Meaning of oathlet | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A minced oath.
   dated
2. A pledge or promise that does not carry the full level of commitment of an oath.
   nonce-word

Examples

“The visitors were prepared with a meek, uncomplaining, expected fourpenny fee to the janitor; no murmur, no half-vented oathlet at a verger, no smothered blessing—in italics—of the dean and chapter, but the hush-money was held out with a perfect quiet, as though it was indeed hushed by the breathing silence of the cathedral itself!”

“cock and pie: an obsolete oathlet, in which "cock" may be a corruption of God, and "pie" the Romish mass-book; but the reference may be merely to a cock and a magpie, which were coupled on tavern signs.”

“Afore me is a mild protestation, — a sort of oath, or oathlet.”

“At his restoration "fat Louis" was fully and sympathetically aware of his subjects' need to let bygones be bygones. The elderly M. de Barentin was stumblingly explaining to Louis how it was that he had not — strictly speaking —in actual fact — sworn an oath of allegiance to Napoleon Bonaparte. “I quite understand,” Louis broke in.“At our age one only does things by halves. You didn't swear an oath to Bonaparte, you swore an oathlet."”

CEFR level