dig

Powltrey, &c, &c.
Item ten turkeys …
Item three Digs [an old Cheshire word for duck] and a Drake …
Item ffower Capons …
[The word's gloss has been inserted by Earwaker]

10 March, 1616, excerpt from "A true and perfect Inventory of all the Goods &c. which late were of Philippe Oldfeid," reprinted in 1890, J.P. Earwaker (ed., compiler), "Badwall Township: Berington of Moorsbarrow and Bradwall, Pedigree" in [https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_history_of_the_ancient_parish_of_San/kkMHAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 The History of the Ancient Parish of Sandbach, Co. Chester. […] ]

dig, or digg, s.—A duck. A gentleman introduced a man to an old lady in America as an inhaitant of Cheshire, her old county. "I'll soon see," said she, "if he is reet Cheshire born. Tell me," said she to the man, "what a dig, a snig, a grig, a peckled poot, and a peannot are?" B. Kennett in his Glossary of the British Museum, has the word "dig." "As fierce as a dig," is a Lancashire and probably a Cheshire proverb, and reminds one of the Cloucestershire name for a sheep, viz.: "A Cotswold lion."

1877, Lieut.-Col. Egerton Leigh, M.P., A Glossary of Words Used in The Dialect of Cheshire., London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co., pages 61–62:

Smith's farm was near to Parrs; new buildings had been built in the Hemp Croft. He carried coals in his cart by an inside chest, and had three hives of bees and several spinning wheels; his poultry comprised four hens, two diggs or ducks, and one drake. His total estate was £66. 10s.

1953, John Lunn, “Beasts on the Common, 1613”, in A Short History of the Township of Tyldesley […] , Longsight, Manchester: Co-operative Wholesale Society Limited:


favor

en-noun

favor (countable and uncountable, plural favors)

tlb

(American spelling, alternative in Canada, historically in Lancashire)

favors (plural)
favour (alternative Commonwealth Ireland)

From Middle English favour, favor, faver, from Anglo-Norman favour, from mainland Old French favor, from Latin favor (“good will; kindness; partiality”), from faveō (“to be kind to”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂weh₁yeti (“to be favourable to”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to shine, glow light”). Respelled in American English to more closely match its Latin etymon. Compare also Danish favør (“favor”), Irish fabhar (“favor”), from the same Romance source.

der

She enjoyed the queen's favor.

to fall out of favor

Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady.[…]She looked around expectantly, and recognizing Mrs. Cooke's maid[…]Miss Thorn greeted her with a smile which greatly prepossessed us in her favor.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

Samara: She confuses her victims, twists their feelings. They will do anything for her favor.

2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2:


garbage

From late Middle English garbage (“the offal of a fowl, giblets, kitchen waste”, originally “refuse, what is purged away”), from Anglo-Norman, from Old French garber (“to refine, make neat or clean”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *garwijan (“to make ready”).
Akin to Old High German garawan (“to prepare, make ready”), Old English ġearwian (“to make ready, adorn”). More at garb, yare, gear

cog

garbidge (alternative obsolete pronunciation-spelling)

(England, dialectal, Cumbria, Lancashire, archaic) foul, rotten or unripe vegetable matter.


starve

en-verb

starve (third-person singular simple present starves, present participle starving, simple past starved, past participle starved or (obsolete) starven)

starves (present singular third-person)
starving (participle present)
starved (past)
starved (participle past)
starven (obsolete participle past)
starve (infinitive)
starve (first-person present singular)
starved (first-person past singular)
starve (present second-person singular)
starvest (archaic present second-person singular)
starved (past second-person singular)
starvedst (archaic past second-person singular)
starves (present singular third-person)
starveth (archaic present singular third-person)
starved (past singular third-person)
starve (plural present)
starved (past plural)
starve (present subjunctive)
starved (past subjunctive)
starve (imperative present)
starving (participle present)
starved (participle past)
starven (archaic participle past)

From Middle English sterven (“to die, perish”), from Old English steorfan (“to die, perish”), from Proto-West Germanic *sterban, from Proto-Germanic *sterbaną (“to become stiff, die”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terp- (“to lose strength, become numb, be motionless”); or from Proto-Indo-European *sterbʰ- (“to become stiff”), from *ster- (“stiff”); or a conflation of the aforementioned. Cognate with Scots stairve, sterve (“to die, perish, starve”), Saterland Frisian stjerwa (“to die”), West Frisian stjerre (“to die”), Dutch sterven (“to die”), German Low German starven (“to die”), German sterben (“to die”), Icelandic stirfinn (“peevish, froward”), Albanian shterp (“sterile, unproductive, barren land”).

cog

while the grass grows, the steed starves

I was half starved waiting out in that wind.

Wheniver he wor starved, he used to get th' seck o' coils ov his back, an' walk raand th' haase till he gat warm agean.

1869 February, John Hartley, The original illuminated clock almanack:

One i' th' morning an' me starv'd to th' death wi' waitin' up.

1886, A Queer Supper, John Heywood, section 8:

Sometimes he remarks, “ ’Tis these dreadful frostis that spiles everything. ’Tis enough to sterve anybody.”

