Forms: α. 1–2 wer, 3–8 were, 5 werre, 5–7 weere, 5–8 weer; 5, 7 ware, 6–8 weare, 7–9 wear; 6–7 weire, weyre, 7– weir; 6–8 wier. β. 6–7 wyre, (7 wyer), 7–8 wire. [OE. wer m., = OS. werr, MLG. wer, weer, weir, were (LG. wêr, were), MHG. wer, were (G. wehr, † währ; dial. wier) neut., f. the stem of OE. werian to dam up: see WERE sb. OIcel. vǫr, var-, landing-place, is possibly related.
Normally the standard modern form would have been wear; this is represented by the dialectal wair, ware. The late variant wire is difficult to account for.]
1. A barrier or dam to restrain water, esp. one placed across a river or canal in order to raise or divert the water for driving a mill wheel; also, the body of water retained by this means, a mill-dam; now gen., a dam, of which there are various forms, constructed on the reaches of a canal or navigable river, to retain the water and regulate its flow.
α. c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., xxxviii. 279. Se se ðe ðone wer bricð, & ðæt wæter utforlæt, se bið fruma ðæs ʓeflites.
c. 1460. Oseney Reg., 30. With all dwellynges þe which been vppon the were of þe milles.
1482. Caxton, Higden (Rolls), VIII. 543. The mayer of London … and the comynalte dyde do brake vp al the weerys that were bytwene Medewey and Kyngeston.
1491. Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889), 373. To arrest ther mill horses,… and to kepe them … tyll they … make the saide werre.
a. 1550. Leland, Itin. (1769), IV. 92. A Damme or Were to serve the Kinges Milles a little lower then the Dammes.
1583. in W. H. Turner, Sel. Rec. Oxford (1880), 434. A locke or weare by Rewlie lock, to bende the water in sommer and to drawe uppe in wynter.
1653. Walton, Angler, iii. 89. [The trout] wil about (especially before) the time of his Spawning, get almost miraculously through Weires and Floud-Gates against the stream.
1695. Act 6 & 7 Will. III., c. 16 (title), An Act to prevent Exactions of the Occupiers of Locks and Wears upon the River of Thames Westward.
1722. De Foe, Plague (1756), 170. A Weer or Stop upon the River, made to raise the Water for the Barges which go up and down the River.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France, 21. The navigation of the river in the town being absolutely impeded by the wear which is made across it in favour of the corn mills.
1813. Vancouver, Agric. Devon, 314. There are no other reservoirs than those which are formed by the dams or weirs by which the streams are raised for the purpose.
1859. H. Kingsley, G. Hamlyn, xiii. I’m the best swimmer in Devon. That was proved by my living in that weir in flood time.
1866. M. Arnold, Thyrsis, ii. The Vale, the three lone wears, the youthful Thames.
1877. Huxley, Physiogr., 3. About 380 million gallons flow over the weir every four-and-twenty hours.
β. a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 203. A good kiln ought to have such a draught as to roar like wires on a river.
1758. Descr. Thames, 160. Farmer’s Wires or Weirs … Day’s Wires, [etc.].
1776. G. Semple, Building in Water, 33. There was … a Wire or a Stone Dike almost quite a-cross the River.
1875. H. R. Robertson, Life Upper Thames, 40. A boat descending the stream meets with no impediment till it reaches the dam or ‘weir’ (pronounced ‘wire’ by the riverside people), as it is technically called.
b. Her. A charge representing a weir.
1780. Edmondson, Heraldry, II. Gloss., Weare, Weir, or Dam, in Fesse. It is made with stakes and osier twigs, wattled or interwoven as a fence against water.
2. A fence or enclosure of stakes made in a river, harbor, etc., for taking or preserving fish. (Cf. fish-weir FISH sb. 7.)
In OE. also used to render L. captura in the sense of a ‘catch’ of fish.
α. 839. in Birch, Cartul. Sax., I. 598. Twyʓen weoras in fluvio qui dicitur Stur. Ibid. (901), II. 247. An wer on Ycenan.
