to the wind; to be under the lee is to be under the wind or shelter from it; the lee-shore, on the contrary, appears to be the shore on, or opposed to, the lee-side of the ship, as she sails along; and consequently exposed to the wind. In Dutch, De loef hebben, to sail before the wind; Loeven, to ply to windward, (to luff';) Loef, the weathergage. The Dut. and the Eng. Luff, lee, leeward, Tooke considers to be from the same root; the A. S. Lyft; the air or the clouds; the wind. See Loor, and Luff. As sca-men tell, With fixed anchor in his skaly rind Thus they generally reason; Barbadoes is the Easter-most of the Carribbe Islands, therefore the rest are said to be lee. ward of it, and so of any other island; as indeed it usually holds true, because the winds there are commonly at East. Dampier. Voyages, vol. ii. pt. iii. c. 2. Which just like ours, how rigg'd and mann'd, By change of wind to leeward side, The pilot knew not how to guide.-Swift. On the Union. Though sorely buffeted by ev'ry sea, Falconer. Shipwreck, c. 2. LEECH, v. A. S. Lace, from Lacn-ian, læcnLEECII, n. Sian, curare, mederi, sanari, to cure, to heal. The Dut. Lacche, hirudo, a horse leech, is derived by Kilian from Laecken, to lack or want; because it occasions a lack of blood, or from Lacus, because found in lakes or standing waters. It is probably the same word, (A. S. Lace,) and so applied, because the animal heals by withdrawing unwholesome blood. but see LOUR. Lere, in Chaucer, is explained by Mr. Tyrwhitt to intend-the skin. In Holland, it is applied to the general colour, complexion, or appearance. To leer may be→ To look with the eye or eye-lid, somewhat down-cast, or lowering; as if to attract or invite attention or favour; and, thus, to assume or put on an alluring look; to allure, to attract, by the looks. A lovelicho lady of lere in linnen y clothid Chaucer. The Testament of Creseide, p. 295. Shakespeare. Love's Labour Lost, Act v. sc. 2. P. Fletcher. The Purple Island, c. 7. She giues the leere of inuitation. To cure, to heal; to practise the art of healing, places there are no other thing bred or growing but brown the medicinal art. Hys lechys loked hys stat, as her rygt was to done. R. Gloucester, p. 380. And purpose you to heare his speech Well wist that lord that I was seke Id. Ib. Id. The Knightes Tale, v. 2747. Home is he brought; and laid in sumptuous bed Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. i. c. 5. The hors-leeches which we call in Latine sanguisugus, (bloud-suckers) are used for to draw blood. Holland. Plinie, b. xxiii. c. 10. So arc leeches destructive, and by some accounted poison; because being inwardly taken they fasten upon the veins, and occasion an effusion of blood which cannot be easily stanched.-Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. ii. c. 5. Yet he [M. Cato] omitted not the leech-craft belonging also to kine and oxen.-Holland. Plinie, b. xxv. c. 2. Beldame, by that ye tell More neede of leach-craft hath yon damozell King. Art of Cookery. Leeches are good barometers when preserved in glasses, and predict bad weather by their great restlessness and change of place.-Pennant. Zoology, vol. iv. The Leech. LEEK, n. A. S. Lec, leac; Dut. Look; Ger. Lauch; Sw. Loek. A. S. "Leac. Allium porrum, a leak, a general name of a certain kind of hearbs," (Somner.), The etymology is unknown. Vor yt wolde fynde hem lek worten y now by the gere. R. Brunne, p. Chaucer. The Wif of Bathes Prologue, v. 6154. Footra for leers, and learings; O the noise, Beaum. & Fletch. Monsieur Thomas, Act iv. sc. 2. Brooke. Constantia. LEER. A. S. Ge-lær; Gcr. Lær, vacans, iners, which Wachter derives from lieren, perdere, omittere, and this by a common change of s into r, from lics-en, to lose. And, thus, A leer drunkard, will be a loose drunkard, a dissolute, profligate drunkard; "The horse runs lere," i. c. loose, away. A leer stomach may be, conscquentially, an empty stomach; because loose, slack, not well filled out. See Gifford on the passage quoted from Jonson, and Nares, in v. Love. Laugh on, sir, I'll to bed and sleep, And dream away the vapour of love, if the house And your leer drunkards let me. B. Jonson. The New Inn, Act iv. sc. 3. The horse runnes leere away without the man, But noble Bradamant, the horse doth stay, And backe restore. Harrington. Orlando Furioso, b. xvi. s. 64. LEES. Fr. Lie, from the A. S. Lic-gan, to lay or ly, that which lies, (sc.) at the bottom. Sec the quotation from Holinshed in v. Liquid. That which lies or settles at the bottom; the sediment. Verely the lees of wine are so strong, that oftentimes it overcommeth and killeth those, who go down into the vats and vessels wherein the wine is made. Holland. Plinie, b. xxiii. c. 11. Rivers, whose depth no sharp beholder sees, Dryden. Juvenal, Sat. 10, Spoil'd of its limpid vehicle, the blood Armstrong. The Art of Preserving Health, b. i. LEESE. See Lose. LEET, n. Spelman rejects the A. S. Lath, from Lath-ian, ge-lathian, congregare, q.d. the assembly or assize, because equally applicable to any other court, which seems scarcely a sufficient reason; priority of appropriation might decide the distinction. He further suggests let, pars, parvus, or lat, censura, arbitrium. See his Gloss. in v. Leta. For whether in leles they may or not, yt he saith he douteth. Sir T. More. Workes, p. 1012. M. Lambert seemeth to be of the opinion, that the leets of our time doo yeeld some shadow of the politike institution of Alfred.