17. If a noun follows, for let in, let into is required. It is the key that lets them into their very heart, and enables them to command all that is there. South's Sermons. LET, the terinination of diminutive words, from lyre, Sax. little, small; as, rivulet a small stream; hamlet a little village. adj. [lethargique, Fr. from lethargy.] Sleepy by disease, beyond the natural power of sleep. There are pictures of such as have been distin-LETHARGICK. guished by their birth or miracles, with inscriptions, that let you into the name and history of the person represented. Addison. Most historians have spoken of ill success, and terrible events, as if they had been let into the secrets of Providence, and made acquainted with that private conduct by which the world is governed. Addison. These are not mysteries for ordinary readers to be let into. Addison. As we rode through the town, I was let into the characters of all the inhabitants; one was a dog, another a whelp, and another a cur. Addison. 18. To let in, or into. To procure admission. They should speak properly and correctly, whereby they may let their thoughts into other men's minds the more easily. Locke. Addison. As soon as they have hewn down any quantity of the rocks, they let in their springs and reservoirs among their works. 19. To let off. To discharge. Originally used of an arrow dismissed from the gripe, and therefore suffered to fly off the string: now applied to guns. Charging my pistol with powder, I cautioned the emperor not to be afraid, and then let it off in the air. Swift. 20. To let out. To lease out; to give to hire or farm. To LET. v. a. [lertan, Sax.] 1. To hinder; to obstruct; to oppose. Their senses are not letted from enjoying their objects we have the impediments of honour, and Sidney. the torments of conscience To glorify him in all things, is to do nothing| whereby the name of God may be blasphemed;} nothing whereby the salvation of Jew or Grecian, or any in the church of Christ, may be let or hindered. Hooker. Leave, ah, leave off, whatever wight thou be, To let a weary wretch from her due rest, And trouble dying soul's tranquillity! Fairy Q. Wherefore do ye let the people from their works? go you unto your burdens. Exod. v. 4. Vengeance is as if minutely proclaimed in thun- Let me but try if I can wake his pity A lethargy demands the same cure and diet as an apoplexy from a phlegmatick case, such being the constitution of the lethargick. Arbuthnot on Diet. LETHARGICKNESS. n. s. [from lethargick.] Morbid sleepiness; drowsiness to a disease. Herbert. A grain of glory mixt with humbleness, The lethargy must have his quiet course; Shakesp. Though his eye is open, as the morning's, Towards lusts and pleasures; yet so fast a lethargy Has seiz'd his powers towards public cares and Denham' Sophy. dangers, He sleeps like death. A lethargy is a lighter sort of apoplexy, and de mands the same cure and diet. Arbuthnot on Diet. LETHARGIED. adj. [from the noun.] His motion weakens, or his discernings The conquering wine hath steept our sense In soft and delicate lethe. Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls His wat'ry labyrinth, which whoso drinks Forgets both joy and grief. LETTER. n. s. [from let.] xliii. 11.1. One who lets or permits. The mystery of iniquity doth already work; orly he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 2 Thes. I will work, and who will let it? Isa. And now no longer letted of his prey, He leaps up at it with enrag'd desire, O'erlooks the neighbours with a wide survey, And nods at every house his threatening fire. Dryd. 2. To let, when it signifies to permit or leave, has let in the preterite and part. passive; but when it signifies to hinder, it has letted; as, multa me impedierunt, many things have letted me. Introduction to Grammar. To LET. v. n. To forbear; to withhold himself. After king Ferdinando had taken upon him the person of a fraternal ally to the king, he would not let to counsel the king. Bacon. LET. n. s. [from the verb.] Hindrance; obstacle; obstruction; impediment. The secret lets and difficulties in public proceedings are innumerable and inevitable. Hooker. Solyman without let presented his army before the city of Belgrade. Knolles's Hist. of the Turks. It had been done ere this, had I been consul; We had had no stop, no let. Ben Jonson's Catiline. Just judge, two lets remove; that free from dread, I may before thy high tribunal plead. Sandys. To these internal dispositions to sin, add the external opportunities and occasions concurring with them, and removing all lets and rubs out of the way, and making the path of destruction plain 2. One who hinders. Shakesp. Milton. 