A glossary of Tudor and Stuart words, especially from the dramatists

by Walter W. Skeat

S

sack, a loose kind of gown worn by ladies. Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, p. 516).

sackage, saccage, the act of sacking (a city, &c.); ‘The saccage of Carthage’, Holland, tr. Pliny, I. xv. 18. 443; to saccage, to sack or plunder, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, i. 24, p. 63. Fr. saccager, to sack, ransack, pillage (Cotgr.).

sackful, given to plundering; ‘Sackful troops’, Mirror for Mag., Robert, D. of Normandy, st. 40; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, ii. 601.

sackless, guiltless, innocent, Greene, Isabel’s Sonnet, l. 9 (ed. Dyce, p. 299); sakeles, Gascoigne, Works, i. 379. In common prov. use in the north country (EDD.). ME. sakless, innocent (Barbour’s Bruce, xx. 175). OE. saclēas, free from charge, guiltless (Matt. xxviii. 14, Lind.).

sacrament, an oath. B. Jonson, Catiline, i. 1 (Cat.). L. sacramentum, the military oath of allegiance; also, an oath, a solemn engagement.

sacring-bell, the small bell rung at the elevation of the host. Hen. VIII, iii. 2. 295. Deriv. of the vb. sacre, to consecrate the elements in the Eucharist, ‘I sacre, I halowe, Je sacre’, Palsgrave. ME. sacryn or halwyn, ‘consecro’ (Prompt.).

sad, settled, steadfast, constant. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 11. 45; ‘Settled in his face I see Sad resolution and secure’, Milton, P. L. vi. 541; grave, serious, Bacon, Adv. Learning, ii. 23. 5; grave, sober (of attire), F. Q. i. 10. 7. ME. sad or sobyr, ‘maturatus, agelastes’ (Prompt.).

sadness, seriousness, gravity. 3 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 77. ME. sadnesse in poorte and chere, ‘soliditas, maturitas’ (Prompt.).

safe, to make safe, to secure. Ant. and Cl. i. 3. 55; saft, pt. t., Chapman, tr. of Iliad, viii. 291; pp., id., 444.

safeguard, an outer skirt worn by women to protect their dress when riding; ‘Enter Moll, in a frieze jerkin and a black safeguard’, Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1; Fletcher, Noble Gentleman, ii. 1 (Marine). Formerly in prov. use in the west country in Devon, pronounced ‘seggard’; see (EDD.) (s.v. Safeguard). See Nares.

saffo, a serjeant, catchpole. B. Jonson, Volpone, iii. 5 (Vol.); v. 8 (1 Avoc). Ital. ‘zaffo (saffo), a common serjeant or base catch-pole, specially in Venice’ (Florio).

sag(g, to sink or subside gradually; ‘The Elme and the Ash are tough, howbeit they will soone settle downward and sag, being charged with any weight’, Holland, Pliny, i. 492; fig. (of the mind), ‘The minde I sway by . . . shall never sagge with doubt’, Macbeth, v. 3. 10; sagge, hanging or sagging down, Herrick, Oberon’s Feast, 27. In gen. prov. use in England and Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Sag, vb.²). ME. saggyn (Prompt.).

sagg, to drag oneself along wearily or feebly. Drayton, Pol. xvi. 219; Twyne, tr. Aeneid, x. 283. Norw. dial. sagga, to walk heavily and slowly from weariness (Ross).

saine, pr. pl., they say. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 55. ME. seien, pr. pl. P. Plowman).

saint, a card-game; see [cent].

Saint Nicholas’ clerk, a highwayman. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 67; Rowley, A Match at Midnight, i. 1 (Randall). See Nares (s.v. Nicholas).

Saint Thomas à Waterings, a place anciently used for executions for the county of Surrey, as Tyburn for Middlesex. It was situated at the second milestone on the Kent road, near a brook, a place for watering horses, whence its name; dedicated to St. Thomas Beket, being the first place of any note on the road to Canterbury: ‘And forth we riden . . . Unto the watering of seint Thomas, And there our host bigin his hors areste’, Chaucer, C. T. A. 826. The allusions to this spot as a place of execution are numerous; ‘He may perhaps take a degree at Tyburn . . . come to read a lecture Upon Aquinas, at St. Thomas à Watering’s, And so go forth a laureat in hemp circle’, B. Jonson, New Inn, i (Host). See Nares (s.v. Waterings).

saker, a kind of falcon. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xv. 696; Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Alvarez); also, a kind of ordnance or cannon, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 3 (Bots); Butler, Hud. i. 2. 355. This word for a falcon is common to all the Latin nations; of Arabic origin, see Dozy, Glossaire, 338.

sale, a willow; used by Spenser to signify a wicker basket made of willow-twigs for catching fish. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec., 81. See EDD. (s.v. Seal, sb.³). OE. sealh, a willow.

sale, a hall, large chamber. Morte Arthur, bk. xvii, ch. 16 (p. 713); The World and the Child, l. 12, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 243. F. salle (sale), a hall (Cotgr.).

saliant, sportive, lively. Fletcher, The Chances, iv. 3 (Petruccio). From the heraldic use, as ‘lion saliant’. Anglo-F. saillant, pres. pt. of sailler, to leap (Ch. Rol. 2469).

saliaunce, assault, onslaught, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 29. Anglo-F. assaillir, to attack (Ch. Rol. 2564); saillir (Wace, Rom. de Rou, 2595).

sallet, a light head-piece. 2 Hen. VI, iv. 10. 13; Thersites, 55 (ed. Pollard). Often used with a quibble referring to sallet, a form of salad; as in Tusser, Husbandry, § 40. 1. O. Prov. salada, sorte de casque (Levy), F. salade, ‘a salade, helmet, head-piece’ (Cotgr.), Ital. celata, ‘a morion, a casket, an helmet’ (Florio). See Nares.

Salmon, Salomon, the sacrament or oath of the beggars; ‘Salomon, a alter or masse’, Harman, Caveat, 83; ‘A part too of our salmon’, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metam. (2 Gipsy); ‘By the Salomon’, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor); ‘By Salmon’, Brome, Jovial Crew (NED.).

salpa, a kind of stock-fish. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 11. L. salpa (Pliny).

salt. A salt-cellar was usually placed near the middle of a long table, to divide the company according to their social rank; those of inferior distinction being placed below the salt. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Mercury). Above the salt, Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iii. 1 (Steward).

salt, a leap, esp. one made by a horse. Webster, White Devil (Lodovico), ed. Dyce, p. 34; B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, ii. 2 (Wittipol). L. saltus, a leap.

saltimbanco, a mountebank, a quack. Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. i, c. 3, § 11; saltinbancho, Butler, Hud. ii. 3. 1007. Ital. saltimbanco, a mountebank; from saltare in banco, to mount upon a bench; ‘Salta in banco, as Monta in banco; montáre in bánco, to play the mountebank’ (Florio). Span. ‘Sálta en banco, a mountebank’ (Stevens). See Stanford.

salue, to salute. Holland, Pliny II, 297; Udall, Apoph. 122; salew, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 25. ME. salue, salewe (Chaucer); F. saluer; L. salutare.

saluë, salvee, some kind of boat; ‘Twentie Caruiles, and Saluees ten’, Dekker, Wh. of Babylon, Works, ii. 257. NED. (s.v. Salve, 3) gives a quotation of a passage which Dekker evidently copied, ‘There are 20 Carauels for the service of the above named Armie [the Armada], and likewise 10 Saluës with sixe Oares a-peece’, Archdeacon, tr. True Disc. Army, K. Spain, 38 (1588).

salvage, savage. Fletcher, Love’s Cure, iii. 2 (Picrato). Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 39; ii. 8. 42. O. Prov. salvatge, ‘qui vit dans les bois, sauvage, farouche’ (Levy); Med. L. salvaticus (Ducange); cp. Ital. salvático; L. silvaticus (Pliny).

salvatory, a box for holding ointments. Webster, Duch. of Malfi, iv. 2 (Bosola); ‘The Surgeon’s Salvator or Salvatory or his Box of Unguents’, Holme, Armoury, iii. 438; ‘Salvatory, a Surgeon’s Box, to hold Salves, Ointments, and Balsams’, Phillips, Dict., 1706. In Med. L. salvalorium is given in Ducange only with the meanings (1) vivarium piscium, (2) monasterium, ‘ubi quis a mundi periculis tutus salvatur seu servatur’.

salvee; see [saluë].

sam, together. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 168. ME. sum, together (Cursor M. 9750); see NED. (s.v. Samen, adv.), and Dict. M. and S.

sambuke, a triangular stringed-instrument of a very sharp shrill tone. Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 39). ME. sambuke (Wyclif, Dan. iii. 5), L. sambuca (Vulgate), Gk. σαμβύκη (LXX).

sambuke, a military engine for storming walls. Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, ix. 73. L. sambuca (Vegetius).

samite, a rich silk stuff. Morte Arthur, leaf 344. 30; bk. xvi, c. 17; leaf 380, back, 30; bk. xviii, c. 19 [Tennyson, Morte d’Arthur, 31 and 144]. O. Prov. samit, ‘étoffe de soie’ (Levy); Med. L. examitum; Byz. Gk. ἑξάμιτον, lit. woven with six different kinds of thread; see Ducange (s.v. Exametum); cp. Span. xaméte (Stevens).

sampire, ‘samphire’. Drayton, Pol. xviii. 763; King Lear, iv. 6. 15; sampier, Baret, Alvearie. F. ‘herbe de S. Pierre, sampire’ (Cotgr.).

sampsuchine, oil of marjoram. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Amorphus). Gk. σαμψύχινον, of marjoram; σάμψυχον, marjoram.

sanbenito. Under the Spanish Inquisition a penitential garment of yellow cloth, ornamented with a red St. Andrew’s cross before and behind, worn by a confessed and penitent heretic; ‘The Inquisitors . . . bringing with them certaine fooles coats . . . called . . . S. Benitos’, M. Phillips in Hakluyt’s Voyages, iii. 480; a garment of a black colour ornamented with flames, devils, and other devices worn by an impenitent heretic at an auto-da-fé, ‘Sambenitas, painted with all the flames and devils in hell’, Marvell, Reh. Transp. i. 276. In Butler’s Hud. iii. 2. 1574, ‘Sambenites’ are referred to vaguely. The garment was so called from San Benito, St. Benedict, from its resemblance to the scapular introduced by St. Benedict. See NED. and Stanford.

sance-bell, saunce-bell, corruptly [saint’s-bell], the Sanctus-bell, the bell orig. rung at the Sanctus at Mass. The Sanctus or Ter-sanctus refers to the word sanctus (thrice repeated) in the conclusion to the Eucharistic preface; in the English Liturgy ‘Holy, holy, holy’. Sance-bells, pl., Fletcher, Mad Lover, i. 1 (Fool). Spelt saint’s bell, Hall, Satires, bk. v, Sat. 1, l. 119; saunce-bell, Fletcher, Nightwalker, iii. 3 (Toby). See NED. (s.v. Sanctus Bell).

sanctus: phr. a black sanctus, a burlesque hymn, accompanied by discordant noises; a great discord. Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, iv. 3 (Mirabel); Mad Lover, iv. 1 (Fool); black Saunce, Lyly, Endimion, iv. 2. 33. See Nares (s.v. Sanctus), and [tintamar].

sanglier, a full-grown wild boar. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 37; p. 100; Manwood, Lawes Forest, iv, § 5 (ed. 1615, 43). F. sanglier, Med. L. singularis (Vulg., Ps. lxxix. 14) = the μονιός of the LXX, meaning a boar separated from the herd. See [singler].

sanjak. In the Turkish Empire one of the administrative districts of a ‘vilayet’; sangiacque, Dacres, tr. Machiavelli’s Prince, 25 (NED.); sanzacke, a governor of a sanjak, Massinger, Renegado, iii. 4 (Carazie); sanziack, Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 1677, 277); sandiack, Shirley, Imposture, v. 1 (Volterino). Ital. sangiacco (Florio), Turk. sanjāq, lit. a banner (NED.); sanjac, a province, T. Herbert, Gram. Turk. Lang., 1709, p. 90. See Stanford.

sanna, a gesture of scorn. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Amorphus). L. sanna, a grimace made in mockery (Juvenal). Gk. σάννας, a buffoon; one who makes grimaces. See [stork’s bill].

sans, without (a French word), As You Like It, ii. 7. 166; Temp. i. 2. 97.

sapa, new wine boiled thick. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 15. L. sapa (Pliny).

sapor. Sapor Pontic, Sapor Styptic: particular ‘Sapors’, savours frequently mentioned by the alchemists as indicative of the nature or condition of substances under examination. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Subtle). L. sapor, taste.

sarcocolla, an Eastern gum-resin. Altered to sacrocolla, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 2 (Surgeon). Gk. σαρκοκόλλα; the name derived from its power of healing or agglutinating wounds.

sarell, a seraglio. Marlowe, Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Bajazet). F. sérail, a seraglio; Pers. serāi, a palace (Hatzfeld). See Stanford (s.v. Seraglio).

sarza, sarsaparilla. Bacon, Essay 27, § 2. See Dict.

sasarara, a corruption of certiorari, the name of a certain writ at law. Revenger’s Tragedy, iv. 2 (Vindici); sesarara, Puritan Widow, iii. 2. 81. See EDD. (s.v. Siserary), where the word is said to be in prov. use in the sense of a violent scolding; in Devon the phr. with a siserary means ‘with a vengeance’ [‘I fell in love all at once with a sisserara’, Sterne, T. Shandy, vi. 47 (Davies).]

sattle, to quiet, reduce to order. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xviii. 345; to become calm, ‘I sattyl or sober or appayse my-selfe’, Palsgrave. Cp. ‘sattle’, the north-country word, meaning to put an end to a quarrel, see EDD. (s.v. Sattle, vb.¹). ME. sahtlen, to bring to a peaceful agreement, to reconcile (sahhtlenn in Ormulum, 351); see Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Sahtlien). OE. sahtlian (Chron. ann. 1066). Etym. doubtful; see NED.

sattle, to sink down gradually. Ascham, Toxophilus, 131. In prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Sattle, vb.² 3). ME. sattle (York Plays, 328); satlynge, a sagging, ‘bassacio’ (Prompt.). See NED. (s.v. Settle, vb., 13).

saturity, repletion. Herrick, Noble Numbers; Lasciviousness, 2; saturitie, Udall, tr. Erasmus, on Matt. v. 6; Warner, Alb. England, bk. v, ch. 24, st. 48. L. saturitas (Pliny).

satyrion, the orchis. Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, v. 5 (Sir Jolly). Gk. σατύριον (Dioscorides). See Alphita, p. 158.

saugh, a ‘sough’, a channel, a trench. Drayton, Pol. iv. 168. ‘Sough’ in various forms is in common prov. use in England from the north country to Bedfordshire, see EDD. (s.v. Sough, sb.²).

saulf, ‘safe’. Sir T. Elyot, Governour (ed. Croft, see Glossary). F. saulf, safe (Rabelais). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Sauf).

saunce-bell; see [sance-bell].

sawtry, a ‘psaltery’, a kind of harp. Dryden, Flower and Leaf, 358. ME. sautrye (Chaucer, C. T. A. 296).

say, to ‘assay’, to test the fitness of, to try on (clothes); ‘He sayes his sute’, B. Jonson, Staple of News, i. 1 (Fashioner); to set oneself to do something, Peele, Order of the Garter (ed. Dyce, 588); ‘Who sayd to wound faire Venus in the hand’, Heywood, 2nd Pt., Iron Age (NED.). See Dict.

say, ‘assay’, temper of metal, proof; ‘A sword of better say’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 11. 47; a subject for testing, proving, ‘Still living to be wretched To be a say to Fortune in her changes’, Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iv. 4. 11. ‘To say’ for to assay, to test, prove, is in prov. use in Scotland and many parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Say, vb.² 1).

say: phr. to take the say, to draw the knife along the belly of a slain deer, to find how fat he is. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, iv. 2. 10. For assay, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Marian). See Nares (s.v. Say).

scalado, an escalade, attempt to scale a wall. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 165). Span. escalada, ‘an escalade or taking a place with scaling Ladders’ (Stevens). L. scala, a ladder.

scale, to attack with scaling ladders; ‘The citty had bene scaled and sacked’, Greene, Euphues (Wks., ed. Grosart, vi. 220); ‘The hugy heaps of cares . . . are scalèd from their nestling-place’, Peele, Sir Clyomon (Wks., ed. Dyce, iii. 78). Ital. ‘scalare, to ascend by ladder’ (Florio); Span. escalar (Stevens).

scaledrake, ‘a sheldrake’. Lady Alimony, ii. 2 (2 Boy). In prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and the north of England (EDD.).

scall, a scab, blister, an eruption of skin on the head. Bible, Lev. xiii. 30 (printed skall, ed. 1611); ‘Scurfe and dandruffe, running ulcers and scals’, Holland, Pliny, xxiii. 1. In prov. use in Scotland and north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Scall, sb.¹). ME. scalle (Chaucer, Minor Poems, viii. 7).

scald, afflicted with the ‘scall’, scurfy; an epithet of contempt, Ant. and Cl. v. 2. 215; Beaumont and Fl., Bloody Brothers, i (Grandpree); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, ii. 1 (Fluello). ME. scalled (Chaucer, C. T. A. 627).

scamble, to scramble, to struggle. Much Ado, v. 1. 94; Tusser, Husbandry, § 51. 7. Hence, scambling, shambling, shuffling, Ford, Love’s Sacrifice, v. 1 (Bianca); filching, id., Fancies Chaste, i. 3 (Livio). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

scand, pp., ascended, climbed up to. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 6. 8. L. scandere, to climb.

scantle, to scant, to limit; ‘Her scantled banks’, Drayton, Pol. xxiv. 12; The Owl, 1294; to shorten sail, Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 1 (1327); p. 134, col. 1.

scantling, limited measure. Bacon, Essay 55; a pattern, sample, Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 341; ‘How Ovid’s scantlings with the whole true patterne doo agree’, Golding, Ovid’s Metam., Epist. 379. ‘Eschantillon, a scantling, sample, pattern, proof of any sort of Merchandise’, Cotgrave. Anglo-F. escauntiloun (Rough List).

scar, a steep bare bank, a cliff. Drayton, Pol. xxvii. 326. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Scar, sb.¹). Icel. sker, an isolated rock in the sea.

scarab, a beetle, dung-beetle; a term of reproach. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1. 59 (Subtle); Beaumont and Fl., Mad Lover, ii. 2 (Chilax). Gk. σκάραβος, a beetle.

Scarborough warning, very short notice, or no notice at all; a surprise. Heywood, Proverbs (ed. Farmer, 43); Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 345. See Nares, EDD. and NED.

scarlet, a scarlet gown, worn as a mark of dignity; He will be . . . next spring call’d to the scarlet, B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle).

scarmoge, an irregular fight, a ‘skirmish’. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 34. ME. scarmuch (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 934), F. escarmouche, a skirmish (Cotgr.); Ital. scaramuccia (Florio).

scartoccio, a roll of paper. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1 (Vol.). Ital. scartoccio, ‘a coffin of paper for spice, as apothecaries use’ (Florio). Cp. cartoccio, a piece of waste paper to put anything in. F. cartouche, E. cartridge.

scath, harm, hurt, damage. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 18; iii. 4. 24. ME. scathe, harm (Chaucer, C. T. A. 446); Icel. skaði.

scatterling, one of a wandering band of outlaws or robbers. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 63.

scaure; see [scour].

scerne, to ‘discern’, perceive. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 22.

schellum, a rogue, scoundrel; ‘Where’s the Dutch schellum?’, Dekker, If this be not a good Play (Pluto), Works, iii. 352; skellum, id., Shoemakers’ Holiday, iii. 1 (Firk). ‘Skellum’ is a north-country word (EDD.). Du. schelm, a rogue (Hexham).

sciatherical, concerned with the recording of shadows, esp. on a sundial. Scioferical, Tomkis, Albumazar, i. 7 (Alb.); scioterical, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. v, c. 18, § 3. From Gk. σκιαθηρικός, from σκαθήρας, a shadow-catcher, sun-dial; from σκιά, shadow, θηρᾶν, to catch.

scole, a scale or dish of a balance. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 606; xxii. 180. Icel. skāl, a bowl, the scale of a balance; Dan. skaal, a bowl.

scolopendra, a milliped; one of the numerous nicknames for a courtesan. Shirley, Gamester, ii. 2 (Hazard). L. scolopendra; Gk. σκολόπενδρα, a milliped.

scombre, to void excrements. Maister of Game, c. 13; skommer, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 12; p. 27. See [scumber].

scope, a mark to aim at. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 155. Gk. σκοπός, a mark.

scorse, scourse, to exchange, barter. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 16; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iii. 1 (Waspe); Drayton, Pol. (ed. 1613. p. 196); ‘Barater, to scourse, barter’, Cotgrave; hence skoser, a horse-corser, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 10 (ed. Croft, i. 63). ‘Scorse’ is in prov. use along the south coast (EDD.). See Notes on Eng. Etym., p. 136.

scot and lot, a tax levied by a municipal corporation in proportionate shares for the defraying of municipal expenses; phr. to pay scot and lot, to pay out thoroughly; ‘Twas time to counterfet, or that hotte Termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot’, 1 Hen. IV, v. 4. 115; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 7 (Cob). The word scot = Anglo-F. escot, a payment (Rough List). See [shot].

scot-free, free from payment of one’s tavern score. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 7 (Cob).

scotomy, dimness of sight, caused by dizziness. B. Jonson, Volpone, i. 1 (Mosca); Massinger, Old Law, iii. 2 (Simonides). Gk. σκότωμα, dimness; from σκοτοῦν, to make dim. Gk. σκότος, darkness.

scour, to be purged, to have diarrhoea; ‘He continually scowred’, Repentance of Robert Greene (NED.); ‘Poor young man, how he was bound to scaure for it’, Vanbrugh, The Relapse, v. 3 (Nurse). ‘Scour’ (or ‘Scaur’ in Norfolk) is in prov. use for being afflicted with diarrhoea, see EDD. (s.v. Scour, vb.¹ 4).

scour the queer cramp-ring, to wear the prison fetters (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); ‘skower the cramp-rings, weare fetters’, Harman, Caveat, p. 84; ‘quyerkyn (= queer ken), a pryson-house’, ib.

