Also vley, vly, vlie, vlaie. [Du. dial. vlei, reduced form of Du. vallei valley.]
1. In South Africa: A shallow pool of water; a piece of low-lying ground covered with water during the rainy season.
1849. E. E. Napier, Excurs. S. Africa, II. 179. The Hottentots look anxiously around for the well known ‘vlei.’
1850. R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Afr. (ed. 2), I. 97. I came full in view of the vley or pool of water beside which I had been directed to encamp.
1863. W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, vi. 226. We found the vley, where we fully expected water, dried up.
1899. Rider Haggard, Swallow, viii. A large vlei, or pan, where were many ducks and also some antelope.
2. local U.S. A swamp.
1880. Amer. Jrnl. Sci., Ser. III. XIX. 432. To the same settlers [the Dutch] are due the geographical appellations of kill for stream,… and vly or vlaie for swamp, so frequently met with in the Catskills.
1889. Bynner, Begum’s Dau., i. Up over the grassy edge of the basin which formed the vly … the children came bounding pell-mell.
1904. R. W. Chambers, in Harper’s Mag., May, 933/1. Have you reason to believe that an attempt has been made to fire the Owl Vlaie?
