Meaning of lockchester | Babel Free

Definitions

Synonym of woodlouse.

obsolete

Examples

“Of these, the last only will be found in a dictionary of modern English, but I have already remarked that the name of lockchester is preserved among the peasantry of Oxfordshire, and I may add, that the peasantry in the North of England still call a woodlouse a kitchen-ball, and that those of the Southern dialects call it a chissel-bol, which is perhaps the representative of cheslop.”

“Mr. Halliwell, walking in a garden in Oxfordshire, accidentally overheard the gardener talking about lockchesters, and immediately asking him what these were, received for answer that they were woodlice.”

“But who will not be puzzled to hear that wood-lice are still, in some parts of Oxfordshire, called Lockchesters, and that there is evidence to show that this strange name was once, not only in provincial, but in general use?”

CEFR level