Obs. rare. [f. prec. F. envisager is recorded only from 1583, and there is no independent evidence for Palsgrave’s visager.]
1. trans. To face or confront.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Merch. T., 1029. Al hadde man seyn a thyng with bothe hise eyen, Yit shul we wommen visage it hardily, And wepe and swere and chide subtilly.
2. To look upon or at; to regard or observe.
1450. Paston Lett., I. 150. My Lord was with the Kynge, and he vesaged so the mater that alle the Kynges howshold was and is aferd ryght sore.
1530. Palsgr., 765/2. This man hath vysaged me well sythe I came in a dores.
1531. Elyot, Gov., II. ii. The theues … humbly approched to Scipio, who visaged them in suche fourme that they … made humble reuerence.
Hence † Visaging vbl. sb., meeting, encountering. Obs.
a. 1500. Gough Chron., in Six Town Chron. (1911), 159. The duke of Somersett and Sir John Nevyle knyght son of the Erle of Salisbury had grete visagyng to gidder at London.
