▪ I. weir, n.
(wɪə(r))
Forms: α. 1–2 wer, 3–8 were, 5 werre, 5–7 weere, 5–8 weer; 5, 7 ware, 6–8 weare, 7–9 wear; 6–7 weire, weyre, 7– weir; 6–8 wier. β. 6–7 wyre, (7 wyer), 7–8 wire.
[OE. wer m., = OS. werr, MLG. wer, weer, weir, were (LG. wêr, were), MHG. wer, were (G. wehr, † währ; dial. wier) neut., f. the stem of OE. werian to dam up: see were n. OIcel. vǫr, var-, landing-place, is possibly related.
Normally the standard modern form would have been wear (wɛə(r)); this is represented by the dialectal wair, ware. The late variant wire is difficult to account for.]
1. a. A barrier or dam to restrain water, esp. one placed across a river or canal in order to raise or divert the water for driving a mill wheel; also, the body of water retained by this means, a mill-dam; now gen., a dam, of which there are various forms, constructed on the reaches of a canal or navigable river, to retain the water and regulate its flow.
| α c 897 ælfred Gregory's Past. C. xxxviii. 279 Se se ðe ðone wer bricð, & ðæt wæter utforlæt, se bið fruma ðæs ᵹeflites. c 1460 Oseney Reg. 30 With all dwellynges þe which been vppon the were of þe milles. 1482 Caxton Higden (Rolls) VIII. 543 The mayer of London..and the comynalte dyde do brake vp al the weerys that were bytwene Medewey and Kyngeston. 1491 Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889) 373 To arrest ther mill horses,..and to kepe them..tyll they..make the saide werre. a 1550 Leland Itin. (1769) IV. 92 A Damme or Were to serve the Kinges Milles a little lower then the Dammes. 1583 in W. H. Turner Sel. Rec. Oxford (1880) 434 A locke or weare by Rewlie lock, to bende the water in sommer and to drawe uppe in wynter. 1653 Walton Angler iii. 89 [The trout] wil about (especially before) the time of his Spawning, get almost miraculously through Weires and Floud-Gates against the stream. 1695 Act 6 & 7 Will. III, c. 16 (title) An Act to prevent Exactions of the Occupiers of Locks and Wears upon the River of Thames Westward. 1722 De Foe Plague (1756) 170 A Weer or Stop upon the River, made to raise the Water for the Barges which go up and down the River. 1792 A. Young Trav. France 21 The navigation of the river in the town being absolutely impeded by the wear which is made across it in favour of the corn mills. 1813 Vancouver Agric. Devon 314 There are no other reservoirs than those which are formed by the dams or weirs by which the streams are raised for the purpose. 1859 H. Kingsley G. Hamlyn xiii, I'm the best swimmer in Devon. That was proved by my living in that weir in flood time. 1866 M. Arnold Thyrsis ii, The Vale, the three lone wears, the youthful Thames. 1877 Huxley Physiogr. 3 About 380 million gallons flow over the weir every four-and-twenty hours. |
| β a 1722 Lisle Husb. (1757) 203 A good kiln ought to have such a draught as to roar like wires on a river. 1758 Descr. Thames 160 Farmer's Wires or Weirs..Day's Wires, [etc.]. 1776 G. Semple Building in Water 33 There was..a Wire or a Stone Dike almost quite a-cross the River. 1875 H. R. Robertson Life Upper Thames 40 A boat descending the stream meets with no impediment till it reaches the dam or ‘weir’ (pronounced ‘wire’ by the riverside people), as it is technically called. |
b. Her. A charge representing a weir.
| 1780 Edmondson Heraldry II. Gloss., Weare, Weir, or Dam, in Fesse. It is made with stakes and osier twigs, wattled or interwoven as a fence against water. |
2. a. A fence or enclosure of stakes made in a river, harbour, etc., for taking or preserving fish. (
Cf. fish-weir fish n. 7.)
In
OE. also used to render L.
captura in the sense of a ‘catch’ of fish.
