*Wood-sour. adj. Of soil, loose, spongy. Also Woodsere.—N.W., obsolete.
'The strong red land on the high level parts of the Downs ... once wood-land, and sometimes expressly called "wood-sour" land.'—Agric. of Wilts, ch. xii.
'A poor wood-sere land very natural for the production of oaks.'—Aubrey, Miscell. p. 211.
'It is a wood-sere country abounding much with sour and austere plants.'—Aubrey, Nat. Hist. of Wilts, p. 11, ed. Brit.
Wood-wax. *(1) Genista tinctoria, L., Dyer's Greenweed (D.), Aubrey's Nat. Hist. Wilts, pp. 34 and 49, ed. Brit.—N. & S.W. (2) Genista Anglica, L., Needle Whin.—S.W. (Farley.)
Wooset. See Houssett.
Wooster-blister. A smack in the face or box on the ear.—S.W. (Som. bord.) Cf. Som. Whister-twister, and Dev. Whister-poop.
*Works. In a water-meadow, the system of trenches and carriages by which the water is brought in and distributed (Agric. of Wilts, ch. xii).
Worsen. v. To grow worse. 'You be worsened a deal since I seen 'ee laast, I d' lot as you bean't a gwain' to live long.'—N. & S.W.
Wosbird. A term of reproach (A.),=whore's brood. There are many variants, as Hosebird, Husbird, and Oozebird. Much commoner in Devon.—N. & S.W.
'They're a couple o' th' ugliest wosbirds in the vair.'—Wilts Tales, p. 89.
In his Dictionary of Provincial English, Wright defines this as 'a wasp,' a mistake too amusing to be passed over! Probably his informant heard a rustic who had got into a wasp's nest, and been badly stung, 'danging they wosbirds,' and on asking what he meant by 'wosbirds' was told that they were the 'wopses,' and not unnaturally concluded that the two words were synonyms.