Let – Lid

Let

LET, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive let Letted is obsolete. [To let out, like Latin elocare, is to lease.]

1. To permit; to allow; to suffer; to give leave or power by a positive act, or negatively, to withhold restraint; not to prevent. A leaky ship lets water enter into the hold. let is followed by the infinitive without the sign to.

Pharaoh said, I will let you go. Exodus 8:1.

When the ship was caught and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive. Acts 27:15.

2. To lease; to grant possession and use for a compensation; as, to let to farm; to let an estate for a year; to let a room to lodgers; often followed by out, as, to let out a farm; but the use of out is unnecessary.

3. To suffer; to permit; with the usual sign of the infinitive.

There's a letter for you, Sir, if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is. [Not used.]

4. In the imperative mode, let has the following uses. Followed by the first and third persons, it expresses desire or wish; hence it is used in prayer and entreaty to superiors, and to those who have us in their power; as, let me not wander from thy commandments. Psalms 119:10.

Followed by the first person plural, let expresses exhortation or entreaty; as, rise, let us go.

Followed by the third person, it implies permission or command addressed to an inferior. let him go, let them remain, are commands addressed to the second person. let thou, or let ye, that is, do thou or you permit him to go.

Sometimes let is used to express a command or injunction to a third person. When the signal is given to engage, let every man do his duty.

When applied to things not rational, it implies allowance or concession.

O'er golden sands let rich Pactolus flow.

5. To retard; to hinder; to impede; to interpose obstructions. 2 Thessalonians 2:3.

[This sense is now obsolete, or nearly so.]

To let alone, to leave; to suffer to remain without intermeddling; as, let alone this idle project; let me alone.

To let down, to permit to sink or fall; to lower.

She let them down by a cord through the window. Joshua 2:15.

To let loose, to free from restraint; to permit to wander at large.

To let in or into, to permit or suffer to enter; to admit. Open the door, let in my friend. We are not let into the secrets of the cabinet.

To let blood, to open a vein and suffer the blood to flow out.

To let out, to suffer to escape; also, to lease or let to hire.

To let off, to discharge, to let fly, as an arrow; or cause to explode, as a gun.

LET, verb intransitive To forbear. obsolete

LET, noun A retarding; hinderance; obstacle; impediment; delay. [Obsolete, unless in some technical phrases.]

LET, a termination of diminutives; as hamlet, a little house; rivulet, a small stream. [See Little.]

Lethal

LE'THAL, adjective [Latin lethalis, mortal, from Gr. oblivion.] Deadly; mortal; fatal.

Lethality

LETHAL'ITY, noun Mortality.

Lethargic

LETHAR'GIC,

LETHAR'GICAL, adjective [Latin lethargicus.] Preternaturally inclined to sleep; drowsy; dull; heavy.

Lethargical

LETHAR'GICAL, a. [L. lethargicus.] Preternaturally inclined to sleep; drowsy; dull; heavy.

Lethargically

LETHAR'GICALLY, adverb In a morbid sleepiness.

Lethargicalness

LETHAR'GICALNESS,

LETHAR'GICNESS, noun Preternatural or morbid sleepiness or drowsiness.

Lethargicness

LETHAR'GICNESS, n. Preternatural or morbid sleepiness or drowsiness.

Lethargied

LETH'ARGIED, participle passive or adjective Laid asleep; entranced.

Lethargy

LETH'ARGY, noun [Latin lethargia; Gr. oblivion and idle.]

1. Preternatural sleepiness; morbid drowsiness; continued or profound sleep, from which a person can scarcely be awaked, and if awaked, remains stupid.

2. Dullness; inaction; inattention.

Europe lay them under a deep lethargy

LETH'ARGY, verb transitive To make lethargic or dull.

Lethe

LE'THE, noun le'thee. [Gr. forgetfulness; Latin lateo, to be hid.] Oblivion; a draught of oblivion.

Lethean

LETHE'AN, adjective Inducing forgetfulness or oblivion.

Lether

LETH'ER, noun

1. The skin of an animal dressed and prepared for use.

2. Dressed hides in general.

3. Skin; in an ironical sense.

LEATH'ER,

LETH'ER, adjective Lethern; consisting of leather; as a leather glove.

Lether-Seller

LETH'ER-SELLER, noun A seller or dealer in leather.

Lether-Winged

LETH'ER-WINGED, adjective Having wings like leather.

Lethern

LETH'ERN, adjective Made of leather; consisting of leather; as a lethern purse; a lethern girdle.

Lethery

LETH'ERY, adjective Resembling leather; tough.

Lethiferous

LETHIF'EROUS, adjective [Latin lethum, death, and fero, to bring.]

Deadly; mortal; bringing death or destruction.

Letter

LET'TER, noun [from let.]

