2. The tongue of one nation as distinct from others. O! good my lord, no Latin; I am not such a truant since my coming, As not to know the language I have liv'd in.. Sbakspeare. He not from Rome alone, but Greece, Like Jason, brought the golden fleece; To him that language, though to none Of th' others, as his own was known. Denham. 3. Style; manner of expression. Though his language should not be refin'd, It must not be obscure and impudent. Roscommon. Others for language all their care express, And value books, as women, men, for dress: Their praise is still the stile is excellent; The sense, they humbly take upon content. Pope. LANGUAGED. adj. [from the noun.] Having various languages.. He wand'ring long a wider circle made, And many languag'd nations has survey'd. Pope. LANGUAGE-MASTER.n.s. [language and master.] One whose profession is to teach languages. The third is a sort of language-master, who is to instruct them in the stile proper for a minis ter. Spectator. LANGUET.n.s. [languette, French.] Any thing cut in the form of a tongue. LA'NGUID. adj. [languidus, Latin.] 1. Faint; weak; feeble. Whatever renders the motion of the blood languid, disposeth to an acid acrimony; what accelerates the motion of the blood, disposeth to an alkaline acrimony. Arbuthnot. No space can be assigned so vast, but still a larger may be imagined; no motion so swift or languid, but a greater velocity or slowness may still be conceived. Bentley. 2. Dull; heartless. A drop of blood a-day; and, being aged, Sbakspeare's Cymbeline. W'e and our fathers do languish of such dis2. Esdras. cases. Pope. - Then forth he walks, Beneath the trembling languish of her beam, • With soften'd soul. Thomson's Spring. LANGUISHINGLY. adv. [from languishing.] 1. Weakly; feebly; with feeble softness. Leave such to tune their own dull rhimes, and know, What's roundly smooth, or languishingly slow. Pope. 2. Dully; tediously. Alas! my Dorus, thou seest how long and languishingly the weeks are past over since our last talking, Sidney. LANGUISHMENT. n. s. [languissamment, French; from languish.] 1. State of pining. By that count which lovers' books invent, The sphere of Cupid forty years contains; Which I have wasted in long languishment, That seem'd the longer for my greater pains. Spenser. 2. Softness of mien. Humility it expresses, by the stooping or bending of the head; languishment, when we hang it one side. Dryden. LANGUOR. n. 5. [languor, Latin; langueur, French.] 1. Faintness; wearisomeness. Well hoped I, and fair beginnings had, That he my captive languor should redeem. Spenser. For these, these tribunes, in the dust I write My heart's deep languor, and my soul's sad tears. Shakspeare. 2. Listlessness; inattention. Academical disputation gives vigour and briskness to the mind thus exercised, and relieves the languor of private study and meditation. Wasts. languid. He, piteous of her woes, rear'd her lank head, And gave her to his daughters to imbathe In nectar'd lavers strew'd with asphodil. Milton. LA'NKNESS. n.s. [from lank.] Want of plumpness. LANNER. N.S. [lanier, Fr.lannarius, Lat.] A species of hawk. LA'NSQUENET, n. s. [lance and knecht, Dutch.] 1. A common foot soldier. 2. A game at cards. LANTERN. n. s. [lanterne, French; laterna, Latin: it is by mistake often written lanthorn.] 1. A transparent case for a candle. God shall be my hope, My stay, my guide, my lanthorn to my feat. 4 Shakspeare. Thou art our admiral; thou bearest the lanthorn in the poop, but 'tis in the nose of thee; thou art the knight of the burning lamp. Shakspeare. LANTERN jaws. A term used of a thin visage, such as if a candle were burning in the mouth might transmit the light. Being very lucky in a pair of long lantborn jaws, he wrung his face into a hideous grimace. Spectator. LANUGINOUS. adj. [lanuginosus, Latin.] Downy; covered with soft hair. LAP.n.s. [læppe, Saxon; lappe, German.] 1. The loose part of a garment, which may be doubled at pleasure. If a joint of meat falls on the ground, take it up gently, wipe it with the lap of your coat, and then put it into the dish. Swift. 