Forms: 1 wiliʓe, wyliʓe, -ie, 7, 9 weely, 8–9 willey, 9 willy, [OE. wiliʓe: see WILLOW sb. Cf. wyle, wile, WEEL2.]
1. A basket: see quots. dial.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., ix. (Z.), 55. Corbis, wyliʓe oððe windel.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Mark vi. 43. Hi namon þara hlafa & fixa lafe twelf wilian fulle.
a. 1100. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 336/7. Corbis uel cofinus, wyliʓe oððe meoxbearwe.
[1256, etc.: see WEEL2.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. cxxvi. (Add. MS. 27944). Of russhes beþ ymade panyers: Wiles, cupes and casis.]
1825. Jennings, Obs. Dial. W. Eng., Willy, a term applied to baskets of various sizes, but generally to those holding about a bushel…: sometimes called also willy-basket.
1886. W. Som. Word-bk., Willy, a large basket—of a shape deep rather than flat…. A willy has two small handles at the upper edge, one opposite the other.
2. A fish-trap. local.
[1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. i. (Add. MS. 27944). For fleissh yrosted crabbes comeþ in to wyles and pyches.]
1602. Carew, Cornwall, I. 28. The Trowte … are mostly taken with a hooke-net, made like the Easterne Weelyes, which is placed in the stickellest part of the stream … and kept abroad with certaine hoopes.
1813. Vancouver, Agric. Devon, 320. Below the lower flood-hatch, a trap (or willey, as in this neighbourhood it is called) is made for the catching of smaller fish.
1880. W. Cornw. Gloss., Weelys, wicker pots or traps for catching crabs.
3. A revolving machine of a conical or cylindrical shape armed internally with spikes for opening and cleaning wool, cotton, flax. Called also twilly.
[1780: see WILLY v. quot. 1864].
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 160. The wool-mill or willy (called willow, in the cotton manufacture…) is the first machine to which clothing-wool is subjected.
1870. Engl. Mech., 4 March, 610/1. The machine … is properly called a willow, or willey, vulgarly a devil; it is used principally for opening raw cotton.
1894. C. Vickerman, Woollen Spinning, 122. A ‘Fearnought’ or tenter-hook willey.
Hence Will(e)y v., to treat with the willy or willowing-machine; Will(e)yer, one who tends a willy; Will(e)ying vbl. sb. (also attrib.).
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 204. Wool-sorters, pickers, willyers (winnowers).
1844. G. Dodd, Textile Manuf., iii. 98. Some kinds of wool require willying more than once.
1864. A. Jeffrey, Hist. Roxb., IV. 115. In 1780, when a small hand ‘willy,’ for oiling and teazing the wool, was put up in the garret of John Roberts. It was a joint stock adventure, and willied for the whole town.
1871. Daily News, 18 Aug., 3/2. The cloth finishers, dressers, fettlers, and willeyers are taking steps to obtain a general advance. Ibid., 6/2. It is said that the fire broke out in the cotton willeying-room.
1884. W. S. B. McLaren, Spinning (ed. 2), 185. The wool must be freed from all dirt, etc., by willeying and thorough washing, it must then be oiled and again willeyed to spread the oil over all the fibres.
1907. Clapham, Woollen & Worsted Ind., 188. The willeying machine must also have an efficient exhaust draft.