1898, J. Arthur Gibbs, “When the May-Fly is Up”, in A Cotswold village; or, Country Life & Pursuits in Gloucestershire, London: John Murray, →OCLC, page 164:

(transitive, British, especially Yorkshire and Lancashire) To kill with cold; to (cause to) die from cold.


lithe

en-verb

lithe (third-person singular simple present lithes, present participle lithing, simple past and past participle lithed)

lithes (present singular third-person)
lithing (participle present)
lithed (participle past)
lithed (past)

lithe widely used as a verb in nEng Sc and Ir, as a noun only in Cu

1902, Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary, Oxford University Press, page 624:

to render lithe or thick, to thicken (broth, etc.)

1933, C.T. Onions, editor, The Oxford English Dictionary, Clarendon Press, page 344:

lithe 'to thicken soups, sauces, etc.'

1994, Arnold Kellett, The English Dialect Dictionary, Smith Settle, page 105

lithe vt to THICKEN gravy V7.7 la:ð Y, laɪð Y Nt L, laɪð La Nt L

1994, Clive Upton, David Parry, J.D.A. Widdowson, Survey of English Dialects: The Dictionary and Grammar, Croom Helm:

(archaic, dialect, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire) to thicken (gravy, etc.)


mardy

en-adj

mardy (comparative mardier, superlative mardiest)

mardier (comparative)
mardiest (superlative)

He's a mardy child.

“I wouldn’t be such a mardy baby,” said his wife shortly.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “The Casting Off of Morel—The Taking On of William”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, part I, page 47:

When our Jonathan’s poorly...he’s mardy, very mardy....

1984 Food, Health, and Identity, Patricia Caplan http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=BQNo4iK0QRAC&pg=PA39&lpg=PA39&sig=WSvTrhLM5ZsqucAxAXBZQPfJa-I [1997 edition]

(chiefly Lancashire, Yorkshire and Midlands) Sulky or whining.


trinket

Origin uncertain, possibly:
* from trinket (“small, showy ornament; thing of little value”) (see etymology 1); or
* borrowed from Welsh trànked.

Mrs. Bargrave asked her, vvhether ſhe vvould not drink ſome Tea. Says Mrs. Veal, I do not care if I do: But I'le VVarrant this Mad Fellovv (meaning Mrs. Bargraves Husband,) has broke all your Trinckets.

1706, [attributed to Daniel Defoe], A True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs. Veal, the Next Day after Her Death: […], London: […] B. Bragg, […], →OCLC, page 7:

(UK, dialectal, chiefly Cheshire, Lancashire, obsolete) A small vessel for drinking from; a cup, a mug, a porringer.

chiefly Cheshire; Lancashire; chiefly Cheshire; Lancashire


bobby-dazzler

bobby-dazzlers (plural)
bobby dazzler (alternative)
bobbydazzler (alternative)

From bobby + dazzler. Unknown. Originated in 19th century in the dialects of Lancashire and Yorkshire.

Suddenly she appeared in the inner doorway rather shyly. She had got a new cotton blouse on. Paul jumped up and went forward.
"Oh, my stars!" he exclaimed. "What a bobby-dazzler!"
She sniffed in a little haughty way, and put her head up.
"It's not a bobby-dazzler at all!" she replied. "It's very quiet."

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “chapter 6”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

(informal, chiefly British and Australian) An attractive or excellent thing or person.


knob

From Middle English knobbe, from Middle Low German knobbe (“knob; knot in wood”), probably via Old Saxon from a variant of Proto-Germanic *knappô (“knob, lump”), one of several kn- words related to *knudaną (“to knead”).
Cognate with Dutch knob, knobbel (“knob”), German Knubbe, Knubbel (“knob”). See also knop. For the sense of a rounded hill, see nab and knab.

բռնակ

rounded protuberance, handle, or control switch

We climbed to the top of Slate Hill, the highest knob in our town, and Ricky gave me a whole talk on how slate formed, how it was and was not shale.

2011, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Pulphead, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 144:

(geography, chiefly Appalachia, Lancashire) A prominent rounded hill.


swillking

(Lancashire, slang) A drunkard; said of someone who drinks until the alcohol can be heard swillking about in their stomach.


summit

I need to get summit to eat.

(England, especially Lancashire, Yorkshire, informal) Alternative spelling of summat (“something”).


welkin

Inherited from Middle English welken, wolken (“weather; heavens; earlier cloud”), from Old English wolcnu (“sky, heavens”), plural form of wolcn (“cloud”), from Proto-West Germanic *wolkn (“cloud”), from Proto-Germanic *wulkną (“cloud”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *wl̥g-nó-s, from *welg- (“damp; wet”). Cognate with Dutch wolk (“cloud”), German Wolke (“cloud”).

He leaues the vvelkin vvay moſt beaten playne, / And rapt with vvhirling vvheeles, inflames the ſkyen, / With fire not made to burne, but fayrely for to ſhyne.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 9, page 47:

The ſkye it ſeemes vvould povvre dovvn ſtinking pitch, / But that the Sea, mounting to th' vvelkins cheeke, / Daſhes the fire out.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 1, column 2:

Come (Sir Page) / Looke on me vvith your VVelkin eye: […]

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 278, column 2:

I knowe more then Apollo, / For oft when hee ly’s sleeping / I see yͤ starrs att bloudie warres / In yͤ wounded welkin weeping, […]

c. 1620, [anonymous], “Poems from Songbooks and Miscellanies before 1660 [Tom o’ Bedlam]”, in R[obert] C[ecil] Bald, editor, Seventeenth-century English Poetry (The Harper English Literature Series; from Giles Earle His Booke, British Museum, Additional MSS. 24,665), New York, N.Y., Evanston, Ill.: Harper & Row, published 1959, →OCLC, page 414:

VVhen ſvvallovvs fleet ſoar high and ſport in air, / He told us that the vvelkin vvou'd be clear.

