D
dabbing down, hanging down like wet clothes, in a dabbled state. Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, vi. 359.
dade, to walk with tottering steps, to toddle, like an infant learning to walk. Drayton, Pol. i. 295; xiv. 289. Still in use in Leicestersh. and Warwicksh. (EDD.).
dædale, ingenious, skilful. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 2; also, variously adorned (cp. daedala tellus, Lucret. i. 7), id., iv. 10. 45. L. daedalus, Gk. δαίδαλος, skilful.
daff, to put off, put aside. A variant of doff, to do off, put off. 1 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 96; and elsewhere in Shakespeare.
daff, a simpleton; a coward; ‘(The Bishop of Llandaff) answers, The daffe is here, but the land is gone’, Harrison, Descr. England, bk. ii, ch. ii (ed. Furnivall, 58). In prov. use in both senses in Yorks. (EDD.). ME. daf: ‘I sal been halde a daf, a cokenay’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4208).
daffysh, foolish. Morte Arthur, leaf 205. 10; bk. ix, c. 13. In prov. use in Derbysh., Warwicksh., and W. Midlands in the sense of sheepish (EDD.).
dag, a small pistol; ‘This gun? a dag?’, Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, ii. 2 (Lucio); Arden of Fev. iii. 6. 9; ‘Pistolet, a pistolet, a dag, or little pistol’, Cotgrave.
Dagonet, a foolish young knight. Davenant, The Wits, ii. 1 (Ginet). Sir Dagonet was a foolish knight in the court of Arthur; see 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 300: ‘Sir Dagonet in Arthur’s show’.
dagswain, daggeswane, a rough coverlet. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2195. ME. daggeswayn, ‘lodex’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 528).
dain, disdain; hence, ignominy; ‘A deepe daine’, Lyly, Sappho, v. 1; ‘dennes of daine’, Mirror for Mag., Cordila, st. 31. Cp. F. dain, dainty, fine, curious (Cotgr.). (The word in England seems to have developed a subst. meaning of ‘squeamishness’, ‘stand-offishness’.)
dain, to disdain. Greene, Alphonsus, i. Prol. (Venus); iii. (Medea).
dalliance, hesitation, delay. 1 Hen. VI, v. 2. 5; Virgin-Martyr, iv. 1 (Sapritius). See Dict. (s.v. Dally).
damassin, damson. Bacon, Essay 46. F. damaisine, ‘a Damascene, or damson plumb’ (Cotgr.).
damnify, to injure. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 52; ii. 6. 3. Common in this sense in East Anglia and America (EDD.).
damps, dumps, fits of melancholy. Rowley, All’s Lost, iii. 1. 118.
dandiprat, a small coin worth 3 halfpence, first coined by Henry VII (of unknown origin). Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, ii. 1 (Hippolito). Also, a dwarf, page; applied to Cupid (!) in Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. p. 41 (ed. Arber); as also in Shirley, Arcadia, i. 3 (Dametas).
danger: phr. to be in (or within) one’s danger, to be in one’s debt, or under an obligation, or in one’s power, Massinger, Fatal Dowry, i. 2 (Charalois); cp. Merch. Venice, iv. 1. 180; King John, iv. 8. 84. In ME. in daunger, within a person’s jurisdiction, under his control, at his disposal (Chaucer). OF. dangier, the absolute authority of a feudal lord (Godefroy), Romanic type domniarium, deriv. of L. dominus (Hatzfeld). See Trench, Select Glossary.
Dansk, Danish. Webster, White Devil (Giovanni), ed. Dyce, p. 13. Also used to mean Denmark, Drayton, Polyolb. bk. xi. Dan. Dansk, Danish.
dant, a worthless, talkative woman. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 515. Du. dante, or dantelorie, ‘a base babling woman’; danten, ‘to bable’ (Hexham).
dappard, dapper. Triumphs of Love and Fortune, iv. 1 (Lentulo); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 198.
daps, pl. habits, ways, peculiarities. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 447. See EDD. (s.v. Dap, sb. 11).
darby, money. (Cant.) ‘The ready, the darby’, Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Shamwell). Prob. with reference to Darby, a money-lender; see below.
Darby’s bands, supposed to have orig. meant a very strict bond exacted by some usurer of that name; see NED. (Later it meant fetters.) ‘If all be too little, both goods and lands, I know not what will please you, except Darby’s bands’, Marriage of Wit and Science (licensed in 1569-70), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 362; Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 787 (ed. 1576).
dare, to terrify, paralyse with fear. Beaumont and Fl., Maid’s Tragedy, iv. 1 (Evadne); to dare larks, to daze them in order to catch them, Hen. VIII, iii. 2. 282; ‘Never hobby so dared a lark’, Burton, Anat. Mel. (ed. 1896, iii. 390). In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Dare, vb.2 3).
dare, to injure, hurt. Chapman, tr. Iliad, xi. 406; Tusser, Husbandry, 8. In prov. use in the north of England and E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Dare, vb.3). OE. derian, to hurt, deriv. of daru, hurt.
darkling, in the dark. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 2. 86; King Lear, i. 4. 237.
darkmans, a cant term for night. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor); Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Patrico).
darnex carpet, a Dornick carpet. Fletcher, Noble Gentleman, v. 1 (Jaques). ‘Dornick’ is the Flemish name of Tournay.
darraigne battle, to set the battle in array. Heywood, Sallust’s Jugurtha, 20; Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 40; 3 Hen. VI, ii. 2. 72; ‘To darraine a triple warre’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 26. ME. darreyne the bataille, to fight out the battle, to bring it to a decisive issue (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1631). ‘Darraigne’ is really a law-term, Anglo-F. darreiner, dereiner, to answer an accusation, to exculpate oneself (Rough List); Med. L. disrationare (Ducange).
darreine, brazen; ‘The Darreine Tower’, Heywood, Golden Age, A. iv (Neptune); vol. iii, p. 55; (4 Beldam), p. 61; also called ‘the tower of Darreine’ (4 lines higher). The reference is to the brazen tower in which Danae was enclosed. F. d’arain, of brass (Cotgr.). (‘Darrain’ occurs nine times in Caxton, Hist. of Troye, with reference to the same story; the phrase tour of darrain is on leaf 62.)
dart, Irish, a dart frequently carried by an Irish running footman. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 4 (Chough).
daunt, to bring into subjection, subdue, tame; ‘It daunts whole kingdoms and cities’, Burton, Anat. Mel. i. 2 (NED.); to daze, stupefy, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 18. In prov. use in the sense of ‘to tame’, also, in E. Anglia, ‘to stun, knock down’ (EDD.). ME. daunten, to tame (P. Plowman, B. xv. 393. Anglo-F. daunter (Bozon). See Dict.
daunted down, beaten down, subdued. Gascoigne, Grief of Joy, Third Song, st. 18.
daw, a (supposed) foolish bird; fig. a foolish person. 1 Hen. VI, ii. 4. 18; Coriolanus, iv. 5. 48. So used in Lincoln, see EDD. (s.v. Daw, sb.1 2).
daw, to frighten, subdue. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, iv. 1 (Wit.). See [adaw].
daw, to arouse, awaken. Drayton, Pol. vi. 112. So used in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Daw, vb. 2); a trans. use of ME. dawen, dawyn, ‘auroro’ (Prompt.), OE. dagian, to become day.
daw up, to cheer up, revive. Greene, James IV, v. 1 (Lady A.). See above.
day-bed, a couch, sofa. Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 54; Fletcher, Rule a Wife, i. 6 (Estifania); iii. 1 (Margarita).
dayesman, daysman, a judge, an umpire. Bible, Job ix. 33; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 28; ‘Daysman, arbitre’, Palsgrave; New Custom, i. 2, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 14.
dead pay, pay continued to a dead soldier, taken by dishonest officers for themselves. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, ii. 1 (Knavesby).
deane, ‘din’, noise. Golding, Metam. xii. 316 (L. fremitu); fol. 147 (1603). ‘Dean’ is an E. Anglian word (EDD.). ME. dene, noise (P. Plowman), a dialect form of dyne (ib.), OE. dyne.
deane, a strong, offensive smell; ‘The breath of Lions hath a very strong deane and stinking smell’, Holland, Pliny, bk. xi, ch. 53. In prov. use in Wilts., see EDD. (s.v. Dain). OE. *déan, corresponding to Icel. daunn, a smell, esp. a bad smell.
deare, harm; see [dere].
dearne, dearnful, dearnly; see [dern, dernful, dernly].
debate, to combat, fight. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 6; Lucrece, 1421. F. debatre, ‘to debate, contend’, (Cotgr.).
