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The Eſtrich (whoſe fethers are fayrer thẽ ye wynges of the ſparow hauke) whẽ he hath layd his egges vpon the grounde, he bredeth them in the duſt, and forgetteth them: ſo that they might be troden with feete, or broken with ſomme wilde beaſt.
[T]hinke him as a Serpents egge, / VVhich hatch'd, vvould as his kinde grovv mischieuous; / And kill him in the ſhell.
1657, Samuel Purchas, “Of the Generation of Bees”, in A Theatre of Politicall Flying-Insects., London: R. I. for Thomas Parkhurst,, →OCLC, pages 47–48:
An egg properly is that, out of a part vvhereof a living creature is produced, and the reſidue is meat for it, improperly that is an egg out of the vvhole vvhereof, a living creature is bred, as the eggs of Spiders, Ants, Flies.
1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of Quadrupeds in General, Compared to Man”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature., new edition, volume II, London: F Wingrave, successor to Mr. Nourse,, →OCLC, pages 311–312:
[T]here is one claſs of quadrupeds that ſeems entirely left to chance, […] Theſe are the quadrupeds that are brought forth from the egg, ſuch as the lizard, the tortoiſe, and the crocodile. […] [T]he numerous brood of eggs are, vvithout farther ſolicitude, buried in the vvarm ſands of the ſhore, and the heat of the ſun alone is left to bring them to perfection.
1847, William Harvey, “Anatomical Exercises on the Generation of Animals; to which are Added, Essays on Parturition; on the Membranes, and Fluids of the Uterus; and on Conception. ”, in Robert Willis, transl., The Works of William Harvey, M.D., London: Sydenham Society, →OCLC, page 264:
The egg is, as we have said, a kind of exposed uterus, and place in which the embryo is fashioned: for it performs the office of the uterus and enfolds the chick until the due time of its exclusion arrive, when the creature is born perfect.
A translation of a passage from Harvey’s Exercitationes de generatione animalium (1651).
There after the images and reliques were orderly disposed, the great Priest compassed about with divers pictures according to the fashion of the Ægyptians, did dedicate and consecrate with certaine prayers a fair ship made very cunningly, and purified the same with a torch, an egge, and sulphur; […]
I was 5 moneth in France before I saw a boyled or roasted egge.
1732, John Arbuthnot, “Practical Rules of Diet in the Various Constitutions and Diseases of Human Bodies. Chapter I. Of the Different Qualities and Effects of Alimentary Substances. 4. Anti-acid, or Contrary to Acidity or Sourness.”, in An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments, and the Choice of Them, According to the Different Constitutions of Human Bodies., 2nd edition, London: J Tonson, →OCLC, page 255:
Eggs are perhaps the higheſt, moſt nouriſhing and exalted of all animal Food, and moſt indigeſtible, becauſe no body can take and digeſt the ſame Quantity of them as of other Food.
A round, black, shining face is hers, so glossy as to suggest the idea that she might have washed over with white of eggs, like one of her own tea rusks.
1981, William Irwin Thompson, “Hominization”, in The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture (A Lindisfarne Series Book), New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, part 2 (The Transformations of Prehistory), page 80:
In the Fall into the division of labor, [Claude] Lévi-Strauss sees the great hunters trading women to create the exogamous bonds of one hunting band with another. The egg is, but the sperm does. The tiny sperm may be furious in its activity, but its highway to the egg is paved by the alkaline trail set down by the Great Mother.
Although they serve the same function across the plant, animal and fungal kingdoms, sperm and eggs vary wildly in their structure and biochemistry, even among closely related species. […] Many genes that determine sperm and egg structure and biochemistry are rapidly evolving, constantly changing the chemical environment necessary for the sperm to bind to the egg.
His ſtomacke vvas queaſie (for comming there Coacht) / The jogging had caus’d ſome crudities riſe; / To help it he call’d for a Puritan poacht, / That uſed to turne up the egg’s of his eyes.
Referring to the whites of the eyes.
