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Tappit-hen (A)

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A huge pewter measuring-pot, containing at least three English quarts. Readers of Waverley will remember (in chap. xi.) the Baron Bradwardine’s tappit-hen of claret from Bordeaux. To have a tappit-hen under the belt is to have swallowed three quarts of claret. A hen and chickens means large and small drinking mugs or pewter pots. A tappit was served from the tap. (See Jeroboam.)

1


“Weel she loʹed a Hawick gill,

And leugh to see a tappit-hen.”

 

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

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Tantalise
Tantalos (Latin, Tantalus)
Tanthony (St. Anthony)
Tantum Ergo
Taou
Tap the Admiral
Tap the Till (To)
Tap-up Sunday
Tapis
Tapisserie
Tappit-hen (A)
Tapster
Tapu
Tarabolus or Tantrabolus
Tarakee
Tarantism
Tarantula
Tarentella or Tarantella
Tariff
Tarpaulins or Tars
Tarpeian Rock

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Jeroboam of Rum or Claret (A)