Act v (Lodovico). See Nares.

=may,= a maiden. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 39; Greene, Description of the Shepherd, l. 57; ed. Dyce, p. 305. Of frequent occurrence in Scottish Ballads, see EDD. (s.v. May, sb.^{2}). ME. _mai_ (Cursor M. 3238); OE. _mǣg_, a kinswoman, a maiden.

=May-game,= a mirthful spectacle (metaphorically). Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, i. 2. 10. ‘May games’ were the dancings and merry-makings round the May-pole, after the gathering of the May. See Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses (ed. Furnivall, pp. 149, 305); Herrick’s Hesperides (Corinna’s going a-Maying), &c.

=May-lord,= a young man chosen to preside over May-day festivities. Beaumont and Fl., Women Pleased, iv. 1 (Soto); Knight of the B. Pestle, iv. 5.

=mayneal;= see =menial.=

=maynure;= see =maner.=

=mazard, mazzard,= the head. Hamlet, v. 1. 97; Othello, ii. 3. 155. Spelt _mazer_, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, iv. 2 (Fustigo). A _fig._ use of _mazer_, a bowl. See Dict., and Notes on Eng. Etym., p. 183.

=mazard,= to knock on the head, kill; ‘If I had not been a spirit, I had been mazarded’, B. Jonson, Love Restored (Robin Goodfellow).

=meach;= see =mich.=

=meacock,= an effeminate person, a coward; ‘A meacock wretch’, Tam. Shrew, ii. 1. 315; spelt _mecocke_, ‘As stout as a stockefish, as meeke as a mecocke’, Appius and Virginia (NED.).

=mean,= in music, the tenor or middle part, Two Gent. i. 2. 95. In use in Warwicksh. as late as 1850, see EDD. (s.v. Mean, sb.^{1} 1). Cp. It. _mezzano_, ‘a mean or countertenor in musick’, Florio. ME. _mene_, of songe, ‘Introcentus’ (Prompt. EETS.), also, ‘A _Meyne_, intercentus’ (Cath. Angl.).

=mean,= to lament, ‘moan’. Mids. Night’s D. v. 1. 331. A north-country word for uttering a moaning sound, see EDD. (s.v. Mean, vb.^{2} 1). ME. _mene_, to bemoan (Cursor M. 18255). OE. _mǣnan_, to lament.

=meane,= mien, look. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 9. 11. Probably an aphetic form of _demean_, see NED. (s.v. Mien).

=mease,= a mess, portion of food. Greene, Looking Glasse, ii. 2 (570); p. 124, col. 2; a group of four, ‘A mease of men, _quatuor_’, Levins, Manip. _Mease_ is a Yorks. form of _mess_, see EDD. (s.v. Mess, sb.^{1}). ME. _mese_, ‘ferculum’ (Cath. Angl.); _mees_ of mete, ‘ferculum’ (Prompt. EETS. 286). F. _més_, ‘a messe or service of meat’ (Cotgr.). See =mess.=

=meath,= ‘mead’; a sweet drink made with honey. Drayton, Pol. iv. 112; B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 1 (Sat.); Milton, P. L. v. 345. ‘Meath’, a drink made with honey, is in prov. use in Cheshire, Pembroke, Somerset, and Devon, see EDD. (s.v. Mead, sb.^{2}).

=meaze,= the ‘form’ of a hare. Return from Parnassus, ii. 5 (Amoretto). See =muse.=

=mechal,= adulterous. Only in Heywood, Eng. Traveller, iii. 1 (O. Ger.); Rape of Lucrece, iv. 3 (Sextus). Gk. μοιχός, an adulterer.

=mecocke;= see =meacock.=

=meddle, medle,= to mingle, mix. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 61; Shep. Kal., April, 68. OF. _medler_, _mesler_ (F. _mêler_), to mix.

=meech;= see =mich.=

†=meered;= ‘He being the meered question’, Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 10. Formation and sense doubtful; Schmidt explains: he being the only cause and subject of the war.

=meet,= to be even with; ‘I have heard of your tricks . . . I may live To meet thee’, Fletcher, Hon. Man’s Fortune, iii. 3 (Montague); id., Rule a Wife, v. 3 (Leon). Also, _to meet with_; ‘I’ll meet with you anon for interrupting me so’, Marlowe, Faust, x; ‘I shall find time to meet with them’, Englishmen for any Money, iii. 2 (Pisaro), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 513. See Nares.

=meg,= a guinea. (Cant.) Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Hackum). See NED.

=meg-holly, by the,= a mild oath. Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs); vol. i, p. 40.

=meint, meynt,= mingled. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 81; _ment_, F. Q. v. 5. 12; vi. 6. 25. ‘Ment’ is obsolescent in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Ment, pp.). ME. _meynt_, pp. of _mengen_ (Lydgate, Storie of Thebes, 1260). OE. _mengan_, to mix. See Dict. M. and S.

=meiny, meinie,= a body of retainers. King Lear, ii. 4. 35; the common herd, Coriolanus, iii. 1. 65. Of freq. occurrence in north-country ballad literature for a company of followers, also, a crowd, throng, multitude, see EDD. (s.v. Menyie). ME. _meynè_, a household, family (Wyclif, Acts iii. 25). OF. _maisnée_, ‘famille’ (La Curne), see Ducange (s.v. Maisnada). A deriv. of L. _mansio_ (an abode). See =menial.=

=mell,= to meddle, to have to do with. All’s Well, iv. 3. 257; Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 1; v. 12. 35. In common prov. use in Scotland, also in Yorks. and Lanc., see EDD. (s.v. Mell, vb.^{2} 1. to mingle, 2. to meddle). ME. _melle_, to mix (Hampole, Ps. ix. 9). OF. _meller_, _mesler_ (F. _mêler_).

=mell,= honey. Gascoigne, Works, i. 102; Herrick, Hesperides, Pray and Prosper, 4. L. _mel_.

=melocotone,= a peach grafted on a quince. Bacon, Essay 46; melicotton, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Winwife). Span. _melocoton_, Med. L. _melum cotoneum_, Gk. μῆλον Κυδώνιον, ‘Cydonian apple’ (NED.). See =malakatoon.=

=melotte,= a garment of skins, worn by monks. Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 866. L. _melota_ (Vulgate); Gk. μηλωτή, a sheepskin; also, a skin of any animal (Heb. xi. 37). See Prompt. EETS. 191 (and Latin Glossary, p. 819).

=menial,= a servant of the household; ‘The great Housekeeper of the World . . . will never leave any of his menials without the bread of sufficiency’, Bp. Hall, Balm Gilead, xii. § 4; _mayneal_, Morte Arthur, leaf 215, back, 35; bk. x, c. 11. See =meiny.=

=ment;= see =meint.=

=merce,= to ‘amerce’, to fine. Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage, i (Sir Wil. Scarborow; l. 12 from end).

=merchant,= a fellow, a chap. 1 Hen. VI, ii. 3. 57; Romeo, ii. 4. 153; Latimer, Serm., 115 (Nares). Phr. _to play the merchant with_, to get the better of, to cheat, Rowley, Woman never Vext, iv. 1. 51.

=mercify,= to pity. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 32.

=mercurial finger,= the little finger. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle). In chiromancy the little finger was assigned to Mercury.

=merds,= fæces, excrement. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly). L. _merda_.

=mere, mear,= a boundary, limit; spelt _meare_. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 46; Drayton, Pol. xix. 405. Hence, _meer-stone_, Bacon, Essay 56, § 1. In gen. prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Mear). ME. _mere_ (Prompt, EETS. 286). OE. _ge_)_mǣre_, boundary.

=mere, mear,= to mark out by means of ‘meres’; ‘The Latine name Which mear’d her rule with Africa’, Spenser, Ruines Rome, xxii; _to mear on_, to abut upon, border upon, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, iii. 520.

=mere,= absolute, complete, unqualified, Merry Wives, iv. 5. 64; wholly, completely, All’s Well, iii. 5. 58; Fletcher, Mad Lover, iii. 4. 9; _merely_, absolutely, entirely, Temp. i. 1. 21; Hamlet, i. 2. 137.

=meridian,= a period of repose at noon; ‘Ye, a meridian to lul him by daylight’, Mirror for Mag., Cobham, st. 30. Monastic L. _meridiana_, ‘somnus meridianus’ (Ducange). Cp. Ital. _meriggiána_, ‘midday; a pleasant shady place to feed, to rest, or sleep, and recreate in at noon, or in the heat of the day’ (Florio).

=mermaid,= a cant term for a courtesan. Massinger, Old Law, iv. 1 (Agatha).

=merrygall, merrygald,= a gall or sore produced by chafing; ‘Heales a merrygald’, Turbervile, Hunting, p. 139; ‘Merry-gals and raw places’, Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xxi, c. 18; vol. ii. 101.

=mesel,= a foul person; used as a term of abuse; spelt _messel_, London Prodigal, ii. 4. 74; iv. 1. 78. In Devon and Somerset, _meazle_ is used as a term of abuse, meaning a filthy creature. ME. _mesel_, a leper (Wyclif, Matt. x. 8). OF. _mesel_ ‘lépreux’ (Didot); O. Prov. _mezel_, ‘lépreux’, _mezelia_, ‘lèpre’ (Levy).

=mesprise,= contempt, scorn. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 39. F. _mespris_, ‘contempt, neglect’ (Cotgr.), deriv. of _mespriser_, to fail to appreciate. F. _mépris_.

=mesprize,= mistake. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 19. Anglo-F. _mesprise_, error, offence (Gower, Mirour, 1548). F. _méprise_, cp. _mesprendre_, to mistake (Cotgr.).

=mess,= a group of four persons or things; ‘Where are your mess of sons to back you now?’, 3 Hen. VI, i. 4. 73; L. L. L. iv. 3. 207; ‘There lacks a fourth thing to make up the mess’, Latimer, Serm. v; ‘A mess of most eminent men, Nicolaus Lyra . . . Hieronymus de Sanctâ Fide . . . Ludovicus Carettus . . . Emmanuel Tremellius’, Fuller, A Pisgah Sight, Pt. ii, bk. 5; Peele, Edw. I (ed. Dyce, 393); Heywood, Witches of Lanc. i. 1 (Shakstone), in Wks. iv. 173. A ‘mess’ at the Inns of Court still consists of four. See Trench, Select Glossary. See EDD. (s.v. Mess, sb.^{1} 4). F. _més_, ‘a messe or service of meat’ (Cotgr ). Med. L. _missus_ (Ducange). See =mease.=

=messe:= phr. _by the messe_, by the mass, used in oaths and asseverations. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2201; ‘By the Mes’, Hen. V, iii. 2. 122; also, _mess_ by itself, ‘Mess! I’d rather kiss these Gentlewomen’, Congreve, Love for Love, iii. 3 (Ben). This asseveration is still in prov. use in various forms in the north country: _By th’ mass_ (Lanc.); _By th’ mess_ (Westm.); _Amess, Mess_ (Cumb.), see EDD. (s.v. Mass, sb.^{1} 3). F. _messe_, the mass, the Eucharist.

=messling;= see =mastlin.=

=met,= measure. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 333. A north-country word for a measure, gen. a bushel, see EDD. (s.v. Mete). ME. _mette_, ‘mensura’ (Cath. Angl.). OE. _ge_)_met_, ‘mensura, modius, satum’ (B. T.).

=mete,= to measure; _met_, pt. t., Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iii. 327; _mete_, pp. Tourneur, Revenger’s Tragedy, ii. 1. ME. _meten_ (Wyclif, Matt. vii. 2). OE. _metan_.

=metely,= moderately; ‘Metely good’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 16. OE. _ge_)_met ice_.

=metereza,= mistress. Middleton, More Dissemblers, v. 1 (Sinquapace); _metreza_, Marston, Malcontent, i. 1 (Malevole). Neither French nor Italian, but a mixture of the two (Nares). An alteration of F. _maîtresse_, with an Italian termination.

=metoposcopy,= divination by observing the forehead. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle). Gk. μέτωπο-ν, forehead; σκοπεῖν, to observe.

=meuse;= see =muse.=

=meve,= to move; ‘I meve or styrre from a place, _je meuve_’, Palsgrave; Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 2, § 7; _meeve_, Damon and Pithias (Nares); _mieve_, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 12. 26. ‘Meve’ is an E. Anglian form (EDD.). ME. _mevyn_, ‘amoveo’ (Prompt.). OF. _moev-_ (_meuv-_), stressed stem of _movoir_, to move.

=mew,= to moult. Beaumont and Fl., Thierry, ii. 2 (Martell); Wildgoose Chase, i. 1 (La Castre). F. _muer_; L. _mutare_, to change.

=mew,= a coop for hawks; ‘Mewe for haukes, _meue_’, Palsgrave; a place of confinement, Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 20; ii. 5. 27 and 7. 19. F. _mue_, a hawk’s mue or coop; _mue_, a change, the mewing of a hawk (Cotgr.), fr. _muer_, ‘to change, to mew’ (ib.); L. _mutare_. Our word ‘mews’, for a range of stabling, is derived from the _Mews_ by Charing Cross, the name of the place for the King’s horses, orig. the place for the king’s falcons and the royal falconer. See Stow’s Survey of London (ed. Thoms, 167).

=mew:= in phr. _knights of the mew_, knights of the cat-call; the least select among an audience at a theatre. Marston, What you Will, Induction (Doricus).

=mich,= to skulk, to lurk stealthily. Heywood, A Woman Killed (ed. 1874, ii. 113), spelt _meach_, Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, v. 2. 11; hence _micher_, a truant, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 450; a skulker, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 2 (Yo. Loveless); spelt _meecher_, Bonduca, i. 2 (Petillius). ‘Mitch’ and ‘meech’ are in common prov. use (EDD.). ME. _mychyn_, or stelyn prively smale thyngys, ‘surripio, furtulo’ (Prompt. EETS. 301). Of Ger. origin, see Schade, Altdeutsches Wörterbuch (s.v. mûhhan). See NED. (s.v. Miche).

†=miching malicho= (meaning quite uncertain), Hamlet, iii. 2. 148. Textual variants are: _myching Mallico_, _munching Mallico_, _miching mallecho_.

=migniard,= tender, delicate. B. Jonson. Devil an Ass, i. 2 (Fitz.). F. _mignard_, ‘migniard, pretty, quaint; dainty, delicate’ (Cotgr.).

=migniardise,= delicate attention. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iii. 1 (Picklock). F. _mignardise_, ‘quaintnesse . . . smooth or fair speech, kind usage’ (Cotgr.).

=mill,= to steal or rob (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); see Harman, Caveat, p. 67.

=mime,= a mimic, jester, pantomimist. B. Jonson, Epigrams, bk. i, cxxix; Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, i. 4 (Satire). Gk. μῖμος.

=mince,= to walk affectedly or primly. Merry Wives, v. 1. 9; _mincing_, BIBLE, Isa. iii. 16; _minsen_, pres. pl., Drayton, Pastorals, vii. 14. Also, to perform mincingly, to parade, King Lear, iv. 6. 122. F. _mincer_, to mince, to cut into small pieces (Cotgr.).

=minchen,= a nun. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 18, § 3. ‘_Mincheon lane_, so called of . . . the _Minchuns_, or nuns of St. Helen’s’, Stow, Survey of London (ed. Thoms, p. 50). OE. _mynecenu_, f. of _munuc_, a monk.

=mind,= to mean, intend. Mids. Night’s D. v. 113; 3 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 8, 64, 106, 140; Evelyn, Diary (May 21, 1645). In common prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Mind, vb. 7).

=ming,= to mingle, mix. Surrey, Description of Spring, 11; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 4. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Ming, vb.^{2}). ME. _mynge_, to mix (Wyclif, Rev. xviii. 6); OE. _mengan_.

=minge,= to mention. Hall. Satires, IV. ii. 80 (Davies). In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Ming, vb.^{1}). ME. _mynge_ (Pearl, 855); OE. _myn_(_e_)_gian_.

=minikin,= a playful or endearing term for a female. Glapthorne, Hollander, ii (NED.). A Shropshire word for a delicate affected girl, see EDD. (sv. Minikin, 3). Du. _minneken_ (Hexham).

=minikin,= small, delicate; ‘One blast of thy minikin mouth’, King Lear, iii. 6. 45. Cp. the Somerset phr. ‘Her was a poor little minnikin thing’ (EDD.).

=minikin string,= the thin string of gut used for the treble of the lute or viol, Ascham, Tox. 28. Hence, phr. _to tickle the minikin_, to play on the treble string, Middleton, Family of Love, i. 3 (Gerardine); a _minikin-tickler_, a fiddler, Marston, What you Will, v. 1 (Albano).

=minim,= a note, a part of a song or lay. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 10. 28.

=miniments,= ‘muniments’, valuable belongings. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 6.

=minion,= a darling, a favourite, esp. in a contemptuous sense, a mistress, a paramour. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 37; ‘A minion wyfe’, a neat, pretty wife, Roister Doister (ed. Arber, 86); the name of a small kind of ordnance, Whitelocke, Memorials (ed. 1853, i. 273); Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, iii. 3. 6. F. _mignon_, ‘a minion, favourite, wanton, darling; also, minion, dainty, neat’ (Cotgr.).

=minth,= the plant called mint. Peele, Arr. of Paris, i. 1 (Flora). Gk. μίνθα.

=mint-man,= one skilled in coinage. Bacon, Essay 20, § 7.

=minx,= a pert girl, hussy. Congreve, Love for L., ii. 1; a wanton woman, Dryden, Limberham, i. 1; ‘_Magalda_, a trull or minxe’, Florio; _Mistress Minx_, Marlowe, Dr. Faustus, ii. 2 (Faustus).

=minx,= a pet dog. Udall, tr. Apoph., Diogenes, § 140.

=mirador,= gallery to gaze from, balcony. Dryden, Conquest of Granada, I. i. 1 (Abdelmelech). Span. _mirador_, a balcony (Stevens). See Stanford.

=mischief,= misfortune, disaster. Merry Wives, iv. 2. 76; Much Ado, i. 3. 13.

=misconster,= to misconstrue. Shirley, Love in a Maze, ii. 1. 8. See =conster.=

=miscreaunce,= misbelief, false belief. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 51; Shep. Kal., May, 91. F. _mescreance_ (Cotgr.).

=misdeem,= to judge amiss of, to think evil of. Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 49; iii. 10. 29; Milton, P. R. i. 424; to judge amiss, id., P. L. ix. 301.

=misken,= a ‘mixen’, a manure-heap. Fletcher, Nightwalker, iii. 1 (Toby). A west-midland pronunc. of _mixen_ (EDD.).

=miskin,= a little bagpipe. Drayton, Pastorals, ii. 5. A dimin. (through Dutch?) of OF. _muse_, a bagpipe, cp. F. _musette_, a little bagpipe (Cotgr.).

=misprise,= to mistake; ‘Misprise me not’, B. Jonson, Case is Altered, iii. 3 (Maximilian). See =mesprize.=

=mister:= in phr. _what mister wight_, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 23; iii. 7. 14, i.e. a man of what ‘mister’ (occupation), or, a man of what class, what kind of a man. The idiom occurs as an archaism in Spenser, borrowed from Chaucer, ‘But telleth me what mister men ye been’ (C. T. A. 1710). So we find, _what mister thing_, what kind of thing, Beaumont and Fl., Little French Lawyer, ii. 3. 19; _such myster saying_, such a kind of saying, Shep. Kal., Sept., 103. _Mister_ (or _mester_) is very common in ME. in the sense of office, employment, business. OF. _mestier_ (F. _métier_); Med. L. _misterium_, for _ministerium_ (Ducange).

=mister,= to be necessary or needful; ‘As for my name, it mistreth not to tell’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 7. 51. From _mister_, need, necessity, want; cp. Scottish proverb, ‘Mister maks man o’ craft’, Ray’s Proverbs (ed. Bohn, 250); Ferguson, Proverbs (ed. 1641, p. 24). See EDD. (s.v. Mister, vb. 1 and 3). ME. _mistere_, need (Cursor M. 3247); OF. (Norman) _mestier_, ‘besoin, nécessité’ (Moisy). The same word as =mister,= above.

