marrowfat
(ˈmærəʊfæt)
[f. marrow n.1 + fat n.]
1. (More fully marrowfat pea.) A kind of large rich pea. (Cf. marrow pea, marrow n.1 5.)
| 1733 Miller Gard. Dict. (ed. 2) s.v. Pisum, The Marrow⁓fat or Dutch Admiral Pea. Ibid., Observing to allow the Marrow-fats..at least three Feet between Row and Row. 1766 Complete Farmer s.v. Pease, The marrowfat is the best tasted of all the large kinds of peas. 1840 Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. i. Tragedy, The Duchess shed tears large as marrow-fat peas. 1864 Reader 13 Aug. 191 In Jersey..peas attain nearly double the size of the British marrow-fat. |
2. N. Amer. A tallow-like substance prepared by boiling down marrow.
| 1717 J. Knight Jrnl. 16 Aug. (1932) 164 These Indians gave me..2 pretty bigg bladders of Marrow fatt. 1791 in Publ. Champlain Soc. (1934) XXI. 528 They broke the Bones of the Buffalo & made marrowfatt. 1841 G. Catlin Lett. on N. Amer. Indians I. 116 ‘Marrow-fat’ is collected by the Indians from the buffalo bones which they break to pieces, yielding a prodigious quantity of marrow, which is boiled out and put into buffalo bladders. 1846 R. B. Sage Scenes Rocky Mts. viii. 79 Marrow-fat, an article in many respects superior to butter. 1888 Century Mag. XXXVI. 898/1 Then he slicked his hair with marrow-fat from a horn. 1947 Beaver Dec. 21 Clean Marrow fat rendered down like white butter. |
† 3. U.S. slang. (See quot.) Obs.
| 1903 A. B. Hart Actual Govt. Amer. Conditions 75 The ‘marrow-fat’ fraud consists in a voter's putting in more than one ballot, while the clerk puts down fictitious names to cover the extra ballots. |