wariangle

wariangles (plural)
warriangle (alternative)

From Middle English wariangel, weryangle, possibly from Old English *weargincel with the second element reanalyzed as *weargengel. Compare Old English wearg (“outlaw, criminal”), German Würgengel (“destroying angel, destroyer, killer”), -incel (“diminutive suffix”) and English worry.

This was Charles Albert de Luines, a gentleman of the country of Avignon, who was introduced to a familiarity with Louis XIII. by breaking wariangles to catch sparrows.

1768, Adrien Richer, Great events from little causes. Or, A selection of interesting and entertaining stories, drawn from the histories of different nations, etc, page 204:

[…] the young monarch when he was one day amusing himself with his wariangles, that being upwards of fixteen years of age, he was capable of taking the reins of government into his own hands, and that he ought to shake off the yoke which his mother and Concini had imposed on him[…]

1792, The Historical magazine; or, Classical library of public events, page 182:

[page 95:] '[…] what is that bird?' 'It is a shrike, a great grey shrike. Some say wariangle.' [page 104:] '[…] There is your wariangle again, carrying a mouse, upon my word.' Stephen spoke of shrikes he had known [page 117:] […] to make his apologies to Sophie: 'he had been contemplating on wariangles, and had overlooked the time.'

2011 December 5, Patrick O'Brian, The Commodore (Vol. Book 17) (Aubrey/Maturin Novels), W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, pages 95-117:

By one rill, where low tangled hawthorn and gorse grew among the long sea grass, she found a row of tiny wrens and mouse pups spiked on thorns: the work of the wariangle, the butcher-bird. She walked half a mile inland,[…]

2013 November 12, Nicola Griffith, Hild: A Novel, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 347:

(UK, largely obsolete, rare outside dialects) Any of various aggressive shrikes of the genus Lanius, such as the red-backed shrike or great grey shrike, sometimes known as butcherbirds.


showhome

showhomes (plural)
show home (alternative)

(UK) A house that is furnished and shown to prospective home-buyers as an example of the kind of house they may buy.


ringlestone

(UK, obsolete) The ringed dotterel, or ringed plover.


atself

"Ach sure, there's no harm in the one drink atself, but wasn't Mrs. Farrell telling us Father had an extra twelve last night after his tay?"

(UK dialectal, Ireland) Actually; really.

(UK dialectal, Ireland) Merely; even; only so much as.


attern

en-adj

attern (comparative more attern, superlative most attern)

more attern (comparative)
most attern (superlative)

From Middle English attern, from Old English ǣtren (“poisoned, poisonous, venomous”), from Proto-West Germanic *aittrīn (“poisonous”). Equivalent to atter + -en.

inh

(UK dialectal, of people) Cruel; fierce; ill-natured.


theatre blues

Blue clothing is worn in an operating theatre.


wisket

a workman is constantly employed, with a perforated ladle, to take out the marine salt, which now begins to form, and fall to the bottom of the boiler; this, being thrown into a wisket, drains into the boiler

a. 1794, Thomas Green Fesseden, A Treatise on Saltpetre:

(UK, obsolete, dialect) A whisket, or basket.


gawn

(obsolete, UK, dialect) A small tub or lading vessel.


cartbote

(UK, law, obsolete) un medieval Brirain, wood to which a tenant was entitled for making and repairing carts and other domestic instruments


mulley

Leave milking and dry up old mulley, thy cow.

1573, Thomas Tusser, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry:

Little brother must be good, little brother mustn't cry, little brother's going to get a drop of milk from his good old Mulley.

2020, Steigrumur J. Porsteinsson, Einar H. Kvaran, Jón Trausti, 7 best short stories - Iceland:

Although not remarkably up in the world himself, yet he took care that the "mulley," at least, should occupy an elevated position in life; and so he had his stable on the flat roof, at the very top of the house, which is a high one; and he used to walk up and down the long flights of stairs which connected his home with the street below, "like a Christian," as we were once informed.

1864, Kingsbridge Estuary, with Rambles in the Neighbourhood, page 56:

Being but a little lad, I felt much afraid; With the hazel-rod I had, On the "mulley laid; Donkey kicked and ran away, And to get out of my way Turned into a field of hay, Where awhile he stayed.

1866, Samuel Wills, The British Chief and Other Poems, page 45:

'What is a mulley, father?' 'Why a thing, Jan, what had a jack-ass for his father and a 'oss for his mother.'

1933, Report and Transactions - The Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, page 346:


allotmenteer

(UK, informal) a person who grows crops in an allotment


allotmenteering

(UK, informal) The growing of crops in an allotment.


gim

en-adj

gim (comparative more gim, superlative most gim)

more gim (comparative)
most gim (superlative)


muxy

muxy (comparative more muxy, superlative most muxy)

more muxy (comparative)
most muxy (superlative)

I couldn't and wouldn't live in such a muxy kitchen.

1913, Amanda Minnie Douglas, A Modern Cinderella:

(UK, dialect, archaic) soft, sticky, or dirty


menseless

Borrowed from Scots menseless, equivalent to mense + -less.

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) destitute of grace, propriety, or moderation; uncivil; immoderate


feodary

(UK, law) An ancient officer of the Court of Wards


tithingman

tithingmen (plural)
tithing-man (alternative)
tything-man (alternative)
titheman (alternative)
tithe-man (alternative)

(UK, law) A peace officer; an underconstable.


ferk

en-verb

ferk (third-person singular simple present ferks, present participle ferking, simple past and past participle ferked)

ferks (present singular third-person)
ferking (participle present)
ferked (participle past)
ferked (past)

(UK) To rummage, in order to search for something; to dig amongst articles or move things aside in order to try and find something.


frine

frine (third-person singular simple present frines, present participle frining, simple past and past participle frined)

frines (present singular third-person)
frining (participle present)
frined (participle past)
frined (past)

Of North Germanic origin, akin to Swedish dialectal fryna (“to wrinkle up one's nose, make a wry face”), Norwegian frøyna (“to wrinkle up one's nose, make a wry face”). Perhaps related to frown.

cog

(intransitive, UK dialectal) To grumble, whine, or whimper; fret; show discontent; murmur; complain.


play gooseberry

en-verb

play gooseberry (third-person singular simple present plays gooseberry, present participle playing gooseberry, simple past and past participle played gooseberry)

plays gooseberry (present singular third-person)
playing gooseberry (participle present)
played gooseberry (participle past)
played gooseberry (past)

"Well, new experiences are broadening. Come along, and you'll be able to sympathize with all poor souls who have to play gooseberry often.

1915, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “In the Park”, in Anne of the Island:

What do you do at night in cars? — I have never been in cars. Never in a car at night? — Only with my sister's young man. Do you play gooseberry? — No. My sister's young man often takes me and the children for a little drive.

1930 April 11, The Brunswick and Coburg Gazette, Moonee Ponds, Vic, page 1, column 4:

(dated, UK slang) To be an unwanted third party accompanying two lovers, to serve as a chaperon.

κρατώ το φανάρι (krató to fanári, literally “to hold the lamp”)


kick bollocks scramble

en-noun

kick bollocks scramble (plural kick bollocks scrambles)

As the project came to an end, it was all a bit of a kick bollocks scramble.

So it's a kick bollocks scramble to try and get funding in place, to get all the contracts, to get everything agreed.

2013, David Hesmondhalgh, Sarah Baker, Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries, page 99:

(idiomatic, slang, British) A free for all or panic situation.


fristing

From Middle English fristing, frestynge, equivalent to frist + -ing.

(UK dialectal) A delay; suspension; postponement.


murth

From Middle English murth, morth, from Old English morþ (“death, destruction, homicide, murder; deadly sin”), from Proto-West Germanic *morþ, from Proto-Germanic *murþą (“death, murder”), from Proto-Indo-European *mr̥tós (“dead”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to die”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Moort (“murder”), West Frisian moard (“murder”), German Low German Moord (“murder”), German Mord (“murder”), Danish mord (“murder”), Swedish mord (“murder”), Icelandic morð (“murder”).


tonguey

From Middle English tungy, tungi, equivalent to tongue + -y. Compare Old English tynġe (“fluent, eloquent, skillful”).

cog

Give me a kiss. No, open your mouth, I want a tonguey.

1992, Louis Nowra, Così, Sydney: Currency Press, published 1994, act 2, scene 5, page 86:

He walked her to her house and received one last lingering Christmas tonguey under the mistletoe that hung above the door.

2004, Ben Elton, chapter 20, in Past Mortem, London: Bantam, page 200:

(Australia, UK) An act or an instance of kissing that involves the use of one's tongue.


bix

I was just wondering what everyone else has in their respective Coffee/Tea […]
please specify what food stuffs that you have been known to dunk.

2000 January 5, "blackbat" <XXXbtinternet.com>, "Re: the spy who loved tea", message-ID <38760635.2776140@news.btinternet.com>, alt.2eggs.sausage.beans.tomatoes.2toast.largetea.cheerslove, Usenet

Make sure you have plenty of tea/coffee and choccy bix on hand when they show up!

2003 March 3, Chris Comley <Chris_@spamdeath.kill.die.wizards.co.uk>, "Re: Home Highway - ADSL", message-ID <1oq76vo4gduo15ukcgrdr7e0cecibp8bs2@4ax.com>, uk.telecom.broadband, Usenet

btw, the bix are Albert (NAITUK), Lincoln, Jammie Dodger, (Jaffa Cake - NAB), Thin Arrowroot, Malted Milk, Nice, Hobnob.

2005 September 10, Adrian Bailey <dadgehotmail.com>, "Re: [=SDC=] Q46. A cup of tea's too wet without one....", message-ID <kLwUe.16493$k22.12458@fe2.news.blueyonder.co.uk>, alt.usage.english, Usenet


pingle

Matthew Smith, by his will, bearing date 20th February 1713, left two alms-houses which he had built, and four closes of land, part freehold and part copyhold, lying in the Hoppings, near Hopping-hill, in the liberty of Belper, containing, by estimation, 13 acres: and a pingle, containing half an acre, to George Gregory, esq. of Nottingham, and Thomas Goodwin, esq. of Derby, and their heirs, to the intent that the yearly rents and profits thereof should be faithfully employed by them, for and towards the relief of two poor people, to be fifty years of age when placed in the said alms-houses, the same to be paid to them quarterly.

1833, Stephen Glover, Thomas Noble, The History, Gazetteer, and Directory of the County of Derby, page 104:

In 1619, John Chipsey and his wife Ellen surrendered lands in Scotter at le Clowehole," and "a pingle at the woodside," Manor Records, sub anno.

This was the case with a pingle wall erected on the waste c. 1750 by the then owner of the Throckmorton—Murcott—Wheeler—Smith holding.

1914, Sydenham Henry Augustus Hervey, Ladbroke and Its Owners, page 272:

Martyn Browne, Esq., paid a fat turkey, or two shillings, in rent for a 'pingle'—a small piece of enclosed land—there.

2014, Caitlin Green, The Streets of Louth, page 279:

(obsolete, UK, dialect) A small piece of enclosed ground.


pingle

en-verb

pingle (third-person singular simple present pingles, present participle pingling, simple past and past participle pingled)

pingles (present singular third-person)
pingling (participle present)
pingled (participle past)
pingled (past)

all this while when we haue beene at the Lords spirituall feasts, wee haue but pingled, and neuer made a good meale.

