biggin

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.

An old woman's biggin for a nightcap.

An official's hood or coif.

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 Baptist—coffee-biggin!’ At the same time exhibiting those articles, and penetrating him with a sense of the appalling difficulties of the Anglo-Saxon tongue.

‘That silver biggin holds coffee, and there are cups on the lower tier of the cart.’

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.