Chapter V

=vacabonde,= a wandering beggar, a ‘vagabond’; ‘Fraternitye of Vacabondes’, Awdeley (title of book, 1565). Norm. F. _vacabond_, ‘vagabond’ (Moisy); F. ‘_vacabonds_, vagabonds, rogues’ (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.vv. Vagabond _and_ Vagrant).

=vacate,= to annul, to make void, to make of no authority; ‘That after-act vacating the authority of the precedent’, King Charles (Johnson); to render vain, to frustrate, Dryden, Don Sebastian, ii. 1 (Dorax). Med. L. _vac_(_u_)_are_, ‘inane, irritum et vacuum efficere’ (Ducange), see Rönsch, Vulgata, 171.

=vade,= to vanish, pass away; ‘Their vapour vaded’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9. 20; ‘How ever gay their blossome or their blade Doe flourish now, they into dust shall vade’, id., v. 2. 40; Ruines of Rome, xx; Shaks. Sonnets, liv. 14; to fade, ‘Upon her head a chaplet stood of never vading greene’, Niccols, Induction, Mirror for Mag. 559 (Nares); Richard II, i. 2. 20.

=vah,= an interjection; ‘No, vah! Fie, I scorn it’, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 1 (Eyre).

=vail,= to lower, to let fall; ‘She vailed her eyelids’, Venus and Ad. 956; Hamlet, i. 2. 70; to bow, to stoop, to do homage, Pericles, iv, Prol. 29. ME. _avale_, to lower (Gower, C. A. viii. 1619). Anglo-F. _avaler_, to lower (Gower, Mirour, 10306).

=vails,= _pl._, profits or perquisites that arise to servants besides their salary or wages. Pericles, ii. 1. 163; Dryden, Juvenal, Sat. iii. 311. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Vail, 2). _Vail_ is a shortened form for _avail_. ME. _avayle_, ‘profectus, proventus, emolumentum’ (Prompt. EETS. 17).

=valance,= a fringe of drapery; ‘Rich cloth of tissue and vallance of black silk’, Strype, Eccles. Mem., Funeral Solemnities of Henry VIII; a part of bed-hangings, ‘_Valenzana del letto_, the valances of a bed’, Florio (ed. 1598). Hence _valanced_, fringed, used _fig._ of a beard, Hamlet, ii. 2. 442. See Dict.

=valew,= valour. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 29; Harington, tr. Ariosto, xiii. 39. F. ‘_valuë_, worth, goodness’ (Cotgr.).

=valiant,= worth, amounting to in value; ‘Four hundred a year valiant, worth £400 a year’, Middleton, A Trick to catch, i. 1 (Witgood). F. _vaillant_, ‘a mans whole estate or worth, all his substance, means, fortunes’ (Cotgr.). Cp. Med. L. _valens_, ‘valor, pretium’ (Ducange).

=vall,= a vale. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iv. 479. F. ‘_val_, a vale’ (Cotgr.).

=vallies,= ‘valise’. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (near the end). See Dict.

=valure,= value, worth. Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, p. 506); Pembroke, Arcadia (Nares); Mirror for Mag. 280; hence, _valurous_, valuable, Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, i. 2 (Tamb.). See Dict. (s.v. Valour).

=vannes,= _pl._ wings, Milton, P. L. ii. 927. Cp. Ital. _vanni_, ‘the whole wings of any bird’ (Florio).

=vance,= to ‘advance’. Tusser, Husbandry, § 113. 7.

=vantbrace,= the ‘vambrace’, armour for the fore-arm, Milton, Samson, 1121; Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 297. F. _avant-bras_, ‘the part of the arm which extends from the elbow to the wrist; also, a vambrace armour for an arm’ (Cotgr.).

=vantguard,= the ‘vanguard’, front rank. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iv. 266. ME. _vaunt-gard_ (Holinshed, Chron. Edw. III, ann. 1346; F. _avant-garde_, ‘the vanguard of an army’ (Cotgr.).

=vapour,= fume, steam; used, like _humour_, to denote a man’s characteristic quality, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii (passim). See full account of this use of the word in Nares (s.v.). Cp. the use of the F. word _vapeurs_. ‘On appelle _Vapeurs_ dans le corps humain, Les affections hypocondriaques & hystériques, parce qu’on les croyoit causées par des fumées élevées de l’estemac ou du bas ventre vers le cerveau’, Dict. de l’Acad. (ed. 1762).

=vardingale,= a ‘farthingale’. Three Lords and Three Ladies, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 434. This is the form in Cotgrave (s.vv. Vertugalle and Vertugadin). F. _verdugale_ (Rabelais); ‘sorte de cerceau, panier ou jupon bouffant pour seutenir les jupes’ (Jannet’s Gloss.). Span. _verdugado_, ‘a Petticoat . . . set out below with a small Hoop, below with one wider and so wider and wider down to the Feet, so that it looks exactly like a Funnel’ (Stevens). See =verdugal.=

=vare,= a wand. Dryden, Absalom, 595. Span. _vára_, a wand (Stevens.)

=vastidity,= immensity. Meas. for M. iii. 1. 69.

=vasty,= vast, spacious. 1 Hen. IV, iii. 1. 52.

=vaunt,= the beginning; ‘Our play leaps o’er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils’, Tr. and Cr., Prel. 27. _Vaunt-courier_, a forerunner, King Lear, iii. 2. 25; cp. F. _avant-coureur_, ‘a fore-runner, avant-curror’ (Cotgr.); see =voward.= F. _avant_, before, used of place and time.

=vaut,= to ‘vault’, to leap. Ascham, Scholemaster, 64; Drayton, Pol. vi. 51; B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maud.); hence _vawter_, a ‘vaulter’, tumbler, dancer; used of a wanton woman, Gosson, School of Abuse, 36.

=vease,= a rush, impetus, great effort, force; ‘Forth his vease he set withall’, Twyne, tr. of Aeneid, xii. 962. See EDD. (s.v. Fease, sb. 6). ME. _vese_: ‘Ther-out cam a rage and such a vese that it made al the gates for to rese’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1985); see NED. (s.v. Feeze). See =feeze.=

=vecture,= carrying, conveying, carriage of goods. Bacon, Essay 15, § 11. L. _vectura_, a carrying, conveying, transportation by carriage or ship (Cicero).

=veget,= lively, bright; ‘A veget spark’, Cartwright, The Ordinary, iv. 3 (Shape). L. _vegetus_, lively.

=vegetive,= a vegetable. Pericles, iii. 2. 36; Massinger, Old Law, i (Nares); as adj. ‘The tree still panted in th’ unfinish’d part, Not wholly vegetive, and heav’d her heart’, Dryden, Ovid, Metam. bk. i (Daphne).

=velure,= velvet. Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 62; _vellure_, Beaumont and Fl., Noble Gent. v. 1 (Nares). F. _velours_, velvet; cp. O. Prov. _velos_ (Levy), L. _villosus_, shaggy (Virgil); see Hatzfeld.

=velvet-tip,= the down or velvet upon the first sprouting horns of a young deer. Ford, Fancies Chaste, iii. 3 (Spadone).

=vena porta,= or _gate-vaine_ (gate-vein), a vein conveying chyle from the stomach to the liver. Bacon, Essay 19, § 11; 41, § 2. L. _vena_, vein; _porta_, gate. See =gate-vein.=

=venditation,= ostentatious display. B. Jonson, Discoveries, lxxii, Not. 8 (p. 747). L. _venditatio_, an offering for sale, display; _venditare_, to offer again and again for sale.

=venerie,= hunting. Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 22. ME. _venerye_ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 166). Anglo-F. _venerie_ (Gower, Mirour, 20314).

=Venetians,= Venetian or Venice hose. Three Ladies of London, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 344; _Venetian-hosen_ (described), Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses (ed. Furnivall, p. 56).

=vengeable,= revengeful, cruel, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 6, § 3; Spenser, ii. 4. 30, 46; terrible, ‘Magdeburg be vengeable fellows’, Ascham, Letter to Raven, 381 (Nares); excessively great, ‘Paulus . . . was a vengible fellow in linking matters together’, Holland’s Camden, p. 78 (Davies); excessively, ‘The drink is vengeable bitter’, Gascoigne, Glasse Gov. v. 1 (ed. 1870). See EDD.

=vent,= a small inn. Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, i. 1 (Hostess); Shelton, tr. Don Quixote, Pt. I. ii. Span. _venta_, an inn (Stevens). Med. L. _venta_, ‘locus ubi merees venum exponuntur’ (Ducange); _vendita_, see Ducange (s.v. Venda, 1); deriv. of L. _vendere_, to sell.

=vent,= to vend, sell. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iii. 1. 8; a sale, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 146); Tusser, Husbandry, § 19. 27. F. _vente_, sale. See above.

=vent,= to snuff up or take in the air; to perceive by scent. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maud.); Drayton, Pol. xiii. 118; Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 75.

=vent,= to let out, emit, Coriolanus, i. 1. 229; to utter, Ant. and Cl. iii. 4. 8 (common in Shaks.); to give birth to, Chapman, tr. Iliad, xix. 97.

=ventages,= small holes for the passage of air in a flute or flageolet, to be stopped with a finger. Hamlet, iii. 2. 372.

=ventanna,= a window. Dryden, Conq. of Granada, I. i. 1 (Boabdelin). Span. _ventana_.

=ventilate,= _pp._ discussed. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 25, § 3. L. _ventilatus_, pp. of _ventilare_, to winnow grain, to toss grain into the air in order to cleanse it from chaff (Pliny).

=ventoy,= a fan. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, ii. 2. 4. F. ‘_ventau_, a fan’ (Cotgr.).

=ver,= spring. Surrey, Complaint of a Lover, 19 (Tottel’s Misc. 8 and 11); spelt _vere_, ‘The rotys take theyr sap in tyme of vere’, Skelton, On Tyme, 24. O. Prov. _ver_, ‘printemps’ (Levy), L. _ver_.

=verdea wine,= a wine made of a green grape; and sold at Florence. Beaumont and Fl., ii. 1 (Miramont). Ital. _verdéa_, ‘a kind of white pleasant dainty Ladies wine in Tuscany’ (Florio).

