Now dial. Forms: 1 (ʓe)hléow, 2–7 lewe, 5, (9) lue, 8–9 loo(e, 4– lew. [OE. *hléow implied in hléowe adv.), ʓehléow (cf. unhléow; all three occur only once) = ON. hlýr warm, mild.
The relation of this word to the synonymous OHG. lâo (MHG. lâ, lāw-, G. lau) is obscure; no cognates outside Teut. are known.]
A. adj. 1. † a. Warm; sunny (in OE.). b. Lukewarm, tepid.
[c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 280. Þonne … ʓereste him swiðe wel hleowe þær & wearme gleda bere man ʓelome inn.]
c. 1000. in Cockayne, Narr. Angl. Conscript. (1861), 23. Ond ða on ʓehliwran dene and on wearmran we ʓewicodon.
c. 1300. Havelok, 498. [He] Withdrou the knif, that was lewe Of the seli children blod. Ibid., 2921. Þe sunne, brith and lewe.
1382. Wyclif, Rev. iii. 16. For thou art lew [Vulg. tepidus], and nether coold, nether hoot.
c. 1390[?]. Form of Cury, in Warner, Antiq. Culin., 19. Take calwar samon, and seeth it in lewe water.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 33. Boyle hit … And kele hit, that he be bot lue.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 333/1. A Scimming Dish … is to scum the Cream of the Lew Milk to Churn for Butter.
1881. Leicester Gloss., Lew and Lew-warm, luke-warm.
Mod. Sc. (West) The water is quite loo. (In eastern Sc. the current word is LEW-WARM.)
2. Sheltered from the wind.
1674. [see LEE a.].
1735–6. Pegge, Kenticisms (E. D. S.), Lew, sheltered; an house is said ‘to lye lew,’ i. e. the house lies snug under the wind.
1844. W. Barnes, Poems Rur. Life, 225. Milch cows in carners dry an’ lew.
1871. W. Cory, Lett. & Jrnls. (1897), 278. The bit of brick wall gives me a very lew corner facing the east.
B. sb.
1. Warmth, heat. Obs. exc. Sc.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. iv. 656. To th’ end a fruitfull lew [orig. chaleur] May every Climat in his time renew.
1633. Gerard, Part. Descr. Somerset (1900), 11. Lockombe. So called I should rather deeme from the lowe situation or Lucombe from the warmnes, which wee yett call Lewe.
1824. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl., s.v., Stacks of corn are said to take a ‘lew,’ when they heat.
2. Shelter. See house-lew, OE. húshléow (HOUSE sb.1 23), and LEE sb.1 1, 1 b.
