A now-obsolete British nickname for a Cotswold sheep — specifically the large, long-woolled rams bred in the Cotswold Hills of England.
A now-obsolete British nickname for a Cotswold sheep — specifically the large, long-woolled rams bred in the Cotswold Hills of England. The term is inherently comic, applying the regal title of 'lion' to a farm animal, and reflects the enormous cultural and economic importance of the Cotswold wool trade in medieval England, when Cotswold sheep were genuinely prized commodities. The ironic grandeur of the name captures how seriously wool was taken at the time, even as modern ears find the phrase charmingly absurd.
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UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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(archaic, slang) A calf .
A humorous archaic British slang term for a calf, based on the joke that the county of Essex lacked impressive wildlife — so the most impressive beast found there was a farm calf. The term belongs to a tradition of regional mock-boastfulness. Entirely archaic and mainly of interest to students of historical English humour and slang.
(UK, dialect, obsolete) The male of the domestic fowl; a cock.
A young sheep.
The landlord at the pub had an old print on the wall of a Cotswold lion, the shaggy ram that had made the region's fortune in the wool trade.
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(UK, obsolete) A male Cotswold sheep.
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