1616, Thomas Stoughton, Two Profitable Treatises, page 188:

The Liberal and Conservative rivals of the Socialist whole hoggers may nibble at Socialism as John Browdie pingled with the crust of the Yorkshire pie, but dry nurse and coddle the electors as they will, neither Free Traders nor Tariff Reformers can approach the large, divine, and comfortable creed of the Socialist whole hogger.

1911, Arnold White, The Views of 'Vanoc,': An Englishman's Outlook, page 319:

This man complained of burning pains in the stomach, he pingled his food.

1952, Homoeopathic World - Volume 87, page 121:

(intransitive, UK, dialect) To eat with a feeble appetite.

He pingled his wey tae the first o the moontain's three fause peaks an wis hauf-roads tae the second when a voice rang oot across the hills like a thunder plump.


rescussor

(law, UK, obsolete) One who makes an unlawful rescue; a rescuer


fleaking

A narrow eaves-board being nailed across the feet of the spars, and some fleaking scattered on, the thatcher begins to “set his caves,” by laying a coat of reed[…]

1787, John Collier, A View of the Lancashire Dialect, or, Tummus and Mar:

(British, dialectal, obsolete) In a thatched building: a light covering of reeds, over which the main covering is laid.


mootman

(law, UK, obsolete) One who argued moot trial]]s in the Inns of Court.


teinland

(UK, law, obsolete) Land granted by the crown to a thane or lord


sarplar

sarplars (plural)
sarpler (alternative)
sarplier (alternative)

(UK, obsolete) A large bale or package of wool, containing eighty tods, or 2,240 pounds, in weight.


inceptor

And in the year 1576. Febr. 23. Mr. Hookers Grace was given him for Inceptor of Arts, Doctor Herbert Weſtphaling, a man of note for Learning, being then Vice-chancellour [of the University of Oxford].

1670, Izaak Walton, “The Life of Mr. Rich[ard] Hooker, the Author of Those Learned Books of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity”, in The Lives of Dr. John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Mr. Richard Hooker, Mr. George Herbert. […], volume III, London: […] Tho[mas] Newcomb for Rich[ard] Marriott, […], →OCLC, pages 21–22:

(UK) One who is on the point of taking a Master of Arts degree at an English university.


hatchboat

(nautical, UK, historical) A type of fishing boat found mostly in southern England in the 19th century, whose deck consisted of many movable hatches.


SEP

Surrendered Enemy Personnel
w:Surrendered Enemy Personnel

(UK, military) Initialism of Surrendered Enemy Personnel.


bencher

There is Pump Court and Fountain Court, with their hydraulic apparatus, but one never heard of a bencher disporting in the fountain; and can’t but think how many a counsel learned in the law of old days might have benefited by the pump.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 30, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

(British, obsolete, law) One of the senior governing members of an Inn of Court.

ten of them Aldermen, or chief Benchers

1719, Elias Ashmole, The Antiquity of Berkshire:

(UK, obsolete) An alderman of a corporation.


PCT

en-noun

PCT (countable and uncountable, plural PCTs)

(UK, medicine) Initialism of primary care trust.


haybote

From Middle English haibote, haybote, heibote, heyboote, heybote; equivalent to hay (“hedge”) + bote; compare hedgebote.

haybote or hedgebote is wood for repairing of hays,

1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

(UK, law, obsolete) An allowance of wood to a tenant for repairing his hedges or fences


hemmel

From Scots hemmel, hammel, dialectal English hemble (“hovel, stable, shed”), perhaps allied to Dutch hemel (“heaven, canopy”), German Himmel. Compare English heaven.

Cattle kept in hemmels should always have their food may be stated that the roofs of all the buildings should given to them in the sheds

1864 June, John Ewart, “The Profitable Management of Farms in the Vicinity of Large Towns”, in The Farmer's Magazine:

(UK, dialect, Northumbria) A shed or hovel for cattle.


hemmel

Compare dialectal Swedish hammel (“little bar or beam”).

The bridge was narrow, with barely enough room for one to cross at a time. So they barred her way, the leader clutching the hemmel (handrail) on either side.

(UK, dialect, Yorkshire) A handrail, especially one fitted on one side of a planked or wooden bridge.


gavelet

(law, UK, obsolete or historical) A certain kind of writ historically used in Kent and London for the recovery of rent.


staithman

(UK) A man employed in weighing and shipping at a staith.


muffetee

Worsteds are more suitable for men's and women's stockings . Wools for children's stockings , or for muffetees , ruffs , and other lighter articles of wear , which should be soft and warm

(UK, dialect) A small muff worn over the wrist.


snift

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.

Good Lorjus, Meary ! theawrt so hasty; so I clum th' steeigh in o snift, shoavt th' awts eawt, an smackt me riddle oth' hoyle.

1746, Samuel Bamford, Tim Bobbin's Tummus, page 15:

He frowned, and sent snifts of snow and symptoms of rain that dampened the ardor of the golf contingent and made things murky and dreary outside.

1914, “Progress in the Mvement to Promote the Brick Industry”, in The Clay-worker, volume 61, page 652:

Mingled labdanum w'fine snift of myrrh, to enhaunt her nautical J-chamois

(UK dialectal, uncountable) A light dusting, as of snow.


strenth

(archaic or UK dialectal, Scotland) Alternative spelling of strength.


scrage

en-verb

scrage (third-person singular simple present scrages, present participle scraging, simple past and past participle scraged)

scrages (present singular third-person)
scraging (participle present)
scraged (participle past)
scraged (past)

(UK, transitive, Bristol, Birmingham) To scrape or graze (typically one's knee).

Bristol; Birmingham; Bristol; Birmingham


scrage

(UK, Bristol, Birmingham) A scrape or graze.


elisor

French éliseur, from élire to choose, from Latin ēligō. See elect.

Maryland Rules of Court, 1985: When the sheriff is a party to or interested in an action so as to be disqualified from serving or executing process, the court, on application of any interested party, may appoint an elisor to serve or execute the process.

(law, chiefly UK) An elector or chooser; one of two persons appointed by a court to return a jury or serve a writ when the sheriff and the coroners are disqualified.


bink

From Middle English bink, binke, variants of Middle English benk, benke, from Old English benc (“bench”), from Proto-West Germanic *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz. More at bench.

He bouns him to the house, An' sits him doon upo' the bink, An' plaits a theet, or mends a mink, To sair an aifter use .

1877, William Alexander, “Domestic Industries and Out-door Labour”, in Notes and Sketches Illustrative of Northern Rural Life in the Eighteenth Century, page 144:

In comes the tod (fox) whiskin, whiskin, an he sits doon o' the green bink.

1885, “The Lion, The Leper, and the Tod”, in The Folk-lore Journal - Volume 3, page 269:

Sitting here in the park bink, Alane - yet no aa that alane.

1987, Alexander Scott, Voices of Our Kind: An Anthology of Modern Scottish Poetry, page 64:

(UK, Northern England, Scotland, dialect) A bench.

According to the most painstaking among our etymologist, the name was first conferred upon one who, in his attendance upon weddings and other convivial occasions, rendered himself so agreeable to the company by his skill in whistling, that he was allowed to sit at the bink, or board , and partake of the good things free of all expense; an honour , in the early ages of our history , which was only conferred on the highest degree of merit.

1832, “Whistle-binkie: a Collection of Comic and Sentimental Songs”, in Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, and Sciences, page 501:

In front of the entrance to Alexander's booth there used to stand "a stane bink" which was employed "for outsetting of stands affore the buith."

1891, Alexander Maxwell, Old Dundee, page 193:

His wife may ay sit foremost doun, At either buird or bink, Gang foremost in at door or yett, And ay the first guid-day wald get, With all men honourit and weel-tret As ony heart wald think.

1908, Frederick William Watkeys, Old Edinburgh, page 234:

(UK, Northern England, Scotland, dialect) A table or similar surface for laying out items.

We have it in a manuscript; the good-man keeps it, as we think, Behind a dish, upon the bink.

1684, John Colvil., “Mock Poem”, in The Teares of the Muses:

The bink took the place of the modern dresser , and on it were arranged the bowls and tinnies for family use, while underneath were placed the pails, pots, and other cooking utensils.

1911, Old-lore Miscellany of Orkney, Shetland, Caithness, and Sutherland,- Volume 4:

His wife on the one side, in her pearlings and pudding sleeves, put the last finishing touch to her holiday's apparel, while she contemplated a very handsome and good-humored face in a broken mirror, raised upon the bink (the shelves on which the plates are disposed ) for her special accommodation.

1999, Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy. A legend of Montrose. The bridge of Lammermoor. The monastery, page 375:

(UK, Northern England, Scotland, dialect) A sideboard or shelf unit for holding dishes.

Up thro' the cleughs, where bink on bink was set, Scrambling wi' hands and feet she taks the gate,

1842, Alexander Ross, Helenore; or, The fortunate shepherdess, page 17:

We peer over the edge—it is far more pleasant to kneel down on one knee and steady oneself with one hand, besides being safer, in the event of the edge being rotten or should a wind be blowing—we peer over the edge, and see the fox run lightly along a slightly projecting crag, from which with a sidelong scramble up a rough rock face, it reaching a narrow grassy "bink" ledge, and there it is binked as safe as the Church of England ( just about ) .

1902, Claude Ernest Benson, Crag and Hound in Lakeland, page 240:

Without a stick a man would climb down sideways from bink to bink.

1902, Claude Ernest Benson ·, Crag and Hound in Lakeland, page 18:

There was a man did that up on that bink, a hundred years or more ago, two hundred more like, for there was no gun in Nardale then.

1911, Abraham Wren Rumney, The Dalesman, page 127:

(UK, Northern England, Scotland, dialect) A mountain ledge.

They carry on the section, or the bink as they term it, of a convenient depth for easier cutting, frequently using the moss of least value above, and leaving that which is of much greater value.

1811, William Aiton, A Treatise on the Origin, Qualities, and Cultivation of Moss-earth, page 145:

We go on in this manner until the bink is out, that is, taken out down to the level of last year's hole. Bink after bink is excavated until the whole block that was turred is removed, and now as the most valuable part is under our feet we have to commence to "sink."

1892, “Peat, Its Use and Value for Fuel”, in Report of the Bureau of Mines - Volumes 1-4, page 188:

Och, an' I ken folk mysel' that found an iron pot o' doubloons in the peat bink; but aul ' Tchonie, he just takes what he will be needin', and he takes it at night when the folks are abed.

2022, John Sillars, The McBrides: A Romance of Arran:

(UK, Northern England, Scotland, dialect) A long cut in peat moss, marking a section from which blocks of peat are cut.

This splendid attire, however, saves them not from being rudely handled; and we remember the day when an artificial bink, that is , a little box made of clay , with a piece of glass at one end , and a sprinkling of sugar at the other , contained as many captives in proportion to its size as the black hole at Calcutta .

1840, James Duncan, The Natural History of Bees, page 240:

Just that –no that I'm sure that there are ony honey-bees in Arthur's seat, but there's plenty of bum-bees, and aiblins a wasp bink. "

1856, Archibald Boyd, The Crown Ward - Volume 3, page 143:

On 19th July I examined old hive, turned it completely up on its side: combs nearly black, two at one side as musty as an old wasp's bink: decided to clear them out on Monday.

