subs. (old).—1. A man of substance and credit.—B. E. (c. 1696); GROSE (1785); MATSELL (1859).
2. (university).—An outer door. TO SPORT ONE’S OAK = to be ‘not at home’: indicated by closing the outer door.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1845. J. PYCROFT, The Collegian’s Guide, 141. [In college] every set of rooms is provided with an OAK or outer door, with a spring lock, of which the master has one latch key, and the servant another.
1853. REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, I. viii. Mr. Verdant Green had for the first time ‘SPORTED HIS OAK.’
1861. T. HUGHES, Tom Brown at Oxford, vii. One evening he found himself as usual at Hardy’s door about eight o’clock. The OAK was open, but he got no answer when he knocked at the inner door.
Adj. (American).—Strong; rich; in good repute.—MATSELL (1859).
FELLING OF OAKS, subs. phr. (old).—Sea-sickness.
1608. WITHALS, Dictionary, 39. The word signifieth to be provoked, or to have appetite or desire to vomit properly upon the sea, or in a ship. They call it FELLING OF OAKS merilie.
