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Brewer's: Sty
or Stye. Christ styed up to heaven. Halliwell gives sty = a ladder, and the verb would be to go to heaven, as it were, by Jacob's ladder. The Anglo-Saxon verb stigan means to ascend. The…Brewer's: Tag Rag, and Bobtail
The vulgus ignobilë. A “tag” is a doe in the second year of her age; a “rag,” a herd of deer at rutting time; “bobtail,” a fawn just weaned. According to Halliwell, a sheep of the first…Brewer's: Tomboy
A romping girl, formerly used for a harlot. (Saxon, tumbere, a dancer or romper; Danish, tumle, “to tumble about;” French, tomber; Spanish, tumbar; our tumble.) The word may either be…Brewer's: Toyshop of Europe
(The). So Burke called Birmingham. Here “toy” does not refer to playthings for children, but small articles made of steel. “Light toys” in Birmingham mean mounts, small steel rings, sword…Brewer's: Troy-town
has no connection with the Homeric “Troy,” but means a maze, labyrinth, or bower. (Welsh troi, to turn; troedle, a trodden place [? street], whence the archaic trode, a path or track;…Brewer's: Jack Robinson
Before you can say Jack Robinson. Immediately. Grose says that the saying had its birth from a very volatile gentleman of that name, who used to pay flying visits to his neighbours, and…Brewer's: Bully-rook
A blustering cheat. Like bully, it is sometimes used without any offensive meaning. Thus the Host, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, addresses Sir John Falstaff, Ford, and Page, etc., as…Brewer's: Chatterhouse
To go through the chatterhouse. Between the legs of one or more boys, set apart like an inverted A, who strike, with their hands or caps, the victim as he creeps through. Halliwell (…Brewer's: Cussedness
Ungainliness; perversity, an evil temper; malice prepense. Halliwell gives cuss = surly. “The turkey-cock is just as likely as not to trample on the young turkeys and smash them, or to…Brewer's: Apron
This is a strange blunder. A napperon , converted into An apperon. “Napperon” is French for a napkin, from nappe (cloth in general). Halliwell, in his Archaic Dictionary, p. 571, gives…Trending
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