Year

Forms: 1 ʓear, ʓer, (ear, ʓar), 2–5 ear, 2–5 (6 Sc.) ȝer, (3 ȝeor, ȝeær, ȝær, hier, 3–4 ȝier, 4 ȝiere), 3–6 yer, (4 yerr, yeier, yeire, ȝher, Sc. ȝheir), 4–5 ȝeer, (yher, yhere), 4–5 (6 Sc.) ȝere, yeir, 4–7 yere, yeer, 5 ȝeere, (ȝeyre, heire, heyre, here, ȝhere, eer, Sc. yheir, ȝhir, 5–6 yeyr), 5–7 yeere, 5–6 Sc. ȝeir (6–8 zeir), 6–7 yeare, (Sc. zeare, 7 Sc. zear), 6– year. [OE. (WS.) ʓéar str. n., also masc., (Anglian) ʓér, = OFris. jâr, jêr (NFris. jûar, jôr, EFris. jir, îr, WFris. jier), OS. jâr, gêr, MLG. jâr, MDu. jaer (LG., Du. jaar), OHG., MHG. jâr (G. jahr), ON. ár (Sw. år, Da. aar), Goth. jēr :— *jærom, cognate with Zend yāre year, Gr. ὧρος year, ὤρα time of year, season, year, time of day, OSl. jarŭ spring (Russ., Pol., etc. jar spring, Serb. summer); cf. also L. hornus of this year (:— *ho-jūrinus). The normal OE. (flexionless) pl. ȝéar is represented still in dialectal usage; for illustration of the history see 1 β.]

  1.  The time occupied by the sun in its apparent passage through the signs of the zodiac, i.e. (according to modern astronomy) the period of the earth’s revolution round the sun, forming a natural unit of time (nearly = 365¹/₄ days); hence, a space of time approximately equal to this in any conventional practical reckoning (considered with respect to its length, without reference to its limits: cf. 3).

c. 960.  Æthelwold, Rule St. Benet, liii. (Schröer, 1885), 85. To ʓeares fæce tweȝen ʓebroðra into cumena cicenan gan.

c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., I. 204. Hyt bynnan healfon ʓeare ealne þone wætan ut atyhþ.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 53. Nu aȝe we … leten alse fele daȝes, alse hie diden ȝeres … þat we ne singeð þo blisfulle songes.

c. 1205.  Lay., 217. Asscanius heold þis drihliche lond Daiȝes & ȝeres.

c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., 2/33. Twelf Monþe it was þare-afterward and half ȝer and more.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 4705. Be þe thrid yeir was gan, Vnnethes was þer beist left an.

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. VII. 43. Þou schalt ȝelden hit a-ȝeyn at one ȝeeres ende.

c. 1400.  St. Alexius (Laud 463), 58. More he lerned in on ȝer þan any of his oþer fere dide in ȝeres tene.

1428.  E. E. Wills (1882), 80. Competent saleri for an hole here.

1456–70.  Acts Parlt. Scot. (1875), XII. 27/2. Landis … quhilkis our predecessoris hes iosyt … ii hundreth ȝeirys befor thir days.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, xxx. 32. Gif evir my fortoun wes to be a freir, The dait thairof is past full mony a ȝeir.

1598.  Shaks., Merry W., I. i. 13. I that I doe, and haue done any time these three hundred yeeres.

1637.  Decree Star Chamb., x., in Milton’s Areop. (Arb.), 14. No Haberdasher of small wares,… not hauing beene seuen yeeres apprentice to the trade.

1718–19.  Swift, Stella’s Birthday, Wks. 1841, I. 632/2. Stella this day is thirty-four (We shan’t dispute a year or more).

1819.  Scott, Leg. Montrose, vi. A family of four hundred years’ standing.

1842.  Dickens, Amer. Notes, xviii. A gentleman … within a year or two on either side of thirty.

1884.  Goldwin Smith, in Contemp. Rev., April, 533. The idea that the United States are disposed to aggress upon Canada cannot survive a year’s intercourse with their people.

