costard
Americannoun
-
a large English variety of apple.
-
Archaic. the head.
noun
-
an English variety of apple tree
-
the large ribbed apple of this tree
-
archaic a slang word for head
Etymology
Origin of costard
1250–1300; Middle English, perhaps < Anglo-French, equivalent to coste rib ( coast ) + -ard -ard, alluding to the ridges or ribs of the variety
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"Brast your costard, have I? Well, it serves you right, for all your mischief. What are you up to, scuttling about behind the stage like a great rat?"
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
![]()
Hell-gate's somewhat too hot, somewhat too hot; the porter's a knave: I'd be loth to be damned for my conscience; I'll knock any body's costard, so I knock not there, my lord; hell-gates!
From A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume 14 of 15 by Dodsley, Robert
But tell me; how was there a costard broken in a shin?
From Love's Labour's Lost by Shakespeare, William
As an avowed atheist he received no quarter, and he might fairly say with Wilfred Osbaldistone, 'It's hard I should get raps over the costard, and only pay you back in make-believes.'
From In the Name of the Bodleian and Other Essays by Birrell, Augustine
“Now, by the mass, you costard, you gave me a twist of the inwards with your lame joke.”
From Myths & Legends of our New Possessions & Protectorate by Skinner, Charles M. (Charles Montgomery)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.