Obs. Also 3 west. [OE. wéste, earlier wœste = OFris. wôste (WFris. woast), MDu. and Du. woest, OS. wôsti (MLG. wôst, wûst, LG. wöst), OHG. wôsti, wuosti (MHG. wüeste, G. wüst), f. the stem *wōst-, related to L. vāstus: see WASTE a.]
1. Of places: Uninhabited and uncultivated or untended; desert, desolate, waste.
Beowulf, 2456. [He] ʓesyhð sorhceariʓ … winsele westne.
c. 825. Vesp. Psalter, lxviii. 26. Sie eardung heara woestu. Ibid., lxxiv. 7. From woestum muntum.
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., I. xv. 52. Is sæd of þære tide … þæt hit [sc. þæt land] weste wuniʓe.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. xiv. 15. Ðeos stowe ys weste.
c. 1200. Ormin, 1417. All forrþi wass heoffness ærd Swa summ ist wesste wære.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 127. He … þerfore ferde into weste wilderne.
c. 1205. Lay., 10591. Al þat lond heo makeden west. Ibid., 17330. Ich wulle … maken him weste paðes & wildernes monie.
c. 1250. Owl & Night., 1528. Wowes weste [v.r. west] and lere huse.
a. 1300. Maximian, 211 (MS. Digby 86). Þis world me þinkeþ west.
2. West(e) land, waste land; desert.
c. 1030. Sherburn Surv., in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1912), Jan., 18. Ond þys synd weste land: Ane is Sal-leʓe; oðer is Grante-leʓe.
c. 1200. Ormin, 9239. Sannt Johan i wessteland Wass wurrþenn cuþ þatt time. Ibid., 11429. All swa summ wessteland iss all Forrworrpenn & forrlætenn.
c. 1205. Lay., 16268. He funde west lond [c. 1275 in west lond], leoden of-slæȝene.