debel, to conquer in war, defeat. Milton, P. R. iv. 605; Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ii, ch. 8, st. 53. L. delellare (Virgil).
debenter, a voucher given in the Exchequer certifying to the recipient the sum due to him, a ‘debenture’. Edwards, Damon and Pithias, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 77. See Dict.
deboshed, debased, corrupted, ‘debauched’. Temp. iii. 2. 29; King Lear, i. 4. 263; vilified, All’s Well, v. 3. 208; deboshtly, licentiously, Heywood, Dialogue 4 (Works, vi. 173); ‘Desbaucher, to debosh’, Cotgrave. In use in Scotland (EDD.).
decard, to ‘discard’, throw away a card, in a card-game; ‘Can you decard?’, Machin, Dumb Knight, iv (Phylocles).
decimo sexto, a term applied to a small book, in which each leaf is one-sixteenth of the whole sheet of paper; hence, fig., a diminutive person or thing; ‘My dancing braggart in decimo sexto’, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, i. 1. (Mercury); ‘One bound up in decimo sexto’, Massinger, Maid of Honour, ii. 2 (Sylli). See Stanford.
deck, a pack of cards. 3 Hen. VI, v. i. 44; Peele, Edw. I (ed. Dyce, p. 339); ‘Pride deales the Deck, whilst Chance doth choose the Card’, Barnfield, Sheph. Content, viii (NED.). See Nares. In prov. use in various parts of England, also in Ireland and America (EDD.).
decline, to turn aside, to swerve. Bible, Ps. cxix. 157; to turn a person aside from, to divert, Beaumont and Fl., Valentinian, iii. 1; Massinger, Maid of Honour, i. 1 (Roberto); to undervalue, disparage, depreciate, Shirley, Cardinal, ii. 1 (Alphonso); id., Brothers, i. 1; to subdue, ‘How to decline their wives and curb their manners’, Beaumont and Fl., Rule a Wife, ii. 4 (Estifania).
decrew, to decrease. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 18. OF. decreu, F. décrû, pp. of decrestre (décroître), to decrease.
decus, a crown-piece. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, ii. 1 (Belfond Senior). A slang term; from the L. words decus et tutamen, engraved upon the rim.
deduce, to deduct. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, ii. 1 (Sir Moth). L. deducere, to lead away, withdraw.
deduct, to reduce. Massinger, Old Law, iii. 1 (Gnotho). See NED.
deduction, a leading forth of a colony. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, vi. 455; used as a synonym for ‘dismission’ (i.e. dismissal), id., xix. 423, 427. L. deductio, a leading forth of a colony, deriv. of deducere, to lead forth, conduct a colony to a place.
deduit, diversion, enjoyment, pleasure. Deduytes, pleasures, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 27. 18. ME. deduit, pleasure (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2177), OF. deduit (Bartsch), deduyt (Rabelais), Med. L. deductus, ‘animi oblectatio’ (Ducange).
defail, to defeat, cause to fail. Machin, Dumb Knight, i (Epire); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 128. Only found here in this sense.
defalcate, curtailed. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 10, § 1. Med. L. defalcare, ‘deducere, subtrahere’ (Ducange).
defalk, to cut off, deduct; ‘I defalke, I demynysshe, I cutte awaye’, Palsgrave. See above.
defame, dishonour. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 316); Fletcher, Prophetess, i. 1 (Aurelia).
defeature, defeat, ruin. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 17; disfigurement, Com. Errors, ii. 1. 98; ii. 5. 299.
defend, to forbid. Much Ado, ii. 1. 98; Marl., Massacre at Paris ii. 5 (Navarre); Milton, P. L. xi. 86; Spenser, F. Q. v. 8. 19. F. défendre, to forbid.
define, to decide, settle. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 3.
deform, unsightly, ugly. Milton, P. L. ii. 706. Lat. deformis, unsightly.
defoul, defoil, to dishonour. Morte Arthur, leaf 39. 1; bk. ii, c. 1; lf. 71. 28; bk. iv, c. 18. F. defouler, to tread or trample on (Cotgr.); associated in meaning with the E. adj. foul.
defy, to reject, disdain, despise. Merch. Ven. iii. 5. 75; Hamlet, v. 2. 230. OF. desfier, O. Prov. desfiar, desfizar ‘désavouer, répudier’ (Levy). Med. L. diffidare (Ducange). See NED. (s.v. Defy, vb.1 5).
de gambo, a ‘viol-de-gambo’. Beaumont and Fl., The Chances, iv. 2 (Antonio). See [viol-de-gamboys].
degender, to degenerate. Spenser, F. Q. v. 1. 2; Hymn of Heavenly Love, 94.
degree, a step, stair; round of a ladder. Jul. Caesar, ii. 1. 26; Massinger, Roman Actor, iii. 2. 21. F. degré, ‘a stair, step, greese’ (Cotgr.).
dehort, to dissuade. Lyly, Euphues, ed. Arber, p. 106; Davenant, The Wits, iv. 1 (Thwack). L. dehortari.
delate, to accuse. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 3 (Mosca). Delated, fully or expressly stated (or conveyed), Hamlet, i. 2. 38. Med. L. delatare, to indict, accuse (Ducange).
delay, to temper, assuage, quench. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 30; iii. 12. 42; Prothalamion, 3; to dilute, ‘She can drink a cup of wine not delayed with water’, Davenport, City Nightcap, 1 (Dorothea); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xiii. 114. OF. (Norm.) desleier, to unbind, soften by steeping, Romanic type disligare, to unbend; see NED.
delewine, deal-wine, an unidentified wine; supposed to have been a Rhenish wine. B. Jonson, Mercury Vindicated (Mercury’s second speech); Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, v. 1; where Sir T. Bornwell says—‘Where deal and backrag [Bacharach] and what strange wine else’, &c.
delibate, to taste, to taste a little of. Marmion, The Antiquary, iii. 1 (Duke). L. delibare, to taste slightly.
delice, delight, pleasure. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 28; iv. 10. 6. F. délices, pl, L. deliciae, delights.
delirement, a crazy fancy, delusion. Heywood, Silver Age, A. ii (Amphitrio); vol. iii, p. 107; id., Dialogue 4; vol. vi, p. 179. F. délirement; L. deliramentum, madness.
deliver, active, nimble, agile. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 12, § last; ‘Delyver of ones Gunnes as they that prove mastryes, souple. Delyver redy quicke to do anythyng, agile, delivré’, Palsgrave. ME. deliver, quick, active (Chaucer, C. T. A. 84). OF. delivre, deslivre, prompt, alert, O. Prov. deliure, ‘libre, délivré; alerte; non chargé; en parlant d’une bête’; see Levy. Med. L. deliberare, ‘liberare, redimere’ (Ducange).
dell, a virgin, a wench. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Prigg). See Harman, Caveat, p. 75.
deluvye, the deluge. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 273, back, 30. L. diluvium, the deluge (Vulgate).
demain, demesne, domain. Dryden, On Mrs. A. Killigrew, 103; demeanes, pl., Romeo, iii. 5. 182 (1592). ME. demayn, a possession (Trevisa), see NED. (s.v. Demesne, 3); OF. demeine, Med. L. ‘dominicum quod ad dominum spectat’ (Ducange). See [payne mayne].
demean(e, behaviour, demeanour; ‘Another Damsell . . . modest of demayne’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 40; treatment (of others), id. vi. 6. 18. See Dict. (s.v. Demean (1)).
demeans, means of subsistence. Massinger, Picture, i. 1. 22.
demerit, merit; in a good sense. Coriolanus, i. 1. 276; Othello, i. 2. 2; Shirley, Humorous Courtier, ii. 2 (Duchess).
demi-culverin, a kind of cannon, with a bore of about 4 inches. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum., iii. 1 (Bobadil).
demi-footcloth, a demi-housing, or short housing; see [footcloth]. Webster, White Devil (Brachiano), ed. Dyce, p. 22.
demiss, humble, abject. Spenser, Hymn of Heavenly Love, 135. L. demissus.
democcuana, not explained; perhaps, a kind of mixed drink; see [stiponie]. Etherege, Love in a Tub, v. 4 (Sir Frederick).
