▪ I. leach, n.1 Obs. exc. arch.
(liːtʃ)
Forms: α. 4–6 leche, 5–7 leech(e, 6 leache, 6– leach. β. 5 lese, lesse, lees(s(e, leshe, lesk, 6 less.
[a. OF. lesche (F. lèche).]
† 1. A slice (of meat, etc.); a strip. Obs.
| α c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 45 Thre leches of bacun lay þou mot In brothe. c 1440 Anc. Cookery in Househ. Ord. (1790) 435 Cut smal leches of two ynches of length. c 1500 For to Serve Ld. in Babees Bk. (1868) 370 Take of ij leches of the briste, and cowche legge and whyngge and lechis into a faire voyde plater. |
| β 14.. Noble Bk. Cookry (Napier 1882) 30 Tak the clodde of beef and make lesks of a span longe. c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 610 Put it in a dische leese by lees. |
2. A dish consisting of sliced meat, eggs, fruits, and spices in jelly or some other coagulating material. Often in adoptions of AF. combinations, denoting particular varieties, e.g. leche frye [cf. OF. lechefroie, mod.F. lèchefrite, dripping-pan], leach damask, leach dugard, leach lumbard, leach purple, leach royal, etc. dry leach: a sort of cake or gingerbread, containing dates, etc. white leach: a gelatine of almonds.
| α ? c 1390 Forme of Cury 36 Leche Lumbard. Take rawe Pork [etc.]. c 1420 in Q. Eliz. Acad. 90 Leche ffloree...leche dalmayn. Ibid. 91 Leche damasque. Ibid. 92 Leche maskelyn... Leche rubby. c 1440 Anc. Cookery in Househ. Ord. (1790) 449 And therwith daryolus, and leche⁓fryes, made of frit and friture. c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 516 Cow heelis and Calves fete ar dere y-bouȝt some tide To medille amonge leeches & Ielies. Ibid. 708 Quynces bake leche dugard. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vii. 587 Leche damask, w{supt} the kynges worde or prouerbe flourysshed. 1530 Palsgr. 238/1 Leche made of flesshe, gelee. 1570 in Gutch Coll. Cur. II. 8 For vj lb. of almones to him, for drie leche. 1573 Baret Alv. L 154 White Leach, gelatina amygdalorum. 1602 Plat Delightes for Ladies (1605) §22 This is your Gingerbread vsed at the Court... It is otherwise called drie Leach. 1615 Markham Eng. Housew. ii. ii. (1668) 96 To make the best Leech take Ising-glass..then take Almonds. 1750 E. Smith Compl. Housew. (ed. 14) 195 To make white Leach. 1848 H. Ainsworth Lanc. Witches i. ix, I pray you taste this pippin jelly..or some leach of almonds. |
| β c 1450 Two Cookery-bks. 75 Lese fryes. 1452 in Wood Hist. Univ. Oxon. (1792) I. 599 Leshe damask. c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 504 Alle maner of leessez ye may forbere. |
▪ II. leach, n.2
(liːtʃ)
Also 7 lech, 7–9 letch, 9 leech.
[app. f. leach v.2 (though recorded much earlier than the vb. in the cognate sense); in senses 1–3 prob. short for attributive combs. (letch n.1, ditch or pool, is etymologically identical.)]
1. A perforated vessel or trough used for making lye from wood ashes by pouring water over them. Obs. exc. dial.
| 1673 Ray Journ. Low C. (1738) I. 172 This powder they mingle with a little slaked lime..which they put into letches or troughs, and pouring water upon them make the lixivium. 1674–91 ― S. & E.C. Words 104 A Letch or Lech. 1840 Spurdens Suppl. to Forby, Leach. 1894 Harper's Mag. Apr. 810 Her elbow struck the leach and knocked it into the soap-kettle. |
2. Tanning. (See quot. 1886.)
| 1777 Macbride in Phil. Trans. LXVIII. 114 The ooze is made by macerating the bark in common water, in a particular set of holes or pits, which..are termed letches. 1852 C. Morfit Tanning & Currying (1853) 22 The application of heat to bark in leaches. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. s.v., In the bark-leach, the bark is contained between two perforated horizontal partitions in the leach. 1886 W. A. Harris Techn. Dict. Fire Insur., Leaches, in tanneries, are the pits in which the tan-liquors are mixed, as distinguished from the tan-pits, in which the hides are steeped. |
3. Salt-making. (See quot.)
| 1886 Cheshire Gloss., Leach, salt-making term; the brine (fully saturated) which drains from the salt, or is left in the pan when the salt is drawn out. Formerly called ‘leach⁓brine’. |
4. a. The action of ‘leaching’. b. (See quot.)
