pilcher
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See also: Pilcher
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]Noun
[edit]pilcher (plural pilchers)
- Archaic form of pilchard.
- c. 1612–1615?, John Fletcher, Francis Beaumont, revised by Philip Massinger, “Loves Cure or, The Martial Maid”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act II, scene i:
- He that eats nothing but a red herring a-day shall ne'er be broiled for the devil's rasher: a pilcher, signor, a surdiny, an olive, that I may be a philosopher first, and immortal after.
Etymology 2
[edit]Noun
[edit]pilcher (plural pilchers)
- (obsolete) One who wears a pilch.
- (obsolete) A scabbard, as of a sword.
- c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
- MERCUTIO: Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher by the ears?
- A term of abuse for a person considered worthless, contemptible, or insignificant.[1]
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “pilcher”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)