Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

LASTLY — LAW

LASTLY, adv.

1. In the last place.

2. In the conclusion; at last; finally.

LATCH, n. [L. ligula, from ligo, to tie, and with English lock. L. laqueus, from which we have lace, may belong to the same root. The primary sense of the root is to catch, to close, stop or make fast.]

1. A small piece of iron or wood used to fasten a door.

2. A small line like a loop, used to lace the bonnets to the courses, or the drabblers to the bonnets.

LATCH, v.t.

1. To fasten with a latch; to fasten.

2. To smear. [Not used.]

LATCHET, n. [from latch.] The string that fastens a shoe. Mark 1:7.

LATE, a. [This word is from the root of let, the sense of which is to draw out, extend or prolong, hence to be slow or late. See Let. This adjective has regular terminations of the comparative and superlative degrees, later, latest, but it has also latter, and latest is often contracted into last.]

1. Coming after the usual time; slow; tardy; long delayed; as a late spring; a late summer. The crops or harvest will be late.

2. Far advanced towards the end or close; as a late hour of the day. He began at a late period of his life.

3. Last, or recently in any place, office or character; as the late ministry; the late administration.

4. Existing not long ago, but now decayed or departed; as the late bishop of London.

5. Not long past; happening not long ago; recent; as the late rains. We have received late intelligence.

LATE, adv.

1. After the usual time, or the time appointed; after delay; as, he arrived late.

2. After the proper or usual season. This year the fruits ripen late.

3. Not long ago; lately.

And round them throng with leaps and bounds the late imprison’d young.

4. Far in the night, day, week, or other particular period; as, to lie a-bed late; to sit up late at night.

Of late, lately, in time not long past, or near the present. The practice is of late uncommon.

Too late, after the proper time; not in due time. We arrived too late to see the procession.

LATED, a. Belated; being too late. [Not used.]

LATEEN, a. A lateen sail is a triangular sail, extended by a lateen yard, which is slung about one quarter the distance from the lower end, which is brought down at the tack while the other end is elevated at an angle of about 45 degrees; used in xebecs, polacres and settees, in the Mediterranean.

LATELY, adv. Not long ago; recently. We called on a gentleman who has lately arrived from Italy.

LATENCY, n. [See Latent.] The state of being concealed; abstruseness.

LATENESS, n.

1. The state of being tardy, or of coming after the usual time; as the lateness of spring or of harvest.

2. Time far advanced in any particular period; as lateness of the day or night; lateness in the season; lateness in life.

3. The state of being out of time, or after the appointed time; as the lateness of one’s arrival.

LATENT, a. [L. latens, lateo; Gr; Heb. to cover.]

Hid; concealed; secret; not seen; not visible or apparent. We speak of latent motives; latent reasons; latent springs of action.

Latent heat, is heat in combination, in distinction from sensible heat; the portion of heat which disappears, when a body changes its form from the solid to the fluid, or from the fluid to the aeriform state.

LATER, a. [comp. deg. of late.] Posterior; subsequent.

LATERAL, a. [L. lateralis, from latus, a side, and broad, Gr., Eng. flat. The primary sense of these words is to extend, as in late, let.]

1. Pertaining to the side; as the lateral view of an object.

2. Proceeding from the side; as the lateral branches of a tree; lateral shoots.

LATERALITY, n. The quality of having distinct sides. [Not used.]

LATERALLY, adv.

1. By the side; sideways.

2. In the direction of the side.

LATERAN, n. One of the churches at Rome. The name is said to have been derived from that of a man.

A latere, [L.] A legate a latere, is a pope’s legate or envoy, so called because sent from his side, from among his favorites and counselors.

LATERED, a. Delayed. Obs.

LATERIFOLIOUS, a. [L. latus, side, and folium, leaf.]

In botany, growing on the side of a leaf at the base; as a laterifolious flower.

LATERITIOUS, a. [L. lateritius, from later, a brick.] Like bricks; of the color of bricks.

Lateritious sediment, a sediment in urine resembling brick dust, observed after the crises of fevers, and at the termination of gouty paroxysms.

LATH, n.

1. A thin, narrow board or slip of wood nailed to the rafters of a building to support the tiles or covering.

2. A thin narrow slip of wood nailed to the studs, to support the plastering.

LATH, v.t. To cover or line with laths.

LATH, n. [See Wapentake.]

