Also 5 laane, 6 laine, layne. See also LOAN sb.2 [OE. lane, lǫne wk. fem. = OFris. lana, lona, laen (North Fris. lana, lona), Du. laan (16th c. laen).]
I. 1. A narrow way between hedges or banks; a narrow road or street between houses or walls; a bye-way. Blind lane, † turn-again lane: a cul-de-sac (see also quot. 1725).
971. Blickl. Hom., 237. Forþon þe … þinne lichoman ʓeond þisse ceastre lanan hie tostenceað.
13[?]. Sir Beues (A.), 4439. Þe cri aros be ech a side Boþe of lane and of strete.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Can. Yeom. Prol. & T., 105. In the suburbes of a toun … Lurkynge in hernes and in lanes blynde.
1478. Botoner, Itin. (Nasmith, 1778), 177. A laane goyng yn the south syde of Seynt Stevyn church.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxlii. (1482), 278. Euery strete and lane in london and in the subarbes.
1511. Nottingham Rec., III. 338. Clensyng of the lanys at the comyng in off the towne.
1531. Tindale, Expos. 1 John, Prol. Wks. (1573), 388/1. It is becomme a turnagaine lane vnto them, which they can not goe thorough.
1611. Bible, Luke xiv. 2. Goe out quickely into the streetes and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poore, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blinde.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., V. iii. 13. Lo. Where was this Lane? Post. Close by the battell, ditch’d, and wall’d with turph.
1698. J. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 105. The Hedges and Lanes are chiefly set with two sorts of Bushes.
1725. New Cant. Dict., Blind Lane, a Lane fit to run down to avoid Pursuers, after a Villainy committed.
1794. Act Inclos. S. Kelsey, 12. Any of the Roads or Ways within the Manor … which shall be made into Lanes, or fenced on both Sides.
1828. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. III. 148. Their way … leading through cross country lanes.
1832. Tennyson, Miller’s Dau., 130. The lanes were white with May.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., vii. Their walk lay through shady lanes.
fig. a. 1625. Beaum. & Fl., Laws of Candy, I. ii. The man That had a heart to think he could but follow … through the lanes Of danger and amazement.
b. Proverb. Also allusively.
1778. Foote, Trip Calais, II. Wks. 1799, II. 355. It is a long lane that has no turning.
1890. W. E. Norris, Misadventure, xvii. The longest lane, however, has a turning.
1893. Beatrice Harraden, Ships that pass, etc. 158. The lane had come to an ending at last, and Mr. Reffold was dead.
II. Transferred senses.
2. A narrow or comparatively narrow passage or way, or something resembling this; esp. a channel of water in an ice-field (also called a vein); the course prescribed for ocean steamers.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., IX. 170. And yf hit happe an hil thi water mete, Let make a lane & thorgh thi licour hale.
1714. Gay, Trivia, III. 25. Forth issuing from steep lanes, the colliers’ steeds Drag the black load.
1835. Sir J. Ross, Narr. 2nd Voy., Explan. Terms 15. A lane or vein, a narrow channel between two floes or fields, or between the ice and the shore.
1842. Tennyson, Gold. Year, 50. And like a lane of beams athwart the sea. Ibid. (1847), Princess, V. 6. By glimmering lanes and walls of canvas led Threading the soldier-city.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxviii. (1856), 228. A black lane of open water stopped our progress.
1862. Sir H. Holland, Ess., Atlantic Ocean, 223. It is proposed to mark off lanes, 20 or 25 miles in width … as the routes … to be followed and adhered to, by all steam vessels.
b. A passage between two lines of persons; a way to pass through a crowd.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. ccxvii. [ccxiii.] 672. The people … made a lane for hym to passe thorough.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1996/1. A double canon … shooting off, made … a lane among the Frenchmen.
