handsel
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Aleman, Cervantes, Lesage, Defoe and Fielding were inspired to imitation, and today Lazarillo is acclaimed as the prototype of the picaresque novel, as a handsel of the arriving era of realism in European literature.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Then Hrut held his peace some little while, and afterwards he stood up, and said to Oswif—"Take now my hand in handsel as a token that thou lettest the suit drop".
From The story of Burnt Njal From the Icelandic of the Njals Saga by Dasent, George Webbe
Let's in, and handsel our new mansion-house With a carousing round of Spanish wine.
From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 8 by Hazlitt, William Carew
The carpenter of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, likewise, as Pepys said of a new pair of stocks in his neighborhood, took handsel of the stocks of his own making.
From Curious Punishments of Bygone Days by Earle, Alice Morse
When you have become expert at it, you may always keep yourself neat and tidy about the legs, on Sundays and handsel Mondays.
From The Eskdale Herd-boy A Scottish Tale for the Instruction and Amusement of Young People by Blackford, Mrs. (Martha)