1714 Query, 'If satin's difference can maids adorn'.
1716 'fligger' has a certain dialectic sense of 'flutter', and as its congener 'flicker' has one of 'snigger', 'jeer', it probably has that here.
1745 dors] = 'bumblebees'—somewhat unworthily yoked.
1750 The extraordinary double plural of 'females fairs' (orig. 'faires') would seem impossible in any other author. Perhaps 'female', but the rhyme requires 'fairs'.
1784 'Sh'as'] A no doubt unintentional compelling of the apostrophe to do double duty. [Return]
1844 Whiting was apparently more fashionable in his astronomy than Bacon or Browne.
1863 The slang use of 'dust' is found in Wilkins's Miseries of Enforced Marriage. 1607, 'Come, down with your dust'. One would be disposed to think it a parallel to 'dross', &c.—terms contemptuous of money, but generally employed by those who have not got it.
1865 dealth] I suppose this is another of Whiting's many inventions. Cf. Il Insonio, 347.
1873 Orig. 'everts', which must be wrong.
1882 Orig. 'phrentick'. This middle form between 'frenetic' and 'frantic' is M. E. (for instance, in Langland), but is not, I think, common later.