vennel Sc. (Ir.) and north.
(ˈvɛnəl)
Forms: 5– vennel, 5 venal(e, 6 wennall, -el, 6–9 vennell, 7 venel, 7–9 vennal, 8 vennile; 7 vinell, 9 vinnel.
[a. OF. venele, venelle, vanelle (mod.F. venelle):—Rom. type *vēnella (med.L. venella), dim. of L. vēna vein.]
1. A narrow lane, passage, or thoroughfare in a town or city; an alley or wynd. Chiefly Sc.
| 1435 in Laing Charters (1899) 30 A land in the west gate lyand neste the comoune vennel. 1439 Charters, etc. of Edinb. (1871) 64 The comon venale callit Sanct Leonardis wynde. 1477 Extr. Aberd. Rec. (1844) I. 36 That the alderman..pass through the toune to see the venalis that are closit. 1531 Abst. Protocols Town Clerks of Glasgow IV. (1897) 43 The common wennel of the Gray Freris. 1562 in Archæol. æliana (1856) I. 41 Two burgages or tenements lying together in Spycer Lane, abutting on a vennel called the Stonye Hyll. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. 155 Gif ther be any venels stopped, or bigged vp. 1706 in M'Naught Kilmaurs xix. 251 To send one man out of every house..to repair the high wayes and venniles. 1727 Rec. Elgin (New Spald. Cl.) I. 425 The vennell or wynd called Lossie or Carman's wynd. a 1774 D. Graham Writ. (1883) I. 101 Some through Preston vennal fled. 1859 W. Anderson Disc. Ser. ii. (1860) 106 When he is away to hold the prayer-meeting down the Vennel. 1879 N. & Q. 5th Ser. XI. 137/1 In the town of Strabane, Ireland, there are a number of narrow passages, called ‘vennels’, from the main street to the river shore. |
2. north. An open drain or gutter; a sewer.
| 1641 in Heslop Northumbld. Wds. s.v., Paid Strother for making cleane the common vennell before Widdow Wilson's doore, 1s. a 1800 Pegge Suppl. Grose, Vennel, a gutter, called the kennel..elsewhere. Northumb. 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., Vennel, a sewer. 1881 J. Sargisson Joe Scoap 93 (E.D.D.), Carry't t' watter off beaath ways inteh t' vennels. |