nesh

comparative nesher · superlative neshest · alternative English Newfoundland nish

1. UKdialectalSoft; tender; sensitive; yielding.

   1 more example

   haue ye no merueylle sayd the good man therof / for hit semeth wel god loueth yow / for men maye vnderstande a stone is hard of kynde /[…]/ for thou wylt not leue thy synne for no goodnes that god hath sente the / therfor thou arte more than ony stone / and neuer woldest thow be maade neysshe nor by water nor by fyre

   1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter XX, in Le Morte Darthur, book XIII

2. UKdialectalDelicate; weak; poor-spirited; susceptible to cold weather, harsh conditions etc.

   No, tha'd drop down stiff, as dead as a door-knob, wi' thy nesh sides.

   1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 8, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   And if he keeps the daughter so long at boarding-school, he'll make her as nesh as her mother was.

   1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, “Chapter 4”, in The Woodlanders […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

   "I wouldn't have locked up Noakes and stolen a car if I'd known you couldn't pick the lock!" "Aye, exactly, you're nesh, so you needed encouragement."

   2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Sceptre (Hodder and Stoughton), →ISBN

3. UKdialectalSoft; friable; crumbly.

present singular third person neshes · participle present neshing · participle past neshed · past neshed

1. transitiveTo make soft, tender, or weak.
2. Northern EnglanddialectalintransitiveTo act timidly.