c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Manciple's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) Prol. l. 5 Ther gan oure hoost for to iape and pleye And seyde sires, what, Don is in the Myre.

a1500 (a1460) Towneley Plays (1994) I. ii. 24 Gif Don, thyne hors, a wisp of hay!

1587 L. Mascall First Bk. Cattell ii. 170 Next vnto him is the Dunne with a blacke liste on the backe.

1653 J. Taylor Short Relation Long Journey 15 I procured a brace of Boyes to goe two miles to cut grasse for my Dun.

1760 ‘T. Bobbin’ Let. 8 Apr. in Toy-shop (1763) 150 Whether this Dun must be a Horse, a Mare, or a Gelding?

1892 R. Kipling Barrack-room Ballads 77 The Colonel's son has taken a horse, and a raw rough dun was he.

1928 Times 10 Apr. 8/4 E. F. Tenison's John Dun, a dun by Merry Saint, was the winner.

1990 L. D. Van Vleck in J. W. Evans et al. Horse (ed. 2) ii. 51 The Red Dun is just that—red. Body coat may vary from a yellow to a nearly flesh color. Points are dark red. Dorsal stripe must be present.

2017 Vernon Morning Star (Nexis) 24 Jan. 6 The dun has a white stripe on his head.

1542 T. Elyot Bibliotheca at Rauus A dulle or sadde colour, a dunne.

1686 R. Plot Nat. Hist. Staffs. iii. 111 They will certainly change the colour of their coat to a whitish-dun.

1735 J. Moore Columbarium 39 A very great Variety of Colours in its Plumage, as blacks, blues,..Duns.

1819 Ld. Byron Don Juan: Canto II xcii. 165 Baptized in molten gold, and swathed in dun.

1894 Superfluous Woman (ed. 4) I. 171 Silvery grays and duns.

1955 Irish Times 7 Nov. 5/8 You..become aware of the undertones of colour in the duns and fawns.

2016 M. Gallagher Youngblood xxx. 204 We drove west, the countryside melting into shades of dun.

1676 C. Cotton Compl. Angler vii. 57 In case of a frost and snow, you are to Angle only with the smallest Gnats, Browns and Duns you can make.

?1720 Husbandman's Jewel 36 The Badgers-fly, the Wasp-fly, the little white dun, the black Hackle, the black brown dun, the Shell-fly.

1760 J. Hawkins in Walton's & Cotton's Compl. Angler i. xvii. (note) Ash-coloured duns of several shapes and dimentions.

1799 tr. Laboratory (ed. 6) II. x. 290 The little-dun. The dubbing of a bear's dun-hair, whirled upon yellow silk.

1833 J. Rennie Alphabet Sci. Angling 36 Various species of day flies known to anglers by the various names of duns, drakes, and may flies.

1890 E. Hamilton River-side Naturalist xx. 344 The July Dun..is the sub-imago of Ephemera marginata.

1902 Encycl. Brit. XXV. 449/1 Two of the best grayling flies are a very small apple-green dun and the red tag.

1973 Times Lit. Suppl. 10 Aug. 937/1 The most common nymphs, duns and spinners..are illustrated.

2015 P. Dorsey Colorado Guide Flies i. 4/1 (caption) This thick-bodied rainbow trout was caught on a Mathews' Sparkle Dun.

1765 Ann. Reg. 1764 142 It is made up of several strata, consisting of coal, of dun, which is an imperfect coal.

a1843 R. Southey Common-place Bk. (1851) 4th Ser. 407/2 A thin stratum near the coal, called duns.

1880 Geol. Mag. Nov. 521 Comparing the analysis of duns and shale from the district.

1900 Notts. Guardian 15 Sept. 3/3 Deceased was..standing underneath some ‘duns,’ from which the coal had been previously taken.

1985 I. W. Farmer Coal Mine Structures i. 29 The typical shiny slickensided appearance of shear zones is reflected in British coal mining terminology by the use of various local names ranging from..‘clunch’ to ‘duns’.

