[f. SOOT sb.1 Cf. Norw. sota.]
1. trans. To smear, smudge or foul with soot; to cover with or as with soot.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., II. ii. D j b. The black filth of sinne, That soots thy heart.
1634. W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp., II. xx. (1865), 108. The young Infant being greased and sooted, wrapt in a Beaver skin [etc.].
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., 107. The smoake thereof would have sooted his Green suit.
1706. Stevens, Spanish Dict., I. Hollinár, to soot, to daub with Soot.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), I. 82. Sooty,… dark and dirty as if sooted, as are some of the Lichens.
a. 1859. De Quincey, Posth. Wks. (1891), I. 34. He paints himself histrionically; he soots his face.
2. To sprinkle or manure with soot.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), I. 325. Whether it was because the other Land was sooted before, I could never yet find.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 28. He … harrowed in his Barly and sooted it on the top.
1778. [W. Marshall], Minutes Agric., 16 Aug. 1776. Part was dunged; part, sooted; and part, undressed.
Hence Sooting vbl. sb. Also spec. (quot. 1903).
1706. Stevens, Span. Dict., I. Tiznadúra, Smutting, Sooting, Blacking, Smearing.
1903. Cassell’s Suppl., Add., Sooting,… the impregnation of the sparking plug with soot, due to combustion of the explosive mixture when carbureting is bad.
Soote, obs. form of SUIT sb.