1. One who permits.

2. One who retards or hinders.

3. One who gives vent; as a blood-letter.

LET'TER, noun [Latin litera.]

1. A mark or character, written, printed, engraved or painted; used as the representative of a sound, or of an articulation of the human organs of speech. By sounds, and articulations or closures of the organs, are formed syllables and words. Hence a letter is the first element of written language, as a simple sound is the first element of spoken language or speech. As sounds are audible and communicate ideas to others by the ear, so letters are visible representatives of sounds, and communicate the thoughts of others by means of the eye.

2. A written or printed message; an epistle; a communication made by visible characters from one person to another at a distance.

The style of letters ought to be free, easy and natural.

3. The verbal expression; the literal meaning.

We must observe the letter of the law, without doing violence to the reason of the law, and the intentions of the lawgiver.

4. Type; a charter formed of metal or wood, usually of metal, and used in printing books.

5. Letters, in the plural, learning; erudition; as a man of letters.

Dead letter a writing or precept, which is without authority or force. The best law may become a dead letter

Letter of attorney, a writing by which one person authorizes another to act in his stead.

Letter of marque, a private ship commissioned or authorized by a government to make reprisals on the ships of another state. [See Marque.]

Letters patent, or overt, open, a writing executed and sealed, by which power and authority are granted to a person to do some act, or enjoy some right; as letters patent under the seal of England.

LET'TER, verb transitive To impress or form letters on; as, to letter a book; a book gilt and lettered.

Letter-Case

LET'TER-CASE, noun A case or book to put letters in.

Letter-Founder

LET'TER-FOUNDER, noun One who casts letters; a type-founder.

Letter-Press

LET'TER-PRESS, noun [letter and press.] Print; letters and words impressed on paper or other material by types.

Lettered

LET'TERED, participle passive Stamped with letters.

LET'TERED, adjective

1. Literate; educated; versed in literature or science.

Lettering

LET'TERING, participle present tense Impressing or forming letters on; as lettering a book on the cover.

Letterless

LET'TERLESS, adjective Illiterate; unlettered; not learned.

Lettuce

LETTUCE, noun let'tis. [Latin lactuca, according to Varro, from lac, milk.]

A genus of plants, the Lactuca, of many species, some of which are used as salads.

Leucin

LEU'CIN,

LEU'CINE, noun [Gr. white.] A peculiar white pulverulent substance obtained from beef-fibers, treated with sulphuric acid, and afterwards with alcohol.

Leucine

LEU'CINE, n. [Gr. white.] A peculiar white pulverulent substance obtained from beef-fibers, treated with sulphuric acid, and afterwards with alcohol.

Leucite

LEU'CITE, noun [Gr. white.] A stony substance, so called from its whiteness, found among volcanic productions in Italy, in crystals, or in irregular masses; formerly called crystals of white shorl, or white granite or granilite.

Hauy called this mineral, amphigene. It is called by some writers leucolite, and by others, dodecahedral zeolite.

Leuco-Ethiopic

LEUCO-ETHIOP'IC, adjective [Gr. white, and black.]

White and black; designating a white animal of a black species, or the albino.

Leucophlegmacy

LEUCOPHLEG'MACY, noun [Gr. white, and phlegm.]

A dropsical habit of body, or the commencement of anasarca; paleness, with viscid juices and cold sweats.

Leucophlegmatic

LEUCOPHLEGMAT'IC, adjective Having a dropsical habit of body with a white bloated skin.

Leucothiop

LEUCO'THIOP, noun [See Leuco-ethiopic.] An albino; a white man of a black race.

Leuthrite

LEU'THRITE, noun

A substance that appears to be a recomposed rock, or a loose texture, gritty and harsh to the touch. Its color is a grayish white, tinged here and there with an ocherous brown. It includes small fragments of mica.

Levant

LE'VANT, adjective [Latin levo.]

Eastern; denoting the part of the hemisphere where the sun rises.

Forth rush the levant and the ponent winds.

LEVANT', noun Properly, a country to the eastward; but appropriately, the countries of Turkey, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Egypt, etc. which are washed by the Mediterranean and its contiguous waters.

Levantine

LEV'ANTINE, adjective

1. Pertaining to the Levant.

2. Designating a particular kind of silk cloth.

LEV'ANTINE, noun A particular kind of silk cloth.

Levator

LEVA'TOR, noun [Latin from levo, to raise.]

1. In anatomy, a muscle that serves to raise some part, as the lip or the eyelid.

2. A surgical instrument used to raise a depressed part of the skull.

Leve

LEVE, for believe. obsolete

Levee

LEV'EE, noun [Latin levo.]

1. The time of rising.

2. The concourse of persons who visit a prince or great personage in the morning.

3. A bank or causey, particularly along a river to prevent inundation; as the levees along the Mississippi.

Level

LEV'EL, adjective [Eng. sleek. Latin libella, libra, belong to the root.]

