delf

See also: DELF

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English delf, delve, dælf (a quarry, clay pit, hole; an artificial watercourse, a canal, a ditch, a trench; a grave; a pitfall), from Old English delf, ġedelf (delving, digging) and dælf (that which is dug, delf, ditch), from Proto-Germanic *delbaną (to dig). More at delve.

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -ɛlf

Noun

delf (plural delves)

  1. A mine, quarry, pit dug; ditch.
  2. (heraldry) A charge representing a square sod.
  3. Alternative form of delft (style of earthenware)
    • 1864, Browning, Robert, “Mr. Sludge, "The Medium"”, in Wikisource, line 832, retrieved 2012-01-18:
      That's all—do what we do, but noblier done— / Use plate, whereas we eat our meals off delf, / (To use a figure).
    • 1941, Sarah Atherton, Mark's Own, Bobbs-Merrill:
      Men can't munch from meatless pots and doughless delf.

Derived terms

References

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for delf in
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Anagrams


Dutch

Pronunciation

  • (file)

Verb

delf

  1. first-person singular present indicative of delven
  2. imperative of delven

Middle Dutch

Noun

delf ?

  1. Delft (a city)

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

Further reading

  • delf”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old English delf, from delfan (Middle English delven).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /dɛlf/, /dɛlv/

Noun

delf (plural delves)

  1. A quarry (pit for digging stone or clay).
  2. A man-made channel or stream; a water-filled ditch.
  3. A hole or ditch; a delf.

Descendants

References


Old English

Etymology

From the verb delfan (to delve, dig, dig out, burrow, bury), from Proto-Germanic *delbaną, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰelbʰ-.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /delf/

Noun

delf n (nominative plural delf)

  1. digging, excavation
  2. that which is dug: trench, quarry, canal

Declension

Derived terms

  • delfere
  • delfīsen
  • delfung
  • ġedelf
  • lēadġedelf
  • underdelf
  • ymbġedelf

Descendants

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