Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
LAW-BREAKER — LEATHER
LAW-BREAKER, n. One who violates the law.
LAW-DAY, n.
1. A day of open court.
2. A leet or sheriff’s tourn.
LAWFUL, a.
1. Agreeable to law; conformable to law; allowed by law; legal; legitimate. That is deemed lawful which no law forbids, but many things are lawful which are not expedient.
2. Constituted by law; rightful; as the lawful owner of lands.
LAWFULLY, adv. Legally; in accordance with law; without violating law. We may lawfully do what the laws do not forbid.
LAWFULNESS, n. The quality of being conformable to law; legality. The lawfulness of an action does not always prove its propriety or expedience.
LAWGIVER, n. [law and give.] One who makes or enacts a law; a legislator.
LAWGIVING, a. Making or enacting laws; legislative.
LAWING, n. Expeditation; the act of cutting off the claws and balls of the fore feet of mastiffs to prevent them from running after deer.
LAWLESS, a.
1. Not subject to law; unrestrained by law; as a lawless tyrant; lawless men.
2. Contrary to law; illegal; unauthorized; as a lawless claim.
He needs no indirect nor lawless course.
3. Not subject to the ordinary laws of nature; uncontrolled.
He, meteor-like, flames lawless through the void.
LAWLESSLY, adv. In a manner contrary to law.
LAWLESSNESS, n. The quality or state of being unrestrained by law; disorder.
LAW-MAKER, n. One who enacts or ordains laws; a legislator; a lawgiver.
Law-makers should not be law-breakers.
LAW-MONGER, n. A low dealer in law; a pettifogger.
LAWN, n.
An open space between woods, or a plain in a park or adjoining a noble seat.
Betwixt them lawns or level downs, and flocks grazing the tender herbs, were interspers’d.
LAWN, n. [L. linum.]
A sort of fine linen. Its use in the sleeves of bishops, explains the following line.
A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn.
LAWN, a. Made of lawn.
LAWNY, a.
1. Level, as a plain; like a lawn.
2. Made of lawn.
LAWSUIT, n. [See Suit.] a suit in law for the recovery of a supposed right; a process in law instituted by a party to compel another to do him justice.
LAWYER, n. [that is lawer, contracted from law-wer, law-man.]
One versed in the laws, or a practitioner of law; one whose profession is to institute suits in courts of law, and to prosecute or defend the cause of clients. this is a general term, comprehending attorneys, counselors, solicitors, barristers, serjeants and advocates.
LAWYER-LIKE, a. Like a real lawyer.
LAWYERLY, a. Judicial.
LAX, a. [L. laxus.]
1. Loose; flabby; soft; not tense, firm or rigid; as lax flesh; a lax fiber.
2. Slack; not tight or tense; as a lax cord.
3. Not firly united; of loose texture; as gravel and the like laxer matter.
4. Not rigidly exact; as a lax moral discourse.
5. Not strict; as lax morals.
6. Loose in the bowels; having too frequent discharges.
LAX, n.
1. A looseness; diarrhea.
2. A species of fish or salmon. [Not in use.]
LAXATION, n. [L. laxatio.] The act of loosening or slackening; or the state of being loose or slackened.
LAXATIVE, a. [L. laxo.] Having the power or quality of loosening or opening the bowels, and relieving from constipation.
LAXATIVE, n. A medicine that relaxes the bowels and relieves from costiveness; a gentle purgative.
LAXATIVENESS, n. The quality of relaxing.
LAXITY, n. [L. laxitas.]
1. Looseness; slackness; the opposite of tenseness or tension.
2. Looseness of texture.
3. Want of exactness or precision; as laxity of expression.
4. Looseness; defect of exactness; as laxity of morals.
5. Looseness, as of the bowels; the opposite of costiveness.
6. Openness; not closeness.
LAXLY, adv. Loosely; without exactness.
LAXNESS, n.
1. Looseness; softness; flabbiness; as the laxness of flesh or of muscles.
2. Laxity; the opposite of tension.
3. Looseness, as of morals or discipline.
4. Looseness, as of the bowels.
5. Slackness, as of a cord.
LAY, pret. of lie. The estate lay in the county of Hartford.
