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A retarding; hindrance; obstacle; impediment; delay; -- common in the phrase without let or hindrance, but elsewhere archaic. Keats. Consider whether your doings be to the let of your salvation or not. Latimer.

Gladly; willingly; freely; -- now used only in the phrases, had as lief, and would as lief; as, I had, or would, as lief go as not. All women liefest would Be sovereign of man's love. Gower. I had as lief the town crier spoke my lines. Shak. Far liefer by his dear hand had I die. Tennyson.

Place; room; stead; -- used only in the phrase in lieu of, that is, instead of. The plan of extortion had been adopted in lieu of the scheme of confiscation. Burke.

or verbal expression; real; not figurative or metaphorical; as, the literal meaning of a phrase. It hath but one simple literal sense whose light the owls can not abide. Tyndale .

Whole; entire; long in passing; -- used of time, as day or night, in adverbial phrases, and usually with a sense of tediousness. The obscure bird Clamored the livelong night. Shak. How could she sit the livelong day, Yet never ask us once to play Swift.

A method of speaking or acting peculiar to a certain district; a local idiom or phrase.

The locust tree. See Locust Tree (definition, note, and phrases). Locust bean (Bot.), a commercial name for the sweet pod of the carob tree.

Speech or discourse; a phrase; a form or mode of expression. " Stumbling locutions." G. Eliot. I hate these figures in locution, These about phrases forced by ceremony. Marston.

The longest dimension; the greatest extent; -- in the phrase, the long and the short of it, that is, the sum and substance of it. Addison.

them directed; -- with various prepositions, often in a special or figurative sense. See Phrases below.

Courtship; -- chiefly in the phrase to make love, i. e., to court, to woo, to solicit union in marriage. Demetrius . . . Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena, And won her soul. Shak.

But; -- used in cautionary phrases; as, "Vivace, ma non troppo presto" (i. e., lively, but not too quick). Moore (Encyc. of Music).

Rent; tribute. [Obs., except in certain compounds and phrases, as blackmail, mails and duties, etc.] Mail and duties (Scots Law), the rents of an estate, in whatever form paid.

Strength; force; might; violent effort. [Obs., except in certain phrases.] There were in this battle of most might and main. R. of Gl. He 'gan advance, With huge force, and with importable main. Spenser.

ause or agent of; to effect, do, perform, or execute; -- often used with a noun to form a phrase equivalent to the simple verb that corresponds to such noun; as, to make complaint, for to complain; to make record of, for to record; to make abode, for to abide, etc. Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. Judg. xvi.…

thy of account; thing of consequence; importance; significance; moment; -- chiefly in the phrases what matter no matter, and the like. A prophet some, and some a poet, cry; No matter which, so neither of them lie. Dryden.

To have a purpose or intention. [Rare, except in the phrase to mean well, or ill.] Shak.

Extent or degree not excessive or beyong bounds; moderation; due restraint; esp. in the phrases, in measure; with measure; without or beyond measure. Hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure. Is. v. 14.

ng or notice of anything, -- usually in a brief or cursory manner. Used especially in the phrase to make mention of. I will make mention of thy righteousness. Ps. lxxi. 16. And sleep in dull, cold marble, where no mention Of me more must be heard of. Shak.

Metaphrase.