Now arch. and dial. Forms: 4 ȝene, 6 yene, 6–7 yeane, 6– yean. [? OE. *ʓeéanian, related to ʓeéan ‘feta,’ pregnant: see Y- and EAN v.]
1. trans. Of a ewe: To bring forth (a lamb); also said of goats and occas. Other beasts.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 303. Alle þe splekked lamberne and kedes þat schulden be i-ȝened.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., VII. (1811), 368. A lambe was yenyd, hauynge .ii. perfyte bodyes.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 37. An ewe goth with lambe .xx. wekes, and shall yeane her lambe in the .xxi. weke.
1605. Willet, Hexapla Gen., 319. There is a riuer in Assyria … which causeth the sheepe that drinke thereof to yeane blacke lambes.
1644. Quarles, Sheph. Orac., vii. They’l conspire To yeane their jolly lambs within thy cot.
1759. R. Brown, Compl. Farmer, 32. The ewes yean the polled lamb with the least danger.
1800. Wordsw., Pet Lamb, 39. The dam that did thee yean Upon the mountain-tops.
1806. Southey, in Ann. Rev., IV. 51. To record the day and hour when a sheep died, a lamb was yeaned, or one of the flock stolen.
1862. Trench, Poems, Vis. Tusculum, 15. Watching the white goats … their young Tending, new yeaned.
1871. R. Ellis, trans. Catullus, lxiv. 154. What grim lioness yeaned thee, aneath what rock’s desolation?
b. fig. To produce, give birth to.
1598. Marston, Sco. of Villanie, VI. 39. Yon’s one hath yean’d a fearefull prodigie.
1847. Emerson, Poems, Wood Notes, II. Trenchant time behoves to hurry All to yean and all to bury.
2. intr. To bring forth young, as a sheep.
1548. Elyot, Adasia, an olde yewe, whiche hath lately yeaned or had a lambe.
1565. Stapleton, Fortr. Faith, 99. Like an ewe when she is yeaning and wringeth for deliueraunce.
1573–80. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 73. Eawes readie to yeane craues ground rid cleane.
1615. Sylvester, Job Triumph., IV. 478. The time when mountain Goats and Hinds Do yean and calve.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal (1673), 22. To see a woman calve, or a cow yean.
1794. T. Davis, Agric. Wilts, 17. By the time all the ewes have yeaned.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, vi. I. 212. The ewes yean twice a year.
1854. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XV. I. 232. The ewes yean in a yard or standing pen.
1879. Butcher & Lang, Odyssey, 51. The ewes yean thrice within the full circle of a year.
Hence Yeaned ppl. a., Yeaning vbl. sb. (also attrib.) and ppl. a.
1567–1849. [see NEW-YEANED ppl. a.].
1574. Hellowes, Gueuara’s Fam. Ep. (1577), 253. His eawes to haue good yeaning.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. (1586), 139. The shepeheard must be as careful as a midwife in the yeaning time.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 258. Within thirteen months she brought 7 Lambs at three yeanings.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 751. The yeaning Ewes prevent the springing Year.
1775. Adair, Amer. Ind., 309. The she bear takes an old large hollow tree for her yeaning winter-house.
1776. Complete Grazier (ed. 4), xxvi. 144. It is necessary she [sc. a ewe] should at her yeaning have the benefit of springing grass.
1866. Copley, Agric., IX. xvi. 487. Late yeaned lambs … are generally delicate.
