Also 5–6 sodde, 7–8 (9 dial.) sodd. [app. ad. MDu. sode, soode (Du. zode) or MLG. sode (sade; LG. sode, sudde), = OFris. sâtha, sâda (WFris. sead, saed, sâdde), of doubtful origin.
Connection with SEETHE v. has been conjectured, on the supposition that the word may orig. have denoted turf used as fuel, but there is no clear evidence of this.]
1. A piece or slice of earth together with the grass growing on it, usually square or oblong in shape and of moderate thickness, cut out or pared off from the surface of grass land; a turf. Also const. of (grass, turf, etc.).
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 6. Yf þy dysshe metes dere ben to salt, Kerve a grene sod … þou schalt, And kover þy pot with þo gresse done.
1483. Cath. Angl., 348/1. A Sodde, vbi A turfe.
1497–8. Durh. Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 100. Pro cariag. xxiiij plaustr. de lez Soddez … usque Westorchard.
1550. Bale, Eng. Votaries, II. 57 b. His owne clergye wold scarsely suffer hym to be buryed … vnder tyrfes or soddes of the grasse.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., Hist. Eng., IV. x. I. 61. She … mounted vp into an high place raysed vp of turfe and soddes.
c. 1618. Moryson, Itin., IV. 335. Old writers witness that … for a monument they only raysed a turffe or greene Sodd of the earth.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, VIII. 237. On sods of turf he set the soldiers round.
1703. Thoresby, Lett. to Ray (E. D. S.), s.v., A turf is thin and round, or oval…; a sod, thick and square, or oblong mostly.
1817. Wolfe, Burial Sir J. Moore, ii. We buried him darkly at dead of night, The sods with our bayonets turning.
1865. Swinburne, Poems & Ball., Dolores, 350. Her temple of branches and sods.
1884. Times, 12 Sept., 3/4. Yesterday the first sod was turned of the new school-room.
b. collect. as a material.
1826. Hood, Irish Schoolm., xii. His tears shall make his turfy seat More sodden, tho’ already made of sod.
1827. Scott, Highl. Widow, i. The walls of sod, or divot, as the Scotch call it, were not four feet high.
c. Sc. A piece of turf used for fuel; a peat.
1825. Jamieson, Suppl., Sod, a species of earthen fuel, used for the back of a fire on the hearth.
1871. W. Alexander, Johnny Gibb, xi. 81. [They] had availed themselves of ‘a het sod’ to light their pipes.
1897. D. Butler, Ch. & Par. Abernethy, v. 78. A lighted sod from the priest’s house is highly esteemed for the purpose of rekindling the fires.
d. dial. and Mining. (See quots.)
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., Sods. Square pieces of clay for draining, cut from ploughed land instead of turf.
1881. Leic. Gloss., Sod, a clod: not necessarily turf.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 229. Sods.… Clay beneath coal seams.
2. Sc. and north. In pl., two pieces of turf used as a substitute for a saddle or pack-saddle. Hence, a rough kind of saddle made of cloth, canvas, etc., and stuffed with straw. Freq. a pair of sods.
a. 1586. R. Maitland, in Pinkerton, Anc. Sc. Poems (1786), 322. For thai, that had gude hors and geir, Hes skantlie now ane crukit meir: And for thair sadils thai have soddis.
1681. S. Colvil, Whigs Supplic. (1751), 27. He had a lady Del To-Bose, Who never budged from his side; Upon a pair of sodds astride.
1707. Lady Grisell Baillie, Household Bk. (1911), 20. For a pair sods to Docter St. Clairs lady … £1 16 0.
1787. Grose, Prov. Gloss., Sods, a canvas pack-saddle stuffed with straw.
1822. Bewick, Mem., 24. I buckled him [a dog] up in a pair of old ‘sods’ which covered him beyond both head and tail.
1886. W. Brockie, Leg. & Superst. Durham, 39 (Heslop). To get her safely mounted behind him on a well-girt pillion or ‘sodds.’
3. The surface of the ground, esp. when turfy or grass-covered; the sward. Freq. poet. or rhet.
(a) 1729. T. Cooke, Tales, etc. 89. Here be my Dwelling on this native Sod.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1815), 255. If I had but one fair trust with him upon the sod, I’d give him lave to brag all the rest of his life!
1797. Godwin, Enquirer, I. xiv. 121. He bounds over the sod.
1820. Shelley, Question, 13. Tender bluebells, at whose birth The sod scarce heaved.
1833. Tennyson, Pal. Art, 261. Mouldering with the dull earth’s mouldering sod.
1878. Masque of Poets, 12. A homely product of the common sod.
(b) 1745. Season. Advice Protestants, 17. The strong Sod on the Earth, made so by various Composts.
