▪ I. † char, n.1 Obs. or dial.
Return, turn; turn of work: see chare.
▪ II. † char, n.2 Obs.
Also 3 (chiare), 3–6 chare, 4–5 chaar(e, 4–6 charre, 5 charr, 6 Sc. cher, 7–9 chair n.2
[a. F. char (12th c. in Littré):—L. carrus. But the form charre (and possibly chare in some quots.) was perh. a. OF. charre:—L. carra; see car n.1]
1. A chariot, car: a cart, wagon. Later examples show the Fr. word char used in English-language contexts in the nineteenth century.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 9162 (Cott.) Helias was..Translated in a golden chiare [other MSS. chare]. Ibid. 4657 To ride ai quar in kinges char [Fairf. chare]. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1292 Aboute his chaar [so 3 MSS.; char-2, chare-2] ther wenten white alauntz. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 957 When Phebus chare hath goon aboute it twye. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. ccxliv. 294 Al the horses drawyng the chare were trapped in blak. c 1500 Lancelot 3 Uprisith arly in his fyre chare. Ibid. 734 Mony o strong chariot and cher. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. ccclxiii. 591 Sixe chares laded with..brede and wyne. 1677 Hobbes Homer 175 For all his flaming horses and his charre. 1802 H. Eckersall in Trav. Diaries of Malthus (1966) 296 We..were much entertain'd with the Philosophic discource of the driver of our char on the over-population of his country [sc. Switzerland]. 1816 Shelley Let. 22 July (1964) I. 357 It is possible to accomplish the rest of the journey in a char du pays. 1817 H. C. B. Campbell Journey to Florence (1951) 57 As there are few or no travellers in winter it is then that they go [to church] occasionally in a char. a 1828 D. Wordsworth Tour Cont. in Jrnls. (1941) II. 150 Our cloaks and coats..he had cunningly locked up in a seat of the Char. Ibid. 267 Our gentlemen..hired a char-a-banc with two horses... Two Shopkeepers..had helped them to procure the char. 1868 G. M. Hopkins Jrnl. 10 July (1959) 171 At Alpnach we took a char to Lungern. |
2. ? A cart-load. char of lead (see quot.).
| c 1550 Sir J. Balfour Practicks (1754) 87 (Jam.) For ane char of leid, that is to say, xxiiii fotinellis, iiiid. 1672 Cowel's Interpr., Charre of Lead, consists of thirty pigs, each pig containing six stone wanting two pound, and every stone being twelve pound, Assisa de ponderibus, Rob. 3 R. Scot, cap. 22, sect. 2. 1708–21 Kersey Charre of Lead (as in Cowel). (Erroneously made by Bailey, 1721, into Charge of Lead, which is copied into mod. Dicts. as a current term!) |
▪ III. char, n.3 Zool.
(tʃɑː(r))
Forms: 7 chare, charre, 7–8 charr, 8– char.
[Known in books only since 17th c.; but may have been in local use long before. Etymology unknown: possibly of Celtic origin; cf. Gael. ceara red, blood-coloured, cear blood; also the W. name torgoch red-bellied.]
1. A small fish (Salmo salvelinus) of the trout kind, found in the lakes of mountainous districts in the north and in Wales, and esteemed a delicacy.
| 1662 Phillips, Chare, a kind of fish which breeds most peculiarly in Winandermere in Lancashire. 1668 Wilkins Real Char. 141 Trout, Charr. 1674 Ray Fresh-w. Fish 109 There are two sorts taken in Winander-mere. The greater having a red belly they call the red Charre: and the lesser having a white belly, which they call the Gilt or Gelt Charre. 1769 Pennant Brit. Zool. III. 261 The Gelt, or Barren Charr. 1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 47 To pot Chars. 1863 Baring-Gould Iceland 100 Trout and char from the lakes supply me with food. 1882 J. Payn Priv. Views, Hotels 184 Among other native delicacies, they give you fresh char cooked to a turn. |
| Comb. 1769 De Foe's Tour Gt. Brit. II. 381 The Char-fish..which we saw in Lancashire, and also in Switzerland. |
2. The Brook Trout (Salmo fontinalis) of U.S.
| 1864 in Webster. |
▪ IV. char, n.4
[f. char v.2]
A charred substance. spec. = bone-black (bone n. 17).
