gauvison

1. Northern EnglandYorkshirealternativearchaicespeciallyno pluralAlternative spelling of gorbuson.

   'And why sud ye, Mr. Arthur? 'specially aboot such a gauvison as awd Barjona. He's like a coo, has twea sides to his tung, a rough un and a smooth un; but neebody minds him, sir, nae matter which side he licks 'em with.'

   1870 March 28, “The Chronicles of Heatherthorp”, in Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, volume 18, number 121, page 70

   1 more example

   Gauvison.—It is customary amongst the country people of Yorkshire, when wishing to designate a person as awkward and foolish to call him "a gurt Gauvison!" Whence comes the word "Gauvison?" Is it, as I have heard it asserted, the name of an old Yorkshire highwayman; and if so why should his name be used with such a significance?

   1878 January 28, “Local Notes and Queries”, in The Yorkshire Magazine, volume 2, number 16, page 192

comparative more gauvison · superlative most gauvison

1. YorkshirearchaicSilly; foolish.

   At this inn we hear the Craven dialect in all its purity, but as a certain anonymous writer has said in that speech, "What a fearful girt gauvison mun he be at frames to larn th' talk of another country afore he parfitly knaws his awn," I will not attempt to transfer this peculiar language to print.

   1875, James Burnley, “A Run Through Craven”, in West Riding Sketches, pages 83–84