Apedia

English Sense Bloody Widdiful Widiful Noun Deserved Hanged

Widdiful is a noun describing someone who deserved to be hanged, referring to a gallows-bird.

Widdiful es un sustantivo que describe a alguien que merecía ser colgado, refiriéndose a una persona destinada a la horca.

Front Widdiful \wIdIfUl\
Back noun
Somebody who deserved to be hanged.

[The story behind it starts with the northern English and Scottish word "widdy" or "widdie", the local forms of the standard English "withy", a flexible branch from a tree such as willow used to make baskets or to tie or fasten things together. One sense was of a band or rope made of intertwined withies. Later it came to mean a halter and in particular a hangman's rope. To cheat the widdy meant to escape hanging. By an obvious process of transfer the sense of gallows-bird grew up, one destined to fill a widdy.]

"'Will you shut the bloody noise off, you bloody widdiful!' Philips said in a shout that was nearly a scream."

Learn with these flashcards. Click next, previous, or up to navigate to more flashcards for this subject.

Next card: Mcguffin trigger story pretext action depends catch attention

Previous card: Grok science strange verb tr slang understand deeply

Up to card list: Hard English Vocabulary