wherret

English

Alternative forms

• whirrit
• worrit

Etymology

Unknown; perhaps imitative. See whirr.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwɛɹɪt/

Noun

wherret (plural wherrets)

1. (now regional) A blow, especially on the face. [from 16th c.]
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 31, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     I would rather perswade a man, though somewhat out of season, to give his boy a wherret on the eare, than to dissemble this wise, sterne or severe countenance, to vex and fret his minde.

Verb

wherret (third-person singular simple present wherrets, present participle wherreting, simple past and past participle wherreted)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To hurry; to trouble; to tease.
   • 1762, Isaac Bickerstaffe, Love in a Village (act 1, scene 5)

     Find some other road; can't you; and don't keep wherreting me with your nonsense.

2. (obsolete, transitive) To box (somebody) on the ear; to strike on the ear.

   to wherret a child

Anagrams

• rethrew