Forms: α. 1 ǽʓ, (ǽiʓ), 2 aiʓ, 3–5 ey(e, 4–6 ay(e, 5 ȝey; pl. 1 ǽʓ(e)ru, 4 eyer, 3–5 ay-, ei-, eyren(e, 5 eyron, -oun. β. 4–7 eg, egge, (5 eeg, ege, hegge), 6– egg. [Com. Teut.: OE. ǽʓ, pl. ǽʓru (whence the α. forms) = OS. ei (MDu., Du. ei), OHG. ei, pl. eigir (MHG. ei, mod.G. ei, pl. eier), ON. egg, Goth. *addjis (Crim.-Goth. 16th c. ada):—OTeut. *ajjoz- neut. The β. forms are from the ON. egg.
The connection of the Teut. word with its WAryan synonyms, Gr. ὠόν, L. ōvum, OSl. jaje, Ir. og, is probable, but has not yet been demonstrated.]
1. The (more or less) spheroidal body produced by the female of birds and other animal species, and containing the germ of a new individual, enclosed within a shell or firm membrane. Addle, Wind egg: see those words.
a. 1000. Boeth. Metr., xx. 169. On æʓe bið ʓioleca on middan.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 156. Wiþ þon þe hær ne weaxe æmettan æʓru ʓenim.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 66. Kumeð þe coue … & reueð hire hire eiren.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 568. A faukon … An ay he laide … That feol the kyng Phelip nygh.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XI. 343. Many other briddes Hudden … her egges … In mareys.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. lix. 5. The eiren of edderes thei to-breeken.
1440. Gesta Rom., xxviii. 106 (Harl. MS.). Anoþere birde … laborithe … to infecte hir nest or hir eyren.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, A ij a. To speke of hawkis fro an eeg to thei be habull to be takene.
1535. Coverdale, Job xxxix. 13. The Estrich … when he hath layed his egges vpon the grounde, he bredeth them in the dust.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., II. i. 32. Thinke him as a Serpents egge.
1657. S. Purchas, Pol. Flying-Ins., 48. Improperly that is an egg out of the whole whereof a living creature is bred, as the eggs of Spiders, Ants, Flies.
1747. Gould, Eng. Ants, 32. A Queen … in a Box … will in a few Days deposit some Eggs, unless she had laid before you took her.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), II. 339. The numerous brood of [turtles’] eggs are, without farther solicitude, buried in the warm sands of the shore.
1851. Carpenter, Man. Phys., 95. The eggs of the Slug, when dried up by the sun or by artificial heat … are found not to have lost their fertility.
b. spec. An egg of a domestic fowl as an article of food.
805–31. Chart. Oswulf, in Sweet, O. E. Texts, 444. ʓif hit ðonne festendæʓ sie, selle mon uneʓe cæsu and fisces and butran and æʓera.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 103. Smire mid æʓes ʓeolcan.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Luke xi. 12. ʓif he bit æʓ [c. 1160 Hatton aiʓ] seʓst þu ræcð he him scorpionem.
1297. R. Glouc., Chron. (Rolls), 8334. Vor aney tueie ssillinges wel vawc þo hii boȝte.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 4719. Men to heom threowe drit and donge, With foule ayren.
c. 1400. Maundev., v. 49. Thidre bryngen Wommen … here Eyren of Hennes, of Gees & of Dokes.
c. 1400. Rowland & O., 222. The lawes of Cristyante ne are noghte worthe ane aye.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., I. 582. Wol thou … eyron grete thai legge?
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, Prol. What sholde a man in thyse dayes now wryte, egges or eyren, certaynly it is harde to playse every man.
1530. Proper Dyaloge (1863), 9. So is it not worthe a rotten aye.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. i. 64. They are vp already, and call for Egges and Butter.
1614. W. B., Philosopher’s Banquet (ed. 2), 52. Goose-egges are loathing.
1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, II. II. 148. Constrain’d to … keep Lent with Bisket and hard Eggs only.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, 255. Eggs are perhaps the highest, most nourishing and exalted of all animal Food.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., I. xv. 234. Give them to this fellow; he ’ll put them down as if they were eggs, now.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul (1883), 46. Was it … worth … discussion … whether an egg laid on a festival might or might not be eaten?
2. fig. That which contains the germ of anything; generally in a bad sense. Also in phrase, To crush in the egg.
