bosk
(bɒsk)
Also 3–4 boske, (9 bosque, rare).
[The early ME. bosk(e was a variant of busk, bush; bosk and busk are still used dialectally for bush; but the modern literary word may have been evolved from bosky.]
† 1. A bush. Obs. exc. dial.
| 1297 R. Glouc. 547 Hii houede vnder boskes. c 1300 Prov. Hendyng xx, Vnder boske shal men weder abide, quoþ Hendyng. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 322 Boþe boskez & bourez & wel bounden penez. |
2. A thicket of bushes and underwood; a small wood.
| 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles v. xv, Meantime, through well-known bosk and dell, I'll lead where we may shelter well. 1847 Tennyson Princ. i. 110 Blowing bosks of wilderness. 1862 Lytton Str. Story II. 82 Every bosk and dingle. 1878 H. Phillips Poems fr. Span. & Germ. 69 In a flowery bosque there flies a bird. 1885 Century Mag. 544 It is planted with pleasant little bosks and trim hedges. |
Hence † boske addre, lit. ‘bush-adder’: a viper, a serpent (L. coluber).
| 1382 Wyclif Ex. vii. 9 Tak thin ȝerde, and throw it bifore Pharao, and be it turned into a bosk eddre..The ȝerde..was turnyd into a boske addre. |