c1000 Ælfric Homilies II. 374 Wo sceolon awendan urne lec fram yfelre gesihþe, ure hlyst fram yfelre spræce.]

a1250 Owl. & Night. 1138 Þine leches beoþ grisliche Þe hwile þu art on lif-daȝe.

c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) l. 6838 Mid his lechen he gon liȝen.[Often elsewhere in Lay.]

c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) l. 1703 He..þas worde seide mid seorhfulle laichen [c1300 Otho speche].

c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) l. 944 Laðliche læches heo leiteden mid eȝan.

1768–9 J. Cleland Spec. Etym. Vocab. 134 A Lech differs from a Cromlech, in that it means the top-stone of a Cromlech, or any sacred stone; whereas Cromlech expresses its adjunct stones and circle underneath it.

1899 S. Baring-Gould Bk. of West II. 28 [St. Patrick] did not overthrow their lechs or pillar-stones.

1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. Lech, in metallurgy, a term used by the miners to express the gold ore which has been powdered, and washed, and afterwards run with the assistance of lime stone.

1757 tr. J. G. Keyssler Trav. IV. 66 The Schemnitz ore contains a greater quantity of gold..than that of Cremnitz; but the hard ore of the latter yields more Lech.

1893 W. R. Morfill Poland 23 In the sixth or seventh centuries some people settled on that river [sc. the Vistula] are called Lekhs, a word which has never been satisfactorily explained. The older form probably had a nasal: hence we get in the Latin chroniclers Lenchitæ, in Lithuanian, Lenkas, and in Magyar, Lengyel.

1950 A. P. Goudy in Cambr. Hist. Poland to 1696 i. 10 Besides the name Polanie, there existed another collective name—Lachy (Lechs). This term is used in the Chronicle of Nestor to indicate the Poles and came into frequent use by the old chroniclers.

1911 Encycl. Brit. XXV. 236/2 In the north Polish is closely connected with Kašube, and this with Polab, making the group of L'ach dialects in which the nasals survived... The two Sorb dialects link the L'achs on to the Čechs and Slovaks, the whole making the N.W. group with its preference for c, z, s as against č, ž, š.

1929 Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 161/2 The nearest relative of Polish is Polabian, with which it forms the Lech group.

1939 G. Slocombe Hist. Poland (new ed.) 12 The Western Slavs had become divided into three distinct sections: the Serbs..; the Czech group..; and the Lech group, in which were included the Obodrites, the Wiltzi, the Pomeranians.., and other tribes who were in the course of the succeeding centuries to form the Polish nation.

1911 J. Masefield Everlasting Mercy 68 And drunk and leched from day till morrow.

1940 E. Pound Let. 18 Jan. (1971) 334 I have now the text of Erigena, and if I could get hold of the recent publications about him, I could write quite a chunk. Not that I am letching to.

1948 E. Partridge et al. Dict. Forces' Slang 110 Letch, to look at women, not necessarily in a lecherous way, in spite of its derivation.

1957 C. Day Lewis Pegasus 13 Unblest, Unchecked—what a serpent flame letched at her marrow!

1963 ‘M. Corrigan’ Why do Women—? xiii. 89 I..letch around looking for sex thrills.

1972 M. Farhi Pleasure of your Death vii. 173 He was still watching the..shapely ankles when Chastity pulled him to task. ‘Don't lech!’

1973 Guardian 27 Feb. 10/1 A fortyish factory worker..lives with..an obsessively nubile sister whom he obviously leches after.