lave
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /leɪv/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -eɪv
Etymology 1
The verb is derived from Middle English laven (“to bathe, wash; to bail or draw water, drain, exhaust; to dampen, wet; to pour; of water, etc.: to flow, stream”),[1] and then partly:[2]
- from Old French laver (“to be washed; to wash”) (modern French laver (“to wash (oneself)”)), from Latin lavāre, the present active infinitive of lavō (“to bathe, wash; to dampen, wet”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewh₃- (“to wash”);[3] and
- from Old English lafian (“to bathe; to make wet; to ladle out; to pour”), from Proto-West Germanic *labōn (“to refresh, revitalize; to strengthen”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Latin lavō (see above) but this does not explain the change in meaning from “to wash; to wet” to “to refresh; to strengthen”. Perhaps Old English lafian is derived directly from the Latin word, and Proto-West Germanic *labōn and words in languages derived from it such as Dutch and German are coincidentally similar to the Old English word.
The noun is derived from the verb.[4]
Verb
lave (third-person singular simple present laves, present participle laving, simple past and past participle laved) (archaic except literary, poetic)
- (transitive)
- To bathe or wash (someone or something).
- c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 217, column 2:
- [M]y houſe vvithin the City / Is richly furniſhed vvith plate and gold, / Baſons and evvers to laue her dainty hands: […]
- c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 140, column 2:
- [W]e muſt laue / Our Honors in theſe flattering ſtreames, / And make our Faces Vizards to our Hearts, / Diſguiſing vvhat they are.
- 1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 64:
- VVith Nectar pure his oozy Lock's he laves.
- 1725, Homer, “Book VI”, in [William Broome], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume II, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 77, lines 259–260:
- [F]rom my vveary'd limbs I lave / The foul pollution of the briny vvave: […]
- 1846 August 26 (first performance), [Julius Schubring, librettist], Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, composer, translated by [William Bartholomew], Elijah: A Sacred Oratorio. […], Boston, Mass.: Oakes & Darling, […], published 1851, 1st part, page 3, column 2:
- Thanks be to God! He laveth the thirsty land! The waters gather; they rush along; they are lifting their voices.
- Of a river or other water body: to flow along or past (a place or thing); to wash.
- 1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, stanza 153, page 39:
- VVith roomy decks, her Guns of mighty ſtrength, / (VVhoſe lovv-laid mouthes each mounting billovv laves:) / Deep in her draught, and vvarlike in her length, / She ſeems a Sea-vvaſp flying on the vvaves.
- a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “The Last Parting of Hector and Andromache. From the Sixth Book of the Iliad.”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume IV, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 451:
- Scamandrius vvas his name, vvhich Hector gave, / From that fair flood [the Scamander or Karamenderes River] vvhich Ilion's vvall did lave: […]
- 1705, J[oseph] Addison, “Naples”, in Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 215:
- [M]ild Parthenope’s delightful Shore, / VVhere huſh'd in Clams the bord’ring Ocean laves / Her ſilent Coaſt, and rolls in languid VVaves; […]
- 1727, James Thomson, Summer. A Poem, […] J[ohn] Millan, […], →OCLC, page 34:
- Delicious is your Shelter to the Soul, / As to the hunted Hart the ſallying Spring, / Or Stream full-flovving, that his ſvvelling Sides / Laves, as He floats along the Herbag'd Brink.
- 1789, W[illiam] L[isle] Bowles, “Sonnet I. Written at Tinemouth, Northumberland, after a Tempestuous Voyage.”, in Sonnets, […] with Other Poems, 3rd edition, Bath, Somerset: […] R. Cruttwell; and sold by C[harles] Dilly, […], published 1794, →OCLC, page 3:
- Pleas'd I look back and vievv the tranquil tide / That laves the pebbled shore.
- 1791, Homer, “[The Iliad.] Book XXI.”, in W[illiam] Cowper, transl., The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 560, lines 317–318:
- [S]o oft the flood, / Jove's offspring, laved his ſhoulders.
- 1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Canto Third. The Hostel, or Inn.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC, stanza X, page 142:
- There, though the summer day, / Cool streams are laving; […]
- 1815, Walter Scott, “Canto First”, in The Lord of the Isles, a Poem, Edinburgh: […] [F]or Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; by James Ballantyne and Co., […], →OCLC, stanza XXI, page 29:
- Wild sparkles crest the broken tides, / And, flashing round, the vessel's sides / With elvish lustre lave, […]
- 1855, Mortimer Collins, Idyls and Rhymes, Dublin: J. Mc Glashan, […]; London: W[illiam] S[omerville] Orr and Company, […], →OCLC, page 77:
- O Isis! noble Isis [the Thames]! in thee quivers / Eternal Oxford's wondrous Gothic glory, / Poetic towers and pinnacles of pride: / And, loftier in thy power than classic rivers, / Changing thy name by some green promontory, / Thou lavest London with an ampler tide.
