wersh
Britishadjective
-
tasteless; insipid
-
sour; bitter
Etymology
Origin of wersh
C16: perhaps alteration of dialect wearish, probably of Germanic origin
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.
When plants by heat and moisture are stimulated to increased exertion on a poor soil, they acquire bulk without having it in their power to obtain at the same time those saline matters which constitute a healthy plant, becoming in fact, to the eye of an inexperienced person, thriving vegetables, while to the palate they prove wersh and watery.
From Project Gutenberg
Nae doot, themsel’s, they ken it weel, An’ wi’ a hash o’ leemon peel, 127 And ice an’ siccan filth, they ettle The stawsome kind o’ goo to settle Sic wersh apothecary’s broos wi’ As Scotsmen scorn to fyle their moo’s wi’.
From Project Gutenberg
Betterton is bitter bad; Ogle, "wersh as cauld parritch without sawte!"
From Project Gutenberg
The great thing with knowledge and the young is to secure that it shall be their own—that it be not merely external to their inner and real self, but shall go in succum et sanguinem; and therefore it is, that the self-teaching that a baby and a child give themselves remains with them forever—it is of their essence, whereas what is given them ab extra, especially if it be received mechanically, without relish, and without any energizing of the entire nature, remains pitifully useless and wersh.
From Project Gutenberg
Wersh parritch, neither gude to fry, boil, or sup cauld.
From Project Gutenberg
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.