1677. Lond. Gaz., No. 1206/1. The Magistrates did … pass through a Lane of their own guards.
1701. W. Wotton, Hist. Rome, 395. The People made a Lane for him and the Chariot to pass.
1806. Naval Chron., XV. 141. The 7th Royal Veteran battalion … formed a lane two deep.
1860. O. W. Holmes, Prof. Breakf.-t., v. (Paterson), 109. The fire-buckets passed along a ‘lane’ at a fire.
1867. Morris, Jason, II. 287. Then moved the princes … Between a lane of men.
1875. Tennyson, Q. Mary, I. i. Stand back, keep a clear lane!
1893. Forbes-Mitchell, Remin. Gt. Mutiny, 145. Every charge [of grape-shot] … leaving a lane of dead from four to five yards wide.
fig. 1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., vii. (1851), 132. Passe on … to establish the truth though it were through a lane of sects and heresies on each side.
3. Austral. A long narrow yard leading into the final yard in a kangaroo drive.
1866. Cornh. Mag., Dec., 741. Longer enclosures, called ‘lanes,’ led in circuitous fashion to this oubliette.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer, xviii. 226. About fifty head have been run into the drafting lane…. The ‘lane’ is a long narrow yard about three panels wide and eight in length—a panel of fencing is not quite nine feet in length—immediately connected with the pound or final yard.
4. slang. The throat; chiefly in the lane, the narrow, red lane, etc.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 119. Whole mainour places … thei make no bones ne sticke not quite and clene to swallowe down the narrowe lane, and the same to spue vp again. Ibid. (a. 1553), Royster D., I. iii. (Arb.), 20. Good ale for the nones, Whiche will slide down the lane without any bones.
1812. G. Colman, Poet. Vagaries (1818), 75. O butter’d egg!… I bid your yelk glide down my throat’s red lane.
1865. Lond. Soc., Jan., 13. I eat the macaroon. You see it’s all gone down Red Lion Lane.
b. The lane: short for various ‘lanes’ in the City or for buildings situated there, e.g. Drury Lane (Theatre), Petticoat Lane, etc.: see quots.
1856. Mayhew, Gt. World Lond., 82, note. Horsemonger Lane Jail—The lane.
1879. ‘Autobiog. of a thief,’ in Macm. Mag., XL. 500. We used to … sell it … to a fence … down the Lane (Petticoat Lane).
1880. G. R. Sims, Ballads Babylon, Forgotten, 9. Whenever the Lane tried Shakespeare, I was one of the leading men.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 24 April, 2/3. When people who know that district [Drury-lane] hear it said that there has been ‘another murder in the lane,’ they have no need to ask what particular lane is referred to.
5. Sc. A sluggish stream of water; also the smooth part of a stream. (Perh. a different word.)
1825–80. in Jamieson.
1891. Daily News, 2 July, 4/8. Vast pastoral expanses, with here a loch, and there a ‘lane’ or sullen deep stream threading the wilderness.
1897. Crockett, Lads’ Love, xxv. 253. The still, black pools of the lazy, sluggish, peaty ‘lane.’
III. 6. attrib. and Comb., as lane-end, -side, -way; lane-filling adj.; lane-born a., country-born, rustic; lane-galloper hunting, one who keeps to the lanes in preference to riding across country; lane-route, a route laid out for ocean steamers.
1834. Landor, Exam. Shaks., Wks. 1846, II. 279/2. *Lane born boys … embezzling hazel-nuts in a woollen cap.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 12 March, 2/1. A proclamation … was … posted at every *lane-end throughout his dominions.
1831. Howitt, Seasons (1837), 13. Deep, *lane-filling, hedge-burying snows.
1826. Sporting Mag., XVII. 361. That when the select few have got well away with the hounds … they should be stopped, to enable tailers, *lane-gallopers, and all the οι πολλοι of the field to come up.
1463. Bury Wills (Camden), 22. Ye doore be the *lane syde.
1882. Standard, 8 Dec., 3/4. There was a border, or *laneway, near the house of the Prisoner.
