Word Meanings - HANDSEL - Book Publishers vocabulary database

hansel, AS. handsa giving into hands, or more prob. fr. Icel. handsal; hand hand + sal sale, bargain; akin to AS. sellan to give, 1. A sale, gift, or delivery into the hand of another; especially, a sale, gift, delivery, or using which is the first

Additional info about word: HANDSEL

hansel, AS. handsa giving into hands, or more prob. fr. Icel. handsal; hand hand + sal sale, bargain; akin to AS. sellan to give, 1. A sale, gift, or delivery into the hand of another; especially, a sale, gift, delivery, or using which is the first of a series, and regarded as on omen for the rest; a first installment; an earnest; as the first money received for the sale of goods in the morning, the first money taken at a shop newly opened, the first present sent to a young woman on her wedding day, etc. Their first good handsel of breath in this world. Fuller. Our present tears here, not our present laughter, Are but the handsels of our joys hereafter. Herrick. 2. Price; payment. Spenser. Handsel Monday, the first Monday of the new year, when handsels or presents are given to servants, children, etc.

Related words: (words related to HANDSEL)

• HANSEL
  See HANDSEL
• USHERDOM
  The office or position of an usher; ushership; also, ushers, collectively.
• FIRST
  Sw. & Dan. förste, OHG. furist, G. fürst prince; a superlatiye form 1. Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest; as, the first day of a month; the first year of a reign. 2. Foremost; in front of, or in advance of,
• HANDSPRING
  A somersault made with the assistance of the hands placed upon the ground.
• USTULATE
  Blackened as if burned.
• ANOTHER-GUESS
  Of another sort. It used to go in another-guess manner. Arbuthnot.
• BARGAINER
  One who makes a bargain; -- sometimes in the sense of bargainor.
• GIVES
  Fetters.
• USURY
  1. A premium or increase paid, or stipulated to be paid, for a loan, as of money; interest. Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury. Deut. xxiii.
• USURPANT
  Usurping; encroaching. Gauden.
• HANDSOMELY
  Carefully; in shipshape style. (more info) 1. In a handsome manner.
• GIVING
  1. The act of bestowing as a gift; a conferring or imparting. 2. A gift; a benefaction. Pope. 3. The act of softening, breaking, or yielding. "Upon the first giving of the weather." Addison. Giving in, a falling inwards; a collapse. -- Giving
• USQUEBAUGH
  of life; uisge water + beatha life; akin to Gr. bi`os life. See 1. A compound distilled spirit made in Ireland and Scotland; whisky. The Scottish returns being vested in grouse, white hares, pickled salmon, and usquebaugh. Sir W. Scott. 2. A liquor
• USURIOUS
  1. Practicing usury; taking illegal or exorbitant interest for the use of money; as, a usurious person. 2. Partaking of usury; containing or involving usury; as, a usurious contract. -- U*su"ri*ous*ly, adv. -- U*su"ri*ous*ness, n.
• WHICHEVER; WHICHSOEVER
  Whether one or another; whether one or the other; which; that one which; as, whichever road you take, it will lead you to town.
• USURER
  1. One who lends money and takes interest for it; a money lender. If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as a usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. Ex. xxii. 25. 2. One who lends money at
• USUFRUCTUARY
  A person who has the use of property and reaps the profits of it. Wharton.
• USURPATURE
  Usurpation. "Beneath man's usurpature." R. Browning.
• USUCAPTION
  The acquisition of the title or right to property by the uninterrupted possession of it for a certain term prescribed by law; -- the same as prescription in common law. (more info) use; usu + capere to take: cf. usucapio
• USURPATORY
  Marked by usurpation; usurping.
• MENISCUS
  A lens convex on one side and concave on the other. (more info) 1. A crescent.
• PROTOGYNOUS
  See PROTEROGYNOUS
• ANGUINEOUS
  Snakelike.
• PSEUDO-MONOCOTYLEDONOUS
  Having two coalescent cotyledons, as the live oak and the horse-chestnut.
• RIPARIOUS
  Growing along the banks of rivers; riparian.
• TROUSSEAU
  The collective lighter equipments or outfit of a bride, including clothes, jewelry, and the like; especially, that which is provided for her by her family.
• PALACIOUS
  Palatial. Graunt.
• PROVENTRIULUS
  The glandular stomach of birds, situated just above the crop.
• MALACOSTOMOUS
  Having soft jaws without teeth, as certain fishes.
• POLYPHYLLOUS
  Many-leaved; as, a polyphyllous calyx or perianth.
• BUSH
  The tail, or brush, of a fox. To beat about the bush, to approach anything in a round-about manner, instead of coming directly to it; -- a metaphor taken from hunting. -- Bush bean , a variety of bean which is low and requires no support . See
• DESMOGNATHOUS
  Having the maxillo-palatine bones united; -- applied to a group of carinate birds , including various wading and swimming birds, as the ducks and herons, and also raptorial and other kinds.
• STEATOPYGOUS
  Having fat buttocks. Specimens of the steatopygous Abyssinian breed. Burton.
• ANTIBILLOUS
  Counteractive of bilious complaints; tending to relieve biliousness.
• RUSHED
  Abounding or covered with rushes.
• BICUSPID
  One of the two double-pointed teeth which intervene between the canines and the molars, on each side of each jaw. See Tooth, n.
• CARNIVOROUS
  Eating or feeding on flesh. The term is applied: to animals which naturally seek flesh for food, as the tiger, dog, etc.; to plants which are supposed to absorb animal food; to substances which destroy animal tissue, as caustics.
• BARBAROUS
  slavish, rude, ignorant; akin to L. balbus stammering, Skr. barbara 1. Being in the state of a barbarian; uncivilized; rude; peopled with barbarians; as, a barbarous people; a barbarous country. 2. Foreign; adapted to a barbaric taste. Barbarous
• HORRISONOUS
  Sounding dreadfully; uttering a terrible sound. Bailey.
• OPPROBRIOUS
  1. Expressive of opprobrium; attaching disgrace; reproachful; scurrilous; as, opprobrious language. They . . . vindicate themselves in terms no less opprobrious than those by which they are attacked. Addison. 2. Infamous; despised; rendered