coll en · VERB
Pronunciation
- (Southern-England) audio
- /kɑl/ (General-American)
- /qʰʊu̯/ (Multicultural-London-English)
- /kɒl/ (Received-Pronunciation)
Etymology
From Middle English collen, from Old French coler, acoler (“accoll, throw arms round neck of”); ultimately from Latin ad + collum (“neck”).
Meanings
-
(ambitransitive) To hug or embrace.
So hauing ſayd, her twixt her armes twaine / Shee ſtreightly ſtraynd, and colled tenderly
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 420:'You couldn't expect her to throw her arms round 'ee, an' to kiss and to coll 'ee all at once.'
1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 82:They kissed and colled in parks and fields and, better, a / Warm bed, her own.
1995, Anthony Burgess, Byrne:"As how, my lambkin," blushing, she replide, / "Because I in this dancing schoole abide? / If that it be, that breede's this discontent, / We will remoue the camp incontinent: / For shelter onelie, sweete heart, came I hither, / And to auoide the troblous stormie weather; / But now the coaste is cleare, we will be gonne, / Since, but thy self, true louer I haue none." / With that she sprung full lightlie to my lips / And fast about the neck me colle's, and clips ...
1593, Thomas Nashe, The Choice of Valentines:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| colls | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic | |
| colled | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| colled | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| colling | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic |
Translations (2)
fi halata (to hug or embrace) · fi syleillä (to hug or embrace)