’scourse, for discourse; with a quibbling reference to scourse or scorse, to barter. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 2 (Pan).

scout, a slang term for a watch, or pocket time-piece; because a scout is a watchman. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, ii. 1 (Belfond senior).

scrag, a scraggy creature, lean man. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 606.

scrat, to scratch. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, st. 115; ‘I scratte as a beest dothe that hath sharp nayles, Je gratigne’, Palsgrave. In gen. prov. use in the British Isles (EDD.). ME. scrattyn, or scracchyn (Prompt.); to scratte, ‘scalpere’ (Cath. Angl.).

scratches, the, a disease of horses, in which the pasterns appear as if scratched. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Knockem); ‘Arestin, the scratches in a horses pasterne’, Minsheu, Span. Dict. (1623).

scrawl, scraul, to ‘crawl’. Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune, i. 1. 15; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 146; scraul, Tusser, Husbandry, § 49. 9. See Nares (s.v. Scrall). In gen. prov. use in England (EDD.).

screwed gun, a gun furnished with a screwed barrel, i.e. having a helically grooved bore. Dryden, Marriage a la Mode, v. 1 (Rhodophil). First known in 1646.

scrike, to ‘shriek’. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 4. 18. Swed. skrika, to shriek. In prov. use in various parts of England. See EDD. (s.v. Skrike).

scrimer, a fencer. Hamlet, iv. 7. 101. Cp. ‘scrim’ in prov. use for striking vigorously, ‘scrimmish,’ a skirmish (EDD.). F. escrimeur, ‘a fencer’; escrimer, ‘to fence, or play at fence, also, to lay hard about him’ (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.v. Skirmish).

scroyle, a scoundrel; a term of contempt. King John, ii. 1. 373; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. i. 1 (Stephen). Of obscure origin (NED.). See Notes on Eng. Etym., 263.

scruze, to press out. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 56. A Glouc. word, see EDD. (s.v. Scruse).

scry, to descry, perceive. Spenser, F. Q. v. 12. 38; Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 190. In prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Scry, vb.² 2). Norm. F. escrier, ‘explorer, chercher à découvrir’ (Moisy).

scryne, chest, ark. Spenser, Introd. to F. Q., st. 2. L. scrinium, a box for keeping books, letters, &c.

scull, skull, a ‘school’ of fish, a ‘shoal’. Mirror for Mag., Shore’s Wife, st. 29; Tr. and Cr. v. 5. 22 (ed. 1623); Milton, P. L. vii. 402; a covey of pheasants, Lyly, Mydas, iv. 3 (Petulus); a troop, company, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. i, ch. 6, st. 57. ‘Scull’ is in prov. use in Hants. for a great number of people, see EDD. (s.v. School, sb.² 2).

scum, skumme, to scour, with respect to land or sea; ‘There were sent forth rydars to skumme the country’, Morte Arthur, leaf 26, back, 30; bk. i, c. 13. F. ‘escumer; escumer la mer, to scowr, as a fleet, the sea’ (Cotgr.); escumeur, ‘corsaire qui fait des courses sur mer, pirate’ (Didot).

scumber, to void excrement, as a dog or fox. ‘Fienter, to dung, scumber’, Cotgrave; ‘When they (hounds) are led out of their kennels to scumber’, Massinger, Picture, v. 1 (Ricardo). Used in Cornwall of a bird (EDD.). OF. escombrer, to clean out (Godefroy). See [bescumber], [scombre].

scur; see [skirr].

scurer, a scout, one sent forward to reconnoitre. Mirror for Mag., Guidericus, st. 36; ‘Out was our scurer sent agayn . . . to shew wher aboute the place was’, More, Comfort ag. Tribulation (Wks., p. 1181). OF. descouvreur, ‘espion, qui va à la découverte’ (Didot); Med. L. disco-operator (Ducange).

scurrile, scurrilous, vulgarly witty. Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 148; Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 1. 153. L. scurrilis, buffoon-like; from scurra, a buffoon.

scut, a hare. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 632. ME. scut, a hare (Prompt.).

scute, a coin of small value. Chapman, All Fools, v. 1 (Valerio). In prov. use from Dorset to Cornwall for a sum of money, see EDD. (s.v. Scute, sb.¹). Properly an E. name for the French coin called ėcu, OF. escut, L. scutum, a shield.

sdayn, to disdain. Spenser, F. Q. v. 5. 44.

sea-card, the card on which the points of the compass were marked. Fletcher, The Chances, i. 10 (near the end). See [card].

sea-holm, sea-holly. Drayton, Pol. i. 125. Cp. holm-oak; and see [eringo].

seam, fat, grease. Tr. and Cr. ii. 3. 195; Dryden, tr. Aeneid, vii. 867. In gen. prov. use in the British Isles, see EDD. (s.v. Saim). ME. seim, grease (Ancr. R. 412). Anglo-F. saim, ‘adeps’ (Ps. lxii. 6), cp. Ital. saime, O. Prov. sagin (saīn), ‘graisse’ (Levy), Med. L. sagimen, ‘adeps, sagina’ (Ducange).

searce, searse, to sift through a sieve. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1 (Ariosto). ‘Searce’ was formerly a widely spread prov. word for a fine sieve; as a vb. ‘to sift’ it still appears in Northumbrian and Kentish Glosses (EDD.). ME. sarce, a sieve (Prompt.); sarcyn, to sift (id., EETS. 450; see notes, no. 1875 and no. 2204). OF. saas (F. sas), a sieve. Span. cedazo, Med. L. setatium (Ducange), der. of L. seta, saeta, a bristle.

sear-cloth, to cover with ‘cere-cloth’ or waxed cloth. Dryden, Annus Mirab. 148. See [cere-cloth].

season upon (or on), to seize upon. Mirror for Mag., Northumberland, st. 15; ‘I season upon a thynge as a hauke doth, je assaysonne. She saysouned upon the fesante at the first flyght’, Palsgrave; ‘It is mete for any lyon . . . to season his pawes upon his pray’, Acolastus, ii. 3. See NED. (s.v. Season, vb. 5).

sect, a class or kind of persons, used with reference to sex, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 41; Fletcher, Valentinian, i. 1 (Chilax); Middleton, Mad World, ii. 6. In prov. use in various parts of England; also in illiterate use in London; see EDD. and NED. Cp. Chaucer, ‘(The wife of Bath) and al hire secte’ (C. T. E. 1171). L. secta, a following, a school or sect of philosophy.

sectary, one who belongs to a sect, a dissenter. Hen. VIII, v. 3. 70; Puritan Widow, i. 2. 5. F. sectaire, ‘a sectary, follower of a sect’ (Cotgr.).

sectour, executor. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 62; ‘Sectour, executeur’, Palsgrave. ME. sectour, ‘exequitour’ (Cath. Angl.); seketowre, ‘executor’ (Prompt., Harl. MS.).

Sedgeley curse, an imprecation recorded by Ray among the proverbs of Staffordshire. It is given by Beaumont and Fl. in this form: ‘A Sedgly curse light on him, which is, Pedro, The fiend ride through him booted and spurred, With a scythe at his back!’, Tamer Tamed, v. 2; Massinger, City Madam, ii. 2 (Plenty). See Nares.

see, a seat of dignity or authority, a throne; ‘Jove laught on Venus from his soveraigne see’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 6. 2; the dwelling-place of a monarch, F. Q. iv. 10. 30.

see, pret. s. (I) saw, (he) saw, Greene, Sonnet, l. 4 (ed. Dyce, 292). Still in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. See, 1 (6)). OE. seah, pt. t. of sēon, to see.

seek: phr. to blow a seek, to sound notes on a horn, summoning hounds to the chase of a deer. Gascoigne, Art of Venerie (ed. Hazlitt, i. 314).

seek: phr. to seek, at a loss, badly off; ‘The Merchant will be to seeke for Money’, Bacon, Essay 41, § 4; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 2. Cp. Porson’s famous epigram in Museum Criticum, i. 332, ‘The Germans in Greek, Are sadly to seek’, &c. See NED. (s.v. Seek, vb. 20 b).

seel, to close up a bird’s eyelids, by means of a thread passed through them. A seeled dove, ‘She brought them to a seeled dove, who the blinder she was, the higher she strave’, Sidney, Arcadia (ed. Sommer, 65); Bacon, Essay 36. It was believed that a seeled dove would mount always higher aloft, till it sank from exhaustion; see Ford, Broken Heart, ii. 2. 3. Palsgrave has: ‘I cele a hauke, Ie cile.’ F. ciller, ‘to seele, or sow up the eyelids’ (Cotgr.); cil, an eyelash, L. cilium, an eyelid, eyelash.

seeld, seldom, Mirror for Mag., Salisbury, st. 20. See [seld].

seeling, a wainscot, wainscoting. Bacon, Essay 54; ceiling, North, tr. of Plutarch, Octavius, § 4 (in Shak. Plut. p. 238).

seemless, unseemly. Spenser, F. Q. v. 2. 25; Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xx. 397.

seemlyhed, comeliness. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 14.

seen, equipped, furnished; versed, practised; ‘Seen in many things’, Heywood, A Woman killed, ii. 1 (Frankford); well seen, Tam. Shrew, i. 2. 136; Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. i, c. 8 (p. 37). In prov. use (EDD.).

sege, a seat. Morte Arthur, leaf 220. 7; bk. x, c. 16. ME. sege: ‘He schal sitte on the sege of his maieste’ (Wyclif, Matt. xxv. 31). Anglo-F. sege, seat (Ps. lxxxviii. 14), O. Prov. setge, ‘siège, banc, séance, siège d’une ville’ (Levy). See [siege].

seggs, sedges. Kyd, Cornelia, iii. 3. 15. A Northern form (EDD.).

Seisactheia, an ordinance of Solon by which all debts were lowered. Massinger, Old Law, i. 1 (2 Lawyer). Gk. σεισάχθεια, a shaking off of burdens.

selago, a plant. Middleton, The Witch, iii. 3 (Hecate). L. selago, a plant resembling the savin-tree.

selar, a canopy of a bed; ‘The selar of the bedde’, Morte Arthur, leaf 349, back, 24; bk. xvii, c. 6. ‘Cellar for a bed, ciel de lit’, Palsgrave. See NED. (s.v. Celure).

selcouth, strange, uncommon. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 14. A Scottish poetical word (EDD.). ME. selcouth, strange, wonderful (P. Plowman, C. i. 5); OE. seldcūð, strange, lit. seldom known.

seld, seldom. Tr. and Cr. iv. 5. 150; hence seld-shown, seldom shown, Coriolanus, ii. 1. 229; seld-seen, Humour out of Breath, i. 1 (Octavio); as adj. rare, scarce, Tourneur, Revenger’s Tragedy, iv. 4. ME. seld (selde), seldom (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2343). See [seeld].

sellary, a male prostitute. B. Jonson, Sejanus, iv. 5 (Arruntius). L. sellarius (Tacitus).

sely, harmless; ‘A selye innocente hare murdered of a dogge’, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, p. 111). Also, poor, helpless, Tusser, Husbandry, § 51. 18. ME. sely, simple, innocent, also, poor, pitiable (Chaucer); but Chaucer uses the word also in other senses: good, holy, happy. See Trench, Select Glossary (s.v. Silly). See [silly].

semblably, similarly. 1 Hen. IV, v. 3. 21. F. semblable, like. F. sembler, to seem, resemble.

semblant, demeanour. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 10. 31; Morte Arthur, bk. ii, c. 17; to make semblant (= F. faire semblant), to make a show, appearance, or pretence (of doing something), id., bk. vii, c. 8.

seminary, an Englishman educated as a Popish priest in a foreign seminary. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Overdo).

semitary, a form of scimetar. B. Jonson, Case is altered, v. 2 (Juniper); semitarie, Peele, Battle of Alcazar, i. 2 (Moor). See [cemitare].

sempster, a sempstress; also a spinster, as applied to the three Fates, Dekker, O. Fortunatus, ii. 2 (Shadow). In prov. use in Yorks. and Derbyshire, see EDD. (s.v. Seamster). ME. semster (Dest. Troy, 1585), OE. sēamestre, a sempstress (B. T.).

sennet, a signal-call played on a trumpet, the signal for entrance or exit. Common in the stage-directions in the Tudor drama. It occurs in various forms, such as synnet, sinet, cynet, signate. Hen. VIII, ii. 4; J. Caesar, i. 2; Ant. and Cl. ii. 7; Coriol. ii. 1; 2 Hen. VI, iii. 1. O. Prov. senhet (signet), ‘signe’ (Levy), OF. sinet (Littré). See Notes on Eng. Etym., p. 264.

sensing, ‘incensing’, use of incense. Latimer, Sermon on the Ploughers (ed. Arber, p. 30). ME. censynge, ‘turificacio’ (Prompt.).

sent, perception. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 43. The old spelling of scent; so in Cotgrave, ‘Odeur, sent, smell’.

sere, separate, distinct, each in particular. Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 107). ME. ser, distinct, each in particular (Ormin, 18653). Icel. sér, orig. dat. of refl. pron. ‘for oneself’, hence as adv. separately.

sere, the claw or talon of a bird or beast of prey. Usually in the pl. seres; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, viii. 212; xii. 213; Odyssey, ii. 238; Revenge of Bussy, iii. 1 (Clermont); Byron’s Tragedy, iii. 1. 16. F. serre, a hawk’s talon (Cotgr.).

sere, the catch in a gun-lock which is released by the trigger. Hamlet, ii. 2. 337 (see note by W. Aldis Wright). It was like a claw. See above.

serene, a chill evening air; ‘Some serene blast me’, B. Jonson, Volpone, iii. 5 (Celia); Epigrams, xxxii (last line). F. serein, ‘the mildew, or harmful dew of some summer evenings’ (Cotgr.). Ital. ‘sereno, the night calm; serenata, music played in a clear evening’ (Florio).

sericon, the name of some chemical substance. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle). See NED.

serpentin, a kind of cannon. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 124; l. 159; ‘Serpentine, the artillery called a Serpentine or Basiliskoe’, Cotgrave.

serpigo, a general term for creeping or spreading skin diseases, esp. ringworm, Meas. for M. iii. 1. 31 (variously spelt in the edd.). Medical L. serpigo, ‘teter’ (Alphita, 167), deriv. of serpere, to creep.

servant, a professed lover, one who is devoted to the service of a lady. Two Gent. of Verona, ii. 1. 106, 114, 140. Very common. Cp. Ital. cavaliere servente; see Fanfani.

servulate, to serve obsequiously. Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, i. 2 (Egremont). From L. servulus, dimin. of servus, a slave.

sesama, oil from the seeds of a plant, sesame, one of the ingredients of a perfume. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Perfumer). Gk. σησάμη.

sesarara; see [sasarara].

sess, seiss, to assess. Pt. t. sessyd, Fabyan, Chron., p. vii, ann. 1257-8 (ed. Ellis, p. 344); pp. seissed, North, tr. of Plutarch, Antonius, § 33 (in Shak. Plut., p. 204). In prov. use (EDD.).

set out the throat, to set up a noise, cry out. B. Jonson, Alchem. v. 2 (Face); Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, ii. 1 (Hippolito).

setter, a confederate of sharpers or swindlers, employed as a decoy (Cant). Nashe, Strange Newes, 1592; see Aydelotte, p. 86; Butler, Hud., Lady’s Answer, 153. One who marks down travellers to be robbed by thieves, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 53.

settle, a long bench, with a very high back. Albumazar, i. 1 (Ronca). In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Settle, sb.²).

setwall, the East Indian plant zedoary, Palsgrave; the plant valerian, ‘Drink-quickning Setwale’, Spenser, Muiopotmos, 196; spelt cetywall, Drayton, Ballad of Dowsabell, 33 (in later editions setywall). ME. setwale or sedwale, ‘zedoarium’ (Prompt.); cetewale (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3207). O. Span. cetoal, sitoval, cedoaria; of Arabic origin, see Dozy, Glossaire, 251.

sew, to follow; ‘Seven kings sewen me’, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 248; to sue, to plead, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 12. 29; to woo, id., iii. 5. 47. See Dict. (s.v. Sue).

sew, to drain dry; ‘To drain and sew’, North, tr. of Plutarch, Jul. Caesar, § 39 (in Shak. Plut., p. 93); Tusser, Husbandry, 32. In prov. use in E. Anglia, Kent, Sussex, and Dorset, see EDD. (s.v. Sew, vb.²). OF. esuer (Burguy); F. essuier, to dry up (Cotgr.); essuier, ‘évier, conduit par lequel s’écoulent les eaux sales d’une cuisine’ (Didot). See Hatzfeld (s.v. Essuyer).

sewell; see [shewelle].

sewer, an attendant at a meal who superintended the seating of the guests, and the tasting and serving of the dishes. Macbeth, i. 7, Stage Direction. ME. sewer at the mete, ‘depositor, discoforus’ (Cath. Angl.); seware at mete, ‘dapifer’ (Prompt.). OF. asseour, ‘en parlant du service de la table, qui fait asseoir’ (Godefroy), Pop. L. assedatorem (acc.), one who sets, places, deriv. of assedare, to set, place, cp. Norm. F. aseer, to place; see Moisy.

sextile, denoting the aspect or relative position of two planets, when distant from each other by sixty degrees; a sextile aspect. Fletcher, Bloody Brother, iv. 2 (Norbret); Randolph, Jealous Lovers, v. 2; Milton, P. L. x. 659.

seymy, greasy. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 124; l. 169. See [seam].

sforzato, a galley-slave. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1 (Vol.). Ital. ‘sforzati, galley-slaves, as forced to do anything’ (Florio), cp. F. ‘forçat, galley-slave’ (Cotgr.).

shack, the shaken grain which remains on the fields after harvesting; hence shack-time, the time during which this grain remains on the ground, Tusser, Husbandry, § 16. 30; to shack, to turn pigs or poultry into the stubble fields. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Shake, 9, 20, 21).

†shackatory, apparently, a huntsman’s underling. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 1 (Orlando). See NED.

shadow, a reflection in water; ‘Aesop had a foolish dog that let go the flesh to catch the shadow’, Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 37; a disguise, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Hempskirke); a friend of an invited guest (L. umbra), Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iii. 1. 11.

shaft, a May-pole, esp. the May-pole in Aldgate ward, London, which ‘shaft’, when it was set on end and fixed to the ground, was higher than the steeple of the church, which was hence called St. Andrew Undershaft. This ‘shaft’ was not raised after May-day, 1517, on account of a disturbance of the apprentices. Thirty-two years after it was sawn in pieces and burned as an idol. Stow, Survey (ed. Thoms, 54); Pennant’s London, 587. See Nares (s.v. Shaft), and Chambers, Book of Days, p. 574.

shaftman, a measure of about six inches, being the length from the top of the extended thumb to the wrist-side of the palm. Harington, tr. Ariosto, xxxvi. 56; shaftmon, Morte Arthur, leaf 124, back, 8; bk. vii, c. 22; shaftmont, ‘His leg was scarce a shaftmont lang’, Child’s Pop. Ballads, ii. 330; shaftement, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 112. ‘Shaftment’ is in prov. use in the north country (EDD.). ME. schaftmonde (Death of Arthur, 2546, 3843, 4232); OE. sceaftmund, a palm’s length (B. T.). See NED. (s.v. Shaftment).

shag-rag, ragged, vagabond-like; ‘A shag-rag knave’, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 5 (Barabas). The word ‘shag-rag’ is in prov. use in the north country to denote an idle, ragged vagabond, see EDD. (s.v. Shag, vb.³ 2 (2)). See [shake-rag].

†shailes, scarecrows. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 23, § 2; see Croft’s note. Perhaps cognate with ME. schey, shy, timid (Prompt.). See [shewelle].

shake-rag, a ragged disreputable person, Brome, Jovial Crew, iii. (NED.). [‘He was a shake-rag like fellow’, Scott, Guy Man., xxvi.] Also shake, Middleton, The Widow, ii. 1 (1 Suitor).

shake the elbow, to throw dice, to gamble. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1 (Ariosto).

shaking of the sheets, the name of an old dance, usually mentioned with an indecent suggestion. Westward Ho, v. 3.

shale, a shell, husk. Hen. V, iv. 2. 18; Parliament of Bees, character 5 (end). ME. shale (Chaucer), OE. scealu, a husk.

shale, to shell, take of the husk; ‘I shale peasen’, Palsgrave; ‘A little lad set on a bancke to shale the ripen’d nuts’, W. Browne, Brit. Pastorals, bk. ii, song 4. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Shale, vb.¹ 14). ME. shale, notys or odyr frute, ‘enucleo’ (Prompt. EETS. 451). Cp. F. eschaller: ‘eschalleur de noys, qui écale des noix’ (Glossaire, Rabelais, ii. 160).

shale, to shamble with the feet; ‘Esgrailler, to shale or straddle with the legs’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Shale, vb.²). See [shayle].

shalla, for shall he; ‘Shalla go In deede? and shalla flowte me thus?,’ Phaer, Aeneid iv, 590, 591. A for he is common in prov. use when unemphatic, see EDD. (s.v. He, 1 (1)).

sham, to take in, to hoax; ‘You shammed me all night long . . . Freeman. Shamming is telling you an insipid, dull lye, with a dull face, which the sly wag the author only laughs at himself; and, making himself believe ’tis a good jest, puts the sham only upon himself, Wycherley, Plain Dealer, iii. Cp. Sc. sham, to cheat, trick, deceive, see EDD. (s.v. Sham, vb.¹ 1).

shamois, shoes made of the wild goat’s skin. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 19.

shape, the costume suited to a particular part in a play. Massinger, Bondman, v. 3 (Pisander).

shard, a fragment, a piece of broken pottery, a potsherd; ‘Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her’, Hamlet, v. 1. 254. In prov. use in the sense of a broken piece in Scotland and in the various parts of England (EDD.). ME. scherde, ‘testula’ (Prompt. EETS.), OE. sceard, ‘testa’ (B. T.).

shard, a patch of cow-dung; ‘They are his shards, and he their beetle’, Ant. and Cl. iii. 2. 19; ‘Such souls as shards produce, such beetle things As only buz to heaven with ev’ning wings’, Dryden, Hind and P. i. 321; ‘The shard-borne beetle’ (the beetle born in dung), Macbeth, iii. 2. 42. ‘Shard,’ meaning a patch of cow-dung, is in prov. use in Yorks. and Wilts. (EDD.). Probably related to ‘sharn’ in prov. use for dung of cattle; OE. scearn (Leechdoms); see EDD.

shard. In Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 38, ‘When late he far’d In Phaedrias flitt barke over that perlous shard.’ Spenser appears to use ‘shard’ here in the sense of ‘a channel’. It is probably the same word as ‘shard’ in prov. use for an incision, a gap, a narrow passage, see EDD. (s.v. Shard, sb.² 1, 2, 3). OE. sceard, a gap, notch; the word is used for bays and creeks in Boethius, 18. 1.

