Quotes: L

1171 quotations.

L

For 50 the Romans used the Chalcidian chi, , which assumed the less difficult lapidary type, , and was then easily assimilated to L.
— I. Taylor (The Alphabet).

laager

Wagons . . . can be readily formed into a laager, a camp, by being drawn into a circle, with the oxen placed inside and so kept safe from the attacks of wild beasts.
— James Bryce.

Labefaction

There is in it such a labefaction of all principles as may be injurious to morality.

Labor

God hath set Labor and rest, as day and night, to men Successive.
Being a labor of so great a difficulty, the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for.
The queen's in labor, They say, in great extremity; and feared She'll with the labor end.
Adam, well may we labor still to dress This garden.
The stone that labors up the hill.
— Granville.
The line too labors, and the words move slow.
To cure the disorder under which he labored.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
— Matt. xi. 28
The most excellent lands are lying fallow, or only labored by children.
— W. Tooke.

Laboring

The sleep of a laboring man is sweet.
— Eccl. v. 12.

Laborious

Dost thou love watchings, abstinence, or toil, Laborious virtues all? Learn these from Cato.

Labyrinth

The serpent . . . fast sleeping soon he found, In labyrinth of many a round self-rolled.
The labyrinth of the mind.
I' the maze and winding labyrinths o' the world.

Lace

His hat hung at his back down by a lace.
For striving more, the more in laces strong Himself he tied.
Vulcanus had caught thee [Venus] in his lace.
Our English dames are much given to the wearing of costly laces.
When Jenny's stays are newly laced.
I'll lace your coat for ye.
The Gond . . . picked up a trail of the Karela, the vine that bears the bitter wild gourd, and laced it to and fro across the temple door.
— Kipling.

Laced

A shirt with laced ruffles.

Lacerate

By each other's fury lacerate

Laches

It ill became him to take advantage of such a laches with the eagerness of a shrewd attorney.

Lachrymals

People go to the theaters to have . . . their risibles and lachrymals set agoing.
— The Lutheran.

Lachrymose

You should have seen his lachrymose visnomy.

Lack

She swooneth now and now for lakke of blood.
Let his lack of years be no impediment.
Love them and lakke them not.
— Piers Plowman.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.
— James i. 5.
What hour now? I think it lacks of twelve.
Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty.
— Gen. xvii. 28.
The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger.
— Ps. xxxiv. 10.

Lackey

Like a Christian footboy or a gentleman's lackey.
A thousand liveried angels lackey her.

Laconic

I grow laconic even beyond laconicism; for sometimes I return only yes, or no, to questionary or petitionary epistles of half a yard long.
His sense was strong and his style laconic.
— Welwood.
His head had now felt the razor, his back the rod; all that laconical discipline pleased him well.

Lactescence

This lactescence does commonly ensue when . . . fair water is suddenly poured upon the solution.

Lad

There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes.
— John vi. 9.

Ladder

Some the engines play, And some, more bold, mount ladders to the fire.
Lowliness is young ambition's ladder.

Lade

And they laded their asses with the corn.
— Gen. xlii. 26.
And chides the sea that sunders him from thence, Saying, he'll lade it dry to have his way.

Laden

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity.
— Is. i. 4.
A ship laden with gold.

Ladle

When the materials of glass have been kept long in fusion, the mixture casts up the superfluous salt, which the workmen take off with ladles.

Lady

Agar, the handmaiden of Sara, whence comest thou, and whither goest thou? The which answered, Fro the face of Sara my lady.
— Wyclif (Gen. xvi. 8.).
Of all these bounds, even from this line to this, . . . We make thee lady.
The soldier here his wasted store supplies, And takes new valor from his lady's eyes.

Lady-killing

Better for the sake of womankind that this dangerous dog should leave off lady-killing.

Ladylike

She was ladylike, too, after the manner of the feminine gentility of those days.
Too ladylike a long fatigue to bear.

Ladyship

Your ladyship shall observe their gravity.

Lag

Came too lag to see him buried.
The common lag of people.
She lags us if we poach.

Lagniappe

Lagniappe . . .is something thrown in, gratis, for good measure.
— Mark Twain.

Laic

An unprincipled, unedified, and laic rabble.

Laidly

This laidly and loathsome worm.
— W. Howitt.

Laity

A rising up of the laity against the sacerdotal caste.

Laker

The bridge tender . . . thought the Cowies “a little mite” longer than that laker.
— The Century.

Lamb

The twelve apostles of the Lamb.
— Rev. xxi. 14.
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
— John i. 29.

Lame

O, most lame and impotent conclusion!
If you happen to let child fall and lame it.

Lament

Jeremiah lamented for Josiah.
— 2 Chron. xxxv. 25.
Ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice.
— John xvi. 20.
One laughed at follies, one lamented crimes.
Torment, and loud lament, and furious rage.

Lamentation

In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping.
— Matt. ii. 18.

Lamented

This humble praise, lamented shade ! receive.

Lamenting

Lamentings heard i' the air.

Laminable

When a body can be readily extended in all directions under the hammer, it is said to be malleable; and when into fillets under the rolling press, it is said to be laminable.
— Ure.

Lamp

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
— Ps. cxix. 105.
Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appeared.

Lampad

By him who 'mid the golden lampads went.

Lampless

Your ladies' eyes are lampless to that virtue.

Lamplight

This world's artificial lamplights.
— Owen Meredith.

Lamplighter

He made the night a little brighter Wherever he did go, The old lamplighter Of long, long ago.
— Song lyrics. (?)

Lampoon

Like her who missed her name in a lampoon, And grieved to find herself decayed so soon.
Ribald poets had lampooned him.

Lance

A braver soldier never couched lance.
Seized the due victim, and with fury lanced Her back.

Lancegay

In his hand a launcegay, A long sword by his side.

Lanch

See Whose arm can lanch the surer bolt.
— Dryden & Lee.

Land

They turn their heads to sea, their sterns to land.
Go view the land, even Jericho.
— Josh. ii. 1.
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay.
A poor parson dwelling upon land [i.e., in the country].
These answers, in the silent night received, The king himself divulged, the land believed.
Herself upon the land she did prostrate.
I 'll undertake to land them on our coast.

Land League

The Land League, of which Michael Davitt was the founder, originated in Mayo in August, and at a Dublin in October the organization was extended to all Ireland, with Parnell as president.

Landed

The House of Commons must consist, for the most part, of landed men.

Landlord

Upon our arrival at the inn, my companion fetched out the jolly landlord.

Landscape

The landscape of his native country had taken hold on his heart.

Landskip

Straight my eye hath caught new pleasures, Whilst the landskip round it measures.

Lane

It is become a turn-again lane unto them which they can not go through.
— Tyndale.

Language

Others for language all their care express.
There was . . . language in their very gesture.
All the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshiped the golden image.
— Dan. iii. 7.
Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense.

Langued

Lions . . . represented as armed and langued gules.
— Cussans.

Languid

Fire their languid souls with Cato's virtue.
Feebly she laugheth in the languid moon.
— Keats.
Their idleness, aimless flirtations and languid airs.
— W. Black.

Languish

We . . . do languish of such diseases.
— 2 Esdras viii. 31.
Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife, And let me languish into life.
For the fields of Heshbon languish.
— Is. xvi. 8.
What, of death, too, That rids our dogs of languish?
And the blue languish of soft Allia's eye.

Languor

Sick men with divers languors.
— Wyclif (Luke iv. 40).

Languorous

Whom late I left in languorous constraint.
To wile the length from languorous hours, and draw The sting from pain.

Lank

Meager and lank with fasting grown.
Who would not choose . . . to have rather a lank purse than an empty brain?
Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head.

Lanky

The lanky Dinka, nearly seven feet in height.
— The Century.

Lansquenet

[They play] their little game of lansquenet.

Lap

If he cuts off but a lap of truth's garment, his heart smites him.
Men expect that happiness should drop into their laps.
To lap his head on lady's breast.
— Praed.
About the paper . . . I lapped several times a slender thread of very black silk.
Her garment spreads, and laps him in the folds.
The upper wings are opacous; at their hinder ends, where they lap over, transparent, like the wing of a flay.
— Grew.
The dogs by the River Nilus's side, being thirsty, lap hastily as they run along the shore.
— Sir K. Digby.
I heard the ripple washing in the reeds, And the wild water lapping on the crag.
They 'II take suggestion as a cat laps milk.

Lapse

The lapse to indolence is soft and imperceptible.
— Rambler.
Bacon was content to wait the lapse of long centuries for his expected revenue of fame.
To guard against those lapses and failings to which our infirmities daily expose us.
A tendency to lapse into the barbarity of those northern nations from whom we are descended.
Homer, in his characters of Vulcan and Thersites, has lapsed into the burlesque character.
To lapse in fullness Is sorer than to lie for need.
If the archbishop shall not fill it up within six months ensuing, it lapses to the king.
— Ayliffe.
An appeal may be deserted by the appellant's lapsing the term of law.
— Ayliffe.
For which, if be lapsed in this place, I shall pay dear.

Lapsed

Once more I will renew His lapsed powers, though forfeit.

Laqueary

Retiary and laqueary combatants.

Lar

Nor will she her dear Lar forget, Victorious by his benefit.
The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint.
Looking backward in vain toward their Lares and lands.

