'Theer's Miss So-and-so bin doon here and gaan on ivver so and glen me sic a blackin' as never was, becos I telt her I cudn't git her intil t' auld grund noa-ways, and I telt her she mud just lig in t' new grund and mud be weel content, an aw, for it was a deal sweeter.' 'And,' added old Joe, ' theer's nowt so queer as folk, specially wick uns.'

Someone may have wanted to trim a local dandy down to size.

Robins, of Torquay, had denied a single charge of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal. She claimed the microwave was accidentally turned on by one of the cats after the kitten got inside. But Knutton said the kitten was too small to even get onto the work surface.

That the OED was forced to define one register, slang, in terms of another, colloquial, points up the problem.