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There are 20 examples displayed out of 350 filtered.

Across the way

Parf of speech: Phrase, OED Year: N/A, OED Evaluation: NA

A track prepared or available for travelling along; a road, street, lane, or path. Now esp. in phrases like beside, over, across the way, the other side (of) the way, to cross the way, etc.

ExampleMeaning
Yeah. This is Carl-Billingsley's home, at one time, and Jack-Lorde's home at another time. That's across the way.
Something that is nearby but a small walk; a place on the other side of a street

Affair - 1

Parf of speech: Noun, OED Year: 1835, OED Evaluation: N/A

An object or item that has been created or assembled for a particular purpose, often in a somewhat improvised manner; an invention; a contrivance.

ExampleMeaning
So they dug the holes that day, these three men, I suppose they dug ten, twelve holes or so by hand with these shovels, big deep hydro holes. And years later I saw them putting in a line where they had a big tra-- truck affair with a big drill on it, and the drill tip itself was ninety-thousand dollars cost, and they were having an awful time with this drill and they got to stuck and-so-on and I kept wondering, what happened to the old way of doing things.
An object or item that has been created or assembled for a particular purpose, often in a somewhat improvised manner; an invention; a contrivance.
Anyway ah, hydro came in forty-eight, um my dad, I consider him a very progressive guy, ah we had ah bathroom put in, um about the same time. And we didn't have- we h-- we had this cistern, we built a big cement tank affair in the basement and we ran the water off the roof into this cistern and that we used for our first bathroom, and bathtub, and laundry and-so-on.
An object or item that has been created or assembled for a particular purpose, often in a somewhat improvised manner; an invention; a contrivance.

All them days

Parf of speech: Expression, OED Year: N/A, OED Evaluation: N/A

N/A

ExampleMeaning
All them days, ah- young folks seemed to come here.
back then

Auger

Parf of speech: Noun, OED Year: 700, OED Evaluation: N/A

A carpenter's tool for boring holes in wood, etc., having a long pointed shank with a cutting edge and a screw point, and a handle fixed at right angles to the top of the shank, by means of which the tool is worked round with both hands.

ExampleMeaning
Speaker: And ah we had an auger there for drilling- well, they used to build fences. You see these- these fences with the pickets up them? Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Well they drilled the holes in them. Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: And we had a big machine there to drill them.
A carpenter's tool for boring holes in wood, etc., having a long pointed shank with a cutting edge and a screw point, and a handle fixed at right angles to the top of the shank, by means of which the tool is worked round with both hands.

awfully

Parf of speech: Adverb, OED Year: 1816, OED Evaluation: slang.

As simple intensive: very, exceedingly, extremely; (also) very badly.

ExampleMeaning
Interviewer: Yeah. And so that's astonishing that he would- you had such an enlighten-- enlightened inspector, coming out to Bathurst-Township. Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I was awfully glad he came that day, because I didn't get no more hits on my hand! Interviewer: I'm left-handed too, I'm- thankfully, I didn't have to suffer like you did.
As simple intensive: very, exceedingly, extremely.

back pad

Parf of speech: Noun, OED Year: N/A, OED Evaluation: N/A

N/A

ExampleMeaning
And the snow was deep and the bank was deep and they couldn't pulley the horse, 'cause the horse big ton horse go to that, they just fall on their nose. So I said, "Somebody's going to get hurt," so I had saddles, so I took the back pad off the horse and put a saddle on and put the up top of the horse with the helmet on and there would be snow in the trees so you put the big orange bag over them and their arms out so the snow would fly off ...
A saddle pad; a soft layer of cushioning placed between a horse's back and the saddle, designed to prevent chafing.

Back-kitchen

Parf of speech: Noun, OED Year: 1784, OED Evaluation: NA

Applied to a part of a house or building which lies behind, and is usually subsidiary to the front or main part bearing the name, as back-building, a building behind forming an appendage to a main building, back-chamber, back-court, back-drawing-room, back-garden (also transf. and fig.), back-kitchen, back-parlour, back porch, back shed, etc.

ExampleMeaning
The one other time Mother- my mother would make tea and biscuits before the game-warden, Ford-Roberts come in to check the fish out in the spring and m-- Mother would invite him in for tea and biscuits in the back-kitchen, in the k-- s-- summer kitchen with Gramp.
A second kitchen generally used in the summer.

bee

Parf of speech: Noun, OED Year: 1769, OED Evaluation: orig U.S.

In allusion to the social character of the insect (originally in U.S.): A meeting of neighbours to unite their labours for the benefit of one of their number; e.g. as is done still in some parts, when the farmers unite to get in each other's harvests in succession; usually preceded by a word defining the purpose of the meeting, as apple-bee, husking-bee, quilting-bee, raising-bee, etc. Hence, with extended sense: A gathering or meeting for some object; esp. spelling-bee, a party assembled to compete in the spelling of words.

