Tarriers

Posted by Peter on July 26, 2003

In Reply to: Tarriers posted by Lotg on July 26, 2003

: My stepdaughter has to learn a song for her school choir called 'Drill ye Tarriers'. The first words are... "Ev'ry morning at seven o'clock, there's a hundred tarriers workin' on the rock. The boss come along and he says, "Keep still" Come down heavy on that cast iron drill."...., etc.

: I told her to look 'tarrier' up in the dictionary and she couldn't find it.

: So what does 'tarrier' mean?

I wonder whether the rest of the song's lyrics seem ironic or absurd, as with the boss coming along and saying "Keep still; Come down heavy on that cast iron drill". If so, then the hundred 'tarriers' (from the verb 'tarry') working on the rock at seven in the morning would be dawdlers. See www.bartleby.com