- ‘To sidle about a person’=being obsequious.
- ‘To gan skewing about a place’=to look or go about slily.
- ‘To skew about’=to walk like a fool.
‘If thoo’s gahin ti be agate, Ah’ll get agate, an’ set agate Matther.’
- ‘Be agate’=to be astir.
- ‘Get agate’=to commence work; and ‘to set agate,’ to set another to work, or to start oneself. ‘If you are going to be astir, I will commence (the job), and set Matthew to work (also).’
‘To hang in the bell ropes’ is either the time occurring between the first publishing of the banns, or that during which a wedding may be postponed.
‘To let oneself down’=to perform some action which lowers us in the estimation of others.
‘He’s gitten neea heart i’ t’ job, nivver neeabody ’ez when tha’re rahding t’ deead hoss.’
- ‘To ride the dead horse’ is to do work for which payment has been made beforehand; hence, a man shews no energy in such work.
‘It’s a fine daay, ther’s nowt aboot that; bud Ah’s ’fraid it’s nowt bud a weather breeder.’
- This is often said specially of fine weather when inappropriate to the season.
‘To look hard at anything’ is to do so earnestly.