[see VAT.] The vessel or mold in which the curds are pressed and the cheese shaped in cheese-making.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. lxxiv. (1495), 904. Chese is wronge other pressyd in a chese fatte.
1401. Pol. Poems, II. 99. Thi tong likkith the chesefat, and the garner also.
c. 1475. Pict. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 793. Hec sissma, a schesfatte.
1577. B. Googe, trans. Heresbach’s Husb., III. (1586), 147. The Milke commeth to a Curd, which is straightwaies put into Formes, or Cheesefattes, and pressed.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, 121. Turn it out of that Cheese-fat.
c. 1640. J. Smyth, Lives Berkeleys (1883), I. 303. Cheesevates, cheeseclouts and other perticulars.
1764. Harmer, Observ., X. iv. 155. Baskets made of rushes, or palm, are the cheese-vats of Barbary.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 247/1. Cheese vats or moulds turned out of solid elm wood.
