battle-twig
Appearance
English
[edit]Noun
[edit]battle-twig (plural battle-twigs)
- (UK, dialect) An earwig
- 1885, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Spinster's Sweet-Arts”, in Tiresias, and Other Poems, page 111:
- An' the wool of a thistle a-flyin' an' seeädin' tha haäted to see;
'Twur as bad as a battle-twig 'ere i' my oän blue chaumber to me.
- 1929 D. H. Lawrence, Up He Goes! (from Pansies) in The Complete Poems, page 553 [1]
- There isn't a damn thing in 'em,
- They're as empty as empty tins;
- they haven't the spunk of a battle-twig,
- an' all they can think of is sins.