996. in Kemble, Cod. Dipl., VI. 136. Ðes healfan weres æt Bræʓentforda. Ibid. (1052–67), IV. 211. Al ðare þinge ðe ðarto mid richte ʓebirð … on waterin and on weren.
a. 1122. O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), an. 963. Þa twa dæl of Witlesmere mid watres & mid wæres & feonnes.
a. 1200. in Birch, Cartul. Sax., I. 171. In captura … piscium que terræ illi adjacet, ubi sunt scilicet duo quod nostratim dicitur Weres.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, III. 35. As why this fish, and nought that, cometh to were.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, III. xxv. (1869), 150. It is maad as a were for fysh; Entree ther is, but issue nouht.
1459. Rolls of Parlt., V. 365/2. And a were called Petersam were … to be had for evermore to the seid Priour and Monkes.
1523. Act 14 & 15 Hen. VIII., c. 13. Diuers weres & ingins for fisshynge, made & leuied in the same hauen.
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., XII. xvii. 216. [He] robbed a millers weire and stole all his eeles.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. v. 315. The delicate … Golden-eye, Kept in a Weyre, the widest space doth spy.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 808. A very goodly Weare for the catching of Salmons.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. 465. Their only Food is a small sort of Fish, which they get by making Wares of stone, across little Coves, or branches of the Sea.
1724. Col. Rec. Pennsylv., III. 233. An act for demolishing … Fishing Dams, Wears & Kedles set across the River Schuylkill.
1791. W. H. Marshall, W. Eng. (1796), II. 240. The [Salmon] Weir … consists of a strong dam or breastwork, ten or twelve feet high, thrown across the river.
1859. R. F. Burton, Centr. Afr., in Jrnl. Geog. Soc., XXIX. 81, note. The Wigo, or weir, is like that of Western India.
1894. J. Z. Rogers, in Outing, XXIII. Feb., 401/1. Close to the weir—a kind of circular fish-trap made by driving stakes into the bottom close together.
fig. 1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Luke v. 4–7. Satan hath fishers of his owne too: who dooe … towle theim into the were and nette of damnacion.
β. 1624. Capt. J. Smith, Virginia, I. 7. The people were fled, but their wires afforded vs fish.
1638. Suckling, Aglaura, V. i. 35. Like wanton Salmons comming in with flouds, that leap o’re wyres and nets, and make their way.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. 106. They carry them alive to Jamaica, where the Turtles have wires made with Stakes in the Sea to preserve them alive.
b. A weel for catching fish. † Also Her., a representation of this, borne as a charge.
1611. Cotgr., Boissel d’ozier. A weele, or weere of Ozier twigs.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xvi. (Roxb.), 80/1. He beareth Azure, a Weele with its hoope vpward, Or. This is also termed a Fishard, or a Ware.
1834. Whittier, Mogg Megone, 841. The clear stream where The idle fisher sets his weir.
1845. Peter Parley’s Ann., VI. 51. A weir is a basket loose and open at one end, and smaller at the other, into which the fish were driven.
3. A pond or pool. Obs. exc. dial.
For the forms wayre, wair see WAYOUR.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter cvi. 35. He set in weres ofe watres [L. in stagna aquarum] wildernes.
c. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 143. And soo was hit hyd þer yn [to] þe tyme þat byschopys of þe tempull let make a were [v.r. wayre] yn þe same plas, forto wasch schepe yn.
1657. J. Watts, Scribe, etc., Dipper Sprinkled, 31. To make choise of a common Pond or Weyr to dip your two new converted holy Sisters in.
1691. Ray, S. & E. Country Words, Were, or Wair, a pond or pool of water.
1877. Holderness Gloss., Weir, a pond.
4. local. a. A fence or embankment to prevent the encroachment of a river or sea-sand, or to turn the course of a stream.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, 22. The burdensome detrimentes of our hauen, which euery twelue-month deuoures a Iustice of peace liuing, in weares and banckes to beate off the sand.
1680. N. Riding Rec., VII. 30. Roger Beckwith … and other of the adjoyning neighbours have taken care to make a weare to keep the said river in its antient channel.
1824. Carr, Craven Gloss., Weer, an embankment against its [sc. a river’s] encroachment.
1846. Brockett, N. C. Words (ed. 3), Were,… an embankment to prevent the encroachment, or turn the course of a stream.
1894. Northumbld. Gloss., Wear, weir, a structure of stone mixed with rice (brushwood) for protecting a bank from the wash of a stream.
b. (See quot.)