1645. Tombes, Anthropol., 8. This was the egge out of which their contentions were hatched.
1649. G. Daniel, Triarch. Hen. IV., cccxlviii. Soe Power of Warre From the first Egge of Libertie, out-Creepes A fatall Serpent.
1689. Apol. Fail. Walker’s Acc., 91. The Rebellion … had not been either prevented or crush’d in the Egg.
b. Applied contemptuously to a young person.
1605. Shaks., Macb., IV. ii. 83. What you Egge? Yong fry of Treachery.
1835. E. Elliott, Taurassdes, IV. iv. Wks. III. 272. Who would suspect a boy? Who hir’d thee? Egg!
3. Applied to anything that resembles an egg in shape or appearance. So † To turn up the eggs (i.e., the whites) of one’s eyes.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (Arb.), 105. The egge or figure ouall.
1635. A. Stafford, Fem. Glory (1869), 89. The eggs of their eies are at their highest elevation.
1621. B. Jonson, Gypsies Met. (1640), 70 (R.). A puritan poacht, That used to turn up the egg’s of his eyes.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys.-Mech., xx. 73 (J.). There was taken a great Glass-bubble, with a long neck; (such as Chymists are wont to call a Philosophical Egge).
4. Phrases: A bad egg (colloq.): a person or a scheme that disappoints expectation. † Egg and bird: in youth and maturity, from beginning to end, first and last. To break the egg in anybody’s pocket: to spoil his plan. † To take eggs for money: to be put off with something worthless. To have eggs on the spit: to have business in hand. To tread upon eggs: to walk warily, as on delicate ground; † (To be) with egg: (to be) ready to lay; also fig. † To come in with five eggs: to break in fussily with an idle story; more fully, Five eggs a penny, and four of them addle.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 272. Persones comyng in with their fiue egges, how that Sylla had geuen ouer his office of Dictature.
1551. Robinson, trans. More’s Utop. (Arb.), 56. An other commeth in with his fiue egges.
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., III. iii. I have eggs on the spit; I cannot go yet, sir.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., I. ii. 161. Mine honest Friend Will you take Egges for Money?
1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, II. I. 130. Contented to take Eggs (as it were) for their money.
1711. Vind. Sacheverell, A iiij. I have been such a profligate Liver, Egg, and Bird.
1733. P. Drake, Grotto (title-page), Apollo’s … Grotto makes them [Witts] all with egg.
a. 1734. North, Exam., 324. This very circumstance … broke the egg … in the Pockets of the Whigs. Ibid. (a. 1734), Ld. Guilford (1808), I. 245 (D.). This gave him occasion … to find if any slip had been made (for he all along trod upon eggs).
1747. Gould, Eng. Ants, 57. Very like that of a Female Bee, Wasp, or Queen Ant, when not with Egg.
1864. Athenæum, 559/1. ‘A bad egg,’… a fellow who had not proved to be as good as his promise.
1884. Black, Jud. Shaks., xiii. in Harper’s Mag., May, 954/2. I have other eggs on the spit.
b. In many proverbial phrases of obvious meaning; also, As sure as eggs is eggs; hence, As safe as eggs (in same sense). Teach your grandmother to suck eggs: said to those who presume to offer advice to others who are more experienced. To have all your eggs in one basket: to risk all one’s property on a single venture.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., III. i. 26. Thy head is as full of quarrels, as an egge is full of meat.
1606. Bryskett, Civ. Life, 5. Critiques that spend their eyes to find a haire vpon an egge.
1620. Shelton, Quix., III. vii. The Hen lays as well upon one Egg as many.
a. 1610. Babington, Wks. (1622), 51. To be wonne with the egg and lost with the shell, is a great inconstancie.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., I. ii. 130. We are Almost as like as Egges.
1638. Chillingw., Relig. Prot., I. ii. § 160. 117. They are as like your own, as an egge to an egge, or milke to milke.
a. 1632. G. Herbert, Jacula Prud. (1640), 291. He that steals an egg, will steal an ox.
1699. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, As sure as Eggs be Eggs.
1707. J. Stevens, trans. Quevedo’s Com. Wks. (1709), 348. You would have me teach my Grandame to suck Eggs.
1777. Sheridan, Trip Scarb., iii. iv. As full of good-nature as an egg’s full of meat.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, II. vi. I shall come out bottom of the form as sure as eggs is eggs.
