Forms: 1 lád, (laad), 3 lad, 3–4 (9 dial.) lade, 4 lod, 6 loode, 6–9 load, 7 loade, 9 dial. looad, 4– lode. [OE. lád fem.: see LOAD sb., of which lode is merely a graphic variant, now appropriated to certain special senses. (The obs. senses are placed under the one or the other word according to their affinity with surviving senses.)]
1. † Way, journey, course (obs.); dial. a road.
Beowulf, 1987 (Gr.). Hu lomp eow on lade leofa Biowulf?
a. 1000. Andreas, 423 (Gr.). Mycel is nu ʓena lad ofer laʓustream.
c. 1200. Ormin, 3455. Þatt illc an shollde þrinne lac Habbenn wiþþ him o lade.
c. 1320. Sir Tristr., 419. He toke his lod vnliȝt, His penis wiþ him he bare.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., C. 156. For be monnes lode neuer so luþer, þe lyf is ay swete.
1886. Cheshire Gloss., Looad, a lane; in Mobberley applied to the roads leading to the various moss rooms on Lindow Common.
2. A watercourse; an aqueduct, channel; an open drain in fenny districts. Now local.
[789. Grant, in Birch, Cartul. Sax. (1885), I. 358. Mariscem … quam circumfluit Iaeʓnlaad.]
1572. J. Jones, Bathes Buckstone, 10 b. Such evill ayre as issueth foorth of Lodes, Synckes, Sewers and draynes.
1574. Bp. Cox, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. III. IV. 17. Our fennes, loodes, dykes, and banckes, being … so sore decayed.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 491. The whole region … is overflowed by the spreading waters of the rivers … having not loades and sewers large enough to voide away.
1839. Stonehouse, Axholme, 376. There was formerly a small lode or gut, called Volfdyke, by which boats and small craft could sail out of the Trent.
1859. Kingsley, Plays & Purit., Misc. II. 139. Down that long dark lode … he … skated home. Ibid. (1865), Herew., xxi. A man cutting sedges in a punt in the lode alongside.
1893. Northumbld. Gloss., Lade, lode, an aqueduct or channel which carries the water to a mill.
1894. Athenæum, 5 May, 587/1. A view of a fen lode or land drain in rainy weather.
† 3. Leading, guidance. Obs.
c. 1200. Ormin, 2140. Forr þatt he [sc. þe steoressmann] wile follþhenn aþþ þat illke steoriness lade. Ibid., 6589. He … Forrleoseþþ sawless soþe lihht, Þatt iss Goddspelless lade.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 8441. Quen he cuth þe lagh o landes lade.
b. dial. The turn to act as pilot.
1855. Correspondent, When a signal is made for a pilot, at Aldeburgh, the Pilots on shore draw lots, and he, who gets the lot, or as they call it the Lode, goes off to the vessel.
4. A loadstone. Also fig. an object of attraction.
It is uncertain whether quot. c. 1530 belongs to this sense; cf. 3.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 211. So they that are abrode fast about may range, Rowing on the see, my selfe their lode and gyde.
c. 1530. Hyckescorner (ed. Manly), 84. (Perseveraunce), I am never varyable, but doth contynue, Still goynge upwarde the ladder of grace, And lode in me planted is so true, And fro the poore man I wyll never tourne my face.
1589. Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 51. Arcadies Apollo, whose brightnesse draws euerie eye to turne as the Helitropion doth after her load.
1603. Drayton, Odes, vii. 34. As with the Loade The Steele we touch.
5. Mining. A vein of metal ore.
Champion lode, the most productive lode in a district.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 8. They haue now two kinds of Tynne workes, Stream and Load. Ibid., 10 b. When they light vpon a smal veine, or chance to leese the Load which they wrought,… they begin at another place neere-hand, and so drawe by gesse to the main Load again.
1728. Nicholls, in Phil. Trans., XXXV. 402. When the Substances forming these Loads are reducible to Metal, the Loads are by the Miners said to be alive; otherwise they are term’d dead Loads.
1813. Vancouver, Agric. Devon, 64. In the parish of Bridestow a lode of copper has lately been discovered within six or seven fathoms of the surface.
1845. Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., IV. 151. Zinc lying in two large and two smaller lodes and veins.
1866. Thornbury, Greatheart, III. 7. The lode is a champion lode, and must run for miles, so the men tell me.
1872. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 93. The aggregate yield of the mines on the Comstock lode. Ibid. (1881), Mining Gloss., s.v., In general miner’s usage, a lode, vein, or ledge is a tabular deposit of valuable mineral between definite boundaries.
1883. Stevenson, Silverado Sq., 60. The lode comes to an end, and the miners move elsewhere.
6. attrib. and Comb., as lode-claim, formation, -location, -mining, -ore; lode-plot (see quot.); † lode-ship, ? a pilot ship; lode-stovvan, lode-works (see quots.); † lodewort, a name for Water Crowfoot, Ranunculus aquatilis, so called from its growing in watercourses.
1874. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 365. Brown’s Gulch … contains the following *lode-claims, all claimed as silver-lodes.
1895. Westm. Gaz., 28 Sept., 4/2. No. 1 Shaft … is sunk to the depth of 24 ft. on *lode formation 2 ft. 6 in. wide.
1877. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 328. Several lodes had in the mean time been found, or at least *load-locations [sic] made. Ibid. (1874), 363. Concerning the *lode-mining interest of the county there is but little to report.
1778. Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2), s.v. Burslem, Its potters use almost all the *load-ore that is dug at Lawton.
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 324. *Lode-plot, a Lode that underlies very fast or horizontal, and may be rather called a Flat Lode.
1357. Act 31 Edw. III., Stat. 3. c. 2. En cas que … pesson plus grant [que] Lob soit trove en nief appelle *Lodship [translation has Lodeship].
1860. Eng. & For. Mining Gloss. (Cornwall Terms), *Lode stovvan, a drang driven towards rising ground on the indications of a lode in marshy ground.
1586. Camden, Britannia (1600), 148. Horum autem stannariorum, siue metallicorum operum duo sunt genera Alterum *Lode-works, alterum Streame-works vocant.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 8 b. To find the Loadworkes, their first labour is also imployed in seeking this Shoad, which either lieth open on the grasse, or but shallowly couered.
1727. Bailey, vol. II., Lode works [in the Stannaries or Tin Mines in Cornwall], Works performed in the high Grounds, by sinking deep Wells call’d Shafts.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, App., *Lodewort is water Crowfoote.
