Forms: 4 wareine, 4–5 wareyne, 5 warenne, warreyne, 5–6 -ayn, wareyn, war(r)ane, 6 warryn, 6–7 waren, warraine, 7 warrin, 5– warren; β. 4–5 warraynte, 5 warand(e, -ant, 5–6 warraunte, 6, 8 warrant. [a. AF. warenne, North-eastern OF. warenne, waresne (whence AL. warenna), corresp. to Central OF., mod.F. garenne, game-park, also (now chiefly) rabbit-warren, Pr. garena; of Teut. origin, f. root *war- to protect, guard: cf. OF. warir WARE v. The suffix is obscure, and it is uncertain whether the word is of Teut. or Rom. formation. The OF. type *warande (garande, -ende), whence the (M)Du. warande park, may be a mere variant, or it may represent a Teut. pr. pple. OF. had also a form varene (perh. due to the med.L. varenna of charters), which survives in mod.F. varenne moor inhabited by game.
The β forms below may possibly in part represent the OF. *warande, but cf. the English addition of t in tyrant. Caxton’s warande was adopted from his Du. original.]
1. A piece of land enclosed and preserved for breeding game. Obs. exc. Hist.
α. 1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. Prol. 163. Vncoupled þei wenden Boþe in wareine & in waste where hem leue lyketh.
1429. Rolls of Parlt., IV. 344/1. Unlaweful hunters of Forestes, Parkes or Warennes, or any other opyn Mysdoers.
a. 1440. Sir Degrev., 422. He made my londes barreyne, My wodes and my warreyne, My wylde ys away.
c. 1500. Melusine, xix. 99. Thanne they came out of the wareyne [where they had chased a hart].
1558. in Phillipps Wills (c. 1830), 127. All that part of my Warren of Albourne which lieth within the precincts of Southwood Walke.
1563. in Rymer Fœdera (1719), XV. 629. Keeper of Parks Houses Waranes or other Games of Venerye.
1577–87. Harrison, England, II. xix. 206/1, in Holinshed. In parks and warrens we haue nothing else than … the keepers and wareners lodge.
1592. Expos. Terms Law, 196 b. Warren is a place priuiledged by prescription or graunt of the Queene for the preseruation of hares, conies, partriges and feasantes or anie of them.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, II. i. 222. I found him heere as melancholy as a Lodge in a Warren.
c. 1610. Beaum. & Fl., Scornf. Lady, V. i. Ile make you take a tree, whore,… and then haue you cast, and hung vp ith warren.
a. 1634. Coke, Inst., IV. lxxiii. (1648), 298. He that hath a Warren within a free Chase may build upon his own inheritance within his Warren a convenient lodge for preservation of his game.
1683. Brit. Spec., 17. The Forests, Parks … Warrens, and Woods stored with wild Beasts only for Recreation and Food.
1698. T. Froger, Voy., 9. A sort of wild Apple, or Crab tree, that grow as thick as Broom in a Heath or Warren.
1700. Evelyn, Diary, 13 July. I went to Marden, which was originally a barren warren bought by Sir Robert Clayton.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. xiii. 175. Being the owner, or keeper, of a forest, park, chase, or warren.
β. 1481. Caxton, Reynard, xvii. (Arb.), 42. It stondeth in a woode named hulsterlo vpon a warande in the wyldernesse.
1519. Surtees Misc. (1890), 32. That no man hawke nor hunte wtin my Lord’s warraunte.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. E 3. You shall haue some that … will not sticke to pull downe whole townes … and … make them parkes, chases, warrants and I cannot tell what of the same.
1702. Phil. Trans., XXIII. 1051. Therefore when Orders are given to hunt the Elephants, they pitch upon a convenient place for a Warrant or Park.
b. transf. and fig.
a. 1586. Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (Arb.), 25. Hee goeth hand in hand with Nature, not inclosed within the narrow warrant of her guifts, but freely ranging onely within the Zodiack of his owne wit.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, V. iv. He bid him beat abroad, and not poach up the Game in his Warren.
1860. Mill, Repr. Govt. (1865), 135/2. One people may keep another as a warren or preserve for its own use, a place to make money in.
