Chiefly Sc. and north. Also 3 loȝhe, 4 lou, (lawhe, lo), 5 logh, (lawe). [a. ON. loge wk. masc. (Da. lue) = OFris. loga:—OTeut. type *logon- (lugon-), pre-Teut. lukón-, cogn. w. MHG., mod.G. lohe fem.:—OTeut. type *lohâ (luhâ):—pre-Teut. *lúkā, f. *luk- wk. grade of the Aryan root *leuk-: see LEYE, and LIGHT sb.]

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  1.  Flame; a flame, a blaze.

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a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 356. Cherubines sweorde … of lai [MS. T. lohe].

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c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 643. Al-so heȝe ðe lowe sal gon, So ðe flod flet de dunes on.

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a. 1300.  Cursor M., 5739. Him thoght brennand he sagh a tre Als it wit lou war al vm-laid.

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c. 1340.  Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 9430. Lowe and reke with stormes melled.

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c. 1470.  Henry, Wallace, VIII. 1054. The rude low rais full heych adown that hauld.

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1533.  Bellenden, Livy, I. xvi. (S.T.S.), 88. His hede apperit (as It war blesand) in ane rede low.

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1631.  A. Craig, Pilgr. & Heremite, 8.

        The Coale that mee burnes to the bone, will I blow,
Though Liver, Lungs, and Lights, fly vp in a low.

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1785.  Burns, Vision, I. 39. By my ingle-lowe I saw … A tight, outlandish Hizzie.

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1816.  Scott, Bl. Dwarf, iii. The low of the candle, if the wind wad let it bide steady.

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1849.  C. Brontë, Shirley, iv. A verse blazing wi’ a blue brimstone low.

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1892.  R. Kipling, Barrack-r. Ball., etc., 126. For every time I raised the lowe That scared the dusty plain,… I’ll light the land with twain.

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1901.  Trans. Stirling Nat. Hist. Soc., 51. The Dead Candle…. A blue lowe, moving along slowly about three feet from the ground.

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  b.  Phrases. (To be, set) in, on a low, in a flame, on fire; to put the low to, to set fire to; to take a low, to catch fire.

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c. 1200.  Ormin, 16185. All alls itt wære all oferr hemm O loȝhe.

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c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 14692. Þe fir, þe tonder, þe brymston hot, Kyndled on lowe, & vp hit smot.

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c. 1422.  Hoccleve, Learn to Die, 703. Whan þat a greet toun set is on a lowe.

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a. 1584.  Montgomerie, Cherrie & Slae, 745. Will flatterit him,… An set him in an low.

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1722.  Ramsay, Three Bonnets, II. 103. Soon my beard will tak’ a low.

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1815.  Scott, Guy M., x. She [a vessel] was … in a light low.

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1826.  J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 130. A … boy fell off his chair a’ in a low, for the discharge had set him on fire.

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1865.  G. Macdonald, A. Forbes, viii. 25. Ye wad hae the hoose in a low aboot oor lugs.

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  2.  spec. a. A light used by salmon-poachers.

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1814.  J. Hodgson, in J. Raine, Mem. (1857), I. 146. For making lows or fish-lights for fishing in the night.

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1856.  Denham Tracts (1892), I. 315. This used to be done with a low and a leister.

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  b.  A light or piece of candle used by miners.

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1816.  in I. H. H. Holmes, Coal Mines Durham, etc., 245.

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1865.  Trapper’s Petit., in Our Coal & Coal-fields, 155. ’Tis very dark and that small low You gave me soon will burn away.

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