K is a letter which (as Ben Jonson observes) the Latins never acknowledged; in the word kalenda they borrowed it. We sound it as the Gr. K; and as a necessary letter it may precede and follow all vowels with us; it goes before no consonants but n, as in knave, knell, knot, &c. and 4, with the quiet e after it; as in mickle, pickle, &c.

KALE. Kail, written by Milton keal; known See by the common name of cole, or colewort. Jamieson.

When he brings in the mess with keal, beef and brewess, what stomach in England could forbear to call for flanks and briskets.-Milton. Apology for Smectymnuus.

Chaucer. Troilus, b. ii.

But now of hope the kalendes begin.
His propre monthe is, as men tellen,
Octobre, whiche bringeth the kalende
Of winter, that cometh next sewende.

Gower. Con. A. b. vii.
In the thirde kalendes of Januarie I receiued thy letter,
whereby I perceiue thou hast receiued one of mine.
Golden Boke, Let. 1.

That presently there should be new tribunes militarie created, to enter into their office on the kalends of October. Holland. Livivs, p. 185. Tvrning after this to set the state of the commonweale in good order, he reformed the kalender, which long since through the prelates' default, by their liberty of interlacing (moneths and daies) at their pleasure, was so confused, that neither the festivall holidaies of harvest fell out in sommer, nor those of the vintage in autumne.-Id. Suetonius, p. 17. For that wee are generally more apt to kalender saints then sinners dayes, therefore there is in the church a care not to iterate to one alone, but to have frequent repetition of the other.-Hooker. Ecclesiasticall Politie, b. v. § 72.

Nor did they think it enough to give him [Becket] one day in the kalendar, the twenty-ninth of December; but unusual honours were devised for this martyr for the liberties of the church, greater than any that had been given to the martyrs for Christianity.

Burnet. History of the Reformation, an. 1538.

KAM. Ruddiman has "camy, crooked." And see KIM KAM and CAMOUS.

Sicin. This is cleane kamme.
Brut. Meerely awry.-Shakes. Coriolanus, Act iii. sc. 1.
KANTELED. See CANTel.

On the morow began the iustes, and the dolphyn with his aydes entered the field, their apparell and bardes were cloth of golde, cloth of siluer, and crymsyn veluet, kanteled together all in one sute.-Grafton. Hen. VIII. an. 6.

KARVEL. See CARVEL.

This karvel should have better lading in him.
Beaum. & Fletch. Thierry & Theodoret, Act v. sc. 1.

KAW,

v.

KAW, n. KA'WING, n.

More commonly written Caw, (qv.) Vox a sono ficta.

The early rising crow with clam'rous kawing
Leaving the green bough flyes about the rock.

Browne. Britannia's Pastorals, b. i. s. 5.

While they thus set men a longing for the golden days of four per cent. methinks they use the poor indigent debtor and needy tradesman, as I have seen prating jackdaws do sometimes their young, who kawing and fluttering about the nest, set all their young ones a-gaping; but having nothing in their empty mouths but noise and air, leave them as hungry as before,-Locke. On Lowering Interest.

The dastard crow, that to the wood made wing,
And sees the groves no shelter can afford,
With her loud kaws her craven kind does bring,
Who, safe in numbers, cuff the noble bird.

KECK, v. KE'CKISH. KE/CKLISH.

K

Dut. Kuccher; Ger. Keuchen; to cough. All formed from the sound, (sc. of a heaving stomach.) See Wachter, and Skinner; and see to KICK. To cough, (sc.) as if sick or about to vomit; to heave the stomach, to cast or throw up (from the stomach.)

And therefore patients must expect a due time, and not check [keck] at them at the first.-Bacon. Nat. Hist. § 68

Of small practice were that physician who could not judge by what both she or her sister hath of long time vomited, that the worser stuff she strongly keeps in her stomach, but the better she is ever kecking at, and is queasy. Milton. An Apology for Smectymnuus. Inordinate passion of vomiting, called cholera, is nothing different from a keckish stomack and a desire to cast, but only according to augmentation and diminution, more or less.-Holland. Plutarch, p. 640.

