Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small wooden vessel with an erect handle formed by continuing one of the staves above the rim.
- n. A small earthen vessel; a pitcher; also, a shallow vessel provided with a long handle at one side, used as a dipper.
- n. The joists to which the flooring is fixed; more properly, the pieces on which the boards of the lower floor are fixed.
Wiktionary
- n. dialect A small pail, can or ladle with the handle on the side; a lading-can. In the colonial era, some buckets were made like a small barrel, but with one stave left extra long. This stave would be carved into a handle so the bucket could be used as an oversized scoop. It was used on farms for scattering grain for the chickens, slopping the hogs, as a one-handed milk bucket, and as a grain scoop.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A small wooden pail or tub with an upright stave for a handle, -- often used as a dipper.
Etymologies
- Origin obscure (possibly Celtic) but dates back at least to the 14th century. Scots; compare Gaelic pigean, diminutive of pigeadh, pige, an earthen jar, pitcher, or pot, Irish pigin, pighead, Welsh piccyn. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“They are merry enough when together, but not one of them will go alone for a "piggin" of water, and if you slip up in the shadow of the old oak and throw a stone into the spring, the entire party will rush away at the splash, screaming with fear, convinced that the "cymbie" is after them.”
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 17, No. 097, January, 1876
“Map of Old Prince William "before p. 351.) [5] A piggin is a small container made like a barrel but open at the top and often with one longer stave with a handle fashioned in it.”
Letter from Robert Carter to Benjamin Grayson, July 13, 1731
“Ugly, old words like piggin and spurtle and keeler, which are all kitchen implements.”
“Personally speaking this is like watching a movie by the late Leslie Nielsen, a total piggin disaster, unfortunatley we can't put our coats on and toddle off home chuckling.”
The Guardian: Charity chief says cuts could destroy David Cameron's 'big society'
“I told him the dingey was nearly swamped, and he reached me a piggin.”
“I heard the bows ground in the sand, staved the dingey off the rudder of the big boat with my piggin, and freeing the painter, landed.”
“February 15th, 2005 at 1:45 pm piggin' henry says:”
“She dippered enough water for a shave out of the water piggin into a black pot and set it to heat over the fire.”
“And Sameeran .... well, he was busy piggin 'out on whatever's in the refrigerator.”
“[12] Partly to show the indispensableness of this act, it may here be stated, that, in the old Dutch fishery, a mop was used to dash the running line with water; in many other ships, a wooden piggin, or bailer, is set apart for that purpose.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘piggin’.
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Containers
Stuff that holds other stuff.
cardboard box, jar, filing cabinet, safe deposit box, cupboard, wardrobe, jewel case, briefcase, locker, canopic jar, chest of drawers, paper sack and 208 more...
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phrontistery - p
from phrontistery.info
pustule, purulence, pushful, purser, purpureal, putative, purpure, purpresture, purloin, purline, purlieu, purlicue and 1766 more...
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bilby's Words
pandemic, whirl, guffaw, ethereal, feisty, dunt, ephemeral, pule, flipergebet, prink, maunder, gammon and 1023 more...
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Maineisms
Some of these were taken from older literature and have fallen out of use in the past few decades, but many are still used today in the same way they were used a century ago. By no means a compreh...
Yankeedom, wizzled, wing and wing, wickie-up, whiffletree, weewaw, wangan, wainy, upstair, twice-laid, tunket, trig and 136 more...
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Rognons of Random Palavery
Another of my random palavery lists for terms and phrases that don't fit into any of my other lists.
priorship, exigeant, refectory, reestablish, capper, reesed, quar, reprune, orificial, reaming-iron, terminist, terminism and 3097 more...
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Whaleworthy & Piratical Words
A list of favorite nautical words to be sprinkled liberally throughout speech for piratical or Melvillian effect.
batten down, back and fill, beamy, baulking, beckets, bilge, bold shore, boomjumper, breaker, larboard, abaft, ash breeze and 156 more...
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whaling terms
Terms defined in the glossary of Clifford W. Ashley's "Yankee Whaler".
advance, adze, after house, after oar, agent, air up, alow, ambergris, apeak, article, away, bailer and 299 more...
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Moby Dick
A list of words from the book Moby Dick.
apoplexy, festooned, legerdemain, somnambulistic, peremptorily, swart, rapscallions, exordium, inculcating, bivouacks, vacuity, monomaniac and 28 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for piggin.
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