(_dyryge_) ‘offyce for dedeman’ (Prompt.). L. _dirige_: this word begins
the antiphon, ‘Dirige, Dominus meus, in conspectu tuo vitam meam’, used
in the first nocturn at mattins in the Office for the Dead; see Way’s
note in Prompt., and Notes to Piers Plowman, C. iv. 467.
=dirk,= to darken, to obscure; ‘Thy wast bignes . . . dirks the beauty
of my blossomes rownd’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 134. See EDD. (s.v.
Dark, 8). ME. _derhyn_, or make _derk_, ‘obscuro, obtenebro’ (Prompt.
EETS., 137).
=disable,= to disparage. As You Like It, iv. 1. 34; Heywood, Eng.
Traveller, iv. 1 (Reignald); Fletcher, Island Princess, iv. 3 (Armusia);
spelt _dishable_, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 21.
=disadventure,= misfortune. _Dissaventures_, pl. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10.
45. ME. _disaventure_ (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 415).
=disappointed,= unequipped, unprepared. Hamlet, i. 5. 77.
=disceptation,= a discussion, debate. Spelt _desceptations_, pl.;
Heywood, Dialogue 18; vol. vi. p. 248. L. _disceptatio_ (Cicero).
=discide,= to cut or cleave in twain. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 1. 27. L.
_discidere_, to cut in twain.
=disclose,= to hatch. Hamlet, v. 1. 310; Massinger, Maid of Honour, i. 2
(Camiòla); the act of disclosing, the incubation, Hamlet, iii. 1. 175.
=discoloured,= of various colours, variegated. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s
Revels, v. 2 (Crites); v. 3 (Cupid); Beaumont, Masque of the Inner
Temple, l. 10; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 160. L. _discolor_, of
different colours.
=discommodity,= a disadvantage. Bacon, Essay 33.
=discourse,= faculty of reasoning, logical power; ‘discourse and reason’
(i.e. logic and reason), Massinger, Unnat. Combat, ii. 1 (Malef. jun.);
‘Discourse of reason’, reasoning faculty, Hamlet, i. 2. 150.
=discourse,= course of combat, mode of fighting. Beaumont and Fl., King
and No King, ii. 1 (Gob.); Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 14. L. _discursus_, a
running to and fro.
=discretion,= disjunction, separation of parts, dissolution. Butler,
Hudibras, ii. 1. 204. L. _discretio_ (Vulgate, Heb. v. 14 = διάκρισις).
=discure,= to discover. Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 18. ME. _discure_, to
discover (Chaucer, Bk. Duch. 549).
=discuss,= to shake off. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 48; to disperse,
scatter; Lyly, Woman in the Moon, ii. 1. 21. ME. _discusse_, to drive
away (Chaucer, Boethius); see NED. L. _discutere_ (pp. _discussus_), to
drive away.
=disease,= discomfort, inconvenience. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 19; v. 7.
26. ME. _disese_, inconvenience, distress (Chaucer); ‘A greet diseese’
(Wyclif, Luke xxi. 23). Anglo-F. _desaise_, trouble (Gower).
=disease,= to trouble, inconvenience; ‘Why diseasest thou the master’,
Tyndal, Mark v. 35; Spenser, F. Q. vi. 3. 32; Middleton, The Witch, iv.
2 (Isabella); to disturb, Chapman tr. Iliad, x. 45. See Trench, Sel. Gl.
=disembogue,= _trans._, to empty out. Dryden, Hind and Panther, ii. 562;
to drive out, eject; Massinger, Maid of Honour, ii. 2 (Page). Also in
form _disimboque_, Hakluyt, Voyages, i. 104. Span. _desembocar_, to come
out of the mouth of a river.
=disentrail,= to draw forth from the entrails or inward parts. Spenser,
F. Q. iv. 3. 28; iv. 6. 18.
=disgest,= to digest. Coriolanus, i. 1. 154; Ant. and Cl. ii. 2. 179 (in
old edd.). In general prov. use in the British Isles (EDD.).
=dishable;= see =disable.=
=disheir,= to deprive of an heir. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 705.
=disinteressed,= disinterested. Dryden, Religio Laici, 335. See
=interessed.=
=disleal,= disloyal. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 5. See Dict. (s.v. Leal).
=dislike= (only in the 3rd pers.), to displease, annoy; ‘Ile do’t, but
it dislikes me’, Othello, ii. 3. 49; Middleton, Women beware, iii. 1
(Leantio).
=disloignd,= distant, remote. Spencer, F. Q. iv. 10. 24. OF.
_desloignier_, to remove to a distance. O. Prov. _deslonhar_, ‘éloigner,
écarter’ (Levy).
=dismay,= to terrify; ‘I dismaye, I put a person in fere or drede, _je
desmaye_ and _je esmaye_’, Palsgrave; Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 4; to defeat
by a sudden onslaught, id. v. 2. 8; vi. 10. 13. See Dict.
=dismayd,= _dis-made_, mis-made, ill-formed. F. Q. ii. 11. 11.
=disme,= a dime, a tithe, tenth. Tr. and Cr. ii. 2. 19. OF. _disme_, a
tenth; see Ducange (s.v. Decimae). L. _decima_, a tenth part.
=dispace,= to range, to move or walk about. Spenser, Virgil’s Gnat, 295;
Muiopotmos, 250. Cp. Ital. _spaziare_, to walk about (Fanfani).
=disparage,= inequality of rank in marriage; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 50.
ME. _disparage_ (Chaucer, C. T. E. 908). Norm. F. _desparager_,
mésallier; _desparagement_, mésalliance, union inégale (Moisy).
=disparent,= unequal, odd; with reference to the number five. ‘A
disparent pentacle’, i.e. a pentacle with an odd number of angles, Hero
and Leander, iii. 123; ‘The odd disparent number’, i.e. the odd number
of five, id. v. 323.
=disparkle,= to scatter abroad, disperse (_trans._ and _intr._);
‘_Esparpiller_, to scatter, disperse, disparkle’, Cotgrave; ‘It
disparcleth the mist’, Holland, Pliny, ii. 45; ‘Not suffering his
radiations to disparcle abrode’ Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. Furnivall,
78); see Nares. An altered form of the earlier _disparple_, see NED. See
=sparkle.=
=disparple, disperple,= to scatter abroad, disperse. Chapman, tr.
Odyssey, x. 473; _dispurple_, Heywood, Silver Age, iii (Wks. iii. 144).
ME. _disparple_ (Wyclif, Mark xiv. 27); see Dict. M. and S. OF.
_desparpelier_; for etym. from *_parpalio_, a Romanic form of L.
_papilio_, a butterfly (as in Ital. _parpaglione_, O. Prov. _parpalho_);
see NED.
=dispense,= liberal expenditure. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 42; v. 11. 45.
=dispergement,= ‘disparagement’, indignity. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk.
ii, c. 12, § 6.
=display,= to discover, get sight of, descry. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 76;
Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 74; xvii. 90; xxii. 280. See NED. (s.v.
Display, vb. 9).
=disple,= to subject to the ‘discipline’ of the scourge, to scourge;
‘Bitter Penance with an yron whip Was wont him once to disple every
day’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 27. In monastic Latin _disciplina_ = (1) a
penitential whipping, (2) the instrument of punishment itself; see
Ducange (s.v.).
=dispose,= disposal; disposition. Two Gent. ii. 7. 86; Tr. and Cr. ii.
3. 174; Othello, i. 3. 403.
=disposed,= inclined to merriment; in a merry mood. L. L. L. ii. 1. 250;
Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, v. 4 (Lady H.); Custom of the
Country, i. 1. 9.
=dispunct,= impolite, discourteous, the reverse of punctilious; ‘Let’s
be retrograde. _Amorphus._ Stay. That were dispunct to the ladies’, B.
Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2.
=disqueat,= to disquiet, trouble. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. i, c. 5,
st. 39. See =queat.=
=disseat,= to unseat. Macbeth, v. 3. 21; Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 4. 85.
=disseise,= to dispossess. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 20; vii. 7. 48.
Anglo-F. _disseisir_ (Rough List). A compound of OF. _seisir_
(_saisir_), to put into possession, Frankish L. _sacire_; of Germanic
origin—_satjan_ (OHG. _sazjan_), to set, place; see NED. (s.v. Seize).
Cp. Ital. _sagire_, to put in full and quiet possession, namely of lands
(Florio).
=dissident,= differing, different. Robinson, tr. of More’s Utopia, pp.
66, 130. L. _dissidens_, differing, disagreeing.
=dissite,= situated apart, remote. Chapman, tr. Odyssey, vii. 270. L.
_dissitus_, situated part.
=dissolve,= to solve; ‘Dissolve this doubtful riddle’, Massinger, Duke
of Milan, iv. 3 (Sforza); BIBLE, Daniel v. 16. [‘Thou hadst not between
death and birth Dissolved the riddle of the earth’, Tennyson, Two
Voices, 170.]
=distance,= disagreement, estrangement. Macbeth, iii. 1. 115; ‘Distances
between his lady and him’, Pepys, Diary, Sept. 11, 1666. ME. _destance_,
difference (Gower, C. A. iii. 611). Anglo-F. _destance_, dispute,
disagreement (Gower, Mirour, 4957). See =staunce.=
=distaste,= to have no taste for, to dislike, King Lear, i. 3. 14; to
offend the taste, Othello, iii. 3. 327.
=distempered,= not temperate. Drayton, Pol. i. 4; disturbed in temper,
humour, King John, iv. 3. 21; disordered physically, Sonnet, 153;
mentally disordered, Milton, P. L. iv. 807; Massinger, Duke of Milan, i.
1. 18.
=distract,= torn or drawn asunder; torn to pieces. Sh., Lover’s
Complaint, 231; perplexed by having the thoughts drawn in different
directions, Milton, Samson Ag. 1556; deranged in mind, Julius C., iv. 3.
155; Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 212. L. _distractus_, drawn asunder,
distracted.
=distreyn,= to vex, distress. Sackville, Induction, st. 14; Surrey, The
Lover comforteth himself, 2; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 14. F. _destreindre_,
‘to straine, presse, vexe extremely’ (Cotgr.); L. _distringere_, to draw
asunder.
=disyellow,= to free from jaundice. Warner, Albion’s England; bk. ii,
ch. 10, st. 13.
=dit, ditt,= a poetical composition, a ditty. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 13.
See NED.
=ditch-constable,= a term of contempt. Middleton, A Mad World, v. 2
(Follywit).
=dite,= to winnow corn. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, v. 498. Hence _diter_,
one who ‘dites’, id., v. 499. In common use in this sense in Scotland
and the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Dight, 6).
=diurnal,= a journal, newspaper. Butler, Hudibras, i. 2. 268; Tatler,
no. 204, § 4. L. _diurnalis_, daily; from _dies_, day.
=divedopper,= a small diving water-fowl. Drayton, Man in the Moon, 188.
See =didapper.=
=diverse,= to turn aside; ‘The Redcrosse Knight diverst’, Spenser, F. Q.
ii. 3. 62. Only found here in this sense.
=diversivolent,= of variable will, changeable. Webster, White Devil
(Lawyer), ed. Dyce, p. 20; (Flamineo), p. 25. A word coined by Webster.
=diversory,= a place to which one turns in by the way. Chapman, tr.
Odyssey, xiv. 538. L. _diversorium_, an inn, freq. in Vulgate, cp. Luke
ii. 7; xxii. 11.
=divine,= to render divine, to canonize. Spenser, Daphn., 214; Ruins of
Time, 611; Drayton, Pol. xxiv. 191.
=divulst,= torn apart. Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, i. 1. 4. L. _diuulsus_,
pp. of _diuellere_, to pluck asunder.
=dizen,= to put flax on a distaff; ‘I dysyn a dystaffe, I put the flaxe
upon it to spynne’, Palsgrave; to dress, attire, ‘bedizen’; ‘Come, Doll,
Doll, dizen me’, Beaumont and Fl., M. Thomas, iv. 6. 3. In common use in
the north country in the sense of ‘to dress showily’ (EDD.). See Dict.
(s.v. Distaff).
=dizling,= (perhaps) making dizzy, confusing; ‘His torch with dizling
smoke Was dim’, Golding, Metam. x. 6 (L. ‘Fax . . . lacrymoso stridula
fumo’).
=dizzard, dizard,= a blockhead, foolish fellow. Brewer, Lingua, iii. 1
(end). A Yorkshire word; cp. ‘dizzy’, used in the north country in the
sense of ‘foolish, stupid, half-witted’; OE. _dysig_ (Matt. vi. 26,
‘stultus’).
=do,= to cause; ‘The villany . . . Which some hath put to shame, and
many done be dead’, Spenser, F. Q. v. 4. 29; phr. _I cannot do withal_,
I cannot help it, Middleton, A Chaste Maid, ii. 1 (Sir Oliver); ‘I could
not do withal’ Merch. Ven. iii. 4. 72. ME. _doon_, _do_, to cause
(Chaucer, freq.).
=do way!= forbear! Surrey, A Song, 21; in Tottel’s Misc., p.
219.
=dob-chick,= a dab-chick, a small diving bird, _Podiceps minor_.
Drayton, Pol. xxv. 80; spelt _dop-chick_, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xv.
686. ‘Dob-chick’ is in common prov. use in many parts of England (EDD.).
=docket,= the fleshy part of an animal’s tail. Greene, James IV, i. 2
(Slip). Dimin. of _dock_, in the same sense. See NED. (s.v. Dock,
sb.^{2} 1).
=doctor,= a false die; loaded so as to fall only in two or three ways. A
slang term; a ‘doctored die’, Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1
(Hackum); Cibber, Woman’s Wit, i (NED.).
=dodder,= to tremble or shake from frailty; ‘Dodder grasses . . . so
called because with the least puff or blast of wind it doth as it were
dodder and tremble’, Minsheu, Ductor.
=doddered:= phr. _doddered oak_, decayed with age; ‘Dodder’d oak’,
Dryden, tr. Persius, Sat. v. 80; Virgil, Past. ix. 9; ‘Doddered oaks’,
Palamon and Arc., iii. 905; Pope, Odyssey, xx. 200. ‘Doddered’ is in
prov. use in the north country in the sense of old, decayed, trembling:
‘A _doddered_ old man’, see EDD. s.v. Dother, vb.^{1} 1 (1)).
=dodkin,= a little doit; a coin of very small value. Lyly, Mother
Bombie, ii. 2 (end). Du. _duytken_, dimin. of _duyt_, a doit (Hexham).
See NED.
=doff,= a repulse, a ‘put off’. Wily Beguiled, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ix.
276.
=dog,= to follow after; ‘To dog the fashion’, B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of
Humour, iv. 6 (Macilente).
=dogbolt,= a contemptible fellow, mean wretch. Fletcher, Span. Curate,
ii. 2 (Lopez); Wit without Money, iii. 1. 32. As adj., worthless, base,
Butler, Hud. ii. 1. 40. The orig. sense was (probably) a crossbow-bolt,
only fit for shooting at a dog; see NED.
=dog-leach,= a dog-doctor; a term of reproach. Fletcher, Mad Lover, iii.
2 (Memnon).
=doily,= the name of a cheap stuff. Dryden, Kind Keeper, iv. 1; ‘doily
stuff’, Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, iv. 4 (Lady Fanciful). See Dict.
=dole,= portion in life; ‘Happy man be his dole’ (i.e. may happiness be
his portion), Merry Wives, iii. 4. 68; Butler, Hud., pt. i, c. 3. 638.
=dole, dool,= grief, mourning, lamentation. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb.,
155; F. Q. iv. 8. 3. Spelt _dewle_, Sackville, Induction, st. 14. In
prov. use in Scotland and the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Dole,
sb.^{2}). OF. _dol_, _deul_, sorrow; see Bartsch (s.v. Duel). See
=duill.=
=dole= (landmark); see =dool.=
=dolent,= a sorrowing one, a sufferer. Calisto and Melibaea, in
Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 82. L. _dolens_, grieving.
=doly,= doleful, sad; ‘In doly season’, Wounds of Civil War, in
Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 170; ‘This dolye chaunce’, Stanyhurst, tr. of
Aeneid, bk. ii (ed. Arber, p. 57). See =dole= (grief).
=domineer,= to revel, feast; to live like a lord. Tam. Shrew, iii. 2.
226; B. Jonson, Every Man, ii. 1. 76 (Downright).
=dommerar, dummerer,= a begging vagabond who feigns to be dumb.
Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1. 9. See Harman, Caveat, p. 57;
‘Dummerers, Abraham men’, Burton, Anat. Mel. (ed. 1896), i. 409.
=Dondego,= a Spaniard; short for ‘Don Diego’. Webster, Sir T. Wyatt
(Brett), ed. Dyce, p. 198. See =Diego.=
=done, donne,= to do. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 28; vi. 10. 32. ME. _doon_,
_don_, to do; _done_, _doon_, ger. (Chaucer). OE. _dōn_, to do.
