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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



1,048 words match “SERVE”

LAUGH v.
he valued more. Pope. -- To laugh in the sleeve, to laugh secretly, or so as not to be observed, especially while apparently preserving a grave or serious demeanor toward the person or persons laughed at. -- To laugh out, to laugh in spite of some restraining influence; to laugh aloud. -- To laugh out of the other c…
LAY n.
attitude; -- used for showing the disposition of drapery, etc. (b) A mere puppet; one who serves the will of others without independent volition. -- Lay race, that part of a lay on which the shuttle travels in weaving; -- called also shuttle race.
LAZZARONI n.
who live by chance work or begging; -- so called from the Hospital of St. Lazarus, which serves as their refuge. [Written also, but improperly, lazaroni.]
LEAST adv.
smallest or lowest degree; in a degree below all others; as, to reward those who least deserve it.
LEDGER n.
A book in which a summary of accounts is laid up or preserved; the final book of record in business transactions, in which all debits and credits from the journal, etc., are placed under appropriate heads. [Written also leger.]
LEFT-HANDED a.
ge. See Morganatic. -- Left-handed screw, a screw constructed to advance away from the observer, when turned, as in a nut, with a left-handed rotation. An ordinary wood screw is right-handed.
LENT n.
A fast of forty days, beginning with Ash Wednesday and continuing till Easter, observed by some Christian churches as commemorative of the fast of our Savior.
LETTER n.
l expression; literal statement or meaning; exact signification or requirement. We must observe the letter of the law, without doing violence to the reason of the law and the intention of the lawgiver. Jer. Taylor. I broke the letter of it to keep the sense. Tennyson.
LEUCOXENE n.
A nearly opaque white mineral, in part identical with titanite, observed in some igneous rocks as the result of the alteration of titanic iron.
LEVATOR n.
A muscle that serves to raise some part, as the lip or the eyelid.
LIGHT-HORSEMAN n.
A soldier who serves in the light horse. See under 5th Light.
LIGHTHOUSE n.
ight at top, erected at the entrance of a port, or at some important point on a coast, to serve as a guide to mariners at night; a pharos.
LIGULA n.
The central process, or front edge, of the labium of insects. It sometimes serves as a tongue or proboscis, as in bees. [See Illust. under Labium, and Hymenoptera.]
LIMITARY n.
That which serves to limit; a boundary; border land. [Obs.] Fuller.
LIQUEFACIENT n.
That which serves to liquefy.
LISP v.
To speak with reserve or concealment; to utter timidly or confidentially; as, to lisp treason.
LITERATURE n.
tive body of literary productions, embracing the entire results of knowledge and fancy preserved in writing; also, the whole body of literary productions or writings upon a given subject, or in reference to a particular science or branch of knowledge, or of a given country or period; as, the literature of Biblical crit…
LITHOPHYSE n.
A spherulitic cavity often with concentric chambers, observed in some volcanic rocks, as in rhyolitic lavas. It is supposed to be produced by expanding gas, whence the name.
LITTER v.
, in abhorrence or contempt. We might conceive that dogs were created blind, because we observe they were littered so with us. Sir T. Browne. The son that she did litter here, A freckled whelp hagborn. Shak.
LIVELIHOOD n.
. It is their profession and livelihood to get their living by practices for which they deserve to forfeit their lives. South.
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