1871. M. Collins, Mrq. & Merch., III. iv. 114. We’ve got the Derby and Leger this next year as safe as eggs.
II. Comb.
5. In Plant-names: Eggs and Bacon, Eggs and Butter, Eggs and Collops; popular names for several plants, esp. Linaria vulgaris, the Field Snap-dragon or Toad-flax.
1878. Britten & Holland, Plant-n., Eggs and Bacon. From the two shades of yellow in the flower. (1) Linaria vulgaris, Mill…. (2) Lotus corniculatus.
Eggs and Butter. (1) Linaria vulgaris, Mill…. (2) Ranunculus acris, L.
Eggs and Collops. Linaria vulgaris, Mill.
6. General comb.: a. attributive, as egg-ball, -basket, -cup, -pie, -sauce, -spoon, -stall, -state, -tongs, yelk or yolk.
1869. Beeton’s Househ. Management, 201. *Egg-balls for Soups and Made Dishes.
1870. F. R. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 108. The font … is of an *egg-cup form.
1869. Beeton’s Househ. Management, 858. Silver or plated *egg-dishes are now very much used.
a. 1592. Greene, Fr. Bacon (1861), 174. When *egg-pies grow on apple-trees, then will thy grey mare prove a bag-piper.
1634. J. Taylor (Water P.), Gt. Eater Kent, 12. It is welcome, whether it bee sawsedge or custard or egge-pye.
c. 1685. in Dk. Buckhm’s Wks. (1705), II. 48. She … neatly dish’d it up with *Egg-sauce.
1828. Macaulay, Hallam, Ess. (1865), I. 80/2. Judgments only to be averted by salt-fish and egg-sauce.
1824–9. Landor, Imag. Conv. (1846), I. 273. Those who kept *egg-stalls and fish-stalls cursed him and removed them.
1747. Gould, Eng. Ants, 38. The Continuance of Ants in the *Egg State is somewhat precarious.
1868. Q. Rev., No. 248. 354. These ‘colifichets’ are made principally of the *egg-yelk.
b. objective, as egg-eating vbl. sb. and ppl. adj.; -hunter, -laying vbl. sb. and ppl. adj. -monger, also, egg-beater, -boiler, -detector, -poacher, -tester, -timer, appliances and implements used for or in beating, boiling, etc., eggs.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal. (ed. 2), 114/2. Patent *Egg Beaters.
1836. T. Hook, G. Gurney, I. iii. 85. *Egg-eating and prawn-picking are not delicate performances.
1882. A. Hepburn, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, IX. No. 3. 505. The egg-eating birds kept the wood pigeon within very moderate bounds.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xxvi. 265. Our *egg-hunters found it difficult to keep their feet.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pic. (1779), II. lxi. 186. Like a goose in the agonies of *egg-laying.
1676. Shadwell, Virtuoso, III. 42. More curious than all Oviperous or Egg-laying Creatures in the whole World.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal. (ed. 2), 114/1. *Egg … Poachers. Ibid., 27/2. Microscopes, *Egg Testers, Lamps, [etc.]. Ibid., 117/1. An assortment of *Egg … Timers, &c.
c. similative, as egg-bald, -like, -oblong, -shaped, adjs.; egg-fashion adv.
1877. Tennyson, Harold, V. i. But If thou [the monk] blurt thy curse among our folk … I may give that *egg-bald head The tap that silences.
1702. Lond. Gaz., No. 3819/8. Three Diamonds … two of them pretty large cut *Egg-fashion.
1599. T. M[oufet], Silkwormes, 18. *Egg-like [marginal gloss or oval].
1835–6. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 742/2. The bones of the cranium … concur in the production of an egg-like cavity.
1857. Wood, Com. Objects Sea Shore, 50. Some of them have anything but an egg-like aspect.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, I. 35. It was a small oval face, of a uniform transparent whiteness, with an egg-like line of cheek and chin.
