Browse dictionary
Showing 1-20 of 437 results in 437 entries
1. Adirondack, n. and adj. View full entry 1699
...A member of the Algonquin people formerly living along the Ottawa River and its tributaries, in Ontario and Quebec. Also occas. with the and pl. concord: this people...
2. assize, n. View full entry 1297
...A sitting or session of a consultative or legislative body. Obs....
3. bacon, n. View full entry c1330
...The back and sides of the pig, ‘cured’ by salting, drying, etc. Formerly also the fresh flesh now called pork....
4. baiting, n. View full entry c1300
...The action of setting on dogs to worry a chained or confined animal; formerly, also, the hunting or chasing of wild animals with dogs. Often in comb.: see badger...
5. balk | baulk, n.1 View full entry c885
...A ridge, heap, or mound upon the ground; e.g. a grave-mound. Obs....
6. balk, v.2 View full entry 1603
...To signify to fishing-boats the direction taken by the shoals of herrings or pilchards, as seen from heights overlooking the sea; done at first by bawling or shouting, subsequently by signals. See...
7. ˈbalker, n.2 View full entry 1602
...A man stationed on an eminence by the shore to signal to fishing-boats the direction taken by the shoals of herring or pilchards; a huer, hooer, or conder....
8. † ˈbalking, n.2 View full entry 1603
...The guiding of fishing-boats by shouting or signalling from a height....
9. bank, n.1 View full entry ?c1200
...A portion of the surface of the ground raised or thrown up into a ridge or shelf; a lengthened mound with steeply sloping sides. Hence, One side or slope of...
10. barca-longa, n. View full entry 1681
...‘A large Spanish fishing-boat, navigated with lug-sails, and having two or three masts..common in the Mediterranean.’ Falconer Dict. Marine1789....
11. bark | barque, n.2 View full entry 1477
...A small ship; in earlier times, a general term for all sailing vessels of small size, e.g. fishing-smacks, xebecs, pinnaces; in modern use, applied poetically or rhetorically to any sailing...
12. bawley, n. View full entry 1887
...A fishing-smack peculiar to the coasts of Essex and Kent. Also attrib., as bawley-boat....
13. bay, n.2 View full entry 1385
...An indentation of the sea into the land with a wide opening....
14. beam, n.1 View full entry 826
...A tree; only in Old English, exc. in the now unanalysed compounds, hornbeam, quickbeam, whitebeam or beam-tree, names of trees....
15. beating, n. View full entry ?c1225
...The infliction of repeated blows; spec. the action of inflicting blows in punishment; the dashing of waves against the shore; the whipping up of a fluid; the flapping of wings;...
16. beatster, n.1 View full entry 1575
...A mender or mounter of fishing-nets. (Sense of 1575quot. uncertain.)...
17. Bible, n. View full entry a1300
...The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. (Sometimes in early use, and still dial., used for the Old Testament; e.g. ‘neither in the Bible nor the Testament.’) the...
18. ˈbillet, n.2 View full entry c1440
...A thick piece of wood cut to a suitable length for fuel....
19. 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)...
20. blood, n. (and int.) View full entry eOE
...The red fluid flowing in the arteries, capillaries, and veins of humans and other vertebrates, carrying oxygen and nutrients to, and carbon dioxide and waste metabolites away from, the organs and tissues...