The verie small tendrils of the vine, whereby it climbeth, catcheth, and claspeth about any thing, being punned and taken in water, staieth and represseth vomiting in those whose stomacks use ordinarily to be kecklish and soon to overturne. Id. Plinie, b. xxiii. The Proëme.

KEDGE. An anchor used by a small Dutch vessel, called a kedge,-kaghe; perhaps from the A. S. Cagy-ian. See KEG.

We then carried out the kedge-anchor, in order to warp into the harbour.-Cook. First Voyage, b. i. c. 20.

KEECH. "A keech (says Mr. Steevens) is the fat of an ox rolled up by the butcher into a round lump," or rather-cake, which is, perhaps, the same word, (by the same change as in brake and breech.):

In Hen. VIII. the word is applied to Wolsey, (with singular propriety-Steevens,) because he was the son of a butcher.

I wonder

That such a keech can with his very bulke Take vp the rayes o' th' beneficiall sun, And keep it from the earth.

KEEL.

KE'ELAGE.

Shakespeare. Hen. VIII. Act i. sc. 1. Dut. Kiel; Ger. Keil and keel; Sw. Koel; A. S. Ceol, cale; Fr. KE'ELSON. Quille; Sp. Quilla. Somner says a ship, a small bark or other vessel. The keel or bottom of a ship. Gr. Kon; Lat. Celox. All from their hollowness, (Kotus.) The word is clearly Northern, but see Wachter, Menage, and Skinner. The vessels employed in collieries are still named keels, the men who work them keelers or keelmen. Keelage is the duty imposed on and paid by a ship coming into port.

Kelsine, (written kelson, or keelson;) Chapman so renders the Gr. IσTodoкn, which some think was a case wherein the mast was reposited ;others, nothing but a piece of wood against which it was reared.

Calchas by sea then bad vs hast our flight:
Whoes engins might not break the walles of Troy,
Unlesse at Grece they wold renew their lottes,
Restore the god that they by sea had brought
In warped keles.
Surrey. Virgile. Æneis, b. ii.

The selly shippe was sowst and smitten sore
With counter buffetts, blowes, and double blowes.
At last the keele, which might endure no more,
Gan rende in twayne, and suckt the water in.

Gascoigne. Voyage into Holland, an. 1572.
Hingistus and Horsus, two brethren, and most valiant
Saxon princes, had the conduction of these forces over into
Brittaine in three great and long shippes, then called keeles.
Verstegan. Decayed Intelligence, c. 5.

The whiles the nimble boate so well her sped,
That with her crooked keele the land she strooke.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 12.
Svetonius Paulinus was then sent hether, who at his

arriual purposing to subdue Anglesea, whither many Bry

tains had withdrawne themselues, hee in vessels with flat keeles ferried ouer his footemen, bringing ouer his horsemen Dryden. Annus Mirabilis, s. 87. by some fourds.-Stowe. The Romanes, an. 62.

The topmast to the kelsine then with haleyards downe they drew.-Chapman. Homer. Iliad, bi

In the belly, or middle part of the ship, there was rpower, carina, or the keel, which was composed of wood, and therefore, from its strength and firmness, call'd me. It was placed at the bottom of the ship, being design'd to out and glide thro' the waves, and therefore was net lead, but narrow and sharp.-Potter. Antiquities of Greece, b. c. 15.

KEEN. KEENLY. KE'ENNESS.

The A. S. Cene is explained by Somner, "warlick, stout, couII. gious, valiant, bold, fierce, kren.” It is from the A. S. Cennan, to ken. Keen, 47plied to the mind, is,—

Cunning; i. e. knowing, very knowing, quick, sharp at knowing, seeing, perceiving, or understanding. Generally,—

Sharp, acute, quick, piercing, penetrating, biting, or bitter.

That as the rose spryng of the brer, that ssurp & honeys,
Al so com the clene mayde of the luther man y wys.
R. Gloucester, p. 21.
Knoute com with his kythe, that kant was & kene,
& chaced him out of Norweie quyte & clene.