=donny,= somewhat ‘dun’, or brownish. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 400. See
NED. (s.v. Dunny, adj.^{1}).
=donzel, donsel,= a squire, a page, youth. B. Jonson, Alchemist, iv. 4.
20; Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4 (Captain). Ital. _donzello_, ‘a
damosell, page, squire, serving-man’ (Florio). Med. L. _domicellus_,
_domnicellus_ (Ducange); dimin. of L. _dominus_, lord. See Dict. (s.v.
Damsel).
=dool, dole, dowle,= a boundary-mark; ‘With dowles and ditches’,
Golding, Metam. i. 136; fol. 3 (1603); ‘They pullid uppe the doolis’,
Paston Letters, i. 58. Low G. _dōle_, _dōl_, a boundary-mark (Koolman).
‘Dool’ is in common prov. use in this sense in the north country, see
EDD. (s.v. Dool, sb.^{2} 1).
=dool;= see =dole= (grief).
=door:= phr. _to keep the door_, to be a pandar. Middleton, A Fair
Quarrel, iv. 4 (Trimtram). _Door-keeper_, a bawd; id., The Black Book,
ed. Dyce, vol. iv, p. 525.
=dop,= a dip, duck, low bow. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Crites);
to dip, duck, dive, bob; Dryden, Epilogue to the Unhappy Favourite, 2.
=dop,= to baptize. God’s Promises, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 318. Du.
_doopen_, to dip, baptize (Sewel).
=dopper, doper,= a (Dutch) Anabaptist; ‘This is a _dopper_ (old ed.
_doper_), a she Anabaptist’, B. Jonson, Staple of News, iii. 1
(Register); News from the New World (Factor). Du. _dooper_, a dipper,
baptizer (Sewel).
=dor,= scoff, mockery. Phr. _to give the dor_, to make game of, B.
Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2; _to receive the dor_, to be marked,
Beaumont and Fl., Lover’s Progress, i. 1. 29. Icel. _dār_, scoff.
=dor,= to make game of, Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, iv. 1. 15.
Icel. _dāra_ to mock, make sport of.
=dorado,= name of a species of fish; ‘The _Dorado_, which the English
confound with the Dolphin, is much like a Salmon’, J. Davies, tr.
Mandelslo (ed. 1669, iii. 196); a wealthy person, ‘A troop of these
ignorant Doradoes’, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med., pt. ii, § 1. Span.
_dorado_, ‘a fish called a Dory, or Gilt head, an enemy to the Flying
Fish’ (Stevens); _dorar_, to gild; L. _deaurare_. See Stanford.
=dorp,= a village. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 238, 298; Dryden, Hind and
Panther, iii. 6. 11. Du. _dorp_, a village. See Dict. (s.v. Thorp).
=dorre,= applied to species of bees or flies; a bumble-bee; a drone-bee;
_fig._ a drone, a lazy idler; ‘Gentlemen which cannot be content to live
idle themselfes, lyke dorres’, Robynson, More’s Utopia (ed. Arber, 38).
OE. _dora_, ‘atticus’ (Epinal Gl., 119); cp. ‘Adticus, feld beo, dora’
in Cleopatra Glosses (Voc. 351. 22). See NED. (s.v. Dor, sb.^{1}).
=dorser;= see =dosser.=
=dortour,= a sleeping room, bedchamber. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 24. ME.
_dortour_ (Chaucer, C. T. D. 1855). Norm. F. _dortur_ (Moisy), OF.
_dortoir_, Monastic L. _dormitorium_ (Ducange).
=dosser,= a basket, pannier. Merry Devil, i. 3. 142; Jonson, Staple of
News, ii. [4.] (Almanac); spelt _dorser_, Beaumont and Fl.,
Night-Walker, i. 1 (Lurcher). An E. Anglian word for a pannier slung
over a horse’s back (EDD). ME. _dosser_, a basket to carry on the back
(Chaucer, Hous F. 1940). F. _dossier_, ‘partie d’une hotte qui s’appuie
sur le dos de celui qui la porte’ (Hatzfeld).
=dotes,= endowments, good qualities. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, ii. 2
(Cler.); Underwoods, c. 25. L. _dotes_, pl. of _dos_, an endowment.
=dottrel, dotterel,= a pollarded tree; also used attrib.; ‘Old dotterel
trees’, Ascham, Scholemaster, bk. ii (ed. Arber, p. 137); ‘A long-set
dottrel’, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 465. ‘Dotterel’ is used in this
sense near Oxford, and in the south Midlands (EDD).
=double reader,= a lawyer who is going through a second course of
reading; ‘I am a bencher, and now double reader’, B. Jonson, Magnetic
Lady, iv. 1 (Practice); ‘Men came to be _single readers_ at 15 or 16
years standing in the House [Inn of Court] and _read double_ about 7
years afterwards’, Sir W. Dugdale, Orig. Jur., 209 (Glossary to Jonson).
=doubt,= i.e. _’doubt_, a shortened form of _redoubt_, a fortification.
Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xii. 286.
=doucepere,= an illustrious knight or paladin. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10.
31; orig. only used in the pl.: ME. _dozepers_ (_douzepers_), the twelve
peers or paladins of Charlemagne. Anglo-F. _li duze per_ (Ch. Rol.
3187). See NED. (s.v. Douzepers).
=dough;= see =dow.=
=dought,= to make afraid, Fletcher, Bonduca, i. 2 (Suctonius). See
=dout.=
=douse,= to strike violently; ‘To death with daggers _doust_’ (also
wrongly, _dounst_, in ed. 1587), Mirror for Magistrates, Henry VI, st.
4. In prov. use in the north country (EDD.).
=douse,= a sweetheart. Tusser, Husbandry, § 10. 7. F. _douce_, fem. of
_doux_, sweet; L. _dulcis_.
=dout,= fear; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 37. OF. _doute_, fear.
=dow,= to thrive; ‘He’ll never dow’ (i.e. he’ll never do well), Ray,
North C. Words, 13; spelt _dough_, to be in health, Heywood, The Fair
Maid, ii. 1 (Clem). ‘Dow’ is in prov. use in the north, meaning to
thrive, prosper, also, to recover from sickness (EDD.). ME. _dowe_, pr.
s. 1 p., am able to do (Wars Alex. 4058). OE. _dugan_, to be able, to be
vigorous (see Wright, OE. Gram. § 541).
=dowcets,= the testicles of a deer. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, iv. 2
(1 Woodman); B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., i. 6. In old cookery books _dowset_
was the name of a sweet dish. F. _doucet_, dimin. of _doux_, sweet. See
NED. (s.v. Doucet), and cp. =dulcet.=
=dowe,= ‘dough’. Lyly, Endimion, i. 2 (Tellus); ‘A lytell leven doth
leven the whole lompe of dowe’, Tyndale, Gal. v. 9.
=dowl=(=e,= soft fine feathers. Tempest, iii. 3. 65 (see W. A. Wright’s
note). In prov. use in the S. Midlands for down or fluff (EDD.). ME.
_doule_, a down-feather (Plowman’s Tale, st. 14). See Notes on Eng.
Etym.
=dowle,= see =dool.=
=dowsabell,= a sweetheart. A name, used as a term for a sweetheart. Com.
of Errors, iv. 1. 110; London Prodigal, iv. 2. 73. F. _douce-belle_, L.
_dulcibella_, sweet and fair.
=doxy,= a vagabond’s mistress. (Cant.) Winter’s Tale, iv. 2. 2;
Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Prigg). See Harman, Caveat, p. 73; where
the sing. form is _doxe_.
=drabler, drabbler,= an additional piece of canvas, laced to the bottom
of a bonnet of a sail. Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 1 (1328); p. 134,
col. 2; Heywood, Fortune by Land and Sea, iv. 1 (Y. Forrest); vol. vi,
p. 416. From _drabble_, to wet; from its position. Cp. E. Fris.
_drabbeln_, to stamp about in the water (Koolman). See EDD. (s.v.
Drabble).
=dragon,= the name of a stage in the fermentation for producing the
elixir. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly).
=drake,= a dragon. Peele, An Eclogue Gratulatory, ed. Dyce, p. 563.
‘_Drake_, dragon’, Levins, Manipulus. OE. _draca_, L. _draco_, Gk.
δράκων.
=drane,= a drone. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 2, § 3; Skelton,
Against the Scottes, 172. ME. _drane_, ‘fucus’ (Prompt.). The pronunc.
of drone in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall (EDD.). OE. _drān_ (_drǣn_).
=drapet,= a cloth, a covering. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 27. Cp. Ital.
_drappetto_, dimin. of _drappe_, cloth.
=drasty,= worthless, rubbishy; ‘Drasty sluttish geere’, Hall, Sat. v. 2.
49; ‘Drasty ballats’, Return from Parnassus, i. 2 (Judicioso). In
several places the _s_ has been misprinted as _f_; the error originated
with Thynne, who, in 1532, twice substituted _drafty_ for _drasty_ in
the Prologue to Melibeus: ‘Thy drasty spectre’ (C. T. B. 2113); ‘Thy
drasty ryming’ (id. 2120); see NED. OE. _dræstig_, ‘feculentus’ (Voc.
238. 20).
=draw-cut,= done by drawing _cuts_ or lots. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil,
Aeneid i, 515. See =cut= (1).
=drawer,= a waiter at a tavern. Merry Wives, ii. 2. 165; Romeo, iii. 1.
9. One who _draws_ liquor for guests.
=drawer-on,= an incitement to appetite. Massinger, Guardian, ii. 3
(Cario).
=drawlatch,= lit. one who lifts a latch; a sneaking thief. Jacob and
Esau, ii. 3 (Esau).
=dray,= a squirrel’s nest. Drayton, Quest of Cynthia, st. 51; [The
squirrel] ‘Gets to the wood, and hides him in his dray’, W. Browne,
Brit. Pastorals, bk. i, song 5. A prov. word in general use (EDD.).
=drazel,= a slattern, slut. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 987. The word is in use
in the south of England, in Sussex and Hampshire, see EDD. (s.v.
Drazil).
=dread,= an object of reverence or awe. Milton, Samson, 1473; ‘Una, his
deare dreed’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 2.
=drent,= drowned. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 49; v. 7. 39. ME. _dreint_
(_dreynt_), pp. of _drenchen_, to drown (Chaucer, Bk. Duchess, 148).
=drere,= grief, sorrow, gloom. Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 40; ii. 12. 36.
Hence, _drerihed_, sadness, id., Muiopotmos, 347; _dreriment_, Shep.
Kal., Nov., 36.
=dresser.= The signal for the servants to take in the dinner was the
cook’s knocking on the dresser, thence called the cook’s drum (Nares);
‘When the dresser, the cook’s drum, thunders’, Massinger, Unnat. Combat,
iii. 1 (Steward); ‘The dresser calls in (_Knock within, as at
dresser_)’, Heywood, Witches of Lancs., iii. 1 (Seely); vol. iv, p. 206;
‘Hark! they knock to the dresser’, Brome, Jovial Crew, iv. 1 (end).
=dretched,= _pp._, vexed or disturbed by dreams. Morte Arthur, leaf 402.
31; bk. xx, c. 5. OE. _dreccan_, to vex.
=dretchyng of swevens,= vexation by dreams. Morte Arthur, leaf
430*. 7; bk. xxi, c. 12.
=drib,= to let fall in drops or driblets, to dribble out. Dryden,
Prologue to The Loyal Brother, 22. Cp. prov. ‘drib’, a drop, a small
quantity of liquid (EDD.).
=dricksie,= decayed; as timber; ‘A drie and dricksie oak’, Puttenham,
Eng. Poesie, bk. iii, c. 19; p. 252. See _Droxy_ in EDD.; and _Drix_ in
NED.
=drink,= to smoke tobacco. Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1 (Laxton). A
common expression. See Nares.
=drivel,= a drudge, a servant doing menial work; ‘A Drudge, or driuell’,
Baret (1580); Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2, 3; ‘A dyshwasher, a dryvyll’,
Skelton, Against Garnesche, 26. Spelt _drevil_, Tusser, Husbandry, §
113. 12. ME. _drivil_, a drudge, a menial (see Prompt. EETS., note no.
588); cp. Du. _drevel_, ‘a scullion, or a turnspit’ (Hexham). See NED.
=droil,= a drudge, a menial. Beaumont and Fl., Wit at Several Weapons,
ii. 1. 19; Brome, New Acad. ii, p. 40 (Nares). See Prompt. EETS. (note
no. 588).
=droil,= to drudge. Spelt _droyle_, Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 157. Hence
_droil_, drudgery, Shirley, Gentlemen of Venice, i. 2.
=drollery,= a puppet-show; a puppet; a caricature. Tempest, iii. 3. 21;
Fletcher, Valentinian, ii. 2 (Claudia); Wildgoose Chase, i. 2. 21; 2
Hen. IV, ii. 1. 156. F. _drôlerie_, ‘waggery; a merry prank’; _dróle_,
‘a good fellow, boon companion, merry grig, pleasant wag; one that cares
not which end goes forward or how the world goes’ (Cotgr.).
=dromound,= a large ship, propelled by many oars. Morte Arthur, leaf 82,
back, 30; bk. v, c. 3 (end). Anglo-F. _dromund_ (Rough List), OF.
_dromon_, Med. L. _dromō_ (Ducange), Byzant. Gk. δρόμων, a large ship;
cogn. with Gk. δρόμος, a racing, a course.
=drone,= to smoke (a pipe); ‘Droning a tobacco-pipe’, B. Jonson, Sil.
Woman, iv. 1; Ev. Man out of Humour, iv. 3.
=dronel, dronet,= a drone; ‘That dronel’, Appius and Virginia, in
Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 151; ‘Like vnto dronets’, Stubbes, Anat. Abuses,
To Reader (ed. Furnivall, p. xi).
=dropshot:= phr. _at dropshot_; ‘I’ll do no more at dropshot’ (i.e. I’ll
do no more in the character of an eaves-dropper, or where one can be
_shot_ with _drops_), Beaumont and Fl., Mad Lover, iii. 6 (end).
=drossel,= a slattern, a slut. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ix, ch. 47,
st. 12. A north Yorkshire word (EDD.). See =drazel.=
=drouson;= ‘Boiling oatemeale . . . with barme or the dregges and hinder
ends of your beere barrels makes an excellent pottage . . . of great vse
in all the parts of the West Countrie . . . called by the name of
drouson potage’, Markham, Farewell, 133 (EDD.); ‘Drowsen broath’, London
Prodigal, ii. 1. 42. OE. _drōsna_, lees, dregs.
=droye,= a servant, a drudge. Spelt _droie_; Tusser, Husbandry, § 81. 3;
Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 78).
=droye,= to drudge, Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 664.
=druggerman,= a ‘dragoman’, interpreter. Dryden, Don Sebastian, ii. 1
(Emperor); [Pope, Donne’s Sat. iv. 83]. See Dict. (s.v. Dragoman); also
Stanford.
=drum:= phr. _Jack Drum’s entertainment_, ill-treatment, esp. by turning
a man out of doors, Heywood, ii. 2 (Sencer). _To sell by the drum_, to
sell by auction; in North’s Plutarch, Octavius, § 11 (in Shak. Plut., p.
255, n. 3); hence, _by the dromme_ (by the drum), in public, Warner,
Albion’s England, bk. ix, c. 53, st. 31.
=drumble,= to be sluggish, Merry Wives, iii. 3. 156; a sluggish, stupid
person, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 118. A dull,
inactive person is called a ‘drummil’ in Warwickshire. A person moving
lazily about is said to ‘drumble’ in Cornwall (EDD.). Norw. _drumla_, to
be drowsy; Swed. _drummel_, a blockhead.
=drumslade, dromslade,= a drum; ‘Dromslade, suche as Almayns use in
warre, _bedon_’, Palsgrave. Also spelt _drumslet_; Golding, Metam. xii.
481; fol. 149, bk. (1603). Du. _trommelslag_ (G. _trommelschlag_), the
beat of a drum.
=drumsler,= a drummer. Kyd, Soliman, ii. 1. 224, 241. A form corrupted
from _drumslager_, once in use to mean ‘drummer’. Du. _trommelslager_, a
drummer (Sewel). See above.
=dry-fat,= a cask, case, or box for holding dry things, not liquids; ‘A
dry-fat of new books’, Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, i. 2 (Brisae);
_dry-vat_, Dekker, Shoemakers’ H., v. 2 (Firk). See Dict. (s.v. Vat).
=dry-foot:= phr. _to draw_ or _hunt dry-foot_, to track game by the mere
scent of the foot. Com. Errors, iv. 2. 39; B. Jonson, Every Man, ii. 2
(Brainworm).
