Mr. Constable, i. 2 (Blurt).
=bind with,= to grapple with, seize; said of a hawk. Massinger,
Guardian, i. 1 (Durazzo).
=bing,= to go. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. I (Song); _bynge a
waste_, go you hence, Harman, Caveat, p. 84; _bing awast_, go away,
Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Patrico).
=bird-bolt,= a short blunt arrow, usually shot from a cross-bow at
birds. Much Ado, i. 1. 42; L. L. L. iv. 3. 25.
=birle,= to pour out liquor. Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 269; Levins
Manip. A north-country word (EDD.). ME. _byrle_ (Cath. Angl.); OE.
_byrlian_, to give to drink; _byrel_, a cup-bearer.
=bisa, bise,= a north wind. Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 1 (1339); p.
134, col. 2. F. _bise_, a north wind (Cotgr.). O. Prov. _biza_, ‘bise,
nord’ (Levy).
=bisogno, bisognio,= a needy fellow, a term of contempt. Fletcher,
Love’s Cure, ii. 1 (Alguazier); Chapman, Widow’s Tears, i. (Lysander).
Ital. _bisogni_, pl. new-levied soldiers, needy men; _bisogno_, need,
want. Cp. =bezonian.=
=bitched,= a term of opprobrium; ‘Bitched brothel’, World and Child, in
Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 254.
=bite on the bridle,= to be impatient of restraint. Gascoigne, i. 449,
l. 25.
=bitter, bittour,= a bittern. _Bitter_, Middleton, Triumph of Love, ed.
Dyce, v. 289; _bittour_, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, v. 89; Dryden, Wife of
Bath’s Tale, 194; Coles, Dict. (1679). ME. _bitore_ (Chaucer, C. T. D.
972); OF. _butor_, a bittern (Hatzfeld).
=bizzle,= to become drunk, to drink to excess. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt.
II, iii. 1 (Matheo). See =bezzle.=
=black:= phr. _black is your eye_. To say ‘black is your eye’, to find
fault with one, to lay something to his charge. ‘I can say, _black’s
your eye_, though it be grey’, Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, iii. 1
(Alguazier); ‘black’s mine eye’, Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, i. 2
(Blurt).
=black guard,= orig. a jocular name given to the lower menials of a
noble house, esp. those who had charge of kitchen utensils, and carried
them about when required; ‘A lousy slave, that within this twenty years
rode with the black guard in the duke’s carriage [i.e. among his
baggage], ’mongst spits and dripping-pans’, Webster, White Devil, ed.
Dyce, p. 8; Fletcher, Woman-hater, i. 3 (Lazarillo).
=black jack,= a leathern jug for beer, tarred outside. Beaumont and Fl.,
Scornful Lady, ii. 2 (Savil); Middleton, The Witch, i. 1 (Gasparo).
=black-mack,= a blackbird; ‘A leane birde of the kind of
_blacke-mackes_’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Augustus, § 34; ‘_Merula_, a
birde called a black-mack, an owzell, a mearle, or black-bird’, Florio.
=black ox;= ‘The Black Ox has trod on his foot, he has fallen on
misfortune or sorrow’, Lyly, Sapho and Phao, iv. 1; Heywood, Eng. Prov.
(ed. Farmer, 112). See Nares, and EDD. (s.v. Black, 5 (11)).
=black-pot,= a beer-mug; hence, a toper. Greene, Friar Bacon, ii. 2
(scene 5, W.), at the end; p. 160, col. 2 (D.).
=blacks,= mourning clothes. Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iii. 1 (Francisco);
Maid in a Mill, iv. 2 (Bustopha); Bacon, Essay 2; Massinger, Fatal
Dowry, ii. 1 (Charalois); Herrick, Hesperides, 379. In prov. use; see
EDD. (s.v. Black, sb.^{1} 4).
=Black Sanctus,= or =Black Saunce;= see =Sanctus.=
=blanch,= to give a fair appearance to by artifice or suppression of the
truth. Bacon, Essays 20 and 26; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xii. 222; Od. xi.
492; Latimer, Serm., Ploughers (Arber, 37).
=blanch= (a hunting term), to ‘head back’ the deer in his flight. Lyly,
Gallathea, ii. 1. 231. Hence _blancher_, a person or thing placed to
turn the deer from a particular direction; Sydney, Arcadia, 64; _fig._ a
hinderer, Latimer, Serm., Ploughers (Arber, 33 and 36). _Blanch_ still
used by huntsmen in Somerset and Devon in this sense (EDD.). See
=blencher.=
=blank,= the white spot in the centre of a target; now, bull’s eye.
Hamlet, iv. 1. 42; _at twelve-score blank_, at a range of twelve score
yards, Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 3 (Sophocles).
=blank,= a blank bond, to be filled up at pleasure. Beaumont and Fl., i.
1 (Arbaces). Also, a small French coin, orig. of silver, but afterwards
of copper, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Alvarez).
=blank,= to render pale, to blanch. Hamlet, iii. 2. 232; to dismay,
Milton, Samson Ag. 471; _blanck_, disappointed, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3.
17.
=blatant, blattant,= bellowing. Spenser, F. Q. v. xii. 37, 41; Dryden,
Hind and Panther, ii. 230. ‘Blate’, to bellow, is in prov. use (EDD.).
=blaze,= a white mark on an animal’s forehead; (on a black bull),
Fuller, Pisgah, iv. 7. Still in prov. use, esp. Yorksh. and Lincolnsh.,
see EDD. (s.v. Blaze, sb.^{2} 1).
=blazing star,= a comet. All’s Well, i. 3. 91; Middleton, Roaring Girl,
i. 1 (Sir Alex.).
=bleaking-house,= bleaching-house. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, iv.
2 (Savourwit). ME. _blekyn_, blechen clothe (Prompt.).
=blear,= dim, indistinct, in outline. Milton, Comus, 155.
=blear:= phr. _to blear the eyes_, to deceive, throw dust in the eyes.
Tam. Shrew, v. 1. 120; ‘He is nat in Englande that can bleare his eye
better than I can’, Palsgrave.
=bleat= (meaning obscure); ‘How the judges have bleated him!’, Webster,
Devil’s Law-case, iv. 2 (Julia).
=bleater,= a sheep. (Cant.) Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Song).
=blee,= colour, complexion, hue. Morte Arthur, leaf 88, back, 32; bk. v.
c. 10; Tottel’s Misc. (ed. Arber, 100). Occurs in ballad poetry in the
north (EDD.). ME. _blee_ (York Plays, xxviii. 259), OE. _blēo_.
=blemish,= ‘When they [the huntsmen] find where a deare hath passed and
breake or plashe any boughe downewardes for a marke, then we say, they
blemish or make blemishes’, Turbervile, Hunting, 244.
=blemishes,= ‘The markes which are left to knowe where a deare hath gone
in or out’, Turbervile, Hunting, 114.
=blench,= a side glance, glimpse; ‘These blenches gave my heart another
youth’, Sh. Sonn. cx. A Warwickshire word (EDD.).
=blench,= to start aside, to flinch, shrink. Fletcher, False One, iv. 4.
ME. _blenchen_ (Anc. Riwle, 242).
=blencher,= a person stationed to ‘head hack’ the deer, to prevent him
from going in a particular direction. Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, ii. 1
(Sanchio); spelt _bleinchers_, pl., scarecrows, things put up to
frighten animals away, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 70, 192; ‘which some call
_shailes_, some _blenchars_, . . to feare away birdes’, Sir T. Elyot,
Governour, bk. i, c. 23, § 2. See =blanch.=
=blend,= to blind, to dazzle. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 35; _blent_, pp., F.
Q. ii. 4. 7; rendered obscure, Greene, Looking Glasse, ii. 1. 521;
_yblent_, F. Q. ii. 7. 1.
=blend,= to mix, confuse, render turbid, disturb, pollute. Spenser, F.
Q. ii. 7. 10; _blent_, pp. defiled, F. Q. ii. 12. 7.
=blenge,= to blend, mix. Tusser, Husbandry, § 100. 3. A ‘portmanteau’
word; combination of _blend_ and _menge_, to mingle.
=blenkard,= one who blinks, or has imperfect sight or intelligence.
Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 610. A north-country pronunc. of _blinkard_
(EDD.).
=blent;= see =blend.=
=bless,= to wound, hurt; ‘When he did levell to shoote, he blessed
himselfe with his peece’, Hellowes, Guevara’s Fam. Ep. 237. F.
_blesser_, to wound (Cotgr.), Anglo-F. _blecer_ (Ch. Rol.).
=bless,= to preserve, save. Spenser, F. Q. i. 2. 18; iv. 6. 13.
=bless,= to brandish (a sword), to wave about. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 6;
i. 8. 22; vi. 8. 13; to brandish round an object with a weapon, ‘His
armed head with his sharpe blade he blest’, Fairfax, Tasso, ix. 67.
=blewe point,= a blue point, or blue-tagged lace; ‘Not worth a blewe
point’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 9. See =point.=
=blin, blinn,= to cease, leave off. Turbervile, Poems, in Chalmers’s
Eng. Poets, II, 589; to cause to cease, to put a stop to, Spenser, F. Q.
iii. 5. 22. Very common in northern ballad poetry (EDD.). ME. _blinnen_,
to cease (Chaucer, C. T. G. 1171); to cause to cease, Towneley Myst.
133. OE. _blinnan_, to cease. See =lin.=
=blince,= (perhaps) to flinch, give way, to ‘blench’; ‘The which will
not _blince_’ riming with _prince_, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s
Dodsley, iv. 148.
=blindfeld,= blindfolded. Spelt _blyndefeld_, Morte Arthur, leaf 69,
back; bk. iv. c. 15; _blyndfielde_, R. Eden, First Three Books on
America, ed. Arber, p. 347, l. 7 from bottom. ‘I blyndefelde one’,
Palsgrave. See Dict. (s.v. Blindfold).
=blinkard,= ‘He that hath such eies that the liddes cover a great parte
of the apple’, Baret (1580); ‘a blinkard, _caeculus_, _paetus_,
_strabus_’, Coles (1679). Still in use in Northumberland and Lancashire
(EDD.).
=blive,= quickly, soon, immediately. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 18; Surrey,
tr. of Aeneid ii. l. 294. See =belive.=
=blo, bloo,= livid, esp. used of the colour caused by a bruise. _Bloo_
and wan, Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 141, l. 5; id. Magnyfycence, 2080. A
Yorkshire word (EDD.). ME. _blo_(_o_, ‘lividus’ (Prompt. EETS., see note
no. 195). Icel. _blā_, livid.
=bloat, blote,= to smoke-dry (herrings); ‘_Fumer_, to bloat, besmoake,
hang or drie in the smoake’, Cotgrave; Fletcher, Island Princess, ii. 5
(1 Citizen). Hence, _bloat-herring_, a smoked herring, B. Jonson, Masque
of Augurs (Groom); Pepys, Diary (Oct. 5, 1661). A Suffolk word (EDD.).
=block,= a mould for a hat; a fashion of hat. Beaumont and Fl., Wit at
Several Weapons, iv. 1 (Cunningham); Much Ado, i. 1. 77.
=blonk,= fair, blond; said of hair. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 270. 13.
See NED. (s.v. Blank).
=blore,= a blast of wind. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, ii. 122; ix. 5; xiv.
330. ME. _blore_ (York Plays, xxvi. 188).
=blot in the tables,= an exposed piece or ‘man’ in the game of
backgammon, liable to be taken; hence, a weak point. Middleton, Family
of Love, v. 3 (Gerardine); Porter, Two Angry Women, in Hazlitt’s
Dodsley, vii. 276. See Dict. (s.v. Blot (2)).
=blother,= to gabble nonsense; to babble. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1049;
Colyn Cloute, 779. A west Yorks. word, see EDD. (s.v. Blather, vb.^{1}).
Icel. _blaðra_, to talk indistinctly, to talk nonsense.
=blow-boll,= one who ‘blows in a bowl’, an habitual tippler. Skelton,
ed. Dyce, i. 23; l. 25.
=blowen,= a wench, a trull. (Cant.) Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1
(Shamwell). [Cp. _blowing_, in Byron’s Don Juan, xi. 19.]
=blow-point,= a game ‘played by blowing an arrow through a trunk at
certain numbers by way of lottery’, Strutt (quoted in NED.). Sidney,
Arcadia, ii. 224; Brewer, Lingua, iii. 2 (Anamnestes); Marmion, The
Antiquary, i. 1 (Leonardo). See Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 531.
=blue,= the usual colour of the dress of servants, or of beadles.
_Blue-coat_, Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iv. 2 (Launcelot). _The blue
order_, i.e. of servants, B. Jonson, Case is Altered, i. 2 (Onion).
Women condemned to Bridewell wore _blue gowns_, Massinger, City Madam,
iv. 2 (Luke); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II. v. 1 (Lodovico).
=blue-bottle rogue,= a term applied to a beadle, with reference to his
blue uniform. 2 Hen. IV, v. 4. 22.
=blunket, blonket,= grey, greyish blue. ‘Bloncket liveries’, glossed by
‘gray coats’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 5.
=blurt,= an exclamation of contempt, pish!, pooh!; ‘Blurt, Master
Constable’, the title of a play by Middleton, Dekker, Honest Wh., i. 5
(Fluello); to treat contemptuously, Fletcher, Wild-goose Chase, ii. 2
(last speech).
=blushet= (only used by B. Jonson), a little blusher, a modest girl,
Staple of News, ii. 1 (Pennyboy senior); The Penates (Pan).
=board, bord,= to accost, address. Hamlet, ii. 2. 171; Merry Wives, ii.
1. 92; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 5; _boorded_, addressed, id. ii. 4. 24. F.
_aborder_, to approach, accost (Cotgr.) A metaph. expression from
boarding a ship; see Nares.
=board, bord,= a shilling. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll);
_a bord_, a shylling; Harman, Caveat, p. 83.
=bob,= a blow that does not break the skin, a rap; ‘Pinches, nippes and
bobbes’, Ascham, Scholemaster (ed. Arber, 47); a taunt, a bitter jibe,
As You Like It, ii. 7. 55; Wycherley, Dancing-master, i. 2 (Monsieur);
‘_Ruade seiche_, a drie bob, jeast or nip’, Cotgrave. ‘Bob’, in the
sense of a slight blow, is in prov. use in the Midlands and in E.
Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Bob, sb.^{2} 1).
=bob,= to fish (for eels) with a _bob_, or grub for bait. Fletcher, Rule
a Wife, ii. 4. 9. In use in the Norfolk Broads, see NED. (s.v. Bob,
vb.^{4}), and EDD. (s.v. Bob, vb.^{6} 1).
=bob,= to deceive, cheat. Tr. and Cr. iii. 1. 75; ‘_Avoir le moine_, to
be gleekt, bobbed’, Cotgrave; Fletcher, Span. Curate, v. 2 (Bartolus);
Little French Lawyer, ii. 1. 24. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Bob,
vb.^{5}). OF. _bober_.
=bobber,= a cheat, deceiver. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, §
12.
=bobance, bobaunce,= arrogance, vanity. Morte Arthur, leaf 262. 12; bk.
x, c. 63; id. lf. 376. 25; bk. xviii, c. 15. F. _bobance_, ‘excessive
spending; insolency, surquedrie, proud or presumptuous boasting’
(Cotgr.). O. Prov. _bobansa_, ‘faste, ostentation’ (Levy).
=bob-fool:= in phr. _to play bob-fool_, to flout, make sport. Greene,
Alphonsus, iv (Amurack).
=Bocardo,= the name of the prison above the old North Gate of the city
of Oxford, where Cranmer was confined, Strype, Archbp. Cranmer, iii. 11.
341; Oxford Records, 414; a prison, Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses (ed.
Furnivall, 126); Middleton, Family of Love, i. 3 (Club). ‘Bocardo’ is a
mnemonic word used in Logic.
=bodge,= an odd measure of corn. B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1 (Host). In
Kent the word _bodge_ means an odd measure of corn, left over after the
bulk has been measured into quarters and sacks; _bodge_ also means in
Kent a flat oblong basket used for carrying produce of garden or field,
see EDD. (s.v. Bodge, sb.^{1} 1 and 2).
=bodkin,= a dagger. Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, ii. 3
(Duarte); Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, ii. 2 (Aphobus); cp. Hamlet,
iii. 1. 76.
=bodkin;= see =baudkin.=
=bodrag,= a hostile incursion, a raid. ‘Nightly _bodrags_’, Spenser,
Colin Clout, 315. Hence _bodraging_, misspelt _bordraging_, the same; F.
Q. ii. 10. 63. Irish _buaidhreadh_, molestation, disturbance;
_buaidhr-im_, I vex, bother, trouble (Dinneen).
