In the book of Psalms, the lauds make up a very great part of it. Govern.of f the Tongue. To LAUD. v. a. [laudo, Lat.] To praise; to celebrate. O thou almighty and eternal Creator, having considered the heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name. Bentley. LA'UDABLE. adj. [laudabilis, Latin.] 1. Praiseworthy; commendable. I'm in this earthly world, where to do harm Is often laudable; but to do good, sometime Accounted dang'rous folly. Shaksp. Macbeth. Affectation endeavours to correct natural defects, and has always the laudable aim of pleasing, though it always misses it. 2. Healthy; salubrious. Locke. Good blood, and a due projectile motion or circulation, are necessary to convert the aliment into laudable animal juices. Arbuth.on Aliments. LA'UDABLENESS. n.s. [from laudable.] Praiseworthiness. LA'UDABLY. adv. [from laudable.] In a manner deserving praise. Obsolete words may be laudably revived, when either they are sounding or significant. Dryden. LA'UDANUM. n. s. [a cant word, from laudo, Lat.] A soporifick tincture. To LAVE. v. a. [lavo, Latin.] 1. To wash; to bathe. Unsafe, that we must lave our honours In these so flatt'ring streams. Shaksp. Macbeth. But as I rose out of the laving stream, Heav'n open'd her eternal doors, from whence The spirit descended on me like a dove. Milton. With roomy decks, her guns of mighty strength, Whose low-laid mouths each mounting billow laves, Deep in her draught, and warlike in her length, She seems a sea-wasp flying on the waves. Dryd. 2. [lever, Fr.) To throw up; to lade; to draw out. Though hills were set on hills, And seas met seas to guard thee, I would through: I'd plough up rocks, steep as the Alps, in dust, Ana lave the Tyrrhene waters into clouds, But I would reach thy head. Ben Jonson Some stow their oars, or stop the leaky sides, Another bolder yet the yard bestrides, And folds the sails; a fourth with labour laves Th' intruding seas, and waves eject on waves. Dryden. The whole lavender plant has a highly aromatick smell and taste, and is famous as a cephalick, nervous, and uterine medicine. Hill. And then again he turneth to his play, To spoil the pleasures of that paradise; The wholesome sage, and lasgender still grey, Rank smelling rue, and cummin good for eyes. Spenser. LA'VER. n. 5. [lavoir, French; from lave.] A washing vessel. Let us go find the body where it lies Soak'd in his enemies'blood, and from the stream With lavers pure, and cleansing herbs, wash off The clodded gore. Milton's Agonistes. He gave her to his daughters, to imbathe In nectar'd lavers strew'd with asphodil. Milton. Young Aretus from forth his bridal bow'r Brought the full laver o'er their hands to pour. Pope's Odyssey. To LAUGH. v. n. [hlapan, Sax. lachen, You saw my master wink and laugh upon you. Murther! They wak'd each other. Shakspeare's Macbeth. At this fusty stuff The large Achilles, on his prest-bed lolling, From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause. Shakspeare. Laughing causeth a continued expulsion of the breath with the loud noise, which maketh the interjection of laughing, shaking of the breast and sides, running of the eyes with water, if it be violent. Bacon's Natural History. 2. [In poetry.] To appear gay, favourable, pleasant, or fertile.. Entreat her not the worse, in that I pray You use her well; the world may laugh again, And I may live to do you kindness, if You do it her. Shakspeare's Henry VI. Then laughs the childish year with flowrets crown'd. Dryden. The plenteous board, high-heap'd with cates divine, And o'er the foaming bowl the laughing wine. Pope 3. TO LAUGH at. To treat with contempt; to ridicule. Presently prepare thy grave; Lie where the light foam of the sea may beat Thy grave-stone daily; make thine epitaph, That death in thee af others lives may laugh. Shakspeare. 'Twere better for you, if 'twere not known in council; you'll be laughed at. Sbakspeare. The dissolute and abandoned, before they are aware of it, are betrayed to laugh at themselves, and upon reflection find, that they are merry at their own expence. Addison. No wit to flatter left of all his store; No fool to laugh at, which he valued more. Pope. TO LAUGH. д.а. To deride; to scorn. Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn The pow'r of man. Shakspeare's Macbeth. A wicked soul shall make him to be laughed to scorn of his enemies. Ecclesiasticus. LAUGH. n.s. [from the verb.] The convulsion caused by merriment; an inarticulate expression of sudden merri from to lave, to throw out; as profundere opes, is to be lavish.] 1. Prodigal; wasteful; indiscreetly liberal. His jolly brother, opposite in sense, Laughs at his thrift; and lavish of expence, Quaffs, crams, and guttles, in his own defence. Dryden. The dame has been too lavish of her feast, And fed him till he loaths. Rorve's Jane Shore. 