poultry
(ˈpəʊltrɪ)
Forms: α. 4–6 pultrie, -ye, 5–6 pultre, -erie, 5–7 pulletrie, -ye, 7 pultry. β. 6 poultrie, -ye, -ee, 7 poultery, powltry, 7–8 poultrey; 6– poultry. γ. Sc. 5–8 powtry, 7 poutry.
[ME. pult(e)rie, a. OF. pouletrie (1280 in Godef.), poulleterie, f. poul(l)etier poulter: see -ery 1, and cf. F. boulangerie, Eng. bakery, etc.]
† 1. The office of a ‘poulter’ in the royal (or a nobleman's) household (see poulter 2); the superintendence of the purchase of fowls and other provisions; also, the room in which such provisions were stored. Obs.
| [1390 Earl Derby's Exp. (Camden) 15 Super officio pulletrie per manus eiusdem pro lacte, butiro et ouis per ipsum emptis ibidem. 1392 Ibid. 220 Cum conductione j domus pro officio pulleterie, j duc. v.s. 1393 Ibid. 241 Super officio poletrie.] 1455 in Househ. Ord. (1790) 22* Th' office of the Pulterie. 1541 Act 33 Hen. VIII, c. 12 §14 The serieant of the pultrie..shalbe..redie with a cocke in his hand. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 74 Office[s] of houshold seruice, as Ewery,..Buttery, Spicery, pitcher house, Larder and Poultrie. 1601 Tate Househ. Ord. Edw. II §42 (1876) 25 A wafrer..shul take for his office..egges in the pulletrie and fuel of the scullerye. |
2. † a. A place where fowls are reared; a poultry-yard or poultry-farm.
† b. A place where fowls are sold for food; a poultry-market.
Obs.| 1429 Mun. Magd. Coll. Oxf. (1882) 16 Item, j bakhous..cum aliis parvis domibus ibidem pro yetynghous et pultrie. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 416/1 Pultrye, gallinaria. c 1483 Caxton Dialogues 10/30 Goo into the pultrie, Bye poullettis, One poullet & two chekens. 1530 Palsgr. 257/2 Poultry, poullaillerie. 1546 Langley Pol. Verg. De Invent. iii. iii. 66 b, Pulteries of all kinde of foules wer instituted. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 207 b, The Poultrees, Larders, Spicereis, and Sellars of Wine were al open. 1552 Huloet s.v. Pultrye, The fowles fedde in a Barton or poultry. 1570 Levins Manip. 105/30 Poultrie, auiarium. |
c. Hence, Name of a street at the east end of Cheapside in London, where there was formerly a poultry-market.
| 1432–50 in Calr. Proc. Chanc. Q. Eliz. I. Pref. 40 Oon Richard Crewe and Nicholas Vicarye sergeaunts..toke at divers tymes out of the said Saintuary..and brought theym to the Counter in the Poultre of London forsaid. 1598 Stow Surv. 63 Powlters of late remoued out of the Powltry. 1711 J. Greenwood Eng. Gram. Title-p., Johon Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey. |
3. Domestic fowls collectively; those tame birds which are commonly reared for their flesh, eggs, or feathers, and kept in a yard or similar inclosure, as barndoor fowls, ducks, geese, turkeys, guinea-fowls (excluding pigeons, pheasants, etc.); sometimes restricted to the barndoor fowl with its varieties; also applied to the birds as dressed for the market or prepared for food.
Usually construed as collective
pl.; formerly sometimes as individual
pl. after a numeral.
