alacrity
Brisk and cheerful readiness.
allus
always
awd
old
awa hame (away home)
going home
barmy
crazy
beguiling
Charming or enchanting.
bob
A slang term for a British monetary pound.
bonny
Attractive or beautiful.
boozing
Drinking too much.
bovril
A recognizable British brand name for a beef extract beverage that is served hot.
braces
suspenders
brass
money
budgie
A colorful bird often kept as a pet.
cantankerous
Bad-tempered or argumentative.
car boot
Trunk of the car.
choppers
Teeth.
cock-a-hoop
Triumphantly happy.
curlew
A large bird with a curving beak and brown feathers, from the sandpiper family.
Crimean War veteran
Soldier who served in the Crimean War in the Baltic region of Europe in the 19th Century.
Dalesman
A person born and raised in the Yorkshire Dales, who works as a farmer.
Dales
In the novel, this refers to a region in the north of England, also known as the Yorkshire Dales. A dale is a valley. The Yorkshire Dales landscape is composed of low hills, valleys, and moors (areas of open infertile land).
dovecot
A shelter for domesticated pigeons.
debs
debutantes
dispensary
A room where medications are kept and prepared.
dole-queue
A reference to the number of people who are unemployed, claiming state benefit.
embryotome
An instrument used in embryotomy, the dissection of a fetus inside a womb.
ensconced
Settled comfortably in a safe place.
'ess
horse
ewer
udder
factotum
An employee who does various kinds of tasks.
fell-side
The side of a rocky hill.
felon
Mastitis, a disease affecting cows and sheep.
ferreting
Finding something after an exhaustive search.
flop bott
Term used by Mrs. Pumphrey to describe her dog's impacted anal glands.
fra
from
haemorrhage
A heavy discharge of blood.
idiosyncrasy
A way of being peculiar to a certain individual.
impishly
Inclined to do naughty things for fun.
indomitable
Impossible to subdue or defeat.
jaunty
Lively, cheerful, self-confident.
mollify
To soothe anger.
porcine
Relating to pigs.
rebored
A term used to describe an auto mechanic process of boring out a combustion engine, to widen it.
spurned
Rejected with contempt.
tableau
A group of figures making up a scene, usually from history.
treacle
A thick dark syrup made from sugar.
unorthodox
Going against what is traditional or usual.
veterinary
Relating to the medical treatment of animals.
