize. 

A  most  notable  corps  of  men,  which  has 
its  place  in  world-history ;  though  to  us,  so 
is  History  written,  they  remain  mere  rubrics 
of  men,  nameless ;  a  shaggy  Grenadier  mass, 
crossed  with  buff-belts. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rex., 
Pt.  II.  Bk.  V.  ch.  vi. 

Rubricalities,  matters  connected 
with  the  rubrics :  points  of  ritual. 

°  Where  have  yon  been  staying?  n  "  With 
yeung  Lord  Vieuxboix,  among  high  art  and 
painted  glass,  spade  farms,  and  model  smell- 
traps,  rubricalities,  and  sanitary  reforms.'* — 
C.  Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  vi. 

RUB8T0NE,  a  sandstone  for  the 
scythe.  "  The  rub  or  buckle  stone 
which  husbandmen  doo  occupie  in  the 
whetting  of  their  sithes."  Harrison, 
Descr.  of  England,  Pt  II.  p.  64,  quoted 
in  Eng.  Dial.  Soc.'s  edit,  of  Tusser,  who 
reckons  among  "  harvest  tooles," 

A  brush  sithe  and  grasse  sithe  with  rifle  to 

stand, 
A  cradle  for  barlie,  with  rubstone  and  sand. 

Tusser,  Rusbandrie,  p.  37. 

Ruckling,  rattling. 

The  deep  ruckling  groans  of  the  patient 
satisfied  every  one  that  she  was  breathing 
her  last.— Scott,  S.  Ronan's  Well,  ii.  343. 

Ruddle,  to  mark  with  ruddle  or 
ochre.    Cf.  Raddle. 

On  their  cheeks  to  their  chin  unmercifully 
laid  on  a  shining  red  japan,  that  glistens  in 
a  most  flaming  manner,  so  that  they  seem 
to  have  no  resemblance  to  human  faces.  I 
am  apt  to  believe  that  they  took  the  first 
hint  of  their  dress  from  a  fair  sheep  newly 
ruddled.  —  Lady  M.  W.  Montagu  to  Lady 
Rich,  Oct.  10, 1718. 

Rude,  robust :  the  phrase  sneered  at 
in  the  extract  is  not  uncommon. 

Here  and  there  smiled  a  plump  rosy  face 
enough ;  but  the  majority  seemed  under- 
sized, under-fed,  utterly  wanting  in  grace, 
vigour,  and  what  the  penny-a-liners  call 
u  rude  health." — C.  Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  xiii. 

Rudish,  somewat  rude. 

For  man  and  wife  to^uarrel  before  folks  is 
rather  rudish,  I  own. — Foote,  The  Cozeners, 
ui.  2. 

Ruds,  a  name  of  the  heliotrope 
(Holland,  Pliny,  xix.  6). 

Rue-bargain,  the  forfeit  paid  by  one 
who  withdraws  from  a  bargain. 

He  said  it  would  cost  him  a  guinea  of  rue- 
bargain  to  the  man  who  had  bought  his  pony 


RUFF 


(  561  )      RUJSIC1VALL  PEASE 


before  he  could  get  it  back  again. — Scott,  Rob 
Hoy,  ii.  145. 

Ruff,  a  flourish  on  a  musical  instru- 
ment. 

The  drum  beats  a  ruff,  and  so  to  bed; 
that's  all,  the  ceremony  is  concise.  —  Far' 
guhar,  Recruiting  Officer,  Act  V. 

Ruffianage,  rascaldom. 

Rufus  never  moved,  unless  escorted  by 
the  vilest  ruffianage.  —  Palgrave,  Hist,  of 
JVorm.  and  Eng.,  iv.  678. 

Rufpin,  or  Ruffian,  cant  term  for 
the  devil.    See  extract  8.  v.  Glaziers. 

Rdfflery,  noise ;  disturbance.    The 

same  writer  uses  ritfflered.    See  extract 

s.  v.  Wherve. 

But  neere  joynctlye  brayeth  with  rufflerye 
rumboled  JStna. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iii.  582. 

Ruffpeck,  cant  term  for  bacon.  See 
extract  8.  v.  Casson,  and  in  H.  s.  v. 
pannam. 

Ruffy-tuffy,  dishevelled. 

Powder'd  bag-wigs  aud  ruffy-tuffy  heads 
Of  cinder  wenches  meet  and  soil  each  other. 

Keats,  Cap  and  Bells,  st.  86. 

Ruftie-tuftie  wise,  roughly  ;  in- 
decently. In  the  second  quotation, 
where  there  is  a  slight  difference  in 
the  spelling,  Breton  is  describing  the 
ways  of  sailors,  hurrying  pell-mell  to 
the  public  house  as  soon  as  they  land : 
it  is  used  in  much  the  same  way  in  the 
third  quotation  =  hey-day. 

Were  I  as  Vince  is,  I  would  handle  you 
In  ruftie-tuftie  wise  in  your  right  kinde. 

Chapman,  Gentleman  Usher,  V.  i. 

To  sweare  and  stare  until  we  come  to  shore, 
Then  rifty  tufty  each  one  to  his  skore. 

Breton,  Pilgrimage  of  Paradise,  p.  16. 

Lelia.  Til  prank  myself  with  flowers  of 
the  prime, 
And  thus  I'll  spend  away  my  primrose  time. 
Kurse.  Rufty,  tufty,  are  you  so  frolick  ? 

tVily  Beguiled  (Hawkins, 
.Eng.j>r.,w.  302). 

Ruination.  I  only  insert  this  word 
because  L.  calls  it  "rare  or  obsolete." 
I  should  have  thought  it  common 
enough  and  in  everyday  use. 

The  ordinary  life,  youth,  and  connection 
of  our  old  architecture  has  been  mutilated 
and  corrupted  in  proportion  as  it  has  been 
subjected  to  a  Restoration,  or  (since  the 
Professor  paused  for  a  suitable  word)  I 
would  suggest  Ruinat'on.  —  First  Report  of 
Soc.for  Protection  of  Anc.  Monuments,  1878, 
p.  32. 


RULELES8NESS,  want  of  rules.  The 
adjective  ruleless  is  used  by  Spenser. 

Its  [the  Star-Chamber's]  rulelessness,  or 
want  of  rules  that  can  be  comprehended,  is 
curiously  illustrated  here. —  The  Academy, 
July  19, 1879,  p.  43. 

Rumble-tumble,  the  seat  behind  a 
carriage :  usually  only  the  first  half  of 
this  word  is  employed. 

From  the  dusty  height  of  a  nimble-tumble 
affixed  to  Lady  Selina  Vipont's  barouche 
.  .  .  Vance  caught  sight  of  Lionel.— Lytton, 
What  will  he  do  with  it  ?  Bk.  I.  ch.  xv. 

Rumbooze,  a  drink.  See  H.  s.  v. 
rambuze,  who  quotes  from  Blount's 
Glossographia  to  the  effect  that  it  was 
a  Cambridge  mixture.  N.  also  cites 
Blount,  and  adds,  "of  this  learned 
academ'cal  word  I  have  not  met  with 
an  example." 

Piot,  a  common  cant  word  used  by  French 
clowns,  and  other  tippling  companions ;  it 
signifies  rum-booze,  as  our  gipsies  call  good- 
guzzle,  and  comes  from  <*-/<»,  bibo.  —  XJrqu- 
hart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  II.  ch.  i.  (noteV 

This  bowse  [drink]  is  better  than  rom- 
bowse. — Broome,  Jovial  Crew,  Act  II. 

Rumbustious,  rough,  unruly ;  rum- 

busticcU  is  the  more  common  vulgarism. 

The  sea  has  been  rather  rumbustious,  I 
own.— Foote,  Trip  to  Calais,  Act  I. 

Rumine,  to  ruminate. 

As  studious  scholar  he  se\l-rumineth. — 
Sylvester,  Qth  day,  1st  week,  44. 

Rump,  to  turn  the  back  on  one. 

This  mythologirk  Deity  was  Plutus, 

The  grand  Divinity  of  Cash, 
Who,  when  he  rumps  us  quite,  and  won't 
salute  us, 
If  we  are  men  of  Commerce,  then  we 
smash. 

Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  129. 
Nick  rumps  him  completely  and  don't  seem 

to  care  a 
Dump — that's  the  word,  for  his  triple  tiara. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  (Old  Woman  in  Grey). 

Run,  smuggled. 

She  boasted  of  her  feats  in  diving  into 
dark  dens  in  search  of  run  goods — charming 
things  —  French  warranted — that  could  be 
had  for  next  to  nothing. — Miss  Edgeworth, 
Helen,  ch.  xxv. 

R unci v all  pease,  marrow-fat. 
Tusser?  Husbandrie,  p.  95,  mentions 
"  runctuall  pease  set  in  winter  "  among 
"  herbes  and  rootes  to  boile  or  to  but- 
ter." Messrs.  Payne  and  Herrtage 
say,  "  supposed  to  be  derived  from 
Span.  Roncesvalles,  a  town  at  the  foot 

0  0 


RUNDLER 


(  S62  ) 


RYPECK 


of  the  Pyrenees,  where  gigantic  bones 
of  old  heroes  were  pretended  to  be 
shown :  hence  the  name  was  applied  to 
anything  of  a  size  larger  than  usual." 

Cf.  HOUNSBFAL. 

Another,  stumbling  at  the  threshold,  tum- 
bled in  his  dish  of  rouncevals  before  him. — 
Broome,  Jovial  Crew,  Act  V. 

She  was  clad  in  a  robe  of  finest  serge, 
which  had  it  been  napped,  each  grain  would 
have  been  the  size  of  a  good  ronceval  pea. — 
Jarvis's  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  III.  ch.  vi. 

Rundler,  a  round  vessel.  (?) 

A  catch  or  pinck  no  capabler  than  a  rundler 
or  washiug  bowle.  —  Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffs 
{Harl.  Mite.,  vi.  163). 

Runecraft,  knowledge  or  skill  in 
runes. 

Modern  Swedish  runecraft  largely  depends 
upon  his  many  and  valuable  publications. — 
Arch.,  xliii.  98  (1871). 

Runesmith,  worker  at  runes. 

No  one  has  workt  with  more  zeal  than 
Richard  Dybeck  of  Stockholm  ;  no  one  has 
publisht  half  so  many  Runic  stones,  mostly 
in  exact  copies,  as  this  energetic  runesmith. — 
Arch.,  xliii.  98  (1871). 

Runlet,  small  stream  ;  runnel  is  the 
commoner  word. 

Then  ask  me  not,  virgins,  to  stay ; 

With  a  sigh  seems  the  zephyr  to  blow ; 
And  the  runlet  that  murmurs  away 

To  wind  with  a  murmur  of  wo. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  311. 

Runner,  a  rope  belonging  to  the 
garnet,  and  to  the  two  bolt-tackles  ;  it 
is  used  to  increase  the  mechanical 
power  of  the  tackle. 

There  are  ...  all  kinds  of  Shipchandlery 
necessaries,  such  as  blocks,  tackles,  runner*, 
be.— Defoe,  Tour  thro'  G.  Britain,  i.  147. 

Runner,  a  smuggler :  we  still  speak 
of  running  a  cargo. 

The  unfair  traders  and  runners,  and  such 
as  come  in  before  the  duties  are  recharged, 
will  undersell  us,  as  they  well  may,  paying 
no  custom.— North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii. 
188. 

By  merchants  I  mean  fair  traders,  and  not 
runners  and  trickers,  as  the  little  people 
often  are  that  cover  a  contraband  trade.— 
Ibid.,  Examen,  p.  490. 

Runners,  police  officers,  before  the 
introduction  of  the  new  system,  were 
called  runners  or  Bow-street  runners. 
In  the  quotations  from  Brooke  and 
Kingsley  it  seems  =  bailiff. 

He  issued  early  forth,  accompanied  only 
by  his  huntsman  and  his  agent's  runner,  who 


knew  and  was  known  everywhere. — Brook*, 
Fool  of  Quality,  ii.  280. 

He  was  called  the  Man  of  Peace  on  tbe 
same  principle  which  assigns  to  constables, 
Bow-street  runners,  and  such  like,  who  cany 
bludgeons  to  break  folk's  heads,  and  are 
perpetually  and  officially  employed  in  scenes 
of  riot,  the  title  of  peace-officers. — Scott,  St. 
Ro nan's  Well,  i.  58. 

"It's  the  runners!"  cried  Brittle*,  to  all 
appearance  much  relieved.  '*  The  what  ?  *' 
exclaimed  the  doctor,  aghast  in  his  turn. 
"The  Bow  Street  officers,  sir,"  replied 
Brittle*. — Dickens,  Olivtr  Twist,  ch.  xxx. 

I'd  sooner  be  a  sheriff's  runner,  or  a  negro 
slave. — C.  Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  in. 

Running  worm,  Herpes,  &c. 

A  kinde  of  S.  Anthonies  fire,  whose  heate 
eauseth  little  blisters  or  wheales  to  ari*e, 
creeping  to  fret  the  skin ;  some  call  it  the 
shingles,  some  the  running  worme,  some  wild- 
fire.— JVbmenclator,  p.  440. 

Runoloqist,  one  learned  in  runes. 

The  advanced  school  of  Scandinavian 
runologists  holds  that  the  Runic  Futhark  of 
twenty-four  letters  is  derived  from  the  later 
alphabet. — Athenaum,  June  28, 1879,  p.  818. 

Runology,  stud)'  of  runes. 

Of  late,  however,  great  progress  has  been 
made  in  runology. — Arch.,  xliii.  98  (1871). 

Runt,  a  raw  country  girl. 

This  city  spoils  all  servants;  I  took  a 
Welsh  runt  last  spring,  whose  generation 
scarce  ever  knew  the  use  of  stockings  ;  and, 
will  you  believe  me,  my  Lord,  she  had  not 
been  with  me  three  weeks  before  she  sew'd 
three  penny  canes  round  the  bottom  of  her 
shift  instead  of  a  hoop-petticoat. — Centlivre, 
The  Artifice,  Act  III 

Rushelinqe,  rushing,  rustling.  (?) 

Than  was  all  the  rable  of  the  shippe,  hag, 
tag,  and  rag,  called  to  the  reckeninge,  rushel- 
inge  together  as  they  had  beene  the  cookes 
of  helle  with  their  great  Cerberus. — Voeacyo* 
ofJohan  Bale,  1553  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi  459). 

Rustless,  free  from  rust. 

I  have  known  her  fastidious  in  seeking 
pure  metal  for  clean  uses ;  and  when  once  a 
bloodless  and  rustless  instrument  was  found, 
she  was  careful  of  the. price. — Miss  Bronte, 
Villette,  ch.  viii. 

Rutted,  marked  with  ruts. 

The  two  in  high  glee  started  behind  old 
Dobbin,  and  jogged  along  the  deep-rv/to/ 
plashy  roads. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown's  School- 
days, Pt.  I.  ch.  iii. 

She  saw  the  grey  shoulders  of  the  downs, 
the  cattle-specked  fields,  the  shadowy  plant- 
ations with  rutted  lanes. — G.  Eliot,  Danid 
Deronda,  oh.  lxiv. 

Rypeck,  the  pole  used  to  moor  a 
punt,  while  fishing,  &c.     Conjectures 


R  YTHMER 


(  563  ) 


SADDLE 


as  to  the  derivation  of  the  word  will  be 
found  in  N.  and  Q.,  IV.  xii.  294,  337. 
He  ordered  the  fisherman  to  take  up  the 
rypecks,  and  he  floated  away  down  stream. — 
U.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  lxiv. 


RrrHMBR,  rhimester. 

Amongst  all  the  foul  mouthes  belibelling 
marriage,  one  railing  rythmer  of  Anselme's 
age  bore  away  the  belL— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist, 
UI.  ii.  13. 


Sabin,  a  fanciful  person.  The  refer- 
ence is  to  the  proverb,  Sabini  quod 
volunt  somniant,  the  Sabines  attaching 
great  importance  to  dreams. 

Grimsby,  which  our  Sabins,  or  conceited 
persons  dreaming  what  they  list,  and  follow- 
ing their  own  fansies,  will  have  to  be  so 
called  of  one  Grimes  a  merchant. — Holland's 
Camden,  p.  542. 

Sableize,  to  make  black. 

Some  chroniclers  that  write  of  kingdomes 
states 
Do  so  absurdly  sableize  my  White 
With  Maskes  and  Enterludes  by  day  and 
night.— Davies,  Paper's  Complaint,  1. 241. 

Sabred,  furnished  with  a  sabre: 
swarded  is  used  in  the  same  way.  Sabred 
now  =  killed  or  wounded  with  a  sabre. 

There  are  persons  whose  loveliness  is  more 
formidable  to  me  than  a  whole  regiment  of 
sabred  hussars  with  their  fierce  -  looking 
moustaches.  —  H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality, 
11.  yy. 

Saccage,  to  sack  :  the  substantive  is 
not  so  uncommon. 

Those  songs  of  the  dolorous  discomfits  in 
battaile,  aud  other  desolations  in  warre,  or 
of  townes  saccaged  and  subuerted,  were  song 
by  the  remnant  of  the  army  ouerthrowen, 
with  great  skrikings  aud  outcries.  —  Put  ten- 
ham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxiv. 

Sack.  To  give  tlie  sack  =  to  dismiss  ; 
to  get  the  sack  —  to  be  dismissed,  the 
person  having  to  pack  up  his  alls  in  a 
sack,  and  be  off.  See  N.  and  Q„  1st 
S. ,  Vol.  VI.  An  extract  from  Ingoldsby 
Legends  will  be  found  s.  v.  Nous. 

I  wonder  what  old  Fogg  *ud  say,  if  he 
knew  it ;  I  should  ^et  the  sack,  I  s'pose,  eh  ?— 
Pickunck  Papers,  ch.  xx. 

The  short  way  would  have  been  ...  to  have 
requested  him  immediately  to  quit  the  house ; 
or,  as  Mr.  Gann  said,  to  give  him  the  sack  at 
once.--Thackeray%  Shabby  Genteel  Story,  ch.  v. 

He  is  no  longer  an  officer  of  this  gaol ;  he 
has  got  the  sack.  —  Reade,  Never  too  late  to 
mend,  ch.  xxvi. 

Sackless,  innocent;  also  foolish, 
weak.  See  L.  s.  v.  sake.  Naslie  treats 
it  as  a  Scotch  term,  for  he  is  imitating 


"  some  of  the  deftest  lads  in  all  Edin- 
borough  town©  "  in  the  passage  cited. 

'Gainst  slander's  blast 
Truth  doth  the  silly  sackless  soul  defend. 

Greene  (from  Never  too  late),  p.  299. 

Many  sacklesse  wights  and  praty  barnes 
run  through  the  tender  weamhs.  —  Nashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Hart.  Misc.,  vi.  163). 

"  It  looks  melancholy,  does  it  not,  Ellen  ?  " 
"Yes,"  I  observed,  "about  as  starved  and 
sackless  as  you."  —  E.  Bronte,  Wutliering 
Heights,  ch.  xxii. 

Sacramentize,  to  administer  the  sa- 
craments. 

Ministers  made  by  Presbyterian  govern- 
ment in  France  and  the  Low  Countries  were 
owned  and  acknowledged  by  our  Bishops  for 
lawfully  ordained  for  all  intents  and  purposes, 
both  to  preach  and  sacramentize. — Fuller,  Ch. 
Hist.,  XI.  ix.  65. 

The  governing  part  should  be  in  the  hands 
of  the  bishops,  the  teaching  and  sacramentiz- 
ing  in  the  presbyters. — Ibid.,  XI.  xi.  19. 

Sacrabt,  a  sacred  place ;  a  sanctuary. 
H.  has  one  quotation,  but  the  subjoined 
are  later  instances. 

The  purified  heart  is  God's  sacrary,  His 
sanctuary,  His  house,  His  heaven. — Adams,  i. 
259. 

What  is  their  crime  that  have  carried  them 
quite  away,  both  crown,  and  scepter,  and 
robes  from  their  ancient  sacrary  ?  —  Hacket, 
life  of  Williams,  ii.  68. 

Saddle.  To  set  the  saddle  on  the 
right  horse  =  to  give  a  man  his  share 
of  praise  or  blame.  Dryden  ridic  ile* 
the  delicacy  of  Racine,  who  represented 
Hippolytus  as  exposing  himself  to  death 
rather  than  accuse  his  stepmother  to 
his  father. 

But  take  Hippolytus  out  of  his  poetick  fit, 
and  I  suppose  he  would  think  it  a  wiser  part 
to  set  the  saddle  on  the  right  horse,  and  chuse 
rather  to  live  with  the  reputation  of  a  plain- 
spoken  honest  man,  than  to  die  with  the 
infamy  of  an  incestuous  villain.  —  All  for 
Love,  Preface. 

His  episcopal  lordship  had  done  well  to 
have  shown  in  his  letter  what  was  so  added, 
and  then  the  saddle  would  have  fallen  on  the 

0  0  2 


SADDLE-NOSED         (  564  ) 

right  horse.  —  North,  life  of  Lord  Guilford, 
i.  314. 

Saddle- nosed,  flat  or  broad- nosed. 

There  was  also  a  servant  in  the  inn,  an 
Asturian  wench,  broad-faced,  flat -headed, 
and  saddle-nosed. — J  arms' s  Don  Quixote,  Pt. 
I.  8k.  III.  ch.  ii. 


SAKES  SAKE 

How  may  tnW-saiVd  verse  express. 
How  may  measured  words  adore 
The  full-flowing  harmony 
Of  thy  swan-like  stateliness, 
Eleanore? 

Tennyson,  Eleanore. 


Saddlery,  things  belonging  to  har- 
ness or  horse's  trappings. 

He  invested  also  in  something  of  a  library, 
and  in  large  quantities  of  saddlery. — Hughes, 
Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  x]f  iii. 

Saddle-sick,  galled  from  riding. 

Roland  of  Ronoesvalles  too,  we  see  well  in 
thinking  of  it,  found  rainy  weather  as  well 
as  sunuy, .  .  .  was  saddle-sick,  calumniated, 
constipated.  —  Carlyle,  Diamond  Necklace, 
ch.  i. 

Safe,  safety. 

If  I  with  safe  may  graunt  this  deed, 
I  wil  not  it  ref  use. 

Preston,  K.  Cambists  {Hawkins, 
Eng.  Dr.,  i.  603). 

Safeconduct,  to  convoy  safely,  or  to 
guarantee  safety :  the  substantive  is 
common. 

From  perils  all  within  this  place 
I  will  safeconduct  thee. 
Breton,  Toyes  of  an  Idle  Head,  p.  41. 

Sao,  weighed  down :  the  verb  is  not 
so  uncommon. 

He  ventures  boldly  on  the  pith 
Of  sugred  rush,  and  eats  the  sagae 
And  well  bestrutted  bees  sweet  bagge. 
Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  127. 

Sagamore,  a  title  given  to  the  chiefs 

of  some  American  Indian  tribes. 

The  barbarous  people  were  lords  of  their 
own  ;  and  have  their  sagamores,  and  orders, 
and  forms  of  government. — Bp.  Hall,  Works, 
vii.  447. 

Sagar,  cigar. 

Many  a  sagar  have  little  Goldy  and  I 
smoaked  together. — Col  man,  Man  of  Business, 
Act  IV. 

Sag ed,  taught  or  invented  by  wise 
men. 

Begyn  to  synge,  Amintas  thou ; 

For  why  ?  thy  wyt  is  best ; 
And  many  a  saged  sawe  lies  hyd 

Within  thine  aged  brest. 

Googe,  Eglogs,  i. 

Sailed,  furnished  with  sails  :  used 
figuratively  in  the  second  extract. 

Prostrated  in  most  extreme  ill  fare, 
He  lies  before  his  high-mi /'d  fleet. 

Chapman,  Iliad  t  zix.  335. 


Sail-less  without  sails. 

But  Beauty,  Graoelesse,is  a  Sail-lesse  Bark. 
— Sylvester,  Memorials  of  Mortalities  st.  25. 

A  south-west  wind,  and  above,  a  mighty 
cobweb  of  sail-less  rigging.  —  H.  Kinysley, 
Bavenshoe,  ch.  Ii. 

Saintdom,  state  of  sanctity. 

I  will  not  cease  to  grasp  the  hope  I  hold 
Of  saint dom. — Tennyson,  S.  Simeon  Stylitcs. 

Saintish,  holy. 

They  be  no  diuels,  I  trow,  which  seme  so 
saintish. — Gascoiyne,  Steele  Glas,  Epilogue. 

Saint  Lawrence's  Tears.  See  ex- 
tract. St.  Lawrence  having  been  broiled 
alive  may  account  for  the  fiery  cha- 
racter ascribed  to  his  tears. 

The  August  Meteors. — The  student  will 
scarcely  need  to  be  reminded  to  keep  a  sedul- 
ous watch*  during  the  nights  from  the  9th  to 
the  11th  of  August,  inclusive  (and  notably 
on  that  of  the  10th),  for  the  familiar  shower 
of  shooting  stars,  known  of  old  as  <Sf.  Lau- 
rence's tears,  but  now  termed — rather  more 
scientifically — the  Perseides,  from  the  point 
in  the  heavens  whence  they  appear  to  radiate. 
—The  English  Mechanic,  1874. 

Saint  Vitus' s  Dance,  a  disease  which 
manifests  itself  in  a  convulsive  motion 
of  the  features  or  limbs. 

Dr.  Reid  says  it  is  remarkable  that  St 
Vitus  is  nowhere  to  be  found  in  the  Roman 
Kalendar ;  and  he  supposes  that  **  from  some 
misunderstanding  or  inaccuracy  of  manu- 
script, chorea  invita%  the  original  name  of  the 
disease  called  St.  Vitvs's  dance,  was  read  and 
copied  chorea  Sti.  Viti."  This  is  very  pro- 
bable.— Southey,  Omniana,  i.  325. 

Saithe,  a  species  of  fish. 

He  proposed  he  should  go  ashore  and  buy 
a  few  lines  with  which  they  might  fish  for 
young  saithe  or  lythe  over  the  side  of  the 
yacht, — Black,  Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  xxvii. 

Sake's  sake,  an  emphatic  adjuration. 
"  For  any  sake"  is  more  common,  and 
"for  goodness  sake"  commoner  still. 
In  the  second  and  third  extracts  it  =  for 
auld  langsyne. 

Run  after  him,  and  save  the  poor  fellow 
for  sake's  sake. — The  Cbmmittee,  Act  III. 

Us  be  cum  to  pay  'e  a  visit.  I've  a  been 
long  minded  to  do't  for  old  soke's  sake.— 
Hughes,  Tom  Brown* s  Scltooldays,  Pt.  I.  ch. 
iii. 


SALEAB1LITY  (  565  ) 

Yet  for  old  soke's  sake  she  is  still,  dears, 
The  prettiest  doll  in  the  world. 

King  sky,  Water-Babies, 


SAMPHIRE 


Sale  ability,  saleableness :  predi- 
cated of  that  for  which  there  is  a  de- 
mand in  the  market. 

What  can  he  do  but  spread  himself  into 
breadth  and  length,  into  superficiality  and 
suitability  ? — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  139. 

Salic  law.     See  quotation. 

A  French  antiquarian  (Claude  Seissel)  had 
derived  the  name  of  the  Salic  Law  from  the 
Latin  word  sal,  comme  une  loy  pleine  de  sel, 
Jest  a  dire  pleine  de  sapience,  and  this  the 
Doctor  thought a  far  more  rational  etymology 
than  what  some  one  proposed,  either  seriously 
or  in  sport,  that  the  law  was  called  Salique 
because  the  words  Sialiquis  and  Si  aliqua  were 
of  such  frequent  occurrence  in  it. — Southey, 
The  Doctor,  ch.  ccviii. 

Salligot,  a  ragout  of  tripe. 

He  himself  made  the  wedding  with  fine 
eheeps-heads,  brave  haslets  with  mustard, 
gallant  salligots  with  garlic  (tribars  aux  ails). 
— Urguharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xxri. 

Sally,  to  dance. 

Herod  also  made  a  promise  to  the  daughter 
of  Herodias  when  she  danced  and  salied  so 
pleasantly  before  him. — Becon,  i.  373. 

Salmagundy,  a  sailor's  dish  described 
in  extract.     See  also  s.  v.  Lobscodrse. 

The  descendant  of  Garactacus  returned, 
and  ordering  the  boy  to  bring  a  piece  of  salt 
beef  from  the  brine,  cut  off  a  slice  and  mixed 
it  with  an  equal  quantity  of  onions,  which, 
seasoning  with  a  moderate  proportion  of 
pepper  and  salt,  he  brought  into  a  consist- 
ence with  oil  and  vinegar.  Then  tasting  the 
dish,  assured  us  it  was  the  best  salmagundy 
that  ever  he  made. — Smollett,  Roderick  Ran- 
dom, ch.  xxvi. 

Salpeetry,  nitrous. 

Rich  Jericho's  sometimes  sal-peetry  soil, 
Through  brinie  springs  that  did  about  it  boil, 
Brought  forth  no  fruit. 

Sylvester,  The  Schisme,  674. 

Salsolaceous,  pertaining  to  the  salt- 
wort. 

Sand,  and  nothing  but  sand :  the  salsolace- 
ous plants,  so  long  the  only  vegetation  we 
have  seen,  are  gone. —  H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry 
Hamlyn,  ch.  xlii. 

Salt,  a  sailor. 

He  can  turn  his  hand  to  anything,  like 
most  old  salts. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Ox- 
ford, ch.  viii. 

Salt,  desire:  as  an  adjective  = 
lecherous  the  word  is  not  so  uncommon. 


Gifts  will  be  sent,  and  letters  which 
Are  the  expressions  of  that  itch 
And  salt  which  frets  thy  suters. 

Uerrick,  Hesperides,  p.  186. 

Salt.  A  useless  person  is  said  to  be 
not  worth  his  salt,  i.  e.  keep  ;  so  salary 
is  literally  salt-money. 

He  is  a  dissipated  extravagant  idler ;  he  is 
not  worth  his  salt.  — Dickens,  Hard  Times, 
ch.  xvii. 

Salt,  hospitality.  To  eat  a  mans  salt 
=  to  partake  of  his  hospitality :  the 
phrase  is  taken  from  the  Arabs. 

Abandon  those  from  your  table  and  salt 
whom  your  owne  or  others'  experience  shall 
descrie  dangerous.  —  Hall,  Epistles,  Dec.  i. 
Ep.  8. 

One  does  not  eat  a  man's  salt  as  it  were  at 
these  dinners.  There  is  nothing  sacred  in 
this  kind  of  London  hospitality.— Thackeray, 
Newcomes,  ch.  v. 

Salt.  Children  are  told  that  they 
can  catch  birds  by  putting  salt  upon 
their  tails  ;  hence  the  use  of  the  phrase 
in  the  quotations. 

Such  great  achievements  cannot  fail 
To  cast  salt  on  a  woman's  tail. 

Hudibras,!!.  i.  278. 

His  intelligence  is  so  good,  that  were  you 
coming  near  him  with  soldiers  or  constables 
or  the  like,  I  shall  answer  for  it  you  will 
never  lay  salt  on  his  tail. — Scott,  Rcdgauntlet, 

Plenty  of  subjects  going  about  for  them 
that  know  how  to  put  salt  upon  their  tails. 
That's  what's  wanted.  A  man  needn't  go 
far  to  find  a  subject  if  he's  ready  with  his 
salt-box. — Dickens,  Great  Expectations,  ch.  iv. 

Saltee,  a  penny:  from  the  Italian 
soldo.     Cf.  Dacha-saltee  (slang). 

It  had  rained  kicks  all  day  in  lieu  of  saltees, 
and  that  is  pennies.  —  Reade,  Cloister  and 
Hearth,  ch.  Iv. 

Samaritanism,  benevolence,  like  that 
of  the  Good  Samaritan. 

Mankind  are  getting  mad  with  humanity 
and  Samaritanism.  —  Sydney  Smith,  Letters, 
1844. 

Samphire.  This  plant  is  usually 
derived  from  Saint  Pierre,  the  herb  of 
St.  Peter,  though  probably  this  is  a  sort 
of  punning  dedication  from  its  growing 
on  a  rock.  Smollett's  derivation  is 
rather  fanciful. 

The  French  call  it  passe-pierre,  and  I  sus- 
pect its  English  name  is  a  corruption  of 
sana-pierre.  ...  As  it  grew  upon  a  naked 
rock,  without  any  appearance  of  soil,  it  might 
be  naturally  enough  called  sang  du  pierre  or 


SANATII'ENESS        (  566  ) 


SANTO 


sang-pierre,  blood  of  the  rock  ;  and  hence  the 
name  samphire. — Smollett,  Travels,  Letter  iii. 

Sanativeness,  healing  power. 

There  is  an  obscure  Village  in  this  County, 
neare  St.  Neot's,  called  Haile-weston,  whose 
very  name  soundeth  something  of  sanative* 
ness  therein. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Huntingdon. 

Sanct,  a  saint.  See  another  quota- 
tion from  the  same  book  s.  v.  Mibific. 

Cursed  snakes,  dissembling  varlets,  seem- 
ing sa»rf  5. — Urqvharfs  Rabelais, Bk.  I.  ch.  liv. 

Sanctanimity,  holiness  of  mind. 

A  "  hath  "  or  a  "  thou  n  delivered  with  con- 
ventional unction,  now  well-nigh  inspires  a 
sensation  of  solemnity  in  its  hearer,  and  a 
persuasion  of  the  sanctanimity  of  its  utterer. 
— Hall,  Modern  English,  p.  17. 

Sanctum,  a  place  which  a  person  has 
to  himself,  where  he  is  safe  from  intru- 
sion ;  a  retreat. 

I  should  not  be  called  upon  to  quit  my 
sanctum  of  the  schoolroom,  for  a  sanctum  it 
was  now  become  to  me,  a  very  pleasant 
refuge  in  time  of  trouble. — C.  Bronte,  Jane 
Eyre,  ch.  xvii. 

Sandiferous,  sand  -  bearing  ;  sandy. 
The  speaker  is  a  pedantic  schoolmaster. 

The  surging  sulks  of  the  Sandiferous  seas. 
— Sidney,  Wanstead  Play,  p.  619. 

Sandillions,  numbers  like  the  sand 
on  the  seashore. 

xj/afifiaKocria  .  . .  having  been  coined  by  a 
certain  Alexis  (perhaps  no  otherwise  remem- 
bered), and  latinised  arenayinta  by  Erasmus, 
is  now  Anglicised  sandillions  by  me.  — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  Interchapter  vi. 

Sand-lark,  the  sea-dotterel. 

Along  the  river's  stony  marge 
The  sand-lark  chants  a  joyous  song. 

Words worth,  Idle  Shepherd-Boys. 

Sand -warped,  drawn  into  a  sand- 
bank. (?) 

CroRfiing  Humber  in  a  Barrow-boat,  the 
same  was  sand-warpt,  and  he  drowned  there- 
in.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Cambridge  (i.  165). 

Sandwich.  This  term,  as  applied  in 
the  extract,  is  now  common,  but  per- 
haps this  may  be  the  earliest  instance. 

He  stopped  the  unstamped  advertisement 
— an  animated  sandicich  composed  of  a  boy 
between  two  boards. — Sketches  by  Boz  (Danc- 
ing Academy). 

Sangaree,  rack  punch. 

A  very  jolly  time  we  had;  much  better 
than  the  Went  Indies,  where  a  fellow's  liver 
goes  to  the  deuce  with  hot  pickles  and  san- 
garee.—  Thackeray,  Neircomes,  ch.  xxiii. 

Sakglier  (Fr. )  wild  boar. 


Bearing  with   shoutcry  sootn   boare,  room 
sanglier  oughly. — Stany hurst,  JEn.*  i.  310- 

Sanguinity,  consanguinity.  L.  has 
the  word  =  ardour,  with  quotation  from 
Swift.  Walpole,  speaking  of  a  duel 
that  was  to  have  taken  place  between 
the  Duke  of  Burlington  and  his  son-in- 
law,  writes — 

Some  say  that  the  duel  would  have  b*en 
no  breach  of  sanguinity. —  Walpole  to  Ma^iu 
i.  15  (1741). 

Sanious,  purulently  bloody.  R.  and 
L.  have  the  word,  but  each  with  the 
same  quotation  from  Wisemans  Sur- 
gery. The  subjoined  extract  is  given 
as  showing  that  it  occurs  in  other  than 
surgical  works. 

The  cure  was  wrought ;  he  wiped  the  sanious 

blood, 
And  firm  and  free  from  pain  the  lion  stood. 
Cowper,  Transl.from  V.  Bourne 
{Reciprocal  Kindness). 

Sanitation,  care  for  the  laws  of 
health,  or  regulations  for  their  observ- 
ance. 

To  extinguish  any  or  all  of  the  zymotic 
diseases,  we  must  look  to  sanitation. — Aidi- 
Vaccinator,  Sept.  2, 1872,  p.  146. 

Sans-appel,  an  infallible  person ;  one 

whose  decision  is  law. 

He  had  followed  in  full  faith  such  a  sans- 
appel  as  he  held  Frank  to  be.  —  Kingslcy, 
Westward  Ho,  ch.  ziz. 

Sansculottery,    the    revolutionary 

mob. 

What  profit  were  it  for  the  Paris  Sans- 
culottery to  insult  us?  —  CarlyU,  Fr.  Bet., 
Pt.  III.  Bk.  III.  ch.  ii. 

Sansculottic,  pertaining  to  sanscu- 
lottism  ;  revolutionary.     See  Culottic. 

Those  sanscvlottic  violent  Gardes  Fran- 
caises  or  Centre  Grenadiers  shall  have  their 
mittimus.— Car/yfc,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  V. 
ch.  i. 

Sansculotti8M,  the  principles  of  the 
extreme  French  Revolutionists.  See 
Culottism. 

No  Pitt's  crusade  against  French  Sansnt- 
lottism  in  the  end  of  tne  eighteenth  century 
could  be  so  welcomed  by  English  preservers 
of  the  game  as  this  defiance  of  the  Spanish 
Apollyon  was  by  Englishmen  in  general  in 
the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth. — CarlyU, 
Cromwell,  i.  38. 

Santo,  a  hymn.  A  black  santo  is  a 
profane,  noisy,  burlesque  hymn.  See 
N.  8.  v.  Sanctus  Black. 


SANTONIC 


(  567  ) 


SA  UCER  Y 


Sometimes    they  whoop,  sometimes   their 

Stygian  cries 
Send  their  black  santos  to  the  blushing  skies. 

Queries,  Emblems,  I.  z.  20. 

Santonic,  a  hood  such  as  was  worn 
by  a  santon  or  dervish;  Santonico 
cucullo. 

This  Sanlonick  or  French-hood  Martiall 
calls  Bardocucullus,  a  Fooles-hood. — Stapyl- 
tan,  Juvenal,  viii.  191,  note. 

Sap,  to  study  hard ;  also  one  who 
does  so. 

When  I  once  attempted  to  read  Pone's 
poems  out  of  school  hours,  I  was  laughed  at 
and  called  a  sap. — Lytton,  Pelham,  ch.ii. 

"  They  say  he  is  the  cleverest  hoy  in  the 
school;  but  then  he  sans.'*  "In  other 
words,"  said  Mr.  Dale,  with  proper  parsonic 
gravity,  "  he  understands  that  he  was  sent 
to  school  to  learn  his  lessons,  and  he  learns 
them.  You  call  that  sappina  ;  I  call  it  doing 
his  duty."—  Ibid.,  My  Novel,  Bk.  I.  ch,  xii. 

What's  that  book  on  the  ground?  Sap- 
ping and  studying  still  ?— C.  Kingsley,  Yeast, 
ch.  i. 

Sapidless,  tasteless ;  insipid. 

I  am  impatient  and  querulous  under  culi- 
nary disappointments,  as  to  come  home  at 
the  dinner  hour,  for  instance,  expecting  some 
savoury  mess,  and  to  find  one  quite  tasteless 
and  sapidless.— Lamb,  Essays  of  Elia  (Grace 
before  meat). 

Sab,  serve  (?). 

I  shall  shut  up  for  the  present,  and  con- 
sider my  ways ;  having  resolved  to  "  sar  it 
out,"  as  we  say  in  the  Yale,  holus-bolus, 
just  as  it  comes.  —  Hughes,  Tom  Brown's 
Schooldays,  Ft.  I.  ch.  i. 

Saracenism,  Mahometanism ;  the 
religion  of  the  Saracens.     Cf .  Turcism. 

All  Forraigners,  Christian,  Mahometan,  or 
Heathen,  who  come  into  this  Island  ... 
may  easily  see  such  sights  as  rather  proclaim 
Saracenism,  Barbarism,  and  Atheisme,  than 
such  a  sense  of  Ghristianisme  as  possessed 
our  noble  Progenitors.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  556. 

Sarcasmous,  sarcastic ;  insulting. 

When  he  gets  a  sarcasmous  paper  against 
the  Crown,  well  backed  with  authority  or 
quality,  then  he  pours  it  out  at  full  length. 
—North,  Examen,  p.  98. 

Here  is  a  sarcasmous  reflection  on  the 
House  of  Commons  itself. — Ibid.,  p.  144. 

Sarcophagal,  flesh-devouring. 

This  natural  balm  . . .  can  at  utmost  but 
keep  the  body  living  till  the  life's  taper  be 
burnt  out ;  or,  after  death,  give  a  short  and 
insensible  preservation  to  it  in  the  sarcopha- 
gal  grave. — Adams,  i.  376. 

Sargasos,  gulf- weed. 


The  tide  also  threw  up  vast  quantities  of 
sargasos  and  weeds. — Godwin,  Mandeville, 
i.  40. 

Sarisbury.  Plain  Sarisbury  =  a 
blunt,  downright  fellow.  Is  it  a  play 
upon  Salisbury  Plain  ? 

This  Demochares  was  one  of  the  ambassa- 
dours,  and  for  his  malapart  tonge  called  at 
home  in  his  countrie  in  their  language,  Parr' 
hesiastes  (as  ye  would  say  in  English),  Thorn 
trouth  or  plain  Sarisbuirte.— UdaVs  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  202. 

Sartorial,  pertaining  to  a  tailor. 

A  north-country  dame  in  days  of  old 
economy,  when  the  tailor  worked  for  women 
as  well  as  men,  delivered  one  of  her  nether 
garments  to  a  professor  of  the  sartorial  art. 
—Southey,  The  Doctor,  Interchapter  ix. 

In  his  apartments  at  one  time  there  were 
unfortunately  no  chairs ; .  .  .  his  visitor  . .  . 
meanwhile,  we  suppose,  sat  upon  folios  or  in 
the  sartorial  fashion. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  Hi.  101. 

Sasarara,  a  corruption  of  certiorari. 
See  Siserara.  In  the  extract  it  =  with 
a  vengeance. 

Out  she  shall  pack  with  a  sasarara.  — 
Goldsmith,  Vicar  of  Wakefield,  ch.  xxi. 

Satanophobia,  fear  of  the  devil. 

Impregnated  as  he  was  with  Satanophobia, 
he  might  perhaps  have  doubted  still  whether 
this  distressed  creature,  all  woman  and 
nature,  was  not  all  art  and  fiend. — Reade, 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  xcvi. 

Satinity,  smoothness  like  satin. 

I  knew  him  immediately  by  the  smooth 
satinity  of  his  style.— C.  Lamb,  Letter  to 
Gilman,  1830. 

Satirism,  satire. 
Or  should  we  minister  strong  pills  to  thee, 
What  lumps  of  hard  and  indigested  stuff, 
Of  bitter  Satyrisme,  of  Arrogance, 
Of  Self-love,  of  Detraction,  of  a  black 
And  stinking  Insolence,  should  we  fetch  up ! 
Dekker,  Satiromastix  (Hawkins,  Eng. 
Dr.,  iii.  190). 

Satis-passion,  fulfilment  of  suffering. 

This  is  the  great  "  with  us,"  .  .  .  u  with 
us  n  in  all  the  virtues  and  merits  of  His  life ; 
with  us  in  the  satisfaction  and  satis-passion 
both  of  His  death.— Andrewes,  i.  147. 

Saturate,  to  satisfy:  it  is  almost 
always  used  in  reference  to  liquids, 
and  =  to  drench. 

After  a  saturating  meal,  and  an  enlivening 
cup,  they  departed  with  elevated  spirits. — 
H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  91. 

Saucery.  See  extract,  and  N.  9.  v. 
tawcery,  where  it  is  conjectured  to  be 
the  place  where  salt  is  kept. 


SA  UFRED 


(  568) 


SCAFFOLDERS 


One  little  timber  building  tyled  overhead, 
near  adjoining  to  the  said  under  house- 
keeper's house,  commonly  called  the  saucery 
house,  conteyning  foure  little  roomes  used 
by  the  yeomen  of  the  sauces. — Survey  of 
Nonsuch  Palace,  1050  {Archaol.,  v.  435). 

Saufred,  saffron.     In  jEn.  i.  696  the 

word  is  spelt  saffrod. 

Also  the  roabe  pretionse  colored  lyke  saufred 
Achantus. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.  633. 

Savagism,  savagery ;  utter  barbarism. 

The  manner  in  which  a  people  is  likely  to 
pass  from  savagism  to  civilization. —  W.  Tay- 
lor, Survey  of  German  Poetry,  ii.  295. 

Savkrly,  in  a  frugal  manner.  The 
third  rung  in  the  "  ladder  to  thrift "  is 

To  count  no  trauell  slauerie 
That  brings  in  penie  sauerlie. 

Tusser,  HusbandrU,  p.  17. 

Savooreb,  one  imbued  with  or  redo- 
lent of  something. 

She  was,  it  seems,  a  great  Savourer  and 
Favourer  of  Wickliffe  his  opinions.—  Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist.,  IV.  ii.  61. 

Savourly,  heartily ;  with  a  relish. 

We  see  the  toiling  servant  feed  savourly 
of  one  homely  dish. — Adams,  ii.  140. 

'Tis  wholesome  food  from  a  good  gentle- 
man's gate ;  alas,  good  mistress,  much  good 
do  your  heart ;  how  savourly  she  feeds. — 
Broome,  Jovial  Crew,  Act.  IV. 

I  sat  down,  opened  the  foul  clout  the 
money  was  in,  looked  at  it,  told  it,  found  it 
was  all  there,  and  then  I  fell  a  crying  as 
savourly  as  I  did  before,  when  I  thought  I 
had  lost  it. — Defoe,  Col.  Jack,  p.  217. 

Saw.  To  be  held  at  the  long  saw  = 
to  be  kept  in  suspense. 

Between  the  one  and  the  other  he  was 
held  at  the  long  saw  above  a  month. — North, 
Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  148. 

Sawder.  Soft  sawder  (t.  e.  solder) 
=  flattery. 

Why  did  not  you  go  and  talk  to  that  brute 
of  a  boy  and  that  dolt  of  a  woman  ?  You've 
got  soft  sawder  enough,  as  Frank  calls  it  in 
his  new-fashioned  slang. — Lytton,  My  Novel, 
Bk.  III.  ch.  xiii. 

Saw  dusty,  of  or  belonging  to  saw- 
dust ;  strewn  with  sawdust. 

An  exceedingly  retiring  public-house,  with 
a  bagatelle-board  shadily  visible  in  a  saw- 
dusty  parlour. — Dickens,  Uncommercial  Tra- 
veller, xxi. 

Sawney,  a  Scotchman :  a  corruption 
of  Sandy,  the  abbreviation  of  Alexan- 
der. 


Thus  wasteful  spendthrifts  to  their  shame 

may  see 
The  Caledonian  loon's  frugality ; 
And  learn  from  him  against  a  time  of  need 
To  husband  wealth,  as  sawny  does  his  weed. 

T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  117. 

Sawneying,  idling;  lounging. 
Southey  also  uses  sawney:.  u  saieney 
and  sentimental "  (To  A.  Cunning- 
ham). 

It  looks  like  a  sneaking,  sawneying  Method- 
ist p*nou.—Soulhey,  Letters,  1808  (ii.  63). 

Saxonist,  Saxon  scholar. 

To  these  were  soon  joined  . . .  Mr.  Klstob 
the  Saxonist.- Archaol.,  i.  25  (1770). 

Say.  To  take  say  is  a  hunting  term 
=  to  draw  a  knife  down  the  belly  of  a 
deer  to  discover  how  fat  it  is.  See  N. 
Saying-knife  is  the  instrument  with 
which  the  cut  is  made ;  say  =  the  cut 
itself. 

The  young  man  drove  his  saying  knife 
Deep  in  the  old  man's  breast. 

C.  Kingsley,  New  Forest  Ballad. 

Look  to  this  venison.  There's  a  breast! 
You  may  lay  your  two  fingers  into  the  say 
there,  and  not  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  fat. 
— Ibid.,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  viii. 

Saynsure,  censer ;   perhaps  a  pun  = 

saying  sure. 

The  sweet  perfume  of  prayer  should  have 
arisen  from  the  saynsure  of  your  heart  to 
Me.—CalfhM,  Answer  to  Martiall,  p.  124. 

Sc  abb  ado,  lues  venerea* 

Within  these  five  and  twenty  years  nothing 
was  more  in  vogue  in  Brabant  than  hot  baths, 
but  now  they  are  everywhere  grown  out  of 
use  ;  but  the  new  scabbado  has  taught  us  to 
lay  them  down. — Bailey* 's  Erasmus,  p.  151. 

Scaddle,  thievish :  a  Kentish  word. 

And  there  she  now  lay  purring  as  in  acorn  ! 
Tib,  heretofore  the  meekest  of  mousera,  the 
honestest,  the  least  scaddle  of  the  feline  race. 
— Ingoldsby  Legends  (Jarvis's  Wig). 

Sc£volise,  to  be  like  Q.  Mulius  See- 
vol  a,  who  was  a  celebrated  professor  of 
civil  law,  and  teacher  of  Cicero. 

In  Priuy  counsell  when  our  miseries 
Thou  doost  bemoan,  most  Nestor  like  thou  art, 
And  when  in  Paris  parlament  thy  part 
Of    lawes    thou  plead'st   thou  seem'st  to 
Scctuolize. 

Sylvester,  Dedic.  of  Triumph  of  Faith. 

Scaffolders,  spectators  in  upper 
gallery  of  theatre  ;  the  "  gods." 

He  ravishes  the  gazing  scaffolders. — Hall, 
Satires,  I.  iii.  28. 


SCALADA 


(  569) 


SCARF 


Scalada,  escalade.     H.  and  L.  have 

scalado. 

The  soldiers  entred  the  castle  both  by 
scalada  and  by  forcing  the  gates.  —  Rackety 
Life  of  Williams,  ii.  220. 

Scalda  -  banco,    a    mountebank,    or 

rather,  in  the  extract,  a  stump  orator. 

The  Presbyterians,  those  Scalda-bancos  or 
hot  declamers,  had  wrought  a  great  distast 
in  the  Commons  at  the  rang. — Hacket,  Life 
of  Williams,  ii.  182. 

Scaldings.     See  quotation. 

The  boy  belongin^to  our  mess  ran  to  the 
locker,  from  whence  he  carried  off  a  large 
wooden  platter,  and  in  a  few  minutes  re- 
turned with  it  full  of  boiled  peas,  crying 
"  •Scoldings  "  all  the  way  as  he  came. — Smol- 
lett,  Roderick  Random,  ch.  xxv. 

Scale.    See  extract. 

The  great  varietie  of  fishes  that  it  [the  Irish 
Sea]  breedeth,  as .  .  .  Soles,  Pilchards,  Raifish 
or  Scale,  Thornback,  Oisters.  —  Holland's 
Camden,  ii.  59. 

Scalier.     See  quotation. 

In  the  midst  there  was  a  wonderful  scalier 
or  winding  stair. — Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  I. 
ch.  liii. 

Scaling,  scaling-ladder. 

They  clinge  thee  scalinges  too  wals. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  ii.  462. 

Scallop,  a  lace  band  or  collar,  scal- 
loped at  the  edges. 

My  scallop  bought  and  got  made  by  Cap- 
tain Ferrers'  lady  is  sent,  and  I  brought  it 
home ;  a  very  neat  one.  It  cost  me  about 
£3.— Pews,  Oct.  8,  1062. 

(Lorcrs  Day.)  Made  myself  fine  with 
Captain  Ferrers's  lace  band,  being  loth  to 
wear  my  own  new  scallop,  it  is  so  fine. — Ibid., 
Oct.  12,  1662. 

Scalpless,  without  a  scalp. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  chaos  grinned  from 
the  chimney-piece,  among  pipes  and  pens, 
pinches  of  salt  and  scraps  of  butter,  a  tall 
cast  of  Michael  Angelo's  well-known  skinless 
model — his  pristine  white  defaced  by  a  cap 
of  soot  upon  the  top  of  his  scalpless  skull. — 
C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  vi. 

Scamble,  scramble.  The  Diets,  only 
give  the  verb,  which  is  used  in  the  third 
line  of  the  extract. 

Here  Bugs  bestirre  them  with  a  bellowing 
rore, 
As  at  a  scamble  we  see  boyes  to  sturre, 
Who  for  soules  scamble  on  a  glowing  flore. 

Davits,  Humour's  Heaven  on  Earth, 
p.  23. 

Scamling,  an  irregular,  hasty  meal ; 
a  snap.     See  II.  s.  v.  scambling-days. 


Other  some  have  so  costly  and  great  din- 
ners, that  they  eat  more  at  that  one  dinner 
than  the  poor  man  can  get  at  three  scamlinys 
on  a  day. — Pilkington,  p.  568. 

Scampish,  rascally. 

The  alcalde  personally  renewed  his  regrets 
for  the  ridiculous  scene  of  the  two  scampish 
oculists. — De  Quincey,  Spanish  Nun,  sect.  23. 

Scandalisation,  scandalous  sin. 

Let  one  lyue  neuer  so  wyckedly 
In  abhominable  scandalisacion, 
As  longe  as  he  will  their  church  obaye, 
Not  ref usynge  bis  tithes  duely  to  paye, 
They  shall  make  of  him  no  accusacion. 
Dyaloge  bettcene  a  Gentillman  and 
a  Husbandman,  p.  168. 

Scandal-mongeries,  manufactories 
of  scandal. 

Are  there  not  dinner-parties,  aesthetic  teas, 
scandal-mongeries,  changes  of  ministry,  police 
cases,  literary  gazettes  ? — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv. 
186. 

Scapulimancy.  See  extract.  In  Dr. 
Hall's  Modern  English,  p.  37,  there  is 
a  quotation  from  John  Gaule's  Tlvcr 
fiavrta,  p.  165  (1652),  giving  a  long  list 
of  similar  words :  scapulimancy,  how- 
ever, is  not  among  them. 

The  principal  art  of  this  kind  is  divination 
by  a  shoulder-blade,  technically  called  scapu- 
limancy or  omoplatoscopy. — E.  Tylor,  Prtmi- 
tive  Culture,  i.  124. 

Scarborough,  sudden  ;  hasty.  Scar- 
borough warning,  i.  e.  no  warning  at  all, 
was  a  proverbial  saying.  See  N.  ;  but 
Stanyhurst  uses  Scarborough  with  other 
words.  H.  quotes  Scarborough  leisure 
from  his  Ireland* 

Al  they  the  lyke  poste  haste  dyd  make 
with  scarboro  scrabbling. — Stanyhurst,  jEn., 
iv.  621. 

Scare,  a  fright.  This  substantive  is 
not  in  the  Diets.,  though  it  is  not  un- 
common now  to  signify  a  panic. 

God  knows  this  is  only  a  scare  to  the  Par- 
liament, to  make  them  give  the  more  money. 
—Pepys,  Nov.  25, 1664. 

Scare-sinner,  one  who  frightens 
sinners :  applied  in  extract  to  Death. 

Do  stop  that  death-looking,  long-striding 
scoundrel  of  a  scare-sinner  who  is  posting 
after  ma.— Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  v.  76. 

Scarf,  a  thin  plate. 

The  Vault  thus  prepared,  a  scarfe  of  lead 
was  provided  some  two  foot  long,  and  five 
inches  broad,  therein  to  make  an  inscription. 
—Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI.  x.  49. 


SCARIFICATOR         (  570  ) 


SCHOLARISM 


Scarificator,  one  who  scarifies  or 
cuts  open. 

What  though  the  scarificators  work  upon 
him  day  by  day  ?  It  is  only  upon  a  caput 
mortuum. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  iv.  141. 

Scarlet,  to  clothe  in  scarlet. 

The  idolatour,  the  tyrannt,  and  the  whore- 
monger are  no  mete  mynisters  for  hym, 
though  they  be  never  so  gorgyously  mytered, 
coped,  and  typpeted,  or  never  bo  finely  forced, 
pylyoned,  and  scarletted. —  Vocacyon  of  Johan 
Hale,  1553  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  442). 

Scarp,  to  slope. 

Redoubts  are  carried,  and  passes  and 
heights  of  the  most  scarped  description.  — 
Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  V.  cb.  vi. 

Scarpines,  an  instrument  of  torture 
like  the  boot  Fr.  escarpin,  Ital.  scarpa, 
a  shoe  or  slipper. 

Being  twice  racked,  and  having  endured 
the  water-torment,  I  was  put  to  the  scarpines, 
whereof  I  am,  as  you  see,  somewhat  lame  of 
one  leg  to  this  day. — Kingsley,  Westward  Ho, 
ch.  vii. 

Scart,  a  cormorant. 

On  the  points  of  some  of  the  islands  stood 
several  scarts,  motionless  figures  of  jet  black 
on  the  soft  brown  and  green  of  the  rock. — 
Black,  Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  vii. 

ScATCHES,  Stilts. 

Others  grew  in  the  legs,  and  to  see  them 
you  would  have  said  they  had  been  men 
walking  upon  stilts  or  scotches  (eschasses). — 
UrquharVs  Rabelais,  II.  i. 

Scathkire,  destructive  fire. 

In  a  great  scathfire  it  is  wisdom  not  only 
to  suffer  those  houses  to  burn  down  which 
are  past  quenching,  but  sometimes  to  pull 
down  some  few  houses  wherein  the  fire  is 
not  yet  kindled,  to  free  all  the  rest  of  the 
city  from  danger. — Bramhall,  iii.  559. 

Scatomancy,  divining  disease  by  a 
person's  excrement.  See  extract  8.  v. 
Dririmancy. 

Scatter-brained,  thoughtless. 

A  certain  scatter-brained  Irish  lad.  —  C. 
Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xii. 

This  functionary  was  a  good-hearted,  tear- 
ful, scatter  -  brained  girl.  —  Hughes,  Tom 
Brown's  Schooldays,  Pt.  I.  ch.  ii. 

Scavengership,  clearing  away  dirt. 

To  Mr.  Mathewe  for  skarigersshipe. — 
Churchwarden* s  Accounts  (1560)  of  S.  Mi- 
chad's,  Cornhill,  ed.  by  Overall,  p.  152. 

Scede,  legal  instrument ;  schedule. 

A  deed  (as  I  have  oft  seene)  to  convey  a 
whole  manor  was  implicite  contained  in  some 
t-venty  lines  or  thereabouts,  like  that  scede, 
or  '"'ytala  Laconica,  so  much  renowned  of  old 


in  al  contracts. — Burton,  Dtmoc.  to  Reader, 
p.  51. 

Scelerate,  wicked  ;  also  a  wicked 
person. 

That  whole  denomination,  at  least  the 
potentates  or  heads  of  them,  are  charged 
with  the  most  scelerate  plot  that  ever  was 
heard  of. — North,  Examen,  p.  191. 

King  James  II.  . .  could  not  pretend  to 
the  virtues  of  his  father,  though  far  from 
being  a  scelerate. — Ibid.,  p.  648. 

Scepterdom,  reign. 

In  the  scepterdome  of  Jdward  the  Confessor 
the  sands  first  began  to  growe  into  sight  at 
a  low  water. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  {Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  151). 

Sceptry,  sceptred ;  royal. 

Harm  him  not ! 
E'en  for  his  highness  Ludolph's  sceptry  hand, 
I  would  not  Albert  suffer  any  wrong. 

Keats,  Otho  the  Great,  i.  1. 

Scheets,  skates.  See  s.  v.  Sk bates, 
where  it  will  be  seen  that  Pepys  was 
among  the  spectators  on  this  occasion. 

Having  seen  the  strange  and  wonderful 
dexterity  of  the  sliders  on  the  new  canal  in 
St.  James's  Park,  performed  before  their 
Majesties  by  divers  gentlemen  and  others 
with  scheets  after  the  manner  of  the  Hol- 
landers, with  what  swiftnesse  they  passe,  how 
suddainly  they  stop  in  full  carriere  upon  the 
ice,  I  went  home  by  water.—  Evelyn,  Diary, 
Dec.  1,  1662. 

Schismatise.  R.  says,  "Cotgrave 
renders  Fr.  scismatizcr,  to  schismatic 
it,  to  play  the  schismatick."  Gauden 
wrote  27  years  after  Cotgrave's  Diet 
was  published. 

From  which  [Church]  I  rather  chote  boldly 
to  separate  than  poorly  to  schismatise  in  it. 
—Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  42  (see  also 
p.  114). 

Schismik,  schismatic. 

Content!   quoth  Achab;   then  to  Carmel's 

top 
The  schismik  priests  were  quickly  called  up. 
Sylvester,  The  Schisme,  525. 

Vouchsafe  onr  sours  rest  without  schismick 
strife.— Ibid.,  Little  Bartas,  1047. 

Schist,  a  geological  term  for  rock 

that  is  easily  split. 

The  vast  ridge  of  limestone  alternating 
with  the  schist,  and  running  north  and  south 
in  high  serrated  ridges,  was  cut  through  by 
a  deep  fissure. — H.  Kingsley,  Geqffry  Ham- 
lyn,  ch.  xliii. 

Scholarism,  scholarship. 

There  was  an  impression  that  this  new- 
fangled scholarism  was  a  very  sad  matter 


SCHOLAR S-MATE        (  571  ) 


SCORN 


indeed. — Doran,  Memorials  of  Great  Towns, 
p.  225. 

Scholar's -mate,  a  simple  opening 
by  which  the  adversary  is  induced  to 
open  his  King,  and  is  checkmated  by 
Queen  guarded  by  Bishop  after  three 
moves.  It  is  only  available  against 
beginners,  as  the  attack  is  easily 
avoided. 

The  two  wrestlers  made  very  pretty  play 
of  it  for  some  time,  till  James,  feinting  at 
some  outlandish  manoeuvre,  put  George  on 
his  back  by  a  simple  trip,  akin  to  scholar' s- 
mate  at  chess. — H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn, 
ch.  vi. 

Schollard,  the  vulgar  pronunciation 
of  scholar. 

The  admiring  patient  shall  certainly  cry 
you  up  for  a  great  schollard,  provided  always 
your  nonsense  be  fluent. — The  Quack's  Aca- 
demy, 1678  (Harl.  Misc.,  ii.  33). 

You  know  Mark  was  a  schollard,  sir,  like 
my  poor,  poor  nibteT.—LyUon,  My  Novel,  Bk. 
I.  ch.  iii. 

School,  a  shoal ;  a  number  gathered 
together. 

He  saw  at  the  mouth  of  Nilus  ...  a  scole 
of  Dolphins. — Sandys,  Travels,  p.  100. 

A  great  shoal,  or  as  they  call  it,  a  scool  of 
pilchards  came  with  the  tide  directly  out  of 
sea  into  the  harbour. — Defoe,  Tour  thro*  G. 
Britain,  i.  381. 

We  were  aware  of  a  school  of  whales  wal- 
lowing aud  spouting  in  the  golden  flood  of 
the  sun's  light. — Roe,  Land  of  the  N.  Wind, 
p.  154  (1875). 

Schoolless,  without  school.  Sylves- 
ter says  that  the  H.  Spirit  enables — 

Som  (school-lease  Schollers,  Learned  studi- 

lesse) 
To  understand  and  speak  all  languages. 

Little  Bortos,  1009. 

Scintilla,  a  spark  ;  this  Latin  word 
is  almost  naturalised  now. 

Such  was  the  disposition  or  rather  pre- 
cipitation of  judgment  in  most  people  upon 
a  scintilla  of  evidence  to  conclude  the  King 
was  a  Papist. — North,  Examen,  p.  655. 

Scleragogy,  hard  treatment  of  the 

body. 

We  let  others  run  faster  than  we  in  tem- 
perance, in  chastity,  in  scleragogy,  as  it  was 
call'd. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  51. 

Scoganism,  a  scurrilous  jest.    Scogan 

was  a  famous  jester.     See  N. 

But  what  do  I  trouble  my  reader  with  this 
idle  Scoganism  ?  Scolds  or  jesters  are  only 
fit  for  this  combat. — Bp.  Hall,  Works,  ix. 
183. 


Scoganly,  scurrilous. 

He  so  manifestly  belies  our  holy,  reverend, 
worthy  Master  Fox,  whom  this  scoaanly  pen 
dare  say  plays  the  goose. — Bp.  Hall,  works, 
ix.  262. 

Scomfish,  to  stifle  or  otherwise  injure. 

Remove  your  candles,  for  since  the  Saxon 
gentlemen  have  seen  them,  they  will  eat 
their  dinner  as  comfortably  by  the  light  of 
the  old  tin  sconces,  without  scomfishina  them 
with  so  much  smoke. — Scott,  Legend  oj  Mont- 
rose, ch.  iv. 

ril  scomjish  you  if  ever  you  go  for  to  tell. 
—Mrs.  Gaskell,  Ruth,  ch.  xviii. 

Sconce,  to  fence  or  fortify. 

They  set  upon  the  town  of  Jor,  for  that 
was  sconced  and  compassed  about  with 
wooden  stakes.  —  Linschoten,  friary,  1594 
(E)ig.  Garner,  iii.  328). 

Sconce.  Grose  says,  "  To  build  a 
sconce,  a  military  term  for  bilking  one's 
quarters." 

Thou  huffing,  puffing,  sconce-building  ruffi- 
an !—  T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  80. 

A  lieutenant  and  ensign  whom  once  I 
admitted  upon  trust .  . .  built  a  sconce,  and 
left  me  in  the  lurch. — Ibid.,  ii.  282. 

These  youths  have  been  playing  a  small 
game,  cribbing  from  the  till,  and  building 
sconces,  and  suchlike  tricks  that  there  was  no 
taking  hold  of. — Johnston,  Chrysal, ch.  xxviii. 

Scopefull,  extensive  ;  with  a  wider 

prospect. 

Sith  round  beleaguer*d  by  rough  Neptune's 
legions, 
Within  the  strait-nookes  of  this  narrow  He ; 
The  noblest  volumes  of  our  vulgar  style 
Cannot  escape  unto  more  scopefull  regions. 
Sylvester,  Sonnet  to  Master 
R[ohert]  N[icolson]. 

Scoreless,  not  making  any  mark  or 
score. 

Thy  patient  bearing  this  thy  scourge  (or 

Crosse) 
Doth  make  it  scoreless  ;  nay,  thy  score  doth 

crosse. — Davies,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  69. 

Scoriac,  pertaining  to  scoria,  or  the 

ashes  on  volcanoes. 

These  were  days  when  my  heart  was  volcanic 
As  the  scoriac  rivers  that  roll, 
As  the  lavas  that  restlessly  roll 
Their  sulphurous  currents. 

E.  A.  Poe,  Ulalume  (ii.  20). 

Scorn,  reproach  ;  the  ordinary  mean- 
ing in  such  a  passage  as  the  subjoined 
would  be  "  object  of  contempt." 

The  babe  must  die  that  was  to  David  born, 
His  mother's  sin,  his  kingly  father's  scorn. 
Peele,  David  and  Bethsabe,  p.  471. 


SCORPIACK 


(  572  ) 


SCRAGGED 


Scorpiack,  pertaining  to  a  scorpion  ; 
scorpion-like. 

What  could  exasperate  more  than  when 
an  importunate  man  run  into  a  fault  to  show 
him  no  humane  respect  ?  Nay,  to  make  him 
pass  through  the  two  malignant  signs  of  the 
Zodiaque,  Sagitary  and  Scorpio?  That  is, 
to  wound  him  first  with  arrows  of  sharp- 
pointed  words,  and  then  to  sting  him  with  a 
scorpiack  censure. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams, 
i.82. 

Scorpion,  some  engine  or  instrument 

used  in  a  siege. 

Here  croked  Coruies,  fleeicg  bridges  tal, 
Their  scathf ull  scorpions  that  ruynes  the  wall. 

Hudson's  Judith,  iii.  112. 

Scortator,  a  whoremonger ;  a  Latin 
-word  used  as  English. 

There  be  tumblers  too,  luxurious  scortators, 
and  their  infectious  harlots. — Adams,  ii.  119. 

Scotch,  to  hinder ;  especially  to  stop 

the  wheel   of    a  coach   from   moving 

buck  by  a  stone,  &c. 

Hedges  and  counterhedges  (having  in 
number  what  they  want  in  height  and 
depth)  serve  for  barracadoes,  and  will  stick 
as  birdlime  in  the  wings  of  the  horse,  and 
scotch  the  wheeling  about  of  the  foot.— 
Fuller y  Holy  State,  II.  xiii.  4. 

Scotchery,  Scottish  peculiarity. 

He  is  a  mighty  sensible  man  . . .  but  his 
solemn  Scotchery  is  a  little  formidable.  — 
Walpole,  Letter st  i.  61  (1740). 

Scotize,  to  imitate  the  Scotch.  Cf. 
Spaniolize.  Bp.  Gauden  (Tears  of 
the  Church,  p.  323)  speaks  of  those 
opposed  to  Episcopacy  as  animated 
with  "  a  Scotuing  zeal.' 

The  English  had  Scotized  in  all  their  prac- 
tices.— Heylin,  Life  of  Laud,  p.  328. 

We  must  return  to  our  Archbishop,  whom 
we  shall  find  intent  on  the  preservation  of 
the  hierarchy  and  the  Church  of  England 
against  the  practices  of  the  Scots  and  Scotiz- 
ing  English. — Ibid,,  p.  398. 

Scotoscope.     See  quotation. 

Gomes  Mr.  Reeve  with  a  microscope  and 
scotoscope.  For  the  first  I  did  give  him  £5. 
10s. .  .  .  The  other  he  gives  me,  and  is  of 
value;  and  a  curious  curiosity  it  is  to  dis- 
cover objects  in  a  dark  room  with. — Pepys, 
Aug.  13, 1664. 

Scoundreldom,    scoundrelism.       Cf. 

Rascaldom. 

Let  the  eye  of  the  mind  run  along  this 
immeasurable  venous  -  arterial  system,  and 
astound  itself  with  the  magnificent  extent  of 
Scoundreldom;  the  deep,  I  may  say, unfathom- 
able, significance  of  Scoundrelism. — Carlyle, 
Diamond  Xecklacey  ch.  xvi. 


Scoundrelly,  rascally. 

I  had  mustered  the  scoundrelly  dragoons 
ten  minutes  ago. — Scott,  Old  Mortality ;  ii.  303. 

We  have  in  this  history  a  scoundrelly  Love- 
lace.— Thackeray,  Shabby  Genteel  Story,  eh. 
viii. 

"  He  says  there  are  three  regiments  at 
least  have  promised  solemnly  to  shoot  their 
officers,  and  give  up  their  arms  to  the  mob." 
H  Very  important,  if  true,  and  very  scoun- 
drelly too." — C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke ,  ch. 
xxxiii. 

Scout,  a  Dutch  sailing-boat.  Cf. 
Scute. 

We  took  a  Scout,  very  much  pleased  with 
the  manner  and  conversation  of  the  passen- 
gers, where  most  speak  French. — Pepys,  May 
18,  1660. 

Had  I  been  travelling  in  a  Dutch  scout  or 
a  Oravesend  Tilt-boat,  I  could  not  have  been 
treated  with  less  manners. — T.  Brown.  Works, 
iii.  204. 

We  see  more  vessels  in  less  room  at  Am- 
sterdam .  .  .  hoys,  bilanders,  and  schouts. — 
Defoe,  Tour  thro1  G.  Britain,  ii.  147. 

Scout,  a  sneak. 

I'll  beg  for  you,  steal  for  you,  go  through 
the  wide  world  with  you,  and  starve  with 
you,  for  though  I  be  a  poor  cooler's  son  I  am 
no  scout. — Smollett,  Roderick  Random,  ch.  xv. 

Scower,  an  outlet  for  water.  (?) 

For  2  Gates  30  feet  wide  and  24  feet  high, 
and  the  8  upper  scowers,  about  £  10,000. 0*. 
0d.— Defoe,  Tour  thro'  G.  Britain,  i.  183. 

Scrabble,  to  scramble.  In  1  Sam. 
xxi.  13  scrabble  =  scribble.  Cf. 
Scribble. 

After  a  while,  Little  faith  came  to  himself, 
and,  getting  up,  made  shift  to  scrabble  on  his 
way. — Bunyan,  Pilgrim's  Progress,  i.  201. 

So  is  not  continence  you  see ;  that  phan- 
tom of  honour  which  men  in  every  age  have 
so  contemned,  they  have  thrown  it  amongst 
the  women  to  scrabble  for. —  Vanbrugh,  Pro- 
voked Wife,  III.  i. 

Scragged,  hung. 

"  He'll  come  to  be  scragged,  won't  he  ?  " 
"I  don't  know  what  that  means,"  replied 
Oliver.  "  Something  in  this  way,  old  feller,' ' 
said  Charley.  As  he  said  it,  Master  Bates 
caught  up  an  end  of  his  neckerchief,  and 
holding  it  erect  in  the  air,  dropped  his  head 
on  his  shoulder,  and  jerked  a  curious  sound 
through  his  teeth  ;  thereby  intimating  by  a 
lively  pantomimic  representation,  that  scrag* 
ging  and  hanging  were  one  and  the  same 
thing. — Dickens,  Oliver  Tmst,  ch.  xviii. 

So  Justice  was  sure,  though  a  long  time  she'd 

lagg'd. 
And  the  Sergeant,  in  spite  of  his  gammon, 

got  scragged. 

Ingoldsby  legends  (Dead  Drummer). 


SCRAGGLING  (  573  ) 


SCRIMP 


Scragglino,  scraggy. 

The  Lord's  sacrifice  must  be  fat  and  fair ; 
not  a  lean  scraggling  starved  creature. — 
Adams,  i.  124. 

Scrape-good,  miserly ;  avaricious. 

None  will  be  there  an  usurer,  none  will  be 
there  a  pinch-penny,  a  scrape-good  wretch,  or 
churlish  hardhearted  refuser.  —  Urquhart's 
Rabelais,  Bk.  III.  ch.  iv. 

Scrapmongbr,  dealer  in  scraps  (of 
intelligence,  &c).  The  reference  in 
extract  is  to  Boswell. 

Thou,  curious  scrapmonger,  shalt  live  in  song, 
When  death  has  stilled  the  rattle  of  thy 
tongue. —  TFoleot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  100. 

Scrappy,  not  of  a  piece,  made  up  of 
odds  and  ends. 

The  partial  genius  is  flashy — scrappy.  The 
true  genius  shudders  at  incompleteness. — E. 
A .  Poe,  Marginalia,  xliii. 

Scratch.  In  a  note  to  the  passage 
from  P.  Pindar,  the  author  says,  "  A 
small  wig,  or  rather  an  apology  for  a 
wig,  so  called,  and  generally  worn  by 
our  most  amiable  and  august  monarch. 

When  I  was  last  at  Paris,  no  person  of 
any  condition,  male  or  female,  appeared  but 
in  full  dress, .  . .  and  there  was  not  such  a 
thing  to  be  seen  a&nperuque  ronde  ;  but  at 
present  I  see  a  number  of  frocks  and  scratches 
in  a  morning  in  the  streets  of  this  metropolis. 
— Smollett,  Travells,  Letter  vi. 

Still  o'er  his  haunted  fancy  waved  the  wig ; 
Still  saw  his  eye  alarmed  the  scratch  abhorred. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  48. 

Scratch.  To  come  up  to  the  scratch 
=  to  be  ready  for  a  certain  object ; 
though  applied  generally  now,  it  origin- 
ated in  pugilistic  slang,  the  combatants 
when  preparing  to  begin  having  to  toe 
a  line  drawn  in  the  centre  of  the  ring. 
See  extract  s.  v.  Fistic. 

Sir  Bingo  .  .  eyed  his  friend  .  .  .  with  a 
dogged  look  of  obstinacy,  expressive,  to  use 
his  own  phrase,  of  a  determined  resolution  to 
come  up  to  the  scratch.  —  Scott,  St.  Ronan's 
Well,  ch.  xii. 

Soratohings.  "The  remainder  of 
the  fat  after  it  has  been  melted  down 
into  lard"  (Halliwell). 

She'd  take  a  big  cullender  to  strain  her 
lard  wi\  and  then  wonder  as  the  scratching -s 
rim  through. — G.  Eliot,  Adam  Bede,  ch.  xviii. 

Sorattle,  to  scramble. 

Twas  dark  parts  and  Popish  then  ;  and 
nobody  knowed  nothing,  nor  got  no  school- 
ing, uor  cared  for  nothing  but  scrattling  up 
and  down  alongshore  like  to  prawns  in  a  pule. 
— Kinysley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  xxx. 


In  another  minute  a  bouncing  and  scrat- 
tling was  heard  on  the  stairs,  and  a  white 
bull-dog  rushed  in. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at 
Oxford,  ch.  iii. 

Scrawm,  to  tear.  H.  has  "  Scramb, 
to  pull  or  rake  together  with  the  hands. 
Yorbh." 

He  scrawm'd  an'  scratted  my  faace  like  a 
cat. — Tennyson,  Northern  Cobbler. 

Scree,  cliff ;  scaur. 

For  a  thousand  feet  it  ranges  up  in  rude 
sheets  of  brown  heather,  and  grey  cairns  and 
screes  of  granite,  all  sharp  and  black-edged 
against  the  pale-blue  sky.  —  Kingsley,  Two 
Years  Ago,  ch.  ii. 

Screw,  a  stingy  fellow. 

The  ostentatious  said  he  was  a  screw  ;  but 
he  gave  away  more  money  than  far  more 
extravagant  people. — Thackeray,  Newcomes, 
ch.  viii. 

Screw-jack,  a  machine  for  raising 
great  weights,  worked  by  a  screw. 

Entrance  to  the  chamber  was  obtained  by 
the  removal  of  the  upper  flat  stones,  by  the 
use  of  screw-jacks  and  rollers  of  timber. — 
Arch.,  xxxviii.  411. 

Scribblage,  scribbling,  contemptu- 
ous word  for  writing. 

A  review  which  professedly  omitted  the 
polemic  scribblage  of  theology  and  politics. — 
W.  Taylor,  Survey  of  Germ.  Poetry,  i.  352. 

Scribble,  a  hurried  walk.  Cf. 
Scrabble. 

O  you  are  come !  Long  look'd  for  come 
at  last.  What !  you  have  a  slow  set  pace  as 
well  as  your  hasty  scribble  sometimes. — The 
Committee,  I.  i. 

Scribble-scrabble,  an  ungainly  fel- 
low. 

By  your  grave  and  high  demeanour  make 
yourself  appear  a  hole  above  Obadiah,  lest 
your  mistress  should  take  you  for  another 
scribble  -  scrabble  as  he  is.  —  The  Committee, 
Act  I. 

Scribe,  to  write. 

It's  a  hard  case,  you  must  needs  think, 
madam,  to  a  mother  to  see  a  son  that  might 
do  whatever  he  would,  if  he'd  only  set  about 
it,  contenting  himself  with  doing  nothing 
but  scribble  and  scribe.  —  Mad.  D'Arblay, 
Cecilia,  Bk.  X.  ch.  vi. 

Scrimp,  to  stint  or  contract. 

'A  could  na  bear  to  see  thee  wi'  thy  cloak 
scrimpit  .  .  an'  should  be  a' most  as  much 
hurt  i'  my  mind  to  see  thee  i'  a  pinched 
cloak  as  if  old  Moll's  tail  here  were  docked 
too  short. — Mrs.  Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lover*, 
ch.  vi. 


SCRJP 


(  574  )  SCRUPLENESS 


Officer.    You  were  the  one  sole  man  in 
either  house 
Who  stood  upright  when  both  the  houses 
fell. 
Bagenhall.    The  houses  fell ! 
Officer.  1  mean  the  houses  knelt 

Before  the  legate. 
Bagenhall.  Do  not  scrimp  your 

phrase, 
But  stretch  it  wider  ;  say  when  England  fell. 
Tennyson,  (Jueen  Mary,  III.  iii. 

Scrip,  scrap. 

This  be  the  rule — a  scrip  of  parchment  take, 
Gut  like  a  pyramid  revero'd  m  make. 

Aubrey,  Misc.,  p.  134. 

I  believe  there  was  not  a  note,  or  least 
scrip  of  paper  of  any  consequence  in  my 
possession,  but  they  had  a  view  of  it. — Bp. 
Sprat's  Narrative  of  Blackhead  and  Young 
1602  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  201). 

Soripple,  scruple ;  apparently  from 
stress  of  rhyme. 

Heer  is  a  Sirapus  de  Bizanzis, 
A  little  thing  is  enough  of  this  ; 
For  even  the  weight  of  one  scripple 
Wil  make  you  as  strong  as  a  cripple. 
Heyicood,  Four  Ps.  (Dodsley,  O.  PL, 
i.  105). 

Scripturalist,  a  student  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. 

The  Church  of  [Harrow]  standing  on  the 
summit  of  a  hill,  and  having  a  very  high 
spire,  they  tell  us  King  Charles  II.,  ridiculing 
the  warm  disputes  amoug  some  critical  Scrip- 
turalists  of  those  times  concerning  the  Visible 
Church  of  Christ  upon  Earth,  used  to  say, 
This  was  it.— Defoe,  Tour  thro'  G.  Britain, 
ii.  214. 

Scripturian,  biblical  scholar. 

Flo.  Cursed  be  he  that  maketh  debate 
'twixt  man  and  wife. 

Sem.  O  rare  scripturian !  you  have  sealed 
vp  my  lips. 

Chapman,  Humerous  dayes  mirth,  p.  103. 

Scriven,  to  write  as  written  by  a 
scrivener,  or  in  a  law  hand. 

Here's  a  mortgage  scrivened  up  to  ten 
skins  of  parchment,  and  the  king's  attorney 
general  is  content  with  six  lines.— Worth 
L(fe  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  302. 

He  . . .  would,  after  two  or  three  hours' 
hard  scrivemng,  .  .  .  permit  me  to  yawn,  and 
stretch,  and  pity  myself,  and  curse  the  use- 
less repetitions  of  lawyers.— Miss  Edgtworth, 
Ennui,  ch.  xn.  ' 

Si'ROG,  a  stunted  bush. 

"  Scrogie  Touchwood,  if  you  please,"  said 
the  senior;  -the  scrog  branch  first,  for  it 
must  become  rotten  ere  it  become  touch- 
wood. '— Scott,  S.  Ronan's  Well,  ii.  300. 


Scroop,  back  of  the  cover  (?)  ;  quasi 
scruff  (?),  q.  v. 

I  took  my  dingy  volume  by  the  scroop,  and 
hurled  it  into  the  dog-kennel. — E.  Jironte, 
Wuthering  Heights,  ch.  iii. 

Scrub.  See  quotation :  an  Australian 
word. 

Scrub.  I  have  used  and  shall  use  this 
word  so  often  that  some  explanation  is  due 
to  the  English  reader.  I  can  give  no  better 
definition  of  it  than  by  saying  that  it  means 
"  shrubbery." — H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn, 
ch.  xxvi.,  note. 

Scrubbers.  See  quotation:  an 
Australian  term. 

The  Captain  was  getting  in  the  scrubbers, 
cattle  which  had  been  left,  under  the  not 
very  careful  rule  of  the  Douovans,  to  run 
wild  in  the  mountains. — H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry 
Hamlyn,  ch.  xxix. 

Scruff,  the  scurf  or  outside   skin, 

usually   in   the  phrase,    tcrvjf  of   the 

neck,    Cf.  Scuff. 

John  Fry,  you  big  villain !  I  cried,  with 
John  hanging  up  in  the  air  by  the  scruff  of 
his  neckcloth.  —  Blackmore,  Lorna  Doone, 
ch.  xxix. 

Scruffy, scurfy. 

The  serpent  goes  to  fenell  when  he  would 
clear  his  sight,  or  cast  off  his  old  scruffy  skin 
to  wear  a  new  one. — Howell,  Parly  of  Itatsis, 
p.  76. 

Scrunch,  to  crush. 

He  had  compromised  with  the  parents  of 
three  scrunched  children,  and  just  worked 
out  his  fine  for  knocking  down  an  old  lady. 
—Sketches  l*y  Boz  {The  last  Cahdriver). 

I  saw  Bedford's  heel  scrunch  down  on  the 
flunkey's  right  foot. — Thackeray,  Lovel  the 
Widower,  ch.  iv. 

Scruple,  geographical  minute ;  also 
a  minute  division  of  time  ;  a  second,  or 
part  of  a  second. 

As  touching  the  Longitude  of  this  city,  it 
is  25  Degrees  and  52  Scruples :  and  for  the 
Latitude  it  is  52  Degrees  and  25  Scruples. — 
Holland's  Camden,  p.  568. 

Y'are  welcome  in  a  good  hour,  better  minute, 
Best  second,  happiest  third,  fourth,  fifth,  and 
scruple. — Albumazar,  i.  5. 

Sir  Christopher  Hey  don  .  .  .  boasted  cf 
possessing  a  watch  so  exact  in  its  movements 
that  it  would  give  him  with  unerring  pre- 
cision, not  the  minute  only,  but  the  very 
scruple  of  time. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch. 
lxxxvi. 

Scrupleness,  scrupulousness.  One 
of  the  chapters  in  Tusser's  Husbandries 
p.  69,  is  "  agai:ist  faiitnslicall  scruple- 
nes. 


SCR  UT1  NATE 


(  575  ) 


SCUPPET 


Scroti nate,  to  examine. 

The  whole  affair  [was]  scruti  netted  by  the 
Court,  who  heard  both  the  prosecution  and 
the  defence. — North,  Examen,  p.  404. 

The  court  scruti  nated  all  poiuts  of  form, 
and  finding  nothing  amiss  in  the  demand, 
granted  the  cognisance. — Ibid.,  Life  of  Lord 
Guilford,  i.  75. 

Scbdtine,  to  investigate. 

They  . . .  departed  to  scrutine  of  the  mat- 
ter by  inquiry  amongst  themselves. — Greene, 
Quip  of  Upstart  Courtier  (Harl.  Mite.  v.  421). 

Scry,  to  descry.  See  H.  8.  v.  ;  also 
R.  s.  v.  ascrie.  The  subjoined  is  a 
much  more  modern  instance  than  any 
given  there. 

The  most  that  any  close  inspection  can 
scry  out  of  it  is  that  a  party  was  found  that 
would  oppose  the  Exclusion  bill. — North, 
Examen,  p.  147. 

Scryme,  to  fence :  scrimer  occurs  in 

Hamlet,  iv.  7. 

The  fellow  did  not  fight  with  edge  and 
buckler  like  a  Christian,  but  had  some  new- 
fangled French  devil's  device  of  scryming 
and  fencing  with  his  point. — Kingsley,  West" 
ward  Ho,  ch.  iii. 

Scuddle,  to  hurry  ;  to  move  quickly ; 

usually  written  scuttle. 

How  the  misses  did  huddle,  and  scuddle, 
and  run ! — Anstey,  New  Bath  Guide,  Letter  13. 

Scuff,  the  Bcruff,  scurf,  or  outer  skin. 

[He]  was  seized  by  the  scuff  of  the  neck, 
and  literally  hurled  on  the  table  in  front. — 
Lytton,  What  will  he  do  with  it  ?  Bk.  X.  ch.  vii. 

Sculk,  properly,  a  company  of  foxes. 
Stany hurst  applies  it  to  a  knot  of 
adders. 

Scrawling  serpents  with  sculcks  of  poy- 
soned  adders. — Stanyhurst,  Conceites,  p.  138. 

We  say  a  flight  of  doves  or  swallows,  a 
bevy  of  quails,  a  herd  of  deer,  or  wrens,  or 
cranes,  a  skulk  of  foxes,  or  a  building  of 
rooks. — Irving,  Sketch  Book  (Christmas  Day). 

Scull,  a    boat  that  is  sculled ;    a 

sculler. 

Not  getting  a  boat,  I  forced  to  walk  to 
Stungate,  and  so  over  to  White  Hall  in  a 
scull.— Pepys,  March  21,  1669. 

Scullery,  usually  the  place  where 
pots  and  pans  are  kept  and  washed, 
but  in  the  extract  it  seems  =  dirt,  or 
dirty  things  such  as  are  found  in  a 
scullery. 

Shame  and  sordidnesse  of  living  shall 
threaten  him  as  a  minister,  . . .  besides  the 
black  pots  among  which  these  doves  must 
lie,  I  mean  the  soot  and  skullery  of  vulgar 
iascriency,  plebeian  petulancy,  and  fanatick 


contempt. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p. 
258. 

Scullery  science,  a  jocose  name  for 
phrenology. 

I  did  very  much  aggravate  the  phrenolo- 
gist lately  by  laughing  at  the  whole  scullery 
science  and  its  votaries. — Chorley,  Memorials 
of  Mrs.  Uemans,  i.  255. 

Sculptress,  female  sculptor. 

Perhaps  you  know  the  sculptress,  Ney ;  if 
not,  you  have  lost  a  great  deal.— Zimmern, 
Arthur  Schopenhauer,  p.  242. 

ScuLFruRAL,  pertaining  to  sculpture  ; 

statuesque. 

Some  fine  forms  there  were  here  and 
there  ;  models  of  a  peculiar  style  of  beauty  ; 
a  style,  I  think,  never  seen  in  England ;  a 
solid,  firm-set,  sculptural  style. — Miss  Bronte, 
Gillette,  ch,  xx. 

Sculfi'URESque,  statue-like ;  chiselled. 

Her  figure  was  slim  and  sufficiently  tall, 
her  face  rather  emaciated,  so  that  its  sculp- 
turesque beauty  was  the  more  pronounced. — 
G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xiii. 

Scummer,  to  defile  with  ordure. 

And  for  a  monument  to  after-commers 
Their  picture  shall  continue  (though  Time 

scummers 
Vpon  th'  Bffigie). 

Davies,  Commendatory  Verses,  p.  13. 

Scummer,  one  who  takes  off  the 
scum.  L.  has  the  word  for  the  vessel 
which  is  used  in  doing  this.  The  ex- 
pression in  the  original,  escumeur  de 
mamnites,  signifies  a  parasite,  a  trench- 
erfly.  Epistemon  is  describing  the 
occupations  of  some  of  the  departed  in 
the  Elysian  Fields,  and  among  the  rest 
catalogues — 

Pope  Boniface  the  Eighth,  a  scummer  of 
pots. —  UrquharCs  Rabelais,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xxx. 

Scunnered,  satiated,  so  as  to  feel 
disgust. 

Eh,  laddie,  laddie,  I've  been  treating  ye  as 
the  grocers  do  their  new  prentices.  They 
first  gie  the  boys  three  days  free  warren 
among  the  figs  and  the  sugar-candy,  and 
they  get  scunnered  wi'  sweets  after  that. — C. 
Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  iii. 

Scuppet,  a  shovel  (see  H.  *.  v. )  :  also 
a  verb.     See  extract,  8.  v.  Skavel. 

Our  mitred  archpatriarch,  Leopold  Herring, 
exacts  no  such  Muscovian  vassailage  of  his 
liegemen,  though  hee  put  them  to  their 
trumps  other  while,  and  scuppets  not  his 
beneficence  into  their  mouthes  with  such 
fresh  water  facility  as  M.  Ascham  in  his 
•  S  "hoolemaster '  would  imply. — Nashe.  Lt  «- 
ten  Siuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  100). 


SCUSE 


(  576  )  SEA-SOLDIERS 


What  scuppet  have  we  then  to  free  the 
heart  of  this  muddy  pollution  ? — Adams,  i. 
26*7. 

Scusr,  excuse. 

Yea,  distance,  better  (they  say)  a  bad 
sense  than  none. — Udal,  Roister  Doister,  v.  2. 

Come  but  to  the  old  proverbe,  and  I  will 
put  you  downe  ;  u  Tis  as  hard  to  find  a  hare 
without  a  muse  as  a  woman  without  a  scuse." 
— Greene ,  Theeves  falling  out,  1615  (Earl. 
Misc.,  viii.  382). 

Scute,  a  light  boat.    See  Scout. 

All  they  that  occupy  boats,  wherries,  and 
scutes,  or  sail  upon  the  sea. — Bale,  Select 
Works,  p.  533. 

Where  skuVs  furth  launched,  theare  now 
the  great  wayn  is  entred. — Stanyhurst,  Con- 
ceites,  p.  136. 

Scutter,  a  hasty,  noisy  run. 

The  dog's  endeavour  to  avoid  him  was  un- 
successful ;  as  I  guessed  by  a  scutter  down- 
stairs, and  a  prolonged  piteous  yelping. — E. 
Bronte,  Wuthering  Heights,  ch.  xiii. 

Scuttering,  a  hasty  pace  ;  scuttle  is 

more  common. 

A  sound  behind  the  tapestry  which  was 
more  like  the  scuttering  of  rats  and  mice 
than  anything  else.  —  Mrs.  Gaskell,  Curious 
if  True. 

Sea.  At  full  sea  =  at  their  height ; 
in  full  sail,  as  we  may  say. 

A  satyricall  Romane  in  his  time  thought 
all  vice,  folly,  and  madnesse  were  all  at  full 
sea. — Burton,  Democ.  to  Reader,  p.  28. 

Seabelch,  a  breaker  or  line  of 
breakers.     See  extract  s.  v.  Rapfully. 

Sealer,  one  who  seals.  See  extract 
s.  v.  SriGURXELL.  L.  gives  the  word 
without  example. 

On  the  right,  at  the  table,  is  the  sealer 
pressing  down  the  matrix  of  the  great  seal 
with  a  roller  on  the  wax  to  a  patent. — 
Archaol.,  xxxix.  358  (1860). 

Seame,  a  quarter  of  corn. 

Thy  dredge  and  thy  barley  go  thresh  out  to 

malt, 
Let  malster  be  cunning,  else  lose  it  thou 

shalt : 
Th'  encrease  of  a  seame  is  a  bushel  for  store, 
Bad  else  is  the  barley,  or  huswife  much  more. 
Tusser's  Husbandrie,  p.  55. 

Seamstressy,  the  art  or  occupation  of 
sewing. 

As  an  appendage  to  seamstressy  the  thread 
paper  might  be  of  some  consequence  to  my 
mother. — Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  iii.  49. 

Sea-ore.     See  extract. 

They  have  a  method  of  breaking  the  force 


of  the  waves  here  [Southampton]  by  laying 
a  bank  of  Sea-ore,  as  they  call  it.  It  is  com- 
posed of  long,  slender,  and  strong  filament* 
like  pill*d  hemp,  very  tough  and  durable  ;  I 
suppose  thrown  up  by  the  sea ;  and  this  per- 
forms its  work  better  than  walls  of  atone  or 
natural  cliff.— Defoe,  Tour  thro9  G.  Britain* 
i.  223. 

Seapie,  a  fowl  of  the  genus  ffcemat- 
opus  ;  called  also  the  oyster-catcher. 

A  couple  of  friends  shooting  on  the  Thames 
with  birding  pieces,  it  happened  they  struck 
a  seapie  or  some  other  fowl. — The  Great  Frost* 
Jan.  1608  (Eng.  Garner,  i.  86). 

Seaplash,  waves. 

And  bye  thye  good  guiding  through  sea- 
plash  stormye  we  marched.  —  Stanyhurst, 
JEn.,  iii.  161. 

Search  1  no,  being  sought ;  for  a  simi- 
lar use  of  the  participle  by  Miss  Austen, 
see  Bringing.  Carrying,  and  by  Mad. 
D'Arblay  s.  v.  Mobocracy. 

Precedents  are  searching  and  plans  drawing 
up  for  that  purpose. —  Walpole,  Letters,  i.  94 
(1741). 

Search ress,  female  searcher ;  in  the 
extract  =  inventress  or  authoress. 

Of  these  drirye  dolours  eeke  thow  Queene 
Iuno  the  searchresse. — Stanyhurst,  ^En.,  iv. 
652. 

Sear-cloth,  to  wrap  in  or  robe  with  a 
cere-cloth  (which  is  the  usual  spelling), 
i.  e.  a  cloth  anointed  with  some  glutin- 
ous matter  of  a  healing  nature. 

He  of  the  looking-glasses  . . .  parted  from 
Don  Quixote  and  Sancho,  to  look  for  some 
convenient  place  where  he  might  sear-cloth 
himself  ana  splinter  his  ribs. — Jarvis's  Don 
Quixote,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  I.  ch.  xiv. 

Seare. 

We  straytlye  commaunde  you  to  make 
proclamation  ...  to  all  maner  of  men  that 
euery  seare  persone  haue  bowe  and  shaf  tes  of 
his  owne. — Ascham,  Toxophilus,  p.  79. 

Seascape,  view  of  the  sea.  Cf. 
Skyscape. 

He  found  perched  on  the  cliff,  his  fingers 
blue  with  cold,  the  celebrated  Andrea  Fitch 
employed  in  sketching  a  land  or  a  seascape  on 
a  sheet  of  grey  paper. — Thackeray,  Snnbby 
Genteel  Story,  en.  v. 

It  is  in  these  respects  that  the  seascape  with 
figures  .  .  .  gains. — Macmillan's  Mag.,  March, 
1876,  p.  461. 

Sea-soldiers,  marines. 

That  expert  and  hardy  crew  of  some  thou- 
sands of  sea  soldiers  would  be  to  this  realm  a 
treasure  incomparable.— Dr.  Dee,  Petty  *V<iry 
Royal,  1576  (Eng.  Garner,  ii.  62). 


SEASONLESS 


(  577  ) 


SECTMASTER 


Six  hundred  sea-soldiers  under  the  conduct 
of  Sir  Richard  Levison. — Holland's  Camden, 
ii.  136. 

Seasonles8,  insipid. 

And  when  the  stubborne  stroke  of  my  harah 

song 
Shall    seasonlesse   glide   through   almightie 

eares, 
Vouchsafe  to  sweet  it  with  thy  blessed  tong. 
G.  Jfarkham,  Tragedie  of  Sir  R.  Grinuue 
(JDedie.  to  Earl  of  Southampton). 

Seat,  seems  to  be  a  technical  word 
among  shoemakers  for  a  place  of  em- 
ployment, or  an  engagement.  A  seat 
of  stuff  =  employment  in  making  stuff 
shoes. 

After  having  worked  on  stuff  work  in  the 
country,  I  could  not  bear  the  idea  of  return- 
ing to  the  leather-branch;  I  therefore  at- 
tempted and  obtained  a  seat  of  stuff  in  Bristol. 
— Ltfe  of  J.  Lackington,  Letter  xvii. 

I  left  my  seat  of  .work  at  Bristol. — Ibid., 
Letter  xviii. 

Seat  of  honour,  the  posteriors.  A 
whimsical  reason  for  this  name  is  given 
in  the  extract  W.  Combe  calls  the 
same  part  "  the  seat  of  shame."  See 
quotation  «.  v.  Grave-man. 

A  question  was  proposed,  which  was  the 
most  Honourable  part  of  a  man  ?  Oue  .  .  . 
made  answer  that  that  was  the  most  honour- 
able part  that  we  sit  upon  ;  and  when  every 
one  cried  out  that  was  absurd,  he  backed  it 
with  this  reason,  that  he  was  commonly  ac- 
counted the  most  honourable  that  was  first 
seated,  and  that  this  honour  was  commonly 
done  to  the  part  that  he  spoke  of. — Baileys 
Erasmus,  p.  225. 

Seats,  thrones;  as  applied  to  the 
angelic  hierarchy. 

That  there  are  seats,  lordships,  princi- 
palities, and  powers  in  the  hosts  of  heaven  I 
steadfastly  believe. — Bullinger,  yd. 337. 

Seax.     See  quotation. 

They  invited  the  British  to  a  party  and 
banquet  on  Salisbury  Plain  ;  where  suddenly 
drawing  out  their  seaxes  (concealed  under 
their  long  coats)  being  crooked  swords,  the 
emblem  of  their  indirect  proceedings,  they 
made  their  innocent  guests  with  their  bloud, 
pay  the  shots  of  their  entertainment. — Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist.,  I.  ▼.  25. 

Sbccoon,  a  thrust  in  fencing. 

Pr.  Vol.  Straight  in  Seceoon  grim  death 
shall  be  his  lot. 

Pr.  Pret.  And  with  my  point  in  Cart  111 
lay  her  flat. 

D'Urfey,  Two  Kings  of  Brentford, 
Act  II. 
We'll  go  through   the  whole   exercise; 
carte,  tierce,  and  segoon.  —  Colman,  Jealous 
Wife,  Act  IV. 


Secession,  retirement.  Sterne  is 
speaking  of  sleep. 

No  desire  or  fear  or  doubt  that  troubles 
the  air,  nor  any  difficulty  past,  present  or  to 
come,  that  the  imagination  may  not  pass 
over  without  offence  in  that  sweet  secession. 
Trist.  Shandy,  III.  154. 

Seclusk,  seclusion. 

To  what  end  did  our  lavish  ancestors 
Erect  of  old  these  stately  piles  of  ours, 
For  threadbare  clerks,  and  for  the  ragged 

muse, 
Whom  better  fit  some  cotes  of  sad  secluse  ? 

Hall,  Satires,  II.  ii.  4. 

Secret.    See  quotation. 

He  therefore  wore  under  his  jerkin  a  secret, 
or  coat  of  chain -mail,  made  so  light  and 
flexible  that  it  interfered  as  little  with  his 
movements  as  a  modern  under- waistcoat, 
yet  of  such  proof  as  he  might  safely  depend 
upon. — Scott,  Fair  Maid  of  Perth,  i.  75. 

Secretarial,  pertaining  to  a  secre- 
tary. 

The  career  likeliest  for  Sterling,  in  his  and 
the  world's  circumstances,  would  have  been 
what  is  called  public  life :  some  secretarial, 
diplomatic  or  outer  official  training. — Carlyle, 
Life  of  Sterling,  ch.  v. 

Secretarian,  pertaining  to  a  secre- 
tary. 

We  may  observe  in  his  book  in  most  years 
a  catalogue  of  preferments  with  dates  and 
remarks,  which  latter  by  the  Secretarian 
touches  show  out  of  what  shop  he  had  them. 
— North,  Exament  p.  33. 

The  Popish  Plot  and  the  bill  of  Exclusion 
.  .  must  be  aided  by  these  false  glosses  built 
upon  certain  Secretarian  expressions  in  Cole- 
man's letters. — Ibid,  p.  144. 

Secretary,  confidant. 

Ralph.  Nay,  Ned,  never  wink  upon  me  ;  I 
care  not,  I. 

K.  Hen.  Ralph  tells  all ;  you  shall  have  a 
good  secretary  of  him. 

Greene,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  174. 

Sect,  profession.  Burton,  speaking 
of  physicians,  says, 

I  know  many  of  their  sect  which  have  taken 
orders  in  hope  of  a  benefice.  —  Democ.  to 
Reader,  p.  15. 

Sectmaster,  leader  of  a  sect. 

A  blind  company  will  follow  a  blind  sect- 
master— S.  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  76. 

And  Isaac's  Offspring  for  a  Sect 
Must  pass  in  Hopkins'  dialect, 
As  if  the  holy  Isaac  were 
An  heretick  or  sectmaster. 

T.  Ward,  England's  Reformation^ 
c.  i.  p.  73. 

P  P 


SECULERNESS  (  57S  ) 


SEMI-FIDEL 


Seculernbss,  secularity.  The  ex- 
tract refers  to  the  clergy  acquiring 
lands,  and  taking  with  them  all  secular 
honours  pertaining  thereto. 

The  landes  of  lordes  and  dukes  to  possess© 
Thei  abasshe  not  a  whit  the  seculerness, 
Chalengynge  tytles  of  worldly  honour. 

Dialoge  bettoene  a  Gent  ill  man  and  a 
Husbandman,  p.  143. 

Securance,  assurance ;  making  cer- 
tain. 

For  the  securance  of  Thy  Resurrection, 
upon  which  all  our  faith  justly  dependeth, 
Thou  hadst  spent  forty  days  upon  earth. — 
Bp.  Hall,  Work*,  viii.  342. 

Securefol,  protecting. 

I  well  know  the  ready  right  hand  charge, 
I  know  the  left,  and  ev'ry  sway  of  my  secure- 
ful  targe. — Chapman,  Iliad,  vii.  209. 

Sedilia,    seats    in    the    chancel    or 

sanctuary  for  the  clergy. 

This  goes  a  great  way  ii»  accounting  for 
the  varieties  in  the  sedilia. — Arch.,  id.  343 
(1794). 

Seeable,  that  which  is  to  be  seen. 

We  shall  make  a  march  of  it,  seeing  all 
the  seeables  on  the  way. — Southey,  Letters, 
ii.  271. 

Seed-full,  full  of  seed ;  pregnant. 
Sylvester  says  of  the  Phoenix, 

She  sits  all  gladly-sad  expecting 
Sam  flame  (against  her  fragrant  heap  re- 
flecting) 
To  burn  her  sacred  bones  to  seedfull  cinders. 
Sylvester,  fifth  day,  first  weeke,  626. 

Seeding,  sowing. 

You  see  the  wicked's  seeding  and  harvest. 
—Adams,  ii.  372. 

Seedow,  fit  for  sowing  (?). 

They  must  be  all  roughly  dried  before  they 
be  seedow  and  fruitfull.  —  Holland,  Pliny, 
xU.  7. 

Seedster,  sower.  Sylvester  {Col- 
umnes,  606)  speaks  of  Mars  as  the 
"  Seedster  of  debate." 

Seedy,  poor  ;  badly  off ;  shabby. 

However  seedy  Mr.  Bagshot  may  be  now, 
if  he  has  really  plaid  this  frolic  with  you, 
you  may  believe  he  will  play  it  with  others, 
and  when  he  is  in  cash  you  may  depend  on 
a  restoration. — Fielding,  Jonathan  Wild,  Bk. 
I.  ch.  rii. 

'Wild  answered  ...  he  should  be  obliged  to 
him  if  he  could  lend  him  a  few  guineas ;  for 
that  he  was  very  seedy. — Ibid.,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  ii. 

He  is  a  little  seedy,  as  we  say  among  us 
that  practise  the  law.  Not  well  in  clothes. 
Smoke  the  pocket-holes. — Goldsmith,  Good- 
natured  mant  III.  i. 


The  outward  man  of  the  stranger  was  in  a 
most  remarkable  degree  what  mine  host  of 
the  Sir  William  Wallace,  in  his  phraseology, 
calls  seedy.  His  black  coat  had  seen  service ; 
the  waistcoat  of  grey  plaid  bore  yet  stronger 
marks  of  having  encountered  more  than  one 
campaign. — Scott,  Introd.  to  Count  Robert  of 
Paris. 

Segqon,  a  labourer.     See  H.  *.  v. 

Poore  seggons  halfe  starued  worke  faintly  and 
dull.— Tusser's  Husbandrie,  p.  174. 

Seizable,  capable  of  being  seized. 

The  carts,  waggons,  and  every  attainable 
or  seizable  vehicle  were  unremittingly  in 
motion. — Mad.  D'Arblay's  Diary,  vii.  177. 

But  Sir  Jacob  walked  more  slowly,  and  bow'd 
Right  and  left  to  the  gaping  crowd, 
Wherever  a  glance  was  seizable. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Select,  selection. 

Borrow  of  the  profligate  speech-makers  or 
lyars  of  the  time  in  print,  and  make  a  set  eft 
out  of  a  select  of  them  to  adorn  a  party. — 
North,  Examen,  p.  32. 

He  . . .  sets  forth  a  select  of  the  Rye- Plot 
papers. — Ibid.,  p.  308. 

Seleniscope,  instrument  for  observ- 
ing the  moon :  should  be  spelt  selrny- 
gcope. 

Mr.  Henahaw  and  his  brother-in-law  came 
to  visite  me,  and  he  presented  me  with  a 
seleniscope.— Evelyn,  Diary,  June  9, 1653. 

Selenoqrapher,  a  describer  of  the 
moon. 

He  belie v'd  the  sunn  to  be  a  material  fire, 
the  moone  a  continent,  as  appears  by  the 
late  Stenographers. —  Evelyn,  Diary,  Aug. 
28,1655. 

Selfless,  unselfish. 

So  now,  what  hearts  have  men !  they  nerer 

mount 
As  high  as  woman  in  her  selfless  mood. 

Tennyson,  Merlin  and  Plvien. 

The  simple,  silent,  selfless  man 
Is  worth  a  world  of  tonguesters. 

Ibid.,  Harold,  V.  i. 

Self-willedness,  self-will;  obstin- 
acy. 

It  was  the  consequence  of  her  ladyship's 
self-willedness  about  the  young  horses. — 
Miss  Edgeworth,  Belinda,  ch.  xi. 

Semble,  similar. 

A  tyrant  vile 
Of  name  and  deed  that  bare  the  semble  stile 
That  did  this  king.— Hudson's  Judith,  i.  SO. 

Semi-fidel,  sceptical,  but  not  infidel. 

She  casts  her  eye  complacently  toward  an 
assortment  of  those  books  which  so  many 
writers,  male  and  female,  some  of  the  infidel, 


SEMIGOD 


(  579  ) 


SENVIE 


some  of  the  semi-fdel,  and  some  of  the 
super-fidel  schools,  have  composed  for  the 
laudable  purpose  of  enabling  children  to 
understand  everything. — Southey,  The  Doctor, 
ch.  xv. 

Semigod,  demigod,  which  is  the  com- 
moner form. 

Sejanns,  whom  the  Romans  worship  in 
the  morning  as  a  semigod,  before  night  they 
tear  a-pieces. — Adams,  i.  503. 

Seminally,  originally ;  springing 
from  the  seed. 

Presbyters  can  conferre  no  more  upon  any 
of  Bishop  than  is  radically,  seminally,  and 
eminently  in  themselves.— Gauden,  Tears  of 
the  Church,  p.  470. 

Semitawbk,  half  a  bull. 

Some  semitawres,  and  some  more  halfe  a 
beare, 
Other  halfe  swine  deepe  wallowing  in  the 
miers. 

Breton,  Pilgrimage  to  Paradise,  p.  8. 
He  sees  Chimeras,  Gorgons,  Mino-Taures, 
Medusas  Haggs,  Alectos,  Semi-Tawres. 

Sylvester,  Bethulia's  Rescue,  vi.  108. 

Semiuncial,  half  (the  size  of)  uncial 
(letters);  literally,  half-inch.  The 
second  extract  evidently  refers  to  the 
first. 

Where  contracting  is  the  main  business,  it 
is  not  well  to  write,  as  the  fashion  now  is, 
uncial  or  semiuncial  letters,  to  look  like  pig's 
ribs.— North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  20. 

A  vile  greasy  scrawl  indeed!  and  the 
letters  are  uncial  or  semiuncial,  as  somebody 
calls  your  large  text-hand,  and  in  size  and 
perpendicularity  resemble  the  ribs  of  a 
roasted  pig.— Scott,  Guy  Mannering,  ii.  257. 

Semnable,  similar. 

"  From  Berwick  to  Dover,  three  hundred 
miles  over."  That  is,  from  one  end  of  the 
Land  to  the  other.  Semnable  the  Scripture 
expression,  "From  Dan  to  Beersheba."  — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Northumberland  (ii.  188). 

Sempiternize,  to  perpetuate. 

Nature,  nevertheless,  did  not  after  that 
manner  provide  for  the  sempiternizing  of  the 
human  race. — UrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  III. 
ch.  vui. 

Sempstry-work,  sewing. 

My  wife  had  lately  requested  her  to  look 
out  for  some  sempstry-work  among  the  neigh- 
bours.— H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  159. 

Senatory,  the  upper  house  of  Par- 
liament 

As  for  the  commens  vniuersally, 
And  a  greate  parte  of  the  senatory 
Were  of  the  same  intencion. 

Roy  and  Barlow,  Rede  me  and 
be  nott  wrothe,  p.  40. 


Senescent,  aging. 

If  the  senescent  spinsters  and  dowagers 
within  the  circle  of  his  little  world  had  not 
cards  as  duly  as  their  food,  many  of  them 
would  have  taken  to  something  worse  in 
their  stead.— Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cxci. 

The  night  was  senescent 
And  star-dials  pointed  to  morn. 

E.  A.  Foe,  Ulalume  (ii.  21). 

Sensation,  is  often  used  now  adjec- 
tivally in  such  phrases  as  <k  sensation 
novel,"  "  sensation  drama,"  meaning  a 
novel  or  drama  with  very  stirring  and 
exciting,  but  improbable,  incidents. 
The  date  of  the  extract  is  1861. 

At  the  theatres  they  have  a  new  name  for 
their  melodramatic  pieces ;  and  call  them 
u  Sensation  Dramas."  —  Thackeray,  Round- 
about Papers,  xvi. 

.Sense-boy.  See  extract:  the  place 
referred  to  is  Cape  Coast  Castle. 

Each  [servant]  has  servants  to  wait  on 
him,  whom  they  call  sense-boys,  i  e.  they 
wait  on  them  to  be  taught.— L.  E.  Landwi 
(Life  by  Blanchard,  i.  200). 

Sentencer,  a  judge  ;  one  who  pro- 
nounces sentence. 

It  becomes  not  me  to  sentence  either  the 
sentenced,  or  sentencers  that  adjudged  him  to 
death.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  628. 

Haruth  and  Maruth  went, 
The  chosen  sentencers  ;  they  fairly  heard 
The  appeals  of  men  to  their  tribunal  brought, 
And  rightfully  decided. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  iv. 

Sententially,  by  way  of  sentence  ; 
judicially. 

We  sententially  and  definitively  by  this 
present  writing  judge,  declare,  and  condemn 
the  said  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  Knight,  and  Lord 
Oobham,  for  a  most  pernicious  and  detestable 
heretic. — Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  42. 

The  Pope  incensed  against  King  Henry, 
had  not  long  since  sententially  deprived  him 
of  his  kingdom.— Heylin,  Hut.  of  Reforma- 
tion, i.  22. 

Sentimentalize,  to  indulge  in  feeling 
or  sentiment. 

They  reproach  and  torment  themselves, 
and  refine  and  sentimentalize,  till  gratitude 
becomes  burdensome.  —  Miss  Edgetoorth, 
Emilie  de  Coulanges. 

He  wanted  to  be  quiet  and  sentimentalize 
over  the  roaring  of  the  wind  outside. — Kings- 
ley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  iii. 

Sentine,  sink  or  sewer. 

I  can  say  grossly  ...  the  devil  to  be  a 
stinking  sentine  of  all  vices;  a  foul  filthy 
channel  of  all  mischiefs.— Latimer,  i.  42. 

Sen  vie,  mustard  seed. 

P  P  2 


SEPARATE 


(  5So  ) 


SERMONER 


Senvie  .  is  of  a  moat  biting  and  stinging 
tut,  of  a  fierie  effect,  but  nathelesse  very 
rood  and  wholesom  for  man's  bodie. — Hoi-' 
land,  Pliny,  xix.  8. 

Separate,  a  separatist. 

Chasing  rather  to  be  a  rank  Separate,  a 
meer  Quaker,  an  arrant  Seeker. —  Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  41. 

This  seems  to  be  the  summarie  sense  of 
that  pious  Apology  lately  offered  in  behalf 
of  all  thorough-paced  Separates. — Ibid.  p.  43. 

Separist,  separatist. 

In  contradiction  to  the  present  thought, 
My  sole  opinion  signifieth  nought ; 
Tis  over-rul'd,  aud  I  am  surely  cast, 
Which  proves  the  fate  of  separists  at  last. 

Labour  in  Vain,  1700  (Harl.  Misc., 
vi.383). 

Sepelition,  burial. 

The  other  extreme  is  of  them  who  do  so 
over-honour  the  dead,  that  they  abridge  some 
parts  of  them  of  a  due  sepelition.— Bp.  Hall, 
Works,  v.  416. 

Sept,  fence.  Fuller  distinguishing 
rd  Up6v  from  6  vaoc,  describes  the  former 
as 

Containing  all  the  verge  and  compass  of 
the  courts  about  the  temple,  and  within  the 
outward  sept  thereof. — Pisgah  Sight,  III.,  Pt. 
UI.ix.2.  y    "   y 

Septemfluou8,  flowing  in  seven 
streams,  Septemjluajlumina  Nili  (Ov. 
Met.  xv.  763). 

Doth  salvation  necessarily  depend  upon 
your  septemfiuous  sacraments  ? — backet,  life 
of  Williams,  i.  220. 

The  town  is  seated  on  the  East  side  of  the 
river  Ley,  which  not  only  parteth  Hertford- 
shire from  Essex,  but  also  seven  times  parteth 
from  its  self,  whose  septemfiuous  stream  in 
coming  to  the  town  is  crossed  again  with  so 
many  bridges.  —  Fuller,  Hist,  of  Waltham- 
Abbey,  p.  1. 

Septemviou8,  in  seven  directions. 

Officers  of  the  state  ran  sentemvious,  seek- 
ing an  ape  to  counteract  the  bloodthirsty 
tomfoolery  of  the  human  species.  —  Reade, 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  lxxiii. 

Septi- fronted,  having  seven  fronts. 

Of  these  he  forms  his  Antichrist, 
And  paints  him  in  a  figure  horrid, 
With  ten  large  horns  on  ev'rv  f  orhead, 
And  with  a  septi-fronted  scull. 

Ward,  England's  Reformation, 
c.  iv.  p.  363. 

Septuple,  to  multiply  by  seven. 

The  fire  in  an  oven  whose  heat  was  sep- 
tupled touched  not  those  three  servants  of 
the  Lord. — Adams,  i.  91. 


He  that  is  quit  of  so  bad  a  guest  shall 
septuple  his  own  woes  by  his  re-entertain- 
ment.— Ibid.  ii.  87.  . 

Sepulcher  table,  mural  tablet. 

1  have  seen  these  antiquities  also  fastened 
in  the  walles .  . .  and  in  a  grave  or  semdcher- 
table,  between  two  images. — Holland's  Cam- 
den, p.  236. 

Seraphic,  a  name  frequently  used  by 
Gauden,  in  a  sneering  way,  of  the  sec- 
taries of  his  day,  in  allusion  to  their 
flaming  zeal. 

Where  he  is  best  known,  he  most  look  to 
be  less  beloved  by  many  high  Serapkicks  and 
supercilious  Separatists. — Gauden,  Tsars  of 
the  Church,  p.  266. 

Serena,  the  unwholesome  evening 
air ;  the  foreign  form  is  noted  as  some- 
what  curious  because  the  word  had  been 
Anglicised  long  before  by  Jonson,  &c. 

They  had  already  by  way  of  precaution 
armed  themselves  against  the  Serena  with  a 
caudle. — Gentleman  instructed,  p.  108. 

Serene.  The  Diets,  only  furnish 
examples  of  this  substantive  in  a  bad 
sense,  viz.  the  mildew  or  blight  of  a  calm 
summer's  evening.  In  the  extracts  it 
signifies  simply  calm  or  serenity,  with 
no  evil  effects  connoted. 

Will  ye  continue  to  see  the  same  cast  and 
habit  of  melancholy  in  this  man's  counten- 
ance ?  No  more  than  ye  can  see  the  gloom 
of  last  winter  in  the  smiling  serene  of  a  sum- 
mer's evening. — H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality, 
i.  220. 

The  serene  of  heartfelt  happiness  has  little 
of  adventure  in  it. — Ibid.  ii.  241. 

Not  a  cloud  obscured  the  deep  serene. — 
Miss  Edgeworth,  Helen,  ch.  xiii. 

My  body  is  cleft  by  these  wedges  of  pains 
From  my  spirit's  serene. 

Mrs.  Browning,  Rhapsody  of  Life's 
Progress. 

Serenize,  to  make  serene ;  but  in 
the  extract  it  seems  =  to  glorify. 

Thy  Being's  vniuersaU ;  most  exact ! 
Then,  being  such,  what  should  my  homage 
be? 
And  be  my  Grace  and  Goodnesse  most  ab- 
stract, 
How  can  I,  wanting  both,  serenize  Thee  ? 
Davits,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  33. 

Serfage,  villainage. 

It  does  not  seem  to  me  that  the  institutions 
of  a  country,  (except  slavery  or  serfage)  have 
anything  to  do  with  the  matter.  —  Senior's 
Conversations  with  de  Tocqueville,  i.  24. 

Sermoner,  preacher;  sermoniser. 
Ben  Jonson,  quoted  by  R.,  has  ser- 
tnonecr. 


SERMONET 


<  58i  ) 


SETT 


This  is  the  sin  of  schoolmasters,  gover- 
nesses, critics,  sermoners,  and  instructors  of 
young  or  old  people. — Thackeray,  Roundabout 
Papers,  xxv. 

Sebmonet,  a  little  sermon. 

A  brief  but  stirring  sermonet. — Ch.  Times, 
Sept.  27, 1872,  p.  433. 

Sermonoid,  that  which  has  the  form 
or  appearance  of  a  sermon. 

For  the  want  of  merely  a  comma,  it  often 
occurs  that  an  axiom  appears  a  paradox,  or 
that  a  sarcasm  is  converted  into  a  sermonoid. 
— E.  A.  Poe,  Marginalia,  v. 

Serpedinous,  creeping ;  serpiginous 
is  the  usual  technical  term. 

The  itch  is  a  corrupt  humour  between  the 
skin  and  the  flesh,  runniDg  with  a  serpedin- 
ous  course,  till  it  hath  denied  the  whole  body. 
Adams,  i.  501. 

Sebpentrt,  serpent-kind. 

Wipe  away  all  slime 
Left  by  men-slugs  and  human  serpent ry. 

Keats,  Endymion,  Bk.  i. 

Servanted.  In  the  first  extract 
(which  is  given  in  the  Diets. )  servanted 
=  reduced  to  the  condition  of  a  serv- 
ant: in  the  second,  attended  by  a 
servant 

My  affairs 
Are  servanted  to  others. 

Coriolanus,  v.  2. 

The  uncles  and  the  nephew  are  now  to  be 
double-servanted,  (smgle-servanted  they  were 
before)  and  those  servants  are  to  be  double 
armed  when  they  attend  their  masters 
abroad.— Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  i.  225. 

Serve,  the  fruit  of  the  service-tree. 

Crato  utterly  forbids  all  manner  of  fruits, 
as  peares,  apples,  plumms,  cherries,  straw- 
berries, nuts,  medlers,  serves,  &c.  —  Burton, 
Democ.  to  Reads,  p.  68. 

Server,  conduit 

They,  .  .  .  derived  rilles  and  servers  of 
water  into  every  street. — Holland's  Camden, 
p.  248. 

Servitor,  a  soldier. 

With  that  came  forth  a  Spaniard  called 
Sebastian,  who  had  been  an  old  servitor  in 
Flanders. — Sanders,  Voyage  to  Tripoli,  1584 
(Eng.  Garner,  ii.  16). 

Of  these  souldiers  thus  trained  the  Isle  it 
selfe  is  able  to  bring  forth  into  the  field 
4000.  And  at  the  instant  of  all  assaies  ap- 
pointed there  bee  three  thousand  more  of 
most  expert  and  practiced  servitours  out  of 
Hampshire. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  275. 

Serviture,  slavery. 

A  very  serviture  of  Egypt  is  it  to  be  in 


danger  of  these  papistic  bishops.  — -  Bale, 
Select  Works,  p.  179. 

Sesquipedalianism,  the  use  of  long 
words  ;  literally  half  a  yard  long  ( Ars 
Poetica,  97). 

Are  not  these  masters  of  hyperpolysyllabie 
sesquipedalianism  using  proper  language? — 
Hall,  Modern  English,  p.  39. 

Sesquipedality,  great  size.  See 
preceding  entry. 

Imagine  to  yourself  a  little  squat  un- 
courtly  figure  of  a  Doctor  Slop,  of  about  four 
feet  and  a  half  perpendicular  height,  with  a 
breadth  of  back  ana  a  sesquipedality  of  belly 
which  might  have  done  honour  to  a  serjeant 
in  the  horse-guards. — Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy, 
i.  217. 

Sestine,  a  poem  of  six  stanzas ;  the 

word  will  be  found  elsewhere  in  the 

Arcadia.     See  pp.  216,  438. 

The  day  was  so  wasted  that  onely  this 
riming  Sestine  delivered  by  one  of  great  ac- 
count among  them,  could  obtain  favour  to 
bee  heard. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  442. 