Demogorgon, the name of one of the Spirits of the Abyss. Milton, P. L. ii. 965; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 47; co-ruler with Beelzebub, in Marlowe Faustus, iii. 18; the patron of alchemists, Howell, Instructions for Forraine Travell (Arber’s ed., p. 81). Demogorgon is an important character in Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound. Late L. Demogorgon, (1) the name of a terrible deity invoked in magic rites, (2) the primordial God of ancient mythology. Probably a corruption of Gk. δημιουργός, the Maker of the World, the Fabricator, in the Neo-Platonic philosophy opp. to κτίστης, the Creator. By popular etymology this δημιουργός was associated with the Greek words δαίμων, a demon, and Γοργώ, the Gorgon, i.e. the Grim One (γοργός). See Stanford, and NED.
dempt, pt. t. ‘deemed’, adjudged. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 55; Shep. Kal., Aug., 137.
demulce, to mollify. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 20, § 1. L. demulcere, to stroke down.
denay, to deny. Greene, Alphonsus, iii (Medea); ed. Dyce, 237; denial, Twelfth Nt. ii. 4. 127. Norm. F. deneier, ‘refuser, rejeter’ (Moisy), L. denegare.
denier, a French coin, the twelfth of a sou. 1 Hen. IV, iii. 3. 91; Richard III, i. 2. 252. OF. denier, L. denarius. The denarius was a Roman silver coin of the value of ten ‘asses’ (about eightpence of modern English money). When our accounts were kept in Latin, the term denarius was used for our ‘penny’, and abbreviated d.; hence the d in our £. s. d.
depaint, to depict. Sackville, Induction, st. 58; B. Googe, Popish Kingdom, bk. i, fol. 10, l. 5. ME. depeynten (NED.).
depart, to separate; formerly in the Marriage Service, but altered at the Savoy Conference into ‘till death us do part’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 14. ME. departe, to separate (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1134).
depart, departure. Two Gent. v. 4. 96; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 7. 20. F. départ, departure.
dependence, a quarrel or affair of honour ‘depending’, or awaiting settlement, according to the laws of the duello. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, iv. 1 (Fitz.); Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, v. 5 (Sanchio). Masters of Dependencies, needy bravoes, who undertook to regulate duels between the inexperienced, Massinger, Maid of Honour, i. 1 (Bertoldo); Fletcher, Elder Brother, v. 1.
deprave, erroneously used for deprive. Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, pp. 499, 511; Burton, Anat. Mel. i. 2. See NED.
deprehend, to detect, perceive. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 10, § last but 4; Bacon, Sylva, § 98. L. deprehendere, to seize.
Derby’s bands; see [Darby’s bands].
dere, to harm. Barclay, Mirror Good Manners (NED.); Palsgrave; spelt deare, Phaer, tr. Aeneid, iii. 139; to annoy, trouble, grieve. Caxton, Reynard (ed. Arber, 106); harm, hurt, Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 48. ME. deren, to harm, injure (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 651); to grieve (Cursor M. 7377); OE. derian, to injure, annoy (Sweet). See [dare].
dern, dark, solitary, wild. Pericles, iii, Prol. 15; King Lear, iii. 7. 63; dark, dire; ‘Queene Elizabeth died, a dearne day to England’, Leigh, Drumme Devot. 35 (NED.); ‘Dearne, dirus’, Levins, Manipulus. In prov. use in the north country in the sense of dark, obscure, secret; also, dreary, solitary, see EDD. (s.v. Dern, adj.1 1 and 2). OE. (Anglian) derne, (WS.) dyrne, dierne, secret, dark (BT. Suppl. s.v. Dirne).
dernful, dreary, Spenser, Mourning Muse, 90.
dernly, dearnly, mournfully, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 85; sternly, id., iii. 1. 14; iii. 12. 34.
derrick, a hangman; hanging; the gallows; ‘Derrick must be his host’, Puritan Widow, iv. 1. 11; ‘Deric . . . is with us abusively used for a Hangman because one of that name was not long since a famed executioner at Tiburn’, Blount, Glossogr.; ‘I would there were a Derick to hang up him’, Dekker, Seven Deadly Sins (ed. Arber, 17). Du. Dierryk, Diederik, Theoderic.
derring do, daring action or feats, desperate courage; ‘A derring doe’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Oct., 65, and Dec, 43; F. Q. ii. 4. 42. [In imitation of Spenser, Sir. W. Scott has the phrase ‘a deed of derring-do’ (Ivanhoe, ch. 29).] Hence, derring-doer, F. Q. iv. 2. 38. Spenser’s ‘derring doe’ is due to a misunderstanding of a construction in Chaucer’s Tr. and Cr. v. 837, where ‘in dorryng don’ means ‘in daring to do’ (what belongeth to a Knight). See NED.
descovenable, unbefitting. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 15, back, 12. Spelt discouenable, Game of the Chesse, bk. ii, c. 5 (p. 70 of Axon’s reprint). OF. descovenable.
descrive, to describe. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 25; vi. 12. 21. OF. descrivre. L. describere.
dese, a ‘dais’, a raised table in a hall at which distinguished persons sat at feasts; ‘The hye dese’, Skelton, El. Rummyng, 175. ME. dese (Will. Palerne, 4564), dees (Chaucer, Hous Fame, 1360, 1658). Norm. F. deis (Moisy), Med. L. discus, a table (cp. G. Tisch).
design, to indicate, show. Richard II, i. 1. 203; Spenser, F. Q. v. 7. 8.
despoiled, partially stripped; as in playing at the palm-play. Surrey, Prisoned in Windsor, 13; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 13.
desroy, to ‘disarray’, disorder. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 33. 26; desray, id., lf. 188. 15.
detort, to twist aside, to wrest. Dryden, Pref. to Religio Laici, § 4. L. detort-us, pp. of de-torquere, to twist aside.
detract, to draw apart, pull asunder. Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 515; to hold back, keep oneself in the background, Greene, James IV, i. 1 (Ateukin).
Deu guin!, a Welsh exclamation; app. for Duw gwyn!, lit. ‘Blessed God’. See [Du cat-a whee]. Beaumont and Fl., Mons. Thomas, iv. 2 (Launcelot).
deuse a vyle, the country. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); ‘dewse a vyle, the countrey’, Harman, Caveat, p. 84. See [Rom-vile].
devant, front of the dress; ‘Perfume my devant’, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Mercury). F. devant, before.
dever, to ‘endeavour’; ‘I dever, I applye my mynde to do a thing’, Palsgrave.
deviceful, full of devices, ingenious, curious. Spenser, F. Q. v. 3. 3; Teares of the Muses, 385.
devoir, duty. Spelt devoyre; Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 227; deuoyr, endeavour; Greene, Alphonsus, Prol. (near the end); dever, Sternhold and Hopkins, Ps. xxii. 26. F. devoir.
devolve, to overturn, overthrow. Webster, Appius, i. 3 (Virginius); Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, v. 4.
devotion, an offering made as an act of worship; a gift given in charity, alms; ‘Then shal the Churche wardens . . . gather the devocion of the people’, Bk. Com. Pr., Communion, 1552 (‘the alms for the poor, and other devotions of the people’, 1662); Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, ii. 2 (L. Twilight); devotions, objects of religious worship; ‘I beheld your devotions’, Bible, Acts xvii. 23 (‘the objects of your worship’, R. V.); ‘Dametas . . . swearing by no meane devotions’, Sidney, Arcadia (ed. 1598, p. 282). See Wright’s Bible Word-Book.
devow, to devote. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Practice); Holland’s Ammianus Marcellinus (Nares). F. dévouer, to devote.
dewle; See [dole] (2).
dewtry, ‘datura’; hence, a drug made from the datura or thornapple, a powerful narcotic. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 1. 321; spelt deutroa, Sir T. Herbert, Travels (ed. 1677, p. 337). Marathi, dhutrā; Skt. dhattūra. See Stanford (s.v. Datura).
diacodion, an opiate syrup prepared from poppy-heads. Bulleyn, Dial. against Pestilence (EETS.), p. 51, l. 20; Congreve, Love for Love, iii. 4 (Scandal.). L. diacodion (Pliny). Dia is a prefix set before medicinal confections that were devised by the Greeks. Gk. διὰ κωδειῶν (a preparation) made from poppy-heads.
diametral, diametrically opposite. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1. 7.
diapasm, a scented powder for sprinkling over the person. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Perfumer). Gk. διάπασμα, from διαπάσσειν, to sprinkle.
diapred, adorned with a ‘diaper’ pattern; ‘And diapred lyke the discolored mead’, Spenser, Epithalamion, 51.
dicacity, raillery, sarcasm. Heywood, Dialogue 4, vol. vi, p. 185. Deriv. of L. dicax, sarcastic.
dich: in phr. ‘Much good dich thy good heart’, Timon, i. 2. 73; ‘Much good do’t thy good heart’, Dekker, Satiro-mastix (Works, i. 204); ‘Much good do’t yee’ (riming with ‘sit yee’), ib., i. 214; ‘Much good do it you’ (vulgarly pronounced and phonetically spelt mychgoditio (Salesbury in 1550), quoted by Ellis in his Early English Pronunciation, p. 744, note 2. So it is clear that dich you stands for d’it you = do it you. See further in Notes on Eng. Etym., pp. 67-9. Cp. phrase in use in Cheshire and Lancashire, ‘Much good deet you’, see EDD. (s.v. Do, subj. mood, § 3).
dicion, a dominion, kingdom. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Alexander, § 40; Augustus, § 6. L. dicio, dominion, sovereignty.
dickens, the, (in exclamations) the deuce! the devil! Merry Wives, iii. 2. 20; Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs); vol. 1, p. 40.
dicker, half a score; esp. of hides or skins; ‘A dicker of cow-hides’, Heywood; First Part of King Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 39; The Marriage Night, ii. 1 (Latchet); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xv. 131. ME. diker (NED.), L. decuria, a set of ten; from decem, ten. This Latin word was adopted by the German tribes from ancient times. They had to pay tribute to the Romans partly in skins, reckoned in decuriae (NED.). See Schade (s.v. Decher).
didapper, a diving bird; humorously, a mistress. Shirley, Gent. of Venice, iii 4. 8. See [divedopper].