3. One who gives vent to any thing; as, 2. A superscription was written over him in letters Of such contents as you will wonder at. Shakesp. The asses will do very well for trumpeters, and the hares will make excellent letter carriers. L'Estrange. The stile of letters ought to be free, easy, and natural; as near approaching to familiar conversation as possible: the two best qualities in conversation are, good humour and good breeding; those letters are therefore certainly the best that shew the most of these qualities. Walsh. Mrs. P. B. has writ to me, and is one of the best letter writers I know; very good sense, civility, and friendship, without any stiffness or constraint. 4. 5. ing. Touching translations of holy scripture, we may not disallow of their painful travels herein, who strictly have tied themselves to the very original letter. Hooker. In obedience to human laws, we must observe the letter of the law, without doing violence to the .eason of the law, and the intention of the lawgiver. Taylor's Holy Living Those words of his must be understood not according to the bare rigour of the letter, but according to the allowances of expresssion. South. What! since the pretor did my fetters loose, Any thing to be read. 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. Addison. LETTERED. adj. [from letter.] Literate; educated to learning. A martial man, not sweetened by a lettered education, is apt to have a tincture of sourness. Collier on Pride. LETTUCE. n. s. [lactuca, Lat.] The species are, common or garden lettuce; cabbage lettuce; Silesia lettuce; white and black cos; white cos; red capuchin lettuce. Miller. Fat colworts, and comforting purseline, Thwart of those, as fierce LEVATOR. n. s. [Lat.] 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 levator, when it is but lightly retained in some part. Wiseman's Surgery. LEUCOPHLEGMACY. n. s. [from leucophlegmatick.] Paleness, with viscid juices and cold sweatings. Spirits produce debility, flatulency, fevers, leucophlegmacy, and dropsies. Arbuthnot on Aliments. LEUCOPHLEGMATICK. adj. [vnog and priyua] Having such a constitution of body where the blood is of a pale colour, viscid, and cold, whereby it stuffs and bloats the habit, or raises white tumours in the feet, legs, or any other parts: and such are commonly asthmatick and dropsical. Asthmatick persons have voracious appetites, and for want of a right sanguification are leuco. phlegmatick. Arbuthnet. LEVEE. n. s. [Fr.] Swift. 1. The time of rising. He to his engine flew, 2. The concourse of those who crowd round | 3. To be in the same direction with a mark. 2. Equality with something else. Of a depending, gaping, servile court? Dryden. None of her sylvian subjects made their court, Levee, and couchees pass'd without resort. Dryd. LEVEL. adj. [læfel, Sax.] 1. Even; not having one part higher than another. The doors Discover ample spaces o'er the smooth And level pavement. The garden, seated on the level floor, She left behind. Milton. Dryden's Boccace. 2. Even with any thing else; in the same line with any thing. Our navy is address'd, our pow'r collected, And ev'ry thing lies level to our wish. Shakesp. Now shaves with level wing the deep. Milton. 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. Be level in preferments, and you will soon be as level in your learning. Bentley. To LEVEL. v. a. [from the adjective.] 1. To make even; to free from inequali. : as, he levels the walks. ties: 3. To lay flat. Hudibras. Shak. The river Tiber is expressed lying along, for so you must remember to draw rivers, to express their levelness with the earth. Peacham. LEVEN. n. s. [levain, Fr. Commonly, though less properly, written leaven. See LEAVEN.] Plac'd near at hand in open view, 2. 3. After draining of the level in Northamptonshire, The praises of military men inspired me with! Suitable or proportionate height. It might perhaps advance their minds so far 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. Addison's Spectator. 1. Ferment; that which, being mixed in bread, makes it rise and ferment. 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, Fr.] 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? Shakesp. Some draw with cords,and some the monster drive With rolls and levers. Denham. In a lever, the motion can be continued only for so short a space, as may be auswerable 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. I suppose, by the stile of old friends, and the LEVERET. n. s. [lievret, Fr.] A young like, it must be somebody there of his own level; among whom his party have, indeed, more friends than I could wish. Swift. hare. Their travels o'er that silver field does show Like track of leverets in morning snow. Waller. We know by experience, that all downright 5. An instrument whereby masons adjust LE'VET. n. s. [from lever, Fr.] A blast on One to the gunners ou St. Jago's tow'r, Bid 'em for shame level their cannon