Set,  to  mark  out  'for  robbery ;  the 
idea  being  taken  from  a  dog  who  sets 
birds. 

He  with  his  squadron  overtakes  a  coach 
which  they  had  set  overnight,  having  intelli- 
gence of  a  booty  of  four  hundred  pounds  in 
it.— Memoirs  of  Du  Vail,  1670  (Harl.  Misc., 
iii.  311). 

He  might  come  to  rob  or  to  set  the  house, 
now  so  few  servants  were'at  home. — Sprat*s 
Relation  of  Young's  conspiracy,  1692  (Harl. 
Misc.,  vi.  209). 

A  combination'  of  sharpers,  it  seems,  had 
long  set  him  as  a  man  of  fortune. — Richard- 
son,  Grandison,  iv.  294. 

Set  down,  a  lift  is  the  more  com- 
mon expression. 

Part  of  the  journey  I  performed  on  foot ; 
but  wherever  I  could  I  got  a  set  down,  because 
I  was  impatient  to  get  near  the  Land's 
End. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Lame  Jervas,  ch.  ii. 

Sett,  a  team  of  six  horses. 

I  am  preparing  with  Lady  Betty  and  my 
cousin  Montague  to  wait  upon  my  beloved 
with  a  coach-and-four,  or  a  sett :  for  Lady 
Betty  will  not  stir  out  with  a  pair  for  the 
world. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  v.  301. 

Here  to-day  about  five  o'clock  arrived  Lady 
Sarah  Sadleir  and  Lady  Betty  Lawrence; 
each  in  her  chariot-and-six.  Dowagers  love 
equipage,  and  these  cannot  travel  ten  miles 
without  a  sett. — Ibid.  vi.  226. 

The  nobility  drive  half-a-dozen  rats  in  an 
elbow-chair,  and  call  them  a  sit  of  coach- 
horses  ;  so  that  a  poor  devil  of  a  chairman 
can  get  nothing  at  all,  at  all. — Colman,  Ocean 
sional  Prelude. 


SETTING  STICKS       (  582  )     SHACKLE-HAMMED 


Setting  sticks,  "  a  stick  used  for 
making  the  plaits  or  sets  of  ruffs" 
(Halliwell).  Breton  {PasquWs  Prog- 
nostication,) p.  11)  says  that  Dooms- 
day will  be  near  when  u  maides  will  use 
no  setting  sticks" 

Severity,  used  in  a  peculiar  sense  in 
the  extract,  as  though  it  came  from 
sever. 

Gregory  the  Ninth  in  his  Epistles  blames 
the  English  Clergy  above  any,  that  they 
studied  to  undo  one  another.  . . .  He  saw  too 
much  into  the  nature  of  our  insulary  severity, 
and  not  holdiug  close  together.  —  Rackety 
Life  of  Williams,  ii.  129. 

Sewant.  H.  gives  this,  without  ex- 
ample, as  a  North-country  name  for  the 
plaice. 

Behold  some  others  ranged  all  along 
To  take  the  sewant,  yea  the  flounder  sweet. 
Denny*,  Secrets  of  Angling  (Eng. 
Garner,  i.  171). 
The  suant  swift  that  is  not  set  by  least. — 
Ibid.  p.  175. 

Sewn  up,  intoxicated  (slang). 

He  .  .  had  twice  had  Sir  Rumble  Tumble 
(the  noble  driver  of  the  Flash-o'-ligbtning* 
light-four-inside-post-coach)  up  to  his  place, 
and  took  care  to  tell  you  that  pome  of  the 
party  were  pretty  considerably  "seven  up" 
too. — Thackeray,  Shabby  Genteel  Story,  ch.  i. 

Sexless,  without  sex;  neither  male 
nor  female.     See  extract  a.  v.  Sireless. 

I  am  too  dull  to  comprehend  what  benefit 
or  pleasure  your  Deity  will  derive  from  the 
celibacy  of  your  daughter  ;  except  indeed  on 
one  supposition,  which,  as  I  have  some  faint 
remnants  of  reverence  and  decency  re- 
awakening in  me  just  now,  I  must  leave  to 
be  uttered  only  by  the  pure  lips  of  sexless 
priests. — Kingsley,  Hypatia,  ch.  xvii. 

Sextine,  sixteenth.     Nashe  seems  to 

hav^e  thought  that  1598  belonged  to  the 

15th  century. 

From  that  moment  to  this  sextine  centurie 
(or  let  me  not  be  taken  with  a  lye,  Ave  hundred 
ninety-eight,  that  wants  but  a  paire  of  yeares 
to  make  me  a  true  man)  they  would  no  more 
live  under  the  yoke  of  the  sea. — Nashe,  Lenten 
Stuffe  {Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  150). 

Sextiply,  to  multiply  sixfold. 

A  treble  paire  doth  our  late  wracke  repaire 
And  sextiplies  our  mirth  for  one  mishappe. 

Dairies,  Microcosmos,  p.  6. 

So  some  affections  our  soules  browes  vnbend, 
And  other  some  doe  sextiply  each  dent. 

Ibid.}?.  38. 

Sextoness,  a  female  sexton.  An 
appointment  as  sextoness  is  advertised 


for  in  the  Church  Times,  Nov.  1, 1878. 
On  the  contrary,  Stany hurst  (jEn.,  iv. 
512)  speaks  of  a  sorceress  as  '*  Seixteen 
[t.  e.  sexton]  of  Hesperides  Sinagog/1 
Hesperidum  templi  custos. 

Still  the  darkness  increas'd,  till  it  reach  M 

such  a  pass, 
That  the  sextoness  hasten'd  to  turn  on  the 

gas. 

Barham,  Ingoldsby  Leg.  {Sir  Rupert). 

Sexuality,  recognition  of  sexual 
relations. 

I  have  heard  you  say  ere  now  that  the 

gopular  Christian  paradise  and  hell  are  but  a 
agan  Olympus  and  Tartarus,  as  grossly 
material  as  Mahomet's  without  the  hon- 
est thoroughgoing  sexuality,  which,  you 
thought,  made  his  notion  logical  and  con- 
sistent.— C.  Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  viii. 

Seyst  me  and  seyst  me  not.  This 
seems  to  have  been  a  form  of  expres- 
sion at  the  game  of  Bo-peep,  i.  e.  Thou 
seest  me,  and  now  thou  seest  me  not. 

They  will  pay  no  more  money  for  the 
housel-suppings,  bottom-blessings,  nor  yet 
for  seyst  me  and  seyst  me  not  above  the  head 
and  under  their  chalices,  which  in  many 
places  be  of  fine  gold. — Bale,  Select  Works, 
p.  526L 

Shable,  sword,  or  cut] ass. 

At  their  pleasure  was  he  completely  armed 
cap-a-pie,  and  mounted  upon  one  of  the  best 
horses  in  the  kingdom,  with  a  good,  slashiug 
shable  by  his  side. —  Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk. 
I.  ch.  zh. 

As  he  saw  the  gigantic  Highlander  confront 
him  with  his  weapon  drawn,  he  tugged  for  a 
second  or  two  at  the  hilt  of  his  shabbU  as  he 
called  it.— Scott,  Rob  Roy,  ii.  170. 

Shab  off,  to  get  rid  of.  H.  gives  it 
as  a  North-country  word  =  to  abscond. 

How  eagerly  now  does  my  moral  friend 
run  to  the  devil,  having  hopes  of  profit  in 
the  wind !  I  have  shaltbed  him  off  purely. — 
Farquhar,  Love  and  a  Bottle,  iv.  3. 

Shabroon,  a  shabby  fellow. 

My  wife  too  ..  let  in  an  inundation  of 
shabroons  to  gratify  her  concupiscence. — T. 
Brown,  Works,  ii.  184. 

Shack,  a  vagabond.  The  word  is  in 
Peacock's  Manley  and  Corringham 
Glossary  (E.  D.  S.). 

Great  ladies  are  more  apt  to  take  sides  with 
talking  flattering  gossips  than  such  a  shack  as 
Fitzharris. — North,  Examen,  p.  293. 

Shackle-hammed,  bow-legged.  The 
word  occurs  also  in  Ellis's  Modern 
Husbandman,  III.  i.  182,  applied  to 
young  colts  (1750). 


SHADOW  HOUSE       (583) 


SHAKO 


His  head  was  holden  uppe  so  pert,  and  his 
legges  shackle-ham1  d,  as  if  his  knees  had  been 
laced  to  his  thighes  with  points.  —  Greene, 
Quip  for  Upstart  Courtier  (A.  Misc.,  v.  403). 

Shadow  house,  a  summer  house  that 
affords  shade  from  the  sun. 

One  garden,  summer,  or  shadotee  house 
covered  with  blue  slate. — Survey  of  Maner  of 
Wimbledon,  1649  (Archaol.,  x.  419). 

Shadowless,  unshaded,  or  without  a 
shadow ;  a  frequent  attribute  of  uncanny 
beings. 

She  had  a  large  assortment  of  fairies  and 
shadowless  witches,  and  banshees.  —  Miss 
Edgeworth,  Ennui, ch.  iii. 

His  sinuous  contortions  and  shadowless 
eyes  are  forever  before  us  as  illustrative  of 
his  wily  wickedness. — Phillips,  Essays  from 
the  Times,  ii.  335. 

The  moonlit  threshold  lay  pale  and  shadow- 
less before  the  closed  front -door.  —  Miss 
Bronte,  Villete,  ch.  zzxvi. 

Shaft  or  a  bolt,  a  proverbial  expres- 
sion =  something  in  one  way  or  the 
other ;  a  shaft  for  the  long  bow,  or  a 
bolt  for  the  cross  bow. 

Slender.  Til  make  a  shaft  or  a  holt  on't ; 
VHd,  'tis  but  venturing.  —  Merry  Wives  of 
Windsor,  iii.  4. 

The  Prince  is  preparing  for  his  journey ;  I 
shall  to  it  again  closely  when  he  is  gone,  or 
make  a  shaft  or  a  bolt  of  it. — Howell,  Letters, 
I.  Hi.  24. 

Shagling,  shaking,  and  so,  feeble. 

Edmnnd  Crispyne  of  Oriell  coll.,  lately  a 
shay  ling  lecturer  of  physic. — A.  Wood%  Fast 
Oxon,  Pt.  I.  col.  126. 

Shag-rag  and  bobtail,  every  one,  ol 
iroXXoc — usually  tag  rag  and  bobtail. 
See  extract  s.  v.  Farcical  ;  and  for  in- 
stances of  shag  rag  by  itself  =  a  beg- 
garly fellow,  see  it. 

Shagreen,  rough  (?) :  peevish  (?). 
Arglicised  form  of  chagrin  (?). 

The  mastiffs, both  English  and  Dntch, could 
not  endure  to  be  held  so  long,  six  or  seven 
days  together,  by  a  pack  of  shagreen  curs. — 
Parable  of  the  Bear  -  baiting,  1691  (Harl. 
Misc.,  v.  191). 

Shake-bag,  a  large  game-cock.     See 

extract  s.  v.  Turn-poke. 

Wit.  Will  you  go  to  a  cock-match  ? 
Sir  Wil.  With  a  wench,  Tony  ?    Is  she  a 
shake-bag,  sirrah  ? 

Congreve,  Way  of  the  World,  iv.  11. 

"I  bless  God  (said  he)  that  Mrs.  Tabitha 
Bramble  did  not  take  the  field  today."  "  I 
would  pit  her  for  a  cool  hundred  (cried  Quin) 
against  the  best  shakebag  of  the  whole  main." 
—Smollett,  H.  Clinker,  l.  58. 


Shake-buckler,  a  swaggerer,  a 
swashbuckler.  The  Sim  seems  to  be 
used  by  way  of  alliterative  personifica- 
tion, like  Toby  Tosspot,  &c.  Cf .  "  Sym 
Swash  "  in  extract  s.  v.  Stemly. 

Let  the  parents  ...  by  no  means  suffer 
them  to  live  idly,  nor  to  be  of  the  number  of 
such  Sim  Shake-bucklers  as  in  their  young 
years  fall  unto  serving,  and  in  their  old  years 
fall  into  beggary. — Becon,  ii.  355. 

Antichrist  hunteth  the  wild  deer,  the  fox 
and  the  hare  in  his  closed  parks  with  great 
cries  and  horns  blowing,  with  hounds  and 
ratchetts  running,  besides  a  great  swarm  of 
Sim  Shakebucklers. — Ibid.  iii.  509. 

Shake-down,  a  rough,  extempore  bed. 

I  would  not  choose  to  put  more  on  the 
floor  than  two  beds  and  one  shake-down. — 
Miss  Edgeworth,  Rose,  Thistle,  and  Shamrock, 
i.  3. 

"  You  can  give  him  a  shake-dawn  here  to- 
night, can't  you  ?  "  "  We  must  manage  it 
somehow,"  replied  the  lady ;  "  you  don't 
much  mind  how  you  sleep,  I  suppose,  sir." — 
Dickens,  Nickleby,  ch.  vii. 

Shake-rag,  beggar,  ragged  person  ; 
used  also  adjectivally. 

Do  you  talk  shake-rag?  heart!  yond's 
more  of  'em  ;  I  shall  be  beggar-mawl'd  if  I 
stay. — Broome,  A  Jovial  Crew,  Act  III. 

"  He  was  a  shake-rag  like  fellow,"  he  said, 
"  and  he  dared  to  say  had  gipsy  blood  in  his 
veins." — Scott,  Guy  Mannering,  i.  269. 

Shakes.  No  great  shakes  is  said  by 
way  of  disparagement.  L.,  who  has 
the  phrase  without  example,  thinks  it 
refers  to  the  musical  sense  of  the  word 
— an  air  that  did  not  give  much  scope 
for  execution  would  afford  no  great 
shakes. 

I  saw  mun  stand  on  the  poop,  so  plain  as 
I  see  you ;  no  great  shakes  of  a  man  to  look 
to  nether ;  there's  a  sight  better  here  to  plase 
me. — Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  xxx. 

Shakes.  In  a  couple  or  brace  of 
shakes  =  instanter.     See  H.  *.  v. 

Ill  be  back  in  a  couple  of  shakes, 
So  don't,  dean,  be  quivering  and  quaking. 
Ingoldsby  Leg.  (Babes  in  the  wood). 

Now  Dragon  could  kill  a  wolf  in  a  brace 
of  shakes. — Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch. 

•  •• 

XCUl. 

Shake  up,  to  upbraid. 

Mahel . .  .  did  shake  up  in  som  hard  and 
sharpe  termes  a  young  gentleman. — Hol- 
land's Camden,  p.  628. 

Shako,  military  cap. 

His  sabre  was  cast  upon  the  floor  before 
him,  and  his  shako  was  on  the  table. — H. 
Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  xxxi. 


SI1ALL0WLING  (  584  ) 


SHA  VER 


Shallowling,  a  shallow  or  silly  per- 
son ;  the  diminutive  f orm  increases  the 
contemptuous  force  of  the  expression. 

Whores,  when  they  have  drawn  in  silly 
shallowlings,  will  ever  find  some  trick  to 
retain  them. — British  Bellman,  1648  (Harl. 
Misc.,  vii.  833). 

Can  we  suppose  that  any  Shallowling 
Can  find  much  good  in  oft  Tohacconing  V 

Sylvester,  Tobacco  Battered,  346. 

Shaly,  consisting  of  shale. 

He  lies  down  in  the  blazing  German  after- 
noon upon  the  shaly  soil. — Kingsley,  Two 
Years  Ago,  ch.  xxiii. 

Sham.  See  quotation ;  also  $.  v. 
Pote. 

This  term  of  art,  sham-plot  should  be  de- 
cyphered.  The  word  sham  is  true  cant  of 
the  Newmarket  breed.  It  is  contracted  of 
ashamed.  The  native  signification  is  a  town 
lady  of  diversion  in  country  maid's  cloaths, 
who  to  make  good  her  disguise,  pretends  to 
be  so  'sham'd.  Thence  it  became  proverbial, 
when  a  maimed  lover  was  laid  up,  or  looked 
meager,  to  say  he  had  met  with  a  sham. 
But  what  is  this  to  plots?  The  noble  Cap- 
tain Dangerfield,  being  an  artist  in  all  sorts 
of  land  piracy,  translated  this  word  out  of  the 
language  of  his  society  to  anew  employment 
he  had  taken  up  of  false  plotting.  And  as 
with  them,  it  ordinarily  signifies  any  false  or 
counterfeit  thing,  so,  annex'd  to  a  plot,  it 
means  one  that  is  fictitious  and  untrue; 
and  being  so  applied  in  his  various  writings 
and  sworn  depositions  ...  it  is  adopted  into 
the  English  language. — North,  Examen,  p. 
231 

Sham,  a  false  shirt-front. 

Sir,  I  say  you  put  upon  me,  when  I  first 
came  to  town  about  being  orderly,  and  the 
doctrine  of  wearing  shams  to  make  linen 
last  clean  a  fortnight. — Steele,  Conscious 
Lovers,  Act  I. 

Shame,  to  shun  through  shame. 

My  master  sad — for  why,  he  shames  the 

court — 
Is  fled  away. — Greene,  James  the  Fourth,  v.  6. 

Shammish,  deceitful. 

The  overture  was  very  shammish. — North, 
Examen,  p.  100. 

Shammockino,  worthless;  or  per- 
haps, cheating  by  running  into  debt. 

Pox  take  you  both  for  a  couple  of  sham- 
mocking  rascals  .  .  .  you  broke  my  tavern,  and 
that  broke  my  heart. — T.Brown,  Works,  il 
184. 

Shan  dry,  a  small  cart  or  trap :  some- 
times culled  a  thundery-dan. 


I  ha'  been  to  engage  a  shmndry  this  very 
morn.— Mrs,   Gaskell,  Sylvia's    Lovers,   ch. 

Sh anker,  a  loathsome  botch. 

With  gentlest  touch  she  next  explores 
Her  shankers,  issues,  running  sores. 

Swift,  Young  Nymph  going  to  bed. 

Shanks's  mare.  To  go  on  Shank*  $ 
mare  =  to  go  on  foot.  Breton  {Good 
and  Body  p.  14)  says,  "the  honest 
poor  man's  horse  is  Bayard  of  ten 
toes." 

"I  am  away  to  London  town  to  speak  to 
Mr.  Frank."  "To  London!  how  wilt  get 
there?"  «  On  Shanks  his  mare,"  said  Jack, 
pointing  to  his  bandy  legs.— Kingsley  t  West- 
ward Ho,  ch.  xv. 

Shanny  -  pated,  giddy-pated.  Cf . 
Shag-brained. 

And  out  ran  every  soul  beside, 
A  shanny-pated  crew. 

Bloomfield,  The  fforkey. 

Share-penny,  miser. 

I'll  go  near  to  coaen  old  father  share-penny 
of  his  daughter. —  Wily  Beguiled  (Hauians, 
Eng.  Dr.,  in.  289). 

Sharpling. 

Th'  hidden  lone  that  now-a-dayes  doth  holde 
The  steel  and  load-stone,  hydrargire  and 

golde, 
Th*  amber  and  straw ;  that  lodgeth  in  one 

shell 
Pearl-fish  and  sharpling. 

Sylvester,  The  Furies,  60. 

Sharrag,  shear-hog,  q.  v. 

Shave,  a  spoke-shave,  or  wheel- 
wright's plane.  In  his  catalogue  of 
"husbandlie  furniture"  Tusser  reck- 
ons— 

Wheele  ladder  for  haruest,  light  pitchfork 

and  tougfh, 
Shave,  whiplash  wel  knotted,  and  cartrope 

ynough. — Tusser' s  Husbandrie,  p.  36. 

Shave,  a  small  coppice :  H.  gives  it 

as  a  Kentish  word. 

In  January,  1738,  were  found  in  a  shave 
belonging  to  the  estate  of  Sir  John  Hales, 
who  lives  in  this  neighbourhood,  and  within 
his  manor  of  Tunstall  near  Sittingbourn, 
several  hundreds  of  Broad-pieces  of  gold. — 
Defoe,  Tour  thro*  G.  Britain,  i.  168. 

Shaver.     See  quotation. 

Among  all  the  characters  which  he  bears 
in  the  world,  no  one  has  ever  given  him 
credit  for  being  a  cunning  shaver.  (Be  it 
here  observed  in  a  parenthesis  that  I  suppose 
the  word  shaver  in  this  so  common  expression 
to  have  been  corrupted  from  shaveling,  the 


SHAWL 


(  S8S  ) 


SHELL 


old    contemptuous  word  for  a  priest.)  — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cliv. 

Shawl,  to  put  on  a  shawl. 

Her  son  assisted  Grace  Nugent  most  care- 
fully in  shawling  the  young  heiress. — Miss 
Edgeworth,  Absentee,  ch.  iii. 

Shawlless,  without  a  shawl. 

Standing  boimetless  and  shawlless  to  catch 
as  much  water  as  she  could  with  her  hair 
and  clothes. — E.  Bronte,  Wuthering  Heights, 
ch.  ix. 

Shawl-waistcoat,  a  waistcoat  with 

a  large  pattern  like  a  shawl  (?). 

He  had  a  shawl-waistcoat  of  many  colours. 
— Thackeray,  Shabby  Genteel  Story,  ch.  viii. 

Shay-brained,  silly  ;  weak ;  corrup- 
tion of  shanny -brained.  See  Shanny- 
pated. 

But  while  I  take  this  shay-brain'd  course, 
And  like  a  fool  run  to  and  fro, 

Master  perhaps  may  sell  the  horse. 
Therefore  this  instant  home  111  go. 
Bloomfield,  Abner  and  the  Widow  Jones. 

She,  her ;  a  common  incorrectness, 
but  confined  now  to  the  uneducated. 

Yet  will  I  weep,  vow,  pray  to  cruel  She. 

Daniel,  Sonnet  IV.  (Eng.  Garner,  i.  582). 
George  had  a  daughter, . . .  and  she  had 
George  . . .  tutored. — Peek's  Jests,  p.  616. 

Sheale,  Shealinq,  a  shanty. 

A  martiaU  kinde  of  men,  who  from  the 
moneth  of  April  unto  August,  lye  out  scatter- 
ing and  Summering  (as  they  tearme  it)  with 
their  cattell,  in  little  cottages  here  and 
there,  which  they  call  sheaies  and  shealings. 
— Holland's  Camden,  p.  506. 

A  horse  was  seen  feeding  upon  the  heath 
near  his  shiel  (which  is  a  cottage  made  in 
open  places  of  turf  and  flag)  and  none  could 
tell  who  was  the  owner  of  it. — North,  Life 
of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  270. 

Shearhog,  a  ram  or  wether  after  the 
first  shearing  (H.) ;  but  see  first  extract. 

The  weather  we  call  first  year  a  lamb ;  the 
second  year  a  weather  pug  or  teg ;  the  third 
year  a  sherrug ;  and  the  fourth  a  sheep. — 
Ellis,  New  Experiments,  52  (1736). 

He  thought  it  a  mere  frustration  of  the 
purposes  of  language  to  talk  of  shearhogs 
and  ewes,  to  men  who  habitually  said  shar- 
rags  and  yowes.— G.  Eliot,  Mr.  GilJU's  Love 
Story,  ch.  1. 

Sheat. 

Neat,  sheat,  and  fine, 

As  brisk  as  a  cup  of  wine. 

Greene,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  163. 

Sheat-fish,  the  sly  Silurus. 

A  mighty  sheat-fish  smokes  upon  the 
festive  board. — Kingsley,  Hypatia,  ch.  z. 


Shedding,  division.   Cf.  Watershed. 

Then  we  got  out  to  that a  shedding  "  of  the 
roads,  which  marks  the  junction  of  the  high- 
ways coming  down  from  Glasgow  and  Edin- 
burgh.— Black,  Adventures  of  a  Phaeton,  ch. 
xxbc. 

Shedfork,  pitchfork.      See  extract 

8.  V.  ROUZLE. 

Sheeped,  abashed. 

With  shame  and  grief  enough  is  that 
sheeped  tyrant  returned  to  his  Nineveh; 
having  left  behind  him  all  the  pride  and 
strength  of  Assyria  for  compost  to  the  Jewish 
fields.— £p.  Hall,  Cont.  (Sennacherib). 

Sheep- mark.  It  seems  to  have  been 
the  custom  for  persons  who  could  not 
write  to  make  the  same  device  with 
which  they  marked  their  sheep  do  duty 
for  their  signature :  at  least  this  seems 
to  be  the  meaning  of  the  following  in  a 
letter  from  Cranmer  of  about  the  date 
1534. 

I  know  not  how  I  shall  order  them  that 
cannot  subscribe  by  writing :  hitherto  I  have 
caused  one  of  my  secretaries  to  subscribe  for 
such  persons,  and  made  them  to  write  their 
shepe  mark  or  some  other  mark  as  they  can 
.  . .  scribble. — Cranmer,  ii.  291. 

Sheep-pick,  a  kind  of  hay-fork.  See 
N.  s.  v.  sheppick. 

His  servant  Perry  one  evening  in  Camp- 
den-garden  made  an  hideous  outcry,  whereat 
some  who  heard  it  coming  in  met  him  run- 
ning, and  seemingly  frighted,  with  a  sheep- 
pick  in  his  hand,  to  whom  he  told  a  formal 
story  how  he  had  been  set  upon  by  two  men 
in  white  with  naked  swords,  and  how  he 
defended  himself  with  his  sheep-pick,  the 
handle  whereof  was  cut  in  two  or  three 
places. — Examination  of  Joan  Perry,  &c.,1676 
(Harl.  Misc.,  iii.  549). 

Sheep's  head,  a  fool. 

Those  persones  who  were  sely  poore  soules, 
and  had  no  more  store  of  witte  then  they 
must  needes  occupie,  wer  euen  then,  and 
yet  still  are  in  all  tongues  and  places  by  a 
common  prouerbe  called  shepes  heads  or  shepe. 
—  UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apopth.,  p.  122. 

Sheeten,  made  of  sheeting;  the 
reference  is  to  doing  penance  in  a  white 
sheet. 

Or  wanton  rigg,  or  letcher  dissolute, 
Do  stand  at  Powles-Orosse  in  a  sheeten  sate. 
Davies,  Paper's  Complaint,  1.  250. 

Shell,  to  cover,  as  with  a  shell ;  the 
usual  meaning  is,  to  strip  off  the  shell. 
Montaigne,  in  Cotton's  translation  (ch. 
lxxix.),  remarks  on  the  surprise  caused 
to  the  Mexicans  by  the  sight  of  the 


SHELt 


(586) 


SHINE 


Spanish  invnder  "shelVd  in  a  hard  and 
shining  skin,  with  a  cutting  and  glitter- 
ing weapon  in  his  hand  against  them.'* 

Shell  thee  with  steel  or  brass,  advised  by 

dread, 
Death  from  the  casque  will  pull  thy  cautious 

head. — Ibid.  ch.  zvi. 

Shell,  hilt,  or  that  part  of  it  which 
protects  the  hand. 

I  imagined  that  his  weapon  had  perforated 
my  lungs,  and  of  consequence  that  the  wound 
was  mortal;  therefore,  determined  not  to 
die  unrevenged,  I  seised  his  shell  which  was 
close  to  my  breast,  before  he  could  disen- 
tangle his  point,  and  keeping  it  fast  with  my 
left  hand,  shortened  my  own  sword  with  my 
right. — Smollett,  Roderick  Random,  ch.  lix. 

The  swords  no  sooner  met  than  Castlewood 
knocked  up  Esmond's  with  the  blade  of  his 
own,  which  he  had  broke  off  short  at  the 
shell. — Thackeray,  Esmond,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xiii 

Shellies,  shells ;  this  form  in  the 
extract  is,  I  suppose,  due  to  the  ex- 
igencies of  the  rhyme. 

Now  little  fish  on  tender  stone  begin  to  cast 

their  bellies, 
And  sluggish  snails  that  erst  were  view'd  do 
creep  out  of  their  shellies. 

Beaxim.  and  Fl.,  Knight  of  B.  Pestle, 
iv.  5. 

Shell  out,  to  disburse  (slang). 

Will  you  be  kind  enough,  sir,  to  shell  out 
for  me  the  price  of  a  daacent  horse  ? — Miss 
Edgevvrth,  Love  and  Law,  I.  i. 

Shepherdly,  pastoral.  L.  says 
Johnson  considered  this  a  better  word 
than  shepherdish :  it  is  earlier  than 
Jeremy  Taylor,  the  earliest  authority 
cited. 

Virgill  in  his  shepherdly  poemes  called 
Eglogues,  vsed  as  rusticall  but  fit  allegorie 
for  the  purpose., —  Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie, 
Bk.  III.  ch.  xviii.' 

Sheppy,  the  sheep-shed. 

Then  of  the  outer  sheep  (all  now  snowed 
and  frizzled  like  a  lawyer's  wig)  I  took  the 
two  finest  and  heaviest,  and  with  one  be- 
neath my  right  arm,  and  the  other  beneath 
my  left,  I  went  straight  home  to  the  upper 
sheppey,  and  set  them  inside  and  fastened 
them. — Blackmore,  Lorna  Doone,  ch.  xlii. 

Shepstare,  sheep-shearer.  Shepstare 
time  =  the  summer. 

Somtime  I  would  betray  the  byrds 

That  lyght  on  lymed  tree, 
Especially  in  Shepstare  tyme, 

When  thicke  in  flockes  they  flye. 

Googe,  Eglogs,  vi. 

Sheregrig. 


Weasels  and   polecats,   sheregrigs,    carrion 

crows, 
Seen  and  smelt  only  by  thine  eyes  and  nose. 

JVolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  186. 

Sherifess,  female  sheriff. 

I  find  Elizabeth  the  Widdow  of  Thomas 
Lord  Clifford  (probably  in  the  Minority  of 
her  son)  Sherifess  (as  I  may  say)  in  the  six- 
teenth of  Richard  the  Second.  —  Fuller, 
Worthies,  Westmoreland  (ii.  433). 

Sheriffalty,  the  term  of  a  sheriff's 
office  ;  usually  written  shrievalty. 

The  year  after  I  had  twins ;  they  came  in 
Mr.  Pentweazel's  sheriffalty.— Foote,  Taste, 
Act  I. 

Sir  Rowland  Meredith,  knighted  in  his 
sheriffalty,  on  occasion  of  an  address  which 
he  brought  up  to  the  king  from  his  county. 
— Richardson,  Grandison,  i.  39. 

She -school,   girls  -  school.     In   the 

margin  of  the  subjoined,  Fuller  puts, 

" Conveniency  of  snce-colUdges" 

Nunneries  also  were  good  Shee  -  schools, 
wherein  the  girles  and  maids  of  the  neigh- 
bourhood were  taught  to  read  and  work. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  vi.  p.  297. 

SHiFTFULLjfull  of  shifts  or  resources. 
Sylvester,  Battle  of  Yvry,  33S,  speaks 
of  the  "  shiftfull  fear "  of  some  fugi- 
tives enabling  them  to  find  a  means  of 
escape. 

Shillishallier,  an  irresolute  person. 

He  was  no  shillishallier,  nor  ever  wasted  a 
precious  minute  in  pro-and-conning,  when  it 
was  necessary  at  once  to  decide  and  act. — 
Sbuthey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cv. 

Suin,  to  kick  on  the  shins. 

There's  a  pirouette ! — we're  all  a  great  deal 

too  near, 
A  ring !  give  him  room,  or  hell  shin  yon — 

stand  clear ! 

Ingoldshy  Legends  (House-warming). 

Shine,  a  row  ;  disturbance. 

I'm  not  partial  to  gentlefolks  coming  into 
my  place  . .  .  there'd  be  a  pretty  shine  made, 
if  I  was  to  uo  a  wisiting  them,  I  think. — 
Dickens,  Bleak  House,  ch.  Ivii. 

Mr.  Malone's  lot  heaves  crockery  and 
broken  vegetables  at  him  out  of  winder,  by 
reason  of  their  being  costermongera,  and 
having  such  things  handy ;  so  there's  mostly 
a  shine  of  a  Sunday  evening. — H.  Kingsley, 
Ravenshoe,  ch.  zli. 

Shine.  To  take  the  shine  out  of  a 
person  =  to  eclipse  or  surpass  him. 

As  he  goes  lower  in  the  scale  of  intellect 
and  manners,  so  also  Mr.  Dickens  rises 
higher  than  Mr.  Thackeray  —  his  hero  is 
greater  than  Pendennis,  and  his  heroine  than 
Laura,  while  "  my  Aunt "  might  alike,  on 


SHINER 


(  587  ) 


SHOES 


the  score  of  eccentricities  and  kindliness, 
take  the  thine  out  of  Lady  Bockminster. — 
Phillips,  Essays  from  the  Times,  u.  333. 

Shiner,  a  sovereign  or  guinea. 

To  let  a  lord  of  lands  want  shiners,  'tis  a 
shame. — Foote,  The  Minor,  Act  II. 
Yon  ne'er  would  call  those  shiners  trash, 
Whose  touch  is  life,  whose  name  is  Gash. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  i.  c.  13. 

Is  it  worth  fifty  shiners  extra,  if  it's  safely 
done  from  the  outside?  —  Dickens,  Oliver 
Twist,  ch.  xix. 

Shinky,  slang  for  money. 

We'll  soon  fill  both  pockets  with  the  shinev 
in  California. — Reade,  Never  too  late  to  meni, 
ch.  i. 

Shingle,  hide ;  skin. 

That  lovely  white  hinde  (though  she  hath 
som  black  spots  about  her  shingle)  which  I 
see  browsing  upon  that  hedge,  she  was  once 
a  womsak.— Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  51. 

Ship  of  guinea,  the  Nautilus. 

Along  all  that  coast  we  oftentimes  saw  a 
thing  swimming  upon  the  water,  like  a  cock's 
comb  (which  they  call  a  Ship  of  Guinea)  but 
the  colour  much  fairer  ;  which  comb  standeth 
upon  a  thing  almost  like  the  swimmer  of  a  fish 
in  colour  and  bigness,  and  beareth  under  the 
water  strings  which  saveth  it  from  turning 
over. — T.  Stevens,  1579  {Eng.  Garner,  i.  131). 

Shippage,  freightage. 

You  tell  me  in  your  letter  of  November  3d 
that  the  quarry  of  granite  might  be  rented 
at  twenty  pounds  or  twenty  shillings,  I  don't 
know  which,  no  matter,  per  annum. .  .  What 
signifies  the  cheapness  of  the  rent?  The 
catting  and  shippage  would  be  articles  of 
some  Tittle  consequence. —  Walpole,  Letters, 
i.  366  (1754). 

Ship-shape,  in  good  order. 

WaTr  will  have  wrote  home  from  the 
island,  or  from  some  port  or  another,  and 
made  all  taut  and  ship  -  shape.  —  Dickens, 
Dombeyand  Son,  ch.  xxiii. 

Neat  ship-shape  fixings  and  contrivances. — 
Browning,  Bp.  Blougram's  Apology. 

Look  to  the  babe,  and  till  I  come  again 
Keep  everything  ship-shape,  for  I  must  go. 

Tennyson,  Enoch  Arden. 

This  new  house  of  theirs  will  be  all  the 
drier  in  a  month's  time  ;  and  their  yacht  will 
be  all  the  more  ship-shape. — Black,  Princess 
of  Thule,  ch.  xxvii. 

Ship's-husband,  freighter  of  a  ship. 

As  for  the  three  boys,  they  shall  be  either 
made  supercargoes,  shitts-husbands,  or  go  out 
cadets  and  writers  in  the  Company's  service. 
—Foote,  The  Nabob,  i.  1. 

His  tea,  right  from  China,  he  got  in  a 
present  from  some  eminent  ship's-kusband&t 
Wapping. — Scott,  Rob  Boy,  ii.  99. 


Then  there  was  the  selecting  a  vessel,  and 
all  the  negotiations  with  the  ship's  husband 
as  to  terms. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford, 
ch.  xlviii. 

Shibling.     See  extract. 

My  young  ones  lament  that  they  can  have 
no  more  shirling  in  the  lake ;  a  motion  some- 
thing between  skating  and  sliding,  and 
originating  in  the  iron  clogs. — Southey,  Let- 
ters, 1820  (iii.  522). 

Shittle,  a  shuttle. 

My  godsire's  name,  Til  tell  you 
Was  In-and-in  Shittle,  and  a  weaver  he  was, 
And  it  did  fit  his  craft :  for  so  his  shittle 
Went  in  and  in  still. 

Jonson,  Tale  of  a  Tub,  iv.  2. 

Shittle- witted,  flighty  ;  unsteady. 
Cf.  Shuttle-brained. 

Devotion,  neighbourhood,  nor  hospitality, 
never  flourished  in  this  land  since  such 
upstart  boies  and  shittlcwitted  fools  became 
of  the  ministery. — Greene,  Quip  for  Upstart 
Courtier  {Harl.  Misc.,  v.  417). 

Shock,  to  meet  with  violence.  L. 
has  the  word  with  a  verb  neut.,  but 
with  no  example. 

Have  at  thee  then !  said  Kay ;  they  shocked, 

and  Kay 
Fell  shoulder-slipt. 

Tennyson,  Gareth  and  Lynette. 

Shockheaded,  having  rough  unkempt 

hair. 

I  thanked  my  shockheaded  friend,  and 
asked  carelessly  to  whom  the  park  belonged. 
— Lytton,  Caxtons,  Bk.  V.  ch.  1. 

Shoes.  To  die  in  one's  shoes  =  to 
be  hung. 

Whoever  refused  to  do  this  should  pre- 
sently swing  for  it  and  die  in  his  shoes. — 
Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  xlv. 

He  used  to  say  George  (his  son)  would  die 
in  his  shoes. — North,  life  of  Lord  Guilford, 
ii.  96. 
And  there  is  Mc  Fuse,  and  Lieutenant  Tre- 

gooze, 
And  there  is  Sir  Carnaby  Jenks  of  the  Blues, 
All  come  to  see  a  man  die  in  his  shoes. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  {The  Execution). 

Shoes.  To  be  in  the  shoes  of  another 
=  to  be  in  his  place. 

With  violence  and  with  force  of  arms  he 

drave 
Our  Benedictine  brethren — not  alone 
Them  that  were  placed  by  Edred  tit  the  shoes 
Of  seculars  that  by  Edred  were  expulsed, 
But  ancient  men  that  had  been  there  afore- 
time.— Taylor,  Edwin  the  Fair,  iii.  8. 

Shoes.  Another  pair  of  shoes  = 
something  different 


SHOLDER 


(  588  ) 


SHOT 


Shall  colonists  have  their  horses  (and 
blood  'tins,  if  yon  please,  good  Lord !)  and 
not  my  London  gentleman  ?  No,  no !  Well 
show  'em  another  pair  of  shoes  than  that, 
Pip,  won't  us? — Great  Expectations,  ch.  xl. 

Sholder,    shallower.    See  N.,   s.  v. 

shold. 

In  the  scepterdome  of  Edward  the  Con- 
fessor, the  sands  first  began  to  growe  into 
sight  at  a  low  water,  and  more  sholder  at  the 
month  of  the  river  Hirus  or  Ierns. — Nashe, 
Lenten  Stuffe  {Karl.  Misc.,  vi.  151). 

Sholve,  shovel. 

Get  easting  sholue,  broome,  and  a  sack  with 
a  band. — Tusser's  Husbandries  p.  35. 

Shone,  radiance. 

Stella  alone  with  face  unarmed  march't, 
Either  to  do  like  him  [the  sun]  with  open 

shone. 
Or  careless  of  the  wealth,  because  her  own. 
Sidney,  Astrophd  and  Stella,  st.  22. 

Shool,  to  beg. 

They  went  all  hands  to  shooting  and  beg- 
ging ;  and  because  I  would  not  take  a  spell 
at  the  same  duty,  refused  to  give  me  the 
least  assistance.  —  Smollett,  Bod,  Random, 
ch.  xli. 

Shoot,  a  rush  of  water. 

At  the  tails  of  mills  and  arches  small 
Where  as  the  shoot  is  swift  and  not  too  clear. 

Dennys,  Secrets  of  Angling 
(Eng.  Garner,  1.  171). 

I  have  hunted  every  wet  rock  and  shute 
from  Rillage  Point  to  the  near  side  of  Hills- 
borough.— C.  Kingsley,  1849  (Life,  i.  161). 

Shoot  able,  capable  of  being  shot ; 

also,  a  vulgar  pronunciation  of  suitable. 

I  rode  everything  rideable,  shot  everything 
shootable, — Savage,  R.  Medlicott,  Bk.  III.  ch. 

•  •  • 

m. 

The  lady's  fortune  is  shootable;  indeed,  I 
may  say,  pretty  handsome. — Miss  Ferrier, 
Destiny,  p.  192. 

Shooter.    See  extract 

He  had  a  word  for  the  hostler  about "  that 
grey  mare,"  a  nod  for  the  shooter  or  guard, 
and  a  bow  for  the  draftsman. — Thackeray, 
Shabby  Genteel  Story,  ch.  1. 

Shooting-horn,  alluring;  as  of  a 
woman  who  would  make  her  husband's 
horns  shoot  (?). 

She  . .  .  treats  him  with  kind  glances  and 
a  few  amorous  witticisms,  as  long  as  his 
money  runs  flush ;  but  as  soon  as  that  begins 
to  fail,  her  shooting-horn  looks  and  freedoms 
are  turned  into  moody  pouts  and  a  scornful 
reservedness. — T.  Brown,  Worksf  iii.  96. 

Shop,  to  shut  up,  or  imprison.  See 
extract  s.  v.  Sweeten  and  pinch. 


They  had  likewise  shopped  up  themselves 
in  the  highest  of  their  house. — Patten,  Kxped, 
to  Scotl.,  1548  (Eng.  Gamer,  iii.  86). 

It  was  Bartlemy  time  when  I  was  shopped, 
and  there  warnt  a  penny  trumpet  in  the  fair 
as  I  couldn't  bear  the  squeaking  on.  Arter 
I  was  locked  up  for  the  night,  the  row  and 
din  outside  made  the  thundering  old  jail  so 
silent  that  I  could  almost  have  beat  my 
brains  out  against  the  iron  plates  of  the 
door. — Dickens,  Oliver  Twist,  ch.  xvL 

Shop.  A  person  is  said  to  talk  shop 
when  he  converses  on  subjects  peculiar 
to  his  own  profession  or  occupation ; 
thus  there  is  military  shop,  clerical 
shop,  &c. 

Had  to  go  to  Hartley  Bow  for  an  Arch- 
deacon's Sunday-school  meeting  three  hours 
useless  (I  fear)  speechifying  and  shop,  bat 
the  Archdeacon  is  a  good  man,  and  works 
like  a  brick  beyond  his  office. — C  Kingsley, 
Letter,  May,  1856. 

Shop-lift,  one  who  steals  from  a 
shop  =  a  shop-lifter.  See  extract,  «.  v. 
Fender. 

Shopocract,  the  trading  class  or 
power. 

Mr.  Cranworth  Oranworth  had  danced 
with  all  the  belles  of  the  shopocracy  of 
Eccleaton.— Mrs,  Gaskell,  Ruth,  on.  xxnii. 

Shoppy,  belonging  to  trade. 

Are  those  the  Gormans  who  made  their 
fortunes  in  trade  at  Southampton  ?  Oh,  I 
am  glad  we  don't  visit  them ;  I  don't  like 
shoppy  people.  —  Mrs,  Gaskell,  North  and 
South,  ch.  ii. 

Shore,  sewer. 

Ungrateful  odours  common-stare*  diffuse. 

Gay,  Trivia,  i.  171. 

Shorling,  shaveling ;  priest :  also 
used  adjectivally  =  shaven.  The  word 
is  also  applied  to  the  fell  of  sheep  after 
the  fleece  has  been  removed.  See  L.  $.  v. 

This  Babylonish  whore,  or  disguised  syna- 
gogue of  shorelings  sitteth  upon  many  waters. 
—Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  494. 

A  certain  council  called  Concilium  Latro- 
nense,  in  the  which  were  gathered  together 
wonderful  swarms  of  smeared,  spiritual, 
shorling  sorcerers. — Becon,  ii.  260. 

Short  •  windbdnbss,    shortness     of 

breath. 

Balm,  taken  fasting,  ...  is  very  good 
against  shortvindedness, — Adams,  i.  374. 

Shot,  a  shooter ;  a  soldier  who  carried 
fire-arms ;  used  generally,  and  not  with 
regard  to  accuracy  or  otherwise  of  aim, 
as  now  when  we  call  a  man  a  good  or 
bad  shot. 


SHOT 


(  589) 


SHO  VEL 


Come  manage  me  your  caliver.  So,  very 
well;  go  to;  very  good,  exceeding  good. 
O  give  me  always  a  little,  lean,  old,  chapt, 
bald  shot.— 2  Hen.  IV.,  iii.  2. 

A  guard  of  chosen  shot  I  had, 
That  walked  about  me  every  minute  while. 

1  Hen.  VI.,  i.  4. 

I  was  brought  from  prison  into  the  town 
of  Xeres  by  two  drums  and  a  hundred  shot. 
— Peeke,  Three  to  One,  1625  (Eng.  Garner,  i. 
633). 

Shot,  usually  =  the  reckoning,  but 
in  extracts  seems  to  be  applied  to  the 
quantity  of  ale  for  which  some  perhaps 
fixed  reckoning  was  paid. 

About  noon  we  returned,  had  a  shot  of  ale 
at  Slathwaite. — Meeke,  Diary,  Jan.  23, 1691. 

After  dinner  we  went  into  the  town  to 
drink  a  shot,  as  the  custom  is. — Ibid.,  Oct. 
30, 1693. 

Shotrel,  a  pike  in  the  first  year. 

As  though  six  mouths  and  the  cat  for  a 
seventh  be  not  sufficient  to  eat  an  harlotry 
shotrel,  a  pennyworth  of  cheese,  and  half  a 
score  sparlings. — Gascoigne,  Supposes,  ii.  3. 

The  shotrell,  1  year,  Pickerel,  2  year,  Pike, 
3  year,  Luce,  4  year,  are  one. — Lauson,  Com- 
ments on  Secrets  of  Angling,  1653  {Eng. 
Gamer,  i.  197). 

Shoulder.  To  give  the  cold  shoulder 
=  to  discountenance,  to  keep  at  a  dis- 
tance. See  quotation  from  Scott,  s.  v. 
Twaddle. 

He  is  well  enough  to  do  in  the  world — a 
warm  man,  sir ;  and  when  a  man  is  really 
warm,  I  am  the  last  person  to  think  of  his 
little  faults,  and  turn  on  him  the  cold  shoulder. 
—Lytton,  Caxtons,  Bk.  XVII.  ch.  i. 

"  Ay,  he  comes  back,"  said  the  landlord. 
11  to  his  great  friends  now  and  again,  and 
gives  the  cold  shoulder  to  the  man  that  made 
him." — Dickens,  Great  Expectations,  ch.  Iii 

Shoulder  knot,  an  ornament  once 
peculiar  to  gentlemen.  It  is  only  foot- 
men now  who  are  said  to  wear  shoulder- 
knots;  though  of  course  epaulettes 
might  be  so  described. 

Clinch.  Sir  [to  Sir  Harry  Wildair],  I  admire 
the  mode  of  your  shoulder-knot ;  methinks 
it  hangs  very  emphatically,  and  carries  an 
air  of  travel  in  it. — Farquhar,  Constant  Couple, 
.  1. 
I  could  not  but  wonder  to  see  pantaloons 
and  shoulder  knots  crowding  among  the  com- 
mon clowns. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford, 
i.  273. 

Shoulder-knotted,  wearing  a  shoul- 
der-knot. 

A  shoulder-knotted  Puppy,  with  a  grin, 
Queering  the  threadbare  Curate,  let  him  in. 
Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  144. 


8houlder  of  mutton.  One  shoulder 
of  mutton  drives  another  down  is  a 
proverb  expressing  the  ease  in  doing 
anything  which  comes  by  custom  and 
repetition. 

As  two  shoulders  of  mutton  drive  down  one 
another,  so  two  powerful  griefs  destroy  one 
another,  by  making^  a  division.  —  2*.  Brown, 
.Works,  iii.  57. 

Shoulder  op  mutton.  The  phrase 
in  the  extract  seems  to  have  been  pro- 
verbial for  a  surprise  of  a  disappoint- 
ing kind  ;  the  expression  in  the  original 
is  carbonespro  thesauro,  the  idea  being 
that  of  a  man  who  dug  in  expectation 
of  obtaining  treasure,  and  only  found 
coals.  In  the  extract  the  speaker  had 
supposed  a  woman's  melancholy  to  be 
caused  by  love,  but  she  tells  him  that 
it  arises  from  her  desire  to  enter  a 
nunnery  being  opposed  by  her  parents. 

Ho !  I  find  I  was  out  in  my  notion.  To 
leave  a  shoulder  of  mutton  for  a  sheep* s  head. 
— Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  120. 

Shoulderslipt,  having  a  dislocated, 
shoulder.    See  quotation  *.  v.  Shock. 

Mr.  Floyd  brought  word  they  could  not 
come,  for  one  of  their  horses  was  shoulder' 
slipt. — North,  Examen,  p.  173. 

He  mounted  him  again  upon  Bosinante, 
who  was  half  shoulder-slipped. — Jarvis's  Don 
Quuote,Ft.  I.  Bk.  I.  ch.  vui. 

Shoulder  to  shoulder,  in  close  alli- 
ance. 

It  was  as  if  he  had  found  an  added  soul  in 
finding  his  ancestry  .  .  .  exchanging  that 
birds-eye  reasonableness  which  soars  to  avoid 
preference  and  loses  all  sense  of  auality,  for 
the  generous  reasonableness  of  drawing 
shoulder  to  shoulder  with  men  of  like  inherit- 
ance.— G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  briii. 

Shoulerd,  the  bird  shoveller. 

The  young  heme  and  the  shoulerd  are  now 
fat  for  the  great  feast. — Breton,  Fantastic $y 
November. 

Shout  the  gate,  some  boyish  game. 

Some  reminded  him  of  his  haying  beat 
them  at  boxing,  other  at  wrestling,  and  all 
of  his  having  played  with  them  at  prison-bars, 
leap-frog,  shout  the  gate,  and  so  forth. — H. 
Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  ii.  168. 

Shovel,  a  shovel  hat. 

She  was  a  good  woman  of  business,  and 
managed  the  hat  shop  for  nine  years  .  .  .  My 
uncle  the  bishop  had  his  shovels  there ;  and 
they  used  for  a  considerable  period  to  cover 
this  humble  roof  with  tiles. — Thackeray,  New- 
comes,  ch.  xzv. 

I  once  heard  a  venerable  dignitary  pointed 


SHO  VE-NET 


(  59o  ) 


SHY 


out  by  a  railway  porter  as  an  old  party  in  a 
shovel. — Alford,  Queen's  English,  p.  228. 

Shove-net.    See  extract. 

To  catch  these  [salmon-peal]  they  throw 
in  a  net  or  an  hoop  at  the  end  of  a  pole,  the 
pole  going  across  the  hoop,  which  in  some 
places  they  call  a  Shove-net. — Defoe,  Tour 
thro1  O.  Britain,  i.  387. 

Showfully,  gaudily. 

The  Torch-bearers  habits  were  likewise  of 
the  Indian  garb,  but  more  strauagant  then 
those  of  the  Maskers;  all  showfully  gar* 
nisht  with  seueral-hewd  fethers. — Chapman, 
Masque  of  the  Mid.  Temple. 

Shreakb,  shred.    Cf.  H.  8.  v.  shrag. 

Ribands,  and  then  some  silken  shreakes 
The  virgins  lost  att  barlye  breakes. 

Herrick,  Appendix,  p.  468. 

Shred-pie,  mince-pie.  See  extract 
8.  v.  Misoclere.  Tusser  in  his  "  Christ- 
mas husband  lie  fare  "  reckons — 

Beefe,  mutton,  and  porke,  shred-pies  of  the 

best, 
Fig,  veale,  goose  and  capon,  and  turkey  well 

Brest. — Husbandrie,  p.  70. 

In  winter  there  was  the  luxury  of  a  shred 
pie,  which  is  a  coarse  North  country  edition 
of  the  pie  abhorred  by  puritans. — Southey, 
■  The  Doctor,  ch.  viii. 

Shrew-stbuck. 

When  my  vather's  cows  was  shrew-struck, 
she  made  un  be  draed  under  a  brimble  as 
growed  together  at  the  both  ends,  she  a 
praying  like  mad  all  the  time. — C.  Kingsley, 
Alton  Locke,  ch.  xxi. 

If  a  child  was  scalded,  a  tooth  ached,  a 
piece  of  silver  was  stolen,  a  heifer  shrero- 
struck,  a  pig  bewitched,  a  young  damsel  crost 
in  love,  Lucy  was  called  in. — Ibid.,  Westward 
Ho,  ch.  iv. 

Shrilly,  shrill. 

Its  rest  was  rent  in  twain  by  a  savage,  a 
sbarp,  a  shrilly  sound. — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre, 
ch.  xx. 

Shriveldy,  withered ;  shrunk  up. 

His  elder  brother  . .  is  but  a  poor  rickety, 
shriveldy  sort  of  a  child.  —  Mrs.  Trollope, 
Michael  Armstrong,  ch.  iii. 

Shrivlng-pew,  confessional. 

To  the  Joyner  for  takynge  downe  the 
shryvyng  pew,  and  making  another  pew  in 
the  same  place.  —  Church icardens  Accounts 
(1648)  of  S.  MichaeVs,  Comhill,  ed.  by  Over- 
all,  p.  09. 

Shrone,  shrine  (?),  which  is  the  read- 
ing in  Nuttall's  ed. 

^  Joan  Tuckville,  .  .  .  procured  the  posses- 
sion, then  the  consecration  of  a  parcel  of 
ground  which  she  had  fairly  compassed 
about,  for  the  interment  of  such  as  were 


executed  at  Hevie-tree  hard  by,  allowing  land 
to  buy  a  shrone  for  every  one  of  them  ;  that 
such  as  dyed  Malefactors  might  be  buried  as 
men,  yea  as  Christians. — ftUler,  Worthies, 
Exeter  (I.  307). 

Shroudless,  unobscured.  R.  has  the 
word  as  applied  to  a  dead  body  destitute 
of  a  shroud. 

Above  the  stars  in  shroudless  beauty  shine. 
— C.  Swain,  quoted  in  Southey's  Doctor,  ch. 
lxxviii. 

Shrove- Sunday.  Sunday  before 
Shrove  Tuesday  (?). 

Laud  preachiug  on  Shrove- Sunday,  Anno, 
1614,  insisted  on  some  points  which  might 
indifferently  be  imputed  either  to  Popery  or 
Arminianism. — Heylin,  life  of  Laud,  p.  66. 

Shrowdino  corner,  place  of  conceal- 
ment. 

This  Isle  afforded  him  a  very  fit  shrowding 
corner. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  224. 

Shrubless,  without  shrubs. 

This  cold  shrubless  tract  of  bare  earth  and 
stone  wails. — Miss  Ferrier,  Inheritance,  i.  13. 

Shud,  a  husk  ;  that  which  is  shed. 

But  what  shall  be  done  with  all  the  hard 
refuse,  the  long  buns,  the  stalks,  the  short 
shuds  or  sbiues? — Holland,  Pliny,  Bk.  xix. 
oh.  i. 

Shunt.     See  extract. 

To  shunt  a  train,  in  well  known  railway 
phraseology,  is  to  direct  it  on  to  another  line 
of  rails.— Arch.,  xxxvii.  118  (1857). 

Shuttered,  protected  with  shutters. 

The  school-house  windows  were  all  shut- 
tered up. — Hughes,  Jbm  Brown's  Schooldays, 
Pt.  II.  ch.  ix. 

Here  is  Gangway's,  bolted  and  shuttered 
hard  and  fast.  —  Dickens,  Uncommercial 
Traveller,  xxi. 

Shuttle,  to  move  quickly  to  and  fro  ; 
like  a  weaver's  shuttle. 

Their  corps  go  marching  and  shuttling  in 
the  interior  of  the  country,  much  nearer 
Paris  than  formerly. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Revn  Pt. 
II.  Bk.  VI.  ch.  i. 

I  had  to  mount  into  cabs  with  him ;  fly  fax 
and  wide,  shuttling  athwart  the  big  Babel. — 
Ibid.,  Life  of  Sterling,  Pt.  III.  ch.  1. 

Shuttle-brained,  volatile ;  unsteady. 
See  extract  s.  v.  Capon.  Cf.  Shuttle- 
witted. 

Shy,  a  fling. 

"There  you  go,  Polly;  you  are  always 
having  a  shy  at  Lady  Ann  and  her  relations/' 
said  Mr.  Newcome.  "  A  shy !  how  can  yon 
use  such  vulgar  words,  Mr.  Newcome  ?  " — 
Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  xvi. 


SIB 


(S9i  ) 


SIMILAR  Y 


Sib,  in  the  following  seems  to  be 
used  as  "  my  dear/1  or  "  my  love." 
Edward  II.  addressing  his  queen  says — 

Tosh,  Sib,  if  this  he  all 
Valois  and  I  will  soon  be  friends  again. 

Marlowe,  Edw.  II.,  iii.  2. 

Siccative,  drying. 

The  juyce  of  cedars  .  .  by  the  extreme 
bitterness  and  siccative  faculty  .  .  .  subdued 
the  cause  of  interior  corruption. —  Sandys, 
Travels,  p.  134. 

Sicle.     See  extract. 

Some  have  been  burnt  ...  by  leaving  great 
fires  in  chimneys  (where  the  sparks  or  sides 
breaking  fell  and  fired  the  boards). — Season- 
able Advice,  1643  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  399). 

Side-cousin,  an  illegitimate  rela- 
tive (?). 

Here's  little  Dickon,  and  little  Robin,  and 
little  Jenny,  though  she's  but  a  side-cousin. 
— Tennyson,  Queen  Mary,  ii.  3. 

Side-slip,  an  illegitimate  child.  Cf. 
By-chop. 

The  old  man  . .  .  left  it  to  this  side-slip  of 
a  son  that  he  kept  in  the  dark. — G.  Eliot, 
Middlemarch,  ch.  xl. 

Sighfull,  sorrowful. 

In  a  cave  hard  by  he  roareth  out 
A  sighfull  song. 

Sylvester,  The  Trophies,  1285. 

Sight,  insight;  to  be  well  seen  in 
any  art  or  science  is  a  common  expres- 
sion in  old  writers. 

I  gave  my  time  for  nothing  on  condition 
of  his  giving  me  a  sight  into  his  business. — 
H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  385. 

Sightful,  clear-sighted. 

Tis  passing  miraculous  that  your  dul  and 
blind  worship  should  so  sodainly  turne  both 
sight  full  ana  witfull. — Chapman,  Masque  at 
Mid.  Temple. 

Sight-shot.  Out  of  sight-shot  = 
out  of  sight  Cf .  Tongue-shot  ;  ear- 
shot is  common. 

It  only  makes  me  run  faster  from  the 
place,  till  I  get,  as  it  were,  out  of  sight-shot. 
— Cowley,  Essays  (Obscurity). 

Sightsman,  guide ;  cicerone. 

In  the  first  place  our  Sightsman  (for  so 
they  name  certain  persons  here  who  get  their 
living  by  leading  strangers  about  to  see  the 
city)  went  to  the  Palace  Famezi. — Evelyn, 
Diary,  Nov.  6, 1644. 

Sight- worthy,  worth  seeing. 

In  our  universities  . .  .  the  worst  Colledge 
is  more  sight-worthy  than  the  best  Dutch 
Gymnasium. — Fuller,  Holy  State,  III.  iv.  4. 


Sign,  mark. 

Nothing  found  here  but  stones,  signed  with 
brasse,  iron,  and  lead. — Holland's  Camden, 
p.  808. 

Significatist.     See  quotation. 

The  Symbolists,  Figurists,  and  Signifca- 
tists  . .  .  are  of  opinion  that  the  faithful  at 
the  Lord's  Sapper  do  receive  nothing  bat 
naked  and  bare  signs. — Rogers  on  39  Articles, 
p.  289. 

SiKETT,  a  brook. 

Thence  by  a  certain  sikett,  called  Cavers- 
well  Brook, .  . .  thence  by  the  same  sikett  to 
the  meadow  called  Cavershill. — Arch,  xxxvii. 
424(1857). 

Silk- worm.  See  quotation.  The 
word  seem3  also  to  have  been  used  of 
Bishops  in  allusion  to  their  dress.  See 
extract  from  T.  Brown,  s.  v.  Magpie. 

The  fellow  who  drove  her  came  to  us,  and 
discovered  that  he  was  ordered  to  come 
again  in  an  hour,  for  that  she  was  a  silk- 
worm. I  was  surprised  with  this  phrase,  but 
found  it  was  a  cant  among  the  Hackney  fra- 
ternity for  their  best  customers,  women  who 
ramble  twice  or  thrice  a  week  from  shop  to 
shop,  to  turn  over  all  the  goods  in  town 
without  buying  anything. — Spectator,  No. 
454. 

Sillyton,  simpleton. 

Sillyton  (inepta),  forbear  railing,  and  hear 
what  is, said  to  you. — Bailey* s  Erasmus,  p. 
413. 

Silvkrize,  to  silver. 

In  theaters,  at  publike  playes  and  feasts, 
Giue  alwayes  place  vnto  the  hoary  head, 

So  when  like  age  shall  siluerize  thy  tresse, 
Thou  shalf  by  others  be  like-honoured. 
Sylvester,  Quadrains  of  Pibrac,  st.  119. 

Silver  sprigs.  See  extract.  Fuller 
(  Worthies),  speaking  of  rabbits  in  Nor- 
folk, says,  "  Their  rich  or  silver-hair- 
slrins,  formerly  so  dear,  are  now  levelled 
in  prices  with  other  colours.11 

The  true  silver  grey  rabbits — stiver  sprit/s, 
they  call  them — do  you  know  that  the  skins 
of  those  silver  sprigs  are  worth  any  money  ? 
— Miss  Edgeworth,  The  Will,  ch.  i. 

SlMIAL,  apish. 

This  Jocelin  .  . .  from  "under  his  monk's 
cowl  has  looked  out  on  that  narrow  section 
of  the  world  in  a  really  human  manner ;  not 
in  any  simial,  canine,  ovine,  or  otherwise 
inhuman  manner. — Carlyle,  Past  and  Present, 
Bk.  II.  ch.  i. 

Similary,  like. 

The  name  of  the  Church  of  Christ  serves 
to  ezpresse  any  one  of  those  more  noble 
parts  or  eminent  branches  belonging  to  that 
Catholick  visible  Church,  which  being  simi- 


SIMILIZE 


(  592  )  SING  SORROW 


lary  or  partaking  of  the  same  nature  by  the 
common  faith,  have  yet  their  convenient 
limits. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  25. 

Similize,  to  imitate ;  also,  to  compare. 

Ill  similize 
These  Qabionites ;  I  will  myself  disguize 
To  gull  Thee,  Lord. 

Sylvester,  The  Captaines,  464. 

The  best  to  whom  he  may  be  similized 
herein  is  Friar  Paul  the  Servite. — Hacket, 
Life  of  Williams,  i.  53. 

Simoner,  a  simoniacal  person. 

These  simoners  sell  sin,  suffering  men  and 
women  in  every  degree  and  estate  to  he  and 
continue  from  year  to  year  in  divers  vices 
slanderously. — Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  129 
{Exam,  of  W.  Thorpe). 

Simon  ist,  one  who  traffics  in  Church 
preferment. 

If  we  therefore  be  condemned  as  simon- 
ists,  your  easiest  censure  is  to  be  esteemed 
infidels. — Adams,  i.  463. 

Simplar.     See  extract,  s.  v.  Duplar. 

Simples.  Cutting  for  Hie  simples  is 
an  operation  proposed  for  the  benefit 
of  fools.  According  to  H.  s.  v.  Bat- 
tersea  was  the  place  where  it  was  to  be 
performed. 

Miss.  Indeed,  Mr.  Neverout,  you  should 
be  cut  for  the  simples  this  morning. — Swift, 
Polite  Conversation  (Con v.  i.). 

In  the  Cabinet  what  evils  might  be  averted 
by  administering  laxatives  or  corroborants 
as  the  case  required.  In  the  Lord  and  Com- 
mons by  clearing  away  bile,  evacuating  ill 
humours,  and  occasionally  by  cutting  for  the 
simples. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cxxxvi. 

Simulator,  feigner;  actor. 

They  are  merely  simulators  of  the  part 
they  sustain. — De  Quincey,  Autob.  Sketches, 
i.  200. 

Sine,  a  gulf.    Sylvester  speaks  again 
of  "  the  Persian  Sine  "  (Colonies^  94). 
Such  is  the  Gorman  Sea,  such  Persian  Sine, 
Such  th'  Indian  Gulf,  and  such  th'  Arabian 

brine. 

Sylvester,  third  day,  first  week,  98. 

Sineqdanonniness,  indispensability. 

Nature  herself  shows  us  the  utility,  the 
importance,  nay,  the  indispensability,  or  to 
take  a  hint  from  the  pure  language  of  our 
diplomatists,  the  sinequanonniness  of  pockets. 
—Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  Hi.  A  i. 

Sinoing-hinny,  a  cake  made  with 
butter  and  currants,  and  baked  on  a 
girdle. 

For  any  visitor  who  could  stay,  neither 
cream  nor  finest  wheaten  flour  was  wanting 
for  turf -cakes  and  singing-hinnies  with  which 


it  is  the  delight  of  the  northern  housewife* 
to  regale  the  honoured  guest. — Mrs.  GtsktU, 
Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  iv. 

Singing- loaf  or  cake,  the  Each* 
ristio  wafer,  because  a  psalm  was 
directed  to  be  sung  while  it  was 
making.  In  quotation  from  Monday 
it  mean 8  an  ordinary  wafer.  H.  has 
singing-bread. 

A  great  deal  of  flour  would  not  make  so 
many  hosts,  as  they  call  thorn,  or  «aft»j 
loaves,  as  hath  been  broken  in  our  dap 
between  Christian  princes,  as  they  will  be 
called,  to  confirm  promises  that  have  not 
been  kept. — Tyndale,  ii.  301. 

If  the  church  always  professed  a  com- 
munion, why  have  you  one  priest  standing 
at  the  altar  alone,  with  one  singing  cake  for 
himself,  which  he  showeth  to  the  people  to 
be  seen  and  honoured,  and  not  to  be  eaten? 
— Bp.  Cooper,  Defence  of  the  Truth,  p.  15& 

The  letters  finished  and  sealed  up  with 
singing-cake,  he  delivered  unto  us. — Mt» 
day's  English  Bomayne  Life,  1500  (HerL 
jfisc,  vii.  139). 

Single,  a  tail.  H.  says,  "  properly 
applied  to  that  of  a  buck."  In  the 
first  extract  the  speaker  is  supposed 
to  be  a  hind ;  in  the  second,  Pan  is 
addressed. 

There's  a  kind  of  acid  humor  that  nature 
hath  put  in  our  singles,  the  smell  whereof 
causeth  our  enemies,  viz.  the  doggs,  to  tj 
from  us. — Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  63. 
That  single  wagging  at  thy  butt, 
Those  gambrels,  and  that  cloven  foot. 
Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,?.  277. 

Si  no  small,  to  be  humble  or  retiring ; 
to  draw  in  one's  horns. 

I  must  myself  sing  small  in  her  company; 
I  will  never  meet  at  hard-edge  with  her.— 
Bichardson,  Grandison,  i.  120. 

So  after  all  this  terrible  squall, 
Fiddle-de-dee's  at  the  top  of  the  tree, 
And  Doldrum  and  Fal-de-ral-tit  sing  small. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  (Bow  in  an 
Omnibus  Box). 

Sing-song,  to  write  poetry;  a  con- 
temptuous expression ;  the  substantive 
is  common.  Tom  Brown  (  Works,  iii. 
39)  has  it  as  an  adjective,  "  from  huf- 
fing Dryden  to  sing-song  D'Urfey." 

There's  no  glory 
Like  his  who  saves  his  country,  and  you  sit 
Sing-songing  here ;  but  if  I'm  any  judge, 
By  God,  you  are  as  poor  a  poet,  Wyatt, 
As  a  good  soldier. 

Tennyson,  Queen  Mary,  ii.  1. 

Sing  borrow,  to  fare  badly. 

Though  this  were  so,  and  you  should  find 
such  a  sword,  it  would  be  of  service  and  use 


SINGVLTIENT 


(  593  ) 


SISTER 


to  those  who  are  dubbed  knights,  like 
>alsam ;  as  for  the  poor  squires,  they 
sing  sorrow. — Jarvis's  Don  Quixote,  Pt. 
.  III.  ch.  iv. 

nodltiknt,   sighing    or    sobbing; 
>tlf  and  singvlt  are  in  the  Diets, 
n  of  ripe  age  will  screech,  cry,  and 
3  in  so  many  disordered  notes  and  sin- 
*nt  accents. — Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts, 

N1STERNE88,  wrongfulness. 

e  insolent  folly  and  intolerable  arro- 
j  which  dares  to  put  the  ignorance, 
nesse,  emptinesse,  vulgarity,  rashnesse, 
pitancy  and  sinisternesse  of  their  silly 
ires  into  the  balance  of  Religion. — Gau- 
Vears  of  the  Church,  p.  62. 

on,  a  plant.  See  quotation  «.  v. 
Lady's  Mantle. 

tple,  to  sip  mincingly. 

>m  this  topic  he  transferred  his  disquisi- 
to  the  word  drink,  which  he  affirmed 
improperly  applied  to  the  taking  of 
e  inasmuch  as  people  did  not  driuk,  but 
r  nipple  that  liquor. — Smollett,  Roderick 
om,  ch.  xlv. 

quis,  to  advertise  ;  from  the  words 
which  notices  began.  Si  quis  is 
used  to  signify  the  public  notice 

n  in  Church  of  the  name  of  any  one 

ing  Holy  Orders. 

nust  excuse  my  departure  to  Theoma- 
,  otherwise  he  may  send  here  and  cry 
me,  and  <SY  quis  me  in  the  next  gazette. 
ntleman  Instructed,  p.  312. 

R,  to  add  re 88  as  sir. 

r  brother  and  sister  Mr.  Solmes'd  him, 
Sirr'd  him  up  at  every  word. — Richard' 
VI.  Harlowe,  i.  47. 

Oh  it  looks  ill 
n  delicate  tongues  disclaim  all  terms  of 

h 

ng  and  Madam-ing  as  civilly 

the  road  betweeu  the  heart  and  lips 

a  such  a  weary  and  Laplandish  way, 

the  poor  travellers  came  to  the  red  gates 

frozen. — Southty,  To  Margaret  Hill. 

[R  el  ess,  would  properly  mean 
eriess ;  but  in  the  extract  seems 
ungenerative.  Sylvester  in  the 
imph  of  Faith,  ii.  33,  speaks  of  the 
\  Mary  as  one  who  "  tireless  bore 
Sire,"  meaning  I  suppose  that  her 
had  no  (earthly)  father. 

Plant  is  leafless,  branch-less,  void  of 
lit. 

Beast  is  lust-less,  sex-less,  sire-less,  mute. 

Sylvester,  Eden,  583. 

irloin,   the   over-loin ;    should   be 


written  surloin.  R.  seems  to  accept 
the  derivation  given  in  the  extract,  for 
he  writes,  "  the  loin  of  beef  so  entitled 
by  James  I. "  Mr.  Wedgewood  quotes 
from  an  account  of  the  expenses  of  the 
Ironmongers'  Company,  temp.  Hen.  VI., 
"  a  surloyn  beeff  viid.  The  sirloin  is 
also  mentioned  in  Noshes  Lenten  Stufc 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  164). 

Nev.  But  pray,  why  is  it  called  a  sirloyn  ? 

Lord  Sp.  Why,  you  must  know  that  our 
King  James  I.,  who  loved  good  eating,  being 
invited  to  dinner  by  one  of  his  nobles,  and 
seeing  a  large  loyn  of  beef  at  his  table,  he 
drew  out  his  sword  and  knighted  it.  Few 
people  know  the  secret  of  this. — Swift,  Polite 
Conversation  (Conv.  ii.). 

Sirs,  addressed  to  women ;  still  so 
used  in  Scotland.  In  Beauin.  and  Fl., 
King  and  no  King,  ii.  1,  Panthea  says 
to  her  waiting-women,  "  Sirs,  leave  me 
all." 

Siserara.  H.  says  a  hard  blow,  and 
so  in  the  quotation  from  Sterne  it  =  at 
once,  at  a  stroke,  but  in  the  first  from 
Smollett  it  means  rather  a  scolding. 
Some  suppose  it  to  come  from  the  writ 
certiorari.  See  last  extract.  Cf.  Sask- 
rara  and  Premunire. 

It  was  on  Sunday  in  the  afternoon,  when 
I  fell  in  love  all  at  once  with  a  sisserara  ;  it 
burst  upon  me  'an  please  your  honour  like  a 
bomb. — Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  vi.  47. 

I  have  gi'en  the  dirty  slut  a  siserary. — 
Smollett,  Humphrey  Clinker,  i.  80. 

O  that  there  was  a  lawyer  here  to  serve 
him  with  a  siserari. — Ibid.,  Sir  L.  Greaves, 
ch.  ii. 

Sistence,  halting-place. 

Extraordinary  must  be  the  wisdome  of  him 
who  floateth  upon  the  stream  of  Sovereigne 
favour,  wherein  there  is  seldome  any  sistence 
'twixt  sinking  and  swimming.  —  Howell, 
Dodona's  Grove,  p.  122. 

Sister,  to  address  a  person  as  sister. 
See  quotation  s.  v.  Brother,  and  cf. 
UN8I8TER.  In  the  first  extract  it  seems 
to  be  applied  to  a  man  who  while  in 
attendance  on  a  woman  as  a  secret 
lover  would  pretend  she  was  his  sister. 

Tou  have  got  one  of  the  best  hidera  of 
such  a  business  in  the  town :  lord,  how  he 
would  sister  you  at  a  play. — Killigrew,  Par- 
son's Weddinu,  ii.  3. 

How  artfully,  yet  I  must  own,  honourably, 
he  reminds  her  of  the  brotherly  character 
which  he  passes  under  to  her.  How  officious!  v 
he  sisters  her! — Richardson,  Gramlison,  iii. 
251. 

Q  Q 


S1TTEN 


(  594  ) 


SKID 


Think  what  it  must  be  to  be  u  How  d'ye 
doed"  and  to  be  "dear  ristcred"  by  such 
bodies  as  these  in  public. — Miss  Edgevoorth, 
Helen,  oh. 


Bitten,  sat ;  in  the  first  extract  the 
speaker  is  an  uneducated  man. 

They  would  not  have  yielded  much  to  the 
Bishops,  for  they  were  bloody  mad  at  them ; 
and  I  think,  if  they  had  sitten  till  now,  they 
would  have  sent  them  from  the  church  to 
the  house  to  pray  to  God ;  but  not  to  have 
letten  them  prate  any  more  to  the  house  of 
lords. — Dialogue  on  Oxford  Parliament,  1681 
{Hart.  Mite,,  ii.  119). 

Till  in  good  time  up  starts  me  Gill, 
Who  all  this  while  had  sitten  still ! 

Ward,  Reformation,  o.  i.  p.  100. 

Having  sitten  together  till  near  seven 
o'clock,  Mr.  Wildgoose  took  Captain  Johnson 
with  him.  —  Graves,  Sp.  Quixote,  Bk.  VIII. 
ch.  xvii. 

Sit  under,  a  person  is  sometimes  said 
to  sit  under  a  preacher ;  t.  e\  to  be  a 
member  of  his  congregation. 

There  would  then  also  appear  in  pulpits 
other  visages,  other  gestures,  and  stuff  other- 
wise wrought  than  what  we  now  sit  under, 
oft  times  to  as  great  a  trial  of  our  patience 
as  any  other  that  they  preach  to  ns. — Milton, 
Of  Education. 

If  this  chapter  should  neither  be  so  long 
as  a  sermon,  nor  so  dull  as  those  discourses 
which  perchance,  and  I  fear  perlikelihood,  it 
may  be  thy  fortune  to  hear,  O  reader,  at  thy 
parish  church,  or  in  phrase  nonconformist  to 
sit  under  at  the  conventicle,  it  will  be  well 
for  thee. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cczliii. 

On  a  Sunday,  (which  good  old  Saxon  word 
was  scarcely  known  at  the  Hermitage)  the 
household  marched  away  in  separate  couples 
or  groups  to  at  least  half  a  dozen  of  religious 
edifices,  each  to  sit  under  his  or  her  favourite 
minister. — Thackeray,  Hie  Nevocomes,  ch.  ii. 

SrzE.  See  second  extract  j.  v.  Hocus ; 
though  I  am  not  sure  whether  the  size 
mentioned  there  has  any  connection 
with  this,  nor  do  I  quite  know  what 
the  word  in  either  place  means. 

I  grew  weary  of  staying  with  Sir  Williams 
both,  and  the  more  for  that  my  Lady  Batten 
aod  her  crew,  at  least  half  a  score,  came  into 
the  room,  and  I  believe  we  shall  pay  size  for 
it.— Pepys,  Sept.  4.  1662. 

Skating.  See  s.w.  Scheets,  Skeates. 

Skavel,  shovel. 

Sharpe  cuttingspade  for  the  deniding  of  mow, 
With  skuppetand  skauel  that  marsbmen  alow. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  38. 

Skeart,  terrible ;  also  frightened. 


But  toe  thee,  poore  Dido,  this  sight  so  skearye 

beholding 
What  feeling  creepeth  ? 

Stanyhurst,  jEn^  iv.  438. 

It  is  not  to  be  marvelled  at  that  amid  such 
a  place  as  this  for  the  first  time  visited,  the 
horses  were  a  little  skeary.  —  Blackmort, 
Lorna  Doone,  eh.  lix. 

Skeates,  skates.  See  N.  b.  v.  skating, 
but  the  subjoined  are  earlier  instances 
of  the  word  in  England  than  any  ad- 
duced by  him,  or  in  the  other  Diets. 
Skating  seems  to  have  been  learned  by 
tbe  Cavaliers  in  Holland,  and  became 
fashionable  at  the  Restoration.  Evelyn 
was  among  the  spectators  on  the  first 
occasion  as  well  as  Pepys.    See  Scheets. 

Over  the  parke,  where  I  first  in  my  life,  it 
being  a  great  frost,  did  see  people  sliding 
with  their  skeates,  which  is  a  very  pretty  art. 
—Pepys,  Dec.  1, 1662. 

To  the  Duke,  and  followed  him  into  the 
Park,  where,  though  the  ice  was  broken  and 
dangerous,  yet  he  would  go  slide  upon  his 
skeates,  which  I  did  not  like,  but  he  slide* 
very  well.— Ibid.,  Dec.  15, 1662. 

Skein,  a  flight  of  wild-fowl. 

The  curs  ran  into  them  as  a  falcon  does 
into  a  skein  of  ducks. — Kingsky,  Hypatia, 
oh.  zi. 

Skblet,  a  skeleton. 

What  should  I  cast  away  speech  upon 
skelets  and  skulls,  carnal  men  I  mean,  mere 
strangers  to  this  life  of  faith.—  Ward,  Ser- 
mons, p.  22. 

Skelp,  strike  ;  slap. 

Why  uot  take  'em  by  twos  across  thy  knee, 
and  skelp  'em  till  they  cry  Meculpee. — Reade, 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  lii. 

Skeltering,  hurrying  ;  driving :    so 

helter-skelter. 

After  the  long  .dry  skelterina  wind  of  March 
and  part  of  April,  there  had  been  a  fortnight 
of  soft  wet. — Blackmore,  Lorna  Doone,  ch. 
xxii. 

Skew,  cant  term  for  a  cup.     See  H. 

This  is  bien  bowse,  this  is  bien  bowse  [good 
drink] 

Too  little  is  ray  skew. 

Broome,  Jovial  Crew,  Act  II. 

Skew,  a  sidelong  glance. 

Whatever  good  works  we  do  with  an  eye 
from.  His,  and  a  skew  unto  our  own  names, 
the  more  pains  we  take,  the  more  penalty  of 
pride  belongs  unto  us. —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  9. 

Skid,  a  drag. 

But  not  to  repeat  the  deeds  they  did, 
Backsliding  in  spite  of  all  moral  skid, 


SKID 


(  S9S  )  SKY-BLUE 


If  all  were  true  that  fell  from  the  tongue, 
There  was  not  a  villager,  old  or  young, 
But  deserved  to  be  whipp'd,  imprison 'd,  or 
hung. — Hood,  Tale  of  a  Trumpet. 

Skid,  to  scud  or  hurry. 

The  Dutch  ladies . . .  ran  skidding  down  the 
aisle  of  the  chapel,  tip  tap,  tip  tap,  like 
frightened  hares.  —  Mad.  DArblay,  Diary, 
vii.  141. 

Skift,  to  shift  or  remove. 

He  knaws,  as  weel  as  I  do,  who  sud  be  t' 
maister  yonder.  Ech,  ech,  ech !  he  made  ye 
skift  properly. 

E.  Bronte,  Withering  Heights,  ch.  xxiv. 

Skill-thirst,  desire  for  knowledge. 

The  greatest  rinns 
Were  one  in  other  linked  fast  as  twinns ; 
Ingratitude,  pride,  treason,  gluttony, 
Too  curious  skill-thirst,  envy,  felony. 

Sylvester,  The  Imposture,  539. 

Skimmington,  row  or  quarrel ;  from 
the  hubbub  attending  on  riding  the 
Skimmington. 

There  was  danger  of  a  skimmington  between 
the  great  wig  and  the  coif,  the  former  hav- 
ing given  a  flat  lie  to  the  latter. —  Walpole, 
Letters,  i.  289  (1753.) 

Skimpingly,  parsimoniously. 

The  Squire  and  his  son  Frank  were  large- 
hearted,  generous  creatures  in  the  article 
of  apology,  as  in  all  things  less  skimpingly 
dealt  out — Lytton,  My  Novel,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xv. 

Skink.  Bailey  defines  it  "a  four- 
footed  serpent,  a  kind  of  land  croco- 
dile." 

Th'  horned  Oerastes,  th'  Alexandrian  Skink, 
Th'  Adder  and  Drynas  full  of  odious  stink. 
Sylvester,  Sixth  day,  first  weeks,  200. 

Skinless,  without  skin.    See  extract, 

$.  V.  SCALPLESS. 

Skin  -  merchant,  a  recruiting- ser- 
geant. 

I  am  a  manufacturer  of  honour  and  glory 
— vulgarly  called  a  recruiting  dealer,  or  more 
vulgarly  still,  a  skin-merchant. — Burgoyne, 
Lord  of  the  Manor,  iii.  2. 

Skip.  See  quotation ;  the  verb  as 
applied  to  reading,  or  rather  not  read- 
ing, is  common. 

No  man  who  has  written  so  much  is  so 
seldom  tiresome.  In  his  books  there  are 
scarcely  any  of  those  passages  which  in  our 
school  days  we  used  to  call  skip. — Macaulay, 
Essays  (  Walpole). 

Skip-brain,  flighty ;  volatile. 

This  skipp-braine  Fancie  moves  these  easie 

movers 
To  loue  what  ere  hath  but  a  glimpse  of  good. 
Davits,  Microcosmos,  p.  30, 


Skipper,  cant  term  for  barn.    See  H. 

Now  let  each  tripper 
Make  a  retreat  into  the  skipper. 

Broome,  Jovial  Crew,  Act  II. 

Sktrk,  shriek. 

I,  like  a  tender-hearted  weneh,  shirked  out 
for  fear  of  the  devil. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  152. 

Skirl,  to  scream  or  cry:  also  a  sub- 
stantive. 

That  was  the  wild  and  ominous  air  that 
was  skirling  upon  the  hill-side. — Black,  Prin- 
cess of  Thule,  ch.  iv. 

From  the  other  side  of  the  valley  comes 
another  sound — the  faint  and  distant  skirl  of 
the  pipes. — Ibid.,  ch.  v. 

Skise,  to  move  about  quickly. 

He  is  the  merriest  man  alive ;  up  at  five  a 
dock  in  the  morning,  and  out  till  dinner- 
time; out  again  at  afternoon,  and  so  till 
supper-time ;  skise  out  this  away,  and  skise 
out  that  away ;  he's  no  snail,  I  assure  you. 
— Broome,  Jovial  Crew,  Act  IV. 

Skit,  a  light  satire. 

And  as  perhaps  vou  may  have  brought 
A  manuscript  with  learning  fraught, 
Or  some  n'.ce  pretty  little  skit 
Upon  the  times,  and  full  of  wit, 
A  dealing  I  should  hope  to  drive. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  c.  vii. 

Skriggle,  to  struggle. 

They  skriggled  and  began  to  scold, 

But  laughing  got  the  master ; 
Some  quackling  cried,  "  Let  go  your  hold," 

The  farmers  held  the  faster. 

Bloomfield,  The  Horkey. 

Skulk,  a  sneak  or  shirker. 

Ye  do  but  bring  each  runaway  and  skulk 
Hither  to  seek  a  shelter. 

Taylor,  Isaac  Comnenus,  iv.  3. 

Skulker,  one  who  hangs  in  the  back- 
ground :  generally  applied  to  one  who 
sneaks  out  of  danger,  or  hard  work ; 
but  not  so  in  the  extract.  The  word  is 
not  in  the  Diets,  in  either  sense. 

John  himself  was  no  skulker  in  joy;  he 
not  only  bestowed  on  Mr.  Morland  the  high 
commendation  of  beiug  one  of  the  finest 
fellows  in  the  world,  but  swore  off  many 
sentences  in  his  praise. — Miss  Austen,  North- 
anger  Abbey,  ch.  xv. 

Skull,  helmet. 

A  shift  but  no  succour  it  was  to  many  that 
had  their  skulls  on,  at  the  stroke  of  the  fol- 
lower to  shrink  their  heads  into  their  shoul- 
ders, like  a  tortoise  into  its  shell. — Patten, 
Exped.  to  Scoti.,  1548  (Eng.  Garner,  iii.  122). 

Sky-blue,  milk  and  water. 

QQ  2 


SX  Y-H1GH 


(  596  )  SLANDERFULLY 


Oh !  for  that  small,  small  beer  anew, 
And  (heaven's  own  type)  that  mild  sky-Hut 
That  wash'd  my  sweet  meals  down. 

Hood,  Retrospective  Review. 

Sky-high,  as  high  as  the  sky.  Cf. 
Heaven-high. 

The  powder  magazine  of  St.  John  of  Acre 
was  blown  op  sky-high.-— Thackeray,  Second 
Funeral  of  Napoleon  (II.). 

Skylarking  See  first  extract,  and 
so,  generally,  romping ;  playing. 

I  had  become  from  habit  so  extremely 
active,  and  so  fond  of  displaying  my  newly 
acquired  gymnastics,  called  by  the  sailors 
44  skylarking,"  that  my  speedy  exit  was  often 
prognosticated.  —  Marryat,    Fr.    Mild  may, 

ch.  iv. 

Lucky  for  them  it  was,  as  it  fell  out,  that 
they  were  all  close  together  at  that  work, 
and  not  abroad  skylarking  as  they  had  been 
balf-an-hour  before.— C.  Kingsley,  Westward 
Ho,  ch.  xviii. 

Harding,  I  found,  was  half-owner  of  a 
station  to  the  north-east,  an  Oxford  man,  a 
great  hand  at  skylarking.  —  H.  Kingsley, 
OeoJJry  Hamlyn,  ch.  xx. 

Skyless,  without  sky ;  thick ;  dark. 
A    soulless,   skyless,  catarrhal  .  day.  —  C. 
Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  i. 

Sky-paklour,  a  room  or  place  at  the 
top  of  a  building.  In  the  first  extract 
it  =  a  gallery  at  a  theatre ;  in  the 
second  (which  is  the  motto  prefixed  to 
a  piper  called  "  The  First  of  May," 
in  Sketches  by  Boz)  it  =  an  attic. 

I  beg  leave  to  repeat  the  advice  so  often 
given  by  the  illustrious  tenants  of  the  the- 
atrical sky-parlour  to  the  gentlemen  who  are 
charged  with  the  "  nice  conduct "  of  chairs 
aud  tables — **  Make  a  bow,  Johnny.  Johnny, 
make  a  bow." — Irving,  Salmagundi,  No.  ii. 

Now  ladies,  up  in  the  sky^parlour :  only 
once  a  year,  if  you  please. — Young  Lady  with 
Brass  Ladle. 

Skyscape,  sky  view:  word  formed 
like  landscape  or  sea-scape,  q.  v. 

"We  look  upon  the  reverse  side  of  the 
skyscape.— Proctor,  Other  worlds  than  ours, 
p.*130. 

Skyt-gate. 

He,  being  so  astonished  with  fear  as  to 
throw  himself  and  his  followers  out  at  a 
skyt-gate  was  immediately  cut  to  pieces  by 
the  enemy. —  Cotton,  Montaigne's  Essays, 
ch.  xiv. 

Slabberdegullion,  paltry;  dirty. 
The  word  in  the  form  stubberdegtdlion, 
and  as  a  substantive,  is  in  the  Diets. 

Slapsauce  fellows,  slabberdegullion  drug- 
gels,  lubbardly  louts. —  Urquharfs  habelais, 
£tk.  I.  ch.  xxv. 


Slabbiness,  sloppiness. 

The  way  also  here  was  very  wearisom 
thorow  dirt  aud  slabbiness. — Bunyan,  Pilg. 
Progress,  Pt.  II.  p.  183. 

Slack,  a  remission;   an  interval  of 

rest. 

Though  there's  a  slack,  we  haven  t  done 
with  sharp  work  yet,  I  can  see. — Hughes, 
Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xliv. 

Slack-bake,  to  bake  imperfectly. 

He  would  not  allude  to  men  once  in  office, 
but  now  happily  out  of  it,  who  had  .  .  . 
slack-baked  the  bread,  boned  the  meat, 
heightened  the  work,  and  lowered  the  soup. 
—Sketches  by  Boz  (Election  for  Beadle). 

He  isn't  come  to  his  right  colour  yet ;  he's 
partly  like  a  slack-baked  pie. — G.  Eliot,  Silas 
Marner,  ch.  xi. 

Slacky.  In  the  first  passnge  the 
word  in  the  original  is  brassier  = 
sling ;  in  the  second,  tribard  =  short 
cudgel;  the  explanation  of  slacky  in 
the  second  quotation  is  the  translator's, 
and  has  no  equivalent  in  the  French. 

The  other  shepherds  and  shepherdesses, 
hearing  the  lamentable  shout  of  Forgier.came 
with  their  slings  and  slackies,  following  them, 
and  throwing  great  stones  at  them  as  thick 
as  if  it  had  been  haiL—Urquhart1*  Rabelais, 
Bk.  I.  ch.  xxv. 

Marquet's  head  was  broken  with  a .slacky 
or  short  cudgel. — Ibid.,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxxii. 

Slaght-boomes,  bars  or  barriers ;  but 
the  first  part  of  the  word  needs  ex- 
planation. 

Each  end  of  the  high  street  leading 
through  the  Towne  was  secured  against 
Horse  with  strong  slaght-boomes  which  our 
men  call  Turn-pikes.  —  Relation  of  Action 
before  Cyrencester,  1642,  p.  4. 

Slaight.  See  quotation  ;  Aubrey  is 
speaking  of  North  Wilts. 

Anciently  the  Leghs  (now  corruptly  called 
Slaights),  i.e.  pastures,  were  noble,  large 
grounds. — Aubrey,  Misc.,  p.  216  (Appendix). 

Slam,  a  shambling  fellow.  H.  has 
"  slamkin,  a  female  sloven."  Lord 
Foppington,  however,  to  whom  the 
nurse  refers,  was  the  reverse  of  careless 
as  to  dress  or  appearance. 

Hoyd.  I  don't  like  my  lord's  shapes,  nunse. 

Nurse.  Why  in  good  truly,  as  a  body  may 
say,  he  is  but  a  dam.—  Vanbrugh,  The  Relapse, 
v.  5. 

Slanderfully,  slanderously.  The 
extract  is  from  the  Council  of  Edw. 
VI.  (1550). 

He  had  at  all  times,  before  the  judges  of 
his  cause,  used  himself  unreverently  to  the 


SLANE 


(597  ) 


SLAP-SA  UCE 


King's  majesty,  and  very  slanderfully  to- 
wards his  council. — Strype,  Cranmer,  Bk.  II. 
ch,  xix. 

Slanb,  a  spade  or  shovel. 

Dig  your  trench  with  slants.  —  Ellis, 
Modern  Husbandman,  IV.  ii.  40  (1750). 

Unfortunately,  in  cutting  the  turf  where 
it  was  found,  the  shine  or  spade  struck  the 
middle.— Archaol.,  vii.  167. 

Slang,  promontory. 

There  runneth  forth  into  the  sea  a  certain 
shelfe  or  slang,  like  unto  an  out-thrust 
tongue  such  as  Englishmen  in  old  time 
termed  a  File. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  715. 

Slang,  to  scold  ;  abuse. 

The  angry  authors,  in  the  adventures  of 
Gil  Bias,  were  nothing  to  the  disputants  in 
the  kennel  at  Charing  Cross ;  we  rowed, 
swore,  slanged. — Lytton,  Pelham,  ch.  xlix. 

"  Be  quiet,  you  fool,"  said  another ; "  you're 
a  pretty  fellow  to  chaff  the  orator ;  he'll  slang 
you  up  the  chimney  afore  you  can  get  your 
shoes  on." — Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  ii. 

Slangrill,  a  term  of  abuse.  H.  has 
slangam  =  a  lout,  which  occurs  once 
or  twice  in  Urquhart's  Rabelais. 

The  third  was  a  lon£,  leane,  olde  slavering 
sfangrill. — Greene,  Quip  for  Upstart  Courtier 
(Hart.  Misc^  v.  407). 

Slangular,  belonging  to  slang. 

Little  Swills  is  treated  on  several  hands. 
Being  asked  what  he  thinks  of  the  proceed- 
ings, characterises  them  (his  strength  lying 
in  a  slangular  direction)  as  "  a  rummy  start." 
— Dickens,  Bleak  House,  ch.  xi. 

Slang  -  whanger,  a  scurrilous  or 
abusive  person. 

It  embraces  alike  all  manner  of  concerns ; 
from  the  organisation  of  a  divan  ...  to  the 
appointment  of  a  constable,  the  personal  dis- 
putes of  two  miserable  slang-whangers,  the 
cleaning  of  the  streets  or  the  economy  of  a 
dust-cart. — Irving,  Salmagundi,  No.  14. 

Slangy,  given  to  slang. 

He  appeared  to  me  merely  a  tall,  hand- 
some, conceited,  slangy  boy.—  C.  Kingsley, 
Alton  Locke,  ch.  vi. 

Slank,  thin  ;  lank. 

He  is  a  man  of  ruddy  complexion,  brown 
hair  and  slank,  hanging  a  little  below  his 
jawbones.  —  The  grand  impostor  examined, 
1656  {Had.  Misc.,  vi.  435). 

Slap,  to  spill  about. 

But  huswiues  that  learne  not  to  make  their 

owne  cheese, 
With  trusting  of  others  haue  this  for  their 

feese ; 
Their  milke  slapt  in  corners,  their  creame  al 

to  sost, 
Their  milk  pannes  so  notte  that  their  cheeses 

bo  lost. — Tusser's  Husbamlrit,  p.  220. 


Slap-bang.  Slap-bang- shop,  accord- 
ing to  Grose,  is  a  low  eating-house 
where  you  have  to  pay  down  ready 
money  with  a  slap-bang. 

They  lived  in  the  same  street,  walked  into 
town  every  morning  at  the  same  hour,  dined 
at  the  same  slap-bang  every  day,  and  revelled 
in  each  others  company  every  night. — 
Sketches  by  Boz  (Making  a  night  of  it). 

Slap- dash,  impetuous;  outspoken. 
In  the  first  quotation  it  seems  to  mean 
violence. 

Hark  ye,  Monsieur,  if  you  don't  march  off 
I  shall  play  you  such  an  English  courant  of 
slapdash  presently  that  shan't  out  of  your 
ears  this  twelvemonth. — Centlivre,  Perplexed 
Lovers,  Act  III. 

Let  me  die  if  I  can  account  for  your — 
your — your  refusal  of  me  in  so  peremptory, 
in  so  unceremonious  a  manner,  slap-dash  as 
I  may  say. — Richardson,  Grandison,  i.  170. 

It  was  a  slap-dash  style,  unceremonious, 
free,  and  easy — an  American  style. — Lytton, 
My  Novel,  Bk.  III.  ch.  vi. 

Slapjack,  a  species  of  cake. 

Soft  anticipations  stole  over  his  mind  of 
dainty  slapjacks,  well  buttered,  and  garnished 
with  honey  or  treacle. — Irving,  Sketch  Book 
(Sleepy  Hollow). 

Slappaty  -  pouch,  a  game,  part  of 
which,  I  suppose,  consisted  in  slapping 
the  pocket.  N.  gives  slatterpouch,  with 
quotation  from  Gayton,  ana  says,  "A 
boyish  game  of  active  exercise,  but 
not  otherwise  described."  In  the  ex- 
tract Charon  is  the  speaker,  and  com- 
plaining of  want  of  custom  ;  he  seems 
to  mean  that  he  had  been  idle,  and 
slapping  himself  to  keep  himself  warm, 
as  we  may  see  cab-drivers,  &c.  do  now 
on  a  cold  day  when  unemployed. 

I  cannot  but  with  the  last  degree  of  sorrow 
and  anguish  inform  you  of  our  present 
wretched  condition ;  we  have  even  tired  our 
palms  and  our  ribs  at  slappaty-pouch,  and  .  . . 
I  had  almost  forgot  to  handle  my  sculls. — 
T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  126. 

Slappe,  an  article  of  dress :  perhaps 
the  same  as  slop.  Breton  in  speaking 
of  fools  describes  one  as 

Hee  that  puts  fifteene  elles  into  a  ruffe, 
And  seauenteene  yards  into  a  swaggering 
slappe. — PasquiVs  Fooles-cappt,  p.  24. 

Slap-sauce,  a  parasite.  See  quota- 
tion from  Urquhart's  Rabelais,  s.  v. 
Druggel,  where  it  is  an  adjective. 

At  dinner  and  supper  the  table  doth  craue 
Good  fellowly  neighbour  good  manner  to 
haue; 


SLA  PUP 


(  59») 


SLIP-ALONG 


Advise  thee  well  therefore,  ere  tongue  he 

too  free, 
Or  slapsauce  he  noted  too  saucie  to  bee. 

Tnsssr*s  Husbandry,  p.  188. 

Slap-up,  fine. 

Might  not  he  quarter  a  oounteai'a  ooat  on 
his  brougham  along  with  the  Jones'  arms,  or, 
more  slap-up  still,  have  the  two  shields 
painted  on  the  panels  with  the  coronet  over  ? 
— Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  xxxi. 

Slat. 

Obadiah.  Truly  he  came  foreeably  upon 
me,  and  I  fear  has  bruised  some  intellectuals 
within  my  stomach. 

Mrs.  Day.  Go  in  and  take  some  Irish  slat 
by  way  of  prevention,  and  keep  yourself 
warm.— The  Committee,  Act  III. 

Suppose  a  man  falls  from  the  mainyard, 
and  lies  all  bruised  upon  the  deck,  pray  what 
is  the  first  intention  in  that  case  P  A  brisk 
fellow  answers,  Ton  must  give  him  Irish 
slats.— T.  Brown,  Works,  in.  90. 

Slavey,  a  slang  name  for  a  servant : 
not  usually  applied,  as  in  the  quotation, 
to  a  male. 

Then  the  boy  Thomas,  otherwise  called 
Slavey,  may  say,  There  he  goes  again. .  . . 
The  slavey  has  Mr.  Frederick's  hot  water, 
and  a  bottle  of  soda  water  on  the  same  tray. 
He  has  been  instructed  to  bring  soda  when- 
ever he  hears  the  word  slavey  pronounced 
from  above. — Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  xi. 

Sleck-trodoh,  the  trough  in  which 
a  blacksmith  cools  hot  iron  (?).  See 
H.  s.  v.  deck. 

No  sooner  was  King  Harry  made 
Of  English  Church  the  Supream  Head, 
But  he  a  Black-smith's  son  appointed 
Head  in  his  place :  one  who  anointed 
Had  never  been,  unless  his  Dad 
Had  in  the  si cck-t rough  wash'd  the  lad, 
With  an  intent  that  that  should  do 
For  Ohrist'ning  and  for  Priesthood  too. 
Ward,  England?*  Reformation,  0.  i.  p.  38. 

Slkdder,  a  horse  that  draws  a  sledge. 

Smiles,  our  youngest  sledder,  had  been 
well  in  over  his  withers. — Blackmore,  Lorna 
Doone,  ch.  ii. 

Sledge-hammer,  to  hit  hard,  as  with 
a  sledge-hammer. 

You  may  see  what  is  meant  by  sledge- 
hammering  a  man.— .Sir  G.  C.  Lewis,  Letters 
(1834),  p.  32. 

Sleeking,  gliding  or  sweeping: 
usually  a  transitive  verb. 

For  as  the  racks  came  sleeking  on,  one  fell 
With  rain  into  a  dell. 

Leigh  Hunt,  Foliage,  p.  xxx. 

Sleeping ly,  sleepily. 

To  jog  sleepinyly  through  the  world  in  a 


dumpish,  melanchoUy  posture  cannot  pro- 
perly be  said  to  live.— Kennsfs  Erasmus, 
Praise  of  Folly,  p.  25. 

Sleep-sick,  fond  of  sleep:  a  word 
formed  like  home-sick,  and  applied  by 
Sylvester  to  the  apathetic  god  of  the 
Epicurean  creed. 

Fond  Epicure,  thou  rather  slept'st  thyself, 
When  tnou  didst  forge  thee  such  a  sleep-sick 

elf 
For  life's  pure  Fount. 

Seventh  day,  first  weeks,  129. 

Slext,  to  rend. 

If  one  do  well  observe  the  quality  of  the 
cliffs  on  both  shores,  his  eye  will  judge  that 
they  were  but  one  homogeneal  piece  of  earth 
at  first,  and  that  they  were  slentsd  and 
shiverM  asunder  by  some  act  of  violence,  as 
the  impetuous  waves  of  the  sea. — Howell, 
Letters,  iv.  10. 

Slibbeb-sauce,  draff ;  hogswash.     R. 

quotes  the  extract,  s.  v.  slip,  and  says 

it  is  slipper  or  slippery  sauce. 

His  taste  is  corrupt, . .  .  longing  after  slib- 
bersauce  and  swash,  at  which  a  whole  stomach 
is  ready  to  cast  his  gorge. — Tyndale,  i.  54. 

Slice-sea,  cutting  the  waves;  an 
epithet  given  by  Sylvester  to  the  alder, 
because  that  tree  was  used  in  ship- 
building: elsewhere  {Babylon,  147)  he 
speaks  of  "adventurous  alders"  (cf. 
Ueorgics,  i.  136),  and  in  the  Vocation, 
1019,  of  the  swallow's  "slicing  nimble- 
nesse." 

The  winding  rivers  bordered  all  their  banks 
With  slice-sea  alders,  and  green  osiars  smal. 
Third  day,  first  weeks,  564. 

Slickenside.    See  extract 

Many  of  the  pebbles  also,  and  stones  two 
feet  and  more  in  diameter,  have  acquired 
that  polish  which  is  called  slickenside. — Sir 
C.  Lyell,  Principles  of  Geology,  i.  230, 12th  ed. 

Sling-man,  a  slinger. 

So  one  while  Lot  sets  on  a  troop  of  horse, 
A  band  of  slingymen  he  anon  doth  force. 

Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  825. 

Slip.    To  slip  the  breath  or  wind  = 

to  die. 

And  for  their  cats  that  happed  to  slip  their 
breath, 

Old  maids,  so  sweet,  might  mourn  them- 
selves to  death.—  Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  69. 

"You  give  him  the  right  stuff,  doctor," 
said  Hawes  jocosely, M  and  he  won't  slip  his 
wind  this  time." — Reade,  Never  too  late  to 
mend,  ch.  x. 

Slip- along,  slipshod. 

It  would  be  less  worth  while  to  read  Fox's 


SLIP' CO  IN 


(  599  ) 


SLOW 


Hip-along  stories. — Maitland  on  Reformation, 
p.  559. 

Slip-coin,  counterfeit  coin :  slip  by 
itself  in  this  sense  is  illustrated  in  the 
Diets. 

This  is  the  worldling's  folly,  rather  to  take 
a  piece  of  slip-coin  in  hand  than  to  trust  God 
for  the  invaluable  mass  of  glory. — Adams,  i. 
247. 

Slipper.  Shuffle  the  slipper  is  a 
game  more  commonly  called  Hunt  the 
dipper.  The  players  squat  on  the 
ground  in  a  circle,  and  pass  a  slipper 
under  them  from  one  to  the  other ;  a 
person  in  the  middle  endeavouring  to 
detect  where  it  is.  See  extract  6.  v. 
Dhawglove. 

Slips,  that  part  of  a  theatre  at  the 
side  of  the  stage  from  which  the  scenery 
is  slipped  on  ;  also  that  part  where  the 
actors  stand  before  entering  on  the 
scene.  See  extract  s.  v.  Raddled.  The 
French  Us  coulisses  has  the  same  mean- 
ing of  slipping  or  gliding. 

It  was  jnst  half -past  eight,  so  they  thought 
they  couldn't  do  better  than  go  at  half-price 
to  the  flips  at  the  City  Theatre.— Sketches  by 
Bos  (Making  a  night  of  it). 

Slip-slap,  to  slap  repeatedly. 

I  ha'  found  her  fingers  slip-slap  this  a- way 
and  that  a- way  like  a  flail  upon  a  wheatsheaf . 
—Centlivre,  The  Artifice,  Act  III. 

Slip-slop,  sloveniy ;  inaccurate. 

The  difficulty  lies  only  in  the  rationalist's 
shallow  and  sensuous  view  of  Nature,  and  in 
his  ambiguous  slip-slop  trick  of  using  the 
word  natural  to  mean,  in  one  sentence, 
"  material,"  and  in  the  next,  as  I  use  it,  only 
"normal  and  orderly." — C.  Kingsley,  Alton 
Locke,  ch.  xxzviii. 

Slip-slop,  blunder. 

He  told  us  a  great  number  of  comic  slip- 
slops of  the  first  Lord  Baltimore,  who  made 
a  constant  misuse  of  one  word  for  another. 
— Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  iv.  14. 

Slip-slop,  thin  or  weak  drink. 

No,  thou  shalt  feed,  instead  of  these 
Or  your  slip-slap  [sic]  of  curds  and  whey, 
On  Nectar  and  Ambrosia. 

Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  187. 

At  length  the  coffee  was  announced.  . . 
"  And  since  the  meagre  slip-slop's  made, 
I  think  the  call  should  be  obey  d." 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  c.  i. 

Slip-sloppy,  wet ;  splashy. 

There  was  no  taking  refuge  too  then,  as 

with  ns 
On  a  slip-sloppy  day,  in  a  cab  or  a  bus. 

fngoldshy  Legends  (S.  Romirold). 


Slip-stocking- high. 

This  lady '8  fancy  is  just  slip-stocking-high, 
and  she  seems  to  want  sense  more  than  her 
breakfast— CW/tVr,  Eng.  Stage,  p.  92. 

Slither,  to  slide.  See  extract  from 
Tennyson  *.  v.  Huck. 

After  getting  up  three  or  four  feet,  they 
came  slithering  to  the  ground,  barking  their 
arms  and  faces. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown* s  School' 
days,  Pt.  II.  ch.  iv. 

Gay  girls  slithered  past  him,  looked  round 
at  him,  but  in  vain. — C.  Kingsley,  Two  Years 
Ago,  ch.  xziv. 

Slivk,  to  sneak  away,  or  to  dawdle. 

I  know  her  gown  agen  ;  I  minded  her 
when  she  sliv'd  off.  —  Centlivre,  Platonick 
Lady,  Act  IV. 

I  have  had  a  hankering  mind  after  her 
these  two  years,  but  the  sliving  baggage  will 
not  come  to  a  resolution  yet.  —  Ibid.,  The 
Man's  bewitched,  Act  III. 

What  are  you  a  sliving  about  (quid  cessas  ?) , 
you  drone?  you  are  a  year  a  lighting  a 
candle. — Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  41. 

Sloaply,  slopingly. 

The  next  which   there  beneath  it  sloaply 

slides, 
And  his  fair  hindges  from  the  world's  dinides 
Twice  twelve  degrees,  is  call'd  the  Zodiac k. 
Sylvester,  The  Columnes,  312. 

Sloomt,  "  sluggish  ;  out  of  spirits  " 

(note  to  extract). 

An'  Sally  war  sloomy  an'  draggle-taail'd. 
— Tennyson,  Northern  Cobbler. 

Slop-dash,  slip-slop  ;  weak,  cold  tea, 

or  the  like. 

Does  he  expect  tea  can  be  keeping  hot  for 
him  to  the  end  of  time  ?  He'll  have  nothing 
but  slop-dash. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Rose,  Thistle, 
and  Shamrock,  iii.  2. 

Slot,  track  of  a  deer ;  but  in  the  ex- 
tract is  a  verb  =  to  follow  on  a  track. 

Three  stags  sturdye  wer  under 
Neere  the  seacost  gating,  theym  slot  thee 
clusterus  heerd  flock. 

Stany hurst,  JEn.,  i.  190. 

Sloven nkss,  slovenliness. 

Happy  Dunstan  himself,  if  guilty  of  no 
greater  fault,  which  could  be  no  sin  fnor 
properly  a  slovennesse)  in  an  infant. — Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist.,  II.  v.  43. 

Slow,  a  bog  or  slough  ;  which  last  is 
the  reading  in  the  Chertsey  Worthies 
edition,  reprinted  from  that  of  1641 ; 
the  extract  is  from  the  edition  of  1611. 

With  conquering  ploughs 
He  furrows  vp  cold  Strymon's  slymie  slotcs. 

Sylvester,  The  Colonies,  223. 

Slow,  dull ;  stupid. 


SLOWISH 


(  600  ) 


My  uncle  Major  Pendennis  was  another  of 
the  guests ;  who  for  his  part  found  the  party 
was  what  you  young  fellows  call  very  jfcw.— 
Thackeray,  The  JVetccomes,  oh.  xhx. 

Slowish,  rather  slow. 

The  cabman,  sensible  that  his  pace  was 

Slued,  intoxicated  ,-  a  nautical  meta- 
phor (slang). 

He  came  into  our  place  one  night  to  take 
her  home;  rather  slued,  but  not  much.— 
Dickens,  Martin  Chuzzleunt,  ch.  xxviii. 

Slug,  a  dram  (slang). 

He  ordered  the  waiter,  who  shewed  them 
mto  a  parlour,  to  .  . .  bring  alongside  a  short 
allowance  of  brandy  or  grog,  that  he  might 
cant  a  slug  into  his  bread-room.— Smollett. 
otr  L.  Greaves,  ch.  xvii. 

Plug,  a  slow-sailing  vessel. 

_T1i28  hath  .Independency,  as  a  little  but 
tito  Pinnace,  in  a  short  time  got  the  wind  of 
and  given  a  broad-side  to  Presbytery :  which 
soon  grew  •.slug,  when  once  the  North-wind 
ceased  to  fill  its  sailes.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  381.  J 

His  rendezvous  for  his  fleet  and  for  all 
sluags  to  come  to  should  be  between  Calais 
and  Dover.— Pepys,  Oct.  17, 1666. 

Slum,  a  low  neighbourhood. 

When  one  gets  clear  of  the  suburban  slums 
and  the  smoke  of  Liverpool,  a  very  respect- 
able appearance  of  real  country-life  becomes 
visible.— Mack,  Adventures  of  a  Phaeton,  ch. 
xviu.  • 

Slushing,  same  as  Slushy,  q.  v. 

Philip  went  . . .  through  keen  black  east 
wind,  or  driving  snow,  or  slushing  thaw.— 
Mrs.  Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  x. 

Slushy,  spongy ;  wet. 
I  gain  the  cove  with  pushing  prow, 
And  quench  its  speed  in  the  slushy  sand. 
Browning,  Meeting  at  Night. 

Slut,  to  befoul. 

Tobacco's  damnable  infection 
Slutting  the  body,  slaving  the  affection. 

Sylvester,  Tobacco  Battered,  686. 

Smack  at,  to  relish,  as  shown  by 
pmacking  the  lips. 

He  that  by  crafty  significations  of  ill-will 
doth  prompt  the  slanderer  to  vent  his  poison ; 
...  he  that  pleasingly  relisheth  and  smacketh 
at  it;  as  he  is  a  partner  in  the  fact,  so  he  is 
a  sharer  in  the  guilt.— Harrow,  i.  391. 

Smackrring,  smattering. 

Such  as  meditate  by  snatches,  never  chew- 
ing the  cud  and  digesting  their  meat,  they 
may  happily  get  a  smackering  for  discourse 
and  table-talk,  but  not  enongh  to  keep  soul 
and  life  together.—  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  83. 


SMALLS 


Smackly,  with  a  smacking  sound: 
heartily. 

Queene  Didoshal  col  the  and  smacklyebebasse 
thee.— Stanyhurst,^n.,i.  670. 

Smalach,  celery  or  water  parsley: 
usually  written  smallage,  q.  v.  in  L. 
Tusser  recommends  "smalach  for 
swellings "  (Husbandrie,  p.  97). 

The  leaves  of  this  plant,  which  they  termed 
py  the  name  of  Maspetum,  came  very  near 
in  all  respects  to  those  of  smaUach  or  persely. 
—Holland,  Pliny,  xix.  3. 

Small  beer.  To  think  small  beer  of 
anything  =  to  have  a  low  opinion  of  it. 
See  quotations  &  w.  Gumptious,  Queen- 
ite,  Stire. 

She  thinks  small  beer  of  painters,  J.  J — 
well,  well,  we  don't  think  snuUl  beer  of  otu- 
selves,  my  noble  friend.  —  Thackeray,  The 
Newcomes,  ch.  ~— ^- 


Small  cattle,  or  meat.  See  first 
extract 

The  due  observation  whereof  would  spare 
the  number  of  beefs  aforesaid,  or  more :  be- 
sides those  things  sold  by  the  Poulterers ; 
and  other  small  cattle,  as  calves,  sheep,  and 
lambs  innumerable,  killed  by  the  Butcher  — 
Privy  Council  on  Fish-days,  1694  (Eng.  Gar- 
ner, 1.  304). 

[Ipswich]  has  five  Market-days  weekly ; 
Tuesday  and  Thursday  for  small  meat ;  Wed- 
nesday and  Friday  for  fish ;  and  Saturday 
for  all  sorts  of  provisions.— Defoe,  Tour  thror 
G.  Britain,  i.  27. 

Small-clothes,  trousers.  L.  has  the 
word,  with  quotation  from  Byron's 
Bejy^o.  The  indignant  censor  referred 
to  by  Southey  is  a  writer  in  the  Anti- 
Jacobin  Review.  Stephens's  Life  of 
Home  Tooke  appeared  in  1813,  and  Dr. 
Syntax's  first  Tour  in  1812 ;  Beppo  in 

lolo. 

His  small-clothes  sat  so  close  and  tight, 
His  boots  like  jet  were  black  and  bright 
Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  xx. 

Mr.  Stephens  having  in  his  memoirs  of 
Home  Tooke  used  the  word  small-clothe  s%  is 
thus  reprehended  for  it  by  the  indignant 
censor.  *  His  breeches  he  calls  small-clothes  ; 
the  first  time  we  have  seen  this  bastard  term', 
the  offspring  of  gross  ideas  and  disgusting 
affectation,  in  print,  in  anything  like  a  book. 
—Southey,  The  Doctor,  Interchapter  xx. 

Smalls,  breeches.  See  Small- 
clothes. 

His  boots  were  of  the  Wellington  form, 
pulled  up  to  meet  his  corduroy  knee-smalls. 
—Sketches  by  Boz  {The  Last  Cabdriver). 


SMALLS 


(  601  ) 


SMITHFIELD 


The  only  electric  body  .that  falls 
Wears  a  negative  coat  and  positive  smalls. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmanscgg. 

Smalls,  a  slang  name  for  the  first 
University  examination — little-go,  as  it 
used  to  be  called  ;  its  proper  name  now 
is  Besponsions. 

In  our  second  term  we  are  no  longer  fresh- 
men, and  begin  to  feel  ourselves  at  home, 
while  both  "  smalls  "  and  greats  are  suffici- 
ently distant  to  be  altogether  ignored,  if  we 
are  that  way  inclined. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown 
at  Oxford,  ch.  x. 

Smart,  to  pain. 

A  goad  that  pricks  the  skin  and  smarts  the 
flesh. — Adams,  li.  195. 

Smart,  a  dandy. 

He  soon  attracted  the  eyes  of  the  company; 
all  the  smarts,  all  the  silk  waistcoats  with 
silver  and  gold  edgings  were  eclipsed  in  a 
moment.  —  Fielding,  Jos.  Andrewes,  Bk.  II. 
ch.  iv. 

I  resolved  to  quit  all  further  conversation 
with  beaux  and  smarts  of  every  kind. — J  bid., 
Bk.  III.  ch.  iii. 

Our  cousin  is   looked  upon  among   his 
brother  libertines  and  smarts  as  a  man  of 
first  consideration. — Richardson,  Grandison, 
iv.  292. 
The  gay  sparkling   Belle  who  the  whole 

town  alarms, 
And  with  eyes,  lips,  and  neck,  sets  the  smarts 

all  in  arms. 

Townely,  High  Life  below  Stairs, 
Act  II. 

Smart  as  applied  to  dress  is  a  com- 
mon usage.  H.  gives  no  instance,  and 
the  earliest  in  L.  is  from  Dickens. 

'*  Sirrah,"  says  the  youngster,  "  make  me  a 
smart  wig,  a  smart  one,  ye  dog."  The  fellow 
blest  himself ;  he  had  heard  of  a  smart  nag, 
a  smart  man,  &c,  but  a  smart  wig  was  Chinese 
to  the  tradesman.    However,  nothing  would 

S lease  his  worship  but  smart  shoes,  smart 
ate,  and  smart  cravats ;  within  two  days  he 
had  a  smart  wig  with  a  smart  price  in  the 
box.  The  truth  is  he  had  been  bred  up  with 
the  groom,  and  transplanted  the  stable  - 
dialect  into  the  dressing-room. — Gentleman 
Instructed,  p.  476. 

Smartish,  rather  fine. 

I  bought  .  .  .  two  pair  of  ordinary  blue 
worsted  hose  that  made  a  smartish  appearance 
with  white  clocks,  I'll  assure  you. — Richard" 
son,  Pamela,  i.  51. 

Smellers,  nostrils:  smeller  is  pugi- 
listic slang  for  nose. 

Old  Priam  sate,  to  hide  from  Greek  here, 
By  kitchin  fire  in  chair  of  wicker ; 
Bit  so  with  blond  his  nose  did  spin  out, 
He  put  that  small  fire  that  was  in  out ; 


(For  he  on  smellers,  you  must  know, 
Beceiv'd  a  sad  unlucky  blow). 

Cotton,  Scarronides,  p.  64. 

Smell-trap,  a  contrivance  for  shut- 
ting off  bad  smells  from  a  house. 

u  Where  have  you  been  staying  ?  "  "With 
young  Lord  Vieuxbois,  among  high  art  and 
painted  glass,  spade  farms,  and  model  smell' 
traps." — C.  Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  vi. 

Smelts.  The  proverb  in  extract  seems 
to  mean  "  to  come  to  grief." 

Let  your  news  be  as  country  folk  bring 
fruit  to  your  markets,  the  bad  and  good 
together.  Say,  have  none  gone  "westward 
for  smelts"  as  our  proverbial  phrase  is? — 
Great  Frost  of  January,  1608  (Eng.  Garner, 
i.  85). 

Smicket,  a  smock.  See  extract  from 
Col  in  an  s.  v.  Bucket. 

Wide  antlers,  which  had  whilom  grac'd 
A  stag's  bold  brow,  on  pitchforks  plac'd, 
The  roaring  dancing  bumpkins  show, 
And  the  white  smicket  s  wave  below. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  c.  v. 

Smileless,  without  a  smile. 

The  door  closed  upon  the  sallow  and  smile- 
less  nephew. — Lylton,  Pel  ham,  ch.  lziii. 

And  so  the  old  man,  whose  life  had  been 
so  smileless,  died  smiling. — Ibid.,  What  will 
he  do  with  it  ?  Bk.  VI.  ch.  ix. 

Smirkly,  with  a  smirk. 

Venus  was  glad  to  hear 
Such  proffer  made,  which  she  well  shewed 
with  smiling  chear, 

And  smirkly  thus  gan  say. 

Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  258. 

Smithereens,  small  fragments. 
Smithers  and  smithereens  are  Lincoln- 
shire words :  see  Peacock's  Manley 
and  Corringham  Glossary  (E.  D.  S.). 

He  has  raised  a  pretty  quarrel  there,  I  can 
tell  you — kicked  the  ostler  half  across  the 
yard,  knocked  heaps  of  things  to  smither- 
eens, and  is  ordering  everybody  about. — 
Black,  Adventures  of  a  Phaeton,  ch.  iii. 

Smithers,  fragments. 

Smash  the  bottle  to  smithers,  the  Divil's 
in  'im,  said  I. — Tennyson,  Northern  Cobbler. 

Smithfield  bargain,  applied  to  a 
marriage  of  interest,  where  money  is 
the  chief  consideration :  the  allusion  is 
to  buying  a  wife  in  Smithfield.  Cf. 
Breton,  Olde  Maris  Lesson,  p.  7 : 
"  Fie  on  these  market-matches,  where 
marriages  are  made  without  affection." 

By  the  procurement  of  these  experienc'd 
matrons,  a  marriage  is  struck  up  like  a 
Smithfield  bargain.  There  is  ranch  higling 
and  wrangling  for  t'other  ten  pounds ;  one 


SMITHY-DANDER      (  602  ) 


SMUT 


side  endeavours  to  rain©,  and  the  other  to 
beat  down  the  market-price.  —  T.  Brown, 
Works,  iii.  64. 

The  hearts  of  as  women,  when  we  are 
urged  to  give  way  to  a  clandestine  or  unequal 
address,  or  when  inclined  to  favour  such  a 
one,  are  apt  and  are  pleaded  with  to  rise 
against  the  notions  of  bargain  and  sale. 
Smithfield  bargains  you  Londoners  call  them, 
but  unjust  is  the  iutended  odium,  if  prelimin- 
aries are  necessary  in  all  treaties  of  this 
nature. — Richardson,  Grandison,  vi.  44. 

Old  Square-toes  would  not  part  with  cash 
enough  down  upon  the  nail ;  and  the  devil 
take  me  if  I  would  marry  an  angel  upon  the 
footing  of  a  mere  Smith  field  bargain.— -Graves, 
Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  V.  ch.  xv. 

Tou  deposit  so  much  money,  and  be  grants 
yon  such  an  annuity;  a  mere  Smithfield 
bargain,  that  is  all.  —  Foots,  The  Bankrupt, 
II.  1. 

Smithy-dander,  a  cinder. 

You  cannot  suppose  that  Harry  Gow  cares 
the  value  of  a  smxthy-dander  for  such  a  cub 
as  yonder  cat-a-mountain. — Scott,  Fair  Maid 
of  Perth,  i.  68. 

Smittle,  infectious ;  catching. 

Oet  thy  saddles  off,  lad,  and  come  in ;  'tis 
a  smittle  night  for  rheumatics. — H.  King  si  ey, 
Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  xzxvi. 

Smock.  This  article  of  woman's  dress 
forms  the  first  part  of  several  com- 
pounds, usually  with  a  disparaging 
meaning.  Smock-faced  ■»  effeminate- 
looking  is  in  the  Diets.,  but  not  the 
substantive.  In  a  mock  "  Catalogue  of 
Books  of  the  newest  Fashion"  (Hart 
Misc.,  v.  287),  one  is  ascribed  to 
"  smock-pecked  S — k."  Dr.  Sherlock, 
who  at  first  refused  to  take  the  oaths  to 
William  and  Mary,  afterwards  changed 
his  mind ;  it  was  supposed  at  the  insti- 
gation of  his  wife. 

Now  this  tmocktoy  Paris  with  berdlesse  coom- 
pauye  wayted. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iv.  222. 

[Fortune  gives]  Some  wealth  without  wit, 
some  nor  wit  nor  wealth, 

But  good  smock-faces. 

