TO LETTER. v. a. [from letter.] To stamp with letters. I observed one weight lettered on both sides; and I found on one side, written in the dialect of men, and underneath it, calamities; on the other side was written, in the language of the gods, and underneath, blessings. LE'TTERED. adj. [from letter.] Literate; educated to learning. Addison. A martial man, not sweetened by a lettered education, is apt to have a tincture of sourness. Collier. LETTUCE. n. s. [lactuca, Latin.] The species are, common or garden lettuce; cabbage lettuce; Silesia lettuce; white and black cos; white cos; red capuchin lettuce. Miller. Fat coleworts, and comforting purseline, Wiseman. The medicaments proper to diminish milk, are lettuce, purslane, endive. LE'VANT. adj. [levant, Fr.] Eastern. Thwart of those, as fierce Forth rush the levant, and the ponent winds, Eurus and Zephyr. Milton's Par. Lost. LEVANT. n. s. The east, particulariy those coasts of the Mediterranean east of Italy. LEVATOR. n. s. (Latin.) A chirurgical instrument, whereby depressed parts of the skull are lifted up. Some surgeons bring out the bone in the bore; but it will be safer to raise it up with your leva Our navy is address'd, out power collected, And ev'ry thing lies level to our wish. Shaksp. Now shaves with level wing the deep. Milt. There is a knowledge which is very proper to man, and lies level to human understanding, the knowledge of our Creator, and of the duty we owe to him. Tillotson. 3. Having no gradations of superiority. To LE'VEL. v. a. [trom the adjective.) Less bright the moon, ground. 3. To lay flat. We know by experience, that all downright rains do evermore dissever the violence of outrageous winds, and beat down and level the swelling and mountainous billows of the sea. Raleigh. With unresisted might the monarch reigns, He levels mountains, and he raises plains; And not regarding diff'rence of degree, Abas'd your daughter, and exalted me. Dryd. 4. To bring to equality of condition. Reason can never assent to the admission of those brutish appetites which would over-run the soul, and level its superior with its inferior faculties. Decay of Picty tor, when it is but lightly retained in some part. 5. To point in taking aim; to aim. Wiseman. LEUCOPHLE GMACY. N. S. [from leucophlegmatick.] Paleness with viscid juices and cold sweatings. Each at the head Level'd his deadly aim. Mili One to the gunners on St. Jago's tower, Bid 'em for shame level their cannon lower. Dryden. Spirits produce debility, flatulency, fevers, leucophlegmacy, and dropsies. Arbuthnot. Iron globes which on the victor host Level'd with such impetuous fury smote. LEUCOPHLEGMATICK. adj. [λευκὸς and Milton. Φλέγμα.] Having such a constitution of body where the blood is of a pale colour, viscid, and cold, whereby it The construction I believe is not, globes level'd on the host, but globeş level'd smote on the host. stuffs and bloats the habit, or raises 6. To direct to an end. Those bred in a mountainous country oversize those that dwell on low levels. Sandys. 2. Rate; standard; customary height. Love of her made us raise up our thoughts above the ordinary level of the world, so as great clerks do not disdain our conference. Sidney. The praises of military men inspired me with thoughts above my ordinary level. Dryden. 3. Suitable or proportionate height. It might perhaps advance their minds so far 4. A state of equality. Daniel. The time is not far off when we shall be upon the level; I am resolved to anticipate the time, and be upon the level with them now: for he is so that neither seeks nor wants them. Atterbury to Pope. Providence, for the most part, sets us upon a level, and observes proportion in its dispensations towards us. Spectator. I suppose, by the stile of old friends, and the like, it must be somebody there of his own level; among whom his party have, indeed, more friends than I could wish. Swift. 5. An instrument whereby masons adjust their work. The level is from two to ten feet long, that it may reach over a considerable length of the work: it the plumb-line hang just upon the perpendicular, when the level is set flat down upon the work, the work is level; but if it hangs on either side the perpendicular, the floor or work must be raised on that side, till the plumb-line hang exactly on the perpendicular. Moxon. 