| 1828–32 Webster, Leach, a quantity of wood-ashes, through which water passes, and thus imbibes the alkali. |
5. attrib.: † leach-brine = sense 3; leach-hole (see quot. and cf. sense 4 of the vb.); leach-tank, a tank for leaching metallic ores; † leach-trough (see quot.).
| 1669 Phil. Trans. IV. 1065 *Leach-brine, which is such Brine, as runs from their salt, when 'tis taken up before it hardens. c 1682 J. Collins Salt & Fishery 56 Cheshire Salt-Workers call the Liquor that drops from their Salt, being put into Wicker-baskets, Leach Brine. |
| 1857 Thoreau Maine W. xvi. (1863) 313 A ‘*leach hole’ through which the pond leaked out. |
| 1877 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 403 From this line of wooden tubing the bath is to be conducted to each *leach-tank by an India-rubber tube. |
| 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 94 Through these being set in the *Leach-troughs the salt drains it self dry in 3 hours time. |
▪ III. leach, v.1 Obs. exc. arch.
(liːtʃ)
Forms: α. 4–5 leche, 5 lecche, leeche, leyche, 7– leach. β. 5 lese, lessh, 6 les(c)he.
[f. leach n.1]
trans. To cut (meat, etc.) in slices; to slice.
| α ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 188 Seyne bowes of wylde bores with þe braune lechyde, Bernakes and botures in baterde dysches. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 37 Whenne hit is sothun, thou schalt hit leche. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 35 Take gratyd Brede, & make it so chargeaunt þat it wol be y-lechyd. c 1450 Ibid. 71 Leche hit [brawn] faire, but not to thyn. 1486 Bk. St. Albans F vij b, Brawne leechyd. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 78 Terms for Carving..Leach that Brawn. 1864 H. Ainsworth Tower Lond. 412 In the old terms of his art, he leached the brawn. |
| β 14.. Noble Bk. Cookry (Napier 1882) 27 Then leshe it in dyshes. c 1440 Douce MS. 55 lf. 29 Mold it all to gedrys with thyn honde till it be so stiffe that it will be lesshed. 1513 Bk. Keruynge in Babees Bk. 265 Termes of a Keruer. Lesche y{supt} brawne. |
Hence † leached ppl. a., sliced, fried in slices. † ˈleaching vbl. n.1, in quot. concr., a slice; also attrib., as leaching-knife.
| 1416–17 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 613, 2 ladell de auricalco et 1 lechyngknyfe. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 15 Kytte hem [cakys] y lyke lechyngys. 1446 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees 1835) I. 101, iij lesyng knyues. 1461–83 Househ. Ord. (1790) 38 At supper leychid beefe & mutton roste. 1488 Will of Eliz. Brown (Somerset Ho.), Dressing knyfys, lecchyng knyfys, choppyng knyfys. |
▪ IV. leach, v.2
(liːtʃ)
Also leech, latch, letch.
[Prob. repr. OE. lęccan to water (tr. L. rigare):—WGer. type *lakkjan:—*lakjan, f. *lak-: see lake n.3 There appears to be no trace of the vb. between OE. and the examples of the technological use in the 18th c., exc. the doubtful instance in Shakes. and one other (see 1, 2 below). The form letch is normal; the variant leach is phonologically obscure.]
† 1. trans. To water, wet. Obs. rare.
(In the Shakes. quot. the vb. may possibly belong to latch v.2, in the transferred sense ‘to fasten’.)
| c 888 K. ælfred Boeth. xxxix. §13 (Sedgefield) 136/17 Hæᵹlas & snawas & se oftræda ren leccað þa eorðan on wintra. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iii. ii. 36 (1st Qo.) But hast thou yet latcht [2nd Qo. & 1st Fol. lacht] the Athenians eyes, With the loue iuice, as I did bid thee doe? |
† 2. intr. To soften, melt. Obs.
| 1614 H. Greenwood Jayle Deliv. 470 Merchants wax must leach in a candle, before it can take a stampe or impression. |
3. a. trans. To cause (a liquid) to percolate through some material.
| 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 439 Cider..is first separated from the filth and dregs, either by leaching through sand, or straining it through flannel cloths. 1828–32 Webster, Leach, to wash, as ashes, by percolation, or causing water to pass through them, and thus to separate from them the alkali. The water thus charged with alkali is called lye. |
b. To subject (bark, ores, etc.) to the action of percolating water, etc., with the view of removing the soluble constituents; to lixiviate. Also used with reference to the action of water, esp. rain, on soil; also absol.
