(a) Summer, the warmest of the four seasons of the year (variously dated, sometimes including part of spring); also person.; pure ~, midsummer; solstice (solsticioun) of ~ [see solstice n., solsticioun n.]; tropic of ~, the solstitial point of summer; (b) the warm half of the year, the half of the year during which days are long; -- usu. used in contrast to winter; ~ ever-lasting, eche (ever-lasting) ~, eternal summer; king of ~, king as long as the warm season lasts; (c) as adv.: during the summer; in adverbial constructions: this ~, during this summer; thas sumeres, in the summer; al that ~, throughout that summer; al the ~ and winter long, winter and ~, winteres and someres, through-out the year, all year long; never..winteres ne someres, never..in winter nor in summer; (d) warm weather, summer heat; (e) pl., by synecdoche: years; (f) in proverbs and prov. expressions.

(a) In combs.: someres dai, a summer day; also, Midsummer Day [1st quot.]; someres flour, a summer flower; someres game, a summer entertainment or festivity; someres tide (time), summertime; the warm season; in a someres sesoun (tide), during one summer; (b) in adverbial constructions: al the (long) someres dai, throughout the (long) summer day; the someres dai, on the summer day; this hot (long) someres dai, on this hot (long) summer day; (c) in proverbs and prov. expressions and comparisons.

In cpds.: (a) ~ dai (morninge); ~ tide (time), summertime, the warm season; also in fig. context [quot. a1425]; in a ~ tide, during one summer; the sixe ~ monthes, the six warmest months; (b) ~ sesoun, summer; in a ~ sesoun, during one summer; the first ~ sesoun, spring; (c) ~ beaute (fair), summer beauty; ~ boude, some kind of beetle or weevil, perh. prevalent in summer; ~ brid; ~ flour; ~ game (pleie), a summer entertainment or festivity; ~ game light, a candle burned in church on a summer feast day, prob. the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, June 24; ~ hete (light, sonne); ~ quene, ?a queen of a summer festival; ?a May queen; ~ stacioun, the summer solstice; in oath: bi the ~ blom, by the summer blossom; (d) ~ bath, a bath taken in summer; ~ feld, a threshing floor; ~ fish, fish caught in summer; ~ garnement (surcote), a light garment (surcoat); ~ halle, q.v.; ~ hei, hay harvested in summer; ~ hous, q.v.; ~ leie lond, a piece of fallow ground; ~ lese, summer pasture; ~ lode (wode-silver), a rent paid in lieu of collecting wood during the summer; ~ lond, q.v.; ~ sede, seed producing a crop which ripens in summer; ~ side, the south side; ~ soupinge place, ~ parlour, a cool room used for dining in summer; (e) in adverbial constructions: al a ~ sesoun, for an entire summer; al the ~ time, all summer; everi ~ morwe, every summer morning; the ~ tide, during one summer; (f) in prov. expressions and traditional comparisons; ~ flour (rose); ~ sesoun; ~ sonne; ~ tide.

(a) In surnames [a few quots. may belong to somer n.(2)]; (b) in place names.