- Followed by into, on, or upon: to pour (water or some other liquid) with or as if with a ladle into or on someone or something; to lade, to ladle.
- 1703, Richard Neve, “Lead”, in The City and Country Purchaser, and Builder’s Dictionary: Or, The Compleat Builders Guide. […], 2nd edition, London: […] D. Browne, […]; J. and B. Sprint […], G. Conyers […]; and Ch[arles] Rivington […], published 1726, →OCLC, column 2:
- Then the Lead being melted, […] it is laved into the Pan, […]
- (figurative)
- To remove (something), as if by washing away with water.
- 1843, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “The Broken Gittern”, in The Last of the Barons, volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, book I (The Adventures of Master Marmaduke Nevile), page 36:
- And now, she sat down under the leafless tree, to weep; and in those bitter tears, childhood itself was laved from her soul for ever.
- To surround or gently touch (someone or something), as if with water.
- 1810, Walter Scott, “Canto I. The Chase.”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC, stanza XV, page 19:
- [W]hen the midnight moon did lave / Her forehead in the silver wave, / How solemn on the ear would come / The holy mattin's distant hum, […]
- 1865 (indicated as 1865–1866), Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps. […] When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d. And Other Pieces, Washington, D.C.: Gibson Brothers, […], →OCLC, canto 16, stanza 21, page 10:
- Approach, encompassing Death—strong Deliveress! / When it is so—when thou hast taken them, I joyously sing the dead, / Lost in the loving, floating ocean of thee, / Laved in the flood of thy bliss, O Death.
- Chiefly in sexual contexts: to lick (someone or something).
- 1998, Miranda Lee, The Boss’s Baby, Richmond, Surrey: Harlequin Mills & Boon, →ISBN, page 102:
- "Who could resist such a temptation?" he drawled, and bent to lave each nipple with his tongue till the satin was wet and clinging.
- 2014 February 21, Scarlet Blackwell, Beached Hearts, Lincoln, Lincolnshire: Total-E-Bound Publishing, →ISBN:
- Liam's mouth was so hot and wet on his cock, his tongue so wicked, laving his shaft expertly with smooth, slick strokes, delving into his slit and swiping away the fluid leaking from it. Why was Liam doing this?
- 2011, Karen Foley, chapter 8, in Devil in Dress Blues, Don Mills, Ont.: Harlequin Enterprises, →ISBN, page 111:
- He continued to lave her with gentle laps, while his fingers caressed her until she cried out and her whole body convulsed.
- To remove (something), as if by washing away with water.
- (archaic or obsolete) Followed by out or up: to draw or scoop (water) out of something with a bucket, scoop, etc.; specifically, to bail (water) out of a boat.
- c. 1613–1618 (first performance), Thomas Goffe, The Tragedy of Orestes, […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Richard Meighen, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act IIII, scene ii, signature F2, verso:
- Thou haſt plaid muſique to my dolefull ſoule; / And vvhen my heart vvas tympaniz'd vvith griefe, / Thou lauedſt out ſome into thy heart from mine, / And kept it ſo from burſting; […]
- 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “An Heape of Other Accidents Causing Melancholy. Death of Friends, Losses, &c.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 2, member 4, subsection 7, page 148:
- [W]hen I haue laved the Sea dry, thou ſhalt vnderſtand the myſtery of the Trinity; […]
- 1644 October 25 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 15 October 1644]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC, page 73:
- And now, as we were weary with pumping and laving out the water [from the boat], almost sinking, it pleas'd God on the suddaine to appease the wind, and with much ado and greate perill we recover'd the shore, which we now kept in view, […]
- 1700, [John] Dryden, “Ceyx and Alcyone”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 365:
- Each in his vvay, officiously they vvrought; / Some ſtovv their Oars, or ſtop the leaky Sides, / Another bolder yet the Yard beſtrides, / And folds the Sails; a fourth vvith Labour, laves, / Th'intruding Seas, and VVaves ejects on VVaves.
- To bathe or wash (someone or something).
- (intransitive)
- (reflexive) To bathe or wash.
