Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LAND'-WAIT'ER, n.

An officer of the customs, whose duty is to wait or attend on the landing of goods, and to examine, weigh or measure, and take an account of them. – Encyc.

LAND'WARD, adv.

Toward the land. – Sandys.

LAND'-WIND, n.

A wind blowing from the land.

LAND'-WORK'ER, n.

One who tills the ground. – Pownall.

LANE, n. [D. laan, a lane, a walk. Class Ln.]

1. A narrow way or passage, or a private passage, as distinguished from a public road or highway. A lane may be open to all passengers, or it may be inclosed and appropriated to a man's private use. In the United States, the word is used chiefly in the country, and answers in a degree, to an alley in a city. It has sometimes been used for alley. In London, the word lane is added to the names of streets; as, Chancery-lane.
2. A passage between lines of men, or people standing on each side. – Bacon.

LAN'GRAGE, or LAN'GREL, n.

Langrel shot or langrage, is a particular kind of shot used at sea for tearing sails and rigging, and thus disabling an enemy's ship. It consists of bolts, nails and other pieces of iron fastened together. – Mar. Dict.

LANG-TER-A-LOO', n.

A game at cards. – Taller.

LAN'GUAGE, n. [Fr. langage; Sp. lengua, lenguage; Port. linguagem; It. linguaggio; Arm. langaich; from L. lingua, the tongue, and speech. It seems to be connected with lingo, to lick; the n is evidently casual, for ligula; in Latin, is a little tongue, and this signifies also a strap or lace, as if the primary sense were to extend.]

1. Human speech; the expression of ideas by words or significant articulate sounds, for the communication of thoughts. Language consists in the oral utterance of sounds, which usage has made the representatives of ideas. When two or more persons customarily annex the same sounds to the same ideas, the expression of these sounds by one person communicates his ideas to another. This is the primary sense of language, the use of which is to communicate the thoughts of one person to another through the organs of hearing. Articulate sounds are represented by letters, marks or characters which form words. Hence language consists also in
2. Words duly arranged in sentences, written, printed, or engraved, and exhibited to the eye.
3. The speech or expression of ideas peculiar to a particular nation. Men had originally one and the same language, but the tribes or families of men, since their dispersion, have distinct languages.
4. Style; manner of expression. Others for language all their care express. – Pope.
5. The inarticulate sounds by which irrational animals express their feelings and wants. Each species of animals has peculiar sounds, which are uttered instinctively, and are understood by its own species, and its own species only.
6. Any manner of expressing thoughts. Thus we speak of the language of the eye, a language very expressive and intelligible.
7. A nation, as distinguished by their speech. Dan. iii.

LAN'GUAG-ED, a.

Having a language; as, many-languaged nations. – Pope.

LAN'GUAGE-MAS'TER, n.

One whose profession is to teach languages. – Spectator.

LAN'GUET, n. [Fr. languette.]

Any thing in the shape of the tongue. [Not English.] Johnson.

LAN'GUID, a. [L. languidus, from langueo, to droop or flag. See Languish.]

1. Flagging; drooping; hence, feeble; weak; heavy; dull; indisposed to exertion. The body is languid after excessive action, which exhausts its powers.
2. Slow; as, languid motion.
3. Dull; heartless; without animation. And tire their languid soul with Cato's virtue. – Addison.

LAN'GUID-LY, adv.

Weakly; feebly; slowly. – Boyle.

LAN'GUID-NESS, n.

1. Weakness from exhaustion of strength; feebleness; dullness; languor.
2. Slowness.

LAN'GUISH, n.

Act of pining; also, a soft and tender look or appearance. And the blue languish of soft Allia's eye. – Pope.

LAN'GUISH, v.i. [Fr. languir, languissant; Arm. languiçza; It. languire; L. langueo, lachinisso; Gr. λαγγευω, to flag, to lag. This word is of the family of W. llac, slack, loose; llaciaw, to slacken, to relax. L. laxo, laxus, flacceo, and Goth. laggs, long, may be of the same family.]

1. To lose strength or animation; to be or become dull, feeble, or spiritless; to pine; to be or to grow heavy. We anguish under disease or after excessive exertion. She that hath borne seven languisheth. – Jer. xv.
2. To wither; to fade; to lose the vegetating power. For the fields of Heshbon languish. Is. xvi.
3. To grow dull; to be no longer active and vigorous. The war languished for want of supplies. Commerce, agriculture, manufactures languish, not for want of money, but for want of good markets.
4. To pine or sink under sorrow or any continued passion; as, a woman languishes for the loss of her lover. Therefore shalt the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shalt languish. – Hosea iv.
5. To look with softness or tenderness, as, with the head reclined and a peculiar cast of the eye. – Dryden.

LAN'GUISH, v.t.

To cause to droop or pine. [Little used.] – Shak.

LAN'GUISH-ED, pp.

Drooped; pined.

LAN'GUISH-ER, n.

One who languishes or pines.

LAN'GUISH-ING, ppr.

1. Becoming or being feeble; losing strength; pining; withering; fading.
2. adj. Having a languid appearance; as, a languishing eye.

LAN'GUISH-ING-LY, adv.

1. Weakly; feebly; dully; slowly.
2. With tender softness.

LAN'GUISH-MENT, n.

1. The state of pining. – Spenser.
2. Softness of look or mien, with the head reclined. – Dryden.

LAN'GUOR, n. [L. languor; Fr. langueur.]

1. Feebleness; dullness; heaviness; lassitude of body; that state of the body which is induced by exhaustion of strength, as by disease, by extraordinary exertion, by the relaxing effect of heat, or by weakness from any cause.
2. Dullness of the intellectual faculty; listlessness. – Watts.
3. Softness; laxity. To isles of fragrance, lily-silvered vales, / Diffusing languor in the parting gales. – Dunciad.

LAN'GUOR-OUS, a.

Tedious; melancholy. [Obs.] – Spenser.

LAN'GURE, v.t.

To languish. [Not in use.] – Chaucer.