According to the difference of the lenses, I used various distances. Neruton.

LENT. The part. pass. from lend.

By Jove the stranger and the poor are sent, And what to those we give, to Jove is lent. Pope; LEN T. n. s. [lenzen, the spring, Sax.] The quadragesimal fast; a time of abstinence; the time from Ashwednesday to Easter.

Lent is from springing, because it falleth in the spring; for which our progenitors, the Germans, use glent. Camden.

LENTEN. adj. [from lent.] Such as is used in lent; sparing.

My lord, if you delight not in man, what Lasten entertainment the players shall receive from you! Shakspeare's Hamlet. She quench'd her fury at the flood, And with a lenten sallad cool'd her blood. Their commons, though but coarse, were nothing scant. Dry. Hind and Panther. LENTICULAR. adj. (lenticulaire, Fr.] Doubly convex; of the form of a lens. The crystalline humour is of a lenticular figure, convex on both sides. Ray on Creation. LE'NTIFORM. adj. [lens and forma, Lat.] Having the form of a lens. LENTIGINOUSs. adj. [from lentigo, Lat.] Scurfy; scurfuraceous. LENTIGO. n. s. [Latin.] A freckly or scurfy eruption upon the skin; such especially as is common to women in childbearing. Quincy. LENTIL. n. 5. [lens, Lat. lentille, Fr.] A plant.

It hath a papilionaceous flower, the pointal of which becomes a short pod, containing orbicular seeds, for the most part convex; the leaves are conjugated, growing to one mid-rib, and are terminated by tendrils.

2 Sam.

Miller. The Philistines were gathered together, where was a piece of ground full of lentiles. LENTISCK. N. s. [lentiscus, Lat. lentisque, Fr.] Lentisck wood is of a pale brown, almost whitish, resinous, fragrant, and acrid: it is the tree which produces mastich, esteemed astringent and bal

samick.

Hill.

Lentisck is a beautiful evergreen, the mastich or gum of which is of use for the teeth or gums. Mortimer's Husbandry. LENTITUDE. n. s. [from lentus, Latin.] Sluggishness; slowness. Dict. LENTNER. N. S. A kind of hawk.

I should enlarge my discourse to the observation of the haggard, and the two sorts of lentners. Walton's Angler. LENTOR. n. s. [lentor, Lat. lenteur, Fr.] 1. Tenacity; viscosity.

LENTOUS. adj. [lentus, Latin.) Viscous; tenacious; capable to be drawn out.

In this spawn of a lentous and transparent body, are to be discerned many specks which become black, a substance more compacted and terrestrious than the other; for it riseth not in distillation. Brown.

LE'OD. n.s. Leod signifies the people; or, rather, a nation, country, Sc. Thus, leodgar is one of great interest with the people or nation. Gibson's Camden. LE'OF. n. S. Leof denotes love; so leofwin is a winner of love; leofstan, best beloved: like these Agapetus, Erasmus, Philo, Amandus, &c. Gibson's Camden. LEONINE. adj. [leoninus, Latin.] 1. Belonging to a lion; having the nature

of a lion.

2. Leonine verses are those of which the end rhimes to the middle; so named from Leo the inventor: as

Gloria factorum temere conceditur horum.

LEOPARD. n.s. [leo and pardus, Latin.]
A spotted beast of prey.

Sheep run not half so tim'rous from the wolf,
Or horse or oxen from the leopard,
As you fly from your oft-subdued slaves. Shak.

A leopard is every way, in shape and actions, like a cat: his head, teeth, tongue, feet, claws, tail, all like a cat's: he boxes with his fore-feet, as a cat doth her kittens; leaps at the prey, as a eat at a mouse; and will also spit much after the same manner: so that they seem to differ, just as a kite doth from an eagle. Greru.

Before the 'king tame leopards led the way, And troops of lions innocently play. Dryden. LE PER. n. 5. [lepra, leprosus, Lat.] One infected with a leprosy.

I am no loathsome leper; look on me. Shaks. The leper in whom the plague is, his cloaths shall be rent. Leviticus.

LE PEROUS. adj. [formed from leprous, to make out a verse.] Causing leprosy; infected with leprosy; leprous.

Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, And in the porches of mine ears did pour The leperous distilment. Sbaksp. Hamlet. LEPORINE. adj. [leporinus, Lat.] Belonging to a hare; having the nature of a hare.

LEPROSITY. n.s. [from leprous.] Squamous disease.

If the crudities, impurities, and leprosities of metals were cured, they would become gold. Bacon.

LEPROSY.N.S. [lepra, Lat. lepre, Fr.] A loathsome distemper, which covers the body with a kind of white scales.