=mistery,= occupation, profession. Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 221. ME. _misterye_ (Chaucer, C. T. I. 890); Med. L. _misterium_, ‘officium’ (Ducange). See =mister.=

=mistress,= the small bowl, or jack, in the game of bowls. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, ii. 3 (Mis. Low.); cp. ‘His bias was towards my mistress’, Shirley, Witty Fair One, ii. 2 (Brains); cp. A Woman never vext, iv. 1 (Lambskin).

=misured,= ill-omened, fatal; ‘O foule mysuryd ground, Whereon he gat his finall dedely wounde’, Skelton, Dethe of Erle of Northumberland, 118. Cp. OF. _meseur_, ‘malheur’ (Godefroy); _meseurus_, ‘malheureux’ (Chron. des ducs de Normandie, in Didot). See =eure.=

=mite,= a small coin of very small value; used in negative phrases for a thing of little worth; ‘The price falleth not one mite’, More’s Utopia (ed. Arber, 42). Hence _miting_: ‘Nat worthe a mytyng’, not worth a mite, Skelton, Poems against Garnesche, iii. 115. ME. _myte_: ‘Noght worth a myte’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1558). See Dict.

=mithridate,= a compound regarded as an antidote against all poisons. Fletcher, Valentinian, v. 2 (Val.); Massinger, Maid of Honour, iv. 4 (Adorni). Named from Mithridates, king of Pontus, who was said to have been proof against poison owing to his constant use of antidotes. See Stanford.

=miting,= a diminutive creature; freq. used as a term of endearment or contempt, Skelton, El. Rummyng, 224. ME. _mytyng_ (Towneley Myst. xii. 477).

=mixt,= to mix; ‘_I myxte_, or myngell’, Palsgrave; pres. pt., _mixting_, Elyot, Governour, bk. i, ch. 13, § 4. Hence _mixt_, a mixture; ‘A mixt of both’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. ii, ch. 9 (ed. Arber, 97). From the L. pp. _mixtus_.

=mo, moe,= orig. used as adv.; ‘Gent’lest fair, mourne, mourne no moe’ (mourn no more), Fletcher, Q. Corinth, iii. 2 (Song); _the moe_, the majority, the greater part, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, i. 15 (ed. Arber, 48); _mo_, more in number, ‘mo tymes’, Caxton, Reynard (ed. Arber, 7); ‘Infinite moe . . . He there beheld’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 63. ME. _mo_, adj., more in number, adv., any longer (Chaucer); OE. _mā_; Goth. _mais_, more (adv.). See Wright’s OE. Gram. § 252.

=mobble, moble,= to muffle up one’s head or face; also, with _up_; ‘_Mobled_ queen’, Hamlet, ii. 2. 524; _mobble up_, Shirley, Gent. of Venice, v. 3 (Florelli). A Warw. and Shropsh. word, see EDD. (s.v. Moble).

=mobile,= mob; ‘The mobile’, Dryden, Pref. to Don Sebastian, § 2; id., i. 1 (near the end); iv. 2 (end). Common from ab. 1676 to 1700; shortened to _mobb_, _c._ 1688. It represents the L. _mobile vulgus_, the inconstant crowd. See Dict. (s.v. Mob), and Stanford.

=mockado,= a kind of cloth much used for clothing; ‘Who would not thinke it a ridiculous thing to see a Lady in her milke-house with a velvet gowne, and at a bridall in her cassock of mockado’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (ed. Arber, 290); Ford, Lady’s Trial, ii. 1 (Guzman); Lodge, Wit’s Miserie, 14. A quasi-Spanish form from F. _moucade_, ‘the stuffe moccadoe’ (Cotgr.). Of Arab. origin, see NED. (s.v. Mohair), and Thomas, _Essais_ (s.v. Camoiard).

=moder, modere,= to moderate, restrain. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 6, back, 18; Sir T. More, Works, p. 882, col. 2. OF. _moderer_.

=modern,= ordinary, commonplace, common; in a depreciatory sense. As You Like It, ii. 7. 156; Macbeth, iv. 3. 170. The only Shakespearian sense; peculiarly Elizabethan.

=moe;= see =mo.=

=moil, moyle,= a ‘mule’. Ford, Fancies, ii. 2; More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 51); Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 1 (Welford). Common in Devon and Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. Moyle).

=moil, moyle,= a kind of slipper or shoe; ‘Moyles of velvet to save thy shooes of lether’, J. Heywood, Prov. and Epigr. (ed. 1867, 214); ‘_Moiles_, a kind of high-soled shoes, worn in ancient times by Kings and great Persons’, Phillips; spelt _mule_, ‘He had ane pair of mules on his feit’, Spalding, Troubles of Charles I (NED.). F. _mules_, ‘moyles, pantofles, high slippers’ (Cotgr.). Cp. Du. _muylen_, pantoffles (Hexham). Med. L. _mula_, ‘crepida’ (Ducange).

=moil, moyle,= to wet; to soil, make dirty. Turbervile, Hunting, 33; to defile, Spenser, Hymn Heavenly Love, 220; to toil, work hard, drudge, Bacon, Essay, Plantations; to weary, fatigue, harass, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, i (ed. Arber, 27). In common prov. use in many senses, to plaster with mud, to soil, defile, to work hard, to worry, see EDD. (s.v. Moil, vb.). F. _mouiller_ (Cotgr.).

=mold,= a ‘mole’, spot, blemish. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 7. See =mould.=

=mollipuff;= see =mullipuff.=

=mome,= a blockhead. Com. Errors, iii. 1. 32; Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 49; Levins, Manipulus; Drayton, Skeltoniad, p. 1373; Mirror for Mag. 466; Dekker, Gull’s Horne-bk. 5; Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, i. 2. 5. Dialect of Geneva _mome_, ‘sot, nigaud’; cp. F. (argot) _mome_, ‘garçon’ (Sainéan, p. 206).

†=Momtanish= (?); ‘And this your momtanish inhumanytye’, Sir T. More, ii. 4. 162. Dr. H. Bradley conjectures _Moritanish_ (i.e. Moorish).

=moniment,= memorial, anything by which a thing may be remembered. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 38; ii. 10. 56; used of dints on a shield, F. Q. ii. 12. 80; of an inscription stamped on coin, F. Q. ii. 7. 5. L. _monimentum_, deriv. of _monere_, to remind.

=Monmouth cap,= a flat round cap formerly worn by soldiers and sailors, Hen. V, iv. 7. 104; Eastward Ho, iv. 1 (_or_ 2) (Touchstone). Also, _monmouth_, Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, iii. 5 (last Song).

=monomachy,= single combat. Heywood, Golden Age, A. iii (Enceladus); vol. iii, p. 50. Gk. μονομαχία; deriv. of μονομάχος, fighting alone.

=monster,= a prodigy, wonder, divine omen. Phaer, Aeneid ii, 680 (L. _mirabile monstrum_); id., iii. 26.

=montant= (a fencing term), an upright blow or thrust. Merry Wives, ii. 3. 27; _montanto_, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 7 (Bobadil). F. _montant_ (Cotgr.).

=month:= phr. _to have a month’s mind_, to have an inclination, a fancy, a liking. Lyly, Euphues (Arber, 464); ‘_Tu es bien engrand de trotter_, Thou hast a moneths mind to be gone’, Cotgrave; Pepys, Diary, May 20, 1660. In prov. use in many parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Month, sb.^{1} 3 (b)).

=monthly,= madly; after the manner of a lunatic. Only in Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 2 (Moll).

=moodeles, modeless,= unmeasured, vast, huge; Mirror for Mag., Morindus, st. 17. Frequent in Greene (NED.). From _mode_, measure, size, manner, &c.

=moon,= a fit of frenzy; ‘I know ’twas but some peevish Moone in him’, C. Tourneur, Revenger’s Tragedy, ii (Duke).

=mooncalf,= a false conception, imperfect foetus; hence, monstrosity. Tempest, ii. 2. 111; Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, iv. 1 (Bussy); Drayton, The Mooncalf. Cp. G. _mondkalb_, ‘ungestalte Missgeburt’ (Weigand).

=moonling,= a mooncalf, silly fellow. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 3 (Wit.).

=mooting-night,= a night at the Inns of Court, when imaginary cases at law are discussed by the students. Cartwright, The Ordinary, iii. 5 (Song, verse 2). See Dict. (s.v. Moot).

=mooting-time,= the moulting season. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 120. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Mout). ME. _mowtyn_, as fowlys, ‘deplumeo’ (Prompt.); cp. Du. _muyten_, ‘to mue as hawkes doe’ (Hexham); Low G. _muten_ (G. _mausen_), to moult (Berghaus); L. _mutare_.

=mop,= a grimace, Temp. iv. 1. 47; to make grimaces, King Lear, iv. 1. 64; ‘To moppe, maw, _movere labia_’, Levins, Manip.

=moppe= (see quot.); ‘I called her (the young lady) Moppe . . . Understanding by this word, a litle prety Lady, or tender young thing. For so we call litle fishes that be not come to full growth, as whiting moppes, gurnard moppes’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (ed. Arber, 229). Cp. ME. _moppe_, ‘pupa’ (Prompt. EETS. 292).

=moppet,= a term of endearment applied to a child or a young girl, Massinger, Guardian, iv. 2 (end); The Spectator, no. 277. See above.

=more,= the root of a tree or plant; a plant. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 10. A west-country word from Worc. to Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. More). ME. _more_, root (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 25). OE. _more_, _moru_, an edible root, a carrot, parsnip (B. T.), cp. G. _möhre_, a carrot.

=morelle,= a dark-coloured horse. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 15, l. 11; i. 24, l. 17. ME. _morel_, hors (Prompt. EETS. 293). Norm. F. _morel_, _cheval morel_, ‘cheval noir’ (Moisy). F. _morel_, _moreau_, _cheval moreau,_ a black horse (Cotgr.).

=morfound,= a disease in horses, sheep, &c., due to taking a chill. Spelt _morfounde_, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 100. Palsgrave has: ‘I morfonde, as a horse dothe that waxeth styffe by taking of a sodayne colde.’ F. _se morfondre_, to take cold (Cotgr.).

=Morglay,= the name of the sword belonging to Sir Bevis, Drayton, Polyolbion, ii. 332; used allusively for a sword, Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, i. 1 (Longueville); Stanyhurst, Aeneid, ii (Arber, 60); Cleaveland’s Poems (Nares). We may perhaps compare _claymore_ (_glaymore_), see NED.

=Morian,= of the Moorish race, pertaining to the Moors; a Moor; _the Moryans land_, Great Bible, 1539, Ps. lxviii. 31 (rendering of ‘Aethiopia’ in Vulgate); _the Morians londe_, Coverdale (1535), ib.; cp. Luther’s rendering, _Mohrenland_, land of the Moors. See Bible Word-Book. OF. _Morien_ (NED.). See =Murrian.=

=morigeration,= deference, obsequiousness. Bacon, Adv. of Learning, i. 3. 10; Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. V, p. 29. L. _morigeratio_, compliance.

=morisco,= a morris-dance. Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, v. 2. 7. Also, a morris-dancer, 2 Hen. VI, iii. 1. 365. Properly, a Moorish dance; see Stanford. Span. _morisco_, a man descended from Moors or converted from them (Stevens). See =morris-pike.=

=mornifle;= ‘Mornyfle, a maner of play, _mornifle_’, Palsgrave. F. _mornifle_, a trick at cards (Cotgr.); ‘réunion de quatre cartes semblables’ (Hatzfeld). _Mornifle_ also meant a cuff, a blow: ‘_donner mornifle_, c’est-à-dire un soufflet’ (Oudin, 1640); see Sainéan, L’Argot ancien, p. 206. See =mournival.=

=morphew,= a disease of the skin; ‘_Morféa_, the morphew in some womens faces’, Florio; ‘Morfewe, a sickenesse’, Palsgrave. Hence, _morphewed_, afflicted with the disease, Webster, Duchess of Malfi, ii. 1 (Bosola). ME. _morfu_, ‘morphea’ (Prompt.). Med. L. _morfea_, ‘cutis foedacio maculosa’ (Sin. Bart.).

=morpion,= a kind of louse. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 437. F. _morpion_, a crab-louse (Cotgr.); cp. Rabelais, II. xxvii; deriv. of _mordre_ + _pion_, ‘ce pou ayant infesté surtout les anciens corps d’infanterie’ (Hatzfeld).

=morris-pike,= a form of pike supposed to be of Moorish origin, Com. Errors, iv. 3. 28; _morispike_, Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 67). See =morisco.=

=mort= (a hunting term). The note sounded on a horn at the death of the deer, Winter’s Tale, i. 2. 118; ‘He that bloweth the Mort before the fall of the Buck’, Greene, Card of Fancie (Nares).

=mort= (Cant), a girl or woman. B. Jonson, Gypsies Met. 65; a female vagabond, harlot, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen). Later, written _mott_ (_mot_), London slang for a woman of the town, see NED.

=mortar:= in phr. _to fly to Rome with a mortar on one’s head_, app. a legendary achievement of some wizard; Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Soto); Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, v. 2 (Clown); Kemp, Nine Daies Wonder, Ep. Ded. (NED.). F. _mortier_, ‘a morter to bray things in’ (Cotgr.).

=mortmal, mormal,= an inflamed sore, esp. on the leg; ‘The old mortmal on his shin’, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 2 (Maudlin); ‘Mormall, a sore, _loup_’, Palsgrave. ME. _mormale_, ‘malum mortuum’ (Prompt.). OF. _mortmal_; cp. Med. L. _malum mortuum_, ‘morbi genus pedum et tibiarum’ (Ducange). See =marmoll.=

=mort-pays,= the taking of the King’s pay by a captain in service for men who were dead or discharged; ‘The severe punishing of mort-pays’, Bacon, Hist. Henry VII (ed. Lumby, 93). See =dead pay.=

=most an end,= generally, usually; continually. Massinger, A Very Woman, iii. 1 (Merchant). _Honest_ (addressing _Greatheart_): ‘Knew him! I was a great companion of his; I was with him most an end’; Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, Pt. II. In common prov. use from Yorks. to E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Most, 7, 2a).

=mot, motte,= a word, saying, motto, proverb. Rape of Lucrece, 830; ‘To gull him with a motte’, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 2 (E. Knowell). F. _mot_, a word.

=mote,= a note of a horn or bugle. Morte Arthur, leaf 112. 20 (bk. vii, ch. 8); ‘Mote, blaste of a horne’, Palsgrave; _mot_, Chevy Chace, 16; _mott_, Turbervile, Hunting, 86. ME. _moote_ of an horne, blowyng (Prompt. EETS. 294, see note, no. 1431). F. _mot_, ‘the note winded by an huntsman on his horn’ (Cotgr.).

=mote,= a pleading in a law-court. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 14, § 7. OE. _mōtian_, to address a meeting, to discuss, ‘moot a question’ (B. T.). See Dict. (s.v. Moot).

=mote,= may, must; ‘I mote dye’, Morte Arthur, leaf 34. 9; bk. i, c. 20; ‘Now _mote_ ye understand’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 46. ME. _mot_, _moot_, pres. (I or he) may, must; _moten_, _mote_, pl.; _moste_, pt. t. OE. _mōt_, (I, he) may; _mōst_, 2 sing.; _mōton_, pl.; _mōste_, pt. t.

=mother,= a young girl. Fletcher, Maid in the Mill, iii. 2 (Franio). See =mauther.=

=mother, the,= hysteria. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, ii. 1 (Bellafront); King Lear, ii. 4. 56.

=mothering,= the custom of visiting one’s mother, and giving and receiving of presents of food, &c., on Mid-Lent Sunday; ‘Thou go’st a-mothering’, Herrick, To Dianeme, A Ceremonie in Gloucester. See EDD. (s.v. Mothering) for accounts of the customs connected with ‘Mothering Sunday’ (Mid-Lent Sunday) in various parts of England from Yorks. to Devon.

=moting,= mooting; i.e. discussion, debate. Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 1075. ME. _motyng_, or pletynge, ‘placitatio’ (Prompt. EETS. 294). See =mote= (a pleading).

=motion,= a puppet-show. Winter’s Tale, iv. 3. 103; a puppet, Two Gent. ii. 1. 100; B. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, v. 3. 3.

=mott,= measured; pt. t. of =mete= (q.v.). Spenser, Colin Clout, 365. See NED. (s.v. Mete, vb.^{1}).

=motte;= see =mot.=

=mouch,= to act by stealth; to idle and loaf about, Webster, Sir T. Wyatt (Clown), ed. Dyce, p. 193. See _Mooch_ in NED. and EDD. The word is in gen. prov. use in the British Isles and in Australia.

=mouchatoes,= moustaches. Lady Alimony, ii. 5 (Juliffe). See =mutchado.=

=mought,= a moth; ‘Mought that eates clothes, _ver de drap_’, Palsgrave. Hence _moughte-eaten_, ‘Olde and moughte-eaten lawes’, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 53). ME. _mouȝte_ (Wyclif, Matt. vi. 19); _moghte_, ‘tinea’ (Cath. Angl.); OE. _mohða_.

=mought,= _pt. t._ might. Bacon, Essays (very common, see Abbott’s ed., Index); Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 42. ME. _maht_, 2 pr. s.; _mahte_, pt. t. of _mæi_, (I, he) may; OE. _meaht_, 2 pr. s.; _meahte_, pt. t. of _mæg_, (I, he) may, can.

=mould,= a ‘_mole_’, a spot on the skin, birthmark. Gascoigne, Supposes, v. 5 (Cleander); _mold_, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 7. See Dict. (s.v. Mould, 3).

=mouldwarp,= the mole, ‘talpa’; _moldwarp_, 1 Hen. IV, iii. 1. 148; Spenser, Colin Clout, 763. In gen. prov. use in the north country, Midlands, and Suffolk, see EDD. (s.v. Mouldywarp). ME. _moldewarpe_, ‘talpa’ (Cath. Angl.); cp. Dan. _muldvarp_, Norw. dial. _moldvarp_ (Aasen), G. _maulwurf_.

=mount cent, mount saint,= a game at cards resembling piquet; probably the same as =cent= (q.v.), Machin, Dumb Knight, iv (Queen). Prob. from _mount_, i.e. amount, and _cent_, one hundred. See NED.

=mountenance,= amount of space, distance. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 8. 18; iii. 11. 20; v. 6. 36. ME. _mowntenawnce_ (Prompt.); _montenance_, amount (Cursor M. 29166).

=mournival,= a set of four aces, kings, queens, or knaves in one hand. Cotton Gamester, 68; hence, a set of four (things or persons), B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (Mirth); _murnival_, Greene’s Tu Quoque, in Ancient Eng. Drama, ii. 551. See =mornifle.=

=mouse,= a term of endearment. Hamlet, iii. 4. 183; Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1 (Openwork).

=mouse-hunt,= a woman hunter. Romeo iv. 4. 11. This is prob. a _fig._ use of _mouse-hunt_, a weasel, ‘The Ferrets and Moushunts of an Index’, Milton (Wks., ed. 1851, iii. 81); spelt _musehont_, Caxton, Reynard (ed. Arber, 79). ‘Mouse-hunt’ (‘Mouse-hound’) is in prov. use in E. Anglia for the smallest animal of the weasel tribe. See EDD. (s.v. Mouse, 1, (7) and (8)). M. Du. _muyshont_, or _muushont_, a weasel, lit. ‘a mouse-hound’.

=mowe,= to be able; ‘They shalle not mowe helpe, they shall not be able to help’, Morte Arthur, leaf 61, back, 26; bk. iv, c. 3. ME. _mow_(_e_)_n_, ‘posse’ (Prompt. EETS. 302); see Chaucer (Tr. and Cr. ii. 1594). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Mæi).