Lard

And larded thighs on loaded altars laid.
[The oak] with his nuts larded many a swine.
Falstaff sweats to death. And lards the lean earth as he walks along.
In his buff doublet larded o'er with fat Of slaughtered brutes.
— Somerville.
Let no alien Sedley interpose To lard with wit thy hungry Epsom prose.

Large

We have yet large day.
I might be very large upon the importance and advantages of education.
— Felton.
Of burdens all he set the Paynims large.

Largess

Fulfilled of largesse and of all grace.
The heralds finished their proclamation with their usual cry of “Largesse, largesse, gallant knights!” and gold and silver pieces were showered on them from the galleries.

Larrikin

Mobs of unruly larrikins.
— Sydney Daily Telegraph.

Lascivious

He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.

Lash

I observed that your whip wanted a lash to it.
The moral is a lash at the vanity of arrogating that to ourselves which succeeds well.
We lash the pupil, and defraud the ward.
And big waves lash the frighted shores.
He falls, and lashing up his heels, his rider throws.
To laugh at follies, or to lash at vice.

Lassitude

The corporeal instruments of action being strained to a high pitch . . . will soon feel a lassitude.

Last

Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God.
— Neh. viii. 18.
Fairest of stars, last in the train of night.
Contending for principles of the last importance.
— R. Hall.
And blunder on in business to the last.
Pleased with his idol, he commends, admires, Adores; and, last, the thing adored desires.
How long is't now since last yourself and I Were in a mask ?
[I] proffered me to be slave in all that she me would ordain while my life lasted.
— Testament of Love.
The cobbler is not to go beyond his last.

Latch

Those that remained threw darts at our men, and latching our darts, sent them again at us.
— Golding.
The door was only latched.

Latency

To simplify the discussion, I shall distinguish three degrees of this latency.

Latent

The evils latent in the most promising contrivances are provided for as they arise.

Lathy

A lathy horse, all legs and length.
— R. Browning.

Latinist

He left school a good Latinist.

Latinization

The Germanization of Britain went far deeper than the Latinization of France.

Latitude

Provided the length do not exceed the latitude above one third part.
In human actions there are no degrees and precise natural limits described, but a latitude is indulged.
No discreet man will believe Augustine's miracles, in the latitude of monkish relations.
I pretend not to treat of them in their full latitude.

Latitudinarian

Latitudinarian sentiments upon religious subjects.
— Allibone.
They were called “men of latitude;” and upon this, men of narrow thoughts fastened upon them the name of latitudinarians.

Latitudinarianism

Fierce sectarianism bred fierce latitudinarianism.
He [Ammonius Saccas] plunged into the wildest latitudinarianism of opinion.
— J. S. Harford.

Latten

He had a cross of latoun full of stones.

Latter

The difference between reason and revelation, and in what sense the latter is superior.
Hath not navigation discovered in these latter ages, whole nations at the bay of Soldania?

Latterly

Latterly Milton was short and thick.

Lattice

The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice.
— Judg. v. 28.
Therein it seemeth he [Alexander] hath latticed up Caesar.
— Sir T. North.

Laud

So do well and thou shalt have laud of the same.
— Tyndals.
With all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name.
— Book of Common Prayer.

Laugh

Queen Hecuba laughed that her eyes ran o'er.
He laugheth that winneth.
Then laughs the childish year, with flowerets crowned.
In Folly's cup still laughs the bubble Joy.
No wit to flatter left of all his store, No fool to laugh at, which he valued more.
Will you laugh me asleep, for I am very heavy?
I shall laugh myself to death.
From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause.
And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.
That man is a bad man who has not within him the power of a hearty laugh.
— F. W. Robertson.

Laughingstock

When he talked, he talked nonsense, and made himself the laughingstock of his hearers.

Laughter

The act of laughter, which is a sweet contraction of the muscles of the face, and a pleasant agitation of the vocal organs, is not merely, or totally within the jurisdiction of ourselves.
Archly the maiden smiled, and with eyes overrunning with laughter.

Launce

Fortune all in equal launce doth sway.

Launch

Launch your hearts with lamentable wounds.
With stays and cordage last he rigged the ship, And rolled on levers, launched her in the deep.
All art is used to sink episcopacy, and launch presbytery in England.
— Eikon Basilike.
Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.
— Luke v. 4.
He [Spenser] launches out into very flowery paths.

Laund

In a laund upon an hill of flowers.
Through this laund anon the deer will come.

Laureate

To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies.
Soft on her lap her laureate son reclines.

Lave

His feet the foremost breakers lave.
In her chaste current oft the goddess laves.

Lavish

Let her have needful, but not lavish, means.

Law

These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the Lord made.
— Lev. xxvi. 46.
The law of thy God, and the law of the King.
— Ezra vii. 26.
As if they would confine the Interminable . . . Who made our laws to bind us, not himself.
His mind his kingdom, and his will his law.
What things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law . . . But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
— Rom. iii. 19, 21.
Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason.
— Coke.
Law is beneficence acting by rule.
And sovereign Law, that state's collected will O'er thrones and globes elate, Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill.
— Sir W. Jones.
When every case in law is right.
He found law dear and left it cheap.
— Brougham.

Lawless

He needs no indirect nor lawless course.
Or, meteorlike, flame lawless through the void.

Lawn

“Orchard lawns and bowery hollows.”
A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn.

Lawny

Musing through the lawny park.
— T. Warton.

Lax

The flesh of that sort of fish being lax and spongy.
The discipline was lax.
Society at that epoch was lenient, if not lax, in matters of the passions.
— J. A. Symonds.
The word “æternus” itself is sometimes of a lax signification.
— Jortin.

Lay

The learned have no more privilege than the lay.
Of the sect to which that he was born He kept his lay, to which that he was sworn.
They bound themselves by a sacred lay and oath.
The throstle cock made eke his lay.
A stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den.
— Dan. vi. 17.
Soft on the flowery herb I found me laid.
After a tempest when the winds are laid.
Brave Cæneus laid Ortygius on the plain, The victor Cæneus was by Turnus slain.
I dare lay mine honor He will remain so.
She layeth her hands to the spindle.
— Prov. xxxi. 19.
The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
— Is. liii. 6.
God layeth not folly to them.
— Job xxiv. 12.
Lay the fault on us.
And laid those proud roofs bare to summer's rain.
Let brave spirits . . . not be laid by.
No selfish man will be concerned to lay out himself for the good of his country.
— Smalridge.
A viol should have a lay of wire strings below.

Layman

Being a layman, I ought not to have concerned myself with speculations which belong to the profession.

Laystall

Smithfield was a laystall of all ordure and filth.

Lazar

Like loathsome lazars, by the hedges lay.

Laziness

Laziness travels so slowly, that Poverty soon overtakes him.
— Franklin.

Lea

The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea.

Lead

I would have the tower two stories, and goodly leads upon the top.
If a blind man lead a blind man, both fall down in the ditch.
— Wyclif (Matt. xv. 14.)
They thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill.
— Luke iv. 29.
In thy right hand lead with thee The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty.
The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way.
— Ex. xiii. 21.
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
— Ps. xxiii. 2.
This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask. Content, though blind, had I no better guide.
Christ took not upon him flesh and blood that he might conquer and rule nations, lead armies, or possess places.
As Hesperus, that leads the sun his way.
And lo ! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
— Leigh Hunt.
He was driven by the necessities of the times, more than led by his own disposition, to any rigor of actions.
— Eikon Basilike.
Silly women, laden with sins, led away by divers lusts.
— 2 Tim. iii. 6 (Rev. Ver.).
That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life.
— 1 Tim. ii. 2.
Nor thou with shadowed hint confuse A life that leads melodious days.
You remember . . . the life he used to lead his wife and daughter.
The mountain foot that leads towards Mantua.
At the time I speak of, and having a momentary lead, . . . I am sure I did my country important service.

Leader

He forgot to pull in his leaders, and they gallop away with him at times.
— Hare.

Leaf

They were both determined to turn over a new leaf.

League

And let there be 'Twixt us and them no league, nor amity.

Leal

All men true and leal, all women pure.

Lean

They delight rather to lean to their old customs.
He leaned not on his fathers but himself.
His fainting limbs against an oak he leant.
Their lean and flashy songs.
What the land is, whether it be fat or lean.
— Num. xiii. 20.
Out of my lean and low ability I'll lend you something.
The fat was so white and the lean was so ruddy.

Lean-to

The outer circuit was covered as a lean-to, all round this inner apartment.

Leap

Leap in with me into this angry flood.
My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky.
Wickedness comes on by degrees, . . . and sudden leaps from one extreme to another are unnatural.
Changes of tone may proceed either by leaps or glides.
— H. Sweet.

Learn

Now learn a parable of the fig tree.
— Matt. xxiv. 32.
Hast thou not learned me how To make perfumes ?
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.
— Matt. xi. 29.

Learned

The learnedlover lost no time.
Men of much reading are greatly learned, but may be little knowing.
Words of learned length and thundering sound.
Every coxcomb swears as learnedly as they.

Lease

There were some [houses] that were leased out for three lives.
Our high-placed Macbeth Shall live the lease of nature.

