▪ I. leat Chiefly s.w.dial.
(liːt)
Also 6 leate, 7 let(t, 9 leet.
[OE. (wæter)-ᵹelǽt(e water-conduit (the simple word occurs also in the sense ‘junction of roads’) = OHG. gilâȥ letting, letting out, junction, also in comb. waȥȥer gilâȥ water-conduit (MHG. gelâȥ, mod.G. gelasz, also MHG. gelæȥe, mod.G. geläsze, in many senses derived from that of the verbal root); f. ᵹe- prefix (see y-) + root of lǽtan let v.1]
An open watercourse to conduct water for household purposes, mills, mining works, etc.
| 1590–1 in Trans. Devon. Assoc. (1884) XVI. 526 Item pd to 4 trumpetors that were att the leate by Mr Maiors commaundemt, vs. a 1642 Sir W. Monson Naval Tracts iv. (1704) 432/1 Streight, River, or other Let of Water, fresh or salt. 1671 Phil. Trans. VI. 2098 Cut a Leat, Gurt, or Trench. 1671 F. Phillips Reg. Necess. 235 Commissioners of Sewers to survey Streams, Gutters, Letts, and Annoyances. 1796 W. Marshall W. England II. 269 Rode to the head of Plymouth Leat. This artificial brook is taken out of the river Mew, towards its source. 1813 Vancouver Agric. Devon 319 The entrance for the leat was cut at about thirty feet above the lip of the weir. 1838 A. E. Bray Tradit. Devon I. 232 note, Leet is used in Devonshire to signify a stream of water. 1855 Kingsley Westw. Ho! xvi, I have a project to bring down a leat of fair water from the hill-tops right into Plymouth town. 1881 Daily News 21 Jan. 6/4 The leats on Dartmoor are choked with snow and ice, and no water is flowing into the reservoirs. |
| attrib. 1882 Burton & Cameron Gold Coast for G. I. iii. 57 The water-course or leat-road of Santa Luzia. |
▪ II. leat
pa. tense of lout Obs., to stoop.