wheen
noun/ʍiːn/ · /wiːn/
Etymology From Middle English *wheen, quhein (also hwan, hwon, quhon), from Old English hwēne, hwǣne (“somewhat, a little”), instrumental form of hwōn (“little, few, a little, trifle, somewhat, a little while”).
2
Northern Ireland, Scotland, UK, Dialectal A quantity; a goodly number.
- I have six terriers at hame, forbye twa couple of slow-hunds, five grews, and a wheen other dogs.1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:
- She never seemed to want for siller; the house was as bright as a new preen, the yaird better delved than the manse garden; and there was routh of fowls and doos about the small steading, forbye a wheen sheep and milk-kye in the fields.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide: