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

They sang a doggerel rhyme, and the form in which money was asked was, "Please to handsel the Lord and Lady's purse."

From Miscellanea by Ewing, Juliana Horatia Gatty

Then on the 2'd of January 1671 being hansell   Monday I gave my wife to give out to people   who expected handsel, 4 dollars.

From Publications of the Scottish History Society, Volume 36 Journals of Sir John Lauder Lord Fountainhall with His Observations on Public Affairs and Other Memoranda 1665-1676 by Fountainhall, John Lauder, Lord

“Buy a hair-line, or a line for Jacke, If you any hair or hemp-cord lack, Mistris, here’s good as you need use; Bid fair for handsel, I’ll not refuse.”

From A History of the Cries of London Ancient and Modern by Hindley, Charles

We will grace the old rooms, and handsel all the new ones with the blythest bridal Ayrshire has seen in a century.

From A Daughter of Fife by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston