Having thus got the idea of duration, the next thing is to get some measure of this common duration, whereby to judge of its different lengths. Locke.

5. Long duration or protraction.

May heav'n, great monarch, still augment your bliss,

With length of days, and every day like this. Dry. Such toil requir'd the Roman name, Such length of labour for so vast a frame. Dryd. In length of time it will cover the whole plain, and make one mountain with that on which it now stands. Addison.

6. Reach or expansion of any thing.

I do not recommend to all a pursuit of sciences, to those extensive lengths to which the moderns have advanced. Watts.

7. Full extent; uncontracted state.

If Lætitia, who sent me this account, will acquaint me with the worthy gentleman's name, I will insert it at length in one of my papers.

8. Distance.

Spectator.

He had marched to the length of Exeter, which he had some thought of besieging. Clarendon, 9. End; latter part of any assignable time. Churches purged of things burdensome, all was brought at the length unto that wherein we now stand. Hooker.

A crooked stick is not straitened, unless it be bent as far on the clear contrary side, that so it may settle itself at the length in a middle state of evenness between them both. Hooker. 10. At LENGTH. [An adverbial mode of speech. It was formerly written at the length.] At last; in conclusion.

At length, at length, I have thee in my arms, Though our malevolent stars have struggled hard,

And held us long asunder.

Dryden.

Frame your mind to mirth and merriment, Which bars a thousand harms, and lengthens life. Shakspeare. Break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor: if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity. Daniel.

It is in our power to secure to ourselves an interest in the divine mercies that are yet to come, and to lengthen the course of our present prosperity. Atterbury.

3. To protract pronunciation.

The learned languages were less constrained in the quantity of every syllable, beside helps of grammatical figures for the lengthening or abbreDryden.

viation of them.

4. To LENGTHEN out. [The particle out is only emphatical.] To protract; to extend.

What if I please to lengthen out his date A day, and take a pride to cozen fate? Dryden. I'd hoard up every moment of my life, To lengthen out the payment of my tears. Dryd. It lengthens out every act of worship, and produces more lasting and permanent impressions in the mind, than those which accompany any transient form of words. Addison.

Arbuthnot.

Oils relax the fibres, are lenient, balsamick, and abate acrimony in the blood. LENIENT. n. s. An emollient, or assuasive application.

I dressed it with lenients. Wiseman's Surgery. To LE NIFY. v. n. [lenifier, old Fr. lenio, Lat.] To assuage; to mitigate.

Used for squinancies and inflammations in the throat, it seemeth to have a mollifying and lenifying virtue. Bacon.

All soft'ning simples, known of sov'reign use, He presses out, and pours their noble juice; These first infus'd, to lenify the pain,

He tugs with pincers, but he tugs in vain. Dryd. LENITIVE. adj. [lenitif, Fr. lenio, Lat.] Assuasive; emollient.

Some plants have a milk in them; the cause may be an inception of putrefaction: for those milks have all an acrimony, though one would think they should be lenitive.

Bacon.

There is aliment lenitive expelling the faces without stimulating the bowels; such are animal oils. Arbuthnot. LENITIVE. n. s.

1. Any thing medicinally applied to ease pain. 2. A palliative.

There are lenitives that friendship will apply, before it would be brought to decretory rigours. South.

LENITY. n. s. [lenitas, Lat.] Mildness; mercy; tenderness; softness of temper. He ry gives consent,

Of meer compassion, and of lenity,
To ease your country.

Lenity must gain

Shakspeare.

The mighty men, and please the discontent.

svally called a lens; such is a burning-glass, or spectacle-glass, or an object glass of a telescope. Newton. According to the difference of the lenses, I used various distances. Neruton. LENT. The part. pass. from lend.

By Jove the stranger and the poor are sent, And what to those we give, to Jove is lent. Pope. LENT. n. s. [lenzen, the spring, Sax.] The quadragesimal fast; a time of abstinence; the time from Ashwednesday to Easter.

Lent is from springing, because it falleth in the spring; for which our progenitors, the Germans, use glent. Camden.

LENTEN. adj. [from lent.] Such as is used in lent; sparing.

My lord, if you delight not in man, what Laten entertainment the players shall receive from you! Shakspeare's Hamlet.

She quench'd her fury at the flood, And with a lenten sallad cool'd her blood. Their commons, though but coarse, were nothing scant. Dry. Hind and Panther. LENTICULAR. adj. [lenticulaire, Fr.] Doubly convex; of the form of a lens.