| 1879 H. Warren Recr. Astron. ii. 21 The sun itself will become..dead as a burned-out char. 1881 Echo 21 Mar. 6 The coke or char left in the retorts. 1887 Century Mag. Nov. 113/2 The ‘char’ must be washed with hot water..and dried in a kiln. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXIII. 47 Vessels..of such diameter as to hold a given quantity of animal charcoal (also called ‘bone-black’ and ‘char’). Ibid., This..‘sweet water’ is sometimes..passed through the char filter. 1959 Times 3 Jan. 10/1 The coal is heated to a temperature of 400 to 450 deg. C., and the product is known as a char—in distinction from coke, which is formed by heating alone, without air. |
▪ V. char, n.5 colloq.
(tʃɑː(r))
Short for charwoman.
| 1906 Daily Chron. 7 June 3/4 We find him trying to gain a pension for ‘Granny Deane’, his ancient ‘char’. 1919 C. Orr Glorious Thing viii. 89, I had to scrub the kitchen today, because the char couldn't come. 1951 Mind LX. 487 There is no point in telling one's char to wash the marble halls one dreamt one dwelt in. |
▪ VI. char, n.6 slang.
(tʃɑː(r))
[Popular spelling of cha.]
Tea.
| 1919 Athenæum 25 July 664/1 Char (Hindustani char), tea. ‘Char up, lads!’ i.e., ‘Here is the tea!’ 1955 H. Spring These Lovers fled Away 497, I thought of the thousands of cups o' char that batmen had produced at such moments as this. |
▪ VII. char
dial. f. chair.
▪ VIII. char, v.1
to turn, do turns of work, work as charwoman: see chare, char v. 5.
▪ IX. char, v.2
(tʃɑː(r))
Also 8 charr. Pples. charred, charring.
[A comparatively modern word (or sense), taken app. from the first element of charcoal: perhaps originally a ‘collier's’ (i.e. charcoal-burner's) term for the making of charcoal. (Immediate identity with char v.1, is not tenable historically; and Mahn's suggestion of connexion with ‘Celtic caor, gor fire, flame’, is futile.)]
1. trans. To reduce by burning to charcoal or carbon; to burn slightly or partially, scorch.
| 1679 Plot Staffordsh. (1686) 128 They have a way of Charring it [coal] (if I may so speak without a solecisme) in all particulars the same as they doe wood. The coal thus prepared they call Coaks. 1774 T. West Antiq. Furness p. xliv, The ore has been carried to where the woods were charred. 1794 G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. II. xv. 174 You may..char or burn a piece of wood to a coal. 1805 Southey Madoc in Azt. xi, Round the fire they char The stake-points. 1830 Tennyson Talking Oak 277 Nor ever lightning char thy grain. |
b. To burn, scorch (liquids).
| 1713 Lond. & Country Brew. iii. (1743) 184 One [Cooler] heats the other, and often charrs the Wort. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Brewing, Will always char and sour their Liquors. 1838 T. Thomson Chem. Org. Bodies 614 Concentrated sulphuric acid chars it [spiroil]. |
c. To mark or delineate by charring. rare.
| 1871 Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (ed. 2) I. ii. 48 Falling on white paper, the image chars itself out. |
2. intr. To become reduced to charcoal.
| 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Charcoal, If it Charrs faster at one part than another. 1855 Browning Men & Women, Heretic's Trag. II. 200 Larch-heart that chars to a chalk-white glow. |
▪ X. char, v.3
[? Cf. F. carrer (un bloc de marbre):—L. quadrāre to square.]
To hew or work (stone).
| 1846 in Parker Gloss. Gothic Archit. 62. |
▪ XI. char, v.4 dial.
[The form answers to OE. ceori-an to creak: see charr n.]
‘To chide, to bark at’ (Whitby Gloss. 1855).