Glutted with them, now plays with meanest things. Sidney.
Was not my lord the verier wag o’ th’ two? Shakesp.
We wink at wags, when they offend,
And spare the boy, in hopes the man may mend. Dryden.
A counsellor never pleaded without a piece of packthread in his hand, which he used to twist about a finger all the while he was speaking: the wags used to call it the thread of his discourse. Addison.
To Wag. v.a. [waʒian, Saxon; waggen, Dutch.] To move lightly; to shake slightly.
I can counterfeit the deep tragedian:
Tremble and start at wagging of a straw. Shakespeare.
You may as well forbid the mountain pines
To wag their high tops, and to make a noise,
When they are fretted with the gusts of heav’n. Shakesp.
All that pass, hiss and wag their head at thee. La. ii. 15.
Thou canst not wag thy finger, or begin
The least light motion, but it tends to sin. Dryden.
So have I seen in black and white,
A prating thing, a magpye hight,
Majestically stalk;
A stately, worthless animal,
That plies the tongue, and wags the tail,
All flutter, pride, and talk. Swift.
To Wag. v.n.
1. To be in quick or ludicrous motion.
Be merry, my wife has all;
For women are shrews, both short and tall;
’Tis merry in hall, where beards wag all. Shakesp.
I will fight with him upon this theme,
Until my eyelids will no longer Wag. Shakesp. Hamlet.
2. To go; to be moved.
I will provoke him to’t, or let him wag. Shakespeare.
Her charms she mutter’d o’er;
And yet the resty sieve wagg’d ne’er the more:
I wept for woe. Dryden’s Theocritus.
Wage. n.s. the plural wages is now only used. [wegen, or wagen, German; gages, Fr.]
1. Pay given for service.
All friends shall taste
The wages of their virtue, and all foes
The cup of their deservings. Shakesp. K. Lear.
The last petition is for my men; they are the poorest,
But poverty could never draw them from me;
That they may have their wages duly paid them,
And something over to remember me. Shakespeare.
By Tom Thumb, a fairy page;
He sent it, and doth him engage,
By promise of a mighty wage,
It secretly to carry. Drayton’s Nymphid.
The thing itself is not only our duty, but our glory: and he who hath done this work, has, in the very work, partly received his wages. South.
2. Gage; pledge. Ainsw.
To Wage. v.a. [The origination of this word, which is now only used in the phrase to wage war, is not easily discovered: waegen, in German, is to attempt any thing dangerous.]
1. To attempt; to venture.
We must not think the Turk is so unskilful,
Neglecting an attempt of ease and gain,
To wake and wage a danger profitless. Shakespeare.
2. To make; to carry on. Applied to war.
Return to her, and fifty men dismiss’d!
No; rather I abjure all roofs, and chuse
To wage against the enmity o’ th’ air,
To be a comrade with the wolf. Shakesp. K. Lear.
Your reputation wages war with the enemies of your royal family, even within their trenches. Dryden.
He ponder’d, which of all his sons was fit
To reign, and wage immortal war with wit. Dryden.
3. [From wage, wages.] To set to hire.
Thou must wage
Thy works for wealth, and life for gold engage. F. Queen.
4. To take to hire; to hire for pay; to hold in pay; to employ for wages.
I seem’d his follower, not partner; and
He wag’d me with his countenance, as if
I had been mercenary. Shakespeare’s Coriolanus.
The officers of the admiralty having places of so good benefit, it is their parts, being well waged and rewarded, exactly to look into the sound building of ships. Raleigh.
The king had erected his courts of ordinary resort, and was at the charge not only to wage justice and their ministers, but also to appoint the safe custody of records. Bacon.
This great lord came not over with any great number of waged soldiers. Davies’s Ireland.
5. [In law.]
When an action of debt is brought against one, as for money or chattles, left or lent the defendant, the defendant may wage his law; that is, swear, and certain persons with him, that he owes nothing to the plaintiff in manner as he hath declared. The offer to make the oath is called wager of law: and when it is accomplished, it is called the making or doing of law. Blount.
