Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LA-PID'I-FYING, ppr.

Turning into stone.

LAP'I-DIST, n.

A dealer in precious stones. [See Lapidary.]

LAPIL'I, n.

Volcanic ashes in which globular concretions prevail. – Mantell.

LA'PIS, n. [Latin.]

A stone. Hence, Lapis Bononienais, the Bolognian stone. Lapis hepaticus, liver stone. Lapis Lazuli, azure stone, an Ominous mineral, of a rich blue color, resembling the blue carbonate of copper. [See Lazuli.] Lapis Lydius, touch-stone; basanite; a variety of silicious slate.

LAP'LING, n. [from lap.]

One who indulges in ease and sensual delights; a term of contempt. – Hewyt.

LAP'PED, pp. [See Lap.]

Turned or folded over.

LAP'PER, n.

1. One that laps; one that wraps or folds.
2. One that takes up with his tongue.

LAP'PET, n. [dim. of lap.]

A part of a garment or dress that hangs loose. – Swift.

LAP'PING, ppr.

1. Wrapping; folding; laying on.
2. Licking; taking into the mouth with the tongue.

LAPS'A-BLE, a.

That may fall or relapse. – Cudworth.

LAPSE, n. [laps; L. lapsus, from labor, to slide, to fall. Class Lb.]

1. A sliding, gliding or flowing; a smooth course; as, the lapse of a stream; the lapse of time.
2. A falling or passing. The lapse to indolence is soft and imperceptible, but the return to diligence is difficult. – Rambler.
3. A slip; an error; fault; a failing in duty; a slight deviation from truth or rectitude. This Scripture may be usefully applied as a caution to guard against those lapses and failings to which our infirmities daily expose us. – Rogers. So we say, a lapse in style or propriety.
4. In ecclesiastical law, the slip or omission of a patron to present a clerk to a benefice, within six months after it becomes void. In this case, the benefice is said to be lapsed, or in lapse. – Encyc.
5. In theology, the fall or apostasy of Adam.

LAPSE, v.i. [laps.]

1. To glide; to pass slowly, silently or by degrees. This disposition to shorten our words by retrenching the vowels, is nothing else but a tendency to lapse into the barbarity of those northern nations from which we descended. – Swift.
2. To slide or slip in moral conduct; to fail in duty; to deviate from rectitude; to commit a fault. To lapse in fullness / Is sorer than to lie for need. – Shak.
3. To slip or commit a fault by inadvertency or mistake. Homer, in his characters of Vulcan and Thersites, has lapsed into the burlesque character. – Addison.
4. To fall or pass from one proprietor to another, by the omission or negligence of the patron. If the archbishop shall not fill it up within six months ensuing, it lapses to the king. – Ayliffe.
5. To fall from a state of innocence, or from truth, faith or perfection. Once more I will renew / His lapsed powers. – Milton.

LAPS'ED, pp.

Fallen; passed from one proprietor to another by the negligence of the patron; as, a lapsed benefice. A lapsed legacy is one which falls to the heirs through the failure of the legatee, as when the legatee dies before the testator.

LAP'SID-ED, a. [lap and side.]

Having one side heavier than the other, as a ship. – Mar. Dict.

LAPS'ING, ppr.

Gliding; flowing; failing; falling to one person through the omission of another.

LAP'-STONE, n. [lap and stone.]

A stone on which shoemakers beat leather on the knees.

LAPSUS-LINGUAE, n. [Lapsus linguæ; L.]

A slip of the tongue; a mistake in uttering a word.

LAP'WING, n.

A bird of the genus Tringa; the tewit.

LAP'WORK, n.

Work in which one part laps over another. – Grew.

LAR, n. [plur. Lares. L.]

A household deity. Lovelace.

LAR'-BOARD, a.

Pertaining to the left hand side of a ship; as, the larboard quarter.

LAR'-BOARD, n. [board, bord, is a side; but I know not the meaning of lar. The Dutch use bakboord, and the Germans backbord.]

The left hand side of a ship, when a person stands with his face to the head; opposed to starboard.

LAR'CE-NY, n. [Fr. larcin; Norm. larcim; Arm. laeroncy, or lazroncy, contracted from L. latrocinium, from the Celtic; W. lladyr, theft; lladron, thieves; Sp. ladron; It. ladro, ladrone.]

Theft; the act of taking and carrying away the goods or property of another feloniously. Larceny is of two kinds; simple larceny, or theft, not accompanied with any atrocious circumstance; and mixed or compound larceny, which includes in it the aggravation of taking from one's house or person, as in burglary or robbery. The stealing of any thing below the value of twelvepence is called petty larceny; above that value, it is called grand larceny. – Blackstone.

LARCH, n. [L. larix; Sp. alerce; It. larice; G. lerchenbaum; D. lorkenboom.]

The common name of a division of the Linnean genus Pinus, species of which are natives of America, as well as of Europe.

LARD, n. [Fr. lard; L. lardum, laridum; It. and Sp. lardo; Arm. lardt, Qu. W. llâr, that spreads or drops, soft.]

1. The fat of swine, after being melted and separated from the flesh.
2. Bacon; the flesh of swine. – Dryden.