1. Horizontal; coinciding with the plane of the horizon. To be perfectly level is to be exactly horizontal.

2. Even; flat; not having one part higher than another; not ascending or descending; as a level plain or field; level ground; a level floor or pavement. In common usage, level is often applied to surfaces that are not perfectly horizontal, but which have no inequalities of magnitude.

3. Even with any thing else; of the same height; on the same line or plane.

4. Equal in rank or degree; having no degree of superiority.

Be level in preferments, and you will soon be level in your learning.

LEV'EL, verb transitive

1. To make horizontal.

2. To make even; to reduce or remove inequalities of surface in any thing; as, to level a road or walk.

3. To reduce or bring to the same height with something else.

And their proud structures level with the ground.

4. To lay flat; to reduce to an even surface or plain.

he levels mountains, and he raises plains.

5. To reduce to equality of condition, state or degree; as, to level all ranks and degrees of men.

6. To point, in taking aim; to elevate or depress so as to direct a missile weapon to an object; to aim; as, to level a cannon or musket.

7. To aim; to direct; as severe remarks leveled at the vices and follies of the age.

8. To suit; to proportion; as, to level observations to the capacity of children.

LEV'EL, verb intransitive

1. To accord; to agree; to suit. [Little used.]

2. To aim at; to point a gun or an arrow to the mark.

3. To aim at; to direct the view or purpose.

The glory of God and the good of his church, ought to be the mark at which we level

4. To be aimed; to be in the same direction with the mark.

He raised it till he level'd right.

5. To aim; to make attempts.

Ambitious York did level at thy crown.

6. To conjecture; to attempt to guess. [Not used.]

LEV'EL, noun

1. A horizontal line, or a plane; a surface without inequalities.

2. Rate; standard; usual elevation; customary height; as the ordinary level of the world.

3. Equal elevation with something else; a state of equality.

Providence, for the most part, sets us on a level

4. The line of direction in which a missile weapon is aimed.

5. An instrument in mechanics by which to find or draw a horizontal line, as in setting buildings, or in making canals and drains. The instruments for these purposes are various; as the air level the carpenter's level the mason's level and the gunner's level

6. Rule; plan; scheme: borrowed from the mechanic's level

Be the fair level of thy actions laid. -

Leveled

LEV'ELED, participle passive

1. Reduced to a plane; made even.

2. Reduced to an equal state, condition or rank.

3. Reduced to an equality with something else.

4. Elevated or depressed to a right line towards something; pointed to an object; directed to a mark.

5. Suited; proportioned.

Leveler

LEV'ELER, noun

1. One that levels or makes even.

2. One that destroys or attempts to destroy distinctions, and reduce to equality.

Leveling

LEV'ELING, participle present tense

1. Making level or even.

2. Reducing to an equality of condition.

LEV'ELING, noun The art or practice of finding a horizontal line, or of ascertaining the different elevations of objects on the surface of the earth; in other words, the difference in the distance of objects from the center of the earth.

Levelness

LEV'ELNESS, noun

1. Evenness; equality of surface.

2. Equality with something else.

Leven

LEVEN. [See Leaven.]

LEV'EN, noun Lightning. obsolete

Lever

LEV'ER, noun [Latin levo, to raise.]

In mechanics, a bar of metal, wood, or other substance, turning on a support called the fulcrum or prop. Its arms are equal, as in the balance; or unequal, as in steelyards. It is one of the mechanical powers, and is of three kinds, viz. 1. When the fulcrum is between the weight and the power, as in the handspike, crowbar, etc. 2. When the weight is between the power and fulcrum, as in rowing a boat. 3. When the power is between the weight and the fulcrum, as in raising a ladder from the ground, by applying the hands to one of the lower rounds. The bones of animals are levers of the third kind.

Leveret

LEV'ERET, noun A hare in the first year of her age.

Leverock

LEV'EROCK, noun A bird, a lark. [See Lark.]

Levet

LEV'ET, noun A blast of a trumpet; probably that by which soldiers are called in the morning. [Not used.]

Leviable

LEV'IABLE, adjective [from levy.] That may be levied; that may be assessed and collected; as sums leviable by course of law.

Leviathan

LEVI'ATHAN, noun [Heb.]

1. An aquatic animal, described in Job 41:1, and mentioned in other passages of Scripture. In Isaiah, it is called the crooked serpent. It is not agreed what animal is intended by the writers, whether the crocodile, the whale, or a species of serpent.

2. The whale, or a great whale.

Levigate

LEV'IGATE, verb transitive [Latin lavigo, from lavis, smooth, Gr.]

1. In pharmacy and chimistry, to rub or grind to a fine impalpable powder; to make fine, soft and smooth.

2. To plane; to polish.

LEV'IGATE, adjective Made smooth.