-Holinshed. Description of England, b. ii. c. 4. The jurisdiction of these leets is either remaining in the king, and in that case exercised by the sheriff in his turn, which is the grand leet, or granted over to subjects, but yet it is still the king's court.-Bacon. The Office of Constable. The other general business of the leet and tourn was to present by jury all crimes whatsoever that happened within their jurisdiction; and not only to present, but also to punish, all trivial misdemesnors. Blackstone. Commentaries, b. iv. c. 19. LEFE. See LIEF. stra. LEFT, adj. Dut. Lufte hand, luchte hand, siniThe left hand is that which is leaved, leav'd, left; ; or which we are taught to leave out of use when one hand only is employed, (Tooke, vol. ii, p. 10.) In the rigt syd two, and in the lift syde on. R. Gloucester, p. 22. But to sitte at my right half or left-half is not myn to gyve to you but to which it is maad redy.-Wiclif. Mark, c. 10. Ant. Octauius, leade your battaile softly on Vpon the left hand of the euen field. Octa. Vpon the right hand I, keepe thou the left. Ant. Why do you crosse me in this exigent? Shakespeare. Julius Cæsar, Act v. sc. 1. But as although a squint left-handedness B' ungracious, yet we cannot want that hand. Donne. To the Countess of Bedford. I remember to have read in a voyage of De Gama's to Kalekut (the first made by the Portuguese round Africa) that the people of Melinda, a polished and flourishing people, are all left-handed. Tooke. Diversions of Purley, vol. ii. c. 1. LEG, n. Skinner, from the Dut. Leegh, LEGGED. humilis, infra positus, low, placed below. Junius, from A. S Under-lec-gan, supponere, suffulcire, to support or sustain; and it is probably from the A. S. Lec-gan, ponere, meaning,Any thing placed, (sc.) as a support, to stand upon. To make a leg,-a common expression, intending-to bow with the leg drawn or thrown backwards. The legges bare bynethe the kne, that me mygte echo stape yse. R. Gloucester, p. 388. Hire shoon were laced on hire legges hie. Chaucer. The Milleres Tale, v. 3268. But when they came to Jesus, and sawe that he was deade alreadye they breake not his legges.-Bible, 1551. John, c.19. But the sea keeping hir course, rose still higher and higher, and ouerflowed not onlie the king's feet, but also flashed vp vnto his legs and knees. Holinshed. History of England, b. vii. c. 13. He knew how many leggs a knight letts fall Corbet. To the Lord Mordant. How the pale primrose and blue violet spring, Dryden. The Cock and the Fox; As they design'd to mock me, at my side Cowper. Task, b. v. LEGACY. Fr. Legz; It. Legato; Sp.LeLEGATE'E. gacia; Lat. Legatum, from Legare, i.e. quasi lege quadam in testamento statuendo ac decernendo, (Vossius.) For legacy by Will or Testament, see the quotation from Blackstone. Stow uses it as a derivative from Legate, (qv.) Whan he had heard her great infirmite Chaucer. The Complaint of Creseide. Now haue ye yt summe of this my doctrine euĕ my very gospel yt whole tale of all my legacy and message wherfore I am sent into the world.-Tyndall. Workes, p. 459. Yea, begge a haire of him for memory Vnto their issue.-Shakespeare. Julius Cæsar, Act iii. sc.2. A legacy is a bequest, or gift of goods and chattels by testament; and the person to whom it was given is stiled the legatee.-Blackstone. Commentaries, b. ii. c. 32. "Sir," quoth I, "I know not the law." "Yes, marry do you," quoth he, and laughed. "Nay in good faith," quoth I, "I am no legist." Wyatt to Cromwell, 12 April, (1540.) He was a good clerke and connynge in bothe lawes, he was a great iuryst and legyst. Berners. Froissart. Cronycle, vol. ii. c. 210. Who made our laws to bind us, not himself Whom so it pleases him by choice Millon. Samson Agonistes. The presbytery of Glascow, and many other places protested against the legality thereof, because of the admission of lay-elders, a thing scarce before heard of in that Church. Baker. Charles I. an. 1638. I know, Mr. Speaker, there is in Parliament a double power of life and death by bill, a judicial power, and a legislative; the measure of the one is what's legally just, and the other what is prudentially and politickly fit for the good and preservation of the whole. Id. Ib. an. 1641. Speech of Lord Digby. Though there should be emulation between them, yet as legists, they will agree in magnifying that wherein they are best.-Bacon. Works, vol. iii. Let. 127. To the King. In which you do but that over again, that you have from the very beginning of your discourse, and which some silly leguleians now and then do, to argue unawares, against their own clients.