Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LOACH, or LO'CHE, n. [Fr. loche.]

A small fish of the genus Cobitis, inhabiting small clear streams, and esteemed dainty food. – Walton.

LOAD, n. [Sax. hlad or lade; W. llwyth. See Lade.]

1. A burden; that which is laid on or put in any thing for conveyance. Thus we lay a load on a beast or on a man's shoulders' or on a cart or wagon; and we say, a light load, a heavy load. A load then is indefinite in quantity or weight. But by usage, in some cases, the word has a more definite signification, and expresses a certain quantity or is eight, or as much as is usually carried, or as can be well sustained. Load is never used for the cargo of a ship; this is called loading, lading, freight, or cargo.
2. Any heavy burden; a large quantity borne or sustained. A tree may be said to have a load of fruit upon it.
3. That which is borne with pain or difficulty; a grievous weight; encumbrance, in a literal sense. Jove lightened of its load / Th' enormous mass. – Pope. In a figurative sense, we say, a load of care or grief; a load of guilt or crimes.
4. Weight or violence of blows. – Milton.
5. A quantity of food or drink that oppresses, or as much as can be borne. – Dryden.
6. Among miners, the quantity of nine dishes of ore, each dish being about half a hundred weight. – Encyc. Cyc.

LOAD, v.t. [pret. and pp. loaded; loaden formerly used, is obsolete, and laden belongs to lade. Load, from the noun, is a regular verb.]

1. To lay on a burden; to put on or in something to be carried, or as much as can be carried; as, to load a camel or a horse; to load a cart or wagon. To load a gun, is to charge, or put in a sufficient quantity of powder, or powder and ball or shot.
2. To encumber; to lay on or put in that which is borne with pain or difficulty; in n literal sense, as to load the stomach with meat; or in a figurative sense, as to load the mind or memory.
3. To make heavy by something added or appended. Thy dreadful vow; loaden with death. – Addison. So in a literal sense, to load a whip.
4. To bestow or confer on in great abundance; as, to load one with honors; to load with reproaches.

LOAD'ED, pp.

1. Charged with a load or cargo; having a burden; freighted, as a ship; having a charge of powder, or powder and shot; as a gun.
2. Burdened with any thing oppressive; as, loaded with cares, with guilt or shame.

LOAD'ER, n.

One who puts on a load.

LOAD'ING, n.

A cargo; a burden; also, any thing that makes part of a load.

LOAD'ING, ppr.

Charging with a load; burdening; encumbering; charging, as a gun.

LOAD'MAN-AGE, n.

Pilotage; skill of a pilot. [Not used.]

LOADS'-MAN, n. [load and man.]

A pilot. [Obs.]

LOAD'-STAR, or LODE'-STAR, n. [lead and star.]

The star that leads; the polestar; the cynosure. [Obs.] Shak.

LOAD'-STONE, n. [from the verb lead and stone. The old orthography, lodestone, is most correct, as this word has no connection with the verb to load.]

The native magnet, an ore of iron in the lowest state of oxydation, which has the power of attracting metallic iron, as iron filings, and of communicating to masses of iron the same property of attraction, forming artificial magnets. [See Lodestone.]

LOAF, n. [plur. Loaves. Sax. hlaf or laf; Goth. hlaibs; G. leib; Polish, chlieb; Bohemian, chleb; Russ. chlib or chleb; Croatian, hlib; Finnish, leipa or leipam; Lapponic, laibe. The German leib is rendered a loaf, and body, waist, belly; leiblich, which in English, would be loaf-like, signifies corporeal, bodily. Loaf then signifies a lump or mass, from some root that signifies to set, or to collect, or to form.]

1. A mass of bread when baked. It is larger than a cake. The size and price of a loaf, large cities, are regulated by law.
2. A mass or lump, as of sugar.
3. Any thick mass.

LOAF'ER, n. [G. laufer, a runner, from laufen, to run.]

An idle man who seeks his living by spunging or expedients.

LOAF'SU-GAR, n.

Sugar refined and formed into a conical mass.

LOAM, n. [Sax. lam; D. leem; G. lehm; L. limus; Sw. lim; Dan. lim, liim; so named probably for smoothness or softness; W. llim.]

A natural mixture of sand and clay with oxyd of iron; a species of earth or soil of different colors, whitish, brown or yellow, readily diffusible in water. – Cleaveland. Encyc.

LOAM, v.t.

To cover with loam. – Moron.

LOAM'ED, pp.

Covered with loam.

LOAM'ING, ppr.

Covering with loam.

LOAM'Y, a.

Consisting of loam; partaking of the nature of loam, or resembling it.

LOAN, n. [Sax. læn, hlæn; Sw. lån; Dan. laan; D. leen; G. lehen; Sax. landes læn, a fief. See Lend.]

1. The act of lending; a lending.
2. That which is lent; any thing furnished for temporary use to a person at his request, on the express or implied condition that the specific thing shall be returned, or its equivalent in kind, but without compensation for the use; as, a loan of a book or of bread.
3. Something furnished for temporary use, on the condition that it shall be returned or its equivalent, but with a compensation for the use. In this sense, loan is generally applied to money. [See Lend.]
4. A furnishing; permission to use; grant of the use; as, a loan of credit. – Kent.

LOAN, v.t. [Sax. lænan; G. lehnen; D. leenen; Sw. låna; Dan. laaner.]

To lend; to deliver to another for temporary use, on condition that the thing shall be returned, as a book; or to deliver for use, on condition that an equivalent in kind shall be returned, as bread; or to deliver for temporary use, on condition that an equivalent in kind shall be returned, with a compensation for the use, as in the case of money at interest. Bills of credit were issued, to be loaned on interest. Ramsay. Kent. Laws of the United States. Stat. of Conn. and of New York.

LOAN'-OF-FICE, n.

In America, a public office in which loans of money are negotiated for the public, or in which: the accounts of loans are kept and the interest paid to the lenders.

LOAN'-OF-FI-CER, n.

A public officer empowered to superintend and transact the business of a loan-office.

LOATH, v. [See LOTH.]

LOAVES, n. [plur. of Loaf.]