(UK, Northern England, Scotland, dialect) A hive.


bink

bink (third-person singular simple present binks, present participle binking, simple past and past participle binked)

binks (present singular third-person)
binking (participle present)
binked (participle past)
binked (past)

On June 2nd, the last day of this season, Bowman spent six hours extricating as many hounds who had got themselves binked on Catle Crag in Mardale.

1902, A. G. Bradley, “Fox-hunting in the Lake Country”, in Macmillan's Magazine, volume 86, page 196:

We peer over the edge—it is far more pleasant to kneel down on one knee and steady oneself with one hand, besides being safer, in the event of the edge being rotten or should a wind be blowing—we peer over the edge, and see the fox run lightly along a slightly projecting crag, from which with a sidelong scramble up a rough rock face, it reaching a narrow grassy "bink" ledge, and there it is binked as safe as the Church of England (just about).

A fox gets 'binked,' as they call it, or banked, and some one must go up on an almost inaccessible crag to put in the terrier; and a man must know the country, and the probable run of every fox that gets up in front of the hounds .

1903, Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley, Lake Country Sketches, page 196:

The hounds drove him into Dead Crag, where he binked.

1903 January 10, West Cumberland Times, page 2:

(UK, Northern England, Scotland, dialect, foxhunting) To shelter or become trapped on a ledge or crag.

On June last he caused his servants cast a number of "peittis for elding unto his hous in the mosse of belonging to him heritablie, and they having binked the same and left thame in the mosse , " returned home to their master's house at night .

1900, The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland - Volume 2, page 516:

(UK, Northern England, Scotland, dialect) To cut a bink in peat moss.


water-gang

Forty shillings per acre is the price taken for banks, ditches, and water gangs

1832, Joseph and Edward Parker (editors), The Edinburgh Encyclopædia:

(UK, law, obsolete) A passage for water, such as was usually made in a sea wall, to drain water out of marshes.


toadly

en-adj

toadly (comparative more toadly, superlative most toadly)

more toadly (comparative)
most toadly (superlative)

From a corruption of towardly (“comely, nice, pleasant, queem”).

(UK dialectal) Quiet; gentle; docile; easily managed; kindly; well-contented.


sibberidge

sibridge (alternative)
sibbered (alternative)
sibberet (alternative)
siberet (alternative)
sibret (alternative)

(UK dialectal) The banns of marriage, or the act of publishing thereof.


roostcock

No matter whether his nag have the stringhalt, and steps like a roostcock, or has wind-galls the size of bladders, or has been fired till his legs resemble a scored griskin, the BUTCHER's Boy braves every competitor in the race

(UK, dialect, obsolete) The male of the domestic fowl; a cock.


forktail

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909

(UK, dialect, obsolete) A salmon in its fourth year of growth.


hawkey

hawkeys (plural)
hockey (alternative)
horkey (alternative)


swainmote

swainmotes (plural)
swanimote (alternative)
sweinmote (alternative)

From swain + mote. Compare Latin swanimotum.

The court of sweinmote is to be holden before the verderors, as judges, by the steward of the sweinmote, thrice in every year, the sweins or freeholders within the forest composing the jury.

1766, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, page 71:

(UK, law, obsolete or historical) A court held before the verderers of the forest as judges, by the steward of the court, three times a year, the swains or freeholders of the forest composing the jury.


roughings

(UK, dialect) rowen; a second crop of hay


seat sale

(Canada, British) A sale of reduced-price airline tickets.


stulp

From Middle English stulp, stulpe, from Old Norse stólpi (“post, pillar”), from Proto-Germanic *stulpô (“post, pole, pillar”), from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to be stiff”). Cognate with Icelandic stólpi, Swedish stolpe, Danish stolpe.

der

Or 'neath the hazel's leafy thatch, On a stulp or mossy ground

1821, John Care, The Village Minstrel: And Other Poems:

(UK, dialect) A short stout post used for any purpose, such as the marking of a boundary.


drabbet

en-noun

drabbet (countable and uncountable, plural drabbets)

drabbets (plural)
drabette (alternative)

(obsolete, UK) A coarse linen fabric, originally made from hemp.


furzeling

Sylvia undata
Sylvia undata#Translingual

(UK, archaic, dialect) An English warbler, Sylvia undata, the furze wren or Dartford warbler.


BOBFOC

Acronym of "body off Baywatch, face off Crimewatch".

Female Threes can be less than a Two and more than a Four for a variety of reasons: many MILFs* and GILFs* are Threes, as are BOBFOCs* and their opposite, FFTBBBs*.

2009, Kate Copstick, Jamie Maclean, Sex and the Recession, page 31:

She had never been a stunner, but she had had height and good legs and a good walk, and those three can take you a long way. These days she was what the boys on the squad call a BOBFOC: body off Baywatch, face off Crimewatch.

'So she was a BOBFOC?'
'A what?'

2011, Anita Notaro, Take A Look At Me Now, page 47:

(UK, colloquial, derogatory) Synonym of butterface (“a person with an attractive body but ugly face”).


FFA

Faculty of Actuaries
w:Faculty of Actuaries

(British) Initialism of Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries (professional qualification).


my Lord

your Grace

dukes, archbishops, the bishop of Meath and Kildare in Ireland, other bishops apart from British English

peers of the realm
peers of the realm#English

(UK) Used in direct address to peers of the realm, usually now excluding dukes and the Lords Spiritual.

(UK) Used in direct address to bishops, particularly Anglican ones.

(UK) Used in direct address to the Lord Mayors of certain important cities, including London and Canterbury.

(UK) Used in direct address to certain judges, particularly High Court Judges and above.


nutil

en-adj

nutil (comparative more nutil, superlative most nutil)

more nutil (comparative)
most nutil (superlative)

From or related to Middle English nytelen (“to struggle”). Cognate with North Frisian næteln, nöteln (“to hesitate, procrastinate, dawdle, work slowly”).


golding

head

golding (plural goldings or (obsolete) goldinges)

goldings (plural)
goldinges (obsolete plural)

First attested circa 1580; formed as gold + -ing.

(UK, North Midlands dialects) The corn marigold (Glebionis segetum).


firebote

(law, obsolete, UK) In Medieval England, an allowance of fuel.


wallbird

From wall + bird, from its frequent choice of nesting site.

(UK, dialect, obsolete, Norfolk, Suffolk) A bird, the spotted flycatcher.


roky

en-adj

roky (comparative more roky, superlative most roky)

more roky (comparative)
most roky (superlative)

They walked around in the roky damp, in silence.

1993, Annie Proulx, The Shipping News, Scribner, published 1999, →ISBN, page 40:


soal

From Middle English sol, sule, from Old English sol (“mud, wet sand, wallowing-place, slough, a mire or miry place”), from Proto-Germanic *sulą (“mire, mud”), from Proto-Indo-European *sūl- (“thick liquid, muck”). Compare sully. More at soil.

der

(UK, dialect) Alternative spelling of sole.


dudder

(UK, dated) A peddler or hawker, especially of cheap and flashy goods pretended to be smuggled; a duffer.


shooty

en-adj

shooty (comparative more shooty, superlative most shooty)

more shooty (comparative)
most shooty (superlative)

Increases of auxin up to 12 mg L–1 did not alter the shooty morphology of the callus.

2020, W. T. Frankenberger Jr., Muhammad Arshad, Phytohormones in Soils Microbial Production & Function:

(UK, dialect) Sprouting or coming up freely and regularly.


sweepage

en-noun

sweepage (countable and uncountable, plural sweepages)

This right is defined by Lord Coke to extend to the enjoyment of the corn, grass, underwood, sweepage (i.e. everything which falls to the sweep of the scythe), and the like, but not to houses, timber, trees, or mines, .or inany way to the land itself

2011, Robert Hunter, The Preservation of Open Spaces, and of Footpaths, and Other Rights of Way, →ISBN, page 61:

(UK, dialect) The crop of hay obtained from a meadow.


volyer

(UK, dialect, Cornwall) A smaller boat that follows the main fishing boat.


feoffment

From Old French feoffement, fieffement. Compare Latin feoffamentum.

(law, UK) A gift or conveyance in fee of land or other corporeal hereditaments, accompanied by actual delivery of possession


bumder

Blend of bummer + bender, both derogatory terms for a male homosexual.

oh you rigth what a bumder

1999 May 9th, SHS, 3dfx.products.voodoo3, “Re: Oh Well…” (see the original message)

Will McKenzie: Oh, you’d like my lip, wouldn’t you? Right round your bell-end! If Mr Chippy doesn’t get there first! What’s he gonna knock up? A closet for you to hide in? You… bumder!

2008 May 1, Damon Beesley, Iain Morris, The Inbetweeners, I:ii: “w:Bunk Off”, 11:35-11:45:

(UK, rare, derogatory slang) A male homosexual.


nudle

en-verb

nudle (third-person singular simple present nudles, present participle nudling, simple past and past participle nudled)

nudles (present singular third-person)
nudling (participle present)
nudled (participle past)
nudled (past)

Wierus tells of a Souldier, out of whose mouth whilest he was asleep a thing in the shape of a Weasel came, which nudling along in the grass, […]

1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book III, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 123

(intransitive, archaic, British) To walk quickly with the head bent forward.


TPE

Transpennine Express
w:Transpennine Express

(UK, rail transport) Abbreviation of Transpennine Express.


thrashel

Divested of their coats, with flail in hand,
At proper distance, front to front they stand;
And first, the thrashel's gentle swing to prove,
Whether with just exactness it will move

1828, William Vincent Moorhouse, The Thrasher:

(obsolete, UK, dialect) Alternative form of threshel.


subinfeudation

en-noun

subinfeudation (countable and uncountable, plural subinfeudations)

(UK, law, obsolete) The practice by which tenants, holding land under the king or other superior lord, carved out new and distinct tenures in their turn by subletting or alienating a part of their lands.


witchuck

(UK, dialect, obsolete) The sand martin, or bank swallow.


little-ease

[W]as not this fellovv's preaching a cauſe of all the trouble in Iſrael? VVas he not vvorthy to be caſt into bocardo or little eaſe?

1550, Hugh Latimer, “Sermon XIV. Preached before King Edward the Sixth and His Most Honourable Council, in His Court at Westminster, in the Year 1550.”, in The Sermons of the Right Reverend Father in God, Master Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester. […], volume I, London: […] J. Scott, […], published 1758, →OCLC, page 277:

(British, idiomatic, slang, obsolete) The pillory, stocks, etc., of a prison.


beenship

Origin obscure. Perhaps from been, bene (“prayer, petition”) + -ship, and/or from dialectal bein, bien (“in good condition, well-to-do, cosy”) + -ship. More at bene, bein, bain.

(UK, obsolete, dialectal) Worship; goodness.


cloam

en-verb

cloam (third-person singular simple present cloams, present participle cloaming, simple past and past participle cloamed)

cloams (present singular third-person)
cloaming (participle present)
cloamed (participle past)
cloamed (past)
clome (alternative)
clomb (alternative)

From Middle English *clom, from Old English clām (“paste, mortar, mud, clay, poultice”), from Proto-West Germanic *klaim, from Proto-Germanic *klaimaz (“clay”), from Proto-Indo-European *gleym- (“to stick, smear”). Related to cleam, claim, clem.

der

(intransitive, UK dialectal) To gutter (as a candle).


tronator

(UK, obsolete) An officer responsible for weighing wool.


whinyard

Compare English dialect and Scots whingar, whinger; perhaps from Old English winn (“contention, war”) + geard, gyrd (“a staff, rod, yard”); or compare Old English [Term?] (“whistle”, verb), English whine.

