Now dial. Forms: see prec. [OE. tęm(e)sian, f. tęmese (see prec.): cf. MLG. temesen, MDu., Du. temsen, teemsen to sift.] trans. To sift or bolt (flour, etc.) with a temse.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Mark ii. 26. Huu inn-eode hus godes … & hlafo fore-ʓeʓearwad vel temised ʓebréc.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 488/2. Temzyn wythe a tymze (S. temsyn with a tenze),… attamino, setario.
1483. Cath. Angl., 379/2. To Tempse, taratantarizare.
1600. Surflet, Countrie Farme, V. xx. 714. Barley bread must be made … of that … which hath beene temzed and cleansed from his grosse bran.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 103. To measure the meale … afore it be temsed.
1809. T. Donaldson, Poems, 73. Sifting meal … Or timsing flour.
1828. Craven Gloss., Tems, to sift.
1904. Eng. Dial. Dict., s.v., Fifty years ago flour was not very common with cottagers esp., and when they wanted some they would temse some rough meal.
Hence Temsed ppl. a.; temsed bread = temse-bread (see prec. 2); Temsing vbl. sb., chiefly in comb. as temsing-bread, -chamber, -staff, -trough. Also Temser, temzer = TEMSE sb. 1.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 104. Our own *tempsed-breade. Ibid. An upheaped bushell of tempsed meale.
1777. Horæ Subsecivæ, 428 (E.D.D.). Tems’d or temmas bread, white [bread] made of flour finely sifted.
1696–7. in Kennett, MS. Lansd., 1033, lf. 4. *Temzer, a range or coarse searche.
c. 1450. Medulla, in Promp. Parv., 488, note. Cervida, lignum quod portat cribrum, a *temsynge staffe.
[Cf. 1904. Eng. Dial. Dict., Timse-sticks, the small frame supporting two laths or sticks on which the ‘timse’ slides.]
1599. Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees), II. 287. In the bowltinge house. One temsinge troughe.
a. 1800. Pegge, Suppl. Grose, Temsing-chamber, the sifting room.
1828. Craven Gl., Temsin-bread.
