Dictionary

cheslip en · NOUN

Etymology

Unknown, perhaps alteration of an earlier term influenced by cheeselip.

Meanings

1. (UK, dialectal) A woodlouse.
   • In former times it was known as “Lugdor” and “Socchetre ;” and in common with the hoglouse it is familiar to rustics as “Churchlouse,” “Carpenter,” “Chinch,” or “Cheslip.” 1899, W.T. Fernie, Animal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure, “Woodlouse”, page 524:
   • Mouffet states that “the Asiatic Greeks called them χγαμος from their likenesse^([sic]) to a bean (Galen), for it looks like it when the Cheslip rolls itself up into a round body.” 1860, Ernest Adams, “On the names of the wood-louse”, in Transactions of the Philological Society, page 15:

Forms

Synonyms

woodlouse