scise

From Latin scindere, scissum (“to cut, split”); form influenced by the unrelated excise.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪz/
• Rhymes: -aɪz
• Homophones: sighs, size

scise (third-person singular simple present scises, present participle scising, simple past and past participle scised)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To cut; to penetrate.
   • 1600, [Torquato Tasso], “(please specify |book=1 to 20)”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC:

     The wicked steel scised deep in his right side.

scise (plural scises)

1. (India) Alternative form of sais (servant responsible for horses)
   • 1825, Robert Grenville Wallace, Forty years in the world, page 217:

     We proceeded about half-a-mile very well; but the night was so wet, that our humanity induced us to make the scise get up on the foot-board.

   • 1826, “Parsee Rigour”, in The Atheneum, volume 18, page 79:

     "My horse! my horse!" cried he—and as he patted his war neck, the scise saw the fire of his tear-starred eye and trembled.

   • 1882, Henry Elmsley Busteed, Echoes from Old Calcutta, page 230:

     The bearer and the scise ( Sic ) , when they returned , came to the place where I was , and laid hold of Mr. Ducarell .

• sices, Cisse, CISes