A DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE; IN WHICH THE WORDS ARE DEDUCED FROM THEIR ORIGINALS; AND ILLUSTRATED IN THEIR DIFFERENT SIGNIFICATIONS, BY EXAMPLES AND WITH THE ADDITION OF SEVERAL THOUSAND WORDS, AS ALSO WITH ADDITIONS TO THE HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGE, AND TO THE grammar, CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY, AND KEEPER OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF canterbury'S RECORDS. IN FIVE VOLUMES. VOL. III. London: ADTBIBLIOTHER BERN PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN; F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON; J. NICHOLS AND SON; W. LOWNDES; SCATCHERD AND LETTERMAN; G. WILKIE; T. EGERTON; A DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Where this mark follows the word, it signifies that such word is not to be found in the Dictionary of Dr. Johnson. Where this mark follows the word, it signifies that addition or alteration is made in respect either to the etymology, or definition, or example, of the word given by Dr. Johnson. Is in English considered both as a vowel and consonant; though, since the vowel and consonant differ in their form as well as sound, they may be more properly accounted two letters. I vowel has a long sound, as fine, thine, which is usually marked by an e final; and a short sound, as fin, thin. Prefixed to e it makes a dipthong of the same sound with the soft i, or double e, ee: thus field, yield, are spoken as feeld, yeeld; except friend, which is spoken frend. Subjoined to a or e it makes them long, as fail, neigh; and to o makes a mingled sound, which approaches more nearly to the true notion of a dipthong, or sound composed of the sounds of two vowels, than any other combination of vowels in the English language, as oil, coin. The sound of i before another 2, and at the end of a word, is always expressed by y. J consonant has invariably the same sound with There is none greater in this house than I Gen. xxxix. 9. VOL. III. I. Be of good cheer, it is I; be not afraid. St. Matt. xiv. I shall like beasts or common people die, Hence, and make room for me! When chance of business parts us two, What do our souls, I wonder, do? Thus, having pass'd the night in fruitless pain, I to my longing friends return again. 27. Cowley. Cowley. Cowley. Dryden, En. Of night impatient we demand the day, The day arrives, and for the night we pray. 2. Me is in the following passage written for I. There is but one man whom she can have, and that is me. Richardson, Clarissa. 3. I is more than once in Shakspeare written for ay, or yes. Dr. Johnson. - It was usual in the time of Shakspeare, and later, to write the affirmative article ay in the form of I, and was not merely poetical custom. yblessed; and is the Saxon prepositive particle ze. It is merely a redundancy. TO JA'BBER. v. n. [gabbaren, Dutch. See To GAB, and To GABBLE. Jabber is old in our language; though Dr. Johnson maintains it only by the modern authority of Swift.] To talk idly; to prate without thinking; to chatter. Censynge, Latyne jabberinge, and wawlynge, accordynge to the office of saynt Antonynes personage. Swift. Bale, Yet a Course, &c. (1543,) fol. 43. b. We scorn, for want of talk, to jabber Of parties. JA'BBERER. n. s. [from jabber.] One who talks inarticulately or unintelligibly. Out cant the Babylonian labourers At all their dialects of jabberers. JA'BBERMENT.* prate. Hudibras. n. S. [from jabber.] Idle talk; We are come to his farewell, which is to be a concluding taste of his jabberment in the law. Millon, Colasterian. JA'BBERNOWL.* See JOBBERNOWL. JA'CENT. adj. [jacens, Lat.] Lying at length. So laid, they are more apt in swagging down to pierce than in the jacent posture. Wotton, Architect. JACINTH. n. s. [for hyacinth, as Jerusalem for Hierusalem.] 1. The same with hyacinth. 