S

sack, a loose kind of gown worn by ladies. Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, p. 516).

sackage, saccage, the act of sacking (a city, &c.); ‘The saccage of Carthage’, Holland, tr. Pliny, I. xv. 18. 443; to saccage, to sack or plunder, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, i. 24, p. 63. Fr. saccager, to sack, ransack, pillage (Cotgr.).

sackful, given to plundering; ‘Sackful troops’, Mirror for Mag., Robert, D. of Normandy, st. 40; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, ii. 601.

sackless, guiltless, innocent, Greene, Isabel’s Sonnet, l. 9 (ed. Dyce, p. 299); sakeles, Gascoigne, Works, i. 379. In common prov. use in the north country (EDD.). ME. sakless, innocent (Barbour’s Bruce, xx. 175). OE. saclēas, free from charge, guiltless (Matt. xxviii. 14, Lind.).

sacrament, an oath. B. Jonson, Catiline, i. 1 (Cat.). L. sacramentum, the military oath of allegiance; also, an oath, a solemn engagement.

sacring-bell, the small bell rung at the elevation of the host. Hen. VIII, iii. 2. 295. Deriv. of the vb. sacre, to consecrate the elements in the Eucharist, ‘I sacre, I halowe, Je sacre’, Palsgrave. ME. sacryn or halwyn, ‘consecro’ (Prompt.).

sad, settled, steadfast, constant. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 11. 45; ‘Settled in his face I see Sad resolution and secure’, Milton, P. L. vi. 541; grave, serious, Bacon, Adv. Learning, ii. 23. 5; grave, sober (of attire), F. Q. i. 10. 7. ME. sad or sobyr, ‘maturatus, agelastes’ (Prompt.).

sadness, seriousness, gravity. 3 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 77. ME. sadnesse in poorte and chere, ‘soliditas, maturitas’ (Prompt.).

safe, to make safe, to secure. Ant. and Cl. i. 3. 55; saft, pt. t., Chapman, tr. of Iliad, viii. 291; pp., id., 444.

safeguard, an outer skirt worn by women to protect their dress when riding; ‘Enter Moll, in a frieze jerkin and a black safeguard’, Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1; Fletcher, Noble Gentleman, ii. 1 (Marine). Formerly in prov. use in the west country in Devon, pronounced ‘seggard’; see (EDD.) (s.v. Safeguard). See Nares.

saffo, a serjeant, catchpole. B. Jonson, Volpone, iii. 5 (Vol.); v. 8 (1 Avoc). Ital. ‘zaffo (saffo), a common serjeant or base catch-pole, specially in Venice’ (Florio).

sag(g, to sink or subside gradually; ‘The Elme and the Ash are tough, howbeit they will soone settle downward and sag, being charged with any weight’, Holland, Pliny, i. 492; fig. (of the mind), ‘The minde I sway by . . . shall never sagge with doubt’, Macbeth, v. 3. 10; sagge, hanging or sagging down, Herrick, Oberon’s Feast, 27. In gen. prov. use in England and Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Sag, vb.²). ME. saggyn (Prompt.).

sagg, to drag oneself along wearily or feebly. Drayton, Pol. xvi. 219; Twyne, tr. Aeneid, x. 283. Norw. dial. sagga, to walk heavily and slowly from weariness (Ross).

saine, pr. pl., they say. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 55. ME. seien, pr. pl. P. Plowman).

saint, a card-game; see cent.

Saint Nicholas’ clerk, a highwayman. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 67; Rowley, A Match at Midnight, i. 1 (Randall). See Nares (s.v. Nicholas).

Saint Thomas à Waterings, a place anciently used for executions for the county of Surrey, as Tyburn for Middlesex. It was situated at the second milestone on the Kent road, near a brook, a place for watering horses, whence its name; dedicated to St. Thomas Beket, being the first place of any note on the road to Canterbury: ‘And forth we riden . . . Unto the watering of seint Thomas, And there our host bigin his hors areste’, Chaucer, C. T. A. 826. The allusions to this spot as a place of execution are numerous; ‘He may perhaps take a degree at Tyburn . . . come to read a lecture Upon Aquinas, at St. Thomas à Watering’s, And so go forth a laureat in hemp circle’, B. Jonson, New Inn, i (Host). See Nares (s.v. Waterings).

saker, a kind of falcon. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xv. 696; Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Alvarez); also, a kind of ordnance or cannon, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 3 (Bots); Butler, Hud. i. 2. 355. This word for a falcon is common to all the Latin nations; of Arabic origin, see Dozy, Glossaire, 338.

sale, a willow; used by Spenser to signify a wicker basket made of willow-twigs for catching fish. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec., 81. See EDD. (s.v. Seal, sb.³). OE. sealh, a willow.

sale, a hall, large chamber. Morte Arthur, bk. xvii, ch. 16 (p. 713); The World and the Child, l. 12, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 243. F. salle (sale), a hall (Cotgr.).

saliant, sportive, lively. Fletcher, The Chances, iv. 3 (Petruccio). From the heraldic use, as ‘lion saliant’. Anglo-F. saillant, pres. pt. of sailler, to leap (Ch. Rol. 2469).

saliaunce, assault, onslaught, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 29. Anglo-F. assaillir, to attack (Ch. Rol. 2564); saillir (Wace, Rom. de Rou, 2595).

sallet, a light head-piece. 2 Hen. VI, iv. 10. 13; Thersites, 55 (ed. Pollard). Often used with a quibble referring to sallet, a form of salad; as in Tusser, Husbandry, § 40. 1. O. Prov. salada, sorte de casque (Levy), F. salade, ‘a salade, helmet, head-piece’ (Cotgr.), Ital. celata, ‘a morion, a casket, an helmet’ (Florio). See Nares.

Salmon, Salomon, the sacrament or oath of the beggars; ‘Salomon, a alter or masse’, Harman, Caveat, 83; ‘A part too of our salmon’, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metam. (2 Gipsy); ‘By the Salomon’, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor); ‘By Salmon’, Brome, Jovial Crew (NED.).

salpa, a kind of stock-fish. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 11. L. salpa (Pliny).

salt. A salt-cellar was usually placed near the middle of a long table, to divide the company according to their social rank; those of inferior distinction being placed below the salt. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Mercury). Above the salt, Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iii. 1 (Steward).

salt, a leap, esp. one made by a horse. Webster, White Devil (Lodovico), ed. Dyce, p. 34; B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, ii. 2 (Wittipol). L. saltus, a leap.

saltimbanco, a mountebank, a quack. Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. i, c. 3, § 11; saltinbancho, Butler, Hud. ii. 3. 1007. Ital. saltimbanco, a mountebank; from saltare in banco, to mount upon a bench; ‘Salta in banco, as Monta in banco; montáre in bánco, to play the mountebank’ (Florio). Span. ‘Sálta en banco, a mountebank’ (Stevens). See Stanford.

salue, to salute. Holland, Pliny II, 297; Udall, Apoph. 122; salew, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 6. 25. ME. salue, salewe (Chaucer); F. saluer; L. salutare.

saluë, salvee, some kind of boat; ‘Twentie Caruiles, and Saluees ten’, Dekker, Wh. of Babylon, Works, ii. 257. NED. (s.v. Salve, 3) gives a quotation of a passage which Dekker evidently copied, ‘There are 20 Carauels for the service of the above named Armie [the Armada], and likewise 10 Saluës with sixe Oares a-peece’, Archdeacon, tr. True Disc. Army, K. Spain, 38 (1588).

salvage, savage. Fletcher, Love’s Cure, iii. 2 (Picrato). Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 39; ii. 8. 42. O. Prov. salvatge, ‘qui vit dans les bois, sauvage, farouche’ (Levy); Med. L. salvaticus (Ducange); cp. Ital. salvático; L. silvaticus (Pliny).

salvatory, a box for holding ointments. Webster, Duch. of Malfi, iv. 2 (Bosola); ‘The Surgeon’s Salvator or Salvatory or his Box of Unguents’, Holme, Armoury, iii. 438; ‘Salvatory, a Surgeon’s Box, to hold Salves, Ointments, and Balsams’, Phillips, Dict., 1706. In Med. L. salvalorium is given in Ducange only with the meanings (1) vivarium piscium, (2) monasterium, ‘ubi quis a mundi periculis tutus salvatur seu servatur’.

salvee; see saluë.

sam, together. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 168. ME. sum, together (Cursor M. 9750); see NED. (s.v. Samen, adv.), and Dict. M. and S.

sambuke, a triangular stringed-instrument of a very sharp shrill tone. Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 39). ME. sambuke (Wyclif, Dan. iii. 5), L. sambuca (Vulgate), Gk. σαμβύκη (LXX).

sambuke, a military engine for storming walls. Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, ix. 73. L. sambuca (Vegetius).

samite, a rich silk stuff. Morte Arthur, leaf 344. 30; bk. xvi, c. 17; leaf 380, back, 30; bk. xviii, c. 19 [Tennyson, Morte d’Arthur, 31 and 144]. O. Prov. samit, ‘étoffe de soie’ (Levy); Med. L. examitum; Byz. Gk. ἑξάμιτον, lit. woven with six different kinds of thread; see Ducange (s.v. Exametum); cp. Span. xaméte (Stevens).

sampire, ‘samphire’. Drayton, Pol. xviii. 763; King Lear, iv. 6. 15; sampier, Baret, Alvearie. F. ‘herbe de S. Pierre, sampire’ (Cotgr.).

sampsuchine, oil of marjoram. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Amorphus). Gk. σαμψύχινον, of marjoram; σάμψυχον, marjoram.

sanbenito. Under the Spanish Inquisition a penitential garment of yellow cloth, ornamented with a red St. Andrew’s cross before and behind, worn by a confessed and penitent heretic; ‘The Inquisitors . . . bringing with them certaine fooles coats . . . called . . . S. Benitos’, M. Phillips in Hakluyt’s Voyages, iii. 480; a garment of a black colour ornamented with flames, devils, and other devices worn by an impenitent heretic at an auto-da-fé, ‘Sambenitas, painted with all the flames and devils in hell’, Marvell, Reh. Transp. i. 276. In Butler’s Hud. iii. 2. 1574, ‘Sambenites’ are referred to vaguely. The garment was so called from San Benito, St. Benedict, from its resemblance to the scapular introduced by St. Benedict. See NED. and Stanford.

sance-bell, saunce-bell, corruptly saint’s-bell, the Sanctus-bell, the bell orig. rung at the Sanctus at Mass. The Sanctus or Ter-sanctus refers to the word sanctus (thrice repeated) in the conclusion to the Eucharistic preface; in the English Liturgy ‘Holy, holy, holy’. Sance-bells, pl., Fletcher, Mad Lover, i. 1 (Fool). Spelt saint’s bell, Hall, Satires, bk. v, Sat. 1, l. 119; saunce-bell, Fletcher, Nightwalker, iii. 3 (Toby). See NED. (s.v. Sanctus Bell).

sanctus: phr. a black sanctus, a burlesque hymn, accompanied by discordant noises; a great discord. Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, iv. 3 (Mirabel); Mad Lover, iv. 1 (Fool); black Saunce, Lyly, Endimion, iv. 2. 33. See Nares (s.v. Sanctus), and tintamar.

sanglier, a full-grown wild boar. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 37; p. 100; Manwood, Lawes Forest, iv, § 5 (ed. 1615, 43). F. sanglier, Med. L. singularis (Vulg., Ps. lxxix. 14) = the μονιός of the LXX, meaning a boar separated from the herd. See singler.

sanjak. In the Turkish Empire one of the administrative districts of a ‘vilayet’; sangiacque, Dacres, tr. Machiavelli’s Prince, 25 (NED.); sanzacke, a governor of a sanjak, Massinger, Renegado, iii. 4 (Carazie); sanziack, Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 1677, 277); sandiack, Shirley, Imposture, v. 1 (Volterino). Ital. sangiacco (Florio), Turk. sanjāq, lit. a banner (NED.); sanjac, a province, T. Herbert, Gram. Turk. Lang., 1709, p. 90. See Stanford.

sanna, a gesture of scorn. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Amorphus). L. sanna, a grimace made in mockery (Juvenal). Gk. σάννας, a buffoon; one who makes grimaces. See stork’s bill.

sans, without (a French word), As You Like It, ii. 7. 166; Temp. i. 2. 97.

sapa, new wine boiled thick. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. 15. L. sapa (Pliny).

sapor. Sapor Pontic, Sapor Styptic: particular ‘Sapors’, savours frequently mentioned by the alchemists as indicative of the nature or condition of substances under examination. B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1 (Subtle). L. sapor, taste.

sarcocolla, an Eastern gum-resin. Altered to sacrocolla, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 2 (Surgeon). Gk. σαρκοκόλλα; the name derived from its power of healing or agglutinating wounds.

sarell, a seraglio. Marlowe, Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Bajazet). F. sérail, a seraglio; Pers. serāi, a palace (Hatzfeld). See Stanford (s.v. Seraglio).

sarza, sarsaparilla. Bacon, Essay 27, § 2. See Dict.

sasarara, a corruption of certiorari, the name of a certain writ at law. Revenger’s Tragedy, iv. 2 (Vindici); sesarara, Puritan Widow, iii. 2. 81. See EDD. (s.v. Siserary), where the word is said to be in prov. use in the sense of a violent scolding; in Devon the phr. with a siserary means ‘with a vengeance’ [‘I fell in love all at once with a sisserara’, Sterne, T. Shandy, vi. 47 (Davies).]

