Forms: 4 legger, leier, 4–5 leyer, 5 leyare, 5–7 lare, 6 laier, 7 lear(e, leer, layre, 8 lair, 7– layer. [f. LAY v.1 + -ER1.]
I. 1. One who or that which lays (in various senses); one who lays siege, plots, etc. Also with sb. in comb., as † besiege-layer, plate-layer, etc.
1538. Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 156. It selbe lesum to quhatsumeuer nychtbour that reprehendis the layaris of the said fulze in the place forsayd [etc.].
1552. Huloet, Besiege laier, obsessor.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 152. Layers of plots and traps.
a. 1684. Leighton, Comm. 1 Pet. ii. 6. The Lord Himself is the layer of this corner stone.
1737. J. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., II. III. 93. Layers and Takers of Paper on and from the Rolling-Presses.
1871. Proctor, Light Sci., 311. The layer of the odds.
1884. Mrs. Houstoun, Caught in Snare, II. vi. 71. A layer of the demon of jealousy.
1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 11 Nov., 6/3. At St. Ouen there was no betting, the layers refusing to do any business.
† b. One who lays stones; a mason. (Cf. bricklayer.) Obs.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Chron. xxii. 15. Many craftise men, masouns, and leyers [1388 leggeris of stonys]. Ibid., Ezra iii. 7. Thei ȝeve money to heweris of stonus, and to leieris [v.r. leggeris, 1388 liggeris].
1425. in Dugdale, Monast., III. II. 164. During all the sayd werke the seid Will. Horwode shall nether set mo nor fewer Free-Masons Rogh Setters ne Leye[r]s thereupon.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 294/1. Leyare, or werkare wythe stone and mortere, cementarius.
1641. Sanderson, Serm., II. 194. The workmen, and labourers (layers, fillers, servers, and the rest).
† c. One who lays or fixes the amount of (an impost).
1602. Acc. Bk. W. Wray, in Antiquary, XXXII. 80. Imp’m. one laye … of 1d. ob. a noble. Wm. Wray. Robt. Hodgesonn and R. Atkingson beinge layers of the sayme.
d. Of a hen (with adj. good, etc.).
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 191. The oldest [Hens] being always reckoned the best Sitters, and the youngest the best Layers.
1880. Standard, 27 Dec., 2/4. The hens are of a bad breed, and are infrequent layers.
e. with advs. (see LAY v.1 VIII): layer-on (a) Printing, the operator who ‘feeds’ a printing-machine; (b) Engineering, ‘an automatic mechanism which in a coining-press, embossing-press, or other analogous machine feeds blanks to the dies of the press’ (Cent. Dict.).
1552. Huloet, A layer out of mony, dispensator.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., V. ii. 248. Old Age, that ill layer vp of Beautie.
1635. J. Gore, Well-doing, 25. A good layer up makes a good layer out, and a good sparer makes a good spender.
1666. Pepys, Diary, 3 July. The worst judge of matters, or layer together of what he hath read, in the world.
1708. N. Jersey Archives (1881), III. 280. The layers out of the High way.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), II. 330. Spirit-hunters, witch-finders, and layers-out for hellish storys and diabolical transactions.
1797. Mrs. Bennett, Beggar Girl, VII. x. 384. An exceeding good dresser of hair and layer-on of rouge.
1849. Alb. Smith, Pottleton Leg., vi. One of these [old women] was the layer-out of the village, to whom the management of the last dreary toilet for the grave was, by long usage, always conceded.
1849. Chambers’ Inform., II. 720/2. This machine requires a layer-on and taker-off of sheets at each end.
1887. Standard, 7 Oct., 3/2. Horne, who is eighteen years of age, was a printer’s ‘layer-on’ by trade.
1896. W. Morris, in Mackail, Life (1899), I. 230. The layer-out of a garden.
II. Something that is laid.
2. A thickness of matter spread over a surface; esp. one of a series of such thicknesses; a stratum, course or bed. In early use chiefly in Cookery.
1615. Markham, Eng. Housew. (1660), 83. Take Codlins … and lay a lear thereof in the bottom of the pye.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 409. If you lay them [Damaske-plums] betweene mulberrie-leaues, or vine-leaues, one leare aboue another in a close box made for the purpose.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 126. Just 10 boards in every chesse or layer.
1644. G. Platts, in Hartlib’s Legacy (1655), 200. I would have all the richest Farmers … to thrash up the most part of their other Corn, and to take down the foresaid Rick, and to make it up again with a leere of thrashed Corn, with chaffe and all together.
a. 1648. Digby, Closet Opened (1677), 165. Put no more Collops into one pan at once than meerly to cover it with one Lare.
1684. T. Burnet, Theory Earth, I. 167. The inner veins and lares of the earth are also broken as well as the surface.
1703. T. N., City & C. Purchaser, 161. Some Gutters … have a Lair of Sand for the Lead to lie upon.
1747. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, iv. 60. Then lay in your Dish a Layer of Mince-meat, and a Layer of Yolk of Eggs,… a Layer of Anchovies [etc.].
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), I. 37. These layers of shells … must have been brought there by successive depositions.
