▪ I. valley, n.
(ˈvælɪ)
Forms: α. 4–5 valeie (4 ualeie), 4–6 valei (5 Sc. walei, wale, vale), 4 valee; 4–5 valeye (4 ualeye), 4–7 valey (4 waley); 4 valleie, 4, 6 Sc., valle, 6 vallei, 6– valley; Sc. and north. 4 valaye, 4–6 valay, 5 wala, wallay, 6 vallay. β. 7 vally, vallie, pl. 6– vallies.
[a. OF. valee (AF. pl. valeys), vallee (mod.F. vallée), early OF. vallede, = Prov. vallada, It. vallata, f. L. vallis, vallēs: see vale n.]
1. a. A long depression or hollow lying between hills or stretches of high ground and usually having a river or stream flowing along its bottom.
In ordinary use a valley is distinguished from a vale by having less width and a steeper slope on either side.
| α 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 1277 Þo he com nei kaunterburi In a valeie biside He sei þe emperours ost. 13.. Guy Warw. 3876 Smerteliche he dede him in þe ways, Ouer þe dounes & þe valeys. c 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 4796 For hilles and valeis sal turned be In-til playn, and made even to se. 1375 Barbour Bruce vii. 4 In-till þe wod soyn enterit he, And held doun toward a vale, Quhar throu þe vod a vattir ran. c 1450 Merlin xiii. 195 He shewde hym the valey be the wode side. 1490 Caxton Eneydos xv. 56 The reyne russhynge doun from the mountaynes descended in to the valeyes. 1535 Coverdale Luke iii. 5 Euery valley shalbe fylled, and euery mountayne & hyll shalbe brought lowe. 1577 Googe tr. Heresbach's Husb. 45 Choose suche a valley, where the water can neither lye long, nor runne away to fast. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. v. i. 206 We are not (Sir) nor are we like to be: The Starres (I see) will kisse the Valleyes first. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. I. ii. 18 Our new Guide..crost another River, and enter'd into a large Valley of the fattest Land I did ever take notice of. 1773 Cook 1st Voy. i. xvi. in Hawkesw. Voy. II. 172 To trace our river up the valley from whence it issues, and examine how far it's banks were inhabited. 1794 Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho iii, As they advanced, the valley opened. 1815 Elphinstone Acc. Caubul (1842) I. 49 We marched up the valley, which became narrower as we advanced. 1872 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 247 They cannot be of large extent, as the valleys are all narrow, and without bottoms on either side. |
| β 1596 L. Mascall Cattle 253 Goats; their keeper ought for to be..bolde, for to go with them through vallies. 1625 N. Carpenter Geogr. Del. ii. x. 169 Plants, and Vegetalls for the most part prosper best in the vallies and plaines. 1663 S. Patrick Parab. Pilgrim xxxvi. (1687) 461 Believe not me but your self..that these Vallies are watered from above. 1726 Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 65/1 Hills..with..little Vallies between.., and very difficult of access thro' the narrow passes of the Vallies. 1777 W. Dalrymple Trav. Sp. & Port. ii, The verdant banks of the river, with the Indian corn in the vallies. 1827 J. F. Cooper Prairie i. I. 18 In the little vallies, which..occurred at every mile of their progress. 1849 James Woodman iii, A faint, blueish mist prevented the eye from penetrating into the deeper vallies. |
b. Const.
of (the distinctive name of the valley).
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 5/148 Ase he in þe ualeye of Ebron leouede with teone and wo. 13.. K. Alis. 7027 And in þe valey of Jurdan, Þey founden eddren mony on. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. II. 405 Wheþer þat Crist shal come into þe valey of Josaphath or [etc.]. 1535 Coverdale Ps. lix. 6, I wil deuyde Sichem, & mete out the valley of Suchoth. 1611 Bible Ps. lxxxiv. 6 Who passing through the valley of Baca, make it a well. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 404 The pleasant Valley of Hinnom. 1726 Gordon Itin. Sept. 55 That eminent Ground, which bounds the Valley of Kilsyth to the Southward. 1833 Lyell Princ. Geol. III. 305 The valley of Kingsclere,..in Berkshire, is about five miles long and two in breadth. |
c. Without article.
| c 1470 Henry Wallace iv. 684 Thai maid To rype the wood, bath wala, slonk, and slaid. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 116 Sweet interchange Of Hill and Vallie, Rivers, Woods and Plaines. 1784 Cowper Task i. 322 A spacious map Of hill and valley interpos'd between. 1859 Tennyson Marr. Geraint 247 Out of town and valley came a noise. 1865 H. H. Dixon Field & Fern 233 Wood and valley backed up by a Cheviot hill compose a pleasant landscape. |
d. The extensive stretch of flattish country drained or watered by one or other of the larger river-systems of the world.
