Forms: α. 4–5 valeie (4 ualeie), 4–6 valei (5 Sc. walei, wale, vale), 4 valee; 4–5 valeye (4 ualeye), 4–7 valey (4 waley); 4 valleie, 4, 6 Sc., valle, 6 vallei, 6– valley; Sc. and north. 4 valaye, 4–6 valay, 5 wala, wallay, 6 vallay. β. 7 vally, vallie, pl. 6– vallies. [a. OF. valee (AF. pl. valeys), vallee (mod.F. vallée), early OF. vallede, = Prov. vallada, It. vallata, f. L. vallis, vallēs: see VALE sb.]
1. A long depression or hollow lying between hills or stretches of high ground and usually having a river or stream flowing along its bottom.
In ordinary use a valley is distinguished from a vale by having less width and a steeper slope on either side.
α. 1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 1277. Þo he com nei kaunterburi In a valeie biside He sei þe emperours ost.
13[?]. Guy Warw., 3876. Smerteliche he dede him in þe ways, Ouer þe dounes & þe valeys.
c. 1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 4796. For hilles and valeis sal turned be In-til playn, and made even to se.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, VII. 4. In-till þe wod soyn enterit he, And held doun toward a vale, Quhar throu þe vod a vattir ran.
c. 1450. Merlin, xiii. 195. He shewde hym the valey be the wode side.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, xv. 56. The reyne russhynge doun from the mountaynes descended in to the valeyes.
1535. Coverdale, Luke iii. 5. Euery valley shalbe fylled, and euery mountayne & hyll shalbe brought lowe.
1577. Googe, trans. Heresbach’s Husb., 45. Choose suche a valley, where the water can neither lye long, nor runne away to fast.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., V. i. 206. We are not (Sir) nor are we like to be: The Starres (I see) will kisse the Valleyes first.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. ii. 18. Our new Guide … crost another River, and enter’d into a large Valley of the fattest Land I did ever take notice of.
1773. Cook, 1st Voy., I. xvi., in Hawkesw. Voy., II. 172. To trace our river up the valley from whence it issues, and examine how far it’s banks were inhabited.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, iii. As they advanced, the valley opened.
1815. Elphinstone, Acc. Caubul (1842), I. 49. We marched up the valley, which became narrower as we advanced.
1872. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 247. They cannot be of large extent, as the valleys are all narrow, and without bottoms on either side.
β. 1596. Mascall, Cattle, 253. Goats; their keeper ought for to be … bolde, for to go with them through vallies.
1625. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., II. x. 169. Plants, and Vegetalls for the most part prosper best in the vallies and plaines.
1663. S. Patrick, Parab. Pilgrim, xxxvi. (1687), 461. Believe not me but your self … that these Vallies are watered from above.
1726. Leoni, trans. Alberti’s Archit., I. 65/1. Hills … with … little Vallies between…, and very difficult of access thro’ the narrow passes of the Vallies.
1777. W. Dalrymple, Trav. Sp. & Port., ii. The verdant banks of the river, with the Indian corn in the vallies.
1827. J. F. Cooper, Prairie, i. I. 18. In the little vallies, which … occurred at every mile of their progress.
1849. G. P. R. James, Woodman, iii. A faint, blueish mist prevented the eye from penetrating into the deeper vallies.
b. Const. of (the distinctive name of the valley).
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 5/148. Ase he in þe ualeye of Ebron leouede with teone and wo.
13[?]. K. Alis., 7027. And in þe valey of Jurdan, Þey founden eddren mony on.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., II. 405. Wheþer þat Crist shal come into þe valey of Josaphath or [etc.].
1535. Coverdale, Ps. lix. 6. I wil deuyde Sichem, & mete out the valley of Suchoth.
1611. Bible, Ps. lxxxiv. 6. Who passing through the valley of Baca, make it a well.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 404. The pleasant Vally of Hinnom.
1726. Gordon, Itin. Sept., 55. That eminent Ground, which bounds the Valley of Kilsyth to the Southward.
1833. Lyell, Princ. Geol., III. 305. The valley of Kingsclere,… in Berkshire, is about five miles long and two in breadth.
c. Without article.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, IV. 684. Thai maid To rype the wood, bath wala, slonk, and slaid.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 116. Sweet interchange Of Hill and Vallie, Rivers, Woods and Plaines.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 322. A spacious map of hill and valley interpos’d between.
