fother

plural fothers

1. countablehistoricaluncountableA load, a wagonload, especially any various English units of weight or volume based upon standardized cartloads of certain commodities.

   20 fothers of additional thickness in clay were thrown in.

   1813, “Misc.”, in Ann. Reg., 507/2

   3 more examples

   Four fother of clod lime, and fifteen fothers of good manure, on each acre.

   1774-75, Act 14 Geo. III in Brand, Newcastle (1789) I, page 652

   Where the brass hez a' cum fra nebody can tell, / Some says yen thing and some says another - / But whe ever lent Grainger't aw knaw very well, / That they mun have at least had a fother.

   1840, Tyne songster, The Tyne songster, a choice selection of songs in the Newcastle dialect, page 211

   Now measured by the old hundred, that is, 108 lbs. the charrus contains nearly 19½ hundreds, that is it corresponds to the fodder, or fother, of modern times.

   1866, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 1, page 168

2. alternativecountabledialectaluncountableAlternative form of fodder, food for animals.

   He ripp'd the womb up of his mother, / Dame Tellus, 'cause he wanted fother, / And provender, wherewith to feed / Himself and his less cruel steed.

   1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part 1, canto 2

present singular third person fothers · participle present fothering · participle past fothered · past fothered

1. dialectalTo feed animals (with fother).
2. datednauticalTo stop a leak with oakum or old rope (often by drawing a sail under the hull).