shark, to prowl about to pick up a living. Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, iii. 3 (Mallicorn); Earle, Micro-Cosmographie, no. 77 (ed. Arber, 35); shark on, to prey upon, Sir Thos. More, ii. 4. 106; shark up, to pick up by prowling about, Hamlet, i. 1. 98. Hence shark-gull, a cheat who preys upon simpletons, Middleton, The Black Book (ed. Dyce, v. 524).

sharp. To fight at sharp, to fight with sharp weapons, not with foils, Beaumont and Fl., Nice Valour, v. 3 (Galoshio).

shayle, to shamble, to walk crookedly or awkwardly. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 20, l. 19; p. 214, l. 172. Palsgrave has: ‘I shayle, as a man or horse dothe that gothe croked with his legges, Ie vas eschays.’ ME. schaylyn, ‘disgredior’ (Prompt. EETS. 451). See [shale] and [shoyle].

sheal, to take off the outer covering of peas, King Lear, i. 4. 219. In prov. use in Scotland and in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Sheal, vb.² 1).

sheath; see [painted].

sheene, fair, beautiful to behold. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 10; ii. 2. 40; ii. 10. 8; ‘Haill May, haill Flora, haill Aurora schene!’, Dunbar, Thrissill, 9; as sb., fairness, splendour, Hamlet, iii. 2. 167. ME. shene, fair, beautiful (Chaucer, C. T. A. 972). OE. scēne, scȳne, scīene, fair, identical with G. schön, beautiful, Goth. skauns.

sheerly, entirely. Fletcher, Mad Lover, v. 4 (Memnon). A Scotch word, used by Burns, Ep. to Major Logan (EDD.).

sheeve, a slice; ‘A sheeve of bread’, Warner, Alb. England, bk. iv, ch. 20, st. 29. In prov. use in Scotland and Lanc., see EDD. (s.v. Sheave). See [shive].

shelf, a sandbank. B. Jonson, The Forest, iii (l. 12 from end); shelves, pl., 3 Hen. VI, v. 4. 23; ‘On the tawny sands and shelves Trip the pert faeries’, Milton, Comus, 117. For Scotch exx. see EDD. (s.v. Shelf, sb.²).

shell, a cockle-shell worn in the hat by pilgrims to Compostella. Heywood, Four Prentises (Godfrey), vol. ii, p. 213.

shells, a cant term for money. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (2 Cutpurse); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 2 (Matheo).

shend, to put to shame, blame, reproach. Spenser, Prothalamion, 121; shent, pp., F. Q. ii. 5. 5; vi. 6. 18. In prov. use in Scotland and in Kent (EDD.). ME. shende, to render contemptible (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 893); schende, to blame, reproach (Wyclif, Ps. cxviii. 31). OE. scendan.

sherif, a title of the descendants of Mohammed, a title of the chief magistrate of Mecca, and of Morocco; ‘The Sheriffe of Mecca’, Purchas, Pilgrims, iii. 257. Arab. sharîf, noble, of noble lineage, particularly, descending from Mohammed (Steingass). See [xeriff].

sherris, ‘sherry’, a Spanish wine, so called from the town Xeres. 2 Hen. IV, iv. 3. 111, 114, 122, 131. The Arabic form of the place-name Xeres was Sherêysh (Dozy, Glossaire, p. 18). The Roman name was Caesaris Asidona. By the loss of the first syllable, Caesaris became on the lips of the Moors sherêysh. For a similar decapitation of the word Caesar, compare the name of the Spanish city Zaragoça, the Caesaraugusta of the Romans.

shewelle, sewell; ‘A sewell, a thing to keep out the deer’, Howell, Lexicon Tetraglotton; ‘Anything that is hung up is called a Sewel; and those are used most commonly to amaze a Deare, and to make him refuse to passe wher they are hanged up’, Turbervile, Hunting (ed. 1575, p. 98); used fig., ‘Bugbeares of opinions brought, to serve as shewelles to keep them from those faults’, Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia (ed. 1605, p. 267); ‘Shewell’ in the sense of a scarecrow is still in use in Oxfordsh. and Berks. (EDD.). Cp. ME. scheawle, a scarecrow (Owl and N. 1648); a-schewelen, to scare away (Stratmann, pp. 32, 528); deriv. of OE. scēoh, timid, shy.

shift herself, change her dress. Beaumont and Fl., Nice Valour, iii. 1. 8. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Shift, 2).

shine, bright. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 3; ‘Girt my shine browe with sea-banke Myrtle sprays’, Marlowe, tr. of Ovid’s Elegies, bk. i, 1. 34 (Wks., ed. Tucker Brooke, 560). See [sheene].

shirwood = L. lucus. Phaer, Aeneid viii, 342.

shittle, unstable, inconstant; ‘Their shittle hate’, Mirror for Mag., Collingbourne, st. 3; ‘Shyttell, nat constant, variable’, Palsgrave. ME. schytyl, ‘preceps’ (Prompt. EETS. 398), cogn. w. OE. scēotan, to run hastily (Acts vii. 57); see Cook, Biblical Quotations, p. 234.

shittle-cock, a shuttlecock. Middleton, A Chaste Maid, iii. 2 (Allwit). ‘Shyttel cocke, volant’, Palsgrave. ME. schytyl, a shuttle (in a child’s game), see Prompt. EETS. 398.

shive, a slice, Titus Andron. ii. 1. 87. In gen. prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, England, and America, see EDD. (s.v. Shive, sb.¹ 1). ME. schyve of bred or oþer lyke, ‘lesca, scinda’ (Prompt. EETS. 399). Cp. Icel. skifa, a slice, and G. scheibe.

shock-dog, a rough-coated dog; a poodle. Wycherley, Gent. Dancing-master, ii. 2 (Hippolyta); Tatler, no. 245.

shoe-the-mare, a Christmas sport. Middleton, Inner-Temple Masque (Plumporridge). ‘Shoe the old mare’ is the name of a kind of sport in Galloway, see EDD. (s.v. Shoe, vb. 10).

shog, to move off, go away. Henry V, ii. 1. 47, ii. 3. 47; shog on, Massinger, Parl. of Love, iv. 5 (near the end); shogd, shook, pushed; Phaer, Aeneid ii, 465; shog, a jog, a shake. Dryden, Epil. to The Man of Mode, 28. In gen. prov. use (EDD.). ME. schoggen, to shake (Wars Alex. 5018).

shold, a shoal, sandbank. Phaer, Aeneid i, 112; Hakluyt, Voyages, iii. 547. ‘Shald’ in various spellings is in prov. use in the north country, meaning (1) shallow, (2) a shoal (EDD.). ME. ‘schold or schalowe, noȝte depe’ (Prompt.). OE. sceald, shallow (found in place-names); see Dict. (s.v. Shallow).

shoot-anker, sheet-anchor; hence, a means of security. Udall, Roister Doister, i. 1. 28; ‘This saying they make their shoot-anker’, Cranmer (cited in Dict., s.v. Sheet).

shope, shaped, framed; pt. t. of shape. Spenser, F. Q. v. 5. 39. ME. shoop, planned, devised (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 207), pt. s. of shapen; OE. scōp, pt. s. of sceppan.

shoppini, high-heeled shoes; ‘Those high corked shoes, which now they call in Spaine and Italy Shoppini’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. i, c. 15; p. 49. See [cioppino] and [choppine]. See Stanford (s.v. Chopine).

shore, a sewer. Shirley, Love Tricks, i. 1; ‘The common shore’, A Woman never vext (Mrs. Foster), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xii. 104; ‘Our sailing ships like common shores we use’, Dryden, Hind and Panther, ii. 558. ‘Shore’, once a common word for a sewer, is still preserved in Shoreditch in London; also named Sewers Ditch; see Stow’s Survey, p. 158. It is in gen. prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and England, see EDD. (s.v. Shore, sb.³ 1).

shoringness, inclination to tilt to one side; ‘A table, of the which the thirde foot was A little shorter then the rest. A tyle-sherd made it even And tooke away the shoringness,’ Golding, Metam. viii. 662; fol. 103 (1603). ‘Shoring’ is in prov. use in E. Anglia, in the sense of slanting, sloping, awry, see EDD. (s.v. Shore, vb.² 4).

shot, a payment, reckoning; esp. a contribution to the payment of a tavern score; ‘Escotter, every one to pay his shot or to contribute somewhat towards it’, Cotgrave; Two Gent. ii. 5. 9; shot-free, without having to pay, 1 Hen. IV, v. 3. 30. In gen. prov. and colloquial use in Scotland, England, and America, see EDD. (s.v. Shot, sb.¹ 1). ME. schot, a payment (Stratmann). OE. scot, a contribution (in compounds), see B. T. The Anglo-F. form is escot (mod. écot), whence E. scot, in scot-free, and scot and lot. See [escot], [scot and lot].

shot-clog, a dupe; one who was a clog upon a company, but was tolerated because he paid the shot or reckoning. Eastward Ho, i. 1 (Golding); B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (Shun.); ‘A shot-clog, to make suppers, and be laughed at’, B. Jonson, Poetaster, i. 1 (Ovid senior). Spelt shot-log, Field, Amends for Ladies, iii (end).

shot-shark, a tavern waiter; because he sharks for (or hunts after) the reckoning or shot. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 4. 1.

shotten, lean. Fletcher, Women Pleased, ii. 4. 9. From the phr. shotten herring, a herring that has spent the roe, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 143. ‘As lean as a shot-herring’ is given in EDD. as a Derbyshire saying. ‘Shotten’ is used in Kent of the herring that has spent its roe, see EDD. (s.v. Shot, pp. 5).

shotten-souled, deprived of a soul; soulless. Fletcher, Wit without Money, iii. 4. 2.

shotterell, shotrell, a pike in his first year; ‘An harlotrie [i.e. worthless] shotterell’, Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 4 (Carion); ‘The Shotrell, 1 year, Pickerel, 2 year, Pike, 3 year, Luce, 4 year, are one’, W. Lauson, Comments on the Secrets of Angling; in Arber’s Eng. Garner, i. 197.

shough, a rough dog with shaggy hair. Macbeth, iii. 1. 94; Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, iii. 3 (Grilla). Also in forms shog and shock, ‘Nor mungrell nor shog’, Taylor’s Works, 1630 (Nares); ‘Their little shocks or Bononia dogs’, Erminia, 1661 (Nares).

shough, shoo, interj., away! used to scare away fowls. Fletcher, Maid in the Mill, v. 1 (end).

shoule, a ‘shovel’. Heywood, Fortune by Land and Sea, iv. 1 (Jack); vol. vi, p. 424. For various forms of ‘shool’, a word which is in gen. prov. use in the British Isles and America, see EDD.

shouler, a bird; the ‘shoveller’ or spoonbill. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 353. Skelton has shouelar (= shovelar), Phylyp Sparowe, 408.

shovelboard, the name of a game. The game was to shuffle or drive by a blow of the hand a counter or coin along a smooth board, so as to pass beyond a line drawn across the board near the far end, but so as not to fall off the board; ‘Plaieing at slide-groat or shoofleboard’, Stanyhurst, Desc. of Ireland, ann. 1528; Edward shovel-board, a shilling coined in the reign of Edward VI commonly used in the game of shovel-board, Merry Wives, i. 1. 159. A similar game was called shove-groat, hence shove-groat shilling, the coin used at the game, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 206; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 5. 17 (see Wheatley’s note). See Nares.

shoyle, to lean outwards on the foot in walking. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 55 (p. 155), says that wild swine never ‘shoyle or leane outwards’, as tame hogs do. See [shayle].

shraming, making a great noise, screaming; ‘Shraming shalms’, Golding, Metam. iv. 392; fol. 48, back (1603); ‘She shraming cryed’, id., viii. 108; fol. 94.

shrewd, malicious, mischievous, ill-natured, All’s Well, iii. 5. 68; Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 33; bad, nasty, grievous, Merch. Ven. iii. 2. 244; Ant. and Cl. iv. 9. 5. The word is used in Shropshire in the sense of ‘vicious’ (EDD.). ME. schrewyd, ‘pravus, pravatus, depravatus’ (Prompt. EETS. 401).

shrich, to ‘shriek’. Gascoigne, Philomene, ll. 22, 52. ME. schrichen, variants schriken, skriken (Chaucer, C. T. B. 4590).

shrieve, a ‘sheriff’. All’s Well, iv. 3. 213; 2 Hen. IV, iv. 4. 99. ME. shirreve (Chaucer, C. T. A. 359). OE. scīr-gerēfa. See Dict.

shright, pt. t. shrieked; ‘Out! alas! she shryght’, Sackville, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 18; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 8. 32. ME. shrighte (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2817), pt. t. of schrychen (schriken) to shriek. See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Schrychen).

shright, a shriek. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 57; vi. 4. 2.

shrill, thin, poor; ‘Age . . . all balde or ouer-cast With shril, thin haire as white as snow’, Golding, Metam. xv. 213. ‘Shrill’ (also ‘shill’) is in prov. use in Bedf. and Northants for thin, poor; also clear, transparent, applied to book-muslin (EDD.).

shrill, to sound shrilly, to resound. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 20; v. 7. 27.

shrimp, a shrunken, wizened man. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 600.

Shrove-Tuesday bird, a cock tied down, at which cudgels were thrown, on a Shrove Tuesday. Beaumont and Fl., Nice Valour, iii. 3 (Lapet; near the end). See Brand’s Pop. Ant. (ed. 1877, p. 37).

shroving, joining in the ceremonies and sports of Shrove Tuesday. Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 5 (Eyre); Fletcher, Noble Gent. iii. 2 (Lady). See EDD. (s.v. Shrove, vb.), where it is said that the custom of ‘shroving’, i.e. going round singing for money, &c., on Shrove Tuesday, is known from Oxf. to Dorset.

shrow, a ‘shrew’, a vixen, a scold. A frequent spelling of shrew in old editions of Shakespeare; and always pronounced so, cp. the rimes in Tam. Shrew, iv. 1. 213; v. 2. 28; v. 2. 188; shroe, Peele, Arraignment of Paris, iv. 1 (Bacchus).

shug, to slip, to wriggle. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, v. 1 (Dog). See EDD. (s.v. Shuck, vb.¹ 2).

shuter, a suitor. A common pronunciation of suitor; puns on shooter and suitor occur often. London Prodigal, i. 2. 42; cp. L. L. L. iv. 1. 110; Puritan Widow, il. 1. 97.

shuttle-brained, thoughtless, flighty. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Cicero, § 6. From the movements of the shuttle.

sidanen, a fine woman; an epithet. Northward Ho, ii. 1 (Capt. Jenkin). Welsh sidanen, silken, made of silk; also, an epithet for a fine woman (Owen). Applied sometimes to Queen Elizabeth; so Nares.

siddon, soft, tender, mellow. Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, iv. 1 (Piero). Current in west midland counties, chiefly of peas or other vegetables which become soft in boiling, see EDD. (s.v. Sidder). Cp. OE. syde, a decoction, the water in which anything has been seethed or boiled (B. T.). Cognate with seethe, pp. sodden; see Dict. (s.v. Seethe).

side, long, hanging down a long way; ‘Side sleeves’, Much Ado, iii. 4. 21; Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 440; B. Jonson, New Inn, v. 1 (Fly). In prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England (EDD.). ME. syde, as a gowne, ‘defluxus, talaris’ (Cath. Angl.); ‘syde sleeves’ (Hoccleve, Reg. P. 535). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Syde). OE. sīd, ample, wide, large, extensive.

side, to set up a, to be partners in a game. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iii. 2 (Cent.).

sie, sye, to strain milk. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 146. 10. ‘I sye mylke, or clense’, Palsgrave. In prov. use in Scotland, England down to Glouc. (EDD.). OE. sēon (sīan), to strain; cp. asiende, ‘excolantes’ (Matt. xxiii. 24, Mercian Gloss); see B. T. (s.v. āsēon).

siege, a seat, esp. one used by a person of rank or distinction, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 39; hence, rank, Othello, i. 2. 22; the station of a heron on the watch for prey, Massinger, Guardian, i. 1 (Durazzo); a privy, Phaer, Pestilence (NED.); evacuation, B. Jonson, Sejanus, i. 2; excrement, Tempest, ii. 2. 110. ME. sege, ‘sedes, secessus’ (Prompt. EETS. 404, see notes). See [sege].

sieve and shears, a mode of divination; used for the recovery of things lost. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Face); Butler, Hud. i. 2. 848. See EDD. (s.v. Riddle, sb.¹ 1 (1)).

sifflement, a whistling, chirping. Brewer, Lingua, i. 1 (Auditus). F. siffler, to whistle, L. sifilare, a dialect form of sibilare.

sight, pt. t. sighed. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 20; vi. 10. 40. ME. sighte (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1035), pt. s. of syke, to sigh.

signatures, marks. The medicinal virtues of some plants were supposed to be indicated by their forms or by marks upon them. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 329.

sikerly, certainly, surely. Gammer Gurton’s Needle, last scene (Gammer). Still in prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Sickerly). ME. sikerly (Chaucer); sikerliche (P. Plowman). OE. sicor, sure, safe; certain (B. T.).

silder, less frequently. Tancred and Gismunda, ii. 3 (Lucrece); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 46. See [seld].

silly, simple, rustic; innocent. Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 35; iii. 8. 27; poor, wretched, weak, Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, pp. 491, 533. See [sely].

silverling, a piece of silver; ‘Fifty thousande silverlynges’, Tyndale, Acts xix. 9; so the Cranmer version, 1539, and the Geneva, 1557; Bible, Isaiah vii. 23; here Luther has Silberlinge. In Marlowe, Jew of Malta, i. 1. 6, silverling = the Jewish coin, the shekel.

†simming, simmering. Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, iv. 6. 27.

simper, to twinkle, glimmer. Beaumont and Fl., Lover’s Progress, iii. 1. 8; ‘I mark how starres above Simper and shine’, G. Herbert, The Church, The Search, l. 14.

simper, to simmer; ‘I symper, as lycour dothe on the fyre before it begynneth to boyle’, Palsgrave. In prov. use in north Ireland, west Yorks., and east Anglia (EDD.).

simper-the-cocket, an affected coquettish air; a woman so characterised, a flirt. B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Patrico); Skelton, El. Rummyng, 55; simper de cocket, ‘Coquine, a beggar-woman; also a simper de cockit, nice thing’, Cotgrave; Heywood’s Proverbs, Pt. ii, ch. 1 (ed. Farmer, 52). See Nares.

simple, a simple remedy, as a plant used medicinally without admixture; ‘Where a sycknesse may be cured with symples’, Sir T. Elyot, Castel of Helthe, bk. ii, c. 28; to gather simples or medicinal herbs, Butler, Hud. ii. 3. 823.

simulty, a grudge. B. Jonson, Discoveries, cxxii, § 2. F. simulté, a grudge (Cotgr.). L. simultas, a hostile encounter, animosity.

sin, since. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 11. 44. In gen. prov. use (EDD.). ME. sithen, since (Wars Alex.); see Dict. M. and S. OE. sīððan.

single: single money, small change; ‘The ale-wives’ single money’, B. Jonson, Alchem. v. 2 (Subtle); Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iv. 5 (Pedro).

single, in hunting, the tail of a deer; ‘The tayle of Harte, Bucke, Rowe or any other Deare is to be called the Syngle’, Turbervile, Hunting, 243 (NED.); Howell, Parley of Beasts, 63; used of Pan’s tail, ‘That single wagging at thy butt’, Cotton, Burlesque, 277 (Davies). Hence, ‘a boy leasht on the single’, is explained by ‘beaten on the taile’, Lyly, Midas, iv. 3 (Pet.). Still in prov. use in Northants. and west Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Single, sb.¹ 9).

singler, a full-grown wild boar. Manwood, Lawes Forest, iv, § 5. See [sanglier].

singles, the claws of a hawk. The middle claws were called the long singles, and the outer the petty singles. Heywood, A Woman killed, i. 3 (Sir Francis). The single was orig. the middle or outer claw on the foot of the hawk (NED.).

†singles, the entrails; ‘The singles (Lat. prosecta) also of a wolfe’, Golding, Metam. vii. 271; fol. 82 (1603). Not found elsewhere.

sink and sise, five and six; at dice; ‘All at sink and sise’, i.e. I have lost all my effects at dice-playing, Like will to Like, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 346.

sinkanter, a term of contempt; ‘One Volanerius, an old sinkanter or gamester and scurrilous companion by profession’, Jackson, Creed, x. 19; ‘Rocard, an overworn sincaunter, one that can neither whinny nor wag the tail’, Cotgrave.

si quis, an advertisement; also called a bill. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, ii. 2 (end). From L. si quis, lit. if any one; from the first two words; the advertisement begins: ‘If there be any lady or gentlewoman’, id., iii. 1 (Puntarvolo). Cp. Hall, Sat. ii. 5. 1.

Sir John, a familiar appellation for a priest, because John was a common name, and it was usual to prefix sir to a priest’s name. Richard III, iii. 2. 111; Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, i. 2 (Luce). Cp. Chaucer (C. T. B. 4000), ‘Com neer thou preest, com hider thou sir John.’ See NED. (s.v. Sir, 4).

sirts of sand, quicksands. Mirror for Mag., Madan, st. 7. For syrtes, pl. of L. Syrtis, Gk. Σύρτις, the name of two large sandbanks (Major and Minor) on the coast of Libya. Cp. ‘A boggy Syrtis’, Milton, P. L. ii. 939.

sit, to be fitting, to befit, suit; ‘It sits not’ (i.e. it is unbecoming), Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 30; ‘With them it sits’, Shep. Kal., May, 77; id., Nov., 26. In the north country ‘It sits him weel indeed’ is often said ironically of a person who arrogates to himself more than is thought proper, see EDD. (s.v. Sit, 16). Sitting, suitable, fit, becoming; ‘To the [thee] it is sittynge’, Fabyan, Chron., Part vii, c. 232; ed. Ellis, p. 265; Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 149.

sith, time; also pl. times. Spenser has ‘a thousand sith’, a thousand times, F. Q. iii. 10. 33; also, ‘a thousand sithes’, Shep. Kal., Jan., 49. OE. sīð, a journey, time.

sith, since. Drayton, Pol. xiii. 95. ME. sith, since (Chaucer, C. T. A. 930).

sithence, since. Coriolanus, iii. 1. 47. ME. sithenes, since (P. Plowman, B. x. 257; xix. 15).

six, small beer; sold at 6s. a barrel; ‘A cup of six’, Rowley, A Match at Midnight, i. 1 (Tim).

six and seven, to set all on, ‘to risk all one’s property on the hazard of the dice; Omnem iacere aleam, to cast all dice, . . . to set al on sixe and seuen, and at al auentures to ieoperd’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Julius, § 7; ‘Or wager laid at six and seven’, Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 588.

skails, a game like ninepins; the same as ‘kails’. ‘Aliossi, a play called Nine pins or keeles, or skailes’, Florio (1598); North, tr. of Plutarch, Alcibiades, § 1. See NED. (s.v. Skayles).

