Now dial. or local. Forms: 1–3 windel, (1 -il), 3–6 wyndel, 6 wyndle, -dille, -dell, 8–9 dial. winnel, 6– windle. [OE. windel str. m., ‘cartellus,’ ‘fiscella,’ ‘canistrum,’ ‘corbis,’ f. windan to plait, WIND v.1: see -LE 1.
Parallel in formation are OHG. wintilâ (MHG., G. windel) swaddling clothes, ON. vindill wisp.]
1. A basket. Now only dial. (see quot. 1879): app. associated or confused with WINDLE sb.2
c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (Hessels), C 10. Cartellus, windil.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. xl. 16. Ic ʓeseah swefn, þæt is, ðæt ic hæfde ðry windlas mid melewe ofer min heafod.
c. 1400. Laud Troy Bk., 17973. Thei did brynge the kiddis drye … And colis also In bollis & wyndel.
1879. Norfolk Archæol., VIII. 174. Windle, a basket used in winnowing corn.
2. A measure of corn and other commodities, varying in different localities; of wheat, usually about 3 bushels. local (north.).
[1268, 1282. in Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xviii. 428. [Nuts] are purchased in Cumberland by the windle.]
1281–2. Inq. post mortem Edw. I., 31/3 (P.R.O.). Et sciendum quod quelibet eskeppa continet sexdecim Windellos, et illi sexdecim Windelli faciunt quarterium Londiniense et dimidium.
1309. Crt. Rolls Wakefield (1906), II. 194. One wynd[el ?] of barley and a quarter of oats.
1521. Pleadings Duchy Lancaster (1896), 106. [Dealing of corn by] mettes and wyndilles.
1525. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), V. 216. To everichon of the same Orders a wyndle of wheate, or the price therof.
1566. in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1883), I. 86. One wyndle containing 56 quarts of wine measure up heaped shall … be the right and just standard.
1636. Farington Papers (Chetham Soc., 1856), 13. 8 windles of wheat Lancr measure.
1729. P. Walkden, Diary (1866), 62. Spent the day wholly at home in winnowing my barley, and I measured a windle and an awkendale for going to the malt-kilns.
1790. Grose, Prov. Gloss. (ed. 2), Windle, or Winnel, a bushel.
1849. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., X. I. 18. The cost [of limestone] at the kiln is 11 d a windle, and two windles are equal to 3 cwt.
1881. Daily News, 17 Jan., 3/4. Preston. Jan. 15…. Wheat 19s. to 22s. per windle.
3. A bundle or band (of straw or hay). Sc.
1825. Jamieson, Winnle, the same with Windlen, a bottle of straw.
1893. W. R. Mackintosh, Around Orkney Peat-Fires (1905), 207. [He] had the kegs tied up in windles of straw.