1776. Withering, Bot. Arrangem. (1796), I. 155. Seed single, *egg-oblong.
1766. Baker, in Phil. Trans., LVI. 186. The seeds *egg-shaped, one or two strongly adhering to the calyx.
1845. Stocqueler, Handbk. Brit. India (1854), 370. Ceylon is egg-shaped.
7. Special comb.: egg and anchor, egg and dart, egg and tongue (moldings), varieties of the ECHINUS, produced by the alternation of vertical with egg-shaped ornaments: see ECHINUS 3 and quots. there given; egg-apple, the fruit of the Egg-plant (Solanum Melongena); egg-bag, (a.) the ovary; (b.) = egg-case; egg-berry (see quot.); egg-bird, a species of tern (Hydrochelidon fuliginosum) common in the West Indies, where its eggs are collected for use as food; egg-binding, the condition or disease of a fowl that is egg-bound; egg-born a., produced from an egg; egg-bound ppl. a., said of fowls suffering from weakness or disease, so that they are unable to expel their eggs; egg-breaker (see quot.); egg-case (see quot.); egg-cell, the cell or germ from which an egg or a living animal is subsequently developed; egg-cheese (see quot.); egg-chinned ppl. a., ? double-chinned, or having an egg-shaped chin; egg-cluster = egg-case; egg-coal, coal broken into pieces the size of an egg; egg-covering, the external membrane of an insect’s egg; egg-dance, a dance blindfold among eggs; fig. an intricate and difficult task; egg-flip = EGG-NOG; egg-form, an ellipse; † egg-fraise, a pancake; † egg-fry, zoosperms, semen of the male; cf. FRY; eggfull a., as full as an egg is of meat; egg-glass, (a.) a glass for holding an egg; (b.) a sand-glass in which the running of the sand indicates the time during which an egg should be boiled; egg-hole (see quot.); † egg-hot, ‘a hot drink made of beer, eggs, sugar, and nutmeg’ (Berks. Gloss. E. D. S.); egg-life (see quot.); egg(s)-man, a collector of (wild fowls’) eggs; † egg-nest = egg-case; † egg-pea, an old variety of garden pea; egg-peg, the sloe; egg-plum, an egg-shaped plum, generally of a light yellow color; egg-pop (U.S.), ?; egg-posset = egg-flip; egg-pouch, egg-sac = egg-case; egg-Saturday, the Saturday before Shrove Tuesday (Nares); egg-slice, a kitchen utensil for removing omelets or fried eggs from the pan; egg-spoon, (a.) a spoon used in eating eggs; (b.) (see quot.), egg-starch a., ?; egg-stone = OOLITE; egg-sucker (see quot.); egg-Sunday, the Sunday before Shrove-Tuesday; egg-trot = egg-wife’s trot; egg-urchin, the popular name of one or more species of ECHINUS; egg-whisk, a utensil for beating eggs to a froth; † egg-wife, a woman who offers eggs for sale; hence egg-wife’s trot, the pace at which an egg-wife would ride to market.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., The profile or contour of the echinus, is enriched with *eggs and anchors, alternately placed.
1871. Miss Braddon, Lovels, xxxii. 257. A house glorified within by *egg-and-dart mouldings.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., VI. 253. From this ovary, or *egg-bag, as it is vulgarly called, the fish’s eggs drop one by one into the womb.
1822. Edin. Rev., XXXVII. 127. Thus also spiders carry out about their nest or egg-bag.
1878. Britten & Holland, Plant-n., *Egg-berry, Prunus Padus L…. Cf. Heckberry.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1729), I. 54. Small grey Fowls no bigger than a Black-bird, yet lay Eggs bigger than a Magpy’s; and they are therefore by Privateers called *Egg-birds.
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), IV. 1362. Upon the shore were … some egg birds.
1882. Bazaar, 15 Feb., 175. My queries as to *egg-binding … my hen budgerigar died *egg-bound.
a. 1631. Drayton, Elegies, Lady Aston’s Departure. Leda’s brood, Jove’s *egg-born issue smile upon the flood!
1772. Forster, in Phil. Trans., LXII. 422. A sort of Gull, called *Egg-breakers, by the natives.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., 755. The females [Spiders] lay their eggs in these tubes; inclosing them in a silken cocoon, or *egg-case, which they carry about with them when they go to hunt.
1880. Lankester, Degen., 20. A structureless particle … thrown off from its parent … known as the *egg-cell.
1879. trans. Haeckel’s Evol. Man, I. vi. 121. The human egg-cell is … not essentially different from those of other Mammals.
1784–1815. A. Young, Ann. Agric., XXXVIII. 504 (E. D. S.). Farmers … make *egg cheeses … by putting five yolks of eggs to every pound of curd.
