Browse dictionary
Showing 1-20 of 308 results in 308 entries
1. aged, adj. and n. View full entry 1420
...That has lived or existed for a long time; of advanced age; very old....
2. all fives, n. View full entry 1793
...humorous. on all fives: on hands, knees (or feet), and another part of the body (later esp. the buttocks). Cf. on (also upon) all foursall fours1...
3. animal, n. View full entry a1398
...A living organism which feeds on organic matter, typically having specialized sense organs and a nervous system and able to respond rapidly to stimuli; any living creature, including man....
4. ass, n.1 View full entry c1000
...A well-known quadruped of the horse kind, distinguished from the horse by its smaller size, long ears, tuft at end of tail, and black stripe across the shoulders. Found wild in western...
5. attack, n. View full entry 1667
...The act of falling upon with force or arms, of commencing battle; an offensive operation; an onset, an assault. The common military term; opposed to defence....
6. back-, comb. form View full entry ?c1225
...General senses in combination....
7. bad, adj., n.2, and adv. View full entry 1203
...Of poor quality or little worth....
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. ball, n.1 View full entry 1166
...A rounded hill, a knoll. Now Eng. regional (south-west.)....
10. 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.)...
11. beak, n.1 View full entry c1220
...The horny termination of the jaws of a bird, consisting of two pointed mandibles adapted for piercing and for taking firm hold: a bird's bill....
12. 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. ...
13. 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;...
14. bicyclic, adj.1 View full entry 1869
...Of or relating to a bicycle or to the activity of cycling. Cf. bicyclical...
15. bicycular, adj. View full entry 1869
...Of or relating to a bicycle or to the activity of cycling. Also occas.: having two wheels....
16. bird, n. View full entry a800
...orig. The general name for the young of the feathered tribes; a young bird; a chicken, eaglet, etc.; a nestling. The only sense in Old English; found in literature down to...
17. birkie, n. and adj. View full entry 1724
...A familiar or jocular term for a man, often connoting self-assertion, crustiness, or the ‘having a mind of his own’; sometimes slightly depreciatory = ‘strutting fellow,’ but often, like ‘fellow,’ ‘carle,’ ‘chield,’...
18. 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)...
19. 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...
20. bob, v.4 View full entry 1614
...intr. To fish (for eels) with a bob. (Hence humorously, ‘to bob for whales’.)...
