WASSAIL • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Wassail

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noun

Wassail n.

An ancient expression of good wishes on a festive occasion, especially in drinking to some one. "Geoffrey of Monmouth relates, on the authority of Walter Calenius, that this lady (Rowena), the daughter of Hengist, knelt down on the approach of the king, and, presenting him with a cup of wine, exclaimed, Lord king waes heil, that is, literally, Health be to you."

An occasion on which such good wishes are expressed in drinking; a drinking bout; a carouse. "In merry wassail he... peals his loud song." "The king doth wake to-night and takes his rouse, Keeps wassail." "The victors abandoned themselves to feasting and wassail."

The liquor used for a wassail; esp., a beverage formerly much used in England at Christmas and other festivals, made of ale (or wine) flavored with spices, sugar, toast, roasted apples, etc.; called also lamb's wool. "A jolly wassail bowl, A wassail of good ale."

A festive or drinking song or glee. (Obs.) "Have you done your wassail! 'T is a handsome, drowsy ditty, I'll assure you."

verb

Wassail v. i. To hold a wassail; to carouse. "Spending all the day, and good part of the night, in dancing, caroling, and wassailing."

adjective

Wassail adj. Of or pertaining to wassail, or to a wassail; convivial; as, a wassail bowl. "Awassail candle, my lord, all tallow."

Wassail bowl, a bowl in which wassail was mixed, and placed upon the table. "Spiced wassail bowl." "When the cloth was removed, the butler brought in a huge silver vessel... Its appearance was hailed with acclamation, being the wassail bowl so renowned in Christmas festivity."

Wassail cup, a cup from which wassail was drunk.

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Etymology of 'Wassail'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Wassail" Quotes from Famous Books

... o'clock Bat Wiley, wild-eyed and raging, burst into the barroom of the Admiral Dewey and startled with a tale of wrongs such part of wakeful Cobre as there made wassail. At the crossing of Largo Draw he had been held up at a gun's point by a single robber on horseback; Zurich's money had been taken from him, together with some seventy dollars of his own; his team had been turned loose; it had taken him nearly an hour to catch them again, so delaying the alarm ...

— Copper Streak Trail • Eugene Manlove Rhodes

... compotation going on in the parlour waxed louder and wilder as the night wore on. There were unseen guests there, elate and inspiring, who sat with the revellers—phantoms who attend such wassail, and keep the ladle of the punch-bowl clinking, the tongue of the songster glib and tuneful, and the general mirth alive and furious. A few honest folk, with the gift of a second sight in such matters, discover their uncanny presence—leprous impurity, ...

— The House by the Church-Yard • J. Sheridan Le Fanu

... the warlike Edward; but, as to a "wretched village in Greece," bestowing its name upon the British monarch, the writer must be aware, according to his own account, that in ancient times Clarentza was no more a poor village, than Clare is what it was, when the wassail bowl cheered the baronial hall of ...

— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. XVII. No. 473., Saturday, January 29, 1831 • Various

... past midnight when I withdrew from the scene of wassail. My blood was flushed, and I strolled down upon the beach to enjoy the cool fresh breeze that was flowing in ...

— The Rifle Rangers • Captain Mayne Reid

... Bough. Surprising incidents. But this refusal of my new shipmate to drink with me was most surprising. Think of a sailor, a hard case, too, moping alone in his room on the day he shipped, when downstairs he could wassail away the day. I was surprised and resentful. It is hard for a nineteen-year-old man to stand alone, and I felt that Newman, my shipmate, should give me the moral support of ...

— The Blood Ship • Norman Springer

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