=mowe,= to make grimaces; ‘I mow with the mouth, I mock one, _Je fays la moue_’, Palsgrave; ‘Apes that moe and chatter’, Tempest, ii. 2. 9; _mowing_, making grimaces, Ascham, Scholemaster (ed. Arber, 54).

=mowes,= grimaces, ‘Making mowes at me’, BIBLE (1539), Ps. xxxv. 15; Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 49; Cymbeline, i. 6. 41. ME. _mow_, or scorne, ‘valgia’ (Prompt. EETS. 294). F. _moue_, a moe, ‘an ill-favoured extension or thrusting out of the lips’ (Cotgr.).

=mowles,= broken chilblains in the heels. Dunbar, Poems (ed. Small, ii. 128). See EDD. (s.v. Mool), and Jamieson (s.v. Mules). ME. _mowle_, ‘pernio’ (Cath. Angl.); _mowle_, sore, ‘pustula, pernio’ (Prompt. EETS. 295, see note, no. 1439). F. _mule_, ‘a kibe; _aller sur mule_: Il va sur mule aussi bien que le Pape (an equivocation, applicable to one that hath kibed heels)’; see Cotgrave. Cp. Du. _muyle_, a kibe (Hexham).

=moy,= an imaginary name of coin, evolved by Pistol out of his prisoner’s speech; ‘Ayez pitié de _moi_! Moy shall not serve; I will have forty moys’, &c., Hen. V, iv. 4. 14.

=moyle,= a variety of apple; ‘Of Moyle, or Mum, or Treacle’s viscous juice’, J. Philips, Cider, bk. i. (Perhaps the word means a hybrid; cp. _moyle_, a mule.) See =genet-moyl.=

=moyle;= see =moil.=

=muccinigo,= a small coin formerly current in Venice, worth about 9_d._ B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1; iv. 1; Shirley, Gent. Venice, i. 1 (Cornari). Ital. ‘_mocenigo_, a coyn in Venice; also the name of a considerable family there’ (Florio). The coin was named from Tommaso Mocenigo, doge of Venice, 1413-23. See NED. (s.v. Moccenigo).

=much!,= a contemptuous exclamation of denial. _Much_ = _much of that!_, ironically; i.e. far from it, by no means. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 143; Marston, Malcontent, ii. 2 (Celso), _Much wench!_ i.e. no wench at all, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum., iv. 6 (Brain-worm).

=muck;= in Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 1188. _To run amuck_, to run about in a frenzy, is a phrase due to the Malay _āmuq_, ‘rushing in a state of frenzy to the commission of indiscriminate murder’ (Marsden). Dryden took the _a_ in _amuck_ to be the E. indef. article; and reproduced the phrase in the curious form—_runs an Indian muck_. See Stanford (s.v. Amuck).

=muckinder,= a handkerchief. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii. 1 (Turfe); Fletcher, Captain, iii. 5 (Fabricio); ‘Mockendar for chyldre, _mouchouer_’, Palsgrave. In prov. use in many parts of England from the north country to Kent and Dorset in various forms; _muckinder_, _muckender_, _muckinger_, _muckenger_ (EDD.). ME. _mokedore_, ‘sudarium’ (Voc. 614. 25), O. Prov. _mocadour_ (mod. _moucadour_), a handkerchief, Span. _mocador_, F. _mouchoir_; deriv. of _moucher_, ‘débarrasser des mucosités que sécrète la muqueuse nasale’ (Hatzfeld).

=muffler,= (1) a wrapper worn by women and covering the face; (2) a cloth for blindfolding a person. Merry Wives, iv. 2. 73; Fletcher, Night-walker, ii. 2 (near the end); 2 Hen. V, iii. 6. 32.

=mugwet,= the intestines of an animal; ‘The gatherbagge or Mugwet of a yong harte’, Turbervile, Hunting, 39. ‘Mugget’ is in prov. use in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall for sheep or calf’s intestines; see EDD. See NED. (s.v. Mugget).

=mule:= phr. _to ride upon a mule_, to be a great lawyer. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, ii. 1 (Carlo); _to shoe one’s mule_, to help oneself out of the funds trusted to one’s management, History of Francion (Nares).

=mule;= see =moil= (a slipper).

=mullar,= a ‘muller’, a stone with a flat base, held in the hand and used, in conjunction with a grinding-stone or slab, in grinding painters’ colours. Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, p. 136. F. _moulleur_, a grinder (Cotgr.); deriv. of OF. _moldre_, L. _molere_, to grind.

=mullet,= the rowel of a spur; a mullet, in heraldry. Shirley, Love in a Maze, i. 1 (Simple). F. _molette d’esperon_, the rowel of a spur (Cotgr.).

=mullets,= pincers or tweezers. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Amorphus). F. _mollette_, ‘a mullet, a nipper, a pincer’ (Cotgr.).

=mullipuff, mollipuff,= the puff-ball, or fuzz-ball. Shirley, St. Patrick, v. 1 (2 Soldier). See NED. (s.v. Mullipuff), and EDD. (s.v. Mully-puff). ‘Mully’ in Norfolk is used for mouldy, powdery, see EDD. (s.v. Mull, sb.^{1} 1). Norw. dial. _moll_, mould (Aasen), Swed. _mull_ (Widegren).

=mullwine,= mulled wine. Middleton, Phœnix, iv. 3. 9. See Dict. (s.v. Mulled).

=mumbudget,= a word used to insist upon silence; ‘I cry . . . _mum_; she cries _budget_’, Merry Wives, v. 2. 6; ‘Quoth she, _Mum budget_’, Butler, Hud. i. 3. 208; ‘_Mumbudget_, not a word!’, Look about You, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 420.

=mumchance,= the name of a game, both at dice and at cards. Westward Ho, ii. 2 (with allusion to _bones_, i.e. dice); B. Jonson, Alchemist, v. 2 (Subtle); Barth. Fair, iv. 1 (Cokes). Played in silence; whence the name.

=mumchance,= one who has nothing to say, a ‘dummy’. Plautus made English (Nares). In prov. use in many parts of England, esp. in the west country, for a stupid, silent, stolid person.

=mummia, mummy,= a preparation used in medicine, chiefly from the substance with which Egyptian mummies were preserved. Webster, White Devil (beginning, Gasparo), ed. Dyce, p. 5; id. (Isabella), p. 15; Beaumont and Fl., iii. 1 (Galoshio). See Dict. (s.v. Mummy), and Stanford (s.v. Mummia).

=mump,= to overreach, to cheat; ‘Mump your proud players’, Buckingham, The Rehearsal, ii. 2 (Bayes); ‘Mump’d of his snip’ (i.e. cheated of his portion), Wycherley, Love in a Wood, i. 2 (Ranger); Gent. Dancing-master, iv. 1 (Mrs. Caution). In prov. use in the west country, see EDD. (s.v. Mump, vb.^{1} 10). Du. _mompen_, ‘to mump, cheat’ (Sewel).

=mump,= to make grimaces, to screw up the mouth. Otway, Venice Preserved, ii. 1 (Pierre); D’Urfey, Pills, vi. 198; a grimace, ‘_Monnoye de singe_, moes, mumps’, Cotgrave. ‘To mump’ is used in Northamptonsh. in the sense of drawing in the lips, screwing up the mouth with a smile: ‘She mumps up her mouth, she knows something’, see EDD. (s.v. Mump, vb.^{1} 4).

=mumpsimus.= [In allusion to the story of an illiterate English priest, who when corrected for reading ‘quod in ore _mumpsimus_’ in the Mass, replied ‘I will not change my old _mumpsimus_ for your new _sumpsimus_’ (NED.).] One who obstinately adheres to old ways in spite of the clearest evidence that they are wrong, an old fogey, Underhill in Narr. Reform. (Camden Soc., 141); Gascoigne, Supposes, i. 3 (Dulipo). See Nares.

=mundungo,= bad-smelling tobacco; ‘A mundungo monopolist’, Lady Alimony, ii. 2 (1 Boy); _snuff-mundungus_, Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 1006. A jocular use of Span. _mondongo_, ‘hogs puddings’ (Stevens).

=munify,= to fortify. Drayton, Barons’ Wars, ii. 34; hence, _munificence_, defence, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 15 (ed. 1596).

=munite,= to fortify. Florio, tr. Montaigne, bk. i, c. 47; Bacon, Essay 3 (ed. Abbott, p. 10).

=munpins,= mouth-pegs, the teeth; a ludicrous form. _Munpynnys_, Skelton, The Douty Duke of Albany, 292. ‘Mun’ for mouth is in prov. use in the north, and in slang use generally, see EDD. (s.v. Mun, sb.^{1} 1). Norw. dial. _munn_, the mouth (Aasen).

=muraill,= a wall; walls of a city. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 201, back, 14. F. _muraille_.

=murderer, murdering-piece,= a cannon or mortar, discharging stones or grape-shot. Hamlet, iv. 5. 95; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 3 (Jaques); Double Marriage, iv. 2. 6.

=mure,= a wall. 2 Hen. IV, iv. 4. 119; Heywood, If you know not Me (Queen), vol. i, p. 338; to shut up, 2 Hen. IV, iv. 4. 119; _mured up_, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 34. L. _murus_, a wall.

=murleon,= a merlin, a small hawk; ‘A cast [couple] of murleons’, Damon and Pithias, Ancient Brit. Drama, i. 88, col. 2. ME. _merlioun_, Chaucer (Parl. Foules, 339). F. _esmerillon_ (Cotgr.).

=murnival;= see =mournival.=

=murr,= a violent catarrh, a severe cold in the head. Chapman, Mons. d’Olive, ii. 1 (Philip); _murres_, pl., Sir T. Elyot, Castel of Helthe, fol. 3, back; ‘Murre, _gravedo_’, Levins, Manipulus. See Nares.

=Murrian,= a Mauritanian, a Moor. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 315). See =Morian.=

=murrion,= a ‘morion’, a steel cap. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4 (Captain). Also jocularly, a nightcap; spelt _murrain_, id., Scornful Lady, iv. 1 (Abigail). Span. _morrion_ (Stevens). See Stanford (s.v. Morrion), and Dict. (s.v. Morion).

=muscadine,= a kind of wine with a musk-like perfume. Massinger, City Madam, ii. 1. 12. See Dict. (s.v. Muscadel).

=Muscovy glass,= a kind of talc. B. Jonson, Prol. to Devil is an Ass, 17; Marston (Malcontent), i. 3 (Passarello).

=muse,= to wonder, marvel. Coriolanus, iii. 2. 7; Macbeth, iii. 4. 85; hence, _muses_, musings, thoughts, cogitations, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 94); Englishman for my Money, iii. 2 (Harvey); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 509. OF. _muser_, ‘regarder comme un sot’ (Bartsch), cp. Ital. _musare_, ‘to muse, to gape, to hould ones muzle or snout in the aire’ (Florio); Prov. _muzar_, ‘regarder bouche béante’; _mus_, ‘figure, visage’ (Levy).

=muse,= a gap in a thicket or fence through which a hare or other beast of sport is wont to pass; ‘Take a hare without a muse, and a knave without an excuse’, Howell, Eng. Prov. 12; ‘The wild muse of a bore’ (boar), Chapman, tr. Iliad, xi. 368; Heywood, Witches of Lancs. i. 1 (Bantam). The word is in prov. use in many parts of England from the north country to Sussex, written _muse_, _meuse_, _moose_, _muce_, see EDD. (s.v. Meuse). F. dial. (Bas-Maine) _mus_, ‘muce, passage étroit à travers des broussailles pour les lièvres, les lapins, &c.’ (Dottin); see Littré (s.v. Musse). See =meaze.=

=muske-million,= the musk-melon. Drayton, Pol. xx. 54; Tusser, Husbandry, § 40. 8.

=musquet,= a hawk of a very small size. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 119; ‘Musket, a lytell hauke, _mouchet_’, Palsgrave. Ital. _mosquetto_, ‘a musket-hawke’ (Florio).

=muss,= a scramble among boys, for trivial objects. Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 91; B. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, iv. 1 (Cokes). ‘Muss’ means a confusion, scramble, in Warwickshire, see EDD. (s.v. Muss, sb.^{1} 1 and 2).

=mutchado,= a moustache; ‘On his upper lippe A mutchado’, Arden of Fev. ii. 1. 56; _mutchato_, Higgins, Induction to Mirror for Mag. (Nares); _muschatoes_, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 4 (Ithamore). For numerous spellings of the word ‘moustache’ see NED. See =mouchatoes.=

=mutton,= a strumpet. Middleton, Roaring Girl, iii. 2 (Mis. O.); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 8 (Bots). See =laced mutton.=

=myrobalane,= a kind of dried Indian plum. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 1 (Subtle). F. _myrobalan_, L. _myrobalanum_, Gk. μυροβάλανος, probably the ben-nut; μύpov, unguent, and βάλανος, acorn.

N

=nab,= the head. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); Harman, Caveat, p. 82; Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); _nabb_, a hat, Shadwell, Squire Alsatia, ii. 1. Swed. dial, _nabb_, the head (Rietz).

=nab-cheat,= a hat or cap. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1; Harman, Caveat, p. 82. See =cheat= (Thieves’ Cant).

=nache,= the rump; ‘The nache by the tayle’, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 57. 3. A west Yorks. word, see EDD. (s.v. Aitch-bone). OF. _nache_, a buttock (Godefroy); Ital. _natica_. See Dict. (s.v. Aitch-bone).

=nads,= an ‘adze’. Tusser, Husbandry, § 17. 9.

=næve,= a spot, blemish; ‘Spots, like næves’, Dryden, Death of Lord Hastings, 55. L. _naevus_, a mole, or mark on the body.

=nake,= to bare, unsheathe a sword; ‘Nake your swords’, Tourneur, Revenger’s Tragedy, v. 1 (Lussurioso). ME. _naken_, to make naked (Chaucer, Boethius, bk. iv, met. 7).

=naked,= unarmed. Othello, v. 2. 258. Phr. _naked bed_, in reference to the once common custom of sleeping undressed, no night-linen being worn; ‘In her naked bed’, Venus and Ad. 397. See Nares; and EDD. (s.v. Naked, 1 (1)).

=nale, at,= for _atten ale_, at the ale-house. Hickscorner, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 166. Cp. Glouc. phrase, ‘He’s gone to nale’ (EDD.). ME. _atte nale_, at the ale-house (P. Plowman, C. viii. 19).

=nall,= an ‘awl’. Tusser, Husbandry, § 17. 4; ‘A _naule_, idem quod _aule_’, Levins, Manip.; ‘Nall for a souter, _alesne_’, Palsgrave. ‘Nawl’ is in common prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

=namecouth,= known by name, famous. Spelt _naamkouth_, Grimalde, Concerning Virgil, 14; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 102.

=namely,= especially. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 3. 14; vii. 7. 48.

=nape,= to strike upon the nape or back of the head just above the neck. ‘Naped in the head’, Latimer, 3 Sermon (ed. Arber, 76); ‘_I nawpe_ one in the necke’, Palsgrave.

=Napier’s bones,= ivory rods marked with numbers, for facilitating calculation; invented by Lord Napier of Merchiston (d. 1617). Butler, Hud. ii. 3. 1095; iii. 2. 409.

=nappy,= having a head, foaming; heady, strong. Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. iii. 16; Gay, Shepherd’s Week, ii. 56. In common prov. use (EDD.).

=nares,= nostrils. Butler, Hud. i. 1. 742; ‘Nares (of a hawk)’, Book of St. Albans, fol. a 5; L. _nares_, pl. nostrils.

=narre,= nearer. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 97; Ruines of Rome, xvi. 3. Icel. _nærre_, nearer (adj.); _nærr_ (adv.).

=nas,= for _ne has_, has not. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 61.

=nase,= nose. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., ii. 1 (Lorel). ME. _nase_, nose (Wars Alex. 4519).

=natch,= a ‘notch’; ‘Cut all the natches of his tales’ (i.e. cut, in order to destroy, all the notches off his accounts or tallies), Arden of Fev. v. 1. 24; ‘A natche, _incisura_; to natch, _incidere_’, Levins, Manip. In prov. use in various parts of the British Isles (EDD.).

=nathe,= ‘nave’ of a wheel. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 5. 9. In common prov. use in the north and the Midlands (EDD.).

=nathemore,= never the more. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 25; iv. 8. 14. For the earlier _nathemo_. See NED.

=native,= in astrology; the subject of a horoscope, the person whose nativity is being cast. Massinger, City Madam, ii. 2 (Stargaze); Butler, Hud. i. 1. 608.

=nawl;= see =nall.=

=nay:= phr. _say nay, and take it_, refuse, but accept; a proverbial expression as to a maid’s part. Richard III, iii. 7. 50; Peele, Sir Clyomon, p. 494, col. 1.

=ne,= nor. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 25; All’s Well, ii. 1. 176. ME. _ne_, nor (Chaucer, C. T. A. 179). OE. _ne_.

=neafe,= a clenched hand, a fist. Mids. Night’s D. iv. 1. 15; _neuf_, B. Jonson, Poetaster, iii. 1 (Tucca); Ford, Witch of Edmonton, iii. 1 (Cuddy). In common prov. use in various parts of the British Isles, see EDD. (s.v. Neive). ME. _neefe_, a fist (Barbour’s Bruce, xvi. 129); also in forms _nave_, _new_, in pl. _nevis_, _newys_, _newffys_ (id., see Glossary). Icel. _hnefi_.

=neal,= to anneal. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, ii. 1 (Meer).

=neat-house.= The Neat House (lit. house for cattle) was a celebrated market-garden, near Chelsea Bridge (Gifford); Massinger, City Madam, iii. 1. 14.

=neatresse,= a female neatherd. Warner, Alb. England, bk. iv, ch. 20, st. 48.

=neck,= in chess; a move to cover check. Surrey, To the Lady that scorned her Lover, 3, in Tottel’s Misc. (ed. Arber, 21). See NED.

=neck-verse,= the Latin verse read by a malefactor, to entitle him to benefit of clergy, so as to save his neck; usually Psalm li. 1, _Miserere mei_, &c. Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 4 (Pilia); Fletcher, Mad Lover, v. 3 (Chilax).

=needle,= to penetrate like a needle; to make their way into; ‘Mice made holes to needle in their buttocks’ (of fat hogs), Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3 (B. Knight).

=needly,= of necessity, necessarily. Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 517, col. 2; id., Tale of Troy, p. 552. A Yorks. word (EDD.).

=neeld,= a ‘needle’. Fairfax, tr. of Tasso, xx. 95; Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 715; Mids. Night’s D. iii. 2. 204. A common prov. form, see EDD. (s.v. Needle).

=neele,= a ‘needle’. Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 3 (Tyb). The word spelt without the _d_ is common in prov. E. in many spellings, as _neele_, _neel_, _neal_, _nill_, _nail_ (EDD.).

=neesing,= a sneezing, a sneeze. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xvii. 732; BIBLE, Job xli. 18. ‘Neese’ is in prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Neeze). ME. _nesen_ (Prompt.). Du. _niesen_, to sneeze (Hexham). See Dict. (s.v. Neese).

=neif,= one born on a feudal manor in a state of serfdom; ‘It signifieth in our common law a bondwoman, the reason is, because women become bound rather _nativitate_ than by any other means’, Cowell. Spelt _nyefe_, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 342. Anglo-F. _neif_, ‘serf de naissance ou d’origine’ (Didot); Med. L. _nativus_ (Ducange).

=neis,= to scent, smell; ‘The hart . . . nere fra’ hence sall neis her i’ the wind’, B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maud.). See NED. (s.v. Nese).

=nephew,= a grandson. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 22; ii. 10. 45; ‘_Grandsires and nephews_’, B. Jonson, Catiline, iii. 3 (Curius); spelt _nevew_; Phaer, Aeneid ii, 702 (= L. _nepotem_). See Trench, Select Glossary. ME. _nevewe_, a grandson (Chaucer, Hous Fame, ii. 109). OF. _neveu_. O. Prov. _nep_, _nebot_. L. _nepotem_, nephew, grandson.