(UK, dialect, obsolete) The shoveler, a type of duck.

(UK, dialect, obsolete) The pochard, a type of duck.


irestone

(archaic, UK, mining) Any very hard rock.


Con-Dem

Labour leadership approves the Con-Dem cuts (Dave Reid, Socialist Party website)

(derogatory, UK) Of or pertaining to the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government.


have the painters in

en-verb

have the painters in (third-person singular simple present has the painters in, present participle having the painters in, simple past and past participle had the painters in)

has the painters in (present singular third-person)
having the painters in (participle present)
had the painters in (participle past)
had the painters in (past)

(UK, slang, euphemistic, humorous) To menstruate; to be on one's period.


slutchy

en-adj

slutchy (comparative more slutchy, superlative most slutchy)

more slutchy (comparative)
most slutchy (superlative)

a. 1801, Thomas Pennant, quoted in The Natural History of British Shells
Mytilus pellucidus. Thin , transparent , with purple and blue longitudinal fasciæ. Inhabits England . Found in Anglesea , sometimes in oyster beds, sometimes in trowling over slutchy bottoms


skaddon

Borrowed from Ancient Greek σχαδών (skhadṓn, “larva of the bee or wasp”).

bor+

The reaſon is, that the vveather keeping them in, they can doe nothing but breed and hatch their schadons: and when they goe abroad, they bring in groſſe Bee meat, Ambroſia and vvater, vvherewith to feed them; but can finde nothing fit to lay vp in ſtore.

1623, Charles Butler, The Feminine Monarchie, London: Joseph Haviland, page 92:

This is a way hath been practised by the Ancients, and hath been much endeavoured after to be revived again, though not with any good success; for if you take away any part of their Combs in the Spring, they are then full of Skaddons, which spoil the Honey, and also destroy the breed of your Bees.

1669, John Worlidge, Systema Agriculturae, London: J. C., published 1675, page 186:

One ſays, in September, or any Time after they have done breeding (elſe the Honey will be corrupted by the Shaddens in the Combs) […]

1742, William Ellis, The Modern Husbandman, London: T. Osborne; M. Cooper, published 1744, page 107:

(UK, dialect, obsolete) The larva of a bee.


flight-shot

half a flight-shot from the king's oak

1826, [Walter Scott], Woodstock; Or, The Cavalier. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, →OCLC:

a very swift and clear stream run within a flight-shot from it in the valley

1680 April 28 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for April 18 1680]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC:

(UK, Scotland, dialect, dated) The distance to which an arrow or flight may be shot; bowshot; about a fifth of a mile.


twigger

[G]oe ye vvagge, / Youle be a tvvigger vvhen you come to age.

1594, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nash[e], The Tragedie of Dido Queene of Carthage: […], London: […] Widdowe Orwin, for Thomas Woodcocke, […], →OCLC, Act IV, signature F, verso:


tolsester

From Latin tolsestrum. Compare toll (“a tax”).

If any Alewife brewed Ale to sell, she was bound to satisfy the Lord for Tolsester.

1679, Thomas Blount, Fragmenta Antiquitatis: Ancient Tenures of land, and jocular customs of some manners:

(law, UK, obsolete) A toll or tribute of a sextary of ale, paid to the lords of some manors by their tenants in exchange for permission to brew and sell ale.


mobey

(British, informal) Alternative form of moby (“a mobile phone”).


sea drake

The gardener found birds frozen to their branches, yet at the base of the same tree, a flock of sea-drakes and hens were perfectly unharmed!

2024, David Marcum, The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories - Part XLIV:

(UK) The pewit gull, or sea cormorant (Corvus marinus)


burghmaster

(UK, mining, historical) An officer who directs and lays out the meres or boundaries for the workers.


tittlebat

“Speculations on the Source of the Hampstead Ponds, with Some Observations on the Theory of Tittlebats;”.

1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “Chapter 1”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC, page 1:

(UK, dialect, archaic) The three-spined stickleback.


drag up

en-verb

drag up (third-person singular simple present drags up, present participle dragging up, simple past and past participle dragged up)

drags up (present singular third-person)
dragging up (participle present)
dragged up (participle past)
dragged up (past)

It is said that the children of the very poor are not brought up, but dragged up.

(transitive, UK, figurative) To raise a child with insufficient discipline or instillment of social etiquette.


do for

do for (third-person singular simple present does for, present participle doing for, simple past did for, past participle done for)

does for (present singular third-person)
doing for (participle present)
did for (past)
done for (participle past)

Smoking did for him in the end.

She's done for!

"He's a cheery old card," muttered Harry to Jack / As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack. / * * * * * / But he did for them both by his plan of attack.

1918, Siegfried Sassoon, “The General”, in Counter-Attack and Other Poems:

—That bitch, that English whore, did for him, the shebeen proprietor commented. She put the first nail in his coffin.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[16]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part III [Nostos], page 604:

(transitive, British) To doom; to bring about the demise of someone; to injure or harm someone.

He was done for murder.

The police did him for conspiracy to commit burglary.

(transitive, British) To prosecute someone for a criminal offence.

I've left my key in my office in Manchester, my family are at Bournemouth, and the old woman who does for me goes home at nine o'clock.

1915, Frank Thomas Bullen, Recollections:

(UK, dated, intransitive) To work as a domestic servant for.


meresman

(UK, historical) An officer who ascertained and marks meres (boundaries) on maps.


fair crack of the whip

en-noun

fair crack of the whip (plural fair cracks of the whip)

We believe it is our duty to help these people, because we don't think they are getting a fair crack of the whip.

1927 March 7, “Mr. J. H. Thomas And Trade Unions”, in The Times, London, England, page 16:

1993, William Trethowan, interviewed, in Greg Wilkinson (editor) Talking About Psychiatry, page 43,
I never thought the Department of Psychiatry had a fair crack of the whip during my time in Birmingham. I was promised facilities, a new unit for psychiatry, none of which came to pass.

Yet style for Stoppard is not, as he feels it was for Oscar Wilde, the means and the end: ‘I′m not a writer who doesn′t care what things mean ... but despite myself I am a kind of writer who doesn′t give a fair crack of the whip to that meaning’ (Delaney, p.99).

2001, Terry Hodgson, The Plays of Tom Stoppard: For Stage, Radio, TV and Film, page 86:

2010, House of Lords, The British Film and Television Industries: Decline Or Opportunity? 1st Report of Session 2009-10, Volume II: Evidence, page 91,
Lord Inglewood: Then you intimated that you felt that your members were not getting a fair crack of the whip. Is that right?
Mr McVay: I think that previously we do not think that we were getting a fair crack of the whip. I think we have every chance now to exploit our content.

(UK, colloquial, informal) An equitable opportunity to achieve something; a fair go.


stonehatch

(UK, dialect, archaic) The ringed plover.


corsepresent

It was anciently usual to bring the mortuary to church along with the corpse when it came to be buried ; and thence it is sometimes called a corsepresent: a term which bespeaks it to have been once a voluntary donation

1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

(UK, law, historical) An offering made to the church at the interment of a dead body.


gapesing

(UK, dialect, West Country, Herefordshire, archaic) The act of gazing about; sightseeing.


tinet

(UK, obsolete) Brushwood and thorns for making and repairing hedges.


infang

en-verb

infang (third-person singular simple present infangs, present participle infanging, simple past and past participle infanged)

infangs (present singular third-person)
infanging (participle present)
infanged (participle past)
infanged (past)

From in- + fang. Compare Old English onfōn (past participle onfangen; "to take, receive, perceive, comprehend, accept, take to one’s self, sponsor, harbor, favor unrighteously, take hold of, undertake, undergo, begin, conceive").

gloss

past participle <i class="Latn mention" lang="ang">onfangen</i>; "to take, receive, perceive, comprehend, accept, take to one’s self, sponsor, harbor, favor unrighteously, take hold of, undertake, undergo, begin, conceive"

(transitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To draw or take in.


unalist

I do not deny but there are pluralists of great ecclesiastical merit; but I do deny that in general pluralists have greater merit than unalists […]

1795, Vicesimus Knox, The Spirit of Despotism:

(archaic, UK) A churchman who holds only one benefice.


bord service

bordar (or perhaps bord (“a board”)) + service

(UK, law, obsolete) Service due from a bordar; bordage.


billyboy

Most of these billyboys were small craft, seldom carrying more than 100 tons; but there were larger craft schooner rigged.

1951, Basil Greenhill, The Merchant Schooners, volume 2, page 94:

(UK, historical) A flat-bottomed river barge or coasting vessel, used for trade along the east coast.of England in the 19th century.


scrimption

There's not a scrimption left - not so much as the full of a thimble.

1859, Timothy Shay Arthur, Trials and Confessions of a Housekeeper, page 31:

(UK, dialect, archaic) A small portion; a little bit; a scrap.


proproctor

So it is the University that must go into action in defence of peace: and the University, its full strength mustered, consists of two Proctors, four Proproctors and eight or ten University police

1962, John Percy Vyvian Dacre Balsdon, Oxford Life:

(UK) An assistant proctor in a university.


aleconner

From ale + con + -er, from Old English cunnen (“to test”), from cunnian (“to test”).

(historical, UK) An officer, appointed yearly, who tasted ale (as well as bread), to ensure its quality. The role remains in the 21st century, albeit mostly ceremonial

(historical, UK) One of the officers chosen by the liverymen of London, England for inspecting the measures used in public houses.


McAlpine's Fusiliers

After Sir Robert McAlpine, a major employer of Irish workmen, and (possibly) the military appearance of a group of men with shovels over their shoulders.

He'd left his homeland at fifteen, seeking his fortune on the motorways of Britain with McAlpine's Fusiliers before migrating to Sydney.

2006, Kevin Noble, Baghdad Trucker, Durham: Northern Writers, page 92:

(Ireland, UK, informal) The Irish immigrant labour force in Britain in the early 20th century.


titterel

(UK, dialect, obsolete) A bird, the whimbrel.


doole

(UK, obsolete, historical) A small conical heap of earth, used in Sussex to mark the bounds of farms and parishes in the downs.


sea cob

lesser black-backed gull
lesser black-backed gull

great black-backed gull
great black-backed gull

(obsolete, UK) The gull (either the lesser black-backed gull or great black-backed gull)


esnecy

When, in the fourteenth century, the estates of the Corbets were divided amongst their co-heirs, Caus Castle, being of the esnecy of the elder sister, passed to the Barons Stafford.

1862, Collectanea Archæologica: Communications Made to the British Archaeological Association, volume 1, page 43:

In 1224 Walter de Besebroc and Joan his wife, Richard de Dunuar (or Dunnewer) and Agnes his wife were parceners of land in (Little) Newton, Northants.,[…]Walter and Joan had the esnecy; the inheritance extended into Rushton and Geddington, Northants.

1925, William Farrer, Honors and Knights' Fees, page 261:

[…]touching the purparty of Maud of the inheritance of William de Brehusa, father of Maud and Eleanor, whose heirs these are; of which inheritance the said Roger and Maud required esnecy, and thereof there was a plea in the said court[…].

1971, Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Preserved in the Public Record Office: 1258-1266, Great Britain: Public Record Office, page 13:

(UK, law, obsolete or historical) A prerogative given to the eldest coparcener (or whomever of the coparceners is so entitled by a court) to choose first after an inheritance is divided.


rattlewings

(archaic, UK, dialect) The goldeneye (duck)


piccage

Latin piccadium, from French piquer (“to prick”).

