pingle meaning (obsolete): definition, etymology and quotations

pingle

noun

Etymology Perhaps from pin (“to impound”).

UK, Dialectal, Obsolete A small piece of enclosed ground.

Matthew Smith, by his will, bearing date 20th February 1713, left two alms-houses which he had built, and four closes of land, part freehold and part copyhold, lying in the Hoppings, near Hopping-hill, in the liberty of Belper, containing, by estimation, 13 acres: and a pingle, containing half an acre, to George Gregory, esq. of Nottingham, and Thomas Goodwin, esq. of Derby, and their heirs, to the intent that the yearly rents and profits thereof should be faithfully employed by them, for and towards the relief of two poor people, to be fifty years of age when placed in the said alms-houses, the same to be paid to them quarterly.1833, Stephen Glover, Thomas Noble, The History, Gazetteer, and Directory of the County of Derby, page 104:
In 1619, John Chipsey and his wife Ellen surrendered lands in Scotter at le Clowehole," and "a pingle at the woodside," Manor Records, sub anno.1881, Notes and Queries, page 105:

2 more examples

This was the case with a pingle wall erected on the waste c. 1750 by the then owner of the Throckmorton—Murcott—Wheeler—Smith holding.1914, Sydenham Henry Augustus Hervey, Ladbroke and Its Owners, page 272:
Martyn Browne, Esq., paid a fat turkey, or two shillings, in rent for a 'pingle'—a small piece of enclosed land—there.2014, Caitlin Green, The Streets of Louth, page 279:

verb

UK, Dialectal To eat with a feeble appetite.

all this while when we haue beene at the Lords spirituall feasts, wee haue but pingled, and neuer made a good meale.1616, Thomas Stoughton, Two Profitable Treatises, page 188:
The Liberal and Conservative rivals of the Socialist whole hoggers may nibble at Socialism as John Browdie pingled with the crust of the Yorkshire pie, but dry nurse and coddle the electors as they will, neither Free Traders nor Tariff Reformers can approach the large, divine, and comfortable creed of the Socialist whole hogger.1911, Arnold White, The Views of 'Vanoc,': An Englishman's Outlook, page 319:

1 more example

This man complained of burning pains in the stomach, he pingled his food.1952, Homoeopathic World - Volume 87, page 121:

UK, Dialectal To dawdle.

He pingled his wey tae the first o the moontain's three fause peaks an wis hauf-roads tae the second when a voice rang oot across the hills like a thunder plump.2020, Matthew Fitt, But n Ben A-Go-Go:

To struggle; to work with great effort.

Those that but now did put their labo'ring hands Unto thy Plough, have rid more work away Then I that here have pingled many a day.1661, Nathanael Eaton, De Fastis Anglicis, sive Calendarium Sacrum. The Holy Calendar, page 66:
Both of us have pingled at our seams for forty year good.1852, Margaret Oliphant, “Annie Orme”, in Littell's Living Age, volume 35, page 360:

1 more example

"It was for the laddie I pingled and scarted it together," she soliloquized aloud,1896, P. Anderson Graham, “The Bondager”, in The Living Age, volume 10, page 341:

to bother or create work for.

and howbeit all the Nobillmen and Gentillmen, Bisschoppis, Commissiouneries, and thair adherentis, voitit to the Bisschop Law, yit a number of the best of the Ministerie pingled them; so that , iff they had not bein devydit becaus of Mr Patrick Simpsoune's disseas and waiknes, it wes thought they sould haiff prevaillit.1842, James Melville, Robert Pitcairn, The Autobiography and Diary of Mr. James Melvill, page 755:
Ta Tighearnach (i.e., the Chief) did not like ta Sassenach Duinhé-wassel to be pingled wi' mickle speaking, as she was na' tat weel.1883, Walter Scott, Waverly, page 179:

To struggle or squabble.

pingled and struggled with the Spaniardes for breade and other cates, and often wi mette with them in the Townes, Willages, open fields, and skirmished at ý very skirts of their cape, procuring the to fight.1976, Thomas Churchyard, A Description of the Warres in Flaunders, page 43:

To spoil

[…] but those on the south side, getting both sun and traffic fumes from Pall Mall, pingled1988, Ivy Journal - Volumes 14-18, page 36:
And, while he handles the plump rattling grain, Declares it pingled, only fit for mice!2020, John Goodridge, Nineteenth-Century English Labouring-Class Poets:

noun

Obsolete An onerous and difficult task; a hardship.

let them garr their wives; more awkward and violent; a pingle of trifles; a counterscarse of examples; an Empericall Quack-saluer;1612, Robert Persons, A discussion of the Answere of M. William Barlow , D. of Diuinity, to the Booke intituled: The Iudgment of a Catholike Englishman liuing in banishment for his Religion &c.:
Judgment's a pingle: Blindeman's Buff's plaid there. Sin playes at Coursey-Park within my Minde;1725, Edward Taylor, Preparatory Meditations:

2 more examples

I'm sure some o' them wat the sma End o' their Moggins, syn we laid our Heads together, an at it wi' Vir, at last wi' a Pingle,1744, James Carson, Jemmy Carson's Collections, page 92:
If ane had tald youn sae when ye was single, Your judgment to believ't wou'd had a pingle.1753, Alexander Nicol, The Rural Muse, page 112:

verb

Etymology Onomatopoeic

To make a light, ringing, percussive sound.

The milk hissed and pingled - or Phil's tongue hissed and pingled.1930, The Windsor Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly for Men and Women, page 493:
I recall that right after dinner Sid sat at the battered upright piano there in the dining room and pingled out a few bars of something rather classical, like Schubert's song of love.1991, Raymond Z. Gallun, Jeffrey M. Elliot, Paul David Seldis, Starclimber: The Literary Adventures and Autobiography of Raymond Z. Gallun, page 89:

2 more examples

Even So there was something unsettling, something suggestive to his mind of the arras and dark deeds about the cadaverous echo of hoof on wood as it pingled through the dusk and among the boles of the still trees.2010, James Fleming, Robert Fleming, The Temple of Optimism:
All over United Americas, people grabbed at their teledar sets and tried to hold them together as the electronic apparatus klunked, pingled and whirrety-whirred.2013, William Tenn, The Square Root of Man:

noun

A small pot with a lid.

You want a pingle, lassie, weel and guid—'Tis thretty pennies—pit it whar it stood!1821 January, “The Humours of a Village Fair”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 8, page 429:
When he brained a man with a pingle spike Or plastered a seaman flat, We should 'a' been blowed, but we all of us knowed That he didn't mean nothin' by that.1904, Wallace Irwin, Nautical Lays of a Landsman, page 97:

2 more examples

Meg the house-lass, Tibbie's younger sister, let fall a "pingle" of sowens in her agitation, but Mrs. Colvend was too angry even to register this for future punishment.1913 January, S.R. Crockett, “First and Rest”, in The English Illustrated Magazine, volume 48, page 377:
We've all heard of "Double, double, toil and trouble," but as "Hallowmass" approached, Shakespeare's contemporaries would hve been just as likely to suffer from the earworm, "Mingle, mingle, in the pingle,/Join the catrip with the jingle." […] The above is a line from the Galloway Song, one of a number of Jacobean greatest hits having to do with witches.2018, Linda Raedisch, “The Old Ways: A Bard's Halloween”, in Michael Furie, Llewellyn, Peg Aloi, editor, Llewellyn's 2019 Sabbats Almanac:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.