Wáger. n.s. [from wage, to venture.]
1. A bett; any thing pledged upon a chance or performance.
Love and mischief made a wager, which should have most power in me. Sidney.
The sea strove with the winds which should be louder; and the shrouds of the ship, with a ghastful noise to them that were in it, witnessed that their ruin was the wager of the other’s contention. Sidney, b. ii.
Full fast she fled, ne ever look’d behind;
As if her life upon the wager lay. Fairy Queen.
Besides these plates for horse-races, the wagers may be as the persons please. Temple.
Factious, and fav’ring this or t’ other side,
Their wagers back their wishes. Dryden.
If any atheist can stake his soul for a wager, against such an inexhaustible disproportion; let him never hereafter accuse others of credulity. Bentley’s Sermons.
2. [In law.] An offer to make oath. See to wage in law.
Multiplication of actions upon the case were rare formerly, and there by wager of law ousted, which discouraged many suits. Hale.
To Wáger. v.a. [from the noun.] To lay; to pledge as a bett; to pledge upon some casualty or performance.
’Twas merry, when you wager’d on your angling. Shakesp.
He that will lay much to stake upon every flying story, may as well wager his estate which way the wind will sit next morning. Government of the Tongue.
I feed my father’s flock;
What can I wager from the common stock? Dryden.
Wáges. n.s. See Wage.
X
X is a letter, which, though found in Saxon words, begins no word in the English language.
Y
At the beginning of words, is a consonant; at the end, and when it follows a consonant, is a vowel, and has the sound of i. It is used at the end of words, and whenever two ii’s would come together; and in words derived from the Greek, to express the v. Y was much used by the Saxons, whence y is found for i in the old English writers. Yacht. n.s. A small ship for carrying passengers. Yard. n.s. [ʒeard, Saxon.]
1. Inclosed ground adjoining to an house.
One of the lions leaped down into a neighbour’s yard, where, nothing regarding the crowing of the cocks, he eat them up. Brown’s Vulgar Errours.
Xanthus one day sent Æsop into the yard, and bade him look well about him. L’Estrange.
His wanton kids with budding horns prepar’d,
Fight harmless battles in his homely yard. Dryden.
2. [ʒerd, Saxon.] A measure of three feet.
A peer, a counsellor, and a judge, are not to be measured by the common yard, but by the pole of special grace. Bacon.
The arms, spread cross in a straight line, and measured from one end of the long finger on one hand, to that of the other; made a measure equal to the stature, and in named a fathom. Half of that, viz. from the end of the long finger of either arm, so spread, to the middle of the breast is, with us, called a yard. Holder on Time.
An aqueduct of a Gothick structure, that conveys water from mount St. Francis to Spoletto,
from the foundation of the lowest arch to the top, is two hundred and thirty yards. Add.
3. The supports of the sails.
A breeze from shore began to blow;
The sailors ship their oars, and cease to row;
Then hoist their yards a-trip, and all their sails
Let fall to court the wind. Dryden.
Yárdwand. n.s. [yard and wand.] A measure of a yard.
All the revolutions in nature can give it nothing more than different degrees of dimensions. What affinity has thinking with such attributes? no more than there is between a syllogism and a yardwand. Collier.
Yare. adj. [ʒearwe, Saxon.] Ready; dextrous; eager.
Yare, yare, good Iros, quick; — methinks I hear Antony call. Shakesp. Ant. and Cleopatra.
I do desire to learn, Sir; and I hope, if you have occasion to use me for your turn, you shall find me yare. Shakespeare.
Yárely. adv. [from yare.] Dextrously; skilfully.
The silken tackles,
Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands
That yarely frame the office. Shakesp. Ant. and Cleop.
Yarn. n.s. [ʒearn, Saxon.] Spun wool; woollen thread.
You would be another Penelope; yet they say, all the yarn she spun in Ulysses’s absence, did but fill Ithaca full of moths. Shakesp. Coriolanus.