(law, UK, obsolete or historical) Money paid at fairs for permission to set up booths.


droitural

droitural actions

(UK, law, obsolete) Relating to the mere right of property, as distinguished from the right of possession.


ungain

en-adj

ungain (comparative more ungain, superlative most ungain)

more ungain (comparative)
most ungain (superlative)

From Middle English ungain, ungayn, ungein, equivalent to un- + gain (“suitable; convenient”). See ungainly.

she take th ' ungain'st weas she can

c. 1607–1611, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “Cupid’s Revenge”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

(obsolete or UK, dialect) ungainly; clumsy; awkward

(obsolete or UK, dialect) troublesome; inconvenient


stalder

Probably from Old Norse stallr (“a stall, pedestal, shelf”), from the same root as stall. Compare Danish stald (“a stall”).

uder

(UK, dialect) A wooden frame to set casks on.


feaberry

feaberries (plural)
faeberry (alternative)
faiberry (alternative)
fayberry (alternative)

Probably for *theveberry, from Middle English theve (“copse”). Compare feabe, theabe, thape, which is probably a clipping of this word (interpreted as *theabe-berry).

The best sauce for green geese is the juice of sorrel and sugar, mixed together with a few scladed feaberries and served upon sippets

1615, Gervase Markham, The English Huswife:


snet

Compare German Schnitt (“that which is cut”), from schneiden (“to cut”). Compare English snath.

deer's, goat's, or lamb's snet

1825, Samuel Adams and Sarah Adams, The Complete Servant:

(UK, obsolete, dialect) The fat of a deer.


opponency

This is only a Trick to turn off the Opponency

1699, Mr. Chandler, A True Narrative of the Portsmouth Disputation:

The chairman of the committee will be very glad to give you the opportunity to express your views, whether of proponency or opponency.

1935, “letter”, in Department of science, art and literature: Hearings before the Committee on Patents, page 112:

(UK) The act of opening an academic disputation; the proposition of objections to a tenet, as an exercise for a degree.


waly

O waly, waly, but love be bonnie

(archaic, UK, Scotland, dialect) An exclamation of grief.


lishey

en-adj

lishey (comparative more lishey, superlative most lishey)

more lishey (comparative)
most lishey (superlative)

(UK dialectal, Kent) Flexible; limber; bendsome.


thricecock

(UK, dialect, obsolete) the mistle thrush


shippen

shippens (plural)
shippon (alternative)
shipen (alternative)

From Middle English schipne, schepne, schüpene, from Old English scypen (“cow-shed, stall, shippen”), from Proto-Germanic *skupīnō (“stall”), diminutive of *skup- (“shed, barn”). Related to shop, shepen.

inh

(UK, archaic, dialectal) A stable; a cowhouse.


scatch

From French escache, from Italian scaccia.


stowboard

stowboards (plural)
stowbord (alternative)
stow-board (alternative)

(UK, obsolete, mining) A place where rubbish is put.


rosland

en-noun

rosland (countable and uncountable, plural roslands)

From Welsh rhos (“a meadow, a moor”) + land.

Oh, Melanie […] You used to love […] The billowing of the green marsh-grass, […] You used to love the tinging, cool / Plash of the heron in the pool / Of the wide roslands by Bel' Île, […]

1899, Florence Wilkinson, “Melanie à Melançon”, in The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, volume 58, page 435:


hawm

en-verb

hawm (third-person singular simple present hawms, present participle hawming, simple past and past participle hawmed)

hawms (present singular third-person)
hawming (participle present)
hawmed (participle past)
hawmed (past)

Guzzlin' an' soäkin' an' smoäkin' an' hawmin' about i' the laanes, […]

1880, Tennyson, Ballads and Other Poems, The Northern Cobbler:


gripple

en-adj

gripple (comparative more gripple, superlative most gripple)

more gripple (comparative)
most gripple (superlative)
grippal (alternative)
griple (alternative)
grippill (alternative)

From Middle English gripel, from Old English gripol, gripul (“able to grasp much; capacious”); equivalent to grip + -le.

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Griping; tenacious; gripping.

Still as he rode, he gnasht his teeth to see
Those heapes of gold with griple Covetyse

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

It is easy to observe, that none are so gripple and hard fisted, as the childless […]

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Grasping; greedy; snatchy; mean; niggardly; avaricious, covetous.


socman

(UK, law, obsolete) One who holds lands or tenements by socage; a socager.


shackly

shackly (comparative more shackly, superlative most shackly)

more shackly (comparative)
most shackly (superlative)

Probably from dialectal shackle (“to shake, rattle”) + -y.

when I got to that old shackly brick store by the Temperance Tavern, I backed up agin the wall to have another think.

1876, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, page 228:

(UK, US, colloquial, dated) Shaky, rickety, ramshackle.


laidly

laidly (comparative more laidly, superlative most laidly)

more laidly (comparative)
most laidly (superlative)

From Middle English laithlie (“ugly”), equivalent to loath+-ly.

(UK, Scotland, dialect, archaic) ugly; loathsome


hidage

en-noun

hidage (countable and uncountable, plural hidages)

From hide (“unit of land used for tax assessment”) + -age.

suf

1898, Hannis Taylor, The Origin and Growth of the English Constitution, Part 2: The After-growth of the Constitution,
In the case of the towns, to which the reckoning by hides could not be applied, the Danegeld or hidage was probably compounded for, and such composition represents no doubt the later talliage.⁴ In the ninth year of Henry II. the Danegeld as such finally disappeared from the Rolls, but only to reappear as aid or hidage, and in the reign of Richard I. as carucage.

What seems to have been a still later addition gives the hidages of Worcestershire and Warwickshire.

1992, Cyril Hart, The Danelaw, page 298:

The moment has now come when we may tender in evidence an ancient document which professes to state the hidage of certain districts.

2013, F. W. Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond: Three Essays in the Early History of England, page 455:

(UK, law, obsolete or historical) A tax formerly paid to the kings of England for every hide of land.


scroggy

en-adj

scroggy (comparative more scroggy, superlative most scroggy)

more scroggy (comparative)
most scroggy (superlative)

O 'tis a lonely scroggy Glen!

(UK, Scotland, dialect) Abounding in scrog.

(UK, Scotland, dialect) twisted; stunted


taplash

(obsolete, UK) Small beer of bad quality.

Fac'd with the tap-lash of strong Ale and Wine

(obsolete, UK) The refuse or dregs of liquor.


tick tack

en-noun

tick tack (countable and uncountable, plural tick tacks)

(UK, uncountable) Alternative form of tic-tac, a sign language used by bookmakers.


tinkler

Sometimes a herd from the hills would pass by with sheep, sometimes a tinkler or a wandering merchant, and once in a long while the laird of Heriotside on his grey horse riding to Gledsmuir.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:


tosheroon

tosheroons (plural)
tusheroon (alternative)
tossaroon (alternative)

From 19th-century British slang, developed from or alongside tusheroon, of uncertain derivation from British slang caroon (“crown, a 5-shilling silver coin”), from Sabir and (originally) Italian corona (“crown”). The term was either derived from or influenced by madza caroon, the British slang for the Sabir and Italian mezzo corona (“half-crown”), possibly under influence from tosh (“copper items; valuables”) above or from the half-crown's value of two shillings & sixpence.

“’Ere y'are, the best rig-out you ever ’ad. A tosheroon [half a crown]^([sic]) for the coat, two ’ogs for the trousers, one and a tanner for the boots, and a ’og for the cap and scarf. That's seven bob.”

1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XXIX, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC, pages 214–215:

tush or tosh. Money: Cockney: late C.19–20. Ex: tusheroon... But H. errs, I believe: he should mean half-a-crown, for tusheroon and its C.20 variant tossaroon (2s. 6d.) are manifest corruptions of Lingua Franca MADZA CAROON.

1961, Eric Partridge, The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang:

(British, archaic slang) A half-crown coin; its value

Half-a-crown is known as an alderman, half a bull, half a tusheroon, and a madza caroon; whilst a crown piece, or five shillings, may be called either a bull, or a caroon, or a cartwheel, or a coachwheel, or a thick-un, or a tusheroon.

1859, J.C. Hotten, A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words:

‘Tush’, for money, would be an abbreviation of ‘tusheroon’, which in old cant, and also in tinker dialect, signified a crown.

1912, J.W. Horsley, I Remember, xii. 253:

(British, obsolete slang) A crown coin; its value


child benefit

Near-synonym: family allowance

(UK) A regular government payment made to parents or guardians for each child up to a certain age.


haffle

en-verb

haffle (third-person singular simple present haffles, present participle haffling, simple past and past participle haffled)

haffles (present singular third-person)
haffling (participle present)
haffled (participle past)
haffled (past)

Compare German haften (“to cling, stick to; (dialect) to stop, stammer”).

cog

the clergy were haffling and timid

(UK, dialect) To stammer; to speak unintelligibly; to prevaricate.


deforciant

From Old French deforciant, present participle of deforcier. See deforce.

(obsolete, UK, law) One who keeps out of possession the rightful owner of an estate.

(obsolete, UK, law) One against whom a fictitious action of fine was brought


ODN

(UK) Initialism of ordnance datum Newlyn, used to judge the height above/below sea level in England, from the MSL (mean sea level) in Newlyn between 1915 and 1921.


spuller

(obsolete, UK, dialect) One employed to inspect yarn, to see that it is well spun, and fit for the loom.


drengage

(obsolete, law, UK) The tenure by which a drench held land


hinderling

hinderlings (plural)
hinderlin (alternative)

"Worthless person" sense: from Middle English hinderling (“a laggard, coward”), from Old English hinderling (“a mean wretch, a sneak”), equivalent to hinder + -ling. Compare hilding.

inh

How say you, my lusty compeers; shall we permit a hinderlin to sit at board with us, and brand us with the name of cowards?

1808, Joseph Strutt, [Walter Scott], “Section VII. Chapter II.”, in [Walter Scott], editor, Queenhoo-Hall, a Romance: And Ancient Times, a Drama. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for John Murray, […]; and Archibald Constable & Co. […], →OCLC, page 155:

An animal you deem good for nothing, you may term a hinderling.

1813, Joseph Neef, The Method of Instructing Children Rationally in the Arts of Writing and Reading:

[…] from which the West Saxons, namely the men of Exeter have a saying of the greatest contempt, in that when moved by the highest wrath they call one another a hinderling, that is, one sunk down from all honor.

1889, John Milton Stearns, The germs and developments of the laws of England:

"How? How do I know? Know that you are there or know that you are a rossamünderling? An ouranin? A manikin? A hinderling? A pink-lips? A fake-foe? […]"

(British, dialectal) A worthless, degenerate person or animal.


classman

(UK, Oxford University) A candidate for graduation in arts who is placed in an honour class, as opposed to a passman, who is not classified.


Thunderbird

The railway sense is derived from the 1960s TV series Thunderbirds, about a secretive high-tech rescue organization, ultimately from thunderbird.