R. Brunne. p. 52. Piers Plouman, p. 206.

For men knoweth that covetise, is of ful kene wil

A bow he bare and arwes bright and kene.

Chaucer. The Knightes Tale, v. 189.

He drew his bow with arrowes sharpe and kene,
And strake the place where love had hit before,
And drave the first dart deper more and more.
Wyatt. The Louer complaineth that Deadly Sicksame, ĝe.
As an aged tree,

High growing on the top of rocky clift,
Whose hart strings with keene steele nigh hewen be,
The mighty trunke halfe rent, with ragged rift
Doth roll adowne the rocks, and fall with fearefull drift.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. i. c. &

And if God wer so displeas'd with those, Is. 58, who on the solemn fast were wont to smite with the fist of wickedness, it could be no sign of his own humiliation acreport, which dispos'd him to smite so keenly with a reviling toge Milton. Tetrachtrack.

What time the weary weather-beaten sheep,
To get them fodder, hie them to the fold.
And the poor herds that lately did them keep,
Shudder'd with keenness of the winter's cold.
Drayton. Pastorals, Ecl. 10.

In vain seditious scribes with libel strive
T' inflame the crowd, while he with watchful eye
Observes, and shoots their treasons as they fy:
Their weekly frauds his keen replies detect;
He undeceives more fast than they infect.

Dryden. Absalom § Achii piel.

In his Ætnean forge, the God of fire
That falchion labour'd for the hero's sire:
Immortal keenness on the blade bestow'd,
And plung'd it hissing in the Stygian flood.

Id. Virgil. Eneis, b. 1ë
The sprightly lyre whose treasure of sweet sounds
The touch from many a trembling chord shakes sat;
And the clear voice symphonious, yet distinct,
And in the charming strife triumphant still;
Beguile the night, and set a keener edge
On female industry.

Couper. Task, b. in

onfine, or shut up; to detain, to stop or stay; > retain, to maintain, to sustain or support.

To observe, to regard, to attend to, to heed; to reserve, to protect, to guard.

The noun is applied to the chief strong-hold of n ancient castle, as in the citations below from velyn and Burke.

Ac as he out of Londen wente in a tyde,
A gret erl hym keple ther in a wode syde,
With an hundred knygtes y armed wel ynow.

R. Gloucester, p. 88. For he vtterliche leueth the kepping of hem, and neuer, but whenne he bereth haukes, ne vseth he gloues. Id. p. 482. Note. Do mak thre hundreth schippes vpon the sees koste, To kepe tham of Norweie & the Danes oste.

R. Brunne, p. 41.

Alle the North ende was in his kepyng, & alle the South ende tille Edmunde thei drouh.

Id. p. 32. And whanne thei hadden ghouun to hem manye woundis ei senten hem into prisoun, and commaundiden to the per that he schulde kepe hem diligentli. Wiclif. Dedis, c. 16. And when they had beaten them sore, they cast them into ison, cōmaudynge the iayler to kepe them surely. Bible, 1551. Ib. And sche stood and seide, Lord takist thou no kepe that y sister hath lefte me aloone to serue ?-Wiclif. Luke. c.10. But bifore alle these thingis: thei schulen sette her hondis 1 you, and schulen pursue, by takinge into synagogis and pingis: drawynge to kynges & to justisis for my name. Id. Ib. c. 21.

A wif is keper of thin husbondrie:
Well may the sike man bewaile and wepe,
Ther as ther is no wif the hous to kepe.

Chaucer. The Marchantes Tale, v. 9255.

And take kepe, from hence forwarde I wol clepe the heyght 'heuy thing, that is take by the rule, the altytude.

Id. The Astrolabie.

My youngest brother told me he had a keeper very subject to it, but that it never laid him up, but he was still walking after his deer, or his stud, while he had the fits upon him. Sir W. Temple. Of the Cure of the Gout.

one of his games.-Strype. Memorials. Q. Mary, an. 1556.