sattle, to quiet, reduce to order. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xviii. 345; to become calm, ‘I sattyl or sober or appayse my-selfe’, Palsgrave. Cp. ‘sattle’, the north-country word, meaning to put an end to a quarrel, see EDD. (s.v. Sattle, vb.¹). ME. sahtlen, to bring to a peaceful agreement, to reconcile (sahhtlenn in Ormulum, 351); see Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Sahtlien). OE. sahtlian (Chron. ann. 1066). Etym. doubtful; see NED.

sattle, to sink down gradually. Ascham, Toxophilus, 131. In prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Sattle, vb.² 3). ME. sattle (York Plays, 328); satlynge, a sagging, ‘bassacio’ (Prompt.). See NED. (s.v. Settle, vb., 13).

saturity, repletion. Herrick, Noble Numbers; Lasciviousness, 2; saturitie, Udall, tr. Erasmus, on Matt. v. 6; Warner, Alb. England, bk. v, ch. 24, st. 48. L. saturitas (Pliny).

satyrion, the orchis. Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, v. 5 (Sir Jolly). Gk. σατύριον (Dioscorides). See Alphita, p. 158.

saugh, a ‘sough’, a channel, a trench. Drayton, Pol. iv. 168. ‘Sough’ in various forms is in common prov. use in England from the north country to Bedfordshire, see EDD. (s.v. Sough, sb.²).

saulf, ‘safe’. Sir T. Elyot, Governour (ed. Croft, see Glossary). F. saulf, safe (Rabelais). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Sauf).

saunce-bell; see sance-bell.

sawtry, a ‘psaltery’, a kind of harp. Dryden, Flower and Leaf, 358. ME. sautrye (Chaucer, C. T. A. 296).

say, to ‘assay’, to test the fitness of, to try on (clothes); ‘He sayes his sute’, B. Jonson, Staple of News, i. 1 (Fashioner); to set oneself to do something, Peele, Order of the Garter (ed. Dyce, 588); ‘Who sayd to wound faire Venus in the hand’, Heywood, 2nd Pt., Iron Age (NED.). See Dict.

say, ‘assay’, temper of metal, proof; ‘A sword of better say’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 11. 47; a subject for testing, proving, ‘Still living to be wretched To be a say to Fortune in her changes’, Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iv. 4. 11. ‘To say’ for to assay, to test, prove, is in prov. use in Scotland and many parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Say, vb.² 1).

say: phr. to take the say, to draw the knife along the belly of a slain deer, to find how fat he is. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, iv. 2. 10. For assay, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Marian). See Nares (s.v. Say).

scalado, an escalade, attempt to scale a wall. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 165). Span. escalada, ‘an escalade or taking a place with scaling Ladders’ (Stevens). L. scala, a ladder.

scale, to attack with scaling ladders; ‘The citty had bene scaled and sacked’, Greene, Euphues (Wks., ed. Grosart, vi. 220); ‘The hugy heaps of cares . . . are scalèd from their nestling-place’, Peele, Sir Clyomon (Wks., ed. Dyce, iii. 78). Ital. ‘scalare, to ascend by ladder’ (Florio); Span. escalar (Stevens).

scaledrake, ‘a sheldrake’. Lady Alimony, ii. 2 (2 Boy). In prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and the north of England (EDD.).

scall, a scab, blister, an eruption of skin on the head. Bible, Lev. xiii. 30 (printed skall, ed. 1611); ‘Scurfe and dandruffe, running ulcers and scals’, Holland, Pliny, xxiii. 1. In prov. use in Scotland and north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Scall, sb.¹). ME. scalle (Chaucer, Minor Poems, viii. 7).

scald, afflicted with the ‘scall’, scurfy; an epithet of contempt, Ant. and Cl. v. 2. 215; Beaumont and Fl., Bloody Brothers, i (Grandpree); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, ii. 1 (Fluello). ME. scalled (Chaucer, C. T. A. 627).

scamble, to scramble, to struggle. Much Ado, v. 1. 94; Tusser, Husbandry, § 51. 7. Hence, scambling, shambling, shuffling, Ford, Love’s Sacrifice, v. 1 (Bianca); filching, id., Fancies Chaste, i. 3 (Livio). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).

scand, pp., ascended, climbed up to. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 6. 8. L. scandere, to climb.

scantle, to scant, to limit; ‘Her scantled banks’, Drayton, Pol. xxiv. 12; The Owl, 1294; to shorten sail, Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 1 (1327); p. 134, col. 1.

scantling, limited measure. Bacon, Essay 55; a pattern, sample, Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 341; ‘How Ovid’s scantlings with the whole true patterne doo agree’, Golding, Ovid’s Metam., Epist. 379. ‘Eschantillon, a scantling, sample, pattern, proof of any sort of Merchandise’, Cotgrave. Anglo-F. escauntiloun (Rough List).

scar, a steep bare bank, a cliff. Drayton, Pol. xxvii. 326. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Scar, sb.¹). Icel. sker, an isolated rock in the sea.

scarab, a beetle, dung-beetle; a term of reproach. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1. 59 (Subtle); Beaumont and Fl., Mad Lover, ii. 2 (Chilax). Gk. σκάραβος, a beetle.

Scarborough warning, very short notice, or no notice at all; a surprise. Heywood, Proverbs (ed. Farmer, 43); Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 345. See Nares, EDD. and NED.

scarlet, a scarlet gown, worn as a mark of dignity; He will be . . . next spring call’d to the scarlet, B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle).

scarmoge, an irregular fight, a ‘skirmish’. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 34. ME. scarmuch (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 934), F. escarmouche, a skirmish (Cotgr.); Ital. scaramuccia (Florio).

scartoccio, a roll of paper. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1 (Vol.). Ital. scartoccio, ‘a coffin of paper for spice, as apothecaries use’ (Florio). Cp. cartoccio, a piece of waste paper to put anything in. F. cartouche, E. cartridge.

scath, harm, hurt, damage. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 18; iii. 4. 24. ME. scathe, harm (Chaucer, C. T. A. 446); Icel. skaði.

scatterling, one of a wandering band of outlaws or robbers. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 63.

scaure; see scour.

scerne, to ‘discern’, perceive. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 22.

schellum, a rogue, scoundrel; ‘Where’s the Dutch schellum?’, Dekker, If this be not a good Play (Pluto), Works, iii. 352; skellum, id., Shoemakers’ Holiday, iii. 1 (Firk). ‘Skellum’ is a north-country word (EDD.). Du. schelm, a rogue (Hexham).

sciatherical, concerned with the recording of shadows, esp. on a sundial. Scioferical, Tomkis, Albumazar, i. 7 (Alb.); scioterical, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. v, c. 18, § 3. From Gk. σκιαθηρικός, from σκαθήρας, a shadow-catcher, sun-dial; from σκιά, shadow, θηρᾶν, to catch.

scole, a scale or dish of a balance. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 606; xxii. 180. Icel. skāl, a bowl, the scale of a balance; Dan. skaal, a bowl.

scolopendra, a milliped; one of the numerous nicknames for a courtesan. Shirley, Gamester, ii. 2 (Hazard). L. scolopendra; Gk. σκολόπενδρα, a milliped.

scombre, to void excrements. Maister of Game, c. 13; skommer, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 12; p. 27. See scumber.

scope, a mark to aim at. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 155. Gk. σκοπός, a mark.

scorse, scourse, to exchange, barter. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 16; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iii. 1 (Waspe); Drayton, Pol. (ed. 1613. p. 196); ‘Barater, to scourse, barter’, Cotgrave; hence skoser, a horse-corser, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 10 (ed. Croft, i. 63). ‘Scorse’ is in prov. use along the south coast (EDD.). See Notes on Eng. Etym., p. 136.

scot and lot, a tax levied by a municipal corporation in proportionate shares for the defraying of municipal expenses; phr. to pay scot and lot, to pay out thoroughly; ‘Twas time to counterfet, or that hotte Termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot’, 1 Hen. IV, v. 4. 115; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 7 (Cob). The word scot = Anglo-F. escot, a payment (Rough List). See shot.

scot-free, free from payment of one’s tavern score. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 7 (Cob).

scotomy, dimness of sight, caused by dizziness. B. Jonson, Volpone, i. 1 (Mosca); Massinger, Old Law, iii. 2 (Simonides). Gk. σκότωμα, dimness; from σκοτοῦν, to make dim. Gk. σκότος, darkness.

scour, to be purged, to have diarrhoea; ‘He continually scowred’, Repentance of Robert Greene (NED.); ‘Poor young man, how he was bound to scaure for it’, Vanbrugh, The Relapse, v. 3 (Nurse). ‘Scour’ (or ‘Scaur’ in Norfolk) is in prov. use for being afflicted with diarrhoea, see EDD. (s.v. Scour, vb.¹ 4).

scour the queer cramp-ring, to wear the prison fetters (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); ‘skower the cramp-rings, weare fetters’, Harman, Caveat, p. 84; ‘quyerkyn (= queer ken), a pryson-house’, ib.

’scourse, for discourse; with a quibbling reference to scourse or scorse, to barter. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 2 (Pan).

scout, a slang term for a watch, or pocket time-piece; because a scout is a watchman. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, ii. 1 (Belfond senior).

scrag, a scraggy creature, lean man. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 606.

scrat, to scratch. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, st. 115; ‘I scratte as a beest dothe that hath sharp nayles, Je gratigne’, Palsgrave. In gen. prov. use in the British Isles (EDD.). ME. scrattyn, or scracchyn (Prompt.); to scratte, ‘scalpere’ (Cath. Angl.).

scratches, the, a disease of horses, in which the pasterns appear as if scratched. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Knockem); ‘Arestin, the scratches in a horses pasterne’, Minsheu, Span. Dict. (1623).

scrawl, scraul, to ‘crawl’. Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune, i. 1. 15; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 146; scraul, Tusser, Husbandry, § 49. 9. See Nares (s.v. Scrall). In gen. prov. use in England (EDD.).

screwed gun, a gun furnished with a screwed barrel, i.e. having a helically grooved bore. Dryden, Marriage a la Mode, v. 1 (Rhodophil). First known in 1646.

scrike, to ‘shriek’. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 4. 18. Swed. skrika, to shriek. In prov. use in various parts of England. See EDD. (s.v. Skrike).

scrimer, a fencer. Hamlet, iv. 7. 101. Cp. ‘scrim’ in prov. use for striking vigorously, ‘scrimmish,’ a skirmish (EDD.). F. escrimeur, ‘a fencer’; escrimer, ‘to fence, or play at fence, also, to lay hard about him’ (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.v. Skirmish).

scroyle, a scoundrel; a term of contempt. King John, ii. 1. 373; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. i. 1 (Stephen). Of obscure origin (NED.). See Notes on Eng. Etym., 263.

scruze, to press out. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 56. A Glouc. word, see EDD. (s.v. Scruse).

scry, to descry, perceive. Spenser, F. Q. v. 12. 38; Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 190. In prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Scry, vb.² 2). Norm. F. escrier, ‘explorer, chercher à découvrir’ (Moisy).

scryne, chest, ark. Spenser, Introd. to F. Q., st. 2. L. scrinium, a box for keeping books, letters, &c.

scull, skull, a ‘school’ of fish, a ‘shoal’. Mirror for Mag., Shore’s Wife, st. 29; Tr. and Cr. v. 5. 22 (ed. 1623); Milton, P. L. vii. 402; a covey of pheasants, Lyly, Mydas, iv. 3 (Petulus); a troop, company, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. i, ch. 6, st. 57. ‘Scull’ is in prov. use in Hants. for a great number of people, see EDD. (s.v. School, sb.² 2).

scum, skumme, to scour, with respect to land or sea; ‘There were sent forth rydars to skumme the country’, Morte Arthur, leaf 26, back, 30; bk. i, c. 13. F. ‘escumer; escumer la mer, to scowr, as a fleet, the sea’ (Cotgr.); escumeur, ‘corsaire qui fait des courses sur mer, pirate’ (Didot).

scumber, to void excrement, as a dog or fox. ‘Fienter, to dung, scumber’, Cotgrave; ‘When they (hounds) are led out of their kennels to scumber’, Massinger, Picture, v. 1 (Ricardo). Used in Cornwall of a bird (EDD.). OF. escombrer, to clean out (Godefroy). See bescumber, scombre.

scur; see skirr.

scurer, a scout, one sent forward to reconnoitre. Mirror for Mag., Guidericus, st. 36; ‘Out was our scurer sent agayn . . . to shew wher aboute the place was’, More, Comfort ag. Tribulation (Wks., p. 1181). OF. descouvreur, ‘espion, qui va à la découverte’ (Didot); Med. L. disco-operator (Ducange).

scurrile, scurrilous, vulgarly witty. Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 148; Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 1. 153. L. scurrilis, buffoon-like; from scurra, a buffoon.

scut, a hare. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 632. ME. scut, a hare (Prompt.).

scute, a coin of small value. Chapman, All Fools, v. 1 (Valerio). In prov. use from Dorset to Cornwall for a sum of money, see EDD. (s.v. Scute, sb.¹). Properly an E. name for the French coin called ėcu, OF. escut, L. scutum, a shield.