| α c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 598 His lordes sheepe, his neet, his dayerye, His swyn, his hors, his stoor, and his pultrye [v.rr. pultrie, pulletrie, pultre]. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 9 Venisoun, pultrie, and wylde foul. 1508 Dunbar Flyting 157 Thow plukkis the pultre, and scho pullis off the pennis. 1550–3 Decaye of Eng. in Four Suppl., etc. (1871) 98 Where as pultrye was wont to be breade and fedde. 1581 Calr. Laing Charters (1899) 255 Fowir pultrie for fowir penneis the pece. c 1640 J. Smyth Lives Berkeleys (1883) I. 161 The vsuall prices of Catle, Corne, Pultry and other provisions. |
| β 1545 Elyot Dict., Pascales, sheepe or poultrie, whiche doo feede at large. 1563 T. Hill Art Garden. ii. xxii. (1574) 63 Hennes, Cockes, Chickins, or any other Poultry sytting on the rowste. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia iv. 164 Many more Powltry, what was brought or bred. 1656 Heylin Surv. France 202 The servant went over only to sell his Poultery. 1727 A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Ind. I. xix. 237, I have seen the Portugueze Subjects bring twenty or thirty Poultry to the Market. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. iii. 173 Poultry in groups still follow'd where she went. 1870 L'Estrange Miss Mitford I. i. 31 They speak of hardly anything except the dogs and the poultry. |
| γ 1486 Exch. Rolls Scotl. IX. 359 Onerat se..de..xl caponibus j{supc} xlvj powtry... Summa..lxiiij capones j{supc} lxxxxiiij pultre. 1565 in J. Fraser Polichron. (S.H.S.) 153 Aught poutry price of the pice xij d. 1730 Ramsay Fables xxii. 19 Sheep and powtry, geese and ducks. |
4. attrib. and
Comb., as
poultry-basket,
poultry breeder,
poultry-breeding,
poultry-culture,
poultry-fancier,
poultry-fancy,
poultry-fancying adj.,
poultry-farm,
poultry-farmer,
poultry-farming,
poultry-feather,
poultry-house,
poultry-keeper,
poultry-keeping,
poultry kind,
poultry market,
poultry meat,
† poultry-picking (
= stealing),
poultry-plant (
plant n.1 6),
poultry-raising,
poultry-rearing,
poultry-run,
poultry-shop,
poultry-show,
poultry-stall,
poultry-yard;
† Poultry Compter, name of a prison in the Poultry in London (see 2 c and
Compter);
poultry-feeder, a contrivance for feeding poultry (see
quots.);
poultry-flutter, the flutter of frightened poultry; also
fig.;
poultry-maid, a girl employed to look after poultry;
poultry-man, a man who sells poultry; also
poultry-woman;
† poultry-stuff,
† poultry-ware, poultry as a marketable commodity.
| 1893 Q. [Couch] Delectable Duchy (1894) 305 An old countryman, with an empty *poultry-basket on his knees. |
| c 1882 W. Cook (title) Practical *poultry breeder and feeder. 1976 Evening Post (Nottingham) 14 Dec. 6/6 Derbyshire police advises poultry breeders to have flood lighting as a deterrent. |
| 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxvii. (1818) II. 519 Some quondam amateur of *poultry-breeding. |
| 1715 M. Davies Athen. Brit. I. 15 [He] became at last Secondary of the *Poultry-Compter. |
| 1894 Daily News 12 Dec. 6/7 The Committee..urge that *poultry culture as a branch of our great national industry should be no longer neglected. |
| 1865 Atlantic Monthly June 661/2 My experiments with chickens have been attended with a success so brilliant that unfortunate *poultry-fanciers have appealed to me for assistance. 1876 Fulton Bk. Pigeons 1 A poultry-fancier was apt to be fought shy of. |
| 1891 T. Hardy Tess (1900) 21/1 In the management of her *poultry-farm. |
| 1894 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. June 303 From *poultry-farmers..the higglers obtain the millions of eggs which are sent into this country. |
| Ibid., Nothing has been said as to *poultry-farming. |
| 1844 Zoologist II. 451 Its nest..was lined with a profusion of *poultry-feathers. |
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., *Poultry-feeder, a device to feed grain to fowls in quantity as used. 1884 Ibid. Supp., Poultry Feeder, a revolving cylinder with coops in stories and in circuit, holding fowls which are successively presented to the attendant. |
| 1876 G. Meredith Beauch. Career I. i. 11 We were insulted, and all in a *poultry flutter, yet no one seemed to feel it but himself! |