When Ahab heard these words, he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his head, and fasted and lay in sackcloth. 1 Kings 21:27.
LAY, v.t. pret. and pp. laid. [L. loco, whence locus, Eng. ley or lea. The primary sense is to send or throw; hence this word is the L. lego, legare, differently applied; Gr. to lie down.]
1. Literally, to throw down; hence, to put or place; applied to things broad or long, and in this respect differing from set. We lay a book on the table, when we place it on its side, but we set it on the end. We lay the foundation of a house, but we set a building on its foundation.
He laid his robe from him. Jonah 3:6.
Soft on the flowery herb I found me laid.
A stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den. Daniel 6:17.
2. To beat down; to prostrate. Violent winds with rain lay corn and grass.
3. To settle; to fix and keep from rising. A shower lays the dust.
4. To place in order; to dispose with regularity in building; as, to lay bricks or stones in constructing walls.
5. To spread on a surface; as, to lay plaster or paint.
6. To spread or set; as, to lay snares.
7. To calm; to appease; to still; to allay.
After a tempest, when the winds are laid.
8. To quiet; to still; to restrain from walking; as, to lay the devil.
9. To spread and set in order; to prepare; as, to lay a table for dinner.
10. To place in the earth for growth.
The chief time of laying gilliflowers, is in July.
11. To place at hazard; to wage; to stake; as, to lay a crown or an eagle; to lay a wager.
12. To bring forth; to exclude; as, to lay eggs.
13. To add; to join.
Woe to them that join house to house, that lay field to field. Isaiah 5:8.
14. To put; to apply.
She layeth her hand to the spindle. Proverbs 31:19.
15. To asses; to charge; to impose; as, to lay a tax on land; to lay a duty on salt.
16. To charge; to impute; as, to lay blame on one; to lay want of prudence to one’s charge.
17. To impose, as evil, burden, or punishment.
The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6.
18. To enjoin as a duty; as, to lay commands on one.
19. To exhibit; to present or offer; as, to lay an indictment in a particular county.
20. To prostrate; to slay.
The leaders first he laid along.
21. To depress and lose sight of, by sailing or departing from; as, to lay the land; a seaman’s phrase.
22. To station; to set; as, to lay an ambush.
23. To contrive; to scheme; to plan.
To lay a cable, to twist or unite the strands.
To lay apart, to put away; to reject.
Lay apart all filthiness. James 1:21.
1. To lay aside, to put off or away; not to retain.
Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us. Hebrews 12:1.
2. To discontinue; as, to lay aside the use of any thing.
To lay away, to reposit in store; to put aside for preservation.
To lay before, to exhibit; to show; to present to view. The papers are laid before Congress.
1. To lay by, to reserve for future use.
Let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him. 1 Corinthians 16:2.
2. To put away; to dismiss.
Let brave spirits not be laid by, as persons unnecessary for the time.
3. To put off.
And she arose and went away, and laid by her veil. Genesis 38:19.
1. To lay down, to deposit, as a pledge, equivalent or satisfaction; to resign.
I lay down my life for the sheep. John 10:15.
2. To give up; to resign; to quit or relinquish; as, to lay down an office or commission.
3. To quit; to surrender the use of; as, to lay down one’s arms.
4. To offer or advance; as, to lay down a proposition or principle.
To lay one’s self down, to commit to repose.
I will both lay me down in peace and sleep - Psalm 4:8.
To lay hold of, to seize; to catch. To lay hold on, is used in a like sense.
To lay in, to store; to treasure; to provide previously.
To lay on, to apply with force; to inflict; as, to lay on blows.
To lay open, to open; to make bare; to uncover; also, to show; to expose; to reveal; as, to lay open the designs of an enemy.
To lay over, to spread over; to incrust; to cover the surface; as, to lay over with gold or silver.
1. To lay out, to expend; as, to lay out money, or sums of money.
2. To display; to discover.
He takes occasion to lay out bigotry and false confidence in all its colors. Obs.