-Milton. A Defence of the People of England. But if you lessen the rate of use, the lender, whose interest it is to keep up the rate of money, will rather lend it to the banker, at the legal interest, than to the tradesman or gentleman, who when the law is broken, shall be sure to pay the full natural interest, or more. Locke. Of Lowering of Interest. Nor would the banker venture to borrow, where his gains would be but one per cent. nor the money'd man lend him, what he could make better profit of legally at home.-Id. Ib. That is by signifying their approbation, or satisfaction concerning the orthodoxy of their faith, the attestation of their manners, the legality of their ordination, &c. Barrow. Of the Pope's Supremacy. An officer, though he had passed his life in the field, was able to determine all legal controversies which could occur within the district committed to his charge. Hume. Hist. of England, vol. ii. App. 2. What do you think were the feelings of every man, who looks upon Parliament in an higher light, than that of a market-overt for legalizing a base traffick of votes and pensions, when he saw you employ such means of coercion to the Crown, in order to coerce our Parliament through that medium?-Burke. Letter to Thomas Burgh, Esq. Tweye men, Legales of Rome, Shakespeare. Hen. VIII. Act iii. sc. 2. The Legales a latere, as they were called, were a kind of Hume. History of England, vol. i. Note N. LEGEND, n. Chaucer. The Court of Loue. Legend, which means-That which ought to be read-is from the early misapplication of the term by impostors, now used by us as if it meant-That which ought to be laughed at and so it is explained in our dictionaries. Tooke. Diversions of Purley, vol. ii. c. 8. Ye tragic tales of legendary lore, A leger ambassador,-one sent to remain, or continue. A leger-book, a book that lies; for immediate entries. Chaucer renders the Lat. Sedes,-liege. certain liege to thee in mine hous, [certissimam tibi sedem Is this the librarie that thou haddest chosen for a right nostris in laribus.]—Chaucer. Boecius, b. i. All which particulars doe most evidently appeare out of This ledger-book lies in the brain behind, Davies. The Immortality of the Soul, s. 21. For Gundamore, the Spanish leiger, did so aggravate this fact of his to the king against him, that it seemed nothing would give satisfaction but Raleigh's head.-Baker, an.1617. 7. Lieger ambassadors or agents were sent to remain in or near the courts of those princes or states, to observe their motions, and to hold correspondence with them. Bacon. Advice to Sir George Villiers. It happened that a stage-player borrowed a rusty musket, Francis Little, in the year 1627, wrote a leiger-book con- Fr. Légend; It. and Sp. taining a short account of the Monastery of Abington. be read; from legere, to A narrative or relation, a record or register, any Wee are not to maruaile, that afterwards legends being Brome. Upon the King's Imprisonment. LE GATE. Fr. Légat; It. Legato; Sp. LEGACY. Legado; Lat. Legatus, from LE GATESHIP. leg-are, i. e. lege mittere, to LEGA'TION. send by law. See DELEGATE. LE/GATINE, or Any one sent, (sc.) to act LE'GANTINE. for or according to the directions of another; one deputed, appointed, authorized, or empowered, to act for another; a deputy, an ambassador, and, as in the quotation from legend is its diffusiveness; you have sometimes the whole Holinshed, a lieutenant. Many leiger-books of the monasteries [are] still remaining, wherein they registered all their leases and that for their own private use. H. Warton. On Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation, p. 42. Thomson. Castle of Indolence, c. 1. LEGER-DE- MA'IN, Fr.-Light of hand. Applied to the tricks of, or tricks resembling those of, jugglers; who perform them by lightness or quickness of hand. Perceiue theyr leygier demaine, wyth which they would For he in slights and iugling feates did flow, or} Shakespeare. Hen. V. Act iv. sc. 1. LEGGE, or LEGGEN, i. c. to lay or allay, (qv.) To ease. That but aforne her she may se In the future some socour To graunt her time of repentaunce. Chaucer, Rom. of the Rose LEGGIADROUS. It. Leggiadro, leggiardo It was pleasant to see, how divers of the letters of several of these papers, being placed within some convenient dis- from It. Leggiero; Fr. Légier, light, graceful. tance of the phial would be made plainly legible. Boyle. Works, vol. iii. p. 705. The first fault therefore which I shall find with a modern side of a medal overrun with it. Addison. Dialogues on Ancient Medals, Dial. 3. Yet this Retirement's cloud ne'r overcast Herself the queen of soft leggiadrous love.