In some parts of England, a part or division of a county. Spenser, Spelman and Blackstone do not agree in their accounts of the lath; but according to the laws of Edward the Confessor, the lath, in some counties, answered to the trithing or third part of a county in others.

LATHE, n.

An engine by which instruments of wood, ivory, metals and other materials, are turned and cut into a smooth round form.

LATHER, v.i.

To form a foam with water and soap; to become froth, or frothy matter.

LATHER, v.t. To spread over with the foam of soap.

LATHER, n.

1. Foam or froth made by soap moistened with water.

2. Foam or froth from profuse sweat, as of a horse.

LATHY, a. Thin as a lath; long and slender.

LATHY, a. Flabby; weak.

LATIBULIZE, v.i. [L. latibulum, a hiding place.]

To retire into a den, burrow or cavity, and lie dormant in winter; to retreat and lie hid.

The tortoise latibulizes in October.

LATICLAVE, n. [L. laticlavium; latus, broad, and clavus, a stud.]

An ornament of dress worn by Roman senators. It is supposed to have been a broad stripe of purple on the fore part of the tunic, set with knobs or studs.

LATIN, a. Pertaining to the Latins, a people of Latium, in Italy; Roman; as the Latin language.

Latin church, the western church; the christian church in Italy, France, Spain and other countries where the Latin language was introduced, as distinct from the Greek or eastern church.

LATIN, n.

1. The language of the ancient Romans.

2. An exercise in schools, consisting in turning English into Latin.

LATINISM, n. A Latin idiom; a mode of speech peculiar to the Latins.

LATINIST, n. One skilled in Latin.

LATINITY, n. Purity of the Latin style or idiom; the Latin tongue.

LATINIZE, v.t. To give to foreign words Latin terminations and make them Latin.

LATINIZE, v.i. To use words or phrases borrowed from the Latin.

LATIROSTROUS, a. [L. latus, broad, and rostrum, beak.] Having a broad beak, as a fowl.

LATISH, a. [from late.] Somewhat late.

LATITANCY, n. [L. latitans, latito, to lie hid, from lateo. See Latent.]

The state of lying concealed; the state of lurking.

LATITANT, a. Lurking; lying hid; concealed.

[These words are rarely used. See Latent.]

LATITAT, n. [L. he lurks.] A writ by which a person is summoned into the king’s bench to answer, as supposing he lies concealed.

LATITUDE, n. [L. latitudo, breadth; latus, broad.]

1. Breadth; width; extent from side to side.

2. Room; space.

[In the foregoing senses, little used.]

3. In astronomy, the distance of a star north or south of the ecliptic.

4. In geography, the distance of any place on the globe, north or south of the equator. Boston is situated in the forty third degree of north latitude.

5. Extent of meaning or construction; indefinite acceptation. The words will not bear this latitude of construction.

6. Extent of deviation from a settled point; freedom from rules or limits; laxity.

In human actions, there are no degrees and precise natural limits described, but a latitude is indulged.

7. Extent.

I pretend not to treat of them in their full latitude.

LATITUDINAL, a. Pertaining to latitude; in the direction of latitude.

LATITUDINARIAN, a. Not restrained; not confined by precise limits; free; thinking or acting at large; as latitudinarian opinions or doctrines.

LATITUDINARIAN, n.

1. One who is moderate in his notions, or not restrained by precise settled limits in opinion; one who indulges freedom in thinking.

2. In theology, one who departs in opinion from the strict principles of orthodoxy; or one who indulges a latitude of thinking and interpretation; a moderate man.

LATITUDINARIANISM, n.

1. Freedom or liberality of opinion, particularly in theology.

2. Indifference to religion.

LATRANT, a. [L. latro, to bark.] Barking.

LATRATE, v.i. To bark as a dog. [Not used.]

LATRATION, n. A barking. [Not used.]

LATRIA, n. [L. from Gr.] The highest kind of worship, or that paid to God; distinguished by the Catholics from dulia, or the inferior worship paid to saints.

LATROBITE, n. [from Latrobe.] A newly described mineral of a pale pink red color, massive or crystallized, from an isle near the Labrador coast.

LATROCINY, n. [L. latrocinium.] Theft; larceny. [Not in use.]

LATTEN, n. Iron plate covered with tin.

LATTEN-BRASS, n. Plates of milled brass reduced to different thicknesses, according to the uses they are intended for.

LATTER, a. [an irregular comparative of late.]