The earl gave the former a tan-house, and keepership of

These were great advantages to them; but the establishing the necessity of auricular confession, the corporal presence in the sacrament, the keeping up and doing reverence to images, and praying to saints, did allay their joy. Burnet. History of the Reformation, an. 1536. My noble Lord

Within this portal as I kept my watch,
Swift gliding shadows by the glimmering moon
I could perceive, in forms of armed men,
Possess the space that borders on the porch.

Smollett. The Regicide, Act v. sc. 5. As long as the British monarchy, not more limited than fenced by the orders of the state, shall, like the proud keep of Windsor rising in majesty of proportion, and girt with the double belt of its kindred and coeval towers, as long as the awful structure shall oversee and guard the subject landso long the mounds and dykes of the low, fat, Bedford level will have nothing to fear from the pickaxes of all the levellers of France.-Burke. Letter to a Noble Lord.

The keeper, for the visit well prepar'd,
Suspecting nought, without his wonted guard
Led Leon and his friend, where lay confin'd
The knight to death's severest pangs assign'd.

Hoole. Orlando Furioso, b. xiv.

KEG. From A. S. Cæg-gian, to shut up or

confine.

That in which fish or liquors are shut up and confined, (Tooke.) See KEDGE.

Drayton seems to apply it to lumps or pieces, (short and thick, perhaps like a keg, the vessel.) The sturgeon cut to keggs, (too big to handle whole) Gives many a dainty bit out of his lusty jowl.

KEIGHT, i. e. Caught.

The otter then that keeps

In the wild rivers, in their banks and steeps,
And feeds on fish, which under water still,
He with his keld-feet and keen teeth doth kill.
Drayton. Noah's Flood.

Though G. Plats assures us upon his hereditary and particular experience of seventy-four years, that neither the immoderate moisture of July, August and September, nor those kells, which like cobwebs do sometimes cover the grounds, do beget the rot in sheep; yet do I commend some careful shepherds, who do never suffer their sheep to graze upon the grounds in the mornings, when they do first go forth to pasture, nor after rain, before they have been gently driven over their grounds, that their feet may break those kells, and beat off the dews, and over much moisture from the grass.-Boyle. Works, vol. vi. p. 358.

But first forget not well the kell to drain;
And draw the pin to save her from the rain.

Cook. Hesiod. Works & Days, b. ii.

KELP. Perhaps from A. S. Gilp-an, to boast, to talk idly, jactare; in its literal sense, to throw or cast up-may not Gilp, Kilp, or Kelp, be that which is thrown or cast upon the shore by the sea? As for the reits, kilpe, tangle, and such like sea-weeds, Nicander saith, they are as good as treacle.

Holland. Plinie, b. xxxii. c. 6.

KELTER. Skinner says: He is not yet in Kelter, nondum est in procinctu, nondum est paratus; he is not yet in readiness, he is not yet prepared; without doubt from the Dan. Op-kilter, kilten, to gird on, to gird. (And see Serenius and Jamieson.) Mr. Brocket says,—

Frame, order, condition.

Her aged nurse, whose name was Glauce hight,
Feeling her leape out of her loathed nest,
Betwixt her feeble armes her quickly keight,
And downe againe in her warme bed her dight.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. iii. c. 2.
Whom soone as Talus spide by glimpse of night,'
He started vp, there where on ground he lay,
And in his hand his thresher ready keight.

Id. Ib. b. v. c. 6.

Gladly (said he) what euer such like paine

Ye put on me, I will the same sustaine :
But gladliest I of your fleecie sheepe

(Might it you please) would take on mee the keepe. Spenser. Mother Hubberd's Tale.

Yet so much fauor shee to him hath hight
Aboue the rest, that he sometimes may space
And walke about her gardens of delight,
Hauing a keeper still with him in place.

Id. Faerie Queene, b. iv. c. 8.

Couzening hope; he is a flatterer,

A parasite, a keeper backe of death,
Who gently would dissolue the bands of life,
Which false hopes linger in extremity.
Shakespeare. Rich. II. Act ii. sc. 2.