2014 A. Gorova et al. in V. Bondarenko et al. Progressive Technol. 94/2 The composition of rocks is represented by the mudstones, siltstones, coal duns, and hard coal.

c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Manciple's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) Prol. l. 5 Ther gan oure hoost for to iape and pleye And seyde sires, what, Don is in the Myre.

c1450 J. Capgrave Life St. Katherine (Arun. 396) (1893) ii. l. 1046 (MED) For as wyth me, dun is in the myre, She hath me stoyned and brought me to a bay. She wil not wedde, she wil be stylle a may!

1541 Schole House of Women sig. Biv One and other lytell ye care..Though dun, and the packe lye in the myre.

1599 R. Tofte tr. E. Tasso Of Mariage & Wiuing sig. E4^v She hath made Iacke a Gentleman, and hath drawne Dunne out of the mire.

1640 J. Shirley St. Patrick i. iii. sig. D3 Then draw Dun out o'th mire: And throw the clog into the fire.

1702 F. Bugg Narr. Conf. at Sleeford v. 114 Still all will not help Dun out of the Mire.

1655 W. Winstanley Muses Cabinet 11 Having leap'd as much as they would do, To drawing Dun out of the mire they go, But presently they left that sport againe, And then they fell into a drinking vaine.

1816 W. Gifford in B. Jonson Wks. VII. 283 (note) Dun is in the mire! then, is a Christmas gambol, at which I have often played. A log of wood is brought into the midst of the room: this is Dun, (the cart-horse), and a cry is raised, that he is stuck in the mire. Two of the company advance, either with or without ropes, to draw him out. After repeated attempts, they find themselves unable to do it, and call for more assistance.—The game continues till all the company take part in it, when Dun is extricated of course; and the merriment arises from the awkward and affected efforts of the rustics to lift the log, and from sundry arch contrivances to let the ends of it fall on one another's toes. This will not be thought a very exquisite amusement; and yet I have seen much honest mirth at it.

1887 E. Gilliat Forest Outlaws 252 Merry games at barley-break and dun-in-the-mire.

1904 M. E. Francis Lychgate Hall xv. 162 Loud laughter proceeded from a merry company that were playing Drawing Dun out of the Mire.

a1974 G. Heyer My Lord John (1977) i. iii. 55 It was dull at Bytham... Kyle-pins, closh, quoits, and even Dun-is-in-the-mire..palled.

1628 J. Earle Micro-cosmogr. liv. sig. K1 A Vniuersitie Dunne..Hee is an inferiour Creditor of some ten shillings or downwards... Hee is a sore beleaguerer of Chambers.

1657 tr. F. de Quevedo Life & Adventures of Buscon 183 He discovered a certain Dun..who had often haunted him for some small trifling debt.

1712 J. Arbuthnot John Bull in his Senses iv. 21 To be pull'd by the Sleeve by some Rascally Dun.

1778 J. Warner in J. H. Jesse G. Selwyn & his Contemp. (1844) III. 314 I shall have the satisfaction at last of finding something that I am fit for,—a setter, a dun, a catchpole, or a bum-bailiff, to recover bad debts.

1811 W. Combe Schoolmaster's Tour in Poet. Mag. Mar. 186 I've just enough the duns to pay.

1881 W. Besant & J. Rice Chaplain of Fleet I. x. 211 Here I live free of duns and debt.

1912 Lippincott's Monthly Mag. July 2 The postman was..an emissary, as a rule, from the dark country of the duns and lawyers.

2003 Country Life 22 May 120/3 He and Lady Blessington eventually holed up in Gore House, their scandalous existence harried by duns at the door.

1673 F. Kirkman Unlucky Citizen 210 [To] endure the frequent Duns of his Creditors.

1751 T. Smollett Peregrine Pickle III. xcii. 290 The debtor,..finding himself waked with such a disagreeable dun.

1847 A. M. Gilliam Trav. Mexico (new ed.) 149 The..crowd let us pass to our rooms, without our receiving a single dun for alms.

1895 Postal Rec. Aug. 174/3 'Rastus Perkins gets a dun From Peltenham & Pack Ms' ev'ry week an' sometimes twice For his wife's sealskin saque.

1983 A. Holleran Nights in Aruba (1984) v. 155 They did not know who wrote me the letters I received in Jasper (which my mother envied; she received nothing but duns).

