LAU

With stays and cordage last he rigg'd the ship, And roll'd on leavers, launch'd her in the deep.

2. To dart from the hand. This perhaps, Pope. for distinction sake, might better be written lanch or lance.

The King of Heav'n, obscure on high, Bar'd his red arm, and launching from the sky His writhen bolt, not shaking empty smoke, Down to the deep abyss the flaming_fellow strook. LAUND. n. s. [lande, French; lawn, Dryden. Welsh.] Lawn; a plain extended between woods.

Hanmer.

Under this thick-grown brake we'll shroud

ourselves;

For through this laund anon the deer will come; And in this covert will we make our stand. Shak. LA UNDRESS. n. s. [lavandiere, French: Skinner imagines that lavandaresse may have been the old word.] A woman whose employment is to wash clothes.

The countess of Richmond would often say, On condition the princes of Christendom would march against the Turks, she would willingly attend them, and be their laundress. Camden.

Take up these cloaths here quickly; carry them to the laundress in Datchet Mead. Shaksp. The laundress must be sure to tear her smocks in the washing, and yet wash them but half.

Swift.

LAUNDRY. n. s. [as if lavanderie.] 1. The room in which clothes are washed. The affairs of the family ought to be consulted, whether they concern the stable, dairy, the try, or laundry. pan

2. The act or state of washing.

Swift.

Chalky water is too fretting, as appeareth in laundry of cloaths, which wear out apace. Bacon. LAVOLTA. n.s. [la volte, French.] An old dance, in which was much turning and much capering. Hanmer.

I cannot sing,

Nor heel the high lavolt; nor sweeten talk; Nor play at subtle games.

Sbaksp.

LAUREATE. adj. [laureatus, Lat.] Decked or invested with a laurel.

Bid Amaranthus all his beauty shed, And daffodillies fill their cups with tears, To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies.

Milton.

Soft on her lap her laureate son reclines. Pope. LAUREATION. n. s. [from laureate.] It denotes, in the Scottish universities, the act or state of having degrees conferred, as they have in some of them a flowery crown, in imitation of laurel among the ancients. LAUREL. n. s. [laurus, Lat. laurier, Fr. A tree, called also the cherry bay. The laurus or laurel of the ancients is affirmed by naturalists to be what we call the bay tree. Ainsworth.

The laurel, meed of mighty conquerors, And poets sage. The laurel or cherry-bay, by cutting away the Fairy Queen. side branches, will rise to a large tree. Mortimer. LAURELED. adj. [from laurel.] Crowned or decorated with laurel; laureate. Hear'st thou the news? my friend! th' express is come

With laurell's letters from the camp to Rome. Dryden.

LAW

Then future ages with delight shall see How Plato's, Bacon's, Newton's, looks agree; Or in fair series laurell'd bards be shown LAW. n. s. [laga, Saxon; loi, French A Virgil there, and here an Addison. Pope. laugh, Erse.]

1. A rule of action.

That which doth assign unto each thing the kind, that which doth moderate the force and power, that which doth appoint the form and measure of working; the same we term a law. Hooker. Unhappy man! to break the pious laws Of nature, pleading in his children's cause. Dryd. 2. A decree, edict, statute, or custom, publickly established as a rule of justice. Ordain them laws, part such as appertain To civil justice, part religious rites. Milton. Our nation would not give larus to the Irish, therefore now the Irish gave laws to them. Davies on Ireland. 3. A decree authoritatively annexing rewards or punishments to certain actions. So many laws argue so many sins. Laws politique among men presuming man to be rebellious.

Judicial process.

Milton.

Hooker.

When every case in law is right. Sbaksp. He hath resisted law,

And therefore law shall scorn him further trial Than the severity of public power.

Shaksp

One law is split into two. Baker on Learning. Conformity to law; any thing lawful. In a rebellion,

When what's not meet, but what must be, was

law,

Then were they chosen.

Hooker.

:

This bond is forfeit ;

nation.

LA ́WGIVER. n. s. [law and giver.] Legislator; one that makes laws. Solomon we esteem as the lawgiver of our Bacon. A law may be very reasonable in itself, although one does not know the reason of the lawgivers. Swift. LAWGIVING. adj. [law and giving.] Legislative.

