▪ I. tilth, n.
(tɪlθ)
Forms: 1 tilð, tilðe, 1–5 tilþe, (3 erron. tilæhðe, tylehþe), 4 tulthe (ü), Sc. tiltht, 4–6 (8–9) tilthe, 4–7 tylth, (5 telþe, telth(e), 5–6 tylthe, (7–9 tilt), 4– tilth.
[OE. tilþ str. fem., tilþe wk. fem., f. OE. til-ian, till v.1 + -th suffix1; cf. OFris. tilath cultivation.]
† 1. Labour, work, or effort directed to useful or profitable ends. rihtlic tilð, honest labour. (OE.)
| a 1023 Wulfstan Hom. x. (Napier) 72 Se ðe wære scaðjende, weorðe se tiliᵹende on rihtlicre tilðe. |
2. esp. Labour or work in the cultivation of the soil; tillage, agricultural work, husbandry. (In full in OE. eorþtilþ.)
| c 1000 [see earth-tilth]. a 1100 Gerefa in Anglia (1886) IX. 259 Se scadwis ᵹerefa sceal witan ælcre tilðan timan ðe to tune belimpð. a 1200 Moral Ode 57 Vre swinc and ure tilþe is ofte iwoned to swinden. a 1300 Cursor M. 3504 He delt als wit tilth o corn. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xxix. (Placidas) 450 Telemen left þe tiltht..& folouyt hym. a 1380 Poems fr. Vernon MS. l. 269 Ȝif þou wolt knowe þe tilþe of eorþe, Þat þe fayle corn none, Go and red virgiles bok. 14.. Tretyce in W. of Henley's Husb. (1890) 44 Comaunde your bayle straytly to kepe þis maner off gydynge in telthe. 1573 Tusser Husb. iv. (1878) 13 Tilth wele done, in season due. 1660 Sharrock Vegetables 98 After four years tilth, lay down your land. 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth 12 Clay..when dried by a long tract of weather, without rain..becomes so hard..as to lose the benefit of any tilth formerly given it by frequent ploughings. 1870 Freeman Norm. Conq. (ed. 2) I. App. 709 To betake himself to the tilth of the ground. |
b. fig. The cultivation of knowledge, morality, religion, the mind, etc.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 78 ‘Cultus justiciæ silencium’: þe tilðe of rihtwisnesse, þet is silence. 1550 Bale Apol. Pref. 11 In the ydell slouthfulnesse of the churche whan the profytable tylthe of Christe was not regarded. 1810 Crabbe Borough xxi. 260 Numbers there were defiled by mire and filth Whom he recovered by his goodly tilth. 1847 De Quincey Schlosser's Lit. Hist. Wks. 1862 VII. 75 What a tilth of intellectual lava must [Burke] have interfused amongst the refuse and scoria of such mouldering party rubbish. |
c. (with pl.) An act of tilling; a ploughing, harrowing, or other agricultural operation.
| 1565 Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Nouo, Agrum nouare, to vse the seconde tilth: to till the seconde time. 1649 W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1652) 103 The nature of the Land [will not be] changed with fewer Tilths. 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 76 They give their sowre Land a tilt. 1844 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. V. i. 5 The tilths being given at intervals of about one month. |
d. The condition of being under cultivation or tillage; hence, (good or bad) condition (of land under tillage).
| 1488–9 Act 4 Hen. VII, c. 19 Leyeng to pasture londes which custumeably have ben used in tilthe. 1552 Huloet, Brynge lande in due tempre, or tilthe, with dygging, and labour. 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 132 The ground that was to be sown that year in as good tilt as in the other. 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 538 It is..necessary that the soil should be reduced to a considerable degree of fineness, or what by writers on husbandry is termed tilth. 1825 Jamieson, Tilt, tilth, plight, condition, good or bad..; ‘The land's in sae bad a tilth, that we canna saw’. 1884 Times 20 June 4 Working ground into a clean tilth. |
† 3. transf. The result or produce of tillage; crop, harvest. Also fig. Obs.
| a 1100 Gerefa in Anglia (1886) IX. 261 Fela tilða ham gæderian. a 1300 Cursor M. 1068 Vr louerd loked noght þar-till..O þe tilth þat he wit delt. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xix. 430 God..Qui pluit super iustos & iniustos..And sent þe sonne to saue a cursed mannes tilthe [C. xxii. 434 tulthe, v. rr. tilþe, telþe], As bryȝte as to þe best man & to þe beste woman. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 190 So that the tilthe is nyh forlorn, Which Crist sew ferst his oghne hond. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. xiii. 342 That cruell Bore..Whose tusks turn'd vp our Tilths. 1781 Cowper Hope 46 Banks clothed with flowers..The yellow tilth, green meads. |
4. Land under cultivation, as distinguished from pasture, forest, or waste land; tilled or arable land; a piece of tilled land, a ploughed field.
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xxix. (Placidas) 326 Towne & tilth al mad wast. c 1460 Oseney Reg. 133 Whereof xij. acris of londe lien in the North felde at Radawelle, that is to say, in þe telth þe which is i-called Brerefurlonge. Ibid. 134 Vppon Ramme dune, iij. telthis, þe which conteynen xij. acris. a 1577 Gascoigne Wks., Hearbes, Weedes, etc. (1587) 149 As men can clense the worthless weedes from fruitfull fallowed tilth. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 20 Lead forth your dung, compasse, or manure to your tilth or fallow field. 1851 Wordsw. Prelude x. 7, I paused, and cast Upon his rich domains, vineyard and tilth, Green meadow-ground, and many-coloured woods..a farewell look. 1881 Gd. Words XXII. 44/1 A ‘summer tilt’ is, or was, a field which was let alone for a season. Now-a-days people want crops off every acre, every year. |
b. The prepared surface soil; the crumb, or depth of soil dug or cultivated.
| 1743 Lond. & Country Brew. iv. (ed. 2) 252 Where Turneps have been eaten off, the Barley..is..not esteemed so good, as that from off a pure Tilth. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 372 The surface or tilth should be made as fine and level as possible. 1881 Whitehead Hops 45 The ground is kept stirred till the first week in July, by which time there should be a good tilth, or crumb, at least a foot deep. |
5. attrib. and Comb., as tilth-ground, tilth-land, tilth-man.
| 1638 Markham Farew. Husb. (ed. 4) Pref., The third or fourth part of al arable ground is lost in the fallow or tilth ground. 1657 J. Watts Dipper Sprinkled 92 It is called Tilth-land and a Wheat-field. 1657 Reeve God's Plea 235 A lamentable tilth-man, which doth plow and sow for others, and hath not..any crop of his own. |
▪ II. tilth, v. Obs. or rare.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To till, cultivate. Hence ˈtilthed ppl. a.; † ˈtilthing vbl. n., tillage; also † ˈtilther, a tiller, cultivator.
| 1495 Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. xvii. cxiv. (W. de W.) S j/2 The wyld cole growyth wythout tylthyng [Bodl. MS. teleinge]. Ibid. clxxx, The erthe tylthers [Bodl. MS. tiliers] & kepers of vynes. 1496 Dives & Paup. (W. de W.) i. xxii. 58/1 They..gyue them to tylthe the londe. 1866 J. B. Rose tr. Ovid's Met. (1899) 113, I cast the viperous teeth in tilthèd ground. Ibid. 202 The husbandman beholds the unharnessed bull Fall in the tilthèd furrow. |