innards, n. pl.
(ˈɪnədz)
Dial. and vulgar alteration of inwards (see inward a. and n. B. 1 b) ‘entrails’. Now in common colloq. use. (Marshall, 1787 (see E.D.D.) has only inwards.) Also transf. and fig., the inside (of anything).
| 1825 J. Britton Beauties Wiltshire III. 375 Innerds, the entrails of a hog. 1874 ‘S. Beauchamp’ Grantley Grange I. ii. 29 It's summut i' his innards, or his yud. 1878 Trollope Is he Popenjoy? III. i. 7 The Marquis was still in bed. His ‘in'ards’ had not ceased to be matter of anxiety to Mrs. Walker. 1896 S. Baring-Gould Dartmoor Idylls viii. 193 I'm terrible holler in my in'erds. 1903 Kipling Traffics & Discov. (1904) 58 There was the cutter's innards spread out like a Fratton pawnbroker's shop. 1921 Wireless World 15 Oct. 439/1 The instrument is assembled from a Mk. III ebonite top,..the parts of an aeroplane ‘remote control’, etc... Its ‘innards’ were collected from many different firms at all sorts of prices. 1929 G. Mitchell Mystery of Butcher's Shop iv. 47 Damned nuisance about the head... He's left us everything else, including the innards. 1932 J. T. Farrell Young Lonigan i. 29 His innards made slight noises, as they diligently furthered the process of digesting a juicy beefsteak. 1934 Mind XLIII. 234 The music is so bound up with the feelings and impressions of their minds, so spun out of the composers' ‘innards’, that it..is inseparable from the feelings and impressions themselves. 1935 Discovery May 132/1 The ‘innards’ of the atom. 1937 Evening News 5 Feb. 8/2 The best larder for a good kill was his innards, and the savage's sound logic in over⁓eating passed down the Middle Ages as Feast Days. 1941 Wyndham Lewis Let. 22 Nov. (1963) 310 Next, the true innards of Fascism are uncovered. 1961 Listener 16 Nov. 822/3 Here is Hogarth, at thirty-five, exploring the dark innards of the town. 1962 Ibid. 8 Mar. 405/2 The whole thing [sc. the jury system] can only live so long as we are not allowed to see its innards. 1971 Physics Bull. Jan. 27/3 Theoreticians who could not care less about planetary atmospheres but deal purely with the innards of the CO2 molecule. 1974 Observer (Colour Suppl.) 13 Jan. 27/1 The next time I slid the clamp up it wouldn't grip, the sheath of the nylon rope came down with it, and the white innards stretched thin over the lip of rock. |