LOTTO Lot"to, n. Etym: [F. loto or It. lotto, prop., a lot; of German origin. See Lot.]
Defn: A game of chance, played with cards, on which are inscribed numbers, and any contrivance (as a wheel containing numbered balls) for determining a set of numbers by chance. The player holding a card having on it the set of numbers drawn from the wheel takes the stakes after a certain percentage of them has been deducted for the dealer. A variety of lotto is called keno. [Often written loto.]
LOTURE
Lo"ture, n. Etym: [L. lotura. See Lotion.]
Defn: See Lotion. [Obs.] Holland.
LOTUS
Lo"tus, n. Etym: [L. lotus, Gr. Lote.]
1. (Bot.) (a) A name of several kinds of water lilies; as Nelumbium speciosum, used in religious ceremonies, anciently in Egypt, and to this day in Asia; Nelumbium luteum, the American lotus; and Nymphæa Lotus and N. cærulea, the respectively white-flowered and blue-flowered lotus of modern Egypt, which, with Nelumbium speciosum, are figured on its ancient monuments. (b) The lotus of the lotuseaters, probably a tree found in Northern Africa, Sicily, Portugal, and Spain (Zizyphus Lotus), the fruit of which is mildly sweet. It was fabled by the ancients to make strangers who ate of it forget their native country, or lose all desire to return to it. (c) The lote, or nettle tree. See Lote. (d) A genus (Lotus) of leguminous plants much resembling clover. [Written also lotos.] European lotus, a small tree (Diospyros Lotus) of Southern Europe and Asia; also, its rather large bluish black berry, which is called also the date plum.
2. (Arch.)
Defn: An ornament much used in Egyptian architecture, generally asserted to have been suggested by the Egyptian water lily.
LOTUS-EATER; LOTOS-EATER
Lo"tus-eat`er, Lo"tos-eat`er, n. (Class. Myth.)
Defn: One who ate the fruit or leaf of the lotus, and, as a
consequence, gave himself up to indolence and daydreams; one of the
Lotophagi.
The mild-eyed melancholy Lotos-eaters. Tennyson.