ExampleMeaning
Speaker 2: They also had bees for other things too. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Oh they used to have threshing bees- Speaker 2: Yes. Speaker: Corn-cutting bees, wood-sawing bees. Speaker 2: So n-- everybody just came and did the work and ah- I- I- I admired that you-know?
Communal work activity.
Interviewer: He just- he was one of those people who could figure things out. Speaker: He was- he was quite a guy. Interviewer: Well tell us more about him. Speaker: He- he didn't like you standing around. (laughs) Interviewer: (Laughs) Speaker: If you were there and there- this- this one day bee was on, they would raise the walls, put up the rafters, they would sheet the floor and sheet all the walls, and, ah, put the, ah, strapping on the roof. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: He'd- he'd put the steel on later himself. He wouldn't let anybody else put the steel on. But it- it was a marvel to behold, to watch them.
Communal work activity.
ExampleMeaning
Speaker: Well they worked r-- if anybody got (inc)- they had their differences (inc) but if something happened- a disaster happened, they- everybody forgot that and they were there to ... Interviewer: Build the bond. Mm-hm. Speaker: Building bees, building bees. They also had bees for other things too. Interviewer: Yeah.
Communal work activity.
ExampleMeaning
Speaker 2: Quilts. Interviewer 1: Yeah. Speaker: That was another thing. They had ah- ladies had quilting bees every winter. Interviewer: Yeah. Okay. And- and you were talking about going into the store to buy things. Now folks I think made a lot of their own clothes. Speaker: Yes.
Communal work activity.
ExampleMeaning
So- so that ah made it more difficult- you-know and- you lost the ah- like the old farmers use to all work together at bees. You'd have your sawing bee where there'd be twenty-eight people come to your house and you'd- you'd saw up a pile of wood into-into stove-wood length and then you had to split it by hand, of course. Then the next bee was the corn cutting where you'd- when they started building silos you-you'd have twenty-five or twenty-eight men come again ah- they'd just changed hands of course with- with ah the neighbours. And ah the women- there might be two or three women that would help ...
Communal work activity.
ExampleMeaning
Interviewer: Now we talked about- oh, you- you had talked about doing bees for ice. What other kind of bees were there? Where people would get together and help each other. Speaker: Basically ah wood cutting was the other- all the houses relied on wood heat and ah you generally would sometimes work together in the winter time and draw the ah firewood out in ah twelve foot lengths and then there would be a bee to cut it up. And that was done with the cross cut saw first and then as things became mechanical there'd be a gas powered engine running a saw and then a tractor driven saw that would circulate around through the community and would have bees to process everybody's firewood.
Communal work activity.
We had an ice house here on the- the farm and it was part of the ritual that a certain time in the winter when the river ice got thick enough, you would have bees and ah go out and hand saw the ice and then in later days, one of the ah residents in the township had a motor driven ice saw that they could cut the blocks of ice and an elevator that then would put it up on the sleighs, and you filled your ice house every winter and then covered it with sawdust to slow down the meltdown of it.
Communal work activity.
ExampleMeaning
Every farmer worked with- helped with the other. They had what they call thrashing bees, you-know, wood cutting bees. They had corn cutting bees. And that's when all the neighbours would bring their horses, wagons, tractors. Everybody pitched in and get- get this farm done. And when it was done, they moved on did the next one. So everybody got their work done.
Communal work activity.

Big-time

Parf of speech: NA, OED Year: 1910, OED Evaluation: Colloquial. Originally United States.

1. With the. The best kind, the highest rank; a state or example of excellence, fame, etc. to hit the big time: to become notable or famous. 2. To a great degree, on a large scale; extremely

ExampleMeaning
Well he sold them the rest of the lot. But there was only- that's when they got down far enough so the- they built the office and their entrance down to the offices big time.
In a large way - intensifier

binder

Parf of speech: Noun, OED Year: 1857, OED Evaluation: N/A

A contrivance attached to a reaping-machine to bind up the grain as cut into sheaves; also, a separate machine used for binding up the grain

ExampleMeaning
I remember my dad ah we used to do that with the grain binder and ah he was always falling asleep because he didn't get enough sleep and ah these grain binders you sat up about six feet on them, six feet off the ground
A contrivance attached to a reaping-machine to bind up the grain as cut into sheaves; also, a separate machine used for binding up the grain

Bobsleigh

Parf of speech: Noun, OED Year: 1839, OED Evaluation: Originally U.S.

A sled or sleigh, made of two short sleds or sleighs coupled together; used in drawing logs from the forest to a river or public road, and for various other purposes.

ExampleMeaning
They had for snow ploughs, they had a bobsleigh, like that's one sleigh ahead of
A sled or sleigh, made of two short sleds or sleighs coupled together; used in drawing logs from the forest to a river or public road, and for various other purposes.

box social

Parf of speech: Noun, OED Year: 1882, OED Evaluation: N. Amer. (now chiefly hist.)

A fund-raising social event at which boxed meals are sold or auctioned, customarily to be shared by the purchaser with the person who prepared the meal.

ExampleMeaning
I said to Dad, "Do you think if I-" well, Melanie wanted to know if I'd bring a box and go to the box social. I said, "Is it alright dad if I could go up-" 'Course Dad stayed overnight to help Dale do what he had to do, so (laughs) yes, I got going up, so we made a box and-that.
A fund-raising social event at which boxed meals are sold or auctioned, customarily to be shared by the purchaser with the person who prepared the meal.