Forms: α. 1 udr-, 4 vddre, 5 vddyr (6 Sc. vdyr), 5–7 vdder (6 vtter, odder), 6– udder; 5–6 uther (9 Sc.), 6 other. β. 5 iddyr, 6 ydder. [OE. úder (once), = OS. ûdar, ûder, MLG. (LG.) ûder, MDu. ūder, uyder (Du. uier, uijer, WFlem. eur; cf. WFris. ûr teat), OHG. ûtar (and ûtiro), MHG. ûter and iuter (G. euter):—OTeut. *ūdr-, = Gr. οὖθαρ, Skr. ūdhar, -as (also ūdhan), L. ūber. By unexplained consonant change the corresponding ON. form is júgr EWER3, YURE. It is doubtful whether an OTeut. variant, or an entirely different stem, is represented by OFris. iader (EFris. jader, jæder, NFris. jidder, etc., WFris. jaer), older Du. jadder (dial. jaar), OS. geder, MLG. geder, jeder (LG. jidder, jūdder). In English the original long vowel has been regularly shortened before the consonant-group -der.]
1. The pendulous baggy organ, provided with two or more teats or nipples, by which the milk is secreted in certain female animals.
a. 1000. Kentish Gl., 203. Uberibus, of udrum.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xviii. (Bodl. MS.). Þe Camel haþ foure tettes and tweyne vddres as þe cowe haþ.
a. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 12. Wolle þat groweth atuix þe leggez of ane ewe about þe vdder.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 258/2. Iddyr, or vddyr of a beeste, Uber.
1515. Barclay, Egloges, iv. (1570), C iij b/2. Your cowes others of milke replete and full. Ibid., C iiij/1. Leane be my lambes,… And yet their dammes they dayly sucke so dry, That from the uthers no licoure can we wring.
c. 1518. Skelton, Magnyf., 1814. I saw a fox sucke on a kowes ydder; And with a lyme rodde I toke them bothe togyder.
c. 1534. in Suss. Star Chamber Proc. (1913), 21. The … Kyn were in suche payn for lake of mylkyng that the mylke rane oute of there odderens and so lyke to be all perishte.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. (1586), 139 b. The Lambe … must be sette on foote, and put to the dammes vdder.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, IV. xi. 349. Next to the doore on the womens side … there is an Image with a Cowes Vdder for the women,… on the other side another with a Mares Vdder for the men.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., IV. iii. 16. I … approach’d the place where the fair Milk-maid was solliciting the Udder of a fresh Cow.
1684. Lond. Gaz., No. 1910/4. A Red Cow of about 5 or 6 years old, with a White Udder.
c. 1720. W. Gibson, Farrier’s Guide, I. ii. (1738), 19. The Udder is another part peculiar to a Mare.
1773. Johnson, in Boswell (1831), III. 47. Milk pressed from the swelling udder by the gentle hand of the beauteous milk-maid.
1799. Med. Jrnl., I. 314. A spurious cow-pox … arising from pustules on the nipples or udder of the cow.
1847. W. C. L. Martin, Ox, 41/1. A twin heifer … which … was very handsome, with a well-formed udder, and was a good milker.
1867. Baker, Nile Trib., v. (1872), 75. The distended udders of thousands of camels were an assurance of plenty.
b. This part of an animal as an article of food.
1474. in Househ. Ord. (1790), *32. The purveyors of beeves and muttons … hath to theire fees the oxe heads, muttons heades, the rumpes of every beefe, and the intrayles of every beaste excepte the oxe feete, and the uthers.
1598. Epulario, J iiij. Fifteene Egs, with a Cowes Udder wel sodden.
1660. Pepys, Diary, 11 Oct. Mr. Creed and I to the Leg in King Street, where he and I, and my Will had a good udder to dinner.
1675. Hannah Woolley, Gentlw. Comp., 158/1. Neats tongue and Udder roasted.
1721. Queen’s Closet, 99. To Roast a Cows Udder.
1842. A. Combe, Physiol. Digestion (ed. 4), 35. Four pounds of cow’s udder and ten pounds of raw beef.
2. poet. (in pl.) A dug or teat. rare.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 55. Theyre whelps neere starued ar eager And expect vdders with dry iaws.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., IV. iii. 115. Vnder which bushes shade A Lyonesse, with vdders all drawne drie, Lay cowching head on ground.
1887. Bowen, Virg. Ecl., III. 30. Twice each day she is milked; though still at her udders we leave Two young calves.
† 3. The breast of a woman. Obs.–1
a. 1704. T. Brown, Pleas. Lett. to Gent., Wks. 1799, III. II. 16. Their Udders swagging down to their Navils.
4. attrib. and Comb., as udder-cattle, -flank, part; udder-clap, inflammation in the udder; udder-ill (see quot. 1847); udder-lock sb. (see quot. a. 1808); v. trans., to pull away the wool from the udders of (sheep).
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 214. The oak-buds killed five of the udder-cattle. Ibid., 345. It was the udder-flank, or throat, that they usually bit the sheep in.
1798. R. Douglas, Agric. Roxb., 156, note. All sheep are udder-locked, as it is here called, that being thought refreshing and salutary.
1806. A. Hunter, Culina (ed. 3), 256. Under the udder part of a leg of veal, there is a large piece of meat.
a. 1808. Essays Highl. Soc., III. 250 (Jam.). Udderlocks are the wool plucked from the udder.
1825. Jamieson, Udder-clap, a sort of schirrous tumour affecting the udder of ewes, by an unexpected return of milk after being sometime eild. Teviotd.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 620. After recovery from lambing, the only complaint the ewe is subject to is inflammation in the udder, or udder-clap, or garget.
1847. W. C. L. Martin, Ox, 172/2. Loss of milk, or milk of a disgusting taste and odour, and consequently unfit for use, results from derangement of the digestive organs, and especially from morbid affections of the fourth stomach, and the animal is said to labour under ‘udder-ill.’
Hence Udderful a., having a full udder; Udderless a., unsuckled, motherless.
1818. Keats, Endym., I. 210. All ye gentle girls who foster up Udderless lambs.
1871. G. Macdonald, Ranald Bannerman’s Boyhood, xiv. 110. She’s as plump as needful and [the cow] has a good udderful of milk besides.
1879. Meredith, Egoist, Prelude. Listen … to an unleavened society: a low as of the udderful cow past milking hour!
