▪ I. gaskin1
(ˈgæskɪn)
Forms: 6 gaskyn, -kyng, -coine, -coigne, gayshekoon, 6–7 gascoyne, 7 gaskoine, gasskin, gasking, 7–8 -coin, 8 -coign, 6–9 gaskin.
[Of uncertain origin; perh. due to a false analysis of galligaskin, to which the ‘gallant gaskins’ of the first quot. comes close in point of sound. On the other hand, as Cotgrave explains F. grègues by ‘wide slops, Gregs, Gallo-gascoines, Venetians; a great Gascon or Spanish hose’, it seems possible that such hose were actually worn in Gascony; if so, this word may have been a special use of Gascon, and have existed earlier than galligaskin.]
† 1. A kind of breech or hose. Chiefly pl. Obs.
| 1573 G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 6 His oun gai gallant gaskins, his kut dublets, his staring hare. 1577 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees 1835) 423, j paire of gayshekoones broken iijs. iv{supd}. 1591 Garrard Art Warre 18 A straite brabantie and gascoine is to be worne. 1600 Dekker Gentle Craft Wks. 1873 I. 18 Goe thy wayes thought I, thou maist be much in my gaskins, but nought in my neather stockes. 1611 Beaum. & Fl. Knt. Burn. Pestle ii. ii, The child's a father-lesse child, and say they should put him into a streight paire of Gaskins..he would neuer grow after it. 1755 Johnson, Gaskins, wide hose, wide breeches. An old ludicrous word. |
† b. attrib., as gaskin breeches, gaskin hose. Obs.
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., {Cced}araguelles, gascoigne hose, femoralia. 1604 Lismore Papers Ser. ii. (1887) I. 105 Sattine to make yo{supr} Dublett and gaskoine hose. 1623 Minsheu Sp. Dict. s.v., Gascoigne breeches, or Venetian hosen..greguéscos. |
2. (See quot. 1726.)
| 1652 Sir C. Cotterell Cassandra iii. (1676) 43 And thrust him back upon his gaskins. 1726 Dict. Rust. (ed. 3), Gascoin, the hinder Thigh of a Horse, which begins at the Stiffle, and reaches to the Ply or bending of the Ham. 1827 Sporting Mag. XX. 159 Good hind legs and well spread gaskins are very essential points in a coach horse. |
| transf. 1678 Dryden Limberham iv. i, One of my Daughters is big with Bastard, and she laid at her Gascoins most unmercifully! every stripe she had, I felt it. |
▪ II. gaskin2 rare.
(ˈgæskɪn)
Also gasking.
[Alteration of gasket; the ending may represent -ing1.]
= gasket (in both senses).
| 1831 E. J. Trelawny Adv. Younger Son III. 170 Both of them lashed on the yard by the gaskins. 1860 Ure's Dict. Arts I. 328 R, cover for kier; the flanch on which this cover rests is grooved a little to admit of ‘gasking’ being inserted, so as to form a ‘joint’. 1880 G. Wightwick's Hints Yng. Archit. (Weale) 221 Socketted pipes to be..jointed with clay, tarred gaskin or cement. 1883 Stevenson Treas. Isl. iii. xv, This extraordinary patchwork was all held together by..loops of tarry gaskin. |