[These] in their courses make that round
In meadows and in marshes found,
Of them so call'd the fairy-ground,
Of which they have the keeping.-Drayton. Nymphidia.
He fought not with a keepe-off speare, or with a farre shot
bow.
Chapman. Homer. Iliad, b. vii.

A lance then tooke he, with a keene steele head,
To be his keepe-off, both 'gainst men and dogges.
Id. Ib. Odyssey, b. xiv.

Rude as their ships was navigation then;
No usefull compass or meridian known,
Coasting, they kept the land within their ken,
And knew no North but when the pole-star shone.
Dryden. Annus Mirabilis.

It stands on a knowle, which tho' insensibly rising gives

t a prospect over the keepe of Windsor, about three miles

N. E. of it.-Evelyn. Memoirs, an. 1686, Oct. 23.

A pleasant beverage he prepar'd before

Of wine and honey, mix'd with added store

Of opium; to his keeper this he brought,

Who swallow'd unaware the sleepy draught,
And snor'd secure till morn, his senses bound
In slumber, and in long oblivion drown'd.

Dryden. Palamon & Arcite, b. ii.

And lerede men a ladel bygge. with a long stele
That caste for to kele a crockke, and save the fatte above.
Piers Plouhman, p. 380.
And doune on knees, full humbly gan I knele
Beseching her, my feruent wo to kele.

Chaucer. The Court of Loue.
The cote he founde, and eke he feleth
The mace, and than his herte keleth.-Gower. Con. A. b.v.

When blood is nipt, and waies be fowle,
Then nightly sings the staring owle
Tu-whit to who,

A merrie note,

While greasie Jone doth keele the pot.

Shakespeare. Love's Labour Lost, Act v. sc. 2.

Let any man consider, that if any prince shall suffer under him a commission of authority to be exercis'd till all the land groan and cry out, as against a whip of scorpions, whether this be not likely to lessen, and keel the affections of the subject.-Milton. Of Reformation in England, b. ii. KELL. i. e. Caul. See the quotations from KELD. Pliny and Boyle.

In Drayton, keld-feet is equivalent to web-feet.
Now cover'd over with dim cloudy kels,

And shrunken vp into their slimy shells.-Drayton. Owl.
I'le haue him cut to the kell, then down the seames,
Oh for a whip to make him galoone-laces,
I'le haue a coach whip.

Beaum. & Fletch. Philaster, Act v. sc. 1.

The stomacke and the guts are kept within a fat and thin cawle, (the cawl or kell, margin,) in all creatures but those that lay eggs.-Holland. Plinie, b. xi. c. 25.

Being found, I'le finde an urne of gold, t' enclose them, and betwixt

The ayre and them two kels of fat lay on them; and to rest Commit them, till mine owne bones seale our loue, my soule deceast.-Chapman. Homer. Iliad, b. xxiii.

And her combe to kembe her hedde.

'Chaucer. House of Fame, b. i. Ne the forswearing, ne the fraude couerde and kempt with a false colour.-Id. Boecius, b. i.

With heer as gold, kembet, and shede abake.

Id. Testament of Creseide.

And on his best araye he [ioye] nam,
And kempt his head, whan he was clad.-Gower. C. A.b.v.
Yet are the men more loose than they !
More kemb'd, and bath'd, and rub'd, and trimm'd,
More sleek'd, more soft, and slacker limm'd.

KE'MELIN.

B. Jonson. Chorus in Catiline.

Sax. a tub, (Tyrwhitt.) Kimnel, or kemlin, a powdering tub, (Grose.) See also Skinner.

He goth, and geteth him a kneding trough,
And after a tubbe, and a kemelin,
And prively he sent hem to his in.

Chaucer. The Milleres Tale, v. 3622. KEN, or Goth. Kunnan; A. S. Cennan; KON, v. Sw. Kanna; Dut. and Ger. Kennen. KE'NNING, Or Ihre says, to expeKO'NNING, n. rience by the senses, to feel; sensibus experiri, sentire: it is spoken of all the senses, imprimis, of the smell, as the Fr. Sentir. Wachter says, first,-scire, posse, (to know, to understand,) sive intellectu, sive usu et experientia: secondly,-posse, valere, to be able; a sense or signification, he remarks, transferred from knowledge to power. The primary meaning of ken is (probably) to see.

