▪ I. † warre Obs.
Also 5 werre, 6 war.
[repr. OE. wearr str. masc., recorded only in the sense ‘callosity’; but cf. wearriht full of callosities, also of a tree, knotty (see warried a.). Cf. Flem. warre fem., weer masc., callosity, knot in wood.]
A knot in a tree or in timber.
| [c 725 Corpus Gloss. (Hessels) C 161 Callos weorras uel ill. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 356 Ða wearras and ða swylas ðe beoð on mannes handum oððe on oðrum limum.] c 1407 Lydg. Reson & Sens. 5428 The tother [bow]..Ful of knottys and of skarrys, The tymber is so ful of warrys. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 516/2 Warre, or knobbe of a tre, vertex. 1483 Cath. Angl. 409/1 A Werre [Addit. MS. Warre] of a tree, vertex. 1513 Douglas æneis xii. xii. 212 Bot festynnit sa is in the war the grip That by na maner fors..Furth of the stok the schaft vp pull he mycht. 1530 Palsgr. 287/1 Warre or knobbe of a tree, neu. |
Hence † warred a. having knots. (Cf. warried a.)
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. lvii. (1495) l iij b/1 The ouer endes of the bones..ben warryd wyth grete knottes. Ibid. xvii. xx. O ij/2 Boxe growyth in hote places and stony and is therfore harde and sadly warrid [Tollemache MS. warred]. |
▪ II. warre
obs. f. war and ware (n., a., and v.).