costard

plural costards · alternative obsolete coster

1. UKA large cooking apple.
2. The tree on which large cooking apples grow.
3. archaichumorousThe human head.

   Take him ouer the coſtard with the hilts of thy ſword, And then we wil chop him in the malmſey But in the next roome.

   c. 1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Sims [and Peter Short] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]

   1 more example

   Good Gentleman goe your gate, and let poore volke paſſe: and ’chud ha’ bin zwaggerd out of my life, ’twould not ha’bin zo long as ’tis, by a vortnight. Nay, come not neere th’old man: keepe out che vor’ye, or ice try whither your Coſtard, or my Ballow be the harder; chill be plaine with you.

   c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi], page 304, column 2