2001 Edmonton (Alberta) Jrnl. (Nexis) 15 Jan. c1 ‘The outstanding balance of your debt is due today, in full.’ This is called the initial dun.

1703 M. Martin Descr. W. Islands Scotl. 8 There are several natural and artificial Forts in the Coast of this Island, which are call'd Dun.

1794 J. Sinclair Statist. Acct. Scotl. XIII. 334 There are several duns in this parish, most of which were built by the Danes.

1851 D. Wilson Archæol. & Prehistoric Ann. Scotl. iii. iii. 410 This class of strongholds, or duns, as they are locally termed, pertain to a people whose arts were still in their infancy.

1873 E. O'Curry Manners Anc. Irish III. 3 The Dun was of the same form as the Rath, but consisting of at least two concentric circular mounds or walls, with a deep trench full of water between them.

1939 J. R. Reinhard tr. M. Conglinne in Mediaeval Pageant xxiii. 109 The dun was guarded by nine ranks of soldiers.

2014 Stirling Observer (Nexis) 31 Dec. 20 It is the site of an Iron Age hill fort and dun.

eOE Leiden Gloss. (1906) 11/1 Lapides onichinos, dunnę.

OE Will of Wynflæd (Sawyer 1539) in D. Whitelock Anglo-Saxon Wills (1930) 14 Hio becwið..Eadgyfe..hyre betstan dunnan tunecan & hyre beteran mentel.

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 22510 Þe sun þat es sa bright..It sal becum..Dune [Gött. dim] and blak sum ani hair.

a1450 (?1420) J. Lydgate Temple of Glas (Tanner) (1891) l. 30 Certein skyes donne.

c1500 (?a1475) Sir Landeval (Rawl. C. 86) (1889) l. 470 (MED) The quene and othir ladyes..to her were allso donne As the mone-lyght to the sonne.

1600 E. Fairfax tr. T. Tasso Godfrey of Bulloigne ix. lxii. 171 The horrid darknes and the shadowes dunne Dispersed he with his eternall wings.

1637 J. Milton Comus 5 'Tis onely day-light that makes Sin Which these dun shades will ne're report.

1700 R. Blackmore Paraphr. Job iii. 11 Impenetrable Darkness, such as dwelt On the Dun Visage of Primeval Night.

1786 S. Henley tr. W. Beckford Arabian Tale 22 He beheld nothing but a thick, dun cloud, which he took for the most direful of omens.

1851 H. W. Longfellow Golden Legend v. 255 Athwart the vapours, dense and dun.

1922 T. Hardy Late Lyrics & Earlier 6 Hemmed by city walls That outshut the sunlight, In a foggy dun light.

1958 J. Dos Passos Great Days xi. 186 The housefronts that face the harbor under the low dun sky.

2012 West Briton (Nexis) 12 Jan. (Sport section) The sun broke through the dun cloud bank.

1797 A. Seward Lett. (1811) V. 11 Frowning like herself, in dun cogitation.

1860 C. Heavysege Count Filippo iv. iii. 72 In these volumes no Still nook of dun abstraction have I found, Though sedulously sought.

1896 Savoy Apr. 168 Here is a zany with a hatful of dun thoughts formed to make one meditate on one's tomb for a week!

1913 C. E. Montague Morning's War xx. 242 There must, anyhow, have been discord between their dun thoughts and their acted genialities.

1806 in E. R. Delderfield Torbay Story (1951) 82 [1,147 Portuguese quintals of Newfoundland fish] 661 Qtls large, 208 Qtls small, 278 Qtls dumb, wet and broken.

1819 L. A. Anspach Hist. Island Newfoundland xv. 440 It [sc. codfish] may become dun, if left too long in the pile, which happens sometimes from want of sufficient store-room and of an opportunity to ship it off in proper time.

1877 Friend 7 Jan. 163/1 They [sc. codfish] are first ‘culled’, or assorted, into different kinds, known as ‘merchantable’, ‘Madeira’, ‘West India’, and ‘Dun’, or broken fish... The fourth, which is incapable of keeping, is used at home.

