Volume 2

A dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar / by Samuel Johnson.

  • Samuel Johnson
Date:
1755
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar / by Samuel Johnson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Johnny wheedl'd, threaten’d, fawn’d, Till Phillis all her trinkets pawn’d. Swift. Wheel, n.f. [jopeol, Saxon; wiel, Dutch; hioel, Iflandick.J 1. A circular body that turns round upon an axis. Carnality within raifes all the combuftions without: this is the great wheel to which the clock owes its motion. Dec. P. The gafping charioteer beneath the wheel Of his own car. Dryden. Fortune fits all breathlefs, and admires to feel A fate fo weighty, that it flops her wheel. Dryden. Some watches are made with four wheels, others with five. Locke. A wheel-plough is one of the beft and eafieft draughts. Mortimer's Hujbandry. 2. A circular body. Let go thy hold when a great wheel runs down a hill, left it break thy neck with following it. Shakefpeare's King Lear. 3. A carriage that runs upon wheels. The ftar that rofe at ev’ning bright, Towards heav’n's defeent had ftopt his weftering wheel. Milton. Through the proud ftreet fhe mottes the publick gaze. The turning wheel before the palace flays. Pope. 4. An inftrument on which criminals are tortured. Let them pull all about mine ears, prefent me Death on the wheel, or at wild horfes heels. Shakefpeare: Thou art a foul inblifs, but I am bound Upon a wheel of fire, Shakefp. King Lear. For all the torments of her wheel May you as many pleafures fhare. Waller. His examination is like that which is made by the rack and wheel. Addifon. 5. The inftrument of fpinning. Verfe fweetens care, however rude the found. All at her work the village maiden fings; Nor as fhe turns the giddy wheel around. Revolves the fad viciffitudes of things. Giffard. 6. Rotation ; revolution. Look not too long upon thefe turning wheels of viciflitude, left we become giddy. Bacon. According to the common viciflitude and wheel of things, the proud and the infolent, after long trampling upon others, come at length to be trampled upon themfelves. South's Sermons. 7. A compafs about; a trail approaching to circularity. He throws his flight in many an airy wheel. Milton. To Wheel, v. n. [from the noun.] 1. To move on wheels. 2. To turn on an axis. The moon carried about the earth always fhews the fame face to us, not once wheeling upon her own center. Bentley. 3. To revolve ; to have a rotatory motion. 4. To turn ; to have viciflitudes. 5. To fetch a compafs. Spies Held me in chace, that I was forc’d to wheel Three or four miles about. Shakefpeare's Coriolanus. You my Myrmidons, Mark what I fay, attend me where I wheel. Shakefpeare. Continually wheeling about, he kept them in fo ftrait, that no man could, without great danger, go to water his horfe. Knol. He at hand provokes His rage, and plies him with redoubled ftrokes; Wheels as he wheels. Dryden, Half thefe draw off, and coaft the fouth With ftridfeft watch: thefe other wheel the north : Our circuit meets full weft; as flame they part. Half wheeling to the fhield, half to the fpear. Milton. Now fmoothly fleers through air his rapid flight. Then wheeling down the fteep of heav’n he flies And draws a radiant circle o’er the fkies. Pope. 6. To roll forward. The courfe of juftice wheel'd about, And left thee but a very prey to time. Shakefpeare. Thunder Muft wheel on the earth, devouring where it rolls. Milton. ToWheel. v. a. To put into a rotatory motion; to make to whirl round. Heav’n rowl’d Her motions, as the great firft Mover’s hand Firft wheels their courfe. Milton's Paradife Lof. Whee'lbarrow, n.f. [wheel and barrow.~\ A carriage dri¬ ven forward on one wheel. Carry bottles in a wheelbarrow upon rough ground, but not filled full, but leave fome air. Bacon. Pippins did in wheelbarrows abound King. Wiiee'ler. n.f [from wheel.] A maker of wheels. After local names, the moft have been derived from occu¬ pations, as Potter, Smith, Brafier, Wheeler, Wright. Camden. Whfk'lwricht. n. f. [wheel and wright.] A maker of wheel- carriages. It is a tough wood, and all heart, being good for the wheeltvrights. Mortimer. 