To see, to view, to survey; to know, to perceive, to discern, to distinguish; to cause to know; to learn, to teach.

Kenning, or konning, i. e. cunning; knowledge, perception, discernment.

Sikerliche we ne konne nogt of thralhed ne of wo.
R. Gloucester, p. 47.

Kastels suld thei bete doun, kirkes suld thei brenne
Bothe citez & tounes, that thei mot se or ken.

R. Brunne, p. 43.
Thanne reason rod forth. and tok reward of no man
And dude as conscience kenned.-Piers Ploukman, p. 66.

If I haue profecie and knowe alle mysteries and al kynnyng, and if I haue al feith, so that I moue hillis fro her place, and I haue not charite I am nought.

Wiclif. 1 Cor. c. 13.
And evermore, wher ever that they gon,
Men may hem kennen by smell of brimston.

Chaucer. The Chanones Yemannes Tale, v. 11,354.
I haue

As faithfully as I haue had konning

Been yours all, God so my soul saue.-Id. Troilus, b. iii.

Hauing in like sort kenned the carak, [the Earle of Cumberland's ships] pursued her by that course which they saw her to runne towards the ilands.

Hackluyt. Voyages, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 196.

The shepheards swaine you cannot well ken,
But it be by his pride, from other men.

Spenser. Shepheard's Calender. September.

Tho' as they rode together on their way,
A rout of people they before them kend,
Flocking together in confusde array,
As if that there were some tumultuous affray.
Id. Faerie Queene, b. v. c. 11.
On which they might discern within their ken
The carcasses of birds, of beasts, and men,
Chok'd by the deluge.

Drayton. Noah's Flood.

[They related] that the Seres were within their kenning, whom they might easily discover from out of this their island.-Holland. Plinie, b. vi. c. 22.

Now when this fleet was within a kenning of the city, and less, that they might easily see them from thence, every man prepared himself to receive them, taking them to be Ptolomie's ships.-North. Plutarch, p. 734.

Then nodded awful: from his shaken locks
Ambrosial fragrance flew the signal given
By Ganymede, the skinker soon was kenn'd.
J. Philips. Cerealia, 1706.

So the glories of Christ's person were by the very transcendency of their height plac'd above the reach and ken of a mortal apprehension.-South, vol. iii. Ser. 7.

Far to the west the long, long vale withdrawn,
Where twilight loves to linger for a while;
And now he faintly kens the bounding fawn,
And villager abroad at early toil.-Beattie. The Minstrel.
Faith led the van, her mantle dipt in blue,
Steady her ken, and gaining on the skies.
Thompson. The Nativity.

KENNEL. Fr. Chenal, a channel or gutter. See CHANNEL, and CANAL. (Lat. Canalis.) Applied to

The gutters in streets to carry off the water.

My name's Vitelli, and I'll have the wall. Luc. Why, then, I'll have the kennel. What a coil you keep.-Beaum. & Fletch. The Martial Maid, Act ii. sc. 1.

Give your petitions

In seemly sort, and keep your hat off decently.
A fine periphrasis of a kennel-raker.

Id. The Prophetess, Act iii. sc. 1.

But when the swinging signs your ears offend
With creaking noise, then rainy floods impend;
Soon shall the kennels swell with rapid streams,
And rush in muddy torrents to the Thames.

Gay. Trivia, b. i
Where silver rivulets play through flow'ry meads,
And woodbines give their sweets and limes their shades,
Black kennels' absent odours she regrets,
And stops her nose at beds of violets.

Young. Love of Fame, Sat. 5.

KENNEL, v. Į Junius says, Cennel, or kennel, KENNEL, n. Canile, latibulum vel tugurium caninum. Fr. Chenil, chenin; It. Canile, which is from canis, as agnile, bovile, &c. (from agni, bovis,) a place for lambs, a place for oxen. Kennel is applied to

The place where dogs are kept; and to the pack or collection of dogs kept there.