1714, J[ohn] Gay, “Monday; or, The Squabble”, in The Shepherd’s Week. In Six Pastorals, London: […] R. Burleigh […], →OCLC, page 5:

Hark hovv all the VVelkin rings / "Glory to the King of Kings, / "Peace on Earth, and Mercy mild, / "God and Sinners reconcil'd!["]

1739, John Wesley, Charles Wesley, “Hymn for Christmas-Day [later Hark! The Herald Angels Sing]”, in Hymns and Sacred Poems, London: […] William Strahan; and sold by James Hutton, […]; and at Mr. Bray’s, […], →OCLC, part II, verse 1, page 206:

Black ruptur'd Clouds deform'd the VVelkin’s Face, / And from beneath vvas heard a vvailing Sound, / As of Infernal Sprights in Cavern bound; […]

1748, James Thomson, “Canto II”, in The Castle of Indolence: […], London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, stanza XLIV, page 63:

I've seen the moving stars / Shoot rapidly athwart the sombre sky, / Red fiery meteors in the welkin blaze, / And sheeted lightnings gleam, but ne'er before / Saw I a sight like this.

1802, Joanna Baillie, “Ethwald: A Tragedy, in Five Acts. Part Second.”, in A Series of Plays: In which It is Attempted to Delineate the Stronger Passions of the Mind. […], volume II, London: […] T[homas] Cadell, Jun. and W[illiam] Davies, […], →OCLC, Act V, scene iii, page 344:

So wide and so far his ravage they knew, / If a sail but gleam'd white 'gainst the welkin blue, / Trumpet and bugle to arms did call, / Burghers hasten'd to man the wall, […]

1817, [Walter Scott], “Canto First”, in Harold the Dauntless; […], Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC, stanza II, pages 10–11:

Which, by the welkin and its stars, you would not be slow in avenging, Master Christian.

1822, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume IV, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 44:

I look out at some early hour of the day, and see a fine, perfect rainbow, bright with promise, gloriously spanning the beclouded welkin of life.

1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Phœbe”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, pages 136–137:

When I look from my window at night, / And the welkin above is all white, / All throbbing and panting with stars, / Among them majestic is standing / Sandalphon the angel, expanding / His pinions in nebulous bars.

1858 October 16, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[Birds of Passage.] Sandalphon.”, in The Courtship of Miles Standish, and Other Poems, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 204:

To him, the spirit lodged within Billy and looking out from his welkin eyes as from windows, that ineffability which made the dimple in his dyed cheek, suppled his joints, and danced in his yellow curls, made him pre-eminently the Handsome Sailor.

1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter XI.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC, page 257:

Mr. [Mario] Lanza has an excellent young tenor voice and he uses it in his many numbers with impressive dramatic power. Likewise, Miss [Dorothy] Kirsten and Miss [Blanche] Thebom are ladies who can rock the welkin, too, and their contributions to the concert maintain it at a musical high.

1951 May 11, Bosley Crowther, “The Screen: ‘Great Caruso’ makes its debut; Mario Lanza plays the famous tenor in Metro movie at Radio City Music Hall”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-06-27, page 40, column 2:

(also Lancashire) The sky which appears to an observer on the Earth as a dome in which celestial bodies are visible; the firmament.

سَمَاء

sky which appears to an observer on the Earth as a dome in which celestial bodies are visible — see also firmament, sky


marred

en-adj

marred (comparative more marred, superlative most marred)

more marred (comparative)
most marred (superlative)

From Middle English marred, merred (“troubled, distressed, vexed, bewildered”), from Old English *mierred, ġemyrred (“disturbed, troubled”), past participle of Old English mierran, ġemyrran (“to hinder, obstruct, force, trouble, err”), equivalent to mar + -ed.

(Lancashire, Yorkshire, of a child) Spoilt, cosseted, overly indulged, soft.


sithee

Sithee, ther's a bowt here at's comin lowse, best to get it aat an a new-un in.

(UK, Yorkshire, Lancashire) See thee; variously used as a farewell (i.e. I will see you later) or an admonition to pay attention (= see here)


goit

From Middle English gote (“channel, stream”), from Old English *gotu (“channel, gutter, drain”), from Proto-Germanic *gutō (“gutter, drain”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰew- (“to pour”). Cognate with Scots gote, goit, goate (“trench, ditch, watercourse”), Dutch goot (“gutter”), Middle Low German gote (“ditch”). More at gote.

inh

We use watter as goes daan t'goit yonder for t'grinnelstuns.

(UK, Yorkshire and Lancashire) A small artificial channel carrying water. Usually used with respect to channels built to feed mills.


owler

Archaic variant of alder from Middle English aller.

