dwale

plural dwales

1. countableuncountableBelladonna or a similar soporific plant.

   It was not bog myrtle at all, it was dwale.

   2014, Jenny Harper, Face the Wind and Fly

   3 more examples

   Beneath and around the clumps of ragged moss-grown elder and hoary stunted whitethorn (...) rise thickets of tall nettles and rank hemlock, concealing the deadly but alluring dwale —

   1842, J. van Voorst, The Phytologist, page 595

   All parts of the dwale are poisonous, said to resemble snake bite, but the roots are said to be four or five times as virulent as the rest of the plant.

   1934, Chambers's Journal, page 198

   Monkshood and dwale belong to Hecate, the moon goddess of the witches, and by their use are witches able to fly.

   2014, Karen Maitland, The Vanishing Witch

2. archaiccountableuncountableA sleeping-potion, especially one made from belladonna.

   'That is all?' Payne askes. 'You need no salve? No dwale?'

   2016, Toby Clements, Broken Faith, page 258

   3 more examples

   The authors studied the ingredients and method of administration to try to ascertain whether dwale was effective, and they found it certainly could have worked.

   2007, Barbara S. Bowers, The Medieval Hospital and Medical Practice, page 197

   Dwale was a solution of wine mixed with a number of other ingredients, Some were pretty mile, like lettuce and boar bile. But the recipe also called for hemlock and belladonna, both known to be highly poisonous.

   2018, The World of Lore, Volume 3, The World of Lore, Volume 3

   Cadell agrees the vial contains arsenic, not willow bark, and it is no wonder Rollo found relief from what was in the flask since it isn't wine but dwale.

   2020, Sarah Woodbury, Chevalier

3. countabledialectaluncountableA torpor.

   He's in a dwale, a dead sleep; a common expression in the North of England.

   1874, Charles Mackay, The Lost Beauties of the English Language, page 54

   1 more example

   I stayed up there in a dwale – not seeing, not even thinking – until suddenly the wind got up and its chill woke me.

   2008, Mary Leared, A Horseshoe Clown, page 44

4. countableuncountableA bugbear.

   Consume us; shake the darkness like a tree, And fill the night with mischiefs, — blights and dwales, Weevils, and rots, and cankers!

   1856, Sydney Dobell, England in Time of War - Issue 34, page 72

   1 more example

   Tickle under their chins microscopical djinns or tease geloscopical dwales who live in The Tree That Can Never Be and fish for chocolate whales?

   1981, Alexander Theroux, Darconville's Cat, page 384

present singular third person dwales · participle present dwaling · participle past dwaled · past dwaled

1. dialectalTo mutter deliriously.