Dictionary

chamber lye en · NOUN

Etymology

From chamber + lye. Compare early modern Dutch camerlooghe, obsolete German Kammerlauge.

Meanings

1. (archaic, regional, uncountable) Urine, especially as used for domestic or agricultural purposes.
   • [A] Hand, / So white, it made Æneas ſtand / Amaz'd to ſee't (for know that ſhe / Still waſht her hands in Chamber-Lee) […]. 1665, Charles Cotton, Scarronides:
   • VVhy, you vvill allovv vs ne're a Iourden, and then we leake in your Chimney : and your Chamber-lye breeds Fleas like a Loach. c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 53, column 1:

Forms