tar-box
(ˈtɑːbɒks)
A box formerly used by shepherds to hold tar as a salve for sheep.
| c 1420 ? Lydg. Assembly of Gods 326 The rewde god Pan..Clad in russet frese, & breched lyke a bere, With a gret tar box hangyng by hys syde. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §41 And a shepeherde shoulde not go without his dogge, his shepe hoke, a payre of sheres, and his terre boxe. 1602 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. v. ii. 2088 A shepards hooke, a tarbox, and a scrippe. 1658 Osborn Jas. I, Wks. (1673) 514 (Spight of his Tarbox) he died of the Scab. |
† b. Applied contemptuously to a person: = ‘stinking fellow’. Obs.
| a 1592 Greene Jas. IV, iii. i, Such as rub horses do good service in the commonweal, ergo, tarbox, master courtier, a horse-keeper is a gentleman. 1687 Settle Refl. Dryden 12 Tarbox Muly Lahas is not the Fool this bout. |