blee arch.
(bliː)
Forms: 1 bl{iacu}o, bl{iacu}oh, bléo(h, 1–4 bleo, (3 blo), 3–9 ble, 4–7, 9 blee, (6 bleye).
[OE. bléo (bléoh, after féoh) str. neut. = OS. blî, OFris. blî, blie, north.Fris. bläy:—OTeut. *blîjo-(m colour, hue. (Not connected with blae, blue.) A purely poetical word in ME., which gradually became obs. in the course of the 16th or early in the 17th c. (not in Shakespeare); but being frequent in ballads and metrical romances, it has been used by one or two modern poets. Cf. dial. bly, thought by some to be a survival of ble.]
1. Colour, hue. arch.
| c 888 K. ælfred Boeth. xv, Ne seolocenra hræᵹla mid mistlicum bleowum hi ne ᵹimdon. a 1000 Metr. Boeth. xxxi. 7 Habbað blioh and fær bu unᵹelice. c 1000 ælfric Numb. xi. 7 Hwites bleos swa cristalla. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 749 A water of loðlic ble. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 76 As blwe as ble of ynde. 1460 Lybeaus Disc. 458 In armes bryght of ble. 1623 Lisle ælfric on O. & N.T. Ded. 9 Greene, Red, Yellow, Blew, Of sundry blee; more sad, or light, in graine. 1850 Mrs. Browning Poems II. 57 The captain, young Lord Leigh, with his eyes so grey of blee. |
2. Colour of the face, complexion; visage. arch.
| a 1225 St. Marher. 9 Hire bleo bigon to blakien. c 1240 Wohunge 269 Ȝif hit to þi blisfule bleo mihte beo euenet. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 212 Her ble more blaȝt þen whallez-bon. c 1440 York Myst. xxviii. 259, I will no more be abasshed For blenke of thy blee. a 1500 (MS. 16th c.) Chester Pl. II. 187 Wher is my bleye that was so brighte? 1557 Tottell's Misc. (Arb.) 100 Who nothing loues in woman, but her blee. 1615 T. Adams Spirit. Navig. 42 Of a fresher blee than Daniel. ? a 1700 Lovers' Quarrel 2 in Hazl. E.P.P. II. 253 Ladies that been so bright of blee. 1834 Blackw. Mag. XXXV. 715 His daughter bright of blee. |
† 3. transf. Appearance, form. Obs.
| a 1000 Salomon & Sat. (1848) 144 Hu moniᵹes bleos bið ðæt deofol. c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 1988 Where that Merlin dede him se In o day in thre ble. |