lockchester

plural lockchesters · alternative lockchest

1. obsoleteSynonym of woodlouse.

   Mr. Halliwell, walking in a garden in Oxfordshire, accidentally overheard the gardener talking about lockchesters, and immediately asking him what these were, received for answer that they were woodlice.

   1861, Thomas Wright, Essays on archaeological subjects, page 47

   2 more examples

   Of these, the last only will be found in a dictionary of modern English, but I have already remarked that the name of lockchester is preserved among the peasantry of Oxfordshire, and I may add, that the peasantry in the North of England still call a woodlouse a kitchen-ball, and that those of the Southern dialects call it a chissel-bol, which is perhaps the representative of cheslop.

   1857, Thomas Wright, On the History of the English Language, page 22

   But who will not be puzzled to hear that wood-lice are still, in some parts of Oxfordshire, called Lockchesters, and that there is evidence to show that this strange name was once, not only in provincial, but in general use?

   1863 April 11, The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, page 471

   Synonyms: woodlouse