3. To plan; to dispose in order the several parts; as, to lay out a garden.
4. To dress in grave clothes and place in a decent posture; as, to lay out a corpse. Shakespeare uses to lay, forth.
5. To exert; as, to lay out all one’s strength. So with the reciprocal pronoun, to lay one’s self out, is to exert strength.
1. To lay to, to charge upon; to impute.
2. To apply with vigor.
3. To attack or harass. Obs.
4. To check the motion of a ship, and cause her to be stationary.
To lay together, to collect; to bring to one place; also, to bring into one view.
To lay to heart, to permit to affect greatly.
To lay under, to subject to; as, to lay one under restraint or obligation.
1. To lay up, to store; to treasure; to reposit for future use.
Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Matthew 6:20.
2. To confine to the bed or chamber. He is laid up with the gout.
To lay siege, to besiege; to encompass with an army.
To lay wait, to station for private attack; to lay in ambush for.
To lay the course, in sailing, is to sail towards the port intended, without gibing.
To lay waste, to destroy; to desolate; to deprive of inhabitants, improvements and productions.
To lay the land, in seamen’s language, is to cause the land apparently to sink or appear lower, by sailing from it; the distance diminishing the elevation.
LAY, v.i.
1. To bring or produce eggs.
Hens will greedily eat the herb that will make them lay the better.
2. To contrive; to form a scheme. [Unusual.]
To lay about, to strike or throw the arms on all sides; to act with vigor.
To lay at, to strike or to endeavor to strike.
The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold. Job 41:26.
1. To lay out, to purpose; to intend. he lays out to make a journey.
2. To take measures.
I made strict inquiry wherever I came, and laid out for intelligence of all places.
To lay upon, to importune. Obs.
LAY, n.
1. That which lies or is laid; a row; a stratum; a layer; one rank in a series reckoned upward; as a lay of wood.
A viol should have a lay of wire-strings below.
2. A bet; a wager. [Little used.]
3. Station; rank. [Not used.]
LAY, n. [L. locus. See Lay, the verb. The words which signify place, are from verbs which express setting or laying. It is written also ley, and lea, but less properly.]
A meadow; a plain or plat of grass land.
A tuft of daisies on a flowery lay.
The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea.
LAY, n. [Gr. to sound. L. laudo, plaudo.]
A song; as a loud or soft lay; immortal lays.
[It is used chiefly in poetry.]
LAY, a. [L. laicus, Gr. from people.]
Pertaining to the laity or people, as distinct from the clergy; not clerical; as a lay person; a lay preacher; a lay brother.
LAY-CLERK, n. A vocal officiate in a cathedral.
LAYER, n. la’er. [from lay, the verb.]
1. A stratum; a bed; a body spread over another; as a layer of clay or of sand.
2. A shoot or twig of a plant, not detached from the stock, laid under ground for growth or propagation.
3. A hen that lays eggs.
LAYING, ppr. Putting; placing; applying; imputing; wagering.
LAYLAND, n. Land lying untilled; fallow ground. [Local.]
LAYMAN, n. la’man. [lay and man.]
1. A man who is not a clergyman; one of the laity or people, distinct from the clergy.
2. An image used by painters in contriving attitudes.
3. A lay-clerk.
LAYSTALL, n. [lay and stall.] A heap of dung, or a place where dung is laid.
LAZAR, n. [from Laxarus.] A person infected with nauseous and pestilential disease.
LAZARET, LAZARETTO, n.
A public building, hospital or pest-house for the reception of diseased persons, particularly for those affected with contagious distempers.
LAZAR-HOUSE, n. A lazaretto; also, a hospital for quarantine.
LAZAR-LIKE, LAZARLY, a. Full of sores; leprous.
LAZARWORT, LASERWORT, n. Laserpitium, a genus of plants of several species, natives of Germany, Italy, France, etc.
LAZE, v.i. To live in idleness. [Vulgar.]
LAZE, v.t. To waste in sloth. [Vulgar.]
LAZILY, adv. [from lazy.] In a heavy, sluggish manner; sluggishly.
Whether he lazily and listlessly dreams away his time.
LAZINESS, n. [from lazy.]
1. The state or quality of being lazy; indisposition to action or exertion; indolence; sluggishness; heaviness in motion; habitual sloth. Laziness differs from idleness; the latter being a mere defect or cessation of action, but laziness is sloth, with natural or habitual disinclination to action.
