[Sp. and Catal. vega, Pg. veiga, of obscure origin.] In Spain and Spanish America, an extensive, fertile and grass-covered plain or tract of land.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., I. i. 24. I am now in Valentia, one of the noblest Cities in all Spain, situate in a large Vega or Valley, about sixty miles compass.
1827. Longf., Life (1891), I. ix. 131. We crossed the beautiful Vega—those delicious and luxuriant meadows which stretch away to the south and west of Granada.
1838. Prescott, Ferd. & Is., I. viii. (1846), I. 363. Their spacious vegas afforded an ample field for the display of their matchless horsemanship.
1850. B. Taylor, Eldorado, vii. (1862), 67. The grass on the vega before the house was still thick and green.
1887. F. Francis, Jr. Saddle & Mocassin, 85. The horses were driven in from the vega.
b. In the West Indies, a piece of fertile meadow-land used for the cultivation of sugar or tobacco; a tobacco-field.
1871. Kingsley, At Last, ix. The vega is usually a highly cultivated cane-piece.
1871. Hazard, Cuba, 329. The best properties known as vegas, or tobacco farms, are comprised in a narrow area in the south-west part of the island.
