arch. -fat. [f. WINE sb.1 + VAT, FAT sb.1 Cf. (M)LG. wînfat, MHG. wînvaẓ (G. weinfass), ON. vinfat, etc.] A vat in which the grapes are pressed in wine-making; a wine-press.
1526. Tindale, Rev. xix. 15. He trode the wynefatt of fearsnes.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., VII. vii. 39. The must, Which he was treading in the wine-fats see.
1605. B. Jonson, Volpone, V. iv. You should ha’ some would swell, now, like a wine-fat, With such an Autumne.
1611. Bible, Mark xii. 1. A certaine man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the wine fat.
a. 1746. Holdsworth, Rem. Virgil (1768), 22. In this dance, he flung himself into different postures, as if he was gathering the bunches of grapes,… flinging them into the wine-vat;… and drinking the must.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 214/2. The grapes are … emptied into a tub with holes at the bottom…. This tub is placed over another much larger, named the wine-vat.
1881. Christina Rossetti, Poems, Prodigal Son, iii. The purple wine-fat froths with foam.