sdayn, to disdain. Spenser, F. Q. v. 5. 44.

sea-card, the card on which the points of the compass were marked. Fletcher, The Chances, i. 10 (near the end). See card.

sea-holm, sea-holly. Drayton, Pol. i. 125. Cp. holm-oak; and see eringo.

seam, fat, grease. Tr. and Cr. ii. 3. 195; Dryden, tr. Aeneid, vii. 867. In gen. prov. use in the British Isles, see EDD. (s.v. Saim). ME. seim, grease (Ancr. R. 412). Anglo-F. saim, ‘adeps’ (Ps. lxii. 6), cp. Ital. saime, O. Prov. sagin (saīn), ‘graisse’ (Levy), Med. L. sagimen, ‘adeps, sagina’ (Ducange).

searce, searse, to sift through a sieve. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1 (Ariosto). ‘Searce’ was formerly a widely spread prov. word for a fine sieve; as a vb. ‘to sift’ it still appears in Northumbrian and Kentish Glosses (EDD.). ME. sarce, a sieve (Prompt.); sarcyn, to sift (id., EETS. 450; see notes, no. 1875 and no. 2204). OF. saas (F. sas), a sieve. Span. cedazo, Med. L. setatium (Ducange), der. of L. seta, saeta, a bristle.

sear-cloth, to cover with ‘cere-cloth’ or waxed cloth. Dryden, Annus Mirab. 148. See cere-cloth.

season upon (or on), to seize upon. Mirror for Mag., Northumberland, st. 15; ‘I season upon a thynge as a hauke doth, je assaysonne. She saysouned upon the fesante at the first flyght’, Palsgrave; ‘It is mete for any lyon . . . to season his pawes upon his pray’, Acolastus, ii. 3. See NED. (s.v. Season, vb. 5).

sect, a class or kind of persons, used with reference to sex, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 41; Fletcher, Valentinian, i. 1 (Chilax); Middleton, Mad World, ii. 6. In prov. use in various parts of England; also in illiterate use in London; see EDD. and NED. Cp. Chaucer, ‘(The wife of Bath) and al hire secte’ (C. T. E. 1171). L. secta, a following, a school or sect of philosophy.

sectary, one who belongs to a sect, a dissenter. Hen. VIII, v. 3. 70; Puritan Widow, i. 2. 5. F. sectaire, ‘a sectary, follower of a sect’ (Cotgr.).

sectour, executor. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 62; ‘Sectour, executeur’, Palsgrave. ME. sectour, ‘exequitour’ (Cath. Angl.); seketowre, ‘executor’ (Prompt., Harl. MS.).

Sedgeley curse, an imprecation recorded by Ray among the proverbs of Staffordshire. It is given by Beaumont and Fl. in this form: ‘A Sedgly curse light on him, which is, Pedro, The fiend ride through him booted and spurred, With a scythe at his back!’, Tamer Tamed, v. 2; Massinger, City Madam, ii. 2 (Plenty). See Nares.

see, a seat of dignity or authority, a throne; ‘Jove laught on Venus from his soveraigne see’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 6. 2; the dwelling-place of a monarch, F. Q. iv. 10. 30.

see, pret. s. (I) saw, (he) saw, Greene, Sonnet, l. 4 (ed. Dyce, 292). Still in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. See, 1 (6)). OE. seah, pt. t. of sēon, to see.

seek: phr. to blow a seek, to sound notes on a horn, summoning hounds to the chase of a deer. Gascoigne, Art of Venerie (ed. Hazlitt, i. 314).

seek: phr. to seek, at a loss, badly off; ‘The Merchant will be to seeke for Money’, Bacon, Essay 41, § 4; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 2. Cp. Porson’s famous epigram in Museum Criticum, i. 332, ‘The Germans in Greek, Are sadly to seek’, &c. See NED. (s.v. Seek, vb. 20 b).

seel, to close up a bird’s eyelids, by means of a thread passed through them. A seeled dove, ‘She brought them to a seeled dove, who the blinder she was, the higher she strave’, Sidney, Arcadia (ed. Sommer, 65); Bacon, Essay 36. It was believed that a seeled dove would mount always higher aloft, till it sank from exhaustion; see Ford, Broken Heart, ii. 2. 3. Palsgrave has: ‘I cele a hauke, Ie cile.’ F. ciller, ‘to seele, or sow up the eyelids’ (Cotgr.); cil, an eyelash, L. cilium, an eyelid, eyelash.

seeld, seldom, Mirror for Mag., Salisbury, st. 20. See seld.

seeling, a wainscot, wainscoting. Bacon, Essay 54; ceiling, North, tr. of Plutarch, Octavius, § 4 (in Shak. Plut. p. 238).

seemless, unseemly. Spenser, F. Q. v. 2. 25; Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xx. 397.

seemlyhed, comeliness. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 14.

seen, equipped, furnished; versed, practised; ‘Seen in many things’, Heywood, A Woman killed, ii. 1 (Frankford); well seen, Tam. Shrew, i. 2. 136; Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. i, c. 8 (p. 37). In prov. use (EDD.).

sege, a seat. Morte Arthur, leaf 220. 7; bk. x, c. 16. ME. sege: ‘He schal sitte on the sege of his maieste’ (Wyclif, Matt. xxv. 31). Anglo-F. sege, seat (Ps. lxxxviii. 14), O. Prov. setge, ‘siège, banc, séance, siège d’une ville’ (Levy). See siege.

seggs, sedges. Kyd, Cornelia, iii. 3. 15. A Northern form (EDD.).

Seisactheia, an ordinance of Solon by which all debts were lowered. Massinger, Old Law, i. 1 (2 Lawyer). Gk. σεισάχθεια, a shaking off of burdens.

selago, a plant. Middleton, The Witch, iii. 3 (Hecate). L. selago, a plant resembling the savin-tree.

selar, a canopy of a bed; ‘The selar of the bedde’, Morte Arthur, leaf 349, back, 24; bk. xvii, c. 6. ‘Cellar for a bed, ciel de lit’, Palsgrave. See NED. (s.v. Celure).

selcouth, strange, uncommon. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 14. A Scottish poetical word (EDD.). ME. selcouth, strange, wonderful (P. Plowman, C. i. 5); OE. seldcūð, strange, lit. seldom known.

seld, seldom. Tr. and Cr. iv. 5. 150; hence seld-shown, seldom shown, Coriolanus, ii. 1. 229; seld-seen, Humour out of Breath, i. 1 (Octavio); as adj. rare, scarce, Tourneur, Revenger’s Tragedy, iv. 4. ME. seld (selde), seldom (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2343). See seeld.

sellary, a male prostitute. B. Jonson, Sejanus, iv. 5 (Arruntius). L. sellarius (Tacitus).

sely, harmless; ‘A selye innocente hare murdered of a dogge’, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, p. 111). Also, poor, helpless, Tusser, Husbandry, § 51. 18. ME. sely, simple, innocent, also, poor, pitiable (Chaucer); but Chaucer uses the word also in other senses: good, holy, happy. See Trench, Select Glossary (s.v. Silly). See silly.

semblably, similarly. 1 Hen. IV, v. 3. 21. F. semblable, like. F. sembler, to seem, resemble.

semblant, demeanour. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 10. 31; Morte Arthur, bk. ii, c. 17; to make semblant (= F. faire semblant), to make a show, appearance, or pretence (of doing something), id., bk. vii, c. 8.

seminary, an Englishman educated as a Popish priest in a foreign seminary. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Overdo).

semitary, a form of scimetar. B. Jonson, Case is altered, v. 2 (Juniper); semitarie, Peele, Battle of Alcazar, i. 2 (Moor). See cemitare.

sempster, a sempstress; also a spinster, as applied to the three Fates, Dekker, O. Fortunatus, ii. 2 (Shadow). In prov. use in Yorks. and Derbyshire, see EDD. (s.v. Seamster). ME. semster (Dest. Troy, 1585), OE. sēamestre, a sempstress (B. T.).

sennet, a signal-call played on a trumpet, the signal for entrance or exit. Common in the stage-directions in the Tudor drama. It occurs in various forms, such as synnet, sinet, cynet, signate. Hen. VIII, ii. 4; J. Caesar, i. 2; Ant. and Cl. ii. 7; Coriol. ii. 1; 2 Hen. VI, iii. 1. O. Prov. senhet (signet), ‘signe’ (Levy), OF. sinet (Littré). See Notes on Eng. Etym., p. 264.

sensing, ‘incensing’, use of incense. Latimer, Sermon on the Ploughers (ed. Arber, p. 30). ME. censynge, ‘turificacio’ (Prompt.).

sent, perception. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 43. The old spelling of scent; so in Cotgrave, ‘Odeur, sent, smell’.

sere, separate, distinct, each in particular. Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 107). ME. ser, distinct, each in particular (Ormin, 18653). Icel. sér, orig. dat. of refl. pron. ‘for oneself’, hence as adv. separately.

sere, the claw or talon of a bird or beast of prey. Usually in the pl. seres; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, viii. 212; xii. 213; Odyssey, ii. 238; Revenge of Bussy, iii. 1 (Clermont); Byron’s Tragedy, iii. 1. 16. F. serre, a hawk’s talon (Cotgr.).

sere, the catch in a gun-lock which is released by the trigger. Hamlet, ii. 2. 337 (see note by W. Aldis Wright). It was like a claw. See above.

serene, a chill evening air; ‘Some serene blast me’, B. Jonson, Volpone, iii. 5 (Celia); Epigrams, xxxii (last line). F. serein, ‘the mildew, or harmful dew of some summer evenings’ (Cotgr.). Ital. ‘sereno, the night calm; serenata, music played in a clear evening’ (Florio).

sericon, the name of some chemical substance. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Subtle). See NED.

serpentin, a kind of cannon. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 124; l. 159; ‘Serpentine, the artillery called a Serpentine or Basiliskoe’, Cotgrave.

serpigo, a general term for creeping or spreading skin diseases, esp. ringworm, Meas. for M. iii. 1. 31 (variously spelt in the edd.). Medical L. serpigo, ‘teter’ (Alphita, 167), deriv. of serpere, to creep.

servant, a professed lover, one who is devoted to the service of a lady. Two Gent. of Verona, ii. 1. 106, 114, 140. Very common. Cp. Ital. cavaliere servente; see Fanfani.

servulate, to serve obsequiously. Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, i. 2 (Egremont). From L. servulus, dimin. of servus, a slave.

sesama, oil from the seeds of a plant, sesame, one of the ingredients of a perfume. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Perfumer). Gk. σησάμη.

sesarara; see sasarara.

sess, seiss, to assess. Pt. t. sessyd, Fabyan, Chron., p. vii, ann. 1257-8 (ed. Ellis, p. 344); pp. seissed, North, tr. of Plutarch, Antonius, § 33 (in Shak. Plut., p. 204). In prov. use (EDD.).

set out the throat, to set up a noise, cry out. B. Jonson, Alchem. v. 2 (Face); Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, ii. 1 (Hippolito).

setter, a confederate of sharpers or swindlers, employed as a decoy (Cant). Nashe, Strange Newes, 1592; see Aydelotte, p. 86; Butler, Hud., Lady’s Answer, 153. One who marks down travellers to be robbed by thieves, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 53.

settle, a long bench, with a very high back. Albumazar, i. 1 (Ronca). In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Settle, sb.²).

setwall, the East Indian plant zedoary, Palsgrave; the plant valerian, ‘Drink-quickning Setwale’, Spenser, Muiopotmos, 196; spelt cetywall, Drayton, Ballad of Dowsabell, 33 (in later editions setywall). ME. setwale or sedwale, ‘zedoarium’ (Prompt.); cetewale (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3207). O. Span. cetoal, sitoval, cedoaria; of Arabic origin, see Dozy, Glossaire, 251.

sew, to follow; ‘Seven kings sewen me’, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 248; to sue, to plead, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 12. 29; to woo, id., iii. 5. 47. See Dict. (s.v. Sue).

sew, to drain dry; ‘To drain and sew’, North, tr. of Plutarch, Jul. Caesar, § 39 (in Shak. Plut., p. 93); Tusser, Husbandry, 32. In prov. use in E. Anglia, Kent, Sussex, and Dorset, see EDD. (s.v. Sew, vb.²). OF. esuer (Burguy); F. essuier, to dry up (Cotgr.); essuier, ‘évier, conduit par lequel s’écoulent les eaux sales d’une cuisine’ (Didot). See Hatzfeld (s.v. Essuyer).

sewell; see shewelle.

sewer, an attendant at a meal who superintended the seating of the guests, and the tasting and serving of the dishes. Macbeth, i. 7, Stage Direction. ME. sewer at the mete, ‘depositor, discoforus’ (Cath. Angl.); seware at mete, ‘dapifer’ (Prompt.). OF. asseour, ‘en parlant du service de la table, qui fait asseoir’ (Godefroy), Pop. L. assedatorem (acc.), one who sets, places, deriv. of assedare, to set, place, cp. Norm. F. aseer, to place; see Moisy.

sextile, denoting the aspect or relative position of two planets, when distant from each other by sixty degrees; a sextile aspect. Fletcher, Bloody Brother, iv. 2 (Norbret); Randolph, Jealous Lovers, v. 2; Milton, P. L. x. 659.

seymy, greasy. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 124; l. 169. See seam.

sforzato, a galley-slave. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1 (Vol.). Ital. ‘sforzati, galley-slaves, as forced to do anything’ (Florio), cp. F. ‘forçat, galley-slave’ (Cotgr.).

shack, the shaken grain which remains on the fields after harvesting; hence shack-time, the time during which this grain remains on the ground, Tusser, Husbandry, § 16. 30; to shack, to turn pigs or poultry into the stubble fields. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Shake, 9, 20, 21).