Diego, a common name for a Spaniard. B. Jonson, Alchemist, iv. 3 (Face); iv. 4 (Subtle). Allusions are often made to a Spaniard so named who committed an indecency in St. Paul’s Cathedral, as in Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, iv. 3 (Blurt). Span. Diégo, the proper name James, gradually corrupted from Jacobus, whence Yágo, then Diágo, and at last Diégo (Stevens). James was the patron saint of Spain. See [Dondego].
diery, harmful; ‘With dreadful diery dent Of wrathful warre’, Mirror for Mag., Guidericus, st. 12; Carassus, st. 26. See [dere].
difficile, difficult. Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 53; spelt dyfficyle, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 311, back, 14. F. difficile.
diffide in, distrust. Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid, xi. 636; Congreve, Old Bachelor, v. 1 (Bellmour). L. diffidere.
diffused, dispersed, scattered. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 4; v. 11. 47; confused, disordered, distracted, Merry Wives, iv. 4. 54; Hen. V, v. 2. 61.
diggon, enough. Shirley, Love Tricks, ii. 2 (Jenkin); iii. 5 (Jenkin). In both places the word is used by a Welshman; and in Shirley’s Wedding, iii. 2, Lodam gives, as a specimen of Welsh—diggon a camrag (for digon o Cymraig), i.e. ‘enough of Welsh.’ Welsh digon, enough.
dight, to prepare. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 24; as pp., arrayed, decked, Shep. Kal., April, 29; prepared, Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, p. 522); framed, Sackville, Induction, st. 55. ‘To dight’ is in prov. use in Scotland and the north of England in the sense of ‘to prepare’, also, ‘to adorn, deck oneself’ (EDD.). ME. dihten, to prepare, array, equip (Chaucer), OE. dihtan, to appoint, order.
digladiation, a fencing contest, hand-to-hand fight; fig. disputation, wrangling. Pattenham, E. Poesie, bk. i, c. 17 (ed. Arber, p. 52). B. Jonson, Discoveries, cxl. Deriv. of L. digladiari, to fight for life and death (Cicero).
dildo, ‘a word of obscure origin, occurring in the refrains of ballads,’ NED. In Winter’s Tale, iv. 4. 195.
dill, a sweetheart; a cant term; the same as [dell]. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iv. 1 (Sancho).
dilling, a darling, a well-beloved; ‘Vespasian the dilling of his time’, Burton, Anat. Mel. (ed. 1896) iii. 27; the youngest, and therefore the best-beloved child, Drayton, Pol. ii. 115. The word is in common prov. use for the youngest child, also, the least and weakest of a brood or litter (EDD.).
dimble, a dingle, a deep dell. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 2 (Alken); Drayton, Pol. ii. 190. Allied to dimple, dingle. Still in use in the Midlands, see EDD.
dint, to strike. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 10. 31; a stroke, blow, id. i. 7. 47.
dipsas, a snake whose bite was said to produce extreme thirst. Milton, P. L. x. 526; Marston, Malcontent, ii. 2. 1. Gk. δίψας, causing thirst; from δίφα, thirst.
dirige, a ‘dirge’. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 5). ME. dirige (dyryge) ‘offyce for dedeman’ (Prompt.). L. dirige: this word begins the antiphon, ‘Dirige, Dominus meus, in conspectu tuo vitam meam’, used in the first nocturn at mattins in the Office for the Dead; see Way’s note in Prompt., and Notes to Piers Plowman, C. iv. 467.
dirk, to darken, to obscure; ‘Thy wast bignes . . . dirks the beauty of my blossomes rownd’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 134. See EDD. (s.v. Dark, 8). ME. derhyn, or make derk, ‘obscuro, obtenebro’ (Prompt. EETS., 137).
disable, to disparage. As You Like It, iv. 1. 34; Heywood, Eng. Traveller, iv. 1 (Reignald); Fletcher, Island Princess, iv. 3 (Armusia); spelt dishable, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 21.
disadventure, misfortune. Dissaventures, pl. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 45. ME. disaventure (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 415).
disappointed, unequipped, unprepared. Hamlet, i. 5. 77.
disceptation, a discussion, debate. Spelt desceptations, pl.; Heywood, Dialogue 18; vol. vi. p. 248. L. disceptatio (Cicero).
discide, to cut or cleave in twain. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 1. 27. L. discidere, to cut in twain.
disclose, to hatch. Hamlet, v. 1. 310; Massinger, Maid of Honour, i. 2 (Camiòla); the act of disclosing, the incubation, Hamlet, iii. 1. 175.
discoloured, of various colours, variegated. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Crites); v. 3 (Cupid); Beaumont, Masque of the Inner Temple, l. 10; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 160. L. discolor, of different colours.
discommodity, a disadvantage. Bacon, Essay 33.
discourse, faculty of reasoning, logical power; ‘discourse and reason’ (i.e. logic and reason), Massinger, Unnat. Combat, ii. 1 (Malef. jun.); ‘Discourse of reason’, reasoning faculty, Hamlet, i. 2. 150.
discourse, course of combat, mode of fighting. Beaumont and Fl., King and No King, ii. 1 (Gob.); Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 14. L. discursus, a running to and fro.
discretion, disjunction, separation of parts, dissolution. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 1. 204. L. discretio (Vulgate, Heb. v. 14 = διάκρισις).
discure, to discover. Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 18. ME. discure, to discover (Chaucer, Bk. Duch. 549).
discuss, to shake off. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 48; to disperse, scatter; Lyly, Woman in the Moon, ii. 1. 21. ME. discusse, to drive away (Chaucer, Boethius); see NED. L. discutere (pp. discussus), to drive away.
disease, discomfort, inconvenience. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 19; v. 7. 26. ME. disese, inconvenience, distress (Chaucer); ‘A greet diseese’ (Wyclif, Luke xxi. 23). Anglo-F. desaise, trouble (Gower).
disease, to trouble, inconvenience; ‘Why diseasest thou the master’, Tyndal, Mark v. 35; Spenser, F. Q. vi. 3. 32; Middleton, The Witch, iv. 2 (Isabella); to disturb, Chapman tr. Iliad, x. 45. See Trench, Sel. Gl.
disembogue, trans., to empty out. Dryden, Hind and Panther, ii. 562; to drive out, eject; Massinger, Maid of Honour, ii. 2 (Page). Also in form disimboque, Hakluyt, Voyages, i. 104. Span. desembocar, to come out of the mouth of a river.
disentrail, to draw forth from the entrails or inward parts. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 28; iv. 6. 18.
disgest, to digest. Coriolanus, i. 1. 154; Ant. and Cl. ii. 2. 179 (in old edd.). In general prov. use in the British Isles (EDD.).
dishable; see [disable].
disheir, to deprive of an heir. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 705.
disinteressed, disinterested. Dryden, Religio Laici, 335. See [interessed].
disleal, disloyal. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 5. See Dict. (s.v. Leal).
dislike (only in the 3rd pers.), to displease, annoy; ‘Ile do’t, but it dislikes me’, Othello, ii. 3. 49; Middleton, Women beware, iii. 1 (Leantio).
disloignd, distant, remote. Spencer, F. Q. iv. 10. 24. OF. desloignier, to remove to a distance. O. Prov. deslonhar, ‘éloigner, écarter’ (Levy).