lower. Dryd. Iron globes which on the victor host Level'd with such impetuous fury smote. The construction I believe is not, globes level'd on the host, but globes level'd smote on the host. 6. To direct to any end. The whole body of puritans was drawn to be abettors of all villainy by a few men, whose designs from the first were levelled to destroy both religion and government. . To suit; to proportion. Behold the law And rule of beings in your Maker's mind: And thence, like limbecks, rich ideas draw, To fit the levell'd use of humankind. Dryden. To LEVEL. v. n. 1. To aim at; to bring the gun or arrow to the same direction with the mark. The glory of God, and the good of his church, was the thing which the apostles aimed at, and therefore ought to be the mark whereat we also Lovel. Hooker. 2. To conjecture; to attempt to guess. sive weapon is aimed. I stood i' th' level Of a full charg'd confederacy, and gave thanks To you that chok'd it. Shakesp. Henry VIII. As if that name, Shot from the deadly level of a gun, Did murther her. Shakesp. Romeo and Juliet. Thrice happy is that humble pair, Beneath the level of all care, Over whose heads those arrows fly, Of sad distrust and jealousy. Waller. The line in which the sight passes. Fir'd at first sight with what the muse imparts, In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts; While from the bounded level of our mind Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind. LE'VELLER. n. s. [from level.] Pope. 1. One who makes any thing even. You are an everlasting leveller; you won't allow encouragement to extraordinary merit. Collier. I pray thee overname them; and, as thou namest LE'VELNESS. n. s. [from level.] them I will describe them? and, according to my description, level at my affection. Shakesp. 1. Evenness; equality of surface. 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. s. [1] 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 command Upon th' enraged soldiers in their spoil, As send our precepts to the leviathan, To come ashore. Shakesp. Henry V. Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? Job. More to embroil the deep, leviathan, And his unwieldy train, in dreadful sport Tempest the loosen'd brine. Thomson's Winter. To LEVIGATE. v. a. [lævigo, Lat.] 1. To rub or grind to an impalpable powder. 2. To mix till the liquor lecomes smooth and uniform. The chyle is white, as consisting of salt, oil, and water, much levigated or smooth. Arbuthnot. Levigation. n. s. [from levigate.] medicine. 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 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. Aylie's Parergon 2. A priest: used in contempt. LEVITICAL. adj. [from levite.] Belonging to the levites; making part of the reli gion of the Jews. By the levitical law, both the man and the woman were stoned to death; so heinous a crime was adultery. Ayliffe. LEVITY. n. s. [levitas, Lat.] 1. Lightness; not heaviness; the quality by which any body has less weight than another. He the form of levity to that which ascendgave ed; to that which descended, the form of gravity. Raleigh. A sort of naughty persons, lewdly bent, Have practis'd dangerously against your state. Shakesp. 2. Libidinously; lustfully. He lov'd fair lady Eltred, lewdly lov'd, Whose wanton pleasures him too much did please, That quite his heart from Guendeline remov'd. Spenser. So lewdly dull his idle works appear, The wretched texts deserve no comments here. Dryden. Pope. Markham. 2. Liard in Scotland denotes grey-haired; as, he's a liard old man. LIBA'TION. n. s. [libatio, Lat.] 1. The act of pouring wine on the ground in honour of some deity. In digging new earth pour in some wine, that 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. Bacon's Nat. Hist. This bubble, by reason of its comparative levity LEWDNESS. n. s. [from lewd.] Lustful 2. The wine so poured. to the fluidity that encloses it, would ascend to the top. 2. Inconstancy; changeableness. Bentley. They every day broached some new thing; which restless levity they did interpret to be their growing in spiritual perfection. H:oker. Where wigs with wigs, with sword-knots sword knots strive, Beaus banish beaus, and coaches coaches drive, This erring mortals levity may call. 3. Unsteadiness; laxity of mind. I unbosom'd all my secrets to thee; Not out of levity, but over-power'd By thy request. 4. Idle pleasure; vanity. Pope. Milton's Agonistes. He never employed his omnipotence out of levity or ostentation, but as the necessities of men required. Calamy. 