▪ I. grece Obs. exc. dial.
(griːs)
Forms: α. 4–6 grese, 4–8 greece, 4–9 greese, (6 greesse, greysse, greis(s, 6–8 gresse, 7 grees, greice), 4–9 grece. β. 5–6 gryse, 6–7 grice, grise, 6–9 griece, (7 griese, grize).
[a. OF. grez, greyz, greis, pl. of gré gree n.1, taken as a collective sing. in sense of ‘flight of steps, staircase’; contemporaneously a double plural greces, greeses was formed and used with the meaning ‘flight of steps’ and ‘steps in a flight’; whence in the 15th c. a sing. form grece was deduced (sense 2 c).]
1. A flight of stairs or steps; a stairway.
| α a 1300 Cursor M. 10584 (Gött.) A grece þer was of steppis fijftene. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1590 Glydes doun by þe grece & gos to þe kyng. 1382 Wyclif Ezek. xl. 6 He stiede vp by the greese therof. 1449 in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) II. 10 Thei shull make the Rofes..with all the Midilwalles and greses to the seid houses perteyning. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. (Percy Soc.) 16 A grece there was, y-chesyled all of stone Out of the rocke. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon xxxviii. 119 He mountyd upe the grese of the palayes. 1622 Bacon Hen. VII, Mor. & Hist. Wks. (Bohn) 431 The lord archbishop, upon the greece of the quire, made a long oration. 1777 Hoole Comenius' Vis. World (ed. 12) 86 They go up into the upper stories by greeses, and winding-stairs. 1869 J. P. Morris Gloss. Furness, Grece, the inclined way to a barn or granary, when built over a shippon or stable. 1882 Lanc. Gloss., Greese, stairs, steps. |
| β c 1475 Partenay 1427 On grice went vp, the kyng on bed thay founde. 1481–90 Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.) 122 He schal..make the gryse as my Lord wyll desyre yt. 1674 Ray N.C. Words 22 Grees or Griece, Stairs. |
| fig. 1549 Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Heb. 11 That lawe..was geuen for a season, to thentente it shoulde be a certaine griece or stayre to bring vs at the length to a better hope. 1587 Mirr. Mag., K. Rudacke vii, Ambition out sercheth to glory the greece. |
2. a. pl. Steps or stairs (collectively); a set or flight of stairs;
= sense 1.
| c 1340 Cursor M. 10588 (Laud) This may but of iij⊇ yere old Went on the grecys [other MSS. grece, grees] I ere of told. a 1400–50 Alexander 332 Gase him doune be þe grecis a-gayn fra þe sale. c 1440 Generydes 1531 Downne of the greses he felle the hede before, And brake his nek. 1463 Bury Wills (Camden) 20 The litil botrie vndir the gresys. 1527 Andrew Brunswyke's Distyll. Waters B ij, And the panne shal be set upon a hye steyre or gryses. 1557 N. T. (Genev.) Acts xxi. 35 When he came vnto the greces, he was borne of the souldiers, for the violence of the people. |
b. pl. Steps or stairs (in a flight);
spec. in
Her. with the spelling
grieces (whence
grieced a.).
| α c 1400 Mandeville (1839) vi. 70 At the right syde, as men comen dounward 16 Greces. c 1450 Mirour Saluacioun 1161 Salomones Throne was with sex greces exaltate. 1533 Wriothesley Chron. (1875) I. 21 A table sett at the upper ende of the hall, going upp twelve greeses. 1681 Keepe Monum. Westm. (1682) 31 Ascending from this Picture by two or three Greeses or steps, until you come to the Rails that compass in the High Altar. |
| β 1549 Thomas Hist. Italie 30 Certayn skaffoldes of borde, with grices or steppes one aboue an other. 1566 in Peacock Eng. Ch. Furniture (1866) 81 The steers or gryses coming vpp to the altare. 1603 B. Jonson K. Jas.' Entertainm. Fenchurch 108 The daughters of the Genius..in a spreading ascent, upon severall grices, help to beautifie both the sides. 1610 J. Guillim Heraldry iv. ix. (1611) 212 A crosse crossed, mounted upon three grieces. 1681 Cotton Wond. Peak (ed. 4) 79 Fair round Stairs, some fifteen grieses high Land you upon a Terrass. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 459/2 A pillar mounted on Grices or Stepps. 1869 Cussans Her. (1893) 116 Grieces, steps or Degrees. |
| transf. and fig. 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 420 Þey gon not to heuene bi greesis þat god haþ ordeyned to lede þidur. 1540 Morysine Vives' Introd. Wysd. Pref. A v b, The steppes and grices, wherby..my lord your father..hathe clymed to nobilitie. 1606 J. Raynolds Dolarney's Prim. (1880) 64 Phœbus..Climbing the lofty gresses of the skies. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. viii. §46 Neither is the Popes reuenge thus appeased, some higher greeces yet remaine, on which his Greatnesse..must display it selfe. 1625 W. Morrell New Eng. in Ferdinando Gorges (Prince Soc., Boston) 129 Whose hayre is cut with greeces, yet a locke Is left [cf. 1565 Cooper Thesaurus, Comam in gradus frangere, to turne or set the heare in facion of greeses]. |
c. sing. A single step or stair in a flight.
| α 1448 Will of Hen. VI in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) I. 355, vj. grecis to be before the high auter, with the grece called gradus chori. 1491 Caxton Vitas Patr. (W. de W. 1495) i. xlvii. 87 b/2 The deuyll threwe her downe from the hyghest grece to the loweste. 1549 Latimer 2nd Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 67 The top of the ladder, or first greese. 1607 Cowell Interpr. s.v. Constable, Staffel in their language signifieth a grees or steppe of a paire of staires. 1641 Prynne Antip. i. i. 26 Upon the third or fourth Greice of those steps he was slaine. |
| β 1559 Will of Sir R. Tyson (Somerset Ho.), The lowest Grice of the Alter. 1604 Shakes. Oth. i. iii. 200 Let me..lay a Sentence, Which as a grise, or step may helpe these Louers. 1640 Somner Antiq. Canterb. 166 The third or fourth griece or step of the Pulpitum. |
| fig. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. iii. i. 135 Vio. I pittie you. Ol. That's a degree to loue. Vio. No not a grize: for tis a vulgar proofe That verie oft we pitty enemies. 1607 ― Timon iv. iii. 16 Euerie grize of Fortune Is smooth'd by that below. 1636 Featly Clavis Myst. li. 720 How low must the descent be where humility is the uppermost greece. |
3. attrib. grece-head, the top of a flight of stairs.
| 1556 Richmond. Wills (Surtees) 91 The lytyll chamber at the greisshedde. 1559 Ibid. 123 One standing bed stede being in the grecehed chamer. 1583 in Ripon Ch. Acts 380 In the chamber over grese head. 1876 Whitby Gloss., Grees⁓heead, the stair-head. |
▪ II. grece obs. f. grass,
grease,
Greek;
pl. of
gree n.1 and n.3; variant of
gris n. and a.
Obs.