1988 L. Abbott Coast Way 34/2 The fish had to be turned at intervals..so that it would not spoil, or go dun.

?c1450 in Anglia (1896) 18 330 (MED) Fumiter is erbe..Dun-red is his flour.

a1500 in G. Henslow Med. Wks. 15th Cent. (1899) 124 (MED) Loke þi coloure be noȝt to ȝalow of þe saffroun, but lete it be a donne ȝalowe.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues at Rousette A certaine ruddie, or dunne-red bird.

1659 Mercurius Politicus No. 584. 693 (advt.) A Dun yellow Nag, about Eleven or Twelve years old.

1766 C. Bisset Med. Ess. & Observ. 24 The face is of a pale, or dun yellowish hue.

1783 J. Lightfoot in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 75 11 All of one uniform dun-brown colour.

1834 S. Cooper Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 516 It does not exhibit the dun yellow colour of the middle coat.

1882 E. O'Donovan Merv Oasis I. 336 The air is thick with dun-brown dust.

1936 J. G. Horne Flooer o' Ling 33 On sic a dour Din-grey December day.

2003 R. Taylor-Perry God who Comes ii. 34 The Cyprian catsnake, a lovely dun-yellow creature.

2010 Independent (Nexis) 2 Oct. 48 The San Joaquin Valley, dun-grey hills, sandy ranges broken by dust-covered orchards and corn.

1800 J. Hurdis Favorite Village iv. 206 The moon..appears In the dun-belted east.

1893 Fortnightly Rev. June 823 I think a dun-coated goat so sweet.

1908 Outing Feb. 591/1 One team derived this leg striping through the mother, a dun-striped mare.

1995 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 30 May c1/1 Norway rats..are the familiar dun-coated, naked-tailed creatures that thrive in landfills and alleys and sewers.

1496 Treat. Fysshynge wyth Angle in Bk. St. Albans (rev. ed.) sig. i.iii^v The donne cutte: the body of blacke wull & a yelow lyste after eyther syde.

1676 C. Cotton Compl. Angler 64 We have then another very killing flie, known by the name of the Dun-Cut.

1882 D. Foster Sci. Angler xiv. 240 The Caterpillar, Dun Cut..and any of the large trout flies contained in the fly-book, will be found most deadly.

2001 A. Herd Fly iii. 130 The flies shown are: an Ant Fly, the Dun Cut, a Palmer, the Great Dun, the Hawthorn fly and the Green Drake.

?1758 R. Bowlker Art of Angling Improved 58 The Brown Fly, or Dun Drake... This Fly was formerly made of a dun Drake's Feather.

1891 Baily's Mag. Mar. 149/1 He is called cob-fly in Wales, brown drake in Yorkshire, and dun drake in divers places.

1984 E. J. Malone Irish Trout & Salmon Flies ii. 100 There is an Irish Dun Drake, called the Coughlan.

1676 C. Cotton Compl. Angler viii. 76 A little dun Grashopper, the body slender made of a dun Camlet, and a dun hackle at the top.

1799 tr. Laboratory (ed. 6) II. x. 301 Dun-hackle. Body, dun-coloured silk, with a dun cock's hackle.

1921 Amer. Angler Mar. 550/2 We..were soon driven to paying up to 10s. ($2.50) for a neck of dun hackles.

2006 Pittsburgh Post-Gaz. (Nexis) 16 Apr. (Outdoors section) d14 It is a bright orange body ribbed with fine gold wire and a turn or two in front of dun hackle.

1766 M. Harris Aurelian 23 (heading) The dun-bar... Some of this Kind of Moths differ so much from each other, that they do not appear to be of the same Species.

1890 E. A. Ormerod Man. Injurious Insects (ed. 2) 241 The carnivorous caterpillars of the Dunbar Moth..doing great good in clearing away this attack.

1997 M. Young Nat. Hist. Moths (2002) v. 127 Species like the Dunbar (Cosmia trapezina) can be reared on a purely vegetarian diet, but they routinely feed on other larvae.

2012 @CountrysideKev 11 Aug. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) Aldridge Airport moths: less than y'day 36 Small Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, 3 Lge Y U'wing, 4 Dunbar, 2 Dark Arches & 1 Marbled Beauty.

1839 Farmer's Monthly Visitor 20 Sept. 133/3 The pork barrel still remains, which, with baked beans on Sunday, and fine dun codfish on Saturday, is the most healthful and the most palatable resort.

