Sean

Source : Wright, Joseph English Dialect Dictionary web : https://eddonline4-proj.uibk.ac.at/edd/main.html

SEAN, sb. and v. Lin. Sus. Hmp. Dev. Cor. Also in forms sceane Cor.; sein, seine Sus.1 Dev. Cor.1 Cor.2 [sīn, sēn.]

1. sb. A large net, esp. used in catching pilchards; also in comp. Sean-net. Lin. Ray (1691); Lin.1 A good-sized fishing net, larger than a donny. Sus.1 Hmp. It is used as follows: one end is made fast to the shore; a boat rows out with the rest as far as it will reach, and then comes circling round with the other toward the shore, on reaching which one party of men draw at one end, and another at the other, until the whole is brought to land, Holloway. Cor. That picky dogs may eat the sceane when fule, Western Eclogue, in Gent. Mag. (1762) 287; Cor.1 Cor.2 A net not less than 160 fathoms in length.
2. A boat carrying a ‘sean’; also in comp. Sean-boat. Cor. The fitting out of a sean costs little less than £1,000,. but it lasts much longer than a drift-net before it needs renewal, Quiller-Couch Hist. Polperro (1871) 109; The seine-boat, the boat with the net on board, was rowed where the ‘huer’ could see it; it was attended by a smaller boat to assist in shooting the net, Hammond Parish (1897) 58.
3. v. To fish by means of a ‘sean.’ Dev. Reports Provinc. (1887). Cor. Seaning is not ancient at Polperro, the first being set on foot about the year 1782... Seaning has miserably declined of late years, and this fishery is abandoned at Polperro, Quiller-Couch Hist. Polperro 109. [For a description of the process see Quiller-Couch Hist. Polperro 105-109.] Hence Seaner, sb. a man or boy employed in ‘seaning.’ Dev. One of the men has charge of the boats, the seans, and the operations. He is styled the Master-seaner, Reports Provinc. (1887). Cor. Mackerel seaners do not readily give up the ghost of a chance, Good Wds. (1896) 16; Cor.1 [OE. segne, a drag-net; cp. Fr. seine, a fishing-net (Hatzfeld).]