  β.  900–30.  O. E. Chron. (Parker MS.), Pref. 4. Þa feng Æþelbryht his broþur to, & heold .v. ʓear.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. ix. 20. An wif þe þolode blod-ryne twelf ʓear.

c. 1200.  Vices & Virtues, 143. Þrie hier and six moneþes.

c. 1205.  Lay., 3789. Ale þe twa ȝere.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 218. Efter ueole ȝer.

c. 1340.  Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 741. An hundreth and twenti yhere.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Knt’s T., 588. And thre yeer in this wise his lif he ladde.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., I. xi. 56. Poul was slain bifore the tyme of this exile bi almost xxx^tl, ȝeer.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 118 b. A thynge done perauenture a dosyn yere before.

1535.  Stewart, Cron. Scot. (Rolls), II. 121. Mony ȝeir.

1553.  Becon, Reliques of Rome (1563), 200. He had burned in Purgatorye a greate number of yeare.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., V. i. 183. He will last you some eight yeare, or nine yeare.

1699.  Bentley, Phal., Pref. p. lxxxv. Sir Henry Spelman … used it lxxx Year since.

1701.  in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ., VII. 101. The Curé is now stone blinde, & has been this 4 year.

1815.  Scott, Guy M., xxxix. At last they didna ’gree at a’ for twa or three year.

  b.  Following and qualifying a date: = a year before or after…; † was a year, a year ago. More commonly expressed by twelvemonth (TWELVEMONTH 1 b).

1533.  Cromwell, in Merriman, Life & Lett. (1902), I. 362. That … your pleasure maye be to suffer it to bere date from Mydsomer Was a yere.

1606.  G. W[oodcocke], Lives Emp., in Hist. Iustine, L l 5. The Emperor … tooke him prisoner vppon the same day twentye yeares, after that his father was taken prisoner by Charles the fift.

a. 1873.  Wilberforce, Ch. & Emp. (1878), 8. On the day, year on which he had received our Lord’s servants into his house.

1880.  Disraeli, Endym., xxxv. I should not be surprised … if he were to change his name again before this time year.

  c.  In reference to the duration of some (usually painful) experience, as the sufferings of purgatory (always in reference to years of pardon), a term of imprisonment, etc. (Usually pl. with numeral.)

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 61. Vuele god us briseð,… oðer þurh orf qualm oþer þurh smerte ȝier [cf. G. schmerzenjahr].

1357.  Lay Folks Catech. (L.), 221. And so myȝt pardoun be gotun to sey yche day a lady sawter ȝhe ten þowsand ȝer in on ȝere.

c. 1400.  Apol. Loll., 8. Þewenti þowzand ȝer of pardoun.

c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, x. 271. ‘Goodys curse have he for it,’ says Charlemagne, ‘and an evyll yere.’

1533.  Gau, Richt Vay, 5. Sa mony thousand ȝeris of pardone pouers and remissione of sine and payne.

1874.  W. S. Gilbert, Charity, II. Mr. S. … There is nothing to connect me with that matter…. Ruth. Nothing?… I’ve writin’ of yours which is fourteen year [i.e., penal servitude], if it’s a day.

1901.  Scotsman, 27 Feb., 11/1. The woman also told him that … if he was not careful she could get him fifteen years.

  d.  pl. with numeral, expressing a person’s age. (Cf. 5.)

  More usually either followed by of age or old, or omitted by ellipsis; e.g., ‘a man fifty years of age,’ or ‘fifty years old,’ or ‘a man of fifty.’ For obs. variants of expression see quots.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 11315. O gode haliman … O sex scor yeire, hight symeon.

13[?], etc.  [see OLD a. 4 b].

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 83. Whan [Crist] was twelie ȝeer olde. Ibid. (1382), Matt. ii. 16. Alle the children,… fro two ȝeer age and with ynne.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Merch. T., 177. I wol no womman thritty yeer of age.

1390.  Gower, Conf., I. 148. The yongest of hem hadde of age Fourtiene yer.

a. 1425.  Cursor M., 12386 (Trin.). Ihesu was þat tyme þore Of eiȝte yeer olde & more.

c. 1450.  Merlin, i. 15. It semed ij yere age or more.

c. 1480.  Childe of Bristowe, 37, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 112. When the child was xij yere and more.

1523.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 67. Put theym borhe in one pasture, tyll they be foure or fyue yere olde.

1570.  Satir. Poems Reform., x. 14. Ane woundit man, of aucht and threttie ȝeiris.

1600.  Shaks., A. Y. L., II. iii. 73. At seauenteene yeeres, many their fortunes seeke But at fourescore, it is too late a weeke.