Laziness travels so slowly, that poverty soon overtakes him.
2. Slowness; tardiness.
LAZING, a. Spending time in sluggish inaction.
[This is an ill-formed, inelegant word.]
LAZULI. Lapis Lazuli is a mineral of a fine, azure blue color, usually amorphous, or in rounded masses of a moderate size. It is often marked by yellow spots or veins of sulphuret of iron, and is much valued for ornamental work. It is distinguished from lazulite, by the intenseness of its color.
LAZULITE, n. A mineral of a light, indigo blue color, occurring in small masses, or crystallized in oblique four-sided prisms.
LAZY, a. [L. laxus, and it is doubtful whether this is of the same family.]
1. Disinclined to action or exertion; naturally or habitually slothful; sluggish; indolent; averse to labor; heavy in motion.
Wicked men will ever live like rogues, and not fall to work, but be lazy and spend victuals.
2. Slow; moving slowly or apparently with labor; as a lazy stream.
The night-owl’s lazy flight.
LD, stands for lord.
LEA, LEY, n. [See Lay.] A meadow or plain. The Welsh write lle, but as this word is from the root of lay, the latter is the more correct orthography.
LEACH, v.t. [See Leak. Perhaps L. lix may be from the same root.]
To wash, as ashes, by percolation, or causing water to pass through them, and thus to separate from them the alkali. The water thus charged with alkali, is called lye.
LEACH, n. A quantity of wood ashes, through which water passes, and thus imbibes the alkali.
LEACH-TUB, n. A wooden vessel or tub in which ashes are leached. It is sometimes written letch-tub.
LEAD, n. led.
1. A metal of a dull white color, with a cast of blue. It is the least elastic and sonorous of all the metals, and at the same time it is soft and easily fusible. It is found native in small masses, but generally mineralized by sulphur, and sometimes by other substances. Lead fused in a strong heat, throws off vapors which are unwholesome.
2. A plummet or mass of lead, used in sounding at sea.
3. Leads, a flat roof covered with lead.
White lead, the oxyd of lead, ground with one third part of chalk.
LEAD, v.t. led. To cover with lead; to fit with lead.
LEAD, v.t. pret. and pp. led.
1. To guide by the hand; as, to lead a child. It often includes the sense of drawing as well as of directing.
2. To guide or conduct by showing the way; to direct; as, the Israelites were led by a pillar of a cloud by day, and by a pillar of fire by night.
3. To conduct to any place.
He leadeth me beside the still waters. Psalm 23:2.
4. To conduct, as a chief or commander, implying authority; to direct and govern; as, a general leads his troops to battle and to victory.
Christ took not on him flesh and blood, that he might conquer and rule nations, lead armies.
5. To precede; to introduce by going first.
As Hesperus that leads the sun his way.
6. To guide; to show the method of attaining an object. Self-examination may lead us to a knowledge of ourselves.
7. To draw; to entice; to allure. The love of pleasure leads men into vices which degrade and impoverish them.
8. To induce; to prevail on; to influence.
He was driven by the necessities of the times more than led by his own disposition to any rigor of actions.
9. To pass; to spend, that is, to draw out; as, to lead a life of gayety, or a solitary life.
That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 1 Timothy 2:2.
To lead astray, to guide in a wrong way or into error; to seduce from truth or rectitude.
To lead captive, to carry into captivity.
LEAD, v.i.
1. To go before and show the way.
I will lead on softly. Genesis 33:14.
2. To conduct, as a chief or commander. Let the troops follow, where their general leads.
3. To draw; to have a tendency to. Gaming leads to other vices.
4. To exercise dominion.
To lead off or out, to go first; to begin.
LEAD, n. Precedence; a going before; guidance. Let the general take the lead. [A colloquial word in reputable use.]
LEADEN, a. led’n. [from lead.]
1. Made of lead; as a leaden ball.
2. Heavy; indisposed to action.
3. heavy; dull.
LEADEN-HEARTED, a. Stupid; destitute of feeling.
LEADEN-HEELED, a. Moving slowly.
