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Brewer's: Love-in-Idleness
One of the numerous names of the pansy or hearts-ease. Originally white, but changed to a purple colour by the fall of Cupid's bolt upon it. Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell. It…Brewer's: Orange-tawny
The ancient colour appropriated to clerks and persons of inferior condition. It was also the colour worn by the Jews. Hence Lord Bacon says, “Usurers should have orange-tawny bonnets,…Brewer's: Henchman. Henchboy
The Anglo-Saxon hinc is a servant or page; or perhaps henges-man, a horse-man; henges or hengst, a horse. I do but beg a little changeling boy To be my benchman. Shakespeare: Midsummer…Brewer's: Hippolyta
Queen of the Amazons, and daughter of Mars. Shakespeare has introduced the character in his Midsummer Night's Dream, where he betroths her to Theseus, Duke of Athens. In classic fable it…Brewer's: Filch
To steal or purloin. A filch is a staff with a hook at the end, for plucking clothes from hedges and abstracting articles from shop windows. Probably it is a corruption of pilfer. (Welsh,…Brewer's: Dyed Beards
The dyeing of beards is mentioned by Strabo, and Bottom the Weaver satirises the custom when he undertakes to play Pyramus, and asks, “what beard were I best to play it in?” “I will…Brewer's: Points
Armed at all points. “Armé de toutes pièces,” or “Armé jusqu' aux dents.” “Armed at all points exactly cap-à-pie. ” To stand on points. On punctilios; delicacy of behaviour. “This fellow…Brewer's: Pyramus
The lover of Thisbë. Supposing Thisbe to be torn to pieces by a lion, he stabbed himself, and Thisbe, finding the dead body, stabbed herself also. Both fell dead under a mulberry-tree,…Brewer's: Thisbe
A Babylonish maiden beloved by Piramus. They lived in contiguous houses, and as their parents would not let them marry, they contrived to converse together through a hole in the garden…Brewer's: Thrums
Weaver's ends and fagends of carpet, used for common rugs. (The word is common to many languages, as Icelandic, thraum; German, trumm; Dutch, drom; Greek, thrumma; all meaning “fag-ends”…Trending
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