7 Pope. Gay. Whee'ly. adj. [from wheel.~\ Circular; fuitable to rotation. Hinds cxercife the pointed fteel On the hard rock, and give a wheely form To the expe&ed grinder. Philips. To Wheeze, v.n. [bpeoyon, Saxon.] To breath with noife. The conftridlion of the trachaea ftreightens the paflage of the air, and produces the wheezing in the afthma. Hoycr. It is eafy to run into ridicule the beft deferiptions, when once a man is in the humour of laughing, till he wheezes at his own dull jeft. Dryden. The fawning dog runs mad ; the wheezing fwine With coughs is choak’d, °Dry den's Virgil. Prepare balfamick cups, to wheezing lungs Medicinal, and fhort-breath’d. Philips. Wheezing aftlTma loth to ftir. Swift. Whelk, n.f. [See to Welk.] 1. An inequality; a protuberance. His face is all bubuckles, and whelks, and knobs, and flames of fire. Shakefpeare's Henry V. 2. A puftule. [See Weal.] To Whelm, v. a. [ap^ilpan, Saxon; wilma, Iflandick.] 1. To cover with fomething not to be thrown off; to bury. Grievous mifehiefs which a wicked fay Had wrought, and many whelm'd in deadly pain. Fa, Phi. This pink is my prize, or ocean whelm them all. Shak. So the fad offence deferves, Plung’d in the deep for ever let me lye. Whelm'd under feas„ Addifon. Difcharge the load of earth that lies on you, like one of the mountains under which the poets fay, the giants and men of the earth are whelmed. Deplore The whelming billow and the faithlefs bar. 2. To throw upon fomething fo as to cover or bury it. On thofe curfed engines triple row, They faw them whelm'd, and all their confidence Under the weight of mountains bury’d deep. Milton. Whelm fome things over them and keep them there. Mortim. Whelp, n.f. [welp, Dutch; huolpar, Iflandick; hwalp, Swe- difh.J 1. The young of a dog; a puppy. They call’d us, for our fiercenefs, Englifh dogs, Now, like their whelps, we crying run away. Shakefpeare. Whelps come to their growth within three quarters of a year. Bacon's Natural Hif ary. Whelps are blind nine days, and then begin to fee as general¬ ly believed ; but as we have elfewhere declared, it is rare that their eye-lids open until the twelfth day. Brown. 2. The young of any beaft of prey. The lion’s whelp fhall be to himfelf unknown. Shakefpeare. Thofe unliekt bear whelps. Donne. 3. A fon. In contempt. The young whelp of Talbot’s raging brood Did flefh his puny fword in Frenchmens blood. Shakefpeare. 4; A young man. In contempt. Slave, I will ftrike your foul out with my foot, Let me but find you again with fuch a face: Y ou whelp. Ben. Johnfon's Catiline. That aukward whelp, with his money-bars, would have made his entrance. Addifon s Guardian. To Whelp, v. n. To bring young. Applied to bcafts, gene¬ rally beafts of prey. A lionefs hath whelped in the ftreets, And graves have yawn’d. Shakefpeare's Julius Cafar. In a bitch ready to whelp, we found four puppies. Boyle. In their palaces, Where luxury late reign'd, fea-monfters whelp'd And ftabled. Milton's Paradife Lf. When. adv. [whan, Gothick; pp&nne, Sax. wanneer, Dutch.] 1. At the time that. Divers curious men judged that one Theodofius fhould fuc- ceed, zuhen indeed Theodofius did. Camden. One who died feveral ages ago, raifes a fecret fondnefs and benevolence for him in our minds, when we read hisftory. Add. At what time ? When was it fhe laft walk’d ?— —Since his majefty went into the field. Shakefp. Macbeth. 1 f there’s a pow’r above us. And that there is all nature cries aloud, Through all her works ; he muft delight in virtue, And that which he delights in muft be h2ppy. But when ? or where ? Add for: Which time. I was adopted heir by his confent; Since when, his oath is broke. Shakefpeare's Henry \\. At which time. By this the bloody troops were at the door, When as a fudden and a ftrange difmay. Enforc’d them ftrain who fliould go in before. Darnel. After the time that. When I have once handed a report to another, how know I how he may improve it ? Government oj the Tongue. t. A 2.