5. Trifling gaiety; want of seriousness. Our graver business frowns at this levity. Shak. Hopton abhorred the licence, and the levities, with which he saw too many corrupted. Clarend. That spirit of religion and seriousness vanished, and a spirit of levity and libertinism, infidelity and profaneness, started up in the room of it. Atterb. To LEVY. v. a. [lever, Fr.] 1. To raise; to bring together: applied licentiousness. Suffer no lewdness, nor indecent speech, Th' apartment of the tender youth to reach. Dryd. Damianus's letter to Nicholas is an authentick record of the lewdnesses committed under the reign of celibacy. Atterbury. LEWDSTER. n. s. [from lewd.] A lecher; one given to criminal pleasures. Against such leudsters, and their lechery, Those that betray them do no treachery. Shakesp. LEWIS D'OR n. s. [Fr] A golden French coin, in value twelve livres, now settled at seventeen shillings. Dict. LEXICO'GRAPHER. n.8 [λeixòv and yęáp; A writer of diclexicographe, Fr.] tionaries; 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. LEXICO'GRAPHY. n. s. [λeğixòi and ypá¤w.] The art or practice of writing dictionaries. LEXICON. n. s. [λığıxòv.] 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 ouly. Milton. LEY. n. s. Ley, lee, lay, are all from the Saxon leag a field or pasture, by the usual melting of the letter Gibson's Camden. gur g. LIABLE. adj. [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 subtieties. 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 ke liable to many defects. Swift. Are we reproached for the name of Christ? that ignominy serves but to advance our future glory; every such libel here becomes panegyrick there. Decay of Piety. Good heav'n! that sots and knaves should be To wish their vile resemblance may remain ! Dryden. [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? Shak He, like a privileg'd spy, whom nothing can Discredit, libels now 'gainst each great man. Dons. 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. Pepe. LIBELLER. n. s. [from libel.] A defamer by writing; a lampooner. Our common libellers are as free from the impu-1 tation of wit, as of morality. Dryden's Juvenal. The squibs are those who, in the common phrase, are called libellers and lampooners. Tatier. The common libellers, in their invectives, tax the church with an insatiable desire of power and wealth, equally common to all bodies of men. Swift. LI'BELLOUS. adj. [from libel.] Defamatory. score of their age, as pupils and infants; others on the score of their condition, as libertines against their patrons. Ayliffe's Parergom. LIBERTINE. adj. [libertin, Fr.] Licentious; irreligious. There are men that marry not, but choose rather a libertine and impure single life, than to be yoked in marriage. Bacon. Then as they 'gan his library to view, And antique registers for to avise, There chanced to the prince's hand to rise An antient book, hight Briton's monuments. Fairy Queen. I have given you the library of a painter, and a catalogue of such books as he ought to read. Dryden's Dufresnoy Might not the queen make diligent inquiry, if To LI BRATE. v. a. [libro, Lat.] To poise; any person about her should happen to be of liber- to balance; to hold in equipoise. tine principles or morals? Swift's Project. LIBRA'TION. n. s. [libratio, Lat.libration, LIBERTINISM. Wotton. [from libertine.] Irreligion; licentiousness of opinions and practice. It was the most malicious surmise that had ever been brewed, howsoever countenanced by a libellous pamphlet. LIBERAL. adj. [liberalis, Lat. liberal, Fr.] 1. Not mean; not low in birth; not low in mind. 2. Becoming a gentleman. 3. Munificent; generous; bountiful; not parsimonious. Her name was Mercy, well-known over all, That made us, and for us this ample world, As liberal and free, as infinite. The liberal are secure alone, Milton. 4. It has of before the thing, and to before the person. There is no art better than to be liberal of praise and commendation to others, in that wherein a man's self hath any perfection. Bacon's Essays. Several clergymen, otherwise little fond of obscure terms, are, in their sermons, very liberal of all those which they find in ecclesiastical writers, as if it were our duty to understand them. 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? Shakes. Such moderation with thy bounty join, That thou may'st nothing give that is not thine; That liberality is but cast away, Which makes us borrow what we cannot pay. Denham. LIBERALLY. adv. [from liberal.] 1. Bounteously; bountifully; largely. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth James, i. 5. not. 2. Not meanly; magnanimously. The air, a charter'd libertine, is still; Shakesp. Henry V. 2. One who lives without restraint or law. Man, the lawless libertine, may rove, Free and unquestion'd. Rowe's Jane Shore. Want of power is the only bound that a libertine puts to his views upon any of the sex. Clarissa. 