Moor

MOOR, sb.1 Var. dial. uses in Sc. Irel. and Eng. Also written mor- w.Yks.; more N.Cy.1 Stf.1 Der.1 Der.2 nw.Der.1; and in forms meoor Cum.1; mör, möre Sh.I.; muir Sc. (Jam.) Cai.1 Don. Nhb.1 Wm.; mure Sc. (Jam.) Cum.1; murr Cai.1 [muə(r.] 1. In comb. (1) Moor-arrand, a moor-spider; (2) Moor-band, a hard subsoil composed of clayey sand and impervious to water; (3) Moor-bird, a bird that nests in the moors, esp. the common grouse, Tetrao lagopus; (4) Moor-blackbird, the ring-ousel, Turdus torquatus; (5) Moor-burn, (a) the burning of the heather and rough grass, to clean the ground for the growth of fresh grass; (b) fig. an outburst of passion, fit of temper; a strife, contest, dispute; (6) Moor-burning, see (5, a); (7) Moor-buzzard, the marsh-harrier, Circus aeruginosus; (8) Moor-caavie, a hen-coop; a contemptuous term for a small moorland cottage; (9) Moor-cling, see below; (10) Moor-cock, (a) the red grouse, Lagopus Scoticus; (b) the black grouse, Tetrao tetrix; (11) Moor-coot or Moor-cot, the moorhen, Gallinula chloropus; (12) Moor-duck, the wild duck, Anas boscas; (13) Moor-edge, (14) Moor-end, fig. rustic, rude, unrefined; (15) Moor-everlasting, the cat's-ear, Gnaphalium dioicum; (16) Moor-evil, an illness among cattle and sheep; (17) Moor-fael, a turf or sod cut off the moor; (18) Moor-fowl, see (10, a); (19) Moor-fowl egg, a species of pear; (20) Moor-gallop, a sudden squall across the moors; (21) Moor-game or Moor-gam, see (10, a); (22) Moor-gloom, the sundew, Drosera rotundifolia; (23) Moor-golds, the golden asphodel, Narthecium ossifragum; (24) Moor-grass, (a) see (22); (b) see (23); (25) Moor-grieve, the overseer or custodian of a pasture or moorland; (26) Moor-grime, (a) the clouds as they rest on the peaks and sides of the hills in the moors; (b) a misty rain or drizzle; a ‘Scotch mist’; (c) the black dirt found in the fleece of sheep which graze on the edge of moorlands; (27) Moor-hags, the moor or moss-holes from which peats have been dug out; broken, rough moorland; (28) Moor-hays or Morrises, portions of garden-ground, enclosed from the moor; (29) Moor-hen or Moornen, (a) the female of the red grouse, Lagopus Scoticus; (b) the water-hen, Gallinula chloropus; (c) the common guillemot, Lomvia troile; (30) Moor-hen's foot, a club moss; (31) Moor-house, a hut in which miners keep their tools; (32) Moor-ill or Mirrill, a disease among cattle; also called Red water; (33) Moor-lamb, the common snipe, Gallinago caelestis; (34) Moor-land, the higher and uncultivated part of a district, as opposed to ‘dale-land’; (35) Moor-lander, an inhabitant of the moors or heaths; (36) Moor-man, (a) see (35); (b) an inhabitant of Dartmoor, esp. one whose duty it is to watch over the cattle, sheep, &c., turned out on the moors, in his ‘quarter’; see below; (37) Moor-myrtle, the sweet gale, Myrica Gale; (38) Moor-palm, Moor-palms, or Moor-pawms, (a) flowers of the Carex or sedge tribe; (b) the flowers of the Eriophorum or cotton-rush; (c) the dwarf sallow, Salix aurita; (39) Moor-pan, see (2); (40) Moor-peep, the titlark or meadow pipit, Anthus pratensis; (41) Moor-poot, Moor-powt, or Moor-pot, (a) the young of moor-birds, esp. young grouse; (b) the peewit, Vanellus vulgaris; (c) fig. a young person; an ignorant clown; (42) Moor-rigs, the risings or ridges of the moors; (43) Moor-sick, (44) Moor-sickness, an illness among sheep; (45) Moor-silk, see (38, b); (46) Moor-silk besom, a broom made of long moor moss; (47) Moor-spade, a spade for cutting heath soil or peat; (48) Moor-stepper, a spirit haunting a moor; (49) Moor-stone, (a) a large stone embedded in the soil of the moor with its upper surface exposed; (b) granite; (50) Moor-teek, a parasite found adhering to dogs; (51) Moor-throstle, see (4); (52) Moor-tidy, (53) Moor-tite, see (40); (54) Moor-titling, (a) see (40); (b) the