LEADEN-STEPPING, a. Moving slowly.
LEADER, n.
1. One that leads or conducts; a guide; a conductor.
2. A chief; a commander; a captain.
3. One who goes first.
4. The chief of a party or faction; as the leader of the whigs or of the tories; a leader of the Jacobins.
5. a performer who leads a band or choir in music.
LEADING, ppr.
1. Guiding; conducting; preceding; drawing; alluring; passing life.
2. a. Chief; principal; capital; most influential; as a leading motive; a leading man in a party.
3. showing the way by going first.
He left his mother a countess by patent, which was a new leading example.
LEADING, n. Guidance; the act of conducting; direction.
LEADING-STRINGS, n. Strings by which children are supported when beginning to walk.
To be in leading strings, to be in a state of infancy or dependence, or in pupilage under the guidance of others.
LEADMAN, n. One who begins or leads a dance. Obs.
LEADWORT, n. led’wort. Plumbago, a genus of plants.
LEADY, a. led’dy. Of the color of lead.
LEAF, n. plu. leaves.
1. In botany, leaves are organs of perspiration and inhalation in plants. They usually shoot from the sides of the stems and branches, but sometimes from the root; sometimes they are sessile; more generally supported by petioles. They are of various forms, flat, extended, linear, cylindric, etc.
2. The thin, extended part of a flower; a petal.
3. A part of a book containing two pages.
4. The side of a double door. 1 Kings 6:34.
5. Something resembling a leaf in thinness and extension; a very thin plate; as gold leaf.
6. The movable side of a table.
LEAF, v.i. To shoot out leaves; to produce leaves. The trees leaf in May.
LEAFAGE, n. Abundance of leaves.
LEAFED, pp. Having leaves.
LEAFLESS, a. Destitute of leaves; as a leafless tree.
LEAFLET, n.
1. A little leaf.
2. In botany, one of the divisions of a compound leaf; a foliole.
LEAF-STALK, n. The petiole or stalk which supports a leaf.
LEAFY, a. Full of leaves; as the leafy forest.
LEAGUE, n. leeg. [L. ligo, to bind.]
1. An alliance or confederacy between princes or states for their mutual aid or defense; a national contract or compact. A league may be offensive or defensive, or both. It is offensive, when the contracting parties agree to unite in attacking a common enemy; defensive, when the parties agree to act in concert in defending each other against an enemy.
2. A combination or union of two or more parties for the purpose of maintaining friendship and promoting their mutual interest, or for executing any design in concert.
And let there be ‘twixt us and them no league, nor amity.
LEAGUE, v.i. leeg.
1. To unite, as princes or states in a contract of amity for mutual aid or defense; to confederate. Russia and Austria leagued to oppose the ambition of Buonaparte.
2. To unite or confederate, as private persons for mutual aid.
LEAGUE, n. leeg. [Low L. leuca.]
1. Originally, a stone erected on the public roads, at certain distances, in the manner of the modern mile-stones. Hence,
2. The distance between two stones. With the English and Americans, a league is the length of three miles; but this measure is chiefly at sea. The league on the continent of Europe, is very different among different nations. The Dutch and German league contains four geographical miles.
LEAGUED, pp. lee’ged. United in mutual compact; confederated.
LEAGUER, n. lee’ger. One who unites in a league; a confederate.
LEAGUER, n.
Siege; investment of a town or fort by an army. [Little used.]
LEAK, n. [Gr. a fissure or crevice, L. lacero and loquor, and perhaps Eng. clack. It seems that licerish is from the root of leak, and signifies properly watery.]
1. A crack, crevice, fissure or hole in a vessel, that admits water, or permits a fluid to escape.
2. The oozing or passing of water or other fluid or liquor through a crack, fissure or aperture in a vessel, either into it, as into a ship, or out of it, as out of a cask.
To spring a leak, is to open or crack so as to let in water; to being to let in water.
LEAK, a. Leaky. [Not in use.]
LEAK, v.i. To let water or other liquor into or out of a vessel, through a hole or crevice in the vessel. A ship leaks, when she admits water through her seams or an aperture in her bottom or sides, into the hull. A pail or a cask leaks, when it admits liquor to pass out through a hole or crevice.
