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Brewer's: Traveller's Licence

The long bow; exaggeration. “If the captain has not taken `traveller's licence,' we have in Norway a most successful development of peasant proprietorship.” —W. Bowerman. Source:…

Brewer's: Sepoy

The Indian soldier is so called, says Bishop Heber, from sip, a bow, their principal weapon in olden times. (Sipahi, a soldier.) Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer…

Brewer's: Shaft

I will make either a shaft or bolt of it. I will apply it to one use or another. The bolt was the crossbow arrow, the shaft was the arrow of the long-bow. Source: Dictionary of Phrase…

Brewer's: Bend

meaning power, as Beyond my bend, i.e. my means or power. The allusion is to a bow or spring; if strained beyond its bending power, it breaks. (See Bent.) Source: Dictionary of Phrase…

Brewer's: Arches

(The Court of). The most ancient consistory court of England, the dean of which anciently held his court under the arches of Bow church. Of course we refer to the old church, the steeple…

Brewer's: Gallicum Merleburgæ

French of “Stratford atte Bowe.” “There is a spring which (so they say), if anyone tastes, he murders his French [Gallice barbarizat]; so that when anyone speaks that language ill, we say…

Brewer's: Intoxication

Pliny (xvi. 20) tells us this word is derived from taxa, a species of bay-tree used for poisoning arrows. Hence the Greek toxon (a bow and arrows), and toxicon (rank poison). Source:…

Brewer's: Kama

The Hindu god of love. His wife is Rati (voluptuousness), and he is represented as riding on sparrow, holding in his hand a bow of flowers and five arrows (i.e. the five senses). Source…

Brewer's: Leg

(A), that is, a blackleg (q.v.). To make a leg, is to make a bow. The pursuivant smiled at their simplicitye, And making many leggs, tooke their reward. The King and Miller of Mansfield…

Brewer's: Empson

The favourite flageolet-player of Charles II., introduced into Scott's Peveril of the Peak. “Julian could only bow obedience, and follow Empson, who was the same person that played so…