English
nesh
Pronunciation Adjective

nesh (comparative nesher, superlative neshest)

  1. (now UK dialectal) Soft; tender; sensitive; yielding.
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/MaloryWks2/1:15.20?rgn=div2;view=fulltext chapter xx], in Le Morte Darthur, book XIII:
      haue ye no merueylle sayd the good man therof / for hit semeth wel god loueth yow / for men maye vnderstande a stone is hard of kynde / […] / for thou wylt not leue thy synne for no goodnes that god hath sente the / therfor thou arte more than ony stone / and neuer woldest thow be maade neysshe nor by water nor by fyre
  2. (now UK dialectal) Delicate; weak; poor-spirited; susceptible to cold weather, harsh conditions etc.
    • 1887, Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders, Chapter 4:
      And if he keeps the daughter so long at boarding-school, he'll make her as nesh as her mother was.
    • 1913, D. H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, Chapter 8:
      No, tha'd drop down stiff, as dead as a door-knob, wi' thy nesh sides.
  3. (now UK dialectal) Soft; friable; crumbly.
Translations Verb

nesh (neshes, present participle neshing; past and past participle neshed)

  1. (transitive) To make soft, tender, or weak.
  2. (intransitive, dialectal, Northern England) To act timidly.


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