yeld

English

Adjective

yeld (not comparable)

1. barren, not pregnant, not giving milk
   • 1985, The Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), Official Report, 5th Series, page 227:

     With regard to the yeld ewes, untupped, may I ask the Minister what this means?

Scots

Alternative forms

• yelde, yeild, geld, ȝelde, ȝeld, ȝeild

Etymology

From Middle English yeld, from Old English ġelde (“barren, unproductive”), probably borrowed from Old Norse geldr (“barren, yielding no milk”), from Proto-Germanic *galdaz, *galdijaz (“barren, unfruitful”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰel- (“to shout, cry”). Related to Swedish gall (“barren”), German galt, gelt (“yielding no milk, unfruitful”), Old Norse gelda (“to castrate”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [jɛl(d)], [(j)il(d)]

Adjective

yeld (comparative mair yeld, superlative maist yeld)

1. barren, not pregnant, not giving milk
2. not fertile, unproductive, ineffectual, lacking in substance or value, unprofitable (of inanimate things)

Descendants

• English: yell

Noun

yeld (plural yelds)

1. barren ewe or cow, etc.

Verb

yeld (third-person singular simple present yelds, present participle yeldin, simple past yeldt, past participle yeldt)

1. to cease to milk a pregnant cow when the flow stops before calving