listeth, list, impers. it is pleasing to; ‘Ys yt not lawfull for me to do as me listeth with myne awne’, Tyndale, Matt. xx. 15; ‘Me list . . . This idle task to undertake’, Peele, Arraignm. Paris, i. 2; ‘When me lest’, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 247.
litch-owl, the ‘lich-owl’, screech-owl, whose cry portended death; ‘The shrieking Litch-owl that doth never cry But boding death’, Drayton, The Owl, 302; like-owle, Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. x, c. 23 (i. 283c). See EDD. (s.v. Lich). ME. liche, a body, a dead body (Chaucer). OE. līc.
lithe, lythe, a joint; out of lythe, out of joint, Morte Arthur, leaf 58, back, 10; bk. iii, c. 13. ME. lyth, a limb (Prompt.). OE. lið.
lither, pliant, supple, yielding; ‘The lither skie’, 1 Hen. VI, iv. 7. 21; see NED. ‘Lither’ is used in this sense in Kent and Sussex, see EDD. (s.v. Lither, adj.2). Probably the same word as ‘lither’, lazy, sluggish. OE. lȳðre, bad (morally and physically).
little-ease, pillory, stocks; a very small compartment in a prison. Middleton, Family of Love, iii. 1. 9. Also called small-ease. See Nares.
little-son, a grandson. North, tr. of Plutarch, Octavius, § 22 (in Shak. Plut., p. 271).
liver. Supposed to be the seat of love; to which idea allusions are common. Temp. iv. 56; Merry Wives, ii. 1. 121. Also, the seat of courage; Twelfth Nt. iii. 2. 22. To be lily-livered, or milk-livered, or pigeon-livered, or white-livered, is to lack courage, to be cowardly.
livery, a suit of clothes bestowed on retainers or servants, 2 Hen. IV, v. 5. 11; instance of livery, badge of service; Ford, Broken Heart, iv. 1 (Nearchus). Hence liveried, ‘A thousand liveried angels lackey her’, Milton, Comus, 455. F. livrée, ‘a delivery of a thing that’s given, the thing so given, hence, a livery; ones cloth, colours, or device worn by servants or others’ (Cotgr.); Med. L. liberata (Ducange). See Dict.
loave ears, drooping ears. Lady Alimony, ii. 6 (Morisco).
lob, a lubber, a clown. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 10; Westward Ho, ii. 3 (Birdlime). Cp. Du. lobben, ‘a lubbard, a clowne’ (Hexham). A Lancashire word, see EDD. (s.v. Lob, sb.2).