La"dy's cloth` (?) A kind of broadcloth of light weight, used for women's dresses, cloaks, etc.
Lag, n. The failing behind or retardation of one phenomenon with respect to another to which it is closely related; as, the lag of magnetization compared with the magnetizing force (hysteresis); the lag of the current in an alternating circuit behind the impressed electro-motive force which produced it.
{ La*gniappe (?), La*gnappe" (?) }, n. [Etym. uncertain.] In Louisiana, a trifling present given to customers by tradesmen; a gratuity.
Lagniappe . . .is something thrown in, gratis, for good measure.
Mark Twain.
||Lag"thing (?), n. [Norw. lagting, lagthing; lag company, society (akin to E. law, lay) + ting, thing, parliament. See Thing.] See Legislatature, below.
Lak"er (?), n. One that is connected with a lake or lakes, as in habitation, toil, etc.: (a) One of the poets of the Lake school. See Lake poets, under Lake, n. (b) (Zoöl.) A fish living in, or taken from, a lake, esp. the namaycush. (c) A lake steamer or canal boat.
The bridge tender . . . thought the Cowies "a little mite" longer than that laker.
The Century.
Lamb"kill` (?), n. (Bot.) A small American ericaceous shrub (Kalmia angustifolia); -- called also calfkill, sheepkill, sheep laurel, etc. It is supposed to poison sheep and other animals that eat it at times when the snow is deep and they cannot find other food.
||Land"drost` (?), n.; pl. - drosten (#). Sometimes incorrectly Landtrost. [D., fr. land land + drost a kind of official; akin to G. truchsess.] In Cape Colony: (a) A chief magistrate in rural districts. He was replaced in 1827 by "resident magistrates." (b) The president of the Heemraad.
Land League. In Ireland, a combination of tenant farmers and other, organized, with Charles Stewart Parnell as president, in 1879 with a view to the reduction of farm rents and a reconstruction of the land laws. -- Land"*lea`guer (#), n. -- Land"*lea`guism (#), n.
The Land League, of which Machael Davitt was the founder, originated in Mayo in August, and at a Dublin in October the organization was extended to all Ireland, with Parnell as president.
Encyc. Brit.
Land of Steady Habits. Connecticut; -- a nickname alluding to the moral character of its inhabitants, implied by the rigid laws (see Blue laws) of the early period.
||Lands"thing` (?), n. [Dan. landsthing, landsting, fr. land land + thing, ting, parliament. See Land; Thing.] (Denmark.) See Legislature, below.
||Land"storm` (?), n. [Sw.] See Varnpligtige.
||Land"sturm` (?), n. [G. See Land; Storm.] In Germany and other European nations, and Japan: (a) A general levy in time of war. (b) The forces called out on such levy, composed of all men liable to service who are not in the army, navy, or Landwehr; the last line of defense, supposed to be called out only in case of invasion or other grave emergency. See Army organization, above.
||Land"tag` (?), n. [G. See Land; Day.] (Prussia.) See Legislasture, below.
Lar"ri*kin (?), n. [Cf. E. dial. larrikin a mischievous or frolicsome youth, larrick lively, careless, larack to trolic, to romp.] A rowdy street loafer; a rowdyish or noisy ill-bred fellow; -- variously applied, as to a street blackguard, a street Arab, a youth given to horse-play, etc. [Australia & Eng.] -- a. Rowdy; rough; disorderly. [Australia & Eng.]
Mobs of unruly larrikins.
Sydney Daily Telegraph.
Larrikin is often popularly explained by the following anecdote (which is without foundation): An Irish policeman at Melbourne, on bringing a notorious rough into court, was asked by the magistrate what the prisoner had been doing, and replied, "He was a-larrikin' [i. e., a-larking] about the streets."
Lar"vate (?), a. [L. larva mask.] Masked; hence, concealed; obscure; -- applied in medicine to doubtful cases of some diseases; as, larvate pneumonis; larvate epilepsy.
Lar`yn*gec"to*my (?), n. [Larynx + Gr. &?; to cut out.] (Surg.) Excision of the larynx.
La*ryn"go*graph (?), n. [larynx + -graph.] An instrument for recording the larynx movements in speech.