1894. Northumbld. Gloss., Wear, Weer, the landing place and fishing ground at a salmon-net fishery.
5. Sc. A hedge. (Cf. WEAR v. 23.)
1789. D. Davidson, Seasons, 51. Now weir an’ fence o’ wattl’d rice, The hained fields inclose.
a. 1894. J. Shaw, in R. Wallace, Country Schm. (1899), 355. Weir,… a hedge.
6. attrib. and Comb., as weir-bank, -bridge, -dam, -frame, -head, -heck (HECK sb.1 2), -hole, -pile, -pool, -stream; weir-keeper, -owner; weir-boat, a boat kept at a weir for the use of the weir-keeper; † weir-dike, a bank that serves as a dam; weir-hatch [HATCH sb.1 6], the flood-gate or sluice of a weir; weir-hedge, a bank made on each side of a river to narrow and deepen its water; † weir-hook (see quot.); weir house, a trap for salmon at a salmon weir; † weir-net, a net for taking fish at or from a weir; weir-shot net, a fishing net that is shot or cast in a circular form, used in salmon fisheries on the Tweed (see quot. 1855).
1583. Inquis. Sewers Linc. (1851), 16. That all *weare banks & all other Bankes heretofore in Commission … & all close ditches & draines … shall be ditched sufficiently before Michaelmasse.
1436. Catal. Anc. Deeds, IV. 273 (A. 8182). [Two boats called the] feriboot [and] a *wereboot.
1851. Kingsley, Yeast, iii. He found on the *weir-bridge two of the keepers.
1793. R. Mylne, Rep. Thames, 22. Without a Lock in the said Cut, or a *Weir-dam in the bed of the River.
1518. Sel. Pleas Star Chamber (Selden Soc.), II. 130. A lytull grownde inclosyd in the fenne by Reasun of makyng of a *Weyr dyke.
1902. Cornish, Naturalist Thames, 6. Monster spiders ran out from the holes and angles of the weir-frame.
1898. Hardy, Wessex Poems, 204. As when a *weir-hatch is drawn, Her tears … With a rushing of sobs in a shower were strawn.
1817. Scott, Waverley, ix. A large brook … leapt in tumult over a strong dam, or *wear-head.
c. 1467–9. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 641. Pro extraccione et imposicione lez stapyls pro le *Warehek molendini.
1819. Rees’ Cycl., VI. A a 4, s.v. Canal, Jetties, or *Weir-hedges have formerly been made, for diminishing the width of the river below the several shoals.
1841. Hartshorne, Salop. Antiq., 610. *Warehole, Weirhole, a hole into which the back water of a mill stream falls.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xvi. (Roxb.), 86/2. A *Weare, or fish cage hooke. It is a large and strong Iron hooke with a sockett at the end, to be fixed on a long pole, or staffe, to take fish out of weares or cages.
1791. W. H. Marshall, W. Eng. (1796), II. 256. The [Salmon] Weir … consists of a strong dam…. At one end of the dam, is a *‘weir house’ or trap.
1791. R. Mylne, 2nd Rep. Thames Navig., 15. By disuniting the Care of the Pound Locks from the Miller and the *Wear-Keeper.
1881. Taunt’s Thames Map, 66/1. The weir-keeper is another old hand on the river.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 256/2. Excipulus,… a *weare net.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., II. 18. In September they take in Weeles and Weere-nets an incredible number of most sweete and sauery eeles.
1656. W. Du Gard, trans. Comenius’ Gate Lat. Unlocked, § 358, p. 101. Part hee shutteth up in repositories, from whence when there is need hee taketh them out with a warenet.
1610. R. Vaughan, Water-Workes, H i b. *Weare-owners.
1864. Meredith, Sandra Belloni, xx. She saw the white *weir-piles shining.
1889. ‘J. Bickerdyke,’ All-round Angler, III. 90. A man taking a chance day on the Thames has small chance of success unless he sticks to the *weirpools.
1855. Archæol. Æliana, IV. 302. The *wear-shot net is rowed by means of a boat into the river in a circular form, and is immediately drawn to the shore.
1857. Local Act 20 & 21 Vict., c. cxlviii. § 62. Every person who shall shoot or work any Wear Shot Net in the River within the Distance of Thirty Yards of any other Wear Shot Net.
1900. Daily News, 1 Jan., 8/7. The well-known *weir stream which skirts the grounds of Eton College.
