▪ I. leed1 Sc. and north. dial.
(liːd)
Forms: 3–6 lede, 4 leyd, 6–7 leid, (6 lead), 8–9 leed, 8 leet, 9 lied.
[app. a shortened form of leden.]
† Language, ‘tongue’ = leden 2. Obs.
| 1513 Douglas æneis iii. iv. 1 Strophades in Grew leid ar nemmit so. 1567 Satir. Poems Reform. iii. 140 Than sall I wryte in prettie poetrie, In Latine leid. a 1578 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) I. 158 Alexander..was send to France to leairne the leid witht wther lettres. |
| Proverb. 1808 Jamieson, Ilk land has its ain leid. |
b. The speech of a person or class of persons, talk, utterance; manner of speaking or writing; phraseology, ‘patter’. Obs. exc. Sc.
| a 1300 Body & Soul 21 in Map's Poems (Camden) 334 Ȝwere is al thi michele pride, And thi lede that was so loud? 13.. Sir Tristr. 1004 Tristrem..schortliche seyd in lede: We no owe þe noþing. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints ix. (Bertholomeus) 68 Al langage spek he cane, & vndirstand al leyd of mane. a 1400–50 Alexander 5007 In quatkyn manir of lede sall me þir treis sware? 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus Prol. 284 The ofter that ȝe it reid, Ȝe sall the better tak baith the sence, and leid. 1599 Jas. I βασιλ. Δωρον (1603) 115 Not using any rusticall corrupt leid, as booke language. 1746 E. Erskine Serm. Wks. 1871 III. 305 Let faith get up its head and it will speak its own particular leed. 1790 D. Morison Poems 77 Let Matrons round the ingle meet..An' in a droll auld farran' leet, 'Bout fairys crack. 1826 G. Beattie John o' Arnha 22 To hersel' this leed she mutter'd, ‘Frae the east—fra the wast’ [etc.]. a 1828 ‘Hynd Horn’ xviii. in Child Ballads (1882) I. 207/1 Auld man, come tell to me your leed; What news ye gie when ye beg your bread. 1850 W. Jamie Stray Effusions 146 Nae jockeyship kent he Nor ploughman leed. 1867 Gregor Banffs. Gloss., Leed..One line of conversation or argument; as, ‘He got intil a leed, an oot o' that he cudna get’. |
c. poet. applied to the ‘language’ of birds.
| a 1310 in Wright Lyric P. 27 The lutel foul hath hire wyl on hyre lud to sing. 184. Laing in Whistle-Binkie (Scot. Songs) (1890) I. 374 That wonderfu calf Has Scripture by heart, as the gowk has its lied. |
▪ II. leed2 local.
(liːd)
The grass Glyceria aquatica.
| 1607 Camden Brit. 360 Cum aquæ se in suos alueos receperint, lætissimo gramine & fœno crassiori (Lid vocant) ita luxuriat. 1878 Miller & Skertchly Fenland x. 298 [After quoting Camden on Lid] This grass is most likely the Glyceria, formerly Poa aquatica..and is still usually known by the name of ‘White Leed’. It was once the principal grass of the Wash lands. |
▪ III. leed
obs. pa. pple. lay v.1; obs. f. Lide, March.