=bog,= proud, saucy, bold. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. vii, ch. 37.
st. 109; Rogers, Naaman, 18. Cp. ME. _boggisshe_, ‘tumidus’ (Prompt.
EETS., see note no. 161).
=boggard,= a privy, _latrina_. Shirley, Witty Fair One, iv. 6 (end).
=boistous, busteous, bousteous,= rough, rustic, coarse, violent,
vigorous. _Bousteous_ tree, vigorous tree; Turbervile, Time Conquereth
all Things, st. 7. _Boystous_, rude, coarse, A. Borde, Introd. of
Knowledge, bk. i, c. 14; p. 160. ME. _boystows_, ‘rudis’ (Prompt. EETS.,
see note no. 166). See Dict. (s.v. Boisterous).
=boll,= a rounded seed-vessel or pod, as that of flax or cotton.
Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 146. 50. Hence _bolled_, having ‘bolls’, pods;
BIBLE, Ex. ix. 31 (AV.). ‘Boll’, in the sense of the seed-vessel of
flax, is in prov. use in Scotland and Ireland, also in Lincolnshire, see
EDD. (s.v. Boll, sb.^{2}).
=boll,= to quaff the bowl, to booze; ‘They might syt bebbinge and
bollynge’, Coverdale, Micah, ii. 11. Hence _boller_, one who lingers at
the bowl, a drunkard, Udall, tr. Apoph., Socrates, § 81.
=bollen,= swollen. Lucrece, 1417 (in old edd. _boln_); _bolne_, Hawes,
Past Pleas., p. 135; Surrey, tr. Aeneid ii, 616; _bowlne_, id. ii. 348.
Cp. the E. Anglian _bown_, swollen (EDD.). ME. _bollen_, swollen (Cursor
M. 12685). Icel. _bólgna_; Dan. _bolne_, to swell. See NED. (s.v. Bell,
vb.^{1}).
=bolt,= an arrow for a cross-bow, with a blunt or square head, also
_gen._ an arrow; ‘The bolt of Cupid’, Mids. Night’s D., ii. 1. 165; ‘A
fool’s bolt is soon shot’, Hen. V, iii. 7. 132; Heywood, Eng. Prov. (ed.
Farmer, 145); ‘I’ll make a shaft or a bolt on’t’, Merry Wives, iii. 4.
24 (i.e. I’ll take the risk, whatever may come of it).
=bolt’s-head,= a kind of retort used by alchemists. B. Jonson,
Alchemist, ii. 1 (Mammon); named from its long cylindrical neck.
=bolt,= a roll of a woven stuff. B. Jonson, Alchem. v. 2 (Subtle).
=boltered,= clotted, coagulated. ‘Blood-boltered’, having the hair
clotted with blood, Macbeth, iv. 1. 123. A Warwickshire word (EDD.).
=bolting-hutch,= a trough into which meal is sifted. Middleton, Mayor of
Queenborough, v. 1 (Simon). A Lincolnshire word, see EDD. (s.v. Bolting,
2 (3)).
=bombard,= ‘a great gun or piece of ordnance’ (Bullokar). Caxton,
Reynard (ed. Arber, 58). F. _bombarde_, a bumbard, or murthering-piece
(Cotgr.).
=bombard,= a large leathern vessel to carry liquors. Tempest, ii. 2. 21;
Hen. VIII, v. 4. 85. Hence _bombard-man_, one who provides liquor. B.
Jonson, Masque of Love Restored (Robin).
=bombast,= cotton wadding. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 359; Beaumont and Fl.,
Little French Lawyer, ii. 2. 8. OF. _bombace_, cotton (Godefroy). See
Dict.
=bonair=(=e,= gentle, courteous. Holland, Livy, iv. 2. 446; _bonerly_,
in debonnaire fashion, World and Child, l. 2, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i.
243. F. _bonnaire_ and _bonnairement_ (Cotgr.).
=bona roba,= a handsome wench, a wanton. 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 26. Ital.
_buonaroba_, ‘as we say, good stuffe, a good wholesome plum-cheeked
wench’ (Florio).
=bone;= ‘Look not upon me as I am a woman, But as a bone, thy wife, thy
friend’, Otway, Venice Preserved, ii. 2 (Belvidera). Meaning doubtful.
=bones:= in phr. _to make bones_, to make scruples about, find
difficulty in; ‘Who make no bones of the Lord’s promises, but devoure
them all’, Rogers, Naaman, 579; ‘He made no manier bones . . . but went
in hande to offer up his only son Isaac’, Udall, Erasm. Par., Luke i.
28. Formerly also, _to find bones in_ (Paston Letters, 331), referring
to the occurrence of bones in soup, &c., as an obstacle to its being
easily swallowed, see NED. (s.v. Bone, 8).
=bones,= dice. A Woman never vext, i. 1 (Stephen). A common expression.
=bonfacion,= of good fashion, fashionable. Three Ladies of London; in
Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 251, 311.
=bongrace,= a shade worn on the front of a woman’s bonnet as a
protection from the sun. Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, iii. 4 (Song). F.
‘_bonnegrace_, the uppermost flap of the downhanging taile of a French
hood; whence belike our Boongrace’ (Cotgr.).
=bonnibell,= a fair lass. Spenser, Shep. Kal., August, 62; B. Jonson,
The Satyr, l. 21. From F. _bonne et belle_, good and fair girl. See
=bellibone.=
=bonny-clabber,= sour buttermilk. B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1 (Host); Ford,
Perkin Warbeck, iii. 2. 8. ‘Bonny-clabber’ in Ireland means thick milk.
Irish _bainne_ [pronounc. _bonny_], milk, and _clabair_, anything thick
or half-liquid. In use in the United States wherever Irishmen forgather.
See Joyce, English in Ireland, 219.
=bookholder,= a prompter in a theatre. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, Induct.
=books:= phr. _to be in a person’s books_; ‘I see, lady, the gentleman
is not in your books’, Much Ado, i. 1. 179 (the probable meaning is, he
is not in favour, not in the lady’s ‘book of memory’, 1 Hen. VI, ii. 4.
101).
=boon,= good; esp. in French phrases. ‘On a boon voyage’, Conflict of
Conscience; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 63. ‘Nature boon’, Milton, P. L.
iv. 242; cp. ix. 793.
=boord, bord;= see =board,= and =bourd.=
=boot-carouse,= a carousing out of a bombard or black-jack, which was
likened to a boot. Marston, Sat., ii. 154.
=boot-hale,= to carry off booty. Heywood, Sallust, 33. Hence,
_boot-haler_, a freebooter, highwayman, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1
(J. Dapper); Holland, Livy, xxii. 41. 458; _boot-haling_, the carrying
away of booty, Florio, Montaigne, ii. 31; Fletcher, The Chances, i. 4
(Frederic); Maid in the Mill, ii. 2 (Antonio).
=booty:= in phr. _to play booty_, to play so as to lose, in order to
draw the opponent on, and get some ‘booty’ in the end’, Dryden, Pref. to
Don Sebastian, § 7; Heywood, A Woman Killed, iii. 2 (Frankford). Also,
_to bowl booty_, to play at bowls so as to lose at first, Webster, White
Devil (Camillo), ed. Dyce, p. 7. See Nares.
=borachio,= a large leather bottle or bag used in Spain (_borracha_). B.
Jonson, Devil an Ass, ii. 1 (Meer); Greene, Looking Glasse (Works, ed.
1861, 133); _fig._ a drunkard, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, i. 1. 7. Span.
_borracho_, a drunkard.
=bord,= rim, circumference. ‘He plants a brazen piece of mighty bord’,
Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iii. 2 (Host). The reference is
to a barber’s basin. F. _bord_, edge, border.
=bordello,= a brothel. B. Jonson, Every Man, i. 1 (Knowell). Ital.
‘_bordello_, a bawdy-house’ (Florio).
=bordon,= a staff. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 132, back, 24. ME.
_bordun_, a pilgrim’s staff (P. Plowman, A. vi. 8). F. _bourdon_
(Cotgr.). O. Prov. _bordon_, bâton de pèlerin.
=bordraging;= see =bodrag.=
=bore,= to trick, cheat, overreach. Hen. VIII, i. 1. 128; Life T.
Cromwell, ii. 2. 103 (NED.).
=boree, bouree,= a rustic dance, orig. of Auvergne. Etheridge, Man of
Mode, iv. 1 (Sir Fopling); Steele, Tender Husband, i. 2 (Tipkin). F.
_bourrée_ (Hatzfeld).
=borrel,= unlearned, rude, rough, rustic. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 95;
Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 28. ME. _borel_, in Chaucer: coarse
woollen clothes, C. T. D. 356; _borel men_, laymen, C. T. B. 3145.
=borrow, borow,= a pledge, surety. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 131, 150;
‘Dear Pan bought with dear borrow’, id. Sept., 96. ME. _borwe_, a surety
(Chaucer, C. T. B. 2998). OE. _borh_ (_borge_) a pledge, surety.
=borrow,= to give security for, to assure, warrant. Greene, Isabel’s
Ode, 33; ed. Dyce, p. 296.
=bosky,= full of thickets. Peele, Chron. Edw. I (ed. 1874, p. 407);
Tempest, iv. 1. 81; Milton, Comus, 312. A Cheshire and Yorkshire word,
from _bosk_, an underwood thicket (EDD.). ME. _boske_, a bush.
=boss,= a fat woman, Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Zenocrate); ‘A fat
boss, _femme bien grasse et grosse, une Coche_’, Sherwood. A Lancashire
word for a fat lazy woman, see EDD. (s.v. Boss, sb.^{1} 6).
=bosse,= supposed to mean a water-conduit; esp. used of _the Bosse of
Billingsgate_, W. de Worde, Treatyse of a Galaunt (see Title of the
Play); B. Jonson, Time Vindicated (Eyes); ‘_Bosse Alley_, so called of a
Bosse of Spring-water continually running, which standeth by
Billingsgate against this alley’, Stow, Survey (ed. 1842, p. 79). See
NED. (s.v. Boss, sb.^{2}).
=botcher,= a mender of old clothes; or (disrespectfully) a tailor. All’s
Well, iv. 3. 211; Cor. ii. 1. 93; Dekker, Old Fortunatus, i. 1
(Fortune).
=bottom of packthread,= a ball of string. B. Jonson, Every Man, iv, 4
(Brainworm); Tam. Shrew, iv. 3. 138. Properly the clew or nucleus on
which the ball was wound. [‘I wish I could wind up my bottom
handsomely’, Sir W. Scott, Diary, March 17, 1826.] See EDD. (s.v.
Bottom, 8). ME. _botme_ of threde (Prompt.).
=bouche:= in phr. _bouche in court_, an allowance of victual granted by
a king or noble to his household; ‘A good allowance of dyet, a bouche in
court, as we use to call it’, Puttenham, English Poesie, bk. i, c. 27
(ed. Arber, 70). F. _avoir bouche à Court_, ‘to eat and drinke scotfree,
to have budge-a-Court, to be in ordinarie at Court’ (Cotgr.). See
=bouge.=
=bouffage,= a satisfying meal. ‘No bouffage, but a light bit’, Sir T.
Browne, Letter to a Friend, § 9. F. _bouffage_, ‘any meat that (eaten
greedily) fills the mouth and makes the cheeks to swell; cheek-puffing
meat’ (Cotgr.). F. _bouffer_, to swell.
=bouge,= to flinch. Julius Caesar, iv. 3. 44; _boudge_, Beaumont and
Fl., Humorous Lieutenant, ii. 4 (Leontius). See Dict. (s.v. Budge (1)).
=bouge,= to ‘bilge’, to stave in a ship’s side; intr., to suffer
fracture, as a ship. ‘My barke was _boug’d_’, Mirror for Mag., Carassus,
st. 44. ‘Least thereupon Our shippe should _bowge_’, Gascoigne, Voyage
into Holland, ed. Hazlitt, i. 390. See NED. See Dict. (s.v. Bilge).
=bouge,= provisions; ‘A bombard man, that brought bouge for a country
lady’, B. Jonson, Love Restored (Robin).
=bouge of court,= court-rations; ‘The Bowge of Courte’ (the
title of a poem written by Skelton); ‘Every of them to have lyke
bouge of courte’, State Papers, Hen. VIII, i. 623 (NED.). See
=bouche.=
=bouget,= a budget, wallet. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 29; a water-vessel
of skin, Damon and Pithias, in Hazlitt, iv. 72. F. _bougette_ (Cotgr.);
dimin. of OF. _bouge_, a water-skin; cp. ME. _bowge_, ‘I am maad as a
bowge in frost’ (Wyclif, Ps. cxix. 83). See Dict. (s.v. Budget).
=bough-pot,= a flower-pot, a vase for boughs or cut flowers. Chapman,
Mons. d’Olive, iv. (Rhoderique). A Lincolnsh. and Northamptonsh. word
(EDD.).
=bought,= a twist, a knot. Middleton, The Witch, ii. 2. 13; used of the
coil of a serpent, Spenser, Virgil’s Gnat, 255. ‘Bought’ is in prov. use
in the north country for a curve or bend; the curve of the elbow or
knee. See EDD. (s.v. Bought, sb.^{1} 1).
=bounty,= goodness in general, worth, virtue; ‘He is only the true and
essential Bounty’, Drummond of Hawthornden, Cypress Grove (Wks. ed.
1711, p. 127); _bountie_, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 4; ‘A lovely lasse,
Whose beauty doth her bounty far surpasse’, F. Q. iii. 9. 4; ‘Large was
his bounty and his soul sincere’, Gray, Elegy, 121 (The Epitaph). ME.
bountee, goodness (Chaucer. An A.B.C., 9). F. _bonté_ ‘goodness,
honesty, sincerity, vertue, uprightness’ (Cotgr.); L. _bonitas_,
goodness (Vulgate).
=bourd, bord,= a jest. Drayton, Eclogue, vii. 208; _bord_, Spenser, F.
Q. iii. 3. 19; iv. 4. 13. F. _bourde_, ‘a jeast, fib, tale of a tub’
(Cotgr.).
=bourd,= to jest. Ford, ’Tis pity, ii. 4 (Peggio).
=bourd,= to accost. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid iv, l. 899. See =board.=
=bourdel,= a brothel. Farquhar, Constant Couple, ii. 2. 4. See
=bordello.=
=bout, bowt,= a coil; a circuit, orbit. Sir T. Wyatt, Song of Iopas, 45;
in Tottel’s Misc., p. 94. See =bought.=
=boute-feu,= a fire-brand, incendiary. Bacon, Hen. VII, ed. Lumby, p.
66, l. 13; Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 786. F. _boute-feu_, ‘a boute-feu, a
wilful or voluntary firer of houses; also, a fire-brand of sedition, a
kindler of strife and contention’ (Cotgr.).
=bout-hammer,= a heavy two-handed hammer. Beaumont and Fl., Faithful
Friends, v. 4 (Pergamus). For _about-hammer_, the largest hammer
employed by blacksmiths; it is slung round (or _about_) near the
extremity of the handle. An East Anglian word (EDD.).
=bouzing-ken,= drinking-house, ale-house. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s
Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen); Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor). See
Harman, Caveat, p. 83.
=bovoli,= snails, cockles; considered as delicacies. B. Jonson,
Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Mercury). Ital. _bovolo_ (pl. _bovoli_), ‘a
snayle, a cockle, periwinkle’ (Florio).
=bowd,= a weevil, malt-worm. Tusser, Husbandry, § 19. 39; ‘A boude,
_vermis frumentarius_’, Coles, Dict. (1679). ME. _bowde_, malte-worme
(Prompt.). An East Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Boud).
=bow-dye,= a scarlet dye; name from _Bow_, near Stratford, Essex, where
the dyers mostly lived, in the 17th cent. Hence, as attrib., ‘My bowdy
stockings’, Wycherley, Gent. Dancing-master, iv. 1 (Prue).
=bowerly,= comely, portly, ‘burly’. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Alexander, §
8. In common use in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall (EDD.). See Notes on
Eng. Etym. (s.v. Burly).
=bow-hand,= the hand that holds the bow, the left hand. In phr. _wide o’
th’ bow-hand_, wide of the mark (towards the left); L. L. L. iv. 1. 135;
_much o’ th’ bow-hand_, Fletcher, Noble Gentleman, iv. 2 (end); Coxcomb,
i. 3. 2.
=bowlne,= swollen. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid ii, l. 348. See =bollen.=
=bowne,= a bound, limit. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. v. ch. 23. st.
45. In the same, st. 1 ‘the former bowne’ seems to mean ‘the preceding
chapter’. Norm. Fr. _bowne_ (_bodne_), ‘limite’ (Moisy). Cp. Med. Lat.
