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mudsill

- 5 dictionary results

mud⋅sill

[muhd-sil]
–noun
the lowest sill of a structure, usually placed in or on the ground.
Also called footplate.


Origin:
1675–85; mud + sill
mud·sill   (mŭd'sĭl')   
n.  The lowest sill, block, or timber supporting a building, located at or below ground level.

Mudsill

Mud"sill`\, n. The lowest sill of a structure, usually embedded in the soil; the lowest timber of a house; also, that sill or timber of a bridge which is laid at the bottom of the water. See Sill.

Mudsill

Mud"sill`\, n. Fig.: A person of the lowest stratum of society; -- a term of opprobrium or contempt. [Southern U. S.]

mudsill 
1685, "lowest sill of a house," from mud + sill (q.v.). The word entered U.S. political history in a speech by James M. Hammond of South Carolina, March 4, 1858, in U.S. Senate, alluding to the very mudsills of society, and the term subsequently was embraced by Northern workers in the pre-Civil War sectional rivalry.
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