Searce

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

SEARCE, sb. and v. Obs. or obsol. Nhb. Yks. Chs. Wor. Shr. Glo. Bdf. Ken. Hmp. Dev. Cor. Also written cearse n.Dev.; searse Glo. Ken.1 Ken.2; and in forms cirse Nhb.1; sarce Glo.; sarch Shr.1; sarse Nhb.1; search Shr.1 Glo. Hmp.; searge Cor.2; serce Yks.; serch Bdf.; serge Dev. Cor.3; serse Glo.; ses Nhb.1; sierce Glo. Cor. 1. sb. A fine sieve, used for var. purposes; see below; a strainer. Nhb.1 A circular sieve for straining butter-milk. Yks. A strainer for gravy, &c., Grose (1790) MS. add. (P.) Chs.1 Obs. Wor. Inventory (1819) in N. & Q. (1894) 8h S. vi. 329. Shr.1 A sieve ─ about two feet in diameter ─ made of sheep-skin drilled with holes, used in granaries for sifting the dust from grain. Obs. a sieve similar to the above, formerly in general use in small flour-mills throughout Shropshire, for sifting flour of very fine quality. ‘1 Brass Kettell & Sarch ─ 0-1-6,’ ─ ‘1 brass Kettle & Search ─ 0-1-6,’ are items of an Inventory dated at Aston Botterell about 1758. Glo. Horae Subsecivae (1777) 377; Grose (1790) MS. add. (M.) Bdf. Finer of the two sieves used for sifting flour (W.F.R.). Hmp. Holloway. Dev. Horae Subsecivae (1777) 377. Cor. The fine tin is lewed in a fine sierce, Ray (1691); Cor.2 2. v. To sift or strain through a sieve or strainer. Nhb.1 Ken.1; Ken.2 Fine flour, lawn'd or sears'd through a lawn (s.v. Lant-flour). Cor. In those ‘good old times’ the ladies of the parish would take their corn to mill, and serge the flour themselves, Hunt Pop. Rom. w.Eng. (1865) 242, ed. 1896; Cor.3 Hence Cearsing, vbl. sb. the second operation in sifting or cleansing wheat or barley. n.Dev. Grose (1790) MS. add. (M.) [1. Item, ij. lytyll brochys rounde, j. sars of brasse,.. j. grate, j. sarche of tre, Paston Letters (1459) I. 490; Sarce for spyce, sas, Palsgr. (1530). 2. Sasser, to sift, searce (COTGR.).]

Source : Century Dictionary
web : http://triggs.djvu.org/century-dictionary.com/splash3.html