stonechat, Pratincola rubicola; (55) Moor-whin, the needle genista, or broom. (1) Yks. He came loping down Norton like a moor arrand, Yks. Life and Character, 203. (2) Bwk. Some [muirs] are... of a thin surface of peat moss, wasted to a kind of light black earth, often mixed with sand, upon a subsoil of impervious till, or a compacted clayey sand... This peculiar species of subsoil is provincially called Moor-band, Agric. Surv. 32 (Jam.). Nhb. Usually the wash of the boulder clay gravel; applied also to a residuum of iron-ore from the same source (R.O.H.); Nhb.1 n.Yks. What is here called a moorband... This stratum, which is from six inches to a foot thick, is of a ferruginous ochreous appearance, probably containing much iron, and wherever found is attended with great sterility, Reports Agric. (1793-1813) 12; There is some cold thin clay upon what is here called a moorband, Tuke Agric. (1800) 10. (3) Gall. The moor-birds, whaup and snipe, plover and wild duck, cheeping and chummering in their nests, Crockett Standard Bearer (1898) 3. n.Yks. Ah kens a' aboot t'moorbo'ds an' wheea fell'd 'em, Atkinson Lost (1870) XXV; n.Yks.1 w.Yks. There one does not meet a soul for miles ─ unless the ‘moorbods’ and the sheep have souls, Leeds Merc. Suppl. (July 25, 1896). (4) Sc., n.Yks. Swainson Birds (1885) 8. (5, a) Sc. In describing the rapid diffusion of opinion, or influence of example, an allusion is often made to the progress of fire through dry heath. ‘It spreads like mure-burn’ (Jam.). Cai.1, Inv. (H.E.F.) Abd. Strife is like a muirburn, the mair it's thrashed the hicher it glows, Michie Deeside Tales (1872) 117. Gall. They are firing the heather and bent and it will run like February muirburn in this dry easterly wind, Crockett Raiders (1894) viii. (b) Dmb. Everybody aboot the hoose kens o' the muirburn that the mistress raised on you yestreen, Cross Disruption (1844) ii. Rnf. Picken Poems (1788) Gl. (Jam.) (6) Sc. As heath constitutes a principal food of the mountain sheep, muir-burning improves the heath for food, Stephens Farm Bk. (ed. 1849) II. 161. n.Yks.1 (7) Cum.4 Cor. Rodd Birds (1880) 315. (8) Sh.I. He... made but light of our northern fogs and sea-gust, our smothering moor-caavies, Sh. News (Feb. 12, 1898). (9) Dev. Cattle and sheep on Dartmoor ‘become hide-bound and costive, what is called the moor-cling,’ Reports Agric. (1793-1813) 54. (10, a) Cai.1 Nhb. The muircock in the heather, Coquetdale Sngs. (1852) 73; Nhb.1, w.Yks.2 (b) n.Yks. (I.W.), w.Yks.2 (11) Som. Jennings Obs. Dial. w.Eng. (1825); W. & J. Gl. (1873). (12) Slg. Swainson Birds 156. (13) n.Yks.1; n.Yks.2 ‘Moor-edge manners,’ our rusticities, as compared with town refinements. (14) n.Yks.1 Ye mun't luik for owght na' better fra sike moor-end chaps as yon; n.Yks.2 (15) Nhb.1 (16) Oxf. Sheep are subject to the rot and the larger cattle to a disorder called moor-evil, Marshall Review (1814) IV. 449. Hrt. They call it the moor-evil, because they conceive it is bred in a sheep or lamb by its lying on cold moory ground, Ellis Shep. Guide (1750) 321. (17) Sh.I. The unburned parts were deposited under a mör fael, Spence Flk-Lore (1899) 159. (18) Sh.&Ork.1 Inv. This parish abounds much more with moor-fowl and black game than Kirkhill, Statist. Acc. XIII. 514 (Jam.). Per. The muirfowl will be crying to each other, Ian Maclaren Brier Bush (1895) 151. Nhb.1 Lan. An' then you chaps mun mey moore-feawl chirps, Kay-Shuttleworth Scarsdale (1860) III. 79. (19) Sc. The muirfowl egg is another pear of good qualities, said to be originally Scottish, Neil Hortic. Edb. Encycl. 