scouring ball (skouringbal)

A ball combined of soap, ox-gall, and absorbent earth, used for removing stains of grease, paint, fruit, scout scoursel (skōrs), v. [Early mod. E. also scorse, scorce, sco , dial. scoce; supposed supposed by some to be an a aphetic form of discourse, taken in the sense exchange words,' hence 'exchange, trade' (see discourse, v.). The word seems to have been used chiefly with ref. to trading in horses, and prob. arose by confusion from course, also written coarse, and the orig. courser2, esp. in the comp. horse - courser, which alternated with horse-scourser: see course, courser 2.] I. trans. To exchange; barter; trade; swap: as, to scourse horses. I know the barber will scourse [the fiddle). away for some old cittern. Middle ton, More Di emblers Besides Women, v. 1. In strength his equal, blow for blow they scorce. Drayton, Battle of Agin court, p. 56. This done, she makes the stately dame to light, And with the aged woman cloths to scorse . Sir J. Haring ton , tr. of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, xx. 78. II. in trans . To make an exchange; exchange; trade. Or cruel, if thou canst not, let us scorse , And for one piece of thine my whole heart take. Drayton, Idea, lii. Will you scourse with him? you are in Smith field; you may fit yourself with a fine easy-going street-nag. B. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, iii. 1. [See scourse1 , v.] Dis scourselt (skors), n. [Now only prov. Eng.] course. [Rare.] Yet lively vigour rested in his mind, And recompenst them with a better scorse . Spenser, F. Q., II. ix. 55.