Definition of "nesh"

nesh¹

/nɛʃ/

adjective
comparative nesher, superlative neshest
1. (now UK dialectal) Soft; tender; sensitive; yielding.
  Quotations
  haue ye no merueylle sayd the good man therof / for hit semeth wel god loueth yow / for men maye vnderstande a stone is hard of kynde / […] / for thou wylt not leue thy synne for no goodnes that god hath sente the / therfor thou arte more than ony stone / and neuer woldest thow be maade neysshe nor by water nor by fyre(please add an English translation of this quotation)
  1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter XX, in Le Morte Darthur, book XIII
2. (now UK dialectal) Delicate; weak; poor-spirited; susceptible to cold weather, harsh conditions etc.
  Quotations
  And if he keeps the daughter so long at boarding-school, he'll make her as nesh as her mother was.
  1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, “Chapter 4”, in The Woodlanders […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887
  No, tha'd drop down stiff, as dead as a door-knob, wi' thy nesh sides.
  1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 8, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […]
3. (now UK dialectal) Soft; friable; crumbly.

nesh²

/nɛʃ/

verb
third-person singular simple present neshes, present participle neshing, simple past and past participle neshed
1. (transitive) To make soft, tender, or weak.
2. (intransitive, dialectal, Northern England) To act timidly.