1609.  Skene, Reg. Maj., Table, 62 b. The heire of ane Soccoman is of perfite age, quhen he is passed fivetene zeares.

1675.  Hobbes, Odyssey (1677), 32. Wine, that aged was eleven year.

1695.  Sibbald, Autobiog. (1834), 127. Four children … who died all before they were full four yeer old.

1847.  Tennyson, Princess, V. 544. A nurse of ninety years.

  e.  In special or idiomatic genitive or attrib. uses, qualified by a or a numeral.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gram., xlix. (Z.), 287. Anniculus, anes ʓeares cild oððe lamb.

1451, 1552.  [see DAY sb. 11].

1475.  Bk. Noblesse (Roxb.), 8. The dyvysyon … dured in Fraunce continuelly by .xj. yeerday.

1559.  Mirr. Mag. (1563), C iv. My enmy straunged but for a ten yeares daye.

1609.  C. Butler, Fem. Mon. (1623), D iij. The Bee is but a yeares Bird, with some advantage.

1635.  in Foster, Crt. Min. E. Ind. Comp. (1907), 67. [At 4l. per hundred at] a yeares day of payment.

1654.  Cromwell, Sp., 12 Sept. A people that have been unhinged this twelve-years day, and are unhinged still.

1860.  Merc. Marine Mag., VII. 181. She … is classed in Lloyd’s Register as an eight years’ ship.

  2.  a. With qualifying words, denoting periods differing in length according to the manner in which they are computed in some scientific or conventional reckoning.

  Anomalistic, astronomical, canicular, civil, embolismic, equinoctial, Gregorian, Julian, lunar, lunisolar, natural, sidereal, solar, Sothic, tropical, vague (etc.) year: see the adjs.

c. 1055.  Byrhtferth’s Handboc, in Anglia, VIII. 316. Þæs ʓeares daʓas þe ʓetelwise witan nemniað on lyden solaris annus, & on englisc þære sunnan ʓear.

1579–80.  North, Plutarch (1595), 79. For the Romaines at the beginning had but 10. moneths in the yere: as some of the barbarous people make but three moneths for their yere.

1592.  [see JULIAN].

1594.  Blundevil, Exerc., II. I. xlii. (1597), 171 b. The Egyptian yeare containeth the iust number of 365. dayes.

1728.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Period, Victorian Period, an Interval of 532 Julian Years.

1757.  J. Ferguson, Astron. (ed. 2), xxi. § 408. The Solar or Tropical Year, which contains 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 57 seconds; and is the only proper or natural year, because it always keeps the same seasons to the same months.

1841.  Wilkinson, Mann. & Cust. Anc. Egypt., xi. Ser. II. I. 17. The sacred was the same as the solar or vague year.

1860.  R. S. Poole, in W. Smith, Dict. Bible, I. 505/1. There appear to have been at least three years in use with the Egyptians before the Roman domination, the Vague Year, the Tropical Year, and the Sothic Year.

  b.  transf. Applied to a very long period or cycle (in chronology or mythology, or vaguely in poetic use).

  Cynic year: see CYNIC a. 3. Great year (Gr. μέγας ἐνιαυτός), the period (variously reckoned) after which all the heavenly bodies were supposed to return to their original positions, also called Platonic year (see PLATONIC a. 3 b); also occas. used of certain cycles in modern chronology.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VIII. xxi. (Bodl. MS.) lf. 86/1. Chaunging of roundenes and cercles of sterres … þe chaungeing of hem falleþ in euerich xxxvj. M. ȝeere. And þis þe greete ȝere þat is the laste of alle þinges.

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., IV. xi. 123 b. With the life of this bird [sc. the phœnix], the reuolution of the great yere is made, which diuers … say to consist, not in 540. yeres, but in 12950. yeres.

1587.  Golding, De Mornay, xxvi. (1592), 402. If they had liued lesse than Sixe hundred yeares, their obseruations had bene in vaine, because the great yeare continueth so long.

1594.  Blundevil, Exerc., II. I. xxxvii. (1597), 170. It is called of some the yeare of the worlde, and of some the great yeare of Plato, which contayneth according to Alphonsus, 49000. yeares … yet some affirme that the perfect yeare of the worlde contayneth but 36000 yeares.

1666.  S. Parker, Free & Impart. Censure (1667), 91. I will engage you shall never be one of their Disciples, though you should study them [sc. Platonists] to the revolution of their Great Year.