(UK, rail transport) A locomotive stored at a strategic point on the network so as to be available to quickly rescue a failed train.


tharf

en-adj

tharf (comparative more tharf, superlative most tharf)

more tharf (comparative)
most tharf (superlative)

From Middle English therf, from Old English þeorf (“unleavened, fresh, skim”), from Proto-West Germanic *þerb, from Proto-Germanic *þerbaz (“unleavened, simple”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terbh-, *(s)trebh- (“rigid, stiff, tight”).
Cognate with German derb (“rough, coarse, rude”), Old Frisian therve, Middle Dutch derf, Middle High German derp, Icelandic þjarfur (“unleavened”) and Ancient Greek τέρπω (térpō).

inh

a tharf person

(obsolete, regional British) Stiff, unsocial, rough in manner.


tharcake

tharcakes (plural)
tharf-cake (alternative)
thardcake (alternative)

From Middle English þerf cake; equivalent to tharf (“unleavened”) + cake.

(UK dialectal) A cake made from meal, treacle, and butter, eaten on the night of the fifth of November.


wanty

wanties (plural)
wonty (alternative)
wantow (alternative)
wantye (alternative)
wanton (alternative)

From Middle English waynte, equivalent to womb + tie.

(UK, dialectal) A girth or belly-band for a horse's harness.

(UK, dialect) A leather tie; a short wagon rope

(UK, dialectal) A stretch of fishing-lines shot in the water.


wanty

en-adj

wanty (comparative more wanty, superlative most wanty)

more wanty (comparative)
most wanty (superlative)

(UK dialectal) Possessing or indicating lack; deficient.


powdike

Scots pow, pou (“a pool, a watery or marshy place”), from pool.

cut down or break up the Powdike in Marshland

1628–1644, Edw[ard] Coke, (please specify |part=1 to 4), London:

Powdikes or other Banks in Marsh-land

1705, Michael Dalton, The Country Justice, page 383:

Therefore Marshland (as Things now stand) runs a double Risque of Inundation. - First, from the Land Waters, wich overflow the Fens, and rise high against the Powdike in time of Floods, whereby the said Powdike is in danger to be rent and torn, undermin'd and blown up. [...] raise such violent Waves against the Powdike, as will break and tear it to pieces.

1725, John Colonel Armstrong, The History Of The Ancient and Present State Of The Navigation Of The Port of King's-Lyn, And Of Cambridge, page 92:

[…] perversely and maliciously to cut down or destroy the powdike, in the fens of Norfolk and Ely, is felony[…]

1845, Encyclopaedia Metropolitana; Or, Universal Dictionary of Knowledge on an Original Plan Comprising the Twofold Advantage of a Philosophical and an Alphabetical Arrangement, with Appropriate Engravings Edited by Edward Smedley, Hugh James Rose, Henry John Rose: Miscellaneous and lexicographical, vol. 10, page 519:

(UK, obsolete) A dike around a marsh or fen.


coal-whipper

[W]e were in among the tiers of shipping […] [H]ere, were colliers by the score and score, with the coal-whippers plunging off stages on deck, as counterweights to measures of coal swinging up, which were then rattled over the side into barges […]

1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC:

(UK, dated) One who raises coal out of the hold of a ship.


easy meat

(UK, informal) Something easily done or obtained.

(UK, informal) Someone easily seduced, fooled, victimized, etc.


subrector

(education, originally UK) An assistant rector.


filacer

From Old English filace (“a file or thread on which the records of the courts of justice were strung”), from French filasse (“tow of flax or hemp”), from Latin fīlum (“thread”).

der

When actions are brought in the Courts of King's Bench or Common Pleas, founded upon original writs issuing out of the Courts of Chancery (which writs, as stated in the Report of the 9th of April 1816, it is the duty of the Cursitors to make out) it has been the practice in certain cases for the Filacers of the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas respectively, to receive from the Suitors the King's fines (if any) and also the fees payable to the Cursitors in respect of such original writs, and afterwards to account to the Cursitors for the fines and fees so received.

1817 December 20, House of Commons of the United Kingdom, “Second Report of the Commissioners for Examining into the Duties, Salaries and Emoluments, of the Officers, Clerks and Ministers, of the Several Courts of Justice, in England, Wales, and Berwick-upon-Tweed;—as to the Court of Chancery”, in Reports from Committees: Fever; Ireland; Courts of Justice: Session 27 January – 10 June, 1818, volume VII, [London]: [s.n.], published 6 April 1818, →OCLC, page 172:

(British, law, obsolete) A former officer in the English Court of Common Pleas and the Court of King's Bench, so called because he filed the writs on which he made out process


smicket

Chase her, and praise her, if fair or brown,
Sooth her , and smooth her,
And teaze her , and please her ,
And touch but her Smicket, and all's your own

1719, Thomas D'Urfey, Wit and Mirth; Or, Pills to Purge Melancholy:

(obsolete, UK, dialect) A woman's undergarment; a smock.


waggel

Larus marinus
Larus marinus#Translingual

(obsolete, UK, dialect) The young of the great black-backed gull (Larus marinus), formerly considered a distinct species.


lummy

en-adj

lummy (comparative more lummy, superlative most lummy)

more lummy (comparative)
most lummy (superlative)

(UK, slang, obsolete) jolly, first-rate.


darr

Possibly from dorrhawk (“the nightjar”), from its similar diet and appearance in flight.

(UK, dialect, Norfolk, archaic) A bird, the black tern.


telerecording

en-noun

telerecording (countable and uncountable, plural telerecordings)

(television, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A recording of a television broadcast made while it is being transmitted, especially by filming the picture from a monitor screen; the process of making such a recording.


bay yarn

bay yarn (countable and uncountable, plural bay yarns)

subsidy was granted on the importation of woollen or bay yarn in proportion to the said rate


tubman

(UK, law, obsolete) One of the two most experienced barristers in the Court of Exchequer (the other being the postman).


sloomy

en-adj

sloomy (comparative more sloomy, superlative most sloomy)

more sloomy (comparative)
most sloomy (superlative)

"Besides, if you get, you'll never be able to hold it down — a sloomy gal like you."
The applicant was only too much afraid that it must be so. She had very little confidence in herself.

1929, John Collis Snaith, Cousin Beryl, page 100:

[…] we would gladly soodle a sloomy way home with a burred moon over us and the fern-owls chittering in the pingles and the holts.

1934, Life and Letters and the London Mercury, volumes 11-12, page 722:

He moaned and complained in a sloomy way, but was too slurry-witted to do more. With his head down, his eyes closed, he muttered her name […]

2008, Gregory Frost, Lord Tophet, page 115:


wainage

en-noun

wainage (countable and uncountable, plural wainages)

From wain + -age. Compare Old French waaignage.

Bracton says in one place that the villein has an action against his lord if the lord should take away the villein's wainage, i.e. plough and plough-team.

1900, William James Ashley, Surveys, Historic and Economic, page 46:

(UK, law, obsolete) Gainage; the team and implements necessary for the cultivation of land.


scoat

en-verb

scoat (third-person singular simple present scoats, present participle scoating, simple past and past participle scoated)

scoats (present singular third-person)
scoating (participle present)
scoated (participle past)
scoated (past)

From Old French ascouter, from ascot (“a branch”),

(archaic, UK, dialect) To prop; to scotch.


frouzy

en-adj

frouzy (comparative more frouzy, superlative most frouzy)

more frouzy (comparative)
most frouzy (superlative)

Compare froust (“a musty smell”), frouse (“to rumple”), frouze (“to curl”), frounce.

(British) froward, peevish, offensive to the eye or nose


caddow

From Old English cadāwe, probably from ċēo, ċeahhe (“chough”) + *dāwe (“jackdaw”). Compare Scottish Gaelic cadhag, cathag. Compare chough, daw.


impignorate

en-verb

impignorate (third-person singular simple present impignorates, present participle impignorating, simple past and past participle impignorated)

impignorates (present singular third-person)
impignorating (participle present)
impignorated (participle past)
impignorated (past)

From Latin impignoratus, p. pl. of impignorare (“to pawn”). See pignoration.

the actial delivery to the lender of the impignorated lands — is clearly the feature of the deed, and the transaction may therefore be described more accurately as a pawn or wadset than as a mortgage in its modern sense

1904, Gilbert Goudie, The Celtic and Scandinavian antiquities of Shetland:

(obsolete, UK, law, transitive) To pledge or pawn.


green ban

From green (“environmentally friendly”) + ban. First attested in Australia in 1973.

Though the overall, long-term effects of green bans are far from clear, they have caused a dramatic eruption of environmental concern into Australian thinking.

1973, Conservation Foundation, Conservation Foundation Letter, page 8:

1978 June, Harvey Wasserman, Unionizing Ecotopia, Mother Jones, page 32,
A unique and important coalition between environmentalists and labor unions has come about in Australia, in a movement known as “the Green Bans.” […] Essentially the Green Ban is a labor veto of socially and ecologically unsound plans. […] After careful consideration and a public meeting, the union posted a Green Ban, refusing to build on Kelly′s Bush.

In consequence they imposed green bans, a move which effectively prevented the execution of policy and forced a stay on proceedings.

1975, Richard Lucy, The Pieces of Politics, page 112:

One of the most interesting strategic alliances around environmental politics in the city was the Green Ban Movement that was active in Sydney from the early to mid 1970s.

1999, Steve Pile, Gerry Mooney, Chris Brook, Unruly Cities?: Order/Disorder, page 202:

(Australia, UK) A ban instigated by a trade union on construction or demolition work on a site deemed to be of cultural, historical or environmental significance.


donnism

(UK, university slang, dated) self-importance; loftiness of carriage


poley

If it had been any other beast which knocked me down but that poley heifer, I should have been hurt.

1859, Henry Kingsley, The Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn:

(UK, dialect, archaic) Without horns; polled.


sycock

(UK, dialect, rare, obsolete) The mistle thrush.


pinpatch

(UK, archaic) A mollusk, the periwinkle.


exigenter

There are also four Exigenters, whose Office is to make all Exigents and Proclamations in all Actions where Process of Outlawry doth lye.

1672, Edward Chamberlayne, Angliae Notitia:

(UK, law, obsolete) An officer in the Court of King's Bench and Common Pleas whose duty it was to make out exigents.


glint in the milkman's eye

en-noun

glint in the milkman's eye (plural glints in the milkman's eye)

Created by analogy with similar expressions such "a glint in your father's eye", but implying the child was conceived adulterously; milkmen, visiting housewives while their husbands would have been at work, are often associated with adultery.

It’s no wonder then that, musically, from Summer Camp to Best Coast, we’ve stepped into a sepia time machine recently, transported back to a golden age where romance abounded and Justin Bieber was a mere glint in the milkman’s eye.

2010, Lisa Wright, “Album review: Twin Shadow - Forget (4AD)”, in NME:

"And which Pitt would this be? Pitt the Toddler? Pitt the Embryo? Pitt the Glint in the Milkman's Eye?"

1987, “Dish and Dishonesty”, in Blackadder the Third:

(UK, humorous) Someone or something that has not been born or conceived yet.


stroam

en-verb

stroam (third-person singular simple present stroams, present participle stroaming, simple past and past participle stroamed)

stroams (present singular third-person)
stroaming (participle present)
stroamed (participle past)
stroamed (past)

British dialect strome (“to walk with long strides”).

(UK, intransitive, obsolete) To wander about idly and without purpose.

(UK, intransitive, obsolete) To walk with long strides.


caravanner

(UK) A person who holidays in a caravan (mobile home).


countor

(obsolete, UK, law) An advocate or professional pleader; one who counted for his client, that is, orally pleaded his cause


throw-off

throw-offs (plural)
throwoff (alternative)
throw off (alternative)

We had not covered much more than three miles since the throw-off; but horses and hounds already exhibited a most interesting and picturesque tail.