6. Rule; plan; scheme: borrowed from the mechanick level. Be the fair level of thy actions laid, As temp'rance wills, and prudence may persuade, And try if life be worth the liver's care. Prior... 7. The line of direction in which any missive weapon is aimed. endeavours to bring all to the same state of equality. You are an everlasting leveller; you won't allow encouragement to extraordinary merit. Collier. LE'VELNESS. n.s. [from level.] Peachan. The river Tyber is expressed lying alone, for so you must remember to draw rivers, to express their levelness with the earth. LEVEN. n. s. [levain, French. Commonly, though less properly, written leaven; see LEAVEN.] 1. Feriment; that which being mixed with bread makes it rise and ferment, 2. Any thing capable of changing the nature of a greater mass. The matter fermenteth upon the old leven, and becometh more acrid. Wiseman's Surgery. The pestilential levains conveyed in goods. Arbuthnot. LEVER. N. s. [levier, French.] The second mechanical power, is a balance supported by a hypomochlion; only the centre is not in the middle as in the common balance, but near one end; for which reason it is used to elevate or raise a great weight; whence comes the name lever. Harris. Have you any leavers to lift me up again, being down? Shakspeare. Some draw with cords, and some the monster drive Denham. With rolls and levers. In a lever, the motion can be continued only for so short a space, as may be answerable to that little distance betwixt the fulciment and the weight: which is always by so much lesser, as the disproportion betwixt the weight and the power is greater, and the motion itself more easy. Wilkin's Mathematical Magick. Some hoisting leavers, some the wheels prepare. Dryden. LE'VERET. n. s. [licoret, Fr.] A young hare. Their travels o'er that silver field does show, Like track of leverets in morning snow. Waller. LE'VET. n. S. [from lever, Fr.] A blast on the trumpet; probably that by which the soldiers are called in the morning. He that led the cavalcade Wore a sowgelder's flagellet, On which he blew as strong a levet; As well-fee'd lawyer on his breviate. Hudibras, LE'VEROOK. n. s. [Ipepe, Sax.] This word is retained in Scotland, and denotes the lark. The smaller birds have their particular seasons; as, the leverook. Walton's Angler, If the lufft fa' 'twill smoore aw the leverooks. Scotch Prov. LEVIABLE. adj. [from levy.] That may be levied. The sums which any agreed to pay, and were not brought in, were to be leviable by course of law. Bacon's Henry VII, LEVIATHAN. n. 5. ].לויתן[ A water animal mentioned in the book of Job. By some imagined the crocodile, but in poetry generally taken for the whale. We may, as bootless, spend our vain com mand Upon th' inraged soldiers in their spoil, As send our precepts to the leviathan, Shakspeare's Henry v. Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? More to embroil the deep; leviathan, He resolved to finish the conquest of Ireland, and to that end levied a mighty army. Davies, 2. To raise: applied to money. Levy a tribute unto the Lord of the men of war. Numbers. Instead of a ship he should levy upon his county such a sum of money. Clarendon, To LE'VIGATE. v. n. [lavigo, Latin.] 3. To raise: applied to war. This sense, 1. To rub or grind to an impalpable pow der. 2. To mix till the liquor becomes smooth and uniform. The chyle is white, as consisting of salt, oil, and water, much levigated or smooth. Arbuth. LEVIGATION. n. s. [from levigate.] Levigation is the reducing of hard bodies, as coral, tutty, and precious stones, into a subtile powder, by grinding upon marble with a muller; but unless the instruments are extremely hard, they will so wear as to double the weight of the medicine. Quincy. LEVITE. n. s. [levita, Lat. from Levi.] 1. One of the tribe of Levi; one born to the office of priesthood among the Jews. In the Christian church, the office of deacons succeeded in the place of the levites among the Jews, who were as ministers and servants to the priests. Ayliffe's Parergon. 