offal
(ˈɒfəl)
Also 4 ofall, 5 offale, -aile, 6 offalle, -awle, 6–7 offall, 7–8 off-fall, (7 offell, uffal(l), 9 dial. offald, offil.
[f. off adv. + fall n.1: cf. Du. afval shavings, refuse, garbage, Ger. abfall waste, rubbish, pl. parings, shavings.]
1. That which falls off or is thrown off, as chips in dressing wood, dross in melting metals, etc.; the part which, in any process, is allowed to fall off or neglected as valueless or of no immediate use; refuse, waste; also pl., Scraps of waste stuff or refuse. Now only techn. or dial. = offal corn or wheat, offal leather, offal wood (cf. 6 a).
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xv. iv. (Tollem. MS.), Þe pouder of þe offal of golde. Ibid. xvii. cxxxv. (1495) 691 Hulkes and ofall and out caste of corne. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 362/1 Offal, that ys bleuit of a thynge, as chyppys, or oþer lyke. 1552 Huloet, Offall of beanes, fabalia. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xv. (1887) 68 To digest the good nurriture, and to auoide the offall. 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 67 Every hives offell will serve to sweeten three gallons of water, and to make sufficient and good meade of the same. 1663 Gerbier Counsel (1664) 49 To manage the uffal of the Timber. 1736 Bailey Househ. Dict. 514 They..distil their rum from the offal of sugar. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. i. xi. (1869) I. 235 The offals of the barn and stables will maintain a certain number of poultry. 1876 Schultz Leather Manuf. 284 The term offal applies to all the parts outside the bends. 1877 N.W. Linc. Gloss., Offals, refuse of any kind, but more particularly refuse corn. 1882 W. Worc. Gloss., Offal, waste wood. |
† b. In collective sing. and pl.: Fragments that fall off in breaking or using anything; crumbs; leavings; relics, remnants. Obs.
| 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1684) II. 328 There were left twelve baskets, twelve maunds full of brokelets and offalls at that meal. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 64 If Gods eternal thee last disseuered offal Of Troy determyn too burne. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. i. iii. iii. (1651) 430 Poor Lazarus..only seeks chippings, offals. 1659 D. Pell Impr. Sea 295 Upon these Plancks, Yards, Masts, and offals of the Vessel, have all the Mariners got safe to the Shore. 1786 A. Maclean Christ's Commiss. iii. (1846) 156 To partake of the crumbs and offals in common with the dogs. |
2. a. The parts which are cut off in dressing the carcase of an animal killed for food; in earlier use applied mainly to the entrails; now, as a trade term, including the head and tail, as well as the kidneys, heart, tongue, liver, and other parts. † Formerly also in pl.
| c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 29 Take tho offal and tho lyver of tho swan In gode brothe thou sethe hom than. 1464 Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 543 Receyved..for the fete and the offaile of a boloke, iiij.d. 1555 W. Watreman Fardle Facions ii. vii. 156 Some..when thei haue slaine the beaste (in sacrifice), vse to laye parte of the offalle in the fire. 1595 Enq. Tripe-wife (1881) 149 The Butchers offals were thy sweetest ware. a 1735 Arbuthnot (J.), He let out the offals of his meat to interest, and kept a register of such debtors in his pocket-book. 1868 Daily News 19 June, What is technically termed the ‘offal’ of slaughtered animals..forms a most important feature of the metropolitan dead-meat trade. 1877 Holderness Gloss., Offal, the cuttings of pork when a pig is killed. |
b. Contemptuously: The parts of a slaughtered or dead animal unfit for food; putrid flesh; carrion; also, opprobriously, the bodies or limbs of the slain.