1. Coming or happening after something else; opposed to former; as the former and latter rain; former or latter harvest.

2. Mentioned the last of two.

The difference between reason and revelation - and in what sense the latter is superior.

3. Modern; lately done or past; as in these latter ages.

LATTERLY, adv. Of late; in time not long past; lately.

LATTERMATH, n. The latter mowing; that which is mowed after a former mowing.

LATTICE, n.

Any work of wood or iron, made by crossing laths, rods or bars, and forming open squares like net-work; as the lattice of a window.

The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice. Judges 5:28.

LATTICE, a.

1. Consisting of cross pieces; as lattice work.

2. Furnished with lattice work; as a lattice window.

LATTICE, v.t.

1. To form with cross bars, and open work.

2. To furnish with a lattice.

LATTICED, pp. Furnished with a lattice.

LAUD, n. [L. laus, laudis; Gr.; Eng. loud. See Loud.]

1. Praise; commendation; an extolling in words; honorable mention. [Little used.]

2. That part of divine worship which consists in praise.

3. Music or singing in honor of any one.

LAUD, v.t. [L. laudo.] To praise in words alone, or with words and singing; to celebrate.

LAUDABLE, a. [L. laudabilis.]

1. Praiseworthy; commendable; as laudable motives; laudable actions.

2. Healthy; salubrious; as laudable juices of the body.

3. Healthy; well digested; as laudable pus.

LAUDABLENESS, n. The quality of deserving praise; praiseworthiness; as the laudableness of designs, purposes, motives or actions. [Laudability, in a like sense, has been used, but rarely.]

LAUDABLY, adv. In a manner deserving praise.

LAUDANUM, n. [from L. laudo, to praise.] Opium dissolved in spirit or wine; tincture of opium.

LAUDATIVE, n. [L. laudativus.] A panegyric; an eulogy. [Little used.]

LAUDATORY, a. Containing praise; tending to praise.

LAUDATORY, n. That which contains praise.

LAUDER, n. One who praises.

LAUGH, v.i. l’aff. [Heb.]

1. To make the noise and exhibit the features which are characteristic of mirth in the human species. Violent laughter is accompanied with a shaking of the sides, and all laughter expels breath from the lungs.

2. In poetry, to be gay; to appear gay, cheerful, pleasant, lively or brilliant.

Then laughs the childish year with flow’rets crown’d.

And o’er the foaming bowl, the laughing wine.

To laugh at, to ridicule; to treat with some degree of contempt.

No fool to laugh at, which he valued more.

To laugh to scorn, to deride; to treat with mockery, contempt and scorn. Nehemiah 2:19.

LAUGH, n. l’aff. An expression of mirth peculiar to the human species.

But feigns a laugh, to see me search around, and by that laugh the willing fair is found.

LAUGHABLE, a. l’affable. That may justly excite laughter; as a laughable story; a laughable scene.

LAUGHER, n. l’affer. One who laughs, or is fond of merriment.

The laughers are a majority.

LAUGHING, ppr. l’affing. Expressing mirth in a particular manner.

LAUGHINGLY, adv. l’affingly. In a merry way; with laughter.

LAUGHING-STOCK, n. An object of ridicule; a butt of sport.

LAUGHTER, n. l’affter. Convulsive merriment; an expression of mirth peculiar to man, consisting in a peculiar noise and configuration of features, with a shaking of the sides and expulsion of breath.

I said of laughter, it is mad. Ecclesiastes 2:2.

LAUGH-WORTHY, a. Deserving to be laughed at.

LAUMONITE, n. Efflorescent zeolite; so called from Laumont, its discoverer. It is found in laminated masses, in groups of prismatic crystals or prismatic distinct concretions. Exposed to the air, it disintegrates.

LAUNCH, [See Lanch, the more correct orthography.]

LAUND, n. A lawn. [Not used.]

LAUNDER, n. l’ander. [from L. lavo, to wash.]

A washer-woman; also, a long and hollow trough, used by miners to receive the powdered ore from the box where it is beaten.

LAUNDER, v.t. l’ander. To wash; to wet.

LAUNDERER, n. l’anderer. A man who follows the business of washing clothes.

LAUNDRESS, n. l’andress. [L. lavo.]

A washer-woman; a female whose employment is to wash clothes.

LAUNDRESS, v.i. l’andress. [supra.] To practice washing.

LAUNDRY, n. l’andry.

1. A washing.

2. The place or room where clothes are washed.

LAUREATE, a. [L. laureatus, from laurea, a laurel.]