†skainsmate. Only occurs as spoken by the Nurse in Romeo, ii. 4. 163, ‘Scurvy Knave! I am none of his flirt-gills; I am none of his skainsmates’. The nurse was no very correct speaker, and in the heat of her anger she has in this case become wholly unintelligible. The guesses of the commentators and glossarists are devoid of probability.

skeen, a knife. Merry Devil, ii. 2. 54; skeane, Spenser, State of Ireland (Globe ed., p. 631); skene, Brewer, Lingua, i. 1 (first stage-direction). Also skaine, Drayton, Pol. iv. 384. In prov. use in Scotland and Ireland, see EDD. (s.v. Skean). Sc. and Ir. Gaelic, sgian, a knife.

skelder, to beg impudently by false representations, to swindle (Cant). B. Jonson, Poetaster, i. 1 (Luscus); ib. (Tucca); iii. 1 (Tucca); Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll).

skellet, a ‘skillet’, a small pot or pan; a small kettle. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 250; skillet, Othello, i. 3. 273. ‘Skellet’ (also ‘skillet’), a small metal pan or saucepan, is in gen. prov. use in the British Isles and America, see EDD. (s.v. Skillet).

skellum; see [schellum].

skelp, to strike with the hand, to smack; ‘I shall skelp thee on the skalpe’, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2207. In gen. prov. use in the British Isles; in England in the north and Midland counties, see EDD. (s.v. Skelp, vb.¹). ME. skelpe, to smite with a scourge (Wars Alex. 1924).

skew at, to look askance at, to slight. Beaumont and Fl., Loyal Subject, ii. 1 (Putskie); ‘To skewe, limis oculis spectare’, Levins, Manip. ‘To skew’ is in prov. use in the north of England in the sense of to look askance at any one, see EDD. (s.v. Skew, vb.¹ 18).

skew rom-bouse, to quaff good drink (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); a skew, a cuppe; Harman, Caveat, p. 83.

†skibbered (?).

‘What slimie bold presumptuous groome is he,

Dares with his rude audacious hardy chat,

Thus sever me from skibbered contemplation?’

Return from Parnassus, i. 6 (Furor).

The Halliwell-Phillipps MS. of the play reads skybredd (communicated by Mr. Percy Simpson). Dr. H. Bradley suggests skyward.

skice, skise, to frisk about, move nimbly, make off quickly; ‘Skise out this way, and skise out that way’, Brome, Jovial Crew, iv. 1 (Randal). In prov. use—Sussex, Hampshire, &c. (EDD.).

skill, to make a difference; ‘It skills not much’, it makes little difference, Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 134; ‘It skills not’, it makes no difference, Nero, v. 2; ‘It skilleth not’, Lyly, Euphues (ed Arber, 245). Extremely common from 1550 to 1650, see NED.

skillet, see [skellet].

skimble-skamble, rambling, incoherent. 1 Hen. IV, iii. 154. See [scamble].

skimmington, a ceremony practised on unpopular persons in various parts of England; fully described in EDD. See Heywood, Witches of Lancs. iv. 230; Oldham, Satires upon the Jesuits, iv (ed. R. Bell, p. 125). See Brand’s Pop. Antiq., Cornutes (ed. 1877, p. 414), for an account of ‘Riding Skimmington’, where it is described as a ludicrous cavalcade intended to ridicule a man beaten by his wife.

skink, to draw or pour out liquor. B. Jonson, New Inn, i (Lovel); Phaer, Aeneid vii, 133. Hence, Under-skinker, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 26. ME. skinke, to pour out (Chaucer, C. T. E. 1722). For full account of this verb see Dict. (s.v. Nunchion).

skipjack, a pert fellow, a whipper-snapper. Greene, Alphonsus, i. 1 (Alph.); also, a horse-dealer’s boy, Dekker, Lanthorne, x; see Nares. ‘Skipjack’ is in prov. use in north of England in sense of a pert, conceited fellow, see EDD. (s.v. Skip, vb.¹ 1 (2 a)).

skipper, a barn (Cant). ‘A skypper, a barne’, Harman, Caveat, p. 83; B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman). Possibly Cornish sciber, Welsh ysgubor, a barn (NED.), Med. L. scopar, ‘scuria, stabulum’ (Ducange).

skirr, to pass rapidly over a stretch of land; ‘Skirre the country round’, Macbeth, v. 3. 35. Of doubtful origin (NED.). In prov. use in the sense of to scurry, rush, fly quickly (EDD.).

skit, skittish, restive. Spelt skyt, Skelton, Against the Scottes, 101. See EDD. (s.v. Skit, vb.² 1).

skoase, to chaffer, barter, exchange. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. vi, ch. 31, st. 64. See [scorse].

skope, skoope, pt. t. of scape, scaped, escaped, got away. Phaer, Aeneid ii, 458 (L. evado); skoope = escaped to, id., vi. 425; skoope, escaped, id., ix. 545 (L. elapsi).

skoser; see [scorse].

skull, a skull-cap, helmet. Beaumont and Fl., Humorous Lieutenant, iv. 4. 5.

skull; see [scull].

skyrgaliard, a wild or dissipated fellow, Skelton, Against the Scottes, 101; id., Speke, Parrot, 427. See [galliard].

slab up, to sup up greedily and dirtily; ‘Ye never saw hungry dog so slab (printed stab) potage up’, Jacob and Esau, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 215. See NED. (s.v. Slab, vb.²).

slake, a shallow dell, a glade, a pass between hills. Morte Arthur, leaf 95. 6; bk. vi, c. 5. In prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and in various parts of England, in the north down to Lincoln, see EDD. (s.v. Slack, sb.³ 1). Icel. slakki, a small shallow dell.

slam, an ungainly person; ‘He is but a slam’, Vanbrugh, The Relapse, v. 5 (Nurse); ‘A slam or slim Fellow is a skragged, tall, rawboned Fellow’, Ray, N. C. Words (ed. 1691, 137), see NED. (s.v. Slam, adj.).

slampant: in phr. to give one the (or a) slampant, to play a trick on; ‘Polyperchon . . . meaning to give Cassander a slampant . . . sent letters Pattents’, North, Plutarch (ed. 1595, 805); ‘Trousse, a cousening tricke, blurt, slampant’, Cotgrave; also in form slampaine, ‘The townesmen being pinched at the heart that one rascal . . . should give them the slampaine’, Stanyhurst, Desc. of Ireland (ed. 1808, vi. 30); also spelt slampam, ‘Shal a stranger geve me the slampam?’, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 633.

slat, to dash, strike violently. Marston, Malcontent, iv. 1 (Malevole). In prov. use in various parts of England, meaning to throw violently, to dash down water or other liquid, also, to strike, beat, see EDD. (s.v. Slat, vb.³ 1).

slate, a cant term for a sheet. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor); Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); Harman, Caveat, p. 61.

slaty, muddy, rainy. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 258. ‘Slatty’ is a Warw. word for muddy, see EDD. (s.v. Slat, sb.⁴ 1).

sled, a sledge or sleigh used as a vehicle in travelling or for recreation; ‘With milke-white Hartes upon an Ivorie sled Thou shalt be drawen’, Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, i. 2. In common prov. use for a low cart without wheels, see EDD. (s.v. Sled, sb.¹ 1). ME. slede, a dray without wheels, a harrow, ‘traha’ (Prompt. EETS. 415).

sledded, (perhaps) riding in ‘sleds’ or sledges; ‘He smote the sledded Pollax on the ice’, Hamlet, i. 1. 63 (a Polack is a Pole, an inhabitant of Poland). So NED.

sledge, a sledge-hammer; ‘To throw the sledge’, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 2 (Elder Loveless). A Devon word, see EDD. (s.v. Sledge, sb.²).

sleek, plausible, specious. Hen. VIII, iii. 2. 241; Chapman, Eastward Ho, ii. 2. Later variant form of ME. slĭke; see [slick].

sleided silk, sleaved silk, silk ravelled out, divided into filaments. Pericles, iv, Prol. 21.

sleight, a cunning trick, an artifice. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 81; Massinger, New Way to pay, v. 1; 3 Hen. VI, iv. 2. 20; spelt slight, Middleton, More Dissemblers, iv. 1; Butler, Hud. i. 2. 747. See Dict.

slent, to slip or glide obliquely; ‘The stroke slented doune to the erthe’, Morte Arthur, leaf 345. 24; bk. xvii, c. 1; to make sly hits or gibes, ‘One Proteas, a pleasaunt conceited man, and that could slent finely’, North, Plutarch (NED.); hence, slent, a sly hit or sarcasm, ‘Cleopatra found Antonius jeasts and slents to be but grosse’, ib., M. Antonius, § 13 (in Shaks. Plut., p. 175). See EDD. (s.v. Slent, vb.¹).

slibber-sauce, a nauseous concoction, used esp. for medicinal purposes, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 116); slibber sawces, buttery, oily, made-up sauces, Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 105).

slick, smooth, plausible. Rawlins, Rebellion, iv. 1. 4. Cp. prov. slick-tongued, smooth-tongued, plausible in speech, see EDD. (s.v. Slick, adj.¹ 6 (2)). ME. slyke, or smothe, ‘lenis’ (Prompt.). See [sleek].

slick, to make smooth. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, l. 1144; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xxiii. 249. In prov. use in England and America (EDD.). ME. slyken, to make smooth (P. Plowman, B. ii. 98).

slidder, slippery. The Pardoner and the Frere, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 213; ‘My tongue is grown sae slip and slidder’, Stuart, Joco-serious Discourse (ed. 1686, 20); see EDD. ME. slydyr, ‘lubricus’ (Prompt. EETS. 416); ‘A slidir mouth worchith fallyngis’, Wyclif, Prov. xxvi. 28. OE. slidor.

slidder, to slip, to slide. Dryden, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 749. In prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England (EDD.). OE. slid(e)rian, to slip.

slifter, a cleft or crack; ‘Fente, a cleft, rift, slifter, chinke’, Cotgrave. A north-country word (EDD.). Hence sliftered, cleft, rifted, Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, i. 1 (Antonio). Cp. G. (dial.) Schlifter, gully, watercourse.

slight; see [sleight].

slighten, to slight, depreciate. B. Jonson, Sejanus (end).

slip, a counterfeit coin. Often quibbled upon; as in Romeo, ii. 4. 51; Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, iii. 1 (Pickadill). See NED. (s.v. Slip, sb.⁴).

slipper, slippery. Othello, ii. 1. 246. A west-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Slipper, adj. 1). OE. slipor.

slipstring, a knave; one who has eluded the halter. Gascoigne, Supposes, iii. 1 (Dalio); ‘Goinfre, a wag, slipstring, knavish lad’, Cotgrave. In prov. use the word means an idle, worthless, slovenly person, so in Northants and Warw., see EDD. (s.v. Slip, 3, (22)).

slive, to slice, cleave; to strip off (a bough) by tearing it downward; ‘I slyue a floure from his braunche’, Palsgrave; ‘The boughes whereof . . . he cutting and sliving downe’, Warner, Alb. England, prose addition on Aeneid ii, § 1. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Slive, vb.¹ 1). ME. slyvyn, a-sundyr, ‘findo’ (Prompt. EETS. 459). OE. (to)-slīfan, to split.

sliver, a small branch split off from the tree. Hamlet, iv. 7. 174. In gen. prov. use for a slice, a splinter of wood (EDD.). ME. slivere, a piece cut or split off (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 1013).

sliver, to slice off. Macbeth, iv. 1. 28. In prov. use: ‘If you sliver away at the meat like that there’ll be none left for to-morrow’ (Cambridge); see EDD.

sloape, deceitful; ‘For hope is sloape’, Mirror for Mag., Ferrex, st. 18. ‘Slope’ (or ‘sloap’) is in prov. use in Yorks., meaning to trick, cheat (EDD.).

slot, the track of a stag or deer upon the ground. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (John); to follow a track, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, i. 191. OF. esclot, hoof-print of a horse, &c. (Godefroy), probably of Scand. origin, cp. Icel. slōð, a track; so NED.

†sloy, a term of abuse for a woman. Warner, Alb. England, bk. xi, ch. 58, st. 26. Not found elsewhere.

slubber, to sully, Othello, i. 3. 227; to obscure, 1 Part of Jeronimo, ii. 4. 67; see Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 374. In prov. use for obscuring with dirt (EDD.).

slubberdegullion, a slubbering rascal (Burlesque). Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, i. 2. 18; Butler, Hud. i. 3. 886.

sludge, to turn into a soft mass, ‘The flame had sludgd the pitche, the waxe and wood And other things that nourish fire’, Golding, Metam. xiv. 532.

slug, to be lazy, inactive. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 23; slogge, Palsgrave; ‘Another sleeps and slugs both night and day’, Quarles, Emblems (bk. i. 8, Luke vi. 25). ME. sluggyn, ‘desidio’ (Prompt.).

slug, a slow, inactive person; ‘Fie, what a slug is Hastings, that he comes not’, Richard III, iii. 1. 22; slugge, a hindrance, ‘Money would be stirring, if it were not for this slugge’, Bacon, Essay 41, § 2. ‘Slug’ is in prov. use in the north country for a slow inactive person or animal; in Somerset, esp. of a slow-going horse; ‘to slug’ in Yorks. means to hinder, to retard progress (EDD.). ME. slugge, ‘deses, segnis’ (Prompt.).

slur, a method of cheating at dice; ‘Without some fingering trick or slur’, Butler, Misc. Thoughts (ed. Bell, iii. 176). Also, a term in card-playing, ‘ ’Gainst high and low, and slur, and knap’, Butler, Upon Gaming. See NED. (s.v. Slur, sb.² 2).

slurg, to lie in a sleepy state, to lie sluggishly. Phaer, Aeneid vi, 424; id., ix. 190. G. (Swabian dial.) schlurgen, to go about in a slovenly manner (J. C. Schmid).

smack, to savour of, to taste of; ‘This veneson smacketh to moche of the pepper’, Palsgrave; fig., ‘All sects, all ages smack of this vice’, Meas. for M. ii. 2. 5. ME. smakkyn, ‘odoro’ (Prompt.). See [smatch].

smalach, ‘smallage’, wild celery or water parsley, Tusser, Husbandry, § 45. 20. ME. smale ache, ‘apium’ (Sin. Barth. 11), E. small + F. ache, wild celery, O. Prov. ache, api, Pop. L. *apia, L. apium.

smatch, a ‘smack’, taste, flavour. Jul. Caesar, v. 4. 46; Middleton, The Widow, i. 1 (Martino). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. smach, taste, flavour (NED.). OE. smæc(c. See [smack].

smeath, a small diving-bird; the ‘smee’ or ‘smew’, Mergellus albellus. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 67.

Smeck, short for Smectymnuus, a fictitious name compounded of the initials of the five men who wrote under that name, viz. Stephen Marshall, Edward Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew Newcomen, and William Spurstow. They are said to have worn particular cravats, which Butler calls cravat of Smeck, Hud. i. 3. 1166.

smelt, a name applied to various small fishes, used (like gudgeon) with the sense of simpleton. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Mercury); Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, v. 2 (end).

smelt, a half-guinea (Cant). Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Hackum).

smicker, elegant, handsome; ‘A smicker Swaine’, Lodge, Euphues (NED.); smirking, gay, Peele, Eclogue Gratulatory, 4 (ed. Dyce, 561). Cp. the obsolete Scotch smicker, to smile affectedly, to smirk (EDD.). OE. smicer, elegant.

smickly, fine, elegant, smart; or it may be used adverbially. Ford, Sun’s Darling, ii. 1 (Raybright). Cp. Dan. smykke, to adorn, G. schmücken.

smock: He was wrapt up in the tail of his mother’s smock; said of any one remarkable for his success with the ladies (Grose). See Marston, What you Will, v. 1 (Bidet). ‘Il est né tout coiffé, Born rich, honourable, fortunate; born with his mother’s kercher about his head; wrapt in his mother’s smock, say we; also, he is very maidenly, shame-faced, heloe’, Cotgrave.

smoke, to get an inkling of, to smell or suspect (a plot), to detect. Middleton, Roaring Girl (2 Cutpurse); ‘Sir John, I fear, smokes your design’, Dryden, Sir M. Mar-all, 1; see NED. (s.v. 8).

smoky, quick to suspect, suspicious, Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, iv. 1 (Belfond senior).

smolder, smoky vapour, a suffocating smoke the result of slow combustion; ‘The smolder of smoke’, Bp. Andrewes, Serm. (ed. 1661, 472); to be smoldered, to be suffocated, Caxton, Reynard (ed. Arber, 98). ME. smolder, smoky vapour (P. Plowman, B. xvii. 321).

smoor, to smother. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 44; ‘She smoored him in the slepe’, Coverdale, 1 Kings iii. 19. In prov. use in the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Smoor, vb.¹).

smouch, to kiss. Heywood, 1 King Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 40; Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses (ed. Furnivall, p. 155). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). Cp. G. (Swabian dial.) schmutz, ‘derber Kuss’ (Schmid).

smug, to smarten up, to make trim or gay; freq. with up, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, x. 568; Drayton, Pol. x. 69; xxi. 73; Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, iii. 3 (Firk). ‘Smug’ is in prov. use in various parts of England for smart, tidily dressed: also, as vb., to dress up neatly (EDD.).

smuggle, to hug violently, to smother with caresses, Otway, Ven. Preserved, last scene; line 13 from end. In prov. use in Somerset and Devon, see EDD. (s.v. Smuggle, vb.²).

smug-skinnde, sleek, smooth-skinned. Gascoigne, Herbs, ed. Hazlitt, i. 393.

snache; see [snatch].

’snails, a profane oath, for ‘God’s nails’, i.e. ‘Christ’s nails’ on the Cross. Beaumont and Fl., Wit at several Weapons, v. 1 (Pompey); London Prodigal, v. 1. 222. Cp. Chaucer, ‘By goddes precious herte, and by his nayles’ (C. T. C. 651).

snakes: To eat snakes was a recipe for enabling one to grow younger. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, i. 2 (Orlando); Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, iv. 4 (Andrew).

snaphance, a flint-lock used in muskets and pistols, Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 1 (Dromio); a musket or gun fitted with a flint-lock, Capt. Smith, Virginia, iii. 12. 93 (NED.). Du. snaphaan, ‘a firelock, fusee, snaphaunce’ (Sewel).

snaphance, an armed robber, a highwayman. Holinshed, Chron. ii. 684. Du. ‘snaphaan, a Fuselier carrying a snaphaan’ (Sewel), also a mounted highwayman. Cp. G. schnapphahn in 1494, schnapphan, a highwayman (Brant, Narrenschiff); schnapphahn in prov. Germ. has also the meaning of constable, thief-catcher. See Weigand and H. Paul (s.v.). Cp. F. chenapan, ‘mot tiré de l’Allemand, où il désigne un brigand des Montagnes noires; en François, il signifie un vaurien, un bandit’, Dict. de l’Acad., 1762.

snapper, to trip, to stumble. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 15, l. 4; id., Ware the Hauke, 142; ‘I snapper as a horse dothe that tryppeth, Je trippette’, Palsgrave. A north-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Snapper, vb.¹ 1). ME. snapere, to stumble: ‘Thi foot schal not snapere’ (Wyclif, Prov. iii. 23); snapir (Wars Alex. 847).

snar, to snarl; ‘Tygres that did seeme to gren And snar at all’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 27. Cp. Du. snarren, to snarl (Hexham).

snarl, to ensnare, entangle. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 17; J. Beaumont, Psyche, ix. 275; Palsgrave. A north-country word for snaring hares or rabbits, see EDD. (s.v. Snarl, vb.² 2). ME. snarlyn, ‘illaqueo’ (Prompt.).

snatch, a trap, snare, entanglement; ‘The Chevalier . . . being taken in a Gin like unto a Snatch’, Shelton, Quixote, iii. 1; spelt snache, ‘A new-founde snache which did my feet ensnare’. Mirror for Mag., Carassus, st. 43. ME. snacche, a trap, snare (K. Alis. 6559).

sneaker, a sneaking fellow; ‘Clarke is a pitifull proud sneaker’, Reliq. Hearnianae (ed. Bliss, 483); ‘Origlione, an eavesdropper, a listener, . . . a sneaker, a lurking knave’ (Florio).

sneap, to nip or pinch with cold; ‘An envious sneaping Frost’ L. L. L. i. 1. 100; ‘The sneaped birds’, Lucrece, 333. In prov. use in the north of England: ‘They’n do well if they dunna get sneaped wi’ the frost’ (Cheshire), see EDD. (s.v. Snape, vb. 2). Also, to check, repress, reprove, chide, snub, Brome, Antipodes, iv. 9 (NED.); ‘A man quickly sneapt’, Maiden’s Tragedy, iii. 1 (Servant), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 428. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. snaip, to rebuke sharply (Cursor M. 13027), Icel. sneypa, to chide (NED. s.v. Snape, vb.¹).

sneb, to reprimand sharply, Sidney, Arcadia, xxxiii. 22; snebbe, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 126. In prov. use in Lancashire (EDD.). In Chaucer, C. T. A. 525, some MSS. have snebbe. Swed. dial. snebba (Rietz). See [snib].

sneck up; see [snick].

snetched, slaughtered; ‘A snetched Oxe’, Golding, Metam. v. 122 (Lat. mactati iuuenci). Not found elsewhere.

snib, to reprimand, rebuke sharply; ‘Christian snibbeth his fellow for unadvised speaking’, Bunyan, Pilgr. Pr. i. 169; Middleton, Five Gallants, ii. 3 (Tailor); Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 372; to snip off, as with snuffers, Marston, Malcontent, iii. 1 (Malevole). In prov. use, in the sense of rebuking sharply, in Scotland and north of England down to Bedford (EDD.). ME. snibben, to rebuke (Chaucer, C. T. A. 523). Dan. snibbe. See [sneb].

snick: snick up (used imperatively), be hanged! London Prodigal, v. 1; Middleton, Blurt, Master Constable, iv. 1; Snecke up!, Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 101; also used with go, ‘Let him go snick up’, Beaumont and Fl., Knt. Burning Pestle, ii. 2 (Mrs. Merrythought); Davenant, Play-House (Works, ed. 1673, 116). ‘Snick up!’, in the sense of ‘Begone, go and be hanged’, is said to be in use in west Yorks., see EDD. (s.v. Snickup, int. 4).