That from my state a presence held in awe,

Glad here to kennel in a pad of straw.

As at any bore, gasht with the hunter's wounds, A kennel of the sharpest set, and sorest bitten hounds, Before their youthful huntsmen haste.

Chapman. Homer. Iliad, b. xvii.
First let the kennel be the huntsman's care,
Upon some little eminence erect,

And fronting to the ruddy dawn; its courts
On either hand wide opening to receive
The sun's all-charming beams, when mild he shines,
And gilds the mountain tops.-Somervile. The Chase.

KERCHIEF. KE'RCHEFT. KE'RCHERED. KE'RCHER.

Fr. Couvre-chef, a kerchief, (Cotgrave.) Written by R. Brunne, Kouerchef; by Chaucer, Coverchefe. (See COVER.) Junius says, "Corchief,-a cover for the head; it seems formed of Couvre-chef." Literally,

A cover for the head; a veil for the head, and an article of dress similar to such veil, but used for other purposes. In Dryden,

The wearer of a kerchief.

Withouten kirtelle or kemse, saue kouerchef alle bare vis.
[face.]
R. Brunne, p. 122.
Whan that my fourthe husbonde was on bere,
I wept algate and made a sory chere,
As wives moten, for it is the usage;
And with my coverchefe covered my visage.
Chaucer. The Wif of Bathes Prologue, v.6171.
Impatient of himself lies pining by
Pale Sickness, with her kercher'd head up wound,
And thousand noisome plagues attend her round.
G. Fletcher. Christ's Victory in Heaven.
Thus Night oft see me in thy pale career,
Till civil-suited Morn appear,
Not trick'd and frounc'd as she was wont
With the Attic boy to hunt,

But kercheft in a comely cloud,
While rocking winds are piping loud.

Milton. Il Penseroso.

After the force and power of his heart had failed him, and shewed all these signs, he became like a man in an exstasie and trance, and white as a kercher.-North. Plutarch, p.746. If this country hath bred no writers in that faculty, [physicians] the wonder is the less, if it be true what I read, that if any here be sick, "they make a posset, and tye a kerchieff on his head; and if that will not mend him, then God be mercifull to him!"-Fuller. Worthies. Cheshire. The proudest kerchief of the court shall rest Well satisfy'd of what they love the best.

Dryden. The Wife of Bath's Tale. KERN. Skinner says, "Unless the word KERNISH. be (as is very probable) of Irish origin, I should derive it from the A. S. Cyrran ; Dut. Keeren; Ger. Kehren; to turn; (see CHURN;) since they, the most nimble of all men, turn and twist their limbs this way and that with the utmost facility." It is applied generally to

Clowns, boors, clownish peasantry.

The kerne is an ordinarie souldior, vsing for weapon his sword and target, and sometimes his peece, being commonlie so good markemen as they will come within a score of a great castell. Kerne signifieth (as noble men of deepe iudgement informed me) a shower of hell, because they are taken for no better than for rakehels, or the diuels blackegard, by reason of the stinking_sturre they keepe, wheresoever they be.-Stanihurst. The Desc. of Ireland, c. 8.

They han fat kernes, and leany knaues,
Their fasting flocks to keepe.

Spenser. Shepheard's Calender. July. The countrie kernes that filed [to Rome,] such also as were spoiled and wounded in the villages about reported more foule and cruell outrages in their eares, than were presented unto their eies, and set all the cittie in a hoat and angrie broile.-Holland. Livivs, p. 135.

needs be faln into a strange plight either of effeminacy or And we for our parts, a populous and mighty nation, must confusion, if Ireland, that was once the conquest of one single earl with his private forces, and the small assistance of a petty kernish prince, should now take up all the wisdom and prowess of this potent monarchy, to quell a barbarous crew of rebels.

Milton. The Reason of Church Government, b. i. c. 7.
From the A. S. Cirnel, glan-
dula; Dut. Karne, kerne; Ger.
Kern; Fr. Cerneau, perhaps,

KERN, v. Kernel. KERNELLY.

to those of the kernels of fruit, (sc.) certain ecocretions in the flesh.