| α 839 in Birch Cartul. Sax. I. 598 Twyᵹen weoras in fluvio qui dicitur Stur. 901 Ibid. II. 247 An wer on Ycenan. 996 in Kemble Cod. Dipl. VI. 136 Ðes healfan weres æt Bræᵹentforda. 1052–67 Ibid. IV. 211 Al ðare þinge ðe ðarto mid richte ᵹebirð..on waterin and on weren. a 1122 O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 963, Þa twa dæl of Witlesmere mid watres & mid wæres & feonnes. a 1200 in Birch Cartul. Sax. I. 171 In captura..piscium quæ terræ illi adjacet, ubi sunt scilicet duo quod nostratim dicitur Weres. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iii. 35 As why this fish, and nought that, cometh to were. c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode iii. xxv. (1869) 150 It is maad as a were for fysh; Entree ther is, but issue nouht. 1459 Rolls of Parlt. V. 365/2 And a were called Petersam were..to be had for evermore to the seid Priour and Monkes. 1523 Act 14 & 15 Hen. VIII, c. 13 Diuers weres & ingins for fisshynge, made & leuied in the same hauen. 1584 R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xii. xvii. 216 [He] robbed a millers weire and stole all his eeles. 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. v. 315 The delicate..Golden-eye, Kept in a Weyre, the widest space doth spy. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 808 A very goodly Weare for the catching of Salmons. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. I. 465 Their only Food is a small sort of Fish, which they get by making Wares of stone, across little Coves, or branches of the Sea. 1724 Col. Rec. Pennsylv. III. 233 An act for demolishing..Fishing Dams, Wears & Kedles set across the River Schuylkill. 1791 W. H. Marshall W. Eng. (1796) II. 240 The [Salmon] Weir..consists of a strong dam or breastwork, ten or twelve feet high, thrown across the river. 1859 R. F. Burton Centr. Afr. in Jrnl. Geog. Soc. XXIX. 81 note, The Wigo, or weir, is like that of Western India. 1894 Outing Feb. 401/1 Close to the weir—a kind of circular fish-trap made by driving stakes into the bottom close together. |
| fig. 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Luke v. 4–7 Satan hath fishers of his owne too: who dooe..towle theim into the were and nette of damnacion. |
| β 1624 Capt. J. Smith Virginia i. 7 The people were fled, but their wires afforded vs fish. 1638 Suckling Aglaura v. i. 35 Like wanton Salmons comming in with flouds, that leap o're wyres and nets, and make their way. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. I. 106 They carry them alive to Jamaica, where the Turtles have wires made with Stakes in the Sea to preserve them alive. |
b. A weel for catching fish.
† Also
Her., a representation of this, borne as a charge.
| 1611 Cotgr., Boissel d'ozier. A weele, or weere of Ozier twigs. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. xvi. (Roxb.) 80/1 He beareth Azure, a Weele with its hoope vpward, Or. This is also termed a Fishard, or a Ware. 1834 Whittier Mogg Megone 841 The clear stream where The idle fisher sets his weir. 1845 Peter Parley's Ann. VI. 51 A weir is a basket loose and open at one end, and smaller at the other, into which the fish were driven. |
3. A pond or pool.
Obs. exc. dial. For the forms
wayre,
wair see
wayour.
| a 1300 E.E. Psalter cvi. 35 He set in weres ofe watres [L. in stagna aquarum] wildernes. c 1450 Mirk's Festial 143 And soo was hit hyd þer yn [to] þe tyme þat byschopys of þe tempull let make a were [v.r. wayre] yn þe same plas, forto wasch schepe yn. 1657 J. Watts Scribe, etc. Dipper Sprinkled 31 To make choise of a common Pond or Weyr to dip your two new converted holy Sisters in. 1691 Ray S. & E. Country Words, Were, or Wair, a pond or pool of water. 1877 Holderness Gloss., Weir, a pond. |
4. local.
a. A fence or embankment to prevent the encroachment of a river or sea-sand, or to turn the course of a stream.
| 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe 22 The burdensome detrimentes of our hauen, which euery twelue-month deuoures a Iustice of peace liuing, in weares and banckes to beate off the sand. 1680 N. Riding Rec. VII. 30 Roger Beckwith..and other of the adjoyning neighbours have taken care to make a weare to keep the said river in its antient channel. 1824 Carr Craven Gloss., Weer, an embankment against its [sc. a river's] encroachment. 1846 Brockett N.C. Words (ed. 3), Were,..an embankment to prevent the encroachment, or turn the course of a stream. 1894 Northumbld. Gloss., Wear, weir, a structure of stone mixed with rice (brushwood) for protecting a bank from the wash of a stream. |
b. (See
quot.)
| 1894 Northumbld. Gloss., Wear, Weer, the landing place and fishing ground at a salmon-net fishery. |
5. Sc. A hedge. (
Cf. wear v. 23.)