Chapman,  All  Fooles,  v.  1. 

Tis  but  procuring ; 
A  smock-employment. 

Massing  er,  Renegade,  II.  i. 

I  hope,  sir, 
You  are  not  the  man  ;  much  less  employed 

by  him 
As  a  smock-agent  to  me. 

Ibid.,  Maid  of  Honour,  II.  ii. 

Peace,  thou  smock-vermin  !—Ibid.,  III.  i. 

Keep  these  women  matters 
Smock-secrets  to  ourselves. 

Jonson,  Magnetic  Lady,  iv.  2. 


Smoke  -  farthings,  a  contribution 
from  every  one  who  had  a  house  with 
a  chimney,  payable  in  Whitsun  week 
to  the  cathedral  of  the  diocese. 

As  for  your  smoke 'farthing*  and  Peter- 
pence,  I  make  no  reckoning.— Jewed,  iv.  1079. 

Smoker,  one  who  makes  game  of 
another. 

These  wooden  Wits,  these  Quiaers,  Queerer*, 

Smokers, 
These  practical,  nothing-so-easy  Jokers. 

Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  150. 

Smoking,  bantering ;  roasting. 

"  Oh ! "  cried  Mrs.  Thrale, a  what  a  ssnokimg 
did  Miss  Burney  give  Mr.  Crutohley  !  "  **  A 
smoking  indeed,"  cried  he ;  u  never  had  I  suck 
a  one  before  ;  never  did  I  think  to  get  such 
a  character."— Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  ii.  09- 

Smoky,  suspicious. 

I'  gad,  I  don't  like  his  looks  ;  he  seems  a 
little  smoaky  ;  I  believe  I  had  as  good  brash 
ofl.—Cibber,  Prov.  Husband,  Act  II. 

A  smoaky  fellow  this  Classic ;  but  if  Lucind* 
plays  her  cards  well,  we  have  not  ranch  to 
fear  from  that  quarter. — Foote,  Englishmen 
in  Paris,  Act  I. 

Smoother,  flatterer.    Cf.  Frtjbber. 

These  are  my  flatterers,  my  soothers,  my 
claw-backs,  my  smoothers,  my  parasites. — Cr- 
quhart,  Rabelais,  Bk.  III.  ch.  hi. 

Smouch,  a  cant  term  for  a  Jew.  H. 
has  "  Smous,  a  Jew.  Suffolk."  See  ex- 
tract «.  V.  JUDAIZATION. 

I  saw  them  roast  some  poor  Smouches  at 
Lisbon  because  they  would  not  eat  pork. — 
Johnston,  Chrysal,  i.  228. 

Vhile  I,  like  de  resht  of  ma  tribe,  shrug  and 

crouch, 
Tou  find  fault  mit  ma  pargains,  and  say  I'm 

a  Smouch. 

Ingoldsby  Legend*  {Merchant  of  Venice). 

Smudge.  Nashe  seems  to  use  this  as 
meaning  "to  smoke"  when  speaking 
of  what  was  necessary  to  make  a  her- 
ring chapmahable,  q.  v. 

Smuggle,  to  cuddle  or  fondle. 

Oh,  the  little  lips!  and  'tis  the  best- 
nntured  little  dear.  {Smuggles  and  kisses  it.) 
— Farquhar,  Love  and  a  Bottle,  i.  1. 

Smugness,  trimness:  it  is  a  word 
that  would  seem  more  appropriate  to 
what  auctioneers  call  "a  neat  villa" 
than  to  Winchester  Cathedral. 

I  like  the  smugness  of  the  Cathedral,  and 
the  profusion  of  the  most  beautiful  Gothic 
tombs.—  Walpole,  Letters,  i.  442  (1765). 

Smut,  to  make  obscene :  less  common 
as  a  verb  than  a  substantive. 


SMUTS 


(  603  )       SNAP- WORK  GUN 


Another  smut$  his  scene  (a  canning  shaver), 
Sure  of  the  rakes,  and  of  the  wenches  favour. 
Prologue  to  Steele' i  Conscious  Lovers. 

Shuts,  particles  of  soot 

She  ventured  into  the  drawing-room,  and 
was  straightway  saluted  by  a  joyous  dance 
of  those  monads,  called  vulgarly  $mut$.— 
Lytton,  Caxtons,  Bk.  XIV.  ch.  ii. 

Smuttiness,  obscenity. 

Smuttiness  is  a  fault  in  Behaviour  as  well 
as  in  Beligion. — Collier,  English  Stage,  p.  6. 

Snaffling  -  lay,  highway  robbery 
(thieves'  cant).  Cf.  Bridle  -  cull. 
Highwaymen  being  mounted,  the 
names  for  them  and  their  profession 
are  taken  from  horses'  gear.  See 
quotation  s.  v.  Peeby. 

I  thought  by  your  look  yon  had  been  a 
clever  fellow,  and  upon  the  snaffling-lay  at 
least,  but  I  find  you  are  some  sneaking-budge 
rascal. — Fielding,  Amelia,  Bk.  I.  ch.  iii. 

Snaft,  another  term  for  wick,  con- 
nected with  muffed  (?). 

Ton  chandler . . .  after  your  weeke  or  snaft 
is  stiffened,  you  dip  it  in  filthy  drosse,  and 
after  give  him  a  coat  of  good  tallowe. — 
Greene,  Quip  for  Upstart  Courtier  (Harl. 
Misc.,  v.  419). 

Snaggy ,f  all  of  snags  or  roughnesses. 
Spenser  (F.  Q.,  I.  vii.  10)  speaks  of  "  a 
snaggy  oke ; "  so  the  word  is  used 
provincially  for  ill-tempered. 

An'  I  wur  down  i'  tha  mouth,  couldn't  do 

naw  work  an'  all, 
Nasty  an'  snagay,  an'  shaaky,  an'  poonch'd 

my  'and  wi'  the  hawl. 

Tennyson,  Northern  Cobbler. 

Snail,  to  wind  like  a  snail,  or  to  move 
slowly. 

This  sayd,  shee  trots  on  snayling,  lyk  a 
toothshaken  old  hagge. — Stanyhurst,  JEn., 
iv.689. 

And  sith  all  sound  seems  alwayes  to  ascend, 
God  plao't  the  ears  (where  they  might  best 

attend) 
As  in  two  turrets,  on  the  buildings  top, 
SnaUinq  their  hollow  entries  so  asloap, 
That  while  the  voyce  about  those  windings 

wanders 
The  sound  might  lengthen  in  those  bow'd 

meanders. 

Sylvester,  Sixth  day;  first  weeke,  637. 

Draw  in  your  horns,  and  resolve  to  snail' 
on  as  we  did  before,  in  a  track  we  are 
acquainted  with. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe, 
iv.  124. 

Snail's  gallop.  To  go  at  a  email's 
gallop,  i.  e.  very  slowly.  In  the 
original   of  the  first  extract  the  tor- 


toise is  the  animal  named  "  ut  incedit 

testudo." 

I  see  what  haste  you  make ;  you  are  never 
the  forwarder,  you  go  a  snail's  gallop. — 
Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  41. 

But  if  he  happen'd  not  to  feel 
An  angry  hint  from  thong  or  steel, 
He,  by  degrees,  would  seldom  fail 
T'  adopt  the  gallop  of  a  snail. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  HI.  e.  iii. 

Snake,  to  wind  like  a  snake. 

Anon  vpon  the  flowry  plains  he  looks, 
Laced  about  with  snaktna  siluer  brooks. 
Sylvester,  Seventh  day,  first  weeks,  81. 

Snap,  a  slight  refection,  same  as 
snack  ;  also  a  scrap  or  morsel. 

The  story  of  the  Mamelukes ...  is  not 
written  directly,  but  by  reflexion ;  not  storied 
by  any  constant  writer  of  their  own,  but  in 
snaps  and  parcels. — Fuller,  Holy  War,  Bk. 
IV.  ch.  xxxii. 

It  is  one  thing  to  laugh  at  them  in  transitu, 
a  snap  and  away,  and  another  to  make  a  set 
meal  in  jeering  them. — Ibid.,  Holy  and  Pro- 
fane State,  III.  xii.  5. 

Perchance  he  may  get  some  alms  of  learn- 
ing, here  a  snap,  there  a  piece  of  knowledge, 
but  nothing  to  purpose. — Ibid.,  V.  xiv.  1. 

Mr.  Henry  Burton,  Minister,  rather  took  a 
snap  than  made  a  meal  in  any  university. — 
Ibid.,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI.  ii.  69. 

Mr.  Pilgrim  had  just  returned  from  one  of 
his  long  day's  rounds  among  the  farm-houses, 
in  the  course  of  which  he  had  sat  down  to 
two  hearty  meals,  that  might  have  been  mis- 
taken for  dinners,  if  he  had  not  declared 
them  to  be  snaps. — G.  Eliot,  Janet's  Repent' 
ante,  ch.  i. 

Snap,  an  earring:  so  called,  I  sup- 
pose, from  being  snapped  or  clasped. 

A  pair  of  diamond  snaps  in  her  ears.— 
Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  in.  29. 

Snapper,  a  cracker-bonbon. 

And   nasty  French   lucifer   snappers  with 
mottos. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (  Wedding-day). 

Snappers,  castanets. 

Their  musicke  is  answerable ;  the  instru- 
ments no  other  than  snappers,  gingles,  and 
round-bottomd  drums.— Sandys,  Travels,  p. 
172. 

Snapsauce,  licking  one's  fingers  ; 
pilfering  food.  Epistemon  in  the  Ely- 
sian  fields  saw 

Hector  a  snapsauce  scullion  (fripe-saulce). 
Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  II.  oh. 


Snap-work  gun,  a  gun  with  a  spring 

lock ;  same  as  snaphance. 

Betwixt  the  third  couple  of  towers  were 
the  butts  and  marks  for  shooting  with  a 


SNATCHING 


(  604  ) 


SNOB 


snip-work  gun  {Varquebuse). — Urqukarfs  Ra- 
belais, Bk.  I.  ch.  v. 

Snatching.    See  extract. 

"  Snatching  "  is  a  form  of  illicit  piscicap- 
ture  for  which  it  in  impossible  to  entertain 
even  that  mitigated  kind  of  sympathy  which 
the  keenest  sportsman  cannot  occasionally 
help  feeling  towards  poaching  conducted  in 
a  fair  and  sportsmanlike  manner.  A  large 
triangle  is  attached  to  a  line  of  fine  gut, 
well  weighted  with  swan-shot  or  a  small 
plummet.  Some  "  snatchers  "  will  use  two, 
three,  or  even  four  triangles  ;  but  the  mode 
of  operation  is,  of  course,  the  same.  The 
line  is  then  dropped  into  some  quiet  place 
where  fish  are  plentiful — a  deep  corner  pool, 
or  the  outfall  of  a  drain,  or  the  mouth  of  a 
small  affluent — and,  as  soon  as  the  plummet 
has  touched  the  bottom,  is  twitched  violently 
up.  It  is  almost  a  certainty  that  on  some 
one  or  other  of  the  hooks,  and  possibly  on 
more  than  one,  will  be  a  fish  foul-hooked. — 
Standard,  Oct.  21, 1878. 

Snat-nosed,  snub-nosed. 

Silenus  .  .  .  was  an  euill  disfigured  apishe 
body,  croumpe  shouldred,  short-necked,  snat- 
nosed,  with  a  sparowe's  mouth. —  TJdaVs  Eras- 
mus's Apophth.,  p.  250. 

Sneaking,  an  epithet  often  joined 
with  such  words  as  kindness,  liking, 
preference,  Ac. ;  it  signifies  una  vowed 
or  undemonstrative. 

Tou,  my  dear,  shall  reveal  to  me  your 
sneaking  passion,  if  you  have  one,  and  I  will 
discover  mine.— Richardson,  Grandison,  i.  290. 

For  they  posscss'd,  with  all  their  pother, 
A  sneaking  kindness  for  each  other. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  vii. 

Sneaking-budge,  thieves  cant  for 
pilfering.  See  quotation  s.  v.  Snaf- 
fling-lay. 

Wild  . .  .  looked  upon  borrowing  to  be  as 
good  a  way  of  taking  as  any,  and,  as  he  called 
it,  the  genteelest  kind  of  sneaking-budge. — 
Fielding,  Jonathan  Wild,  Bk.  I.  ch.  viii. 

Sneeze.     Not  to  sneeze  at  a  thing  =  • 
not  to  object  to  it ;  to  value  it. 
A  buxom,  tall,  and  comely  dame 
Who  wish'd,  'twas  said,  to  change  her  name, 
And,  if  I  could  her  thoughts  divine, 
Would  not  perhaps  have  sneezUl  at  mine. 
Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  0.  v. 

Then  his  Riverence  retrating  discoorsed  the 
mating : 

a  Boys,  here's  your  Queen,  deny  it  if  you 
can; 

And  if  any  bould  traitour  or  infarior  craythur 
Sneezes  at  that,  I'd  like  to  see  the  man." 
Ingoldsby  Legends  {The  Coronation). 

Sneeze-box,  a  snuff-box.    See  quota- 
tion *.  vu.  Clyfaking,  Lummy. 


Snick,  to  cut  The  Diet*,  give  it 
only  in  the  phrase  snide  and  snee. 

He  began  by  snicking  the  corner  of  her 
foot  off  with  nurse's  scissors.— J7.  Kingsl^ 
Ravenshoe,  ch.  Ixiii. 

Snickle.  See  H.,  who  refers  to  Mar- 
lowe, but  does  not  give  the  passage, 
which  is  clearly  corrupt.  Col.  Cun- 
ningham conjectures  "  snide,  hard  and 
fast,"  though  even  this  is  obscure. 
Snickle  =  to  tie  a  noose,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  catching  hares,  &c. 

I  carried  the  broth  that  poisoned  the  nuns 
and  he  and  I,  snide  hand  too  fast,  strangled 
a  friar. — Marlowe,  Jew  of  Malta,  iv.  5. 

Snift.  to  snuff. 

I  would  sooner  snift  thy  farthing  candle. 
—Mad.  D'Arblay,  Camilla,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  viii. 

Snip,  a  tailor. 

Sir,  here's  Snip  the  taylor 
Charg'd  with  a  riot. 

Randolph,  Muses'  Looking  Glass, 
iv.  3. 

"Alton,  you  fool,  why  did  you  let  oat 
that  you  were  a  snip  ?"  "  I  am  not  ashamed 
of  my  trade."— C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke, 
ch.  xiii. 

Snippetinkss,  fragmentariness. 

The  defect  of  Fraser's  Magazine  among 
magazines  issnippetiness,*  habit  of  publishing 
so  many  articles  that  they  are  none  of  them 
exhaustive. — The  Spectator,  quoted  in  Fraser's 
Mag.,  March  1878,  p.  400. 

The  whole  number  is  good,  albeit  broken 
up  into  more  small  fragments  than  we  think 
quite  wise.  Variety  is  pleasant,  snippetiness 
is  not.— Church  Times,  April  9, 1880,  p.  228. 

Snip-snap-snorum,  a  round  game  at 
cards,  which  is  fully  described  in  N 
and  Q.,  3rd  S.,  ii.  331,  379. 

It  had  been  found  convenient  to  set  down 
the  children  and  their  young  quests  on  these 
occasions  to  Pope  Joan  or  snip-snap-snorum* 
which  was  to  them  a  more  amusing,  because 
a  noisier  game.— Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cix. 

Snite,  a  term  of  reproach.  R.  gives 
suite  =  woodcock,  which  word  is  often 
used  for  a  fool,  or  it  may  be  =  snot. 

Here  enter  not  vile  bigots,  hypocrites, 
Externally  devoted  apes,  base  snites. 

UrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  liv. 

Snob,  a  journeyman  shoemaker.  The 
extract  is  a  note  on  the  words  "  tailor 
by  trade." 

All  who  are  familiar  with  the  Police  Re- 
ports and  other  Records  of  our  Courts  of 
Justice,  will  recollect  that  every  gentleman 
of  this  particular  profession  invariably  thn« 
describes  himself,  in  contradistinction  to  the 


SNOD 


(  605  ) 


SOAKINGL  Y 


bricklayer,  whom  he  probably  presumes  to 
Y>«  indigenous,  and  to  the  Shoemaker  born  a 
*Snob.  —  Inyoldsby  Legends  (Old  Woman  in 
Crrey). 

Snod,  to  bind  ;  tie  up. 

On  stake  and  ryce  he  knits  the  crooked  vines, 
.And  snoddes  their  bowes. 

Hudson,  Judith,  iv.  269. 

Snoozle,  to  nestle. 

A  dog  .  . .  snoozled  its  nose  overf orwardly 
into  her  face. — E.  Bronte,  Wuthering  Heights, 
ch.  iii. 

Snortle,  to  grunt.     Breton  says  that 

Folly  teaches  his  scholar 

To  wallow  almost  like  a  beare, 
And  snortle  like  a  hog. 

School e  of  Fancie,  p.  6. 

Snorty,  snoring;  broken  by  snorts. 
Stanyhurst  speaks  of  the  "  dead  sleape 
snorty  t "  of  Polyphemus  (jEn.,  iii.  645). 

Snow,  a  vessel  with  foremast,  main- 
mast, and  abaft  the  latter  a  small  mast 
-with  a  trysail. 

Far  other  craft  our  prouder  river  shows, 
Hoys,  pinks,  and  sloops,  brigs,  brigantines, 
and  snows. — Crabbe,  The  borough,  Letter  i. 

There  was  no  order  among  us — he  that  was 
captain  to-day  was  swabber  to-morrow.  . .  I 
broke  with  them  at  last  for  what  they  did  on 
board  of  a  bit  of  a  snow ;  no  matter  what  it 
was ;  bad  enough,  since  it  frightened  me. — 
Scott,  Redgauntlet,  ii.  156. 

Snowbreak,  thaw  of  snow. 

And  so,  like  snowbreak  from  the  mountains, 
for  every  staircase  is  a  melted  brook,  it 
storms ;  tumultuous,  wildashrilling,  towards 
the  H6tel-de-Ville.— Carlyle,Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I. 
Bk.  VII.  ch.  iv. 

Snubbish,  surly ;  repressive. 

Spirit  of  Kant !  have  we  not  had  enough 
To  make  religion  sad,  and  sour,  and  snubbish  ? 

Hood,  An  Open  (Question. 

Snubby,  short ;  stunted. 

Both  have  mottled  legs, 
Both  have  snubby  noses. 

Thackeray,  Peg  of  Limavaddy. 

Snudge-like,  like  a  miser. 

Who  Snudge-like  to  his  friend  (whose  heart 

Was  paynd  with  stitch  and  grief  e) 
Not  one  poore  draught  thereof  would  send, 
To  ease  him  with  relief e. 

Metrical  version  of  Juvenal  quoted  in 
Touchstone  of  Complexions,  p.  103. 

Snudgery,  miserliness.     See  extract 

S.  V.  HUDDLE-DUDDLK. 

Snudge-snout,  a  dirty  fellow. 

I  heard  your  father  say  that  he  would 
marry  you  to  Peter  Ploddall,  that  puck-fist, 


that  snudge-snout,  that  coal-carrierly  clown. 
—  Wily  Beguiled  (Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr.,  iii.  303). 

Snuff.  Up  to  snuff  —  sharp  ;  clever 
(slang). 

Lady  A.,  who  is  now  what  some  call  "  up  to 

snuff,"  • 

Straight  determines  to  patch  up  a  clandes- 
tine match. 

Inyoldsby  Legends  (Account 
of  a  new  play). 

Snuffler,  a  religious  canter. 

You  know  I  never  was  a  snuffer  ;  but  this 
sort  of  life  makes  one  serious,  if  one  has  auy 
reverence  at  all  in  one. — Hughes,  Tom  Broxcn 
at  Oxford,  ch.  xliv. 

Snuffle8,  difficulty  in  speaking  or 
breathing  owing  to  the  nose  being 
stopped  up  through  a  cold. 

First  the  Queen  deserts  us ;  then  Princess 
Royal  begins  coughing;  then  Princess 
Augusta  gets  the  snuffles. — Mad.  D'Arblay, 
Diary,  iii.  180. 

Snuffman,  snuff-seller. 

The  proprietor  confined  himself  strictly  to 
the  sale  of  snuff,  and  had  .  .  .  nothing  in 
short  that  makes  the  shop  of  a  snuffman  of 
the  present  day  scarcely  distinguishable 
from  the  studio  of  a  Cheapside  miniature 
painter. — Savage,  R.  Medlicott,  Bk.  III.  ch.  i. 

Snuggle,  to  nestle. 

We  were  friends  in  a  minute — young  New- 
come  snuggling  by  my  side,  his  father  oppo- 
site.— Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  i. 

Snush,  to  snuff  or  take  snuff.  N.  has 
the  substantive. 

Then  filling  his  short  pipe,  he  blows  a  blast, 
And  does  the  burning  weed  to  ashes  waste, 
Which,  when  'tis  cool,  he  snushes  up  his  nose, 
That  he  no  part  of  his  delight  may  lose. 

T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  117. 

Snuzzle,  to  sniff.  H.  says,  to  cuddle. 
This,  however,  does  not  seem  to  be  the 
meaning  in  the  extract,  in  which  a  bull- 
dog is  spoken  of. 

His  general  look,  and  a  way  he  had  of 
going  "  snuzzling "  about  the  calves  of 
strangers,  were  not  pleasant  for  nervous 
people. — Hugfies,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch. 
iii. 

Soak. 

Stand  forth,  transformed  Antonio,  fully  mued 
From  brown  soak  feathers  of  dull  yeomanry 
To  th'  glorious  bosom  of  gentry. 

Albumazar,  iii.  4. 

Soakingly,    gradually,    as    liquid 

sinks  into  the  earth,  &c. 

A  mannes  enemies  in  battail  are  to  be  ouer- 
comed  with  a  carpenter's  squaring  axe,  that 
is  to  say,  sokingly,  one  pece  after  an  other. 


SOAL 


(  606  ) 


SO  I  LURE 


A  common  axe  cutteth  through  at  the  first 
choppe,  a  squaring  aze  by  a  little  and  a  little, 
werketh  the  same  effect©. — UdaVs  Erasmus' 3 
Apopkth^  p.  809. 

Soal,  to  pull  about :  a  Devon  word. 

Zom  hootiu^  heavin',  soalin',  hawlin', 
Zom  in  the  muok  and  pellum  sprawlin'. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  165. 

Soal.    See  quotation. 

I  censored  his  light  and  ludicrous  title  of 
"  Down-Deny  "  modestly  in  these  words : 
"  It  were  strange  if  he  should  throw  a  good 
oast  who  tools  his  bowl  upon  an  undersong ; " 
alluding  to  that  ordinary  and  elegant  expres- 
sion in  our  English  tongue, "  soal  your  bowl 
well,"  that  is,  be  careful  to  begin  your  work 
well.—Branihall,  ii.  366. 

Soap.  Soft  soap  =  persuasion  ;  flat- 
tery (slang). 

He  and  I  are  great  chums,  and  a  little  soft 
soap  will  go  a  long  way  with  him. — Hughes, 
Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xxxiii. 

Soapless,  without  soap  ;  unwashed. 

The  offered  hand  of  his  new  friend  . .  .  was 
of  a  marvellously  dingy  and  soapless  aspect. 
— Lytton,  Pelham,  ch.  xlix. 

Sober.  The  second  extract  explains 
itself ;  the  first  is  curious,  because  sober 
is  so  much  used  by  us  as  meaning 
temperate  as  regards  drink,  that  to 
speak  of  a  woman  being  sober  except 
when  she  could  get  at  liquor,  reminds 
one  of  Madam  Blaize,  who  "never 
followed  wicked  ways,  except  when  she 
was  sinning/' 

Shee's  as  discreete  a  dame 
As  any  in  these  countries,  and  as  sober, 
But  for  this  onely  humour  of  the  cup. 

Chapman,  Gentleman  Vshtr,  Act  III. 
Herald,  saith  he,  tell  the  Lord  Governor 
and  the  Lord  Huntley  that  we  have  entered 
your  country  with  a  sober  company  (which 
in  the  language  of  the  Scots  is  poor  and 
mean)  :  your  army  is  both  great  ana  fresh. — 
Heyltn,  Reformation,  i.  90. 

Sobersides,  a  steady  person. 

Tou  deemed  yourself  a  melancholy  sober- 
sides enough  t  Miss  Fanshawe  there  regards 
you  as  a  second  Diogenes.— Miss  Bronte,  ViU 
lette,  ch.  xxviii. 

Soccated,  fastened  in  sockets. 

Two  whyte  marble  columns  or  pillers, 
soccated  in  two  foote  steppes  of  black  marble. 
—  Survey  of  Maner  of  Wimbledon,  1640 
(Arc h.,  x.  404). 

Sociable,  low  phaeton. 

The  children  went  with  their  mother,  to 
their  great  delight,  in  the  sociable.  —  Mist 
Edyeworth,  Belinda,  ch.  xix. 


Cabs,  hackney-coaches, "  shay  "  carts,  coal- 
waggons,  stages,  omnibusses,  sociable*,  gig*. 
donkey-chaises  .  .  .  roll  along  at  their  ut- 
most speed.  —  Sketches  by  Boz  (Greenwich 
Fair). 

SOCIETARIAN,  social. 

The  all -sweeping  besom  of  woctetarm 
reformation,  your  only  modern  Alcides'  club 
to  rid  the  time  of  its  abuses,  is  uplift  with 
many-handed  sway  to  extirpate  the  flutter- 
ing tatters  of  the  bugbear  Mendicity  from 
the  metropolis. — Lamb,  Essays  of  Elia.  (Dec** 
of  Beggars). 

SociETlE,  alliance. 

It  no  writer  had  recorded  that  we  English- 
men are  descended  from  Germans,  the  true 
and  natural!  Scots  from  the  Irish,  the  Britons 
of  Armorica  in  France  from  our  Britans, 
the  societie  of  their  tongues  would  easily 
oonnrme  the  same. — Holland's  CamuUn,  p.  10. 

Societyless,  without  companions. 

Had  not  this  composition  fit  seized  me, 
societyless,  and  bookless,  and  viewless  as  I 
am,  I  know  not  how  I  could  have  whiled 
away  my  being.  —  Mad.  I/ArUay,  Diary, 
iv.  272. 

Socinianize,  to  imbue  with  Socinian 

doctrine. 

I  cannot  be  ordained  before  I  have  sub- 
scribed and  taken  some  oaths.  Neither  of 
which  will  pass  very  well,  if  I  am  ever  so 
little  Popishly  inclined  or  Sociniams'd — T. 
Brown,  Works,  i.  4. 

So  fane,  pertaining  to  a  sofa. 

A  sofa,  of  incomprehensible  form  regarded 
from  any  sofane  point  of  view,  murmured, 
"  Bed."—  Dickens,  Uncommercial  Traveller,  ri. 

Soft,  a  fool. 

It'll  do  you  no  good  to  sit  in  a  spring-cart 
o'  your  own,  if  you've  got  a  soft  to  drive 
you ;  he'll  soon  turn  you  over  into  the  ditch. 
— G.  Eliot,  Adam  Bede,  ch.  ix. 

Soft-b/ode,  cowardly. 

A  souldier,  and  afraid  of  a  dead  man  ?  A 
soft-r'ods  milksop?  —  Chapman,  Widdoves 
Teares,  Act  V. 

Softy,  a  weak,  silly  person. 

She  were  but  a  softy  after  all,  for  she  left 
off  doing  her  work  in  a  proper  manner.— 
Mrs.  Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  xv. 

Soilure.  soil.  N.  has  the  word,  with 
quotation  from  Troilus  and  Cressida, 
IV.  i.,  and  adds,  "This  word  has  not 
been  found  elsewhere ;  but  I  am  not 
one  of  those  who  suspect  Shakespeare 
of  coining  words,  and  therefore  think 
it  will  be  found." 


SOJLY 


(  607  ) 


SOL  VABLE 


Then  fearing  rust  or  soilure  fashion'd  for  it 
.A  case  of  silk. 

Tennyson,  Lancelot  and  Maine. 

Soily,  polluting  or  polluted ;  dirty. 

So  spots  of  sinne  the  writer's  soule  did  staine, 
*Who«e  sot/lie  tincture  did  therein  remaine, 
Till  brinish  teares  had  washt  it  out  againe. 

Fuller,  David's  Sinne,  st.  32. 
No,  quoth  the  earnest  Water,  I  desire 
His  soy  lie  sinnes  with  deluges  to  scoura 

Ibid.,  David's  Repentance,  st.  4. 

^  Nor  let  your  boots  be  over  clean, . . .  your 
linen  rumpled  and  soily  when  yon  wait  upon 
her. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlow,  vi.  93. 

Soldat,  soldier:  a  French  word, 
used  as  English. 

Alarm,  soldats,  alarme ; 
Take  blades  in  hand  and  brands  of  burning 
yre.— Hudson,  Judith,  v.  452. 

Soldatesqde,  soldierly. 

He  strode  down  Glavering  High  Street, 
his  hat  on  one  side,  his  cane  clankiug  on 
the  pavement,  or  waving  round  him  in  the 
execution  of  military  cuts  and  soldatesque 
manoeuvres.— Thackeray,  Pendennis,  ch.  zxii. 

Soldier,  to  go  or  act  as  a  soldier. 

The  reckless  shipwrecked  man,  flung 
ashore  on  the  coast  of  the  Maldives  long 
ago,  while  sailing  and  soldiering  as  Indian 
fighter.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  IIL  Bk.  I. 
ch.  vu. 

He  has  proved  himself  so  different  from 
me,  and  has  done  so  much  to  raise  himself 
while  I've  been  soldiering. —Dickens,  Bleak 
House,  ch.  lv. 

Soldier.  To  come  the  old  soldier  = 
to  try  to  take  in. 

I  should  think  he  was  coming  the  old  soldier 
over  me,  and  keeping  up  his  game.  But  no 
— he  can  scarce  have  the  impudence  to  think 
of  that.— Scott,  St.  Ronan's  Well,  ch,  xviii. 

Devilish  well  acted !  But  you  needn't  try 
to  come  the  old  soldier  over  me;  I'm  not 
quite  such  a  fool  as  th*t.— Hughes,  Tom 
Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xxxiii. 

Soldier's  wind.     See  quotation. 

The  breeze  blowing  dead  off  the  land  was 
"  a  soldier's  wind,  there  and  back  again,"  for 
either  ehip.—Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  xix. 

Sole,  a  wooden  collar  round  the 
neck  of  cattle  to  confine  them  to  a 
post.  Tusser  mentions,  among  "  hus- 
tandlie  furniture/' 

Soles,  fetters,  and  shackles,  with  horselook 
and  pad. — Husoandrie,  p.  38. 

Solertiousne88,  subtlety ;  clever- 
ness. 

The  king  confessed  that  they  had  hit  upon 
the  interpretation  of  his  secret  meaning; 
which  abounded  to  the  praise  of  Mr.  Wil- 


liams's solertiousness. — Racket,  Life  of  Wil- 
liams, i.  22. 

Let  them  plead  their  own  learning  and 
able  parts  without  traducing  the  gifts  of 
them  that  are  excellently  seen  in  theological 
cases  of  conscience,  and  singularly  rare  in 
natural  solertiousness. — Ibid.,  i.  200. 

Solicit  ate,  solicit. 

[He]  did  urge  and  solicitate  him,  according 
to  his  manner  of  words,  to  recant. — Foxe, 
quoted  in  Maitland  on  Reformation,  p.  494. 

Solicitrix,  female  petitioner. 

The  first  motion  he  found  in  himself  was 
for  the  charming  sollicitrix.  —  T.  Brown, 
Works,  iii.  43. 

If  the  wife  had  not  been  the  solicitrix  and 
undertaker  for  the  great  things  her  husbaud 
was  to  perform,  be  could  never  have  made 
his  way  so  effectually. — North,  Examen,  p. 
193. 

When  businesses  of  this  nature  want 
shoulders  at  court  to  heave  them  forwards, 
then  great  men  and  topping  ladies  (hopeful 
solicitrixes)  are  taken  in  for  shares,  and  so 
let  into  the  secret.— North,  Life  of  Lord 
Guilford,  i.  207. 

Solitariousness,  solitude ;  seclusion. 

Dysinge  and  cardynge  haue  ii  tutours,  the 
one  named  Solitariousenes,  whjche  lurketh 
in  holes  and  corners,  the  other  called  Night, 
an  vngratiouse  couer  of  noughtynesse. — 
Ascham,  Toxophilus,  p.  52. 

Solitarity,  solitude. 

I  shall  be  abandoned  at  once  to  solitarity 
and  penury.—  W.  Taylor  of  Norwich,  1811 
(Memoir,  ii.  351). 

Sollevate,  to  raise ;  excite.  N.  has 
sullevate,  with  quotation  from  Daniel ; 
he  adds,  "  It  seems  rather  a  pedantic 
affectation  than  a  word  ever  in  use." 

I  come  to  shew  the  fruits  of  connivance 
or  'rather  encouragement  from  the  magis- 
trates in  the  city  upon  other  occasions  to 
sollevate  the  rabble. — North,  Examen,  p.  114. 

Fitzharris's  [plot]  was  framed  ...  to  blast 
the  king,  arm  the  faction,  sollevate  the  mob. 
— Ibid.,  p.  273. 

Solvable.  The  Diets,  give  this  word 
as  meaning  capable  of  being  solved  or 
paid,  and  so  Fuller  uses  it  in  the  second 
extract;  but  in  the  others  it  means 
capable  of  paying,  or  solvent  See 
extract  s.  v.  Nichill. 


It  was  collected  generally  of  all  solvable 
housekeepers. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  V.  iii.  46. 

Some  of  those  corrodies  (where  the  pro- 
perty was  altered  into  a  set  sum  me  of 
money)  was  solvable  out  of  the  exchequer. — 
Ibid.,  vi.  p.  326. 

Widows  are  commonly  so  wise  as  to  be 


SOMERSET 


(  608  ) 


SORTS 


sure  their  men  are  solvable  before  they  trust 
'em. —  Wycherley,  Love  in  a  Wood,  iii.  4. 

Somerset,  to  turn  head  over  heols. 

Thea  the  sly  sheepe-biter  issued  into  the 
midst,  and  summer$etted  and  fliptflappt  it 
twenty  times  above  ground  as  light  as  a 
feather.— Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc., 
vi.  164). 

In  such  extraordinary  manner  does  dead 
Catholicism  somerset  and  caper,  skilfully  gal- 
vanised.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  IV. 
eh.  ii. 

Somnambular,  belonging  to  somnam- 
bulism or  sleep-walking. 

We  stand  to  meet  thee  on  these  Alpine 
snows, 
And  while  the  palpitating  peaks  break  out 
Ecstatic  from  somnambular  repose 
With  answers  to  the  presence  and  the 
shout, 
We  poets  of  the  people,  who  take  part 
With  elemental  justice,  natural  right, 
Join  in  our  echoes  also. 

Mrs.  Browning,  Napoleon  III.  in  Italy. 

Somnial,  pertaining  to  dreams. 

To  presage  or  foretell  an  evil,  especially  in 
what  concerneth  the  exploits  of  the  soul,  in 
matter  of  somnial  divinations,  is  as  much  as 
to  say  as  that  it  giveth  us  to  understand  that 
some  dismal  fortune  or  mischance  is  destin- 
ated  or  prepared  for  us. —  Urquhart,  Rabelais, 
Bk.  in.  ch.  xiv. 

Somniatory,  pertaining  to  dreams. 
See  quotation  from  Southey  *.  v.  Onei- 

ROCRITE. 

I  shall  to-morrow  break  my  fast  betimes 
after  my  somniatory  exercitations. —  Ur</u- 
harCs  Rabelais,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xiii. 

Somnific,  causing  sleep. 

The  voice,  the  manner,  the  matter,  even 
the  very  atmosphere,  and  the  streamy  candle- 
light were  all  alike  somnific. — Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  vi.  A 1. 

Somnivolency,  a  soporific ;  some- 
tiling  to  incline  to  sleep. 

If  these  somnivolencies  (I  hate  the  word 
opiates  on  this  occasion)  have  turned  her 
head,  that  is  an  effect  they  frequently  have 
upon  some  constitutions. — Richardson,  CI. 
Harlowe,  v.  345. 

Sonless,  without,  or  bereft  of,  sons. 

Out  of  these,  if  the  Emperonr  die  son~lesse, 
a  successor  is  chosen. — Sandys ,  Travels,  p.  171. 

How  many  fatherless,  brother] ess,  sonless 
families  have  mourned  all  their  lives  the 
unhappy  resort  to  this  dreadful  practice. — 
Richardson,  Grandison,  i.  319. 

Sonnekin,  little  son. 

The  minister  welcomed  hym  in  Oreke,  and 
myudiug  tenderly  and  gently  to  salute  with 


this  word  vaiiiov,  sonnekin,  at  little  sonn*, 
tripped  a  little  in  his  tongue,  and  by  & 
wrong  pronunciation  insteade  of  -r**&io»  sai<l 
vai3ioc,  which  being  diuided  into  two  woordes 
wal  JtAc,  soaneth  the  sonne  of  Jupiter.— 
UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  233. 

SoNNETiZE,  to  celebrate  in  a  sonnet 

Now  could  I  sonnetiu  thy  piteous  plight. 
— Southey,  Nondescripts,  V. 

SoPHiSTRESS,  a  female  sophist. 

You  seem  to  be  a  sophistress,  you  answer 
so  smartly. — Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  194. 

Fa.  Now  you  seem  to  play  the  sophist 
with  me. 

Eh.  Then  do  you  play  the  sophistress  with 
me. — Ibid.,  p.  230. 

Sophistry,  to  reason  sophistically,  or 
fallaciously. 

It  is  well  sophist ried  of  you  forsooth  ;  pre- 
posterous are  your  judgements  evermore.— 
Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  34. 

Sorcerino,  exercising  sorcery. 

His  trade  of  sorcerinq  had  so  inured  him 
to  receive  voices  from  his  familiars  in  shape 
of  beasts  that  this  event  seemed  not  strange 
to  him. — Hall,  Contemplation  {Balaam). 

Sordidity,  squalor ;  dirt. 

Swimming  in  suddes  of  all  sordiditie. — 
Davies,  Humours  Heaven  on  Earth,  p.  21. 

Then  how  dare  I  (vile  clod  of  base  contempt) 
Approch  the  presence  of  such  Majesty, 

That  is  from  all  impuritie  exempt, 
And  I  a  sinck  of  all  sordiditie  ? 

Ibid.,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  19. 

Sororially,  in  a  sisterly  way. 

u  This  way  then,  my  dear  sister,"  cried 
Jane  to  the  newcomer,  and  taking  her  sorori- 
ally by  the  hand,  she  led  her  forth  from  the 
oak  parlour.— Th.  Hook,  The  Sutherlands. 

Sorry,  to  grieve. 

If  he  thundre,  they  quake ;  if  he  chyde, 
they  feare ;  if  he  complayne,  they  sory  with 
hym. — Ascham,  Toxophilus,  p.  42. 

Sortilege,  choosing  by  lot.     L.  has 

the  word,  but  no  example. 

She  might  have  tossed  np,  having  coins  in 
her  pocket,  heads  or  tails  !  but  this  kind  of 
sortilege  was  then  coming  to  be  thought  irre- 
ligious in  Christendom. — De  Quincey,  Spanish 
Nun,  sect.  10. 

Sorts.  Out  of  sorts  =  indisposed  ; 
out  of  spirits. 

Diana !  why  girl,  I  say,  adsme,  you're  all 
out  of  sorts ;  I  thought  thy  tongue  and  heels 
could  never  have  been  idle. — Revenge,  or  a 
Match  in  Neirgate,  Act  IV. 

I  was  most  violently  out  of  sorts,  and  really 
had  not  spirits  to  answer  it. — Mad.  D'Arblay, 
Diary,  i.  141. 


SO  SB  ELL  Y 


(  609  )  SPADES  GRAFT 


Sobbelly,  »^^y  belly ;  fat. 

What  is  thy  idolatrous  mas  and  lowsve 
Lafcine  seruice,  thou  sosbelly  swilbol,  bat  the 
very  draf  of  Antichrist,  and  dregges  of  the 
deuil  ?—Bale,  Declaration  of  Bo  nner's  A  rticles 
(Art.  XXIX.). 

Sottkry  ;  folly. 

Episcopacy,  and  so  Presbytery  had  indeed 
.  .  .  suffered  very  much  smut,  soyle,  darkness 
and  dishonour  by  the  Tyrannies,  Fedities, 
Luxuries,  Sotteries  and  Insolencies  of  some 
Bishops  and  other  Churchmen  under  the 
Papal  prevalency.  —  Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  12.  J 

Sound.  See  extract ;  Phaer's  Virgil 
appeared  in  1558,  but  in  1525  Lord 
Berners  used  sound  in  his  translation  of 
Froissart. 

Sonant  is  short,  veet  sowning  in  English 
must  bee  long ;  and  much  more  yf  yt  were 
Sounding  as  thee  ignorant  generaly  but  faJslye 
dooe  wryte ;  nay,  that  where  at  I  woonder 
more,  thee  learned  trip  theyre  pennes  at  this 
stoane,  in  so  much  as  M.  Phaerin  thee  verye 
first  verse  of  Virgil  mistaketh  thee  woorde, 
yeet  sound  and  sowne  differ  as  much  in  Eng- 
lish as  solidus  and  sonus'm  Latin. — Stany hurst, 
uEnead,  Preface. 

Sound,  to  swoon  :  also  a  substantive. 
H.  remarks  that  it  occurs  as  late  as  the 
Vicar  of  Wakefield,  ch.  xi.,  but  he 
omits  to  observe  that  the  speaker  is 
Miss  Skeggs,  and  that  therefore  it  was 
probably  meant,  as  it  certainly  is  in  the 
still  later  passage  from  the  Sp.  Quixote, 
for  a  vulgarism.  But  the  first  citation 
shows  that  it  was  in  use  by  the  educated 
some  seventy  years  before. 

I  never  saw  a  man  before  sound  under  an 
argument,  or  discoursed  into  a  calenture. — 
Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  304. 

I  was  mortall  sick,  and  troubled  with  the 
gripes  and  the  belly-ache,  and  I  thought  I 
should  have  sounded  away. — Graves.  Spiritual 
Quixote,  Bk.  v"II.  ch.  i. 

Sounder.  H.  has  this  word  =  a  herd 
of  swine ;  and  I  have  given  examples 
of  it  in  this  sense  s.  w.  Hogsteer  and 
Rookler;  but  in  the  subjoined  the 
meaning  is  different. 

It  had  so  happened  that  a  sounder  (t.  e.  in 
the  language  of  the  period,  a  boar  of  only 
two  years  old)  had  crossed  the  track  of  the 
proper  object  of  the  chase.  — -  Scott.  Quentin 
Dunoard,  i.  180. 

Sour-cake,  unleavened  bread  (?). 

Fine  folks  they  are  to  tell  you  what's 
right,  as  look  as  if  they'd  never  tasted  no- 
thing better  than  bacon-sword  and  sour-cake 
i'  their  lives.— G.  Eliot,  Adam  Bede,  ch.  viii. 


Source,  to  spring. 

They  . . .  never  leave  roaring  it  out  with 
their  brazen  home,  as  long  as  they  stay,  of 
the  freedomes  and  immunities  soursing  from 
him.— Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi. 
163). 

Sous.  This  French  coin  is  often 
spoken  of  now  ;  but  it  is  pronounced  as 
a  French  word  :  not  so  in  the  extracts. 

Next  came  the  treasurer  of  either  house, 
One  with  full  purse,  t'other  with  not  a  sous. 

Churchill,  Rosciad,  310. 
I've  been  chief  lion,  and  first  Tiger  here 

For  fifteen  year ; — 
That,  you  may  tell  me,  matters  not  a  souse; 
But,  what  is  more, 
All  London  says,  I  am  the  greatest  Boar 
You  ever  had  in  all  your  House. 

Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  30. 

Soutage,  bagging  for  hops  ;  coarse 
cloth.  Tusser  is  giving  directions  for 
the  construction  of  a  hop-manger.  See 
also  extract  *.  v.  Hair-Patch. 

Take  soutage  or  haier  (that  covers  the  Eell) 
Set  like  to  a  manger,  and  fastened  well. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  136. 

Soveraintess,  female  sovereign. 

O  second  honour  of  the  lamps  supernal, 

Sure  Calendar  of  festiuals  eternal 

Sea's  Soueraintess,  Sleep-bringer,  Pilgrim's 

Guide, 
Peace-loving  Queen ;  what  shall  I  say  beside  ? 
Sylvester,  Fourth  day  first  weeke,  718. 

Sow- br bad,  a  plant  of  the  genus 
cyclamen.  Cf .  Swines  -  bread  with 
extract  from  Sylvester  referring  to  the 
antipathy  between  it  and  the  colewort, 
and  to  other  stories  about  it. 

The  colewort  has  its  enemy  too  ;  for  if  it 
be  set  near  the  herb  called  sow-bread  (cycla- 
mino)  or  wild  marjoram  (origano),  it  will 
wither  presently. — Bailey' }s  Erasmus's  Collog., 
p.  394. 

Sow-drunk,  beastly  drunk.  See 
Davy's  sow,  though  perhaps  there  is  no 
allusion  to  that  phrase  or  story  in  this 
expression. 

Soa  soic-drunk  that  tha  doesn  not  touch 
thy  'at  to  the  Squire. — Tennyson,  Northern 
Cobbler. 

Spade,  a  hart  in  the  third  year. 

Your  hart  is  the  first  year  a  calf,  the  second 
year  a  brochet,  the  third  year  a  spade,  the 
fourth  year  a  stag,  the  fifth  year  a  great  stag, 
the  sixth  year  a  hart.— Return  from  Parnassus 
(1606),  ii.  5. 

Spade's  graft,  the  depth  a  spade 
goes  in  digging :  a  Cheshire  word. 

R  R 


SPADO 


(  610) 


SPARK 


rhey  [British  relics]  were  discovered  in 
1827  near  Gaisborough,  at  about  a  "  spade's 
graft "  beneath  the  surface.— Proc.  of  Soc. 
o/^n/iy.,i.30(1844). 

Spado,  sword :  a  Latin  word,  but  not 
naturalized. 

By  St.  Anthony  yon  shall  feel  what  mettle 
my  spado  is  made  of  (laying  his  hand  to  his 
sword). — Centlivre,  Marplot  in  Lisbon,  I.  i. 

Spalpeen,  an  Irish  term  of  contempt. 
See  extract  s.  v.  Buckeen. 

How  many  pigs  be  born  to  each  spalpeen, 
— Hood*  Irish  Schoolmaster, 

I've  brought  away  the  poor  spalpeen  of  a 
priest,  and  have  got  him  safe  in  the  house. — 
Kingsley,  Tvo  Years  Ago,  ch.  arix. 

Spaltam. 

Why  now  there's  your  Susannah ;  it  could 
not  have  produced  you  above  twenty  at 
most,  and  by  the  addition  of  your  lumber- 
room  diet,  and  the  salutary  application  of 
the  spaltam  pot,  it  became  a  Quido  worth  a 
hundred  and  thirty  pounds.  —  Foote,  Taste, 
Act  I. 

Spang,  a  violent  motion,  aR  a  leap  or 
clutch  ;  also  to  throw  violently. 

Set  roasted  beef  and  pudding  on  the  oppo- 
site side  o'  the  pit  o'  Tophet,  and  an  English- 
man will  make  a  spang  at  it. — Scott,  Rob  Roy, 
ii.  164. 

An  I  could  but  hae  gotten  some  decent 
claes  on  I  wad  hae  slanged  out  o'  bed. — Ibid^ 
Old  Mortality,  ch.  vii. 

She  came  up  to  the  table  with  a  fantastic 
spring,  and  spanged  down  the  sparkling  mass 
on  it. — Reade,  Never  too  late  to  mend,  ch.  lxv. 

He  spanged  that  in  another  direction.  — 
Ibid. 

Spang-cockle,  a  childish  game.  See 
quotation. 

"  Can  you  play  at  spang-cockle,  my  lord  ?  " 
said  the  Prince,  placing  a  nut  on  the  second 
joint  of  his  forefinger,  and  spinning  it  off  by 
a  smart  application  of  the  thumb. — Scott, 
Fair  Maid  of  Perth,  i.  221. 

Spange,  narrow  portion.     Cf.  Spong. 

The  West  part  of  it  joineth  to  the  East  side 
by  a  very  small  spange  of  land. — Holland's 
Camden,  ii.  220. 

Spangle,  to  glitter  as  with  spangles. 

Maskers  . . .  spangle  and  glitter  for  a  time, 
but  'tis  through  a  tmsel. — Maine,  Citg  Match, 
Preface. 

Spanieless,  spaniel-bitch. 

He  spoke  no  more  to  the  pupils  nor  to  the 
mistresses,  but  gave  many  an  endearing  word 
to  a  small  spanieless  (if  one  may  coin  a  word) 
that  nominally  belonged  to  the  house,  but 
virtually  owned  him  as  master. — Miss  £rontt, 
Villette,  ch.  xxxvi. 


Spaniolate,  to  make  Spanish :  ac- 
cording to  the  extract,  a  phrase  of  Sir 
Philip  Sidney's. 

His  jaundiced  eyes  could  see  nothing  but 
the  Spanish  element  in  her,  or  indeed  in 
anything  else.  As  Cary  said  to  him  once, 
using  a  cant  phrase  of  Sidney's,  which  he 
had  picked  up  from  Frank,  all  heaven  and 
earth  were  spaniolated  to  him. — Kingsley, 
Westward  Ho,  ch.  xxvii. 

Spaniolize,  to  become  a  Spaniard,  or 
in  the  interests  of  Spain.     Cf.  Scotize. 

He  was  wholly  Spaniolized,  which  could 
not  be  unless  he  were  a  pensioner  to  that 
state.— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,!.  134. 

Spanish,  money  (slang).  The 
"word"  referred  to  in  the  second  line 
is  money. 

In  one  just  at  Death's  door  it  was  really 

absurd 
To  see  how  her  eye  lighted  up  at  that  word ; 
Indeed  there's  not  one  in  the  language  that 

I  know, 
(Save     its    synonyms,    'Spanish?   'Blunt,' 

4  Stumpy,'  and  •  Rhino '), 
Which  acts  bo  direct  and  with  so  much  effect 
On  the  human  sensorium. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  {Old  Woman  in  Grey). 

Spank,  to  strike,  and  so  to  urge. 

How  knowingly  did  he  spank  the  hordes 
along.  —  Thackeray,  Shabby  Genteel  Story, 
oh.  v. 

An*  'e  spanks  'is  'and  into  mine. 

Tennyson,  Northern  Cobbler. 

Spareless,  unsparing.  In  the  BattU 
of  Yvry,  522,  Sylvester  calls  the  Fates 
"  the  sisters  sparelesse." 

Alas  I  could  not  but  even  die  for  grief, 
Should  I  but  yield  mine  age's  sweet  relief. 
My  bliss,  my  comfort,  and  mine  ey's  delight, 
Into  the  hands  of  hangmen's  spareless  spight. 
Sylvester,  The  Fathers,  140. 

Spark,  gay  or  bright  creature.  The 
peculiarity  in  the  extract  is  that  the 
word  is  applied  to  a  woman. 

I  will  wed  thee 
To  my  great  widdowes  daughter  and  sole 

heire, 
The  louely  sparke,  the  bright  Laodice. 

Chapman,  Widdowes  Teares,  Act  I. 

Spark.  H.  says  this  word  occurs 
several  times  in  old  plays  in  the  sense 
of  diamond.  No  example  is  given  in 
this  or  the  other  Diets.  In  most  of  the 
instances  that  I  have  observed  spark 
seems  rather  to  mean  precious  stone, 
the  particular  species  being  also  ex- 
pressed. In  the  first  extract  Mr.  Dyce 
conjectures  "  ruby-sparks."     See   also 


SPARK 


(6n  ) 


SPATE-BONE 


extract  from  Pepys,  s.v.  Turkey-stone. 
It  may,  however,  stand  for  diamond  in 
the  passage  from  Shirley. 

I'll  grace  them  with  a  chaplet  made  of  pear), 
Set  with  choice  rubies,  sparks,  and  diamonds. 
Greene,  Geo-a-Greene,  p.  255. 

Good  madam,  what  shall  he  do  with  a  hoop 

™gf 
And  a  spark  of  diamond  in  it  ? 

Massinger,  The  Picture,  ii.  2. 

This  Madona  invites  me  to  a  banquet  for 
my  discourse ;  t'other  Bona-roba  sends  me  a 
spark,  a  third  a  ruby,  a  fourth  an  emerald. — 
Shirley,  Bird  in  a  Cage,  ii.  1. 
For  all  the  haft   twinkled  with  diamond 

sparks. — Tennyson,  Passing  of  Arthur. 

Spark.  See  extract.  An  American- 
ism (?). 

When  his  horse  was  seen  tied  to  Van 
Tassel's  paling  on  a  Sunday  night,  a  sure 
sign  that  his  master  was  courting,  or,  as  it  is 
termed,  **  sporking  "  within,  all  other  suitors 
passed  by  in  despair.— Irving,  Sketch  Book 
(Sleepy  Hollow). 

Sparkify,  to  smarten  np. 

A  sharp  pointed  hat 
(Now  that  you  see  the  gallants  all  flat- 
headed) 
Appears  not  so  ridiculous,  as  a  yonker 
Without  a  love-intrigue  to  introduce 
And  sparkify  him  there. 

Lord  Digby,  Elvira,  Act  III. 

Sparling,  the  smelt.  L.  explains 
spurling  as  sparling,  yet  does  not  give 
the  latter  word. 

The  gilden  sparli ngs,  when  old  winter's  blast 
Begins  to  threat,  themselves  together  cast 
In  heaps  like  balls,  and  heating  mutually 
Live,  that  alone  of  the  keen  cold  would  die. 
Sylvester,  Fifth  day,  first  week,  330. 
He  [the  Gudgeon]  is  a  dainty  fish,  like  or 
nearly  as  good  as  the  sparling. — Lauson, 
Comments  on  Secrets  of  Angling,  1653  (Eng. 
Garner,  i.  194). 

Sparrow-  mouthed,  large -mouthed. 
See  quotation,  s.  v.  Snat-nosed. 

Can  you  fancy  that  black-a-top,  snub- 
nosed,  sparrow  -  mouthed  (ore  pralargo), 
paunch-bellied  creature.— Bailey's  Erasmus, 
p.  31. 

Sparse,  thinly-scattered.  L.  (who 
gives  no  example)  says,  "The  word 
passes  for  an  Americanism,  but  the 
editor  saw  it  full  five  and  thirty  years 
ago  recommended  by  an  English  writer 
as  a  good  opposite  to  dense."  Dr. 
Latham  probably  refers  to  the  article 
Americanisms  in  the  Penny  Cyclopaedia 
published  in  1833,  where,  however,  it 
is,  though  recommended  us  an  opposite 


to  dense,  distinctly  stated   to   be   an 
Americanism. 

The  congregation  was  very  sparse.— Reads, 
Hard  Cash,  ch.  v. 

That  information  had  somehow  power 
enough  over  Deronda  to  divide  his  thoughts 
with  the  memories  wakened  among  the 
sparse  taliths  and  keen  dark  faces  of  wor- 
shippers.—G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  lv. 

Sparsettes. 

To  ye  masyn  for  royndyng  of  crakes  and 
sparsettes,  and  mendyog  of  deffawtes.  — 
Leverton  Churchwardens1  Accounts,  1517 
(Archaol.,  zli.  346). 

Spart,  the  dwarf  rush.  In  Hol- 
land's Pliny,  Bk.  xix.,  the  second 
chapter  deals  with  "  the  nature  of 
spart  or  Spanish  broome." 

Spase,  to  measure.  (?) 

My  eleven  weighed  together  four  and  a 
half  pounds — three  to  the  pound ;  not  good, 
considering  I  had  spased  many  a  two-pound 
fish,  I  know.— C.  Kxngsley,  Letter,  May,  1858. 

Spasmodist,  one  of  the  spasmodic 
school ;  one  whose  work  is  of  an 
uneven,  irregular  character. 

Mozart  declared  on  his  death-bed  that  he 
"  began  to  see  what  may  be  done  in  music  ; " 
and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  De  Meyer  and  the 
rest  of  the  spasmodists  will  eventually  begin 
to  understand  what  may  not  be  done  in  this 
particular  branch  of  the  Fine  Arts.— E.  A. 
Poe,  Marginalia,  xixvii. 

Spat,  spawned.  L.  has  the  word  as 
a  substantive. 

With  a  knife  they  raise  the  small  breed 
[of  oysters]  from  the  Cultch  ;  and  then  they 
throw  the  Cultch  in  again,  to  preserve  the 
ground  for  the  future,  unless  they  be  so 
newly  svat  that  they  cannot  be  safely  sever'd 
from  the  Cultch.  —  Defoe,  Tour  thro'  G. 
Britain,  i.  9. 

Spate,  torrent. 

In  this  year  likewise  the  bridge  over  the 
Brawl  burn  was  built ;  a  great  convenience 
in  the  winter-time  to  the  parishioners  that 
lived  on  the  north  side,  for  when  there  hap- 
pened to  be  a  spait  on  the  Sunday,  it  kept 
them  from  the  kirk.— Gait,  Annals  of  the 
Parish,  ch.  xxzi. 

The  last  tall  son  of  Lot  and  Bellicent, 
And  tallest,  Gareth,  in  a  showerful  spring 
Stared  at  the  spate. 

Tennyson,  Gareth  and  Lynette. 

8pate-bone,  shoulder-bone. 

To  humble  the  Cardinal's  pride,  some  m 
afterwards  set  up  on  a  window  a  painted 
Mastiff-dog  gnawing  the  spate-bone  of  a 
shoulder  of  mutton  to  minde  the  Cardinal  of 
his  extraction,  being  the  son  of  a  butcher. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  V.  i.  32. 

R  R  2 


SPEAK 


(  612  )  SPENCER  WIG 


Speak,  speech ;  utterance.  Stany- 
huret  (j£n.,  Dedication),  having  quoted 
some  instances  of  absurd  poetry,  says, 
"  Haue  not  theese  men  made  a  fayre 
speake  f  " 

Spear,  ear  of  corn. 

Tell  me  the  motes,  dost,  sandfly  and  speares 
Of  corn,  when  Summer  shakes  his  eares. 
Herrick,  Noble  Number*,  p.  3&4. 

Spec,  abbreviation  of  speculation. 

A  gentleman  whom  you  knew  very  well, 
Malderton,  before  yon  made  that  first  lucky 
spec  of  yours,  called  at  our  shop. — Sketches 
by  Boz  {Horatio  Sparkins). 

He  had  engaged  in  this  adventure  (by 
which  better  word  our  forefathers  designated 
what  the  Americans  call  a  spec)  with  the 
hope  of  increasing  his  fortune. — Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  clxxiii. 

If  tradesmen  will  run  up  houses  on  spec 
in  a  water-meadow,  who  can  stop  them  r — 
Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xxv. 

Specialist,  one  who  devotes  himself 
exclusively  to  a  particular  art  or  study. 

Deronda,  like  his  neighbours,  had  regarded 
Judaism  as  a  sort  of  eccentric  fossilised 
form,  which  an  accomplished  man  might 
dispense  with  studying,  and  leave  to  special- 
ists.—G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xxxii. 

Specie.  In  specie  =  in  kind  ;  usu- 
ally applied  to  coin  as  distinguished 
from  paper-money. 

He  loved  me  with  passion ;  and,  as  I  could 
not  pay  him  in  specie,  I  endeavoured  to  sup- 
ply my  want  of  affection  to  him  by  attention 
and  assiduities.— H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality, 
i.294.  J  *        y' 

Specifial,  specific. 

They  . . .  ought  first  to  put  in  a  specifial 
charge,  and  the  Reus  or  Defendant  first  be 
called  to  his  answer.— Racket,  Life  of  Wil- 
liams, ii.  151. 

It  took  away  the  power  and  priviledges, 
that  is,  not  the  plumes  and  feathers,  the 
remote  accidents,  but  the  very  specifial  form, 
essence,  and  being  of  a  Parliament.— /taf.. 
ii.  176. 

Specs,  a  common  abbreviation  of 
spectacles. 

He  wore  green  specs  with  a  tortoise-shell  rim. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  (Knight  and  Lady), 

Spectable,  visible ;  remarkable. 

The  biasing  starr  was  not  more  spectable  in 
our  horizon,  nor  gave  people  more  occasion 
of  talke.  —  Tom  Tell-Troath,  1622  (Harl. 
Misc.,  ii.  424).  v 

Their  prayers  were  at  the  corners  of 
streets;  such  corners  where  divers  streets 
met,  and  so  more  spectable  to  many  passen- 
gers.—Adams,  i.  104. 


Spbctrauty,  anything  of  a  spectral 
nature. 

What  is  he  doing  here  in  inquisitorial  wr- 
benito,  with  nothing  bnt  ghastly  spectral  it  its 
prowling  round  him  ?  —  Carlyle,  Life  of 
Sterling,  Pt.  I.  ch.  i. 

Spectred,  haunted  with  spectres  or 
visions. 

The  spectred  solitude  of  sleep. 

WoUot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  44. 

Speechifier,  one  who  makes  speeches. 

This  expert  speechifier,  this  ever  idle,  ever 
busy  scamperer,  our  heroine  despatched  to 
engage  a  neighbouring  family  to  pay  her  a 
morning  visit  the  next  day. — Miss  Edgeworthj 
Manoeuvring,  ch.  viii. 

A  county  member  need  have  very  little 
trouble  in  that  way,  and  both  out  of  the 
House  and  in  it  is  liked  the  better  for  not 
being  a  speechifier, — G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda, 
ch  xh'v. 

Speechify,  to  make  a  speech. 

Dost  not  see  what  purferment  neighbour 
Grogram  has  got ;  why,  man,  'tis  all  brought 
about  by  his  speechifying.— Foote,The  Orators, 
Act  I. 

At  a  political  dinner  everybody  is  disagree- 
able and  inclined  to  speechify. —-Sketches  by 
Bos  (Public  Dinners). 

Speed,  to  kill. 

[Aruns]  set  spurs  to  his  horse,  and  ran 
amain  with  full  carreer  upon  the  Consul  bis 
own  person,  intending  certainly  to  speed  him. 
—Holland,  Livy,  p.  39. 

Speight,  a  bird  of  the  woodpecker 
kind. 

Eue  walking  forth  about  the  forrests  gathers 
Speights,   parrots,    peacocks,    ostrich    scat- 
tered feathers. 

Sylvester,  Handle  Crafts,  157. 

Spell.  To  spell  at  or  far  a  thing  = 
to  try  for  it  in  an  indirect  manner. 

Syntax  with  native  keenness  felt 

At  what  the  cunning  tradesman  spelt. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  c.  iv. 

Spellable,  capable  of  being  spelt. 

The  book  for  one  thing  was  hailed  by  a 
universal  choral  blast  from  all  manner  of 
reviews  and  periodical  literatures  that  Europe 
in  all  its  spellable  dialects  had.  —  Carlyle, 
Misc.,  iv.  09. 

Spencer  wia,  a  wig,  presumably  so 
called,  like  the  garment,  after  the  per- 
son who  set  the  fashion. 

He  was  dressed  in  a  blue  frock  with  a  gold 

button,  a  green  silk  waistcoat  trimmed  with 

jgold,  black  velvet  breeches,  white  silk  stock- 

'ingB,  silver  buckles,  a    gold -laced   hat,  a 

spencer  wig,  and  a  sUver-hilted  hanger,  with 


SPEND/TORE  (  613  ) 


SPIRITER 


a  fine  clouded  cane  in  his  hand. — Smollett, 
Roderick  Random,  ch.  xv. 

Spenditore,  a  treasurer  or  clerk :  one 
of  several  Italian  words  used  by  Roger 
North  as  though  they  were  English. 

One  single  witness  was  produced,  a  sort  of 
clerk  or  spenditore. — North%  Examen,  p.  519. 

They  settled  their  officers,  spenditores,  and 
architects,  and  each  clubster  was  free  to 
suggest  his  whim. — Ibid.,  p.  575. 

Spheral,  pertaining  to  the  spheres ; 

planetary. 

Fortune,  .  .  .  calm  and  aloft  amongst 
the  other  angelic  powers,  revolves  her 
spheral  course,  and  rejoices  in  Iter  beatitude. 
—Lytton,  Caxtons,  Bk.  XIV.  ch.  i. 

Spice-plate.  H.,  who  gives  no  ex- 
ample, says,  "  It  was  formerly  the  cus- 
tom to  take  spice  with  wine,  and  the 
plate  on  which  the  spice  was  laid  was 
termed  the  spice-plate." 

There  was  a  void  p.  e.  collation]  of  spice- 
plates  and  wine. — Coronation  of  Anne  Boleyn 
(Eng.  Garner,  ii.  60). 

Spidered,  infested  by  spiders;  cob- 
webbed. 

Content  can  visit  the  poor  spidered  room. 

Wotcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  89. 

Spiplicate,  kill:   jocose  corruption 

perhaps  of  suffocate. 

So  out  with  your  whinger  at  once, 
And  scrag  Jane  while  I  spiflicate  Johnny. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  {Babes  in  the  Wood). 

Spiflication,  a  jocose  word  for  an- 
nihilation, or  at  least  heavy  punish- 
ment (slang). 

Whose  blood  he  vowed  to  drink  —  the 
Oriental  form  of  threatening  spification. — 
Burton,  El  Medina  and  Meccah,  l  204. 

Spiournell.  See  extract.  The 
officer  was  so  called  (says  Bailey)  from 
Galf  ridus  Spigurnel,  who  was  appointed 
to  that  office  by  Henry  III. 

These  Bohuns  .  . .  were  by  inheritance  for 
a  good  while  the  king's  spigumells,  that  is, 
the  seelers  of  his  writs. — Holland's  Camden, 
p.  312. 

Spillsbury.  To  come  home  by 
Spillsbury  =  to  fail.  There  are  many 
phrases  which  pun  on  the  names  of 
places.  Cf.  other  instances  «.  v.  Bed- 
fordshire. 

His  Majesty  bewailed  that  his  grand- 
children, then  young  and  tender,  would  be 
very  chargeable  to  England  when  they  grew 
to  be  men.  It  was  their  sole  refuge ;  they 
might  seek  their  fortune  in  another  place 


and  come  home  by  Spillsbury. — Socket,  Life 
of  Williams,  i.  208. 

Spilters,  the  small  branches  on 

stag's  head. 

Such  silly  coxcombs  .  .  .  deserve  to  wear 
such  branched  horns,  such  spilters  and  troch- 
ings  on  their  heads,  as  that  goodly  stagg 
bears  which  you  see  browsing  among  those 
trees. — Hoicell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  62. 

Spin,  to  supply  continuously:  so  we 
speak  of  a  man  spinning  a  yarn. 

Spatious  pastures,  and  flockes  of  cattell 
spinning  forth  milke  abundantly. — Holland's 
Camden,  p.  279. 

Spindle-twirl. 

About  the  middle  of  the  body  was  a 
bronze  finger-ring,  and  a  stone  spindle-ticirl. 
—Archaol.,  xxxvi.  135  (1855). 

Spineless,  limp ;  without  a  spine. 

A  whole  family  of  Sprites,  consisting  of  a 
remarkably  stout  father  and  three  spineless 
sons. — Dickens,  Uncommercial  Traveller,  iv. 

Spin8TRESS,  a  female  spinner.  The 
Grecian  spinstress  in  the  first  extract  = 
Penelope ;  in  the  second,  spinstress  = 
a  woman  who  has  to  work  for  her 
living. 

Let  meaner  souls  by  virtue  be  cajoled, 
As  the  good  Grecian  spinstress  was  of  old. 
T.  Brown,  Works,  iv.  10. 

Your  father  bore  title  and  escutcheon,  but 
was  not  your  mother  a  chambermaid?  .  .  . 
You  are  a  kind  of  Mulattoe,  European  on 
the  one  side,  and  savage  on  the  other ;  «'.  e. 
a  compound  of  gentleman  and  spinstress. — 
Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  149. 

Spirable,  able  to  be  breathed  or  in- 
haled. 

The  spirable  odor  and  pestilent  steamo 
ascending  from  it  put  him  out  of  his  bias  of 
congruity. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stvffe  {Harl.  Misc., 
vi.  173). 

Spirit,  to  breathe ;  inspire.  See  s.  v. 
Christed. 

God  hath  hewn  us  all  out  of  one  rock, 
tempered  all  our  bodies  of  one  clay,  and 
spirited  our  souls  of  one  breath.—  Adams,  i. 
83. 

Spiritaties.  The  Italian  Spiritato 
=  one  mad  or  possessed  with  an  evil 
spirit. 

Did  we  never  know.,  before  these  new  Illu- 
minates and  Spiritaties  rose  up,  what  be- 
longed to  the. humble  seeking,  the  happy 
finding,  and  holy  acquaintance  with  God  ? — 
Gov  den,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  195. 

Spiriter,  abductor ;  one  who  spirits 
another  away. 


spiritl  y 


(  614  )  SPLENDENCY 


WhUe  the  poor  boy,  half  dead  with  fear, 
Writh'd  back  to  view  his  spiriter. 

Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  257. 

Spiritly,  spirited. 

Pride,  you  know,  must  be  foremost ;  and 
that  comes  out  like  a  Spaniard,  with  daring 
look,  and  a  tongue  thundering  out  braves, 
mounted  on  a  spiritly  jennet  named  Inso- 
lence.—Adams,  ii.  420. 

Spiritualty.  Daniel  in  the  extract 
speaks  of  the  Pope  under  this  title :  the 
UHiial  term  of  couree  is  Holiness. 

The  King  of  France  whom  hee  had  excom- 
municated  .  .  .  shortly  after  so  wrought  as 
his  Spiritualty  was  surprised  at  Anagnc.— 
Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  168. 

Spirket,  a  large  wooden  peg.  See 
H.  s.  v.  sperket. 

High  on  the  spirket  there  it  hung. 

Bloomfeld,  The  Horkey. 

Spit,  to  rain  slightly. 

It  had  been  "  spitting  n  with  rain  for  the 
last  half-hour,  and  now  began  to  pour  in 
good  earnest.— Sketches  by  Boz  (Steam  Ex- 
cursion). 

Spit.  The  comparison  in  the  extracts 
explains  itself. 

Twoo  girles, . .  the  one  as  like  an  owle,  the 
other  as  like  an  urchin,  as  if  they  had  beene 
sprite  out  of  the  mouthes  of  them.— Breton. 
Merry  Wonders,  p.  8. 

Nay,  I'm  as  like  my  dad,  in  sooth, 
9    As  he  had  spit  me  out  onfs  mouth. 

Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque, 
p.  278. 

Poor  child !  he's  as  like  his  own  dadda  as 
if  he  were  spit  out  of  his  mouth.—  Farquhar, 
Love  and  a  Bottle,  \.\. 

Spit,  to  plant ;  place  in  the  ground. 
Bailey  gives  "  SpU-deep,**  much  ground 
in  depth  as  may  be  dug  up  in  depth  at 
once  with  a  spade." 

Saffron  ...  in  the  moneth  of  July, . .  .  when 
the  heads  thereof  have  been  plucked  up,  and 
after  twenty  days  spitted or  set  againe  under 
mould.— Holland's  Camden,  p.  453. 

Spit  sixpences,  to  be  thirsty.  See 
N.  8.  v.  spit  white. 

He  had  thought  it  rather  a  dry  discourse  ; 
and  beginning  to  spit  sixpences  (as  his  saying 
was},  he  gave  hints  to  Mr.  Wildgoose  to  stop 
at  the  first  public-house  they  should  come  to. 
—Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  vi.  ' 

Spits-cocked,  usually  written  spitch- 
eocked,  and  applied  to  eels  split  long- 
wise, and  broiled  with  egg,  bread 
crumbs,  &c.  The  form  of  the  word  in 
the  extract  seems  to  suggest  that  the 


cooking  took  place  on  a  spit,  but  this 
could  hardly  be. 

The  first  course  consisted  of  a  huge  plat- 
terful  of  scorpions  spits-cocked.— T.  Brotr*, 
Works,  ii.  221. 

Spitting-sheet. 

To  bed  this  night,  having  first  put  up  a 
sputiny-sheet,  which  I  find  very  convenient. 
—Pepys,  Nov.  21, 1662. 

Spittle-man,  a  jail-bird ;  one  who 
lives  in  the  spittle. 

Good  Preachers  that  line  ill  (like  Spittle-men) 
Are  perfect  in  the  way  they  neuer  went. 
Davies,  Summa  Totalis,  p.  26. 

Splash-board,  a  guard  in  front  of  a 
carriage  for  keeping  off  splashes. 

I  was  his  conscience,  and  stood  on  the 
splash-board  of  his  triumph-car,  whispering, 
Hominem  memento  te— Thackeray,  Rounda- 
bout Papers,  iv. 

Splashy,  damp  and  moist. 

Not  far  from  hence  is  Sedgemore,awatry, 
splashy  place.— Defoe,  Tour  thro*  6.  Britain, 
ii.  34. 

It  led  me  aslant  over  the  hill,  through  a 
wide  bog  which  would  have  been  impassable 
in  winter,  and  was  splashy  and  shaking  even 
now  in  the  height  of  summer.  —  C  Bronte, 
Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xxviii. 

Splatterdashes,  leggings:  usually 
written  spatterdashes. 

A  modern  figure  of  a  soldier  with  splatter- 
dashes, a  tremendous  cocked  hat,  and  a  goodly 
long  pig-tail.—^.  A.  Bepton,  1832  (Arvlueol., 
xxiv.  189). 

Splatter-faced,  broad  or  flat  faced. 

A    splatter-faced   wench    neither   civil   nor 
nimble. 

Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  vi. 

Splay-mouthed,  wide  -  mouthed. 
Dryden  is  quoted  in  the  Diets,  for  the 
substantive. 

These  solemn,  splay-mouth'd  gentlemen, 
Madam,  says  I,  only  do  it  to  improve  in 
natural  philosophy.— T.  Brown,  Works,  u.271. 

Spleen,  to  dislike. 

Sir  T.  Wentworth  spleened  the  bishop  for 
offering  to  bring  his  rival  into  favour. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  83. 

Spleened,  angry  ;  annoyed.  R.  and 
L.  have  the  word  =  deprived  of  the 
spleen,  with  a  quotation  from  Arbuth- 
not. 

The  author  ...  is  manifestly  spleened  at 
the  force  with  which  they  wrote  ana  preached 
in  the  controversy.— North,  Examen,  p.  326. 

Splendency,  splendour. 


SPLENDIAN 


(6iS  ) 


SPONGELESS 


For  thyself,  my  Lollia, 
Not  lollia  Paulina,  nor  those  blazing  stars, 
Which  make  the  world  the  apes  of  Italy, 
Shall  match  thyself  in  sun-bnght  splendency. 

Machin,  Dumb  Knight,  Act  I. 

Splendian,  splendid  (?). 

From  the  time  of  his  predecessor  Dr. 
RusseJ,  that  was  Lord  Chancellor  of  England, 
and  sat  there  in  the  days  of  Bdward  the 
fourth,  and  laid  out  much  upon  that  place, 
none  that  followed  him,  no,  not  Splendian 
Woolsey,  did  give  it  any  new  addition.— 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  29. 

Splendidous,  splendid.  The  Dicta, 
give  splendidious  as  peculiar  to  Drayton. 

Worshipful  merchants,  ay,  and  senators 
too, .  .  ever  since  my  arrival  have  detained 
me  to  their  uses  by  their  splendidous  liber- 
alties. — Jonson,  Fox,  ii.  1. 

Splendiferous,  splendid  or  splen- 
dour-bearing. 

0  tyme  most  jovf ull,  daye  most  spUndiferus  ! 
The  clereness  of  beauen  now  apereth  vnto  vs. 
Bale,  Enterlude  of  Johan  Bapt.t  1538 
(Harl.  Misc.,  i.  113). 

Splent,  a  swelling  on  the  shank- bone 
of  a  horse.  L.  has  the  word  with  a 
quotation  from  a  Farrier's  Diet.;  a  more 
classical   authority  will  be  found  «.  v. 

Fashion. 

Splice,  to  join ;  and  so,  to  many. 

Alfred  and  I  intended  to  be  married  in 
this  way  almost  from  the  first  ;  we  never 
meant  to  be  spliced  in  the  humdrum  way  of 
other  people. — Jftss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xl. 

If  you  advise  me  to  be  spliced,  why  don't 
yon  get  spliced  yourself?  a  handsome  fellow 
like  you  can  be  at  no  loss  for  an  heiress. — 
Lytton,  What  will  he  do  with  it?  Bk.  IV. 
ch.  ix. 

Split,  to  tell  a  secret  (slang). 

Don't  let  Emmy  know  that  we  have  split, 
else  she'll  be  savage  with  us. — Th.  Hook,  The 
Xutherlands. 
While  his  man  being  caught  in  some  fact 

(The  particular  crime  I've  forgotten), 
When  he  came  to  be  hanged  for  the  act, 

Split,  and  told  the  whole  story  to  Cotton. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  {Babes  in  the  Wood). 

You're  afraid  of  my  making  you  split  upon 
some  of  your  babbling  ju*t  now,  are  you  ? — 
Sickens,  Martin  Chuzzlewit,  ch.  xxiv. 

Split-new,  brand-new. 

There  cannot  be  a  greater  evidence  of  the 
deplorable  ignorance  of  the  clergy,  in  these 
times,  in  the  ancient  records  of  the  Church, 
than  their  suffering  Melville  and  his  party 
to  obtrude  upon  them  the  Second  Book  of 
Discipline — a  split-neie  democratKail  system,  a 
very  farce  of  novelties,  never  heard  of  before 


in  the  Christian  Church. — Bp.  Sage,  quoted 
in  Harington's  Notes  on  Ch.  of  Scotland,  p.  25. 

Spodomantic,  divining  by  ashes. 

The  poor  little  fellow  buried  his  hands  in 
his  curls,  and  stared  fiercely  into  the  fire,  as 
if  to  draw  from  thence  omens  of  his  love  by 
the  spodomantic  augury  of  the  ancient  Greeks. 
— Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  vii. 

Spoffish,  bustling. 

A  little  spoffish  man  with  green  spectacles 
entered  the  room. — Sketches  by  Boz  {Horatio 
Sparkins). 

He  invariably  spoke  with  astonishing 
rapidity  ;  was  smart,  spoffish,  and  eight-and- 
twenty.— Ibid.  {Steam  Excursion). 

Spoil-paper,  a  scribbler. 

Touching  the  State,  Ambassadors,  or  Kings, 
My  Satyre   shall   not   touch    such    sacred 

things : 
Nor  list  I  purchase  penance  at  that  rate 
As  some  Spoilt-papers  have  dearly  done  of 

late. 
A.  Holland  {Davies,  Scourge  of  Folly,  p.  81). 

Spoke,  to  put  a  spoke  in  a  persons 
wheel  or  cart  =  to  thwart  hitn,  or  do 
him  a  dis-serviee. 

He  had  a  strong  and  a  very  stout  heart, 
And  look'd  to  be  made  an  emperor  for't, 
But  the  Divel  did  set  a  spoke  in  his  cart. 

Merry  Drollerie,  p.  224. 

There's  a  spoke  in  your  wheel,  you  stuck-up 
little  old  Duchess. — Thackeray,  Newcomes, 
ch.  ix. 

It  seems  to  me  it  would  be  a  poor  sort  of 
religion  to  put  a  spoke  in  his  wheel  by  refus- 
ing to  say  you  don't  believe  such  harm  of 
him  as  you've  got  no  good  reason  to  believe. 
— G.  Eliot,  Middlemarchf  ch.  xiii. 

Spondiack,  spondaic,  which  is  the 
usual  form,  belonging  to  or  consisting 
of  spondees. 

Which  words  serve  well  to  make  the  verse 
all  spondiacke  or  iambicke,  but  not  in  dactii. 
— Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xiii. 

Spong,  an  irregular  narrow  projecting 
part  of  a  field  (llalliwell),  cf.  Spaxge. 

Shiloh  succeeds,  in  a  narrow  southern  spong 
of  this  tribe.— Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  II.  ix.  13. 

They  dwelt  from  Havilah  unto  8hur, .  .  . 
a  spong  of  ground  somewhat  nigh  a  thousand 
miles,  (perchance  not  so  entire  but  inter- 
rupted with  other  nations),  and  not  bearing 
a  proportionable  breadth. — Ibid.,  IV.  ii.  11. 

The  tribe  of  Judah  with  a  narrow  swng 
con6ned  on  the  kingdom  of  Edom. — Ibid^ 
IV.  ii.  36. 

Sposgeless,  without  a  sponge. 

My  sponge  being  left  behind  at  the  last 
Hotel,  I  made  the  tour  of  the  little  town  to 
bny  another  .  .  .  What  I  sought  was  no 
more  to  be  found  than  if  I  had  sought  a 


SPOOL 


(  616  ) 


SPRUCIFY 


nugget  of  Californiau  gold,  bo  I  went  sponge- 
less. — Dickens ^  Uncommercial  Traveller,  xxv. 

Spool,  piece  of  wood  to  wind  yarn 
upon. 

He  continued  to  throw  the  shuttle,  whilst 
his  little  boy  and  wife  by  turns  wound  soools 
for  him. — Afiss  Edgetcorth,  The  Dun,  p.  j05. 

That's  a  spool  to  wind  a  speech  on. — O. 
Eliot,  Felix  Holt,  ch.  ii. 

Spoon-net,  a  net  for  landing  fish. 

We  show  them  where  the  fish  lie,  and  then 
when  they've  hooked  them,  they  can't  get 
them  out  without  us  and  the  spoon-net. — 
C.  Kinysley,  Yeast,  ch.  iii. 

SrooNY,  a  simpleton.  L.  has  the  word, 

but  only  as  an  adjective. 

I  began  the  process  of  ruining  myself  in 
the  received  style,  like  any  other  spoony. — 
C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xv. 

Spoor,  see  extract. 

In  this  drift  the  shield  was  found,  being 
forced  to  the  surface  by  the  spoor,  the  im- 
plement used  in  ballasting. — Archaol.  xxvii. 
299  (iv.  38). 

Sport,  to  put  forward,  bring  into 
prominence.  To  sport  the  oak  or  the 
door  is  to  fasten  it,  so  that  it  confronts 
visitors. 

Stop  that, 'till  I  see  whether  the  door  is 
sported. — C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xiii. 

Sport abimty,  playfulness. 

I  have  something  within  me  which  cannot 
bear  the  shock  of  the  least  indecent  insinu- 
ation ;  in  the  sportability  of  chit-chat  I  have 
often  endeavoured  to  overcome  it. — Sterne, 
Sent.  Journey,  The  Passport. 

Sport  able,  presentable  ;  natural. 

By  the  many  sudden  transitions  all  along 
from  one  kind  and  cordial  passion  to  another, 
in  getting  thus  far  on  his  way,  he  had  lost 
the  sportable  key  of  his  voice  which  gave 
sense  and  spirit  to  his  tale. — Sterne,  Trist. 
Shandy,  vi.  115. 

Sportance,  sport,  gaiety. 

Then  round  in  a  circle  our  sportance  must 

be; 
Hold  hands  in  a  hornpipe,  all  gallant  in  glee. 
Peele,  Arraignmenl  of  Paris,  I.  i. 

Sporting-pikce,  plaything. 

Here  I  am  again  !  a  poor  sporting-piece  for 
the  great ;  a  mere  tennis-ball  of  fortune. — 
Richardson,  Pamela,  ii.  35. 

Spouse-bed,  marriage. 

fyfovse-bed  spotless  laws  of  God  allow. — 
Sylvester,  Eden,  669. 

Spout,  to  pawn  (slang) :  the  refer- 
ence is  to  the  spout  or  shoot  down  which 


pawnbrokers  send  the  pledges  to  their 
receptacles. 

The  dons  are  going  to  spout  the  college 
plate.— Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch. 
xxiv. 

Spraint,  otter's  dung.  See  extract 
«.  v.  Crotells. 

Two  or  three  more  gentlemen,  tired  of 
Trebooze's  absurdities,  are  scrambling  over 
the  rocks  above  in  search  of  spraints  .  . . 
"Over!"  shouts  Tom,  "there's  the  fresh 
spraint  on  our  side." — C.  Kingsley,  Two  Veers 
Ago,  ch.  xviii. 

Spree,  frolic. 

John  Blower,  honest  man,  as  sailors  an 
aye  for  some  spree  or  another,  wad  take  me 
ance  to  see  ane  Mrs.  Siddons. — Scott,  St. 
Ronan's  Well,  ii.  10. 

Sprig,  smart,  well-trimmed. 

Fair  Daphne,  his  coy  Miss, 
Would  never  like  that  face  of  his. 
For  all  he  wears  his  beard  so  sprig  t 
And  has  a  fine  gold  perriwig. 
Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  2$t 

Springe,  active. 

The  Squire  's  pretty  springe,  considering 
his  weight. — O.  Eliot,  Silas  Marner,  ch.  xi 

Springing,  fresh ;  suddenly  arising. 

His  Majesty  likewise  presently  requires 
the  stay  of  the  delivery  of  the  Proxy,  untfl 
he  had  sufficient  assurance  for  the  restitution 
of  the  Palatinate:  which  your  Lordships 
will  remember  to  be  no  new  or  springing 
condition,  but  the  very  same  that  is  urged 
before.— Hacket,  Life  of  WUliatns,  i.  183. 

Springle,  a  trap  for  birds. 

But  the  sheep-shearing  came,  and  the  bay- 
season  next,  and  then  the  harvest  of  small 
.  corn ;  .  .  .  aud  the  stacking  of  the  fire-wood, 
and  netting  of  the  woodcocks,  and  the  sprit- 
ales  to  be  minded  in  the  garden  and  by  the 
hedgerows,  where  blackbirds  hop  to  the 
molehills  in  the  white  October  mornings, 
and  grey  birds  come  to  look  for  snails  at  the 
time  when  the  sun  is  rising.  —  Blackmort, 
Lorna  Doone,  ch.  ix. 

Sprinke,  smart. 

A  svrinke  youth  that  as  farre  as  his  money 
would  serve  him  did  pricke  toward  the  mar- 
chant. — Breton,  Merry  Wonders,  p.  9. 

SrRUciFY,  to  smarten. 

A  hood  of  marten  skins,  each  side  whereof 
had  the  resemblance  of  an  ape's  face,  spruci- 
fied  up  with  ears  of  pasted  paper. — Urqukari, 
Rabelais,  Bk.  HI.  ch.  xxxvii. 

The  hardy  adventures  of  Rhime  and 
Meetre  in  this  squeamish  humoursome  age, 
ought  to  sprucifie  their  thoughts  with  all  the 
decorum  and  embellishments  of  language.— 
Cotton,  Scarronides,  Preface. 


SPRUNG 


(  617  )         SQUINT-MINDED 


RrRUNG.     Aubrey  gives  a  receipt 

To  cure  a  beast  that  is  sprung  (that  is) 
poisoned. — Misc.,  p.  138. 

Spume,  to  foam.      L.  has  the  verb 

without  example.     R.  also  gives  it  = 

"  to  scour,  as  a  fleet  of  warlike  ships, 

the  sea.     Our  verb  in  all  the  examples 

found  is  written  spoom." 

At  a  blow  hee  lustelye  swapping 
Thee  wyne  fresh  spuming  with  a  draught 
8 wild  vp  to  the  bottom. 

Stany hurst,  JEn.,  i.  726. 

Spurry,  forked  or  spiked,  like  the 
rowels  of  a  spur. 

His  crested  helmet  grave  and  high  had  next 

triumphant  place 
On  his  curl'd  head,  and  like  a  star  it  cast  a 

spurry  ray. — Chapman,  Iliad,  xix.  367. 

Squab,  curt ;  abrupt. 

We  have  returned  a  squab  answer,  retort- 
ing the  infraction  of  treaties.  —  Walpole  to 
Mann,  iii.  125  (1756). 

He  immediately  applied  for  a  court-mar- 
tial, but  was  told  it  was  impossible  now,  as 
the  officers  necessary  are  in  Germany.  This 
was  in  writing  from  Lord  Holderness,  but 
Lord  Ligonier  in  words  was  more  squab. 
44  If  he  wanted  a  court-martial,  he  might  go 
seek  it  in  Germany."— Ibid.,  iii.  338  (1759). 

Squabash,  to  kill ;  to  put  an  end  to 

(slang). 

Harry  the  Sixth  who,  instead 
Of  being  squabash1  dy  as  in  Shakespeare  we've 

read, 
Caught  a  bad  influenza,  and  died  in  his  bed. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  {House-  Warming), 

Squad,  sloppy  mud. 

An'  I  coom'd  neck -an -crop  soomtimes 
slaape  down  i'  the  squad  an'  the  muck.  — 
Tennyson,  Northern  Cobbler. 

Squad.     See  extract.     The  word  is 

Cornish. 

"The  first  thing  which  I  can  distinctly 
remember  is  the  being  set,  along  with  a 
number  of  children  of  my  own  age,  to  pick 
and  wash  loose  ore  of  tin  mixed  with  the 
earth,  which  in  those  days  we  used  to  call 
shoad  or  squad.  I  don't  know  what  you  call 
it  now."  "We  call  it  squad  to  this  day, 
master,"  interrupted  one  of  the  miners. — 
Miss  Edgeworth,  Lame  Jervas,  ch.  i. 

Squail,  to  throw  at  cocks ;  a  cruel 
sport,  for  which  Shrove  Tuesday  was 
the  great  day.  See  extract  *.  v.  Cock- 
bread. 

Squamy,  scaly.  Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe 
(If arl.  Misc.,  vi.  160)  calls  the  herring 
*'  captaine  of  the  squamy  cattell."  The 
Diets,  have  squamous. 


Square,  to  strut. 

No  cost  was  spared  to  set  out  these  costly 
breeches,  who  had  girt  unto  them  a  rapyer 
and  dagger  gilt  point  pendante  ;  as  quaintly 
as  if  some  curious  Florentine  had  trick te 
them  up  to  square  it  up  and  downe  the 
streets  before  his  mistresse. — Greene,  C/uip 
for  an  Upstart  Courtier,  1592  (Harl.  Misc., 
v.  397). 

Squareman,  one  who  cuts  and  squares 
stone. 

How  many  hammermen  and  sqvaremen, 
bakers  and  brewers,  washers  and  wringers, 
over  this  France,  must  ply  their  old  daily 
work,  let  the  Government  be  one  of  terror 
or  one  of  joy. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk. 
V.  ch.  i. 

Squarish,  something  of  a  square 
shape,  but  not  precisely  square. 

He  found  a  squarish  hole  cut  in  the  solid 
chalk.— Defoe,  Tour  thro1  G.  Britain,  i.  319. 

Squatter,  to  waddle  (?) ;  to  stray  (?). 

Take  up  that  pity,  Miss  de  Bassompierre ; 
take  it  up  in  both  hands,  as  you  might  a 
little  callow  gosling  squattering  out  of  bounds 
without  leave.  —  Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch. 
xxv. 

Squawk,  squeak. 

Gerard  gave  a  little  squaick,  and  put  his 
fingers  in  his  ears.  —  Reade,  Cloister  and 
Hearth,  ch.  xxvi. 

Squeaklet,  little  squeak. 

List  to  the  reviews  and  organs  of  public 
opinion  . .  .  here  chaunting  lo-paans  ;  there 
grating  harsh  thunder  or  vehement  shrew- 
mouse  squeaklets,  till  the  general  ear  is  filled 
and  nigh  deafened. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iii.  49. 

Squeezable,  malleable ;  compress- 
ible. 

You  are  too  versatile  and  too  squeezable, 
.  .  .  you  take  impressions  too  readily. — 
Savage,  R.  Medlicott,  Bk.  I.  ch.  ix. 

Squib,  to  squirt ;  inject. 

He  squibs  in  this  parenthesis. — Fuller, 
Hist,  of  Camb.  Univ.,  i.  52. 

Squibbish,  slight ;  flashy.  Southey's 
quotation  is  from  Mace's  Musics  Monu- 
ment (1676). 

Nothing  in  this  opus  corresponds  to  Mas- 
ter Mace '8  Toys  or  Jiggs,  which  are  "light, 
squibbish  things  only  fit  for  fantastical  and 
easy,  light-headed  people."  —  Sou  they,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  xciv. 

Squint-minded,  deceitful;  crooked- 
minded. 

You  and  I  both  are  far  more  worthy  of 
pardon  than  a  great  rabble  of  squint-minded 
fellows,  dissembling  and  counterfeit  saints. 
— UrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xxxiv. 


SQUIRALITY 


(  618  ) 


STAG 


Squirality,  squirearchy. 

I  would  effectually  provide  ....  that  such 
weight  and  iufluence  be  pot  thereby  into  the 
hauds  of  the  squirality  of  my  kingdom,  as 
should  counterpoise  what  I  perceive  my  no- 
bility are  now  taking  from  them.  —  Sterne, 
Trist.  Shandy,  i.  98. 

Squireaok,  landed,  untitled  gentry. 

As  prosperous  at  this  moment  as  the  Eng- 
lish Peerage  and  Squireage.  —  De  Morgan, 
Budget  of  Paradoxes,  p.  46. 

Squirkarchical,  pertaining  to  the 
squirearchy,  or  the  rule  and  power  ex- 
ercised by  the  landed  interest. 

The  question  had  been  really  local;  vis. 
whether  the  Lansmere  interest  should  or 
should  not  prevail  over  that  of  the  squire' 
archichal  families  who  had  alone  hitherto 
ventured  to  oppose  it. — Lytton,  My  Novel, 
Bk.  I.  ch.  z. 

Squirren,  a  petty  squire:  an  Irish 
term.     See  Buckeen. 

Squireens  are  persons  who,  with  good  long 
leases  or  valuable  farms,  possess  incomes 
from  three  to  eight  hundred  a  year,  who 
keep  a  pack  of  hounds,  take  out  a  commis- 
sion of  the  peace,  sometimes  before  they  can 
spell  (as  her  ladyship  said),  and  almost 
always  before  they  know  anything  of  law  or 
justice. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Absentee,  ch.  vii. 

A  small  squireen  cursed  with  six  or  seven 
hundreds  a  year  of  his  own,  never  sent  to 
school,  college,  or  into  the  army,  he  had 
grown  up  in  a  narrow  circle  of  squireens  like 
himself.— Kingsley,  Two  Years  J  go,  ch.  viii. 

Squirelet,  petty  squire.  Tennyson 
has  squireling  ;  and  in  Ireland  the  word 
is  squireen,  q.  v. 

The  iron  may  be  a  Scottish  squirelet,  full 
of  gulosity  and  gigmanity  ;  the  magnet  an 
English  plebeian,  and  moving  rag-and-dust 
mountain,  coarse,  proud,  irascible, imperious  : 
nevertheless  behold  how  they  embrace,  and 
iuseparably  cleave  to  one  another.— Carlyle, 
Misc.,  iii.  56. 

The  family  of  Bodley  belonged  to  that 
class  of  aquirelets  ...  of  which  Devonshire  iu 
the  days  of  Elizabeth  was  very  full. — Fraser's 
Mag.,  May  1873,  p.  647. 

Squiress,  wife  of  a  squire. 

The  oue  milliner's  shop  was  full  of  fat 
aquiresses,  buying  muslin  ammunition. — Lyt- 
ton, Pclham,  ch.  vii. 

Stabler,  horse-keeper. 

Your  horses  must  be  sent  to  a  stabler's 
(for  the  change-houses  have  no  lodging  for 
them),  where  they  may  feed  voluptuously  on 
straw  only  —  Modern  Account  of  Scotland, 
1670  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  141). 

Tli pre  came  a  man  to  the  stabler  (so  they 
call  the  people  at  Edinburgh  that  take  in 


horses  to  keep),  and  wanted  to  know  if  he 
could  hear  of  any  returned  horses  for 
England.— Defoe,  Col.  Jack,  p.  240. 

Staff.  To  araue  from  the  staff  to  the 
corner  =  to  raise  some  other  question 
than  that  under  discussion. 

He  excepts  against  every  word  of  this. 
First  against  the  lineal  succession,  because 
none  of  these  ancient  bishops  taught  justifi- 
cation by  faith  alone.  This  is  an  argument 
from  the  staff  to  the  corner.  I  speak  of  a 
succession  of  Holy  Orders,  and  be  of  a  suc- 
cession of  opinions. — Bramhall,  ii.  94. 

Staff.  To  have  the  better  or  teorse 
end  of  the  staff  =  to  be  getting  the  best 
or  worst  of  a  matter. 

A  rief  thyng  it  is  to  see  feloes  enough  of 
the  self  same  suite,  which  as  often  as  thei 
see  theim  selfes  to  haue  the  worse  end*  of  the 
staffe  in  their  cause,  doen  make  their  recourse 
wholly  vnto  furious  brallyng. — UdaTs  Eras- 
mus's Apophth.,  p.  340. 

Miss  Byron,  I  have  had  the  better  end  of 
the  staff,  I  believe  ? — Richardson,  Grandison, 
ii.  122. 

Staff.  To  set  down  or  up  one" s  staff 
=  to  take  up  one's  abode. 

If  Cleanthes  open  his  shop  he  shall  have 
customers ;  many  a  traveller  there  sets  down 
his  staff. — Adams,  i.  185. 

There  are  few  men  now  at  liberty  near  so 
wealthy  as  this  geutleman  who  has  done  us 
the  honour  to  set  up  his  staff  of  rest  in  our 
house. — //.  Brooke,  Foot  of  Quality,  i.  370. 

As  the  evening  now  came  on,  and  the  two 
pilgrims  were  much  fatigued  with  their  early 
rising  and  long  walk,  they  thought  it  best  to 
set  up  their  staff  at  the  public-house  where 
they  had  preached. — Graves,  Spiritual  Qttlr- 
ote,  Bk.  VIII.  ch.  x. 

I  did  not  thiuk  a  wife  was  the  stall  where 
he  would  set  up  his  staff. —  Walpole,  Letters, 
iv.  326  (1782). 

Staffless,  without  a  staff.  Fuller 
(Worthies,  Kent)  tells  a  story  of  a 
noblem  in  from  whom  Queen  Elizabeth 
in  anger  snatched  the  white  staff ;  and 
adds,  "  The  Lord  remained  Staff-Usse 
almost  a  day  "  (i.  490). 

Stafford  law,  violence ;  Lynch  law : 
a  play  upon  the  name.  Cf.  Bedford- 
shire, SriLLSBURY,  &c. 

Among  souldiers,  Stafford  law,  martiall 
law,  killing  or  hanging,  is  soon  learned. — 
Breton,  Scholar  ami  Souldier,  p.  29. 

We  have  unlawfully  erected  marshall  law, 
club  law,  Stafford  laic,  aud  such  lawless  laws 
as  make  most  for  treason. — Speech  of  Miles 
Corbet,  1647  (Harl.  Misc.,  i.  273). 

Stag,  to  watch  or  dog  (slang)  : 
metaphor  from  deer-stalking  (?). 


STAG 


(619) 


STANCE 


So  you've  been  stagging  this  gentleman 
ami  me,  and  listening,  have  you  ?— If.  Kings- 
ley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  v. 

Stag. 

Come,  my  little  cub,  do  not  scorn  me 
because  I  go  in  stag,  in  buff :  here1  s  velvet  too, 
thou  seest  I  am  worth  thus  much  in  bare 
velvet. — Dekker,  Satiromastix  (Hawkins,  Eng. 
Dr.,  iii.  141). 

Stage,  to  go  by  stage-coach. 

He  seasons  pleasure  with  profit ;  he  stages 
(if  I  may  say  so)  into  politicks,  and  rides 
post  into  business.  —  Gentleman  Instructed, 
p.  546. 

Stageman,  an  actor. 

Come  foorth,  you  witts   that    vaunt    the 

pompe  of  speach, 
And  striue  to  thunder  from  a  Stage-man's 
throate. 

T.  Brabine,  1588  {prefixed  to  Greene's 
Menaphon). 

Stagebite,  a  jocose  name  for  a  stage- 
player. 

Thou  hast  forgot  how  thou  amblest  in 
leather  pilch  by  a  play-wagon  in  the  high- 
way, and  took'st  mad  Jerouimo's  part  to  get 
service  among  the  mimicks;  and  when  the 
stagerites  banish'd  thee  into  the  Isle  of  Dogs, 
thou  turn'dst  ban-dog,  villainous  Guy,  and 
ever  since  bitest.  —  Dekker,  Satiromastix, 
{Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr.,  iii.  153). 

Stagging,  speculating  in  an  unscru- 
pulous way. 

If  the  Stock-Exchange  and  railway  stag- 
ging .  . .  are  not  The  World,  what  is  ? — C. 
Kinasley,  Yeast,  ch.  ii. 

Tne  slipperiness,  sir,  of  one  stagging  parson 
ha*  set  rolling  this  very  avalanche. — Ibid., 
ch.  xn. 

Stag-horn.    See  extract. 

With  that  plant  which  in  our  dale 
We  call  stag-horn  or  fox's  tail, 
Their  rusty  hats  they  trim. 

Wordsworth,  Idle  Shepherd- Boys. 

Stain,  to  excel ;  make  poor  by  con- 
trast. 

O  voice  that  doth  the  thrush  in  shrillness 
stain. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  358. 

That  Virgil's  verse  hath  greater  grace 
In  forrayne  foote  obtaynde 

Than  iu  his  owu,  who  whilst  he  lyaed 
Eche  other  poets  staynde. 

(Jooge,  Epitaphe  of  Fhayre. 

Stair,  sedge ;  course  grass.  See  Pea- 
cock's Manley  and  Corringham  Glos- 
sary, s.  v.  Star-thadc. 

Item  in  marisco  potest  dominus  habere 
ft  air  pro  coopertura  domorum. — Taxation  of 
rrtbeid  of  Utskeff(Arch.,  i.  175). 


Stairy,  ascending  by  stairs ;  gradu- 
ated. 

With  wooden  galleries  in  the  church  that 
they  have, and  stayry  degrees  of  seats  in  them, 
they  make  as  much  roome  to  sit  and  heare 
as  a  newe  west-end  would  have  done.— 
JVashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  152). 

Staked,  tethered. 

His  mind  was  so  airy  and  volatile,  he  could 
not  have  kent  his  chamber,  if  he  must  needs 
be  there,  staked  down  purely  to  the  drudgery 
of  the  law. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford, 
i.  15. 

Stalkoes.     See  extract. 

Soft  Simon  had  reduced  himself  to  the 
lowest  class  of  stalkoes  or  walking  gentlemen, 
as  they  are  termed ;  men  who  have  nothing  to 
do,  and  no  fortune  to  support  them,  but  who 
style  themselves  esquire. — Miss  Edgeworth, 
Rosanna,  ch.  iii. 

Stall,  to  forbear  a  debt  for  a  time ; 

to  allow  it  to  be  paid  by  instalments. 

That  he  might  not  be  stuck  on~ground,  he 
petition 'd  that  his  Majesty  would  stall  bis 
fine,  and  take  it  up,  as  his  estate  would  bear 
it,  by  a  thousand  pounds  a  year. — Hacket, 
Life  of  Williams,  ii.  128. 

Stall,  to  surfeit. 

Mathematicks  he  moderately  studieth  to 
his  great  contentment ;  using  it  as  a  ballast 
for  his  soul,  yet  to  fix  it,  not  to  stall  it. — 
Fuller,  Holy  State,  II.  vii.  6. 

Some  men's  speeches  are  like  the  high 
mountains  in  Ireland,  having  a  durty  bog  in 
the  top  of  them  ;  the  very  ridge  of  them  in 
high  words  having  nothing  of  worth,  but 
what  rather  stalls  than  delights  the  audi  tour. 
— Ibid.,  III.  xi.  8. 

Staller.     See  extract. 

Tovy,  a  roan  of  great  wealth  and  authority, 
as  being  the  King's  Staller  (that  is,  Standard- 
Bearer),  first  founded  this  Town. — Fuller, 
Waltham  Abbey,  p.  6. 

Stampede,  a  flight  or  rush :  origin- 
ally applied  to  a  rush  of  horses  or 
other  animals  seized  with  panic. 

So  all  the  people,  Sheila  learned  that 
night,  were  going  away  from  London ;  and 
soon  she  and  her  husband  would  join  in  the 
general  stamjxde  of  the  very  last  dwellers  in 
town. — Black,  Princess  of  Thule,  ch.  xviii. 

Stampers,  feet  (slang). 

Strike  up,  piper,  a  merry  merry  dance, 
That  we  on  our  stampers  may  foot  it  and 
prance. — Broome,  Jovial  Crew,  Act  I. 

Stance,  stave  or  stanza,  which  Italian 
word  is  commoner  than  the  French. 

The  Phcebades  sing  the  first  Stance  of  the 
second  song. — Chapman,  Masque  of  Mid. 
Temple. 


STANCE 


(  620  ) 


STARK 


Stance,  place  ;  standpoint  In  the 
extract  from  Goscoigne  it  seems  to 
mean  a  standing  quarrel. 

Since  I  can  do  no  better,  I  will  set  such  a 
staunce  between  him  and  Pasiphalo  that  all 
this  town  shall  not  make  them  friends. — 
Gascoigne,  Supposes,  ii.  3. 

He  fetched  a  gambol  upon  one  foot,  and, 
turning  to  the  left  hand,  failed  not  to  carry 
his  body  perfectly  round,  just  into  its  former 
stance. — UrquharCs  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxxv. 

The  boy  answered  his  invitation  with  the 
utmost  confidence,  and  danced  down  from 
his  stance  with  a  galliard  sort  of  step. — 
—Scott,  Kenilworth,  i.  184. 

Stanchnbss,  reserve. 

His  Majesty  would  not  that  you  should 
press  him  for  a  note  of  his  hand  for  secrecy 
and  stanchness,  .  .  .  but  only  by  word  to 
refresh  his  memory  of  the  faithful  promises 
he  hath  made  in  that  point  to  the  king. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  157. 

Standard,  a  standing  bowl,  or  large 
drinking  cup. 

Frolic,  my  lords ;  let  all  the  standards  walk, 
Fly  it,  till  every  man  hath  ta'en  his  load. 
Greene,  Looking  Glass  for  London,  p.  141. 

Stand-far-off,  a  coarse  stuff.  N. 
has  stand-further-qff 'in  the  same  sense, 
with  quotation  from  Taylor,  the  water- 
poet. 

False  miracles,  .  . .  like  the  stnffe  called 
Stand-farre-off,  must  not  have  the  beholder 
too  near,  lest  the  coursnesse  thereof  doth 
appeare. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  vi.  p.  332. 

In  my  child-hood  there  was  one  [cloth] 
called  Stand-far-off  (the  embleme  of  Hypo- 
crime),  which  seemed  pretty  at  competent 
distance,  but  discovered  its  coarseness  when 
nearer  to  the  eye. — Ibid.,  Worthies,  Norwich, 

Stanty. 

These  precarious  and  poor  Associating^  of 
Ministers  are  but  a  setting  up  a  stanty  hedge, 
instead  of  a  good  quick-set  or  a  brick-wall, 
for  the  fense  of  Christ's  vineyard. — Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  438. 

Stanzo,  stanza.  In  the  second  ex- 
tract it  =  a  song  of  more  than  one 
stanza ;  a  stave. 

Euerie  stanzo  they  pen  after  dinner  is  full 
poynted  with  a  stabbe. — Nashe,  Introd.  to 
Greene's  Menaphon,  p.  15. 

Hee  .  .  .  sung  a  stanzo  to  this  effect.- 
Greene,  Menaphon,  p.  25. 

Star..    See  extract. 

Stella  a  stando  dicitvr.  A  star,  quasi  not 
stir,  further  than  the  orb  carries  it. — Adams, 
i.  455. 

Starchy,  stiff ;  formal. 

Nothing   like    these   starkly  doctors  for 


vanity!  It  was  as  I  thought;  he  cared 
much  less  for  her  portrait  than  his  own. — G. 
Eliot,  Middlemarcn,  ch.  xxii. 

Star-clark,  an  astronomer. 

Sith  the  least  star  that  we  peroeiue  to  shine 
Aboue,  disperst  in  th'  arches  crystalline 
(If,  at  the  least,  star-clarks  be  credit  worth), 
Is  eighteene  times  bigger  than  all  the  earth. 
Sylvester,  Third  day,  first  «*»*«,  494. 

Star-divine,  an  astronomer. 

Nor  can  I  see  how  th*  earth  and  sea  should 

feed 
So  many  stars,  whose  greatnes  doth  exceed 
So  many  times  (if  Star-Divines  say  troth) 
The  greatnes  of  the  earth  and  ocean  both. 
Sylvester,  Fourth  day,  first  weeke,  134. 

Stare.     As  like  as  he  can  stare  = 

extremely  like. 

His  loving  mother  left  him  to  my  care, 
Fine  child,  as  like  his  Dad  as  he  could  stare. 
Gay,  The  what  d'ye  call  it,  i.  1. 

Stares,  a  person  stared  at. 

There  was  a  wild  oddity  in  her  countenance 
which  made  one  stare  at  her,  and  she  was 
delighted  to  be  stared  at —especially  by  me— 
so  we  were  mutually  agreeable  to  each  other 
— I  as  starer,  and  she  as  staree. — Miss  Edge- 
worth,  Belinda,  ch.  iii. 

Star  full,  starry. 

Melchisedec,  God's  sacred  Minister, 
And  King  of  Salem,  corns  to  greet  him  there, 
Blessing  his  bliss,  and  thus  with  lealous  cry 
Devoutly  pearc't  Heav'n's  starfull  canopey. 
Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  889. 

Star-gazer,  astronomer.  The  word 
is  not  now,  I  think,  used  in  an  honour- 
able sense,  but  rather  of  an  astrologer. 
North  is  spe.-iking  of  Flams  tead,  the 
astronomer- royal. 

His  lordship  received  him  with  much 
familiarity,  and  encouraged  him  to  come  and 
see  him  often. . . .  The  star-gazer  was  not 
wanting  to  himself  in  that ;  and  his  lordship 
was  extremely  delighted  with  his  accounts 
and  observations  about  the  planets. — North, 
Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  253. 

Staring  of  hair,  hair  on  end.  H. 
quotes  the  expression  from  Florio. 
The  second  extract  is  a  translation  of 
"  Obstupui,  steieruntque  comce,  et  vox 
femribus  Iwesit" 

His  cap  born  up  with  staring  of  his  hair. 
Sackville,  Induction,  st.  34. 

I  was  amaz'd,  struck  speechless,  and  my  hair 
On  end  upon  my  head  did  wildly  stare. 

Cot  ton7  s  Montaigne,  ch.  xiv. 

Stark,  to  stiffen. 

Arise,  if  horror  have  not  stark'd  your 
limbs. — Tayhr,  St.  Clement's  Eve,  v,  5. 


STARK 


(  621  )         STAY-AT-HOME 


Stark,  naked.  Stark  naked  is  a 
common  expression  for  entirely  naked, 
from  which,  by  a  little  confusion,  Wal- 
pole,  I  suppose,  derived  his  use  of  the 
word. 

There  is  a  court  dress  to  be  instituted  (to 
thin  the  drawing-rooms),  stiff-bodied  gowns 
and  bare  shoulders,  what  dreadful  dis- 
coveries will  be  made  both  on  fat  and  lean  ! 
I  recommend  to  you  the  idea  of  Mrs.  O. 
when  half -stark. —  Walpole,  Letters,  ii.  346 
(1762). 

Madame  du  Deffand  came  to  me  the 
instant  I  arrived,  and  sat  by  me  whilst  I 
stripped  and  dressed  myself;  for,  as  she 
said,  since  she  cannot  see,  there  was  no  harm 
in  my  being  stark. — Ibid.,  iv.  25  (1775). 

Starken,  to  stiffen. 

There  is  a  voice  calls  thee,  but  not  to  reign, 
The  voice  of  her  thou  fain  would'st  take  to 

wife; 
An  excommunicated  wretch  she  is 
Ev'n  now,  and  if  thy  lust  of  kingly  power 
Outbid  thine  other  lusts,  and  starken  thee 
In  grasping  of  that  shadow  of  a  sceptre 
That  still  is  left  thee,  'tis  a  dying  voice. 

Taylor,  Edwin  the  Fair,  iv.  4. 

Starrift,  to  mark  with  a  star :  the 
following  occurs  in  a  "  description  of  a 
gallant  horse." 

Great  foaming  mouth,  hot  fuming  nosthrill 

wide, 
Of  chestnut  hair,  his  forehead  starryjCd. 

Sylvester,  Handie-Crafts,  413. 

Start,  tail  or  handle. 

For  .  . .  mending  ye  start  of  ye  sanctus 
bell  ixd — Leverton,  Churchwardens'  Accounts, 
1512  (Arch.,  xli.  344). 

Startful?  easily  startled ;  frightened. 
Affectation  is  the  virgin  referred  to  in 
the  first  extract 

Say,  virgin,  where  dost   thou   delight   to 

dwell? 
With  maids  of  honour,  startful  virgin  ? 

Woleot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  174. 

Stung  with  too  keen  a  sympathy,  the  Maid 
Brooded  with  moving  lips,  mute,  startful, 
dark. — Coleridge,  Destiny  of  Nations. 

State,  to  keep  state ;  to  be  difficult 
of  access.  Cf.  "Our  hostess  keeps 
her  state M  (Macbeth,  I.  iv.).  Fuller 
tells  a  story  of  a  noble  spendthrift 
who  reformed,  owing  to  the  mortifica- 
tion he  felt  at  being  kept  waiting  a 
long  time  by  an  Alderman,  who  had 
made  a  great  deal  out  of  him.  The 
historian  adds, 

I  could  wish  that  all  Aldermen  would  State 
it  on  the  like  occasion,  on  condition  their 


noble  Debtors  would  but  make  so  good  use 
thereof.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Sussex  (ii.  391). 

Wolsey  began  to  state  it  at  York  as  high 
as  ever. — Ibid.,  Ch.  Hist.,  V.  ii.  4. 

State,  to  establish ;  to  settle. 

"  To  receive  the  adoption  of  children  "  is 
to  be  stated  in  all  that  is  good. — Andre  toes, 
i.  57. 

But  the  name  "  Lord  "  goeth  yet  further, 
not  only  to  save  us  and  set  us  free  from 
danger,  to  deliver  us  from  evil ;  but  to  state 
us  in  as  good  and  better  condition  than  we 
forfeited  by  our  fall,— Ibid.,  i.  79. 

Statesman,  a  North-country  name 
for  a  small  land-owner  or  yeoman. 

The  old  Westmoreland  statesman  (for  such 
he  was)  joined  the  group.  .  .  .  The  West- 
moreland yeoman  and  farmer  was  too  sub- 
stantial a  customer  to  be  refused.  —  Mrs. 
Trollope,  Michael  Armstrong,  ch.  xxvii. 

Statistic,  statistician.  R.,  who  has 
statistic  ana  statistical,  says,  "  Statis- 
tick  (Fr.  statisque)  is  a  word  for  which 
we  are  said  to  be  indebted  to  a  living 
writer.  Statisticks  is  applied  to  every- 
thing that  pertains  to  a  state  —  its 
population,  soil,  produce,  &c."  He 
only  illustrates  the  word  statistical, 
and  that  with  an  extract  from  Knox's 
sermons.  The  earliest,  and  indeed  the 
only  example  of  statistician  in  L.  is 
from  Hallam'8  Middle  Ages. 

Henley  said  you  were  the  best  statistic  in 
Europe.— Sovthey,  1804  (Mem.  of  Taylor  of 
Norwich,  i.  508). 

Statize,  to  meddle  in  state  affairs. 

Secular  .  .  .  mysteries  are  for  the  know- 
ledge of  statizina  Jesuits. — Adams,  ii.  168. 

Statueless,  without  a  statue. 

The  drapeau  blanc  is  floating  from  the 
statueless  column.  —  Thackeray,  Roundabout 
Papers,  xix. 

Statuize,  to  commemorate  by  a 
statue. 

James  II.  did  also  statuize  himself  in  cop- 
per.— Misson,  Travels  in  Engn  p.  309. 

Statute-lace. 

Master  lawyer,  pity  me ;  for  surely,  sir,  I 
was  fain  to  lay  my  wife's  best  gown  to  pawn 
for  your  fees:  when  I  looked  upon  it,  sir, 
and  saw  how  handsomely  it  was  daubed 
with  statute-lace,  ...  I  fell  on  weeping.— 
Greene,  Looking  Glass  for  London,  p.  124. 

Stay -at -home,  one  who  keeps  at 
home  ;  a  house-dove  :  used  also  adjec- 
tivally. 

A  talking  pretty  young  woman  like  Miss 
Crawford  is  always  pleasant  society  to  an 


STEADABLE 


(  622  )     STERNHOLDIANISM 


indolent,  stay  -at-  home  man.  —  Miss  Austen, 
Mansfield  Park,  ch.  v. 

Go  forth  to  find  us  stay  -at-  homes  new 
markets  for  our  ware. — Kingsley,  Westward 
Ho,  ch.  xv. 

"Cold!"  said  her  father,  "what  do  ye 
stay-at-homes  know  about  cold?"  —  Mrs. 
Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  ir. 

Stead  able,  serviceable.  See  another 
extract  from  the  same  writer  s.  v.  Pro- 
moval. 

I  have  succoured  and  supplied  him  with 
men,  money,  friendship,  and:  counsel,  upon 
any  occasion  wherein  I  could  be  sUadable  for 
the  improvement  of  his  good.  —  UrquharVs 
Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxviii. 

Steady,  a  stithy  or  anvil.  See  Stiddy. 
Job  saith,  Stetit  cor  ejus  stent  incus :  His 
heart  stood  as  a  steady.— Jewel,  i.  523. 

Steedyokes,  reins.  Hector  is  de- 
scribed as  appearing  to  JEneaa  in  a 
vision,  "  Harry ed  in  steed yocks  as  of 
earst"  (Stany hurst,  A5?i.,  ii.  279). 

Steepful,  steep. 

Anon  he  stalks  about  a  steepful  rock. 

Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  828. 

Stkepish,  rather  steep. 

I  was  suddenly,  upon  turning  the  corner  of 
a  steepish  downy  field,  in  the  midst  of  a  retired 
little  village.— Miss  Austen,  Mansfield  Park, 
ch.  xxv. 

Steeple-fair.  N.  gives  this  as  "a 
fair  at  which  servants  were  hired."  In 
the  extracts  it  is  applied  to  the  simoni- 
acal  mart. 

Thou  servile   fool,  why  couldst  thou  not 

repair 
To  buy  a  benefice  at  steeple-fair  ? 

Hall,  Satires,  II.  v.  8. 

Are  not  you  the  young  drover  of  livings 
Academico  told  me  of  that  haunts  steeple- 
fairs?— Return  from  Parnassus,  iv.  2  (1606). 

Steeple-  hunting,  steeple  -  chasing, 
which  more  usual  form  is  in  L. 

I  have  known  few  creatures  whom  it  was 
more  wasteful  to  send  forth  with  the  bridle 
thrown  up,  and  to  sot  to  steeple-hunting y  in- 
stead of  running  on  highways.  —  Carlyle, 
Life  of  Sterling,  ch.  v. 

Stekrling,  a  young  steer  or  bullock. 
To  get  thy  steerling,  once  again 
I'll  play  thee  such  another  strain. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  261. 

Stelliscript,  that  which  is  written 
in  the  stars. 

One  important  rule  is  to  be  observed  in 
peruxing  this  great  stelliscript.  He  who  de- 
sires to  learn  what  good  they  prefigure  must 
read  them  from  West  to  Bast ;   but  if  he 


would  be  forewarned  of  evil,  he  most  rea  \ 
from  North  to  West ;  in  either  case  beginnia^ 
with  the  stars  that  are  most  vertical  to  him. 
— Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  xcv. 

Stem,  to  foul ;  knock  against. 

like  two  great  caraques  in  a  fool  sea,  they 
never  met  in  counsel  but  they  stemmed  one 
another.— Hacket,  Life  of  William^  i.  132. 

Stkmly,  well-grown  (?). 

Then  followed  them  Detraction  and  Deceit* ; 
Sym  Swash  did  beare  a  buckler  for  the  first. 
False  Witnesse  was  the  seconde  sternly  page. 

Gascoigne,  Steele  Glas,  p.  51. 

Stenchful,  full  of  bad  smells. 

The  thick  and  foggy  air  of  this  sinful 
world,  as  the  smoke  and  stenchful  mists  ovtr 
some  populous  cities,  can  soon  sully  the  soul. 
— Adams,  ii.  66. 

Stenograph,  a  writing  in  short-hand. 

I  saw  the  reporters'  room,  in  which  th«?y 
redact  their  hasty  stenographs.  —  Emerson, 
Eng.  Traits,  ch.  xv. 

Stentorious,  loud ;  like  the  voice  of 
Stentor. 

They  will  remember  the  loudness  of  his 
stentorious  voice.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,X.  iv.  64. 

Stercorated,  dunged  or  manured. 

It  savoured  of  the  earth,  he  said,  if  not 
of  something  worse,  to  have  a  man's  miud 
always  grovelling  in  mould,  stercorated  or 
unstercorated. — Scott,  Pirate,  i.  68. 

Stereometry,  measurement  of  solid 
bodies. 

It  is  an  easie  matter  to  recti  fie  weights, 
&c.,  to  cast  up  all,  and  resolve  bodies  by 
Algebra,  Stereometry.  —  Burton,  Democ.  to 
Reader,  p.  67. 

Sternelesse,  rudderless. 

The  prime  of  youth  whose  greene  vnmel- 
lowde  yeares 
With  hoysed  head  doth  checke  the  lof tie 
skies, 
And   sette8  vp  sayle,  and  sternelesse  ship 
ysteares, 
With  winde  and  waue  at  pleasure  sure  it 
flies. — Gosson,  p.  76. 

Sternfully,  sternly.  See  extract 
*.  v.  Flail. 

Sternholdianism,  prosaicism :  the 
reference  of  course  is  to  Sternhold, 
the  old  translator  of  the  Psalms.  The 
extract  is  from  Bobberds's  Memoir  of 
Taylor  of  Norwich,  i.  99. 

There  is  scarcely  so  nice  a  line  to  distin- 
guish as  that  which  divides  true  simplicity 
from  flatness  and  Sternholdianism  (if  I  may 
be  allowed  to  coin  a  word). — Sir  W.  Scott, 
1797. 


STERT 


(  623  ) 


STIFF 


Stert,  start :  in  the  extract  it  means 
distance. 

Indeede  he  dwelleth  hence  a  good  stert  I 

confesse, 
But  yet  a  quicke  messanger  might  twice 

since,  as  I  gesse, 
Haue  gone  and  come  againe. 

Udal,  Roister  Doister,  iv.  5. 

Stertorous,    breathing   heavily. 

Sterling  (see  extract  s.  v.  Environment) 

classes  this  among  the  words  in  Sartor 

Resartus  "  without  any  authority."     It 

is  not  uncommon  now,  but  it  does  not 

appear  in  R. ,  and  Carlyle  is  the  earliest 

authority  for  it  in  L. 

That  hum,  I  say,  like  the  'stertorous, 
unquiet  slumber  of  sick  life,  is  heard  in 
Heaven.  —  CarlyU,  Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  I. 
ch.  iii. 

Stethoscope,  to  examine  the  chest 

by  the  aid  of  the  instrument  so  called. 

You  wish  me  to  submit  to  be  stethoscoped. 
— Savage,  R.  Medlicott,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xvi. 

Stevedore,  one  who  stows  goods  in 

a  ship's  hold  (Span,  estivador). 

The  Scandinavian  fancied  himself  sur- 
rounded by  Trolls,  a  kind  of  gobliu  men  with 
vast  power  of  work  and  skilful  production — 
divine  stevedores,  carpenters,  reapers,  smiths, 
and  masons. — Emerson,  Eng.  Traits,  ch.  v. 

Stewed,  belonging  to  the  stews. 

0  Aristippus,  thou  art  a  greate  medler  with 
this  woman,  beyng  a  stewed  strumpette. — 
UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apopkth.,  p.  66. 

Stick,  a  lot  of  twenty-five  eels. 

A  bind  of  eels  consists  of  ten  sticks,  and 
every  stick  of  twenty-five  eels.  —  Archaol., 
xv.  357  (1806). 

Stick,  a  dull  or  stupid  person. 

a  You  . . .  will  go  and  many,  I  know  you 
will,  some  stick  of  a  rival."  . .  u  I  hope  I  shall 
never  marry  a  stick"— Miss  Edyeworth,  Be- 
linda, ch.  xz. 

