▪ I. dice, n.
(properly pl.): see die n. and in Combs. below.
▪ II. dice, v.
(daɪs)
[f. dice, pl. of die n.]
1. a. intr. To play or gamble with dice. In extended use (fig.): to take great risks, esp. in phr. to dice with death. Freq. in Motoring contexts.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 121 Dycyn, or pley wythe dycys, aleo. 1519 Presentm. Juries in Surtees Misc. (1890) 32 Latt no manservauntes dysse nor carde in ther howsses. 1548 Latimer Ploughers (Arb.) 25 Thei hauke, thei hunt, thei card, thei dyce. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. iii. 18, I was..vertuous enough, swore little, dic'd not aboue seuen times a weeke. 1647 R. Stapylton Juvenal 253 If th' old man dice, th' heire in long coats will doe The like. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 97 The Dick Talbot who had diced and revelled with Grammont. |
| fig. 1941 Prince Chula Chakrabongse Dick Seaman xiv. 357 Racing motorists usually referred to driving in a race as either ‘cracking’ or ‘dicing’, the latter word having been derived from the journalists' former habit of writing about their being ‘speed demons dicing with death’. 1969 Observer (Colour Suppl.) 23 Mar. 24/1 On the M1 or the M4 a lot of them try to dice with us... You'll get the bod who will come up behind you, an Aston Martin, a Sprite, a Mini Cooper, and they'll be flashing their lights to get by you. 1971 Daily Tel. 29 Jan. 3/8 [He] had been ‘dicing’ along the road with the driver of another car. They were trying to ‘carve each other up’ after a motoring incident a mile away. |
b. trans. To lose or throw away by dicing; to gamble away. Also fig.
| 1549 [see dicing-house]. 1618 N. Field Amends for Ladies i. i. in Hazl. Dodsley XI. 94 Have I to dice my patrimony away? 1871 Tom Taylor Jeanne Darc ii. i, How cheerily a king and kingdom May be diced, danced, and fiddled to the dogs! 1881 Blackie Lay Serm. i. 79 The conscript boy, torn from his father..to dice away his sweet young life in a cause with which he has no concern. |
c. trans. To bring by dice-play (into, out of, etc.).
| 1843 Macaulay Ess., Addison (1889) 721 When he diced himself into a spunging house. |
d. To reject, throw away; to leave alone. Austral. slang.
| 1944 L. Glassop We were Rats i. i. 5 It's me name, but it's too cissy, so I dices it and picks up ‘Mick’. 1953 K. Tennant Joyful Condemned xxii. 214 I'll dice it—for now. |
2. To cut into dice or cubes: esp. in cookery.
| ? c 1390 Forme of Cury in Warner's Culin. Antiq. 5 Take Funges [mushrooms], and pare hem clene, and dyce hem. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 121 Dycyn, as men do brede, or other lyke, quadro. 1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 95 Make a ragoo of oysters and sweetbreads diced. |
3. To mark or ornament with a pattern of cubes or squares; to chequer; spec. a. Needlework. (See quot. 1808–80.) b. Bookbinding. To ornament (leather) with a pattern consisting of squares or diamonds: see diced ppl. a. 2.
| 1688 J. Clayton in Phil. Trans. XVIII. 126 The young Ones [snakes] have no Rattles..but they may be known..being very regularly diced or checker'd, black and gray on the backs. 1808–80 Jamieson, Dice, 1. Properly, to sew a kind of waved pattern near the border of a garment..2. To weave in figures resembling dice. |
† 4. To mark with spots or pips, like dice. Obs.
| 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 8 The Butter Fly. The eye is large and globular, diced or bespeck'd here and there with black spots. |
▪ III. dice
obs. Sc. f. dais, pew or seat in a church.
▪ IV. dice, adv.
Naut.: see dyce.