1659 December 30 (date written), Robert Boyle, “”, in New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air, and Its Effects, (Made, for the Most Part, in a New Pneumatical Engine), Oxford, Oxfordshire: H Hall, printer to the University, for Tho Robinson, published 1660, →OCLC, page 144:
There vvas taken a great Glaſs-bubble, vvith a long neck; (ſuch as Chymiſts are vvont to call a Philoſophical Egg) vvhich being fill'd vvith common VVater till the Liquor reach'd about a ſpan above the bubble, and a piece of Paper being there paſted on, vvas put unſtop'd into the Receiver, […]
Walter. The woman we passed as we came in just now. Is it his wife? / Cokeson. No, no relation. [Restraining what in jollier circumstances would have been a wink] A married person, though. […]James. A real bad egg.
"She isn't going to sue me for breach of promise?" / "She never had any intention of doing so." / The Honorable Freddie sank back on the pillows. / "Good egg!" he said with fervor. He beamed happily. "This," he observed, "is a bit of all right."
Up close he looked like a pretty tough egg. His hair was bristling up in the back in spite of what smelled like a whole bottle of Wildroot Creme Oil and he had the flat, oddly shiny eyes that some deep-sea fish have.
That fits, though, she thought. Wear the same outfit day after day, your brain gets numb to how it looks or feels—Wendy shut the album. No. […] She hated analyzing the whys of [not-out] trans girls. She had always hated it, and she hated how easy it had become; the bottomless hole of egg mode.
2020, Grace Lavery, “Egg Theory's Early Style”, in Transgender Studies Quarterly, page 384:
So I remember being told, in the very early part of my transition, that I had been, until now, an egg, and—as powerfully rooted in a belief in latency as I found myself[.]
(archaic) Something regarded as containing a (usually bad) thing at an early stage.
a.1658 (date written), George Daniel, “Trinarchodia. The Raigne of Henry the Fourth.”, in Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, editor, The Poems of George Daniel, Esq. of Beswick, Yorkshire. (1616–1657) from the Original MSS. in the British Museum: Hitherto Unprinted., volume IV, Boston, Lincolnshire: for private circulation only, published 1878, →OCLC, stanza 348, page 88:
[S]oe Power of Warre / From the firſt Egge of Libertie, out-Creepes / A fatall Serpent; […]
1683 June 5 (Gregorian calendar), Roger L’Estrange, “The State of the City of London, in the Late Rebellion.”, in The Observator, in Dialogue, volume I, number 345, London: J. Bennet, for William Abington,, →OCLC, page , column 1:
In ſhort, the Rebellion had been Cruſh'd in the Egg; and One Seaſonable Act of Rigour, had Sav'd the King, the Monarchy, the Church, and the Three Kingdoms.
2015, Charles Smutz, Angelos Stavrou, “Preventing Exploits in Microsoft Office Documents through Content Randomization”, in Herbert Bos, Fabian Monrose, Gregory Blanc, editors, Research in Attacks, Intrusions, and Defenses: 18th International Symposium, RAID 2015, Kyoto, Japan, November 2–4, 2015: Proceedings (LNCS; 9404; Sublibrary SL4 (Security and Cryptology)), Cham, Switzerland, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemburg: Springer International Publishing, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 241:
This approach would be altered for an optimal omelette based exploit. One would spray the heap with the omelette code solely, then load a single copy of the additional shellcode eggs into memory outside the target region for the spray.
Usage notes
When the word is used in sense 1.1.1 (“edible egg”) without any qualifying word, it refers to a chicken’s egg.
The use as in sense 3.1.4 can be sensitive, as regards people who have yet to openly identify as transgender (and possibly even to consider themselves such).
To throw (especially rotten) eggs (noun sense 1.1.1) at (someone or something).
The angry demonstrators egged the riot police.
The students were caught egging the principal’s car as a prank.
2013 February, M. Golding, “Framing”, in How to Piss Off a Crappy Roommate: From A to Z, : Lulu, →ISBN, page 89:
Like I said before in that chapter, after that ultimate egging, Gay-D didn't mention anything about eggs again, but he meekly ask for us to stop egging Xander's door so that he wouldn't get blamed.
, volume I, London: Saunders and Otley,, published 1834, →OCLC, page 8:
"Jemima, Jemima!—ve'll ha'e the vitingbiled instead of fried." "Ca'n't, marm," replied Jemima, "they be all hegged and crumbed, with their tails in their mouths."]
