Also 8 liason. [F.:—L. ligātiōn-em, n. of action f. ligāre to bind.]
1. Cookery. A thickening for sauces, consisting chiefly of the yolks of eggs; † also, the process of thickening. (Cf. LEAR2 2.)
a. 1648. Digby, Closet Open. (1671), 146. The last things [Butter, Bread, Flower] cause the liaison and thickening of the liquor.
1759. W. Verral, Cookery, xv. 92. Prepare a liaison, or four or five yolks of eggs and some cream.
1797. Lond. Art Cookery, 142. Make ready a liason of two or three eggs and cream, with a little minced parsley and nutmeg. Ibid., 146. Skim and sift the sauce, add a little cullis to make it a liason.
1877. in Cassell’s Dict. Cookery.
2. † a. gen. An intimate relation or connection.
1809. Edin. Rev., XIV. 226. The liaisons of Merlin with this man and Bazire gave rise to the following jou d’esprit.
b. spec. An illicit intimacy between a man and a woman.
1821. Byron, Juan, III. xxv. Some chaste liaison of the kind—I mean An honest friendship with a married lady.
1821. Shelley, Lett., Prose Wks. 1888, II. 333. He [Byron] has a permanent sort of liaison with Contessa Guiccioli.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ix. ‘If it were but a temporary liaison,’ the excellent man said, ‘one could bear it…. But a virtuous attachment is the deuce.’
1853. Greville, Mem. Geo. IV., Ser. III. I. ii. 35. He was always much addicted to Gallantry, and had endless liaisons with women.
3. French Phonetics. The joining of a final consonant (which would in pause or before a consonant be silent) to a following word beginning with a vowel or ‘mute’ h.
1884. A. Gosset, French Prosody, 43. There is one letter in English, r, which admits in some cases of a sort of liaison in correct modern pronunciation.
