mill-leat

English

Alternative forms

• milleate (obsolete), mill leat

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɪlːiːt/

Noun

mill-leat (plural mill-leats)

1. An artificial channel for the conveyance of water to a mill; a mill race, a millrun.
   • 1609, An Act for the disuniting of the Parsonages of Asbe and Deane, within the County of Southampton, being presentative and with the Cure of Souls. (Private Act, 7 James I, c. 19), in Records of the House of Lords: Parliament Office: Private Bill Office: Original Acts (1509–2010), § 1:

     A newe Milleate or Trench for the Conveyance of the said Water to the said Milles.

   • 1706, Edward Phillips, edited by John Kersey, The New World of English Words, s.v. “Leat”:

     Leat or Mill-leat, corruptly Mill-eat, a Trench for conveying Water to or from a Mill.

   • 1832 July 11th, An Act to settle and describe the Divisions of Counties, and the Limits of Cities and Boroughs, in England and Wales, in so far as respects the Election of Members to serve in Parliament. (2 & 3 William IV, c. 64), in The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 2 & 3 William IV. 1832., London: Printed by His Majesty’s Printers, Schedule (O.), § 9.— County of Devon, Northern Division, Barnstaple, page 339:

     […] thence along Hall’s Mill Lane to the Point at which the same meets the Mill Leat; thence along the Mill Leat to the Point at which the same meets Shearford Lane; […]

   • 2013, Rosemary Sutcliff, Knight’s Fee, Random House Children’s Publishers UK, no pagination:

     It was not yet dusk, but ’tween-light was blurring the outline of all things, when they came at last, two or maybe three miles down river, to the ford of a stream brawling down from the high chalk, and saw through the smoke-soft screen of willows and alders the gleam of a firelit doorway reflected in the glossy darkness of a mill leat.

Translations

artificial channel for the conveyance of water to a mill

• Welsh: cafn melin m pynfarch m, pŵant m (Carmarthenshire, colloquial)

Further reading

• James A. H. Murray [et al.], editors (1884–1928), “Mi·ll-leat”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volumes VI, Part 2 (M–N), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 451, column 1.