oafIshness

[Eng. oafish; -ne .] The quality or state of being oafish; silline , doltishne , stupidity. ōak, *ok, *oke, *ook, s. & a. [A. S. dc; cogn. with Dut. eik; Icel. eik; Dan. eeg, eg; Sw. ek; Ger. eiche.] A. As substantive: Ordinary Language and Botany: 1. Any species of the genus Quercus, and spec if. Quercus robur , the common British oak. It is sometimes sixty to a hundred feet high, with a girth of seventy feet. The branches are long and spread ing; the leaves are sinuate-lobed, oblong-obovate; the catkins pendulous, appearing with the leaves in April or May; the fruit a cupola, externally with many adpre ed imbricated scales. There are two varieties - se iliflora , with se ile, and pedun culata with pedunculated flowers; the latter is the most common in natural woods. Its timber is whitish and hard, that of the other reddish and brittle. The timber of the oak is proverbially good. The acorns are sometimes used to feed swine. The bark is employed in tanning, and as a coarse kind of febrifuge. Oak saw-dust is an ingredient in dyeing a fustian-color, also drab and brown. The decaying leaves produce heat by fermentation. 2. The genus Quercus (q. v.). 3. Species or genera more or le resembling the oak; as, the Australian Casuarina. B. As adj.: Made or consisting of oak; oaken; as, an oak table. (1) The Oaks : The name given to an English race for three-year-old fillies, carrying 122 pounds each, run on the last day of the Epsom Summer Meeting; the distance being about one and a half miles. It is one of the three great English races of the year, the other two being the Derby and the St. Leger. It was originated in 1779 by the twelfth Earl of Derby, and was named after a hunting-box of his in the neighborhood. (2) To sport one's oak: To be "not at home" to visitors, notified by the closing of the outer or oak door of one's rooms. ( Eng . Univ. slang.)