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We may define language, if we consider it more materially, to be letters, forming and producing words and sentences; but if we consider it according to the design thereof, then language is apt signs for communication of thoughts. Holder. 2. The tongue of one nation as distinct from others.

O! good my lord, no Latin;

I am not such a truant since my coming,
As not to know the language I have liv'd in.
Shakspeare.

He not from Rome alone, but Greece,
Like Jason, brought the golden fleece;
To him that language, though to none
Of th' others, as his own was known. Denham.
3. Style; manner of expression.

Though his language should not be refin'd, It must not be obscure and impudent.

Roscommon. Others for language all their care express, And value books, as women, men, for dress: Their praise is still the stile is excellent; The sense, they humbly take upon content. Pope. LANGUAGED. adj. [from the noun.] Having various languages.

He wand'ring long a wider circle made, And many languag'd nations has survey'd. Pope. LANGUAGE-MASTER. n. s. [language and master.] One whose profession is to teach languages.

ter.

The third is a sort of language-master, who is to instruct them in the stile proper for a minisSpectator. LANGUET. n. s. [languette, French.] Any thing cut in the form of a tongue. LAʼNGUID. adj. [languidus, Latin.] 1. Faint; weak; feeble.

Whatever renders the motion of the blood languid, disposeth to an acid acrimony; what accelerates the motion of the blood, disposeth to an alkaline acrimony. Arbuthnot.

No space can be assigned so vast, but still a larger may be imagined; no motion so swift or languid, but a greater velocity or slowness may still be conceived.

2. Dull; heartless.

I'll hasten to my troops,

Bentley.

And fire their languid souls with Cato's virtue. Addison.

LANGUIDLY.adv. [from languid.]Weakly; feebly.

The menstruum work'd as languidly upon the coral as it did before. Boyle. LANGUIDNESS. n. s. [from languid.] Weakness; feebleness; want of strength. To LANGUISH..n. [languir, French; langueo, Latin.]"

1. To grow feeble; to pine away; to lose strength.

Let her languish

A drop of blood a-day; and, being aged,
Die of this folly. Shakspeare's Cymbeline.
We and our fathers do languish of such dis-
Esdras.

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What woman is, yea, what she cannot chuse But must be, will his free hours languish out For assur'd bondage? Shakspeare's Cymbeline. The land shall mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein; shall languish, · Hosca,

I have been talking with a suitor here,.. A man that languishes in your displeasure. Shakspeare.

I was about fifteen when I took the liberty to chuse for myself, and have ever since languished under the displeasure of an inexorable father. Spectator.

Let Leonora consider, that, at the very time in which she languishes for the loss of her lover, there are persons just perishing in a shipwreck. Spectator. 4. To look with softness or tenderness. What poems think you soft, and to be read With languishing regards, and bending head? Dryden. LANGUISH. n. s. [from the verb.] Soft

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2. Softness of mien.

Humility it expresses, by the stooping or bending of the head; languishment, when we hang it one side. Dryden. LA NGUOR. n. s. [languor, Latin; langueur, French.]

1. Faintness; wearisomeness.

Well hoped I, and fair beginnings had, That he my captive languor should redeem. Spenser.

For these, these tribunes, in the dust I write My heart's deep languor, and my soul's sad tears. Shakspeare.

2. Listlessness; inattention.

Academical disputation gives vigour and briskness to the mind thus exercised, and relieves the languor of private study and meditation. Waits.

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Gov. of the Tongue.

Judge what a ridiculous thing it were, that the continued shadow of the earth should be broken by sudden miraculous eruptions of light, to prevent the art of the lantern-maker. More's Divine Dialogues.

Our ideas succeed one another in our minds, not much unlike the images in the inside of a Lanthorn, turned round by the heat of a candle. Locke.

2. A lighthouse; a light hung out to guide ships.

Caprea, where the lantborn fix'd on high Shines like a moon through the benighted sky, While by its beams the wary sailor steers.

Addison.

LANTERN jaws. A term used of a thin visage, such as if a candle were burning in the mouth might transmit the light. Being very lucky in a pair of long lantbornjaws, he wrung his face into a hideous grimace. Spectator. LANU GINOUS. adj. [lanuginosus, Latin.] Downy; covered with soft hair.

