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Language; speech; voice; cry. [Obs.] Chaucer. Spenser.

tanding to speak. -- One's last legs. See under Last. -- To have legs (Naut.), to have speed. -- To stand on one's own legs, to support one's self; to be independent.

; to diminish; to lower; to degrade; as, to lessen a kingdom, or a population; to lessen speed, rank, fortune. Charity . . . shall lessen his punishment. Calamy. St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it. Atterbury.

cter used as the representative of a sound, or of an articulation of the human organs of speech; a first element of written language. And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew. Luke xxiii. 38.

-- Lift pump, a lifting pump. -- Lift tenter (Windmills), a governor for regulating the speed by adjusting the sails, or for adjusting the action of grinding machinery according to the speed. -- Lift wall (Canal Lock), the cross wall at the head of the lock.

city. Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily. Is. lviii. 8.

Language; speech; dialect. [Slang]

nd the orifice of the mouth in man and many other animals. In man the lips are organs of speech essential to certain articulations. Hence, by a figure they denote the mouth, or all the organs of speech, and sometimes speech itself. Thine own lips testify against thee. Jeb xv. 6.

A principle, practice, form of speech, or other thing of local use, or limited to a locality.

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.

Hence: The record of the rate of ship's speed or of her daily progress; also, the full nautical record of a ship's cruise or voyage; a log slate; a log book.

posed of dactyls and trochees so arranged as to produce a movement like that of ordinary speech.

A mode of reporting speeches without using shorthand, -- a number of reporters, each in succession, taking down three or four words. Brande & C.

A word; reason; speech. H. Bushell.

A titled nobleman., whether a peer of the realm or not; a bishop, as a member of the House of Lords; by courtesy; the son of a duke or marquis, or the eldest son of an earl; in a restricted sense, a boron, as opposed to noblemen of higher rank. [Eng.]

lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Prov. xvi. 33. If we draw lots, he speeds. Shak.

looks, tone, or manner. "Lovely to look on." Piers Plowman. Not one so fair of face, of speech so lovely. Robert of Brunne. If I had such a tire, this face of mine Were full as lovely as is this of hers. Shak.

An East Indian coin, of about one tenth of the weight of a rupee.

drupes. The sap of the tree is glutinous, and gives a persistent black stain. -- Maiden speech, the first speech made by a person, esp. by a new member in a public body. -- Maiden tower, the tower most capable of resisting an enemy.

ture; having the qualities of a man, esp. the nobler qualities; manly. " Gentle, manlike speech." Testament of Love. " A right manlike man." Sir P. Sidney. In glaring Chloe's manlike taste and mien. Shenstone.