—Id. Ib. a. 19. LEGIBLE. See LEGEND. LEGION. Fr. Légion; It. Legione; Sp. LEGIONARY.Legion; Lat. Legio, quod leguntur milites in delectu, (Var. lib. iv.) The Roman legion is fully described by Polybius, and from his description the passage translated by Hampton is quoted. And see also the quotation from Melmoth. That Saynt Morice in battaile, befor the legioun. R. Brunne, p. 30. Wher gessist thou that I may not preie to my Fadir, and he schal give to me mo than twelve legiouns of aungels. Wiclif. Matthew, c. 26. Either thynkest thou that I cannot nowe praye to my Father, and he shall geue me moo than xii legions of angels. Bible, 1551. Ib. It happened that two souldiers, one of the fift legion, another a French auxiliary, vpo a iolity challenged one another to wrestle: and when as the legionary was throwen, the French man insulting ouer him, and they which lookt on diuiding themselues into sides, the legionary souldiers taking themselves to their weapons made hauocke of the auxiliaries, and slew two cohorts of them. Savile. Tacitus. Historie, p. 84. When the enrolments are in this manner finished, the tribunes, having assembled together in separate bodies the soldiers of their respective legions, choose out a man that seems most proper for the purpose, and making him swear in the following words: "that he will be obedient to his commanders, and execute all the orders that he shall receive from them, to the utmost of his power." The rest of the soldiers of the legion, advancing one by one, swear also, that they will perform what the first has sworn. Hampton. Polybius, vol. iii. b. vi. Ex. 2. 9. The number of horse and foot in a Roman legion varied in different periods of the republic. In its lowest computation it appears to have amounted to 3000 foot and 200 horse; and, in its highest, to have risen to 6000 of the former, and 400 of the latter.-Melmoth. Cicero, b. x. Let. 15. Note 9. Many of the legislators themselves had taken an oath of abjuration of his Majesty's person and family. Id. E. Philips, To the Reader. The first and fundamental positive law of all commonwealths, is the establishing of the legislative power; as the first and fundamental natural law, which is to govern even the legislative itself, is the preservation of the society, and (as far as it will consist with the public good) of every person in it.-Locke. Of Civil Government, c. 11._ The power of the legislative being derived from the people by a positive voluntary grant and institution, can be no other than what that positive grant conveyed, which being only to make laws and not to make legislators, the legislative can have no power to transfer their authority of making laws, and place it in other hands.-Id. Ib. See what that country of the mind will produce, when by the wholesome laws of this legislatress it has obtained its liberty.-Shaftesbury. Moral. pt. iv. s. 2. But there is nevertheless a science of legislation, which the details of office, and the intrigues of popular assemblies, will never communicate; a science, of which the principles must be sought for in the constitution of human nature, and in the general laws which regulate the course of human affairs. Stewart. Of the Human Mind, Introd. pt. il. s. 2. The supreme legislative power of England was lodged in the King and great council, or what was afterwards called the parliament.-Hume. History of England, vol. ii. App. 2. In the legislature, the people are a check on the nobility, and the nobility a check upon the people; by mutual privilege of rejecting what the other had resolved, while the King is a check upon both, which preserves the executive power from encroachments.-Blackstone. Commentaries, b. i. c. 2. usage; applied to children born in lawful matrithus,) from a lawful or pure source; genuine. mony; (consequentially, opposed to spurious; and Men that buth by getyn Out of matrimonie mowe nat have the grace That leele legitime by lawe may cleyme. Piers Plouhman, p. 176. They are not receiued nor taken as legitimate and leafull, as well of the Hebrues as of the whole churche. Bible, 1551. Esdras, Pref. And whan they were come the Pope made Henry the bastarde legitiue, and lawfull to obtayne the realme of Castell.-Berners. Froissart. Cronycle, c. 229. On the two and twentieth of Januarie a parlement begun at Westminster, in which the Duke of Lancaster caused to be legitimated the issue which he had begot of Katherine Swinfort before she was his wife. Holinshed. Rich. II. an. 1397. This doubt was kept long open, in respect to the two Queenes that succeeded, Marie and Elizabeth; whose legitimations were incompatible one with another, though the ́succession was settled by act of parliament. Bacon. Hen. VII. p. 206. The act that legitimated the Queen, making her [Elizabeth] most certainly a bastard in law, the Queen might think it now too much to use her as she had done formerly. Burnet. History of the Reformation, an. 1553. By degrees he rose to Jove's imperial seat, Dryden. Before this opposition of Flavianus, the Fathers of Constantinople had in their letter to Pope Damasus and the Occidental Bishops approved, and commended him to them; highly asserting the legitimateness of his ordination. Barrow. Of the Pope's Supremacy. By the canon law they [who were born, before wedlock] were legitimate; and when any dispute of inheritance arose, it had formerly been usual for the civil courts to issue writs to the spiritual, directing them to enquire into the legilimacy of the person. Hume. History of England. Hen. III. an. 1272. Every such process of reasoning, it is well known, may be resolved into a series of legitimate syllogisms, exhibiting separately and distinctly, in a light as clear and strong as language can afford, each successive link of the demonstration.