(Lancashire, Northern English dialectal) The alder tree.


bobbins

Don't take this the wrong way, my friend, but I've never heard such complete and utter bobbins in all my life.

2011, James Lovegrove, Redlaw, volume 1:

(Lancashire, Manchester, slang) crap, rubbish, something worthless or nonsensical

Lancashire; Manchester; Lancashire; Manchester


ginnel

From ginn (“a road or passage down to the sea”) + -el (diminutive suffix), ultimately from Old English ginn (“a side expanse, an opening, abyss”).

inh

[…]maks things as pleasant as stondin in a ginnel ov a wyndy neet waitin o'th' sweetheart comin out.

1885, Benjamin Brierley, Ab-o'th'-Yate in Yankeeland, page 59:

At the end of a short side-street a narrow ginnel with concrete bollards led into the surprisingly wide area in which the blocks of flats stood.

1988, Alan Hollinghurst, The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 169:

Pssht, get over here, whoopie / Finish him like Sub-Zero / Out the window, into the garden / Over the fence and straight through the ginnel

2014 September 7, “Spitfire”, Aaron Davis (lyrics), performed by Davis, Aaron [as Bugzy Malone], JDZ Media:

(England, especially Yorkshire, Lancashire, Manchester) A narrow passageway or alley often between terraced houses.


dree

en-adv

dree (comparative more dree, superlative most dree)

more dree (comparative)
most dree (superlative)

(Lancashire, Scotland) Slowly, tediously.


hallan

Nails had been driven into the boards in every spot where a nail could possibly be inserted, and on these were hung the various articles of this curious museum. Exactly opposite the door there had been originally cut in the hallan an opening […]

1881, Chambers's Journal, volume 58, number 1, page 343:

Having successfully negotiated the threshwood, the visitor found himself in the hallan, which was about four feet wide. The hallan formed a convenient storage place for sacks of corn on the eve of market day and here, too, pigs were hung up […]

1981, William Rollinson, Life & Tradition in the Lake District, page 22:I:

(dialectal, Ireland, Scotland, Northumbria, Cumbria, Lancashire) The passage or space between the outer and inner door of a cottage; the partition between the passage and the room.


spile

From Middle Dutch or Middle Low German spile (“splinter, peg”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *spīlaz (“splinter, peg”), from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“prickle, pointed stick”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian spyl, German Speil (“chip, splinter, gore, wedge”), Danish spile, Dutch spijl.

cog

(obsolete or dialectal, Cumbria, Lancashire) A splinter.


there's nowt so queer as folk

Well (shakes her head with a little smile as she goes on knitting)—there's nowt so queer as folk! (Shakes her head again.)

1893, Florence Eveleen Eleanore Bell, Elizabeth Robins, Alan's Wife, act 1, scene 1, pages 11–12:

'Theer's Miss So-and-so bin doon here and gaan on ivver so and glen me sic a blackin' as never was, becos I telt her I cudn't git her intil t' auld grund noa-ways, and I telt her she mud just lig in t' new grund and mud be weel content, an aw, for it was a deal sweeter.' 'And,' added old Joe, ' theer's nowt so queer as folk, specially wick uns.'

1911, Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley, “Sexton Joe”, in By Fell and Dale at the English Lakes, pages 87–88:

Long ago Aristotle said that you cannot expect to find the same accuracy in all thought as in mathematics—you can only get it as far as the nature of the subject allows. The human factor has to be reckoned with and, as they say in Yorkshire: "There's nowt so queer as folk."

c. 1936, Clement Francis Rogers, “Are Miracles Possible?”, in The Case for Miracle, pages 26–27:

The really remarkable thing about ALBION is the amazing number of people it continues to hoodwink. Nearly 100 subscribers now, all persisting in sending their cash to the Editorial Permanence In Drunkenness Fund. A growth-rate of approximately one new subscriber per week! How you can all tolerate this I cannot understand; however, as they say across the frontier into Yorkshire - 'There's nowt so queer as folk' (being married to a Yorkshirewoman, I subscribe whole-heartedly to this view)

1971 July 1, Don Turnbull, “Ye Second Birthday Editorial”, in Albion, number 30, page 2:

(simile, colloquial, Yorkshire, Lancashire) Nothing is as strange as people can be; people can behave very oddly sometimes.


reet

en-adj

reet (comparative mair reet, superlative maist reet)

mair reet (comparative)
maist reet (superlative)


reet

Now I've only bin once wi a scarf round mi neck, And I moan't go agin, no not me will I eck. Now it doesn't seem reet if mi memory jogs, Goin down for a pint in thi bowtie and clogs.

2011, “Awterations” (track 14), in Bread and Fishes, performed by Houghton Weavers:


summat

Dialectal variant of somewhat attested from the 18th century. Joseph Wright suggested that it might be a contraction of "some that" in A Grammar of the Dialect of Windhill (page 78).

summit (alternative)
sommat (alternative)
sommit (alternative)
sumat (alternative obsolete)
summet (alternative obsolete)
zumat (alternative obsolete)
zummat (alternative obsolete)
zummet (alternative obsolete)
zummut (alternative obsolete)
summut (alternative)
zum'ot (alternative)
summot (alternative)
sumet (alternative obsolete)

...every gentleman tips us summat, we looks for it as natural as possible.

