Citations:wo

English citations of wo

a wall

forms: wo (Cumberland, Derbyshire, Durham, Lake District, Lancashire, N.Cy., Northumberland, Westmorland), woa (Lancashire, Westmorland), woh (Durham), woghe (northeast Lancashire), wough (Lancashire, Derbyshire), wau(gh) (west Yorkshire), waw (Cheshire, Cumberland, N.Cy., Westmorland, west Yorkshire)

wo

• 1859, Thomas Moore, The Song of Solomon in the Durham Dialect, ii. 9:

  He stands ahint our wo.

• 1871, Benjamin Brierly, Weaver of Wellbrook, in Folk-song and Folk-speech of Lancashire (ed. William-Edward-Armitage Axon), page 53:

  Yo may turn up yor noses at me an' th' owd dame,

  An thrutch us like dogs agen th' wo :

  Bo as lung 's aw con nayger, aw'll ne'er be a beggar,

  So aw care no a cuss for yo o-o'.

• 1884, Jack Robison, Aald Tales ower Agen, 4:

  Plantit up agen t'wo

• 1936, G. Halstead Whittaker, A Lancashire Garland of Dialect Prose and Verse, page 221:

  Hoo's pluck of a lion an' faces her foe

  Wi' calm in her e'en an' her beck agen t' wo;

  Hoo's firm i' decision, stonds up for her reets

  An' bravely withstonds o' t' misfortins hoo meets.

waw

• 1678, John Ray, A Collection of English Proverbs, 75:

  She hath been at London to call a strea a straw, and a waw a wall.

• 1886, Thomas Farrall, Betty Wilson's Cummerland Teals, 41:

  T'ootside waws was whitewesh't.

woa

• 1869, Eavesdropper, Vill. Life, 13:

  I'd just gitten behind a woa war I could heear without bein' sin.

wough: (Derbyshire, mining) a rock on the side of a vein

• 1653, Manlove, Lead Mines, I. 234:

  If... woughs be strete, the miner then may fire.

• 1836, Furness, Medic., 17:

  Where wough, or rider, twitch'd a leading fast.

verb: to build a wall

wo

• 1871, John Richardson, "Cummerland Talk": Being Short Tales and Rhymes, page 101:

  […] “Theer was anudder time, teu, 'at I saw t Park Boggle, in anudder form; bit I wassent seah nart that time, as I was when I'd been fetchen t hogs. I'd been wo-en a gap 'at hed fawn ower o' tudder side o' to Park; […]

• 1880, Thomas Clarke, Specimens of the Dialect of Westmorland, page 2:

  It's a varra lang while—a caant tell ya hoo lang—sen it wes bilt, lang afooar Borradal fooak woet kucku in, er t' first cooach ran throo Dent, […]

wau

• 1867, Twisleton, Lett. 5:

  We've baath lime an' coals to leead, An' gaps to wau.