2. Scattered in waste; profuse: as, the cost was lavish. 3. Wild; unrestrained. Bellona's bridegroom, lapt in proof, Confronted him, curbing his lavish spirit. Shak. To LA'VISH. v. a. [from the adjective.] To scatter with profusion; to waste; to squander. Should we thus lead them to a field of slaugh With stays and cordage last he rigg'd the ship, And roll'd on leavers, launch'd her in the deep. Pope. 2. To dart from the hand. This perhaps, for distinction sake, might better be written lanch or lance. The King of Heav'n, obscure on high, Bar'd his red arm, and launching from the sky His writhen bolt, not shaking empty smoke, Down to the deep abyss the flaming fellow Dryden. LAUND. n. 5. [lande, French; lawn, Welsh.] Lawn; a plain extended between woods. strook. Hanmer. Under this thick-grown brake we'll shroud ourselves; For through this laund anon the deer will come; And in this covert will we make our stand. Shak. LAUNDRESS. n.s. [lavandiere, French: Skinner imagines that lavandaresse may have been the old word.] A woman whose employment is to wash clothes. The countess of Richmond would often say, On condition the princes of Christendom would march against the Turks, she would willingly attend them, and be their laundress. Camden. Take up these cloaths here quickly; carry them to the laundress in Datchet Mead. Shaksp. The laundress must be sure to tear her smocks in the washing, and yet wash them but half. Swift. LAUNDRY. N. s. [as if lavanderie.] . The room in which clothes are washed. The affairs of the family ought to be consulted, whether they concern the stable, dairy, the pantry, or laundry. 2. The act or state of washing. Swift. Chalky water is too fretting, as appeareth in laundry of cloaths, which wear out apace. Bacon. LAVOLTA. n.s. [la volte, French.] An old dance, in which was much turning and much capering. I cannot sing, Hanmer. Nor heel the high lavolt; nor sweeten talk; Sbaksp. LAUREATE. adj. [laureatus, Lat.] Decked or invested with a laurel. Bid Amaranthus all his beauty shed, Soft on her lap her laureate son reclines. Pope. LAUREATION. n.s. [from laureate.] It denotes, in the Scottish universities, the act or state of having degrees conferred, as they have in some of them a flowery crown, in imitation of laurel among the ancients. LAUREL. n. s. [laurus, Lat. laurier, Fr.] A tree, called also the cherry bay. The laurus or laurel of the ancients is affirmed by naturalists to be what we call the bay tree. Ainsworth. The laurel, meed of mighty conquerors, And poets sage. Fairy Queen. The laurel or cherry-bay, by cutting away the side branches, will rise to a large tree. Mortimer. LAURELED. adj. [from laurel.] Crowned or decorated with laurel; laureate. Hear'st thou the news? my friend! th' express is come With laurell'd letters from the camp to Rome. Dryden. Then future ages with delight shall see How Plato's, Bacon's, Newton's, looks agree; Or in fair series laurell'd bards be shown A Virgil there, and here an Addison. LAW. n. 5. [laga, Saxon; loi, French; lawgh, Erse.] 1. A rule of action. Pope. That which doth assign unto each thing the kind, that which doth moderate the force and power, that which doth appoint the form and measure of working; the same we term a law. Hooker. Unhappy man! to break the pious laws Of nature, pleading in his children's cause. Dryd. 2. A decree, edict, statute, or custom, publickly established as a rule of justice. Ordain them laws, part such as appertain To civil justice, part religious rites. Milton. Our nation would not give latus to the Irish, therefore now the Irish gave laws to them. Davies on Ireland. Milton. 3. A decree authoritatively annexing rewards or punishments to certain actions. So many laws argue so many sins. Laws politique among men presuming man to be rebellious. Hooker. 4. Judicial process. When every case in latu is right. Shaksp. He hath resisted law, And therefore law shall scorn him further trial Than the severity of public power. Sbaksp. Tom Touchy is a fellow famous for taking the law of every body: there is not one in the town where he lives that he has not sued at a quartersessions, Spectater. 5. A distinct edict or rule. 6. One lavo is split into two. Baker on Learning. Conformity to law; any thing lawful. In a rebellion, When what's not meet, but what must be, was law, Then were they chosen. Shaksp. Coriolanus. 7. The rules or axioms of science: as, the laws of mechanicks. 8. An established and constant mode or process; a fixed correspondence of cause and effect; as, the laws of magnetism. Natural agents have their law. Hooker. I dy'd, whilst in the womb he stay'd, Attending Nature's laru. Shaksp. Cymbeline. 9. The Mosaical institution: distinguished from the gospel. Milton. Law can discover sin, but not remove, Save by these shadowy expiations. 10. The books in which the Jewish religion is delivered: distinguished from the prophets. 