Also 3–5, 9 lowe, 6 looe, 7 loe. Cf. LAW sb.3 [OE. hláw, hlǽw masc., = OS. hlêo (dat. hlêwe) grave-mound, OHG. hlêo (MHG. lê) grave-mound, hill, Goth. hlaiw neut., grave (whence hlaiwasnôs pl., graves):—OTeut. *hlaiwoz-, -iz- neut.:—pre-Teut. *kloiwos-, -es-, f. root *klei- to slope: see LEAN v. and cf. L. clīvus hill.]
1. = LAW sb.3 1. arch.
Beowulf (Z.), 1120. Wand to wolcnum wælfyra mæst hlynode for hlawe.
c. 1200. Ormin, 9205. And illc an lawe and illc an hill Shall niþþredd beon and laȝhedd.
c. 1300. Havelok, 1699. Þo stod hauelok als a lowe Aboven [þo] þat þer-inne wore.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 1090. May þou oght, lede, yonder low lift on þi shulder.
c. 1500. Cov. Corp. Chr. Plays, Shearmen & Taylors, 218. Harke! I here owre brothur on the looe; This ys hys woise.
c. 1650. Sir Lionell, 70, in Furnivall, Percy Folio, I. 78. The Gyant lyes vnder yond low.
a. 1765. R. Hood & Guy of Gisborne, xlvi. in Child, Ballads, III. 93/2. That beheard the sheriffe of Nottingham, As he leaned vnder a lowe.
1847. Mary Howitt, Ballads, 66. And some they brought the brown lint-seed, and flung it down from the Low.
1901. Speaker, 20 April, 27/1. The coarse meadows swell up into rounded or pointed ‘lows.’
2. A burial-mound; a tumulus. ? Obs.
a. 1000. Boeth. Metr., x. 43. Hwa wat nu þæs wisan Welandes ban, on hwelcum hi hlæwa hrusan þeccen.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 402. A barrow or Low, such as were usually cast up over the bodies of eminent Captains.
1778. Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2), s.v. Wiggington, Near this place are certain Lows, which are reckoned among the Roman Tumuli.
