Egg

Egg, eg, n. an oval body laid by birds and certain other animals, from which their young are produced: anything shaped like an egg.—ns. Egg′-app′le, or plant, the brinjal or aubergine, an East Indian annual with egg-shaped fruit; Egg′-bird, a sooty tern; Egg′-cō′sy, a covering put over boiled eggs to keep in the heat after being taken from the pot: Egg′-cup, a cup for holding an egg at table; Egg′er, Egg′ler, one who collects eggs; Egg′ery, a place where eggs are laid; Egg′-flip, a hot drink made of ale, with eggs, sugar, spice, &c.; Egg′-glass, a small sand-glass for regulating the boiling of eggs; Egg′-nog, a drink compounded of eggs and hot beer, spirits, &c.; Egg′-shell, the shell or calcareous substance which covers the eggs of birds; Egg′-slice, a kitchen utensil for lifting fried eggs out of a pan; Egg′-spoon, a small spoon used in eating eggs from the shell.—A bad egg (coll.), a worthless person; Put all one's eggs into one basket, to risk all on one enterprise; Take eggs for money, to be put off with mere promises of payment; Teach your grandmother to suck eggs, spoken contemptuously to one who would teach those older and wiser than himself; Tread upon eggs, to walk warily, to steer one's way carefully in a delicate situation. [A.S. æg; cf. Ice. egg, Ger. ei, perh. L. ovum, Gr. ōon.]