-eve, -even. Sc. and north. dial. Also 4 fast(e)ryn(gs-, 5–6 fasteringis-, 6 fasterns-, -trin-, -tron-, 8 fasten-, 8–9 fasting(s-, 9 fasterns-. [f. OE. fæstenes, gen. of fæsten FASTEN sb. + EVEN or EVE.] The eve of or day before the fast (of Lent); Shrove-Tuesday.

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1375.  Barbour, Bruce, X. 372.

        And on the fasteryn evyn rycht
In the begynning of the nycht.

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1496.  Ld. Treas. Accts. Scot. (1877), I. 319. The vij day of Februare was Fasteringis evin.

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1565.  in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1883), I. 35. Fasten’s eve or Shrovetide called Merry Monday.

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1674–91.  Ray, N. C. Words, Fastens-Een or Even.

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c. 1750.  J. Collier (Tim Bobbin), Lanc. Dialect, Wks. (1862), 68. Feersuns een, on it matter’t naw mitch.

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1780.  M. Lonsdale, Th’ Upshot, ii., in Jollie’s Sketch of Cumberland Manners (1811), 5.

                An upshot lang an’ sair
To keep up fassen’s-even.

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1785.  Burns, Ep. to J. Lapraik, 7.

        On fasten-een we had a rockin,
To ca’ the crack and weave our stockin.

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1834.  H. Miller, Scenes & Leg., xxviii. (1876), 420. On Fasten’s-eve, just when all Rome was rejoicing in the license of the Carnival, the schoolmaster, after closing the service of the day with prayer, would call on the boys to divide and choose for themselves ‘Head-stocks,’ i.e., leaders, for the yearly cock-fight of the ensuing Shrove-Tuesday.

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