Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub
[blocks in formation]

Like boat against the tide and wind. Hudibras.
If he finds a fairy lag in light,

He drives the wretch before, and lashes into
night.

Dryden.

She hourly press'd for something new; Ideas came into her mind

So fast, his lessons lagg'd behind. Srvift. LA ́GGER. #. S. [from lag.] A loiterer; an idler; one that loiters behind. LA'ICAL. adj. [laique, Fr. laicus, Lat. 4] Belonging to the laity, or people, as distinct from the clergy.

In all ages the clerical will flatter as well as the laical. Camden.

LAID. Preterit participle of lay.

Money laid up for the relief of widows and fatherless children. 2 Maccabees.

A scheme which was writ some years since, and laid by to be ready on a fit occasion. Swift. LAIN. Preterit participle of lie.

Mary seeth two angels in white, sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Jobn.

The parcels had lain by before they were opened, between four and five years. Boyle. LAIR. n. s. [lai, in French, signifies a wild sow, or a forest: the derivation is easy in either sense; or from leger, Dutch.] The couch of a boar, or wild beast.

Out of the ground uprose,
As from his lair, the wild beast, where he wons
In forest wild, in thicket, brake or den. Milton.
But range the forest by the silver side
Of some cool stream, where nature shall provide
Green grass and fatt'ning clover for your fare,
And mossy caverns for your noon-tide lair.

Dryden. LAIRD. n. s. [blafond, Saxon.] The lord of a manor in the Scottish dialect.

Shrive but their title, and their moneys poize,
A laird and twenty pence pronounc'd with noise,
When constru'd but for a plain yeoman go,
And a good sober two-pence, and well so.
Cleaveland.

LA ́ITY. n. s. [rå☺.].
1. The people as distinguished from the
clergy.

An humble clergy is a very good one, and an humble laity too, since humility is a virtue that equally adorns every station in life. Swift.

a. The state of a layman.

The more usual cause of this deprivation is a mere laity, or want of holy orders.

Ayliffe's Parergon.
LAKE. n. s. [lac, Fr. lacus, Lat.]
1. A large diffusion of inland water.
He adds the running springs and standing lakes,
And bounding banks for winding rivers makes.
Dryden.
2. A small plash of water.

3. A middle colour, between ultramarine
and vermilion, yet it is rather sweet
than harsh. It is made of cochineal.
Dryden.
LAMB. n. s. [lamb, Gothick and Saxon.]
1. The young of a sheep.
I'm young; but something

You may deserve of him through me, and wis
dom,

To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb,
Tappease an angry god. Shakspeare's Macbeth.
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy knowledge would he skip and play?
Pope.

2. Typically, the Saviour of the world.
Thou Lamb of God that takest away the sins
of the world, have mercy upon us.
Common Prayer.
LA MBATIVE. adj. [from lambo, Latin, to
lick.] Taken by licking.

In affections both of lungs and weazen, physicians make use of syrups, and lambative medicines. Brown.

LA MBATIVE. n. 5. A medicine taken by licking with the tongue

I stitch'd up the wound, and let him blood in the arm, advising a lambative, to be taken as necessity should require. Wiseman's Surg. LA MBENT. adj. [lambens, Lat.] Playing about; gliding over without harm. From young Iülus head

A lambent flame arose, which gently spread
Around his brows, and on his temples fed.
Dryden.
His brows thick fogs, instead of glories, grace,
And lambent dulness played around his face.

Dryden. LAMBKIN. n. s. [from lamb.] A little lamb.

"Twixt them both they not a lambkin left, And when lambs fail'd, the old sheeps lives they reft. Hubberd's Tale.

Pan, thou god of shepherds all,
Which of our tender lambkins takest keep.
Spens. Past.
Clean as young lambkins, or the goose's down,
And like the goldfinch in her Sunday gown.

LAMBS-WOOL. n. s. [lamb and wool.] Ale
Gay.
mixed with the pulp of roasted apples.
A cup of lambs-vool they drank to him there.
LAMDOI ́DAL. n. s. [λáuda and sid.]
Song of the King and the Miller.
Having the form of the letter lambda

or A.

