dog whipper (doghwiper)

A church beadle. [North. Eng.] It were verie good the dog - whipper in Paules would have a care of this in his unsaverie visitation everie Saterday. Nashe , Pierce Penile e (1592). In the neighbourhood of Sheffield a sexton is still called a dog - whipper . N. and Q., 7th ser., III. 316. dogwood (dog'wud), n . [Appar. dog + wood1. Some suppose dogwood , as applied to the wood of trees of the genus Cornus , to be a corruption of * dagwood ( dag1 + wood1 ), a name equiv. to its other names, prick - wood , skewer - wood , so called because, being firm, hard, and smooth, it is used to make butchers' skewers; but the form * dagwood is not found, and in this, as well as in its other applications (see def. 3), and in similar popular names of plants, it is not nece ary to a ume a definite intention in the use of the animal name.] 1. A tree of the genus Cornus ; the cornel; especially, in Europe, the wild or male cornel, C. sanguine a . Also called dogwood-tree. In the United States some of the species are familiar, as the flowering dogwood, C. florida , a highly ornamental tree, of moderate size, covered in May or early June with a profusion of large white or pale-pink flowers; the Californian dogwood, C. Nuttallii ; the swamp-dogwood, C. sericea ; and the dwarf dogwood, C. Can a dens is. See Cornus . 2. The wood of trees of the genus Corner so exceptionally free silex that watchmakers use small splinters of it for cleaning out the pivot-holes of watches, and opticians for removing dust from small deep-seated lenses. 3. Any cornel-like shrub so called, as in England the Euonymus Europœus. The black dogwood of Europe is Rhamnus Frangula and Prunus Padus, and of the West Indies, Piscidia Cart hag in ens is; false or striped dogwood, Acer Penn sylvan i cum; Jamaica or white dogwood, Piscidia Erythrina; poison dogwood, Rhus venenata; pond-dogwood, Cephalanthus occiden talis; and the white dogwood of England, Viburnum Opulus. The Tasmanian dogwood, Bedford i a salicin a, of the natural order Composite, has a beautifully marked wood, used in cabinet-work. The dogwood of Australia, Jackson i a scoparia, a leguminous shrub, has a disagree able odor when burning. dogwood-bark (dog' wud-bärk), n. The bark of the Cornus florida, used in the United States as a substitute for Peruvian bark in cases of fever. Ure, Dict., II. 69.