▪ I. † eld, n.1 Obs. rare—1.
[app. repr. OE. ǽled (genit. ǽldes) fire; cf. synonymous OS. eld, ON. eld-r (Sw. eld, Da. ild).]
Fire.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 258 Þu sscope eld & wind & water. |
▪ II. eld, n.2 arch. and north.
(ɛld)
Forms: 1 ǣld(u, eldo, eld, (WS. ieldu, ild(u, yld(u), 2–6 elde, 2–3 ulde (y), 3 ælde, ealde, (4 north. heild, held, ellde), 4–5 eelde, (helde), 5 Sc. eylde, 3 (6–9 Sc.) eild, (elth), 4– eld. See also ald, old, ns.
[OE. ęldo (abstr. n. f. ald, in WS. eald, old a.), corresp. to OS. eldî, OHG. altî, eltî, ON. elli (Da. ælde).
Synonymous derivatives from the same root are ON. ǫld (:—*aldâ) and Goth. alþs (:—*alþi-z).]
1. The age, period of life, at which a person has arrived. Obs. exc. dial.
| a 1000 Guthlac (Gr.) 80 Se halᵹa wer In þa ærestan ældu ᵹelufade Frecnessa fela. c 1000 ælfric Hom. in Sweet (1879) 90 Eadiᵹ is heora [the innocents'] yld. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. III. 162 He leng ne leofað þonn on miðre ilde. a 1225 Ancr. R. 318 Ich was of swuche elde. a 1300 Cursor M. 22814 Old and ying, At þat fortald vprising sal be of eild, als þai suld here, Haue deide of eild of thritti ȝere. c 1300 Beket 159 This child was bot in elde of tuo and twenti ȝer. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 742 Bot swa grete elde may nane now bere. c 1350 Will. Palerne 403 William & ȝhe were of on held. c 1400 Gamelyn 643 Gamelyn, that yong was of elde. 1513 Douglas æneis viii. ix. 41 In sic strenthis and eyld. 1559 Mirr. Mag., Edward IV, vii. 2 Ye wote well all I was of no great elde. 1600 Tourneur Transf. Metamorph. (1878) 200 Erinnis purveyor, young elth I meane. 1691 Ray N.C. Wds. s.v. Eald, He is tall of his Eald. 1724 Ramsay Tea-t. Misc. (1733) I. 63 His eild and my eild can never agree. 1860 Ramsay Remin. Ser. i. (ed. 7) 177, ‘I am just ae eild wi' the auld king’ [George III]. |
† 2. Conventional or legal age; full age; majority. of eld = of age; within eld = under age; also (quot. 1400) of military age. Obs.
| a 1300 Havelok 128 Sho were comen intil helde. a 1300 Cursor M. 29444 (Cott. Galba), Childer within elde, of cursed man may haue þaire belde. 1357 Lay-Folks Mass-Bk. App. ii. 118 Ilke man and woman that of eld is. c 1400 Rowland & O. 682 And alle that are with-in elde loke that thay to batayle helde. 1450 Myrc 236 Alle that ben of warde and elde. 1529 Lyndesay Complaynt 115, I prayit, daylie..My ȝoung maister that I mycht see Off eild. |
3. Old age, advanced period of life; usually with regard to its effects upon man. Also personified. arch. & poet.
| 971 Blickl. Hom. 59 Se wlite eft ᵹewiteþ & to ylde ᵹecyrreþ. a 1200 Moral Ode 373 in Cott. Hom. 181 Þer is ȝeoȝeðe bute ulde. c 1205 Lay. 11546 Vnhæle & ælde hæueð þene king vnbalded. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 1197 Sarra..wurd wið child, on elde wac. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 801 Alle thir..That clerkes propertes of eld calles. 1388 Wyclif Prov. xvi. 31 A coroun of dignyte is eelde. c 1449 Pecock Repr. iii. v. 303 A staffe forto go by in his eelde for sijkenes. 1549 Compl. Scot. i. 20 Tha begyn to decresse ande declinis til eild ande to the dede. 1599 Marston Sco. Villanie i. iv. (1764) 187 Cold, writhled Eld, his liues-wet almost spent. 1600 Fairfax Tasso xvii. xi. (1726) 297 His eies (not yet made dim with eild) Sparkled his former worth and vigor braue. 1637 B. Jonson Sad Sheph. ii. ii, Who scorns at eld, peels off his own young hairs. 1748 Thomson Cast. Indol. ii. xxxi, The whitening snows Of venerable eld. 1800–24 Campbell Pilgr. Glencoe 478 Hale and unburden'd by the woes of eild. 1858 Kingsley Weird Lady 17 His beard was white with eld. |
† b. People of advanced age; old men; senate or aristocracy. (In quot. 1592 perhaps the adj. used absol.) Obs.
| c 1000 ælfric Hom. (Thorpe) II. 506 (Bosw.), Seo yld hi ᵹebæd and seo iuᵹuþ wrat. a 1075 O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 1004 Ðær wærð East Engla folces seo yld ofslaᵹen. 1592 W. Wyrley Armorie 147 That pleasant sweet content That diuers eld haue found within a wall. |
c. poet. An old man. (But perh. an absol. use of the adj.) Rarely in pl. elds.
| 1796 Coleridge Dest. Nations, To the tottering eld Still as a daughter would she run. 1830 W. Phillips Mt. Sinai ii. 364 That eld august Came out from Israel. Ibid. iii. 165 To the expectant host In solemn order did these elds descend. |
† 4. Antiquity, duration of existence; time considered as a destroying or wearing agency. Obs.
