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bill sb.1: obsolete military weapon consisting of a long wooden handle having at one end a blade or axe-shaped head R2 III. ii. 118; in the 16th and 17th centuries painted or varnished in different colours, hence “brown bill” 2H6 IV. x. 14, Lr. IV. vi. 93; a similar weapon used by constables (with play on BILL sb.2) Ado III. iii. 189 “being taken up of these men's bills,” 2H6 IV. vii. 134.
A Shakespeare Glossary. C. T. Onions. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1911.

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  • Cross-references in text-specific dictionaries from this page (4):
    • William Shakespeare, King Lear, 4.6
    • William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry VI, 4.10
    • William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry VI, 4.7
    • William Shakespeare, Richard II, 3.2
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