Forms: α. 3–5 wyle, 6 wyele, 7 wile; 6 wyll(e, whyll. β. 5 wele (5–6 welle), 5–7 weele (6 weyle, weale), 7– weel, (6 Sc. weill, 7 well, 9 weal); 6–9 wheel (7 wheele). [OE. wile- (in wile-wíse), a reduced form of wiliʓe, wilie basket: see WILLY. The form wele, weel is a normal development from this.]
1. A wicker trap for catching fish, esp. eels.
1256. Northumb. Assize Roll (Surtees), 103. Fit destructio [in the Tyne] salminiculorum per wyles et per minuta retia.
1369–70. Acc. Obedientiars Abingdon Abbey (Camden), 19. In wylys et pottus, iij s.
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 18057. Lyke a wyle in a ryver, to cache the fysche bothe fer and nere; the entre large, the comynge out is so strayt, it stant in dout.
1450–1. Acc. Obedientiars Abingdon Abbey (Camden), 130. Et in welez emptis pro piscibus capiendis in fossato Conuentus, iiij s. x d.
1483. Cath. Angl., 413/1. A Welle, nassa.
1510. Stanbridge, Vocabula (W. de W.), C vj b. Nassula, a wyll, or a leepe.
1519. Horman, Vulg., Z 1 b. One hath robbed my wyele, predo nassam diripuit.
1573–80. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 87. Watch ponds, go looke to weeles and hooke.
1649. E. Reynolds, Hosea, iii. 26. We are like Fishermens wheels, wide at that end which lets in the Fish, but narrow at the other end, so that they cannot get out againe.
1725. Bradley’s Family Dict., Weel,… made of Osier-twigs, which are supported by Circles or Hoops, that go round, and are ever diminishing;… Its Mouth is somewhat Broad, but the other end terminates in a Point: It’s so contrived, that when the Fishes are got in, they cannot come out of it again, because of the Osier Twigs, which advance on the inside, to the place where the Hoops are, and which stop the Passage, leaving but a small opening there.
1769. Pennant, Brit. Zool., III. 163. It does not often take a bait, but is generally caught in weels.
1873. Act 36 & 37 Vict., c. 71 § 15. Any basket, trap, or device for taking fish, except wheels or leaps for taking lamperns.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4), 125. Weels used on the apron of Weirs for taking Lamperns.
1902. Cornish, Naturalist Thames, 103. The moveable eel-trap or ‘grig-wheel.’ It is like a crayfish basket, only … larger.
b. in fig. context.
1639. Mayne, City Match, III. iv. ’Slight who would think your Father should lay weeles To catch you thus?
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xvi. (Roxb.), 80/1. A weele with two ends, or holes: for fish to get in at; which when in, there is no getting out againe, from whence came the proverbe, I catched him with a weele: that is I got him in so, that he could not get out.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, V. xiv. When did you ever hear that, any body ever got out of this Weel without leaving something of his behind him.
c. Her. A conventional representation of such a fish-trap, borne as a charge.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xvi. (Roxb.), 80/1. He beareth Azure, a Weele with its hoope vpward, Or.
1780. Edmondson, Her., II. Gloss., Weel, for catching of fish, is always drawn in armory, as in Plate VIII. Fig. 39.
c. 1828. Berry, Encycl. Her., I. Gloss.
d. attrib., in † weel-net.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 218. Weaving them close together in a round and large forme, after the maner of a fishers leape or weele net.
2. A basket, esp. one in which fish are kept.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), II. 319. Moyses … was putte in a weele made of rishes [L. in fiscella scirpea] dressede with picche, and caste in to the water. Ibid., IV. 353. The fader and mother abhorrenge to sle theire owne son … putte hym in a wele in to the see.
1530. Palsgr., 287/2. Welle or lepe for fysshe, bouticle.
1651. T. Barker, Art of Angling (1659), 44. Providing a little weele made of wicker to carry their fish.
1659. Torriano, Cavágna … a fisher’s-weel, or haske.
1678. Littleton, Dict., Lat.-Eng., Fiscella,… a wile wherein fishes are kept.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4), 125. Hard Weels [are] large baskets in which eels and lamperns are kept alive until sold.