=Du cat-a whee,= God preserve you! Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the
Country, i. 2 (Rutilio); Monsieur Thomas, i. 2. 8; _Dugat a whee_,
Middleton, A Chaste Maid, i. 1 (Welshwoman). Welsh _Duw cadw chwi_, God
preserve you!
=dub,= a stroke, blow; _Lydian dubs_, soft taps, like soft Lydian music;
_Phrygian dubs_, hard blows, like loud Phrygian music. Butler, Hudibras,
ii. 1. 850.
=ducdame,= a word in the burden of a song. In As You Like It, ii. 5. 56.
Doubtless a coined word, and admirably defined by Shakespeare as ‘a
Greek invocation to call fools into a circle’; which I accept as it
stands.
=duce.= Used in interjectional and imprecatory phrases; ‘I wonder where
a duce the third is fled’, Roger Boyle, Guzman, i; ‘Who a duce are those
two fellows?’ id., ii; ‘Who a duce is here by our door?’ (Socia),
Echard, Plautus (ed. 1694, 13); Centlivre, Busie Body (ed. 1732, 41).
=duce= is the same word as _deuce_, an E. form of F. _deux_,
two. The orig. sense of ‘a duce’ was exclamatory, signifying,
‘Oh! ill-luck, the _deuce_!’—two being a losing throw at dice.
The form _duce_ came to us immediately from a Low G.
dialect—_dûs_, found in MHG.; cp. G. ‘was der Daus!’ (what the
deuce!). See Dict. (s.v. Deuce).
=dudder,= to tremble, quake, shake. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1
(Cuddy). ‘Dudder’ is a prov. word in various parts of Scotland and
England, see EDD. (s.v. Duther). See =dodder.=
=dudgeon,= the hilt of a dagger made of a kind of wood called dudgin
(dudgeon). Macbeth, ii. 1. 46. ME. _dojoun_, or masere (Prompt., ed.
Way, 436).
=dudgeon,= the same word as the one above, used attrib. in the sense of
plain, homely; since a _dudgeon_ was regarded as a common sort of haft;
‘I am plain and dudgeon’, Fletcher, Captain, ii. 1 (Jacomo); ‘I use old
dudgeon’, phrase, id., Queen of Corinth, ii. 4 (Conon).
=dudgeon-dagger,= a dagger with a hilt made of ‘dudgeon’. Beaumont and
Fl., Coxcomb, v. 1 (Curio); _dudgin dagger_, Kyd, Soliman, i. 3. 160.
Shortened to _dudgeon_, Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 379.
=Dugat a whee;= see =Du cat-a whee.=
=duill,= to grieve, sadden, make sorrowful; ‘It duills me’, B. Jonson,
Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maudlin). Cp. F. _deuil_, grief. See =dole.=
=duke,= a name for the castle or rook, at chess; ‘Dukes? They’re called
Rooks by some’, Middleton, A Game at Chess, Induct. 54; Women beware,
ii. 2 (Livia).
=Duke Humphrey, to dine with,= to go without dinner; ‘He may chaunce
dine with duke Homphrye tomorrow’, Sir Thos. More, iv. 2. 361. One who
had no prospect of a dinner would walk in St. Paul’s, under the pretence
of going to see Duke Humphrey’s monument there; on the chance that he
might meet there some acquaintance who would invite him. But Duke
Humphrey was actually buried at St. Albans (see Stowe’s Survey, ed.
Thoms, 125). Cp. Mayne, City Match, iii. 3 (Plotwell and Timothy). See
Nares.
=dulcet,= the dowcet of a stag. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 219. A
latinized form; see =dowcets.=
=dumbfounding,= a stupefying; said to mean a rough amusement in which
one person struck another hard and stealthily upon the back; ‘That witty
recreation, called dumbfounding’, Dryden, Prologue to the Prophetess,
47. See EDD. (s.v. Dumbfounder).
=dummerer;= see =dommerar.=
=dump,= a fit of abstraction or musing; ‘I dumpe, I fall in a dumpe or
musyng upon thynges’, Palsgrave; ‘Lethargic dump’, Butler, Hudibras, i.
2. 973; a fit of melancholy, ‘In doleful dump’, id., ii. 1. 85; a
plaintive melody or song, Two Gent. iii. 2. 85; used of a kind of dance,
‘The devil’s dump had been danced then’, Fletcher, Pilgrim, v. 4
(Roderigo).
=dunny,= somewhat ‘dun’, or dusky brown. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 400. A
north-country word (EDD.). See =donny.=
=Dun’s in the mire= (the horse is stuck in the mire), the name of a
rustic game in which the players had to extricate a wooden ‘dun’ (a
horse) from an imaginary slough. ‘Dun is in the mire’ became a
proverbial phrase, so in Chaucer, Manciple’s Prologue, 5. ‘Dun’s i’ th’
mire’, Fletcher, “Woman-hater, iv. 2 (Pandar). The game is alluded to in
Romeo, i. 4. 41. ‘If thou art Dun we’ll draw thee from the mire’, and in
Hudibras, iii. 3. 110, ‘Your trusty squire, Who has dragg’d your dunship
out o’ th’ mire’. See Brand’s Pop. Antiq. (under ‘Games’), and Gifford’s
Ben Jonson, vii. 283 (Nares).
=dun’s the mouse,= the mouse is brown. A jocose phrase of small meaning;
sometimes used after another has used the word _done_; Romeo, i. 4. 40;
London Prodigal, iv. 1. 16.
=Dunstable, plain= (a proverbial phrase), plain speaking. Witch of
Edmonton, i. 2 (Old Carter). Cp. the proverb, ‘As plain as Dunstable
highway’, Heywood’s Eng. Proverbs, 69, 136; ‘As plain as Dunstable
road’, Fuller, Worthies, i. 114 (NED.). See Nares.
=durance,= confinement. L. L. L. iii. 1. 135; 2 Hen. IV, v. 5. 37;
durableness, 1 Hen. IV, i. 2. 49. Cp. ‘As the tailor, that out of seven
yards stole one and a half of durance’, i.e. durable cloth, Three Ladies
of London, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 344.
=Durandell,= a trusty sword. Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 123. OF.
_Durendal_, the name of the sword of Roland (Ch. Rol. 926). See
=Durindana.=
=duret,= some kind of dance; ‘Galliards, durets, corantoes’, Beaumont,
Masque at Gray’s Inn, stage direction (near the end).
=duretta,= a coarse stuff of a durable quality. Mayne, City Match, i. 5
(Timothy). Also _duretto_ (NED.). Ital. _duretto_, ‘somewhat hard’
(Florio).
=Durindana,= the name of Orlando’s sword. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum.
iii. 1 (Bobadil); Beaumont and Fl., Lover’s Progress, iii. 3 (Malfort);
_Durindan_, Faithful Friends, ii. 3 (Calveskin). Ital. _Durindana_
(Ariosto); see Fanfani. The Italian name for _Durendal_, by which the
famous sword of Roland is known in the old French _Chansons de Geste_.
See Gautier’s note on ‘Durendal’ in his ‘Chanson de Roland’, l. 926, p.
90.
=dust,= to hurl, fling, cast with force. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi.
544; xxi. 377. See EDD.
=dust-point,= a boys’ game in which ‘points’ were laid in a heap of
dust, and thrown at with a stone; ‘Our boyes, laying their points in a
heape of dust, and throwing at them with a stone, call that play of
theirs Dust-point’, Cotgrave (s.v. _Darde_). Fletcher, Captain, iii. 3
(Clora); Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymph, vi. (Melanthus).
=Dutch widow,= a cant term for a prostitute. Middleton, A Trick to
Catch, iii. 3 (Drawer).
=dutt,= to dote; ‘Dutting Duttrell’ (i.e. doting dotterel), Edwards,
Damon and Pithias; altered to _doating dottrel_ in Hazlitt’s Dodsley,
iv. 68; but see Anc. Eng. Drama, i. 88, l. 1.
=dwine,= to pine away; ‘He . . . dwyned awaye’, Morte Arthur, leaf 429*,
back, 8; bk. xxi, c. 12; _dwynd_, withered, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid,
ii. 567 (ed. Arber, p. 61). In common prov. use in Scotland and the
north of England (EDD.). ME. _dwynyn awey_, ‘evanesco’ (Prompt.). OE.
_dwīnan_.
=dybell,= (probably) trouble, difficulty; ‘My son’s in Dybell here, in
Caperdochy, i’ tha gaol’, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 72. Perhaps the
same word as ‘dibles’ (or daibles), an E. Anglian word for difficulties,
embarrassments (EDD.).
E
=e-,= prefix, for the more usual _y-_ (AS. _ge-_), prefixed to past
participles. Exx. _emixt_, mixed, Mirror for Mag., Bladud, st. 9;
_etride_, tried, id., Sabrine, st. 26.
=eager,= keen, sharp, severe. Hamlet, i. 4. 2; Chapman, tr. of Iliad,
xi. 231.
=eagre,= a ‘bore’ in a river; an incoming tidal wave of unusual height.
Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis, 132; spelt _agar_, Lyly, Galathea, i. 1
(Tyterus). In prov. use in many forms: _aiger_, _ager_, _eager_,
_eygre_, _hygre_, &c., in Yorks., Nottingham, Lincoln, and E. Anglia
(EDD.). See =higre.=
=eame;= see =eme.=
=ean.= Of ewes: to lamb, bring forth young, to ‘yean’, 3 Hen. VI, ii. 5.
36. Hence, _Eaning-time_, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Robin). ‘To
ean’ is in prov. use in various spellings in many parts of England from
the north country to Devon (EDD.). ME. _enyn_, ‘feto’ (Prompt. EETS.
150); OE. _ēanian_, to yean. See Brugmann, § 671.
=ear,= to plough. BIBLE, Deut. xxi. 4; 1 Sam. viii. 12; Is. xxx. 24. In
prov. use (EDD.). ME. _ere_ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 886), OE. _erian_. See
Wright’s Bible Word-Book.
=earn, erne,= to grieve, to be afflicted with poignant sorrow and
compassion. Hen. V, ii. 3. 3 (mod. edd. _yearn_); Julius C., ii. 2. 129;
_it earns me_, Hen. V, iv. 3. 26; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iv. 6
(Overdo); _earne_, to yearn, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 3; i. 6. 25; i. 9. 18;
_erne_, ii. 3. 46. ME. _ȝernen_, to yearn (P. Plowman), OE. _geornan_;
see Dict. M. and S., p. 267.
=earth,= a ploughing. Tusser, Husbandry, § 35. 50. In prov. use in
Suffolk, Hants., Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Earth, sb.^{2}). OE. _erð_ for
WS. _ierđ_, a ploughing (Sweet), deriv. of _erian_, to plough, ‘to ear’;
not the same word as OE. _eorðe_, earth.
=easing,= the eaves of the thatch of a house; ‘Under the easing of the
house’, North, tr. of Plutarch, J. Caesar, § 16 (end); ‘_Severonde_, the
eave, eaving or easing of a house’, Cotgrave. In gen. prov. use in
various spellings, in Scotland and Ireland, and in England, in the north
and Midlands to Shropsh. (EDD.). ME. _esynge_, ‘tectum’ (Cath. Angl.).
See =evesing.=
=eater,= a servant. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iii. 2 (Morose).
=eath,= easy. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 40; Shep. Kal., Sept., 17; spelt
_ethe_, id., July, 90. A north-country word, once much used in poetry
(EDD.). ME. _ethe_, easy (Cursor M. 597), OE. _ēaðe_, easy, _ēað_
(common in compounds).
=eathly,= easily. Peele, Order of the Garter, ed. Dyce, p. 587. Common
in Scottish poetry (EDD.).
=eaths,= easily. Kyd, Cornelia, iii. 1. 130. The _s_ has an adverbial
force.
=eccentric,= not concentric with; hence, disagreeing with. Bacon, Essay
23; an orbit not having the earth precisely in the centre (a contrivance
in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, for explaining the phenomena), id.
17.
=eche,= to ‘eke’, to make up a deficiency; ‘To eche it and to draw it
out in length’, Merch. Ven. iii. 2. 23 (Qq 3, 4, _eech_). Cp.
Northampton dialect, ‘My gown’s too short, I must eche it a bit’, see
EDD. (s.v. Eke, vb. 3). ME. _echen_, to increase (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr.
i. 887), OE. (Mercian) _ēcan_, WS. _īecan_, to increase.
=edder,= an adder. Morte Arthur, leaf 290. 11; bk. xi, c. 5; Skelton,
Philip Sparowe, 78. ME. _eddyr_, an adder (Prompt. EETS. 142).
=edder,= fence-wood, osiers or rods of hazel, used for interlacing the
stakes of a hedge at the top; ‘Edder and stake’, Tusser, Husbandry, §
33. 13; _eddered_, bound with edders, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 126. 7;
_edderynge_, id. In gen. prov. use in Scotland and England; for various
spellings see EDD.
=eddish, edish,= the aftermath or second crop of grass, clover, &c.;
‘Eddish, eadish, etch, ersh, the latter pasture or grass that comes
after mowing or reaping’, Worlidge, Dict. Rust. (A.D. 1681); Tusser,
Husbandry, § 18. 4; stubble, ‘Eddish . . . more properly the stubble or
gratten in cornfields’, Bp. Kennett (NED.). In gen. prov. use in England
(EDD.). OE. _edisc_, ‘pascua’ (Ps. xcix. 3).
=edge,= to urge, encourage, stimulate. Bacon, Essay 41, § 5. The
pronunc. of _egg_ (to incite) in use in various parts of England from
Lancash. to Cornwall (EDD.). ME. _eggen_, to incite (Chaucer, Rom. Rose,
182), Icel. _eggja_.
=edify,= to build; ‘There was an holy chappell edifyde’, Spenser, F. Q.
i. 1. 34; Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 660. F. _edifier_, to edifie, build
(Cotgr.), L. _aedificare_.
=effaut,= for _F fa ut_, the full name of the musical note _F_, which
was sung to _fa_ or to _ut_ according as it occurred in one or other of
the hexachords (imperfect scales) to which it belonged (NED.).
Buckingham, The Rehearsal, ii. 5 (Bayes). The first hexachord contained
G (the lowest note), A, B, C, D, E (but not F); the second contained C,
D, E, F, G, A, sung to _ut_, _re_, _mi_, _fa_, _sol_, _la_, F being sung
to _fa_; the third began with F, sung to _ut_; so that F was sung to
_fa_ or _ut_, and was called F _fa ut_.
=efficace,= effectiveness, efficacy. Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 602. F.
_efficace_, efficacy (Cotgr.), L. _efficacia_ (Pliny).
=efficient,= creative or productive cause. Sir T. Browne, Rel. Medici,
pt. 1, § 14; id., Vulgar Errors, bk. vii, c. 4, § 2.
=egal,= equal. Merch. Ven. iii. 4. 13 (F.); _egally_, equally, Richard
III, iii. 7. 213; _egalness_, equality, Ferrex and Porrex, i. 2
(Philander). F. _égal_.
=eggs:= phr. _to have eggs on the spit_, to be busy; with reference to
the old mode of roasting eggs; ‘I have eggs on the spit’, B. Jonson, Ev.
Man in Hum. iii. 6. 47; see Wheatley’s note.
=eggs:= phr. _to take eggs for money_, to accept an offer which one
would rather refuse. Winter’s Tale, i. 2. 161. (Fully explained by me in
Phil. Soc. Trans., 1903, p. 146). Farmers’ daughters would go to market,
taking with them a basket of eggs. If one bought something worth
(suppose) 3_s._ 4_d._, she would pay the 3_s._ and say—‘will you take
eggs for money?’ If the shopman weakly consented, he received the value
of the 4_d._ in eggs; usually (16th cent.) at the rate of 4 or 5 a
penny. But the strong-minded shopman would refuse. Eggs were even used
to pay interest for money. Thus Rowley has: ‘By Easter next you should
have the principal, and eggs for the use [interest], indeed, sir.
_Bloodhound._ Oh rogue, rogue, I shall have eggs for my money! I must
hang myself’, A Match at Midnight, v. 1. See Nares (s.v. Eggs for
Money).
=eisel,= vinegar; ‘I will drink potions of eisel’, Sh. Sonnets, cxi;
spelt _eysel_. Skelton, Now Synge We, 40. ME. _esyle_, ‘acetum’ (Prompt.
EETS. 147, see note no. 661); _aysel_ (Hampole, Ps. lxviii. 26). OF.
_aisil_, vinegar (Oxford Ps. lxviii. 26).
=ejaculation,= a darting forth. Bacon, Essay 9, § 1.