†snickfail; ‘Whereas the snickfail grows, and hyacinth’, Webster, The Thracian Wonder, i. 2. A misprint for sinckfoil = cinquefoil; cp. Greene, Menaphon (ed. Arber, 36); see NED. (s.v. Cinquefoil). Communicated by Mr. Percy Simpson.

snickle, a running noose. Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 5 (Ithamar). In prov. use in the north and east, esp. in Yorks. and Linc. (EDD.). Here, for ‘snicle hand too fast’ we should probably read ‘two hands snickle-fast’, see various conjectures in Tucker Brooke’s ed. of Marlowe.

snig, a young eel. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 96. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. snygge, an eel (Cath. Angl.).

sniggle, to fish for eels by means of a baited hook or needle thrust into their holes or haunts. I. Walton, Angler, ch. x. [In the passage cited by Todd and later Dicts. from Fletcher’s Thierry, ii. 2, ‘I have snigled him’, the correct reading is doubtless ‘singled’, so NED.]

snob, to sob. Puritan Widow, i. 1. 90; Middleton, Mad World, iii. 2. In prov. use in Worc. and Glouc. (EDD.). ME. snobbe, to sob; ‘My sobbyng (v.r. snobbyng) and cries’ (Wyclif, Lam. iii. 56).

snudge, a miser, a mean person; ‘A covetous snudge’, Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, p. 28); Dekker, O. Fortunatus, i. 2 (Shadow); ‘Snudge, parcus’, Levins, Manipulus. See EDD.

snudge, to remain snug and quiet; ‘Now he will . . . eat his bread in peace, And snudge in quiet’, G. Herbert, Temple, Giddinesse, 11. In prov. use in the north country and in E. Anglia (EDD.).

snuff: in phr. to take (a thing) in snuff, to take (a matter) amiss, to take offence at; ‘Mr. Mills . . . should take it in snuffe that my wife did not come to his child’s christening’, Pepys, Diary, 1661, Oct. 6; ‘Who therewith angry . . . Took it in snuff’, 1 Hen. IV, i. 3. 41; to take snuff at, to take offence at a thing, Fuller, Joseph’s Coat (ed. 1867, 51). ‘Snuff’ in these phrases refers probably to the act of ‘snuffing’ as an expression of contempt or disdain, see NED. (s.v. sb.² 1), and EDD. (s.v. sb.¹ 1).

soader, to ‘solder’, cement together. Rowley, All’s Lost, iii. 1. 34; sodder, Chapman, Byron’s Tragedy, iii. 1 (Janir).

soar-falcon, a falcon or hawk of the first year that has not moulted and still has its red plumage; ‘Of the soare faulcon so I learne to fly’, Spenser, Hymn Heav. Beauty, 26; Latham, Falconry, 37; see Nares (s.v. Sore-Hawk). F. Faulcon sor, a soar Hawk; Harenc sor, a red Herring (Cotgr., s.v. Sor). Anglo-F. sor, reddish brown (Rough List). O. Prov. sor, saur, Ital. sauro. See [sore] (a buck).

sod, boiled; pret. of ‘seethe’; ‘Sod Euphrates . . . sod Orontes’, Golding, Metam. ii. 248. The reference is to the boiling of rivers during the mad career of Phaethon; Ovid has ‘Arsit et Euphrates’, &c.

sodder; see [soader].

soggy, soaked with moisture, soppy; hence, heavy (like damp and green hay). B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iii. 2 (Mitis). In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Sog, sb.² 3).

soil, a miry or muddy place used by a wild boar for wallowing in; ‘Sueil, the soyle of a wild Bore, the mire wherein hee commonly walloweth; se souiller (of a swine), to take soyle, or wallow in the mire’, Cotgrave. The phr. ‘to take soil’ corresponds to F. prendre souille. Souille is a deriv. from souiller, to soil with mud, Romanic type *soc’lare, deriv. of L. sŭcula, a little sow.

soil, a pool or stretch of water, used as a refuge by a hunted deer or other animal, Turbervile, Hunting, 241; to take soil, to take to the water, as a hunted deer, id., 148; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Quarl); Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, ii. 4. 6. See above.

soil, to expound, explain, to resolve a doubt; ‘I have not learned to soyle no riedles’, Udall, tr. Apoph. 309 (NED.); ‘Souldre, to cleere or soile a doubt’, Cotgrave. Anglo-F. soiler, OF. soldre, L. solvere, to loosen, to explain.

soil, to absolve from sin, ‘I soyle from synne, je assouls’, Palsgrave. For assoil, Anglo-F. assoiler, to absolve, pardon (Rough List); OF. assoldre, L. absolvere; see Moisy.

sokingly, slowly, gently, gradually; ‘Sokingly, one pece after an other’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Julius, § 32. ME. sokingly, ‘sensim, paulatim’ (Prompt. EETS. 147); ‘By good leyser sokingly, and nat over hastily’ (Chaucer. C. T. B. 2767).

Sol, the sun. Peele, Poems (ed. Routledge, p. 601); an alchemist’s term for gold. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Dol).

sol, a small coin, B. Jonson, Volpone, iv. 2 (Bonario); Marmion, The Antiquary, iii. 1 (Ant.). OF. sol; L. solidus (sc. nummus), a gold coin (in the time of the emperors).

solayne, sullen, melancholy. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 16, 1. 51; soleyne, id., Bowge of Courte, 187; solein, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 213. ME. soleyn, of maners or he þat lovyth no company, ‘solitarius, Acheronicus’. (Prompt. EETS. 421); ‘The soleyn fenix of Arabye’ (Chaucer, Boke Duch. 982).

sold, pay, remuneration, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 6. Med. L. soldum, pay, related to L. solidus, a piece of money; see [sol].

soldado, a soldier. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 2 (or 1) (Downright). Span. soldado, one who is paid; a soldier; deriv. of Med. L. soldum, pay. See above. See Stanford.

soldan, the supreme ruler of a Mohammedan country, Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 2. 31; Milton, P. L. i. 764. ME. soldan (Gower, C. A. i. 245); Ital. soldano; Arab, sulṭân.

sole; see [sowl].

solein; see [solayne].

solf, to sing the notes of the sol-fa, or gamut; to sing. Calisto and Melibaea, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 71; solfe, Skelton, Phyllyp Sparowe, 415. ME. solfe (P. Plowman, B. v. 423).

†solidare, a small piece of money. Timon, iii. 1. 46. Not found elsewhere.

sollar, an upper room. Udall, tr. Erasmus, Acts xx. 8 (= ὑπερῷον, cenaculum); a loft, ‘Sollars full of wheat’, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 1 (Barabas). The word is still in prov. use in various parts of England with many meanings: esp. an upper room, a first-floor apartment; loft or garret (EDD.). The Gk. word ὑπερῷον (Vulg. cenaculumm) in Acts xx. 8 is rendered by soler in Wyclif’s tr. (Luther has söller). In the Heliand and in Tatian soleri = ‘cenaculum’. ME. solere or lofte, ‘solarium’ (Prompt.); ‘Soler-halle at Cantebregge’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3990, see Notes); OE. solor (soler-); L. solarium, a part of the house exposed to the sun, esp. a flat house-top (Vulgate, 2 Sam. xi. 2).

somedele, somewhat, in some measure, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec, 40. In prov. use in Scotland, Yorks., Northants, see EDD. (s.v. Some, 1 (3)). ME. somdel, in some measure (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3911).

somer, a ‘summer’, a supporting beam, a support. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 5. 22. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Summer, sb.²). F. sommier, ‘the piece of timber called a Summer’ (Cotgr.); OF. somier, a pack-horse (Burguy); Med. L. saumarius, sagmarius, ‘equus clitellarius’ (Ducange); deriv. of sagma, a pack, burden; Gk. σάγμα. See Dict. (s.v. Sumpter). For the development of meaning from ‘a kind of horse’ to a ‘timber-beam’, cp. F. poutre, (1) a filly, (2) a supporting beam.

somner, an official summoner. Middleton, A Trick to catch, ii. 1 (Lucre). ME. somner (P. Plowman, C. iii. 59); somnour, summoner, apparitor, an officer who summoned delinquents before the ecclesiastical courts (Chaucer, C. T. A. 543).

sonde, a sending, a messenger. Morte Arthur, leaf 420, back, 13; bk. xxi, c. 1. OE. sand (sond), a sending, message.

sonties: in phr. by God’s sonties, an oath used by old Gobbo in Merch. Ven. ii. 1. 17. The same as God’s santy, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, v. 2 (Bellafront). Adapted from OF. saintée, sancteit, sanctity, holiness (Godefroy).

soop, to sweep; ‘A sooping traine’, Return from Parnassus, i. 2 (Judicio); sooping it, sweeping alone; id., v. 1 (Studioso). Icel. sōpa, to sweep.

sooreyn, jaded feeling, exhaustion; ‘Abundance breedes the sooreyn of excesse’, Gascoigne, Grief of Joy, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 286. A back-formation from the verb to surrein, to overtire. See [surreined].

soote, sweetly, Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 111; also sweet, Surrey, Description of Spring, 1. ME. sote, sweetly (Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 2612), OE. swōte, sweetly. Chaucer has also sote as adj. sweet (C. T. A. 1), but the OE. adj. is swēte.

sooterkin, an imaginary kind of afterbirth formerly attributed to Dutch women; ‘There goes a report of the Holland Women that together with their children they are delivered of a Sooterkin, not unlike a Rat, which some imagine to be the Offspring of the Stoves’, Cleveland (NED.); Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 146. [Swift to Delany (Works, ed. 1755, III. ii. 232); Pope, Dunciad, i. 126; ‘Sooterkin, maankalf’, Calisch.] See [mooncalf].

sooth, to declare a statement to be true, to corroborate it. Udall, Roister Doister, i. 1. 47; to support a person in a statement, ‘Sooth me in all I say’, Massinger, Duke Milan, v. 2; to sooth up, ‘Sooth me in all I say’, Kyd, Span. Tragedy, iii. 10. 19. The same word as soothe, OE. sōðian, to show to be true. The pronunciation of the verb is due to the sb. sooth, OE. sōð.

sophie, wisdom; ‘The seuenfold sophie of Minerue’, Grimald, Death of Zoroas, 67; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 121. Gk. σοφία.

sops-in-wine, a name given to some kind of gilliflower or pink. Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 138; B. Jonson, Pan’s Anniversary (Shepherd, l. 6). See Nares.

sord, ‘sward’, turf. Milton, P. L. xi. 433; greene-sord, green sward, Winter’s Tale, iv. 3. 157 (so Fol. 1).

sore, a buck of the fourth year. Phaer, Aeneid x. 725 (L. cervum). ‘The bucke . . . the iij. yere a sowrell, A sowre at the iiij. yere’, Book of St. Albans, fol. e, iiij.

sorel, a buck of the third year; ‘Sorell jumps from thicket’, L. L. L. iv. 2. 60; ‘Sorell, a yonge bucke’, Palsgrave; see NED. (s.v. Sorrel, sb.² 2). Anglo-F. sorel, a reddish-brown horse (Ch. Rol. 1379), deriv. of sor (id., 1943). See [soar-falcon].

sore. Of the hare: to traverse open ground, ‘I might see [the hare] sore and resore’, i.e. dart off, first in one direction and then in another, Return from Parnassus, ii. 5 (end). ‘When he gooth the howndys before, He sorth and resorth’, Boke of St. Albans, fol. e 8, back.

sore, to make sore, to hurt. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 38.

sort, a company, assemblage of people: Mids. Night’s D. iii. 2. 13; Richard II, iv. 1. 246; Spenser, F. Q. vi. 9. 5; Ps. lxii. 3 (Great Bible, 1539); rank, degree, ‘A gentleman of great sort’, Hen. V, iv. 7. 143; of sorts, of various kinds, ‘They have a king and officers of sorts’ (id., i. 2. 190). Anglo-F. sort, company, assemblage (Gower, Mirour, 16800).

sortilege, a drawing of lots. Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med., pt. 1, § 18. F. sortilège, L. sortilegium.

soss, to make oneself wet and dirty, to dabble; ‘Sossing and possing, dabbling in mire’, Gammer Gurton’s Needle; i. 4 (Hodge); sost, pp. made wet and dirty, Tusser, Husbandry, § 48. 20. In prov. use in various parts of the British Isles, see EDD. (s.v. Soss, vb.² and vb.³).

†sothbind. ‘But late medcynes can help no sothbynde sore’, Mirror for Mag., Richard, st. 10 (ed. 1578 has: ‘no festered sore’). Not found elsewhere. See Nares.

†sothery. The devils are described as having—‘Theyr taylles wel kempt, and, as I wene, With sothery butter theyr bodyes anoynted’, Heywood, The Four Plays, v. 87, Anc. Brit. Drama, i. 18, col. 2; Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 376. Does it mean ‘Surrey butter’? Surrey is spelt Sothery in Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 269; and Sothray in Skelton, El. Rummyng, 96.

souce; see [souse].

soud, to consolidate, make whole. Pp. souded, Morte Arthur, leaf 359. 20; bk. xvii, c. 19. F. souder, to consolidate; L. solidare.

souder, to be soldered together, to become whole; ‘The pecys . . . soudered as fayr as euer they were to-fore’, Morte Arthur, leaf 348. 12; bk. xvii, c. 4.

soul, a part of the viscera of a cooked fowl. Heywood, Eng. Traveller, ii. 1 (Clown). See EDD. (s.v. Soul, sb.¹ 8). ‘Âme, the soule of a capon or gose’, Palsgrave; ‘Mazzacáre, the tender part of any bird or fowl, in a Goose it is called the Soul’ (Florio). See EDD. (s.v. Soul, sb.¹ 8) and Notes and Queries (8th S. ii. 169).

souling, relishing, affording a relish; souling well, affording a good relish, Warner, Alb. England, bk. iv, ch. 20, st. 32. Cp. the north country prov. word sowl(e, a relish, dainty, anything eaten with bread (EDD.). OE. sufl.

sound, to swoon, Two Angry Women, iii. 2 (Francis); Heywood, Four Prentises (Guy), vol. ii, p. 181; a swoon, ‘a deadly sound’, id., Fair Maid of the Exchange (Anthony), vol. ii, p. 15; Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 94; ‘She fell into a traunce or sownde’, Stubbes, A Christall Glasse (ed. Furnivall, 202). In common prov. use in Scotland, also in England in various parts, esp. in Yorks., see EDD. (s.v. Sound, vb.²). See [sowne] (2).

sounder, a herd of wild swine. Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, iv. 163; Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Hubert); ‘That men calleth a trip of a tame swyn is called of wylde swyn a soundre, that is to say ȝif ther be passyd v or vi togedres’ (Halliwell). OE. sunor: ‘sunor bergana’ (Luke viii. 32, Lind.) = ‘grex porcorum’ (Vulg.).

sourd, to arise. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 2, § 7; Fabyan’s Chron., ed. 1811, p. 436; p. 499, l. 23. ME. sourde, to arise (Chaucer, C. T. I. 475); F. sourdre; L. surgere.

sous, souse, a ‘sou’, a small coin. Farquhar, The Inconstant, i. 2 (Old Mirabel); Prior, Down Hall, st. 33. [‘Those most heav’nly pictures . . . For which the nation paid down every souse’, Peter Pindar, Works (ed. 1816, p. 397).] An obsolete Scotch word (EDD.).

souse, to swoop down like a hawk. Heywood, Dialogue, 181 (Mercury), vol. vi, p. 247; to deal a heavy downward blow, Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. i. 6; Heywood, Brazen Age (Hercules); the downward swoop of a bird of prey, the sudden blow given by a ‘sousing’ hawk, Drayton, Pol. xx. 241; Heywood, A Woman Killed, i. 3. 2; Ford, Lady’s Trial, iv. 2 (Futelli). The word as applied in falconry meant originally the upward spring or swoop of a bird of prey; an older form was sours; OF. sorse (mod. source), lit. the ‘rise’ of the hawk; cp. Chaucer, C. T. D. 1938, and Hous Fame, ii. 36. See Dict. (s.v. Souse), and Notes on Eng. Etym. 275.

souse, brine for pickle. Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of Malta, ii. 1 (Normandine); ears and feet of a pig in pickle, Tusser, Husbandry, § 12; Butler, Hud. i. 2. 120; hence souse-wife (sowce-wife), a woman who sold ‘souse’, Greene, George-a-Greene (ed. Dyce. 257); Dekker, Shoemakers’ Hol. ii. 3 (Firk). ME. sowce, ‘succidium’ (Prompt. EETS. 424, see note, no. 2063); OF. sous (souz), see Godefroy (s.v. Soult, 2); cp. OHG. sulza (Schade), O. Prov. soltz, ‘viande à la vinaigrette’ (Levy); Ital. solcio, a seasoning of meat (Florio). Cp. also OF. solcier, ‘confire de la viande dans du vinaigre et des épices’ (Raschi). See note on ‘Solz’, in Romania, 1910, p. 176.

sovenance, remembrance. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 8; Shep. Kal., May, 82, Nov., 5. Anglo-F. sovenance (Gower, Mirour, 8244); F. souvenance, ‘memorie, remembrance’ (Cotgr.).

sovereign, a gold coin, a ten-shilling piece. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 7 (Fallace).

sow, a large lump of metal; ‘Sowes of gold’, Mirror for Mag., King Chirinnus, Lenvoy, st. 1; ‘Pano di metallo, a mass, a sow or ingot of metal’ (Florio).

sowce-wife; See [souse] (2).

sow-gard, a protecting shield or shelter (= L. testudo). Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 451. A sow was a military engine consisting of a movable roof arranged to protect men handling a battering-ram or advancing to scale walls.

sowl, to pull by the ears. Coriolanus, iv. 5. 213 (old edd. sole); spelt sole, Heywood, Love’s Mistress, iv. 1 (Vulcan); vol. v, p. 137. ‘Sowl’ is in prov. use in many spellings (soul, sool, sole, soal, saul), meaning to pull by the ears, also to hit on the head, see EDD. (s.v. Sowl, vb.¹).

sowne, soune, a sound, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 2, § 2; c. 13, § 4; to sound, ‘Sowning through the sky’, Tottel’s Misc., p. 202. ME. sowne (soune), to sound (Chaucer). F. son, sound; sonner, to sound.

sowne, to swoon, Butler, Hud. ii. 1. 483; a swoon, Puritan Widow, i. 3. 42. In prov. use for swoon, see EDD. (s.v. Sound, vb.² 1). ME. sownyn, ‘sincopo’ (Prompt. EETS. 324). See [sound].

sowse; see [souse].

sowter, souter, a cobbler. Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, iv. 3 (Rosalura); Women Pleased, iv. 1 (Soto); Mad Lover, ii. 1. 22. In prov. use in the north country (EDD.). ME. souter (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3904); OE. sūtere; L. sutor.

soyle, the watery place in which a hunted animal takes refuge. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 40; p. 115. Used to signify the hunted animal; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 16. See [soil] (pool).

space, to walk or roam about. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 44. Cp. Ital. spaziare, to walk about (spatiare in Florio). L. spatiari, whence also O. Prov. espasiar, reflex, ‘se promener’ (Levy), and G. spazieren. Cp. Med. L. ‘Spatiamentum, ambulatio, deambulatio, animi relaxatio’ (Ducange).

spade, to make a female animal barren, to ‘spay’. Chapman. Widow’s Tears, v (Governor). Med. L. spadare, ‘spadonem facere’ (Ducange), deriv. of L. spado, Gk. σπάδων, one who has no generative power, eunuch. See [spay].

spade-bone, blade-bone, shoulder-bone. Drayton, Pol. v. 266; Skinner (ann. 1671). In prov. use (EDD.). Spade = Norm. F. espalde, ‘épaule’ (Moisy). For the phonology cp. jade = Icel. jalda, a mare, through OF. *jaude, *jalde. See below.

spalle, a shoulder. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 29. ‘Spawl’ (‘spaul’) is in prov. use in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Spaul). OF. espalle, espalde (F. épaule), Med. L. spatula, a shoulder-blade, L. spatula, a broad-bladed knife. See [spade-bone].

span-counter, a boys’ game. One boy throws down a counter, which another wins, if he can throw another so as to hit it or lie within a span of it. 2 Hen. VI, iv. 3; Northward Ho, i. 2 (Philip). See Nares.

spang, a spangle. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1162; Bacon, Essay 37. Hence spang’d, spangled, Three Lords and Three Ladies (Shealty), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 467.

Spanish fig, a poisoned fig. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 30.

Spanish needle, a needle of the best quality. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, ii. 1. 6.

Spanish pike, a needle; jocosely. Ford, Sun’s Darling, ii. 1 (Folly).

spare, spaire, spayre, an opening or slit in a gown or petticoat. Spayre, Skelton, Phyllyp Sparowe, 345; ‘Sparre of a gowne, fente de la robe’, Palsgrave; Skene, Difficill Scottish Words (ann. 1681). ME. speyre of garment, ‘cluniculum’ (Prompt. EETS. 427, see note, no. 2083); spayre, ‘manubium, cluniculum’ (Cath. Angl.).