-Stewart. Human Mind, vol. ii. c. 3. s. 1. LEGUME. ? Fr. and It. Legume; Sp. LEGUMINOUS. Legumbre; Lat. Legumen, quia legatur; because gathered by the hand, not cut. See the quotation from Miller. An instance of this may be afforded us by some legumens, as peas, or beans; which if they be newly gathered and distilled in a retort, it will, I presume, be easily granted, that they will, like many other green vegetables, afford, besides a great deal of phlegm, an acid spirit. Boyle. Works, vol. i. p. 613. Legumes or Legumens, are a species of plants which are call'd pulse, such as pease, beans, &c., and are so call'd be cause they may be gather'd by the hand without culling. Miller. Gardener's Dictionary. Leguminous plants, are such as bear pulse, with a papilionaceous flower.-Id. Ib. Now flow'rs dispos'd in various groupes, LEISURE, n. Looseness, or relaxation from labour or employment; liberty or freedom from business; and, consequentially, to use or abuse time as we please. Leisurely, With free use of time; not hurriedly, or hastily & whan thou sees leysere, that he ne perceyue thi witte. R. Brunne, p. 229. Wherfore we axen leiser and space to have deliberation in this cas to deem.-Chaucer. The Tale of Melibeus. Egistus drough his Quene nere, And with the leisere which he had, This ladie at his wille he ladde.-Gower. Con. A. b. iil. But what shall bee their glory and reward thou shalt sec, if thou wilt leasurably lysten and beholde to the ende of the tragedye.-Barnes. Workes, p. 358. Sometime he sheweth it leysourly, suffering hys flocke to comen & dispute therupon.-Sir T. More. Workes, p. 456. And how his limbs, resolv'd through idle leisour Unto sweet sleepe he may securely lend. Spenser. Virgil. Gnat And as our bodies waxe and gather strength by leysure, perish in a moment; so good wits and good learning are sooner cut downe then raised againe. Savile. Tacitus. Agricola, p. 184. And because the nearer wee draw unto God, the more we are oftentimes inlightned with the shining beames of his glorious presence as being then euen almost in sight, a leisurable departure may in that case bring forth for the good of such as are present, that which shall cause them for euer after from the bottom of their hearts to pray, O let vs dye the death of the righteous, and let our last end be like theirs. Hooker. Ecclesiasticall Politie, b. v. § 46. Let vs beg of God that when the houre of our rest is come the patternes of our dissolution may be Jacob, Moses, Josua, Dauid, who leisureably ending their liues in peace, prayed for the mercies of God to come vpon their posteritie.-Id. Ib. With leisurely delight she by degrees Lifts ev'ry till, does ev'ry drawer draw. Davenant. Gondibert, b. iii. c. 1. But Eumenes, meeting with the news, began to hearten his affrighted companions, promising to make Antigonus march leisurely.—Ralegh. Hist. of the World, b. iv. c. 4. s. 4. Full leisurely he rose, but conscious shame Of honour lost his failing strength renew'd. Somervile. Hobbinol, c. 2. Cicero knew not which of the two he preferred, but complained that the crowd of visitors that interrupted his leisure in these retreats contributed not a little to counterbalance their attractions.-Eustace. Italy, vol. ii. c. 11. Beneath whose shade the lusty steers repose LEME, v. LEME, n. Jago. Edge-Hill, b. iv. A. S. Leom-an, liom-an; to shine. See GLEAM. To shine, to lighten, to flame. And clere leme of the sterre, that ouer France drou. Which causeth folk to dreden in hir dreames Chaucer. The Nonnes Preestes Tale, v. 14,836. Thereby [i. e. by order] the incomprehensible majestye of God, as it were by a bryght leme of a torche or candell, is declared to the blynd inhabitantes of this worlde. Sir T. Elyol. The Governour, b. i. c. 1. LEMMAN, or Minshew, from the Fr. Le LE'MAN. mignon. Dr. T. H. (in Skinner), from L'aimant, l'aimante. Tyrwhitt calls it Saxon: and Junius forms it of Leof, i. e. loved, and man, applied generally to male or female. Lye remarks that Semisaxonice the word was written Leuemon; and in the quotation from Robert of Gloucester it will be found lef-mon. Any one loved; it is frequently applicd-to one loved illicitly, or with mere gallantry., Thys mayde hym payde suythe wel, myd God wille be hyr R. Gloucester, p. 344. nom And huld hyre as a lefmon. LEN Thus a lemon, quince, or sharp apple cut with a knife becomes immediately black. Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. vi. c. 12. LEN For Saresyns mowe be saved so. yf the [they] so by leyvede In the lengthynge of here lyf.-Piers Ploulman, p. 292. He was man of brede and length, Of wyt, of manhode, and of strength. Gower. Con. A. b. iii. His body was 8 foote long, and his armes and legges well They pay well for what they have, says a boat-man, I lengthed and strengthed after the proportion of his body. am going on board her with a cargo of lemons. Bear me, Pomona! to thy citron groves; LEND, v. LE'NDER. Thomson. Summer. Observer, No. 15. Goth. Leigan, leicwan, leihwan; A. S. Lan-an, lihan, lendLE'NDING, n. an, alend-an; Dut. Leen-an; Ger. Leihen; Sw. Laena; mutuare; fænerari; mutuò dare, et mutuò accipere,-to give or receive one thing in exchange for another. It is now more restricted. To give, or grant, or transfer, something, any thing, or the use of any thing, to, or to the use of, another, upon condition of return or repayment; to give or grant, confer or bestow, generally-yet still with an implication that what is granted or lent remains the property of the lender; or inay either itself, or an equivalent, at another time be See LOAN. granted or lent in return. Fifty thousand marcs had he lent abbeis R. Brunne, p. 185. And if ye lecnen to hem of whiche ye hopen to take agen: what thanke is it to you?-Wiclif. Luke, c. 6. If ye lende to them of whome ye hope to receauc, what thancke shall ye hauc.-Bible, 1551. lb. Fabyan, vol. i. c. 156. And if thou wilt walke in my wayes and keep myne ordinaunces and cōmaundemēt as Dauid thy father dyd walke, I wyll lengthen thy dayes also.-Bible, 1551. 3 Kinges, c. 3. He desireth not the lengthening of his lyfe for any other cause, then to restoare and set forth the thynges that make Id. Psalme, c. 30. Note. for the gloric of God and profyt of the saincts. Our Lord of his high pitie condyscended and graunted hym the lengthyng of his lyf for xv. yeares. Sir T. More. Workes, p. 316. And knowes ful wel life doth but length his paine. Mirrour for Magistrates, p. 264. Then Agricola perceiving the enemie to exceed him in number, and fearing, lest he should be assayled on the front and flankes both at one instant, displayed his army in length.-Savile. Tacitus. Agricola, p. 198. Why do I overlive, And he answerde, tweye dettouris weren to oo lener. Watches no doubt, with greedy hope to find Neither a borrower, nor a lender be; What then will be the unavoidable consequences of such a law? i. It will make the difficulty of borrowing and lending much greater; whereby trade (the foundation of riches) will be obstructed.-Locke. Of lowering of Interest. So that the rate you set profits not the lenders, and very few borrowers, who are fain to pay the price for money, that commodity would bear, were it left free.-Id. Ib. The stock which is lent at interest is always considered as a capital by the lender. Smith. Wealth of Nations, b. ii. c. 4. There exists no reason in the law of nature, why a man should not be paid for the lending of his money, as well as any other property into which the money might be converted.-Paley. Philosophy, b. iii. pt. i. c. 10. LENDS, n. See LOINS. LENGTH, v. LENGTH, n. A. S. Lang-ian; Dut. Langhen; Ger. Langen; LENGTHEN, v. extendere, porrigere, proLENGTHENING, n. trahere, to extend or stretch LENGTHFUL. out, to draw out, to inLENGTHYNG, N. crease the (linear) dimensions. Length, the noun, (Tooke,) is the third pers. sing. of the A. S. verb. Length,-applied strictly as denoting measurement, (sc. from end to end,) is distinguished from width and breadth ;the length of a line; the breadth or width of a surface; but the popular usage is vague. To length or lengthen, to extend or stretch out, to reach out, to draw out or protract, to increase or enlarge the extent. Length-y, adj.-has lately been introduced: (from America?) it is regularly formed, but not wanted: our word is-Long-some. See LONG. Tooke coins the adj. any-length-ian. See the quotation from him. And robbede Wurcestre ssyre in lengthe & in brede. R. Brunne, p. 19. LENIENT, adj. Fr. Lenir; It. Lenire; LE'NIENT, n. Sp. Lenizar; Lat. Lenire, LE/NIFY, U. (pres. part. leniens, It. and LE'NITIVE, adj. Sp. Leniente,) to soften, to LE'NITIVE, n. soothe. (A. S. Hlan-an, LE'NITY. to lean, bend, yield.) Softening, soothing; mild, gentle; (met.) opposed to austere or severe, harsh or rigid. But they now made worse through his lenilie & gentlenes, cast stones at him & brake his head.-Udal. Mark, c. 12. Glaucias was of opinion, That Colocasia was good to lenific or mitigat the acrimonie of humors within the bodic; and withall, to helpe the stomache. Holland. Plinie, b. xxi. c. 28. Consolatories writ With studied argument, and much perswasion sought, Lenient of grief and anxious thought. Milton. Samson Agonisles. Those milks have all an acrimony; though one would think they should be lenitive.-Bacon. Nat. Hist. § 639. Nay what shall the Scripture itself? which is like an apothecarie's shop, wherein are all remedies for all infirmitics of minde, purgatives, cordialls, alteratives, corroboratives, lenitives, &c.