1667.  Milton, P. L., V. 583. On such day As Heav’ns great Year brings forth.

1737.  Winston, Josephus, Antiq., I. iii. § 9. Unless they had lived six hundred years: for the Great Year is compleated in that interval.

1830.  Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 116. The ‘great year,’ or geological cycle.

1871.  Alabaster, Wheel of Law, 89. Five thousand angelic years, which are five hundred and eighty-six millions of the years of men.

1893.  Huxley, Romanes Lect., 36. The suggestion that the power and the intelligence of man can ever arrest the procession of the great year.

  c.  The period of revolution of any planet round the sun (planetary year).

1728.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v. The Times wherein Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun, Moon, &c. finish their Revolutions … are respectively call’d the Years of Jupiter, and Saturn, [etc.].

1870.  E. F. Burr, Ecce Coelum, iv. 104. According to the Neptunian calendar, it is only thirty-six years since the creation of Adam.

  3.  A space of time, of the length stated in sense 1, with fixed limits. a. esp. Such a space of time as reckoned in a calendar and denoted by a number in a particular era: commonly divided into twelve calendar months, in the ordinary (Roman) calendar beginning with January and ending with December, and consisting of 365 (or 366) days: see CALENDAR 1. (Distinctively called the civil year.)

  Year of Christ, † of God (Sc.), of our Lord (LORD sb. 7 b), of grace (GRACE sb. 12), † of salvation (SALVATION 1 c), a particular year of the Christian era (denoted by a number following).

  (Formerly also in pl. with numeral, denoting a particular year of an era.)

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Luke ii. 41. His maʓas ferdon ælce ʓere to hierusalem.

c. 1132.  O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), an. 1132. Ðis ʓear com Henri king to þis land.

c. 1205.  Lay., 7220. He makede þane kalend þe dihteð þane moneð & þeȝer.

a. 1250.  Owl & Night., 101. Þat oþer ȝer a faukun bredde.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 150. Two geuelengðhes timen her, And two solstices in ðe ȝer.

1357.  Lay Folks Mass Bk. (1879), 118. The sacrement of the auter … whilk ilk man and woman … aught forto resceyve anes in the yhere.

1396.  in Scott, Antiq. (1900), XIV. 217. The secvnde day of May the yher of our lorde MCCC neynty and sex.

a. 1500.  Bernard. de cura rei fam., etc. (E.E.T.S.), 32. Be the yheris of cryst comyn and gone, Fully nynty ande nyne.

1556.  Lauder, Tractate of Kyngis, 19. The ȝeir of God Ane M.V.C.LVI.

1584.  in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ., V. 64. The lettre from Richard Hutton written in September withowt yere.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 297. Stalions are to be seperated from Mares al the yeare long, except at the time of procreation.

a. 1646.  J. Gregory, Learned Tracts (1649), 164. The Christians did not use to reckon by the years of Christ, until the 532 of the Incarnation. Ibid., 165. That the first year Dionysian of Christ ought to bee reckoned the third.

1657.  North’s Plutarch, Add. Lives, 4. In the yeer of the Salvation of all mankinde, three hundred thirty and nine.

a. 1700.  in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ., IX. 335. [They] were al by holy obedience sent to Paris in the yeare 1632.

1788.  Cowper, Stanzas Bill of Mortality, 2. Could I … as sure presage To whom the rising year shall prove the last.

1818.  Scott, Rob Roy, xxvi. The Hielands hae been keepit quiet since the year aughty-nine—that was Killiecrankie year.

1861.  M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 36. Dr. Pauli … more than once gives the day and the month, without remembering to add the year of an event.

c. 1440.  Alphabet of Tales, 265. Abowte þe yeris of our Lord cccc vj.

1474.  Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 1. The ferd day of the moneth of August, the ȝere of God etc. lxxiij ȝeris.

  b.  Such a space of time, with limits not necessarily coinciding with those of the civil year, forming a division of a period (or the whole period) of office, study, or other occupation, or of a person’s lifetime in these cases commonly with ordinal numeral, often with possessive noun or pronoun), or taken between definite dates for some special purpose, e.g., taxation, payment of dividends, agricultural operations, etc.

c. 1000.  Lambeth Ps. xxx. 11. Lif min and ʓearas mine.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 9503. & ta wass Kayfasess ȝer Þe fifte ȝer bigunnenn.

a. 1225.  Leg. Kath., 43. Þe fif & þrittuðe ȝer of his [sc. Maxence’s] rixlinge.

