Also 4, 6–7, 9 fogg(e, 6 Sc. foge, 7, 9 feg, 8 Sc. fouge, fug. [of unknown origin; the Welsh ffwg ‘dry grass’ (O. Pughe), often given as the source, is from Eng.]
1. a. The grass which springs up immediately after the hay-crop has been taken off, aftermath. b. The long grass left standing in the fields during winter; rank grass. (To leave) under fog: with the long grass standing.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1683. He fares forth on alle faure, fogge watȝ his mete.
c. 1400. The Sowdone of Babyloyne, 2865. And fille oure somers withe fog and haye.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, lxi. 34.
| Great court horss puttis me fra the staw, | |
| To fang the fog be firthe and fald. |
1570. Levins, Manip., 157. Fogge, postfœnium.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 130. I have knowne the fogge of this close letten from Michaelmasse till Lady-day for 33s. 4d.
1674. N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., II. (1677), 40. Partridges resort to the up-land Meadows, and lodge in the dead Grass or Fog under Hedges, amongst Mole-hills, or under the Roots of Trees.
1789. Trans. Soc. Encourag. Arts, VII. 39. The fog, or after-grass, was ploughed in, to tender and meliorate the stubborn furrow by the winter’s frost, and in the spring sown with oats.
1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 226. The last year’s fog is pared down as close and even as possible.
1834. Brit. Husb., I. 484. On farms which have a sufficiency of summer pasture, the precaution of leaving a portion under fog forms a sure resource against a scarcity of summer feed.
1876. World, V. No. 115, 13. To be let, the eatage of fog on thirteen acres of old grassland.
† c. ? A growth of this grass. Obs.–1
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 158. They make their nests in foggs.
d. ? A tangled mass.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., x. Saddest to see was between two bars, where a fog was of rushes, and flood-wood, and wild-celery haulm, and dead crow’s-foot, who but our venerable mallard jammed in by the joint of his shoulder.
2. Sc. and north. = MOSS.
c. 1450. Henryson, Mor. Fab., 9.
| As I heard say it was a sober wane, | |
| Of foge and farne full febillie way made. |
1494. in Ld. Treat. Acc. Scott., I. 249. Item gyffyne for fog to the barge … iij s.
1724. Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (1733), I. 66.
| We’ll pou the daisies on the green, | |
| The lucken gowans frae the bog: | |
| Between hands now and then we’ll lean, | |
| And sport upo’ the velvet fog. |
1750. in Ramsay, Sc. Prov., 12. A rowing stane gathers nae fog.
1788. E. Picken, Elegy on Yon Place, Poems, 181.
| Green fug, mantlan’ owre the sclates, | |
| Held out the air. |
1805. Forsyth, Beauties Scotl., II. 458. Lime is the mortal enemy of all sorts of fog or moss.
1853. G. Johnston, Nat. Hist. E. Bord., I. 261. The term ‘fog’ comprehends many species of Hypna.
3. attrib. and Comb., as fog-grass, -harrow, -land, -moss. Also, fog-cheese = eddish-cheese; fog-earth, peat; fog-fruit (see quot.); fog-house (see quot.).
1822. Nares, *Fog-cheeses in Yorkshire, are such as are made from this latter grass.
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., *Fog-earth, peat, bog-earth.
1866. Treas. Bot., *Fog-fruit. An American name for Lippia nodiflora.
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., *Fog-grass, coarse sedgy grass, such as grows in wet places.
1880. Antrim & Down Gloss., *Fog-harrow, a harrow to clear moss away.
1842. C. W. Johnson, Farmer’s Encycl., 494. A *fog-house means a house built or lined with moss.
1829. J. Hodgson, in J. Raine, Mem. (1858), II. 158. All Liddisdale and Tindale, excepting the little haughs and the corn and *foglands, are of an olive green colour; the rushes and bent grass being of a brown tint deepen the green of the grass that rises up amongst them.
1805. Forsyth, Beauties Scotl., II. 257. Yellowish, or *fogg-moss, is much less compact than [black moss].