The course of the longitudinal sinus down through the middle of it, makes it adviseable to trepan at the lower part of the os parietale, or at least upon the lamdoidal suture. Sharp. LAME. adj. [laam, lama, Saxon; lam, Dutch.]

1. Crippled; disabled in the limbs.

Who reproves the lame must go upright.
Daniel.

A grey-hound, of a mouse colour, lame of one leg, belongs to a lady. Arbuthnot and Pope.

[blocks in formation]

Affronted once a cock of noble kind,
And either lam'd his legs, or struck him blind.

Dryden. If you happen to let the child fall, and lame it, never confess. Swift. LA MELLATED. adj. [lamella, Lat.] Covered with films or plates.

The lamellated antennæ of some insects aré surprisingly beautiful, when viewed through a microscope. Derham.

LA MELY. adv. [from lame.] 1. Like a cripple; without natural force or activity.

Those mucles become callous, and, having yielded to the extension, the patient makes shift to go upon it, though lamely." Wiseman.

2. Imperfectly, without a full or complete exhibition of all the parts.

Look not ev'ry lineament to see,

Some will be cast in shades, and some will be So lamely drawn, you scarcely know 'tis she.

Dryden.

3. Weakly; unsteadily; poorly. LA MENESS. 7. s. [from lame.] 1. The state of a cripple ; loss or inability of limbs.

Let blindness, lameness come; are legs and eyes

Of equal value to so great a prize? Dryden. Lameness kept me at home. Digby to Pope.

2. Imperfection; weakness.

[ocr errors]

If the story move, or the actor help the lamemess of it with his performance, either of these are sufficient to effect a present liking. Dryden. To LAMENT. v. n. [lamentor, Lat. lamenter, Fr.] To mourn; to wail; to grieve to express sorrow.

The night has been unruly where we lay; And chimneys were blown down: and, as they

say,

Lamentings heard i' th' air, strange screams of death. Shakspeare. Ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice. Jobn. Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and all the singing-men and women spake of Josiah in their 1..mentations. 2 Chronicles.

Far less I now lament for one whole world Of wicked sons destroyed, than I rejoice For one man found so perfect and so just, That God vouchsafes to raise another world From him. Milton.

To LAMENT. v. a. To bewail; to mourn; to bemoan; to express sorrow for.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

A lamentable tune is the sweetest musick to a woful mind. Sidney.

cries.

The victors to their vessels bear the prize, And hear behind loud groans, and lamentable Dryden, 3. Miserable, in a ludicrous or low sense; pitiful; despicable.

This bishop, to make out the disparity between the heathens and them, flies to this lamentable refuge. Stilling feet. LAMENTABLY. adv. [from lamentable.] 1. With expressions or tokens of sorrow; mournfully.

The matter in itself lamentable, lamentably expressed by the old prince, greatly moved the two princes to compassion.

2. So as to cause sorrow.

Sidney

Our fortune on the sea is out of breath, And sinks most lamentably.

Shakspeare.

3. Pitifully; despicably. LAMENTATION. n. s. [lamentatio, Lat. Expression of sorrow; audible grief.

Be't lawful that I invocate thy ghost," To hear the lamentations of poor Aune. Statsp. His son buried him, and all Israel made great lamentation for him. 1 Maccabees.

LAMENTER. n. s. [from lament.] He who mourns or laments.

Such a complaint good company must pity, whether they think the lamenter ill or not. Spectator. LA MENTINE. n. s. A fish called a seacow or manatee, which is near twenty feet long, the head resembling that of a cow, and two short feet, with which it creeps on the shallows and rocks to get food; but has no fins: the flesh is commonly eaten. Bailey. LAMINA. n. s. [Lat.] Thin plate; one coat laid over another. LAMINATED. adj. [from lamina.] Plated; used of such bodies whose contexture

discovers such a disposition as that of plates lying over one another.

Dict.

From the apposition of different coloured gravel, arises for the most part, the laminated appearance of a stone. Sharp. To LAMM. v. a. To beat soundly with a cudgel. LAMMAS. n. s. [This word is said by Bailey, I know not on what authority, to be derived from a custom, by which the tenants of the archbishop of York were obliged, at the time of mass, on the first of August, to bring a lamb to the altar. In Scotland they are said to wean lambs on this day. It may else be corrupted from lattermath.] The first of August.