1810. E. D. Clarke, Trav. Russia (1839), 42/1. A … desolate plain, covered only by a thin sod, on which herds of cattle were grazing.
1838. Ld. Clements, Poverty Irel., 25. It consists, simply, in taking one or two crops of potatoes from the ley, or grass sod, [etc.].
† b. The Turf. Obs.
1755. Mem. Capt. P. Drake, II. xvi. 265. She had run on the Sodd several Years, had won some Plates of small Value [etc.].
1812. Sporting Mag., XL. 161. He flourished at the gaming-house, and blazed on the sod.
4. dial. a. The spot of ground on which one stands.
1691. Ray, N. C. Words (ed. 2), 67. I will dye upon the Sod; i. e. in the place where I am.
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss., s.v., I wish I may nivver stir of ’t sod.
b. The old sod, one’s native district or country.
1863. Mrs. Toogood, Spec. Yorks. Dial. (MS.), He does not like to leave the old sod after having lived there so long.
1891. E. Roper, By Track & Trail, ii. 25. ‘And did ye see ould Ireland lately?’ ‘Yes, a few weeks ago.’ ‘And how ’s the poor ould sod?’
5. attrib. and Comb. a. Attrib., in the sense ‘made, formed, built or consisting of sods,’ as sod bank, -drain, -house, -hut, -kiln, etc.; also in other uses, as sod-draining, -plow, spade; sod-worm (see quot.).
1799. [A. Young], Agric. Lincoln., 383. *Sod banks cost, thirty-five years ago, 1s. 2d. a rood of seven yards.
1844. Stephens, Book Farm, I. 603. If the turf is tough, so much the better for the durability of the *sod-drain. Ibid. An imperfect form of wedge-draining is practised in some parts of England on strong clay soils, under the name of *sod-draining.
1832. Bubwith Inclosure Act, 38. A certain cottage or *sod-house.
1896. Howells, Impressions & Exp., 146. The dugouts or *sod-huts of the settlers on the great plains.
1806. Forsyth, Beauties Scotl., IV. 265. From these … *sod-kilns, perhaps, were copied the shallowness and width of the present stone-kilns.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2238/1. *Sod-plow. A plow long in the share and mold-board, adapted to cut and overturn sod.
1843–52. R. Burn, Techn. Dict., I. Revêtement en gazons,… *sod revetment.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., III. 120. Sod revetments form a neat-looking slope.
1793. Wordsw., Descr. Sketches, 21. For him *sod-seats the cottage-door adorn.
a. 1835. Hogg, Tales, Wool-gatherer (1866), 72. Jane had sat down on the sod-seat.
1619. S. Atkinson, Discov. Gold Mynes Scot. (Bannatyne Club), 1. To use the arte of delving with the *sodd spade.
1649. W. G., Surv. Newcastle upon Tine, 2. Picts, who brake down the *Sodd Wall.
1776. Lesly, in A. Young, Tour Irel. (1780), I. *209. The sod walls, about 10 or 12 inches thick.
1834–47. J. S. Macaulay, Field Fortif. (1851), 225. The earth above the pebbles is to be retained by a revetment of *sod-work.
1891. Cent. Dict., *Sod-worm.… The larva of certain pyralid moths, as Crambus exsiccatus, which destroys the roots of grass and corn.
b. Objective, with agent-nouns and vbl. sbs., as sod-builder, -cutter; sod-burning, -cutting, etc.
1796. W. H. Marshall, Rur. Econ. W. England, II. 32–3. Sodburning the more loamy soils … would be a ready means of meliorating the herbage.
1843–52. R. Burn, Techn. Dict., I. Trousse-pas, sod-cutter’s spade. Ibid., II. s.v., Sod-builder. Ibid., II. s.v., Sod-cutter, écobue.
1890. Science-Gossip, XXVI. 99. If the grass and other sod-forming plants assert themselves.
1892. Daily News, 7 June, 3/3. The streets are in course of decoration for the sod-cutting ceremony of to-morrow.
c. With pa. pples., as sod-built, -roofed.
1814. Scott, Lord of Isles, III. i. The rye-grass shakes not on the sod-built fold.
1891. E. Roper, By Track & Trail, iii. 37. Groups of ruined shanties, sod-roofed, bark-roofed, covered anyhow.