1  was  surprised  to  see  Sir  Henry  such  a 
stick  ;  luckily  the  strength  of  the  piece  did 
not  depend  upon  him. — Miss  Austen,  Mans- 
field Park,  ch.  xiii. 

The  poor  old  stick  used  to  cry  out, "  Oh 
you  villains  child*,"  and  then  we  sermonised 
her  on  the  presumption  of  attempting  to 
teach  such  clever  blades  as  we  were,  when 
she  was  herself  so  ignorant. — C.  Bronte,  Jane 
Eyre,  ch.  xvii. 

Stick.  To  cut  one's  stick  is  a  slang 
expression  =  to  run  away.  See  quota- 
tions *.  w.  Chalks,  Rat. 

All  which  remained  for  a  decayed  poet 
was  respectfully  to  cut  his  stick,  and  retire. 
— De  Quincey,  Roman  Meals. 


Stick  and  stone,  completely;  root 
and  branch.  Cf.  Stock  and  block. 
Stick  is  also  used  by  itself  in  this  way. 

So  in  fine  were  thei  beaten  doune,  their 
citee  taken,  spoiled,  and  destroied  bothe 
sticke  and  stone. — UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth., 
p.  215. 

We  brake  down  the  pier  of  the  haven  of 
Perth,  and  burnt  every  stick  of  it. — Expetli- 
tion  in  Scotland,  1544  (Eng.  Garner,  i.  120). 

And  this  it  was  she  swore,  never  to  marry 
But  such  an  one  whose  mighty  arm  could 

carry 
(As  meaning  me,  for  I  am  such  a  one) 
Her  bodily  away  through  stick  and  stone. 

Beaum.  and  Fl.,  Knt.  of  B.  Pestle,  ii.  1. 

For  troops,  like  Richmond,  that  on  valour 

feast, 
May,  like  wild  meteors,  pour  into  mine  east, 
And  leave  my  palace  neither  stick  nor 

stone.—  Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  90: 

Stick-in-the-mud,  a  slow  fellow  or 
bungler. 

This  rusty-coloured  one  is  that  respect- 
able old  stick-in-the-mud,  Nicias.  —  Hughes, 
Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  x. 

Stickle-haired,  rough-haired. 

Their  dogs  .  .  that  seme  for  that  purpose 
are  stickle-haired,  and  not  villi  ke  to  the  Irish 
grayhounds.— Sandys,  Travels,  p.  76. 

Sticks  and  staves.  To  go  to  sticks 
and  staves  =  to  go  to  pieces ;  be  ruined. 
Cf.  Noggin  -  staves.  To  beat  all  to 
sticks  =  to  completely  surpass. 

She  married  a  Highland  drover  or  tacks- 
man, I  can't  tell  which,  and  they  went  all  to 
sticks  and  staves.— Miss  Ferrier,  Inheritance, 
i.  95. 

Many  ladies  in  Strasburg  were  beautiful,  still 
They  were  heat  all  to  sticks  by  the  lovely 
Odille.— Ingoldsby  Legends  (St.  Odille). 

Stick  the  point,  to  settle  the  matter. 
Fuller,  after  quoting  a  joint  opinion 
from  Cotton,  Selden,  Spelman,  and 
Camden,  adds, 

This  quaternion  of  subscribers  have  sticltn 
the  point  dead  with  me  that  all  antient  Eng- 
lish monks  were  Benedictines.— Fuller,  Ch. 
Hist.,  vi.  p.  268. 

Stiddy,  a  forge;  a  stithy.  See 
Steady. 

Their  habergions  like  stiddies  stithe  they 
baire. — Hudson's  Judith,  iii.  225. 

James  Torke,  a  blacksmith,  ...  is  a  serv- 
ant as  well  of  Apollo  as  Vulcan,  turning  his 
stiddy  into  a  study.  —  Fuller,  JVortlties, 
Lincoln  (ii.  24). 

Stiff.  To  do  a  bit  of  stiff  =  to 
accept  or  cash  a  bill — paper  represent- 
ing money,  as  a  promissory  bill,  &c,  is 


STIFF 


(  624) 


STOCKINET 


called  8tiff  as  distinguished  from  cash 
which  is  hard. 

I  wish  you'd  do  me  a  bit  of  stiff,  and  just 
tell  your  father  if  I  may  overdraw  my  ac- 
count I'll  vote  with  him.— Thackeray,  New 
comes,  ch.  vi. 

Stiff,  to  be  stiff ;  to  persevere. 

But  Dido  affrighted  stift  also  in  her  ob- 
stinat  onset.— Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iv.  090. 

Stiff-girt,  obstinate. 

He,  stiffe-girt  and  inexorable,  went  with 
a  short  turn  out  of  the  Church.— Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  246. 

Stiffler,  stickler. 

The  drift  was,  as  I  judged,  for  Dethick  to 
continue  such  stiffiers  in  the  College  of  his 
pupils,  to  win  him  in  time  by  hook  or  crook 
the  master's  room. — Abp.  Parker,  p.  252. 

Stile.  To  help  over  a  stile,  or  a 
lame  dog  over  a  stile  =  to  help  over  a 
difficulty. 

But  for  this  horrid  murder  vile 

None  did  him  prosecute. 
His  old  friend  helped  him  o'er  tlie  stile  ; 

With  Satan  who'd  dispute? 

Prior,  The  Viceroy. 

Lady  8m.  The  girl's  well  enough,  if  she 
had  but  another  nose. 

Miss.  O,  Madam,  I  know  I  shall  always 
have  your  good  word;  you  love  to  help  a 
lame  dog  over  the  stile. — Swift,  Polite  Con- 
versation (Oonv.  i.). 

I  can  show  my  money,  pay  my  way,  eat 
my  dinner,  kill  ray  trout,  hunt  my  hounds, 
help  a  lame  dog  over  a  stile  (which  was  Mark's 
phrase  for  doing  a  generous  thing),  and  thank 
God  for  all. — Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch. 
xxv. 

Stiltify,  to  heighten  as  on  stilts. 

Skinny  dwarfs  ye  are,  cushioned  and  stil- 
tifed  into  great  fat  giants. — Beade,  Cloister 
and  Hearth,  ch.  lxv. 

Stimulative,  a  stimulant;  an  in- 
centive. 

Then  there  are  so  many  stimulatives  to 
such  a  spirit  as  mine  in  this  affair,  besides 
love. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  i.  225. 

Stinch,  to  stanch. 

First,  the  blood  must  bee  stinched,  and 
howe  was  that  done  ?— Breton,  Miseries  of 
Mauillia,  p.  39. 

Stipendiate,  to  pay. 

All  the  sciences  are  taught  in  the  vulgar 
French  by  professors  stipendiated  by  the 
greate  Cardinal.— Evelyn,  Diary,  Sept.  14, 
1644. 

Stire.     See  quotation. 

The  Athenaeum  critic  plays  the  master 
with  me,  and  tops  his  part.    "  It  is  clear," 


he  says, "  from  every  page  of  this  book  that 
the  author  does  not,  in  vulgar  parlance,  thick 
small  beer  of  himself."  ...  I  am  more  in- 
clined, as  my  master  insinuates,  to  think 
strong  beer  of  myself,  crww,  Burton,  Audi: 
ale,  old  October,  what  in  his  parlance  used 
to  be  called  stingo  or  .  .  .  stire,  cokaghee 
or  foxwhelp,  a  beverage  as  much  better 
than  champagne  as  it  is  honester,  whole- 
somer,  and  cheaper.  Or  Perry,  the  Teijp- 
ton -Squash.  These  are  right  old  English 
liquors,  and  I  like  them  all. — Sauthey,  TU 
Doctor,  Interchapter  xvi. 

Stirless,  motionless. 

Voiceless  and  viewless,  stirless  and  word- 
less, he  kept  his  station  behind  the  pile  of 
flowers. — Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xxix. 

Stitch.  To  go  a  good  stitch  =  to 
£0  a  good  way ;  to  go  thorough  stit*h, 
t.  e.  (in  modern  slang)  the  whole  huir, 
is  a  common  expression  in  our  old 
writers. 

I  promise  you,  said  he,  von  have  gone  a 
good  stitch:  you  may  well  be  aweary;  sit 
down.— Bunyan,  Pilgrim's  Progress,  ii.  148. 

Stithy-man,  a  smith. 

The  subtle  stithy-man  that  lived  whilere. 

Hall,  Satires,  II-  i.  44. 

Stive.  The  usual  meaning  of  this 
word  is  to  cram  or  stuff,  but  H.  gives 
as  one  of  its  significations,  "To  walk 
energetically  {North).  Mr.  Hunter 
says,  to  walk  with  affected  stateli- 
ness."  But  perhaps  in  the  extract 
stive  is  a'  slip  of  the  pen  or  of  the  press 
for  stie. 

This  Saint  of  Falconers  [S.  Tibba]  doth 
stive  so  high  into  the  air  that  my  industry 
can  not  flye  home  after  the  same. — Fuller, 
Worthies,  Rutland  (ii.  242). 

Stock  and  block,  everything:  in 
the  original,  sors  et  tisura,  capital  and 
interest.     Cf.  Stick  and  stone. 

Before  I  came  home  I  lost  all,  stock  and 
block. — Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  181. 

Stock-blind,  blind  as  a  stock ;  stone- 
blind. 

True  lovers  are  blind,  stock-blind. —  Wych- 
erley,  Country  Wife,  ii.  1. 

Stock  father,  progenitor. 

These  [Veneticse]  Strabo  supposeth  to 
have  been  the  founders  and  stockfathers  of 
the  Venetians. — Holland's  Camden,  ii.  231. 

Stockinet,  some  material  of  which 
pantaloons  were  formerly  made. 

The  tall  gentleman  in  the  stockinet  pan- 
taloons played  billiards  with  uncommon  skill. 
— Th,  Hook,  The  Sutherland*. 

Do  we  crowd  to  see  Mr.  Macready  in  the 


ST0CK1NGER  (  625  ) 


STOJS/EJUG 


new  tragedy,  or  Mademoiselle  Elssler  in  her 
last  new  ballet,  and  flesh-coloured  stockinnet 
pantaloons,  out  of  a  pure  love  of  abstract 
poetry  and  beauty  ?—  Thackeray,  Paris  Sketch 
*Etook,  ch.  xvi. 

Stockinger,  a  stocking-weaver. 

The  robust  rural  Saxon  degenerates  in  the 
mills  to  the  Leicester  stockinger. — Emerson, 
-C«y-  Traits,  ch.  z. 

Some  of  our  labourers  and  stockinger 3  as 
used  never  to  come  to  church,  come  to  the 
cottage. — G.  Eliot,  Amos  Barton,  ch.  i. 

Stocking  -  feet,  without  shoes  on: 
the  phrase  is  not  peculiar  to  Scotland. 
Stoc)ciri-feeting8  is  given  in  Peacock's 
Jifanley  and  Vorringham  Glossary. 

Binnie  found  the  Colonel  in  his  sitting- 
room,  arrayed  in  what  are  called  in  Scotland 
his  stocking-feet. — Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch. 
viii. 

Stock  ingless,  without  stockings. 

They  were  all  slip-shoed,  stockingless  some, 
only  under-petticoated  all. — Richardson,  CI. 
Marlowe,  viii.  156. 

Stocks.  To  have  something  on  the 
stocks,  i.  e.  in  preparation ;  a  metaphor 
taken  from  ship-building. 

I  am  told  Mr.  Dryden  has  something  of 
this  nature  new  upon  the  stocks. — T.  Brown, 
Works,  iv.  42. 

Stocky.  H.  gives  the  word  as  mean- 
ing "stout."  with  a  quotation  from 
Addison ;  but  in  the  first  extract  it 
means  stumpy,  and  in  the  second, 
headstrong. 

It  is  the  fault  of  their  forms  that  they 
grow  stocky,  and  the  women  have  that  dis- 
advantage— few  tall  slender  figures  of  flow- 
ing shape,  but  stunted  and  thick-set  persons. 
— Emerson,  Eng.  Traits,  ch.  iv. 

He  was  a  boy  whom  Mrs.  Hackit  in  a 
severe  mood  had  pronounced  stocky  (a  word 
that  etymologically,  in  all  probability,  con- 
veys some  allusion  to  an  instrument  of 
punishment  for  the  refractory);  but  seeing 
him  thus  subdued  into  goodness,  she  smiled 
at  him. — G.  Eliot,  Amos  Barton,  ch.  v. 

Stooged,  set  fast  in  the  mire.    The 

first  quotation  is  the  motto  to  ch.  v.  of 

Kingsley's  Westward  Ho. 

It  was  among  the  ways  of  good  Queen  Bess, 

Who  ruled  as  well  as  ever  mortal  can,  sir, 

When  she  was  stogged  and  the  country  in  a 

mess 

She  was  wont  to  send  for  a  Devon  man,  sir. 

West  Country  Song. 

They'll ...  be  stogged  till  the  day  of  judg- 
ment ;  there  are  bogs  in  the  bottom  twenty 
fet>t  deep. — Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  v. 

Stoker,  one  who  attends  to  the  fire 


in  an  engine-room,  &c.  The  only  ex- 
ample in  R.  and  L.  is  from  Green's 
poem,  The  Spleen  (1754).  Noble  wrote 
towards  the  end  of  the  last  century, 
but  he  seems  to  have  met  with  the  word 
in  some  seventeenth-century  authority. 

John  Okey  Esq.'s  origin  was  very  obscure ; 
the  only  account  of  him  before  the  civil  war 
broke  out  is  that  he  was  first  a  drayman, 
then  a  stoaker  in  a  brew-house  at  Islington. 
— Mark  Noble,  Lives  of  the  Regicides,  ii.  104. 

Stomach,  to  encourage. 

When  He  had  stomached  them  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  shoot  forth  His  word  without  fear, 
He  went  forward  with  them  by  His  grace, 
conquering  in  them  the  prince  of  this  world. 
—Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  313. 

Stomach-timber,  food.  Prior's  lines 
are — 

The  strength  of  every  other  member 
Is  founded  on  your  belly-timber. 

In  Combe's  time,  it  may  be  presumed, 
belly  had  come  to  be  reckoned  a  coarse 
word. 

As  Prior  tells,  a  clever  poet, . .  . 
The  main  strength  of  every  member 
Depends  upon  the  stomach-timber. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  c.  vii. 

Stomp,  to  stump :  antiquated  spelling 
adopted  in  extract  through  stress  of 
rhyme. 

And  then  will  the  flaxen-wigged  image 

Be  carried  in  pomp 
Thro*  the  plain,  while  in  gallant  procession 

The  priests  mean  to  stomp. 

Browning,  Englishman  in  Italy. 

Stone.  To  take  a  stone  up  in  the  ear 
=  to  become  a  prostitute. 

My  spouse,  alas!   must  flaunt  in  silks  no 

more, 
Pray  heaven  for  sustenance  she  turn  not 

whore; 
And  daughter  Betty  too,  in  time,  I  fear, 
Will  learn  to  take  a  stone  up  in  her  ear. 

T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  60. 

Madam,  I  much  rejoice  to  hear 
You'll  take  a  stone  up  in  your  ear  ; 
For  I'm  a  frail  transgressor  too. 

Ibid.,  ii.  92. 

Stone-dead,  quite  dead. 

For  the  contagion  was  so  violent 

(The  wil  of  Heau'n  ordaining  so  the  same) 

As  often  strook  stone-ded  incontinent. 

Davies,  Humour's  Heauen  on  Earth,  p.  47. 

Stone-jug,  thieves'  slang  for  a  prison. 
See  quotation  s.  v.  Mill.  The  Gr. 
ickpapoc,  had  the  same  double  meaning. 
"  Stone  doublet"  is  Urquhart's  transla- 
tion of  the  Fr.  " jrrison"  in  fiabelain, 
Bk.  IV.  ch.  xii. 

6  S 


STONE-PRIEST  (  626  ) 


STORM 


H  Six  weeks  and  labour/'  replied  the  elder 
girl,  with  a  flaunting  laugh ;  "  and  that's 
better  than  the  stone  jug  anyhow.  "Sketches 
by  Boz  (Prisoners1  Van). 

I  will  sell  the  bed  from  under  your  wife's 
back,  and  send  you  to  the  stone-pug. — Beads, 
Never  too  late  to  mend,  eh.  lxxxii. 

Stone  -  priest,  a  lascivious  priest. 
So  stone-horse  =  a  Btallion. 

But  ne'er  hereafter  let  me  take  you 
With  wanton  love-tricks,  lest  I  make  you 
Example  to  all  stone-priests  ever, 
To  deal  with  other  men's  loves  never. 

Grim  the  Collier,  Act  Y. 
The  villainous  vicar  is  abroad  in  the  chase 
this  dark  night :  the  stone-priest  steals  more 
venison  than  half  the  county. — Merry  Devil 
of  Edmonton  (Dodsley,0.  P/.,xi.  155). 

Stone-still,  still  as  a  stone  :  stock- 
still  is  commoner. 

The  Bemora  fixing  her  feeble  horn 
Into  the  tempest-beating  vessel's  stern, 
Stayes  her  stone-still. 

Sylvester,  Fifth  day,  first  week,  434. 

Loue  will 
Part  of  the  way  be  mett,  or  sitt  stone-still. 

Herrick,  Appendix,  p.  451. 

Stonipied,  petrified. 

Wilkes  of  stone,  a  shell-fish  stonified. — 
Holland's  Camden,  p.  363,  margin. 

Stool,  root 

Vines  shoot  strongly  from  the  stool,  and 
are  not  easily  eradicated.— Archaol.,  iii.  91 
(1775). 

Stool,  to  shoot  out. 

I  worked  very  hard  in  the  copse  of  young 
ash  with  my  bill-hook  and  a  shearing-knife, 
cutting  out  the  saplings  where  they  stooled 
too  close  together. — Btackmore,  Lorna  Doone, 
ch.  xxxviii. 

Stoop,  a  pillar. 

You  glorious  martyrs,  you  illustrious  stoovs, 
That  once  were  cloistered  in  your  flesnly 

coops 
As  fast  as  I,  what  rhet'ric  had  your  tongues  ? 

Quarles,  Emblems,  v.  10. 
Dalhousie  of  an  old  descent, 
My  chief,  my  stoup,  my  ornament. 

Allan  Ramsay. 

Stoop.  To  give  the  stoop  =  to  yield  ; 
to  knock  under. 

O  that  a  king  should  give  the  stoop  to  such 
as  these.— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  186. 

Stop.  Stop-hounds  were  dogs  trained 
to  hunt  slowly,  and  to  stop  as  soon  as 
the  huntsman  threw  down  his  pole. 
The  meaning  of  the  extract  seems  to 
be  that  if  any  Christians  show  zeal,  the 
rest  try  to  restrain  him. 


Do  we  think  He  ever  will  digest  us  in  the 
temper  we  are  in,  which  (to  confess  the 
truth  of  the  fashionable  Christian),  what  is  it 
but  a  state  of  neutrality,  incufferency,  or 
such  a  mediocrity  as  will  just  serve  the  time, 
satisfy  law,  or  stand  with  reputation  of 
neighbours?  Beyond  which,  if  any  step  a 
little  forward,  do  not  the  rest  hunt  upon  the 
stop? — Ward,  Sermons,  p.  91. 

Stop-game,  the  end  of  the  game  (?) ; 
a  conclusion. 

No  violence  and  injustice  can  be  proper  to 
usher  in  true  Christian  Religion  and  Reform- 
ation: these  methods  have  made  them  so 
stunted  and  ricketly  that  they  are  come  to 
a  stop-game. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church, 
p.  566. 

Stop-gap,  something  that  answers  a 
temporary  purpose. 

A  bit  of  ink  and  paper,  which  has  long 
been  an  innocent  wrapping  or  stop-gap,  may 
at  last  be  laid  open  under  the  one  pair  of 
eyes  which  have  knowledge  enough  to  turn 
it  into  the  opening  of  a  catastrophe. — G. 
Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch.  xli. 

Stopperlkss,  without  stoppers. 

The  stopperless  cruets  on  the  spindle- 
shanked  sideboard  were  in  a  miserably 
dejected  state. — Dickens,  Uncommercial  Tra- 
veller, xxii. 

Stopple,  to  cork  up :  the  Diets,  only 
give  the  substantive. 

A  man,  once  young,  who  lived  retired 
As  hermit  could  have  well  desired, 
His  hours  of  study  closed  at  last, 
And  finish'd  his  concise  repast, 
SUnmled  his  cruise,  replaced  his  book 
mtnio  its  customary  nook. 

Cowper,  Moralizer  Corrected. 

Stop-ship,  the  fish  remora. 

O  Stop-ship  say,  say  how  thou  can'st  oppose 

Thyself e  alone  against  so  many  foes  ? 

O  tell  vs  where  thou  do'ost  thine  anchors 

hide, 
Whence  thou  resistest  sayls,  owers,  wind, 

and  tide  Y 

Sylvester,  Fifth  day,  first  weeke,  444. 

Stobie8-han,  authority  for  a  story. 
Fuller,  quoting  a  Mr.  Parker  for  some 
assertion,  says,  "  I  tell  you  my  story 
and  my  stories-man.11 —  Worthies,  Hunt- 
ingdon (i.  469). 

Storm,  to  take  by  assault  The 
extract  refers  this  use  of  the  word  to 
the  time  of  the  Great  Rebellion  ;  the 
earliest  instance  in  the  Diets,  is  from 
Dryden. 

We  have  brought  those  exotic  words  plttn- 
drina  and  storming,  and  that  once  abominable 
word  excise,  to  be  now  familiar  among  them. 
— Ho  well,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  37. 


STORMLESS 


(  627  ) 


STRAPPER 


Stormless,  calm ;  without  a  storm. 

Oar  waking  thoughts 
Suffer  a  stormless  shipwreck  in  the  pools 
Of  sullen  slumber,  and  arise  again 
Disjointed. — Tennyson,  Harold,  v.  1. 

Stot,  to  stump  or  tramp. 

They  slotted  along  side  by  side.  —  Miss 
Ferrier,  Inheritance,  li.  367. 

Stoter,  to  stumble ;  here  perhaps  = 

to  have  foot-rot. 

He'd  tell  what  bullock's  fate  was  tragick 
So  right,  some  thought  he  dealt  in  magick ; 
And  as  well  knew,  by  wisdom  outward, 
What  ox  must  fall,  or  sheep  be  stotered. 

D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  canto  1. 

Stothe  stones.  H.  gives  "stothe, 
a  post  or  upright  of  a  wall." 

ii  alter  stones  for  stothe  stones. — Leverton 
Churchwarden's  Accounts,  1566  (Archaol.,  xli. 
364). 

Stounding,  crushing ;  stunning. 

Your  wrath,  weak  boy  ?    Tremble  at  mine, 

unless 
Retraction  follow  close  upon  the  heels 
Of  that  late  stounding  insult. 

Keats,  Otho  the  Great,  iv.  2. 

Stouph,  hot  bath  (Ital.  stufa).  Cf. 
Stuplk. 

It  was  nothing  else  but  a  Stouph  or  bote 
house  begunne  by  the  Romanes,  who  . . .  used 
Bathes  exceeding  much. — Holland's  Camden, 
p.  681. 

Stout,  strong  beer.  R.  illustrates 
from  Somerville,  and  L.  from  a  poem 
of  Swift's  written  in  1720.  In  an 
edition  of  Swift  1744  the  editor  ap- 
pends a  note,  "cant  word  for  strong 
beer."  It  was  in  use,  however,  towards 
the  end  of  the  previous  century. 

The  genius  of  the  land  throughout 
Being  much  like  a  large  bowl  of  stout. 
D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  canto  1. 

Stoutish,  rather  fat  or  stout 

At  the  bottom  of  the  room  sat  a  stoutish 
man  of  about  forty. — Sketches  by  Bos  (Parlour 
Orator). 

Stoveing,  a  term  in  sailmaking,  to 

signify  the  heating  of  the  bolt-ropes,  so 

as  to  make  them  pliable. 

light  upon  some  Dutchmen,  with  whom 
we  had  good  discourse  touching  stoveing,  and 
making  of  cables.— Pepys,  Feb.  13, 1664-65. 

Stowaway,  one  who  hides  or  stows 
himself  away  in  a  vessel,  and  does  not 
appear  until  she  is  on  her  voyage,  so  as 
to  obtain  a  free  passage. 

The  large  number  of  stowaways  who  arrive 
at  Liverpool  in  Atlantic  steamers  give  some 


notion  of  the  bad  times  prevalent  in  New 
York.  Two  of  these  stowaways  were  taken 
before  the  local  magistrates  hist  week,  and 
fined  £5  and  costs  each,  with  the  alternative 
of  two  months'  hard  labour.— Leeds  Mercury, 
Oct.  28, 1877. 

Straight-hearted,  narrow-hearted : 

should  be  spelt  strait-hearted. 

Another  is  sordid,  unmerciful  (here  Trim 
waved  his  right  hand),  a  straight-hearted, 
selfish  wretch,  incapable  either  of  private 
friendship  or  public  spirit. — Sterne,  Trist. 
Shandy,  ii.  47. 

Strain,  to  distrain. 

They  are  so  very  fierce  that  they  will  strain 
every  third  day,  till  they  have  the  £800  and 
the  use ;  and  as  they  order  the  matter,  every 
straining  comes  to  twenty  pound  with  charges 
and  fees. — Letter,  a.d.  1650,  in  Whitaker's 
Hist,  of  Craven,  p.  303. 

Strait  -  handed,  niggardly  ;  close- 
fisted.  R.  and  L.  have  strait-handed- 
ness,  with  quotation  from  Bp.  Hall. 

If  you  are  straiuhanded  the  lawyer  be- 
comes resty,  he  will  not  stir. — Gentleman 
Instructed,  p.  528. 

Strake,  bushel:  more  commonly 
strike. 

Gome,  Ruose,  Ruose,  I  sold  fifty  strake  of 
barley  to-day  in  half  this  time. — Farquhar, 
Recruiting  Officer,  Act  II. 

Stramash,  a  row  or  disturbance:  a 
Scotch  expression,  but  adopted  by  Eng- 
lish writers. 

Then  more  calling  and  bawling,  and  squalling 

and  falling. 
Oh,  what  a  fearful  stramash  they  're  all  in !  ' 
Ingoldshy  Legends  (House-warming). 

Last  year  at  Oxford,  I  and  three  other 
University  men,  three  Pauls  and  a  Braze- 
nose,  had  a  noble  stramash  on  Folly  Bridge. 
That  is  the  last  fighting  I  have  seen. — H. 
Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  xxxvi. 

Strangulate,  to  strangle. 

Creepers  of  literature,  who  suck  their  food, 
like  the  ivy,  from  what  they  strangulate  and 
kill.—Soutkey,  The  Doctor,  Interchapter  vii. 

Strangurian,  strangury. 

Here  thou  shrinkest  to  think  of  the  gout, 
colic,  stone,  or  strangurian. —  Ward,  Sermons, 
p.  60. 

Strapper,  a  tall,  large  person. 

"You  who  are  light  and  little  can  soon 
recover ;  but  I  who  am  a  gross  man  might 
suffer  severely."  . .  Poor  Lady  Ladd,  who  is 
quite  a  strapper,  made  no  answer,  but  she 
was  not  offended.— Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary, 
i.  125. 

8  S  2 


STRATAGEMATIC     (  628  ) 


STRIKE 


"She'll  a  rare  one,  is  she  not,  Jane?" 
"  Yes,  sir."  "  A  strapper,  a  real  strapper,  big, 
brown,  and  buxom." — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre, 
ch.  xx. 

Stratagem atic,  pertaining  to  strata- 
gem :  stratagemical  is  used  by  Swift. 

Of  this  sort©  of  phantasie  are  all  good 
poets,  notable  captaines  stratagematique,  all 
cunning  artificers  and  enginers. — Puttenham, 
Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  I.  ch.  viii. 

Stravagant,  extravagant  See  ex- 
tract $ .  v.  Showfully. 

Straw.  A  woman  in  childbed  is 
said  to  be  in  the  straw ;  no  doubt  for 
the  reason  implied  by  Fuller,  though 
the  extract  from  Burgoyne  suggests 
another. 

Our  English  plain  Proverb  de  Puerperis, 
"  they  are  in  the  straw"  shows  Feather- Beds 
to  be  of  no  ancient  as©  among  the  common 
sort  of  our  nation. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Lincoln. 

Mrs.  Blandish,  You  take  care  to  send  to 
all  the  lying-in  ladies  ? 

Prompt.  At  their  doors,  madam,  before  the 
first  load  of  straw.  (Beading  his  memoran- 
dum,'as  he  goes  out.)  Ladies  in  the  straw, 
ministers,  &c. — Burgoyne,  The  Heiress,  I.  i. 

Although,  by  the  vulgar  popular  saw, 
All  mothers  are  said  to  be  in  the  straw, 
Some  children  are  born  in  clover. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Straw.  A  man  of  straw  =  one  of 
no  substance ;  like  an  effigy  stuffed 
with  straw ;  so  also  iface  of  straw. 

I  will  not  be  your  drudge  by  day,  to  squire 
your  wife  about,  and  be  your  man  of  straw  or 
scarecrow  only  to  pies  and  jays  that  would 
be  nibbling  at  your  forbidden  fruit. — 
JFyeherley,  Country  Wife,  iv.  3. 

Off  drops  the  vizor,  and  a  face  of  straw 
appears.—  Nort h,  Examen,  p.  608. 

All  those,  however,  were  men  of  straw  with 
me. — Richardson,  Grandison,  vi.  387. 

Straw.    To  lay  a  straw  =  to  pause ; 

perhaps  the  idea  is  that  of  marking  the 

place  in  a  book. 

Bat  lay  a  straw  here,  for  in  a  trifling  mat- 
ter others  as  well  as  myselfe  may  thinke 
these  notes  sufficient,  if  not  superfluous. — 
Holland's  Camden,  p.  141. 

Straw.  To  break  a  straw  =  to 
quarrel. 

"I  prophecie  (quoth  he)  that  Plato  and 
Dionysius  wil  erre  many  daies  to  an  ende 
breake  a  strawe  betwene  them."  For  he  had 
alredie  perceiued  the  king  now  a  good  while 
to  keepe  his  mynde  secrete,  and  to  dissemble 
his  angre  and  displeasure  concerned  against 
Plato.— UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  68. 


St rawfork,  pitchfork.  Among  "hus- 

bandlie  furniture  "  Tusser  reckons 

Flaile,  strawforke,  and  rake,  with  a  fan  that 
is  strong. — Husbandrie,  p.  35. 

Straws.  My  eyes  draw  straws  =  I 
am  very  sleepy.  Children  are  some- 
times told  towards  bedtime  that  they 
have  dust  in  their  eyes,  or  that  the 
dustman  is  coming. 

Lady  Ans.  I'm  sure  'tis  time  for  all  honest 
folks  to  go  to  bed. 

Miss.  Indeed  my  eyes  draw  straws.  (She's 
almost  asleep.) 

Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Oonv.  iii). 

Their  eyelids  did  not  once  pick  straws. 

And  wink  and  sink  away ; 
No,  no,  they  were  as  brisk  as  bees. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  213. 

Streak.  H. ,  s.  v.  streek,  sa vs '  •  st reeked 
measure  is  exact  measure.1  Corn  was 
said  to  be  streeked  when  a  flat  piece  of 
wood  was  passed  over  the  top  of  the 
measure  containing  it. 

Clench.  The  squire  is  a  fine  gentleman. 

Med.  He  is  more. 

A  gentleman  and  a  half,  almost  a  knight. 
Within  six  inches  ;  that  is  his  true  measure. 

Clench.  Zure  you  can  gage  'un  ? 

Med.  To  a  streak  or  less. 

Jonson,  Tale  of  a  Tub,  iv.  2. 

Stream i nkss,  streaming  or  trailing. 

We  have  to  inquire  what  form  or  degree 
of  streaminess  . . .  might  be  expected  among 
the  1600  stars.— Proctor,  The  Universe  and 
coming  Transits,  p.  22  (1874). 

Streamling,  a  small  stream. 

In  two  square  creases  of  vnequall  aises 
To  turn  two  yron  streamlings  he  devises. 
Sylvester,  Handle  Crafts,  515. 

A  thousand  streamlings  that  n'er  saw  the  Son, 
With  tribute  sillier  to  his  seruice  run. 

Ibid.,  The  Captaines,  118. 

Strenuity,  strenuousness ;  energy. 

And  thus,  unlike  affects 
Bred  like  strenuity  in  both. 

Chapman,  Hiad,  xv.  $49. 

Stress,  a  distress  ;  a  levy  for  rent  or 

taxes,  &c. 

We  must  offer  it  as  it  were  a  gift,  volun- 
tarily, willingly,  cheerfully, .  .  though  Hoph- 
ni  had  no  flesh-hook,  though  Caesar  had  no 
Publican  to  take  a  stress. — Andrewes,  v.  135. 

Strike,  to  give  the  last  ploughing 
before  the  seed  is  sown. 

To  harrow  the  rydgis  er  euer  ye  strike, 
Is  one  peece  of  husbandrie  Suffolk  doth  like. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  39. 

Strike,  to  creak. 


STRIP 


(629  ) 


STUFFING 


The  closet  door  striked  as  it  uses  to  do, 
both  at  her  coming  in  and  going  out.  — 
Aubrey,  Misc^  p.  83. 

Strip,  to  outstrip. 

Alate  we  ran  the  deer,  and  through  the  lawnds 
Stripped  with  our  nags  the  lofty  frolic  bucks. 

Greene,  Friar  Bacon,  I.  i. 

Strip,  to  milk  very  closely. 

Renter's  first  opportunity  of  favouring 
Kin  raid's  suit  consisted  in  being  as  long  as 
possible  over  his  milking ;  so  never  were 
cows  that  required  such  stripping,  or  were 
expected  to  yield  such  afterings,  as  Black 
Nell  and  Daisy  that  night. — Mrs.  Gaskell, 
Sylvia1  s  Lover*,  ch.  xv. 

St  ro  A  kings,  the  last  milk  drawn  from 

a  cow. 

The  cook  entertained  me  with  choice  bits, 
the  dairy -maid  with  stroakings. —  Smollett, 
Roderick  Random,  ch.  xL 

Stroam,  to  stride. 

He,  ejaculating  blessings  upon  his  parents, 
and  calling  for  just  vengeance  upon  himself, 
stroamed  up  and  down  the  room.  —  Mad. 
VArblay,  Camilla,  Bk.  III.  ch.  x. 

Stbodle,  to  straddle. 

Then  Apollyon  strodled  quite  over  the 
whole  breadth  of  the  way.  —  Bunyan,  PiU 
grinds  Progress,  Pt.  i.  p.  98. 

Stroke,  appetite. 

Lady  Ans.  God  bless  you,  Colonel,  you 
have  a  good  stroak  with  you. 

Col.  O,  Madam,  formerly  I  could  eat  all, 
but  now  I  leave  nothing. 

Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  ii.). 

Stroyal,  waste-all ;  spendthrift. 

A  giddie  braine  maister,  and  stroyal  his  knaue, 
Brings  ruling  to  mine,  and  thrift  to  his  graue. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  21. 

St  rum  mel,  cant  term  for  straw,  g.  v. 

The  bantling's  born ;  the  doxy's  in  the 
strummel,  laid  by  an  Autumn  mort  of  their 
own  crew  that  served  for  midwife. — Broome, 
Jovial  Crete,  Act  II. 

Strdmpetocracy,  the  rule  of  strum- 
pets ;  and  so  the  strumpets  exercising 
that  rule. 

The  strumpetocracy  sits  at  its  ease,  in  high- 
cushioned  lordliness. — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  80. 

Stub  is  defined  in  Peacock's  Manley 
and  Corringham  Glossary  "a  horse- 
shoe nail." 

Every  blacksmith's  shop  rung  with  the 
rhythmical  clang  of  busy  nammers,  beating 
out  old  iron  such  as  horseshoes,  nails,  or 
stuht,  into  the  great  harpoons. — Mrs.  Gaskell, 
Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  xvi. 


Stuck-up,  conceited.  In  the  first  ex- 
tract the  word  is  used  in  two  senses. 

"  He's  a  nasty  stuck-up  monkey,  that's 
what  I  consider  him,"  said  Mrs.  Squeers,  re- 
verting to  Nicholas.  *'  Supposing  he  is," 
said  Squeers, "  he's  as  well  stuck  up  in  our 
schoolroom  as  anywhere  else." — Dickens,  N. 
NickUby,  ch.  ix. 

Them  stuck-up  ways  may  do  with  the 
Church  folks  as  can't  help  themselves,  but 
they'll  never  do  with  us  Dissenters.— Mrs. 
Oliphant,  Salem  Chapel,  ch.  i. 

Stud  and  mud.  "  Stvd  and  mud 
walling,  building  without  bricks  or 
stones,  with  posts  and  wattles,  or  laths 
daubed  over  with  road-muck "  (Pea- 
cock, Manley  and  Corringham  Glos- 
sary), 

The  buildings  erected  then  were  either  of 
whole  logs,  or  of  timber  uprights  wattled, 
such  as  at  this  very  day  in  the  North  is  called 
stud  and  mud. — Archaol.,  ix.  Ill  (1780). 

Studding,  unsteady. 

Elder,  asp,  and  salowe,  evther  for  theyr 
wekenes  or  lyghtenesse,  make  holow,  start- 
ing, studding,  gaddynge  shaftes.  —  Ascham, 
Toxophilus,  p.  125. 

Studdle. 

I'll  tell  you  what,  G.,  said  I,  some  rascal's 
been  studdling  the  water ;  look  at  the  tail  of 
that  weed  there,  all  turned  up  and  tangled. — 
C.  Kingsley,  1852  (Life,  i.  273). 

Studentry,  body  of  students. 

"  If  I  take  in  gold,  I  pay  in  iron,"  answered 
Wulf,  drawing  half  out  of  its  sheath  the 
huge  broad  blade,  at  the  ominous  brown 
stains  of  which  the  studentry  recoiled. — 
Kingsley,  Hypatia,  ch.  xvi. 

Studied,  instructed. 

Can  it  stand  with  any  Christian  sense,  or 
reason  of  State  and  true  Religion,  to  exclude 
those  men,  beyond  any,  from  all  publick 
Councils  of  Church  and  State,  who  are  most 
in  God's  and  Christ's  stead,  best  studied  and 
acquainted  with  the  Divine  Will  ? — Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  643. 

The  State  of  Avignion, .  . .  lying  as  it  did 
within  the  limits  of  Provence,  and  being 
visited  with  such  of  the  French  Preachers  as 
had  been  studied  at  Geneva,  the  people  gener- 
ally became  inclined  unto  Calvin's  doctrines. 
— Heylin's  Hist,  of  the  Presbyterians,  p.  54. 

Stuff,  money. 

Has  she  got  the  stuff,  Mr.  Fag?  Is  she 
rich,  hey  ? — Sheridan,  Rivals,  I.  i. 

Stuffing,  padding  is  the  term  now 
more  generally  used. 

If  these  topics  be  insufficient  habitually  to 
supply  what  compositors  call  the  requisite 


STUGG Y 


(  630  )        SUBANTICHRIST 


stuffing, .  . .  recourse  U  to  be  bad  to  reviews, 
magazines,  and  journals  of  celebrity  for 
amusive  anecdotes.—  W.  Taylor,  1802  (Rob- 
berds's  Mem.,  i.  426). 

Stuggt,  thick -set:    a  Devonshire 

word. 

Like  enough  we  could  meet  them  man  for 
man  (if  we  chose  all  around  the  crown  and 
the  skirts  of  Exmoor),  and  show  them  what 
a  cross-buttock  means,  because  we  are  so 
stuggy  ;  but  in  regard  of  stature,  comeliness, 
and  bearing,  no  woman  would  look  twice  at 
us. — Blackmore,  Lorna  Doone,  ch.  v. 

Stump,  to  pay — usually  with  "up" 
annexed ;  to  pay  on  the  stump  or  nail 
(?) :  money  is  called  stumpy. 

Why  don't  you  ask  your  old  governor  to 
stump  up  ?— Sketches  by  Boz  (  Watkins  Tottle). 

Only  a  pound !  it's  only  the  price 
Of  hearing  a  concert  once  or  twice ; 
It's  only  the  fee 
Ton  might  give  Mr.  C, 
And  after  all  not  hear  his  advice ; 
But  common  prudence  would  bid  you  stump 
it, 
For  not  to  enlarge, 
It's  the  regular  charge 
At  a  Fancy  Fair  for  a  penny  trumpet. 

Hood,  Tale  of  a  Trumpet. 

Stum pl i no,  little  stump. 

No  poet's  rage  shall  root  our  stumps  and 
stumplings. —  Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  146. 

Stumpy,  money ;  that  which  is  paid 
down  on  the  nail  or  stump  (slang). 
See  extract  *.  v.  Spanish. 

Reduced  to  despair,  they  ransomed  them- 
selves by  the- payment  of  sixpence  ahead,  or, 
to  adopt  his  own  figurative  expression  in  all 
its  native  beauty,  "till  they  was  reglarly 
done  over,  and  forked  out  the  stumpy."  — 
Sketches  by  Bos  {The  First  Cabdriver). 

Down  with  the  stumpy  ;  a  tizzy  for  a  pot 
of  half-and-half. — C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke, 
ch.  ii. 

Stumpy,  short  and  stout;  in  the 
second  quotation  it  means,  worn  to  the 
stump. 

His  knock  at  the  door  was  answered  by  a 
stumpy  boy. — Sketches  by  Boz  {Mr.  Minns). 

Nothing  else  indicated  that  this  ground- 
floor  chamber  was  an  office,  except  a  huge 
black  inkstand,  in  which  stood  a  stumpy  pen, 
richly  crusted  with  ink  at  the  nib. — Thackeray, 
Shabby  Genteel  Story,  ch.  i. 

Stdpent,  stupefied. 

The  human  mind  stands  stupent;  ejacu- 
lates the  wish  that  such  gulf  of  falsehood 
would  close  itself,  before  general  delirium 
supervene. — Carlyle,  Diamond  Necklace,  ch. 
ii.,  note. 

Stutlk,  a  hot  bath.     Cf.  Stouph. 


Vitrurius  . . .  aaith,  Volvebant  kmcausti 
vaporetn,  that  is,  the  stuples  did  send  away  a 
waulming  bote  vapour.— Holland's  Comdex 
p.  681. 

Stupre,  rape. 

What  is  adultery?  The  unlawful  com- 
pany of  man  and  woman To  that  per- 

taineth  stupre,  incest,  fornication,  and  like 
abominations. — Becon,  iii.  611. 

Sty,  to  pig  together,  q.  v.  Shakespeare 
(Temp.  i.  2)  has  sty  =  to  shut  up  as  in 
a  sty. 

What  miry  wallowers  the  generality  of 
men  of  our  class  are  in  themselves,  and 
constantly  trough  and  sty  with.— Richardson, 
CI.  Harhwe,  viii.  168. 

Styan,  a  pimple  in  the  eye-lid, 
usually  called  a  sty,  q.  v.  in  N. 

I  know  that  a  styan,  as  it  is  called,  upon 
the  eyelid  could  be  easily  reduced,  though 
not  instantaneously,  by  the  slight  application 
of  any  golden  trinket.— De  Quincey,  Autob. 
Sketches,  i.  72. 

Stylet,  a  pointed  iron  instrument  or 
weapon ;  a  stiletto. 

Himself  has  past 
His  stylet  through  my  back. 

Browning,  In  a  Gondola. 

At  first  the  strong  hieroglyphics  graven  as 
with  iron  stylet  on  his  brow,  round  his  eye*, 
beside  his  month,  puzzled,  and  baffled  in- 
stinct.— Miss  Bronte,  Gillette,  ch.  xx. 

Stylish,  fashionable,  having  a  good 
air  or  style. 

Did  you  ever  see  her?  a  smart,  stylish  girl, 
they  say,  but  not  handsome. — Miss  Austin, 
Sense  and  Sensibility,  ch.  xxx. 

The  hoe  of  her  dress  was  black  too,  but 
its  fashion  was  so  different  from  her  sister's, 
— so  much  more  flowing  and  becoming — it 
looked  aa  stylish  as  the  other  looked  puritan- 
ical.— C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xxi. 

Stylishness,  fash io nab leness. 

Her  air,  though  it  had  not  all  the  decided 
pretension,  the  resolute  stylishness  of  Miss 
Thorpe's,  had  more  real  elegance.  —  Miss 
Austen,  Northanger  Abbey,  ch.  viii. 

Stylist,  the  owner  of  a  style  in 
writing. 

The  latter  [Addison]  while  notably  dis- 
tinguished as  a  stylist  for  ease,  a  quality  not 
to  be  imitated,  combines  with  it  the  extreme 
of  inexactness,  and,  more  particularly,  is 
altogether  anti-arohaio. — Hall,  Modem  Eng- 
lish, p.  10. 

Subantichrist,  a  lesser  antichrist 

These  two  main  reasons  of  the  prelates 
.  . .  are  the  very  womb  for  a  new  subantichrist 
to  breed  in. — Milton,  Reason  of  C%.  Gov.,  Bk. 
I.  ch.  vi. 


SUB-BLUSH 


(  631  )   SUBTER-SUBTERLATIVE 


Sub-blush,  to  blush  slightly. 

liaising  up  her  eyes,  sub-blushing  as  she  did 
it,  she  took  up  the  gauntlet.— -Sterne,  Tr. 
Shandy,  vi.  174. 

Subconcealed,  hidden  underneath. 

To  lye  grossly  and  without  art  is  a  pro- 
letarian vice,  but  to  do  it  with  address  and 
subconcealed  artifice  shews  an  academic  edu- 
cation.— North,  Examen,  p.  430. 

Subdiminish,  to  lessen  still  more 
something  which  had  been  already 
reduced. 

He  caused  new  Coines  (unknown  before) 
to  be  made. . .  .  But  the  worst  was  ..."  the 
weight  was  somewhat  abated."  .  .  .  Yea, 
succeeding  Princes,  following  this  pattern, 
have  sub-diminished  their  Coin  ever  since. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Wilts  (ii.  443). 

Subdivisionatb,  to  subdivide.  See 
extract  s.  v.  Division  ate. 

Subdue,  subjugation. 

Remilia's  love  is  far  more  either  priz'd 
Than  Jeroboam's  or  the  world's  subdue. 

Greene,  Looking  Glass,  p.  119. 

Subduement,  conquest.  The  only 
example  in  the  Diets,  is  from  Troilus 
and  Crestida,  iv.  5;  and  Johnson 
pronounces  it  to  be  u  a  word  not  used, 
nor  worthy  to  be  used."  It  is  not, 
however,  quite  peculiar  to  Shakespeare. 

He  sent  a  solemn  embassage  to  Pope 
Adrian  the  fourth  to  craue  leaue  for  the 
subdument  of  that  oountrey. — Daniel,  Hist, 
of  Eng.,  p.  81. 

Subindividual,  a  division  of  that 
which  is  individual. 

An  individual  cannot  branch  itself  into 
subindividual s  ;  but  this  word  angel  doth  in 
the  tenth  verse, "  Fear  none  of  those  things 
which  thou  shalt  suffer ;  behold,  the  devil 
shall  cast  some  of  you  into  prison." — Milton 
Animadv.  on  Remonst.,  sect.  13. 

Subjecture,  submission :  in  the  ex- 
tract the  sign  of  the  genitive  is,  as  often ' 
in  old  writers,  omitted. 

What  eye  can  look  through  cleere  Loue's 

spectacle, 
On  Vertue's  maiestie  that  shines  in  beauty, 
But  (as  to  nature's  diuin'st  miracle), 
Performes  not  to  it  all  subjecture  dutie? 
Davits,  Wittes  Pilgrimage,  st.  32. 

Subordain,  to  ordain  to  an  inferior 

position.     Davies  is  speaking  of  the 

subordination  of  Nature  to  God. 

For  she  is  finite  in  her  acts  and  powre, 
But  so  is  not  that  Powre  omnipotent 
That  Nature  subordain'd  chiefe  Governor 
Of  fading  creatures  while  they  do  endure. 
Davies,  Mirum  in  Modum,  p.  24. 


Subpenal,  subject  to  legal  authority 
and  penalties. 

These  meetings  of  Ministers  must  be 
authoritative,  not  arbitrary,  not  precarious, 
but  subpenall;  otherwise  the  restiveness, 
laziness,  wantonness,  and  factiousness  of 
some  will  mar  all;  either  forbearing  all 
meetings,  or  perturbing  them,  if  they  be  not 
kept  in  some  awe  as  well  as  order  by  their 
betters  and  superiours. — Gauden,  Tears  of  th» 
Church,  p.  483. 

Subbcriptive,  belonging  to  the  sub- 
scription or  signature. 

I  made  the  messenger  wait  while  I  tran- 
scribed it.  I  have  endeavoured  to  imitate 
the  subscriptive  part. — Richardson,  d.  Har* 
lowe,  viii.  78. 

Substancelesb,  unsubstantial ;  empty. 

If  rootless  thus,  thus  substanceless  thy  state, 
Go,  weigh  thy  dreams,  and  be  thy  hopes  thy 

fears 
The  counterweights. 

Coleridge,  Human  Life. 

Tou  have  made  that  life  substanceless  as  a 
ghost,  that  future  barren  as  the  grave. — 
Lytton,  What  will  he  do  with  it?  Bk.  IX. 
ch.  i. 

Subsycophant,  inferior  parasite. 

His  lordship  was  . .  .  ill-used  at  court  by 
the  Earl  of  Sunderland,  Jeffries,  and  their 
subsyeophants. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford, 
li.  222. 

Subtectacle,  tabernacle ;  covering. 

This  is  true  Faith's  iutire  subtectacle; 
Fropitiatorie  Sacrifice  for  sinne. 

Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  20. 
What  shall  I  say  ?    A  mass  of  miserie, 

Confusion's  Chaos,  Frail  tie's  Spectacle, 
The  World's  Disease,  Time's  vgliest  Prodigie, 
Th'  abuse  of  Men,  and  Shame's  subtectacle. 
Ibid.,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  10. 

Subterrene,  subterranean. 

The  earth  is  full  of  subterrene  fires. — 
Sandys,  Travels,  p.  202. 

Not  what  stands  above  ground,  but  what 
lies  unseen  under  it,  as  the  root  and  sub- 
terrene element  it  sprang  from  and  emblemed 
forth,  determines  the  value. — Carlyle,  Misc., 
iv.  138. 

Subterrestrial,  below  the  earth. 

The  most  reputable  way  of  entring  into 
this  subterrestrial  country  is  to  come  in  at 
the  fore-door. — T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  209. 

Subter-subterlative,  a  lower  degree 
of  comparison  than  the  (ordinarily) 
lowest. 

I  much  admire  that  none  have  since  begun 
an  order  of  Minor-minimos,  the  rather  be- 
cause of  the  Apostle's  words  of  himself, 
"  who  am  lease  than  the  least  of  all  saints." 


SVBTILIZER 


(  632  ) 


SUGAR 


...  as  I  may  say,  a  subter-subterlative  in  his 
humility.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  VI.  i.  17. 

Subtilizes,  a  splitter  of  haire ;  one 
who  would  draw  fine  distinctions. 
North  say e  of  Chief  Justice  Hales 
that  he  was  often 

A  slave  to  prejudice,  a  subtilizer,  and 
inventor  of  unheard  of  distinctions. — Lift 
of  Lord  Guilford,  i.  118. 

Subtleties,  dainties. 

At  the  end  of  the  dinner  they  have  bella- 
ria,  certain  subtleties,  custards,  sweet  and 
delicate  things. — Latimer,  i.  467. 

Suburbican,  neighbouring;  belong- 
ing to  the  suburbs. 

It . . .  extended  not  only  to  the  walls  of 
that  city,  but  to  the  suburbican  distributions. 
—Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  27. 

Suburbs,  used  as  a  singular  for 
suburb.    Cf.  Leads. 

From  which  Northward,  is  the  Market- 
place and  St.  Nicolas's  Church,  from  whence 
for  a  good  way  shoots  out  a  Suburbs  to  the 
North-east,  .  .  .  and  each  Suburbs  has  its 
particular  Church.  —  Defoe,  Tour  thro*  G. 
Britain,  iii.  213. 

Subventitious,  supporting. 

He  should  never  help,  aid,  supply,  succour, 
norgrant  them  any  subventitious  furtherance. 
—  Xlrquhart,  Rabelais,  Bk.  III.  ch.  zzxiii. 

Sub vi bile,  timid ;  deficient  in  manli- 
ness. 

This  put  abundance  of  people  of  subvirile 
tempers  into  a  twitter.— North,  Examen, 
p.  549. 

Suocedent,  the  success  or  result 

Such  is  the  mutability  of  the  inconstant 
Vulgar,  desirous  of  new  things  but  never 
contented ;  despising  the  time  being,  extol- 
ling that  of  their  forefathers,  and  ready  to 
act  any  mischief  to  try  by  alteration  the  suo- 
cedent.—Hist,  of  Edw.  II.,  p.  143. 

Succouress,  female  helper. 
Of  trauayl  of  Trojans   O  Queene,  thee 
succeres  only. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.  581. 

Succub,  a  succuba  ;  a  female  fiend. 

Our  Succub  Satanick  now  found 

She  touch 'd  his  soul  in  place  unsound. 

D'Urfey,  Athenian  Jilt. 

Succubinb,  pertaining  to  a  succuba, 
or  demon  in  female  shape. 

Oh  happy  the  slip  from  his  Succubine  grip 
That  saved  the  Lord  Abbot. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (S.  Nicholas). 

Succumbent,  submissive. 

Queen  Morphandra . .  useth  to  make  nature 
herself  not  only  succumbent  and  passive  to 
her  desires,  but   actually  subservient  and 


pliable  to  her  transmutations  and  changes. — 
Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  2. 

Sucking,  young ;  just  entering  on  a 
profession. 

My  enemies  are  but  sucking  criticks,  who 
would  fain  be  nibbling  ere  their  teeth  are 
come.— Dryden,  All  for  Love  (Preface). 

I  suppose  you're  a  young  barrister,  suckiny 
lawyer,  or  that  sort  of  thing,  because  you 
was  put  at  the  end  of  the  table,  and  nobody 
took  notice  of  you. — Thackeray,  Netpcoaus, 
oh.  v. 

Suckling,  sucker. 

The  wanton  Suckling  and  the  Vine 
Will  strive  for  th'  honour,  who  first  may 

With  their  green  Arms  incircle  thine 
To  keep  the  burning  Sun  away. 

Lawes,  Ayres  and  Dialogues,  p.  16. 

Sufficient,  sufficiency. 

One  man's  sufficient  is  more  available  than 
ten  thousands  multitude. — Sidney,  Arcadia, 
p.  452. 

Sufflate,  to  inspire. 

An  inflam'd  zeal-burning  mind 
Sufflated  by  the  Holy  Wind. 
Ward*  England's  Reformation,  c.  iii. 
p.  266. 

Suffrage,  to  elect  or  vote  for. 

Why  should  not  the  piety  and  conscience 
of  Englishmen,  as  members  of  the  church,  be 
trusted  in  the  election  of  pastors  to  func- 
tions that  nothing  concern  a  monarch,  as 
well  as  their  worldly  wisdoms  are  privileged 
as  members  of  the  state  in  suffraging  their 
knights  and  burgesses  to  matters  that  con- 
cern him  nearly. — Milton,  Reformation  in 
England,  Bk.  II. 

Suffragist.  Universal  suffragist  = 
one  who  goes  in  for  universal  suffrage. 

It  is  curious  that  one  born  and  bred  such 
an  ultra  exclusive  as  Louisa  Castlefort, 
should  be  obliged  after  her  marriage  imme- 
diately to  open  her  doors,  and  turn  ultra 
liberale,  or  an  universal  suffragist. — Miss 
Edgeicorth,  Helen,  ch.  xxxv. 

Suf front,  frontal  for  the  altar. 

Religion  might  have  a  dialect  proper  to 
itself,  as  paten,  chalice,  corporal,  albe,  para- 
phront,  suffront  for  the  hangings  above  and 
beneath  the  table.— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams, 
ii.  107. 

Sugar,  to  sweeten  with  sugar:  the 

examples  in  the  Diets,  are  only  of  the 

past  participle,  and  that  in  a  figurative 

sense,  "  sugared  speeches,"  &c. 

He  sugared,  and  creamed,  and  drank,  and 
spoke  not. — Miss  Edgeworth,  Helen,  ch. 
in  vi. 

When  I  sugar  my  liquor,  I  like  to  feel 
that  I  am  benefiting  the  country  by  main- 


SUGARCHEST  (  633  ) 


SUNBURNT 


taining  tradesmen  of  the  right  colour.— Q. 
Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch.  li. 

SUGABCHEST. 

To  flesh  and  blood  this  Tree  but  wormewood 

seemes, 
How  ere  the  same  may  be  of  Suger-chest. 

Davits,  Holy  Roods  (Dedic). 

Sugar-plate,  sweet-meats. 

There  be  also  other  like  epigrammes  that 
were  sent  vsually  for  new  yeares  giftes,  or 
to  be  printed  or  put  vpon  their  banketting 
dishes  of  sugar-plate  or  of  marchpanes,  and 
such  other  dainty  meates. — Puttenham,  Eng. 
JPoesie,  Bk.  I.  ch,  xxz. 

SUITOR,  tO  WOO. 

Counts  a  many,  and  Dukes  a  few, 
A  suitoring  came  to  my  father's  Hall. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (S.  Nicholas), 

Suitorcide,  suitor-killing.  Sydney 
Smith  speaks  of  "  the  suitorcide  delays 
of  the  Court  of  Chancery ; "  see  the 
passage  *.  v.  Plousiocracy. 

Suitt,  fitting ;  suitable. 

In  loue,  in  care,  in  diligence  and  dutie, 
Be  thou  her  Sonne,  sith  this  to  sonues  is 
sutie. 

Davits,  Holy  Roode,  p.  18. 

Sulck,  to  plough,  or  furrow.  See 
another  extract  from  Stanyhurst  *.  v. 
Plowswain. 

Soom  synck  too  bottoms,  sulcking  the 
surges  asunder. — Stanyhurst,  &n.,  i.  117. 

Sulk,  a  furrow.  The  speaker  is  a 
pedantic  schoolmaster. 

The  surging  sulks  of  the  Sandiferous  Seas. 
— Sidney,  fVanstead  Play,  p.  619. 

Sulks,  a  fit  of  sulkiness. 

She  is  uncommonly  well  read,  and  says 
confounded  clever  things  too  when  she  wakes 
up  out  of  the  sulks. — C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke, 
en.  xvi. 

Tib  an  honest  lad,  and  a'  shall  have  her, 
gien  she  will  but  leave  her  sulks,  and  consent. 
— Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  lii. 

She  thought  that  sulks  would  be  her  game ; 
so  sulks  it  was;  to  be  carried  on  until  the 
Vicar  relented. — H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry  Ham- 
lyn,  ch.  iz. 

Sullen,  sullenness  ;  the  plural,  "  the 
suUens"  is  not  uncommon. 

If  his  Majesty  were  moody,  and  not  in- 
clin'd  to  his  propositions,  he  would  fetoh 
him  out  of  that  sullen  with  a  pleasant  jest. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  84. 

Sullen -sick,  sick  with  ill -humour. 
Halliwell  says  " sick  of  the  sullen*" 
occurs  in  Lilly. 


If  the  state  ...  lie  sullen-sick  of  Naboth's 
vineyard,  the  lawyer  is  perchance  not  sent 
for,  but  gone  to. — Adams,  i.  830. 

On  the  denyall,  Ahab  falls  sullen-sick. — 
Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  II.  vii.  7. 

Summer  bird,  a  cuckold ;  the  refer- 
ence being  to  the  cuckoo. 

Some  other  knave 
Shall  dub  her  husband  a  summer  bird. 
Scholehouse  of  Women,  1560. 

So  the  poore  man  was  cruelly  beaten,  and 
made  a  Summer's  Bird. — Sackful  of  News, 
1673. 

Summerly,  belonging  to  summer ; 
summerlike. 

As  summerly  as  June  and  Strawberry-bill 
may  sound,  I  assure  you  I  am  writing  to  you 
by  the  fire-side. —  Walpole  to  Mann,  ii.  305 
(1749). 

The  weather  is  but  lukewarm,  and  I  should 
choose  to  have  all  the  windows  shut,  if  my 
smelling  was  not  muoh  more  summerly  than 
my  feeling ;  but  the  frowziness  of  obsolete 
tapestry  and  needlework  is  insupportable. — 
Ibid.,  Letters,  iii.  370  (1771). 

Summer-ripe,  quite  ripe. 

It  is  an  injury,  or  in  his  word,  a  curse  upon 
corn,  when  it  is  summer-ripe  not  to  be  cut 
down  with  the  sickle. — Hacket,  Life  of  Wil- 
liamst  ii.  228. 

Summer? room,  summer-house ;  which 
is  the  more  usual  word.  N.  has  sum- 
mer-parlour. 

On  the  summit  of  this  Hill  his  Lordship  is 
building  a  Summer-room. — Defoe,  Tour  thro1 
G.  Britain,  i.  335. 

Summon,  a  summons. 

Upon  these  so  hasty  summons  we  addressed 
ourselves  towards  him.  —  Munday,  English 
Romavne  Life,  1590  (Harl.  Misc.,  vii.  189). 

Estner  durst  not  come  into  the  presence 
till  the  sceptre  had  given  her  admission ;  a 
summon  of  that  emboldens  her. — Adams,  iii. 
250. 

Sumph,  a  simpleton. 

"And  yon,  ye  silly  sumph"  she  said  to 
poor  Yellowley, "  what  do  ye  stand  glowering 
there  for  ?  "—Scott,  Pirate,  i.  104. 
Put  your  conjuring  cap  on,  consider  and  see, 
If  you  can't  beat  that  stupid  old  sumph  with 

his  tea. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  {Lord  ofThoulouse). 

A  very  sumph  art  thou,  I  wis.  —  Nayler, 
Reynard  the  Fox,  p.  37. 

Sumpt,  expense  ;  sumptuousness. 

They  spake  dryly,  more  to  taunt  the  sumpt 
of  our  show  than  to  seem  to  know  the  cause 
of  our  coming.  —  Patteny  Exped.  to  Scotl., 
1548  (Eng.  Garner.,  iii.  74). 

Sunburnt.      Aschara  applies  the 


SUNDA  YS 


(  634  )       SUPERNUMEROUS 


word  curiously  to  superficial  scholars, 
whose  mind  receives  as  transient  an 
impression  from  what  they  read  as  the 
face  does  from  exposure  to  the  summer 
sun. 

But  to  dwell  in  epitomes  and  books  of 
common  places,  and  not  to  bind  himself  daily 
by  orderly  study  to  read  with  all  diligence 
principally  the  holiest  Scripture,  and  withal 
the  best  doctors,  and  so  to  learn  to  make  true 
difference  betwixt  the  authority  of  the  one 
and  the  counsel  of  the  other,  maketh  so  many 
seeming  and  sunburnt  ministers  as  we  have ; 
whose  learning  is  gotten  in  a  summer  heat, 
and  washed  away  with  a  Christmas  snow 
again. — Schoolmaster,  p.  137. 

Sundays.  Month  of  Sundays,  a 
common  expression  for  an  indefinite 
long  time. 

I  haven't  heard  more  fluent  or  passionate 
English  this  month  of  Sundays. — C.  Kingsley, 
Alton  Locke,  ch.  xxvii. 

Sun  derm  ent,  separation. 

I  saw  him  ill,  oh  how  ill !  I  felt  myself 
well ;  it  was  therefore  apparent  who  must 
be  the  survivor  in  case  of  sunder  me  rU. — Mad. 
D'ArMay,  Diary,  vii.  318. 

Sunshine.  To  be  in  the  sunshine  = 
to  have  taken  too  much  to  drink. 

As  each  snap  had  been  followed  by  a  few 
glasses  of  "  mixture,"  containing  a  less  liberal 
proportion  of  water  than  the  articles  he  him- 
self labelled  with  that  broad  generic  name, 
he  was  in  that  condition  which  his  groom 
indicated  with  poetic  ambiguity  by  saying 
that  *'  master  had  been  in  the  sunshine." — G. 
Eliot,  Janet's  Repentance,  ch.  i. 

Supellectile,  pertaining  to  furni- 
ture (Lat.  supellex).  In  the  extract  it 
seems  =  ornamental ;  pertaining,  that 
is.  to  the  adornments  not  the  fabric. 

The  heart  of  the  Jews  is  empty  of  faith 
.  .  .  garnished  with  a  few  broken  traditions 
and  ceremonies;  supellectile  complements 
instead  of  substantial  graces. — Adams,  ii.  37. 

Super- ceremonious,  too  much  ad- 
dicted to  ceremonies. 

Most  (if  not  all)  of  them  were  .  .  .  con* 
demned  before  they  were  tryed  for  super- 
stitious and  Super 'ceremonious  Prelates. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  625. 

Superconkormity,  over  conformity. 
Gauden  refers  to  those  who  wore  over 
precise  in  ceremonies,  &c,  as  to  which 
the  Church  had  laid  down  no  precise 
rules. 

I  never  had  either  heart  or  hand,  tongue 
or  pen,  to  assert  anything  that  was  by  private 
or  particular  men's  fancies  brought  in  ;  either 
to  a  peevish  non-conformity,  or  to  a  prag- 


matiok  super-conformity. — Gauden,  Tears  of 
the  Church,  p.  113. 

Supercritical,  too  nice ;  hyper- 
critical is  the  more  common  and  more 
correct  word. 

There  are  some  supercilious  censors  and 
supercriticall  criticks  who  cavill  at,  disown, 
disgrace,  and  deny  this  glorious  Name  ol 
the  Church  of  England. -Gauden,  Tears  of 
the  Church,  p.  15. 

Supererogatorian,  the  word  is  coined 
by  Mr.  Selby  in  regard  to  Miss  Byron's 
relations  because  they  believed  her  per- 
fect, or  even  more  perfect  than  she 
need  be. 

With  all  your  relations  indeed,  their  Har- 
riet can  not  be  in  fault .  . .  Supererogatorian* 
all  of  them  (I  will  make  words  whenever  I 
please)  with  their  attributions  to  you.  — 
Richardson,  Grandison,  i.  35. 

Super- fidel,  believing  too  much ; 
superstitious.  See  extract  0.  v.  Semi- 
fidel. 

Superfube,  to  pour  on  the  top  cf 
something  else. 

Dr.  Slayer  shewed  us  an  experiment  of  a 
wonderful  nature,  pouring  first  a  very  cold 
liquor  into  a  glass,  and  superfusing  on  it  an- 
other.— Evelyn,  Diary,  Dec.  13, 16S5. 

Superhumeral,  a  burden  ;  that  which 
is  placed  on  the  shoulders. 

Two  differences  I  find  between  Him  and 
others :  the  faults  and  errors  of  their  govern- 
ment, others  do  bear  and  suffer  —  indeed 
suffer  them,  but  suffer  not  for  them.  He 
did  both;  endured  them,  and  endured  for 
them  heavy  things  ;  a  strange  superhumeral, 
the  print  whereof  was  to  be  seen  on  his 
shoulders. — Andrews*,  Sermons,  i.  25. 

Suteriorness,  superiority. 

I  don't  see  the  great  superiomess  of  learn- 
ing, if  it  can't  keep  a  man's  temper  out  of  a 
passion. — Mad.  D'ArMay,  Camilla,  Bk.  III. 
ch.  vi. 

Supernoditie,  a  burlesque  title  = 
supreme  foolishness. 

There  is  one  great  foole  of  their  owne 
ohusing  .  . .  who  ...  to  the  subjects  of  his 
Supernoditie,  set  downe  certaine  articles  to 
be  obserued  and  carefooly  lookt  unto. — 
Breton,  Strange  Newes,  p.  6. 

Supernumerary,  a  theatrical  term 
for  a  person  employed  to  go  on  as  one 
of  a  crowd  in  a  play,  or  as  a  mute  figure. 

They  have  been  purchased  of  some  wretched 
supernumeraries  or  sixth-rate  actors. — Sketches 
from  Bos  (Brokers1  Shops). 

Supernumerous,  over-many;  super- 
abundant. 


SUPEROMNIVALENT    (  635  ) 


SUPPLEJACK 


The  Earl  of  Oxford  was  heavily  fined  for 
sntpernumerous  atteudance. — Fuller >,  Worthies, 
i\  jrthampton  (ii.  182). 

Superomnivalent,  supremely  power- 
ful over  all. 

God  by  powre  super-omnivalent. — Davies, 
Mi  rum  in  Modum,  p.  22. 

Superplus,  excess;  superfluity.  R. 
and  L.  have  superplusage :  overplus 
and  surplusage  are  more  common  than 
either. 

Yon  will  have  riches  more  than  enough 
for  every  natural  want,  for  every  rational 
wish,  and  it  will  sweeten  your  enjoyment 
of  them,  and  draw  down  the  blessings  of 
Heaven  on  your  head,  to  employ  the  super- 
plus  in  acts  of  private  benevolence  and  public 
spirit.— Johnston,  Chrysal,  i.  18. 

Superpolitic,  specially  politic  (used 
disparagingly)  :  in  Milton  perhaps  the 
meaning  is  that  the  axiom  is  at  the 
head  of  all  politics  an  infallible  prin- 
ciple. 

Of  late  years  that  superpolitic  and  irre- 
fragable society  of  the  Loyolists  have  propt 
up  the  Ivy. — Howell,  Dodona's  Grove,  p.  60. 

PThe  Jesuits]  have  invented  this  super- 
politic  aphorism,  as  one  terms  it,  One  Pope 
aud  one  King. — Milton,  Reformation  in  Eng., 
Bk.  II. 

God  hath  satisfied  either  the  superpolitick 
or  the  simple  sort  of  ministers  with  their  own 
delusions. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p. 
251. 

Supersemination,  a  sowing  on  the 
top  of  something  previously  sown.  The 
Vulgate  (S.  Matt.  xiii.  25)  has,  il  Venit 
inimicus  ejus  et  superseminavit  zizania 
in  medio  tritici" 

No  good  Christian  can  dislike  the  Hus- 
bandman's sowing  of  wheat,  but  every  good 
Christian  doth  dislike  the  envious  man's 
su per semination,  or  sowing  of  tares  above  the 
wheat. — Bramhall,  ii.  132. 

They  were  no  more  than  tares  ....  and 
being  of  another  sowing  (a  supersemination, 
as  the  Vulgar  reads  it)  and  sown  on  purpose 
by  a  cunning  and  industrious  enemy  to  raise 
an  harvest  to  himself,  they  neither  can  pre- 
tend to  the  same  antiquity,  and  much  less  to 
the  purity  of  that  sacred  seed  with  which  the 
field  was  sown  at  first  by  the  heavenly  Hus- 
bandman.— Heylin,  Reformation  (Dedication). 

Supersensual,  above  the  senses  ;  im- 
material— sitpra-sensual  occurs  in  quo- 
tation *.  v.  Bottle- boy. 

In  spiritual  supersensual  matters  no  belief 
is  possible. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  I. 
ch.  ii. 

In  our  inmost  hearts  there  is  a  sentiment 
which  links  the  ideal  of  beauty  with  the 


Supersensual. — Lytton,  What  will  he  do  with 
it?  Bk.  VII.  ch.  xxiii. 
For  such  a  supersensual  sensual  bond 
As  that  gray  cricket  chirpt  of  at  our  hearth — 
Touch  flax  with  flame — a  glance  will  serve — 
the  liars ! — Tennyson,  Merlin  and  Vivien. 

Supbrstructor,  one  who  builds  up 
on  anything. 

Was  Oates's  narrative  a  foundation  or  a 
superstructure,  or  was  he  one  of  the  super- 
structors  or  not  ? — North,  Examen,  p.  193. 

Super-supererogate  to  do  infinitely 
more  than  was  required. 

These  super-supererogating  workes 
Proceeding  from  Thy  superinducing  loue 
Might  make  us  (though  farre  worse  than 

Jewes  or  Turkes) 
To  entertaine  them  as  Thou  dost  approue. 

Davies,  Microcosmos,  p.  17. 

Superterranean,  above  the  earth. 
The  "  superterranean  quarry "  in  the 
extract  is  an  old  castle  on  the  Rhine. 

It  was  one  of  those  superterranean  quarries 
which  are  sometimes  seen  to  spread  them- 
selves to  such  a  miraculous  extent  in  that 
region. — Mrs.  Trollope,  Michael  Armstrong, 
ch.  xxxiii. 

Supbrvibal,  supervision ;  superin- 
tendence. 

Gilders,  carvers,  upholsterers,  and  picture 
cleaners  are  labouring  at  their  several  forges, 
and  I  do  not  love  to  trust  a  hammer  or  brush 
without  my  own  supervisal. —  Walpole,  Let- 
ters, ii.  446  (1763) . 

Supervisit,  to  supervise ;  to  watch 
over. 

Lock  up  this  vessel  with  the  key  of  faith, 
bar  it  with  resolution  against  sin,  guard  it 
with  supervisiting  diligence,  and  repose  it  in 
the  bosom  of  thy  Saviour. — Adams,  i.  261. 

Supper,  to  take  or  to  give  supper. 

This  night  we  cut  down  all  our  corn,  and 
many  persons  suppered  here. — Meeke,  Diary, 
Aug.  27, 1691. 

Kester  was  suppering  the  horses. — Mrs. 
Gasktll,  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  vi. 

Suppering,  supper. 

The  breakfasting-time,  the  preparations 
for  dinner, . .  .  and  the  supperings  will  fill  up 
a  great  part  of  the  day  in  a  very  necessary 
manner. — Richardson,  Pamela,  ii.  62. 

Supple-jack,  a  strong,  pliant  cane. 

Take,  take  my  supple-jack, 

Play  St.  Bartholomew  with  many  a  back, 

Flay  half  the  Academic  imps  alive. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  133. 

He  was  in  form  and  spirit  like  a  supple- 
jack—yielding,  but  tough ;  though  he  bent, 


SUPREMITY 


(  636  ) 


SUSP1RI0US 


he  never  broke.— Irving,  Sketch  Book  (Sleepy 
Hollow). 

Supremity,  supremacy. 

Henry  the  Eighth  .  .  .  without  leave  or 
liberty  from  the  Pope  (whose  Supremity  he 
had  suppressed  in  his  dominions  .  .  .  wrote 
himself  King  [of  Ireland].— Fuller,  Worthies, 
ch.  vi. 

Surbrave,  to  bedizen  ;  make  fine ;  or 
if  *  their*  refers  to  the  bands  of  the 
other  nations,  surbrave  would  =  to  ex- 
cel in  finery. 

The  Persians  proud  (th'  Empyre  was  in  their 

hands) 
With  plates  of  gold  surbraued  all  their  bands. 

Hudson's  Judith,  III.  22. 

Surceasse,  cessation. 

Tee  priests  also  night  Druidaa,  your  sacri- 
fices leaw'd 

And  barbarous  rites,  which  were  forlet,  in 
wars  Surceasse,  renew 'd. 

Holland's  Camden,  p.  13. 

Surchargement,  surplus. 

The  apt  mixture  of  their  phlegmatique  and 
sanguine  complexions,  with  their  promis- 
cuous ingendnng  without  any  tye  of  mar- 
riage, yeelded  that  con  tin  nail  surchargement 
of  people,  as  they  were  forced  to  vnburthen 
themselves  on  other  countries. — Daniel,  Hist, 
of  Eng.,  p.  23. 

Surcloy,  to  surfeit. 

Last  night  with  surfet  and  with  sleep  sur- 

cloyd, 
This  careles  step-dame  her  own  child  o'rlayd. 
Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  490. 
Who  readeth  much  and  never  meditates, 

Is  like  a  greedy  eater  of  much  food, 
Who  so  surcloy es  his  stomach  with  his  cates 
That  commonly  they  doo  him  little  good. 
Ibid.,  Quadrains  of  Pibrac,  st.  62. 

Sureo,  assured. 

For  ever  blinded  of  our  clearest  light ; 
For  ever  lamed  of  our  sured  might. 

Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  443. 

Suroent,  swelling. 

But  yet,  my  sisters,  when  the  surgent  seas 
Have  ebb'd  their  fill,  their  waves  do  rise 

again. 

Greene,  Alphonsus,  King  of  Arragon,  Act  I. 

Surlyboot8,  a  surly  fellow.  Cf .  Lazy- 
boots. 

A  sudden  jolt  their  slumbers  broke, 
They  started  all,  and  all  awoke ; 
When  Surly-boots  yawn'd  wide  and  spoke. 
Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  22. 

Surmisant,  one  who  surmises. 

He  meant  no  reflection  upon  her  ladyship's 
informants,  or  rather  surmisants  (as  he  might 
call  them),  be  they  who  they  would. — 
Richardson,  CI.  Harloxoe,  vi.  179. 


Surprise  able,  surprising.  The 
speaker  in  the  extract  is  an  uneducated 
person. 

It's  rather  surpriseable  to  me  he  should 
never  have  thought  of  it— Mad.  IFArblay, 
Cecilia,  Bk.  x.  ch.  vi. 

Surprisement,  surprisal. 

Many  skirmishes  interpassed  with  surprise- 
merits  of  castles. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  47. 

Surrebound,  to  echo  repeatedly. 

Both  sides  ran  together  with  a  sound, 
That  earth  resounded,  and   great    heav'n 
about  did  surrebound. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xxi.  361. 

Surround,  to  go  round.' 

I  finde  that  my  name-sake,  Thomas  Fuller, 
was  pilot  in  the  ship  called  the  Desire, 
wherein  Captain  Cavendish  surrounded  the 
world. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI.  xi.  (Dedica- 
tion). 

Surroundings,  things  around. 

The  ceiling  and  walls  were  smoky,  and 
all  the  surroundings  were  dark  enough  to 
throw  into  relief  the  human  figures. — G. 
Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  xxxiv. 

Surstylb,  to  surname. 

Gildas,  sirnamed  the  Wise, .  .  .  was  also 
otherwise  sur-stiled  Querulus,  because  the 
little  we  have  of  his  writings  is  only  %<A 
Complaint." — Fuller,  Worthies,  Somerset  (ii. 
286). 

Suspectible,  liable  to  suspicion.  It 
will  be  seen  that  this  word  which  Poe 
craved  was  already  in  existence ;  sus- 
pectful  will  be  found  in  more  than  one 
passage  in  Milton's  Prose  Works. 

As  poverty  is  generally  suspectible,  the 
widow  must  be  got  handsomely  aforehand, 
and  no  doubt  but  she  is. — Richardson,  CI. 
Harlowe,  iii.  358. 

When  we  speak  of  "  a  suspicious  man," 
we  may  mean  either  one  who  suspects,  or 
one  to  be  suspected.  Our  language  needs 
either  the  adjective  "  suspectf  ul w  or  the 
adjective  "  suspectable." — E.  A.  Foe,  Margin- 
alia (iii.  606). 

Suspenders,  braces. 

Correspondences  are  like  small-clothes 
before  the  invention  of  suspenders;  it  is 
impossible  to  keep  them  up. — Sidney  Smith, 
Letters,  1841. 

Susprrcollated,  hung ;  sus  per  coll. , 
a  ludicrous  coined  word. 

None  of  us  Duvals  have  been  suspercollated 
to  my  knowledge. — Thackeray,  Denis  Duval, 
ch.  i. 

Suspirious,  sighing.  Sydney  Smith 
(i.  166)  speaks  of  Methodist  preachers 


SUSS  A  PINE 


(  637  ) 


SWANNY 


as     "the     lacrymal    and     suspirious 
clergy." 

Sussapine,  a  kind  of  silk  (?). 

Ill  deck  my  Alvida 
la  sendal  and  in  costly  sussapine. 

Greene,  Looking  Glass  for  London, 
p.  128. 

Sustentate,  to  sustain. 

He  was  only  the  first  of  a  long  list  of  holy 
and  hard-hitting  ones  who  have,  by  this 
divine  restorative,  been  sustentated,  fortified, 
corroborated,  and  consoled. — Reade,  Cloister 
and  Hearth,  ch.  ii. 

SUSTINENT,  Support. 

Tea  make  vs  make  the  Orphane*s  home  our 

brest, 
And  our  right  arme  the  Weedowe's  sustinent. 
Da  vies,  Microcosmos,  p.  70. 

Susurrant,  whispering. 

The  soft  susurrant  sigh,  and  gently  murmur- 
ing kiss. — Poetry  of  Antijacobin,  p.  146. 

SUTHKRY.  # 

All  the  devils  of  hel  together 

Stood  in  aray,  in  suche  apparel 

As  for  that  day  there  meetly  fel ; 

Their  homes  wel  gilt,  their  clawes  ful  clene, 

Their  tayles  wel  kempt,  and,  as  I  ween, 

With  suthery  butter  their  bodies  anointed ; 

I  never  saw  devils  so  wel  appointed. 

Heywood,  FourPs.  (Dodsley,  O.  PI.,  i.  112). 

Suycenebs,  Swiss:  the  extract  is  a 
note  of  Udal's  own. 

The  Suyceners  are  the  whole  nacion  of 
Suycerlande  which  is  called  in  Latine  Helue- 
tia,  and  the  people  of  Heluetii,  menne  of 
soche  sorte  that  for  money  they  will  fight, 
they  care  not  under  whose  banner.  And 
imbjectes  they  ar  vnto  no  prince,  ne  do  any 
thing  passe  on  life  or  death,  heauen  or  helle. 
—TJdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  307. 

Suycerlande,  Switzerland.    See  *.  v. 

SUYCENERS. 

Swab,  an  awkward  fellow.  Cf. 
Swappes. 

He  swore  accordingly  at  the  lieutenant, 
and  called  him  .  .  .  sicab  and  lubbard. — 
Smollett,  Rod.  Random,  ch.  xxiv. 

Swabbers.  "  Certain  cards  at  whist 
by  which  the  holder  was  entitled  to  a 
part  of  the  stakes  were  termed  swab- 
bers" (Halliwell).  A  particular  form 
of  whist  seems  to  have  been  called 
whisk  and  swabbers. 

As  whisk  and  swabbers  was  the  game  then 
in  the  chief  vogue,  they  were  oblig'd  to 
look  for  a  fourth  person,  in  order  to  make 
up  their  parties. — Fielding,  Jonathan  Wild, 
Bk.  I.  ch.  iv. 

The  society  of  half  a  dozen  of  clowns  to 


play  at  whisk  and  swabbers  would  give  her 
more  pleasure  than  if  Ariosto  himself  were 
to  awake  from  the  dead. — Scott,  Rob  Roy,  i. 
225.  y 

Swag,  plunder ;  booty ;  that  which 
swings  heavily.  See  quotation  s.  v. 
Crack. 

"  It's  all  arranged  about  bringing  off  the 
swag,  is  it  ?  "  asked  the  Jew.  Sikes  nodded. 
— Dickens,  Oliver  Twist,  ch.  xix. 

Twas  awful  to  hear,  as  she  went  along,  .  . . 
The  dark  allusion,  or  bolder  brag 
Of  the  dexterous  dodge,  and  the  lots  of  swag. 

Hood,  Tale  of  a  Trumpet. 

He  will  shake  all  that  nonsense  to  blazes 
when  he  finds  himself  out  under  the  moon 
with  thejwag  on  one  side  and  the  gallow  son 
the  other. — Reade,  Never  too  late  to  mend, 
ch.  zlvi. 

Swainino,  love-making,  or  (to  ex- 
plain one  slang  word  by  another) 
spooning. 

His  general  manner  had  a  good  deal  of 
what  in  female  slang  is  called  swaining. — 
Mrs.  Irollope,  Michael  Armstrong,  ch.  i. 

Sw allowable,  credible. 

The  reader,  who  for  the  first  time  meets 
with  an  anecdote  in  its  hundredth  edition, 
and  its  most  mitigated  and  swallowable  form, 
may  very  naturally  receive  it  in  simple  good 
faith. — Jf ait  land,  Essays  on  the  Reformation, 
p.  315. 

Swallow-pipe,  gullet ;  wind-pipe. 

Each  paunch  with  guttling  was  so  swelled, 
Not  one  bit  more  could  pass  your  swallow- 
pipe. —  Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  147. 

Swallow's  tail,   a  tongue  always 
wagging.     There  may  be  a  sort  of  pun 
on  swallow-tail  =  an  arrow,  q.  v. 
He'd  tire  your  ear  with  pentagons, 
With  bastions,  ravellings,  and  half-moons, 
With  counterscarp  and  parapet, 
Bampires  and  horn-works  make  you  sweat ; 
And  all  your  outworks  would  assail 
With  his  eternal  swallow's  tail. 

D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  canto  i. 

Swallow-tail,  an  arrow. 

The  English  then  strode  forward,  and 
drew  their  howstrings — not  to  the  breast,  as 
your  Highland  kerne  do,  but  to  the  ear— and 
sent  off  their  volleys  of  swallow-tails  before 
we  could  call  on  St.  Andrew. — Scott,  Fair 
Maid  of  Perth,  ii.  223. 

Swanking,  big ;  strapping. 

'  There  goes  a  tall  ensign,  there's  a  sivanking 
fellow  for  you !— T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  192. 

Swanny,  swan-like. 

Once  more  bent  to  my  ardent  lips  the 
swanny  glossiness  of  a  neck  late  so  stately. — 
Richardson,  CI.  Harloice,  iv.  22. 


SWAP  PES 


(638  ) 


SWEATER 


SwArPES,  a  term  of  reproach,  like 
Swab,  q.  v. 

And  yet  this  swappes  that  neuer  bloodied 

sword. 
Is  but  a  coward,  braue  it  as  he  list. 

Breton,  PasquiFs  Madcappe,  p.  6. 

Swarded,  turfed. 

This  awarded  circle  into  which  the  lime-walk 
brings  us. 

Mrs.  Browning,  Lady  Geraldine*s 
Courtship. 

Swarf,  to  swoon.  H.  gives  it  as  a 
Northern  word,  but  Master  Erasmus 
Holiday,  the  speaker  in  the  subjoined 
extract,  lived  in  the  Vale  of  White- 
horse.     Scott,  however,  did  not. 

The  poor  vermin  was  likely  at  first  to 
swarf  for  very  hanger. — Scott,  Kenilworth, 
i.  173. 

Swarth,  sward;  usually,  however, 
it  means  a  swathe ;  at  full  swarth  — 
in  full  awing  ;  the  idea  may  be  that  of 
the  sweep  of  a  scythe  making  swarths. 

Though  his  design  miscarried,  his  malice 
was  at  full  swarth. — Gentleman  Instructed, 
p.  529. 

The  mountains  instead  of  heath  are 
covered  with  a  fine  green  swarth,  affording 
pasture  to  innumerable  flocks  of  sheep.— 
Smollett,  Humphrey  Clinker,  ii.  101. 
For  I  have  loved  the  rural  walk  through  lanes 
Of  grassy  swarth  close  cropp'd  by  nibbling 

sheep. — Cowper,  The  Sofa,  110. 

Swarthiness,  pallor. 

Rich  gormandisers  have  not  been  acquaint- 
ed indeed  with  this  misery, . .  .  but  the  poor, 
the  poor  have  grieved,  groaned  under  this 
burden,  whiles  cleanness  of  teeth  and  swar- 
thiness of  look  were  perceived  in  the  common 
face. — Adams,  i.  420. 

Swart- rutting,  fierce;  swaggering; 
like  a  German  horseman  or  swart-rutter, 
q.  v.  in  H. 

I  sildome  fall  into  your  hands,  as  being 
quiet,  and  making  no  brawls  to  have  wounds, 
as  swartruttina  Velvet  -  Breeches  dooth. — 
Greene,  Quip  for  an  Upstart  Courtier  {Harl. 
Misc.,  v.  406). 

Swash ly,  in  a  swashing  manner; 
lashing  about. 

Their  tavls  with  croompled  knot  twisting 
swashlye  they  wrigled.  —  Stanyhurst,  *En., 
ii.  220. 

Swashruter,  a  dashing  rider,  ap- 
plied in  extract  to  a  strong  wind.  Cf. 
swart-rutter  in  H. 

Then  Sootherne  swashruter  hufBiug 
Flundge  us  on  high  sheluefiats. 

Stanyhurst,  j£n.,  i.  522. 


Swatch,  a  pattern ;  a  shred  or  piece 
cut  off. 

Consider  but  those  little  swatches 
Used  by  the  fair  sex,  called  patches. 
Ward,  England's  Reformation,  canto  L 
p.  14. 

There  was  likewise  the  allurement  of  some 
compendious  show  of  wild  beasts :  in  short, 
a  swatch  of  everything  that  the  heart  of 
man  has  devised  for  such  occasions,  to  wile 
away  the  bawbee.  —  Gait,  The  Provost,  ch. 

ZVUl. 

Swathel  -  binding,  the  linen  ban- 
dages in  which  infants  were  once 
swaddled  or  swathed.  N.  has  swath- 
band:  and  swathing-band  is  in  Hall's 
Satires,  IV.  iv.  103. 

I  swaddled  him  in  a  scurvy  swathel-bind- 
ing.—Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xiv. 

Swathle,  to  swaddle. 

Betweene  euery  arch  the  corses  lie  ranckt 
one  by  another,  shrouded  in  a  number  of 
folds  of  linnen,  swathled  with  bands  of  the 
same.— Sandys,  Travels,  p.  133. 

Swear  by,  to  place  great  confidence 
in  some  person  or  thing. 

I  have  no  very  good  opinion  of  Mrs. 
Charles's  nursery-maid.  .  .  .  Mrs.  Charles 
quite  swears  by  her,  I  know.— Mi ss  Austen, 
Persuasion,  ch.  vi. 

"  I  simply  meant  to  ask  if  you  are  one  of 
those  who  swear  by  Lord  Verulam."  **I 
swear  by  no  man.  I  do  not  swear  at  all ;  not 
on  philosophical  subjects  especially." — Miss 
Edyeworth,  Helen,  ch.  xiv. 

Sweat,  the  sweating-sickness.  The 
first  extract  is  from  the  Parish  Register 
of  Loughborough,  Leicester.  The  ru- 
bric was  first  inserted  in  the  Prayer- 
Book  of  1552. 


June,  1551.  The  Swatt  called  new 
quyntance,  alles  Stoupe  Knave,  and  know 
thy  master  began  the  xxiiiith  of  this  monethe 
1551. — Archafol.,  xxzviii.  107. 

In  the  time  of  the  Plague,  Sweat,  or  such 
other  like  contagious  times  of  sickness  or 
diseases,  ....  upon  special  request  of  the 
diseased,  the  Minister  may  only  communi- 
cate with  him.  —  Communion  of  Sick;  last 
rubric. 

Sweat.  To  sweat  a  golden  coin  = 
to  knock  or  pare  off  as  much  as  is  pos- 
sible from  it,  without  making  it  no 
longer  current. 

His  each  vile  sixpence  that  the  world  hath 

cheated, 
And  his  the  art  that  every  guinea  sweated. 

IVolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  109. 

Sweater,  a  middleman  between  the 
tailors  and  their  workmen. 


SWEATLESS 


(  639  ) 


SWERVE 


At  the  honourable  shops  the  master  deals 
directly  with  his  workmen;  while  at  the 
dishonourable  ones,  the  greater  part  of  the 
work,  if  not  the  whole,  is  let  out  to  con- 
tractors or  middle-men — "  sweaters,"  as  their 
victims  significantly  call  them  —  who,  in 
their  turn,  let  it  out  again,  sometimes  to  the 
workmen,  sometimes  to  fresh  middle-men, 
bo  that  out  of  the  price  paid  for  labour  on 
each  article,  not  only  the  workmen,  but  the 
sweater \  and  perhaps  the  sweater's  sweater, 
and  a  third,  and  a  fourth,  and  a  fifth,  have 
to  draw  their  profit.  —  C.  Kingsley,  Cheap 
Clothes  and  Nasty. 

Sweatless,  without  toil. 

Thou  that  from  Heav'n  thy  daily  white-bread 

hast, 
Thou  for  whom  haruest  all  the  year  doth 

last; 
That  in  poor  deserts  rich  abundance  heap'st, 
That   sweatles   eat'st,  and  without  sowing 

reap'st. — Sylvester,  The  Lawe,  839. 

Swedeland,   Sweden.      Cf.   Sweth- 

LAND. 

Let  ns  think  no  more  about  it,  but  travel 
on  as  fast  as  we  can  southwards  into  Nor- 
way, crossing  over  Swedeland,  if  you  please. 
—Sterne,  Trtst.  Shandy,  ii.  190. 

Sweepstake,  sweeping  away.  "To 
make  sweepstake"  seems  to  mean  "to 
make  a  clean  sweep."     See  L.  s.  v. 

"Why  will  they  not  pray  without  pence? 
If  the  pope  and  his  prelates  were  charitable, 
they  would,  I  trow,  make  sweepstake  at  once 
of  purgatory. — Bradford,  ii.  271. 

I  cannot  conceive  from  what  ground  this 
general  sweepstake  of  archbishops,  bishops, 
parsons,  vicars,  and  all  others  in  holy  orders 
should  proceed. — Racket.  Life  of  Williams, 
u.172.  J     J 

Sweetbread,  a  bribe  or  douceur. 

I  obtain 'd  that  of  the  fellow,  ....  with 
a  few  sweetbreads  that  I  gave  him  out  of  my 
purse. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  163. 

Swepestrete8,  sweeping  along  the 
streets,  as  in  procession  (?). 

They  are  but  pilde  pel  tinge  prestos, 
knightes  of  the  dongehill,  though  they  be 
sir  swepestretes,  maistre  doctours,  and  lord 
bishoppes.  —  Vocacyon  of  Johan  Bale,  1553 
{Hart  Misc.,  vi.  461). 

Sweet,  to  sweeten. 

[Hunger]  bothe  sweeteth  all  thynges,  and 
also  is  a  thyng  of  no  cost  ne  charge. — UdaVs 
Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  2. 

Beeing  clensed  from  my  sinne  by  the  onely 
merite  of  Thy  mercy,  and  sweeted  in  my  soule 
by  the  oile  of  Thy  grace  in  the  fruicts  of 
thanksgiueing,  I  may  glorifye  Thy  holly 
name. — Breton,  Marie's  Exercise,  p.  11. 


Sweet-cecily,  a  plant,  the  myrrha 
odorata. 

The  abbess  of  Andoiiillets  .  .  .  being  in 
danger  of  an  anchylosis  or  staff  joint  (the 
sinovia  of  her  knee  becoming  hard  by  long 
matins),  and  having  tried  every  remedy, .  .  . 
treating  it  with  emollient  and  resolving 
fomentations,  then  with  poultices  of  marsh- 
mallows,  mallows,  bonus  Henricns,  white 
lilies,  and  fenugreek,  .  .  .  then  decoctions 
of  wild  chicory,  water-cresses,  chervil,  sweet 
cecily,  and  cochlearia,  and  nothing  all  this 
while  answering,  was  prevailed  on  at  last  to 
try  the  hot  baths  of  Bourbon. — Sterne,  Trist. 
Shandy,  v.  112. 

Sweeten  and  pinch,  a  cant  term 
among  bailiffs  for  squeezing  money 
out  of  their  prisoners  by  holding  out 
hopes  of  some  indulgence. 

A  main  part  of  his  [bum-bailiff's]  office 
is  to  swear  and  bluster  at  their  trembling 
prisoners,  and  cry,  "Confound  us,  why  do 
we  wait?  let  us  shop  him;"  whilst  the 
other  meekly  replies,  "Jack,  be  patient,  it 
is  a  civil  gentleman,  and  I  know  will  con- 
sider us;"  which  species  of  wheedling,  in 
terms  of  their  art,  is  called  sweeten  and  pinch. 
— Four  for  a  Penny,  1678  {Harl.  Misc.,  iv. 
147). 

Sweeties,  sweetmeats. 

Instead  of  finding  bonbons  or  sweeties  in 
the  packets  which  we  pluck  off  the  boughs, 
we  find  enclosed  Mr.  Carnifex's  review  of 
the  quarter's  meat. — Thackeray,  Roundabout 
Papers,  x. 

Sweetkin,  delicate ;  lovely. 

Flocking  to  bansell  him  and  strike  him 
good  luck,  as  the  sweetkin  madams  did  about 
valiant  Sir  Walter  Manny. — Nash*,  Lenten 
Stuffe  {Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  163). 

Sweet-mouthed,  dainty;  fond  of 
good  living.  Cf.  Dainty-chapped.  We 
speak  now  of  a  person's  having  a  sweet 
tooth,  if  he  is  fond  of  confectionery,  &c. 

Plato  checked  and  rebuked  Aristippus  for 
that  he  was  so  swete  mouthed  and  drouned  in 
the  voluptuousness  of  high  fare.  —  Udal's 
Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  49. 

Swelldom,  the  world  of  rank  and 
fashion. 

This  isn't  the  moment,  when  all  Swelldom 
is  at  her  feet,  for  me  to  come  forward. — 
Thackeray,  The  Newcomes,  ch.  xliii. 

Swenkt,  tired  with  work.  Milton 
(Comus,  291)  speaks  of  the  "svrink'd 
hedger." 

The  swenkt  grinders  in  this  treadmill  of  an 
earth  have  ground  out  another  day. — Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  vi. 

Swerve,  to  turn  aside.     R.  has  one 


SWETHLAND 


(  640  ) 


SWING 


instance  of  this  as  an  active  verb  from 
Gower. 

Those  Scotish  motions  and  pretentions  . . 
swerved  them  .  .  from  the  former  good  con- 
stitution of  the  Church  of  England. — Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  490. 

Swethland,  Sweden.  Cf.  Swede- 
land. 

Touching  them  who  have  renounc'd  all 
obedience  to  Borne,  there  are  the  three  kings 
of  Great-Britain,  Denmark,  and  Swethland, 
— Howell,  Letters,  ii.  11. 

Every  one  knows  what  Olaus  Magnus 
writes  of  Erich's  (King  of  SweethlamTs) 
corner'd  cap,  who  could  make  the  wiud  shift 
to  any  point  of  the  compass,  according  as  he 
turn'd  it  about. — Ibid.,  hi.  23. 

Swibber-swill,  draff. 

In  every  matter  concerning  our  Christian 
belief  is  the  scripture  reckoned  unsufficient 
of  this  wicked  generation.  God  was  not 
wise  enough  in  setting  the  order  thereof,  but 
they  must  add  thereunto  their  swibber-swill, 
that  he  may  abhor  it  in  us,  as  he  did  in  the 
Jews'  ceremonies.— Bale  .Select  Works,  p.  177. 

Swift,  a  fast-running  dog. 

The  buck  broke  gallantly ;  my  great  swift, 
being  disadvantaged  in  his  slip,  was  at  the 
first  behind ;  many,  presently  coted  and  out- 
strip'd  them. — Return  from  Parnassus,  ii.  5 
(1606). 

SWIFTY,  swift. 

With  charged  staffe  on  fomyng  horse 
His  spurres  with  heeles  he  strykes, 

And  foreward  ronnes  with  swiftye  race 
Among  the  mortall  pykes. 

Googe,  Epitaphs  of  M.  Shelley. 

Swill-bowl,  drunkard.  See  quota- 
tion $.  V.  SOSBELLY. 

Lucius  Ootta  . .  .  was  taken  for  the  great- 
est stoielbolle  of  wine  in  the  woorlde.— XJdaVs 
Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  367. 

Their  oiled  swill-bowls  and  blind  Balaam- 
ites.— Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  193. 

Is  not  he  a  brockish  bore  of  Babylon,  a 
swilbol,B.  blockhed,  a  belly-god? — Ibid.,  De- 
claration of  Bonner's  Articles  (Art.  II.). 

Swillinos,  hog's  wash. 

Thy  people,  dearly  bought  even  with  Thy 
blood,  are  not  fed  with  the  bread  of  Thy 
word,  but  with  swillings. — Bradford,  i.  160. 

Swill-pot,  drunkard. 

What  doth  that  part  of  our  army  in  the 
meantime  which  overthrows  that  unworthy 
swill-pot  Grangousier  ? —  Urquhart's  Rabelais, 
Bk.  I.  ch.  xxxiii. 

SWILL-TUB,  a  80t. 

The  husband,  instead  of  my  dear  soul,  has 
been  called  blockhead,  toss-pot,  swill-tub; 


and  the  wife,  sow,  fool,  dirty  drab. — Bail,  yt 
Erasm.  Colloq.,  p.  198. 

Swimmable,  capable  of  being  swum. 

I . . .  swam  everything  swimmable. — Savoy e, 
R.  Medlicott,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iii. 

Swimmer,  bladder;  "the  swimmer 
of  a  fish."  See  extract  8.  v.  Ship  of 
Guinea. 

Swimminoness  (as  applied  to  the  eye), 
a  tender  and  melting  look. 

Tenderness  becomes  me  best,  a  sort  of  dy- 

ingness ;  you  see  that  picture  has  a  sort  of 

a — ha,  Foible ! — a  smimmingness  in  the  eye — 

yes,  I'll   look  so.  —  Congreve,    Way  of  the 

World,  iii.  5. 

Swindlery,  roguery. 

Swindlery  aud  blackguardism  have  stretch- 
ed hands  across  the  Channel  and  saluted 
mutually. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Bk.  II.  ch.  vi. 

Swine-penny.     See  extract 

Here  [Littleborough]  . .  .  great  numbers 
of  coins  have  been  taken  up  in  ploughing 
and  digging,  which  they  call  Swine-penies, 
because  those  creatures  sometimes  rout  them 
up. — Defoe,  Tour  thro'  G.  Britain,  iii.  9. 

Swine-pox,  as  applied  to  human  be- 
ings, a  species  of  chicken-pox.  L.  has 
the  word  with  a  quotation  from  a 
modern  medical  work. 

The  swine* s-pox  overtake  you !  there's  a  curse 
For  a  Turk  that  eats  no  hog's  flesh. 

Massinger,  Renegade,  i  3. 

It  did  not  prove  the  small-pox,  but  the 
swine-pox. — Pepys,  Jan.  13, 1659-60. 

Swinery,  piggery  ;  place  where  pigs 

are  kept 

Thus  are  parterres  of  Richmond  and  of  Kew 
Dug  up  for  bull,  and  cow,  and  ram,  and  ewe. 
And  Windsor  -  Park  so  glorious  made  a 
swinery. —  Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  216. 

Swines-bread,  a  plant  of  the  genus 

cyclamen.    Cf.  Sowbread. 

Blew  succorie  hangd  on  the  naked  neck, 
Dispels  the  dimness    that  our  sight   dotb 

check ; 
Swines-bread  so  vsed  doth  not  onely  speed 
A  tardy  labour,  but  (without  great  heed) 
If  over  it  a  child-great  woman  stride, 
Instant  abortion  often  doth  betide. 

Sylvester,  Third  day,  first  weeke,  704. 

The  Vine  the  dole,  the  Oole-wort  Swines- 
bread  dreads, 
The  Fearn  abhors  the  hollow  waving  reeds. 

Ibid.,  The  Furies,  9$. 

Swing,  to  be  hung. 

If  I'm  caught,  I  shall  swing ;  that's  certain. 
—Sketches  by  Box  (Drunkard's  Death). 


SW1NGEBREECH      (  641  )  SYMPOSIARCH 


For  this  act 
Did  Brownrigg  swing.     Harsh  laws!     But 

time  shall  come 
When  France  shall  reign,  and  laws  be  all 

repeal'd. — Poetry  of  A  nti jacobin,  p.  7. 

Swingebreech,  a  man  who  flaunts 
about  in  fine  clothes  ?  In  Antony  Gil- 
by's  Pleasaunte  Dialogue,  1581  (one  of 
the  Mar-prelate  Tracts),  among  other 
things  objected  to  the  Bishops  is  "  Their 
pompous  trayne  of  proud,  idle  swinge- 
breeches,  in  the  steede  of  Preachers  and 
SchoUers." 

Swinging.  The  packing  of  herrings 
in  casks  or  barrels  was,  according  to 
Nashe,  called  swinging  them.  See 
extract  s.  v.  Cade. 

Swingle-bar,  the  cross-bar  by  which 
the  horse  is  yoked  to  the  carriage,  and 
to  which  the  traces  are  fastened. 

Either  with  the  swingle-bar,  or  with  the 
haunch  of  our  near  leader,  we  had  struck  the 
off-wheel  of  the  little  gig.  —  De  Quincey, 
Eng.  Mail-Coach. 

Swipey,  tipsy. 

"  He  ain't  ill ;  he's  only  a  little  swipey  you 
know.*'  Mr.  Bailey  reeled  in  his  boots  to  ex- 
press intoxication. — Dickens,  Martin  ChuzzU- 
tcit,  ch.  zxviii. 

Swirl,  a  whirling  wavy  motion  ;  also 

as   a  verb.     This  word,  though  now 

common,  is  not  in  the  Diets.,  except  H., 

who  has  it  as  a  noun,  without  example. 

And  the  far  ships,  lifting  their  sails  of  white 
Like  joyful  hands,  come  up  with  scattered 

light ; 
Come  gleaming  up — true  to  the  wish'd  for 

day — 
And  chase  the  whistling  brine,  and  swirl  into 

the  bay. — Leigh  Hunt,  Rimini,  c.  i. 

Headlong  I  darted,  at  one  eager  swirl 
Gain'd  its  bright  portal. 

Keats,  Endymion,  Bk  Hi. 

There  was  a  rush  and  a  swirl  along  the 
surface  of  the  stream,  and  " Caiman,  Caiman," 
shouted  twenty  voices  .  .  .  the  moonlight 
shone  on  a  great  swirling  eddy,  while  all  held 
their  breaths.  —  C.  Kinysley,  Westward  Ho, 
ch.  xxv. 

Fierce  swirls  of  foam  . . .  were  dashing  in 
and  through  the  rocky  channels  .  .  and  he 
knew  that  he  was  going  down  into  the  swirl- 
ing  waters  beneath. — Black, Princess  of  Thule, 
ch.  xxiii. 

Swish,  to  flog. 

I  pity  that  young  nobleman's  or  gentle- 
man's case :  Dr.  Wordsworth  and  assistants 
would  s irish  that  error  out  of  him  in  a  way 
that  need  not  here  be  mentioned. — Thackeray, 
Misc.)  ii.  470. 


Switchy,  whisking. 

And  now  perhaps  her  switchy  tail 
Hangs  on  a  barn-door  from  a  nail. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  20. 

Sword,  to  slash  with  the  sword. 

Nor  heard  the  King  for  their  own  cries  but 

sprang 
Thro'  open  door,  and  swording  right  and  left 
Men,  women,  on  their  sodden  faces,  hurl'd 
The  tables  over  and  the  wines. 

Tennyson,  The  Last  Tournament, 

Sword  -  grass,    sedgy   plants    with 

sword-like  leaves. 

The  summer  aire  blow  cool 
On  the  oat-grass  and  the  sword-grass,  and 
the  bulrush  in  the  pool. 

Tennyson,  New-Year's  Eve. 

SYOorHANTrsHLY,  after  the  manner  of 
a  sycophant.  De  Quincey  also  uses 
the  adjective.  See  extract  s.  v.  Un- 
sexual. 

Neither  proud  was  Kate,  nor  sycophant- 
ishly  and  falsely  humble. —  De  Quincey, 
Spanish  Nun,  sent.  xxv. 

Syllabize,   to   articulate  or    divide 

into  syllables. 

Tis  Mankind  alone 
Can  language  frame,  and  syllabize  the  tone. 
Howell,  Verses  prefixed  to  Parly  of  the 
Beasts. 

Sylph ish,  sylphlike. 

Fair  Sylphish  forms,  who  tall,  erect,  and  slim, 
Dart  the  keen  glance,  and  stretch  the  length 
of  limb. 

Poetry  of  the  Antijacobin,  p.  126. 

Amidst  the  blaze  of  lustres;  in  sylphish 
movements,  espiegleries,  coquetteries,  and 
minuet-mazes. — Carlyle,  Diamond  Necklace, 
ch.  ii. 

Sylvester,  belonging  to  the  wood, 

and  so,  wild. 

One  time  a  mighty  plague  did  pester 
All  beasts  domestick  and  Sylvester. 

T.  Brown,  Works,  iv.  318. 

SymboliSt,  one  who  holds  Zuinglian 
views  on  the  Eucharist.      See  extract 

S.  V.  SlGNIFICATI8T. 

Symbolizer,  one  who  casts  in  (his 
vote,  contribution,  or  opinion)  with 
another. 

The  Bishops  of  England  .  . .  were  to  be 
sacrificed  by  I  know  not  what  strange  fire, 
as  a  peace-offering  to  the  discontented 
Presbyters  of  Scotland,  and  their  ambitious 
Symbolizers  in  England. — Gauden,  Tears  of 
the  Church,  p.  591. 

Symposiarch,  the  president  or  mode- 
rator at  a  banquet. 

T  T 


SYMPOSIA  ST         (  642  ) 


SYNUSIAST 


He  does  not  condemn  sometimes  a  little 
larger  ami  more  pleasant  carouse  at  set 
banquets,  under  the  government  and  direc- 
tion of  some  certain  prudent  and  sober 
symposiarchs  or  masters  of  the  feasts. — T. 
Brown,  Works,  iii.  260. 

As  Alexander  and  Caesar  were  born  for 
conquest,  so  was  Johnson  for  the  office  of  a 
symposiarch,  to  preside  in  all  conversations. 
— Sir  J.  Hawkins  (Bosuell,  i.  219). 

Symposiast,  banqueter. 

Lady  is    tolerably  well,  with  two 

courses  and  a  French  cook.  She  has  fitted 
np  her  lower  rooms  in  a  very  pretty  style, 
and  there  receives  the  shattered  remains  of 
the  symposiastt  of  the  house. — Sidney  Smithy 
Letters,  1842. 

Synaqoguish,  fanatical ;  belonging 
to  conventicles. 

How  comes  (I  fain  would  know)  th'  abuses, 
The  jarring  late  between  the  houses, 
But  by  your  party  synagoyuish, 
Not  half  so  politique  as  roguish  ? 

D'Urfey,  Collin's  Walk,  canto  i. 

Synapise,  to  sprinkle,  properly,  with 
mustard.  The  word  is  taken  from  the 
original  sinapiser. 

Put  the  said  chronicles  betwixt  two  pieces 
of  linen  cloth  made  somewhat  hot,  and  so 
apply  them  to  the  place  that  smartetb, 
synapisiny  them  with  a  little  powder  of 
projection.  —  UrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  II. 
(Author's  Prologue). 

Then  cleansed  he  his  neck  very  well  with 

Eure  white  wine,  and  after  that  took  his 
ead,  and  into  it  synapised  some  powder. — 
Ibid.,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xxx. 

Syncop,   a  swoon:    usually  written 

syncope. 

Some  affirm  passion  had  almost  stopp'd 
respiration,  and  that  she  had  certainly  ex- 
pired of  a  syncop,  had  she  not  taken  coach, 
and  thrown  off  the  stifling  humour  in  the 
bosoms  of  a  female  Juncto.  —  Gentleman 
Instructed,  p.  105. 

Synecpoch.     This  Anglicised  form 

of  synecdoche  is  unusual. 

The  seven  angels,  you  say, . .  .  are  not  to 
be  taken  literally,  but  synecdochically ;  per- 
haps so ;  but  then  the  synecdoch  lies  in  the 
seven,  but  not  in  the  angels. — Bp.  Hall, 
Works,  x.  332. 

Synedrion,  assembly  or  sanhedrin. 
The  extract,  though  printed  in  1677, 


belongs    to    the    time    of    the    Greit 

Rebellion. 

Alas !  how  unworthy,  how  nncapable  am 
I  to  censure  the  proceedings  of  that  great 
senate,  that  high  synedrion,  wherein  the 
wisdom  of  the  whole  state  is  epitomised. — 
HovelVs  Vindication  of  himself 9 1677  {Hari. 
Misc.,  vi.  128). 

Syngraph,   written    document    or 

covenant. 

I  went  to  court  this  evening,  and  had 
much  discourse  with  Dr.  Bayers,  one  of  his 
Majesty '8  chaplains,  the  greate  traveller,  who 
shew'd  me  the  sy  nymphs  and  original  sub- 
scriptions of  divers  Eastern  Patriarchs  and 
Asian  Churches  to  our  Confession. — Evelyn* 
Diary,  Oct.  29,  1862. 

Synodian,  a  synodsinan ;  the  refer- 
ence in  the  extract  is  to  those  who 
attended  the  Synod  of  Dort. 

Of  such  as  dislike  the  synod,  none  falls 
heavier  upon  it  than  a  London  Divine,  charg- 
ing the  synodians  to  have  taken  a  previous 
oath  to  condemn  the  opposite  party  on  wi.at 
termes  soever. — Fuller,  Ch.  Histn  X.  ▼.  5. 

Synonym  a,  synonyms.  This  plurul, 
as  L.  observes,  was  common  in  the 
time  of  the  Elizabethan  dramatists,  but 
the  subjoined  is  a  late  instance  of  it. 

"  Was  he  unfortunate  then,  Trim  ?  "  said 
my  uncle  Toby,  pathetically.  The  corporal, 
wishing  first  the  word  and  all  its  synoninas 
at  the  devil,  forthwith  began  to  run  back  in 
his  mind  the  principal  events  in  the  Kiug  of 
Bohemia's  story. — Sterne,  Tr.  Shandy,  vi.  31. 

Synonymous,  similar:    an  incorrect 

use. 

Tis  needless  to  expose 
His  stockins,  or  describe  his  shooes, 
Or  legs  or  feet,  since  't  may  be  guess'd 
They  were  synonymous  to  th'  rest. 

Vtirfey,  Collins  Walk,  canto  i. 

Synusiast,  one  who  holds  consubstan- 
tiation.  A  believer  in  transubstantia- 
tion  is  called  a  Metusiast,  q.  v. 

The  Svmtsiasts  or  Ubiquitaries  . .  .  think 
the  Body  of  Christ  is  so  present  in  the 
Supper,  as  His  said  Body  with  bread  and 
wine,  by  one  and  the  same  mouth,  at  one 
and  the  same  time,  of  all  and  every  com- 
municant, is  eaten  corporally. — Rogers  on  39 
Articles,  p  289. 


(643  ) 


TAIL-EMDS 


T 


T.  To  suit  to  a  T  =  to  suit  exactly, 
as  by  a  Tee  square. 

Having  cajoled  my  inquirer,  and  fitted 
his  humour  to  a  T.— Labour  in  Vain,  1700 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  387). 

We  could  manage  this  matter  to  a  T. — 
Sterne,  Tr.  Shandy,  i.  193. 

Tabr,  wasting  disease. 

They  put  a  pleurisy  into  their  bloods,  a 
tabe,  and  consumption  into  their  states. — 
Adams,  i.  191. 

Table,  to  lay  down,  as  on  a  table. 

Forty  thousand  francs;  to  such  length 
will  the  father-in-law,  moved  by  these  tears, 
hy  this  hre-eloquence,  table  ready-money. — 
C  artyle,  Misc.,  iv.  97. 

Which  sure  trump-card  Royalty,  as  we  see, 
keeps  ever  and  anon  clutching  at,  .  .  .  yet 
never  tables  it,  still  puts  it  back  again. — Ibid., 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  III.  ch.  vi. 

Table-d'h6tb,   a  meal  at  an  hotel 

where  any  who  choose  are  admitted  to 

eat  together  at  a  fixed  price.    The  word 

and  thing  are  now  common  in  England. 

All  this  is  but  table  d'hoste  ;  it  is  crowded 
with  people  for  whom  he  cares  not. — Cowley, 
Essays,  Of  Liberty. 

Table-peer,  fellow-commoner,  con- 
vive.   The  allusion  is  to  Ps.  lxxviii.  26. 

God's  pensioner,  and  angels'  table-peer, 
O  Israel. 

Sylvester,  The  Laice,  843. 

Taboo,  a  word  of  the  South  Sea 
Islanders  =  sacred,  forbidden  as 
sacred  ;  see  L.,  who,  however,  has  no 
example  ;  it  is  also  a  verb. 

Often  things  that  were  undesignedly  said 
touched  upon  the  taboo' d  matter. — Miss 
Edgeworth,  Helen,  ch.  xl. 

Women  up  till  this 
Cramp'd  under  worse  than  South-Sea-isle 
taboo. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  iii. 

Art  and  poetry  were  tabooed  both  by  my 
rank  and  my  mother's  sectarianism. — Kings- 
ley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  i. 

Tace  is  latin  for  a  candle.  This 
phrase  contains  a  hint  to  be  silent,  or 
an  intention  of  being  so.  See  extract 
s.  v.  Brandy. 

"  Tace,  Madam,"  answered  Murphy,  is 
Latin  for  a  candle ;  I  commend  your  pru- 
dence.— Fielding,  Amelia,  Bk.  I.  ch.  x. 


Tactility,  see  extract. 

Tou  have  a  little  infirmity — tactility  or 
touchiness. — Sydney  Smith,  Letters,  1831. 

Tadpoledom,  the  tudpole  state. 

The  instinct  (as  I  have  often  proved)  of 
the  little  beggars  an  inch  long,  fresh  from 
water  and  tadpoledom  is  to  creep  foolishly 
into  the  dirtiest  hole  they  can  find  in  old 
walls,  kc.—C.  Kingsley,  1803  (Life,  ii.  157). 

Tago.     See  quot  from  Brande. 

They  all  played  tagg  till  they  were  well 
warmed. — H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  87. 

A  writer  in  the  Gentlemau's  Magazine  for 
1738  tells  us  that  "in  Queen  Mary's  reign 
tag  was  all  the  play;  where  the  lad  saves 
himself  by  touching  of  cold  iron — by  this  it 
was  intended  to  show  the  severity  of  the 
Church  of  Rome.  In  later  times  this  play 
has  been  altered  amongst  children  of  quality, 
by  touching  gold  instead  of  iron." — Brand, 
Popular  Antiquities,  ii.  443. 

Taolioni,  an  overcoat  which  took  its 

name  from  the  great  dancer  :  it  is  now 

obsolete,  at  least  by  that  name. 

I've  brought  to  protect  myself  well,  a 
Good  stout  Taylioni  and  gingham  umbrella. 
Inyoldsby  Legends  (S.  Romwold). 

Tail,  a  following;  attendants  upon 
another. 

Why  should  her  worship  lack 
Her  tail  of  maids  more  than  you  do  of  men? 

Jonson,  Tale  of  2V6,  ii.  1. 
«Ah!"  said  he,  "if  you  Saxon  DuinhS- 
wassel  (English  gentleman)  saw  but  the 
chief  with  his  tail  on."  "  With  his  tail  on  ?  " 
echoed  Edward  in  some  surprise.  "  Yes  ; 
that  is,  with  all  his  usual  followers,  when 
he  visits  those  of  the  same  rank."  —  Scott, 
Waverlty,  i.  107. 

Ay,  now's  the  nick  for  her  friend  Old  Harry 
To  come  with  his  tail  like  the  bold  Glengarry. 

Hood,  Tale  of  a  Trumpet. 

Tail-end,  latter  part. 

The  tail-end  of  a  shower  caught  us. — 
Black,  Adventures  of  a  Phaeton,  ch.  xxii. 

Tail-ends.  Inferior  samples  of  corn, 
such  as  being  hardly  marketable  are 
usually  consumed  at  home. 

If  everybody  tried  to  do  without  house 
and  home,  and  with  poor  eating  and  drinking, 
and  was  allays  talking  as  we  must  despise 
the  things  o'  the  world,  as  you  pay,  I 
should  like  to  know  where  the  pick  o'  the 
stock  and  the  corn  and  the  best  new-milk 

TT2 


TAILL 


(  644) 


TALL  YMAN 


cheeses  'ud  have  to  go.  Everybody  *ud  be 
wanting  bread  made  o'  tail-ends. — G.  Eliot, 
Adam  Bede,  eh.  vi. 

Taill. 

If  he  be  the  King's  true  subject,  well  and 
taill.— Latimer,  ii.  388. 

T&IL0M8B,  to  connect  with  or  bring 
under  tailors. 

Oar  clothes-thatch  .  .  .  tailorises  and  de- 
moralises.— Carlyle,  Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  I. 
ch.  viii. 

Tail-pipe,  to  tie  a  tin-can  or  the  like 
to  a  dog's  tail. 

Even  the  boys  .  .  .  tail-piped  not  his  dog. — 
Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ayo,  en.  ii. 

Take,  a  witch's  charm  ;  Shakespeare 

has  the  verb  (Hamlet,  I.  i.)  "  no  fairy 

takes:' 

He  hath  a  take  upon  him,  or  is  planet- 
struck.—  The  Quack's  Academy,  1676  (Harl. 
Misc.,  ii.  34). 

Take  down,  a  peg  is  commoner  than 

a  button-hole  in  this  phrase. 

Til  take  you  down  a  button-hole. — Peele, 
Edw.  I.,  p.  395. 

Take  in,  to  cheat 

As  if  his  nephew  were  taken  in,  as  he  calls 
it,  rather  by  the  eyes  than  by  the  under- 
standing.— Richardson,  Grandison,  i.  39. 

But  I  would  not  have  him  taken  in:  I 
would  not  have  him  duped. — Miss  Austen, 
Mansfield  Park,  ch.  v. 

Hostess.  I  took  you  in  last  night,  I  say. 
Syntax.  Tis  true ;  and  if  this  bill  I  pay 
You'll  take  me  in  again  to-day. 

Cotnbe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  iv. 

Take  in,  a  trick  or  cheat. 

I  know  so  many  who  have  married  in  the 
full  expectation  and  confidence  of  some  one 
particular  advantage  in  the  connection,  or 
accomplishment  or  good  quality  in  the  per- 
son, who  have  found  themselves  entirely 
deceived,  and  been  obliged  to  put  up  with 
exactly  the  reverse.  What  is  this  but  a  take 
in? — Miss  Austen,  Mansfield  Park,  ch.  v. 

Take  off,  to  imitate  ;  to  mimic. 

He  so  perfectly  counterfeited  or  took  off, 
as  they  call  it,  the  real  Christian,  that  many 
looked  to  see  him,  like  Enoch  or  Elijah, 
takon  alive  into  heaven. — H.  Brooke,  Foot  of 
Quality,  i.  370. 

Talisman  ist,  one  who  uses  talismans 
Or  charms. 

Such  was  even  the  great  Paracelsus, .  .  . 
and  such  were  all  his  followers,  scholars, 
statesmen,  divines,  and  princes,  that  are  talis- 
manists. — Defoe,  Duncan  Campbell  (Preface). 

Talkee  talkee,  a  common  expression 
to  signify  verbosity ;  it  is  taken  from 


the   broken    English    of    negroes    or 
savages. 

The  talkee  talkee  of  the  slaves  in  the  Sugar 
Islands,  as  it  is  called,  will  prevail  in  Suri- 
nam.—Southey,  Letters,  1810  (ii.  206). 

There's  a  woman  now,  who  thinks  of 
nothing  living  but  herself — all  talkee  talker  ; 
I  begin  to  be  weary  of  her. — Miss  Edgeworth, 
Vivian,  ch.  x. 

A  style  of  language  for  which  the  inflated 
bulletins  of  Napoleon,  the  talkee-talkee  of  a 
North  American  Indian,  and  the  song  of 
Deborah  might  each  have  6tood  as  a  model. 
— Phillips.  Essays  from  the  Times,  ii.  280. 

Talkful,  talkative. 

Phrenzie  that  makes  the  vaunter  insolent, 
The  talkfull  blab,  cruel  the  violent. 

Sylvester,  The  Arke,  611. 

Talkingstock,  an  object  of  notice  or 

conversation. 

Hee  was  like  much  the  more  for  that  to 
be  a  talkyng  stock  to  all  the  geastes. — Vial's 
Erasmus**  Apophth.,  p.  96. 

Tallage,  right  of  cutting  the  pro- 
duce of  the  soil. 

[The  elected  chief  of  every  Irish  county] 
had  a  generall  tallage  or  cutting  high  or  low, 
at  his  pleasure,  upon  all  the  inheritance, 
which  hee  tooke  commonly  when  he  made 
warre  . .  .  like  the  villaines  of  England  upon 
whom  their  Lords  had  power  Tallier  hart 
and  bas,  as  the  phrase  ox  our  law  is. — Hol- 
land's Camden,  ii.  141. 

Tallat,  a  hay-loft 

I  was ....  forced  to  dress  in  the  hny-tallat. 
— Iilackmore,  Lorna  Doone,  ch.  xix. 

I .  .  .  .  determined  to  sleep  in  the  tallat 
awhile,  that  place  being  cool  and  airy,  and 
refreshing  with  the  smell  of  sweet  hay. — 
Ibid.,  ch.  xxxi. 

Tallish,  rather  tall. 

Miss  Amelia  Martin  was  pale,  tallish,  thin, 
and,  two-and- thirty. — Sketches  by  Boz  (Mis- 
taken Milliner). 

