Now dial. Forms: 4 leyȝe, 4–7 leye, 5 lee, 6 laie, laye; 5– ley, lay, 6– lea. [Elliptical use of LEA (ley, lay) adj.] Land that has remained untilled for some time; arable land under grass; land ‘laid down’ for pasture, pasture-land, grass-land. Clover-lay, ley: see CLOVER sb. 4.
1357. Durham Halmote Rolls (Surtees), 19. Concelavit eos qui depast. fuerunt les leyes.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. VIII. 5. Treuthe … bad holden hem at hom and heren heore leyȝes [B. VII. 5 leyes].
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 3561. Ai wald þe wise haue wale soile mare þan a wast lee.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., VI. 30. Nowe feeldes fatte … Is good to plowe, and leyes vp to breke.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 285/1. Lay, londe not telyd.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 8. If thou haue any leys, to falowe or to sowe otes vpon, fyrste plowe them.
1573. Tusser, Husb., xxxv. (1878), 83. In Janiuere husband that poucheth the grotes will break vp his laie, or be sowing of otes.
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, I. ii. 36. Rapes require a broken-vp lay and a rich layer.
1638. Drumm. of Hawth., Irene, Wks. (1711), 164. The husbandman … had turned his acres into leyes, his syths and ploughs into swords.
1713. Lond. Gaz., No. 5143/4. 12. Acres of Meadow Ground, and 4 Leys and a half in St. Ives.
1765. A. Dickson, Treat. Agric., xii. (ed. 2), 259. In plowing lea, where the sward is tough.
1780. A. Young, Tour Irel., I. 28. He also spreads this manure on lays he intends breaking up.
1808. Curwen, Econ. Feeding Stock, 12. Having destroyed all old lays, I have no other hay than clover.
1886. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Lay, ley, land which has been sown with annual or biennial grasses, and has come round to the time to be reploughed.
1892. Lichfield Mercury, 20 May, 5/2. Good Ley for few Horses.
b. attrib.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 25. Shorte hey, and leye hey is good for shepe.
1634. W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp. (1865), 12. Being made into Hay, the Cattle eate it as well as it were Lea-hay and like it as well with it.
? 17[?]. [Burns], There’s News, Lasses, iii. I hae as gude a craft rig As made o’ yird and stane; And waly fa’ the ley-crap For I maun till’d again.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 222. I learned from a nobleman … that good ley hay is much sought after … for his Majesty’s horses.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric. (1807), I. 16. This is the best object in ploughing for a ley crop.
1813. Vancouver, Agric. Devon, 142. Hacking is also performed where lay-wheat is sown immediately after the plough, and without a previous harrowing.
