Theverb is derived fromMiddle Englishlaven(“to bathe, wash; to bail or draw water, drain, exhaust; to dampen, wet; to pour; of water, etc.: to flow, stream”),[1] and then partly:[2]
fromOld Englishlafian(“to bathe; to make wet; to ladle out; to pour”), fromProto-West Germanic*labōn(“to refresh, revitalize; to strengthen”); further etymology uncertain, possibly fromLatinlavō (see above) but this does not explain the change in meaning from “to wash; to wet” to “to refresh; to strengthen”. PerhapsOld Englishlafian is derived directly from the Latin word, andProto-West Germanic*labōn and words in languages derived from it such as Dutch and German are coincidentally similar to the Old English word.
Rita stripped in haste and padded out to the wash-basin and lathered her body all over andlaved it several times in fresh water before feeling she had washed off it a contact with Mrs Dibble's dirty old carcass, which shocked the self-esteem of her own shapely body.
VVith roomy decks, her Guns of mighty ſtrength, / (VVhoſe lovv-laid mouthes each mounting billovvlaves:) / Deep in her draught, and vvarlike in her length, / She ſeems a Sea-vvaſp flying on the vvaves.
Delicious is your Shelter to the Soul, / As to the hunted Hart the ſallying Spring, / Or Stream full-flovving, that his ſvvelling Sides /Laves, as He floats along the Herbag'd Brink.
1789,W[illiam] L[isle] Bowles, “Sonnet I. Written at Tinemouth, Northumberland, after a Tempestuous Voyage.”, inSonnets,[…] with Other Poems, 3rd edition, Bath, Somerset:[…] R. Cruttwell; and sold byC[harles] Dilly,[…], published1794,→OCLC,page 3:
Pleas'd I look back and vievv the tranquil tide / Thatlaves the pebbled shore.
O Isis! noble Isis[the Thames]! in thee quivers / Eternal Oxford's wondrous Gothic glory, / Poetic towers and pinnacles of pride: / And, loftier in thy power than classic rivers, / Changing thy name by some green promontory, / Thoulavest London with an ampler tide.
1703, Richard Neve, “Lead”, inThe City and Country Purchaser, and Builder’s Dictionary: Or, The Compleat Builders Guide.[…], 2nd edition, London:[…] D. Browne,[…]; J. and B. Sprint[…], G. Conyers[…]; andCh[arles] Rivington[…], published1726,→OCLC, column 2:
Then the Lead being melted,[…] it islaved into the Pan,[…]
Approach, encompassing Death—strong Deliveress! / When it is so—when thou hast taken them, I joyously sing the dead, / Lost in the loving, floating ocean of thee, /Laved in the flood of thy bliss, O Death.
Chiefly insexual contexts: tolick (someone or something).
"Who could resist such a temptation?" he drawled, and bent tolave each nipple with his tongue till the satin was wet and clinging.
2014 February 21, Scarlet Blackwell,Beached Hearts, Lincoln, Lincolnshire: Total-E-Bound Publishing,→ISBN:
Liam's mouth was so hot and wet on his cock, his tongue so wicked,laving his shaft expertly with smooth, slick strokes, delving into his slit and swiping away the fluid leaking from it. Why was Liam doing this?
Thou haſt plaid muſique to my dolefull ſoule; / And vvhen my heart vvas tympaniz'd vvith griefe, / Thoulauedſt out ſome into thy heart from mine, / And kept it ſo from burſting;[…]
A figurative use.
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym;Robert Burton], “An Heape of Other Accidents Causing Melancholy. Death of Friends, Losses, &c.”, inThe Anatomy of Melancholy:[…], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire:[…] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps,→OCLC, partition 1, section 2, member 4, subsection 7,page148:
[W]hen I hauelaved the Sea dry, thou ſhalt vnderſtand the myſtery of the Trinity;[…]
And now, as we were weary with pumping andlaving out the water[from the boat], almost sinking, it pleas'd God on the suddaine to appease the wind, and with much ado and greate perill we recover'd the shore, which we now kept in view,[…]
Each in his vvay, officiously they vvrought; / Some ſtovv their Oars, or ſtop the leaky Sides, / Another bolder yet the Yard beſtrides, / And folds the Sails; a fourth vvith Labour,laves, / Th'intruding Seas, and VVaves ejects on VVaves.
The ſilver Stream her Virgin Coldneſs keeps, / For ever murmurs, and for ever vveeps; /[…] / In her chaſt Current oft the Goddeſslaves, / And vvith Celeſtial Tears augments the VVaves.