Tally,  to  deal  (Fr.  toiller)  :  a  term 
at  basset  and  pharaoh. 

They  are  just  talking  of  basset ;  my  lord 
Foppington  has  a  mind  to  tally,  if  your 
Lordship  would  encourage  the  table. — Cwber, 
Careless  Husband,  III.  i. 

"  Oh,"  said  she,  "  for  my  part  you  know  I 
abominate  everything  but  pharaoh."  M I  am 
very  sorry,  madam,"  replied  he  very  gravely, 
"  but  I  don't  know  whom  your  Highness  will 
get  to  tally  to  you ;  yon  know  I  am  mined 
by  dealing."— fFalpole  to  Mann,u  276(174$). 

Tallyman.     See  quotation. 

The  unconscionable  tallyman  .  .  lets  them  ' 
have  ten-shillings- worth  of  sorry  commodi- 
ties, or  scarce  so  much,  on  security  given  to 
pay  him  twenty  shillings  by  twelve  peace  a 


TALMUD1GE 


(645  ) 


TANTIVY 


week.— Four  for  a  Penny,  1678  (Harl.  Misc.. 
iv.  148). 

Talmudige,  a  Talmudist.  Bp.  Hall 
(  Works,  viii.  640)  speaks  of  the  "  Jew- 
ish or  Mahometan  Paradise  "  dreamed 
of  by  "sensual  Turks  and  Talmudiges." 

Talus,  a  sloping  heap  of  rough 
stones. 

Taking  the  profile  of  the  place  with  its 
work  to  determine  the  depths  and  slopes  of 
the  ditches,  the  talus  of  the  glacis,  and  the 
precise  height  of  the  several  banquets,  para- 
pets, &c.,  he  set  the  corporal  to  work. — 
Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  iv.  217. 

He  reached  it  at  last,  and  rushed  up  the 
talus  of  boulders,  springing  from  stone  to 
stone. — King  si  ey,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xxi. 

Tambour,  to  work  on  a  tambour- 
frame  ;  to  embroider  with  sprigs.  In 
the  first  extract  tambour  =  tamboured. 

With  ...  a  tambour  waistcoat,  white  linen 
breeches,  and  a  taper  switch  in  your  hand, 
your  figure,  Frankly,  must  be  irresistible. — 
i'olman,  Man  and  Wife,  Aot  I. 

She  lay  awake  ten  minutes  on  Wednesday 
sight,  debating  between  her  spotted  and  her 
tamboured  muslin. — Miss  Austen,  Northanger 
Abbey,  ch.  x. 

She  sat  herring-boning,  tambouring,  or  stitch- 
ing.— Ingoldsby  Legends  (Knight  and  Lady). 

Tambour  frame,  a  frame  on  which 
the  silk,  canvas,  or  other  material  to 
be  embroidered  was  stretched  tight, 
like  the  skin  of  a  drum. 

Mrs.  Grant  and  her  tambour  frame  were 
not  without  their  use. — Miss  Austen,  Mans- 
field Park,  ch.  vii. 

Tame  ability,  capability  of  being 
tamed. 

The  kingdom  is  in  the  hands  of  an  oligar- 
chy, who  see  what  a  good  thing  they  have 
got  of  it,  and  are  too  cunning  and  too  well 
aware  of  the  tameability  of  mankind  to  give 
it  up. — Sydney  Smith,  Letters,  1821. 

Tammy,  a  highly  glazed  woollen  or 
worsted  stuff. 

It  [Coventry]  drives  a  very  great  trade; 
the  manufacture  of  Tammies  is  their  chief 
employ. — Defoe,  Tour  thro9  G.  Britain,  ii.  409. 

Tanged,  studded  (?)  or  made  sting- 
ing (?). 

But  I  will  have  your  carrion  shoulders  goartt 
With  scourges  tangd  with  rowels. 

Sylvester,  The  Schisme,  122. 

Tanging.    See  extract. 

He  .  .  seizing  the  key  and  shovel,  hurried 
out  into  the  garden,  beating  the  two  toge- 
ther with  all  his  might  The  process  in 
question,  known  in  country  phrase  as  "  tang- 
inj,n  is  founded  upon  the  belief  that  bees 


will  not  settle  unless  under  the  influence  of 
this  peculiar  music.  .  .  .  David  the  consta- 
ble was  a  most  sensible  and  open-minded 
man  of  his  time  and  class,  but  Kemble  or 
Akerman,  or  other  learned  Anglo-Saxon 
scholar,  would  have  vainly  explained  to  him 
that  "tana"  is  but  the  old  word  for  *•  to 
hold,'1  ana  that  the  object  of  "  tanging  "  is 
not  to  lure  the  bees  with  sweet  music  of  key 
and  shovel,  but  to  give  notice  to  the  neigh- 
bours that  they  have  swarmed,  and  that  the 
owner  of  the  maternal  hive  means  to  hold 
on  to  his  right  to  the  emigrants. — Hughes, 
Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xxiii. 

Tannage,  tanning ;  bronzing. 

They  should  have  got  his  cheek  fresh  tannage 
Such  a  day  as  to-day  in  the  merry  sunshine. 
Browning,  Flight  of  the  Duchess. 

Tanner,  sixpence  (slang). 

Two  people  came  to  see  the  monument : 
they  were  a  gentleman  and  a  lady ;  and  the 
gentleman  said, "  How  much  a-piece  ?  "  The 
man  in  the  monument  replied,  "  a  Tanner" 
It  seemed  a  low  expression,  compared  with 
the  monument.  The  gentleman  put  a  shil- 
ling into  his  hand. — Dickens,  M.  Chuzzlewit, 
ch.  xxxvii. 

Tansy,  a  dish  described  in  N.  and  H. ; 
there  were  many  ingredients  in  it, 
bence  perhaps  like  a  tansy  came  to 
signify  "perfect,"  something  wherein 
all  was  fitting. 

Miss.  Look,  Lady  Answerall,  is  it  not  well 
mended? 

Lady  Ans.  Ay,  this  is  something  like  a, 
tanzy. — Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  i.). 

I  would  work  under  your  honour's  direc- 
tions like  a  hone,  and  make  fortifications 
for  you  something  like  a  tansy  with  all  their 
batteries,  saps,  ditches,  anA  palisadoes. — 
Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  i.  199. 

Tantalian,  tantalising ;  unprofitable 

for  enjoyment. 

Men  overtoil'd  in  Commonwealth  affaires 
Get  much    Tantalian   wealth    by  wealthie 
paines. — Davits,  Wittes  Pilgrimage,  p.  24. 

Tantamountingly,  equivalently ;  in 

effect. 

Did  it  not  deserve  the  stab  of  excommuni- 
cation, for  any  dissenting  from  her  practice, 
tantamountingly  to  give  her  the  lie  ? — Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist.,  II.  ii.  28. 

Tantivy.  L.  quotes  from  Macaulay 
a  passage  in  which  he  mentions  this  as 
a  nickname  for  an  extreme  Tory ;  but 
no  example  is  supplied  from  any  writer 
in  whose  time  the  word  was  current 
North  implies  that  the  word  rose  in 
Charles  II.'s  reign :  in  that  case  there  is 
an  anachronism  in  the  first  quotation. 


TANTIVY 


<  646  ) 


TASKER 


In  the  time  of  Kiug  James  I-,  soon  after 
his  coming  into  EugTand,  one  of  his  own 
country  thus  awostcd  him :  Sir  (*ays  he),  I 
am  sorry  to  see  your  majesty  so  dealt  with 
by  your  prelatical  tantivies. — .Scotland  Charac- 
terized, 1701  [Marl.  Misc^  vii.  380). 

Abo  at  half-a-dozen  of  the  Tantivies  were 
mounted  upon  the  Church  of  England,  booted 
aid  sparred,  riding  it  like  an  old  hack  Tan- 
tivy to  Rome.—  Nort h,  Examen,  p.  101. 

This  trade,  then  much  opposed,  naturally 
le  I  to  a  common  use  of  slighting  and  oppro- 
brious words,  such  as  Yorkist.  That  served 
for  meer  distinction,  but  did  not  scandalise 
or  reflect  enough.  Then  they  came  to  Tan- 
tivy, which  implied  riding  post  to  Borne. — 
Ibid.,  p.  321. 

Tantivy,  to  hurry  off ;  to  make  an 
excursion. 

Pray,  where  are  they  gone  tantivyiny  ? — 
Mad.  D'Arblay,  Camilla,  Bk.  III.  ch.  viii. 

Tantony,  a  servile  follower.  The 
word  is  a  corruption  of  St.  Anthony 
(see  Anthony). 

Some  are  such  Cossets  and  Tantanies  that 
they  congratulate  their  oppressors  and  flat- 
ter their  destroyers. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
i  hurcK  p.  595. 

Tantrums,  whims,  usually  with 
an^er  connoted. 

I  am  glad  here's  a  husband  coming  that 
will  take  you  down  in  your  tantrums;  you 
are  grown  too  headstrong  and  robust  for  me. 
—Foote,  The  Kniyhts,  Act  II. 

He  was  but  just  got  out  of  one  of  his 
tantarums.—Mad.  D'Arblay,  Camilla,  Bk.  III. 
ch.  v. 

He  has  been  in  strange  humours  and  tan- 
trums all  the  morning.— Lytton,  My  Novel, 
Bk.  XI.  ch.  ii. 

Tapen,  of  tape. 

Then  his  soul  burst  its  desk,  and  his  heart 
broke  its  polysyllables,  and  its  tapen  bonds, 
and  the  man  of  office  came  quickly  to  the 
man  of  God. — Reade,  Never  too  late  to  mend, 
ch.  xxv. 

Tapinophoby.    See  quotation. 

The  modern  tapino-phoby  or  dread  of 
everything  that  is  low,  either  in  writing  or 
in  conversation. — Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote, 
Bk.  I.  ch.  vi. 

Tapple  vp  taile,  to  die.  CI  Tat- 
tle up  heels,  *.  v.  Heels. 

Take  heed  to  thy  man  in  his  furie  and  heate, 
With  ploughstaff  and  whipetock  for  maiming 

thy  neate ; 
To  thresher  for  hurting  of  cow  with  his  flaile, 
Or  making  thy  hen  to  plaie  tapple  vp  taile. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  57. 

Tapsterly.  Tapsterly  terms  =  pot- 
house language. 


They  impute  singularitie  to  him  that  slan- 
ders priuelie,  and  count  it  a  great  peeee  of 
arte  in  an  inkhorne  man,  in  any  tapstrrhe 
tearmes  whatsoeuer,  to  oppose  his  superiours 
to  enuie.— T.  Nashe,  Introd.  to  Greene's  Mena- 
phon,  p.  9. 

Tapwort,  the  refuse  of  the  tap  (?). 
See  Taplask  in  L.  and  N. 

A  dish  of  young  fryed  frogges,  sodde  houghes 
of  mealed  hoggea, 
A  cup  of  small  tapworte. 

Breton,  Toyes  of  an  Idle  Head,  p.  26. 

Tarbreech,  contemptuous,  for  a 
sailor.  See  extract  $.  v.  Qu  1ST  RON, 
where  it  is  used  adjectivally. 

Tardidation,  delay. 

Avoid  all  snares 
Of  tardidation  in  the  Lord's  affaires. 
Herrick,  Noble  Numbers,  p.  405. 

Tardigrade,  slow  stepping. 

The  soldiers  were  struggling  and  fighting 
their  way  after  them  in  such  tardigrade 
fashion  as  their  hoof-shaped  shoes  would 
allow.— G.  Eliot,  Romola,  ch.  xxii. 

Tarhood,  navy. 

_  He  has  lately  had  a  sea-piece  drawn  of  the 
victory  for  which  he  was  lorded,  in  which  his 
own  ship  in  a  cloud  of  cannon  was  boarding 
the  French  Admiral.  This  circumstance  . . . 
has  been  so  ridiculed  by  the  whole  tarhootl 
that  the  romantic  part  has  been  forced  to  be 
cancelled.—  Walpole  to  Mann,  ii.  285  (1749). 

Tarl bather,  a  term  of  contempt, 
applied  in  the  extract  to  a  woman. 

Thouse  pay  for  all,  thou  old  tarUther.— 
Gammer  Gurton's  Needle  (Hawkin's  Eng.  Dr- 
i.  206). 

Tarnation,  a  minced  oath,  winch 
conies  from  America. 

And  there's  my  timbers  straining  every  bit, 

Ready  to  split, 
And  her  tarnation  hull  a-growing  rounder. 
Hood,  Sailor's  Apology  for  bow-leys. 
Extremely  annoyed  by  the  u  tarnation  whop,*9 

as  it 
'S  call'd  in  Kentuck,  on  his  head  and  its 

opposite 
Blogg  showed  fight. 

Inyoldsby  Legends  (Bagman's  Dog). 

Tarnish,  colouring. 

Care  is  taken  to  wash  over  the  foulness  of 
the  subject  with  a  pleasing  tarnish. — Gentle- 
man Instructed,  p.  303. 

Tarryrreeks,  a  rough  sailor. 

No  old  tarrybreeks  of  a  seadog.— AVn^sAy, 
Westward  Ho,  ch.  xxx. 

Tasker,  in  the  first  two  quotations 
=  a  labourer  ;  in  the  last  a  thresher. 


TASK' LORD 


(  647  ) 


TEA 


Many  poor  country  vicars  for  want  of  other 
means  ...  at  last  turn  taskers,  malsters,  cos- 
termongers,  grasiers.  —  Burton,  Democ.  to 
Header ;  p.  10. 

He  is  a  good  days-man,  or  journeyman,  or 
tasker. —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  105. 

Oh,  be  thou  a  fan 
To  purge  the  chaff,  and  keep  the  winnow'd 

grain ; 
Make  clean  thy  thoughts,  and  dress  thy 

mix'd  desires ; 
Thou   art   Heaven's    tasker,  and    thy  God 

requires 
The  purest  of  thy  flour,  as  well  as  of  thy 

fires. — Quarles,  Emblems,  II.  vii.  4. 

Task-lord,  task-master. 

They  labour  hard,  eat  little,  sleeping  less, 
No  sooner  layd,  but  thus  their  task-lords 
press. — Sylvester,  The  Lawe,  137. 

Tablet.    See  quotation,  and  N.  s.  v. 

lasses. 

Thigh-pieces  of  steel,  then  called  taslets. 
— Scott,  Legend  of  Montrose,  p.  10. 

TASS,  a  cup. 

Big  tosses,  cups,  goblets,  candlesticks. — 
UrquharVs  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  li. 

The  Laird  . .  .  recommended  to  the  veteran 
to  add  a  toss  of  brandy. — Scott,  Legend  of 
Montrose,  p.  55. 

Tattered,  dilapidated.  In  the  ex- 
amples in  the  Diets,  and  in  general 
usage  this  word  is  applied  to  clothes, 
flags,  &c.  The  use  of  it  in  connection 
with  anything  at  all  substantial  as  in 
the  extracts  is  peculiar. 

An  old  ill-look'd  wrinkled  fellow  in  a 
tattered  boat.— T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  3. 

He  lay  a  great  minister  of  state  in  a 
tattered  brass  case.— Ibid.,  iii.  128. 

I  do  not  like  ruined,  tattered  cottages. — 
Miss  Austen,  Sense  and  Sensibility,  ch.  xviii. 

Tatting,  edging  in  silk  or  cotton 
done  with  a  shuttle. 

How  our  fathers  managed  without  crochet 
is  the  wonder ;  but  I  believe  some  small  and 
feeble  substitute  existed  in  their  time  under 
the  name  of  "tatting." — G.  Eliot,  Janet's 
Repentance,  ch.  iii. 

Tattle-de-moy.     See  quotation. 

A  Tattle-de-moy,  reader,  was  a  new-fash- 
ioned thing  in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  1070, 
44  much  like  a  seraband,  only  it  had  in  it  more 
of  conceit  and  of  humour,  and  it  might 
supply  the  place  of  a  seraband  at  the  end  of 
a  suit  of  lessons  at  any  time."  That  simple- 
hearted  and  therefore  happy  old  man, Thomas 
Mace,  invented  it  himself,  because  he  would 
be  a  little  modish,  he  said ;  and  he  called  it 
a  tattle-de-moy  "  because  it  tattles  and  seems 
to  speak  those  very  words  or  syllables. — 
Sou  they,  The  Doctor,  ch.  xciv. 


Tattlement,  chatter. 

Poor  little  Li  lias  Baillie,  tottering  about 
there  with  her  foolish  glad  tattlement. — 
Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  239. 

Tavern  fox.  To  hunt  a  tavern  fox 
=  to  be  drunk  ;  to  be  foxed  has  the 
same  meaning.     See  N.  s.  v.  fox. 

Else  he  had  little  leisure  time  to  waste, 
Or  at  the  ale-house  huff-cap  ale  to  taste ; 
Nor  did  he  ever  hunt  a  tavern  fox. 

J.  Taylor,  Life  of  Old  Parr,  1635 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vii.  70). 

Tavern-token,  a  token  coined  by  a 
tavern-keeper ;  so  to  swallow  a  tavern- 
token  =  to  be  drunk  ;  an  euphemistic 
expression. 

Drunk,  sir !  you  hear  not  me  say  so ;  per- 
haps he  swallowed  a  tavern-token,  or  some 
such  device,  sir,  I  have  nothing  to  do  withal. 
— Jonson,  Every  man  in  his  Humour,  i.  3. 

Tawdered  out,  dressed  in  a  tawdry 
way. 

You  see  a  sort  of  shabby  finery,  a  number 
of  dirty  people  of  quality  tawdered  out. — 
Lady  M.  W.  Montagu,  Letters,  Aug.  22, 1710. 

Tawdrums,  fal-lals ;  finery. 

No  matter  for  lace  and  tawdrums. — Re- 
venge, or,  A  Match  in  Newgate,  Act  V. 

Tawdry,  does  not  seem  in  the  extract 
to  have  its  usual  depreciatory  meaning, 
but  to  signify  fine,  good. 

There  is  nothing  in  this  world  I  abominate 
worse  than  to  be  interrupted  in  a  story,  and 
I  was  that  moment  telling  Eu genius  a  most 
tawdry  one. — Sterne,  Tr.  Shandy,  v.  59. 

Tawdryne. 

Bynd  the  fillets,  and  to  be  fine,  the  waste 

gyrt 
Fast  with  a  tawdryne. 

Webbe,  Eng.  Poetrie,  p.  84. 

Tawny,  to  tan. 

The  Sunne  so  soone  the  painted  face  will 
tawny. — Breton,  Mother's  Blessing,  p.  9. 

Tawnymoor,  a  mulatto. 

There's  a  black,  a  tawnymoor,  and  a  French- 
man.— Centlivre,  Bold  Stroke  for  a  Wife,  I.  i. 

Taxless,  without  paying  taxes. 

If  Tithe-lesse,  Tax-lesse,  Wage-lease,  Right- 

lesse,  I 
Have  eat  the  Crop,  or  caused  the  Owners  dye ; 
In  sted  of  Barley,  and  the  best  of  Corn, 
Grow  nothing  there  but  Thistles,  Weeds, 

and  Thorn. 

Sylvester,  Job  Triumphant,  iii.  555. 

Tea,  to  drink  tea :  a  vulgarism. 

Father  don't  tea  with  us,  but  you  won't 
miud  that  I  dare  say.— Dickens,  Nicholas 
Nicklelty,  ch.  iz. 


1 


TEA-BOARD 


(  648  ) 


TELL  URIAN 


I  can  hit  on  no  novelty — none,  on  mv  life, 
Unless  peradventure  you'd  M  tea  "  with  your 
wife. 

Ingoldslty  Legends  {Lord  of  Thoulouu). 

Tea-board,  tea-tray. 

Shall  we  be  christened  tea-boards,  varnished 
waiters  ?—  Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  145. 

Teach.  To  teach  our  dame  to  spin 
=  to  teach  one's  grandmother  to  suck 
eggs. 

A  swine  to  teach  Minerva  was  a  prouerbe 
against  socbe  as  .  .  .  being  theinselfea  of  no 
kuowledge  ne  wisdome  at  all,  will  take  upon 
tbeim  to  teache  persones  that  are  excellently 
skilled  and  passing  expert,  for  whiche  we  saie 
in  Eoglishe  to  teache  our  dame  to  strinne. — 
UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apopfdh.,  p.  380. 

Teagu eland,  Ireland. 

Dear  courtier,  excuse  me  from  Teagueland 
and  slaughter.— T.  Brown,  Works,  iv.  275. 

Tbaguelander,  Irishman.  See  ex- 
tract S.  V.  OUTBLUNDER. 

Tease.  To  be  upon  the  tease  =  to 
be  uneasy,  or  fidgety. 

Mrs.  Sago  (in  an  uneasy  air).  So  not  a 
word  to  me !  are  these  his  vows  ? 

L.  Lucy  (aside).  There's  one  upon  the 
teize  already. 

Centlivre,  Basset-Table,  Act  III. 

I  left  her  upon  the  teaze. — Ibid.,  Platonick 
Lady,  Act  V. 

Tedipy,  to  become  tedious:  a  word 
probably  coined  by  Adams  for  the  sake 
of  the  jingle. 

Such,  whiles  they  would  intend  to  edify, 
do  in  event  tedify. — Adams,  i.  348. 

Teeth.  To  the  hard  teeth  =  very 
severely.  The  addition  of  "  hard  "  to 
intensify  the  meaning  is  unusual, 
though  otherwise  the  phrase  is  com- 
mon enough. 

Cicero  mocked  her  to  the  hard  teeth, — 
UdaVs  Erasmus's  "Apophth.,  p.  355. 

Teetotaller,  a  total  abstainer  from 
intoxicating  liquor :  the  first  syllable  is 
merely  the  reduplication  of  the  first 
letter  in  total.  L.  gives  the  word 
without  example.  Some  have  thought, 
b'it  erroneously,  that  the  term  refers  to 
drinking  tea  instead  of  wine,  beer,  &c, 
and  Thackeray  by  the  way  in  which  he 
spells  the  word .  appears  to  have  so 
taken  it;  yet  in  Lovel  the  Widower, 
ch.  iv.,  he  adopts  the  other  orthography. 

He  had  quite  a  delicate  appetite,  and  was 
also  a  tea-totaller. — Thackeray,  Roundabout 
Papers,  xvii. 

Teetotally,  completely;    out    and 


out ;  a  sort  of  reduplication  or  empha- 
sizing of  totally. 

An  ugly  little  parenthesis  between  two 
still  uglier  clauses  of  a  teetotally  ugly  sen- 
tence.— De  Quincey,  Roman  Meals. 

Teiqnton-8QDASh,  perry.  See  quota- 
tion s.  v.  St  1  re. 

Telegram,  a  message  by  telegraph. 
This  word  is  discussed  in  Dr.  Hall's 
Recent  Exemplifications  of  False  Phi- 
lology, pp.  41 — 47.  There  are  many 
letters  on  the  word  in  the  Times  for 
Oct.  1857.  What  will  he  do  with  ill 
was  published  in  1856. 

I  sent  a  telegram  (oh  that  I  should  live  to 
see  such  a  word  introduced  into  the  English 
language). — Lytton,  What  teill  he  da  with  i:  / 
Bk.  XII.  ch.  xi. 

There  is  against  the  exact  but  surfeiting 
telegrapheme  our  lawless  telegram,  to  which 
is  strictly  applicable  the  maxim  of  the 
civilians  as  regards  a  clandestine  marriage. 
Fieri  non  asbttit,  sed  factum  valet. — Hail, 
Modern  English,  p.  158. 

Teleity,  end ;  completion. 

When  such  a  number  of  hot,  dry,  and  moist 
atoms  cling  together,  up  starts  a  horse ;  the 
same  may  be  said  of  mixta:  they  differ  meerly 
accidentally,  and  have  no  other  form,  if  I 
may  say  so,  than  the  teleity  of  the  mixture. 
— Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  427. 

Telespectroscope.     See  extract. 

These  two  observers  at  once  directed  their 
telescope  armed  with  spectroscopic  adjuncts 
— telespectroscope  is  the  pleasing  name  of  the 
compound  instrument— to  the  new  comer. — 
R.  A.  Proctor,  Myths  and  Marvels  of  Astro- 
nomy, p.  170. 

Tell,  tale. 

There,  I  am  at  the  end  of  my  tell !  If  I 
write  on,  it  must  be  to  ask  questions. —  Wal- 
pole  to  Mann,  i.  265  (1743). 

Tell-clock,  an  idler;  one  who 
dawdles  away  hour  after  hour. 

Is  there  no  mean  between  busy  -  bodies 
and  tell-clocks,  between  factotums  and  fain- 
eants ? —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  131. 

Telling-house.    See  quotation. 

The  telling-houses  on  the  moor  [Exmoor] 
are  rude  cots  where  the  shepherds  meet  to 
tell  their  sheep  at  the  eud  of  the  pasturing 
season. — Blackmore,  Lorna  Doone,  ch.  ii.  note. 

Tell-truth,  a  veracious  or  candid 

person. 

A  great  many  bold  tell-truthe  are  gone  be- 
fore you. — Tom  Brown,  Works,  iii.  20. 

Tellurian,  belonging  to  the  earth  : 
also  as  a  substantive,  an  inhabitant  of 
the  earth. 


TELL  URIC 


(  649  ) 


TERRIBLIZE 


They  absolutely  hear  the  tellurian  lungs 
wheezing,  panting,  crying,  "  Bellows  to 
m«nd,"  periodically  as  the  Earth  approaches 
her  aphelion.  —  De  Quincey,  System  of  the 
Heavens. 

If  any  distant  worlds  (which  may  be  the 
case)  are  so  far  ahead  of  as  Tellurians  in 
optical  resources  as  to  see  distinctly  through 
their  telescopes  all  that  we  do  on  earth, 
what  is  the  grandest  sight  to  which  we  ever 
treat  them  ? — Ibid.,  Joan  of  Arc. 

Telluric,  belonging  to  the  earth. 

How  the  Coleridge  moonshine  comported 
itself  amid  these  hot  telluric  flames  .  . .  must 
be  left  to  cou jecture. — Carlyle,  Life  of  Ster- 
ling, Pt.  I.  ch.  x. 

Temperless,  without  temper  or 
moderation. 

So  swelling-proud,  so  surly-browd  the  while, 
So  temperlesse,  tempted  with  Fortune's  smile 
Ignoble  Natures  are  too  lightly  pufft. 

Sylvester,  Panaretus,  1374. 

Templeless,  without  a  church  or 
temple.     See  extract  s.  v.  Crommell. 

Templify,  to  make  a  temple. 

That  shall  we  come  to,  if  we  can  take 
order  that  while  we  be  here,  before  we  go 
hence,  our  bodies,  we  get  them  templified,  as 
I  may  say,  procure  they  be  framed  after  the 
similitude  of  a  Temple,  this  Temple  in  the 
text  [S.  John  ii.  19J. — Andrews,  ii.  361. 

Tenant,  to  fasten  as  with  tenons. 
Cf .  Tenon. 

They  be  fastened  or  tenanted  the  one  to  the 
other. — Andrewes,  Sermons,  ii.  81. 

Tend,  tender. 

Then  Cassivelaunus  . .  .  sent  Embassadour 
to  Caesar  by  Conius  and  Arras,  tending  unto 
him  a  surrendry. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  37. 

Tender,  tenderness ;  regard. 

Tis  natural  to  have  a  kind  of  a  tender  for 
our  own  productions.—  Centlivre,  The  Man's 
bewitched  (Preface). 

I  had  a  kind  of  a  tender  for  Dolly. — Ibid. 
ActV. 

Tenderheartedness,  compassion. 

She  little  thought 
This  tender-heartedness  would  cause  her  death. 
Southey,  Grandmother's  Tale. 

Tkndriled,  furnished  with  tendrils. 

Round  their  trunks  the  thonBand-tendrtTd 
vine  wound  up. — Southey,  Thalalta,  Bk.  VI. 

Tendron,  a  stalk. 

Buds  and  tendrons  appear  above  ground 
from  the  root. — Holland,  Pliny,  xix.  8. 

Tenner,   a  ten  pound    note.      Cf. 
Fivkr  (slang). 
"  No  money  ?  "    "  Not  much ;  perhaps  a 


tenner." — Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch. 


xix. 


Tenon,  to  fasten  as  by  a  tenon ;  which 
is  the  end  of  a  piece  of  timber  cut  so 
as  to  fit  into  another  piece.   Cf .  Tenant. 

We  tenon  both  these  together  as  antecedent 
and  consequent. — Andrewes,  Sermons,  ii.  86. 

Tenticle,  a  little  tent. 

They  were  the  tenticles  or  rather  cabins 
and  couches  of  their  soldiers. — Patten,  Ex- 
ped.  to  Scotl.,  1548  (Eng.  Gamer,u\.  127). 

Tentivb,  attentive.  H.  has  tentyply 
as  used  by  Maundeville. 

To  question  mine  give  tentive  eare. — Pres- 
ton, King  Cambists  (Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr.,  i. 
278). 

Wyth  tentiue  lystning  eeche  wight  was 
setled  in  hardening. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  ii.  1. 

Teredo,  a  molluscous  animal  that 
burrows  in  wood  or  stone  ;  damaging 
piers,  Ac.  L.  gives  the  word,  but  no 
example.  Adams,  it  will  be  seen,  in- 
flects it  as  a  Latin  word. 

A  better  piece  of  timber  hath  the  more 
teredines  breeding  in  it. — Adams,  i.  505. 

Teretism,  rough  and  unmelodious 
verse ;  rcp£rur/ia  signifies  the  chirping 
of  swallows,  Ac.  ;  hence  any  empty 
sound. 

Bough-hewn  teretismes  writ  in  th'  antique 
v&jL—Hall,  Sat.,  IV.  i.  3. 

Terlery-ginck,  apparently  to  speak 

nonsense.    See  N.  s.  v.  terlerie-whiskin. 

All  these  have  terlery-ainckt  it  .  .  frivol- 
ously of  they  reckt  not  what. — Nashe,  Lenten 
Stuffe  (Uarl.  Misc.,  vi.  159;. 

Termagantly,  outrageously. 

Margaret  Cheatly .  .  by  immoderate  drink- 
ing of  strong  waters,  had  got  a  nose  so  ter- 
magantly rubicund  that  she  outblaz'd  the 
comet. — T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  148. 

Terminant,  termination  ;  ending. 

If  one  should  rime  to  this  word,  restore, 
he  may  not  match  him  with  doore  or  poore, 
for  neither  of  both  are  of  like  terminant, 
either  by  good  orthography,  or  in  naturall 
sound. — Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  II.  ch. 
ix. 

Terresity,  earthliness. 

Rhenish  wine .  .  .  hath  fewer  dregs  and  less 
terresity  or  gross  earthliness  than  the  Glared 
wine  hath.  —  Dean  Turner  on  Wines,  1568 
(Eng.  Garner,  ii.  114). 

Terriblizb,  to  make  terrible. 

Both  Camps  approach,  their  bloudy  rage  doth 

'  rise, 

And  even  the  face  of  cowards  terriblize. 

Sylvester,  Tlte  location,  271. 


TERRICULAMENT       (  650  ) 


7  HAT 


Terrioulamknt.  See  extract  from 
Fuller,  who,  however,  uses  the  Latin  ; 
but  the  Eng.  form  had  been  employed 
as  early  as  1548.  See  extract  4.  v. 
Rattle-bladder.  Gauden  uses  it  again 
pp.  476,  570. 

With  these  and  such -like,  either  torments 
of  opinions  or  terriculaments  of  expressions 
do  these  new  sort  of  preachers  seek  ...  to 
scare  and  terrifle  their  silly  sectators. — Gau- 
den,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  198. 

The  Proverb  is  appliable  to  those  who  are 
not  Terriculamenta,  but  Terrores,  no  fancy- 
formed  Bug-bears,  but  such  as  carry  fear 
and  fright  to  others  about  them.  —  Fuller, 
Worthies,  Warwick  (ii.  404). 

Terrorless,  unalarming. 

Some  human  memories  and  tearful  lore 
Bender  him  terrorless. 

E.  A.  Poe,  Silence  (ii.  39). 

Terry,  a  terrier.  See  extract  s.  v. 
Intergern. 

Test.  See  quotation  from  Sou  they  ; 
but  the  word  is  not  an  Americanism. 

Not  with  fond  shekels  of  the  tested  gold. — 
Shakespeare,  Meas.for  Meas.,  ii.  2. 

She  cannot  break  through  a  weiUtested 
modesty.— Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  iii.  187. 

You  have  been  sufficiently  tested. — H. 
Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  138. 

But  I  will  test,  (as  an  American  would  say, 
though  let  it  be  observed  in  passing  that  I 
do  not  advocate  the  use  of  Americanisms.)  I 
will  test  Mr.  Campbell's  assertion. — Southey, 
The  Doctor,  ch.  cxlv. 

Testamentize,  to  make  a  will. 

He  asked  leave  of  King  Edward  the  First 
to  make  a  will  .  .  .  because  Welsh  Bishops 
in  that  age  might  not  Testamentize  without 
Royal  assent. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Denbigh 
(ii.  388). 

Testamur,  the  certificate  that  a  man 
has  passed  an  examination  at  the 
University;  so  called  from  the  words 
u  Ita  testamur,11  which  precede  the 
examiners'  signatures. 

Outside  in  the  quadrangle  collect  by  twos 
and  threes  the  friends  of  the  victims,  wait- 
ing for  the  reopening  of  the  door,  and  the 
distribution  of  the  testamurs.  The  testamurs, 
lady  readers  will  be  pleased  to  understand, 
are  certificates  under  the  hands  of  the  ex- 
aminers that  your  sons,  brothers,  husbands, 
perhaps,  have  successfully  undergone  the 
torture. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown1*  Schooldays, 
ch.  xziv. 

Martin  of  Trinity  had  got  his  testamur. — 
H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  xiv. 

Testimonials,  to  present  with  a 
testimonial. 


People  were  testimonialising  his  wife. — 
Thackeray,  Nevxomes,  ch.  lxiii. 

Tetch.  To  take  tetch  =  to  take 
offence. 

This  frantic  fellow  took  tetch  at  somewhat, 
and  run  away  into  Ireland. — North,  Life  of 
Ld.  Guilford,  ii.  286. 

Tetrasttle,  a  structure  with  four 
pillars. 

An  organ  of  very  good  workmanship,  and 
supported  by  a  Tetrastyle  of  very  beautiful 
Gothic  columns.  —Defoe,  Tour  thro'  G.  Bri- 
tain, i.  373. 

Tewkesbury  mustard  balls. 
Tewkesbury  was  long  famous  for  its 
mustard.  Falstaff  says  of  Poins,  "His 
wit  is  as  thick  as  Tewkesbury  Mustard" 
(2  Hen.  IV.,  ii.  4).  Hence  I  suppose 
Tewkesbury  Mustard  Balls  was  a  name 
given  to  some  explosives  from  their 
burning  qualities. 

"Why  have  the  gentry  never  yet  flung 
Tewkesbury  mustard  balls  into  their  own 
homes  ? — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  383. 

The  town  [Tewkesbury]  was  long  famous 
for  its  mustard  balls,  as  also  for  a  great 
manufacture  of  stockens. — Defot,  Tour  thro9 
G.  Britain,  ii.  328. 

Tew-taw,  to  beat  or  dress  hemp  or 
flax :  see  extract  from  Holland  *.  t\ 
Brake. 

Textlet,  little  text. 

One  little  textlet  from  the  Gospel  of  Free- 
dom .—CarlyUj  Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xi. 

Thankful,  pleasant:  grateful  is  stilt 
used  in  this  sense. 

They  of  late  years  have  taken  this  pastime 
vp  among  them,  many  times  gratifying  their 
ladies,  and  often  times  the  princes  of  the 
realme  with  some  such  thankfull  noveltie. — 
Puttenham,  Eng.  Potse,  Bk.  II.  (cancelled 
pages). 

Thankly,  thankfully. 

He  giueth  frankly  what  we  thankly  spend. 
— Sylvester,  Third  day,  first  week,  809. 

Thanks,  was  sometimes  used  as  a 
singular. 

I  hope  your  service  merits  more  respect 
Than  thus  without  a  thanks  to  be  sent  hence. 

Jonson,  Poetaster,  iv.  5. 
"What  a  thanks  I  owe 

The  hourly  courtesies  your  goodness  gives  me. 
Massinger,  Very  Woman,  iii.  5. 

Would  I  beg  a  thanks,  I  could  tell  you  that 
I  have  often  moved  her  for  you. 

Ibid.,  Bashful  Lover,  v.  3. 

That,  such. 

This  was  carried  with  that  little  noise  that 


THAUMATURGIST      (  651  ) 


THING 


for  a  good  space  the  vigilant  Bishop  was  not 
a  vak'd  with  it. — Hacket,  Life  of  Williams, 
ii.  07. 

She  pressed  the  invitation  with  that  earn- 
estness, Theomachas  foresaw  she  would  not 
return  with  a  denial. — Gentleman  Instructed, 
p.  241. 

Thaumaturqist,  wonder-worker. 

Cagliostro,  thaumaturgist,  prophet,  and 
arch-quack.  —  Cariyle,  Diamond  Necklace, 
ch.  xvi. 

Theatewan,  an  actor. 

Players,  I  mean,  theaterians,  pouch  mouth 
stage-walkers. — Dekker,  Satiromastix  (Haw- 
kins, Eng.  Dr.,  iii.  172). 

Theatricalise,  to  cast  in  a  dramatic 

f.>nn. 

I  shall  occasionally  theatricalise  my  dia- 
logues.— Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  i.  93. 

Theatricality,  histrionism;  artifi- 
ciality. 

By  art  and  word  he  strives  to  do  it ;  with 
sincerity,  if  possible ;  failing  that,  with 
tlieatricality.— Cariyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  L 
ch.  ix. 

Its  exaggeration,  its  theatricality ,  were 
especially  calculated  to  catch  the  eve  of  a 
boy. — C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  vi. 

Thema,  theine ;  thesis :  the  Angli- 
cised form  '  theme '  is  as  old  as  Gas- 
coigne  and  Shakespeare. 

His  thema  to  be  maintained  is  that  the 
King  could  not  break  with  the .  Kiug  of 
France  because  be  had  sold  himself  to  him  for 
money. — North,  Examen,  p.  478. 

Theophile,  one  beloved  of  God. 

Afflictions  are  the  proportion  of  the  best 
theophiles. — Howell,  Letters,  ii.  41. 

Theosopher,  mystic.  The  Diets, 
give  examples  of  theosophist.  L.  has 
theosophtr,  but  without  illustration. 

The  great  Teutonic  theosopher,  Jacob  Beh- 
men. — H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  (quality,  i.  236. 

Therm,  a  hot  bath  ;  but  here  =  bath 
generally.  Sylvester  (Trophies,  1112) 
makes  David  speak  of  the  "cleer 
therms'1  in  which  BatliHheba  was 
bathing  when  he  first  saw  her. 

Brittaine  . . .  having  beene  so  long  a  pro- 
vince of  great  honour  and  benefit  to  the 
Roman  Empire,  could  not  but  partake  of  the 
magnificence  of  their  goodly  structures, 
thcrmes,  aquaducto,  high-waies,  and  all  other 
their  ornaments  of  delight,  ease,  and  great- 
ne*se. — Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  8. 

Thersitical,  grossly  abusive. 

There  is  a  pelting  kind  of  thersitical  satire, 
as  black  as  the  very  ink  'tis  wrote  with  (and 
by  the  bye  whoever  says  so  is  indebted  to 


the  muster-master  general  of  the  Grecian 
army  for  suffering  the  name  of  so  ugly  and 
foul-mouth 'd  a  man  as  Thersites  to  continue 
upon  his  roll,  for  it  has  furnished  him  with 
an  epithet).— Stem*,  Tr.  Shandy,  vi.  140. 

Thiblh,  a  round  stick  used  for  stirring 
broth,  &c. 

The  thible  ran  round,  and  the  . .  .  handfuls 
of  meal  fell  into  the  water. — E.  Bronte, 
Wuthering  Heights,  ch.  xiii. 

Thick,  eventful. 

His  reign  was  not  onely  long  for  continu- 
ance, fifty-six  years,  but  also  thick  for  re- 
markable mutations  happening  therein. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist,  III.  iv.  24. 

Thick,  intimate. 

Newcome  and  I  are  not  very  thick  together. 
— Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  xxiv. 

Thick,  a  stupid  fellow  (slang). 

What  a  thick  I  was  to  come! — Hughes, 
Tom  Brown's  Schooldays,  Pt.  I.  ch.  vii. 

THICKY,  thick. 

It  was  a  very  thicky  shade 

That  broad  leaves  of  beech  had  made. 

Greene,  p.  304  (from  The  Mourning 
Garment). 

Thieftkuusly,  thievishly. 

Qne  little  villainous  Turkey  knob-breasted 
rogue  came  thief  teously  to  snatch  away  some 
of  my  lardons. — Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  II. 
ch.  xiv. 

Thieves'  Latin,  cant  terms  used  by 
thieves.  See  extract  «.  v.  Queer 
Cuffin. 

Thimble-rigger,  a  Bwindler  who  bets 
that  no  one  will  find  out  under  which 
of  three  thimbles  a  pea  is  placed.  He 
appears  to  the  dupe  to  put  it  under  one 
of  them,  but  he  litis  really  hidden  it  in 
his  sleeve  or  elsewhere  by  sleight  of 
hand.     See  quotation  s.  v.  Cannibalic. 

Thing.  The  thing  =  what  is  right 
or  fashionable. 

A  bishop's  calling  company  together  in 
this  week  is,  to  use  the  vulgar  phrase,  not 
the  thing. — Johnson,  1781  (BoswelVs  Life,  viii. 

64). 

It  is  quite  delightful,  ma'am,  to  see  young 
people  so  properly  happy,  so  well  suited,  and 
so  much  the  thing. — Miss  Austen,  Mansfield 
Park,  ch.  xii. 

Thing.  H.  says  this  term  is  con- 
stantly applied  to  a  lady  in  early 
metrical  romances,  but  it  was  also  used 
of  the  male  sex.  One  or  two  examples 
may  be  seen  in  L.,  but  none  quite  like 
the  subjoined. 


THINNIFY 


(  652  )  THREE  TREES 


Augustus  beyng  yet  a  young  thing  vnder 
marines  state.—  UdaTs  Erasmus's  Apophth., 
p.  270. 

Thin ni fy,  to  make  thin. 

The  heart  doth  in  its  left  side  ventricle  so 
thinnify  the  blood— Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk. 
III.  en.  iv. 

Thirdsman,  a  third  party ;  a  mediator 
or  arbitrator. 

There  should  be  somebody  to  come  in 
thirdsman  between  Death  and  my  principal. 
— Scott,  St.  Ronan's  Well,  i.  219. 

Thorn,  to  prick  or  pierce. 
I  am  the  only  rose  of  all  the  stock 
That  never  thorn1  d  him. 

Tennyson,  Harold,  I.  i. 

Thornless,  free  from  thorns. 
Through  Youth's  gay  prime  and  thornless 
paths  I  went. 

Coleridge,  Sonnet  to  Bowles. 

One  such,  I  know,  who  upward  from  one 

cradle 
Beside  me  like  a  sister— no,  thank  God !  no 

sister ! — 
Has  grown  and  grown,  and  with  her  mellow 

shade 
Has  blanched  my  thornless  thoughts  to  her 

own  hue.— Kingsley,  Saints  Tragedy,  i.  2. 

Thorough,  a  channel. 

If  any  man  would  alter  the  natural  course 
of  any  water  to  run  a  contrary  way,  he  shall 
never  be  able  to  do  it  with  dams ;  for  a  time 
he  may  well  stop  it,  but  when  the  dam  is 
full  it  will  either  burst  down  the  dam  or 
overflow  it,  and  so  with  more  rage  run  than 
ever  it  did  before.  I  will  not  speak  of  the 
often  weesing  out,  mauger  all  the  diligence 
that  can  be.  Therefore  the  alteration  must 
be  from  the  head,  by  making  other  thoroughs 
and  devices.—  Bradford,  i.  303. 

Thorough-stitched,  complete.  To 
go  through-stitch  is  not  uncommon,  and 
in  illustrated  in  N. 

His  book  may  properly  be  considered,  not 
only  as  a  model,  but  as  a  thorough-stitched 
Digest  and  regular  institute  of  noses. — 
Sterne,  Tr.  Shandy,  iii.  30. 

Thought-swift-flying,  flying  quick 

as  thought. 

In  that  same  myd-daies  hower  came  sayling  in 
A  thought-smft-Jlyina  pynnase. 

G.  Markham,  Tragedie  of  Sir 
B.  Grenuile,  p.  47. 

Thowels,  the  wooden  pins  that  keep 
the  oar  from  slipping. 

They  took  us  for  French ;  our  boats  being 
fitted  with  thoels  and  grummets  for  the  oars 
iu  the  French  fashion. — Marryat,  Fr.  Mild' 
may,  ch.  v. 


With  what  an  unusual  amount  of  noise 
the  oars  worked  in  the  thowels.— Dickens, 
Great  Expectations,  ch.  liv. 

Thrall,  a  shelf  or  stand. 

The  dairy  thralls  I  might  ha'  wrote  my 
name  on  'em,  when  I  come  downstairs  after 
my  illness.— G.  Eliot,  Adam  Beds,  ch.  vi. 

Th ball- FULL,  enslaved. 

Also  the  Lord  accepted  Job,  and  staid 

His  thrall-full  state. 

Sylvester,  Job  Triumphant,  iv.  686. 

Thraskite,  a  follower  of  John 
Thraske,  who  in  the  early  part  of  the 
17th  century  affirmed  the  Jewish  cere- 
monial law  to  be  binding  on  Christians. 
See  Fuller,  Ch.  Hist,  X.  iv:  64. 

There  is  a  fourth  leaven, ...  the  mixing 
of  law  with  gospel ;  I  mean  ceremonial  and 
legal  rites  with  the  truth  of  Jesus  Christ. 
This  leaven  might  well  die  in  forgetf ulnesa, 
and  have  moulded  away,  if  there  had  not 
been  a  late  generation  of  Thraskites  to  devour 
it  as  bread.  They  must  ahsiain  from  swine  s 
flesh,  aud  from  blood,  and  that  upon  con- 
science to  the  ceremonial  law.— Adams,  u. 
343. 

Threatless,  not  threatening. 
Threatless  their  brows,  and  without  braves 

their  voyce.— Sylvester,  The  Captawes,20l. 

Three-decker,  a  ship  with  three 
decks. 

Before  the  gentlemen,  as  they  stood  at  the 
door,  could  . . .  settle  the  number  of  three- 
deckers  now  in  commission,  their  companions 
were  ready  to  proceed.— Miss  Austen,  Mans- 
field Park,  ch.  xl. 

Cataract  seas  that  snap 
The  threedecker*s  oaken  spine. 

Tennyson,  Maud,  Pt.  II.  u.  4. 

Three-holes,  a  game. 

I  put  these  here  stocks  under  your  care, 
and  you'll  keep  off  the  other  boys  from 
sitting  on  'em,  and  picking  off  the  paint,  and 
playing  three-holes  and  chuck-farthing.— 
Lytton,  My  Novel,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xii. 

Three-threads.  Half  common  ale 
mixed  with  stale  and  double  beer. 

Ezekiel  Driver,  of  Puddle-dock,  carman, 
having  disordered  his  pia  mater  with  too 
plentiful  a  morning's  draught  of  three- 
threads  and  old  Pharaoh,  had  the  misfortune 
to  have  his  cart  run  over  him. — T.  Brovn, 
Works,  ii.  286. 

Three  trees,  the  gallows,  formed 
by  a  transverse  beam  on  two  uprights. 
Cf.  Triple  tree. 

For  commonly  such  knaues  as  these 
Doe  end  their  lyves  vpon  three  trees. 
Breton,  Toyes  of  an  Idle  Head,  p.  28. 


THRENODIAL 


(  653  )  THUNDERING 


Thrknodial,  elegiac. 

This  was  pretty  well  for  a  tkrenodial  flight, 
bat  Dr.  "Watts  went  further.  When  Mr. 
How  should  die  (and  How  was  then  seventy 
years  of  age)  he  thought  it  time  that  the 
world  should  be  at  an  end. — Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  cxxxiii. 

Thriveless,  unsuccessful. 

These  t reach 'ro us  hands,  that  were  so  lately 

bold 
To  try  a  thriveless  combat. 

(^uarles,  Emblems,  HI.  vi.  10. 

Throbless,  not  throbbing  or  beating. 

Every  tongue  silent,  every  eye  awed,  every 
heart  quaking ;  mine,  iu  a  particular  man- 
ner, sunk  throbless. — Richardson,  CI.  Har- 
lowe,  vi.  67. 

Throneless,  without  a  throne;  de- 
posed. 

Thou  throneless  homicide. 

Byron,  Ode  to  Napoleon. 
Traditions  of  its  having  been  the  landing- 
place  of  a  throneless  queen  were  current  in 
the  town. — Mrs.  Gaskell,  Sylvia1  s  Lovers,  ch.  i. 

Throug-handlinq  =  management 

The  king (but  skiming  anything 

that  came  before  him)  was  disciplined  to 
leave  the  throug-handling  of  all  to  his  gentle 
wife. — Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  177. 

Thruncke.  H.  has  thrunk  as  an 
adjective  =  busy ;  thronged ;  crowded ; 
but  in  the  extract  it  is  a  verb:  mis- 
print for  shruncke  (?). 

Their  cariage  was  but  an  unwildy  trunke, 
Wherein  to  neare  their  trash  was  laied  their 

treasure, 
With  weight  whereof  their  shoulders  often 

thruncke, 
Before  they  came  vnto  their  place  of  pleasure. 
Breton,  Pilgrimage  to  Paradise,  p.  7. 

Thrush -a- thrush,  a  game,  appar- 
ently of  an  active  kind. 

"What  say  you,  Harry?  have  you  any 
play  to  shew  them?"  "Yes,  sir,"  said 
Harry;  "I  have  a  many  of  them;  there's 
first  leap-frog  and  thrush-a-thrush.n —  H. 
Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  25. 

Thruster,  one  who  thrusts  at  another. 

I  was  sore  thrust  at,  that  I  so  might  fall, 
But  Thou  o'er-threw'st  my  thrusters. 

Davies,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  34. 

Thumb.  To  be  under  the  thumb  of 
another  is  to  be  under  his  orders  or 
influence. 

She  remembers  her  late  act  of  delinquency, 
so  she  is  obliged  to  be  silent:  I  have  her 
under  my  thumb. — Richardson,  Grandison,  v. 
56. 

He  is  under  the  thumb  of  that  doctor. — 
H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  ix. 


Thumb.  Bale  of  thumb  =  rough  or 
make-shift.  The  thumb  is  used  some- 
times in  order  to  attain  a  rough  or  ap- 
proximate measurement. 

We  never  learnt  anything  in  the  navy 
when  I  was  a  youngster,  except  a  little  rule' 
of -thumb  mathematics. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown 
at  Oxford,  ch.  xxi. 

Thumb.  Of  a  clumsy  person  it  is 
said  that  "  all  his  fingers  are  thumbs," 
though  to  be  without  thumbs  has  a 
similar  meaning.     See  Thumbless. 

Ah,  eche  finger  is  a  thombe  to-day  me  thinke. 
— Udal,  Roister  Doister,  i.  3. 

Thumb-bottle,  a  short  thick  bottle  (?). 
The  same  author  speaks  of  illuminations 
on  royal  anniversaries  "  by  loyal  thumb- 
bottles  displayed  "  (p.  212). 

Whose  soul,  moreover,  of  such  sort  is — 
With  so  much  acrimony  overflows 
As  makes  him,  wheresoe'er  he  goes, 

A  walking  thumb-bottle  of  aqua-fortis. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  121. 

Thumble,  to  thumb  or  paw  about: 
at  least  this  I  suppose  to  be  the  mean- 
ing if  it  has  any.  The  speaker  is  a 
country  girl. 

Well,  111  not  stay  with  her :  stay,  quotha  ? 
To  be  yauld  and  jaul'd  at,  and  tumbled  and 
thumbled,  and  tost  and  turn'd  as  I  am  by  an 
old  hag.— Wily  Beguiled  {Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr., 
iii.  317). 

Thumbless,  clumsy. 

When  to  a  house  I  come  and  see 
The  genius  wastef ull  more  than  free ; 
The  servants  thumblesse,  yet  to  eat 
With  lawlesse  tooth  the  floure  of  wheat. 
Merrick  Hesperides,  p.  333. 

Thunderbeat,  to  beat  with  thunder- 
ing strokes. 

So  he  them  thunderbet  whereso  he  went, 
That  neuer  a  stroke  in  vaine  his  right  hand 
spent. — Hudson,  Judith,  v.  397. 

Thunderbolt,  a  celt  or  fossil  belem- 
nite.    See  extract  «.  v,  Dunderbolt. 

Thunderbolt,  to  strike  with  thunder. 

He  must  ere  long  be  triple  beneficed, 
Else  with  his  tongue  he'll  thunderbolt  the 
world. 

Return  from  Parnassus,  iii  2  (1006). 

Thundering,  used  as  an  intensative 
=  very  fast,  large,  &c. 

He  goes  a  thundering  pace  that  you  would 
not  think  it  possible  to  overtake  him. — 
Adams,  ii.  420. 

I  was  drawing  a  thundering  fish  out  of  the 
water,  so  very  large  that  it  made  my  rod 
crack  again. — T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  219. 


THUNDERLESS        (  654  )  TICKLETOBYS  MARE 


Thundkrless,  unattended  by  thunder 
or  loud  noise.  In  the  second  extract 
the  "  Silent  Isle  "  is  spoken  of. 

Witness  too  the  silent  cry, 
The  prayer  of  many  a  race,  aud  creed,  and 

clime, 
Thunderless  lightnings  striking  under  sea 
From  sunset  and  sunrise  of  all  the  realm. 

Tennyson,  To  the  Queen. 

The  long  waterfalls 
Pour'd  in  a  thunderless  plunge  to  the  base  of 
the  mountain  walls. 

Ibid.,  Voyage  of  Maeldune. 

Thunder-shot,  struck  by  lightning. 

^  His  death  commonly  is  most  miserable 
either  burnt  as  Diagoras,  or  eaten  up  with 
lice  as  Pherceydes,  or  devoured  by  dogs  as 
Lucian,  or  thunder-shot  and  turn'd  to  ashes 
as  Oiimpius. — Fuller,  Holy  and  Profane  State, 
V.  vi.  9. 

Thundbb-thump,  thunderbolt. 

O  thou  yat  throwest  the  thunder-thumps 
From  Heauens  hye  to  Hell. 

Googe,  Eglogs,  iv. 

Thurify,  to  cense. 

This  herring  or  this  cropshin  was  sensed 
and  thurified  in  the  smoake. — Nashe,  Lenten 
Stuffs  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  176). 

The  smoak  of  censing,  sraoak  of  thurifying. 
Sylvester,  Tobacco  Battered,  183. 

Thwart,  opposition.  The  word  is 
not  generally  used  as  a  substantive :  in 
thwart  =  in  spite. 

A  certain  disastrous  person,  who  calleth 
himself  the  devil,  even  now,  a  id  m  thwart  of 
your  fair  indications,  keepeth  and  detaineth 
your  irradiant  frame  in  hostile  thraldom. — 
Mad.  D'ArUay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  II.  ch.  ill. 

Thwarted,  crossed. 

All  Knights-Tempi  srs  make  such  saltire 
cross  with  their  thwarted  leggs  upon  their 
monuments. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist,  IIL  iii.  11. 

Thwartly,  perversely. 

Sith  man  then  in  judgeinge  so  thwartly  is 

bente 
To  satisfie  fansie,  and  not  true  intente. 

W.  Kethe,  1554  {Maitland  on  Reformation, 
p.  113). 

Thyrse,  the  staff  twined  with  ivy 
and  vine-leaves  borne  by  Bacchus  and 
the  Bacchantes.  This  Latin  word 
(thyrsus)^  in  an  Anglicised  form,  is 
used  more  than  once  by  Herri ck.  See, 
besides  extract,  pp.  3,  41.  It  occurs 
also  in  Stapyltoris  Juvenal,  vi.  73, 
and  is  defined  in  the  notes  "a  speare 
wreathed  about  with  vine-leaves  and 
grapes  proper  to  Bacchus.1 


»» 


Wild  I  am  now  with  heat : 
O  Bacchus !  coole  thy  raies ! 

Or  frantick  I  shall  eate 
Thy  thyrse,  and  bite  the  bayes. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  84. 

Tib  of  the  buttery,  gipsy  cant  for 
a  goose.    See  extract  s.  v.  Margery. 

Tick,  touch ;    mark :    also,  a   verb. 

See  quotation  s.  v.  Foote  saunt. 

The  least  tick  befalls  thee  not  without  the 
overruling  eye  and  hand,  not  only  of  a  wise 
God,  but  of  a  tender  Father. —  Ward,  Sermons, 
p.  34. 

Lord,  if  the  peevish  infant  fights,  and  fliea 
With  unpared  weapons  at  his  mother's  eyes. 
Her  frowns  (half-mixed  with  smiles)  may 

chance  to  show 
An  angry,  \ove-tick  on  his  arm  or  so. 

Quarles,  Emblems,  III.  vi.  42. 

Ticker,  a  watch  (slang).  See  ex- 
tract s.  v.  Fogle. 

Ticket,  the  correct  thing. 

"  She's  very  handsome  and  she's  very  finely 
dressed,  only  somehow  she's  uot— she's  not 
the  ticket,  you  see."  tfOh,  she's  not  the 
ticket,"  says  the  Colonel,  much  amused. — 
Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  vii. 

Ticket-of-leave.  In  1854  a  system 
was  introduced  under  which  convicts 
may  be  liberated,  though  a  portion  of 
their  sentence  be  unexpired,  on  a  ticket- 
of-leave;  they  are  obliged  to  report 
themselves  from  time  to  time  to  the 
police,  until  the  period  for  which  they 
were  sentenced  is  over,  and  they  are 
liable  to  have  the  ticket  recalled  on  the 
commission  of  any  fresh  offence.  The 
word  is  often  used  adjectivally. 

They  found  themselves  outlaws,  ticket-of- 
leave  men,  or  what  you  will  in  that  line. — 
Hughes,  Tom  Brown's  School  Days,  Pt.  I.  ch. 
ix. 

Ticking-shoes,  carpet-slippers  (?). 

The  dirtiest  trollup  in  the  town  must  have 
her  top-knot  and  tickin-shoes.—Centlivrc,  The 
Artifice,  Act  III. 

Tickle,  we  should  now  say  "  itch." 

The  fingers  of  the  Athenians  tidecd  to  aide 
and  succour  Harpalus.  —  VdaVs  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  381. 

Tickletoby's  mare.  See  Ribelais, 
Bk.  IV.  ch.  xiii.  for  an  account  of 
Tickletoby'8  (Urquhart's  translation  of 
Tappe-cou)  mare. 

Let  me  beg  of  you,  like  an  unbacked  filly, 
to  frisk  it,  to  squirt  it,  to  jump  it,  to  rear  it, 
to  bound  it,  and  to  kick  it  with  long  kicks  and 
short  kicks,  till,  like  Tickletoby's  mare,  yon 
break  a  strap  or  a  crupper,  and  throw  his 


TJDDLE 


(  655  )  TILLET  TREE 


worship  into  the  dirt.— Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy, 
iu.  20. 

Tiddle,  to  potter  or  fidget. 

To  leave  the  family  pictures  from  his  sons 
to  you,  because  you  could  tiddle  about  them, 
and  though  you  now  neglect  their  examples, 
could  wipe  and  clean  them  with  your  dainty 
hands. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  i.  322. 

T idk-coach,  a  coach  that  timed  its 
journeys  to  or  from  a  seaport  so  as  to 
catch  the  right  tide;  we  now  use  the 
adjective  in  this  way,  and  speak  of  a 
tidal  train. 

He  took  a  place  in  the  tide-coach  from 
Rochester. — Smollett,  Roderick  Random,  ch. 
xxiv. 

Tideoate,  tideway  or  stream. 

Some  visible  apparent  tokens  remaine  of  a 
haven  .  . .  though  uow  it  be  graveld  up,  and 
the  streame  or  tydegate  turned  another  way. 
—Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  {Hart.  Misc.,  vi.  160). 

Tiego,  corruption  of  vertigo  (?)  ;  the 
speaker  is  fuddled. 

I  am  shrewdly  troubled  with  a  tiego 
Here  in  my  head,  madam,  often  with  this 

tiego, 
It  takes  me  very  often. 

Massinger,  Very  Woman,  iv.  3. 

Tiff.  The  Diets,  give  this  as  mean- 
ing some  small  thin  drink,  like  swipes, 
but  in  the  subjoined  it  seems  to  be 
applied  to  the  measure  holding  the 
liquor  or  it  may  =  draught. 

What  say  you  to  a  glass  of  white  wine,  or 
a  tiff  of  punch  by  way  of  whet  ? — Fielding, 
Amelia,  Bk.  VIII.  ch.  x. 

Dr.  Slash  . .  .  was  smoaking  his  pipe  over 
a  tiff  of  punch. — Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote, 
Bk.  XI.  ch.  xiv. 

Sipping  his  tiff  of  braody  punch  with  great 
solemnity. — Scott,  Guy  Mannering,  i.  111. 

Tiff,  to  drink. 

He  tiffd  his  punch,  and  went  to  rest. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  v. 

Tiff,  a  pet ;  a  slight  quarrel. 

My  lord  and  I  have  had  another  little — tiff, 
shall  I  call  it  ?  it  came  not  up  to  a  quarrel. — 
Richardson,  Grandison,  iv.  291. 

There  had  been  numerous  tiffs  and  quarrels 
between  mother  and  daughter. — Thackeray, 
Shabby  Genteel  Story,  ch.  i. 

In  comparison  with  such  words  or  gestures, 
George  IV. 'a  quarrel  with  Brummel  was  an 
ordinary  tiff.— Nat.  Review  (1853).  vii.  395. 

Tiffany,  a  thin  silk ;   hence  tiffany 
natures  =  slender- witted  natures:  taf- 
fetas has  the  same  adjectival  and  figur- 
ative use,  but  is  often  complimentary. 
Cf.  Calico. 


Tiffany  natures  are  so  easily  imposed  upon. 
Centlivre,  Beau's  Duel,  Act  II. 

Tiger.     See  quotation. 

"A  man  may  have  a  very  good  coat  of 
arms,  and  be  a  tiger,  my  boy,"  the  Major 
said,  chipping  his  egg :  u  that  man  is  a  tiger, 
mark  my  word  —  a  low  man."  —  Thackeray, 
Pendennis,  ch.  xix. 

Tigerantic,  ravenous  as  a  tiger. 

In  what  sheep's-head  ordinary  have  you 
chew'd  away  the  meridian  of  your  tygerantic 
stomach?—  T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  179. 

Tigerkin.  "That  tiger's  miniature 
— the  cat "  (Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries, 
p.  102). 

It  is  only  from  the  attic  that  you  can  ap- 
preciate the  picturesque  which  belong  to  our 
domesticated  tigerkin.  The  goat  should  be 
seen  on  the  Alps,  and  the  cat  on  the  house- 
top.— Lytton,  Caxtons,  Bk.  XIV.  ch.  ii. 

• 

Tighter,  caulker. 

Julius  Caesar  and  Pompey  were  boat- 
wrights  and  tighters  of  ships.  —  Urquharl's 
Rabelais,  Bk.  if.  ch.  xxx. 

Tigrish,  having  the  qualities  of  a 

tiger  in  the  sense  given  above. 

Nothing  could  be  more  vagrant,  devil-me- 
carish,  and,  to  use  the  slang  word,  tiarish, 
than  his  whole  air. — Lytton,  My  Novel,  Bk. 
VI.  ch.  xx. 

Tile,  a  hat  (slang).  See  extract  s.  v. 
Shovel. 

John,  Lord  Kin  sale, 

A  stalwart  old  Baron,  who  acting  as  hench- 
man 

To  one  of  our  early  Kings,  killed  a  big 
Frenchman  : 

A  feat  which  his  Majesty  deigning  to  smile 
on. 

Allowed  him  thenceforward  to  stand  with  his 
tile  on. — Ingoldshy  Legends  (Auto-da- Fe). 

Tiler,  pimple  or  mole  (?).  The 
speaker  is  an  ass. 

Our  very  urine  is  found  to  be  good  against 
tilers  or  morphews  in  ladies'  faces. — Howell, 
Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  25. 

Till,  to.  R.  has  no  later  example 
than  from  Chaucer  of  the  use  of  the 
word  in  this  sense  :  L.  quotes  from  Bp. 
Fisher,  but  the  subjoined  is  nearly  150 
years  later. 

He  was  afterwards  restored  till  his  liberty 
and  archbishoprick. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  IV. 
iii.  40. 

Tillet  tree,  the  linden. 

They  use  their  cordage  of  date  tree  leaves 
and  the  thin  barks  of  the  Linden  or  Tillet 
tree. — Holland,  Pliny,  xix.  2. 


TILTURE 


(«56) 


TINE 


Tiltubb,  husbandry. 

Good  tilth  brings  seedes, 
Euill  tilture  weedes. 
•  Tusser,  Husbandries  p.  92. 

Timber,  forty  skins  of  fur  were  called 
a  timber. 

Having . . .  presented  them  with  two  timber 
of  sables,  which  with  much  diligence  had 
been  recovered  out  of  the  wreck,  he  was  by 
them  remitted  to  his  lodging. — Heylin,  Re- 
formation, ii.  202. 

Timber -worm,  a  worm    that    eats 

through  wood. 

What,  o  what  is  it 
That  makes  yee,  like  vile  timber-wormes,  to 

weare 
The  poasts  sustaining  you  ? 

Davies,  Sir  T.  Overbury,  p.  16. 

Time,  in  good  time  =  just  so ;  well 
and  good :  a  la  bonne  keure.  It  oc- 
curs in  Measure  for  Measure,  III.  i.  and 
V.  i. :  often  used  ironically. 

The  magistrate  shall  have  his  tribute  .  .  if 
so  be  he  carry  himself  worthily,  and  as  he 
ought  to  do  in  his  place,  and  so  as  to  deserve 
it.  In  good  time  !  But  I  pray  you  then  first 
to  argue  the  cause  a  little  with  thee,  whoever 
thou  art  that  thus — glossest!  who  mayst 
judge  of  his  carriage,  and  whether  he  deserve 
such  honour  ? — Sanderson,  i.  67. 

"There,  saith  he,  even  at  this  day  are 
shewed  the  ruines  of  those  three  tabernacles 
built  according  to  Peter's  desire."    In  very 

?ood  time,  no  doubt! — Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight, 
I.  vi.  27. 

Time,  to  pass  the  time ;  to  procras- 
tinate. 

They  timed  it  out  all  that  spring,  and  a 
great  part  of  the  next  sommer.  —  Daniel, 
Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  81. 

Timeist,   one  who    keeps    accurate 

time  in  music. 

Those  whose  musical  creed  is  Time  before 
Sentiment  might  have  put  up  with  this  night- 
bird  ;  for,  to  do  her  justice,  she  was  a  perfect 
timeist ;  one  crake  in  a  bar  the  livelong  night ; 
but  her  tune — ugh  \~Reade,  Never  too  late  to 
mend,  ch.  lxiv. 

Timeling,  a  time-server. 

They  also  cruelly  compel  divers  of  the 
ministers  whioh  are  faint-hearted,  and  were, 
as  it  seemeth,  but  timelinas,  serving  rather 
the  time  (as  the  manner  of  the  worldings  is) 
than  marrying  in  Thy  fear,  to  do  open  pen- 
ance before  the  people. — If  earn,  III.  235. 

Timeservingness,  a  truckling  line  of 
conduct,  a  compliance  with  the  varying 
temper  of  the  times.  North  (Life  of 
Lord  Guilford,  i.  2)  accuses  some 
people  of <(  timeservingness  and  malice." 


Timmen,  a  sort  of  woollen  cloth.  See 
N.  8.  v.  tamine. 

The  inward  man  struggled  and  plunged 
amidst  the  toils  of  broadcloth  and  timmen. — 
Miss  Ferrier,  Inheritance,  iii.  12. 

Timidous,  timid.  I  have  only  met 
with  this  word  in  North.  8ee  another 
instance  from  his  Examcn,  s.  v.  Hesita- 
tory. 

His  lordship  knew  him  to  be  a  mere  lawyer, 
and  a  timidous  man.  —  North,  Life  of  Lord 
Guilford,  ii.  31. 

His  timidous  manner  of  creating  and  judg- 
ing abundance  of  points,  some  on  one  side 
and  some  on  another,  and,  if  possible,  con- 
triving that  each  should  have  a  competent 
share,  made  work  for  registers,  solicitors, 
and  counsel. — Ibid.,  ii.  74. 

Timish,  fashionable ;   one    up   with 

the  times  ? 

A  timish  gentleman  acooutered  with 
sword  and  peruke,  hearing  the  noise  this 
man  caused  in  the  town,  had  a  great  desire 
to  discourse  with  him. — Life  of  Lodouick 
Muggleton,  1676  {Marl.  Misc.,  i.  612). 

Timonist,  a  misanthrope. 

I  did  it  to  retire  me  from  the  world, 
And  turn  my  muse  into  a  Timonist. 

Dekker,  Satiromastix  {Hawkins,  Eng. 
Dr.,  iii.  189). 

Timonize,  to  play  the  misanthrope. 

I  should  be  tempted  to  Timonize,  and 
clap  a  satyr  upon  our  whole  species.— Gentle- 
man Instructed,  p.  306. 

Tim-whiskey,  a  light  one-horse 
chaise. 

Not  that  I  believe  he  is  a  jot  better  than 
the  apprentices  that  flirt  to  Epsom  in  a  TYm- 
whiskey.—  Walpole,  Letters,  iii.  256  (1168). 

It  was  a  two- wheeled  vehicle  which  claimed 
none  of  the  modern  appellations  of  tilbury, 
tandem,  dennet,or  the  like,  but  aspired  only 
to  the  humble  name  of  that  almost  forgotten 
accommodation,  a  whiskey ;  or,  according  to 
some  authorities,  a  tim-tchiskcy. — Scott,  St. 
Ronan's  Well,  it  233. 

It  is  not  like  the  difference  between  a 
Baptist  and  an  Anabaptist,  which  Sir  John 
Danvers  said  is  much  the  same  as  that 
between  a  whiskey  and  a  Tim-whiskey,  that  is 
to  say,  no  difference  at  all. — Houthey,  The 
Doctor,  Interchapter  ziv. 

Tindery,   inflammable,   like  tinder. 

Sir  C.  Grandison  (iv.  158)  speaks   of 

love  at  first  sight  as  "  a  tindery  fit." 

I  love  nobody  for  nothing ;  I  am  not  so 
tindery.— Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  vi  44. 

Tine,  "  a  wild  vetch  or  tare ;  a  plant 
that  tines  or  encloses  and  imprisons 


TINGLISH 


(  657  ) 


TIP-TILTED 


other  plants"  (Payne  and    Herrtage). 
See  titters. 

The  titters  or  tine 
Makes  hop  to  pine. 
S  >me  raketh  their  wheat 
With  rake  that  is  great, 
So  titters  and  tine 
Be  gotten  out  fine. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  109. 

Tinglish,  sensitive. 

They  pass ;  for  them  the  panels  may  thrill, 

The  tempera  grow  alive  and  tinglish  ; 
Their  pictures  are  left  to  the  mercies  still 
Of  dealers  and  stealers,  Jews  and  the 
English. 

Browning,  Old  Pictures  in  Florence. 

Tininq  gloves,  hedging-gloves :  tine 
=  to  repair  a  hedge. 

They  pat  on  tininy  gloves,  that  the  thorns 
may  not  prick  them.— Adams,  ii.  486. 

Tink,  to  tinkle. 

Sir  after  drinking,  while  the  shot  is  tincking, 
Some  heds  be  swinking,  but  mine  will  be 
sinking. 

Heyicood,  The  Four  Fs.  (Doddey, 
O  PL,  i.  96). 

If  the  verses  do  but  chime  and  tinck  in  the 
close  it  is  enough  for  the  purpose. — Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist.,  II.  p.  167. 

Tinker  dp,  to  botch ;  mend  in  a 
clumsy  or  imperfect  way. 

Chronology  and  Astronomy  are  forced 
to  tinker  up  and  reconcile,  as  well  as  they 
can,  these  uncertainties. —  Walpole,  Historic 
Doubts  on  Richard  III.,  Preface. 

I  am  criticised  for  the  expression  tinker  up 
iii  the  preface.  Is  this  one  of  those  that  you 
object  to?  I  own  I  think  such  a  low  ex- 
pression, placed  to  ridicule  an  absurd  instance 
of  wise  folly,  very  forcible.  Replace  it  with 
an  elevated  word  or  phrase,  and  to  my  con- 
ception it  becomes  as  flat  as  possible. —  Wal- 
pole, Letters,  iii.  227  (1768). 

Tinkerly,  after  the  manner  of  a 
tinker  (see  L.) ;  and  Webbe  might 
mean  a  tinkered  up  verse,  but  more 
probably  where  he  speaks  (p.  31)  of 
"  this  tynkerly  verse  which  we  call 
ryme,"  he  means  *  tinkling.' 

Tinkler,  a  tinker,  and  so,  a  vaga- 
bond. 

"Is  there  a  fire  in  the  library ?n  "Yes, 
ma'am,  but  she  looks  such  a  tinkler.19 — C. 
Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xviii. 

TlNTINABULATION,  80Und  of  bells. 

Keeping  time,  time,  time, 
In  a  sort  of  Runic  rhyme, 
To  the  tintinabulation  that  so  musically  swells 
From  the  bells. 

E.  A.  Poe,  The  Bells  (ii.  23). 


Tintinnabulous,  pertuining  to  bell- 
ringing.  De  Quincey  (Confessions  of 
an  Opium- Eater,  p.  104)  speaks  of 
"the  tintinnabulous  propensities"  of 
the  College  porter,  who  rang  the  bell 
for  early  chapel. 

Tintless,  colourless. 

I  made  myself  gardener  of  some  tintless 
flowers.— Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xil 

Tip,  a  draught  of  liquor. 

Miss  (with  a  glass  in  her  hand). — Hold 
your  tongue,  Mr.  Neverout,  don't  speak  in  my 
tip.— Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Oonv.  ii.). 

Tip-cheese,  a  boy's  game,  in  which 
a  small  stick  is  struck  and  bit  forward 
by  another. 

He  forgets  the  long  familiar  cry  of 
"  knuckle  down  ; "  and  at  tip-cheese  or  odd 
and  even  his  hand  is  out. — Picktcick  Papers^ 
ch.  xxxiv. 

Tip  for  tap,  tit  for  tat.  The  origin- 
al has  only  non  responsare.  Tap  for 
tap  occurs  in  2  Hen.  IV.,  II.  i.,  but 
refers  there  to  exchange  of  taps  between 
fencers. 

Let  every  young  man  be  persuaded  and 
keep  in  memory  that  his  duty  is  .  .  .  not  to 
answer  tip  for  tap,  but  to  suffer  much  and 
wink  thereat. — Bulling  er,  I.  283. 

Tippler.  Latimer  and  Grindal  use 
the  word  of  publicans :  it  usually 
means  drunkards. 

They  were  but  tipplers,  such  as  keep  ale- 
houses.— Latimer,  i.  133. 

No  inn  keeper,  ale-house  keeper,  victualler, 
or  tipler  shall  admit  or  suffer  any  person  or 
persons  in  his  house  or  backside  to  eat,  drink, 
or  play  at  cards,  tables,  bowls,  or  other  games, 
in  time  of  Common  Prayer. — Grindal,  He- 
mains,  p.  138. 

Tipsify,  to  make  tipsy :  tipsy  is  a 
milder  word  than  drunk. 

The  man  was  but  tipsijied  when  he  went ; 
happily  when  he  returned,  which  was  very 
late,  he  was  drunk. — Carlyley  Misc.,  iv.  95. 

She  was  in  such  a  passion  of  tears,  that 
they  were  obliged  to  send  for  Dr.  Floss,  and 
half  tipsify  her  with  salvolatile. — Thackeray, 
Vanity  Fair,  ch.  i. 

Tipt,  intoxicated. 

Why,  they  are  as  jovial  as  twenty  beggars, 
drink  their  whole  cups  six  glasses  at  a  health 
your  master's  almost  tipt  already. — Marmion, 
Antiquary,  Act  IV. 

Tip-tilted,  turned  up  at  the  end. 

u  u 


TIPTOE 


(  658  )       TOBACCANALIAN 


For  people  who  are  innocent  indeed, 
Never  look  down  so  black,  and  scratch  the 

head; 
But,  tipped  with  confidence,  their  noses  tilt. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p,  74. 

Lightly  was  her  slender  nose 
Tip-tilted  like  the  petal  of  a  flower. 
Tennyson,  Gareth  and  Lynette. 

Tiptoe,  to  go  on  tiptoe. 
Mabel  tiptoed  to  her  door.— Richardson,  CI. 
Harlowe,  vi.  104. 

He  tiptoed,  eager,  through  the  hail, 
And  seized  his  torment  by  the  tail. 
Cot  man,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  109. 

Tireless,  indefatigable. 

The  tireless  pen  of  St.  Jerome  was  called 
into  requisition.  —  Lea,  Sacerdotal  Celibacy, 
p.  70. 

Tirology,  instruction  for  beginners : 
the  editor  suggests  that  it  may  be  a 
misprint  for  pyrology,  but  the  allitera- 
tion is  in  favour  of  the  text. 

Some  of  the  papists  .  .  .  wheresoever  they 
find  ignis  take  it  for  purgatory  straight- 
ways.  O  noble  doctors  of  tyrology  rather 
than  of  theology. — Becon,  ii.  563. 

Titaness,  giantess. 

Truth, .  . .  Titaness  among  deities! — Miss 
Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xxxix. 

Titheless,  without  paying  tithe. 
See  extract  8.  v.  Taxless. 

Titteration,  fit  of  giggling. 

The  holding  up  of  a  straw  will  throw  me 
into  a  titteration. — Richardson,  Grandison,  v. 
303. 

Titters,  a  kind  of  weed.  See  quota- 
tion 8.  v.  Tine.  L.  has  the  following, 
but  suggests  tiller  as  the  meaning, 
which  apparently  makes  no  sense. 

From  wheat  go  and  rake  out  the  titters  or 
tine, 
.  If  eare  be  not  forth,  it  will  rise  again  fine. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  113. 

Titter  totter,  unsteadily. 

Don't  stand  titter  totter,  first  standing  upon 
one  foot  and  then  upon  another. — Baileyys 
Erasmus,  p.  43. 

Tittivate,  to  spruce  up;  to  make 
smart. 

Regular  as  clockwork — breakfast  at  nine— 
dress  and  tittivate  a  little. — Sketches  by  Boz 
{Mr.  John  Bounce). 

Call  in  your  black  man,  and  titivate  a  bit. 
— Thackeray,  The  Virginians,  ch.  xlviii. 

Tittle-tattle,  used  adjectivally, 
chattering ;  gossiping. 


Syntax,  who  fear'd  all  might  be  known 
Throughout  the  tittle-tattle  town, 
Thought  'twould  be  wise  for  him  to  go. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  c.  5. 

Titupping,  lively. 

It  would  be  endless  to  notice  . . .  the  "  Dear 
mes  "  and  "  Oh  laas  "  of  the  titupping  missex, 
and  the  oaths  of  the  pantalooued  or  buck- 
skinntt  beaux.—  Scott,  St.  Ronan's  Well, 
ch.  xiii. 

Titcppy,  shaky. 

Did  you  ever  see  such  a  little  tituppy  thing 
in  your  life  ?  There  is  not  a  souud  piece  of 
iron  about  it.  —  Miss  Austen,  Northaiger 
Abbey,  ch.  ix. 

Tizzy,  a  sixpence  ;  perhaps  a  cor- 
ruption of  tester. 

There's  an  old  'oman  at  the  lodge  who 
will  show  you  all  that's  worth  seeing — the 
walks  and  the  big  cascade— for  a  tizzy. — 
Lytton,  Caxtons,  Bk.  V.  ch.  i. 

Toad-in-the-hole,  meat  cooked  in 
batter.  The  speaker  in  the  extract  is 
the  Princess  Augusta. 

Mrs.  Siddons  and  Sadler's  Wells,  said  she, 
seems  to  me  as  illfitted  as  the  dish  they  call 
a  toad  in  a  hole,  which  I  never  saw,  but  always 
think  of  with  anger— putting  a  noble  sirloin 
of  beef  into  a  poor  paltry  batter-puddiug.— 
Mad.  UArUay,  Diary,  vi.  153. 

Toadling,  little  toad.  The  extract 
is  a  speech  of  Dr.  Johnson's  to  Miss 
Burney. 

Your  shyness,  and  slyness,  and  pretending 
to  know  nothing,  never  took  me  in,  whatever 
you  may  do  with  others.  I  always  knew  you 
for  a  toadling.— Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  i.  189. 

To  and  fro,  used  substantially  for 
discussion  ;  bandying  a  question  to  and 
fro. 

There  was  muche  to  and  fro,  for  some 
wolde  nedes  to  London,  thinkinge  that  waye 
to  winne  more  than  to  bringe  me  into  Flaun- 
ders.  And  of  them  which  wolde  into  Foun- 
ders some  wold  to  lande  for  a  barrell  of 
drinke,  .  . .  some  feared  the  commingeof  the 
mayre  and  captaiue  of  the  castell. —  Vocacyon 
of  Johan  Bale,  1553  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  459). 

Toasting  fork  or  iron,  a  jocular 
name  for  a  sword.  Cf.  Cheese- 
to  aster. 

I  served  in  Spain  with  the  king's  troops, 
until  the  death  of  my  dear  friend  Zumal- 
carreguy,  when  I  saw  the  game  was  over, 
and  hung  up  my  toasting-iron.— Thackeray, 
Pendennis,  ch,  xxii. 

If  I  had  given  him  time  to  get  at  his  other 
pistol,  or  his  toasting-fork,  it  was  all  up.— 
Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xli. 

Tobacc  A  kalian,  a  smoker. 


TOCO 


(  659  ) 


TOM-FOOLISH 


We  get  very  good  cigars  for  a  bajoccho 
and  a  half — that  is,  very  good  for  us  cheap 
tobaccanalians.  —  Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch. 
xxxv. 

Toco,  chastisement  (slang). 

The  school  leaders  come  up  furious,  and 
administer  toco  to  the  wretched  fags. — 
Hughes,  Tom  Brown's  Schooldays,  Pt.  I.  ch.  v. 

Toed,  supplied  with  toes:    the  feet 

referred  to  in  the  extract  had  scorpions 

for  toes. 

They  all  bowed  their  snaky  heads  down  to 
their  very  feet  which  were  toed  with  scor- 
pions.— Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  SO. 

Toer.  Nashe  applies  this  word  ap- 
parently to  herring-fishers  or  herring- 
curers.     See  extract  s.  v.  Rehblere. 

Toes.  To  turn  the  toes  up  =  to  die. 
Cf.  Heels. 

"  Several  arbalestriers  tvrned  their  toes  up, 
and  I  among  them."  "  Killed,  Denys  ?  come 
now !  "  "  Dead  as  mutton."— Reade,  Cloister 
and  Hearth,  ch.  xxiv. 

Togged,  dressed ;  equipped.  See 
Togs. 

He  was  totfd  gnostically  enough. — Scott, 
St.  Ronan's  Well,  i.  68. 

Toggery,  clothing. 

But  in  Edward  the  First's  days  I  very  much 

fear 
Had  a  gay  cavalier  thought  fit  to  appear 
In   any  such  toggery — then  'twas  termed 

gear— 
He'd  have  met  with  a  highly  significant 

sneer. — Ingoldsby  Legends  (St.  Romwold). 

Toggle.  "A  pin  placed  through  the 
bight  of  a  rope,  block-strap,  or  bolt, 
to  keep  it  in  its  place,  or  to  put  the 
bight  or  eye  of  another  rope  upon,  and 
thus  secure  them  both  together"  (Imp. 
Diet.). 

The  yard-ropes  were  fixed  to  the  halter  by 
a  toggle  in  the  running  noose  of  the  latter. — 
Marryat,  Fr.  Mildmay,  ch.  viii. 

Togs,  clothes,  from  toga.  Shakes- 
peare  has  toge  (Cor.  ii.  2),  and  toged 
(Oth.  i.  1),  but  see  N. 

Look  at  his  togs  ;  superfine  cloth,  and  the 
heavy  swell  cut.  —  Dickens,  Oliver  Twist, 
ch.  xvi. 

Toil,  to  weary. 

The  army  was  toiled  out  with  cruell  tem- 
pests.— Holland's  Camden,  p.  55. 

Toil.  One  who  overdoes  something 
which  in  moderation  might  be  agree- 
able, or  who  is  fussy  and  anxious  in 
pursuit  of  amusement,  is  said  to  make 


a  toil  of  pleasure.  The  phrase  is  at 
least  as  old  as.  1603.  In  the  extract 
reference  is  made  to  hunting  and 
hawking. 

Tyrinp  of  legges  and  tearing  of  throates 
with  luring  and  hollowing  are  nothing  pleas- 
ing to  my  humor ;  I  doo  not  loue  so  to  make 
a  toyle  of  a  pleasure. — Breton,  Dialogue,  full 
of  pithe  ana  pleasure,  p.  7. 

Tolerableness,  allowability. 

Men  flatter  themselves,  and  cozen  their 
consciences,  with  a  tolerableness  of  usury, 
when  moneys  be  put  out  for  their  children's 
stocks.— Adams,  il  137. 

Tolibant,  turban. 

The  country  custome  maketh  things  decent 
in  vse,  as  .  . .  the  Turke  and  Persian  to  weare 
great  tolibanU  of  ten,  fifteene,  and  twentie 
elles  of  linnen  a  peece  vpon  their  heads. — 
Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xxiv. 

Toll  booth.  The  prison  was  so 
called  in  Cambridge,  as  it  still  is  in 
Scotland.  Corbet  uses  the  word  as  a 
verb,  and  explains  it  in  a  note,  "  Idem 

Siod  Boearao  apud  Oxon."    The  En#. 
icts.  give  it  as  meaning  custom-house ; 
Wiclif  so  uses  the  word  in  Matt.  ix.  9. 

They  might  ToU booth  Oxford  men. 

Dp.  Corbet  on  James  I?s  visit  to 
Cambridge. 

The  Maior  refused  to  give  them  the  keys 
of  the  Toll-booth  or  town-prison. — Fuller, 
Hist,  of  Cambridge,  vii.  25. 

Tolsey.  See  extracts.  The  place 
spoken  of  is  Bristol. 

The  mayor  and  justices,  or  some  of  them, 
usually  met  at  their  tolsey  (a  court  house  by 
their  exchequer)  about  noon,  which  was  the 
meeting  of  the  merchants,  as  at  the  Ex- 
change at  London  ;  and  there  they  sat  and 
did  justice  business  that  was  brought  before 
them.— North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  1 16. 

The  place  under  it  is  their  Tolsey  or  Ex- 
change, for  the  meeting  of  their  merchants. 
—Defoe,  Tour  thro'  G.  Britain,  iii.  239. 

Toman,  a  Persian  gold  coin. 

The  band-roll  strung  with  tomans, 
Which  proves  the  veil  a  Persian  woman's. 
Browning,  Flight  of  the  Duchess. 

m 

Tom-double,  a  shuffler. 

He  is  for  a  single  ministry,  that  he  may 
play  the  Tom-double  under  it. — Character  of 
a  Sneaker,  1705  (Harl.  Misc.,  ii.  355). 

Tom-poolish,  given  to  joking  or 
tom-foolery. 

A  man  he  is  by  nature  merry, 
Somewhat  Tom-foolish,  and  comical,  very.' 
Sovthey,  Nondescripts,  viii. 
U  U  2 


TOMLING 


(  660  ) 


T0N1SHNESS 


Tomlino,  a  little  Tom  (oat). 
We  are  promised,  to  succeed  him,  a  black 
Tomling.—Southey,  Letters,  1821  (iii.  244). 

Tommy.     See  extract. 

It  is  placed  in  antithesis  to  soft  and  new 
bread,  what  English  sailors  call  soft  tommy.— 
De  Quincey,  Roman  Meals. 

To-morrow  come  never,  a  date  that 
will  never  ar-ive.     See  quotation  from 
.  wif  t  *.  v.  Devil. 

Ra.  He  shall  have  it  in  a  very  little  time. 

Sy.  When?      To-morrow  come  never?  (ad 
Calendas  Gracas). — Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  42. 

Sally.  You  married  to  my  sister !  When 
will  that  be? 

Marc.  Very  soon,  my  dear!  To-day  or 
to-morrow  perhaps. 

Sally.  To-morrow  come  never,  I  believe. 

Colman,  Man  and  Wife,  Act  III. 

Tomring,  making  a  noise.  The  ex- 
tract is  from  a  protestation  of  the 
Lower  House  of  Convocation  in  1536. 

Item,  That  the  singing  or  saying  of  masse, 
mattens,  or  evensong  is  but  a  roreing,  howl- 
ing, whisteling,  mumming,  tomring,  and  jug- 
ling.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  V.  iv.  28. 

Tom  Towly  apparently  =  Tom 
Fool. 

What  Tom  Towly  is  so  simple  that  wyl 
not  attempt  to  be  a  rithmoure  ? — Stanyhurst, 
JEneid,  Dedic. 

Tom  Truth,  a  downright  fellow.  See 
extract  s.  v.  Sarisbury.  H.  has  "  Turn- 
Tell' Truth,  a  true  guesser." 

To-name,   a  nick-name ;    something 

added  to  the  proper  name. 

"  They  call  my  kinsman  Ludovic  with  the 
scar,"  said  Quentin.  "  Our  family  names 
are  so  common  in  a  Scottish  house,  that 
where  there  is  no  land  in  the  case  we  always 
give  a  to-nameP  *'  A  nom  de  auerre,  I  sup- 
pose you  to  mean,"  answered  his  companion. 
— Scott,  Quentin  Durioard,  i.  37. 

Tone.  In  a  tone  =  a\ike;  unanimous. 

I  complained  to  one  and  to  another,  but 
all  were  in  a  tone  ;  and  so  I  thought  I  would 
be  contented.  —  Richardson,  Grandison,  iii. 
381. 

Toneless,  without  tone  ;  unaccentu- 
ated. 

His  voice,  heard  now  for  the  first  time, 
was  to  Grandcourt's  toneless  drawl,  which 
had  been  in  her  ears  every  day,  as  the  deep 
notes  of  a  violoncello  to  the  broken  dis- 
course of  poultry  and  other  lazy  gentry  in 
the  ufternoon  sunshine.  —  G.  Eliot,  Daniel 
Deronda,  ch.  xxix. 

Tongs,  used  as  a  singular. 

He  sat  by  the  fireside, .  .  writing  the  name 


of  his  mistress  in  the  ashes  with  an  old  top  /f 
that  had  lost  one  of  its  legs. — Irving,  Sal- 
magundi, No.  II. 

Tongue.  To  have  a  remark  on  tiu 
tip  or  end  of  ones  tongue  =  to  be  on 
the  point  of  speaking. 

God  forgive  me !  but  I  bad  a  sad  lie  at  my 
tongue's  end. — Richardson,  Pamela,  L  205. 

Mr*.  Norris  thought  it  an  excellent  pUa. 
and  had  it  at  her  tongue's  end,  and  was  on  the 
point  of  proposing  it  when  Mrs.  Grant  spoke. 
— Miss  Austen,  Mansfield  Park,  ch.  viii. 

It  was  ou  the  tip  of  the  boy's  tongue  to  re- 
late what  had  followed,  but  he  .  .  checked 
himself.— Dickens,  M.  Chuczlevit,  ch.  xxix. 

Tongue-banger,  a  scold. 

Then  Sally  she  turn'd  a  tongue-banger,  an? 
raated  me. — Tennyson,  Northern  Cobbler. 

Tongue- fence,  argument. 

In  all  manner  of  brilliant  utterance  and 
tongue-fence.  I  have  hardly  known  his  fellow. 
—Carlyle,  Life  of  Sterling,  ch.  v. 

Tongue-man,  speaker. 

I  am  no  tongue-man,  nor  can  move  with 
language ;  but  if  we  come  to  act  I'll  not  be 
idle.— Hist,  of  Edward  II.,  p.  55. 

Then  come,  sweet  Prince,  Walea  wooeth  thee 

by  me, 
By  me  hir  sorrie  Tongs-man. 

Davies,  Microcosmos,  p.  22. 

Tongu%-shot,  reach  of  the  tongue : 
out  of  tongue-shot  =  out  of  earshot. 

She  would  stand  timidly  aloof  out  of  tongst- 
shot.—Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth r  ch.  Iii. 

T0NGUE8ORE,  evil  tongue;  ill- 
speaking. 

To  one  bringyng  hym  woorde  that  a  cer- 
taine  feloe  did  speake  euill  of  hym,  and  gaa« 
him  a  verie  euil  report;  Marie  (qnoth 
Socrates)  he  hath  not  learned  to  speake  welL 
Imputing  his  tonguesore,  not  vnto  malicious- 
ness, but  vnto  the  default  of  right  knowledge. 
— UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  24. 

Tonguester,  chatterer.      See  quota- 
tion from  same  author  s.  v.  Selfless. 
Perhaps  in  lone  Tintagel,  far  from  all 
The  tonguesters  of  the  court,  she  had  not 

heard.— Tennyson,  The  Last  Tour  name  at. 

Tonish,  fashionable.  See  quotation 
8.  w.  Flesher,  Hoydenish. 

We  found  Lord  Mordaunt  son  to  the  Ear' 
of  Peterborough— a  pretty,  languid,  to**i^ 
young  man. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  \.  2»Al 
And  thus  to  tonish  folks  present 
The  Picturesque  of  Sentiment. 

Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  I.  c.  8. 

Tonishness,  fashion. 


TO  NITROUS 


(  661  ) 


TOPSITURN 


Mrs.  North,  who  is  so  famed  for  tonishness, 
exhibited  herself  in  a  more  perfect  undress 
than  I  ever  before  saw  any  lady,  great  or 
small,  appear  in  upon  a  visit. — Mad.  DyAr- 
blay,  Diary,  i.  360. 

Tonitbous,  thundering. 

Billingsgate  was  much  outdone  in  stupend- 
ous obscurity,  tonit rents  verbosity,  and  malici- 
ous scurrility. — T.  Brown,  Works,  iii.  142. 

To  nob  fbo,  here  nor  there ;  no 
matter. 

As  it  is  called  a  fire,  so  it  is  called  a  worm  ; 
and  it  is  thought  of  some  not  to  be  a  material 
worm,  that  is,  a  living  beast,  but  it  is  a  meta- 
phor ;  but  that  is  neither  to  nor  fro :  for  a 
fire  it  is,  a  worm  it  is,  pain  it  is,  a  torment  it 
is. — Latimer,  ii.  361. 

TuNSOB,  barber  ;  a  Latin  word,  some- 
times used  as  an  English  one. 

I  want  my  wig  and  not  your  talk  : 
Go  with  the  tonsor,  Pat,  and  try 
To  aid  his  hand  and  guide  his  eye. 

Comb*,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  II.  c.  2. 

Tool,  to  work  or  drive  horses  on  a 
coach. 

He  could  tool  a  coach. — Lytton,  Caxtons, 
Bk.  XIII.  ch.  iv. 

Tooth,  they  that  love  the,  gour- 
mands. 

Very  delicate  dainties  .  .  .  greatly  sought 
by  them  that  love  the  tooth  so  well. — Holland's 
Camden,  p.  543. 

Toothache,  was  once  supposed  to  be 
caused  by  a  worm  in  the  tooth. 

I  am  troubled 
With  the  toothache  or  with  love,  I  know  not 

whether ; 
There  is  a  worm  in  both. 

Massinyer,  Pari,  of  Love,  i.  5. 

Tooth  full,  full  of  teeth  ;  the  Diets, 
have  the  word  =  toothsome  or  palat- 
able, with  quotation  from  Massmger. 
Sylvester  {Third  day,  first  weeke,  834) 
speaks  of  the  seed  u  beeing  covered  by 
the  toothfull  harrow." 

Toothy-peg,  nurses'  English  for  a 

tooth. 

Turn  we  to  little  Miss  Kilmansegg, 
Gutting  her  first  little  toothy-peg. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Top,  extreme,  used  adjectivally ;  we 

usually  say  "  top  of  his  speed." 

Setting  out  at  top  speed,  he  soon  overtook 
him.— #.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  364. 

Top.  To  top  over  tail  =  to  turn 
head  over  heels. 


To  tumble  ouer  and  ouer,  to  toppe  ouer 
tayle  . .  .  may  be  also  holesom  for  the  body. 
— Ascham,  Toxophilus,  p.  47. 

Top  and  top-gallant,  in  full  force. 

Captains,  he  cometh  hitherward  amain, 
Top  and  top-gallant,  all  in  brave  array. 
Peele,  Battle  of  Alcazar,  iii.  3. 

Hell  be  here  top  and  top-gallant  presently. 
— Merry  Devil  of  Edmonton  (Dodsley,  O.  PI., 
xi.  131). 

Top-filled,  filled  to  the  top ;  the 
adjective  topfull  is  not  uncommon. 
Chapman  (Iliad,  xvi.  219)  speaks  of  a 
coffer  "  top-filled  with  vests. ' 

Topful,  very  high  ;  the  word  usually 
=  full  to  the  top. 

Soon  they  won 
The  top  of  all  the  topful  heav'ns. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  v.  761. 

Top-honoubs,  top  sails. 

As  our  high  vessels  pass  their  watery  way, 
Let  all  the  naval  world  due  homage  pay ; 
With  hasty  reverence  their  top-honours  lower. 
Prior,  Carmen  Seculare,  478. 

Toppingest,  best 

The  toppingest  shop-keepers  in  the  city  us'd 
now  and  then  to  visit  me. — T.  Brown,  Works, 
ii.  258. 

It  is  the  toppingest  thing  I  ever  heard. — 
Jarvisys  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  III.  ch.  xi. 

Toppingly,  highly  ;  very  well. 

I  mean  to  marry  her  toppingly  when  she 
least  thinks  of  it. — Jarvis's  Don  Quixote,  Pt. 
II.  Bk.  III.  ch.  xviii. 

Top-sawyeb,  a  first-rate  hand,  or  a 
great  person. 

Wasn't  he  always  top-sawyer  among  you 
all  ?  Is  there  one  of  you  that  could  touch 
him  or  come  near  him  on  any  scent  ?  — 
Dickens,  Oliver  Twist,  ch.  xliii. 

He  had  paid  the  postboys,  and  travelled 
with  a  servant  like  a  top-saicyer. — Thackeray, 
The  Newcomes,  ch.  xv. 

"  See-saw  is  the  fashion  of  England  always, 
and  the  Whigs  will  soon  be  the  topsauyers" 
"  But,"  said  I,  still  more  confused, "  the  King 
is  the  top-sawyer  according  to  our  proverb  ; 
how  then  can  the  Whigs  be  ?  " — Biackmore, 
Lorna  Doone,  ch.  xxxvi. 

Topside  tubvy,  topsy  turvy. 

With  all  my  precautions  how  was  my 
system  turned  topside  turvy  ! — Sterne,  Trist. 
Shandy,  iii.  169. 

ToPSlTDBN,  to  upset. 

He  breaketh  in  through  thickest  of  his  foes, 
And  by  his  travail  topsi-totrneth  them. 

Sylvester,  The  Vocation,  744. 


TOPSYTURVEY        (  662  )    TOTNESS  IS  TURNED 


Now  Nereus  foams,  an  d  no  w  the  furious  wanes 
All  topsie-turned  by  the  JSoliau  slaues 
T>o  mount  and  ronle. 

Ibid.,  The  Schisms,  903. 

TOPSY-TURVEY,  to  upset. 

My  poor  mind  is  all  topty-turvied. — Rich- 
ardson,  Pamela,  ii.  40. 

In  the  topsy-turveying  coarse  of  time  Hex- 
thorp  has  become  part  of  the  soke  of  Don- 
caster  .—Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  xxxix. 

Then  is  it  verily,  as  in  Herr  Tieck's  drama, 
a  verheherte  welt,  or  world  topsyturvied. — Car- 
lyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  I.  ch.  x. 

Topsyturvyfication,  upsetting. 

"  Valentine  "  was  followed  by  u  Lelia,"  . . 
a  regular  topsyturvyfication  of  morality,  a 
thieves'  and  prostitutes'  apotheosis. — Thacke- 
ray, Paris  Sketch  Book  (Madame  Sand). 

Top  dp  with,  to  finish  with  ;  usually 
spoken  of  food  or  drink. 

Four,  engage  to  go  half-price  to  the  play 
at  night,  and  top  up  with  oysters. — Dickens, 
Bleak  House,  ch.  xi. 

What'Jl  you  drink,  Mr.  Gargery;  at  my 
expense,  to  top  up  with?— Ibid.,  Great  Ex~ 
pectations,  ch.  x. 

Toque,  a  species  of  head-dress. 

If  Mrs.  Taunton  appeared  in  a  cap  of  all 
the  hues  of  the  rainbow,  Mrs.  Briggs  forth- 
with mounted  a  toque,  with  all  the  patterns 
of  the  kaleidoscope. — Sketches  by  Boz  (Steam 
Excursion). 

Out  came  a  lady  in  a  large  toque. — Ibid. 
(Blootnsbury  Christening). 

Tor,  a  hill. 

(  Seeing  a  great  tor  close  by,  I  could  not  re- 
sist the  temptation,  and  went  up. — C.  Kings- 
ley,  1849  (Life,  i.  174). 

Tori  fy,  to  make  a  Tory. 

He  is  Liberalizing  them  instead  of  their 
Torifying  him. — Sir  G.  C.  Lewis,  Letters,  p. 
262. 

Torpid,  a  second-class  race-boat  at 
Oxford. 

The  torpids  beiug  filled  with  the  refuse  of 
the  rowing  men — generally  awkward  or  very 
young  oarsmen — find  some  difficulty  in  the 
act  of  tossing. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Ox- 
ford, ch.  xxvii. 

Torpify,  to  render  torpid. 

[Sermons]  are  not  harmless  if  they  torpify 
the  understanding. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch. 
xxvi. 

Tort,  stretched.     Southey  uses  the 
word  again  in  Curse  o/Kehama,  v.  15. 
To-morrow,  and  the  sun  shall  brace  anew 
The  slacken 'd  cord,  that  now  sounds  loose 
.  and  damp ; 


To-morrow,  and  its  livelier  tone  will  sing 
In  tort  vibration  to  the  arrow's  flight. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  VIII. 

Tosh,  a  projecting  tooth.  Becon 
(iii.  237)  says  that  Gardiner's  "teeth 
are  like  to  the  venomous  toshes  of  the 
ramping  Hon." 

Toss,  state  of  anxiety. 

This  put  us  at  the  Board  into  a  tosse.— 
Pevys,  June  2, 1666. 

Lord  what  a  tosse  I  was  for  some  time  is. 
that  they  could  not  justly  tell  where  it 
[gold  that  he  had  buried]  was, — Ibid.,  Oct. 
10, 1667. 

Toss,    expense ;     object    for    which 

money  is  tossed  away  (?). 

For  other  tosses  take 
A  hundred  thousand  crowns. 

Massinger,  The  Picture,  ii  2. 

Toss-up,  an  even  hazard,  as  when  a 
coin  is  tossed  up  in  the  air  the  chances 
of  heads  or  tails  are  equal. 

"I  haven't  the  least  idea,"  said  Richard 
musing,  "what  I  had  better  be.  Bicept 
that  I  am  quite  sure  I  dout  want  to  go  into 
the  Church,  it's  a  tou-vp. — Dickens,  Bleak 
House,  ch.  xiii. 

Tossy,  offhand ;  careless. 

Argemone  answered  by  some  tossy  com- 
monplace.—C.  KingsUy,  Yeast,  ch.  vii. 
She  answered  tossily  enough. — Ibid. 

Tostication,   disturbance.       H.   has 

tosticated,  tossed  about 

After  all,  methinks,  I  want  those  tostuv- 
tions  (thou  seest  how  women  and  women's 
words  fill  my  mind)  to  be  over,  happily  over, 
that  I  may  sit  down  quietly,  and  reflect.— 
Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  v.  183. 

Tot,  to  sum  up;  to  bring  out  the 
total. 

These  totted  together  will  make  a  pretty 
beginning  of  my  little  project. — H.  Brooke, 
Fool  of  Quality,  ii.  211. 

"  One  thousand  eight  hundred,"  said 
Hyacinth,  tottinq  his  entries.  —  Savage,  J?. 
Medlicott,  Bk.  III.  ch.  ii. 

The  last  two  tot  up  the  bill.— Thackeray, 
Roundabout  Papers,  xix. 

Total,  abrupt ;  curt ;  putting  every- 
thing into  a  small  compass. 

.  .  Do  you  mean  my  tender  ears  to  sparer 
That  to  my  questions  you  so  total  are, 
When  I  demand  of  Phoenix  Stella's  state, 
Ton  say  (forsooth)  you  left  her  well  of 

late, 
O  God,  think  you  that  satisfies  my  care  ? 
Sidney,  Astrophel  and  Stella,  st.  92. 

ToTNESS    IS    TURNED    Fbench.       See 


TOTTENHAM 


(  663  )        T0VARDILL10S 


quotation.     Fuller  quotes  and  explain? 

this  proverb  of  Tottenham,  q.  v. 

Such  prouerbiall  speeches  as  Totness  is 
turned  French,  for  a  strange  alteration ; 
Skarborow  warning  for  a  sodaine  command- 
ment, allowing  no  respect  or  delay  to  be- 
thinke  a  man  of  his  business. — Puttenham, 
Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xviii. 

Tottenham  is  turned  French.  See  . 
extract.  Puttenham  quotes  this  pro- 
verb of  Totness.  Fuller  says  he  found 
the  saying  in  the  Description  of  Tot- 
tenham by  Mr.  Bed  well,  one  of  the 
translators  of  the  Bible,  but  quoted  by 
him  "out  of  Mr.  Heywood." 

About  the  beginning  of  the  Reign  of  King 
Henry  the  Eighth,  French  Mechamcks 
swarmed  in  England  to  the  great  prejudice 
of  English  Artizans,  .  .  .  nor  was  the  City 
onely,  but  Country  villages  for  four  miles 
about,  filled  with  French  fashions  and  in- 
fections. The  Proverb  is  applied  to  such 
who,  contemning  the  custom  of  their  own 
Country,  make  themselves  more  ridiculous 
by  affecting  forraign  humours  and  habits. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Middlesex  (ii.  36). 

Totter  (vb.  act.),  to  shake. 

Our  God  laughed  them  to  scorn,  sunk 
them,  drunk  them  up  with  His  waves ;  tot- 
tered, scattered  them  on  the  waters. — Adams, 
i.  419. 

Every  little  disease,  like  a  storm,  totters 
us. — Ibid.,  ii.  29. 

Tottery,  shaky. 

When  I  looked  up  and  saw  what  a  tottery 
performance  it  was,  I  concluded  to  give  them 
a  wide  berth. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Ox- 
ford, ch.  vi. 

Touch-and-go.  L..  who  gives  no 
example,  calls  this  "  A  colloquial  com- 
bination signifying  hastiness  of  temper, 
used  either  substantially,  as,  '  It  is  all 
touch-and-go  with  some  people,'  or  ad- 
jectivally, as,  *  A  touch-and-go  kind  of 
person.'"  It  seems  in  the  quotation, 
which  refers  to  an  ill-assorted  couple, 
to  have  this  meaning ;  it  is,  however, 
often  applied  also  to  something,  such 
as  an  accident  for  instance,  which  had 
almost  happened. 

So  it  was  with  Glenroy  and  his  lady.  It 
had  been  touch-and-go  with  them  for  many  a 
day,  and  now,  from  less  to  more,  from  bad 
to  worse,  it  ended  in  a  threatened  separation. 
— Miss  Ferrier,  Destiny,  ch.  iii.  (1831). 

Touch  me  not.  L.  (who  gives  no 
example)  says,  "  Plant  of  the  genus 
Impatiens  (species,  noli  -  me  -  tangere), 
so  called  from  the  construction  of  the 
seed-vessel,  which  being  irritated  when 


touched,  and  ripe,  projects  the  seeds  to 
some  distance." 

Presbytery  seeming  like  the  plant  called 
Touch  me  not,  which  flies  in  the  face,  and 
breaks  in  the  fingers  of  those  that  presse  it. 
— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  19. 

Touch  pot,  touch  penny,  no  credit 
given.  Swift  alludes  to  this  proverb 
when  describing  an  usurer,  who  had  his 
office  at  a  Dublin  tavern. 

He  touched  the  pence  when  others  touched 
the  pot. — Swift,  Elegy  on  Mr.  Demur. 

We  know  the  custom  of  such  houses,  con- 
tinues he ;  'tis  touch  pot,  touch  penny ;  we 
only  want  money's  worth  for  our  money. — 
Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  III.  ch.  ii. 

Toughish,  pretty  tough. 

So  I  whips  out  a  toughish  end  of  yarn. 

Hood,  Sailor's  Apology  for  bow-legs. 

Tour,  to  travel. 

He  was  touring  about  as  usual,  for  he  was 
as  restless  as  a  hyena. — De  Quincey,  Murder 
as  a  Fine  Art. 

Tour,  the  ring  in  Hyde  Park. 

Mr.  Povy  and  I  in  his  coach  to  Hyde  Parke, 
being  the  first  day  of  the  tour  there  ;  where 
many  brave  ladies. — Pepus,  March  19, 1665. 

Took  up  my  wife  and  Deb.,  and  to  the 
Park,  where  being  in  a  hackney,  and  they 
undressed,  was  ashamed  to  go  into  the  tour. 
—Ibid.,  March  31, 1668. 

The  sweetness  of  the  Park  is  at  eleven, 
when  the  Beau-Monde  make  their  tour  there. 
—Centlivre,  The  Basset  Table,  i.  2. 

Tourism,  travelling  for  pleasure. 

There  never  have  been  such  things  as 
tours  in  Crete,  which  are  mere  tourism  and 
nothing  else. — Lord  Strangford,  Letters  and 
Papers,  p.  98. 

Touristic,  pertaining  to  a  tour  or 
tourists. 

Curiously  enough,  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  a  record  of  touristic  journeying  in  Crete. 
— Lord  Strangford,  Letters  and  Papers,  p.  98. 

Tournkries,  articles  nude  by  the 
turning-lathe. 

In  another  roome  are  such  rare  tourneries 
in  ivory  as  are  not  to  be  described  for  their 
curiosity.— Evelyn,  Diary,  Oct.  22, 1644. 

Touth,  to  tooth  or  taste,  so  tooth- 
some =  dainty. 

The  Syracusans  vsed  such  varietie  of 
dishes  in  their  banquets  that  when  they 
were  sette,  and  their^  boordes  furnished, 
they  were  many  times  in  doubt  which  they 
should  touth  first  or  taste  last.  —  Gosson, 
Schoole  of  Abuse,  p.  19. 

TOVARDILLIOS. 


TO  WARD 


(  664  ) 


TRAICTISE 


Though  the  air  of  Artonia  be  not  so  hot 
as  that  of  her  next  neighbour  Tuinontia,  yet 
she  is  more  subject  to  distempers,  calentures, 
and  tovardillios.  —  Howell,  Paxfy  of  Beasts, 
p.  21. 

Toward,  toward  him  =  on  his  side, 
or  o£  his  company. 

Herod  and  they  that  were  taoard  him, 
being  all  that  they  were  by  Caesar,  to  make 
the  tribute  sure  work,  they  held,  that  not 
oiily  tribute,  but  whatsoever  else,  was 
Caspar's.— Andrewes,  v.  128. 

Towel.  Oaken,  towel  =  a  cudgel ; 
lead  towel  =  a  bullet. 

Prankly,  shaking  his  cane,  bid  him  hold 
his  tongue,  otherwise  he  would  dust  his 
cassock  for  him.  **  I  have  no  pretensions  to 
such  a  valet,"  said  Tom  ;  •'  but  if  you  should 
do  me  that  office,  and  over-heat  yourself,  1 
have  here  a  good  oaken  towel  at  your  service." 
— Smollett,  Humphrey  Ct inker,  i.  83. 
Make  Nunky  surrender  his  dibs, 

Hub  his  pate  with  a  pair  of  lead  totcete. 
J.  and  H.  Smith,  Jitjected  Addresses, 
p.  162. 

Towelling,  towel. 

Let  the  dame  of  tho  castle  prick  forth  on 

her  jennet, 
And,  with  water  to  wash  the  hands  of  her 

liege 
In  a  clean  ewer  with  a  fair  towelling. 

Browning,  Flight  of  the  Duchess. 

Town,  is  often  used  for  London. 
The  subjoined  is  an  early  instance. 
Bp.  Jenkinson  of  St.  David's  (1825— 
40)  offered  a  curate  in  his  diocese  a 
living,  and  desired  him  to  come  to 
town  to  be  instituted.  The  curate  ex- 
pressed every  willingness  to  obey  the 
command,  but  added  that  his  Lordship 
had  omitted  to  mention  the  name  of 
the  town  where  his  presence  was 
required. 

That  a  letter  be  directed  to  the  Vice  Ad- 
miral to  desire  him  to  suffer  Prince  Philip, 
brother  to  the  Prince  Elector,  to  come  to 
town. — Commons'  Journals,?.  245  (1648). 

Town -box,  city  chest,  or  common 
fund. 

Upon  the  confiscation  of  them  to  their 
Town-box  or  Exchequer,  they  might  well 
have  allowed  Mr.  Calvin  ...  a  salary  beyond 
an  hundred  pounds.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  11. 

Town-land,  an  Irish  term  explained 
in  the  extract. 

Two  or  three  cabins  gathered  together 
were  sufficient  to  constitute  a  town,  and  tho 
land  adjoining  thereto  is  called  a  town-land. 
—Miss  Edgeworth,  Ennui,  ch.  viii. 


TowNLKr,  a  small  town. 

-<Egilsfild  and  Bradfeld  ii  townlttUs  or  vil- 
lages.— Leland,  Itin.,  v.  94. 

With  no  other  friend  than  the  poor  school- 
master of  a  proviocial  townlet. — SoutJuy,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  cxviii. 

Toy,  cap,  in  which  sense  it  is  still 
used  in  Scotland. 

On  my  head  no  toy 
But  was  her  pattern. 

Two  NobU  Kinsmen,  i.  3. 
The  flaps  of   the  loose  toy  depended  on 
each  side  of  her  eager  face. — Scott,  Pirate, 
i.  70. 

Toy.    To  take  toy  =  to  start. 

The  hot  horse,  hot  as  fire, 
Took  toy  at  this,  and  fell  to  what  disorder 
His  power  could  give  his  will. 

Two  Xoble  Kinsmen,  v.  4. 

Shee  is  indeed  one  that  has  taken  a  toy  at 
the  fashion  of  religion,  and  is  enamour'a  of 
the  new-fangle.— Earle,  Microcosmograpkie 
{Shee  precise  Hypocrite). 

Toysome,  playful,  or,  as  it  seems  to 
mean  in  the  extract,  playfully  affec- 
tionate. 

Two  or  three  toysome  things  were  amid  by 
my  lord  (no  ape  was  ever  so  fond !)  and  I 
could  hardly  forbear  him. — Richardson,  Gran- 
diton,  v.  299. 

Toyt-headed,  feather-headed. 

They  will  not  admit  the  novel  question  of 
these  toyt-headed  times,  what  shall  we  think  ? 
— Adams,  i.  221. 

Trace  less,  that  cannot  be  traced : 
in  extract  the  refere?ice  is  to  a  copper 
coin  worn  quite  smooth. 

On  tmceless  copper  sees  imperial  heads. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  242. 

Tracks.  To  make  tracks  =  to  depart. 

You  will  be  pleased  to  make  tracks,  and 
vanish  out  of  these  parts  for  ever. — Kingdey, 
Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xiv. 

Tractator,  Tractarian. 

Talking  of  the  Tractators — so  you  Mill  like 
their  tone !  and  so  do  1. — C.  Kingslev,  1S42 

(Life,  i.  58). 

Tragelaphi,  goat-stags:  the  name 
given  by  the  Greeks  to  a  fantastic 
animal  represented  on  Eastern  carpets 
and  the  like.  See  Liddelland  Scott,  e.v. 

In  all  that  follows  are  Tragelaphi,  Satyrs 
and  Griffins,  Cocks  and  Bulls.— Hacket,  Life 
of  Williams,  ii.  49. 

Traictise,  treatise. 

A  booke  conteinyng  a  traictise  of  justice. 
—VdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  248. 


TRAIL 


(  665  )  TRANSLATIVE 


Trail.  See  extract ;  we  more  com- 
monly say,  to  draw  out,  though  this  is 
sometimes  used  in  a  good  sense,  i.  e.  of 
leading  a  person  to  speak  on  matters 
with  which  he  is  conversant. 

I  presently  perceived  she  was  (what  is 
vernacularly  termed)  trailing  Mrs.  Dent; 
that  is,  playing  on  her  ignorance ;  her  trail 
might  be  clever,  bat  it  was  decidedly  not 
goad-natured.— C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch. 
xvii. 

Traitorism,  betrayal. 

The  loyal  clergy  .  .  .  are  charged  with 
traitorism  of  their  principles. — North,  Exa~ 
men,  p.  323. 

He  .  .  .  represents  the  doctrine  as  well  as 
law  of  nonresistance  like  a  dreg  of  traitorism 
and  slavery. — Ibid.,  p.  341. 

Traluce,  to  shine  through. 

As  the  bright  Sun  shines  thorough  smoothest 

glass, 
The  turning  planets'  influence  doth  pass 
Without  impeachment  through  the  glist'ring 

tent 
Of  the  tralucing  fiery  element. 

Sylvester,  Second  day,  first  weeke,  380. 

Tram  ay  led,  swathed  in  grave- 
clothes  (?)  ;  trammelled  (?). 

The  corps  must  be  sered,  tramayled,  leded 
and  chested. — Council  Minute  on  funeral  of 
Q.  /Catherine  of  Arragon,  1536  (Arch.  xvi.  23). 

Trancedly,  in  an  absorbed  or  trance- 
like manner. 

Then  stole  I  up,  and  trancedly 
Qazed  on  the  Persian  girl  alone. 

Tennyson,  Arabian  Nights. 

Tranoame.  In  the  extract  the  widow 
Blackacre  uses  this  word  as  a  term  of 
reproach  to  her  son,  and  applies  it  also 
to  trinkets,  cat-calls,  &c,  which  he  had 
in  his  hand.  R.  has  trangram  with  a 
quotation  from  Swift,  where  it  seems 
to  mean  much  the  same  as  gimcrucks. 

But  go,  thou  trangame,  and  carry  back 
those  trangames  which  thou  has  stolen  or 
purloined. —  Wycherley,  Plain  Dealer,  iii.  1. 

Trangdillo,  apparently  a  coined 
word  signifying  some  musical  per- 
formance. 

Even  d'Urfey  himself  and  such  merry  fellows, 
That  put  their  whole  trust  in  tunes  and 

trangdilloes, 
Mav  bang  up  their  harps  and  themselves  on 

the  willows. — T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  62. 

Trankums,  fallals;  ornaments  of 
drpss. 

That  shawl  must  be  had  for  Clara,  with 
the  other  trankums  of  muslin  and  lace. — 
Scott,  St.  Ronah's  Well,  ch.  xviii. 


Tranlace,  to  transpose. 

The  same  letters  being  by  me  tossed  and 
tranlaced  flue  hundred  times. — Puttenham, 
Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  II.  (end  of  cancelled  pages). 

Then  haue  ye  a  figure  which  the  Latines 
call  traductio,  and  I  the  tranlacer  ;  which  is 
when  ye  turn  and  tranlace  a  word  into  many 
sundry  shapes. — Ibid.,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xix. 

Tranquillize,  to  grow  tranquil: 
usually  =  to  make  tranquil. 

This  unmanageable  heart .  .  will  £0  on 
with  its  boundings.  I'll  try,  as  I  ride  m  my 
chariot,  to  tranquillize. — Richardson,  CI.  Har- 
lowe,  v.  79. 

Transake,  to  ransack. 

Suche  as  have  theyr  purse  full  of  golde 
gyve  to  the  pore  not  one  pece  thereof,  but 
yf  they  gyve  ought,  they  transake  the  botome 
amonge  all  the  golde,  to  seke  out  here  an 
halfe  peny. — Sir  T.  More,  Dialoge,  p.  12. 

Transcdrsive,  rambling.  See  extract 
$.  v.  Reportory. 

Transfrete,  to  cross  the  sea. 

Have  we  not  hurried  up  and  down,  tra- 
velled and  toiled  enough,  in  being  transfreted 
and  past  over  the  Hircanian  sea. — Urquhart's 
Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxxiii. 

Transfuge,  a  deserter  or  fugitive. 

The  protection  of  deserters  and  transfuges 
is  the  invariable  rule  of  every  service  in  the 
world. — Lord  Stanho}>e,  Misc.,  Second  Series, 
p.  18. 

Transincorporation,  change  made 
by  the  soul  into  different  bodies ; 
metempsychosis. 

Its  contents  are  full  of  curious  informa- 
tion, more  particularly  those  on  the  transin- 
corporation of  souls. —  W.  Taylor  of  Norwich 
(Memoir,  ii.  305). 

Translative,  tropical;  transferring 
from  one  sense  or  language  to  another. 
The  pedantic  Mr.  Brand  in  the  second 
extract  need  have  made  no  apology, 
if  he  had  known  of  the  passage  in 
Puttenham,  who  has  been  saying  that 
a  foot  must  be  able  on  occasion  "  to 
go,  to  runne,  and  to  stand  still." 

And  if  our  feete  poeticall  want  these 
qualities,  it  can  not  be  sayd  a  foote  in  sence 
translative  as  here. — Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie, 
Bk.  II.  ch.  iii. 

Which  [words  of  Juvenal]  suiting  the  case 
so  well,  you'll  forgive  me,  Sir,  for  popping 
down  in  English  metre,  as  the  translative 
impulse  (pardon  a  new  word,  and  yet  we 
scholars  are  not  fond  of  authenticating  new 
words)  came  upon  me  uncalled  for. — Richard- 
son, CI.  Harlowe,  viii.  62. 


TRANSLATOR  (  666  )      TREAT1NG-H0USE 


Translator,  a  cobbler  ;  a  translator 

of  soles.     The  word  is  given  without 

example  in  H.  and  in  L. 

The  cobbler  is  affronted,  if  yon  don't  call 
him  Mr.  Translator.— T.  Brown,  Works,  iii.  73. 

Transluce,  to  shine  through. 

Serene    thy    woe-admnb'red    front,    sweet 

Saint ; 
Let  joy  transluce  thy  Beauties'  blandishment. 

Davits,  Holy  Roode,  p.  26. 

Transmogrify,  to  change. 

The   transmoqrijitd    Pagan    performed    his 
vow. — IngolJsby  Legends  (S.  Aloys). 

Transports ve,    excessive ;   carrying 

beyond  bounds. 

It  is  the  voice  of  transportive  fury, "  I  can- 
not moderate  my  anger.  — Adams,  ii.  315. 

Transportment,  passion.  The  word 
is  in  R.  and  L.  with  the  same  quotation 
from  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  but  there 
it  means  freight,  that  which  is  trans- 
ported. 

There  he  attack'd  me 
"With  such  transportment  the  whole  town  had 

rung  on't, 
Had  I  not  run  away. 

Lord  Digby,  Elvira,  Act  IV. 

Transpose,  transposition. 

This  man  was  very  perfit  and  fortunate 
iu  these  transposes. — Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie, 
Bk.  II.  (cancelled  pages). 

Transview,  look  through. 

Let  vs  with  eagles  eyes  without  offence 
Transview  the  obscure  things  that  do  re- 
maine. 

Davie*,  Mirum  in  Modum,  p.  9. 

Transvolve,  to  transfer. 

'Tis  he  who  transvolves  empires,  tumbles 
down  monarchies,  and  cantonizeth  them  in- 
to petty  commonwealths. — Howell,  Parly  of 
Beasts,  p.  110. 

Trap,  contrivance:  so,  to  be  up  to 
trap  or  understand  trap  =  to  be  wide- 
awake. 

It  is  almost  impossible  that  all  these  cir- 
cumstances . .  .  should  be  collected  without 
some  contrivance  for  purposes  that  do  not 
obviously  appear ;  and  nothing  but  trap  can 
resolve  them. — Worth,  Examen,  p.  203. 

