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A verb meaning to support, used of structures held up by posts or pillars.
places Woodsome
dates 1573

A sub-tenant, one who occupied part of a house but had no direct responsibilities to the lord of the manor.
dates 1581 1590 1604 1629 1734

spellings understocking
A stocking worn with slops or hose.
dates 1566 1593

spellings undertaken
Used to describe masons who built a bridge and also took on an obligation to maintain the structure for a number of years afterwards.
dates 1673 1675 1706 1715 1743

Defined in the OED as: ‘small trees or shrubs, coppice wood or brush-wood growing beneath higher timber trees’, a term on record from the fourteenth century.
dates 1258 1341 1373-1374 1379 1418-1419 1543

The verb ‘to dight’ was used frequently in connection with the preparation of wool, linen, leather, etc. and ‘undight’ was a reference to articles that had not been fully processed.
places Whitkirk Pannal
dates 1527 1533

Brought to ruin.
places Morley
dates 1674

Said of animals that have not been used to draw carts or the plough.
dates 1567 1580

Not properly put in order.
dates 1657 1709 1786

The opposite of ‘gain’ which is dealt with separately. It had meanings such as ‘indirect, severe, awkward’ and examples in the OED date from c.1400.
places Bolton Priory
dates 1377-1378

Not castrated.
dates 1508 1552

Probably unusual or out of the ordinary.
dates 1692

Used of cloth that was not milled, that is had not been through the processes at the fulling mill.
places Cottingley
dates 1618

To pill was to remove the bark from a tree but this was not done to those reserved for further growth.
places Tong
dates 1672

Not embossed or engraved.
dates 1544

Not soaked in water or exposed to moisture, as in the preparation of hemp and flax.
places Selby Fishlake
dates 1637 1747

Unbecoming, improper.
places York
dates 1483 1504

Not threshed.

spellings unwindowed
Characteristic spellings of unwinnowed.
dates 1601 1612

spellings whole coal
Said of coals that have not been ‘won’ or ‘got’ and of pits that have not been worked.
dates 1713 1787

A dealer in small wares.
places York
dates 1413 1417

Comparable with ‘overbody’, a woman’s garment which clothed the upper part of the body and was sometimes quilted and strengthened with whale bone.
places South Cave
dates 1587 1610

A coal-mining term, probably an alternative word for the rise end.
places Tong
dates 1760

The high-quality leather which forms the upper part of a shoe or boot (OED).
dates 1596 1673 1708

spellings upsetting
The establishment of a business in the guild system.
places York Beverley
dates 1417 1464 1475 1577

A hedgehog.
dates 1667 1673 1688 1721

ure

spellings urre urstone ewer
These spellings of ‘ore’ and ‘orestone’ are found regularly in the earliest documents.
places Shipley
dates 1591

Noted in connection with rights of way in the town field, where the meaning seems to be ‘short cut’.
places Lepton
dates 1649

A cattle-farm in the uplands, especially the Pennines.
dates 1339 1394-1395

Defensive armour for the fore-arm, a spelling of 'vantbrace'.
dates 1380 1392 1402 1414 1423 1572

spellings vampet
The vamp was that part of a boot which covered the front of the foot, from French avant pied, and the verb referred to cutting and shaping the leather used in making or repairing it.
places York Beverley
dates 1582 1627

Evidently a type of spade or shovel, although the precise meaning remains uncertain.
places Tadcaster Ripon
dates 1421 1485

Formerly a frequent word for a horse that was wall-eyed.
dates 1403 1451 1553 1596 1618

A stratum or seam of coal.
dates 1464 1538 1683

The name of the city and the province in Italy’s north-east, used to describe articles made there or traded from there.
dates 1558 1612 1693

A narrow lane or thoroughfare.
places York Yarm
dates 1376-1377 1649

spellings vent gate vent pit
The profitable working of a coal-pit depended on how well it was drained and ventilated, and various methods of allowing fresh air to circulate in the workings were tried. These usually involved driving special heads, additional shafts or holing existing walls but the records are seldom very explicit.
dates 1702 1760 1792 1804 1815

spellings aventail
Part of a helmet, either the visor or the lower movable section, the mouthpiece.
dates 1391 1393 1414 1423

Basic acetate of copper which occurs naturally as a ‘rust’ on copper, or can be obtained artificially by the action of dilute acetic acid on the metal.
dates 1291-1292 1472

The acid juice of sour fruit, particularly grapes and crab-apples, formed into a liquor and used also in cooking and as a medicine.
dates 1452 1485 1528 1562 1585 1596 1731

For vermilion or cinnabar, used by painters and in the illumination of manuscripts.
dates 1456-1457 1472

A word of French origin, used in legal and manorial contexts for green vegetation in a wood or forest.
places Pickering
dates 1251 1339

These were the special garments worn by clergymen and theirn assistants when performing church services.
dates 1346 1485 1497 1518-1519 1558

The specialist who made garments for the clergy.
places York Ripon
dates 1472-1473 1485 1531

The room in a church in which the vestments are stored, usually close to the chancel.
places Pontefract
dates 1494

spellings vicarage
In early usages the vicar of a parish was the priest who acted as a representative of the rector, and the ‘vicarage’ was his benefice or living.
dates 1540 1595 1596

A general word for a contrivance which consisted of two ‘jaws’ that could be opened and closed by means of a screw.
places Knaresborough
dates 1584

A winding or spiral staircase, especially in a church.
places York
dates 1532

spellings viewer
To view had the meaning of to inspect or survey, and the viewer was a person qualified to view or take a view in that sense. The word was in widespread use in all the craft guilds and in subsequent industrial and trade practices.
dates 1596 1598 1605 1659 1666 1695 1750 1760

A small settlement but rare in Yorkshire until the eighteenth century.
places Addington
dates 1562

A place where grapes were grown.
dates 1615 1672

Photo by Kreuzschnabel CC BY-SA 3.0