dial. [var. LATHE sb.3 and sb.4]
1. Weaving. The batten of a loom; = LATHE sb.4
1789. A. Wilson, in Poems & Lit. Prose (1876), I. 16. The palefaced weaver plies the resounding lay.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 412. The lay which carries the reed, is hung from a bar.
1844. G. Dodd, Textile Manuf., i. 44. The batten or lay by which the weft-thread is driven up close.
1892. J. M. Barrie, Little Minister, iii. 20. The lay still swung at little windows like a great ghost pendulum.
b. Comb.: lay-cap, a wooden bar that lies on the top of the reed and is held by the workman in working the lay; lay-race (see quot. 1855).
The comb. lay-rod, lea-rod, in some Dicts. referred to this word, is an incorrect form of lease-rod: see LEASE sb.4, and cf. LEA sb.4
1831. G. R. Porter, Silk Manuf., 217. A top piece having a longitudinal groove along its lower side which is called the *lay-cap.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1287. The lay-cap … is the part of the lay which the hand-loom weaver seizes with his hand, in order to swing it towards him.
1855. Ogilvie, Suppl., *Lay-race, that part of the lay on which the shuttle travels from one side to the other of the web.
2. Used for LATHE sb.3 2.
In parts of Scotland, the turning lathe is still called lay.
1797. Godwin, in C. K. Paul, Life (1876), I. 259. The potters we saw in the morning, turning a wheel, or treading a lay.
