Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LEX-IG'RAPH-Y, n. [Gr. {foreign}, a word, and {foreign}, to write.]

The art or practice of defining words. Med. Repos.

LEY, n. [a different orthography of Lay and Lea, a meadow or field.]

LEY'DEN-JAR, n.

A jar used in electrical experiments, invented in Leyden, in the Netherlands.

LEZE-MAJESTY, n.

Any crime committed against sovereign power, from the Latin "crimen lave majestatis.

LHER'ZO-LITE, n. [from Lherz, in the Pyrenees.]

A mineral, a variety of pyroxene. When crystalized, its crystals are brilliant, translucid, very small, and of an emerald green. Dict.

LI'A-BLE, a. [Fr. lier, to bind, L. ligo; Norm. lige, a bond. See Liege.]

1. Bound; obliged in law or equity; responsible; answerable. The surety is liable for the debt of his principal. The parent is not liable for debts contracted by a son who a minor, except for necessaries. This use of liable is now common among lawyers. The phrase is abridged. The surety is liable, that is, bound to pay the debt of his principal.
2. Subject; obnoxious; exposed. Proudly secure, yet liable to fail. Milton Liable, in this sense, is always applied to evils. We never say, a man is liable to happiness or prosperity, but he is liable to disease, calamities, censure; he is liable to err, to sin, to fall.

LI'A-BLE-NESS, or LI-A-BIL'I-TY, n.

1. The state of being bound or obliged in law or justice; responsibility. The officer wishes to discharge himself from his liability.
2. Exposedness; tendency; a state of being subject; as the liableness of a man to contract disease in an infected room; a liability to accidents.

LI'AR, n. [from lie.]

1. A person who knowingly utters falsehood; one who declares to another as a fact what he knows to be not true, and with an intention to deceive him. The uttering of falsehood by mistake, and without an intention to deceive, does not constitute one a liar.
2. One who denies Christ. I John ii.

LI'ARD, a.

Gray. [Obs.] Chaucer.

LI'AS, n.

A species of limestone, occurring in flat, horizontal strata, and supposed to be of recent formation. Encyc.

LIB, v.t. [lubben.]

To castrate. [Not in use.] Chapman.

LI-BA'TION, n. [L. libatio, from libo, to pour out, to taste; Gr. {foreign}.]

1. The act of pouring a liquor, usually wine, either on the ground, or on a victim in sacrifice, in honor of some deity. The Hebrews, Greeks and Romans practiced libation. This was a solemn act and accompanied with prayer. Encyc.
2. The wine or other liquor poured out in honor of a deity. Stillingfleet. Dryden.

LIB'BARD,

an obsolete spelling of Leopard. Spenser. Milton.

LIB'BARD'S-BANE, n.

A poisonous plant. B. Jonson.

LI'BEL, n. [L. libellus, a little book, from liber, a book, from the sense of bark, and this from stripping, separating. Hence liber, a book, and liber, free, are the same word. Class Lb, No. 21, 27, 30, 31.]

1. A defamatory writing, L. libellus, famous. Hence, the epithet being omitted, libel expresses the same thing. Any book, pamphlet, writing or picture, containing representations, maliciously made or published, tending to bring a person into contempt, or expose him to public hatred and derision. The communication of such defamatory writing to a single person, is considered in law a publication. It is immaterial with respect to the essence of a libel, whether the matter of it is true or false, since the provocation and not the falsity is the thing to he punished criminally. But in a civil action, a libel must appear to be false, as well as scandalous. Blackstone. In a more extensive sense, any blasphemous, treasonable or immoral writing or picture made public, is a libel, and punishable by law.
2. In the civil law, and in courts of admiralty, a declaration or charge in writing exhibited in court, particularly against a ship or goods, for violating the laws of trade or of revenue.

LI'BEL, v.i.

To spread defamation, written or printed; with against. He libels against the peers of the realm. [Not now in use.]

LI'BEL, v.t.

1. To defame or expose to public hatred and contempt by a writing or picture; to lampoon. Some wicked wits have libeled all the fair. Pope.
2. To exhibit a charge against any thing in court, particularly against a ship or goods, for a violation of the laws of trade or revenue.

LI'BEL-ANT, n.

One who libels; one who brings a libel or institutes a suit in an admiralty court. The counsel for the libelant, contended they had a right to read the instructions. Cranch, Rep.

LI'BEL-ED, pp.

1. Defamed by a writing or picture made public.
2. Charged or declared against in an admiralty court.

LI'BEL-ER, n.

One who libels or defames by writing or pictures; a lampooner. It is ignorance of ourselves which makes us the libelers of others. Buckminster.

LI'BEL-ING, ppr.

1. Defaming by a published writing or picture.
2. Exhibiting charges against in court.

LI'BEL-OUS, a.

Defamatory; containing that which exposes a person to public hatred, contempt and ridicule; as, a libelous pamphlet or picture.

LI'BER, n. [L.]

In botany, the inner bark of a plant.

LIB'ER-AL, a. [Fr. from L. liberalis, from liber, free. See Libel.]

1. Of a free heart; free to give or bestow; not close or contracted; munificent; bountiful; generous; giving largely; as, a liberal donor; the liberal founders of a college or hospital. It expresses less than profuse or extravagant.
2. Generous; ample; large; as, a liberal donation; a liberal allowance.
3. Not selfish, narrow or contracted; catholic; enlarged; embracing other interests than one's own; as, liberal sentiments or views; a liberal mind; liberal policy.
4. General; extensive; embracing literature and the sciences generally; as, a liberal education. This phrase is often but not necessarily synonymous with collegiate; as, a collegiate education.
5. Free; open; candid; as, a liberal communication of thoughts.
6. Large; profuse; as, a liberal discharge of matter by secretions or excretions.
7. Free; not literal or strict; as, a liberal construction of law.
8. Not mean; not low in birth or mind.
9. Licentious; free to excess. Shak. Liberal arts, as distinguished from mechanical arts, are such as depend more on the exertion of the mind than on the labor of the hands, and regard amusement, curiosity or intellectual improvement, rather than the necessity of subsistence, or manual skill. Such are grammar, rhetoric, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, &c. Liberal has of before the thing bestowed, and to before the person or object on which any thing is bestowed; as, to be is liberal of praise or censure; liberal to the poor.

LIB'ER-AL-HEART-ED, a.

Having a generous heart.