=nere,= nearer; ‘The nere to the churche, the ferther from God’, Heywood, Prov. (ed. 1867, 17). ME. ‘þe nere þe cherche, þe fyrþer fro God’, R. Brunne, Handlyng Synne. OE. _nēar_, compar. of _nēah_, nigh.

=nesh,= soft, tender, delicate; ‘Like a nesh nag’, Beaumont and Fl., Bonduca, iv. 1 (Petillius); ‘_Tendre_, tender, nice, nesh, delicate’, Cotgrave. In gen. prov. use in Scotland and England (EDD.). ME. _nesche_, ‘mollis’ (Cath. Angl.). OE. _hnesce_, soft (B. T.).

=nest of goblets,= a set of them, of different sizes, fitting one inside another. Northward Ho, iii. 2 (Bellamont); _neast of goblets_, Marston, Dutch Courtezan, i. 1. 7. So also _a nest of boxes_; Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 12.

=net, nett,= clear, clean, bare. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 20; vi. 8. 45. F. _net_, neat, clean, clear; bare, empty.

=nettie,= neat, ‘natty’. Tusser, Husbandry, § 68. 1.

=neuf;= see =neafe.=

=neuft,= a newt, evet, or eft. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 1 (Tucca); cp. _newt_ in Bartholomew Fair, Act ii, where Knockem says, ‘What! thou’lt poison me with a _newt_’, &c.; where ed. 1614 has _neuft_ (NED.).

=Never a barrel the better herring,= proverbial saying, meaning never one better than another, nothing to choose between them, referring to the notion that you will not find a better herring by searching in a new barrel. Gascoigne, Supposes, iv. 6 (Litio); Martiniere’s Voyage, 127 (NED. (s.v. Herring)); [Fielding, T. Jones, x. v.]. Also, _In neither barrel better herring_, Heywood’s Proverbs (ed. Farmer, p. 102); Udall, tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 11; ‘The Devil a barrel the better herring’, Bailey’s Colleq., Erasmus, 373; cp. Gosson, School of Abuse, 32: ‘Of both barrelles [i.e. as containing poets on the one side and cooks and painters on the other] I judge Cookes and Painters the better herring.’ See Davies (s.v. Herring).

=new-eared,= newly ploughed. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xviii. 492. See =ear= (to plough).

=newel,= a novelty, rarity. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 276. Explained as ‘a newe thing’. Formed from _new_, with the suffix of _novel_.

=new-fangle,= fond of new things; ‘The peple were soo newfangle’, Morte Arthur, leaf 421; bk. xxi, c. 1 (end). See Dict. (s.v. _Newfangled_).

=new-year’s-gift,= a present to a great man on new-year’s day, usually given in hope of a reward or by way of bribe. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1 (Julio); Ascham, Scholemaster, p. 21.

=neysshe,= soft. Morte Arthur, leaf 311. 8; bk. xiii, c. 30. See =nesh.=

=niaise,= a young hawk taken out of the nest, applied allusively to a simple, witless person. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 3 (Fitz.); ‘_Niard_, a nias faulcon’, Cotgrave. ‘Nias’ is a north Yorks. word for a young hawk (EDD.). OF. _niais_, ‘qui n’est pas encore sorti du nid, qu’on a pris au nid’ (La Curne). See =eyas.=

=nice;= in various senses. It means fine, elegant, Much Ado, v. 1. 75; tender, delicate, Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 180; precise, Macbeth, iv. 3. 174; scrupulous, Merch. Ven. ii. 1. 14; subtle, L. L. L. v. 2. 232; coy, prudish, L. L. L. iii. 1. 24; squeamish, Tam. Shrew, iii. 1. 80; trifling, Romeo, iii. 1. 159. _To make it nice_, to seem reluctant, North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antonius, § 14 (in Shak. Plut., p. 177).

=niceness,= coyness, scrupulousness. Cymb. iii. 4. 158; Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, i. 1 (Colonel).

=nick,= to cut in nicks or notches, Com. of Errors, v. 175; to clip, curtail, Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 8. _In the nick_, at the right moment, Othello, v. 2. 317; _out of all nick_, beyond all reckoning, excessively, Two Gent. iv. 2. 76. See EDD. (s.v. Nick, sb.^{4} 1). Hence, _nick_, to hit off, to find out with precision; ‘You’ve nicked the channel’ (i.e. the right course), Congreve, Love for Love, iii. 4 (Ben); _nicked_, luckily saved, Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 1304. See EDD. (s.v. Nick, vb.^{2} 2).

=nidget, nideot,= an ‘idiot’, simpleton. Spelt _nigget_, Middleton, The Changeling, iii. 3 (Lollio). In prov. use (EDD.).

=niding;= see =nithing.=

=niece,= a grand-daughter, Richard III, iv. 1. 1; a relative, cousin (vaguely used). Greene, Alphonsus, ii, prol. 12; id., iii (Fausta, l. 939). Down to the beginning of the 17th cent. the sense of grand-daughter appears to have been common; see Trench, Select Glossary.

=nifles,= trifles, things of little or no value; trifling tales; ‘The fables and the nyfyls’, Heywood, A Mery Play, 434 (NED). ME. _nyfles_: ‘He served hem with nyfles and with fablis’ (Chaucer, C. T. D. 1760). OF. _nifles_ (Godefroy). See EDD. (s.v. Nifle).

=nifling,= trifling, worthless, Lady Alimony, ii. 6. 10.

=niggers, niggers-noggers,= meaningless forms, used as minced oaths. Rowley, A Match at Midnight, i. 1 (Tim.); also _sniggers_, id.

=niggish,= niggardly, miserly; ‘Niggish slovenrie’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 11; ‘Nigeshe penny fathers’, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 102). See Nares.

=niggle,= to do anything in a trifling, fiddling, ineffective way; ‘Take heed, daughter, you niggle not with your conscience’, Massinger, Emperor of the East, v. 3 (Theodosius). In prov. use with numerous variations of sense, see EDD. Norw. dial. _nigla_ (Aasen).

=night-cap,= a nocturnal bully, a notorious roisterer. Webster, Duch. of Malfi, ii. 1; Devil’s Law-case, ii, 1. See =Roaring Boys.=

=night-rail,= a night-dress. Middleton, Mayor of Queenboro’, iii. 2 (1 Lady); Massinger, City Madam, iii. 2 (end); iv. 4 (Luke). In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Night, 1 (29)). OE. _hrægl_, dress. See Nares (s.v. Night-rail), and Dict. (s.v. Rail, 4).

=night-snap,= a thief (Cant). Beaumont and Fl., Chances, ii. 1 (John).

=nil=(=l,= to be unwilling, often denoting simple futurity; ‘I nill live in sorrowe’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 151; ‘I nill relate’, Pericles, iii, prel. 55; _will he nill he_, Hamlet, v. 1. 18; _to will and nill_, B. Jonson, Epigrams, xlii. 16; _nild_, pt. t. would not, ‘Unto the founts Diana nild repair’, Greene, Radagon’s Sonnet, 17 (ed. Dyce, p. 301). ‘Nill ye, will ye’, whether you wish or not, is in use in Scotland; ‘Nildy wildy’, whether one would or not, is heard is E. Anglia (EDD.). ME. _nil_, pr. s.; _nolde_, pt. t. (Chaucer).

=nim,= to steal. Puritan Widow, i. 4. 167; Butler, Hud. i. 1. 598; hence, _nimmer_, a thief, id., ii. 3. 1094; Tomkis, Albumazar, iii. 7 (end); _nimming_, stealing, Massinger, Guardian, v. 2 (Durazzo). ‘Nim’ and ‘Nimmer’ are in prov. use (EDD.). ME. _nimen_, to take, to seize (P. Plowman), see Dict. M. and S.; OE. _niman_, to take; cp. G. _nehmen_.

=nine-holes,= a game in which the players endeavoured to roll small balls into nine holes in the ground, all separately numbered. Drayton, Pol. xiv. 22; Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal vi (Melanthus). See EDD. (s.v. Nine, 1 (9)), and NED. (s.v. Nine-holes).

=nine men’s morris,= a rural game, called also Merrils, described in Brand’s Pop. Antiq. (ed. 1877, p. 542), Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 98. Called ‘Morris’ by popular etymology, as if with reference to the movement (or dance) of the men (or pieces). But the right name was ‘Merelles’ (i.e. counters or pieces used in the game). Cp. Cotgrave: ‘_Merelles, Le jeu des merelles_, The boyish game called Merils or five-penny Morris, played here most commonly with stones, but in France with pawns or men made of purpose, and termed Merelles.’ See Ducange (s.v. Merallus), EDD. (s.v. Nine, 1 (12)), and Nares (s.v.).

=ningle,= ‘ingle’; _mine ingle_ became _my ningle_, my favourite. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iv. 3 (Roderigo); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, iii. 1 (Fustigo). See =ingle.=

=nip,= a taunt, sarcasm, reproof. Puttenham, E. Poesie, bk. i, c. 27 (ed. Arber, p. 68). ‘Nip’ in prov. use means a pinch or squeeze; a bite or sting, see EDD. (s.v. Nip, sb.^{1} 15, 16).

=nip a bung,= to steal a purse (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor); ‘A pickpocket, as good as ever _nipped_ the judge’s _bung_ while he was condemning him’, The London Chanticleers, scene 1 (Heath); Cleveland (Nares); _nip_, a cutpurse, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll). Hence _nipper_, ‘A nypper is termed a pickpurse or a cutpurse’, Fletewood (in Aydelotte, p. 95).

=nip a jan,= to steal a purse (Cant). B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman). See _Jan_ in NED.

=nipitato,= strong liquor; ‘A drink In England found, and Nipitato call’d, Which driveth all the sorrow from your hearts’, Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iv. 2 (Pompiona). Hence, _nippitate_, strong (said of wine), Chapman, Alphonsus, iii. 1 (Collen). See Nares.

=nis,= is not. Spenser, Shep. Kal., June, 19. ME. _nis_ (Chaucer). OE. _nis_, for _ne is_, is not.

=niste, nist,= knew not. Spelt _nyst_, Morte Arthur, leaf 339. 4; bk. xvi, c. 9. ME. _niste_ (Chaucer, C. T. F. 502). OE. _nyste_, for _ne wyste_; _wiste_, pt. t. of _witan_, to know.

=nithing,= a vile coward; a term of severe reproach. _Nithing_, Blount’s Gloss.; spelt _niding_, Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. xviii (end); p. 79. Icel. _nīðingr_, legally the strongest term of abuse for a traitor, coward, or the like (Vigfusson).

=no,= used ironically; ‘No rich idolatry’ (i.e. great idolatry), Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, iv. 3 (Learchus); ‘No villainy’ (i.e. great villainy), Mad Lover, iii. 6 (Chilax).

=noble,= a coin worth 6_s._ 8_d._ Richard II, i. 1. 88.

=noblesse,= noble birth or condition. Kyd, Cornelia, ii. 297; the nobility, persons of noble rank, ‘There is in every state . . . two portions of subjects; the Noblesse and the Commonaltie’, Bacon, Essay 15, § 13; Richard II, iv. 1. 119 (1st quarto only). ME. _noblesse_, nobleness, noble rank (Chaucer). F. _noblesse_, ‘nobility, gentry; gentlemanliness’ (Cotgr.).

=nobley,= great display, splendour. Morte Arthur, leaf 158, back, 8; bk. viii, c. 29; lf. 211, back, 32; bk. 10, c. 6. ME. _nobley_, nobility, dignity, splendour, noble rank; assembly of nobles (Chaucer). OF. _noblei_(_e_, nobility of rank or estate; Anglo-F. _noblei_, nobleness (Rough List).

=nocent,= harmful. Milton, P. L. ix. 186; guilty, Greene, James IV, v. 6 (Sir Cuthbert). L. _nocens_, hurtful, culpable.

=nock,= a notch at the end of a bow, or in the head of an arrow; ‘The nocke of the shafte’, Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 127). Also, the cleft of the buttocks, Butler, Hud. i. 1. 285. Du. _nock_, ‘a notch in the head of an arrowe’ (Hexham). See Nares.

=nock,= (perhaps) a notch. The phr. _much in my nock_ seems to mean ‘much in my line’, ‘very suitable for me’, Triumphs of Love and Fortune (last speech but one of Lentulo), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 242. So also _beyond the nock_, above or beyond measure, ‘He commendeth hym by yonde the nocke, _Il le prise oultre bort_, or _oultre mesure_’, Palsgrave.

=noddy,= a simpleton. Two Gent. i. 1. In gen. prov. use (EDD.).

=noddy,= a card-game. Heywood, Woman killed with Kindness (Wendell); B. Jonson, Love Restored (Plutus); Westward Ho, iv. 1 (Birdlime); Northward Ho, ii. 1 (Liverpool). See Nares.

=nog,= a kind of strong beer, brewed in East Anglia, esp. in Norfolk; ‘Walpole laid a quart of nog on’t’, Swift, Upon the Horrid Plot, &c., 31; ‘Here’s a Norfolk nog’, Vanbrugh, A Journey to London, i. 1 (John Moody). See EDD. (s.v. Nog(g)).

=noise,= a company of musicians, a band. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 13; Beaumont and Fl., Wit at several Weapons, iii. 1. 4. Common. The phrase _Sneak’s noise_ (2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 13) is copied by Heywood, Iron Age (Thersites), vol. iii, p. 312.

=nones:= phr. _for the nones_ = _for then ones_, for the once, for the occasion. Peele, Arr. of Paris, i. 1. 9; B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. i (Nano). See Dict. (s.v. Nonce).

=nook-shotten,= provided with capes and necks of land; ‘That nook-shotten isle of Albion’, Hen. V, iii. 5. 14. See the quotations in NED.

=noonstead,= the sun’s place at noon; the meridian. Spelt _noonestede_, Sackville, Induction, st. 7; ‘Now it nigh’d the noonstead of the day’, Drayton, Mooncalf (Nares). ‘Noonstead’ for the point of noon is known in north Yorks. (EDD).

=nope,= a bull-finch. Drayton, Pol. xiii. 74; ‘A Nope (bird), _rubicilla_’, Coles, 1679; ‘_Chochepierre_, a kind of nowpe or bullfinch that feeds on the kernels of cherri-stones’, Cotgrave. In prov. use. in various parts of England (EDD.). See =awbe.=

=noppe,= nap of cloth. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 453. Du. _noppe_, nap (Hexham). See Dict. (s.v. Nap.^{2}).

=noppy,= ‘nappy’ (as ale), having a head, strong. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 102. ‘Nappy’ is in gen. prov. use in England and Scotland (EDD.). See above.

=nosel;= see =nuzzle.=

=nose-thrilles,= nostrils. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 75. 3; § 84. 2. OE. _nosþyrel_, nostril.

=n’ot,= know not. _I not_, I know not, Gascoigne, Complaint of Philomene, 114. ME. _noot_ (_not_), 1 and 3 pr. s., I know not, he knows not (Chaucer); OE. _nāt_ (for _ne wāt_).

=notted,= without horns; ‘A lamb . . . it is notted’ (footnote, without horns), Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal ii, 87. In prov. use we find ‘notted’ (‘knotted’, ‘natted’) meaning hornless, gen. of sheep; also ‘not’, hornless, of sheep or cattle, see EDD. (s.v. Not, adj.).

=nott-headed,= having head with hair cropped short. Chapman, Widow’s Tears, i (Tharsalio); B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 3 (Preamble). ME. _not-heed_, a head with hair cropped short (Chaucer, C. T. A. 109); see Skeat’s Notes in Complete Edition. OE. _hnot_, bald-headed, close-cut (Sweet).

=noulde,= would not. Spenser, Shep. Kal., February, 192. ME. _nolde_ (Chaucer); OE. _nolde_ (for _ne wolde_).

=noule;= see =nowl.=

=nourry,= a foster-child. Sir E. Wingfield, Letter to Wolsey (NED.); _nourie_, Turbervile, The Lover wisheth, &c., st. 4; _noorie_, id., Epit., &c., 60; id., Ovid’s Epistle, x (NED.) F. _nourri_, nourished, nurtured.

=nousle up;= See =nuzzle= (2).

=novel,= news; ‘The novell’, Heywood, Golden Age, A. iv (Jupiter); vol. iii, p. 55; Iron Age, Part II, A. ii (Soldier); p. 373. See Nares.

=novum,= an old game at dice, played by five or six persons, the principal throws being nine and five. L. L. L. v. 2. 547; ‘Change your game for dice; We are full number for _Novum_’, Cook, Greene’s Tu Quoque; in Ancient E. Drama, ii. 551, col. 1; spelt _novem_, A Woman never vexed, ii. 1. 5. The ‘full number’ in this company was _six_; the two principal throws were _nine_ and _five_. The game was properly called _novem quinque_ (Douce); see Nares.

=nowl,= the crown of the head; the head. Mids. Night’s D. iii. 2. 17; _noule_, Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 39. In prov. use (EDD.). OE. _hnoll_, the top, summit, crown of the head. See Dict. (s.v. Noule).

=nowl,= a blockhead. Jack Juggler, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 113.

=nowle,= a mole-hill. Tusser, Husbandry, § 36. 17.

=nown,= own. _Mine own_ became _my nown_; hence _his nowne_ = his own; Udall, Roister Doister, i. 1. 49. See Nares.

=noy,= annoyance, vexation. Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, pp. 522, 532); _noy_, to annoy, Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 45; _noyance_, annoyance, id., i. 1. 23; _noyous_, troublesome (NED.). See Nares.

=noyfull,= harmful, disagreeable. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 24, § 2.

=nuddle,= to beat, to pummel. Rawlins, The Rebellion, iv. 1 (Trotter).

=nuddock,= the nape of the neck. Phaer, Aeneid vii, 742. ‘Nuddick’ is the Cornish word for the back of the neck, see EDD. (s.v. Niddick).

=nullifidian,= a man of no faith, a sceptic in matters of religion. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Perfumer).

=numbles,= certain inward parts of a deer; part of the back and loins of a hart; ‘Noumbles of a dere or beest, _entrailles_’, Palsgrave; Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 7; _nomblis_, Boke of St. Albans, fol. e 7 b. F. _nombles d’un cerf_, ‘the numbles of a stag’ (Cotgr.); OF. _nomble_ (Godefroy). See Dict. And see =umbles.=

=numerical,= particular, individual; ‘Not only of the specifical, but numerical forms’, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med., pt. i, § 33. Also (with _same_ or _very_) identical, ‘That very numerical lady’, Dryden, Marriage à la Mode, ii. 1 (Palamede); also in form _numerick_, ‘The same numerick crew’, Butler, Hud. i. 3. 461.

=nup,= a simpleton; ‘The vilest nup’, Brewer, Lingua, ii. 1 (end).

=nupson,= a simpleton. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum., iv. 6 (Brainworm); id., Devil an Ass, ii. 1 (Pug).

=nursle,= to nurse; ‘To have a Bastard . . . nursled i’ th’ Countrey’, Brome; Eng. Moor, iii. 3 (NED.); _noursle up_, to train up, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 4. 35. See =nuzzle.=

=nurt, nort,= to push with the horns. Tusser, Husbandry, § 20. 28; _nort_, to push toward, Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. viii, ch. 21. _Nurt_, possibly related to OF. _hurter_ (F. _heurter_), to push.

=nuzzle,= to poke or push with the nose; ‘I nosyll as a swyne dothe, _je fouille du museau_’, Palsgrave spelt _nousle_, Venus and Ad. 1115; to nestle close to a person, Heywood, Pleas. Dial. (Wks., ed. 1874, vi. 201); Marston, What you will, iii. 2 (Albano). Cp. Du. _neuselen_, to poke with the nose (Kilian).

