Word.ws English Dictionary

biggin

/ˈbɪɡɪn/

biggin noun: a child's cap; (figuratively) childhood.

Noun (1)

biggin (plural biggins)

  1. (archaic) A child's cap; (figuratively) childhood.
    • […] my brain has been topsy-turvy, they say, ever since the biggin was bound first round my head; so turning me upside down may peradventure restore it again.1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe
    • An old woman's biggin for a nightcap.1629, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, The Picture
  2. (historical) An official's hood or coif.

Noun (2)

biggin (plural biggins)

  1. A coffee pot with a strainer or perforated metallic vessel for holding the ground coffee, through which boiling water is poured.
    • As he became more popular, household objects were brought into requisition for his instruction in a copious vocabulary; and whenever he appeared in the Yard ladies would fly out at their doors crying ‘Mr Baptist—tea-pot!’ ‘Mr Baptist—dust-pan!’ ‘Mr Baptist—flour-dredger!’ ‘Mr...1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC
    • ‘That silver biggin holds coffee, and there are cups on the lower tier of the cart.’1981, Gene Wolfe, chapter XVI, in The Claw of the Conciliator (The Book of the New Sun; 2), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 138

Noun (3)

biggin (plural biggins)

  1. A drinking vessel for ale or beer; possibly a tankard.
    • Oswald's wife then put before him a large pie, and some wheaten bread, with a biggin of good beer.1847, Frederick Marryat, chapter 14, in The Children of the New Forest, England: H. Hurst

Proper noun capitalized: Biggin

Biggin

  1. A small village and civil parish by Hulland, Derbyshire Dales district, Derbyshire (OS grid ref SK2648).
  2. A village in Hartington Nether Quarter parish, Derbyshire Dales district, Derbyshire (OS grid ref SK1559).
  3. A hamlet north of Tilbury, Thurrock borough, Essex (OS grid ref TQ6577).
  4. A village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, previously in Selby district (OS grid ref SE5434).

Forms of biggin

pluralbiggins
alternative formbigging

Origin of biggin

From French béguin. Compare beguine.

Said to have been from the inventor's surname.

Unknown

Words formed from biggin

Words that rhyme with biggin

Questions about biggin

What does biggin mean?
Biggin means a child's cap; (figuratively) childhood.
What part of speech is biggin?
Biggin can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce biggin?
Biggin is pronounced /ˈbɪɡɪn/.
What is the plural of biggin?
The plural of biggin is biggins.

Words near biggin in the dictionary

  1. biggies
  2. biggified
  3. biggifies
  4. biggify
  5. biggifying
  6. biggin
  7. Biggin Hill
  8. bigging
  9. bigging up
  10. biggings
  11. biggins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: biggin (page history and authors); Biggin (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “biggin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/biggin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.