=E-la,= the highest note in the old musical scale, sung to the syllable
_la_ in the old gamut; which began with G (_ut_) on the lowest line of
the base clef, and ended with E in the highest space of the treble clef.
Whoever sang a higher note than this was said to sing ‘above E-_la_’.
Hence anything extreme was said ‘to be above E-_la_’. ‘Why, this is
above E-_la_!’ Beaumont and Fl., Humorous Lieutenant, iv. 4 (Leontius;
near the end). N.B. The old gamut was really founded on hexachords or
major sixths; each hexachord contained six notes and comprised four full
tones and a semitone, the semitone being in the middle, between the
third and fourth note. The hexachords began (in ascending succession)
upon the lower G, C, F, G (above F), C (still higher), F (above the last
C), and G (above the last F). There were twenty notes in all; viz. G A B
C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E; and each of the hexachords was sung
to the same syllables, _ut_, _re_, _mi_, _fa_, _sol_, _la_. The highest
hexachord contained the G A B C D E at the top of the scale; and as E
was thus sung to _la_, it was called E-_la_. It had no other name,
because it only occurred in the highest hexachord. In hexachords
beginning with F the B was flat.
=eld,= to ail; ‘What thing eldeth thee?’ Thersites, in Hazlitt’s
Dodsley, i. 414. Cp. _aild_, prov. pronunc. of _ail_ (vb.): ‘He’s allus
aildin’ (Worcestersh.); _aildy_, ailing, poorly, ‘I be very aildy
to-day’ (Northampton); so in Beds., _teste_ J. W. Burgon, see EDD. (s.v.
Ail and Aildy). In Shropsh. they say _elded_ for _ailed_.
=elder,= an elder-tree. It was an old belief that Judas Iscariot hung
himself upon an elder. See L. L. L. v. 2. 610; B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of
Humour, iv. 4 (Carlo). See P. Plowman, C. ii. 64 (Notes, p. 31).
=elegant,= for =alicant,= q.v. A Cure for a Cuckold, iv. 1. 18.
=element,= the sky. Julius Caes. i. 3. 128; Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb.,
116; Milton, Comus, 299. In common prov. use in the west country. A
Somerset man describing a thunderstorm would say, ‘Th’ element was all
to a flicker’ (EDD.).
=elenche, elench,= a logical refutation, a syllogism in refutation of an
argument. Massinger, Emperor of the East, ii. 1 (Theodosius). Also, a
sophistical argument, a fallacy; Bacon, Adv. of Learning, bk. ii, § xiv.
5. L. _elenchus_, Gk. ἔλεγχος, cross-examination.
=elk,= the wild swan, or hooper. ‘The Elk’, in the margin of Golding’s
tr. of Ovid, Metam. xiv. 509; ‘In hard winters elks, a kind of wild
swan, are seen’, Sir T. Browne (Wks. ed. 1893, iii. 313); ‘_Swanne_,
some take thys to be the elke or wild swanne’, Huloet. See =ilke.=
=ellops,= a kind of serpent. Milton, P. L. x. 525. Gk. ἔλλοψ, ἔλοψ, lit.
‘mute’, an epithet of fish (so Prellwitz); name for a certain sea-fish,
probably the sword-fish or sturgeon, later, a serpent.
=embase,= to debase, lower. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 6. 20; Sonnet 82.
=embassade,= a mission as ambassador. 3 Hen. VI, iv. 3. 32; also,
quasi-adv., on an embassy, Spenser, Hymn in Honour of Beauty, 251. F.
_embassade_, an embassage; also an embassador accompanied with his
ordinary train (Cotgr.).
=embay,= to bathe, drench, wet, steep. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 27; ii. 12.
60. Metaph., to bathe (oneself in sunshine); Muiopotmos, 200; to
pervade, suffuse, F. Q. i. 9. 13.
=embayed, imbayed,= enclosed as in a bay; enveloped, engirt. Spelt
_imbayed_, enclosed; Capt. Smith, Works, ed. Arber, p. 333, l. 3;
_embayed_, engirt, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 230.
=embayle,= to enclose, encompass. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 27.
=embezzle,= to waste, squander; ‘His bills embezzled’, Dekker,
Shoemakers’ Holiday, i. 1 (Lincoln); Sir T. Browne, Hydriotaphia, c.
iii, § 7. See NED.
=emboss,= to ornament with bosses or studs, to decorate. Spenser, F. Q.
iv. 4. 15; Shep. Kal., Feb., 67.
=embost= (of a hunted animal). A stag was said to be _embossed_
(_embost_) when blown and fatigued with being chased—foaming, panting,
unable to hold out any longer; ‘The boar of Thessaly Was never so
emboss’d’, Ant. and Cl. iv. 11. 3; ‘The salvage beast embost in wearie
chace’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 22. Metaph., ‘Our feeble harts Embost
with bale’, i. 9. 29; Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, ii. 4. 7. ME.
_embose_, to plunge deeply into a wood or thicket (Chaucer, Dethe
Blaunche, 353). OF. _bos_ (_bois_), a wood. See =imbost.=
=embost,= encased, enclosed (as in armour); ‘A knight . . . in mighty
armes embost’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 3. 24.
=embowd,= arched over. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 19.
=embraid,= to upbraid, taunt, mock. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c.
7, § 2; Tusser, Husbandry, § 112, st. 7. Cp. ME. _breydyn_ or
_upbraydyn_, ‘Impropereo’ (Prompt. EETS. 64). OE. _bregdan_, to bring a
charge (B. T. Suppl.), Icel. _bregða_, to upbraid, blame.
=embrave,= to embellish, decorate. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 60.
=embrew,= to ‘imbrue’, cover with blood; ‘With wyde wounds embrewed’,
Spenser, F. Q. iii. 6. 17; Hymn of Love, 13.
=embrocata,= a thrust in fencing. Marston, Scourge of Villany, Sat. xi.
57. See =imbroccato.=
=eme,= uncle. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 47; spelt _eame_, Drayton, Pol.
xxii. 427. 848. A north-country word (EDD.). ME. _eme_, fadiris brodyr,
‘patruus’ (Prompt.), OE. _ēam_.
=emeril,= emery. Drayton, Pol. i. 53. F. _emeril_, emery (Cotgr.); OF.
_esmeril_; Ital. _smeriglio_, deriv. of Gk. σμύρις, emery-powder.
=emmarble,= to convert into marble. Spenser, Hymn to Love, 139.
=emmew,= or =enmew;= errors for =enew,= q.v.
=empair,= to harm, injure. Spenser, F. Q. v. 11. 48; to become less, to
be diminished, id., v. 4. 8. See Dict. (s.v. Impair).
=empale,= to surround, enclose. Sackville. Induction, st. 67.
=emparlance,= parley, talk. Spenser, F. Q. v. 4. 50. Cp. Norm. F.
_emparler_, ‘parler, entretenir’, also ‘entretien’ (Moisy), O. Prov.
_emparlat_, ‘éloquent’ (Levy).
=empeach,= to hinder. Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 34; ii. 7. 15; ‘I empesshe,
or let one of his purpose’, Palsgrave. F. _empescher_, ‘to hinder’
(Cotgr.); O. Prov. _empedegar_, ‘empêcher’ (Levy), Med. L. _impedicare_,
‘implicare’ (Ducange). See =impeach.=
=empery,= dominion, rank of an emperor. Titus And. i. 1. 201; Hen. V, i.
2. 226. Norm. F. _emperie_ (Moisy), L. _imperium_, empire.
=empesshement,= hindrance. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 131. 29. See
=impechement.=
=emprese,= ‘emprise’, enterprise, undertaking. Chapman, tr. of Iliad,
xi. 257. See NED. (s.v. Emprise).
=emprise,= an undertaking, an enterprise. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept.,
83; chivalric enterprise, martial prowess, Milton, P. L. xi. 642; ‘In
brave poursuit of chevalrous emprize’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 1. Norm. F.
_emprise_, ‘entreprise’ (Moisy).
=enaunter,= lest by chance. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 200; May, 78;
Sept., 161. ‘Anaunters’ is a north-country word, in the sense of ‘lest,
in case that’ (EDD.). ME. _enantyr_; _an aunter_, in case that (P.
Plowman, C. iv. 437); also, _an aventure_ (id., B. iii. 279), see Dict.
M. and S. (s.v. Aventure); Anglo-F. _en_ + _aventure_, chance (Gower).
=enbassement,= dread, terror, ‘abashment’. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf
159. 25; _enbaysshement_, lf. 91. 31. Cp. ME. _enbasshinge_,
bewilderment (Chaucer, Boethius 4, p. 1. 43).
=enbolned,= swollen, puffed up. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 207, l. 7 from
bottom. Cp. ME. _bolnyd_, swollen (Wyclif, 1 Cor. v. 2).
=enchase,= to set (a jewel) in gold or other setting; used _fig._
Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 23; to engrave figures on a surface, Shep. Kal.,
August, 27; to shut in, enclose, M. Hubberd’s Tale, 626; Chapman, tr.
Iliad, xii. 56; xix. 346.
=encheason,= occasion, reason. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 147. ME.
_encheson_, ‘occasio’ (Prompt. EETS. 312), Anglo-F. _enchesoun_,
occasion (Gower), Norm. F. _acheisun_, ‘raison, cause, motif’ (Moisy);
L. _occasio_.
=endlong,= from end to end of, through the length of; ‘Endlong many
yeeres and ages’, Holland, Livy, 921; right along, straight on, Dryden,
Palamon, iii. 691. In prov. use in the north country (EDD.). ME.
_endelong_, through the length of (Chaucer, C. T. F. 992).
=endosse,= to inscribe. Spenser, F. Q. v. 11. 53; Colin Clout, 634;
Palsgrave. Anglo-F. _endosser_, to endorse (Rough List); to write on the
back of a document, deriv. of F. _dos_, L. _dorsum_, back.
=endue,= to endow; ‘God hath endued me with a good dowry’ (Vulg.
_Dotavit me Deus dote bona_), BIBLE, Gen. xxx. 20; spelt _endew_,
Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 51; ‘The King hath . . . endewed (the house) with
parkes orchardes’, Act 31 Hen. VIII, c. 5. See =indue.=
=endurance,= also written =indurance,= patience; ‘Past the endurance of
a block’, Much Ado, ii. 1. 248; imprisonment, durance, ‘I should have
tane some paines to have heard you Without endurance further’, Hen.
VIII, v. 1. 122 (the phrase is taken from Foxe’s account of Cranmer’s
trial); ‘The indurance of their Generall’, Knolles, Hist. Turks, 1256
(NED.).
=endure,= to indurate, harden. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 27. Norm. F.
_s’endurer_, to harden oneself (Moisy).
=eneled,= anointed, as one who has received extreme unction. Morte
Arthur, leaf 429*, back, 25; bk. xxi, c. 12; Caxton, Golden Legend, 337,
see NED. (s.v. Anele).
=enew= (t. t. in hawking), to drive a fowl into the water; ‘Let her enew
the fowl so long till she bring it to the plunge’, Markham, Countr.
Content. (ed. 1668, i. 5. 32); ‘Follies doth enew (misprinted _emmew_,
Ff.) As Falcon doth the Fowle’, Meas. for M. iii. 1. 91. Spelt _ineawe_,
to plunge into the water, Drayton, Pol. xx. 284. Anglo-F. _eneauer_, to
wet (Gower), Norm. F. _ewe_ (F. _eau_), water. See =inmew.=
=enewed;= see =ennewe.=
=enfeloned,= made fell or fierce. Spenser, F. Q. v. 8. 48.
=enfired,= kindled, set on fire. Spenser, Hymn to Love, 169.
=enform,= to mould, fashion. Spenser, F. Q. v. 6. 3.
=enfouldred,= hurled out like thunder and lightning. Spenser, F. Q. i.
11. 40. OF. _fouldre_ (F. _foudre_), Romanic type _folgere_, L.
_fulgur_, a thunderbolt.
=enfounder,= to drive in, to batter in. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 216,
back, 30; lf. 295, back, 25; to stumble, as a horse, to ‘founder’; ‘His
horse enfoundred under hym’, Berners, Arth., 87 (NED.). F. _enfondrer_
(un harnois), to make a great dint in an armour; also, to plunge into
the bottom of a puddle or mire (Cotgr.).
=enginous,= ingenious. Hero and Leander, iii. 312; Chapman, tr. of
Odyssey, i. 452. Cp. Scot, _engine_ (_ingine_), intellect, mental
capacity (EDD.). F. _engin_, understanding reach of wit (Cotgr.). L.
_ingenium_, natural capacity. See =ingine.=
=engle;= see =ingle.=
=englin,= the name of a Welsh metre. Drayton, Pol. iv. 181. W. _englyn_.
The Note has: _Englyns_ are couplets interchanged of sixteen and
fourteen feet.
=engore,= to ‘gore’, wound deeply. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 42.
=engraile,= to give a serrated appearance to; ‘I (the river Wear) indent
the earth, and then I it engraile With many a turn’, Drayton, Pol. xxix.
380; _engrail’d_, variegated, ‘A caldron new engrail’d with twenty
hues’, Chapman, tr. Iliad, xxiii. 761.
=engrain,= to dye ‘in grain’, or of a fast colour. Spenser, Shep. Kal.,
Feb., 131. See Dict. (s.v. Grain).
=engrave,= to bury. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 42; ii. 1. 60.
=enhalse,= to greet, salute. Mirror for Mag., Rivers, st. 58. See
=halse.=
=ennewe,= to tint, shade; ‘With rose-colour ennewed’, Calisto and
Meliba, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 62; ‘The one shylde was enewed with
whyte’, Morte Arthur, leaf 55. back, 24; bk. iii, ch. 9 (end). Perhaps
fr. F. _nuer_, to shade, tint (Godefroy), see NED.
=enow,= pl. form of ‘enough’; ‘Foes enow’, Milton, P. L. ii. 504;
‘Christians enow’, Merch. Ven. iii. 5. 24; ‘French quarrels enow’, Hen.
V, iv. 1. 222. ME. _ynowe_: ‘Wommen y-nowe’ (Chaucer, Parl. Foules,
233), OE. _genōge_, pl. of _genōg_, enough.
=enpesshe,= to hinder. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 238. 6; 329. 19. See
=empeach.=
=enrace,= to introduce into a race of living beings. Spenser, F. Q. iii.
5. 52; vi. 10. 25; Hymn of Beauty, 114.
=ens,= being, entity. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, Induct. (Asper).
Med. L. (in philosophy) _ens_, entity, a neuter pres. pt. formed fr. L.
_esse_, to be.
=enseam,= to cleanse (a hawk) of superfluous fat; ‘_Ensemer_, to inseam,
unfatten’, Cotgrave; ‘Clene ensaymed’, Skelton, Ware the Hauke, 79. OF.
_esseimer_, ‘retirer le _saim_ (la graisse)’, see Moisy (s.v. Ensaimer),
deriv. of _saim_ fat, Med. L. _sagīmen_, ‘adeps’ (Ducange).
=enseam,= to contain together, include. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 11. 35; to
introduce to company, Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, i. 1 (Monsieur). See NED.
(s.v. Enseam, vb.^{4}).
=enseamed,= marked with grease; ‘In the ranke sweat of an enseamed bed’,
Hamlet, iii. 4. 92. F. _enseimer_ (now _ensimer_), to grease (Hatzfeld).
[Schmidt connects this word with ‘enseam’, to cleanse a hawk; see
above.]
=enseignement,= teaching, showing. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 2,
§ last. F. _enseignement_ (Cotgr.).
=ensigns,= insignia, marks of honour. Bacon, Essay 29, § 12.
=ensnarl,= to entangle. Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 9. A north Yorks. word
(EDD.). ME. _snarlyn_, ‘illaqueo’ (Prompt. EETS. 460).
=entail, entayl,= to carve, cut into. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 27; ii. 6.
29; _entayle_, ornamental work cut on gold, id., ii. 7. 4.
=enterdeal,= negotiation. Spenser, F. Q. v. 8. 21; Mother Hubberd’s
Tale, 785.
=entermete,= to concern oneself, occupy oneself, meddle with. Caxton,
Hist. Troye, leaf 154, back, 13. ME. _entremeten_, refl. to meddle with
(Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 1026). Anglo-F. _s’entremettre_, to occupy
oneself (Gower).
=enterprize,= to receive, entertain as a host. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 14;
In this sense peculiar to Spenser.
=entertain,= to take into one’s service; Gent. Ver. ii. 4. 105; Richard
III, i. 2. 258; to keep in one’s service, Fuller, Pisgah, iii. 2; to
give reception to, Com. Errors, iii. 1. 120; the reception of a guest,
Spenser, Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 1085; F. Q. v. 9. 37; Pericles, i. 1.
119.
=entertake,= to receive, entertain. Only in Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 35.