†shackatory, apparently, a huntsman’s underling. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 1 (Orlando). See NED.

shadow, a reflection in water; ‘Aesop had a foolish dog that let go the flesh to catch the shadow’, Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 37; a disguise, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Hempskirke); a friend of an invited guest (L. umbra), Massinger, Unnat. Combat, iii. 1. 11.

shaft, a May-pole, esp. the May-pole in Aldgate ward, London, which ‘shaft’, when it was set on end and fixed to the ground, was higher than the steeple of the church, which was hence called St. Andrew Undershaft. This ‘shaft’ was not raised after May-day, 1517, on account of a disturbance of the apprentices. Thirty-two years after it was sawn in pieces and burned as an idol. Stow, Survey (ed. Thoms, 54); Pennant’s London, 587. See Nares (s.v. Shaft), and Chambers, Book of Days, p. 574.

shaftman, a measure of about six inches, being the length from the top of the extended thumb to the wrist-side of the palm. Harington, tr. Ariosto, xxxvi. 56; shaftmon, Morte Arthur, leaf 124, back, 8; bk. vii, c. 22; shaftmont, ‘His leg was scarce a shaftmont lang’, Child’s Pop. Ballads, ii. 330; shaftement, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 112. ‘Shaftment’ is in prov. use in the north country (EDD.). ME. schaftmonde (Death of Arthur, 2546, 3843, 4232); OE. sceaftmund, a palm’s length (B. T.). See NED. (s.v. Shaftment).

shag-rag, ragged, vagabond-like; ‘A shag-rag knave’, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 5 (Barabas). The word ‘shag-rag’ is in prov. use in the north country to denote an idle, ragged vagabond, see EDD. (s.v. Shag, vb.³ 2 (2)). See shake-rag.

†shailes, scarecrows. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 23, § 2; see Croft’s note. Perhaps cognate with ME. schey, shy, timid (Prompt.). See shewelle.

shake-rag, a ragged disreputable person, Brome, Jovial Crew, iii. (NED.). [‘He was a shake-rag like fellow’, Scott, Guy Man., xxvi.] Also shake, Middleton, The Widow, ii. 1 (1 Suitor).

shake the elbow, to throw dice, to gamble. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1 (Ariosto).

shaking of the sheets, the name of an old dance, usually mentioned with an indecent suggestion. Westward Ho, v. 3.

shale, a shell, husk. Hen. V, iv. 2. 18; Parliament of Bees, character 5 (end). ME. shale (Chaucer), OE. scealu, a husk.

shale, to shell, take of the husk; ‘I shale peasen’, Palsgrave; ‘A little lad set on a bancke to shale the ripen’d nuts’, W. Browne, Brit. Pastorals, bk. ii, song 4. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Shale, vb.¹ 14). ME. shale, notys or odyr frute, ‘enucleo’ (Prompt. EETS. 451). Cp. F. eschaller: ‘eschalleur de noys, qui écale des noix’ (Glossaire, Rabelais, ii. 160).

shale, to shamble with the feet; ‘Esgrailler, to shale or straddle with the legs’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Shale, vb.²). See shayle.

shalla, for shall he; ‘Shalla go In deede? and shalla flowte me thus?,’ Phaer, Aeneid iv, 590, 591. A for he is common in prov. use when unemphatic, see EDD. (s.v. He, 1 (1)).

sham, to take in, to hoax; ‘You shammed me all night long . . . Freeman. Shamming is telling you an insipid, dull lye, with a dull face, which the sly wag the author only laughs at himself; and, making himself believe ’tis a good jest, puts the sham only upon himself, Wycherley, Plain Dealer, iii. Cp. Sc. sham, to cheat, trick, deceive, see EDD. (s.v. Sham, vb.¹ 1).

shamois, shoes made of the wild goat’s skin. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 19.

shape, the costume suited to a particular part in a play. Massinger, Bondman, v. 3 (Pisander).

shard, a fragment, a piece of broken pottery, a potsherd; ‘Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her’, Hamlet, v. 1. 254. In prov. use in the sense of a broken piece in Scotland and in the various parts of England (EDD.). ME. scherde, ‘testula’ (Prompt. EETS.), OE. sceard, ‘testa’ (B. T.).

shard, a patch of cow-dung; ‘They are his shards, and he their beetle’, Ant. and Cl. iii. 2. 19; ‘Such souls as shards produce, such beetle things As only buz to heaven with ev’ning wings’, Dryden, Hind and P. i. 321; ‘The shard-borne beetle’ (the beetle born in dung), Macbeth, iii. 2. 42. ‘Shard,’ meaning a patch of cow-dung, is in prov. use in Yorks. and Wilts. (EDD.). Probably related to ‘sharn’ in prov. use for dung of cattle; OE. scearn (Leechdoms); see EDD.

shard. In Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 38, ‘When late he far’d In Phaedrias flitt barke over that perlous shard.’ Spenser appears to use ‘shard’ here in the sense of ‘a channel’. It is probably the same word as ‘shard’ in prov. use for an incision, a gap, a narrow passage, see EDD. (s.v. Shard, sb.² 1, 2, 3). OE. sceard, a gap, notch; the word is used for bays and creeks in Boethius, 18. 1.

shark, to prowl about to pick up a living. Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, iii. 3 (Mallicorn); Earle, Micro-Cosmographie, no. 77 (ed. Arber, 35); shark on, to prey upon, Sir Thos. More, ii. 4. 106; shark up, to pick up by prowling about, Hamlet, i. 1. 98. Hence shark-gull, a cheat who preys upon simpletons, Middleton, The Black Book (ed. Dyce, v. 524).

sharp. To fight at sharp, to fight with sharp weapons, not with foils, Beaumont and Fl., Nice Valour, v. 3 (Galoshio).

shayle, to shamble, to walk crookedly or awkwardly. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 20, l. 19; p. 214, l. 172. Palsgrave has: ‘I shayle, as a man or horse dothe that gothe croked with his legges, Ie vas eschays.’ ME. schaylyn, ‘disgredior’ (Prompt. EETS. 451). See shale and shoyle.

sheal, to take off the outer covering of peas, King Lear, i. 4. 219. In prov. use in Scotland and in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Sheal, vb.² 1).

sheath; see painted.

sheene, fair, beautiful to behold. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 10; ii. 2. 40; ii. 10. 8; ‘Haill May, haill Flora, haill Aurora schene!’, Dunbar, Thrissill, 9; as sb., fairness, splendour, Hamlet, iii. 2. 167. ME. shene, fair, beautiful (Chaucer, C. T. A. 972). OE. scēne, scȳne, scīene, fair, identical with G. schön, beautiful, Goth. skauns.

sheerly, entirely. Fletcher, Mad Lover, v. 4 (Memnon). A Scotch word, used by Burns, Ep. to Major Logan (EDD.).

sheeve, a slice; ‘A sheeve of bread’, Warner, Alb. England, bk. iv, ch. 20, st. 29. In prov. use in Scotland and Lanc., see EDD. (s.v. Sheave). See shive.

shelf, a sandbank. B. Jonson, The Forest, iii (l. 12 from end); shelves, pl., 3 Hen. VI, v. 4. 23; ‘On the tawny sands and shelves Trip the pert faeries’, Milton, Comus, 117. For Scotch exx. see EDD. (s.v. Shelf, sb.²).

shell, a cockle-shell worn in the hat by pilgrims to Compostella. Heywood, Four Prentises (Godfrey), vol. ii, p. 213.

shells, a cant term for money. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (2 Cutpurse); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 2 (Matheo).

shend, to put to shame, blame, reproach. Spenser, Prothalamion, 121; shent, pp., F. Q. ii. 5. 5; vi. 6. 18. In prov. use in Scotland and in Kent (EDD.). ME. shende, to render contemptible (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 893); schende, to blame, reproach (Wyclif, Ps. cxviii. 31). OE. scendan.

sherif, a title of the descendants of Mohammed, a title of the chief magistrate of Mecca, and of Morocco; ‘The Sheriffe of Mecca’, Purchas, Pilgrims, iii. 257. Arab. sharîf, noble, of noble lineage, particularly, descending from Mohammed (Steingass). See xeriff.

sherris, ‘sherry’, a Spanish wine, so called from the town Xeres. 2 Hen. IV, iv. 3. 111, 114, 122, 131. The Arabic form of the place-name Xeres was Sherêysh (Dozy, Glossaire, p. 18). The Roman name was Caesaris Asidona. By the loss of the first syllable, Caesaris became on the lips of the Moors sherêysh. For a similar decapitation of the word Caesar, compare the name of the Spanish city Zaragoça, the Caesaraugusta of the Romans.

shewelle, sewell; ‘A sewell, a thing to keep out the deer’, Howell, Lexicon Tetraglotton; ‘Anything that is hung up is called a Sewel; and those are used most commonly to amaze a Deare, and to make him refuse to passe wher they are hanged up’, Turbervile, Hunting (ed. 1575, p. 98); used fig., ‘Bugbeares of opinions brought, to serve as shewelles to keep them from those faults’, Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia (ed. 1605, p. 267); ‘Shewell’ in the sense of a scarecrow is still in use in Oxfordsh. and Berks. (EDD.). Cp. ME. scheawle, a scarecrow (Owl and N. 1648); a-schewelen, to scare away (Stratmann, pp. 32, 528); deriv. of OE. scēoh, timid, shy.

shift herself, change her dress. Beaumont and Fl., Nice Valour, iii. 1. 8. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Shift, 2).

shine, bright. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 3; ‘Girt my shine browe with sea-banke Myrtle sprays’, Marlowe, tr. of Ovid’s Elegies, bk. i, 1. 34 (Wks., ed. Tucker Brooke, 560). See sheene.

shirwood = L. lucus. Phaer, Aeneid viii, 342.

shittle, unstable, inconstant; ‘Their shittle hate’, Mirror for Mag., Collingbourne, st. 3; ‘Shyttell, nat constant, variable’, Palsgrave. ME. schytyl, ‘preceps’ (Prompt. EETS. 398), cogn. w. OE. scēotan, to run hastily (Acts vii. 57); see Cook, Biblical Quotations, p. 234.

shittle-cock, a shuttlecock. Middleton, A Chaste Maid, iii. 2 (Allwit). ‘Shyttel cocke, volant’, Palsgrave. ME. schytyl, a shuttle (in a child’s game), see Prompt. EETS. 398.

shive, a slice, Titus Andron. ii. 1. 87. In gen. prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, England, and America, see EDD. (s.v. Shive, sb.¹ 1). ME. schyve of bred or oþer lyke, ‘lesca, scinda’ (Prompt. EETS. 399). Cp. Icel. skifa, a slice, and G. scheibe.

shock-dog, a rough-coated dog; a poodle. Wycherley, Gent. Dancing-master, ii. 2 (Hippolyta); Tatler, no. 245.

shoe-the-mare, a Christmas sport. Middleton, Inner-Temple Masque (Plumporridge). ‘Shoe the old mare’ is the name of a kind of sport in Galloway, see EDD. (s.v. Shoe, vb. 10).

shog, to move off, go away. Henry V, ii. 1. 47, ii. 3. 47; shog on, Massinger, Parl. of Love, iv. 5 (near the end); shogd, shook, pushed; Phaer, Aeneid ii, 465; shog, a jog, a shake. Dryden, Epil. to The Man of Mode, 28. In gen. prov. use (EDD.). ME. schoggen, to shake (Wars Alex. 5018).

shold, a shoal, sandbank. Phaer, Aeneid i, 112; Hakluyt, Voyages, iii. 547. ‘Shald’ in various spellings is in prov. use in the north country, meaning (1) shallow, (2) a shoal (EDD.). ME. ‘schold or schalowe, noȝte depe’ (Prompt.). OE. sceald, shallow (found in place-names); see Dict. (s.v. Shallow).

shoot-anker, sheet-anchor; hence, a means of security. Udall, Roister Doister, i. 1. 28; ‘This saying they make their shoot-anker’, Cranmer (cited in Dict., s.v. Sheet).

shope, shaped, framed; pt. t. of shape. Spenser, F. Q. v. 5. 39. ME. shoop, planned, devised (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 207), pt. s. of shapen; OE. scōp, pt. s. of sceppan.

shoppini, high-heeled shoes; ‘Those high corked shoes, which now they call in Spaine and Italy Shoppini’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. i, c. 15; p. 49. See cioppino and choppine. See Stanford (s.v. Chopine).

shore, a sewer. Shirley, Love Tricks, i. 1; ‘The common shore’, A Woman never vext (Mrs. Foster), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xii. 104; ‘Our sailing ships like common shores we use’, Dryden, Hind and Panther, ii. 558. ‘Shore’, once a common word for a sewer, is still preserved in Shoreditch in London; also named Sewers Ditch; see Stow’s Survey, p. 158. It is in gen. prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and England, see EDD. (s.v. Shore, sb.³ 1).