Leash

Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash.
[I] kept my chamber a leash of days.
Then were I wealthier than a leash of kings.

Leasing

Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing.
— Ps. v. 6.
Blessed be the lips that such a leasing told.

Least

I am the least of the apostles.
— 1 Cor. xv. 9.
He who tempts, though in vain, at least asperses The tempted with dishonor.
Upon the mast they saw a young man, at least if he were a man, who sat as on horseback.

Leave

An army strong she leaved.
David earnestly asked leave of me.
— 1 Sam. xx. 6.
No friend has leave to bear away the dead.
A double blessing is a'double grace; Occasion smiles upon a second leave.
And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren.
— Acts xviii. 18.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife.
— Gen. ii. 24.
If grape gatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes ?
— Jer. xlix. 9.
These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
— Matt. xxiii. 23.
Besides it leaveth a suspicion, as if more might be said than is expressed.
Now leave complaining and begin your tea.
Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.
— Mark x. 28.
The heresies that men do leave.
I will leave you now to your gossiplike humor.
Leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way.
— Matt. v. 24.
The foot That leaves the print of blood where'er it walks.
By the time I left for Scotland.
Leave off, and for another summons wait.
— Roscommon.

Leaven

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
— Luke xii. 1.
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
— 1 Cor. v. 6.
With these and the like deceivable doctrines, he leavens also his prayer.

Lection

We ourselves are offended by the obtrusion of the new lections into the text.

Ledge

The lowest ledge or row should be of stone.

Lee

A thousand demons lurk within the lee.
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of.
We lurked under lee.
— Morte d'Arthure.
Desiring me to take shelter in his lee.

Leech

Leech, heal thyself.
— Wyclif (Luke iv. 23).

Leer

A Rosalind of a better leer than you.
With jealous leer malign Eyed them askance.
She gives the leer of invitation.
Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer.
I will leerupon him as a' comes by.
The priest, above his book, Leering at his neighbor's wife.

Leese

They would rather leese their friend than their jest.
— Lord Burleigh.

Left

Put that rose a little more to the left.
— Ld. Lytton.

Left-handed

The commendations of this people are not always left-handed and detractive.

Left-handedness

An awkward address, ungraceful attitudes and actions, and a certain left-handiness (if I may use the expression) proclaim low education.
— Chesterfield.

Leftward

Rightward and leftward rise the rocks.

Leg

He that will give a cap and make a leg in thanks for a favor he never received.

Legacy

My legacy and message wherefore I am sent into the world.
— Tyndale.
He came and told his legacy.

Legend

And in this legend all that glorious deed Read, whilst you arm you.

Legendary

Legendary stories of nurses and old women.
— Bourne.
Read the Countess of Pembroke's “Arcadia,” a gallant legendary full of pleasurable accidents.
— James I.

Leger

Sir Edward Carne, the queen's leger at Rome.

Legerdemain

He of legierdemayne the mysteries did know.
The tricks and legerdemain by which men impose upon their own souls.

Legible

The stone with moss and lichens so overspread, Nothing is legible but the name alone.

Legific

Practically, in many cases, authority or legific competence has begun in bare power.
— J. Grote.

Legion

Where one sin has entered, legions will force their way through the same breach.

Legislate

Solon, in legislating for the Athenians, had an idea of a more perfect constitution than he gave them.
— Bp. Watson (1805).

Legislation

Pythagoras joined legislation to his philosophy.
— Lyttelton.

Legislative

The supreme legislative power of England was lodged in the king and great council, or what was afterwards called the Parliament.

Legislator

The legislators in ancient and heroical times.
Many of the legislators themselves had taken an oath of abjuration of his Majesty's person and family.
— E. Phillips.

Legislature

Without the concurrent consent of all three parts of the legislature, no law is, or can be, made.

Legitimacy

The doctrine of Divine Right, which has now come back to us, like a thief from transportation, under the alias of Legitimacy.

Legitimate

Tillotson still keeps his place as a legitimate English classic.
To enact a statute of that which he dares not seem to approve, even to legitimate vice.

Legitimation

The coining or legitimation of money.
— East.

Leisure

The desire of leisure is much more natural than of business and care.
He sighed, and had no leisure more to say.

Lemures

The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint.

Lend

Give me that ring. I'll lend it thee, my dear, but have no power To give it from me.
Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.
— Levit. xxv. 37.
Cato, lend me for a while thy patience.
Mountain lines and distant horizons lend space and largeness to his compositions.
— J. A. Symonds.

Lender

The borrower is servant to the lender.
— Prov. xxii. 7.

Length

Large lengths of seas and shores.
The future but a length behind the past.
May Heaven, great monarch, still augment your bliss With length of days, and every day like this.
He had marched to the length of Exeter.

Lengthen

What if I please to lengthen out his date.

Lenient

O relax the fibers, are lenient, balsamic.
Time, that on all things lays his lenient hand.

Lenitive

There is one sweet lenitive at least for evils, which Nature holds out; so I took it kindly at her hands, and fell asleep.

Lenity

His exceeding lenity disposes us to be somewhat too severe.

Lenten

She quenched her fury at the flood, And with a Lenten salad cooled her blood.

Lentous

Spawn of a lentous and transparent body.

Lepid

The joyous and lepid consul.
— Sydney Smith.

Less

Thus in less [time] than a hundred years from the coming of Augustine, all England became Christian.
— E. A. Freeman.
The children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.
— Ex. xvi. 17.
The less is blessed of the better.
— Heb. vii. 7.

Lessen

Charity . . . shall lessen his punishment.
— Calamy.
St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it.
The objection lessens much, and comes to no more than this: there was one witness of no good reputation.

Lessener

His wife . . . is the lessener of his pain, and the augmenter of his pleasure.
— J. Rogers (1839).

Lesser

God made . . . the lesser light to rule the night.
— Gen. i. 15.
The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.
The larger here, and there the lesser lambs.
By the same reason may a man, in the state of nature, punish the lesser breaches of the law.

Lesson

Emprinteth well this lesson in your mind.
She would give her a lesson for walking so late.
— Sir. P. Sidney.
To rest the weary, and to soothe the sad, Doth lesson happier men, and shame at least the bad.

Lest

Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty.
— Prov. xx. 13.
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
— 1 Cor. x. 12.
I feared Lest I might anger thee.

Let

He was so strong that no man might him let.
He who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
— 2. Thess. ii. 7.
Mine ancient wound is hardly whole, And lets me from the saddle.
Consider whether your doings be to the let of your salvation or not.
He . . . prayed him his voyage for to let.
Yet neither spins nor cards, ne cares nor frets, But to her mother Nature all her care she lets.
Let me alone in choosing of my wife.
This irous, cursed wretch Let this knight's son anon before him fetch.
He . . . thus let do slay hem all three.
Anon he let two coffers make.
— Gower.
Pharaoh said, I will let you go.
— Ex. viii. 28.
If your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.

Letch

Some people have a letch for unmasking impostors, or for avenging the wrongs of others.

Lethargize

All bitters are poison, and act by stilling, and depressing, and lethargizing the irritability.

Lethargy

Europe lay then under a deep lethargy.

Letter

And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew.
— Luke xxiii. 38.
The style of letters ought to be free, easy, and natural.
— Walsh.
None could expound what this letter meant.
We must observe the letter of the law, without doing violence to the reason of the law and the intention of the lawgiver.
I broke the letter of it to keep the sense.
Under these buildings . . . was the king's printing house, and that famous letter so much esteemed.
A strange lock that opens with AMEN.

Lettered

The unlettered barbarians willingly accepted the aid of the lettered clergy, still chiefly of Roman birth, to reduce to writing the institutes of their forefathers.

Levant

Forth rush the levant and the ponent winds.

Leve

God leve all be well.

Levee

He levees all the great.

Level

After draining of the level in Northamptonshire.
Shot from the deadly level of a gun.
Providence, for the most part, sets us on a level.
Somebody there of his own level.
Be the fair level of thy actions laid As temperance wills and prudence may persuade.
When merit shall find its level.
— F. W. Robertson.
Ample spaces o'er the smooth And level pavement.
Young boys and girls Are level now with men; the odds is gone.
Everything lies level to our wish.
A very plain and level account.
And their proud structures level with the ground.
— Sandys.
He levels mountains and he raises plains.
Bertram de Gordon, standing on the castle wall, leveled a quarrel out of a crossbow.
— Stow.
For all his mind on honor fixed is, To which he levels all his purposes.
With such accommodation and besort As levels with her breeding.
The foeman may with as great aim level at the edge of a penknife.
The glory of God and the good of his church . . . ought to be the mark whereat we also level.
She leveled at our purposes.

Leven

Wild thunder dint and fiery leven.

Lever

For lever had I die than see his deadly face.

Levesel

Behind the mill, under a levesel.

Levirate

The firstborn son of a leviratical marriage was reckoned and registered as the son of the deceased brother.
— Alford.

Levity

He gave the form of levity to that which ascended; to that which descended, the form of gravity.
— Sir. W. Raleigh.
This bubble by reason of its comparative levity to the fluidity that incloses it, would ascend to the top.
He never employed his omnipotence out of levity.
— Calamy.
The levity that is fatigued and disgusted with everything of which it is in possession.

