Browse dictionary
Showing 1-20 of 242 results in 242 entries
1. absentee, n. and adj. View full entry 1537
...A landowner who resides abroad or at a distance from his or her estate; (formerly also) a clergyman who is habitually absent from his parish. Also more generally: a person who is...
2. accommodation, n. View full entry 1566
...Adaptation; the process of being adapted....
3. aerial, adj. View full entry ?1545
...Dwelling, flying, or moving in the air, above the earth; occurring or taking place in the air; (spec. of birds or bats) spending much of the time airborne....
4. agisting, n. View full entry 1598
...The action of taking livestock in to pasture on agistment....
5. animated, adj. View full entry 1568
...Endowed with life; living, live....
6. artist, n. View full entry 1563
...A person who pursues a craft or trade; a craftsperson, an artisan. Obs....
7. auction, n. View full entry 1595
...The action of increasing; increase, growth....
8. 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...
9. bagman, n. View full entry 1531
...One who carries a bag....
10. blackball, n. View full entry 1550
...Any of a number of black-coloured balls of wood, ivory, etc., used to record an adverse vote in a ballot; (hence) an adverse secret vote; the vetoing of (an applicant's) membership or...
11. black-beetle, n. View full entry 1565
...A black scarab beetle; (in later use) spec. the South African chafer Heteronychus arator, a pest of pastures in Australia and New Zealand....
12. blackfellow, n. View full entry 1598
...Originally: any dark-skinned man (cf. black man1). In later use Austral.: an Australian Aboriginal man. Now usually considered offensive....
13. blackfish, n. View full entry 1551
...orig. and chiefly Sc. An Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), esp. a female, just after spawning. Cf. red fish1a. Now rare....
14. black sand, n. View full entry ?1550
...Sand of a black or very dark colour, typically consisting of particles of lava or iron-rich minerals; spec. such sand on beaches in New Zealand....
15. blob, n.1 View full entry c1540
...A bubble. Obs. exc. north. dial....
16. blue eye, n. View full entry a1545
...= black eye2a (cf. blue2). Also occas.: †an eye around which there is a blueness or a dark circle, as from crying (obs.)....
17. blue heron, n. View full entry 1565
...Any of several herons with grey or bluish-grey plumage....
18. boiler, n. View full entry c1540
...One who boils (anything)....
19. bomb, n. View full entry 1588
...Transl. of Spanish bomba de fuego ‘a ball of wilde-fire,’ Minsheu. Obs....
20. bo-peep, n. View full entry 1528
...A nursery play with a young child, who is kept in excitement by the nurse or play-mate alternately concealing herself (or her face), and peeping out for a moment at an unexpected...
