Lancashire Dialect Glossary D
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Dad – father (Tad, Celtic) (SB)
Dab – clever, active ‘A dab hand at a game’
Dab – a blow; also to be quick at anything, "a dab hond" (SB)
Dabs – blows, thumps
Dacent – decent, good
Dacker – tickle, unsettled (SB)
Dade – to help, assist ‘Aw daded him across th’ road’Dade – to hold a child suspended under the arms, whilst learning to walk (SB)
Dadin – upholding a child (SB)
Dadin-strengs – soft, thick bands or strings, from which a child depends when essayin to walk (SB)
Daddle – to stagger like a child (SB)
Daffock – a dirty slattern (SB)
Daft – short of sense, silly
Dagg – to plash, to bemire petticoats in walking (SB)
Daggle – to trail in mire (SB)
Dagg-tail – a dirty slattern (SB)
Dalt – dealed; dalt'n – we dealed (SB)
Damprate – an imprecation
Dandle – to play with; to fondle a child (SB)
Dandy – a pert, consequential fellow; a bantam fowl (SB)
Dane – down, a hollow; Booth-dane, near Rochdale (SB)
Dang – a mild substitute word for ‘damn’ ‘Boh, dang it, mon’
Dangin – banging, striking (SB)
Dangus – the same as daffock (SB)
Dank – damp; donk – the same (SB)
Dar – dear, expensive
Dar – dearer
Dar – dare
Dar say – dare say
Darn – dare not (SB)
Dare-na, dareno – dare not
Darto – darest thou (SB)
Dartono – darest thou not? (SB)
Dare-na, dareno – dare not
Darsen’d, dassen’d – dare not ‘Aw read a story t’other neet
As med mi toppin rise wi freet;
Aw felt so flayed wi’ wod aw read
Aw dassen’d hardly gooa to bed’
Dateliss – senseless, fatuitous (SB)
Dawnger – danger (SB)
Day-lit – twilight
Dazed – confused, mazed (SB)
Deasunt – decent (SB)
Deawk – to stoop suddenly in order to avoid a blow. "He deawkt deawn, an it mist him" (SB)
Deawkin – stooping; pl. deawkn (SB)
Deawm – dumb (SB)
Deawn – down ‘He’d lie him deawn an’ snore away’
Deawnin – downing, the finishing of a weaver's warp (SB)
Deawt – doubt ‘Not a fear left, not a deawt’; dyawt, the same; chiefly so expressed about Todmorden (SB)
Dee – die; deein, dying; pl. deedn (SB)
Deead, deeod – dead
Deeath – death ‘Bud id mon be a fearsome thing,
To know as Deeath is beawn to spring’
Dee'd – died
Deel, deeol, deol – deal, much
Deet – mark, sign ‘Deet no papper about nowt at o’
‘Theau’s deet thi bishop’
Deet – to daub, to smear; deeted, daubed; deetin, daubing , pl. deetn (SB)
Deg/degg – to sprinkle water; to water plants (SB)
Deggin – watering (SB)
Dellit – close of day, dusk (SB)
Desart – desert
Deveawer – devour (SB)
Devilskin – a clownish fellow, full of tricks
Dhog – dog; the o sounded broad and full, as in roe, woe, foe, and not according to the common pronunciation, aug, thereby producing the refined term, daug (SB)
Dickons/dickens, the (exclamation) – ‘The Dickons it is, sed I’
Didder, dither, dodder – shake or tremble with cold or fear
Diddle – to shake gently, also to swindle
Didno’ – did not
Didnyo – did you? (SB)
Didnyono – did you not? (SB)
Didto – didst thou? (SB)
Didtono – didst thou not? (SB)
Din – a noise (SB)
Ding – a blow ‘Aw dinged him i’ th’ yed’
Ding – upbraided ‘Aw dinged him op’
Ding – to knock, to strike, to reiterate an accusation; the ing sounded as in ring. "Hoo kept dingin him op" (SB)
Dingin – upbraiding, making a noise (SB)
Dinge – to indent, to make a hollow, to batter (SB)
Dingt – beaten, indented (SB)
Dingle – a valley, with water running at the bottom (SB)
Disactly – exactly (obs.) (SB)
Dither – to shiver, to tremble (SB)
Ditherin’ – shaking or trembling ‘He felt no ditherin’ at his knees’; pl. dithertn (SB)
Dithert – trembled (SB)
Do, doo – party, event, fight ‘It wur a gradely do’
Do/done – swindle/swindled
Doaf – dough
Doage – wet, damp (SB)
Doance – to dance (SB)
Doanc'd – danced
Dobby – Robin, Robert (SB)
Dobbin – a machine for weaving figures (SB)
Dockin – dull, stupid (SB)
Doe – to be healthful (SB)
Doein – being in health (SB)
Doekinly – stupidly (SB)
Doesn’d – does not
Doesum – healthy (SB)
Doesn’d – does not
Doff – to put off dress (SB)
Doffin – undressing; pl. doffnt (SB)
Doff-cocker – a place near Bolton (SB)
Doldrum – a place near Rochdale (SB)
Dole – a gift, a charity (SB)
Dollt, Dallt – doled (SB)
Dolltin – doling, dividing (SB)
Don'd – put on
Do, doo – party, event, fight ‘It wur a gradely do’
Do/done – swindle/swindled
Do – work to be done ‘Neaw, give them windows a good do!’