—Burton. Anat. of Melancholy, p. 280. Address Some lenitives, tallay the fi'riness Me, let the tender office long engage, O think what transports must thy bosom feel, Say, that my lenity shall grant your prayer, LENS. tille; and from the shape of its seed, somewhat convex on both sides, a glass, so formed, (for a telescope, a burning glass,) is called. Lentils, Fr. Lentilles, are also "red specks, red pimples, wan, small, and lentill-resembling freckles on the face or hands." Lenticular instrument, (in Wiseman,) Fr. Len"an instrument wherewith surgeons ticulaire, plane and cut away the broken bones of a wounded skull," (Cotgrave.) The root brought into a liniment cureth the lentils or red spots.-Holland. Plinie, b. xxii. c. 21. The best lentils be they that are most tender, and aske least seathing; also such as drink much water. Id. Ib. b. xxii. c. 24. In which this is remarkable, that every foramen is of a lenticular nature; so that we see objects through them topsey-turvey, as through so many convex glasses: yea, they become a small telescope, when there is a due focal distance between them and the lens of the microscope. Derham. Physico-Theology, h. viii. c. 3. Note 1. I have sometimes, for trial sake, brought by a lenticular glass the image of a river, shined upon by the sun, into, an upper room darkened, and distant about a quarter of a mile from the river.-Boyle. Works, vol. i. p. 700. The perforation made in cranio, and the bone taken out, you are to smooth away the asperity which remains in the lower table, by the lenticular instrument made for that pur pose.-Wiseman. Surgery, b. v. c. 9. Vile vetches would you sow, or lentils lean, } Dryden. Virgil. Georgics, b. 1. ! LENT, n. Dut. Lent; Ger. Lenz; A. S. L LENTEN. Leneten, lengten, ver, the spring. Minshew says, from Ger. Glentz; and Camden,. that our ancestors, the Germans, used glent for spring. Wachter notices no such word, but in v. Lenz, (from which (with the common prefix ge-) glentz might be formed,) he enumerates four dif fercnt etymologies: 1st, from length, because at the season of spring the days lengthen; 2dly, from lenitas, because then the air becomes mild or lenient; 3dly, glentzen, to shine or glisten, because it is the most brilliant or beautiful season; 4thly, from the Dut. Lenten, to dissolve, because the severity of winter is then dissolved. As Žent is or was a season of fasting, lenten is abstemious, sparing. And suththe about Leynte toward thys lond drou. R. Gloucester, p. 187. Sithhen in the Lenten tide he went to Saynt Andrew. R. Brunne, p. 325. Thilke penance, that is solempne, is in two maneres; as to be put out of holy chirche in Lenton for slaughter of children, and swhiche maner thing.-Chaucer. The Persones Tale. Áll were served with covered messes of silver, but all the feast was fish, in observation of the Lent season. Baker. Hen. V. an. 1421. It may be also, that some bodies have a kinde of lentour, and are of a more depertible nature than others; as we see it evident in colouration; for a small quantity of saffron will tinct more, than a very great quantity of brasil or wine. Bacon. Naturall Historie, s. 857. By reason of their clamminess and lentor they [arborescent holi-hocks are banished from our sallet.-Evelyn. Acctaria. In this spawn [frog's) of a lentous and transparent body, are to be discerned many specks. Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. iii. c. 13. LENTISCK. Fr. Lentisque; Lat. Lentiscus, quod ipsa lentescat arbor, dum resinam fundit, (Vossias.) Who courteous bad us on soft beds recline Of lensliseks, and young branches of the vine. If he was of such tenderness and compassion as to heal heal the dangerous, loathsome leprosy of the soul, which is Grainger. The Sugar Cane, b. iv. LE'PID. AETIS, a scale. Having a polished wit or humour, a graceful or agreeable pleasantry or facetiousness; pleasant, Fawkes. Theocritus, Idyl. 7. facetious. LEONINE, i. c. lion-like. So was he ful of leonin corage. Chaucer. The Monkes Tale, v. 14,563. LEOPARD. Formerly (sometimes) written Libbard Fr. Léopard; It. and Sp. Leonpardo, eo-pardo; Lat. of the Lower Ages, Leopardus. liny speaks of leones, quos pardi gencraverc, (lib. viii. c. 16.) Thel sauh kynge's banere, raumpand thre lebardes. About this king ther ran on every part Chaucer. The Knightes Tale, v. 2188. He looked on her ugly lepers face The which before was white as lely floure, Wringing his hands.--Chaucer. Complaint of Crescide. Lying emong the leper-folke alas.-1d. Ib. A leper-lady rase, and to her wend.-Id. Ib. This leper-loge take for thy goodly boure, And for thy bed take now a bounche of stro.-Id. Ib. And soone a leaper-man toke off the ring.-Id. Ib. The lepre caught in his visage.-Gower. Con. A. b. ii. Vpon my secure hower thy vncle stole With inyce of cursed hebenon in a violl, And in the porches of mine cares did poure The leperous distilment.