Obs. exc. in pl. Forms: sing. 4 lie, 5 ley(e, lye, 7–9 lee. pl. 4–6 lyes, 5–6 lies, 6 leese, leeze, lyse, 6– lees. [a. F. lie, Gaulish L. lia, pl. liæ (10th c.); Celtic origin has been conjectured.] The sediment deposited in the containing vessel from wine and some other liquids.
† 1. sing. Also fig. Also upon the lee, to drain to the lee. Cf. 2 d below. Obs.
1390. Gower, Conf. (M.) III. 895 (I. 309). And thus fuloften have I boght The lie, and drank noght of the wyn.
c. 1430. Two Cookery-bks., 32. Whan þe ley is seþin hot, caste þe Pesyn þer-to.
1481. Caxton, Myrr., I. i. 6. The lye whiche is thordure abideth byneth in the bottom.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 338. Which … will both stop the fermentation and precipitate the Lee.
1700. Dryden, Sigism. & Guisc., 317. A man so smelling of the people’s lee.
1703. Art & Myst. Vintners, 23. The gross Lees settle quickly, and also the flying Lee in time.
1709. Lond. Gaz., No. 4512/14. For Sale,… 70 Hogsheads of new … Claret upon the Lee neat.
1718. Prior, Henry & Emma, 497. I’ll mingle with the people’s wretched lee.
1747. Gentl. Mag., 468. This cyder … should be rack’d off once at least from its gross lee.
1813. Hogg, Queen’s Wake, 183. Sweet though the draught of pleasure be, Why should we drain it to the lee?
2. pl.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, III. 1040. Boystes Crammed ful of lyes As euer vessel was with lyes.
c. 1460. J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, 115. The reboyle to Rakke to be lies of þe rose.
1530. Palsgr., 239/1. Lyse or wyne, lye.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 328. Ther is … no wine made of grapes but hath leese.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., II. xvi. 110. Wines the stronger they be the more lees they have when they are new.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., iv. 11. Where all the heavier Lees may have time to subside.
1704. Swift, Mech. Operat. Spirit Misc. (1711), 302. Other Spirits are produc’d from Lees, by the Force of Fire.
1763. J. Brown, Poetry & Mus., vi. 119. Thespis and his Company bedaubed their Faces with the Lees of Wine.
1796. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, xxv. 377. Lay them to steep in sack lees, or any white wine lees.
1830. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., I. 257. The lees of wine, on distillation, afford the greatest quantity of oil.
1861. H. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 132. Composed of the scum and lees of all broths and soups.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 352. A Bottle containing Lees of Sardine Oil.
b. fig. Basest part, ‘dregs,’ ‘refuse.’
1593. Nashe, Christs T., 30 a. Twenty thousand of these dreggy lees of Libertines.
1621. S. Ward, Life of Faith, xiii. 116. In these Lees and Dregges of time.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath. (1839), 321. Pretenders to political prudence … bred for the most part in the lees of the people.
1677. W. Hubbard, Narrative, 119. This company of Treacherous Villains, the Dregs and Lees of the Earth.
1706. Estcourt, Fair Examp., I. i. 11. A Man that will always smell of the Lees of the People.
1726–46. Thomson, Winter, 480. He, too, with whom Athenian honour sunk, And left a mass of sordid lees behind.
1838. Hallam, Hist. Lit. (1841), I. ii. 216. Slowly purging off the lees of this extreme corruption.
1851. H. Melville, Whale, vii. 40. My body is but the lees of my better being.
1859. Kingsley, Misc., I. 166. The angler … has left for his day’s work only the lees of his nervous energy.
1868. Milman, St. Paul’s, ix. 220. It is impossible to work a revolution, especially a religious revolution, without stirring up the lees of human nature.
† c. construed as sing. Obs.
1605. Shaks., Macb., II. iii. 100. The Wine of Life is drawne, and the meere Lees Is left this Vault, to brag of.
d. In various phrases, chiefly fig., esp. to drain, drink the lees, (to drain, drink, etc.) to the lees, i.e., to the last drop, to the very end, (to settle) on or upon the lees.
1611. Bible, Isa. xxv. 6. A feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees. Ibid., Jer. xlviii. 11. Moab hath bene at ease from his youth, and hee hath setled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessell to vessell.
1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus i. 7. They may not part till they have drunk … the cup of the wrath of God to the very lees. Ibid., ii. 6. Settle the soule vpon his lees of sinnefull lusts.
a. 1639. Wotton, Parallel, in Reliq. (1651), 8. His Humours grew Tart, as being now in the Lees of favour.
1667. Poole, Dial. betw. Protest. & Papist (1735), 75. You are an obstinate Heretick, and settled upon the Lees.
1696. Tate & Brady, Ps. lxxv. 8. To drink the very Lees.
1780. Cowper, Progr. Err., 260. Are sweet philosophy’s enjoyments run Quite to the lees?
1821. Keats, Lamia, I. 143. She felt the warmth … And, like new flowers at morning song of bees, Bloomed, and gave up her honey to the lees.
1842. Tennyson, Ulysses, 7. I will drink Life to the lees.
1847. Disraeli, Tancred, II. i. This Parliament will last; it will go on to the lees.
1855. Milman, Lat. Chr., IV. ii. (1864), II. 206. They were doomed to drink the lees of humiliation.
1856. Boker, Poems (1857), II. 80. I’ll drain the bitter to the very lees.
1868. J. H. Blunt. Ref. Ch. Eng., I. 41. The people at large were content to settle down on their lees.
1871. Pusey, Lenten Serm., vii. (1883), 141. We reverse the Apostle’s rule, rest on our lees, remember ‘the things which are behind,’ and forget ‘those which are before.’
e. attrib.
1706. Art of Painting (1744), 107. Leonardo’s carnations have too much of the lees-colour in them.
