Obs. or dial. [ad. ON. elta to knead, work.] To knead.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2892. And ðoȝ holden ðe tiȝeles tale, And elten and eilden, grete and smale.
1691. in Ray, N. C. Wds., 24.
1721–1800. in Bailey.
1875. Lanc. Gloss., s.v. Hoos eltin t’ doff an canno’ come.
1854. in Miss A. E. Baker, Northamptonsh. Gloss.
? Hence Elting, vbl. sb.; used attrib. or as adj. in elting-moulds, ‘the soft ridges of fresh-ploughed land’ (Clare).
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 74. I took my rounds O’er elting moulds of fallow grounds. Ibid. (1827), Sheph. Cal., Nov., 91. He bends and scampers o’er the elting soil.
1854. in Miss A. E. Baker, Northamptonsh. Gloss.