=nuzzle,= to train, educate, nurture (freq. with _up_). Marston, Antonio’s Revenge, Prol. 16; Drayton, Pol. xi. 180; _nosel_, Nice Wanton, Prol. 9, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 163; _nousle up_, Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 23; _noursle up_, F. Q. vi. 4. 35; _nuzled in_, pp. trained in, Holinshed, Chron. iii. 1225 (NED.); _nusled in_, New Customs, iii. 1; Light of Gospel (in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 44). See NED. See =nursle.=

=nycibecetour,= a dainty dame, a fashionable girl; ‘Nycibecetours, or denty dames’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 120; _nicibecetur_, Roister Doister, i. 4. 12.

=nye,= to draw nigh, approach. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 316; ‘We shall nyghe the towne’, Palsgrave, 644.

=nyefe;= see =neif.=

†=nysot,= a wanton girl. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1244. Not found elsewhere.

O

=O,= a round spot; a circle; ‘This wooden O’ (i.e. circular space), Hen. V, Prol. 13; Ant. and Cl. v. 2. 81. See =oes.=

=oade,= woad. B. Jonson, Poetaster, ii. 1 (Albius).

=oatmeals,= a set of riotous and profligate young men (Cant); ‘Roaring boys and oatmeals’, Ford, Sun’s Darling, i. 1 (Folly’s song).

=Ob and Soller,= a dabbler in scholastic logic; one who deals with _obs_ (objections) and _sols_ (solutions) in disputations; ‘To pass for deep and learned Scholars, although but paltry Ob and Sollers’, Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 1242.

=obarni,= in full _Mead obarni_, i.e. ‘scalded mead’, a drink used in Russia; ‘Hum, Meath and Obarni’, B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 1 (Sat.). Russ. _obvarnyi_, scalded.

=oblatrant,= railing, reviling. One of the words ridiculed by B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1 (Crispinus). L. _oblatrare_, to bark at.

=obley,= a little cake of bread, prepared for consecration in the celebration of the Eucharist, the sacramental wafer; ‘The kyng shall offre an obbley of brede . . . with the whiche obleye after consecrate the king shall be howseld’, Devyse, Coron. Hen. VIII (NED.); spelt _ubblye_, Morte Arthur, leaf 360. 6; bk. xvii, ch. 20. ME. _obly_ or _ubly_. ‘nebula’ (Prompt. EETS. 312, see note, no. 1528); _obeley_ ‘oblata’ (Voc. 598. 24). OF. _oublee_, ‘hostie’ (Didot), Med. L. _oblata_, ‘panis ad sacrificium oblatus, hostia nondum consecrata’ (Ducange).

†=obliquid,= directed obliquely. Only in Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 54.

=obnoxious,= exposed to; ‘The having them obnoxious to ruin’, Bacon, Essay 36, § 3; submissive, ‘In consort, men are more obnoxious to others’ humours’, id., Essay 20, § 6; ‘They that are envious towards all are obnoxious and officious towards one’, id., Essay 44, § last; Dryden, ii. 1 (Emperor). L. _obnoxius_, lit. exposed to harm, also, exposed to the power of another, hence, submissive.

=obsequies,= funeral rites, a funeral. 3 Hen. VI, i. 4. 147. Anglo-F. _obsequies_ (Rough List), Med. L. _obsequiae_, ‘exequiae funebres’ (Ducange).

=obsequious,= dutiful in performing funeral obsequies, or in manifesting regard for the dead; ‘To shed obsequious teares upon this Trunke’, Titus And. v. 3. 152; ‘To do obsequious Sorrow’, Hamlet, i. 2. 92; _obsequiously_, in the manner of a mourner, ‘I obsequiously lament’, Richard III, i. 2. 3.

=obtrect,= to disparage. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 1 (Usher). L. _obtrectare_.

=occupy,= to make use of; ‘Sondrie wares, . . . that men did commonly occupy’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 67; to trade, Luke xix. 13; ‘They dyd dwell amonges them . . . occupying with them verye familiarly’, More’s Utopia (ed. Arber, 31). See Bible Word-Book. But often used in an indecent sense, till the word became odious, as Shak. notes, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 161.

=occurrent,= occurrence, event. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, 68 and 181); BIBLE, 1 Kings v. 4.

=odible,= hateful. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 12, § last; Fabyan, Chron., bk. i, c. 8. L. _odibilis_.

=œillade,= an amorous glance. Merry Wives, i. 3. 68. F. _œillade_ (Cotgr.), deriv. of _œil_, an eye.

=o’er-hill’d,= covered over. B. Jonson, Masque of Beauty (January). See =hill.=

=oes,= bright round spots. Bacon, Essay 36; stars, Mids. Night’s D. iii. 2. 188; _O’s_, small metallic spangles, as in ‘embroidered with _O’s_’, B. Jonson, Masque of Hymen, prose description at the end, § 3.

=oil:= _oil of angels_, oil of gold coins (i.e. coin employed in bribes). Massinger, Duke of Milan, iii. 2 (Officer). _Oil of ben_ (or _been_), oil from the _ben-nut_, or winged seed of the horse-radish tree (_Moringa pterygosperma_). Middleton, The Widow, ii. 1 (Ricardo). Arab, _bân_, the horseradish tree, or ben-nut. See Stanford (s.v. Ben). _Oil of devil_, a ‘momentous preparation’ of unknown ingredients. Beaumont and Fl., Humorous Lieutenant, iii. 3 (Leontius). _Oil of height_, the red elixir, a red oil, fabled to transmute other metals into gold. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly). _Oil of luna_, the white elixir, for transmuting other metals into silver. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle). _Oil of mace_, oil from the spice called _mace_; but with a punning reference to the mace borne by a serjeant who arrested a prisoner. Middleton, A Mad World, iii. 2 (Sir B.). _Oil of talc_, a cosmetic, said to have been obtained from talc. B. Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2 (Subtle); Massinger, City Madam, iv. 2 (Shave ’em).

=old,= great, plentiful, abundant; ‘Old utis’, high merriment, 2 Hen. IV, iv. 2. 22; ‘Ould filching’, abundant stealing, Arden of Fev. ii. 2. 53. ‘Old’ is used as an intensitive in many parts of England and Scotland, e.g. in Cheshire ‘old doings’ signify great sport, great merriment, an uncommon display of hospitality, see EDD. (s.v. Old, 11). ME. ‘gode olde fyghtyng’, Bone Florence, 681 (NED.).

=old,= a country pronunc. of ‘wold’, plain open country. King Lear, iii. 4. 125; also _ould_, Drayton, Pol. xxvi. 38.

=oilet-hole,= an ‘eyelet-hole’, a small round hole worked in cloth. Shirley, Opportunity, ii. 1 (Pimponio); Gent. of Venice, iii. 1. 7. F. _œillet_, a little eye, an eilet-hole (Cotgr.). From F. _œil_, an eye. See NED. (s.v. Oillet).

=olfact,= to smell; a pedantic form. Butler, Hud. i. 1. 742. L. _olfactus_, pp. of _olfacere_, to smell.

=oliphant,= elephant. Heywood, Brazen Age (Meleager), vol. iii, p. 187. ME. _oliphant_ (Kingis Quair, 156); Anglo-F. _olifant_ (Ch. Rol. 3119), _oliphant_ (Bozon, 19).

=olla podrida,= a medley. Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, i. 4 (Roscius solus). Span. _olla podrida_ (lit. rotten pot), a dish composed of many kinds of meats and vegetables stewed or boiled together; for detailed account of ingredients, see Stevens.

=on cai me on;= ‘Bid _on cai me on_, farewell’, Marlowe, Faustus, 40 (ed. Tucker Brooke). Gk. ὂν καὶ μὴ ὄν, existence and non-existence (Aristotle). The meaning is, Bid farewell to Aristotle and philosophy.

=on-end:= phr. _still on-end_, continually. Mirror for Mag., Northumberland, st. 17. See =an-end.=

=on gog,= ‘a-gog’, in eagerness, full of eagerness. Gascoigne, Grief of Joy, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 288; _to set on gog_, to excite, make eager, Twyne, tr. of Aeneid, x (NED.).

=on hight,= aloud, in a high voice. Spenser, F. Q. v. 4. 45. ME. _on highte_: ‘And spak thise same wordes al on highte’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1784).

=one,= alone, _solus_; ‘I one of all other’, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 170); _his one_, his own, ‘Then was she judged Triamond his one’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 5. 21.

†=oneyers;= ‘Burgomasters and great oneyers’, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 84. Meaning doubtful; perhaps persons who converse with great ones (Schmidt).

=only,= alone; ‘Th’ only breath him daunts’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 13; especial, ‘Mine onely foe, mine onely deadly dread’, id., i. 7. 50; ‘His onely hart-sore and his onely foe’, id., ii. 1. 2.

=onsay,= a saying of ‘On!’, the word to advance, the signal to start. New Custom, ii. 2, l. 10 from end; see NED.

=ontwight;= see =untwight.=

=operance,= operation, action. Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 3. 73.

=operant,= operative, active. Hamlet, iii. 2. 184; Webster, Appius, v. 3 (Virginius); Heywood, The Royal King, i. 1 (King); vol. vi, p. 6.

†=ophic,= (?) relating to serpents; ‘Resolve To ophic powder’, Lady Alimony, ii. 3 (Morisco). The sense is doubtful.

=oppignorate,= to pawn, to pledge. Bacon, Hen. VII (ed. Lumby, 91). L. _oppignerare_, to pledge; from _pignus_, a pledge.

=optic,= a magnifying glass, lens. Beaumont and Fl., Thierry, i. 1 (Theodoret); _optic glass_, a telescope, Milton, P. L. i. 288.

=optimate,= a noble or aristocrat. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, i. 381; xi. 706. L. _optimates_, prop. members of the ‘Nobilitas’ in Rome, fr. _optimus_, best.

=opunctly,= according to appointment; at the time appointed. In Cook, Green’s Tu Quoque; Ancient E. Drama, ii. 565, col. 2. For _appunctly_. Cp. Med. L. _appunct_(_u_)_are_, ‘pacisci, convenire’ (Ducange).

=orangeado-pie,= a pie with candied orange-peel. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, iv. 2 (Crambo). See =oringado.=

=orbity,= bereavement, childlessness. Heywood, Dialogue 2 (Pamphilus); vol. vi, p. 127. L. _orbitas_, orphanage, childlessness.

=ordinary,= a public dinner, where each one pays his share. ‘Crown ordinary’, a five-shilling dinner, Beaumont and Fl., Bloody Brother, iv. 2 (Norbret); ‘He kept a daily Ordinary (thanks being the only shot his guests were to pay)’, Fuller, Pisgah, iii. 6. 328. F. _ordinaire_, ‘ce qu’on a accoutumé de servir pour le repas. _Il tient un bon ordinaire_’ (Dict. Acad. 1762).

=ordinately,= regularly, in an orderly way, righteously; ‘To walke ordinatly, and in a plain way’, Latimer, 1 Sermon bef. King (ed. Arber, 27). Cp. L. _ordinate_, in an orderly manner (Vulgate, 1 Mac. vi. 40).

=ore,= the name of a fine kind of wool, esp. from Leominster; ‘To whom did never sound the name of Lemster ore?’, Drayton, Polyolbion, song vii, 1. 152; xiv. 237; ‘But then the ore of Lempster’, B. Jonson, The Honour of Wales, 2 Song; ‘The finest Lemster ore’, Herrick, Oberon’s Palace; Fuller, Worthies, 33. See EDD., NED., and Notes and Queries, 6th S. i. 260.

=ore,= seaweed. Drayton, Pol. iv. 74. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.vv. Ore and Ware). OE. _wār_, ‘alga’ (Napier, OE. Glosses, 23. 2).

=orgule,= pride. State Papers, Hen. VIII, i. 88 (NED.). OF. _orguel_ (F. _orgueil_), pride.

=orguillous,= proud, haughty; ‘Proud and orgulllous’, Caxton, Reynard (ed. Arber, 36); _orgillous_, Tr. and Cr., Prol. 2. Anglo-F. _orguillous_ (Gower, Mirour, 1612). F. _orgueilleux_, proud.

=oricalche,= a very precious metal. Spenser, Muiopotmos, 78. L. _orichalcum_, yellow copper ore, brass, highly prized by the ancients; Gk. ὀρείχαλκος, mountain-copper (hence F. _archal_, in _fil d’archal_, brass-wire).

=orient,= applied to pearls and precious stones of superior quality and brilliancy, as coming from the East. B. Jonson, Volpone, i. 1 (Mosca). Hence lustrous, brilliant, bright; ‘Now Morn . . . sowed the earth with orient pearl’, Milton, P. L. v. 2; ‘Ten thousand banners rise into the air with orient colours waving’, id., i. 516. Cp. F. _perles d’Orient_ (Dict. Acad. 1762).

=oringado,= candied orange-peel. Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, i. 1 (Steward). Cp. Span. _naranjada_, ‘a conserve made with oranges’; _naranja_, orange (Stevens). See =orangeado-pie.=

=ork, orc,= a sea-monster. Drayton, Pol. ii. 95; vii. 51. L. _orca_.

=orkyn,= a small coin, a quarter of a stiver; ‘Bye an yearthen potte . . . for an orkyn’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 28. Du. _oortken_, ‘an _orkey_, or the fourth part of a stiver, or two doits’ (Hexham); dimin. of _oort_, a small coin; see Franck.

=orped,= stout, active, bold. Spelt _orpid_, Golding, Metam. vii. 440; fol. 85 (1603); (of a boar) fierce, furious, id., viii. 395; fol. 99. ME. _orped_, stout, brave (Gower, C. A. i. 2590); see Dict. M. and S. OE. _orped_, gloss of _adultus_, syn. _snell_ (Napier, OE. Glosses, 3361).

=orpharion,= a large kind of lute with from six to nine pairs of strings, played with a plectrum; ‘The orpharion to the lute’, Drayton, Pastorals, iii. 111. Composed of the names of Orpheus and Arion, mythical musicians of Greek poetry.

=orphelin,= an orphan. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 171. 11. Anglo-F. _orphelin_, destitute, _orphanin_, an orphan (Gower); Late L. type *_orphaninus_, deriv. of _orphanus_, Gk. ὀρφανός, bereft of parents or children.

=orpin,= orpiment, yellow arsenic. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 713. F. _orpin_, ‘orpine, orpiment or arsenick’ (Cotgr.).

=ortyard,= orchard. Golding, Metam. xiv. 624; fol. 175, back (1603). OE. _ortgeard_. The first element _ort_ = L. _hortus_ (in Med. L. _ortus_), a garden; cp. Norm. F. _ort_, ‘jardin, verger’ (Moisy 558), Anglo-F. _ort_ (Gower, Mirour, 12868).

=ospringer,= an osprey. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xviii. 557; ‘Ospringe, a byrde’, Palsgrave.

=ossifrage,= the Lammergeyer or Geir Eagle, identified with the ‘ossifraga’ of Pliny; ‘_Ossifrage_, a kind of Eagle, having so strong a Beak that therewith she breaks bones and is therefore called a bone-breaker’, Blount; in BIBLE, Lev. xi. 13, ossifrage (RV. gier eagle). Identified with the ‘osprey’ or fish-hawk. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, iii. 505.

=ostend,= to show. Webster, Sir T. Wyatt (Q. Mary), ed. Dyce, p. 194; Heywood, Silver Age (Jupiter), vol. iii, p. 163. L. _ostendere_.

=ostent,= a prodigy, manifestation. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, v. 748; show, Hen. V, v, chorus, 21; ostentation, Heywood, Iron Age, Part I (Ulysses); vol. iii, p. 329. Also, to display, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 14, § 6. L. _ostentum_, a prodigy (Vulg., Exod. vii. 3); _ostentare_, to display (Vulg., Heb. vi. 11).

=osteria,= a hostelry, inn. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 3 (Mosca); Beaumont and Fl., Fair Maid of the Inn, ii. 2. 1. Ital. _osteria_ (Florio), Med. L. _hostellaria_, ‘diversorium’ (Ducange).

=ostry,= a hostelry. Marlowe, Faustus, ii. 3 (Robin). Hence _ostry-faggot_, a faggot in a hostelry, Greene, Looking Glasse, iii. 3 (1242); p. 133, col. 1. See =hostry.=

=otacousticon,= an ear-trumpet, an instrument used to assist hearing. Tomkis, Albumazar, i. 3 (Ronca). Gk. ὠτ- (ὠτός, gen. of οὖς an ear) + ἀκουστικός, acoustic.

=other,= left; _other leg_, left leg, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 11. 23; _other eye_, left eye, id., iii. 9. 5; _other hand_, left hand, id., v. 12. 36.

=other-gates,= of another kind. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, ii. 1 (Truepenny); ‘Works . . . requiring other-gates workmen’, Gauden, Tears of the Church, Pref. (Davies); in another way, Twelfth Nt. v. 1. 199. Still survives in the north country and in Warwicksh. (EDD.).

=ouch,= the socket of a precious stone, an ornament, jewel. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iv. 1 (Moroso); ‘Thou shalt make them (the stones) to be set in ouches of gold’, BIBLE, Exod. xxviii. 11; 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 52. ME. _nowch_, ‘monile, scutuler’ (Prompt. EETS. 309). Anglo-F. _nouche_, a brooch (Gower, Balades, xxxiii. 2); _nusche_ (Rough List). See =owch.=

=ought,= _pt. t._ owned, possessed. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iii. 1 (Leonora). Also, owed; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 608; Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 39; ii. 8. 40. ME. _oght_ (Dest. Troy, 12404), _ouhte_, owned, possessed (P. Plowman, C. iv. 72). OE. _āhte_, pt. t. of _āgan_, to possess, own. See =owe.=

=oultrage,= ‘outrage’, violence. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 182, back, 31. Anglo-F. _oultrage_, _oltrage_, _outrage_, extravagant conduct (Gower). Med. L. _ultragium_, ‘immoderatio’, ‘injuria’ (Ducange), deriv. of L. _ultra_, beyond.

=oultrance:= phr. _put to oultrance_, put to the extremity, put to death; Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 67, back, 10. Anglo-F. _oultrance_: ‘la guerre jusques al oultrance’ (Gower, Mirour, 8040); see NED. (s.v. Outrance). See =utterance.=

=ouphe,= a fairy, an ‘elf’, ‘oaf’, goblin, Merry Wives, iv. 4. 49. Icel. _ālfr_, an elf. See =aulf.=

=out,= proverbial saying, _out of God’s blessing into the warm sun_, from better to worse, Heywood’s Proverbs, bk. ii, ch. 5 (ed. Farmer, pp. 67 and 148); Harrison, Desc. Britain, in Holinshed (ed. 1577, i. fol. 11a). Cp. Lyly’s Euphues (ed. Arber, 320), ‘Thou forsakest God’s blessing to sit in a warme Sunne’; and, ‘If thou wilt follow my advice . . . thou shalt come out of a warme Sunne into God’s blessing’ (id. 196), where the proverb is reversed; ‘Thou must approve the common saw, Thou out of heaven’s benediction comest To the warm sun!’ King Lear, ii. 2. 157, 158 (see W. A. Wright’s note in C. P. Series). The original meaning of this proverbial expression is not clear.

=out,= to put out, extinguish, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 735; ‘Witness that Taper whose prophetick snuff Was outed and revived with one puff’, Quarles, Argalus and Parthenia (ed. 1678, 77).

=outbrast,= _pt. t._ burst out. Sackville, Induction, st. 11. Pt. t. of ME. _outbresten_; ‘The blode outbrast’ (Dest. Troy, 8045); see NED. (s.v. Outburst).

=out-brayed,= _pt. t._ brayed out, uttered aloud. Sackville, Induction, st. 18. Doubtless confused with =abraid.=

=out-breast,= to outvoice, surpass in singing. Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 3. 145.

=outcept,= except. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 2 (Pan); ii. 1 (Hilts).