Alexander went fromlaving at her breasts to nuzzling her belly and then his mouth was on her bare thigh, nibbling at her flesh as his fingers delved inside her sheath. She felt herself stretch and squeeze against his long fingers.
2015, Melissa Foster,Healed by Love (Love in Bloom; The Bradens at Peaceful Harbor; 1), Los Gatos, Calif.:Smashwords,→ISBN:
He pressed them back down and continued licking,laving at her as her inner muscles contracted around his fingers and she panted out his name. He didn't relent until the last shudder rippled through her beautiful body.
2016 April 15, Elizabeth Lennox, chapter9, inThe Prince’s Forbidden Lover (The Samara Royal Family Series; 3),[S.l.]: Elizabeth Lennox Books,→ISBN:
[I]t took only a few moments of his tonguelaving at her core before she was exploding in a mind-drugging climax that made her throat sore from her cries.
Once moreArion and his loving nymph / Together rest within their summer cave, / In the green woodland, where the crystal lymph / Through sands and ivy pulsed with ceaselesslave.
1826, Bernard Blackmantle [pseudonym;Charles Molloy Westmacott], “Noon in the Isle of Wight”, inThe English Spy:[…], volume II, London: Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper,[…],→OCLC,page168:
When Nature, languid, seems to rest, / Nor moves a leaf, nor heaves a wave, / And Zephyrs sleep, by Sol caress'd, / And sportive swallows skim thelave;[…]
16th – early 17th century (date written), “Part I. Fit I. Stanza CXXVII.”, inAn Exact and Circumstantial History of the Battle of Floddon.[…], Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland:[…] R. Taylor; London: E[dward] andC[harles] Dilly[…], and G. Freer,[…], published1774,→OCLC,page31:
Of prelates proud, a populouslave, / And abbots boldly there vvere known. / VVith Biſhop of St. Andrevv's brave, / VVho vvas KingJames's baſtard ſon.
See “Notes”,page 19: “[Stanza] 127. Lave,the rest; croud.”
The Mother, vvi' a vvoman's vviles, can ſpy / VVhat makes the Youth ſae baſhfu' and ſae grave; / VVeel-pleas'd to think herbairn's reſpected like thelave.
[T]hey ca' it fasting when they hae the best o' fish frae Hartlepool and Sunderland by land carriage, forbye trouts, gilses, salmon, and a' thelave o't, and so they make their very fasting a kind of luxury and abomination;[…]
They call it fasting when they have the best of fish from Hartlepool and Sunderland by land carriage, forby[i.e., besides] trouts, grilses, salmon, and all therest of it, and so they make their fasting a kind of luxury and abomination;[…]
Then they set upon us and slew some of my slaves and put thelave to flight; and I also fled after I had gotten a wound, a grievous hurt, whilst the Arabs were taken up with the money and the presents which were with us.
1606,A Pleasant Comedie. Called Wily Beguilde.[…], London:[…] H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Clement Knight[…],→OCLC,page58:
And I ſvveare by the bloud of my codpiece, / An I vvere a vvoman I vvould lug off hislaue eares, / Or run him to death vvith a ſpit:[…]
1675, John Smith, “Reason Nonplus’d, Help’d by Religion, Acquiesceth in Her Resolutions”, inChristian Religion’s Appeal from the Groundless Prejudices of the Sceptick, to the Bar of Common Reason.[…], London:[…] Nathanael Brook,[…],→OCLC, 2nd book (The Apostles were Not Themselves Deluded, No Crack’d-brain Enthusiasticks, but Persons of Most Composed Minds), §. 1 (Man’s Supremacy over the Creatures, the Reason of It Not Cognoscible by Natural Light),pages8–9:
[C]omplexion here red, there tavvny, in another Country black vvins the prize: for proportion, here the tall, there the mean, here the ſlender, there the groſs, here the little Ear, there thelave Ear, here the thin Lip, there the Blubber-lip, here the ſtreight, there the die Neck are eſteemed moſt courtly.
1598, [Joseph Hall], “Lib[er] 4. Sat[yr] 1. Che baiar Vuol, bai.”, inVirgidemiarum. The Three Last Bookes. Of Byting Satyres, London:[…] Richard Bradocke for Robert Dexter[…],→OCLC,page 7:
His mouth ſhrinks ſidevvard like a ſcornfullPlayſe / To take his tired Eares ingratefull place; / His Eares hanglauing like a nevv-lug'd ſvvine / To take ſome counſell of his grieued eyne,[…]
, Oxford:Oxford University Press,July 2023;“lave,v.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
