delf

American  

[delf] / dɛlf /

noun

plural

delfs

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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Example Sentences

"If ye stand there affrontin' our poor oul delf all night we won't haave aany tea at all!"

From My Lady of the Chimney Corner by Irvine, Alexander

He had heard a noise like the breaking of delf in the kitchen below, and he wondered if Bess had heard it too.

From The Empire Annual for Girls, 1911 by Buckland, A. R. (Augustus Robert)

Delf, delf, n. a contraction for Delft′ware, a kind of earthenware originally made at Delft, Holland.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various

With the two Welsh forms dylif and dylwch, deluge, we may perhaps connect the following, though for the former the Ang.-Sax. delfan, to dig, delf, a ditch, may also be suitable.

From The River-Names of Europe by Ferguson, Robert

You think, if you don't see a man in black behind your chair, and that you eat off delf instead of silver, that you are a miracle of simplicity.

From Roland Cashel Volume II (of II) by Lever, Charles James