Brewer's: Soil

To take soil. A hunting term, signifying that the deer has taken to the water. Soil, in French, is the mire in which a wild boar wallows. (Danish, sol, mire; Swedish, söla, to wallow.)

Fida went downe the dale to seeke the hinde, And founde her taking soyle within a flood

Browne: Britania's Pastorals, i. 84

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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