The following example of an entry provides an explanation of the features in a typical treatment of a word or phrase in DARE. While not every entry will include each of the features which this one, dropped egg, does, they will include all those justified by the evidence available to the Editors. Click on the links after each asterisk for an explanation of the feature.
*1884 *Harper's New Mth. Mag. 69.306/1 *MA, Martha was . . eating her toast and a dropped egg. 1896 (c1973) Farmer Orig. Cook Book 93, Dropped Eggs (Poached). 1933 Hanley Disks neMA, Dropped egg—take and put a pan of milk on the stove and boil and drop the egg in and let it cook. 1941 LANE Map 295 (Poached Eggs), throughout NEng, Dropped eggs. . .1 inf, ceVT, Drop eggs. 1948 Peattie Berkshires 323 wMA, In Berkshire . . you could not get a poached egg, but you could get a "dropped" egg, which was the same thing. 1965 PADS 43.24 seMA, 6 [infs] poached eggs, 4 [infs] dropped eggs, 1 [inf] dropped egg on toast. 1965-70 DARE (Qu. H35, *When eggs are taken out of the shell and cooked in boiling water, you call them ______ eggs) 40 Infs, *chiefly NEng, Dropped; *NH15, Dropped egg on toast. *[33 of 41 Infs old] 1975 Gould ME Lingo 82, Dropped egg—Maine for poached egg, usually on toast. 1977 Yankee Jan 73 Isleboro ME, The people on Isleboro eat dropped eggs instead of poached.
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