Select one or more, then press search
Select one or more, then press search
Clear
The worker responsible for producing white leather from hides and skins.
places York Methley Yarm
dates 1384 1577 1707

A knife.
dates 1617 1686

spellings half deal
This term occurs in a context where it is contrasted with ‘half deals’.
places Selby
dates 1678

Bran sifted from flour.
places Wakefield
dates 1760

why

spellings whye
A heifer or young cow.
dates 1444 1486 1536 1580

A heifer up to two years old.
dates 1485 1499 1549

An early dialect word for a man whose wife had died.
places Newark
dates 1536 1550

An obsolete regional word for willow.
dates 1613 1642

The OED has definitions for ‘wimble’ which include small boring tools such as a gimlet.
dates 1392 1485 1615 1642 1720 1739 1840

win

Early meanings are associated with 'labouring' or 'exerting oneself', but later it came to mean 'overcoming' or 'emerging victorious' in terms of harvesting crops or mining coal and minerals.
dates 1447 1591 1665 1708 1719 1754 1766 1803

Used of dry and liquid measures based on the standards at Winchester.
dates 1710 1801

To wind was a verb in frequent use in pits where ‘turns’ or windlasses were in operation, drawing up coal, water or workers.
dates 1396-1397 1591 1702

spellings windhouse
An earlier form of windlass, a contrivance for lifting or drawing, as water from a well, coal from a pit or sacks of grain in a mill.
dates 1379-1380 1582 1619

spellings wind-band
Words for a cross beam which tied the roof rafters: it was also called a wind-beam, or collar.
places York Scriven
dates 1522 1527 1682

Probably for window-cloth, that is a winnowing cloth.
places Northallerton
dates 1440

Used of trees or branches brought down by the wind, a valuable commodity.
dates 1274 1300 1307-1308 1502 1518 1549 1614 1622 1637

A ventilation passage in a mine.
dates 1753

A flexible rod or withy.
places Hull Brandsby
dates 1463 1469-1470 1617

Possibly for ‘winnowing-cloth’, or a winding sheet for a corpse.
places Wakefield
dates 1317

An appliance for winding yarn or thread.
dates 1275 1504 1577 1591 1657

spellings wind (2)
A measure of certain commodities, mostly corn.
dates 1252 1286 1315 1518 1540 1561 1592

A characteristic spelling of winnow, that is to separate grain from the chaff.
dates 1508 1538 1612 1671

spellings windowing-cloth
A winnowing cloth or sheet.
dates 1377 1402 1460 1567 1612 1691

A cloth or curtain to put in front of a window.
dates 1562 1731

Occupational, for one who winnows.
places Hampole
dates 1540

The official who counted the windows in a house when the window tax was in operation.
places Slaithwaite
dates 1791

A custom of Pickering Forest, considered as an agistment, so possibly the right to graze beasts on fallen branches, either on their way through a forest or on certain special occasions.
places Kinthorpe
dates 1619-1621 1649-1660

spellings weng
The wings of large birds were used as brushes.
places York Elmswell
dates 1371 1642

spellings wing wall
The embankments that adjoined bridge abutments were often reinforced and fronted with a stone wall. These wings or wing walls are referred to from the seventeenth century.
dates 1684 1702

To turn a blind eye to.
places Slaithwaite
dates 1627

Used in reference to seasonal rights of pasturage.
places Hanlith
dates 1641

The dialect word for a clothes-horse. It was formerly the practice to place clothes over a hedge or furze bush to dry but that was not always possible in winter.
places Slaithwaite
dates 1791

A regional word for the lapwing (EDD).
places Whitby
dates 1395

A ‘wipe’ could be an insult but in this case it may have been a more serious assault.
places Warley Town
dates 1664

Occupational term, for a workman making wire by drawing a metal rod through a series of holes.
dates 1300 1506 1563 1583 1713 1718

From the contexts in which the word has been noted this must have been a metal helmet of some kind.
places York Pontefract
dates 1406 1429 1434

An alternative and rarely used word for ‘wiredrawer’.
places York
dates 1438

spellings wiretree
Names for the yew in parts of south Yorkshire.
places Selby Hatfield
dates 1657 1750

spellings wise woman
Although both words might be taken at face value, they more frequently referred to individuals with supposed occult skills, and were used especially of people who might heal sick animals or locate missing objects.
dates 1567 1598 1657 1693

A regional word for a type of basket.
dates 1650 1686 1693 1701

A bundle or parcel, a measure of glass and other commodities, perhaps originally wrapped in straw.
dates 1465 1470 1530

To know, to be aware of.
places York
dates 1487


spellings withe
A tough flexible twig, as of birch, hazel or willow, used for binding or tying.
dates 1422 1449

An upstairs room to withdraw to, furnished with a bed.
places Beverley Copley
dates 1445 1533

A willow tree or, in the plural, a willow copse, found commonly as an element in minor place-names.
dates 1315 1360 1539 1592 1697

James defined ‘withy’ as any species of willow, which is how it is explained in the OED. However, in Yorkshire it appears to be an alternative spelling of ‘with, withe’.
dates 1550 1563 1661

Testament or will.
dates 1393 1471 1491 1519 1523

A long beam, one of the roof timbers.
places York Hull Scriven
dates 1471-1472 1527 1682

spellings wad wadde
A blue dye-stuff.
dates 1258 1453 1510 1553

spellings would
Originally forest land, found in Old English place-names such as Easingwold. However, after the trees had been cleared it came to be used of open upland areas.
dates 1254 1322 1370 1472-1475 1590 1600 1619-1621 1642

spellings would weld
The plant Reseda Luteola which yields a yellow dye used by clothiers, known popularly as Dyers’ Rocket.
dates 1390 1755 1760 1815

Probably an alternative for wolf-pit.
places Shelley
dates 1307

spellings wool-pit
A pit in which wolves might be trapped.
dates 1121 1278-1292 1341 1348

A pit in which to trap the wolron or wild boar.
places Kilnwick
dates 1200-1299

The belly piece of a fur skin (OED).
dates 1377-1378 1425 1465 1558 1582 1627

Photo by Kreuzschnabel CC BY-SA 3.0