Itches, blains, So all the Athenian bosoms, and their crop Be general leprosy. Shaksp. Timon of Athens. It is a plague of leprosy. Leviticus. Between the malice of my enemies and other men's mistakes, I put as great a difference as between the itch of novelty and the leprosy of disloyalty. King Charles.

Authors, upon the first entrance of the pox, looked upon it so highly infectious, that they ran away from it as much as the Jews did from the leprosy. Wiseman's Surgery. a lec

LESS. A negative or privative termination. [lear, Saxon; loos, Dutch.] Joined to a substantive, it implies the absence or privation of the thing expressed by that substantive: as, a witLess man, a man without wit; childless, without children; fatherless, deprived of a father; pennyless, wanting money. LESS. adj. [lear, Sax.] The comparative of little: opposed to greater, or to so great; not so much; not equal.

Mary, the mother of James the less. Mark. He that thinks he has a positive idea of infinite space will find, that he can no more have a positive idea of the greatest than he has of the least space; for in this latter we are capable only of a comparative idea of smallness, which will always be less than any one whereof we have the positive idea. Locke.

All the ideas that are considered as having parts, and are capable of increase by the addition of any equal or less parts, afford us, by their repetition, the idea of infinity.

Locke.

"Tis less to conquer, than to make wars cease, And, without fighting, awe the world to peace. Hallifax.

LESS. N. S. Not so much: opposed to more, or to as much.

They gathered some more, some less. Exod.
Thy servant knew nothing of this, less or more.

1 Samuel.

Yet could he not his closing eyes withdraw, Though less and less of Emily he saw. Dryden.. LESS. adv. In a smaller degree; in a lower degree.

This opinion presents a less merry, but not less dangerous, temptation to those in adversity. Decay of Piety.

The less space there is betwixt us and the object, and the more pure the air is, by so much the more the species are preserved and distinguished; and, on the contrary, the more space of air there is, and the less it is pure, so much the more the object is confused and embroiled. Dryden.

Their learning lay chiefly in flourish; they were not much wiser than the less pretending multitude. Collier on Pride.

The less they themselves want from others, they will be less careful to supply the necessities of the indigent. Smalridge.

Happy, and happy still, she might have prov'd, Were she less beautiful, or less belov'd. Pope. LESSEE. n. 5. The person to whom a lease is given.

To LE'SSEN. v. a. [from less.]

1. To make less; to diminish in bulk.
2. To diminish the degree of any state or
quality; to make less intense.

To lessen thee, against his purpose serves To manifest the more thy might.

Milton.

St. Paul chose to magnify his office, wherr ill To LESSEN. . . men conspired to lessen it. Atterbury's Sermons. To grow less; to

shrink; to be diminished.

All government may be esteemed to grow strong or weak, as the general opinion in those that govern is seen to lessen or increase. Temple. The objection lessens much, and comes to no more than this, there was one witness of no good reputation. Atterbury. LE'SSER. adj. A barbarous corruption of less, formed by the vulgar from the habit of terminating comparatives in er; afterward adopted by poets, and then by writers of prose, till it has all the authority which a mode originally erroneous can derive from custom.

What great despite doth fortune to thee bear, Thus lowly to abase thy beauty bright, That it should not deface all other lesser light? Fairy Queen. It is the lesser blot, modesty finds, Women to change their shapes than men their minds. Sbakspeare. The mountains, and higher parts of the earth, grow lesser and lesser from age to age: sometimes the roots of them are weakened by subterraneous fires, and sometimes tumbled by earthquakes into caverns that are under them.

Burnet.

Cain, after the murder of his brother, cries out, Every man that findeth me shall slay me. By the same reason may a man, in the state of nature, punish the lesser breaches of that law. Locke.

Any heat promotes the ascent of mineral matter, but more especially of that which is subtle, and is consequently moveable more easily, and with a lesser power. Woodward.

dams.

him,

Do call it valiant fury.

To LET. v. a. [lætan, Saxon.] 1. To allow; to suffer; to permit. Nay, nay, quoth he, let be your strife and doubt. Fairfax. Where there is a certainty and an uncertainty, let the uncertainty go, and hold to that which is certain. Bishop Sanderson.

On the crowd he cast a furious look, And wither'd all their strength before he spoke; Back on your lives, let be, said he, my prey, And let my vengeance take the destin'd way. Dryden.

Remember me; speak, Raymond, will you let him? Shall he remember Leonora? Dryden. We must not let go manifest truths, because we cannot answer all questions about them. Collier.

One who fixes his thoughts intently on one thing, so as to take but little notice of the succession of ideas in his mind, lets slip out of his account a good part of that duration.

Locke.

A solution of mercury in aqua fortis being poured upon iron, copper, tin, or lead, dissolves the metal, and lets go the mercury. Neruton. 2. A sign of the optative mood used before the first, and imperative before the third person. Before the first person singular it signifies resolution, fixed purpose, or ardent wish.

