“Thy brother’s blood the thirsty earth hath drank,
    Broach’d with the steely point of Clifford’s lance.”—­Shakspeare.

[280] “Holden is not in general use; and is chiefly employed by attorneys.”—­Crombie, on Etymology and Synt., p. 190.  Wells marks this word as, “Obsolescent.”—­School Gram., p. 103.  L. Murray rejected it; but Lowth gave it alone, as a participle, and held only as a preterit.

[281] “I have been found guilty of killing cats I never hurted.”—­Roderick Random, Vol. i, p. 8.

[282] “They keeped aloof as they passed her bye.”—­J.  Hogg, Pilgrims of the Sun, p. 19.

[283] Lie, to be at rest, is irregular, as above; but lie, to utter falsehood, is regular, as follows:  lie, lied, lying, lied.

   “Thus said, at least, my mountain guide,
    Though deep, perchance, the villain lied.”
        —­Scott’s Lady of the Lake.

[284] Perhaps there is authority sufficient to place the verb rend among those which are redundant.

   “Where’er its cloudy veil was rended.”
        —­Whittier’s Moll Pitcher.

    “Mortal, my message is for thee; thy chain to earth is rended;
    I bear thee to eternity; prepare! thy course is ended.”
        —­The Amulet.

    “Come as the winds come, when forests are rended.”
        —­Sir W. Scott.

    “The hunger pangs her sons which rended.” 
        —­NEW QUARTERLY REVIEW:  Examiner, No. 119.

[285] We find now and then an instance in which gainsay is made regular:  as, “It can neither be rivalled nor gainsayed.”—­Chapman’s Sermons to Presbyterians, p. 36.  Perhaps it would be as well to follow Webster here, in writing rivaled with one l:  and the analogy of the simple verb say, in forming this compound irregularly, gainsaid.  Usage warrants the latter, however, better than the former.

[286] “Shoe, shoed or shod, shoeing, shoed or shod.”—­Old Gram., by W. Ward, p. 64; and Fowle’s True English Gram., p. 46.

[287] “A.  Murray has rejected sung as the Preterite, and L. Murray has rejected sang.  Each Preterite, however, rests on good authority.  The same observation may be made, respecting sank and sunk.  Respecting the preterites which have a or u, as slang, or slung, sank, or sunk, it would be better were the former only to be used, as the Preterite and Participle would thus be discriminated.”—­Dr. Crombie, on Etymology and Syntax, p. 199.  The preterits which this critic thus prefers, are rang, sang, stung, sprang, swang, sank, shrank, slank, stank, swam, and span for spun.