212 (Jam.). Rnf. That pear tree called the Muirfowl Egg, Hector Judic. Rec. (1876) 42. (20) Dev. (Hall.) (21) Nhb.1, n.Yks.3 w.Yks. T'oade moorgam wad cackle, Blackah Sngs. (1867) 38; w.Yks.1 Trailin i' th' ling efter't' moorgam, ii. 299; w.Yks.2 (22) w.Yks. Lees Flora (1888) 157. (23) LEES Flora 447. (24, a) Cum.4, Yks. (B. & H.) (b) Hrt. Ellis Shep. Guide (1750) 321. (25) Nhb.1 (26, a) w.Yks. Sheffield Indep. (1874); w.Yks.2 (b) w.Yks. (W.F.S.); w.Yks.2 Used in this sense about Deepcar; w.Yks.3 (c) w.Yks.2 Sheep which graze on lands adjoining the moors are soon made black by the mists or clouds, which contain smoke or other black matter. They are then said to be covered with moor grime. (27) Gall. The moor-hags were wide ─ but he sten'd them, Nicholson Poet. Wks. (1814) 194, ed. 1897; Wi' him in rags, owre the muir-hags, I wad beg happilee, Mactaggart Encycl. (1824) 118, ed. 1876. (28) Som. So called at Axbridge (W.F.R.). (29, a) Cai.1, Nhb.1 (b) Shr.1, Glo.2, Ken.1 [moo·rneen], Sus. (F.A.A.) (c) Don. Murryan, Swainson Birds 218. (30) Ant. (W.H.P.) (31) Cor.2 (32) Sc. He helped Lambride's cow weel out o' the moor ill, Scott Blk. Dwarf (1816) x; A disease to which black cattle are subject; as some affirm in consequence of eating a particular kind of grass, which makes them stale blood (Jam.); The muir-ill is supposed to be caused by eating a poisonous vegetable, or a small insect common on muir grounds, Prize Ess. Highl. Soc. II. 217 (JAM.). Hdg. It infested with that distemper so pernicious to cattle, called the Wood-ill or Muir-ill, Statist. Acc. VI. 160 (JAM.). Ant. Ballymena Obs. (1892). [That it arises from cows eating some noxious plant, and is called the muir-ill, cannot be well-founded, Stephens Farm Bk. (ed. 1849) I. 520.] (33) [In some parts of England [it is called] Heather Bleater and Moor Lamb, Smith Birds (1887) 430] (34) Sc. (Jam.) (35) Sc. (Jam.) Gall. Mactaggart Encycl. (1824). (36, a) Cld. (Jam.) Gall. About the Lammastide when the muir men are wont to be out, Crockett Grey Man (1896) 84; Moormen forsook him too, Mactaggart Encycl. (1824) 24, ed. 1876. (b) Dev. The moormen most commonly convey their peat, and all things else, on what is called a crook, Bray Desc. Tamar and Tavy (1836) I. 23; A moorman is a man who has taken a quarter of the moor from the Duchy of Cornwall, and is responsible for the sheep and cattle turned out upon the waste to pasture and graze through the summer, Baring-Gould Idylls (1896) 203; The forest of Dartmoor ─ a forest without trees ─ is divided into four quarters, and over each quarter is placed a moorman. The Venville tenants turn out their ponies, bullocks, and sheep on the commons, and the moormen demand a certain sum for every beast thus turned out. The sum is small, and the moorman undertakes in return that the beast shall be recoverable, and that no wilful damage shall be done to it, BARING-GOULD Idylls 204. (37) Yks. (B. & H.) (38, a) n.Cy. Grose (1790); (B. & H.) e.Yks. Marshall Rur. Econ. (1788). w.Yks. Lees Flora (1885) 470. (b) n.Yks.2 e.Yks. Marshall Rur. Econ. (1796); (B. & H.) (c) w.Yks. Lees Flora (1888) 406. (39) n.Yks. (I.W.) (40) w.Yks.2 The cuckoo sucks the moor peep's eggs, lays its own in the nest, and the moor peep hatches and rears the young cuckoos. (41, a) Sc. Thae English churls think as muckle about a blade of wheat or grass as a Scotch laird does about his maukins and his muir poots, Scott Midlothian (1818) xxix; To whost and hirple o'er my tree My bonny moor-powt is a' I may do, Ramsay Tea-Table Misc. (1724) I. 130, ed. 1871. Slk. I will... smoor the transgressors like as mony moor-pots, Hogg Tales (1838) 622, ed. 1866. n.Yks. A yeom. of Ingleton in the County of Durham for killing twenty moorpoults at Bowes, Quart. Sess. Rec. (July 13, 1680) in N. R. Rec. Soc. VII. 36; n.Yks.2, m.Yks.1 w.Yks. An' hundreds ov' maorpots we saw cumin heeame, Blackah Sngs. (1867) 38; w.Yks.1, ne.Lan.1 (b) w.Yks. Lucas Stud. Nidderdale (c. 1882) Gl. (c) n.Yks.2 w.Yks.1 Nobbud see how that rough tike gangs of his fit, he waddles for aù t'ward like a moor-poot. (42) Wm. (K., s.v. Riggin). (43) Cor. Sheep