† c. (Free) warren, a right of keeping or hunting beasts and fowls of warren (see d). Obs.
1485. Rolls of Parlt., VI. 374/1. The Office of Keping of Woode, in the Lordshipp of Kyrtlyngton, and Keping of Warren of Hares there.
1512. Act 4 Hen. VIII., c. 10 § 2. The Bailifwike of Toppsam with the Selerage and Cranage and the Waren of Cones within the same.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., VII. (1533), 20 b. The kynge grauntyd to ye sayd cytesyns of London wareyn, that is to meane that the cytesyns haue free lybertye of huntynge certayne cyrcuyte aboute London.
1596. Bacon, Elem. Com. Law, I. (1630), 13. If I haue free warren in mine owne hand, and let my land for life not mentioning the warren, yet the leasee by implication shall haue the warren discharged and extract during his lease.
1603. G. Owen, Pembrokesh. (1892), 268. Whosoever hath libertie of free warren, maye haue his speciall action of Trespasse at the comon lawe, against anye that shall hunte or chase therein.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. iii. 38. Free-warren is a similar franchise, erected for preservation or custody (which the word signifies) of beasts and fowls of warren.
1766. Porny, Heraldry, iv. (1777), 89. Sir John de Chetwynd … had a charter of free-warren through all his demesne.
1810. Sporting Mag., XXXVI. 26. Whether the rights of free warren and free chace were conferred.
1875. Blackmore, Alice Lorraine, II. xx. 274. I am to have free warren of all Sir Remnant’s vast estates.
1913. H. W. C. Davis, Regesta Reg. Anglo-Norm., Introd. p. xxxi. Grants of free hunting are few in number; even the right of free warren is sparingly granted.
† d. Beasts, fowls of warren: see quots. 1598 and 1628.
1539. Act 31 Hen. VIII., c 5. A chase … for nourishyng generacion and feeding of beastes of venery, and of foules of waren.
1598. Manwood, Laws of Forest, iv. 22 b. The beasts and foules of Warren are these, the Hare, the Connie, the Phesant, and the Partridge.
1628. Coke, On Litt., 233. There bee both Beasts and Foules of the Warren, Beasts, as Hares, Conies, and Roes … Fowles … as Partridge, Quaile, Raile,… Phesant, Woodcocke,… Mallard, Herne.
2. spec. A piece of land appropriated to the breeding of rabbits (formerly also of hares). More fully rabbit-warren (see RABBIT sb.1 3 a), CONY-WARREN, HARE-WARREN.
Now usually a piece of uncultivated ground on which rabbits breed wild in burrows.
c. 1400. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), i. Whan hares be ygete with the kynde of a conynge, as somme ben in the warrayntes [Bodl. MS. wareynes], the houndes lust nor sentith hem nought so wele.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., VII. (1533), 50. These chyldren … entred the warrayn of a lord of Fraunce … and there chased and shote at Conyes for theyr disport.
1529. Supplic. to King (E. E. T. S.), 48. Warrens swarminge full of conyes.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Lagotrophia, a warren or parke of hares.
1566. Act 8 Eliz., c. 15 § 5. In any Parke Warren or Grounde employed to the mayntenaunce of any game of Conyes.
1600. Hakluyt, Voy., III. 442. We found the whole countrey to bee a warren of a strange kinde of Conies.
1607. J. Norden, Surv. Dial., III. 114. Whether hath he any Warren of Conies, or Hares.
1697. Vanbrugh, Relapse, II. i. Like a young Puppy in a Warren, they have a Flirt at all, and catch none.
1773. Goldsm., Stoops to Conq., II. When company comes you are not to pop out and stare, and then run in again, like frighted rabbits in a warren.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., I. 813. He poach’d the wood, and on the warren snared.
1850. ‘Sylvanus,’ Bye-lanes & Downs, iv. 51. After passing … over a warren crenelled like a cullender, and divers stubble fields.
1875. W. M‘Ilwraith, Guide to Wigtownshire, 81. The land along the coast [of the Bay of Luce] is a vast warren of rabbits.
b. transf.
