kex Obs. exc. dial.
(kɛks)
Forms: α. 4– kex, 6–7 kexe, 6 keckes, 8 kecks, (9 dial. kesk, kesh). β. 4–6 kyx, 6–8 kix(e, (6 kickes, kykkes, 9 dial. gix, gicks, kish). See also keck, kecksy, casshe.
[Origin unknown; W. cecys pl., sometimes cited as the source, is no doubt from Eng.]
1. The dry, usually hollow, stem of various herbaceous plants, esp. of large umbelliferous plants, such as Cow Parsnip, Wild Chervil, and Marsh Angelica.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xvii. 219 Glowande gledes gladieth nouȝte þis werkmen..As doth a kex [C. xx. 185 kyx] or a candel þat cauȝte hath fyre & blaseth. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 277/2 Kyx, or bunne, or drye weed, calamus. 1530 Palsgr. 235/2 Keckes of humblockes, tviav. Ibid. 236/1 Kickes the drie stalke of humlockes or burres, tvyav. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 177 b, Take a peece of a reede or a kex. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet C iv, Elders they may bee, which being fullest of spungie pith, proue euer the driest kixes. 1672 J. Josselyn New Eng. Rarities 74 The Stalkes are as hollow as a Kix, and so are the Roots. 1723 J. Nott Confectioner's Dict. Pref., Upon the Battlements of the Castle [of pastry] were planted Guns made of Kexes. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 596 Taking for our support a withered kecks instead of the staff of life. 1842 Akerman Wiltsh. Gloss., Gix, the dry stalks of hemlock. 1891 T. Hardy Tess (1892) 139, I should be as dry as a kex wi' travelling so far. |
† b. Without a: collectively, or as a material.
In some cases perh. taken as pl. of keck, a form which was prob. evolved from this collective sense.
| 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 106 Of kyks for cage woorke, to builde thy house hie. 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. xvii. §1. 199 The stalke is rounde, smooth and hollow, like to Kexe or Casshes. 1607 Wilkins Miseries enforced Marriage iv. in Hazl. Dodsley IX. 534 Ilf. Dost not know me, butler? But. For kex, dried kex. 1725 Bailey Erasm. Colloq. 7 You're so thin, a Body may see through you, and as dry as Kecks. |
2. An umbelliferous plant with a hollow stalk.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. xxiii. 306 Sagapenum is the sap or gumme of a kinde of Ferula or kix. 1658 Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 1003 They are commonly found in Kexes, or Asse Parsly in the summer time. 1755 Gentl. Mag. XXV. 29 Cicuta. Common Hemlock, or Kex. 1784 Twamley Dairying 118 Kex, or water-parsnip,..grows in rivers and fens, is very noxious to cattle; also the lesser Kex called upright water-parsnip, in rivers and ditches. 1847 Tennyson Princ. iv. 59 Tho' the rough kex break The starr'd mosaic. 1880 Jefferies Gt. Estate vii. 136 Cutting a dry ‘gicks’ so that it should be open at either end, like a tube. |
† 3. The husk, sheath, or hard case of a chrysalis.
| c 1600 Holland, When the kex, or husk, is broken, he proveth a fair flying butterfly. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 371/1 Kex, or husk of Worms. |
† 4. fig. A dried-up sapless person. Obs.
| 1611 Beaum. & Fl. King & No King v. ii, I'le make these withered kexes bear my body two hours together above ground. 1659 Lady Alimony ii. v. in Hazl. Dodsley XIV. 309 Flo. The issue madam? Med. None; nor ever shall With that sear, suckless kex. 1709 Brit. Apollo II. No. 54. 3/2 If a weighty Boss She, And a slender Kecks He. a 1711 Ken Edmund Poet. Wks. 1721 II. 360 I'll follow glorious Edmund to his Urn, The Embers of his Fire this Kix will burn. |