_bonna_, _bodina_ (Ducange).
=bowne,= a boon, a favour in answer to a request. Mirror for Mag.,
Cobham, st. 45; Adam Bel, 509, in Hazlitt’s Pop. Poetry, ii. 160. Icel.
_bōn_, a prayer.
=bowrs, bowers,= muscles that bend the joints, strong muscles. Spenser,
F. Q. i. 8. 12. Lit. _bow-er_, i.e. that which bows or bends; see NED.
=box-keeper,= the keeper of the dice and box at a gaming-table;
‘Gettall, _a box-keeper_’, Massinger, City Madam (Dramatis Personae).
=boyn,= to swell. ‘Her heeles behind _boynd_ out’, Golding, Metam. viii.
808; fol. 105 (1603). Cp. _boine_, _bunny_, Essex words for a swelling
caused by a blow (EDD.). OF. _buyne_ (now _bigne_); see Hatzfeld.
=brabble,= to wrangle, quarrel, Coles, Dict. (1679); _brabble_, a
quarrel, brawl, Twelfth Nt. v. 1. 69; Titus And. ii. 1. 62; hence,
_brabbler_, a quarreller, King John, v. 2. 162; _brabbling_, Middleton,
A Fair Quarrel, i. 1 (Colonel); ‘Noe more brabbling with him’ (your old
Glasier), Dorothy Wadham, Letter (1614), in T. G. Jackson’s Wadham
College (1893, p. 161). Du. ‘_brabbelen_, to brawle or to brabble’
(Hexham).
=brace,= to gird, encompass. ‘Bigge Bulles of Basan brace hem about’,
Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 124. OF. _bracier_, to embrace, deriv. of
_brace_, the two arms (Ch. Rol., 1343).
=bracer, braser,= a protection for the arm in archery. Ascham,
Toxophilus, pp. 108, 109.
=brach,= a bitch-hound. Properly a kind of hunting-dog; but it came to
be used with reference to a bitch in general. Webster, White Devil
(Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 48; Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iv. 2 (Belgarde);
King Lear, i. 4. 125. OF. _brac_, hunting-dog (Didot). OHG. _bracco_
(Schade).
=brachet,= a small hunting-dog. Morte Arthur, leaf 52, back, 22; bk.
iii, c. 5. F. ‘_brachet_, a kind of little hound’ (Cotgr.).
=brachygraphy,= shorthand, stenography. B. Jonson, Paris Anniversary
(Fencer); Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iv. 2 (Sanitonella). Gk.
βραχυγραφία.
=brack,= salt water. Only in Drayton, Pol. xxv. 50; Agincourt, 185
(NED.). Du. _brak_, briny, brackish.
=brack,= a breach, fracture, Oxford City Records, 387; ‘_Breche_, a
brack or breach in a wall’, Cotgrave; a flaw, fault, ‘A brack,
_vitium_’, Coles, Dict. (1679); Digby, On the Soul, Dedic. (Johnson); a
flaw in cloth, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 33); Chapman, tr. of Odyssey,
xvii. 249; a rupture, a quarrel, Chapman, Byron’s Conspiracy, v. 1
(Byron).
=brag,= brisk, lively. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 2. 11; ‘the bragge
lambs’, G. Fletcher, Christ’s Victory, i (NED.).
=braid,= a sudden or brisk movement. Ferrex and Porrex, iv. 2
(Marcella). ME. _brayd_: ‘She (Dido) walketh, walweth, maketh many a
brayd’ (Chaucer, Leg. G. W., 1166); OE. _bregdan_, to move suddenly to
and fro.
=braid,= a sudden outburst of passion, anger. Warner, Alb. England, bk.
vii, ch. 37, st. 105; a sudden assault, Golding, Metam., xiii. 240; an
adroit turn, trick, deception, Greene, Radagon in Dianam, 62 (ed. Dyce,
302); (?) deceitful, All’s Well, iv. 2. 73.
=braided;= _braided ware_, goods that have changed colour, tarnished,
faded. Marston, Scourge Villainie, Sat. v. 73 (cp. Bailey’s Dict., 1721;
see NED.).
=brail,= in hawking, to confine a hawk’s wings by means of a _brail_, or
soft leather girdle; ‘They _brail_ and hud us’ [confine and hood us],
Tomkis, Albumazar, ii. 9 (Flavia). OF. _brail_, _braiel_, a girdle. Med.
L. _bracale_, deriv. of _bracae_, breeches (Ducange).
=brake,= a powerful bit for horses. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iv. 2
(Cent.).
=brake,= to set one’s face in a brake, to assume an immovable expression
of countenance. Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, i. 1 (Bussy).
=brame,= longing, desire. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 52. Ital. _brama_,
earnest desire; from _bramare_, to desire. Cp. O. Prov. ‘_bramar_,
braire, désirer ardemment’ (Levy), F. _bramer_ (Hatzfeld).
=branched,= adorned with a figured pattern in embroidery, &c.; ‘Branched
velvet’, Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 54; Ford, Witch of Edmonton, iii. 2 (Frank).
=branded,= brindled; of mixed colour, streaked. Chapman, tr. of Homer,
Iliad, xii. 217. A common prov. word (EDD.).
=brandenburg,= a morning gown, with long sleeves. Etheredge, Man of
Mode, iv. 1 (Sir Fopling); Wycherley, Plain Dealer, ii. 1 (Olivia). From
Brandenburg, in Germany, where there were woollen manufactories.
=brandle,= to shake, endanger, cause to waver. Bacon, Henry VII, ed.
Lumby, p. 155. F. _branler_. See =brangle.=
=brandlet,= a bird; prob. the brand-tail or redstart. Gascoigne, Prol.
to Philomene, 31. See EDD. (s.v. Brand-tail).
=brand-wine,= brandy. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 1 (Clause). Du.
_brande-wijn_, brandy, lit. burnt (i.e. distilled) wine.
=brangle,= to shake, cause to waver; hence, to render uncertain, to
confuse. Merry Devil, ii. 2. 6. F. _branler_. Cp. =brandle.=
=brank,= buck-wheat; ‘Brank, Buck, or French-wheat, a summer grain
delighting in warm land’, Worlidge; Tusser, Husbandry, § 19. 20. An E.
Anglian word (EDD.).
=bransle,= a kind of dance. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 8. F. ‘_bransle_, a
brawl or dance wherein many (men and women) holding by the hands,
sometimes in a ring, and other-whiles at length, move all together’
(Cotgr.). Cp. =brawl.=
=brant,= steep. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 58; ‘Even brant agenst Flodon
hil’, (perhaps) even on the steep side of Flodden hill; id. p. 88. In
common prov. use in the north country (EDD.). OE. (Anglian) _brant_.
=brasell;= see =brazil.=
=brast,= to burst. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, ch. 2, § 2; Douglas,
Eneados, iv. 81; pt. t., Sir T. More, Richard III (ed. Lumby, p. 74);
Bunyan, Pilg. Pr. (ed. 1678, p. 73). In common prov. use in the north
(EDD.). ME. _breste_(_n_ (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 1008). OE. _berstan_.
=brathel,= a malignant scold. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 60. See
=brothel.=
=brave,= finely arrayed; showy, splendid; fine, excellent. Tam. Shrew,
Ind., i. 40; Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Sancho); ‘Brave,
_splendidus_’, Levins, Manip.; As You Like It, iii. 4. 43. In gen. prov.
use (EDD.).
=brawl,= a French dance. L. L. L. iii. 9; the figure is fully described
in Marston, Malcontent, iii. 1 (Guerrino). See =bransle.=
=brawn-fall’n,= having arms from which the muscle has fallen away. Kyd,
Cornelia, iii. 1. 77; Lyly, Euphues, ed. Arber, p. 127.
=braye,= a brae, a steep bank; ‘Agaynste a rocke or an hye braye’,
Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 159. ‘Bray’ is still in use in Yorksh. and
Lincolnsh., see EDD. (s.v. Brae). Icel. _brā_, eyebrow, see NED.
=braye,= a military outwork, a mound or bank defended by palisades and
watch-towers. Act 4 Hen. VIII. 1. § 1 (NED.). _False braye_, an advanced
parapet surrounding the main rampart, Urquhart, Rabelais, iii. Prol. F.
_faulses brayes_, ‘issues qui doivent être bouchées, dans une place
forte, quand l’ennemi approche’, Jannet, Glossaire, Rabelais, iii. Prol.
Norm. F. _faulses brayes_, ‘espèce de muraille, établie en dehors d’une
forteresse et servant de retranchement’ (Moisy). Med. L. _braca_,
‘moles, agger’ (Ducange).
=brazil, brasell,= a hard wood which yields a red dye. Davenant, The
Wits, i. 1. 9; Ascham, Toxophilus (Arber, 133). In popular use in the
Yorksh. phrase, ‘As hard as brazzil’, see EDD. (s.v. Brazil, sb.^{1}).
Port. and Span. _brasil_. The country in S. America is named from this
wood (NED.).
=break:= phr. _to break one’s day_, to fail to make a payment on the day
appointed. Heywood, Eng. Traveller, iii. 1 (Prud.).
=break up,= to break open; to open a letter. 1 Hen. VI, i. 3. 13; Merch.
Ven. ii. 4. 10. Also, to carve, L. L. L. iv. 1. 56.
=breast,= the source of the voice, the voice in singing. Twelfth Nt. ii.
3. 20; Fletcher, Pilgrim, iii. 6 (Fool); G. Herbert, The Temper, p. 47.
=breathe:= phr. _to breathe a vein_, to open a vein by lancing it.
Dryden, Oliver Cromwell, st. 12; Georgics, iii. 700; Palamon, iii. 755.
=breathely,= worthless. Tusser, Husbandry, § 33. 36. Cp. ME.
_brethel_(_l_, a worthless fellow (York Plays, xxvi. 179). See NED.
=breck,= a breach, gap. Tusser, Husbandry, § 16. 16 (p. 40). A
north-country word (EDD.). ME. _brekke_ (Chaucer, Bk. Duch., 940).
=breme,= fierce, stormy; ‘Breme winter’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 42;
‘_Froid_, cold, breame, chill’, Cotgrave; Drayton, Heroic. Epist., xvi.
8. ME. _breme_ (Lydgate, Chron. Troy, ii. 16). Still in use in the north
country (EDD.). Cp. OE. _brēman_, to rage: _broeman_ ‘fervere’, in
Preface Lind. Matthew (ed. Skeat, p. 5, l. 5).
=breme.= Of reports, loudly prevalent; ‘In their talke most breeme Was
then Achilles victorie’, Golding, Met. xii. 280. OE. _brēme_, famous,
celebrated.
=brended,= brindled. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (Puppy). See
=brinded.=
=brenne,= to burn. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 45; pt. t. _brent_, id. i. 9.
10; pp. _brent_, id. ii. 6. 49. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. _brennen_
(Chaucer, C. T. A. 2331). Icel. _brenna_.
=brere,= a briar. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec, 2; Sackville, Induction, st.
39. A very common prov. pronunc. (EDD.). OE. (Mercian) _brēr_, WS.
_brǣr_.
=bret,= the name of a fish like the turbot; ‘The bret, of all [fishes]
the slowest’, Lyly, Alexander, ii. 2 (Hephestion). Also called a _birt_
or _burt_. See EDD.
=bretch,= a breach; ‘With careless _bretch_’, Phaer. and Twyne, tr. of
Aeneid, x. 467. F. _brèche_.
=brevit,= to hunt about, search, pry, beat about, forage; ‘Breviting by
night’, Drayton, The Owl, 179. Prob. from _brevet_, in the sense of
taking by ‘brevet’ or written warrant (NED.). In gen. use in the midland
counties (EDD.).
=briars:= phr. _in the briars_, in troubles, among thorns; ‘I ought not
so to leave Eccho _in_ the bryers’, Gascoigne, Glasse of Governement, v.
1.
=bribe,= a thing stolen, Barclay, Shyp of Folys, ii. 85. OF. _bribe_, a
piece of bread, F. ‘_bribe_, a peece of bread given unto a beggar’
(Cotgr.).
=bribe,= to take dishonestly, to purloin, to steal or rob; ‘They do
deceive the needy, bribe and pill from them’, Cranmer, Instr. of Prayer;
‘I bribe, I pyll’, Palsgrave. ME. _brybyn_ (_briben_) ‘latrocinor’
(Prompt.).
=bribery,= robbery with violence, extortion, Geneva Bible (Matt. xxiii.
25).
=bribour,= a thief or robber, Berners, tr. of Froissart, ii. 10. 21. ME.
_brybowre_ (Prompt.).
=brickle,= fragile, easily broken; ‘Brickle vessels’, BIBLE (AV.),
Wisdom, xv. 13; ‘brickle, _fragilis_’, Levins, Manip.; Spenser, Ruins of
Time, 499; Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 100. 8. OE. _brycel_, see NED.
(s.vv. Britchel, Brickle). See =brokle, bruckle.=
=bride-house,= the house where a wedding is held. ‘A public hall for
celebrating marriages’, Nares. Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 1. 22.
=bride-lace,= a piece of gold, silk, or other lace, used to bind up the
sprigs of rosemary formerly used at weddings. Shirley, Gamester, iii. 3
(Hazard).
=bridling-cast,= a glass taken when the horse is bridled; a
stirrup-glass, stirrup-cup. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 2 (Yo.
Loveless).
=brigand-harness,= a brigandine, a piece of armour worn by a ‘brigand’
or foot-soldier. World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 251. See
=brigandine.=
=brigandine,= a small vessel equipped both for sailing and rowing.
Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Tamb.); also _brigantine_, Baret,
Alvearie. F. _brigandin_ (_brigantin_).
=brigandine,= a coat-of-mail, corslet. Milton, Samson, 1120.
=briggen-yrons,= brigand-irons, armour for the arms. Thersites, ed.
Pollard, l. 169. See =brigand-harness.=
=brim,= fierce, esp. an epithet of the boar; ‘Never bore so brymme’,
Udall, Roister Doister, iv. 6. 5; ME. _brym_ (_brim_) fierce (Prompt.).
See =breme= (1).
=brim,= (of reports, rumours) loudly current, much spoken of.
Throgmorton (NED., s.v. Breme 4); _brimme_, Warner, Albion’s England,
bk. iv. ch. 20, st. 35. See =breme= (2).
=brimse,= a gadfly. Gosson, School of Abuse (Arber, 64); _brimsees_,
pl., Topsell, Serpents, 769. A Kentish word, ‘You have a brims in your
tail’, see EDD. (s.v. Brims). G. _bremse_; Icel. _brims_ (Fritzner).
Norw. dialect _brims_ (Aasen); Swed. _brems_.
=brinch,= to pledge in drinking. Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 1 (Halfpenie);
also written _brince_, to offer drink: ‘Luther first brinced to Germany
the poisoned cup’, Harding, in Jewel’s Works, IV, 335 (NED.). Cp. the
German expression, _Ich bring’s_ (_euch_), i.e. I drink to you, lit. I
bring it (to you). Cp. Ital. _brindisi_ (Florio).
=brinded,= brindled, streaked; ‘The brinded cat’, Macbeth, iv. 1. 1. In
prov. use (EDD.).
=bring:= phr. _to be with one to bring_: a phrase of various
application, but usually implying getting the upper hand in some way.
Tr. and Cr. i. 2. 304; Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 4 (Lady and
Welford); Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, 503); Heywood, Wise Woman of
Hogsdon, i. 2 (Y. Chartley); Kyd, Spanish Tragedy, iii. 12. 22.
=brist:= phr. _full brist_, full burst, with sudden violence. Golding,
Metam. xi. 510; fol. 138 (1603). A northern form of OE. _berstan_, to
burst (EDD.).
=brize,= a breeze, a gadfly. Spenser, Visions of the World’s Vanity, ii.
10; spelt _bryze_, F. Q. vi. 1. 24. The gadfly is called _briz_ in
Cheshire, Shropsh., and Gloucestersh., see EDD. (s.v. Breeze, sb.^{1}).
OE. _briosa_ (_breosa_).
=brocage,= procuracy in immorality. Spenser, Introd. to Shep. Kal.
(beginning); Mother Hubbard’s Tale, 851. Also, bribery, mean practice,
Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 7. ME. _brocage_ (Chaucer, C. T. A.
3375). Anglo-F. _brocage_, the action of an intermediary.
=broche,= the ‘first head’ of a hart. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 21; p. 52.
OF. _broche_. Med. L. _broca_, ‘cornu’ (Ducange).
=broche, broach,= a spit. Morte Arthur, leaf 84. 34; bk. v, c. 5; ‘hazel
broach’, spit made of hazel-wood, Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Georg. ii. 545;
to pierce with a spit, to pierce, Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid i.