Levigated

LEV'IGATED, participle passive Reduced to a fine impalpable powder.

Levigating

LEV'IGATING, participle present tense Rendering very fine, soft and smooth, by grinding or rubbing.

Levigation

LEVIGA'TION, noun The act or operation of grinding or rubbing a solid substance to a fine impalpable powder.

Levitation

LEVITA'TION, noun [Latin levis, levitas.] Lightness; buoyancy; act of making light.

Levite

LE'VITE, noun [from Levi, one the sons of Jacob.]

One of the tribe or family of Levi; a descendant of Levi; more particularly, an officer in the Jewish church, who was employed in manual service, as in bringing wood and other necessaries for the sacrifices. The Levites also sung and played on instruments of music. They were subordinate to the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who was also of the family of Levi.

Levitical

LEVIT'ICAL, adjective

1. Belong to the Levites, or descendants of Levi; as the levitical law, the law given by Moses, which prescribed the duties and rights of the priests and Levites, and regulated the civil and religious concerns of the Jews.

2. Priestly.

Levitically

LEVIT'ICALLY, adverb After the manner of the Levites.

Leviticus

LEVIT'ICUS, noun [from Levi, Levite.] A canonical book of the Old Testament, containing the laws and regulations which relate to the priests and Levites among the Jews, or the body of the ceremonial law.

Levity

LEV'ITY, noun [Latin levitas, from levis, light; connected perhaps with Eng. lift.]

1. Lightness; the want of weight in a body, compared with another that is heavier. The ascent of a balloon in the air is owing to its levity as the gas that fills it is lighter than common air.

2. Lightness of temper or conduct; inconstancy; changeableness; unsteadiness; as the levity of youth.

3. Want of due consideration; vanity; freak. He never employed his omnipotence out of levity or ostentation.

4. Gaiety of mind; want of seriousness; disposition to trifle. The spirit of religion and seriousness was succeeded by levity

Levy

LEV'Y, verb transitive [Latin levo; Eng. to lift.]

1. To raise; to collect. To levy troops, is to enlist or to order men into public service. To levy an army, is to collect troops and form an army by enrollment, conscription or other means.

2. To raise; to collect by assessment; as, to levy taxes, toll tribute, or contributions.

To levy war, is to raise or begin war; to take arms for attack; to attack.

To levy a fine, to commence and carry on a suit for assuring the title to lands or tenements.

LEV'Y, noun

1. The act of collecting men for military, or other public service, as by enlistment, enrollment or other means. 1 Kings 9:15.

2. Troops collected; an army raised. 1 Kings 5:13.

3. The act of collecting money for public use by tax or other imposition.

4. War raised. [Not in use.]

Lew

LEW, adjective Tepid; lukewarm; pale; wan. obsolete

Lewd

LEWD, adjective [Heb.]

1. Given to the unlawful indulgence of lust; addicted to fornication or adultery; dissolute; lustful; libidinous.

Ezekiel 23:44.

2. Proceeding from unlawful lust; as lewd actions.

3. Wicked; vile; profligate; licentious. Acts 27:1.

LEWD, adjective [Latin gnes, from geno.] Lay; laical; not clerical. obsolete

Lewdly

LEWD'LY, adverb

1. With the unlawful indulgence of lust; lustfully.

2. Wickedly; wantonly.

Lewdness

LEWD'NESS, noun

1. The unlawful indulgence of lust; fornication, or adultery.

2. In Scripture, it generally denotes idolatry.

3. Licentiousness; shamelessness.

Lewdster

LEWD'STER, noun One given to the criminal indulgence of lust; a lecher. [Not used.]

Lexicographer

LEXICOG'RAPHER, noun [See Lexicography.] The author of a lexicon or dictionary.

Lexicographic

LEXICOGRAPH'IC, adjective Pertaining to the writing or compilation of a dictionary.

Lexicography

LEXICOG'RAPHY, noun [Gr. a dictionary, and to write.]

1. The act of writing a lexicon or dictionary, or the art of composing dictionaries.

2. The composition or compilation of a dictionary.

Lexicology

LEXICOL'OGY, noun [Gr. a dictionary, and discourse.]

The science of words; that branch of learning which treats of the proper signification and just application of words.

Lexicon

LEX'ICON, noun [Gr. a dictionary, from to speak.]

A dictionary; a vocabulary or book containing an alphabetical arrangement of the words in a language, with the definition of each, or an explanation of its meaning.

Lexiconist

LEX'ICONIST, noun A writer of a lexicon. [Little used.]

Lexigraphy

LEX'IGRAPHY, noun [Gr. a word, and to write.] The art or practice of defining words.

LEY, a different orthography of lay and lea, a meadow or field.

Ley

LEY, noun [See Lay.] A meadow or plain. The Welsh write lle, but as this word is from the root of lay, the latter is the more correct orthography.

