Also 4 blet, 6 Sc. bleit, 8 blate. [f. prec. vb.] The cry of a sheep, goat or calf.
[1382. Wyclif, Ps. lxxvii[i]. 70. Fro the aftir berende blet he toc hym [1388 fro bihynde scheep with lambren; Vulg. de post fœtantes accepit eum].]
1590. Shaks., Much Ado, V. iv. 51. A Calfe … Much like to you, for you haue iust his bleat.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 826. The Rivers, and their Banks, and Hills around, With Lowings, and with dying Bleats resound.
1795. Southey, Occas. Pieces, iii. His barkings loud and quick Amid their tremulous bleat.
1842. Tennyson, Ode Memory, v. The live-long bleat Of the thick-fleeced sheep.
b. transf. Any similar cry; spec. that of a snipe.
1863. Kingsley, Water-Bab., 131. The owl’s hoot and the snipe’s bleat and the fox’s bark.
c. A similar sound made by the human voice.
c. 1505. Dunbar, Flyting, 204. Thay bickerit the with mony bae and bleit.
1799. Month. Rev., XXIX. 142. The inarticulate vulgarity, the call’s blate of those speakers.