92. F. _broche_, a spit; _brocher_, to broach, to spit (Cotgr.).
=brock,= a badger. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Tuck); ‘Brocke or
badger’, Huloet; applied as a term of contempt to a dirty stinking
fellow, Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 114. ME. _broke_, ‘taxus’ (Prompt.). OE.
_broc_, cp. O. Irish _brocc_. In prov. use in various parts of England
and Scotland for the animal, and in Scotland in its transferred sense
(EDD.).
=broken beer,= remnants or leavings of beer in pots and glasses. Founded
on the phrases _broken meat_, _bread_, or _victuals_, meaning fragments
of meat, &c. Cartwright, The Ordinary, i. 4 (Slicer). So also _broken
bread_, The London Chanticleers, sc. 1 (Heath).
=broken music,= concerted music, music arranged for parts. As You Like
It, i. 2. 150; Hen. V, v. 2. 263; Tr. and Cr. iii. 1. 52.
=brokle,= brittle, frail. Sir T. Elyot, bk. iii, c. 19, § 1. See
=bruckle.=
=bronstrops,= a prostitute. ‘A bronstrops is in English a hippocrene’,
Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 1 (Col.’s Friend); id. iv. 4 (Chough);
Webster, Cure for Cuckold, iv. 1.
=brothel,= an abandoned wretch; ‘Go hence, thou brothel’, Calisto and
Melibaea, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 82; ‘bitched brothel’, World and
Child, in the same, i. 254. ME. _brothell_, a worthless fellow (Gower,
C. A. vii. 2595).
=brouse, brouze,= young shoots of trees, eaten by cattle. Fitzherbert,
Husbandry, § 132. 3; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 45.
=brown bill,= a weapon, a kind of halbert. 2 Hen. VI, iv. 10. 13; King
Lear, iv. 6. 92.
=bruckel’d,= begrimed, dirty. Herrick, The Temple, 58. In use in the
north country and in East Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Bruckle, vb.^{2}).
=bruckle,= brittle, fragile. Puttenham, E. Poesie, p. 219. In prov. use
in various parts of England, and in Scotland and Ireland (EDD.). OE.
_brucol_. See =brokle, brickle.=
=bruit,= a rumour, report. 3 Hen. VI, iv. 7. 64; Timon, v. 1. 198; to
noise abroad, 2 Hen. IV, i. 1. 114; 1 Hen. VI, iii. 3. 68. F. _bruit_,
noise, rumour.
†=brusle= (meaning doubtful), to crack (?). Fletcher, A Wife for a Month
ii. 6 (Camillo). Perhaps the same word as =brustle.=
=brustle,= to parch, scorch, to crackle in cooking or burning, as in
Gower, C. A. iv. 2732. ‘He . . . brustleth as a monkes froise
(pancake)’. Hence, to make a noise like the waves of the sea, spelt
_brussel_, Fletcher, Span. Curate, iv. 7 (Lopez). In prov. use in the
north, also in Kent and Sussex, in the sense of scorching, crackling;
see EDD. (s.v. Brustle, vb.^{2}).
=brustle, brusle,= to raise the feathers, like a bird. Herrick, Hesp.
(ed. 1859, p. 122).
=brutel,= brittle. Spelt _brutyll_, Morte Arthur, leaf 65, end; bk. iv,
c. 8 (end). ME. _brutel_, _brotel_ (Chaucer).
=bub,= to bubble. Sackville, Induction, st. 69.
=bubber,= a drinker of wine. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Costanza).
=bubble,= to delude with _bubbles_, or unsubstantial schemes; to cheat.
Etheredge, Love in a Tub, ii. 3 (Wheedle).
=bubble,= one who can be easily ‘bubbled’; a dupe. Shadwell, Squire of
Alsatia, iv. 1 (Belfond Senior).
=buck,= to steep or boil (clothes) in lye; ‘Bucke these shyrtes’,
Palsgrave; Puritan Widow, i. 1. 150; the quantity of clothes washed at
once, 2 Hen. VI, iv. 2. 52; _buck-basket_, basket for dirty linen, Merry
Wives, iii. 3. 2. Phr. _to beat a buck_, to beat clothes when being
washed, Massinger, Virgin Martyr, iv. 2 (Spungius); _to drive a buck_,
to wash clothes, B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii (end). See EDD. (s.v.
Buck, sb.^{2}). ME. _bouken_, to steep in lye (P. Plowman). OE. type
*_būcian_, cp. G. _bäuchen_, to steep in lye; also Ital. _bucata_, F.
_buée_, lye, a wash of clothes.
=buckall,= the point of a horn; ‘You all know the device of the horn,
where the young fellow slips in at the butt-end, and comes squeezed out
at the _buckall_’, Eastward Ho, i. 1 (Touchstone). Here _buckall_ =
_buckle_, meaning the twisted or curled end of the horn, i.e. the
smaller end. Cp. prov. E. _buckle-horn_, a crooked or bent horn;
_buckle-mouthed_, having a twisted mouth (EDD.).
=bucke,= the body of a chariot; ‘The axletree was massie gold, the
_bucke_ was massie golde’, Golding, Metam., ii. 107; fol. 16 (1603). In
E. Anglia ‘buck’ is still in use for the body of a cart or wagon; esp.
the front part, see EDD. (s.v. Buck, sb.^{6} 3); also pronounced _bouk_
(Bouk, sb.^{1} 5). See NED. (s.v. Bulk, sb.^{1} 3. c).
=buckle,= to prepare oneself, esp. by buckling on armour; ‘To teach
dangers to come on by over-early buckling towards them’, Bacon, Essay
21. _Buckle with_, to cope with, join in close fight with, 1 Hen. VI, i.
2. 95; Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iv. 3. 19. Also _buckle_, to
bow, give way, 2 Hen. IV, i. 1. 141; _buckled_, doubled up, Witch of
Edmonton, ii. 1. 4.
=bud,= said of children; or used as a term of endearment. King John,
iii. 4. 82; ‘O my dear, dear bud’, Wycherley, Country Wife, ii. 1 (Mrs.
Pinchwife). A transferred sense of _bud_ (of a flower).
†=bud;= ‘’Tis strange these varlets . . . should thus boldly Bud in your
sight, unto your son’, Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas, iv. 2 (Thomas).
Meaning unknown.
=budge,= lamb’s fur. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. vii. 65.
_Budge-bachelor_, a bachelor or younger member of a company, who wore a
gown trimmed with _budge_ on Lord Mayor’s day (NED.). Hence, _budge
doctor_, a consequential person, Milton, Comus, 707.
=buff ne baff,= never a word; ‘Saied to hym . . . neither buff ne baff’
Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 25. Caxton, Reynard (Arber, 106).
_Buff nor baff_ is a phr. in use in Leicestersh., see EDD. (s.v. Buff,
sb.^{5} 6).
=buffe,= to bark gently; ‘_Buffe_ and barke’, Udall, tr. of Apoph.,
Diogenes, § 140. A Yorksh. word, see EDD. (s.v. Buff, vb.^{3} 1).
=buffin,= a coarse cloth in use for gowns of the middle classes.
Massinger, City Madam, iv. 4 (Milliscent); Eastward Ho, i. 1 (Gertrude).
See NED.
=buffon= (búff-on), a buffoon. B. Jonson, Every Man, ii. 3. 8. F.
_bouffon_.
=bufo,= a term in alchemy. B. Jonson, Alchem., ii. 1 (Subtle). ‘The
black tincture of the alchemists’ (Gifford). Only occurs in this
passage. L. _bufo_, lit. a toad.
=bug,= an object of terror, bogey, hobgoblin. Tam. Shrew, i. 2. 214;
Hamlet, v. 2. 22; Peele, Battle of Alcazar, i. 2 (Moor); ‘Thou shalt not
nede to be afrayed for eny bugges by night’, Coverdale, Ps. xc (xci), 5.
ME. _bugge_, ‘ducius’ (Prompt.).
=bug words,= pompous, conceited words, Massinger, New Way to Pay, iii. 2
(Marrall); Ford, Perkin Warbeck, iii. 2 (Huntley). See EDD. (s.v. Bug,
adj. 1).
=bulch,= to stave in the bottom of a ship. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil,
Aeneid i. 132. Cp. _bulge_, the ‘bilge’, bottom of a ship’s hull (NED.
s.v. Bulge, sb. 4).
=bulch,= a bull-calf; used as a term of endearment by a witch. Ford,
Witch of Edmonton, v. 1 (Sawyer). Still in prov. use in Scotland: ‘Sic a
bonnie bulch o’ a bairn’, a Banffshire expression (EDD.).
=bulchin,= a bull-calf. Tusser, Husbandry, 33; Drayton, Pol. xxi. 65;
used as a term of endearment, Shirley, Gamester, iv. 1 (Young B.); a
term of contempt, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 4 (Capt. Albo). A
Shropsh. word for a calf; _fig._ a stout child (EDD.). See =bulkin.=
=bulcking,= a term of endearment. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, i. 671. See
NED. (s.v. Bulkin).
=bulk,= the belly, Lucrece, 467; the trunk, the body; spelt _boulke_.
Elyot, Castle Health (NED.); Richard III, i. 4. 40.
=bulk,= a framework projecting from the front of a shop. Coriolanus, ii.
1. 226; Othello, v. 1. 1.
=bulker,= a petty thief; also, a street-walker, prostitute. (Cant.)
Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, i. 1 (2 Bully). One who sleeps on a ‘bulk’,
one who steals from a ‘bulk’; see =bulk= (above).
=bulkin,= a bull-calf; ‘A young white bulkin’, Holland, tr. of Pliny,
bk. xxviii, c. 12. An E. Anglian word (EDD.). See =bulchin.=
=bull,= a jest; ‘To print his _jests_. _Hazard._ His _bulls_, you mean’,
Shirley, Gamester, iii. 3.
=bull-beggar,= an object of terror, a hobgoblin. Middleton, A Trick to
Catch, i. 4 (near the end); A Woman never vext, ii. 1 (Host);
Bull-begger, ‘_larva_, _Terriculamentum_,’ Skinner (1671). Perhaps a
corruption of _bull-boggart_. See NED.
=bulled,= swollen. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (George). Still in use
in Northamptonsh. and Shropsh. (EDD.). ME. _bolled_, swollen (NED.).
=bullions.= The full form is _bullion-hose_ (NED.), a term applied to
trunk-hose, puffed out at the upper part, in several folds. ‘His bastard
bullions’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iv. 4 (Higgen) [_bastard_ is the
name of a kind of cloth]; _a pair of bullions_, The Chances, v. 2
(John); _in the bullion_, i.e. wearing bullions, Massinger, Fatal Dowry,
ii. 2 (Pontalier).
=bully-rook,= a familiar term of endearment, fine fellow. Merry Wives,
i. 3. 2; ii. 1. 200; Shirley, Gent. of Venice, iii. 1 (Thomazo). See
EDD. (s.v. Bully, sb.^{1}).
=bum,= to strike, beat, thump. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, iv. 2
(Spungius); Greene, James IV, iii. 2 (Andrew). See EDD. (s.v. Bum,
vb.^{3} 1).
=bum out,= to project; ‘What have you bumming out there?’ Rowley, A
Match at Midnight, i. 1 (Tim).
=bum vay,= a familiar contraction of _by my fay_, by my faith.
Contention between Liberality and Prodigality, iv. 3, near the end; in
Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 364; _by my vay_, Wily Beguiled, Hazlitt, ix.
328. See EDD. (s.v. Fay, sb.^{1} 1). ME. _by my fey_ (Chaucer, C. T. A.
1126).
=bumb-blade.= (Cant.) Given in NED. as _bum-blade_, a large sword,
Massinger, City Madam, i. 2 (Page).
=bump,= to make a noise like a bittern, to boom. Dryden, Wife of Bath,
194. _Bumping_, the boom of the bittern, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors,
bk. iii. c. 27 (4). See EDD. (s.v. Bump, vb.^{2}).
=bunch,= a company of teal; a technical word in falconry. Drayton, xxv.
63. In E. Anglia they speak of a ‘bunch’ of wild-fowl, see EDD. (s.v.
Bunch, sb.^{1} ii. 2).
=bung,= a purse. (Cant.) Dekker, Roaring Girl (Wks., ed. 1873, iii.
217); a pick-pocket, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 138.
=bunting,= fat, plump. In Peele, Arraignment of Paris, i. 1. 10. NED.
explains it as ‘plump’; but suggests that it may perhaps mean ‘butting’,
from the verb _bunt_, to butt. I was at first inclined to take the same
view; but the context decides altogether in favour of the adjective. In
l. 7, Faunus brings with him ‘The _fattest_, fairest fawn in all the
chace: I wonder how the knave could skip so fast.’; i.e. because he was
so fat. And Pan replies that he has brought with him an equally fat
lamb, viz. ‘A _bunting_ lamb; nay, pray you, feel no bones [i.e. you
can’t feel his bones]. Believe me now, my cunning much I miss If ever
Pan felt _fatter_ lamb than this’. See EDD. (s.v. Bunting, adj.^{1}).
=burble,= to bubble. Spelt _burbyl_, Morte Arthur, leaf 382, back, 8;
bk. xviii. c. 21; pres. pt. _burbelynge_, id. lf. 208. 17; bk. x. c. 2;
‘I boyle up or burbyll up as a water dothe in a spring’, _Je
bouillonne_, Palsgrave. See EDD.
=burbolt,= a bird-bolt, a kind of blunt-headed arrow used for shooting
birds. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 2 (Custance); Marston, What you
Will, Induction (Philomuse).
=burden,= a staff, club. In Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 46. See =bordon.=
=burdseat,= a board-seat, i.e. a stool. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil,
Aeneid, iii. 408.
=burgh;= See =burre= (2).
=burgullian,= a term of abuse. B. Jonson, Every Man, iv. 4 (Cob).
=burle,= to pick out from cloth knots, loose threads, &c.; ‘_Desquamare
vestes_, to burle clothe’, Cooper, Dict. (1565). Hence _Burling-iron_, a
pair of tweezers used in ‘burling’, Herrick, To the Painter, 10. In
prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Burl, vb. 1). ME. _burle clothe_, ‘extuberare’
(Cath. Angl.).
=Burmoothes,= the Bermudas. Beaumont and Fl., Women Pleased, i. 2 (end).
See =Bermoothes.=
=burnish,= to grow stout or plump, to fill out; said of the human frame.
Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xi, ch. 37; vol. i, p. 345 b (1634);
Congreve, Way of the World, iii. 3 (Mrs. Marwood); ‘_Femme qui
encharge_, that grows big on’t, who burnishes, or whose belly
increases’, Cotgrave; Dryden, Hind and Panther, i. 390. In prov. use,
see EDD.
=burnt,= branded as a criminal. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II. v. 2 (Cat.
Bountinall).
=burnt sack,= a particular kind of wine heated at the fire, Merry Wives,
ii. 1. 222; _burnt wine_, Heywood, Eng. Traveller, i. 2 (Scapha); _burnt
claret_, The Tatler, no. 36, § 5 (1709).
=burre,= the lowest of the tines on a stag’s horn. Turbervile, Hunting,
c. 21, p. 53. Still in use in Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Burr, sb.^{1} 7),
where the word is defined, ‘the ball or knob of a stag’s horn at its
juncture with the skull’. See =antlier.=
=burre,= an iron ring on a tilting spear, just behind the place for the
hand. ‘Burre or yron of a launce, &c.’, Florio, tr. of Montaigne, ii.
37; in form _burgh_, Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1 (Moll). ME.
_burwhe_, sercle, ‘orbiculus’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 268). See
EDD. (s.v. Burr, sb.^{6}), and NED. (s.v. Burr, sb.^{1}).
=burrough, borrow,= a pledge, a surety. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii. 1
(Pan); v. 2 (Turfe). ME. _borwe_, a pledge (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1622). OE.
_borh_ (dat. _borge_).
=Burse,= an Exchange; esp. the Royal Exchange built by Sir Thomas
Gresham in 1566; it contained shops. Massinger, City Madam, iii. 1. 13;
Middleton, The Roaring Girl, iv. 1 (Moll’s Song). F. _bourse_.
=bursmen,= (perhaps) shopmen; ‘Welcome, still my merchants of _bona
speranza_ [i.e. gamblers]; . . what ware deal you in? . . Say, my brave
bursmen’, A Woman never vext, ii. 1 (beginning). I think the reference
is to keepers of shops in the Burse; see above.
=bursten,= ruptured. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 3 (Savil). In
common prov. use (with various pronunciations), see EDD. (s.v. Burst,
vb. 2).
=bushment,= an ambush. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 70. ME. _buschment_
(Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 269).