1809, Theodore Hook, “Killing No Murder”, in The Sporting Magazine, volume 34, number 202, page 185:

They require the atmosphere of a cigar and the amalgam of a sum'mat comfortable.

1825 October 12, Walter Scott, Letters (published 1935), IX.245

A man must learn summat beside Gospel to make them things.

1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter I, in Adam Bede […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book first, page 10:

He were a-going to gie I summat for’n, but like enough it’ll be worth more to a gent like yourself.

1929, John Cowper Powys, Wolf Solent, page 129:

Does he think I’ve been soaping up to the Governor or summat?

1947, Thomas Armstrong, King Cotton, page 53:

Got summat fer yeh here – I mighta sat on it at some point, but it’ll taste all right.

1997 June 26, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], chapter IV, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Harry Potter; 1), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

Why go all the way to find summat that ain’t there?

Do you ever get that fear that you can't shift the type / That sticks around like summat in your teeth?

2013, Alex Turner, “Do I Wanna Know?”, in Jamie Cook, Nick O'Malley, Matt Helders (music), AM, track 1:

(England, especially Lancashire, Yorkshire, informal) Something.


summat

It's summat-like to see such a man as that i' the desk of a Sunday!

1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter VIII, in Adam Bede […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book first, page 172:

(England, especially Lancashire, Yorkshire, informal) Something (“to a degree”); somewhat.


teacake

teacakes (plural)
tea-cake (alternative)

... in Yorkshire and Lancashire mill-workers largely use the plain teacake as a convenient form of bread to be consumed at the meals which they carry with them to eat during the day when living far from their work

1917, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, The Parliamentary Debates (official Report).: House of Commons:

I thought at the time that they must be deaf or daft in Sheffield. I'd noticed the same at Slack's bread shop on Staniforth Road. I had asked for a teacake and ended up with a currant breadcake.

2011 September 15, Martyn Johnson, What's Tha Up To?: Memories of a Yorkshire Bobby, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

Outside a bread shop in the city centre [Bradford], a queue of two dozen students formed. They wore red armbands and carried the slogan 'Peace, Land, Bread'. Each student bought one teacake.

2014 June 23, Albert Hunt, Hopes for Great Happenings (Routledge Revivals): Alternatives in Education and Theatre, Routledge, →ISBN:

A baked good such as a cake or biscuit intended to be eaten with tea or at an afternoon tea.

(Northern England, chiefly Lancashire) A bread roll usually without fruit; a barm.


arval

arvals (plural)
arfal (alternative)
arvel (alternative)
arvil (alternative)
arvill (alternative)
arvall (alternative)
arvel (alternative)
arvell (alternative)
averill (alternative)
arvale (alternative)

From Middle English arvell, from Old Norse erfiǫl (“a funeral feast”), from arfr (“inheritance”) + öl (“ale”). Cognate with Danish arveøl (“a wake, funeral feast”). More at erf, ale.

(Lancashire) The money given to hunters, at the death of a fox, in order to buy ale.


fettler

How's tha' doing fettler?

(slang, UK, Lancashire) A friend or mate


slood

Perhaps related to Old Norse slóð, whence English sleuth.


yure

Aw know'd him when his yure stickt out at top ov his hat; and his shurt would ha' hanged eawt beheend, too,--like a Wigan lantron,--iv he'd had a shurt.

1862, Edwin Waugh, Home-Life of the Lancashire Factory Folk during the Cotton Famine:

Her skin wor all a deep blue black, / Her yure, a dark braan red.


potted shrimp

(Lancashire) A traditional Lancastrian dish of brown shrimp in mace-flavored butter, set in a small pot.


punce

en-verb

punce (third-person singular simple present punces, present participle puncing, simple past and past participle punced)

punces (present singular third-person)
puncing (participle present)
punced (participle past)
punced (past)

Cock-fighting and dog-fighting were often eclipsed by a fight between two men in the old Lancashire style, stripped to the skin with the exception of a pair of clogs, striking, wrestling, "puncing," now up, now down, for the fight was continued on the ground until the vanquished one cried off. Shins presented a sorry sight, gashed in all directions by the kicks from the clogs, and for weeks after had to be carefully washed and bandaged.

1891, Alfred Burton, Rush-bearing, page 160:

We refer in particular to that form of savagery known as the 'puncing match', in which men of enormous strength and great agility were pitted together in cold blood, often for quite paltry stakes, to kick each other with iron-bound clogs until one or the other was either disabled or killed.

2008, John Hudson, Victorian & Edwardian Lancashire:

(UK, Lancashire, historical) To fight by kicking with clogs.


raggy

From rag + -y, rag being a dialectal (northern England) word for a fog or mist with drizzling rain, related to dialectal Danish rag (“sea vapour”). Compare roke, rawk, from a word for smoke (compare Swedish rök (“smoke”)), which may or may not be related.

It looks a bit rough wi' lyin' out thoose raggy neets.

1874 (edition of 1879), Waugh, Chim. Corner, page 157

It's been nobbut raggy weather up o' the moors this winter.