=out-cry,= an auction; because such a sale was proclaimed by the common crier. B. Jonson, Catiline, ii. 1 (Fulvia); New Inn, i. 1 (Host); Fletcher, Maid in the Mill, v. 1 (Bellides). See Nares.

=outrecuidance,= arrogance. Chapman, Mons. d’Olive, iv. (Dique); Eastward Ho, iv. 1 (_or_ 2) (Golding). F. _oultrecuidance_, an overweening presumption, pride, arrogancy (Cotgr.); F. _outrecuidance_; O. Prov. _oltracuidar_, _oltra_, L. _ultra_, beyond + _cuidar_, to think, L. _cogitare_.

=outrider,= a highwayman. Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 43.

=outsquat,= to throw out (as from a sling), to scatter; ‘The greatest sort with slings their plummet-lompes of lead outsquats’, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, vii. 687.

=overcraw,= to triumph over, lit. to crow over. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 50. See Nares.

=overdight,= _pp._ covered over. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 53; iv. 8. 34. _Dight_, pp., appears in later poetic language to be often taken as an archaic form of _decked_, see NED. (s.v. Dight, vb. 10).

=overflown,= flushed with wine. Middleton, Phœnix, iv. 2 (Ph.). Cp. Milton, P. L., i. 502, ‘Then wander forth the sons of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.’

=overgrast,= overgrown with grass. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 130.

=overhaile,= to draw over. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 75. See =hale and ho.=

=overlashing,= extravagant. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 105); extravagance, Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 39.

=overlive,= to survive. Bacon, Essay 27, § 4.

=overlook,= to look down upon, despise. Hen. V, iii. 5. 9; B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 1 (Subtle).

=overlop,= the planking of a deck; the ‘orlop’; ‘His bed was not laid upon the overlop’, North, tr. of Plutarch, Alcibiades (Shak. Plutarch, p. 295, § 3). Du. _overloop_, ‘the covert or deck of anything; the hatches of a ship’ (Hexham).

=overseen,= betrayed into error, deluded. Chapman, Argument 2 to Iliad, bk. xiv; intoxicated, Earle, Microcosmographie, § 16; ed. Arber, p. 37. ‘Overseen’ is still in prov. use in both senses: (1) cheated, deluded; (2) overcome with drink, intoxicated; see EDD. (s.v. Overseen, 3 and 4).

=over-shot,= i.e. an _over-shot mill_, a mill worked by water pouring over the top of the wheel. Fletcher, Mad Lover, iv. 2 (Chilax).

=overthwart,= across, transversely. Morte Arthur, leaf 262, back, 15; bk. x, c. 64; cross, malicious, id., lf. 180. 25; bk. ix, c. 15; an adverse circumstance, Surrey, Praise of Mean Estate, 12; in Tottel’s Misc. p. 27. ‘Overthwart’ (meaning across) is in prov. use in many parts of England (EDD.). ME. _overthwarte_: ‘_ovyr wharte_, transversus’ (Prompt. EETS. 321).

=overture,= an open space. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 28. The gloss has: ‘_Overture_, an open place; the word is borrowed of the French, and used in good writers.’ Anglo-F. _overture_, an opening (Gower).

=overture,= used to mean _overthrow_. Middleton, Family of Love, i. 1 (Glister). See NED. for other examples.

=overwent,= oppressed, subdued. Spenser, Shep. Kal., March, 2. The gloss has: ‘overwent, overgone.’

=owch,= a clasp, esp. a jewelled clasp, jewel. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 31. See =ouch.=

=owdell,= a kind of poem. Drayton, Pol. iv. 184. Welsh _awdl_, a rime or assonance.

=owe,= to possess. Tempest, i. 2. 407; Meas. for M. i. 4. 83; ii. 4. 123. ME. _owen_, to possess (Chaucer, C. T. C. 361); OE. _āgan_. See =ought.=

=ower,= a form of _oar_; ‘And there row’d off with owers of my hands’, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xii. 628; cp. ‘my hands for oars’, id., x. 482.

=Owlglass,= a jester, buffoon. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iii. 1 (Tucca to Histrio). The word is an English equivalent of German _Eulenspiegel_; see below. ‘A merye jeste of a Man that was called Howleglas’, Title of an old German jest-book translated into English in 1560.

=owl-spiegle,= an English part-rendering of German _Eulenspiegel_ (_Eule_, owl + _spiegel_, glass mirror), the name of a German jester of mediaeval times, the hero of a jest-book. Used as a term of abuse: ‘Out, thou houlet! . . . owl-spiegle!’, B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maud.); ‘Ulen Spiegel!’, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Subtle). Hence F. _espiègle_ (Hatzfeld). See above.

=ox:= Proverbial saying—_The black ox has trod on his foot_, i.e. he has fallen into decay or adversity; it often implies old age: ‘She was a pretty wench . . now . . the black oxe hath trod on her foote’, Lyly, Sapho and Phao, iv. 2 (Venus); ‘When . . the blacke Oxe (shall) treade on their foote—who wil like of them in their age who loved none in their youth’, id., Euphues (ed. Arber, 55); ‘The black ox had not trod on his nor her foot’, Heywood’s Proverbs (ed. Farmer, p. 17); ‘The black ox never trod on his foot, i.e. he never knew what sorrow or adversity meant’, Ray, Prov. Phrases (ed. Bohn, 173). Cp. Gascoigne, Glasse of Governement, v. 6 (Gnomaticus). The saying is still in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Black, 5 (11)).

P

=paciens,= ‘patience’, a name given in the north and north-west of England to the bistort; ‘The herbe [Tobacco] is . . . garnished with great long leaves like the paciens’, Harrison, Descr. of England, Chronology, 1573 (ed. Furnivall, p. lv). See NED. (s.v. Passions).

=pack,= to practise deceitful collusion, to plot. Titus And. iv. 2. 155; _packed_, confederate, Com. Errors, v. 1. 219; contrived, Fletcher, Span. Curate, iv. 5 (Bartolus).

=packing,= confederacy, conspiracy, collusion. Tam. Shrew, v. 1. 121; Massinger, Gt. Duke of Florence, iii. 1 (Giovanni).

=pad,= a toad, proverbial saying, _a pad in the straw_, a lurking danger; ‘In straw thear lurcketh soom pad’, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 656; Gosson, School of Abuse, 63; Gammer Gurton’s Needle, v. 2 (Chat). In Yorks. ‘pad’ is used for a frog (EDD.); Icel. _padda_, a toad; Flem. _padde_, ‘crapauld’ (Plantin).

=paddock,= a toad. Hamlet, iii. 4. 190; a frog, ‘Padockes, _grenouilles_’, Palsgrave, 502. In gen. prov. use for a frog or toad (EDD.).

=pad,= a path, track. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (P. Can.); _horse pad_, a horse-path, Bunyan, Grace Abounding (NED.); _high pad_, the highway, Harman, Caveat, 84; also, a highwayman, ‘The High-Pad or Knight of the Road’, R. Head, Canting Acad. 88. _Pad_, a road-horse, a pad-nag, Shirley, Witty Fair One, i. 1. 5. Hence _padder_, a foot-pad, Massinger, New Way to pay, &c., ii. 1 (Marrall); _padding_, robbing on the highway, ‘Ride out a-padding’, Dryden, Princess of Cleves, Prol. 29. ‘Pad’ is in gen. prov. use for a path in various parts of the British Isles (EDD.). Low G. _pad_, path; _padden_, to go on foot (Koolman).

=pad,= a wicker pannier; ‘A haske is a wicker pad’, Glosse by E. K. to Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 16. In prov. use in the eastern counties, see EDD. (s.v. Pad, sb.^{5}), and NED. (Pad, sb.^{4}).

=pagador,= pay-master. Spenser, State of Ireland (Wks., Globe ed., 657). Span. _pagador_, a paymaster (Stevens).

=pagan,= a cant term of reproach. A paramour, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 168; a bastard, Fletcher, Captain, iv. 2 (Host).

=paggle,= to hang loosely down, like a bag. Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 3 (1421); scene 10. 63 (W.); p. 171, l. 1 (D.).

=paigle,= a cowslip. B. Jonson, Pan’s Anniversary (Shepherd, l. 7); spelt _paggles_, pl., Tusser, Husbandry, § 43. 25. In gen. prov. use (EDD.).

=painful,= painstaking, laborious. L. L. L. ii. 23; Tam. Shrew, v. 2. 147; ‘Such servants are oftenest painfull and good’, Tusser, Husbandry, 170. Still in use in the north country (EDD.).

=painted,= adorned with bright colouring; ‘A peinted sheathe’, a handsome exterior, Udall, tr. of Apoth., Diogenes, § 190; pride, vainglory, id., Socrates, § 56; ‘Peinted termes’, grandiloquence, id., Antigonus, § 14.

=painted cloth,= cloth or canvas painted in oils and used for hangings in rooms. L. L. L. v. 2. 579; As You Like It, iii. 2. 290; 1 Hen. IV, iv. 2. 28. It often showed moral pictures. See NED.

=pair of cards,= a pack of cards; ‘A payre of cardes’, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 49; Fletcher, Sea-voyage, i. 1 (Tibalt). See Nares.

=pair of organs,= an organ. Middleton, A Mad World, ii. 1 (Sir B.); ‘_Unes orgues_, a payre of organs, an instrument of musyke’, Palsgrave, 183. See NED. (s.v. Organ, 2 c).

=pair-royal,= in cribbage and other card games, three cards of the same denomination; a throw of three dice all turning up the same number of points, as three twos, &c. Hence, a set of three persons or things, Ford, Broken Heart, v. 3; ‘That great pair-royal of adamantine sisters’, Quarles, Emblems, v; Howell, Lex. Tetraglotton, Dedication; Butler, Ballad upon the Parliament (last line; _pair-royal_, riming with _trial_); ‘That paroyall of armies’, Fuller, Pisgah, iv. 2. 22. See Nares and NED. ‘Prial’ is in prov. use in various parts of England in the sense of (1) a ‘pair-royal’ in cards, (2) three of a sort, (3) a gathering of persons of a similar disposition (EDD.). See =parreal.=

=paise;= see =peise.=

=pall,= to become faint, to fail in strength. Hamlet, v. 2. 9; Phaer, Aeneid ix (NED.); to enfeeble, weaken; to daunt, appal, King James I, Kingis Quair, st. 18; Fletcher, Bloody Brother, ii. 1 (Latorch); Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, 532).

=palliard,= a lewd person, a thorough rascal. Dryden, Hind and Panther, ii. 563; Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song). _Palliards_, one of the twenty-four orders of Vagabonds; beggars who excited compassion by means of artificial sores, made by binding some corrosive to the flesh; see Harman, Caveat, p. 44, and Aydelotte, p. 27. F. _paillard_, ‘a knave, rascall’, &c. (Cotgr.); lit. one who lies on straw; F. _paille_, L. _palea_, straw.

=palm,= the flat expanded part of a deer’s horn, whence the points project. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iv. 124.

=palmplay,= a game resembling tennis, but played with the hand instead of a bat. Surrey, Prisoned in Windsor, 13; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 13. Cp. F. _jeu de paume_ (Dict. de l’Acad., s.v. Paume).

=palped,= that can be felt, palpable. Webster, Appius, iii. 1 (Icilius); Heywood, Brazen Age (Hercules), vol. iii, p. 206. L. _palpare_, to feel.

=palt,= to trudge; ‘Palting to school’, Nice Wanton, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 165.

=palter,= to shift, shuffle, equivocate. Macbeth, v. 8. 20; Ant. and Cl. iii. 11. 63.

=paltock,= a short coat, sleeved doublet. Morte Arthur, leaf 89, 27; bk. v, c. 10; OF. _paletocque_; ‘Paltocke, a garment, _halcret_’ (Palsgrave). ME. _paltok_ (P. Plowman, B. xviii. 25); _paltoke_ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 1569). F. _palletoc_, ‘a long and thick pelt or cassock, a garment like a short cloak with sleeves’ (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.v. Paletot).

=Paltock’s inn,= a mean or inhospitable place; Paltock is probably here a proper name, but the allusion is unknown. Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 52; Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii, l. 65 (a rendering of the Lat. ‘pollutum hospitium’, l. 61).

=pampestry,= a corrupt form of _palmistry_. Mirror for Mag., Bladud, st. 25. ME. _pawmestry_ (Lydgate, Assembly of Gods, 870).

=pamphysic,= concerning all nature. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle). Gk. παμ- + φυσικός.

=panada, panado,= bread boiled to a pulp, and flavoured with currants, sugar, &c. _Panada_, Massinger, A New Way, i. 2 (Furnace); _panado_, Middleton, The Witch, ii. 1 (Gasparo). In Eastward Ho, ii (Quicksilver), the word is spelt _poynado_. Span. _panada_. See Stanford (s.v. Panade).

=panarchic,= all-ruling. A nonce-word. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle). Gk. πάναρχος, all-ruling + _-ic_.

=panax,= all-heal; a healing plant, whence opopanax is made. Middleton, The Witch, iii. 3 (Firestone). L. _panax_; Gk. πάναξ, πανακής, all-healing.

=pandora,= a ‘bandore’, a musical instrument, a kind of lute. Rowley, All’s Lost, ii. 1. 4; _pandore_, Drayton, Pol. iv. 63. Gk. πανδοῦρα. See Stanford.

=paned hose,= breeches made of strips of different coloured cloth joined together; or of cloth cut into strips, between which ribs or stripes of another material or colour were inserted or drawn through. Beaumont and Fl., Woman-hater, i. 2 (Lazarillo); Wit at several Weapons, iv. 1 (Cunningham). From _pane_, a patch of cloth. OF. _pan_, L. _pannus_.

=panel;= see =pannel.=

=pannam,= bread (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); Harman, Caveat, p. 83.

=pannel,= a panel; a piece of cloth placed under the saddle to protect the horse’s back; also, a rough saddle. Butler, Hud. i. 1. 447; ‘A straw-stufft pannel’, Hall, Sat. iv. 2. 26; _panel_, Tusser, Husbandry, § 17. 5. OF. _panel_, a piece of cloth for a saddle, F. ‘_paneau_ (_panneau_), a pannel of a saddle’ (Cotgr.).

=pannikell,= the brain-pan, skull. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 23. L. _panniculus_, the membranous structure of the brain, see NED. (s.v. Pannicle).

=pantler,= the officer of a household in charge of the pantry. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 258; Brome, Jovial Crew, i. 1 (Springlove); ‘A pantler, _panis custos_, _promus_’, Gouldman. ME. _pantelere_, ‘panitarius’ (Prompt. EETS. 326, see note, no. 1571).

=pantofle,= a slipper, Massinger, Bashful Lover, v. 1; Unnat. Combat, iii. 2 (Page); Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, ii. 2 (Servant); Spanish Curate, iv. 1 (Ascanio); ‘_Baseæ_ . . . a kynde of slippers or pantofles’, Cooper, Thesaurus. F. _pantoufle_ (1489 in Hatzfeld). The usual English stress on the first syllable facilitated the corruptions: _pantapple_ (Baret), _pantable_ (Sydney, Arcadia), _pantocle_ (Ascham, Scholemaster, ed. Arber, 84), assimilated to words in _-ple_, _-ble_, _-cle_. See NED.

=pap:= phr. _pap with a hatchet_, infant’s food administered with a hatchet instead of a spoon; an ironical phrase for a form of reproof or chastisement; ‘They give us pap with a spoon before we can speak; and when wee speake for that wee love [like], _pap with a hatchet_’, Lyly, Mother Bombie, i. 3 (Livia); the name of a controversial tract attributed to Lyly.

=parage,= lineage; esp. noble lineage, high birth. Morte Arthur, leaf 110, back, 5; bk. vii, c.5; ‘Of high and noble parages’, Udall, Roister Doister, Act i, sc. 2; ed. Arber, p. 17. OF. _parage_, ‘parente, affinité; noblesse, naissance illustre’ (Didot); see Moisy. O. Prov. _paratge_, ‘naissance noble, noblesse’ (Levy); Med. L. _paraticum_, see Ducange (s.v. Paragium).

=paramento,= an article of apparel. Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, i. 1 (Incubo). Span. _paramento_, ornament; Med. L. _paramentum_, ornament; _parare_, ‘ornare’ (Ducange). See =pare.=

=paranymph,= friend of the bridegroom. Milton, Samson, 1020. F. _paranymphe_, ‘. . . an assistant in the . . . ordering of bridall businesses’ (Cotgr.). Gk. παράνυμφος, friend of the bridegroom (John iii. 29); Gk. παρά, beside; νύμφη, bride.

=parator;= see =paritor.=

=paravaunt,= beforehand, first of all. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 16; vi. 10. 15. F. _par avant_.

=parboil,= to boil thoroughly. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 1 (Downright). See Dict.

=parbreak, parbrake,= to vomit. Skelton, Duke of Albany, 322; Hall, Satires, i. 5. 9; Palsgrave. 478; Horman, Vulg. 39 (NED.); also, as sb., vomit, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 20. ME. _parbrakynge_, ‘vomitus’ (Prompt.); the usual form in Prompt. is _brakyn_, ‘vomo’ (see ed. EETS., Index, p. 749).

=parcel,= a portion, part, share; ‘A parcel of ground’, BIBLE, John iv. 5; Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 68. 63; Merry Wives, i. 1. 237; item, particular, All’s Well, iv. 3. 104; small party, L. L. L. v. 2. 160.

=parcel,= partly; _parcel-gilt_, partly gilded, esp. of silver ware. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 94. _Parcel_, used for _parcel-gilt_, Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, iv. 3 (Mother). So also _parcel-bawd_; Meas. for M. ii. 1. 63; Fletcher, Captain, i. 1 (Lodovico). _Parcel-popish_, Fuller, Worthies, Somerset. See NED. (s.v. Parcel, B. 1).

=parclose, perclose,= close, conclusion, esp. of literary matter. Warner, Alb. Eng. Epit. (ed. 1612, 377); Quarles, Sol. Recant. vii. 97. Norm. F. _parclose_, conclusion (Moisy); see also Didot.

=parcloos, parclose,= an enclosed space in a building, small chamber. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 9, back, 25. Anglo-F. _parclose_, an enclosure (Gower); OF. _parclouse_, ‘clos, lieu cultivé et fermé de murs ou de haies’ (Didot).

=pardalis,= a panther. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 667; _pardale_, Spenser, F. Q. i. 626. Gk. πάρδαλις, fem., a panther.

=pare,= to adorn. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 245, back, 26; Knight of la Tour (EETS.), p. 67, l. 2. Hence _parement_, an ornament, id., leaf 236. 27. See =paramento.=

=paregal,= fully equal. Skelton, Dethe of E. of Northumberland, 134; _peregall_, id., Speke Parrot, 430. Norm. F. _paregal_, ‘parfaitement égal’; see Moisy (s.v. Parigal). See =peregall.=

=parel,= ‘apparel’, clothing, attire; ‘A shining parel . . . of Tirian purple’, Surrey, Aeneid iv, 337. Hence, _parrelments_, clothes, Heywood, Witches of Lancs., i (near end), Wks. iv. 186. ME. _paraille_, clothing (P. Plowman, B. xi. 228). Norm. F. _apareiller_, ‘parer, orner’ (Moisy).

=parerga,= unimportant matters, secondary business. B. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, i. 1 (Compass). Gk. πάρεργα, pl. of πάρεργον, by-work.

=parget,= ornamental work in plaster. Spenser, Visions of Bellay, ii. 9. Anglo-F. _pargeter_, projeter, jeter et répandre en avant (Ch. Rol. 2634); see Moisy (s.v. Parjeter). See Dict., and see =pergit.=

=parish-top,= a large top kept for public exercise in a parish. Twelfth Nt. i. 3. 44. See =town-top.=

=paritor, parator,= ‘apparitor’, a summoning officer of an ecclesiastical court. Fletcher, Span. Curato, v. 2 (Bartolus); _parator_, Heywood, 2 Edw. IV (1 Apparitor), vol. i, p. 161. L. _apparitor_, a public servant, such as a lictor (Cicero).

