mellay, n. and a.
(ˈmɛleɪ)
Forms: 4–6 melle, 5–6 mely, 5–6, (9) melly, (6 mellie, -ye, 9 -ey), 6, 9 mellay.
[a. OF. mellée, meslée: see mêlée.]
A. n.
† 1. Mixture. Obs. rare—1.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce v. 404 Syne of the tunnys the hedis out-strak, A foull melle thair can he mak. |
2. † Contention, fight, quarrel (obs.); spec., an engagement in which the two parties or combatants are mixed together in a close hand to hand fight. Cf. mêlée. arch.
| 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 342, I be-seche now with saȝez sene, Þis melly mot be myne. 1375 Barbour Bruce xvii. 120 Thar wes gret melleis twa or thre. c 1400 Ywaine & Gaw. 504 Woso flites, or turnes ogayne, He bygins al the mellè. 1508 Dunbar Lament Makaris 23 Wictour he is at all melle. 1513 Douglas æneis vii. x. 5 Als sone as was this gret melly begunne, The erd littit wyth blude. 1819 Scott Ivanhoe xxix, The love of battle is the food upon which we live—the dust of the mellay is the breath of our nostrils! 1847 Tennyson Princess v. 491 As here and everywhere He rode the mellay, lord of the ringing lists. 1875 Kinglake Crimea (1877) V. i. 152 So that Russians..and men of the Scots Greys and men of the 5th Dragoon Guards, were here forced and crowded together in one indiscriminate melley. 1881 Green Hist. Eng. I. iv. ii. 419 The Welshmen stabbed the French horses in the melly. |
† 3. A cloth of a mixture of colours or shades of colour; also a ‘mixed’ colour. (Cf. medley.)
| 1381–4 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 592 In di. panno de Melle. 1420 Will in Trevelyan Papers (Camden) 18 Item lego Matild'..unam togam de violet, aliam de melly... Item lego Johanne.. unam togam russetam & aliam togam de mely. 1587 Acc. Bk. W. Wray in Antiquary XXXII. 118, iij yeardes white mella', xijs. 1593 Ibid., iij yeardes & a q'ter fyne mella', xiiis. |
† 4. ? A kind of brass. In quot. attrib. (Cf. maslin1.) Obs.
| 1545 Richmond Wills (Surtees) 56 A mellay pot with a kylp, a chaffer, a brewyng leyyd [etc.]. |
† B. adj. Of a mixed or variegated colour. Obs.
| 1515 Will of R. West (Somerset Ho.), My mely tawny gowne. 1551 Aberdeen Reg. XXI. (Jam.) The price litting of the stane of mellay hew xxxii sh. Ibid. XXIV. (Jam.) Ane mella kirtill. 1558 Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees) I. 173 It'm I giue to my curate..my mellye gowne. |
b. Comb.: † melly parted a., parti-coloured.
| 1418 E.E. Wills (1882) 37 A furre of beuer and oter medled; also a Hewk of grene and other melly parted. |
Hence † mellay v. intr., to contend.
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. xv. 19 Ðare Willame Walays tuk on hand, Wyth mony gret Lordys of Scotland, To mellay wyth þat Kyng in fycht. |