The crystalline humour is of a lenticular fi gure, convex on both sides. Ray on Creation. LENTIFORM. adj. [lens and forma, Lat.] Having the form of a lens.

LENTI GINOUS. adj. [from lentigo, Lat.] Scurfy; scurfuraceous.

LENTIGO. n. s. [Latin.] A freckly or scurfy eruption upon the skin; such especially as is common to women in childbearing. Quincy. LENTIL. n. s. [lens, Lat. lentille, Fr.] A plant.

It hath a papilionaceous flower, the pointal of which becomes a short pod, containing orbicular seeds, for the most part convex; the leaves are conjugated, growing to one mid-rib, and are terminated by tendrils. Miller The Philistines were gathered together, where was a piece of ground full of lentiles. 2 Sam. LENTISCK. n. s. [lentiscus, Lat. lentisque, Fr.] Lentisck wood is of a pale brown, almost whitish, resinous, fragrant, and acrid it is the tree which produces mastich, esteemed astringent and balsamick.

Hill.

LENTOUS. adj. [lentus, Latin.] Viscous; tenacious; capable to be drawn out.

In this spawn of a lentous and transparent body, are to be discerned many specks which becom black, a substance more compacted and terrestrious than the other; for it riseth not in distillation. Brown.

LEOD. n. s. Leod signifies the people; or, rather, a nation, country, c. Thus, leodgar is one of great interest with the people or nation. Gibson's Camden. LE OF. n. s. Leof denotes love; so leafwin is a winner of love; leofstan, best beloved like these Agapetus, Erasmus, Philo, Amandus, &c. Gibson's Camden. LEONINE. adj. [leoninus, Latin.] 1. Belonging to a lion; having the nature of a lion.

2. Leonine verses are those of which the end rhimes to the middle; so named from Leo the inventor: as

Gloria factorum temere conceditur horum.

LEOPARD. n. s. [leo and pardus, Latin.] A spotted beast of prey.

Sheep run not half so tim'rous from the wolf, Or horse or oxen from the leopard,

As you fly from your oft-subdued slaves. Shak.

A leopard is every way, in shape and actions, like a cat: his head, teeth, tongue, feet, claws, tail, all like a cat's: he boxes with his fore-feet, as a cat doth her kittens; leaps at the prey, as a eat at a mouse; and will also spit much after the same manner: so that they seem to differ, just as a kite doth from an eagle. Grea

Before the king tame leopards led the way, And troops of lions innocently play. Dryden. LE PER. n. s. [lepra, leprosus, Lat.] One infected with a leprosy.

I am no loathsome leper; look on me. Shaks. The leper in whom the plague is, his cloaths shall be rent. Leviticus.

LE PEROUS. adj. [formed from leprous, to make out a verse.] Causing leprosy; infected with leprosy; leprous.

Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, And in the porches of mine ears did pour The leperous distilment. Shaksp. Hamlet. LE PORINE. adj. [leporinus, Lat.] Belonging to a hare; having the nature of a hare.

LEPRO'SITY. n. s. [from leprous.] Squamous disease.

If the crudities, impurities, and leprosities of metals were cured, they would become gold.

Bacon.

LE PROUS. adj. [lepra, Lat. lepreux, Fr.] Infected with a leprosy.

The silly amorous sucks his death, By drawing in a leprous harlot's breath. Donne. LERE. n.s. [læne, Saxon; leere, Dutch.] A lesson; lore; doctrine. Obsolete.

Spens.

a lec

This sense is still retained in Scotland. The kid pitying his heaviness, Asked the cause of his great distress; And also who, and whence, that he were, Though he that had well ycond his lere, Thus melled his talk with many a teare. LE'RRY. [from lere.] A rating; ture. Rustick word. LESS. A negative or privative termination. [lear, Saxon; loos, Dutch.] Joined to a substantive, it implies the absence or privation of the thing expressed by that substantive: as, a witless man, a man without wit; childless, without children; fatherless, deprived of a father; pennyless, wanting money. LESS. adj. [lear, Sax.] The comparative of little: opposed to greater, or to so great; not so much; not equal.

Mary, the mother of James the less. Mark. He that thinks he has a positive idea of infinite space will find, that he can no more have a positive idea of the greatest than he has of the least space; for in this latter we are capable only of a comparative idea of smallness, which will always be less than any one whereof we have the positive idea. Locke.