Levy

A levy of all the men left under sixty.
— Thirlwall.
Augustine . . . inflamed Ethelbert, king of Kent, to levy his power, and to war against them.
If they do this . . . my ransom, then, Will soon be levied.

Lewd

For if a priest be foul, on whom we trust, No wonder is a lewed man to rust.
So these great clerks their little wisdom show To mock the lewd, as learn'd in this as they.
— Sir. J. Davies.
But the Jews, which believed not, . . . took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, . . . and assaulted the house of Jason.
— Acts xvii. 5.
Too lewd to work, and ready for any kind of mischief.

Lexicographer

Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach; and even this negative recompense has been yet granted to very few.

Liable

Proudly secure, yet liable to fall.
All human things are subject to decay.

Libation

A heathen sacrifice or libation to the earth.

Libel

A libel of forsaking [divorcement].
— Wyclif (Matt. v. 31).
Some wicked wits have libeled all the fair.
What's this but libeling against the senate?
[He] libels now 'gainst each great man.
— Donne.

Liberal

Infinitely good, and of his good As liberal and free as infinite.
His wealth doth warrant a liberal dower.
I confess I see nothing liberal in this “ order of thoughts,” as Hobbes elsewhere expresses it.
— Hazlitt.

Liberality

That liberality is but cast away Which makes us borrow what we can not pay.

Liberalize

To open and to liberalize the mind.

Liberation

This mode of analysis requires perfect liberation from all prejudged system.
— Pownall.

Libertine

Like a puffed and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads.
You are too much libertine.

Libertinism

That spirit of religion and seriousness vanished all at once, and a spirit of liberty and libertinism, of infidelity and profaneness, started up in the room of it.

Liberty

But ye . . . caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection.
— Jer. xxxiv. 16.
Delivered fro the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
— Bible, 1551. Rom. viii. 21.
Being pent from liberty, as I am now.
His majesty gave not an entire county to any; much less did he grant . . . any extraordinary liberties.
Brought forth into some public or open place within the liberty of the city, and there . . . burned.
He was repeatedly provoked into striking those who had taken liberties with him.
The idea of liberty is the idea of a power in any agent to do or forbear any particular action, according to the determination or thought of the mind, whereby either of them is preferred to the other.
This liberty of judgment did not of necessity lead to lawlessness.
— J. A. Symonds.

Librate

Their parts all librate on too nice a beam.
— Clifton.

License

To have a license and a leave at London to dwell.
— P. Plowman.
License they mean when they cry liberty.

Licentiate

The college of physicians, in July, 1687, published an edict, requiring all the fellows, candidates, and licentiates, to give gratuitous advice to the neighboring poor.

Licentious

A wit that no licentious pertness knows.
— Savage.

Lick

A lick of court whitewash.

Lictor

Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power.

Lid

Tears, big tears, gushed from the rough soldier's lid.

Lidless

A lidless watcher of the public weal.

Lie

The proper notion of a lie is an endeavoring to deceive another by signifying that to him as true, which we ourselves think not to be so.
— S. Clarke.
It is willful deceit that makes a lie. A man may act a lie, as by pointing his finger in a wrong direction when a traveler inquires of him his road.
— Paley.
Wishing this lie of life was o'er.
The watchful traveler . . . Lay down again, and closed his weary eyes.
Envy lies between beings equal in nature, though unequal in circumstances.
— Collier.
He that thinks that diversion may not lie in hard labor, forgets the early rising and hard riding of huntsmen.
Whiles I was now trifling at home, I saw London, . . . where I lay one night only.
Mr. Quinion lay at our house that night.
The wind is loud and will not lie.
What he gets more of her than sharp words, let it lie on my head.
He surveyed with his own eyes . . . the lie of the country on the side towards Thrace.
— Jowett (Thucyd.).

Lied

The German Lied is perhaps the most faithful reflection of the national sentiment.
— Grove.

Lief

As thou art lief and dear.
Full lief me were this counsel for to hide.
Death me liefer were than such despite.
I am not lief to gab.
He up arose, however lief or loth.
All women liefest would Be sovereign of man's love.
— Gower.
I had as lief the town crier spoke my lines.
Far liefer by his dear hand had I die.

Liege

She looked as grand as doomsday and as grave; And he, he reverenced his liege lady there.
The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans, Liege of all loiterers and malcontents.
A liege lord seems to have been a lord of a free band; and his lieges, though serving under him, were privileged men, free from all other obligations, their name being due to their freedom, not to their service.
— Skeat.

Lier

There were liers in a ambush against him.
— Josh. viii. 14.

Lieu

The plan of extortion had been adopted in lieu of the scheme of confiscation.

Lieutenancy

The list of the lieutenancy of our metropolis.
— Felton.

Lieutenant

The lawful magistrate, who is the vicegerent or lieutenant of God.
— Abp. Bramhall.

Life

She shows a body rather than a life.
That which before us lies in daily life.
By experience of life abroad in the world.
— Ascham.
Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime.
'T is from high life high characters are drawn.
No notion of life and fire in fancy and in words.
— Felton.
That gives thy gestures grace and life.
Full nature swarms with life.
The words that I speak unto you . . . they are life.
— John vi. 63.
The warm life came issuing through the wound.

life-giving

returning the life-giving humus to the land.
— Louis Bromfield.

Lifeblood

Money [is] the lifeblood of the nation.

Lift

The Roman virtues lift up mortal man.
Lest, being lifted up with pride.
— 1 Tim. iii. 6.
He ne'er lift up his hand but conquered.
Strained by lifting at a weight too heavy.
The goat gives the fox a lift.

Ligament

Interwoven is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts.
— Washington.

Ligation

Tied with tape, and sealed at each fold and ligation.

Light

Then he called for a light, and sprang in.
— Acts xvi. 29.
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.
— Gen. i. 16.
The murderer, rising with the light, killeth the poor and needy.
— Job xxiv. 14.
He seemed to find his way without his eyes; For out o'door he went without their helps, And, to the last, bended their light on me.
There were windows in three rows, and light was against light in three ranks.
— I Kings vii.4.
O, spring to light, auspicious Babe, be born !
The duke yet would have dark deeds darkly answered; he would never bring them to light.
My strength faileth me; as for the light of my eyes, it also is gone from me.
— Ps. xxxviii. 10.
He shall never know That I had any light of this from thee.
Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily.
— Is. lviii. 8.
Frequent consideration of a thing . . . shows it in its several lights and various ways of appearance.
Joan of Arc, A light of ancient France.
Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.
— Ps. iv. 6.
If a thousand candles be all lighted from one.
— Hakewill.
And the largest lamp is lit.
Absence might cure it, or a second mistress Light up another flame, and put out this.
Ah, hopeless, lasting flames! like those that burn To light the dead.
One hundred years ago, to have lit this theater as brilliantly as it is now lighted would have cost, I suppose, fifty pounds.
— F. Harrison.
The sun has set, and Vesper, to supply His absent beams, has lighted up the sky.
His bishops lead him forth, and light him on.
These weights did not exert their natural gravity, . . . insomuch that I could not guess which was light or heavy whilst I held them in my hand.
Ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
— Matt. xi. 29, 30.
Light sufferings give us leisure to complain.
Unmarried men are best friends, best masters . . . but not always best subjects, for they are light to run away.
There is no greater argument of a light and inconsiderate person than profanely to scoff at religion.
Seneca can not be too heavy, nor Plautus too light.
Specimens of New England humor laboriously light and lamentably mirthful.
Are his wits safe? Is he not light of brain ?
To a fair semblance doth light faith annex.
A light wife doth make a heavy husband.
From his head the heavy burgonet did light.
When she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel.
— Gen. xxiv. 64.
Slowly rode across a withered heath, And lighted at a ruined inn.
It made all their hearts to light.
[The bee] lights on that, and this, and tasteth all.
— Sir. J. Davies.
On the tree tops a crested peacock lit.
On me, me only, as the source and spring Of all corruption, all the blame lights due.
The several degrees of vision, which the assistance of glasses (casually at first lit on) has taught us to conceive.
They shall light into atheistical company.
And here we lit on Aunt Elizabeth, And Lilia with the rest.

Light-handed

the translation is . . . light-handed . . . and generally unobtrusive.
— New Yorker.

Lighten

O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us.
— Book of Common Prayer [Eng. Ed.].
This dreadful night, That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars As doth the lion.
A key of fire ran all along the shore, And lightened all the river with a blaze.
Lighten my spirit with one clear heavenly ray.
His eye . . . lightens forth Controlling majesty.
They looked unto him, and were lightened.
— Ps. xxxiv. 5.
Lightens my humor with his merry jests.

Lightly

Yet shall thy grave with rising flowers be drest, And the green turf lie lightly on thy breast.
Him thus intent Ithuriel with his spear Touched lightly.
So mikle was that barge, it might not lightly sail.
— R. of Brunne.
Watch what thou seest and lightly bring me word.
The soft ideas of the cheerful note, Lightly received, were easily forgot.
At the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun . . . and afterward did more grievously afflict her.
— Is. ix. 1.
That lightly come, shall lightly go.
— Old Proverb.
They come lightly by the malt, and need not spare it.
Flatter not the rich, neither do thou willingly or lightly appear before great personages.
The great thieves of a state are lightly the officers of the crown.
Matrimony . . . is not by any to be enterprised, nor taken in hand, unadvisedly, lightly, or wantonly.
— Book of Common Prayer [Eng. Ed.].