| c 1790 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) VI. 393/2 In those early ages..a certain people descended from the mountains near the cataracts into the valley overflowed by the Nile. 1843 Penny Cycl. XXV. 472/1 Dividing the valley of the Euphrates from the rivers which flow into the Black Sea. 1876 Encycl. Brit. IV. 223/2 Surface ‘drift’ deposits.. occur..in the valley of the Amazon westward to..Peru. |
e. Geol. (See
quot. 1839.)
| 1833 Lyell Princ. Geol. III. 305 Dr. Buckland on Valleys of Elevation. 1839 G. Roberts Dict. Geol., Valleys of elevation, those which seem to have originated in a fracture of the strata, and a movement of the fractured part upwards. |
2. a. In figurative uses.
valley of the shadow (of death): see
shadow n. 1 b.
| 1382 Wyclif Isaiah xxii. 1 The charge of the valey of viseoun. 1411–2 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 4444 The swete venym of his tonge gydeth His lord vnto þe valeie of dirknesse. 1426 Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 17447, I was engendryd fyrst in helle;..in that Valey Infernal I was begete. 1781 Cowper Conversat. 636 Youth has a sprightliness and fire to boast, That in the valley of decline are lost. 1822 Shelley Triumph Life 397 If..Thou comest from the realm without a name Into this valley of perpetual dream. 1851 Robertson Serm. Ser. ii. i. (1864) 18 You must be content with the quiet valleys of existence. 1882 J. Parker Apostolic Life I. 78 Thou knowest how much we are in the valley, and how often we pass through dark places. |
b. valley of tears: see
vale n.1 2 b.
| [1382 Wyclif Ps. lxxxiii. 6 In the valei of teris, in the place that he sette.] a 1400 Prymer (1891) 51 To the we syȝen gronynge and wepynge in this ualeye of teeres. c 1450 tr. De Imitatione iii. xxiii. 92 In þis valey of teres þere comeþ many euell þinges. 1894 J. H. S. (title), The Valley of Tears... The Consolations of God. |
3. transf. a. A depression or hollow suggestive of a valley;
esp. a trough between sea-waves.
| 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. ii. iii. 100 His Fore-head, nay, the Valley, The pretty dimples of his Chin, and Cheeke. 1691 Ray Creation ii. (1704) 298 The Eyes are sunk in a Convenient Valley. 1845 Gosse Ocean iv. (1849) 164 The little Petrel flits hither and thither, now treading the brow of the watery hill, now sweeping through the valley. 1888 Stevenson Black Arrow 176 The Good Hope swooped dizzily down into the valley of the rollers. |
b. spec. A region of a graph which is shaped like a valley, or a set of low values of a varying quantity which would form such a region if plotted as a graph.
| 1935 [see high frequency 1 b]. 1959 Daily Tel. 11 Dec. 1/1 A prompt decision by the Government is urged, that the age can be compulsorily raised in one of the three ‘valley’ years between ‘bulges’ in the number of children, 1966, 1967 and 1968. 1968 F. B. Morinigo tr. von Buttlar's Nucl. Physics xiii. 103 Nuclei that can decay in two ways..are always odd-odd nuclei and lie near the bottom of the valley of stability. 1973 Physics Bull. Apr. 239/1 The spectrometer is claimed to provide..high resolution analysis. Its resolution is more than 10,000 with a 10% valley. 1974 Adby & Dempster Introd. Optimization Methods i. 16 Long curved narrow valleys are especially troublesome to simpler optimization procedures. |
4. techn. a. The depressed angle formed by the meeting (at the bottom) of two sloping sides of a composite roof, or by the slope of a roof and a wall; a gutter.
| 1690 Leybourn Curs. Math. 901 The Bricklayer sometimes will require to have running measure for Hyps and Valleys. 1703 [R. Neve] City & C. Purchaser 162 Of measuring Vallies, or Gutters in Tiling. 1782 Phil. Trans. LXXII. 360 In like manner the two conductors from the chimnies A and C united in the valley of the roof between them. 1833 Loudon Encycl. Archit. §83 To steady and support the lower edges of slates finishing against vallies. 1866 Fitzpatrick Sham Squire 113 Murphy hurried Lord Edward to the roof of the warehouse, and with some difficulty persuaded him to lie in the valley. 1899 Baring-Gould Book of West II. xii. 175 Here also are some quaint old slated houses; the valleys are not leaded. |
b. A tile used in roofing a valley.
