Forms: 1 tilð, tilðe, 1–5 tilþe, (3 erron. tilæhðe, tylehþe), 4 tulthe (ü), Sc. tiltht, 4–6 (8–9) tilthe, 4–7 tylth, (5 telþe, telth(e), 5–6 tylthe, (7–9 tilt), 4– tilth. [OE. tilþ str. fem., tilþe wk. fem., f. OE. til-ian, TILL v.1 + -TH suffix1; cf. OFris. tilath cultivation.]
† 1. Labor, work, or effort directed to useful or profitable ends. Rihtlic tilð, honest labor. (OE.)
a. 1023. Wulfstan, Hom., x. (Napier), 72. Se ðe wære scaðjende, weorðe se tiliʓende on rihtlicre tilðe.
2. esp. Labor or work in the cultivation of the soil; tillage, agricultural work, husbandry. (In full in OE. eorþtilþ.)
c. 1000. [see EARTH-TILTH].
a. 1100. Gerefa, in Anglia (1886), IX. 259. Se scadwis ʓerefa sceal witan ælcre tilðan timan ðe to tune belimpð.
a. 1200. Moral Ode, 57. Vre swinc and ure tilþe is ofte iwoned to swinden.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3504. He delt als wit tilth o corn.
1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxix. (Placidas), 450. Telemen left þe tiltht … & folouyt hym.
a. 1380. Poems fr. Vernon MS., l. 269. Ȝif þou wolt knowe þe tilþe of eorþe, Þat þe fayle corn none, Go and red virgiles bok.
14[?]. Tretyce, in W. of Henley’s Husb. (1890), 44. Comaunde your bayle straytly to kepe þis maner off gydynge in telthe.
1573. Tusser, Husb., iv. (1878), 13, Tilth wele done, in season due.
1660. Sharrock, Vegetables, 98. After four years tilth, lay down your land.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 12. Clay … when dried by a long tract of weather, without rain … becomes so hard … as to lose the benefit of any tilth formerly given it by frequent ploughings.
1870. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (ed. 2), I. App. 709. To betake himself to the tilth of the ground.
b. fig. The cultivation of knowledge, morality, religion, the mind, etc.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 78. ‘Cultus justiciæ silencium’: þe tilðe of rihtwisnesse, þet is silence.
1550. Bale, Apol., Pref. 11. In the ydell slouthfulnesse of the churche whan the profytable tylthe of Christe was not regarded.
1810. Crabbe, Borough, xxi. 260. Numbers there were defiled by mire and filth Whom he recovered by his goodly tilth.
1847. De Quincey, Schlosser’s Lit. Hist., Wks. 1862, VII. 75. What a tilth of intellectual lava must [Burke] have interfused amongst the refuse and scoria of such mouldering party rubbish.
c. (with pl.) An act of tilling; a ploughing, harrowing, or other agricultural operation.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Nouo, Agrum nouare, to vse the seconde tilth: to till the seconde time.
1649. Blithe, Eng. Improv. Impr. (1652), 103. The nature of the Land [will not be] changed with fewer Tilths.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), I. 76. They give their sowre Land a tilt.
1844. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., V. I. 5. The tilths being given at intervals of about one month.
d. The condition of being under cultivation or tillage; hence, (good or bad) condition (of land under tillage).
1488–9. Act 4 Hen. VII., c. 19. Leyeng to pasture londes which custumeably have ben used in tilthe.
1552. Huloet, Brynge lande in due tempre, or tilthe, with dygging, and labour.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 132. The ground that was to be sown that year in as good tilt as in the other.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 538. It is … necessary that the soil should be reduced to a considerable degree of fineness, or what by writers on husbandry is termed tilth.
1825. Jamieson, Tilt, tilth, plight, condition, good or bad…; ‘The land’s in sae bad a tilth, that we canna saw.’
1884. Times, 20 June, 4. Working ground into a clean tilth.
† 3. transf. The result or produce of tillage; crop, harvest. Also fig. Obs.
a. 1100. Gerefa, in Anglia (1886), IX. 261. Fela tilða ham gæderian.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1068. Vr louerd loked noght þar-till … O þe tilth þat he wit delt.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIX. 430. God … Qui pluit super iustos & iniustos … And sent þe sonne to saue a cursed mannes tilthe [C. XXII. 434. tulthe, v.rr. tilþe, telþe], As bryȝte as to þe best man & to þe beste woman.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 190. So that the tilthe is nyh forlorn, Which Crist sew ferst his oghne hond.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., xiii. 342. That cruell Bore … Whose tusks turn’d vp our Tilths.
1781. Cowper, Hope, 46. Banks clothed with flowers … The yellow tilth, green meads.
4. Land under cultivation, as distinguished from pasture, forest, or waste land; tilled or arable land; a piece of tilled land, a ploughed field.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxix. (Placidas), 326. Towne & tilth al mad wast.
c. 1460. Oseney Reg., 133. Whereof xij. acris of londe lien in the North felde at Radawelle, that is to say, in þe telth þe which is i-called Brerefurlonge. Ibid., 134. Vppon Ramme dune, iij. telthis, þe which conteynen xij. acris.
a. 1577. Gascoigne, Wks., Hearbes, Weedes, etc. (1587), 149. As men can clense the worthless weedes from fruitfull fallowed tilth.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 20. Lead forth your dung, compasse, or manure to your tilth or fallow field.
1851. Wordsw., Prelude, X. 7. I paused, and cast Upon his rich domains, vineyard and tilth, Green meadow-ground, and many-coloured woods … a farewell look.
1881. Gd. Words, XXII. 44/1. A ‘summer tilt’ is, or was, a field which was let alone for a season. Now-a-days people want crops off every acre, every year.
b. The prepared surface soil; the crumb, or depth of soil dug or cultivated.
1743. Lond. & Country Brew., IV. (ed. 2), 252. Where Turneps have been eaten off, the Barley … is … not esteemed so good, as that from off a pure Tilth.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. 372. The surface or tilth should be made as fine and level as possible.
1881. Whitehead, Hops, 45. The ground is kept stirred till the first week in July, by which time there should be a good tilth, or crumb, at least a foot deep.
5. attrib. and Comb., as tilth-ground, -land, -man.
1638. Markham, Farew. Husb. (ed. 4), Pref. The third or fourth part of al arable ground is lost in the fallow or tilth ground.
1657. J. Watts, Dipper Sprinkled, 92. It is called Tilth-land and a Wheat-field.
1657. Reeve, God’s Plea, 235. A lamentable tilth-man, which doth plow and sow for others, and hath not … any crop of his own.
