eater, a servant. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iii. 2 (Morose).
eath, easy. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 40; Shep. Kal., Sept., 17; spelt ethe, id., July, 90. A north-country word, once much used in poetry (EDD.). ME. ethe, easy (Cursor M. 597), OE. ēaðe, easy, ēað (common in compounds).
eathly, easily. Peele, Order of the Garter, ed. Dyce, p. 587. Common in Scottish poetry (EDD.).
eaths, easily. Kyd, Cornelia, iii. 1. 130. The s has an adverbial force.
eccentric, not concentric with; hence, disagreeing with. Bacon, Essay 23; an orbit not having the earth precisely in the centre (a contrivance in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, for explaining the phenomena), id. 17.
eche, to ‘eke’, to make up a deficiency; ‘To eche it and to draw it out in length’, Merch. Ven. iii. 2. 23 (Qq 3, 4, eech). Cp. Northampton dialect, ‘My gown’s too short, I must eche it a bit’, see EDD. (s.v. Eke, vb. 3). ME. echen, to increase (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 887), OE. (Mercian) ēcan, WS. īecan, to increase.
edder, an adder. Morte Arthur, leaf 290. 11; bk. xi, c. 5; Skelton, Philip Sparowe, 78. ME. eddyr, an adder (Prompt. EETS. 142).
edder, fence-wood, osiers or rods of hazel, used for interlacing the stakes of a hedge at the top; ‘Edder and stake’, Tusser, Husbandry, § 33. 13; eddered, bound with edders, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 126. 7; edderynge, id. In gen. prov. use in Scotland and England; for various spellings see EDD.
eddish, edish, the aftermath or second crop of grass, clover, &c.; ‘Eddish, eadish, etch, ersh, the latter pasture or grass that comes after mowing or reaping’, Worlidge, Dict. Rust. (A.D. 1681); Tusser, Husbandry, § 18. 4; stubble, ‘Eddish . . . more properly the stubble or gratten in cornfields’, Bp. Kennett (NED.). In gen. prov. use in England (EDD.). OE. edisc, ‘pascua’ (Ps. xcix. 3).
edge, to urge, encourage, stimulate. Bacon, Essay 41, § 5. The pronunc. of egg (to incite) in use in various parts of England from Lancash. to Cornwall (EDD.). ME. eggen, to incite (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 182), Icel. eggja.