=parket,= a ‘parakeet’. Marston, The Fawn, ii. 1 (Nymphadore).

=parlance,= speaking, speech; parleying. Speed, Hist. Gt. Britain, ix. 12. 575 (NED.). Norm. F. _parlance_, ‘entretien’ (Moisy).

=parlant,= one who parleys, or takes part in a conference. Warner, Alb. England, bk. iii, ch. 19, st. 32.

=parle,= a parley, conference. Tam. Shrew i. 1. 117; Hamlet, i. 1. 62; to parley. L. L. L. v. 2. 122.

=parlous,= alarming, mischievous, ‘perilous’, shrewd. Mids. Night’s D. iii. 1. 14; Richard III, ii. 4. 35.

=parmesant,= cheese made in the duchy of Parma. Middleton, The Changeling, i. 2 (3 Madman); _parmesent_, Ford, ’Tis pity, i. 4 (Poggio). F. _parmesan_, Ital. _parmegiano_, belonging to Parma. See Stanford (s.v. Parmesan).

=parnel,= a wanton young woman. Phillips, Dict., 1678; Becon, Popish Mass (Works, iii. 41), see NED. ME. _pernelle_ (P. Plowman, B. iv. 116); F. _peronnelle_, ‘une femme de peu’ (Dict. Acad., ed. 1762). ‘Parnel’ orig. a feminine Christian name, ME. _Peronelle_ (Gower, C. A. i. 3396); OF. _Peronelle_, a Christian name from St. _Petronilla_. Hence the surname Parnell (Bardsley, 582).

=paroli,= at faro or basset, the leaving of the money staked and the money won as a new stake; a doubling of the stakes. Farquhar, Sir Harry Wildair, ii. 1 (Banter); id., ii. 2 (Wildair). Ital. _paroli_, ‘a grand part, set, or cast at dice’; _parolare_, ‘to play at a grand part at dice’ (Florio). See Stanford.

=paronomasia,= a pun, play upon words; ‘The jingle of a more poor paranomasia’, Dryden, Account of Annus Mirabilis. Gk. παρονομσία. See Stanford.

=parreal,= ‘pair-royal’; meaning three of a sort. ‘The _we’s_, which is a distinct _parreal_ of wit bound by itself’, &c., Parson’s Wedding, ii. 3 (Wanton). The allusion is probably to the public-house sign, ‘We Three Loggerheads be’, a jocular painting of _two_ silly-looking faces, the unsuspecting spectator being of course the third. See History of Signboards (1866), p. 458. See =pair-royal.=

=parrelments;= see =parel.=

=parsee,= the trail of blood left by a wounded animal; ‘A . . . dogge that hunts my heart By _parsee_ each-wheare found’ (i.e. found everywhere by means of the blood-trail), Warner, Albion’s England, bk. vii, ch. 36, st. 90; ‘Ascanius and his company, drawing by _parsie_ [by the trail] after the stagge’, id., prose addition to bk. ii, § 22. F. _percé_, lit. pierced; hence, a wounded animal. Finally, confused with _pursue_. See =persue.=

=parson,= a prov. pronunciation of ‘person’. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, iii. 1 (Sir G. Lamb.); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, iv. 1 (Servant).

=part,= a party, a body of adherents or partisans; ‘The part of Chalengers’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 4. 25.

=partage,= a share. Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, iii. 2 (Mariana). Anglo-F. _partage_, sharing (Gower, Mirour, 1654).

=parted,= gifted with good parts. Tr. and Cr. iii. 3. 96; Massinger, Gt. Duke of Florence, iv. 2 (Sanazzaro).

=Partlet,= a word used as the proper name of any hen; also applied to a woman. Winter’s Tale, ii. 3. 75; 1 Hen. IV, iii. 3. 60. ME. _Pertelote_, the name of the hen in Chaucer’s Nun’s Priest’s Tale (C. T. B. 4075, 4295, 4552).

=partlette,= a neckerchief or handkerchief. Tyndale, Acts xix. 12, _partlettes_ = ‘semicinctia’ (Vulgate), σιμικίνθια, aprons; _partelettes_, Cranmer’s Bible, 1539; ‘_Un collet ou gorgias de quoi les femmes couvrent leurs poictrines_, a partlet’, Hollyband, 1580 (NED.).

=pash,= the head; usually in a depreciatory sense. Wint. Tale, i. 2. 128. In prov. use in Scotland (EDD.).

=pash,= to dash into pieces. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, ii. 2 (Harpax); Tr. and Cr. ii. 3. 213; v. 2. 10; to hurl, Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 2 (414) (Orlando). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

=pashe:= in phr. _for the pashe of God_, Roister Doister, iv. 3; _for the pashe of our sweete Lord Jesus Christ_, id., v. 5; _for the passion of God_, id., iv. 3.

=pass,= to go beyond, exceed, surpass. Merry Wives, i. 1. 310. Hence _passing_, surpassing; ‘Passing the love of women’, BIBLE, 2 Sam. i. 26; Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 24; extremely, Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. See EDD. (s.v. Pass, vb. 8).

=pass,= to care, reck; ‘I do not pass a pin’, Greene (Alphonsus), i. 1; _to pass of_, to care for, regard, ‘I pass not of his frivolous speeches’, id., Friar Bacon, i. 2. 271; _to pass for_, to care for, Marlowe, Edw. II, i. 4 (Edward).

=passado,= a motion forwards and thrust in fencing. L. L. L. i. 2. 184; Romeo, ii. 4. 26; iii. 1. 88. Cp. F. _passade_, Sp. _pasada_, It. _passata_.

=passage,= a game at dice; ‘Passage is a game at dice to be played at but by two, and it is performed with 3 dice. The caster throws continually till he hath thrown dubblets under ten, and then he is out or loseth, or dubblets above ten, and then he _passeth_, and wins’, Compleat Gamester, 1680, p. 119 (Nares); ‘_Passe-dix_, such a game as our Passage’, Cotgrave; ‘Learn to play at primero and passage’, B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum. i. 1 (Carlo); Rowley, A Woman never vexed, ii. 1. 3. See =court-passage.=

=passant= (in heraldry), walking and looking toward the dexter side, with three paws down, and the dexter forepaw raised; said of an animal. Merry Wives, i. 1. 20. F. _passant_, passing.

=passata,= the same as =passado.= Nabbes, Microcosmus, ii. 1 (Choler).

=passe-measure, passameasure= (Florio, 1598, s.v. Passamezzo), a slow dance of Italian origin, a variety of the ‘pavan’; _a passy measures Pavyn_, Twelfth Nt. v. 1. 205; _passa-measures galliard_, Middleton, More Dissemblers, v. 1 (Page). Ital. _passamezzo_, for _passo e mezzo_, i.e. a step and a half; see NED.

=passement,= gold or silver lace, braid of silk or other material. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, iii. 1 (Arber, 150). F. _passement_; Span. _passamano_, ‘lace of gold, silver or silk for cloaths’ (Stevens).

=passion,= sorrow, grief. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 3 (Dutch Merchant); iii. 1 (Weatherwise); a pathetic speech, Massinger, The Old Law, i. 1 (Simonides).

=passionate,= sorrowful; compassionate, loving, pitiful. King John, ii. 1. 554; Richard III, i. 4. 121; Shirley, Changes, i. 2; Spenser, Colin Clout, 427.

=pastance,= pastime; ‘For my pastance, hunt, syng, and daunce’, Song by Henry VIII; The Four Elements, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 23 (l. 5). F. _passe-temps_; see Montaigne, Essais, III. xiii (ed. 1870, p. 584), on ‘cette phrase ordinaire de “Passe-temps”’.

=pastillo,= a small roll of aromatic paste prepared to be burnt as a perfume. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, iv. 1 (Wit.). L. _pastillus_, an aromatic lozenge (Horace).

=pastler,= a maker of pastry, confectioner. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Alexander, § 9; ‘Cooks or Pastelars’, Stow, Survey of London (ed. Thoms, 115). ME. _pastelere_, ‘pastillarius’ (Prompt. EETS. 329, see note, no. 1582). OF. _pastellier_ (Godefroy).

=patache,= a tender, a vessel attending a squadron of ships; ‘Ships, pynaces, pataches’, Dekker, Wh. of Babylon; Works, ii. 256. Span. _patache_ (Stevens). Probably a Dalmatian word, cp. Med. L. _bastasia_, ‘naviculae apud Dalmatas species’ (Ducange). See Stanford.

=patch,= a clown, a paltry fellow. Macbeth, v. 3. 15; Massinger, Virgin Martyr, ii. 1 (Hireius).

†=pathaires,= explosive outbursts (?). Arden of Fev. iii. 5. 51. Not found elsewhere.

=patish,= to agree upon, bargain for; ‘The money, which the pirates patished for his raunsome’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Julius, § 1; ‘To pattish, patise, covenant, _pacisci_’, Levins, Manip. ‘Pattish’ is given as an obsolete Yorks. word in the sense of ‘to plot or contrive together’ (EDD.). Cp. OF. _patis_, ‘pacte, traité’ (Didot); _patiser_, to agree upon; deriv. of L. _pactum_, an agreement.

=patoun,= the meaning is uncertain. In B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum. iv. 4, ‘the making of the patoun’ may refer to the moulding of the tobacco into some shape for the pipe; cp. F. _pâton_, lump or pellet of paste (Dict. de l’Acad., 1762).

=patrico,= a hedge-priest among the gipsies, who performed marriages. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1. 4; B. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, ii (Waspe), near the end. See Aydelotte, p. 19.

=patrone,= a ‘pattern’, copy, sampler, exemplar; ‘Make all thynges accordynge to the patrone’ (κατὰ τὸν τύπον), Tyndale, Heb. viii. 5. The Gk. τύπος is so rendered in Cranmer’s Bible (1539), and in the Geneva Bible (1557); Coverdale, 2 Kings xvi. 10. F. _patron_, ‘modèle, exemple’ (Gloss. to Rabelais). O. Prov. _patron_, ‘modèle’ (Levy).

=patten,= a form of _pattern_. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 5 (_or_ 2) (E. Knowell); ‘A Patten, _prototypon_’, Levins, Manip.

=paunce, pawnce,= the ‘pansy’, or heart’s-ease. Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 142; Warner, Alb. England, bk. v, c. 28, st. 43; _panse_, Holland, Pliny, xxi. 10. 92. OF. _panse_, _pense_, thought, O. Prov. _pensa_, ‘pensée’ (Levy).

=pauncie,= the pansy. Tusser, Husbandry, § 43. 24; F. _pensée_, ‘a thought, also the flower Paunsie’ (Cotgr.).

=pautener, pawtener,= a wallet, scrip. Skelton, Ware the Hauke, 44; ‘Pautner, _malette_’, Palsgrave. ME. _pawtenere_, _pawytnere_, ‘cassidile’ (Prompt. EETS. 330, see note, no. 1592). F. _pautonniere_, ‘a shepherd’s scrip’ (Cotgr.).

=pavan,= a stately dance in which the dancers were elaborately dressed. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, i. 23 (Arber, 61); _pavin_, Twelfth N. v. 1. 207; _paven_, Fletcher, Mad Lover, ii. 2 (near end); _pavion_, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, i. 19. 12. F. _pavane_, Ital. _pavana_, Span. _pavana_ (_pabana_). See Stanford.

=pavis,= a convex shield large enough to cover the whole body, used esp. in sieges; ‘The shotte . . . they defended with Pavishes’, Hall, Chron. Hen. VIII, 42; ‘A pavis coveris thair left sydis’, Douglas, Aeneid vii, 13. 67; as used on board a ship, ranged along the sides as a defence against archery, Lydgate, Siege Harfleur (Arber’s Garner, viii. 16). Span. _paves_ (Stevens); Ital. _pavese_, _palvese_ (Florio); Med. L. _pavenses_, pl. (Ducange); perhaps from Pavia, see Hatzfeld (s.v. Pavois).

=paw,= improper, nasty, obscene; ‘Paw words’, Wycherley, Country Wife, v. 2 (Horner); ‘Marrying is a paw thing’, Congreve, Love for Love, v. 2 (Tattle). From _paw_, or _pah!_ interj., expressive of disgust.

=Pawn,= ‘the Pawn’; a corridor, which formed a kind of bazaar, in Gresham’s Royal Exchange. Westward Ho, ii. 1 (Justiniano); ‘Little lawn then served the Pawn’, T. Campion (ed. Bullen, 114). See Nares. F. _pan_ (de muraille), used in the Low Countries in the sense of ‘une gallerie ou cloistre, lieu ou on vend quelque marchandise, ou où on se pourmeine, _ambulacrum_’ (Kilian, 1599, s.v. Pandt). Cp. Du. _pandt_, ‘a Covert-walking place, or a gallerie where things are sould’ (Hexham).

=pax,= a tablet bearing a representation of a sacred object, kissed by the celebrating priest at mass, and passed round to be kissed by others. Hen. V, iii. 6. 42. Eccles. L. _pax_, ‘instrumentum quod inter Missarum solemnia populo osculandum praebetur’ (Ducange); also called _osculatorium_, see Dict. Ch. Antiq. (s.v. Kiss, 903).

=payne mayne,= white bread of the finest quality; ‘Payne mayne, _payn de bouche_’, Palsgrave. ME. _payndemayn_ (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1915); _payman_, ‘placencia’ (Voc. 788. 32). Anglo-F. _pain demeine_, Med. L. _panis dominicus_, lord’s bread, bread eaten by the master of the house; cp. L. _vinum dominicum_, Petronius, Sat. § 30. See =demain.=

=payre,= to impair, make worse, spoil. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 4. 26; § 97. 3. See =appair.=

=paytrelle,= ‘poitrel’, breastplate for a horse. Morte Arthur, leaf 119, back, 2; bk. vii, c. 17. Anglo-F. _peitral_ (Moisy). See Dict. (s.v. Poitrel).

=peace,= to keep silence; ‘Peace, foolish woman. _Duchess._ I will not peace’, Richard II, v. 2. 80; ‘He peaste and couched while that we passed by’, Sackville, Mirror Mag., Induction, lxxii.

=peak,= to make a mean figure, to play a contemptible part. Hamlet, ii. 2. 594; _peaking_, sneaking, mean-spirited, Merry Wives, iii. 5. 71.

=peak,= to droop, to be sickly, Macbeth, i. 3. 23; Tusser, Husbandry, § 67. 27. The word ‘peaking’ is used in the sense of sickly, wasted away, in many parts of England and Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Peak, vb.^{2} 1 (2)). See =pick.=

=peak-goose,= a dolt, a simpleton. Ascham, Scholemaster (ed. Arber, 54); Prophetess, iv. 3 (1 Guard); spelt _pea-goose_, Beaumont and Fl., Little French Lawyer, ii. 3 (Dinant); Cotgrave (s.v. Benet); Chapman, Mons. d’Olive, iii. 1 (Rhoderique).

=peakish,= remote, solitary; ‘Did house him in a peakish grange Within a forest great’, Warner, Alb. England, bk. viii, ch. 42, st. 2; ‘Snow on Peakish Hull’ (hill), Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. 4 (Ballad of Dowsabel, st. 5); ‘A pelting grange that peakishly did stand’, Golding, tr. of Ovid, Met. vi. 521 (L. _obscura_). See NED., where ‘Peakish’ is shown to refer (probably) to the ‘Peak’ in Derbyshire.

=pearl,= a disease of the eye. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Costanza). In Scottish use (EDD.). ME. _perle_ of þe eye, ‘glaucoma’ (Prompt.).

=pease, pese,= a pea. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Oct., 69; ‘A pese above a perle’, Surrey, The Lover excuseth himself, in Tottel’s Misc., p. 25; ‘Not worth two peason’, Surrey, Frailty of Beauty, id., p. 10; _Peason_, peas, Tusser, Husbandry, § 53, st. 9. ME. _pese_, ‘pisa’ (Prompt.); OE. _pisa_, _piosa_, a pea (Sweet).

=pease, peaze,= to pacify, satisfy, ‘appease’. Ferrex and Porrex, iii. 1 (Gorboduc); iv. 1 (Videna); Surrey, tr. of Aeneid ii, l. 147. ME. _pese_, to appease (Chaucer, C. T. H. 98; so Lansdowne MS.; Ellesmere, _apese_). OF. _apaisier_ (Didot).

=peat,= used as a term of endearment to a girl, with various shades of meaning; ‘A pretty peat’, Tam. Shrew, i. 1. 78; ‘Lettice and Parnell prety lovely peates’, Drayton, Man in Moon, ix; used as a term of obloquy, ‘Proud peat’, Fletcher, Wife for Month, i. 1 (Sorano); Massinger, Maid of Honour, ii. 2. See Nares. In prov. use in Scotland for a girl, gen. as a term of obloquy, ‘a proud peat’, see EDD. (s.v. Peat, sb.^{2}).

=peaze;= see =peise.=

=peccadillo,= a collar. _Wooden peccadillo_, wooden collar (i.e. the pillory); Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 1454. See =pickadil.=

=peck,= meat (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); ‘Bene pecke, good meate’, Harman, Caveat, p. 86; ‘Let’s cly off our peck’, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Song).

=peculiar,= private, belonging to one person only; ‘The single and peculiar life’, Hamlet, iii. 3. 11.

=ped,= a wicker pannier; ‘Dorsers are Peds or Panniers’, Fuller, Worthies, Dorset, 1; Tusser, Husbandry, § 17. 5. In common prov. use in E. Anglia and E. Midlands, also in Somerset and Devon (EDD.). ME. _pedde_, ‘idem quod _paner_’ (Prompt.). See =pad= (3).

=pedee;= see =peedee.=

=pedescript,= that which is written by the foot (not the hand); said humorously by one who had been kicked; with _pede-_ substituted for _manu-_. Shirley, Honoria, iv. 1 (Dash).

=pedlar’s French,= unintelligible jargon. Middleton, Family of Love, v. 3 (Club).

=pee,= a coat of coarse cloth; also, of velvet; ‘A velvet pee’, Fletcher, Love’s Cure, ii. 1 (Lazarillo). Du. _pije_, ‘a pie-gowne, or a rough-gowne, as souldiers and sea-men weare’ (Hexham); whence _pea-jacket_.

=peeble,= pebble; ‘The chaste stream, that ’mong loose peebles fell’, Cowley, Davideis, i. 677 (NED.); _peeble-stone_, Golding, Metam. i. 575. The usual Scottish pronunc. (EDD.).

=peedee,= a foot-boy, serving-lad, drudge. Lady Alimony, ii. 1 (1 Boy); _pedee_, J. Jones, tr. of Ovid’s Ibis, 160, note (NED.); Phillips, Dict., 1706.

=peek, peke,= to peep. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 667; ‘I peke or prie’, Palsgrave. In common prov. use (EDD.).

=peel-crow;= see =pilcrow.=

=peeled,= bald, shorn, with tonsured head. 1 Hen. VI, i. 3. 30.

=peep,= an eye or spot on a die. Middleton, Father Hubberd’s Tales, ed. Dyce, v. 581. Also, a pip on a card; Herrick, Oberon’s Palace, l. 49; ‘_Pinta_, among Gamesters a peep in a card’ (Stevens). ‘Peep’ is the usual word for ‘pip’ of a card, die, or domino in NE. Derbyshire and S. Yorkshire (H. Bradley). Cp. ‘peep’ in prov. use in the sense of a single blossom of flowers growing in a cluster, see EDD. (s.v. Pip, sb.^{2} 1). See =pip.=

=peepin, pepin,= a pippin. Dekker, O. Fortunatus, v. 2. See Dict. (s.v. Pippin).

=peevish,= self-willed, obstinate. Two Gent. iii. 1. 68; Merry Wives, i. 4. 14; Massinger, Virgin Martyr, iii. 3 (Harpax); ‘_Pertinax hominum genus_, a peevish generation of men’, Burton, Anat. Mel., Pt. iii, § 4. Hence _peevishness_, obstinacy, ‘An inbred peevishness and engraffed pertinacity’, Holland, Livy, 1152. See Trench, Select Glossary; also Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament, Pref. to 8th ed., p. xxi.

