Lockchester
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Synonym of woodlouse. obsolete
"Of these, the last only will be found in a dictionary of modern English, but I have already remarked that the name of lockchester is preserved among the peasantry of Oxfordshire, and I may add, that the peasantry in the North of England still call a woodlouse a kitchen-ball, and that those of the Southern dialects call it a chissel-bol, which is perhaps the representative of cheslop."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Of these, the last only will be found in a dictionary of modern English, but I have already remarked that the name of lockchester is preserved among the peasantry of Oxfordshire, and I may add, that the peasantry in the North of England still call a woodlouse a kitchen-ball, and that those of the Southern dialects call it a chissel-bol, which is perhaps the representative of cheslop."
Etymology
Uncertain. Probably derived in English from lock + chest + -er. Compare lugdor. Attested a. 1400.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.