bavin
English
Etymology
Perhaps Old French baffe (“a faggot”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈbæ.vɪn/
Audio (UK) (file)
Noun
bavin (countable and uncountable, plural bavins)
- (Southern England, archaic, countable) A bundle of wood or twigs, which may be used in broom-making.
- 1578, Lyly, John, Euphues:
- […] that hot love is soon cold: that the bavin, though it burn bright, is but a blaze: that scalding water, it if stand awhile, turneth almost to ice […]
- (Southern England, archaic, countable) A faggot bound with only one band.
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- (UK, dialect, uncountable) Impure limestone.
- 1839: The Silurian System by Roderick Murchison, i. xxxvi. 484
- The concretions […] are called 'bavin,' the shale associated with them being termed 'rotch.'
- 1839: The Silurian System by Roderick Murchison, i. xxxvi. 484
Verb
bavin (third-person singular simple present bavins, present participle bavining, simple past and past participle bavined)
- (Southern England, archaic) To bundle and bind wood into bavins.
Adjective
bavin (not comparable)
- Made of firewood or kindling.
- a. 1597, Shakespeare, William, Henry IV, Part 1, act 3, scene 2, lines 60–63:
- The skipping King, he ambled up and down, / With shallow jesters, and rash bavin wits, / Soon kindled and soon burnt, carded his state, / Mingled his royalty with capering fools,
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Norman
Etymology
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Noun
bavin m (uncountable)
- (Guernsey) nonsense, rubbish