Let me die with the Philistines.
Here let me sit,

Judgu.

And hold high converse with the mighty dead.

Thomson. Th

Denham.

3. Before the first person plural, let implies exhortation.

If he demises the glebe to a layman, the tenant must pay the small tithes to the vicar, and

Rise; let us go.

Mark.

Let us seek out some desolate shade. Shaksp.

LEST. conj. [from the adjective least.]

plural, let implies permission.

1. This particle may sometimes be re

Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause. Milt.

or care lest a thing should happen.

sassinates.

Let the soldiers seize him for one of the asDryden.

Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed, lest if he should exceed, then thy brother Deuteronomy.

should seem vile.

Lest they faint

At the sad sentence rigorously urg'd,

All terror hide.

Milton.

My labour will sustain me, and lest cold. Or heat should injure us, his timely care Hath unbesought provided.

Milton.

King Luitprand brought hither the corps, lest it might be abused by the barbarous nations.

6. Sometimes it implies concession.
O'er golden sands let rich Pactolus flow,
Or trees weep amber on the banks of Po,
While by our oaks the precious loads are born,
And realms commanded which those trees adorn.

If it were so, I might have let alone
Th' insulting hand of Douglas over you. Shaks.

The public outrages of a destroying tyranny are but childish appetites, let alone till they are grown ungovernable. L'Estrange's Fables. Let me alone to accuse him afterwards. Dryd. This is of no use, and had been better let alone: he is fain to resolve all into present possession. Locke.

Nestor, do not let us alone till you have shortened our necks, and reduced them to their antient standard. Addison. This notion might be let alone and despised, as a piece of harmless unintelligible enthusiasm. Rogers.

10. To more than permit; to give.

There's a letter for you, Sir, if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is. Shaksp. 11. To put to hire; to grant to a tenant. Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon; he let the vineyard unto keepers. Nothing deadens so much the composition of a picture, as figures which appertain not to the subject: we may call them figures to

Canticles.

Dryden.

She let her second floor to a very genteel man.
Tatler.

A law was enacted, prohibiting all bishops, and other ecclesiastical corporations, from letting their lands for above the term of twenty years. Swift.

12. To suffer any thing to take a course which requires no impulsive violence. In this sense it is commonly joined with a particle.

She let them down by a cord through the window. Joshua. Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.

Luke.

Let dorun thy pitcher, that I may drink. Gen. The beginning of strife is as when one letteth Proverbs.

out water.

Dryden.

From this point of the story, the poet is let down to his traditional poverty. Pope's Essay on Homer.

You may let it down, that is, make it softer by tempering it. Moxon's Mechanical Exercises. 13. To permit to take any state or course. Finding an ease in not understanding, he let loose his thoughts wholly to pleasure. Sidney. Let reason teach impossibility in any thing, and the will of man doth let it go. Hooker. He was let loose among the woods as soon as he was able to ride on horseback or carry a gun. Spectator.

14. TO LET blood, is elliptical for to let out blood. To free it from confinement; to suffer it to stream out of the vein.

Be rul'd by me; Let's purge this choler without letting blood. Shakspeare.

His ancient knot of dangerous adversaries To-morrow are let blood in Pomfrete.

Stakspeare.

Hippocrates let great quantities of blood, ard opened several veins at a time. Arbuthnot. 15. TO LET blood, is used with a dative of the person whose blood is let.

As terebration doth meliorate fruits, so doth letting plants blood, as pricking vines, thereby letting forth tears. Bacon.

16. TO LET in. To admit.

Let in your king, whose labour'd spirits Crave harbourage within your city walls. Shaks. Roscetes presented his army before the gates of the city, in hopes that the citizens would raise some tumult, and let him in.

Knolles.

What boots it at one gate to make defence, And at another to let in the foe, Effeminately vanquish'd? Milten's Agonistes. The more tender our spirits are made by religion, the more easy we are to let in grief, if the cause be innocent. Taylor.

They but preserve the ashes, thou the flame, True to his sense, but truer to his fame, Fording his current, where thou find'st it low, Let'st in thine own to make it rise and flow.

Denbam.

To give a period to my life, and to his fears you're welcome; here's a throat, a heart, or any other part, ready to let in death, and receive his commands. Denbam.

17. If a noun follows, for let in, let inte is required.

It is the key that lets them into their very heart, and enables them to command all that is there. South's Sermons.

There are pictures of such as have been distinguished by their birth or miracles, with inscriptions, that let you into the name and history of the person represented. Addison.

Most historians have spoken of ill success, and terrible events, as if they had been let inte the secrets of Providence, and made acquainted with that private conduct by which the world is governed.