All the ideas that are considered as having parts, and are capable of increase by the addition of any equal or less parts, afford us, by their repetition, the idea of infinity.

Locke.

"Tis less to conquer, than to make wars cease, And, without fighting, awe the world to peace. Hallifax. LESS. n. s. Not so much: opposed to more, or to as much.

They gathered some more, some less. Exod. Thy servant knew nothing of this, less or more. 1 Samuel.

Yet could he not his closing eyes withdraw, Though less and less of Emily he saw. Dryden.. LESS. adv. In a smaller degree; in a lower degree.

This opinion presents a less merry, but not less dangerous, temptation to those in adversity. Decay of Piety.

The less space there is betwixt us and the object, and the more pure the air is, by so much the more the species are preserved and distinguished; and, on the contrary, the more space of air there is, and the less it is pure, so much the more the object is confused and embroiled. Dryden. Their learning lay chiefly in flourish; they were not much wiser than the less pretending multitude. Collier on Pride. The less they themselves want from others, they will be less careful to supply the necessities of the indigent. Smalridge. Happy, and happy still, she might have prov'd, Were she less beautiful, or less belov'd. Pope. LE ́SSEE. n. 5. The person to whom a lease is given.

To LESSEN. v. a. [from less.]
1. To make less; to diminish in bulk.
2. To diminish the degree of any state or
quality; to make less intense.

Kings may give

To beggars, and not lessen their own greatness. Denbum. Though charity alone will not make one happy in the other world, yet it shall lessen his punishment. Calamy's Sermons.

Collect into one sum as great a number as you please, this multitude, how great soever, lessens not one jot the power of adding to it, or brings him any nearer the end of the inexhaustible stock of number. Locke.

This thirst after fame betrays him into such indecencies as are a lessening to his reputation, and is looked upon as a weakness in the greatest Spectator.

characters.

Nor are the pleasures which the brutal part of the creation enjoy, subject to be lessened by the uneasiness which arises from fancy. Atterbury. 3. To degrade; to deprive of power or dignity.

Who seeks

To lessen thee, against his purpose serves To manifest the more thy might.

Milton.

St. Paul chose to magnify his office, when ill men conspired to lessen it. Atterbury's Sermons. To LESSEN. v. n. To grow less; to shrink; to be diminished.

All government may be esteemed to grow strong or weak, as the general opinion in those that govern is seen to lessen or increase. Temple.

The objection lessens much, and comes to na more than this, there was one witness of no good reputation. Atterbury. LESSER. adj. A barbarous corruption of less, formed by the vulgar from the habit of terminating comparatives in er; afterward adopted by poets, and then by writers of prose, till it has all the authority which a mode originally erroneous can derive from custom.

What great despite doth fortune to thee bear, Thus lowly to abase thy beauty bright, Ihat it should not deface all other lesser light? Fairy Queen.

It is the lesser blot, modesty finds, Women to change their shapes than men their minds Shakspeare. The mountains, and higher parts of the earth, grow lesser and lesser from age to age: sometimes the roots of them are weakened by subterraneous fires, and sometimes tumbled by earthquakes into caverns that are under them.

Burnet.

Cain, after the murder of his brother, cries out, Every man that findeth me shall slay me. By the same reason may a man, in the state of nature, punish the lesser breaches of that Locks.

law.

him,

I but repeat that lesson

Which I have learn'd from thee. 2. Precept; notion inculcated.

Denham.

This day's ensample hath this lesson dear Deep written in my heart with iron pen, That bliss may not abide in state of mortal men. Fairy Queen.

Be not jealous over the wife of thy bosom, and teach her not an evil lesson against thyself. Ecclesiasticus.

3. Portions of scripture read in divine service.

Notwithstanding so eminent properties, whereof lessons are happily destitute; yet lessons being free from some inconveniencies whereunto sermons are most subject, they may, in this respect, no less take, than in other they must give the hand which betokeneth pre-eminence.

4. Tune pricked for an instrument.

Hooker.

Those good laws were like good lessons set for a flute out of tune; of which lessons little use can be made, till the flute be made fit to be played on. Davies.

5. A rating lecture.

She would give her a lesson for walking so late, that should make her keep within doors for one fortnight. Sidney. To

To LESSON. v. a. [from the noun.] teach; to instruct.