Lherzolite

LHER'ZOLITE, noun [from Lherz, in the Pyrenees.]

A mineral, a variety of pyroxene. When crystallized, its crystals are brilliant, translucid, very small, and of an emerald green.

Liability

LIABIL'ITY, noun

1. The state of being bound or obliged in law or justice; responsibility. The officer wishes to discharge himself from his liability

2. Exposedness; tendency; a state of being subject; as the liableness of a man to contract disease in an infected room; a liability to accidents.

Liable

LI'ABLE, adjective [Latin ligo. See Liege.]

1. Bound; obliged in law or equity; responsible; answerable. The surety is liable for the debt of his principal. The parent is not liable for debts contracted by a son who is a minor, except for necessaries.

This use of liable is now common among lawyers. The phrase is abridged. The surety is liable that is, bound to pay the debt of his principal.

2. Subject; obnoxious; exposed.

Proudly secure, yet liable to fall.

Liable, in this sense, is always applied to evils. We never say, a man is liable to happiness or prosperity, but he is liable to disease, calamities, censure; he is liable to err, to sin, to fall.

Liableness

LI'ABLENESS,

LIA'R, noun [from lie.]

1. A person who knowingly utters falsehood; one who declares to another as a fact what he knows to be not true, and with an intention to deceive him. The uttering of falsehood by mistake, and without an intention to deceive, does not constitute one a liar.

2. One who denies Christ. 1 John 2:1.

Liar

LIA'R, n. [from lie.] 1. A person who knowingly utters falsehood; one who declares to another as a fact what he knows to be not true, and with an intention to deceive him. The uttering of falsehood by mistake, and without an intention to deceive, does not constitute one a liar.2. One who denies Christ. 1John 2.

Liard

LI'ARD, adjective Gray. obsolete

Lias

LI'AS, noun A species of limestone, occurring in flat, horizontal strata, and supposed to be of recent formation.

Lib

LIB, verb transitive To castrate. [Not in use.]

Libation

LIBA'TION, noun [Latin libatio, from libo, to pour out, to taste.]

1. The act of pouring a liquor, usually wine, either on the ground, or on a victim in sacrifice, in honor of some deity. The Hebrews, Greeks and Romans practiced libation This was a solemn act and accompanied with prayer.

2. The wine or other liquor poured out in honor of a deity.

Libbard

LIBBARD, an obsolete spelling of leopard.

Libbards-Bane

LIB'BARD'S-BANE, noun A poisonous plant.

Libel

LI'BEL, noun [Latin libellus, a little book, from liber, a book, from the sense of bark, and this from stripping separating. Hence liber, a book, and liber, free, are the same word.]

1. A defamatory writing, Latin libellus, famosus. Hence, the epithet being omitted, libel expresses the same thing. Any book, pamphlet, writing or picture, containing representations, maliciously made or published, tending to bring a person into contempt, or expose him to public hatred and derision. The communication of such defamatory writing to a single person, is considered in law a publication. It is immaterial with respect to the essence of a libel whether the matter of it is true or false, since the provocation and not the falsity is the thing to be punished criminally. But in a civil action, a libel must appear to be false, as well as scandalous.

In a more extensive sense, any blasphemous, treasonable or immoral writing or picture made public, is a libel and punishable by law.

2. In the civil law, and in courts of admiralty, a declaration or charge in writing exhibited in court, particularly against a ship or goods, for violating the laws of trade or of revenue.

LI'BEL, verb transitive

1. To defame or expose to public hatred and contempt by a writing or picture; to lampoon.

Some wicked wits have libeled all the fair.

2. To exhibit a charge against any thing in court, particularly against a ship or goods, for a violation of the laws of trade or revenue.

LI'BEL, verb intransitive To spread defamation, written or printed; with against. He libels against the peers of the realm. [Not now in use.]

Libelant

LI'BELANT, noun One who libels; one who brings a libel or institutes a suit in an admiralty court.

The counsel for the libelant contended they had a right to read the instructions.

Libeled

LI'BELED, participle passive

1. Defamed by a writing or picture made public.

2. Charged or declared against in an admiralty court.

Libeler

LI'BELER, noun One who libels or defames by writing or pictures; a lampooner.

It is ignorance of ourselves which makes us the libelers of others.

Libeling

LI'BELING, participle present tense

1. Defaming by a published writing or picture.

2. Exhibiting charges against in court.

Libelous

LI'BELOUS, adjective Defamatory; containing that which exposes a person to public hatred, contempt and ridicule; as a libelous pamphlet or picture.

Liberal

LIB'ERAL, adjective [Latin liberalis, from liber, free. See Libe.]

1. Of a free heart; free to give or bestow; not close or contracted; munificent; bountiful; generous; giving largely; as a liberal donor; the liberal founders of a college or hospital. It expresses less than profuse or extravagant.

