slade

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sleɪd/

From Middle English slade (“low-lying ground, a valley; a flat grassy area, glade; hollows of clouds; a creek, stream; a channel”), from Old English slæd (“valley, glade”), from Proto-Germanic *sladą (“glen, valley”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Proto-Germanic *sladaną (“to glide, slip”) or Proto-Germanic *sladdaz (“to be slack, droop”). Compare Old Norse slóð (“track, trail”).

slade (plural slades)

1. (now rare or dialectal) A valley, a flat grassy area, a glade.
   • 1485 July 31, Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], (please specify the book number), [London]: […] [by William Caxton], OCLC 71490786; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: Published by David Nutt, […], 1889, OCLC 890162034:

     , Bk.V:

     Yet he slow in the slade of men of armys mo than syxty with his hondys.

2. (obsolete) The sole of a plough.
   • 1945 January 29, “Pattern Prays”, in Time Magazine:

     The Bishop, wearing a gleaming cape of green and gold, raised his hand over the plough and the kneeling farmers: "God speed the plough: the beam and the mouldboard, the slade and the sidecap, the share and the coulters […] in fair weather and foul, in success and disappointment, in rain and wind, or in frost and sunshine. God speed the plough."

slade (plural slades)

1. A spade for digging peat.

• Dales, Delas, dales, deals, desal, lades, lased, leads, seal'd