north. and midl. Also quoil, quile, kyle. [Of uncertain derivation: perh. to be referred, like COIL sb.1, to OF. coillir to gather. It is not easy to connect it phonetically with COLL, cole in same sense.] A cock of hay.
a. 1800[?]. Clerk Saunders, vii. in Child, Ballads (1885), III. 233/2. O, bonny, bonny sang the bird, Sat on the coil o hay.
1828. Hogg, in Blackw. Mag., XXIII. 218/1. She ought at least to have put up a dozen coils of hay each hour.
1825–80. Jamieson, Kyle of Hay, a hay-cock, the small heap into which hay is at first gathered when it is raked from the ground. South of Sc.
1881. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., Quile, quoil, a heap of hay from which the cart is loaded.
1888. Sheffield Gloss., Addenda, Quoil or Coil, a number of haycocks thrown together.