2. Generous; ample; large; as a liberal donation; a liberal allowance.

3. Not selfish, narrow on contracted; catholic; enlarged; embracing other interests than one's own; as liberal sentiments or views; a liberal mind; liberal policy.

4. General; extensive; embracing literature and the sciences generally; as a liberal education. This phrase is often but not necessarily synonymous with collegiate; as a collegiate education.

5. Free; open; candid; as a liberal communication of thoughts.

6. Large; profuse; as a liberal discharge of matter by secretions or excretions.

7. Free; not literal or strict; as a liberal construction of law.

8. Not mean; not low in birth or mind.

9. Licentious; free to excess.

Liberal arts, as distinguished from mechanical arts, are such as depend more on the exertion of the mind than on the labor of the hands, and regard amusement, curiosity or intellectual improvement, rather than the necessity of subsistence, or manual skill. Such are grammar, rhetoric, painting, sculpture, architecture, music. etc.

Liberal has of before the thing bestowed, and to before the person or object on which any thing is bestowed; as, to be liberal of praise or censure; liberal to the poor.

Liberality

LIBERAL'ITY, noun [Latin liberalitas. See Liberal.]

1. Munificence; bounty.

That liberality is but cast away, which makes us borrow what we cannot pay.

2. A particular act of generosity; a donation; a gratuity. In this sense, it has the plural number. A prudent man is not impoverished by his liberalities.

3. Largeness of mind; catholicism; that comprehensiveness of mind which includes other interests beside its own, and duly estimates in its decisions the value or importance of each. It is evidence of a noble mind to judge of men and things with liberality

Many treat the gospel with indifference under the name of liberality

4. Candor; impartiality.

Liberalize

LIB'ERALIZE, verb transitive To render liberal or catholic; to enlarge; to free from narrow views or prejudices; as, to liberalize the mind.

Liberalized

LIB'ERALIZED, participle passive Freed from narrow views and prejudices; made liberal.

Liberalizing

LIB'ERALIZING, participle present tense Rendering liberal; divesting of narrow views and prejudices.

Liberally

LIB'ERALLY, adverb

1. Bountifully; freely; largely; with munificence.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not. James 1:5.

2. With generous and impartial regard to other interests than our own; with enlarged views; without selfishness or meanness; as, to think or judge liberally of men and their actions.

3. Freely; not strictly; not literally.

Liberate

LIB'ERATE, verb transitive [Latin libero, from liber, free.]

1. To free; to release from restraint or bondage; to set at liberty; as, to liberate one from duress or imprisonment; to liberate the mind from the shackles of prejudice.

2. To manumit; as, to liberate a slave.

Liberated

LIB'ERATED, participle passive Freed; released from confinement, restraint or slavery; manumitted.

Liberating

LIB'ERATING, participle present tense Delivering from restraint or slavery.

Liberation

LIBERA'TION, noun [Latin liberatio.] The act of delivering from restraint, confinement or slavery.

Liberator

LIB'ERATOR, noun One who liberates or delivers.

Libertarian

LIBERTA'RIAN, adjective [Latin liber, free; libertas, liberty.]

Pertaining to liberty, or to the doctrine of free will, as opposed to the doctrine of necessity.

Remove from their mind libertarian prejudice.

Libertinage

LIB'ERTINAGE, noun Libertinism, which is most used.

Libertine

LIB'ERTINE, noun [Latin libertinus, from liber, free.]

1. Among the Romans, a freedman; a person manumitted or set free from legal servitude.

2. One unconfined; one free from restraint.

3. A man who lives without restraint of the animal passion; one who indulges his lust without restraint; one who leads a dissolute, licentious life; a rake; a debauchee.

LIB'ERTINE, adjective Licentious; dissolute; not under the restraint of law or religion; as libertine principles; a libertine life.

Libertinism

LIB'ERTINISM, noun

1. State of a freedman. [Little used.]

2. Licentiousness of opinion and practice; an unrestrained indulgence of lust; debauchery; lewdness.

Liberty

LIB'ERTY, noun [Latin libertas, from liber, free.]

1. Freedom from restraint, in a general sense, and applicable to the body, or to the will or mind. The body is at liberty when not confined; the will or mind is at liberty when not checked or controlled. A man enjoys liberty when no physical force operates to restrain his actions or volitions.

2. Natural liberty consists in the power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, except from the laws of nature. It is a state of exemption from the control of others, and from positive laws and the institutions of social life. This liberty is abridged by the establishment of government.

3. Civil liberty is the liberty of men in a state of society, or natural liberty so far only abridged and restrained, as is necessary and expedient for the safety and interest of the society, state or nation. A restraint of natural liberty not necessary or expedient for the public, is tyranny or oppression. civil liberty is an exemption from the arbitrary will of others, which exemption is secured by established laws, which restrain every man from injuring or controlling another. Hence the restraints of law are essential to civil liberty

The liberty of one depends not so much on the removal of all restraint from him, as on the due restraint upon the liberty of others.