The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together; our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipt them not; and our crimes would despair, if they were not cherish’d by our virtues. Shakespeare.
Yarn is a commodity very proper to this country, which of all others ought to be most encouraged. Temple.
It may be useful for the reeling of yarn. Wilkins.
The fates but only spin the coarser clue,
The finest of the wool is left for you.
Spare me but one small portion of the twine,
And let the sisters cut below your line:
The rest among the rubbish may they sweep,
Or add it to the yarn of some old miser’s heap. Dryden.
To Yarr. v.n. [from the sound, hirrio, Lat.] To growl, or snarl like a dog. Ainsworth. Yárrow. n.s. A plant which grows wild on the dry banks, and is used in medicine. Yawl. n.s. A little vessel belonging to a ship, for convenience of passing to and from it.
Sources: No Sources Quoted (527)
Yawn. n.s. [from the verb.]
1. Oscitation.
Thee, Paridel, she mark’d thee, there
Stretch’d on the rack of a too easy chair;
And heard thy everlasting yawn confess
The pains and penalties of idleness. Pope’s Dunciad.
2. Gape; hiatus.
Hence to the borders of the marsh they go,
That mingles with the baleful streams below;
And sometimes with a mighty yawn, ’tis said,
Opens a dismal passage to the dead,
Who, pale with fear, the rending earth survey,
And startle at the sudden flash of day. Addison.
To Yawn. v.n. [ʒeonan, Saxon.]
1. To gape; to oscitate; to have the mouth opened involuntarily by fumes, as in sleepiness.
The sad-ey’d justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o’er to executors pale
The lazy, yawning drone. Shakesp. Hen. V.
In yawning, the inner parchment of the ear is extended. When a man yawneth, he cannot hear so well. Bacon.
At length shook off himself, and ask’d the dame;
And asking yawn’d, for what intent she came? Dryden.
To whom the yawning pilot fast asleep,
Me didst thou bid, to trust the treacherous deep? Dryden.
2. To open wide.
The gashes,
That bloodily did yawn upon his face. Shakespeare.
’Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn. Shakesp. Hamlet.
Now will I dam up this thy yawning mouth,
For swallowing up the treasure of the realm. Shakesp.
He shall cast up the wealth by him devour’d,
Like vomit, from his yawning entrails pour’d. Sandys.
Hell at last
Yawning receiv’d them whole, and on them clos’d. Milton.
The sword pierc’d his tender sides;
Down fell the beauteous youth; the yawning wound
Gush’d out a purple stream. Dryden.
High she rear’d her arm, and with her sceptre struck
The yawning cliff: from its disparted height
Adown the mount the gushing torrent ran. Prior.
3. To express desire by yawning.
The chiefest thing at which lay-reformers yawn, is, that the clergy may, through conformity in condition, be poor as the apostles were. In which one circumstance, if they imagine so great perfection, they must think that church which hath such store of mendicant friars, a church in that respect most happy. Hooker.
Yáwning. adj. [from yawn.] Sleepy; slumbering.
Ere to black Hecat’s summons
The shard-born beetle, with his drowsy hums,
Hath rung night’s yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note. Shakesp. Macbeth.
Ýclad. part. for clad. Cloathed.
Her sight did ravish, but her grace in speech,
Her words yclad with wisdom’s majesty,
Make me from wond’ring fall to weeping joys. Shakesp.
Ýcleped. [The participle passive of clepe, to call; clepan, Saxon; with the increasing particle y, which was used in the old English in the preterites and participles, from the Saxon ʒe.] Called; termed; named.
But come, thou goddess, fair and free,
In heav’n yclep’d Euphrosine,
And by men, heart-easing mirth. Milton.
Ydrád. The old pret. of to dread. Spenser.
Ye. The nominative plural of thou.
Ye are they which justify yourselves. Luke xvi. 15.
Yea. adv. [ea, or ʒea, Saxon; ja, Danish, German, and Dutch.] Yes. A particle of affirmation.
