walking staffn.

c1450 (a1425) Metrical Paraphr. Old Test. (Selden) l. 1103 Iudas..toke the be all of his herme And also his walkyng stafe; he kast both in his [read: hir] berme.

1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Surueyeng xxxi. f. xlvii One maner wyll growe on drie grounde, & that maner wyll growe as hyghe as a man, and haue a great stalke as moche as a walkyng staffe.

1597 W. Shakespeare Richard II iii. iii. 150 Ile giue..My scepter for a Palmers walking staffe . View more context for this quotation

1608 E. Topsell Hist. Serpents 8 Moses shoulde take them [sc. crafty and polliticke Princes and people] as he did his Serpent by the tayle, and cause them to bende vnto him like as it were a wand, or else some other little walking staffe.

1694 N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) III. 365 A person was taken in St. James Park with 2 pistolls laden in his pocket, his walking staffe being a gunn.

1726 J. Swift Gulliver I. ii. i. 14 The Farmer..took a piece of a small Straw, about the size of a walking Staff.

a1827 W. Blake Song Old Shepherd in Compl. Writings (1972) 64 Virtue is our walking-staff.

1846 T. Keightley Notes Bucolics & Georgics of Virgil 383 It [sc. Ferula communis] is common in Apulia, where the shepherds make walking-staffs of it.

1870 D. Rock Textile Fabrics (S. Kensington Mus.) Introd. p. xx Two Greek monks..brought back with them a goodly number of eggs [of silkworms] hidden in their walking-staves.

1940 Jrnl. Amer. Folklore 53 243 The dead are buried in their canoes and given a walking staff.

1980 Outdoor Life (U.S.) Oct. (Northeast ed.) 97/2 We added a walking staff to our method..and it was most helpful when used to probe against hazards, and for balance.

2006 Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) (Nexis) 10 Feb. c12 His gear includes comfortable boots, a sturdy walking staff and a pair of binoculars.