=entire.= Used of friends _wholly_ devoted to one another; ‘My most
sincere and entire friend’, Coryat, Crudities, Ep. Ded.; ‘Your entire
loving brother’, Bacon, Essays, Ep. Ded. [cp. F. _ami entier_]. From the
notion of intimacy was developed the sense: inward, internal, ‘Their
hearts and parts entire’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 23 and 48; iii. 1. 47;
iii. 7. 16.
=entradas,= receipts, revenues. Massinger, Guardian, v. 4 (Severino).
Span. _entrada_, revenue.
=entraile,= to twist, entwine, interlace. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 27; iii.
6. 44; Shep. Kal., Aug. 30; Prothalamion, 25; a coil, F. Q. i. 1. 16.
Cp. F. _traille_ (_treille_), lattice-work (Cotgr.).
=entreat,= to treat, use. Richard II, iii. 1. 37; Fletcher, Rule a Wife,
iii. 4 (Perez); Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 7; ‘He entreated Abram well’,
BIBLE, Gen. xii. 16; ‘Despytfully entreated’, Tyndale, Luke xviii. 32.
OF. _entraiter_, to treat, use (Godefroy).
=entreglancing,= interchange of glances. Gascoigne, Flowers, ed.
Hazlitt, i. 46.
=entries,= places through which deer have recently passed. B. Jonson,
Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (John).
=entwite,= to rebuke, reproach, reprove, to ‘twit’. Udall, tr. of
Apoph., Augustus, § 1; Roister Doister, ii. 3 (song); p. 36. Altered
form of ME. _atwiten_, to reproach, twit, OE. _æt-witan_.
=enure,= to put into operation, to ‘inure’, carry out, practise.
Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 29; v. 9. 39.
=envy,= to feel a grudge against; to begrudge; to treat grudgingly; to
have grudging feelings. Milton, P. L. iv. 317; King John, iii. 4. 73;
Peele, Tale of Troy, ed. Dyce, p. 551. The stress is often on the latter
syllable.
=envy,= to injure, disgrace, calumniate. Fletcher, Pilgrim, ii. 1
(Juletta); Shirley, Traitor, iii. 3 (Duke).
=envỳ,= to emulate, ‘vie’ with. Spenser, F. Q. i. 2. 17; iii. 1. 13. F.
_envier_ (au jeu), to vie (Cotgr.), L. _invitare_, to invite, challenge.
=ephemerides,= properly, tables showing the positions of the heavenly
bodies (or some of them) for every day of a period, esp. at noon. But
used vaguely for an almanac or calendar that noted some of these things.
B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 4 (Surly); Bp. Hall, Sat. ii. 7. 6; Bacon, Adv.
of Learning, i. 1, § 3. Gk. ἐφημερίς, a diary.
=Ephesian,= a boon companion. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 164. A cant term; used
like ‘Corinthian’ in 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 13.
=epiky,= reasonableness, equity; ‘Such an epiky and moderacion’,
Latimer, 5 Sermon bef. King (ed. Arber, p. 143). Gk. ἐπιείκεια,
reasonableness; from ἐπιείκής, fitting, equitable.
=epiphoneme,= an exclamatory sentence, used to sum up a discourse.
Puttenham, Art of Eng. Poesie, bk. ii, c. 12 (ed. Arber, p. 125);
Heywood, Dialogue 2 (Mary), vol. vi, p. 123. Gk. ἐπιφώνημα.
=epitasis,= the part of a play wherein the plot thickens. B. Jonson, Ev.
Man out of Humour, iii. 2 (end). Gk. ἐπίτασις.
=epitrite,= in prosody, a foot consisting of three long syllables and a
short one. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (P. Can.). Gk. ἐπίτριτος.
=equal=(=l,= fair, equitable, just, impartial. BIBLE, 1539, Psalm xvii.
2; Fletcher, Span. Curate, iii. 3 (Bartolus); iv. 4. 15; _equally_,
justly, id., iv. 5 (Diego).
=equipage,= equipment; retinue. Sh., Sonnet 32; Spenser, Shep. Kal.,
Oct., 114. F. _equipage_, ‘equipage, good armour; store of necessaries;
_Equipage d’un navire_, her Marriners and Souldiers’ (Cotgr.). See NED.
(s.v. Equip). See =esquip.=
=erased,= in heraldry; said of an animal’s head, with a jagged edge
below, as if torn violently from the body. Also used humorously of an
ear, Butler, Hud. iii. 3. 214.
=eremite,= one dwelling in the desert; ‘This glorious eremite’, Milton,
P. R. i. 8 (used with allusion to the original meaning of the Greek
word). Eccles. Gk. ἐρημίτης, one who has retired into the desert from
religious motives, a hermit, deriv. of ἔρημος, wilderness (Matt. iii.
1).
=erie, ery,= every. Tusser, Husbandry, § 18. 17; § 57. 11. Also several
times in Turbervile’s Poems. A contracted form, like _e’er_ for _ever_.
=eringo, eryngo,= the candied root of the sea-holly, used as a
sweetmeat, and regarded as an aphrodisiac. Merry Wives, v. 5. 23. Ital.
_eringio_, sea-holly (Florio), L. _eryngion_, Gk. ἠρύγγιον, dimin. of
ἤρυγγος, sea-holly.
=erne,= an eagle. Golding, Metam. vi. 517; fol. 74 (1603). A Scottish
literary word (EDD.). OE. _earn_ (Matt. xxiv. 28).
=errant:= phr. _an errant knight_, a knight-errant. Spenser, F. Q. i. 4.
38; i. 10. 10. Anglo-F. _errer_, to travel, to march (Ch. Rol. 3340), O.
Prov. _edrar_ (_errar_), Med. L. _iterare_, ‘iter facere’ (Ducange).
=errant,= ‘arrant’. Chapman, Byron’s Tragedy, v. 1 (Byron); ‘Sir Kenelm
Digby was an errant mountebank’, Evelyn, Diary (Nov. 7, 1651). See NED.
(s.v. Errant, 7).
=errour,= wandering, roving. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 7.
=erst,= once upon a time, formerly. Hen. V, v. ii. 48; Ferrex and
Porrex, i. 2. 5; previously, Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 18. ME. _erst_
(Chaucer, C. T. A. 776), OE. _ǣrest_, superl. of _ǣr_, soon.
=esbatement,= amusement. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 160. 15; Sir T.
Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 3, § 10. Anglo-F. _esbatement_, diversion
(Gower). F. _esbatement_, ‘divertissement’ (Rabelais), OF. _esbatre_,
‘se divertir’ (Bartsch).
=escape,= a wilful error; a great fault. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p.
150); Othello, i. 3. 197.
=escot,= to pay a reckoning for, to maintain; ‘How are they escoted’,
Hamlet, ii. 2. 362. OF. _escoter_, ‘payer l’écot’ (Didot), Anglo-F.
_escot_, payment, reckoning at a tavern (Gower); _escot_ (payment)
occurs in the Statutes of the Realm, i. 221 (13th cent.), see Rough
List. See Ducange (s.v. Scot, Scottum). _Escot_ (payment) is the same
word as ‘scot’ or ‘shot’, in prov. use for payment of a tavern reckoning
(EDD.).
=escuage,= lit. shield-service; personal service in the field for 40
days in the year; later, a money payment in lieu of it, also called
‘scutage’. Bacon, Hen. VII, ed. Lumby, p. 148. Anglo-F. _escuage_, Med.
L. _scutagium_, deriv. of L. _scutum_, a shield (Ducange).
=escudero,= a squire. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, iv. 1 (Wit.). Span.
_escudéro_, an esquire, a servant that waits on a lady (Stevens), deriv.
of _escúdo_, a shield, L. _scutum_.
=esguard,= a tribunal existing among the Knights of St. John, to settle
differences between members of the order. Beaumont and Fl., Knight of
Malta, v. 2 (Valetta). OF. _esgard_, ‘tribunal des chevaliers de Malte’.
Med. L. _esgardium_: ‘De vassallo delinquente in Dominum, Dominus potest
de ce quod tenet ab ipso, ipsum per Exguardium dissaisire (Id est,
judicio parium suerum interveniente)’, quotation from Statutes
(Ducange). O. Prov. _esgart_, ‘regard, décision, jugement; condamnation
pécuniaire; égard, considération’; _esgardar_, ‘regarder, considérer;
décider, juger’ (Levy).
=esloin, esloyne,= to remove to a distance. Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 20. F.
_esloigner_ (Cotgr.).
=esmayed,= dismayed. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 308. 6; 329, back, 9.
Anglo-F. _s’esmaier_, to be dismayed (Gower).
=esmayle,= enamel. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. iii, c. 19; p. 242. F.
_esmail_ ‘enammel’ (Cotgr.).
=espial,= the action of espying or spying. Bp. Hall, Contempl. O. T.
xix. 9 (NED.); a company of spies, Elyot, Governour, iii. 6. 236;
_espials_, spies, Bacon, Essay, 48; 1 Hen. VI, iv. 3. 6; Hamlet, iii. 1.
32. See NED.
=esquip,= to equip. _Esquippe_, Baret, Alvearie; _esquipping_,
Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 577. F. _esquiper_ (_equiper_), to equip,
arm, store with necessary furniture (Cotgr.). See =equipage.=
=essoyne,= excuse, Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 20. ME. _essoyne_, excuse for
non-appearance in a law-court (Chaucer, C. T. I. 164). Anglo-F.
_essoigne_ (_essoyne_), excuse, a legal term (Rough List), see Ducange
(s.v. Sunnis). Med. L. _essoniare_, ‘excusationem proponere’ (Ducange),
of Teutonic origin, cp. Goth. _sunjôn_, ‘excusare’ (2 Cor. xii. 19).
=estate,= rank, dignity; ‘He poisons him in the garden for his estate’,
Hamlet, iii. 2. 273; Macbeth, i. 4. 37; _estates_, men of rank, nobles,
Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, i. 1 (Tarquin). F. _estat_, office, dignity,
rank, degree which a man hath (Cotgr.). See Bible Word-Book.
=estivation:= phr. _place of estivation_, a summer-house. Bacon, Essay
45, § 5. Deriv. of L. _aestivus_, pertaining to summer.
=estres,= apartments, dwellings, quarters; the inner rooms in a house,
divisions in a garden, &c.; spelt _estures_ [printed by Caxton
_eftures_]. Morte Arthur, leaf 392, back, 3; bk. xix, ch. 8. ME.
_estres_ (Chaucer), Anglo-F. _estre_, habitation, dwelling (Gower);
_estres_, inward parts of a house (Rough List); OF. _estre_, ‘domuncula,
aedificium’, see Ducange (s.v. _Estra_).
=estridge,= an ostrich, 1 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 98; Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 197;
spelt _estrich_, Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, ii. 2 (Incubo); Lyly,
Euphues (ed. Arber, 124). ME. _estrich_ (Voc. 585, 22). O. Prov.
_estrutz_, ‘autruche’ (Levy).
=eten, ettin,= a giant; ‘Giants and ettins’, Beaumont and Fl., Knight of
the B. Pestle, i. 2 (_or_ 3) (Wife). ME. _ȝeten_ (Gen. and Ex. 545), OE.
_eoten_, a giant, cp. Icel. _jötunn_.
=Etesian,= (properly) the epithet of certain winds, blowing from the NE.
for about forty days annually in summer; ‘Etesian winds’, Holland, tr.
of Pliny, bk. xvi, c. 25 (end); ‘Etesian gales’, Dryden, Albion, Act i
(Iris). L. _etesius_; Gk. ἐτήσιος, annual, from ἔτος, year.
=ethe;= see =eath.=
=eugh,= yew; ‘The Eugh, obedient to the bender’s will’, Spenser, F. Q.
i. 1. 9; Bacon, Essay 46. ME. _ew_ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2923), OE. _īw_.
=eure,= destiny, fate, luck. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 235, back, 8;
spelt _ure_, Skelton, Colin Clout, 1003; _to be ured_, to be invested
with, as by the decree of fate, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 6; _ewre_, to
render happy, Palsgrave. Hence _eurous_, _ewrous_, lucky, Caxton, Hist.
Troye, leaf 227. 30; lf. 228. 19. ME. _ure_, fate, good luck (Barbour’s
Bruce). OF. _eür_, ‘sort, bonheur’ (Bartsch), O. Prov. _aür_, _agur_,
destiny, Romanic type _agurium_, L. _augurium_, augury, omen. See =ure,
male-uryd, misured.=
=evelong,= oblong. Golding, Metam. viii. 551, fol. 101 (1603). ME.
_evelong_, ‘oblongus’ (Trevisa, tr. Higden, i. 405). Cp. Icel.
_aflangr_, oblong, Dan. _aflang_; L. _oblongus_.
=event,= to cool, by exposing to the air; ‘To event the heat’, Mirror
for Mag., Clyfford, st. 8; to find vent, ‘Whence that scalding sigh
evented’, B. Jonson, Case is Altered, v. 3 (Angelo). F. _esventer_, to
fan or winnow; _s’esventer_, to take vent or wind (Cotgr.).
=ever among,= continually, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec, 12.
=evertuate,= _reflex._, to endeavour. Howell, Foreign Travell, sect.
xvi, p. 72; ‘I have evirtuated myself’, Howell, Famil. Letters, vol. ii,
let. 61 (end). Anglo-F. _s’esvertuer_, to exert oneself, endeavour
(Gower).
=evesing,= the eaves of the thatch of a house; ‘A dropping evesing’,
Schole-house of Women, 912; in Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poetry, iv. 140. ME.
_evesynge_ (P. Plowman, C. xx. 193), deriv. of _evese_, the edge of the
roof of a building, the ‘eaves’, OE. _efes_ (Ps. ci. 8). See =easing.=
=evet,= an eft, a newt. Lyly, Euphues, p. 315. See EDD. for prov. forms.
OE. _efeta_. See =ewftes.=
=evicke,= a wild goat. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iv. 122 (rendering of αἲξ
ἄγριος). See NED. (s.v. Eveck).
=ewftes,= efts. Spenser, F. Q. v. 10. 23. See =evet.=
=exacuate,= to sharpen, whet, provoke. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, iii. 3
(Compass).
=Exaltation of the Holy Cross,= the Feast observed on Sept. 14.
Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 37. 16.
=exampless,= for _example-less_, without an example, unparalleled. B.
Jonson, Sejanus, ii. 4 (Silius).
=Excalibur,= the name of King Arthur’s sword. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum.
iii. 1 (Bobadil); ‘The try’d Excalibour’, Drayton, Pol. iv (Nares).
=excheat,= ‘escheat’, profit, lit. that which is fallen to one. Spenser,
F. Q. i. 5. 25; iii. 8. 16. Anglo-F. _eschete_, _eschaëte_ (Rough List),
Med. L. _escaeta_, deriv. from Romanic type _escadére_ (F. _echoir_),
Med. L. _excadere_, ‘jure haereditario obvenire; in aliquem cadere, ei
obvenire’ (Ducange).
=exercise,= an act of preaching, discourse; a discussion of a passage of
Scripture. Richard III, iii. 2. 112; iii. 7. 64; Middleton, Mayor of
Queenborough, v. 1 (Oliver).
=exhale,= to hale forth, drag out. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iii. 1
(Crispinus); cp. Hen. V, ii. 1. 66.
=exhibition,= allowance, fixed payment. King Lear, i. 2. 25; Othello, i.
3. 238; London Prodigal, i. 1. 10. Med. L. _exhibitio_, ‘praebitio’;
_exhibere_, ‘praebere alimenta et ad vitam necessaria’ (Ducange). See
Prompt. EETS. 161, and Rönsch, Vulgata, 312. Hence the term ‘exhibition’
in the University of Oxford for annual payments made by a College to
deserving students.
=exigent,= state of pressing need, emergency, decisive moment. Julius
Caesar, v. 1. 19; Ant. and Cl. iv. 12. 63; extremity, end, 1 Hen. VI,
ii. 5. 9; phr. _to take an exigent_, to come to an end, A Merry Knack to
know a Knave, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 546; _exigents_, straits,
Marlowe, Edw. II, ii. 5 (Warwick).
=exigent,= an urgent command; _a writ of exigent_ was one commanding the
sheriff to summon the defendant to appear, and to deliver himself up on
pain of outlawry. Butler, Hud. i. 1. 370; iii. 1. 1036. Anglo-F.
_exigende_, L. _exigenda_, from _exigere_, to exact. See Cowell,
Interpreter (s.v.).
=exoster,= a hanging-bridge, used by men besieging a city; ‘Exosters,
Sambukes, Catapults’, Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, c. 9. L. _exostra_, Gk.
ἐξώστρα, a bridge _thrust out_ from the besiegers’ tower against the
walls of the besieged place; deriv. of ὠθέειν, to thrust.
