Also 6 lier(de, lyard (quasi-It. liardo), Sc. lyart. [F.; prob. subst. use of liard adj. grey (see LYART a.). Cf. grey groat.] A small coin formerly current in France, of the value of the fourth part of a sou. Hence, typically, a coin of small value.
1542. Boorde, Introd. Knowl., xxvii. (1870), 191. In bras they [French] haue mietes, halfe pens, pens, dobles, lierdes … a lier is worth three brasse pens.
1572. Satir. Poems Reform., xxxii. 15. Haue we ane lyart, na baid bot all is thairis.
1583. Stocker, Civ. Warres Lowe C., IV. 53 b. A pounde of course Cheese, one Sous and one Lyard.
1600. J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Hist. Africa, III. 134. For the selling of euery duckats-woorth they haue two Liardos allowed them.
1657. Davenant, Entertainm. Rutland Ho., Dram. Wks. 1873, III. 224. His fare being two brass liards.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pic. (1779), II. xxxix. 29. He knew to a liard what was given to each.
1820. Scott, Ivanhoe, xxxii. Neither I nor any of mine will touch the value of a liard.
1847. Disraeli, Tancred, IV. xi. He would push about in the throng like a Hercules, whenever any one called out to him to fetch a liard.