Even in kind love, I do conjure thee To lesson me.

Shakspeare. Well hast thou lesson'd us, this shall we do. Shakspeare. Children should be seasoned betimes, and lessened into a contempt and detestation of this vice. L'Estrange.

LE ́SSOR. n. s. One who lets any thing to farm, or otherwise, by lease,

Lords of the world have but for life their lease, And that too, if the lessor please, must cease. Denham.

If he demises the glebe to a layman, the tenant must pay the small tithes to the vicar, and the great tithes to the lessor. Ayliffe's Parergon. LEST. conj. [from the adjective least.] 1. This particle may sometimes be resolved into that not, meaning prevention or care lest a thing should happen. Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed, lest if he should exceed, then thy brother should seem vile. Deuteronomy.

Lest they faint

At the sad sentence rigorously urg'd, All terror hide.

Milton.

My labour will sustain me, and lest cold. Or heat should injure us, his timely care Hath unbesought provided.

Milton.

King Luitprand brought hither the corps, lest it might be abused by the barbarous nations. Addison.

2. It sometimes means only that, with a kind of emphasis.

One doubt

Pursues me still, lest all I cannot die,

Lest that pure breath of life, the spirit of man, Which God inspir'd, cannot together perish With this corporeal clod. Milton.

LE STERCOCK. n. s. They have a device of two sticks filled with corks, and crossed flatlong, out of whose midst there riseth a thread, and at the same hangeth a sail; to this engine, termed a estercock, they tie one end of their boul. ter, so as the wind coming from the VOL. III.

shore filleth the sail, and the sail car-
rieth the boulter into the sea, which,
after the respite of some hours, is drawn
in again by a cord fastened at the
nearer end.
Care.

To LET. v. a. [lætan, Saxon.]
1. To allow; to suffer; to permit.

Nay, nay, quoth he, let be your strife and doubt. Fairfax. Where there is a certainty and an uncertainty, let the uncertainty go, and hold to that which is certain. Bishop Sanderson. On the crowd he cast a furious look, And wither'd all their strength before he spoke; Back on your lives, let be, said he, my prey, And let my vengeance take the destin'd way. Dryden Remember me; speak, Raymond, will you les him?

Shall he remember Leonora?

Dryden

We must not let go manifest truths, because we cannot answer all questions about them.

Collier.

One who fixes his thoughts intently on one thing, so as to take but little notice of the suc cession of ideas in his mind, lets slip out of his account a good part of that duration. Locke.

A solution of mercury in aqua fortis being poured upon iron, copper, tin, or lead, dissolves the metal, and lets go the mercury. Neroton. 2. A sign of the optative mood used before the first, and imperative before the third person. Before the first person singular it signifies resolution, fixed purpose, or ardent wish.

Let me die with the Philistines.
Here let me sit,

Judgu

And hold high converse with the mighty dead. Thomson.

3. Before the first person plural, let implies exhortation.

4.

Rise; let us go.

Mark.

Let us seek out some desolate shade. Shaksp. Before the third person, singular or plural, let implies permission.

Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause. Milt.

5. Or precept.

Let the soldiers seize him for one of the assassinates. Dryden,

6. Sometimes it implies concession. O'er golden sands let rich Pactolus flow, Or trees weep amber on the banks of Po, While by our oaks the precious loads are born, And realms commanded which those trees adorn. Pope. 7. Before a thing in the passive voice, let implies command.

Let not the objects which ought to be contiguous be separated, and let those which ought to be separated be apparently so to us; but let this be done by a small and pleasing difference.

If it were so, I might have let alone Th' insulting hand of Douglas over you. Shaks. The public outrages of a destroying tyranny are but childish appetites, let alone till they are grown ungovernable. L'Estrange's Fables. Let me alone to accuse him afterwards. Dryd. This is of no use, and had been better let alone: he is fain to resolve all into present possession. Locke. Nestor, do not let us alone till you have shortened our necks, and reduced them to their antient standard. Addison. This notion might be let alone and despised, as a piece of harmless unintelligible enthusiasm. Rogers. There's a letter for you, Sir, if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is." Shaksp. 11. To put to hire; to grant to a tenant. Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon; he let the vineyard unto keepers. Canticles.

10. To more than permit; to give.

Nothing deadens so much the composition of a picture, as figures which appertain not to the subject: we may call them figures to be let.

