gownest, for gownist, one who is entitled to wear a gown, a lawyer. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. v, ch. 27, st. 53.
grabble, to grope after, to grapple with, to handle roughly. Dryden, Prol. to Disappointment, 60; ‘He . . . keeps a-grabling and a-fumbling’ (i.e. feeling with his hands), Selden, Table-talk (ed. Arber, 99). In prov. use in many parts of England (EDD.). Du. grabbelen, to scramble, or to catch that catch may (Hexham).
Gracious Street, Gracechurch Street. Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, iii. 4 (Hodge); Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, i. 1 (Y. Chartley); Fair Maid of the Exchange, i. 1 (Shaks. Soc. 29). Originally Grass Church, ‘Higher in Grasse Street is the Parish Church of St. Bennet, called Grasse Church, of the herb market there kept’, Stow’s Survey (ed. Thoms, 80).
grail, grayle, the ‘gradual’, an antiphon sung between the Epistle and Gospel; when the deacon was ascending the step of the ambo or reading-desk; ‘He shall syng the grayle’, Skelton, Phyllyp Sparowe, 441. ME. grayle, ‘gradale’ (Prompt.). OF. graël, Eccles. L. gradale, graduale. See Dict. Christ. Antiq. (s.v. Gradual).
grain, the dye made from the Scarlet Grain (Kermes); ‘The Scarlet grain which commeth of the Ilex’, Holland, Pliny, i. 461; to dye in grain, to dye in scarlet grain, also, in any fast or permanent colour, hence, in grain, in permanent colour, Com. Errors, iii. 2. 108; Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 255; grain, permanent colour, ‘All in a robe of darkest grain’, Milton, Il Pens. 33. F. graine, ‘grain wherewith cloth is died in grain’ (Cotgr.). Med. L. grana, ‘bacca cujusdam arboris’ (Ducange).
grained, ingrained, dyed in ‘grain’, Hamlet, iii. 4. 90.
grain, a bough or branch. Bp. Hall, Sat. Defiance to Envie, 5; grains, the prongs of a forked stick, fork, or fish-spear, ‘With three graines like an ele speare’, Holland, Suetonius, 147; the lower limbs, Drayton, Pol. i. 495. ‘Grain’ is in gen. prov. use in various parts of England and Scotland in many senses, esp. a branch or bough of a tree, and the prong or tine of a fork, see EDD. (s.v. Grain, sb.1 1 and 5). Icel. grein, a branch of a tree, an arm of the sea.
grained staff, a staff forked at the top, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 41. 9.
graithe, to prepare, array. Morte Arthur, leaf 86. 34; bk. v, c. 7. In common prov. use in Scotland and in the north of England (EDD.). ME. graythe, to prepare, get ready (Wars Alex., see Gloss. Index). Icel. greiða.
grammates, rudiments, first principles. Ford, Broken Heart, i. 3 (Orgilus). Gk. γράμματα, the letters of the alphabet.