- 1700 (date written), Colley Cibber, Love Makes a Man: Or, The Fop’s Fortune. A Comedy. […], London: […] Richard Parker […], Hugh Newman […], and E. Rumbal […], published 1701, →OCLC, Act II, page 19:
- Happy he that ſips Eternally ſuch Nectar dovvn, that unconfin'd may Lave, and VVanton there in ſateleſs Draughts of ever ſpringing Beauty— […]
- 1713, [Alexander] Pope, Windsor-Forest. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 9:
- The ſilver Stream her Virgin Coldneſs keeps, / For ever murmurs, and for ever vveeps; / […] / In her chaſt Current oft the Goddeſs laves, / And vvith Celeſtial Tears augments the VVaves.
- (figurative)
- To surround as if with water.
- Chiefly in sexual contexts; followed by at: to lick.
- 2011, Eliza Knight, chapter 10, in A Lady’s Charade (The Rules of Chivalry; 1), [South Carolina]: CreateSpace Independent, →ISBN, page 122:
- Alexander went from laving at her breasts to nuzzling her belly and then his mouth was on her bare thigh, nibbling at her flesh as his fingers delved inside her sheath. She felt herself stretch and squeeze against his long fingers.
- 2015, Melissa Foster, Healed by Love (Love in Bloom; The Bradens at Peaceful Harbor; 1), Los Gatos, Calif.: Smashwords, →ISBN:
- He pressed them back down and continued licking, laving at her as her inner muscles contracted around his fingers and she panted out his name. He didn't relent until the last shudder rippled through her beautiful body.
- 2016 April 15, Elizabeth Lennox, chapter 9, in The Prince’s Forbidden Lover (The Samara Royal Family Series; 3), [S.l.]: Elizabeth Lennox Books, →ISBN:
- [I]t took only a few moments of his tongue laving at her core before she was exploding in a mind-drugging climax that made her throat sore from her cries.
- (reflexive) To bathe or wash.
Conjugation
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
of a river or other water body: to flow along or past (a place or thing) — see flow
to remove (something), as if by washing away with water — see remove
(transitive, intransitive) to lick — see lick
to bail (water) out of a boat — see bail
Noun
lave (plural laves) (archaic except literary, poetic)
- An act of bathing or washing; a bath or bathe, a wash.
- 1865 September, “Glimpses of Greek Fableland. Arion’s Return.”, in Dublin University Magazine, a Literary and Political Journal, volume LXVI, number CCCXCIII, Dublin: George Herbert, […]; London: Hurst & Blackett, →OCLC, page 350:
- Once more Arion and his loving nymph / Together rest within their summer cave, / In the green woodland, where the crystal lymph / Through sands and ivy pulsed with ceaseless lave.
- (rare, also figurative) The sea.
- 1826, Bernard Blackmantle [pseudonym; Charles Molloy Westmacott], “Noon in the Isle of Wight”, in The English Spy: […], volume II, London: Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper, […], →OCLC, page 168:
- When Nature, languid, seems to rest, / Nor moves a leaf, nor heaves a wave, / And Zephyrs sleep, by Sol caress'd, / And sportive swallows skim the lave; […]
Translations
sea — see sea
Etymology 2
From Northern Middle English lave, Middle English love, Early Middle English lafe (“remainder, rest; legacy; relict, widow”),[5] from Old English lāf (“remainder, rest; heirloom; legacy; relict, widow”), from Proto-West Germanic *laibu (“remainder”), from Proto-Germanic *laibō (“remainder, remnant”), from *lībaną (“to be left, to remain”),[6] probably from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to stick; fat or sticky substance”). Doublet of belive (“(obsolete except UK, dialectal) to remain, stay”).
cognates
- Old English belīfan (“to remain”)
- Old High German leiba (“to lave”)
- Old Norse leif (“to lave”)
Noun
lave (uncountable) (obsolete except Scotland)
- That which is left over; a remainder, a remnant, the rest.
- Synonyms: residue; see also Thesaurus:remainder
- 16th – early 17th century (date written), “Part I. Fit I. Stanza CXXVII.”, in An Exact and Circumstantial History of the Battle of Floddon. […], Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland: […] R. Taylor; London: E[dward] and C[harles] Dilly […], and G. Freer, […], published 1774, →OCLC, page 31:
- Of prelates proud, a populous lave, / And abbots boldly there vvere known. / VVith Biſhop of St. Andrevv's brave, / VVho vvas King James's baſtard ſon.
- 1785–1786 (date written; published 1786), Robert Burns, “The Cotter’s Saturday Night”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 2nd edition, volume II, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC, stanza VIII, page 7:
- The Mother, vvi' a vvoman's vviles, can ſpy / VVhat makes the Youth ſae baſhfu' and ſae grave; / VVeel-pleas'd to think her bairn's reſpected like the lave.
