Dark; blind: 'a dark man.' (Very general.) Used constantly even in official and legal documents, as in workhouse books, especially in Munster. (Healy.)
Darrol; the smallest of the brood of pigs, fowl, &c. (Mayo.) Irish _dearóil_, small, puny, wretched.
Dear; used as a sort of intensive adjective:--'Tom ran for the dear life' (as fast as he could). (Crofton Croker.) 'He got enough to remember all the dear days of his life.' ('Dub. Pen. Journ.')
Dell; a lathe. Irish _deil_, same sound and meaning. (All over Munster.)
Devil's needle; the dragon-fly. Translation of the Irish name _snathad-a'-diabhail_ [snahad-a-dheel].
Deshort [to rhyme with _port_]; a sudden interruption, a surprise: 'I was taken at a _deshort_.' (Derry.) { 247}
Dickonce; one of the disguised names of the devil used in _white_ cursing: 'Why then the dickonce take you for one gander.' (Gerald Griffin.)
Diddy; a woman's pap or breast: a baby sucks its mother's diddy. Diminutive of Irish _did_, same.
Dido; a girl who makes herself ridiculous with fantastic finery. (Moran: Carlow.)
Didoes (singular _dido_); tricks, antics: 'quit your didoes.' (Ulster.)
Dildron or dildern; a bowraun, which see.
Dillesk, dulsk, dulse or dilse; a sort of sea plant growing on rocks, formerly much used (when dried) as an article of food (as _kitchen_), and still eaten in single leaves as a sort of relish. Still sold by basket-women in Dublin. Irish _duilesc_.
Dip. When the family dinner consisted of dry potatoes, i.e. potatoes without milk or any other drink, dip was often used, that is to say, gravy or broth, or water flavoured in any way in plates, into which the potato was dipped at each bit. I once saw a man using dip of plain water with mustard in it, and eating his dinner with great relish. You will sometimes read of 'potatoes and point,' namely, that each person, before taking a bite, _pointed_ the potato at a salt herring or a bit of bacon hanging in front of the chimney: but this is mere fun, and never occurred in real life.
Disciple; a miserable looking creature of a man. Shane Glas was a long lean scraggy wretched looking fellow (but really strong and active), and another says to him--jibing and railing--'Away with ye, ye miserable _disciple_. Arrah, by the hole { 248} of my coat, after you dance your last jig upon nothing, with your hemp cravat on, I'll coax yer miserable carcase from the hangman to frighten the crows with.' (Edw. Walsh in 'Pen. Journ.')