=verdugal,= a ‘farthingale’; ‘Stiffe bombasted verdugals’, Florio’s Montaigne (ed. Morley, 1886, p. 273). See =vardingale.=

=verdugo,= a Spanish word for an executioner, a hangman (Stevens); hence, _his Verdugo-ship_, a contemptuous expression for a Spaniard, B. Jonson, Alchemist, iii. 2 (Face).

=vespillo,= among the Romans, one who carried out the poor for burial; a corpse-bearer. Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med., Pt. I, § 38. L. _vespillo_ (Suetonius).

=vex,= to be grieved about anything. Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, iii. 1. 7. In prov. use from Worc. to the Isle of Wight, ‘’Er little girl died, and ’er vex’d and vex’d so’ (EDD.).

=via!,= away!, move on! Merch. Ven. ii. 2. 11; Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, ii. 3 (Launcelot). Ital. _via_, ‘an adverbe of encouraging, much used by riders to their horses, and by commanders; go on, away, go to, on, forward, quickly’, Florio. See Nares.

=Vice= or =Iniquity,= names for the established buffoon in the old Moralities; ‘How like you the Vice in the Play?’, B. Jonson, Staple of News (ed. 1860, p. 388); ‘Thus like the formal Vice, Iniquity, I moralize’, Richard III, iii. 1. 82. See Schmidt, and Nares (svv. Iniquity and Vice).

=vice,= an iron press with a screw for holding things fast, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 24; to hold one fast as in a ‘vice’, Wint. Tale, i. 2. 416. See Dict.

=vide-ruff,= an old card-game; obsolete. Heywood, A Woman killed, iii. 2 (Cranwell). Prob. _vide_ = _vied_, pp. of _vie_, a term in card-playing; see =vie.=

=vie,= to hazard or put down a certain sum upon a hand at cards; _to revie_, to cover that stake with a larger sum; after which, the first challenger could _revie_ again; and so on. ‘Here’s a trick vied and revied!’, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 1 (Well-bred); _Vie and revie_, Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal ii, § last; see Gifford’s note. See below.

=vie with,= to show in comparison or competition with; ‘So with the dove of Paphos might the crow vie feathers white’, Pericles, iv, Prol. 33. ME. _envỳe_, to show in competition (Chaucer, Death of Blanche, 173, MS. Fairfax). F. _envier_ (au jeu), ‘to vie’ (Cotgr.); Ital. _invitare_ (al giuoco), to vie at any game (Florio); cp. Span. _envidar_, to invite or open the game by staking a certain sum (Neuman). See Dict.

=vild,= vile. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 46; v. 11. 18. A very common form in Tudor English.

=viliaco,= a scoundrel. B. Jonson, Every Man out of Hum. v. 3 (Sogliardo). Ital. _vigliacco_, ‘a rascal, a scurvy scoundrel’ (Florio).

=vilify,= to hold cheap. Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, v. 3 (Forobosco). Late L. _vilificare_ (Tertullian).

=villatic,= belonging to a farm; hence, domestic; ‘Tame villatic fowl’, Milton, Samson, 1695. L. _villaticus_, belonging to a farm. L. _villa_, a country-house, farm.

=vine-dee,= a kind of wine. Mayne, City Match, iii. 4 (Quartfield). Supposed to represent F. _vin de Dieu_, or lacrima-Christi.

=viol-de-gamboys,= a bass-viol, Twelfth Nt. i. 3. 27. Ital. _viola di gamba_, ‘a violl de gamba’ (Florio). So called because placed beside the leg instead of (like the violin) on the arm. Ital. _gamba_, the leg. See =de gambo.=

=virelay,= a lay or song with a ‘veering’ arrangement of the rimes. Dryden, Flower and Leaf, 365. See Nares. F. _virelay_, ‘a virelay, round, freemans song’; _virer_, ‘to veer, turn round’ (Cotgr.).

=virge, verge,= a wand. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, v. 3 (Seriben). F. _verge_, a rod, wand (Cotgr.).

=virginals,= an instrument of the spinnet kind, but made rectangular, like a small pianoforte. Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieutenant, i. 1 (2 Citizen); Fair Maid of the Inn, iv. 2 (Clown). Also called _a pair of virginals_, Dekker, Gul’s Hornbook, ch. iii. Their name was probably derived from their being used by young girls. Hence, _virginalling_, lit. playing on the virginals, ‘Still virginalling upon his palm!’, Winter’s Tale, i. 2. 125 (a word coined in jealous indignation). See Nares.

=visage,= to look in the face, gaze on. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, book ii, c. 2, § 3. ‘_I vysage_, I make contenaunce to one, _Ie visaige_’, Palsgrave.

=visitate,= to survey, behold. Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 1. 161.

=vively,= in a life-like manner. Marston, Sophonisba, iv. 1. 154. F. _vif_.

=vives;= see =fives.=

=voider,= a basket or tray for carrying out the relics of a dinner or other meal. Beaumont and Fl., Woman-hater, i. 3 (Lazarillo); ‘_Mésciróbba_, any great dish, platter, charger, voider, tray or pan’, Florio; ‘Enter . . . serving-men, one with a voider and a wooden knife’, T. Heywood, Woman Killed with Kindness (The wooden knife emptied the remnants of the food into the ‘voider’); ‘Piers Ploughman laid the cloth and Simplicity brought in the voider’, Dekker, Gul’s Hornbook, i; ‘Voyder, _lanx_’, Levins, Manip. In prov. use for a butler’s tray, or a large open basket; in west Yorks. it is the usual word for a clothes-basket (EDD.).

=volary,= a great cage for birds; ‘(she sits) Like the forsaken turtle, in the volary Of the Light Heart, the cage’, B. Jonson, New Inn, v. 1 (Prudence). Ital. _voleria_, ‘a volery or great cage for birds’ (Florio).

=voley:= phr. _on the voley, o’ the volèe_, inconsiderately. Massinger, Picture, iii. 6. 1; B. Jonson, New Inn, i. 1 (Prudence). F. _à la volée_, ‘rashly, inconsiderately, at random, at rovers’; _volée_, flight, _voler_, to fly (Cotgr.). See Nares (s.v. Volée).

=voluptie,= sensual pleasure. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 11, § 16; bk. iii, c. 20, § 1. F. _volupté_.

=volvell,= an instrument consisting of graduated and figured circles drawn on the leaf of a book, to the centre of which is attached one movable circle or more; ‘He turnyd his tirikkis, his volvell ran fast’, Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 1517. Fully described by Dyce, ii. 336. Med. L. _volvella_, _volvellum_; from L. _volvere_, to revolve.

=vor, vore;= see =che vor.=

=vorloffe,= ‘furlough’. B. Jonson, Staple of News, v. 1 (Picklock). Du. ‘_verlof_, leave, consent or permission’ (Hexham); Dan. _forlov_, leave, furlough, cp. G. _verlaub_, leave, permission.

=votaress,= a woman that is under a vow. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 123, 163; _votress_, Dryden, Palamon, iii. 225.

=vote,= an ardent wish, a prayer. Beaumont and Fl., Lover’s Progress, iv. 2 (Alcidon); Massinger, Guardian, v. 1 (Severino). L. _votum_, a desire, an ardent longing (Horace).

=voward,= for _vaward_, _vanward_, vanguard, North’s Plutarch, M. Brutus, § 29 (in Shak. Plut., p. 142); id., § 31, p. 147. F. _avant-garde_, vanguard. See =vaunt.=

=vowess,= a widow who made a vow to observe chastity in honour of her deceased husband; ‘In that church (Oseneie) lieth this ladie (Editha, wife of Robert d’Oyly) buried with hir image . . . in the habit of a vowesse’, Harrison, Desc. England, bk. ii, ch. 3 (ed. Furnivall, p. 74); Leland’s Itinerary (ed. Toulmin Smith, Pt. I, 83, 112, 124). In the church of Shalstone in Bucks. there is a monumental brass to the memory of Susan Kingstone, step-sister of Sir T. Elyot, on which she is described as a ‘vowess’; she died in the year 1540. For the widow’s vow of chastity, see Stow’s Survey (ed. Thoms, 70, footnote); Fosbrooke, British Monachism, 510.

W

=wae;= see =woe.=

=wafer-woman,= a seller of wafer-cakes, freq. mentioned in the dramatists as employed in amorous embassies; ‘Am I not able . . . to deliver a letter handsomely? . . . Why every wafer-woman will undertake it’, Fletcher, Maid in the Mill, i. 3. 12; Beaumont and Fl., Woman-hater, ii. 1 (Valerio); Webster, Devil’s Law-case, i. 2 (Romelio). Cp. what Chaucer says of _wafereres_ (C. T. C. 479).

=waff,= to wave, waft; ‘He waffes [wafts] an armie out of France’, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. iii, ch. 18; _waft_, waved, beckoned; Merch. Ven. v. 1. 11. Still in prov. use in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Waff, vb.^{1} 1), and in the north Midlands (Dr. Henry Bradley). See =waft= (2).

=waft,= a passing smell or taste, a ‘twang’. A Mad World, iv. 3 (near end); spelt _weft_, ‘Ill malting is theft, Wood-dride hath a weft’ (i.e. malt wood-dried has a tang), Tusser, Husbandry, § 84. See EDD. (s.v. Waft, sb.^{1} 3).

=waft,= to wave; ‘Wafts her hand’, Heywood, Love’s Mistress, i. 1 (Admetus); vol. v, p. 100; to convey by water, King John, ii. 1. 73; 2 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 116; to invite by a motion of the hand, ‘Whom Fortune with her ivory hand wafts to her’, Timon, i. 1. 70; Hamlet, i. 4. 78; to turn quickly, ‘Wafting his eyes to the contrary’, Wint. Tale, i. 2. 372; to float, ‘Satan . . . now with ease wafts on the calmer wave’, Milton, P. L. ii. 1042.

=waftage,= passage by water, Tr. and Cr. iii. 2. 11.

=wafture,= the act of waving; ‘With an angry wafture of your hand’, Jul. Caes. ii. 1. 246. See =waft= (2).

=wage,= to stake as a wager; ‘The King hath waged with him six Barbary horses’, Hamlet, v. 2. 154; King Lear, i. 1. 158; to reward with wages, Coriolanus, v. 6. 40; to barter, exchange, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 18; to be opposed in combat, to contend, to strive, ‘To wage against the enmity o’ the air’, King Lear, ii. 4. 212; Webster, Appius, iii. 1 (Valerius); iii. 2 (Mar. Claudius).

=wag-halter.= Once a common term for a rogue or gallows-bird, one who is likely to make a halter wag or shake; ‘A wag-halter page’, Ford, The Fancies, i. 2; ‘_Baboin_, a trifling, busie or crafty knave; a crack rope, wag-halter, unhappy rogue, wretchless villain’, Cotgrave.

=wagmoire,= a quagmire. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 130. ‘Wagmire’ was once in prov. use in Glouc. and Devon (EDD.). From _wag_, to shake, see EDD. (s.v. Wag, 2).

=wagpastie,= a term of contempt; a rogue; ‘A little wagpastie, A deceiver of folkes’, Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 2.

=wagtail,= a contemptuous term for a profligate woman. Middleton, A Trick to catch, ii. 1 (Lucre); Shirley, Traitor, ii. 1 (Sciarrha).

=waift, weft,= a ‘waif’, a thing cast adrift; used by Spenser of a person, ‘She was flying like a weary weft’, F. Q. v. 3. 27; vi. 1. 18, _wefte_, iii. 10. 36; _waift_, iv. 12. 31.

=wailful,= doleful. Two Gent. iii. 2. 69.

=waistcoat,= a body-dress for a woman, like a man’s waistcoat; sometimes very costly. When worn without an upper dress, it was considered the mark of a profligate woman. Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieut. ii. 3 (Leucippe); Woman’s Prize, i. 4 (Livia); Loyal Subject, ii. 4 (Young Archas). Hence _waistcoateer_, a strumpet, Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieut. i. 1 (2 Usher); Wit without Money, iv. 4 (Luce).

=wake,= the feast of the dedication of a church, originally the vigil before the festival; the merry-making in connexion therewith; ‘He haunts wakes, fairs’, Winter’s Tale, iv. 3. 109; ‘At wakes and wassails’, L. L. L. v. 2. 318; _wake-day_, Tusser, Husbandry, § 90. 5. ‘Wake’ is in prov. use in various parts of England for an annual festival and holiday, often connected with the dedication of the parish church; the fair held at such times was also so called, see EDD. (s.v. Wake, sb.^{1} 8). OE. _wacu_, a watch, a vigil; cp. _wacana_ (‘vigilias’) in Luke ii. 8 (Lind.).

=waker,= wakeful. Sir T. Wyatt, The Lover confesseth him (ed. Bell, p. 66); Golding, Metam. xi. 599; fol. 139, bk. (1603). OE. _wacor_, wakeful, vigilant.

=wale:= _the wale of cloth_, the ridge or rib in cloth denoting its quality; ‘Thou’rt rougher far, and of a coarser wale’, Beaumont and Fl., Four Plays in One: Triumph of Honour, sc. i (Sophocles); Middleton, Mich. Term, ii. 3 (Easy). ME. _wale_, a stripe (Prompt.). OE. _walu_, a weal, mark of a blow (Napier, Glosses).

=wales,= _pl._ springs of water; ‘To cloudes alofte the wales and waters rise’, Mirror for Mag., Domitius Nero, st. 11; Golding, Metam. ii. 11. Probably the same word as _wall_, in prov. use for a spring of water in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Wall, sb.^{2} 1).

=walk the round,= to be one of the watchmen. Massinger, Guardian, iii. 5 (Severino); to act as a watchman, go the round; B. Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2 (Face).

=walking mort,= a grown-up unmarried whore; often a pretended widow (Cant). Described in Harman’s Caveat, p. 67 (Aydelotte, p. 27); cp. Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Patrico).

=wallope,= to gallop. Morte Arthur, leaf 90. 33; bk. v, c. 11. In prov. use in the north country and E. Anglia (EDD.). ME. _walloppyn_, as an hors (Prompt. EETS. 538), Anglo-F. _waloper_, to gallop (see Bartsch, 544. 26); _galoper_ (Rough List).

=walm,= a surge, bubbling up of water. Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, viii. 87. A north-country word for ‘a bubbling’ (EDD.). OE. _wælm_, surging water (Beowulf).

=walter,= to ‘welter’, roll. Peele, Sir Clyomon, l. 1. Hence _waltering_, a lolling (as snakes’ tongues), Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, ii, l. 267 (211 of Latin text); rolling, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 498 (Latin text). In prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and the north of England and E. Anglia. ME. _walteryn_ (Prompt. EETS. 514).

†=waltsome,= disgusting, heinous; ‘O waltsome murder’, Mirror for Mag., Hastings, st. 30. Probably an intended improvement of ME. _wlatsom_, in an imitation of Chaucer: ‘Mordre is so wlatsom and abhominable’ (C. T. B. 4243). OE. _wlætta_, disgust, nausea (Sweet).

=wamble,= to rumble, to roll, to stir uneasily; used of food in the stomach. Fletcher, Mad Lover, i. 1 (Fool); Lyly, Endimion, iv. 2; ‘_Allecter_, to wamble as a queasie stomach doth’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in Scotland and in various parts of England north and south, see EDD. (s.v. 1). ME. _wamelyn_ in the stomak, ‘nausio’ (Prompt. EETS. 538). Cp. Dan. _vamle_, to become squeamish, _vammel_, nauseous (Larsen).

=wamentation,= lamentation. Fair Em. i. 2. 73. See =wayment.=

=wan,= a winnowing-fan. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xi. 163, 164; explained as ‘a corn-cleanse _fan_’, id., xxiii. 416. L. _vannus_, a winnowing-fan. See Dict. (s.v. Fan).

=wanhope,= loss of hope, dejection, despair; ‘Wanhope, poor soule on broken anchor sits Wringing his armes, as robbed of his wits’, Glaucus (Nares). Still heard in Lancashire (EDD.). ME. _wanhope_, despair (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1249). Cp. Du. ‘_wanhope_, dispaire’ (Hexham).

=waniand:= phr. _in the waniand_, in the waning (moon), i.e. at an unlucky time; ‘He would . . . make them wed in the waniand’, Sir T. More, Wks., p. 306 h. ME. _in the waniand_ (Minot, ed. T. Wright, i. 87); ‘In woo to wonne in the wanyand’ (York Plays, p. 124). OE. _on wanigendum mōnan_ (Leechdoms, i. 320); _wanian_, to lessen, to wane. See Dict.

=wanion:= phr. _with a wanion_, with a vengeance, with ill-luck. Pericles, ii. 1. 17; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of B. Pestle, ii. 2 (Wife); B. Jonson, Staple of News, iii. 5; Eastward Ho (Nares). In prov. use in Scotland and Ireland. See above.

=want,= to be without, to lack. King John, iv. 1. 99; Coriolanus, i. 3. 90. Very common in Scotland, Ireland, and the north of England; ‘We wanted the plague in Scotland, when they had it in England’ (Scoticisms, 105), see EDD. (s.v. Want, vb. 8).

=want,= absence of a person; ‘_His present want_’ (= the present want of him, i.e. his being absent at present), 1 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 44; Shirley, Witty Fair One, i. 1. 17.

=wanty,= a horse’s belly-band; a girth used for securing a load on a pack-horse. Tusser, Husbandry, § 17. 5. Still in prov. use in various parts of England from Yorks. to the Isle of Wight (EDD.). OE. _wamb_ belly + _tīge_, a band.

=wanze away,= to wane, vanish, disappear; ‘And all the things that liked him did wanze away’, Golding, Metam. iii. 501; fol. 38, back (1603); ‘Which wanz’d away againe’ (L. _evanuit_), id., vi. 47. ‘Wanze’ is an E. Anglian word used in the sense of wasting away. ME. _wanson_, ‘or wanyn as the mone, _decresco_’ (Prompt.); OE. _wansian_, to lessen.

=wappe,= to lap, used of the sound of water against the rocks, Morte Arthur, leaf 425. 5; bk. xxi, c. 5.

†=wappened,= over-worn (so Schmidt). Timon, iv. 3. 38. Probably a misprint for _wappered_. ‘Wappered’ is a Glouc. word for tired, fatigued (EDD.). See =unwappered.=

=wapper-eyed,= having quick restless eyes, sore-eyed, blear-eyed. Middleton, The Black Book, ed. Dyce, v. 528. Still in use in Devon and Somerset (EDD.).

=war;= see =warre.=

=ward,= a ‘side’, or compartment of the Counter, or prison. There were two Counters, one in the Poultry, the other in Wood Street. The Counter had three ‘wards’ or ‘sides’, the Master’s side, the Two-penny Ward, and the Hole; and it was not uncommon for the debtors, as their means decreased, to descend gradually from the first to the last. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 4 (Carlo); v. 7 (Macilente).

=ward,= garrison, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 11. 15; the guard at the gate of a castle, id., iii. 11. 21; custody, prison, ‘To commit one to ward or prison, In custodiam tradere’, Baret, Alvearie; BIBLE, Gen. xl. 3; 2 Hen. VI, v. 1. 112; the guard in a prison, Acts xii. 10 (AV. and Wyclif).

=ward,= a guard made in fencing, a posture of defence. Temp. i. 2. 471; 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 215.

=warden,= a large coarse pear used for baking, Bacon, Essay 46; Wint. Tale, iv. 3. 48; by pop. etym. a keeping pear; ‘_Poire de garde_, a warden or winter-pear, a pair which may be kept very long’, Cotgrave; Beaumont and Fl., Cupid’s Revenge, ii. 3 (Dorialus); spelt _wardon_, Palsgrave. ME. _wardon_(_e_ (Prompt. and Cath. Angl.). So named from _Wardon_ (now _Warden_) in Beds. The arms of Wardon Abbey were argent, three warden-pears, or. See Dict. (s.v. Wardon).

=warder,= a staff or truncheon carried by one who presided at a tournament or combat. Richard II, i. 3. 118 (when the ‘warder’ was thrown down, the fight was stopped). ‘They fight; Robert and the Palatine _cast their warders_ between them and part them’, Heywood, Four Prentises (stage-direction); vol. ii, p. 204.