1859. Tennyson, Marr. Geraint, 247. Out of town and valley came a noise.
1865. H. H. Dixon, Field & Fern, 233. Wood and valley backed up by a Cheviot hill compose a pleasant landscape.
d. The extensive stretch of flattish country drained or watered by one or other of the larger river-systems of the world.
c. 1790. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), VI. 393/2. In those early ages … a certain people descended from the mountains near the cataracts into the valley overflowed by the Nile.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXV. 472/1. Dividing the valley of the Euphrates from the rivers which flow into the Black Sea.
1876. Encycl. Brit., IV. 223/2. Surface ‘drift’ deposits … occur … in the valley of the Amazon westward to … Peru.
e. Geol. (See quot. 1839.)
1833. Lyell, Princ. Geol., III. 305. Dr. Buckland on Valleys of Elevation.
1839. G. Roberts, Dict. Geol., Valleys of elevation, those which seem to have originated in a fracture of the strata, and a movement of the fractured part upwards.
2. In figurative uses.
Valley of the shadow (of death): see SHADOW sb. 1 b.
1382. Wyclif, Isaiah xxii. 1. The charge of the valey of viseoun.
1411–2. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 4444. The swete venym of his tonge gydeth His lord vnto þe valeie of dirknesse.
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 17447. I was engendryd fyrst in helle;… in that Valey Infernal I was begete.
1781. Cowper, Conversat., 636. Youth has a sprightliness and fire to boast, That in the valley of decline are lost.
1822. Shelley, Triumph Life, 397. If … Thou comest from the realm without a name Into this valley of perpetual dream.
1851. Robertson, Serm., Ser. II. i. (1864), 18. You must be content with the quiet valleys of existence.
1882. J. Parker, Apostolic Life, I. 78. Thou knowest how much we are in the valley, and how often we pass through dark places.
b. Valley of tears: see VALE sb.1 2 b.
[1382. Wyclif, Ps. lxxxiii. 6. In the valei of teris, in the place that he sette.]
a. 1400. Prymer (1891), 51. To the we syȝen gronynge and wepynge in this ualeye of teeres.
c. 1450. trans. De Imitatione, III. xxiii. 92. In þis valey of teres þere comeþ many euell þinges.
1894. J. H. S. (title), The Valley of Tears…. The Consolations of God.
3. transf. A depression or hollow suggestive of a valley; esp. a trough between sea-waves.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., II. iii. 100. His Fore-head, nay, the Valley, The pretty dimples of his Chin, and Cheeke.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1704), 298. The Eyes are sunk in a Convenient Valley.
1845. Gosse, Ocean, iv. (1849), 164. The little Petrel flits hither and thither, now treading the brow of the watery hill, now sweeping through the valley.
1888. Stevenson, Black Arrow, 176. The Good Hope swooped dizzily down into the valley of the rollers.
4. techn. The depressed angle formed by the meeting (at the bottom) of two sloping sides of a composite roof, or by the slope of a roof and a wall; a gatter.
1690. Leybourn, Curs. Math., 901. The Bricklayer sometimes will require to have running measure for Hyps and Valleys.
1703. [R. Neve], City & C. Purchaser, 162. Of measuring Vallies, or Gutters in Tiling.
1782. Phil. Trans., LXXII. 360. In like manner the two conductors from the chimnies A and C united in the valley of the roof between them.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 83. To steady and support the lower edges of slates finishing against vallies.
1866. Fitzpatrick, Sham Squire, 113. Murphy hurried Lord Edward to the roof of the warehouse, and with some difficulty persuaded him to lie in the valley.
1899. Baring-Gould, Book of West, II. xii. 175. Here also are some quaint old slated houses; the valleys are not leaded.
b. A tile used in roofing a valley.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 296. The ridge pieces, hips, and valleys, to be seven inches by one and a half inches.
† 5. Fr. Hist. = PLAIN sb.1 6. (Cf. MOUNTAIN 6.)
1792. Pref. Expl. New Terms, in Ann. Reg., p. xii. The Valley. The lower seats; and these in the middle of the hall of the Assembly.
6. Anat. (See quots. and cf. VALLECULA 1.)
1842. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7), II. 807/2. A large hollow between the hemispheres [of the cerebellum] … is the small valley (vallecula) of Halley.
c. 1845. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., III. 688/2. A deep fissure which proceeds … backwards along the median line … is called the valley.
