sile

plural siles · alternative syle · alternative cyle

1. dialectalA column; pillar.
2. dialectalA beam; rafter; one of the principal rafters of a building.
3. dialectalThe foot or lower part of a couple or rafter; base.
4. dialectalA roof rafter or couple, usually one of a pair.

present singular third person siles · participle present siling · participle past siled · past siled

1. UKdialectaltransitiveTo strain, as milk; pass through a strainer or anything similar; filter.
2. UKdialectalintransitiveTo flow down; drip; drop; fall; sink.
3. UKdialectalintransitiveTo settle down; calm or compose oneself.
4. UKdialectalintransitiveTo go; pass.
5. UKdialectalintransitiveTo boil gently; simmer.
6. UKdialectalintransitiveTo pour with rain.

   Th' rain had siled daan day and neet.

   1888, John Hartley, Clock Almanack, page 14, quoted in the EDD

   4 more examples

   and so when there come on a long rain it fairly "siled" down a steady beautiful rain, so different from that of a thunder-rain, the latter fairly teeming down just as the milk was teemed from the pails into the sile. Teeming and siling , though much akin, were two very different operations.

   1916, Country Life, page 407

   ... ya know what a wet un last year was, and how the rain siled down for days and days.

   1922, James Alpass Penny, More Folklore Round Horncastle, page 19

   As the rain siled down outside, we discussed David Beckham, Ronaldo and Zidane – France's victory in the 1998 World Cup was fresh in their minds.

   2007 April 3, Kevin Rushby, Hunting Pirate Heaven: In Search of Lost Pirate Utopias, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN

   ... unaware of the pouring freezing rain which siled down and saturated him and which ran down his lank hair and over his cold face. The gun dropped limply from his hand onto the soggy grass, where it hissed as steam rose from the hot muzzle. He stood outside in the dark[…]

   2011 December 7, Paul Wordsworth, The Logic Bomb, Andrews UK Limited, →ISBN

plural siles

1. UKdialectalA sieve.
2. UKdialectalA strainer or colander for liquids
3. UKdialectalThat which is sifted or strained, hence, settlings; sediment; filth.

plural siles

1. UKdialectalA young herring.

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of Sheila.