Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A contemptuous term for a woman.
  • noun A gimbal.
  • noun A hinge.
  • noun A ewe that is two years old.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A piece of mechanism; mechanical device or contrivance; a gimcrack.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Northern England A ewe between one and two years old.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse gymbr one year old ewe lamb.

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Examples

  • A low moment was watching, with a hammering heart, a gimmer who'd run along a rocky promenade and jumped into a rough sea after delivering a healthy lamb.

    Back to the land: from London to sheep farming on Eigg 2011

  • Unexpectedly, after droughts in New Zealand and an increased demand for lamb in China and Africa, sheep prices are at their highest for a long time about £110 for a gimmer – a young ewe.

    Back to the land: from London to sheep farming on Eigg 2011

  • It was mostly white, with just a gimmer of the prismatic colors of a conventional rainbow, but it was impressive.

    Archive 2004-03-07 Michael Evans 2004

  • It was mostly white, with just a gimmer of the prismatic colors of a conventional rainbow, but it was impressive.

    View from the Northern Border Michael Evans 2004

  • A gimmer with a hard g is 'a ewe between the first and second shearing.'

    languagehat.com: YAN TAN TETHERA. 2005

  • You see, when I were nine yeer owd, my father gave me two gimmer lambs an 'I were prouder yon day nor iver

    Tales of the Ridings Frederic William Moorman 1895

  • Thanks, yahyah, for this gimmer of light in our current dark days.

    The Guardian World News Andrew Sparrow 2011

  • He explained that a tup is a boy and a gimmer is a girl.

    Evening Mail news round-up 2010

  • Isaac told the Evening Mail's Nature Watch that Judith has had a tup lamb and a gimmer lamb.

    Evening Mail news round-up 2010

  • His friend Simon Graham, also 19, from Hallrigg Farm, Plumpton, triumphed in the highly competitive texel section with a shearling gimmer ewe.

    News round-up 2010

Comments

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  • Scots term for a ewe that is two years old, or between its first and second shearing. A gelt gimmer is a barren ewe, and a lam gimmer is a young sheep or ewe that is one year old.

    May 18, 2011