1892, David Grieve, Ward, III, book IV, vi:

(dialectal, especially Yorkshire, Lancashire, possibly obsolete) Foggy, misty (and typically cold), with drizzling rain.


forset

forset (third-person singular simple present forsets, present participle forsetting, simple past and past participle forset)

forsets (present singular third-person)
forsetting (participle present)
forset (participle past)
forset (past)
forsett (alternative)
fooarset (alternative)
foorset (alternative)
fwoorset (alternative)

From Middle English forsetten, from Old English forsettan (“to hedge in, obstruct, oppress”), equivalent to for- + set. Cognate with Dutch verzetten (“to move”), German versetzen (“to put, move, transfer, transpose”), Swedish försätta (“to go on, remove, set”).

cog

(transitive, dialectal, Cumbria, Westmoreland, Lancashire, Lincolnshire) To get in front of; intercept; waylay; entrap.

(transitive, dialectal, figuratively, Cumbria, Westmoreland, Lancashire, Lincolnshire) To upset; hinder.

backset and forset

(transitive, dialectal, Cumbria, Westmoreland, Lancashire, Lincolnshire) To beset; surround; invest; surround with difficulties; bar; impede.


snift

en-noun

snift (countable and uncountable, plural snifts)

An' if thou'll make a shift effort
To tak thi time a bit, owd lass,
Thou's have him in a snift!

An ' if thou'll make a shift To tak thi time a bit, owd lass, Thou's have him in a snift!”

1982, Brian Hollingworth, Songs of the People: Lancashire Dialect Poetry, page 71:

(UK dialectal, Lancashire, obsolete) A moment; a while.


waint

Well tha may think folks like it cos it's packed up to door, I've come here tonight but I wain't come no more. Cos it's all made o' plastic, it's plain tha can see. Well it may do for others but it waint do for me.

2011, “Awterations” (track 14), in Bread and Fishes, performed by Houghton Weavers:

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(Yorkshire, Lancashire) Pronunciation spelling of won't and wouldn't.


Scotch mist

Scotch mist (countable and uncountable, plural Scotch mists)

Scotch mist, the R.A.F. term for something imaginary. […] The joke of it is that Scotch mist is as wetting as English rain.

1945, Eric H Partridge, “Words Get Their Wings”, in College English, volume 7, number 1, page 29:

(UK, dialect, chiefly Lancashire and Yorkshire, idiomatic) Something that is hard to find or does not exist.

(World War II) Something imaginary, nonexistent, or overlooked.

chiefly Lancashire and Yorkshire; World War II; World War II


whiff-whaff

South Lancashire dialect for nonsense, unspecified words or deeds.

Whau, aw'll begin o' thisn' then. It's whiff-whaff Stuart, -- snifterin' Finch yo'known Virtue has laft o' -- truth is fro' o'flown!

1854, Tim Bobbin, Samuel Bamford, The dialect of South Lancashire: or, Tim Bobbin's Tummus and Meary, page 4:

If you dinna lackey my lady you'll be in for a whiff-whaff o' her sharp temper.

1887, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, A Border Shepherdess: A Romance of Eskdale, page 96:

You need a seasoning of my penetration, and so on, etc' I shall further intimate that it was, after all, a mare's nest — a whiff-whaff of country say-so — etc., etc.

1894, Amelia E. Barr, The Flower of Gala Water: A Novel, page 197:

(Lancashire, obsolete) Nonsense, words or deeds of little import.

Never, never, wear any kind of a whiff-whaff or a thing-ama-bob on your hat.

1938, Loraine Osborn, Your Voice Personality, page 137:

Haughton, a great believer in the value of straight football, asked Warner the night before the game if he had pulled such "whiff- whaff," as Percy termed it.

1975, Jack Newcombe, The best of the athletic boys: the white man's impact on Jim Thorpe:

(Lancashire) Unnecessary items or additions.


bakstone

(UK, Lancashire, Yorkshire) Obsolete form of bakestone.


nowmun

(obsolete, UK, Lancashire, dialect, derogatory) A worthless person.


swind

en-verb

swind (third-person singular simple present swinds, present participle swinding, simple past and past participle swinded)

swinds (present singular third-person)
swinding (participle present)
swinded (participle past)
swinded (past)


dowsome

en-adj

dowsome (comparative more dowsome, superlative most dowsome)

more dowsome (comparative)
most dowsome (superlative)
doesome (alternative)
dosome (alternative)
dohsom (alternative)

My farand friends farewell ! so near my heart, / My dowsome cow, my good old mare, and cart !

(dialectal, Northern England, Lancashire) healthy; thriving


yigh

But, of course, both yigh and nay operate typically across sentence or utterance boundaries between two speakers, as: Person A. /a kɔɵnt dʏː ɪt/ ‘I can’t do it.’ Person B. /jaɪ ðɛ kɔn/ ‘Yigh (oh yes), thou can!’

1999, Graham Shorrocks, A Grammar of the Dialect of the Bolton Area (University of Bamberg Studies in English Linguistics; 42), part II (Morphology and Syntax), Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 206:

(UK, dialect, Lancashire) Yes, used when contradicting.


snackle

(Lancashire) A little snack; tiny tidbits of food


bally-warche

Th' singers couldn't get forrud for laughin'. One on 'em whisper't to Thwittler, an' axed him if his fiddle had getten th' bally-warche.

