Forms: 4–7 liter(e, 4 litir, littar, 5 leter(e, -yr, lyttar, -ere, -ier, -yer, lyter(e, -ier, -our, 5–7 lytter, -tre, 6 litto(u)r, (litre), (6–7 licter, 7 letter, lictier, -ure, litour, littier, littre), 5– litter. [ad. AF. litere, OF. litiere, (F. litière) = Pr. leitiera, Sp. litera, It. lettiera:—med.L. lectāria, f. L. lect-us (F. lit) bed.]
† 1. A bed. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 13817. Quen he had made me hale and fere, ‘Rise vp,’ he said, ‘wit þi litere.’
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 4910. All lemed of his letere þe loge as of heuen.
1440. J. Shirley, Dethe K. James (1818), 17. The traitours sought the Kyng … yn the withdrawyng chaumburs, yn the litters, undir the presses.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xiv. 590. Lo, here a lytter redy cled.
1481. Caxton, Reynard (Arb.), 61. Tho laye they doun on a lytier made of strawe, the foxe hys wyf and hys chyldren wente alle to slepe.
b. In technical use: A ‘bed’ or substratum of various materials.
1848. Ronalds & Richardson, Chem. Technol., I. 35. Having first made a litter of shingles, planks or billets, with a layer of charcoal powder several inches in thickness.
2. a. A vehicle in use down to recent times, containing a couch shut in by curtains, and carried on men’s shoulders or by beasts of burden. b. A framework supporting a bed or couch for the transport of the sick and wounded.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 8541 (Kölbing). Sche akeuered, par ma fay, & was yleyd in liter, Al mast liche an hors bere.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, IX. 106. In littar thai [him] lay, And till the slevach held thair vay.
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, II. xx. In a lytter made tho full royall … To cary hym softe and easyly.
c. 1450. Merlin, xviii. 301. Than thei ordeyned hir a litier vpon two palfrayes.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, XIX. vii. He ordeyned lyttyers for the wounded knyghtes.
1502. Privy Purse Exp. Eliz. of York (1830), 28. Item a covering for a litter of blewe cloth of golde.
1557. Grimald, in Tottel’s Misc. (Arb.), 123. In littour layd, they lead him vnkouth wayes.
1606. Holland, Sueton., 51. A flash of lightning glaunced upon his licter, and struck his servant stone dead.
1634. Milton, Comus, 554. The drowsie frighted steeds That draw the litter of close-curtain’d sleep.
1663. Wood, Life, 4 July. The scutcheons on the litter hung on still.
1734. trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), I. Pref. 50. To keep himself close shut up in his litter.
1808. Pike, Sources Mississ., I. 31. Found five litters in which sick or wounded men had been carried.
1839. Keightley, Hist. Eng., I. 429. She was conveyed … in a litter, over which four knights held a canopy of cloth of gold.
1894. A. Robertson, Nuggets, etc. 153. He soon made a comfortable litter in which to carry Elsie home.
3. Straw, rushes, or the like, serving as bedding.
† a. For human beings. To make litter of (one’s life): to sacrifice lavishly (= F. faire litière de). Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 307/2. Lytere of a bed, stratus, stratorium.
c. 1450. Bk. Curtasye, 435, in Babees Bk. Gromes palettis shyn fyle and make litere.
a. 1483. Liber Niger, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 41. The groome porter berith wood, strawe, rushes, for the King’s chambre, making the King’s litters of his bed.
1652. Howell, Giraffi’s Rev. Naples, II. 119. Whereupon the said Duke offer’d … to make litter of his life for the service of his Catholick Majesty the King.
1774. Collyer, Hist. Eng., II. 126. John Baldwin held the manor of Oterarsee … by the service of finding litter for the king’s bed, viz. in summer grass or herbs, and in winter straw.
b. For animals. In mod. use also, the straw and dung together.
[1314–5. Rolls of Parlt., I. 302/2. xxiii quarters de aveyn & de litter.]
c. 1430. Lydg., Hors, Shepe & G. (Roxb.), 10. As pelows ben to chambres agreable So is harde strawe lytter for the stable.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 307/2. Lytere, or strowynge of horse, and other beestys, stramentum.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. (1882), 12. A little straw or litter bad inough for a dog to lie in.
1662. Gerbier, Princ., 35. The space which the Horse doth possess when in the night time he lyeth stretcht on his Litter.
1693. Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., I. 54. To place daily under those Animals … a sufficient quantity of fresh New Straw, well spread, which is call’d making of Litter.
1731. Swift, Bro. Protestants, Wks. 1755, IV. I. 181. The gen’rous wheat forgot its pride, And sail’d with litter side by side.
1809. Scott, Prose Wks., IV. Biographies, II. (1870), 124. There was no wood to burn and no litter or forage to be had for his horses.
1845. Florist’s Jrnl., 127. Take some long litter from the dung heap.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 320. The litter of a farmyard gathered under the windows of his bed-chamber.
c. Hence applied to straw or similar materials used for other purposes, e.g., † as a component of plaster, † for thatch, or for the protection of plants.
1453. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 160. Et de 2d. solut. pro liter pro dobura ibidem.
1486. Nottingham Rec., III. 255. For litter for dawbyng of þe same bothes.
1659. Torriano, Stípia,… licture, or thatch for cottages.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort., March (1679), 12. Take off the Littier from your Kernel-beds.
