α. 1800s– rettery.
β. 1800s raitory, 1800s rettory.
retteryn.
/ˈrɛt(ə)ri/, U.S. /ˈrɛdəri/ A place in which flax is retted. See ret v.2 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile manufacture > treating or processing textile materials > treating or processing flax, hemp, or jute > [noun] > retting > place for
rettery1851
1851 Belfast News-let. 26 Feb. His process could be carried on in the retteries established under Schenck's patent.
1853 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 14 i. 197 Gaseous exhalations, which far and near stamp the unpleasant proximity of a rettery.
1865 W. White Eastern Eng. II. 98 A well-built and well-conducted rettory, or flax-dressing establishment.
1935 Times 3 Oct. 14/3 It had not yet been proved whether a central rettery or scutching mill worked on the lines that they intended could be successfully carried on.
1973 Materials & Technol. VI. iii. 222 The concrete tanks usually hold about 6 or 7 tons of stems each and there is a battery of such tanks in a rettery.
1992 Polish News Bull. (Nexis) 28 Sept. The machinery for straw processing coming from the liquidated retteries would be deployed in individual flax producing regions.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1851