shoringness, inclination to tilt to one side; ‘A table, of the which the thirde foot was A little shorter then the rest. A tyle-sherd made it even And tooke away the shoringness,’ Golding, Metam. viii. 662; fol. 103 (1603). ‘Shoring’ is in prov. use in E. Anglia, in the sense of slanting, sloping, awry, see EDD. (s.v. Shore, vb.² 4).

shot, a payment, reckoning; esp. a contribution to the payment of a tavern score; ‘Escotter, every one to pay his shot or to contribute somewhat towards it’, Cotgrave; Two Gent. ii. 5. 9; shot-free, without having to pay, 1 Hen. IV, v. 3. 30. In gen. prov. and colloquial use in Scotland, England, and America, see EDD. (s.v. Shot, sb.¹ 1). ME. schot, a payment (Stratmann). OE. scot, a contribution (in compounds), see B. T. The Anglo-F. form is escot (mod. écot), whence E. scot, in scot-free, and scot and lot. See escot, scot and lot.

shot-clog, a dupe; one who was a clog upon a company, but was tolerated because he paid the shot or reckoning. Eastward Ho, i. 1 (Golding); B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (Shun.); ‘A shot-clog, to make suppers, and be laughed at’, B. Jonson, Poetaster, i. 1 (Ovid senior). Spelt shot-log, Field, Amends for Ladies, iii (end).

shot-shark, a tavern waiter; because he sharks for (or hunts after) the reckoning or shot. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 4. 1.

shotten, lean. Fletcher, Women Pleased, ii. 4. 9. From the phr. shotten herring, a herring that has spent the roe, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 143. ‘As lean as a shot-herring’ is given in EDD. as a Derbyshire saying. ‘Shotten’ is used in Kent of the herring that has spent its roe, see EDD. (s.v. Shot, pp. 5).

shotten-souled, deprived of a soul; soulless. Fletcher, Wit without Money, iii. 4. 2.

shotterell, shotrell, a pike in his first year; ‘An harlotrie [i.e. worthless] shotterell’, Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 4 (Carion); ‘The Shotrell, 1 year, Pickerel, 2 year, Pike, 3 year, Luce, 4 year, are one’, W. Lauson, Comments on the Secrets of Angling; in Arber’s Eng. Garner, i. 197.

shough, a rough dog with shaggy hair. Macbeth, iii. 1. 94; Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, iii. 3 (Grilla). Also in forms shog and shock, ‘Nor mungrell nor shog’, Taylor’s Works, 1630 (Nares); ‘Their little shocks or Bononia dogs’, Erminia, 1661 (Nares).

shough, shoo, interj., away! used to scare away fowls. Fletcher, Maid in the Mill, v. 1 (end).

shoule, a ‘shovel’. Heywood, Fortune by Land and Sea, iv. 1 (Jack); vol. vi, p. 424. For various forms of ‘shool’, a word which is in gen. prov. use in the British Isles and America, see EDD.

shouler, a bird; the ‘shoveller’ or spoonbill. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 353. Skelton has shouelar (= shovelar), Phylyp Sparowe, 408.

shovelboard, the name of a game. The game was to shuffle or drive by a blow of the hand a counter or coin along a smooth board, so as to pass beyond a line drawn across the board near the far end, but so as not to fall off the board; ‘Plaieing at slide-groat or shoofleboard’, Stanyhurst, Desc. of Ireland, ann. 1528; Edward shovel-board, a shilling coined in the reign of Edward VI commonly used in the game of shovel-board, Merry Wives, i. 1. 159. A similar game was called shove-groat, hence shove-groat shilling, the coin used at the game, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 206; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 5. 17 (see Wheatley’s note). See Nares.

shoyle, to lean outwards on the foot in walking. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 55 (p. 155), says that wild swine never ‘shoyle or leane outwards’, as tame hogs do. See shayle.

shraming, making a great noise, screaming; ‘Shraming shalms’, Golding, Metam. iv. 392; fol. 48, back (1603); ‘She shraming cryed’, id., viii. 108; fol. 94.

shrewd, malicious, mischievous, ill-natured, All’s Well, iii. 5. 68; Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 33; bad, nasty, grievous, Merch. Ven. iii. 2. 244; Ant. and Cl. iv. 9. 5. The word is used in Shropshire in the sense of ‘vicious’ (EDD.). ME. schrewyd, ‘pravus, pravatus, depravatus’ (Prompt. EETS. 401).

shrich, to ‘shriek’. Gascoigne, Philomene, ll. 22, 52. ME. schrichen, variants schriken, skriken (Chaucer, C. T. B. 4590).

shrieve, a ‘sheriff’. All’s Well, iv. 3. 213; 2 Hen. IV, iv. 4. 99. ME. shirreve (Chaucer, C. T. A. 359). OE. scīr-gerēfa. See Dict.

shright, pt. t. shrieked; ‘Out! alas! she shryght’, Sackville, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 18; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 8. 32. ME. shrighte (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2817), pt. t. of schrychen (schriken) to shriek. See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Schrychen).

shright, a shriek. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 57; vi. 4. 2.

shrill, thin, poor; ‘Age . . . all balde or ouer-cast With shril, thin haire as white as snow’, Golding, Metam. xv. 213. ‘Shrill’ (also ‘shill’) is in prov. use in Bedf. and Northants for thin, poor; also clear, transparent, applied to book-muslin (EDD.).

shrill, to sound shrilly, to resound. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 20; v. 7. 27.

shrimp, a shrunken, wizened man. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 600.

Shrove-Tuesday bird, a cock tied down, at which cudgels were thrown, on a Shrove Tuesday. Beaumont and Fl., Nice Valour, iii. 3 (Lapet; near the end). See Brand’s Pop. Ant. (ed. 1877, p. 37).

shroving, joining in the ceremonies and sports of Shrove Tuesday. Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 5 (Eyre); Fletcher, Noble Gent. iii. 2 (Lady). See EDD. (s.v. Shrove, vb.), where it is said that the custom of ‘shroving’, i.e. going round singing for money, &c., on Shrove Tuesday, is known from Oxf. to Dorset.

shrow, a ‘shrew’, a vixen, a scold. A frequent spelling of shrew in old editions of Shakespeare; and always pronounced so, cp. the rimes in Tam. Shrew, iv. 1. 213; v. 2. 28; v. 2. 188; shroe, Peele, Arraignment of Paris, iv. 1 (Bacchus).

shug, to slip, to wriggle. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, v. 1 (Dog). See EDD. (s.v. Shuck, vb.¹ 2).

shuter, a suitor. A common pronunciation of suitor; puns on shooter and suitor occur often. London Prodigal, i. 2. 42; cp. L. L. L. iv. 1. 110; Puritan Widow, il. 1. 97.

shuttle-brained, thoughtless, flighty. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Cicero, § 6. From the movements of the shuttle.

sidanen, a fine woman; an epithet. Northward Ho, ii. 1 (Capt. Jenkin). Welsh sidanen, silken, made of silk; also, an epithet for a fine woman (Owen). Applied sometimes to Queen Elizabeth; so Nares.

siddon, soft, tender, mellow. Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, iv. 1 (Piero). Current in west midland counties, chiefly of peas or other vegetables which become soft in boiling, see EDD. (s.v. Sidder). Cp. OE. syde, a decoction, the water in which anything has been seethed or boiled (B. T.). Cognate with seethe, pp. sodden; see Dict. (s.v. Seethe).

side, long, hanging down a long way; ‘Side sleeves’, Much Ado, iii. 4. 21; Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 440; B. Jonson, New Inn, v. 1 (Fly). In prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England (EDD.). ME. syde, as a gowne, ‘defluxus, talaris’ (Cath. Angl.); ‘syde sleeves’ (Hoccleve, Reg. P. 535). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Syde). OE. sīd, ample, wide, large, extensive.

side, to set up a, to be partners in a game. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iii. 2 (Cent.).

sie, sye, to strain milk. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 146. 10. ‘I sye mylke, or clense’, Palsgrave. In prov. use in Scotland, England down to Glouc. (EDD.). OE. sēon (sīan), to strain; cp. asiende, ‘excolantes’ (Matt. xxiii. 24, Mercian Gloss); see B. T. (s.v. āsēon).

siege, a seat, esp. one used by a person of rank or distinction, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 39; hence, rank, Othello, i. 2. 22; the station of a heron on the watch for prey, Massinger, Guardian, i. 1 (Durazzo); a privy, Phaer, Pestilence (NED.); evacuation, B. Jonson, Sejanus, i. 2; excrement, Tempest, ii. 2. 110. ME. sege, ‘sedes, secessus’ (Prompt. EETS. 404, see notes). See sege.

sieve and shears, a mode of divination; used for the recovery of things lost. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Face); Butler, Hud. i. 2. 848. See EDD. (s.v. Riddle, sb.¹ 1 (1)).

sifflement, a whistling, chirping. Brewer, Lingua, i. 1 (Auditus). F. siffler, to whistle, L. sifilare, a dialect form of sibilare.

sight, pt. t. sighed. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 20; vi. 10. 40. ME. sighte (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1035), pt. s. of syke, to sigh.

signatures, marks. The medicinal virtues of some plants were supposed to be indicated by their forms or by marks upon them. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 329.

sikerly, certainly, surely. Gammer Gurton’s Needle, last scene (Gammer). Still in prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Sickerly). ME. sikerly (Chaucer); sikerliche (P. Plowman). OE. sicor, sure, safe; certain (B. T.).

silder, less frequently. Tancred and Gismunda, ii. 3 (Lucrece); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 46. See seld.

silly, simple, rustic; innocent. Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 35; iii. 8. 27; poor, wretched, weak, Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, pp. 491, 533. See sely.

silverling, a piece of silver; ‘Fifty thousande silverlynges’, Tyndale, Acts xix. 9; so the Cranmer version, 1539, and the Geneva, 1557; Bible, Isaiah vii. 23; here Luther has Silberlinge. In Marlowe, Jew of Malta, i. 1. 6, silverling = the Jewish coin, the shekel.

†simming, simmering. Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, iv. 6. 27.

simper, to twinkle, glimmer. Beaumont and Fl., Lover’s Progress, iii. 1. 8; ‘I mark how starres above Simper and shine’, G. Herbert, The Church, The Search, l. 14.

simper, to simmer; ‘I symper, as lycour dothe on the fyre before it begynneth to boyle’, Palsgrave. In prov. use in north Ireland, west Yorks., and east Anglia (EDD.).

simper-the-cocket, an affected coquettish air; a woman so characterised, a flirt. B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Patrico); Skelton, El. Rummyng, 55; simper de cocket, ‘Coquine, a beggar-woman; also a simper de cockit, nice thing’, Cotgrave; Heywood’s Proverbs, Pt. ii, ch. 1 (ed. Farmer, 52). See Nares.

simple, a simple remedy, as a plant used medicinally without admixture; ‘Where a sycknesse may be cured with symples’, Sir T. Elyot, Castel of Helthe, bk. ii, c. 28; to gather simples or medicinal herbs, Butler, Hud. ii. 3. 823.

simulty, a grudge. B. Jonson, Discoveries, cxxii, § 2. F. simulté, a grudge (Cotgr.). L. simultas, a hostile encounter, animosity.

sin, since. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 11. 44. In gen. prov. use (EDD.). ME. sithen, since (Wars Alex.); see Dict. M. and S. OE. sīððan.

single: single money, small change; ‘The ale-wives’ single money’, B. Jonson, Alchem. v. 2 (Subtle); Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iv. 5 (Pedro).

single, in hunting, the tail of a deer; ‘The tayle of Harte, Bucke, Rowe or any other Deare is to be called the Syngle’, Turbervile, Hunting, 243 (NED.); Howell, Parley of Beasts, 63; used of Pan’s tail, ‘That single wagging at thy butt’, Cotton, Burlesque, 277 (Davies). Hence, ‘a boy leasht on the single’, is explained by ‘beaten on the taile’, Lyly, Midas, iv. 3 (Pet.). Still in prov. use in Northants. and west Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Single, sb.¹ 9).

singler, a full-grown wild boar. Manwood, Lawes Forest, iv, § 5. See sanglier.

singles, the claws of a hawk. The middle claws were called the long singles, and the outer the petty singles. Heywood, A Woman killed, i. 3 (Sir Francis). The single was orig. the middle or outer claw on the foot of the hawk (NED.).

†singles, the entrails; ‘The singles (Lat. prosecta) also of a wolfe’, Golding, Metam. vii. 271; fol. 82 (1603). Not found elsewhere.

sink and sise, five and six; at dice; ‘All at sink and sise’, i.e. I have lost all my effects at dice-playing, Like will to Like, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 346.

sinkanter, a term of contempt; ‘One Volanerius, an old sinkanter or gamester and scurrilous companion by profession’, Jackson, Creed, x. 19; ‘Rocard, an overworn sincaunter, one that can neither whinny nor wag the tail’, Cotgrave.

si quis, an advertisement; also called a bill. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, ii. 2 (end). From L. si quis, lit. if any one; from the first two words; the advertisement begins: ‘If there be any lady or gentlewoman’, id., iii. 1 (Puntarvolo). Cp. Hall, Sat. ii. 5. 1.

