Grease (grēz or grēs; 277), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Greased (grēzd or grēsd); p. pr. &
vb. n. Greasing.]
1. To smear, anoint, or daub, with
grease or fat; to lubricate; as, to grease the
wheels of a wagon.
2. To bribe; to corrupt with
presents.
The greased
advocate that grinds the poor.
Dryden. 3. To cheat or cozen; to overreach. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.
4. (Far.) To affect (a horse) with grease, the disease.
To grease in the
hand, to corrupt by bribes. Usher.
Grease (grēs), n. [OE. grese, grece, F. graisse; akin to gras fat, greasy, fr. LL. grassus thick, fat, gross, L. crassus. Cf. Crass.]
1. Animal fat, as tallow or
lard, especially when in a soft state; oily or unctuous matter of any kind.
2. (Far.) An inflammation of a horse's heels,
suspending the ordinary greasy secretion of the part, and producing dryness and scurfiness, followed by cracks, ulceration, and fungous
excrescences.
Grease bush. (Bot.) Same as Grease wood (below). -- Grease moth (Zoöl.), a pyralid moth (Aglossa pinguinalis) whose larva eats greasy cloth, etc. --
Grease wood (Bot.), a scraggy, stunted, and somewhat prickly shrub (Sarcobatus
vermiculatus) of the Spinach family, very abundant in alkaline valleys from the upper Missouri to California. The name is also applied to other plants of the same family, as several species of Atriplex and
Obione.
Hear it pronounced