| 1581 J. Derricke Image Irel. ii. F j, Though durtie tripes and offalls like please vnderknaues enoufe. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iii. v. 5 Haue I liu'd to be carried in a Basket like a barrow of butchers Offall? and to be throwne in the Thames? 1602 ― Ham. ii. ii. 608, I should haue fatted all the Region Kites With this Slaues Offall. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 633 Till cramm'd and gorg'd, nigh burst With suckt and glutted offal. 1735 Somerville Chase iii. 223 Dripping Offals, and the mangled Limbs Of Men and Beasts. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xv, Where is the hand..Is it nailed on the public pillory, or flung as offal to the houseless dogs? 1838 Prescott Ferd. & Is. (1846) I. iv. 212 Supporting life by feeding on the most loathsome offal, on cats, dogs, etc. 1867 Baker Nile Tribut. iv. (1872) 61 A flock of ravenous beaks were tearing at the offal. |
3. In the fish trade: Low-priced and inferior fish as opposed to those called prime; esp. small fish of various kinds caught in the nets along with the larger or more valuable kinds.
| 1859 Sala Tw. round Clock (1861) 17 ‘Offal’ means odd lots of different kinds of fish, mostly small and broken, but always fresh and wholesome. 1887 E. J. Mather Nor'ard of Dogger ii. (1889) 19 Prime and offal were rigorously kept apart. The prime fish are soles, turbot, halibut and brill. Plaice, haddock, cod, ling, etc. come under the technical name of offal. |
4. Refuse in general; rubbish, garbage. Now chiefly sing.
| 1598 Barret Theor. Warres v. iv. 137 Great pits to bury and to cast therein, the garbedge, filthinese, and offalls of the campe. 1798 Anti-Jacobin No. 9 (1799) 280 Express orders were given to afford them no other subsistence than the offals that might be collected in the streets. 1877 S. Cox Salv. Mundi iv. (1878) 69 It became the common cesspool of the city into which all the offal was cast. |
5. fig. Refuse, offscourings, dregs, scum. Chiefly in collect. sing.
| 1581 Mulcaster Positions xxxvii. (1887) 159 That barbarous offall of all kinde of people. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. iii. 8 The Miser threw him selfe, as an Offall, Streight at his foot in base humilitee. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. i. iii. 109 What trash is Rome? What Rubbish, and what Offall? 1728 Morgan Algiers I. Pref. 2 Those Varlets, generally..the very Offal of the Ottomans. 1828 Macaulay Ess., Hallam (1851) I. 86 Wretches..whom every body now believes to have been..the offal of gaols and brothels. |
6. attrib. or as adj. a. lit. (See preceding senses.)
| 1596 Stanford Churchw. Acc. in Antiquary (1888) May 211 Chippes and offall woodd of the tree felled. 1599 Marston Sco. Villanie iii. xi. 227 Fed with offall scraps, that sometimes fall From liberall wits. 1645 Quarles Sol. Recant. xi. 76 Fair Crops from offall Corn are rarely found. 1717 tr. Frezier's Voy. 238 Offal Meat, which consists in Heads, Tongues, Entrails, Feet,..which they eat on Fish-Days. 1764 Museum Rusticum III. xii. 40, I supposed..that they would go to the tailing, or off-fall corn. 1778 W. H. Marshall Minutes Agric. 17 Nov. 1776, Any offal-stick..eighteen inches long answers the purpose. 1825 E. Hewlett Cottage Comf. vi. 49 Any offal milk. 1880 Times 2 Dec. 8/2 For sale by auction, at Her Majesty's Dockyard,..offal wood..about 30 tons. 1886 Chesh. Gloss., Offal corn, offal wheat, the lighter grains winnowed from the marketable samples, and used for feeding fowls. 1891 J. J. Lalor in Cycl. Temp. & Prohib. 253/2 Patent, sole, harness, band and offal leather. |
b. fig. Outcast; worthless; vile. Now esp. dial.
| c 1605 Rowley Birth Merl. iii. vi, The offal fugitives of barren Germany. 1839 Times 5 Feb., The last four years being the period of the M― or offal ministry in this island. 1860 Geo. Eliot Mill on Fl. i. iv, He's an offal creatur as iver come about the primises. 1877 Holderness Gloss., Offal, worthless; vile. |
7. Comb., as offal-eater.
| 1889 J. Jacobs æsop's Fables I. 66 The refuse-eater and the offal-eater Belauding each other. |
Hence ˈoffalist (nonce-wd.), a gatherer of offal.
| 1822 Sporting Mag. IX. 230 Athenæus, that offalist and great gatherer of all town and country talk. |