(Lancashire) Alternative spelling of bellywark.


bally-wartch

It edges my teeth wurr nor a railroad whitle when it's yeawlin like a kennol o' clemmed heawnd-shelps, or a donkey wi'th' bally-wartch.

1865, Benjamin Brierley, Irkdale, or, the Odd House in the Hollow, volume 1, page 26:


put the wood in the hole

en-verb

put the wood in the hole (third-person singular simple present puts the wood in the hole, present participle putting the wood in the hole, simple past and past participle put the wood in the hole)

puts the wood in the hole (present singular third-person)
putting the wood in the hole (participle present)
put the wood in the hole (participle past)
put the wood in the hole (past)
put t'wood int hole (alternative)
put wood in t’hole (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-put the wood in the hole.wav

Put t'wood i t'hoil at-after tha goes aat, Aw can't stan it when ther's a draft in here!

(idiomatic, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Manchester) To shut the door.


rootin' tootin'

Probably from rooting (“of a pig: that digs or turns up with its snout; that rummages or searches”, adjective), reduplicated with a change of the initial consonant; compare also toot (“to see; to spy”).

/ˈɹuːʔn̩ ˈtuːʔn̩/

[ˈɹuɾn̩ ˈtuɾn̩]

ROOTIN’, […] meddlesome, inquisitive. / He’s a rootin’''' tootin’ sort of a chap.

[1881 (date recorded), John H[oward] Nodal, George Milner, “ROOTIN’”, in A Glossary of the Lancashire Dialect (Publications of the Manchester Literary Club), part II (F–Z), Manchester: […] [F]or the [Manchester] Literary Club by Alexander Ireland & Co., […]; London: Trübner & Co., […], published April 1882, →OCLC, page 228:

(Lancashire, archaic, rare) Overly inquisitive about other's affairs; interfering, nosy.


seech

seech (third-person singular simple present seeches, present participle seeching, simple past and past participle sought or seeched)

seeches (present singular third-person)
seeching (participle present)
sought (participle past)
sought (past)
seeched (participle past)
seeched (past)

An alternative development of Middle English sēchen, seken, from Old English sēċan. Compare beseech (vs beseek).

"I have spokken for misel',—an' for thee too. To th' best o' my thinkin', Jone,—wherever yo finden folk yo'n find foos." "Well; it's th' likeliest shop to seech form 'em in, as how 'tis." "It is, owd lad; an' if yo leeten of onybody at o', yo connot go wrang."

1879, Edwin Waugh, The chimney corner, page 208:

Thereupon I went an' fotch'd Bob Howt an' Jem Ashworth to help me to seech^([sic]) for 'em, but o' to no use. So I said, 'What think'n yo' if they'n getten back to their owd shop? Let us goo seerch^([sic]) for 'em theer.'

1883, M. R. Lahee, Acquitted Though Guilty, Or, The Tenant of Wild Bank: A Lancashire Story, page 119:

His seechin for some time wur like Will Whistler's hunt for crabfish i' Snig Bruck—he couldn't clap his honds on wot he wanted.

1884, James Taylor Staton, Rays Fro Th' Loominary: A Selection of Comic Lancashire Tales Adapted for Public Reading Or Reciting, page 30:

Aw seeched for him till th' singing wur o'er, an' aw fund aw met as weel give it up; so aw gan it up, an' made mi way eaut o'th' palace. But th' gooin' eaut wurno' like th' gooin' in. Aw'd bowted at th' wrung dur, and getten amung th' carriages; ...

1896, Benjamin Brierley, "Ab-o'th'-Yate" Sketches and Other Short Stories in Three Volumes, page 51:

(possibly obsolete) Lancashire, West Country, and possibly other dialects' form of seek.


crookle

crookle (third-person singular simple present crookles, present participle crookling, simple past and past participle crookled)

crookles (present singular third-person)
crookling (participle present)
crookled (participle past)
crookled (past)

Equivalent to crook (“to bend”) + -le (frequentative or diminutive suffix). Compare Dutch kreukelen, Low German krökeln.

Joseph Wright
w:Joseph Wright (linguist)

G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons
w:G. P. Putnam's Sons

(obsolete, dialectal, East Midlands, Lancashire, Yorkshire) To bend; to make crooked.


cruckle

cruckle (third-person singular simple present cruckles, present participle cruckling, simple past and past participle cruckled)

cruckles (present singular third-person)
cruckling (participle present)
cruckled (participle past)
cruckled (past)

From earlier crookle (“to bend, twist, make crooked”), equivalent to crook (“to bend”) + -le (frequentative suffix). Compare Dutch kreukelen, Low German krökeln.

suf

The resident, who does not want to be named, was walking along the street on Sunday (1 November) morning when she suddenly cruckled over on her ankle and fell on her hands, resulting in cuts and bruises.

2015 November 4, “Woman injured after falling on damaged pavement in Middleton”, in Rochdale Online:

As they continued she tried to think what to do and pretended to stumble, after which she faked a slight limp. ¶ ‘Stop pretending to limp.’ ¶ ‘I'm not pretending. I twisted my foot when I cruckled.’

2017, Anna Jacobs, One Quiet Woman, Hachette UK:

The slip said: "Holly cruckled whilst running" and he had no idea what it meant. […] Apparently, as many of you will already know, it means 'going over on your ankle'.

