lode
(ləʊd)
Forms: 1 lád, (laad), 3 lad, 3–4 (9 dial.) lade, 4 lod, 6 loode, 6–9 load, 7 loade, 9 dial. looad, 4– lode.
[OE. lád fem.: see load n., of which lode is merely a graphic variant, now appropriated to certain special senses. (The obs. senses are placed under the one or the other word according to their affinity with surviving senses.)]
1. † Way, journey, course (obs.); dial. a road.
| Beowulf 1987 (Gr.) Hu lomp eow on lade leofa Biowulf? a 1000 Andreas 423 (Gr.) Mycel is nu ᵹena lad ofer laᵹu⁓stream. c 1200 Ormin 3455 Þatt illc an shollde þrinne lac Habbenn wiþþ him o lade. c 1320 Sir Tristr. 419 He toke his lod vnliȝt, His penis wiþ him he bare. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. C. 156 For be monnes lode neuer so luþer, þe lyf is ay swete. 1886 Cheshire Gloss., Looad, a lane; in Mobberley applied to the roads leading to the various moss rooms on Lindow Common. |
2. A watercourse; an aqueduct, channel; an open drain in fenny districts. Now
local.
| [789 Grant in Birch Cartul. Sax. (1885) I. 358 Mariscem..quam circumfluit Iaeᵹnlaad.] 1572 J. Jones Bathes Buckstone 10 b, Such evill ayre as issueth foorth of Lodes, Synckes, Sewers, and draynes. 1574 Bp. Cox in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. iii. IV. 17 Our fennes, loodes, dykes, and banckes, being..so sore decayed. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 491 The whole region..is overflowed by the spreading waters of the rivers..having not loades and sewers large enough to voide away. 1839 Stonehouse Axholme 376 There was formerly a small lode or gut, called Volfdyke, by which boats and small craft could sail out of the Trent. 1859 Kingsley Plays & Purit. Misc. II. 139 Down that long dark lode..he..skated home. 1865 ― Herew. xxi. A man cutting sedges in a punt in the lode alongside. 1893 Northumbld. Gloss., Lade, lode, an aqueduct or channel which carries the water to a mill. 1894 Athenæum 5 May 587/1 A view of a fen lode or land drain in rainy weather. |
† 3. a. Leading, guidance.
Obs.| c 1200 Ormin 2140 Forr þatt he [sc. þe steoressmann] wile follȝhenn aȝȝ þat illke steorrness lade. Ibid. 6589 He..Forrleoseþþ sawless soþe lihht, Þatt iss Goddspelless lade. a 1300 Cursor M. 8441 Quen he cuth þe lagh o landes lade. |
b. dial. The turn to act as pilot.
| 1855 Correspondent, When a signal is made for a pilot, at Aldeburgh, the Pilots on shore draw lots, and he, who gets the lot, or as they call it the Lode, goes off to the vessel. |
4. A loadstone. Also
fig. an object of attraction.
It is uncertain whether
quot. c 1530 belongs to this sense;
cf. 3.
| 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1570) 211 So they that are abrode fast about may range, Rowing on the see, my selfe their lode and gyde. c 1530 Hyckescorner (ed. Manly) 84 (Perseveraunce), I am never varyable, but doth contynue, Still goynge upwarde the ladder of grace, And lode in me planted is so true, And fro the poore man I wyll never tourne my face. 1589 Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 51 Arcadies Apollo, whose brightnesse draws euerie eye to turne as the Helitropion doth after her load. 1603 Drayton Odes vii. 34 As with the Loade The Steele we touch. |
5. Mining. A vein of metal ore.
champion lode, the most productive lode in a district.
| 1602 Carew Cornwall 8 They haue now two kinds of Tynne workes, Stream and Load. Ibid. 10 b, When they light vpon a smal veine, or chance to leese the Load which they wrought,..they begin at another place neere-hand, and so drawe by gesse to the main Load againe. 1728 Nicholls in Phil. Trans. XXXV. 402 When the Substances forming these Loads are reducible to Metal, the Loads are by the Miners said to be alive; otherwise they are term'd dead Loads. 1813 Vancouver Agric. Devon 64 In the parish of Bridestow a lode of copper has lately been discovered within six or seven fathoms of the surface. 1845 Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. IV. 151 Zinc lying in two large and two smaller lodes and veins. 1866 Thornbury Greatheart III. 7 The lode is a champion lode, and must run for miles, so the men tell me. 1872 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 93 The aggregate yield of the mines on the Comstock lode. 1881 ― Mining Gloss. s.v., In general miner's usage, a lode, vein, or ledge is a tabular deposit of valuable mineral between definite boundaries. 1883 Stevenson Silverado Sq. 60 The lode comes to an end, and the miners move elsewhere. |
6. attrib. and
Comb., as
lode-claim,
lode formation,
lode-location,
lode-mining,
lode-ore;
lode-light, a light said to be seen sometimes above a vein of ore;
lode-plot (see
quot.);
† lode-ship, ? a pilot ship;
lode-stovvan,
lodeworks (see
quots.);
† lodewort, a name for Water Crowfoot,
Ranunculus aquatilis, so called from its growing in watercourses.
| 1874 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 365 Brown's Gulch..contains the following *lode-claims, all claimed as silver-lodes. |
| 1895 Westm. Gaz. 28 Sept. 4/2 No. 1 Shaft..is sunk to the depth of 24 ft. on *lode formation 2 ft. 6 in. wide. |
| 1883 Encycl. Brit. XVI. 443/1 The appearance of the so-called *lode-lights may be explained by the production of phosphoretted hydrogen. 1894 C. le N. Foster Ore & Stone Mining 107 Appearances of flame above mineral veins..are sufficiently well established to have received a special name ‘lode lights’ in Cornwall. |
| 1877 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 328 Several lodes had in the mean time been found, or at least *load-locations [sic] made. |
| 1874 Ibid. 363 Concerning the *lode-mining interest of the county there is but little to report. |
| 1778 Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2) s.v. Burslem, Its potters use almost all the *load-ore that is dug at Lawton. |
| 1778 Pryce Min. Cornub. 324 *Lode-plot, a Lode that underlies very fast or horizontal, and may be rather called a Flat Lode. |
| 1357 Act 31 Edw. III, Stat. 3. c. 2 En cas que..pesson plus grant [que] Lob soit trove en nief appelle *Lodship [translation has Lodeship]. |
| 1860 Eng. & For. Mining Gloss. (Cornwall Terms), *Lode stovvan, a drang driven towards rising ground on the indications of a lode in marshy ground. |
| 1586 Camden Britannia (1600) 148 Horum autem stannariorum, siue metallicorum operum duo sunt genera. Alterum *Lode⁓works, alterum streame-works vocant. 1602 Carew Cornwall 8 b, To find the Loadworkes, their first labour is also imployed in seeking this Shoad, which either lieth open on the grasse, or but shallowly couered. 1727 Bailey vol. II, Lode works [in the Stannaries or Tin Mines in Cornwall], Works performed in the high Grounds, by sinking deep Wells call'd Shafts. |
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal App., *Lodewort is water Crowfoote. |