sowce-wife; See [souse] (2).
sow-gard, a protecting shield or shelter (= L. testudo). Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 451. A sow was a military engine consisting of a movable roof arranged to protect men handling a battering-ram or advancing to scale walls.
sowl, to pull by the ears. Coriolanus, iv. 5. 213 (old edd. sole); spelt sole, Heywood, Love’s Mistress, iv. 1 (Vulcan); vol. v, p. 137. ‘Sowl’ is in prov. use in many spellings (soul, sool, sole, soal, saul), meaning to pull by the ears, also to hit on the head, see EDD. (s.v. Sowl, vb.1).
sowne, soune, a sound, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 2, § 2; c. 13, § 4; to sound, ‘Sowning through the sky’, Tottel’s Misc., p. 202. ME. sowne (soune), to sound (Chaucer). F. son, sound; sonner, to sound.
sowne, to swoon, Butler, Hud. ii. 1. 483; a swoon, Puritan Widow, i. 3. 42. In prov. use for swoon, see EDD. (s.v. Sound, vb.2 1). ME. sownyn, ‘sincopo’ (Prompt. EETS. 324). See [sound].
sowse; see [souse].
sowter, souter, a cobbler. Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, iv. 3 (Rosalura); Women Pleased, iv. 1 (Soto); Mad Lover, ii. 1. 22. In prov. use in the north country (EDD.). ME. souter (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3904); OE. sūtere; L. sutor.
soyle, the watery place in which a hunted animal takes refuge. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 40; p. 115. Used to signify the hunted animal; Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 16. See [soil] (pool).
space, to walk or roam about. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 44. Cp. Ital. spaziare, to walk about (spatiare in Florio). L. spatiari, whence also O. Prov. espasiar, reflex, ‘se promener’ (Levy), and G. spazieren. Cp. Med. L. ‘Spatiamentum, ambulatio, deambulatio, animi relaxatio’ (Ducange).
spade, to make a female animal barren, to ‘spay’. Chapman. Widow’s Tears, v (Governor). Med. L. spadare, ‘spadonem facere’ (Ducange), deriv. of L. spado, Gk. σπάδων, one who has no generative power, eunuch. See [spay].