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leaze

Dialect
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A grassy field or meadow, especially in dialect use. It is a regional word rather than standard modern English.

Detailed Definition
In older and dialect English, a leaze is a pasture or open grassy field. Hardy uses it to place the speaker in a rural childhood scene, and the word helps give the poem a local, old-fashioned texture.
Example
Example in poetry:
Thomas Hardy recalls childhood: “Since as a child I used to lie / Upon the leaze and watch the sky”; Leaze is a dialect word for pasture or open grassland, especially in southwestern England; “Across the leaze the sheep moved slowly” preserves a rural, local voice; Using leaze rather than field can establish an older agricultural landscape and regional speaker
Additional Notes
The word "leaze" in the quoted line is a regional term for a meadow, so many modern readers would need to look it up.; Found in the poem, He Never Expected Much by Thomas Hardy
Also Known As
meadow pasture glade
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