whetstone (hwetston)

[Early mod. E. also whestone; IMG:content-2290.png:[blocks in formation] Whetstones or scythes tones used to be made solely by hand in large quantities at stone quarries in Derby shire.. N. and Q., 7th ser., XI. 173. 2. Figuratively, that which sharpens, stimulates, or incites the faculties or appetites. I a ure you, there is no such whetstone to sharpen a good witte and encourage a will to learninge as is praise. Ascham , The Scholemaster, p. 26. Let them read Shakespeare's sonnets, taking thence A whetstone for their dull intelligence. Shelley , To his Genius. To give, deserve, or win the whets to net, old phrases in which a whetstone appears as the proverbial prize for lying. Confirmed liars or slanderers were sometimes publicly exhibited with a whetstone fastened to them. Compare the following allusions. If Mother Hubbard, in the vein of Chaucer, happened to tell one canicular tale, father Elderton and his son Greene, in the vein of Skelton, or Scoggin, will counterfeit an hundred dogged fables, libels, calumnies, slanders, lies for the whetstone, what not. G. Harvey, Four Letters. The whettstone is a knave that all men know, Yet many on him doe much cost bestowe: Hee's us'd almost in every shoppe, but whye? An edge must needs be set on every lye. Quoted in Chamber's Book of Days , II. 45. This will explain a smart repartee of Sir Francis Bacon's before King James, to whom Sir Kenelm Digby was relating that he had seen the true philosopher's stone in the po e ion of a hermit in Italy, and when the king was very curious to understand what sort of stone it was, and Sir Kenelm much puzzled in describing it, Sir Fra. Bacon interposed, and said, "Perhaps it was a whetstone ." Z. Grey. whetstone-slate (hwet's ton-slāt), n. Same as whet-slate. whettent (hwet'n), v. t. [ My mynd was greedelye whetned Too parle with the Regent. Stan i hurst, Æneid, iii. IMG:content-2291.png:[ocr errors] The Whetter is obliged to refresh himself every moment with a liquor, as the Snuff-taker with a powder. Steele, Tatler, No. 141. wheugh, interj . A variant of whew1 . whew1 (hwu), interj . [Sometimes also wheugh , formerly also whu ; an exclamation in imita- tion of whistling; cf. Icel. hvi ! Cf. whoot for hoot .] An exclamation, uttered with a whistling sound, expre ing astonishment or dismay. In a cold morning, whu - at a lord's gate, How you have let the porter let me wait! Vanbrugh, Confederacy, Prol. Tennyson, Queen Mary, i. 1. whewl (hwù), n. [Sometimes also wheugh, formerly also whue ; interj . or v.] 1. A whistling sound, usually noting astonishment. He swears by the Rood. Whew! The fryer set his fist to his mouth, And whuted whues three. Robin Hood and the Curtall Fryer (Child's Ballads, V. 276). Behind them lay two long, low, ugly-looking craft, at sight of which Yeo gave a long wheugh. Lepel suppre ed a whew . 2. Same as whewer. Kingsley, Westward Ho, xix. Hannay, Singleton Fontenoy, ix. Wigeon (French Vigeon, from the Latin Vipio), also called locally "Whewer" and " Whew " (names imitative of the whistling call-note of the male). A. Newton , Encyc. Brit., XXIV. 561.