Meaning of ouche | Babel Free

Definitions

A brooch or clasp for fastening a piece of clothing together, especially when set with jewels or valuable.

historical, poetic

Examples

“My huſbonde had a legende of his lyfe^([sic – meaning wyfe?]) / Eriphilem that for an ouche of golde / Hath preuely vnto the grekes tolde / Where that hir huſbonde hyd him in a place / For which he had at Thebes ſory grace.”

My husband had a legend of his wife, / Eriphilem, that for a brooch of gold / Has privily unto the Greeks told / Where her husband had hidden himself in a place, / For which he had at Thebes a sad fate.

“[A]nd the hors trapped in the ſame wyſe doune to the helys wyth many owchys y ſette with ſtones and perlys in gold to the nombre of a thowſand […]”

And the horse [was] trapped [i.e., adorned] in the same wise down to the heels with many brooches set with stones and pearls in gold to the number of a thousand […]

“a Persian mitre on her hed / She wore, with crownes and owches garnished […]”

“Nay more than this; I find too, and finde certain, / VVhat Gold I have, Pearle, Bracelets, Rings, or Owches, / Or vvhat ſhe can deſire, Govvns Petticotes, / VVaiſtcotes, Embroydered-ſtockings, Scarffs, Cals, Feathers, / Hats, five pound Garters, Muffs, Masks, Ruffs, & Ribands, / I am to give her for't.”

“With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel: thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold.”

“A Grecian bandeau of white satin riband, tied round the head, with two long ends fluttering in the air—a profusion of false curls—a prodigality of glitter in the shape of tinsel, false diamonds, fingers full of rings, with “brooches, pearls, and ooches” innumerable—and the general befitting appurtenance of the geese wings—characterized the appearance of these ladies of the corps de ballet.”

“There would be no pelts of the reindeer, flung down at thy cave for a gift, / Nor dole of the oily timber that strands with the Baltic drift; / No store of well-drilled needles, nor ouches of amber pale; / No new-cut tongues of the bison, nor meat of the stranded whale.”

CEFR level