=busine,= a trumpet. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 199. 20; _busyne_, id.,
lf. 187, back, 26. Anglo-F. _buisine_ (Ch. Rol., 3523), L. _buccina_.
=buske,= a bush. Ralph, Roister Doister, i. 4 (M. Merygreek). ME.
_buske_, or busshe, ‘rubus’ (Prompt.).
=buskets,= a spray, as of hawthorn. _May buskets_, sprays of ‘May’ or
hawthorn, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 10. See Dict. (s.v. Bouquet).
=buskined,= wearing the buskins of tragedy; hence tragic, dignified.
‘The buskin’d scene’, Massinger, Roman Actor, i. 1. 6; ‘buskin’d
strain’, Drayton, Pol. ii. 333.
=busking,= an attiring; esp. the dressing of the head. Ascham,
Scholemaster, bk. i. (ed. Arber, p. 54). ME. _busken_, to get oneself
ready (Cursor M., 11585). See Dict.
=buskle,= to prepare oneself; hence, to set out, start on a journey, set
to work, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid iii. 359 (ed. Arber, 81); to hurry
about, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. i, c. 6, st. 51. Freq. of _busk_,
vb.; see above.
=busk-point,= the lace, with its tag (or point), which secured the end
of the ‘busk’, or strip of wood in the front of the stays. Dekker,
Shoemaker’s Holiday, v. 2 (Hodge); Marston, Malcontent, iv. 1
(Maquerelle); How a Man may Choose, i. 3 (Fuller).
=busky,= bushy. 1 Hen. IV, v. 1. 2. See =bosky.=
=bustain,= (prob.) clothed in _bustian_ or _busteyn_, a cotton fabric of
foreign manufacture; used as a term of derision; ‘Penthesilea with her
bustain troopes’ (i.e. her Amazons). Heywood, Iron Age, pt. ii; vol.
iii, p. 368. OF. _bustanne_, ‘sorte d’étoffe fabriquée à Valenciennes’
(Godefrey).
=but,= except, 2 Hen. VI, ii. 2. 82; Massinger, Renegado, i. 2; unless,
BIBLE, Amos iii. 17; _but if_, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 16; iv. 8. 33. In
prov. use in Cheshire (EDD.). ME. Wyclif, John xii. 24: ‘But a corn of
whete falle in to the erthe, and be deed, it dwellith alone.’
=but-bolt, butt-bolt,= an unbarbed arrow used in shooting at the butts.
Ford, Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1 (Cuddy). See =butt-shaft.=
=butin,= booty. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 277, back, 18. F. _butin_.
=butter-box,= a contemptuous term for a (fat) Dutchman. Massinger,
Renegado, ii. 5. 8; Ford, Lady’s Trial, iv. 2 (Fulgoso).
=butter-print,= a humorous expression for a child, as bearing the stamp
of the parents’ likeness. Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, v. 4. 10;
The Chances, i. 5 (Don John); Span. Curate, ii. 1 (Diego).
=buttery-bar,= the horizontal ledge on the top of the _buttery-hatch_,
or half-door, to rest tankards on, Twelfth Nt., i. 3. 75.
_Buttery-hatch_, Heywood, Eng. Traveller, i. 2 (Robin). A
‘buttery-hatch’ is still to be seen opposite the entrance to the
dining-hall in every college in Oxford. See NED.
=button,= a bud. Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 1. 6. ME. _botoun_ (Rom. Rose,
1721). OF. _bouton_, a bud (Rom. Rose); see Bartsch, 412.
=buttons, to make,= to be in great fear. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iv. 3
(Sancho). See EDD. (s.v. Button, sb.^{1} 8 and 12).
=butt-shaft,= an arrow (without a barb), for shooting at the butts. B.
Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 3 (2 Masque: Cupid); L. L. L. i. 2. 181.
=buxom,= yielding, obedient; blithe, lively. Spenser, Mother Hubberd’s
Tale, 626; Henry V, iii. 6. 28; Milton, L’Allegro, 24. See Dict.
=buzzes,= for _burrs-es_, double pl. of _burr_; burrs; used of the rough
seed-vessels of some plants. Field, Woman a Weathercock, ii. 1
(Scudmore).
=by and by,= immediately. BIBLE, Matt. xiii. 21; Luke xxi. 9; Spenser,
F. Q. i. 8. 2. See Wright’s Bible Word-Book.
=by-blow,= a bastard. Ussher, Annals, 499 (NED.); Cox, Registers,
Lambeth, A.D. 1688, p. 75. In common prov. use in the north of England
and the Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. By(e, 8 (4)).
=by-chop,= a bastard. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, iv. 2 (Chair).
=bye,= a secondary object; _bye and main,_ a term orig. used in dicing,
expressing different ways of winning. _To bar bye and main_, to prevent
entirely, stop altogether, Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, iii. 1
(Rosalura).
=bye,= to pay the penalty for, atone for. Ferrex and Porrex, iv. 1. 30.
Cp. ME. _abyen_, to buy off (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4393). See =aby.=
=bynempt,= declared solemnly, promised with an oath. Spenser, F. Q. ii.
1. 60; Shep. Kal., July, 214. See =benempt.=
=by’r lakin,= by our Lady-kin or little Lady (with reference to the
Virgin Mary). Temp. iii. 3. 1; Mids. Night’s D. iii. 1. 14. So also
_Byrlady_, Middleton, A Trick to Catch, iv. 2 (1 Gent.). In prov. use
from Yorksh. to Derbysh., see EDD. (s.v. Byrlakins).
=byse,= greyish; light blue, or azure. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 1158.
See Dict. (s.v. Bice).
=bysse,= fine linen; also, a vague name for any fine or costly material.
Middleton, Father Hubberd’s Tales, ed. Dyce, v. 558; Peele, Honour of
the Garter, l. 88. OF. _bysse_, L. _byssus_, Gk. βύσσos, ‘fine linen’
(Luke xvi. 19); Heb. _būts_, applied to the finest and most precious
stuffs as worn by persons of high rank or honour (1 Chron. iv. 21).
C
=cabage,= to cut off the head of a deer close behind his horns.
Turbervile, Hunting, xliii. 134; ‘I wyll cabage my dere, _je cabacheray
ma beste_’, Palsgrave. ME. _caboche_ (Book on Hunting; NED.). F.
(Picard) _caboche_, the head, see H. Estienne, Précellence, 175. 397.
=cabbish,= a cabbage. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 3 (Sir O.
Twi.). A Yorksh. pronunc. (EDD.).
=cabinet,= a cabin, hut, lodging. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 83; ‘(the
lark’s) moist cabinet’, Venus and Adonis, 854.
=cabrito,= a kid. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3 (B. Knight). Span.
_cabrito_.
=cacafugo,= a spitfire, a braggart, blustering fellow. Fletcher, Fair
Maid of the Inn, iii. 1. 8. Span. _cacafuego_.
=cackler,= the domestic fowl. B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed
(Jackman).
=cackling-cheat;= see =cheat.= (Cant.)
=cacokenny,= a purposely perverted form of _cacochymy_, an unhealthy
state of the humours or fluids of the body. Middleton, Anything for a
Quiet Life, iii. 2 (Sweetball). Gk. κακοχυμία.
=caddess,= the jackdaw. Chapman, tr. Iliad, xvi. 541; ‘A cadesse or a
dawe, _Monedula_’, Baret, Alvearie. An old Yorksh. word (EDD.).
=caddow,= the jackdaw. Huloet, Dict. (1552); spelt _cadowe_, Golding,
Metam., vii. 468; Tusser, Husbandry, § 46. 28. ME. _cadow_(_e_,
‘monedula’ (Prompt. EETS., see note no. 313).
=cade,= a young animal brought up by hand; usually, a pet-lamb; rarely,
a foal. ‘The _Cade_ which cheweth the Cudde’ (here, apparently, a calf),
Gascoigne, Glasse of Governement, iii. 4 (Ambidexter). In prov. use in
various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Cade, sb.^{3} 1). ME. a _cade_,
‘ovis domestica’ (Cath. Angl.).
=cade, oil of,= oil from the prickly cedar. _Oyle of Cade_, Turbervile,
Hunting, c. 66; p. 187. F. _cade_, the prickly cedar (Cotgr).
=caitif,= a captive. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 794; _caitifes_, unhappy
men, Surrey, tr. of Aeneid ii. 253. Also, mean, niggardly, Sir T.
Browne, Rel. Medici, pt. 2, § 3. Norm. F. ‘_caitif_, malheureux,
misérable, captif’ (Moisy); cp. Prov. _caitiu_, ‘captif, chétif,
misérable, mauvais, méchant’ (Levy). Celto-L. type *_cactivum_, L.
_captivum_.
=calambac,= an Eastern name of aloes-wood or eagle-wood. A Knack to know
a Knave, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 571. Malay _kalambak_. See NED.
=caldesed, chaldesed,= cheated. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 1010; Elephant
in the Moon, 494. Coined from Chaldees, pl. of Chaldee, a Chaldean, an
astrologer.
=Calipolis,= the wife of the Moor in Peele’s play, Battle of Alcazar,
ii. 3: ‘Feed, then, and faint not, fair Calipolis.’ Hence Pistol has:
‘Feed, and be fat, my fair Calipolis’, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 193; and
Heywood has: ‘To feed, and be fat, my fine Cullapolis’, Royal King
(Captain), vol. vi, p. 30. Those who consult Peele’s play will find the
quotation to be extremely humorous. Pistol’s words occur again in
Marston, What you Will, v. 1. 1.
=calke,= to calculate. Mirror for Mag., Cobham, st. 15; _kalked_, pp.;
id. Clarence, st. 26. Short for _calcule_, F. _calculer_, L.
_calculare_.
=calker, calcar,= a calculator, an astrologer; ‘_Calkers_ of mens
byrthes’, Coverdale, Isaiah ii. 6; _calcars_, Sir T. Wyatt, Song of
Jopas, 60; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 95.
=calkins,= the turned-up ends of the horse-shoe which raise the heels
from the ground. Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 4. 68; ‘_Rampone_, a calkin in a
horses shoon to keepe him from sliding’, Florio. This word, with various
pronunciations, is in prov. use in many parts of England from Lancash.
to Shropsh. and Lincolnsh., see EDD. (s.v. Calkin). OF. _calcain_, heel
(Godefrey). L. _calcaneum_, heel (Vulg., John xiii. 18).
=callet,= a lewd woman, a tramp’s concubine. Othello, iv. 2. 122. B.
Jonson, Volpono, iv. 1 (Lady P.); ‘_Paillarde_, a strumpet, callet’,
Cotgrave. In prov. use in Scotland, Yorksh., and Lancash., see EDD.
(s.v. Callet, sb.^{1} 1). A Gipsy word, see Englische Studien, XXII
(ann. 1895).
=callot, calotte,= a coif worn on the wig of a serjeant-at-law, a
skull-cap. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Bias); Etheredge, She Would if
she Could, iii. 3 (Sir Joslin). F. _calotte_, dimin. of _cale_, a caul.
†=callymoocher,= a term of abuse. Only occurs in Middleton, Mayor of
Queenborough, iii. 3 (Oliver).
=calophantic,= making a show of excellence; hypocritical. ‘Calophantic
Puritaines’, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ix, ch. 53, st. 21. Gk.
καλό-ς, fair + -φαντης, one who shows, from φαίνειν, to show.
=calvered salmon,= fresh salmon prepared in a particular way; sometimes,
apparently, pickled salmon. Massinger, Maid of Honour, iii. 1 (Gasparo).
ME. _calvar_, ‘as samone or oder fysch’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no.
320).
=cambrel,= a crooked stick with notches on it, on which butchers hang
their meat. Also _cambren_, see Phillips (1706). Wel. _cambren_; _cam_
crooked, and _pren_ wood, stick. In prov. use in Scotland, and in
England, from the Border as far south as Warwick, see EDD. (s.v.
Cambrel, sb.^{1}). See =gambrel.=
=cambrel,= the hock of an animal; spelt _camborell_. Fitzherbert,
Husbandry, § 107. 3; ‘His crooked cambrils’, Drayton, Muses’ Elysium,
Nymphal, x. 20; ‘_Chapelet du jarret_, the cambrel hogh of a horse’,
Cotgrave. See EDD.
=camisado,= a night attack by soldiers; orig. one in which the attacking
soldiers wore shirts over their armour, that they might recognize one
another. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 2. 297; Gascoigne, Jocasta, Act ii, sc.
2, l. 56. Span. _camiçada_, ‘a camisado, assault’ (Minsheu). _Camiça_,
_camisa_, ‘a shirt’, id. Late L. _camisia_, a shirt (Jerome). See NED.
(s.v. Chemise).
=cammock, camocke,= a crooked tree; esp. one that is artificially bent.
Lyly, Euphues, pp. 46, 408; Peele, Works, ed. Dyce, p. 579, col. 2. ME.
_cambok_, ‘pedum’ (Voc. 666. 27); Med. L. _cambuca_, ‘baculus
incurvatus’ (Ducange).
=camois=(=e.= Of the nose: low and concave; ‘a Camoise nose, crooked
upwarde as the Morians’, Baret, Alvearie; ‘Camously croked’, Skelton,
El. Rummyng, 28; _camused_, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 1 (Lorel). F.
_camus_, having a short and flat nose (Cotgr.).
=camomile;= said to grow the more, when the more trodden upon. 1 Hen.
IV, ii. 4. 441; Shirley, Hyde Park, iii. 2 (Mis. Carol).
=camouccio,= a term of reproach. B. Jonson. Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 3
(Sogliardo); spelt _camooch_, Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable
(Lazarillo). Perhaps Ital. _camoscio_, the chamois.
=can,= a wooden measure for liquor. Phr. _burning of cans_, branding
measures, to show that they were of legal capacity; B. Jonson, Cynthia’s
Revels, i. 1 (Amorphus).
=Can,= a lord, prince; ‘A great Emperor in Tartary whom they call Can’,
Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. ii, c. 11; p. 106. See Dict. (s.v. Khan).
=can,= _pres. indic._, know; ‘Unlearned men that can no letters’, Foxe,
Martyrs (ed. 1684, ii. 325); ‘Can you a remedy for the tysyke?’ Skelton,
Magnyf. 561; B. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, i. 1 (Compass). ME. ‘I can a
noble tale’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3126). See NED. (s.v. Can, vb.^{1} 1).
=can,= used as an auxiliary of the past tense; ‘Tho can she weepe’,
Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 50; ‘He can her fairely greet’, id. i. 4. 46. ME.
very common in Cursor M.; e.g. ‘Moses fourti dais can (v.r. gan) þer-on
duell’, 6462. See NED. (s.v. Can, vb.^{2} 2).
=canaglia,= canaille, rabble. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1 (Vol.). Ital.
_canaglia_, ‘base and rascally-people, only fit for dogs company’
(Florio).
=canary,= a quick and lively dance. All’s Well, ii. 1. 77; pl.
_canaries_, Middleton, Women beware, iii. 2 (Ward); to dance, L. L. L.
iii. 12.
=canceleer, cancelier,= a hawking term. A hawk _canceleers_ when, in
stooping, she turns two or three times upon the wing, to recover herself
before she seizes the prey. Massinger, Guardian, i. 1 (Durazzo); a turn
or two in the air, Drayton, Pol. xx. 229. OF. (Picard) _canceler_ (F.
_chanceler_), to swerve, waver.
=candle:= phr. _to hold a candle to the devil_, to assist an evil
person, to persevere in evil courses. Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 316
(Orgalio, p. 93, col. 1). Cp. the Gloucestersh. saying, ‘To offer a
candle to the devil’, see EDD. (s.v. Candle, 2 (5)).
=candles’ ends,= bits of lighted candle swallowed as flapdragons; see
=flapdragon.= Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, ii. 2. 24; 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 267.
=candle-waster,= one who sits up late, and so wastes candles; a student,
or a rake. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iii. 2 (Hedon); Much Ado, v. 1.
A Somerset expression, see EDD. (s.v. Candle, 1 (22)).
=cane,= a ‘khan’, an Eastern inn. G. Sandys, Trav. p. 57. See Stanford
(s.v. Khan). Arab, _khān_, a building (unfurnished) for the
accommodation of travellers (Dozy, Glossaire, 83). See =hane.=
=canicular,= due to the dog-star. _Canicular aspect_, influence of the
dog-star, excessive heat, Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 3 (2083); p. 144,
col. 1. ‘Of the canicular or dog-days’, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors;
bk. iv, ch. 13. L. _canicula_, dog-star (Horace).
=canion,= an ornamental roll laid in a set like sausages round the ends
of the legs of breeches; ‘French hose . . . with _Canions_ annexed
reaching down beneath their knees’, Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses (see
Furnivall, 56). ‘_Chausses à queue de merlus_, round breeches with
strait cannions’, Cotgrave. Span. _cañon_, a tube, pipe, gun-barrel.