LAP. Dryden.

Now, now my bearded harvest gilds the plain, Thus dreams the wretch, and vainly thus dreams

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Dryden.

Swift.

Meagre and lank with fasting grown, And nothing left but skin and bone; They just keep life and soul together. 2. Milion seems to use this word for faint; languid.

He, piteous of her woes, rear'd her lank head, And gave her to his daughters to imbathe

In nectar'd lavers strew'd with asphodil. Milton. LA ́NKNESS. n. s. [from lank.] Want of plumpness.

LANNER. n. s. [lanier, Fr. lannarius, Lat.] A species of hawk.

LA'NSQUENET. n. s. [lance and knecht, Dutch.]

1. A common foot soldier. 2. A game at cards.

LANTERN. 2. s. [lanterne, French; laterna, Latin: it is by mistake often written lanthorn.]

1. A transparent case for a candle.
God shall be my hope,
My stay, my guide, my lanthorn to my feet.

Shakspeare. Thou art our admiral; thou bearest the lanthorn in the poop, but 'tis in the nose of thee; thou art the knight of the burning lamp. Shakspeare.

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. n. s. [læppe, Saxon; lappe, German.] 1. The loose part of a garment, which may be doubled at pleasure.

If a joint of meat falls on the ground, take it up gently, wipe it with the lap of your coat, and then put it into the dish. Swift. 2. The part of the clothes that is spread horizontally over the knees as one sits down, so as any thing may lie in it.

It feeds each living plant with liquid sap,
And fills with flow'rs fair Flora's painted lap.
Spenser.

Upon a day, as love lay sweetly slumb'ring
All in his mother's lap,

A gentle bee, with his loud trumpet mur-
m'ring,

Spenser.

About him flew by hap. I'll make my haven in a lady's lap, And 'witch sweet ladies with my words and looks. Shakspeare.

She bids you

All on the wanton rushes lay you down,
And rest your gentle head upon her lap,
And she will sing the song that pleaseth you.
Shakspeare.

Our stirring
Can from the lap of Egypt's widow pluck
The ne'er-lust-wearied Antony. Shakspeare.
Heav'ns almighty sire
Melts on the bosom of his love, and pours
Himself into her lip in fruitful show'rs.

Crashary.

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He struggles into breath, and cries for aid; Then, helpless, in his mother's lap is laid. He creeps, he walks, and issuing into man, Grudges their life from whence his own began: Retthless of laws, affects to rule alone, Anxious to reign, and restless on the throne.

Dryden.

To LAP. v. a. [from the noun.]
1. To wrap or twist round any thing.

He hath a long tail, which, as he descends from a tree, he laps round about the boughs, to keep himself from falling. Grew's Museum. About the paper, whose two halves were painted with red and blue, and which was stiff like thin pasteboard, I lapped several times a slender thread of very black silk. Newton.

2. To involve in any thing.

As through the flow'ring forest rash she fled, In her rude hairs sweet flow'rs themselves did lap,

And flourishing fresh leaves and blossoms did

enwrap.

Spenser. The thane of Cawder 'gan a dismal conflict, Till that Bellona's bridegroom, Zapt in proof, Confronted him. Shakspeare's Macbeth. When we both lay in the field, Frozen almost to death, how he did lap me, Ev'n in his garments, and did give himself, All thin and naked, to the numb cold night.

Ever against eating cares,

Lep me in soft Lydian airs.

Shakspeare.

Milton.

Indulgent fortune does her care employ, And smiling, broods upon the naked boy; Her garment spreads; and laps him in the folds, And covers with her wings from nightly colds.

Dryden.

Here was the repository of all the wise contentions for power between the nobles and commons, lapt up safely in the bosom of a Nero and ›a Caligula. Swift. To LAP. v. n. To be spread or turned over any thing.

The upper wings are opacous; at their hinder ends, where they lap over, transparent, like the wing of a fly. Grea.

To LAP. v. n. [lappian, Saxon; lappen, Dutch.] To feed by quick reciproca tions of the tongue.

