▪ I. † glade, n.1 Obs.
[Perh. of Scandinavian origin: cf. Sw. dial. (Rietz) gladas, gla(d)na, to set (of the sun; also sola ä gladder the sun has just set), Norw. dial. gla to set (of sun and moon); Sw. sol-gla(d)ning, Norw. solaglad sunset = ON. sólarglaðan, found only in Hervarar Saga (ed. 1847) p. 15, where nær sólarglaðan of the prose corresponds to við sólarsetri in the verses. Etymological connexion with glad a. is possible.]
to go to glade: to set, sink to rest (said of the sun).
| c 1200 Winteney Rule St. Benet (1888) 25 ær sunne go to glade. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 189 In the Ester eve whanne þe sonne ȝede to glade [L. sole occidente]. c 1475 Partenay 992 Thys Joustes dured till sonne went to glad. After to euessong went euery wyght. 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. viii. 18 Now the sunne was gone to glade. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. xi. (Arb.) 116 Likening her Majestie to the Sunne for his brightnesse, but not to him for his passion, which is ordinarily to go to glade, and sometime to suffer eclypse. 1614 J. Davies (Heref.) Eclogue 255 Phoebus now goes to glade. a 1788 A Yola Zong (Wexford Dialect) in Ellis E.E. Pronunc. v. 26 Tel ee zin [= till the sun] go t'glade. |
| transf. 1581 T. Howell Deuises (1879) 258 As now by me appeares, whose ioyes doe vade, Whose griefe doth grow, whose comfort glides to glade. |
▪ II. glade, n.2
(gleɪd)
Also 6 gleade.
[Of obscure origin.
If the primary sense be ‘sunny place’, the word may be connected with glad a. (sense 1); cf. Sw. dial. glänna ‘1. sunny spot; 2. open place in a wood’ (Rietz). But difficulties are created by the occurrence of the form glode, which seems to be equivalent (cf. the place-name Cockglode in Notts. with sense 1 b below). Conceivably glade, glode might represent respectively northern and midland forms of an OE. *gláda wk. masc.,:—*glaidon-, f. root *glai-: see gleam. There is, however, no indication that the word is specially northern.]
1. a. A clear open space or passage in a wood or forest, whether natural or produced by the cutting down of trees.
The earlier examples often explain the word as meaning a light or sunny place. From the latter part of the 17th c., when the word had perh. become merely literary, many writers have associated it with shade.
| 1529 More Comf. agst. Trib. iii. Wks. 1233/1 His folke grubbe vppe these..busshes of our earthlye substaunce and carye them quyte awaye from vs, that the woorde of God sowen in oure hartes maye haue roume therein, and a glade rounde aboute, for the warme sunne of grace, to come to it. 1538 Leland Itin. IV. 126, I came by 2 fayre woodes on the Hill Sides, and passed in a Glade or Bottome betwixt them. 1573–80 Baret Alv. G 262 To make a glade in the middest of the wood; to loppe or cut away boughes where they let the light. 1589 Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 19 Yet never viewd I such a pleasant Greene As this, whose garnisht gleades, compare denies. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 203 Thorow a large glade betweene two hils, we leisurely descended for the space of two houres. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 516 Or solitary Grove, or gloomy Glade, To shield 'em with its venerable Shade. 1730–46 Thomson Autumn 435 He bursts the thickets, glances thro' the glades. 1788 J. May Jrnl. & Lett. (1873) 103 This morning very cold, and considerable frost in the glades. 1836 Kingsley Lett. (1878) I. 33 The bright glades of the forest pleased her not. 1874 Green Short Hist. ii. §6. 87 The Red King was found dead by peasants in a glade of the New Forest. |
| transf. 1586 Warner Alb. Eng. ii. vii. (1612) 28 Resolving or to win the Spurres, or lose himselfe therefore, He makes a bloudie glade, vntill the Thebane he espide. |
b. An opening in a wood, etc. utilized for snaring birds. (See quot. 1617.)
| 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 111 Italian Gentlemen much delight in the art to catch birds, and in gardens fitted to that purpose, with nets, bushes and glades. [1621: see glode.] 1678 Ray Willughby's Ornith. i. Addit. iii. 33 We in England are wont to make great Glades through thick Woods, and hang Nets across them; And so the Wood-cocks shooting through these Glades..strike against the Nets, and are entangled in them. [1691 Blount Law Dict., Gallivolatium, a cockshoot or cockglade.] |
2. U.S. a. (See quot. 1859 and cf. everglade.)
| 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 649 Interspersed through the other parts, are glades of rich swamp. 1859 Bartlett Dict. Amer., Glades, everglades; tracts of land at the South covered with water and grass. So called in Maryland, where they are divided into wet and dry glades. |
b. (See quots.)
| 1828–32 Webster, Glade..2. In New England, an opening in the ice of rivers or lakes, or a place left unfrozen. Ibid., Glade, smooth ice. (New England.) [In recent American Dicts. stated to be Local, U.S.] |
† 3. a. A clear or bright space in the sky; a flash (of light or lightning). Obs.
| 1555–8 T. Phaer æneid ii. F j, Down from heauen by shade A streaming star descends, and long w{supt} great light makes a glade. 1706 Phil. Trans. XXV. 2220 This Glade of Light..was much like the Tail of a Comet, but pointed at the upper End. 1734 Eames ibid. XXXVIII. 248 The white Pyramidal Glade, which is now entitled by the Name of the Aurora Borealis. 1741 Short ibid. XLI. 628 It went all over this Country..pretty sharply, but nothing near so quick as a Glade of Lightning. |
† b. fig. ? A gleam of hope. Obs.
| 1522 More De quat. Noviss. Wks. 79/1 Than geueth he some false glade of escapyng that sickenes. |
4. attrib. and Comb., as glade-broken, glade-like adjs.; glade mallow U.S., a tall herb, Napæa dioica, of the family Malvaceæ; glade-net (see quot. 1678 in 1 b).
| 1842 J. Wilson Chr. North I. 367 Thence to Calgarth is all one forest—yet glade-broken, and enlivened by open uplands. 1849 Sprague & Gray Genera Plants U.S. II. 55 Glade Mallow. Flowers diœcious. 1880 Disraeli Endym. ii. 42 Glade-like terraces of yew trees. 1882 Ogilvie, Glade-net. 1963 H. A. Gleason Illustr. Flora Northeastern U.S. ii. 529 Napaea L. Glade Mallow... A monotypic genus. |
▪ III. † glade, v. Obs. rare—1.
[f. glade n.2]
trans. To make a glade or clearing in (a forest).
| 1621 T. Williamson tr. Goulart's Wise Vieillard 100 Fountaines without water, forrests grubd up and gladed, trees without fruit. |
▪ IV. glade
dial. var. glede, kite.
▪ V. glade
obs. f. glad; obs. pa. tense of glide.