[a. F. verser (12th c.; = Prov. and Pg. versar, vessar, Sp. versar, It. versare), or ad. L. versāre, freq. of vertĕre to turn, etc. In mod. use, in sense 4, app. a back-formation from VERSED ppl. a.1]
† 1. trans. To pour out (the voice). Obs.–1
c. 1530. Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 453. Than she [sc. a nightingale] … fylled her throte full of wynde, the more shryller to verse out her swete voyce.
† 2. To overthrow, overturn or upset. Obs.–1
1556. J. Heywood, Spider & F., xliii. 40. This formost spider and flie, in furius fret,… this prosesse thei perst. And vengeable venumly, ech other verst.
† 3. To turn over (a book) in study or investigation. Obs.
1606. Birnie, Kirk-Buriall (1833), 6. By versing and searching the Scriptures.
a. 1656. Hales, Gold. Rem., I. (1673), 271. If you be versing the Ancient Histories, then provide you Ptolomy’s Maps.
† b. To revolve or turn over (something) in the mind. Obs.
1614. T. Adams, Sinners Passing Bell, Wks. (1629), 260. Who versing in his minde this thought, can keepe his cheekes dry?
4. To instruct, to make (one) conversant or experienced, in something. Now refl. Cf. VERSED ppl. a.11.
1673. O. Walker, Educ., 132. For reading: verse him well in inventive Authors.
1776. W. Combe, Diaboliad (1777), 31.
| And having vers’d them in each common evil, | |
| Lead them to Masques to personate the Devil. |
1786. Mrs. A. M. Bennett, Juvenile Indiscr., V. 164. The intrigues of state affairs had thoroughly versed him in chicanery and dissimulation.
1895. G. Alexander, in Daily News, 4 Oct., 2/2. Surely if students while versing themselves in the classics were were to have a liberal education in the art of speaking their own language with fluency and clearness—not only would the stage gain, but those professions that relied so much upon oratory—the Church, the bar, and the arena of politics.
1898. R. F. Horton, Commandm. Jesus, xx. 362. This is my own feeling—a feeling which grows and intensifies the more I verse myself in His commandments.
