a. and sb. Chiefly north. and Sc. Forms: 5–6 twynter, (5 twyntour, 6 twintter, twyntter, tynter, twenter), 6– twinter; also 6 qwintter, 9 Sc. quinter. [Reduced f. OE. twi-wintre, -winter of two winters: see TWI- and WINTER, and cf. THRINTER. So WFris. twinter- two years old (of horses or cows; known to Kilian in tweenter-, twinterdier), and twinter (also twainter) a two-year-old horse or cow, NFris. twenter an ox of this age.]
A. adj. Of two winters; two years old: said of cattle and sheep (also of colts).
1537. N. C. Wills (Surtees, 1908), 103. To every oon … of my kynde servauntes … oon twynter calf.
1540. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), VI. 94. ij twintter bolokes … one twyntter heffer.
1582. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 1. A twinter kowlt. Ibid. (1620), 245. A twinter steere.
1638. Will E. Burton, in Reliquary, VIII. 221. One twinter bay filly with a whyte foote.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 38. After a ewe has been shorn three times she is called a twinter ewe, that is, a two-winter ewe.
1876. Whitby Gloss., Twinter, ‘a twinter stot,’ an ox of two winters old.
B. sb. A two-year-old cow, ox, horse, or sheep.
1404. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 399. Item xiiij twynterys.
1408. Hist. MSS. Comm., Var. Coll., II. 16. Vnum twyntour.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, V. ii. 105. Five twinteris britnit he,… and tydy quyis.
1536. Durham Acc. Rolls, 419. 4 Trynters, 7 Twynters, 9 Stirks.
1567. Richmond. Wills (Surtees), 204. One yonge colte beinge a twinter.
1570. Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees), I. 341. xxiij twenters, stotts and whies.
1674. Blount, Glossogr., Twinters, Cattle of two Winters old, so called in Bedford-shire.
c. 1720. Ramsay, Ram & Buck, 22. When sleet Made twinters and hog-wedders bleet.
1777. Antiq., in Ann. Reg., II. 149/1. Twinter, a calf two winters or two years old: Derbyshire.
1808. Compl. Grazier (ed. 3), 97. The name of the female neat cattle is for the first year, cow-calf, then a … twinter.
1868. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., Ser. II. IV. II. 428. I turned 20 yearly calves and ‘twinters’—as two-year-old animals are locally termed—into a 6-acre field.
a. 1898. [see THRINTER].
b. transf. Applied to pasture for, or the right to pasture, a two-year-old sheep, in a common or jointly held field.
1846. Award, cited in High Crt. of Justice (1892), Chanc. Div. (Coulston v. Harvey). Four gaits, two twinters, in Bolton Highfield. Ibid. (1892). The Plaintiffs are entitled to 11 gaits 2 twinters and 2 claws or … 22 A. 1 R. 35 P. And the Defendants to 2 gaits and 1 claw or … 3 A. 2 R. 5 P.