1601. Holland, Pliny, IX. lvi. I. 267. Fulvius Hirpinus was the first inventor of warrens as it were for Winkles [L. cochlearum vivaria].
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xvii. (1860), 388. The holes … enter the ground at a small angle; so that when walking over these lizard-warrens, the soil is constantly giving way.
† c. slang. [Misapprehension of warren var. of WARRANT sb.] (See quots.)
1609. Dekker, Lanth. & Candle-light, iv. Wks. (Grosart), III. 231. He vpon whose credit these Rabbet-suckers runne, is called the Warren. Ibid., 236. Whilst this faire weather lasteth,… These Rabbet suckers keep to the Warren wherein they fatned.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Warren, he that is Security for Goods taken up, on Credit, by Extravagant young Gentlemen.
3. The inhabitants of a warren; transf. any collection or assemblage of small animals.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 271. In which, three or foure couple of Hares do quickly multiply into a great warren.
1625. Fletcher, Women Pleas’d, II. iv. He is so hairie, That a tame warren of flyes frisk round about him.
1692. R. L’Estrange, Fables Æsop, etc., cccxxxiii. 291. The Cony … Convenes a Whole Warren; Tells her Story, and Advises upon a Revenge.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxix. 393. It was marvellous … what a perfect warren [of rats] we soon had on board.
4. A building or settlement likened to a rabbit-warren; † a brothel; a building or cluster of dwellings (esp. if partly underground) densely populated by poor tenants.
a. 1649. Dk. Newcastle, Country Capt., III. i. And New yeares giftes from soadred virgins and their shee Provincialls whose warren must bee licenc’d from our Office.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Warren,… also a Boarding-school and a Bawdy-house.
1884. Standard, 5 June. The Conservative party has recognized it in the case of the rookeries with which London still swarms. Will it not do something also for the warrens?
1886. Tennyson, Locksley Hall Sixty Yrs. after, 224. And the crowded couch of incest in the warrens of the poor.
1918. Edmund Candler, in Blackw. Mag., Jan., 124/1. The marg … is covered with a warren of huts scattered haphazard like goods-sheds in a station siding. Ibid, B. Somerville (1919), Nov., 693/2. A large passenger steamer, such as the Fredrik VIII, is, as every one who has travelled by water knows, an amazing warren of passages, [etc.].
† 5. An old name for the site of Woolwich Arsenal. Hence used gen. (see quot. 1769). Obs.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), Fr. Terms, Arcenal de marine, a royal dock-yard, together with its warren or gun-wharf. Ibid., Commissaire, He keeps a register of all the artillery within the warren where he resides.
1774. Ambulator, 223. Woolwich…. In the warren or park, where they make trial of great guns and mortars, there are several thousand pieces of ordnance for ships and batteries, besides a vast number of bombs, mortars, and granadoes.
1805. Ann. Reg. (Otridge’s ed.). 400. The ordnance board have signified to general Lloyd who commands the Artillery at Woolwich, that the warren at that place is to be from this time denominated the ‘Royal Arsenal.’
† 6. (See quot.) Obs.–0
[A spurious sense; the article is translated from the article Garenne in Chomel’s Dict. Littré has garenne à poisson.]
1725. Bradley’s Family Dict., Warren, a Term in Fishery, being an easy and cheap way, of preserving and storing Fish, in the midst of a River, by making, as it were a Warren, for the Fish to retreat to.
7. attrib. and Comb., as warren-hill, -rabbit, -wall; warren-like adj.
1700. Chauncy, Hertfordsh., 481. Upon the Warren Hill is an Eccho, which will repeat to a Trumpet twelve times together.
a. 1742. in Ann. Reg., 1762, II. 52. I have lived three years in a poor cottage under your warren-wall.
1876. Tyndall, Ess. Float.-Matter Air (1881), 128. It was the same green hue throughout, though of varying degrees of intensity…. In rabbit it was less fine than in hare, and in a tame rabbit less fine than in a warren rabbit.
1889. Fabian Ess., 218. A warren-like scuttle of alarmed … Radicals across the floor of the House of Commons.
1890. ‘Lyth,’ Golden South, 168. We found ‘New Old Pipeclay’ [diggings] more warren-like than the one we had seen.
