Dame. s. This word is originally French, and means in that language, lady; but in this dialect it means a mistress; an old woman; and never a lady; nor is it applied to persons in the upper ranks of society, nor to the very lowest; when we say dame Hurman, or dame Bennet, we mean the wife of some farmer; a school-mistress is also sometimes called dame (dame-schools).
Dang. interj. Generally followed by pronoun, as dang it; dang êm; od dang it: [an imprecation, a corruption of God dang it (God hang it) or more likely corruption of damn.]
Dap, v. n. To hop; to rebound.
Dap. s. A hop; a turn. To know the daps of a person is, to know his disposition, his habits, his peculiarities.
Dap'ster. s. A proficient.
To Daver. v. n. To fade; to fall down; to droop.
Dav'ison. s. A species of wild plum, superior to the bullin.
Daw'zin. s. The passing over land with a bent hazel rod, held in a certain direction, to discover whether veins of metal or springs are below, is called Dawzin, which is still practised in the mining districts of Somersetshire. There is an impression among the vulgar, that certain persons only have the gift of the divining rod, as it has been sometimes called; by the French, Baguette Devinatoire.
Ray, in his Catalogus Plantarum Angliæ, &c., Art. Corylus, speaks of the divining rod: " Vulgus metallicorum ad virgulam divinum, ut vocant, quâ venas metallorum inquírit præ cæteris furcam eligit colurnam." More may be seen in John Bauhin.
Des'perd. adj. [Corrupted from desperate.] Very, extremely; used in a good as well as a bad sense: desperd good; desperd bad.