biggin

¹ American  

[big-in] / ˈbɪg ɪn /

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.

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biggin ² American  

[big-in] / ˈbɪg ɪn /

noun

1. a coffeepot, usually silver, having a separate container in which the coffee is immersed while being boiled.

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biggin ¹ British  

/ ˈbɪɡɪn /

noun

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

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biggin ² British  

/ ˈbɪɡən /

noun

1. a construction, esp a house or cottage

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Etymology

Origin of biggin¹

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

Origin of biggin²

After Biggin, the name of its early 19th-century inventor

Example Sentences

In the preparation of coffee by boiling, two and a half times as much matter is extracted as by biggin.

From All About Coffee by Ukers, William H. (William Harrison)

Joost your neebor's biggin in a low!—zha's a'.

From Punch - Volume 25 (Jul-Dec 1853) by Various

The coffee biggin with which Americans are most familiar is a pot containing a flannel bag or a cylindrical wire strainer to hold the ground coffee through which the boiling water is poured.

From All About Coffee by Ukers, William H. (William Harrison)

You see! de fust t’ing dey gwine ass you when you come at Gran’ Point’—‘Is Mistoo Wallis biggin to grind?’

From Bonaventure A Prose Pastoral of Acadian Louisiana by Cable, George Washington

"Your biggin isna broken, sir,95 Nor is your towers won; But the fairest lady in a' the land This day for you maun burn."

From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume II (of 8) by Various