Forms: 5–6 tedd, 5–7 tedde, 6 teede, 7 tede, 6– ted. [Known from 15th c.; app. representing an OE. *tęddan, cognate with Icel. tęðja, pa. t. tadda, in special sense, to dung, manure, prob. to spread (manure) or spread (the ground) with manure: see TATHE. The more general sense appears in OHG., MHG., and mod. HG. dial. zętten to spread out, scatter:—*zatjan:—OTeut. *tadjan. The non-appearance of this vb. in OE. and ME., and in LG. and Du., is notable.]
1. trans. To spread out, scatter, or strew abroad (new-mown grass) for drying. Also absol.
Sometimes including the turning of the grass when dried on one side: see quot. 1669; but tedding and turning are properly distinct processes: cf. quots. 1577, 1616, 1746.
14[?]. [implied in TEDDER].
1481–90. [see TEDDING].
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 25. Whan thy medowes be mowed, they wolde be well tedded and layde euen vppon the grounde.
1530. Palsgr., 753/2. I teede hey, I tourne it afore it is made in cockes, je fene.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. (1586), 45 b. The Grasse being cutte, must be well tedded and turned in the Sommer.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 500. After you haue mowed it, and tedded it, you shall turne it twice or thrice ere you cocke it.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 333. To Ted, to turn or spread new mown Grass.
1746. Poor Robin (Nares). Tedding, turning, cocking, raking, And such bus’ness in hay making.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sc. & Art, II. 624. In Middlesex,… all the grass mown on the first day, before nine o’clock in the morning, is tedded, that is, uniformly strewn over the field.
c. 1830. Glouc. Farm Rep., 14, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. The hay-making machine is put to work in the field to ted or shake out every day’s work.
2. transf. and fig. To scatter; to dissipate.
c. 1560. A. Scott, Poems (S.T.S.), xxi. 23. Thow held hir curage he on loft, And ted my tendir hairt lyk toft.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 228. Then fall they to al disorder that may be, tedding that with a forke in one yeare, which was not gathered together with a rake, in twentie.
1589. Pappe w. Hatchet, Lyly’s Wks. 1902, III. 412. What foole more couetous than he, that seekes to tedd abroad the Churches goods with a forke, and scratch it to himselfe with a rake.
1788. E. Picken, Poems, Gloss., 246. Ted, to scatter, to spread. Ibid. (1813), Misc. Poems, I. 120 (E.D.D.). Megs tedd the saut upo’ the stool.
1870. J. Hamilton, Moses, xi. 183. A day-dreamer gets hold of a beautiful … thought, and teases and teds it, and tosses it out into a cloud fine and filmy.
3. dial. a. To spread out (cut corn or flax) on the ground to dry. b. To dress (flax). c. To arrange, tidy (the hair, a room, etc.).
1796. Monthly Mag., April, 223/2. When the mowers went afield The yellow corn to ted.
1811. Willan, W. Riding Gloss. (E.D.S. B. 7), Tedding,… applied … also to the dressing of hair and flax.
1832. J. Bree, St. Herbert’s Isle, 13. To mark the vale-hind ted the ripened shock.
1847–78. Halliwell, Ted,… to turn flax when it has been laid on the ground to dry. West.
1858. R. S. Surtees, Ask Mamma, lxviii. 306. Producing a black … pocket-book, and tedding up a lot of characters, bills, etc.
1887. Jamieson’s Sc. Dict., Supp., s.v., Ted your hair, and tedd up the house: West of Sc.