Decked or invested with laurel; as laureate hearse.

Soft on her lap her laureate son reclines.

Poet laureate, in Great Britain, an officer of the king’s household, whose business is to compose an ode annually for the king’s birthday, and for the new year. It is said this title was first given him in the time of Edward IV.

LAUREATE, v.t. To honor with a degree in the university, and a present of a wreath of laurel.

LAUREATED, pp. Honored with a degree and a laurel wreath.

LAUREATION, n. The act of conferring a degree in the university, together with a wreath of laurel; an honor bestowed on those who excelled in writing verse. This was an ancient practice at Oxford, from which probably originated the denomination of poet laureate.

LAUREL, n. [L. laurus.]

The bay-tree or Laurus, a genus of plants of several species.

LAURELED, a. Crowned or decorated with laurel, or with a laurel wreath; laureate.

LAURIFFEROUS, a. [L. laurus and fero, to bear.]

Producing or bringing laurel.

LAURUSTIN, n. [L. laurustinus.] A plant of the genus Viburnum, an evergreen shrub or tree, whose flowers are said to continue through the winter.

LAUSKRAUT, n. A plant of the genus Delphinium.

LAUTU, n. A band of cotton, twisted and worn on the head of the Inca of Peru, as a badge of royalty.

LAVA, n. [probably from flowing, and from the root of L. fluo, or lavo.]

1. A mass or stream of melted minerals or stony matter which bursts or is thrown from the mouth or sides of a volcano, and is sometimes ejected in such quantities as to overwhelm cities. Catana, at the foot of Etna, has often been destroyed by it, and in 1783, a vast tract of land in Iceland was overspread by an eruption of lava from mount Hecla.

2. The same matter when cool and hardened.

LAVATION, n. [L. lavatio, from lavo.] A washing or cleansing.

LAVATORY, n. [See Lave.]

1. A place for washing.

2. A wash or lotion for a diseased part.

3. A place where gold is obtained by washing.

LAVE, v.t. [L. lavo; Gr.]

To wash; to bathe; a word used chiefly in poetry or rhetoric.

LAVE, v.i.

1. To bathe; to wash one’s self.

2. To throw up or out; to lade out. [Not in use.]

LAVE-EARED, a. Having large pendant ears. [Not in use.]

LAVEER, v.t. In seamen’s language, to tack; to sail back and forth. [I believe this word is not in common use.]

LAVENDER, n. [L. lavendula.] A plant, or a genus of aromatic plants, Lavandula.

LAVER, n. A vessel for washing; a large basin; in scripture history, a basin placed in the court of the Jewish tabernacle, where the officiating priests washed their hands and feet and the entrails of victims.

LAVEROCK. [See Lark.]

LAVING, ppr. Washing; bathing.

LAVISH, a. [I know not from what source we have received this word. It coincides in elements with L. liber, free, liberal, and lavo, to wash.]

1. Prodigal; expending or bestowing with profusion; profuse. He was lavish of expense; lavish of praise; lavish of encomiums; lavish of censure; lavish of blood and treasure.

2. Wasteful; expending without necessity; liberal to a fault.

3. Wild; unrestrained.

Curbing his lavish spirit.

LAVISH, v.t.

1. To expend or bestow with profusion; as, to lavish praise or encomiums.

2. To waste; to expend without necessity or use; to squander; as, to lavish money on vices and amusements.

LAVISHED, pp. Expended profusely; wasted.

LAVISHER, n. A prodigal; a profuse person.

LAVISHING, ppr. Expending or laying out with profusion; wasting.

LAVISHLY, adv. With profuse expense; prodigally; wastefully.

LAVISHNESS, n. Profusion; prodigality.

LAVOLTA, An old dance in which was much turning and capering.

LAW, n. [L. lex; from the root of lay. See Lay. A law is that which is laid, set or fixed, like statute, constitution, from L. statuo.]

1. A rule, particularly an established or permanent rule, prescribed by the supreme power of a state to its subjects, for regulating their actions, particularly their social actions. Laws are imperative or mandatory, commanding what shall be done; prohibitory, restraining from what is to be forborn; or permissive, declaring what may be done without incurring a penalty. The laws which enjoin the duties of piety and morality, are prescribed by God and found in the Scriptures.

Law is beneficence acting by rule.

2. Municipal law, is a rule of civil conduct prescribed by the supreme power of a state, commanding what its subjects are to do, and prohibiting what they are to forbear; a statute.

