Grey Hen (A)

A stone bottle for holding liquor. Large and small pewter pots mixed together are called “hen and chickens.”

“A dirty leather wallet lay near the sleeper, … also a grey-hen which had contained some sort of strong liquor.”—Miss Robinson: White-friars, chap. viii.

· ·

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.