Lawgiving heroes, fam'd for taming brutes, And raising cities with their charming lutes.

LAWLESS. adj. [from law.]

Waller.

1. Unrestrained by any law; not subject to law.

The necessity of war, which among human actions is the most larvless, hath some kind of affinity with the necessity of law. Raleigh's Es The lawless tyrant, who denies

To know their God, or message to regard,
Must be compelled.

Milton. Orpheus did not, as poets feign, tame savage beasts,

But men as lawless, and as wild as they. Roscom.
Not the gods, ner angry Jove, will bear
Thy lawless wand'ring walks in
air. Dryd.
open
Blind as the Cyclops, and as blind as he,
They own'd a lawless savage liberty,
Lake that our painted ancestors so priz'd,
Ere empire's arts their breasts had civiliz'd. Dry.
He meteor-like, flames lawless through the
void,

Destroying others, by himself destroy'd. Pope. 1. Contrary to law; illegal.

Take not the quarrel from his powerful arms,
He needs ne indirect nor lawless course
To cut off those that have offended him. Shaks.
We cite our faults,

That they may hold excus'd our lawless lives.
Shakspeare.

Thou the first, lay down thy lawless claim;
Thou of my blood who bear'st the Julian name.
Dryden.

LA WLESSLY. adv. [from lawless.] In a manner contrary to law.

Fear not, he bears an honourable mind, And will not use a woman lawlessly. Shaksp. LAWMAKER. n. s. [law and maker.] Legislator; one who makes laws; a lawgiver.

Their judgment is, that the church of Christ should admit no lawmakers but the evangelists. Hesker.

LAWN. n. s. [land, Danish; lawn, Welsh; lande, French.]

1. An open space between woods.

Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks
Grazing the tender herb, were interpos'd. Milt.
His mountains were shaded with young trees,

that gradually shot up into groves, woods, and forests, intermixed with walks, and lawns, and gardens. Addison. Stern beasts in trains that by his truncheon fell, Now grisly forms shoot o'er the laruns of hell. Pope,

Interspersed in lawns and opening glades, Thin trees arise that shun each other's shades. Pope.

2. [linon, Fr.] Fine linen, remarkable for being used in the sleeves of bishops. Should'st thou bleed,

To stop the wounds my finest lazon I'd tear, Wash them with tears, and wipe them with my hair. Prior From high life high characters are drawn, A saint in crape is twice a saint in laren. Pope. What awe did the slow solemn knell inspire; The duties by the lawn rob'd preláte pay'd, And the last words, that dust to dust convey'd! Tickell. LAWSUIT. n.s. [law and suit.] A process in law; a litigation.

The giving the priest a right to the tithe would produce larvsuits and wrangles; his attendance on the courts of justice would leave his people without a spiritual guide. Swift. LAWYER. n. s. [from law.] Professor of law; advocate; pleader.

It is like the breath of an unfee'd lawyer, you gave me nothing for it. Shaksp, King Lear. Is the law evil, because some lawyers in their office swerve from it? Whitgifte

I have entered into a work touching laws, in a middle term, between the speculative and reverend discourses of philosophers, and the writ ings of lawyers. Bacon's Holy War. The nymphs with scorn beheld their foes, When the defendant's council rose; And, what no lawyer ever lack'd, LAX. adj. [laxus, Latin.] With impudence own'd all the fact. 1. Loose; not confined.

Swift.

Milton.

Inhabit lax, ye pow'rs of heav'n! 2. Disunited; not strongly combined.

In nines, those parts of the earth which abound with strata of stone, suffer much more than those which consist of gravel, and the like laxer matter, which more easily give way.

Woodward.

3. Vague; not rigidly exact. Dialogues were only lax and moral discourses. Baker.

purgative; a medicine that relaxes the bowels without stimulation.

Nought profits him to save abandon'd life, Nor vomits upward aid, nor downward laxative. Dryden. LAXATIVENESS. n. s. [from laxative.] Power of easing costiveness. LAʼXITY. n. s. [laxitas, Latin.]

