▪ I. yeo, n.1 local (south-west).
[repr. OE. *eá, *iá for éa stream, river: see æ n.1, ea, and cf. aa1.]
A stream or drain (in mining).
[In the following 16th cent. quots. the forms yew, yo are of doubtful identity; the river-name Yeo (OE. Eowan in oblique cases) may be intended:
| 1521 Yatton Churchw. Acc. (Som. Rec. Soc.) 139 In expenses for dyking y⊇ new yew..xxiijs. iiijd. 1543 Ibid. 157 Payd for mowyng the yew..iijs. iiijd. 1558 Ibid. 170 Fo Dychinge..the parishe woorke in y⊇ Yo..xvj{supd} and xij{supd}.] |
| 1725 Pearce Laws Stannaries Introd. p. xiii, Every Work may lawfully bring their Water from the River, which the Tinners [in Cornwall and Devon] commonly call the Yeo, without Denial or Contention. Ibid., Then they go [to] the Yeo, or River, and fetch home the Water which serves this Work. 1873 Q. Rev. CXXXV. 157 ‘Girts’ or ‘gulphs’ are names given by the moormen [of Dartmoor] to the long, and sometimes deep, excavations seaming the hill-sides, down which the miners led their stream, generally known as the ‘yeo’. 1873 Williams & Jones Gloss. Som., Yeo, main drain of a level. |
▪ II. yeo, n.2
(jəʊ)
Colloq. abbrev. of yeoman; commonly in pl. = yeomanry 3.
| [1710 J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. ii. iii. (ed. 23) 534 M. Alford Yeo.] 1831 S. Lover Leg. Irel., Paddy the Piper 150 If the Husshians or the Yeo's ketches you. 1898 K. Tynan in Westm. Gaz. 12 Oct. 2/1 The yeos at Rathdrum had information that a house..was to be robbed. |
▪ III. yeo, n.3
Dial. form of ewe; also in comb. yeo-necked = ewe-necked.
| 1746 Exmoor Scolding (E.D.S.) 210 Tha cortst tha natted Yeo now-reert,..laping o'er the Yoanna Lock. 1878 G. Murray Russians of To-day 15 Mounted upon yeo-necked galloways. |