In this sentence, the latter word liberty denotes natural liberty

4. Political liberty is sometimes used as synonymous with civil liberty But it more properly designates the liberty of a nation, the freedom of a nation or state from all unjust abridgment of its rights and independence by another nation. Hence we often speak of the political liberties of Europe, or the nations of Europe.

5. Religious liberty is the free right of adopting and enjoying opinions on religious subjects, and of worshiping the Supreme Being according to the dictates of conscience, without external control.

6. liberty in metaphysics, as opposed to necessity, is the power of an agent to do or forbear any particular action, according to the determination or thought of the mind, by which either is preferred to the other.

Freedom of the will; exemption from compulsion or restraint in willing or volition.

7. Privilege; exemption; immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant; with a plural. Thus we speak of the liberties of the commercial cities of Europe.

8. Leave; permission granted. The witness obtained liberty to leave the court.

9. A space in which one is permitted to pass without restraint, and beyond which he may not lawfully pass; with a plural; as the liberties of a prison.

10. Freedom of action or speech beyond the ordinary bounds of civility or decorum. Females should repel all improper liberties.

To take the liberty to do or say any thing, to use freedom not specially granted.

To set at liberty to deliver from confinement; to release from restraint.

To be at liberty to be free from restraint.

Liberty of the press, is freedom from any restriction on the power to publish books; the free power of publishing what one pleases, subject only to punishment for abusing the privilege, or publishing what is mischievous to the public or injurious to individuals.

First occurrence in the Bible(KJV): Leviticus 25:10

Libidinous

LIBID'INOUS, adjective [Latin libidinosus, from libido, lubido, lust, from libeo, libet, lubet, to please, it pleaseth; Eng. love, which see. The root is lib or lub.]

Lustful; lewd; having an eager appetite for venereal pleasure.

Libidinously

LIBID'INOUSLY, adjective Lustfully; with lewd desire.

Libidinousness

LIBID'INOUSNESS, noun The state or quality of being lustful; inordinate appetite for venereal pleasure.

Libidnist

LIB'IDNIST, noun One given to lewdness.

Libra

LI'BRA, noun [Latin] The balance; the seventh sign in the zodiac, which the sun enters at the autumnal equinox, in September.

Librarian

LIBRA'RIAN, noun [Latin librarius, with a different signification, from liber, bark, a book.]

1. The keeper or one who has the care of a library or collection of books.

2. One who transcribes or copies books. [Not now used.]

Library

LI'BRARY, noun [Latin librarium, libraria, from liber, a book.]

1. A collection of books belonging to a private person, or to a public institution or a company.

2. An edifice or an apartment for holding a collection of books.

Librate

LI'BRATE, verb transitive [Latin libro, from libra, a balance, a level; allied perhaps to Eng. level.]

To poise; to balance; to hold in equipoise.

LI'BRATE, verb intransitive To move, as a balance; to be poised.

Their parts all librate on too nice a beam.

Libration

LIBRA'TION, noun

1. The act of balancing or state of being balanced; a state of equipoise, with equal weights on both sides of a center.

2. In astronomy, an apparent irregularity of the moon's motions, by which it seems to librate about its axis.

Libration is the balancing motion or trepidation in the firmament, whereby the declination of the sun and the latitude of the stars change from time to time.

3. A balancing or equipoise between extremes.

Libratory

LI'BRATORY, adjective Balancing; moving like a balance, as it tends to an equipoise or level.

Lice

LICE, plu of louse.

Lice-Bane

LICE-BANE, noun A plant.

License

LI'CENSE, noun [Latin licentia, from liceo, to be permitted.]

1. Leave; permission; authority or liberty given to do or forbear any act. A license may be verbal or written; when written, the paper containing the authority is called a license A man is not permitted to retail spirituous liquors till he has obtained a license

2. Excess of liberty; exorbitant freedom; freedom abused, or used in contempt of law or decorum.

License they mean, when they cry liberty.

LI'CENSE, verb transitive

1. To permit by grant of authority; to remove legal restraint by a grant of permission; as, to license a man to keep an inn.

2. To authorize to act in a particular character; as, to license a physician or a lawyer.

3. To dismiss. [Not in use.]

Licenser

LI'CENSER, noun One who grants permission; a person authorized to grant permission to others; as a licenser of the press.

Licentiate

LICEN'TIATE, noun [from Latin licentia.]

1. One who has a license; as a licentiate in physic or medicine.

2. In Spain, one who has a degree; as a licentiate in law or divinity. The officers of justice are mostly distinguished by this title.

LICEN'TIATE, verb transitive To give license or permission.

Licentious

LICEN'TIOUS, adjective [Latin licentiosus.]