| 1833 Loudon Encycl. Archit. §296 The ridge pieces, hips, and valleys, to be seven inches by one and a half inches. |
† 5. Fr. Hist. = plain n.1 6. (
Cf. mountain 6.)
| 1792 Pref. Expl. New Terms in Ann. Reg. p. xii, The Valley. The lower seats; and these in the middle of the hall of the Assembly. |
6. Anat. (See
quots. and
cf. vallecula 1.)
| 1842 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) II. 807/2 A large hollow between the hemispheres [of the cerebellum]..is the small valley (vallecula) of Halley. c 1845 Todd's Cycl. Anat. III. 688/2 A deep fissure which proceeds..backwards along the median line..is called the valley. |
7. a. attrib. and
Comb. in sense 1 (
freq. denoting ‘situated in a valley’), as
valley-bottom,
valley-cottage,
valley-dweller,
valley-fountain,
valley-gate,
valley-glacier,
valley-glade,
valley-mist,
valley-mouth,
valley-tomb,
valley-wall, etc.;
valley-like adj.,
valley-ward(s) adv.;
valley fever U.S. = coccidioidomycosis;
Valley Girl U.S., a teenage girl from San Fernando Valley in southern California; also
= Valleyspeak below; also
attrib.;
Valleyspeak U.S., a form of slang originating among teenage girls in San Fernando Valley in southern California;
valley tan U.S. local, a kind of whisky produced in Salt Lake Valley, Utah;
valley train Physical Geogr., a deposit of glacial outwash along a valley bottom.
| 1863 B. Taylor Hannah Thurston xxix. 373 The elms..had grown up since the *valley-bottom was cleared. 1905 A. R. Wallace My Life II. 153 The little valley-bottoms were complete flower gardens. |
| 1859 Meredith Poet. Wks. (1912) 92 For me yon *valley-cottage beckons warm. |
| 1927 Peake & Fleure Peasants & Potters iii. 37 It [sc. the wild ass] was certainly tamed by the Libyans..from whom it reached the *valley-dwellers not long after 4000 b.c. |
| [1937 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 3 July 66/1 The disease is often diagnosed as erythema nodosum and is popularly known as ‘San Joaquin Valley fever’ or desert fever.] 1938 Ibid. 8 Oct. 1362/2 It has been found that a symptom complex like that of the first of these patients is common in the San Joaquin Valley; so common, in fact, that it is popularly known as ‘*valley fever’ or ‘desert fever’. 1979 Tucson (Arizona) Citizen 20 Sept. 1d/3 He's already a full-fledged Arizonan because Homero is recovering from a bout with valley fever. |
| c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. cliii, In a could *vallie-fountaine. |
| 1535 Coverdale 2 Chron. xxvi. 9 Osias buylded towres..vpon the cornerporte, and on the *valley gate. |
| 1982 Guardian 26 Oct. 8/7 The *Valley Girl, well-heeled with time on her hands, suburban and middle-class, is, first and foremost, a consumer. 1982 Time 8 Nov. 91/1 Where is the next generation of slang to come from? Not from Valley Girl, the argot made famous lately by singer Frank Zappa and his daughter. 1983 N.Y. Times Mag. 21 Aug. 11/1 The Brooklyn accent,..even California valley-girl slang—these are as much part of our linguistic heritage as computer jargon,..and words ending in gate. 1984 Daily Mail 20 Oct. 12/1 But the stilettoed, 10th-grade, ‘Valley Girls’, who stalk the West Coast Galleries..have been replaced by the Mall Girls. |
| 1874 Geikie Gt. Ice Age (1894) 512 The *valley-glaciers becoming confluent in their lower reaches. |
| 1820 Keats Ode Nightingale viii, Now 'tis buried deep In the next *valley-glades. |
| 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 28 Along the banks of the Thames and its tributary streams there is a bed of *valley-gravel. |
| 1894 Geol. Mag. Oct. 466 The amphitheatre form of terraced land is always a *valley head. |
| 1871 B. Taylor Faust iii. (1875) II. 184 The *valley-hills That in the rear of Sparta northwards rise aloft. |
| 1852 Thoreau Lett. (1865) 66 The vast *valley-like ‘spore’..of some celestial beast. 1859 Cornwallis New World I. 172 A solitary moorland with valley-like undulations. |
| 1894 Geol. Mag. Oct. 466 The outflow of the stream—the *valley-maker—marks ordinarily the base of the amphitheatre. |
| 1930 Blunden Summer's Fancy 35 Groves crouched in the deep Of *valley-mist. |
| 1923 D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 188 The trees of the Lobo dark *valley-mouth. |