Addison.

These are not mysteries for ordinary readers to be let into.

Addison.

To LET. v. a. [lerran, Saxon.]
1. To hinder; to obstruct; to oppose.

Their senses are not letted from enjoying their objects: we have the impediments of honour, and the torments of conscience. Sidney.

To glorify him in all things, is to do nothing whereby the name of God may be blasphemed; nothing whereby the salvation of Jew or Grecian, or any in the church of Christ, may be let or hindered. Hosker.

Leave, ah, leave off, whatever wight thou be, To let a weary wretch from her due rest,

And trouble dying soul's tranquillity! Fairy Q.

4

Introduction to Grammar.

To LET. v. n. To forbear; to withhold himself.

Bacon.

After king Ferdinando had taken upon him the person of a fraternal ally to the king, he would not let to counsel the king. LET. n.s. [from the verb.] Hinderance; obstacle; obstruction; impediment.

The secret lets and difficulties in public proceedings are innumerable and inevitable. Hooker. Solyman without let presented his army before the city of Belgrade. Knolles' Hist. of the Turks. It had been done ere this, had I been consul; We had had no stop, no let. Ben Jonson. Just judge, two lets remove; that free from dread,

I may before thy high tribunal plead. Sandys. To these internal dispositions to sin, add the external opportunities and occasions concurring with them, and removing all lets and rubs out of the way, and making the path of destruction plain before the sinner's face; so that he may run his course freely. South. LET, the termination of diminutive words from lyte, Saxon, little, small; as, rivulet, a small stream; hamlet, a little village.

LETHA'RGICK. adj. [lethargique, French, from lethargy.] Sleepy by disease, beyond the natural power of sleep.

Vengeance is as if minutely proclaimed in thunder from heaven, to give men no rest in their sins, till they awake from the lethargick sleep, and arise from so dead, so mortiferous a Hammond.

state.

Let me but try if I can wake his pity

From his lethargick sleep.

Denbam's Sopby.

A lethargy deinands the same cure and diet as an apoplexy from a phlegmatic case, such being the constitution of the lethargick. Arbuthnot. LETHARGICKNESS, n. s. (from lethargick.] Morbid sleepiness; drowsiness to a disease.

A grain of glory mixt with humbleness, Cures both a fever, and lethargickness. Herbert. LETHARGIED. adj. [from lethargy.] Laid asleep; entranced.

His motion weakens, or his discernings Are Itbary. Sbaksp. King Lear. LETHARGY. n. 5. [ληθαργία; lethargie, French.] A morbid drowsiness; a sleep from which one cannot be kept

awake.

dangers,

Has se'z'd his powers towards public cares and He sleeps like death. Denham's Sopby. Europe lay then under a deep lethargy; and was no otherwise to be rescued from it, but by one that would cry mightily. Atterbury.

A lethargy is a lighter sort of apoplexy, and demands the same cure and diet. Arbuthnot. LE'THE. n. 5. [λήθη.] Oblivion; a draught of oblivion.

The conquering wine hath steept our'sense In soft and delicate lethe. Shakspeare.

Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls
His wat'ry labyrinth, which whoso drinks
Forgets both joy and grief.

LETTER. n. 5. [from let.]

1. One who lets or permits. 2. One who hinders.

Milton.

3. One who gives vent to any thing; as, a blood letter.

LETTER. n. s. [lettre, French; litera, Latin.]

1. One of the elements of syllables; a character in the alphabet.

Luke.

A superscription was written over him in letders of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. Thou whoreson Zed! thou unnecessary letShakspeare.

ter!

2. A written message; an epistle. They use to write it on the top of letters.

I have a letter for her

Shakspeare.

Of such contents as you will wonder at. Shaksp. When a Spaniard would write a letter by him, the Indian would marvel how it should be possible, that he, to whom he came, should be able to know all things.

Abbot.

The asses will do very well for trumpeters, and the hares will make excellent letter carriers. L'Estrange.

The stile of letters ought to be free, easy, and natural; as near approaching to familiar conversation as possible: the two best qualities in conversation are, good humour and good breeding; those letters are therefore certainly the best that shew the most of these two qualities. Walsh.

Mrs. P. B. has writ to me, and is one of the best letter writers I know; very good sense, civility, and friendship, without any stiffness or constraint. Swift.

3. The verbal expression; the literal meaning.

Touching translations of holy scripture, we may not disallow of their painful travels herein, who strictly have tied themselves to the very original letter. Hooker.

In obedience to human laws, we must observe the letter of the law, without doing violence to the reason of the law, and the intention of the lawgiver. Those words of his must be understood not Taylor. according to the bare rigour of the letter, but according to the allowances of expression.

South's Sermons.

Dryden.

John.

Moxon.