▪ I. bavin, n.
(ˈbævɪn)
Forms: 6 bauine, 6–7 bauen, -in, 7 baven, -yn, 7–8 bavine, 6– bavin.
[Derivation unknown; among sources which have been suggested are OF. baffe a bundle; also Gael. baban, babhaid, tassel, cluster.]
1. A bundle of brushwood or light underwood, such as is used in bakers' ovens, differing from a fagot in being bound with only one withe or band instead of two; in Mil. a fascine.
| 1528 in T. Whitaker Hist. Craven (1812) 303 Item, for 40 load of cutwood & bavins. 1580 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 331 Bavins be knowen by their bands. 1603 H. Crosse Vertues Commw. (1878) 133 Which like a bauin giueth goodly blaze..but is soone out. 1629 S'hertogenbosh 39 The Enemies did nothing else but fill the ditches with wet Bauins of trees. 1776 T. Bowden Farm. Direct. 11 All hay ricks should be bottomed with faggots and bavins. a 1848 Marryat R. Reefer xiii, The bavins of furze..shall be sold. |
| fig. 1593 Nashe Christ's T. (1613) 144 Adding more Bauines vnto it of lasciuious embolstrings. 1605 Chapman Eastw. Hoe A iij, If he out-last not a hundred such crackling Bauins as thou art. |
b. collect. sing. Brushwood, firewood.
| 1577 Tusser Husb. (1878) 133 In stacking of bauen..make vnder thy bauen a houell for hogs. 1664 Evelyn Sylva 48 [They] be profitable for the Oven, and make good Bavin. |
c. attrib., as in bavin-band, bavin-stack; bavin wits, wits bavin-like in quick and short-lived blaze.
| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. ii. 61 Shallow Iesters, and rash Bauin Wits, Soone kindled and soone burnt. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict., Birch..is of use for Bavin bands. 1762 tr. Duhamel's Husb. i. viii. 21 The bottom of bavine-stacks. |
2. Min. Impure limestone. (? a different word).
| 1839 Murchison Silur. Syst. i. xxxvi. 484 These concretions..are called ‘bavin,’ the shale associated with them being termed ‘rotch.’ |
▪ II. † ˈbavin, v. Obs.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To bind up into bavins.
| 1664 Evelyn Sylva (1776) 538 Kid or Bavin them (the underwood)..to preserve them from rotting. 1685 Cotton Montaigne II. 516 They saw [him] ingeniously bavin up a burthen of brushwood. |