costard
Americannoun
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a large English variety of apple.
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Archaic. the head.
noun
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an English variety of apple tree
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the large ribbed apple of this tree
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archaic a slang word for head
Etymology
Origin of costard
1250–1300; Middle English, perhaps < Anglo-French, equivalent to coste rib ( see 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
And they point to the costard he bears in his mouth, And vow the huge pig, So luscious a fig, Would not gather to grunch in the daintiful South!
From The Baron's Yule Feast: A Christmas Rhyme by Cooper, Thomas
A blow: as, I took him a nope on the costard.
From 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Grose, Francis
Whereby I have now once again given the costard monger his pees and his cues.
From Anna St. Ives by Holcroft, Thomas
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.