The dogs by the river Nilus' side being thirsty, lap hastily as they run along the shore. Digby. They had soups served up in broad dishes, and so the fox fell to lapping himself, and bade his guest heartily welcome. L'Estrange.

The tongue serves not only for tasting, but for mastication and deglutition, in man, by licking; in the dog and cat kind by lapping. Ray on Creation. To LAP. v. a. To lick up.

For all the rest

They'll take suggestion, as a cat laps milk.

Upon a bull

Shakspeare.

Two horrid lyons rampt, and seiz'd, and tugg'd off, bellowing still,

Both men and dogs came; yet they tore the hide, and lapt their fill. Chapman's Iliad. LA PDOG. n. s. [lap and dog.] A little dog, fondled by ladies in the lap.

One of them made his court to the lap-dog, to improve his interest with the lady. Collier. These, if the laws did that exchange afford, Would save their lap-dog sooner than their lord. Dryden.

Lap-dogs give themselves the rousing shake, And sleepless lovers just at twelve awake. Pope.

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LA PICIDE. n. s. [lapicida, Lat.] A stoneDict.

cutter.

LAPIDARY. n. s. [lapidaire, Fr.] One

who deals in stones or gems.

As a cock was turning up a dunghill, he espied a diamond: Well (says he), this sparkling foollery now to a lapidary would have been the making of him; but, as to any use of mine, a barley-corn had been worth forty on't. L'Estrange.

Of all the many sorts of the gem kind reckoned up by the lapidaries, there are not above three or four that are original.

Dict.

Woodward's Nat. Hist. To LAPIDATE. v. a. [lapido, Latin.] To stone; to kill by stoning. LAPIDATION. 7. s. [lapidatio, Lat. lapidation, Fr.] A stoning. LAPIDEOUS. adj. [lapideus, Lat.] Stony; of the nature of stone.

There might fall down into the lapideous matter, before it was concreted into a stone, some small toad, which might remain there imprisoned, till the matter about it were condensed. Ray. LAPIDE SCENCE. n. s. [lapidesco, Lat.] Stony concretion.

Of lapis ceratites, or cornu fossile, in subterraneous cavities, there are many to be found in Germany, which are but the lapidescencies, and putrefactive mutations, of hard bodies. Brown. LAPIDE SCENT. adj. [lapidescens, Lat.] Growing or turning to stone. LAPIDIFICATION. n. s. [lapidification, French.] The act of forming stones. Induration or lapidification of substances more LAPIDI FICK. adj. [lapidifique, French.] soft is another degree of condensation. Forming stones.

Bacon.

The atoms of the lapidifiek, as well as saline principle, being regular, do concur in producing Grew. regular stones.

LA PIDIST. n. s. [from lapides, Lat.] A dealer in stones or gems.

Hardness, wherein some stones exceed all other bodies, being exalted to that degree, that art in vain endeavours to counterfeit it, the factitious stones of chemists in imitation being easily detected by an ordinary lapidist. Ray. LAPIS. n. s. [Latin.] A stone. LA PIS Lazuli.

The lapis lazuli, or azure stone, is a copper ore, very compact and hard, so as to take a high polish, and is worked into a great variety of toys. It is found in detached lumps, of an elegant blue colour, variegated with clouds of white, and veins of a shining gold colour: to it the painters are indebted for their beautiful ultra-marine colour, which is only a calcination of lapis lazuli. Hill. LAPPER. N. S. [from lap.] 1. One who wraps up.

2.

the manor.

They may be lappers of linen, and bailiffs of Swift. Que who laps or licks.

LAPPET. 2. S. [diminutive of lap.] The
part of a headdress that hangs loose.
How naturally do you apply your hands to
each other's lappets, and ruffles, and mantuas?
Swift.

LAPSE. n. s. [lapsus, Lat.]
1. Flow; fall; glide; smooth course.
Round I saw

Hill, dale, and shady woods, and sunny plains,
And liquid lapse of merm'ring streams. Milton.

Notions of the mind are preserved in the memory, notwithstanding lapse of time. Hale. 2. Petty errour; small mistake; slight offence; little fault.

