wherret
English
Alternative forms
- whirrit
- worrit
Etymology
Unknown; perhaps imitative. See whirr.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈwɛɹɪt/
Noun
wherret (plural wherrets)
- (now regional) A blow, especially on the face. [from 16th c.]
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 31, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
- I would rather perswade a man, though somewhat out of season, to give his boy a wherret on the eare, than to dissemble this wise, sterne or severe countenance, to vex and fret his minde.
Verb
wherret (third-person singular simple present wherrets, present participle wherreting, simple past and past participle wherreted)
- (obsolete, transitive) To hurry; to trouble; to tease.
- 1762, Isaac Bickerstaffe, Love in a Village (act 1, scene 5)
- Find some other road; can't you; and don't keep wherreting me with your nonsense.
- 1762, Isaac Bickerstaffe, Love in a Village (act 1, scene 5)
- (obsolete, transitive) To box (somebody) on the ear; to strike on the ear.
- to wherret a child