| c 1374 Chaucer Anel. & Arc. 12 That eeld which that all can frete and bite. 1602 R. T. Five Godlie Serm. 64 Eld eateth al things. a 1667 Jer. Taylor Serm. Suppl. (1678) 148 An old sore..by its eld almost habituate. 1740 Shenstone Schoolmistress 137 In elbow-chair..By the sharp tooth of cankering Eld defaced. |
5. Antiquity, the olden time. men, times, etc. of eld = men, etc. of old. poet. and arch.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 11881 Hit is said oftsythes with sere men of elde, The last Ioy of ioly men Ioynys with sorow. 1640 J. Gower Ovid's Fest. i. 11 In times of eld men pleased the powers of heaven. 1812 Byron Ch. Har. i. xciii, Lands that contain the monuments of Eld. 1834 Ld. Houghton The Eld, Blessed by the Eld, Its echoes and its shades. 1847 Longfellow Ev. Prel. 3 The murmuring pines and the hemlocks..Stand like Druids of eld. |
b. People of the olden time, antiquity (personified). poet. and arch.
Chiefly in Shakespeare's phrase ‘superstitious eld’.
| 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iv. iv. 36 The superstitious..Eld Receiu'd..This tale of Herne the Hunter, for a truth. 1820 Scott Monast. Introd., Superstitious eld..has tenanted the deserted groves with aerial beings. 1823 ― Peveril II. i. 5 Tradition and superstitious eld..had filled up the long blank of accurate information. |
† 6. An age of the world, a secular period. Obs.
| a 1000 Guthlac (Gr.) 807 In þam leohtan ham Þurh ælda tid ende ᵹebidan. c 1000 ælfric Hom. in Sweet (1879) 60 Seo þridde yld wæs ða wuniende oð David. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 705 Ðis oðer werldes elde is so A ðhusent ȝer seuenti and two. a 1300 Cursor M. 9230 Blissed be sco þat us has spedd Þat we þe elds four has redd. Ibid. 21847 Sex eildes ha we broght in place. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. ii. ix. 77 Wytht-in þe ferd Eylde Yrland Was to þe Scottis obeyssande. 1513 Douglas æneis vii. xii. 99 Ceculus..all eildis..schawis ws Engenerit was by the God Vulcanus. |
7. Comb., as eld-time.
| 1839 Bailey Festus x. (1848) 110 In the eld-time. |
▪ III. † eld, n.3
ME. ane eld = a neld, a needle.
| a 1400–50 Alexander 1370 So nere, vnethes at ane eld miȝt narowly betwene. |
▪ IV. eld, a. poet. and arch.
(ɛld)
[repr. ME. eld(e, OE. (WS.) eald (see old); the mod. word may however be newly f. eld n.]
Occas. used in poetry for old (q.v. for earlier instances).
| [c 1440 Promp. Parv. 137 Elde, or olde, for-weryde [1499 eeld, or worne], vetustus, detritus, inveteratus.] 1619 H. Hutton Follies Anat. (1842) 42 Steward..To serue their commons as eld servants use. 1854 Dobell Balder xxv. 185 Ye eld And sager Gods. |
b. quasi-n.
| 1592 [see eld n.2 3 b]. 1796–1830 [see eld n.2 3 c]. |
▪ V. † eld, v.1 Obs.
Forms: 1 WSax. eald-ian, 2 eald-ien, 3 æld-en, 3–5 eld-en, eld-e (4 Kent yeald-y), 4–5 eeld-en, eelde, 6 eld, Sc. eild. See also olde v.
[In southern dialects repr. OE. (WS.) ealdian (:—type *alđôjan, not represented in any other language), f. eald, old; the equivalent Mercian from *aldian survived in ME. as olde v. The midland and northern instances of eld(en, eeld(en, eild, probably belong formally to eld v.2 (type *alđjan).]
1. intr. To grow old.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. John xxi. 18 Þonne þu ealdast [c 1160 Hatton ealdest]. c 1200 Ormin 18830, All iss itt whilwend⁓like þing þatt eldeþþ annd forrwurrþeþþ. c 1205 Lay. 2937 Þa ældede [c 1275 holdede] þe king. a 1300 E.E. Psalter ci. 27 (M.) As kleþinge elde sal alle þai. 1340 Ayenb. 97 Hi ne may naȝt yealdy, ase dede þe yealde laȝe. 1382 Wyclif Josh. xii. 1 Thou hast eeldid, and art of loong age. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 137 Eelden, agyn. 1496 Dives & Paup. (W. de W.) i. viii. 39 They be paynted lyke yong men..in token that they..elden not. 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) I. 200 This Valeriane..eildit in miserabill servitude. |
2. trans. To make old.
| c 1400 Rom. Rose 392 Tyme..eldith our auncessours And eldith kynges and emperours. |
▪ VI. † eld, v.2 Obs.
Also 1 eld-an, (WS. ield-an, yld-an), 2 eld-en.
[OE. ęldan (in WS. ięldan, yldan) = OHG. alten to delay (also more literally to make or become old):—OTeut. *alđjan, f. *aldo- old.]
trans. and intr. To put off to a later time, defer, delay.
| c 897 K. ælfred Gregory's Past. xxi. 152 Se lareow ieldende secð ðone timan. a 1121 O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) ann. 1100 Þeah þe ic hit læng ylde. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 21 Þe wrecche sunfulle ne elde nawiht þet he ne ga to bote þe wile he mei. |
▪ VII. † eld, v.3 Obs. exc. dial.
= ail.
| 156. Thersites in Hazlitt Dodsley I. 414 My son, what thing eldeth thee? 1880 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk. s.v., Doctor..didna seem to know whad elded 'im. Molly's..bin eldin' a lung wilde. |