1852 Boston Daily Atlas 3 Apr. (advt.) Dun Codfish. 50 Qtls. prime table Codfish, for sale.

1908 J. Foster Ballads of Hills 186 Smoked herring, Dun codfish, mackerel galore, All sat in joint convention Just down the bulkhead door.

1598 W. Phillip tr. J. H. van Linschoten Disc. Voy. E. & W. Indies i. lv. 99/2 The outward part is Dun coloured.

1674 N. Cox Gentleman's Recreation i. 9 Of the Dun Hound..there are few dun-coloured to be found bad.

1868 C. Darwin Variation Animals & Plants I. ii. 55 The English race-horse..is said never to be dun-coloured.

2013 L. Billings Five Billion Years Solitude viii. 199 The Institute occupies a nondescript building of tinted glass and dun-colored brick.

1836 J. Phillips Illustr. Geol. Yorks. II. i. 26 These dun ‘courses’ are said to throw the veins which run east and west, four or five fathoms laterally.

1877 A. H. Green Geol. for Students: Physical Geol. (ed. 2) vii. §2. 276 Ribs of Magnesian Limestone are met with in the Carboniferous L. of Yorkshire where they are known as Dun Courses.

1944 Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. 100 251 Dolomitization along faults is common in Wharfedale, making ‘dun courses’.

1818 G. Montagu in Mem. Wernerian Nat. Hist. Soc. 2 423 The Shagreen Ray is discriminated by some of the west country fishermen, and is called Dun-Cow.

1898 F. G. Aflalo Sketch Nat. Hist. Brit. Islands 431 A deep-water species, caught chiefly in the summer months, the Shagreen Ray, ‘Dun Cow’, or ‘French Shagreen Ray’ grows to a length of 3 feet, and is more common on the east coast than in the Channel.

1802 G. Montagu Ornithol. Dict. Dunker or Dun-cur, vide Pochard.

1824 J. Latham Gen. Hist. Birds X. 334 Pochards..are known also by other names, as Attile Duck, Red-headed Poker, Great-headed Wigeon, Blue Poker, and Dun Cur.

1905 W. P. Westell Brit. Bird Life 209 Why so many names have been bestowed upon the bird I cannot imagine, but in collecting information the following localisations reached me: Atteal Duck, Attle Duck.., Dun Bird, Dun Cur,..and Vare-headed Wigeon.

1533 T. Elyot Of Knowl. Wise Man iii. f. 47^v Of byrdes the Egle, the dunkyte, the Ospraye, and the Cormorant, whiche do rauyn and deuour that, which is necessary for mans lyuynge.

1577 W. Harrison Hist. Descr. Islande Brit. iii. xi. f. 111/1 in R. Holinshed Chron. I The Bussarde, the Kite, the Ringtaile Dunkite.

1579 T. Churchyard Gen. Rehearsall Warres sig. M.ij Milkesoppes, whose manhoode and maners differs, as farre from the graue Soldiour, as a Donkite in courage and condition, differs from a Jerfaucon.

1880 Midland Naturalist 3 145 I have seen one or two [English Kite or Glead] about occasionally, up to ten years ago, but now, I fear, they must be considered as extinct in this neighbourhood... The common Buzzard or Dunkite is in the same case.

1811 J. Taylor Remarks Present State Devon in T. Risdon Chorogr. Surv. Devon (new ed.) p. iv Dun land..is furnished..by the decomposition of the Schistus rock on which it lies.

1900 Cassell's Gazetteer Great Brit. & Ireland 144/2 Petrockstow, pa[rish] and vil[lage], N. Devon..; soil dunland, overlying clay.

2013 Soil Use & Managem. 29 569 (table) Medium-textured soils. Dunland (Culm Measures). Neath, Sannan, Cherubeer.

1817 E. Forster Catalogus Avium in Insulis Britannicis 4 Falco aervginosvs. Moor Buzzard, Duckhawk, Dun-pickle, or Whiteheaded Harpy.

1863 W. Barnes Gram. & Gloss. Dorset Dial. 54 Dun-piddle... The kite or moor buzzard.

1873 C. Swainson Weather Folk-lore ii. 242 It is said in Wiltshire that the marsh harriers or dunpickles..alight in great numbers on the downs before rain.