To lead out, to find vent; to escape privately from confinement or secrecy; as a fact or report.
LEAKAGE, n.
1. A leaking; or the quantity of a liquor that enters or issues by leaking.
2. An allowance, in commerce, of a certain rate per cent, for the leaking of casks, or the waste of liquors by leaking.
LEAKY, a.
1. That admits water or other liquor to pass in or out; as a leaky vessel; a leaky ship or barrel.
2. Apt to disclose secrets; tattling; not close.
LEAMER, n. A dog; a kind of hound.
LEAN, v.i. [Gr., L. clino.]
1. To deviate or move from a straight or perpendicular line; or to be in a position thus deviating. We say, a column leans to the north or to the east; it leans to the right or left.
2. To incline or propend; to tend toward.
They delight rather to lean to their old customs -
3. To bend or incline so as to rest on something; as, to lean against a wall or a pillar; to lean on the arm of another.
4. To bend; to be in a bending posture.
LEAN, v.t.
1. To incline; to cause to lean.
2. To conceal. [Not in use.]
LEAN, a. [L. lenis, and Eng. slender.]
1. Wanting flesh; meager; not fat; as a lean body; a lean man or animal.
2. Not rich; destitute of good qualities; bare; barren; as lean earth.
3. Low; poor; in opposition to rich or great; as a lean action. [Unusual.]
4. Barren of thought; destitute of that which improves or entertains; jejune; as a lean discourse or dissertation.
LEAN, n. That part of flesh which consists of muscle without the fat.
LEANLY, adv. Meagerly; without fat or plumpness.
LEANNESS, n.
1. Destitution of fat; want of flesh; thinness of body; meagerness; applied to animals.
2. Want of matter; poverty; emptiness; as the leanness of a purse.
3. In Scripture, want of grace and spiritual comfort.
He sent leanness into their soul. Psalm 106:15.
LEANY, a. Alert; brisk; active. [Not in use.]
LEAP, v.i. [L. labor, perhaps. Heb.]
1. To spring or rise from the ground with both feet, as man, or with all the feet, as other animals; to jump; to vault; as, a man leaps over a fence, or leaps upon a horse.
A man leapeth better with weights in his hands than without.
2. To spring or move suddenly; as, to leap from a horse.
3. To rush with violence.
And the man in whom the evil spirit was, leaped on them and overcame them - Acts 19:16.
4. To spring; to bound; to skip; as, to leap for joy.
5. To fly; to start. Job 41:19.
He parted frowning from me, as if ruin leaped from his eyes.
[Our common people retain the Saxon aspirate of this word in the phrase, to clip it, to run fast.]
LEAP, v.t.
1. To pass over by leaping; to spring or bound from one side to the other; as, to leap a wall, a gate or a gulf; to leap a stream. [But the phrase is elliptical, and over is understood.]
2. To compress; as the male of certain beasts.
LEAP, n.
1. A jump; a spring; a bound; act of leaping.
2. Space passed by leaping.
3. A sudden transition of passing.
4. The space that may be passed at a bound.
‘Tis the convenient leap I mean to try.
5. Embrace of animals.
6. Hazard, or effect of leaping.
7. A basket; a weel for fish. [Not in use.]
LEAPER, n. One that leaps. A horse is called a good leaper.
LEAP-FROG, n. A play of children in which they imitate the leap of frogs.
LEAPING, ppr. Jumping; springing; bounding; skipping.
LEAPINGLY, adv. By leaps.
LEAP-YEAR, n. Blissextile, a year containing 366 days; every fourth year, which leaps over a day more than a common year. Thus in common years, if the first day of March is on Monday, the present year, it will, the next year, fall on Tuesday, but in leap-year it will leap to Wednesday; for leap-year contains a day more than a common year, a day being added to the month of February.
LEARN, v.t. lern.
1. To gain knowledge of; to acquire knowledge or ideas of something before unknown. We learn the use of letters, the meaning of words and the principles of science. We learn things by instruction, by study, and by experience and observation. It is much easier to learn what is right, than to unlearn what is wrong.
Now learn a parable of the fig tree. Matthew 24:32.
