Also 2 leire. [f. LAIR sb.1]
† 1. trans. To prostrate, lay on the ground.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 103. Þe rihte bileue and þe soðe luue … ben leirede and slaine on his heorte.
2. a. intr. To lie, repose (on a bed). b. Of cattle: To go to their lair. c. trans. To place in a lair. Also refl. To find one’s lair. d. To serve as a lair for; in quot. 1870 fig.
1607. Topsell, Serpents (1658), 766. Vnder this herb a Snake full cold doth lear [= L. latet anguis sub herba].
1662. G. Swinnock, Life of Christ, Pref. O how sad is it that so many precious souls should be laring on their beds of security and idleness.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., II. 74. The berries of the brambly wood … Which, when his cattle lair, he runs to get.
1851. Mayne Reid, Rifle Rangers, i. 13. The jaguar is not far distant, ‘laired’ in the secret depths of the impenetrable jungle.
1853. Alex. Smith, Life Drama, x. 183. I’d rather lair me with a fiend in fire Than look on such a face as hers to-night.
1870. Lowell, Cathedral, Poet. Wks. (1879), 453. As a mountain seems To dwellers round its bases but a heap Of barren obstacle that lairs the storm.
1890. Daily Tel., 22 May, 5/6. At this moment there are over 7,000 beasts laired in Deptford Market.