| 1839 J. Buel Farmer's Compan. ix. 74 The wind and the sun dissipate its virtues, and rains leach it and waste its fertilizing powers. 1877 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 403 Concentrated liquid obtained by leaching the ores in this process, at Widnes, in England. 1882 Paton in Encycl. Brit. XIV. 382/2 The tanning materials so prepared are next leached, latched, or infused for preparing the strongest tanning solutions. 1882 Rep. to Ho. Repr. Prec. Met. U.S. 112 Chlorination works are needed for leaching the sulphurets. 1885 Harper's Mag. Jan. 276/1 Most tanners..grind [bark] in a bark-mill, ‘leaching’ the bark to obtain the liquor. 1917 Mining Mag. XVII. 75/2 The rocks..are altered and leached of iron. 1951 W. P. Kelley Alkali Soils vii. 146 It should not be inferred that..all the farmer needs to do in order to reclaim any alkali soil is to drain and leach with water. 1954 W. D. Thornbury Princ. Geomorphol. xvi. 420 Kansan and Nebraskan tills are leached to much greater depths. 1971 D. Hillel Soil & Water v. 124 They suggested that leaching soils at a water content below saturation (e.g., under sprinkling irrigation or rainfall or under intermittent irrigation) could produce more efficient leaching and thereby reduce the amount of water required. |
c. intr. To pass through by percolation (Webster, 1864); to percolate through and pass out. Also intr. for refl. Of ashes: To be subject to the action of percolating water.
| 1883 E. C. Rollins New Eng. Bygones 68 The ashes of those ancient wood-fires..went to leach in the spring for the making of family soap. 1931 Forestry V. 143 In order to avoid any possible effect of some of the preservative leaching out into the medium, some workers raise the blocks above the surface of the medium. 1961 J. N. Anderson Appl. Dental Materials (ed. 2) xxiii. 240 Dentures should be kept in water after curing in order to allow as much residual monomer as possible to leach out. 1968 Listener 21 Mar. 376/2 Cacodylic acid is alleged to disappear very quickly, to leech down through the soil. 1974 A. Huxley Plant & Planet xviii. 198 Many [viruses] make use of materials which leach through the [leaf] skin. |
4. trans. To take away, out, by percolation. Also fig.
| 1860 Maury Phys. Geog. Sea i. 16 The tides..leached out of the disintegrated materials..every soluble ingredient known in nature. 1877 N. S. Shaler App. to J. A. Allen's Amer. Bison 458 Whenever the rocks lie above the line of the drainage, these salts have been leached away. 1884 Engineer 12 Sept., After leaching out the chloride, the tails may be treated. 1900 Nature 19 July 277/2 A moist climate would tend to leach the calcareous matter from the rock. 1964 Listener 13 Aug. 225/2 It [sc. a modern office block] has neither virtues nor vices; it just sits there like a graceless woman, leeching away a bit more of the city's vitality. 1971 Nature 13 Aug. 446/3 Insecticides are leached from soil by water. 1973 Ibid. 20 July 165/1 Particulate material was collected on fibreglass filters from which lead was leached with hot 70% nitric acid. |
Hence leached ppl. a. (a) that has been subjected to the action of percolating liquid; (b) (also leached-out) that has been removed by percolating liquid.
| 1837 Cultivator Aug. 93/2 (heading) Leached ashes as manure. Ibid., Leached or drawn ashes possess a highly beneficial effect, particularly when applied to lands deficient in calcareous matters. 1862 Marsh Eng. Lang. 40 A melancholy heap of leached ashes, marrowless bones, and empty oyster-shells. 1895 Offic. Mining Rep. N. Zealand 10 Separating the cyanide solutions from the leached pulp. 1926 A. Locke (title) Leached outcrops as guides to copper ore. 1961 Listener 12 Oct. 559/1 So white are some leached layers [in a podsol] that they have entered archaeological literature as ‘layers of ash’. 1963 D. W. & E. E. Humphries tr. Termier's Erosion & Sedimentation vi. 139 The lowest part is a zone of enrichment to which the leached-out soluble salts from the upper part of the soil are carried. 1972 J. G. Cruickshank Soil Geogr. ii. 69 Part of the leached compounds are deposited in the lower zone of the soil, but some will be lost from the system through soil drainage and seepage. |