delf

noun

1. Diplôme d'étude de langue française, a French-language qualification.
2. (UK, archaic, dialectal)A mine, quarry, pit dug; ditch.
3. A charge representing a square sod of turf, traditionally taking the form of a simple square (e.g. in the middle of an escutcheon), although modernly sometimes represented with the grass in profile.

   “two delves gules”

4. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of delft (“style of earthenware”).

   “Five nothings in five plates of delf”

   “Suddenly a beautiful delf blue-and-white flower-pot, which had been set on the window-sill of an upper storey, fell to the ground with a crash, and the fragments spluttered up around my father's legs.”

   “That's all—do what we do, but noblier done— / Use plate, whereas we eat our meals off delf, / (To use a figure).”

   “Men can't munch from meatless pots and doughless delf.”