dew-retv.
/ˈdjuːrɛt/ transitive. To ret or macerate (flax, hemp, etc.) so as to detach the fibre from the woody stem, by exposure to the dew and atmospheric influence instead of by steeping in water.
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the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile manufacture > treating or processing textile materials > treating or processing flax, hemp, or jute > treat or process flax, hemp, or jute [verb (transitive)] > ret > in dew
dew-ripen1807
dew-ret1808
1808 C. Vancouver Gen. View Agric. Devon vii. 208 The flax is always dew-rotted.
1849 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 10 i. 180 It takes perhaps six weeks to dew-ret hemp.
1877 E. Peacock Gloss. Words Manley & Corringham, Lincs. Dew-rated, said of flax, which is retted on the ground, not by steeping in water.
Derivatives
ˈdew-retting n.
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1710 D. Hilman Tusser Redivivus Sept. 14 There is a Water-retting and a Dew-retting, which last is done on a good Rawing, or after Math of a Meadow Water.
a1825 R. Forby Vocab. E. Anglia (1830) Dew-retting, which is spreading the crop on the grass, and turning it now and then to receive the dew.
1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 274 In Dorsetshire and the neighbourhood the flax growers have generally adopted the practice of dew retting.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1895; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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