levigate, lightened, made easier. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 3, § 1. Late L. levigare, to lighten; levigatio, a lightening (Rönsch, 81).
leyre, lore. Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. 4; Ballad of Dowsabel, l. 11. See [lere].
leystall; see [laystall].
liam, lyam, a leash for hounds. Spelt liom, Sir Thos. More, i. 4. 143; Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, ch. 13, § 5; Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal 6, 65. O. Prov. liam (Levy), Béarnais Dial., liam (Lespy), Norm.-F. lian, ‘lien’ (Moisy), L. ligamen, a band, anything to tie with, fr. ligare, to tie. See NED. (s.v. Lyam), and EDD. (s.v. Leam, sb.2). See [lym].
lib, to sleep. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song). Hence, libkin, a house to sleep in, a lodging, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Jackman); lib ken, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Tearcat); ‘A lypken, a house to lye in’, Harman, Caveat, 83.
lib; see [glib].
libbard, leopard. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 29; Milton, P. L. vii. 467. [The form ‘libbard’ occurs in modern poets: ‘The lion, and the libbard, and the bear’, Cowper, Task, vi. 773; ‘On libbard’s paws’, Keats, Lamia, ii. 185.] ME. libarde (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 894). OF. lebard (Godefroy); see NED.
libbat, a short thick stick, chiefly for throwing at cocks, &c.; a billet of wood. Warner, Alb. England, bk. iv, st. 21, st. 12; id., prose add. to bk. ii, § 22. In prov. use in Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Dorset, see EDD. (s.v. Libbet, sb.1).
libecchio, a south-west wind. Milton, P. L. x. 706. An erroneous form for Ital. libeccio (Florio), deriv. of L. Libs, S.W. wind; Gk. Λίψ.
libel, libell, a little book, a short treatise. Gascoigne, Works, i. 42; a written statement. North’s Plutarch, Life of Octavius, § 25 (in Shaks. Plut., p. 277, note 1).