| 1789 D. Davidson Seasons 51 Now weir an' fence o' wattl'd rice, The hained fields inclose. a 1894 J. Shaw in R. Wallace Country Schm. (1899) 355 Weir,..a hedge. |
6. attrib. and
Comb., as
weir-bank,
weir-bridge,
weir-dam,
weir-frame,
weir-head,
weir-heck (
heck n.1 2),
weir-hole,
weir-pile,
weir-pool,
weir-stream;
weir-keeper,
weir-owner;
weir-boat, a boat kept at a weir for the use of the weir-keeper;
† weir-dike, a bank that serves as a dam;
weir-hatch [
hatch n.1 6], the flood-gate or sluice of a weir;
weir-hedge, a bank made on each side of a river to narrow and deepen its water;
† weir-hook (see
quot.);
weir house, a trap for salmon at a salmon weir;
† weir-net, a net for taking fish at or from a weir;
weir-shot net, a fishing net that is shot or cast in a circular form, used in salmon fisheries on the Tweed (see
quot. 1855).
| 1583 Inquis. Sewers Linc. (1851) 16 That all *weare banks & all other Bankes heretofore in Commission..& all close ditches & draines..shall be ditched sufficiently before Michaelmasse. |
| 1436 Catal. Anc. Deeds IV. 273 (A. 8182) [Two boats called the] feriboot [and] a *wereboot. |
| 1851 Kingsley Yeast iii, He found on the *weir-bridge two of the keepers. |
| 1793 R. Mylne Rep. Thames 22 Without a Lock in the said Cut, or a *Weir-dam in the bed of the River. |
| 1518 Sel. Pleas Star Chamber (Selden Soc.) II. 130 A lytull grownde inclosyd in the fenne by Reasun of makyng of a *Weyr dyke. |
| 1902 Cornish Naturalist Thames 6 The holes and angles of the *weir-frame. |
| 1898 Hardy Wessex Poems 204 As when a *weir-hatch is drawn, Her tears..With a rushing of sobs in a shower were strawn. |
| 1817 Scott Wav. ix, A large brook..leapt in tumult over a strong dam, or *wear-head. |
| c 1467–9 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 641 Pro extraccione et imposicione lez stapyls pro le *Warehek molendini. |
| 1819 Rees' Cycl. VI. A a 4, s.v. Canal, Jetties, or *Weir-hedges have formerly been made, for diminishing the width of the river below the several shoals. |
| 1841 Hartshorne Salop. Antiq. 610 *Ware⁓hole, Weirhole, a hole into which the back water of a mill stream falls. |
| 1688 Holme Armoury iii. xvi. (Roxb.) 86/2 A *Weare, or fish cage hooke. It is a large and strong Iron hooke with a sockett at the end, to be fixed on a long pole, or staffe, to take fish out of weares or cages. |
| 1791 W. H. Marshall W. Eng. (1796) II. 256 The [Salmon] Weir..consists of a strong dam... At one end of the dam, is a ‘*weir house’ or trap. |
| 1791 R. Mylne 2nd Rep. Thames Navig. 15 By disuniting the Care of the Pound Locks from the Miller and the *Wear-Keeper. 1881 Taunt's Thames Map 66/1 The weir-keeper is another old hand on the river. |
| 1585 Higins Junius' Nomencl. 256/2 Excipulus,..a *weare net. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. ii. 18 In September they take in Weeles and Weere-nets an incredible number of most sweete and sauery eeles. 1656 W. Dugard tr. Comenius' Gate Lat. Unlocked §358, p. 101 Part hee shutteth up in repositories, from whence when there is need hee taketh them out with a warenet. |
| 1610 R. Vaughan Water-Workes H i b, *Weare-owners. |
| 1864 Meredith Sandra Belloni xx, She saw the white *weir-piles shining. |
| 1889 ‘J. Bickerdyke’ All-round Angler iii. 90 A man taking a chance day on the Thames has small chance of success unless he sticks to the *weirpools. |
| 1855 Archæol. æliana IV. 302 The *wear-shot net is rowed by means of a boat into the river in a circular form, and is immediately drawn to the shore. 1857 Local Act 20 & 21 Vict. c. cxlviii. §62 Every Person who shall shoot or work any Wear Shot Net in the River within the Distance of Thirty Yards of any other Wear Shot Net. |
| 1889 J. K. Jerome Three Men in Boat ix. 143 We might have somehow got into the *weir stream, and be making for the falls. |
| 1900 Daily News 1 Jan. 8/7 The well-known weir stream which skirts the grounds of Eton College. |
▪ II. weir, v. (
wɪə(r))
[f. weir n.] trans. To provide with a weir. Chiefly in
pa. pple.| 1610 R. Vaughan Water-Workes G 2 b, The Riuer of Wie..was.. so Weared & fortified, as if the Salmons therein..had been forbidden their vsuall walkes. 1794– [see weiring vbl. n.]. 1828 Carr Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Weer, to make a protection of a bank. 1904 Times 13 Feb. 13/6 The main channel was locked and weired for navigation. |
▪ III. weir Sc. var. vere n. Obs.,
war n.1,
were n. and v.,
wire n.