1. Not compression; not close cohesion; slackness of contexture.

The former causes could never beget whirlpools in a chaos of so great a laxity and thinness. Bentley. 2. Contrariety to rigorous precision; as, laxity of expression.

3. Looseness; not costiveness.

If sometimes it cause any laxity, it is in the same way with iron unprepared, which will disturb some bodies, and work by purge and vomit. Brown.

4. Slackness; contrariety to tension.

Laxity of a fibre, is that degree of cohesion in its parts which a small force can alter, so as to increase its length beyond what is natural. Quincy.

In consideration of the laxity of their eyes, they are subject to relapse. Wiseman's Surgery. 5. Openness; not closeness.

Hold a piece of paper close by the flame of a candle, and by little and little remove it further off, and there is upon the paper some part of that which I see in the candle, and it grows still less and less as I remove; so that if I would trust my sense, I should believe it as very a bedy upon the paper as in the candle, though infeebled by the laxity of the channel in which it flows. Dighy an Bodies. LAXNESS. n. s. Laxity; not tension; not pcision; not costiveness.

For the free passage of the sound into the ear, it is requisite that the tympanum he tense, and hard stretched; otherwise the laxness of that membrane will certainly dead and damp the sound. Holder's Elements of Speech.

LAY. Preterit of lie.

O! would the quarrel lay upon our heads. Shakspeare. He was familiarly acquainted with him at such time as he lay embassador at Constantinople.

Knolles.

When Ahab had heard those words he fasted, and lay in sackcloth. 1 Kings.

I uyd whatever in the Godhead lay. Dryden. He rode to rouze the prey,

That shaded by the fern in harbour lay, And thence dislodged. Dryden's Knight's Tale. Leaving Rome, in my way to Sienna, I lay the first night at a village in the territories of the ancient Veii.

Addison.

How could he have the retiredness of the cloister, to perform all those acts of devotion in, when the burthen of the reformation lay upon his shoulders! Francis Atterbury. The presbyterians argued, that if the Pretender should invade those parts where the numbers and estates of the dissenters chiefly lay, they would sit still. To LAY. v. a. [leczan, Saxon; leggen, Swift. Dutch.]

1. To place; to put; to reposite. This word being correlative to lie, involves commonly immobility or extension; a punishment laid, is a punishment that cannot be shaken off; in immobility is included weight. One house laid to another, implies extension.

He laid his robe from him.

Jonah. They have laid their swords under their heads. Ezekiel.

Soft on the flow'ry herb I found me laid. Milt. He sacrificing laid The entrails on the wood. 2. To place along.

3.

4.

Milton.

Seek not to be judge, being not able to take away iniquity, lest at any time thou fear the person of the mighty, and lay a stumbling-block in the way of thy uprightness. Ecclesiasticus. A stone was laid on the mouth of the den. Dan. To beat down corn or grass.

Another ill accident is laying of corn with great rains in harvest. Bacon's Nat. History, Let no sheep there play,

Nor frisking kids the flowery meadows lay. May.
To keep from rising; to settle; to still.
I'll use th' advantage of my power,
And lay the summer's dust with showers of
Shakspeare.

blood.

It was a sandy soil, and the way had been full of dust; but an hour or two before a refreshing fragrant shower of rain had laid the dust. Ray. 5. To fix deep; to dispose regularly

6.

either of these notions may be conceived from the following examples; but regularity seems rather implied; so we say, to lay bricks; to lay planks.

Schismaticks, outlaws, or criminal persons, are not fit to lay the foundation of a new colony.

Bacon.

I lay the deep foundations of a wall, And Enos, nam'd from me, the city call. Dryd. Men will be apt to call it pulling up the old foundations of knowledge; persuade myself, that the way I have pursued lays those foundaLocke.

tions surer.

To put; to place.

Then he offered it to him again; then he put it by again; but, to my thinking, he was very loth to lay his fingers off it. Shaksp. Julius Časar. Till us death lay

To ripe and mellow, we are but stubborn clay.
Donne.

They shall lay hands on the sick, and recover.
Mark.

They, who so state a question, do no more but separate and disentangle the parts of it, one from another, and lay them, when so disentangled, in their due order. Locke.

