Now dial. Forms: 1 pl. lǽswe, léswe, Northumb. lésua, 3 ? lewse, pl. leswa, 36 lesewe, 4 leswe, 46 lesue, 5 leseo, liswe, 5, 7 lesow, 6 leassewe, leyssue, Sc. lesoue, 7 leasow. β. (chiefly Sc.) 6 lesur(e, lyssoure, lasor, 7 leissoure, leasure, lizure, 8 lizor, 9 lizzure, leissure. [See LEASE sb.1] Pasture; pasturage; meadow-land.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., John x. 9. Inn-færeð & ut-færeð & lesua [Rushw. leswe, Ags. & Hatton Gosp. læse] ʓemoetað.
10[?]. Ags. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 325/25. Pascua, læswe.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 37. Ðis oref is swiðe egerne and fecheð his leswe hwile uppen trewes, and hwile uppen cliues.
c. 1205. Lay., 2011. Bi-heold he þa leswa [c. 1275 lesewes] & þene leofliche wode.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 94. Ine heouene is large leswe.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 1576. Ydumea, ðat fulsum lond, Of lewse god, was in hise hond.
1382. Wyclif, Ps. xciv. [xcv.] 7. Wee the puple of his leswe; and the shep of his hond. Ibid., Jer. xxiii. 1. Wo to the shepperdis, that scateren and to-tern the floc of my leswe, seith the Lord.
c. 1440. R. Glouc. Chron., 1005 (MS. δ). Hor leseo lasteth euere. Ibid., 7701. Lesow he ȝaf þer to.
1495. Act 11 Hen. VII., c. 35 § 4. Medowes lesues pastures.
1502. Arnolde, Chron. (1811), 174. Lesurs pasturs weies pathes wetingli and uniustli witholden.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol. 183. In lyssouris and on leys litill lammis Full tait and trig socht bletand to thar dammis.
1547. Newminster Cartul. (1878), 310. All lands medows leyssues and pastures.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslies Hist. Scot., I. 27. A pasture, or as we say, a Lesoue.
1658. Disposition, in Jamieson, Dict., s.v. Lesuris, Meadows, leissoureis and pasturages. Ibid. (1699), Water stanks, lizures, pasturages.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 293. Having a Lesow quite overrun with well grown broom.
1799. Trans. Soc. Arts, XVII. 126. Coarse meadows, or what are called leasows, being rough woody pastures.
182580. Jamieson, Leissure, Lizzure.
a. 1845. Hood, Town & Country, xv. I hold no Leasowes in my lease, No cot set round with trees.
1852. Wiggins, Embanking, 139. After feeding all the summer on the higher grounds, called leasows or leazes in the dairy counties.
1894. S. E. Worcester Gloss, Lezzow, a meadow.