What's the difference between andiron and blackguard?

Andiron


Definition:

  • (n.) A utensil for supporting wood when burning in a fireplace, one being placed on each side; a firedog; as, a pair of andirons.

Example Sentences:

Blackguard


Definition:

  • (n.) The scullions and lower menials of a court, or of a nobleman's household, who, in a removal from one residence to another, had charge of the kitchen utensils, and being smutted by them, were jocularly called the "black guard"; also, the servants and hangers-on of an army.
  • (n.) The criminals and vagrants or vagabonds of a town or community, collectively.
  • (n.) A person of stained or low character, esp. one who uses scurrilous language, or treats others with foul abuse; a scoundrel; a rough.
  • (n.) A vagrant; a bootblack; a gamin.
  • (v. t.) To revile or abuse in scurrilous language.
  • (a.) Scurrilous; abusive; low; worthless; vicious; as, blackguard language.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Here he is on the Nasty Party in 1835, in a letter to Catherine Hogarth (soon to take the name Dickens, as his wife): "... a ruthless set of bloody-minded villains... perfect savage... superlative blackguards..." Two days later he ended another letter: "P.S.