1625. B. Jonson, Staple of N., IV. iv. (1631), 59. My *Eg-chind Laureat, here.
1692. Ray, Phys.-Theol. Disc., iv. (1732), 49. Ovary or *Egg-cluster.
1857. Wood, Com. Objects Sea Shore, 52. The egg-cluster from which the sketch was taken.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss. *Egg-Coal, Pennsylvania.
1835–6. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 270/1. The young … swim about … the instant that they are liberated from the *egg-coverings.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., III. v. 172. The *egg-dance … was common enough about thirty years back.
1882. Society, 18 Nov., 29/2. The slip is very excusable, for it is an egg-dance.
1871. Napheys, Prev. & Cure Dis., II. iii. 487. Some concentrated liquid nourishment, as a few spoonsful of *egg-flip or beef-tea.
1551. Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., I. Def., It is lyke a circle that were brused … whiche forme Geometricians dooe call an *egge forme.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 523/2. An *egg-fraise.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 124. An egg … that sprang from the impetus of the tread, the Harveyan tang, or contagion and *egg-fry of Kerckring and de Graaf.
1839. Bailey, Festus, xxvii. (1848), 324. I am *egg-full of life.
1867. Emerson, Lett. & Soc. Aims, Culture, Wks. (Bohn), III. 227. No more a measure of time than an hour-glass or an *egg-glass.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., *Egg-hole (Derby), a notch cut in the wall of a lode to hold the end of a stempel.
1796. Lamb, in Lett. (1849), 25. I have been drinking *egg-hot and smoking Oronooko.
1879. trans. Haeckel’s Evol. Man, I. i. 12. *Egg-life or embryo-life within the egg-membranes.
1886. E. C. Dawson, Bp. Hannington, viii. (1887), 107. The enthusiastic *eggsman … scrambled up again with the contents of three nests in his pockets.
1704. A. Van Leeuwenhoek, in Phil. Trans., XXV. 1620. I saw exceeding small ones still remaining in the Ovarium or *Egg-nest.
1744. Notes & Observ. Tusser’s Husb., 19. Runcival Pease … in their Room are got the *Egg-pea, the Sugar-pea, Dutch-admirals, &c.
1878. Britten & Holland, Plant-n., *Egg-peg Bushes. Prunus spinosa, L.
1859. All Y. Round, No. 1. 17. The persiman is like a large *egg-plum.
1860. O. W. Holmes, Prof. Breakf.-t., i. (Paterson), 6. Water to make *egg-pop with.
1832. Hone, Year-bk., 9 Jan., 61. *Egg-posset, alias Egg-flip, otherwise … ‘rum booze.’
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. 72. The only insects … known to spin an *egg-pouch like the spiders are the hydrophili, a kind of water beetle.
1857. Wood, Com. Objects Sea Shore, 50. All the *egg-sacs would have been found empty.
1867. J. Hogg, Microsc., II. ii. 368. They [the Gregarinæ] have been described under a variety of titles, such as worm-nodules, egg-sacs, [etc.].
1607. Chr. Prince, in Misc. Ant. Angl. (1816), 68. On the sixt of february, beeing *egge satterday, it pleased some gentlemen schollers in the towne to make a dauncing night of it … the next Tuesday following beeing shrovetuesday.
1670. Sir R. Baker, Theatr. Tri., 37. One trick which he … seems to have learned … from Egge-Saturday in Oxford, to make diversity of meats with diversity of dressing.
1796. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, xiv. 238. Fry them brown in fresh butter; then take them out with an *egg slice.
1886. E. C. Dawson, Bp. Hannington, viii. (1887), 107. The egg hunter arms himself with an instrument called an *egg-spoon, like a tiny landing-net, at the end of a long, light rod.
1630. Taylor, Workes (N.). Whose calves *eg-starch may in some sort be taken As if they had been hang’d to smoake like bacon.
1822. G. Young, Geol. Surv. Yorksh. Coast (1828), 68. This rock is called oolite, or *egg-stone.
c. 1865. Ld. Brougham, in Circ. Sc., I. Introd. Disc., 22. A bird called the Toucan, or *Egg-sucker, which chiefly feeds on the eggs found in … nests.
1843. Embleton, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. No. 11. 51. E. Sphæra—Common *Egg Urchin.… E. miliaris.—Purple-tipped Egg Urchin.
1659. H. H. Burnell, Plutus, C ij b. A Bawd, a scolding *Eggwife.
