Browse dictionary
Showing 1-20 of 232 results in 232 entries
1. accomplice, n. View full entry 1550
...A partner in some undertaking; an associate. Sometimes humorous with reference to sense 2....
2. † acquiescate, v. View full entry a1586
...intr. = acquiesce...
3. adelantado, n. View full entry 1588
...The governor of a Spanish province, acting as the chief civil and judicial authority, and as military commander-in-chief in time of war; (also) a military leader with the authority to explore, colonize,...
4. adusted, adj. View full entry 1547
...= adust1a. Now hist. and rare....
5. Aesculapius, n. View full entry 1586
...A physician....
6. † ale drapery, n. View full entry ?1593
...The selling of ale and other alcoholic drinks; (also) a place where alcohol is sold. Cf. ale draper...
7. altesse, n. View full entry 1559
...Chiefly in French or continental European contexts: a person of high rank, a nobleman or noblewoman. Freq. as a title, usually with possessive and capital initial: ‘Highness’. Sometimes ironic or...
8. Anno Domini, adv. and n. View full entry 1579
...In the year of the Christian era; in the year since (the reputed date of) the birth of Christ....
9. asset, n. View full entry c1523
...Law. In pl., originally as mass noun, subsequently with pl. concord....
10. badger, n.2 View full entry ?1523
...A nocturnal burrowing Eurasian mammal, Meles meles (family Mustelidae), having a grey coat and a white head bearing two long black stripes. Also: a similar animal, Taxidea...
11. bald-rib, n. View full entry 1598
...A joint of pork cut from nearer the rump than the spare-rib, so called ‘because the bones thereof are made bald and bare of flesh’ (Minsheu). Humorously used of: A lean bony...
12. bang, v.1 View full entry ?c1550
...trans. To strike violently with a resounding blow; to thump, thrash....
13. barn-door, n. View full entry ?1544
...The large door of a barn. (Applied humorously to a target too large to be easily missed, and, in Cricket, to a player that blocks every ball.)...
14. blind man's holiday, n. View full entry 1599
...A humorous phrase for the time just before candles are lighted, when it is too dark to work, and one is obliged to rest or ‘take a holiday’; formerly used more widely....
15. bog, n.1 View full entry ?a1513
...A piece of wet spongy ground, consisting chiefly of decayed or decaying moss and other vegetable matter, too soft to bear the weight of any heavy body upon its surface; a morass...
16. boorish, adj. View full entry 1562
...Of or relating to boors (boor1); rustic, clownish, uncultured, rude, coarse, ill-mannered....
17. Bordeaux, n. View full entry c1570
...The wine made in the Bordeaux region of France; claret....
18. bratchet, n. View full entry a1600
...= brachet...
19. brazen-faced, adj. View full entry 1571
...With bold unblushing front, impudent, unabashed....
20. browbeat, v. View full entry 1581
...trans. To bear down, discourage, or oppose, with stern, arrogant, or insolent looks or words; to snub, to bully; ‘to depress with severe brows, and stern or lofty looks’ (Johnson)....