1. Using license; indulging freedom to excess; unrestrained by law or morality; loose; dissolute; as a licentious man.

2. Exceeding the limits of law or propriety; wanton; unrestrained; as licentious desires. licentious thoughts precede licentious conduct.

Licentiously

LICEN'TIOUSLY, adverb With excess of liberty; in contempt of law and morality.

Licentiousness

LICEN'TIOUSNESS, noun Excessive indulgence of liberty; contempt of the just restraints of law, morality and decorum. The licentiousness of authors is justly condemned; the licentiousness of the press is punishable by law.

Law is the god of wise men; licentiousness is the god of fools.

Lich

LICH, adjective [See Like.] Like; even; equal. obsolete

LICH, noun [Heb. chalak, smooth. We have here an instance of the radical sense of man and body, almost exactly analogous to that of Adam, to make equal, to be like.]

Lichen

LICH'EN, noun [Latin from Gr.]

1. In botany, the name for an extensive division of cryptogamian plants, constituting a genus in the order of Algae, in the Linnean system, but now forming a distinct natural order. They appear in the form of thin flat crust, covering rocks and the bark of trees, or in foliaceous expansions, or branched like a shrub in miniature, or sometimes only as a gelatinous mass, or a powdery substance. They are called rock moss and tree moss, and some of the liverworts are of this order. They also include the Iceland moss and the reindeer moss; but they are entirely distinct from the true mosses (Musci.)

2. In surgery, a species of impetigo, appearing in the form of a red, dry, rough, and somewhat prurient spot, that gives off small furfuraceous scales.

Lichenographic

LICHENOGRAPH'IC,

LICHENOGRAPH'ICAL, adjective Pertaining to lichenography.

Lichenographical

LICHENOGRAPH'ICAL, a. Pertaining to lichenography.

Lichenographist

LICHENOG'RAPHIST, noun One who describes the lichens.

Lichenography

LICHENOG'RAPHY, noun [lichen and to write.]

A description of the vegetables called lichens; the science which illustrates the natural history of the lichens.

Licit

LIC'IT, adjective [Latin licitus.] Lawful.

Licitly

LIC'ITLY, adverb Lawfully.

Licitness

LIC'ITNESS, noun Lawfulness.

Lick

LICK, verb transitive [Latin lingo; Gr. See Like and Sleek.]

1. To pass or draw the tongue over the surface; as, a dog licks a wound.

2. To lap; to take in by the tongue; as, a dog or cat licks milk. 1 Kings 21:19.

To lick up, to devour; to consume entirely.

Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as an ox licketh up the grass of the field. Numbers 22:4.

To lick the dust, to be slain; to perish in battle.

His enemies shall lick the dust. Psalms 72:9.

LICK, noun In America, a place where beasts of the forest lick for salt, at salt springs.

LICK, noun

1. A blow; a stroke. [Not an elegant word.]

2. A wash; something rubbed on. [Not in use.]

LICK, verb transitive To strike repeatedly for punishment; to flog; to chastise with blows. [Not an elegant word; but probably flog, Latin fligo, is from the root of this word.]

Licker

LICK'ER, noun One that licks.

Lickerish

LICK'ERISH, adjective [Gr. sweet. The sense of watery, smooth, sweet, are allied; likeness is often connected with smoothness in radical sense, and sleek is probably from the root of lick, like.]

1. Nice in the choice of food; dainty; as a lickerish palate.

2. Eager; greedy to swallow; eager to taste or enjoy; having a keen relish.

3. Dainty; tempting the appetite; as lickerish baits.

Lickerishly

LICK'ERISHLY, adverb Daintly.

Lickerishness

LICK'ERISHNESS, noun Niceness of palate; daintiness.

Licorice

LIC'ORICE, noun [Latin glycyrrhiza; Gr. sweet, and root.]

A plant of the genus Glycyrrhiza. The root of this plant abounds with a sweet balsamic juice, much used in pectoral compositions.

Licorous

LICOROUS, LICOROUSNESS, for lickerish, etc. not used.

Licorousness

LICOROUS, LICOROUSNESS for lickerish, etc. not used.

Lictor

LIC'TOR, noun [Latin lick, to strike.] An officer among the Romans, who bore an ax and fasces or rods, as ensigns of his office. The duty of a lictor was to attend the chief magistrates when they appeared in public, to clear the way and cause due respect to be paid to them. A dictator was attended by twenty four lictors, a consul by twelve, and a master of the horse by six. It was also the duty of lictors to apprehend and punish criminals.

Lid

LID. noun [Latin claudo, cludo; Gr.; Heb.]

A cover; that which shuts the opening of a vessel or box; as the lid of a chest or trunk; also, the cover of the eye, the membrane which is drawn over the eyeball of an animal at pleasure, and which is intended for its protection; the eyelid.