English

Alternative forms

• lessow (obsolete)
• lease (dialectal), leaze (dialectal)

Noun

leasow ‎(plural leasows)

1. (now rare, dialectal, historical) (Green) land as opposed to flood or desert; a pasture.
   • 1460-1500, The Towneley Playsː

     I see that it is good; now make we man to our likeness, that shall be keeper of mere & leas(ow), of fowls and fish in flood.

   • 1826, Thomas Gill, The Technical repository:

     The oxen which are brought on in succession, run the first summer in the park, and in the leasows and temporary straw-yards in the winter; [...]

   • 2012, Christopher Dyer, A Country Merchant, 1495-1520:

     Lords could create a leasow by fencing off part of their demesne, if it was held in a block rather than being scattered over the fields and intermingled with the land of tenants.

   • 2013, Eric Kerridge, Agrarian Problems in the Sixteenth Century and After:

     Imprimis we do present upon our oaths that one Gilbert Wheeler gentleman enclosed a leasow called the Hide containing 20 acres which was common about 10 years past with the fields there.

Verb

leasow ‎(third-person singular simple present leasows, present participle leasowing, simple past and past participle leasowed)

1. (transitive, archaic or dialectal) To feed or pasture