A public or social occasion; an event, gathering, party, etc., often of a specified sort.
Example | Meaning |
... a freight-train hit them and killed the both of them. ... And that was in nineteen-thirty-four. In August or- yeah, July or-something. ... And um, so that was a sad affair. And ah, then after that the um, the ah, we kept around working on the farm. Bo and I did all the hoeing and-everything. |
A subject or situation under consideration; a matter at hand; a matter to be dealt with; an issue. Also: an occurrence, a sequence of events. |
A machine or apparatus for baling hay, straw, metal, etc.
Example | Meaning |
In around and at- or, about nineteen-fifty-four, people started buying round-balers and square-balers. |
A machine or apparatus for baling hay, straw, metal, etc. |
And everybody had their own bloody deal with the- they had their ah, combine. And they had the baler. And some of them did custom work. But everybody worked more-or-less for themselves, and that's when the community kind-of didn't exist anymore. |
A machine or apparatus for baling hay, straw, metal, etc. |
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.
Example | Meaning |
Speaker: No I-guess I didn't quilt this one. ... Interviewer: Somebody else quilted it? Interviewer 2: Yeah. She did all the embroidery and put it together. Speaker: And y-- you had to ha-- we had a quilting-bee on it. |
Communal work activity. |
Interviewer: What- how did the quilting-bee work? Speaker: Well when we had quilting-bees, there used to be about three on each side. Like- and they t-- then they'd roll, and then go along, and roll another row, and then another row, until we come to the middle, and then i-- it was finished. |
Communal work activity. |
Example | Meaning |
And I watched them for years and- and then we used to have a bee- ah, ah cutting wood. We cut wood all winter. Had a woodpile maybe from here to that fence. In the summer it would be ten, twelve feet long. And we'd have two days of sawing. And there'd be neighbours'd come and- and we'd cut wood ... |
Communal work activity. |
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
Example | Meaning |
And nobody has them anymore, they've got forage harvesters and-all-the-rest-of-it. And you- you'd have the old corn binder. And you cut the corn and put it into sheaves. Went out and loaded them, you had people come to help with that. Bring that in, put it in this cut-box, and it was run with a- he had a fifteen-thirty international. |
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 |
Mm- yeah, well th-- the- the- the- the binder had ah, what they call a bill-hook on it and when the thing was set up right, y-- the sickle bar, depending on the- on the size of the binder, there's sickle-bar running on a- on a pitman shaft which was driven by the landwheel. |
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 |
Regularly in pl. Loose trousers reaching to the knee or knickerbockers worn by women for bicycling, gymnasium practice, etc.; called also ‘rational dress’. Also, a woman's knee-length undergarment (the usual sense in later usage).
Example | Meaning |
Speaker: And I don't know that we- was- we had a nice roast-beef dinner and-everything. And I was chewing away and chewing away with that. And I thought "Oh, I can't g-- eat that." So when nobody was watching- I went into my- had bloomers with you-know elastic on it? That's where I put- that's where I put- that's how you got rid of it (laughs) |
Type of clothing |
Something unpleasant or undesirable; a great nuisance
Example | Meaning |
And it go across the (inc) by the time the end of the train was going by, he'd be rolling her. And there was another old bugger that didn't know what he was doing and I've seen him, the- like the drive wheels, I've seen him spin those drive wheels twice before it started to move and all he's doing is ripping the- the- the thing apart and putting a flat spot on the rails. |
A bother/pain |
A light one-horse (sometimes two-horse) vehicle, for one or two persons. Those in use in America have four wheels; those in England and India, two; in India there is a hood. (In recent use, esp. in U.S., India, and former British colonies.)
Example | Meaning |
Speaker: They'd gone down- they used to have twenty-eight cows round about the time I was born. And ah, that was a lot of cows. And a lot of milk. Interviewer: Yeah. Mm-hm. Speaker: And ah, that's how they made their money, my mother and father was ah- the milk. And my mother used to go to town every Saturday with us in the horse and buggy. |
Carriage |
Yeah, oh we used to pick strawberries. Raspberries too. Yep. Yeah I remember my mother taking a horse and buggy and Bo and I going out over to twenty-eight-highway to White-Edge-Corners. And there was a- bushes along the road. |
Carriage |
Speaker: And we took her on a picnic back to the creek. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Speaker: With the horse and buggy. And d-- d-- during the day. That was one day that we had away- off from cooking. Or hoeing rather. |
Carriage |
‘Customer’, fellow, lad.
Example | Meaning |
And in nineteen-thirty-six, Dad was working for a chap in Canton. And ah, he had a big orchard. |
Man or boy |
A stuffed-over couch or sofa with a back and two ends, one of which is sometimes made adjustable.
Example | Meaning |
Interviewer: Before I go, I wanted you to remind me, what- what is the piece of furniture that you're sitting on here. Speaker: Chesterfield. Interviewer: Thank-you. Speaker: I spend a lot of time here. |
A couch or sofa |
To become intimate, be on friendly terms with (someone).
Example | Meaning |
Him and I used to chum together all the time. |
To become intimate, be on friendly terms with (someone). |
And I missed him because I was in Peterborough and I- I couldn't chum with him because he was in Port-Hope. |
To become intimate, be on friendly terms with (someone). |
We all chummed together, all worked in the same place. |
To become intimate, be on friendly terms with (someone). |
A patchwork quilt made of pieces of stuff of all kinds in fantastic patterns or without any order.
Example | Meaning |
Speaker: ... we started doing quiltings and then I started making quilts myself and you-know, I do things like that. Interviewer: Can you tell me a little bit about how you do it? Speaker: Well it just depends if you want a nice ah fancy quilt or a crazy quilt, which- a crazy one has got all kinds of pieces put together. ... Interviewer: We've talked about crazy quilts, quilting-bees. Why were they called crazy? Speaker: Well they used to be c-- all kinds of scraps put in them. And just, you-know- Interviewer: Where did all those scraps come from? Speaker: Well we used to do an awful lot of sewing, making your own clothes and-stuff. |
A patchwork quilt made of pieces of stuff of all kinds in fantastic patterns or without any order. |
A small light sledge or sleigh for one or two persons.
Example | Meaning |
Yeah. We walked to school every day all year 'round except on the real bad days in the winter my dad used to hook up a horse and cutter and give us a ride to school. And I remember he used to get mad when the- he was leaving the school to bring us home and the kids used to run behind and jump on the back of the cutter. He'd get mad as hell. And ah- Interviewer: What would he do? Speaker: Well just yell at them. Interviewer: (Laughs) Speaker: To get off the- the cutter because they might get their feet caught. The- the cutter had ah, supports to support the runners. And you get your foot in there, you get caught between the snow- an-- an-- the snow- deep snow on the- on the ah, support, the rudders. Or the runners rather. And break their feet. |
A small light sledge or sleigh for one or two persons. |