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I could both sigh and smile at the witty simplicity of a poor old woman, who had lived in the time of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, and said her prayers daily both in Latin and English, and 'Let God,' said she, ' take to Himself which He likes best.'FULLER.

A grave man cannot conceive what is the use of a wit in society; a person who takes a strong common-sense view of a subject is for pushing out by the head and shoulders an ingenious theorist, who catches at the lightest and faintest analogies; and another man who scents the ridiculous from afar will hold no commerce with him who tastes exquisitely the fine feelings of the heart and is alive to nothing else: whereas, talent is latent, and mind is mind, in all its branches.-SYDNEY SMITH.

Witch. A sorcerer at one time, like 'shrew' and 'termagant,' either male or female.

Whereof came the name of Symonye? Of Symon Magus, a great wytche.-Dives and Pauper, vii. 16.

The last trial for witchcraft was under Lord Mansfield. The address to the jury was: I advise that this good woman should return to her home in whichever way she please, either in flying through the air, or along the king's highway. In neither case will she transgress the laws of the realm.

Worm.

Often used in the Elizabethan age for a serpent or dragon. Worm's-head, a promontory in Glamorganshire, was so called on account of its like

ness to a serpent's head.

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Hast thou the pretty worm of Nilus there,

That kills and pains not?

SHAKSPEARE, Antony and Cleopatra, v. 2.

The sad father,

That sees his son stung by a snake to death,

May with more justice stay his vengeful hand,

And let the worm escape, than you vouchsafe him
A minute to repent.

MASSINGER, Parliament of Love, iv. 2.

WORRY-WORSHIP.

Hear ye that awful truth

With which I charge my page,
A worm is at the bud of youth,

And at the root of age-CowPER.

Worry. To kill: now, to harass, distress.

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Some said they were smothered in their sleep, some that they were taken down into a stable and wirried.—Murder of Darnley and his Page.

To return to the worry incident upon conjoint action. What an immense number of people have to be persuaded, silenced, or tired out, before anything good can be done: how the cause becomes incrusted with fools, and bores, and vain men who hinder its progress far more than the marine creatures that sticking to the keels of vessels hinder theirs!-Sir A. HELPS.

Worship. Once equivalent to honour.

The which wife that I take ye me assure

To worship, whilst that her lif may endure.-CHAUCER. And for as much as it is not according to our worship, nor to our heart's ease, that the coming of her Margaret of Anjou) into this our Realme be long tarried and delayed.-Letter of Henry VI concerning his Queen, 1443.

The Africans are very litigious, and display in their law-suits a most forensic exuberance of images and loquacity of speech. Their criminal cases are frequently terminated by selling one of the parties into slavery, and the Christians are always ready to purchase either the plaintiff or defendant, or both together, with all the witnesses and any other human creature that is of a dusky colour and worships the great idol Boo-boo-boo with eleven heads. SYDNEY SMITH,

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Yard.

Y.

At one time applied to any enclosed place,

as a garden, or orchard.

This yerde was large and railed at the alleys

And shadowed well with blossoming bowis greene,
And trenched new, and sanded all the ways.-CHAUCER.

The bitter frostis with the sleet and rain

Destroyed had the greene in every yerde.-Id.

That Phillis in the same throwe

Was shape into a nutté-tree,

That all men it might see,

And after Phillis Philliberd (filbert)

This tree was cleped in the yerde.-GOWER.

In the winter play-hours, when hard exercise was impossible, my tales used to assemble an admiring audience, and happy was he who could sit next the inexhaustible narrator. So on the whole I made a brighter figure in the yards than in the class.-Sir WALTER SCOTT.

Yard. A rod; still used in a ' yard' measure.

Under the yerde was the Mayde.

CHAUCER, The Shipman's Tale.

Sir Host, quod he, I am under your yerde,
Ye have of us as now the Governance.

Id., The Clerk's Prologue.

A very holy man was travelling on foot and was benighted. He came to the cottage of a poor dowager; however, as she was a pious widow, she made the good man welcome. In the morning, at taking leave, the saint made her over to God for payment, and prayed that whatever she should do as soon as he was gone, she might continue to do all day. The good woman went about her work, she had a piece of coarse cloth to make a

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shift for herself and child; she no sooner began to measure it but the yard fell a measuring and there was no stopping it. It was sunset before the good woman had time to take breath, she was almost stifled, for she was up to her ears in 10,000 yards of cloth.-HORACE WALPOLE.

Yelp. Once used for the speech of human beings.

I wot well God me wol not helpe

What should I then of joyes yelpe ?—GOWER.

Hunting the hare. I could see her first pass by, and the dogs sometime afterwards unravelling the whole track she had made, and following her through all her doubles. I was at the same time delighted in observing the deference which the rest of the pack paid to each particular hound, according to the character he had acquired amongst them. If they were at a fault and an old hound of good reputation opened but once, he was immediately followed by the whole cry; while a raw dog, or one that was reputed a noted liar, might have yelped his heart out without being taken notice of.-ADDISON.

Z.

Zany. A Zany (probably a corruption of Giovanni, a simple John) was a buffoon, clown, or mimic. Hence 'to zany' was 'to imitate.'

For indeed

He's like the zani to a tumbler,

That tries tricks after him to make men laugh.

BEN JONSON.

I fear, gracious lady, our conference hath been overheard. Matilda, the better your part is acted, give me leave at distance zany it.-MASSINGER.

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Yet even this confirms me in my opinion of slighting popular

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applause, and of contemning that approbation which those very people give, equally with me, to the zany of a mountebank. --DBYDEN, Evening's Love.

As I have seen an arrogant baboon,

With a small piece of glass, zany the sun.

LOVELACE, Part ii. 78.

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