| 1655 Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 86 Contrariwise the *Valley People..are ever heavy spirited, dull, and sickly. |
| 1869 H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey I. 363 The four great *valley-plains..divided by lateral spurs. |
| 1876 T. Hardy Ethelberta (1890) 243 A thin young man..who arrived at the castle by the *valley-road from Knollsea. |
| c 1550 Rolland Crt. Venus i. 39, I walkit furth on be ane *valay syde. 1872 J. H. Ingraham Pillar of Fire 578 Moses and the Israelites pursued their way up the cliffs of the valley-sides. |
| 1983 Washington Post Mag. 23 Jan. 8 ‘The creative act that doesn't respond to some kind of social need isn't going to be picked up.’ Clearly *Valley-speak struck a responsive chord. |
| 1841 W. C. Bryant Walk at Sunset Wks. 44 Oh, let me, by the crystal *valley-stream, Wander. |
| 1871 Palgrave Lyr. Poems 89 Joining then the *valley-streamlet. |
| 1860 Mountaineer (Salt Lake City, Utah) 16 June 169/3 Which food do you prefer, rum, mixed drinks or *Valley Tan? 1942 Oregon Hist. Q. Dec. 339 Only among his cronies could he crack a quart of valley tan..with any freedom. |
| 1930 Blunden Poems 290 Cause not our very joy to go Among old *valley-tombs of flesh and blood and years. |
| 1892 Ann. Rep. State Geologist 1891 (Geol. Survey New Jersey) 96 The drift thus deposited in a valley has sometimes been called a *valley train of sand and gravel. 1954 W. D. Thornbury Princ. Geomorphol. xv. 377 Study of the valley trains extending down from the Alps led Penck and Brückner to a recognition of four stages of glaciation. 1974 Encycl. Brit. Micropædia VII. 636/3 When confined within valley walls, the outwash deposit is known as a valley train. |
| 1931 H. Crane Let. 21 Sept. (1965) 381 With the high *valley walls in the Wizard's circle. 1974 Valley wall [see valley train above]. |
| 1894 Book News Mar. 274 Dark belts of woodland, with *valleyward the white gleam of the Froom. |
| 1880 ‘Mark Twain’ Tramp Abroad xxxv. 387 He went swinging along *valleywards again. 1962 H. R. Loyn Anglo-Saxon England i. 10 Native inhabitants..survived and came to terms, attracted valleywards by force or by superior agricultural technique. |
| 1883 Science I. 326/1 These lakes are perhaps formed by a local depression of the *valley-way. |
b. valley-lily, the lily of the valley.
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. lxxxvii. 332 The flowers of the Valley Lillie. 1766 M. Bruce Lochleven Wks. (1914) 206 Her breast was fairer than the vernal bloom Of valley-lily. 1818 Keats Endymion i. 156 Wild thyme, and valley-lilies whiter still Than Leda's love. a 1850 Beddoes Poems, Lily of the Valley 201 The birthday-hours Of the valley-lily. |
c. valley of death tree, the Upas-tree.
| 1888 in Cassell's Encycl. Dict. |
8. attrib. in sense 4, as
valley-board,
valley-gutter,
valley-piece,
valley-rafter.
| 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Builder 230 The valley-rafters of a roof. 1833 Loudon Encycl. Archit. §852 Proper valley boards are to be put for the lead valleys. Ibid. §1350 A valley-gutter between two roofs. 1842 Gwilt Encycl. Arch. 1049 The rafter which supports the valley is called the valley rafter or valley piece, and the board fixed upon it for the leaden gutter to rest upon is called the valley board. |
Hence
ˈvalleyful, the fill of a valley;
ˈvalleyite, an inhabitant of a valley;
ˈvalleylet, a small valley.
| 1866 G. Greenwood Rain & Rivers 188 Its infinite ramification of stream and valley, streamlet and valleylet. 1890 Longman's Mag. July 341 A whole valleyful of appropriate plants. 1893 Outing XXII. 136/1 While I roamed about the burying-place of the valleyites. |
▪ II. ˈvalley, v. rare.
[f. the n.] 1. intr. To form a hollow or hollows resembling a valley.
| a 1552 Leland Itin. (1769) V. 51 A Peace of this Roke is fallen, and valleith [v.r. valleyeth] after a strange fascion. 1879 Meredith Egoist I. xviii. 323 In the billowy white of the dress ballooning and valleying softly. |
† 2. trans. To adjoin as a valley.
Obs.—1| 1635 J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Banish'd Virg. 36 In a deep bottome that vallied a steeper precipice. |
3. To make valleys in, to furrow.
| c 1825 Beddoes Poems, Midnight Hymn 111 The slaves of Egypt..Vallied the unaccustomed sea. |
▪ III. valley obs. var. vlei.