greave, a thicket. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 42; vi. 2. 43; Drayton, Pol. xiii. 116; ‘Greave or busshe, boscaige’, Palsgrave. ‘Greave’ occurs in local names near Sheffield, and appears as a Lancashire word in EDD. ME. greve (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1507), OE. grǣfa, a bush (Chron. 852).
grece, a flight of stairs or steps; ‘The greece of the quire’, Bacon, Hen. VII (ed. Lumby, 162); greese, a single step or stair in a flight, Latimer, 2nd Serm. bef. Edw. VI (ed. Arber, 67); greise, Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 1. 34; greese (grice), Twelfth Nt. iii. 1. 138; Timon, iv. 3. 16; Othello, i. 3. 200; ‘Eschelette, a small step or greece’, Cotgrave. See EDD. (s.v. Grees). ME. grees, steps, stairs (Wyclif, Acts xxi. 35). OF. grés, pl. of gré, ‘marche d’un escalier’ (La Curne), L. gradus, a step. See [gressinges].
gredaline; see [gridelin].
gree, a step or degree in honour or rank. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 215; Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 175 (Orlando). To win the gree, to win the highest degree, superiority, mastery, victory, Morte Arthur, bk. x, ch. 21. See EDD. (s.v. Gree, sb.1). ME. gree (Rom. Rose, 2116), OF. gré, ‘degré, rang’ (La Curne).
gree, favour, goodwill. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 5; in gree, with goodwill or favour, kindly, in good part: to take in gree, F. Q. v. 6. 21; to receive in gree, Gascoigne, Jocasta, iii. 1 (Manto). Cp. F. en gré, in good part (Cotgr., s.v. Gré), L. gratum, a pleasant thing.
gree, short for agree. Greene, Friar Bungay, ii. 3 (744), scene 6. 130 (W.); p. 162, col. 1 (D.); Daniel, Philotas, p. 195 (Nares); Sh. Sonn. cxiv.
greece, herte of, a hart of grease, a good fat hart, in prime condition. Morte Arthur, leaf 283, back, 22; bk. x, c. 86. See [hart of grease].
green, youthful, of tender age; ‘Green virginity’, Timon, iv. 1. 7; raw, inexperienced, simple, ‘A green girl’, Hamlet, i. 3. 101; ‘green minds’, Othello, ii. 1. 250; silly, ‘green songs’, Two Noble Kinsmen, iv. 3. 61.
green gown; to give a lass a green gown, to throw her down upon the grass, so that the gown was stained. Greene, George-a-Greene, ii. 3 (Jenkin); Middleton, Fair Quarrel, ii. 2 (Chough).
green lion, a stage in the process of transmutation of metals. B. Jonson, ii. 1 (Face).