Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LA'BOR-ED, pp.

Tilled; cultivated; formed with labor.

LA'BOR-ER, n.

One who labors in a toilsome occupation; a man who does work that requires little skill, as distinguished from an artisan.

LA'BOR-ING, ppr.

1. Exerting muscular strength or intellectual power; toiling; moving with pain or with difficulty; cultivating.
2. A laboring man, or laborer, is often used for a man who performs work that requires no apprenticeship or professional skill, in distinction from an artisan; but this restricted sense is not always observed. A hard laboring man, is one accustomed to hard labor. Laboring oar, the oar which requires the most strength or exertion, or on which most depends.

LA-BO'RIOUS, a. [L. laboriosus; Fr. laborieux.]

1. Using exertion; employing labor; diligent in work or service; assiduous; used of persons; as, a laborious husbandman or mechanic; a laborious minister or pastor.
2. Requiring labor; toilsome; tiresome; not easy; as, laborious duties or services.
3. Requiring labor, exertion, perseverance or sacrifices. Dost thou love watchings, abstinence or toil, / Laborious virtues all? Learn these from Cato. – Addison.

LA-BO'RI-OUS-LY, adv.

With labor, toil or difficulty. – Pope.

LA-BO'RI-OUS-NESS, n.

1. The quality of being laborious, or attended with toil; toilsomeness; difficulty.
2. Diligence; assiduity.

LA'BOR-LESS, a.

Not laborious. – Brerewood.

LA'BOR-SAV'ING, a.

Saving labor; adapted to supersede or diminish the labor of men.

LA'BOR-SOME, a.

Made with great labor and diligence. [Not in use.] – Sandys.

LAB'RA-DOR-ITE, n.

Labrador spar, a beautiful variety of opalescent felspar, from Labrador.

LA'BROSE, a. [L. labrum, a lip.]

Having thick lips.

LA-BURN'UM, n.

A tree of the genus Cytisus, a native of the Alps, and much cultivated by way of ornament.

LAB'Y-RINTH, n.

In metallurgy, a series of troughs in a stamping mill, through which water passes for washing pulverized ore.

LAB'Y-RINTH, n. [L. labyrinthus; Gr. λαβυρινθος.]

1. Among the ancients, an edifice or place full of intricacies, or formed with winding passages, which rendered it difficult to find the way from the interior to the entrance. The most remarkable of these edifices mentioned, are the Egyptian and the Cretan labyrinths. – Encyc. Lempriere.
2. A maze; an inexplicable difficulty.
3. Formerly, an ornamental maze or wilderness in gardens. – Spenser.
4. A cavity in the ear. – Quincy.

LAB-Y-RINTH'I-AN, a.

Winding; intricate; perplexed. – Bp. Hall.

LAB-Y-RINTH'IC, a.

Like a labyrinth.

LAB-Y-RINTH'I-FORM, a.

Having the form of a labyrinth; intricate. – Kirby.

LAB-Y-RINTH'INE, a.

Pertaining to or like a labyrinth.

LAC, n. [Sp. laca; G. lack; Dan. D. lak; said to be from the Arabic.]

A resinous substance produced mainly upon the Ficus Indica or Banyan tree, by the Coccus Ficus or Coccus Lacca. It is composed of five different varieties of resin, with a small quantity of several other substances, particularly a red coloring matter. Stick lac is the substance in its natural state, encrusting small twigs. When broken off and boiled in water, it loses its red color, and is called seed lac. When melted and reduced to a thin crust, it is called shell lac. United with ivory black or vermilion, it forms black and red sealing wax. Lac dissolved in alcohol or other menstrua, by different methods of preparation, constitutes various kinds of varnishes and lackers. – Thomson.

LAC'CIC, a.

Pertaining to lac, or produced from it.

LAC'CINE, n.

A substance from shell-lac, brittle, yellow, translucent; soluble in caustic potash, and in sulphuric acid.

LACE, n. [Sp. lazo, a tie or knot; Fr. lacet; It. laccio; L. laqueus.]

1. Work composed of threads interwoven into a net, and worked on a pillow with spindles or pins. Fine laces are manufactured in France, Italy and England.
2. A string; a cord. – Spenser.
3. A snare; a gin. – Fairfax.
4. A plaited string with which females fasten their clothes. Doll ne'er was called to cut her lace. – Swift.

LACE, v.t.

1. To fasten with a string through eyelet holes. When Jenny's stays are newly laced. – Prior.
2. To adorn with lace; as, cloth laced with silver. – Shak.
3. To embellish with variegations or stripes. Look, love, what envious streaks / Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east. – Shak.
4. To beat; to lash; [probably to make stripes on.] I'll lace your coat for ye. – L'Estrange.

LACE-BARK, n.

The bark of a shrub in the West Indies, the Daphne lagetto, so called from the texture of its inner bark.

LAC-ED, pp.

Fastened with lace or a string; also tricked off with lace. Laced coffee, coffee with spirits in it. – Addison.