Sir John, a familiar appellation for a priest, because John was a common name, and it was usual to prefix sir to a priest’s name. Richard III, iii. 2. 111; Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, i. 2 (Luce). Cp. Chaucer (C. T. B. 4000), ‘Com neer thou preest, com hider thou sir John.’ See NED. (s.v. Sir, 4).

sirts of sand, quicksands. Mirror for Mag., Madan, st. 7. For syrtes, pl. of L. Syrtis, Gk. Σύρτις, the name of two large sandbanks (Major and Minor) on the coast of Libya. Cp. ‘A boggy Syrtis’, Milton, P. L. ii. 939.

sit, to be fitting, to befit, suit; ‘It sits not’ (i.e. it is unbecoming), Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 30; ‘With them it sits’, Shep. Kal., May, 77; id., Nov., 26. In the north country ‘It sits him weel indeed’ is often said ironically of a person who arrogates to himself more than is thought proper, see EDD. (s.v. Sit, 16). Sitting, suitable, fit, becoming; ‘To the [thee] it is sittynge’, Fabyan, Chron., Part vii, c. 232; ed. Ellis, p. 265; Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 149.

sith, time; also pl. times. Spenser has ‘a thousand sith’, a thousand times, F. Q. iii. 10. 33; also, ‘a thousand sithes’, Shep. Kal., Jan., 49. OE. sīð, a journey, time.

sith, since. Drayton, Pol. xiii. 95. ME. sith, since (Chaucer, C. T. A. 930).

sithence, since. Coriolanus, iii. 1. 47. ME. sithenes, since (P. Plowman, B. x. 257; xix. 15).

six, small beer; sold at 6s. a barrel; ‘A cup of six’, Rowley, A Match at Midnight, i. 1 (Tim).

six and seven, to set all on, ‘to risk all one’s property on the hazard of the dice; Omnem iacere aleam, to cast all dice, . . . to set al on sixe and seuen, and at al auentures to ieoperd’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Julius, § 7; ‘Or wager laid at six and seven’, Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 588.

skails, a game like ninepins; the same as ‘kails’. ‘Aliossi, a play called Nine pins or keeles, or skailes’, Florio (1598); North, tr. of Plutarch, Alcibiades, § 1. See NED. (s.v. Skayles).

†skainsmate. Only occurs as spoken by the Nurse in Romeo, ii. 4. 163, ‘Scurvy Knave! I am none of his flirt-gills; I am none of his skainsmates’. The nurse was no very correct speaker, and in the heat of her anger she has in this case become wholly unintelligible. The guesses of the commentators and glossarists are devoid of probability.

skeen, a knife. Merry Devil, ii. 2. 54; skeane, Spenser, State of Ireland (Globe ed., p. 631); skene, Brewer, Lingua, i. 1 (first stage-direction). Also skaine, Drayton, Pol. iv. 384. In prov. use in Scotland and Ireland, see EDD. (s.v. Skean). Sc. and Ir. Gaelic, sgian, a knife.

skelder, to beg impudently by false representations, to swindle (Cant). B. Jonson, Poetaster, i. 1 (Luscus); ib. (Tucca); iii. 1 (Tucca); Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll).

skellet, a ‘skillet’, a small pot or pan; a small kettle. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 250; skillet, Othello, i. 3. 273. ‘Skellet’ (also ‘skillet’), a small metal pan or saucepan, is in gen. prov. use in the British Isles and America, see EDD. (s.v. Skillet).

skellum; see schellum.

skelp, to strike with the hand, to smack; ‘I shall skelp thee on the skalpe’, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2207. In gen. prov. use in the British Isles; in England in the north and Midland counties, see EDD. (s.v. Skelp, vb.¹). ME. skelpe, to smite with a scourge (Wars Alex. 1924).

skew at, to look askance at, to slight. Beaumont and Fl., Loyal Subject, ii. 1 (Putskie); ‘To skewe, limis oculis spectare’, Levins, Manip. ‘To skew’ is in prov. use in the north of England in the sense of to look askance at any one, see EDD. (s.v. Skew, vb.¹ 18).

skew rom-bouse, to quaff good drink (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); a skew, a cuppe; Harman, Caveat, p. 83.

†skibbered (?).

‘What slimie bold presumptuous groome is he,

Dares with his rude audacious hardy chat,

Thus sever me from skibbered contemplation?’

Return from Parnassus, i. 6 (Furor).

The Halliwell-Phillipps MS. of the play reads skybredd (communicated by Mr. Percy Simpson). Dr. H. Bradley suggests skyward.

skice, skise, to frisk about, move nimbly, make off quickly; ‘Skise out this way, and skise out that way’, Brome, Jovial Crew, iv. 1 (Randal). In prov. use—Sussex, Hampshire, &c. (EDD.).

skill, to make a difference; ‘It skills not much’, it makes little difference, Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 134; ‘It skills not’, it makes no difference, Nero, v. 2; ‘It skilleth not’, Lyly, Euphues (ed Arber, 245). Extremely common from 1550 to 1650, see NED.

skillet, see skellet.

skimble-skamble, rambling, incoherent. 1 Hen. IV, iii. 154. See scamble.

skimmington, a ceremony practised on unpopular persons in various parts of England; fully described in EDD. See Heywood, Witches of Lancs. iv. 230; Oldham, Satires upon the Jesuits, iv (ed. R. Bell, p. 125). See Brand’s Pop. Antiq., Cornutes (ed. 1877, p. 414), for an account of ‘Riding Skimmington’, where it is described as a ludicrous cavalcade intended to ridicule a man beaten by his wife.

skink, to draw or pour out liquor. B. Jonson, New Inn, i (Lovel); Phaer, Aeneid vii, 133. Hence, Under-skinker, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 26. ME. skinke, to pour out (Chaucer, C. T. E. 1722). For full account of this verb see Dict. (s.v. Nunchion).

skipjack, a pert fellow, a whipper-snapper. Greene, Alphonsus, i. 1 (Alph.); also, a horse-dealer’s boy, Dekker, Lanthorne, x; see Nares. ‘Skipjack’ is in prov. use in north of England in sense of a pert, conceited fellow, see EDD. (s.v. Skip, vb.¹ 1 (2 a)).

skipper, a barn (Cant). ‘A skypper, a barne’, Harman, Caveat, p. 83; B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman). Possibly Cornish sciber, Welsh ysgubor, a barn (NED.), Med. L. scopar, ‘scuria, stabulum’ (Ducange).

skirr, to pass rapidly over a stretch of land; ‘Skirre the country round’, Macbeth, v. 3. 35. Of doubtful origin (NED.). In prov. use in the sense of to scurry, rush, fly quickly (EDD.).

skit, skittish, restive. Spelt skyt, Skelton, Against the Scottes, 101. See EDD. (s.v. Skit, vb.² 1).

skoase, to chaffer, barter, exchange. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. vi, ch. 31, st. 64. See scorse.

skope, skoope, pt. t. of scape, scaped, escaped, got away. Phaer, Aeneid ii, 458 (L. evado); skoope = escaped to, id., vi. 425; skoope, escaped, id., ix. 545 (L. elapsi).

skoser; see scorse.

skull, a skull-cap, helmet. Beaumont and Fl., Humorous Lieutenant, iv. 4. 5.

skull; see scull.

skyrgaliard, a wild or dissipated fellow, Skelton, Against the Scottes, 101; id., Speke, Parrot, 427. See galliard.

slab up, to sup up greedily and dirtily; ‘Ye never saw hungry dog so slab (printed stab) potage up’, Jacob and Esau, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 215. See NED. (s.v. Slab, vb.²).

slake, a shallow dell, a glade, a pass between hills. Morte Arthur, leaf 95. 6; bk. vi, c. 5. In prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and in various parts of England, in the north down to Lincoln, see EDD. (s.v. Slack, sb.³ 1). Icel. slakki, a small shallow dell.

slam, an ungainly person; ‘He is but a slam’, Vanbrugh, The Relapse, v. 5 (Nurse); ‘A slam or slim Fellow is a skragged, tall, rawboned Fellow’, Ray, N. C. Words (ed. 1691, 137), see NED. (s.v. Slam, adj.).

slampant: in phr. to give one the (or a) slampant, to play a trick on; ‘Polyperchon . . . meaning to give Cassander a slampant . . . sent letters Pattents’, North, Plutarch (ed. 1595, 805); ‘Trousse, a cousening tricke, blurt, slampant’, Cotgrave; also in form slampaine, ‘The townesmen being pinched at the heart that one rascal . . . should give them the slampaine’, Stanyhurst, Desc. of Ireland (ed. 1808, vi. 30); also spelt slampam, ‘Shal a stranger geve me the slampam?’, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 633.

slat, to dash, strike violently. Marston, Malcontent, iv. 1 (Malevole). In prov. use in various parts of England, meaning to throw violently, to dash down water or other liquid, also, to strike, beat, see EDD. (s.v. Slat, vb.³ 1).

slate, a cant term for a sheet. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor); Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); Harman, Caveat, p. 61.

slaty, muddy, rainy. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 258. ‘Slatty’ is a Warw. word for muddy, see EDD. (s.v. Slat, sb.⁴ 1).

sled, a sledge or sleigh used as a vehicle in travelling or for recreation; ‘With milke-white Hartes upon an Ivorie sled Thou shalt be drawen’, Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, i. 2. In common prov. use for a low cart without wheels, see EDD. (s.v. Sled, sb.¹ 1). ME. slede, a dray without wheels, a harrow, ‘traha’ (Prompt. EETS. 415).

sledded, (perhaps) riding in ‘sleds’ or sledges; ‘He smote the sledded Pollax on the ice’, Hamlet, i. 1. 63 (a Polack is a Pole, an inhabitant of Poland). So NED.

sledge, a sledge-hammer; ‘To throw the sledge’, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 2 (Elder Loveless). A Devon word, see EDD. (s.v. Sledge, sb.²).

sleek, plausible, specious. Hen. VIII, iii. 2. 241; Chapman, Eastward Ho, ii. 2. Later variant form of ME. slĭke; see slick.

sleided silk, sleaved silk, silk ravelled out, divided into filaments. Pericles, iv, Prol. 21.

sleight, a cunning trick, an artifice. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 81; Massinger, New Way to pay, v. 1; 3 Hen. VI, iv. 2. 20; spelt slight, Middleton, More Dissemblers, iv. 1; Butler, Hud. i. 2. 747. See Dict.

slent, to slip or glide obliquely; ‘The stroke slented doune to the erthe’, Morte Arthur, leaf 345. 24; bk. xvii, c. 1; to make sly hits or gibes, ‘One Proteas, a pleasaunt conceited man, and that could slent finely’, North, Plutarch (NED.); hence, slent, a sly hit or sarcasm, ‘Cleopatra found Antonius jeasts and slents to be but grosse’, ib., M. Antonius, § 13 (in Shaks. Plut., p. 175). See EDD. (s.v. Slent, vb.¹).

slibber-sauce, a nauseous concoction, used esp. for medicinal purposes, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 116); slibber sawces, buttery, oily, made-up sauces, Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 105).

slick, smooth, plausible. Rawlins, Rebellion, iv. 1. 4. Cp. prov. slick-tongued, smooth-tongued, plausible in speech, see EDD. (s.v. Slick, adj.¹ 6 (2)). ME. slyke, or smothe, ‘lenis’ (Prompt.). See sleek.

slick, to make smooth. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, l. 1144; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xxiii. 249. In prov. use in England and America (EDD.). ME. slyken, to make smooth (P. Plowman, B. ii. 98).

slidder, slippery. The Pardoner and the Frere, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 213; ‘My tongue is grown sae slip and slidder’, Stuart, Joco-serious Discourse (ed. 1686, 20); see EDD. ME. slydyr, ‘lubricus’ (Prompt. EETS. 416); ‘A slidir mouth worchith fallyngis’, Wyclif, Prov. xxvi. 28. OE. slidor.

slidder, to slip, to slide. Dryden, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 749. In prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England (EDD.). OE. slid(e)rian, to slip.

slifter, a cleft or crack; ‘Fente, a cleft, rift, slifter, chinke’, Cotgrave. A north-country word (EDD.). Hence sliftered, cleft, rifted, Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, i. 1 (Antonio). Cp. G. (dial.) Schlifter, gully, watercourse.

slight; see sleight.

slighten, to slight, depreciate. B. Jonson, Sejanus (end).

slip, a counterfeit coin. Often quibbled upon; as in Romeo, ii. 4. 51; Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, iii. 1 (Pickadill). See NED. (s.v. Slip, sb.⁴).

slipper, slippery. Othello, ii. 1. 246. A west-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Slipper, adj. 1). OE. slipor.

slipstring, a knave; one who has eluded the halter. Gascoigne, Supposes, iii. 1 (Dalio); ‘Goinfre, a wag, slipstring, knavish lad’, Cotgrave. In prov. use the word means an idle, worthless, slovenly person, so in Northants and Warw., see EDD. (s.v. Slip, 3, (22)).

slive, to slice, cleave; to strip off (a bough) by tearing it downward; ‘I slyue a floure from his braunche’, Palsgrave; ‘The boughes whereof . . . he cutting and sliving downe’, Warner, Alb. England, prose addition on Aeneid ii, § 1. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Slive, vb.¹ 1). ME. slyvyn, a-sundyr, ‘findo’ (Prompt. EETS. 459). OE. (to)-slīfan, to split.

sliver, a small branch split off from the tree. Hamlet, iv. 7. 174. In gen. prov. use for a slice, a splinter of wood (EDD.). ME. slivere, a piece cut or split off (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 1013).

sliver, to slice off. Macbeth, iv. 1. 28. In prov. use: ‘If you sliver away at the meat like that there’ll be none left for to-morrow’ (Cambridge); see EDD.

sloape, deceitful; ‘For hope is sloape’, Mirror for Mag., Ferrex, st. 18. ‘Slope’ (or ‘sloap’) is in prov. use in Yorks., meaning to trick, cheat (EDD.).

slot, the track of a stag or deer upon the ground. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (John); to follow a track, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, i. 191. OF. esclot, hoof-print of a horse, &c. (Godefroy), probably of Scand. origin, cp. Icel. slōð, a track; so NED.