? 17[?]. Receipts in Cookery, 11 (Jam.). Lay in a lare of the beef, and throw on it plenty of suet with more spice, salt and fruits, do so lare after lare, till it be full.
1802. Playfair, Illustr. Hutton. Theory, 44. Rocks having their layers exactly parallel are very common.
1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 30. in the Fir … Each of these circular layers is externally most hard and solid.
1828. Carr, Craven Dial., Layer,… 2. a slice from the breast of a fowl.
1845. Budd, Dis. Liver, 6. A layer of areolar … tissue.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xviii. 132. A deep layer of fresh snow overspread the mountain.
1880. Geikie, Phys. Geog., IV. xxi. 187. Stripping off the layer of vegetation we see below it the layer of soil on which the plants grow.
fig. a. 1658. Cleveland, Poems (1677), 24. So mixt they are one knows not whether’s thicker A Layre of Burgess, or a Layre of Vicar.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., II. xxiii. 110. Gwendolen’s better self … made a desperate effort to find its way above the stilling layers of egoistic disappointment and irritation.
3. Gardening and Agric. a. A shoot or twig of a plant fastened down and partly covered with earth, in order that it may strike root while still attached to the parent stock, and so propagate the plant.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva (1679), 13. Many Trees are also propagated by Cuttings, and Layers. Ibid., Kal. Hort., June (1679), 19. Cytisus lunatus will be multiplied by slips in a moist place … but neither by Seeds or Layers.
1712. J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 141. The Dutch Lime … is easily produced by Layers.
1772. in Mrs. Delany’s Lett., Ser. II. I. 475. On examining the layers of my large blooming magnolia I found one remarkably vigorous.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 361. The grasses that propagate themselves by layers.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. 311. Many layers are lost, or prevented from striking kindly, by being covered too deep.
b. pl. Patches of laid or trodden corn.
1634. W. Tirwhyt, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. I.), 79. When I see the Grasse trodden downe, and … the Corne full of Layers: I am well assured it is neither Wind nor Haile, hath made this work.
c. A field of grass or clover; see also quot. 1793.
1793. Ann. Agric., XXI. 611, note. Layer is the term used in Suffolk for artificial grasses, that rest longer than one year.
1895. E. Angl. Gloss., Layer, arable land in grass and clover.
1898. Rider Haggard, in Longm. Mag., Oct., 498. Last year it and No. 39 were clover layers, but the crop they yielded was poor.
d. (See quots.)
1787. W. Marshall, Norfolk (1795), II. 383. Layer, plants of hedgewood; quick.
1794. Trans. Soc. Arts, XII. 106. Planted with three rows of fine white-thorn layer, intermixed with Oak and Ash.
1895. E. Angl. Gloss., Law or Layer, young plants, such as whitethorn, crab, and brier.
4. Other specific and technical senses. a. ? Some measure of flax. ? Cf. LEA sb.4 † b. An oyster-bed (see quots.). c. Silk-manuf. (See quot.) d. A pavior’s flag or flag-stone. e. Tanning. = bloomer-pit (see BLOOMER1). f. (See quot.)
a. 1732. Acc. Workhouses, 42. Every pound of six-penny flax, spun to 24 layers.
b. 1735. Dyche & Pardon, Dict., Layer,… a Place in the retired Part of a River, Sea, &c. commonly called a Creek, where young Oysters are laid to grow.
1758. Descr. Thames, 238. They [Oysters] are laid in Beds or Rills or Salt-water, in order to fat them, and these they term Layers.
c. 1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 396. A small light rod of wood, called a layer, which has a wire eye fixed into it, is placed at a little distance from, and opposite, to each bobbin, so as to conduct the thread thereupon; and as the layer moves constantly backwards and forwards, the thread is regularly spread upon the length of the bobbin.
d. 1829. Glover’s Hist. Derby, I. 90. Paviers’ flags, or layers.
e. 1797. Encycl. Brit., XVIII. 307/1. They [hides) are then removed into another pit, called a layer, in which they are laid smooth, with bark ground very fine strewed between each hide.
1885. H. M. Newhall, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 276/1. Hides remain in a ‘first layer’ for six or eight days. The same process is repeated in a ‘second layer’ in other vats for about two weeks, and in a third, or ‘splitting layer,’ for about four weeks.
f. 1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Layer,… 2. (Leather-manufacture.) A welt or strengthening strip.
III. 5. attrib. and Comb.: layer-board, -boarding, boarding for sustaining roof-gutters of lead; also lear-board (Ogilvie); layer-coral, a fossil coral of the genus Stromatopora; layer-reared a., reared from a ‘layer’; layer-stool, a root from which layers are produced.
1842–59. Gwilt, Encycl. Archit., § 2350. 630. Table for guttering … 6-inch *layer-board.
1875. J. W. Dawson, Dawn of Life, vi. 156. The Stromatoporæ, or *layer-corals.
1832. Planting (L. U. K.), 34. Grafted and *layer reared species. Ibid., 35. Transplanting trees from seed-beds, *layer-stools, cutting grounds.