2. The part of the clothes that is spread Upon a day, as love lay sweetly slumb'ring A gentle bee, with his loud trumpet mur m'ring, Spenser. About him flew by hap. I'll make my haven in a lady's lap, And 'witch sweet ladies with my words and looks. Shakspeare. She bids you All on the wanton rushes lay you down, Our stirring Can from the lap of Egypt's widow pluck Heav'ns almighty sire Himself into her lup in fruitful show'rs. 1 Crashaw. Men expect that religion should cost them no pains, and that happiness should drop into their Laps. Tilktson. He struggles into breath, and cries for aid; Then, helpless, in his mother's lap is laid. He creeps, he walks, and issuing into man, Grudges their life from whence his own began: Retthless of laws, affects to rule alone, Anxious to reign, and restless on the throne. Dryden. To LAP. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To wrap or twist round any thing. He hath a long tail, which, as he descends from a tree, he laps round about the boughs, to keep himself from falling. Grew's Museum. About the paper, whose two halves were painted with red and blue, and which was stiff like thin pasteboard, I lapped several times a slender thread of very black silk. 2. To involve in any thing. Neruten. As through the flow'ring forest rash she fled, In her rude hairs sweet flow'rs themselves did lap, enwrap. And flourishing fresh leaves and blossoms did Spenser. The thane of Cawder 'gan a dismal conflict, Till that Bellona's bridegroom, Lapt in proof, Confronted him. Shakspeare's Macbeth. When we both lay in the field, Frozen almost to death, how he did lap me, Ev'n in his garments, and did give himself, All thin and naked, to the numb cold night. Ever against eating cares, Lap me in soft Lydian airs. Shakspeare. Milton. Indulgent fortune does her care employ, And smiling, broods upon the naked boy; Her garment spreads; and laps him in the folds, And covers with her wings from nightly colds. Dryden. Here was the repository of all the wise contentions for power between the nobles and commons, lapt up safely in the bosom of a Nero and a Caligula. Swift. To LAP. v. n. [lappian, Saxon; lappen, Dutch.] To feed by quick reciprocations of the tongue. The dogs by the river Nilus' side being thirsty, lap hastily as they run along the shore. Digby. They had soups served up in broad dishes, and so the fox fell to lapping himself, and bade his guest heartily welcome. L'Estrange. The tongue serves not only for tasting, but for mastication and deglutition, in man, by licking; in the dog and cat kind by lapping. Ray on Creation. To LAP. v. a. To lick up. Upon a bull Two horrid lyons rampt, and seiz'd, and tugg'd off, bellowing still, Both men and dogs came; yet they tore the hide, and lapt their fill. Chapman's Iliad. LAPDOG. n. s. [lap and dog. A little dog, fondled by ladies in the lap. One of them made his court to the lap-dog, to improve his interest with the lady. Collier. These, if the laws did that exchange afford, Would save their lap-dog sooner than their lord. Dryden. Lap-dogs give themselves the rousing shake, Of all the many sorts of the gem kind reckoned up by the lapidaries, there are not above three or four that are original. Woodward's Nat. Hist. Dict. To LA'PIDATE. v. a. [lapido, Latin.] To stone; to kill by stoning. LAPIDATION.n.s. [lapidatio, Lat. lapidation, Fr.] A stoning. LAPIDEOUS. adj. [lapideus, Lat.] Stony; of the nature of stone. There might fall down into the lapideous matter, before it was concreted into a stone, sonte small toad, which might remain there imprisoned, till the matter about it were condensed. Ray. LAPIDE SCENCE. n. s. [lapidesco, Lat.] Stony concretion. Of lapis ceratites, or cornu fossile, in subterraneous cavities, there are many to be found in Germany, which are but the lapidescencies, and putrefactive mutations, of hard bodies. Brown. LAPIDE SCENT. adj. [lapidescens, Lat.] Growing or turning to stone. LAPIDIFICATION. n. s. [lapidification, French.] The act of forming stones. Induration or lapidification of substances more soft is another degree of condensation. Bacon. LAPIDI FICK. adj. [lapidifique, French.] Forming stones. The atoms of the lapidifick, as well as saline principle, being regular, do concur in producing regular stones. Grew. LA PIDIST. n.s. [from lapides, Lat.] A dealer in stones or gems. Hardness, wherein some stones exceed all other bodies, being exalted to that degree, that art in