- 1816, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter XIX, in Tales of My Landlord, […], volume II (Old Mortality), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for William Blackwood, […]; London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 138:
- [D]inna vex him ony mair, I'll pay the lave out o' the butter siller, and nae mair words about it.
- Don't vex him any more, I'll pay the rest out of the butter silver, and no more words about it.
- 1816, [Walter Scott], chapter IX, in The Antiquary. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 334:
- [A]uld Mucklebacket's gane wi' the lave—muckle gude he'll do!
- Old Mucklebucket's gone with the rest—much good he'll do!
- 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter [VI], in Rob Roy. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 133:
- [T]hey ca' it fasting when they hae the best o' fish frae Hartlepool and Sunderland by land carriage, forbye trouts, gilses, salmon, and a' the lave o't, and so they make their very fasting a kind of luxury and abomination; […]
- They call it fasting when they have the best of fish from Hartlepool and Sunderland by land carriage, forby [i.e., besides] trouts, grilses, salmon, and all the rest of it, and so they make their fasting a kind of luxury and abomination; […]
- 1865, George Mac Donald, chapter IX, in Alec Forbes of Howglen. […], volume I, London: Hurst and Blackett, publishers, successors to Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 53:
- Noo, Annie, pit on yer bonnet, an' gang to the schuil wi' the lave (rest); an' be a good girrl.
- No, Annie, put on your bonnet, and go to the school with the rest; and be a good girl.
- 1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “The Second Kalandar’s Tale. [Night 12.]”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume I, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC, page 114:
- Then they set upon us and slew some of my slaves and put the lave to flight; and I also fled after I had gotten a wound, a grievous hurt, whilst the Arabs were taken up with the money and the presents which were with us.
- a. 1895 (date written), Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Vagabond (to an Air of Schubert)”, in S[idney] C[olvin], editor, Songs of Travel and Other Verses, London: Chatto and Windus, […], published 1896, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 1:
- Give to me the life I love, / Let the lave go by me, / Give the jolly heaven above / And the byway nigh me.
- (rare) A relict, a widow.
Alternative forms
Etymology 3
The adjective is from Middle English lave (“of the ears: drooping, hanging down”),[7] from Old Norse lafa,[8] from Proto-Germanic *labēn- (“to dangle”), from Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“to hang down loosely (?)”).
The verb is probably derived from the adjective.[9]
Adjective
lave (not comparable)
- (obsolete) Chiefly in lave ears: of ears: drooping, hanging down.
- 1675, John Smith, “Reason Nonplus’d, Help’d by Religion, Acquiesceth in Her Resolutions”, in Christian Religion’s Appeal from the Groundless Prejudices of the Sceptick, to the Bar of Common Reason. […], London: […] Nathanael Brook, […], →OCLC, 2nd book (The Apostles were Not Themselves Deluded, No Crack’d-brain Enthusiasticks, but Persons of Most Composed Minds), §. 1 (Man’s Supremacy over the Creatures, the Reason of It Not Cognoscible by Natural Light), pages 8–9:
- [C]omplexion here red, there tavvny, in another Country black vvins the prize: for proportion, here the tall, there the mean, here the ſlender, there the groſs, here the little Ear, there the lave Ear, here the thin Lip, there the Blubber-lip, here the ſtreight, there the die Neck are eſteemed moſt courtly.
Verb
lave (third-person singular simple present laves, present participle laving, simple past and past participle laved)
- (intransitive, obsolete, rare) Of ears: to droop, to hang down.
- 1598, [Joseph Hall], “Lib[er] 4. Sat[yr] 1. Che baiar Vuol, bai.”, in Virgidemiarum. The Three Last Bookes. Of Byting Satyres, London: […] Richard Bradocke for Robert Dexter […], →OCLC, page 7:
- His mouth ſhrinks ſidevvard like a ſcornfull Playſe / To take his tired Eares ingratefull place; / His Eares hang lauing like a nevv-lug'd ſvvine / To take ſome counſell of his grieued eyne, […]
References
- “lāven, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- “lave, v.1”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “lave, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. - Friedrich Kluge (1989) “laben”, in Elmar Seebold, editor, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the German Language] (in German), 22nd edition, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 423: “wg. *lab-ō- swV. ‘erfrischen, waschen’”
- “lave, n.2”, in OED Online, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
- “lōve, n.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- Compare “lave, n.1”, in OED Online, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2023.
- “lāve, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- “lave, adj.”, in OED Online, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2023.
- “lave, v.2”, in OED Online, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
Further reading
- “lave, n.1”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
- “lave, v., n.2”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
Anagrams
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