=expend,= to weigh, examine, consider. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii,
c. 9, § 1; c. 29, § 3. L. _expendere_, to weigh out.
=expert,= to experience. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 186.
=expire,= to breathe out. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 45; iv. 1. 54; to fulfil
a term, i. 7. 9; to fly forth from a cannon, Dryden, Annus Mirabilis,
st. 188.
=expiscate,= to ‘fish out’, i.e. to find out by inquiry. Chapman, tr. of
Iliad, x. 181. L. _expiscari_, to fish out; deriv. of _piscis_, a fish.
=explete,= to complete, to satisfy; ‘To explete the act’, Speed, Hist.
ix. 21, § 71; ‘Nothing under an Infinite can expleat the immortall minde
of man’, Fuller, Pisgah, iv. 7. 123. L. _explere_, to fill out.
=exploit,= success; ‘His ambassadours hadde made no better exployte’,
Berners, tr. Froissart, ii. 91. 272. ME. _espleit_, success (Gower, C.
A. V. 3924), Anglo-F. _exploit_, _espleit_, _esplait_, speed, success
(Rough List).
=exploit,= to accomplish, achieve; ‘I _exployt_, I applye or avaunce
myself to forther a busynesse’, Palsgrave; ‘They departed without
_exploytinge_ their message’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, ch. 26, §
8; ‘To exploit some warlike service’, Holland, tr. Ammianus (Nares).
=express,= to press out, squeeze out. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 11. 42.
=expulse,= to expel. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 5, § 5; Bacon,
Adv. of Learning, bk. ii, c. 17, § 9. L. _expulsare_, freq. of
_expellere_, to expel.
=extend= (a legal t. t.), to seize upon lands, in execution of a writ.
Massinger, New Way to Pay, v. 1 (Overreach); to seize upon land, Ant.
and Cl. i. 2. 105. See Cowell, Interpreter (s.v.).
=extent= (a legal t. t.); ‘A writ or commission to the Sheriff for the
valuing of lands or tenements; also, the Act of the Sheriff or other
Commissioner upon this writ’, Cowell, Interpreter; Butler, Hud. iii. 1.
1035; Massinger, City Madam, v. 2 (Luke); As You Like It, iii. 1. 17.
=extinct,= to extinguish. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 2 (end);
hence _extincted_, pp., Othello, ii. 1. 81.
=extirp,= to extirpate. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 25. L. _extirpare_,
_exstirpare_, deriv. of _stirps_, the stem of a tree.
=extort,= extorted. Spenser, F. Q. v. 2. 5; v. 10. 25.
=extraught,= extracted. 3 Hen. VI, ii. 2. 142. Cp. _distraught_ for
_distract_, _distracted_.
=extreate,= extraction, origin. Spenser, F. Q. v. 10. 1. ME. _estrete_,
extraction, origin (Gower, C. A. i. 1344), OF. _estraite_, birth, origin
(Assizes de Jer., ch. 134); see Bartsch (Glossary).
=extree,= axle-tree. Golding, Metam. ii. 297; fol. 19, back (1603). In
prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Ax, sb.^{1}), ME. _ex-tre_ (Prompt. EETS.
145).
=eyas,= a young hawk taken from the nest for the purpose of training;
_eyas hauke_, a young untrained hawk, Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 34;
_eyas-musket_ (used jocularly of a sprightly child), Merry Wives, iii.
3. 22; ‘An aerie of children little eyases’, Hamlet, ii. 2. 355. F.
_niais_ (Fauconnerie), ‘qui n’a pas encore quitté le nid’ (Hatzfeld), L.
_nidacem_, deriv. of _nidus_, a nest, cp. Ital. _nidiace_, ‘taken out of
the nest, a simpleton’ (Florio). See =niaise.=
=eye,= a brood; esp. of pheasants; ‘An Eye of Pheasaunts’, Spenser,
Shep. Kal., April, 118 (E. K. Gloss.); ‘An Eye of tame pheasants Or
partridges’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Prigg); Worlidge, Dict.
Rust. 252; Coles, Lat. Dict. (1677). In prov. use in various parts of
England, see EDD. (s.v. Eye, sb.^{2}); also in the form _nye_ (_nie_,
_ni_), see EDD. OF. _ni_, ‘nid’ (La Curne).
=eyre,= to ‘ear’, to plough. Drayton, Robert Duke of Normandy, st. 5.
See =earth.=
=eysel;= see =eisel.=
F
=faces about,= the same as ‘right-about face’, i.e. turn round the other
way. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum. iii. 1. 14; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of
the B. Pestle, v. 2 (Ralph); Scornful Lady, v. 2 (Y. Loveless).
=fackins.= The forms here given are distortions of _fay_ (faith),
frequent in trivial quasi-oaths. _By my fackins_, B. Jonson, Every Man,
i. 3; _By my feckins_, Heywood, 1 Edw. I, iii. 1; _By my facks_,
Middleton, Quiet Life, ii. 2; _By my feck_, Webster, Cure for Cuckold,
iv. 3. Cp. _I’ faikins_, in truth, verily, used in Scotland, Lakeland,
and Lancashire (EDD.). See =fay= (1).
=fact,= evil deed, crime. Meas. for M. iv. 2. 141; v. 439; Wint. Tale,
iii. 2. 86; Macb. iii. 6. 10; _in the fact_, in the act, 2 Hen. VI, ii.
1. 173.
=fadge,= to fit, suit, agree; ‘Let men avoid what fadgeth not with their
stomachs’, Robertson, Phras. 708; ‘How ill his shape with inward forme
doth fadge’, Marston, Scourge of Villanie, i. 1. 172; to succeed, to
turn out well, ‘How will this fadge?’, Twelfth Nt. ii. 2. 34; to get on
well, to thrive, ‘Let him that cannot fadge in one course fall to
another’, Cotgrave (s.v. Mouldre). In prov. use in various parts of
England, meaning to fit, suit; to make things fit; to succeed, thrive,
see EDD. (s.v. Fadge, vb.^{3}).
=fading,= the name of a dance; ‘Fading is a fine jig’, Beaumont and Fl.,
Knight B. Pestle, iv. 5 (end). ‘With a fading’ was the refrain of a
popular song of an indecent character, Winter’s Tale, iv. 4. 195.
=fagary,= a vagary, freak. Middleton, Roaring Girl, iv. 2 (Goshawk);
Lady Alimony, ii. 1 (1 Boy). See =fegary.=
=fagioli,= French beans. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Mercury).
Ital. _fagioli_, ‘french peason, kidney beanes’ (Florio), Late L.
_phaseolus_ (Pliny), earlier L. _phaselus_ (Virgil), Gk. φάσηλος, a
kidney-bean.
=fail, fayl,= to deceive. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 11; iii. 11. 46. F.
_faillir_, to deceive (Cotgr.).
=fain,= to rejoice. Spenser, F. Q. v. 12. 36. Hence _fayning_, gladsome,
wistful, Hymn of Love, 216. OE. _fægnian_, to rejoice.
=fair,= fairness, beauty. Greene, Looking Glasse, i. 1. 81 (Rasni);
Death of E. of Huntingdon, ii. 1 (Salisbury); iii. 4 (Leicester); in
Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 255, 282.
=fairy money,= money given by fairies, which turned to dry leaves if
talked about; ‘Such borrowed wealth, like Fairy-money . . . will be but
Leaves and Dust when it comes to use’, Locke, Human Und. I, iv. (NED.);
Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, v. 1 (Montague). See Davies.
=faitour,= an impostor, cheat, a lying vagabond. Spenser, Shep. Kal.,
May, 39; _faytor_, F. Q. i. 12. 35; 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 173. See Notes to
Piers Plowman, p. 166. The word means a sham, a maker-up of a character.
OF. _faitour_, _faiteör_, Romanic type _factitorem_.
=fa la,= a snatch of song; ‘The fiddle, and the _fa las_’, Fletcher,
Mons. Thomas, iv. 2 (Launcelot). From the notes in the upper part of the
gamut—_fa_-sol-_la_-si. Hence, _fa la la_, as a refrain of a song.
=fall,= the blast blown on a horn at the death of the deer. Gascoigne,
Art of Venerie, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 315. See =mort.=
=fall,= a collar falling flat round the neck. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1
(Surly); _falls_, pl., Middleton, Your Five Gallants, i. 1 (2 Fellow).
=fall,= autumn; ‘The hole yere is deuided into iiii. partes,
spring-time, somer, faule of the leafe, and winter’, Ascham, Toxophilus,
p. 48; Dryden, tr. Juvenal, Sat. x. In prov. use in various parts of
England, very common in America (EDD.).
=fall,= to let fall, Temp. ii. 1. 296; Richard III, v. 3. 135; to
happen, Mids. Night’s D. v. 1. 188.
=falling bands;= see =band.=
=false:= phr. _to false a blow_, to make a feint, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9.
46; ii. 5. 9. Cp. Cymbeline, ii. 3. 74.
=falser,= a deceiver. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec.; Epilogue, 6.
=falx,= a term in wrestling; a grip round the small of the back.
Drayton, Pol. i. 244; Carew, Cornwall, 76. F. _faux du corps_ (Sherwood,
s.v. Wast). See NED. (s.v. Faulx).
=famble,= hand. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen); Harman,
Caveat, p. 87. Icel. _fálma_, the hand; cp. Swed. _famle_, to grope;
cognate with OE. _folm_, a hand.
=famble,= a ring. (Cant.) Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, ii. 1 (Belfond
Senior). So called because worn on the hand. See above.
=famelic,= exciting hunger, appetizing. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iii. 1
(Busy). L. _famelicus_, hungry; from _fames_, hunger.
=Familist,= one of the sect called the Family of Love. Middleton,
Anything for a Quiet Life, ii. 1 (Knavesby). See Dyce’s introduction to
the Family of Love, by the same dramatist.
=fang,= to take, seize, seize upon. Timon, iv. 3. 23; spelt _vang_
(Southern), London Prodigal, iii. 3. 5; _fanged_, pp., Northward Ho, i.
2. 6. OE. _fōn_, to take; pp. _gefangen_.
=fanterie,= infantry; ‘Cavallery [cavalry] and Fanterie’, Holland, tr.
of Pliny, bk. vi, c. 20; vol. i, p. 128 g; _Fanteries_, foot-soldiers,
Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 152. OF. _fanterie_ (Roquefort); Ital.
‘_fantería_, infantry; _fante_, a boy, a foot soldier’ (Florio); short
for _infante_, an infant. Cp. ME. _faunt_, child (P. Plowman, B. xvi.
101), whence surname ‘Fauntleroy’.
=fap,= drunk. Merry Wives, i. 1. 183.
=farandine,= a kind of cloth, made partly of silk and partly of wool.
Spelt _farrendon_, Wycherley, Love in a Wood, iii. 1 (Lucy);
_ferrandine_, a gown of this material, id. v. 2 (Mrs. Joyner). Said to
be from F. _Ferrand_, the name of the inventor (_c._ 1630). See NED.
=farce,= to stuff, fill out; ‘Farce thy lean ribs’, B. Jonson, Ev. Man
out of Humour, v. 4 (Carlo); ‘The farced title’ (i.e. stuffed, tumid),
Hen. V, iv. 1. 280; ‘Wit larded with malice, and malice farced with
wit’, Tr. and Cr. v. 1. 64. See Dict. (s.v. Farce).
=farcion, farcyon,= the farcy, a disease in horses, akin to glanders.
Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 93. F. _farcin_; see Hatzfeld. See =fashions.=
=fardle,= to furl a sail. Golding, Metam. xi. 483; fol. 138 (1603). F.
_fardeler_, to truss or pack up (Cotgr.). See NED. (s.v. Fardel).
=fare,= course; track of a hare. Spenser, F. Q. v. 10. 16; Fletcher,
Faithful Shepherdess, iv. 2. 18. OE. _fær_, course; from _faran_, to go.
=far-fet,= fetched from afar. Milton, P. R. ii. 401. Things ‘far-fet’
were proverbially said to be good (or fit) for ladies; ‘Farre fet and
deere bought is good for Ladyes’, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 93). See The
Malcontent, v. 2 (Mendoza); B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, 1 Prologue; Cynthia’s
Revels, iv. 1 (Argurion).
=farlies,= strange things, wonders. Drayton, Pol. x. 170. ‘Ferlies’ (or
‘fairlies’) is in common use in Scotland for ‘sights, show things to be
seen, lions’, see EDD. (sv. Ferly, 4). ME. _ferly_, strange, wonderful;
also, a wonder (Barbour’s Bruce), OE. _fǣrlic_, sudden, unexpected.
=fashions,= or =fashion,= the ‘farcy’, a disease of the skin in horses,
Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 53; Dekker, O. Fortunatus, ii. 2 (Andelocia). See
=farcion.=
=fast and loose,= a cheating game with a leather strap, which is made up
in intricate folds and laid edgewise on a table; the novice thrusts a
skewer into it, thinking to hold it fast thereby, but the trickster
takes hold of both ends and draws it away. Fletcher, Loyal Subject, ii.
1 (Theodore); City Nightcap, iv. 1 (Dorothea).
=faste,= faced, having faces; ‘Some faste Like loathly toades’, Spenser,
F. Q. ii. 11. 12.
=fastidious,= distasteful, displeasing. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i,
c. 9, § 1; disdainful, B. Jonson, New Inn, Ode (at the end), l. 7.
=fatch,= a ‘vetch’; ‘A fatch for Love!’, Turbervile, The Penitent Lover,
last stanza; Udall, tr. of Apoph., Cicero, § 1 (note on the word
_Cicero_). See EDD. (s.v. Fatch).
=fault,= a misfortune. Pericles, iv. 2. 79; Massinger, Bondman, v. 1
(Leosthenes).
=faun,= for =fawn,= an act of fawning upon; a cringing. Phineas
Fletcher, An Apology for the Premises, st. 4; B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv.
4 (Tucca).
=fausen,= a kind of eel (?). Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xxi. 190. In Kent
_fazen-eel_ is in use for a large brown eel; see EDD. (s.v. Fazen).
=fautie,= ‘faulty’. Tusser, Husbandry, § 99. 2. The ordinary
pronunciation in Scotland, and many parts of England, see EDD. (s.v.
Faulty). F. _fautif_.
=fautor,= an adherent, partisan; spelt _faultor_, Mirror for Mag.,
Worcester, xx; a protector, patron, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, i. 441; xi.
325. F. _fauteur_, ‘a fauter, favourer, protector’ (Cotgr.); L.
_fautor_, a favourer, patron.
=fautress,= a patroness. Chapman, tr. Iliad, xxiii. 670.
=Favell,= a personification of flattery; ‘The fyrste was Favell, full of
flatery, Wyth fables false that well coude fayne a tale’, Skelton, Bowge
of Courte, 134; ‘Favell hath a goodly grace In eloquence’, Wyatt, The
Courtier’s Life (ed. Bell, 216). ME. _Fauel_: ‘Bothe Fals and Fauel and
fykeltonge Lyere’ (P. Plowman, C. iii. 6); see Notes, pp. 42, 43.
Hoccleve, in his De Regimine Principum (ed. Wright, pp. 106, 111), fully
describes _favelle_ or flattery, and says, ‘In wrong praising is all his
craft and arte’. See =curry-favell.=
=fawting,= favourable. Mirror for Mag., Irenglas, st. 21 (ed. 1575). See
=fautor.=
=fay,= faith. Spenser, F. Q. v. S. 19; phr. _by my fay_, by my faith,
Romeo, i. 5. 128. ME. _fey_, faith (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1126); Anglo-F.
_fei_ (F. _foi_). See =fackins.=
=fay,= to clear away filth, to clean out a ditch or pond. Burton, Anat.
Mel. i. 2. 4: Holland, tr. Livy, xxi. 37 (ed. 1609, 414); spelt _fie_,
Tusser, Husbandry, § 20. 21. In common prov. use in the north country
and in E. Anglia: in the former ‘fey’ is the usual form, in the latter
‘fie’, see EDD. (s.v. Fay, vb.^{1}). Icel. _fǣgja_, to cleanse, polish.
=fayles,= a variety of backgammon, played with three dice. B. Jonson,
Every Man in Hum. iii. 8. 104. Described in Gifford’s note; so called
because a particular throw caused the adversary _to fail_. See NED.
(where there is cited from Ludus Anglicorum (_c._ A.D. 1330) ‘Est et
alius ludus qui vocatur Faylys’). See Nares.
=feague,= to settle one’s business, to take one in hand, to dispose of.
Etherege, She Would if she Could, iii. 3 (Sir Oliver); also (Sir
Joslin’s Song); iv. 2 (Sir Oliver). Spelt _fegue_, Wycherley, Love in a
Wood, i. 1 (end). Cp. G. _fegen_, to sweep, to clean, to furbish; also,
to chastise, rebuke; Du. _vegen_. See NED.
