BERRY, sb. the gooseberry.
- 'Will you have some berry pie?'
BERRYIN CAKES, funeral cakes.
BERRYSFORTH, a wood between Sheffield and Handsworth, containing fifteen acres, in the occupation of widow Skelton, 'which she hath for wages in regard she is one of the parke keepers.' Harrison. 'Berry storth.' Rental, 1624.
BESSY, sb. a female idiot. Hunter's MS.
BETANY, sb. a bottle-shaped basket put at the end of a spigot to prevent the malt or hops from getting into the spigot. It is called the tap-wisk in Evans's Leicestershire Words, and a strumme in Cath. Angl.
BETIMED, p. pa. exhausted by fatigue.
- 'This I have only by report.'—Hunter's MS.
BETTER, adj. later.
- 'It's better than four o'clock.'
BE-TWITTERED, /. pa. excited, frightened, overcome with pleasing excitement.
BEVERAGE. The wearer of a new suit of clothes is called upon to pay beveridge. H.
BEWAR, v. to beware.
BEYE [beigh], v. to stop, to wait.
- A farmer, being asked whether he would take some more meat at dinner, said, 'No, thank yer, o'll beigh.'
BEZZLE, v. to drink immoderately.
BIB, sb. an obsolete article of female attire; also a child's pinafore.
- '"She put on her best bib and tucker," meaning she attired herself in the most attractive style.'—Hunter's MS.
BID, a word used in calling ducks from the water. The call is 'Bid, bid, bid,' &c.
BIDDING-BELL, sb. a small bell rung immediately before the commencement of service (Dronfield). See LITTLE JOHN.
BIDDING FUNERAL.
- It was the custom in Dronfield parish, on the death of a poor man, for two of his friends to go round and bid people to the funeral, after which a collection was made for his family. This was done by two women when the deceased person was a woman. It was called a Bidding Funeral. When a man was buried in Sheffield in what was called 'Hallam fashion'
