childer (childer)

pl. Shak ., Lear, iii. 6. The older plural of child. [Now only dialectal.] Thay ere lyke vn-to the childir that rynnes aftire buttyrflyes. Hampole , Prose Treatises (E. E. T. S.), p. 39. Childermas (childer-mas), n. [ me e , cilda mæ e (-dæg): cilda, also cildra, gen. pl. of cild , child; ma e , ma : see child and ma 2.] The popular name of Holy Innocents' day, a feast-day observed in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches on the 28th of December in commemoration of the slaughter of the children in and near Bethlehem by order of Herod soon after the birth of Christ, as narrated in Mat. ii. 16-18. Also Childermas day . So according to them [monks], it is very unlucky to be gin any Work upon Childer ma . Bourne's Pop . Antiq . (1777), p. 211. child-greatt (child'grāt), a. Pregnant. Syl vester.