Some  cunning  persons  that  had  found  out 
his  foible  and  ignorance  of  trap,  first  put  him 
in  great  fright.— Ibid.,  p.  649. 

Our  Minor  was  a  little  too  hasty  ;  he  did 
not  understand  trap,  knows  nothing  of  the 
game,  my  dear.— Foote,  Tlie  Minor,  Act  II. 

His  good  lady  . .  understood  trap  as  well 
as  any  woman  in  the  Meams.— Scott,  Pirate. 
i.  51. 


Trapes,  a  slatternly  woman  (Hudi- 
bras,  IIL  ii.  467).  To  trapes  is  to  go 
about  like  a  trapes,  and  so  trapes  =  a 
going  about. 

It's  such  a  toil  and  a  trapes  up  them  two 
pair  of  stairs.— Mrs.  H.  Wood,  The  Channinos, 
p.  471. 

Trapesing,  lounging ;  slatternly. 

The  daughter  a  tall,  trapesing,  trol loping, 
talkative  maypole.— Goldsmith,  She  stoops  to 
conquer.  Act  I. 

Traps,  goods ;  baggage. 

A  couple  of  horses  carry  us  and  our  traps. 
— Thackeray,  Xewcomes,  ch.  xxx. 

On  the  first  hint  of  disease,  pack  up  your 
traps  and  your  good  lady,  and  go  and  live  in 
the  watch-house  across  the  river. — Kingsley, 
Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  xiv. 

Traps,  police.  Cf.  Bumtrap;  see 
quot  *.  v.  Lucky. 

Dick's  always  in  trouble  ....  there's  a 
couple  of  traps  in  Belston  after  him  now. — 
H.  Kingsley,  Geo  fry  Hamlyn,  ch.  vi. 

Trash,  money  :  see  H.  s,  v. 

Therefore  must  I  bid  him  provide  trashy 
for  my  master  is  no  friend  without  money. — 
Greene,  James  the  Fourth,  III.  i. 

Nor  would  Belinus  for  King  Croesus'  trash 
Wish  Amurack  to  displease  the  gods. 

Ibid.,  Alphonsus,  HI.  i. 

Traby,  a  spaniel. 

A  trasy  I  do  keep,  whereby 

I  please 
The  more  my  rural  1  privacie. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  264. 

Traveller.  To  tip  the  traveller  = 
to  humbug.  This  slang  refers  of 
course  to  the  wonderful  tales  of  travel- 
lers. 

"  I'd  rather  see  yon  dead  than  brought  to 
such  a  dilemma."  "  Mayhap  thou  wouldst," 
answered  the  uncle ;  "  for  then,  my  lad, 
there  would  be  some  picking ;  aha!  4°** 
thou  tip  me  the  traveller,  my  boy?w — 
Smollett,  Sir  L.  Greaves,  ch.  vi. 

Tread-behind,  a  doubling;  an  en- 
deavour to  escape  in  that  way. 

His  tricks  and  traps  and  tread-behinds. 

Naylor,  Reynard  the  Fox,  p.  20. 

Treati no-house,  a  restaurant. 

The  taverns  and  treating-houses  have  eas'd 
you  of  a  round  income. — Gentleman  In- 
structed, p.  287. 

His  first  jaunt  is  to  a  treating-house  ;  here 
he  trespasses  upon  all  the  rules  of  temper- 
ance and  sobriety. — Ibid.,  p.  479. 


TREBLE 


(  667   ) 


TRESSFUL 


Treble,  a  musical  instrument. 

Hearing  of  Frank  their  son,  the  miller, 
play  upon  his  treble  as  he  calls  it,  with 
which  he  earnes  part  of  his  living,  and  sing- 
ing of  a  country  song,  we  sat  down  to 
sapper.— Pepys,  Sept.  17, 1663. 

Tredrille,  a  game  at  cards  for  three 

players. 

I  was  playing  at  eighteen-penny  tredrilh 
with  the  duchess  of  Newcastle  and  Lady 
Browne.—  Walpole,  Letters,  III.  464  (1774). 

Tree.    Lame  as  a  tree  =  very  lame. 

"What  a  pull,"  said  he,  "that  it's  lie-in- 
bed,  for  I  shall  be  as  lame  as  a  tree,  I  think." 
— Hughes,  Tom  Brown's  Schooldays,  Pt.  I. 
ch.  vii. 

Tree.  To  be  at  the  top  of  the  tree  = 
to  be  pre-eminent. 

Master  Moses  is  an  absolute  Proteus ;  in 
every  elegance  at  the  top  of  the  tree. — Foote, 
The  Cozeners,  Act  I. 

Tou  must  needs  think  what  a  hardship  it 
is  to  me  to  have  him  turn  out  so  unlucky, 
after  all  I  have  done  for  him,  when  I  thought 
to  have  seen  him  at  the  top  of  the  tree,  as  one 
may  say. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  IV., 
ch.  vi. 

Treed,  at  the  end  of  one's  resources ; 

in  a  fix:  one   in  this   predicament  is 

said  to  be  up  a  tret.    The  reference  is 

to  a  hunted  bear  or  racoon  who  has  at 

last  gone  up  a  tree,  while  the  dogs  and 

huntsmen  are  at  the  foot. 

You  are  treed  and  you  can't  help  yourself. 
— H.  King  shy,  Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  v. 

Treeless,  without  trees. 

I  arrived  in  the  midst  of  a  dreary  treeless 
country. —  C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch. 
xzviii. 

Tree-nail.  "  In  Naval  Architecture, 
wooden  bolt  by  which  the  planks  of  a 
ship's  bottom  are  secured  to  the  tim- 
bers "  (L.  who  has  no  example). 

My  Keel  is  framed  of  Crabbed  care, 

My  ribs  are  all  of  Ruth, 
My  planks  are  nothing  else  but  Plaints, 
With  tree- nails  joined  with  Truth. 
Sir  W.  Herbert,  Boat  of  Bale  {Eng. 
Garner,  i.  644). 

The  planks  rivetted  together  with  iron, 
and  fastened  to  the  timbers  with  oak  tree- 
nails.—Archad.,  xx.  554  (1824). 

Tremblement,  tremor ;  quivering. 

Small  the  wood  is,  green  with  hazels, 

And  completing  the  ascent, 
Where  the  wind  blows  and  sun  dazzles 
Thrills  in  leafy  tremblement, 
Like  a  heart  that  after  climbing  beateth 
quickly  through  content. 

Mrs.  Browning,  The  lost  bower. 


Tremdlation,  trembling. 

I  was  struck  with  such  a  terrible  tremvla- 

tion  that  it  was  as  much  as  three  gulps  of 

my  brandy  bottle  could  do  to  put  my  chill 'd 

blood  into  its  regular  motion. — T.  Brown, 

Works,  ii.  236. 

Trencher,  a  comparison  for  neatness 
and  exactness. 

Filling  vp  as  trimme  as  a  trencher  the  space 
that  stood  voide. — UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth., 
p.  276. 

Trencher,  is  prefixed  to  several 
words.  The  following  are  not  noted  in 
the  Diets. :  trencher-law  =  regulation 
of  diet ;  he  who  lays  down  this  law  is 
a  trenclter-critic  :  a  trencher-chaplain 
is  the  domestic  chaplain  of  a  private 
gentleman.  Heylin  {Life  of  Laud,  p. 
254)  uses  the  same  term.  Davies 
(Muse's  Sacrifice,  Ep.  Ded.)  speaks 
of  trencher- bujfons,  i.  e.  the  wags  or 
butts  at  a  dinner-table. 

O  lawless  paunch,  the  cause  of  much  despite, 
Through  ranging  of  a  currish  appetite, 
When  spleenish  morsels  cram  the  gaping 

maw, 
Withouten  diet's  care  or  trencher-lav? ; 
Tho'  never  have  I  Salerne  rhymes  profess'd 
To  be  some  lady's  trencher-critic  guest. 

Hall,  Sat.  IV.,  iv.  atri. 

A  gentle  squire  would  gladly  entertain 
•  Into  his  house  some  trencher-chapperlain. 

Ibid.,  II.  vi.  2. 

Trent,  trend  ;  bend  course. 

The  valley  of  Gehinnon  and  Jehosaphat, 
like  two  conjoining  streames,  do  trent  to  the 
South. — Sandys,  Travels,  p.  18$. 

Trepan,  some  engine  or  instrument 
used  in  a  siege. 

And  there  th'  Inginers  haue  the  Trepan  drest, 
And  reared  vp  the  Ram  me  for  battrie  best. 

Hudson's  Judith,  hi.  107. 

Trepane,  usually,  a  surgical  instru- 
ment for  perforating  the  scull ;  here 
applied  to  an  instrument  used  in  pierc- 
ing or  making  holes  in  the  walls  of  a 
town. 

The  boisterous  trepane  and  steel  pick-ax  play 
Their  parts  apace,  not  idle  night  nor  day. 

Sylvester,  The  Decay,  994. 

Trepid,  trembling. 

Look  at  the  poor  little  trepid  creature, 
panting  and  helpless  under  the  great  eyes. — 
Thackeray,  The  Virginians,  ch.  lxx. 

Tresbfull,  having  luxuriant  hair. 

Pharo's  faire  daughter,  wonder  of  her  time, 
Then  in  the  blooming  of  her  beautie's  prime, 
Was  queintly  dressing  of  her  tressfull  head. 
Sylvester, 'The  Magnificence,  734. 


TRESS  Y 


(  668  ) 


TRIM-TRAM 


Tressy,   with   tresses ;    hanging    as 

tresses. 

The  rock  half  sheltered  from  my  view 
By  pendent  boughs  of  tresty  yew. 

Coleridge,  Lewti. 

Triality,  union  of  three.  Dr.  Doran 
thought  he  was  the  inventor  of  this 
word,  hut  R.  supplies  an  instance  from 
Holinshed,  and  L.  two  more  from  Skel- 
ton  and  Wharton.  In  a  work  published 
1581,  "dualities, trialities" i.e.  holding 
two  or  three  benefices,  are  reckoned 
Church  abuses  (Arber,  Marprelate 
Controversy,  p.  29). 

Dr.  Wigan.  the  kinsman  of  the  actor  so 
named,  not  only  wrote  on  the  duality  of  mind, 
but  on  the  triality  (if  we  may  coin  a  word), 
the  three-fold  excellence  of  the  Brighton 
atmosphere. — Dorant  Memories  of  our  great 
towns,  p.  294. 

Triarchy,  rule  by  three  governors. 
Cf.  Duarchy. 

She  [the  rational  soul]  issueth  forth  her 
commands,  and  dividing  her  empire  into  a 
triarchy,  she  governs  by  three  viceroys,  the 
three  faculties. — Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts, 
p.  143. 

Tribual,  pertaining  to  a  tribe.     L. 

has  the  word  without  example. 

Surely  this  proceedeth  not  from  any 
natural  imperfection  in  the  Parents,  whence 
probably  the  Tribual  lisping  of  the  Ephraim- 
lt^s  did  arise. — Fuller,  Worthies,  LeicesUr 
(i.  562). 

Tribunitian,  pertaining  to  tribunes, 

or  after  the  manner  of  tribunes. 

Whose  tribunitian  not  imperatorian  power 
is  immediately  founded,  as  they  say,  in  the 
very  plebs  or  herd  of  people. — Gauden,  Tears 
of  the  Church,  p.  450. 

Trick.  To  know  a  trick  worth  two  of 
that,  is  to  know  of  some  better  expedi- 
ent, or  sometimes  merely  to  decline  to 
do  what  was  proposed. 

"  Ah ! "  says  she,  **  it  is  as  I  feared ;  the  key 
is  gone !  "  I  was  thunder-struck  at  this  news ; 
but  she  said,  she  knew  a  trick  worth  two  of 
that,  and  bidding  me  follow  her, .  .  .  she 
opened  a  door  into  the  area. — Graves,  Spirit- 
ual Quixote,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xv. 

Hear  what  he  says  of  you,  sir  ?  Glive,  best 
be  off  to  bed,  my  boy — ho!  ho!  No,  no. 
"We  know  a  trick  worth  two  of  that.  We 
won't  go  home  till  morning,  till  daylight 
does  appear. — Thackeray,  The  Newcomes,  ch.  i. 

Trickleness,  transitorines8. 

O  Time  that  thus  endeerest  me  to  thy  lone, 
I  constantly  adore  thy  Bcklenesse, 

That  neuer  mou'st  but  dost  my  sences  moue 

To  mind  thy  flight,  and  this  life's  trickel- 

msse. — Davies,  Wittes  Pilgrimage,  p.  45. 


Tricksinesr,  playfulness. 

There  was  none  of  the  latent  fun  and 
tricksiness.—G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  vii. 

Tbicksome,  full  of  tricks. 

I  have  been  a  trieksome  shifty  vagrant. — 
Lyiton,  What  will  he  do  with  it  7  Bk.  X.  ch.  ▼. 

Tridental,  an  epithet  of  Neptune  as 
represented  with  a  trident. 

The  white-mouth 'd  water  now  usurps  the 
shore, 
And   scorns  the  pow'r  of   her  tridental 
guide.— Quarles,  Emblems,  I.  ii.  4. 

Trio,  neat.  Jonson  (Alch.}  iv.  1)  has 
the  substantive  =  coxcomb.     See  N. 

The  younger  snooded  up  her  hair,  and 
now  went  about  the  house  a  damsel  so  trig 
and  neat,  that  some  said  she  was  too  hand- 
some for  the  service  of  a  bachelor  divine. 
—Scott,  St.  Ronan's  Well,  ii.  137. 

Trio,  a  support 

Nor  is  his  suite  in  danger  to  be  stopt. 
Or  with  the  trigges  of  long  demurrers  propt. 
Stapylton's  Juvenal,  xvi.  62. 

Tbigony,  threefold  birth  or  product. 

Man  is  that  great  Amphybium  in  whom  be 
Three  distinct  souls  by  way  of  trigony. 

Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  140. 

Trillil,  to  drink  ;  an  onomatopaeous 
word  expressive  of  the  gurgling  of 
liquor. 

In  nothing  but  golden  cups  he  would 
drinke  or  quaffe  it ;  whereas  in  wodden 
mazers  and  Agathocles'  earthen  stuffe  they 
trillild  it  off  before. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  166). 

Trillo,  a  quaver ;  shake  in  music. 

Myself  humming  to  myself  (which  now- 
a-days  is  my  constant  practice  since  I  begun 
to  learn  to  sing)  the  trillo,  and  found  by  use 
that  it  do  come  upon  me. — Pepys,  June  30, 
1661. 

I  shake  just  like  him ;  lend  your  ear, 

And  Trilh  shall  with  art  appear. 

D'Urfey,  Plague  of  Impertinence. 

Her  graces,  shakes,  slurs,  and  trillos 
ravishing  beyond  expression !  —  Colman, 
Musical  Lady,  Act  I. 

Trim,  to  scold. 

Fag.  So !  Sir  Anthony  trims  my  master  ; 
he  is  afraid  to  reply  to  his  father;  then 
vents  his  spleen  on  poor  Fag. — Sheridan, 
Rivals,  II.  i. 

Trimestral.  quarterly ;  three  month- 
ly.   See  extract  s.  v.  Lombard-Street. 

Trim-tram.  H.  explains  this  "a 
trifle  or  absurdity,"  and  this  is  its  sense 
in  extract  from  Stanyhurst,  s.  v.  Jang- 
leby,  and  from  Patton,  s.  v.  Rattle- 


TRINDILL 


(  669  ) 


T>. 


"RIUMVERIE 


bladder  ;  but  Grose  gives  its  meaning, 

44  like  master,  like  man.'* 

They  thought  you  as  great  a  nincompoop 
as  your  'squire — trim-tram,  like  master,  like 
man. — Smollett,  Sir  L.  Greaves,  ch.  xiii. 

Trindill.     See  extract 

That  they  take  away  and  destroy  all 
shrines,  covering  of  shrines,  tables,  candle- 
sticks, trindills,  or  rolls  of  wax. — King's  In- 
junction*, 1547  {Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  VII.  i.  3). 

Trindles,  dung  of  goats,  &c.     It  is 

goats'  dung  that  is  referred  to  in  the 

extract 

The  very  trindles  drunck  iu  wine  are  good 
against  the  jaundise.  —  Howell,  Parly  of 
Beasts,  p.  123. 

Trinkery,  pertaining  to  trinkets ; 
fine :  a  word,  I  suppose,  coined  by 
Stanyhurst  for  the  sake  of  the  jingle. 

Cf.  MUFFB  MAFFE. 

Long  for  thee  Princesse  thee  Moors  gentilitye 

way  ted, 
Aa  yet  in  her  pincking  not  pranckt  with 

trinckerye  trinckets, 

Stany hurst,  JEn.,  iv.  137. 

Trinket,  to  traffic  ;  to  intrigue. 

Had  the  Popish  Lords  stood  to  the  interest 
of  the  Crown,  as  they  ought  to  have  done, 
and  not  trinketed  with  the  enemies  of  that 
and  themselves,  it  is  probable  they  had  kept 
their  seats  in  the  House  of  Lords  for  many 
years  longer. — North,  Examen,  p.  63. 

His  odious  trinkettiny  with  foreign  in- 
terests.— Ibid.,  p.  178. 

Trin retry,  jewellery  ;  nick-nacks. 

Ear-drop,  nor  chain,  nor  arm,  nor  ankle-ring, 
Nor  trinketry  on  front,  or  neck,  or  breast. 
Southey,  Curse  of  Kehama,  xiii. 

All  kinds  of  mercery,  cloth,  furs,  and  silks, 
With  trinketry. 

Taylor,  Ph.  van  Art.,  Pt.  II.  i.  1. 

Trin-union,  the  Trinity,  or  Three  in 

One. 

But  that  same  onely  wise  Trin-vnion 
Workes  miracles,  wherein  all  wonder  lies. 

Davies,  Microcosmos,  p.  79. 

Trin-union  hood,  Trinity. 

Thou  art  too  great  for  Greatnes  ne'er  so 
Great, 
And  far  too  good   for  Goodness  ere  so 
Good, 
Who  (were  it  possible)  art  more  compleate 
In  Goodnesse  than  Thine  owne  Trin-vnion- 
hood. — Davies,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  32. 

Trip,  a  short  journey:  the  extract 
marks  it  as  a  sailor's  word,  and  implies 
that  it  was  not  in  familiar  use  by  others, 
though  a  little  further  on  (vii.  10)  it  is 
employed  without  qualification.     Pope 


quoted  by  Johnson  speaks  of  "  a  trip 
to  London.'' 

It  will  be  but  what  mariners  call  a  trip  to 
England. — Richardson,  Grandison,  v.  255. 

Triple  tree,  the  gallows.  Cf .  Three 
Trees. 

That  very  hour  from  an  exalted  triple  tree 
two  of  the  honestest  gentlemen  in  Catchpole- 
land  had  been  made  to  cut  a  caper  on  no- 
thing.—  Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  xvi. 

What  they  may  do  hereafter  under  a 
triple  tree  is  much  expected.  —  Broome,  A 
Jovial  Crew,  Act  I. 

A  wry  mouth  on  the  triple  tree  puts  an 
end  to  all  discourse  about  us. — T.  Brown, 
Works,  iii.  63. 

Tripod,  used  adjectivally,  and  mean- 
ing three  feet  long.  Cf.  the  sesquipe- 
dalut  verba  of  Horace. 

'  The  Rambler  '  . .  .  I  liked  not  at  all ;  its 
tripod  sentences  tired  my  ear. — Miss  Edye- 
worth,  Helen,  ch.  vii. 

Tripointed,  having  three  points. 

For  how,  alas !  how  will  you  make  defence 
'Gainst  the  tripointed  wrathfull  violence 
Of  the  dead  dart?— Sylvester,  The  La  we,  487. 

Trisect,  to  divide  into  three  parts. 

Could  not  I  have  reduced  it  a  drop  a  day, 
or,  by  adding  water,  have  bisected  or  trisected 
a  drop? — De  Quincey,  Conf.  of  an  Opium 
Eater,  p.  129. 

Trisulc,   three-forked.     The   Diets. 

give  the   word   as   a  substantive.     In 

Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk.   I.  ch.   xiii., 

we  read  of  "  trisulk  excommunication." 

Jupiter  confound  me  with  his  trisulk 
lightning  if  I  lie ! —  Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Ilk. 
II.  ch.  xxxii. 

Tridmph,  when  used  as  an  active 
verb,  which  is  rare,  usually  means  to 
triumph  over ;  in  the  extract  it  signi- 
fies "  cause  to  triumph." 

He  hath  triumphed  the  name  of  His 
Christ;  He  will  bless  the  things  He  hath 
begun. — Jewel,  ii.  933. 

Triumph.  To  ride  triumph  =  to  be 
in  full  career. 

'*  Tis  some  misfortune,'*  quoth  my  uncle 
Toby.  "  That  it  is,"  cried  my  father,  4t  to 
have  so  many  jarring  elements  breaking  loose, 
and  ridina  triumph  in  every  corner  of  a  gen- 
tleman's house. — Sterne,  TV.  Shandy,  iii.  157. 

Tridmverie,  triumvirate. 

Take  for  thine  ayde  afflicting  Miserie, 
Woe,   mine    attendant,  and    Dispuyre,  my 

freend, 
All  three  my  greatest  great  Triumuerie. 

G.  Markham,  Trayedie  of  Sir  R. 
Grinuile,  p.  55. 


TRIVE 


(  670  )      TRUELOVE  GRASS 


Trive,  to  contrive. 

The  thriftie  that  teacheth  the  thrilling  to 

thriue, 
Teach  timelie  to  traverse  the  thing  that  thou 

triue. — Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  137. 

Trivet,  is  a  proverbial  comparison 
indicating  stability,  inasmuch  as  it  has 
three  legs  to  stand  on. 

He's  all  right  now ;  you  ain't  got  nothing 
to  cry  for,  bless  you !  he's  lighter  than  a 
trivet. — Dickens,  M.  Chuzzlewit,  ch.  xxviii. 

Go  home !  you'll  find  there  all  as  right  as  a 
trivet. — Ingoldsby  Legends  (S.  Romwold). 

Trochings,  small  branches  on  the 
stag's  horn.     See  extract  *.  v.  Spilter. 

Troll,  repetition ;  routine. 

The  troll  of  their  categorical  table  might 
have  informed  them  that  there  was  some- 
thing else  in  the  intellectual  world  besides 
substance  and  quantity. — Burke  on  Fr.  Rev., 
p.  151. 

Trolloll,  to  troll,  or  sing  in  a  rollick- 
ing way. 

They  got  drunk  aud  trollolVd  it  bravely. — 
North,  Examen,  p.  101. 

Trollopy,  slatternly. 

A  trollopy-\ook\ng  maid-servant,  seemingly 
in  waiting  for  them  at  the  door,  stepped  for- 
ward.—  Miss  Austen,  Mansfield  Park,  ch. 
xxxvii. 

Troop-meal,  troop  by  troop ;  meal 
radically  =  measure :  so  we  have  drop- 
meal,  inch-mealy  piece-meal. 

So  troop-meal  Troy  pursu'd  awhile,  laying  on 
with  swords  and  darts. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xvii.  634. 

Trot,  usually  a  contemptuous  name 
for  an  old  woman,  in  which  sense  it  is 
illustrated  in  the  Diets. ;  but  sometimes 
also  used  of  children,  as  a  term  of 
endearment. 

Ethel  romped  with  the  little  children,  the 
rosy  little  trots.— Thackeray,  The  Newcomes, 
ch.  x. 

Trot-cozy.     See  quotation. 

The  upper  part  of  his  form  .  .  .  was 
shrouded  in  a  large  great-coat  belted  over 
his  under  habiliments,  and  crested  with  a 
huge  cowl  of  the  same  stuff,  which,  when 
drawn  over  the  head  and  hat,  completely 
overshadowed  both,  and  being  buttoned  be- 
neath the  chin  was  called  a  trot-cozy.— Scott. 
Waverley,  i.  318. 

Trotter-casks.     See  quotation. 

He  applied  himself  to  a  process  which  Mr. 
Dawkins  designated  as  "  japanning  his  trot- 
ter-cases? The  phrase  rendered  into  plain 
English  signifieth,  cleaning  his  boots. — 
Dickens,  Oliver  Twist,  ch.  xviii. 


Trouble-house,  a  disturber  of  peace 
at  home. 

Ill -bred  louts,  simple  sots,  or  peevish 
trouble-houses.— Urovhert's  Rabelais,  Bk.  I. 
ch.  lii. 

Trouble-rest,  a  disturber  of  rest. 
Sylvester  describes  sickness  as — 

Foul  trouble-rest,  fantastik  greedy-gut. — 
Sylvester,  The  Furies,  328. 

Trough,  to  feed  out  of  a  trough  ;  to 
feed  grossly. 

What  miry  wallowers  the  generality  of 
men  of  our  class  are  in  themselves,  and  con- 
stantly trough  and  sty  with.— Richardson,  CI. 
Harlow,  viii.  108. 

Trousered,  wearing  trousers  :  Dray- 
ton hns  trowzed. 

The  inferior  or  trousered  half  of  the  crea- 
tion.— Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xdx. 

Trout ful,  abounding  in  trout. 

Clear  and  fre*h  rivulets  of  troutful  water. 
—Fuller,  Worthies,  Hants  (i.  399). 

Troutless,  without  trout. 

I  catch  a  trout  now  and  then  ...  I  have 
had  one  or  two  this  year  of  three  and  two 
pounds,  and  a  brace  to-day,  so  I  am  not  left 
troutless.— C.  Kingsley,  1865  (Life,  ii.  180). 

Troutlet,  a  small  trout. 

There  were  some  that  ran,  and  some   that 
leapt, 
Like  troutlets  in  a  pool. 

Hood,  Eugene  Aram. 

Truancy,  playing  truant. 

I  had  many  flattering  reproaches  for 
my  late  truancy  from  these  parties. — Mad. 
D'Arblay,  Diary,  ii.  312. 

Truch.  Truckman,  or  interpreter; 
corruption  of  dragoman  is  in  the  Diets. 

Latelye  toe  mee  posted  from  lone  thee  truch 

spirt,  or  herrald 
Of  Gods.— Stanyhurst,  Mn.,  iv.  375. 

Truckle,  to  roll,  or  huddle  off. 

Tables  with  two  legs  and  chairs  without 
bottoms  were  truckled  from  the  middle  to 
one  end  of  the  room. —  Mad.  UArUay, 
Camilla,  Bk.  Jfl.  ch.  adii. 

Truckle,  the  wheel  or  ball  used  in 
regulating  a  pulley. 

What  hinderance,  hurt,  or  harm  doth  the 
laudable  desire  of  knowledge  bring  to  any 
man,  if  even  from  a  sot,  a  pot,  a  fool,  a  stool, 
a  winter-mitain,  a  truckle  for  a  pulley,  the 
lid  of  a  goldsmith '8  crucible,  an  oil  bottle,  an 
old  slipper,  or  a  cane  chair?— Sterne,  Tr. 
Shandy,  ii.  200. 

Trueloye  grass,  a  plant  growing  in 


TRUE-TABLE 


(671  ) 


TUCK 


woods   with  purplish    black    berries ; 

Paris  quadrifolia. 

The  outside  of  his  doublet  was 

Made  of  the  foure-leaued  truelove  grass. 

Herrick,  Appendix,  p.  481. 

True-table,    a     hazard-table     (Fr. 

trou). 

There  is  also  a  bowling-place,  a  tavern,  and 
a  true-table. — Evelyn,  Diary,  1646  (p.  193). 

TRUFFE,  turf. 

No  holy  truffe  was  left  to  bide  the  head 
Of  holiest  men. 
Davits,  Humours,  Heaven  on  Earth,  p.  48. 

Trdish,  rather  true. 

They  perchance  light  upon  something  that 
seems  truish  and  newish. — Gauden,  Tears  of 
the  Church,  p.  198. 

Truly.  By  my  truly  was  a  mild 
oath  =  on  my  word :  it  is  used  more 
than  once  by  Sirs.  Minever  in  Dekkers 
Satiromasttx. 

Sbe  accounts  nothing  vices  bnt  superstition 
and  an  oath,  aud  thinkes  adultery  a  lesse 
sinne  then  to  sweare  by  my  truely. — Earle, 
Microcosmographie  (Shee  precise  Hypocrite). 

Trummeletts,  ringlets  (?). 

Whose  bead  beefrindged  with  beballowed 

tresses, 
Seemes  like  Apollo's  wben  tbe  moone  hee 

blesses ; 
Or  like  Aurora  wben  with  pearle  she  setts 
Her  long  disheuled    rose-crown 'd   trumme- 

letts. — Herrick,  Appendix,  p.  433. 

Tbumpetry,  trumpeting. 

Cornbill  .  .  has  witnessed  every  ninth  of 
November,  for  I  don't  know  how  many  cen- 
turies, a  prodigious  annual  pageant,  chariot, 
progress,  and  flourish  of  trumpetry. — Thack- 
tray,  Roundabout  Papers,  V. 

Trush.  H.  gives  the  word  =  to  run 
about  in  the  dirt ;  also,  to  trash  about 
=  to  litter:  trush  trash  is  one  of 
Stanyhurst's  jingles  (cf.  muffe  maffe, 
&c.)  =  rubbish. 

For  to  ende  I  purpose,  my  troubles  wholye 

to  finish, 
And  toe  put  in  fyre  brands  this  Troian  ped- 

lerye  trush  trash. — Stanyhurst,  j£n.,  iv.  688. 

Trusty.  See  extract ;  the  speaker  is 
an  Irishman. 

"  There  was  a  sort  of  a  frieze  trusty."  u  A 
trusty!  "  said  Mr.  Hill, "  what  is  that,  pray  ?  " 
**A  big  coat,  sure,  plase  your  honour." — 
Miss  Edgeworth,  Limerick  Gloves,  ch.  ii. 

Tub,  to  wash. 

In  spite  of  all  the  tubbing,  rubbing,  scrubbing, 

The  routing  and  the  grubbing, 
The  Blacks,  confound  them !  were  as  black 
as  ever. — Hood,  A  black  job. 


Tubbish,  like  a  tub. 

You  look  for  men  whose  heads  are  rather 

tubbish, 
Or  drum-like,  better  formed  for  sound  than 

sense. —  Wolcott  P.  Pindar,  p.  136. 

He  was  a  short,  round,  large-faced,  tubbish 
sort  of  man.— Sketches  by  Boz-  (Mr.  John 
Dounce). 

Tubby,  round-bellied  ;  like  a  tub. 

We  had  seen  him  coming  up  to  Covent- 
Garden  in  his  green  chaise-cart  with  the  fat 
tubby  little  horse. — Sketches  by  Boz  (Mon- 
mouth Street). 

Tub-drubber,  tub- preacher,  q.  v. 

Business  and  poetry  agree  as  ill  together 
as  faith  aud  reason  ;  which  two  latter,  as  has 
been  judiciously  observ'd  by  the  fam'd  tub- 
drubber  of  Covent  Garden,  can  never  be 
brought  to  set  their  horses  together. — T. 
Brown,  Works,  iii.  198. 

Tuberon  the  West  Tndian  name  for 
shark :  in  the  Harl.  Misc,  the  word  is 
misprinted  tuheron. 

There  waited  on  our  ship  fishes  as  long  as 
a  man,  which  they  call  Tuberones. — T.  Stevens, 
1579  (Eng.  Garner,  i.  133). 

The  tuiteron  attended  with  his  guard. — 
Dennys,  Secrets  of  Angling  (Ibid.,  i.  166). 

A  shark  or  tuberon  that  lay  gaping  for  the 
flying  fish  hard  by  .  .  .  snapt  her  up. — Na*he, 
Lenten  Stuffe  (Hart.  Misc.,  vi.  169). 

Tuberosity,  swelling. 

Whether  he  . .  swell  out  in  starched  ruffs, 
buckram  stuffings,  and  monstrous  tuberosi- 
ties.— Carlyle,  Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  I.  ch.  v. 

Tub-preacher,  a  ranting,  dissenting 
preacher. 

Here  are  your  lawful  ministers  present,  to 
whom  of  late  you  do  not  resort,  I  hear,  but 
to  tult-preachers  in  conventicles. — Hacktt, 
Life  of  Williams,  ii.  165. 

George  Eagles,  sirnamed  Trudge  over  the 
world,  who,  of  a  taylor,  became  a  tuh- 
preacher,  was  indicted  of  treason. — Semper 
iidem,  1661  (Harl.  Misc.,  vii.  401).      * 

The  tub  nreachers  are  very  much  dissatiffy'd 
that  you  invade  their  prerogative  of  hell. — 
T.  Brown,  Works,  \.  173. 

Tubster,  a  dissenting  preacher. 
Brown  describes  himself  as  going  into 
"  a  Presbyterian  Meeting,"  and  hearing 
"  a  vociferous  holder- forth :  " 

He  (says  tbe  tubster)  that  would  be  rich 
according  to  the  practice  of  this  wicked  age 
must  play  the  thief  or  the  cheat. — T.  Brown, 
Works,  iii.  68. 

Tuck,  food,  especially  sweet-stuff, 
pastry,  &c.  (slang). 

The  Slogger  looks  rather  sodden,  as  if  he 
didn't  take  much  exercise  and  ate  too  much 


TUCK-SHOP 


(  672  ) 


TURKEN 


twk.— Hughes,  Tom  Brown's  Schooldays,  Pt. 
II.  ch.  v. 

Tuck-shop,  a  pastrycook's  shop:  see 
extract  s.  v.  Toffy. 

Gome  along  down  to  Sally  HarrowellV, 
that's  our  School-house  tuck-shop—  she  bakes 
such  stnnuing  murphies. —  Hughes,  Tom 
Brown's  Schooldays,  Pt.  i.  ch.  vi. 

Tuck  up,  to  string  up ;  to  hang. 

I  never  saw  an  execution  but  once,  and 
then  the  hangman  asked  the  poor  creature's 
pardon,  and  wiped  his  mouth  as  you  do,  and 
pleaded  his  duty,  and  then  calmly  tucked  up 
the  crimiual. — Richardson,  Pamela,  i.  141. 

Tuft,  a  man  of  rank  ;  an  Oxford 
term  ;  noblemen  there  wearing,  until 
within  the  last  few  years,  a  gold  tuft 
or  tassel  to  their  cap.  L.  has  a  quot. 
from  Thackeray  (Book  of  Snobs,  ch. 
xxi.)  illustrating  this  use  of  the  word, 
but,  by  an  oversight,  has  not  given  this 
sense,  so  that  the  extract  is  among  the 
passages  which  illustrate  tuft  =  cluster ; 
plump. 

The  lad  . . .  followed  with  a  kind  of  proud 
obsequiousness  all  the  tufts  of  the  University. 
— Thackeray,  ShaM>y  Genteel  Story,  ch.  ii. 

He  was  at  no  time  the  least  of  a  tuft- 
hunter,  but  rather  had  a  marked  natural 
indifference  to  tufts. — Carlyle,  Life  of  Ster- 
ling, Pt.  II.  ch.  in. 

Tug.  See  quotation  from  Putten- 
ham  ;  but  in  the  Tour  thro'  G.  Britain, 
i.  204,  the  word  =  the  cart  itself:  "I 
have  seen  one  tree  on  a  carriage  which 
they  call  there  [Sussex]  a  Tug  drawn 
by  twenty -two  oxen."  The  term  is 
still  in  use.  See  Parish's  Sussex  Glos- 
sary. To  hold  tug  =  to  stand  work ; 
to  hold  him  tag  =  to  give  him  work. 

Which  word  tugge  .  .  .  tooke  his  first 
originall  from  the  cart,  because  it  aignifieth 
the  pull  or  draught  of  the  oxen  or  horses, 
aud  therefore  the  leathers  that  beare  the 
chief  stresse  of  the  draught,  the  carters  call 
them  tugges;  and  so  wee  vse  to  say  that 
shrewd  boyes  tugge  each  other  by  the  eares, 
for  pull. — Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III. 
ch.  xxiii. 

There  was  work  enough  for  a  curious  and 
critical  antiquary  that  would  hold  him  tugg 
for  a  whole  yeare. — Life  of  A.  Wood,  3 my 
18, 1667. 

No  tankard,  flaggon,  bottle,  nor  jugg 
Are  halfe  so  good,  or  so  well  can  hold  tugg. 
Westminster  Drollery,  Pt.  II.  p.  94. 

Tulchan.  See  quotation ;  also  the 
note  appended  to  ch.  xxiii.  of  Ivanhoe, 
where  the  origin  of  the  name  is  rather 
referred  to  the  time  of  the  Reforma- 


tion, when  some  obtained  the  revenues 
of  ecclesiastical  offices,  but  had  to  pay 
over  the  lion's  share  to  some  powerful 
patron  in  the  back-ground. 

[King  James  I.'s  Scotch]  Bishops  were  by 
the  Scotch  people  derisively  called  Tulchan 
Bishops.  Did  the  reader  ever  see  or  fancy  in 
his  mind  a  Tulchan  ?  A  Tulchan  is,  or  rather 
was,for  the  thing  is  long  since  obsolete, a  calf- 
skin stuffed  in  the  rude  similitude  of  a  calf, 
similar  enough  to  deceive  the  imperfect  per- 
ceptive organs  of  a  cow.  At  mil  king- time 
the  Tulchan,  with  head  duly  bent,  was  set 
as  if  to  suck ;  the  fond  cow  looking  round 
fancied  that  her  calf  was  busy,  and  that  all 
was  right,  and  so  gave  her  milk  freely,  which 
the  cunning  maid  was  straining  in  whits 
abundance  into  her  pail  all  the  while. — 
Carlyle,  Cromwell,  i.  33. 

Tulwar,  scimitar  (an  Indian  word). 

I  just  caught  the  flash  of  his  tulwar,  and 
thought  it  was  all  up. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown 
at  Oxford,  ch.  xliv. 

Tumble-down,  dilapidated. 

You  will  be  doing  injustice  to  this  boy  if 
you  hang  on  here  in  this  useless  tumble-down 
old  palace. — H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hatnlyn, 
ch.  iii. 

T'oud  tumbledown  place  is  just  a  heap  o' 
brick  and  mortar. — Mrs.  Gaskelf,  Sylvia's 
Lovers,  ch.  xxi  v. 

Tummock,  a  mound. 

Your  ghost  may  sit  there  on  a  grass  tum- 
mock.— Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  xiv. 

Tump,  clump  or  low  mound. 

He  stopped  his  little  nag  short  of  the 
crest,  and  got  off  and  looked  ahead  of  him 
from  behind  a  tump  of  whortles. — Blackinore, 
Lorna  Boone,  ch.  xxxi. 

Tun -belly,  a  round  or  pot-belly. 

He  has  swore  to  her  by  all  that  is  good 

and  sacred  never  to  forgive  the  presumptuous 

wretch  that  should  think  irreverently  of  a 

double  chin   and   a  tun-belly.  —  T.   Brown, 

Works,  iii.  152. 

Turbanto.  The  extract  from  tfa&hSs 
Lenten  Stuffe  in  which  this  word  occurs 
is  given  s.  v.  Remblere.  Nashe  in  a 
note  explains  it,  "  the  great  lawne  roule 
which  the  Turkes  weare  aboute  their 
heads ; "  in  the  text,  however,  it  is 
used  adjectivally. 

Turbinaceous,  turfy. 

The  real  turbinaceous  flavour  no  sooner 
reached  the  nose  of  the  Captain,  than  the 
beverage  was  turned  down  his  throat  with 
symptoms  of  most  unequivocal  applause. — 
Scott,  St.  Ronan's  Well,  i.  226. 

Turken,  to  furbish ;  which  word  is 
substituted  in  later  editions  of  Rogers. 


TURKESS 


(  673  )  TURPENTINE 


The  Parker  Society  edition  is  that  of 

1607.     Cf.  Turkis. 

His  majesty  calleth  for  subscription  unto 
articles  of  religion ;  but  they  are  not  either 
articles  of  his  own  lately  devised,  or  the  old 
newly  turkened. — Sogers  on  39  Articles,  p.  24. 

Turk  ess,  female  Turk.  See  extract 
$.  v*  Boss. 

Turkey  wheat.  See  quotation  9.  v. 
Purkey  wheat,  from  the  note  on  which 
place  by  Messrs.  Payne  and  Herrtage, 
the  first  of  the  following  extracts  is 
taken. 

There  grows  in  several  parts  of  Africa, 
Asia,  and  America,  a  kind  of  corn  called 
Mays,  and  such  as  we  commonly  name 
Turkey  wheat.  They  make  bread  of  it  which 
is  hard  of  digestion,  heavy  in  the  stomach, 
and  does  not  agree  with  any  but  such  as  are 
of  a  robust  and  hail  constitution. — Treatise 
on  foods  by  Mons.  L.  Lemery,  1704,  p.  71. 

We  saw  a  great  many  fields  of  Indian  corn 
which  . . .  goes  by  the  name  of  Turkey  wheat. 
— Smollett,  France  and  Italy ,  Letter  8. 

Turkey  wood,  a  species  of  wood. 
See  extract  8.  v.  Sug  arch  est. 

Turkis,  to  furbish.  Cf.  Turken. 
The  subjoined  extract  is  taken  from  a 
note  to  the  Parker  Society  edition  of 
Rogers,  p.  24. 

Tet  he  taketh  the  same  sentence  out  of 
Esay  (somewhat  turkised)  for  his  poesie  as 
well  as  the  rest. — Bancroft,  Survey  of  pre- 
tended holy  Discipline,  1593,  p.  6. 

Turk's  -  head,  a  long  broom  for 
sweeping  ceilings,  &c. 

Dick  was  all  for  sweeping  away  other 
cobwebs,  but  he  certainly  thought  heaven 
and  earth  coming  together  when  he  saw  a 
great  Turk's-head  besom  poked  up  at  his 
own. — Lytton,  My  Novel,  Bk.  X.  ch.  xz. 

Turky,  turquoise. 

They  haue  .  .  .  diners  kinds  of  precious 
stones  of  inferiour  value,  amongst  which 
the  emerald  and  the  turky. — Sandys,  Travels, 
p.  221. 

She  shows  me  her  ring  of  a  Turky-stone, 
set  with  little  sparks  of  dyamonds. — Pepys, 
Feb.  18, 1667—68. 

Turn.  Ho  take  a  turn  is  a  colloquial 
expression  meaning  to  take  a  short 
walk,  as  round  a  garden  or  the  like,  but 
in  the  following  it  is  applied  to  a  more 
extended  journey. 

Some  years  ago  I  took  a  turn  beyond  the 
seas,  and  made  a  considerable  stay  in  those 
parts. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  14. 

Turnabout,  an  innovator. 

Our  modern  turnabouts  cannot  evince  us 


but  that  we  feel  we  are  best  affected,  when 
the  great  mysteries  of  Christ  are  celebrated 
upon  anniversary  festivals.— Racket,  Life  of 
miliams,  ii.  3d. 

Turnabout,  giddiness ;  a  disease  in 
cattle. 

The  turnabout  and  murrain  trouble  cattel. 
—Sylvester,  The  Furies,  610. 

Turn  and  turn  about,  by  regular 
turns;  vicissim. 

"  This  is  my  house,  and  this  my  little  wife." 
"Mine  too,"  said  Philip,  "turn  and  turn 

about."— Tennyson,  Enoch  Arden. 

Turn  -  broacher,  turnspit :  turn- 
broach  is  more  common. 

The  king  . . .  pardoning  him  his  life,  gave 
him  a  turn-broactter's  place  in  the  kitchen. — 
J.  Taylor,  Life  of  Old  Parr,  1635  (Sari. 
Misc.,  vii.  80). 

Turn-down,  used  adjectivally  of  a 
collar  which  is  laid  back  instead  of 
standing  upright:  these  last  being 
called  stick-ups. 

The  other  lad  was  somewhat  taller  than 
Tom,  awkwardly  and  plainly  dressed,  but 
with  a  highly-developed  Byronic  turn-down 
collar,  and  long  curling  locks.  —  Kingsley, 
Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  i. 

Turn  out.  Workmen  are  said  to 
turn  out  when  they  throw  up  their 
work  to  go  on  strike.  See  extract  *.  v. 
Operant. 

Turnpike,  the  main  or  turnpike  road. 

The  road  is  by  this  means  so  continually 
torn,  that  it  is  one  of  the  worst  turnpikes 
round  about  London.— Defoe,  Tour  thro'  G. 
Britain,  ii.  178. 

We  are  off  of  the  turnpike,  and  the  sloughs 
are  deadly  deep  about  we.— Foote,  Moid  of 
Both,  Act  II. 

Turn-poke,  a  large  game-cock. 

The  excellency  of  the  broods  at  that  time 
consisted  in  their  weight  and  largeness  . . . 
and  of  the  nature  of  what  our  sportsmen 
call  shake-bags  or  Turn-pokes.— Archool.,  iii. 
142  (1775). 

Turn-tippet,  a  time-server ;  a  turn- 
coat. 

The  priests  for  the  most  part  were  double- 
faced,  turn-tippets,  and  flatterers. — Cranmer, 
ii.  15,  margin. 

All  turn-tippets,  that  turn  with  the  world 
and  keep  their  livings  still,  should  have  no 
oifice  in  Christ's  Church.— Pilkington,  p.  211. 

Turpentine,  to  rub  with  turpentine. 

Or  martyr  beat,  like  Shrove-tide  cock,  with 

bats, 
And  fired  like  turpentined  poor  wasting  rats. 

JVolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  241. 
X  X 


TURPIFIE 


(  674) 


TWA  TTLE 


The  table-covers  are  never  taken  off,  ex- 
cept when  the  leaves  are  turpentined  and 
bees'  waxed.— Sketches  by  Boz,  ch.  ii. 

Tubpifib,  to  calumniate ;  stigmatize. 

O  [that]  ...  a  woman  . .  .  should  thus  tur- 
pifie  the  reputation  of  my  doctrine,  with  the 
superscription  of  a  fool.— Sidney,  Wanstead 
Play t  p.  620. 

Turrets.     De  Quincey  in  his  Essay 
on  the  English  Mail  Coach  speaks  of 
the  coachman  examining  "  the  silvery 
turrets  of  his  harness ; "  and  adds  in  a 
note,  "  As  one  who  loves  and  venerates 
Chaucer  ...  I  noticed  with  great  plea- 
sure that  the  word  torrcttes  is  used  by 
him    to    designate    the   little    devices 
through  which  the  reins  are  made  to 
pass.    This  same  word,  in  the  same 
exact  sense,  I  heard  uniformly  used  by 
many  scores  of  illustrious  mail-coach- 
men ...  in  my  younger  days."    The 
passage  in  Chaucer  referred  to  is  Cant. 
Tale*)  2164,  in  which  place  torrettes  = 
the  rings  on  the  collar  of  a  dog  through 
which  the  leash  was  passed ;  they  were 
so  called  from  the  rings  turning  within 
the  eye  in  which  they  were  fastened. 

Tubh,  a  tusk.    See  Tosh. 
Th'  hast  armed  som  with  poyson,  som  with 

paws, 
Som  with  sharp  antlers,  som  with  griping 

claws, 
Som  with  keen  tushes,  som  with  crooked 

beaks. — Sylvester;  Sixth  day,  first  week,  226. 

It  first  whetted  its  tushes  so  sharply,  and 
bristled  so  fiercely  against  all  Episcopacy.— 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  405. 

Tush,  to  use  an  impatient  exclama- 
tion. Udal  (quoted  by  R.)  had  tasking 
as  a  substantive.     Cf.  Tut. 

Oedric  tushed  and  pshawed  more  than  once 
at  the  message,  but  he  refused  not  obedience. 
—Scott,  Ivanhoe,  ii.  387. 

Tut,  to  use  a  contemptuous  exclama- 
tion ;  pish  and  pshaw  are  used  as  verbs 
in  the  same  way. 

In  another  moment  the  member  of  Par- 
liament had  forgotten  the  statist,  and  was 
pishing  and  tutting  over  the  Globe  or  the 
Sun.— Lytton,  Caxtons,  Bk.  VIII.  ch.  iii. 

Tut,  a  hassock. 

Paid  for  a  tut  for  him  that  drawes  the 
bellowes  of  the  orgaines  to  sit  upon.  ivd. — 
Chwardens  Accounts  of  Cheddle,  1637. 

Tutament,  protection. 

The  holy  Crosse  is  the  true  Tutament, 
Protecting  all  ensheltered  by  the  same. 

Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  19. 


Tutorlt,  like  a  tutor;  pedagoguish. 

The  King  had  great  reason  to  be  weary  of 
the  Earl  who  was  grown  so  infirm,  peevish, 
and  forgetful,  as  also  not  a  little  tutorly  in 
his  Majesty's  affairs.— North,  Examen,  p.  453. 

Tutty,  a  nosegay. 

She  can  wreathes  and  tuttyes  make. 
T.  Campion,  1613  ( Arher,  Eng.  Gamer, 
iii.  283). 

Twaddle,  to  talk  sillily,  or  tediously; 
also  the  man  who  does  so;  also  the  talk 
itself :  modern  form  of  twattle. 

"The  devil  take  the  twaddle!  .  .  .  I  must 
tip  him  the  cold  shoulder,  or  he  will  be 
pestering  me  eternally." — Scott,  St.  Ronan's 
Well,  ii.  188. 

An  occasion  for  twaddling  had  come,  and 
this  good  soul  seised  it,  and  twaddled  into  a 
man's  ear  who  was  fainting  on  the  rack. — 
Beade,  Never  too  late  to  mend,  ch.  xxiii. 

Twaddler,  one  who  proses  on  in  a 
silly  manner  about  commonplace  mat- 
ters. 

You  will  perhaps  be  somewhat  repaid  by 
a  laugh  at  the  style  of  this  ungrammatical 
twaddler. — Pickwick  Papers,  ch.  li. 

Between  conceit  and  disgust,  fancying 
myself  one  day  a  great  new  poet,  and  the 
next  a  mere  twaddler,  I  got  .  .  puzzled  and 
anxious. — C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  viiL 

Tw agger,  a  lamb.  Tusser  has  twig- 
ger  (q.  v.)  =  breeder.  See  extract 
8.  v.  Bunting. 

Twanging.    To  go  off  twanging,  I  e. 
well  or,  as  we  now  say,  swimmingly. 
An  old  fool  to  be  gulTd  thus !  had  he  died 
As  I  resolve  to  do,  not  to  be  altered, 
It  had  gone  off  twanging. 

Massinger,  Roman  Actor,  ii.  2. 

Twangle,  to  twang,  or  sound. 
Shakespeare  has  twangling. 

The  young  Andrea  bears  up  gaily,  how- 
ever ;  twangfes  his  guitar. — Thackeray,  Shab- 
by Genteel  Story,  ch.  ii. 

Twangle,  a  twanging  sound. 
Loud,  on  the  heath,  a  twangle  rush'6% 
That  rung  out  Supper,  grand  and  big, 
From  the  crack'd  bell  of  Blarneygig. 

Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  111. 

Twatter-light,  twilight.  N.  has 
twitter-light,  with  extract  from  Middle- 
ton,  and  adds,  "I  know  no  other  in- 
stance." 

What  mak'st  thou  here  this  twatter4ight  ? 
I  think  thou'rt  in  a  dream. 

Wily  BeguiPd  (Hawkins,  Eng.  Dr^ 
iii.  331). 

Twattle,  "  short  and  twattle "  are 


TWEEZER 


(  675  )      TYBURN  STRETCH 


only  represented  by  petits  in  the  origi- 
nal. The  lines  referred  to  have  only 
four  syllables  in  each. 

They  show  him  the  short  and  twattie  verses 
that  were  written.— Urquhart,  Rabelais,  Bk. 
III.  ch.  xviiL 

Tweezer,  to  pluck  out  (something 
minute)  as  with  tweezers.  See  extract 
8.  v.  Micrology. 

Twelve-penny  matters,  insignificant 
things. 

That  men  be  not  excommunicated  for 
trifles,  and  twelve-penny  matters. — Heylin's 
Hist,  of  the  Presbyterians,  p.  371. 

Twelves.  In  twelves  =  in  duode- 
cimo. 

There  has  also  been  a  decent  Scotch  edition 
published  in  twelves.  —  Life  of  Lackington, 
Letter  xxv. 

Twenty  and  twenty,  many. 

The  tallowchandlers  such  dutiful  and  loyal 
subjects  that  they  don't  care  if  there  were 
twenty  and  twenty  birthdays  in  a  year,  to 
help  off  with  their  commodity. — T.  Brown. 
Works,  i.  153. 

I  have  hinted  it  to  you  twenty  and  twenty 
times  by  word  of  mouth.  —  Richardson,  CI. 
Harlowe,  ii.  145. 

I  could  satisfy  myself  about  twenty  and 
twenty  things  that  now  and  then  I  want  to 
know. — Ibid.,  Grandison,  ii.  10. 

Twichbr,  an  instrument  used  for 
clinching  the  hog-rings. 

Strong  yoke  for  a  hog  with  a  twicher  and 
rings. — Tusser,  Husbandries  p.  38. 

Twigsome,  full  of  twigs. 

The  twigsome  trees  by  the  road-side,  .  .  I 
suppose  never  will  grow  leafy.— Dickens,  Un- 
commercial Traveller,  vii. 

Twirb,  to  curl  or  twirl.  This  sense 
is  not  in  the  Diets. 

No  sooner  doth  a  young  man  see  his  sweet- 
heart comming,  but  he twires  his 

beard,  kc.— Burton,  Anatomy,  p.  30. 

Twitter  -  boned,  having  an  excres- 
cence on  the  hoof,  owing  to  a  contrac- 
tion. 

His  horse  was  either  clapp'd,  or  spavin'd, 
or  greaz'd,  or  he  was  twitter-ban1  d,  or  broken- 
winded. — Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  i.  39. 

Two.  Persons  who  have  quarrelled 
are  sometimes  said  to  be  two ;  just  as 
those  who  are  reconciled  are  said  to  be 
at  one  (Acts  vii.  26). 

Lord  Sp.  Pray,  Miss,  when  did  you  see 
your  old  acquaintance,  Mrs.  Cloudy.  You 
and  she  are  two,  I  hear. 

Miss.  See  her !    Marry,  I  don't  care  whe- 


ther I  ever  see  her  again.— Swift,  Polite  Con- 
versation (Conv.  i.). 

Twopenny.    See  extracts. 

When  the  Lowlanders  want  to  drink  a 
chearupping  cup,  they  go  to  the  public-house 
called  the  change-house,  and  call  for  a  chopin 
of  twopenny,  which  is  a  thin  yeasty  beverage 
made  of  malt,  not  quite  so  strong  as  the 
table-beer  of  England.— Smollett,  Humphrey 
Clinker,  ii.  69. 

There  are  many  things  in  these  kingdoms 
which  are  greatly  undervalued ;  strong  beer 
for  example  in  the  cider  countries,  and  cider 
in  the  countries  of  good  strong  beer ;  bottled 
twopenny  in  South  Britain,  sprats  and  her- 
rings by  the  rich.— Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch. 
cxlii. 

Twosome,  double  (?). 

Wine  in  bumpers !  and  shouts  in  peals ! 
Till  the  Clown  didn't  know  his  head  from 

his  heels ; 
The  Mussulman's  eyes  danced  twosome  reels, 
And  the  Quaker  was  hoarse  with  cheering. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

Twy- formed,  two-formed,  or  two- 
fold. In  a  note  to  the  first  extract, 
Davies  explains  the  "  tuw-formed  fab- 
ric" to  be  "Heauen  and  Earth,"  and 
in  another  to  the  second  quotation  he 
tells  us  that  the  reference  is  to  "the 
9th  of  Nov.,  the  sun  approaching  the 
signe  of  Sagitarius." 

It  that  of  nothing  (onely  with  a  word) 
Made  this  huge  twy-form'd  fabric  which  we 
see. — Davies,  Summa  Totalis,  p.  22. 

The  eye  of  heauen  did  rowle  the  house  about 
Of  that  fell  twi-formfd  Archer. 

Ibid.,  Scourge  of  Folly,  p.  23. 

Twy-child,  in  second  childhood. 

Man  growne  Twy-childe  is  at  doore  6f  death, 
Davies,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  47. 

Twy-forked,  bifurcated. 

Her  flaming  head 
Twy-fork'd  with  death  has  struck  my  con- 
science dead. 

Quarles,  Emblems,  II.  xiii.  10. 

Twyrk,  to  twirl.     See  extract  *.  v. 

Pette.  / 

• 

Tyburn.  To  preach  at  Tyburn 
Cross  =  to  be  hung,  alluding  to  the 
penitential  speeches  made  on  such  oc- 
casions. Gascoigne  reckons  it  among 
the  evils  of  the  age 

That  soldiours  sterue,  or  prech  at  Tiborne 
crosse. — Steele  Glas,  p.  55. 

Tyburn  stretch.  To  fetch  a  Tyburn 
stretch  =  to  be  hung,  bee  extract  s.  v. 
Rage. 

x  x  2 


TYMPANITIC  (  676  ) 


UMBRA  CLE 


Tympanitic,  swollen  like  a  dram. 

All  that  he  had  eaten  or  drunk  or  done 
had  flown  to  his  stomach,  producing  a  tym- 
panitic action  in  that  organ. — H.  Kingsley, 
Kavenshotj  ch.  xii. 

Typarchical,  ruling  over  the  type 

or  press. 

Old  Mr.  Strahan  the  printer  (the  founder 
of  his  typarchical  dynasty).  —  Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  cii. 

Type.  H.  gives,  without  example, 
"  Tipe,  a  ball  or  globe,"  which  I  sup- 
pose to  be  the  meaning  here. 


Abooe  all  was  a  Coupolo  or  Type,  which 
seem'd  to  be  scal'd  with  siluer  plates.  — 
Chapman,  Masque  of  Mid.  Temple. 

Tyrannequkller,  a  tyrannicide. 

Harmodius  and  Aristogiton  had  been  tu- 
rannequellers.  —  UdaTs  Erasmus's  Apophtk., 
p.  129. 

Tybanniously,  tyrannically. 

Manasses  then  his  wife  would  not  oontroule 
Tyranniously.    . 

Hudson,  Judith,  iv.  224. 


IT 


Ubiety,  whereness.  L.  does  not  give 
this  word  by  itself,  but  he  follows 
Johnson  in  offering  it  as  an  explanation 
of  whereness. 

Thou  wouldst  have  led  me  out  of  my  way. 
if  that  had  been  possible, — if  my  ubiety  did 
not  so  nearly  resemble  ubiquity,  that  in 
Anywhereness  and  Everywhereness  I  know 
where  I  am,  and  can  never  be  lost  till  I  get 
out  of  Whereness  itself  into  Nowhere. — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  cxcii. 

Ubiquitary,  one  who  holds  consub- 
stantiation.    See  extract*,  v.  Synusiast. 

Udderless,  motherless. 

All  ye  gentle  girls  who  foster  up 
Udderless  lambs. — Keats,  Endymion,  Bk.  I. 

Uglesome,  ugly. 

Such  an  uglesome  countenance,  such  an 
horrible  visage  our  Saviour  Christ  saw  of 
death  and  hell  in  the  garden. — Latimer, 
i.  220. 

When  I  behold  the  uglesome  face  of  death 
I  am  afraid. —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  47. 

Uglify,  to  disfigure ;  make  ugly. 

It  defourmeth  and  ualyfyeth  the  skinne. — 
Touchstone  of  Complexion,  p.  117. 

She  is  certainly,  in  my  eyes,  the  most 
completely  a  beauty  of  any  woman  I  ever 
saw.  I  know  not  even  now  any  female  in 
•her  first  youth  who  could  bear  the  compari- 
son. She  uglifies  everything  near  her. — 
Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  v.  313. 

Ugly,  to  uglify ;  to  make  ugly. 

It  is  impossible  I  should  love  him,  for  his 
vices  all  ugly  him  over,  as  I  may  say. — 
Richardson,  Pamela,  i.  265. 

Ugly,  a  shade  fastened  on  to  the 
bonnet,  and  projecting  over  the  face. 

The  four  months  Babylon  of  guides,  cars, 
chambermaids,  tourists,  artists,  and  reading- 


parties,  camp-stools,  telescopes,  poetry-books, 
blue  ualies,  red  petticoats  and  parasols  of 
every  hue. — Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch. 


Uglyographise,  to  write  in  an  un- 
couth manner. 

How  it  would  have  been,  as  Mr.  Southey 
would  say,  uglyographised  by  Elphinstone 
and  the  other  whimsical  persons  who  have 
laboured  so  disinterestedly  in  the  vain 
attempt  of  regulating  our  spelling  by  onr 
pronunciation,  ,1  know  not. — Southey,  The 
Doctor,  ch.  ccxxiii. 

Ulcer,  to  ulcerate. 

He  scoffs  and  makes  sport  at  sacred 
things.  This  by  degress  abates  the  rever- 
ence of  religion,  and  ulcers  mens  hearts  with 
profaneness. — Fuller,  Holy  and  Profane  State, 
V.  vi.  3. 

Ululation,  wailing ;  a  howling  cry. 

If  a  temporal  loss  fall  on  us,  we  entertain 
it  with  ululations  and  tears. — Adams,  i.  415. 

Again  the  horns  were  fill'd  bv  all, 
And  ululations  shook  the  haU. 

Colman,  Poetical  Vagaries,  p.  119. 

The  ululation  of  vengeance .  . .  ascended 
— De  Quincey,  Murder  as  a  Fine  Art,  Post- 
script. 

Umbilical,  central.  In  all  the  ex- 
amples in  the  Diets,  the  word  is  used 
literally,  =  pertaining  to  the  navel. 

The  Chapter-house  is  large,  supported  as 
to  its  arched  roof  by  one  umbilical  pillar. — 
Defoe,  Tour  thro'  O.  Britain,  ii.  335. 

Umbracle,  shade.  Cf.  Virgil,  Eclogue, 
ix.  42.  Daviea  applies  it  to  the  Cross, 
under  the  shadow  of  which  we  take 
refuge. 


UNABASED 


(677  ) 


UNBAIZED 


That  Tree  (that  Soull-refreshing  umlracle 
Together  with   oar    sinne)  His  Shoulders 
teares. — Davits,  Holy  Roode,  p.  15. 

Unabased,  not  lowered. 

They  easily  preserved  .  . .  the  reverence  of 
Religion  unabased. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  274. 

Un accountabilities,  things  that  can- 
not be  accounted  for. 

There  are  so  many  peculiarities  and  «n- 
accountabUities  here. — Mad,  D'Arblay,  Diary, 
iii.  252. 

Un acknowledging,  unthankful. 

Your  condition  shall  be  never  the  worse 
for  Miss  Glanville's  unacknowledging  temper 
....  Tou  are  almost  as  unacknowedaing  as 

Sour  sister. — Mrs.  Lennox,  Female  Quixote, 
k.  III.  ch.  viii. 

Unadditioned,  without  a  title.  Ful- 
ler often  uses  additioned  =  graced 
with  a  title.  The  name  of  the  Knight 
referred  to  is  given  without  miles  after 
it  in  the  list  of  Herefordshire  Sheriffs. 

He  was  a  Knight,  howsoever  it  cometh 
to  passe  he  is  here  unadditioned. — Fuller, 
Worthies  (i.  465). 

Unadmitted,  not  admitted. 
The  unadmitted  flames  play  powerlessly. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  IX. 

Unadoptable,  incapable  of  being 
adopted. 

The  good  [prayers]  were  found  adoptable 
by  men ;  were  gradually  got  together,  well- 
edited,  accredited:  the  bad  found  inappro- 
priate, unadoptable,  were  generally  forgotten, 
disused,  and  burnt. — Carlyle,  Past  and  Pre- 
sent, Bk.  II.  ch.  xvii. 

Unalarming,  not  frightening. 

Breaking  the  matter  to  our  father  by 
unalarming  degrees. —  H.  Brooke,  Fool  of 
Quality,  i.  331. 

Nor  bless  I  not  the  keener  sense 
Aud  unalarming  turbulence 
Of  transient  joys  that  ask  no  sting 
From  jealous  fears. 

Coleridge,  Sappy  Husband. 

Un  anchor,  to  loose  from  anchor. 
The  Diets,  only  have  the  past  parti- 
ciple. 

Kate  will  have  free  elbow-room  for  un- 
anchoring  her  boat. — De  Quineey,  Spanish 
Nun,  sect.  5. 

Unanimately,  unanimously. 

To  the  water  foulei  unanimately  they 
recourse. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffs  (Hart.  Misc., 
vi.  170). 

Unanswebadility,  incapability  of 
being  answered. 


The  beauty  of  these  exposes  must  lie  in 
the  precision  and  unanswerability  with  which 
they  are  given. — E.  A.  Foe,  Marginalia,  cii. 

Unapplausive,  unapplauding. 

Instead  of  getting  a  soft  fence  against  the 
cold,  shadowy,  unapplausive  audience  of  his 
life,  had  he  only  given  it  a  more  substantial 
presence  ? — G.  Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch.  xx. ' 

Unapprehensiveness,  want  of  ap- 
prehension. 

Unthinking  creatures  have  some  comfort 
in  the  shortness  of  their  views ;  in  their 
unapprehensiveness. — Richardson,  d.  Harlowe, 
iii.  5. 

Unark,  to  disembark  from  an  ark. 

Sith  thou  on  wealth  and  wisdome's  flouds 

maiste  floate, 
(Flowing  from  him)  till  thou  be  left  vpon 
Th'  Armenian  mount  of  safety,  joy,  and 

rest; 
Where  when  thou  art,  thou  maist  thyself 

vnarke 
Or  make  thy  seate  vpon  that  mountaine's 

crest. — Davies,  Scourge  of  Folly,  p.  39. 

Unascendable,  not  to  be  ascended  ; 
very  steep. 

He  . .  .  confined  the  Royal  progeny  with- 
in high  and  vnascendable  mountains. — Sandys, 
Travels,  p.  171. 

Impending  crags,  rocks  unascendible. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  VII. 

Unattainted,  clear ;  impartial. 

Go  thither,  and  with  unattainted  eye 
Compare  her  face  with  some  that  I  shall 

show, 
And  I  will  make  thee  think  thy  swan  a 

crow. — Romeo  and  Juliet,  i.  2. 

Unattibe,  to  undress. 
We  both  left  Mrs.  Schwellenberg  to  «n- 
attire. — Mad.  DfArblay,  Diary,  v.  209. 

Unaudienced,  not  admitted  to  an 
audience. 

Cruel  to  send  back  to  town  unaudienced, 
unseen,  a  man  of  his  business  and  import- 
ance [—Richardson,  CH.  Harlowe,  v.  183. 

Unauthorise,  to  renounce ;  treat  as 
spurious. 

He  hath  vnauthoryshed  his  owne  natnrall 
King  Edwarde  the  syxte,  notynge  hym  an 
vsurper. —  Bale,  Declaration  of  Bonner*s 
Articles  (Art.  XIX.). 

Unautoritied,  unauthorised. 

Nor  to  do  thus  are  we  unautoritied  either 
from  the  moral  precept  of  Solomon  to  answer 
him  thereafter  that  prides  him  in  his  folly, 
nor  from  the  example  of  Christ. — Milton, 
Animadv.  on  Remonst.  (Preface). 

Unbaized,  not  covered  with  baize. 


VNBANK 


(678  ) 


UNBLADE 


It  slid  down  the  polixhcd  slope  of  the 
Tarnished  and  unbailed  desk. — Miss  Bronte, 
Villette,  ch.  xxviii. 

Unban k,  to  open,  as  by  levelling  or 
removing  banks. 

Unbank  the  hours 
To  that  soft  overflow  which  bids  the  heart 
Yield  increase  of  delight. 

Taylor,  Edwin  the  Fair,  L  5. 

Unbarbarized,  civilised. 

Of  these  original  Irish,  most  of  the  per- 
sons of  quality  understand  English,  and  lead 
a  life  totally  unbarbariz'd. — Misson,  Travels 
in  Eng.,  transl.  by  Ozell,  p.  150. 

Unbarbered,  unshaven :  unbarbed 
occurs  in  Coriolanus,  iii.  2. 

We'd  a  hundred  Jews  to  larboard, 
Unwashed,  uncombed,  unbarbered. 

Thackeray,  White  Squall. 

Unbarricade,  unbar.      R.   has  un- 

barricadoed  with  extract  from  Burke. 

Fill  up  the  fosse*,  unbarricade  the  doors. 
Sterne,  Sent.  Journey,  The  Passport. 

Unbear,  to  take  off  or  relax  the 
bearing-rein. 

Unbear  him  half  a  moment  to  freshen  him 
up. — Dickens,  Bleak  House,  ch.  lvi. 

Unbeavered,  uncovered ;  with  the 
hat  off. 

Brethren  unbeaver*d  then  shall  bow  their 
head. — Gay,  The  Espousal. 

Unbedded,  applied  to  a  bride  whose 
marriage  had  not  been  consummated. 
K.  and  L.  have  unbed  =  to  raise  from 
a  bed. 

We  deem'd  it  best  that  this  unbedded  bride 
Should  visit  Chester,  there  to  live  recluse. 

Taylor,  Edwin  the  Fair,  iii.  8. 

Unbedinned,  not  made  noisy. 

A  princely  music  unbedinned  with  drums. 

Leigh  Hunt,  Rimini,  c.  i. 

Unbegilt,  ungilded ;  unrewarded 
with  gold. 

Sire,  the  sense 
Of  loyal  service  done  is,  unbegilt, 
Worth  what  you  say,  the  ransom  of  a  king. 
Taylor,  Virgin  Widow,  v.  5. 

Unbeginnino,  having  no  beginning, 
like  a  circle.     Sylvester  calls  the  world 

An  vnbeginning,  midless,  endles  Ball. 
First  day,Jirst  week,  343. 

Unbeoirt,  not  encircled. 

A  finger  vnbegirt  with  gold. 

Deeble  to  Dairies  (Microcosmos, 
p.  104). 


Unbelievabilitt,  incredibility. 

Boiling  mud-oceans  of  Hypocrisy  and  F»- 
believabiTity.—Carlyle,  Life  of  Sterling,  Pt.  I. 
ch.  xv. 

Unbelt,  to  unfasten  a  belt. 

The  officers  would  have  unbelted  their 
swords. — De  Quincey,  Soman  Meals. 

Un benevolence,  ill- will :  the  adjec- 
tive is  in  L. 

I'm  sorry  to  see  such  marks  of  unbencxo- 
lence. — Jeremy  Collier,  Further  Defence  of 
Reasons  for  restoring  first  Pr — bk.  of  Ed  v. 
VI.,  p.  79  (1720). 

Unbenumb,  to  restore  circulation. 

The  fire 
Dries  his  dank  cloaths,  his  colour  doth  refresh 
And  vnbenums  his  sinews  and  his  flesh. 

Sylvester,  Handie-Crafu,  237. 

Unbereaven,  not   bereft     R.    has 

unbereft. 

Arms,  empty  of  her  child,  she  lifts 

With  spirit  unbereaven — 
«God  will  not  all  take  back  His  gifts 
My  lily's  mine  in  Heaven.'' 

Mrs.  Browning,  Child's  Grate 
at  Florence. 

Unbespeak,  to  put  off. 

Pretending  that  the  corps  stinks,  they 
will  bury  it  to  night  privately,  and  so  will 
unbespeak  all  their  guests. — Pepys,  Oct.  30* 
1661. 

To  Whitehall  to  look,  among  other  things, 
for  Mr.  May,  to  unbespeak  his  dining  with  me 
to  morrow. — Ibid.,  April  13, 1669. 

I  can  immediately  run  back  and  unbespeak 
what  I  have  ordered. — Garrick,  Lying  J  aid, 
Act  I.  (1741). 

I  unbespeak  not  my  monitor. — Richardson, 
Grandison,  i.  17. 

Unbethink,  to  change  one's  mind : 
in  the  extract  it  is  used  of  those  who 
did  something  contrary  to  their  usual 
practice. 

The  Lacedaemonian  foot  (a  nation  of  all 
other  the  most  obstinate  in  maintaining  their 
ground)  .  .  .  unbethought  themselves  to  dis- 
perse and  retire. — Cotton,  Montaigne's  Essays, 
ch.  xi. 

Unbirdly,  unlike  or  unworthy  of  a 
bird :  a  word  coined  on  the  model  of 
unmanly. 

Even  to  the  universal  tyrant  Love 
You  homage  pay  but  once  a  year : 

None  so  degenerous  and  unbirdly  prove, 
As  his  perpetual  yoke  to  bear. 

None  but  a  few  unhappy  household  fowl. 

Cowley,  Of  Liberty. 

Un  blade,  to  take  out  of  the  number 
of  blades  (q.  v.)  or  roaring  boys. 


UNBLESTFULL         (  679  ) 


UNCERTIFIED 


And  I  shall  take  it  as  a  favour  too, 

If,  for  the  same  price  yoa  made  him  valiant, 

You  will  unblade  him. 

Shirley,  The  Gamester,  Act  V. 

Unble8TFull,  unhappy.  See  extract 
*.  v.  Pest  full. 

Unblind,  to  open  the  eyes :  also  an 

adjective  =  clear. 

It  is  not  too  late  to  unblind  some  of  the 
people.— Racket,  life  of  William*,  ii.  196. 

Keep  his  vision  clear  from  speck,  his  inward 
sight  unblind. 

Keats,  Birthplace  of  Burns. 

Unblissful,  unhappy. 

And  from  within  me  a  clear  under-tone 
Thrilled  thro1  mine  ears  in  that  unblissful 
clime. 

Tennyson,  Dream  of  Fair  Women,  xxi. 

Unboding,  not  anticipating. 

I  grew  in  worth,  and  wit,  and  sense, 
Unboding  critic-pen. 

Tennyson,  Will  Waterproof ',  vi. 

Unbodkined,  unfastened. 

Calm  she  stood;  unbodkined  through, 
Fell  her  dark  hair  to  her  shoe. — 

Mrs.  Browning,  Duchess  May. 

Unbooklearned,  illiterate.  Fuller 
uses  the  word  again,  Worthies,  North- 
ampton. 

Un-book-learnyd  people  have  conn'd  by 
heart  many  psalms  of  the  old  translation. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  VII.  i.  32. 

Unbuckbamed,  not  starched  or. stiff. 

Thence  I  appeal,  for  judgement  on  my  Pen, 
To  moral,  but  unbuckram'd  Gentlemen. 

Colman,  Vagaries  Vindicated,  p.  211. 

Unbudded,  not  yet  opened  into  bud. 
See  extract «.  v.  Labyrinth. 

Unbundle,  to  open ;  to  declare. 

Unbundle  your  griefs,  madam,  and  let  us 
into  the  particulars. — Jarvis's  Don  Quixote, 
Pt.  II.  Bk.  III.  ch.  vi. 

Unburiable,  that  cannot  be  buried. 

A  yet  warm  corpse,  and  yet  unburiable. 

Tennyson,  Gareth  and  Lynette. 

Unburnished,  not  brightened  or 
cleaned. 

Their  bucklers  lay 
Unburnished  and  defiled. 

Southey,  Joan  of  Are,  Bk.  VII. 

Unburrow,  to  unearth. 

He  can  bring  down  sparrows  and  unburrow 
rabbits. — Dickens,  Uncommercial  Traveller, x. 

Unbdry,  to  exhume. 

The  hours  they  are  not  at  their  beads, 
which  are  not  a  few,  they  .employ  in  speaking 


ill  of  us,  unburying  our  bones,  and  burying 
our  reputations. — Harris's  Don  Quixote,  Pt. 
II.  Bk.  III.  ch.  v. 

Unbusy,  idle  ;  leisurely.  Uhbusied 
is  in  the  Diets. 

My  mother  . . .  continued  looking  into  a 
drawer  among  laces  and  linen,  in  a  way 
neither  busy  nor  unbusy. — Richardson,  C*. 
Harlowe,  i.  132. 

Hickman  is  a  sort  of  fiddling,  busy,  yet, 
to  borrow  a  word  from  you,  unbusy  man. — 
Ibid.,  ii.  5. 

Uncanny,  not  right;  mysterious; 
eerie. 

What  does  that  inexplicable,  that  uncanny 
turn  of  countenance  mean  ? — C.  Bronte,  Jane 
Eyre,  ch.  xxiv. 

He  .  . .  rather  expected  something  "un- 
canny "  to  lay  hold  of  him  from  behind.— C. 
Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xxi. 

Uncardinal,  to  divest  of  the  car- 

dinalate. 

Borgia  .  .  .  quickly  got  a  dispensation  to 
uncardinal  himself. — Fuller,  Holy  and  Pro- 
fane State,  V.  vii.  2. 

Uncarnate,  to  divest  of  flesh  or 
fleshliness.  u  The  uncarnating  of  a 
Christian  "  is  one  of  the  phrases  of  the 
sectaries  ridiculed  by  Qauden  {Tears 
of  the  Church,  p.  198).  Sir  T.  Browne, 
quoted  by  R.,  speaks  of  the  "  uncarnate 
Father  "  as  distinguished  from  the  in- 
carnate Son. 

Uncart,  to  unload  a  cart. 

He  carted  and  uncarted  the  manure  with  a 
sort  of  flunkey  grace. — G.  Eliot,  Amos  Bar- 
ton, ch.  ii. 

Uncastle,  to  deprive  of  a  castle. 

He  uncastled  Roger  of  Salisbury,  Alex- 
ander of  Lincoln,  and  Nigellus  of  Ely. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  III.  ii.  39. 

Uncatechizednesb,  want  of  instruc- 
tion. 

What  means  the  Uncatechizedness,  the 
Sottishness,  Profaneness,  Impudence  and 
Irrehgion  which  are  so  much  spreading  and 
prevailing?— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p. 
619. 

Uncentre,  to  throw  off  the  centre  ; 
to  upset. 

Let  the  heart  be  uncentred  from  Christ,  it 
is  dead. — Adams,  ii.  258. 

Uncertified,  not  certified;  having 

no  certificate. 

The  mercy  of  the  legislature  in  favour 
of  insolvent  debtors  is  never  extended  to 
uncertified  bankrupts  taken  in  execution. — 
Smollett,  L.  Greaves,  ch. 


UNCHALLENGEABLE   (  680  )    UNCOMPANIONABLE 


Unchallengeable,  secure  \.  not  to  be 

challenged. 

His  title  and  his  paternal  fortune  .  .  . 
might  be  rendered  unchallengeable. — Scott, 
St.  Ronan's  Well,  ch.  zzxiii. 

Unchaplain,  to  dismiss  from  a  chap- 
laincy. 

Dr.  Hackwel,  for  opposing  the  Spanish 
Match,  was  unchaplaind  and  banish'd  the 
Court.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Dorset  (i.  312). 

Uncheckable,    incapable    of   being 

checked  or  examined. 

His  lordship  used  him  in  his  most  private 
and  uncheckable  trusts. — North,  Life  of  Lord 
Guilford,  ii.  286. 

Unchildish,  not  fit  for  children. 
Webbe  speaks  of  some  of  the  classics 
as  "  unchildish  6tuffe,"  i.  e.  not  fit  for 
children  (Eng.  Poetrie,  p.  46). 

Unchivalrous,  wanting  in  chivalry, 
or  honour. 

Such  a  bad  pupil,  monsieur !  so  thankless, 
cold  -  hearted,  unchivalrous,  unforgiving.  — 
Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xxxv. 

Morally,  it  [gambling]  is  unchivalrous  and 
unchristian. — C.  Kingstey  {Life,  ii.  275). 

Uncholeric,  even-tempered. 

His  Excellent  was  not  uncholeric. — Carlyle, 
Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  II.  ch.  iv. 

Unchristiness,  unchristianess.  which 
word  is  given  by  L.,  with  extract  from 
Eikon  nasiliht.  Strype  (Life  of 
Cranmer,  Bk.  II.  ch.  viii.)  says  that  in 
1648,  or  thereabouts,  Edward  VI.  put 
forth  a  proclamation,  complaining  that 
Churches  were  made  "  a  den  or  sink. of 
all  unchristiness" 

Uncipher,  to  decipher. 

We  had  further  intelligence  this  day  con- 
cerning a  letter  in  ciphers  from  Mr.  Ash- 
burnham  to  the  King  at  Holmby;  which 
letter  was  intercepted  by  Captain  Abbots,  a 
Captain  of  Dragoons  in  the  army,  and  is  now 
unciphered. — Rushworth,  Hist.  Coll.,  Pt.  IV. 
vol.  I.  p.  491(1647). 

Un-city,  to  deprive  of  the  status  of 
a  city. 

Some  questioned  its  charter,  and  would 
have  had  it  un-Citied,  because  un-Bishoped 
n  our  Civil  Wars. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Glou- 
cestershire (i.  398). 

Uncle.  My  uncle  =  the  pawn- 
broker (the  corresponding  phrase  in 
French  is  ma  tante).  All  the  extracts 
are  plays  upon  this  sense. 

We  find  him  making  constant  reference 
to  an  uncle,  in  respect  of  whom  he  would 


seem  to  have  entertained  great  expecta- 
tions, as  he  was  in  the  habit  of  seeking  to 
propitiate  his  favour  by  presents  of  plate, 
jewels,  books,  watches,  and  other  valuable 
articles. — Dickens,  Martin  Chuszlewit,  ch.  L 

Brothers,  wardens  of  City  Halls, 
And  uncles,  rich  as  three  golden  balls 
From  taking  pledges  of  nations. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmanseyg. 

"Dine  in  your  frock,  my  good  friend, 
and  welcome,  if  your  dress -coat  is  in  the 
country/'  "It  is  at- present  at  an  uncle's" 
Mr.  Bayham  said  with  great  gravity.  — 
Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  xii. 

Unclose,  unreserved;  babbling. 

Knowen  designs  are  dangerous  to  act, 
And  th'  vnclose  chief  did  never  noble  fact. 
Sylvester,  The  Captaines,  1075. 

Unclubable,  ungenial;  unfitted  to 
be  a  good  member  of  a  club.  The 
"  master  of  languages  "  was,  of  course, 
Dr.  Johnson. 

"Sir  John  was  a  most  unclubable  man!" 
How  delighted  was  I  to  hear  this  master  of 
languages  so  unaffectedly  and  socially  and 
good-naturedly  make  words,  for  the  pro- 
motion of  sport  and  good-humour. — Mad. 
D'Arblay,  Diary,  i.  41. 

Uncolted,  deprived  of  a  colt  or 
horse.  Colt  =  to  befool:  hence  the 
pun  in  the  extract  addressed  to  Falstaff, 
who  cannot  find  his  horse. 

Foist.  What  a  plague  mean  ye  to  colt  me 
thus? 

Prince.  Thou  liest;  thou  art  not  col  ted, 
thou  art  uncolted. — 1  Henry  IV.,  ii.  2. 

Uncommixed,    unmingled ;    separate 

from. 

The  Thracian  quarter  lies 
Utmost  of  all,  and  uncommixed  with  Trojan 
regiments. — Chapman,  Iliad,  x.  369. 

Uncommunicative,  not  liberal:  its 
usual  meaning  is  reserved  in  speech, 
though  communicate  is  used  in  the 
New  Testament  for  "  give  "  (Heb.  xiii. 
16,  &c),  Clarissa  Harlowe,  speaking 
of  her  parents,  uses  the  term  as  pro- 
bably the  softest  she  could  find. 

Excepting  in  one  point,  I  know  not  any 
family  which  lives  more  up  to  their  duty 
than  the  principals  of  ours.  A  little  too  w»- 
communicative  for  their  great  circumstances 
—that  is  all. — Richardson,  Cl.  Harlowe,  ii.  90. 

Uncommunicativeness,  reserve. 

I  might  justify  my  secresy  and  uncommum- 
cativeness.— Richardson,  Cl.  Harlowe,  iv.  291. 

Uncompanionable,  unsociable,  or  un- 
fitted to  make  a  companion  of. 


UNCOMPANIONED       (  68 1  ) 


UNCULAR 


Here  is  a  Mrs.  K.  too,  sister  to  the  Duchess 
of  M.,  who  is  very  uncompanionable  indeed, 
and  talks  of  Tumbridge.  —  Mad.  IfArblay, 
Diary,  i.  415. 

Uncompanioned,  unique;  having  no 
fellow. 

She  is  the  mirror  of  her  beauteous  sex, 
UnparallelPd  and  uncompanion'd. 

Mackin,  Dumb  Knight,  Act  I. 

Uncompassed,  unbounded. 

Can  clouds  encompasse  Thy  vncompast  Great- 
ness ? — Davits,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  13. 

Uncompliant,  opposed;  inflexible. 

Be  justly  opposite  and  uncompliant  to 
those  erroures. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church, 
p.  305. 

Uncompobeable,  not  to  be  allayed. 

A  difference  raised  between  the  House  of 
Lords  and  the  House  of  Commons  about 
judicature,  ...  at  length  flamed  so  high  as 
to  be  uncomposeable.  —North,  Examen,  p.  63. 

Unconcerned,  sober.  Cf.  Con- 
cerned. 

Mowbray  and  Tourville  grew  very  noisy 
by  one,  and  were  carried  off  by  two.  Wine 
never  moves  Mr.  Lovelace,  notwithstanding 
a  vivacity  which  generally  helps  on  over-gay 
spirits.  As  to  myself,  the  little  part  I  had 
taken  in  their  gaiety  kept  me  unconcerned.— 
Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  viii.  309. 

Unconcurrent,  disagreeing. 

A  league  consisting  of  seuerall  nations, 
emulous  and  vnconcurrent  in  their  courses. — 
Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  49. 

Unconfidence,  hesitation ;  doubt. 

He  never  raised  his  style  higher  when  he 
wrote  than  with  Ifs  and  suppositive  uncon- 
fidence.— Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  124. 

Unconformist,  nonconformist. 

Fuller  (Ch.  Hist.,  X.  ii.  1)  speaks  of 
Abp.  Whitfpf t  fearing  u  an  assault  of 
UnconformisU  on  Church  discipline." 

Unconoeal,  to  relax ;  to  become  un- 
frozen. The  Diets,  only  give  the  past 
participle. 

When  meres  begin  to  uncow/eal. 

Tennyson,  Two  Voices. 

Unconqealable,  incapable  of  being 
frozen. 

A  road  whose  white  intensity 
Would  now  make  platioa  uncongealable 
Like  quicksilver. — Southey,  Nondescripts,  III. 

Unconsumeable,  inexhaustible. 

There  are  an  unconsumeable  number. — 
Sandys,  Travels,  p.  127. 

Uncontainablb,  irrepressible. 


His  uncontainable  poison  would  soon  burst 
him. — Adams,  i.  73. 

Unconvenable,  unfitting. 

He  vsed  commonly  to  saie  that  there  was 
nothing  more  vnconuenable  for  a  perfecte 
good  capitaine  then  ouer  moche  hastyng  and 
vnauisednesse. —  UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth., 
p.  286. 

Uncoquettish,  not  coquettish  or 
anxious  to  attract  notice. 

So  pure  and  uncoquettish  were  her  feelings. 
— Miss  Austen,  Nort hanger  Abbey,  ch.  vii. 

Uncordial,  cold ;  wanting  in  hearti- 
ness. 

A  little  proud-looking  woman  of  uncordial 
address. — Miss  Austen,  Sense  and  Sensibility, 
ch.  xxxiv. 

Uncorrespondency.  Gauden  says 
that  he  is  unable  to  join  in  those 
associations  among  ministers,  popular 
with  the  Presbyterians  and  others, 
though  having  regard  to  the  characters 
of  many  individuals  among  them,  he 
regrets  "this  uncorrespondency11  to 
which  he  feels  compelled  (Tears  of  the 
Churchy  p.  469). 

Uncorrespondent,  not  answering  to. 

Vicious  extremes  .  .  are  contrary  to  each 
other,  and  yet  uncorrespondent  with  that 
vertue  from  which  they  are  divided. — Gau- 
den, Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  303. 

Uncourtierlike,  unlike  a  courtier. 

I  acted  but  an  uncourtierlike'pait. — Mail. 
D'Arblay,  Diary,  ill.  103. 

Uncoveted,  not  longed  after. 

Uncoveted  wealth  came  pouring  in  upon 
me. — H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  353. 

Uncrased,  sound ;  form. 

Shortly  after  dies  Geffery  Fits  Peter, 
justiciar  of  England  .  . .  who  m  that  broken 
time  only  held  unerased,  performing  the  part 
of  an  euen  consellour  and  officer  betweene 
the  Sling  and  Kingdome. — Daniel,  Hist,  of 
Eng.,  p.  119. 

Uncredit,  to  discredit. 

It  was  Kilvert  his  designe  to  uncredit  the 
testimony  of  Pregion  by  charging  him  with 
several  accusations. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI. 
ii.  82. 

Uncritical,  lacking  in  judgment. 

We  are  not  so  rude  understanders  or  un- 
criticall  speakers. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  24. 

Uncular,  avuncular ;  g.  v. 

The  grave  Don  owned  the  soft  impeach- 
ment, relented  at  once,  and  clasped  the 
young  gentleman  in  the  Wellington  trousers 


UNCUSTOMARY        (  682  ) 


UNDERMINE 


to  his  uncular  and  rather  angular  breast — 
De  Quincey,  Spanish  Nun,  sect.  vi. 

Uncustomary,  unusual. 

The  universal  insurrectionary  abrogation 
of  law  and  custom  was  managed  in  a  most 
unlawful  uncustomary  manner.  —  Carlyle, 
Misc.,  iv.  128. 

Uncuted,  not  mixed  with  cuit,  q.  v.; 
i.  e.  with  sweet  wine. 

That  which  principally  enricheth  this 
countrey  is  their  muscadines  and  malraesiea 
.  . .  wines  that  seldome  come  vnto  vs  vncuted, 
but  excellent  where  not. — Sandys,  Travels, 
p.  224. 

Undamnified,  uninjured. 

The  riders  . .  .  might  save  themselves  un- 
damnified.— Caius  on  Dogs,  transl.  by  Fleming 
1576  {Eng.  Gam.  UL  238). 

Undadghterly,  unbecoming  to 
daughters. 

I  would  not  on  any  account  have  it 
thought  that,  in  my  last  disposition,  any- 
thing undaughterly,  unsisterly,  or  unlike  a 
kinswoman,  should  have  had  place.  — 
Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  vii.  412. 

Undean,  to  deprive  of  a  deanery  or 
of  decanal  standing. 

Mr.  Thome  gave  him  a  look  which  undeaned 
him  completely  for  the  moment. — Trollope, 
Barchester  Towers,  ch.  xlvi. 

Un defecated,  un purged  ;  thick. 

Mine  was  pure,  simple,  undefecated  rage. — 
Godwin,  Mandtville,  h.  115. 

Undelectable,  unpleasant. 

The  genial  warmth  which  the  chestnut 
imparted  was  not  undelectable. — Sterne,  Tr. 
Shandy,  iii.  209. 

Ux deliverable,  incapable  of  being 
delivered. 

Fix  thyself  in  Dandyhood,  undelt'verable  : 
it  is  thy  doom. — Carlyle,  Past  and  Present, 
Bk.  II.  ch.  xvii. 

Undelved,  undug. 

Welcome,  ye  wild  plains 
Unbroken  by  the  plough,  undelved  by  hand 
Of  patient  rustic. 

Southey,  Botany  Bay  Eclogues,  I. 

Undeniable,  excellent. 

The  daylight,  furnished  gratis,  was  cer- 
tainly M  undeniable  "  in  its  quality. — De 
Quincey,  Roman  Meals. 

He  meant  to  marry  a  well-educated  young 
lady  (as  yet  unspecified)  whose  person  was 
good,  and  whose  connections,  m  a  solid 
middle-class  way,  were  undeniable. — G.  Eliot, 
Middlemarch,  ch.  xli. 

Under-aid,  to  belp  secretly. 


Robert  .  .  \  is  said  to  haue  under-aided 
Boul  secretly.— Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng-,  p.  23. 

Underboabd,  underhand:  above 
board  =  frank  or  honest,  is  common. 

Secret  pensions,  which  flow  from  foreign 
princes  .  .  .  are  most  mischievous.  The 
receivers  of  such  will  plnyunder-board  at  the 
Counsell-table—  Fuller,  Holy  State,  IV.  v.  16. 

I  scorn  to  act  under-board. 

T.  Brown,  Works,  n.  305. 

Undercot,  to  coast  under ;  to  creep 
insidiously. 

To  Medciners  the  medcine  vailed  not, 
So  sore  the  poisond  plague  did  vndercot. 

Hudson's  Judith,'u.  182. 

Undercrest,  to  support.  The  addi- 
tion referred  to  is  the  surname  Coriol- 
anus,  just  bestowed  on  Caius  Marcius. 

I  mean  to  stride  your  steed,  and  at  all  times 
To  undercrest  your  good  addition 
To  the  fairness  of  my  power. 

Coriolanus,  i.  9. 

Under-degreed,  of  inferior  rank. 

The  reputation  of  persons  of  birth  most 
not  lie  at  the  mercy  of  every  under-degreed 
sinner. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  iv.  48. 

Underdoer,  one  who  does  less  than 
is  necessary:  see  extract  *.  v.  Over- 
doer. 

Under-earthly,  subterranean.  Syl- 
vester (The  Arke,  281)  speaks  of  "  un- 
der-earthly caves." 

Underfeed,  to  feed  insufficiently. 

The  Fanaticks  strive  to  underfeed  and 
starve  it.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p. 
363. 

Undergore,  to  pierce  underneath. 

The  dart  did  undergore 
His  eyelid  by  his  eye's  dear  roots. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xiv.  408. 

Under-hung.  A  person  whose  lower 
jaw  projects  is  said  to  be  under-hung. 

He  . .  .  must  lament  his  being  very  much 
under-hung,  a  defect  which  time  seemed  to 
have  increased.  —  Miss  Austen,  Persuasion, 
ch.  xv. 

He  .  .  .  had  got  the  trick  which  many 
underhung  men  have  of  compressing  his 
upper  lip. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford, 
on.  ii. 

Under-match,  one  unequal  to  some 
one  else. 

He  was  no  contemptible  Historian ;  but  I 
confesse  an  undermatch  to  Doctor  Hackwell. 
—Fuller,  Worthies,  Denbigh  (ii.  689). 

Undermine,  cave. 

There  are  many  undermines  or  caves. — 
Holland's  Camden,  p.  650. 


UNDERNICENESS         (  683  )         UNDISSEVERED 


Underniceness,  defect  in  delicacy. 

Ovcrniceness  maybe  underniceneas. — Rich- 
ardson, CI.  Harlowe,  v.  8. 

Underpeer,  to  peep  under. 

To  make  the  people  wonder  are  set  forth 
great  and  vglie  gyants,  marching  as  if  they 
were  aline,  and  armed  at  all  points,  but 
within  they  are  stuffed  fall  of  browne  paper 
aud  tow,  which  the  shrewd  boys  vnderpeering 
do  guilefully  diseouer  and  turne  to  a  great 
derision.— Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk.  III. 
ch.  vi. 

Underpull,  to  do  work  without 
appearing  in  it 

His  lordship,  while  he  was  a  student,  and 
during  his  incapacity  to  practise  aboveboard, 
was  contented  to  underpull,  as  they  call  it, 
and  managed  diverse  suits  for  his  country 
friends  and  relations. — North,  life  of  Lord 
Guilford,  i.  35. 

Under-rate,  inferior. 

If  He  has  no  punishments  in  reserve  for 
such  profligate  offenders,  under-rate  trans- 
gressors may  expect  a  recompence. — Gentle- 
man Instructed,  p.  322. 

These  under-rate  mortals  are  as  incapable 
to  be  moved  by  kindness  as  to  practise  it. — 
Ibid.,  p.  508. 

Underset,  sublet. 

These  middle-men  will  underset  the  land, 
and  live  in  idleness,  whilst  they  rack  a  parcel 
of  wretched  under-tenants.  —  Miss  Edge- 
worth,  Ennui,  ch.  viii. 

Undershoot,  to  shoot  short  of  a 
mark. 

At  Fishtoft  in  this  County  no  Mice  or 
Bats  are  found. ...  I  believe  they  over-shoot 
the  mark  who  make  it  a  Miracle ;  they  under- 
shoot it  who  make  it  Magick. — Fuller,  Wor- 
thies, Lincoln  (ii.  5). 

Underspend,  to  fall  short  in  expend- 
iture ;  to  spend  less  than  another. 

When  his  friend  in  travell  called  for  two 
Faggots,  Mr.  Sutton  called  for  one ;  when 
his  friend  for  half  a  pint  of  wine,  Mr.  Sutton 
for  a  gill,  underspending  him  a  moity. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Lincoln  (ii.  23). 

Under  -  stair,  '  subordinate :  back- 
stair*  is  now  used  something  in  the 
same  way. 

Living  in  some  under-stair  office,  when  he 
would  visit  the  country,  he  borrows  some 
gallant's  cast  suit  of  his  servant,  and  therein, 
player-like,  acts  that  part  among  his  besotted 
neighbours. — Adams,  i.  500. 

Understrapping,  subservient. 

I  . . .  have  as  great  a  share  (whilst  it  lasts) 
of  that  understrapping  virtue  of  discretion 
as  the  best  of  you. — Sterne,  Tr.  Shandy,  iv. 
202, 


Understumble,  a  jocular  word  for 
understand,  still  in  use. 

Miss.  I  understumble  you,  gentlemen. 
Nev.  Madam,  your  humblecumdumble. 
Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Oonv.  i.). 

Underwing,  lower  wing. 

The  admiring  girl  surveyed 
His  out-spread  sails  of  green ; 
His  gauzy  underwings. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  III. 

Underwitted,  silly ;  half-witted. 

Oupid  ...  is  an  under-witted  whipster. — 
Kennel's  Erasmus,  Praise  of  Folly,  p.  19. 

Timotheus,  the  Athenian  commander,  in 
all  his  expeditions  was  a  mirror  of  good  luck, 
because  he  was  a  little  underwitted. — Ibid., 
p.  134. 

Undescendable,  unfathomable.  Ten- 
nyson (Harold,  I.  i.)  speaks  of  "  the 
undescendable  abysm." 

Undesevered,  unseparated;  ur.dis- 
severed,  q.  v. 

All  theyr  workes  be  vndiuyded  and  unde- 
teuered.—Bp.  Fisher,  i.  332. 

Undeskanted,  untalked  of. 

Leaue  Princes  affaires  undeskanted  on. — 
Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  23. 

Undeviled,  delivered  from  a  devil. 

The  boy  having  gotten  a  habit  of  counter- 
feiting . . .  would  not  be  undeviled  by  all  their 
exorcisms.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  X.  iv.  54. 

Undifferencing,  not  marking  any 
difference. 

Some  Sciolists  will  boast  to  distinguish 
bones  of  Beasts  from  Men  by  their  porosity, 
which  the  Learned  deride  as  an  undifferencing 
difference.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Essex  (i.  339). 

Undiked,  not  furnished  or  fortified 
with  a  ditch. 

The  Greeks  found  time  to  get 
Beyond  the  dike  and  th'  undiked  pales. 
Chapman,  Iliad,  xv.  311. 

Undiscoursed,  silent. 

We  would  submit  to  all  with  indefinite 
and  undiscoursed  obedience. — Hacket,  life  of 
Williams,  i.  130. 

It  is  fit  to  serve  kings  in  things  lawful 
with  undiscoursed  obedience. — Ibid.,  ii.  217. 

Undiscreetness,  indiscretion. 

He  grauely  restreigned  and  staied  the 
heddie  vndiscretenesse  of  the  Oratours. — 
UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  328. 

Undispunged,  unexpunged.    # 

The  defence  should  remain  undispunged. — 
Hacket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  120. 

Undisseverbd,  united.  Cf.  Unde- 
severed. 


UNDIVESTEDLY       (  684  )         UNEXPECTANT 


If  they  do  assail  undissevered,  no  force  can 
well  withstand  them.  —  Patten,  Exped.  to 
Scotland,  1548  (Eng.  Garner,  iii.  110). 

Undivkstedly,  without ;  free  from. 

Yon  will  (aa  undivestedly  as  possible  of 
favour  or  resentment)  teu  me  what  you 
would  have  me  do. — Richardson,  CJ.  Harlowe, 
u.  64. 

Undivideable,  that  which  cannot  be 
divided. 

Reducing  the  undivideaUes  into  money,  he 
shared  it  among  his  company. — Jarvis's  Don 
Quixote,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  ix. 

Undomestic,  not  caring  for  home 
life  or  duties. 

Their  wives  and  daughters  were  never 
more  faulty,  more  undomestic  than  at  present. 
— Richardson,  Grandison,  vi.  397. 

The  undomestic  Amazonian  dame. 

Cumberland,  Epilogue  to  Foote's 
Maid  of  Hath. 

Undomesticate,   to    estrange   from 

home  life  and  habits. 

I  believe  there  are  more  bachelors  now  in 
England  by  many  thousands  than  there  were 
a  few  years  ago. . . .  The  luxury  of  the  age 
will  account  a  good  deal  for  this ;  and  the 
turn  our  sex  take  in  undomesticatina  them- 
selves, for  a  good  deal  more. — Richardson, 
Grandison,  ii.  11. 

Undrainable,  inexhaustible. 

Mines  undrainable  of  ore. 

Tennyson,  (Enont. 

Unduke,  to  deprive  of  a  dukedom. 

He  hath  letters  from  France  that  the  king 
hath  unduked  twelve  dukes. — Pepys,  Dec.  12, 
1663. 

Undulant,  waving ;  undulating. 

And  on  her  deck  sea-spirits  I  descried 
Gliding  and  lapsing  in  an  undulant  dance. 

Taylor,  St.  Clement's  Eve,  ii.  2. 

Undulous,  undulating. 

He  felt  the  undulous  readiness  of  her 
volatile  paces  under  him. — Blackmore,  Lorna 
Doone,  ch.  lxv. 

Unebriate,  unintoxicating ;  also,  un- 
intoxicated. 

There  were  . . .  unebriate  liquors,  pressed 
from  cooling  fruits. — Lytton,  My  Novel,  Bk. 
IV.  ch.  xvii. 

Forth,  unebriate,  unpolluted,  he  came  from 
the  orgy. — Ibid.,  Bk.  VI.  ch.  xxii. 

Unvested,  undischarged  (at  the 
natural  vents). 

The  former  crudities  undigested,  unegested, 
having  the  greater  force,  turn  the  good 
nutriment  into  themselves. — Adams,  ii.  476. 

Unemotional,  free  from  emotion. 


Lapidoth  had  travelled  a  long  way  from 
that  young  self,  and  thought  of  all  that  this 
inscription  signified  with  an  unemotional 
memory. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  brii. 

Unemotioned,  impassive.  In  GW- 
urins  MandevMe,  iii.  98,  a  man  is 
described  as  detailing  anecdotes  in  a 
44  dry,  sarcastic,  unemotioned  way." 

Un enabled,  not  empowered. 

No  eye  of  mortal  man 
If  unenabled  by  enchanted  spell, 
Had  pierced  those  fearful  depths. 
Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  V. 

Unendly,  endless. 

Mortal  disdain,  bent  to  unendly  revenge. 

Sidney,  Arcadia,  p.  234. 

Unentering,  not  entering ;   making 

no  impression. 

The  evening  sun 
Pour'd  his  unentering  glory  on  the  mist. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  IX. 

Unentire,   not   whole.      To    make 

unintire  =  to  dissolve. 

The  Elements,  though  still  at  warre  in  mee, 
Do  yet,  in  firme  accord,  mine  ende  con- 
spire; 
For  it  they  hasten,  sith  they  disagree, 
Which  well  agrees  to  make  me  vnintire. 
Davies,  Wittes  Pilgrimage,  p.  50. 

Unentranced,  awaked  from  a  dream 
or  visionary  state  :  disentranced  is  the 
more  common  form. 

His  heart  was  wholly  unentranced. 

Taylor,  Ph.  van  AH.  (The  Lay  of 
Elena). 

Un  episcopal,  without  bishops.  The 
word  now  would  rather  imply  "  unbe- 
coming a  bishop." 

He  never  set  up  any  sovereign  and  unepis- 
copal  Presbytery  as  an  Idol  or  Moloch. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  11. 

Unevident,  obscure. 

We  conjecture  at  unevident  things  by  that 
which  is  evident. — Racket,  Life  of  Williams, 
i.  197. 

Unexpectable,  not  to  be  looked  for. 

The  homicide  [in  a  duel]  sins  deadly,  and 
the  slain,  without  unexpectable  mercy ,  perish- 
eth  eternally. — Adams,  ii.  322. 

Unexpectant,  not  expecting  or  look- 
ing for  anything.  The  Church  Quar- 
terly Reweio  (April,  1878)  in  a  notice 
of  Mr.  Torrens's  Life  of  Lord  Mel' 
bourne  marks  this  as  among  other 
strange  words  used  by  the  author. 
The  word  seemed  quite  familiar  to  me, 
but  it  is  not  in  the  Diets.    Mr.  Torrens, 


UNEXPRESS 


(  685  )         UNFINISHABLE 


however,  did  not  introduce  it,  as  the 
extracts  will  show.    Cf.  Inexpectant. 

There  was  the  black  and  grey  flock  of 
monks  and  secular  clergy  with  bent  unex- 
peetant  faces. — G.  Eliot ',  Romola,  ch.  Iv. 

"  La,  mamma !  as  if  there  was  any  like- 
ness between  Lady  Western  and  me/1  cried 
Phoebe,  lifting  a  not  unexpectant  face  across 
the  table.  —  Mrs.  Oliphant,  Salem  Chapel, 
ch.  iv. 

Un express,  informal ;  casual. 

The  express  schoolmaster  is  not  equal  to 
much  at  -present,  while  the  unexpress,  for 

?;ood  or  for  evil,  is  so  busy  with  a  poor  little 
ellow.—  Carlyle,  Life  of  Sterling,  Pt.   I. 
ch.  iv. 

Unfabled,  unmixed  with  fable ; 
real. 

They  are  more  amusing  than  plain  un- 
fabled precept. — Sydney  Smith,  Works,  i.  176. 

What  did  she  think  of  the  few  kind  words 
scattered  here  and  there — not  thickly,  as 
the  diamonds  were  scattered  in  the  valley 
of  Sindbad,  but  sparely,  as  those  gems  lie  in 
unfabled  beds? — Miss  Bronte,  VUlette,  ch. 
xx  vi. 

Unface,  to  expose. 

Unface  these,  and  they  will  prove  as  bad 
cards  as  any  in  the  pack. — Rushworth,  Pt.  II. 
vol.  ii.  p.  917. 

Unfadging,  not  going  right. 

The  potter  may  err  in  framing  his  vessel, 
and  so  in  anger  dash  the  unfadging  clay 
against  the  walls.— Adams,  iii.  122. 

Un  faith,  distrust. 

In  love,  if  love  be  love,  if  love  be  oars, 
Faith  and  unfaith  can  ne'er  be  equal  powers: 
Unfaith  in  aught  is  want  of  faith  in  all. 

Tennyson,  Merlin  and  Vivien. 

Unfardle,  to  unpack. 

Thither  our  fisherman  set  the  best  legge 
before,  and  unfardled  to  the  King  his  whole 
sachel  of  wonders. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  171). 

Unfarrowed,  without  a  farrow — the 

reference  is  to  a  sow  who  had  all  her 

pigs  taken  away. 

She  was  left  alone 
Upon  her  tower,  the  Niobe  of  swine, 
And  so  returned  unf arrow1 d  to  her  sty. 

Tennyson,  Walking  to  the  Mail. 

Unfastnkss,  porousness. 

The  philosopher  saith,  It  is  not  the  intent 
of  kina  that  trees  should  be  sharp  with 
prickles  and  thorns,  but  he  would  have  it 
caused  by  the  insolidity  and  unfastness  of  the 
tree. — Adams,  ii.  478. 

Un  fatigue  able,  unweariable ;  never 
tired. 


Those  are  the  unfatigueable  feet 
That  traversed  tne  forest  tract. 
Southey,  Huron's  Address  to  the  Dead. 

Unfearfully,  bravely. 

In  latter  times  they  entred  the  lists 
naked ;  their  skill  in  defence  not  so  much 
regarded  or  praised,  as  the  vndaunted  giuing 
or  receiuing  of  wounds ;  and  life  vnfearfully 
parted  with. — Sandys,  Travels,  p.  270. 

Unfeather.  To  strip  of  feathers: 
the  Diets,  have  only  the  past  participle. 

Ay,  ay,  well  unfeather  the  whole  nest  in 
time. — Colman,  The  Oxonian  in  Town,  Act  I. 

Unfeltly,  insensibly. 

A    banefull   age,  whose  strength    vnfeltly 

flowes 
Through  all  his  veins. 

Sylvester,  The  Lawe,  107. 

Unfetched,  not  to  be  fetched  or 
carried. 

Our  friends  by  Hector  slain 
(And  Jove  to  friend)  lie  unfetch'd  off. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xix.  196. 

Unfeudalise,  to  divest  of  feudal 
rights  or  character. 

The  Austrian  Kaiser  answers  that  his 
German  Princes  for  their  part  cannot  be 
unfeudalised.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk. 
V.  ch.  v. 

Unfighting,  not  fighting ;  cowardly. 
Their  general  gone,  the  rest  like  lightning 

fly, 
A   cheap  unfighting  herd,  not  worth  the 

victory. 

T.  Brown,  Works,  iv.  31. 

Un  fillet  ed,  not  tied  together. 

The  hand 
Holds  loosely  its  small  handful  of  wild- 
flowers 
UnjUleted,  and  of  unequal  lengths. 

Coleridge,  The  Picture. 

Unfine,  shabby. 

The  birthday  was  far  from  being  such  a 
show ;  empty  and  unfine  as  possible. —  WaU 
pole,  Letters,  ii.  362  (1762). 

Unfingered,  having  no  fingers. 

Not  haire,  but  golden  wire  drawne  like  the 

twist 
The  Spider  spins  with  her  vnfimfred  fist. 

Davits,  An  Extasie,  p.  91. 

Unfinishable,  not  to  be  finished. 
The  reference  in  the  text  is  to  an 
author  who  "  left  half  told  "  an  adven- 
ture of  a  famous  Knight  errant. 

He  commended  in  his  author  the  conclud- 
ing his  book  with  a  promise  of  that  un- 
finishable adventure. — Jarvis's  Don  Quixote, 
Pt.  I.  Bk.  I.  ch.  i. 


VNFIST 


(  686  ) 


UNGODDESS 


Unpist,  to  unhand  ;  release. 

You  goodman  Brandy  face,  unfist  her. 
How  durst  you  keep  my  wife— your  sister  ? 

Cotton,  Scarronides,  p.  85. 

Unflame,  to  cool. 

Fear 
Unfiames  your  courage  in  pursuit. 

Quarles,  Emblems,  III.  Introduction. 

Unfleshly,  spiritual ;  incorporeal. 

Her  tears  fell  on  his  arm  the  while,  un- 
heeded— except  by  those  unfleshlv  eves,  with 
with  which  they  say  the  very  air  is  thronged. 
— Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  L 

Un  fleshy,  bare  of  flesh.  Da  vies 
(Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  13)  speaks  of 
"gastly  Death  6  wnfletky  feet. 

Un  fluent,  unready  in  speech. 

Pour  vpon  my  faint  vnjluent  tongue 
The  sweetest  honey  of  th'  Hyantian  fount. 
Sylvester,  Sixth  day,  first  week,  29. 

Unfolded,  not  penned  in  the  fold. 

So  long  we  dispute  of  loue  and  forget  our 
labours,  that  both  our  flockes  shall  be  vn~ 
folded. — Greene,  Menaphon,  p.  44. 

Un  foresee,  not  to  anticipate. 

The  Lord  keeper  did  not  unforesee  how  far 
this  cord  might  be  drawn. — Hacket,  life  of 
Williams,  i.  171. 

Un  forgive  able,  unpardonable. 

This  is  what  it  would  have  been  the 
unforgiveable  sin  to  swerve  from  and  desert. 
Carlyle,  Life  of  Sterling,  ch.  vii. 

Unforgiver,  an  implacable  person. 

I  hope,  however,  that  these  unforgivers 
(my  mother  is  among  them)  were  always 
good,  dutiful,  passive  children  to  their 
parents. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  vii.  26. 

Unforgivingnbss,  implacability. 

What  punishment  are  they  not  treasuring 
up  against  themselves  in  the  heavy  reflections 
which  their  rash  censures  and  unforgiving- 
ness  will  occasion  them! — Richardson,  CI. 
Harlowe,  vii.  287. 

Unformalized,  not  made  formal. 

He  listened  so  kindly,  so  teachably ;  un- 
formalized by  scruples  lest  so  to  bend  his 
bright  handsome  head,  to  gather  a  woman's 
rather  obscure  and  stammering  explanation 
should  imperil  the  dignity  of  his  manhood. — 
Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xix. 

Unfortunacy,  misfortune. 

The  king  he  tacitely  upbraids  with  the 
unfortunactes  of  his  reign  by  deaths  and 
plagues. — Heylin,  Life  of  Laud,  p.  331. 

Unfractured,  unbroken. 

Its  huge  bulk  lies  unfractured.  —  Defoe, 
Tour  thro1  G.  Britain,  i.  310. 


Unfrankable,  incapable   of   being 
franked,  so  as  to  go  post-free. 

Your  pencils  are  on  my  chimney-piece,  and 
the  next  question  is  how  to  transport  them 
to  yours,  for  they  are  of  an  unfrankable 
shape  and  texture.— Southey,  Letters,  1819 
(iii.  106). 

UNFBEE,"not  free. 

But  yet  thou  saist,  Why  staid  He  not  man's 
will? 
How  should  He  then  haue  made  his  will 
bin  free  ? 
Better  unfree  (saist  thou)  than  be  so  ill, 
But  'tis  not  ill  at  libertie  to  bee. 

Davies,  Mirum  in  Modum,  p.  18. 

Unfreeze,  to  thaw. 

Loue's  firy  dart 
Gould  neuer  vnfriese  the  frost  of  her  chaste 
hart.— Hudson's  Judith,  iv.  196. 

Unfbet,  to  relax. 

To  Joppa  will  I  fly, 
And  for  a  while  to  Tharsus  shape  my  course, 
Until  the  Lord  unfret  His  angry  brows. 

Greene,  Looking  Glass  for  London,  p.  129. 

Unfbightful,  not  terrifying  or  re- 
pulsive. 

Not  unf rightful  it  must  have  been ;  ludicro- 
terriflc,  and  most  unmanageable. — Carlyle, 
Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  VII.  ch.  iv. 

Unfuelled,  without  fuel. 

Blazing  unfuelVd  from  the  floor  of  rock, 
Ten  magic  flames  arose. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  II. 

Unfull,  imperfect.     See  extract  s.  v. 

NUMBERY. 

Ungarmented,  unclothed. 

And  round  her  limbs  ungarmented  the  fire 
Ourl'd  its  fierce  flakes. 

Southey,  Joan  of  Arc,  Bk.  IV. 

Ungentleman,  to  make  rude  or 
clownish. 

Some  tell  me  home-breeding  will  ungentle- 
man  him. — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  545. 

Ungive,  relax,  or  fail. 

That  religion  which  is  rather  suddenly 
parched  up  than  seasonably  ripened,  doth 
commonly  ungive  afterwards. — Fuller.  Ch. 
Hist.,  II.  ii.  40. 

He  was  over-frozen  in  his  northern  rigour, 
and  could  not  be  bhaw'd  to  ungive  anything 
of  the  rigidnease  of  his  discipline. — Ibid., 
Hist,  of  Camb.  Univ.,  vii.  2. 

Ungoddess,  to  divest  of  the  attributes 
or  appearance  of  a  goddess.  Donne, 
as  quoted  by  R.  and  L.,  uses  ungod  in 
this  way.  Carlyle  (Fr.  Rev.,  Vt.  III. 
Bk.  V.  ch.  iv.)  speaks  of  Mrs.  Momoro 
who  enacted  the  part  of  the  Goddess 


UNGORED 


(687  ) 


UNHOPING 


of  Reason,  being  "  ungoddeued  "  when 
the  day  was  over. 

Ungored,  unbloodied.  In  Hamlet, 
V.  ii.,the  word  is  a  different  one,  though 
identical  in  spelling,  and  =  unpierced, 
uninjured. 

Helms  of  gold 
Vngoard  with  bloud. 

Sylvester,  The  Vacation,  p.  288. 

Ungorgeous,  unhandsome ;  ill-look- 
ing. 

It  sweeps  along  there  in  most  ungorgeous 
pall.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  viii. 

Unqrave,  to  exhume.   Surrey,  quoted 

by  R.,  has  ungraved  for  unburied. 

Richard  Fleming,  Bishop  of  Lincolne, 
Diocesan  of  Lutterworth,  sent  his  officers 
(vultures  with  a  quick  sight  scent  at  a  dead 
carrion)  to  unyrave  him  accordingly. — Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist.,  IV.  ii.  53. 

Ungrave,  light ;    quick.     R.  and  L. 

five    the    adverb   with   extract    from 
hakespeare  (CorioL,  ii.  3). 

Now  thinke,   o  thinke,  thou  seest    those 
hounds  of  hell, 
(That  yelp  out  blasphemies  about  their 
pray) 
With  vngrauc  gate  to  runne  doe  Him  compell. 

Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  7- 

Ungreening,  a  ceremony  used  at 
Ley  den  University,  when  a  student 
ceased  to  be  a  freshman.  See  extract 
s.  v.  Gbeenib. 

Ungdard,  to  render  defenceless. 

Some  well-chosen  presents  from  the  philo- 
sopher so  softened  and  unguarded  the  girl's 
heart,  that  a  favourable  opportunity  became 
irresistible.— Fielding,  Tom  Jones,  Bk.  V. 
ch.  v. 

Unguidably,  incapable  of  being 
guided.     See  extract  8.  v.  Demount. 

Un-hallow-washed,  not  sprinkled 
with  holy  water. 

Bo  th'  Hypocrite,  through  superstitious  error, 
Thinks  hee  hath  done  some  sin  of  hainous 

horror, 
When,  by  mis-heed  or  by  mis-hap,  hee  corns 
Un-hallow'washt  into  the  Sacred  Rooms. 

Sylvester,  Panareius,  196. 

Unharbour,  dislodge;  bring  out  of 
retreat. 

Let  us  unharbour  the  rascal. 

Foote,  Devil  upon  Two  Sticks, 
Act  I. 

Unharmino,  doing  no  injury. 

At  once  Dunois  on  his  broad  buckler  bears 
The  unharming  stroke. 

Southey,  Joan  of  Arc,  Bk.  VIL 


Unhaunst.  H.  gives  "  Haunce,  to 
raise ;  to  exalt ; "  hence  unhaunst  would 
=  not  raised  on,  i.  e.  not  admitted  to 
heaven.  "  The  ungodly  shall  not  stand 
in  the  judgement 

Therefore  in  houre  iudicial 
The  vngodlye  shal  vnhaunst  remayne. 

Stanyhurst,  Psalm  1. 

Unhead,  to  decapitate.  In  the  second 
extract  effigies  are  spoken  of. 

Tou  .  .  .  did  not  only  dare  to  uncrown,  but 
to  unhead  a  monarch. — T.  Broun,  Works,  ii. 
216. 

Legs  and  arms  lay  scattered  about,  heads 
undressed,  and  bodies  unheaded. — North, 
Examen,  p.  580. 

Unheaven,  to  leave  heaven,  or  de- 
prive of  heaven. 

Vnheau'n  your  selues,  ye  holy  Cherubins, 
And  giue  attendance  on  your  Lord  in  Earth. 

Davies,  Holy  Roode,  p.  28. 

O  how  should  all  men,  all  Christians,  all 
Churches,  be  unchurched,  unchristened,  un- 
sainted,  unheavened, ...  if  these  men  might 
not  have  tbeir  wills. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  242. 

Unheppen,  ungainly ;  awkward. 

An1  Lucy  wur  laame  o'  one  leg,  sweet-arts 

she  niver  fed  none. 
Strange  an'  unheppen  Miss  Lucy !  we  naamed 

her  •'  Dot  an*  gaw  one." 

Tennyson,  The  Village  Wife. 

Unheritable,  barred  from  inherit- 
ance. The  extract  is  from  the  Council's 
letter  to  Q.  Mary,  1553. 

Thereby  you  [are]  justly  made  illegitimate 
and  unheritable  to  the  crown  imperial  of  this 
realm. — Heylin,  Reformation,  ii.  207. 

Unheroism,  that  which  is  not  heroic. 

Search  not  for  the  secret  of  heroic  ages, 
which  have  done  great  things  in  this  earth, 
among  their  falsities,  their  greedy  quackeries 
and  unheroisms. — Carlyle,  Cromwell,  i.  65. 

Unhideable,  that  cannot  be  obscured. 
See  extract «.  v.  Passe-man. 

Unhighted,  uncared  for. 

Through  the  chinks  of  an  unhighted  flesh 
we  may  read  a  neglected  souL — Adams,  lit. 
143. 

Unhooded,  without  a  hood  or  head- 
covering.  See  extract  s.  v.  Uxhosed. 
R.  has  unhood,  to  remove  a  hood  (as 
from  the  eyes  of  a  falcon). 

Unhopino,  not  expecting. 

Tour  flight  is  no  doubt  the  very  thing  they 
aimed  to  drive  you  to,  by  the  various  attacks 


UNHORSE 


(  688  ) 


UNISTYLIST 


they  made  upon  you,  unhoping  (as  they  must 
do  all  the  time)  the  success  of  their  schemes 
in  Solmes's  behalf. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe, 
iii.  40. 

Unhorse,  to  take  the  horses  out  of  a 
carriage. 

Maidens  wave 
Their  kerchiefs,  and  old  women  weep'for  joy: 
While  others,  not  so  satisfied,  unhorse 
The  gilded  equipage,  and,  turning  loose 
His  steeds,  usurp  aplaoe  they  well  deserve. 
Cowper,  Winter  Walk  at  Noon,  701. 

Un hosed,  without  hose  or  greaves. 

A  rude  coat  of  mail 
Unhosed,  unhooded. 

Southey,  Joan  of  Arc,  Bk.  VII. 

Unhospital,  inhospitable* 

The  Blacke  Sea  .  .  .  first  called  Axenus, 
which  siguifieth  vnhospitall ;  by  reason  of 
the  coldnesse  thereof,  and  inhumanity  of 
the  bordering  nations. — Sandys,  Travels,  p. 
89. 

Unhusranded,  unmarried.      The 

Diets,  have  it  =  neglected. 

She  bore  unhusbanded  a  mother's  pains. 

Southey,  Hannah. 

Unic,  a  unique  thing. 

Sir  Charles  Mordaunt's  gold  medal,  mean 
as  it  is  in  workmanship,  is  extremely  curious, 
and  may  be  termed  an  unic,  being  the  only 
one  of  the  kind  that  has  come  to  our  know* 
ledge.— Archaol.,  iii.  374  (1775). 

Unicorn,  a  carriage  and  pair  with  a 
third  horse  in  front ;  as  in  the  case  of 
tandem,  the  name  applies  properly  to 
the  arrangement  of  the  horses,  but  is 
also  used,  of  the  whole  equipage. 

"Let  me  drive  you  out  some  day  in  my 
unicorn.  .  .  .  Bid  my  blockhead  bring  my 
unicorn."  She,  her  unicorn,  and  her  block- 
head were  out  of  sight  in  a  few  minutes. — 
Miss  Edgeworth,  Belinda,  ch.  zvii. 

Unidea'd,  empty-pated. 

Pretty  unidea'd  girls  .  .  seem  to  form  the 
beau  ideal  of  our  whole  sex  in  the  works  of 
some  modern  poets.  —  Mrs.  Hemans  (Me- 
morials by  Chorley,  i.  99). 

Uniform,  make  conformable ;  con- 
form. 

Thus  must  I  uniform  my  speech  to  your 
obtruse  conceptions. — Sidney,  Wanstead  Play, 
p.  622. 

Nor  would  the  Duke  have  time  delayed, 
In  getting  new  corrections  made, 
But  needs  must  have  it,  good  or  bad, 
To  hinder  peoplo's  running  mad, 
And  uniform  the  multitude 
Iu  prayer,  and  join  the  jarring  crowd. 
Ward,  England's  Reformation,  Cant.  i.  p.  64. 


Uniformal,  uniform ;  symmetrical. 

Her  comlye  nose  with  uniformall  grace, 
like  purest  white,  stands  in  the  middle  place. 
Herriek,  Appendix,  p.  433. 

Unillumed,  not  lighted  up. 

And  her  full  eye,  now  bright,  now  unillumed, 
Spake  more  than  Woman's  thought. 

Coleridge,  Destiny  of  Nations. 

Unillusory,     undeceiving ;     disen- 
chanting. 

