▪ I. glede, gled
(gliːd, glɛd)
Forms: α. 1 glida, glioda, 4– glede, (6 gleede, gleyd, 7, 9 gleed, 9 dial. gleid), 6– glead, (6 gleade). β. Sc. 5– gled, (7–8 glaid, 9 glade).
[OE. glida wk. masc. corresponds to Icel. gleða, MSw. gladha, Sw. glada wk. fem.; the OTeut. form was prob. *gliđon- and with o- umlaut gleđon-, f. glið- weak grade of the root of *glîđan to glide. For the radical sense cf. Da. glente, Sw. dial. glänta kite, glede, which seem to be related to glent v.]
The kite (Milvus regalis). Now chiefly north. and Sc. (in form gled).
The name is also locally applied to other birds of prey, as the buzzard, osprey, and peregrine falcon. The kite is sometimes distinguished as the fork-tail(ed) gled, red gled, or salmon-tailed gled, while the names of blue gled, brown gled and white-aboon gled are given to the hen-harrier.
| α c 725 Corpus Gloss. 1313 Milvus, glioda. c 1000 ælfric Hom. I. 586 Se ðe þurh reaflac ᵹewilnað ða ðing þe he mid his eaᵹum wiðutan sceawað, se is glida, na culfre. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1696 Holȝe were his yȝen & vnder campe hores, & al watz gray as þe glede. a 1340 Hampole Psalter lxii. 8, I am þi bridde, and if þou hill me not þe glede will ravishe me. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xl. (1495) 156 Some fowles haue a grete galle on the lyuer..as in a goshawke and in a kyte or glede. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §146 To se that they [chickens] be well kepte from the gleyd, crowes, fullymartes & other vermin. 1609 Holland Amm. Marcell. xiv. iii. 7 The Saracens..spoyled and destroyed, like unto ravenous Gledes and Kites [L. milvi]. 1688 Clayton in Phil. Trans. XVII. 989 The largest I take to be that they call the Grey Eagle, being much of the colour of our Kite or Glead. 1766 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 63/1 One James Haxup of Tadcaster shot a glead or kite that measured six feet between wing end and wing end. 1829 Southey Inscrip. Caledon. Canal 2 The glede Wheeling between the mountains in mid air. 1881 Standard 2 Mar. 5 The kite, or glead, or puttock is almost extinct. |
| β c 1450 Henryson Tale of Dog 30 The Gled, the Graip at the bar couth stand, As Advocatis expert in to the lawis. 1457 Sc. Acts, Jas. II, c. 32 (1814) II. 51/2 Ruks crawys and vþer foulys of reif as ernys, bussards gledds and myttalls. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. (1858) I. 108 All that tyme with falsheid he thame fed, As quha wald set ane girne befoir ane gled. a 1605 Montgomerie Flyting w. Polwart 331 Thy gall and thy guisserne to glaids shall bee given. 1768 Ross Helenore i. 58 As..hen upo' the midden head Wad tent her chuckens frae the greedy glaid. a 1774 Fergusson Leith Races Poems (1845) 33 Then dinna gape like gleds, for greed, To sweel hale bickers down. 1814 Scott Wav. xlii, I am as hungry as a gled. 1884 W. C. Smith Kildrostan 64 My old heart Goes pit-a-pat to hear it; like the merle That sees a gled o'erhead. |
b. Comb., as † glede-coloured adj.; also gled wing, the name of an artificial fly.
| 1564 Richmond. Wills (Surtees) 171 A yonge black horsse, xls. A yonge gled-coloured, price xls. 1680 Lond. Gaz. No. 1478/4 Stolen..a Dun glaid coloured Nag, with some white hairs. 1693 Ibid. No. 2867/4 Stolen..a Sandy grey or Glead coloured Horse. 1867 F. Francis Angling x. (1880) 359 The Gled Wing or Red Wing. |
▪ II. glede
obs. form of gleed.