die - Used hyperbolically to indicate extreme feelings of amusement, etc.
old chap - Used as an expression of familiarity; a person’s father esp. when old + Cheib (Swiss German) - chap (mildly pejorative) + FDV: Well, you see, when the old chap did what you know. Yes, I know, go on. Or whatever it was they try to make out he did tried to do in the Phoenix park. He's an awful old rep.
to go phut - to come to a sudden end; to break down, cease to function [(notebook 1924): 'to go phut'] + futt (Swiss German) - away.
to watch it - to be careful
dabble - to wet by splashing; to play about in shallow water; to employ oneself in a dilettante way in (any business or pursuit) without going deeply or seriously into it.
to roll up one’s sleeves - to prepare for action + (notebook 1924): 'sleeves tucked up'.
to loosen (a person's) tongue - to make him speak
butt - trans. To strike, esp. with the head or horns + I.8 must commence in the Wicklow Mountains, for the river is narrow enough for the washerwomen's heads to collide as they bend to immerse HCE's shirt (McHugh, Roland / The sigla of Finnegans wake).
hike - to raise or toss with the horns; a long walk + hike! (Anglo-Irish) - stop!, halt!, go back! (call to a horse).
threed - pierce, penetrate + three; tried + thried (Anglo-Irish Pronunciation) - tried.
make out - to succeed in accomplishing; to effect, achieve; to establish by evidence, argument, or investigation, to prove; to interpret for oneself; to decipher, succeed in reading + (notebook 1924): 'I never took what you try to make out in an oath' ('out' not clear).
fiendish - characteristic of a fiend; superhumanly cruel and malignant + Phoenix
reppe = repe - to touch + rep - a man (or woman) of loose character.
steep - to soak in water or other liquid (for the purpose of softening or cleansing).
stupe - to moisten (lint, tow, etc.) in some hot liquid so as to form a stupe (a piece of tow, flannel, etc., wrung out of hot liquor and medicated, for fomenting a wound or ailing part).
wik = wick + week
times + (notebook 1924): 'washed 100 times'.
to know by heart - to have in the memory, to know by rote + (notebook 1924): 'blanchisseuse knows where to find dirt'.
soil - to make foul or dirty, esp. on the surface [(notebook 1924): 'soiled']
dud - of little or no worth, bad, worn out, useless
scorch - to burn superficially [(notebook 1924): 'burned my hand']
starve - to die of hunger, to perish or be in process of perishing from lack or insufficiency of food; to suffer extremely.
famine - want of food, hunger; hence, starvation
wallop - to beat soundly, belabour, thrash [Joyce's note: 'wallop']
battle - to beat (clothes) with a wooden beetle during the process of washing, or in order to smooth them after they are dried [Joyce's note: 'battle'].
rusty - stiff; having the colour of rust, of a (disagreeable) light reddish brown [(notebook 1924): 'wrists rusty'].
mouldy - covered with mould; decaying or decayed; of the nature of mould or fine soil [(notebook 1924): 'mouldy linen'].
tail - sexual intercourse; end, conclusion + Anglo-Irish phrase: at all at all (Reduplication is not an especially common feature of Irish; nevertheless in rendering Irish phrases into English it is occasionally used: ar bith corresponds to English at all, so the stronger ar chor ar bith gives rise to the form at all at all (I've no money at all at all)) + FDV: What was it he did at all? It was put in the papers what he did. Time will tell. I know it will. O, the old rep! What age is he at all at all? Or where was he born or how was he found?
Sendai - city in Japan + (notebook 1924): 'animal Sunday' → Freeman's Journal 9 Jul 1924, 7/7: 'Letters to the Editor': 'My committee wish to invite the clergy of all denominations in Ireland to preach on Sunday next, the 4th Sunday after Trinity, on the duty of justice and mercy to animals... For close to sixty years Animal Sunday has been observed by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in many pars of the world'.
under lock and key - in prison + Lough Neagh - lake in east-central Northern Ireland + loch - a lake.
prier - a close inquirer, an inquisitive person + nisi prius (l) - unless before: legal warrant to bring a cause to trial at central court unless before that date it shall have been tried locally.
fieri facias (l) - cause to be made (type of writ)
distil - to subject to the process of distillation
exploit - an act or deed; a feat, an achievement displaying a brilliant degree of bravery or skill.
Joyce's note: 'time will tell' + till - attract, entice; prepare, care for
time and tide wait for no man + temp - temperature, tempo + hist - to be silent; sh!
neap - Of tides: To become lower, to tend towards the neap + proverb As you sow so shall you reap.
Rappen (ger) - black horse; Swiss cent
mixed marriage - a marriage between persons of different races or religions + minxi (l) - I have urinated + minxit (l) - he urinated.
loof - the palm of the hand + love + loo (Slang) - watercloset + oof (Slang) - money + loof (Dutch) - foliage.