Coventryn.
/ˈkɒvəntri//ˈkʌvəntri/ 1. to send (a person) to Coventry: to exclude him from the society of which he is a member on account of objectionable conduct; to refuse to associate or have intercourse with him. So also to be in Coventry. [The origin of the phrase has been the subject of numerous ingenious conjectures: see Brewer, Phrase and Fable, etc. A probable suggestion refers it to the circumstances recorded in quot. 1703; a less likely source has been suggested in quot. a1691.]
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society > society and the community > social relations > lack of social communication or relations > exclusion from society > exclude from society [verb (transitive)]
seclude1498
refrain1547
ostracize1649
proscribe1680
to send (a person) to Coventry1765
taboo1791
blackball1821
blackbean1829
to freeze out1861
unworld1868
exostracize1872
boycott1880
a1691 R. Baxter Reliquæ Baxterianæ (1696) i. i. 44 Thus when I was at Coventry the Religious part of my Neighbours at Kidderminster that would fain have lived quietly at home, were forced..to be gone, and to Coventry they came.
1703 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion II. vi. 36 At Bromicham, a Town so generally wicked, that it had risen upon small parties of the Kings, and kill'd, or taken them Prisoners, and sent them to Coventry [then strongly held for the Parliament].]
1765 Club Bk. Tarporley Hunt in R. E. Warburton Hunting Songs (1873) p. xvi Mr. John Barry having sent the Fox Hounds to a different place to what was ordered..was sent to Coventry, but return'd upon giving six bottles of Claret to the Hunt.
1787 F. Burney Court Jrnls. & Lett. (2011) II. 240 I sent his dependence & his building to Coventry, by not seeming to hear him.
1792 W. Roberts Looker-on No. 3. 20 [He] paid thirty shillings and sixpence for contumacy, and swore himself to Coventry.
1821 Croker in Croker Papers (1884) I. 203 (Farmer) I found MacMahon in a kind of Coventry, and was warned not to continue my acquaintance with him.
1829 F. Marryat Naval Officer I. iii. 75 The oldsters..had sent me to the most rigid Coventry.
1885 W. E. Norris Adrian Vidal xxxiv She ended by virtually sending him to Coventry in his own house.
2. slang. A kind of cake (see quot. 1851).
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1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 198/2 Among the regular articles of this street-sale are ‘Coventrys’, or three-cornered puffs with jam inside.
a. An old name for Campanula Medium; cf. Marian's violet n. at Marian n.2 2. Also called Coventry rapes, Coventry Marians. It is possible that some British species, as C. Trachelium, C. Rapunculus, were sometimes included under the name: cf. Canterbury bells n.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > particular flower or plant esteemed for flower > [noun] > bellflowers
bell-flower1578
bluebell1578
Canterbury bells1578
Coventry bells1578
Coventry Marians1578
Coventry rapes1578
fair-in-sight1578
gauntlet1578
haskwort1578
Marian's violet1578
throatwort1578
lady's looking glass1597
mariet1597
Mercury's violet1597
peach-bells1597
steeple bells1597
uvula-wort1597
Venus looking-glass1597
campanula1664
Spanish bell1664
corn-violet1665
rampion1688
Venus' glass1728
harebell1767
heath-bell1805
witch bell1808
slipperwort1813
meadow-bell1827
greygle1844
platycodon1844
lady's thimble1853
kikyo1884
witches' bells1884
balloon flower1901
fairy thimble1914
mountain bell1923
1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball ii. xx. 171 Whan they be close, they haue fyue crestes or playtes like the Belfloures, or Couentrie Marians.
1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball ii. xxii. 173 Of Marians violet, or Couentrie Belles..These pleasant floures grow about Couentrie in England.
1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball ii. xxii. 174 We may also cal them Couentrie Rapes.
1597 J. Gerard Herball ii. 363 Couentrie bels are called..Mercuries violets, and Couentrie Rapes, and of some Mariettes.
1657 W. Coles Adam in Eden lxi. 117.
1776 J. Lee Introd. Bot. (ed. 3) 329 Coventry-bells, Campanula.
b. In Gerard also for Anemone Pulsatilla.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > particular flower or plant esteemed for flower > [noun] > buttercup and allied flowers > anemones
anemone1548
rose parsley1548
windflower1551
agrimony1578
hepatica1578
liverwort1578
noble agrimony1578
noble liverwort1578
pasque flower1578
Coventry bells1597
flaw-flower1597
herb trinity1597
pulsatilla1597
emony1644
wood-anemone1657
Robin Hood1665
poppy anemone1731
Alpine anemone1774
liverleaf1820
Japan anemone1847
Pennsylvania wind flower1869
smell fox1892
prairie smoke1893
prairie crocus1896
St. Brigid anemone1902
Japanese anemonec1908
Spanish marigold-
1597 J. Gerard Herball ii. 309 In Cambridgeshire where they [sc. Passe Flowers] grow, they are named Couentry bels.
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the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > thread or yarn > [noun] > for sewing > embroidery thread
Coventry bluea1592
Coventry bluea1592
1581 Compendious Exam. Certayne Ordinary Complaints 49 a I have heard say that the chiefe trade of Coventry was heretofore in making of blew thred.]
a1592 R. Greene Sc. Hist. Iames IV (1598) iv. sig. G3 Edge me the sleeues with Couentry-blew.
1593 M. Drayton Idea viii. sig. J3 His breech of Coyntrie blew.
c1600 Roxburghe Ballads VI. 463 She hath a cloute of mine, wrought with good Coventry.
a1637 B. Jonson Masque of Gypsies 78* in tr. Horace Art of Poetry (1640) A skeane of Coventry blew she had to work Will: Litchfields Handkerchiffe.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
† Coventryv.
Obsolete. rare.
To slit the nose of.
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1704 W. Bisset Plain Eng. 55 Sure to be cudgell'd or Coventry'd; or have my Throat cut the next hour.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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