pastured on these moors will not remain there healthy more than a month or two at a time, but become what is called moor-sick, Marshall Review (1817) V. 532. (44) Sh.I. A pining or wasting, provincially called the moor-sickness, affects sheep, chiefly in autumn, Agric. Surv. 66 (Jam.). (45) w.Yks. Lucas Stud. Nidderdale (c. 1882) 10. (46) w.Yks. (E.G.) (47) Sh.I. Yirdin' me tusker an' müir spade in under da fales i' da graff o' da bank, Sh. News (May 29, 1897); Lat's see what shape doo haes wi' da möre spaed, Sh. News (May 19, 1900). (48) Dev. All round... lay these wild moorlands for miles upon miles; every rock and streamlet of them once tenanted by its especial water-sprite or moor-stepper, Madox-Brown Dwale Bluth (1876) Introd. ii. (49, a) n.Yks.1 (b) Dev. Granite, or what is generally called moor-stone, Bray Desc. Tamar and Tavy (1836) I. 279; (Hall.) Cor. The rocks all around this place are granite, or moorstone as commonly called in Cornwall, Bond Hist. Looe (1823) 203; Another stone of a coarser texture ─ the moorstone or granite, Marshall Review (1817) V. 530; Cor.1 Cor.2 (50) Nhb.1 It is large and hard-shelled, and remains firmly fixed to the skin. (51) w.Yks. Lucas Stud. Nidderdale (c. 1882) 285. (52) Cum.1 Cum.4 (53) Yks. Flk-Lore Rec. (1879) II. 63. (54, a) n.Yks.1 n.Yks.4 w.Yks. Swainson Birds 45. (b) Nhb. (R.O.H.) (55) Nhb.1 2. Phr. to wed over the moor, to marry some one at a distance. See Mixen, sb. 3. Dor. ‘Well, better wed over the mixen than over the moor,’ said Laban Tall, Hardy Madding Crowd (1874) xxii. 3. A heath, a heathy waste; any unenclosed land; wilderness. Sc. These hills and heughs and mosses and muirs that he is sae keen after, Scott Nigel (1822) ix. Cai.1 Mjŭr. Frf. Under a huge cairn in the E. moor [heath] of Ruthven, their dead are said to be buried, Statist. Acc. XII. 298 (Jam.). Fif. The heaths and upland muirs, and fallows, Tennant Anster (1812) 47, ed. 1871. Nhb. And Coquet's streams are glittrin, as they rin frae muir to main, Coquetdale Fishing Sngs. (1852) 96. Dur. Raine Charters Finchale, &c. (1837) 81. Cum.1 Cum., Wm. Nicolson (1677) Trans. R. Lit. Soc. (1868) IX. Wm. Tho' four lang miles was he fra heayme, Besides a muir to cross, Whitehead Leg. (1859) 27. n.Yks.1; n.Yks.2 ‘It's a bare moor that he gans ower, and gethers nought,’ it is a naked affair indeed if he cannot extract a profit from it. w.Yks.2, Suf. (Hall.) 4. A hill, down. n.Cy. Grose (1790); (K.); N.Cy.1 e.Yks. Phillips Rivers (1853). Stf. Ray (1691); Stf.1, Der.1 Der.2, nw.Der.1 5. Wet, marshy, swampy land; a rough, swampy piece of pasture land. Chs.1, Shr.1, Glo.1 Glo.2, Ken.1 Ken.2 Som. Then where are the moors? ... Oh, but I do not call these moors at all. This is quite a fraud. A moor ought to be covered with heather and rough ponies. I call these fens, Raymond Misterton's Mistake (1888) 296. w.Som.1 Not used to express waste or common land as such. The fens of Som. are nearly all called ‘moors,’ as North-moor, Stan-moor, &c. nw.Dev.1 6. A low, marshy meadow by the water-side. Shr.1 The term is used generically ─ ‘So and So has a good crop of hay off his moors,’ the hay itself being, nevertheless, called ‘meadow-hay.’ 7. Peat mud and ooze. Sh.I. Geordie wis up an' cleestr'd da side o' Aandrew's heid wi' da weet muir, an' aff he set, Sh. News (May 7, 1898); Dir legs clatch'd wi' moor ta da aff cuttins, Sh. News (Feb. 19, 1898). 8. Peat; peaty ground. e.Yks. Phillips Rivers (1853). Lin. Peat is always called turf or moor in the Fens, Miller & Skertchly Fenland (1878) xv. Nhp.2 9. The ling or heather, Calluna vulgaris, esp. when in blossom. Yks. (B. & H.), n.Yks.1 10. The roots of the silver-weed, Potentilla Anserina. Also in comb. Moors-corn, Moor-grass. Sc. (Jam., s.v. Moss-corns). Cai.1 Uls. The inhabitants who use the English tongue call it Moors-corn, Threlkeld in (B. & H.).

