Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An obsolete spelling of sly.
  • noun See slay.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To separate or part the threads of, and arrange them in a reed; -- a term used by weavers. See sleave, and sleid.
  • noun A weaver's reed.
  • noun A guideway in a knitting machine.
  • noun (Weaving) The number of ends per inch in the cloth, provided each dent in the reed in which it was made contained an equal number of ends.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun reed (of a loom)
  • verb transitive, weaving To separate or part the threads of, and arrange them in a reed.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English.

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Examples

  • The sley was the most delicate part of the mechanism.

    Home Life in Colonial Days Alice Morse Earle 1881

  • This is done with a wire hook called a sley-hook or reed-hook.

    Home Life in Colonial Days Alice Morse Earle 1881

  • If they do call her BLAKE it would be so pointless to just add the "sley" part on the end of that name!

    Celebrity Baby Blog 2009

  • "sley" appears, I do not find that they were frequently used until the second or third decade of the succeeding century, though a few

    Customs and Fashions in Old New England Alice Morse Earle 1881

  • As a mighty sley in the loom of time it seemed — in a sudden fancy of mine — to be beating home the picks of the years.

    The House on the Borderland 2007

  • Eben werse–Grinch will nawt onlee putz antlurz on hed, himz will make u pull sley awn prezuntz-steelin missun.

    well sinse u ask - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2007

  • Hao purrfekt, hoo but an evol kitteh wud maek a goggie ware gi-normus antlars n pull a sley all ovar taown?

    I must stop Christmas from coming… - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2007

  • In another essay, she explores all the funnies she has gotten when spell-checking texts about weaving “sley” turns to “sleepy”—just one of the many appropriate suggestions her computer offers her.

    Archive 2006-08-01 The Raven 2006

  • In another essay, she explores all the funnies she has gotten when spell-checking texts about weaving “sley” turns to “sleepy”—just one of the many appropriate suggestions her computer offers her.

    K1, R1 (Knit One, Read One): This is How I Go The Raven 2006

  • After looming, the warp, together with the healds and reed, are taken to the loom where the warp is then ‘gaited’, (i.e. the healds are connected to the treadle levers and to the reversing motion; the reed is secured in position under the sley-cap; and the warp sheet is straightened, tensioned and tied-in to a cloth fent attached to the take-up system).

    Chapter 6 1983

Comments

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  • 1. A weaver's reed (also spelled "slaie").

    2. A guideway in a knitting machine.

    August 1, 2007