=canker,= a caterpillar, a canker-worm. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 2. 3;
Milton, Lycidas, 45. An E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Canker, sb.^{2}
6). ME. _cankyr_, ‘teredo’ (Prompt.).
=canker,= the dog-rose. 1 Hen. IV, i. 3. 176. Cp. the prov. words
_canker-ball_, the mossy excrescence on a wild rose-bush, _canker-bell_,
the bud of a wild rose, _canker-berry_, the ‘hip’ of a wild rose,
_canker-rose_, ‘Rosa canina’, the wild rose (EDD).).
=cankered,= ill-tempered. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 3; King John, ii. 1.
194. In prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England (EDD.).
=cannakin,= a small can; ‘Let me the cannakin clinke’, Othello, ii. 3.
71.
=cannel:= _Cannel bone_; ‘The neck-bone or windpipe’, Phillips, Dict.;
Golding, tr. Metam. 284; the collar-bone, Holland, Plutarch’s Mor. 409;
spelt _canell_: _canell of the necke_ (?), the nape of the neck, Caxton,
Hist. Troye, leaf 348. 10. Cp. _cannell-bone_ (Lancash.), and
_channel-bone_ (Somerset) in prov. use for the collar-bone (EDD.). OF.
(Picard) _canel_, a channel; F. _canneau du col_, ‘the nape of the neck’
(Cotgr.).
=canon-bitt,= a smooth round bit for horses. Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 37;
‘_Canon_, a canon-bitt for a horse’, Cotgrave. O. Prov. _canon_, a tube
(Levy).
=canstick,= a candlestick. 1 Hen. IV, iii. 1. 131. Still in use in
Berks. (EDD.).
=cant,= a corner, a niche; ‘Irene or Peace, she was placed aloft in a
cant’, B. Jonson, James I’s Entertainment (1603); Warner, Monuments of
Honour (ed. Dyce, 369) See EDD. (s.v. Cant, sb.^{3} 1). Norm. F. _cant_,
‘angle’ (Moisy).
=cant,= a piece, portion. Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. iii. 45. A Kentish term,
see EDD. (s.v. Cant, sb^{4} 2). Cp. M. Du. _kant_ (Verdam).
=canted,= tilted up, thrown up. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid, iii.
211. See EDD. (s.v. Cant, vb.^{3} 9 (1)). E. Fris. _kanten_, ‘etwas auf
die Seite legen’ (Koolman).
=canter,= one who _cants_, a vagrant. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1
(P. Can.).
=cantharides,= a kind of flies; Spanish flies; sometimes Aphides.
Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymph, viii. 54. Used as a stimulant, Beaumont
and Fl., Philaster, iv. 1 (Cleremont). L. _cantharides_, pl. of
_cantharis_; Gk. κανθαρίς, blister-fly.
=canting out,= singing out, in a beggar’s whine; ‘’Tis easier _canting
out_, “A piece of broken bread for a poor man”, than singing “Brooms,
maids, brooms: come, buy my brooms”,’ The London Chanticleers, scene 1
(Heath).
=cantle,= a part, portion; ‘_Liron de pain_, a cantle of bread’,
Cotgrave; ‘A cantel _pars, portio_’, Levins. Manipulus. ME. _cantel_,
‘minutal’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 324). OF. (Picard) _cantel_ = F.
_chanteau_, ‘a corner-piece or piece broken off from the corner, hence,
a cantel of bread’ (Cotgr.).
=cantle,= to portion out, Dekker, Whore of Babylon, i. 1. 9; Dryden,
Juvenal’s Satire, vii.
=cantore,= counting-house, office; ‘A Dutchman’s money i’ th’
_Cantore_’, Butler, Abuse of human learning (Remains i. 211). Du.
_kantoor_, F. _comptoir_, a counter.
=cantred,= a hundred; a district containing 100 townships. Spenser, View
of Ireland, Globe ed., p. 676, col. 1. Peele, Edw. I, ed. Dyce, 398.
Wel. _cantref_, a cantred; _cant_, a hundred + _tref_, a town. See
Ducange (s.v. Cantredus).
=canvas:= phr. _to receive the canvas_, to get the sack; i.e. to be
dismissed. Shirley, The Brothers, ii. 1 (Luys); _give the canvas_, to
dismiss, Hyde Park, i. 1 (end).
=canvasado,= a night attack by soldiers. Merry Devil, i. 1. 44. App. a
perverted form of =camisado,= q.v.; due to confusion with _canvass_,
vb., to knock about, to assault (NED.).
=cap,= to arrest. Beaumont and Fl., Knight of the B. Pestle, iii. 2
(Host). From. L. _capias_, the name of a writ; _writ of capias_, a writ
of arrest.
=cap a-huff, to set,= to cock one’s cap or hat, to put on a swaggering
appearance. Greene, James IV, iv. 4. 13. See =huff-cap.=
=cap of maintenance,= a kind of hat or cap worn as a symbol of official
dignity, or carried before a sovereign or a high dignitary in
processions. In the 17th cent. and later it is mentioned chiefly as
borne, together with the sword, before the Lord Mayor, and before the
Sovereign at his coronation. Massinger, City Madam, iv. 1; A Woman never
vext, i. 1 (Stephen). See NED. (s.v. Maintenance).
=capadochio,= a prison. Puritan Widow, i. 3. 56; ‘in _Caperdochy_, i’
tha gaol’, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 72; spelt _Capperdochy_, id. p.
86. App. for _Cappadocia_ (a bit of university slang).
=cap-case,= a bandbox, cover, basket. Middleton, The Changeling, iii. 4
(De F.); a small travelling-bag, Gascoigne, Supposes, iv. 3 (Philogano).
=caper,= a privateer, cruiser. Otway, Cheats of Scapin, ii. 1 (Scapin).
Du. _kaper_, a privateer (Sewel, ed. 1766).
=capilotade,= a kind of hash, or mixed dish; hence, a hash, a made-up
story. ‘What a capilotade of a story’s here!’ Vanbrugh, The Confederacy,
iii. 2 (Flippanta). F. _capilotade_, ‘a capilotadoe, or stued meat’, &c.
(Cotgr.).
=capnomanster,= one who divines from the way in which smoke rises from
an altar. For _capnomancer_, Birth of Merlin, iv. 1. 62. From
_capnomancy_, divination by smoke. Gk. καπνομαντεία.
=capocchia,= a simpleton. In Tr. and Cr. iv. 2. 33. Fem. of Ital.
_capocchio_, ‘a doult, a noddie’ (Florio).
=capot,= in the game of piquet, the winning of all the tricks by one
player, which scores 40. Farquhar, Sir Harry Wildair, ii. 2 (Wildair);
to win all the tricks at the game of piquet against another; ‘I have
_capotted_ her’, id. i. 1 (Fireball). F. _faire capot_ (Dict. de
l’Acad., ed. 1762).
=cappadocian.= In Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, v. 1, Eyre, who had come
to be Lord Mayor of London, says that he had promised ‘the mad
_Cappadocians_’, who had been his fellow-apprentices, that he would
feast them if he ever attained to that dignity. I think it is evidently
a jocose expression for _mad-caps_, with a punning reference to the
_cap_, i.e. the _flat-cap_, which was the special headgear of the London
apprentice, and to which frequent references are made. Just below he
varies it to ‘my fine dapper Assyrian lads’.
=caprich,= a freak, a whim, fancy, sudden giddy thought. Butler,
Hadibras, ii. 1. 18; printed _capruch_, Shirley, Example, ii. 1
(Vainman). Ital. _capriccio_, ‘a sudden fear apprehended, making one’s
hair to stand on end’ (Florio); lit. the bristling of the head (_capo_ +
_riccio_); see note on ‘Caprice’, by A. L. Mayhew, in Mod. Lang. Rev.,
July, 1912.
=capricious,= witty. As You Like It, iii. 3. 8; Heywood, The Fair Maid,
iii. 2 (Roughman).
=capte,= capacity. Only in Udall: tr. of Apoph., Preface, p. vi (1877);
fol. 23, back (1542); id. Cicero, § 45.
=capuccio,= a hood. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 10. Ital. _capuccio_, a
cowl.
=carabin=(=e, carbine,= a mounted musketeer. Beaumont and Fl., Wit
without Money, v. 1 (Merchant). F. _carabin_, ‘cavalier qui porte une
carabine’ (Dict. de l’Acad.).
=caract,= worth, value. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., iii. 3. 23 (Kitely);
Volpone, i. 1 (Corvino); Magnetic Lady, i. 1 (Compass).
=caract, carect,= a mark, sign, character. Meas. for M. v. 1. 56; _holy
Carects_, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Golding, De Mornay, iii. 37. ME.
_carect_ (Wyclif, Apoc. xx. 4). Prov. _caracta_, ‘marque, caractère’
(Levy). Norm. F. _caractes_, pl. caractères magiques (Moisy). L.
_caracter_ (Vulg., Apoc. xx. 4), Gk. χαρακτήρ.
=caravan= (Cant), an object inviting plunder; hence, a dupe, one easily
cheated. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1; iv. 1 (Belfond Senior).
=caravel, carvel,= a kind of light ship. Eden, Three Books on America
(ed. Arber, p. 45). Spelt _carvel_, Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money,
i. 2. 15. F. _caravelle_, Ital. _caravella_, Port. _caravéla_.
=carbonado,= a piece of flesh scored across and grilled upon coals.
Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iv. 4. 47; Coriolanus, iv. 5. 199; Lyly, Sapho,
ii. 3. 175; to make a ‘carbonado’ of, King Lear, ii. 2. 42. Span.
_carbonada_, ‘a carbonado on the coles’ (Minsheu).
=carcanet,= a collar or necklace of jewels. Com. Errors, iii. 1. 4;
‘Captain jewels in the carcanet’, Sonnet 52. 8. Cp. F. _carcan_, ‘une
espèce de chaîne ou de collier de pierreries’ (Dict. de l’Acad., 1762).
=card,= a chart; esp. the circular card on which the points of the
compass were marked. Macbeth, i. 3. 17; Fletcher, Loyal Subject, iii. 2
(Archas). _To speak by the card_, i.e. with the precision shown by such
a card, Hamlet, v. 1. 149. ‘Climes that took up the greatest part o’ th’
card’, i.e. of the map, Heywood, If you know not me (Medina), vol. i. p.
334.
=card,= to play at cards. Latimer, Sermon on the Ploughers, ed. Arber,
p. 25. _To card a rest_, to set up a rest, at the game of primero (see
=rest=), Heywood, The Royal King, vol. vi, p. 32.
=cardecu,= an old silver coin, a quarter of a crown. All’s Well, iv. 3.
314; v. 2. 35. F. _quart d’écu_.
=carduus benedictus,= the Blessed Thistle, noted for its medicinal
properties. Much Ado, iii. 4. 72; Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, ii. 2
(Galatea). See Sin. Barth. 14.
=care:= phr. _to take care for_, to give attention to. BIBLE, 2 Kings
xxii, and Esther vi (contents).
=carect, carrect,= a carrack, a ship of burden. ‘Carects or hulks’,
North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antonius, § 36 (in Shak. Plut., p. 213, n.
3); _carrects_, pl., Com. Errors, iii. 2. 140. Med. L. _carraca_, see
Ducange, and Dozy, Glossaire (s.v. Caraca).
=careful,= anxious, solicitous. Titus And. iv. 4. 84; Milton, P. L. iv.
983; BIBLE, Dan. iii. 16. ME. _careful_, full of care, sorrowful
(Chaucer, C. T. A. 1565).
=carfe,= an incision, cut. Golding, Metam. viii. 762; fol. 104, bk.
(1603) ‘Carf’ is in prov. use for the incision or notch made by a saw or
axe in felling timber (EDD.).
=cargazon,= a cargo; ‘A cargazon of complements’, Howell, Foreign
Travell, sect. xv, p. 67. Also, a list of goods shipped; Hakluyt, vol.
ii, pt. 1, p. 217. Span. _cargazon_, cargo.
=cargo,= used as an exclamation. Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage,
iv (Butler); Tomkis, Epil. to Albumazar. In both cases the context
refers to great riches.
=cark=(=e,= anxiety, grief. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 44; Massinger, Roman
Actor, ii. 1 (Paris); ‘_Esmoy_, cark, care, thought, sorrow, heaviness’,
Cotgrave; Levins, Manipulus. In prov. use in the north country; gen. in
phr. _cark and care_ (EDD.). ME. _cark_(_e_, anxiety (Gamelyn, 760).
Anglo-F. _cark_ (_kark_), charge, load (Rough List). The Norman and
Picard form of Central F. _charge_. See Dict. _Cark_(_e_, to be anxious;
‘I carke, I care, I take thought’, Palsgrave; Tusser, Husbandry, § 113.
15; Robinson, tr. More’s Utopia, 107.
=carl,= a countryman, a churl. Cymb. v. 2. 4; Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 54.
Icel. _karl_, a man, also, one of the common folk; opposed to _jarl_, as
OE. _ceorl_ to _eorl_.
=carl,= to act as a carl or churl, to snarl. Return from Parnassus, last
scene (Furor). The verb is given as a north Yorksh. word in EDD. (s.v.
Carl, sb.^{1} 3).
=carlot,= a peasant. As You Like It, iii. 5. 108.
=carnadine,= a carnation-coloured stuff. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet
Life, ii. 2. 4. Ital. _carnadino_, a flesh-colour (Florio); _carne_,
flesh.
=carnifex,= a hangman; hence, a scoundrel. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel,
iv. 4 (Capt. Albo). L. _carnifex_, an executioner.
=caroche,= a luxurious kind of carriage. Webster, White Devil (ed. Dyce,
p. 6); Duchess of Malfi, iv. 2; Devil’s Law-case, i. 2 (Leonora). F.
_carroche_ (Cotgr.). Ital. _carroccio_, a carriage, a ‘caroche’.
=carosse,= a carriage. Chapman, Byron’s Tragedy, v. i (D’Escures). F.
_carosse_ (Cotgr.); Med. F. _carrosse_.
†=carpell.= Peele, Edw. I, ed. Dyce, p. 401, col. 1. Sense unknown.
=carpet,= a table-cloth, a table-cover. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iv. 2
(Truewit); Staple of News, i. 2. 2; ‘a carpet to cover the table’,
Heywood, A Woman killed, iii. 2 (Jenkin); ‘carpets for their tables’,
Heylin, Hist. of the Reformation, To the Reader. It was in this sense
that a matter was said to be ‘on the carpet’ (i.e. of the
council-table). See Trench, Select Glossary.
=carpet-knight,= a contemptuous term for a knight whose achievements
belong rather to the carpet (the lady’s boudoir) than to the field of
battle; ‘_Mignon de couchette_, a Carpet-knight, one that ever loves to
be in women’s chambers’, Cotgrave; Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, i. 1
(Alberto). There was once an order of Knights of the Carpet, so called
to distinguish them from knights that are dubbed for service in the
field. See NED.
=carriage,= that which is carried, baggage. BIBLE, 1 Sam. xvii. 22; Acts
xxi. 15; ‘Carriages of an army are termed _impedimenta_’, Fuller,
Worthies of England, Norfolk; manner of carrying one’s body, bodily
deportment, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 472; demeanour, behaviour, Com. Errors,
iii. 2. 14; moral conduct, Timon, iii. 2. 89; Fletcher, Love’s
Pilgrimage, i. 1 (Sanchio); Island Princess, ii. 6. 12.
=carricado,= a movement in fencing. Nabbes, Microcosmus, ii. 1 (Choler);
Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. xi. 57. See NED. (s.v. Caricado).
=carvel;= see =caravel=.
=carwitchet, carwhitchet,= a pun, quibble, conundrum. B. Jonson, Barth.
Fair, v. 1 (Leath.); Shirley, Bird in a Cage, ii. 1 (Morello). See NED.
(s.v. Carriwitchet), and Nares (s.v. Carwhichet).
=case,= a pair; ‘This case of rapiers’, Marlowe, Dr. Faustus, ii. 2
(description of _Wrath_); ‘A case (pair) of matrons’, B. Jonson, Case is
altered, ii. 3. 1; ‘a case of pistols’, Shirley, The Traitor, iii. 1
(Rogers); ‘two case of jewels’, Webster, White Devil (ed. Dyce, p. 46).
=case,= to skin. All’s Well, iii. 6. 111; ‘A cased rabbit’, Dryden,
Span. Friar, v. 2 (Gomez); Vanbrugh, Provok’d Wife, iv. 1 (Taylor).
Still in use in the north and the W. Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. Case,
sb.^{1} 6).
