Emily Dickinson Lexicon

lie (-s, lain, lying), v. [OE licgan.]

1. Be located; be set; be positioned.
2. Rest; recline; be situated in a prone position; [fig.] die; pass away.
3. Intercept; interrupt; act as a barrier.
4. Reside; exist; sleep; dwell in a low place.
5. Appear; be found; be situated; be in the state of; remain in a condition of.
6. Bury; inter; put into a grave.
7. Phrase. “Lie down”: rest; recline; be situated in a prone position; [fig.] die; pass away.
8. Phrase. “Lie in wait”: hide; be enshrouded; obscure oneself; prepare to ambush.

lie, v. [OE léoˋan.]

Deceive; prevaricate; speak untruthfully; make a false statement; bear false witness.

lief, adv. [OE.]

Phrase. “I had as lief”: I would rather; I would be willing that; [word play on “leaf”] like the leaves of a rose.

life (-'s, lives), n. [OE líf, person, body.]

1. Experience; mortality.
2. State of being alive; ability to move, breathe, and feel.
3. Consciousness; existence; Dasein.
4. Mortal state; daily existence; day to day affairs.
5. Animation; the will to live.
6. Vitality; viability; [fig.] sustenance; nourishment; refreshment.
7. World; dimension of existence.
8. Span; time period.
9. Personality; persona; unique character; individual intelligence.
10. Domain; realm of action; sphere of influence.
11. Support; sustenance; nourishment; positive energy; vital breath; [fig.] love; affection; devotion; nurturing; faithful emotion; [metaphor] poetry; beautiful language.
12. Birth; genesis; physical existence.
13. Biography; story; narrative; personal history.
14. Influence; power; strength; vital force.
15. Everyday existence; daily round of activities.
16. Infinite existence; eternal capacity for love.
17. Action; moral agency.
18. Motivation; reason to live; justification for existence.
19. Embodiment; incarnation; [fig.] fulfillment; completeness.
20. Circumference; atom; living cell; scope of being; [fig.] universe; creation.
21. Reality; truth; destiny; [fig.] felicity; the way to happiness; the path to meaningful existence.
22. Biosphere; ecosystem; earthly domain; natural system; realm of nature; aspect of creation; season of the year; [fig.] garden; field.
23. Manner; living; way of being; mode of existence.
24. Potential; fate; range of possibilities.
25. Meaningful existence; full potential for feeling, loving, and being.
26. Being; individual; person born; living entity; individual creature; [fig.] person born again spiritually.
27. Creature; wight; living thing; animate being.
54. Deity; God; Divinity; the Creator.
81. Phrase. “New life”: resurrection; apocalypse; millennium; Second Coming of the Lord.
108. Phrase. “The Dial life”: chronology; clock time; measured period; finite existence; [kenning] mortality; earth life.
135. Phrase. “opon my life”: I swear with a solemn oath; (see Hamlet 1.1.170; 4.6.92).
162. Phrase. “Life that is”: mortality; present time.
189. Phrase. “Life that is to be”: immortality; future time; existence of the soul after death.
216. Phrase. “Crown(s) of Life”: heavenly rewards; covenant promises; divine compensations (see James 1:12; Revelation 2:10).
243. Phrase. “everlasting life”: eternity; never-ending being; new existence after death.

lifeless, adj. [OE lífléas; see life, n.]

1. Motionless; not moving; [fig.] unconscious; passed out; drowning; asphyxiating; not breathing.
2. Dead; deceased; expired; not living; [fig.] no longer relevant.
3. Inanimate; spiritless; insentient; lacking vitality; no longer feeling.

lifetime, n. [see life, n.]

1. Span of existence; period of time that someone lasts; [fig.] immortality; other world existence.
2. Personal experience; time of an individual's earthly probation.
3. Mortality; being subject to death.
4. Eternity; forever; infinite being; new endless existence.

lift (-ed, -s), v. [ON lypta, move into the air.]

1. Elevate; pick up; raise in rank; bring higher in position; [fig.] exalt.
2. Remove; uncover; take off.
3. Raise; heft.
4. Gather up; [fig.] smooth; brush; comb; touch.
5. Hoist; heave; [fig.] bear; prepare to carry.
6. Launch; cause to ascend; spread the sails of.
7. Hold up; raise to display.
8. Comfort; support; sustain.
9. Direct; focus.
10. Move upward.
11. Open up; [fig.] display as a flower in bloom.
12. Transport; send upward; [fig.] inspire.
13. Increase the level of.
14. Celebrate; praise; congratulate; glorify; glamorize.
15. Phrase. “lift it up”: offer it; present it.
16. Phrase. “lifts her pencil”: picks up her coloring implement; [fig.] changes the colors of the vegetation, such as tree leaves; [metaphor] changes the season from summer to fall.
17. Phrase. “lift the Hat to”: tip his head covering for; [fig.] salute; greet gallantly; acknowledge socially; show respect to.
18. Phrase. “lift her Glass opon”: inspect; examine; peruse; scrutinize; look at; gaze at with a lens.
19. Phrase. “lifted up”: opened; relaxed; released; loosened for vocal production.

lifted, verbal adj. [see lift, v.]

High; elevated; exalted; above one's normal status; [fig.] proud; puffed up.

light (-er, -est), adj. [see light, n.; NW says “This word accords with light, the fluid, in orthography, and may be from the same radix.”]

1. Agile; nimble; weightless; [fig.] unstressed; not accented; without much emphasis; of little weight as a syllable in metrical verse; [word play] merry; mirthful; cheerful; happy; not somber; [metaphor] quiet; silent; soundless; invisible; floating; ghostlike; phantasmal; [metaphor] shining; sparkling.
2. Slight; delicate; not heavy; without gravity; small in mass; having little weight.
3. Superficial; shallow; easily shaken off; not overwhelming; [fig.] temporary; transitory; ephemeral; not permanent.
4. Easier; not onerous; less oppressive; more endurable.

light (-s), n. [OE léoht, < Aryan *leuk–, to shine, be white; NW says its original sense comes from the Welsh llug, to throw, dart, shoot, or break forth.]

1. Illumination; effulgence; [fig.] vision.
2. Brightness; radiance; [fig.] intelligence.
3. Dawn; sunrise; morning; [possibly adverbial] breezily; gently.
4. Hue; color; ray; beam; shaft; glow; shining; [fig.] appearance; perception.
5. Agent that enables sight; influence emanating from the sun or other source.
6. Reflection.
7. Sunshine; celestial radiation.
8. God; Deity; Christ; the Creator; the Supreme Being; a Higher Power; (see John 8:12).
9. Flash; spark; blast; gunfire.
10. Luminosity; polish; shine; gleam; gloss; refulgence; [fig.] purity; refinement; spiritual power.
11. Pane; panel of glass; source of outside emanation into a room.
12. Happiness; joy; comfort.
13. Ray; filament; [fig.] web; network; white strands; waves and particles.
14. Torch; [fig.] vision; heavenly beacon; seer stone; glorious manifestation; [metaphor for the 2^nd occurrence] poetry; enlightening language.
15. Lamp; lantern; candle; source of illumination held in the hand.
16. Life force.
17. Illumination from the sun.
18. Knowledge; means of knowing; source of understanding, spiritual enlightenment; mental illumination.
19. Life.
20. Elucidation; understanding, knowledge; spiritual perception.
21. Phrase. “Light House”: beacon; pharos; coastal tower that guides boats.