Lightsome

White walls make rooms more lightsome than black.
That lightsome affection of joy.
Happiness may walk soberly in dark attire, as well as dance lightsomely in a gala dress.

Ligneous

It should be tried with shoots of vines and roots of red roses; for it may be they, being of a moreligneous nature, will incorporate with the tree itself.

Ligure

The third row a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst.
— Ex. xxviii. 19.

Like

'T is as like you As cherry is to cherry.
Like master, like man.
— Old Prov.
He giveth snow like wool; he scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes.
— Ps. cxlvii. 16.
More clergymen were impoverished by the late war than ever in the like space before.
— Sprat.
But it is like the jolly world about us will scoff at the paradox of these practices.
Many were not easy to be governed, nor like to conform themselves to strict rules.
Had like to have been my utter overthrow.
Ramona had like to have said the literal truth, . . . but recollected herself in time.
— Mrs. H. H. Jackson.
He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.
He maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.
— Job xii. 25.
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
— Ps. ciii. 13.
Cornwall him liked best, therefore he chose there.
— R. of Gloucester.
I willingly confess that it likes me much better when I find virtue in a fair lodging than when I am bound to seek it in an ill-favored creature.
He proceeded from looking to liking, and from liking to loving.
Like me to the peasant boys of France.
He may either go or stay, as he best likes.
You like well, and bear your years very well.
He probably got his death, as he liked to have done two years ago, by viewing the troops for the expedition from the wall of Kensington Garden.

Likelihood

What of his heart perceive you in his face By any likelihood he showed to-day ?
There is no likelihood between pure light and black darkness, or between righteousness and reprobation.

Likely

It seems likely that he was in hope of being busy and conspicuous.
While man was innocent he was likely ignorant of nothing that imported him to know.

Liken

Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock.
— Matt. vii. 24.

Likeness

An enemy in the likeness of a friend.
[How he looked] the likenesses of him which still remain enable us to imagine.
He said to them, Soothly ye shall say to me this likeness, Leech, heal thyself.
— Wyclif (Luke iv. 23).

Likewise

Go, and do thou likewise.
— Luke x. 37.
For he seeth that wise men die; likewise the fool and the brutish person perish.
— Ps. xlix. 10.

Likin

Likin,” which used to be regarded as illegal, as one of the many, “squeezes” imposed by the mandarins, is, in Jamieson's opinion, just as legal as any other form of taxation.
— A. R. Colquhoun.

Liking

Why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort?
— Dan. i. 10.
If the human intellect hath once taken a liking to any doctrine, . . . it draws everything else into harmony with that doctrine, and to its support.
I shall think the worse of fat men, as long as I have an eye to make difference of men's liking.
Their young ones are in good liking.
— Job. xxxix. 4.
Would he be the degenerate scion of that royal line . . . to be a king on liking and on sufferance?
— Hazlitt.

Lilied

By sandy Ladon's lilied banks.

Lilt

A classic lecture, rich in sentiment, With scraps of thundrous epic lilted out By violet-hooded doctors.
The movement, the lilt, and the subtle charm of the verse.
— F. Harrison.
The housewife went about her work, or spun at her wheel, with a lilt upon her lips.
— J. C. Shairp.

Lily

But sailing further, it veers its lily to the west.

Limb

A second Hector for his grim aspect, And large proportion of his strong-knit limbs.
That little limb of the devil has cheated the gallows.

Limbed

Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms, Limbed and full grown.

Limber

The bargeman that doth row with long and limber oar.
— Turbervile.

limbic system

At the most ancient part of the human brain lies the spinal cord; the medulla and pons, which comprise the hindbrain; and the midbrain. This cobination of spinal cord, hindbrain, and midbrain MacLean calls the neural chassis. It contains the basic neural machinery for reproduction and self-preservation, . . . MacLean has distinguished three sorts of [more recent brain structures controlling] the neural chassis. The most ancient of them surround the midbrain. . . . We share it with the other mammals and the reptiles. It probably evolved several hundred million years ago. MacLean calls it the reptilian or R-complex. Surrounding the R-complex is the limbic system, so called because it borders on the underlying brain. (Our arms and legs are called limbs because they are peripheral to the rest of the body.) We share the limbic system with other mammals, but not, in its full elaboration, with the reptiles. It probably evolved more than one hundred fifty million years ago. Finally, surrounding the rest of the brain and clearly the most recent evolutionary accretion, is the neocortex.
— Carl Sagan (The Dragons of Eden, New York, Random House, 1977).

Limbo

As far from help as Limbo is from bliss.
A Limbo large and broad, since called The Paradise of fools.

Lime

Like the lime That foolish birds are caught with.
These twigs, in time, will come to be limed.
We had limed ourselves With open eyes, and we must take the chance.
Land may be improved by draining, marling, and liming.
— Sir J. Child.

Limit

As eager of the chase, the maid Beyond the forest's verdant limits strayed.
The archdeacon hath divided it Into three limits very equally.
The dateless limit of thy dear exile.
The limit of your lives is out.
I prithee, give no limits to my tongue.

Limitary

The poor, limitary creature calling himself a man of the world.
Doctrines limitary, if not subversive of the papal power.

Limitation

They had no right to mistake the limitation . . . of their own faculties, for an inherent limitation of the possible modes of existence in the universe.
— J. S. Mill.
The cause of error is ignorance what restraints and limitations all principles have in regard of the matter whereunto they are applicable.
You have stood your limitation, and the tribunes Endue you with the people's voice.

Limiter

A limitour of the Gray Friars, in the time of his limitation, preached many times, and had but one sermon at all times.

Limmer

Thieves, limmers, and broken men of the Highlands.

Limn

Let a painter carelessly limn out a million of faces, and you shall find them all different.

Limning

Adorned with illumination which we now call limning.
— Wood.

Limpid

Springs which were clear, fresh, and limpid.

Line

The inside lined with rich carnation silk.
— W. Browne.
The charge amounteth very high for any one man's purse, except lined beyond ordinary, to reach unto.
Till coffee has her stomach lined.
Line and new repair our towns of war With men of courage and with means defendant.
Who so layeth lines for to latch fowls.
— Piers Plowman.
In the preceding line Ulysses speaks of Nausicaa.
— Broome.
He is uncommonly powerful in his own line, but it is not the line of a first-rate man.
Eden stretched her line From Auran eastward to the royal towers Of great Seleucia.
Though on his brow were graven lines austere.
He tipples palmistry, and dines On all her fortune-telling lines.
— Cleveland.
Unite thy forces and attack their lines.
Of his lineage am I, and his offspring By very line, as of the stock real.
He marketh it out with a line.
— Is. xliv. 13.
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.
— Ps. xvi. 6.
Their line is gone out through all the earth.
— Ps. xix. 4.
He had a healthy color in his cheeks, and his face, though lined, bore few traces of anxiety.
This custom of reading or lining, or, as it was frequently called “deaconing” the hymn or psalm in the churches, was brought about partly from necessity.
— N. D. Gould.

Lineage

Both the lineage and the certain sire From which I sprung, from me are hidden yet.

Lineal

The prime and ancient right of lineal succession.
For only you are lineal to the throne.

Lineament

Man he seems In all his lineaments.

Linear

Linear thinkers concluded that by taking the world apart, the actions of people were more predictable and controllable.
— David Morris (Conference presentation, Fairfield University, October 31, 1997)

Linger

Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind.
Perhaps thou linger'st, in deep thoughts detained.
She lingers my desires.

Lingering

To die is the fate of man; but to die with lingering anguish is generally his folly.
— Rambler.

Linguist

I'll dispute with him; He's a rare linguist.
There too were Gibbon, the greatest historian, and Jones, the greatest linguist, of the age.

Lining

The lining of his coffers shall make coats To deck our soldiers.

Linkwork

And thou shalt make hooks of gold, and two chains of fine gold; linkwork and wreathed.
— Udall.

Lion

Such society was far more enjoyable than that of Edinburgh, for here he was not a lion, but a man.
— Prof. Wilson.

Lip

Thine own lips testify against thee.
— Job xv. 6.
The bubble on the wine which breaks Before you lip the glass.
— Praed.
A hand that kings Have lipped and trembled kissing.

Liquid

Yea, though he go upon the plane and liquid water which will receive no step.
— Tyndale.

Liquidate

A debt or demand is liquidated whenever the amount due is agreed on by the parties, or fixed by the operation of law.
— 15 Ga. Rep. 321.
If our epistolary accounts were fairly liquidated, I believe you would be brought in considerable debtor.
— Chesterfield.
Friburg was ceded to Zurich by Sigismund to liquidate a debt of a thousand florins.
— W. Coxe.
Time only can liquidate the meaning of all parts of a compound system.
— A. Hamilton.

Liquor

Liquor fishermen's boots.

Liripoop

A liripoop, vel lerripoop, a silly, empty creature; an old dotard.
— Milles. MS. Devon Gloss.