2. To acquire skill in any thing; to gain by practice a faculty of performing; as, to learn to play on a flute or an organ.
The chief art of learning is to attempt but little at a time.
3. To teach; to communicate the knowledge of something before unknown.
Hast thou not learned me how to make perfumes?
[This use of learn, is found in respectable writers, but is now deemed inelegant as well as improper.]
LEARN, v.i. lern.
1. To gain or receive knowledge; to receive instruction; to take pattern; with of.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly - Matthew 11:29.
2. To receive information or intelligence.
LEARNED, LEARNT, pp. lern’ed, lernt. Obtained as knowledge or information.
LEARNED, a. lern’ed.
1. Versed in literature and science; as a learned man.
2. Skillful; well acquainted with arts; knowing; within; as learned in martial arts.
3. Containing learning; as a learned treatise or publication.
4. Versed in scholastic, as distinct from other knowledge.
Men of much reading are greatly learned, but may be little knowing.
The learned, learned men; men of erudition; literati.
LEARNEDLY, adv. lern’edly. With learning or erudition; with skill; as, to discuss a question learnedly.
Every coxcomb swears as learnedly as they.
LEARNER, n. lern’er. A person who is gaining knowledge from instruction, from reading or study, or by other means; one who is in the rudiments of any science or art.
LEARNING, ppr. lern’ing. Gaining knowledge by instruction or reading, by study, by experience or observation; acquiring skill by practice.
LEARNING, n. lern’ing.
1. The knowledge of principles or facts received by instruction or study; acquired knowledge or ideas in any branch of science or literature; erudition; literature; science. The Scaligers were men of great learning.
[This is the proper sense of the word.]
2. Knowledge acquired by experience, experiment or observation.
3. Skill in anything good or bad.
LEASABLE, a. That may be leased.
LEASE, n. [See the Verb.]
1. A demise or letting of lands, tenements or hereditaments to another for life, for a term of years, or at will, for a rent or compensation reserved; also, the contract for such letting.
2. Any tenure by grant or permission.
Our high placed Macbeth shall live the lease of nature.
LEASE, v.t. [Eng. let. See Let.]
To let; to demise; to grant the temporary possession of lands, tenements or hereditaments to another for a rent reserved. A leased to B his land in Dale for the annual rent of a pepper corn.
LEASE, v.i. leez. [L. lego.]
To glean; to gather what harvest men have left. Obs.
LEASED, pp. Demised or let, as lands or tenements.
LEASEHOLD, a. Held by lease; as a leasehold tenement.
LEASER, n. A gleaner; a gatherer after reapers.
LEASH, n. [L. laqueus.]
1. A thong of leather, or long line by which a falconer holds his hawk, or a courser his dog.
2. Among sportsmen, a brace and a half; tierce; three; three creatures of any kind, especially greyhounds, foxes, bucks and hares.
3. A band wherewith to tie any thing.
LEASH, v.t. To bind; to hold by a string.
LEASING, n. s as z.
Falsehood; lies. [Obsolete or nearly so.]
LEASOW, n. A pasture. Obs.
LEAST, a.
Smallest; little beyond others, either in size or degree; as the least insect; the least mercy.
Least is often used without the noun to which it refers. “I am the least of the apostles,” that is, the least apostle of all the apostles. 1 Corinthians 15:9.
LEAST, adv.
1. In the smallest or lowest degree; in a degree below all others; as, to reward those who least deserve it.
At least,
At the least, To say no more; not to demand or affirm more than is barely sufficient; at the lowest degree. If he has not incurred a penalty, he at least deserves censure.
He who tempts, though vain, at least asperses the tempted with dishonor.
2. To say no more. Let useful observations be at least a part of your conversation.
The least, in the smallest degree. His faculties are not in the least impaired.
At leastwise, in the sense of at least, is obsolete.
LEASY, a. s as z. Thin; flimsy. It is usually pronounced sleazy.
LEAT, n. A trench to conduct water to or from a mill.
LEATHER, LETHER, n.
1. The skin of an animal dressed and prepared for use.
2. Dressed hides in general.
3. Skin; in an ironical sense.