vain endeavours to counterfeit it, the factitious stones of chemists in imitation being easily detected by an ordinary lapidist. LA'PIS. n.s. (Latin.) A stone. LAPIS Lazuli. Ray. The lapis lazuli, or azure stone, is a copper ore, very compact and hard, so as to take a high polish, and is worked into a great variety of toys. It is found in detached lumps, of an elegant blue colour, variegated with clouds of white, and veins of a shining gold colour: to it the painters are indebted for their beautiful ultra-marine colour, which is only a calcination of lapis lazuli. LAPPER. N. s. [from lap.] 1. One who wraps up. Hill. They may be lappers of linen, and bailiffs of the manor. And sleepless lovers just at twelve awake. Pope. 2. One who laps or licks. Swift. LAPSE. n. s. [lapsus, Lat.] Hill, dale, and shady woods, and sunny plains, 2. Petty errour; small mistake; slight offence; little fault. These are petty errors and minor lapses, not considerably injurious unto truth. Brown. The weakness of human understanding all will confess; yet the confidence of most practically disowns it; and it is easier to persuade them of it from other's lapses than their own. Glanville's Scepsis. This scripture may be usefully applied as a caution to guard against those lapses and failings, to which our infirmities daily expose us. Rogers. It hath been my constant business to examine whether I could find the smallest lapse in stile or propriety through my whole collection, that I might send it abroad as the most finished piece. Swift. 3. Transition of right from one to another. In a presentation to a vacant church, a layman ought to present within four months, and a clergyman within six, otherwise a devolution, or lapse of right, happens. Ayliffe. To LAPSE, V. n. [from the noun.] 1. To glide slowly; to fall by degrees. This disposition to shorten our words, by retrenching the vowels, is nothing else but a tendency to Lapse into the barbarity of those northern nations from whom we are descended, and whose languages all labour under the same de fect. Swift. 2. To fail in any thing; to slip; to commit a fault. I have ever verified my friends, Of whom he's chief, with all the size that verity Would without lapsing suffer. Shakspeare. To Lapse in fulness Is sorer than to lie for need; and falshood Is worse in kings than beggars. Shakspeare. 3. To sip, as by inadvertency or mistake. Homer, in his characters of Vulcan and Thersites. has lapsed into the burlesque character, ard departed from that serious air essential to an epick poem. Addison. Let there be no wilful perversion of another's meaning; no sudden seizure of a lapsed syllable to play upon it. 4. To lose the proper time. Myself stood out: For which if I be lapsed in this place, Watts. I shall pay dear. Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. As an appeal may be deserted by the appellant's lapsing the term of law, so it may also be deserted by a lapse of the term of a judge. Ayliffe's Parergon. 5. To fall by the negligence of one proprietor to another. If the archbishop shall not fill it up within six months ensuing, it lapses to the king. Ayliffe. 6. To fall from perfection, truth, or faith. Once more I will renew His lapsed pow'rs, though forfeit, and inthrall'd By sin to foul exorbitant desires. A sprout of that fig-tree which was to hide the nakedness of lapsed Adam. Decay of Piety. All publick forms suppose it the most principal, universal, and daily requisite to the lapsing state of human corruption. Decay of Piety. of Piet These were looked on as lapsed persons, and great severities of penance were prescribed them, as appears by the canons of Ancyra. Stilling fleet. LAPWING. n. S. [lap and wing.] A clamorous bird with long wings. Ah! but I think him better than I say, And yet would herein others eyes were worse: Far from her nest the lapwing cries away; My heart prays for him, though my tongue do Shakspeare. And how in fields the lapwing Tereus reigns, The warbling nightingale in woods complains. Dryden. curse. LA'PWORK. n. s. [lap and work.] Work in which one part is interchangeably wrapped over the other. A basket made of porcupine quills: the ground is a packthread caul woven, into which, by the Indian women, are wrought, by a kind of lapwork, the