dismay, to terrify; ‘I dismaye, I put a person in fere or drede, je desmaye and je esmaye’, Palsgrave; Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 4; to defeat by a sudden onslaught, id. v. 2. 8; vi. 10. 13. See Dict.
dismayd, dis-made, mis-made, ill-formed. F. Q. ii. 11. 11.
disme, a dime, a tithe, tenth. Tr. and Cr. ii. 2. 19. OF. disme, a tenth; see Ducange (s.v. Decimae). L. decima, a tenth part.
dispace, to range, to move or walk about. Spenser, Virgil’s Gnat, 295; Muiopotmos, 250. Cp. Ital. spaziare, to walk about (Fanfani).
disparage, inequality of rank in marriage; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 50. ME. disparage (Chaucer, C. T. E. 908). Norm. F. desparager, mésallier; desparagement, mésalliance, union inégale (Moisy).
disparent, unequal, odd; with reference to the number five. ‘A disparent pentacle’, i.e. a pentacle with an odd number of angles, Hero and Leander, iii. 123; ‘The odd disparent number’, i.e. the odd number of five, id. v. 323.
disparkle, to scatter abroad, disperse (trans. and intr.); ‘Esparpiller, to scatter, disperse, disparkle’, Cotgrave; ‘It disparcleth the mist’, Holland, Pliny, ii. 45; ‘Not suffering his radiations to disparcle abrode’ Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 78); see Nares. An altered form of the earlier disparple, see NED. See [sparkle].
disparple, disperple, to scatter abroad, disperse. Chapman, tr. Odyssey, x. 473; dispurple, Heywood, Silver Age, iii (Wks. iii. 144). ME. disparple (Wyclif, Mark xiv. 27); see Dict. M. and S. OF. desparpelier; for etym. from *parpalio, a Romanic form of L. papilio, a butterfly (as in Ital. parpaglione, O. Prov. parpalho); see NED.
dispense, liberal expenditure. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 42; v. 11. 45.
dispergement, ‘disparagement’, indignity. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 12, § 6.
display, to discover, get sight of, descry. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 76; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 74; xvii. 90; xxii. 280. See NED. (s.v. Display, vb. 9).
disple, to subject to the ‘discipline’ of the scourge, to scourge; ‘Bitter Penance with an yron whip Was wont him once to disple every day’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 27. In monastic Latin disciplina = (1) a penitential whipping, (2) the instrument of punishment itself; see Ducange (s.v.).
dispose, disposal; disposition. Two Gent. ii. 7. 86; Tr. and Cr. ii. 3. 174; Othello, i. 3. 403.
disposed, inclined to merriment; in a merry mood. L. L. L. ii. 1. 250; Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, v. 4 (Lady H.); Custom of the Country, i. 1. 9.
dispunct, impolite, discourteous, the reverse of punctilious; ‘Let’s be retrograde. Amorphus. Stay. That were dispunct to the ladies’, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2.
disqueat, to disquiet, trouble. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. i, c. 5, st. 39. See [queat].
disseat, to unseat. Macbeth, v. 3. 21; Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 4. 85.
disseise, to dispossess. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 20; vii. 7. 48. Anglo-F. disseisir (Rough List). A compound of OF. seisir (saisir), to put into possession, Frankish L. sacire; of Germanic origin—satjan (OHG. sazjan), to set, place; see NED. (s.v. Seize). Cp. Ital. sagire, to put in full and quiet possession, namely of lands (Florio).
dissident, differing, different. Robinson, tr. of More’s Utopia, pp. 66, 130. L. dissidens, differing, disagreeing.
dissite, situated apart, remote. Chapman, tr. Odyssey, vii. 270. L. dissitus, situated part.
dissolve, to solve; ‘Dissolve this doubtful riddle’, Massinger, Duke of Milan, iv. 3 (Sforza); Bible, Daniel v. 16. [‘Thou hadst not between death and birth Dissolved the riddle of the earth’, Tennyson, Two Voices, 170.]
distance, disagreement, estrangement. Macbeth, iii. 1. 115; ‘Distances between his lady and him’, Pepys, Diary, Sept. 11, 1666. ME. destance, difference (Gower, C. A. iii. 611). Anglo-F. destance, dispute, disagreement (Gower, Mirour, 4957). See [staunce].
distaste, to have no taste for, to dislike, King Lear, i. 3. 14; to offend the taste, Othello, iii. 3. 327.
distempered, not temperate. Drayton, Pol. i. 4; disturbed in temper, humour, King John, iv. 3. 21; disordered physically, Sonnet, 153; mentally disordered, Milton, P. L. iv. 807; Massinger, Duke of Milan, i. 1. 18.
distract, torn or drawn asunder; torn to pieces. Sh., Lover’s Complaint, 231; perplexed by having the thoughts drawn in different directions, Milton, Samson Ag. 1556; deranged in mind, Julius C., iv. 3. 155; Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 212. L. distractus, drawn asunder, distracted.
distreyn, to vex, distress. Sackville, Induction, st. 14; Surrey, The Lover comforteth himself, 2; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 14. F. destreindre, ‘to straine, presse, vexe extremely’ (Cotgr.); L. distringere, to draw asunder.
disyellow, to free from jaundice. Warner, Albion’s England; bk. ii, ch. 10, st. 13.
dit, ditt, a poetical composition, a ditty. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 13. See NED.
ditch-constable, a term of contempt. Middleton, A Mad World, v. 2 (Follywit).
dite, to winnow corn. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, v. 498. Hence diter, one who ‘dites’, id., v. 499. In common use in this sense in Scotland and the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Dight, 6).
diurnal, a journal, newspaper. Butler, Hudibras, i. 2. 268; Tatler, no. 204, § 4. L. diurnalis, daily; from dies, day.
divedopper, a small diving water-fowl. Drayton, Man in the Moon, 188. See [didapper].
diverse, to turn aside; ‘The Redcrosse Knight diverst’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 62. Only found here in this sense.
diversivolent, of variable will, changeable. Webster, White Devil (Lawyer), ed. Dyce, p. 20; (Flamineo), p. 25. A word coined by Webster.
diversory, a place to which one turns in by the way. Chapman, tr. Odyssey, xiv. 538. L. diversorium, an inn, freq. in Vulgate, cp. Luke ii. 7; xxii. 11.
divine, to render divine, to canonize. Spenser, Daphn., 214; Ruins of Time, 611; Drayton, Pol. xxiv. 191.
divulst, torn apart. Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, i. 1. 4. L. diuulsus, pp. of diuellere, to pluck asunder.
dizen, to put flax on a distaff; ‘I dysyn a dystaffe, I put the flaxe upon it to spynne’, Palsgrave; to dress, attire, ‘bedizen’; ‘Come, Doll, Doll, dizen me’, Beaumont and Fl., M. Thomas, iv. 6. 3. In common use in the north country in the sense of ‘to dress showily’ (EDD.). See Dict. (s.v. Distaff).
dizling, (perhaps) making dizzy, confusing; ‘His torch with dizling smoke Was dim’, Golding, Metam. x. 6 (L. ‘Fax . . . lacrymoso stridula fumo’).
dizzard, dizard, a blockhead, foolish fellow. Brewer, Lingua, iii. 1 (end). A Yorkshire word; cp. ‘dizzy’, used in the north country in the sense of ‘foolish, stupid, half-witted’; OE. dysig (Matt. vi. 26, ‘stultus’).
do, to cause; ‘The villany . . . Which some hath put to shame, and many done be dead’, Spenser, F. Q. v. 4. 29; phr. I cannot do withal, I cannot help it, Middleton, A Chaste Maid, ii. 1 (Sir Oliver); ‘I could not do withal’ Merch. Ven. iii. 4. 72. ME. doon, do, to cause (Chaucer, freq.).
do way! forbear! Surrey, A Song, 21; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 219.
dob-chick, a dab-chick, a small diving bird, Podiceps minor. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 80; spelt dop-chick, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xv. 686. ‘Dob-chick’ is in common prov. use in many parts of England (EDD.).
docket, the fleshy part of an animal’s tail. Greene, James IV, i. 2 (Slip). Dimin. of dock, in the same sense. See NED. (s.v. Dock, sb.2 1).
doctor, a false die; loaded so as to fall only in two or three ways. A slang term; a ‘doctored die’, Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Hackum); Cibber, Woman’s Wit, i (NED.).
dodder, to tremble or shake from frailty; ‘Dodder grasses . . . so called because with the least puff or blast of wind it doth as it were dodder and tremble’, Minsheu, Ductor.