2. A gem of a deep reddish yellow approaching to a flame colour, or the deepest amber. Woodward. JACK. n. s. [probably by mistake from Jaques, which in French is James. Dr. Johnson. - Jak, Jaky, old French. Kelham. I know not how it has happened, that, in the principal modern languages, John, or its equivalent, is a name of contempt, or at least of slight. So the Italians use Gianni, from whence zany; the Spaniards Juan, as bobo Juan, a foolish John; the French Jean, with various additions; and in English, when we call a man a John, we do not mean it as a title of honour. Chaucer uses Jacke fool, as the Spaniards do bobo Juan; and I suppose Jack ass has the same etymology. Tyrwhitt.] 1. The diminutive of John. Used as a general term of contempt for saucy or paultry fellows. I know some pepper-nosed dame Will term me fool and saucy Jack, That dare their credit so defame, And lay such slanders on their back. H. Gifford, Posie of Gilliflowers, (1580.) Since every Jack became a gentleman, There's many a gentle person made a Jack. Shakespeare, K. Rich. III. You will perceive that a Jack guardant cannot office me from my son Coriolanus. Shakspeare, Coriol. I have in my mind A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks Shakspeare, Cymb. A company of scoffers and proud Jacks are commonly conversant and attendant in such places. Burton, Anat. of Mel. p. 291. I met some Jack lords going into my grove, but I think I have nettled them! Bp. Ward, Pope's Life of Ward, p. 47. Such, especially if they are broken gamesters, I still say are no better than Jack gentlemen. Bp. Parker, Rehears. Transpr. p. 480. 2. The name of instruments which supply the place of a boy, as an instrument to pull off boots. Foot-boys, who had frequently the common name of jack given them, were kept to turn the spit, or to pull off their masters' boots; but when instruments were invented for both those services, they were both called jacks. Watts, Logick. 3. An engine which turns the spit. The excellencies of a good jack are, that the jack frame be forged and filed square; that the wheels be perpendicularly and strongly fixed on the squares of the spindles; that the teeth be evenly cut, and well smoothed; and that the teeth of the worm-wheel fall evenly into the groove of the worm. Moxon, Mech. Ex. The ordinary jacks, used for roasting of meat, commonly consist but of three wheels. Wilkin's Math. Magick. A cookmaid, by the fall of a jack weight upon her head, was beaten down. Wiseman, Surgery. Some strain in rhyme; the muses on their racks Scream, like the winding of ten thousand jacks. Pope. 4. A young pike. [perhaps from the Lat. jaculum. Skinner.] No fish will thrive in a pond where roach or gudgeons are, except jacks. Mortimer, Husbandry. 5. A coat of mail. [old French jaque, or jake; Germ. jacke; Dutch, jack; Ital. giacco.] A coat of mail; a kind of military coat put over the coat of mail. The residue were on foot, well furnished with jack and skull, pike, dagger, bucklers made of board, and slicing swords, broad, thin, and of an excellent temper. Hayward. 6. A cup of waxed leather. See BLACK-JACK. Small jacks we have in many ale-houses of the city and suburbs, tipt with silver. Heywood, Drunkard opened, &c. (1635,) p. 45. Dead wine, that stinks of the borrachio, sup From a foul jack, or greasy maple-cup. Dryden, Pers. 7. A small bowl thrown out for a mark to the bowlers. 'Tis as if one should say, that a bowl equally poised, and thrown upon a plain bowling green, will run necessarily in a direct motion; but if it be made with a byass, that may decline it a little from a straight line, it may acquire a liberty of will, and so run spontaneously to the jack. Bentley. 8. A part of the musical instruments called a virginal, a harpsichord, a spinet. In a virginal, as soon as ever the jack falleth, and toucheth the string, the sound ceaseth. Bacon. Those jacks that nimble leap To kiss the tender inward of thy hand. Shakspeare, Sonn. 9. The male of animals. A jack ass, for a stallion, was bought for three thousand two hundred and twenty-nine pounds three shillings and four pence. 10. A support to saw wood on. 11. The colours or ensign of a ship. Arbuthnot on Coins. Ainsworth. Ainsworth. Nothing was to be seen aloft but ensigns, jacks, streamers, and the heads of sailors. Drummond, Trav. p. 71. 12. In Yorkshire, half a pint. Grose. A quarter of a pint. Pegge. 