1338.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1725), I. 10. In his elleuent ȝere com folk, þat misleued.

c. 1425.  Cursor M., 3893 (Trin.). His ȝeres passed & seuen dayes Rachel he weddide þe story sayes.

c. 1450.  Godstow Reg., 138. Þe v. yer of þe reine of kinge Edwarde.

1518.  Star Chamber Cases (Selden Soc.), II. 162. Suche greate charges as they [sc. sheriffs] … must bere by Reason of the same Office after their yer Ended.

1611.  B. Jonson, Catiline, III. i. Which I’ll perform … not for my year, But for my life.

1616.  in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ., III. 34. There in your English Colledge,… he liued and heard his course of philosophie and almost two yeares of school diuinitie.

1632.  Milton, Sonn., vii. 2. How soon hath Time … Stoln on his wing my three and twentith yeer!

1635.  A. Stafford, Fem. Glory (1869), 61. His living in obscurity from His twelfth to His thirtieth yeere.

1848.  E. S. Creasy, Eton Coll., 42. The relative positions which the boys of each year had occupied in the school.

1871.  Smiles, Charac., iii. (1876), 68. At the following Christmas examination he was the first of his year.

  c.  Such a space of time as arranged for religious observance in the Christian Church, with special seasons and holy days, beginning with Advent (but, formerly or locally, with other periods).

a. 1400.  Wyclif’s Bible (1850), IV. 683. The lessouns, pistlis, and gospels, that ben rad in the chirche al the ȝeer.

1657.  Sparrow, Bk. Com. Prayer, 106. We begin … our Ecclesiastical year (as to some accounts, though not as to the order of our service) with the glorious Annunciation of his Birth by angelical message.

1827.  Keble (title), The Christian Year; Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the year.

1875.  W. Smith’s Dict. Chr. Antiq., I. 33/1. The first Sunday in Advent was not always the beginning of the liturgical year…. The Antiphonarius of St. Gregory begins 1 Advent, and the Liber Responsalis with its Vigil. But the earlier practice was to begin the ecclesiastical year with the month of March, as being that in which our Lord was crucified (March 25).

  4.  As the period of the seasons, and of the growth of crops and vegetation in general; hence poet. connoting the phenomena of growth and decay.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Merch. T., 222. Myn herte and alle my lymes been as grene As laurer thurgh the yeer is for to sene.

c. 1430.  Two Cookery-bks., 29. Take Strawberys, & waysshe hem in tyme of ȝere in gode red wyne.

1573–80.  Tusser, Husb. (1878), 59. Make hillocks of molehils, in field thorough out, and so to remaine, till the yeere go about.

1637.  Milton, Lycidas, 5. Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.

1728–46.  Thomson, Spring, 18. As yet the trembling year is unconfirmed, And Winter oft at eve resumes the breeze.

1781.  Cowper, Heroism, 24. Vines, olives, herbage, forests disappear, And all the charms of a Sicilian year.

1842.  Tennyson, Day Dream, Sleeping Palace, i. The varying year with blade and sheaf Clothes and reclothes the happy plains.

  b.  transf. A year’s produce. (A literalism.)

1382.  Wyclif, Joel ii. 25. Y shal ȝeelde to you the ȝeris whom the locust eete.

  c.  Each of the annual rings in the wood of a tree. rare.

1708.  Phil. Trans., XXVI. 163. The Circles, or (as they are commonly call’d) Years, are closer.

  5.  pl. Age (of a person).

  Years of discretion: see DISCRETION 6 b.

a. 1000.  Cædmon’s Gen., 2381. Ʒearum frod.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 10885. Himm birrþ beon fullwaxenn mann, & shadd fra childess ȝæress.

a. 1225.  Juliana, 5. Ȝunge mon of ȝeres.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 12759. He was yong & yepe, of yeris but lyte.

c. 1500.  Lancelot, 1431. Euery gilt … Done frome he passith the ȝeris of Innocens.

a. 1529.  Skelton, Death K. Edw. IV., 37. I se wyll, they leve that doble my ȝeris.

1577.  Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619), 231. I my selfe learned it of one of no small credite, of great yeares.