=ware,= to spend money. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 122; Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 43. Very common in the north country; in Yorks. (N. Riding) they say, ‘He wares nowt, for he addles nowt’, see EDD. (sv. Ware, vb.^{1} 9). ME. _waryn_ in chaffare ‘mercor’, (Prompt. EETS. 539, see note, no. 2636). Icel. _verja_, to clothe, to invest money, to spend.

=ware,= to bid any one beware; ‘I’ll ware them to mel’ (i.e. I’ll teach them to beware of meddling), Heywood, Witches of Lancs. iv (Parnell); vol. iv, p. 234.

=wareless,= unexpected. Spenser, F. Q. v. 1. 22; unwary, heedless, id., v. 5. 17.

=warison,= gift, recompense. Morte Arthur, leaf 186, back, 35; bk. ix, ch. 22. ME. _warisoun_, requital (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 1537); _warysone_ (Prompt. EETS. 516). Norm. F. _guarison_ (_garison_), ‘vivres, moyens de subsistance’ (Moisy, 500).

=warke,= work. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 145; F. Q. ii. 1. 32. A north-country pronunc., see EDD. (s.v. Work).

†=warling= (?), in the proverb, ‘Better be an old man’s darling, than a young man’s warling’, Barry, Ram. Alley, ii (Adriana); Heywood’s Proverbs (ed. Farmer, pp. 80, 130). [In Ray’s Proverbs (ed. Bohn, p. 45), ‘snarling’ is the word used instead of ‘warling’.]

=warp.= ‘A pitchy cloud Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind’ (i.e. working themselves forward—the metaphor is of a ship), Milton, P. L. i. 341. In Scotland used of the flight of a swarm of bees, see EDD. (s.v. Warp, vb.^{1} 9).

=warray,= to harass with war, Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 48; Fairfax, Tasso, i. 6. ME. _warray_, to make war (Barbour’s Bruce, see Glossary); _werray_ (Wars Alex. 2495); _werreyen_ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1544). Anglo-F. _werreier_, to make war (F. _guerroyer_). See Dict. (s.v. War).

=warre:= in phr. _warre old_; ‘But when the world woxe old, it woxe warre old (whereof it hight)’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 31. The meaning is that when the world grew old, it grew _worse_, and that from _warre old_ or _war-old_, the word ‘world’ is derived; cp. Shep. Kal., Sept., 108, ‘They sayne the world is much _war_ then it wont’. The word ‘warre’ (or ‘war’) is in prov. use in the north country and in Ireland, see EDD. (s.v. War, adj.^{1}). ME. _werre_, worse (Ormulum, 4898). Icel. _verr_, adv., _verri_, adj., worse.

=warrie,= gnarled, knotted. Golding, Metam. viii. 743 (fol. 104; 1603); also _warryed_, id., xiii. 799. OE. _wearrig_, having callosities, deriv. of _wearr_, a callosity (Sweet).

=wary,= to curse. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2266. See EDD. (s.v. Wary, vb.^{2}). ME. _warien_, to curse (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 1619), OE. _wergian_.

=waryish;= see =werish.=

=washical,= ‘what shall I call’; a name for a thing that one does not take the trouble to mention. Gammer Gurton’s Needle, v. 2 (Hodge).

=wasp,= used metaph. for a petulant or spiteful person. Tam. Shrew, ii. 1. 210; Beaumont and Fl., King and no King, iv. 3 (1 Swordsman). So used in Scotland (EDD.).

=wassail,= a drinking-bout, a carouse; ‘At wakes and wassails’, L. L. L. v. 2. 318; Macbeth, i. 7. 64; Hamlet, i. 4. 9; ‘A wassail candle’, 2 Hen. IV, i. 2. 179 (a large candle lighted up at a feast). The word ‘wassail’, well known in Yorks. in connexion with old Christmas ceremonies and festivities; for ample details, see EDD. It was originally a phrase used at a banquet. In Laȝamon, Rowena presents a cup to Vortigern with the words _wæs hail_ (_wassail_), a salutation, meaning ‘be hale, be in good health’. O. Sax. _wes hēl_, be hale: so in the salutation of the Virgin, _hēl wis thu_ = Ave! (Vulgate, Luke i. 28); so also in Anglo-Saxon Gospels, _hāl wes ðu!_ See Dict.

=waster,= a cudgel; ‘The youthes of this citie have used on holy dayes . . . to exercise their wasters and bucklers’, Stow’s Survey (ed. Thoms, p. 36); Mad Men of Gotham, 19 (Nares); _to play at wasters_, Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, iv. 3 (Countryman); Burton, Anat. Mel. (Naros); _to win at wasters_, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, ii. 3 (Candido); ‘_Bastone_, any kind of cudgel, waster, or club’, Florio.

=Wat,= a name for a hare. Venus and Ad. 697; Drayton, Pol. xxiii. 331; Levins, Manipulus. In prov. use (EDD.). Properly a pet-name for _Walter_ (_Water_).

=watch,= a time-piece, clock. Richard II, v. 5. 52. Probably, a candle marked out into sections, each of which was a certain portion of time in burning, Richard III, v. 3. 63.

=watchet,= pale blue. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 4. 40; Marston, Malcontent, iii. 1 (Bilioso); Drayton, Pol. v. 13. ME. _wachet_, light blue colour (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3321). See Dict.

=Water,= a pronunciation of the Christian name Walter, see 2 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 35. ME. _Wateere_ or _Water_, ‘propyr name of a man, _Walterus_’ (Prompt. EETS. 517, see note, no. 2530). Anglo-F. _Gualtier_ (Ch. Rol. 2039), Norm. F. _Waltier_. Of Teutonic origin, cp. OE. _Wealdhere_ (power + army), see Oldest Eng. Texts, 537.

=water, to lay in;= See =lay= (5).

=water-gall,= a second rainbow seen above the first; a fragment of a rainbow appearing on the horizon; Lucrece, 1588. A Hampshire word, see EDD. (s.v. Water, 1 (50)).

=water-rug,= a rough kind of water-dog (?). Macbeth, iii. 1. 94.

=water-work,= painting executed in water-colour; ‘The German hunting in water-work’, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 158.

=wawes,= waves. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 4. ME. _wawe_, a wave (Chaucer, C. T. B. 508); ‘a _wawe_ of the see’ (Wyclif, James i. 6). Icel. _vāgr_, a wave.

=wax:= phr. _a man of wax_, Romeo, i. 3. 76 (as pretty as if he had been modelled in wax); so, _a prince of wax_, Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, i. 1 (Megra). Cp. ‘a lad of wax’, ‘a man of wax’, in prov. use in Durham and west Yorks., see EDD. (s.v. Wax, sb.^{2} 4), where the expressions are associated with the vb. _wax_ (to grow).

=waxen,= _pr. pl._, they increase. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 56. The ME. pres. pl. in the Midland dialect. For the geographical area of the pres. pl. in _n_, _sn_, see Wright’s English Dialect Grammar, § 435.

=way,= to go on one’s way, to journey; ‘As they together wayd’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 12.

=way,= to ‘weigh’. Spenser, F. Q. v. 2. 46; ‘Full many things so doubtfull to be wayd’, id., iv. 1. 7; to esteem, ‘All that she so deare did way’, id., vii. 6. 55.

=wayment,= to lament. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 16. ME. _waymenten_ (Chaucer, C. T. I. 230). Norm. F. _guaimenter_, _waimenter_: ‘Les virgines d’els ne guaimenterent’ (Ps. lxxvii. 69, ed. Michel, 111); see Moisy.

=wealth,= welfare, prosperity. Merch. Ven. v. 1. 249; Hamlet, iv. 4. 27; ‘The thinges that shuld have bene for their welth’ (AV. welfare), Ps. lxix. 23 (A.D. 1539); ‘wealth, peace and godliness’, Prayer Book (Collect for King). ME. _welthe_, prosperity, well-being (Gower, C. A. ii. 1207).

=weanell;= see =wennel.=

=wear,= the fashion, that which is worn; ‘It is not the wear’, Meas. for M. iii. 2. 78.

=wearish;= see =werish.=

=weather:= phr. _To make fair weather_, to conciliate another with fair words, Much Ado, i. 3. 25; 2 Hen. VI, v. 1. 30. Cp. the proverb, ‘Two women placed together make foul weather’, Hen. VIII, i. 4. 22.

=weather-fend,= to ‘defend’ from the weather. Tempest, v. 1. 10.

=weave,= to float backwards and forwards; ‘Amidst the billowes beating of her, Twixt life and death long to and fro she weaved’, Spenser, F. Q. v. 4. 10. See EDD.

=weaver,= a fish, having sharp spines; the _Trachinus draco_, or _T. vipera_. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 167. Cp. ME. _wivere_, a serpent (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 1010); Anglo-F. _wivre_, a serpent, viper; esp. in blazon; L. _vipera_, a viper; see Dict. (s.v. Wyvern).

=web and pin,= a disorder of the eyesight. King Lear, iii. 4. 122; _pin and web_, i. 2. 291. From _web_, a film; and _pin_, a small spot. In E. Anglia ‘web’ is used for a film over the eye, see EDD. (s.v. Web, 4).

=weel,= a wicker trap or basket used for catching eels, &c. Heywood, Anna and Phillis, vol. vi, p. 309; Tusser, Husbandry, § 36, st. 31. In gen. prov. use in the Midlands (EDD.).

=weeld,= the ‘weald’ of Kent; ‘I was born and lerned myn englissh in Kente in the weeld’, Caxton, Historyes of Troye, preface. See Dict. (s.v. Weald).

=ween,= to suppose, think; _wend_, pt. t., Spenser, F. Q. vii. 6. 11. ME. _wenen_ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1655); OE. _wēnan_.

=Weeping Cross.= Nares notes that there were at least three crosses so named, near Oxford, Stafford, and Shrewsbury respectively. _To come home_ (or _return_) _by Weeping Cross_, to repent of an undertaking, Lyly, Euphues, p. 243.

‘He that goes out with often losse,
At last comes home by Weeping Crosse,’

Howell, Eng. Prov.; Ray’s Proverbs (ed. Bohn, p. 22).