In 1578 was that famous lammas day, which buried the reputation of Don John of Austria. Bacon

LAMP. n. s. [lampe, Fr. lampas, Lat.]
1. A light made with oil and a wick.
O thievish night,

Why should'st thou, but for some felonious end;
In thy dark lanthorn thus close up the stars,
That nature hung in heav'n, and fill their lemps
With everlasting oil, to give due light

To the misled and lonely traveller? Milton.
In lamp furnaces I used spirits of wine instead
of oil, and the same flame has melted foliated
gold.
Boyle.

1. Any kind of light, in poetical language, real or metaphorical.

Thy gentle eyes send forth a quick'ning spirit, And feed the dying lamp of life within me. Rowe. Cynthia, fair regent of the night, O may thy silver lamp from heav'ns high bow'r, Direct my footsteps in the midnight hour. Cay. LAMPASS. n. s. [lampas, Fr.] A lump

of flesh, about the bigness of a nut, n the roof of a horse's mouth, which rises above the teeth. Farrier's Dict.

His horse possest with the glanders, troubled with the lampass, infected with the fashions. Shak. LAMPBLACK. n. s. [lamp and black.] It is made by holding a torch under the bottom of a basin, and as it is furred striking it with a feather into someshell, and grinding it with gum water. Peacham on Drawing. LAMPING. adj. [λxpπeláwr.] Shining; sparkling. Not used.

ook.

[ocr errors]

Happy lines, on which with starry light Those humping eyes will deign sometimes to Spenser. LAMPOON. n. s. [Bailey derives it from kompons, a drunken song., It imports, let us drink, from the old French lamper, and was repeated at the end of each couplet at carousals. Trev.] A personal satire ; abuse; censure written not to reform but vex.

They say my talent is satire; if so, it is a fruitful age; they have sown the dragon's teeth themselves, and it is but just they should reap each other in tampoons. Dryden.

Make satire a lampoon.

[ocr errors]

To LAMPO ON. v. a. [from the noun.] To abuse with personal satire. LAMPOONER. 7. s. [from lampoon.] A scribbler of personal satire.

We are naturally displeased with an unknown critick, as the ladies are with a lampooner, be cause we are bitten in the dark. Dryden.

The squibs are those who are called libellers, Tatler lampooners, and pamphleteers. LAMPREY. n. s. [lamproye, Fr. lampreye, Dutch.]

Many fish much like the eel frequent both the sea and fresh rivers; as, the lamprel, lamprey, and lamperne. Walton.

LAMPRON. n. 5. A kind of sea fish.

These rocks are frequented by lamprons, and greater fishes, that devour the bodies of the drowned. Broome on the Odyssey.

LANCE, n. s. [lance, Fr. lancea, Lat.] A long spear, which in the heroick ages, seems to have been generally thrown from the hand, as by the Indians at this day. In later times the combatants thrust then against each other on horseback... Spear; javelin.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

He carried his lances, which were strong, to give a lancely blow. Sidney.

Plate sin with gold,

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Hector beholds his jav'lin fall in vain,
Nor other lance, nor other hope remain;
He calls Deiphobus, demands a spear
In vain, for no Deiphobus was there.

To LANCE. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To pierce; to cut.

Pope.

With his prepared sword he charges home My unprovided body, lane'd my arm. Shaksp In their cruel worship they lance themselves with knives. Glanville's Scepsis

Th' infernal minister advanc'd Seiz'd the due victim, and with tury lanc'd Her back, and piercing through her inmost heart, Drew backward. Dryden. 2. To open chirurgically; to cut in order

[blocks in formation]

I gave vent to it by an apertion with a lancet, and discharged white matter. Wiseman's Surgery.

A vein, in an apparent blue runneth along the body, and if dexterously pricked with a lancet, emitteth a red drop. Brown's Vulgar Errors.