These are petty errors and minor lapses, not considerably injurious unto truth. Brown.

The weakness of human understanding all will confess; yet the confidence of most practically disowns it; and it is easier to persuade them of it from other's lapses than their own.

Glanville's Scepsis.

This scripture may be usefully applied as a caution to guard against those lapses and failings, to which our infirmities daily expose us. Rogers.

It hath been my constant business to examine whether I could find the smallest lapse in stile or propriety through my whole collection, that I might send it abroad as the most finished piece.

Swift.

3. Transition of right from one to another.

In a presentation to a vacant church, a layman ought to present within four months, and a clergyman within six, otherwise a devolution, or lapse of right, happens.

Ayliffe.

To LAPSE, V.N. [from the noun.]
1. To glide slowly; to fall by degrees.

This disposition to shorten our words, by re-
trenching the vowels, is nothing else but a ten-
dency to lapse into the barbarity of those north-
ern nations from whom we are descended, and
whose languages all labour under the same de-
fect.
2. To fail in any thing; to slip; to com-
Swift.
mit a fault.

I have ever verified my friends,
Of whom he's chief, with all the size that verity
Would without lapsing suffer.

To lapse in fulness

Shakspeare.

Is sorer than to lie for need; and falshood Is worse in kings than beggars. Shakspeare. 3. To sip, as by inadvertency or mistake. Homer, in his characters of Vulcan and Thersites. has lapsed into the burlesque character, ard departed from that serious air essential to an erick poem. Addison.

Let there be no wilful perversion of another's meaning; no sudden seizure of a lapsed syllable to play upon it.

4. To lose the proper time.

Myself stood out:

For which if I be lapsed in this place,

Watts.

I shall pay dear. Shakspeare's Twelfth Night. As an appeal may be deserted by the appellant's laping the term of law, so it may also be deserted by a lapse of the term of a judge.

Ayliffe's Parergon. 5. To fall by the negligence of one proprietor to another.

If the archbishop shall not fill it up within six months ensuing, it lapses to the king. Ayliffe.

6. To fall from perfection, truth, or faith.

Once more I will renew

His lapsed pow'rs, though forfeit, and inthrall'd
By sin to foul exorbitant desires.

Milton.

A sprout of that fig-tree which was to hide the nakedness of lapsed Adam. Decay of Piety. All publick forms suppose it the most principal, universal, and daily requisite to the lapsing state of human corruption. Decay of Piety.

These were looked on as lapsed persons, and great severities of penance were prescribed them, as appears by the canons of Ancyra. Stilling fleet. LA PWING. n. s. [lap and wing.] A clamorous bird with long wings.

Ah! but I think him better than I say,
And yet would herein others eyes were worse:
Far from her nest the Lapwing cries away;
My heart prays for him, though my tongue do
Shakspeare.

curse.

And how in fields the lapwing Tereus reigns, The warbling nightingale in woods complains. Dryden. LAPWORK. n. s. [lap and work.] Work in which one part is interchangeably wrapped over the other.

A basket made of porcupine quills: the ground is a packthread caul woven, into which, by the Indian women, are wrought, by a kind of lapwork, the quills of porcupines, not split, but of the young onesintire; mixed with white and black in even and indented waves. Grew's Musæum. LA'RBOARD. #. s. The left-hand side of a ship, when you stand with your face to the head: opposed to the starboard. Harris,

Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunn'd Charybdis, and by the other whirlpool steer'd. Melton

Tack to the larboard, and stand off to sea, Veer starboard sea and land. Dryden. LARCENY. n. s. [larcin, Fr. latrocinium, Lat.] Petty theft.

Those laws would be very unjust, that should chastize murder and petty larceny with the same punishment. Spectator.

LARCH. n. s. [larix, Lat.] A tree.

Some botanical criticks tell us, the poets have not rightly followed the traditions of antiquity, in metamorphosing the sisters of Phaeton into poplars, who ought to have been turned into Zarch trees; for that it is this kind of tree which sheds a gum, and is commonly found on the banks of the Po. Addison LARD. n. s. [lardum, Lat. lard, French.j 1. The grease of swine.