†sloy, a term of abuse for a woman. Warner, Alb. England, bk. xi, ch. 58, st. 26. Not found elsewhere.

slubber, to sully, Othello, i. 3. 227; to obscure, 1 Part of Jeronimo, ii. 4. 67; see Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 374. In prov. use for obscuring with dirt (EDD.).

slubberdegullion, a slubbering rascal (Burlesque). Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, i. 2. 18; Butler, Hud. i. 3. 886.

sludge, to turn into a soft mass, ‘The flame had sludgd the pitche, the waxe and wood And other things that nourish fire’, Golding, Metam. xiv. 532.

slug, to be lazy, inactive. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 23; slogge, Palsgrave; ‘Another sleeps and slugs both night and day’, Quarles, Emblems (bk. i. 8, Luke vi. 25). ME. sluggyn, ‘desidio’ (Prompt.).

slug, a slow, inactive person; ‘Fie, what a slug is Hastings, that he comes not’, Richard III, iii. 1. 22; slugge, a hindrance, ‘Money would be stirring, if it were not for this slugge’, Bacon, Essay 41, § 2. ‘Slug’ is in prov. use in the north country for a slow inactive person or animal; in Somerset, esp. of a slow-going horse; ‘to slug’ in Yorks. means to hinder, to retard progress (EDD.). ME. slugge, ‘deses, segnis’ (Prompt.).

slur, a method of cheating at dice; ‘Without some fingering trick or slur’, Butler, Misc. Thoughts (ed. Bell, iii. 176). Also, a term in card-playing, ‘ ’Gainst high and low, and slur, and knap’, Butler, Upon Gaming. See NED. (s.v. Slur, sb.² 2).

slurg, to lie in a sleepy state, to lie sluggishly. Phaer, Aeneid vi, 424; id., ix. 190. G. (Swabian dial.) schlurgen, to go about in a slovenly manner (J. C. Schmid).

smack, to savour of, to taste of; ‘This veneson smacketh to moche of the pepper’, Palsgrave; fig., ‘All sects, all ages smack of this vice’, Meas. for M. ii. 2. 5. ME. smakkyn, ‘odoro’ (Prompt.). See smatch.

smalach, ‘smallage’, wild celery or water parsley, Tusser, Husbandry, § 45. 20. ME. smale ache, ‘apium’ (Sin. Barth. 11), E. small + F. ache, wild celery, O. Prov. ache, api, Pop. L. *apia, L. apium.

smatch, a ‘smack’, taste, flavour. Jul. Caesar, v. 4. 46; Middleton, The Widow, i. 1 (Martino). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. smach, taste, flavour (NED.). OE. smæc(c. See smack.

smeath, a small diving-bird; the ‘smee’ or ‘smew’, Mergellus albellus. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 67.

Smeck, short for Smectymnuus, a fictitious name compounded of the initials of the five men who wrote under that name, viz. Stephen Marshall, Edward Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew Newcomen, and William Spurstow. They are said to have worn particular cravats, which Butler calls cravat of Smeck, Hud. i. 3. 1166.

smelt, a name applied to various small fishes, used (like gudgeon) with the sense of simpleton. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Mercury); Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, v. 2 (end).

smelt, a half-guinea (Cant). Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Hackum).

smicker, elegant, handsome; ‘A smicker Swaine’, Lodge, Euphues (NED.); smirking, gay, Peele, Eclogue Gratulatory, 4 (ed. Dyce, 561). Cp. the obsolete Scotch smicker, to smile affectedly, to smirk (EDD.). OE. smicer, elegant.

smickly, fine, elegant, smart; or it may be used adverbially. Ford, Sun’s Darling, ii. 1 (Raybright). Cp. Dan. smykke, to adorn, G. schmücken.

smock: He was wrapt up in the tail of his mother’s smock; said of any one remarkable for his success with the ladies (Grose). See Marston, What you Will, v. 1 (Bidet). ‘Il est né tout coiffé, Born rich, honourable, fortunate; born with his mother’s kercher about his head; wrapt in his mother’s smock, say we; also, he is very maidenly, shame-faced, heloe’, Cotgrave.

smoke, to get an inkling of, to smell or suspect (a plot), to detect. Middleton, Roaring Girl (2 Cutpurse); ‘Sir John, I fear, smokes your design’, Dryden, Sir M. Mar-all, 1; see NED. (s.v. 8).

smoky, quick to suspect, suspicious, Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, iv. 1 (Belfond senior).

smolder, smoky vapour, a suffocating smoke the result of slow combustion; ‘The smolder of smoke’, Bp. Andrewes, Serm. (ed. 1661, 472); to be smoldered, to be suffocated, Caxton, Reynard (ed. Arber, 98). ME. smolder, smoky vapour (P. Plowman, B. xvii. 321).

smoor, to smother. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 44; ‘She smoored him in the slepe’, Coverdale, 1 Kings iii. 19. In prov. use in the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Smoor, vb.¹).

smouch, to kiss. Heywood, 1 King Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 40; Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses (ed. Furnivall, p. 155). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). Cp. G. (Swabian dial.) schmutz, ‘derber Kuss’ (Schmid).

smug, to smarten up, to make trim or gay; freq. with up, Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, x. 568; Drayton, Pol. x. 69; xxi. 73; Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, iii. 3 (Firk). ‘Smug’ is in prov. use in various parts of England for smart, tidily dressed: also, as vb., to dress up neatly (EDD.).

smuggle, to hug violently, to smother with caresses, Otway, Ven. Preserved, last scene; line 13 from end. In prov. use in Somerset and Devon, see EDD. (s.v. Smuggle, vb.²).

smug-skinnde, sleek, smooth-skinned. Gascoigne, Herbs, ed. Hazlitt, i. 393.

snache; see snatch.

’snails, a profane oath, for ‘God’s nails’, i.e. ‘Christ’s nails’ on the Cross. Beaumont and Fl., Wit at several Weapons, v. 1 (Pompey); London Prodigal, v. 1. 222. Cp. Chaucer, ‘By goddes precious herte, and by his nayles’ (C. T. C. 651).

snakes: To eat snakes was a recipe for enabling one to grow younger. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, i. 2 (Orlando); Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, iv. 4 (Andrew).

snaphance, a flint-lock used in muskets and pistols, Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 1 (Dromio); a musket or gun fitted with a flint-lock, Capt. Smith, Virginia, iii. 12. 93 (NED.). Du. snaphaan, ‘a firelock, fusee, snaphaunce’ (Sewel).

snaphance, an armed robber, a highwayman. Holinshed, Chron. ii. 684. Du. ‘snaphaan, a Fuselier carrying a snaphaan’ (Sewel), also a mounted highwayman. Cp. G. schnapphahn in 1494, schnapphan, a highwayman (Brant, Narrenschiff); schnapphahn in prov. Germ. has also the meaning of constable, thief-catcher. See Weigand and H. Paul (s.v.). Cp. F. chenapan, ‘mot tiré de l’Allemand, où il désigne un brigand des Montagnes noires; en François, il signifie un vaurien, un bandit’, Dict. de l’Acad., 1762.

snapper, to trip, to stumble. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 15, l. 4; id., Ware the Hauke, 142; ‘I snapper as a horse dothe that tryppeth, Je trippette’, Palsgrave. A north-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Snapper, vb.¹ 1). ME. snapere, to stumble: ‘Thi foot schal not snapere’ (Wyclif, Prov. iii. 23); snapir (Wars Alex. 847).

snar, to snarl; ‘Tygres that did seeme to gren And snar at all’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 27. Cp. Du. snarren, to snarl (Hexham).

snarl, to ensnare, entangle. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 17; J. Beaumont, Psyche, ix. 275; Palsgrave. A north-country word for snaring hares or rabbits, see EDD. (s.v. Snarl, vb.² 2). ME. snarlyn, ‘illaqueo’ (Prompt.).

snatch, a trap, snare, entanglement; ‘The Chevalier . . . being taken in a Gin like unto a Snatch’, Shelton, Quixote, iii. 1; spelt snache, ‘A new-founde snache which did my feet ensnare’. Mirror for Mag., Carassus, st. 43. ME. snacche, a trap, snare (K. Alis. 6559).

sneaker, a sneaking fellow; ‘Clarke is a pitifull proud sneaker’, Reliq. Hearnianae (ed. Bliss, 483); ‘Origlione, an eavesdropper, a listener, . . . a sneaker, a lurking knave’ (Florio).

sneap, to nip or pinch with cold; ‘An envious sneaping Frost’ L. L. L. i. 1. 100; ‘The sneaped birds’, Lucrece, 333. In prov. use in the north of England: ‘They’n do well if they dunna get sneaped wi’ the frost’ (Cheshire), see EDD. (s.v. Snape, vb. 2). Also, to check, repress, reprove, chide, snub, Brome, Antipodes, iv. 9 (NED.); ‘A man quickly sneapt’, Maiden’s Tragedy, iii. 1 (Servant), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, x. 428. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. snaip, to rebuke sharply (Cursor M. 13027), Icel. sneypa, to chide (NED. s.v. Snape, vb.¹).

sneb, to reprimand sharply, Sidney, Arcadia, xxxiii. 22; snebbe, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 126. In prov. use in Lancashire (EDD.). In Chaucer, C. T. A. 525, some MSS. have snebbe. Swed. dial. snebba (Rietz). See snib.

sneck up; see snick.

snetched, slaughtered; ‘A snetched Oxe’, Golding, Metam. v. 122 (Lat. mactati iuuenci). Not found elsewhere.

snib, to reprimand, rebuke sharply; ‘Christian snibbeth his fellow for unadvised speaking’, Bunyan, Pilgr. Pr. i. 169; Middleton, Five Gallants, ii. 3 (Tailor); Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 372; to snip off, as with snuffers, Marston, Malcontent, iii. 1 (Malevole). In prov. use, in the sense of rebuking sharply, in Scotland and north of England down to Bedford (EDD.). ME. snibben, to rebuke (Chaucer, C. T. A. 523). Dan. snibbe. See sneb.

snick: snick up (used imperatively), be hanged! London Prodigal, v. 1; Middleton, Blurt, Master Constable, iv. 1; Snecke up!, Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 101; also used with go, ‘Let him go snick up’, Beaumont and Fl., Knt. Burning Pestle, ii. 2 (Mrs. Merrythought); Davenant, Play-House (Works, ed. 1673, 116). ‘Snick up!’, in the sense of ‘Begone, go and be hanged’, is said to be in use in west Yorks., see EDD. (s.v. Snickup, int. 4).