1598.  R. Bernard, trans. Terence, Hecyra, V. i. I am of that yeares now that it were no reason to remit mine offence.

c. 1610.  Women Saints (1886), 39. When she was of years fitt for marriage.

16[?].  Middleton, etc., Old Law, II. ii. Ere they be thought at years to welcome misery!

1624.  Quarles, Job Militant, Medit. xvi. Dayes, produced to decrepit yeeres, Fild with experience, and grizly haires.

c. 1652.  Milton, Sonn. to Sir H. Vane, 1. Vane, young in yeares, but in sage counsell old.

1700.  S. L., trans. Fryke’s Voy. E. Ind., 1. Ever since I came to years, that I could tell ny own inclinations.

1749.  Fielding, Tom Jones, XII. xiii. You may change your Opinion, if you live to my Years.

1794.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xiii. That Madame Cheron, at her years, should elect a second husband, was ridiculous.

1867.  Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. vi. 594. William, still a boy in years but a man in conduct and counsel.

  b.  Full or mature age (esp. in phr. into or to years, of years); old age (esp. in phr. in years = old, aged). Now arch. or poet.

  Stricken, struck, strucken in years: see the pa. pples.

1579.  E. K., in Spenser’s Sheph. Cal., Feb. Emblem, Men of yeares haue no feare of god at al.

1581.  Pettie, trans. Guazzo’s Civ. Conv., III. (1586), 130. It is better for a man to chuse a young wife, then one in yeares.

1593.  Shaks., Rich. II., II. iii. 66. Till my infant-fortune comes to yeeres.

1605.  First Pt. Jeronimo, I. iii. Had not your reuerend yeares beene present heere, I should haue ponyarded the Villaynes bowels.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 392. If the horse be of yeeres.

1623.  Cockeram, II., Vnder Yeeres, Minoritie, Nonage.

1633.  Laud, in Strafford’s Lett. (1739), I. 111. I am in Years, and have had a troublesome Life.

1724.  A. Collins, Gr. Chr. Relig., 85. As they grew into Years.

1773.  Burney, Pres. St. Mus. Germany (1775), I. 329. Wagenseil is rather in years.

1813.  Scott, Trierm., I. viii. The Man of Years mused long and deep.

1868.  Browning, Ring & Bk., III. 284. He was slipping into years apace, And years make men restless.

  6.  pl. (more or less vaguely): Age, period, times; with poss. pron. time or period of life.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 218. Iðe uorme ȝeres [of monastic life] nis hit bute bal-pleouwe.

1340–70.  Alex. & Dind., 215. Fram þe ȝouþe of my ȝer ȝerned ich haue Of wide werkus to wite.

1382.  Wyclif, Isa. xxxviii. 15. I shal eft thenke to thee alle my ȝeres, in the bitternesse of my soule.

1430–40.  Lydg., Bochas, VIII. xii. (MS. Bodl. 263), 379/1. The lord of lordis, lord of longest yeeris.

a. 1542.  Wyatt, Penit. Ps. CII. xxiii. Take me not Lord away in myddes off my yeres.

1659.  H. Plumptre, in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 6. Wishing that all your yeares yet to come may passe over with mirth and jollityes.

1719.  Watts, Ps. xc. Our God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come.

1762–71.  H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), IV. 28. Those who know any thing of the state of painting in this country of late years.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., vii. § 8. 430. The last years of Elizabeth’s reign were years of splendour and triumph abroad.

  b.  In emphatic or hyperbolical use, chiefly in pl.: A very long time. (Cf. AGE sb. 10 b.)

1692.  Dryden, Cleomenes, I. i. Where hast thou been this long long year of hours?

c. 1759.  J. Goff, in Jrnl. Friends Hist. Soc. (1918), 69. D^r Betty, I think every Day Absent from thee, Years.