doddered: phr. doddered oak, decayed with age; ‘Dodder’d oak’, Dryden, tr. Persius, Sat. v. 80; Virgil, Past. ix. 9; ‘Doddered oaks’, Palamon and Arc., iii. 905; Pope, Odyssey, xx. 200. ‘Doddered’ is in prov. use in the north country in the sense of old, decayed, trembling: ‘A doddered old man’, see EDD. s.v. Dother, vb.1 1 (1)).
dodkin, a little doit; a coin of very small value. Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 2 (end). Du. duytken, dimin. of duyt, a doit (Hexham). See NED.
doff, a repulse, a ‘put off’. Wily Beguiled, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ix. 276.
dog, to follow after; ‘To dog the fashion’, B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iv. 6 (Macilente).
dogbolt, a contemptible fellow, mean wretch. Fletcher, Span. Curate, ii. 2 (Lopez); Wit without Money, iii. 1. 32. As adj., worthless, base, Butler, Hud. ii. 1. 40. The orig. sense was (probably) a crossbow-bolt, only fit for shooting at a dog; see NED.
dog-leach, a dog-doctor; a term of reproach. Fletcher, Mad Lover, iii. 2 (Memnon).
doily, the name of a cheap stuff. Dryden, Kind Keeper, iv. 1; ‘doily stuff’, Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, iv. 4 (Lady Fanciful). See Dict.
dole, portion in life; ‘Happy man be his dole’ (i.e. may happiness be his portion), Merry Wives, iii. 4. 68; Butler, Hud., pt. i, c. 3. 638.
dole, dool, grief, mourning, lamentation. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 155; F. Q. iv. 8. 3. Spelt dewle, Sackville, Induction, st. 14. In prov. use in Scotland and the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Dole, sb.2). OF. dol, deul, sorrow; see Bartsch (s.v. Duel). See [duill].
dole (landmark); see [dool].
dolent, a sorrowing one, a sufferer. Calisto and Melibaea, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 82. L. dolens, grieving.
doly, doleful, sad; ‘In doly season’, Wounds of Civil War, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 170; ‘This dolye chaunce’, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, bk. ii (ed. Arber, p. 57). See [dole] (grief).
domineer, to revel, feast; to live like a lord. Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 226; B. Jonson, Every Man, ii. 1. 76 (Downright).
dommerar, dummerer, a begging vagabond who feigns to be dumb. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1. 9. See Harman, Caveat, p. 57; ‘Dummerers, Abraham men’, Burton, Anat. Mel. (ed. 1896), i. 409.
Dondego, a Spaniard; short for ‘Don Diego’. Webster, Sir T. Wyatt (Brett), ed. Dyce, p. 198. See [Diego].
done, donne, to do. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 28; vi. 10. 32. ME. doon, don, to do; done, doon, ger. (Chaucer). OE. dōn, to do.
donny, somewhat ‘dun’, or brownish. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 400. See NED. (s.v. Dunny, adj.1).
donzel, donsel, a squire, a page, youth. B. Jonson, Alchemist, iv. 4. 20; Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4 (Captain). Ital. donzello, ‘a damosell, page, squire, serving-man’ (Florio). Med. L. domicellus, domnicellus (Ducange); dimin. of L. dominus, lord. See Dict. (s.v. Damsel).
dool, dole, dowle, a boundary-mark; ‘With dowles and ditches’, Golding, Metam. i. 136; fol. 3 (1603); ‘They pullid uppe the doolis’, Paston Letters, i. 58. Low G. dōle, dōl, a boundary-mark (Koolman). ‘Dool’ is in common prov. use in this sense in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Dool, sb.2 1).
dool; see [dole] (grief).
door: phr. to keep the door, to be a pandar. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 4 (Trimtram). Door-keeper, a bawd; id., The Black Book, ed. Dyce, vol. iv, p. 525.
dop, a dip, duck, low bow. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Crites); to dip, duck, dive, bob; Dryden, Epilogue to the Unhappy Favourite, 2.
dop, to baptize. God’s Promises, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 318. Du. doopen, to dip, baptize (Sewel).
dopper, doper, a (Dutch) Anabaptist; ‘This is a dopper (old ed. doper), a she Anabaptist’, B. Jonson, Staple of News, iii. 1 (Register); News from the New World (Factor). Du. dooper, a dipper, baptizer (Sewel).
dor, scoff, mockery. Phr. to give the dor, to make game of, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2; to receive the dor, to be marked, Beaumont and Fl., Lover’s Progress, i. 1. 29. Icel. dār, scoff.
dor, to make game of, Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, iv. 1. 15. Icel. dāra to mock, make sport of.
dorado, name of a species of fish; ‘The Dorado, which the English confound with the Dolphin, is much like a Salmon’, J. Davies, tr. Mandelslo (ed. 1669, iii. 196); a wealthy person, ‘A troop of these ignorant Doradoes’, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med., pt. ii, § 1. Span. dorado, ‘a fish called a Dory, or Gilt head, an enemy to the Flying Fish’ (Stevens); dorar, to gild; L. deaurare. See Stanford.
dorp, a village. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 238, 298; Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 6. 11. Du. dorp, a village. See Dict. (s.v. Thorp).
dorre, applied to species of bees or flies; a bumble-bee; a drone-bee; fig. a drone, a lazy idler; ‘Gentlemen which cannot be content to live idle themselfes, lyke dorres’, Robynson, More’s Utopia (ed. Arber, 38). OE. dora, ‘atticus’ (Epinal Gl., 119); cp. ‘Adticus, feld beo, dora’ in Cleopatra Glosses (Voc. 351. 22). See NED. (s.v. Dor, sb.1).
dorser; see [dosser].
dortour, a sleeping room, bedchamber. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 24. ME. dortour (Chaucer, C. T. D. 1855). Norm. F. dortur (Moisy), OF. dortoir, Monastic L. dormitorium (Ducange).
dosser, a basket, pannier. Merry Devil, i. 3. 142; Jonson, Staple of News, ii. [4.] (Almanac); spelt dorser, Beaumont and Fl., Night-Walker, i. 1 (Lurcher). An E. Anglian word for a pannier slung over a horse’s back (EDD). ME. dosser, a basket to carry on the back (Chaucer, Hous F. 1940). F. dossier, ‘partie d’une hotte qui s’appuie sur le dos de celui qui la porte’ (Hatzfeld).
dotes, endowments, good qualities. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, ii. 2 (Cler.); Underwoods, c. 25. L. dotes, pl. of dos, an endowment.
dottrel, dotterel, a pollarded tree; also used attrib.; ‘Old dotterel trees’, Ascham, Scholemaster, bk. ii (ed. Arber, p. 137); ‘A long-set dottrel’, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 465. ‘Dotterel’ is used in this sense near Oxford, and in the south Midlands (EDD).
double reader, a lawyer who is going through a second course of reading; ‘I am a bencher, and now double reader’, B. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, iv. 1 (Practice); ‘Men came to be single readers at 15 or 16 years standing in the House [Inn of Court] and read double about 7 years afterwards’, Sir W. Dugdale, Orig. Jur., 209 (Glossary to Jonson).
doubt, i.e. ’doubt, a shortened form of redoubt, a fortification. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xii. 286.
doucepere, an illustrious knight or paladin. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 31; orig. only used in the pl.: ME. dozepers (douzepers), the twelve peers or paladins of Charlemagne. Anglo-F. li duze per (Ch. Rol. 3187). See NED. (s.v. Douzepers).
dough; see [dow].
dought, to make afraid, Fletcher, Bonduca, i. 2 (Suctonius). See [dout].
douse, to strike violently; ‘To death with daggers doust’ (also wrongly, dounst, in ed. 1587), Mirror for Magistrates, Henry VI, st. 4. In prov. use in the north country (EDD.).
douse, a sweetheart. Tusser, Husbandry, § 10. 7. F. douce, fem. of doux, sweet; L. dulcis.
dout, fear; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 37. OF. doute, fear.
dow, to thrive; ‘He’ll never dow’ (i.e. he’ll never do well), Ray, North C. Words, 13; spelt dough, to be in health, Heywood, The Fair Maid, ii. 1 (Clem). ‘Dow’ is in prov. use in the north, meaning to thrive, prosper, also, to recover from sickness (EDD.). ME. dowe, pr. s. 1 p., am able to do (Wars Alex. 4058). OE. dugan, to be able, to be vigorous (see Wright, OE. Gram. § 541).
dowcets, the testicles of a deer. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, iv. 2 (1 Woodman); B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., i. 6. In old cookery books dowset was the name of a sweet dish. F. doucet, dimin. of doux, sweet. See NED. (s.v. Doucet), and cp. [dulcet].