=pegma, pegme,= a kind of framework or stage used in theatrical displays or pageants, sometimes bearing an inscription; also, the inscription itself; ‘In the centre . . . of the pegme there was an aback or square, wherein this eulogy was written’, B. Jonson, Jas. I’s Coronation Entertainment (Wks., Routledge, p. 529, after inscription ‘_His Vincas_’; ‘We shall heare . . . who penned the Pegmas’, Chapman, Widow’s Tears, ii. 3 (Ianthe). L. _pegma_, Gk. πῆγμα, framework fixed together.

=peise, paise,= weight, heaviness; ‘A stone of such a paise’, Chapman, tr. Iliad, xii. 167; _peaze_, a heavy blow, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 20; to weigh, ‘To weigh and peise the mountains’, Holland, Amm. Marcell. 28 (NED.); to estimate the weight of a thing, Dekker, Old Fortunatus, ii. 1 (Soldan); to poise, ‘The workeman . . . Did peise his bodie on his wings’, Golding, tr. Metam. viii. 188; ‘Ne was it (the island) paysd Amid the ocean waves’, Spenser, F. Q., ii. 10. 5; to weigh down, Richard III, v. 3. 100; Middleton, Family of Love, ii. 4 (Maria); to put a weight upon, so as to retard, ‘’Tis to peize the time’, Merch. Ven. iii. 2. 22. ME. _peisen_, to weigh: ‘I wolde that my synnes . . . weren peisid, in a balaunce’ (Wyclif, Job vi. 2); Anglo-F. _peise_, pres. s. of _peser_; to weigh, to ponder, think (Ch. Rol. 1279); L. _pensare_, to weigh, ponder.

=pelamis,= a young tunny-fish. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 11. L. _pelamys_; Gk. πηλαμύς.

=peld,= ‘peeled’, stripped; ‘Of all thing bare and _peld_’, Phaer, Aeneid i, 599 (L. _egenos_). See =peeled.=

=pelican,= a retort with a fine end, like a bird’s beak. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Face); iii. 2 (Subtle); iv. 3 (Face).

=pelowre,= a plunderer, Morte Arthur, leaf 245, back, 31; bk. x, c. 48. ME. _pelowre_, thiefe, ‘appellator’ (Prompt. EETS. 331).

=pelt,= a light shield. Fisher, True Trojans, ii. 5 (Belinus). L. _pelta_, Gk. πέλτη, a leathern shield.

=pelt,= to strike a bargain; ‘I found the people nothing prest [not at all ready] to _pelt_’, Mirror for Mag., Severus, st. 16. Perhaps the same word as _pelt_, to strike. See NED.

=pelting,= petty, trashy, contemptible. Richard III, ii. 1. 60; Meas. for M. ii. 2. 112; Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 2. 328.

=peltish,= irritable, ill-tempered; ‘Peltish wasps’, Herrick, Oberon’s Palace, 17. Cp. ‘pelt’, in prov. use for a fit of ill-temper, see EDD. (s.v. Pelt, sb.^{5} 8).

=penner,= a pen-case, case for holding pens. Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 5. 139. A Scottish word for a tin cylinder used for holding pens, pencils, &c. (EDD.). ME. _pennere_, ‘calamarium’ (Prompt.).

=penny-father,= a miser, skinflint. Two Angry Women, ii. 1 (Philip); ‘Nigeshe penny fathers’, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 102). Hence the surname Pennyfather; see Bardsley’s English Surnames, 482.

=pensel,= a pennon, little banner. Morte Arthur, leaf 244, back, 12; bk. x, c. 43; ‘Pensell, a lytell baner, _banerolle_’, Palsgrave. Anglo-F. _pencel_ (Didot); OF. _penoncel_ (La Curne). Med. L. _penuncellus_ (Ducange).

=pentagoron,= a pentagram, a mysterious cabalistic figure supposed to have great magical power. Rowley, Birth of Merlin, v. 1. 49; _pentageron_, Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 2. 222. Properly _pentagonon_. Gk. πεντάγωνος, pentagonal, having five angles.

†=pentweezle,= a term of abuse. Massinger, The Old Law, iii. 2. (Lysander).

=pepper:= phr. _to take pepper in the nose_, to take offence, to be vexed. Middleton and Rowley, Spanish Gipsy, iv. 3. 10; Lyly, Euphues, pp. 118, 375. See Nares.

†=peppernel,= a bump or swelling. Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, ii. 2 (Wife). Not found elsewhere.

=percase,= perchance. Bacon, Colours of Good and Evil, § 3. See Nares.

=perceiverance,= mental perception. Middleton, The Widow, iii. 2 (Violetta). See Nares.

=perche,= to pierce. Ascham, Toxophilus, 137, 138. In prov. use in the north, esp. in Yorks., also in Lincoln, see EDD. (s.v. Pearch). ME. _perchyn_, ‘perforare’ (Prompt. EETS. 44, see note, no. 208); _perche_, ‘to Thirle’ (Cath. Angl.). Norm. F. _percher_, ‘percer’ (Moisy).

=perchmentier,= a maker or seller of parchment. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1095.

=perdie,= a form of oath = By God!; used often merely as an asseveration. Hen. V, ii. 1. 52; Hamlet, iii. 2. 305; King Lear, ii. 4. 86; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 22. ME. _pardee_ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 563, 3084). OF. _pardee_ (F. _par Dieu_) Norm. F. _Dé_ = _Dieu_ (Moisy).

=perditly,= desperately. Heywood, Dialogue 3 (Mary); vol. vi, p. 118. Cp. L. _perdite amare_, to love desperately.

=perdu, perdue,= a soldier sent on a forlorn hope; one who is in a perilous position or in desperate case. King Lear, iv. 7. 35; Beaumont and Fl., Mad Lover, i. 1 (Cleanthe); Little French Lawyer, ii. 3. 3; Chapman, Widow’s Tears, ii. 1 (Lysander). F. _perdu_, lost.

=peregall,= fully equal. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Aug., 8; Skelton, Speke Parrot, 430; _no peregal_, without an equal; Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, iii. 2 (Catzo). See =paregal.=

=perge,= go on, proceed. Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage, ii (Ilford); L. L. L. iv. 2. 54. L. _perge_, imper.

=pergit,= a pargetting; ‘Painting’s pergit’, the plastering (of a woman’s face) with paint, Drayton, Pastorals, iv. 78. See =parget.=

=periapt,= an amulet. 1 Hen. VI, v. 3. 2. F. ‘_periapte_, a medicine hanged about any part of the body’ (Cotgr.). Gk. περίαπτον, a thing fastened round one, an amulet (Plato).

=periment,= a ‘pediment’ (NED.). A workman’s term. L. _operimentum_, a covering (Vulgate, Ezek. xxviii. 13). See Dict. (s.v. Pediment).

=perish,= to destroy. 2 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 100; Bacon, Essay 27, § 5. Cp. the Yorks. use: ‘If thou goes out to-night it will perish thee’ (EDD.), and the Irish, ‘Ah, shut that door; there’s a breeze in throught it that would perish the Danes’, Joyce, 168.

=perk,= saucy, pert, brisk, smart. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 8. In gen. prov. use in the North and in the Midlands (EDD.). As vb., _to perk it_, to thrust oneself forward, to behave presumptuously; ‘Miriam began to perk it before Moses’, Bunyan, Case Consc. Resolved (ed. 1861, ii. 673); _to be perked up_, to be made smart, Hen. VIII, ii. 3. 21; _to perk up_, to stick up, ‘(Hattes) pearking up’, Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 50).

=perpetuana,= a very durable woollen stuff, sometimes called _everlasting_. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, iii. 2 (Hedon); Marston, What you Will, ii. 1. 8. From L, _perpetuus_, perpetual.

=perron, peron,= a large block of stone, used as a platform, or a funeral monument, or other purpose. Morte Arthur, leaf 207, back, 28; bk. x, c. 2. F. ‘_Perron_, an open lodge, passage, or walk of stone raised; some quantity of staires, directly before the foredoore of a great house; also, a square base of stone or metal, some five or six foot high, whereon in old time Knights errant placed some discourse, challenge, or proofe of an adventure,’ Cotgrave. Anglo-F. _perrun_, a block of stone (Ch. Rol. 12).

=perry;= see =pirrie.=

=persant,= piercing. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 20. F. _perçant_, pres. pt. of _percer_, to pierce.

=perséver,= to persevere, continue in. Hamlet, i. 2. 92; King Lear, iii. 5. 23.

=perspective,= an optical instrument for looking through or viewing objects with; a telescope; ‘The heavens . . . whereof perspectives begin to tell tales’, Sir T. Browne, Hydriotaphia; ‘Whose eyes shall easily . . . behold without a perspective the extreamest distances’, id., Rel. Med., Pt. 1, § 49; Webster, Duchess Malfi, iv. 2 (1 Madman); id. (Bosola), near end; a microscope, ‘A tiny mite which we can scarcely see Without a perspective’, Oldham, 8th Sat. of Boileau, 7 (ed. Bell, p. 203); a picture contrived to produce a fantastic effect; e.g. appearing confused or distorted except from one particular point of view, or presenting different aspects from different points. Rich. II, ii. 2. 18.

=perspicil,= a telescope, optic glass. B. Jonson, Staple of News, i. 1 (P. jun.); New Inn, ii. 2 (Frank); Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, v. 2. 2. See Nares. L. (16th cent.) _perspicilia_, spectacles (Ducange).

=perstand,= to understand. Gascoigne, Works, i. 78; Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 492, col. 1, p. 499. A blend of two words—_per_ceive and under_stand_.

=perstringe,= to censure. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, end of ii. 1 (Damplay). L. _perstringere_.

=persue,= the trail of blood left by a wounded animal, the ‘parsee’. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 28. Cp. ‘Now he has drawn _pursuit_ [old ed. _pursue_, i.e. the trail] on me, He hunts me like the devil’; Fletcher, Bonduca, v. 2 (Petillius). See =parsee.=

†=persway,= to assuage, alleviate. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Overdo). Not found elsewhere.

=pert,= lively, brisk, sprightly; in good spirits; ‘Trip the pert Fairies’, Milton, Comus, 118; Mids. Night’s D. i. 1. 13. In gen. prov. use in England, see EDD. (s.v. Pert, also Peart).

=pert,= open, easily perceived. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 162. Short for _apert_, open. F. _apert_; L. _apertus_.

=peruse,= to inspect, examine. Com. Errors, i. 2. 15; Hen. VIII, ii. 3. 75; peruse over, to read over, King John, v. 2. 5.

=pester’d, pestred,= crowded together; ‘Pestred in gallies’, Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 32 (end); ‘Confin’d and pester’d in this pinfold here’, Milton, Comus, 7; North’s Plutarch (in Shak. Plutarch, ed. Skeat, 175). For _impestered_; ‘_Empestré_, impestered, intricated, intangled, incumbered’, Cotgrave. See Dict. (s.v. Pester).

=pesterous,= cumbersome, troublesome. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 196).

=pestle,= the leg and leg-bone of an animal, most freq. a pig in the phr. _a pestle of pork_; ‘Pestelles of porke’, Boke of Kervynge (Furnivall, 164). In prov. use in many parts of England (EDD.). _The pestle of a lark_, used _fig._ for a trifle, something very small, Hall, Satires, iv. 4. 29; ‘Rutlandshire is but the Pestel of a Lark’, Fuller, Worthies, Rutland, ii. 346. _A pestle of a portigue_, used jocosely in speaking of a gold coin (a _portigue_), as eatable meat, to starving sailors, Fletcher, Sea Voyage, i. 3 (Tibalt).

=petar,= a petard, bomb, a case filled with explosive materials. Hamlet, iii. 4. 207; Beaumont and Fl., Double Marriage, iii. 2 (Gunner); _petarre_, Shirley, Gamester, iv. 1 (Young B.).

=peterman,= a fisherman. Eastward Ho, ii. 1 (_or_ 3) (Quicksilver). In reference to _St. Peter_.

=Peter-see-me,= a kind of Spanish wine. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iii. 1 (near end); Brathwait, Law of Drinking, 80; Philecothonista (1635), 48 (Nares). Sometimes only _Peeter_, Beaumont and Fl., Chances, v. 3 (Song). _Pedro Ximenes_ was the name of a celebrated Spanish grape, so called after its introducer, see NED. Cp. the spelling _Peter-sameene_ in Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 3 (1st Vintner).

=pettegrye,= ‘pedigree’. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 386. See Dict.

=petternel,= a ‘petronel’, horse-pistol. Return from Parnassus, i. 2 (Judicio). Hence, _petronellier_, a soldier armed with a petrenel; Gascoigne, Weeds, ed. Hazlitt, i. 408. See Dict. (s.v. Petronel).

=petun,= tobacco. Taylor’s Works, 1630 (Nares). F. _petun_, a native South American name of tobacco (a Guarani word); see NED.; ‘_Petum femelle_, English Tobacco; _Petum masle_, French Tobacco’ (Cotgr.). See Stanford.

=pewl,= to cry as a babe; ‘Here pewled the babes’, Sackville, Induction, st. 74. See Dict. (s.v. Pule).

=pex,= for _pax_. Warner, Alb. England, bk. vi, ch. 31, st 16. See =pax.=

=pheare,= a common spelling of =fere,= q.v. Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 2. 122; _pheer_, Marmion, The Antiquary, i. 1 (Gasparo).

=pheeze;= see =feeze.=

=phenicopter,= a flamingo. Nabbes, Microcosmus, iii. 1 (Sensuality). Gk. φοινικ- (from φοῖνιξ), crimson, and πτερόν, feather. Spelt _phœnicopterus_, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. iii, c. 12 (near the end).

=philander,= a lover, one given to making love to a lady, a male flirt. Congreve, Way of the World, v. 1 (Lady Wishfort); Tatler, no. 13, § 1. This word for a lover became fashionable through the popularity of a Ballad of 1682 about ‘the Fair Phillis’ and her ‘Philander’; see NED. The Greek word ‘Philander’ was misunderstood as meaning a loving man, but φίλανδρος was used originally of a woman, one loving her husband.

=Philip,= a familiar name for a sparrow. King John, i. 231; Middleton, The Widow, iii. 2 (Violetta). See Nares. Still in use in Cheshire and Northants (EDD.). See =Phip.=

=Philip and Cheiny,= an expression for two or more men of the common people taken at random; Udall, Erasmus, Apoph., Pompey, 1. Also, _Philip, Hob and Cheanie_, Tusser, Husbandry, 8. Also, name for a kind of worsted or woollen stuff of common quality; ‘Thirteene pound . . . T’will put a Lady scarce in Philip and Cheyney’, Fletcher, Wit at several Weapons, ii. 1 (Lady Ruinous). See NED. (s.v. Philip, 4) and Davies, Eng. Glossary.

=philomath,= a lover of learning, esp. a mathematician. Congreve, Love for Love, ii. 1 (Sir Sampson). Gk. φιλομαθής.

=Phip,= a familiar name for a sparrow, a contraction for =Philip=, q.v.; Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophel, Sonnet 83; Lyly, Mother Bombie, iii. 4 (Song).

=Phitonesse,= the witch of Endor; ‘Heavenly breath, of Phitonessa’s power, That raised the dead corpse of her friend to life’, Middleton, Family of Love, iii. 7. 5; ‘I call In the name of Kyng Saul . . . He bad the Phitonesse To wytchcraft her to dresse’, Skelton, Phylyp Sparowe, 1359. ME. _Phitonesse_, the witch of Endor (Gower, C. A. iv. 1937); _Phitones_, Barbour’s Bruce, iv. 753 (see Notes, p. 563); _phitonesses_, witches (Chaucer, Hous F. iii. 1261). Med. L. _phitonissa_ for _pythonissa_, a woman inspired by Python (Ducange). Cp. Vulgate, in the story of the witch of Endor, 1 Sam. xxviii. 7 (‘mulierem habentem pythonem’). Gk. πνεῦμα πύθωνα, a spirit of Python, Acts xvi. 16. See note, no. 729 in Prompt. EETS., p. 600, and =fitten.=

=phonascus,= a singing-master; ‘Why have you not, like Nero, a _phonascus_?’, Lee, Theodosius, iv. 2 (Marcian). Misprinted _phenascus_ in The Modern British Drama, i. 329. L. _phonascus_ (Suetonius); Gk. φωνασκός, one who exercises the voice; from φωνή, voice.

=phrenitis,= a kind of frenzy or madness. Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, iii. 3 (Corax). Gk. φρενῖτις, delirium.

=phrontisterion,= a place for thinking or studying, an academy or college. Tomkis, Albumazar, i. 3. 10; _phrontisterium_; Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, iii. 1 (Banausus). Gk. φροντιστήριον, a place for meditation, a thinking-shop (Aristophanes).

=physnomy, fisnomy,= face, ‘physiognomy’. Shirley, Gamester, iii. 3 (Hazard); _fisnomy_, All’s Well, iv. 5. 42.

=picardil;= see =pickadil.=

=picaro,= a rogue, knave. Shirley, The Brothers, v. 3 (Pedro); Pickaro, Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Alvarez). Span. _picaro_, ‘a rogue, a scoundrel, a base fellow’ (Stevens).

=picaroon, pickaroon,= a rogue. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, ii (Manly); ‘Are you there indeed, my little Picaroon?’, Otway, Atheist, ii. 1; a pirate, ‘A French Piccaroune’, Capt. Smith, Virginia, v. 184 (NED.); a small pirate ship, Farquhar, Recruiting Officer, v. 5 (Brazen).

=pick,= to waste away, to droop. Middleton, Chaste Maid, i. 1. In prov. use in Lincoln, S. Midlands, and south-west counties, see EDD. (s.v. Peak, vb.^{2}). See =peak= (2).

=pick,= to throw, Coriolanus, i. 1. 204; ‘I pycke with an arrow, _Je darde_’, Palsgrave.

=pick:= in phr. _to pick mood_, to pick a quarrel; ‘Whoso therat pyketh mood’, Skelton, Against the Scottes, Epilogue, 21.

=pick:= _picked_, refined, exquisite, fastidious, King John, i. 1. 193; _picking_, dainty, fastidious, 2 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 198.

=pick,= the spike in the middle of a buckler, Porter, Two Angry Women, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 318. Also, a toothpick, Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, i. 2 (Sebastian).

=pickadil, pickadel,= the expansive collar fashionable in the early part of the 17th cent. Blount, Glossogr., 1656; Beaumont and Fl., Pilgrim, ii. 2 (1 Outlaw). Spelt _picardill_, B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, ii. 1 (Pug); Underwood (NED.). See =peccadillo.=

=pickaroon;= see =picaroon.=

=picke-devant, pickadevant,= a short beard trimmed to a point. Heywood, The Royal King, vol. vi, p. 70. Also, a man with a picke-devant, Heywood, Challenge, v. 1; vol. v, p. 68. F. _pique-devant_, an expression only found in English. See Nares (s.v. Pike-devant).

=pickeer,= to pillage, plunder; to practise piracy, Fuller, Worthies, Hants (1662, ii. 10); to skirmish, reconnoitre, spelt _pickear_, Lovelace, Lucasta (Poems, 1864, ii. 203); to wrangle, spelt _pickere_, Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 448. See NED.

=pickle,= to deal with in a minute way, lit. to pick in a small way. Ascham, Scholemaster (Arber, 158). Hence _pickling_, trifling, paltry, Gascoigne, Supposes, i. 2 (Pasiphilo). [R. L. Stevenson uses the word ‘to _pickle_’ in the sense of ‘to trifle’; see Letters (Sept. 6, 1888).]

=pick-packe,= pick-a-back; ‘He gets him up on pick-packe’, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 6 (Stage-direction); Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 2 (260);