Continuing the list of olde archaic words for your enjoyment and enlightenment:
Cuckoo-ale - Ale drunk out of doors to welcome the cuckoo's return. The cuckoo was looked upon as the embodiment of spring in early times, and the weather was supposed to change as soon as it appeared.
Ragrowtering - Playing at romps, and thereby rumpling, roughening and tearing the clothes to rags, or playing the rogue in a wanton frolic; from ragery and rout, tumultus. Risking the damage of clothes by rude or rough personal handling in play.
Man of straw - The old clothes of a man, stuffed with straw; hence, an imaginary person, a person of little consequence put forward to deceive.
Tricked up and made fine; a metaphor taken from a horse's hounces, which is part of the furniture of a cart-horse which lies spread up on his collar.
Apple-john - An apple, so called from its being at maturity about St. John's Day, May 6 . . . Sometimes called the Apples of King John which, if correct, would militate against the notion about St. John's Day. . . In the United States there is a drink called apple-jack, which is apple or cider brandy.
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