Forms: 4, 6 leye, 4–7 laye, 8 lee; 5– lay, 6– ley, 7– lea. [? repr. OE. *lǽʓe (implied in the comb. lǽʓhrycg LEA-RIG, where lǽʓ- cannot well stand for léah LEA sb.1), f. the root of LAY, LIE vbs. (cf. ‘to lie fallow’); the formal equivalent (:—OTeut. * lǣgio-) is found with different meaning in OHG. aba-lâgi weary, exhausted, MHG. lǣge, early and dial. mod.G. läg low, flat, of poor quality, ON. gras-lǽgr lying in the grass; cf. LOW a.] Of land: Fallow, unplowed.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 6983. Al þe lond, leye hit lay.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIV. xlviii. (1495), 484. Euery suche felde other lyeth laye … other beryth trees or is able to pasture.
c. 1400. Gamelyn, 161. Thi lond that lith leie wel it shal be sowe.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. vii. 392. A Field, left lay for some few years, will yeeld The richer crop when it again is till’d.
1675. Evelyn, Terra (1676), 63. In our worn-out and exhausted lay-fields.
1788. Marshall, Yorks., II. 340. To lie ley, to lie in grass; as lands in a common field.
1853. Raynbird, Suppl. to Rham’s Dict. Farm., 466. This preparation may be made before harvest, and applied to the lea ground in October.
1883. Contemp. Rev., Sept., 351. Long night-watches in wet ditches and beside hedges for hares on the lea fields.
fig. c. 1430. Hymns Virg., 70. To reepe myn heruest, whidir mai y winde? Mi londis of vertues liggen al lay.
1585. Jas. I., Ess. Poesie (Arb.), 39. This subiect seame a barren ground, With quickest spreits left ley.
1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus i. 3. Every vision is for an appointed time: let them seeme to lie lea and voide never so long.
1827. Scott, Jrnl., 11 Dec. I saw … no other receipt than lying lea for a little, while taking a fallow-break to relieve my imagination, which may be esteemed nearly cropped out.