dowe, ‘dough’. Lyly, Endimion, i. 2 (Tellus); ‘A lytell leven doth leven the whole lompe of dowe’, Tyndale, Gal. v. 9.
dowl(e, soft fine feathers. Tempest, iii. 3. 65 (see W. A. Wright’s note). In prov. use in the S. Midlands for down or fluff (EDD.). ME. doule, a down-feather (Plowman’s Tale, st. 14). See Notes on Eng. Etym.
dowle, see [dool].
dowsabell, a sweetheart. A name, used as a term for a sweetheart. Com. of Errors, iv. 1. 110; London Prodigal, iv. 2. 73. F. douce-belle, L. dulcibella, sweet and fair.
doxy, a vagabond’s mistress. (Cant.) Winter’s Tale, iv. 2. 2; Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Prigg). See Harman, Caveat, p. 73; where the sing. form is doxe.
drabler, drabbler, an additional piece of canvas, laced to the bottom of a bonnet of a sail. Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 1 (1328); p. 134, col. 2; Heywood, Fortune by Land and Sea, iv. 1 (Y. Forrest); vol. vi, p. 416. From drabble, to wet; from its position. Cp. E. Fris. drabbeln, to stamp about in the water (Koolman). See EDD. (s.v. Drabble).
dragon, the name of a stage in the fermentation for producing the elixir. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly).
drake, a dragon. Peele, An Eclogue Gratulatory, ed. Dyce, p. 563. ‘Drake, dragon’, Levins, Manipulus. OE. draca, L. draco, Gk. δράκων.
drane, a drone. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 2, § 3; Skelton, Against the Scottes, 172. ME. drane, ‘fucus’ (Prompt.). The pronunc. of drone in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall (EDD.). OE. drān (drǣn).
drapet, a cloth, a covering. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 27. Cp. Ital. drappetto, dimin. of drappe, cloth.
drasty, worthless, rubbishy; ‘Drasty sluttish geere’, Hall, Sat. v. 2. 49; ‘Drasty ballats’, Return from Parnassus, i. 2 (Judicioso). In several places the s has been misprinted as f; the error originated with Thynne, who, in 1532, twice substituted drafty for drasty in the Prologue to Melibeus: ‘Thy drasty spectre’ (C. T. B. 2113); ‘Thy drasty ryming’ (id. 2120); see NED. OE. dræstig, ‘feculentus’ (Voc. 238. 20).
draw-cut, done by drawing cuts or lots. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid i, 515. See [cut] (1).
drawer, a waiter at a tavern. Merry Wives, ii. 2. 165; Romeo, iii. 1. 9. One who draws liquor for guests.
drawer-on, an incitement to appetite. Massinger, Guardian, ii. 3 (Cario).
drawlatch, lit. one who lifts a latch; a sneaking thief. Jacob and Esau, ii. 3 (Esau).
dray, a squirrel’s nest. Drayton, Quest of Cynthia, st. 51; [The squirrel] ‘Gets to the wood, and hides him in his dray’, W. Browne, Brit. Pastorals, bk. i, song 5. A prov. word in general use (EDD.).
drazel, a slattern, slut. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 987. The word is in use in the south of England, in Sussex and Hampshire, see EDD. (s.v. Drazil).
dread, an object of reverence or awe. Milton, Samson, 1473; ‘Una, his deare dreed’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 2.
drent, drowned. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 49; v. 7. 39. ME. dreint (dreynt), pp. of drenchen, to drown (Chaucer, Bk. Duchess, 148).
drere, grief, sorrow, gloom. Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 40; ii. 12. 36. Hence, drerihed, sadness, id., Muiopotmos, 347; dreriment, Shep. Kal., Nov., 36.
dresser. The signal for the servants to take in the dinner was the cook’s knocking on the dresser, thence called the cook’s drum (Nares); ‘When the dresser, the cook’s drum, thunders’, Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iii. 1 (Steward); ‘The dresser calls in (Knock within, as at dresser)’, Heywood, Witches of Lancs., iii. 1 (Seely); vol. iv, p. 206; ‘Hark! they knock to the dresser’, Brome, Jovial Crew, iv. 1 (end).
dretched, pp., vexed or disturbed by dreams. Morte Arthur, leaf 402. 31; bk. xx, c. 5. OE. dreccan, to vex.
dretchyng of swevens, vexation by dreams. Morte Arthur, leaf 430*. 7; bk. xxi, c. 12.
drib, to let fall in drops or driblets, to dribble out. Dryden, Prologue to The Loyal Brother, 22. Cp. prov. ‘drib’, a drop, a small quantity of liquid (EDD.).
dricksie, decayed; as timber; ‘A drie and dricksie oak’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. iii, c. 19; p. 252. See Droxy in EDD.; and Drix in NED.
drink, to smoke tobacco. Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1 (Laxton). A common expression. See Nares.
drivel, a drudge, a servant doing menial work; ‘A Drudge, or driuell’, Baret (1580); Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2, 3; ‘A dyshwasher, a dryvyll’, Skelton, Against Garnesche, 26. Spelt drevil, Tusser, Husbandry, § 113. 12. ME. drivil, a drudge, a menial (see Prompt. EETS., note no. 588); cp. Du. drevel, ‘a scullion, or a turnspit’ (Hexham). See NED.
droil, a drudge, a menial. Beaumont and Fl., Wit at Several Weapons, ii. 1. 19; Brome, New Acad. ii, p. 40 (Nares). See Prompt. EETS. (note no. 588).
droil, to drudge. Spelt droyle, Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 157. Hence droil, drudgery, Shirley, Gentlemen of Venice, i. 2.
drollery, a puppet-show; a puppet; a caricature. Tempest, iii. 3. 21; Fletcher, Valentinian, ii. 2 (Claudia); Wildgoose Chase, i. 2. 21; 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 156. F. drôlerie, ‘waggery; a merry prank’; dróle, ‘a good fellow, boon companion, merry grig, pleasant wag; one that cares not which end goes forward or how the world goes’ (Cotgr.).
dromound, a large ship, propelled by many oars. Morte Arthur, leaf 82, back, 30; bk. v, c. 3 (end). Anglo-F. dromund (Rough List), OF. dromon, Med. L. dromō (Ducange), Byzant. Gk. δρόμων, a large ship; cogn. with Gk. δρόμος, a racing, a course.
drone, to smoke (a pipe); ‘Droning a tobacco-pipe’, B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iv. 1; Ev. Man out of Humour, iv. 3.
dronel, dronet, a drone; ‘That dronel’, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 151; ‘Like vnto dronets’, Stubbes, Anat. Abuses, To Reader (ed. Furnivall, p. xi).
dropshot: phr. at dropshot; ‘I’ll do no more at dropshot’ (i.e. I’ll do no more in the character of an eaves-dropper, or where one can be shot with drops), Beaumont and Fl., Mad Lover, iii. 6 (end).
drossel, a slattern, a slut. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ix, ch. 47, st. 12. A north Yorkshire word (EDD.). See [drazel].
drouson; ‘Boiling oatemeale . . . with barme or the dregges and hinder ends of your beere barrels makes an excellent pottage . . . of great vse in all the parts of the West Countrie . . . called by the name of drouson potage’, Markham, Farewell, 133 (EDD.); ‘Drowsen broath’, London Prodigal, ii. 1. 42. OE. drōsna, lees, dregs.
droye, a servant, a drudge. Spelt droie; Tusser, Husbandry, § 81. 3; Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 78).
droye, to drudge, Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 664.
druggerman, a ‘dragoman’, interpreter. Dryden, Don Sebastian, ii. 1 (Emperor); [Pope, Donne’s Sat. iv. 83]. See Dict. (s.v. Dragoman); also Stanford.
drum: phr. Jack Drum’s entertainment, ill-treatment, esp. by turning a man out of doors, Heywood, ii. 2 (Sencer). To sell by the drum, to sell by auction; in North’s Plutarch, Octavius, § 11 (in Shak. Plut., p. 255, n. 3); hence, by the dromme (by the drum), in public, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ix, c. 53, st. 31.
drumble, to be sluggish, Merry Wives, iii. 3. 156; a sluggish, stupid person, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 118. A dull, inactive person is called a ‘drummil’ in Warwickshire. A person moving lazily about is said to ‘drumble’ in Cornwall (EDD.). Norw. drumla, to be drowsy; Swed. drummel, a blockhead.
drumslade, dromslade, a drum; ‘Dromslade, suche as Almayns use in warre, bedon’, Palsgrave. Also spelt drumslet; Golding, Metam. xii. 481; fol. 149, bk. (1603). Du. trommelslag (G. trommelschlag), the beat of a drum.
drumsler, a drummer. Kyd, Soliman, ii. 1. 224, 241. A form corrupted from drumslager, once in use to mean ‘drummer’. Du. trommelslager, a drummer (Sewel). See above.
dry-fat, a cask, case, or box for holding dry things, not liquids; ‘A dry-fat of new books’, Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, i. 2 (Brisae); dry-vat, Dekker, Shoemakers’ H., v. 2 (Firk). See Dict. (s.v. Vat).
dry-foot: phr. to draw or hunt dry-foot, to track game by the mere scent of the foot. Com. Errors, iv. 2. 39; B. Jonson, Every Man, ii. 2 (Brainworm).
