Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 1976 (SND Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
WALE, n.2 A strip or ridge of land along which too much corn seed has fallen in faulty hand-sowing (see quot.).Sc. 1814 J. Sinclair Agric. Scot. I. 365:
A third or even more of the land is often left unprovided with plants, while the wales or curves, produced by this bad sowing, are much overstocked with weakly plants, and the bare intervals are apt to grow up full of weeds.