To kern, to granulate, to form into coras ot grains, or small kernels.

Or else maintains the plot much starved with the wet, Wherein his daintiest fruits in kernels he doth set, Drayton. Poly-Olbion, s. IS. Prohibitions [were] published by the censors, forbilling expressly, That neither the kernellie part of a bore's necke, nor dormice, and other smaller matters than these to be spoken of, should be served up to the bourd at great feasts. Holland. Pline, b xxxvi. c. I.

They who come hither to lade salt, take it up as it kerna, and lay it in heaps on the dry land, before the weather breaks in anew.-Dampier. Voyages, an. 169.

The salt begins to kern or grain in April, except it is a dry season; for it is observed that rain makes the at vern. Id. Ib. as $82.

He makes the breasts to be nothing but glandules of that sort they call conglomeratæ, made up of an infinite ser of little knots or kernels, each whereof hath its ex vessel, or lactiferous duct.-Ray. On the Creation, pl. i.

See how the Belgae, sedulous and stout
With bowls of fattening mum, or blissful cups
Of kernel-relish'd fluids, the fair star

Of early Phosphorus salute.-J. Philips. Cider, b. iL KERSE. A. S. Cerse, or cerse, water-cresses. He cared not a rush, (says Tyrwhitt ;) and Tooke's editor very properly adds this word hers to the instances of the transposition of r, as in gers kr grass: Kerse has (he observes) been changed in common speech into curse, (8vo. ed. vol. ii. p. 90.)

Of paramours ne raught he not a kers.

Chaucer. The Milleres Tale, v. 3755.

For this thei tellen that ben wise,
Whiche is to striue, and haue the werse,
To hasten, is nought worth a kerse
Thyng, that a man maie not acheue.

Gower. Com. 4. b. i.

Fr. Craisée, carize; Sp. Carisea; either course, and KERSEY. Dut. Karsaye, kerserye, karserye : say, (a stuff,) or from the island of Jersey, (Gersey,) formerly, perhaps, famous for this kind of cloth, (Skinner.)

Moreouer also of late, the customers of the smal er rey custome & of the subsidie doe demand of them custome fir kersey-clothes equal vnto the custome of those clothes, that be of ful assise.-Hackluyt. Voyages, vol. i. p. 172. Then wore they shoces of ease, now of An inch-broad, corked hye: Black karsie stockings, worsted now, Yea silke of youthful'st dye.

Warner. Albion's England, hi Others you'll see when all the town's afloat, Wrap't in th' embraces of a kersey coat.-Gag. Trivis, b.L And dressing in a kersey thicker Than that which clothes a Cornish vicar, He seldom had the luck to eat,

In Berkley square, or Grosvenor street.

KERVE, v. Ke'rver. KE'RVING, n. Kerf.

an,

Cawthorn. Wit & Learning.

i. e. Carve, (qv.) A.S. Ceor

to carve or cut.

A kerf,—a cut, an incision.

Of alle kyne craftes. ich contreevede here tooles
Of carpentrie of kerveres, and contrevede the compas
Piers Plouman, p. 190.

This naked swerd, that hangeth by my side,
Swiche vertue hath, that what man that it smite,
Thurghout his armure it wol kerve and bite,
Were it as thicke as is a braunched oke.

Chaucer. The Squieres Tale, r. 20,475.
For in the lond ther n'as no craftes man,
That geometrie, or arsmetrike can,
Ne portreiour. ne kerver of images,
That Theseus ne yaf him mete and wages
The theatre for to maken and devise.
But yet had I foryetten to devise
The noble kerving, and the portreitures,
The shape, the contenance of the figures
That weren in these oratories three.

I. I. v. 1902.

Id. The Knight Tale, v. 19:3

In her imaginacion With sondrie kerfe and portrature Thei made of goddes the figure. Gower, Con. A. b.v Blind reason sayth God is a kerued post and wil be served with a candle.-Tyndall. Workes, p. 417.

Eteonænus was the man that kerued.

Chapman. Homer. Odyssey, d. XT.