Browse dictionary
Showing 1-20 of 204 results in 204 entries
1. A, n. View full entry OE
...The letter, and the sound it represents....
2. abecedarium, n. View full entry OE
...The alphabet; esp. (in early use) the Roman alphabet as opposed to the Greek; (in later use) an alphabet belonging to an ancient writing system, or an inscription of this;...
3. abye, v. View full entry OE
...trans. To buy, purchase (something); to pay a price for (something); to obtain (something) at the cost of labour or suffering. Also (and in earliest use) Theol.: to redeem,...
4. afford, v. View full entry OE
...To further, advance; to promote the well-being of (a person or thing); to perform, carry out (a task, order, etc.); to accomplish. Obs....
5. afloat, adj. and adv. View full entry OE
...Floating on the sea or on any stretch of water (or other liquid) of sufficient depth to support a body; not sinking, not aground; at sea, as opposed to being in dock...
6. † again-, comb. form View full entry OE
...Against, in opposition to. Also: opposite (rare)....
7. axe | ax, n.1 View full entry c1000
...A tool or instrument for hewing, cleaving, or chopping, trees, wood, ice, etc.; consisting of a squarish head, now usually of iron with a steel edge or blade, fixed by means of...
8. bake, v. View full entry c1000
...trans. To cook by dry heat acting by conduction, and not by radiation, hence either in a closed place (oven, ashes, etc.), or on a heated surface (bakestone, griddle, live coals);...
9. barm, n.2 View full entry c1000
...The froth that forms on the top of fermenting malt liquors, which is used to leaven bread, and to cause fermentation in other liquors; yeast, leaven....
10. bear, n.1 View full entry c1000
...A heavily-built, thick-furred plantigrade quadruped, of the genus Ursus; belonging to the Carnivora, but having teeth partly adapted to a vegetable diet. ...
11. beaver, n.1 View full entry c1000
...An amphibious rodent, distinguished by its broad, oval, horizontally-flattened, scaly tail, palmated hind feet, coat of soft fur, and hard incisor teeth with which it cuts down trees; remarkable for its skill...
12. beer, n.1 View full entry c1000
...An alcoholic liquor obtained by the fermentation of malt (or other saccharine substance), flavoured with hops or other aromatic bitters. Formerly distinguished from ale by being hopped; but now the...
13. bench, n. View full entry OE
...A long seat, with or without a back, usually of wood, but also of stone, etc. ‘Distinguished from a stool by its greater length’ (Johnson)....
14. berry, n.1 View full entry c1000
...Any small globular, or ovate juicy fruit, not having a stone; in Old English chiefly applied to the grape; in mod. popular use, embracing the gooseberry, raspberry, bilberry, and their congeners, as...
15. bit, n.2 View full entry c1000
...The portion of food bitten off at once; as much as is taken in the mouth at once; a mouthful; = bite4. Obs....
16. bite, v. View full entry OE
...trans. To cut into, pierce, or nip (anything) with the teeth....
17. blow, v.1 View full entry c1000
...intr. The proper verb naming the motion or action of the wind, or of an aerial current. Sometimes with subject it, as ‘it blows hard’, and often with complement,...
18. booker, n. View full entry c1000
...A writer of books, a scribe. Obs....
19. bottom, n. View full entry OE
...The lowest part of anything, considered as a material thing; the lower or under surface, that surface of a thing on which it stands or rests; the base. Applied spec....
20. bower, n.1 View full entry OE
...A dwelling, habitation, abode. In early use lit. A cottage; in later use a poetical word for ‘abode’....
