Forms: 3–7 taverne, (4 tavarn, 5 tawern, 6 taverin, Sc. taveroun), 7– tavern. [a. OF. taverne (1256 in Littré):—L. taberna a shed constructed of boards, a hut, booth, stall, shop, workshop, also a tavern or inn (so in earliest French and Eng. examples). Cf. TABERN.]
1. In early use, A public house or tap-room where wine was retailed; a dram-shop; in current use = PUBLIC HOUSE 2 b.
See also humorous use (word-play on name New Inn Hall) in quot. 1904.
[1286. Memoranda K. R. 14 & 15 Edw. I., 3 b. Tauernes ke sunt en meimes la Meisun ke est assise par entre la Meison Thomas le Vineter vers le Su.]
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 4024. Hor ydelnesse hom ssal bringe to sunne of lecherye, To tauerne & to sleuþe, & to hasardrie.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 1025. Tauerne ys þe deuylys knyfe Hyt sleþ þe, oþer soule or lyfe.
1340. Ayenb., 56. Þe tauerne ys þe scole of þe dyeule huere his deciples studieþ.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 147. Þe tauerne is welle of glotonye, for it may be clepyd þe develys scolehous.
1570. B. Googe, Pop. Kingd., IV. 53. This done, they to the Taverne go, or in the fields they dine.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., V. iii. 5. Can no man tell of my vnthriftie Sonne?… Enquire at London, ’mongst the Tauernes there.
1611. Cotgr., Tavernier,… a Victualler, of whom (as in our Tauernes of London) one may haue meat, and drink for his money.
1693. Humours Town, 108. The Taverns are the Nurseries of Profaneness and Treason.
1710. Swift, Lett. (1767), III. 14. I dined to-day at a tavern with Stratford.
1785. Trusler, Mod. Times, III. 76. When we reached London … we put up at one of those taverns called hotels.
1809. Kendall, Trav., III. lxxii. 128. The doctor keeps a public house, or, as the term is, a tavern.
1824. Spirit Pub. Jrnls., II. (N.S.), 335. I thought every sojourner at the tavern eyed my delinquency with looks of reprobation.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, ii. This tavern would seem to be a house of call for all the gaping idlers of the neighbourhood.
1879. J. Casey, Our Thirst for Drink, 32.
| His cheerless dwelling in some crowded room | |
| Fills up his cup of sadness and of gloom, | |
| And makes him to the lighted tavern fly, | |
| E’en while his children starve at home and die. |
1904. Westm. Gaz., 11 May, 1/2. Richard Shute—the only first-class man ever produced by the defunct ‘Tavern,’ as New Inn Hall [Oxford] used to be called.
† 2. A shop or workshop attached to or under a dwelling-house; often under ground, a cellar. Cf. CELLAR 2, WINE-CELLAR, dial. Obs.
1521. in Test. Ebor. (Surtees), VI. 4. Al my tymber and bordes in the Taverne, except a kilnehouse of x postes that lieth in the laithe and in the gaitehouse.
1566. in S. O. Addy, Evolution Eng. House (1905), 96. William Tomson for his taverne stare, iiij d. Ibid. (1575), 95. Payd to ij dykers for casting earth furth of the taverne iiij daies, ij s viij d.
1583. Will Myles Fox (Somerset Ho.). My Shop with two undershops or Taverins.
1703. Thoresby, Lett. to Ray (W. Yorksh. Words). Tavern, a cellar.
1905. Addy (as above), 94–5. In England shops in front of town houses were sometimes known as ‘taverns,’… and were below the surface of the streets, like cellars…. These ‘taverns’ were entered by stairs.
3. As a rendering of L. taberna: see the etymology.
1382. Wyclif, Acts xxviii. 15. Whanne bretheren hadden herd, thei runnen to vs til to the cheping of Appius, and to a place that is clepid Thre tauernes [Vulg. tres Tabernas].
