A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs, and Ancient Customs from the Fourteenth Century, Volume 1 |
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Common terms and phrases
Antiq applied Arch Arthour and Merlin Ben Jonson Bodl Brit called Cant Cantab Chaucer Chesh Chester Plays Chron Coll Cotgrave Cott Craven Cumb Cursor Cursor Mundi d'Arthur Devon dial dialect East Exmoor Florio Forme of Cury Gloss Glossary Glouc gode Gower gret grete Gy of Warwike Hall Harl Harrison's hath Hearne Hence herb herte Hist Holinshed horse Howell Huloet Jonson Kennett Kent kind Kyng Alisaunder Lanc Langtoft Lansd Linc Lincoln Lond Lydgate Lydgate's Minor Poems mentioned Minsheu Morte Arthure Myst Nares Nominale Norf North occurs Palsgrave Parv person Peter Langtoft phrase Piers Ploughman Prompt Reliq Ritson Salop says schalle sche sense Sevyn Sages Shak Shakespeare Skelton Skinner Somerset sone Songs spelt Spenser Suffolk term thay ther thou Towneley Myst Trin verb Vespas Warw Weber Werwolf West Wilts wolde word Wright's Yorksh Ywaine
Popular passages
Page 180 - ... wee have in many alehouses of the citie and suburbs, tipt with silver, besides the great black jacks, and bombards at the court, which when the French-men first saw, they reported at their returne into their countrey, that the English-men used to drinke out of their bootes...
Page 451 - The hunt is up, the hunt is up. And now It is almost day; And he that's a-bcd with another man's wife, It's time to get him away.
Page 47 - A large tub is filled with water, and two stools placed on each side of it. Over the whole is thrown a tarpaulin, or old sail: this is kept tight by two persons, who are to represent the king and queen of a foreign country, and are seated on the stools. The person intended to be ducked plays the Ambassador, and after repeating a ridiculous speech dictated to him, is led in great form up to the throne, and seated between the king and queen, who rising suddenly as soon as he is seated, he falls backwards...
Page 387 - Skelton, i. 293. GLEEK. (1) A jest, or scoff. Also, to jest. To give the gleek, ie to pass a jest on one, to make a person ridiculous. See Cotgrave, in v.
Page 131 - ... however, there was some difficulty, as, by the regulations of the game, the middle couple were not to separate before they had succeeded, while the others might break hands whenever they found themselves hard pressed. When all had been taken in turn, the last couple were said to be in hell, and the game ended.
Page 263 - CRAMBO. A diversion in which one gives a word, to which another finds a rhyme. If the same word is repeated, a forfeit is' demanded, which is called a crambo. It was also a term in drinking, as appears from Dekker. CRAME. (1) To bend. Lane. (2) To join, or mend. North. CRAMER. A tinker. North. CRAMMELY. Awkwardly. North. CRAMMOCK. To hobble".
Page 29 - His godlike guest, walks forth, without more train Accompanied than with his own complete Perfections ; in himself was all his state, More solemn than the tedious pomp that waits On princes, when their rich retinue long Of horses led and grooms besmeared with gold Dazzles the crowd and sets them all agape. Nearer his presence, Adam, though not awed, Yet with submiss approach and reverence meek, As to...
Page 239 - Clauyng, stroking, Wright's Seven Sages, p. 34, or, perhaps, tickling. CLAW-ILL. An ulcer in the feet of cattle. Devon. CLAW-OFF. To reprove. North. CLAWS. Clothes. Somerset. CLAY. To shiver. Devon. CLAY-COLD. Lifeless. South. CLAY-DAUBIN. A custom in Cumberland, •where the neighbours and friends of a newlymarried couple assemble, and do not separate till they have erected them a rough cottage. CLAY-SALVE. The common cerate. East. CLAY-STONE. A blue and white limestone dug in Gloucestershire. CLAYT....
Page 32 - January, take a row of pins, and pull out every one, one after another, saying a Pater Noster, or (Our Father) sticking a pin in your sleeve, and you will dream of him, or her, you shall marry.
Page 35 - To give aim," to stand within a convenient distance from the butts, to inform the archers how near their arrows fell to the mark. Metaphorically, it is equivalent to, to direct. See Collier's Shakespeare, i. 167 ; Tarlton's Jests, p. 24 ; True Tragédie of Richard the Third, p. 27. (4) " To cry aim," in archery, to encourage the archers by crying out aim, when they were about to shoot.