Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Oatmeal or other porridge.
- noun Oatmeal and dripping or bacon-fat mixed together and stirred about in a frying-pan.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A dish formed of oatmeal boiled in water to a certain consistency and frequently stirred, or of oatmeal and dripping mixed together and stirred about in a pan; a hasty pudding.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Ireland
porridge
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Before luncheon (of which meal he partook in the kitchen) he had been consulted by Patsey Crimmeen about the chimney of the kennel boiler, had single-handed reduced it to submission, and had, in addition, boiled the meal for the hounds with a knowledge of proportion and an untiring devotion to the use of the potstick which produced "stirabout" of a smoothness and excellence that Miss Barnet herself might have been proud of.
All on the Irish Shore Irish Sketches Martin Ross 1903
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At twelve o'clock it gets dinner, composed of a tin of coarse Indian meal stirabout (skilly), and at half-past five it gets
THE HUNGER WAIL 2010
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At sunrise Mrs. Chalmers comes in-if coming into a nearly open shed can be called IN — and makes a fire, because she thinks me too stupid to do it, and mine is the family room; and by seven I am dressed, have folded the blankets, and swept the floor, and then she puts some milk and bread or stirabout on a box by the door.
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Ansighosa pokes in her potstill to souse at the sop be sodden enow and to hear to all the bubbles besaying: the coming man, the future woman, the food that is to build, what he with fifteen years will do, the ring in her mouth of joyous guard, stars astir ant stirabout.
Finnegans Wake 2006
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I crammed my mouth with stirabout for fear I might give utterance to my anger.
Dubliners 2003
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While my aunt was ladling out my stirabout he said, as if returning to some former remark of his:
Dubliners 2003
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For Tuesday and Thursday we have white bread, stewed fruit with honey, wild berries, or salt cabbage and whole meal stirabout.
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I was on another occasion called "affected" for asking what "stirabout" tra& It is, in fact, a "low" Irish word for porridge.
Surprised by Joy Lewis, C. S. 1955
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The accommodation paid for by the labour consisted, all told, in one hunk of dry bread -- weight, I should say, about four ounces; one pint of stirabout made of Indian meal and flavoured with soot; and
The Making Of A Novelist An Experiment In Autobiography David Christie Murray
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Potatoes form a bulky article of food, and stirabout, unless very carefully made, used to swell after it was consumed.
The Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent S.M. Hussey
bilby commented on the word stirabout
"For 'twas madness in him and he knew it, and that was what made him lose his tongue - he that was maybe without the price of an ounce of 'baccy - I will not deny it: often enough he had to do without when the hens would not be laying, and often enough stirabout and praties was all we had for days."
- Frank O'Connor, 'The Bridal Night'.
September 5, 2008