Dryden.

She let her second floor to a very genteel man.
Tatler.

A law was enacted, prohibiting all bishops, and other ecclesiastical corporatious, from letting their lands for above the term of twenty years.

Swift. 12. To suffer any thing to take a course which requires no impulsive violence. In this sense it is commonly joined with a particle.

Joshua.

She let them down by a cord through the window. Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. Luke.

Let down thy pitcher, that I may drink. Gen. The beginning of strife is as when one letteth Proverbs.

out water.

As terebration doth meliorate fruit, so doth pricking vines or trees after they be of some growth, and thereby letting forth gum or tears. Bacon. Hudibras.

And if I knew which way to do't, Your honour safe, I'd let you out.

The letting out our love to mutable objects doth but enlarge our hearts, and make them the wider marks for fortune to be wounded. Boyle.

My heart sinks in me while I hear him speak, And every slacken'd fibre drops its hold; Like nature letting down the springs of life. Dryden. From this point of the story, the poet is let down to his traditional poverty.

Pope's Essay on Homer. You may let it down, that is, make it softer by tempering it. Moxon's Mechanical Exercises. 13. To permit to take any state or course. Finding an ease in not understanding, he let loose his thoughts wholly to pleasure. Sidney. Let reason teach impossibility in any thing, and the will of man doth let it go. Hooker.

He was let loose among the woods as soon as he was able to ride on horseback or carry a gun. Spectator.

14. TO LET blood, is elliptical for to let out blood. To free it from confinement; to suffer it to stream out of the vein. Be rul'd by me; Let's purge this choler without letting blood.

Shakspeare. His ancient knot of dangerous adversaries To-morrow are let blood in Pomfrete.

Shakspeare.

Hippocrates let great quantities of blood, and opened several veins at a time.

Arbuthnot. 15. To LET blood, is used with a dative of the person whose blood is let.

As terebration doth meliorate fruits, so doth tetting plants blood, as pricking vines, thereby letting forth tears. Bacon

16. To LET in. To admit.

Let in your king, whose labour'd spirits Crave harbourage within your city walls. Shaks. Roscetes presented his army before the gates of the city, in hopes that the citizens would raise some tumult, and let him in.

Knolles. What boots it at one gate to make defence, And at another to let in the foe,

Effeminately vanquish'd? Milton's Agonistes.

The more tender our spirits are made by religion, the more easy we are to let in grief, if the cause be innocent. Taylor.

They but preserve the ashes, thou the flame, True to his sense, but truer to his fame, Fording his current, where thou find'st it low, Let'st in thine own to make it rise and flow.

Denbam

To give a period to my life, and to his fears you're welcome; here's a throat, a heart, or any other part, ready to let in death, and receive his commands. Denbam.

17. If a noun follows, for let in, let into is required.

It is the key that lets them into their very heart, and enables them to command all that is there. South's Sermons. There are pictures of such as have been distinguished by their birth or miracles, with inscriptions, that let you into the name and history Addison. of the person represented.

Most historians have spoken of ill success, and terrible events, as if they had been let inte the secrets of Providence, and made acquainted. with that private conduct by which the world is Addison. governed. These are not mysteries for ordinary readers to be let into. Addison. As we rode through the town, I was let into the characters of all the inhabitants; one was a dog, another a whelp, and another a cur. Addis. IS. TO LET in, or into. To procure admission.

They should speak properly and correctly, whereby they may let their thoughts into other men's minds the more easily. Locke.

As soon as they have hewn down any quantity of the rocks, they let in their springs and reservoirs among their works. Addison. 19. To LET off. To discharge. Originally used of an arrow dismissed from the gripe, and therefore suffered to fly off the string: now applied to guns. Charging my pistol with powder, I cautioned the emperor not to be afraid, and then let it eff Swift. To lease out; to give to

in the air.

20. To LET out.

hire or farm. To LET. v. a. [lettan, Saxon.] 1. To hinder; to obstruct; to oppose. Their senses are not letted from enjoying their objects: we have the impediments of honour, and the torments of conscience. Sidney.

To glorify him in all things, is to do nothing whereby the name of God may be blasphemed; nothing whereby the salvation of Jew or Grecian, or any in the church of Christ, may be let or hindered. Hooker. Leave, ah, leave off, whatever wight thou be, To let a weary wretch from her due rest, And trouble dying soul's tranquillity! Fairy Q.