▪ I. lye, n.1
(laɪ)
Forms: 1 léaᵹ, (lǽᵹ), léah, léᵹ, 3 leihe, 4 leȝe, liȝe, (5 legh, leyȝe, leygh(e, lyhe), 5–9 lee, lie, ley, (5–6 leye, le, 7 ly), 5– lye.
[OE. léaᵹ (later léah, genit. léaᵹe) str. fem., corresponds to MDu. loghe (Du. loog), OHG. louga (MHG., mod.G. lauge), lye, ON. laug bath:—OTeut. *laugâ; prob. f. the root *lau- to wash (see lather) + suffix -gâ:—OAryan -qā.]
1. a. Alkalized water, primarily that made by the lixiviation of vegetable ashes, but also applied (esp. with prefixed word as in soap-lye, soda-lye) to any strong alkaline solution, esp. one used for the purpose of washing. † Also water of lye.
| a 700 Epinal Gloss. 591 Lexiua, leaᵹ [Corpus and Erf. læᵹ]. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 364 Scinseocum men wyrc drenc of hwites hundes þoste on bitere leᵹe wundorlice hyt hæleð. Ibid. II. 338 Wyrc him leaᵹe of ellen ahsan. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 93 If þat þou waische hem boþe [a cankre & a foul vlcus] wiþ liȝe. Ibid., Þe vlcus is clensid wiþ þilke liȝe [v.r. leyȝe]. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. ii. 377 Wete hit [a tree] at the fulle Thrie euery mone a yer in lie allone. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 32 Take a gode quantyte of fyne leye, & put it on a potte..& whan þe ley is seþin hot, caste þe Pesyn þer-to. c 1440 Jacob's Well 195 Watyr of legh þat is made wyth asschys & watyr,..for asschys & hote watyr makyn good leyghe. 1502 Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) i. ii. 10 But man shall be baptysed in necessyte with le. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 60 The Lee or Lixivium wherewith the Women usually scour their Clothes. 1704 N. N. tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. III. 287 Henry the Fourth, thought it an Honour to wash his Head..though some malicious People say, He did it not with Soap, but with hot scalding Lye. 1807 T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 544 Muriate of potash. This salt..is prepared from the waste leys of the soap-makers. 1898 F. T. Bullen Cruise Cachalot iv. (1900) 32 The officers..were content with ley, which was furnished in plenty by the ashes from the galley fire. |
b. In wider sense: Any detergent material used in washing; a cleansing substance. Also fig.
| c 1200 Vices & Virtues 95 Nis ðar non swo god leiȝe se teares. 12.. Prayer to our Lady 19 in O.E. Misc. 193 Mi brune her is hwit bicume ich not for hwucche leihe. c 1330 Spec. Gy Warw. 828 Þe hote teres of mannes eiȝe Makeþ clannere þan any liȝe. 1340 Ayenb. 145 Þet is þet we byeþ alle y-wasse of onelepi leȝe, Þet wes mid Iesu cristes preciouse blod. 1426 Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 21855 Wyth wych water, dame Penaunce Maketh a lye..To wasshen a-way al ordure. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 324 The vrin of a yong Asse fole is supposed to thicken the haire: but there would be mixed some Spiknard with this washing lie, to rectifie the strong sent of the said vrine. 1648 Herrick Hesper. (1869) 190 Feacie, some say, doth wash her clothes i' th' lie That sharply trickles from her either eye. |
† c. A cosmetic for the hair. (Cf. lye-pot.) Obs.
| 15.. Withals Dict. (1568) 51 a/2 Lie to wasshe the head with, lixiuium. 1561 T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer ii. (1577) L iij b, I reprehended a ladie of loue for occupying a certain kinde of lye y{supt} shined much. |
† d. Applied to urine used as a detergent; more fully chamber-lye. Obs.
| 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 593/23 Locium, lye, or pysse. |
2. Water impregnated with salts by decoction or lixiviation. Now rare.
| 1634 Peacham Gentl. Exerc. i. xxiii. 77 The Lie of Rue, (that is the water wherein you have sod your Rue or herb⁓grace). 1644 Nye Gunnery (1670) 14 Pour upon the said flower so much of the strained water, which I call lee or lime water, as will dissolve the flower. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. vi. xii. 337 Colcothar or vitriol burnt..will make good Inke, and so will the Lixivium or Lye made thereof with warme water. 1811 Self Instructor 562 A ley made with tartar and gum-water. 1860 Maury Phys. Geog. Sea i. §43 They [waters] find their way into the sea, and so make the lye of the earth brine for the ocean. Ibid. x. §461 The brine of the ocean is the ley of the earth. |
3. The limpid acrid fluid which runs from a blister or the like; the ‘water’ which collects in the body in dropsy. Now only dial.
| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 92 His Nauell suddenly opened whence issued so great quantity of the dropsy Lie, that his body fell to the wonted scantling. 1886 S.W. Linc. Gloss., Lee (so pronounced),..the watery matter which issues from a wound or sore: as ‘It's more like lee than matter’. |
4. attrib. and Comb. (sense 1), as lye-ashes, lye-brush, lye-cask, lye hominy, lye-kettle, lye-leach, lye-trough, lye-tub, lye-vessel, lye-wash. Also lye-pot.
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 599 Hereupon comes Lixivus cinis, i. Lie ashes, which being drunk is medicinable. 1605 Timme Quersit. ii. iii. 115 Lye-wash..is made of ashes and water. 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xi. ¶21 The Lye Brush is made of Hogs Bristles fastned into a Board with Brass-Wyer. Ibid., A Lye-Kettle..commonly holds about three Gallons. Ibid., The Lye-Trough..is a Square Trough made of Inch-Boards. 1743 Lond. & Country Brewer ii. (ed. 2) 109 A Lye-tub, though generally neglected as the worst..for a Cooler, has really proved the sweetest and safest of any. 1763 Museum Rusticum I. 53 The straw in the bottom of your lye-vessel. 1821 W. B. Dewees Lett. from Early Settler Texas (1852) 20 Our subsistence was principally upon..a kind of lye hominy seasoned with hickory nut kernels. 1824 J. Johnson Typogr. II. 489 As soon as a form is wrought-off, the press-man to carry it to the lye-trough, and there completely rub it over with lye. 1843 ‘R. Carlton’ New Purchase I. ix. 63 A lie-cask, or rather, an inverted pyramidical box to contain ashes. 1847 J. O. Halliwell Dict. Archaic & Provincial Words Lie-leach. 1854 M. J. Holmes Tempest & Sunshine xv. 202 Now be keerful and not run afoul of the plaguey lye leech! 1882 J. Southward Pract. Printing (1884) 406 Lye is applied to the forme with a lye brush. 1919 J. P. Dunn Indiana II. 1170 A woman situated like Mrs. McCoy, in her Indian boarding school, with no food but lye hominy in the house..‘degraded her soul’ by cooking lye hominy. 1948 E. N. Dick Dixie Frontier 290 Lye hominy was made by soaking the whole grains of corn in lye water to remove the hulls. |
▪ II. lye, n.2
[var. lie n.2]
= lie n.2 4.
| 1855 Ogilvie Imp. Dict. Suppl., Lye, a term employed, in railway lang., to denote the sidings or short offsets from the main line, into which trucks may be run for the purpose of loading or unloading. 1901 Daily Record (Glasgow) 31 Aug. 3 A boy..was accidentally killed at the lye of South Renfrew Station on Thursday night. |
▪ III. † lye, v.1 Cookery. Obs.
[a. F. lier to thicken (a sauce, etc.), lit. ‘to bind’:—L. ligāre.]
1. trans. To mix; to thicken (soups, sauces, etc.). Cf. alye, ally v. 5.
| ? c 1390 Forme of Cury (1780) 17 Make a lyre of raw ayrene and do þerto Safrone and powdour douce, and lye it up with gode broth. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 12 Loke þou lye hit with amydone. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 13 Take Vele..and hakke it to gobettys..and lye it with Flowre of Rys. Ibid. 19. |
2. To bind or tie. In quot. fig.
| 1621 Bury Wills (Camden) 167 He shall neede noe bonde to lye him to it. |
▪ IV. lye, v.2
Also ley.
[f. lye n.1]
trans. To treat with lye.
| 1805 Ann. Reg. 875 Ley the thread once. 1823 E. James Acct. Expedition Rocky Mts. I. 195 They sometimes prepare this hard corn for eating by the process of leying it, or boiling it in a ley of wood ashes for..an hour or two. 1888 Sci. Amer. 8 Dec. 356/2 The air is to be..excluded from the surface of fruits left standing after having been either lyed or washed. |
▪ V. lye
see lee n., leye, lie.