Forms: 6–8 bayes, 7 baies, bease, bayz(e, 7–9 bays, 7– baize. [a. F. baies (1570 in Godefroy, ‘les baies et sarges’), pl. fem. used subst. of adj. bai:—L. badius chestnut-colored, BAY; so named probably from its original color. The same material is called in It. bajetta (Florio, 1598), Sp. bayeta, Du. baai, Da. bai, Sw. boi. The plural form of the adopted word was soon misunderstood, and treated as a collective sing. (occas. with pl. bayses), whence the spelling bayze, baize, rare bef. 1800, but now quite established; the etymological sing. BAY is, however, also found.]
1. A coarse woollen stuff, having a long nap, now used chiefly for linings, coverings, curtains, etc., in warmer countries for articles of clothing, e.g., shirts, petticoats, ponchos; it was formerly, when made of finer and lighter texture, used as a clothing material in Britain also.
1578. (in Beck, Drapers’ Dict., 17) Blewe and blacke bayse.
1586. Harrison, England, I. II. v. 132. The wares they carrie out of the realme are … baies, bustian, mockadoes [etc.].
1635. N. R., Camden’s Hist. Eliz., I. 101. Those light stuffes which they call Bayes and Sayes.
1667. Pepys, Diary (1879), IV. 250. A cloak of Colchester bayze.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1755), 9. The price of broad cloath, wool and bayses.
1732. Acc. Workhouses, 51. 70 yards of red bays … for under petticoats.
1801. Felton, Carriages, I. 220. The Well of a Carriage is lined with linen or baize.
1882. Beck, Drapers’ Dict., 14. Bays, bayze, baize … was first introduced here in 1561.
b. attrib.
1634. Brereton, Trav. (1844), 52. He sat up in bed, and was in a thin bease waistcoat.
1837. Hawthorne, Twice-told T. (1851), II. vi. 90. Fishermen, in red baize shirts.
2. A curtain, table-cover, etc., of baize.
1862. Lond. Rev., 30 Aug., 193. The great baize will soon fall down.
1880. Browning, Dram. Idylls, Clive, 103. Cocky fancied that a clerk must feel Quite sufficient honor in bending over one green baize.
3. attrib., as in baize-factor.
1766. Ann. Reg., 53/2. A baize factor has presented the Mayor of Colchester … a rich gold chain.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., xxvi. § 1. Gentlemen of the green baize road, who could discourse from personal experience of foreign galleys and home treadmills.
