Obs. Forms: 5 baygne, 5–6 bayn(e, 7 baigne, 6–7 bain(e. [a. F. baigne-r (= Pr. banhar, Sp. bañar, It. bagnare):—L. balneāre, f. balneum bath.]
1. trans. and refl. To bathe or wash; to drench.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VI. x. (1495), 195. The mydwyfe … baynyth hym with salte and hony to comforte his lymmes.
1474. Caxton, Chesse, II. iv. 32. Whan the knyhtes ben maad they ben bayned or bathed.
1577. Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619), 50. John the Apostle … to baine himself, entred into a bath.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 108 b. To baigne them … with a worse perfume.
b. fig. or rhetorically.
1491. Caxton, Vitas Patr. (W. de W.), I. lxvi. 115 a/2. His body was alle bayned and bydewed in teres and water.
1557. Earl Surrey, in Tottell’s Misc. (Arb.), 5. Salt teares doe bayne my brest.
a. 1652. J. Vicars, in Farr’s S. P. (1848), 124. Haile-stones he rained, And with feirce flames of fire them bained.
2. intr. (for refl.) To bathe oneself. lit. and fig.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 164/4. Ne neuer rasour touched his heed ne he neuer baygned.
c. 1500. Love Song, in Halliwell, Nugæ Poeticæ, 68. In gladnesse I swym and baine.
1573. Twyne, Æneid., XI. Kk j b. The launce … in virgins blood doth bayne.