Lisp

As yet a child, nor yet a fool to fame, I lisped in numbers, for the numbers came.
Lest when my lisping, guilty tongue should halt.
To speak unto them after their own capacity, and to lisp the words unto them according as the babes and children of that age might sound them again.
— Tyndale.
I overheard her answer, with a very pretty lisp, “O! Strephon, you are a dangerous creature.”
— Tatler.

Lissom

Straight, but as lissome as a hazel wand.

List

In measured lists to toss the weighty lance.
Stand close, and list to him.
Then weigh what loss your honor may sustain, If with too credent ear you list his songs.
The wind bloweth where it listeth.
— John iii. 8.
Them that add to the Word of God what them listeth.
Let other men think of your devices as they list.
— Whitgift.
The very list, the very utmost bound, Of all our fortunes.
He was the ablest emperor of all the list.
The tree that stood white-listed through the gloom.
Listed among the upper serving men.
I will list you for my soldier.

Listen

When we have occasion to listen, and give a more particular attention to some sound, the tympanum is drawn to a more than ordinary tension.
— Holder.
Listen to me, and by me be ruled.
Soldiers note forts, armories, and magazines; scholars listen after libraries, disputations, and professors.

Listless

Benumbed with cold, and listless of their gain.
I was listless, and desponding.

Litany

Supplications . . . for the appeasing of God's wrath were of the Greek church termed litanies, and rogations of the Latin.

Literal

It hath but one simple literal sense whose light the owls can not abide.
— Tyndale.
A middle course between the rigor of literal translations and the liberty of paraphrasts.
The literal notation of numbers was known to Europeans before the ciphers.

Literally

So wild and ungovernable a poet can not be translated literally.

Literary

He has long outlived his century, the term commonly fixed as the test of literary merit.
In the literary as well as fashionable world.
— Mason.

Literate

The literate now chose their emperor, as the military chose theirs.

Literati

Shakespearean commentators, and other literati.
— Craik.

Literator

That class of subjects which are interesting to the regular literator or black-letter “ bibliomane,” simply because they have once been interesting.

Literature

The origin of all positive science and philosophy, as well as of all literature and art, in the forms in which they exist in civilized Europe, must be traced to the Greeks.
— Sir G. C. Lewis.
Learning thy talent is, but mine is sense.
Some gentlemen, abounding in their university erudition, fill their sermons with philosophical terms.

Literatus

Now we are to consider that our bright ideal of a literatus may chance to be maimed.

Lither

Not lither in business, fervent in spirit.
— Bp. Woolton.

Litherly

He [the dwarf] was waspish, arch, and litherly.

Litigious

Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still Litigious men, who quarrels move.
— Donne.
No fences, parted fields, nor marks, nor bounds, Distinguished acres of litigious grounds.
Nor brothers cite to the litigious bar.

Litter

There is a litter ready; lay him in 't.
To crouch in litter of your stable planks.
Take off the litter from your kernel beds.
Strephon, who found the room was void. Stole in, and took a strict survey Of all the litter as it lay.
A wolf came to a sow, and very kindly offered to take care of her litter.
— D. Estrange.
Reflect upon that numerous litter of strange, senseless opinions that crawl about the world.
Tell them how they litter their jades.
— Bp. Hackett.
For his ease, well littered was the floor.
The room with volumes littered round.
We might conceive that dogs were created blind, because we observe they were littered so with us.
The son that she did litter here, A freckled whelp hagborn.
The inn Where he and his horse littered.
— Habington.
A desert . . . where the she-wolf still littered.

Little

He sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature.
— Luke xix. 3.
Best him enough: after a little time, I'll beat him too.
Conceited of their little wisdoms, and doting upon their own fancies.
When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes?
— I Sam. xv. 17.
By sad experiment I know How little weight my words with thee can find.
The long-necked geese of the world that are ever hissing dispraise, Because their natures are little.
The men, and the women, and the little ones.
— Deut. ii. 34.
Much was in little writ.
There are many expressions, which carrying with them no clear ideas, are like to remove but little of my ignorance.
A little, to or in a small degree; to a limited extent; somewhat; for a short time. “ Stay a little.”
The painter flattered her a little.

Livable

A more delightful or livable region is not easily to be found.
— T. Arnold.

Live

Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will . . . lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live.
— Ezek. xxxvii. 5, 6.
O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions!
— Ecclus. xli. 1.
Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years.
— Gen. xlvii. 28.
Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues We write in water.
What greater curse could envious fortune give Than just to die when I began to live?
The just shall live by faith.
— Gal. iii. ll.
Those who live by labor.
A strong mast that lived upon the sea.
To live the Gospel.
— Foxe.
If one man's ox hurt another's, that he die; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it.
— Ex. xxi. 35.

Livelihood

The opportunities of gaining an honest livelihood.
It is their profession and livelihood to get their living by practices for which they deserve to forfeit their lives.

Livelong

The obscure bird Clamored the livelong night.
How could she sit the livelong day, Yet never ask us once to play?
Thou hast built thyself a livelong monument.

Lively

Chaplets of gold and silver resembling lively flowers and leaves.
But wherefore comes old Manoa in such haste, With youthful steps ? Much livelier than erewhile He seems.
From grave to gay, from lively to severe.
I spied the lively picture of my father.
The colors of the prism are manifestly more full, intense, and lively that those of natural bodies.
His faith must be not only living, but lively too.
Thou counterfeitest most lively.

Liver

And try if life be worth the liver's care.

Liveried

The liveried servants wait.
— Parnell.

Livery

It concerned them first to sue out their livery from the unjust wardship of his encroaching prerogative.
A Haberdasher and a Carpenter, A Webbe, a Dyer, and a Tapicer, And they were clothed all in one livery Of a solempne and a gret fraternite.
From the periodical deliveries of these characteristic articles of servile costume (blue coats) came our word livery.
Now came still evening on, and twilight gray Had in her sober livery all things clad.
The emperor's officers every night went through the town from house to house whereat any English gentleman did repast or lodge, and served their liveries for all night: first, the officers brought into the house a cast of fine manchet [white bread], and of silver two great pots, and white wine, and sugar.
— Cavendish.
What livery is, we by common use in England know well enough, namely, that is, allowance of horse meat, as to keep horses at livery, the which word, I guess, is derived of livering or delivering forth their nightly food.
It need hardly be observed that the explanation of livery which Spenser offers is perfectly correct, but . . . it is no longer applied to the ration or stated portion of food delivered at stated periods.
Pegasus does not stand at livery even at the largest establishment in Moorfields.

Livid

There followed no carbuncles, no purple or livid spots, the mass of the blood not being tainted.

Living

Then on the living coals wine they pour.
She can spin for her living.
He divided unto them his living.
— Luke xv. 12.
There is no living without trusting somebody or other in some cases.
— L' Estrange.
He could not get a deanery, a prebend, or even a living

Load

He might such a load To town with his ass carry.
— Gower.
I strive all in vain to load the cart.
— Gascoigne.
I have loaden me with many spoils.
Those honors deep and broad, wherewith Your majesty loads our house.

Loadstar

The pilot can no loadstar see.

Loam

We wash a wall of loam; we labor in vain.

Loan

By way of location or loaning them out.
— J. Langley (1644).

Loanmonger

The millions of the loanmonger.
— Beaconsfield.

Loath

Full loth were him to curse for his tithes.
Why, then, though loath, yet must I be content.

Loathe

Loathing the honeyed cakes, I Ionged for bread.
— Cowley.
The secret which I loathe.
She loathes the vital sir.

Loathful

Above the reach of loathful, sinful lust.

Loathing

The mutual fear and loathing of the hostile races.

Loathly

This shows that you from nature loathly stray.
— Donne.
With dust and blood his locks were loathly dight.

Loathness

A general silence and loathness to speak.

Loathsome

The most loathsome and deadly forms of infection.

Lob

And their poor jades Lob down their heads.

Local

Gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name.

Locality

It is thought that the soul and angels are devoid of quantity and dimension, and that they have nothing to do with grosser locality.

Locate

The captives and emigrants whom he brought with him were located in the trans-Tiberine quarter.
— B. F. Westcott.
That part of the body in which the sense of touch is located.
— H. Spencer.

Lochan

A pond or lochan rather than a lake.
— H. Miller.

Lock

These gray locks, the pursuivants of death.
Albemarle Street closed by a lock of carriages.
When it locked none might through it pass.

Lockage

The entire lock will be about fifty feet.
— De Witt Clinton.

Locution

I hate these figures in locution, These about phrases forced by ceremony.
— Marston.

Lode

Down that long, dark lode . . . he and his brother skated home in triumph.
— C. Kingsley.

Lodge

Their lodges and their tentis up they gan bigge [to build].
— Robert of Brunne.
O for a lodge in some vast wilderness!
The Maldives, a famous lodge of islands.
Stay and lodge by me this night.
Something holy lodges in that breast.
Every house was proud to lodge a knight.
The memory can lodge a greater store of images than all the senses can present at one time.
— Cheyne.
The deer is lodged; I have tracked her to her covert.
He lodged an arrow in a tender breast.
Though bladed corn be lodged, and trees blown down.

Lodging

Wits take lodgings in the sound of Bow.
Fair bosom . . . the lodging of delight.

Lodgment

Any particle which is of size enough to make a lodgment afterwards in the small arteries.
— Paley.

