Also 6 lefage, 8 levage. [f. LEAF sb. + -AGE.]
1. Leaves collectively; foliage.
1599. T. M[oufet], Silkwormes, 54. If morn and eu’n fresh lefage they may haue.
1850. Blackie, Æschylus, II. 374. When the leafage first comes out in spring.
1876. Farrar, Marlb. Serm., iv. 30. The test of their reality is not the idle leafage of profession, but the rich certainty of fruit.
1881. S. R. Hole, Nice, iii. 36. The silvery leafage of the olive.
1883. Ruskin, Art Eng., i. 10. The true representation of actual Sunshine, of growing Leafage.
b. The representation of leaves or foliage, esp. as an ornamentation.
1703. T. N., City & C. Purchaser, 108. The Drapery or Levage that is wrought upon the Heads of Pillars.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), IV. 120. The leafage of his trees … is hard.
1853. Ruskin, Stones Ven., III. i. § 2. 2. Corinthian capitals, rich in leafage.
1863. Gentl. Mag., Nov., 537. We have also an extreme dislike to … his adopting the modern conceit of leafage in place of the long-established … technical term of foliation.
1893. Archæologia, LIII. 554. Their freely-carved leafage is far superior to any foliage that could have been executed.
2. Lamination. rare.
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 349. The leafage of the wire is produced by passing it through a numerous succession of rayed perforations.