Municipal or civil laws are established by the decrees, edicts or ordinances of absolute princes, as emperors and kings, or by the formal acts of the legislatures of free states. Law therefore is sometimes equivalent to decree, edict, or ordinance.

3. Law of nature, is a rule of conduct arising out of the natural relations of human beings established by the Creator, and existing prior to any positive precept. Thus it is a law of nature, that one man should not injure another, and murder and fraud would be crimes, independent of any prohibition from a supreme power.

4. Laws of animal nature, the inherent principles by which the economy and functions of animal bodies are performed, such as respiration, the circulation of the blood, digestion, nutrition, various secretions, etc.

5. Laws of vegetation, the principles by which plats are produced, and their growth carried on till they arrive to perfection.

6. Physical laws, or laws of nature. The invariable tendency or determination of any species of matter to a particular form with definite properties, and the determination of a body to certain motions, changes, and relations, which uniformly take place in the same circumstances, is called a physical law. These tendencies or determinations, whether called laws or affections of matter, have been established by the Creator, and are, with a peculiar felicity of expression, denominated in Scripture, ordinances of heaven.

7. Laws of nations, the rules that regulate the mutual intercourse of nations or states. These rules depend on natural law, or the principles of justice which spring from the social state; or they are founded on customs, compacts, treaties, leagues and agreements between independent communities.

By the law of nations, we are to understand that code of public instruction, which defines the rights and prescribes the duties of nations, in their intercourse with each other.

8. Moral law, a law which prescribes to men their religious and social duties, in other words, their duties to God and to each other. The moral law is summarily contained in the decalogue or ten commandments, written by the finger of God on two tables of stone, and delivered to Moses on mount Sinai. Exodus 20:1-17.

9. Ecclesiastical law, a rule of action prescribed for the government of a church; otherwise called canon law.

10. Written law, a law or rule of action prescribed or enacted by a sovereign, and promulgated and recorded in writing; a written statute, ordinance, edict or decree.

11. Unwritten or common law, a rule of action which derives its authority from long usage, or established custom, which has been immemorially received and recognized by judicial tribunals. As this law can be traced to no positive statutes, its rules or principles are to be found only in the records of courts, and in the reports of judicial decisions.

12. By-law, a law of a city, town or private corporation. [See By.]

13. Mosaic law, the institutions of Moses, or the code of laws prescribed to the Jews, as distinguished from the gospel.

14. Ceremonial law, the Mosaic institutions which prescribe the external rites and ceremonies to be observed by the Jews, as distinct from the moral precepts, which are of perpetual obligation.

15. A rule of direction; a directory; as reason and natural conscience.

These, having not the law, as a law to themselves. Romans 2:14.

16. That which governs or has a tendency to rule; that which has the power of controlling.

But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Romans 7:23.

17. The word of God; the doctrines and precepts of God, or his revealed will.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Psalm 1:2.

18. The Old Testament.

Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are gods? John 10:34.

19. The institutions of Moses, as distinct from the other parts of the Old Testament; as the law and the prophets.

20. A rule or axiom of science or art; settled principle; as the laws of versification or poetry.

21. Law martial, or martial law, the rules ordained for the government of an army or military force.

22. Marine laws, rules for the regulation of navigation, and the commercial intercourse of nations.

23. Commercial law, law-merchant, the system of rules by which trade and commercial intercourse are regulated between merchants.

24. Judicial process; prosecution of right in courts of law.

Tom Touchy is a fellow famous for taking the law of every body.

Hence the phrase, to go to law, to prosecute; to seek redress in a legal tribunal.

25. Jurisprudence; as in the title, Doctor of Laws.

26. In general, law is a rule of action prescribed for the government of rational beings or moral agents, to which rule they are bound to yield obedience, in default of which they are exposed to punishment; or law is a settled mode or course of action or operation in irrational beings and in inanimate bodies.

Civil law, criminal law. [See Civil and Criminal.]

Laws of honor. [See Honor.]

Law language, the language used in legal writings and forms, particularly the Norman dialect or Old French, which was used in judicial proceedings from the days of William the conqueror to the 36th year of Edward III.

Wager of law, a species of trial formerly used in England, in which the defendant gave security that he would, on a certain day, make his law, that is, he would make oath that he owed nothing to the plaintiff, and would produce eleven of his neighbors as compurgators, who should swear that they believed in their consciences that he had sworn the truth.