Du cat-a whee, God preserve you! Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, i. 2 (Rutilio); Monsieur Thomas, i. 2. 8; Dugat a whee, Middleton, A Chaste Maid, i. 1 (Welshwoman). Welsh Duw cadw chwi, God preserve you!
dub, a stroke, blow; Lydian dubs, soft taps, like soft Lydian music; Phrygian dubs, hard blows, like loud Phrygian music. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 1. 850.
ducdame, a word in the burden of a song. In As You Like It, ii. 5. 56. Doubtless a coined word, and admirably defined by Shakespeare as ‘a Greek invocation to call fools into a circle’; which I accept as it stands.
duce. Used in interjectional and imprecatory phrases; ‘I wonder where a duce the third is fled’, Roger Boyle, Guzman, i; ‘Who a duce are those two fellows?’ id., ii; ‘Who a duce is here by our door?’ (Socia), Echard, Plautus (ed. 1694, 13); Centlivre, Busie Body (ed. 1732, 41).
duce is the same word as deuce, an E. form of F. deux, two. The orig. sense of ‘a duce’ was exclamatory, signifying, ‘Oh! ill-luck, the deuce!’—two being a losing throw at dice. The form duce came to us immediately from a Low G. dialect—dûs, found in MHG.; cp. G. ‘was der Daus!’ (what the deuce!). See Dict. (s.v. Deuce).
dudder, to tremble, quake, shake. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1 (Cuddy). ‘Dudder’ is a prov. word in various parts of Scotland and England, see EDD. (s.v. Duther). See [dodder].
dudgeon, the hilt of a dagger made of a kind of wood called dudgin (dudgeon). Macbeth, ii. 1. 46. ME. dojoun, or masere (Prompt., ed. Way, 436).
dudgeon, the same word as the one above, used attrib. in the sense of plain, homely; since a dudgeon was regarded as a common sort of haft; ‘I am plain and dudgeon’, Fletcher, Captain, ii. 1 (Jacomo); ‘I use old dudgeon’, phrase, id., Queen of Corinth, ii. 4 (Conon).
dudgeon-dagger, a dagger with a hilt made of ‘dudgeon’. Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, v. 1 (Curio); dudgin dagger, Kyd, Soliman, i. 3. 160. Shortened to dudgeon, Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 379.
Dugat a whee; see [Du cat-a whee].
duill, to grieve, sadden, make sorrowful; ‘It duills me’, B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maudlin). Cp. F. deuil, grief. See [dole].
duke, a name for the castle or rook, at chess; ‘Dukes? They’re called Rooks by some’, Middleton, A Game at Chess, Induct. 54; Women beware, ii. 2 (Livia).
Duke Humphrey, to dine with, to go without dinner; ‘He may chaunce dine with duke Homphrye tomorrow’, Sir Thos. More, iv. 2. 361. One who had no prospect of a dinner would walk in St. Paul’s, under the pretence of going to see Duke Humphrey’s monument there; on the chance that he might meet there some acquaintance who would invite him. But Duke Humphrey was actually buried at St. Albans (see Stowe’s Survey, ed. Thoms, 125). Cp. Mayne, City Match, iii. 3 (Plotwell and Timothy). See Nares.
dulcet, the dowcet of a stag. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 219. A latinized form; see [dowcets].
dumbfounding, a stupefying; said to mean a rough amusement in which one person struck another hard and stealthily upon the back; ‘That witty recreation, called dumbfounding’, Dryden, Prologue to the Prophetess, 47. See EDD. (s.v. Dumbfounder).
dummerer; see [dommerar].
dump, a fit of abstraction or musing; ‘I dumpe, I fall in a dumpe or musyng upon thynges’, Palsgrave; ‘Lethargic dump’, Butler, Hudibras, i. 2. 973; a fit of melancholy, ‘In doleful dump’, id., ii. 1. 85; a plaintive melody or song, Two Gent. iii. 2. 85; used of a kind of dance, ‘The devil’s dump had been danced then’, Fletcher, Pilgrim, v. 4 (Roderigo).
dunny, somewhat ‘dun’, or dusky brown. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 400. A north-country word (EDD.). See [donny].
Dun’s in the mire (the horse is stuck in the mire), the name of a rustic game in which the players had to extricate a wooden ‘dun’ (a horse) from an imaginary slough. ‘Dun is in the mire’ became a proverbial phrase, so in Chaucer, Manciple’s Prologue, 5. ‘Dun’s i’ th’ mire’, Fletcher, “Woman-hater, iv. 2 (Pandar). The game is alluded to in Romeo, i. 4. 41. ‘If thou art Dun we’ll draw thee from the mire’, and in Hudibras, iii. 3. 110, ‘Your trusty squire, Who has dragg’d your dunship out o’ th’ mire’. See Brand’s Pop. Antiq. (under ‘Games’), and Gifford’s Ben Jonson, vii. 283 (Nares).
dun’s the mouse, the mouse is brown. A jocose phrase of small meaning; sometimes used after another has used the word done; Romeo, i. 4. 40; London Prodigal, iv. 1. 16.
Dunstable, plain (a proverbial phrase), plain speaking. Witch of Edmonton, i. 2 (Old Carter). Cp. the proverb, ‘As plain as Dunstable highway’, Heywood’s Eng. Proverbs, 69, 136; ‘As plain as Dunstable road’, Fuller, Worthies, i. 114 (NED.). See Nares.
durance, confinement. L. L. L. iii. 1. 135; 2 Hen. IV, v. 5. 37; durableness, 1 Hen. IV, i. 2. 49. Cp. ‘As the tailor, that out of seven yards stole one and a half of durance’, i.e. durable cloth, Three Ladies of London, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 344.
Durandell, a trusty sword. Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 123. OF. Durendal, the name of the sword of Roland (Ch. Rol. 926). See [Durindana].
duret, some kind of dance; ‘Galliards, durets, corantoes’, Beaumont, Masque at Gray’s Inn, stage direction (near the end).
duretta, a coarse stuff of a durable quality. Mayne, City Match, i. 5 (Timothy). Also duretto (NED.). Ital. duretto, ‘somewhat hard’ (Florio).
Durindana, the name of Orlando’s sword. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum. iii. 1 (Bobadil); Beaumont and Fl., Lover’s Progress, iii. 3 (Malfort); Durindan, Faithful Friends, ii. 3 (Calveskin). Ital. Durindana (Ariosto); see Fanfani. The Italian name for Durendal, by which the famous sword of Roland is known in the old French Chansons de Geste. See Gautier’s note on ‘Durendal’ in his ‘Chanson de Roland’, l. 926, p. 90.
dust, to hurl, fling, cast with force. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 544; xxi. 377. See EDD.
dust-point, a boys’ game in which ‘points’ were laid in a heap of dust, and thrown at with a stone; ‘Our boyes, laying their points in a heape of dust, and throwing at them with a stone, call that play of theirs Dust-point’, Cotgrave (s.v. Darde). Fletcher, Captain, iii. 3 (Clora); Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymph, vi. (Melanthus).
Dutch widow, a cant term for a prostitute. Middleton, A Trick to Catch, iii. 3 (Drawer).
dutt, to dote; ‘Dutting Duttrell’ (i.e. doting dotterel), Edwards, Damon and Pithias; altered to doating dottrel in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 68; but see Anc. Eng. Drama, i. 88, l. 1.
dwine, to pine away; ‘He . . . dwyned awaye’, Morte Arthur, leaf 429*, back, 8; bk. xxi, c. 12; dwynd, withered, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 567 (ed. Arber, p. 61). In common prov. use in Scotland and the north of England (EDD.). ME. dwynyn awey, ‘evanesco’ (Prompt.). OE. dwīnan.
dybell, (probably) trouble, difficulty; ‘My son’s in Dybell here, in Caperdochy, i’ tha gaol’, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 72. Perhaps the same word as ‘dibles’ (or daibles), an E. Anglian word for difficulties, embarrassments (EDD.).