=casible,= a chasuble. Middleton, A Game at Chess, i. 1 (Blk. Knt.’s
Pawn). Med. Lat. _casibula_ (Ducange, s.v. Casula).
=caskanet,= a word common in the 17th cent., used sometimes in the sense
of a necklace set with jewels (or _carcanet_), sometimes in the sense of
a _casket_. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, i. 2 (Jolenta); Lingua, in
Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ix. 426. See NED.
=cass,= to cashier, dismiss; ‘_Malandrin_, a cassed soldier’, Cotgrave.
The pp. was confused with _cast_, and so spelt. ‘Pontius, you are cast’,
Beaumont and Fl., Valentinian, ii. 3 (Aëcius). F. _casser_, ‘to break,
to casse, casseere, discharge, turn out of service’ (Cotgr.). Prov.
_casar_, ‘casser, briser’ (Levy).
=cassan, casson,= cheese. (Cant.) Harman, Caveat, p. 83. _Casson_,
Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Song). Cp. Du. _kaas_, a cheese.
=cassock,= a soldier’s cloak or long coat. All’s Well, iv. 3. 191; B.
Jonson, Every Man, ii (near the end). The military use is the original;
so F. _casaque_, Span. and Port. _casaca_, and Ital. _casacca_. Cp. MHG.
_casagân_, a horseman’s coat (Schade). Probably of Persian origin
(through the Arabic), see NED.
=cast,= for _cassed_; see =cass.=
=caster,= one who casts dice, in gaming. The _setter_ is one who _sets_,
or proposes, the amount of the stake against him. If the setter wants to
propose a very high stake, he says—_ware the caster!_ i.e. let him
beware. The caster usually says _at all!_ i.e. I cast against all
setters; but he may limit the amount of the stake. Massinger, City
Madam, iv. 2 (Tradewell).
=caster,= a cant term for a cloak. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song);
Harman, Caveat, p. 82.
=casting,= anything given to a hawk to cleanse and purge her gorge.
Massinger, Picture, iv. 1 (Ubaldo).
=casting-bottle,= a bottle for sprinkling perfumes. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s
Revels, i. 1 (Cupid); Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, v. 1 (Livia). So also
_casting-glass_, B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iv. 4 (Macilente).
=castrel,= a kestrel, a base kind of hawk. Fletcher, The Pilgrim, i. 1
(Alphonso); Ford, Lady’s Trial, iv. 2 (Futelli). F. _cercerelle_, a
kestrel (Cotgr.).
=cat,= in military phrase; a lofty work used in fortifications and
sieges. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (P. Canter); Shirley, Honoria,
i. 2. This military work was also called a =cavalier,= q.v. See NED.
(s.v. Cat, sb.^{1} 6 b).
=Cataian,= a _Cathaian_, an inhabitant of Cathay; hence a thief, a
scoundrel; because the Chinese were thought to be clever thieves, Merry
Wives, ii. 1. 148; Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 1 (Matheo). See
Nares.
=cataphract,= a horse-soldier, protected (as well as his horse) with a
coat-of-mail. Milton, Samson, 1619. Gk. κατάφρακτος, one completely
protected.
=catasta,= a jocose term for the stocks. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 1. 259.
L. _catasta_, a stage on which slaves were exposed for sale; Med. L.
_catasta_, an engine of torture (Ducange).
=catastrophe,= conclusion; (humorously) the posteriors. L. L. L. iv. 1.
77; (2) 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 66; Merry Devil, ii. 1. 10.
†=Catazaner,= only in Shirley, Ball, v. 1 (Freshwater). Perhaps a
misprint for _Catayaner_ = =Cataian,= q.v.
=cater,= a caterer, purveyor, buyer of provisions. Massinger, City
Madam, ii. 1 (Luke); Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. i. 26. ME. _catour_ (Gamelyn,
321), for Anglo-F. _acatour_, a buyer. See Dict.
=cater-tray,= lit. ‘four-three’; alluding to the four and three on
opposite faces of a die. Hence _stop-cater-tray_, the name of a false or
loaded die. Chapman, Mons. d’Olive, iv. 1 (Dique). See =quatre.=
=Catherine pear,= a small and early variety of pear. Suckling, Ballad on
Wedding. _Catherine-pear-coloured_, of a light red colour, used of a
lady’s complexion, Westward Ho, ii. 3 (Birdlime). [Cp. Crabbe, Tales of
the Hall, ‘’Twas not the lighter red, that partly streaks The Catherine
pear that brighten’d o’er her cheeks’ (x. 599).]
=catlings,= catgut strings for a violin. Tr. and Cr. iii. 3. 306.
=catso,= a rogue, a scamp. B. Jonson, Every Man out of Humour, ii. 1
(Carlo); also as interj., ‘Cat-so! let us drink’, Motteux, Rabelais, v.
8 (NED.). Ital. _cazzo_, an interjection of admiration, as some women
cry suddenly (Florio); _cazzo_, ‘membrum virile’.
=catstick,= a stick or bat used in playing tip-cat or trap-ball.
Massinger, Maid of Honour, ii. 2 (Page); Middleton, Women beware Women,
i. 2 (Ward).
=catzerie,= roguery. Only in Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 5. 12.
=cauled,= having or adorned with a caul or close-fitting cap; ‘My cauled
countenance’, Three Ladies of London, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 327.
ME., P. Plowman, C. xvii. 351.
=causen,= to give reasons. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 26. Med. L. _causare_.
(Ducange).
=cautel=(=e,= wariness, caution. Elyot, Governour, i. 4; a crafty
device, trickery, Hamlet, i. 3. 15. OF. _cautele_, L. _cautela_ (in
Roman Law) precaution. Anglo-F. _cautele_, deceit (Rough List).
=cautelous,= cautious, wary. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 3 (Wit.);
Spenser, View of Ireland (Globe ed. 619); crafty, wily, Coriolanus, iv.
1. 33.
=cavalier=(=o.= Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, ii. 4. 83; iii. 2. 81. Span.
_cavalléro_, ‘in Fortification, a Cavalier, or Mount, which is an
Elevation of Earth with a platform for Canon on it, to overlook other
Works’ (Stevens, 1706); cp. Ital. _cavagliére a cavállo_ (Florio). F.
_cavalier_, ‘se dit d’une pièce de fortification de terre fort élevée, &
où l’on met du canon’ (Dict. de l’Acad., ed. 1762).
=cavallerie,= an order of chivalry; ‘The knighthood and cavallerie of
Rome’, Holland, Pliny, ii. 460; the collective name for horse-soldiers,
Bacon, Hen. VII, 74; Massinger, Maid of Honour, ii. 3 (Gonzaga). F.
_cavallerie_, ‘horsemanship; horsemen’ (Cotgr.).
=cavell,= a mean fellow. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2217; Lyndesay, Satyre,
2863. See Jamieson.
=caveson,= a strong nose-piece for a horse, a kind of curb; ‘The
Lithuanians, sir, . . . must Be rid with _cavesons_’, Sir J. Suckling,
Brennoralt, iii. 1; ed. Hazlitt, vol. ii, p. 104. F. _caveçon_, ‘a
cavechine or cavasson for a horse’s nose’ (Cotgr.). Ital. _cavezzone_,
augmentative of _cavezza_ a halter; Med. L. _capitia_, _capitium_, a
head-covering (Ducange). See NED. (s.v. _cavesson_).
=cazimi, cazini:= in phr. _in cazimi_, ‘a Planet is in the heart of the
Sunne, or in Cazimi, when he is not removed from him 17 minutes’, Lilly,
Astrology, xix. 113; ‘In cazini of the sun’, Massinger, City Madam, ii.
2 (Stargaze); Tomkis, Albumazar, ii. 5. 6; Selden’s notes to Drayton,
Pol. xiv (near the end).
=cecchin,= a sequin, gold coin. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iv. 2. Ital.
_zecchino_, ‘a coin of gold current in Venice’ (Florio). See =chequin.=
=cedule,= a slip or scroll of parchment or paper containing writing.
Caxton, Golden Legend, 114; spelt _cedle_, Morte Arthur, leaf 421, back,
5, bk. xxi, ch. 2; spelt _sedyl_ (same page). OF. _cedule_; Med. Lat.
_cedula_, _scedula_ (Ducange), dimin. of _sceda_, _scheda_. See NED.
(s.v. Schedule).
=cee,= a small portion of beer; marked in the buttery-book of a college
with the letter _c_, which denoted one-sixteenth of a penny, or half a
_cue_, as being its price. ‘Eate _cues_, drunk _cees_’, 1 Part of
Jeronimo, ii. 3. 9; see Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 367. ‘_Cues_ and _cees_’,
Earle, Microcosmographie, § 16, ed. Arber, p. 38. See =cue.=
=cellar,= a case or stand for holding bottles. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady,
iii. 1 (last line).
=cemitare,= a ‘scimitar’. Spenser, F. Q. v. 5. 3. F. _cimeterre_
(Cotgr.), Span. _cimitarra_.
=censure,= judgement, opinion, Richard III, ii. 2. 144; to form or give
an opinion, to estimate, ‘How you are censured here in the city’,
Coriolanus, ii. 1. 25.
=cent,= a game at cards; also spelt _saint_, _sant_; it seems to have
resembled piquet. Beaumont and Fl., Four Plays in One; Triumph of Death,
sc. 5 (Gentille); Shirley, Example, iii. 1 (Confident). So called,
because 100 was ‘game’. See Nares.
=centener,= a centurion. North, tr. of Plutarch, Octavius, § 4 (Shak.
Plut., p. 237, n. 2); _centiner_, id. § 3 (p. 235, n. 2). F. _centenier_
(Cotgr.), L. _centenarius_, consisting of a hundred; = centurio
(Vegetius, fl. A.D. 385).
=cento,= a patched garment; ‘His apparel is a cento’, Shirley, Willy
Fair, ii. 2; used _fig._, ‘There is under these centoes and miserable
outsides . . . a soule of the same alloy with our owne’, Sir T. Browne,
Rel. Medici, pt. 2, § 13. L. _cento_, a garment of patchwork.
=centre,= the centre of the earth, which was supposed to be also the
fixed centre of the universe; ‘The firm centre’, Webster, Appius, i. 3
(Mar. Claudius).
=centrinel, centronel,= a sentinel. Young, Diana, 120 (NED.); Marlowe,
Dido, ii. 1. 323 (Venus).
=cerastes,= a horned snake. Milton, P. L. x. 525. Gk. κεράστης.
=ceration,= a reducing to the consistency of wax. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii.
1 (Face). L. _cera_, wax.
=cere,= to cover with wax, to shroud in a cere-cloth; ‘Then was the
bodye . . . embawmed and cered’, Hall, Hen. VIII, ann. 5. L. _cerare_,
to wax; _cera_, wax.
=cere-cloth,= the linen cloth dipped in melted wax to be used as a
shroud. Merch. Ven. ii. 7. 51; cp. _cerements_, Hamlet, i. 4. 48. See
=sear-cloth.=
=certes,= certainly. Temp. iii. 3. 30; Com. Errors, iv. 4. 77. F.
_certes_, truly (Cotgr.), O. Prov. _certas_ (Levy).
=cestron,= a ‘cistern’. Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 1. 52.
=cetywall,= see =setwall.=
=ch,= a form of _ich_, _utch_, southern form of the first personal
pronoun _I. Cha_, I have, More, Heresyes, iv (Works, 278); _chad_, I
had, Udall, Roister Doister, i. 3; _cham_, I am, Peele, Sir Clyom.,
Works, iii. 85; B. Jonson, Tale of Tub, i. 1; _chave_, I have, Peele,
Arr. Paris, i. 1 (Pan); _chee_ (for _ich_), I, London Prodigal, ii. 168;
_I chid_, I should, ii. 1. 20; _chill_, I will, King Lear, iv. 6. 239;
_chud_, I would, ib. See NED. and EDD.
=chacon,= a slow Spanish dance, or its tune; ‘_Chacon_: Two Nymphs and
Triton sing’, Dryden, Albion, Act ii (end). F. _chaconne_ (Hatzfeld);
Span. _chacona_ (Neuman and B.).
†=chaflet,= (?) a small platform or stage; ‘He satte vpon a _chaflet_ in
a chayer’ [chair], Morte Arthur, leaf 422, back, 2, bk. xxi, c. 3. Only
in this passage. Probably the same as OF. _chafault_, a temporary
platform. See NED. (s.v. Catafalque), and Dict. (s.v. Scaffold).
=chaldrons,= entrails of a calf, &c. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I. iii. 1
(Fustigo). Spelt _chawdron_, Macbeth, iv. 1. 33. Cp. dialect forms,
_chauldron_, Hertford, _chaudron_, Gloucester, _chawdon_, Leicester, see
EDD. (s.v. Chawdon). OF. _chaudun_, tripes (Roquefort); cp. G.
_kaldaunen_.
=challes,= jaws. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 75; _chall-bones_, jaw-bones;
id. § 86. In common prov. use in England as far south as Bedford, see
EDD. (s.v. Chawl). ME. _chaul_ (Wyclif, 1 Kings xvii. 35); OE. _ceafl_.
=cham,= khan. The _Great Cham_, the Great Khan; commonly applied to the
ruler of the Mongols and Tartars, and to the Emperor of China. Much Ado,
ii. 1. 277; Fletcher, The Chances, v. 3 (Don John). Turki _khān_, lord,
prince. See NED. (s.v. Cham, Khan).
=chamber,= a small cannon used to fire salutes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 57;
Massinger, Renegado, v. 8. See NED. (s.v. Chamber. 10 b).
=chambering,= wanton behaviour in private places. BIBLE, Romans xiii.
13; Beaumont and Fl., Woman’s Prize, ii. 4 (Citizen). Cp. _chamberer_,
one of wanton habits, Othello, iii. 3. 265.
=chamber-lie,= see =lye.=
=chamelot,= a name originally applied to some beautiful and costly
eastern fabric, camlet. _Water Chamelot_, camlet with a wavy or watered
surface. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 11. 45; Holland, Pliny, i. 228; Bacon, New
Atlantis (ed. 1650, p. 3). OF. _chamelot_ (Littré).
=chamfered,= furrowed, wrinkled. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 23. OF.
_chanfraindre_, to chamfer, to furrow, also, to bevel an edge. Possibly
for _chant-fraindre_, which may = Med. L. _cantum frangere_, to break
the edge or side.
=champian, champion,= the champaign, level open country, BIBLE, Deut.
xi. 30; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xii. 29; Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 173; Gosson,
School of Abuse, 29.
=chandry, chandrie,= short for _chandlery_, the place where candles were
kept in a household; ‘Six torches from the chandry’, B. Jonson, Masque
of Augurs (Notch). OF. _chandel_(_l_)_erie_.
=changeling,= a half-witted person. In Middleton’s play ‘The
Changeling’, the reference is to Antonio, who enters ‘disguised as an
idiot’, A. i, sc. 2. _To play the changeling_, to play the fool,
Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, ii. 1 (Mis. Knavesby). See EDD.
(s.v. Change. 8).
=chank,= to champ, to eat noisily. Golding, Metam. viii. 292 (fol. 97),
viii. 825 (fol. 105, back).
=channel,= the neck. Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, 1. 3 (Calyphus). See
=cannel.=
=channel-bone,= the collar-bone, clavicle. Chapman, Iliad, xvii. 266;
Holinshed, Chron. iii. 805; Kyd, Soliman, i. 4. 55. See =cannel.=
=chapine,= a high-heeled shoe. Massinger, Renegado, i. 2 (Donusa);
Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, iii. 5 (last Song). See Stanford (s.v.
Chopine). Span. _chapin_, a woman’s high cork shoes (Minsheu). See
=choppine.=
=char, chare,= car, chariot. Surrey, A Complaint by Night, 4; Sackville,
Induction, st. 7. F. _char_, a chariot (Cotgr.).
=character,= handwriting. Rowley, All’s Lost, ii. 6. 6; Meas. for M. iv.
2. 208. F. _caractere_, a form of writing (Cotgr.).
=chare,= chary, careful. Golding, tr. Ovid, Met. xiv. 336 (ed. 1593);
dear, Golding, Calvin on Deut. xxiii. 134.
=chare, charre,= a turn of work, an odd job or business. Ant. and Cl.
iv. 15. 75; _Chare_, to do a turn of work, esp. in phr. (_This_)
_char_(_re is char’d_, this bit of business is done, Sir Thos. More,
iii. 1. 118; Marriage of Wit and Science, in Hazlitt’s Old Plays, ii.
375; Peele, Edward I (ed. Dyce 392); ‘Here’s two chewres chewred’,
Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, iii. 2 (Bobadilla). See EDD. (s.v. Chare,
sb.^{1}). OE. _cerr_, a turn, ‘temporis spatium’ (B. T.).
