Obs. Forms: α. 4–5 soud-, 5 sowd-, sawd-. β. 5–6 sould(e, 6 sowld-, sold-. [f. SOLD sb.1: cf. OF. soud-, soldeier. But perh. partly due to OF. soudre, saudre, souldre, soldre:—L. solvĕre to pay.]
1. trans. To pay; to enlist or retain for service by payment. Also fig.
α. c. 1386. Chaucer, Prioress’s T., 128. O martir soudit to virginite.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XXII. 431. Imparfit is þe pope þat … soudeþ hem þat sleeþ suche as he sholde saue.
1456. Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 53. He fand … grete quantitee of gold…, With the quhilk he sawdit grete nowmer of men of armys.
a. 1470. Gregory, Chron., in Hist. Coll. Citizen Lord. (Camden), 106. To have men sowdyd withe hym ayenst the Duke of Orleans.
β. 1418. in Riley, Mem. Lond. (1868), 665. Normandye, þere to be soulded or waged wiþ þe Kyng.
1456. Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 143. [He sent] gold in Almayne for to soulde men of armes, for the space of ane ȝere.
1523. Cromwell, in Merriman, Life & Lett. (1902), I. 37. The harmys whiche we ourselffes showld susteyn in sowldyng of so great an army.
1550. T. Nicolls, Thucidides, 221 b. Who … soulded or waged aboutes three houndred souldyars.
2. intr. To serve as a paid soldier or mercenary.
1564. Haward, Eutropius, I. 9. Virginius at that time soulded for honest wages … againste the Latines.
Hence † Solding vbl. sb.1 Obs.
1475. Bk. Noblesse, 29. For lak of good provisions bothe of artillery and ordenaunce for the werre and soudeyng to be made in dew season. Ibid., 83. Whiche … were not usid of custom nothing to pay … to the souding of men of armes.