2018 October 23, Emma Gill, “Is it a Rochdale thing? The school accident slip that left Holly's London dad absolutely baffled”, in Manchester Evening News:

(Rochdale, dialectal, intransitive) To stumble after inverting or everting one's foot; to roll (but not necessarily sprain) one's ankle.


notchel

to cry notchel; the practice of notchel crying

(obsolete, UK, dialect, Lancashire) The repudiation of a wife by her husband, who thereby refuses to pay her debts.


likkle

en-adj

likkle (comparative more likkle, superlative most likkle)

more likkle (comparative)
most likkle (superlative)

Borrowed from Jamaican Creole likkle, from English little.

But I roll deep on these / Show these likkle MCs about greaze / Show these likkle MCs about me / I was on my steeze from 2003

2017, Stormzy, Karl Joseph, Dizzee Rascal, “Return of the Rucksack” (track 11), in Gang Signs & Prayer, performed by Stormzy:

A likkle bit of brown for my twitter TL too🤎

2021 April 20, @WirthMaisha, Twitter, archived from the original on 2023-07-23:

Got myself my car / Bagged my degree / Got myself a likkle apartment

2022 December 28, @xhosa_aquarian, Twitter, archived from the original on 2023-07-23:

(Caribbean, MTE, MLE, Yorkshire, Lancashire, slang) Little.


halliblash

(UK, Lancashire, dialect, obsolete) A great blaze, or something that dazzles.


fefnicute

fefnicutes (plural)
faffnecute (alternative)
feffnecute (alternative)

Aw’v no payshuns we um un ther kaps o liberte; ther naut but o parsel o feffnecutes, powsedurts us they r.

1856 [1851], anonymous ["a fellow from Rochdale"], O Ful, Tru, un Pertikler Okeawnt o Bwoth Wat Aw Seed un Wat Aw Yerd We Gooin To Th' Greyt Eggshibishun e Lundun, 3rd edition, Wrigley and Son, page 46:

"What mak o' lennock faffnecutes an' ricklin bandyhewits are they? Tell me some sthrong words, Weighver; aw've noane 'at con do justice to sich heighvy-keighvy pickhawms!"

1895, John Trafford Clegg, “Calder Valley”, in The Works of John Trafford Clegg, "Th' Owd Weighver.": Stories, Sketches, and Rhymes in the Rochdale Dialect, Clegg, page 397:

Just prior to V-J (Victory over Japan) Day, this fefnicute Lin Piao visited Chungking to pay respects to his Commandant and preceptor.

1964–1965 (published 1968), Soong May-ling, Selected Speeches, 1965-1966, page 195:

Later that evening she rang me, calling the locum some choice names, including fefnicute. The fefnicute had refused to put a filling in her painful tooth, because, he said, she was under the weather.
She said that the word meant a miserable git, a mean, sneaking fellow. It was a Lancashire word she remembered from childhood.

2011 September 9, Diarmaid Ó Muirithe, Words We Don't Use (Much Anymore): The Meaning of Words And Where They Come From, Gill & Macmillan Ltd, →ISBN:

(Lancashire) A two-faced, sneaky person.


pantle

From Middle English pantelle (cf. pontel), from paunter, or either a variant of panter or a word derived from the same source (Anglo-Norman panter). Appears already by the 15th century. By surface analysis, panter + -le (“suffix forming diminutives”).

surf

(obsolete, Lancashire) Alternative form of panter (“A net or noose for catching birds”) applying only to snares or gins made of hair.


bread-fleigh

he also made bread- or "brade- fleighs" (the latter syllable with a guttaral sound), to hang horizontally under the kitchen ceiling — rectangular wooden frames several feet square, with cross-bars of wood or cord, on which might be placed the oat-cake bread to dry and harden;

1980, Roger Elbourne, Music and Tradition in Early Industrial Lancashire, 1780-1840, page 127:

(Lancashire, obsolete) Synonym of bread flake.


brade-fleigh

When I asked a villager whether Gamershaw Boggart was ever seen now, he said, "Naw; we never see'n no baggarts neaw; nobbut when th' brade-sleigh's empty!"

1857, Edwub Waugh, Lancaster Sketches, page 79:

Joe and I found seated by the fire, blowing clouds of tobacco smoke towards the brade sleigh over his head, whereon were hung the wafer-like ovals of oaten cakes;

1898 October 26, J.Marshall Mather, “Factory Idylls”, in North-western Christian Advocate, volume 46, page 15:

(Lancashire, obsolete) Alternative form of bread-fleigh.


brade-flake

(Lancashire, obsolete) Alternative form of bread flake.


lozzuck

en-verb

lozzuck (third-person singular simple present lozzucks, present participle lozzucking, simple past and past participle lozzucked)

lozzucks (present singular third-person)
lozzucking (participle present)
lozzucked (participle past)
lozzucked (past)
lossack (alternative)
lozzack (alternative)
lozzerk (alternative)
lozzick (alternative)
lozzock (alternative)

She spent the weekend lozzucking on the sofa.

(Shropshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, Staffordshire) to lounge, loaf

Lancashire; Cheshire; Staffordshire; Lancashire; Cheshire; Staffordshire