▪ I. grice1 Obs. exc. Sc. and arch.
(graɪs)
Forms: 3–6 grise, 4 grys, 4–7 gryse, 5–9 gryce, (7 greece), 7– grice.
[a. ON. gr{iacu}ss (Sw., Da. gris) young pig, pig.]
1. A pig, esp. a young pig, a sucking pig; † occas. and spec. in Her., a wild boar.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 204 Þe Suwe of ȝiuernesse, þet is, Glutunie, haueð pigges [MSS. T., C. grises] þus inemned. c 1325 Gloss. W. de Bibbysw. in Wright Voc. 174 Porceus, gryses. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Blasius 119, I pray þe þat sume helpe þu wil gyf me, þat, bot a gryse, had gud nane. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) ix. 36 Þe Sarzenes also bringes furth na grysez, ne þai ete na swyne flessch. c 1420 Avow. Arth. ii, Sir, ther walkes in my way A welle grim gryse. He is a balefulle bare. 1513 Douglas æneis iii. vi. 72 A grete sow fereit of grysis thretty heid. 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) II. 164 Ane swine that etis hir grisis, sal be stanit to deid. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. 124 Na Castellane may enter within ane Burges house to slay his swyne, gryses, geise, or hennes. 1812 W. Tennant Anster F. iv. viii, As a swineherd puts in poke a grice. 1828–40 Berry Encycl. Her. I, Grices, young wild boars, but boars are sometimes called grices, and so blazoned in allusion to the bearer's name. 1899 J. Colville Scott. Vernacular 15 Beginning life as a grice, the pig when speaned became a shot. |
| Proverb. 1721 Kelly Scot. Prov. 62 Bring the Head of the Sow to the Tail of the Grice. That is, balance your Loss with your Gain. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxiv, An' I am to lose by ye, I'se ne'er deny I hae won by ye mony a fair pund sterling. Sae, an' it come to the warst, I'se e'en lay the head o' the sow to the tail o' the grice. |
b. The sing. form used as pl. or collect.
? On analogy of the plurals mice, lice.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. Prol. 105 Hote pies, hote! Goode gees and grys! Ibid. iv. 38 Bothe my gees and my grys his gadelynges fetten. c 1476 Plumpton Corr. 39 As for geese, grise, hennys, & copons, your said tenants may none keepe, but they are..stolen away by night. 1679 Blount Anc. Tenures 101 He is come thither to hunt, and catch his Lords Greese [margin ‘Wild swyne’]. |
† c. transf. The young of a badger (see pig). Obs. rare—1.
| 1637 B. Jonson Sad Sheph. ii. ii, This fine Smooth Bawsons Cub, the young grice of a Gray [etc.]. [1863 Sala Capt. Dangerous II. vii. 225 They burrowed like so many Grice.] |
† 2. The flesh of a ‘grice’, pork. Obs. rare—1.
| c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 54 Bothe grys and vele and rostyd motone. |
▪ II. † grice2 Obs.—0
[App. Cotgrave's assimilation of grouse to the F. grièche (:—L. type *Græcisca, fem. of *Græciscus: see Greekish), as in poule, perdrix grièche; erron. taken by some etymologists to be the original of grouse n.1]
| 1611 Cotgr., Poule griesche, a Moorehenne; the henne of the Grice, or Mooregame. |
▪ III. grice
obs. form of grece, steps.
▪ IV. grice
variant of gris a. Obs., grey.