1611. Bible, ibid. They came to meet vs as farre as Appii forum, and the three Tauernes.
4. attrib. and Comb. a. Attributive, as tavern-bill, -boast, -boy, -brawl, -bully, -bush (BUSH sb.1 5), -chair, -discourse, -door, -drawer (DRAWER sb.1 2), -fellow, -house, -lady, -lantern, -man, -music, -quarrel, -reckoning, -row, -score, -supper, -talk, -wench, -wine, etc. b. Objective and obj. gen., as tavern-frequenter, † -ganger, -goer, -haunter, -hunter, -hunting, -keeper, -tracer. c. Instrumental, locative, etc., as tavern-gotten, -tainted adjs. d. Special combs.: † tavern-fox, in phr. to hunt a tavern-fox, to get drunk: see FOX sb. 1 d and v. 2; tavern-token, a token given in change by a tavern-keeper, which he will again accept in payment; † to swallow a tavern-token, to get drunk (obs.).
1611. Shaks., Cymb., V. iv. 161. You shall … fear no more *Tauerne Bils.
1872. Dixon, Switzers, xviii. 175–6. Shouts of rapture greet this note of coming war. Marilley pauses; something seems to strike him; something perhaps of comic in this *tavern boast of readiness to die.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St. Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), III. 286. The appellation of ‘good man,’ so frankly bestowed on him by the *tavern-boy.
1819. Keats, Otho, III. i. 43. Sig. Some *tavern brawl?
1872. Miss Braddon, R. Ainsleigh, II. xiv. 213. The man who fell in that tavern-brawl was not Roderick Ainsleigh.
1916. Vincent Starrett, D’Artagnan, 9, in Phoenix, V. Nov., 169.
| D’Artagnan! Gad, the name seems to enthrall! | |
| Duellist, soldier, Gascon, I would give | |
| A year of life for just one hour’s delight | |
| With you, in court or camp or tavern brawl. |
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, II. i. A *Tavern-bully beaten.
1570. Foxe, A. & M. (ed. 2), 1206/1. Seeing good wyne nedeth no *tauerne bushe to vtter it.
a. 1668. Davenant, News fr. Plymouth, Wks. (1673), 2. In the Metropolis,… Where still your Taverne Bush is green and flourishing.
1787. Sir J. Hawkins, Johnson, 87. I have heard him assert, that a *tavern-chair was the throne of human felicity.
1660. R. Coke, Justice Vind., Pref. 12. The subject of all *tavern-discourses.
1474. Coventry Leet Bk. (E. E. T. S.), 400. Yf he sell any feetiff wyn his *Tauerne durre to be sealed Inne, and he to make a fyne at the kynges wyll.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Lond. & Lacedem. Oracles, Introd., Wks. 1709, III. III. 124. The Oyster-wench in her lawful Occupation at the Tavern-door.
1721. Cibber, Rival Fools, I. i. Can’t you practise … upon a *Tavern-Drawer, or a Box-keeper at the Play-House?
1899. Month, June, 613. The roystering joviality of Prince Harry’s *tavern-fellow.
1635. J. Taylor (Water P.), Old Parr, C ij b. Nor did hee ever hunt a *Taverne Fox.
1483. Cath. Angl., 378/2. A *Tawern ganger, attabernio.
1797. T. Park, Sonn., 82. Meeting with some *tavern-goer.
1538. Elyot, Circumcelliones, *tauerne haunters, or raylers aboute.
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut. li. 305. These Tauernhaunters or Alehouse Knightes which counterfeit the preachers.
13[?]. Cursor M., 28462 (Cott.). Til *tauerne huse my-seluen was wont, And draun men þer-til vmstont.
1553. Becon, Reliques of Rome (1563), 28. The aforesayd pope made … a decree, that priestes should be no *tauern-hunters.
1641. Milton, Animadv., xiii. Pr. Wks. (1847), 69/2. Their laziness, their *tavern-hunting, their neglect of all sound literature.