1870 July, Wat Bradwood, “Our Drag”, in The Sporting magazine, volume 69, page 122:

The sixty horsemen spread away for the start, the two pretty Amazons set their lips, a mob of peasants in blue blouses form a noisy fringing to the phaetons and barouches which have come to see the throw-off, and conspicuous amidst all this we have M. Pistache's roan, which, unable to stand the music of the horns, first jumps, then pivots on its hind legs, then springs off like a shot, well-nigh wrenching M. Pistache's arms out of their sockets.

The 'throw-off' was at one o'clock, and the gallop lasted more than two hours and a half, so that the fox had a very long run.

On one occasion the meet was at Boughton House, the seat of the Duke of Buccleuch, when, just before the throw-off, the keeper requested Mr. Smith to come with him to see a curious matter.

2017, Thomas Smith, Sporting Incidents in the Life of Another Tom Smith:

He would be available as a chaperon for the feminine division, as he did not intend to do more than canter a mile or two after the throw-off.

2020, Rolf Boldrewood, Babes in the Bush:


needways

en-adv

needways (comparative more needways, superlative most needways)

more needways (comparative)
most needways (superlative)

(Now chiefly UK dialectal) By or because of necessity; needwise.


crowstone

en-noun

crowstone (countable and uncountable, plural crowstones)

Yoredale Sandstones […] Large quarries in the "crowstone," as the rock is locally calld, may also be seen in Ratcliffe Wood. […] along Hollin Lane, where the crowstone is again largely quarried.

(UK, dialect) Ganister, a kind of sandstone.


thirdings

(UK, law, obsolete) One third of the corn or grain growing on the ground at the tenant's death, paid to the lord as a heriot.


imparsonee

From Old French empersone. See in- and parson.

(UK, law, religion) Presented, instituted, and inducted into a rectory, and in full possession.


imparsonee

(UK, law, religion) A clergyman so inducted.


touze

en-verb

touze (third-person singular simple present touzes, present participle touzing, simple past and past participle touzed)

touzes (present singular third-person)
touzing (participle present)
touzed (participle past)
touzed (past)

As a bear, whom angry curs have touz'd.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 33:

Oh the moſt inhumane, barbarous Hackney-Coach! I'm jolted to a Jelly—Am I not horribly touz'd?

1693, [William] Congreve, The Old Batchelour, a Comedy. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Peter Buck, […], →OCLC, Act IV, page 34:

(UK, dialect, obsolete) Alternative form of touse.


Chelsea pensioner

en-noun

Chelsea pensioner (plural Chelsea pensioners)

(UK) Any of the retired British army officers now resident in Royal Hospital Chelsea, noted for their ceremonial scarlet coats and tricorne hats.


arrentation

Compare French arrenter (“to give or take as rent”). See arendator.

cog

(law, UK, obsolete) A letting or renting, especially a licence to enclose land in a forest with a low hedge and ditch, under a yearly rent.


intercommon

en-verb

intercommon (third-person singular simple present intercommons, present participle intercommoning, simple past and past participle intercommoned)

intercommons (present singular third-person)
intercommoning (participle present)
intercommoned (participle past)
intercommoned (past)

From Old French entrecommuner. See inter- and common.

(obsolete, UK, law) To graze cattle indiscriminately in the commons of each other, as the inhabitants of adjoining townships, manors, etc.


blacktail

Certain fish with black tails:
(UK) Salmo trutta

Certain fish with black tails:
Salmo trutta


tillow

From Middle English *tilwe, *telwe, *telghe, from Old English telga, telge (“twig, branch, shoot”). More at tiller.


tillow

tillow (third-person singular simple present tillows, present participle tillowing, simple past and past participle tillowed)

tillows (present singular third-person)
tillowing (participle present)
tillowed (participle past)
tillowed (past)
telly (alternative)

From Middle English *tilwen, *telwien, *telȝen, from Old English telgian (“to put forth branches”), from Proto-West Germanic *telgōn, *tilgijan (“to branch, sprout, produce”).

inh

(intransitive, UK dialectal) To spread; branch out; send forth shoots.


stitch-up

The police planted the gun in my car. It was a stitch-up.

(British, slang) An act designed to maliciously or dishonestly incriminate someone.

Falle

an act designed to maliciously or dishonestly incriminate someone

Wilson's election as leader was a stitch-up by the committee.

Lynch added: "Our findings from our FOI requests on ticket office closures shows the whole process to be a stitch-up between the train operators, under the auspices of the Rail Delivery Group[,] and ministers.

2023 October 18, Mel Holley, “Network News: Harper attacks Labour over strikes... but unions hit back”, in RAIL, number 994, page 18:

(British, slang) Something arranged deceitfully and in secret.

interne Vereinbarung

something arranged deceitfully and in secret


graith

en-verb

graith (third-person singular simple present graiths, present participle graithing, simple past and past participle graithed)

graiths (present singular third-person)
graithing (participle present)
graithed (participle past)
graithed (past)

From Middle English graithen, greithen, graiden, grathen, from Old Norse greiða (“to make ready, prepare, arrange, disentangle”), from Proto-Germanic *garaidijaną (“to prepare, put in order”). Cognate with Old English ġerǣdan (“to arrange, dispose, order, provide for, harness”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (garaidjan, “to enjoin”).

cog

At fairs he play'd before the spearmen, All gaily graithed in their gear-men.

1748, “The Life and Death of the Piper of Kilbarchan; or, the epitaph of Habbie Simson”, in Poems in the Scottish Dialect by several celebrated Poets, page 9:

Where didst thou steal that goodly coat of green, That thou art graithed in?

1820, Wallace; a historical tragedy, in five acts:

Many a winsome dwarf was seen, graithed in rich attire;

1903, “The Dwarf King's Court”, in The Masterpieces and the History of Literature:

(obsolete outside dialects, chiefly UK) To dress (someone or oneself) or be dressed.


tetterwort

Chelidonium majus
Chelidonium majus#Translingual

(UK) A plant used as a remedy for tetter, Chelidonium majus


undermeal

From Middle English undermele, undermel (“the early part of the afternoon, midday, noon; an afternoon meal or nap”), from Old English undernmǣl (“morning, morning time; morning meal”), equivalent to undern + meal. Compare the word for midday and the word undern.

inh

By the time—he hath din'd at a taverne, and slept his undermeals at a bawdy-house, his purse is [empty].

(obsolete) Synonym of undern: originally terce and the morning, later (UK, dialectal, obsolete) noon and the early afternoon.


crevis

From Middle English crevis, from Old French crevice (“crayfish”).

By the gods, I know not how best to devise My name or my property well to disguise. A merchant, a may-pole, a man or a mackerel, A crab or a crevis, a crane or a cokerel?

1575, R.B., Appius and Virginia, page 11:

The fifth pair had each a fair large tray, strewed with fresh grass; and in them conger, burt, mullet, fresh herrings, oysters, salmon, crevis, and such like, from Neptunas, God of the sea.

1903, Sidney Lanier, Shakspere and His Forerunners, page 88:

In the household of Joan Holand, crayfish or lobsters (crevis) appeared on 26 and 27 February 1378 and on 1 and 2 October in the same year; at Hunstanton one crevis was served on Good Friday 1349; none appeared at Frampton.

1995, Christopher Woolgar, “Diet and Consumption in Gentry and Noble Households title=Rulers and Ruled in Late Medieval England”, in G. L. Harriss, Rowena E. Archer, Simon Walker, editor, (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 28:


fakeaway

Forget fine dining: even fairly foul dining courtesy of the humble takeaway will seem extravagant. Hence the arrival of the fakeaway.

2009 January 5, Jasper Gerard, “Eating out in 2009: the highs and the lows”, in The Telegraph:

(UK, Australia, informal) A homemade meal intended to replicate takeaway food ordered from a restaurant.


impetration

en-noun

impetration (countable and uncountable, plural impetrations)

/ɪmpɪˈtɹeɪʃən/

From Latin impetrātiō: compare French impétration.

(obsolete, UK, law) The obtaining of benefice from Rome by solicitation, which benefice belonged to the disposal of the king or other lay patron of the realm.


whitester

whitesters (plural)
whitster (alternative)

(UK, archaic) A bleacher or whitener of linen


clothes line

(UK, New Zealand) Alternative spelling of clothesline.


frank-marriage

frank-marriage (countable and uncountable, plural frank-marriages)

frank-marriages (plural)
frankmarriage (alternative)

an estate given with her in frank marriage by her ancestor

1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

(obsolete, UK, law) A form of conditional marriage-gift of land under English law, often from father to daughter.


rhine

the Black Ditch and the Langmoor Rhine

1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

(UK, dialect) A watercourse; a ditch for water.


spadebone

a spadebone of a shoulder of mutton

1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):


shadbird

From shad + bird, since it appears at the same time as the shad (a fish).

Gallinago delicata
Gallinago delicata#Translingual

(dated, UK, dialect) The American snipe; Wilson's snipe (Gallinago delicata).

Gallinago gallinago
Gallinago gallinago#Translingual

(dated, UK, dialect) The common snipe or European sandpiper (Gallinago gallinago).


hewhole

European green woodpecker
European green woodpecker

(UK, dialect, archaic) The European green woodpecker.


dozzled

en-adj

dozzled (comparative more dozzled, superlative most dozzled)

more dozzled (comparative)
most dozzled (superlative)

In such a perplexity every man asks his fellow, What's best to be done? and being dozzled with fear, thinks every man wiser than himself.

1693, John Hacket, Scrinia reserata: a Memorial offered to the great Deservings of John Williams, D.D:

The other stood cold as a pyramid, Lacked Beauty, lacked noble blend Of elbow and joist, Was dozzled, was too pipingly voiced To be perfect friend

1911, Frederick Fanning Ayer, “Twins”, in Bell and Wing, page 345:

He longed to see the familiar face of the Mahamatya Shaktar but his peetha (seat) was occupied by Rakshas, who, like his king Nanda, looked dozzled and careless.


cheslip

Unknown, perhaps alteration of an earlier term influenced by cheeselip.

Mouffet states that “the Asiatic Greeks called them χγαμος from their likenesse^([sic]) to a bean (Galen), for it looks like it when the Cheslip rolls itself up into a round body.”

1860, Ernest Adams, “On the names of the wood-louse”, in Transactions of the Philological Society, page 15:

In former times it was known as “Lugdor” and “Socchetre ;” and in common with the hoglouse it is familiar to rustics as “Churchlouse,” “Carpenter,” “Chinch,” or “Cheslip.”

1899, W.T. Fernie, Animal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure, “Woodlouse”, page 524:


glarney

As the word implies the glarneys were glass marbles, but no ball out of an old mineral-water bottle was ever dignified by receiving the name, though such balls were not despised possessions, and had the rank of twoers.

1953, Julian Franklyn, The Cockney: a survey of London life and language:

(UK, dated) A kind of patterned glass marble in children's games.


borough English

the great variety of customs affecting many of these tenements so held in ancient burgage, the principal and most remarkable of which is that called Borough English

(law, UK, obsolete) Patrilineal ultimogeniture; inheritance by the youngest surviving male child.


dogdraw

Dogge draw is, where any man hath stricken or wounded a wild beast‥and is found with a Hound or other Dogge drawing after him, to recouer the same.

