Page:English as we speak it in Ireland - Joyce.djvu/361




 * Wad; a wisp of straw or hay pressed tightly together. A broken pane in a window is often stuffed with a wad of straw. 'Careless and gay, like a wad in a window': old saying. (General.)


 * Walsh, Edward, 5, &c.


 * Wangle; the handful of straw a thatcher grasps in his left hand from time to time while thatching, twisted up tight at one end. By extension of meaning applied to a tall lanky weak young fellow. (Moran: middle eastern counties.)


 * Wangrace; oatmeal gruel for sick persons. (Simmons: Armagh.)


 * Want; often used in Ulster in the following way:—'I asked Dick to come back to us, for we couldn't want him,' i.e. couldn't do without him.


 * Wap; a bundle of straw; as a verb, to make up straw into a bundle. (Derry and Monaghan.)


 * Warrant; used all over Ireland in the following way—nearly always with good, better, or best, but sometimes with bad:—'You're a good warrant (a good hand) to play for us [at hurling] whenever we ax you.' ('Knocknagow.') 'She was a good warrant to give a poor fellow a meal when he wanted it': 'Father Patt gave me a tumbler of rale stiff punch, and the divel a better warrant to make the same was within the province of Connaught.' ('Wild Sports of the West.')


 * Watch-pot; a person who sneaks into houses about meal times hoping to get a bit or to be asked to join.


 * Way. 'A dairyman's way, a labourer's way, means the privileges or perquisites which the dairyman or labourer gets, in addition to the main contract. A