c725 Corpus Gloss. U 77 Uerruca, wearte.

c1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 100 Wið swylas & wið weartan.

a1300 Cursor Mundi 27088 Bot wald þai seme to mans sight In þair licam bath fair and slight, Wit-vten any wert or weme.

c1405 (c1387–95) G. Chaucer Canterbury Tales Prol. (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 557 Vp on the cop right of his nose he haade A werte [Camb. MS. wrete], and ther on stood a tuft of heerys.

c1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 533/2 Wrette, or werte yn a mannys skynne, veruca.

a1529 J. Skelton Phyllyp Sparowe (?1545) sig. C.viii^v Her beautye to augment Dame nature hath her lent A warte vpon her cheke.

1562 W. Bullein Bk. Simples f. 48, in Bulwarke of Defence The juce thereof will..make smothe the skinne from wrattes.

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. xxxii. x. 448 The liver of the fish Glanus, causeth werts to fall off, if they be rubbed withall.

1614 G. Markham Cheape & Good Husbandry i. xxxi. 25 The Wart, Pearle, Pin, or Webbe, which are euils growne in and vpon the Eye [of a horse].

1629 Z. Boyd Last Battell Soule (new ed.) 1051 In such a case his wrats and his wrinkles must be wroght with the pinsell, that the image may bee like unto himselfe.

1645 J. Howell Epistolæ Ho-elianæ i. xlii. 85 Our Mountains in Wales..are Molehills in comparison of these [sc. the Alps], they are..but Blisters compar'd to Impostumes, or Pimples to Werts.

1658 W. Johnson tr. F. Würtz Surgeons Guid ii. xiv. 105 There were..found about the Wound Blisters and Wharts, which were caused by the hot dressings.

1718 J. Quincy Pharmacopœia Officinalis 112 Ray says, its Juice will wear out Wharts.

1839 C. Dickens Nicholas Nickleby viii. 71 An unhealthy-looking boy, with warts all over his hands.

1876 T. Bryant Pract. Surg. (ed. 2) I. viii. 333 Warts are not unfrequently met with about the eyelids.

1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum Wartes in the priuye partes, mirmeciæ.

1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball vi. lxxiv. 767 The leaues of Sauin..do also cause wartes to fal of, which grow about the yarde and other secrete places of man.

1803 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 10 322 Syphilitic warts.

1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. 9 621 Syphilitic mucous tubercles (so-called warts) in the external auditory canal.

?1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Husbandry f. xxxvi If a horse want wartes behynde, beneth the spauen place.

1824 J. E. Gray in Zool. Jrnl. I. 243 The Asses and Zebras..have warts only on the arms and none on the hind legs;..the true Horses..are furnished with warts on their arms and legs.

1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth VII. 109 These [sc. frogs'] eggs are buried deep in the skin..and the spaces between them are full of small warts, resembling pearls.

1861 J. R. Greene Man. Animal Kingdom II. 149 The general surface of the body..in some Sea-anemones..exhibits a number of clear warts or vesicles.

1603 W. Shakespeare Hamlet v. i. 280 Let them throw on vs, Whole hills of earth, till with the heighth therof, Make Oosell as a Wart.

1611 C. Tourneur Atheist's Trag. (new ed.) iii. sig. G3^v I'ue lost a Signorie, That was confin'd within a piece of earth; A Wart vpon the body of the world.

1650 Bp. J. Taylor Rule & Exercises Holy Living ii. §4. 111 His faults are but warts, his vertues are mountainous.

1792 T. Holcroft Road to Ruin i. 12 You will not deny you are..A nuisance, a wart, a blot, a stain upon the face of nature!

1838 R. W. Emerson Addr. Divinity Coll. 14 That which shows God out of me, makes me a wart and a wen.

1864 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend (1865) I. i. iii. 16 The low building had the look of having once been a mill. There was a rotten wart of wood upon its forehead that seemed to indicate where the sails had been.

1869 F. Kohn Iron & Steel Manuf. 88 If it be attempted to strengthen the linings by iron ribs,..the iron undergoing puddling immediately attaches itself to these, and forms great warts and scabs difficult of removal.

1934 J. B. Priestley Eng. Journey vi. 187 You can meet them, a trifle subdued perhaps but there to the last wart, in the solid downright fiction of my friend, Phyllis Bentley.

1961 Listener 2 Nov. 738/2 The Catholic revivalists..the author presents as no doubt they would like to be presented... No warts here, perhaps regrettably.

1982 Times 1 Dec. 2/5 It was [the television companies']..job to hold up mirrors, some of which showed the warts in society.

1763 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting III. i. 17 Oliver [Cromwell]..said to him, ‘Mr Lely, I desire you would use all your skill to paint my picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all; but remark all these roughnesses, pimples, warts, and every thing as you see me, otherwise I will never pay a farthing for it.’]

1930 W. S. Maugham Cakes & Ale xi. 138 Don't you think it would be more interesting if you went the whole hog and drew him warts and all?

1961 Listener 21 Sept. 437/1 A convincing warts-and-all likeness of Wingate.

1962 Sunday Times 1 Apr. 13/1 The Duke of Edinburgh presents himself warts and all, without blunting the rough edges of efficiency and enthusiasm.

1966 K. Giles Provenance of Death iii. 96 In fact you want a run down on Stanisgate, warts and all. Huh?

1974 Publishers Weekly 18 Feb. 24 An intimate, in-depth, ‘warts-and-all’ portrait of our new Vice President.

1976 H. A. Williams Tensions vii. 111 God..accepts us, accepts all men, unconditionally, warts and all.

1980 Times Lit. Suppl. 12 Sept. 986/3 This book..may disconcert the pious more than it jolts the sceptic, but it has the story, warts, statistics and all.

1894 ‘J. S. Winter’ Red Coats 5 Anything more terrifying for ‘a wart’ than to have to sit for two hours—or three, if the Colonel is long-winded enough—and make talk, one can hardly imagine.

1914 Blackwood's Mag. Sept. 309/1 A regimental ‘wart’, reconnoitring along the river bank with a score of men.

1896 G. Ade Artie i. 5 There they was, holdin' to this wart.

1925 P. G. Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves vii. 167 Sippy had described them as England's premier warts, and it looked to me as if he might be about right.

1948 C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident i. 6 Everyone called him the Wart because he had a huge wart on his left cheek... And because he was a wart.

1977 C. McCullough Thorn Birds xvii. 431 Watch your language, you dumb wart!

1984 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 1 Apr. 33/1 What!..is the old wart going to go on some more about reading?

1916 ‘Taffrail’ Carry On! 43 To the senior Sub-Lieutenant..the newly joined Midshipmen are ‘crabs’ or ‘warts’, mere excrescences on the face of the earth.

1921 Blackwood's Mag. July 50/2 They all ignored the six ‘warts’.

1962 W. Granville Dict. Sailors' Slang 129/1 Wart, naval cadet or junior midshipman, the ‘lowest form of Naval life’; an unseemly excrescence.