Meanings
- colloquialnot comparableobsoleteusuallyWhole, entire.
Why, my Lord, you see he's the provokingest Creature in Life: I believe, there is not such another in the varsal World.
1731, Jonathan Swift, A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation2 more examples
Now I would give five golden guineas this minute, that her father or any mortal man, woman or child in the varsal world, would come in and say something; for 'tis so awk'ard for I to be sitting here, and I nothing to say to she.
1826, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, The Rose, Thistle and Shamrock, act III, scene IIYo' see, if yo'd spoken o' religion as a thing that, if it was true, it didn't concern all men to press on all men's attention, above everything else in this 'varsal earth, I should ha' thought yo' a knave for to be a parson; and I'd rather think yo' a fool than a knave.
1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South
Origin
Clipping of universal, based on a dialectal pronunciation of the word.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
varsal. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/varsal
“varsal.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/varsal. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “varsal,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/varsal.
Source: varsal on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.