▪ I. ‖ liard1
(ljar)
Also 6 lier(de, lyard (quasi-It. liardo), Sc. lyart.
[F.; prob. subst. use of liard adj. grey (see lyard a.). Cf. grey groat.]
A small coin formerly current in France, of the value of the fourth part of a sou. Hence, typically, a coin of small value.
| 1542 Boorde Introd. Knowl. xxvii. (1870) 191 In bras they [French] haue mietes, halfe pens, pens, dobles, lierdes..a lier is worth three brasse pens. 1572 Satir. Poems Reform. xxxii. 15 Haue we ane lyart, na baid bot all is thairis. 1583 T. Stocker Civ. Warres Lowe C. iv. 53 b, A pounde of course Cheese, one Sous and one Lyard. 1600 Pory tr. Leo's Hist. Africa iii. 134 For the selling of euery duckats-woorth they haue two Liardos allowed them. 1657 Davenant Entertainm. Rutland Ho. Dram. Wks. 1873 III. 224 His fare being two brass liards. 1751 Smollett Per. Pic. (1779) II. xxxix. 29 He knew to a liard what was given to each. 1820 Scott Ivanhoe xxxii, Neither I nor any of mine will touch the value of a liard. 1847 Disraeli Tancred iv. xi, He would push about in the throng like a Hercules, whenever any one called out to him to fetch a liard. |
▪ II. liard2 Canadian.
(lɪˈɑːd)
[a. F. liard, subst. use of OF. liard grey: see lyard. (Continental Fr. has liardier black poplar.)]
The balsam poplar, Populus balsamifera, of North America.
| 1809 A. Henry Trav. 128 note, Populus nigra, called, by the Canadians, liard. |
▪ III. liard
variant of lyard, grey.