-Shakespeare. Hamlet, Act i. sc.5. By thee the silly amorous sucks his death, By drawing in a leprous harlot's breath. Donne. The Perfume, Elegy 4. For to say, that Nature hath an intention to make all metals gold: and that, if the crudities, impurities, and prosities of metals were cured, they would become gold, all these are but dreames.-Bacon. Naturall Historie, § 320. O you of easy wax! do but imagine, Now the disease has left you, how leprously The leprosy of the Arabians was a quite other disease Some elegant figures and tropes of rhetorike frequently used by the best speakers, and not seldome even by sacred writers, do lie very near upon the confines of jocularity, and are not easily differenced from those sallies of wit, wherein the lepid way doth consist.-Barrow, vol. i. Ser. 14. LERE, v. To diminish, to decrease, to reduce. Lest, (see the quotation from Gower) and least (sce the quotation from Bale's Votaries) are used as the regular past tense, contracted from les-cd or leas-ed, of the A. S. verb Les-an; and whether used as adjective or conjunction, are considered by Tooke to be this same past tense or past part. and, with the article that (either expressed or understood,) mean no more than-hoc dimisso or quo dimisso. He produces two instances of the improper use of them, there being nothing expressed or understood in either sentence, quo dimisso, something else would follow. : Less.--Our ancestors the A. S. instead of eighteen, nineteen, said, An læs twentig, twa las twentig; i. e. twenty dismiss (or take away) (he should perhaps rather have said withhhold) one, two, &c. We also say, He demanded twenty, I gave him two less, i. e. I gave him twenty, dismiss two and in every use of less or least, the signification of dismissing, separating, or taking away, (again add, of withholding) is conveyed. Les, then, he pronounces to be the imperative of the same A. S. verb, Les-an, and to signify-dimitte or hoc dimisso, dismiss this, or this being dismissed. It is sometimes used for unless, (qv.) In confirmation, he remarks, that the Gr. E un, the Lat. all R. Gloucester, p. 87. Nisi, (ne sit,) It. Se non, Sp. Si no, Fr. Si non, mean, be it not. i. c. to Learn, (qv.) Constantyn lette also in Jerusalem chirches rere, The lerid & the lewid, that wonned in the South. Though Tooke may be right in his etymology, (and indeed he appears to have fully established that he is so,) his mode of interpretation will not immediately suit in all cases, as that cannot be with propriety said to be dismissed, separated, or taken away, which was never united to, or possessed by, that from which it shall be so said to be dismissed, &c.; the word with-held may supply the deficiency; or a consequential usage must be introduced, c. g.– As And after hus lerynge thei lyven. But, lordes, wol ye maken assurance, Id. The Man of Lawes Tale, v. 4762. He waited after no pompe ne reverence, Id. Prol. to the Canterbury Tales, v. 729. My fader but I were inspired And eke of hem that netherdes Was of Arcade, and hyght Pan.-Id. Ib. b. v. In many secret skills she had been conn'd her lere. The gentle shepheard sat beside a springe, Spenser. Shepheard's Calender. December. But these conditions doe to him propound; Milton. Paradise Regained, b. i. He, with Palemon, oft recounted o'er loss, or taking away of bulk once possessed that he became less or minor; it was by the absence or negation of that, which had been withheld in his formation; or by a consequential usage, (from instances where a minority or inferiority had been produced by an act of taking away, &c. to instances where that minority or inferiority existed without such act,) less became employed to denote immediately an inferiority or minority, whether resulting from privation or negation. The-like may be said of the adjective least. As now used To less or lessen, is to diminish, to decrease; to cause to be smaller or more minute; to lower, to degrade, to impair, to weaken. "He lest," (Gower,) he lost. “He least," (Bale,) he dismissed, he put away, he relinquished. "Lessed of his care;" (written by Tyrwhitt as in the second quotation from Gower-lissed, qv.) “of his wound ylessed;" i. c. loosened, freed, relieved from. Less, adj.-equivalent to the Lat. Minor, inferior, smaller, more minute. It is still used, compared, (sc.) lesser. Lest, or least, smallest, minutest; than which not any thing is smaller or more minute. So that to the lasse Briteyne ther ne com aliue non. Me schulde fynde the les such spouse bruche do. And wo so here ys aslawe, ys deth hym sal be For ten mark men solde a littille bulchyn, Id. p. 173. R. Brunne, p. 174. But he that is lesse in the kyngdom of heavenes; is more than he.-Wiclif. Matt. c. 11. Notwithstandyng he yt is lesse [Modern Version, least] in the kingdom of heauen is greater than he. Bible, 1551. Matt. c. 11. Therefore wake ye for ye witen not whanne the Lord of the house cometh in the eventide or at mydnight or at cockis finde you sleeping.-Wiclif. Mark, c. 13. crowyng or the mornyng lest whan he come sodeynly he |