Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A calf's skin stuffed with straw, and set beside a cow, to make her give her milk: used formerly in Scotland.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • _Tulchan_ bishops, from the _tulchan_ or effigy of a calf employed to induce cows to yield their milk.

    A Short History of Scotland Andrew Lang 1878

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  • (noun) - A calfskin stuffed with straw in the rude similitude of a calf, similar enough to deceive the imperfect perception organs of a cow. At milking time the tulchan, with head duly bent, was set as if to suck. The fond cow, looking round, fancied that her calf was busy and that all was right, and so gave her milk freely, which the cunning maid was straining in white abundance into the pail all the while. King James's Scotch bishops were, by the Scotch people, derisively called "tulchan bishops." --Thomas Carlyle's Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, 1845

    February 11, 2018