Now dial. Also 4, 8 lare, 4–5 layre, 4–5, 9 laire, 8 laier. [a. ON. leir (Sw. ler, Da. leer):—OTeut. type *laizo-n, ? cogn. w. laimo- LOAM.] Clay, mire, mud. † Under lair: under the ground.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 519. O watur his blod, his fless o lair, His hete o fir, hijs and of air.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter lxviii. 18. Out take me of the lare that .i. be not infestid.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 4445. All sall leue ȝow at þe laste and in-to laire worth.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxxi. 213. One Lazar … Lay loken vndir layre fro lymme and fro light.
1637. Rutherford, Lett. (1862), I. 276. My short legs could not step ouer this lair or sinking mire.
1787. Grose, Prov. Gloss., Laier, soil, dung. Ess. and Suff. Lare, a quagmire. N.
1803. W. S. Rose, Amadis de Gaul, 76.
| He sees two damsels o’er the laire advance, | |
| Borne on fair palfreys; one sustain’d a lance. |
1825. Brockett, N. C. Words, Lair, mire, dirt.
1893. Northumbld. Gloss., Lair, mud, ‘sleck,’ quicksand, or any soft yielding surface.
1895. Crockett, Men of Moss-Hags, 31. He was covered with the lair of the moss-hags.