1598, John Manwood, Treatise of the Forest Laws:

(UK, obsolete) The pursuit of deer with a dog.


crumpy

crumpy (comparative more crumpy, superlative most crumpy)

more crumpy (comparative)
most crumpy (superlative)

I had hardly swallowed my broiled chicken , and three fourths of a sweet fresh trout that was set before me ; and was just nibbling at a bit of crumpy oaten cake to give a goût to my cheese and my dram of brandy

1833, Andrew Picken, “The Priors of Lawford”, in Traditionary Stories of Old Families:


hoister

In order better to appreciate the use of argot among thieves, a visit to a few public bars of the third-class public houses of Kennington or in the immediate vicinity of the Elephant and Castle would prove of great value, as hoisters, whizzers, tea-leaves, con-heads, broadsmen and brass nobs […]

1931, The Police Journal, volume 4, page 504:

Like their friends the "draggers," the "hoisters" or shoplifters are having a thin time these days, […]

1945, Jack Henry, What Price Crime?, page 92:


butter pie

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-butter pie.wav

(UK) A traditional savoury pie consisting mainly of onions and potatoes.


no fear

The opposing senses of the interjection derive from the phrase functioning as an ellipsis of both have no fear ("be assured") and there is no fear of that happening ("it's impossible").

M. R. James (1904) Ghost Stories of an Antiquary: “"Why, did you show him up some rot?"
"No fear," he said.”

Dorothy L. Sayers (1947) Creed or Chaos: “Q: Will thou be baptized in this faith?
A: No fear!”

Toad: You should take up swimming!
Rabbit: No fear, toad!

1992, The Animals of Farthing Wood, episode 2:

You're afraid I would handle it? No fear.

(British, dated) Synonym of no way: absolutely not.


devil screecher

en-noun

devil screecher (plural devil screechers)

My informant seemed to look upon the swift as an uncanny bird, and called it by a name I had never heard before, devil-screecher.

1883, Edgar MacCulloch, “Notes, Queries, Notices and News”, in The Folk-Lore Journal, volume 1, number 12, page 394:


cherry knocking

knock down ginger
knock down ginger#English

(UK, dialect) Synonym of knock down ginger (“prank of knocking on a front door and running away”).


Zil lane

ZiL (Zavod imeni Likhachova; Russian: Завод имени Лихачёва), Russian vehicle manufacturer which also produced armoured cars for most Soviet leaders. There were special lanes for these officials in the former Soviet Union.

2011, Harry Mount, “The Olympic Zil Lanes are disgusting - we must all ignore them”, in The Telegraph:

2012 February 15, London Evening Standard, Boris must ensure Zil lanes are not abused, says Assembly:

(UK, derogatory) Any of the road lanes in London, England, dedicated for vehicles transporting VIPs during the 2012 London Olympics.


moothill

The life, the sovereignty of the settlement resided solely in the body of the freeman whose holdings lay round the moothill or the sacred tree where the community met from time to time to deal out its own justice or make its own laws.

1874, John Richard Green, A Short History of the English People:

(UK, law, historical) A hill or elevated place where a meeting or council took place in Saxon England.


stable-stand

I'll keep my stable-stand where I lodge my wife, I'll go in couples with her.

The four indications of offence against Vert and Venison, in like manner arrange themselves in rhyme - Dog draw, stable stand, Backberinde, and bloody hand;-and this formed the precept of the Forester, and instructed him to seize the trespasser who was taken with the mayneer whilst roaming in the green-wood shade.

1818 December, “The Gothic Laws of Spain”, in Edinburgh Review, volume 31, number 61, page 96:

Ah, honest Will Rufus! You were the king for my money – ill betide the fool who shot thee; —you had a halter for every rogue; there was STABLESTAND, when the knave was found in the forest with his bow bent; DOGDRAW, when he was drawing with a hound after the hurt deer; BACKBEAR, when he had killed, and was carrying off, his venison; and BLOODYHAND, when he was seen coursing with blood upon his hands.

1834, George Soane, The Frolics of Puck - Volume 3, page 87:

The Law further provides that the Forester may take a man if he be found either at “Dog-draw," "Stable-stand," "Back-bear,” or “Bloody-hand."

1868, Thomas Newbigging, History of the Forest of Rossendale, page 63:

although it is usually known in common parlance as hunting, is not properly such, but comes under one of three heads, — "stalking," which is here generally termed still-hunting, where the animal is followed by his sign, left on the soil, or on the trees and coppice which he may have frayed, by the aid of the eye and experience in woodcraft and the habits of the quarry alone, without the assistance of hounds— "stable-stand," where the sportsman, taking his station at the intersection of deer-paths, at a haunted salt-lick, or at a well-ascertained watering place, awaits the voluntary advent of the animal, when he shall be impelled to move by the solicitation of his own instincts—or, lastly, "dog-draw," where, posting himself, as before, in such place as he judges likely to be passed by the fugitive, the shooter expects its coming when driven by slow hounds, who have drawn for it, and aroused it from its lair, under the guidance of his servants or companions.

1868, Frank Forester, The Complete Manual for Young Sportsmen, page 37:

These dogs were used to hunt up the game also when the deer was to be shot with the bow. The sportsmen would be standing at their trysts or stable-stand in some alley or glade of the wood, and the hounds be put into the covert or park "to tease them forth."

2013, Edward of Norwich, William A. Baillie-Grohman, F. N. Baillie-Grohman, The Master of Game, page 261:

(UK, law, obsolete) The position of a person found standing in the forest with a crossbow or longbow bent, ready to shoot at a deer, or close by a tree with greyhounds in a leash ready to slip; one of the four presumptions that a person intended to steal the king's deer.


panshon

Tom struck at tratten wit beesom, an't heead floid intoo a panshon ful a watter, an nok't soide haht

1839, Abel Bywater, The Sheffield Dialect:

(UK, dialect) An earthen vessel, wider at the top than at the bottom, used for holding milk etc.


gorebill

From Middle English gore, gare (“spear”) + bill. More at gar.


Tyburn ticket

Tyburn was formerly a place of execution in England.

(UK, law, obsolete) A certificate given to one who prosecutes a felon to conviction, exempting them from certain parish and ward offices.


bordland

bordar (or perhaps bord (“a board”)) + land.

(UK, law, obsolete) The land held by a bordar.

(UK, law, obsolete) The land which a lord kept for the maintenance of his board, or table.


hurden

hurden (countable and uncountable, plural hurdens)

(UK, dialect) A coarse kind of linen made from hards (also called hurds).


battel

battels (plural)
batail (alternative)
battle (alternative)

From Middle English batel, batayle from Old French bataille, from Late Latin battālia, variant of battuālia (“military exercises”), from Latin battuō (“to strike, hit, beat, fight”), from a Gaulish root, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰedʰ- (“to stab, dig”). Doublet of battalia and battle.

der

trial by battel; wager of battel


battel

en-noun

battel (countable and uncountable, plural battels)

(UK, Oxford University, chiefly in the plural) Fees charged by a college for accommodation and living expenses.

(UK, Oxford University, chiefly in the plural, obsolete) Provisions ordered from the kitchen and buttery.

(UK, Eton College, obsolete) A small allowance of food collegers receive from their dames (matrons) in addition to their college allowance


fouthy

en-adj

fouthy (comparative fouthier or more fouthy, superlative fouthiest or most fouthy)

fouthier (comparative)
more fouthy (comparative)
fouthiest (superlative)
most fouthy (superlative)
southy (alternative)

From fouth (“abundance, fullness, plenty”) + -y.

suffix

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Ample; plentiful; free in giving; generous; hospitable.

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Having the appearance of fulness; full-looking.


ganil

Here [in Pure limes] may be included stalactites , marble , limestone , chalk , zufa , ganil

1799, John Coakley Lettsom, The Naturalist's and Traveller's Companion:

(UK, dialect) A kind of brittle limestone.


slike

en-verb

slike (third-person singular simple present slikes, present participle sliking, simple past and past participle sliked)

slikes (present singular third-person)
sliking (participle present)
sliked (participle past)
sliked (past)

From Middle English *slīken, from Old English slīcan (“to strike”), from Proto-West Germanic *slīkan, from Proto-Germanic *slīkaną (“to hew, hammer, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleyg-, *sleyǵ- (“to beat”). Cognate with Old Frisian slēc (“a shock, blow”), Middle Low German slîken (“to beat”), Old English sliċċ, sliċ (“beater, hammer, mallet”), Latin ligō, ligōnis (“hoe, mattock”).

inh

(transitive, UK dialectal) To rend asunder; cleave.


cuinage

(obsolete, UK) The stamping of pigs of tin, by the proper officer, with the arms of the duchy of Cornwall.


thave

(UK, dialect) Alternative form of theave.


ligeance

ligeances (plural)
liegance (alternative)

From Middle English legiaunce, from Old French ligeance, legeance, ligance; equivalent to liege + -ance; compare allegiance.


trucky

en-adj

trucky (comparative truckier or more trucky, superlative truckiest or most trucky)

truckier (comparative)
more trucky (comparative)
truckiest (superlative)
most trucky (superlative)

(chiefly UK dialectal, Northern England) Cheating, cheaty.


parmo

From parmesan + -o, from the original name of the dish, escalope parmesan.

But I hadn't eaten since breakfast, and felt sure that a parmo's bark (smell and appearance) could not possibly be as bad as its bite (taste).

2012, Tim Moore, You Are Awful (But I Like You): Travels Around Unloved Britain:

(UK, chiefly Teesside) A north-eastern English dish of deep-fried breaded chicken topped with béchamel sauce and cheese, sometimes served like a pizza with additional toppings.


spoffish

spoffish (comparative more spoffish, superlative most spoffish)

more spoffish (comparative)
most spoffish (superlative)

Probably from British English dialect spoffle (“to be spoffish”).

, Horatio Sparkins
Mr. Malderton, […] a little spoffish man, with green spectacles, entered the room.

(UK, colloquial, dated) earnest and active in matters of no importance; bustling


Easterling

Possibly modeled on Dutch oosterling. Compare sterling.

And that most greeued [grieved] them, the Easterlings being at libertie, brought to the realme such wares as they were woont, so serued their customers throughout the realme.

1587, Raphael Holinshed, “Henrie the Seuenth”, in Holinshed's Chronicles of England in Six Volumes. Vol. III. England, London: J. Johnson, page 508:


whitwall

(obsolete, UK) A bird, the European green woodpecker.


builder's tea

en-noun

builder's tea (usually uncountable, plural builder's teas)

From builder + -'s + tea, from its supposedly being the preferred type of tea of British builders and construction workers.

It has got the lot, this, underneath its hinged awning: eggs any way, sausage, old-fashioned burgers and builders' tea.

2001 March 30, Stephen Moss, “Meals on wheels”, in The Guardian:

I ate a kebab in a Cypriot cafe with the freezing rain spatting in the doorway and I was poured a soup-like cup of builder's tea.

2005, Barbara Bailey, An eccentric marriage: Living with Jim, →ISBN, page 185:

The meal should be taken with milky "builder's tea" steeped strong in the mug.

2008, William Morrow, Beef: The untold story of how milk, meat and muscle shaped the world, →ISBN, page 177:

Armed with a cup of Alison's strong, thick, builder's tea, Mrs Jamal started falteringly into the story she had told countless times to sceptical police officers and lawyers.

2010, M. R. Hall, The Disappeared, →ISBN:

(UK) Black tea, brewed strong and served in a large mug with milk and sugar.