We to thy name our annual rites will pay, And on thy altars sacrifices lay. Pope's Statius. 7. To bury; to inter.

8.

David fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption.

To station or place privily.

Acts.

Lay thee an ambush for the city behind thee.

Joshua.

The wicked have laid a snare for me. Psalms. Lay not wait, O! wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous. Proverbs.

9.

To spread on a surface.

The colouring upon those maps should be laid on so thin, as not to obscure or conceal any part of the lines.

Watts.

10.

To paint; to enamel.

15. To propagate plants by fixing their twigs in the ground.

Mortimer.

The chief time of laying gilliflowers is in July, when the flowers are gone. 16. To wager; to stake.

But since you will be mad, and since you may Suspect my courage, if I should not lay; The pawn I proffer shall be full as good. Dryden's Virgil.

17. To reposite any thing.

The sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest, for herself, where she may lay her young. Psalms.

18. To exclude eggs.

After the egg is lay'd, there is no further growth or nourishment from the female.

Bacon's Natural History. A hen mistakes a piece of chalk for an egg, and sits upon it; she is insensible of an increase or diminution in the number of those she lays. Spectator. 19. To apply with violence; as, to lay blows.

Lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it. Ezekiel.

Never more shall my torn mind be heal'd, Nor taste the gentle comforts of repose! A dreadful band of gloomy cares surround me, And lay strong siege to my distracted soul.

20. To apply nearly.

Philips.

She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. Proverbs.

It is better to go to the house of mourning then to go to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart. Ecclesiastes. The peacock laid it extremely to heart, that, being Juno's darling bird, he had not the nightingale's voice. L'Estrange.

He that really lays these two things to heart, the extreme necessity that he is in, and the small possibility of help, will never come coldly to a work of that concernment. Duppa. 21. To add; to conjoin.

Wo unto them that lay field to field. Isaiah. 22. To put in a state; implying somewhat of disclosure.

If the sinus lle distant; lay it open first, and cure that apertion before you divide that in ano. Wiseman.

The wars have laid whole countries waste.

23. To scheme; to contrive.

Addison.

Every breast she did with spirit inflame, Yet still fresh projects lay'd the gray-ey'd dame. Chapman.

Homer is like his Jupiter, has his terrors, shaking Olympus; Virgil, like the same power, in his benevolence, counselling with the gods, laying plans for empires. Pope.

Don Diego and we have laid it so, that before the rope is well about thy neck, he will break in and cut thee down. Arbuthnot.

24. To charge as a payment.

A tax laid upon land seems hard to the landholder, because it is so much money going out of his pocket. Locke. 25. To impute; to charge.

Preoccupied with what

You rather must do, than what you should do, Made you against the grain to voice him consul, Lay the fault on us. Shakspeare.

How shall this bloody deed be answered? It will be laid to us, whose providence Should have kept short, restrain'd, and out of

haunt,

This mad young man.

Shaksp. Hamlet.

We need not lay new matter to his charge.

Shakspeare. Men groan from out of the city, yet God layeth not folly to them.

Job. Let us be glad of this, and all our fears Lay on his providence. Paradise Regained.

The writers of those times lay the disgraces and ruins of their country upon the numbers and fierceness of those savage nations that invaded them. Temple. They lay want of invention to his charge; a capital crime. Dryden's Eneid. You represented it to the queen as wholly innocent of those crimes which were laid unjustly to its charge.

Dryden. Locke.

They lay the blame on the poor little ones.

There was eagerness on both sides; but this is far from laying a blot upón Luther. Atterb. 26. To impose, as evil or punishment.

The weariest and most loathed life
That age, ach, penury, imprisonment,
Can lay on nature, is a paradise
To what we fear of death.

Shakspeare.

Thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. Exodus. The Lord shall lay the fear of you, and the dread of you upon all the land. Deuteronomy.

These words were not spoken to Adam: neither, indeed, was there any grant in them made to Adam; but a punishment laid upon Eve.

Locke.

27. To enjoin as a duty, or rule of action. It seemed good to lay upon you no greater burden. Acts.

Whilst you lay on your friend the favour, acquit him of the debt. Wyeberley.

