Chiefly s. w. dial. Also 6 leate, 7 let(t, 9 leet. [OE. (wæter)-ʓelǽt(e water-conduit (the simple word occurs also in the sense ‘junction of roads’) = OHG. gilâȥ letting, letting out, junction, also in comb. waȥȥer gilâȥ water-conduit (MHG. gelâȥ, mod.G. gelasz, also MHG. gelæȥe, mod.G. geläsze, in many senses derived from that of the verbal root); f. ʓe- prefix (see Y-) + root of lǽtan LET v.1] An open watercourse to conduct water for household purposes, mills, mining works, etc.
1590–1. in Trans. Devon. Assoc. (1884), XVI. 526. Item pd to 4 trumpetors that were att the leate by Mr Maiors commaundemt, vs.
a. 1642. Sir W. Monson, Naval Tracts, iv. (1704), 432/1. Streight, River, or other Let of Water, fresh or salt.
1671. Phil. Trans., VI. 2098. Cut a Leat, Gurt, or Trench.
1671. F. Philipps, Reg. Necess., 235. Commissioners of Sewers to survey Streams, Gutters, Letts, and Annoyances.
1796. W. Marshall, W. England, II. 269. Rode to the head of Plymouth Leat. This artificial brook is taken out of the river Mew, towards its source.
1813. Vancouver, Agric. Devon, 319. The entrance for the leat was cut at about thirty feet above the lip of the weir.
1838. Mrs. Bray, Tradit. Devonsh., I. 232, note. Leet is used in Devonshire to signify a stream of water.
1855. Kingsley, Westw. Ho! xvi. I have a project to bring down a leat of fair water from the hill-tops right into Plymouth town.
1881. Daily News, 21 Jan., 6/4. The leats on Dartmoor are choked with snow and ice, and no water is flowing into the reservoirs.
attrib. 1882. Burton & Cameron, Gold Coast for G., I. iii. 57. The water-course or leat-road of Santa Luzia.