Hippocrates saith, blood-letting should be done with broad lancets or swords, in order to make a large orifice: the manner of opening a vein then was by stabbing or pertusion, as in horses. Arbuthnot. To LANCH. v. a. [lancer, Fr. This word is too often written launch: it is only a vocal corruption of lance.] To dart; to cast as a lance; to throw; to let fly. See whose arm can lanch the surer bolt, And who's the better Jove. Dryden and Lee. Me, only me, the hand of fortune bore, Unblest to tread the interdicted shore; When Jove tremendous in the sable deeps, Launch'd his red lightning at our scatter'd ships. Pope. LANCINATION. n. s. [from larcino, Lat.] Tearing; laceration.

To LANCINATE. v. a. [lancino, Lat.] To tear; to rend; to lacerate. LAND. n. s. [land, Gothick, Saxon, and so all the Teutonick dialects.] 1. A country; a region distinct from

other countries.

The nations of Scythia, like a mountain flood, did overflow all Spain, and quite washed away whatsoever reliques there were left of the landbred people. Spenser's State of Ireland. Thy ambition, Thou scarlet sin, robb'd this bewailing land Of noble Buckingham. Shakspeare. What had he done to make him fly the land? Shakspeare.

The chicf men of the land had great authority; though the government was monarchical, it was not despotick. Broome's Notes on the Odyssey. 2. Earth, distinct from water.

By land they found that huge and mighty country. Abbet.

Yet, if thou go'st by land, tho' grief possess My soul ev'n then, my fears would be the less: But, ah! be warn'd to shun the wat'ry way.

Dryden.

They turn their heads to sea, their sterns to Land,

And greet with greedy joy th' Italian strand.

Dryden.

3. It is often used in composition, as opposed to sea.

The princes delighting their conceits with confirming their knowledge, seeing wherein the seadiscipline differed from the land-service, they had pleasing entertainment. Sidney.

He to-night hath boarded a land-carrack; If it prove lawful prize, he's made for ever.

Shakspeare. With eleven thousand land soldiers, and twenty-six ships of war, we within two months have Bacon.

won one town.

[ocr errors]

Necessity makes men ingenious and hardy; and if they have but land-room or sea-room, they find supplies for their hunger.

Hale's Origin of Mankind. I writ not always in the proper terms of navigation or land service. Dryden's neid. The French are to pay the same duties at the dry ports through which they pass by land-carriage, as we pay upon importation or exportation by sea.

Addison's Freebolder. The Phenicians carried on a land-trade to

[blocks in formation]

Wotton.

Lord of himself, though not of lands, And having nothing, yet hath all. 6. Nation; people, the inhabitants of the land.

These answers in the silent night receiv'd, The king himself divulg'd, the land believ'd. Dryden.

7. Urine. [hlond, Saxon.] As

Probably land-damn was a coarse expression in the cant strain, formerly in common use, but since laid aside and forgotten, which meant the taking away a man's life. For land or lant is an old word for urine, and to stop the common passages and functions of nature is to kill. Hanmer. You are abused, and by some putter on, That will be damn'd for't; would I knew the villain,

I would land-damn him. Shaksp. Win. Tale. To LAND. v. a. [from the noun.] To set on shore.

The legions, now in Gallia, sooner landed In Britain. Shakspeare's Cymbeline. He who rules the raging wind, To thee, O sacred ship, be kind, Thy committed pledge restore, And land him safely on the shore. Another Typhis shall new seas explore, Another Argo land the chicfs upon th' Iberian

shore.

Dryden.

Dryden.

To LAND, V. n. To come to shore. Let him land,

And solemnly see him set on to London.

Shakspeare.

Land ye not, none of you, and provide to be gone from this coast, within sixteen days. Bacon. I land, with luckless omens: then adore Their gods. Dryden's Encid LANDED. adj. [from land.] Having a , fortune, not in money but in land; having a real estate.

A landless knight makes thee a landed squire. Shakspeare. Men, whose living lieth together in one shire, are commonly counted greater landed than those whose livings are dispersed. Bacon.

Comwell's officers, who were for levelling lands while they had none, when they grew landed fell to crying up magna charta. Temple. A house of commons must consist, for the most part of landed men. Addison's Freeholder. LANDFALL. n. s. [land and fall.] A sudden translation of property in land LANDFLOOD. n.s. [land and flood.] Inby the death of a rich man.

undation.

Apprehensions of the affections of Kent, and all other places, looked like a landflood, that might roll they knew not how far. Clarendon. LAND-FORCES. n. s. [land and force.] Warlike powers not naval; soldiers that serve on land.