11. A particular form or mode of trying and judging: as, law martial, law mercantile: the ecclesiastical law whereby we are governed. 12. Jurisprudence; the study of law: as, a doctor of law. LAWFUL. adj. [law and full.] Agreeable to law; conformable to law; allowed by law; legitimate; legal. It is not lauful for thee to have her. Matth. Gloster's bastard son was kinder to his father, than my daughters got 'tween tatuful sheets. Sbakspeare. LA'WFULLY, adv. [from lawful.] Legally; agreeably to law. This bond is forfeit; And latefully by this the Jew may claim A pound of flesh. Sbaksp. Merch. of Venice. Though it be not against strict justice for a man to do those things which he might otherwise larofully do, albeit his neighbour doth take occasion from thence to conceive in his mind a false belief, yet Christian charity will, in many South. cases, restrain a man. I may be allowed to tell your lordship, the king of poets, what an extent of power you have, and how lawfully you may exercise it. Dryden. LAWFULNESS. n.s. [from lawful.] Legality; allowance of law. It were an error to speak further, till I may see some sound foundation laid of the lawfulness of the action. Bacon. LA WGIVER. n. s. [law and giver.] Le- Solomon we esteem as the lawgiver of our nation. A law may be very reasonable in itself, although one does not know the reason of the lawgivers. Swift. LA'WGIVING. adj. [law and giving.] Legislative. Lawgiving heroes, fam'd for taming brutes, And raising cities with their charming lutes. Waller. LAWLESS. adj. [from law.] The necessity of war, which among human actions is the most larvless, hath some kind of affinity with the necessity of law. Raleigh's Es. The lawless tyrant, who denies To know their God, or message to regard, Milton. Orpheus did not, as poets feign, tame savage But men as lazuless, and as wild as they. Roscom. void, Destroying others, by himself destroy'd. Pope. 1. Contrary to law; illegal. Take not the quarrel from his powerful arms, He needs no indirect nor lawless course that gradually shot up into groves, woods, and forests, intermixed with walks, and lawns, and gardens. Addison. Stern beasts in trains that by his truncheon fell, Now grisly forms shoot o'er the laruns of hell. Pope, Interspersed in latuns and opening glades, Thin trees arise that shun each other's shades. Pope. 2. [linon, Fr.] Fine linen, remarkable for being used in the sleeves of bishops. Should'st thou bleed, To stop the wounds my finest lazon I'd tear, Wash them with tears, and wipe them with my Prior hair. From high life high characters are drawn, A saint in crape is twice a saint in laron. Pope. What awe did the slow solemn knell inspire; The duties by the latun rob'd preláte pay'd, And the last words, that dust to dust convey'd! Tickell. LAWSUIT. n.S. [law and suit.] A process in law; a litigation. The giving the priest a right to the tithe would produce laqusuits and wrangles; his attendance on the courts of justice would leave his people without a spiritual guide. Swift. LAWYER. n, s. [from law.) Professor of law; advocate; pleader. It is like the breath of an unfee'd lawyer, you gave me nothing for it. Shaksp. King Lear. Is the law evil, because some lawyers in their office swerve from it? Whitgifte. I have entered into a work touching laws, middle term, between the speculative and reverend discourses of philosophers, and the writ-ings of lawyers. Bacon's Holy War. The nymphs with scorn beheld their foes, In a Swift. Milton. Inhabit lax, ye pow'rs of heav'n! 2. Disunited; not strongly combined. In mines, those parts of the earth which abound with strata of stone, suffer much more than those which consist of gravel, and the like laxer matter, which more easily give way. 3. Vague; not rigidly exact. Woodward. Dialogues were only lax and moral discourses. Baker. To cut off those that have offended him. Shaks. 4. Loose in body, so as to go frequently We cite our faults, That they may hold excus'd our lawless lives. Sbakspeare. Thou the first, lay down thy lawless claim; Thou of my blood who bear'st the Julian name. Dryden. LA WLESSLY. adv. [from lawless.] In a manner contrary to law. Fear not, he bears an honourable mind, And will not use a woman lawlessly. Shaksp. LAWMAKER. N. s. [law and maker.] Legislator; one who makes laws; a lawgiver. Their judgment is, that the church of Christ should admit no lawmakers but the evangelists. Hopier. LAWN.n.s. [land, Danish; lawn, Welsh; lande, French.] 1. An open space between woods. Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks Grazing the tender herb, were interpos'd. Milt. His mountains were shaded with young trees, 5. to stool; laxative medicines are such as promote that disposition. Slack; not tense. Quincy. By a branch of the auditory nerve that goes between the ear and the palate, they can hear themselves, though their outward ear be stopt by the lax membrane to all sounds that come that way. Holder's Elements of Speech. LAX. n. s. A looseness; a diarrhea. LAXATION. n.s. [laxatio, Latin.] 