▪ I. bushel, n.1
(ˈbʊʃəl)
Forms: 4 bus(s)chel, buisshel, buysshel, boussel, boyschel, 4–5 buyschel, 4–6 busshel(le, 5 bu-, byschelle, buscel, bysshell, 5–6 bowsshell(e, 6 buszshel, buszhell, bushylle, bousshell, beyschell, 5–7 bushell, 4– bushel.
[ME. boyschel, buyschel, a. OF. boissiel, -el, buissiel (mod.F. boisseau, dial. boisteau), according to Diez dim. of boiste (Pr. bostea and boissa) box. This explanation is supported by the med.L. form bustellus, beside bussellus, bissellus. Du Cange took the word as a dim. of OF. boise = med.L. buza, buta butt.]
1. A measure of capacity used for corn, fruit, etc., containing four pecks or eight gallons.
The imperial bushel, legally established in Great Britain in 1826, contains 2218.192 cubic inches, or 80 pounds of distilled water weighed in air at 62° Fah. The Winchester bushel, much used from the time of Henry VIII, was somewhat smaller, containing 2150.42 cubic inches or 77.627413 pounds of distilled water; it is still generally used in United States and Canada. The bushel had a great variety of other values, now abolished by law, though often, in local use, varying not only from place to place, but in the same place according to the kind or quality of the commodity in question. Frequently it was no longer a measure, but a weight of so many (30, 40, 45, 50, 56, 60, 70, 75, 80, 90, 93, 220) pounds of flour, wheat, oats, potatoes, etc. A full account of these local values is given in Old Country & Farming Words (Eng. Dial. Soc.) 169.
| c 1300 Battle Abb. Custumals (1887) 67 Habebit iiij bussellos de bericorn. c 1330 Poem on Times Edw. II, 393 in Pol. Songs (1839) 341 A busshel of whete was at foure shillinges or more. 1382 Wyclif Gen. xviii. 6 Mynge to gidre thre half buysshelis of clene floure. 1497 Act 12 Hen. VII, v, That the measure of a Bushell containe viii. gallons of Wheat. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §12 An acre of grounde..may be metelye well sowen with two London busshelles of pease. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. i. i. 116 His reasons are two graines of wheate hid in two bushels of chaffe. 1710 Swift Lett. (1767) III. 55, I have my coals by half a bushel at a time, I'll assure you. 1787 Winter Syst. Husb. 146 This wheat weighed sixty-six pounds ten ounces per bushel, of nine gallons. 1872 E. Robertson Hist. Ess. i. i. 1 An English Imperial bushel contains 60 lbs. of average wheat or 80 lbs. liquid measure. |
† b. ? A liquid measure. Obs.
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 49 A Buschelle; batulus liquidorum est, bacus. |
† c. Sometimes used without of. Obs.
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. i. iv. 15 Who so bouȝt[e] a busshel corn. c 1386 ― Reeve's T. 392 Hir cake Of half a busshel flour. |
d. loosely. A large quantity or number.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iii. 976 And would a bushel of venim al excusen For that a grane of love is on it shove. 1680 Answ. Stillingfleet's Serm. 33 Who have Benefices and Honours by Heaps, and by the Bushel. 1683 Tryon Way to Health 579 He..has got a Bushel of Money by his Practice. 1718 Lady M. W. Montague Lett. liii. II. 78 An old beau..with a bushel of curled hair on his head. 1873 R. Broughton Nancy III. 187 Bushels of girls..there always are bushels of girls somehow; here they come. |
2. A vessel used as a bushel measure.
| 1382 Wyclif Luke xi. 33 No man liȝtneth a lanterne, and puttith in hidlis, other vndir a boyschel [1388 buyschel], but on a candel sticke. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. i. viii. 20 Thre mues or busshellis all full of rynges of gold. a 1565 Heywood Four P's in Dodsley (1780) I. 87 Rolynge his eyes as rounde as two bushels. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 154 Their feet..are as broad as a bushel. 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. i. 22 The Sense represents the Sun no bigger than a Bushel. 1724 Watts Logic 152 The apples will fill a bushel. |
b. fig. (with ref. to Matt. v. 15). ‘To hide one's light under a bushel.’
| 1557 Tottell's Misc. (Arb.) 244 Trouth vnder bushell is faine to crepe. 1627 Sanderson Serm. I. 267 The light of Gods word, hid from them under two bushels for sureness: under the bushel of a tyrannous clergy..and under the bushel of an unknown tongue. 1644 Z. Boyd Gard. Zion in Zion's Flowers (1855) App. 7/2 From under the Bushell of ignorance. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. App. 540 The light of those saintly ladies should in no case be hidden under a bushel. |
c. Phrase. to measure other people's corn by one's own bushel: to apply one's own standard to others, to judge others by oneself.
| 1636 Henshaw Horæ subc. 279 Men usually measure others by their own bushels: they that are ill themselves, are commonly apt to think ill of others. 1801 Huntington Bank of Faith 35 We must not measure every body's corn by our own bushel. |
3. attrib. and comb.: a. of a bushel, as bushel-bag, bushel-basket, bushel-measure, † bushel-poke; b. resembling or as wide as a bushel-measure, as bushel-breeches, bushel-wig; also bushel-iron, ? (old) iron sold by the bushel.
| 1529 in Rogers Agric. & Prices III. 567/3, 1 *bushel basket. 1850 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XI. i. 202 The food..carried in bushel-baskets. |
| 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. i. vii, Bell-girdles, *bushel-breeches, cornuted shoes, or other the like phenomena. |
| 1831 J. Holland Manuf. Metals I. 144 *Bushel-iron, or the fragments of old hoops, and all pieces of similar size. 1851 Ord. & Regul. Royal Engineers xvi. 66 All Bushel or Scrap Iron, and Waste in conversion. |
| 1530 Palsgr. 200/2 *Bousshell measure, boisseav. |
| 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §141 Bagges, wallettes, or *busshell-pokes. |
| 1794 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Rowl. for Oliver Wks. II. 344 What gives them consequence, I trow, Is nothing but a *bushel wig. |
▪ II. bushel, n.2
[cf. bush n.2]
The bush or box of a wheel. ? Obs.
| 1433 in Rogers Agric. & Prices III. 550/4 New bushel, /8; Iron to do., 1/-. 1730–36 Bailey, Bushels [of a Cart wheel] certain Irons within the Hole of the Nave, to preserve it from Wearing. [So Johnson.] 1864 Webster, Bushel, the circle of iron in the nave of a wheel. |
▪ III. bushel, v.1 rare.
(ˈbʊʃəl)
[f. bushel n.1]
To hide under a bushel. fig. (see bushel n.1 2 b.)
| 1650 T. Vaughan Anima Mag. Abscond. 56, I have not Busheld my Light, nor buried my Talent in the Ground. 1653 W. Jenkyn On Jude (1845) 82 Not bushel the candle of Scripture discovery. 1882 H. Merivale Faucit of B. II. i. xxiv. 105 The agricole..thinks that he is wasting his days and bushelling his light out of London. |
▪ IV. bushel, v.2 U.S.
(ˈbʊʃəl)
[perh. f. G. bosseln to do odd jobs, to do poor work.]
trans. and intr. To repair (garments). So ˈbushelman, -woman, a man or woman employed in repair tailoring.
| 1864 Webster 177/3 Bushelman. 1877 Bartlett Dict. Amer. 777 To bushel,..to repair garments. 1889 Cent. Dict., Bushelwoman, a woman who assists a tailor in repairing garments. 1909 ‘O. Henry’ Options (1916) 92 You would say he had been brought up a bushelman in Essex Street. |