When  a  philosopher  has  made  up  his  mind 
to  marry,  it  is  better  henceforth  to  be  short- 
sighted, nay,  even  somewhat  purblind,  than 
to  be  always  scrutinizing  the  domestic  feli- 
city to  which  he  is  about  to  resign  himself, 
through  a  pair  of  cold  unillusory  barnacles. 
— Lytton,  My  Novel,  Bk.  III.  ch.  zxiL 

Unimbattled,  without  battlements. 

The  walls  on  the  inside  not  aboue  sixe 
foote  high,  unimbattald,  and  sheluing  on  the 
outside. — Sandys,  Travels,  p.  233. 

Unimmured,  unfortified  or  un  walled . 

The  Jewes,  returning  from  that  captauity, 
began  to  reedifie  the  same ;  which  yet  was 
vmmmured  for  threescore  and  three  years 
after. — Sandys,  Travels,  p.  155. 

U  nim  peach  ABLENE88,  correctness; 
purity  which  cannot  be  gainsaid. 

He  was  offended  with  the  insinuations 
they  threw  out  against  the  unimpeachabUness 
of  his  motives. — Godwin,  Mandeville,  iii  188. 

Unimpressible,  apathetic ;  not  sensi- 
tive. 

Clara  was  honest  and  quiet;  but  heavy, 
mindless,  unimpressible.  —  C.  Bronte,  Jane 
Eyre,  ch.  xxvii. 

Unindented,   unmarked   by   any 

wrinkle,  &c. 

The  rest  of  the  countenance  was  perfectly 
smooth  and  unindented. — Lytton,  Pelham,  ch. 
lxix. 

Unindwellable,  uninhabitable. 
The  Introduction  from  which  the  ex- 
tract is  taken  is  by  Stanley  Lane  Poole. 

A  vast  desert  plateau,  bleak,  inhospitable, 
to  all  but  Arabs  unindwellable. — E.  W.  Lane, 
Selections  from  the  Kuran,  Introd.,  p.  13. 

Uninvite,  to  put  off  guests.  Cf. 
Unbespeak. 

I  made  them  uninvite  their  guests. — Pepys, 
Nov.  26, 1665. 

Uniquity,  singularity;  uniqueness. 

As  rarities  a  collector  would  give  ten 
times  more  for  them;  and  uniquity  will 
make  them  valued  more  than  the  charming 
poetry.—  Walpole,  Letters,  iv.  477  (1789). 

Unistylist,  one  who  uses  one  stylus 
or  pen.      Poe,  however,  is  I  supposo 


UNIVERSITYLESS      (  689  ) 


UNLESS 


playing  on  the  word,  and  means  one 
whose  style  is  monotonous. 

The  author  of '*  Cromwell "  does  better  as 
a  writer  of  ballads  than  of  prose.  ...  He  is 
as  thorough  an  unistylist  as  Cardinal  Chigi, 
who  boasted  that  he  wrote  with  the  same 
pen  for  half  a  century.  —  E.  A.  Poe,  Mar- 
ginalia, cxlii. 

Universittless,  without  an  univer- 
sity. 

As  for  Scotland,  it  was  universityless,  till 
Laurence  Lundores  and  Richard  Corvel,  Doc- 
tors of  Civil  Law,  first  professed  learning  at 
St.  Andrew's.— Fuller,  Hist,  of  Camb.  Univ.. 
ii.  11.  J 

Unjacobitized,  detached  from  the 
Jacobite  cause. 

They  begin  to  be  unjacobitiz'd. — Misson, 
Travels  in  Eng.,  transl.  by  Ozell%  p.  138. 

Unjarrino,  harmonious ;  agreeing. 
Adams  (ii.  294)  speaks  of  the  "unjar- 
ring  harmony  of  truth. " 

Unjesuited,  uninfluenced  by  Jesuits. 

The  unjesuited  Papists  could  have  found 
in  their  hearts  (as  many  did)  to  apply  to 
that  Reformation  of  Religion.  —  Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  346. 

Unkindbedly,  not  behaving  like 
kindred;  unnatural. 

What  an  implacable  as  well  as  unjust  set 
of  wretches  are  those  of  her  unkindredly  kin. 
— Richardson,  CI.  Harlow  e,  vi.  381. 

Unkingship,  abolition  of  monarchy. 

Unkingship  was  proclaim'd,  and  his  Ma- 
jesty's statues  thrown  down. — Evelyn,  Diary , 
May  30, 1649. 

Unkinsman,  not  a  relation.  In  the 
extract  the  word  =  incestuous. 

With  an  unkinsman's  kisse  (unloving  Lover) 
The  Brother  shall  his  Sister's  shame  dis- 
cover.— Sylvester,  The  Trophies,  1216. 

UN  knighted,  not  knighted. 

I  .  .  .  can  hardly  suspect  him  to  be  the 

Cromwell  of  that  Age,  because  only  addi- 

tioned  Armiger.     Indeed,  I  .  .  cannot  believe 

that  he  was   unkniyhted  so  long.  —  Fuller, 

WoHhies,  Cambridge  (i.  177). 

Unknownest,  most  unknown :  see 
extract  5.  v.  Known  est. 

Unlabouring,  easy  going. 

A  mead   of  mildest  charm  delays  the  «n- 
labouring  feet. 

Coleridge,  To  Cottle. 

UNLAMrooNED,  unattacked  by  lam- 
poons. 

And  give  thenceforth   thy  dinners  unlam- 
pooned. 

Southey,  To  A.  Cunningham. 


Unland,  to  deprive  of  lands. 

One  Bishop  (Anthony  Kitchin  by  name) 
more  unlanded  Landaff  in  one,  than  all  bis 
Predecessors  endowed  it  in  four  hundred 
years. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Monmouth,  ii.  117. 

Unlashed,  un chastised. 

Actors,  unlash'd  themselves,  may  lash  man- 
kind.— Churchill,  Bosciad,  500. 

Unlaw ed.    See  quotation. 

The  disabling  dogs,  which  might  be  neces- 
sary for  keeping  flocks  and  herds,  from  run- 
ning at  the  deer,  was  called  lowing,  and  was 
in  general  use.  The  Charter  of  the  Forest, 
designed  to  lessen  these  evils,  declares  that 
inquisition  or  view  for  lowing  dogs  shall  be 
made  every  third  year,  and  shall  be  then 
done  by  the  view  and  testimony  of  lawful 
men,  not  otherwise ;  and  they  whose  dogs 
shall  be  then  found  unlatced,  shall  give  three 
shillings  for  mercy ;  and  for  the  future  no 
man's  ox  shall  be  taken  for  lowing.  Such 
lowing  also  shall  be  done  by  the  assize  com- 
monly used,  and  which  is,  that  three  claws 
shall  be  cut  off  without  the  ball  of  the  right 
foot. — Scott,  Ivanhoe,  note  to  ch.  i. 

Unleaded,  stripped  of  lead.   . 

As  for  the  Bishop's  Palace,  it  was  formerly 
a  very  fair  structure,  but  lately  unleaded,  and 
new  covered  with  tyle. — Fuller,  Worthies, 
Norwich  (ii.  154). 

Unlearnability,  inability  to  learn. 

Tou  will  learn  how  to  conduct  it  [the 
camera]  with  the  pleasure  of  correcting  my 
awkwardness  and  unlearnability. —  Walpole, 
Utters,  iv.  85  (1777). 

Unleave,  to  strip  of  leaves. 

The  good  gardiner . .  .  vnleaues  his  bonghes 
to  let  in  the  sunne. — Puttenham,  Poesie,  Bk. 
III.  ch.  25. 

Amorous  myrtles  and  immortal  bays 
Never  vnleau'd. — Sylvester,  Eden,  122. 

Sometimes  they  do  the  far-spread    gourd 
vnleave. — Ibid.,  Handy-Crafts,  p.  136. 

Unled,  without  guidance  or  support. 

They  will  quaff e  freely  when  they  come  to 
the  house  of  a  Christian ;  insomuch  as  I 
haue  seene  but  few  go  away  vnled  from  the 
embassadors  table. — Sandys,  Travels,  p.  06. 

Unleft,  not  left. 

Yet  were  his  men  unleft. — Chapman,  Iliad, 
ii.  622. 

Unless,  lest. 

I  fear  unless  we  shall  be  ready  of  our  own 
free  will  to  run  headlong  into  hell-fire,  before 
the  terrible  sentence  of  damnation  be  given  ; 
our  conscience  shall  so  condemn  us. — Beam, 
i.  366. 

Presume  not,  villain,  further  for  to  go, 
Unless  you  do  at  length  the  same  repent. 

Greene,  Alphonsus,  Act  L 
Y  Y 


UNLE  VEL 


(  690  )        VNMARVELLOUS 


Tis  best  for  thee  to  hold  thy  tattlingtongue, 
Unless  I  send  some  one  to  scourge  thy  breech. 

Ibid.,  Act  II. 

Beware  you  do  not  once  the  same  gainsay, 
Unless  with  death  he  do  your  rashness  pay. 

Ibid.,  Act  V. 

Unlevel,  not  level :  the  poet  in  the 
extract  seems  to  mean  that  Judith's 
nose  was  not  flat. 

Tween  these  two  sunnes  and  front  of  equall 

sise, 
A  comely  figure  formally  did  rise, 
With  draught  unleuell,  to  her  lip  descend. 

Hudson,  Judith^  iv.  349. 

Unlidded,  uncovered ;  opened. 

Not  a  paper  bat  was  glanced  over,  not  a 
little  box  but  was  unlidded. — Miss  Bronte, 
VUlette,  ch.  xiii. 

Unline,  to  empty ;  take  out  con- 
tents. 

It  vnlines  their  purse. 

Davies,  Bienvenu,  p.  6. 

Unlingerinq,  hasty ;  immediate. 

The  Roman  [Caesar]  by  the  word  u  sudden  " 
means  unlingering  ;  whereas  the  Christian 
Litany  by  '* sudden  death"  means  a  death 
without  warning,  consequently  without  any 
available  summons  to  religious  preparation. — 
De  Quineey,  Eng.  Mail-Coach. 

Unlisted,  not  catalogued. 

The  names  of  many  are  yet  unlisted. — God 
appearing  for  the  Parliament,  1644,  p.  5. 

Unliturgize,  to  deprive  of  a  liturgy. 

These  were  to  Directorise,  to  Unlituraize, 
to  Catechize,  and  to  Disciplinize  {heir 
Brethren. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p. 
609. 

Unlive,  to  kill ;  unless  unliving  in 
the  extract  simply  =  death. 

Nor  livest  thou  by  the  unlyving  or  evis- 
cerating of  others,  as  most  fishes  do. — 
Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffs  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  179). 

Unlogical,  illogical. 

All  heartily  laughed  at  his  unlogical  reason. 
"Fuller,  Worthies,  Kent  (i.  487). 

Unlook,  to  recall  a  look. 

He  ....  now  turned  his  eyes  towards 
me,  then  from  me,  as  if  he  would  unlook  his 
own  looks. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  v.  215. 

Unlove,  to  cease  to  love. 

I  had  learnt  to  love  Mr.  Rochester;  I 
could  not  unlove  him  now. — C.  Bronte,  Jane 
Eyre,  ch.  xviii. 

Unloverlike,  unlike  a  lover. 

Astonished  and  shocked  at  so  unloverlike 
a  speech,  she  was  almost  ready  to  cry  out. — 
Mist  Austen,  Sense  and  Sensibility,  ch.  — :~ 


Unlucknt,  dull;  not  bright. 

Havoc  and  anarchy  everywhere;  a  com- 
bustion most  fierce  but  unlueent. — Carlyle, 
Fr.  Bev.,  Pt.  IL  Bk.  V.  ch.  iii. 

Unlcckfull,  untoward ;  mischiev- 
ous; unlucky  is  still  so  used,  at  least 
as  a  provincialism. 

O  Pallas,  ladie  of  citees,  why  settest  thou 
thy  delite  in  three  the  moste  vnlucktfull 
beastes  of  the  worlde,  the  oulette,  the  dra- 
gon, and  the  people  ?  —  UdaVs  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  375. 

Unluminous,  without  light 

A  tragical  combustion,  long  smoking  and 
smouldering  unluminous,  has  now  burst  into 
flame.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Bev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  V.  ch.  iii. 

Unlycanthropize,  to  change  a  man, 

who  had  been  turned  into  a  wolf,  back 

into  a  man  again. 

She  is  ready  to  unlycanthropize  you  from 
this  wolfish  shape  to  your  former  condition. 
— Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  114. 

Unmacadamized,  unpaved  on  Ma- 
cadam's principle. 

For  so  she  gathered  the  awful  sense 

Of  the  street   in  its   past  unmacadamized 

tense, 
As  the  wild  horse  overran  it. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmanstffg. 

Unmaidbn,  to  deflower. 

He  unmaidened  his  sister  Juno.  —  Urqu- 
harfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  III.  ch.  iii. 

Un manliness,  want   of   manliness; 

effeminacy. 

Tou  and  yours  make  piety  a  synonym  for 
unmanliness. — C.  Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  ii. 

Unmarketable,  that  cannot  be  traf- 
ficked with,  or  cannot  meet  with  a  sale. 

That  paltry  stone  brought  home  to  her 
some  thought,  true,  spiritual,  unmarketable. 
— Kingsley,  Hypatia,  ch.  xix. 

His  own  ill-favoured  person,  which  was 
quite  unmarketable,  escaped  without  injury, 
but  poor  Wildfire,  unconscious  of  his  price, 
turned  on  his  flank,  and  painfully  breathed 
his  last. — G.  Eliot,  Silas  Marner,  ch.  iv. 

Unmarttb,  to  strike  out  of  the  list 

of  martyrs. 

All  the  amends  which  is  made  to  the 
memory  of  Scotus  is  that  he  was  made  a 
martyr  after  his  death.  .  .  .  But  since,  Ba- 
ronius  hath  unmartyred  him. — Fuller,  Ch. 
Hist.,  II.  iv.  36. 

Unmarvellous,  ordinary;  not  won- 
derful. 

Thy  soul  delights  in  wonder,  pomp,  and 

bustle, 
Mine  is  th'  unmarvellous  and  placid  scene. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  187. 


UNMATCHABLENESS    (  691  )  UNMUSCULAR 


Unmatchablene8S,  invincibility. 

The  holy  story  never  records  any  bat  a 
barbarous  Philistine  to  make  this  offer,  and 
that  in  the  presumption  of  his  vnmatchable- 
nesse.—Bp.  Hall,  Epistles,  Dec.  IV.  Ep.  ii. 

Unmatchedness,  incomparableness. 

Which  affirmation  of  his  clear  unmatched- 
ness in  all  manner  of  learning  I  make. — 
Ohapman,  Iliad,  Preface. 

Unmatronlike,  unlike  a  matron. 

I  wonder  I  could  not  distinguish  the  be- 
haviour of  the  unmatronlike  jilt,  whom  thou 
broughtest  to  betray  me,  from  the  worthy 
lady  whom  thou  hast  the  honour  to  call  thy 
aunt.— Richardson,  CI.  Harloice,  v.  359. 

Unmaze,  to  disentangle ;  relieve  from 
terror  or  bewilderment. 
This  new  man  Tully,  this  poor  Arpinate,  • 
Late  made  at  Rome  a  Country-gentleman, 
Set  guards  where e're  the  line  of  danger  ran,. 
Unma£d  us,  and  took  pains  for  all  the  town. 
Stapylton's  Juvenal,  viii.  312. 

Unmeaningn  ess,  want  of  intention  or 
design. 

Indiana,  .  .  with  apparent  unmeaningness, 
but  internal  suspicion  of  their  giver,  had 
trampled  upon  them  both.— Mad.  D'Arblav, 
Camilla,  Bk.  III.  ch.  i. 

Unmechanize,  to  throw  out  of  gear. 
Paley,  quoted  by  R.,  uses  the  past  par- 
ticiple =  not  formed  by  mechanism. 

What  one  misfortune  or  disaster  in  the 
book  of  embryotic  evils  that  could  uw 
mechanize  thy  frame,  or  entangle  thy  fila- 
ments, which  has  not  fallen  upon  thy  head, 
or  ever  thou  earnest  into  the  world  ?— Sterne, 
Trist.  Shandy,  iii.  167. 

Unmedicinable,  should  mean  (as  in 
the  second  quotation)  that  cannot  be 
cured  by  medicine :  in  the  first  extract, 
however,  it  seems  to  signify  "power- 
less to  cure." 

Away  with  his  vnmedcinable  balme, 
Of  worded  breath :  forbear,  friends,  let  me 
rest.— Chapman,  Gentleman  Vsfier,  iv.  1. 

But  these,  much  -  med'eine  -  knowing  men, 

physicians,  may  recure, 
Thou  yet  unmedicinable  still. 

Ibid.,  Iliad,  xvi.  24. 

Unmentionables,  a  euphemism  for 
trousers.     Cf.  Indescribables. 

The  knees  of  the  unmentionables,  and  the 
elbows  of  the  coat,  and  the  seams  generally, 
soon  began  to  get  alarmingly  white.— 
Sketches  by  Boz  (Shabby-Genteel  People). 

Unmetaphorical,  unfiguraiive. 

I  am  got,  I  know  not  how,  into  a  cold 
unmetaphorical  vein  of  infamous  writing.— 
Sterne,  Trist.  Sftandy,  vi.  135. 


Unmeted,  unmeasured. 

Surely  those  near  me  must  have  felt  some 
little  of  the  anxiety  I  felt  in  degree  so  un- 
meted.— Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xuix. 

Unmew,  to  release. 

But  let  a  portion  of  ethereal  dew 
Fall  on  my  head,  and  presently  unmeto 
My  soul. — Keats,  Endymion,  Bk.  I. 

Unmistrusting,  unsuspicious;  con- 
fiding. 

There  was  a  plainness  and  simplicity  of 
thinking  with  . .  an  unmistrusting  ignorance 
of  the  plies  and  foldings  of  the  heart  of 
woman. — Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  v.  21. 

Unmodernised,  old-fashioned;  not 
altered  to  a  modern  fashion. 

The  mansion  of  the  squire  with  its  high 
walls,  great  gates,  and  old  trees,  substantial 
and  unmodernised.— Miss  Austen,  Persuasion, 
ch.  v. 

Unmopifiableness,  inflexibility. 

When  this  attaching  force  is  present  in  a 
nature  not  of  brutish  unmodifiaUeness,  but 
of  a  human  dignity  that  can  risk  itself  safely, 
it  may  even  result  in  a  devotedness  not  unfit 
to  he  called  divine  in  a  higher  sense  than  the 
ancient. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel  Deronda,  ch.  lviii. 

Unmonkish,  not  given  to,  or  sym- 
pathising with,  monasticism. 

A  singular  condition  of  Schools  and  High- 
schools,  which  have  come  down  .  .  .  from 
the  monkish  ages  into  this  highly  unmonkish 
one.—CarlyUy  Life  of  Sterling,  Pt.  I.  ch.  iv. 

Unmortised,  unfixed ;  out  of  order ; 
broken. 

In  a  dark  nook  stood  an  old  broken-bot- 
tomed cane-couch,  without  a  squab  or  cover- 
lid, sunk  at  one  corner,  and  unmortised  by 
the  failing  of  one  of  its  worm-eaten  legs. — 
Richardson,  CI.  Harloice,  vi.  304. 

The  feet  unmortised  from  their  ankle-bones. 
Tennyson,  Merlin  and  Vivien. 

Unmunitioned,  unfurnished  with  mu- 
nitions of  war. 

Cadiz,  I  told  them,  was  held  poor,  un- 
manned, and  unmunitioned. — Peeke,  Three  to 
One,  1626  (Eng.  Garner,  i.  634). 

Unmuscled,  flaccid. 

Then  what  wry  faces  will  they  make! — 
their  hearts  and  their  heads  reproaching  each 
other! — distended  their  parched  mouths! — 
sunk  their  unmuscled  cheeks! — dropt  their 
under  jaws  \—Richardson,Cl.Harlowe,vi.  362. 

Unmusculab,  not  muscular ;  physic- 
ally weak. 

Shallow  women  that  have  neither  read  nor 
suffered  have  an  unmuscular  barbarity  of 
their  own. — Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  Iii. 

Y  Y  2 


VNMUSTERED 


(  692) 


UNPASS10NED 


Unmustered  =  having  never  per- 
formed military  service. 

Indeed  the  Roman  laws  allowed  no  person 
to  be  carried  to  the  wan,  but  he  that  was  in 
the  souldier's  roul.  And  therefore  though 
Gato  misliked  his  unmustered  person,  he  mis- 
liked  not  his  work. — Sidney,  Defence  of 
Poesie,  p.  558. 

Unmystery,  to  mike  clear. 

He  hath  unmytteried  the  mysterie  of 
Heraldry.  —  Fuller,  Worthies,  Hereford  (i. 
453). 

Unnameablk,  that  cannot  be  named ; 

indescribable. 

By  slow  degrees  oar  sickness,  and  dizzi- 
ness, and  horror,  become  merged  in  a  cloud 
of  unnameable  feeling. — E.  A.  Poe,  Imp  of 
the  Perverse. 

Unnapkined,  without  a  napkin  or 
handkerchief. 

No  pandar's  withered  paw 
Nor  an  unnavkin'd  lawyer's  greasy  fist 
Hath  onee  slubber  d  thee. 

Beaum.  and  FL,  Woman-Rater,  i.  3. 

Unnear,  distant. 

And  where  the  Earth  was  couer'd  with  her 
Floud, 
Now  Cities  stand  vnneere  the  Ocean's  brim. 
Davits,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  51. 

Unnest,  to  turn  out  of  a  nest ;   to 

dislodge. 

The  eye  unnested  from  the  head  cannot 
see. — Adams,  ii.  258. 

UNNE8TLE,  to  take  or  rouse  out  of 
the  nest. 

Unnestling  of  sparrows,  taking  of  quails, 
and  fishing  for  frogs  and  crabs. — Urquharfs 
Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxiv. 

Lucifer  .  . .  will  go  about  to  unnestle  and 
drive  out  of  heaven  all  the  gods. — Ibid.,  Bk. 
III.  ch.  iii. 

Unnetted,  not  protected  by  nets. 

The  unnetted  black-hearts  ripen  dark, 
All  thine,  against  the  garden  wall. 

Tennyson,  The  Blackbird, 

Unniggard,  liberal. 

That  sumptuous  canapy 
The  which  th'  vnniggard  hand  of  Maiesty 
Poudred  so  thick  with  shields  so  shining 
cleer. 

Sylvester,  Fourth  day,  first  veeke,  375. 

Unnosed,  stripped  of  a  nose ;  applied 
to  one  who  has  taken  off  a  false  nose. 

"Is  not  this  Tom  Cecial,  my  neighbour 
and  gossip  ?  "  "  Indeed  am  I,"  answered  the 
unnosed  squire. — Jar  vis's  Don  (Quixote,  Pt.  II. 
3k.  I.  ch.  xiv. 


Unnotify,  to  contradict  a  previous 

statement 

I  notified  to  you  the  settlement  of  the 
ministry,  and,  contrary  to  the  late  custom, 
have  not  to  unnotify  it  again. — Waipole  to 

JSfaan,  iii.  231  (1757). 

Unold,  to  make  young. 

There  ripes  the  rare  cheer-cheek  myrobalan, 
Minde-giadding  fruit,  that  can  vnolde  a  man. 
Sylvester,  The  Schisms,  697. 

Unorder,  to  counterorder. 

I  think  I  must  unorder  the  tea  ...  if  I  am 
to  be  responsible  for  any  mischief  from  your 
drinking  it. — Mad.  D'Arblay,  Cecilia,  Bk. 
VIII.  ch.  iii. 

He  had  sent  to  unorder  a  new  pipe  of 
Madeira,  saying  he  would  go  without. — Ibid*, 
Camilla,  Bk.  X.  ch.  vi. 

Unorthodoxy,  unsoundness  in  faith ; 
^heterodoxy,   which  is    the   commoner 
word. 

Oalvin  made  roast-meat  of  Servetns  at 
Geneva  for  his  unorthodoxy. —  T.  Broken, 
Works,  iii.  104. 

Unovercome,  unconquered.  Chap- 
man, Iliad,  xvi.  92. 

Unovertaken,  not  come  up  with. 

The  sun  is  upon  his  back  behind  him,  and 
his  shadow  is  still  unovertaken  before  him. — 
Adams,  ii.  301. 

Unpacifiable,  unappeasable;  irre- 
strainable. 

Oh  the  unpacifiable  madness  that  this 
world's  music  puts  those  into  who  will  dance 
after  its  pipe.—  Adams,  ii.  409. 

Unpacker,  one  who  unpacks. 

By  the  awkwardness  of  the  unpacker  the 
statue's  thumb  was  broken. — Miss  Edgetcorth, 
Ennui,  ch.  iii 

Unpannel,  to  unsaddle.    Cf .  Pannel. 

Sancho,  observing  all  this,  said,  God's 
peace  be  with  him  who  saved  us  the  trouble 
of  unpannelling  Dapple;  for  in  faith  he 
should  not  have  wanted  a  slap  on  the  but- 
tocks, nor  a  speech  in  his  praise :  but  if  he 
were  here,  I  would  not  consent  to  his  being 
unpannelled. — Jarvis's  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  I. 
Bk.  III.  ch.  xi. 

Unparrotted,  not  repeated  by  rote 
like  a  parrot.    Cf.  Parrot. 

Her  sentiments  were  unparrotted  and  un- 
studied.— Godwin,  JfandevtUe,  i.  207. 

Unpassioned,  undisturbed  by  passion. 

And  you,  o  you  vnpassiond  peacefull  Harts, 
That  with  me  Hue  secure  in  meane  estate, 
Be  joyf  ull,  though  you  play  but  simple  parts. 
Davies,  Wittes  Pilgrimage,  p.  48. 


UNPATHWAYED        (  693  ) 


UNPROMISE 


Unpathwayed,  having  no  track. 
Shakespeare  ( Winter's  Tale,  IV.  iii.) 
has  unpathed. 

She  roves  through  St.  John's  Vale 
Along  the  smooth  unpathwayed  plain. 

Wordsworth,  The  Waggoner,  c.  iv. 

Unpeppered,  unseasoned. 

Ye  Novel-Readers,  such  as  relish  most 
Plain  Nature's  feast,  unpepper'd  with  a  Ghost. 
Colman,  Vagaries  Vindicated,  p.  203. 

Unpebmanent,  transitory;  not  last- 
ing. 

Who  would  not,  to  preserve  so  many  es- 
sentials, give  up  so  light,  so  impermanent  a 
pleasure  ? — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  iv.  36. 

Unpersuadableness,  fixity  in  resolu- 
tion ;  resistance  to  persuasion. 

Resentment  and  unpersuadableness  are  not 
natural  to  you. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe, 
ii.64. 

Unpersuasive,  unable  to  persuade. 

I  bit  my  unpersuasive  lips. — Richardson, 
CI.  Harlowe,  v.  215. 

Unpervert,  to  recover  a  pervert ;  to 
reconvert. 

His  wife  could  never  be  unperverted  again, 
but  perished  in  her  Judaism. — Fuller,  Ch. 
Hist.,  X.  iv.  64. 

I  had  the  credit  all  over  Paris  of  unner- 

verting  Madame  de  V .    She  affirmed  to 

Monsieur  D and  the  Abbe  M that 

in  one  half  hour  I  had  said  more  for  revealed 
religion  than  all  their  Encyclopaedia  had  said 
against  it. — Sterne,  Sent.  Journey,  Paris. 

Unpicturesque,  deficient  in  pictur- 
esqueness. 

She  hated  everything  straight,  it  was  so 
formal  and  unpicturesque. — Miss  Edgeworth, 
Absentee,  ch.  vi. 

Unpiked,  not  dressed  out;  in  slovenly 

array.     See  N.  s.  v.  picked. 

He  brought  them  foorth  vnkembed  and 
vnpiked,  without  cotes,  bare  foote  and  bare- 
leggued. —  UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  90. 

Unpilled,  unpillaged. 

Their  merchantlike  ships,  many  or  few, 
great  or  small,  may  in  our  seas  and  some- 
what further,  pass  quietly  unpilled,  unspoiled, 
and  tin  taken  by  pirates. — Dr.  Dee,  Petty  Navy 
Royal,  1576  (Eng.  Garner,  ii.  62). 

Unpiloted,  unguided. 

Tou  see  me  . . .  unpiloted  by  principle  or 
faith. — Miss  Bronte,  ch.  xxxv. 

Unpleasable,  not  to  be  pleased. 

What  a  change  have  I  made  to  please  my 
unpleasable  daughter ! — Burgoyne,  The  Heir- 
ess, Act  II.  sc.  ii. 


Unpleasanti8H,  somewhat  un- 
pleasant. 

And  in  truth  'tis  a  rather  unpleasantish  job. 

Hood,  Etching  Moralised. 

Unpleat,  to  smooth. 

Droope  not  for  that  (man),  but  vnpleate  thy 
browes. — Dames,  Eclogue,  p.  19. 

Unpolish,  to  deprive  of  politeness. 
The  Diets,  only  have  the  past  participle. 

How  anger  unpolishes  the  most  polite! — 
Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  v.  286. 

Unpractisedness,  want  of  practice. 

He  ascribes  all  honestie  to  an  vnpractisfd- 
nessein  the  world. — Earle,  Microcosmographie 
{  WorlcTs  wise  man). 

Unpreach,  to  recant  what  had  been 
preached. 

The  clergy  their  own  principles  denied ; 
Unpreach' d  their  non-resisting  cant. 

Defoe,  True-Born  Englishman,  Pt.  II. 

Unprelated,  deposed  from  the  epis- 
copate. 

The  Archbishop  thought  not  himself  ab- 
solute till  this  man  was  unprelated. — Racket, 
Life  of  Williams,  ii.  120. 

Unpremeditable,  not  to  be  premedi- 
tated ;  unlooked  for. 

A  capf  ull  of  wind  . .  .  comes  against  you 
.  .  .  with  such  unpremeditable  puffs. — Sterne, 
Sent.  Journey,  The  Fragment. 

Unprettines8,  uncomeliness. 

She  says  it  is  not  pretty  in  a  young  lady 
to  sigh ;  but  where  is  the  unprettiness  of  it  ? 
— Richardson,  Grandison,  iii.  51. 

Unpretty,  ugly. 

His  English  is  blundering,  but  not  unpretty. 
Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  ii.  155. 

Unprince,  to  divest  of  royal  charac- 
ter or  authority. 

Queen  Mary,  though  drenched,  not 
drowned,  in  Popish  Principles,  would  not 
unprince  herself  to  obey  his  Holiness. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Warwick,  ii.  408. 

Unprinciple,  to  corrupt. 

The  press  has  not  only  effeminated  the 
mind  but  unprincipled  the  understanding.— 
Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  234. 

They  have  been  principled,  or  rather  un- 
principled, by  such  tutors. — H.  Brooke,  Fool 
of  Quality,!.  111. 

Unpromise,  to  revoke  a  promise. 

Promises  are  no  fetters ;  with  that  tongue 
Thy  promise  past,  vn promise  it  againe. 

Chapman,  All  Fooles,  II.  i. 

UNPROPORTlONABLENESS,Un8uitabiHty. 

These  considerations  of  the  xmproportion- 
ableness  of   any  other  Church-government 


UNPROSEL  YTE  (  694  )        UNREMORSEFUL 


than  a  right  Episcopacy  to  the  temper  of 
Eugland,  moved  the  supercilious,  yet  very 
learned  Salmasius  in  his  advice  to  the  Prince 
Elector.— Graven,  Tear*  of  the  Church,  p. 
686. 

Unproselyte,  to  win  back  some  who 
were  inclined  to  be  perverts. 

This  text  .  .  .  happily  unproselyted  some 
inclinable  to  his  opinions.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist., 
X.  iv.  8. 

UNrROTESTANTizE,  to  divest  of  the 
Protestant  character. 

To  Romanize  the  Church  is  not  to  reform 
it.  To  unprotestantize  is  not  to  reform  it. — C. 
Kingsley,  1851  (Life,  i.  204). 

Unpucker,  to  smoothe ;  relax. 

Let  but  Teufelsdrockh  open  his  mouth, 
Heuschrecke's  also  unpuckered  itself  into  a 
free  doorway. — Carlyle,  Sartor  Resartus,  Bk. 
I.  ch.  iii. 

Unpuff,  to  humble. 

We  might  vnpuff  oar  heart,  and  bend  our 

knee, 
T'appease  with  sighs  God's  wrathfull  Ma- 

iestie. 

Sylvester,  Fourth  day,  first  weeke,  526. 

Unpunctilious,  not  particular. 

Lovers,  aaid  she,  are  the  weakest  people  in 
the  world ;  and  people  of  punctilio  the  most 
unpunctilious.  —  Richardson.  Grandison,  iii. 
257. 

Unquakerlike,  unlike  a  quaker. 

A  fair  round  cosy  girl  with  a  most  un- 
quakerlike expression  of  mirth  in  her  eye. — 
Savage,  Reuben  Jfedlicott,  Bk.  I.  ch.  iii. 

Unqualifiable,  unable  to  qualify 
(for  office  by  taking  the  oaths). 

He  would  not  put  the  seals  to  any  com- 
missions to  persons  unqualifiable,  with  a  non 
obstante  to  the  test  laws.— North,  Life  of 
Lord  Guilford,  ii.  222. 

Unquestionabilitt,  that  which  can- 
not be  doubted. 

Our  religion  is  ...  a  great  heaven-high 
Unquestionability.— Carlyle,  Past  and  Present, 
Bk.  II.  ch.  vi. 

Unquestionless,  unquestionable  or 
questionless.  See  quotation  from  Cow- 
ley, s.  v.  unremorseless,  in  R.  for  a 
similar  instance. 

Your  knowledge  in  the  profession,  Mr. 
Rightly,  is  as  unquestionless  as  your  integrity. 
—Buryoyne,  The  Heiress,  v.  1. 

Unquizzable,  not  obnoxious  to  ridi- 
cule ;  correct. 

Each  was  dressed  out  in  his  No.  1  suit,  in 
most  exact  and  unquizzable  uniform.— Mar- 
ryat,  Fr.  Mild  may,  ch.  xv. 


Unquod,  untold.     See  quotation  $.  v. 

Exterminion. 

Csssar,  heeyng  moued  with  the  vnquod 
maner  of  crueltee,  commaunded  . . .  the  boie 
to  be  let  go.  —  XJdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophih., 
p.  289. 

Unraveller,  one  who  untwists,  and 

so,  explains. 

Mythologists  are  indeed  very  pretty  fel- 
lows, and  are  mighty  unraveilers  of  the 
fables  of  the  old  Ethnicks,  discovering  all  the 
Old  Testament  concealed  in  them.  —  T. 
Brown,  Works,  iii.  279. 

Un razed,  not  razed  or  destroyed. 

Onely  three  towers  ...  he  left  vnrazed. — 
Sandys,  Travels,  p.  155. 

Unrealize,  to  divest  of  reality ;  to 
present  in  an  ideal  form. 

In  Mr.  Shelley's  case  .  .  .  there  seems  to 
have  been  an  attempt  to  unrealize  every 
object  in  nature,  presenting  them  under 
forms  and  combinations  in  which  they  are 
never  to  be  seen  through  the  mere  medium 
of  our  eyesight. — Sir  H.  Taylor,  Preface  to 
Ph.  van  Artevelde. 

Un  recovered,  irrecoverable  :  sscuebv 
ijfxap  is  the  original. 

Consider  these  affairs  in  time,  while  thou 

mayst  use  thy  pow^, 
And  have  the  grace  to  turn  from  Greece 

fate's  unrecover'd  hour. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  ix.  347. 

Unrecumbent,  not  lying  down. 

The  cattle  mourn  in  corners,  where  the  fence 
Screens  them,  and  seem  half-petrified  to 

sleep 
In  unrecumbent  sadness. 

Cowper,  Winter  Morning  Walk,  29. 

Un  referring,  without  reference. 

In  the  institution  thereof  he  neither  had 
any  insolent  relation  to  his  own  conquest, 
nor  opprobrious  reflection  on  his  enemies' 
captivity,  but  began  the  innocent  order  of 
the  Garter,  unreferring  to  any  of  his  former 
achievements. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  III.  ix.  5. 

Unrelentingness,  implacability. 

Such  in  its  unrelentingness  was  the  perse- 
cution that  overmastered  me. — De  Qutncey, 
Autob.  Sketches,  i.  363. 

Unrememberable,  not  memorable  or 
to  be  remembered. 

The  leafy  blossoming  Present  Time  springs 
from  the  whole  Past,  remembered  and  unre- 
memberable.— Carlyle,  Cromwell,  i.  6. 

Unremorseful,  unsparing ;  pitiless. 

Unremorseful  fate 
Did  work  the  falls  of  those  two  princes  dead. 
Niccols,  Sir  T.  Overbury's  Vision, 
1616  (Harl.  Misc.,  vii.  179). 


UNREPAIRABLE        (  695  ) 


UNSAINTL  Y 


Wrapt 
In  unremorseful  folds  of  rolling  fire. 
Tennyson,  Holy  Grail. 

Unrepairable,  irreparable  ;  past 
mending. 

The  vnrepairable  breaches  abroad  were  such 
as  could  giue  the  king  no  longer  assured- 
ness© of  quiet  than  the  attempters  would.— 
Daniel,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  48. 

Unrepliable,  unanswerable. 

Against  which  adventurous  Sin  many 
learned  and  worthy  men  .  . .  have  wrote  by 
most  unrepliable  demonstrations  from  the 
law  of  Nature  and  Nations. — Gauden,  Tears 
of  the  Church,  p.  329. 

Unrepulsable,  not  to  be  repulsed; 

persistent. 

Fanny . . .  was  trying  by  everything  in  the 
power  of  her  modest,  gentle  nature  to  re- 
pulse Mr.  Crawford,  and  avoid  both  his  looks 
and  inquiries;  and  he,  unrepulsable,  was 
persisting  in  both. — Miss  Austen,  Mansfield 
Park,  oh.  xxxiii. 

Unrepulsing,  not  repelling;  pass- 
ively yielding. 

I  kissed  her  unrepulsing  hand. — Richard- 
son, CI.  Harlowe,  iv.  254. 

Unrequest,  to  withdraw  a  request. 

When  that  I  perceived  my  request  for 
jurisdiction  made  before  unto  you,  upon 
further  deliberation  I  thought  it  good  to 
unrequest  that  again. — Hooper  to  Cecil,  1552. 

Unrequisite,  un^cessary. 

The  Melancholy's  mestiue,  and  too  full 
Of  fearefull  thoughts,  and  cares  vnreguisit. 
Davies,  Microcosmos,  p.  81. 

Unresolve,  to  change  or  give  up  a 
resolution. 

Tost  by  contrary  thoughts,  the  man 
Resolv'd  and  unresolved  again. 

Ward,  England?*  Reformation, 
c.  iv.  p.  387. 

Un  respect  able,  disreputable. 

Let  those  of  the  respectable  press  who  are 
without  sin  cast  the  first  stone  at  the  unre- 
spectable.:—C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch. 


Unresponsal,  irresponsible :  so  hos- 
pital for  hospitable,  &c. 

A  tithe  or  a  crop  of  hay  or  corn  which  are 
ready  to  be  carried  away  by  force  by  unre- 
sponsal men. — Racket,  Life  of  Williams,  p. 
106. 

Unresponsible,  irresponsible :  given 
in  L.  without  example. 

His  unresponsable  memory  can  make  us  no 
satisfaction. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Essex  (i.  370). 

Uniiested,  out  of  the  rest. 


Sir  Launcelot,  perceiving  his  rival's  spear 
unrested,  had  just  time  to  throw  up  the  point 
of  his  own. — Smollett,  Sir  L.  Greaves,  ch.  xix. 

Unrestingness,  absence  of  repose  or 
quiet. 

"The  Everlasting  Jew:" — The  German 
name  for  what  we  in  English  call  the  Wan- 
dering Jew.  The  German  imagination  has 
been  most  struck  by  the  duration  of  the 
man '8  life,  and  his  unhappy  sanctity  from 
death ;  the  English  by  the  unrestingness  of 
the  man's  life,  his  incapacity  of  repose. — Be 
Quincey,  Roman  Meals. 

Unreturnable,  impossible  to  be  re- 
paid. 

The  obligations  I  had  laid  on  their  whole 
family,  whatever  were  the  success,  were  un- 
returnable.— Richardson,  Graiidison,  iv.  307. 

She  declined  accepting  a  present  which 
would  lay  her  under  an  unreturnable  obliga- 
tion.— Mrs.  Lennox,  Henrietta,  Bk.  I.  ch.  vii. 

Unrideably,  not  capable  of  being 
ridden.    See  extract  8.  v.  Rough-rider. 

Unrivalable,  inimitable. 

The  present  unique,  unrivalled,  and  un- 
rivalable production. — Southey,  The  Doctor, 
ch.  i.  A  i. 

Unroyalist,  one  not  of  the  royal 
family. 

He  is  so  privileged  a  favourite  with  all  the 
royal  family  that  he  utters  all  his  flights  to 
them  almost  as  easily  as  to  unroyalists. — 
Mad.  D'Arblay,  Diary,  iv.  56. 

Unrude.  R.  gives  the  word,  but 
remarks  that  the  un  is  augmentative, 
not  privative,  as  is  the  case  no  doubt 
in  the  two  passages  from  Jonson  which 
he  cites,  but  in  the  subjoined  unrude 
=  polished. 

Manners  knowes  distance,  and  a  man  unrude 
Wo'd  soon  recoile  and  not  intrude 
His  stomach  to  a  second  meale. 

Herrick,  Hesperides,  p.  156. 

Unsacrament,  deprive  of  sacramental 
virtue.    The  extract  gives  one  of  the 

fositions  of  the  Donatists  as  stated  by 
'uller. 

The  profaneneas  of  a  bad  man  administring 
it  doth  unsacrament  Baptisme  itself,  making 
a  nullity  thereof. — Holy  and  Prof.  State,Y.  xi. 

Unsage,  foolish. 

And  with  their  wicked  hands,  and  words 

vnsage. 
They  did  our  sacred  messengers  outrage. 

Hudson,  Judith,  v.  305. 

Unsaintlt,  unholy;  unlike  a  saint. 

What  (I  pray)  can  be  more  unsaintly  than 
to  desire,  yea,  delight  and  glory,  as  some  in 


UNSANITARY         (  696  ) 


UNSHELL 


England  now  do,  in  most  unjust  and  un- 
charitable actions?  —  Gauden,  Tear*  of  the 
Churchy  p.  209. 

Unsanitary,  unhealthy;  having  no 
regard  to  the  laws  of  health. 

The  friend's  stable  had  to  be  reached 
through  a  back  street  where  you  might  as 
easily  have  been  poisoned  without  expense 
of  drugs  as  in  any  grim  street  of  that  un- 
sanitary period.— G.  Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch. 

•  •  • 

XIlll. 

Unsappep,  not  undermined  or  secretly 
attacked. 

They  seemed  to  be  two  upright  vestal 
sisters,  unsapped  by  caresses,  unbroke  in  upon 
by  tender  salutations.— Sterne,  Sent.  Journey, 
Act  of  Charity. 

Unsavoury,  tasteless  :  now  applied 
to  that  which  has  a  bad  taste.  Cf.  Job 
vi.  6. 

Oholer  is  bitter,  of  the  nature  of  Gall : 
Phlegme,  unsavery  as  water,  and  without  all 
qualitie.— Touchstone  of  Complexions,  p.  87. 

Unsceptred,  deprived  of  his  sceptre ; 
unkinged. 
So,  with  his  daughters  three,  the  unscepter'd 

Lear 
Heaved  the  loud  sigh,  and  pour'd  the  glister- 
ing tear.— Poetry  of  Anti jacobin,  p.  138. 

Unscholar,  no  scholar. 

But  here  you  wyll  come  in  with  temporal 
man  and  scholer :  I  tell  you  plainlye,  scholer 
or  vnscholer,  yea  if  I  were  xx  scholers,  I  wolde 
thinke  it  were  my  dutie,  bothe  with  exhort- 
inge  men  to  shote,and  also  with  shoting  my 
selfe,  to  set  forwarde  that  thing  which  the 
Kinge,  his  wisedome,  and  his  counsell,  so 
greatlye  laboureth  to  go  forwarde.— Ascham, 
Toxophilus,  p.  38. 

Unseize,  to  release.    In  the  first  ex- 
tract unseize  thee  =  relax  thy  hold. 
What,  never  filTd?    Be  thy  lips  screw'd  so 

To  th' earth's  full  breast?   for  shame,  for 
shame,  unseize  thee.  mm 

Quarles,  Emblems,  I.  xn.  2. 

He,  at  the  stroke,  unseized  me,  and  gave 
back.— Tuke,  Adventures  of  Five  Hours,  Act 
III. 

Un-self-delicious,  not  self-indulg- 
ent. 

Such  were  not  yerst  Oincinnatus,  Fabricius, 
Serranus,  Curius,  who  vn-self ■-delicious, 
With  crowned  coultars,  with  imperiall  hands, 
With    ploughs   triumphant    plough'd    the 

Roman  lands. 

Sylvester,  Third  day,  first  weeks,  1057. 

Unsensualize,  to  purify;  elevate 
from  the  dominion  of  the  senses. 


Hence  the  soft  couch,  and  many-coloured 

robe, 
The  timbrel,  and  arched  dome,  and  costly 

feast, 
With  all  the  inventive  arts  that  nursed  the 

soul 
To  forms  of  beauty,  and  by  sensual  wants 
Unsensualized  the  mind,  which  in  the  means 
Learned  to  forget  the  grossnessof  the  end, 
Best  pleasured  with  its  own  activity. 

Coleridge,  Religious  Musings. 

Unsentenced,  not  definitively  pro- 
nounced :  now  only  applied  to  persons. 

The  King  . . .  privately  marrieth  her  within 
few  days  after  his  return,  the  divorce  being 
yet  unsentenced  betwixt  him  and  the  Queen. 
— Heylin,  Reformation,  ii.  61. 

Unsentimental,  matter  of  fact ;  not 
sentimental. 

Never  man  had  a  more  unsentimental 
mother  than  mine.— Miss  Bronte,  VilUttt, 
ch.  xx. 

Unsequestered,  free ;  untamed. 

His  unsequestred  spirit  so  supported  him 
that  some  of  his  adversaries  frowned  because 
he  could  smile  under  so  great  vexations. — 
Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI.  iii.  4. 

Unservice,  want  of  service ;  idleness. 

You  tax  us  for  unservice,  lady. 

Massinger,  Pari,  of  Love,  i.  5. 

Unserv icelike,  unlike  those  who 
would  render  service  ;  disrespectful. 

They  see  how  unsMrice-like  our  service  is ! 
— A  ndrewes,  ii.  341. 

Unseven,  a  curious  expression  of 
Fuller's  to  denote  the  reduction  of  the 
seven  sacraments  to  a  less  number. 

As  for  confirmation  of  the  children  of 
English  Catholiques,  he  much  decryed  the 
necessity  thereof,  though  not  so  far  as  to 
unseven  the  Sacraments  of  the  Church  of 
Rome.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI.  ii.  9. 

Unsexual,  not  belonging  to  the  sex. 
As  in  the  extract  women  are  referred 
to,  unsexual  =  masculine. 

In  the  last  (but  still  more  in  the  penulti- 
mate) generation,  any  tincture  of  literature, 
of  liberal  curiosity  about  science,  or  of  en- 
nobling interest  in  books,  carried  with  it  an 
air  of  something  unsexual,  mannish,  and  (as 
it  was  treated  by  the  sycophantish  satirists 
that  for  ever  humour  the  prevailing  folly)  of 
something  ludicrous.— De  Quincey,  Autob. 
Sketches,  i.  357. 

Unshell,  to  give  birth  to  ;  also,  to 
release.  R.  has  nnshelled,  with  quota- 
tion from  Sheridan. 

Of  him  and  none  but  him  . .  .  have  I  took, 
sent,  or  come  in  the  wind  of,  that  ever  Yar- 


UNSHENT 


(  697  ) 


UNSPELL 


mouth  unshelled  or  ingendred. — Nashe,  Leiden 
Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  157). 

There  I  remained  [behind  a  nailed-up 
chimney-board]  till  half-past  seven  the  next 
morning,  when  the  housemaid's  sweetheart, 
who  was  a  carpenter,  unsheUed  me. — Sketches 
by  Boz  (Watkins  Tottle). 

Unshent,  unblamed. 

Ho !  all  ye  females  that  would  live  unshentf- 
Fly  from  the  reach  of  Cyned's  regiment. 

Hall,  Satires,  IV.  i.  130. 

For  in  our  deeds,  which  Reason  might  re- 

proue, 
We  scape  vnshent  if  they  were  done  in  loue. 

£>avies,  Holy  Roods,  p.  25. 

Unshiftablr,  shiftless ;  helpless. 

These  fools,  while  they  live  in  health  and 
prosperity,  never  think  of  the  evil  day ;  and 
when  away  they  see  they  must  go,  how  unr 
shif  table  are  they ! —  Ward,  Sermons,  p.  67. 

Unshot,  not  fired.  The  Diets,  have 
the  word  =  not  hit  by  shot,  with  quota- 
tion from  Waller. 

The  Scots  fled  from  their  ordnance,  leav- 
ing them  unshot. — Expedition  into  Scotland, 
1544  (Eng.  Garner,  i.  125). 

Unshutter,  to  take  down  or  put 
back  the  shutters. 

He  unshuttered  the  little  lattice-window. — 
Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xvii. 

Unshy,  confident 

It  would  be  doing  Mr.  Solmes  a  spite  to 
wish  him  such  a  shy,  unshy  girl ;  another  of 
your  contradictory  qualities ;  I  leave  you  to 
make  out  what  I  mean  by  it. — Richardson, 
CI.  Harlowe,  ii.  50. 

Unsimplicitv,  cunning. 

Eustace  . . .  went  home  flattering  himself 
that  he  had  taken  in  parson,  clerk,  and 
people;  not  knowing  in  his  simple  unsim- 
plicity  and  cunning  foolishness  that  each 
good  wife  in  the  parish  was  savin?  to  the 
other,  "He  turned  Protestant!  the  devil 
turned  monk !  " — Kingsley,  Westward  Ho, 
ch.  iv. 

Unsing,  to  recant  what  hud  been 
sung. 

They  soon  their  new  deliverer  despise ; 
Say  all  their  prayers  back,  their  joys  disown, 
Unsiny  their  thanks,  and  pull  their  trophies 
down. 

Defoe,  True-Born  Englishman,  Pt.  II. 

Unsister,  to  sever  the  sisterly  rela- 
tion.    Cf.  Sister. 

1st  Gent.  The  Queen  (tho'  some  say 
they  be  much  divided)  took  her  hand,  call'd 
her  sweet  sister,  and  kiss'd  not  her  alone, 
but  all  the  ladies  of  her  following. 

2nd  Gent.  Ay,  that  was  in  her  hour  of 
joy ;  there  will  be  plenty  to  sunder  and  un- 


sister  them  again. — Tennyson,  Queen  Mary, 
Li. 

Unsisterly,   unbecoming  a    sister. 
See  extract  5.  v.  Undadghterly. 

UN8KILL,  ignorance. 

Even  light  Pirrhon's  wavering  fantasies 
Reave  him  the  skill  his  vnskill  to  agnize. 

Sylvester,  Eden,  p.  277. 

Unsleek,  rough;  dishevelled. 

Then  she  that  saw  him  lying  unsleek,  un- 
shorn, 
Gaunt  as  it  were  the  skeleton  of  himself, 
Utter'd  a  little  tender  dolorous  cry. 

Tennyson,  Lancelot  and  Elaine. 

Unslumbrous,  sleepless. 

How  sickening,  how  dark  the  dreadful  leisure 
Of  weary  days  made  deeper  exquisite. 
By  a  foreknowledge  of  unslumbrous  night. 

Keats,  Endymion,  Bk.  I. 

Unsmutty,  not  obscene. 

The  expression  of  his  Theodore  was 
altogether  unsmutty. — Collier,  English  Stage, 
p.  54. 

Unsoulclooged,  not  weighed  down 

in  spirit. 

Learned  men  vn'Soule-clogd,  (as  it  were,) 
With  servile  giues  of  Kings  imperious  fear. 
Sylvester,  the  Captaines,  p.  1022. 

Unsoundy,  unsound;  a  form  that 
may  be  supposed  to  be  due  to  the 
exigencies  of  rhyme. 

Her  eyne  gowndy 
Are  full  vnsoundy. 
Skelton,  Elynour  Rummtn  (Harl.  Misc., 
i.  416). 

Unspared,  indispensable. 

No  physician  then  cures  of  himself,  no 
more  than  the  hand  feeds  the  mouth  Tho 
meat  doth  the  one,  the  medicine  doth  the 
other ;  though  the  physician  and  the  hand 
be  unspared  instruments  to  their  several 
purposes. — Adams,  i.  381. 

Unspectacled,  without  spectacles. 

Many  a  nose  spectacled  and  unspectacled 
was  popped  out  of  the  adjoining  windows. — 
Scott,  S.  Ronan*s  Well,  ch.  xiv. 

Unspeedy,  slow. 

The  water  being  ever  thicke,  as  if  lately 
troubled,  and  passing  along  with  a  mute  and 
vnspeedy  current. — Sandys,  Travels,  p.  117. 

Unspell,  to  release  from  enchant- 
ment or  to  reverse  an  incantation.  The 
lines  in  the  second  extract  are  from 
that  part  of  the  poem  which  was  writ- 
ten by  Tate. 

Her.  Sure  w'are  enchanted,  and  all  we 
see's  illusion. 


UNSPOIL 


(698) 


UNSUJT 


Cam.  Allow  me,  Henrique,  to  unspell  these 
charms. —  Take,  Advent,  of  Five  Hours, 
ActV. 

Such  practices  as  these,  too  gross  to  lie, 
Long  unobserved  by  each  discerning  eye, 
The  more  judicious  Israelites  unspeued, 
Though  still  the  charm  the  giddy  rabble 
held. — Absalom  and  Achitophel,  Pt.  II.  117. 

Unspoil,  to  correct  the  injury  done 

by  over  indulgence:  the  Diets,  have 

only  the  past  participle. 

"lam  quite  spoiled  I  believe,"  said  Helen, 
"  you  must  unswril  me,  Bsther."— Miss  Edge- 
worth,  Helen,  en.  xliii. 

Unsportful,  melancholy. 

"  A  Republic !  "  said  the  Seagreen,  with 
one  of  his  dry,  husky,  unsportful  laughs, 
44  what  is  that  ?  n—Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev*  Pt.  H. 
Bk.  IV.  ch.  iv. 

Unsportsmanlike,  unlike  a  sports- 
man. In  the  first  extract  it  is  printed 
as  two  words. 

On  which  he  to  his  comrades  cried,  See,  ho ! 
Then  jumped  unsportsman  like  upon  his  hare. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  63. 
"  Garry  it  with  the  muzzle  to  the  ground," 
replied  Mr.  Pickwick.    **  It's  so  unsportsman- 
like," reasoned  Winkle.— Pickwick  Papers, 
ch.  xix. 

Unspread,  not  diffused. 

"  I  have  sinned,"  she  said, 
w  Unquickened,  unspread 
My  fire  dropt  down,  and  I  wept  on  my 
knees." — Mrs.  Browning,  Confessions. 

Unstabled,    disestablished,  and   so 
freed  ;  also,  not  put  up  in  a  stable. 
Our  hearts  be  unstabled  of  these  bestial  lusts. 

Adams,  i.  326. 
Behold  the  branchless  tree,  the  unstabled 

Bosinante ! — C.  Bronte,  Villette,  eh.  mix. 

Unstanched,  is  used  rather  peculiarly 
in  the  extract  =  not  weather-tight. 

The  elements  .  .  came  pouring  from  un- 
stanched roofs. — H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality, 
i.  378. 

Unstarch,  to  relax. 

He  cannot  unstarch  his  gravity. — Kennet*s 
Erasmus,  Praise  of  Folly,  p.  35. 

Un8TARtled,  calm ;  unalarmed. 

The  'ploughman  following  sad  his  meagre 

team 
Turned  up  fresh  sculls  unstartled. 

Coleridge,  Destiny  of  Nations. 

Unstationed,  having  no  fixed  sta- 
tion. 

Though  I  eould  give  their  ships  informa- 
tion how  to  avoid  our  squadrons,  yet  they 
fell  into  the  hands  of  unstationed  privateers. 
— Johnston,  Chrysal,  i.  23. 


Unsteel,  to  disarm ;  soften. 

Whv  then  should  this  enervating  pity 
unsteel  my  foolish  heart? — Richardson,  CI. 
Harlowe,  v.  310. 

Unstercorated,  unmanured.  See 
extract  s.  v.  Stercorated. 

Unstick,  to  loose  or  disengage. 

The  other  [foot]  riveted  to  its  native  earth, 
bemired  . .  beyond  the  possibility  of  unstick- 
ing itself.— Richardson,  CZ.  Harlow,  vii.  3S0. 

Unstout,  weak. 

A  Lacedemonian  taken  prisoner  was  asked 
of  one  at  Athens,  whether  they  were  stoute 
fellowes  that  were  slayne  or  no,  of  the 
Lacedemonians:  he  answered  nothing  els 
but  this:  Make  moche  of  those  shaftes  of 
youres,  for  they  knowe  neyther  stoute  nor 
vnstoute  ;  meanynge  thereby  that  no  man 
(though  he  were  neuer  so  stout)  came  in 
their  walke,  that  escaped  without  death. — 
Ascham,  Toxophilus,  p.  75. 

Unstowed,  emptied ;  like  the  hold  of 
a  ship  which  has  discharged  its  cargo. 

When  they  found  my  hold  unstowed,  they 
went  all  hands  to  shooling  and  begging. — 
Smollett,  Rod.  Random,  ch.  xli. 

Unsubduable,  invincible. 

Stern  patience  unsubduable  by  pain. 

Southey,  Kehama,  xviii.  5. 

A  monster  unsubduable 
Of  any  save  of  him  for  whom  I  calTd. 
Tennyson,  Garetk  and  Lynette. 

UN-sub-presbytery,  a  curious  com- 
pound of  Gauden's;  meaning  a  pres- 
bytery not  subject  to  Bishops. 

Factions,  confusions  are  the  genuine 
fruites  of  an  un-sub-Presbytery,  as  indeed  of 
all  Government  which  is  made  up  with 
parity  or  equality. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  449. 

Unsubscribed,  unsigned. 

A  call  for  supper  makes  me  leave  my 
paper  unsubscribed. — Richardson,  Grandison, 
vi.  333. 

Unsubstantiality,  that  which  is 
temporary  or  shadowy. 

Something  of  unsubstantiality  and  un- 
certainty had  beset  my  hopes. — C.  Bronte, 
Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xxiv. 

Unsued,  unasked. 

Gillias  .  .  .  rewarded  deserts  unsued  to. — 
Adams,  i.  483. 

Unsuit,  to  unfit. 

The  sprightly  twang  of  the  melodious  lute 
Agrees  not  with  my  voice ;  and  both  unsuit 
My  untuned  fortunes. 

Quartet,  Emblems,  TV.  xv.  4. 


UNSUNNY  (  699  )         UNTRENCHED 


Unsunny,  gloomy. 

We  marvel  at  thee  much, 
O  damsel,  wearing  this  unsunny  face 
To  him  who  won  thee  glory. 

Tennyson,  Pelleas  and  Ettare. 

Unsuperscribed,  undirected. 

This  angry  letter  was  accompanied  with 
one  from  my  mother,  unsealed,  and  un» 
superscribed  also. — Richardson,  CI.  Marlowe, 
i.  181. 

Unsuspectednkss,  state  of  not  being 
suspected. 

By  transferring  the  fact  on  the  then  most 
innocent  Puritans,  they  hoped  not  onely  to 
decline  the  odium  of  so  hellish  a  designe, 
but  also  (by  the  strangeness©  of  the  act,  and 
unsuspeetednesse  of  the  actors)  to  amuze  all 
men. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  X.  ii.  27. 

Untackle,  to  unharness.  Tusser 
says,  in  relation  to  cattle, 

But  vse  to  vntackle  them  once  in  a  day. 

Husbandrie,  p.  62. 

Untalented,  not  clever. 

This  is  the  sort  of  stuff  you  must  be 
satisfied  with  from  a  poor  untalented  girl. — 
Richardson,  Grandison,  vii.  6. 

Untame,  wild.  Chapman  (Iliad,  viii. 
41)  calls  M.  Ida  "nurse  of  beasts 
untame" 

Untappice,  to  drive  out  of  cover :% 
a  hunting  term.  N.  quotes  Massinger, 
Very  Woman,  III.  v.,  where  it  is  used 
as  a  neuter  verb,  and  means  to  come 
out  of  concealment,  and  says  he  has 
not  met  with  it  elsewhere. 

What,  sir,  do  you  mean  at  the  unkennell- 
ing, untapeziny,  or  earthing  of  the  fox? — 
Return  from  Parnassus,  ii.  5  (1606). 

Untemper,  to  relax;  to  destroy  the 
temper  or  virtue  of  anything.  The 
Diets,  only  have  the  past  participle. 

The  study  of  sciences  does  more  soften 
and  untemper  the  courages  of  men  than  any 
way  fortifie  and  incite  them. — Cotton,  Mon- 
taigne's Essays,  ch.  xix. 

Untenant,  to  evict ;  dislodge. 

He  gets  possession  of  their  affections, 
whence  all  the  power  of  man  cannot  un~ 
tenant  him. — Adams,  i.  202. 

Those   blind    omniscient*,  those  almighty 

slaves 
Untenanting  creation  of  its  God. 

Coleridge,  Destiny  of  Nations. 

Unterripic,  not  terrifying. 

Not  unterrifc  was  the  aspect ;  but  we 
looked  on  it  like  brave  youths. — Carlyle, 
Sartor  ResaHus,  Bk.  II.  ch.  lii. 


Unthinker,  a  thoughtless  person. 

Thinkers  and  unthinkers  by  the  million 
are  spontaneously  at  their  post,  doing  what 
is  in  them.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk.  IV. 
ch.  1. 

Unthirsty,  not  thirsty. 

Your  thriving  softness  and  your  clustered 
kisses  growing  on  the  lips  of  love  devour'd 
with  an  unthirsty  infant's  appetite !  O  forbid 
it,  Love ! — Cibber,  Love  makes  a  man,  Act  II. 

Untied,  dissolute ;  relaxed  from  re- 
straint: the  use  of  the  word  in  the 
extract  is  rather  peculiar. 

There  were  excesses  to  many  committed 
in  a  time  so  vntied  as  this  was. — Daniel, 
Hist,  of  Eng.,  p.  114L 

Untimeous,  untimely.  R.  has  un- 
timeously,  with  a  quotation  from  Kenil- 
worth,  ch.  xv.  Is  the  word  peculiar  to 
Soott  ? 

It  required  all  the  authority  supported  by 
threats  which  Quentin  could  exert  over  him, 
to  restrain  his  irreverent  and  untimeous 
jocularity. — Quentin  Durward,  i.  304. 

Un-Titaned,  sunless. 

Thy  torch  will  burn  more  clear 
In  night's  un-Titan'd  hemisphere ; 
Heaven's   scornful    names  and   thine  can 
never  co-appear. 

Quarles,  Emblems,  ii.  1. 

Untoned,  relaxed  ;  put  out  of  tone. 
The  extract  is  from  a  poem  quoted  at 
length  in  Nares's  Thinks  I  to  Myself, 

Is  there  a  hope  that  o'er  this  unton'd  frame 
Awakened  Health  her  wonted  glow  shall 
spread  ?—Tfu  Suicide. 

Untongue,  to  silence. 

Such  who  commend  him  in  making,  con- 
demn him  in  keeping  such  a  diary  about  him 
in  so  dangerous  days.  Especially  he  ought 
to  untongue  it  from  talking  to  his  prejudice. 
—Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI.  ix.  77. 

Untorturbd,  not  tormented.  See 
extract  *.  v.  Undistressed. 

Untragic,  not  tragic ;  and  so,  ludi- 
crous. 

Emblems  not  a  few  of  the  tragic  and  the 
untragic  sort. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk. 
V.  ch.  xii. 

Untrrmulous,  steady. 

Here  was  the  seal,  round,  full,  deftly 
dropped  by  untremulous  fingers.  —  Miss 
Bronte,  Vxllette,  ch.  xxi. 

Un trenched,  intact. 

Let  him  fetch  some  sage,  honest  policy, 
and  such  as  may  stand  with  an  untrenched 
conscience. — Adams,  ii.  467. 


UNTRIPED 


(  7oo  ) 


UNWHIRLED 


Untriped,  disembowelled. 

Those  . .  had  escaped  out  of  the  broil  and 
defeat  wherein  Tripet  was  untriped. — Urqw 
hart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  zliii. 

Untruism,  a  false  statement. 

A  preaching  clergyman  can  revel  in  plati- 
tudes, truisms,  and  untruisms. —  Trollope, 
Barchester  Towers,  ch.  vi. 

Untrumpktkd,  not  famed  or  made 
much  of. 

[They]  lived  untrumpeted,  and  died  un- 
sung.— Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  i. 

Untrunked,  cut  off  from  the  trunk. 
See  extract  *.  v.  Harsh. 

Untumultuated,  undisturbed. 

They  were  left  to  their  free  votes  and  un- 
tumultuated  suffrages.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the 
Church,  p.  107. 

Unturbaned,  without  a  turban. 

Unturbaned  and  unsandall'd  there 
Abdaldar  stood. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  II. 

Ununderstood,  not  comprehended. 
Fuller  says  that  in  most  parishes  of 
Wales  English  was  "  utterly  ununder- 
stood" (Ch.  Hist,  IX.  i.  50). 

Un university,  to  deprive  of  an 
university. 

Northampton  was  ununiversitied,  the  schol- 
ars therein  returning  to  the  place  from  whence 
they  came.  —  Fuller,  Hist,  of  Camb.  Univ., 
i.  50. 

Unusuality,  unwontedness ;  eccen- 
tricity. 

It  is  to  be  said  of  Sallust,  far  more  plaus- 
ibly than  of  Carlyle,  that  his  obscurity,  his 
unusuality  of  expression,  and  his  Laconism 
.  .  bore  the  impress  of  his  genius,  and  were 
but  a  portion  of  his  unaffected  thought. — 
E.  A.  Foe,  Marginalia,  lvi. 

Unutterability,  that  which  cannot 
be  spoken. 

They  come  with  hot  unuiterabilities  in  their 
heart.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  I.  ch.  in. 

Unvaluable  usually  means  inestim- 
able, but  in  the  extract  =  worthless. 

If  nature  .  .  deny  health,  how  unvaluable 
are  their  riches. — Adams,  i.  424. 

Unvariant,  unchanging. 

His  mynd  vnuariant  doth  stand. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iv.  472. 

Unvenomous,  not  poisonous.  R.  has 
vnvenomed. 

Their  error  is  not  solitary,  nor  the  sting 
of  their  schisme  either  soft,  or  blunt,  or 
unvenomous.—  Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church, 
p.  297.  J 


Unvebacity,  untruthfulness. 

Lord  Clarendon,  a  man  of  sufficient  «a- 
veracity  of  heart,  to  whom  indeed  whatsoever 
has  direct  veracity  of  heart  is  more  or  less 
horrible,  speaks  always  in  official  language. 
— Carlyle,  Cromwell,  i.  62. 

Unvicar,  to  deprive  of  a  vicar's 
position. 

If  I  had  your  authority,  I  would  be  so  bold 
to  unvicar  him.  —  8trype>  Oranmer,  Bk.  II. 
eh.  vii. 

Unvoidable,  irreversible. 

He  will  from  on  high  pronounce  that  un- 
voidable sentence.— Bailey,  Erasm.  Colloq^  p. 
X73. 

Un  voluptuous,  free  from  volup- 
tuousness. 

He  had  written  stanzas  as  pastoral  and 
unvoluptuous  as  his  flute-playing. — G.  Eliot, 
Middlemarch,  ch.  xziii. 

Un  vowed,  not  vowed. 

If  vnuowed  to  another  Order,  ...  he  vows 
in  this  order.— Sandys,  Travels,  p.  229. 

Unwalkable,  unfit  for  walking. 

How  teased  I  am,  my  dearest  Padre,  by 
this  eternal  unwalkable  weather.  —  Mad. 
JfArblay,  Diary,  vii.  7. 

Unwalkino,  not  given  to  walking. 

I  am  so  unwalking  that  prospects  are  more 
*  agreeable  to  me  when  framed  and  glazed, 
and  I  look  at  them  through  a  window. — 
Walpole,  Letters,  iv.  486  (1789). 

Unwallet,  to  take  out  of  a  wallet 

The  lacquey  laughed,  unsheathed  his  cala- 
bash, and  unwaUeted  his  cheese.  —  Jarvis's 
Don.Quixote,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  adv. 

Unwaning,  not  fading  or  diminish- 
ing. 

Hope  sprang  forth  like  a  full-born  Deity, 


"With  light  unwanina  on  her  eyes. 

Coleridge,  To  Wordsworth. 

Unwarnedly,  without  notice. 

They  be  suddenly  and  unwarnedly  brought 
forth  to  be  apposed  of  their  adversaries.— 
Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  68  (Exam,  of  W. 
Thorpe). 

Unwealthy,  poor. 

My  father  vnwelthy  mee  sent,  then  a  prittye 
page,  hither.— Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  ii.  98. 

Unwhirled,  not  whirled  or  hurried. 

To  make  an  example  of  him  as  the  first 
Shandy  unwhirVd  about  Europe  in  a  post- 
chaise,  and  only  because  he  was  a  heavy  lad, 
would  be  using  him  ten  times  worse  than  a 
Turk,— Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  iii.  237. 


UNW1LD 


(  701  ) 


UPDIVE 


Unwild,  to  tame. 

Abel  desirous  still  at  hand  to  keep 
Sis  milk  and  cheese,  vnwildes  the  gentle 
sheep.— Sylvester,  HandU  Crafts,  277. 

Unwilful,  undesigned. 

We  are  ever  ready  to  make  excuses,  when 
in  good  humour  with  ourselves,  for  the  per- 
haps not  unwilful  slights  of  those  whose 
approbation  we  wish  to  engage.— Richardson, 
CI.  Harlowe,  i.  8. 

Unwilled,    deprived    of    volition; 

relaxed. 

Now,  your  will  is  all  unwilled. 

Mrs.  Browning,  Duchess  May. 

Unwinnino,  unconciliatory. 

He  lost  their  affections,  pride  being  an 
* nwi nni ng  quality. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist. ,11.  ii.  7. 

Un wonder,  to  explain  an  apparent 
marvel ;  unwcmdering  =  not  wonder- 
ing. 

Whitest  Papists  crie  up  this  his  incredible 
continency,  others  easily  unwonder  the  same, 
by  imputing  it  partly  to  his  impotence 
afflicted  with  an  infirmitie,  partly  to  the  dis- 
taste of  his  wife.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  II.  vi.  17. 

Here  I  must  admire  one  thing,  and  shall 
be  thankful  to  such  who  cure  my  wonder  by 
shewing  me  the  cause  of  that  I  wonder  at. 
[In  the  margin]  Unwonder  me  this  wonder .— 
ibid.,  Hist,  of  Camb.  Univ.,  i.  18. 
When  on  the  moon  he  first  began  to  peep, 
The  wondering  world  pronounced  the  gazer 

deep; 
But  wiser  now,  the  unwondcring  world,  alas ! 
Gives  all  poor  Herschel's  glory  to  his  glass. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  236. 

Unworth,  unworthiness.     R.  has  it 

as  an  adjective. 

Those  superstitious  blockheads  of  the 
twelfth  century  had  reverence  for  Worth, 
abhorrence  of  Unworth. — Carlyle,  Past  and 
Present,  Bk.  II.  ch.  ix. 

Unwrathfully,  patiently;  without 
anger. 

This'  historic  . .  might  well  be  rekened  in 
the  nombre  of  thinges  vnwrathfully  and 
prudently  doen. — Udal's  Erasmus's  Apophth., 
p.  316. 

Unyieldingness,  obstinacy ;  inflexi- 
bility. 

Upon  the  haughtinesse  of  King  William, 
looking  to  be  satisfied  in  all  his  demaunds, 
and  the  vnyeeldingnesse  of  King  Malcolm, 
....  nothing  was  effected. — Daniel,  Hist,  of 
Eng.,  p.  47. 

Up  and  down,  in  every  respect.  Cf. 
the  modern  slang  "  down  to  theground." 

He  [Phocion]  was  eaen  Socrates  vp  and 
downe  in  this  pointe  and  behalfe,  that  no 


man  ener  sawe  hym  either  laughe  or  weepe. 
— UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  324. 

Upaventurk,  in  case. 

They  bade  me  that  I  should  be  busy  in  all 
my  wits  to  go  as  near  the  sentence  and  the 
words  as  I  could,  both  that  were  spoken  to 
me  and  that  I  spake,  upaventure  this  writing 
came  another  time  before  the  archbishop 
and  his  council.— Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  66 
(Exam,  of  W.  Thorpe). 

Up-blaze,  to  burn  or  flash  up. 

The  solitary  hermit  prunes 
His  lamp's  long  undulating  flame : 

And  now  its  wavy  point 
Up-blazing  rose. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  VI. 

UPBOTCH,to  patch  up,  or  put  together. 
Stanyhurst  (Conceites,  p.  lo7)  describes 
Vulcan's  three  smiths  as  "vpbotching 
...  a  clapping  f yrebolt. " 

Upbraid.  Food  which  produces 
flatulence  and  eructation  is  sain  to  up- 
braid or  reprove  the  eater.    See  Abraid. 

Midas,  unexperienst  of  the  nature  of  it 
[the  herring]  (for  he  was  a  foole  that  had 
asses  eares),  snappt  it  up  at  one  blow,  and 
because  in  the  boyling  or  seathing  of  it  in 
his  maw  he  felt  it  commotion  a  little  and 
upbraide  him,  he  thought  he  had  eaten  golde 
indeede. — Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  {Harl.  Misc., 
vi.  166). 

Upbraid,  a  reproach. 

S[e]  .  .  .  .  with  his  mind  had  known 
uch  better  the  upbraids  of  men. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  vi.  389. 

Upbringing,  education. 

Let  me  not  quarrel  with  my  upbringing. — 
Carlyle,  Sartor  Besartus,  Bk.  II.  ch.  ii. 

Upbuoyance,  support ;  lifting  up. 

Me  rather,  bright  guests,  with  your  wings  of 

upbuoyance 
Bear  aloft  to  your  homes,  to  your  banquets 

of  joyance. — Coleridge,  Visit  of  the  Gods. 

Upcurl,  to  wreathe  or  curl  upwards. 

High — high  in  heaven  upcurVd 
The  dreadful  sand-spouts  mov'd. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  IV. 

And  thro*  the  wreaths  of  floating  dark  up- 
curVd, 
Rare  sunrise  flow'd. 

Tennyson,  The  Poet. 

Updive,  to  dive  up  ;  rise  to  the  sur- 
face. 

Plunge  thee  ore  head  and  eares  in  Helicon, 
Dyue  to  the  bottome  of  that  famous  tiudd, 
Although  it  were  as  deepe  as  Acheron, 
Thence  make  thy  fame  vp-dive,  although 

withstood 
With  weedes  of  Ignorance,  and  En  vie 'a 
mudd. — Davies,  Jlicrocosmos,  p.  81. 


UP-FLOW  (  702  ) 


UPSTART 


Up-flow,  to  ascend ;  stream  tip. 

No  eye  beheld  the  fount 
Of  that  up-jlowinq  flame. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  II. 

Uphasp,  to  hasp  or  fasten  up. 
St  any  hurst  (JSn.,  iv.  254)  speaks  of 
Mercury  as  "bye  Death  eyelya  vphasp- 

WIJ7. 

Uphilt,  to  plunge  to  the  hilt 

Hi«  blad  he    with    thrusting   in  his  old 
dwynd  caress  vphilted. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn^  ii.  577. 

Upholder,  broker. 

We  forthwith  began  to  class  and  set  apart 
the  articles  designed  for  sale  under  the  direc- 
tion of  an  upholder  from  London. — Smollett, 
Humphrey  Clinker,  ii.  190. 

Upholstered,  furnished ;  decked  by 

upholsterers. 

Farewell  thou  old  Chateau,  with  thy  up- 
holstered rooms ! — Carlylc,  Misc.,  iv.  97. 

Uphubl,  to  toss  up  violently. 

Thee  wals  God  Neptune  with  mace  three- 
forcked  vphurleth. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  ii.  633. 

Uplat,  to  overturn.  R.  and  L.  have 
the  word  =  to  lay  up  in  store,  with 
quotation  from  Donne. 

Then  dyd  I  marck  playnely  thee  castel  of 

Ilion  vplayd, 
And  Troian  buyldings  quit  topsy  turuye 

remooued. — Stanyhurst,  ^£n.,  ii.  648. 

Uppeak,  to  rise  in  a  peak. 

Thee  shoare  neere  setled  apeered, 
And  hilfl  vppeaking. 

Stanyhurst,  -J?n.,  iii.  209. 

Uppiled,  heaped  up. 

A  mount,  not  wearisome  and  bare  and  steep, 
But  a  green  mountain  variously  uppiled. 

Coleridge,  To  a  Young  Friend. 

Rock  above  rock,  and  mountain  ice  up-piVd 
On  mountain. — Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  II. 

Uppino.  The  swan  companies  an- 
nually used  to  take  up  the  swans  for 
the  purpose  of  marking  them  —  the 
term  is  now  often  corrupted  to  swan- 
hopping. 

The  master  of  the  game,  or  his  deputy,  is 
to  have  a  penny  for  upping  every  white  swan, 
and  two  pence  for  every  cygnet. — Laws  and 
Customs  of  Swans,  1631  (Harl.  Misc.,  iii.  377). 

Uppish,  arrogant.  Johnson  calls  it 
a  low  word,  and  gives  no  example.  L. 
only  reproduces  Johnson.  Mrs.  Trol- 
lope  spells  it  with  one  p. 


Half-pay  officers  at  the  parade  very  uppish 

3x>n  the  death  of  the  King  of  Spain.— 7*. 
rown,  Works,  i.  154. 

It  seems  daring  to  rail  at  informers,  pro- 
lectors,  and  officers  was  not  uppish  enough, 
but  his  Lordship  must  rise  so  high  as  daring 
to  limit  the  power  and  revenue  of  the  Crown. 
— North,  Examen,  p.  48. 

She  is  a  bedridden  woman,  and  ought  to  be 
in  the  workhouse ;  but  she's  upish, and  cant 
abide  it. — Mrs.  TroUopex  Michael  Armstrong, 
ch.  iii. 

Uproar,  to  make  an  uproar.  Shake- 
speare, as  quoted  by  R.  and  L.,  has  it 
as  an  active  verb  (Macbeth,  IV.  iii.): 
"  uproar  the  world.1' 

The  man  Danton  was  not  prone  to  show 
himself ;  to  act  or  uproar  for  his  own  safety. 
— Carlyle,  Fr.  Bet.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  VI.  ch.  ii. 

Uprush,  to  rush  upwards. 

But  ever  the  uprushinq  wind 
Inflates  the  wings  above. 

Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  XII. 

Upseek,  to  seek  or  strain  upward*. 

Upseeking  eyes  suffus'd  with  transport-tears. 
Southey,  Thalaba,  Bk.  XII. 

Upsides.  To  be  upsides  with  =  to 
be  even  with. 

Nay,  'twarnt  altogether  spite,  tho'  I  wont 
say  but  what  I  might  ha*  thought  o'  bein* 
upsides  {pT  them. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at 
Oxford,  ch.  uxiz. 

UrsiTTiNG,  the  sitting  up  of  a  woman 
to  see  her  friends  after  her  confine- 
ment ;  the  feast  held  on  such  an  occa- 
sion. 

We  will  have  such  a  lying-in,  and  such  a 
christening ;  such  upsitting  and  gossiping. — 
Broome,  Jovial  Crew,  Act  II. 

Upsnatch,  to  take  up  quickly  or 
violently. 

Snap  the  tipstaffe  which  came  and  vp- 
snached  him. —  Edwards,  Damon  and  Pithas 
(Dodsley,  O.  PL,  i.  246). 

Upsoaked,  exhausted  (?),or  thorough- 
ly possessed  (?). 

Lyke    rauening    woolfdams   vpsoackt    and 
gaunted  in  hunger. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.t  ii.  306. 

Upspear,  to  root  up  ;  destroy  ;  also, 
to  spring  up  in  a  point. 

Adam  by  hys  pryde  ded  Paradyse  vpspeare. 
—Bale,  Enterlude  of  Johan  Bapt.,  153$  (Harl. 
Misc.,  i.  114). 

The  bents 
And  coarser  grass,  upspearing  o'er  the  rest. 
Coicper,  ff  inter  Morning  Walk,  23. 

Upstart.  See  extract  for  jocular 
derivation.     Startups  were  high  shoes 


UPSY-TURVY  (  703  ) 


UXORIAL 


-worn   by   the   peasantry.     Cf.    High 
shoes. 

In  faith,  goodman  goosecap,  you  that  are 
come  from  the  startups,  and  therefore  is 
called  an  up* start,  quasi  start  up  from  clouted 
ehoone. — Greene,  Quip  for  an  Upstart  Courtier 
(Harl.  Misc.,  v.  402). 

Upsy-turvy,  topsy-turvy. 

There  found  I  all  was  upsy-turvy  turned. 
Greene,  James  the  Fourth,  iii.  3. 

Uptails  ALL,  confusion  ;  high  jinks. 
In  the  first  extract  uptails  all  =  good 
fellows;  revellers. 

Feel,  my  upt  ails-all,  feel  my  weapon. 

Dekker,  Satiromastix  (Hawkins, 
Eng.  Dr.,  iii.  170). 

Love  he  doth  call 
For  his  uptailes  all. 

Hemck,  Hesperides,  p.  265. 

Upthunder,  to  send  up  a  loud  noise 
like  thunder. 
Central  fires  through  nether  seas  upthunder- 

ing. — Coleridge,  To  the  departing  Year. 

Uptrill,  to  sing  or  trill  in  a  high 
voice. 

But  when  the  long-breathed  singer's  uptrilled 
strain 
Burets  in  a  squall,  they  gape  for  wonder- 
ment.— Coleridge,  In  a  Concert-Boom. 

Up  with,  to  raise.  H.  notices  this 
use  of  the  adverb,  but  in  the  extract 
"  up  "  is  inflected  like  a  verb — not  an 
uncommon  colloquial  usage  still. 

So  saying,  she  ups  with  her  brawny  arm 
and  gave  Susy  ...  a  douse  on  the  side  of  the 
head.— H.  Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  \.  82. 

Urchin,  used  adjectivally  as  a  term 
of  contempt  =  trumpery. 

Our  Bishop  .  .  .  made  himself  merry  with 
the  conceit  how  eaaie  it  was  to  stride  over 
such  urchin  articles.  No  man  would  find 
leisure  to  read  the  whole  36,  they  are  so 
frivolous.— Racket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  91. 

Usherless,    freely ;    without    cere- 
mony.   Sylvester  speaks  of  a  "  homely 
cottage," 
Where  vsherless,  both  day  and  night,  the 

North, 
South,  East,  and  "West  windes  enter  and  goe 

forth.— Handie  Crafts,  88. 

USURARY,  usurious. 

How  odious  and  severely  interdicted  tisu- 
rary  contracts  have  been  in  all  times. — Bp. 
Hall,  Works,  vii.  373. 


Usurpant,  usurping. 

Some  factious  and  insolent  Presbyters 
ventured  to  be  extravagant  and  usurpant. — 
Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  473. 

Usurpature,  usurpation. 

For  first  she  had  shot  up  a  full  head  in 
stature, 

And  her  step  kept  pace  with  mine  nor  fal- 
tered, 

As  if  age  had  foregone  its  usurpature. 

Browning,  Flight  of  the  Duchess. 

Usurpress,  female  usurper. 

She  is  a  double  usurpresse  in  detaining 
not  onely  Elaina  from  her  right,  but  the  very 
fish  of  the  sea  also  from  their  habitation. — 
Howell,  Dodona's  Grove,  p.  19. 

Utopianiser,  former  of  an  Utopia  ; 
a  builder  of  castles  in  the  air. 

like  most  Utopianisers,  the  legislator  of 
this  Columbia  had  placed  his  absolute  King 
and  his  free  people  under  such  strict  laws 
. . .  that  the  duties  of  the  legislative  body 
were  easy  indeed. — Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch. 
ccxli. 

Utterable,  capable  of  being  uttered. 

When  his  woe  became  utterable,  he  wrung 
his  hands,  and  groaning  aloud,  called  out, 
Art  thou  gone  so  soon? — Mad.  DArlHay, 
Cecilia,  Bk.  X.  ch.  viii. 

Uttermore,  outer  or  further ;  comp. 
of  utter,  uttermost. 

Foure  huge  stones,  of  pyramidall  forme. 
.  . .  The  two  pyramids  in  the  middest  . .  . 
did  almost  touch  one  another :  the  uttermore 
stand  not  farre  off,  yet  almost  in  equal  1  dis- 
tance from  these  on  both  sides. — Holland's 
Camden,  p.  701. 

Uvularly,  with  a  thick  voice,  as 
when  the  uvula  is  too  long. 

Number  Two  laughed  (very  uvularly),  and 
the  skirmishers  followed  suit. — Dickens,  Un- 
commercial Traveller,  iii. 

Uxorial,  pertaining  to  a  wife.  In 
the  second  quotation  it  rather  =*  uxori- 
ous. 

Favorinus  . . .  calls  this  said  stata  forma 
the  beauty  of  wives,  the  uxorial  beauty£- 
Lytton,  My  Novel,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  i. 

Biccabocca,  the  wiliest  and  most  relentless 
of  men  in  his  maxims,  melted  into  absolute 
uxorial  imbecility  at  the  sight  of  that  mute 
distress.— Ibid.,  Bk.  VIII.  ch.  xii. 


VACILLATORY         (  704  ) 


VAPOUR 


Vacillatory,  vacillating;  uncertain. 

If  ever  such  vacillatory  accounts  of  affaire 
of  state,  kings,  and  monarchies  were  given 
in  print  before,  I  am  mistaken.  —  North, 
Examen,  p.  25. 

Vagabond,  to  wander  like  a  vaga- 
bond. 

Why  is  he  not  in  my  counting-house  at 
Amsterdam,  instead  of  vagabonding  it  out 
yonder  ? — Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  lvi. 

Vagabondize,  to  wander  like  a  vaga- 
bond. 

How  much  earlier  he  would  have  found 
her  by  staving  quietly  at  Tergou,  than  by 
vagabondizing  it  all  over  Holland.  —  Reade, 
Cloister  and  Heafth,  ch.  liii. 

Then  vagabondising  came  natural  to  you 
from  the  beginning  ? — Dickens,  Bleak  House, 
ch.  xxi. 

Vacancy,  extravagance;    a  passing 

beyond  settled  limits. 

Our  happiness  may  orb  itself  into  a  thou- 
sand vacancies  of  glory  and  delight. — Milton, 
Reason  of  Church  Government,  ch.  i. 

Vagarish,  errant. 

Although  his  mouth  was  most  devout, 
His  eyes  were  oft  vagarish. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  306. 

Vagary,  to  wander;  to  wind. 

The  marishes  and  lower  grounds,  lying 
upon  the  three  rivers  that  vagary  up  to  her, 
.  .  .  are  encreased  in  value  more  than  halfe. 
— Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  166). 

Vainfull,  vain;  empty.  Tusser 
(Husbandi-ie,  p.  10)  says  that  the 
country  is  "not  so  vainfull"  as  the 
city. 

Valanche,  avalanche,  q.  v.    Cf.  Vol- 

LENGK. 

The  great  danger  of  travelling  here  when 
the  sun  is  up  proceeds  from  what  they  call 
the  valanches.  .  .  .  Scarce  a  year  passes  in 
wj}ich  some  mules  and  their  drivers  do  not 
perish  by  the  valanches. — Smollett,  France 
and  Italy,  Letter  xxxviii. 

Vale,  to  descend  as  a  valley. 

Heer  vales  a  valley,  there  ascends  a  mountain. 
Sylvester,  Seventh  day,  first  weeke,  63 

Valet,  to  attend  as  a  valet. 

He  wore  an  old  full-bottomed  wig,  the 
gift  of  some  dandy  old  Brown  whom  he  had 
valeted  in  the  middle  of  last  century.  — 
Hughes,  Tom  Brown's  Scfiooldays,  Pt.  I.  ch.  ii. 


Valrtitdinoub,  sickly. 

Af  righted  with  the  valetudinous  condition 
of  King  Edward,  ....  he  returned  to  Ger- 
many.— Fuller,  Hist,  of  Camb.,  vii.  36. 

Valiant,  strong;  powerful  (applied 
to  a  smell). 

The  scent  thereof  [garlic]  is  somewhat 
valiant  and  offensive.  —  Fuller,  Worthies, 
Cornwall  (L  206). 

Valla r,  the  crown  given  to  the  sol- 
dier who  first  scaled  the  enemy's  rani- 
part. 

Oarlandes,  vallarts  and  muralles  .  .  (as 
touchyng  honour)  were  farre  aboue  the 
other  thynges. — UdaVs  Erasmus**  Apophth- 
p.  284. 

Valleylet,  little  valley. 

The  infinite  ramification  of  stream  and 
valley,  streamlet  and  valleylet. — Greenwood, 
Rain  and  Rivers  (1866),  p.  188. 

Valuables,  things  of  value. 

But,  inclining  (with  my  usual  cynicism)  to 
think  that  he  did  steal  the  valuables,  think 
of  his  life  for  the  month  or  two  whilst  he 
still  remains  in  the  service.  —  Thackeray, 
Roundabout  Papers,  xxxii. 

Vampoose,  to  decamp  (slang). 

Has  he  vampoosed  with  the  contents  of  a 
till? — Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  i. 

Vahpyrism,  conduct  like  that  of 
vampires. 

Treason,  delusion,  vampyrism,  scoundrel- 
ism  from  Dan  to  Beersheba. —  Carlyle,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  III.  ch.  ii. 

Vanitied,  affected  with  vanity.  Cf. 
Modestied  in  the  same  writer. 

I  am  exasperated  against  your  foolish, 
your  \ow-vanity'd  Lovelace. — Richardson,  CI. 
Harlowe,  iv.  86. 

Vaporiftc,  steamy ;  misty. 

He  has  come  in  person,  as  he  periodically 
does;  vaporiftc,  driven  by  his  fixed-idea. — 
Carlyle,  Diamond  Necklace,  ch.  vi. 

Vaporobitt,  vapourousness ;  misti- 
ness. 

He  is  here  with  his  fixed-idea  and  volcanic 
vapor osity. — Carlyle,  Diamond  Necklace, ch..  v. 

Vapour,  to  dispirit;  make  melan- 
choly. 

She  has  lost  all  her  sprightliness,  and 
vapours  me  but  to  look  at  her.  —  Mad. 
D*Arblay,  Camilla,  Bk.  V.  ch.  vi. 


VAPOURISHNESS       (  705  ) 


VEND 


Vapourishness,  melancholy. 

You  will  not  wonder  that  the  vapourish- 
ness which  has  laid  hold  of  my  heart  should 
rise  to  my  pen.  —  Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe, 
iv.  41. 

Vardi,  an  affected  pronunciation 
of  verdict,  apparently  fashionable  in 
Swift '8  time,  and  ridiculed  by  him. 

Lord  Sp.  Well,  I  fear  Lady  Answerall 
can't  live  long ;  she  has  so  much  wit. 

Nev.  No,  she  can't  live,  that's  certain ;  but 
she  may  linger  thirty  or  forty  years. 

"Miss.  Live  long !  ay,  longer  than  a  cat,  or 
a  dog,  or  a  better  thing. 

Lady  A  ns.  O,  Miss,  you  must  give  your  var- 
di too. — Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  i.). 

Varift,  to  vary. 

And  yet  three  seuerall  functions  to  Them 
Three 
Themselues  assigne,  their  works  to  varifie. 
Davits,  Summa  Totalis,  p.  17. 

May  is  seen 
Suiting  the  lawns  in  all  her  pomp  and  pride 
Of  liuely  colours  louely  varifitd. 

Sylvester,  The  Magnificence,  661. 

Varletess,  female  varlet:  a  con- 
temptuous term. 

Making  such  a  confounded  rout  about 
losing  this  noble  varletess. — Richardson,  CI. 
Harlowe,  i.  218. 

0  thou  lurking  varletess,  Conscience!  — 
Ibid.,  iv.  245. 

Varsal,  a  vulgar  corruption  of  uni- 
versal. 

1  believe,  there  is  not  such  another  in  the 
varsal  world.  —  Swift,  Polite  Conversation 
(Conv.  ii.). 

Here  was  flying  without  any  broom-sticks 
or  thing  in  the  varsal  world.  —  Smollett, 
Humphrey  Clinker,  i.  125. 

Vassalate,  to  reduce  to  a  state  of 
vassalage  or  dependence. 

Clergymen  shall  vassalate  their  consciences 
to  gratifte  any  potent  party  and  novell  fac- 
tion.— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  496. 

Vastatb,  wasted. 

The  vastate  ruins  of  ancient  monuments. — 
Adams,  iii.  19. 

Vastator,  devastator. 

The  cunning  Adversaries  and  Vastator s  of 
the  Church  of  England  drive  a  lesser  trade. 
— Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  86. 

Vast  ell  bread.  See  quotation.  The 
Diets,  have  the  word  under  the  more 
usual  form  wa&tel. 

Sometimes  the  Abbot  on  great  solemnities 
graced  them  with  his  presence,  when  he  had 
vasteltum,  that  is,  not  common  bread,  but 
vastell  bread  or  simnels,  for  his  diet. — Fuller, 
Ch.  Hist.,  vi.  p.  285. 


Vatical,  prophetic. 

Even  that  very  ass,  whereon  thou  rodest, 
was  prophesied  of;  neither  couldst  thou 
have  made  up  those  vatical  predictions  with- 
out this  conveyance. — Bp.  Hall,  Works,  ii. 
550. 

Vaticinatress,  prophetess. 

[There]  was  shown  unto  them  the  house 
of  the  vaticinatress. —  Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk. 
III.  oh.  xvii. 

Vehiculate,  to  convey. 

Fiction,  Imagination,  Imaginative  Poetry, 
&c.,  &c.,  except  as  the  vehicle  for  truth  or 
fact  of  some  sort  —  which  surely  a  man 
should  first  try  various  other  ways  of 
vehiculating  and  conveying  safe — what  is  it  ? 
— Carlyle,  Past  and  Present,  Bk.  II.  ch.  i. 

Vehiculatory,  designed  for  carry- 
ing. 

He  would  accumulate  formidable  appara- 
tus, logical  swim-bladders,  transcendental 
life-preservers,  and  other  precautionary  and 
vehiculatory  gear  for  setting  out. — Carlyle, 
Life  of  Sterling,  ch.  viii. 

Veilless,  without  a  veil. 

He  drove  the  dust  against  her  veilless  eyes. 

Tennyson,  Geraint  and  Enid. 

Veinlet,  a  little  vein. 

The  work  an  unknown  good  man  has  done 
is  like  a  vein  of  water  flowing  hidden  under- 
ground, secretly  making  the  ground  green ; 
it  flows  and  flows,  it  joins  itself  with  other 
veins  and  veinltts;  ene  day  it  will  start 
forth  as  a  visible  perennial  well.  Ten  dumb 
centuries  had  made  the  speaking  Dante;  a 
well  he  of  many  veinlets. —  Carlyle,  Misc., 
iv.  206. 

Veinous,  veined;  with  the  veins 
prominent. 

He  ....  covered  his  forehead  with  his 
large  brown  veinous  hands. — Dickens,  Great 
Expectations,  ch.  xxxix. 

Veize.  .See  extract;  also  R.  *.  v. 
pheeze. 

Some  have  confidently  affirmed  in  my 
hearing  that  the  word  to  veize  (that  is,  in  the 
West,  to  drive  away  with  a  Witness)  had 
its  original]  from  his  [Up.  Vesey  of  Exeter] 
profligating  of  the  lands  of  his  Bishoprick ; 
but  I  yet  demurre  to  the  truth  hereof. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Warwick  (ii.  410). 

Velvety,  soft  like  velvet. 

The  beautiful  velvety  turf  of  the  gardens. 
— Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xxv. 

Vend,  sale. 

She  .  .  .  has  a  great  vend  for  them,  and 
for  other  curiosities  which  she  imports. — 
Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  iv.  165. 

Z  Z 


VENDUE 


(  7o6) 


VERSABILITY 


Vendue,  a  sale. 

I  went  ashore,  and  having  purchased  a 
laced  waistcoat,  with  some  other  cloaths,  at 
a  vendue,  made  a  swaggering  figure. — Smol- 
lett, Rod.  Random,  ch.  xxxvi. 

Veneres,  hunter. 

Our  venerers,  prickers,  and  verderers. 

Browning,  Flight  of  the  Duchess. 

Venery,  game ;  also,  kennelf  or  hunt- 
ing dogs. 

They  must  have  swine  for  their  food,  to 
make  their  veneries  or  bacon  of ;  their  bacon 
is  their  venison,  for  they  shall  now  have 
hangum  tuum  if  they  get  any  other  venison  ; 
so  that  bacon  is  their  necessary  meat  to  feed 
on,  which  they  may  not  lack. — Latimer,  i. 
249. 

The  venery,  where  the  beagles  and  hounds 
were  kept. — Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  lv. 

Vendible,  great.  L.  has  it  =  re- 
vengeful, but  in  the  extract  it  =  great ; 
as  we  say,  a  great  hand  at  doing  this  or 
that. 

Paulus  ....  was  a  vengible  fellow  in  link- 
ing matters  together.  —  Holland's  Camden, 
p.  78. 

Venisonivorous,  devouring  venison. 

People  are  very  venisonivorous. — Sir  G.  C. 
Lewis,  Letters  (1828),  p.  10. 

Ventless,  without  a  vent  or  outlet 

Like  to  a  restlesse,  venUesse  flame  of  fire, 
That  faine  would  finde  the  way  straight  to 
aspire. — Davits,  Microcosmos,  p.  61. 

Ventriloque,  ventriloquous ;  speak- 
ing from  within. 

And  oft  indeed  the  inward  of  that  gate, 
Most  ventriloque,  doth  utter  tender  squeak. 

Hood,  Irish  Schoolmaster. 

Ventriloquial,  speaking  inwardly 
as  a  ventriloquist  does :  the  adjective  in 
the  Diets,  is  ventriloquous. 

The  symphony  began,  and  was  soon  after- 
wards followed  by  a  faint  kind  of  ventrilo- 
quial chirping.  —  Sketches  by  Boz  (Mistaken 
Milliner). 

Veranda.  See  extract.  In  1787  the 
word  seems  to  have  been  an  unfamiliar 
one  in  this  country.  Forty  years  later 
[Miss  Austen  died  in  1817]  both  name 
and  thing  were  common. 

The  other  gate  leads  to  what  in  this  coun- 
try [India]  is  called  a  veranda  or  feranda, 
which  is  a  kind  of  piazza  or  landing-place 
before  you  enter  the  hall  or  inner  apart- 
ments.— Archaol.,  viii.  264  (1787). 

Uppercross  Cottage,  with  its  veranda, 
French  windows,  and  other  prettinesses  was 
. .  likely  to  catch  the  traveller's  eye. — Miss 
Austen,  Persuasion,  oh.  v. 


Verbarian,  word-coiner. 

In  The  Doctor,  Southey  gives  himself  frfe 
scope  as  a  verbarian — Hall,  Modern  English, 
p.  21.    • 

Verdinoale,  a  farthingale.* 

And  busks,  and  verdingales  about  their  hips. 

Hall,  Satires,  IV.  vi.  10. 

Above  that  went  the  taffaty  or  tabby 
vardingale. — Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  L  ch. 
lvi. 

Verdure  is  used  peculiarly  in  the 
extract  =  taint  or  corruption  ;  the  idea 
seems  to  be  that  of  the  green  rust  on 
copper,  &c,  verdigris,  or  perhaps  of 
meat  turning  colour. 

Something  they  must  have  to  complain  of. 
that  shall  give  an  unsavoury  verdure  to  their 
sweetest  morsels. — Bp.  Hall,  Works,  ii.  248. 

Verdured,  covered  with  verdure- 
One  small  circular  island,  profusely  ver- 
dured, reposed  upon  the  bosom  of  the  stream. 
— E.  A.  Poe,  Island  of  the  Fay. 

Veridical,  veracious. 

Who  shall  read  this  so  veridical  history. — 
Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  II.  ch.  zxviii. 

At  Paris,  by  lyin£  rumour  which  proved 
prophetic  and  veridical,  the  fall  of  Verdun 
was  known  some  hours  before  it  happened. — 
Ibid.,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  I.  ch.  iv.  ■ 

Veriment,  truth.  H.  has  the  word, 
with  examples  as  an  adverb. 

Tell  unto  you 

What  is  veriment  and  true. 

Greene,  Friar  Bacon,  p.  HM. 

In  verament  and  sincerity,  I  never  crouded 
through  this  confluent  Herring-faire. — ATaske, 
Lenten  Stvffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  102). 

Verisimilar,  like  the  truth;  pro- 
bable.   The  Diets,  have  verisimiloug. 

How  verisimilar  it  looks. — Carlyle,  Misc., 
iv.  69. 

Vermin,  to  clear  from  vermin. 

Get  warrener  bound 
To  vermin  thy  ground. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  72. 

Verrinus  seems  from  the  context 
to  have  been  a  superior  kind  of  tobacco. 

But  all  the  day  long  you  do  us  the  wrong. 
When  for  Verrinus  jou  bring  us  Mundungus ; 
Tour  reckonings  are  lar^e,  your  bottles  are 
smalL — Merry  Drollerie,  p.  12. 

Versability,  versatility. 

The  use  of  auxiliaries  is  at  once  to  set  the 
soul  a  going  by  herself  upon  the  materials 
as  they  are  brought  her ;  and  by  the  t*r- 
sab i lit y  of  this  great  engine  round  which 
they  are  twisted,  to  open  new  tracks  of 
enquiry,  and  make  every  idea  engender 
millions. — Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy,  iv.  137. 


VERSANT 


(  707  ) 


VICE-BITTEN 


Versant,  versed. 

The  Bishop  of  London  is  .  .  thoroughly 
versant  in  ecclesiastical  law. — Sydney  Smith, 
I'yirst  Letter  to  Archd.  Singleton. 

Verse,  to  turn ;  revolve. 

Who,  versing  in  his  mind  this  thought,  can 
keep  his  cheeks  dry  ? — Adams,  i.  344. 

Verse.  Nares  says  verser  "  seems  to 
have  been  an  occasional  name  for  some 
kind  of  gaming  sharper.  One  gambler 
says  of  another,  evidently  meaning  to 
be  witty,  on  being  asked  whether  he 
can  verse,  '  Ay,  and  set  too,  my  lord. 
He's  both  a  setter  and  a  verser '  (Chap- 
man, Mons.  UOlive,  iv.  1).  Setter  is 
easily  understood  ;  .  .  .  what  a  verser 
was  to  do  is  not  so  clear."  The  extract 
may  throw  some  light  on  this ;  at  least 
the  verb  seems  to  be  used  of  a  cheat- 
ing parasite;  one  who  turns  with  his 
patron's  humour  (?). 

We  goe  so  neate  in  apparell,  so  orderly  in 
outward  appearance,  some  like  lawyers' 
darks,  others  like  serving-men,  that  attend 
there  about  their  masters'  businesse,  that  we 
are  hardly  smoakt;  versina  upon  all  men 
with  kind  courtesies  and  faire  wordes,  and 
yet  being  so  warily  watchfull  that  a  good 
purse  can  not  be  put  up  in  a  faire  but  we 
sigh  if  we  share  it  not  amongst  us. — Greene, 
Theeves  falling  out,  1615  (Harl.  Misc.,  viii. 
384). 

Versute,  changeable ;  unsettled. 

A  person  of  very  supercilious  gravity,  also 
of  versute  and  vertigenous  policy. — Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  132. 

Vert.  See  extract,  which  is  from 
an  article  that  appeared  in  the  Union 
Review  for  May  1864,  afterwards  re- 
printed separately.  The  writer  had 
gone  over  from  the  Anglican  to  the 
Roman  Church.  The  word  is  now  not 
uncommon  in  colloquial  use,  or  in 
some  religious  newspapers.  It  is  often 
printed  without  any  apostrophe  denot- 
ing that  the  prefix  has  been  cut  off. 

I  belong  to  that  strange  category  about 
whose  prepositional  affix  opinions  are  divided 
in  England.  Old  friends  call  me  a  pervert : 
new  acquaintances  a  convert :  the  other  day 
I  was  addressed  as  a  'vert.  It  took  my  fancy 
as  offending  nobody,  if  pleasing  nobody.  . .  . 
This  term  "  'vert "  I  have  every  reason  to 
believe  has  been  only  just  coined. — Experi- 
ences of  a  "  Vert" 

Vertugal.  The  poet  is  speaking  of 
the  effeminate  Sardannpalus,  who  wore 
women's  clothes.     Vertugal  may  there- 


fore mean  farthingale,  or,  as  Bp.  Hall 

and  others  write  it,  verdingale. 

Amongst  his  vertugals  for  ayde  he  drew 
From  his  Lieutenant,  who  did  him  pursew, 
And  wan  his  scepter. 

Hudson,  Judith,  v.  215. 

Vertumnal.  Vertumnus  was  an 
Etruscan  Deity,  presiding  over  the 
revolving  seasons.  In  the  extract 
Adams,  having  perhaps  the  first  syllable 
chiefly  in  his  mind,  seems  to  use  it  = 
spring. 

Her  smiles  are  more  reviving  than  the 
vertumnal  sunshine. — Adams,  ii.  333. 

Vesicatory,  blister. 

A  vesicatory  of  devil's  dung  was  applied  to 
my  costern.— T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  209. 

Vestural,  pertaining  to  clothes. 
This  is  one  of  the  words  which  Sterling 
blames  Carlyle  for  inventing.  See 
extract  3.  v.  Environment. 

How  then  comes  it,  may  the  reflective 
mind  repeat,  that  the  grand  Tissue  of  all 
Tissues,  the  only  real  Tissue,  should  have 
been  quite  overlooked  by  Science, — the  ves- 
tural Tissue,  namely,  of  woollen  or  other 
cloth. — Carlyle,  Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  I.  ch.  i. 

Vesuvian,  a  cigar-light. 

Not  all  the  vesuvians  in  the  world  could 
have  kept  his  cigar  alight. — Black,  Adven- 
tures of  a  Phaeton,  ch.  six. 

Vexedlt,  with  a  sense  of  annoyance. 

My  heart  is  vexedly  easy;  if  I  may  so 
describe  it;  vexedly,  because  of  the  appre- 
hended interview, ...  or  else  I  should  be 
quite  easy. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  ii.  165. 

Vexedness,  vexation. 

My  teasing  uncle  broke  out  into  a  loud 
laugh,  which,  however,  had  more  of  vexedness 
than  mirth  in  it. — Richardson,  Grandison, 
vi.  74. 

Vexillart,  a  standard-bearer.  "  Near 
Brampton  runs  the  little  river  Gelt;  on 
the  bank  of  which,  in  a  rock  called 
Helbeck,  is  this  gaping  inscription  set 
up  by  an  ensign  of  the  second  legion, 
caird  Augusta,  under  Agricola  the  pro- 
praetor "  (Gibson's  Camden,  p.  1037). 
The  inscription  begins  Vex.  Leg. 

And  Gareth  lookt  and  read, 
In  letters  like  to  those  the  vexillary 
Hath  left  crag-carven  o'er  the  streaming  Gelt. 
Tennyson,  Gareth  and  Lynette. 

Vicaress,  female  vicar. 

Mother  Austin  was  afterwards  Vicaress 
several  years. — Arch.,  xxviii.  198  (1840). 

Vice-bitten,  a  prey  to  vice.  Cf. 
Hunger-bitten  (Job  xviii.  12). 

/  z  2 


V1CT0RIAL 


(  7o8) 


VIRTUED 


0  my  dear,  what  a  paltry  creature  is  a  man 
vice-bitten. — Richardson,  Grandison,  vi.  181. 

Victorial,  victorious ;  or,  rather, 
pertaining  to  a  victory. 

Pantagruel,  for  an  eternal  memorial,  wrote 
this  victorial  ditton. — Urquhart's  Rabelais, 
Bk.  II.  ch.  xxvii. 

Victorino  boys,  roaring  boys  (?). 

To  runne  through  all  the  pamphlets  and  the 

toyes 
Which  I  haue  seene  in  hands  of  Victoring 
Boyes. 

A.  Holland  (Davies,  Scourge  of  Folly, 
p.  80). 

Victrix,   conqueres*.      Ben  Jonson 
has  victrice. 
t  In  his  victrix  he  required  all  that  was  here 
visible. — Miss  Bronte,  Villette,  ch.  xzzii. 

Victualaqk,  food ;  provision. 

1  could  not  proceed  .  . .  with  my  cargo  of 
victualage. — C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xvii. 

Viduous,  widowed. 

She  gone,  and  her  viduous  mansion,  your 
heart,  to  let,  her  successor  the  new  occupant 
.  .  .  finds  her  miniature. — Thackeray,  New- 
comes,  ch.  Lxvi. 

Viewer.  See  extract:  "you"  are 
Cornish  miners. 

The  door-keepers  were  summoned  before 
the  overseer,  or,  as  you  call  him,  the  viewer. 
— Miss  Edgeworth,  Lame  Jervas,  ch.  i. 

Vioorize,  to  invigorate.  Davies 
(Microcosmos,  p.  29)  says  that  the 
veins  and  arteries  meet  together 
"  thereby  to  vigorize  the  vitall  band." 

Vile,  a  vile  thing. 

Which  soeuer  of  them  I  touche  is  a  vyle. 
— Gossan,  Schoole  of  Abuse,  p.  25. 

Villanel,  a  ballad  (Pr.  villanelle). 
One  of  Sidney's  Sonnets  (p.  535)  is 
directed  to  be  sung  "  to  the  tune  of  a 
Neapolitan  villanel." 

The  vulgar  and  purely  natural  poesie  has 
in  it  certain  proprieties  and  graces, ...  as  is 
evident  in  oar  Gascon  villanels  and  songs. — 
Cotton's  Montaigne,  ch.  xli. 

Vinaigrous,  sour,  like  vinegar. 

Lafayette,  detestable  though  he  be,  is  their 
saviour  for  once ;  even  the  ancient  vinaigrous 
Tantes  admit  it.— Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  I.  Bk. 
VII.  ch.  ix. 

Vincibility,  capability  of  being  con- 
quered. 

I  don't  know  what  to  say  to  the  vincibility 
of  such  a  love. — Richardson,  Grandison,  vi.  49. 

Vinew,  mouldiness. 


Soon  would  it  catch  a  vinew,  begin    **-<  1 
putrifie,  and  so  continue  but  a  while. — J2W- 
land,  Pliny,  xix.  3. 

Vint,  to  make  wine. 

I  wouldn't  give  a  straw  for  the  best  wine 
that  ever  was  vinted. — Trollope,  Barchestrr 
Towers,  ch.  xxi. 

Vintnery,  the  trade  of  a  vintner. 

The  father  of  him  did,  in  an  unexception- 
able manner,  perform  cookery  and  vintnery 
in  the  village  of  Ouarville. — Carlyle,  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  V.  ch.  iL 

V10LENTO,  a  violent  man.  Cf.  Ftri- 
oso,  Glorioso,  &c. 

In  the  Raign  of  Queen  Mary  he  fled  beyond 
the  Seas,  and  was  no  flolento  in  the  Troubles 
of  Francford,  but,  with  all  meekness,  to  his 
might,  endeavoured  a  pacification. — Fuller, 
Worthies,  Cumberland  (i.  236). 

Violin,  to  play  on  the  violin. 

Was  not  Madam  W.  plaid  out  of  her 
reputation,  and  violin* d  into  a  match  below 
her  quality  Y — Gentleman  Instructed,  p.  136. 

Violist,  player  on  the  viol. 

He  was  a  violinist,  and  the  two  former 
violists.—Life  of  A.  Wood,  Feb.  12,  1658-9. 

Viorne,  the  way-faring  tree:  a 
French  word,  but  used  in  extract  as  an 
English  one. 

Inter  viburna  Oupressus,  that  is,  the 
Cypresse-tree  amongst  the  viornes.  —  Hol- 
land's Camden,  p.  421. 

Viparious,  life-producing. 

A  cat  the  most  viparious  is  limited  to  nine 
lives. — Lytton,  Caxtons,  Bk.  XII.  ch.  ii. 

Viperes8,  female  viper. 

Pontia  did  confesse. 
My  sons  I  would  have  poyson'd.     Viperesu ' 

Stapylton,  Juvenal,  vi.  675. 

Virgin-head,  virginity. 

Thither  must  I 
To  see  my  love's  face,  the  chaste  virgin-head 
Of  a  dear  fish,  yet  pure  and  undeflower'd, 
Not  known  of  man. 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  Woman-Hater,  i.  3. 

Unlike  it  is 
Such  blessed  state  the  noble  flowr  should 

miss 
Of  Virgin-head. — Sylvester,  Eden,  66*2. 

Two  foes  of  honord  name  in  Honor's  bed 
(The  field)  desirde  (like  virgins  newly  wiues) 
To  lose  their  valour's  lusty  virgin-head 

Davies,  Scourge  of  Folly,  p.  23. 

Virtu ed,  endued  with  virtue. 

But  hath  the  virtued  steel  a  power  to  movp  ? 
Or  can  the  untouch'd  needle  point  aright  ? 

Quarles,  Emblems,  V.  iv.  3 


VIRTUOUS 


(  709  )  VOCIFEROSITY 


Virtuous, strong ;  valorous:  a  Latin- 
ism.  The  "virtuous  engine"  in  the 
first  extract  is  the  golden  chain  which 
Zeus  lets  down  from  heaven;  there  is 
no  word  corresponding  to  virtuous  in 
the  original. 

Then  will  I  to  Olympus'  top  our  virtuous 

engine  bind, 
And  by  it  ev'ry  thing  shall  hang. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  viii.  22. 

My   Lord,  I  know  too  well  your  vertuous 

spirit ; 
Take  heede  for  God's  loue  if  you  rowse  the 

bore 
You  come  not    neere  him,  but  discharge 

aloofe 
Your  wounding  pistoll,  or  well  aymed  dart. 

Ibid.,  Gentleman  Vsher,  i.  1. 

Vis-a-vis.  This  French  word  is 
naturalized  among  us;  it  signifies  a 
carriage  to  hold  two  persons,  one 
opposite  the  other  instead  of  side  by 
.«ide ;  also  a  person  standing  opposite 
jin other  in  a  quadrille.  Sterne  {Trist. 
Shandy,  ii.  219)  contrasts  "  a  single- 
horse  chair  and  Madam  Pompadour's 
vis-a-vis" 

Gould  the  stage  be  a  large  vis-a-vis, 

Reserved  for  the  polished  and  great, 
Where  each  happy  lover  might  see 

The  nymph  he  adores  tete-a-tete ; 
No  longer  I'd  gaze  on  the  ground, 

And  the  load  of  despondency  hug, 
For  I'd  book  myself  all  the  year  round 

To  ride  with  the  sweet  Lady  Mugg. 

H.  and  J.  Smith,  Rejected  Addresses, 
p.  105. 

Miss  Blanche  was  indeed  the  vis-a-vis  of 
Miss  Laura,  and  smiled  most  killingly  upon 
bcr  dearest  friend,  and  nodded  to  her,  and 
talked  to  her  when  they  met  during  the 
quadrille  evolutions. — Thackeray,  Pendennis, 
ch.  xxvii. 

Vision,  to  see  as  in  a  vision. 

We  in  the  morning  eyed  the  pleasant  fields 
Vision'd  before. 

Souihey,  Joan  of  Arc,  Bk.  VIII. 

Such  guessing,  visioning,  dim  perscrutation 
of  the  momentous  future ! — Carlyle,  Past 
and  Present,  Bk.  II.  ch.  viii. 

Visitbess,  female  visitor. 

Keenly,  I  fear,  did  the  eye  of  the  visitress 
pierce  the  young  pastor's  heart. — C.  Bronte, 
Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xxxii. 

Visort,   visual ;    having  power    of 

vision. 

-  The  optic  nerves  and  the  visory  spirits  are 
corrupted. — Adams,  ii.  379. 

Visto,  view.     Visto  is  past  part,  of 


Sp.  vedere,  to  see.     We  generally  adopt 
the  Italian  vista. 

Then  all  beside  each  glade  and  Visto 
You'd  see  Nymphs  lying  like  Calisto. 

Gay,  To  a  Young  Lady. 

Visualised,  made  visible.     Sterling 

objects  to  this  word.     See  extract  3.  v. 

Environment. 

Who  am  I  ?  What  is  this  Me  ?  A  Voice, 
a  Motion,  an  Appearance — some  embodied, 
visualised  Idea  in  the  Eternal  Mind. — Carlyle, 
Sartor  Resartus,  Bk.  I.  ch.  viii. 

Visuality,  sight ;  glimpse. 

We  must . . .  catch  a  few  more  visualities. 
— Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  242. 

We  have  a  pleasant  visuality  of  an  old 
summer  afternoon  in  the  Queen's  Court  two 
hundred  years  ago. — Ibid.,  Cromwell,  i.  90. 

ViTIAL,  vicious. 

There  is  nothing  on  it  [earth]  that  is  of  it 
which  is  not  become  more  vitiat  than  vital. — 
Adams,  i.  337. 

Vitbioline,  vitriolic. 

In  a  moorish  boggy  ground  ariseth  a 
Spring  of  a  vitriofine  Tast  and  Odour. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Wilts  (ii.  493). 

Vividitt,  liveliness. 
Vicious  humours  gnaw  and  suck  the  con- 
science of  all  vividity. — Adams,  i.  484. 

Vivi-sepulture,  burying  alive. 

Pliny  .  .  .  speaks  of  the  practice  of  «'«'■ 
sepulture  as  continued  to  his  own  time.— 
Dean  Liddell,  1863  {Archaol.,  xl.  243). 

Vixenish,  cross  ;  ill-tempered. 

A  short,  thin,  squeezed-up  woman  with  a 
vixenish  countenance. — Dickens,  Oliver  Twist, 
ch.  iv. 

Vizor,  to  cover  with  a  vizor:  the 
past  participle  vizored  is  used  by 
Traheron,  Milton,  &c. 

u  Ugh !  "  cried  the  Sun,  and  vizoring  up  a  red 
And  cipher  face  of  rounded  foolishness, 
Push'd  horse  across  the  foamings  of  the 
ford. — Tennyson,  Gareth  and  Lynette. 

Vociferant,  clamorous. 

For  all  His  Wounds,  with  voice  vociferant, 
Grie  out  they  can  more  than  supply  each 
want. — Davits,  Holy  Roode,  p.  19. 

The  most  vociferant  vulgar,  who  most  cry 
up  this  their  Diana,  like  the  riotous  rabble 
at  Ephesus,  do  least  know  what  the  matter 
is. — Gauden,  Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  114. 

Vociferositt,  clamorousness ;  voci- 
feration. 

Shall  we  give  poor  Buffiere's  testimonial 
in  mess-room  dialect,  in  its  native  twanging 
vociferosity  ? — Carlyle,  Misc.,  iv.  91. 


VOCULAR 


(  7»o  ) 


VULGARIAN 


Vocular,  vocal. 

He  turned  angrily  round,  and  inquired 
what  that  young  cur  was  howling  for,  and 
why  Mr.  Bumble  did  not  favour  him  with 
something  which  would  render  the  series  of 
vocular  exclamations  so  designated  an  in- 
voluntary process.  —  Dickens,  Oliver  Twist, 
ch.  vii. 

Void,  the  last  course  or  remove ; 
the  dessert. 

There  was  a  void  of  spice-plates  and  wine. 
—  Coronation  of  Anne  Boleyn,  1533  (Eng. 
Garner,  ii.  50). 

Voided,  cleaned  (?). 

Socrates  beyng  bidden  to  a  supper  by  one 
Agatho,  was  going  with  trick  voided  shoes  on 
his  f eete,  and  perfumed  with  sweete  sauoura. 
— UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  32. 

Volant.  This  French  word  = 
shuttlecock  is  applied  by  North  to  a 
Jack-of-both-sides:  one  who  Jlies  from 
one  to  the  other ;  the  adjective  =  giddy, 
unrestrainable,  flying. 

And  so  they  kept  the  volant  a  good  while, 
and  did  not  declare  on  which  side  they  would 
fall. — North,  Examen,  p.  63. 

The  Dutch  had  acted  the  volant,  and  done 
enough  on  the  one  side  or  the  other  to  have 
kept  the  fire  alive. — Ibid.,  p.  474. 

Yes,  my  volant,  my  self-conducted  quill, 
begin  with  the  sister. — Richardson,  Grand*' 
son,  i.  274. 

The  eddying  smoke,  quick  flame,  and  volant 
spark. — Poetry  of  Antijacobin,  p.  129. 

Volcanian,  volcanic. 

A  deep  volcanian  yellow  took  the  place 
Of  all  her  milder-mooned  body's  grace ; 
And,  as  the  lava  ravishes  the  mead, 
Spoilt  all  her  silver  mail,  and  golden  brede. 

Keats,  Lamia, 

Volcanoism,  eruptiveness. 

Blaze  out,  as  wasteful  volcanoism  to  scorch 
and  consume. — Carlyle,  Past  and  Present, 
Bk.  II.  ch.  x. 

Volently,  willingly. 

Into  the  pit  they  run  against  their  will, 
that  ran  so  volently,  so  violently,  to  the 
brink  of  it. — Adams,  i.  237. 

Volge,  the  vulgar ;  the  mob. 

One  had  as  good  be  dumb  as  not  speak 
with  the  volge.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI.  viii.  32. 

We  must  speak  with  the  volge,  and  think 
with  the  wise. — Ibid.,  Worthies,  London. 

Vollenoe,    avalanche.      Cf.   Va- 

LANCHE. 

The  vollenge  which  overwhelms  a  whole 
village  was  at  first  but  a  little  snow-ball. — 
W.  Taylor,  Survey  of  German  Poetry,  ii.  456. 


Volution,  rolling;  revolution.  The 
reference  in  extract  is  to  a  water-spout. 

The  swift  volution  and  the  enormous  train, 
Let  sages  versed  in  nature's  lore  explain. 

Falconer,  Shipwreck,  ii.  43. 

Volve,  to  turn.  R.  has  this  word, 
with  a  quotation  from  Berners's  Frois- 
mrt;  the  subjoined  extract  is  nearly 
250  years  later. 

I  have  been  volving  and  revolving  in  my 
fancy  some  time,  but  to  no  purpose,  by  what 
clean  device  or  facete  contrivance  I  might 
.  .  modulate  them.  —  Sterne,  Trist.  Shandy, 
v.  109. 

Vorago,  abyss.  A  Latin  word,  but 
used  by  Evelyn  as  English,  otherwise 
he  would  have  written  voragines. 

The  voragos  of  subterranean  cellars,  wells, 
and  dungeons,  formerly  warehouses,  still 
burning  in  stench  and  dark  clowds  of  smoke. 
—Evelyn,  Diary,  Sept.  7, 166U 

Votal,  wishful. 

He  is  not  like  those  debtors  that  have 
neither  means  nor  meaning  to  pay.  But 
though  he  wants  actual,  he  hath  votal  retri- 
bution.— Adams,  i.  100. 

Votist,  vower. 

A  poore  woman,  votist  of  reuenge. 

Cftapman,  Reuenge  of  Hussy  D*Amboisy 
Act  III. 

Vouchment,  solemn  assertion. 

Their  vouchment  by  their  honour  in  that 
tryal  is  not  an  oath.— Hacket,  Life  of  Wil- 
liams, i.  77. 

Vulgar,  a  vulgar  person ;  one  of  the 

lower  classes. 

The  budding  rose  is  set  by. 
But  stale,  and  fully  blown,  is  left  for  vulgars 
To  rub  their  sweaty  fingers  on.  1 

Marmion,  Antiquary,  Act  IV. 

It  would  be  as  low  to  accept  the  challenge 
of  a  vulgar  as  to  refuse  it  to  an  equal.— 
Burgoyne,  Lord  of  the  Manor,  II.  i. 

Tet  are  those  feats  what  vulgars  term  a  bore. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  239. 

Vulgarian,  a  vulgar  person.  Den- 
hain  has  it  as  an  adjective. 