†snickfail; ‘Whereas the snickfail grows, and hyacinth’, Webster, The Thracian Wonder, i. 2. A misprint for sinckfoil = cinquefoil; cp. Greene, Menaphon (ed. Arber, 36); see NED. (s.v. Cinquefoil). Communicated by Mr. Percy Simpson.

snickle, a running noose. Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 5 (Ithamar). In prov. use in the north and east, esp. in Yorks. and Linc. (EDD.). Here, for ‘snicle hand too fast’ we should probably read ‘two hands snickle-fast’, see various conjectures in Tucker Brooke’s ed. of Marlowe.

snig, a young eel. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 96. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. snygge, an eel (Cath. Angl.).

sniggle, to fish for eels by means of a baited hook or needle thrust into their holes or haunts. I. Walton, Angler, ch. x. [In the passage cited by Todd and later Dicts. from Fletcher’s Thierry, ii. 2, ‘I have snigled him’, the correct reading is doubtless ‘singled’, so NED.]

snob, to sob. Puritan Widow, i. 1. 90; Middleton, Mad World, iii. 2. In prov. use in Worc. and Glouc. (EDD.). ME. snobbe, to sob; ‘My sobbyng (v.r. snobbyng) and cries’ (Wyclif, Lam. iii. 56).

snudge, a miser, a mean person; ‘A covetous snudge’, Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, p. 28); Dekker, O. Fortunatus, i. 2 (Shadow); ‘Snudge, parcus’, Levins, Manipulus. See EDD.

snudge, to remain snug and quiet; ‘Now he will . . . eat his bread in peace, And snudge in quiet’, G. Herbert, Temple, Giddinesse, 11. In prov. use in the north country and in E. Anglia (EDD.).

snuff: in phr. to take (a thing) in snuff, to take (a matter) amiss, to take offence at; ‘Mr. Mills . . . should take it in snuffe that my wife did not come to his child’s christening’, Pepys, Diary, 1661, Oct. 6; ‘Who therewith angry . . . Took it in snuff’, 1 Hen. IV, i. 3. 41; to take snuff at, to take offence at a thing, Fuller, Joseph’s Coat (ed. 1867, 51). ‘Snuff’ in these phrases refers probably to the act of ‘snuffing’ as an expression of contempt or disdain, see NED. (s.v. sb.² 1), and EDD. (s.v. sb.¹ 1).

soader, to ‘solder’, cement together. Rowley, All’s Lost, iii. 1. 34; sodder, Chapman, Byron’s Tragedy, iii. 1 (Janir).

soar-falcon, a falcon or hawk of the first year that has not moulted and still has its red plumage; ‘Of the soare faulcon so I learne to fly’, Spenser, Hymn Heav. Beauty, 26; Latham, Falconry, 37; see Nares (s.v. Sore-Hawk). F. Faulcon sor, a soar Hawk; Harenc sor, a red Herring (Cotgr., s.v. Sor). Anglo-F. sor, reddish brown (Rough List). O. Prov. sor, saur, Ital. sauro. See sore (a buck).

sod, boiled; pret. of ‘seethe’; ‘Sod Euphrates . . . sod Orontes’, Golding, Metam. ii. 248. The reference is to the boiling of rivers during the mad career of Phaethon; Ovid has ‘Arsit et Euphrates’, &c.

sodder; see soader.

soggy, soaked with moisture, soppy; hence, heavy (like damp and green hay). B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iii. 2 (Mitis). In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Sog, sb.² 3).

soil, a miry or muddy place used by a wild boar for wallowing in; ‘Sueil, the soyle of a wild Bore, the mire wherein hee commonly walloweth; se souiller (of a swine), to take soyle, or wallow in the mire’, Cotgrave. The phr. ‘to take soil’ corresponds to F. prendre souille. Souille is a deriv. from souiller, to soil with mud, Romanic type *soc’lare, deriv. of L. sŭcula, a little sow.

soil, a pool or stretch of water, used as a refuge by a hunted deer or other animal, Turbervile, Hunting, 241; to take soil, to take to the water, as a hunted deer, id., 148; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Quarl); Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, ii. 4. 6. See above.

soil, to expound, explain, to resolve a doubt; ‘I have not learned to soyle no riedles’, Udall, tr. Apoph. 309 (NED.); ‘Souldre, to cleere or soile a doubt’, Cotgrave. Anglo-F. soiler, OF. soldre, L. solvere, to loosen, to explain.

soil, to absolve from sin, ‘I soyle from synne, je assouls’, Palsgrave. For assoil, Anglo-F. assoiler, to absolve, pardon (Rough List); OF. assoldre, L. absolvere; see Moisy.

sokingly, slowly, gently, gradually; ‘Sokingly, one pece after an other’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Julius, § 32. ME. sokingly, ‘sensim, paulatim’ (Prompt. EETS. 147); ‘By good leyser sokingly, and nat over hastily’ (Chaucer. C. T. B. 2767).

Sol, the sun. Peele, Poems (ed. Routledge, p. 601); an alchemist’s term for gold. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Dol).

sol, a small coin, B. Jonson, Volpone, iv. 2 (Bonario); Marmion, The Antiquary, iii. 1 (Ant.). OF. sol; L. solidus (sc. nummus), a gold coin (in the time of the emperors).

solayne, sullen, melancholy. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 16, 1. 51; soleyne, id., Bowge of Courte, 187; solein, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 213. ME. soleyn, of maners or he þat lovyth no company, ‘solitarius, Acheronicus’. (Prompt. EETS. 421); ‘The soleyn fenix of Arabye’ (Chaucer, Boke Duch. 982).

sold, pay, remuneration, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 6. Med. L. soldum, pay, related to L. solidus, a piece of money; see sol.

soldado, a soldier. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 2 (or 1) (Downright). Span. soldado, one who is paid; a soldier; deriv. of Med. L. soldum, pay. See above. See Stanford.

soldan, the supreme ruler of a Mohammedan country, Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iii. 2. 31; Milton, P. L. i. 764. ME. soldan (Gower, C. A. i. 245); Ital. soldano; Arab, sulṭân.

sole; see sowl.

solein; see solayne.

solf, to sing the notes of the sol-fa, or gamut; to sing. Calisto and Melibaea, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 71; solfe, Skelton, Phyllyp Sparowe, 415. ME. solfe (P. Plowman, B. v. 423).

†solidare, a small piece of money. Timon, iii. 1. 46. Not found elsewhere.

sollar, an upper room. Udall, tr. Erasmus, Acts xx. 8 (= ὑπερῷον, cenaculum); a loft, ‘Sollars full of wheat’, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 1 (Barabas). The word is still in prov. use in various parts of England with many meanings: esp. an upper room, a first-floor apartment; loft or garret (EDD.). The Gk. word ὑπερῷον (Vulg. cenaculumm) in Acts xx. 8 is rendered by soler in Wyclif’s tr. (Luther has söller). In the Heliand and in Tatian soleri = ‘cenaculum’. ME. solere or lofte, ‘solarium’ (Prompt.); ‘Soler-halle at Cantebregge’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3990, see Notes); OE. solor (soler-); L. solarium, a part of the house exposed to the sun, esp. a flat house-top (Vulgate, 2 Sam. xi. 2).

somedele, somewhat, in some measure, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec, 40. In prov. use in Scotland, Yorks., Northants, see EDD. (s.v. Some, 1 (3)). ME. somdel, in some measure (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3911).

somer, a ‘summer’, a supporting beam, a support. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 5. 22. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Summer, sb.²). F. sommier, ‘the piece of timber called a Summer’ (Cotgr.); OF. somier, a pack-horse (Burguy); Med. L. saumarius, sagmarius, ‘equus clitellarius’ (Ducange); deriv. of sagma, a pack, burden; Gk. σάγμα. See Dict. (s.v. Sumpter). For the development of meaning from ‘a kind of horse’ to a ‘timber-beam’, cp. F. poutre, (1) a filly, (2) a supporting beam.

somner, an official summoner. Middleton, A Trick to catch, ii. 1 (Lucre). ME. somner (P. Plowman, C. iii. 59); somnour, summoner, apparitor, an officer who summoned delinquents before the ecclesiastical courts (Chaucer, C. T. A. 543).

sonde, a sending, a messenger. Morte Arthur, leaf 420, back, 13; bk. xxi, c. 1. OE. sand (sond), a sending, message.

sonties: in phr. by God’s sonties, an oath used by old Gobbo in Merch. Ven. ii. 1. 17. The same as God’s santy, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, v. 2 (Bellafront). Adapted from OF. saintée, sancteit, sanctity, holiness (Godefroy).

soop, to sweep; ‘A sooping traine’, Return from Parnassus, i. 2 (Judicio); sooping it, sweeping alone; id., v. 1 (Studioso). Icel. sōpa, to sweep.

sooreyn, jaded feeling, exhaustion; ‘Abundance breedes the sooreyn of excesse’, Gascoigne, Grief of Joy, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 286. A back-formation from the verb to surrein, to overtire. See surreined.

soote, sweetly, Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 111; also sweet, Surrey, Description of Spring, 1. ME. sote, sweetly (Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 2612), OE. swōte, sweetly. Chaucer has also sote as adj. sweet (C. T. A. 1), but the OE. adj. is swēte.

sooterkin, an imaginary kind of afterbirth formerly attributed to Dutch women; ‘There goes a report of the Holland Women that together with their children they are delivered of a Sooterkin, not unlike a Rat, which some imagine to be the Offspring of the Stoves’, Cleveland (NED.); Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 146. [Swift to Delany (Works, ed. 1755, III. ii. 232); Pope, Dunciad, i. 126; ‘Sooterkin, maankalf’, Calisch.] See mooncalf.

sooth, to declare a statement to be true, to corroborate it. Udall, Roister Doister, i. 1. 47; to support a person in a statement, ‘Sooth me in all I say’, Massinger, Duke Milan, v. 2; to sooth up, ‘Sooth me in all I say’, Kyd, Span. Tragedy, iii. 10. 19. The same word as soothe, OE. sōðian, to show to be true. The pronunciation of the verb is due to the sb. sooth, OE. sōð.

sophie, wisdom; ‘The seuenfold sophie of Minerue’, Grimald, Death of Zoroas, 67; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 121. Gk. σοφία.

sops-in-wine, a name given to some kind of gilliflower or pink. Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 138; B. Jonson, Pan’s Anniversary (Shepherd, l. 6). See Nares.

sord, ‘sward’, turf. Milton, P. L. xi. 433; greene-sord, green sward, Winter’s Tale, iv. 3. 157 (so Fol. 1).

sore, a buck of the fourth year. Phaer, Aeneid x. 725 (L. cervum). ‘The bucke . . . the iij. yere a sowrell, A sowre at the iiij. yere’, Book of St. Albans, fol. e, iiij.

sorel, a buck of the third year; ‘Sorell jumps from thicket’, L. L. L. iv. 2. 60; ‘Sorell, a yonge bucke’, Palsgrave; see NED. (s.v. Sorrel, sb.² 2). Anglo-F. sorel, a reddish-brown horse (Ch. Rol. 1379), deriv. of sor (id., 1943). See soar-falcon.

sore. Of the hare: to traverse open ground, ‘I might see [the hare] sore and resore’, i.e. dart off, first in one direction and then in another, Return from Parnassus, ii. 5 (end). ‘When he gooth the howndys before, He sorth and resorth’, Boke of St. Albans, fol. e 8, back.

sore, to make sore, to hurt. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 38.

sort, a company, assemblage of people: Mids. Night’s D. iii. 2. 13; Richard II, iv. 1. 246; Spenser, F. Q. vi. 9. 5; Ps. lxii. 3 (Great Bible, 1539); rank, degree, ‘A gentleman of great sort’, Hen. V, iv. 7. 143; of sorts, of various kinds, ‘They have a king and officers of sorts’ (id., i. 2. 190). Anglo-F. sort, company, assemblage (Gower, Mirour, 16800).

sortilege, a drawing of lots. Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med., pt. 1, § 18. F. sortilège, L. sortilegium.

soss, to make oneself wet and dirty, to dabble; ‘Sossing and possing, dabbling in mire’, Gammer Gurton’s Needle; i. 4 (Hodge); sost, pp. made wet and dirty, Tusser, Husbandry, § 48. 20. In prov. use in various parts of the British Isles, see EDD. (s.v. Soss, vb.² and vb.³).

†sothbind. ‘But late medcynes can help no sothbynde sore’, Mirror for Mag., Richard, st. 10 (ed. 1578 has: ‘no festered sore’). Not found elsewhere. See Nares.

†sothery. The devils are described as having—‘Theyr taylles wel kempt, and, as I wene, With sothery butter theyr bodyes anoynted’, Heywood, The Four Plays, v. 87, Anc. Brit. Drama, i. 18, col. 2; Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 376. Does it mean ‘Surrey butter’? Surrey is spelt Sothery in Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 269; and Sothray in Skelton, El. Rummyng, 96.

souce; see souse.

soud, to consolidate, make whole. Pp. souded, Morte Arthur, leaf 359. 20; bk. xvii, c. 19. F. souder, to consolidate; L. solidare.

souder, to be soldered together, to become whole; ‘The pecys . . . soudered as fayr as euer they were to-fore’, Morte Arthur, leaf 348. 12; bk. xvii, c. 4.

soul, a part of the viscera of a cooked fowl. Heywood, Eng. Traveller, ii. 1 (Clown). See EDD. (s.v. Soul, sb.¹ 8). ‘Âme, the soule of a capon or gose’, Palsgrave; ‘Mazzacáre, the tender part of any bird or fowl, in a Goose it is called the Soul’ (Florio). See EDD. (s.v. Soul, sb.¹ 8) and Notes and Queries (8th S. ii. 169).

souling, relishing, affording a relish; souling well, affording a good relish, Warner, Alb. England, bk. iv, ch. 20, st. 32. Cp. the north country prov. word sowl(e, a relish, dainty, anything eaten with bread (EDD.). OE. sufl.

sound, to swoon, Two Angry Women, iii. 2 (Francis); Heywood, Four Prentises (Guy), vol. ii, p. 181; a swoon, ‘a deadly sound’, id., Fair Maid of the Exchange (Anthony), vol. ii, p. 15; Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 94; ‘She fell into a traunce or sownde’, Stubbes, A Christall Glasse (ed. Furnivall, 202). In common prov. use in Scotland, also in England in various parts, esp. in Yorks., see EDD. (s.v. Sound, vb.²). See sowne (2).

sounder, a herd of wild swine. Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, iv. 163; Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Hubert); ‘That men calleth a trip of a tame swyn is called of wylde swyn a soundre, that is to say ȝif ther be passyd v or vi togedres’ (Halliwell). OE. sunor: ‘sunor bergana’ (Luke viii. 32, Lind.) = ‘grex porcorum’ (Vulg.).

sourd, to arise. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 2, § 7; Fabyan’s Chron., ed. 1811, p. 436; p. 499, l. 23. ME. sourde, to arise (Chaucer, C. T. I. 475); F. sourdre; L. surgere.