So may thy pastures with their flow'ry feasts, As suddenly as lard, fat thy lean beasts. Donne 2. Bacon; the flesh of swine.

By this the boiling kettle had prepar'd,
And to the table sent the smoaking lard;
On which with eager appetite they dine,
A sav'ry bit, that serv'd to relish wine. Dryden,
The sacrifice they sped;

Chopp'd off their nervous thighs, and next pre

par'd

T" involve the lean in cauls, and mend with lard. To LARD. v. a. [larder, French; from the Dryden. noun.]

1. To stuff with bacon.

The larded thighs on loaded altars laid. Dryd.
No man lards salt pork with orange peel,
Or garnishes his lamb with spitch-cockt eel.

2. To fatten.

Now Falstaff sweats to death,
And lards the lean earth as he walks along.

King.

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1. Big; bulky.

Charles II. asked me, What could be the reason, that in mountainous countries the men were commonly larger, and yet the cattle of all sorts smaller? Great Theron, large of limbs, of giant height. Temple. Dryden. Warwick, Leicester, and Buckingham, bear a large boned sheep of the best shape and deepest staple. Mortimer.

2. Wide; extensive.

Their former large peopling was an effect of the countries impoverishing. Carew.

Let them dwell in the land, and trade therein; for it is large enough for them. Genesis. There he conquered a thousand miles wide and large. Abbot's Description of the World. 3. Liberal; abundant; plentiful.

Thou shalt drink of thy sister's cup deep and large. Ezekiel.

Vernal suns and showers Diffuse their warmest, largest influence. Thomson. 4. Copious; diffusive.

Skippon gave a large testimony under his hand, that they had carried themselves with great civility. Clarendon.

I might be very large upon the importance and advantages of education, and say a great many things which have been said before.

Felton on the Classics.

5. At LARGE. Without restraint; without confinement.

If you divide a cane into two, and one speak at the one end, and you lay your ear at the other, it will carry the voice farther than in the air at large. Bacon.

Thus incorporeal spirits to smallest forms' Reduc'd their shapes immense; and were at large,

Though without number still.

Milton.

The children are bred up in their father's way; or so plentifully provided for, that they are left at large. Spratt.

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Those, who in warmer climes complain
From Phebus' rays they suffer pain,
Must own, that pain is largely paid
By gen'rous wines beneath the shade.
4. Abundantly; without sparing,

Swift.

Milton.

They their fill of love, and love's disport,:
Took largely; of their mutual guilt the seal.
LARGENESS. n. s. [from large.]
1. Bigness; bulk.

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London excells any other city in the whole world, either in largeness, or number of inhabiNor must Bumastus, his old honours lose, Spratt. In length and largeness like the dugs of cows.

tants.

Dryden.

Greatness; comprehension.
There will be occasion for largeness of mind
and agreeableness of temper.
Collier of Friendship.

3. Extension; amplitude.

4.

They which would file away most from the largeness of that offer, do in most sparing terms acknowledge little less.

Hooker.

The ample proposition that hope makes,
In all designs begun on earth below,
Falls in the promis'd largeness.

Shakspeare.

Knowing best the largeness of my own heart towards my people's good and just contentment. Shall grief contract the largeness of that heart, King Charles. In which nor fear nor anger Man as far transcends the beasts in largenese a part. Waller. of desire, as dignity of nature and employment. Glanville.

has

If the largeness of a man's heart carry him beyond prudence, we may reckon it_illustrious weakness. L'Estrange Wideness.

Supposing that the multitude and largeness of rivers ought to continue as great as now; we can easily prove, that the extent of the ocean could be no less, Bentley

LARGESS. n. s. [largesse, French.] A pre-
sent; a gift; a bounty.

Our coffers with too great a court,
And liberal largess, are grown somewhat light.
Shakspeare

He assigned two thousand ducats, for a bount
to me and my fellows: for they give grea
largesses where they come. Bacon's Nerv de.
A pardon to the captain, and a largess
Among the soldiers, had appeas'd their fury.
Denb

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