=weerish;= see =werish.=

=weesel,= weasand, windpipe. Peele, David, ed. Dyce. p. 465, col. 2. Spelt _wizzel_, Mayne, City Match, iii. 4 (Quartfield). Cp. Bavarian dial. _waisel_, the gullet of animals that chew the cud (Schmeller).

=wee’st heart,= woe is the heart (of me)! Congreve, Love for Love, ii. 1 (Nurse). ‘Wae’s t’ heart,’ ‘Wae’s heart of me,’ are Yorks. exclamations; ‘Wae’s my heart’ is of frequent occurrence in Scottish poetry, see EDD. (s.v. Woe, 2).

=weet,= wet; ‘Till all the world is weet’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 9. 33. This is a common pronunc. of ‘wet’ in the north country and E. Anglia (EDD.). ME. _weet_, wet (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4107). OE. _wǣt_.

=weet,= to know, Spenser, F. Q. i. 3. 6. Fairfax, Tasso, v. 86. This is a northern pronunc. of ‘wit’ (to know), see EDD. (s.v. Wit, vb.). ME. _wetyn_, to know (Prompt. EETS. 545).

=weft,= see =waft= and =waift.=

=wefte,= abandoned, avoided, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 4. 36.

=weird:= in phr. _the weird sisters_, used of the three witches, as foretelling destiny, Macbeth, iv. 1. 136. The expression is taken from Holinshed’s Chronicle of Scotland; it was used by Gawin Douglas (Virgil, 80, 48) for the Parcae or Fates; ‘_Cloto, una de tribus parcis quae finguntur regere vitam hominis, anglice_, one of the thre Weyrde systers’, Pynson’s Ortus Vocabulorum (ed. 1509). See Grimm, Teut. Myth. 407. See =werd.=

=weld,= to wield, govern. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 32; vi. 8. 11; Shep. Kal., Oct., 40; to wield, to carry, Kyd, Span. Tragedy, i. 4. 35; _to weld oneself_, to erect oneself, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 699 (L. _se tollit_). ME. _welden_, to wield, to control (Chaucer, C. T. D. 271), to move with ease (C. T. D. 1947).

=welk,= to fade, to grow dim (of the sun in the west). Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 23; to cause to grow dim, ‘But nowe sadde Winter welked hath the day’, Shep. Kal., Nov., 13. Cp. prov. use of ‘welk’ in the sense of to fade, to wither (used of plants, see EDD., s.v. Welk, vb^{1}). ME. _welke_, to wither (Chaucer, C. T. D. 277). Cp. G. _welken_, to wither.

=welked,= withered, faded; ‘Her wealked face with woful teares besprent’, Sackville, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 12. ME. _welked_, withered (Chaucer, C. T. D. 277).

=welked,= curved, twisted, applied to horns; ‘Welked horns’, Golding’s Ovid, occurring three times, pp. 60, 107, and 122 (ed. 1603); ‘Hornes welkt and waved like the enraged Sea’, King Lear, iv. 6. 71; ‘And setting fire upon the welked shrouds’ (i.e. the curved clouds), Drayton, Barons’ Wars, vi. 39 (Nares).

=welkin,= the sky; ‘Look on me with your welkin eye’ (i.e. heavenly or sky-blue eye), Winter’s Tale, i. 2. 136. ME. _welken_, the sky (Chaucer, Hous F. iii. 1601). OE. _wolcen_, a cloud, also _wolcnan_, clouds. Cp. G. _wolke_, a cloud.

=well-a-near,= alas!, alack-a-day!;

‘The poor lady shrieks, and well-a-near,
Does fall in travail with her fear,’

Pericles, iii, Prol. 51; Look about You, sc. 2, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 397. An obsolete north-country exclamation—written _well-aneer_ and _well-an-ere_ (EDD.).

=well-liking,= in good condition, plump, L. L. L. v. 2. 268; ‘They . . . shalbe fatt and well lykenge’, Ps. xcii. 13 (Great Bible, 1539).

=well said!,= really meaning ‘well done!’, Westward Ho, ii. 2 (Birdlime). Common.

=Welshman’s hose.= Nares takes this to mean ‘no hose at all’, as denoting something non-existent or wholly indefinite; but perhaps the Welshman of the phrase was accused of wearing his ‘hose’ hind part before; ‘The lawes wee did interprete and statutes of the land, Not truely by the texte, but newly by a glose: And wordes that were most playne, when they by us were skand, Wee tourned by construction to a Welshman’s hose’, Mirror for Mag., Tresilian, st. 15.

=wend;= see =ween.=

=wennel,= a weaned animal. Tusser, Husbandry, § 20, 28; ‘A lamb or a kid or a weanell wast’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 198 (_weanell wast_ prob. means ‘a stray weanling’). ‘Wennel’ is an E. Anglian word for a weaned calf (EDD.).

=went,= a path, a way; ‘Tract of living went’ (i.e. trace of living way, of any way which living men use), Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 47; v. 4. 46; v. 6. 3. ‘Went’ in many applications is in prov. use in many parts of Great Britain; see EDD. ME. _wente_, a way, passage (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 787).

=werd,= fate, destiny; ‘The wofull werd’, Sackville, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 63. In prov. use in this sense in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Weird, 1). ME. _werd_, fate, destiny (Wars Alex. 3247); _werdis_, destinies (Barbour’s Bruce, ii. 329). OE. _wyrd_, fate, destiny; _Wyrde_, the Fates. Parcae, The Weird Sisters (B. T.). Icel. _Urðr_ (in poetry), one of the Norns, see Grimm, Teut. Myth, 405. See =weird.=

=werish,= tasteless, insipid; ‘Dawcockes, lowtes, cockescombes and blockhedded fooles were . . . said _betizare_ to be as werishe and as unsavery as beetes’, Udall, tr. Apoph., Diogenes, § 85; ‘Werysshe as meate is that is nat well tastye, _mal savouré_’, Palsgrave; _wearish_, weak, delicate, puny, sickly-looking, ‘A wretched wearish elfe’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 5. 34; _weerish_, Drayton, Pol. xxix. 62; _waryish_, Golding, Metam. ii. 776. See Nares (s.v. Wearish). In prov. use, in many forms, in various parts of Great Britain, see EDD. (s.v. Wairsh).

=werwolf,= a man changed into a wolf by enchantment; ‘She made hym seuen yere a werwolf’, Morte Arthur, leaf 397, 17; bk. xix, c. 11; _warwolf_, Drayton, Man in the Moon, 13. ME. _werwolf_ (Will. of Palerne, 80), MHG. _werwolf_, a man-wolf; cp. Med. L. _gerulphus_ (Ducange), OF. _garou_, cp. F. _loup-garou_ (Hatzfeld). See Dict.

=wetewold,= a ‘wittol’, a contented cuckold. Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 187; Assembly of Gods, 710 (see Notes by Dyce, on Skelton, ii. 305). See =wittol.=

=wet finger:= phr. _with a wet finger_, easily, readily. Beaumont and Fl., Cupid’s Revenge, iv. 3 (Citizen); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, i. 2. 5; id., Gul’s Hornbook; Heywood’s Proverbs (ed. Farmer, p. 95; see Word-List). It prob. means as easy as turning over the leaf of a book, or rubbing out writing on a slate with a wet finger, or tracing a lady’s name on the table with spilt wine (Farmer).

=wethering,= weathering, seasoning due to exposure to weather. Latimer, Sermon on the Ploughers (ed. Arber, p. 24). In prov. use in Norfolk, see EDD. (s.v. Weather, vb. 8).

=wexing,= waxing (as the moon). Dryden, Annus Mirab., st. 4. ME. _wexe_, to grow (Wyclif, Matt. xiii. 30).

=wharrow,= a little instrument fixed on a spindle for the string of the ‘turn’ to run in; a small pulley on a spindle. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 298. See passage from Guillim’s Display of Heraldry (ed. 1724, p. 300), quoted in EDD. (s.v.). Cognate with OE. _hweorfa_, the ‘whorl’ which helps to turn the spindle (B. T.).

=what,= whatsoever thing; ‘Such homely what as serves the simple clowne’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 9. 7; ‘Come downe and learne the little what that Thomalin can sayne’, Shep. Kal., July, 31.

=whelk,= a pimple, blotch. Hen. V, iii. 6. 108. A Derbyshire word, see EDD. (s.v. Whelk, sb.^{2}). ME. _whelke_ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 632).

=when,= (?) an exclamation of impatience. Short for ‘_when_ will you do what is bidden you?’, Webster, Duch. of Malfi, ii. 1 (Duchess); iv. 2 (Bosola). Common.

=whe’r,= whether. Often spelt _where_. Tempest, v. 1. 111; King John, i. 1. 75.

=where,= whereas; wherever; whence. L. L. L. ii. 1. 103; Mids. Night’s D. v. 1. 93; Hen. V, iii. 5. 15.

=whereas,= where that, where. 2 Hen. VI, i. 2. 58; Pericles, i. 4. 70. Not uncommon.

=where-some-ere,= wheresoever. Greene, Alphonsus, i. 2. G. _Wheresomever_ is heard in Lanc. (EDD.).

=wherrit, whirrit,= a blow, a thump, a smart box on the ear. Fletcher, Nice Valour, iii. 2 (Lapet); ‘A whirret on the eare’, Kendall, Flowers of Epigrammes’ (Nares). Still in prov. use in the north (EDD.).

=wherry;= see =whirry.=

=whether,= which of the two. Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 6. 352, ‘Whether of them twayne’, Tyndale, Matt. xxi. 31.

=whether whether were,= which was which. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 9. 10.

=whether,= whither. Spenser, F. Q. v. 6. 35.

=whew,= to whirl, to hurry; ‘I whew it away’, Buckingham, The Rehearsal, ii. 4. 7. So in the Lake country, ‘He whew’d his clog throo t’window’, see EDD. (s.v. Whew, vb.^{2} 2).

=whiblin,= a trick, device. Marston, Insatiate Countess, ii. 2 (Rogero). Cp. =quiblin.= Cp. the obsolete Dorset word ‘whibble’, to lie (EDD.).

