Oast

Source : Wright, Joseph English Dialect Dictionary web : https://eddonline4-proj.uibk.ac.at/edd/main.html

OAST, sb.1 Yks. Glo. Sur. Sus. Ken. s.Cy. Dev. Also in forms haust Sus.1 Sus.2 Ken.; host s.Dev.; oost e.Yks. w.Yks. Glo.; ost e.Yks. w.Yks.; oste Ken.; oust Ken. [ōst.] 1. A kiln for drying hops. Cf. east, sb.1 e.Yks. (W.C.S.) w.Yks. Leeds Merc. Suppl. (July 11, 1896). Sur.1 Sus. Oast's on fire! O'Reilly Stories (1880) II. 302. Ken. Grose (1790); Ken.1 Ken.2 s.Cy. Ray (1691). s.Dev. (F.W.C.) Hence (1) Oast-hair, sb. the hair-sieve used in oast-houses; (2) Oast-house, sb. the house containing the kiln for drying hops; (3) Oast-man, sb. the man employed in drying hops. (1) Sus.1 [Wear and tear of oast hairs, and hop bins, &c., Stephens Farm Bk. (ed. 1855) II. 319.] (2) Sur.1 Ken. When an excess duty was charged on hops, the letters ‘O. H.’ had to be painted on all oast doors, signifying ‘Oast House’ (W.G.P.); After picking, the hops are removed to the ‘oast-houses,’ in which they are dried. These are for the most part built of brick, and perfectly circular up to a height of 14 or 15 ft., whence they terminate in a cone, surmounted by a cowled chimney, peculiarly shaped, to allow the vapour from the hops to escape, Murray Handbk. Ken. (1892) Introd. 13; N. & Q. (1877) 5th S. vii. 195; Sus.1 Sus.2 (3) Ken. N. & Q. (1874) 5th S. ii. 153. 2. Obs. A kiln for drying malt. Glo. Horae Subsecivae (1777) 310. Hence Oast-cloth, sb., obs., the coarse hair-cloth upon which the malt was spread to dry upon the kiln. Ken. (K.) [1. OE. āst, ‘siccatorium’ (Ælfric). 2. Du. ast, a place where barley is dried to make malt with (Hexham).]

Source : A dictionary of the Kentish dialect and provincialisms in use in the County of Kent