Bavin
adj, noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A bundle of wood or twigs, which may be used in broom-making. Southern-England, archaic, countable
"[…]that hot love is soon cold: that the bavin, though it burn bright, is but a blaze: that scalding water, it if stand awhile, turneth almost to ice[…]"
- 2 A bundle of wood or twigs, which may be used in broom-making.; A faggot bound with only one band. Southern-England, archaic, countable
- 3 Impure limestone. UK, dialectal, uncountable
"The concretions […] are called 'bavin,' the shale associated with them being termed 'rotch.'"
- 1 To bundle and bind wood into bavins. Southern-England, archaic
- 1 Made of firewood or kindling. not-comparable
"The skipping King, he ambled up and down, / With shallow jesters, and rash bavin wits, / Soon kindled and soon burnt, carded his state, / Mingled his royalty with capering fools,"
Example
More examples"[…]that hot love is soon cold: that the bavin, though it burn bright, is but a blaze: that scalding water, it if stand awhile, turneth almost to ice[…]"
Etymology
Perhaps Old French baffe (“a faggot”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.