"contort, twist, make knotty," 1814, a back-formation from gnarled (q.v.). As a noun from 1824, "a knotty growth on wood." Earlier an identical verb was used imitatively in a sense of "to snarl" like a dog (1590s); Farmer and Henley ("Slang and Its Analogues") lists gnarler as thieves' slang for "a watch-dog."
early 14c., "person who holds lands by title or by lease," from Anglo-French tenaunt (late 13c.), Old French tenant "possessor; feudal tenant" (12c.), noun use of present participle of tenir "to hold," from Latin tenere "hold, keep, grasp" (from PIE root *ten- "to stretch"). Related: Tenancy. Tenant-farmer attested from 1748.
1590s, "to hit with a club," from club (v.). Meaning "gather in a club-like mass" is from 1620s. Related: Clubbed; clubbing. Also in a military sense (1806):
CLUB, verb (military). — In manoeuvring troops, so to blunder the word of command that the soldiers get into a position from which they cannot extricate themselves by ordinary tactics. [Farmer & Henley]
"In the more despotic Norway and Denmark, bo'ndi became a word of contempt, denoting the common low people. ... In the Icelandic Commonwealth the word has a good sense, and is often used of the foremost men ...." [OED]. The sense of the noun deteriorated in English after the Conquest and the rise of the feudal system, from "free farmer" to "serf, slave" (c. 1300) and the word became associated with unrelated bond (n.) and bound (adj.1).
"spread liberally," 1847, of uncertain origin. Early 19c. local glossaries from western England have the word with a sense "to slip or slide."
Slather on the manure on all the hoed crops, if you have it; if not buy of your improvident neighbor. [Genesee Farmer, June 1847]
Sometimes said to be from a dialectal noun meaning "large amount" (usually as plural, slathers), but this is first attested 1855. Related: Slathered; slathering.
"wanton destruction of trees," 1853, from Latin arbor "tree" + ending from suicide, etc. Meaning "one who wantonly cuts down trees" is from 1873. Related: Arboricidal (1865).
Arboricide is a crime, as well as homicide. The name of Gastrell, who cut down Shakspeare's mulberry tree, is justly followed by the execrations of posterity, and hangs forever on a gibbet of reproach, vainly craving the boon of oblivion. [New England Farmer, March 1853]
"small piece of enclosed ground for agricultural purposes, a very small farm," especially of those on the western coast and isles of Scotland. Old English croft "enclosed field, small field," of unknown etymology. Germanic and Celtic sources have been proposed.
Crofter "tenant who holds a small field, one who occupies a croft," especially "small farmer on the western coast and islands of Scotland," is by 1762 (from late 13c. as a surname), originally Scottish.
"to catch (someone) by a sudden grasp, seize suddenly," 1680s, probably a variant of dialectal nap "to seize, catch, lay hold of" (1670s, now surviving only in kidnap), which possibly is from Scandinavian (compare Norwegian nappe, Swedish nappa "to catch, snatch;" Danish nappe "to pinch, pull"); reinforced by Middle English napand "grasping, greedy." Related: Nabbed; nabbing. Nabbing-cull was old slang for "constable," and Farmer and Henley ("Slang and Its Analogues") has "TO NAB THE STIFLES = to be hanged."