1852.  Thackeray, Esmond, II. i. At certain periods of life we live years of emotion in a few weeks.

1853.  M. Arnold, Scholar Gipsy, v.

  7.  Phrases. (See also senses 2, 3, 5.)

  A year, formerly also aȝere, ayeer, a-year [A adj.² 4, prep.¹ 8 b]: every year, yearly, per annum. † By (the) year [BY prep. 24 c]: in the same sense; rarely † by years. Also by the year, from year to year (as a tenancy, etc.). Year after year [AFTER prep. 6], year by year [BY prep. 25 c], from year to year [FROM prep. 3 b]: through a succession of years, either continuously or at some particular time in each year; every year successively. (Hence year-to-year adj. phr., occurring or done from year to year.) Also † for year and year. † From x year to x year, x year and x year: every x years. † Year, year, and year: on a stated occasion every year in succession. Year in (and) year out [IN adv. 2]: as each year begins and until it ends; continually throughout the year (and through successive years).

  a. 1250.  Owl & Night., 1133. Þar treon schulleþ a yer blowe.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. lxi. (Tollem. MS.). The fige tre … bereþ frute þries or fowre siþes aȝere.

1435.  in Heath, Grocers’ Comp. (1869), 417. Paid … the mairalte dew ffor the ground in the Groceres’ Hall,… ipurchased ayeer … xl lb.

1573–80.  Tusser, Husb. (1878), 28. Christmas comes but once a yeere.

a. 1791.  Wesley, Wks. (1872), VIII. 327. Every worn-out Preacher shall receive … at least ten pounds a year.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 291. Every man who had fifty pounds a year derived from land.

1861.  Ld. Brougham, Brit. Const., vi. (1862), 84. He pays £10 a-year to the owner.

  a. 1300.  Cursor M., 10212. Þai halud alle þe festes dere Þe Iues war wonto halu bi yere.

14[?].  Customs of Malton, in Surtees Misc. (1890), 59. ij suttes by þe ȝer’ to þe sayd cowrtt.

1430–40.  Lydg., Bochas, I. v. (MS. Bodl. 263), 22/2. She … tauhte ther laboreris To sowe ther greyn & multeplie bi yeris.

a. 1450.  Knt. de la Tour, xvii. 23. A ladi … that might spende more thanne fyue hundred pounde bi yeere.

1544.  trans. Littleton’s Tenures, III. viii. 108 b. If such lande be worth xl. s. by yere.

1640.  Habington, Edw. IV., 95. The reward of a hundred pound by the yeare during life.

1797.  [see BY prep. 24 c].

  1611.  Bible, 2 Sam. xxi. 1. There was a famine … three yeeres, yeere after yeere.

1830.  Tennyson, Day Dream, Sleeping Beauty, i. Year after year unto her feet … The maiden’s jet-black hair has grown.

  c. 1380.  Antecrist, in Todd, Three Treat. Wyclif (1851), 131. Þe almes of þise bischoppes of so old synne is gedren for a certeyn rente ȝer bi ȝer in lecherie to lige.

c. 1400.  Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), IV. xxxiv. 82. In euery countre ben certeyne officers yere by yere chaunged for the more sykernes.

1539.  Bible (Great), 1 Kings x. 25. [They] brought hym euery man his present, vesselles of syluer [etc.] yere by yere.

1585.  Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 5/2. Annales,… Chronicles: records of matters done yeare by yeare.

1793.  Cowper, A Tale, 77. Be it your fortune, year by year, The same resource to prove.

1885.  Sir H. Cotton, in Law Rep. 30 Chanc. Div. 12. The accounts were delivered year by year to Mr. Norton.

  c. 1380.  Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 62. Fro ȝer to ȝer, fro seuene ȝer to seuene ȝer.

1436.  Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 175. Now wolle ye here how they in Cotteswolde Were wonte to borowe, or they schulde be solde, Here wolle gode, as for yere and yere [v.r. fro yere to yere]. Ibid., 176. Ffor yere and yere they schulde make paymente, And some tyme als too yere and too yere.

c. 1485.  E. E. Misc. (Warton Club), 20. There as thou hast deyllyd from heyre to ȝere.

1539.  Bible (Great), 1 Sam. ii. 19. Hys mother made hym a lytle coate, and brought it to him from yere to yere.

1594.  R. Ashley, trans. Loys le Roy, 68. From three yeares to three.

c. 1630.  Milton, Sonn., i. 11. As thou from yeer to yeer hast sung too late For my relief.

1635.  in Foster, Crt. Min. E. India Comp. (1907), 29. At yeare, yeare, and yeare from the first of March next. Ibid., 93. Yeare, yeare and yeare, upon rebate.

1838.  H. H. White, Watkins’ Princ. Conveyancing, ii. (ed. 8), 28, note. A tenancy from year to year.

1845.  A. Polson, in Encycl. Metrop., II. 829/1. An estate from year to year may arise not only from express stipulation, but even from that general letting heretofore held to constitute an estate at will.

