dew-ret, v.
(ˈdjuːrɛt)
Also -rot, -rate.
[f. dew n. + ret v.2]
trans. To ret or macerate (flax, hemp, etc.) so as to detach the fibre from the woody stem, by exposure to the dew and atmospheric influence instead of by steeping in water. Hence ˈdew-retting vbl. n.
| 1710 D. Hilman Tusser Redivivus, There is a Water-retting and a Dew-retting, which last is done on a good Rawing, or aftermath of a Meadow Water. 1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 208 The flax is always dew-rotted. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Dew-retting, which is spreading the crop on the grass, and turning it now and then to receive the dew. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 274 In Dorsetshire and the neighbourhood the flax growers have generally adopted the practice of dew retting. 1849 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. X. i. 180 It takes perhaps six weeks to dew-ret hemp. 1877 N.W. Linc. Gloss., Dew-rated, said of flax, which is retted on the ground, not by steeping in water. |