=whiblin,= an impotent creature; a term of contempt. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, i. 2 (Fustigo). See =whimling.=

=whids,= words; _to cut bene whids_, to speak good words (Cant). Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen). [_A rousing whid_, a great lie, Burns, Death and Dr. Hornbook, st. 1.] The Slang Dict. (1874) says that _whid_ for a ‘word’ or a ‘falsehood’ is modern slang from the ancient cant.

=whiff,= a special way of taking tobacco; ‘Capers, healths, and whiffs’, Marston, What You Will, ii. 1 (Laverdure); _taking the whiff_, B. Jonson, Every Man out of Humour, Character of Shift (prefixed to the play).

=whiffler,= an officer who clears the way for a procession. Henry V, v, chorus, 12; Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 523. ‘Whifflers’ (fifers) usually went first in a procession; the term was then applied to those who went forward (without any musical instrument) to clear the way for the procession of a sovereign or of a city corporation. See Nares; and EDD. (s.v. Whiffle, vb.^{1} 1 (2)).

=whiffler,= a puffer of tobacco. Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iv. 1 (Chough).

=whig,= whey, sour milk, buttermilk. Greene, Description of the Shepherd, l. 29; ed. Dyce, p. 304. Cp. the Linc. expression, ‘As sour as whig’ (EDD.).

=whigh-hie, wi-hee,= a sound imitative of the neighing of a horse. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, ii. 1 (Sogliardo); Fletcher, Women Pleased, iv. 1 (Bomby). Hence, _wyhee_, v., to neigh; Marston, The Fawn, iv. 1 (Dondolo).

=while,= until. Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iv. 4 (Tamb.). Macbeth, iii. 1. 44; Richard II, i. 3. 122; see Schmidt. Very common in the north, also in E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. While, 6).

=whiles,= until; ‘Whyles tomorowe’, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 83; Twelfth Nt. iv. 3. 29. See EDD. (s.v. Whiles, 4).

=whimling= (a term of contempt), a poor creature. Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, iv. 7 (Mother). Probably the same word as ‘wimbling’, also written ‘whimbling’, used in the Midlands of plants that are long, thin, and of feeble growth, see EDD. See =whiblin= (2).

=whimp,= to whimper; ‘Wil whympe and whine’, Latimer, Sermons (ed. Arber, p. 77). Cp. the prov. words ‘wimp’ and ‘whimper’ in EDD.

=whip,= to move quickly. Sackville, Induction, st. 5; Much Ado, i. 3. 63; _to whip out_, to draw out quickly, ‘He whips his rapier out’, Hamlet, iv. 1. 10. See EDD.

=whip-cat,= drunken; ‘_Whip-cat_ bowling’, drunken emptying of bowls, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 367. See Halliwell. In Worc. a ‘whip-cat’ means a farmer’s feast after bean-setting, see EDD. (s.v. Whip, 1 (4)); ‘To whip the cat’, to get tipsy (Halliwell).

=whip-her-ginney,= the name of a game of cards. Mentioned in Taylor’s Works (Nares). Spelt _whip-her-jenny_, ‘a game at cards, borrowed from the Welsh’, Halliwell.

=whip-her-jenny,= a term of contempt, Two Angry Women, iv. 3 (Coomes); Halliwell.

=whip-jack,= a sham sailor who begs. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll); used as a term of reproach generally, ‘One Boner, a bare whippe Jacke for lucre of money toke upon him to be thy father’, Bp. Ponet in Maitland on Reformation, p. 74. [‘Sir Charles Grandison is none of your gew-gaw whip-jacks that you know not where to have’, Richardson, Grandison, vi. 156.] See Davies.

=whipstock,= the handle of a whip. Twelfth Nt. ii. 3. 28; Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 2. 95. Also, a carter; as a term of abuse, Tomkis, Albumazar, iv. 4 (end). The equivalent term _whipstalk_ occurs in the Spanish Tragedy (Nares).

=whirlbat,= a ‘cestus’, or weighty boxing-glove. Dryden, Pref. to Fables, § 3 from end. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, viii. 285; written _whoorlbat_, id., Iliad xxiii, 538. See Davies (s.v. Whirly-bat).

=whirlpit,= a whirlpool. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xxi. 223; Sandys, Paraph. Exod. xv; Marmyon’s Fine Companion; Holland, tr. Ammianus (Nares).

=whirlpool,= a sea-monster of the whale kind; perhaps the cachalot or sperm-whale, which is distinguished from other whales by its peculiar manner of blowing; ‘A whale or a whirlepoole’, BIBLE, Job xli. 1 (marginal rendering of Leviathan); Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 23; ‘_Tinet_, the Whall tearmed a Horlepoole or Whirlepoole’, Cotgrave; Holland’s Pliny, bk. ix, ch. 3; spelt _wherlpoole_, Drayton, Pol. xx. 100; _wherpoole_, id., xxv. 174. See Wright, Bible Word-Book.

=whirry,= to whirl along, to whirl away, to hurry off, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, iii. 611; _wherry_, Dekker, O. Fortunatus, iv. 2 (Agripyne); _whurry_, Taylor’s Works (Nares); _whorry_, Herrick, To Bacchus, a Canticle. See EDD. (s.v. Whirry, vb. 3).

=whisket,= a pandaress, The London Chanticleers, sc. 2 (Jenniting).

=whiskin,= a wanton person, Ford, Fancies Chaste, iv. 1 (Secco); a pandaress, Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, iv. 2 (Steward). See =pimp-whiskin.=

=whist,= to keep silence; ‘They whisted all’, Surrey, tr. Aeneid, ii. 1; ‘They whusted all’, Phaer, tr. Aeneid, ii. 1; put to silence, ‘So was the Titanesse put downe and whist’, Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 59; as adj., still, silent, ‘Where all is whist and still’, Marlowe, Hero and L. (Nares); ‘All the companie must be whist’, Holinshed, Desc. of Ireland (ed. 1808, p. 67); ‘The winds with wonder whist’, Milton, Hymn Nat. 64; _whistly_, silently, Arden of Feversham, iii. 3. 9. ME. _whist!_ (Wyclif, Judges xviii. 19). See =whust.=

=whister,= a blow; _Whisterpoop_, a smart blow or smack on the ear or ‘chops’, London Prodigal, ii. 1. 68 [A Linc., Somerset, and Devon word (EDD.)]; _Whistersnefet_, Udall, tr. Apoph., Diogenes, § 72 [Cp. _whistersniff_, a Hampshire word (EDD.)]. See Davies.

=white,= the central circle on an archery butt. Tam. Shrew, v. 2. 186; ‘_Blanc_, the white or mark of a pair of butts; _Toucher au blanc_, to strike the white, to hit the nail on the head’, Cotgrave.

=white,= used in expressions of endearment: _white boy_; ‘Such a brave sparke as you, that is your mother’s white boy’, Two Lancashire Lovers (Nares); Knight of the Burning Pestle, ii. 2 (Mrs. Merrythought); Ford, ’Tis Pity, i. 3; Yorkshire Tragedy, iv. 120; Two Angry Women, iii. 2 (Mall); ‘I shall be his little rogue and his white villain’, Return from Parnassus, ii. 6 (end).

=whitemeat,= food made of milk, eggs, bread, and the like. Northward Ho, i. 2 (Philip); B. Jonson, Every Man out of Humour, iv. 1 (Fallace); used attrib. and metaph., ‘Your whitemeat spirit’, Beaumont and Fl., Four Plays in One, Pt. II, sc. 2. 13.

=white money,= silver coin. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, ii. 2 (Galatea). In use in Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. White, 1. 160).

=white-pot,= a dish made of milk, eggs, and sugar, &c., boiled in a pot. Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, v. 4 (Eyre); Butler, Hud. i. 1. 299; Spectator, No. 109, § 4. ‘Whitpot’ is the name of a favourite dish in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. White, 1 (64)). See Nares.

=white powder,= a white kind of gunpowder. It does not appear to have existed; but there was a theory that a white gunpowder would explode without noise. Discussed by Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. ii, ch. 5, sect. 5. Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, ii. 2 (Laverdine). See Nares.

=whiting-mop,= a young whiting. Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, ii. 2; metaph. a fair lass, Massinger, Guardian, iv. 2. So _whiting_, Skelton, El. Rummyng, 223.

=whiting-time,= bleaching-time. Merry Wives, iii. 3. 140.

=whitleather,= white leather, leather dressed with alum, and very tough. Tusser, Husbandry, § 17. 4; ‘In thy whitleather hide’, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 1 (Elder Loveless).

=whitster,= a bleacher of linen. Merry Wives, iii. 3. 15; Pepys, Diary, Aug. 12, 1667; _whitstarre_. Palsgrave. ‘Whitster’s Arms’ is still a common alehouse sign in Lanc. (EDD.). ME. _whytestare_, ‘candidarius’ (Prompt. EETS. 526, see note, no. 2565). See Bardsley’s Surnames, 328, 329.

=whittle,= a small clasp-knife. Timon, v. 1. 183; Middleton, The Widow, iii. 2 (Francisco). In gen. prov. use in this sense, see EDD. (s.v. Whittle, sb.^{1} 1). ME. _thwitel_, a knife (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3933), deriv. of _thwiten_, to pare or cut little pieces from a thing; OE. _þwītan_, to cut out, cognate with Icel. _þveit_, a piece of land, common in place-names in the north of England, e.g. Seathwaite, Langthwaite, Postlethwaite.

=whittled,= drunk, intoxicated. Lyly, Mother Bombie, iii. 2 (Lucio); _whitled_, Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 498, l. 4. See Nares. Given as an obsolete prov. word in use in the north of England (EDD.). Cp. the slang term ‘cut’ for tipsy, somewhat drunk, see EDD. (s.v. Cut, ppl. adj.).

=whome,= home; ‘He wil paye whome’, Latimer, pref. to 2 Sermon bef. King (ed. Arber, p. 48). So pronounced in Wilts. and Shropshire; in north Devon ‘whum’, see EDD. (s.v. Home).

=whoobub,= hubbub. Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 629; Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 5. (or 6) 35; _whobub_, Beaumont and Fl., iv. 1 (Soto).

