seam, fat, grease. Tr. and Cr. ii. 3. 195; Dryden, tr. Aeneid, vii. 867. In gen. prov. use in the British Isles, see EDD. (s.v. Saim). ME. seim, grease (Ancr. R. 412). Anglo-F. saim, ‘adeps’ (Ps. lxii. 6), cp. Ital. saime, O. Prov. sagin (saīn), ‘graisse’ (Levy), Med. L. sagimen, ‘adeps, sagina’ (Ducange).
searce, searse, to sift through a sieve. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1 (Ariosto). ‘Searce’ was formerly a widely spread prov. word for a fine sieve; as a vb. ‘to sift’ it still appears in Northumbrian and Kentish Glosses (EDD.). ME. sarce, a sieve (Prompt.); sarcyn, to sift (id., EETS. 450; see notes, no. 1875 and no. 2204). OF. saas (F. sas), a sieve. Span. cedazo, Med. L. setatium (Ducange), der. of L. seta, saeta, a bristle.
sear-cloth, to cover with ‘cere-cloth’ or waxed cloth. Dryden, Annus Mirab. 148. See [cere-cloth].
season upon (or on), to seize upon. Mirror for Mag., Northumberland, st. 15; ‘I season upon a thynge as a hauke doth, je assaysonne. She saysouned upon the fesante at the first flyght’, Palsgrave; ‘It is mete for any lyon . . . to season his pawes upon his pray’, Acolastus, ii. 3. See NED. (s.v. Season, vb. 5).
sect, a class or kind of persons, used with reference to sex, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 41; Fletcher, Valentinian, i. 1 (Chilax); Middleton, Mad World, ii. 6. In prov. use in various parts of England; also in illiterate use in London; see EDD. and NED. Cp. Chaucer, ‘(The wife of Bath) and al hire secte’ (C. T. E. 1171). L. secta, a following, a school or sect of philosophy.
sectary, one who belongs to a sect, a dissenter. Hen. VIII, v. 3. 70; Puritan Widow, i. 2. 5. F. sectaire, ‘a sectary, follower of a sect’ (Cotgr.).
sectour, executor. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 62; ‘Sectour, executeur’, Palsgrave. ME. sectour, ‘exequitour’ (Cath. Angl.); seketowre, ‘executor’ (Prompt., Harl. MS.).
Sedgeley curse, an imprecation recorded by Ray among the proverbs of Staffordshire. It is given by Beaumont and Fl. in this form: ‘A Sedgly curse light on him, which is, Pedro, The fiend ride through him booted and spurred, With a scythe at his back!’, Tamer Tamed, v. 2; Massinger, City Madam, ii. 2 (Plenty). See Nares.
see, a seat of dignity or authority, a throne; ‘Jove laught on Venus from his soveraigne see’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 6. 2; the dwelling-place of a monarch, F. Q. iv. 10. 30.
see, pret. s. (I) saw, (he) saw, Greene, Sonnet, l. 4 (ed. Dyce, 292). Still in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. See, 1 (6)). OE. seah, pt. t. of sēon, to see.