Wine-lees

[f. WINE sb.¹ + pl. of LEE sb.²] The sediment deposited in a vessel containing wine. Also fig.

1

c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 60. Aischis of wiyn lies.

2

1483. Cath. Angl., 419/2. Wyne lees…, tartarum, vinacium.

3

1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 95/2. Fex vini vsta,… wine leeze.

4

1642–4. Vicars, God in Mount, 40. The wine-lees of poysoning Popish fopperies.

5

1734. trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), I. 103. Their faces smeared over with winelees.

6

1765. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, VII. xxi. The under-gardener dressed the muleteer’s hat in hot wine-lees.

7

1859. Dickens, T. Two Cities, I. v. One tall joker … scrawled upon a wall with his finger dipped in muddy wine lees—Blood.

8

attrib. 1843. R. J. Graves, Syst. Clin. Med., xviii. 202. A matter of a wine lees colour.

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