=whoop!,= an exclamation. King Lear, i. 4. 245; Hence, _to whoop_, ‘The shepheard whoop’d for joy’, Drayton, Shepherd’s Garland; ‘We are whoop’d’ (i.e. cried ‘whoop’ upon), Fletcher, Maid in a Mill, iii. 2 (Franio).

=whoorlbat;= see =whirlbat.=

=whorry;= see =whirry.=

=who-some-ere,= whosoever. Greene, Alphonsus, i. 1. 15. So also _where-some-ere_, wheresoever, id., i. 2. 6. A parallel formation to _whosoever_, with the Icel. conj. _sem_ (Norw. dial., Danish and Swedish _som_), as, that, sec EDD. (s.v. Howsomever).

=whot, whott,= hot. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 58; ii. 5. 18.

=whule,= to cry plaintively, to whine, howl. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xii. 135; Palsgrave, p. 785. A Suffolk word, see EDD. (s.v. Whewl).

=whurry;= see =whirry.=

=whust,= to keep silence; ‘They whusted all’, Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 1; to leave anything unsaid, ‘The libertie of an hystorie requireth that all shoulde bee related and nothing whusted’, Holinshed’s Chronicles (Nares); Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 357. See =whist.=

=wicker,= pliant; ‘Bird! how she flutters with her wicker wings!’, B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. i. 2 (Æglamour).

=widow,= to endow with a widow’s right, to jointure. Meas. for M. v. 6. 153.

=widowhood,= a widow’s right, a jointure. Tam. Shrew, ii. 1. 125.

=wigher,= to neigh as a horse. Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, iii. 2 (Dindimus). Cp. G. _wiehern_, to neigh.

=wight, wyght,= active. Morte Arthur, leaf 172, back, 30; bk. ix, c. 4; ‘Wyght or stronge, _fort_’, Palsgrave; Spenser, Shep. Kal., March, 91. In prov. use in the north of England (EDD.). ME. _wight_, active (Chaucer, C. T. B. 3457). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Wight).

=Wild:= _the Wild of Kent_, the Weald of Kent, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 60; ‘I was borne in the wylde of Kent’, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 268). In EDD. we find that the Weald of Sussex is always spoken of as _The Wild_ by the people who live in the Downs, and the inhabitants of the Downs call the dwellers of ‘The Wild’ _the wild people_. ‘The Wild of Surrey’ is described in Marshall’s Review (1817, v. 355). The same word as the adj. ‘wild’, see Dict. (s.v. Weald).

=wildered,= bewildered. Dryden, Hind and Panther, ii. 682. In prov. use in Scotland (EDD.).

=wilding,= a crab-apple. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 2 (Maudlin); Warner, Albion’s England, iv. 20. Still in prov. use in the Midlands and in the west country (EDD.).

=will,= to desire, signify one’s will to. Webster, Sir T. Wyatt (Arundel), ed. Dyce, p. 188; Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, ii, l. 50.

=willow,= worn as an emblem of unhappy love. Much Ado, ii. 1. 194, 225; ‘Wear the willow garland’, 3 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 100; ‘A green willow must be my garland’, Othello, iv. 3. 50.

=wilsome, wylsome,= wandering, devious; ‘Wylsome wayes’, Morte Arthur, leaf 124. 11; bk. vii, c. 22. In Scotland ‘wilsome’ is used in the sense of bewildered, lonely, dreary, desolate; see EDD. (s.v. Will, adj. 1 (3)). ME. _wylsum_: ‘Mony wylsum way he rode’ (Gawayne, 689); _wilsom_ (Wars Alex. 4076, 5565). Icel. _villr_, bewildered, erring, astray.

=wimble,= quick, lively, active. Spenser, Shep. Kal., March, 91; Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, iii. 2 (Feliche). In prov. use in the north of England and the Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. Wimble, adj.).

=winbrow,= an eyebrow. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 270, back, 12. Low G. _winbrāwe_, an eyebrow (Lübben); cp. OHG. _wintbrāwa_, _wintbrā_, _winbrā_, an eyebrow (Schade).

=windlace,= a winding or circuitous way; ‘By slie driftes and windlaces aloofe’, Mirror for Mag., Glocester, st. 46; ‘Fetching a windlesse’, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 270); _windlasses_, pl., Hamlet, ii. 1. 65; spelt _winlas_, Golding, Metam. vii. 784 (= L. _gyrum_).

=windore,= a window. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 59; Diogenes, § 120; Butler, Hud. ii. 2. 369. Still heard in Glouc. (EDD.).

=window-bars,= lattice-work, cross-work of narrow bands across a woman’s bosom. Timon, iv. 3. 116.

=wind-sucker,= a kestrel; used _fig._ for a covetous person. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, i (end). In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Wind, sb.^{1} 1 (40)). See Nares.

=winlas;= see =windlace.=

=winter-ground,= to cover up in the ground so as to protect plants from the winter; ‘Furr’d moss . . . To winter-ground thy corse’, Cymbeline, iv. 2. 229.

=wirt,= a smart box on the ear. North, Plutarch, M. Brutus, § 6 (in Shaks. Plut., p. 112). See =wherrit.=

=wis;= see =iwis.=

=wish,= to commend one to another. Tam. Shrew, i. 1. 113; Match at Midnight, iv. 1 (Sim).

=wishly,= with eager desire; ‘To putte on his spectacles and pore better and more wishely with his olde eyen on Saynt Johns ghospell’, Sir T. More, Works, p. 1134 (Richardson); Palsgrave, p. 613.

=wisket,= a small basket; ‘Wysket, _sportula_’, Levins, Manipulus. In prov. use in various parts of England; see EDD.

=wistly,= attentively, observingly; ‘She . . . wistly on him gazed’, Lucrece, 1355; Venus and Ad. 343; Passionate Pilgrim, 82; Richard II, v. 4. 7. Perhaps the same word as _whistly_, silently, and so, with mute attention. See =whist.=

=wit:= _The five wits_, the five faculties of the mind, common sense, imagination, fancy, estimation, memory, Much Ado, i. 1. 67; Sonnet cxli, 9. See Nares.

=wit,= to know. Greene, James IV, iv. 2. 3; Pericles, iv. 4. 31; 1 Hen. VI, ii. 5. 16. ME. _witen_ (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 1324). OE. _witan_. See =wist, wot.=

=wite,= to blame. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 16; Shep. Kal., Aug., 136; _wite_, blame, F. Q. vi. 3. 16. In prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and in the north of England (EDD.). ME. _witen_ (_wyten_), to blame, reproach (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 825), OE. _wītan_.

=with, wyth,= a twisted band of willow; ‘A wyth take him!’ (i.e. hang him—said of an Irishman), Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, iii. 2 (1 Servant); ‘An Irish Rebell condemned, put up a Petition to the Deputie, that he might be hanged in a With, and not in an Halter, because it had beene so used with former Rebels’, Bacon, Essay 39. In prov. use; see EDD. (s.v. With, sb.^{1}). See Dict. (s.v. Withy).

=withal= = with, as placed at the end of the sentence. As You Like It, iii. 2. 328; used in the sense of likewise, besides, at the same time, BIBLE, 1 Kings xix. 1; Ps. cxli. 10; Acts xxv. 27; ‘Though he be merry, yet withal he’s honest’, Taming Shrew, iii. 2. 25; Bacon, Essay 58; phr. _to do withal_, ‘They fell sick and died: I could not do withal’ (i.e. I could not help it), Merch. Ven. iii. 4. 72; Northward Ho, iv (Doll); Cure for a Cuckold, iv. 2 (Urse). See Wright’s Bible Word-Book.

=withdrawing-chamber,= (the modern) drawing-room. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 24).

=witness,= a sponsor in Baptism, a godfather or godmother. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Littlewit); Magn. Lady, iv. 3. 16. So in Devon (EDD.).

=wittol,= a tame cuckold knowing himself to be so. Merry Wives, ii. 1. 3; B. Jonson, The Fox, v. 1 (Mosca); Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, iii. 2 (Gomere); ‘_Jannin_, a wittall, one that knows and bears with or winks at his wife’s dishonesty’, Cotgrave. Bp. Hall uses the form _witwal_, which may be the older form, ‘Fond wit-wal, that wouldst load thy witless head With timely horns before thy bridal bed’ (Sat. i. 7. 17). The word orig. was a name for the green woodpecker, ‘_Godáno_, a witwall, a woodwall’, Florio. The ‘witwall’, like the cuckoo, was the subject of ribald jests. In Cheshire and Glouc. ‘witwall’ is a name for the woodpecker; in Suffolk a contented cuckold is called a ‘wittol’; see EDD. See =wetewold.=

=wizzel,= weasand, windpipe. The City Match, iii. 4 (Quartfield). See =weesel.=

=woe,= sad, sorrowful. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 53; Temp. v. 1. 139; 2 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 73. In the north country very common in prov. use, pronounced _wae_: ‘I would be wae for the wife’s sake’, see EDD. (s.v. Woe, 3).

=woman-tired,= henpecked; ‘Thou art woman-tired, unroosted by thy dame Partlet here’, Wint. Tale, ii. 3. 74.

=wondered,= gifted with power to perform miracles; ‘So rare a wonder’d father’, Temp. iv. 1. 123.

=wone, won,= spellings of one; ‘Let no suche a wone prepare unto himself manye horsses’; Latimer, Sermons (ed. Arber, p. 32); ‘Att _won_ houre’, Tyndale, Rev. xviii. 10 (1526). So also _wons_, once; Qu. Elizabeth, tr. of Boethius, bk. i, met. 3. See Index to Wright’s English Dialect Grammar (s.v. One).

=wonne,= to dwell. Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 39; iii. 1. 2; _wonned_, pt. t. Shep. Kal., Sept., 181; _woon_, pr. t. subj. dwell, may dwell; Virgil’s Gnat, 18. ME. _wone_, to dwell (Chaucer, C. T. D. 1573), OE. _wunian_, to dwell.

=wonne,= dwelling, habitation. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 20 ME. _wone_, a dwelling (P. Plowman, C. iv. 141).

=wood,= mad, furious with rage or temper. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 192; 1 Hen. VI, iv. 7. 35. In prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and the north of England down to Linc. (EDD.). ME. _wood_, mad (Chaucer, C. T. A. 184). OE. _wōd_.

