ppl. a.
1. Said of meat or drink (see SEASON v. 1).
1684. Earl Roscom., Ess. Transl. Verse, 248. Well-season’d Bowls the Gossyps Spirits raise.
1694. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxi. § 69. The eating of a well season’d dish suited to a Man’s pallate.
1851. D. Jerrold, St. Giles, xxxii. 330. He took the same pleasure in falsehood that an epicure receives from a well-seasoned dish.
2. Well matured and fit for use. Chiefly of timber: Thoroughly dried and hardened. Also fig.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., I. D j b. These be well seasoned reasons, and substantiall asseuerations in deed.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, ii. 27. Letter-Boards … ought to be made of clean and well-season’d Stuff.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XIV. 26. To form strong buskins of well-season’d hyde.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, iv. Well-seasoned timber is an expensive article.
3. Of persons or animals: Fortified by training or experience. Also, inured to. (Cf. SEASONED 3 c.)
1756. C. Smart, trans. Horace, Sat., II. v. 55. A well-seasoned lawyer.
1834. G. P. R. James, J. Marston Hall, x. Our horses were strong and well-seasoned to hard work. Ibid. (1849), Woodman, iv. My well-seasoned staves would have drank the whole beer in the town without rolling.
1855. Motley, Dutch Rep., V. iv. (1866), 741. Twenty thousand well-seasoned and disciplined veterans.