1706. London & Wise, Retir’d Gard’ner, I. III. xii. 304. Tulips … are protected … by Coverings of Straw, or long Litter.
1744. Pickering, in Phil. Trans., XLIII. 100. Over the Bed, thus prepared, must constantly be kept a Covering of long new Litter … to preserve the plant from the Frost.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 195. In frosty weather, protect the rows by fern leaves, long litter, or branches of evergreens.
1861. Delamer, Fl. Garden, 22. Agapanthus … may be permitted to remain throughout the winter in the open ground, under a covering of litter or leaves.
4. Odds and ends, fragments and leavings lying about, rubbish; a state of confusion or untidiness; a disorderly accumulation of things lying about.
1730. Swift, Lady’s Dressing-r., 8. Strephon … took a strict survey Of all the litter as it lay.
1742. Fielding, J. Andrews, IV. ix. She was ashamed to be seen in such a pickle,… her house was in such a litter.
1796. C. Marshall, Garden., xx. 397. Dying flowers, all litter, and everything unsightly, admonish the gardener to trim his plants.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 232. They [silkworms] must be well cleansed from the litter.
1860. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., V. IX. ix. 293. He [Turner] … enjoyed and looked for litter…. His pictures are often full of it.
1868. J. H. Blunt. Ref. Ch. Eng., I. 347. An old pamphlet among the litter of the abbot’s study.
1894. Hall Caine, Manxman, III. xvii. 182. The kitchen was covered with the litter of dressmakers preparing for the wedding.
5. a. The whole number of young brought forth at a birth.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, F vj. A Litter of welpis.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 27. The litter is lyke to the syre and the damme.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. ii. 14. I doe heere walke before thee, like a Sow, that hath o’rewhelm’d all her Litter, but one.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 220. The best of the whole litter is that whelpe that is last ere it begin to see.
1604. Middleton, Witch, I. ii. Seven of their young pigs … Of the last litter.
1698. Tyson, in Phil. Trans., XX. 123. Possibly this Subject never had a Litter.
1731. Gentl. Mag., I. 352. A Litter of young Lions was whelp’d at the Tower.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., xiv. (ed. 2), 276. In the sow, the bitch, the rabbit,… which have numerous litters, the paps are numerous.
1820. Byron, Mar. Fal., III. ii. The hunter may reserve some single cub From out the tiger’s litter.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., i. (1873), 6. Strongly-marked differences occasionally appear in the young of the same litter.
transf. and fig. 1565. Harding, Confut. Jewels’ Apol., IV. xx. 219. Verely a man might thinke this booke was set forth by some ennemye of our newe english clergy,… had not them selues … acknowledged it for a whelpe of their one littour.
a. 1639. W. Whateley, Prototypes, I. xix. (1640), 223. That abhominable litter and broode of sinnes which have their originall in mans heart.
1662. South, Serm., 9 Nov. (1663), 35. Let him reflect upon that numerous litter of strange, sense-lesse absurd Opinions, that crawle about the world.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., Pref. 6. They are as inapprehensive, and of the same litter with the former.
1688. Vox Cleri Pro Rege, Pref. A ij. In the time when Hawkers were loaded with whole Litters of Pamphlets.
a. 1704. T. Brown, in R. L’Estrange, Colloq. Erasm. (1711), 358. A servant maid and a litter of children.
1796. Burke, Regic. Peace, iii. Wks. VIII. 282. To bring into an happy birth her abundant litter of constitutions.
1860. Geo. Eliot, Mill on Fl., viii. When a man had married into a family where there was a whole litter of women, he might have plenty to put up with if he choose.
† b. An act of bringing forth young: usually in phr. at a or one litter. Said of animals only.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 307/2. Lytere or forthe brynggynge of beestys, fetus, fetura.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, vi. (1697), 129. The thirty Pigs at one large Litter farrow’d.
1794. S. Williams, Vermont, 91. The female produces from three to six young ones at a litter.
6. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 2) litter-bearer, -bier, -car, -gelding, -man, -window; also litter-wise adv.; (sense 3) litter-cutting; (sense 5) litter-sister.
1552. Elyot, Dict., Lecticariola, she that attendeth on a *licter bearer.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., II. III. 14. He shut his eyes, and now no more could hear His litter-bearers’ feet.
1859. Tennyson, Enid, 1414. Yet raised and laid him on a *litter-bier.
1812. Sir R. Wilson, Priv. Diary, I. 140. Two of my dragoons … got into the *litter-cars of the country.
1851. Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 396. Two-knife cane-top *litter and chaff-cutting machine.
1836. Devon, Issue Exch. Jas. I., 319. A *litter-gelding for the Queen’s litter.
1505. Ld. Treas. Acc. Scot., III. 97. Item, for ij steikis chamlot to the Quenis tua *littar men … viijli.
1647. Haward, Crown Rev., 33. Six Littermen: Fee a peice 10l.
1670–98. Lassels, Voy. Italy, II. 84. Augustus Cæsar … had escaped a thunderclap which kill’d his litter-man close by him.
1707. J. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., III. xi. 440. All belonging to the Stables, as Coachmen, Footmen, Littermen, Postilions, &c.
1897. Sketch, 24 Nov., 192. The puppy … is a *litter-sister to the then ten-weeks-old Wayward.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal, 42. Keep His *litter-window shut, and he can sleep.
a. 1626. Bacon, New Atl. (1900), 32. He was carried in a rich Chariott, without Wheeles, *Litter-wise.
