flother

plural flothers

1. NorthumbriacountableuncommonCumberland; now obsolete outside placenames; Cumberland; now obsolete outside placenamesA miry bog.

   They lived in Flother (as Flodder Hall was formerly known).

   5 more examples

   […] flothers […] The Flothers

   1883, Archaeologia Aeliana, Or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, volume 9, page 65

   Flothers, near Slaley […] f. houses and land, Flothers

   1883, The Poll Book of the Contested Election for the Southern Division of Northumberland ... December, 1832, page 126

   […] the homesteads and hamlets […] of Ryal or Ryehill, Pry, Flothers, Peel-flat, Comb-hills, Swangs, Cocklake, Palmstrothers, Black Strothers, […]

   1902, Edward Bateson, Allen Banks Hinds, and the Northumberland County History Committee, A History of Northumberland, volume 6, page 363

   […] by a horse Gin and Pit 13 fms. deep (South of Flothers Wood). West of Pilmuir Wood it was also worked by an Engine Pit 11 fms . deep , but the workings were abandoned owing to heavy water , without a plan having been made.

   1931, Geological Survey of Great Britain, The Economic Geology of the Fife Coalfields, volume 3, page 55

   FLODDER BECK (affluent of the Mint in Docker, SD 59 SE), 1857 OS. Probably, like Flodder Hall and Flodder(s) (i, 83, 130, ii, 41, infra), and Brackenber Flodders (ii, 104 infra), from a dial. form of flother, fludder, which may well be from an OE *flōdor 'channel' suggested for the 12th-century Floder (YW iv, 86). […] Flother 1704, 1710 PR, from OE *flōdor 'channel' as in Flodder Beck (i, 7 supra).

   1967, English Place-Name Society, volume 42, page 83

2. rareuncountableA state of agitation or disarray, a lather.

   She sat by the fire; the ash—of the note book to Patrick—lay in a flother on the hot bricks.

   1909, Alice Dudeney ("Mrs. Henry Dudeney"), Rachel Lorian

   2 more examples

   Ye windy, rhymin', bleth'rin hash, Ye'll tak in woo' to card to trash; [...] Ye rhyme 'bout thrums an' wabs thegither, A hotchy potchy in a flother.

   1809, Thomas Donaldson, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect / Both Humourous and Entertaining

   So if you lose your way, notes like these are worse than useless, and are likely [to] set you off into a flother of paper shuffling and awkwardness.

   2021, Julia Goodman, You brand: A Manual for Confidence