sley

American  

[sley] / sleɪ /

Or slay,

noun

• sleys
  plural

1. the reed of a loom.

2. the warp count in woven fabrics.

3. British. the lay of a loom.

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verb (used with object)

1. to draw (warp ends) through the heddle eyes of the harness or through the dents of the reed in accordance with a given plan for weaving a fabric.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• sleys
  plural

Etymology

Origin of sley

before 1050; Middle English sleye, Old English slege weaver's reed; akin to Dutch slag, German Schlag, Old Norse slag, Gothic slahs a blow; see slay

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sley sleys

The warp-threads next are drawn through the interspaces between two dents or strips of the sley or reed.

From Home Life in Colonial Days by Alice Morse Earle

The sley separates the warp, the woof is inserted in the middle with sharp shuttles, which the fingers hurry along, and, being drawn within the warp, the teeth notched in the moving sley strike it.

From A Book of Myths by Helen Stratton

I would sley do it as not Sliden, Slidder, Slither v.  to slide Sliver s.  a thin slice Slock v.  to encourage the servants of other people to pilfer Slooen adj.  of sloe, ex.

From A Glossary of Provincial Words & Phrases in use in Somersetshire by Wadham Pigott Williams

The sley was the most delicate part of the mechanism.

From Home Life in Colonial Days by Alice Morse Earle

Memorandum—The Culloden and Zealous to each make a platform for one eighteen pounder, the Theseus to make a sley for dragging cannon.

From The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Volume 1 by James Harrison

Wheels, skarnes, sleys, warping-bars, clock-reels, swifts, quilling-wheels, vast bales of yarns and thread—for he no longer spins his thread and yarn.

From Home Life in Colonial Days by Alice Morse Earle

There's a little ould fellow sittin' on the top of the sleys, an' all to be rocked while I'm weavin'.

From Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry by W. B. (William Butler) Yeats

Good sley-makers could always command high prices for their sleys.

From Home Life in Colonial Days by Alice Morse Earle