=charet=(=t,= a car, chariot. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 32; BIBLE, Exod. xiv.
6; 2 Kings ix. 16; _charettes_, carts, _Gascoigne_, Supposes, ii. 1
(Erostrato). F. _charette_, a chariot (Cotgr.).
=charm,= the blended sound of harmonious notes, as of music, children’s
voices or song-birds. Milton, P. L. iv. 642; Peele, Arr. of Paris, i. 1
(Pomona); Bunyan, The Holy War (Temple ed., 293); Udall, Erasmus (ed.
1548, Luke ii, fol. xxxii a); _charme_, to make a melodious sound,
Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 13. ‘Charm’ is in gen. prov. use in the midland and
southern counties in the sense of a confused murmuring sound of many
voices, of birds, bees, &c.; see EDD. (s.v. Charm, sb.^{1}). See
=chirm.=
=charm,= to control, to silence, as if by a strong charm. Middleton, A
Fair Quarrel, v. 1 (Russell). Also, to induce to speak, as by a charm,
Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, ii. 1 (Rhetias).
=charneco, charnico,= a species of sweet wine. From a village so called
near Lisbon (Steevens). 2 Hen. VI, ii. 3. 63; _Charnico_, Puritan Widow,
iv. 3. 89; Heywood, Maid of West, iii (Wks. ed. 1874, ii. 301). See
Stanford.
=chartel,= a ‘cartel’, a written challenge. B. Jonson, i. 5 (or 4):
Bobadil. Span. _cartel_, Ital. _cartello_, dimin. of _carta_, paper,
letter.
=chase,= a hunting-ground. Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 1. 137; Titus, ii. 3.
255; ‘The chase alwaie open and nothing at all inclosed’, Harrison,
Desc. England, ii. 19 (ed. Furnivall, 310). Anglo-F. _chace_, a
hunting-ground, a chase (Rough List).
=chatillionte,= delightful, amusing. Farquhar, Sir H. Wildair, iv. 2
(Lurewell). F. _chatouillant_, pr. pt. of _chatouiller_, to tickle, to
provoke with delight (Cotgr.).
=chauf,= to chafe, heat, vex. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 18, §
2; _chauffed_, Spenser, F. Q. i. 3. 33. OF. _chaufer_ (F. _chauffer_),
to warm.
=chave,= for _ich have_, I have. Peele, Araygnement of Paris, i. 1
(Pan). See =ch.=
=chawne,= a gap, fissure. Holland, Pliny, i. 37; to gape open, id. i.
435; to cause to gape open, to rive asunder, Marston, Antonio, Pt. I,
iii. 1 (Andrugio); ‘_Crevasser_, to chop, chawn . . . rive’, Cotgrave.
‘Chawn’ is in prov. use in the Midlands for a crack in the ground caused
by dry weather, see EDD. (s.v. Chaum). See =choane.=
=cheasell,= gravel. Turbervile, Epitaph II. on Master Win, st. 5. Cp.
the Chesil Bank (Portland), Chiselhurst, Kent. ME. _chisel_ or gravel,
‘arena, sabulum’ (Prompt. EETS. 82), OE. _ceosel_, _cysel_, gravel.
=cheat,= wheaten bread of the second quality. Chapman, Batrachom., 3;
Drayton, Polyolb. xvi, p. 959; _cheat bread_, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel,
iv. 1 (Chough); Eastward Hoe, v. 1 (Mrs. T.); _cheat loaf_, B. Jonson,
Masque of Augurs, vol. vi, p. 123; Corbet, Poetica Stromata (Nares).
Bread of the first quality was called _manchet_. See NED. (s.v. Cheat,
sb.^{2}).
=cheat= (Thieves’ Cant), used in general sense ‘thing’, gen. preceded by
some descriptive word. _The Cheate_ (= _treyning cheate_), the gallows,
Winter’s Tale, iv. 3. 28; _cackling-cheate_, the domestic fowl,
Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 1 (Prigg); _grunting cheate_, a pig (id.);
_belly-cheat_, an apron, id. ii. 1 (Higgen). See NED. (s.v. Cheat,
sb.^{1} 3). See =backcheat.=
=cheator,= a cheat. Esp. used of one who lived by cheating at dice;
Marston, What you Will, v. 1 (Quadratus).
=check= (in Hawking), a false stoop, when a hawk forsakes her proper
game, and pursues rooks, doves, &c. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 2
(Maria); _to fly at check_, Dryden, Ann. Mirab. st. 86; _check_, base
game, rooks, &c, Drayton, Pol. xx. 217; Turbervile, Falconrie, 110.
=checked,= chequered, variegated. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 18; Greene,
Friar Bacon, i. 1. 83; spelt _chequed_, ‘The chequed, and purple-ringed
daffodillies’, B. Jonson, Pan’s Anniversary (Shepherd).
=checker-approved,= approved by one who checks, a controller. Ford,
Fancies Chaste, i. 2 (Spadone). See NED. (s.v. Checker, sb.^{1} 1).
=checklaton,= a cloth of rich material; ‘A Jacket, quilted richly rare
Upon checklaton’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 43. OF. _chiclaton_, also
_ciclaton_ (Godefroy). The ME. form was _ciclatun_ (_syklatoun_); see
Juliana, 8, and Chaucer, C. T. B. 1924. See NED. (s.v. Ciclatoun).
=chedreux,= a kind of perruque. Etheredge, Man of Mode, iii. 2 (Sir
Fopling); Oldham, tr. of Juvenal, Sat. iii. 191. From the maker’s name.
Also Shaddrew (NED.).
=chequin,= an Italian gold coin, a ‘sequin’. Pericles, iv. 2. 28
(_chickeens_ in ed. 1608); B. Jonson, Volpone, i (last speech but 8 of
Volpone). See Dict. (s.v. Sequin), and Stanford. See =cecchin.=
=cherry,= to cherish, cheer, delight. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 10. 22. F.
_chérir_, to hold dear.
=cherry-pit,= a children’s game, in which cherry-stones were thrown into
a pit or small hole. Twelfth Nt. iii. 4. 129; Witch of Edmonton, iii. 1
(Cuddy).
=cheve,= to bring to an end, to finish; ‘I cheve, I bring to an ende,
_Je aschieve_’, Palsgrave. OF. _chever_, to finish (NED.).
=cheve, chive,= to befall, happen to. Phr. _foul cheeve him_, ill befall
him, Sir A. Cockain, Obstinate Lady, iii. 2; _foul chive him_, Beaumont
and Fl., Knight of the Burning Pestle, i. 3 (Mrs. Merry Thought).
=cheveril,= kid-leather; used allusively as a type of pliability.
Twelfth Nt. iii. i. 13; B. Jonson, Poetaster, i. 1 (Tucca). ME.
_cheverel_, ‘ledyr’ (Prompt.), Anglo-F. _cheveril_ (Rough List), deriv.
of OF. _chevre_, a goat.
=chevin, cheven,= the chub. Book of St. Albans, fol. F 7, back; Drayton,
Pol. xxvi. 244; ‘_Chevesne_, a chevin’, Cotgrave. ‘Cheven’ is a Yorks.
word for the chub (EDD.). OF. _chevesne_; see Hatzfeld (s.v. Chevanne).
=chevisaunce,= merchandise, gain (in a bad sense). Coverdale, Deut. xxi.
14. ME. _chevisaunce_ (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1519). OF. _chevissance_,
‘pactum, transactio, conventio’. Med. L. _chevisantia_ (Ducange).
=chevisaunce= (as used by Spenser and his imitators), enterprise,
achievement, expedition on horseback, chivalry, F. Q. ii. 9. 8.
=che vor:= in phr. _che vor ye_. The meaning seems to be ‘I warrant
you’, King Lear, iv. 6. 246, but the relationship or etymology of the
word _vor_ has not yet been discovered; nothing like it is known to
exist in prov. use. _Che vore ’un_, (?) I warrant him, B. Jonson, Tale
of a Tub, ii. 1 (Hilts). _Cha vore thee_ is found in The Contention
between Liberality and Prodigality, ii. 3 (Tenacity), in Hazlitt’s
Dodsley, viii. 345, ‘What will you give me? Cha vore thee, son . . .
Chill give thee a vair piece of three half-pence’. (Here, _cha vore
thee_ may be West dialect for ‘I have for thee.’)
=chewet, chewit,= a chough, _fig._ a chatterer. 1 Hen. IV, v. 1. 29. F.
_chouette_, a chough, jackdaw (Cotgr.).
=chewet,= a dish of meat or fish, chopped fine and mixed with spices and
fruits. Middleton, The Witch, ii. 1 (Francisca).
=chewre,= a turn of work; see =chare.=
=Cheyney;= see =Philip.=
=chiarlatan,= a mountebank or Cheap Jack who descants volubly to a
_crowd_. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 2. 971; _ciarlitani_, pl., B. Jonson,
Volpone, ii. 1 (Volpone, Speech, 3). Ital. _ciarlatano_, a babbler,
mountebank, fr. _ciarlare_, to babble; whence F. _charlatan_, ‘a
pratling quack-salver’ (Cotgr.).
=chiaus=(=e,= a Turkish messenger, sergeant, or lictor. Massinger,
Renegado, iii. 4; B. Jonson, Alchemist, i. 2. 25. Turkish _chāush_.
=chiause, chouse,= one easily cheated, a dupe, gull. Newcastle, The
Variety, in Dramatis Personae (‘A country Chiause’). [Cp. Johnson’s
Dict., A _chouse_, a man fit to be cheated.]
=chiause, chowse,= _v._, to chouse, to cheat. ‘Chiaus’d by a scholar!’,
Shirley, Honoria, ii. 3 (Conquest); ‘And sows of sucking-pigs are
_chowsed_’, Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 114, also l. 1010.
=chibbal,= a young onion with the green stalk attached, Fletcher,
Bonduca, i. 2 (Petillius); _chibal_, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (2
Gipsy). ‘Chibbal’ (‘chibble’) is in gen. prov. use in the Midlands and
south-west country, see EDD. (s.v. Chibbole). ME. _chibolle_ (P.
Plowman, B. vi. 296). OF. (Picard) _chibole_ (F. _ciboule_); L.
_cepulla_, dimin. of _cepa_, onion.
=chibrit,= sulphur. B. Jonson, Alchem., ii. 1 (Surly). Also spelt
_kibrit_ (NED.). Arab. _kibrīt_, sulphur; cp. Heb. _gophrīth_, Aramaic,
_kubrīth_.
=chiches,= chick-peas. B. Jonson, tr. of Horace, Art of Poetry (L.
_ciceris_, l. 249); spelt _chittes_, Sir T. Elyot, Castel of Helthe, iv.
10; Udall, Apoph., Diogenes, 47. F. _chiches_, ‘sheeps-cich-peason,
chiches’ (Cotgr.); OF. _chiche_ (Roman. Rose, 6911).
=chiefrie,= the payment of rent or dues to an Irish chief. Spenser, View
of Ireland (Globe ed., p. 663).
=chievance,= raising of money. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 64). F.
‘_chevance_, wealth, substance, riches’ (Cotgr.).
=child:= phr. _to be with child_, used _fig._, to be full of
expectation. Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 3 (King); also, to long
after, desire vehemently, id., Honest Wh., Pt. I, iii. 1 (Viola).
=Child Rowland,= a young knight; with reference to a scrap of an old
ballad. King Lear, iii. 4. 187; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 1. 16.
=chilis,= a large vein. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 2. 4 (where it is
equated to _vena cava_). Dyce’s note says—‘Out of the gibbosyte . . .
of the liuer there issueth a veyne called _concava_ or _chilis_’,
Traheron, Vigo’s Workes of Chirurgerie, 1571, fol. ix. Gk. φλὲψ κοίλη,
_vena cava_.
=chill;= as in _I chill_, for _Ich ’ill_, I will. ‘Tell you I _chyll_’,
Skelton, El. Rummyng, 1. See =ch.=
=china-house,= a china-shop. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 2 (Subtle).
=chinchard,= a niggard, miser. Spelt _chyncherde_, Skelton,
Magnyfycence, 2517. ME. _chinche_, a niggard (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2793);
Norm. F. _chinche_, ‘mesquin avare’ (Moisy).
=chinclout,= a muffler covering the lower part of the face. Middleton, A
Mad World, iii. 3 (Follywit). Cp. _muffler_ in Merry Wives, iv. 2. 73.
=chine,= to divide or break the back of. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 13.
Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, iii. 3. 6; ‘_Eschiner_
(_échiner_), to chine, to break the back of’, Cotgrave. In everyday use
in Suffolk (EDD.).
=chink,= a bed-bug. Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, i. 1 (Hostess). Also
spelt _chinch_. Span. _chinche_, a bug; L. _cimex_.
=chink,= a piece of money. Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 503.
=chire,= a slender blade of grass, a sprout. Spelt _chyer_, Drayton,
Harmony, Song Solomon, ch. ii, l. 3. ME. _chire_, ‘genimen’ (Cath.
Angl.).
=chirm,= a confused noise, the mingled din or noise of many birds or
voices. Spelt _chyrme_, Mirror for Mag., Glocester, st. 5; _churm_,
Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 170). See =charm.=
=chirr,= to chirp like a grasshopper; ‘The chirring grasshopper’,
Herrick, Oberon’s Feast, 16.
=chitterling,= a frill, ruff; esp. the frill down the breast of a shirt.
Like Will to Like, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 310; Gascoigne, Delic Diet
Droonkardes (NED.). For examples of prov. use see EDD. (s.v. 4).
=chitterlings,= the smaller intestines of the pig, &c., esp. when fried
or boiled. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, iii. 1 (Fustigo); Butler,
Hudibras, i. 2. 120. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).
=chitty-face,= one who has a thin pinched face; used as a term of
contempt; ‘You half-fac’d groat, you thin-cheek’d chitty-face’, Munday,
Downfall of E. of Huntingdon, v. 1 (Jailer), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii.
188; Massinger, Virgin Martyr, i. 2 (Spungius); ‘Chittiface,
_puellulus_, _improbulus_’, Coles, Dict. (1679); ‘A chittiface, proprie
est facies parva et exigua’, Minsheu, Ductor (1617). OF. _chiche-face_
(_chiche-fache_), lean face (Godefroy). The word occurs in Rabelais, i.
183 (ed. Jaunet). From this word comes the perverted form _chichevache_
(Chaucer, C. T. E. 1188), the name of a fabulous monster said to feed on
patient wives.
=chival,= a horse; ‘Upon the captive chivals’ (in captivis equis),
Turbervile, Ovid’s Ep., 148 b; Mucedorus, Induction, 29, in Hazlitt’s
Dodsley, vii. 204; but here _chival_ may be for _’chieval_, _achieval_,
achievement.
=chive, cive,= a small kind of onion or garlic; ‘_Escurs_, the little
sallad herb called _Cives_ or _Chives_’, Cotgrave. F. _cive_ (North F.
_chive_), onion; L. _cepa_, onion.
=chive;= see =cheve.=
=choane,= a cleft, rift, fissure; ‘_Fendasse_, a cleft, choane’,
Cotgrave. See =chawne.=
=choke-pear,= a rough, harsh pear; also, something impossible to swallow
or get over. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 321); Mydas, iv. 3 (end).
=choplogic,= a contentious, sophistical arguer. Awdelay, Fratern. of
Vacabondes, p. 15. Shortened to _choploge_; ‘Choploges or greate
pratlers’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Antigonus, § 27; Roister Doister, iii.
2 (Merygreek).
=choppine,= a kind of shoe raised above the ground by means of a cork
sole or the like. Hamlet, ii. 2. 445; ‘_Pianelloni_, great pattins or
choppins’, Florio; ‘Corke shooes, chopines’, Marston, Dutch Courtezan,
iii. 1 (Tissefew). See Stanford (s.v. Chopine). See =chapine.=
=chreokopia,= a cancelling of debts, or of a part of a debt. Massinger,
Old Law, i. 1 (2 Lawyer). Gk. χρεωκοπία, a cutting off of debt.
=Christ-cross, Chriss-cross, Crisscross,= a cross (✠) placed at the
beginning of the alphabet in a horn-book. Hence, _Christcross-row_, the
alphabet, Two Angry Women, v. 1 (Mall); shortened to _cross-row_,
Richard III, i. 1. 55. A similar cross was sometimes used (instead of
XII) to mark noon on a clock or dial; hence ‘the Chrisse-crosse of
Noone’, Puritan Widow, iv. 2. 85; see Nares.
=Christ-tide,= Christmas. A term for Christmas, used by Puritans, to
avoid the use of the word _mass_. B. Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2 (Ananias)
See NED.