A prince who never disobey'd, Not when the most severe commands were laid, Nor want, nor exile with his duty weigh'd.

Dryden. You see what obligation the profession of Christianity lays upon us to holiness of life. Tillotson. Neglect the rules each verbal critick lays, For not to know some trifles is a praise. Pope. 28. To exhibit; to offer.

It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him. Acts.

Till he lays his indictment in some certain country, we do not think ourselves bound to answer. Atterbury.

Waller.

Roscommon first, then Mulgrave rose, like light;

The Stagyrite, and Horace, laid aside, Inform'd by them, we need no foreign guide. Granville. Retention is the power to revive again in our minds those ideas which, after imprinting, have disappeared, or have been laid aside out of sight. Locke

When by just vengeance guilty mortals perish, The gods behold their punishment with pleasure,

And lay the uplifted thunderbolt aside. Addison. 33. To LAY away. To put froin one; not to keep.

Queen Esther laid aside her glorious apparel, and put on the garments of anguish. Esther. 34. TO LAY before. To expose to view ; to show; to display.

mons.

I cannot better satisfy your piety, than by laying before you a prospect of your labours. Wake. That treaty hath been laid before the comSwift. Their office it is to lay the business of the nation before him. Addison. 35. TO LAY by. To reserve for some future time.

Let every one lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him. 1 Corinthians. 36. To LAY by. To put from one; to dismiss.

Let brave spirits that have fitted themselves for command, either by sea or land, not be laid by as persons unnecessary for the time. Bacon. She went away and laid by her veil. Genesis. Did they not swear to live and die With Essex, and straight laid him by?

Hudib. For that look, which does your people awe, When in your throne and robes you give 'em law,

Lay it by here, and give a gentler smile.

Waller.

The Tuscan king

Laid by the lance, and took him to the sling.
Dryden.
Where Dedalus his borrow'd wings laid by,
To that obscure retreat I chuse to fly. Dryden.
My zeal for you must lay the father by,
And plead my country's cause against my son.
Dryden.

Fortune, conscious of your destiny,
E'en then took care to lay you softly by,
And wrapp'd your fate among her precious
things,

Kept fresh to be unfolded with your king's. Dryden.

Dismiss your rage, and lay your weapons by, Know I protect them, and they shall not die. Dryden.

When their displeasure is once declared they ought not presently to lay by the severity of their brows, but restore their children to their former grace with some difficulty. Locke. 37. To LAY down. To deposite as a pledge, equivalent, or satisfaction. I lay down my life for the sheep. For her, my lord,

John.

I dare my life lay down, and will do't, Sir, Please you t' accept it, that the queen is spotless

I' th' eyes of Heaven. Shakspeare. 38. To LAY down. To quit; to resign. The soldier being once brought in for the service, I will not have him lay dorun his arms any more. Spenser's Ireland. Ambitious conquerors, in their mad career, Check'd by thy voice, lay down the sword and spear. Blackmore's Creation. The story of the tragedy is purely fiction; for I take it up where the history has laid it

dorun.

Dryden.

39. To LAY down. To commit to repose. I will lay me doren in peace and sleep. Psal. And they lay themselves down upon cloths laid to pledge, by every altar. Amos.

We lay us down, to sleep away our cares; night shuts up the senses. Glanville's Scepsis. Some god conduct me to the sacred shades, Or lift me high to Hamus' hilly crown, Or in the plains of Tempe lay me down. Dryd. 40. To LAY down. To advance as a proposition.

I have laid down, in some measure, the description of the old known world. Abbot. Kircher lays it down as a certain principle, that there never was any people so rude, which did not acknowledge and worship one supreme deity. Stilling fleet.

I must lay down this for your encouragement, that we are no longer now under the heavy yoke of a perfect unsinning obedience. Wake.

Plato lays it down as a principle, that whatever is permitted to befal a just man, whether poverty or sickness, shall, either in life or death, conduce to his good. Addison.

From the maxims laid dozen many may conclude, that there had been abuses. Swift. 41. To LAY for. To attempt by ambush, or insidious practices.

He embarked, being hardly laid for at sea by Cortug-ogli, a famous pirate." Knolles. 42. To Lay forth. To diffuse; to expatiate.