=wood-bind,= woodbine. Shirley, Love Tricks, ii. 2 (Cornelio); _wood-bind tree_, id., iv. 2 (Felice); Drayton, Pol. xv. 152. ME. _wodebynde_ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1508). OE. _wudebinde_ (Voc. 137. 5).

=woodcock,= a simpleton. Much Ado, v. 1. 158. Because a woodcock was easily caught in nets set for it at twilight in glades; cp. =cockshut.= ‘Go, like a woodcock, And thrust your neck i’ the noose’, Beaumont and Fl., Loyal Subject, iv. 4 (Theodore).

=wooden dagger.= Such a dagger was worn not only by the ‘Vice’, or buffoon in old plays, but also sometimes by the domestic fool; Fletcher, Noble Gentleman, v. 1 (Longueville). For ‘dagger of _lath_’, see Twelfth Night, iv. 2. 136. _A wooden dagger_ could also be used as a crumb-scoop, to clear the table of fragments after a meal; see Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, ii. 1 (Mercer).

=woodquist,= a wood-pigeon, ring-dove; ‘A Stock-dove or woodquist’, Lyly, Sapho, iv. 3. 3. Also _quist_ (_queest_); ‘_Phavier_, a Ringdove, Queest, Coushot, Woodculver’, Cotgrave. [With _phavier_, cp. O. Prov. _colom favar_, ‘pigeon ramier’ (Levy)]. ‘Quist’ (‘queest’), a wood-pigeon, is in prov. use in various parts of the British Isles (EDD.). See NED. (s.v. Queest).

=woodsere,= the time of year when there is little sap in a tree. Tusser, Husbandry, § 53. 15, § 51. 6. (The time meant has been said to be between Midsummer and Michaelmas; it was thought that wood cut at that season would not grow again.) In E. Anglia the word ‘wood-sere’ is used for the month or season for felling wood, see EDD. (s.v. Wood, sb. 1 (34 b)).

=woodspeck,= a woodpecker. Golding, Metam. xiv. 314 (L. _picum_); fol. 171 (1603); _Specke_ is a Norfolk word for the woodpecker (EDD.). Cp. Du. _specht_, a woodpecker (Hexham). G. _specht_.

=Wood Street,= the Compter prison in Wood Street, London. Middleton, Phœnix, iv. 3 (1 Officer). See Stow’s Survey (ed. Thoms, p. 111).

=woolfist,= a puff-ball. Wily Beguiled, Prologue. For _wolf-fist_; Gk. L. _lycoperdon_, which has the same sense; see Weigand, Germ. Dict. (s.v. Bofist).

=woolward:= in phr. _to go woolward_, i.e. in wool only, without linen, often enjoined as a penance by the Church of Rome; ‘I have no shirt, I go woolward for penance’, L. L. L. v. 2. 717; ‘He went woolward and barefooted to many churches’, Stow’s Annals, H. 7 (Nares); ‘Wolworde, without any lynnen nexte ones body, _sans chemyse_’, Palsgrave. ME. _wolleward_ (_wolward_), see Pricke of Conscience, 3514; P. Plowman’s Crede, 788; P. Plowman, B. xviii. 1 (see note, p. 395). [It is probable that the ME. form _wolleward_ is due to popular etymology, and that the word properly represents an OE. *_wullwered_, clothed in wool, cp. _swegelwered_, clothed with heavenly brightness. The corruption would be natural, when the sense of _wered_ was lost, as -_ward_ was a common suffix. The phr. ‘to go woolward’ cannot be genuine: it could only mean ‘to go towards wool’, which is not the sense (Dr. Henry Bradley). See note on the word ‘woolward’ in Mayor and Lumby’s edition of Beda’s Eccles. Hist., p. 347.]

=woose,= ‘ooze’, soft mud, Phaer, Aeneid iii, 606; _wose_, id., ii. 135. Hence _woosy_, full of soft mud, Drayton, Pol. xxv. 205. ME. _wose_, mud (Wars Alex. 413). OE. _wōs_; see Napier’s Glosses, 1818.

=woose,= to ooze, Golding, tr. Ovid, fol. 127. See Dict.

=word,= a motto; ‘And round about the wreath this word was writ, _Burnt I doe burne_’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 4. 38; ‘His word which on his ragged shield was writ, _Salvagesse sans finesse_’, id., iv. 4. 39.

=world;= ‘It is a world’, i.e. it’s wonderful (to see), Much Ado, iii. 5. 38; Tam. Shrew, ii. 1. 313. _To go to the world_, to get married, Much Ado, ii. 1. 331; _a woman of the world_, a married woman, As You Like It, v. 3. 5.

=worm,= to remove what was called the _worm_ from under a dog’s tongue; a supposed preventive of his going mad; ‘I should have wormed you, sir, for [to prevent your] running mad’, Ford, ’Tis pity, i. 2 (Vasque).

=wot,= in use as the present tense of the vb. _wit_, to know; ‘I wot not what rule ye keep’, Latimer, Serm. (ed. Arber, 255); ‘I wote not’, BIBLE, Gen. xxi. 26 (in RV. ‘I know not’); ‘God wot’, Richard III, iii. 2. 89. ME. preterite-present _I wot_, _thou wost_, _he wot_, pl. _witen_ (Chaucer); OE. _ic wāt_, _þū wāst_, _he wāt_, pl. _witon_. Tudor and later English have much false grammar with respect to this verb: Shaks. has _wotting_ (for _witting_}, _wots_ (for _wot_), _wot’st_ (for _wost_); and _wotteth_ (for _wot_) is found in the Bible, Gen. xxxix. 8 (in RV. ‘knoweth’).

=wrabbed,= perverse, hard to manage; ‘So crabbed, so wrabbed, so stiff, so untoward’, Jacob and Esau, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 211. See Nares.

=wrack,= destruction, loss; ‘The wrack of maidenhood’, All’s Well, iii. 5. 24; ‘The commonwealth hath daily run to wrack’, 2 Hen. VI, i. 3. 127; destruction by sea, shipwreck, Venus and Ad. 454; to ruin, destroy, Hamlet, ii. 1. 113; _wracked_ (_wrackt_), shipwrecked, Meas. for M. iii. 1. 225. See Dict. (s.v. Wreck).

=wrall,= to quarrel, to grumble. Tusser, Husbandry, § 101. 4; ‘This my tongue-wralling’, Webster, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 120.

=wrawl,= to make an inarticulate noise, to caterwaul; ‘Cats that wrawling still did cry’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 27. Cp. ME. _wrawhre_, ‘traulus’ (Prompt. EETS. 40, see note, no. 181). See NED. (s.v. Caterwaul).

=wray,= to disclose. Gascoigne, Works, i. 41. ME. _wreye_, to bewray. reveal (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3503); also, _bewreye_, ‘The conseil is bewreid’ (Gower, C. A. v. 6785). OE. _wrēgan_, to denounce, accuse. See Dict. (s.v. Bewray).

=wread,= to wreathe, to twist, twine, curl; ‘The snake about him wrigling winding wreades’, Twyne, tr. of Aeneid, xi. 753. See EDD. (s.v. Wreath, sb.^{1} 7).

=wreak,= vengeance. Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, ii. 3 (M. Tullius); Knight of Malta, iv. 1 (Zanthia); ‘wrathful wreakes’, angry acts of vengeance, Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 43; 12. 16; to avenge, punish, F. Q. ii. 3. 13. Hence _wreakful_, full of vengeance, Titus And. v. 2. 32. ME. _wreke_, ‘vindicta, ulcio’ (Prompt.); _wreken_, to avenge (Chaucer, C. T. C. 857). OE. _wrecan_, to punish.

=wreak,= to ‘reck’, to care. As You Like It, ii. 4. 81 (ed. 1623); Marlowe, tr. Ovid’s Elegies, ii. 11. 22; _wreaked_, recked, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec., 29. Hence _wreakless_, reckless, careless, 3 Hen. VI, v. 6. 7. Cp. EDD. (s.v. Wreak, vb.). OE. _rēcan_ (pret. _rōhte_), to rack, care for (Sweet); see Wright, OE. Gram., § 534.

=wrest,= a tuning-key for a harp. Tr. and Cr. iii. 3. 23.

=wretchock,= the smallest pig of a litter; smallest chicken in a hatch; a diminutive creature. B. Jonson, Gipsies’ Metam. (Jackman); Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 465. A Worc. word for the smallest pig of a litter (EDD.).

=wries;= see =wry.=

=wrig,= to turn aside. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 573 (L. _contorsit_). In prov. use in the Midlands, meaning to writhe (EDD.).

=writhe,= to turn aside, misdirect. Ferrex and Porrex, i. 2 (Gorboduc).

=writhled,= wrinkled, shrivelled, 1 Hen. VI, ii. 3. 23; Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 42; l. 9.

=wroken,= _pp._, revenged. Spenser, Shep. Kal., March, 108; Muiopotmos, 99; _wroke_, Ferrex and Porrex, iv. 1. ME. _wroken_, revenged (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 88); _wroke_ (P. Plowman, B. ii. 194); but Chaucer and P. Plowman have also the regular _wreken_, pp. of _wreke_, to avenge; OE. _wrecen_, pp. of _wrecan_. See Wright, OE. Grammar, § 505.

=wrote,= to grub up, as a hog; ‘His earth-wroting snout’, Return from Parnassus, iii. 4 (Furor). ME. _wrotyn_, as swyne ‘verro’ (Prompt. EETS. 547), OE. _wrōtan_.

=wroth,= sorrow, vexation; ‘I’ll keep my oath, patiently to bear my wroth’, Merch. Ven. ii. 9. 78.

=wry,= to turn aside, go aside. Cymbeline, v. 1. 5; ‘_Wries_, and wriggles’, Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iii. 1 (Rowland). ME. _wrien_, to turn aside (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 906), OE. _wrigian_.

=wun,= dwelling, abode. Sackville, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 23. See =wonne= (2).

=wusse;= see =iwis.=

=wych,= wich-elm, witch-elm. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 113.

=wyhee;= see =whigh-hie.=

=wyte,= to blame; see =wite.=