delf

American  

[delf] / dɛlf /

noun

delfs plural

1. British. in some dialects, a pit, trench, or ditch.

2. British. in Northern England, a small mine or quarry.

3. Heraldry. a device, conventionally in the form of a plain square, that represents a shovelful of turf. Compare billet.

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• delfs
  plural

Example Sentences

And what did he carry away but straw and broken delf?

From The Green Helmet and Other Poems by Yeats, W. B. (William Butler)

By-and-by, though, he cut himself some food, hesitated, and proceeded to cut some more, which he placed in a coarse delf plate.

From In the King's Name The Cruise of the "Kestrel" by Fenn, George Manville

She with her apron wiped the plates, and, as she rubb'd the delf, Said I might "go to Jericho, and fetch my beer myself!"

From The Book of Humorous Verse by Wells, Carolyn

And the very utensils, plain Wedgewood though they were, had a classical simplicity, which made Mrs. Hazeldean's old India delf, and Mrs. Dale's best Worcester china look tawdry and barbarous in comparison.

From The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 2, May, 1851 by Various

The first is the delf tenné, assigned to him who revokes his challenge.

From The Curiosities of Heraldry by Lower, Mark Antony