I am weary; yea, my memory is tir’d. Shakespeare.
A rascally, yea, forsooth, knave, to bear a gentleman in hand, and then stand upon security. Shakespeare.
From these Philippinæ are brought costly spices, yea, and gold too? Abbot’s Description of the World.
Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree in the garden. Gen. iii. 1.
Let your conversation be yea, yea; nay, nay. Matth. v.
All the promises of God are yea, and amen; that is, are verified, which is the importance of yea, and confirmed, which is meant by amen, into an immutability. Hammond.
They durst abide
Jehovah thund’ring out of Sion, thron’d
Between the cherubim; yea, often plac’d
Within his sanctuary itself their shrines. Milton.
Why do disputes in wrangling spend the day?
Whilst one says only yea, and t’other nay. Denham.
Notwithstanding this great proximity of man to himself; yea, and notwithstanding the observations made in all ages, we still remain ignorant of many things concerning ourselves. Hale.
To Yead, or Yede. v.n. preterite yode. [This word seems to have been corruptly formed from ʒeod, the Saxon preterite of ʒan.] To go; to march. Obsolete.
They wander at will, and stay at pleasure,
And to their fold yeade at their own leisure. Spenser.
Then bad the knight this lady yede aloof,
And to an hill herself withdraw aside,
From whence she might behold that battle’s proof,
And eke be safe from danger far descry’d. Fairy Queen.
Yet for she yode thereat half aghast,
And Kiddy the door sparred after her fast. Spenser.
That same mighty man of God,
That bloud red billows like a walled front,
On either side disparted with his rod,
‘Till that his army dry-foo
t through them yod. Spenser.
To Yean. v.n. [eanian, Saxon.] To bring young. Used of sheep.
The skilful shepherd peel’d me certain wands;
He struck them up before the fulsome ewes,
Who, then conceiving, did in yeaning time
Fole party-colour’d lambs. Shakespeare.
So many days my ewes have been with young:
So many weeks, ere the poor fools will yean. Shakespeare.
This I scarcely drag along,
Who yeaning on the rocks has left her young. Dryden.
Ewes yean the polled lamb with the least danger. Mortimer.
Yeánling. n.s. [from yean.] The young of sheep.
All the yeanlings which were streak’d and pied,
Should fall as Jacob’s hire. Shakespeare.
Z
Is found in the Saxon alphabets, set down by Grammarians, but is read in no word originally Teutonick: its sound is uniformly that of an hard S.
Záffar.
Záffir.
n.s.
Powder the calx of cobalt, very fine, and mix it with three times its weight of powdered flints, this being wetted with common water, the whole concretes into a solid mass called zaffre, which from its hardness has been mistaken for a native mineral. Hill on Fossils.
Cobalt being sublimed, the flowers are of a blue colour; these, German mineralists call zaffir. Woodward.
The artificers in glass tinge their glass blue with that dark mineral zaphara. Boyle on Colours.
Zány. n.s. [Probably of zanei.] The contraction of Giovanni or sanna, a scoff, according to Skinner.] One employed to raise laughter by his gestures, actions and speeches; a merry Andrew; a buffoon.
Some carrytale, some pleaseman, some slight zany,
Some mumblenews, some trencher knight, some Dick,
Told our intents before. Shakespeare.
Then write that I may follow, and so be
Thy echo, thy debtor, thy foil, thy zany,
I shall be thought, if mine like thine I shape,
All the world’s lion, though I be thy ape. Donne.
Oh, great restorer of the good old stage,
Preacher at once, and zany of thy age. Pope’s Dunciad.
Zárnich. n.s. Zarnich is a solid substance in which orpiment is frequently found; and it approaches to the nature of orpiment, but without its lustre and foliated texture. The common kinds of zarnich are green and yellow; and to this we owe the distinction of orpiment into these colours, though there is no such substance as green orpiment. Zarnich contains a large quantity of arsenick in it. Hill’s Materia Medica.
Complete Works of Samuel Johnson Page 405