8. One who pays no regard to the precepts of religion. They say this town is full of couzenage, Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks, n. s. That spirit of religion and seriousness vanished all at once, and a spirit of liberty and libertinism, of infidelity and profaneness, started up in the room of it. Atterbury's Sermons. LIBERTY. n. s. [liberté, Fr. libertas, Lat.] 1. Freedom, as opposed to slavery. My master knows of your being here, and hath threatened to put me into everlasting liberty, if I tell you of it; for he swears, he'll turn me away. Shakesp. O liberty thou goddess, heav'nly bright! Profuse of bliss, and pregnant with delight, Eternal pleasures in thy presence reign. Addison. 2. Exemption from tyranny or inordinate government. 3. Justly thou abhorr'st The son, who, on the quiet state of man Is lost, which always with right reason dwells. 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 Locke. we are at liberty. 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. License they mean when they cry liberty. Milt. Leave ; permission. None revolt from the faith; because they must not look upon a woman to last 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. LIBIDINOUSLY. adv. [from libidinous.] Lewdly; lustfully. LIBERAL. adj. [libralis, Lat.] Of a pound And many such like libertines of sin. Shakesp. 2. One who transcribes or copies books. 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. In loose librations stretch'd, to trust the void Libration is the balancing motion or trepidation in the firmament, whereby the declination of the sun, and the latitude of the stars, charge from time to time. Astronomers likewise ascribe to the moon a libratory motion, or motion of trepidation, which they pretend is from east to west, and from north to south, because that at full moon they sometimes discover parts of her disk which are not discovered at other times. These kinds are called, the one a libration in longitude, and the other a libration in latitude. Besides this, there is a third kind, which they call an apparent libration, and which consists in this, that when the moon is at her greatest elongation from the south, her axis being then almost perpendicular to the plane of the eliptick, the sun must enlighten towards the north pole of the moon some parts which he did not before, and that, on the contrary, some parts of those which he enlightened towards the opposite pole are obscured and this produces the same effect which the libration in latitude does. Dict. Trev. Those planets which move upon their axis, do not all make entire revolutions; for the moon maketh only a kind of libration, or a reciprocated motion on her own axis. Grew. LIBRATORY. adj. [from libro, Lat.] Balancing; playing like a balance. LICE, the plural of louse. Red blisters rising on their paps appear, And flaming carbuncles, and noisome swear, And clammy dews, that loathsome lice beget; Till the slow creeping evil eats his way. Dryden's Virgil. LICEBANE. n. s. [lice and bane.] A plant. LICENSE. n. s. [licentia, Lat. licence, Fr.] 1. Exorbitant liberty; contempt of legal and necessary restraint. 2. Some of the wiser seeing that a popular licence is indeed the many-headed tyranny, prevailed with the rest to make Musidorus their chief. Sidney. Taunt my faults With such full licence, as both truth and malice Have power to utter. Shakesp. Antony and Cleop. They baul for freedom in their senseless moods, And still revolt when truth would set them free; Licence they mean, when they cry liberty, Milton. The privilege that ancient poets claim, Now turn'd to license by too just a name. Roscom. Though this be a state of liberty, yet it is not a state of licence: though man, in that state, have an uncontroulable liberty to dispose of his person or possessions, yet he has not liberty to destroy himself. Locke, A grant of permission. They sent some to bring them a licence from the senate. Judith, xi. 14. Those few abstract names that the schools forged, and put into the mouths of their scholars, could never yet get admittance into common use, or obtain the licence of publick approbation, Locke, We procured a licence of the duke of Parma to enter the theatre and gallery. Addison on Italy. 8. Liberty; permission. It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused bave the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself. To LICENSE. v. a. [licencier, Fr.] 1. To permit by a legal grant. Acts He with his tepid rays the rose renews, Wit's Titans brav'd the skies, And the press groan'd with licens'd blasphemies. Pope. I have seen an antiquary lick an old coin, among 2. To dismiss; to send away. Not in use. other trials, to distinguish the age of it by its taste. He would play well, and willingly, at some Addison. games of greatest attention, which shewed, that 2. To lap; to take in by the tongue. when he listed he could license his thoughts. Wott. LICENSER. n. s. [from license.] A granter of permission; commonly a tool of power. LICENTIATE. n. s. [licentiatus, low Lat.] 1. A man who uses license. Not in use. The licentiates somewhat licentiously, lest they should prejudice poetical liberty, will pardon themselves for doubling or rejecting a letter, if the sense fall aptly. 