Also 4–5 le(e, 7– lay, 9 ley. [The gloss in the Promp. Parv. suggests that the word is a derivative of F. lier (:—L. ligāre) to bind, tie. But cf. LEASE sb.4] A measure of yarn of varying quantity: see quots.
1399. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 132. Et in xl lee luminon’ [?] emp. pro præd. torchez 2s. 6d. [Note, A lee or lea contains 80 yards.]
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 291/2. Lee of threde, ligatura.
1469. Ripon Ch. Acts, 139. x les de coverlett yarn.
1615. Markham, Eng. Housew., II. v. (1668), 137. Some spinning by the pound, some by the lay, and some by the day.
1633. N. Riding Rec. (1885), III. 348. A Huby spinster presented for stealing 10 leas of harden yarn.
1696. Phillips (ed. 5), s.v., Every Lea of Yarn at Kidderminster shall contain 200 Threds reel’d on a Reel four yards about.
a. 1704. Locke, in Fox Bourne, Life (1876), II. xiii. 368. Twelve lays of good sound merchandable … linen yarn or thread, each lay containing 200 yards, and the whole 12 lays not weighing above 8 oz. avoirdupois.
1776. Act 17 vGeo. III., c. 11 § 11. Every hank of … yarn shall … contain seven raps or leas, and … every such rap or lea shall … contain eighty threads.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Lea, forty threads of hemp-yarn.
1851. Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 198. Line, sliver-roving, and yarn, from 500 leas to 200 leas, from the flax…. Piece of cloth, 200 leas warp and 200 leas weft.
1882. J. Paton, in Encycl. Brit., XIV. 666/2. Throughout the United Kingdom the standard measure of flax yarn is the ‘lea,’ called also in Scotland the ‘cut’ of 300 yards.
1885. F. H. Bowman, Struct. Wool, Gloss., Lea, the seventh part of a hank; in worsted 80 yards; in cotton and silk 120 yards.
b. (See quot.)
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Lay, a quantity of wool or other fiber in a willow or carding-machine.
