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A measure for liquids, and the container which held that amount.
places Warsop Ripley
dates 1407 1686

A measure of capacity, commonly used for grain, and usually equal to eight bushels.
dates 1333 1339 1343 1393 1522 1642

Wood cut into four parts.
dates 1642 1686 1694

One example noted, in the ordinances of York’s shoemakers.
places York
dates 1424

spellings whartern walltron
A quarter of anything, a measure of numerous commodities, especially wool.
dates 1312-1313 1399 1484 1504 1576 1605 1615 1622 1686 1724 1758

For wheat.
places Kendal
dates 1568

spellings qweyll qwhell
Regional spellings of wheel, usually in the sense of spinning-wheel.
dates 1379 1522-1523 1542 1547 1557

For wench, a girl, a characteristic regional spelling.
places Knaresborough
dates 1558

A regional spelling for choir or quire, that part of a church reserved for the choristers.
dates 1487 1491 1555 1559

An early alternative spelling of ‘coral’, used in necklaces.
places Wollaton
dates 1415


Short for inquest.
places Almondbury
dates 1594

A pardoner, an official appointed by the Pope or a bishop to grant indulgences.
places York
dates 1419 1470-1471 1509

spellings whicking
Short for quick-grass, a term used for weeds, especially couch grass.
dates 1740 1796 1809

spellings whickfall
Possibly haws collected for the propagation of quicksets.
dates 1391 1457-1458 1474 1488 1556

Quick or live animals, livestock.
dates 1485 1556 1642

spellings whickset
Slips or cuttings of plants, especially whitethorn, set in the ground to form a hedge.
dates 1530 1560 1580 1597 1609

A place-name in Sowerby near Halifax. It means ‘live stakes’ and was evidently a location where such stakes had taken root.
dates 1515-1516

spellings whickwood
Living wood, commonly used of whitethorn as a hedge plant.
dates 1436 1455 1492 1545 1562 1573 1614

A small plot or narrow strip of land, first on record in an Act of 1533-4 (OED).
places Settrington
dates 1600

A frame on which a counterpane is stretched during the quilting process.
places Slaidburn
dates 1756

Used here of the tree, one of several experimental plantings by the Cholmeleys in the seventeenth century.
places Brandsby
dates 1621

spellings quenter
A regional spelling of twinter, that is a ‘two-winters old’ animal.
dates 1508 1556 1571

spellings quissyne
Typical obsolete spellings of cushion.
dates 1304-1305 1367 1430 1535 1565 1588 1689

spellings qwom
Obsolete forms of ‘whom’.
places Ovenden Ledston
dates 1489 1557

quy

spellings quey
A heifer, or a young cow up to three years old that has not calved.
dates 1455 1485 1559 1600 1616 1662

The herdsman responsible for a herd of quys or heifers.
dates 1301 1327

Of uncertain meaning, part of the cordwainers' process.
places York
dates 1430

According to Wright this was a heifer up to two years old (EDD).
places Bedale Driffield
dates 1542 1563

For ‘requited’.
places Woodsome
dates 1575

A spelling of ‘wherefore’.
places Rastrick
dates 1450

An obsolete spelling of ‘whose’.
places Anlaby
dates 1450-1455

spellings qwylk
Obsolete spellings of ‘which’.
places Rastrick
dates 1450

spellings qwyth
Typical obsolete spellings of ‘white’.
places Bedale York
dates 1442 1504

An earlier spelling of rebate, used as a verb, meaning to cut a groove along the edge of a piece of wood.
places Elmswell
dates 1620

For 'erase', that is take out.
places Holme
dates 1609

spellings racke
A line down a horse’s face, usually said to be white.
dates 1512 1556 1617 1689 1726

spellings ratch
A hunting dog which pursues its prey by scent.
dates 1298-1299 1514 1665

A verb, descriptive of the gait of a horse when the two feet on each side are raised simultaneously.
dates 1490 1549 1562 1631

A bar or set of bars used to support a spit or other cooking utensil.
dates 1400 1434 1535 1567 1669

A frame designed to hold a cross-bow when it was not in use.
dates 1520 1548 1565

spellings rake (2)
Commonly used by dialect speakers in the phrase 'by the rack of the eye', that is estimating an angle or a distance without any rule or measurement. No early example has been found but 'rake' was formerly used in estimating distances.
places West Riding
dates 1647

Rack' could be the bones of a dead horse, and the OED has 'rack of bones' for an emaciated person, although the examples are late.
places Wakefield
dates 1533

spellings reckan raggan raggin
An iron bar mounted in a chimney from which cooking implements could be suspended.
dates 1400 1453 1485 1552 1630 1648

A crook or hook suspended from the rackan in a chimney.
dates 1544 1571 1621

A very high or extortionate rent, equal or nearly equal to the full annual value of the land.
places Wetherby
dates 1755

spellings reddle riddle (1)
Alternative spellings of ruddle, also called red ochre, found as a verb or noun. The ochre was used especially to mark sheep.
dates 1648 1669 1688

A collective term for poles, rods, twigs, etc, possibly with regionally distinct meanings, referred to by historians as panels in a timber-framed wall (HH6).
dates 1457-1458 1680 1713

‘Raff’ was foreign timber, mostly deals imported from Prussia and the Baltic: the history of these two words is closely linked..
dates 1642 1656 1738 1756 1820

rag

A coarse, hard building-stone, a term with locally distinct meanings.
places Beverley Leeds
dates 1409 1741

A knobbed staff, which appears in the badge or crest of the Earls of Warwick.
places Furnival
dates 1407

Probably a form of ragged, used as a name for a rough-coated animal.
places Grinton
dates 1582

In the grinding and polishing process a final shine was provided by a ‘rag-mop’ wheel, also called a ‘dolly’ (CAT36).

spellings railway
These were ways or roads laid with rails which allowed heavily-laden wagons to move more freely, and in this sense the words are first on record in coal-mining districts.
places Bradshaw
dates 1816

A bar of wood, varying in size but usually between six and ten feet long, four inches broad and an inch or more thick. They were used in the construction of carts, fences, staircases, balconies, etc.
dates 1658 1695

spellings double rail
A woman’s garment, formerly a piece of linen or other cloth worn about the neck.
dates 1544 1558 1566 1585 1611 1612

Photo by Kreuzschnabel CC BY-SA 3.0