| 1552 Huloet, *Pultrye house or barton, gallinarium,..viuarium. 1819 Amer. Farmer (Baltimore) I. 46 Respecting the cleansing of poultry-houses from vermin, or chicken-lice. 1921 Proc. 3rd Nat. Country Life Conf. 1920 (U.S.) 155 No argument is necessary to justify poultry houses. 1942 C. Milburn Diary 11 July (1979) 145 Mr Willoughby came later with a copy of the Smallholder and we looked at an advertisement for a ‘Utility Poultry House’. |
| 1867 L. Wright (title) The practical *poultry-keeper. 1935 Discovery Oct. 302/2 The poultry keeper and game preserver. 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 9 Feb. 123/3 Some poultry-keepers prefer to use no preventive drugs and to rely upon curative drugs, if and when an outbreak of coccidiosis occurs. 1976 Newmarket Jrnl. 16 Dec., He served on the committee of the allotments association and was an active gardener and poultry-keeper. |
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. III. 83 Birds of the *Poultry kind. |
| 1897 Sarah Grand Beth Bk. xii, He went to the poultry-yard, followed by Beth.., the yard-boy, and the *poultry-maid. |
| 1573–4 Reg. Privy Council Scot. II. 338 Flescheouris,..commoun cuikis, *pultre men, and sic utheris as sellis or makis reddy flesche. 1889 St. Landry Democrat (Opelousas, Louisiana) 7 Dec. 2/5 Mr. Felch the well-known poultryman, has a Scotch collie dog. 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 9 Feb. 125/2 Mr. Thornber remembered that the poultryman slept for 21 days with the first mammoth they installed. |
| 1437 Bury Wills (Camden) 8 In vico vocato the *Pultery market. |
| 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 16 Feb. 79/1 The amount of *poultry meat marketed continued to shoot upwards. 1978 Daily Tel. 19 Sept. 19/7 Meat consumption in Britain is now at its lowest level since 1955—replaced largely by poultry meat. |
| c 1470 Henryson Mor. Fab. ix. (Wolf & Fox) xvii, It is sum wyfis malisoun..For *pultrie pyking that lichtit hes on yow. |
| 1850 in D. J. Browne Amer. Poultry Yard 304 There is profit attending *poultry raising, when undertaken on a moderate scale. 1870 ‘Mark Twain’ in Buffalo Express 4 June 2/3 From early youth I have taken an especial interest in the subject of poultry-raising. 1896 Rep. Vermont Board Agric. XV. 28 Poultry raising has of late years attracted the attention of the farmer. |
| 1916 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 23 July 8/5 There is room near every industrial centre in the province for many market gardens, *poultry-runs, orchards and aviaries. 1930 R. Campbell Adamastor 64 Heaven in which our senses swim, Aviary of aviators And poultry-run of seraphim! |
| 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 181 Thou sellest..conies in this *pultry shoppe. |
| 1868 M. H. Smith Sunshine & Shadow in N.Y. lxxiv. 597 He has gotten up baby-shows, *poultry-shows, and dog-shows. 1873 F. Kilvert Diary 6 Aug. (1944) 223, I went..to Garth to attend the Garth Flower Show, Dog Show, Poultry Show, Bazaar and Athletic Sports, all in one. |
| 1886 W. J. Tucker E. Europe 243 The old Jewess..used some years ago to have a *poultry-stall..on the market. |
| 1531–2 in Househ. Ord. (1790) 220 He shall take noe *Poultry-stuff from noe Nobleman nor Gentleman's Servants. |
| Ibid., They shall take noe *Poultry-ware within seven myles of London. |
| 1851 Harper's Mag. Apr. 662/2 The *poultry-woman must be changed. |
| 1748 Richardson Clarissa I. ix. 52 You must remember the Green Lane..that runs by the side of the wood-house and *poultry-yard. 1811 Jane Austen Sense & Sens. III. vi. 114 The rest of the morning was..whiled away..in visiting her poultry-yard. 1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville i. (1849) 27 Like a game-cock among the common roosters of the poultry-yard. 1847 Emerson Poems, Threnody v, His daily haunts I well discern,—The poultry-yard, the shed, the barn. |
Hence
ˈpoultrycide (
humorous nonce-wd.) [
-cide 2], the killing of poultry;
ˈpoultryless a. [
-less], destitute of poultry.
| 1841 Blackw. Mag. XLIX. 616, I..meditated all the varieties of poultrycide. 1883 ‘Annie Thomas’ Mod. Housewife 106 To a degree that drove us poultryless from her doors after an unsuccessful and prolonged parley. |