local (south-west). [repr. OE. *eá, *iá for éa stream, river: see Æ sb.1, EA, and cf. AA.] A stream or drain (in mining).

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  [In the following 16th-cent. quots. the forms yew, yo are of doubtful identity; the river-name Yeo (OE. Eowan in oblique cases) may be intended:

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  1521.  Yatton Churchw. Acc. (Som. Rec. Soc.), 139. In expenses for dyking ye new yew … xxiijs. iiijd. Ibid. (1543), 157. Payd for mowyng the yew … iijs. iiijd. Ibid. (1558), 170. For Dychinge … the parishe woorke in ye Yo … xvjd and xijd.]

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  1725.  Pearce, Laws Stannaries, Introd. p. xiii. Every Work may lawfully bring their Water from the River, which the Tinners [in Cornwall and Devon] commonly call the Yeo, without Denial or Contention. Ibid. Then they go [to] the Yeo, or River, and fetch home the Water which serves this Work.

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1873.  Q. Rev., CXXXV. 157. ‘Girts’ or ‘gulphs’ are names given by the moormen [of Dartmoor] to the long, and sometimes deep, excavations seaming the hillsides, down which the miners led their stream, generally known as the ‘yeo.’

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1873.  Williams & Jones, Gloss. Som., Yeo, main drain of a level.

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