Now dial. Also sowe (9 dial. sou, saa). [app. distinct from SOUGH sb.2, and perh. identical with Flem. dial. zou († souwe, soeuwe in Plantin and Kilian), drain.] A drain; a channel or run of water.
1316. in Rep. MSS. Ld. Middleton (1911), 88. Predicti Adam et socii sui gutturam, que dicitur ‘le sowe,’… reparabunt.
1669. W. Simpson, Hydrol. Chym., 359. A kind of Ocre … falls to the bottom of the Chanels of all, or most Mineral Springs, whether sowes or others. Ibid. (1670), Hydrol. Ess., 133. All Spaws, whether Vitrioline from Sowes, or aluminous.
1709. Thoresby, Diary (1830), II. 50. Both days entirely spent with labourers, directing and overseering the sows to drain water.
c. 1800. Stagg, Bridewain, ix. Misc. Poems (1808), 5. Owr hill an’ knowe, thro’ seugh an’ sowe, Comes tiftan many o’ couple.
1824–. in Yorkshire and Cumberld. glossaries.
