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.
