lesynge; see [leasing].
let, hindrance. Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 13; vi. 2. 17. ME. lett (Cursor M. 7395).
Lethe, a river in Hades, the water of which produced forgetfulness of the past; ‘Lethe the River of Oblivion’, Milton, P. L. ii. 583; ‘Lethe Wharfe’, Hamlet, i. 5. 33. Hence Lethean, ‘They ferry over this Lethean Sound’, Milton, P. L. ii. 604 (cp. the ‘Lethaeus amnis’ of Virgil, Aeneid vi. 705). Gk. λήθη, forgetfulness, oblivion; personified in Hesiod; no river is called Λήθη by the ancient Greeks.
Lethe, Death, Jul. Caesar, iii. 1. 206. Hence Lethean, deadly, mortal. Blount, Glossogr., 1670. F. Lethe, ‘masc. Death; Lethean, deadly, mortal, death-inflicting’ (Cotgr.). L. letum (on acc. of association with Gk. λήθη, Lethe, sometimes printed lethum, an orthography which is not supported by MSS. or Inscriptions), Death.
lettice, a kind of whitish grey fur; ‘A robe of Scarlet . . . bordered with Lettice’, Hall, Chron., 25 Hen. VIII (ed. 1809, 803); a lettice cap, ‘Bring in the Lettice cap . . . And then how suddenly we’ll make you sleep’, Fletcher, M. Thomas, iii. 1. 9; id., Thierry and Theod. v. 2. 8. F. letice, ‘a beast of a whitish gray colour’ (Cotgr.). OF. letice, lettice, lettiche, ‘fourrure ou pelisse grise’ (Didot), see Ducange (s.v. Lactenus). OHG. illitiso, the polecat (12th cent.), MHG. iltis, iltisse, see Weigand and Kluge (s.v. Iltis). See Nares.
lettuce, in proverbial sayings: Like lips, like lettuce, i.e. things happen to a man according to his deserts, Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 318 (Orgalio, p. 93, col. 1); Like lettuce, like lips, New Custom, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 23; Such lips, such lettuce, Heywood’s Proverbs, 80. Cp. the Latin Proverb, ‘Similes habent labra lactucas’, see Ray’s English Proverbs (ed. Bohn, 111). See NED.
level-coil, a rough game, in which each player is in turn driven from his seat and supplanted by another, hence, riotous sport. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii. 2 (Dame Turfe); ‘Jouër à cul-leve, to play at level-coyl’, (Cotgrave). Also used as adv. for turn and turn about, alternately, ‘The mother’s smile Brought forth the daughter’s blush, and levell coyle, They smil’d and blusht’, Quarles, Argalus (ed. 1629, 18). F. lève-cul, see Littré (s.v. Lever). See Halliwell.
lever, rather, more gladly. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 32; me lever were, it would be more agreeable to me, id., iii. 2. 6. In gen. prov. use in the British Isles. ME. ‘me were lever’ (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 1034). OE. lēofre, comp. of lēof, dear, ‘lief’.
leveret, a mistress, a courtesan. Shirley, Gent. of Venice, i. 1 (Malipiero); Gamester, i. 1; Honoria. i. 1 (Alamode). F. levrette, ‘A Greyhound bitch, also, a most lascivious and incontinent wench’ (Cotgr.).
levet, a trumpet-call, to awaken soldiers, &c., in a morning; ‘Trumpets sound a levet’ (stage-direction), Fletcher, Double Marriage, ii. 1; Butler, Hud. ii. 2. 611. Ital. levata, a march upon a drum and trumpet (Florio); orig. pp. fem. of levare, to raise.