Webster's Dictionary, 1913

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Low-thoughted adjective Having one's thoughts directed toward mean or insignificant subjects.

Loxodromic adjective [ Greek ... slanting, oblique + ... a running, course; confer French loxodromique .] Pertaining to sailing on rhumb lines; as, loxodromic tables.

Loxodromic curve or line (Geom.) , a line on the surface of a sphere, which always makes an equal angle with every meridian; the rhumb line. It is the line on which a ship sails when her course is always in the direction of one and the same point of the compass.

Loxodromics noun The art or method of sailing on the loxodromic or rhumb line.

Loxodromism noun The act or process of tracing a loxodromic curve; the act of moving as if in a loxodromic curve.

Loxodromy noun [ Confer French loxodromic .] The science of loxodromics. [ R.]

Loy noun A long, narrow spade for stony lands.

Loyal adjective [ French loyal , Old French loial , leial , Latin legalis , from lex , legis , law. See Legal , and confer Leal .]


1. Faithful to law; upholding the lawful authority; faithful and true to the lawful government; faithful to the prince or sovereign to whom one is subject; unswerving in allegiance.

Welcome, sir John ! But why come you in arms ? -
To help King Edward in his time of storm,
As every loyal subject ought to do.
Shak.

2. True to any person or persons to whom one owes fidelity, especially as a wife to her husband, lovers to each other, and friend to friend; constant; faithful to a cause or a principle.

Your true and loyal wife.
Shak.

Unhappy both, but loyal their loves.
Dryden.

Loyalist noun A person who adheres to his sovereign or to the lawful authority; especially, one who maintains his allegiance to his prince or government, and defends his cause in times of revolt or revolution.

Loyally adverb In a loyal manner; faithfully.

Loyalness noun Loyalty. [ R.] Stow.

Loyalty noun [ Confer French loyauté . See Loyal , and confer Legality .] The state or quality of being loyal; fidelity to a superior, or to duty, love, etc.

He had such loyalty to the king as the law required.
Clarendon.

Not withstanding all the subtle bait
With which those Amazons his love still craved,
To his one love his loyalty he saved.
Spenser.

» " Loyalty . . . expresses, properly, that fidelity which one owes according to law, and does not necessarily include that attachment to the royal person, which, happily, we in England have been able further to throw into the word." Trench.

Syn. -- Allegiance; fealty. See Allegiance .

Lozenge (lŏz"ĕnj) noun [ French lozange , losange ; perhaps the same as Old French losenge f flattery, praise, the heraldic sense being the oldest (cf. English hatchment , blazon ). Confer Losenger , Laudable .]
1. (Her.) (a) A diamond-shaped figure usually with the upper and lower angles slightly acute, borne upon a shield or escutcheon. Confer Fusil . (b) A form of the escutcheon used by women instead of the shield which is used by men.

2. A figure with four equal sides, having two acute and two obtuse angles; a rhomb.

3. Anything in the form of lozenge.

4. A small cake of sugar and starch, flavored, and often medicated. -- originally in the form of a lozenge.

Lozenge coach , the coach of a dowager, having her coat of arms painted on a lozenge. [ Obsolete] Walpole. -- Lozenge-molding (Architecture) , a kind of molding, used in Norman architecture, characterized by lozenge-shaped ornaments.

Lozenged (lŏz"ĕnjd), Loz"enge- shaped` (-shāpt) }, adjective Having the form of a lozenge or rhomb.

The lozenged panes of a very small latticed window.
C. Bronté.

Lozengy (-ĕn*jȳ) adjective [ French losangé . See Lozenge .] (Her.) Divided into lozenge-shaped compartments, as the field or a bearing, by lines drawn in the direction of the bend sinister.

Lu (lū) noun & transitive verb See Loo .

Lubbard noun [ See Lubber .] A lubber. [ Obsolete] Swift.

Lubbard adjective Lubberly.

Lubber noun [ Confer dial. Swedish lubber . See Looby , Lob .] A heavy, clumsy, or awkward fellow; a sturdy drone; a clown.

Lingering lubbers lose many a penny.
Tusser.

Land lubber , a name given in contempt by sailors to a person who lives on land. -- Lubber grasshopper (Zoology) , a large, stout, clumsy grasshopper; esp., Brachystola magna , from the Rocky Mountain plains, and Romalea microptera , which is injurious to orange trees in Florida. -- Lubber's hole (Nautical) , a hole in the floor of the "top," next the mast, through which sailors may go aloft without going over the rim by the futtock shrouds. It is considered by seamen as only fit to be used by lubbers. Totten. -- Lubber's line , point , or mark , a line or point in the compass case indicating the head of the ship, and consequently the course which the ship is steering.

Lubberly adjective Like a lubber; clumsy.

A great lubberly boy.
Shak.

Lubberly adverb Clumsily; awkwardly. Dryden.

Lubric, Lubrical adjective [ Latin lubricus : confer French lubrique .]
1. Having a smooth surface; slippery. [ R.]

2. Lascivious; wanton; lewd. [ R.]

This lubric and adulterate age.
Dryden.

Lubricant adjective [ Latin lubricans , present participle of lubricare , See Lubricate .] Lubricating.

Lubricant noun That which lubricates; specifically, a substance, as oil, grease, plumbago, etc., used for reducing the friction of the working parts of machinery.

Lubricate transitive verb [ Latin lubricatus , past participle of lubricare to lubricate. See Lubric .]
1. To make smooth or slippery; as, mucilaginous and saponaceous remedies lubricate the parts to which they are applied. S. Sharp.

