siege, a seat, esp. one used by a person of rank or distinction, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 39; hence, rank, Othello, i. 2. 22; the station of a heron on the watch for prey, Massinger, Guardian, i. 1 (Durazzo); a privy, Phaer, Pestilence (NED.); evacuation, B. Jonson, Sejanus, i. 2; excrement, Tempest, ii. 2. 110. ME. sege, ‘sedes, secessus’ (Prompt. EETS. 404, see notes). See [sege].
sieve and shears, a mode of divination; used for the recovery of things lost. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Face); Butler, Hud. i. 2. 848. See EDD. (s.v. Riddle, sb.1 1 (1)).
sifflement, a whistling, chirping. Brewer, Lingua, i. 1 (Auditus). F. siffler, to whistle, L. sifilare, a dialect form of sibilare.
sight, pt. t. sighed. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 20; vi. 10. 40. ME. sighte (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1035), pt. s. of syke, to sigh.
signatures, marks. The medicinal virtues of some plants were supposed to be indicated by their forms or by marks upon them. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 329.
sikerly, certainly, surely. Gammer Gurton’s Needle, last scene (Gammer). Still in prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Sickerly). ME. sikerly (Chaucer); sikerliche (P. Plowman). OE. sicor, sure, safe; certain (B. T.).
silder, less frequently. Tancred and Gismunda, ii. 3 (Lucrece); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 46. See [seld].
silly, simple, rustic; innocent. Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 35; iii. 8. 27; poor, wretched, weak, Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, pp. 491, 533. See [sely].
silverling, a piece of silver; ‘Fifty thousande silverlynges’, Tyndale, Acts xix. 9; so the Cranmer version, 1539, and the Geneva, 1557; Bible, Isaiah vii. 23; here Luther has Silberlinge. In Marlowe, Jew of Malta, i. 1. 6, silverling = the Jewish coin, the shekel.
†simming, simmering. Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, iv. 6. 27.