With  a  fat  vulgarian  sloven, 
Little  Admiral  John 
To  Boulogne  is  gone. 

Denham,  To  Sir  J.  Mentis. 

The  latter  ....  voted  him  a  profound 
bore  and  vulgarian — Thackeray,  Shabby  Gen- 
teel Story,  ch.  viii. 

If  some  indiscreet  vulgarian  (a  favourite 
word  with  both  the  Pompleys)  asked  point- 
blank  if  he  meant  "my  lord  Digby,"  tie 
Colonel  with  a  lofty  air  answered,  fcTbe 
elder  branch,  sir." — Lytton,  My  Hotel,  Bk.  V 
ch.  viii. 


VULGARITY 


(  7"  ) 


WAGGONETTE 


Vulgarity,  commonalty;  mob. 

The  meere  vulgarity  (like  swine)  are  prone 
to  cry  out  more  for  a  little  bite  by  the  eare 
than  for  all  the  sordidnesse  of  sin.— Gauden, 
Tears  of  the  Church,  p.  3  (Preface). 

Vulnerable,  wounding :  its  proper 
meaning  is,  liable  to  be  wounded. 

The  male  children  practise  to  ride  great 
horses,  to  throw  the  vulnerable  and  inevitable 
darte.  —  Ambassy  of  Sir  B.  S her  ley,  1609 
(Harl.  Misc.,  v.  440). 

Vulnerate,  to  wound.  The  Diets, 
give  only  the  past  participle. 

Thou  thy  chastitie  didst  vulnerate. 

Davies,  Wittes  Pilgrimage,  p.  17. 


Hedged  in  with  cares  as  with  an  hedge  of 
thorne, 
Whose    piercing   prickes    the  mind   doe 
vulnerate. — Ibid.,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  10. 

Vulturine,  pertaining  to  a  vulture. 

The  vulturine  nose,  which  smells  nothing 
but  corruption.  —  Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago, 
ch.  x. 

Vulturish,  pertaining  to  a  vulture. 
See  extract  *.  v.  Accipitral  (the  Diets, 
have  vulturous). 

Vulturism,  rapacity.  See  extract 
*.  v.  Owlism. 


w 


Waddie,  Indian  club.  See  extract 
*.  v.  Gin. 

Wadling,  a  wattled  fence. 
To  arbor  begun  and  quicksetted  about, 
No  poling  nor  wadling  till  set  be  far  out. 

Tusser,  Musbandrie,  p.  83. 

Wadmus,  a  thick  coarse  kind  of 
woollen  cloth.  See  H.  s.  v.  wadrnol. 
Tusser  (Husbandrie,  p.  37)  recommends 
"  'sedge  collers  for  ploughhorse,"  to 
which  Tusser  Redivivus  appends  the 
following  note : 

Lightest  and  coolest,  but  indeed  not  so 
comly  as  those  of  wadmus. 

Wafrie,  pastry. 

He  sent  a  ladde  aforehand  about  to  euery 
of  his  frendes  then  present,  and  bid  theim  to 
keepe  a  corner  of  their  stomakes  for  the 
tartes,  wafrie,  and  jounkettes  that  wer  to  be 
serued  and  to  com  in  after  the  meat. — VdaVs 
Erasmus's  Apophih.,  p.  192. 

Wag,  to  go ;  to  move. 

Pinch.  Sir,  go,  we'll  follow  you. 
Spark.  I  will  not  way  without  you. 

Wycherley,  Country  Wife,  iv.  4. 
They  made  a  pretty  good  shift  to  wagg 
along. — Pilgrim's  Progress,  ii.  183. 

Gome,  neighbours,  we  must  wag. 

Cowper,  Yearly  Distress. 

Wageless,  in  the  extract  *.  v.  Tax- 
less =  without  paying  wages;  it 
should  rather  mean  not  receiving 
wages. 

Wageling,  a  hireling. 

These  are  the  very  false  prophets,  the 
instruments  of  Satan,  the  deceivers,  wolves, 
wagdings,  Judases,  dreamers,  liars.  —  Bale, 
Select  Works,?.  439. 


Wages-less,  without  wages. 
Some    intrusive,    ragamuffin,  'wages-less 
lackey. — Lytton,  Pelham,  ch.  xlix. 

Wage- work,  labour  for  which  money 
is  paid. 

Old  folk  beside  their  fires. 
For  comfort  after  their  wage-work  is  done. 

Tennyson,  Coming  of  Arthur. 

Waggon-borough,  the  part  of  the 
camp  in  which  the  waggons  and  bag- 
gage are  kept  (?). 

"We  .  .  .  entrenched  our  carriages  and 
waggon-borough.  —  Patten,  Exped.  to  Scotl., 
1548  {Eng.  Gamer,  iii.  103). 

Waggoner.  The  application  of  the 
word  in  the  extract  is  curious. 

Elias  was  a  waggoner  in  the  air,  mounted 
through  the  clouds  in  a  chariot.— A  dams, 
iii.  139. 

Waggoness,  female  driver.  Iris  is 
"  she  that  paints  the  air." 

He  granted,  acd  his  chariot  (perplex'd  with 

her  late  harm) 
She  mounted,  and  her  waggoness  was  she 

that  paints  the  air. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  v.  348. 

That  she  might  serve  for  waggoness,  she 

pluck'd  the  wagg*ner  back, 
And  up  into  his  seat  she  mounts. 

Ibid.,  v.  838. 

Waggonette,  a  carriage  with  seats 
along  the  sides  instead  of  back  and 
front. 

There  was  a  large  waggonette  of  varnished 
oak,  and  a  pair  of  small  powerful  horses 
waiting  for  him  there. — Black,  Princess  of 
Tkule,  oh.  i. 


WAGPASTIE 


(  7i2  ) 


WAPPINGER 


Wagpastie,  a  rogue ;  urchin. 

M.  Mery.  Maide,  with  whom  are 

ye  so  hastie  ? 
Tib.  Not  with  you,  sir,  but  with  a  little 
wagpastie, 
A  deceiuer  of  folkes  by  subtill  craft  and  guile. 
Udal,  Roister  Doister,  iii.  2. 

Wag- tail,  to  flutter. 

Euen  as  a  payr  of  busie  chattering  pies, 
Seeing  some  hardie  tercell  from  the  skies 
To  stoop  with  rav'nous  seres,  feele  a  chill 

feare, 
From  bush  to  bush  wagtayling  here  and  there. 
Sylvester,  The  Trophies,  p.  137. 

Waine,  to  fetch  in  a  wain. 

Then,  neighbours,  for  God's  sake,  if  any  you 

see 
Good  seruant  for  dairie  house,  waine  her  to 

mee. — Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  107. 

Wainman,  waggoner.    Sylvester  ap- 
plies it  to  Charles  of  the  Wain. 
Besides  these  twelue,  toward  the  Artik  side, 
A  flaming  Dragon  doth  two  Bears  diuide ; 
After,  the  Wainman  comes,  the  Crown,  the 

Spear, 
The  Kneeling  Touth,  the  Harp,  the  Ham- 

perer. 

Sylvester,  Fourth  day,  first  weeke,  290. 

Divers  abuses  on  the  Lords-day  were  re- 
strained: all  cariers,  carters,  waggoners, 
wainmen,  drovers  of  cattell  forbidden  to 
travell  thereon.— Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  XI.  i.  64. 

Waist,  girdle. 

I  might  have  given  thee  for  thy  pains 
Ten  silver  shekels  and  a  golden  waist  ? 

Feele,  David  and  Bethsabe,  p.  481. 

Waistcoating,  stuff  to  be  made  into 
waistcoats. 

Mrs.  Carver  bespoke  from  him  two  pieces 
of  waistcoating.—Miss  Edgeworth,  The  Dun, 
p.  315. 

Wakerife,  quite  awake. 

And  wakerife  through  the  corpsgard  oft  he 
past.— Hudson's  Judith,  iii.  89. 

Wake-Robin,  the  plant  "which  in 
E^ypt  they  call  Aron"  (Holland, 
Pliny,  xix.  5). 

Walkers,  feet. 

And  with  them  halted  down 
(Proud  of  his  strength)  lame  Mulciber,  his 
walkers  quite  misgrown. 

Chapman,  Iliad,  xx.  36. 

Walking,  moving :  used  rather  pe- 
culiarly in  extract,  but  see  quotation 
s.  v.  Standard. 

Wine  was   walking  on  every  side.  —  R. 
Smith,  1555   (Maitland  on  Reformation,  p. 

527). 


Wallow,  to  dirty. 

All  dirt  and  mire  some  wallow  bed,  as  span- 
niels  vse  to  doo. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  191. 

Waltham's   calf    is  said   to  have 

run  nine  miles  to  suck  a  bull :  hence, 

as  wise  as  Waliham's  calf  =  very  silly. 

Some  running  and  gadding  calves,  wiser 
than  Waltham's  calfe  that  ranne  nine  miles 
to  sucke  a  bull. — Disclosing  of  the  great  Bull, 
1567  (Harl.  Misc.,  vii.  535). 

Wand,  to  enclose  with  wands  or 
palings. 

Now  make  and  wand  in 
Trim  bower  to  stand  in. 

Tusser y  Husbandrie,  p.  74. 

Wanly,  wastingly. 

An  extream  fever  vext  the  Virgin's  bones, 
(By  one  disease  to  cause  two  deaths  at  once) 
Consum'd  her  flesh,  and  wanly  did  displace 
The  rose-mixt  lillies  in  her  louely  face. 
Sylvester,  Fifth  day,  first  weeke,  1028. 

Wanter,  one  who  is  deficient,  or  in 
need. 

What  should  I  think  of  courage  ?  if  it  wants, 
The  warders  are  despis'd  of  God  and  men. 
Davies,  Scourge  of  Folly,  p.  21. 

Want-grace,  a  reprobate. 

And  rather  than  they  should  not  die  by  force, 
Or  want  a  Want-Grace  to  performe  the 

deede, 
Their  Vncle  and  Protector  must  perforce 
Their  crowne  from  head,  and  head  from  life 

diuorce. — Davies,  Microeosmos,  p.  57. 

Wantoning,  a  wanton. 

But  since,  I  saw  it  painted  on  fame's  wings 
The  Muses  to  be  woxen  wantonings. 

Hall,  Satires,  I.  ii.  34. 

Wap,  twist  or  binding  (?). 

You  must  looke  that  youre  bowe  be  well 
nocked  for  fere  the  sharpnesse  of  the  home 
shere  a  sunder  the  strynge:  and  that 
chaunceth  ofte  when,  in  bending,  the  string 
hath  but  one  wap  to  strengthe  it  wyth  all. — 
Ascham,  Toxophtlus,  p.  111. 

Wappineers,  people  of  Wapping. 

In  kennel  sowc'd  o'er  head  and  ears 
Amongst  the  crowding  Wappineers. 

VUrfey,  Collin's  Walk,  canto  ii. 

Wapping,  barking:  so  a  cur  was 
called  a  whappet.    See  N.  s.  v. 

The  harmless  wapping  of  a  curs'd  curre 
may  stir  up  a  fierce  mastiffe  to  the  worrying 
of  sheep.— Fuller,  Holy  and  Profane  State, 
V.  iii.  1. 

Wappinger,  a  man  of  Wapping. 
Cf .  Wappineer, 


WAR 


(  7i3  ) 


WAR  WOLF 


He  was  a  thorough-paced  traitor,  and 
looked  upon  to  be  paymaster  of  the  mob ;  a 
Wappinger,  and  good  at  mustering  seamen. 
— Northy  Examcn,  p.  585. 

War.  A8cham  suggests  a  curious 
etymology  for  this  word,  as  though  it 
came  from  waur  or  worse. 

There  is  nothing  worse  then  war,  whereof 
it  taketh  his  name. — Toxophilus,  p.  62. 

Warble,  to  shake ;  quaver ;  wobble. 

In  all  the  examples  in  the  Diets,  the 

word  is  used  of  sound. 

It  but  floats  in  our  brains — we  bnt  warble 
about  it;  but  we  believe  it  not. — Andrewes, 
i.  15. 

War-craft,  science  of  war. 

He  had  Officers  who  did  ken  the  War- 
craft. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Lancashire  (i.  558). 

Wardenry.  The  district  on  the  bor- 
ders of  England  and  Scotland  was 
called  a  wardenry,  and  was  under  the 
care  of  a  warden,  whose  duty  it  was  to 
prevent  incursions. 

In  this  steward  lyeth  all  the  safetie  of  the 
west  part  of  the  wardenrie. — Document,  1590 
(Archaol.,  xzii.  163). 

They  may  not  tamely  see 
All  through  the  western  wardenry, 
Your  law-contemning  kinsmen  ride, 
And  burn  and  spoil  the  Border-side. 
Scott,  Lay  of  Last  Minstrel,  c.  iv. 

Wardrober,  keeper  of  the  wardrobe. 
In  the  Accounts  of  Elizabeth  Princess 
Palatine,  1613  (Arch.,  xxxv.  10),  a 
charge  is  made  for  "two  wardrobers 
and  theire  servants  for  theire  boorde 
wages  goeing  and  returninge." 

Ware,  to  expend. 

They  shall  fynde  it  bothe  lesse  charge  and 
more  pleasure  to  ware  at  any  tyme  a  couple 
of  shyflynges  of  a  new  bo  we,  than  to  bestowe 
xd.  of  peacynge  an  olde  bowe. — Ascham, 
Toxophilus^  p.  122. 

He  would:  not  ware  the  spark  of  a  flint 
for  him,  if  they  came  with  the  law. — Scott, 
Waverley,  i.  191. 

I  grabb'd  the  munny  she  maade,  and  I  wedrd 
it  o'  liquor,  I  did. 

Tennyson,  Northern  Cobbler. 

Ware -trash,  "sedge,  turfe,  and 
reed."  It  was  objected  by  some  that 
if  the  Cambridgeshire  fens  were  drained, 
there  would  be  a  deficiency  of  these. 
Fuller  answers,  "  Provision  may  be 
made  that  a  sufficiency  of  such  ware- 
trash  may  still  be  preserved  "  (Hist, 
of  Camb.  Univ.t  v.  3).    Trash  pertain- 


ing to  a  weir  or  stream  (?)  ;  or  has  it 
to  do  with  Ware- water,  q.  v.  ? 

Ware- water.  The  New  River  com- 
pleted in  1613  is  supplied  from  springs 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Ware  in  Hert- 
fordshire. 

Another,  in  imitation  of  their  aqueducts 
and  sluces  and  conveyance  of  waters  abroad, 
brought  Ware-water  through  London  streets. 
— Ho  welly  Forraine  Travtll,  sect.  16. 

War,  Horse,  seems  to  be  an  exclam- 
ation enjoining  caution  ;  perhaps  such 
as  coachmen  or  carters  addressed  to 
their  cattle. 

Mon.  Tour  goodness,  Madam,  is — 
Flip  (aside  to  Mon.).    War,  Horse.    No 
fine  speeches ;  you'll  spoil  all. 

Vanbrugh,  Confederacy,  Act  V. 

Warning,  notice  to  quit  ^iven  by  an 

employer  to  a  servant,  or  wee  versd. 

We'll  both  give  warning  immediately,  and 
we'll  give  up  the  month's  wages  to  the  poor 
devils  out  of  mere  charity. — Colman,  Man  of 
Business,  Act  IV. 

Warning-piece,  a  warning  gun,  and 
so,  anything  that  warns. 

Being  returned  to  the  ships,  about  ten  of 
the  clock  a  warning-piece  was  given,  and 
about  two  hours  after  they  weighed. — Tres- 
well,  Journey  of  the  Earl  of  Nottingham,  1604 
(Harl.  Misc.,  lii.  428). 

It  was  the  wisest  way  to  strike  sail  betimes, 
upon  the  shooting  of  the  first  warning-piece 
to  bring  them  in. — Hcylin,  Reformation,  1. 79. 

Warp.  H.  gives  "warp,  four  of 
fish :  "  perhaps,  therefore,  a  warp  of 
weeks  =  a  month. 

Cerdicus  .  . .  was  the  first  May-lord  or 
captaine  of  the  Morris-daunce  that  on  those 
em  benched  shelves  stampt  his  footing,  where 
cods  and  dog-fish  swomme  not  a  warp  of 
weeks  forerunning.  —  Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe 
(Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  150). 

Warrish,  militant. 

I  know  the  rascals  have  a  sin  in  petto, 
To  rob  the  holy  lady  of  Loretto ; 
Attack  her  temple  with  their  guns  so  warrish. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  296. 

Warty,  rough,  as  though  covered 
with  warts. 

Dean-bourn,  farewell ;  I  never  look  to  see 
Deane,  or  thy  warty  incivility. 

Herrick,  Hespcrides,  i.  27. 

Warwolf,  some  military  engine. 

The  rooms  here  . .  .  were  made  use  of  for 
placing  the  catapultas,  balistas,  wancolfs,  and 
other  various  instruments  of  war. — Archaol., 
iv.  379  (1777). 


WASHABLE 


(  714  )        WATER-FURROW 


The  war-wolfs  there 
HurPd  their  huge  stones. 

Southey,  Joan  of  Arc,  Bk.  VIII. 

Washable,  capable  of  being  washed. 

Washable  beaver  hats  that  improve  with 
rain. — Dickens,  Oliver  Twist,  ch.  xxxvii. 

A  good  expanse  of  washable  linen  over  the 
upper- works  of  the  coat. — Carlyle,  Cromwell, 
i.  88. 

Washered.  "  Washer,  an  iron  hoope 
which  serves  to  keepe  the  iron  pin  at 
the  end  of  the  axel-tree  from  wearing 
the  nave  "  (Florio,  p.  94,  quoted  in  H.). 

I  had  worked  myself  up,  as  I  always  do, 
in  the  manner  of  heavy  men ;  growing  hot 
like  an  i\\-washered  wheel  revolving,  though 
I  start  with  a  cool  axle. — Blackmore,  Lorna 
Doom,  ch.  lxx. 

Wassebman. 

The  puffin . . .  bewrayed  this  conspiracie  to 
Proteus  heards,  or  the  fraternity  of  fishes, 
which  the  greater  giants  of  Russia  and 
Island,  as  the  whale,  the  sea-horse,  the  norse 
[morse?],  the  wasserman,  the  dolphin,  the 
grampoys,  fleered  and  geered  at  as  a  ridicu- 
lous danger.  —  Nashe,  Lenten  Stuffe  (Marl. 
Misc.,  vi.  170). 

Waste-good,  a  spendthrift 

This  first is  a  wast-good  and  an 

unthrift. — Greene,  Quip  for  Upstart  Courtier 
(Harl.  Misc.,  v.  420). 

Wasteless,  inexhaustible. 

Those  powers  above  that  can  requite, 

That    from   their  wasteless  treasures   heap 

rewards 
More  out  of  grace  than  merit  on  us  mortals. 

May,  The  Heir,  Act  IV. 

Wastbye,  destructive. 

The  pope  and  his  wastrye  workers  .  .  were 
no  fathers  but  cruel  robbers  and  destroyers. 
—Bale,  Select  Works,  p.  138. 

Wast-time,  an  idle  employment:  a 
play  on  the  word  pastime. 

"  As  mad  as  the  Baiting  Bull  of  Stamford ." 
.  .  .  Some  think  that  the  Men  must  be  mad 
as  well  as  the  Bull,  who  can  take  delight  in 
so  dangerous  a  Wast-time. — Fuller,  Worthies, 
Lincoln  (ii.  6). 

Watch  -  bibth,  midwife  (  ?  ) ;  de- 
liverer (V).  Sylvester,  after  describing 
the  triple  division  of  the  temple,  com- 
pares Solomon's  books,  Proverbs,  Ec- 
clesiastes,  and  the  Song  of  Songs,  to 
the  Porch,  Holy  Place,  and  Holy  of 
Holies  respectively,  and  introduces  the 
comparison  thus : 
This  pattern  pleased  thee,  so  th'  hast  framed 

by  it 
Th'  eternall  Watch-births  of  thy  sacred  wit. 

The  Magnificence,  1197. 


Watch-clock,  alarum. 

Pourfull   Need   (Art's   ancient    dame    and 

keeper, 
The   early  watch  -  clock  of   the   sloathfull 

sleeoer^ 

Sylvester,  Handle  Crafts,  105. 

Watchment,  state  of  vigilance. 

My  watchments  are  now  over,  by  my  mas- 
ter's direction. — Richardson,  Pamela,  i.  207. 

Water.  Where  the  water  slicks  = 
the  point  in  dispute. 

I  will  reduce  his  discourse  into  a  logical 
form,  that  the  reader  may  see  clearly  -where 
ttie  water  sticks  between  us.  —  BramhaU,  ii. 
366. 

Water-baylagk.    See  quotation. 

Water-baylaqe,  a  tax  demanded  upon  all 
goods  by  the  City,  imported  and  exported. — 
Pepys,  Jan.  20, 1668-9. 

Water-bed,  a  bed  on  board  ship: 
the  word  is  now  common  as  meaning 
an  india-rubber  bed  filled  with  water, 
to  make  it  easy  for  sick  people. 

To  his  house  I  repaired,  with  hope  of  some 
refreshment  after  my  wearisome  voyage ;  but 
he  then  from  home,  I  was  forced  to  returne 
to  my  water-bed;  there  being  no  Innes  for 
entertainment  throughout  inhospitall  Turkic 
— Sandys,  Travels,  p.  27. 

Water  -  bewitched,  any  very  weak 
liquid. 

Your  ladyship  is  very  sparing  of  your  tea ; 
I  protest  the  last  dish  I  took  was  no  more 
than  water  bewitcht. — Swift,  Polite  Conversa- 
tion (Conv.  i.). 

As  for  the  broth,  it  was  nothing  but  a  lit- 
tle water  bewitched  (mera  aqua), — Bailey's 
Erasmus,  p.  376. 

Another  book  of  Noble's  called  lives  of 
the  Regicides  ...  is  of  much  more  stupid 
character ;  nearly  meaningless  indeed,  mere 
water  bewitched. — Carlyle,  Cromwell,  i.  13. 

Waterfall,  a  neckcloth  or  scarf  that 

comes  down  over  the  breast.     Miss  Fer- 

rier  (Inheritance^  Vol.  I.  ch.  xi.)  speaks 

of  "  a  drooping  Fall  of  FoyersJooking 

neckcloth." 

He  was  suddenly  confronted  in  the  walk 
by  Benjamin,  the  Jew  money-lender,  smoking 
a  cigar,  and  dressed  in  a  gaudy  figured  satin 
waistcoat  and  waterfall  of  the  same  material. 
>— Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford,  ch.  xxvi. 

Water-flint.     See  extract. 

The  third  flat  stone  is  a  quartzose  boulder 
of  the  kind  known  as  water^ftints  in  this  part 
of  Somersetshire.— ArcheoC,  xlii.  208  (1863). 

Water-furrow,  to  drain  by  drawing 
furrows  across  the  ridges  in  the  lowest 
part  of  the  ground 


WATER  IN  SHOES      (  715  ) 


JVA  Y-DOOR 


Seede  husbandly  sowen,  water-furrow  thy 

ground 
That  raine  when  it  commeth  may  run  away 

round. — Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  48. 

Water  in  shoes,  a  proverbial  ex- 
pression for  something  disagreeable. 

They  caressed  his  lordship  very  much  as  a 
new  comer,  whom  they  were  glad  of  the 
honour  to  meet,  and  talked  about  a  time  to 
dine  with  him ;  all  which  (as  they  say)  was 
water  in  his  shoes.  But  after  dinner  he  got 
himself  clear,  and  was  as  careful  not  to  be  so 
complimented  any  more.  —  North,  Life  of 
Lord  Guilford,  i.  295. 

Waterish,  the  colour  of  water,  not, 
as  now,  watery  or  diluted.  See  extract 
s.  v.  Blunkette. 

Water-lade,  gutter;  drain. 

The  chanels  were  not  skoured  .  .  .  for 
riverets  and  Brookes  to  passe  away,  but  the 
water-lades  stopped  up  either  through  negli- 
gence or  depopulation. — Holland?*  Camden, 
p.  741. 

Water  my  chickens  come  clock,  a 
game  similar  to  one  called  hen  and 
chickens,  where  a  number  of  children 
form  in  a  row  behind  a  leader,  and  it  is 
the  endeavour  of  others  to  catch  some 
of  these  "  chickens." 

One  fault  brought  me  into  another  after 
it,  like  Water  my  chickens  come  clock. — H. 
Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  272. 

Waternixie,  water-elf  or  fairy. 

The  shallowness  of  a  waternixie'a  soul  may 
have  a  charm  until  she  becomes  didactic. — 
G.  Eliot,  Middlemarch,  ch.  briv. 

Wateroloqer,  one  who  tells  a  man's 
disease  by  inspection  of  urine. 

You  must  either  pretend  to  be  waterologers 

or  star-wizards. — Quack's  Academy, 

1678  (Harl.  Misc.,  ii.  34). 

Water-quake,  a  disturbance  of  water 

produced  by  volcanic  action. 

"Wittlesmere doth  sometimes  in 

Galmes  and  faire  weather  sodainly  rise  tem- 
pestuously, as  it  were,  into  violent  water' 
quakes  to  the  danger  of  the  poore  fishermen. 
—Holland's  Camden,  p.  600. 

Water-stock,  a  stoup  for  holy  water. 

They  brought  forth  their  coopes,  candel- 
stickes,  holy  waterstocke,  cross,  and  sensers. 
—  Vocacyon  of  Johan  Bale,  1553  (Harl.  Misc., 
vi.  452). 

Water-weak,  very  feeble;  weak  as 
water. 

If  merrie  now,  anone  with  woe  I  weepe, 
If  lustie  now,  forthwith  am  water-weak. 

Davits,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  10. 


Wattle-faced,  Ian  thorn  -  jawed ; 
thin;  bony;  like  wattles  or  hurdles. 

I  scorn  thee, 
Thou  wattle-fac'd  sindg'd  pig ! 

Middleton,  Mayor  of  Quinborough, 
Act  III. 

Waugh,  to  bark  like  a  small  dog. 

The  elder  folke  and  well  growne  .  .  . 
barked  like  bigge  dogges;  but  the  children 
and  little  ones  wauahed  as  small  whelpes. — 
Holland's  Camden,  ii.  188. 

Waveless,  still ;  not  waving. 

The  banner'd  blazonry  hung  waveless  as  a 
pall. 

Ingoldsby  Legends  (Fragment  in 
Westminster  Abbey). 

Wavelet,  a  little  wave. 

But  forth  one  wavelet ,  then  another,  curled. 

Browning,  Pippa  Passes. 

The  chain-pier,  as  everybody  knows,  runs 
intrepidly  into  the  sea,  which  sometimes  in 
fine  weather  bathes  its  feet  with  laughing 
wavelets. — Thackeray y  Newcomes,  ch.  ix. 

In  a  million  wavelets  tipp'd  with  gold 
Leapt  the  soft  pulses  of  the  sunlit  sea. 

Taylor,  St.  Clements  Eve,  ii.  2. 

Wax,  a  rage  (schoolboys'  slang). 

She's  in  a  terrible  wax,  but  she'll  be  all 
right  by  the  time  he  comes  back  from  his 
holidays. — H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  v. 

Waxy,  angry  (slang). 

It  would  cheer  him  up  more  than  anything 
if  I  could  make  him  a  little  waxy  with  me : 
he's  welcome  to  drop  into  me  right  and  left, 
if  he  likes. — Dickens,  Bleak  House,  ch.  xxiv. 

Wat-beaten,  way-worn ;  tired. 

The  way-beaten  couple,  master  and  man, 
sat  them  down. — Jarvis's  Don  Quixote,  Pt. 
II.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  vii. 

Waybit  or  Weabit,  a  considerable 
though  indefinite  addition  to  a  mile, 
known  ScotticS  as  a  bittock. 

In  the  North  parts . . .  there  is  a  wea-bit  to 
every  mile. — Howell,  Letters,  iv.  28. 

I  nave  heard  him  prefer  divers,  and  very 
seriously,  before  himself,  who  came  short  a 
mile  and  a  way-bit. — Hacket,Life  of  Wil- 
liams, i.  59. 

"An  Yorkshire  Way-bit.n  That  is,  an 
Over-plus  not  accounted  in  the  reckoning, 
which  sometimes  proveth  as  much  as  all  the 
rest. — Fuller,  Worthies,  Yorkshire  (ii.  494). 

Generall  Leslie,  with  his  Scottish,  ran 
away  more  than  a  Yorkshire  mile  and  a  Wee 
bit. — Ibid.,  ii.  535. 

Way-door,  street-door. 

He  must  needs  his  posts  with  blood  em- 
brew, 
And  on  his  way-door  fix  the  horned  head. 

Hall,  Satires,  III.  iv.  7. 


WA  YLEA  VE 


(  7*  ) 


WEEDS 


Wayleave,  a  right  of  way. 

Another  thing  that  is  remarkable  is  their 
wnyleaves;  for  when  men  have  pieces  of 
ground  between  the  colliery  and  the  river, 
they  sell  leave  to  lead  coals  over  their  ground. 
— Xorth,  Life  of  Lord  Quilford,  i.  206. 

Way-post,  direction-post. 

Tou  have  more  roads  than  a  way-post. — 
Col  man,  The  Spleen,  Act  I. 

You  came  to  a  place  where  three  cross-roads 

divide, 
Without  any  way-post  stuck  up  by  the  side. 
IngoLlsby  Legends  (St.  Romwold). 

Waywarden,  surveyor  of  highways. 

Mr.  George  Chapman,  the  wayicarden, . .  . 
had  frequently  observed  that  the  cattle 
resorted  to  a  particular  spot  to  rest. — 
Archaol.,  xxiii.  398  (1831). 

Woodcutter.  Had'st  best  repent  and  mend 
thy  ways. 

Peasant.  The  way-warden  may  do  that :  I 
wear  out  no  ways ;  I  go  across  country. — 
Kingsley,  Saint's  Tragedy,  ii.  6. 

Waywiser,  ua  mathematical  in- 
strument fitted  to  the  great  wheel  of  a 
chariot  to  show  how  far  it  goes  in  a 
day  "  (Bailey's  Diet.). 

He  had  ...  a  way-wiser,  a  thermometer,  a 
monstrous  magnet. — Evelyn,  Diary,  July  13, 
1654. 

I  went  to  see  Col.  Blount,  who  shewed  me 
the  application  of  the  way-wiser  to  a  coach, 
exactly  measuring  the  miles,  and  shewing 
them  by  an  index  as  we  went  on. — Ibid., 
Aug.  6, 1655. 

Weal  (?). 

A  beryl  is  a  kind  of  crystal  that  hath  a 
weal  tincture  of  red. — Aubrey,  Misc.,  p.  154. 

Wealful,  happy.  Da  vies  is  speak- 
ing of  our  Lord' 8  Passion. 

To  tell  the  jerkes  with  joy,  that  joy  do  bring, 
Is  both  a  wealefull  and  a  wofull  thing. 

Dawes,  Holy  Roode,  p.  13. 

Weasel-monger,  rat-catcher  or  mole- 
catcher.    See  extract  s.  v.  Cony-gat. 

Weather-blown,  exposed ;  weather- 
beaten. 

Strong  Enispe  that  for  height  is  ever  weather- 
blown. — Chapman,  Iliad,  ii.  532. 

Weathergage.  To  get  the  weather- 
gage  =  to  get  to  windward.  L.  notes 
this  sense,  but  has  no  example. 

Take  a  turn  round  the  back  o'  the  hill  to 
gain  the  wind  on  them ;  and  when  thou'st 
got  the  weathergage  thou  mayst  drive  them 
before  thee. — Scott,  Ivanhoe,  i.  13. 

Weather-hardened,  weather-beaten, 
which  is  the  more  usual  expression. 


The  peat  fire  shining  upon  a  countenance 
which,  weather-hardened  as  it  was.  might  have 
given  the  painter  a  model  for  a  Patriarch. — 
Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch.  U. 

Weather-headed,  silly.  In  the  ex- 
tract Valentine  is  referring  to  Fore- 
sight, a  foolish  old  man,  full  of  super- 
stition in  connection  with  astrology, 
&c. 

Sir,  is  this  usage  for  your  son  ? — for  that 
old  weather-headed  fool,  I  know  how  to  laugh 
at  him  ;  but  you,  Sir—. — Congreve,  Love  for 
Love,  ii.  7. 

Weathering-stock,  a  post  to  which 
hawks  are  tied,  and  whence  they  can 
get  some  limited  exercise. 

E'en  like  the  hawk  (whose  keeper's  wary 
hands 
Have  made  a  prisoner  to  her  weathering 
stock), 
Forgetting  quite  the  pow'r  of  her  fast  bands, 
Makes  a  rank  bate  from  her  forsaken 
block ; 
But  her  too  faithful  leash  doth  soon  retain 
Her  broken  flight,  attempted  oft  in  vain ; 
It  gives  her  loins  a  twitch,  and  tugs  her  back 
again. — Quarles,  Emblems,  V.  ix.  5. 

Weaver,  roarer ;  one  whose  broken 
wind  sounded  like  the  weaver's  shuttle 
going  to  and  fro  (?). 

T'  horse  was  a  weaver,  if  iver  one  was,  as 
any  one  could  ha'  told  as  had  come  within  a 
mile  on  him. — Mrs.  Gasket  I,  Sylvia's  Lovers, 
ch.  xi. 

Weavere88,  female  weaver. 

He  found  two  looms  alone  remaining  at 
work  in  the  hands  of  an  ancient  weaver  and 
weaveress.—J.  H.  Blunt,  Hist,  of  Durslev,  222 

(1877).  ^ 

Weazen,  shrunk;  withered.  See 
Wizen. 

From  this  venerable  piece  of  furniture, 
with  which  his  shadowy  figure  and  dark 
weazen  face  so  admirably  accorded,  he  was 
dealing  out  strange  accounts  of  the  popular 
superstitions.— Irving,  Sketch  Book  (Christ- 
mas Dinner). 

A  tall  weazen-faced  man  with  an  impedi- 
ment in  his  speech. — Sketches  by  Boz  (The 
Last  Cabdriver). 

Webless,  without  webs :  applied  to 
looms  standing  idle. 

O'er  still  and  webless  looms 
The  listless  craftsmen  through  their  elf-locks 
scowled. — Kingsley,  Saint's  Tragedy,  ii.  4. 

Weeds.  This  word  was  once  com- 
mon in  the  sense  of  clothes,  especially 
outer  clothing,  such  as  coat,  gown,  &c. : 
it  now  only  survives  in  the  expression, 
"  widow's  weeds."    The  latest  example 


WEEHEE 


(  7i7  )  WELSH-RABBIT 


of  its  old  sense  in  the  Diets,  is  from 
Paradise  Regained,  i.  314.  Mr.  Jer- 
ram,  however,  in  the  Glossary  to  his 
edition  of  that  poem  (1877),  says  that 
"  bridal  weeds  "  occurs  in  the  Braes  of 
Yarrow.  Mr.  Tennyson  also  speaks 
of  a  "  beggar-woman's  weeds ;  "  but 
the  subjoined  is  a  late  prose  example. 
The  weeds  referred  to  were  a  porter's 
frock,  belt,  and  apron. 

I  gave  her  twopence,  reassumed  my  former 
garb,  and  left  my  weeds  in  her  custody. — H, 
Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  191. 

Weehee,  a  neigh. 

To  discourse  him  seriously  is  to  read  ethicks 
to  a  monkey,  or  make  an  oration  to  Caligula's 
horse,  whence  you  can  only  expect  a  weehee 
or  a  jadish  spurn.  —  Character  of  a  Coffee 
House,  1673  (Hart.  Misc.,  vi.  489). 

Weely,  coarse  ;  dirty  (?). 

This  river  hath  his  head  and  springeth 
first  in  a  weely  and  barren  ground  named 
Exmore. — Holland's  Camden,  p.  203. 

Sheepe,  long-necked  and  square  of  bulke 
and  bone,  by  reason  (as  it  is  commonly 
thought)  of  the  weally  and  hilly  situation  of 
their  pasturage. — Ibid.,  p.  364. 

Weeper,  a  white  border  on  the  sleeve 
of  a  mourner's  coat. 

Mourners  clap  bits  of  muslin  on  their 
sleeves,  and  these  are  called  weepers.  Weep- 
ing muslin  ;  alas,  alas,  very  sorrowful  truly ! 
These  weepers  then  it  seems  are  to  bear  the 
whole  burthen  of  the  distress. — Goldsmith, 
Citizen  of  the  World,  Letter  xcv. 

The  young  squire  was  even  then  very 
handsome,  and  looked  remarkably  well  in  his 
weepers. — Sinollett,  Sir  L.  Greaves,  ch.  iii. 

If  anybody  was  to  marry  me,  flattering 
himself  as  I  should  wear  those  hi  jeous  weepers 
two  years  for  him,  he'd  be  deceived  by  his 
own  vanity,  that's  all.  —  G.  Eliot,  Middle- 
march,  ch.  lxxx. 

Weep  Irish.  H.  explains  this,  to 
scream,  to  yell ;  but  it  seems  to  signify 
feigned  grief,  crocodile's  tears :  pro- 
bably referring  to  "the  people  making 
a  noise  "  at  an  Irish  wake. 

Surely  the  Egyptians  did  not  weep-Irish 
with  faigned  and  mercenary  tears. — Fuller, 
Fisifah  Sight,  II.  xii.  15. 

What  the  devil  can  be  the  matter  ?  why 
all  this  noise  ?  here's  none  but  friends ;  I 
don't  apprehend  that  anybody  can  overhear 
you ;  this  is  something  like  the  Irish  cry. — 
Centlivre,  Bickerstaff's  Burying. 

Weese,  to  ooze.  See  extract  &.  v. 
Thorough,  and  cf .  Woos. 

Weesel,  weasand. 


The  mastives  of  our  land  shall  worry  ye, 
And   pull    the   weesels  from   your   greedy 
throats. 

Peele,  David  and  Bethsabe,  p.  465. 

There  be  divers  grievances  ...  (to  omit  all 
other  which  pertaine  to  eyes  and  eares,  nos- 
trills,  gums,  teeth,  mouth,  palate,  tongue, 
wesel,  chops,  face,  &c.)  belonging  properly  to 
the  brain. — Burton,  Anatomy,  p.  7.  »  j  M 

Weily,  well  nigh.  Sir  John  Linger 
means  that  he  has  eaten  so  much  as  to 
be  near  bursting. 

Well,  I'm  weily  brosten,  as  they  sayn 
in  Lancashire.  —  Swift,  Polite  Conversation 
(Conv.  ii.). 

Well  a  fine,  to  good  purpose.  Tus- 

ser  married  a  Mistress  Anne  Moone. 

I  chanced  soone  to  find  a  Moone 

Of  cheerful  hew, 
Which  well  a  fine  methought  did  shine. 

Tusser,  p.  100. 

Wellingtons,  a  kind  of  boots  that 
came  up  the  calf  of  the  leg.  Cf. 
Bluchers. 

Miss's  comb  is  made  a  pearl  tiara, 
And  common  Wellingtons  turn  Romeo  boots. 

Keats,  Modern  Love. 
His  gaiters,  with  dust  covered  o'er, 
Were  seen  upon  his  legs  no  more, 
But  when  he  rode  his  top-boots  shone, 
Or  hussar'd  a  la  Wellington. 

Combe,  Br.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  c.  v. 

Well-to-do,  prosperous. 

John  Thornton,  then  a  servitor  at  Christ 
Church,  fell  in  love  with  pretty  Jane  Hick- 
man, whose  father  was  a  well-to-do  farmer. — 
H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  ii. 

There  was  a  well-to-do  aspect  about  the 
place. — Mrs.  Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  vi. 

Welsh  main,  a  phrase  taken  from 
cock-fighting,  explained  in  the  first 
extract.  See  quotation  s.  v.  Battle- 
boyal. 

As  if  he  were  backing  a  Welsh  main,  where 
all  must  fight  to  death. — Scott,  Fair  Maid  of 
Berth,  ii.  71. 

His  make  evinces  such  decided  marks  of 
strength  and  courage,  that  if  cat-fighting  were 
as  fashionable  as  cock-fighting,  no  cat  would 
stand  a  fairer  chance  for  winning  a  Welsh 
main. — Southey,  Doctor  {Cats  of  Greta  Hall). 

Welsh-rabbit,  toasted  cheese  served 
on  toast.  The  fondness  of  the  Welsh 
for  cheese  is  often  jested  at.  See  ex- 
tract from  Howell  s.  v.  Moon. 

Go  to  the  tavern,  and  call  for  your  bottle, 
and  your  pipe,  and  your  Wthh-rabbit. — 
Graves,  Spiritual  Quixote,  Bk.  VII.  ch.  ix. 

A  desire  for  welsh-rabbits  and  good  old 
glee-singing  led  us  to  the  Cave  of  Harmony. 
— Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  i. 


WELTED 


(  7i8) 


WHEELBAND 


Welted,  ropy,  or  Btringy  ;  contain- 
ing "the  motherings."  In  Middlesex 
the  word  =  flabby,  not  crisp,  and  is 
specially  used  of  stale  cucumbers. 

Her  coodn't  lave  'ouze  by  raison  of  the 
Chirstsmas  bakkon  comin'  on,  and  zome  o' 
the  cider  welted. — Blacktnore,  Lorna  Doone9 
ch.  ii. 

Weh,  stomach.  In  the  first  extract 
Cotton  is  speaking  of  the  Trojan  horse. 

He  bad  his  gang  therefore  command  us, 
(Tho'  Heaven  did  sure  enough  withstand  us) 
To  probe  its  went  with  wedge  and  beetle. 

Cottony  Scarronides,  p.  7. 

For  two  and  thirty  days  they  satisfy'd  the 
decree  of  the  oracle,  without  being  oblig'd  to 
expose  any  human  creature  to  the  monster's 
wem. — Misson,  Travels  in  Eng.,  p.  105. 

Werishness,  insipidity.     The  Diets. 

give  the  adjective  wearish  or  weerish. 

Beetea  is  an  herbe  called  in  Greek  fiXirot, 
in  Latin  beta,  of  whose  exceding  werishnes 
and  vnsauerines,  euen  of  old  antiquitee,  daw- 
cockes,  lowtes,  cockescombes,  and  block- 
hedded  fooles  were,  in  a  prouerbial  speaking, 
said,  betizare,  to  be  as  irerishe  and  as  vnsauery 
as  beetes. — UdaVs  Erasmus's  Apaphth.,  p.  118. 

Wet,  a  euphemism  for  drunken:  a 

wet  night  =  one  of  hard  drinking. 

When  my  lost  lover  the  tall  ship  ascends, 
With  music  gay,  and  wet  with  jovial  friends, 
The  tender  accents  of  a  woman's  cry 
Will  pass  unheard,  will  unregarded  die. 

Prior,  Celia  to  Damon. 

As  he  knew  he  should  have  a  wet  night ,  it 
was  agreed  that  he  might  gallop  back  again 
in  time  for  church  on  Sunday  morning. — 
Thackeray,  Vanity  Fair,  ch.  xi. 

Wet-Quaker,  a  Quaker  who  is  not 
very  strict  in  the  observances  of  his 
sect. 

Would  you  buy  any  naked  truth,  or  light 
in  a  dark  lanthorn?     Look  in   the    Wet- 
Quaker's  walk. — T.  Brownt  Works,  iii.  26. 
Socinians  and  Presbyterians, 
Quakers,  and  Wet-Quakers  or  Merry-ones. 
Ward,  England's  Reformation,  c.  ii.  p.  175. 

Whack,  a  share  (slang). 

This  gay  young  bachelor  had  taken  his 
share  (what  he  called  "  his  whack ")  of 
pleasure. — Thackeray,  Shabby  Genteel  Story, 
ch.  v. 

Whack,  a  hard  blow. 

A  blow  descended,  such  as  we  must  borrow 
a  term  from  the  Sister  Island  adequately  to 
describe— it  was  a  whack. — Ingoldsby  Legends 
{Lady  Rohesia). 

Whacker,  anything  very  large 
(slang).     Cf.  WnorPER. 


"  Look  what  whackers,  Cousin  Tom,"  said 
Charley,  holding  out  one  of  his  prizes  by 
its  back  towards  Tom,  while  the  indignant 
cray -fish  flapped  its  tail.  —  Hughes,  Tom 
Brown  at  Oxford,  ch. 


Wharl.     See  extract.     Cf.  Bur. 

The  natives  of  this  Country  [Northumber- 
land] of  the  antient  original  Race  or  Fami- 
lies, are  distinguished  by  a  Shibboleth  upon 
their  Tongues  in  pronouncing  the  Letter  R, 
which  they  can  not  utter  without  a  hollow 
Jarring  in  the  Throat,  by  which  they  are  as 
plainly  known  as  a  Foreigner  is  by  pro- 
nouncing the  Th. :  this  they  call  the  North- 
umberland R  or  Wharle:  and  the  Natives 
value  themselves  upon  that  Imperfection, 
because,  forsooth,  it  shows  the  Antiquity  of 
their  Blood.— Defoe,  Tour  thro*  G.  Britain, 

iii.  233. 

• 

Wharling,  guttural  speech.  Puller 
refers  to  the  Carleton  people  again  in 
Ch  Hist,  II.  v.  6,  and  in  his  Worthies 
among  the  wonders  of  Leicestershire. 

[The  inhabitants  of  Carleton  have]  an  ill- 
favoured,  untunable,  and  harsh  manner  of 
speech,  fetching  their  words  with  very  much 
adoe  deepe  from  out  of  the  throat,  with  a  cer- 
taine  kind  of  wharling. — Holland's  Camden, 
p.  517. 

It  is  observed  in  a  village  at  Charleton  in 
Leicestershire  that  the  people  therein  are 
troubled  with  wharling  in  their  utterance. — 
Fuller,  Pisgah  Sight,  II.  ix.  i. 

What  is  what.  To  know  what's 
what  =  to  have  good  taste  or  judg- 
ment.    See  extract  s.  v.  Ea. 

To  vs  that  knowe  what  is  what,  those 
thinges  onely  are  honest  whiche  be  honest 
of  themselfes. — Udal's  Erasmus's  Apopluh., 
p.  239. 

Ah,  sir,  mary  nowe  I  see  you  know  what  is 

what. — Ibid.,  Roister  Doister,  i.  2. 

« 

Our  wyts  be  not  so  base, 
But  that  we  know  as  well  as  you 
What's  what  in  every  case. 

Googe,  Eglogs,  vii. 

Wheat-ear,  a  bird:  the  extracts 
are  given  for  the  sake  of  the  derivation, 
the  last  of  which  is  the  correct  one. 

Wheat-ears  is  a  Bird, .  .  so  called  because 
fattest  when  Wheat  is  ripe,  whereon  it  feeds. 
—Fuller,  Worthies,  Sussex  (ii.  382). 

There  is  .  .  .  great  plenty  of  the  birds  so 
much  admired  at  Tunbridge  under  the  name 
of  wheat-ears.  By  the  by,  this  is  a  pleasant 
corruption  of  white-a—e,  the  translation  of 
their  French  name  cul  blancy  taken  from 
their  colour,  for  they  are  actually  white 
towards  the  tail. — Smollett,  Travels,  Letter 


111. 


Wheelband,  the  tire  of  a  wheel. 


WHEELBARROW       (  719  ) 


WHIFF 


The  chariot  tree  was  drown'd  in  blood,  and 

th'  arches  by  the  seat 
Dispurpled  from  the  horses'  hoofs,  and  from 

the  wheelbands'  beat. 

Ckapmatiy  Iliad,  xi.  466. 

Wheelbarrow,  one  of    the    many 

comparisons  for  a  drunken  person. 

Besides,  if  he  such  things  can  do, 
When  drank  as  drum  or  wheelbarrow. 
What  would  not  this  God  of  October 
Perform,  I  prithee,  when  he's  sober. 

Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque, 
p.  243. 

Wheelbarrow.  To  go  to  heaven  in 
a  wheelbarrow  is  a  euphemism  to  ex- 
press going  in  the  other  direction.  In 
the  painted  glass  at  Fairford,  Glouces- 
tershire, the  devil  is  represented  as 
wheeling  off  a  scolding  wife  in  a 
barrow. 

This  oppressor  mast  needs  go  to  heaven ! 
what  shall  hinder  him  ?  But  it  will  be,  as 
the  by- word  is,  in  a  wheelbarrow;  the  fiends, 
and  not  the  angels,  will  take  hold  on  him. — 
Adams,  i.  144. 

Wheelery,  circumgyration. 

With  curlings  and  twistings,  and  twirls  and 

wheeleries, 
Down  they  drop  at  the  gate  of  the  Tuileries. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  (The  Truants). 

Wheelless,  without  wheels. 

The  carpet  .  .  was  already  strewed  with 
headless  dolls,  tailless  horses,  wheelless  carts, 
&c. — Miss  Ferrier,  Inheritance,  i.  296. 

Wheels  within  wheels,  a  com- 
plication of  motives  or  influences.  See 
quotation  *.  v.  Formaliser. 

Bat,  sir,  is  there  not  danger  of  their  being 
provoked  by  such  an  attack  to  say  something 
improper,  and  that  they  who  made  the  con- 
tracts with  them  may  do  you  an  ill  office  on 
another  occasion  ?  There  are  wheels  within 
wheels. — Johnston,  Chrysal,  ii.  196. 

**  And  a  birdcage,  sir,'9  said  Sam  ;  "  reels 
vithin  reels,  a  prison  in  a  prison. " — Pickwick 
Papers,  ch.  zl. 

Whelp,  a  species  of  ship.  For  the 
second  quotation  I  am  indebted  to  a 
correspondent  of  N.  and  Q.  (I.  i.  106), 
who  suggests  that  the  name  may  be  a 
punning  allusion  to  a  bark. 

At  the  return  of  this  fleet  two  of  the 
whelps  were  cast  away,  and  three  ships  more. 
— Howell,  Letters,  I.  v.  8. 

25  July,  1635.  About  six  hour  I  went 
aboard  one  of  the  king's  ships  called  the 
ninth  whelp,  which  is  in  the  king's  books 
215  ton  and  tonnage  in  king's  books.  She 
carries  sixteen  pieces  of  ordinance.  .  .  This 
ship  is  manned  with  sixty  men. — Brereton, 
Travels,  p.  164. 


Whelpless,  childless;  bereft  of 
whelps. 

The  old  lion  glaring  with  his  whelpless  eye. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  vi. 

Whereof,  wherefore:  this  vulgar- 
ism is  sometimes  heard.  In  the  follow- 
ing extracts  Walpole  italicizes  the  word 
to  show  that  he  uses  it  in  a  peculiar 
way. 

Our  Duke  goes  with  his  lord  and  father — 
they  say  to  marry  a  princess  of  Prussia, 
whereof  great  preparations  have  been  making 
in  his  equipage  and  in  his  breeches. —  Wal- 
pole to  Mann,  i.  208  (1742). 

Mr.  N.  has  offered  to  be  postman  to  you ; 
whereof,  though  I  have  nothing,  or  as  little 
as  nothing,  to  say,  I  thought  as  how  it  would 
look  kinder  to  send  nothing  in  writing  than 
by  word  of  mouth. — Ibid.,  Letters,  iv.  498 
(1790). 

Wherve.  R.  cites  Holland  (Plinie, 
xi.  24^,  and  says,  "There  is  no  corre- 
sponding word  in  the  original,  nor  has 
the  word  occurred  elsewhere ;  but  it  is 
probably  derived  from  A.S.  hweorfan, 
volvere"  He  is  mistaken  in  supposing 
that  the  word  does  not  occur  elsewhere. 
The  corresponding  term  in  Virgil  (jEn., 
viii.  430),  as  rendered  by  Stany hurst,  is 
radios  ;  in  Rabelais,  vertoil.  H.  gives 
"  Wherve,  a  joint.  Somerset"  Bailey 
has  "  Whirle  or  Whern  (wirvel,T%x\t. ),  a 
round  piece  of  wood  put  on  the  spindle 
of  a  spinning  wheel.  C"  [ountry 
word!  Stany  hurst  describes,  as  among 
the  elements  of  an  unfinished  thunder- 
bolt lying  in  Vulcan's  workshop — 

Three  wheru's  fyerd  glystring,  with  Sout- 
wynds  rufflered  huffling. — Stanyhurst,  Con- 
c cites,  p.  137. 

Wouldst  thou  .  .  .  blunt  the  spindles,  join 
the  wkerves,  slander  the  spinning-quills  . .  . 
of  the  weird  Sister-Parca  r — Urquhart's  Ra- 
belais,  Bk.  III.  ch.  xxviii. 

Whetten,  to  sharpen. 

My  mynd  was  greedelye  whetned 
Too  parle  with  the  Regent. 

Stanyhurst,  Mn.,  iii.  306. 

Whey-faced,  pallid.    Macbeth    (V. 

iii.)  uses  whey-face  as  a  substantive. 

His  pious  dame  with  a  ruff  about  her  neck, 
and  as  many  whey-faced  girls,  all  kneeling 
behind  her.  —  Richardson,  d.  Uarlowe,  vi 

Ul. 

I  helped  you  in  prosecuting  (or  persecut- 
ing) your  tutor,  whey-faced  Mr.  Vining. — 
C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre,  ch.  xvii. 

Whiff,  to  drink. 

In  this  season  we  might  press  and  mako 


WHIFFLE 


(  7»o  ) 


WHIPPER 


the  wine,  and  in  winter  whiff  it  up. —  Urqu- 
hart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxvii. 

Gargantua  whiffed  the  great  draught. — 
Ibid.,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxxix. 

Whiffle,  to  drink. 

Constrain  an  easy,  good-natured  fellow  to 
whiffle,  quaff,  carouse. —  Urouhart's  Rabelais, 
Bk.  III.  ( Author's  Prologue). 

Whim,  a  sort  of  capstan. 

We  went  back  to  the  pit's  mouth;  the 
men  were  tearing  round  the  whim  faster 
than  horses  could 'a  done  it. — H.  Kinysley, 
Geoffry  Hamlyn,  ch.  xxxvi. 

Whimbrel,   a    bird  of    the  curlew 

kind:  raimenius phoeopus. 

"Hear  that?"  "Only  a  whimbrel,  isn't 
it  ?  "  said  George.  "  That's  somethir  g  worse 
than  a  whimbrel,  I'm  thinking,"  said  the  other. 
— H.  Kinysley,  Geoffry  Hainlyn,  ch.  v. 

Whimsy-board,  an  instrument  or 
table  uBed  in  some  game  of  chance.  A 
correspondent  of  N.  and  Q.  (III.  vi. 
208)  says  that  in  looking  over  some 
Churchwardens'  Accounts  of  the  date 
1684  he  found  the  note  of  an  applica- 
tion to  the  magistrates  for  permission 
to  remove  the  whinisey -board,  because 
"  it  had  become  the  resort  of  loose  and 
disorderly  characters,  and  some  of  the 
servants  had  taken  their  masters'  money 
to  play  away." 

I  am  sometimes  a  small  retainer  to  a 
billiard-table,  and  sometimes,  when  the 
master  of  it  is  sick,  earn  a  penny  by  a 
whimsy-board. — T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  17. 

Whinstone,  the  toadstone,  according 
toH. 

We  found  good  verdure,  and  some  curious 
whin-rocks,  or  collections  of  stones,  like  the 
ruins  of  the  foundations  of  old  buildings. — 
Boswell,  Life  of  Johnson,  iv.  167. 

The  swift,  sharp  hound,  once  fit  to  be 
Diana's,  breaks  his  old  teeth  now,  gnawing 
mere  whinstones. — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  III. 
Bk.  I.  ch.  ii. 

Whip,  an  interjection  =  immedi- 
ately. 

You  all  talk  it  well  affore  you  get  in,  but 
you  are  no  sooner  chose  in  but  whip  !  you  are 
as  proud  as  the  devil. — Centlivre,  Gotham 
Election. 

Wheu  I  came,  whip  was  the  key  turned 
upon  the  girls. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe, 
viii.  207. 

Whip,  a  coachman  or  driver. 

Major  Benson,  who  was  a  famous  whip, 
took  his  seat  on  the  box  of  the  barouche. — 
Jliss  Edyeworth,  Absentee,  ch.  viii. 


You're  la  wery  good  whip,  and  can  do 
what  you  tike  with  your  horses. — Pickwick 
Papers,  ch.  xiii. 

Whip-belly-vengeanck,  swipes,  as 
having  an  unpleasant  effect  on  the 
intestines.      Cf.    Rot-gut,    Whistle- 

BELLY-VENGEANCE. 

I  believe  the  brewer  forgot  the  malt,  or 
the  river  was  too  near  him.  Faith,  it's  meer 
whip-belly-vengeance.— Swift,  Polite  Conversa- 
tion (Conv.  ii.). 

Whipcan,  boon  companion ;  tippler : 

a  literal  translation  of  fetse-pinte  in 

the  original. 

He  would  prove  an  especial  good  fellow, 
and  singular  whipcan. — Urquhart's  Rabelais, 
Bk.  I.  ch.  viii. 

Whipcat,  drunken. 

With  whipcat  bowling  they  kept  a  myrry 
carousing. — Stany hurst,  JEn.,  iii.  367. 

Whip-handles.  See  quotation.  Ra- 
belais is  speaking  of  pigmies. 

These  little  ends  of  men  and  dandiprats 
fwhom  in  Scotland  they  call  whiphandles 
(tnanches  d'estrilles),  and  knots  of  a  tar- 
barrel)  are  commonly  very  testy  and  choleric. 
— Urquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xxvii. 

Whipjack,  u  a  vagabond  who  begged 
for  alms  as  a  distressed  seaman,"  and 
so  a  term  of  reproach  generally. 

Albeit  one  Boner  (a  bare  whippe  Jacke)  for 
lucre  of  money  toke  vpon  him  to  be  thy 
father,  and  than  to  mary  thy  mother,  yet 
thou  wast  persone  Savage's  bastarde. — Bp. 
Ponet  (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. 

Whip-king,  a  ruler  of  kings ;  king- 
maker. 

Richard  Nevill,  that  whip-king  (as  some 
tearmed  ahim), . .  .  going  about  ....  to  turn 
and  translate  scepters  at  his  pleasure. — 
Holland's  Camden,  p.  571. 

Whipmaster,  flogger:  the  word  in 
the  original  is  flagellaior.  Cf.  Floq- 
master. 

Woe  to  our  backsides,  he  is  a  greater 
whipmaster  than  Busby  himself. — Bailey's 
Erasmus,  p.  56. 

Whipper,  something  superexcellent ; 
something  that  whips  all  rivals,  as  an 
American  might  say. 

Mark  wel  this,  this  relique  heer  is  a  whipper. 
My  freend  unfayned,  this  is  a  slipper 
Of  one  of  the  seven  slepers,  be  sure. 
Heywood,  Four  P'«  (DodsUy,  0.  PL,  i.  103). 


WHIPPER-SNAPPER    (  721  )  WH1RLY-BATS 


Whipper-snapper,  a  contemptuous 
term  for  an  insignificant  fellow :  used 
also  adjectivally. 

A  parcel  of  whipper-snapper  sparks. — 
Fielding,  Jos.  Andrews,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  vi. 

The  dog  was  frequently  detected  in  all  its 
varieties,  from  the  lap-dog,  who  had  passed 
into  the  whipper-snapper  petit-mattre,  and  the 
turn-spit  who  was  now  the  bandy-legged 
baker's  boy,  to  the  Squire's  eldest  son,  who 
had   been  a  lurcher. — Souther/,  Doctor,  ch. 


cxxvii. 


Whippincrust.  Dr.  Wagner  in  his 
edit,  of  Faustus  (London  series  of  Eng. 
Classics)  Bays,  u  Whippincrust  is  not 
found  in  any  dictionary  accessible  to 
the  present  editor.  The  German  trans- 
lator, Dr.  A.  v.  d.  Velde,  expresses  it 
by  Prwjdruster,  and  adds  that  this 
was  suggested  to  him  by  the  first  part 
of  this  apparently  compounded  word. 
But  cannot  whippincrust  be  a  kind  of 
pie-crust  which  contained  eggs  beaten 
or  whipt  into  it  ?  or  even  a  drink  con- 
taining whipt  eggs  and  bread?"  So 
people  used  to  speak  of  a  toast  and 
tankard.  The  scene  in  which  it  occurs 
does  not  seem  to  be  from  Marlowe's 
hand,  not  being  found  in  the  two  old 
editions. 

I'll  give  thee  white  wine,  red  wine,  claret 
wine,  sack,  muskadine,  malmsey,  and  whip- 
pi  ncmst. — Doctor  Faustus,  ii.  3. 

Whipping-cheer,  chastisement;  flog- 
ging- 

Since  there  is  no  remedy  but  that  whip- 
piny -cheer  must  close  up  my  stomach,  I 
would  request  a  note  from  your  grace  to  the 
carman  to  intreat  him  to  drive  apace ;  I  shall 
never  endure  it  else. — Davenport,  City  Night- 
Cap,  Act  IV. 

Hell    is   the   place  where  whipping  -  cheer 
abounds. 

Herrick,  Noble  Numbers,  p.  398 
(see  also  p.  427). 

For  better  fare  thou  shalt  find  here 
Than  that  same  sowre-sauc'd  whipping-cheer. 
Cotton,  Burlesque  upon  Burlesque,  p.  187. 

Whipping-snapping,  diminutive;  in- 
significant :  the  participial  form  is  rare. 

Though  they  had  seven  -  leagued  boots, 
you  remember  all  sorts  of  whipping-snapping 
Tom  Thumbs  used  to  elude  and  outrun  them. 
— Thackeray,  Roundabout  Papers,  xv. 

Whipping  the  snake  (?). 

The  noble  and  antient  recreation  of  round 
robin,  hey-jinks,  and  whipping  the  snake,  in 
great  request  with  the  merry  sailors  in  Wap- 
ping. — T.  Brown,  Works,  i.  160. 


Whipsnake,  a  venomous  snake,  so 
called  from  its  resemblance  to  a  whip- 
lash. 

He  wished  it  had  been  a  whipsnake  instead 
of  a  magpie. — H.  Kingsley,  Geoffry  Hamlyn, 
ch.  rxvii. 

Whip-stitch,  to  stitch  slightly. 

In  making  of  velvet  breeches  .  .  there  is 
required  silke  lace,  cloth  of  golde,  of  silver, 
and  such  costly  stuff e,  to  welt,  guard,  whip- 
stitch, edge,  face,  and  draw  out.  —  Greene, 
Quip  for  Upstart  Courtier  (Harl.  Misc.,  v. 
404 


I 


Whirl-about,  a  great  fish  of  the 
whale  species.  In  the  quotation  taken 
by  itself  the  word  might  seem  to  mean 
waterspout,  but  the  context  shows  that 
it  is  a  tish  of  some  sort,  like  the  whirl- 
pool mentioned  ten  lines  lower  down, 
or  the  whirl-whale,  q.  v. 

Shall  I  omit  the  monstrous  whirl-about, 
Which  in  the  sea  another  sea  doth  spout  ? 
Sylvester,  Fifth  day,  first  weeke,  98. 

Whirlblast,  whirlwind.  See  quota- 
tion 8.  v.  Myrrhy. 

The  whirl-blast  comes,  the  desert-sands  rise 

up. — Coleridge,  Night-Scene. 
A  whirl-blast  from  behind  the  hill 
Kushed  o'er  the  wood  with  startling  sound. 
Wordsworth,  Poems  of  Fancy,  iii. 

How  easily  might  these,  dashing  out  on 
Lafayette,  snatch  off  the  Hereditary  Repre- 
sentative, and  roll  away  with  him  after  the 
manner  of  a  whirlblast,  whither  they  listed. 
—Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt.  II.  Bk.  IV.  ch.  i. 

Whirle,  a  spinning-wheel. 

Nourse,  medle  you  with  your  spindle  and 
your  whirle. —  Udal,  Roister  Doister,  i.  3. 

Whirlery,    wheeling  flight  (?),  or 

noise  (?). 

Thee  gulligut  harpeys 
From  mountayns  flitter,  with  gagling  whirl- 

erye  flapping 
Theyr  wings. — Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  iii.  249. 

Whirl-fire,  electric  fluid. 

The  smoaking  storms,  the  whirl-fire's  crack- 
ling clash. — Sylvester,  Tfie  La  we,  1011. 

Whirl-whale,  a  large  whale,  some- 
times called  a  whirlpool  (Job  xli.  1, 
margin).    Cf.  Whirl-about. 

Another  swallowed  in  a  whirl-whaleys  womb, 
Is  layd  aliue  within  a  liuing  tomb. 

Sylvester,  The  Lawe,  732. 

Whirly-bats,  in  the  original  ccestnum 
certamen.  The  cwstus  was  a  sort  of 
gauntlet  of  bull's  hide  with  leaden  or 
iron  bosses.    See  L.  s.  v.  whirl-bat, 

3  a 


WHIRRICK 


(  722  ) 


WHITE-MAIL 


Lou.  Running  is  a  more  noble  exercise,  for 
JSneas  in  Virgil  proposed  this  exercise. 

Vi.  Very  true ;  and  he  also  proposed  the 
fighting  with  whirly-bats  too,  and  I  do  not 
like  that  sport.— Bailey's  Erasmus,  p.  48. 

Whirrick,  a  blow.     N.  has  whirret. 

Harry  .  .  .  gave  master  such  a  whirrick 
that  his  cries  instantly  sounded  the  ne  plus 
ultra  to  such  kind  of  diversions.—  H.  Brooke, 
Fool  of  Quality,  i.  21. 

Whiskerandoed,  having  busby  whis- 
kers. 

To  what  follies  and  what  extravagancies 
would  the  whiskerandoed  macaronies  of  Bond 
Street  and  St.  James's  proceed,  if  the  beard 
once  more  were,  instead  of  the  neckcloth,  to 
**  make  the  man."— Southey,  The  Doctor,  ch. 
clvi. 

Whiskeypied,  bemused  with  whiskey. 

The  two  whiskeyfied  gentlemen  are  up  with 
her,  however.  —  Thackeray,  The  Virginians, 
ch.  xxxviii. 

This  person  was  a  sort  of  whiskifed  Old 
Mortality,  who  claimed  to  have  cut  all  man- 
ner of  tombstones  standing  around. — Black, 
Adventures  of  a  Phaeton,  ch.  xxviii. 

Whisky-frisky,  flighty. 

As  to  talking  in  such  a  whisky -frisky 
manner  that  nobody  can  understand  him, 
why  it's  tantamount  to  not  talking  at  all. — 
Mad.  D'Arblay,  Cecilia,  Bk.  IX.  ch.  iii. 

WHI8PER0USLY,  whisperingly. 

The  Duchess  in  awe  of  Carr  Vipont  sinks 
her  voice,  and  gabbles  on  whisperously. — 
Lytton,  What  will  he  do  with  xt?  Bk.  V. 
ch.  viii. 

Whister,  to  whisper. 

Then  returneth  she  home  unto  the  sicke 
party,  ....  and  whistereth  a  certaine  odde 
praier  with  a  Pater  Noster  into  his  eare  — 
Holland's  Camden,  ii.  147. 

Oft  fine  whistring  noise  shall  bring  sweete 
sleepe  to  thy  sences.—  Webbe ,  Eng.  Poetrie, 
p.  75. 

Whistersnefet,  a  buffet 

A  good  whistersnefet  truelie  paied  on  his 
eaxe.—  UdaTs  Erasmus's  Apophth.,  p.  112. 

Whistle.  To  go  whistle  =  to  be 
discomfited  or  disappointed.  See  quot- 
ation s.  v.  Fat.  The  extract  from 
Johnston  explains  the  origin  of  the 
phrase. 

Your  fame  is  secure,  bid  the  critics  go  whistle. 
Shenstone,  The  Poet  and  the  Dun. 

"Do  you  not  desire  to  be  free?"  "De- 
sire !  aye,  that  I  do ;  but  I  may  whistle  for 
that  wind  long  enough  before  it  will  blow." 
. — Johnston,  Chrysal,  ii.  184. 

If  Measter  Cholmley  don't  do  what  I  ax 


him,  he  may  go  whistle  for  my  vote,  he  may. 
— Mrs.  Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers,  ch.  iv. 

Whistle  =  whim,  or  fancy,  in  the 
phrase  u  pay  for  one's  whistle" 

I  wouldn't  destroy  any  old  bits,  bat  that 
notion  of  reproducing  the  old  is  a  mistake,  I 
think ;  at  least,  if  a  man  likes  to  do  it,  he 
must  pay  for  his  whistle. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel 
Deronda,  ch.  xxxv. 

Whistle-belly  vengeance,  swipes; 
bad  liquor.  Cf.  Whip-belly  ven- 
geance. 

"I  thought  you  wouldn't  appreciate  the 
widow's  tap,"  said  East,  watching  him  with 
a  grin :  "  regular  whistle-belly  vengeance,  and 
no  mistake." — Hughes,  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford, 
ch.  xli. 

Whistle-drunk,  completely  drunk. 

He  was  indeed,  according  to  the  vulgar 
phrase,  whistle-drunk;  for  before  he  had 
swallowed  the  third  bottle,  he  became  so  en- 
tirely overpowered,  that  though  he  was  not 
carried  off  to  bed  till  long  after,  the  parson 
considered  him  as  absent.  —  Fielding,  Tom 
Jones,  Bk.  XIL  ch.  ii. 

Whiteboys,  Irish  rioters,  so  called 
because  they  wore  white  frocks  over 
their  coats.  Walpole  uses  the  term  of 
London  rioters. 

Those  black  dogs,  the  whiteboys  or  coal- 
heavers,  are  dispersed  or  taken.  —  Walpole, 
Letters,  iii.  260  (1768). 

Whitechapel  shave.    See  extract. 

Blue-bearded  though  they  were,  and  bereft 
of  the  youthful  smoothness  of  cheek  which 
is  imparted  by  what  is  termed  in  Albion  a 
u  Whitechapel  Shave"  (and  which  is,  in  fact, 
whitening  judiciously  applied  to  the  jaws 
with  the  palm  of  the  hand),  I  recognised 
them. — Dickens,  Uncommercial  Traveller,  xxv. 

White  horses,  a  name  given  to  the 
tossing,  white-topped  waves. 

The  bay  is  now  curling  and  writhing  iu 
white  horses  under  a  smoking  south-wester. 
— C.  Kingsley,  1849  (Life,  i.  168). 

White  lie,  a  pious  fraud.  The  first 
quotation  is  a  speech  of  George  IIl.'s 
when  insane. 

Sir  George  has  told  me  a  lie— a  white  lie, 
he  says,  but  I  hate  a  white  lie;  if  you  will 
tell  me  a  lie,  let  it  be  a  black  lie.—  Mad. 
D'Arblay,  Diary,  iv.  289. 

I  wish  that  word  fib  was  out  of  the  Eng- 
lish language,  and  white  lie  drummed  out 
after  it.— Miss  Edgeworth,  Helen,  ch.  vi. 

White-mail.  Black-mail  was  a  tax 
paid  to  a  powerful  chieftain  or  robber 
by  which  the  payer  compounded  for 
security  for  the  rest  of  hia  property ;  to 


WHITE  MOORS        (  723  ) 


WHOLE 


white-mail  is  to  levy  this  sort  of  tax 
for  a  good  purpose. 

He  spent  much  of  his  gains,  however,  in 
sovereign  herbs  and  choice  drugs,  and  would 
have  so  invested  them  all,  but  Margaret 
white  -  mailed  a  part.  —  Beade,  Cloister  and 
Hearth,  ch.  lii. 

White  Moors,  a  name  given  to  the 
Genoese. 

It  is  proverbially  said,  there  are  in  Genoa 
mountames  without  wood,  sea  without  fish, 
women  without  shame,  and  men  without 
conscience,  which  makes  them  to  be  termed 
the  white  Moores. — Howell,  Forraine  Travell, 
sect.  7. 

Whites,  a  name  given  to  certain 
manufactured  cloths.  See  extract 
from  Fuller  s.  v.  Medley. 

Salisbury  has  ....  Long  Cloths  for  the 
Turkey  trade,  called  Salisbury  Whites. — 
Defoe }  Tour  thro'  G.  Britain,  i.  324. 

This  Town  [Burstall]  is  famed  for  Dying, 
and  there  is  made  here  a  sort  of  Cloth  in 
imitation  of  Gloucester  Whites,  which,  tho' 
they  may  not  be  so  fine,  yet  their  colours 
are  as  good. — Ibid.,  iii.  146. 

Whites,  whites  of  the  eyes. 

And  he,  poor  heart,  no  sooner  heard  my 

news, 
But  turns  me  up  his  whites,  and  falls  flat 

down. — Grim  the  Collier,  Act  III. 

The  tradesman,  lifting  up  both  his  hands 
and  whites  to  Heaven,  calls  upon  the  company, 
saying,  "Dearly  beloved  brethren,  let  us 
praise  God  better.1*— Barnard,  Life  of  Hey- 
tin,  p.  clxxx. 

Whites,  white  vestments.  The 
second  extract  is  from  the  instructions 
of  Charles  I.  as  to  what  was  to  be  ob- 
served in  the  Chapel  Royal  at  Holyrood. 

You  clothe  Christ  with  your  blacks  on 
earth,  he  will  clothe  you  with  his  glorious 
whites  in  heaven. — Adams,  ii.  174. 

That  the  Dean  of  our  chap  pel  that  now  is, 
and  so  successively,  come  duly  thither  to 
prayers  upon  Sundaies  and  such  Holidaies 
as  the  Church  observes,  in  his  whites,  and 
preach  so  whensoever  he  preach  there. — 
Heylin,  Life  of  Laud,  p.  262. 

White-witch,  a  wizard  or  witch, 
not  of  a  malicious  kind.  See  quotation 
s.  v.  Yarbs. 

The  common  people  call  him  a  wizard,  a 
white-witch,  a  conjuror,  a  cunning-man,  a 
necromancer.— Addison,  The  Drummer,  Act 
II. 

He  was  what  the  vulgar  call  a  white-iritch, 
a  cunning-man,  and  such  lika— Scott,  Kenil- 
worth,  i.  170. 

When  he  had  warts  or  burns,  he  went  to 
the  white-witch  at  Northam  to  charm  them 
away.— Kingslcy,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  i. 


Whiting's  eye.    See  quotation. 

I  saw  him  just  now  give  her  the  languish- 
ing eye,  as  they  call  it,  that  is,  the  whiting's 
eye,  of  old  called  the  sheep's  eje.—  Wycher- 
ley,  Gentleman  Dancing  Master,  iv.  1. 

Whitson-lord,  the  president  of  a 
Whitsun-cde,  q.  v.  in  N. 

A  cooper's  wit,  or  some  such  busy  spark, 
Illumining  the  high  constable  and  his  clerk, 
And  all  the  neighbourhood  from  old  records 
Of  antique  proverbs,  drawn  from   Whitson- 
lords.— Jonson,  Tale  of  a  Tab  (Prologue). 

Whitster,  a  bleacher  of  linen.  This 
word  is  in  the  Diets.,  but  all  have  one 
and  the  same  quotation  {Merry  Wives 
of  Windsor,  III.  iii.).  N.  says',  "  I  do 
not  know  that  the  word  is  even  now 
out  of  use ;  but  the  authorities  for  it 
are  few." 

So  home,  and  my  wife  and  maids  being 
gone  over  the  water  to  the  whitster's  with 
their  clothes,  this  being  the  first  time  of  her 
trying  this  way  of  washing  her  linen. — 
Bepys,  Aug.  12, 1667. 

Whittaw.  See  quotation;  also  H. 
s.  v.  whittawer. 

Men  are  busy  there  mending  the  harness, 
under  the  superintendence  of  Mr.  Goby  the 
whittaw,  otherwise  saddler.— G.  Eliot,  Adam 
Bede,  ch.  vi. 

Whittie-whattie,  to  whisper. 

u  What  are  ye  whittie-whattieing  about,  ye 
gowk  ?  "  said  his  gentle  sister,  who  suspected 
the  tenor  of  his  murmurs.— Scott,  Pirate*  i. 
101. 

Whittle,  explained  in  a  note  to  be 
"  a  cant  word  for  confessing  at  the 
gallows." 

I  must  speak  to  the  people  a  little, 
But  I'll  see  you  all  damn'd  before  I  will 
whittle.— Swift,  Clever  Tom  Clinch. 

Whitwall,  a  bird. 

No    sound    was  heard,   except    from    far 

away 
The  ringing  of  the  whitwalVs  shrilly  laughter, 
Or,  now  and  then,  the  chatter  of  the  jay, 
That  Echo  murmur'd  after. 

Hood,  Haunted  House. 

Whizle,  to  whistle. 

Rush  do  the  winds  forward  through  perst 
chinck  narrolye  whizliny. 

Stanyhurst,  JEn.,  i.  92. 

Whole.    By  the  whole  =  wholesale. 

If  the  currier  bought  not  leather  by  the 
whole  of  the  tanner,  the  shoemaker  might 
have  it  at  a  more  reasonable  price.— Greene, 
Quip  for  Upstart  Courtier  (Harl.  Misc.,  v. 
411). 

3  A  2 


WHOLE-HOGGERY      (  7*4  )     WIDOW-BEWITCHED 


Whole-hoooery,  a  thorough-going 
clique  or  party.  See  quotation  from 
Southey  s.  v.  Blue-ruin,  where  it  seems 
to  mean  the  extreme  reformers. 

Whole-ones,  bumpers  (?) ;  full 
meals  (?). 

You  use  to  gourmandize  it  upon  full 
gtomacks,  to  force  carowses  and  Whole-ones 
until  you  be  full  up  to  the  very  throat. — 
Howell,  Parly  of  Beasts,  p.  27. 

Whoop.  "  Cotgrave  says  it  is  a  sort 
of  dunghill  cock  that  loves  to  nestle  in 
man's  ordure,  and  hath  a  great  crest  or 
tuft  of  feathers  on  its  head.  M.  le 
Duchat  (quoting  Belon,  of  birds)  says 
it  is  a  silly  bird  almost  without  any 
tongue,  and  by  its  ill-articulated  voice 
it  resembles  that  of  matin-mumblers  " 
(note  in  loc.). 

To  the  same  place  came  his  orison-mutterer, 
impaletocked  or  lapped  up  about  the  chin, 
like  a  tufted  whoop  {comme  une  duppe). — 
Urquharfs  Rabelais,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xxL 

Were  they  as  copped  and  high-crested  as 
marish  whoops,  ...  it  is  all  one  to  me. — 
Ibid.,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xii. 

Whopper,  anything  big  (slang).  Cf . 
Whacker. 

This  is  a  whopper  that's  after  us. — Marryat, 
Pr.  Mildmay,  ch.  xx. 

There's  a-  whopper  rising  not  more  than  ten 
yards  below  the  rail. — Hughes,  Tom  Brown 
at  Oxford,  ch.xlvii. 

Whore's-bird,  a  vulgar  term  of  abuse. 
The  word  will  also  be  found  in  Clarissa 
Harlowe,  v.  215.  In  the  extract  from 
Hughes  it  is  in  a  provincial  form  ;  the 
speaker  is  supposed  to  be  a  Berkshire 
man. 

They'd  set  some  sturdy  whore's-bird  to  meet 
me,  and  beat  out  ha'f  a  dozen  of  my  teeth. — 
Plautus  made  English,  p.  9  (1094). 

Damn  you  all  together  for  a  pack  of 
whoresJ-birds  as  you  are. — Graves,  Spiritual 
Quixote,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  ix. 

"Imp'dent  old  wosbird!"  says  he,  "HI 
break  the  bald  head  on  un." — Hughes,  Tom 
Brown's  Schooldays,  Pt.  I.  ch.  ii. 

Whorl.  L.  defines  it  "turn  of  the 
spire  of  a  univalve  shell,"  but  gives 
no  example. 

See  what  a  lovely  shell, 
Small  and  pure  as  a  pearl, 
Lying  close  to  my  foot ; 
Frail,  but  a  work  divine, 
Made  so  fairily  well 
With  delicate  spire  and  whorl. 

Tennyson,  Maud,  Pt.  II.  ii. 

Whortles,  whortleberries.  See  ex- 
tract 8.  v.  Tump. 


Whurre,  hurry.  In  Pericles  IV.  i., 
as  quoted  by  L.,  whir  =  to  hurry. 

No  haste  but  good,  Madge  Mumblecrust,  for 

whip  and  whurre, 
The  old  prouerbe  doth  say,  neuer  made  good 

furre. — Udal,  Roister  Doister,  L  3. 

Why- not.  To  have  at  a  why-not  = 
to  have  at  a  stand  or  in  a  dilemma. 

Now,  dame  Sally,  I  .have  you  at  a  why-not, 
or  I  never  had. — Richardson,  Grandisonj  vi. 
156. 

Wicker,  a  wicker  basket. 

Each  having  a  white  wicker,  overbrimmed 
With  April's  tender  younglings. 

Keats,  Endymion,  Bk.  I. 

Wicket,  mouth. 

With  hir  that  will  clicket  make  daunger  to 

cope, 
Least  quickly  hir  wicket  seeme  easie  to  ope. 

Tusser,  Husbandrie,  p.  169. 

Wide,  wide  of  the  mark,  and  so, 
bad. 

God  eyther  denyes  or  defers  the  grant  of 
our  requests  for  our  good  ;  it  were  wide  for 
us  if  our  suites  should  be  euer  heard. — Hall, 
Contempt.  (Aaron  and  Miriam). 

It  would  be  wide  with  the  best  of  us  if  the 
eye  of  God  should  looke  backward  to  our 
former  estate. — Ibid.  (Rahab). 

Wide  awake,  keen  ;  sharp. 

Our  governor's  wide  awake,  he  is:  Fll 
never  say  nothin'  agin  him  nor  no  man,  but 
he  knows  what's  o'clock,  he  does;  un- 
common.— Sketches  by  Boz  (  Watkins  Tottle). 

"  Your  aunt  is  a  woman  who  is  uncommon 
wide  awake,  I  can  tell  you."  **  I  always 
knew,  sir,  that  my  aunt  was  perfectly  aware 
of  the  time  of  day,"  says  Barnes,  with  a  low 
bow. — Thackeray,  Newcomes,  ch.  xx. 

Wide-awake,  a  soft  felt  hat  with 
broad  brim. 

"  Then  the  fairy  knight  is  extinct  in  Eng- 
land?" asked  Stangrave,  smiling.  a  No  man 
leBS ;  only  he  .  .  .  has  found  a  wide-awake 
cooler  than  an  iron  kettle." — C.  Kingslty,  Two 
Years  Ago,  Introduction. 

She  was  one  of  the  first  who  appeared  in 
the  Park  in  a  low-crowned  hat — a  wide-awake. 
— H.  Kingsley,  Ravenshoe,  ch.  xliii. 

Widow-bewitched,  a  woman  separ- 
ated from  her  husband.  In  the  ori- 
ginal there  is  nothing  answering  to  this 
phrase  in  the  first  extract.  , 

They  should  see  you  divorced  from  jour 
husband— a  widow,  nay,  to  live  (a  *ndotc 
bewitched)  worse  than  a  widow ;  for  widows     ' 
may  marry  again.  —  Bailey's   Erasmus,  p. 
136. 

Who'd  ha'  thought  of  yo*r  husband,  him 
as  was  so  slow  and  sure,  steady  Philip,  as  we 
lasses  used  to  ca'  him,  makin'  a  moonlight 


WIDOWS  MAN        (  72S  ) 


WIND 


fltttin',  and  leavin'  to'  to  be  a  widow 
bewitched! — Mrs.  Gastell,  Sylvia's  Lovers, 
ch.  xxxix. 

Widow's  man.  The  extracts  give 
different  meanings  to  this  expression. 

As  to  Square,  who  was  in  his  person  what 
is  called  a  jolly  fellow,  or  a  widow's  man,  he 
easily  reconciled  his  choice  to  the  eternal 
fitness  of  things. — Fielding,  Tom  Jones,  Bk. 
III.  ch.  vi. 

Widow's  men  are  imaginary  sailors,  borne 
on  the  books,  and  receiving  pay  and  prize 
money,  which  is  appropriated  to  Greenwich 
Hospital.  —  Marryat,  Peter  Simple,  ch.  vii., 
note. 

Wift,  flag  (?)  ;  weft ;  something 
woven  (?). 

Having  held  off  the  enemy  some  two 
houres,  and  given  a  signe  to  the  Towne  by 
hanging  oat  a  wift  that  he  was  in  distress©. 
— Observable  Passages  in  late  siege  of  Ply- 
mouth, 1644,  p.  5. 

Wigoery,  used  in  the  first  extract  for 
empty  formalities  or  red-tapeism ;  in 
the  second  for  false  hair. 

There  is  yet  in  venerable  wigged  Justice 
some  wisdom  amid  such  mountains  of  wig- 
qeries  and  folly. — Carlyle,  Past  and  Present, 
Bk.  II.  ch.  xvii. 

She  was  a  ghastly  thing  to  look  at,  as  well 
from  the  quantity  as  from  the  nature  of  the 
wiggeries  that  she  wore.  She  had  not  only  a 
false  front,  but  long  false  curls. — Trollope, 
Last  Chronicle  of  Bar  set,  ch.  xxiv. 

Wig  less,  without  a  wig. 

Though  wigless,  with  his  cassock  torn,  he 

bounds 
From  some  facetious  Squire's  encouraged 

hounds. 

Colman,  Vagaries  Vindicated,  p.  206. 

Wig-wag,  writhing ;  wriggling.  The 
serpents  attacking  Laocoon  are  de- 
scribed as 

His  midil  embracing  with  icig-wag  circuled 
hooping. — Stanyhurst,  JE/u,  11.  230. 

Wild-brain,  a  harebrain. 

I  must  let  fly  my  civil  fortunes,  turn  wild- 
brain,  lay  my  wits  upo'  th*  tenters,  you  ras- 
cals.— Middleton,  A  mad  world,  my  masters, 
I.  i. 

Wilderedly,  wildly;  bewilderedly. 

Thou  speak'st  so  wilderedly. 

Taylor,  Isaac  Commenus,  ii.  2. 

Wilderment,  bewilderment. 

So  in  wilderment  of  gazing  I  looked  up,  and  I 
looked  down. 

Mrs.  Browning,  The  Lost  Bower. 

Wilding,  growing  wild. 


And  here  had  falPn  a  great  part  of  a  tower, 
Whole,  like  a  crag  that  tumbles  from  the 

cliff, 
And  like  a  crag  was  gay  with  wilding  flowers. 
Tennyson,  Geraint  and  Enid. 

Wildish,  rather  wild. 

He  is  a  little  wildish,  they  say. — Ricliard- 
son,  Pamela,  i.  129. 

Wild-wind,  a  hurricane. 

There  happened  an  Hirecano  or  wild-wind. 
—Fuller,  Worthies,  Essex  (i.  338). 

Wiles,  wealds  (?). 

The  earth  is  the  Lord's  and  all  the  corners 
thereof ;  He  created  the  mountaines  of  Wales 
as  well  as  the  wiles  of  Kent. — Howell,  For- 
raine  Travell,  sect.  5. 

Wilfulling,  wilfulness.  See  extract 
8.  v.  Bay. 

Will-less,  involuntary ;  without  will 

of  one's  own. 

All  may  be  done,  and  the  world  be  taught 
further  to  admire  you  for  your  blind  duty 
and  wil-less  resignation.  —  Richardson,  CI. 
Harlowe,  L  99. 

Willo,  trap  forfiBh:  vattl  is  the  usual 

form. 

We  behold,  as  it  were,  fishes  of  all  sorts  in 
a  fisher's  trunk  or  willo.— Philpot,  p.  385. 

Willy-nilly,  nolens  volens;  also, 
vacillating. 

If  I  thought  myself  bound  to  doctor  the 
man  willy-nilly,  as  you  do,  I  would  certainly 
go  to  him. — Kingsley,  Two  Years  Ago,  ch.  x. 
Some  one  saw  thy  willy-nilly  nun 
Vying  a  tress  against  our  golden  fern. 

Tennyson,  Harold,  v.  1. 

Winchester.  The  Winchester  pint 
equalled  a  quart.  Skelton,  complaining 
of  the  short  measure  given  by  public- 
ans, and  reverting  to  the  days  of  Henry 
VIII.,  says — 

Full  Winchester  gage 
We  had  in  that  age. 

Elynour  Rummin  (Harl.  Misc., 
l  415). 

Where  [have  youl  squandered  away  the 
tiresome  minutes  of  your  evening  leisure 
over  seal'd  Winchesters  of  three-penny  guz- 
ale?— T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  180. 

Wind.  /*  the  wind  in  that  door  ?  = 
is  that  the  case  ?  sits  the  wind  in  that 
quarter  ? 

u  Why,"  quoth  Pompeius,  a  is  the  winde  in 
this  doore,  that  except  Lu cull  us  were  a  man 
geuen  to  delices,  Pompeius  might  in  no 
wise  continue  alive ?"—  Udal's  Erasmus's 
Apophth.,  p.  318. 


WIND 


(  726    ) 


WINDMILL  Y 


Thras.  I  am  come  to  entreat  you  to  stand 
my  friend,  and  to  favour  me  with  a  longer 
time,  and  I  will  make  you  sufficient  consider- 
ation. 

Usurer.  Is  the  wind  in  that  door  ?  If  thou 
hast  my  money,  so  it  is :  I  will  not  defer  a 
day,  an  hour,  a  minute. — Greene,  Looking- 
Glass  for  London,  p.  121. 

The  wind  is  gotten  into  the  other  door  since 
we  were  prosecuted  and  decried  as  Pelagians 
and  enemies  of  grace. — Bramhall,  iii.  507. 

Wind.    To  take  wind  =  to  be  known ; 

to  transpire. 

If  the  lords  had  sat  in  the  morning,  the 
design  to  be  executed  at  one  o'clock  might 
have  taken  wind. — North,  life  of  Lord  Guil- 
ford, i.  101. 

Wind.  To  raise  the  wind  =  to  pro- 
cure money. 

So  when  to  raise  the  wind  some  lawyer  tries, 
Mysterious  skins  of   parchment  meet  our 
eyes. 

J.  and  H.  Smith,  Rejected  Addresses, 
p.  136. 

Fortune  at  present  is  unkind, 
And  we,  dear  sir,  must  raise  the  wind. 
Combe,  Dr.  Syntax,  Tour  III.  c.  iii. 

Windage.  L.  defines  this,  "  Differ- 
ence in  guns  between  the  diameter  of 
the  bore  and  that  of  the  shot :  "  he  gives 
no  example.  In  the  extract  this  cannot 
be  the  meaning;  it  seems  rather  to 
signify  the  wind  caused  by  the  close 
and  rapid  passage  of  the  shot. 

The  last  shot  flying  so  close  to  Captain 
Portar  that  with  the  windage  of  the  bullet 
his  very  hands  had  almost  lost  the  sense  of 
feeling,  being  struck  into  a  sudden  numbness. 
— Peeke,  Three  to  One,  1625  (Arber,  Eng. 
Garner,  i.  626). 

Wind  and  water.  Between  wind 
and  water  =  full  in  the  midst;  the 
exact  wave-line  of  a  ship.  L.  has  the 
phrase  with  extract  from  Macaulay. 
The  extract  is  of  the  date  1627. 

He  had  hit  his  desires  in  the  master-vein, 
and  struck  his  former  jealousie  between  wind 
and  water,  so  that  it  sunk  in  the  instant. — 
Hist,  of  Edward  II,  p.  11. 

Windball,  a  ball  inflated  with  air. 

Generally  the  high  stile  is  disgraced  and 
made  foolish  and  ridiculous  by  all  wordes 
affected,  counterfait,  and  puffed  vp,  as  it 
were  a  windball  carrying  more  countenance 
than  matter.— Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie,  Bk. 
III.  ch.  vi. 

Windbroach,  a  fiddle  of  an  inferior 
kind ;  vielle. 
Nero,  a  base  blind  fiddler,  or  player  on 


that  instrument  which  is  called  a  windbroach. 
—  Vrquhart's  Rabelais,  Bk.  II.  ch.  xxx. 

For  an  old  man  to  pretend  to  talk  wisely 
is  like  a  musician's  endeavouring  to  fumble 
out  a  fine  sonata  upon  a  wind-broach  ;  though 
the  time  be  good,  the  instrument  is  imper- 
fect.— T.  Brown,  Works,  ii.  234. 

Winder,  wither. 

The  herb  Laserpitium  there  growing  is  of 
so  sauage  and  churlish  a  nature  that  ...  if 
one  should  goe  about  to  tend  and  cherish  it, 
it  would  . . .  winder  away  and  die. — Holland, 
Pliny,  xix.  3. 

Windlace.  See  quotation,  where  a 
peculiar  use  of  the  word  is  noted. 

The  arblast  was  a  cross-bow,  the  windlace 
the  machine  used  in  bending  that  weapon. — 
ScUt,  Ivanhoe,  ii  93. 

Windlass,  to  bend.  L.  has  it  as  a 
verb  neuter  =  to  act  indirectly ;  in  the 
second  extract  it  =  to  raise  by  a  wind- 
lass. 

Your  words,  my  friend  (right  healthful  cans- 
ticks),  blame 
My  young  mind  mart,  whom  Love  doth 
windlas  so, 

That  mine  own  writings  like  bad  servants 
shew 

My  wits  quick  in  vain  thoughts,  in  virtue 
lame. 

Sidney,  Astrophel  and  Stella,  st.  21. 
"But  the  truth  is  all  I  want  to  get  at,** 
said  Beauclerc.  "  Let  her  rest,  my  dear  sir, 
at  the  bottom  of  her  well ;  there  she  is,  and, 
there  she  will  be  for  ever  and  ever,  and 
depend  upon  it,  none  of  our  windlassing  will 
ever  bring  her  up.— Miss  Edgeworth,  Helen, 
ch.  xiv. 

Windlatch,  windlass  or  windlace, 
q.  v.  in  N. :  metaphorically,  contrivance. 

The  former  are  brought  forth  by  a  wind- 
latch  of  a  trial  to  charge  the  latter  with  the 
foulest  of  crimes.— North,  Examen,  p.  307. 

Windle,  a  machine  on  which  yarn  is 
wound.  See  H.  R.  has  windle  as  a 
verb  =  to  wind. 

Speak  her  fair  and  canny,  or  we  will  have 
a  ravelled  hasp  on  the  yam-windles.Scott, 
Pirate,  i.  86. 

Windlift,  a  windlass. 

The  Author  intends  no  good  in  all  this,  but 
brings  it  in  as  a  windlift  to  heave  up  a  gross 
scandal— North,  Examen,  p.  354. 

Windmills,  vain  projects ;  castles  in 
the  air.    See  extract  *.  v.  Concord. 

Windmilly,  connected  with  wind- 
mills. 

A  windmilly  country  this,  though  the  wind- 
mills are  so  damp  and  rickety.  —  Dickens, 
Uncommercial  Traveller,  xxv. 


W1ND0  W 


(  7*7  ) 


WINTER-LOVE 


Window,  a  blank  space  in  a  writing. 

I  will  therefore  that  you  send  unto  me  a 
collection  thereof,  and  that  your  said  collec- 
tion have  a  window  expedient  to  set  what 
name  I  will  therein. — Cranmer,  ii.  249. 

Window  -  dropper,  one  who  drops 
from  a  window,  though  strictly  it  would 
mean  one  who  drops  a  window. 

Mild,  sedate  convenience  is  better  than  a 
stark,  staring-mad  passion.  The  wall-climb- 
ers, the  hedge  and  ditch-leapers,  the  river- 
f orders,  the  window  ~  droppers,  always  find 
reason  to  think  so. — Richardson,  Grandison, 
vi.  47. 

Windowless,  without  windows. 

It  is  usual  ...  to  huddle  them  together 
into  naked  walls  and  windowless  rooms. — H. 
Brooke,  Fool  of  Quality,  i.  377. 

One  would  think  he  had  spent  his  whole 
life  in  the  Younger  Pliny's  windowless  study. 
—J.  Sterling,  1836  (Carlyle's  Life,  Pt.  II. 
ch.  iv.) 

I  stood  still  at  this  end,  which,  being  win- 
dowless, was  dark.  —  C.  Bronte,  Jane  Eyre, 
ch.  xvii. 

Windshake,  a  flaw  in  wood,  caused 
by  violence  of  wind.  See  L.  s.  v. 
windshock. 

If  you  come  into  a  shoppe,  and  fynde  a 
bowe  that  is  small,  long,  heauy  and  strong, 
lyinge  streyght,  not  windyng,  not  marred 
with  knot,  gaule,  wyndcshake,  wem,  freate, 
or  pynche,  bye  that  bowe  of  my  warrant. — 
Ascham,  Toxophilus,  p.  114. 

Windy-footed,  swift  as  the  wind. 
Chapman  (Iliad,  xv.  163)  calls  Iris 
"the  windy-footed  dame." 

Wine,  the    university    abbreviation 

for  a  wine-party. 

He  gave  me  my  meals  hospitably  enough, 
but  disappeared  every  day  about  four  to 
"  hall " ;  after  which  he  did  not  reappear 
till  eight,  the  interval  being  taken  up,  he 
said,  in  "  wines  n  and  an  hour  of  billiards. — 
C.  Kingsley,  Alton  Locke,  ch.  xiii. 

Winesop,  a  sort  of  flower.  N.  and 
H.,  s.  v.  sops-in-wine,  say  the  pink,  but 
it  seems  to  be  distinguished  from  this 
in  the  extract. 

Bring  the  pinckes  therewith  many  gellifloures 

Hweexe, 
And  the  cullambynes ;  let  us  haue  the  wyne- 

sops. —  Webbe,  Eng.  Poetrie,  p.  84. 

Wing.  Mr.  Singer  notes  on  the  fol- 
lowing extract,  "These  are  terms  in 
the  noble  art  of  kerving.  In  that 
curious  list  of  'the  dewe  termys  to 
speak  of  brekynge  or  dressy nge  of 
dyvers  beestys  and  foules'  printed  in 


the  Boke  of  St.  Albans  (I  quote  from 
the  fac-simile  of  the  edition  of  1496), 
the  proper  terms  appear  to  be  a  quayle 
wynggyd,  a  plover  mynsyd. " 
Good  man !  him  list  not  spend  his  idle  meals 
In  quinsing  plovers,  or  in  winging  quails. 

Hall,  Satires,  IV.  ii.  38. 

Wing,  applied  to  the  front  leg  or 
shoulder  of  some  quadrupeds. 

If  Scotish-men  tax  our  language  as  im- 
proper, and  smile  at  our  wing  of  a  Rabbit, 
let  us  laugh  at  their  shoulder  of  a  Capon. — 
Fuller,  Worthies,  Norfolk  (ii.  124). 

Wingle.  H.  says,  "  to  heckle  flax," 
but  it  seems  distinguished  from  heckle 
in  the  extract  from  Howell  «.  v.  Brake. 

Winglet,  little  wing. 

When  he  took  off  the  winglets  either  wholly 
or  partially,  the  buzzing  ceased. — Kirby  and 
Spence,  Entomology,  ii.  382. 

Wing-post,     See  extract. 

Probably  our  English  would  be  found  as 
docible  and  ingenious  as  the  Turkish  Pigeons, 
which  carry  letters  from  Aleppo  to  Babilon, 
if  trained  up  accordingly.  But  such  prac- 
tices by  these  Wing-posts  would  spoil  many 
a  Foot-post.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Northampton 
(ii.  158). 

Wink-all-hid,  a  game  mentioned  by 
Davies  in  the  extract,  and  again  in  the 
same  work,  p.  16. 

He  did 
Driue  them  from  dancing  unto  Winck-aU-hid. 
Humour's  Heauen  on  Earth,  p.  30. 

Winking.  Like  winking  ==  very 
much  or  quickly,  from  the  rapidity  of 
a  wink. 

Both  my  legs  began  to  bend  like  winkin*. 
Hood,  Sailor* 's  Apology  for  bow-legs. 

Nod  away  at  him,  if  you  please,  like  wink' 
ing. — Dickens,  Great  Expectations,  ch.  xxi. 

WlNNOW  (?). 
How  solemnly  the  pendent  ivy-mass 
Swings  in  its  winnow. 

Coleridge,  To  the  Departing  Year. 

Winterbourne.     See  extract. 

From  the  graveyard  itself  burst  up  one  of 
those  noble  springs  known  as  winterbournes 
in  the  chalk  ranges.— C.  Kingsley,  Yeast,  ch.  i. 

Winter-love,  cold  or  conventional 
love-making  (V). 

What  a  deal  of  cold  business  doth  a  man 
mis -spend  the  better  part  of  life  in!  in 
scattering  compliments,  tendering  visits, 
gathering  and  venting  news,  following  feasts 
and  plays,  making  a  little  winter -love  in  a 
dark  corner.  —  B.  Jonson,  Discoveries  (Joe- 
tura  vita). 


WIPE 


(  728) 


WITH- CHILD 


Such  a  passion  as  this  makes  love  in  a 
continual  fervour— makes  it  all  alive.  The 
happy  pair,  iubtead  of  sitting  dozing  and 
nodtliug  at  each  other  in  opposite  chimney- 
corners  in  a  winter  eveuing,  and  over  a 
wintry  love,  always  new  to  each  other,  and 
having  always  something  to  say. — Richard- 
son, VI.  Harlowe,  iii.  317. 

Wipe,  a  handkerchief.  See  quotation 
8.  v.  Clyfaking.  Ben  Jonson  (Masque 
of  Owls)  has  "  wipers  for  their  noses." 

"  And  what  have  you  got,  my  dear  ?  " 
said  Fa  gin  to  Charley  Bates.  "  Wipes? 
replied  Master  Bates,  at  the  same  time  pro- 
ducing four  pocket-handkerchiefs. — Dickens, 
Oliver  Twisty  eh.  ix. 

This  here  warment's  prigged  your  wipe. 
Ingoldsby  Legends  (  The  Forlorn  One). 

Wisdom-tooth.  Two  double  teeth 
at  the  back  of  the  mouth  are  called 
wise  or  wisdom  teeth,  because  coining 
late,  when  persons  are  at  years  of  dis- 
cretion. 

A  double  tooth 
Is  Wisdom's  adopted  dwelling. 

Hood,  Miss  Kilmansegg. 

He's  noane  cut  his  wisdom- teeth  yet ;  but 
for  that  matter  there's  other  folks  as  far  fra' 
sense  as  he  is. — Mrs.  Gaskell,  Sylvia's  Lovers, 
ch.  xxi. 

Wise  man,  a  conjurer.  See  quota- 
tion from  Latimer  *.  v.  Witch. 

I  pray  you  tell  where  the  wise  man  the 
conjuror  dwells. — Peele,  Old  Wives'  Tale,  p. 
449. 

Wise  woman,  a  witch. 

Supposing,  according  to  popular  fame, 
Wise  Woman  and  Witch  to  be  the  same. 

Hood,  Tale  of  a  Trumpet. 

Wish  fulness,  longing. 

The  natural  infirmities  of  youth, 

Sadness  and  softness,  hopefulness,  wishful- 

ness. 
All  pangs  for  which  we  do  not  see  good 

cause, 
Let's  take  no  count  of. 

Taylor,  Isaac  Comnenus,  iii.  1. 

Wishy-washy,  weak.  See  extract 
s.  v.  Guinea-pig. 

If  you  are  a  Coffin,  you  were  sawn  out  of 
no  wishy-washy  elm-board,  but  right  heart- 
of-oak. — Kingsley,  Westward  Ho,  ch.  viii. 

Wisker,  a  lie. 

Suppose  I  tell  her  some  damned  wisker; 
why  that's  but  m'  old  Dog-trick.  —  Plautus 
made  English,  p.  9  (16*94). 

Wisp,  or  Whisp,  a  disease  in  bul- 
locks. 
To  cure  a  bullock  that  hath  the  whisp, 


(that  is)  lame  between  the  clees.  Take  the 
impression  of  the  bullock's  foot  in  the  earth 
where  he  hath  trod;  then  dig  it  up,  and 
stick  therein  five  or  seven  thorns  on  the 
wrong  side,  and  then  hang  it  on  a  bush  to 
dry,  and  as  that  dries,  so  the  bullock  heals. 
This  never  fails  for  wisps.  From  Mr.  Pacy, 
a  yeoman  in  Surry. — Aubrey,  Misc.,  p.  138. 

Wisp,  an  ignis  fatuus;  a  Will  o'  the 
wisp. 

We  did  not  know  the  real  light,  but  chased 
The  wisp  that  flickers  where  no  foot  can 
tread. — Tennyson,  Princess,  iv. 

Wistles8,  unknowing. 

So  saying,  from  his  belt  he  took 
The  encumbering  sword.    I  held  it,  listening 

to  him, 
And,  wist  less  what  I  did,  half   from    the 

sheath 
Drew  the  well-temper'd  blade. 

Southey,  Joan  of  Arc,  Bk.  I. 

Wit,  to  joke  ;  to  put  wittily. 

Burton  doth  pretend  to  wit  it  in  his  pulpit- 
Kbell.—Heylin,  Life  of  Laud,  p.  260. 

Witch,  a  wizard.  See  quotation 
from  Carlyle  under  next  entry :  perhaps 
in  second  extract  it  =  charm. 

When  we  be  in  trouble,  or  sickness,  or 
lose  anything,  we  run  hither  and  thither  to 
witches  or  sorcerers  whom  we  call  wise  men. 
■ — Latimer,  i.  534. 

If  a  man  but  dally  by  her  feet, 
He  thinks  it  straight  a  witch  to  charm  his 

daughter. — Greene,  Geo-a-Greene,  p.  262. 

Pythagoras  was  part  philosopher,  part 
magician,  or  part  witch. — Burton,  Danoc.  to 
Reader,  p.  21. 

The  Maltese*  took  St.  Paul  for  a  witch. — 
Howell,  Letters,  iii.  23. 

Witch.  To  be  no  witch  is  to  be 
rather  stupid.     Cf.  Conjuror. 

Their  judgement  was  upon  the  whole, 
That  Lady  is  the  dullest  soul ; 
Then  tipt  their  forehead  in  a  jeer, 
As  who  should  say,  She  wants  it  here ; 
She  may  be  handsome,  young,  and  rich, 
But  none  will  burn  her  for  a  wit*rh. 

Swift,  Cadenus  and  Vanessa. 

The  Editor  is  clearly  no  witch  at  a  riddle. 
— Carlyle,  Misc.,  iii.  51. 

Witch-wolf.    See  extract. 

Those  whom  the  Greeks  call  \vicdi>dpteirou? 
.  . .  abound  in  Ardenna,  called  by  the  inhab- 
itants lougarous;  in  English,  witch-wolves, 
witches  that  had  put  on  the  form  of  those 
cruel  beasts. — Adams,  ii.  119. 

Wit ful,  wise ;  sensible.  See  extract 
8.  v.  Sight  ful. 

With-child,  to  get  with  child.  In 
the  second  quotation  the  reference  is 


WITHDRAUGHT        (  729  ) 


WOLF'S  FOOT 


also  to  the  heavenly  bodies.  For  to 
be  with  child  =  to  long.  See  *.  v. 
Child. 

The  lusty  Heav'n  with  Earth  doth  company, 
And  with  a  fruitfull  seed  which  lends  all  life, 
With-childs  each  moment  his  owne  lawfull 
wife. 

Sylvester,  Second  day,  first  weeke,  390. 

Their  order  orderless  and  peacefull  braul 
Witft-childs  the  world,  file  sea,  and  earth, 
and  all. — Ibid.,  The  Uolumnes,  000. 

Withdraught,  withdrawal. 

May  not  a  withdraught  of  all  God's  favours 
...  be  as  certainly  foreseen  and  foretold  ? — 
Ward,  Sermons,  p.  145. 

Withie-winde,  bindweed.  The  ex- 
tract is  a  translation  of  Gandidior 
folio  nivei  Galatea  ligustri. 

Whiter  Galet  then  the  white  withie-winde. 
— Burton,  Anatomy,  p.  517. 

Withoutside,  outside.  L.  has  with- 
inside. 

Why  does  that  lawyer  wear  black  ?  does 
he  carry  his  conscience  withoutside? — Con- 
greve,  Loss  for  Love,  iv.  6. 

But  when  I  came  witlioutside,  I  saw  nobody 
there. — Centlivre,  Marplot,  Act  II. 

Mr.  Betham,  late  minister  of  the  place,  is 
baried  under  the  North  wall  of  the  Chancel 
withoutside. — Defoe,  Tour  thro7  G.  Britain,  i. 
288. 

Wit- jab,  head.   Cf.  Knowledge-box. 

Dr.  Hale,  who  was  my  good  Astolf o  (you 
read  Ariosto,  Jack),  and  has  brought  me  back 
my  wit-jar,  had  much  ado  ...  to  effect  my 
recovery. — Richardson,  CI.  Harlowe,  viii.  249. 

Witsape,  to  vouchsafe. 

To  this  did  I,  ev'n  from  my  tender  youth, 
Witsafe  to  bring  thee  up. 

Sackville,  Duke  of  Buckingham,  st.  55. 

Would'st  thou  witsafe  to  slide  adowne 
And  dwell  with  vs ! 

Puttenham,  Eng.  Poesie, 
Bk.  III.  ch.  xix. 

Witstand.  To  be  at  a  witstand  = 
to  be  at  wits'  end,  not  to  know  what 
to  do. 

They  were  at  a  witstand,  and  "could  reach 
no  further.— Socket,  Life  of  Williams,  i.  188. 

Wittified,  clever. 

Diverse  of  these  were  .  .  .  dispersed  to 
those  wittified  ladies  who  were  willing  to 
come  into  the  order. — North,  Life  of  Lord 
Guilford,  i.  59. 

Wittol,  to  make  a  wittol  or  con- 
tented cuckold  of  a  man. 

He  would  wittol  me 
With  a  consent  to  my  own  horns. 

Davenport,  City  Match,  I.  i. 


Wit- wanton, over  subtle;  exercising 
the  wit  or  understanding  in  wanton  or 
extravagant  speculations. 

How  dangerous  it  is  f or  wit-wanton  men  to 
dance  with  their  nice  distinctions  on  such 
mysticall  precipices. — Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  X 
iv.  4. 

Wizen,  shrivelled ;  withered.  Cf. 
Weazen. 

He  is  a  gay  little  wizen  old  man  in  appear- 
ance from  the  eastern  climate's  dilapidations 
upon  his  youth  and  health. — Mad.  D'Arblay, 
Diary,  v.  269. 

I'll  hold  him  quit  of  all  else,  so  he'll  but 
quit  me  of  that  wizen  little  stump. — Ibid., 
Camilla,  Bk.  VII.  ch.  viii. 

Wizened,  withered. 

There  entered  an  old  man,  venerable  at  first 
sight,  but  on  nearer  view,  keen  and  wizened. 
— Reade,  Cloister  and  Hearth,  ch.  liii. 

In  God's  liberal  blue  air 
Peter's  dome  itself  looks  wizened. 
Mrs.  Browning,  Ragged  Schools. 

He  found  his  friend  ....  with  a  face 
looking  worn  and  wizened. — G.  Eliot,  Daniel 
Deronda,  ch.  lxvii. 

Woaded  in  the  first  quotation  = 
extracted  from  woad,  the  set  up  blues 
being  made  with  an  adulterated  dye ; 
in  the  second  quotation  =  stained  with 
woad. 

The  set  up  blues  have  made  strangers 
loathe  the  rich  wooded  blues. —  Ward,  Ser- 
mons, p.  77. 

Man 
Tattoo'd  or  woaded,  winter-clad  in  skins. 

Tennyson,  Princess,  ii. 

Wolf.  To  have  a  wolf  by  the  ears 
was  a  proverbial  expression  sufficiently 
explained  by  the  quotations. 

He  that  deals  with  men's  affections  hath 
a  wolf  by  the  ears ;  if  we  speak  of  peace, 
they  wax  wanton ;  if  we  reprove,  they  grow 
desperate. — Adams,  iii.  249. 

He  found  himself  so  intrigued  that  it  was 
like  a  wolf  by  the  ears  ;  he  could  neither  hold 
it,  nor  let  it  go  ;  and,  for  certain,  it  bit  him 
at  last. — North,  Life  of  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  2. 

Wolfkin,  young  wolf. 

"Was  this  your  instructions,  wolfkin? n 
(for  she  called  me  lambkin). —  Richardson, 
Pamela,  i.  175. 

Wolfling,  a  young  wolf. 

Toung  children  were  thrown  in,  their 
mothers  vainly  pleading:  M  Wolfiings"  an- 
swered the  Company  of  Marat,  "  who  would 
grow  to  be  wolves." — Carlyle,  Fr.  Rev.,  Pt. 
III.  Bk.  V.  ch.  iii. 

Wolf's  foot,  the  club-moss :  literal 


WOMAN 


(  730  ) 


WOODENL  Y 


trannlation  of  lycopodium.    See  quota- 
tion S.  V.  ClIP-MObS. 


»> 


Woman,  to  call  a  person  "  woman 
in  an  abusive  way. 

She  called  her  another  time  fat-face,  and 
womaned  her  most  violently. — Richardson, 
Pamela,  ii.  268. 

Womb  -  brother,  a  brother  on  the 
mother's  side,  but  by  a  different  father: 
uterine  brotlier  is  the  more  common 
expression. 

Edmund  of  Haddam .  . .  was  Son  to  Queen 
Katherine  by  Owen  Theodor,  her  second 
husband,  Womb-lrrother  to  King  Henry  the 
Sixth, and  Father  to  King  Henry  the  Seventh. 
—Fuller,  Worthies,  Hartford  (1.  427). 

Wonder,  to  surprise. 

She  has  a  sedateness  that  wonders  me  still 
more. — Mad.  DfArblay,  Diary,  iv.  273. 

Wonderland,  the  land  of  marvels. 

The  word  is  familiar  to  us  now  from 

the  popular  book,  Alice  in  Wonderland. 

Lo,  Brace  in  wonderland  is  quite  at  home. 

Wolcot ,  P.  Pindar,  p.  186. 

WoNDER-MAZE,  to  astonish.  Mirum 
in  Modum  was  the  title  of  one  of 
Duvies's  works. 

Hee  taught  and  sought  Bight's  mines  to 

repaire, 
Sometimes  with   words  that  wonder-mazed 

men, 
Sometimes   with   deedes   that  Angels   did 

admire. — Davits,  Wittes  Pilgrimage,  p.  51. 

Mirum  in  Modum  men  did  wonder-maze. 
J.  James  to  Davits  (Microcosmos,  p.  7). 

Wonder-rap,  to  rape  or  seize  with 
wonder :  unless  it  be  wonder- wop. 

O  sight  of  force  to  wonder-rap  all  eyes. 

Davies,  Muse's  Sacrifice,  p.  27. 

Wont,  to  accustom. 

These  that  in  youth  have  wonted  them- 
selves to  the  load  of  less  sins  want  not 
increase  of  strength  according  to  the  increase 
of  their  burdens. — Adams,  i.  354. 

Wood.  N.  says,  "  Jonson  uses  wood 
in  the  same  way  the  Latin  sylva  is  used, 
for  a  collection  of  anything.  See  The 
Alchemist,  iii.  2.  *  Salute  the  sisters, 
entertain  the  whole  family  or  wood  of 
'em.1  —  Silent  Woman,  ii.  2."  This 
usage,  however,  is  not  peculiar  to  Jon- 
son. 

And  though  my  buckler  bore  a  wood  of  darts, 
Yet  left  not  I,  hut  with  audacious  face 
I  brauely  fought. — Hudson,  Judith,  v.  500. 

So  many  banners  streaming  in  the  ayre, 
glittering  armours,  motions  of  plumes,  woods 


of  pikes  and  swords,  variety  of  colours. — 
Burton,  Democ.  to  Reader,  p.  32. 

Having  a  wood  of  widows  of  upright  con- 
versation, must  you  needs  gather  one  crooked 
with  superstition  to  be  pattern  to  all  the  rest  ? 
—Fuller,  Holy  State,  L  xi.  1. 

Wooded,  stripped  of  wood.  Fielding, 
having  used  the  expression  "well- 
wooded  forest  of  Hampshire,"  adds  in  a 
note — 

This  is  an  ambiguous  phrase,  and  may  mean 
either  a  forest  well  clothed  with  wood,  or  well 
stripped  of  it. — Tom  Jones,  Bk.  V.  ch.  xi. 

Wooden,  mad.        • 

A  dog  in  the  wood  or  a  wooden  dog!  oh 
comfortable  hearing! — Pule,  Old  Wives1 
Tale,\.  1. 

Wooden  horse,  a  ship.  Cf.  Plautus, 
Rudens,  I.  v. : — 

Nempe  equo  ligneo  per  vias  caruleas 
Estis  vecUs. 

They  are  glad  on  their  wodden  horses  to 
post  after  him  [the  herring]. — Nashe,  Lenten 
Sttrffe  (Harl.  Misc.,  vi.  161). 

Vpon  a  wodden  horse  he  rides  through  the 
world,  and  in  a  merry  gale  makes  a  path 
through  the  seas. — Breton,  Good  and  Bad, 
p.  9. 

After  she  had  well  refresh'd  herself  and 
ber  little  son  (as  yet  a  stranger  to  the  riding 
of  so  long  a  journey  upon  a  wooden  horse) 
.  .  .  she  is  waited  on  to  Paris. — Hist,  of 
Edward  II.,  p.  95. 

Milford  Haven,  the  chief  stable  for  his 
wooden  horses. — Fuller,  Worthies,  ch.  vi. 

Wooden-horse,  an  erection  made  of 
planks  nailed  together  so  as  to  form  a 
sharp  ridge  on  wnich  soldiers  were  set 
astride,  as  a  punishment,  with  muskets 
tied  to  their  feet.  This  penalty  has 
been  long  discontinued,  having  been 
found  to  injure  the  men,  producing 
rupture  in  some  cases. 

Two  new  listed  souldiers  . . .  were  this  day 
tryed  by  a  Court  Martial,  and  sentenced  to 
ride  the  Wooden-Horse.  —  Rushworth  Hist. 
Coll.,  Pt.  IV.  Vol.  II.  p.  1369  (1648). 

At  her  command  they  build  a  'War-horse, 
Bigger  by  far  than  Coach  or  Car-horse  ; 
Like  that  foot-souldier  mounts  upon, 
When  he  turns  Trooper  or  Dragoon  ; 
With  Muskets  ty'd  for  Spurn  to  heels, 
And  tho'  he  kicks,  it  never  feels. 

Cotton,  Scarronides,  p.  3. 

Woodenly,  awkwardly. 

Diverse  thought  to  have  some  sport  in 
seeing  how  woodenly  he  would  excuse  him- 
self .—Sorth,  Life  0/  Lord  Guilford,  ii.  22. 


WOODEN-SHOES        (  731  ) 


WORMISH 


Wooden-shoes,  a  name  for  French- 
men, referring  to  the  sabots.  See 
quotation  s.  v.  Low-boy. 

Hound-heads  and  Wooden-shoes  are  standing 

jokes. — Prologue  to  Addison's  Drummer. 
Let  Paris  be  the  theme  of  Gallia's  muse, 
Where  slav'ry  treads  the  street  in  wooden 
shoes. — Gay,  Trivia,  i.  86. 
Virtue    is    cosmopolite,  and    may  exist 
among  wooden-shoed  Papists  as  well  as  honest 
Church-of -England  men. — Thackeray,  Paris 
Sketch  Book,  ch.  vi. 

Woodless,  without  timber. 

Here  are  .  .  Meddows  and  Pasture,  and 
Arable  and  "Woody,  and  (generally)  woodless 
land.— Fuller,  Worthies,  Norfolk  (ii.  124). 

Wood-sale  time,  time   for    selling 

wood ;  by  great  of  course  =  wholesale. 

A  sort  of  lusty  bil-men  set 
In  wood-sale  time  to  sell  a  cops  by  great. 
Sylvester,  The  Captaines,  p.  243. 

Woodsere,  "  loose,  spungy  ground  " 
(Lisle,  Obs.  in  Husbandry,  1757,  E.  D. 
S. ) ;  sometimes  spelt  wood-sour.  The 
word  also  means  the  month  or  season 
for  cutting  wood  (Tusser,  pp.  Ill, 
119). 

The  soil ...  is  a  sour  woodsere  land,  very 
natural  for  the  production  of  oaks  especially. 
— Aubrey,  Misc.,  p.  211. 

Woodwoses,  madmen;    wood  who- 

sos  (?). 

Some  went  naked,  some  roamed  like 
woodwoses,  none  did  anything  by  reason. — 
Wilson,  Art  of  Rhetoric,  1554  (Eng,  Garner t 
i.464). 

Wool.  More  squeak  than  wool  = 
more  noise  than  sunstance  ;  a  form  of 
the  old  proverb,  *4  Great  cry  and  little 
wool,11  the  story  connected  with  which 
will  be  seen  in  the  last  extract. 

For  matter  of  title  he  thought  there  was 
more  squeak  than  wool. — North,  Life  of  Lord 
Guilford,  ii.  17. 

The  stir  about  the  sheriff  of  London  .  .  . 
was  much  squeak  and  no  wool,  but  an  imper- 
tinent contention  to  no  profit. — Ilrid.,  ii.  326. 

Tet  thou  may'st  bluster  like  bull-beef  so  big ; 
And,  of  thy  own  importance  full, 
Exclaim,  "  Great  cry  and  little  wool! " 

As  Satan  hollaed  when  he  shaved  the  pig. 

Wolcot,  P.  Pindar,  p.  135. 

Woose,  ooze ;  marshy  ground.  The 
Diets,  have  the  adjective  woosy.  Howell 
{Vindication  of  himself,  1677,  Uarl. 
misc.,  vi.  129)  speaks  of  "the  aguish 
woose  of  Kent  and  Essex." 

Word  and  a  blow,  immediate  action : 
also  used  adjectivally. 


Nev.  Pray,  Miss,  why  do  you  sigh  ? 
Miss.  To  make  a  fool  ask,  and  you  are  the 
first. 

Nev.  Why,  Miss,  I  find  there  is  nothing  but 
a  word  and  a  blow  with  you. 

Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  i.). 

My  Cousins  are  grieved :  they  did  not  ex- 
pect that  I  would  be  a  word  and  a  blow,  as 
they  phrase  it. — Richardson,  Grandison,  iv. 
206. 

Mr.  Joseph  Parsons  had  a  Napoleon-like 
promptitude  of  action,  which  the  unlearned 
operatives  described  by  calling  him  "  a  word- 
and-a-blow  man."— Mrs.  Trollope,  Michael 
Armstrong,  ch.  iv. 

Wordspite,  abusive. 

A  silly  yet  ferocious  wordspite  quarrel. — 
Palgrave,  Hist.  Norm,  and  Enq.,  ii.  661 
(1857).  * 

Wordstrife,  dispute  about  words. 
The  earliest  instance  of  logomachy,  as 
an  English  word  given  in  the  Diets.,  is 
froin  Bp.  Hairs  Answer  to  Smectym- 
nuus's  Vindication,  1641,  six  years 
after  the  date  of  Hacket's  work ;  un- 
less a  quotation  in  L.  from  Howell, 
without  further  reference,  be  earlier. 

The  end  of  this  Xoyo^avia  or  word-strife. 
—Socket,  Life  of  Williams,  ii.  107. 

Workful,  full  of  work,  or  designed 
for  work. 

You  saw  nothing  in  Coketown  but  what 
was  severely  workful.— Dickens,  Hard  Times, 
ch.  v. 

Worksome,  industrious. 

So  through  seas  of  blood  to  equality, 
frugality,  worksome  blessedness. — Carlvle^  Fr. 
Rev.,  Pt.  III.  Bk.  VI.  ch.  vi 

World.  The  world  and  his  wife  = 
every  one. 

Miss.  Pray,  Madam,  who  were  the  com- 
pany? 

Lady  Sm.  Why  there  was  all  the  world  and 
his  wife. 

Swift,  Polite  Conversation  (Conv.  iii.). 

How  he  welcomes  at  once  all  the  world  and 

his  wife, 
And  how  civil  to  folk  he  ne'er  saw  in  his  life. 
New  Rath  Guide,  Letter  xiii. 

All  the  world  and  his  wife  and  daughter 
leave  cards.  Sometimes  the  worltfs  wife  has 
so  many  daughters  that  her  card  reads 
rather  like  a  miscellaneous  lot  at  an  auction. 
—Dickens,  Our  Mutual  Friend,  Bk.  I.  ch.  xvii. 

Worm-eat,  to  impair,  as  by  the 
gnawing  of  worms. 

Leave  off  these  vanities  which  icorm-eat 
your  brain. — Jarvis*s  Don  Quixote,  Pt.  H. 
Bk.  IV.  ch.  x. 

WoiiMisH,  worm-like.