Spargirica, a name for Alchemy; ‘Ars Spagyrica’ (misspelt), B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 5 (ed. 1616). Ital. Spargirica, a name given to Alchemy from its separating and analysing chemical substances (Fanfani). Cotgrave has ‘Spargirie, Alchymie’, and ‘Spargirique, an Alchemist’. Florio has ‘Spargirio, Alchymy or the Extraction of Quintessences’.

spark, a diamond. Shirley, Bird in a Cage, ii. 1 (Rolliardo).

sparkle, to scatter, disperse. Beaumont and Fl., Loyal Subject, i. 5. 4; Humorous Lieutenant, i. 1 (Demetrius); sparkling, scattering, Bonduca, iii. 2 (near the end). See Nares, and Trench’s Select Glossary (ed. 1890). In prov. use in Yorks. (EDD.). See [disparkle].

sparse, to scatter. Fairfax, Tasso, xii. 46; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 268. L. spars-us, pp. of spargere, to scatter. See [sperse].

spaw, a spa, place with mineral waters; ‘Your Tunbridge, or the Spaw itself’, B. Jonson, News from the New World (1 Herald); The Spawe, Gascoigne, Works, i. 376 (1572). So named from Spa, in Belgium.

spay, to render female animals barren; ‘Geld your loose wits, and let your Muse be spay’d’, Cleveland (Johnson’s Dict.). Anglo-F. *espayer (OF. espeër) < Med. L. spadare, to deprive of generative power (Ducange). See [spade].

speed, to dispatch, destroy, kill; ‘With a speeding thrust his heart he found’, Dryden (Johnson); sped, pp. done for, Romeo, iii. 1. 94; Merch. Ven. ii. 9. 72; speeding-place, the place where a wound is fatal, and the man is sped. Marston, What you Will, i. 1 (Quadratus); Chapman, Widow’s Tears, i (Tharsalio).

spence, expense; ‘Spence, cost, despence’, Palsgrave; Ascham, Toxophilus, 122. ME. spense, spendynge, ‘dispensa’, Voc. 578. 45; spence, or expence (Prompt. EETS. 427).

spence, a buttery, a larder; ‘Spens, a buttrye, despencier’, Palgrave; spence, The Four Elements, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 35 (Taverner). In prov. use in Scotland and the north country, meaning a larder, pantry, store-cupboard, see EDD. (s.v. Spense). ME. spence, botery, ‘promptuarium’ (Prompt. EETS. 427).

sperage, ‘the herb asparagus; it is so called by Gerard, and all the old botanists, as its English name’ (Nares). North, tr. Plutarch, Jul. Caesar, § 16 (in Shaks. Plut., p. 58); Sylv. Du Bartas, Furies (Nares); Haven of Health, c. xxiii, p. 45 (id.). A Glouc. form (EDD.). ME. sperage, asparagus (Palladius, Husbandry, 112).

spere, used in the sense of a youth, a stripling; ‘A lusty spere’, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 947; Poems ag. Garnesche, iii. 41. Prob. a fig. use of ‘spere’, a young shoot or sprout, still in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Spear, sb.¹ 7).

spere, speer, to shoot, sprout, a term in malting, Tusser, Husbandry, § 84. 5. See [spire].

sperhauk, sparrowhawk. Morte Arthur, leaf 301. 34; bk. xii, c. 7. Cp. OE. spearhafoc (Voc. 132. 26); spearwa, sparrow + hafoc, hawk.

sperre, to shut, fasten, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 224; Tr. and Cr., Prol. 19 (Theobald’s emendation); ‘I sperre, Je ferme. This verbe is of the northyrne langaige and nat commynly in use’, Palsgrave. Spear, ‘to bar or fasten a door’, is a Northumbrian word, see EDD. (s.v. Speer, vb. 6. 2); ‘To sper, to shut, to fasten a door with a bar of wood’ (Jamieson). ME. sperre, ‘claudere’ (Cath. Angl.); sperred, barred (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 521). Cp. G. sperren, to shut (in or out).

sperse, to scatter, ‘disperse’. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 39; v. 3. 37.

spertle, to sprinkle with fluid, Drayton, Pol. ii. 283. In prov. use in the Midland counties, see EDD. (s.v. Spirtle).

spheres. Peacham, Compl. Gentleman, c. 7, gives the old eleven spheres: ‘The eleventh heaven is the habitation of God and his angels. The tenth, the first moover [primum mobile]. The ninth, the Christalline heaven. The eighth, the starry firmament. Then the seven planets in their order’ [viz. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon]. In the Ptolemaic astronomy, the sun went round the earth, which was the immovable centre of the universe.

spial, a spy. Bacon, Essay 44. In some edd. for espial in 1 Hen. VI, i. 4. 8; spials, spies, Marl. 1 Tamburlaine, ii. 2. 35. See [espial].

spice, a species, kind, sort. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 1, §§ 1, 3; ‘Spyce, a kynde, espece’, Palsgrave. ME. spice, species, kind: ‘Absteyne you fro yvel spice’ (Wyclif, 1 Thess. v. 22); ‘The spices (v.r. speces) of envye ben these’ (Chaucer, C. T. I. 490). OF. espice, a species, L. species, a kind, sort (Vulgate, 1 Thess. v. 22).

spiced, scrupulous, over-nice, too particular; ‘Out of a scruple he took . . . in spiced conscience’, B. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, i. 1 (Quarlous); Sejanus, v. 4 (Sej.); Fletcher, Mad Lover, iii. 1 (Cleanthe). See note on Chaucer, C. T. A. 526. See [spice].

spick, lard. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 335. In Scotland the fat of animals, the blubber of whales (EDD.). ME. spyke or fette flesch, ‘popa’ (Prompt. EETS. 428). Icel. spik, the fat of seals or whales, cp. OE. spic, fat bacon; G. speck, bacon, lard.

spilt, (perhaps) inlaid with thin slips. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 10. 5. See EDD. (s.v. Spill, sb.² 1).

spilth, a spilling, pouring out. Used of wine, Timon, ii. 2. 169. A Scottish word; also in use in Suffolk (EDD.).

spinet, a spinny, a copse, thicket. B. Jonson, The Satyr, first stage-direction. L. spinetum, a thicket of thorns; from spina, thorn.

spinner, a spider. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Quarlous); Mids. Night’s D. ii. 2. 21; Romeo, i. 4. 59; ‘Spynner or spyder, herigne’, Palsgrave; ‘Araigne, a spider or spinner’, Cotgrave. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. spynner, ‘arania’ (Prompt.).

spintry, a male prostitute. B. Jonson, Sejanus, iv. 5 (Arruntius). L. spintria.

spiny, slender. Middleton, A Chaste Maid, iii. 2 (1 Puritan); A Mad World, iii. 2. 7. Cp. prov. words spindly, spindling, spindle, meaning slender, see EDD. (s.v. Spindle).

spire, to sprout, shoot forth. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 52. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Spire, vb.¹ 8). ME. spyryn, as corn or odyre lyk, ‘spico’; spyre of corne (Prompt. EETS. 429 and 463). OE. spīr (Leechdoms), cp. Dan. spire, a germ, sprout. See [spere].

spirget, a wooden peg on which to hang things; ‘There hung a Bowle of Beech upon a spirget by a ring’, Golding, Metam. viii. 653. ‘Spurget’ is in prov. use in the north country, E. Anglia, and Sussex for an iron hook, see EDD. (s.v. Sperket).

spirt, to shoot up (as a plant), to sprout. Hen. V, iii. 5. 8; Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 558. In prov. use in the Midlands and Dorset (EDD.). OE. sprytian, to sprout, germinate.

spital, spittle, a hospital. Formerly hospital; whence ’spital. Hen. V, ii. 1. 78; v. 1. 86; Puritan Widow, i. 1. 151; spittle, Sir Thos. More, i. 3. 81; ‘Ladrerie, a Spittle for lepers’, Cotgrave. Hence, spital-house, Timon, iv. 3. 39. ME. spytyl hows, ‘leprosorium’ (Prompt. EETS. 429).

spitchcock’d. A spitchcock’d eel, a broiled eel spread on a skewer, ‘Spitchcock’d like a salted eel’, Cotton, Burlesque (Poems, p. 222); Cartwright, The Ordinary, ii. 1, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xii. 239. Hence spitchcock, a spitchcocked eel, Northward Ho, i. 1 (Chamberlain). See Dict. (s.v. Spitch-cock).

spitter, ‘Among Hunters, a red Male Deer near two Years old, whose Horns begin to grow up sharp, and spit-wise; it is also call’d a Brocket or Pricket’, Phillips, Dict., ed. 1706; ‘Subulo, an hart havyng hornes without tynes, called (as I suppose) a spittare’, Elyot, 1559. Applied to a full-grown stag by Golding, Metam. x. 117; fol. 121 (1603). Cp. G. spiesser, a brocket, a buck of the second year (Grieb-Schröer).

spittle; see [spital].

splay, to display, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 93. 13; ‘Hys banners splaide’, and ‘Our ensignes splayde’, Gascoigne (Nares). Cp. E. splay-foot, see Dict. (s.v. Splay).

splay, to castrate, Meas. for M. ii. 1. 249 (mod. edd. spay). In Shropshire heifers are splayed to make them barren (EDD.).

spleen. The organ of the body viewed as the seat of emotions and passions; impetuosity, eagerness, ‘The spleen of fiery dragons’, Richard III, v. 3. 350; malice, hatred, ‘I have no spleen against you’, Hen. VIII, ii. 4. 89; a fit of passion,’ A hair-brained Hotspur, governed by a spleen’, 1 Hen. IV, v. 2. 19; any sudden impulse or fit beyond the control of reason, esp. a fit of laughter, ‘Thy silly thought enforces my spleen’, L. L. L. iii. 77; a caprice, ‘A thousand spleens bear her a thousand ways’, Ven. and Ad. 907. See Schmidt.

splent, a lath, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 122. 10; ‘Splent for an house, laite’, Palsgrave. An E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Splint, sb.¹ 2). ME. splente (Prompt. EETS. 429).

splent, ‘a kind of hard swelling, without Pain, that grows on the Bone of a Horse’s Leg’, Phillips, Dict., 1706; Greene, Looking Glasse, i (p. 120).

sploach, a ‘splotch’, a blot. Wycherley, Gent. Dancing-master, v. 1 (Don Diego). ‘Splotch’ is in common prov. use (EDD.).

spondil, one of the vertebrae of the spine; ‘The spondils of his back’, B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 2 (Tuck). Gk. (Ionic) σπόνδυλος, (Attic) σφόνδυλος, a vertebra.

spooks-make, interpreter; ‘Of Gods the spooks-make’ (= L. interpres Divum), Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 373. Spooks-make = spokes-make. ‘Spoke’ is in prov. use for talk, conversation (EDD.); ‘make’ is still in prov. use, meaning a companion. See [make].

spoom, to sail before the wind. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 96; Beaumont and Fl., Double Marriage, ii. 1 (Master).

spoon-meat, broth. Middleton, The Witch, iv. 1 (Almachildes).

spoorn, some kind of hobgoblin. Middleton, The Witch, i. 2 (Hecate); Denham Tracts (ed. 1895, ii. 77); the spoorne, Scot, Disc. Witches, 153.

spousayles, a marriage, wedding. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 12, § 2 (ed. Croft, ii. 142); spousals, Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 407. OF. espousailles; L. sponsalia, pl.

sprag, quick, alert. Merry Wives, iv. 1. 84. In prov. use in the north country, Worc. and the west (EDD.). ‘Sprag’ is a later form of ‘sprack’, in common prov. use in various parts of England. Cp. Norw. dial. spræk, fresh, lively (Aasen).

spraints, the dung of the otter, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 73, p. 201; sprayntes, id., c. 37, p. 98; Maister of Game, c. 11; Howell, Parl. of Beasts, 8 (Davies, 162). In prov. use in the north country (EDD.). [C. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, xviii.] F. ‘esprainctes, espreinctes, dung of the otter’ (Cotgr.); épreintes de la loutre (Hatzfeld). OF. espreindre, to press out, L. exprimere.

sprent, pp. sprinkled. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 45. In prov. use in Scotland and the north country (EDD.). ME. spreynd, also spreynt, sprinkled (Wyclif, Heb. ix. 13; Rev. xix. 13), pp. of sprengen, to sprinkle, OE. sprengan.

spring. A spring garden, a garden in which a concealed spring was made to spout jets of water over a visitor, when he trod upon a particular spot. Beaumont and Fl., Four Plays in One, Pt. I, sc. 1 (Sophocles).

spring, a dance-tune. Fletcher, Prophetess, v. 3 (3 Shepherd). In prov. use in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Spring, 9). ME. spring, a merry dance (Chaucer, Hous Fame, 1235).

spring-halt, a lameness in which a horse twitches up his leg. Hen. VIII, i. 3. 13.

spring: a spring of pork, the lower part of the fore-quarter, divided from the neck. Fletcher, The Prophetess, i. 3. 7. In prov. use in Northants (EDD.). See Nares.

spring, the young growth in a wood, a copse, a grove; ‘The nightingale among the thick-leav’d spring’, Fletcher, Faithful Sheph. v. 1; Fairfax, Tasso, xiii. 35; ‘In yonder spring of roses’, Milton, P. L. ix. 218; a young shoot of a tree, Lucrece, 950; fig. a youth, lad, ‘Being yong and yet a very spring’, Mirrour for Mag., Northumberland, st. 4; Spenser, Muiopotmos, 292. ‘Spring’ is in prov. use for young growth, the undergrowth of wood; a copse, a grove (EDD.).

springal, a youth. Spenser, F. Q. v. 10. 6; Beaumont and Fl., Laws of Candy, iii. 2 (Cassilane); springald, id., Knt. of B. Pestle, ii. 2; ‘Springald, adolescens’, Levins, Manip. See EDD. (s.v. Springald).

spruntly, smartly, sprucely. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, iv. 1 (Lady T.). The adj. is in prov. use (EDD.).

spurblind, ‘purblind’, nearly blind. Lyly, Sapho, ii. 2 (Phao). Halliwell says that the word was used by Latimer.

spurling, a smelt. Tusser, Husbandry, § 12, st. 5; Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 4 (Carion). ME. sperlynge, ‘sperlingus’ (Cath. Angl.); F. esperlan, a smelt (Cotgr.).

spur-ryal, spur-royal, a gold coin, worth about fifteen shillings; also called a royal or ryal. It had a star on the reverse resembling a rowel of a spur (Nares). Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, i. 1 (Young Loveless); Mayne, City Match, ii. 3 (Aurelia).

spyon, spion, a scout, in an army; ‘Captain of the Spyons’, Heywood, Four Prentises (Guy), vol. ii, p. 242. F. ‘espion, a spy, scout; espier, to spy’ (Cotgr.).

spyrre, to ask, inquire. Morte Arthur, leaf 416, back, 36; bk. xxi, c. 8. Cp. ‘spur’ in use in the north country for publishing or asking the banns of matrimony in church, see EDD. (s.v. Spur, vb.²). ME. speren, to ask (Barbour’s Bruce, see Gloss.). OE. spyrian, to inquire into.

squall, a term of endearment; ‘The rich gull gallant calls her deare and love, Ducke, lambe, squall, sweet-heart, cony, and his dove’, Taylor, 1630 (Nares); Middleton, Mich. Term, iii. 1 (Hellgill); Five Gallants, iv. 2. 3; used as a term of reproach, ‘Obereau, a young minx or little proud squal’, Cotgrave; also, applied to a man as a term of contempt, Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune (in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 199). See Halliwell.

squander, to scatter, disperse, Merch. Ven. i. 3. 32; Dryden, Annus Mirab., st. 67. In prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England (EDD.).

square, rule, exact conduct; ‘I have not kept my square’, Ant. and Cl. ii. 3. 6; ‘Never breaks square’ (i.e. never gives offence), Middleton, The Widow, ii (end).

square, to quarrel. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 30; Titus And. ii. 1. 100; Ant. and Cl. ii. 1. 45; Harington, Ariosto, xiv. 72; id., Ep. i. 37; a quarrel, Promos and Cass. ii. 4 (Nares). Hence squarer, a quarreller, Much Ado, i. 1. 82. Also, a squadron, ‘Our squares of battle’, Hen. V, iv. 2. 28; ‘Squares of war’, Ant. and Cl. iii. 11. 40. Cp. O. Prov. esqueira, ‘corps de bataille’ (Levy). Med. L. squadra, ‘caterva, turba, cohors; acies, copiae militares’ (Ducange); cp. Ital. squadra, ‘a squadron or troop of men’ (Florio); F. escadre (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.vv. Square, Squadron).

squares. How go the squares? how goes the game? The reference is to the chessboard; Middleton, Family of Love, i. 3 (Purge); May, The Old Couple, iv. 1 (Sir Argent).

squash, the shell or pod of peas or beans; an unripe pea-pod. Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 166; Wint. Tale, i. 2. 161. An E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Squash, vb.¹ 3).

squat, to squeeze, crush, bruise. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 3 (Savourwit). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). OF. esquatir, ‘aplatir, briser’ (Didot). See Dict.

squelch, to crush, bruise, strike with a heavy blow. Fletcher, Nice Valour, v. 1 (Galoshio); a heavy blow, Butler, Hud. i. 2. 836, 933. In prov. use (EDD.).

squelter, to ‘welter’, wallow, roll about; ‘The slaughter’d Trojans squeltring in their blood’, Locrine, ii. 6. 4.

squib, a paltry fellow. Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 371. In prov. use in west Yorks. in the sense of a small dwarfish person, see EDD. (s.v. Squib, sb.²).

squib, used fig. for a flashy, futile project or design, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, 195).

squich, to move quickly. Marriage of Wit and Science, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley. ii. 387; to wince, to flinch, Soliman and Perseda, iv. (Basilisco), id., v. 343. Probably identical with prov. E. switch, to move quickly, see EDD. (s.v. Switch, vb.¹ 9).

squince, the quinsy. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 22, § 3; ‘Squinantia, the Squince or Squinancie’, Florio; also squincy, ‘Esquinance, the Squincy’, Cotgrave; ‘Shall we not be suspected for the murder, And choke with a hempen squincy’, Randolph, The Jealous Lovers (ed. 1634, p. 54). ME. squynesy, ‘squinancia’ (Prompt. EETS. 431). Sec Dict. (s.v. Quinsy).

squinny, squiny, to look asquint. King Lear, iv. 6. 140; ‘How scornfully she squinnies’, Shirley, Sisters, ii. 2 (Antonio). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

squire, squier, a ‘square’, a rule for measuring, Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 348; by the squire, by exact rule, B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iv. 2 (Pan). ME. squire, a carpenter’s instrument (Chaucer, C. T. D. 2090). F. ‘esquierre, a rule or square’ (Cotgr.).

staddle, a prop, support. Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 14; a young growing tree left standing in a wood after the underwood has been cut away, Bacon, Essay 29, § 5; id., Henry VII (ed. Lumby, 72). See EDD. OE. staþol, a foundation, firm support.

staffe, a stave, a stanza; ‘Staffe . . . The Italian called it Stanza’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. ii, c. 2 (Of proportion in Staffe).

staffier, a lacquey, a footman. Butler, Hud. ii. 2. 651. F. ‘estaffier, a lackey or footboy, that runs by the stirrup; a servingman that waits afoot, while his master rides; estaphe, a stirrup’ (Cotgr.); Ital. staffiere, ‘a lacquey, that runs by a man’s stirrup’; staffa, ‘a kind of stirrup for a saddle’ (Florio). Of Germ. origin, cp. G. stapfe, a foot-step.

staggers, a sudden fit of giddiness, vertigo. Beaumont and Fl., Mad Lover, i. 1 (Calis); Cymbeline, v. 5. 234; All’s Well, ii. 3. 170; a disease in horses indicated by staggering and falling down, Taming Shrew, iii. 2. 55.

stakker, to stagger. Morte Arthur, leaf 232, back, 6; bk. x, c. 30; and in Palsgrave. ME. stakeren, to stagger (Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 2687). Norw. dial. stakra, to stagger (Aasen).

stale, a station where one lies in wait for birds; ‘Stale for foules takynge’, Palsgrave; to lie in stale, to lie in wait or ambush, ‘As I lay in stale To fight with the duke Richard’s eldest son, I was destroy’d’, Mirror for Mag., 366 (Nares); Stanyhurst, Desc. Ireland (Halliwell). ME. staal, of fowlynge or of byrdys takynge ‘stacionaria’ (Prompt. EETS. 432). OF. estal, place, séjour, arrêt; prendre son estal, prendre position (Didot), Anglo-F. estal (Ch. Rol. 1108, 2319).

stale, a decoy; a bird or something in the form of a bird set up to allure a bird of prey; ‘The fowler’s stale the appearance of which brings but others to the net’, Cap of Gray Hairs (ed. 1688, p. 96); see Halliwell; Mirrour for Mag. (Nares); Sidney, Arcadia, ii, p. 169 (Nares); an object of allurement, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 10. 3; Tempest, iv. 1. 187; a device, trick, F. Q. ii. 1. 4; a laughing-stock, Titus And. i. 2. 241. In prov. use in Lincolnsh., see EDD. (s.v. Stale, sb.¹). Anglo-F. estale, ‘appeau, oiseau qui sert à attirer les autres’ (Vocab. to Bozon).

stale, the shaft of an arrow, Chapman, tr. Iliad, iv. 173; the shaft of a javelin, Nomenclator (Nares). In prov. use in the sense of a shaft, a long slender handle, see EDD. (s.v. Stale, sb.² 1). See [stele].

stale, the urine of horses and cattle, Ant. and Cl. i. 4. 62 to urinate, Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 152; ‘Escloy, urine, stale’, Cotgrave. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Stale, vb.³). OF. estaler, to stale (of horses), see Godefroy. Of Germ, origin, cp. Dan. stalle, Swed. stalla, to urinate; cp. G. stallen (used of horses); stall, urine.

stale, stalemate, at chess; ‘Like a stale at chess, where it is no mate, but yet the game cannot stir’, Bacon, Essay 12.

stale, to render stale, to make common and worthless. Coriol. i. 1. 95; Ant. and Cl. ii. 2. 240; Jul. Caesar, i. 2. 73; a stale, a prostitute, harlot, Much Ado, ii. 2. 26; iv. 1. 66.

stall, to forestall. B. Jonson, Sejanus, iii. 1 (Tiberius); Massinger, Bashful Lover, iv. 3.

stall, to install set in authority, Richard III, i. 3. 206; ‘And stawled gods doe condiscend’, Turbervile, The Lover excuseth himself. Stalled to the rogue (Cant Phrase), admitted as a recognized thief, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll); Harman, Caveat, p. 34. The master-thief admitted a rogue with the ceremony of pouring a quart of beer over his head, and using a formula of words.

stall, to stick fast; ‘When his cart was stalled (he) lay flat on his back and cried aloud, Help, Hercules!’, Burton, Anat. Mel., p. 222 (Nares). In prov. use in the north country and Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. Stall, vb. 20).

stalled, pp.; ‘Dole perpetuall, From whence he never should be quit, nor stal’d’ (rimes with cal’d), Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 1245. Meaning doubtful.

stalling ken, a house for receiving stolen goods (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Tearcat); stauling ken, Harman, Caveat, p. 83; B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman).

stammel, stamel, a kind of woollen cloth, of a red colour. Beaumont and Fl., Little French Lawyer, i. 1 (Cleremont); Chapman, Mons. D’Olive, ii. 1 (D’Ol.). See Nares and Halliwell.

stamp, a stamped coin, a coin. Merry Wives, iii. 4. 16; Macbeth, iv. 3. 153.

stand. It stands me upon, it is incumbent on me, it is important to me, I ought. It standeth thee upon, Lyly, Euphues, p. 271.

standard, a standing-bowl. Greene, Looking Glasse, v. 1 (1858); p. 141, col. 2.

stander-grass, standard-grass, stander-wort, standle-wort, Orchis mascula, and other allied plants. Standelwort, or Standergrass, Lyte’s Dodoens, bk. ii, ch. 56; Royal Standergrass, or Palma Christi, id., ch. 59; ‘Foul standergrass’, Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, ii. 2 (Clorin).

staniel, a kind of hawk, considered as of inferior value, Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 124; hence, a coward, Lady Alimony, i. 3 (Haxter); hence stanielry, cowardice, id., v. 2. 17. In prov. use in the north country for the kestrel or windhover, see EDD. (s.v. Stannel). OE. stangella, used to translate L. pellicanus in Ps. ci. 7 (Vesp. Psalter). See notes on Eng. Etym.

