| 释义 |
▪ I. owler
dial. form of alder, the tree.
▪ II. † ˈowler Obs. exc. Hist.
[Goes with owling: app. f. owl n.: see -er1 1.
To prevent the exportation of wool it was made illegal by Act 14 Chas. II, c. 18 §8 to transport it in the night-time; and it is probable that it was in reference to the fact that the smugglers of wool carried on their work, like owls, under cover of night, that the terms owler and owling arose: cf. quot. a 1700. Some have considered the words to be formed on the north. dial. form of wool ('ool), but from the district with which they were specially associated (Kent and Sussex) this is very improbable.]
One engaged in the illegal exportation or ‘owling’ of wool or sheep from England; also, a vessel so employed, an owling-boat.
1696Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) IV. 26 A messenger has seized the Owler, who carried over the duke of Barwick to France. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Owlers, those who privately in the Night carry Wool to the Sea-Coasts, near Rumney-Marsh in Kent, and some Creeks in Sussex, &c. and Ship it off for France against Law. 1701T. Brown Advice in Collect. Poems 106 To Gibbets and Gallow's your Owlers advance, That, that's the sure way to Mortifie France. 1778Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2) s.v. Rumney Marsh, This marsh is the place from whence the owlers have for so many ages exported our wool to France. 1892Blackw. Mag. July 33 Ailesbury crossed the Channel in an ‘owler’ or smuggling vessel. |