▪ I. gault, n. Geol.
(gɒlt, -ɔː-)
Also 6 galte, 8–9 golt, galt.
[Of obscure origin: cf. OSw. galt neut. of galder adj., barren.]
1. (See quot. 1833.) Also gault clay.
| 1575 Turberv. Venerie 186 In grounde that is harde to dygge as in galte clay and stonye grounde. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 332 The Element..vegetates, and takes upon it the Nature of Minerals, Stones, Gaults, or Clay. 1766 Phil. Trans. LVI. 12 This stratum of gravel is..surrounded with a bed of very dark blue golt. 1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 285 note, The bottom of this drain was formed of a retentive clay or gault. 1833 Lyell Princ. Geology III. Gloss. 69 Gault, a provincial name in the east of England for a series of beds of clay and marl, the geological position of which is between the upper and the lower greensand. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 339 Chalk marl and galt are the strata which appear immediately under the lower chalk and occupy a valley at the foot of the chalk hills. 1876 Page Adv. Textbk. Geol. xviii. 337 The argillaceous strata..known by the provincial term ‘gault’ or ‘golt’. |
2. Comb.: gault-mill.
| 1889 Athenæum No. 3244. 883/1 Urchins who, like horses in a gault-mill, trotted beneath the structure in a circle and pushed it round. |
▪ II. gault, v. dial.
(gɒlt, -ɔː-)
[f. prec. n.]
a. trans. To cover (soil) with clay obtained from the subsoil. b. intr. To dig gault for embankments.
Hence ˈgaulting vbl. n. Also ˈgaulter, a labourer who digs gault.
| 1851 H. Stephens Bk. of Farm §2124 (ed. 2) The process of gaulting or claying the soil. 1885 Instr. to Census Clerks 86 Clay Banksman, Clay Miner..Gaulter. 1893 Baring-Gould Cheap-Jack Z. II. 39, Gangers, clayers, bankers, gaulters. Ibid. 48 How should I be paid for my gaulting? and without gaulting there can be no banking. |