Forms: 1 blǽtan, 3 Orm. blætenn, 4–5 blete, 6 Sc. blait, 6–7 bleate, (blate), 7 bleet, 7– bleat. [Com. WGer.: OE. blǽtan = OHG., MHG. blâzen, mod.Du. blaten:—WGer. blâtan, of imitative origin: cf. mod.G. blöken; also OSlav. blejat to bleat, and see BLEA.]
1. intr. To cry, as a sheep, goat or calf.
a. 1000. Riddles (Gr.), xxv. 2. Ic … blǽte swá gát.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., xxii. 129. Scép blǽt.
c. 1200. Ormin, 1315. Itt [lamb] cann cnawenn swiþe wel Hiss moderr þær ȝho blæteþþ.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter lxiv. 14. Schepe þat blete.
1549. Compl. Scot., vi. 39. The scheip began to blait.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., I. ii. 68. We were as twyn’d Lambs, that did … bleat the one at th’ other.
1735. Somerville, Chase, III. 30. The mournful Ewe Wanders perplex’d, and darkling bleats in vain.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, 60. Our friends the calves are bleating from the home croft.
b. trans. (with cognate object.) Also To bleat out: to give forth with a bleat.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills (1872), IV. 337. The tender Flocks their Pasture mourn, and bleat a sadder Moan.
1864. Swinburne, Atalanta, 936. Let her … stretch her throat for a knife, Bleat out her spirit and die.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust, I. v. (Chandos), 61. An old he-goat … Should his good-night in lustful gallop bleat her.
2. transf. Used contemptuously of the human voice.
a. 1563. Becon, Jewel of Joy, Wks. (1844), 429. Nourishing many idle singing-men to bleat in their chapels.
1569. E. Hake, Newes Powles Churchy., F vj. Thus bleate the Popish Balamites.
1869. Heavysege, Saul, 312. If she bleats now, Why, ’tis her nature, and the gift of women.
b. trans. To give mouth to, babble, prate. Cf. BLATE.
1692. Washington, trans. Milton’s Def. Pop., vi. (1851), 165. You, who bleat what you know nothing of [Lat. qui ea blatis].
c. Used of sounds likened to the cry of a sheep.
1880. Howells, Undisc. Country, viii. 123. Their bells were bleating everywhere.
