warp. ‘A pitchy cloud Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind’ (i.e. working themselves forward—the metaphor is of a ship), Milton, P. L. i. 341. In Scotland used of the flight of a swarm of bees, see EDD. (s.v. Warp, vb.1 9).
warray, to harass with war, Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 48; Fairfax, Tasso, i. 6. ME. warray, to make war (Barbour’s Bruce, see Glossary); werray (Wars Alex. 2495); werreyen (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1544). Anglo-F. werreier, to make war (F. guerroyer). See Dict. (s.v. War).
warre: in phr. warre old; ‘But when the world woxe old, it woxe warre old (whereof it hight)’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 31. The meaning is that when the world grew old, it grew worse, and that from warre old or war-old, the word ‘world’ is derived; cp. Shep. Kal., Sept., 108, ‘They sayne the world is much war then it wont’. The word ‘warre’ (or ‘war’) is in prov. use in the north country and in Ireland, see EDD. (s.v. War, adj.1). ME. werre, worse (Ormulum, 4898). Icel. verr, adv., verri, adj., worse.
warrie, gnarled, knotted. Golding, Metam. viii. 743 (fol. 104; 1603); also warryed, id., xiii. 799. OE. wearrig, having callosities, deriv. of wearr, a callosity (Sweet).
wary, to curse. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2266. See EDD. (s.v. Wary, vb.2). ME. warien, to curse (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 1619), OE. wergian.
waryish; see [werish].
washical, ‘what shall I call’; a name for a thing that one does not take the trouble to mention. Gammer Gurton’s Needle, v. 2 (Hodge).
wasp, used metaph. for a petulant or spiteful person. Tam. Shrew, ii. 1. 210; Beaumont and Fl., King and no King, iv. 3 (1 Swordsman). So used in Scotland (EDD.).
wassail, a drinking-bout, a carouse; ‘At wakes and wassails’, L. L. L. v. 2. 318; Macbeth, i. 7. 64; Hamlet, i. 4. 9; ‘A wassail candle’, 2 Hen. IV, i. 2. 179 (a large candle lighted up at a feast). The word ‘wassail’, well known in Yorks. in connexion with old Christmas ceremonies and festivities; for ample details, see EDD. It was originally a phrase used at a banquet. In Laȝamon, Rowena presents a cup to Vortigern with the words wæs hail (wassail), a salutation, meaning ‘be hale, be in good health’. O. Sax. wes hēl, be hale: so in the salutation of the Virgin, hēl wis thu = Ave! (Vulgate, Luke i. 28); so also in Anglo-Saxon Gospels, hāl wes ðu! See Dict.
waster, a cudgel; ‘The youthes of this citie have used on holy dayes . . . to exercise their wasters and bucklers’, Stow’s Survey (ed. Thoms, p. 36); Mad Men of Gotham, 19 (Nares); to play at wasters, Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, iv. 3 (Countryman); Burton, Anat. Mel. (Naros); to win at wasters, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, ii. 3 (Candido); ‘Bastone, any kind of cudgel, waster, or club’, Florio.