enseam

English

Etymology

en- + seam

Verb

enseam (third-person singular simple present enseams, present participle enseaming, simple past and past participle enseamed)

  1. (obsolete) To remove the surplus fat from a horse or (in falconry) a bird.
    • c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 63, lines 79–83:
      She was not clene ensaymed,
      She was not wel reclaymed;
      But the fawconer unfayned
      Was moch more febler brayned.
    • 1619, Edmund Bert, An approued treatise of hawkes and hawking, book 3, page 102:
      If you shall giue her this water with her meate, you shall finde admirable profit therein: It is very good wherewith to ensayme a hawke of any kinde, for a long-winged hawke that is in summer flowne to the field, there neuer was or can be vsed any thing better, []
  2. (obsolete) To sew or stitch up in a covering

References

  • OED 2nd edition 1989
  • QI Annual 2007

Anagrams

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