Lady's bedstraw (Botany) The common bedstraw ( Galium verum ); also, a slender-leaved East Indian shrub ( Pharnaceum Mollugo ), with white flowers in umbels.

Lady's bower (Botany) A climbing plant with fragrant blossoms ( Clematis vitalba ).

» This term is sometimes applied to other plants of the same genus.

Lady's cloth A kind of broadcloth of light weight, used for women's dresses, cloaks, etc.

Lady's comb (Botany) An umbelliferous plant ( Scandix Pecten-Veneris ), its clusters of long slender fruits remotely resembling a comb.

Lady's cushion (Botany) An herb growing in dense tufts; the thrift ( Armeria vulgaris ).

Lady's finger
1. plural (Botany) The kidney vetch.

2. (Cookery) A variety of small cake of about the dimensions of a finger.

3. A long, slender variety of the potato.

4. (Zoology) One of the branchiæ of the lobster.

Lady's garters (Botany) Ribbon grass.

Lady's hair (Botany) A plant of the genus Briza ( B. media ); a variety of quaking grass.

Lady's laces (Botany) A slender climbing plant; dodder.

Lady's looking-glass (Botany) See Venus's looking-glass , under Venus .

Lady's mantle (Botany) A genus of rosaceous herbs ( Alchemilla ), esp. the European A. vulgaris , which has leaves with rounded and finely serrated lobes.

Lady's seal (Botany) (a) The European Solomon's seal ( Polygonatum verticillatum ). (b) The black bryony ( Tamus communis ).

Lady's slipper (Botany) Any orchidaceous plant of the genus Cypripedium , the labellum of which resembles a slipper. Less commonly, in the United States, the garden balsam ( Impatiens Balsamina ).

Lady's smock (Botany) A plant of the genus Cardamine ( C. pratensis ); cuckoo flower.

Lady's thimble (Botany) The harebell.

Lady's thumb (Botany) An annual weed ( Polygonum Persicaria ), having a lanceolate leaf with a dark spot in the middle.

Lady's traces, Ladies' tresses (Botany) A name given to several species of the orchidaceous genus Spiranthes , in which the white flowers are set in spirals about a slender axis and remotely resemble braided hair.

Ladylove noun A sweetheart or mistress.

Ladyship noun The rank or position of a lady; -- given as a title (preceded by her or your ).

Your ladyship shall observe their gravity.

B. Jonson.

Laemmergeyer noun (Zoology) See Lammergeir .

Lafayette noun (Zoology) (a) The dollar fish. (b) A market fish, the goody, or spot ( Liostomus xanthurus ), of the southern coast of the United States.

Laft obsolete past participle of Leave . Chaucer.

Lafte obsolete imperfect of Leave . Chaucer.

Lag adjective [ Of Celtic origin: confer Gael. & Ir. lag weak, feeble, faint, W. llag , llac , slack, loose, remiss, sluggish; probably akin to English lax , languid .]
1. Coming tardily after or behind; slow; tardy. [ Obsolete]

Came too lag to see him buried.

Shak.

2. Last; long-delayed; -- obsolete, except in the phrase lag end . "The lag end of my life." Shak.

3. Last made; hence, made of refuse; inferior. [ Obsolete] " Lag souls." Dryden.

Lag noun
1. One who lags; that which comes in last. [ Obsolete] "The lag of all the flock." Pope.

2. The fag-end; the rump; hence, the lowest class.

The common lag of people.

Shak.

3. The amount of retardation of anything, as of a valve in a steam engine, in opening or closing.

4. A stave of a cask, drum, etc.; especially (Machinery) , one of the narrow boards or staves forming the covering of a cylindrical object, as a boiler, or the cylinder of a carding machine or a steam engine.

5. (Zoology) See Graylag .

Lag of the tide , the interval by which the time of high water falls behind the mean time, in the first and third quarters of the moon; -- opposed to priming of the tide, or the acceleration of the time of high water, in the second and fourth quarters; depending on the relative positions of the sun and moon. -- Lag screw , an iron bolt with a square head, a sharp-edged thread, and a sharp point, adapted for screwing into wood; a screw for fastening lags.

Lag intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Lagged ; present participle & verbal noun Lagging .] To walk or more slowly; to stay or fall behind; to linger or loiter. "I shall not lag behind." Milton.

Syn. -- To loiter; linger; saunter; delay; be tardy.

Lag transitive verb
1. To cause to lag; to slacken. [ Obsolete] "To lag his flight." Heywood.

2. (Machinery) To cover, as the cylinder of a steam engine, with lags. See Lag , noun , 4.

Lag noun One transported for a crime. [ Slang, Eng.]

Lag transitive verb To transport for crime. [ Slang, Eng.]

She lags us if we poach.

De Quincey.

Lag noun The failing behind or retardation of one phenomenon with respect to another to which it is closely related; as, the lag of magnetization compared with the magnetizing force (hysteresis); the lag of the current in an alternating circuit behind the impressed electro-motive force which produced it.

Lagan noun & v. See Ligan .

Lagarto noun [ See Alligator .] An alligator. [ Obsolete] Sir W. Raleigh.

Lagena noun ; plural Latin Lagenæ , English Lagenas . [ Latin , a flask; confer Greek ..., ....] (Anat.) The terminal part of the cochlea in birds and most reptiles; an appendage of the sacculus, corresponding to the cochlea, in fishes and amphibians.

Lagenian adjective [ See Lagena .] (Zoology) Like, or pertaining to, Lagena , a genus of Foraminifera having a straight, chambered shell.

Lageniform adjective [ See Lagena , and -form .] (Botany) Shaped like a bottle or flask; flag-shaped.

Lager (lä"gẽr) noun Lager beer.

Lager beer [ German lager bed, storehouse + bier beer. See Lair , and Beer .] Originally a German beer, but now also made in immense quantities in the United States; -- so called from its being laid up or stored for some months before use.

Lager wine Wine which has been kept for some time in the cellar. Simmonds.

Laggard adjective [ Lag + - ard .] Slow; sluggish; backward.

Laggard noun One who lags; a loiterer.

Lagger noun A laggard.