=feague,= to whip. Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, v. 5 (Beaugard). Probably
the same word as above. See EDD. (s.v. Feag).
=feak,= a dangling curl of hair. Marston, Sat. i. 38. See NED.
=feants,= for _fiants_ or _fyaunts_; see =fiants.= Turbervile, Hunting,
c. 37; p. 98.
=fear,= an object of terror. Hamlet, iii. 3. 25; Milton, P. L. ix. 285;
to terrify, Tam. Shrew, i. 2. 221; 1 Hen. VI, v. 2. 2. ‘To fear’ is used
in this sense in Scotland and in various parts of England (EDD.).
=feat,= made, fashioned. Shirley, Witty Fair One, iii. 2 (Sir N.
Treadle); clever, dexterous, Cymb. v. 5. 88; graceful, ‘She speaks feat
English’, Fletcher, Night-walker, iii. 6; neat, becoming, Temp. ii. 1.
273; to make a person elegant, Cymb. i. 1. 49. ‘Feat’ is in gen. prov.
use in the sense of suitable, also, dexterous, adroit, smart (EDD.). F.
_fait_, made; _fait pour_, made for, suitable for.
=featuously,= elegantly, Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. iv, Ballad of
Dowsabel, 24; _feateously_, dexterously, nimbly, Spenser, Prothal. 27.
ME. _fetysly_, exquisitely; _fetys_, well-made, handsome, graceful
(Chaucer). OF. _fetis_, _feitis_; L. _facticius_.
=feature,= fashion, make, form. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 44; ‘The grim
Feature’ (used of Satan), Milton, P. L. x. 279.
=feaze;= see =feeze.=
=feeze.= The threat ‘I’ll feeze you’ seems to have given rise to the
sense. To ‘do for’, ‘settle the business of’, also, to beat, flog.
Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, i. 6 (Ricardo); _veeze_, Massinger, Emperor
East, iv. 2 (Countryman); _pheese_, Tam. Shrew, Induct, i. 1. ‘To fease’
is in prov. use in Scotland and in various parts of England—Midlands,
E. Anglia, and South Coast, in the sense of to drive away, to put to
flight (EDD.). OE. _fēsan_, to drive away; cp. Norw. dialect _föysa_
(Aasen).
=fegary, figary,= ‘vagary’, freak, whimsical trick. Spelt _figuary_,
Beaumont and Fl., Fair Maid of the Inn, ii. 2 (Clown); _fegary_,
Middleton, Span. Gipsy, i. 5 (Diego). See =fagary.=
=fegue;= see =feague.=
=felfare,= a field-fare. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, i. 1 (L.
Beaufort). So in Nottingham and Warwick (EDD.).
=fell,= a marsh, a fen. Drayton, Pol. iii. 113; see NED. (s.v. Fell,
sb.^{2} 2 b).
=fell,= gall, rancour. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 11. 2. L. _fel_, gall.
=fell’ff,= the ‘felloe’ of a wheel, part of the wheel-rim. Chapman, tr.
Iliad, iv. 525. A Yorks. pron. of ‘felloe’ (EDD.). OE. _felg_.
=fellowly,= companionable, sympathetic. Temp. v. 1. 64; _fellowlie_,
Tusser, Husbandry, § 10. 55.
=felly,= cruelly, fiercely. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 50.
=felness,= fierceness, spite, anger. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 37.
=feltred,= with wool matted close together; ‘Feltred ram’, Chapman, tr.
Iliad, iii. 219; ‘His felter’d locks’, Fairfax, Tasso, iv. 7. See EDD.
(s.v. Felter).
=feme, feeme,= a woman; ‘Take time therefore, thou foolish Feeme’,
Turbervile, On the divers Passions of his Love, st. 3 from end. OF.
_feme_ (F. _femme_).
=feminitee,= womanhood. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 6. 51.
=fennel,= supposed to be an emblem of flattery; ‘How this smells of
fennel’, B. Jonson, Case is Altered, i. 2 (Count F.). See Nares.
=fenny,= spoiled with damp, mouldy. Tusser, Husbandry, § 35. 44;
‘_Fenny_, mouldy as fenny cheese’, Worlidge, Ray’s English Words, 1691.
In prov. use (EDD.). OE. _fynig_. See =finewed.=
=fensive,= ‘defensive’, capable of defence. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid,
ii. 301; Warner, Albion’s England, bk. i, c. 4 (st. 4 from end).
=fere, feere,= a companion, mate, spouse. Titus Andron. iv. 1. 89. Often
spelt _pheer_, _pheere_, as in Spenser, Muse of Thestylis, 100. ME.
_fere_ (Chaucer). OE. _ge-fēra_, a companion.
=ferk;= See =firk= (2).
=ferle,= a ‘ferule’; a rod, sceptre; ‘The one of knight-hoode bare the
ferle’, Mirror for Mag., Mortimer, st. 9.
=ferme,= a lodging; ‘His sinfull sowle with desperate disdaine Out of
her fleshly ferme fled to the place of paine’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5.
23.
=ferrandine;= see =farandine.=
=ferrary,= farriery, the art of working in iron. Chapman, tr. of Iliad,
xiv. 141.
=ferrour,= ‘farrier’. Skelton (ed. Dyce, i. 24). OF. _ferrier_
(Godefroy).
=ferse,= the piece now known as the ‘queen’ in chess. Surrey, To the
Lady that scorned, 12, in Tottel’s Misc., p. 21; ‘_Fers_, The Queen at
Chess-play’, Bullokar. ME. _fers_ (Chaucer, Book Duch., 654). OF.
_fierce_, also, _fierge_ (Roman Rose), Med. L. _fercia_ (Ducange). Of
Persian origin, _ferzên_, prop. ‘wise man’, ‘counsellor’, cp. Arab,
_firzân_, queen in chess.
=ferula,= a flat wooden bat, used by schoolmasters for inflicting pats
on the palm of a boy’s hand. North, tr. of Plutarch, J. Caesar, § 41 (in
Shak. Plut., p. 96, n. 1); Englished as _ferule_, Hall, Satires, iv. 1.
169. L. _ferula_.
=fescue,= a little stick or pin, for pointing out the letters to
children learning to read. Hall, Satires, iv. 2. 100; Dryden, Prologue
to Cleomenes, 38. Hence, the gnomon of a dial; Puritan Widow, iv. 2. 84.
OF. _festu_ (F. _fétu_), a straw, O. Prov. _festuc_, for L. _festūca_, a
straw (cp. O. Prov. _festuga_).
=festinately,= hastily. L. L. L. iii. 1. 6. Deriv. of L. _festinus_,
hasty.
=fet,= _pt. t._ and _pp._ fetched; ‘David sent, and fet her to his
house’, BIBLE, 2 Sam. xi. 27, Acts xxviii. 13 (ed. 1611); ‘This
conclusion is far fet’, Jewel (Wks., ed. Parker Soc. i. 146); ‘Deep-fet
groans’, 2 Hen. VI, ii. 4. 33; B. Jonson, Silent Woman, Prol. ‘To fet’
is in gen. prov. use for ‘fetch’ in Lancashire and Midland counties
(EDD.) ME. _fette_, pt. s. of _fecchen_, and _fet_ pp. (Chaucer). OE.
_fette_, pt. s., and _fetod_, pp. of _fetian_, to fetch (B. T.).
=fetch,= a trick, stratagem. Tusser, Husbandry, § 64. 2; Hamlet, ii. 1.
38; King Lear, ii. 4. 90. In gen. prov. use in various parts of England,
see EDD. (s.v. Fetch, sb.^{2} 14).
=fetch in,= to seize upon, apprehend. Ant. and Cl. iv. 1. 14, Massinger,
Roman Actor, iv. 1 (Parthenius).
=fetuous,= well-formed, well-made. Herrick, The Temple, 68; _featous_
(NED.). See =featuously.=
=feutred,= featured, fashioned. J. Heywood, The Four Plays, Anc. Brit.
Drama, i. 19, col. 1; Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 376. The strange spelling
_feautered_ also occurs (NED.).
†=fewmand.= Only in B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Earnie): ‘They [a young
badger and a ferret] fewmand all the claithes’. ‘Fewmand’ belongs to the
imaginary dialect of the piece; it apparently means ‘to foul’, ‘to
soil’.
=fewmets,= the excrement of a deer. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., i. 2 (John);
Gascoigne, Art of Venerie, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 306; ‘_Fumées_, the dung or
excrements of Deer, called by woodmen, fewmets, or fewmishing’,
Cotgrave. Cp. F. _fumier_, dung, manure, cogn. w. L. _fimus_, dung,
excrement. See NED. (s.v. Fumet).
=fewterer,= a term of the chase, one who looks after the dogs in the
kennel, and lets them loose at the proper time. Beaumont and Fl., Tamer
Tamed, ii. 2; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 2. See =yeoman-fewterer.= ME.
_vewter_, a keeper of greyhounds (Bk. Curtasye 631, in Babee’s Bk., ed.
1868, p. 320). Anglo-F. _veutrier_, Med. L. _veltrarius_ (Ducange),
deriv. of Romanic type _veltrus_, a greyhound. Cp. O. Prov. _veltre_,
It. _veltro_, for older L. _vertragus_, a greyhound, a Gaulish word.
=feyster,= to fester, as a wound. Morte Arthur, leaf 394, back, 31; bk.
xix, c. 10.
=fiant, fiaunt,= a warrant. Spenser, Mother Hub. 1144. L. _fiant_, in
phr. _fiant literae patentes_, let letters patent be made out; used of a
warrant addressed to the Irish Chancery for a grant under the Great Seal
(NED.).
=fiants,= the excrements of certain animals, esp. of the fox or badger,
Turbervile, Hunting, c. 76, p. 216; _fyaunts_, id., c. 66, p. 184. F.
_fiente_, the excrement of certain animals (Cotgr.).
=fico,= a fig. Gascoigne, Herbes (Wks., ed. 1587, 153); as a type of
anything valueless or contemptible, ‘A fico for the phrase’, Merry
Wives, i. 3. 33. Ital. _fico_. See Stanford.
=fidge,= to keep in continual movement. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1
(Cokes); Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 4 (Hodge); ‘_Remuer_, to move, stir,
fidge’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in Scotland and in various parts of
England (EDD.).
=fie;= see =fay= (to clean).
=fig of Spain,= a contemptuous gesture, consisting in thrusting the
thumb between two of the closed fingers. Hen. V, iii. 6. 62; phr. _to
give the fig_, to insult thus, 2 Hen. IV, v. 3. 123. See Nares.
=figent,= fidgeting restless. Beaumont and Fl., Little French Lawyer,
iii. 2 (Vertaigne); Coxcomb, iv. 3 (Nan); Chapman and others, Eastward
Ho, iii. 2 (Quicksilver). Deriv. of =fidge.= See Nares.
=fig-frail,= a basket for holding figs. Middleton, Your Five Gallants,
iv. 5 (Bungler). See =frail.=
=figging-law,= the art of cutting purses and picking pockets. Dekker,
Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll). See NED.
=figgum,= (perhaps) a juggler’s trick. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, v. 5
(Sir P. E.).
=fights,= screens of cloth used during a naval engagement, to conceal
and protect a crew. Merry Wives, ii. 2. 142; ‘Bear my fights out
bravely’, Fletcher, Valentinian, ii. 2 (Claudia); Dryden, Amboyne, iii.
3 (Song); Heywood, Fair Maid of West, iv (Wks., ed. 1874, ii. 316);
Phillips, Dict. 1706.
=figo,= a fig. Hen. V, iii. 6. 60; iv. 1. 60. Span. _figo_; L. _ficus_.
See =fico.=
=filch,= a hooked staff, used by thieves. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1
(Higgen); also called a _filchman_, Awdeley, Vagabonds, p. 4.
=file,= the thread, course, or tenor of a story or argument. Spenser, F.
Q. vii. 6. 37. F. _fil_, a thread, L. _filum_.
=file,= to render foul, filthy, or dirty; ‘To file my hands in villain’s
blood’, Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage, iii (Scarborow); Macbeth,
iii. 1. 65. In prov. use in Scotland and the north of England (EDD.).
OE. _fȳlan_ (in compounds), deriv. of _fūl_, foul.
=filed,= polished with the ‘file’; neatly sculptured; also _fig._ of
literary work. Tale of Pygmalion, 4; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 131;
‘True-filed lines’, B. Jonson, Pref. Verses to Shakespeare (1623), 68.
=fill;= _fills_, pl., the ‘thills’ or shafts of a cart. Tr. and Cr. iii.
2. 48; hence _fill-horse_, a shaft-horse, Herrick, The Hock-cart, 21;
spelt _phil-horse_, Merch. Ven. ii. 2. 100. ‘Fill’ and ‘fill-horse’ are
both in prov. use (EDD.). See =thiller.=
=filograin,= ‘filigree’. Butler, On P. Nye’s Thanksgiving Beard, l. 13
from end. Ital. _filigrana_ (Fanfani). See Dict. (s.v. Filigree).
=fincture,= a feint, in fencing. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. xi.
54. Ital. _finctura_, _fintura_ (NED.); deriv. of L. _fingere_, to
feign.
=fine,= end. Much Ado, i. 1. 247; Hamlet, v. 1. 113.
=fineness,= ingenuity. Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 209; Massinger, Renegado, iv. 1
(Master).
=finewed,= musty, mouldy. Mirr. for Mag., Lord Hastings, st. 28; spelt
_fenowed_, ‘The Scripture . . . is a Panary of holesome foode against
fenowed traditions’, BIBLE, 1611, The Translators to the Reader;
_vinewed_, Baret, Alvearie (s.vv. Mouldie _and_ Hoarie); Tr. and Cr. ii.
1. 15 (in the Folios _whinid_). ‘Vinnewed’ (or ‘Vinnied’), mouldy, is in
common prov. use in the south-west of England, see EDD. (s.v. Vinny).
See =fenny.=
=fingle-fangle,= a trifle. Butler, Hud. iii. 3. 454.
=fire-drake,= a fiery dragon; hence, a meteor. Hen. VIII, v. 4. 45;
Beaumont and Fl., Knight of the B. Pestle, ii. 2 (_or_ 5), near the end.
OE. _fȳr-draca_; _fȳr_, fire, and _draca_, L. _draco_, Gk. δράκων, a
dragon; cp. E. _dragon_.
=fireship,= a prostitute. (Cant.) Wycherley, Love in a Wood, ii. 1 (Sir
Simon). [Smollett, Roderick Random, 1. xxiii.]
=firk,= to beat, trounce. Hen. V, iv. 4. 29. See EDD. (s.v. Firk, 4).
=firk,= to cheat, rob. Dekker, Honest Wh. (NED.); spelt _ferk_,
Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 1. See NED. (s.v. Firk, 2, c).
=firk,= to move about briskly, to frisk, gallop. Shirley, Hyde Park, iv.
3 (Song). See NED. (s.v. Firk, 3 b).
=firk,= a frisk; (humorously), a dance. Shirley, Hyde Park, ii. 2
(Lacy).
=firk up,= to trim up. Shirley, Constant Maid, ii. 1 (Playfair).
=fisgig,= a light, worthless female, fond of gadding about. Tusser,
Husbandry, § 77. 8; ‘_Trotiere_, a fisgig, fisking huswife, gadding
flirt’, Cotgrave. See NED. (s.v. Fizgig).
=fisk,= to scamper about, frisk, move briskly; ‘Then he fyskes abrode’,
Latimer, Fourth Sermon (ed. Arber, p. 104); ‘Tome Tannkard’s Cow . . .
fysking with her taile’, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 2; _fysking_,
Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 45. 2; ‘Fisking about the house’, Otway,
Venice Preserved, ii. 1 (Pierre). A Shropshire word (EDD.).
=fist,= a contemptuous expression; ‘Fist o’ your kindness!’, Eastward
Ho, iv. 1 [_or_ 2] (Gertrude). Also spelt _fiste_, _fyste_, _foist_; the
orig. sense is a breaking wind, a disagreeable smell. See NED. (s.v.
Fist, sb.^{2}).
=fisting-hound,= a spaniel; a contemptuous term. Fleming, tr. of Caius’
Dogs; in Arber, Eng. Garner, iii. 287. See above.
=fitches,= ‘vetches’. BIBLE, Isaiah xxviii. 25; _fytches_, Fitzherbert,
Husbandry, § 20. 40, § 70. 8. ‘_Vesce_, . . . fitch or vitch’, Cotgrave.
‘Fitches’ in gen. prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and England (EDD.).
=fitchock, fichok,= a polecat. Fletcher, Bonduca, i. 2 (Petillius);
Scornful Lady, v. 1 (end). ‘Fitch’ is a common prov. word for the
polecat; see EDD. (s.v. Fitch, also, Fitchock).