1907 S. Heath & W. de C. Prideaux Some Dorset Manor Houses i. 4 A similar hawks' head azure forms the crest, and these heads are said to belong to the Dunpiddle, a species of kite, and thus to contain an allusion to the name of the [Pydele] family.

2006 Eastern Daily Press (Norwich) (Nexis) 19 May Marsh harriers, also known as bald buzzards and the dun pickle in various parts of England, were once common in the UK's lowland reedbeds and marshes.

1665 D. Dudley Mettallum Martis sig. D5^v Now for the names of the iron-stone, the first measure is called the Black-row-graines... The second measure is the Dun-row-graines.

1712 F. Bellers in Philos. Trans. 1710–12 (Royal Soc.) 27 542 A hard grey Iron Oar, called the Dun-Row Iron-Stone.

1727 J. Strachey Observ. Different Strata Earths & Minerals 17/1 (table) Dunrow Batt, a black Substance.

lOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Bodl.) (2009) I. iv. 246 Swa deð eac se mona mid his blacan leohte, þæt þa beorhtan steorran dunniað on þam heofone.

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Coll. Phys.) l. 23695 Flures..Þat neuir mar sal dunne ne dwine.

a1400 in F. J. Furnivall Polit., Relig., & Love Poems (1903) 250 Wonne..þin hew dunnet and þi sennewess starket.

Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 135 Dunnyn in sownde, bundo.

a1450 (?c1300) Bevis of Hampton (Caius) l. 3479 + 5 Al þe castel donyd and rong Off here merþe and off here song.

a1450 (?a1300) Richard Coer de Lyon (Caius) (1810) l. 4975 The erthe donyd [1448 Arms dyneth, a1500 Douce denyde] hem undyr.

a1500 (?a1475) Guy of Warwick (Cambr. Ff.2.38) l. 11780 (MED) Soche strokys gaf þe knyghtys stowte, That þe hylle donyed all abowte.

?1648 Proposalls Comm. regulating Law 4 A Country Solicitor..is wont to dun the Offices with a pitifull importunity.

1656 T. Blount Glossographia To Dun, is a word lately taken up by fancy, and signifies to demand earnestly, or press a man to pay for commodities taken up on trust, or other debt.

1679 Bacon's Apothegms 59 in T. Tenison Baconiana The advice of the plain old man at Buxton that sold besoms..‘Friend, hast thou no money? borrow of thy back, and borrow of thy belly, they will never ask thee again: I shall be dunning thee every day’.

1707 G. Farquhar Beaux Stratagem iii. 30 I remember the good Days, when we cou'd dun our Masters for our Wages.

1772 London Evening-post 21–23 May You dunned, in a very indecent manner, some persons who had attended your Lectures for their money.

1831 Lincoln Herald 16 Dec. 4/6 Ministers are again dunning the king for more Peers.

1895 Wisconsin Jrnl. Educ. Nov. p. ix/1 The liar whom the editor hates worst of all is the man who, when dunned for a year's subscription, says he only received two or three copies during the year and refuses to pay.

1974 J. A. Michener Centennial xiii. 810 The bank was dunning them to repay a small loan.

2014 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 7 Dec. (Business section) 3 I am now being dunned for $80.63.

1775 Strictures, Misc. & Compar. 84 The Protestant and Reformed Boasts of such Churches, for ever and ever dunned into our ears, may very emphatically be alluded to.

1830 Fraser's Mag. June 588/1 Big with the idea of that self-importance which from his earliest years is dunned into his ear.

1880 R. N. Cust Ling. & Oriental Ess. x. 302 The shape of the Continents is so dunned into us at school, that we cannot forget what was beyond and on both sides of the Indus.

1889 J. Thomson Trav. in Atlas & Southern Morocco xxiii. 332 Warnings like these had often been dunned in my ears, but, as before, I remained deaf.

1967 Flying May 73/1 lt methodically tortured innumerable aviation cadets and dunned into their tormented heads the idea that instrument flying had come from Dante's list of infernal punishments for aviators.

2011 N. Rankin Ian Fleming's Commandos ii. 37 ‘Please, God, make me like father’ was the prayer dunned into the boys.