stank, weary. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 47. Ital. stanco, weary.

stare, a starling. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 541; Middleton, Game at Chess, iv. 2 (B. Knight). In prov. use in Ireland and in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. stare, a starling (Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 348); OE. stær: ‘tuoege staras’ (Lind. Gosp., Matt. x. 29, rendering of Vulgate duo passeres).

stare, to bristle up; said of hair. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 56. 11; § 98. 4; Jul. Caesar, iv. 3. 280. In prov. use: they say in Herts, ‘It will make her (a cow’s) hair to stare’, see EDD. (s.v. Stare, vb. 4). Cp. G. starren, to bristle.

stark, stout, sturdy. Sir T. Wyatt (Nares); stiff (used in speaking of a dead body), 1 Hen. IV, v. 3. 42; Romeo, iv. 1. 103; Cymbeline, iv. 2. 209; starkly, stiffly (as in a dead body), Meas. for M. iv. 2. 70. In common prov. use in the north country in the two meanings (1) stout, sturdy, and (2) stiff, esp. through rheumatism (EDD.). OE. stearc, stiff, rigid; rough, strong (B. T.); Icel. sterkr, strong. See [storken].

startups, rustic shoes with high tops, or half-gaiters; ‘Guestres [gaiters], startups, high shooes, or gamashes for countrey folks’, Cotgrave; Hall, Satires, book vi; Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, ii. 4 (Cloe). See Nares. In prov. use in the Midlands (EDD.).

state, high rank, dignity. 3 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 93; chair of state, a canopied chair, dais, or throne for a king, 3 Hen. VI, i. 1. 51; Hen. VIII, iv. 1. 67; state = chair of state, Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 51; Coriol. v. 24; Macbeth, iii. 4. 5; states, persons of high rank, Cymb. iii. 4. 39; state, an estate, Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, i. 1. 7; Rule a Wife, iii. 5 (Leon).

statist, a statesman, politician. Hamlet, v. 2. 33; Beaumont and Fl., Laws of Candy, ii. 1 (Gonzalo); Webster, Appius, i. 3 (Virginius). Ital. statista (Florio).

statua, a statue. Jul. Caesar, iii. 2. Bacon, Essay 27, § 6, and 45, § 3; a picture, Massinger, City Madam, v. 3 (Sir John, 15th speech). L. statua, an image, statue (commonly made of metal).

statuminate, to prop up. B. Jonson, New Inn, ii. 2 (Tipto). L. statumino (Pliny).

statute-caps, woollen caps, which, by a statute of 1571, citizens were enjoined to wear on holydays. L. L. L. v. 2. 281. Also, the wearers of such caps, citizens, Middleton, Family of Love, v. 3 (Dryfat). See Nares.

statute-lace, lace made according to a law that regulated its width and material. Massinger, Parl. of Love, iv. 5 (Perigot).

statute-merchant, or statute-staple, a bond acknowledged before one of the clerks of the statute-merchant, and mayor of the staple, or chief warden of the City of London, or other sufficient men; see quotation from Blount, in Nares. ‘His lands be engaged in twenty statutes staple’, Middleton, Family of Love, i. 3 (Glister); cp. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. iii. 110.

stauling ken; see [stalling ken].

staunce, disagreement. Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 4 (Dulipo). See [distance].

stead, to stand in good stead; ‘Necessaries which since have steaded much’, Temp. i. 2. 165; to be of use to, benefit, help, Gent. Ver. ii. 1. 124; Othello, i. 3. 344; stead up, to take a person’s place (in an arrangement), Meas. for M. iii. 1. 261.

steaming; see [steming].

sted, a bedstead. Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Georgies, ii. 726.

stedy, an anvil. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 149, back, 30. This form for ‘stithy’ is in prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Stiddy). Icel. steði. See [stithy].

steenkirk, a loose cravat of fine lace. Vanbrugh, The Relapse, i. 3 (Sempstress); Congreve, Love for Love, i. 2 (Scandal). Named with reference to the battle of Steenkerke (1692). See Stanford.

stele, the shaft of an arrow, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 123; the handle of a rake, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 24. 19; ‘Steale or handell of a staffe, manche’, Palsgrave. This word in many spellings is in common prov. use in Scotland and England for a shaft or handle, esp. a long straight handle, see EDD. (s.v. Steal, sb.²). ME. stele, or sterte of a vessel, ‘ansa’ (Prompt. EETS. 434). OE. stela, a stalk. See [stale] (3).

stelled, fixed; ‘A face where all distress is stell’d’, Lucrece, 1444; stelled fires, fixed stars, King Lear, iii. 7. 61. ‘To stell’ is in prov. use in Scotland in the sense of to place, set, fix, see EDD. (s.v. Stell, vb. 7). OE. stellan, to place.

stellionate, fraudulent dealing. Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 62. L. stellionatus, trickery; from stellio, a knave.

stem, to keep in, enclose. Spelt stemme, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 10. 12. Icel. stemma, to stop, dam up.

steming, shining, bright; ‘Two stemyng eyes’, Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. i. 53; ‘With skouling steaming eyes’, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, vi. 300 (L. stant lumina flamma). ME. steeme, or lowe of fyre, ‘flamma’ (Prompt. EETS. 434); stem: ‘A stem Als it were a sunnebem’ (Havelok, 591).

stench, ‘staunch’, firm; hence, continent. Lady Alimony, iii. 3 (Sea-song, st. 5). See EDD. (s.v. Staunch, adj. 10 and 11).

stene, steane, a stone jar or pitcher. Spelt stene, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Aristippus, § 17; steane, Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 42. ‘Stean’ is in prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. 3). ME. steene, a pitcher, earthenware vessel, Trevisa, tr. Higden, bk. i, c. 41; OE. stǣna, an earthenware jug (Sweet).

stent, to leave off, to cause to cease. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 4. 12; to cease, pt. t., Sackville, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 32. In common prov. use in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Stent, vb.¹ 2). ME. stenten, to cease, to cause to cease (Chaucer). See [stint].

stepony; see [stiponie].

stept in age, advanced in years. Ascham, Scholemaster, p. 152. OE. stæppan, steppan, to proceed, advance (B. T.).

stern, the hinder part of an object; used of the tail of a dragon. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 18; i. 11. 28. The same word as stern, the hinder part of a ship. Hence sternage, steerage, Hen. V, iii, Prol. 18. Icel. stjōrn, a steering, hence, the steering-place.

sterve, to die. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 34; Fairfax, Tasso, ii. 17. ME. sterve, to die, esp. to die of famine (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1249; C. T. C. 451). OE. steorfan, to die; cp. G. sterben.

stethva, a congress of Welsh bards. Drayton, Pol. iv. 177. Welsh eisteddfod.

steven, voice, outcry. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 224; steuyn, Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 130, l. 144. In common prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Steven, sb.¹ 1 and 2). ME. stevene, voice (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2562). OE. stefn.

stick-free, sword-proof, invulnerable to a sword-thrust. Burton, Anat. Mel., Of Witches and Magicians (ed. Shilleto, 1. 233); Shirley, Young Admiral, iv. 1 (ed. 1637). See Mod. Lang. Notes, June, 1912. G. stichfrei, sword-proof.

stickle, to interpose between combatants, and separate them when they had sufficiently satisfied the laws of honour, to act as umpire between combatants; ‘I styckyll betwene wrastellers . . . to se that none do other wronge, or I parte folkes that be redy to fyght’, Palsgrave; ‘(The angel) stickles betwixt the remainders of God’s hosts and the race of fiends’, Dryden, Ded. Trans. Juvenal; to be stickled, to be settled by a ‘stickler’, Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymph. 6. Hence stickler, Tr. and Cr. v. 8. 18; Florio, Montaigne, ii. 27; Dryden, Oliver Cromwell, 41. ME. stihtlen, to order, arrange, as a steward or a master of the ceremonies (P. Plowman, C. xvi. 40). See Nares, Trench, Select Glossary (ed. 1890), and Dict.

sticklebag, a ‘stickleback’, a small fish. Beaumont and Fl., Wit at several Weapons, v. 1 (Pompey).

stigmatic, one branded with infamy, Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 26; one branded by nature with deformity, 2 Hen. VI, v. 1. 215; 3 Hen. VI, ii. 2. 136; also, stigmatical, Com. Errors, iv. 2. 22. Gk. στιγματικός, branded with a mark (στίγμα).

stike, a ‘stich’, a verse. Sackville, Induction, st. 21. Gk. στίχος, a row, a line.

still, to ‘distil’, to fall in drops. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 7. 35.

stillatory, a still-room, for keeping distilled waters. Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, iv. 3 (near end). Late L. stillatorium, from stillare, to fall in drops.

Stilliard, the Steelyard; the place of business used by the German merchants in London. Westward Ho, ii. 1 (Justiniano); Stilyard merchants, merchants of the Steelyard, Stow’s Survey (ed. Thoms, p. 88). See Notes and Queries, 10 S. vi. 413, and Dict. (s.v. Steelyard, 1).

stint, to cause to cease. Timon, v. 4. 83; to cease, Pericles, iv. 4. 42; Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 29; Mother Hubberd, 1092. ME. stinte, to cease, to cause to cease (Chaucer). See M. and S. (s.v. Stynten). OE. styntan, to make dull, ‘hebetare’ (B. T.). See [stent].

stint, some kind of bird. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 339. In prov. use for various kinds of birds, the dunlin, the sandpiper, and the linnet (EDD.).

stiponie. ‘Stipone, a kind of sweet compound liquor drunk in some ill places in London in the summer-time’, Blount, Glossographia, p. 612. ‘Do you not understand the mystery of stiponie, Jenny? Maid. I know how to make democuana, sir’, Etherege, Love in a Tub, v. 4 (Sir Frederick); also spelt stepony, see Dict. Rusticum, Urbanicum et Botanicum, ed. 3, 1726, where the receipt for brewing this sweet liquor is given; see Notes and Queries, 6 S. iv. 155.

stire, styre, to guide, direct. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 7; ii. 5. 2. OE. stȳran, to direct, steer. See Dict. (s.v. Steer).

stirp, a stem, stock, family. Bacon, Essay 14, § 1. L. stirps, a stem.

stitch, a space between two double furrows in ploughed land; a ridge. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xviii. 495; Odyssey, viii. 171. In the latter passage, a stitch’s length may mean a furrow’s length or furlong. This word is in prov. use in various parts of England for a narrow ridge of land, as much land as lies between two furrows; a balk or portion of grass-land in an arable field; see EDD. (s.v. Stitch, sb.¹ 8 and 9).

stitch, a sudden cramp; hence, a contortion, a grimace. Beaumont and Fl., Captain, ii. 2 (Frederick).

stitchel, a troublesome fellow; a term of reproach. Lady Alimony, v. 3. 13 (Wife). A Linc. word for a troublesome child, see EDD. (s.v. Stetchel).

stithy, an anvil, Hamlet, iii. 2. 80 (some edd. have stith); to forge, ‘The forge that stithied Mars his helm’, Tr. and Cr. iv. 5. 255. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. stith, an anvil (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2026). Icel. steði. See [stedy].

stoccata, a thrust, in fencing. Romeo, iii. i. 77; stoccado, Merry Wives, ii. 1. 234; stockado, Marston, Sat. i. 132. Ital. stoccata, a thrust, a stoccado given with a stócco (a tuck or short-arming sword); see Florio; Span. estocáda, a thrust with a weapon, a stab (Stevens).

stock, to hit with the point of a sword; ‘A chevalier would stock a needle’s point Three times together’, Fletcher, Love’s Cure, iii. 4 (Alvarez); a thrust in fencing, Marston, Malcontent, ii. 2 (Malevole); Antonio, Pt. II, i. 2 (Matzagente). F. estoc, ‘a rapier or tuck, also, a thrust; coup d’estoc, a thrust, stockado, stab’ (Cotgr.). See [stuck].

stock, nether-stock or stocking. Greene, Description of Chaucer, 3 (ed. Dyce, p. 320). In prov. use in Yorks. and Norfolk (see EDD., s.v. Stock, 18).

stock-fish, dried haddock or cod; ‘Haddockes or hakes indurate and dryed with coulde, and beaten with clubbes or stockes, by reason whereof the Germayns caule them stockefyshe’, R. Eden, Works (ed. Arber, p. 303); Temp. iii. 2. 79; Meas. iii. 2. 116. The reason for the name is uncertain; Koolman gives the Low G. form as stok-fisk, and thinks they were so called because dried upon stocks or poles in the sun.

stoin, to be astonished or astounded; ‘I stoinid’, Phaer, Aeneid ii, 774; iii. 48 (L. obstupui). See [astonied].

stomach, courage, Udall, Roister Doister, iv. 7. 8, 15; 2 Hen. IV, i. 1. 129; Hamlet, i. 1. 100; proud or arrogant spirit, Hen. VIII, iv. 2. 34; resentment, angry temper, King Lear, v. 3. 75; to resent, to be angry, Ant. and Cl. iii. 4. 12; Marlowe, Edw. II, i. 2. 26. In prov. use for courage, pride, anger, bad temper (EDD.). Cp. Span. and Port. estomago, courage, valour, resolution; L. stomachus, displeasure, irritation, stomachari, to be irritated, out of humour.

stond, a stop, impediment, hindrance. Bacon, Essays 40 and 50. ‘To stand’, to bring to a stop, in prov. use in Surrey and Sussex: ‘I’ve seen a wagon stood in the snow’; see EDD. (s.v. Stand, 7).

stone-bow, a cross-bow from which stones could be shot. Twelfth Night, ii. 5. 51; Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, iv. 2. 9.

stool-ball, a game formerly popular among young women. Middleton, Women beware, iii. 3 (Isabella); Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 2. 101; Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, vi. 139. The idea of the game was much like that of cricket. A stool was the wicket; the hand was used as a bat, to defend it from the ball. See Strutt’s Sports. The game is still played in many parts of England, and in almost every village in Sussex (EDD.).

stoop, a post, pillar. Tancred and Gismunda, iv. 2 (Tancred), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 66; ‘You glorious martyrs, you illustrious stoops’, Quarles, Emblems, v. 10; ‘Stoulpe before a doore, souche’, Palsgrave; stulpe, Stow, Survey, Bridge Ward Within (ed. Thoms, 79). The word is in gen. prov. use in Scotland and England in various forms: stoup, stowp, stolpe, stulp(e, see EDD. (s.v. Stoop, sb.¹). ME. stulp, or stake, ‘paxillus’ (Prompt. EETS. 444, see note, no. 2171). Icel. stōlpi, a post, pillar, cp. Stōlpa-sund, the Pillar Sound, the Sound of the Pillars of Hercules, the Straits of Gibraltar.

stoop, to swoop downwards as a bird of prey on its quarry; ‘The bird of Jove, stooped from his aery tour, Two birds . . . before him drove’, Milton, P. L. xi. 185; used fig., B. Jonson, Alchemist, v. 3 (Lovewit); used trans., to pounce upon, seize, ‘The hawk that stooped my pheasant’, Webster, Northward Ho, v. 1 (Mayberry); ‘Teach it (my spirit) to stoop whole kingdoms’, Fletcher, Hum. Lieutenant, i. 1 (Demetrius).

stoor, strong, robust, sturdy, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 129. In prov. use in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Stour). ME. stoore, or herd, or boystows, ‘austerus, rigidus’ (Prompt. EETS. 439). Icel. stōrr, rough, great. See [stowre].

stooved, kept in a warm chamber; ‘Myrtles, if they be stooved’, Bacon, Essay 46. From stoove = stove.

storken, to stiffen, to congeal, coagulate; ‘Storken, congelari’, Levins, Manip. In common use in the north country (EDD.). Icel. storkna, to coagulate. See [stark].

stork’s bill, a gesture of scorn; ‘This sanna, or stork’s bill’, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Amorphus). Cp. L. ciconia, (1) a stork; (2) a derisory bending of the fingers in form of a stork’s bill (Persius).

stound, stownd, time, occasion, moment. Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 38; Shep. Kal., Oct., 49. The ‘Glosse’ to Shep. Kal., May, 257, has ‘stounds, fittes’, i.e. attacks of illness. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. stounde, hour, time (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1212), OE. stund. See [stowne].

stoup, a stoop, a low bow, a condescending movement. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 2 (Face); ‘Now observe the stoops, The bendings, and the falls’, id., Sejanus, i. 1 (Silius).

stour, stowre, a conflict, battle, contest; trouble, confusion, disturbance; danger, peril. The word is used in all these meanings by Spenser: F. Q. i. 2. 7; i. 3. 30; i. 4. 46; iii. 1. 34; iii. 2. 6; iii. 3. 50; Shep. Kal., Jan., 27. ME. stour, battle, contest (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 1270). Anglo-F. estour, combat, battle (Gower, Mirour, 1927), O. Prov. estor, estorn, ‘combat, mêlée’; estornir, estormir, ‘assaillir, attaquer’ (Levy); Ital. stormo, a conflict, combat (Fanfani); of Germ. origin, MHG. sturm, disturbance, combat (Schade).

stover, provisions, fodder for cattle; ‘Our low medowes . . . not so profitable for stover and forrage as the higher meads be’, Harrison, Desc. Brit. 110 (Halliwell); Tusser, Husbandry, November; Tempest, iv. 1. 63; Drayton, Pol. xxv, p. 1158 (Nares). In prov. use in many parts of England for winter fodder or litter for cattle, hence stubble (EDD.). Anglo-F. estover, maintenance, necessary sustenance; allowances of wood to be taken out of another man’s woods (Cowell’s Interpreter); OF. estovoir, to be necessary. Romanic type stopere, a verb formed from L. est opus, it is necessary, so W. Forster, see Gautier’s Ch. Roland, Glossary (s.v. Estoet). See Ducange (s.v. Estoverium).

stover up, to bristle up. Ford, Love’s Sacrifice, ii. 1. 2. ‘To stover’ is entered in EDD. as an obsolete west-country word for ‘to bristle up’, probably from ‘stover’, meaning stubble. See above.

stownd, to amaze, ‘astound’, to beat down, Heywood, Golden Age, A. iii (Enceladus), vol. iii, p. 48; to strike senseless, id., Iron Age, A. v (Ajax); p. 343; stound, pp., Spenser, F. Q. v. 11. 19.

stowne, an hour, a short time; ‘Whoso love Endureth but a stowne’, Turbervile, The Lover finding his Love flitted, st. 16. See [stound].

stowre, strong, hardy; ‘Constancie knits the bones and makes us stowre’, G. Herbert, Temple, Church-porch, st. 20; ‘Stowre of conversacyon, estourdy’, Palsgrave; Skelton, Against the Scottes, 12; stower, hard, strong, ‘The stower nayles’, Latimer, 7 Sermon bef. King (ed. Arber, 185). In prov. use in E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Stour). See [stoor].

strage, slaughter, heap of slain men. Heywood, Dialogue 2, l. 16; Dial. 3 (Hellen); vol. vi, pp. 111, 143; Webster, Appius, v. 3 (Appius). L. strages, slaughter.

strain, race, descent, breed; ‘The noblest of thy strain’, Jul. Caes. v. 1. 59; Hen. V, ii. 4. 51. A dialect form of [strene], q.v.

strain: phr. to strain courtesy, to stand upon ceremony, to refuse to go first, Venus and Ad. 888.

strain, to distrain, Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1104. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Strain, vb.³).

strain, to restrain, repress; ‘These stormy windes to straine, or make to blow’, Phaer, Aeneid i, 80.

strake, a particular note blown by a hunter; apparently after the game is killed; ‘To the flyghte, to the dethe, and to strake, and many other blastes and termes’, Morte Arthur, leaf 250, back, 11; bk. x, c. 52; ‘Then [after the death of the game] should the most master blow a mote and stroke’, The Master of Game, ch. 35. Cp. ME. strake, to sound a note, to sound a blast on a trumpet (Wars Alex. 1386).

strake, the hoop of a cart-wheel or chariot-wheel. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xx. 247; Bible, Ezek. i. 18 (margin). In prov. use for a section or strip of the iron tire or rim of a cart-wheel, see EDD. (s.v. Strake, sb.¹ 2).

stramazoun, a downright blow. B. Jonson, Every Man out of Humour, iv. 4 (Fast. Brisk); stramison, Nabbes, Microcosmus, ii. 1 (Choler). Ital. stramazzone, ‘a downright blow’; deriv. of stramazzare, ‘to kill throughly’ (Florio); cp. F. estramaçon, a stroke given with the edge of the sword (Hatzfeld).

strange, belonging to another country, foreign; ‘Joseph . . . made himselfe strange unto them’, Bible, Gen. xlii. 7 (i.e. acted as a stranger towards them); ‘Strange children’, foreigners, Psalm xviii. 45, 46 (P.B.V.); ‘A strange tongue’, Cymbeline, i. 6. 54; to make it strange, to seem to be surprised or shocked, Two Gent. i. 2. 102; Titus And. ii. 1. 81; B. Jonson, Alchemist, i. 1 (Subtle). OF. estrange, foreign; L. extraneus.

strangeness, shyness, like that of a stranger. Middleton, The Witch, iii. 2 (Isabella).

strappado, a kind of torture. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 262. The torture consisted in drawing a person up by his arms (fastened together behind his back), and then letting him drop suddenly with a jerk, which inflicted severe pain. The word has been turned into a Spanish-looking form, but it appears to be rather of Italian origin. Ital. strappata, a pulling-up (Florio). Cp. F. strapade (16th cent., Godefroy); estrapade (Dict. de l’Acad., 1762). See Stanford.

strapple, to fasten, bind, Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, iii (Bussy); to impede; id., tr. of Iliad xvi, 438. In W. Yorks. ‘to strapple’ means to bind, make fast with a cord, &c. (EDD.). Cp. ME. strapeles, fastenings of breeches; strapils, Cath. Angl.; see Dict. M. and S.

streak, to stretch. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. viii. 36, 57. In prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Streak, vb.¹ 1). ME. streken (Hampole, Ps. lxxix. 12); strekis, stretches (Wars Alex. 1953).

strene, generation, breed, race, lineage; ‘Dame Nature’s strene’, The Four Elements, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 55; Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 32; vi. 6. 9. ME. streen, race, progeny (Chaucer, C. T. E. 157); OE. (Anglian) strēnan (WS. strīenan), to beget, generate. See [strain] (race).

strength, a fortress, a strong defence, Massinger, Renegado, iv. 2 (Donusa); v. 6. (end); ‘Sin (or Pelusium) the strength of Egypt’, Bible, Ezek. xxx. 15.

streperous, noisy. Heywood, Dialogue I, The Shipwrack (Adolphus); vol. vi, p. 101; Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, ii. 6. 6. Cp. L. obstreperus, noisy, clamorous (Apuleius, Florida, 126); deriv. of strepere, to make a noise.

strich, the screech-owl. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 36. L. strix, Gk. στρίγξ.

strike: phr. strike me luck, used in striking a bargain, and giving earnest upon it; said by the recipient of the money. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 3 (Young Loveless); Butler, Hud. ii. 1. 540.

strike, to steal (Cant). Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); to pick a purse, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (1 Cutpurse). See Halliwell.

striker, a libertine (Cant). Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iv. 2 (1 Court.); Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iv. 1 (end).

stringer, a wencher (Cant). Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, i. 1 (Wife).

strip, to outstrip. Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 1. 4; to go very rapidly, ‘The swiftest hound, when he is hallowed, strippes forth’, Gosson, School of Abuse (Halliwell).

