Table of homophones taken from among the obsolete words in Cunliffe’s ‘A New Shakespearean Dictionary,’ Blackie, 1910.]

    ANCIENT:  replaced by ensign.

    BATE = remit.

    BECK = a bow of the head:  preserved in ‘becks and nods’,
    mutual loss with beck = rivulet.

    BOOT = to profit:  Sh. puns on it, showing that its absurdity
    was recognized.

    BOTTLE (of hay):  preserved in proverb.

    BOURNE = streamlet:  preserved in sense of limit by the line of
    Sh. which perhaps destroyed it.

    BREEZE = gadfly.

    BRIEF (subs.):  now only as a lawyer’s brief.

    BROOK (verb).

    BUCK = to steep (linen) in lye.

    COTE:  as in sheepcote.

    DOLE = portion, and dole = sorrow:  probably active mutual
    destruction; we still retain ‘to dole out’.

    DOUT.

    DUN (adj.):  now only in combination as dun-coloured.

    EAR = to plough.

    FAIN and FEIGN:  prob. mutual loss due to undefined sense of
    FAIN. n.b.  FANE also obsolete.

    FEAT (adj.) and FEATLY:  well lost.

    FERE.

    FIT = section of a poem.

    FLAW:  now confined to a flaw in metal, &c.

    FLEET (verb) and FLEETING, as in the sun-dial motto, ’Time
    like this shade doth fleet and fade.’

    FOIL:  common verb, obsolete.

    GEST:  lost in jest.

    GIRD = to scoff:  an old well-established word.

    GOUT = a drop of liquor.

    GUST = taste (well lost).

    HALE = haul (well lost).

    HIGHT = named.

    HOAR:  only kept in combination, hoar-frost, hoar hairs.

    HOSE:  lost, though hosier remains, but specialized in
    garden-hose, &c.

    HUE:  not now used of colour.

    IMBRUED (with blood):  prob. lost in brewed.

    JADE:  almost confined to jaded(?).

    KEEL = cool.

    LIST:  as in ‘as you list’.

    MAIL:  now only in combination, coat of mail, &c.

    MARRY!

    MATED = confused in mind (well lost).

    MEED:  lost in mead = meadow (also obs.) and
    mead=metheglin.

    METE and METELY = fitting, also METE in ‘mete it out’, both
    lost in meet and meat.

    MERE (subs.).

    MOUSE (verb):  to bite and tear.

    MOW = a grimace.

    MUSE = to wonder:  lost in amuse and Muse.

    NEAT = ox.

    OUNCE = pard.

    PALL = to fail.

    PEAK:  survives only in ‘peak and pine’ and in peaky.

    PELTING = paltry, also PELT = a skin, lost.