2. A degree in Spanish universities. Camden. A man might, after that time, sue for the de gree of licentiate or master in this faculty. Auliffe To LICENTIATE. v. a. [licentier, Fr.] To permit; to encourage by license. We may not hazard either the stifling of generous inclinations, or the licentiating of any thing L'Estrange. that is coarse. 3. At once pluck out The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick Our eyes have lids, our ears still ope we keep. Shakesp. Davies. That eye dropp'd sense distinct and clear, Now shall this company lick up all that are round He turned upon me as round as a chafed boar, LICKERISH. LICKEROUS. LICENTIOUS. adj. [licencieux, Fr. licen-1. tiosus, Lat.] 1. Unrestrained by law or morality. Later ages pride, like corn-fed steed, How would it touch thee to the quick, 2. Presumptuous; unconfined. Shak. The Tyber, whose licentious waves, LICENTIOUSLY. adv. [from licentious.] The licentiates, somewhat licentiously, will pardon themselves. Camden's Remains. LICENTIOUSNESS. n. s. [from licentious.] Boundless liberty; contempt of just restraint. One error is so fruitful, as it begetteth a thousand children, if the licentiousness thereof be not timely restrained. Raleigh. This custom has been always looked upon, by the wisest men, as an effect of licentiousness, and Swift. not of liberty. During the greatest licentiousness of the press, the character of the queen was insulted. Swift. LICH. n. s. [lice, Sax.] A dead carcase; whence lichwake, the time or act of watching by the dead; lichgate, the gate through which the dead are carried to the grave; Lichfield, the field of the dead, a city in Staffordshire, so named from martyred christians. Salve magna parens. Lichwake is still retained in Scotland in the same sense. I'CHOWL. n. s. [lich and owl.] A sort of owl, by the vulgar supposed to foretel death. To LICK. v. a. [licean, Sax. lecken, Dut.] adj. [licceɲa, a glutton, be the proper way of spelling the word, Nice in the choice of food. Voluptuous men sacrifice all substantial satisfactions to a liquorish palate. L'Estrange. 2. Eager; greedy to swallow; eager not with hunger but gust. 3. It is never tongue-tied, where fit commenda- Sidney. Wotton. In vain he proffer'd all his goods to save As any muse's tongue could speak; Ran trickling down her beautecus cheek. Prior. To sleep could mortal eye-lids fix, Swift. LIE. n. s. [lie, Fr.] Any thing impregnated with some other body; as, soap or salt. Chamber-lie breeds fleas like a loach. Shakesp. All liquid things concocted by heat become yellow; as lye, wort, &c. Peacham on Drawing LIE. n. s. [lige, Saxon.] 1. A criminal falsehood. In some provinces they were so liquorish after. man's flesh, that they would suck the blood as it Locke. Nice; delicate; tempting the appe- Would'st thou seek again to trap me here LICKERISHNESS. n. s. [from lickerish.] LICORICE. n.`s. [yλvxújjiļa; liquoricia, 3. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant! with my sword I'll prove the lie thou speak'st. Shakesp. Macbeth. A lue is properly an outward signification of something contrary to, or at least beside, the inward sense of the mind; so that when one thing is signified or expressed, and the same thing not meant or intended, that is properly a lye. South. Truth is the object of our understanding, as good is of our will; and the understanding can no more be delighted with a lye, than the will can choose an apparent evil. Dryden. When I hear my neighbour speak that which is not true, and I say to him, This is not true, or this is false, I only convey to him the naked idea of his error; this is the primary idea; but if I say it is a lie, the word lie carries also a secondary idea; for it implies both the falsehood of the speech, and my reproach and censure of the speaker. Watts's Logick. A charge of falsehood; to give the lie, is a formulary phrase. That lye shall lye so heavy on my sword, A fiction. This sense is ludicrous. To utter criminal falsehood. Liquorice root is long and slender, externally of a dusky reddish brown, but within of a fine yellow, full of juice, and of a taste sweeter than sugar; it grows wild in many parts of France, Italy, Spain, and Germany. The inspissated juice of To LIE. v. n. [leogan, Sax. liegen, Dut.] this root is brought to us from Spain and Hol-1. land; from the first of which places it obtained LICTOR. n. the name of Spanish juice. Hill's Mat. Med. s. [Lat.] A beadle that attended the consuls to apprehend or punish criminals. |