[f. BATH sb.1; cf. to shoe, tub, pot, etc.; distinct from bathe; but the inflected forms, except baths, coincide in spelling, though not in pronunc., with the corresponding forms of bathe, and therefore are avoided in writing; batht and bath-ing, with a hyphen, have however been employed. In some early instances, bath may probably be only a variant spelling of bathe.]
trans. To subject to a bath; to wash or immerse in a bath. Differing from bathe in having a more distinct reference to sense 11 of BATH sb.1, and in being always literal.
[1483. Cath. Angl., 24. To bath or bathe, balneare.
c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), IV. 296. A bath of þi blude to bath mans saule in.
1616. R. C., Times’ Whis. (1871), 116. That fountaine rather Where faire Diana with her nymphs doth bath her?]
1660. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 366. To London and saw the bath-ing … of the Knights of the Bath.
1876. G. Macdonald, T. Wingfield. He batht himself.
Mod. The nurse who dresses and baths the younger children.
