Dictionary

bairn-time en · NOUN

Etymology

From Scots bairntime, from Middle English barntem, from Old English bearntēam. Influenced by time.

Meanings

1. (obsolete) Offspring; the group of all offspring.
   • 4thly, A Stone cut out of the Mountain, ſhould come down, and God ſhould be avenged on the great ones of the Earth, and the Inhabitants of the Land, for their Wickedneſs; and then the Church ſhould come forth with a bony Bairn-time at her Back, of young Ones; […] 1755, Some Remarkable Paſſages of the Life and Death of Mr. Alexander Peden. Late Miniſter of the Goſpel of New Glenluce in Galloway, Belfast: […] James Magee, page 33:
   • I had once a bony bairn-time of bairns (a great many good children) in Scotland, which they bereaved me of; ſome of whom they ſent to foreign lands and plantations, others they drowned in the ſea, others they killed in the fields upon gibbets and ſcaffolds, for which I will drive them out of their houſes, as ſheep are driven in a ſtormy day before the ſtorm, ſeeking for ſhelter, but finding none; 1745 [1737], The Wonderful Scotch Prophecy: or, the Whole Viſions, Discoveries, and Warnings of the Dreadful and Terrible Judgements upon Scotland, England and Ireland, […], London: […] John Lewis, page 9:
   • And thus they have thought , that when a Family or Bairn-time incline to a Conſumption (which being a diſeaſe hereditary runs much in a blood) in that caſe it is good that they part Company, and live at a diſtance one from another, for that the diſeaſe is ſtrengthned by their ſocial conversation. 1692, Thomas Bell, “Sermon Hoſea 2: 14: Therefore behold, I will allure her, I will bring her into the winderneſs, and ſpeak comfortably unto her”, in Nehemiah the Tirſhatha: or, The Character of a Good Commiſſioner. […], Edinburgh: […] George Mosman, page 84:

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