A dialectal or archaic term for a ewe that has been recently or recently weaned its lambs.
A compound of 'ewe' (female sheep) and 'lease' or 'leas,' possibly from Old English 'leasan' meaning 'to set free' or related to 'leas' (pasture). The exact etymology is uncertain.
This obscure term appears in old farming records and suggests how farmers had specific vocabulary for every stage of sheep breeding—there was probably a dozen different words for different states of ewes that we've completely lost.
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