sb. dial. Also 7 yelf, 9 yilve. [Metathetic f. ME. ȝevel:— OE. ʓeafel fork, more directly represented by dial. yeevil, EVIL sb.3, in use along the Celtic border from Cheshire to Cornwall.] A dung- or garden-fork. Hence Yelve v., to use a yelve.
[c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 430. Hi … hine ufan mid isenum ʓeaflum ðydon.
a. 1100. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 241/36. Forcelle, ʓæfle, dictae quod frumenta celluntur, i. commouentur.
a. 1100. Gerefa, in Anglia, IX. 263. He sceal fela tola … habban … bærwan, besman, race, ʓeafle.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. lxx[ii]. (Tollem. MS.). Hey … is houe, turnid and wende with pikes, ȝeuels [ed. 1495 forkees] and rakes.]
1688. Holme, Armoury, II. 173/2. Yelf or Yelve, an Iron with three fork ends, by which Dung is taken from the Beast, and the house made clean. Ibid., III. 337/1. A Yelve Iron with two Ends. Ibid. With the same Forke or Yelve, (or Evill, as some call it).
1817. Wilbraham, Gloss. Cheshire (1818), 32. Yelve, to dig chiefly with the yelve.
1841. Hartshorne, Salopia Antiqua, 622. Yilve, a dung fork, an evil, as we more commonly call it.
1879. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., Yelve … a garden-fork.
1886. Cheshire Gloss., Yelte, a potato fork…. Yelve, v. to dig, chiefly with the yelve.