2. A priest: used in contempt. LEVÍTICAL. [from levite.] Belonging to the Levites; making part of the religion of the Jews. adj. By the levitical law, both the man and the woman were stoned to death; so heinous a crime was adultery. LEVITY. n. 5. [levitas, Latin.] Ayliffe. 1. Lightness; not heaviness; the quality by which any body has less weight than another. That spirit of religion and seriousness vanished, and a spirit of levity and libertinism, infidelity, and profaneness, started up in the room of it. Atterbury. To LE'VY. v. a. [lever, French.] 1. To raise; to bring together: applied to men. though Milton's, seems improper. They live in hatred, enmity, and strife, Among themselves, and levy cruel wars. Milton. If some be admitted into the ministry, either void of learning, or lerud in life, are all the rest to be condemned? Wbitgifte. Before they did oppress the people, only by colour of a lewd custom, they did afterwards use the same oppressions by warrant. 3. Lustful; libidinous. He is not lolling on a lerud love-bed; But on his knees at meditation. Davies. Shakspeare. Then lerud Anchemolus he laid in dust, Who stain'd his step-dame's bed with impious lust. LEWDLY. adv. [from lewd.] 1. Wickedly; naughtily. impious Dryden. A sort of naughty persons lewdly bent, Have practis'd dangerously against your state. 2. Libidinously; lustfully. Shakspeare. He lov'd fair lady Eltred, lerudly lov'd, Whose wanton pleasures him too much did please, That quite his heart from Guendeline remov'd. Spenser. So lerudly dull his idle works appear, The wretched texts deserve no comments here. Dryden. LEWDNESS. n. s. [from lewd.] Lustful licentiousness. Suffer no lerudness, nor indecent speech, Th' apartment of the tender youth to reach. Dryden. Damianus's letter to Nicholas is an authentick record of the lewdnesses committed under the LE WDSTER. reign of celibacy. 1. 5. Atterbury. À [from lewd.] lecher; one given to criminal pleasures. Against such lewdsters, and their lechery, Those that betray them do no treachery. Shakspeare. LEWIS D'OR. n.s. (French.) A golden French coin, in value twelve livres, now settled at seventeen shillings. Dict. LEXICO GRAPHER. N. S. [λεξικὸν and γράφω; lexicographe, French.] A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words. Commentators and lexicographers acquainted with the Syriac language, have given these hints in their writings on scripture. Watts. 11. S. LEXICOGRAPHY. [λεξικόν and γράφω.] The art or practice of writing dictionaries. LEXICON. π. 5. [λεξικόν.] A dictionary; a book teaching the signification of words. Though a linguist should pride himself to have all the tongues that Babel cleft the world into, yet if he had not studied the solid things in them as well as the words and lexicons, yet he were nothing so much to be esteemed a learned man as any yeoman competently wise in his mother dialect only. Milton. LEY. n.s. lee, lay, are all from the Saxon leaz, a field or pasture, by the usual melting of the letter z or g. Gibson. LIABLE. n. 5. [liable, from lier, old Fr.] Obnoxious; not exempt; subject; with to. But what is strength without a double share Of wisdom? vast, unwieldy, burthensome, Proudly secure, yet liable to fall By weakest subtleties. Milton's Agonistes. The English boast of Spenser and Milton, who neither of them wanted genius or learning; and yet both of them are liable to many censures. Dryden. This, or any other scheme, coming from a private hand, might be liable to many defects. Swift. LIAR. n. s. [from lie. This word would analogically be lier; but this orthography has prevailed, and the convenience of distinction from lier, he who lies down, is sufficient to confirm it.] One who tells falsehood; one who wants veracity. She's like a liar, gone to burning hell? Twas I that kill'd her. Shaksp. Othello. He approves the common liar, fame, Who speaks him thus at Rome. Shakspeare. I do not reject his observation as untrue, much less condemn the person himself as a liar, whensoever it seems to be contradicted. Boyle. Thy better soul abhors a liar's part, Wise is thy voice, and noble is thy heart. Pope. LIARD. adj. 1. Mingled roan. Markbam. 2. Liard in Scotland denotes grey-haired: as, he's a liard old man. LIBATION. n. s. [libatio, Latin.] 