Dollop – a lot, a large quantity ‘A dollop of stones’
Dolly – a handled implement with four legs at its base, used for
‘dollying’ clothes in a ‘dolly-tub’. Also spoken of as a ‘peggy’
Dolly – the act of dollying ‘Be sharp, an’ dolly them clooas’
Dolly – overdressed or over-rated ‘She’s a proper dolly’
Don – clever
Don – put on clothes (do on); to dress (SB)
Done – deceived, swindled ‘Tha’s bin done’
Done – rm. with hone, the down of feathers (SB)
Donk – damp, wet (SB)
Dontles – things to be don'd (SB)
Doo – do; dooin – doing (SB)
Dossuck – a slovenly woman (SB)
Dossy – a slut (SB)
Dothe – do the; "dothe yon wark," do thee yonder work (SB)
Doubt – afraid ‘I doubt we’re goin’ to be left (meaning ‘I think we’re going to
be left)’, ‘I doubt it’s goin’ to rain (meaning ‘I think it’s going to rain)’
Dowf – dough; dowfy – doughy (SB)
Dowtter – daughter (SB)
Doytch – a ditch; doytchin, ditchin; doyteh-back, a rampart above a ditch (SB)
Dozin – slumbering (SB)
Doubt – afraid ‘I doubt we’re goin’ to be left (meaning ‘I think we’re going to
be left)’, ‘I doubt it’s goin’ to rain (meaning ‘I think it’s going to rain)’
Draff – grains of malt (SB)
Draight or Dreyght – a draught of ale; a team of horses (SB)
Drape – a cow which has ceased to yield milk (SB)
Dreawps – drops (SB)
Dreawn – drown; dreawnt – drowned (SB)
Dreawsy – drowsy (SB)
Dree, dreigh, drey – tedious, prolonged, dry ‘Aw’m as drey, mon, as soot’,
‘A dree sarmon’, ‘A dree road’
Dreeamt, dreeomt – dreamed
Dreely – deliberately, slowly (SB)
Dress (down) – to scold, but generally to chastise ‘A good dressing down’
Dress (up) – to tidy up, to make smart
Drey – to draw (SB)
Dreyin – drawing (SB)
Drippins – milk yielded the last (SB)
Drizzle – to rain softly
Drooty – dry weather
Drot, drat – an imprecation, drot is stonger, almost ‘damn’
Droy – to dry with a cloth, thirsty (SB)
Dryed – dread; dryedful – dreadful (SB)
Dryem – dream; dryempt, dreamed; pl. dryemtn (SB)
Duck – to go under water, to stoop suddenly (SB)
Dud – did; dudn – we did (SB)
Dud/Dudn’d – did/did not ‘Well, ony chap ‘at’s felt like thad
‘ll know as th’ tailor dud feel bad’
Dule – devil ‘The dule’s i this bonnet o’ mine’; Dule-gate, a pass betwixt Todmorden and Bacup (SB)
Dule-hole – a place near Rochdale (SB)
Dumps – a thoughtful, concerned mood (SB)
Dumpy – short, thick, plump (SB)
Dun – done, do ‘Han yo’ dun?’, ‘We donc’d like morris-dancers dun’
Dun – done, completed (SB)
Dunn – a colour, a pale brown. "Meawse culler dunn” (SB)
Dunna, dunnat, dunnaw, dunno – do not ‘There con no wisdom be I trow,
In feighting things we dunnaw know’
Dunno’ – do not
Dunnoyo – do you not (SB)
Dunnuck – a hedge sparrow (SB)
Dur – door ‘Bring in some coals; an’ shut that dur’
Dur-sneck – door latch
Dur-cheeks – door frame; post (SB)
Durn – a gate stump (SB)
Durstone – a doorstone (SB)
Durt – dirt; durty, dirty (SB)
Dus – does
Dust – do you ‘For whot dust think?’
Dusto’ – dost thou
Dych – a heaped up hedge
Dyed (pron. D’yed) – dead
Dyef – deaf (SB)
Dyel – a deal, many (SB)
Dyeth – death (SB)