aditn.

1602 R. Carew Surv. Cornwall i. f. 11 They cal it the bringing of an Addit, or Audit, when they begin to trench without, and carrie the same thorow the ground to the Tynworke, somewhat deeper then the water doth lie, thereby to giue it passage away.

?c1630 in R. S. France Thieveley Lead Mines (1951) 49 In drivinge the Audiat forwards 60l.

a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Wales 3 By Adyts, making their entrance..into the Mountain, at the lowest levell thereof.

1685 E. Browne Brief Acct. Trav. Europe (ed. 2) 133 Some [cellars] have an open space in the middle of each roof, to let the Air out of one Cellar into another, and from the lowest an adit or tube unto the top, to let the Air in and out from the street, somewhat after the manner of the Mines.

1692 J. Ray Wisdom of God (ed. 2) i. 201 It being impossible to make any Addits or Soughs to drain them.

1700 W. Shiers Familiar Disc. conc. Mine-adventure 49 Here is an Alphabetical Index..of the Progress that has been made in all the Veins, Levels, Adits, and Cross-drifts to each Vein.

1778 W. Pryce Mineralogia Cornubiensis 166 If the ground is very loose on all sides, they make a Durns..which for a Shaft is square like the frame of a window, and for an Adit is the same as a door case.

1808 C. Vancouver Gen. View Agric. Devon i. 79 The springs issuing from the surrounding hills, are constantly collected into the eddits that are taken up from the several streams.

1841 J. Trimmer Pract. Geol. 237 Many of the beds of coal are worked by means of adits driven into the sides of the hills.

1866 Common Bench Rep. (new ser.) XIX. 755 The water in the stream in question was brought to the surface artificially by the operations of miners, and conveyed in the tye or open adit to the part of the brook where the upper launder was afterwards placed.

1873 Amer. Cycl. I. 122/2 The adit which drains the district of Gwenap, in Cornwall, is estimated with its branches to extend a distance of 30 miles; its mouth is in a valley near the sea, and from it are discharged the superficial waters of numerous mines.

1908 N.Z. Geol.Surv. Bull. No. 6. 145 An adit level driven on the lode for a distance of 229 ft, showed..payable stone for 200 ft.

1932 J. U. Nef Rise Brit. Coal Industry I. iv. i. 367 The mine owner had usually to drive a drainage head to get the water from the new working to run either into the engine pit, or into the adit.

2005 in S. Elmes Talking for Brit. i. 13 An adit comes down from a cave. My grandparents used to live from the water they got from an adit and that flowed into the brook but that was very clean.

1836 I. Taylor Physical Theory of Another Life iv. 57 The senses are adits of knowledge; and because adits, therefore exclusive and restrictive means of information.

1847 Ld. Tennyson Princess vi. 136 Yourself and yours shall have Free adit.

1859 A. Helps Friends in Council New Ser. II. ix. 186 Some means of adit to the imperial Executive.

1905 O. Lodge in J. Maxwell tr. C. R. Richet Metapsychical Phenomena Introd. p. x That is undoubtedly the first adit to be explored,..but it is premature even to guess what will be the ultimate outcome of this..study.

2005 R. Anderson Little Fugue (2006) 137 Her one eye is clear, green, and rapt. The other is a glassy, inquiring adit.