▪ I. ingle, n.1 Orig. Sc.
(ˈɪŋg(ə)l, Sc. ˈɪŋ(ə)l)
Also 6 ingil(l.
[Origin obscure; usually identified with Gael. aingeal fire, light; but there are difficulties.]
1. Fire; a fire burning upon the hearth; a house-fire. Now chiefly in at, by, or round the ingle.
| 1508 Dunbar Flyting w. Kennedie 117 Fane at evin for to bring hame a single, Syne rubb it at ane vthir auld wyfis ingle. 1513 Douglas æneis xii. iii. 16 Sum otheris brocht the fontane watter fayr And sum the haly ingill wyth thame bair. a 1605 Polwart Flyting w. Montgom. 667 Thou sat sa neir the chimney nuik..Fast be the ingle. 1674 Ray N.C. Words 26 Ingle (Cumb.), fire, a blaze or flame. 1721 Ramsay Up in the Air 2 Now the sun's gane out o' sight Beet the ingle, and snuff the light. 1785 Burns Cotter's Sat. Night iii, His wee bit ingle, blinkin bonilie, His clean hearth-stane. 1820 Keats Fancy 16 Sit thee by the ingle, when The sear faggot blazes bright. 1856 R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. 270 With stories such as these..the holy man whiled away our windy March nights by the ingle. 1882 Mrs. Oliphant Lit. Hist. Eng. I. 165 The landlord and all his guests were assembled round the ingle. |
¶ 2. Misapplied to an open fireplace.
| 1841 Lytton Nt. & Morn. v. ii, He settled himself in the ingle, till the guard's horn should arouse him. 1894 Hall Caine Manxman vi. xiii, Cæsar..left Kate as he had found her, crouching by the fire inside the wide ingle of the old hall. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as ingle-bench, a bench beside the fire; ingle-bred a., home-bred, untravelled. See also ingle-cheek, -nook, -side.
| 1853 M. Arnold Scholar Gipsy vi, At some lone ale house in the Berkshire moors, On the warm *ingle-bench, the smock-frocked boors Had found him seated. 1881 Rossetti Ball. & Sonn., Rose Mary ii. xxxii, On the ingle-bench the dead man lay. |
| 1788 Picken Poems 112 Mony an *ingle-bred auld wife Has baith mair wit an' senses Than me. |
▪ II. ingle, n.2
Also 7 eng(h)le, inghle.
[Origin unknown: cf. ningle.]
A boy-favourite (in bad sense); a catamite.
| 1592 Nashe Strange News Wks. (Grosart) II. 277, I am afraid thou wilt make me thy ingle. 1598 Florio, Catamito, a ganimed, an ingle. 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster i. ii, What? shall I have my sonne a stager now? an enghle for players? 1602 Middleton Blurt, Master-Const. v. ii, Jove's own ingle, Ganymede. a 1610 Healey Theophrastus (1636) 11 And alwaies sitting by his Ingle courts him. a 1683 Oldham Poet. Wks. (1686) 88 What costs a Rape, or Incest, and how cheap You may an Harlot, or an Ingle keep. 1708 Motteux Rabelais, Pantagr. Prognost. v, Those whom Venus is said to rule; as..Ganymedes, Bardachoes, Huflers, Ingles. 1878 Simpson tr. Prodigal Son i. in Simpson Sch. Shaks. II. 93 They lose the bloom of their youth with good-for-nothing companions, or even with whores and ingles. 1926 T. E. Lawrence Seven Pillars (1935) lxxxi. 448 Abd el Kader called them whoresons, ingle's accidents, sons of a bitch,..jetting his insults broadcast to the room⁓full. 1962 H. Nicolson Monarchy v. 94 The Romans were startled by the arrival of this Asian ingle as their Emperor. |
¶ Misused for ‘Familiar friend’, ‘chum’.
| 1821 Scott Kenilw. iii, ‘Ha! my dear friend and ingle, Tony Foster!..have you altogether forgotten your friend, gossip, and playfellow, Michael Lambourne?’ |
▪ III. ingle, n.3 local.
[Of doubtful status and derivation.]
? A nook; an angle.
| 1877 N.W. Linc. Gloss., Hingles, the ingles, the corners inside an open chimney. 1890 Morris Glittering Plain xx, Hallblithe steered toward an ingle of the haven. |
▪ IV. † ingle, v. Obs.
[f. ingle n.2]
1. trans. To fondle, caress.
| 1598 Florio, Zanzerare, to ingle boies, to play wantonly with boyes against nature. 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe Ep. Ded. (1871) 15 Hug it, ingle it, kiss it, and cull it now thou hast it. 1601 Chester Love's Mart., Invoc. Poet. Ess. (1878) 171 And..Ingles his cheeke. a 1631 Donne Elegy iv. Poems, etc. (1633) 49 Thy little brethren..those sweet nights..kist, and ingled on thy father's knee. |
2. To cajole, wheedle, coax.
| 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster ii. ii, I'le presently goe and enghle some broker for a Poets gowne, and bespeak a garland. 1602 Middleton Blurt, Master-Const. ii. ii, Prithee, Simperina, do not ingle me; do not flatter me, Trivia. |
3. intr. To fondle with.
| 1611 Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girle iv. Wks. 1873 III. 202 Then deale they vnder hand with vs, and wee must ingle with our husbands a bed. |
Hence ˈingling vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1595 T. Edwards Cephalus & Procris (1878) 43 We'le take more ioy in counting ouer sorrowes, Than Venus gazing on her ingling sparrowes. 1598 E. Guilpin Skial. (1878) 3 Insteede of ingling termes for thy good will, Reader fall to, reade, iest, and carpe thy fill. 1610 Histrio-m. ii. 140 Then we shall have rare ingling at the prodigall child. |