Yks. (B. & H.)

MOOR, v.1 and sb.2 Sc. Also written moar Sh.&Ork.1 [mūr.] 1. v. To snow heavily, esp. when the snow is drifted thickly by a vehement wind. See Mooracav, Mooraway. Sh.&Ork.1 Or.I. Ellis Pronunc. (1889) V. 793. Hence Moorin, ppl. adj. of snow: drifting; falling heavily. Sh.I. An drave trough da yard lek da moorin snaw, Junda Klingrahool (1898) 7; Sh.&Ork.1 2. sb. A dense cover of snow.

Or.I. A moor had fa'en a' the whole day, Ellis Pronunc. 792.

MOOR, v.2 Yks. [mūr, moə(r.] with up: to smother, ‘smoor,’ cover up; to crowd to suffocation; also fig. to impede, hamper. n.Yks. T'machine spout was moor'd up wĭ cooarn (I.W.); n.Yks.1 n.Yks.2 m.Yks.1 Moor thyself up well; it's a cold evening. w.Yks.5 Tha'll moor that barn up wal shoo can't brēathe! ‘Moor'd

up reight here, hahivver!’ (middle one of five in a bed loquitur).

MOOR, v.3 Yks. Lan. Of cattle: to be afflicted with a disease in which the water is mixed with blood. w.Yks. Watson Hist. Hlfx. (1775) 543; Dyer Dial. (1891) 77; w.Yks.1 When cattle are inflicted with a disease which occasions bloody urine, they are said to be moored. This term may be derived from the strong resemblance the bloody urine may have to the dark water flowing from the moorish earth... A sudden removal from a limestone to a grit soil, and vice versa, will frequently occasion it. Some attribute it to coarse grass in marshy grounds,

interspersed with alder and underwood; w.Yks.4, ne.Lan.1

MOOR, see More, sb., Mort, sb.2