Then mask another large piece with currant jelly, cover it as before, and after egging the edges, roll them over some coarse sugar, and put them immediately in the oven. Join the remaining pieces in the same manner, two and two, and after egging the edges as before, roll them alternately on pistachios and coarse sugar.
From Middle Englisheggen(“to urge on; to entice, incite, lure, tempt; to encourage, exhort, stimulate; (reflexive) to bestir (oneself); to challenge, taunt; to enrage, irritate”),[5] from Old Norseeggja(“to incite, egg on”),[6] from egg(“an edge”), from Proto-Germanic*agjō(“a corner; an edge”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European*h₂eḱ-(“sharp”).
[Y]it haue vvee one thing in our ſelues and of our ſelues, (euen originall ſinne, concupiſcence or luſt) vvhich neuer ceaſeth too egge vs and allure vs from God, and too ſtaine vs vvith all kinde of vnclennes: […]
1603, Matthew Kellison, “The First Chapter Sheweth How the Reformers Take Away Hope of Heauen and Feare of Hell, and Consequently Open the Gapp to All Vice”, in A Survey of the New Religion, Detecting Manie Grosse Absurdities which it Implieth., Douai: Lawrence Kellam,, →OCLC, 7th book (Conteineth a Suruey of the New Doctrine Concerning Manners,), page 510:
Hope like a ſpurre pricketh forvvard, feare like a bridle reſtraineth, hope eggeth onvvard vnto vertue, feare pulleth backe from vice, hope incites vs to obſerue the lavv, feare makes vs feare to trãſgreſſe the lavve.
Thus time paſſing on, within a yeere following, which was in the yeere of our Lord 1261. the king [Henry III of England] ſeeing himſelfe more and more to grow in debt, and not to bee relieued according to promiſe made, but eſpecially being egged (as may be thought) by his brethren taking it to ſtomach, ſent vp to the pope, both for him and his ſonne Edward to bee releaſed of their oth made before at Oxford.
1633, Levine Lemnie [i.e., Levinus Lemnius], “Of the Spirit Universall Generally Inspired into the Whole World, and All the Parts thereof.”, in T N, transl., The Touchstone of Complexions., London: E A for Michael Sparke,, →OCLC, pages 34–35:
And of them they make tvvo ſorts, the good Angels, and the bad: becauſe the good pricketh a man forvvard, to grace, goodneſſe, vertue, and honeſty: the other eggeth him to levvdneſſe, miſchiefe, ſhame, villany, and all kinde of looſe diſhoneſty.
1758, Maphaeus [i.e., Maffeo Vegio], translated by [John Ellis], The Canto Added by Maphæus to Virgil’s Twelve Books of Æneas, from the Original Bombastic, Done into English Hudibrastic; With Notes beneath, and Latin Text in Ev’ry Other Page Annext, London: R and J Dodsley, →OCLC, page 35, lines 227–230:
O harpy Love-rule, murd'rous Hag; / Whither doſt thou blind Mortals drag! / 'Tis thou to Battle eggeſt Kings / As well as Louts to Wreſtling-rings; […]
Nought such do I look to be. / But thou, a deedless man, too much thou eggest me: […]
1883, “Bersaoglis Vísor, c. 1039. (From the Lives of Kings, especially Kringla, Hulda, Flatey-bok iii. 267–269.)”, in Gudbrand Vigfusson, F[rederick] York Powell, editors, Corpvs Poeticvm Boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue: From the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century, volume II (Court Poetry), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, book VIII (Christian Court Poetry), § 2 (St. Olaf and Cnut), page 147:
Who is egging thee, king, to go back from the oath thou hast sworn? A worthy king of men should be true to his word. It can never beseem thee, my lord, to break thine oath. Who is egging thee, prince, to slaughter the cattle of thy thanes? It is tyranny for a king to do such deed in his own land.
Forms in italics are currently considered non-standard. Forms in were official, but considered second-tier. Forms in (parentheses) were allowed under Midlandsnormalen. 1Nouns were capitalised for most of the 19th century.
Forms in italics are currently considered non-standard. Forms in were official, but considered second-tier. Forms in (parentheses) were allowed under Midlandsnormalen. 1Nouns were capitalised for most of the 19th century.