=fitten, fitton,= an untruth, an invention. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels,
i. 1 (Amorphus); Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 54. ‘Fitten’ is in
prov. use for ‘an idle fancy’, ‘a pretence’, in Hants., Wilts., and
Somerset (EDD.). ME. _fyton_ or lesynge, ‘mendacium’ (Prompt. EETS., see
note no. 729).
=fitters,= fragments, rags, pieces. Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the
Country, iii. 3. 4; Pilgrim, i. 1. 22. In prov. use in the north (EDD.).
=five-and-fifty,= the highest number to stand on, at the game of
primero. But it could be beaten by a flush, i.e. when the cards were all
of one colour. ‘As big as _five-and-fifty and flush_’; as confident as
one who held five-and-fifty in number, and also held a flush; so that he
could not be beaten; B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Face).
=five eggs:= in phr. _to come in with one’s five eggs_, to break in or
interrupt fussily with an idle story; ‘Persones coming in with their
five egges, how that Sylla had geuen ouer his office’, Udall, tr. of
Erasmus’s Apoph., p. 272; ‘Another commeth in with his fiue egges’,
Robinson, tr. More’s Utopia (ed. Arber, p. 56). The orig. phrase had
reference to the offering of _five eggs for a penny_, which was a
trivial offer, and not very advantageous to the purchaser in the
sixteenth century; See =eggs= (2).
=fiveleaf,= cinquefoil, _Potentilla reptans_. Drayton, Pol. xiii. 229;
‘Of Cinquefoyle, or Five-finger grasse’, Lyte, tr. of Dodoens, bk. i, c.
56.
=fives,= a disease of horses. Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 54; ‘Vyves, a disease
that an horse hath, _avives_’, Palsgrave; so Cotgrave; ‘_Adivas_, the
disease in Horses and other Beasts call’d the Vives’, Stevens, Span.
Dict., 1706. Of Arabic origin, _ad-dhîba_, ‘morbi species qua affici
solet guttur jumenti’ (Freytag); see Dozy, Glossaire, p. 45.
=fixation,= in alchemy; the process that rendered the elixir fixed. B.
Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle).
=flacket,= a flask, bottle, or vessel; ‘A flacket of wyne’, Great Bible
(1539), 1 Sam. xvi. 20; ‘A flacket, _Uter formam habens doliarem_’,
Coles, Dict., 1679. In prov. use in Yorkshire for a small cask-shaped
vessel for holding beer (EDD.). ME. _flaket_, ‘obba, uter’ (Cath.
Angl.); _flakette_, ‘flasca’ (Prompt.). Anglo-F. _flaket_ (Gower).
=flag,= used as a sign or signal; ‘A flag and sign of love’, Othello, i.
1. 157; ‘His flag hangs out’ (i.e. as an advertisement), Middleton, The
Widow, iv. 1 (Valeria); ‘’Tis Lent, the flag’s down’ (i.e. there is no
flag flying above the theatre, because it is Lent, and the performances
are suspended), Middleton, A Mad World, i. 1 (Follywit).
=flaighted, fleighted,= terrified. Golding, Metam. iv. 597; fol. 52
(1603); id., xi. 677. See NED. (s.v. Flaite, also, Flight). ‘To flight’
means properly ‘to put to flight’, hence, ‘to frighten’, ‘to scare’. Cp.
EDD. (s.v. Flaite).
=flanker,= a fortification protecting men against a ‘flank’ or side
attack; ‘Flankers . . . cannon-proof’, Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, i. 1
(Rossaline).
†=flantado,= flaunting display. Only occurs in Stanyhurst (tr. Aeneid,
i. 44).
=flapdragon,= a combustible put in liquor, to be swallowed flaming; e.g.
a raisin set on fire. L. L. L. v. 1. 45; Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iv. 1
(Clause). Hence, as vb., to swallow quickly, Winter’s Tale, iii. 3. 100.
=flapjack,= a pancake; also, an apple turnover. Pericles, ii. 1. 87;
Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Vincent); see Nares. In prov. use in E.
Anglia, Sussex, and Somerset (EDD.).
=flappet,= a little flap; ‘A flappet of wood’, Beaumont and Fl., Knight
of the B. Pestle, i. 2 (_or_ 3), Ralph. The sense of _flap_ is here
uncertain; perhaps a fly-flapper, to keep off flies.
=flash,= a pool, a marshy place. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 60; Fitzherbert,
Husbandry, § 70. In common prov. use in the north country, also in
Lincoln and Shropshire; occurring frequently in place-names, see EDD.
(s.v. Flash, sb.^{1} 1). ME. _flasch_, ‘lacuna’ (Prompt.), OF. _flache_,
‘locus aquis stagnantibus oppletus’ (Didot), Med. L. _flachia_
(Ducange).
=flask,= to flap; also, to cause to flutter; ‘To flask his wings’,
Golding, Metam. vi. 703 (fol. 77); ‘The weather flaskt . . . her
garments’, id., ii. last line.
=flasky,= (perhaps) belonging to a ‘flask’ or ‘flash’, a muddy pool;
‘The flasky fiends of Limbo lake’, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s
Dodsley, iv. 149. See NED.
=flat-cap,= a London citizen; esp. a London apprentice; ‘Flat-caps thou
call’st us. We scorne not the name’, Heywood, 1 Edw. IV, sc. 1 (NED.);
Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, iii. 1 (Song, st. 4). See Nares.
=flatchet,= a sword. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 92; _flachet_, iii.
241. 529. Cp. MHG. _flatsche_, _flasche_, a sword with a broad blade
(Weigand).
=flatted,= laid flat, levelled, made smooth. Dryden, Ceyx and Alcyone,
131; tr. of Virgil, Aeneid x, 158. See EDD. (s.v. Flat, v. 21).
=flaunt-a-flaunt,= flauntingly displayed. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1163.
=flaw,= a gust of wind. Arden of Fev. iv. 4. 44; 2 Hen. VI, iii. 1. 354;
Hamlet, v. 1. 239. Metaphorically, a quarrel; Webster, White Devil
(Camillo), ed. Dyce, p. 7. In prov. use in Scotland, also, in Devon and
Cornwall (EDD.). Norw. dial, _flaga_, a gust of wind (Aasen).
=flaw,= to ‘flay’. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 1 (Subtle). In prov. use in
Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, see EDD. (s.v. Flaw, vb. 7).
=fleck,= to spot, stain; hence _fleckt_, spotted in the cheek, flushed
with wine; ‘And drinke, till they be fleckt’, Mirror for Mag., Norfolk,
st. 25. In prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England, see EDD.
(s.v. Fleck, vb.^{1} 5). Cp. Norw. dial. _flekk_, a spot (Aasen).
=fledge,= fully fledged, ready to fly. Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal
ii. 147; ‘Fledge souls’, Herbert, Temple, Death. OE. _flycge_, fledged;
cp. G. _flügge_. See Dict. (s.v. Fledge). See =flidge.=
=fleet,= to be afloat. Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 171; to be overflowed, to
be covered with water; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 9. 33; to pass or while away
(time), As You Like It, i. 1. 124. OE. _flēotan_, to float.
=fleet,= to skim cream off milk; ‘I shall fleet their cream-bowls’, Grim
the Collier, iv. 1 (Robin), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 443; Lyly,
Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 336). In prov. use in the north country, E.
Anglia, and Kent and Sussex, see EDD. (s.v. Fleet, vb.^{2}). OE. _flēt_,
cream. Cp. Bremen dial. _flöten_, ‘die Sahne von der Milch abnehmen’
(Wtb.).
=fleeten,= pale, of the colour of skimmed milk; ‘You fleeten
face!’, Fletcher, Queen of Corinth, iii. 1 (Conon).
=fleet,= a creek, inlet, run of water. Drayton, Pol. xxiii. 191; xxv.
51. 129. In prov. use in various parts of England; esp. in E. Anglia and
Kent; hence the name of Northfleet, see EDD. (s.v. Fleet, sb.^{1} 9).
OE. _flēot_, estuary.
=fleme,= to put to flight. Morte Arthur, leaf 318. 8; bk. xiii, c. 16;
lf. 414, back, 16; bk. xx, c. 17. OE. _flēman_ (Anglian), to put to
flight; deriv. of _flēam_, flight.
=flert;= see =flirt.=
=flesh,= to feed with flesh, to satiate, All’s Well, iv. 3. 19; 2 Hen.
IV, iv. 5. 133; to feed the sword with flesh for the first time, 1 Hen.
IV, v. 4. 133; to make fierce and eager for combat, King John, v. 1. 71.
Hence _fleshed_, eager for battle, inured to bloodshed, Richard III, iv.
3. 6; ‘A flesh’d ruffian’, Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, iv.
2 (Zabulon).
=fletcher,= a maker or seller of arrows. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 110;
‘Jack Fletcher and his bolt’, Damon and Pithias (Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv.
19). Anglo-F. _fleccher_, arrow-maker (Rough List); F. _flèche_, arrow.
=flete,= to float. Surrey, Description of Spring, 8; in Tottel’s Misc.,
p. 4. _Fletyng_, floating, swimming, Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 259. See
=fleet.=
=flew,= the large chaps of a deep-mouthed hound; as of a bloodhound.
Hence _flews_, with the sense of flaps, or flapping skirts, Dekker,
Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 4 (Eyre). Hence also _flew’d_, having flews (of
a particular quality), Mids. Night’s D. iv. 1. 125.
=flew,= a tube, pipe; see =flue.=
=flibote, fly-boat,= a fast-sailing vessel. Heywood, King Edw. IV
(Spicing), vol. i, p. 38; If you know not me (Medina), vol. i, p. 336.
Dutch _Vlie-boot_, boat on the river _Vlie_, the channel leading out of
the Zuyder Zee. See NED. (s.v. Fly-boat).
=flicker,= to flutter. Fletcher, Pilgrim, i. 1 (Alphonso); Dryden,
Palamon, 1399. Metaph. to make fond movements, as with wings: Palsgrave
has, ‘_I flycker_, I kysse together.’
=flicker-mouse,= a bat, a ‘flittermouse’. B. Jonson, New Inn, iii. 1;
‘_Ratepenade_, a bat, rearmouse or flickermouse’, Cotgrave. A Sussex
word (EDD.).
=flidge,= fledged, furnished with feathers. Warner, Albion’s England.
bk. ii, ch. 10, st. 48; Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, c. 4, p. 33; _flig_,
Peele, Edw. I (ed. Dyce, p. 408). OE. _flyege_, fledged. See =fledge.=
=flight,= an arrow for long distances, light and well-feathered. B.
Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 3 (2 Masque: Cupid); _flight-shot_, the
distance to which a flight-arrow is shot, about 600 yards; ‘A flite shot
over, as much as the Tamise is above the Bridge’, Leland, Itin. (ed.
1744, iv. 41); ‘It being from the park about two flight-shots in
length’, Desc. of Royal Entertainment, 1613 (Works of T. Campion, ed.
Bullen, p. 179); ‘Two flight-shot off’, Heywood, A Woman Killed, iv. 5.
2.
=flip-flap,= a fly-flapper, for driving away flies. Dekker, O.
Fortunatus, i. 2 (Andelocia); _flyp-flap_, a lap of a garment, Skelton,
Elynour Rummyng, 508.
=flirt, flert,= to throw with a jerk, to jerk, fillip. Stanyhurst, tr.
of Aeneid, iii (ed. Arber, 84); Drayton, Pol. vi. 50; to move with a
jerk, to dart, to take short quick flights, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, i
(ed. Arber, 31).
=flirt-gill, flurt-gill, flurt-gillian,= a woman of light behaviour, a
flirt. Romeo, ii. 4. 162; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iv. 1
(Wife); _flurt-Gillian_, The Chances, iii. 1 (Landlady). ‘Gill’ and
‘Gillian’ are forms of the Christian-name ‘Juliana’.
=flitter-mouse,= a bat. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 2 (Alken); Alchemist,
v. 2 (Subtle). In common prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).
=flix,= fur of the hare. Dryden, Annus Mirab. 132. Also applied to other
animals; ‘the flix of goat’, Dyer, The Fleece, bk. iv, l. 104. In prov.
use for the fur of a hare, rabbit, or cat, see EDD. (s.v. Flick,
sb.^{3}).
=float,= flow, flood of the tide. Ford, Love’s Sacr. ii. 3; _in float_,
at high water, ‘Hee being now in Float for Treasure’, Bacon, Henry VII
(ed. Lumby, 128); Middleton, Span. Gipsy, i. 5 (Rod). See =flote=
(wave).
=flocket,= a loose garment with long sleeves. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 53.
=Florentine,= a kind of pie; meat baked in a dish, with a cover of
paste. Beaumont and Fl., Woman-hater, v. 1 (Lazarillo); ‘I went to
Florence, from whence we have the art of making custards, which are
therefore called Florentines’, Wit’s Interpreter (Nares).
=flote,= a fleet. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 142, back, 31; 216, back, 1;
Hakluyt, Voy. i. 296, l. 2; spelt _floate_, Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre,
st. 135. OE. _flota_, a ship, fleet (BT.).
=flote,= a wave, billow; also, the sea; ‘The Mediterranean Flote’,
Tempest, i. 2. 234; ‘The flotes of the see’, Caxton, Jason, 114 (NED.).
OF. _flot_, a wave (Hatzfeld); cp. OE. _flot_, the sea (Sweet).
=flote,= to skim milk, to take off the cream. Tusser, Husbandry, § 49.
1. See EDD. (s.v. Float, vb. 16).
=flower-de-luce,= the ‘fleur-de-lis’, a plant of the genus Iris. Tusser,
Husbandry, § 43. 11; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 16; Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 127;
also, the heraldic lily, the armorial emblem of France, 1 Hen. VI, i. 1.
80.
=flown:= ‘The Sons of Belial, flown with insolence and wine’, Milton, P.
L. i. 502; ‘Flowen with wine’, Ussher, Ann, vi. 250 (NED.). ‘Flown’ was
orig. used of a stream in full flow, ‘in flood’; ‘Cedron . . . in wynter
. . . is mervaylously flowen with rage of water’, Guilford’s Pilgrimage
(ed. Camden Soc. 31). See NED. (s.v. Flow, vb. 11 b).
†=fluce,= to flounce, plunge; ‘They [cattle] backward fluce and fling’,
Drayton, The Moon-calf, 1352. Not found elsewhere.
=flue, flew,= an air-passage, a tube or pipe. In NED. (s.v. Flue,
sb.^{3}) is this note:—‘The following passage is usually quoted as the
earliest example of the word, which is supposed to mean here the spiral
cavity of a shell. But _flue_ is probably a misprint for _flute_. [The
quotation follows]: 1562, Phaer, _Aeneid_ x [l. 209 of Lat. text] With
whelkid shell Whoes wrinckly wreathed _flue_, did fearful shril in seas
outyell.’ But this suggestion cannot be right; for the word occurs again
in a parallel passage, where the spelling is _flew_, occurring at the
end of a line, and riming with _blew_; viz. ‘Dolphins blew, And Tritons
blowe their Trumpes, y^{t} sounds in seas w^{t} dropping _flew_,’ Phaer,
tr. of Aeneid, v. 824.
=fluence,= a flowing stream. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 224; also,
fluency, Heywood, Fair Maid of the Exchange (Works, vol. ii, p. 86).
=flundering,= ‘floundering’, plunging and tossing; ‘Th’ unruly flundring
steeds’, H. More, Song of Soul, i. 1. 17; Chapman, Gent. Usher, i. 1
(Vincentio); the word makes no sense here, for the passage is
intentional nonsense. But it’s a loud-sounding and impressive word.
†=flundge,= fly out, are flung out. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 59. An
onomatopoeic word, not found elsewhere.
=flurt at,= to sneer at, to scoff at. Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 2. 19;
Beaumont and Fl., Rule a Wife, iii. 2; id., Pilgrim, i. 1; iii. 1; Wild
Goose Chase, ii. 1. See NED. (s.v. Flirt, vb. 4 a).
=flush,= a term at primero; when a player held four cards of the same
colour. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Face). See =five-and-fifty.=
=fluxure,= fluidity; also, moisture; ‘Moisture and fluxure’, B. Jonson,
Induct. to Ev. Man out of Humour (Asper); Mirror for Mag., Cromwell (by
Drayton), st. 117. Late L. _fluxura_ (Tertullian).
=fly,= a domestic parasite, a familiar. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, ii. 2
(Theoph.). Also, a familiar spirit; ‘I have my flies abroad’, B. Jonson,
Alchem. iii. 2 (Face). See NED. (s.v. Fly, sb.^{1} 5, a, b.).
=fly-boat;= see =flibote.=
=fob;= See =fub= (2).