Forms: 5 oylage, vlage, 6 Sc. vlege, s- ullage. [ad. AF. ulliage, OF. ouillage, eullage (heulliage), œillage (also Anglo-L. oliagium, oyll-, ull-, ulagium), Pr. ulhage, oulhage, f. OF. ouiller, eullier, oiller, œiller (Anglo-L. oillare), Pr. ulha, oulha, to fill up (a barrel).
Forms with initial a- are also given by Godefroy, viz. aouillage and aouillier, aoillier, aeullier, etc. (1295–).]
1. The amount of wine or other liquor by which a cask or bottle falls short of being quite full (originally the quantity required to make good the loss by leakage or absorption).
[1297. Chanc. Misc. (P.R.O.) Bd. 2 No. 15 (5). Tradidi etiam eidem vnam pipam pro oliagio predictorum doleorum.
1329. Exchequer Rolls Scotl. (1878), I. 224. De ij doliis et j pipa vini…. Et in vllagio … j et dimidium.
a. 1377. Rolls of Parlt., II. 384. Item par Adam le Ken pur ulliage es Vins mesme l’an 1 ton’ 1 pip’.]
1444. Compota Domest. (Abbotsf. Cl., 1836), 26. In vlage et lecage per tempus predictum, [84] lagene [bere].
1481–90. Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.), 288. Paid for iiij. galons wyne, iij. qrtes, for oylage for the ton wyne, iij. s. ij. d.
1565. Burgh Rec. Edinb. (1875), III. 211. he twn of wyne at this present … xvj crownis of the sone;… item, of fraucht xvj crownis sone; item, for vlege vj li.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Ullage of a Cask, is what such a Vessel wants of being full.
1749. W. Yeo, Ullaging & Inching, 3. As often as these Lines are used for determining the Ullages of Casks.
1755. Dict. Arts & Sci., s.v., The ullage of a vessel, whose axis is parallel to the horizon, may be found thus.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 1324. It is usually tunned into hogsheads of a hundred gallons each, leaving a few gallons ullage.
1835. Marryat, Olla Podr., III. 297 (Moonshine). I held the bottle up to the candle to ascertain the ullage.
1885. W. Ecockes, in Civilian, 3 Jan., 141/2. A work … comprising tables of ullages of casks, whose bung diameters range from 15 to 40 inches.
b. On ullage, (in a vessel) not completely full.
1863. T. G. Shaw, Wine, Vine & Cellar, xi. 302. It is injurious to Rhenish wine to be left on ullage.
1880. Act 43 & 44 Vict., c. 24 § 43. The casks in which spirits are removed may be either full or … on ullage.
1883. Times, 17 Nov., 10. The wines should not remain long on ullage.
2. a. (See quots.)
1832. S. Roose, Ullaging, 5. By knowing the vacuity, and subtracting it from the whole content, leaves the Ullage or the quantity of liquor then in the cask.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 705. Ullage, the remainder in a cask or package which has leaked or been partially used.
1883. Encycl. Brit., XVI. 28/2. The quantity of liquor contained in a cask partially filled and the capacity of the portion which is empty are termed respectively the wet and dry ullage.
b. slang. (See quots.)
1874. Slang Dict., 332. Ullages, the wine of all sorts left in the bottoms of glasses at a public dinner.
1889. Pall Mall G., 21 Aug., 2/1. ‘Pray what is “ullage”?’ ‘The washings out of casks, sir,’ replied my friend.
3. transf. a. Liquid that has oozed through a substance.
1824. T. Hogg, Carnation, 50. Upon this stratum or bed of dung … the ullage occasioned from time to time by the rains will all be received.
b. The waste of metal in engraving.
1860. Cornh. Mag., I. 272. In graving deep, tiny spirals of gold and silver curl away from the trenchant tool, and there is precious ullage in chasing and burnishing—spirals and ullage worth money in the market.
c. Naut. (See quots.)
1901. Daily Chron., 23 May, 5/1. The mass of her crew will all too probably be ‘ullage’—to use the naval term for a preponderance of undesirables.
1904. Kipling, Traffics & Discov., 113. ‘You’re a disgrace to the Service, and your boat’s offal.’ ‘Awful?’ I said, ‘No—offal—tripes—swipes—ullage.’
4. attrib., as ullage bottle, cask, contents.
1743. Bulkeley & Cummins, Voy. S. Seas, 46. This Morning found the Store Tent robbed of Brandy; filled up all the ullage Casks.
1784. J. Boydell (title), The Ullage Cask Gauger; comprised in a series of Tables … whereby the Ullage Contents of any Cask … is at one view known.
1812. J. Smyth, Pract. of Customs (1821), 363. The ullage cask … must be re-gauged, as must all casks entered for exportation. Ibid., 409. Landing Ullage Contents.
1864. Daily Tel., 4 June. There is scarcely a ship … in which the examining officer’s attention is not called to ullage casks.
1889. Pall Mall G., 19 Jan., 7. It might have been made by putting two ullage bottles into one.