{ La"ta, La"tah } (?), n. [Malay.] A convulsive tic or hysteric neurosis prevalent among Malays, similar to or identical with miryachit and jumping disease, the person affected performing various involuntary actions and making rapid inarticulate ejaculations in imitation of the actions and words of another person.
||La"ti*go (?), n. [Sp. látigo.] A strap for tightening a saddle girth. [Western U. S. & Sp. Amer.]
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La"ti*go hal"ter (?). A kind of halter usually made of raw hide.
Lat"ter*day`, a. Belonging to present times or those recent by comparison.
||Laut"ver*schie`bung (?), n.; pl. -schiebungen (&?;). [G.; laut sound + verschiebung shifting.] (Philol.) (a) The regular changes which the primitive Indo-European stops, or mute consonants, underwent in the Teutonic languages, probably as early as the 3d century b. c. , often called the first Lautverschiebung, sound shifting, or consonant shifting. (b) A somewhat similar set of changes taking place in the High German dialects (less fully in modern literary German) from the 6th to the 8th century, known as the second Lautverschiebung, the result of which form the striking differences between High German and The Low German Languages. The statement of these changes is commonly regarded as forming part of Grimm's law, because included in it as originally framed.
{ La val`liere", or La`val`liere" } (?), n. A neck ornament consisting of a chain and single pendant, or drop.
Lay*ette" (?), n. [F.] (Med.) The outfit of clothing, blankets, etc., prepared for a newborn infant, and placed ready for used.
Lay" read"er. (Eccl.) A layman authorized to read parts of the public service of the church.
{ Lay shaft, or Lay"shaft` } (?), n. (Mach.) A secondary shaft, as in a sliding change gear for an automobile; a cam shaft operated by a two- to-one gear in an internal-combustion engine. It is generally a shaft moving more or less independently of the other parts of a machine, as, in some marine engines, a shaft, driven by a small auxiliary engine, for independently operating the valves of the main engine to insure uniform motion.
{ ||Laz`a*ret" (?), Laz`a*ret"to (?) } n. (Naut.) (Pronounced by seamen &?;) A low space under the after part of the main deck, used as a storeroom.
Lazaret fever. (Med.) Typhus fever.
Lead (?), n. 1. (Music.) (a) The announcement by one voice part of a theme to be repeated by the other parts. (b) A mark or a short passage in one voice part, as of a canon, serving as a cue for the entrance of others.
2. In an internal-combustion engine, the distance, measured in actual length of piston stroke or the corresponding angular displacement of the crank, of the piston from the end of the compression stroke when ignition takes place; -- called in full lead of the ignition. When ignition takes place during the working stroke the corresponding distance from the commencement of the stroke is called negative lead.
3. (Mach.) The excess above a right angle in the angle between two consecutive cranks, as of a compound engine, on the same shaft.
4. (Mach.) In spiral screw threads, worm wheels, or the like, the amount of advance of any point in the spiral for a complete turn.
5. (Elec.) (a) A conductor conveying electricity, as from a dynamo. (b) The angle between the line joining the brushes of a continuous-current dynamo and the diameter symmetrical between the poles. (c) The advance of the current phase in an alternating circuit beyond that of the electromotive force producing it.
6. (Theat.) A rôle for a leading man or leading woman; also, one who plays such a rôle.
Lead"ing edge (?). (Aëronautics) same as Advancing edge, above.
Leak (?), n. (Elec.) A loss of electricity through imperfect insulation; also, the point at which such loss occurs.
Leak"age (?), n. (Elec.) A leak; also; the quantity of electricity thus wasted.
{ Lee"an`gle, Li"an`gle } (?), n. [From native name.] A heavy weapon of the Australian aborigines with a sharp-pointed end, about nine inches in length, projecting at right angles from the main part.
Left, a. Situated so that the left side of the body is toward it; as, the left side of a deliberative meeting is that to the left of the presiding officer; the left wing of an army is that to the left of the center to one facing an enemy.
Leg, n. 1. (Math.) Either side of a triangle of a triangle as distinguished from the base or, in a right triangle, from the hypotenuse; also, an indefinitely extending branch of a curve, as of a hyperbola.
2. (Telephony) A branch or lateral circuit connecting an instrument with the main line.