Supples, lubricates , and keeps in play,
The various movements of this nice machine.
Young.

2. To apply a lubricant to, as oil or tallow.

Lubrication noun The act of lubricating; the act of making slippery.

Lubricator noun
1. One who, or that which, lubricates. " Lubricator of the fibers." Burke.

2. A contrivance, as an oil cup, for supplying a lubricant to machinery.

Lubricitate intransitive verb See Lubricate .

Lubricity noun [ Latin lubricitas : confer French lubricité .]


1. Smoothness; freedom from friction; also, property which diminishes friction; as, the lubricity of oil. Ray.

2. Slipperiness; instability; as, the lubricity of fortune. L'Estrange.

3. Lasciviousness; propensity to lewdness; lewdness; lechery; incontinency. Sir T. Herbert.

As if wantonness and lubricity were essential to that poem.
Dryden.

Lubricous adjective [ Latin lubricus .] Lubric.

Lubrification, Lubrifaction noun [ Latin lubricus lubric + facere to make.] The act of lubricating, or making smooth. Ray. Bacon.

Lucarne noun [ French, from Latin lucerna a lamp. See Luthern .] (Architecture) A dormer window.

Lucchese noun sing. & plural [ Italian Lucchese .] A native or inhabitant of Lucca, in Tuscany; in the plural, the people of Lucca.

Luce noun [ Old French lus , Latin lucius a kind of fish.] (Zoology) A pike when full grown. Halliwell.

Lucency noun The quality of being lucent.

Lucent adjective [ Latin lucens , present participle of lucere to shine, from lux , lucis , light.] Shining; bright; resplendent. " The sun's lucent orb." Milton.

Lucern noun [ Etymology uncertain.] [ Obsolete]


1. A sort of hunting dog; -- perhaps from Lucerne , in Switzerland.

My lucerns , too, or dogs inured to hunt
Beasts of most rapine.
Chapman.

2. An animal whose fur was formerly much in request (by some supposed to be the lynx). [ Written also lusern and luzern .]

The polecat, mastern, and the richskinned lucern
I know to chase.
Beau. & Fl.

Lucern noun [ French luzerne .] (Botany) A leguminous plant ( Medicago sativa ), having bluish purple cloverlike flowers, cultivated for fodder; -- called also alfalfa . [ Written also lucerne .]

Lucern noun [ Latin lucerna .] A lamp. [ Obsolete] Lydgate.

Lucernal adjective [ Latin lucerna a lamp.] Of or pertaining to a lamp.

Lucernal microscope , a form of the microscope in which the object is illuminated by means of a lamp, and its image is thrown upon a plate of ground glass connected with the instrument, or on a screen independent of it.

Lucernaria noun [ New Latin , from Latin lucerna a lamp.] (Zoology) A genus of acalephs, having a bell-shaped body with eight groups of short tentacles around the margin. It attaches itself by a sucker at the base of the pedicel.

Lucernarian adjective (Zoology) Of or pertaining to the Lucernarida. - - noun One of the Lucernarida.

Lucernarida noun plural [ New Latin See Lucernaria .] (Zoology) (a) A division of acalephs, including Lucernaria and allied genera; -- called also Calycozoa . (b) A more extensive group of acalephs, including both the true Lucernarida and the Discophora.

Lucerne noun (Botany) See Lucern , the plant.

Lucid adjective [ Latin lucidus , from lux , lucis , light. See Light , noun ]
1. Shining; bright; resplendent; as, the lucid orbs of heaven.

Lucid , like a glowworm.
Sir I. Newton.

A court compact of lucid marbles.
Tennyson.

2. Clear; transparent. " Lucid streams." Milton.

3. Presenting a clear view; easily understood; clear.

A lucid and interesting abstract of the debate.
Macaulay.

4. Bright with the radiance of intellect; not darkened or confused by delirium or madness; marked by the regular operations of reason; as, a lucid interval.

Syn. -- Luminous; bright; clear; transparent; sane; reasonable. See Luminous .

Lucidity noun [ Confer French lucidité . See Lucid .] The quality or state of being lucid.

Lucidly adverb In a lucid manner.

Lucidness noun The quality of being lucid; lucidity.

Lucifer noun [ Latin , bringing light, noun , the morning star, from lux , lucis , light + ferre to bring.]


1. The planet Venus, when appearing as the morning star; -- applied in Isaiah by a metaphor to a king of Babylon.

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer , son of the morning ! how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations !
Is. xiv. 12.

Tertullian and Gregory the Great understood this passage of Isaiah in reference to the fall of Satan; in consequence of which the name Lucifer has since been applied to Satan.
Kitto.

2. Hence, Satan.

How wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors! . . .
When he falls, he falls like Lucifer ,
Never to hope again.
Shak.

3. A match made of a sliver of wood tipped with a combustible substance, and ignited by friction; -- called also lucifer match , and locofoco . See Locofoco .

4. (Zoology) A genus of free- swimming macruran Crustacea, having a slender body and long appendages.

Luciferian adjective
1. Of or pertaining to Lucifer; having the pride of Lucifer; satanic; devilish.

2. Of or pertaining to the Luciferians or their leader.

Luciferian noun (Eccl. Hist.) One of the followers of Lucifer, bishop of Cagliari, in the fourth century, who separated from the orthodox churches because they would not go as far as he did in opposing the Arians.