Obs. exc. dial. Forms: 1 sion, seon, (3rd pers. sing. siid), 2 pa. t. seh, 4–5 (9 dial.) sie, 4–6 (9 dial.) sye, (5 syee, cy(e, sigh, 6 sighe), 7 seigh, 9 Sc. sey. [OE. síon, séon (:—*sīhan), pa. t. sáh, pa. pple. siʓen, siwen, later seowen, séon, = MLG. sigen, sihen, sîen, MDu. sighen, sijghen, siën, ziën (pa. t. seech, pa. pple. gesegen, gesiet, Du. zijgen), OHG. sîhan, pa. t. sêh, siwan, pa. pple. gisigan (MHG. sîhen, sîgen, pa. t. seic, sigen, pa. pple. gesigen, G. seihen), ON. sía:—OTeut. *sīχwan. Cf. prec.]
1. trans. To strain, pass through a strainer; also, to strain out. † Also with up.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (Hessels), E 461. Excolat, siid.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., III. 14. Seoh ðurh clað.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., II. 383. Blynde leders, syynge þe gnatte and swolowe þe camel.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 17. Take swete mylk … And sethe and sye hit thorowghe a cloth.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 146. Milke thy kye, socle thy calues, sye vp thy mylke.
1530. Palsgr., 717/2. I sye mylke, or clense, je coulle du laict. This terme is to moche northerne.
1559. Morwyng, Evonym., 392. Aromaticall wynes … the spyces beaten together, sighed and streined a few tymes through a streiner or Hippocras bag of wull.
1847. Halliwell, Sie … (4) to strain milk…. It is still used in Derbyshire.
1895. Pinnock, Black Country Ann. (E.D.D.). To sye it thru a jelly bag.
2. intr. To drop as a liquid, drip, drain, ooze.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., I. vii. 38. Þa wæron swiðe hreowlice berstende, & þa worms utsionde.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Saints’ Lives, xx. 64. Hi cwædon þa sume þæt se læce sceolde asceotan þæt ʓeswell … and þær sah ut wyrms.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 121. Mid þornene crune his heaued wes icruned swa þet þet rede blod seh ut.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., XI. 326. And into a wyn barel doun let hem sie.
1450–1530. Myrr. our Ladye, 108. That there shulde no thorrocke that myghte syee or droppe in therto.
1868. [see b].
b. trans. To mark or stain by dropping.
1855. Robinson, Whitby Gloss., s.v. Sie, Not stained, but sied all over.
1868. Atkinson, Cleveland Gloss., Sie, v.n., to drop, to mark by dropping.
Hence Sying vbl. sb.2 and ppl. a., straining; oozing, etc.
c. 1000. Saxon Leechd., II. 314. Wiþ seondum geallan ete rædic.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 455/2. Syynge, or clensynge (S. syftynge, P. siffinge), colacio, colatura.
1450–1530. Myrr. our Ladye, 109. A place in the bottome of a shyppe wherein ys gatheryd all the fylthe that cometh in to the shyppe, other by lekynge or by syinge in to yt by the bourdes.
1688. [see SYE sb.2 1].
