padge dial.
(pædʒ)
Also pudge.
[Cf. pudge1.]
The barn owl, Tyto alba, which has white plumage flecked with brown or grey. Also attrib.
| 1848 A. B. Evans Leicestershire Words 65 Padge-owl, the common owl. 1881 Ibid. (new ed.) 208 Padge..the common barn-owl. 1885 C. Swainson Provincial Names & Folklore Brit. Birds 126 Familiar names [of the barn owl]... Padge, Pudge, or Pudge owl (Leicestershire). 1937 Auden in Auden & MacNeice Lett. from Iceland viii. 103, I'll never grant a more than passing beauty To pudge or pilewort, petty-chap or pooty. |