1611. Cotgr., Tavernier,… a *Tauerne-keeper.
1779. Mirror, No. 46, ¶ 23. Familiar … to the very tavern-keepers of this city.
1763. Mrs. F. Sheridan, Discovery, II. i. I don’t doubt but he is going to some of his *tavern-ladies.
1664. Etheredge, Love in Tub, IV. ii. Go with a *Tavern-Lanthorn before me at Noon-day.
1755. Johnson, *Tavernman, one who keeps a tavern.
1643. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., II. § 9. That vulgar and *Taverne-Musick.
1820. Hazlitt, Lect. Dram. Lit., 30. Marlow was stabbed in a *tavern quarrel.
1892. Miss Braddon, Venetians, ii. 37. To think that he, a gentleman by birth and education, should have slain a man in a *tavern row.
1714. Mandeville, Fab. Bees (1724), I. 19. Those, that reinain’d,… when they paid their *Tavern Score, Resolv’d to enter it no more.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem., Charac. (1759), II. 439. He is the Whores Jackal,… and at Night has his Share in a *Tavern-Supper.
1760. Cautions to Officer’s Army, 124. Tavern-Suppers are generally expensive.
1609. Ev. Woman in Hum., III. i., in Bullen, O. Pl., IV. Urge no more, ’tis *Taverne talke.
1638. Ford, Lady’s Trial, II. ii. You are grown a tavern-talk, Matters for fiddlers’ songs.
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., I. iii. Drunk sir? you heare not me say so; perhaps he swallow’d a *tauerne token, or some such deuise sir.
1604. Meeting Gallants, 17. Indeed he had swallowed downe many Tauerne-tokens, and was infected with the plague of drunkennes.
1604. Dekker, Hon. Wh., I. iv. If he have but … a spleene not so big as a taverne token.
1726. Brit. Apollo (ed. 3), II. 642.
| A cautious, distant lump, yet dares intreague | |
| With *tavern wench (his master’s maid looks big). |
1873. W. S. Sullivan, Wicked World, I.
| The very footpad nerves his coward arm | |
| To stealthy deeds of shame by pondering on | |
| The tipsy kisses of some tavern wench. |
1875. Lytton, Fatima & Mehmed, 28, in New Poems, II. 517.
| Hadst thou the tavern drained with me, | |
| The tavern wench upon thy knee, | |
| (So sweet and sound a wench is she!) |
1924. R. G. Anderson, For Love of a Sinner, iii. 55.
| Clothes and ermine change not the male | |
| Nor female natural, for oft hath pimples | |
| The lady of high degree, and dimples | |
| The tavern-wench. |
Hence (mostly nonce-wds.), Tavernize v. intr., to frequent taverns; Tavernless a., devoid of taverns or inns; Tavernly a., smacking of the tavern; Tavernous a. [after cavernous], tavern-like; Tavernry, tavern-expenses; Tavernwards adv., towards a tavern.
1838. Actors by Daylight, I. 5 May, 75. Harley is unlike most of the sons of Thespis—he does not *tavernize.
1851. Fraser’s Mag., XLIV. 425. The frequent tavernising, if we may coin a word, is another peculiarity, Pepys was a giant in this way, and sang and roystered … in the public houses of the day.
1881. A. B. Alcott, New Connecticut, Notes, 152. Alcott was cast forth *tavernless upon the shores of Virginia.
1897. ‘Mark Twain,’ More Tramps Abroad, lxxi. The Bishop … was once making a business progress through the tavernless velt.
1612. Shelton, Quix. (1746), I. III. ii. 119. So returning him Thanks with *Tavernly Phraze for his large Offers.
1851. J. D. Lewis, Across the Atlantic, 264. Everything emits that inn-like and *tavernous smell, peculiar to the caravanseras of this island.
1866. Ld. Houghton, Sp., in Life (1890), I. ii. 75. The low … ill-lit, cavernous, tavernous gallery.
a. 1670. Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1851), II. 102. Thay comptit and reknit for thair *tavernrie with ther mistressis.
1869. J. C. Parkinson, Places and People, 319. When the boats turn *tavernwards for tea—an important meal at the Harp—there is a joyous comparing of notes, in which, strange to say, every one seems satisfied.
1892. Daily News, 10 March, 2/4. Thirty young fellows … were promptly on the ‘double’ tavernwards.