1. The act of pouring wine on the ground in honour of some deity. In digging new earth pour in some wine, toat the vapour of the earth and wine may comfort the spirits, provided it be not taken for a heathen sacrifice, or libation to the earth. 2. The wine so poured. Bacon. They had no other crime to object against the Christians, but that they did not offer up libations, and the smoke of sacrifices, to dead men. Stilling fleet. The goblet then she took, with nectar crown'd, Sprinkling the first libations on the ground Dryden. Are we reproached for the name of Christ? that ignominy serves but to advance our future glory; every such libel here becomes panegyrick Decay of Piety. there. Good heav'n! that sots and knaves should be so vain, To wish their vile resemblance may remain! And stand recorded, at their own request, To future days, a libel or a jest. Dryden. 2. [In the civil law.) A declaration or charge in writing against a person exhibited in court, To LIBEL. v. n. [from the noun.] To spread defamation, written or printed: it is now commonly used as an active verb, without the preposition against. Sweet scrawls to fly about the streets of Rome: What's this but libelling against the senate! Shekspeare. He, like a priviledg'd spy, whom nothing can Discredit, libels now gainst each great man. Donne. To LI'BEL. v. a. To satirise; to lampoon. Is the peerage of England dishonoured when a peer suffers for his treason? if he be libelled, or any way defamed, he has his scandalum magnatum to punish the offender. Dryden. But what so pure which envious tongues will: spare? Some wicked wits have libell'd all the fair. Swift. LIBERALITY. n. s. [liberalitas, Lat. liberalité, Fr.] Munificence; bounty; generosity, generous profusion. Why should he despair, that knows to court With words, fair looks, and liberality! Sbaksp. Such moderation with thy bounty join, LIBERALLY. adv. [from liberal.] If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not. James. 2. Not meanly; magnanimously. Clarissa. 3. One who pays no regard to the precepts of religion. They say this town is full of couzenage, Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks, And many such like libertines of sin. Sbakspeare. That word may be applied to some few libertines in the audience. Collier's View of the Stage. 4. [In law; libertinus, Lat.] A freedman; or rather, the son of a freedman. Some persons are forbidden to be accusers on the score of their sex, as women; others on the score of their age, as pupils and infants; others on the score of their condition, as obertines against their patrons. Ayliffe's Parergon. LIBERTINE. adj. [libertin, French.] Licentious; irreligious. There are men that marry not, but chuse rather a libertine and impure single life, than to be yoked in marriage. Bacon. Might not the queen make diligent enquiry, if any person about her should happen to be of libertine principles or morals? LIBERTINISM. 2. 5. Swift. [from libertine.] irreligion; licentiousness of opinions and practice. 3. Freedom, as opposed to necessity. Liberty is the power in any agent to do, or forbear, any particular action, according to the determination, or thought of the mind, whereby either of them is preferred to the other. Locke. As it is in the motions of the body, so it is in the thoughts of our minds: where any one is such, that we have power to take it up, or lay it by, according to the preference of the mind, there we are at liberty. Locke. 4. Privilege; exemption; immunity. His majesty gave not an intire country to any, much less did he grant jura regalia, or any extraordinary liberties. Davies. 5. Relaxation of restraint: as, he sees himself at liberty to choose his condition. Licence they mean when they ery liberty. 6. Leave; permission. I shall take the liberty to consider a third ground, which, with some men, has the same authority. Locke. LIBIDINOus. n. s. [libidinosus, Latin.] Lewd; lustful. None revolt from the faith; because they must not look upon a woman to lust after her, but because they are much more restrained from the perpetration of their lusts. If wanton glances and libidinous thoughts had been permitted by the gospel, they would have apostatized nevertheless. Bentley. Dict. LIBIDINOUSLY. adv. [from libidinous.] Then as they 'gan his library to view, An ancient book, hight Briton's monuments. |