▪ I. peltry, n.1
(ˈpɛltrɪ)
Also 5–6 peltre, 5 -ie, pelliteri.
[In ME. a. AF. pelterie (Gower) = OF. peleterie (13th c. in Littré), mod.F. pelleterie (in prose pronounced pɛltri), deriv. of peletier, pelletier, furrier, peltier, deriv. of OF. pel, L. pell-em skin. So It. pellettar{iacu}a ‘the skinners or furriers trade’ (Florio), f. It. pelle skin. In mod. use app. a new adoption, ? from the French in North America.
Not exemplified from c 1525 to 1700; and then first in reference to the North American fur trade. Not in Bailey, Johnson, Ash. In Todd, with quot. 1771.]
1. Undressed skins, esp. of animals valuable for their furs; fur-skins, pelts collectively.
| 1436 [see peltry-ware in 3]. a 1451 Fortescue Wks. (1869) 553 They brynge..all maner of..Peltry. 1474 Caxton Chesse iii. iii, Perchymyn velume peltrie and cordewan. |
| 1701 Col. Rec. Pennsylv. II. 16 That the said Indians shall not sell or dispose of any of their Skins, Peltry or furr. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. 26 Oct., A little traffic he drove in peltry during his sachemship among the Miamis. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 25 Norway exports great variety of peltry, consisting of skins of bears, lynxes, wolves, ermine, grey squirrels, and several sorts of foxes. 1861 Wilde Catal. Antiq. in R. Irish Acad. 278 The peltry of hares, rabbits, dogs, and other small animals, being highly decorative as well as useful. 1880 Ld. Dunraven in 19th Cent. Apr. 651 Formerly the Hudson's Bay Company transported all the peltry—that is, furs and skins—collected over a vast area, to Lake Winnipeg. |
b. pl. Kinds or varieties of peltry.
| 1809 W. Irving Knickerb. vii, Giving them gin, rum, and glass beads, in exchange for their peltries. 1838 Penny Cycl. XI. 23/1 Canoes..loaded with packs of beaver-skins and other valuable peltries. 1884 S. E. Dawson Handbk. Dom. Canada 154 The fleets of canoes went out [from Montreal] with supplies or returned with peltries. |
† 2. A place or room for keeping fur-skins or pelts. Obs. rare.
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 274/1 A Peltry (A. A Pelliteri) or a skynnery, pelliparium. [1861 Our Eng. Home 95 In the baronial mansion..there was also..the peltry for his furs.] |
3. attrib. and Comb., as peltry-man, peltry manufacture, peltry trade, peltry traffic; † peltry-ware = sense 1.
| 1436 Libel Eng. Policy in Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 171 Osmonde, coppre, bow-staffes, stile, and wex, Peltre-ware, and grey, pych, terre, borde, and flex. 1525 Ld. Berners Froiss. II. clxx. 480 Laden with clothe of Brusselles, or peltre ware, comynge fro the fayres. 1746 W. Horsley Fool (1748) I. 129 The Peltry or Fur Trade. 1783 Justamond tr. Raynal's Hist. Indies VII. 8 The peltry trade was a very inconsiderable object. 1854 R. G. Latham Native Races Russian Emp. 51 They preserved..their original character of huntsmen, fishers,..and peltry-men. |
▪ II. † ˈpeltry, n.2 Chiefly Sc. Obs.
Also 6–7 -ie, 6 -ye, -ei.
[app. another form of paltry n., of about the same age, agreeing in the vowel with pelt n.3, and with pelting a.]
Refuse, rubbish, trash; a piece of rubbish.
| 1550 Crowley Epigr. 1366 Forsakinge the Pope wyth al his peltrye. 1553 Bale Vocacyon Pref. 6 b, Hys vayne beleue of purgatorye, and of other Popysh peltryes. 1566 in Peacock Eng. Ch. Furniture (1866) 48 A corporax a crwet wth diuerse other popishe peltrie. a 1567 Gude & Godlie B., With Huntis up xiii, At the last, he salbe downe cast, His peltrie, Pardonis, and all. 1619 A. Duncan Admon. in Row Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.) 322 Better be pyned to death by hunger, nor for a little peltrie of the earth to perish for ever. 1755 Forbes Jrnl. Portsmouth in Ajax, etc. 29 You ne'er saw sik peltry i' your born days. 1808 Jamieson, Peltrie, peltry, paltrie,..vile trash; a term of contempt applied to any thing that is worthless or troublesome. |
▪ III. † peltry, a. Obs.
By-form of paltry a.
| c 1587 Montgomerie Sonn. xxiv, A peltrie pultron poysond vp with pryde. |