1. The act of loosening or slackening. 2. The state of being loosened or slackened. LAXATIVE. adj. [laxatif, Fr. laxo, Lat.] Having the power to ease costiveness. Omitting honey, which is of a laxative power itself; the powder of loadstones doth rather constipate and bind, than purge and loosen the belly. Brozon. The oil in wax is emollient, laxative, and LAXATIVE.. n. 5. A medicine slightly anodyne. Arbuthnot on Aliments. purgative; a medicine that relaxes the Nought profits him to save abandon'd life, The former causes could never beget whirlpools in a chaos of so great a laxity and thinness. Bentley. 2. Contrariety to rigorous precision; as, laxity of expr of expression. 3. Looseness; not costiveness. If sometimes it cause any laxity, it is in the same way with iron unprepared, which will disturb some bodies, and work by purge and vomit. Brown. 4. Slackness; contrariety to tension. Laxity of a fibre, is that degree of cohesion in its parts which a small force can alter, so as to increase its length beyond what is natural. Quincy. In consideration of the lexity of their eyes, they are subject to relapse. Wiseman's Surgery. 5. Openness; not closeness. Hold a piece of paper close by the flame of a candle, and by little and little remove it further off, and there is upon the paper some part of that: which I see in the candle, and it grows still less and less as I remove; so that if I would trust my sense, I should believe it as very a body upon the paper as in the candle, though infeebled by the laxity of the channel in which it flows. Digby on Bodies. LAXNESS. N.S. Laxity; not tension; not picision; not costiveness. For the free passage of the sound into the ear, it is requisite that the tympanum he tense, and hard stretched; otherwise the Laxness of that membrane will certainly dead and damp the Holder's Elements of Speech. LAY. Preterit of lie. sound. O! would the quarrel lay upon our heads. Shakspeare. He was familiarly acquainted with him at such time as he lay embassador at Constantinople. Knolles. When Ahab had heard those words he fasted, and lay in sackcloth. 1 Kings. Fonab. He Izid his robe from him. Soft on the flow'ry herb I found me laid. Milt. The entrails on the wood. 2. To place along. Milton. Seek not to be judge, being not able to take away iniquity, lest at any time thou fear the person of the mighty, and lay a stumbling-block in the way of thy uprightness. Ecclesiasticus. A stone was laid on the mouth of the den. Dan. 3. To beat down corn or grass. Another ill accident is laying of corn with Let no sheep there play, blood. It was a sandy soil, and the way had been full of dust; but an hour or two before a refreshing fragrant shower of rain had laid the dust. Ray. 5. To fix deep; to dispose regularly: either of these notions may be conceived from the following examples; but regularity seems rather implied; so we say, to lay bricks; to lay planks. Schismaticks, outlaws, or criminal persons, are not fit to lay the foundation of a new colony. Bacon. I lay the deep foundations of a wall, And Enos, nam'd from me, the city call. Dryd. Men will be apt to call it pulling up the old foundations of knowledge; I persuade myself, that the way I have pursued lays those foundations surer. 6. To put; to place. Locke. Then he offered it to him again; then he put it Till us death lay They shall lay hands on the sick, and recover. Mark. They, who so state a question, do no more but separate and disentangle the parts of it, one from another, and lay them, when so disentangled, in their due order. Locke. We to thy name our annual rites will pay, And on thy altars sacrifices lay. Pope's Statius. 7. To bury; to inter. I try'd whatever in the Godhead lay. Dryden. the first night at a village in the territories of Addison. How could he have the retiredness of the cloister, to perform all those acts of devotion in, when the burthen of the reformation lay upon his shoulders! Francis Atterbury. The presbyterians argued, that if the Pretender should invade those parts where the numbers and estates of the dissenters chiefly lay, they would sit still. Swift. To LAY. v. a. [leczan, Saxon; leggen, Dutch.] David fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption. Acts. Lay thee an ambush for the city behind thee. The wicked have laid a snare for me. Psalms. dwelling of the righteous. The colouring upon those maps should be laid on so thin, as not to obscure or conceal any part of the lines. 10. To paint; to enamel. Watts. The pictures drawn in our minds are laid in fading colours; and, if not sometimes refreshed, vanish and disappear. Locke. 1. To place; to put; to reposite. This They bragged, that they doubted not but to |