Browse dictionary
Showing 1-20 of 216 results in 216 entries
1. A, n. View full entry OE
...The letter, and the sound it represents....
2. absolution, n. View full entry OE
...Christian Church....
3. absolve, v. View full entry ?a1475
...trans. To set free or discharge from (also of) an oath, obligation, liability, etc....
4. ace, n.1 and adj. (and int.) View full entry ?a1300
...A single point in a game, and related uses....
5. active, adj. and n. View full entry 1340
...Of a way or style of life: characterized by outward action rather than inward contemplation or speculation; practical. Esp. in active life, and chiefly in religious contexts. Opposed to ...
6. adam's fig, n. View full entry c1602
...The fruit of any of several plants of the genus Musa; a banana or plantain. Also (in full Adam's fig tree) the plant itself. Now hist....
7. African, n. and adj. View full entry eOE
...A native or inhabitant of Africa; a person of African origin (contextually = black African(a)black5a); spec. (in local usage) such a person as distinguished from...
8. after-, prefix View full entry eOE
...Combinations in which after- is adjectival or adverbial, and indicates that the second element refers to something that comes behind or afterwards, or an action that is performed later....
9. again, adv., prep., and conj. View full entry eOE
...In the opposite direction; back. Obs....
10. alder, n.1 View full entry eOE
...A European tree, Alnus glutinosa (family Betulaceae), common on riverbanks and damp woodland across the northern hemisphere, having rounded toothed leaves and bearing male catkins and woody female...
11. amapakati, n. View full entry 1833
...With sing. and pl. concord. In traditional Nguni societies: the council or inner circle of advisers of a chief or other eminent person; the members of this council,...
12. bastard, n. and adj. View full entry 1297
...One begotten and born out of wedlock; an illegitimate or natural child....
13. bavian, n. View full entry a1625
...Usu. with capital initial. A character in a morris dance representing a baboon, and typically engaging in wild, foolish, or lewd behaviour....
14. be, v. View full entry eOE
...To have place in the objective universe or realm of fact, to exist; (spec. of God, etc.) to exist independently of other beings. Also: to exist in life, to live....
15. bioscope, n. View full entry 1812
...A circular scale for representing a person's life, having seventy divisions corresponding to seventy years (ten of which represent one of the seven supposed stages of human life), with a pointer for...
16. black, adj. and n. View full entry eOE
...Designating the darkest colour possible, that of soot, coal, the sky on a moonless night in open country, and a small hole in a hollow object; of or having this colour; (also)...
17. blackhead, n.2 and adj. View full entry 1658
...Any of various black-headed birds, esp. the black-headed gull, Larus ridibundus; (S. Afr.) the black-headed canary, Serinus alario (family Fringillidae), the male...
18. black jack, n.2 View full entry c1540
...A large, tar-coated leather jug for beer. Cf. black bowlblack5a. Now hist....
19. black-tail, n. View full entry 1601
...Any of various fishes with black tails....
20. blackthorn, n. View full entry a1325
...A Eurasian thorny shrub or small tree, Prunus spinosa (family Rosaceae), with dark-coloured bark and stiff spiny branches, which produces white five-petalled flowers before the leaves appear, followed...
