† reit Obs.
Forms: 6 reyte, 6–7 reite, 7 reet, reit.
[Of obscure origin: cf. reek n.2]
Chiefly pl. Sea-weed.
| 1538 Elyot Alga, reyte [1548 reites] or wedes in the see. 1555 Eden Decades 343 Weedes of the sea cauled reites or ouse. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 676 It hath gotten about the keele a deale of mosse, reits, kilpe, and tangle. 1610 ― Camden's Brit. i. 184 With the Sea weede or reit commonly called Orewood. 1655 Bp. Richardson Obs. O.T., Exod. 11 Calling it the sea of weeds, or sedge,..of flag, or rush, tange, rack or reet, in Latin, alga,..which reddish weeds in abundance grew in it. 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. Introd. b 7 The Squillae..live in marine..places: their meat is oisters, and reites. |