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biggin1

[big-in]
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noun Archaic.
  1. a close-fitting cap worn especially by children in the 16th and 17th centuries.
  2. a soft cap worn while sleeping; nightcap.

Origin of biggin1

1520–30; < Middle French beguin kind of hood or cap, orig. one worn by a Beguine

biggin2

[big-in]
noun
  1. a coffeepot, usually silver, having a separate container in which the coffee is immersed while being boiled.

Origin of biggin2

after Biggin, the name of its early 19th-century inventor
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for biggin

Historical Examples

  • Hardly second in merit to this method is the use of the French "biggin" or "grecque."

    Six Cups of Coffee

    Maria Parloa

  • Various modifications of the biggin, or French filter coffee-pot, are in use.

    Six Cups of Coffee

    Maria Parloa

  • Mither, mither, I'm biggin' a bonny hoose for ye to leeve in!

    Cleg Kelly, Arab of the City

    S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett

  • Mosportant Scosh quesh'n. Joost your neebor's biggin in a low!

  • Did you always make coffee with a biggin in France, Mrs. Pasmer?

    April Hopes

    William Dean Howells

British Dictionary definitions for biggin

biggin1

biggon

noun
  1. a plain close-fitting cap, often tying under the chin, worn in the Middle Ages and by children in the 17th century

Word Origin

C16: from French béguin; see beguine

biggin2

noun
  1. Scot a construction, esp a house or cottage

Word Origin

see big ²
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012