Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LI'CENS-ED, pp.

Permitted by authority.

LI'CENS-ER, n.

One who grants permission; a person authorized to grant permission to others; as, a licenser of the press.

LI'CENS-ING, ppr.

Authorizing by legal grant.

LI'CENS-URE, n.

A licensing.

LI-CEN'TIATE, n. [from L. licentia.]

1. One who has a license; as, a licentiate in physic or medicine.
2. In Spain, one who has a degree; as, a licentiate in law or divinity. The officers of justice are mostly distinguished by this title. – Encyc.

LI-CEN'TIATE, v.t.

To give license or permission. – L'Estrange.

LI-CEN'TIOUS, a. [L. licentiosus.]

1. Using license; indulging freedom to excess; unrestrained by law or morality; loose; dissolute; as, a licentious man.
2. Exceeding the limits of law or propriety; wanton; unrestrained; as, licentious desires. Licentious thoughts precede licentious conduct.

LI-CENT'IOUS-LY, adv.

With excess of liberty; in contempt of law and morality.

LI-CEN'TIOUS-NESS, n.

Excessive indulgence of liberty; contempt of the just restraints of law, morality and decorum. The licentiousness of authors is justly condemned; the licentiousness of the press is punishable by law. Law is the god of wise men; licentiousness is the god of fools. – Plato.

LICH, a. [Sax. lic. See Like.]

Like; even; equal. [Obs.] Gower.

LICH, n. [Sax. lic or lice, a body, the flesh, a dead body or corpse; lichama, a living body; hence lichwake, watching with the dead; Lichfield, the field of dead bodies; Goth. leik, the flesh, a body; leikan, to please, Sax. licean; Goth. leiks, like; G. gleich; D. lyk and gelyk, like; G. leiche, a dead body, D. lyk; Heb. חלק chalak, smooth; Ar. حَلَقَ‎‎ chalaka, to shave, to make smooth; خَلَقَ galaka, to measure, to form, to create, to make smooth and equable, to be beautiful; derivatives, creature, man, people. We see the radical sense is smooth, or rather to make even, equal, smooth; hence like, likeness, and a body. We have here an instance of the radical sense of man and body, a most exactly analogous to that of Adam, from דמה, to make equal, to be like.]

Body; trunk; corpse.

LICH'EN, n. [L. from Gr. κειχην.]

1. In botany, the name for an extensive division of cryptogamian plants, constituting a genus in the order of Algæ in the Linnean system, but now forming a distinct natural order. They appear in the form of thin flat crusts, covering rocks and the bark of trees, or in foliaceous expansions, or branched like a shrub in miniature, or sometimes only as a gelatinous mass, or a powdery substance. They are called rock moss and tree moss, and some of the liverworts are of this order. They also include the Iceland moss and the reindeer moss; but they are entirely distinct from the true mosses (Musci.) – Ed. Encyc.
2. In medicine, a papular cutaneous eruption consisting of diffuse red pimples, which are attended with a trouble some sense of tingling and pricking. A common variety of this affection resembles the effect of stinging with nettles, and is called nettle-lichen.

LICH-EN-O-GRAPH'IC, or LICH-EN-O-GRAPH'IC-AL, a.

Pertaining to lichenography.

LICH-EN-OG'RAPH-IST, n.

One who describes the lichen.

LICH-EN-OG'RA-PHY, n. [Gr. λειχην and γραφω, to write.]

A description of the vegetables called lichens; the science which illustrates the natural history of the lichens. – Acharius.

LICH'-OWL, n.

An owl vulgarly supposed to foretell death.

LIC'IT, a. [L. licitus.]

Lawful.

LIC'IT-LY, adv.

Lawfully.

LIC'IT-NESS, n.

Lawfulness.

LICK, n.

In America, a place where beasts of the forest lick for salt, at salt springs.

LICK, n. [W. llaç, a lick, a slap, a ray, a blade; llaçiaw, to lick, to shoot out, to throw or lay about, to cudgel. Qu. the root of flog and slay, to strike. See Ar. لَكَّ to strike. Class Lg. No. 14.]

1. A blow; a stroke. [Not an elegant word.]
2. A wash; something rubbed on. [Not in use.]

LICK, v.t.¹ [Sax. liccian; Goth. laigwan; G. lecken, schlecken; D. likken; Dan. likker, slikker; Sw. slekia, slikia; Fr. lecher; It. leccare; Ir. leagaim, lighim; Russ. lokayu, liju; L. lingo; Gr. λειχω; Sans. lih. Class Lg, No. 12, 18. See Like and Sleek.]

1. To pass or draw the tongue over the surface; as, a dog licks a wound. – Temple.
2. To lap; to take in by the tongue; as, a dog or cat licks milk. 1 Kings xxi. To lick up, to devour; to consume entirely. Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as an ox licketh up the grass of the field. Numb. xxii. To lick the dust, to be slain; to perish in battle. His enemies shall lick the dust. – Ps. xxii.

LICK, v.t.²

To strike repeatedly for punishment; to flog; to chastise with blows. [Not an elegant word; but probably flog, L. fligo, is from the root of this word.]

LICK'ED, pp.

Taken in by the tongue; lapped.

LICK'ER, n.

One that licks.