Loft

Eutychus . . . fell down from the third loft.
— Acts xx. 9.
A wooden club with a lofted face.
— Encyc. of Sport.

Lofty

See lofty Lebanon his head advance.
The high and lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity.
— Is. lvii. 15.
Lofty and sour to them that loved him not.
Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.

Loggerheaded

A rabble of loggerheaded physicians.
— Urquhart.

Logic

Logic is the science of the laws of thought, as thought; that is, of the necessary conditions to which thought, considered in itself, is subject.

Logician

Each fierce logician still expelling Locke.

Logomachy

The discussion concerning the meaning of the word “justification” . . . has largely been a mere logomachy.
— L. Abbott.

Logroller

The jobbers and logrollers will all be against it.
— The. Nation.

Logy

Porcupines are . . . logy, sluggish creatures.
— C. H. Merriam.

Loiter

Sir John, you loiter here too long.
If we have loitered, let us quicken our pace.

Loll

Void of care, he lolls supine in state.
The triple porter of the Stygian seat, With lolling tongue, lay fawning at thy feet.
Fierce tigers couched around and lolled their fawning tongues.

Lollard

By Lollards all know the Wyclifities are meant, so called from Walter Lollardus, one of their teachers in Germany.

Lombard

A Lombard unto this day signifying a bank for usury or pawns.

Lone

When I have on those pathless wilds a appeared, And the lone wanderer with my presence cheered.
— Shenstone.
Queen Elizabeth being a lone woman.
— Collection of Records (1642).
A hundred mark is a long one for a poor lone woman to bear.
By a lone well a lonelier column rears.
Thus vanish scepters, coronets, and balls, And leave you on lone woods, or empty walls.

Loneliness

I see The mystery of your loneliness.

Lonely

To the misled and lonely traveler.
I am very often alone. I don't mean I am lonely.
— H. James.

Lonesome

Like one that on a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread.

Long

The we may us reserve both fresh and strong Against the tournament, which is not long.
They that tarry long at the wine.
— Prov. xxiii. 30.
When the trumpet soundeth long.
— Ex. xix. 13.
The bird of dawning singeth all night long.
I long to see you.
— Rom. i. 11.
I have longed after thy precepts.
— Ps. cxix. 40.
I have longed for thy salvation.
— Ps. cxix. 174.
Nicomedes, longing for herrings, was supplied with fresh ones . . . at a great distance from the sea.
The labor which that longeth unto me.

Long-drawn

The cicadae hushed their long-drawn, ear-splitting strains.
— G. W. Cable.

Long-suffering

The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.
— Ex. xxxiv. 6.
Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering?
— Rom. ii. 4.

Long-winded

A tedious, long-winded harangue.

Longevity

The instances of longevity are chiefly amongst the abstemious.

Longilateral

Nineveh . . . was of a longilateral figure, ninety-five furlongs broad, and a hundred and fifty long.

Longiloquence

American longiloquence in oratory.
— Fitzed. Hall.

Longing

Put on my crown; I have immortal longings in me.

Longitude

The longitude of their cloaks.
— Sir. W. Scott.
Mine [shadow] spindling into longitude immense.

Longspun

The longspun allegories fulsome grow, While the dull moral lies too plain below.

Look

It would look more like vanity than gratitude.
Observe how such a practice looks in another person.
The inner gate that looketh to north.
— Ezek. viii. 3.
The east gate . . . which looketh eastward.
— Ezek. xi. 1.
Look, how much we thus expel of sin, so much we expel of virtue.
Look that ye bind them fast.
Look if it be my daughter.
My toes look through the overleather.
Looking each hour into death's mouth to fall.
Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.
— Luke xxi. 26.
My subject does not oblige me to look after the water, or point forth the place where to it is now retreated.
The bishops thereat repined, and looked black.
— Holinshed.
Her friends would look on her the worse.
I looked on Virgil as a succinct, majestic writer.
I'll be a candleholder, and look on.
Looking my love, I go from place to place.
A spirit fit to start into an empire, And look the world to law.
Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again.
Threw many a northward look to see his father Bring up his powers; but he did long in vain.
Up ! up! my friends, and clear your looks.
Pain, disgrace, and poverty have frighted looks.
There was something that reminded me of Dante's Hell in the look of this.

Looker

Did not this fatal war affront thy coast, Yet sattest thou an idle looker-on ?

Looking

All dreary was his cheer and his looking.

Looking-glass

There is none so homely but loves a looking-glass.

Loom

Hector, when he sees Andromache overwhelmed with terror, sends her for consolation to the loom and the distaff.
— Rambler.
Awful she looms, the terror of the main.
— H. J. Pye.
On no occasion does he [Paul] loom so high, and shine so gloriously, as in the context.
— J. M. Mason.

Loop

That the probation bear no hinge, nor loop To hang a doubt on.
And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence The eye of Reason may pry in upon us.

Loos

Good conscience and good loos.

Loose

Her hair, nor loose, nor tied in formal plat.
Now I stand Loose of my vow; but who knows Cato's thoughts ?
With horse and chariots ranked in loose array.
The comparison employed . . . must be considered rather as a loose analogy than as an exact scientific explanation.
— Whewel.
The loose morality which he had learned.
Vario spends whole mornings in running over loose and unconnected pages.
Loose ladies in delight.
Vent all its griefs, and give a loose to sorrow.
Canst thou . . . loose the bands of Orion ?
— Job. xxxviii. 31.
Ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her; loose them, and bring them unto me.
— Matt. xxi. 2.
Art thou loosed from a wife ? seek not a wife.
— 1 Cor. vii. 27.
Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
— Matt. xvi. 19.
The joints of his loins were loosed.
— Dan. v. 6.

Loosen

After a year's rooting, then shaking doth the tree good by loosening of the earth.
It loosens his hands, and assists his understanding.

Loot

Looting parties . . . ransacking the houses.
— L. Oliphant.

Lop

Expunge the whole, or lop the excrescent parts.

Lope

The mustang goes rollicking ahead, with the eternal lope, . . . a mixture of two or three gaits, as easy as the motions of a cradle.
— T. B. Thorpe.

Lopping

The loppings made from that stock whilst it stood.

Loquacious

Loquacious, brawling, ever in the wrong.

Loquacity

Too great loquacity and too great taciturnity by fits.

Lord

But now I was the lord Of this fair mansion.
Man over men He made not lord.
Thou worthy lord Of that unworthy wife that greeteth thee.
The whiles she lordeth in licentious bliss.
I see them lording it in London streets.
And lorded over them whom now they serve.

Lording

Therefore, lordings all, I you beseech.

Lordly

She brought forth butter in a lordly dish.
— Judges v. 25.
Lordly sins require lordly estates to support them.
The maidens gathered strength and grace And presence, lordlier than before.
Lords are lordliest in their wine.

Lordolatry

But how should it be otherwise in a country where lordolatry is part of our creed?

Lordship

What lands and lordships for their owner know My quondam barber.
They which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them.
— Mark x. 42.

Lore

Neither of them she found where she them lore.
His fair offspring, nursed in princely lore.
If please ye, listen to my lore.

Lorn

If thou readest, thou art lorn.

Lose

Fair Venus wept the sad disaster Of having lost her favorite dove.
If the salt hath lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?
— Matt. v. 13.
The unhappy have but hours, and these they lose.
He hath lost his fellows.
The woman that deliberates is lost.
Like following life thro' creatures you dissect, You lose it in the moment you detect.
He shall in no wise lose his reward.
— Matt. x. 42.
I fought the battle bravely which I lost, And lost it but to Macedonians.
How should you go about to lose him a wife he loves with so much passion?
O false heart! thou hadst almost betrayed me to eternal flames, and lost me this glory.
— Baxter.
In the excitement of such a discovery, many scholars lost their heads.
— Whitney.
We 'll . . . hear poor rogues Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too, Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out.

Losel

One sad losel soils a name for aye.

Losenger

To a fair pair of gallows, there to end their lives with shame, as a number of such other losengers had done.
— Holinshed.

Losing

Amongst the many simoniacal that swarmed in the land, Herbert, Bishop of Thetford, must not be forgotten; nick-named Losing, that is, the Flatterer.
Who strive to sit out losing hands are lost.

Loss

Assured loss before the match be played.
Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss.
— Shak

Lot

But save my life, which lot before your foot doth lay.
The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.
— Prov. xvi. 33.
If we draw lots, he speeds.
O visions ill foreseen! Each day's lot's Enough to bear.
He was but born to try The lot of man -- to suffer and to die.
I, this winter, met with a very large lot of English heads, chiefly of the reign of James I.
The defendants leased a house and lot in the city of New York.
— Kent.
He wrote to her . . . he might be detained in London by a lot of business.
— W. Black.

Lotus-eater

The mild-eyed melancholy Lotos-eaters.

Loud

They were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified.
— Luke xxiii. 23.
She is loud and stubborn.
— Prov. vii. 11.
To speak loud in public assemblies.

Louk

There is no thief without a louk.

Lounge

We lounge over the sciences, dawdle through literature, yawn over politics.
— J. Hannay.
She went with Lady Stock to a bookseller's whose shop served as a fashionable lounge.
— Miss Edgeworth.

Loup-garou

The superstition of the loup-garou, or werewolf, belongs to the folklore of most modern nations, and has its reflex in the story of “Little Red Riding-hood” and others.
— Brinton.

