Irish, an old game resembling backgammon. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 4 (Lady); the Irish game, Shirley, St. Patrick (Epilogue). See Cotton’s Compleat Gamester, 1680, p. 109.
irous, wrathful. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 9, § 1. Anglo-F. irous (Gower); from L. ira, anger.
†irpes (?). ‘From Spanish shrugs, French faces, smirks, irpes, and all affected humours, Good Mercury defend us’, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 3 (Palinode).
Isgrim, the name of the wolf in the story of Reynard the Fox. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Hubert). Isegrim in Caxton’s version; Isengrijn in Willem’s Low German poem; Ysegrim in Leeu’s Low German prose version; see Caxton’s Reynard (ed. Arber, p. ix).
island, a shock-dog, rough dog; lit. ‘Iceland dog’, Shirley, Hyde Park, i. 2 (Mis. Car.); ‘Her Iceland cur’, Massinger, The Picture, v. 1 (Ubaldo).
†iulan, of the first growth of the beard; ‘Iulan down’, Middleton, The Changeling, i. 1 (Vermandero). Gk. ἴουλος, the first growth of the beard. Not found elsewhere.
ivybush, the bush of ivy hung out as a vintner’s sign. Earle, Microcosmographie, § 12; ed. Arber, p. 33. The same as bush in As You Like It (Epilogue).
iwis, ywis, (often written I wis), certainly, assuredly. Tam. Shrew, i. 1. 62; Richard III, i. 3. 102; ywis, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 19; i-wusse, B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1 (Tucca); wusse, id., Devil an Ass, i. 3 (Fitz). ME. iwis, certainly, truly (Chaucer, Compleint, 48); OE. gewiss, certain.
J
Jack, a lad, fellow, chap, a young knave. Taming Shrew, ii. 1. 290; Middleton, Women beware, i. 2 (Ward); Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, v. 1 (Sir Harry); a Knave in Cards, Cotton, Complete Gamester, ix; figure of a man striking the bell on the outside of a clock, Richard III, iv. 2. 117; also, Jack o’ the clock, Richard II, v. 5. 60; Jack i’ the clock-house, Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, i. 5. 3; jack, the piece of wood with a quill for plucking the strings of the ‘virginal’, Shaks., Sonnet 128; Jack o’ Bethleem, see [bedlam]; Jack in box, one who deceived tradesmen by substituting empty boxes for boxes full of money, Middleton, Spanish Gipsy, iv. 1 (Sancho’s song), see Dyce, iv. 164; Jack-a-Lent, a small stuffed puppet thrown at during Lent; a butt, Merry Wives, iii. 3. 27; v. 5. 134; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iv. 4 (Rowland).