> as lemmas

a1400 tr. Lanfranc Sci. Cirurgie (Ashm.) (1894) 52 (MED) Þe corrupt mater þat is in þe place þat is brusid.

a1450 St. Etheldreda (Faust.) 463 in C. Horstmann Altengl. Legenden (1881) 2nd Ser. 293 (MED) A gret swellyng abouȝt my throte þer is..Were hit ybroke & þe mater ouȝt y-renne..myche eysse hit wolde do.

1486 Bk. St. Albans sig. cvij Kutt theys botches with an knyfe and let owte the mater of theym.

?1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Husbandry f. xxxiii A glaunder whan it breketh is lyke matter.

1651 J. French Art Distillation vi. 191 It..expells the matter of a carbuncle by sweat.

1722 London Gaz. No. 6045/8 The Matter taken on a Person who has had the Small Pox by Inoculation.

1778 Farmer's Mag. July 228 If, instead of dispersing, it suppurates and comes to matter, let it be opened with a lancet.

1823 Lancet 21 Dec. 388/1 Another situation in the head where matter has been found is in the longitudinal sinus of the dura mater.

1858 E. E. Stuart Let. 11 Feb. in R. Stuart et al. Stuart Lett. (1961) II. 851 To have an abscess lanced? To have Blood and Matter issue from it!

1885 W. Roberts Urinary & Renal Dis. (ed. 4) iii. v She began to pass considerable quantities of what she considered ‘matter’ with the urine.

1967 in Dict. Amer. Regional Eng. (1996) III. 535/1 To get matter out of a boil.

1967 C. Himes Black on Black (1973) 133 The corners of his sloe-shaped eyes were sticky with matter.

1994 A. Gurnah Paradise (1995) 41 Their eyes, so cruel in the moonlight, were runny and clotted with white matter in the daylight.