1855.  I. Taylor, Restor. Belief (1856), 218. A year-to-year reading of the Gospels.

1870.  Huxley, Lay Serm., etc. (1877), 251. That the energy radiated from year to year was supplied from year to year.

  1868.  Louisa M. Alcott, Little Women, xv. You see other girls having splendid times, while you grind, grind, year in and year out.

1881.  Mrs. Riddell, Senior Partner, III. 135. At Mr. M^cCullagh’s the same faces greeted customers year in year out.

  b.  Law. (a) Year and day, a period constituting a term for certain purposes, in order to ensure the completion of a full year. Year, Year, day, and waste, a prerogative whereby the sovereign was entitled to the profits for a year and a day of a tenement held by a person attainted of petty treason or felony, with the right of wasting the tenement: finally abolished in 1870.

  Cf. MDu. jaer en dagh, a year and six months (and, locally, three days).

c. 1450.  Merlin, xxxiii. 682. I shall seche hym a yere and a day, but with-ynne that space I may knowe trewe tidinges.

1454.  Rolls of Parlt., V. 274/2. In case the Maire, Constables, and Felawship aforesaid, commence not their accion … within the yer and day next after thoffence.

1514.  Extr. Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 90. Vnder the pane of banyssing of the toune for ȝer and day.

1548.  Staunford, Kinges Prerog., xvi. (1567), 49 b. If the husband be atteinted of felonie the kinge shall haue the yeare, daye and wast of the lands of the wife.

1659.  Hicks, trans. Plowden’s Abridgm. Comm., 212. So by the custom of many Mannors, one shall lose Copyhold if he claims it not within a year and day after the death of his ancestor.

a. 1768.  Erskine, Inst. Law Scot., I. vi. § 42.

1820.  Scott, Monast., xxv. When we are handfasted,… we are man and wife for a year and day; that space gone by, each may choose another mate.

1913.  Act 3 & 4 Geo. V., c. 20 § 103. When the sequestration is dated within year and day of any effectual adjudication.

  (b) Years and terms, in full books of years and terms, the year-books.

1528.  More, Dyaloge, III. Wks. 239/1. In the yeres and termes called Hunnes case.

1883.  Wharton’s Law Lex., Year-books, or Books of years and terms.

  See also GOODYEAR, NEW-YEAR, TO-YEAR.

  8.  Comb., as year-end, -spinner; year-born, -counted, -marked adjs.; year-bird, a name for Rhyticeros plicatus, a bird of the Malay archipelago, having a very large beak with a wrinkled growth on the top, which was believed to develop a fresh wrinkle every year; year-count, among the N. American Indians, a series of figures each symbolizing the chief event of a year, usually painted on hide, and forming a record or chronicle (also called winter-count); year-ring, each of the rings formed by successive years’ growth in the wood of a tree; † year-tack, a lease for a year. See also YEAR-BOOK, etc.

1873.  Cassell’s Bk. Binds, III. 137. The plumage of the *Year Bird is principally black.

a. 1883.  Rossetti, Soothsay, i. Let no man ask thee of anything Not *yearborn between Spring and Spring.

a. 1896.  D. G. Brinton, in Keane, Ethnol. (1896), 218. There is absolutely no similarity between the Tibetan calendar and the primitive form of the American, which was not intended as a *year-count, but as a ritual and formulary.

1876.  Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., xlii. My own small *year-counted existence.

1872.  Hartley, Yorksh. Ditties, Ser. II. 106. A nice little bit to fall back on i’ th’ Savings bank at th’ *year end.

1899.  Westm. Gaz., 4 Jan., 6/3. The year-end stocktaking results.

1873.  Mrs. Whitney, Other Girls, xxiii. Old and *year-marked faces.

1854.  Ronalds & Richardson, Chem. Technol. (ed. 2), I. 58. The original form and structure of wood … are retained by the charcoal left by each, so that *year-rings and cells may be distinguished in wood-charcoal.

1598.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. ii. II. Babylon, 512. One [language],… becomming old, Is cradle-toomb’d: another warreth bold With the *yeer-spinners.

1532.  Abst. Protocols Town Clerks Glasgow (1879), IV. 57. James Grahame sall haef ane *yeyrtak for the yeyr that he has gewin our to hyme.