†strives (?). ‘They [ants] startle forth in troupes of striues’, Twyne, tr. of Aeneid, bk. xiii. [1583]; fol. U 5, back.

stroke, to flatter, soothe, B. Jonson, Masque of the Barriers (Opinion); stroker, a flatterer, id., Magnetic Lady, iv. 1 (Keep). OE. strācian, to stroke, caress, cp. OHG. streichōn, ‘demulcere’.

strommel; see [strummel].

strong, pp. strung, furnished with strings; ‘Playing on yvorie harp with silver strong’, Spenser, Virgil’s Gnat, 16.

stroot, strout, to swell out, Drayton, Pol. xiii. 402; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, i. 464; to be filled full, id., xxi, line 4 from end. ME. strowtyn, ‘turgeo’ (Prompt. EETS. 468). Cp. G. strotzen, to swell. See [strut].

strossers, tight drawers. Hen. V, iii. 7. 57; ‘The Italian close strosser’, Dekker, Gul’s Hornbook (Nares). See Dyce’s Glossary to Shaks. See Dict. (s.v. Trousers).

strout; see [stroot].

stroy, to destroy. Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. i. 15. ME. stroyen, to destroy (P. Plowman, B. xv. 387).

strummel, straw (Cant); ‘The doxy’s in the strummel’, Broome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Randal); strommel, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor). Hence strummel-patched, ‘Strummel-patch’d, goggle-eyed grumbledories’, B. Jonson, Every Man out of Humour, v. 4 (Carlo). Perhaps the same word as strummel, E. Anglian for an untidy rough head of hair (EDD.).

strut, to swell out. Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Pastoral, iv. 25. See [stroot].

stryfull, strife-full, contentious. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 12.

stuck, in Hamlet, iv. 7. 161, ‘Your venom’d stuck’, usually explained as = stoccado, a thrust with a rapier, but it may mean the rapier itself. Cp. Cotgrave: ‘Estoc, a rapier or tuck, also a thrust.’ See [stock].

studde, stock or stem of a tree. Spenser, Shep. Kal., March, 13. ‘Stud’ is in prov. use for an upright post, an upright piece of wood to which laths are nailed, hence ‘stud and mud’ buildings (Nottingham), the same as ‘wattle and dab’. ME. stode, or stake, ‘palus’ (Voc. 600. 4), OE. studu, a post (Ælfred, Beda, iii. 10); cp. Icel. stoð, a post. See Dict. (s.v. Stud).

stulpe; see [stoop] (a post).

stum, unfermented wine, must. B. Jonson, Leges Conviviales, st. 5; Butler, Hud. ii. 1. 569; Dryden, The Medal, 270. Hence stummed wine, wine made from unfermented or partly fermented grape-juice, new strong wine, Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, v. 3 (L. Dunce); Prior, Scaligeriana, 2. Stum, to make lively as with new wine, Etherege, Man of Mode, iii. 2 (Dorimant). Du. stom, stum, ‘the flower of fermenting wine’; gestomde wyn, ‘stummed, sophisticated wine’ (Sewel).

stupe, a piece of tow or flannel dipped in warm liquor, and applied to a wound. Beaumont and Fl., Lover’s Progress, i. 2 (Dorilaus). L. stuppa, tow.

stutte, to stutter. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 3 (Tibullus); ‘I stutte, Je besgue’, Palsgrave. A north-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Stutt). ME. stotyn, ‘balbucio’ (Prompt. EETS. 468); stutte, ‘balbutire’ (Cath. Angl.).

sty, stie, to ascend, mount up, rise. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 25; ii. 7. 46; iv. 9. 33; Muiopotmos, 42. ME. stien, to ascend (Wyclif, John xx. 17). OE. stīgan.

styfemoder, stepmother. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 41. 21. Du. stiefmoeder (Hexham).

subact, to subdue. Mirror for Mag., Claudius T. Nero, st. 8. L. subactus, pp. of subigere, to subdue, reduce.

subeth. ‘You are subject to subeth, unkindly sleeps’, Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, ii. 4 (Sweetball). F. subet, ‘a lethargy’ (Cotgr.). Med. L. subitus = L. sopitus, deriv. of sopire, to deprive of consciousness, to lull to sleep; see Ducange.

sublime, to cause to pass off in a state of vapour. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Mammon).

submit, to let down, lower, allow to subside. Dryden, To Lord Chancellor Clarendon, 139; submitted, lowered, Astrae Redux, 249.

succeed, to follow after. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 4. 8. L. succedere.

success, issue, result (good or bad); ‘What is the success?’, Ant. and Cl. iii. 5. 6; ‘Such vile success’, Othello, iii. 3. 222; descent from parents, succession, ‘Our parents’ noble names, In whose success we are gentle’, Winter’s Tale, i. 2. 394.

successive, successful. Lady Alimony, iii. 1 (2 Citizen).

succussation, trotting. Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. iv, c. 6, § 1; Butler, Hud. i. 2. 48. L. succussare, to jolt.

sucket, a dried sweetmeat, sugar-plum. Beaumont and Fl., Sea Voyage, v. 2. 31; Tourneur, Atheist’s Tragedy, ii. 5 (Levidulcia); Levins, Manipulus. In prov. use in Leic., Shropsh., and Devon (EDD.). OF. succade, also sucrade, ‘chose sucrée, dragée, sucrerie’ (Godefroy); O. Prov. sucrada, ‘sucrée’.

sufferance, pain; Meas. for M. ii. 4. 167; loss, Othello, ii. 1. 23. F. souffrance, ‘sufferance, forbearance, also, need, poverty, penury’ (Cotgr.).

suffragate, to support by a vote, to be subsidiary to, to aid. Dryden, Prol. to the Univ. of Oxford, 31. L. suffragare, to vote for.

sugar-loaf, a high-crowned hat. Westward Ho, v. 3.

sugerchest, the name of a kind of wood; ‘To flesh and blood this Tree but wormewood seemes, How ere the name may be of Sugerchest’, Davies, Holy Roode, Dedication (Davies, Suppl. Eng. Gloss.); Ascham, Toxophilus, pp. 123, 125.

suggill, to beat black and blue; to cudgel. Butler, Hud. i. 3. 1039. L. sugillare.

suitor, pronounced so as to resemble shooter; ‘A Lady . . . hadde three sutors, and yet never a good archer’, Lyly, Euphues, p. 293.

sulk, to furrow, plough, cleave. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 118; ii. 218. L. sulcus, a furrow.

sultanin, an Arabic coin; ‘A thousand golden sultanins’, Dryden, Don Sebastian, i. 1 (Mustapha). Arab, sulṭânîy, belonging to a sovereign; a sultanine (a gold coin about nine shillings), Richardson. Arab, sulṭân, a sultan.

summed, a term in falconry, having all the feathers complete; ‘The muse from Cambria comes with pinions summ’d and sound’, Drayton, Pol. xi, p. 859 (Nares); ‘My prompted song . . . with prosperous wing full summ’d’, Milton, P. R. i. 14; ‘(The birds) feathered soon and fledge . . . summed their pens’, id., P. L. vii. 421; used fig. of clothes, ‘Till you be summ’d again—velvets and scarlets’, Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iii. 4 (Lance).

sumpter, a driver of a pack-horse, King Lear, ii. 4. 219; Sir Thos. More, iii. 2. 43. ME. sumpter (King Alisaunder, 6023), OF. sommetier, a pack-horse driver (Roquefort), O. Prov. saumatier, ‘conducteur de bêtes de somme’ (Levy), Med. L. saumaterius (Ducange, s.v. Sagma), deriv. of saumarius, sagmarius, a pack-horse. See [somer].

supply, to supplicate, beseech. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 49. F. supplier, L. supplicare.

suppose, a supposition, conjecture. Tam. Shrew, v. 1. 120; Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 11.

surantler; see [antlier].

surbate, to tire out the feet with walking. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 4. 34; Turbervile, Hunting, c. 6 (end), p. 15; A Cure for a Cuckold, ii. 4 (Woodroff); surbet, pp., ‘A traveiler with feet surbet’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 22. Hence surbater, one who wearies another out, B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iv. 3 (Metaphor). Cp. Cotgrave, ‘Surbature, a surbating’; also, ‘Soubatture, a surbating, or surbate’.

surcease, prop. a law-term, a delay allowed or ordered by authority; arrest, stop, cessation. Macbeth, i. 7. 8; to delay, to desist, Prayer Book, Ordin. Deacons; Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 13; Coriolanus, iii. 2. 121; Lucrece, 1766; Chapman, tr. Iliad, vii. 45. OF. sursis, delay, stop (Littré), Anglo-F. sursise (Laws of William); sursis, pp. of Norm. F. surseër (F. surseoir), to pause, intermit (Moisy), Mod. L. supersedere, to delay (Ducange). In Law L. a writ of supersedeas is issued to stay proceedings, L. supersedere, to desist from. Surcease owes its form to association with cease (F. cesser). Tho original pronunciation of the i in sursis is preserved as in caprice, police, machine, marine.

surcingle, a girth, a girdle. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4 (Captain). OF. sourcengle (Godefroy). L. super, above; cingulum, a belt, girdle, from cingere, to gird.

sure, indissolubly joined, firmly united. Merry Wives, v. 5. 249; L. L. L. v. 2. 286; affianced, betrothed, ‘A woman he was sure unto’, Records of Oxford, A.D. 1530, p. 75.

surfle, surfell, surphle, to wash with sulphur-water or other cosmetic. Marston, Malcontent, ii. 3 (Maquerelle); Ford, Love’s Sacrifice, ii. 1 (Mauruccio). OF. soufrer, to impregnate with sulphur or with sulphur-vapour (Godefroy, Supp.).

surquedry, presumption, pride, arrogance. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 31; Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, iii. 1 (Rosalaura); Drayton, Owl, p. 1301 (Nares); surcuidrie, Chapman, tr. Iliad, xvii. 20. ME. surquidrie, presumption (Chaucer, C. T. I. 403), arrogance (id., Tr. and Cr. i. 213). Anglo-F. surquiderie (Gower, Mirour, 1443), OF. surcuiderie, arrogance; cp. cuider, quider (Ch. Rol.), L. cogitare, to think.

surreined, overridden, that has felt the ‘rein’ too much. Hen. V, iii. 5. 19. See [sooreyn].

surround, to overflow; ‘Surround, or overflow, oultre couler’, Sherwood, so also Cotgrave; ‘By thencrease of waters dyvers londes . . . ben surrounded and destroyed’, Statutes, 4 Hen. VII, c. 7 (A.D. 1489). OF. soronder, to overflow, see Burguy and Roquefort, Norm. F. surunder, soronder (Moisy); Med. L. superundare ‘abonder’ (Ducange). See Notes on Eng. Etym.

sursurrara, a writ of certiorari. Middleton, Phoenix, i. 4 (Tangle). See Stanford (s.v. Certiorari), Nares (s.v. Sasarara), and EDD. (s.v. Siserary).

suscitate, to stir up, Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 26, § 4; suscitability, aptness to move, B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Face). L. suscitare, to arouse.

suspect, suspicion. Comedy of Errors, iii. 1. 87; Rich. III, i. 3. 89; B. Jonson, Case is Altered, i. 4. Very common in authors of this period. Med. L. suspectus, ‘suspicio’ (Ducange); cp. O. Prov. sospet, ‘soupçon’ (Levy).

suspire, to draw a breath; used of a new-born child, King John, iii. 4. 80; used of a dying man, 2 Hen. IV, iv. 5. 32; a deep breath, a sigh, Massinger, Old Law, v. 1 (Cleanthes); Heywood, Brazen Age (Hercules), in Wks., iii. 249. L. suspirare, to draw a deep breath.

swad, a clown, a rustic. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (Hilts); Lyly, Midas, iv. 3 (Petulus). A north-country word for a stupid fellow, see EDD. (s.v. Swad, sb.³). Prob. identical with swad, a sod, a clod, see EDD. (s.v. Sward, sb.² 1).

swaddle, to beat, cudgel. Fletcher, Captain, ii. 2 (Frederick); Butler, Hud. i. 1. 24; Cotgrave (s.v. Chaperon); ‘To swaddle or cudgel, bastonner’, Sherwood. To swaddle a person’s sides, ‘to beat him soundly’, is a Kentish phrase, Kennett, Par. Antiq. (ann. 1695). See EDD. (s.v. Swaddle, vb.¹ 2). See Halliwell, and Nares.

swag, to sway aside; ‘To swag on one side, pencher tout d’un costé’, Sherwood; Middleton, A Mad World, iii. 1 (Harebrain). See EDD.

swage, to ‘assuage’. Milton, Samson, 184; P. L. i. 556; Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 120. In common prov. use in this sense (EDD.). ME. swagyn, ‘mitigo’ (Prompt.).

swale, a cool shade; ‘Trees which gave a pleasant swale’, Golding, Metam. v. 336 (L. umbra); fol. 60, back (1603). An E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Swale, sb.¹). ME. swale, ‘umbra, umbraculum’ (Prompt. EETS. 444). Icel. sval, a cool breeze; Norw. dial. svala (Aasen).

sward, the hard outer rind of bacon; ‘(He) liveth harde with baken swarde’, Kendall, Flowers of Epigrammes (Nares); ‘The sward of bacon, la peau de lard ou d’un jambon,’ Sherwood. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. sward of flesh, ‘coriana’ (Prompt. EETS. 445). OE. sweard, rind of bacon, cp. G. schwarte, skin, rind.

swarth, a track, pathway; ‘There is a hardway, and at Binsey the said way is called in one or two places the king’s swarth . . . the king’s way’, Hearne, Reliquiae, Feb. 10 and 11, 1728; ‘The king’s swarth (formerly called also Port street), beyond New Parks by Oxford, went over by a bridge the river Charwell’, id., April 23, 1720. OE. swaðu, a track. See [swath].

swarth, in Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 162, ‘By great swarths’, apparently ‘in great quantities’. In Cheshire they speak of a heavy hay-crop being ‘a good swarth’, see EDD. (s.v. Swarth, sb.¹). Probably the same word as [swath], q.v.

swarth, black, dark, swarthy. Titus And. ii. 3. 72; Two Noble Kinsmen, iv. 2. 27; Chapman, tr. Odyssey, xix. 343. A Kentish form (EDD.).

swarty, dark, ‘swarthy’. Fletcher, Bonduca, iii. 1 (Caratach); Titus And. ii. 3. 72 (in the quarto editions). See Dict. (s.v. Swart).

swash, to strike violently. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 53, 125. In prov. use (EDD.).

swash, a swaggering bully. Three Ladies of London (Fraud), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 254; Britannia Triumphans, 1637 (Nares). Also swasher, Hen. V, iii. 2. 30; swashing, blustering, As You Like It, i. 3. 122; tremendous, crushing, Romeo, i. 1. 70. In prov. use ‘to swash’ means to swagger, to walk with a boastful air; ‘a swasher’ is a swaggerer, see EDD. (s.v. Swash, 5).

swash-buckler, one who ‘swashes’ or beats his buckler, Beaumont and Fl., Bloody Brother, v. 2 (Latorch); Faithful Friends, i. 2. 7; ‘Mangia-ferro, Mangia-cadenacci, a devourer of iron-bolts, a swash-buckler, a bragging toss-blade, a swaggerer’, Florio; ‘Bravache, swaggerer, swash-buckler’, Cotgrave. See Halliwell.

swash-ruter, a swaggaring soldier, a swaggerer. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 544. See [rutter].

swath, a row of grass mown; ‘The Greeks fall down before him like the mower’s swath’, Tr. and Cr. v. 5. 25; ‘Grass lately in swaths is meat for an ox’, Tusser, Husbandry. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. swath of mowing, ‘falcidium’ (Prompt. EETS. 445); swathe, ‘orbita falcatoris’ (Cath. Angl.). OE. swæð, a track, the track of a plough, ‘somita’ (B. T.). See [swarth] (a track).

swathling-clothes, swaddling-clothes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 112 (Q. edd.). ME. swathlen, to swaddle; swaþeling-bonde, a swaddling-band (Cursor Mundi, 1343). See Dict. (s.v. Swaddle).

†swatley. ‘Ay mun cut off the lugs and naes [ears and nose] on ’em [of him]; he’ll be a pretty swatley fellow, bawt [without] lugs and naes’, Otway, Cheats of Scapin, iii (Scapin, in a Lancs. dialect). Meaning unexplained.

sweam, faintness, attack of dizziness; ‘The slothfull sweames of sluggardye’, Mirror for Mag., Iago, Lenvoy, st. 1; ‘Sweam or swaim, subita aegrotatio’, Gouldman. ‘Sweem’ is a Somerset word for a state of giddiness or faintness, see EDD. (s.v. Swim, sb.²). Cognate with OE. swīma, dizziness, giddiness (B. T.). See [sweme].

sweet-breasted, sweet-voiced, having a sweet voice. Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, iii. 1 (Alguazier).

swelt, to faint, swoon; ‘In weary woes to swelt’, Gascoigne (Nares); swelt, pt. t., Spenser, F. Q. iv. 7. 9; vi. 12. 21. Still in use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Swelt, vb.¹ 2). ME. swelten, to faint, languish (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1356); to die (id., Tr. and Cr. iii. 347). OE. sweltan, to die.

swelter, to exude; ‘Toad . . . that has . . . swelter’d venom’, Macbeth, iv. 1. 8. In prov. use in the sense of a profuse perspiration, see EDD. (s.v. Swelter, 7).

swelth, a whirlpool; ‘A deadly gulfe . . . With foule black swelth’, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 31; ‘Rude Acheron . . . with swelth as black as hell’, id., 69, see Nares. ME. swelth of a water, ‘vorago’ (Prompt. EETS. 445, see note, no. 2179).

sweme, grief; ‘His hert began to melt For veray sweme of this swemeful tale’, Lydgate (Halliwell). ME. sweem, grief (Prompt., Harl. MS.); swem (Gen. and Ex. 1961). Cp. OE. ā-swǣman, to be grieved, ‘tabescere’ (Ps. cxviii. 158 (Lambeth)). See [sweam].

sweven, a dream. Morte Arthur, leaf 27. 1; bk. i, c. 13; Ordinary, Old Play, x. 236 (Nares). ME. sweven (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 28). OE. swefn.

swill-bowl, a heavy drinker; spelt swiel bolle. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Cicero, § 65.

swinge, to beat, thrash, lash, Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iv. 5 (Valentine); Two Gent. ii. 1. 91; King John, ii. 1. 288; 2 Hen. IV, v. 4. 21; to lash, as with a long tail, Milton, Nativ. 172; sway, tyranny, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 26. In prov. use in Scotland and England in the sense of to beat, thrash (EDD.). ME. swyngyn, also, swengyn, to shake (Prompt.). OE. swengan.

swinge, to singe. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 26. In common prov. use in Ireland, and in various parts of England (EDD.).

swinge-buckler, a swash-buckler. 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 24.

swink, to toil, labour. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 8, 36, 58 swinkt, pp., wearied with toil, ‘The swinkt hedger’, Milton, Comus, 293; labour, toil, ‘How great sport they gaynen with little swincke’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 36; Sidney, Arcadia, p. 398 (Nares). ‘To swink’, to toil, work hard, is in use in Galloway, ‘Lord, but he swankit it that day!’ (EDD.). ME. swinken, to toil, swink, toil (Chaucer). OE. swincan.

swithe, quickly. Gammer Gurton’s Needle, ii. 47 (Nares); swithe and tite, quickly and at once, id., i. 4. 13. In common use in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Swith). ME. swythe, quickly, immediately (Chaucer, C. T. C. 796, and B. 637). OE. swīðe, strongly. See [tit].

Switzer, one of a Swiss mercenary guard. Webster, White Devil (Brachiano), ed. Dyce, p. 12; Hamlet, iv. 5. 97; Switzers, inhabitants of Switzerland, Bacon, Essay 14.

swoop, a sweeping movement, rush. Macbeth, iv. 3. 219; Webster, White Devil (beginning); ed. Dyce, p. 5. Swoopstake (old edd. soopstake), drawing the whole stake at once, indiscriminately, Hamlet, iv. 5. 141.

swough, a heavy murmuring sound. Morte Arthur, leaf 83. 20; bk. v, c. 4. Cp. the prov. words, ‘swow’ and ‘sough’ in EDD. ME. swowyn, to make a murmuring sound (Prompt.). OE. swōgan, to make a noise like the wind.

swound, to ‘swoon’. Fletcher, Night-Walker, i. 4. 8; Middleton, Mayor of Queenb. v. 1 (Oliver); a swoon, Dryden, Palamon, i. 537; iii. 982. In gen. prov. use in England and Scotland (EDD.). See [sowne] (2).

syke, such. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maud.). A north-country form, see EDD. (s.v. Such). ME. sike (Wars Alex. 126) OE. swilc (swylc). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Swyche).

symarr, a loose robe for a lady: Dryden, Flower and Leaf, 341. See [cymar].

synnet; see [sennet].

synteresis, a word said to have been invented by John Damascene, and used by Aquinas and the schoolmen in the sense of ‘observation’ of the laws of right and wrong as exercised by the conscience, self-reproach. Nabbes, Microcosmus, v (Conscience); Manchester Al Mondo (ed. 1902, 39). Gk. συντήρησις, observation, fr. συντηρέω, to observe strictly (a N. T. word, cp. Mark vi. 20). See C. Bigg’s Introd. to Imitatio Christi, p. 2 on the L. sinderesis, iv. 11 (Magd. MS.). The word sindérèse is used by French theological writers, Bossuet for example.

sypers, a thin textile material, J. Heywood, The Four P’s (Anc. Brit. Drama, p. 10). See [cypress].

syse, an allowance or settled ration; to keepe the syse, to exercise moderation, Mirror for Mag., Tresilian, st. 10. See Dict. (s.v. Size, 1).