Lousy

Such lousy learning as this is.
— Bale.

Lout

He fair the knight saluted, louting low.

Lovable

Elaine the fair, Elaine the lovable, Elaine, the lily maid of Astolat.

Love

Of all the dearest bonds we prove Thou countest sons' and mothers' love Most sacred, most Thine own.
He on his side Leaning half-raised, with looks of cordial love Hung over her enamored.
Demetrius . . . Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena, And won her soul.
Love, and health to all.
Smit with the love of sacred song.
The love of science faintly warmed his breast.
— Fenton.
Keep yourselves in the love of God.
— Jude 21.
Open the temple gates unto my love.
Such was his form as painters, when they show Their utmost art, on naked Lores bestow.
Therefore do nimble-pinioned doves draw Love.
He won the match by three sets to love.
— The Field.
A little western flower, Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound; And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
— Matt. xxii. 37.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self.
— Matt. xxii. 39.
Wit, eloquence, and poetry. Arts which I loved.
— Cowley.

Love-sick

To the dear mistress of my love-sick mind.
Where nightingales their love-sick ditty sing.

Loveless

These are ill-favored to see to; and yet, as loveless as they be, they are not without some medicinable virtues.

Loveliness

If there is such a native loveliness in the sex as to make them victorious when in the wrong, how resistless their power when they are on the side of truth!
— Spectator.

Lovelock

A long lovelock and long hair he wore.

Lovelorn

The lovelorn nightingale.

Lovely

Not one so fair of face, of speech so lovely.
— Robert of Brunne.
If I had such a tire, this face of mine Were full as lovely as is this of hers.
A most lovely gentlemanlike man.
Many a lovely look on them he cast.
Indeed these fields Are lovely, lovelier not the Elysian lawns.

Lover

Love is blind, and lovers can not see The pretty follies that themselves commit.
I slew my best lover for the good of Rome.

Loverwise

As they sat down here loverwise.
— W. D. Howells.

Loving

The fairest and most loving wife in Greece.

Lovingness

The only two bands of good will, loveliness and lovingness.
— Sir. P. Sidney.

Low

The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea.
Talking voices and the law of herds.
Why but to keep ye low and ignorant ?
In comparison of these divine writers, the noblest wits of the heathen world are low and dull.
— Felton.
In that part of the world which was first inhabited, even as low down as Abraham's time, they wandered with their flocks and herds.
The . . . odorous wind Breathes low between the sunset and the moon.
Can sing both high and low.

Low-minded

Low-minded and immoral.
All old religious jealousies were condemned as low-minded infirmities.

Lowbell

The fowler's lowbell robs the lark of sleep.
— King.
A lowbell hung about a sheep's . . . neck.

Lower

Lowered softly with a threefold cord of love Down to a silent grave.
All the clouds that lowered upon our house.
But sullen discontent sat lowering on her face.

Lowlily

Thinking lowlily of himself and highly of those better than himself.
— J. C. Shairp.

Lowliness

Walk . . . with all lowliness and meekness.
— Eph. iv. 1, 2.
The lowliness of my fortune has not brought me to flatter vice.

Lowly

One common right the great and lowly claims.
These rural poems, and their lowly strain.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.
— Matt. xi. 29.
I will show myself highly fed, and lowly taught.

Loyal

Welcome, sir John ! But why come you in arms ? -- To help King Edward in his time of storm, As every loyal subject ought to do.
Your true and loyal wife.
Unhappy both, but loyaltheir loves.

Loyalty

He had such loyalty to the king as the law required.
Not withstanding all the subtle bait With which those Amazons his love still craved, To his one love his loyalty he saved.

Lozenged

The lozenged panes of a very small latticed window.
— C. Bronté.

Lubber

Lingering lubbers lose many a penny.
— Tusser.

Lubberly

A great lubberly boy.

Lubric

This lubric and adulterate age.

Lubricate

Supples, lubricates, and keeps in play, The various movements of this nice machine.

Lubricity

As if wantonness and lubricity were essential to that poem.

Lucern

My lucerns, too, or dogs inured to hunt Beasts of most rapine.
The polecat, mastern, and the richskinned lucern I know to chase.

Lucid

Lucid, like a glowworm.
A court compact of lucid marbles.
A lucid and interesting abstract of the debate.

Lucifer

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations!
— Is. xiv. 12.
Tertullian and Gregory the Great understood this passage of Isaiah in reference to the fall of Satan; in consequence of which the name Lucifer has since been applied to Satan.
— Kitto.
How wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors! . . . When he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again.

Luck

If thou dost play with him at any game, Thou art sure to lose; and of that natural luck, He beats thee 'gainst the odds.

Luckless

Prayers made and granted in a luckless hour.

Lucky

We doubt not of a fair and lucky war.

Lucrative

The trade of merchandise being the most lucrative, may bear usury at a good rate.
Such diligence as the most part of our lucrative lawyers do use, in deferring and prolonging of matters and actions from term to term.

Lucre

The lust of lucre and the dread of death.

Lucubration

After long lucubration I have hit upon such an expedient.
Thy lucubrations have been perused by several of our friends.
— Tatler.

Luculent

Most debonair and luculent lady.

Ludicrous

A chapter upon German rhetoric would be in the same ludicrous predicament as Van Troil's chapter on the snakes of Iceland, which delivers its business in one summary sentence, announcing, that snakes in Iceland -- there are none.

Lug

They must divide the image among them, and so lug off every one his share.
— Collier.

Luggage

I am gathering up my luggage, and preparing for my journey.
What do you mean, To dote thus on such luggage!

Lugubrious

Crossbones, scythes, hourglasses, and other lugubrious emblems of mortality.

Luke

Nine penn'orth o'brandy and water luke.

Lukewarm

An obedience so lukewarm and languishing that it merits not the name of passion.

Lull

Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie, To lull the daughters of necessity.

Lumber

They put all the little plate they had in the lumber, which is pawning it, till the ships came.
— Lady Murray.

Lumberer

Lumberers have a notion that he (the woodpecker) is harmful to timber.

Luminary

Where the great luminary . . . Dispenses light from far.

Luminous

Fire burneth wood, making it . . . luminous.
The mountains lift . . . their lofty and luminous heads.
Up the staircase moved a luminous space in the darkness.

Lump

They may buy them in the lump.
The expenses ought to be lumped together.
— Ayliffe.
Not forgetting all others, . . . whom for brevity, but out of no resentment to you, I lump all together.

Lunacy

Your kindred shuns your house As beaten hence by your strange lunacy.

Lunatic

Lord, have mercy on my son; for he is lunatic.
— Wyclif (Matt. xvii. 15).
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, Are of imagination all compact.

Lune

These dangerous, unsafe lunes i' the king.

Lung

My lungs began to crow like chanticleer.

Lurch

Too far off from great cities, which may hinder business; too near them, which lurcheth all provisions, and maketh everything dear.
Lady ---- has cried her eyes out on losing a lurch.
But though thou'rt of a different church, I will not leave thee in the lurch.
— Hudibras.
Never deceive or lurch the sincere communicant.
And in the brunt of seventeen battles since He lurched all swords of the garland.
I . . . am fain to shuffle, to hedge, and to lurch.

Lure

I am not lured with love.
— Piers Plowman.
And various science lures the learned eye.

Lurid

Fierce o'er their beauty blazed the lurid flame.
Wrapped in drifts of lurid smoke On the misty river tide.

Lurk

Like wild beasts, lurking in loathsome den.
Let us . . . lurk privily for the innocent.
— Prov. i. 11.
The defendant lurks and wanders about in Berks.

Lurry

To turn prayer into a kind of lurry.

Luscious

And raisins keep their luscious, native taste.
He had a tedious, luscious way of talking.
— Jeffrey.

Lush

How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green!

Lussheburgh

God wot, no Lussheburghes payen ye.

Lust

For little lust had she to talk of aught.
My lust to devotion is little.
The lust of reigning.
In the water vessel he it cast When that him luste.
Whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.
— Deut. xii. 15.
Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
— Matt. v. 28.
The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy.
— James iv. 5.

Luster

Both of us have closed the tenth luster.
— Bolingbroke.
The right mark and very true luster of the diamond.
— Sir T. More.
The scorching sun was mounted high, In all its luster, to the noonday sky.
His ancestors continued about four hundred years, rather without obscurity than with any great luster.
Flooded and lustered with her loosened gold.

Lustrate

We must purge, and cleanse, and lustrate the whole city.

Lustration

And holy water for lustration bring.

Lusty

Neither would their old men, so many as were yet vigorous and lusty, be left at home.

Lute

Knaves are men That lute and flute fantastic tenderness.

Luxuriancy

Flowers grow up in the garden in the greatest luxuriancy and profusion.
— Spectator.

Luxuriant

Prune the luxuriant, the uncouth refine.

Luxury

Riches expose a man to pride and luxury.
— Spectator.
He cut the side of a rock for a garden, and, by laying on it earth, furnished out a kind of luxury for a hermit.
Luxury is in wine and drunkenness.

Lydian

Softly sweet in Lydian measures, Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures.

Lymph

A fountain bubbled up, whose lymph serene Nothing of earthly mixture might distain.