▪ I. udder
(ˈʌdə(r))
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. {uacu}der (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. *ūđr-, = Gr. οὖθαρ, Skr. ūdhar, -as (also ūdhan), L. ūber. By unexplained consonant change the corresponding ON. form is j{uacu}gr 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, judder). In English the original long vowel has been regularly shortened before the consonant-group -der.]
1. a. 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 tr. 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 H. Woolley Gentlew. 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 Shakes. 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. rare.
| a 1704 T. Brown Pleas Lett. to Gent. Wks. 1709 III. ii. 16 Their Udders swagging down to their Navils. 1933 Dylan Thomas Let. Nov. (1966) 53 Farmers' boys pressed amorously upon the udders of their dairymaids. |
4. attrib. and Comb., as udder-cattle, udder-flank, udder part; udder-clap, inflammation in the udder; udder-ill (see quot. 1847); udder-lock n. (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 H. 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 ˈudderful a., having a full udder; n., as much (milk) as an udder will hold. ˈudderless a., unsuckled, motherless.
| 1818 Keats Endym. i. 210 All ye gentle girls who foster up Udderless lambs. 1879 Meredith Egoist Prelude, Listen..to an unleavened society: a low as of the udderful cow past milking hour! 1922 Joyce Ulysses 416 Drink, man, an udderful! |
▪ II. udder, -ir
dial. and obs. Sc. forms of other.