quills of porcupines, not split, but of the young onesintire; mixed with white and black in even and indented waves. Grew's Museum. LA'RBOARD. n. s. The left-hand side of a ship, when you stand with your face to the head: opposed to the starboard. Harris, Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunn'd Charybdis, and by the other whirlpool steer'd. Milton. Tack to the larboard, and stand off to sea, Veer starboard sea and land. Dryden. LA'RCENY. n.s. [larcin, Fr. latrocinium, Lat.] Petty theft. Those laws would be very unjust, that should chastize murder and petty y larceny with the punishment. LARCH.n.s. [larix, Lat.) A tree. same Spectator. Some botanical criticks tell us, the poets have not rightly followed the traditions of antiquity, in metamorphosing the sisters of Phaëton into poplars, who ought to have been turned into Larch trees; for that it is this kind of tree which sheds a gum, and is commonly found on the banks of the Po. Addison LARD. n. s. [lardum, Lat. lard, French.) 1. The grease of swine. So may thy pastures with their flow'ry feasts, As suddenly as lard, fat thy lean beasts. Donne. 2. Bacon; the flesh of swine. By this the boiling kettle had prepar'd, And to the table sent the smoaking lard; On which with eager appetite they dine, A sav'ry bit, that serv'd to relish wine. Dryden. The sacrifice they sped; Chopp'd off their nervous thighs, and next prepar'd T' involve the lean in cauls, and mend with lard. To LARD. v. a. [larder, French; from the Dryden. noun.] 1. To stuff with bacon. The larded thighs on loaded altars laid. Dryd. No man lards salt pork with orange peel, Or garnishes his lamb with spitch-cockt eel. 2. To fatten. Now Falstaff sweats to death, King. And lards the lean earth as he walks along. Brave soldier, doth he lie Shakspeare. Milton. Larding the plain? Shakspeare's Henryv. Charles II. asked me, What could be the reason, that in mountainous countries the men were commonly larger, and yet the cattle of all sorts smaller? Great Theron, large of limbs, of giant height. Temple. Warwick, Leicester, and Buckingham, bear a Dryden. large boned sheep of the best shape and deepest staple. Mortimer. 2. Wide; extensive. Their former large peopling was an effect of the countries impoverishting. Carew. Let them dwell in the land, and trade therein; for it is large enough for them. Genesis. There he conquered a thousand miles wide Description of the World. 3. Liberal; abundant; plentiful. Thou shalt drink of thy sister's cup deep and Vernal suns and showers large. Ezekiel. Diffuse their warmest, largest influence. Thomson. 4. Copious; diffusive. Skippon gave a large testimony under his hand, that they had carried themselves with great civility. Clarendon. I might be very large upon the importance and advantages of education, and say a great many things which have been said before. Felton on the Classics. 5. At LARGE. Without restraint; with. out confinement. If you divide a cane into two, and one speak at the one end, and you lay your ear at the other, it will carry the voice farther than in the air at large. Bacon. Thus incorporeal spirits to smallest forms Reduc'd their shapes immense; and were at large, Though without number still. Milton. The children are bred up in their father's way; or so plentifully provided for, that they are left at large. Spratt. LAR Your zeal becomes importunate; I've hitherto permitted it to rave it. 6. At LARGE. Diffusely; in the full ex tent. 3. Extension; amplitude. They which would file away most from the largeness of that offer, do in most sparing terms acknowledge little less. Hooker. The ample proposition that hope makes, Knowing best the largeness of my own heart Shall grief contract the largeness of that heart, In which nor fear nor anger has a part. Waller. Man as far transcends the beasts in largenese of desire, as dignity of nature and employment. Glanville. If the largeness of a man's heart carry him beyond prudence, we may reckon it illustrious L'Estrange. weakness. 4. Wideness. Supposing that the multitude and largeness of rivers ought to continue as great as now; we can easily prove, that the extent of the ocean could be no less, Bentley LARGESS.n.s. [largesse, French.] A pre- Our coffers with too great a court, Denbr |