We behold in France the greatest land-forces that have ever been known under any christian prince. Temple. LANDHOLDER. n. s. [land and holder.] One who holds lands.

Money, as necessary to trade, may be considered as in his hands that pays the labourer and Landbolder; and if this man want money, the manufacture is not made, and so the trade is lost. Locke.

LAND-JOBBER. n. s. [land and job.] One who buys and sells lands for other

[blocks in formation]

2. The mistress of an inn.

If a soldier drinks his pint, and offers payment in Wood's halfpence, the landlady may be under some difficulty. Swift. LANDLESS. adj. [from land.] Without property; without fortune. Young Fortinbras

Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, Shark'd up a list of landless resolutes.

Shakspeare's Hamlet. A landless knight hath made a landed squire. Shakspeare. LANDLOCKED. adj. [land and lock.] Shut in, or enclosed with land.

There are few natural parts better landlocked, and closed on all sides, than this seems to have been. Addison on Italy. LANDLOPER. n. s. [land and lopen, Dut.] A landman; a term of reproach used by seamen of those who pass their lives on shore.

LANDLORD. n. s. [land and lord.] 1. One who owns lands or houses, and has tenants under him.

This regard shall be had, that in no place, under any landlord, there shall be many of them placed together, but dispersed. Spenser's State of Ireland. It is a generous pleasure in a landlord, to love to see all his tenants look fat, sleek, and contented, Clarissa.

2. The master of an inn.

his whistle.

Upon our arrival at the ins, my companion fetched out the jolly landlord, who knew him by Addison. LANDMARK. n. s. [land and mark.] Any thing set up to preserve the boundaries of land.

I' th' midst, an altar, as the land-mark, stood, Rustick, of grassy sod. Milton. The land-marks by which places in the church had been known, were removed. Clarendon. Then land-marks limited to each his right; For all before was common as the light. Dryden.

Though they are not self-evident principles, yet if they have been made out from them by a wary and unquestionable deduction, they may serve as land-marks, to shew what lies in the direct way of truth, or is quite besides it. Locke. LANDSCAPE. n. s. [landschape, Dutch.] 1. A region; the prospect of a country. Lovely seem'd,

That landscape! and of pure, now purer air,
Meets his approach.

Milton

Milton.

The sun scarce uprisen, Shot parallel to th' earth his dewy ray, Discovering in wide landscape all the east Of paradise, and Eden's happy plains. Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, Whilst the landscape round it measures, Russet lawns and iallows grey, Where the nibbling flocks do stray.

Milton.

We are like men entertained with the view of a spacious landscape, where the eye passes over one pleasing prospect for another. Addison.

2. A picture, representing an extent of space, with the various objects in it.

As good a poet as you are, you cannot make finer landscapes than those about the king's

house.

Addison.

Oft in her glass the musing shepherd spies The wat'ry landscape of the pendant woods, And absent trees, that tremble in the floods. LAND-TAX. 2. s. [land and tax.] Tax Pope. laid upon land and houses.

If mortgages were registered, land-taxes might reach the lender to pay his proportion. Locke. LAND-WAITER. n. s. [land and waiter.] An officer of the customs, who is to watch what goods are landed.

Give a guinea to a knavish land-waiter, and he shall connive at the merchant for cheating the queen of an hundred. Swift's Examiner. LANDWARD, adv. [from land.] Toward

the land.

They are invincible by reason of the overpouring mountains that back the one, and slen der fortification of the other to landward.

Sandys' Fourney.
LANE. n. s. [laen, Dutch; lana, Saxon.]
1. A narrow way between hedges.
All flying

Through a straight lane, the enemy full-hearted
Struck down some mortally. Shaksp. Cymbeline.
I know each lane, and every alley green,
Dingle or bushy dell, of this wild wood,
And every bosky burn.

Milton.
Through a close lane as I pursu'd my journey.
Olway.

A pack-horse is driven constantly in a narrow lane and dirty road. Locke.

2. A narrow street ; an alley.

There is no street, not many lanes, where there does not live one that has relation to the church. Spratt's Sermons.

« ПредишнаНапред »