7. attrib. and Comb. in sense 1 (freq. denoting ‘situated in a valley’), as valley-bottom, -cottage, -fountain, -gate, -glacier, -glade, etc.; valley-like adj., -ward adv.
1905. A. R. Wallace, My Life, II. 153. The little *valley-bottoms were complete flower gardens.
1859. Meredith, Poet. Wks. (1912), 92. For me yon *valley-cottage beckons warm.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., cliii. In a could *vallie-fountaine.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Chron. xxvi. 9. Osias buylded towres … vpon the cornerporte, and on the *valley gate.
1874. Geikie, Gt. Ice Age (1894), 512. The *valley-glaciers becoming confluent in their lower reaches.
1820. Keats, Ode Nightingale, viii. Now ’tis buried deep In the next *valley-glades.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 28. Along the banks of the Thames and its tributary streams there is a bed of *valley-gravel.
1894. Geol. Mag., Oct., 466. The amphitheatre form of terraced land is always a *valley head.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust, III. (1875), II. 184. The *valley-hills That in the rear of Sparta northwards rise aloft.
1852. Thoreau, Lett. (1865), 66. The vast *valley-like ‘spore’ … of some celestial beast.
1859. Cornwallis, New World, I. 172. A solitary moorland with valley-like undulations.
1894. Geol. Mag., Oct., 466. The outflow of the stream—the *valley-maker—marks ordinarily the base of the amphitheatre.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv. (1746), 86. Contrariwise the *Valley People … are ever heavy spirited, dull, and sickly.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, I. 363. The four great *valley-plains … divided by lateral spurs.
1876. T. Hardy, Ethelberta (1890), 243. A thin young man … who arrived at the castle by the *valley-road from Knollsea.
c. 1550. Rolland, Crt. Venus, I. 39. I walkit furth on be ane *valay syde.
1872. Ingraham, Pillar of Fire, 578. Moses and the Israelites pursued their way up the cliffs of the valley-sides.
1841. W. C. Bryant, Walk at Sunset, Wks. 44. Oh, let me, by the crystal *valley-stream, Wander.
1871. Palgrave, Lyr. Poems, 89. Joining then the *valley-streamlet.
1894. Book News, March, 274. Dark belts of woodland, with *valleyward the white gleam of the Froom.
1883. Science, I. 326/1. These lakes are perhaps formed by a local depression of the *valley-way.
b. Valley-lily, the lily of the valley.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. lxxxvii. 332. The flowers of the Valley Lillie.
1766. M. Bruce, Lochleven, Wks. (1914), 206. Her breast was fairer than the vernal bloom Of valley-lily.
1818. Keats, Endymion, I. 156. Wild thyme, and valley-lilies whiter still Than Leda’s love.
a. 1850. Beddoes, Poems, Lily of the Valley, 201. The birthday-hours of the valley-lily.
c. Valley of death tree, the Upas-tree.
1888. in Cassell’s Encycl. Dict.
d. Valley of the Sun, Phoenix, AZ.
1928. Arizona Republic, 18 Jan., 8. We might forget, here in our ‘valley of the sun,’ that this is the time of year alloted to Winter if she did not remind us occasionally with the touch of her frosty fingers or the chill of her snowy breath.
8. attrib. in sense 4, as valley-board, -gutter, -piece, -rafter.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Builder, 230. The valley-rafters of a roof.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 852. Proper valley boards are to be put for the lead valleys. Ibid., § 1350. A valley-gutter between two roofs.
1842. Gwilt, Encycl. Archit., 1049. The rafter which supports the valley is called the valley rafter or valley piece, and the board fixed upon it for the leaden gutter to rest upon is called the valley board.
Hence Valleyful, the fill of a valley; Valleyite, an inhabitant of a valley; Valleylet, a small valley.
1866. G. Greenwood, Rain & Rivers, 188. Its infinite ramification of stream and valley, streamlet and valleylet.
1879. F. L. Oswald, in Lippincott’s Mag., XXIII. Feb., 156/2. Fluid lava in quantities varying from a panful to a valleyful.
1890. Longman’s Mag., July, 341. A whole valleyful of appropriate plants.
1893. Outing, XXII. 136/1. While I roamed about the burying-place of the valleyites.
