> as lemmas

a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 3484 His word gu wurðe digere al-so lif, Digere or eiðer child or wif.

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xvii. clxxvii. 1070 Whanne the spray of þe newe vyne is to soone take away eyþer to hastiliche kutte or in vndewe tyme.

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Gött.) l. 9838 If þu fonde..A barn..þat had thre fete, or handis thre,..And..siþen anoþer..þat wantid eyder fote or hand.

a1425 (?a1400) Cloud of Unknowing (Harl. 674) (1944) 124 Bi þin eren, not bot noise... By þin nose, not bot eiþer stynche or sauour, & by þi taast, not bot eiþer soure or swete.

c1450 tr. Palladius De re Rustica (Bodl. Add.) i. l. 25 Eyther [?1440 Duke Humfrey outher] springing there Or elles thider brought from elles where.

?a1475 (a1396) W. Hilton Scale of Perfection (Harl. 6579) i. ii. f. 2^v (MED) Þis lif longeth to alle..whilke eiþer han stat, office, ore cure ouer oþer men.

1540 T. Cromwell Let. 12 June in R. B. Merriman Life & Lett. T. Cromwell (1902) II. 267 I neuer thought treson to your Highnes..ayther in woorde or dede.

1542 T. Elyot Bibliotheca at Epilepsia It hapneth..of one of thre causes, eyther of a humour fleumaticke or melancholye..or of a wynde grosse and colde..or of humors aboundyng to moch in the stomacke.

1593 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie i. ii. 51 How should either men or Angels be able perfectly to behold?

1597 Bp. J. King Lect. Ionas xlvi. 624 The mutable and transitorye either pleasures or profittes of this life.

1603 S. Daniel Def. Ryme in Panegyrike (new ed.) sig. G6^v The Reader must either giue off vnsatisfied, or vncertainely cast backe to retriue the escaped sence.

1607 T. Walkington Optick Glasse xiv. sig. L2 These..dreames be prognosticous of either good or badde successe.

1697 tr. F. Burgersdijck Monitio Logica ii. ix. 42 Reduction is either ostensive or else by way of impossible.

1713 G. Berkeley Three Dialogues Hylas & Philonous i. 52 Either, Hylas, you are jesting, or have a very bad Memory.

1725 J. Coats New Dict. Heraldry (rev. ed.) 175 Heads either of Men, Beasts, or Birds, are very frequent in Armoury, and born either full-fac'd, looking forward, or side-fac'd in profil.

1734 J. Swift Strephon & Cloe in Beautiful Young Nymph 16 The Bride must either void or burst.

1790 W. Bligh Narr. Mutiny on Bounty 3 He..was forbidden..to touch either map, ephemeris, book of astronomical observations, sextant, time-keeper, or any of my surveys or drawings.

1833 C. Thirlwall in Philol. Museum 2 656 Religious rites by which either Thebes or Eleusis were afterwards distinguished.

1837 T. Carlyle French Revol. II. vi. vi. 400 Either emergent, or else emerged and full-blown.

1875 B. Jowett tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) III. 266 A narration of events, either past, present, or to come.

1919 N. A. Duddington tr. N. O. Lossky Intuitive Basis Knowl. ii. viii. 310 The conceptualist view of the problem of universals must either involve an infinite regress or have recourse to realism.

a1961 E. Hemingway Moveable Feast (1964) 64 I would not have thought of eating a meal without drinking either wine or cider or beer.

2003 J. H. Munro in D. Jenkins Cambr. Hist. Western Textiles I. 184 The yarns, spun by either the ‘rock’ or the ‘wheel’, were..strong and tightly twisted.