13. A cunning fellow who can turn to any thing, in the following phrase. Jack of all trades, show and sound; Cleaveland. An inverse burse, an exchange under ground. 14. Used by Shakspeare for Jack with the lantern. Monster, your fairy, which, you say, is a harmless fairy, has done little better than played the Jack with us. Shakspeare, Tempest. JACK Boots. n. s. [from jack, a coat of mail.] Boots which serve as armour to the legs. A man on horseback, in his breeches and jack boots, dressed up in a commode and a night-rail. Spectator. JACK by the Hedge. n. s. Erysimum. It treats of subjects of a vague nature, and is of a mere Jack-lantern nature, neither here nor there! The Student, ii. 352. He has played Jack with a lanthern, he has led us about like an ignis fatuus, by which travellers are decoyed into the mire. Johnson, Note on Shakspeare's Tempest. JACKALENT. n. s. [Jack in Lent, a poor starved fellow. Dr. Johnson. This is not so. A Jacko-Lent was a puppet formerly thrown at in Lent, like shrove-cocks. Neither is Dr. Johnson's definition of a "simple, sheepish fellow" applicable to the solitary example which he cites from Shakspeare. It is there applied to Falstaff's page, little Robin, an intelligent lad, in a joking manner.] A sort of puppet. You little jackalent, have you been true to us? - Ay, I'll be sworn. Shakspeare, Mer. W. of Windsor. On an Ash-Wednesday, Where thou didst stand six weeks the Jack o' Lent, For boys to hurl three throws a penny at thee. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub. Push-pin is too high for him; he is fit for no other employment than to catch shadows and jackalents; for though they are meer nothings, yet to children they appear as it were something. Bp. Parker, Rehear. Transpr. p. 204. JACKA L. n. s. [chacal, Fr.] A small animal supposed to start prey for the lion. The Belgians tack upon our rear, And raking chase-guns through our sterns they send: Close by their fireships, like jackals appear, Who on their lions for the spy prey attend. Dryden. The mighty lyon, before whom stood the little jackal, the faithful of the king of beasts. Arbuthnot and Pope. JACKANAPES. n. s. [jack and ape. Dr. Johnson.I find it no where used, according to Dr. Johnson's first definition, for a monkey or ape. The second sense, applied to a coxcomb or impertinent person, is very old in our language. In an ancient ballad, about 1399, Jack Nape or Napes is satirically used in six of the stanzas, and is supposed by Mr. Ritson to be a nickname for John Holland, duke of Exeter, or Thomas Holland, duke of Surrey. See Ritson's Anc. Songs, 1790, p. 59. Mr. Ritson gives us no further information. It seems to me probable, that Jack Napes, or Jack-a-Napes, was first applied to some mimick; whence the application to an affected fellow. Skelton says, "He grins and he gapes, "As it were Jack Napes." Poems, p. 160. And Bale, "He played Jacke-a-napes, swearynge by his tenne bones." Yet a Course at the Romish Foxe, 1543, fol. 92. And nearly a century afterwards, "Like a come-aloft jacanapes." Sheldon's Miracles of Antichrist, 1616, p. 24. And so Marston, "Down, Jack-an-apes from thy feign'd royalty." Scourge of Villany, B. 3. Sat. 9. (1599.) This naturally refers us to the tricks of the ape; and the corruption of Jack Napes is easily accounted for by the various writing or pronunciation of that word. Ape is a word of great antiquity.] 1. Monkey; an ape. 2. A coxcomb; an impertinent. Which is he? Shakspeare. - That jackanapes with scarfs. People wondered how such a young upstart jackanapes should grow so pert and saucy, and take so much upon him. Arbuthnot. JACKASS. See the etymology of JACK, and Dr. Johnson's ninth definition of that word. JACKDA'W. n. s. [from jack and daw, Dr. Johnson says; calling it "a cock daw."It is the Teut. gacke, the "menedula" or daw, with the addition of our own word.] A species of the crow. Not all unlyke unto Esope's chough, whom we commonly call Jacke dawe. Bale, Yet a Course, &c. (1543,) fol. 87. To impose on a child to get by heart a long scroll of phrases, without any ideas, is a practice fitter for a jackdaw than for any thing that wears the shape of man. JA'CKET. n. s. [jaquette, Fr.] 1. A short coat; a close waistcoat. Watts. |